Click HERE to listen to the original podcast.
So Totally Business Savvy, Episode One.
Hello, everyone! Welcome to So Totally Business Savvy podcast that is dedicated to all the professionals out there—that’s you, whether you be an entrepreneur or maybe you’re in the corporate world trying to climb the ladder. Whatever it is, we’re here to help collaborate, commiserate, to do whatever it is to make ourselves better, to professionally develop, and in this way become happier in our careers.
So once again, welcome and thank you so much for listening. My name is Dean Soto, but before I get into really who I am, I just want to give you an idea of what to expect from this podcast. Really, what you’re going to get is a whole conglomeration of things that will help you either as a business owner to do things faster, cheaper, better, which is fantastic especially when you’re a small business, or if you are really, honestly in the corporate world, to give you an edge, to give you something that will make you stand out among your peers or really move out if you really wanted to. But either way, no matter what, you will have that edge to climb the corporate ladder just a little bit faster than everyone else; actually, maybe a lot faster than everyone else.
This is our first podcast and that being the case, I really want to give a shout out to those who have really made this possible. There are two people that I’m going to shout out right now. One is Emily Crume and the other one is Mike Yoo. Now, why am I shouting out to them? Well, this radio show probably would not be here—at least in this form—had it not been for them because they were the ones that gave me the idea for the name.
I am very uncreative when it comes to catchy things and we were sitting over at “Sushilicious” in Irvine, California (I’ll have to shout out to them as well). But we were sitting at Sushilicious and I was kind of in awe of their Twitter names because they used their name in such a way that it helped promote their personal brand and helped promote them, and I just can’t do that with my name for some reason. ‘Dean Soto’ just did not ring with creative branding. So, I asked them, “Basically how would you do my name?” And they came up with “So Totally Connected” or “So Totally whatever” and really, they spun this whole “So Totally Business Savvy” thing.
Anyway, so Emily Crume, follow her on Twitter at @emilyquestions; and Mike Yoo, he is @Youandyoo. So follow them; they’re great people and actually with them, both of them work for Digg in their advertising agency which is very, very cool. So I talk to people from Digg; very neat.
All right; so, who am I? My name is Dean Soto. What do I do? I am both an entrepreneur or a startup or starter, whatever you want to call me, and I am an entrepreneur and I also work full time. I’ve been working for six years as an aerospace IT security rep, and so I do a lot of IT stuff in regards to security, obviously, because of the name. But I’ve been doing that for six years, also an army veteran which was fun, did military intelligence during that time and basically, my side business is … I’m a business and technology consultant and I’ve been doing that for almost a year now which is fantastic and it’s just started to really ramp up which is such a great experience, and we’re going to talk about that actually next.
So, this first podcast, this very, very first podcast, it’s very hard to come up with a first idea because it’s just so brand new, there are no questions and so on. But if you read my blog, if you have ever read my blog at Prosulum.com, that’s p-r-o-s-u-l-u-m.com—that’s my business site and blog, you’ll notice that the majority of things in there, and even with my video podcast, I guess you would say “videocast,” even with those, one thing rings more than others and that is “getting started on something.”
Getting started on something is the most important thing you can ever do no matter where you’re at. And what do I mean by getting started? Getting on something means, if you’re in the corporate world starting a project without anyone’s permission, or seeing something and trying to fix it without asking anyone, those things are what help you to stand out among your peers so dramatically. Even with small little things help you stand out among your peers so dramatically that they really launch you up the ladder.
But say, if you’re an entrepreneur, say you own your own business, how do you get started on something? Well, get started on maybe a new project or a new line of things. It doesn’t matter. Whatever you do to get started and I said get started quite a few times over in the past minute or so you should be able to tell that I find it to be very important. Just do something. Do something that you’ve never ever done before and you will see the benefit. Yeah, it’s going to suck; yeah, it’s going to be hard, but you will definitely see the benefits and I’m going to give you an example just from my personal life.
I returned from military deployment in March of 2009. And while I was there—I was in Kuwait for Operation Iraqi Freedom. While I was there, I grew a tremendous sense of wanting to do something for my own; and maybe, it was just because I was under… you know, I was a sergeant in the E-6, maybe it was because I was under so many people that were higher up than me that I felt I could have done a better job. I mean, a lot of them were fantastic, don’t get me wrong; a lot of great officers and so on. For the most part, I thought I could do so much more and make such a big difference that I just developed a huge (it engulfed me) sense of wanting to do something on my own and become an entrepreneur. Now I never had that sense before, I never had that idea before and I never thought I could do it before because I thought myself to be an introvert, I could never sell anything, I hated selling. And there were so many barriers there that I thought that I could never ever do it.
So, when I got back, I took the plunge. I incorporated, I did everything that I thought you should do to start a business. And me, I go full blown into anything and you can ask my wife, you can ask anyone. I am very, very passionate and I go full force in anything that I do, most of the time to my detriment. But we’ll talk about that later.
But I started my own business and for the first (don’t even remind me!) six months, I made approximately $350. I am not joking, that is not a lie, I made approximately $350 within six months. And you have no idea how discouraging that is and how worthless that makes you feel. But I learned so much during that time. I learned so much during that time that I am so flabbergasted as to how little I knew about myself.
So, just to give you an example, some of the things that I really learned along the way after I got started—and I’m not telling you to be an entrepreneur. If you’re not an entrepreneur, it doesn’t matter. I’m not telling you to start your own business. I’m just trying to tell you to start something because you will find so much about yourself that you never thought possible.
So, one of the things I learned about myself is that I really am not an introvert. I used to think that I was shy, I used to think that I didn’t like being around other people, and that flew out the window immediately because when you own your own business, you can’t be shy. You have to go to Meetups, you have to go to Tweetups, you have to go to networking events, you have to go to all these places in order to meet people who… You know, they’re all there to get business as well, but you have to not seem like you’re (and it’s such a weird paradox) there for business. And really, honestly, I’m not there for business; yeah, I mean it would be great to get leads but it’s fantastic to meet new people. And that’s one thing that I never thought I would ever, ever do in my entire life.
I was the kid during dances, school dances and so on, that I was standing in the corner with three of my buddies, and just standing there waiting for a girl to come and ask me to dance which never ever happened. But yeah, I was the shy kid; I was the person who would never ever think of going up to a girl and asking her to dance.
Through owning my own business, I have been to so many Meetups, networking events and so on that I’ve met some fantastic people, some great people that I would have never ever met had I not done it. And not only that, I learned how to talk to them, how to talk business. I learned how to do things relationally that most people just don’t do especially if you’re in a corporate world where it feels like you’re a stranger in a cocktail party most of the time. The other thing is, I really learned that there’s so much out there that I thought I couldn’t handle, that I could do, like sales; I hated sales, I’d always felt dirty with sales.
But really, when you’re selling something (this is something that took me a long time) you’re trying to improve someone’s situation. At least, if you have a good product or service, that’s the case, unless you’re a snake oil salesman or something like that, you are really improving their situation.
So say for example, say I charge $50,000 for my consulting services which you know, is not unreasonable. Say I charge $50,000 for my consulting services and through my consulting services, the person who owns the business or whoever it is I’m consulting for makes $500,000 because of me. And had I not been there, they wouldn’t have made that. Now, they netted or grossed, rather, they grossed $450,000 from my $50,000 worth of advice. Now, does that seem wrong? Not at all! I mean, they definitely, significantly improved whatever it is, whether it be cost savings or lead generation or whatever it is, they drastically increased that. And so my $50,000, I could have charged $100,000 and it still would have been a deal for them. And so, that’s one of the things that I really, really learned through just putting myself out there in sales.
Before, when I first started off, I was charging $20 an hour, I was charging $30 an hour for whatever I did. And it just really significantly devalued me and that’s why I didn’t get any business. But anyway, enough of my [chuckles] … This is not a plug for my business but just to show you what you’ll learn when you get out there and start something.
So, start something! Start something, get out there and initiate something no matter what. You’re not going to get promoted, you’re not going to improve in any way, shape or form unless you get out there and do something. There are so many things that you can do whether it’s writing a book that you always wanted to write and that you feel that you’re the expert at. Everyone needs that book. There are so many people out there that need that book or maybe it’s starting a blog. Maybe, you just want to blog about what you’re good at work or you know, something that’s pleasurable. It doesn’t matter. Get started on it. Don’t think about it. Don’t just sit there.
There are so many people that I talked to that say, “Oh, I wish I would do that,” “Oh, I wish I would have done that,” or “Had I done that, I would be so happy.” Well, why didn’t you do it? Just get out there and start. I’ve started probably about eight different blogs and I’ve only really stuck with two blogs right now and one of them is my Pro Sulum site. Sometimes you start something and you say, “Oh, okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly what I want to do.” But that’s so much better than going and saying, “You know, I wish I would have done this,” and let it haunt you the rest of your life. So, if it’s going and asking your boss for a raise, or if it’s going and asking for more responsibility, or if it’s going to a new conference, or going to visit a mentor that’s in another state, it doesn’t matter; make it happen! Do it and you won’t have any regrets. You will be better off no matter what it is if you just go out and try it, do it, and see what happens because you’ll never know. You’ll never ever know.
I would love to hear your questions. And it’s just not about getting started but things like WordPress or Google Apps and how you can incorporate those in your business. Things about any type of technology that you can use to become more productive, to do business better; it doesn’t matter. That’s what I love to do, that’s what I’m here for: to help you in any way, shape or form, to just be happy where you’re at.
And if you have any questions, please, please, please, call at 714-643-5301. That’s our feedback line. Once again, its 714-643-5301 or you can just email me at dean@youcanworkless.com, that’s p-r-o-s-u-l-u-m.com and ask me anything you want; Oh, take a look at my blog; you’ll get an idea of exactly what I do and we will have just a great time becoming better professionals and better people.
Thank you and God bless!
