Ep626: Tara LaFon Gooch – Vet Your Business Partners

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risks but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. And that mission has led me to create the become a better investor community where you get access to the tools you need to create, grow and protect your wealth. Go to my worst investment ever.com right now to clean your spot. Fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest, Tara LaFon Gooch, Tara, are you ready to join the mission?

Tara LaFon Gooch 00:49
Oh, my gosh, I was born ready. This is exciting.

Andrew Stotz 00:53
I am excited to have you on and you know, your area of specialty is really fascinating to me. And I want to introduce you to the audience. Tara is a two time business founder and entrepreneur. Prior to entrepreneurship. She was a corporate sales director who got burnout on corporate life and wanted to explore more possibilities. Her background afforded her the ability to view problems from more than one angle to be creative and do apply out of the box thinking through her business best brand solutions. She helps executives and businesses improve their and personal brands, their improved digital footprint helps them to be seen as visionaries in their field. Tara, take a minute and tell us about the unique value that you are bringing to this wonderful world.

Tara LaFon Gooch 01:44
Absolutely. So personal branding, you know, we think of it as such an ambiguous term people ask what does that even mean? And why is it important for me? Right? So, particularly with business owners, and executives and entrepreneurs, you're trying to build an awareness, right? So part of a personal brand, for an executive for a CEO for an entrepreneur, is that awareness. But what does that mean? So how do you get awareness? Right? Well, part of that is, is reach. But if you don't have people around you and your network, let's say that like, and trust you, that you stick in their memory, guess what, you're not at top of mind awareness. So building a personal brand, is putting you at that top of mind awareness. Because the goal of marketing is that not everybody is ready to buy at that moment, but when they are, the decision is already made. That's the power of personal branding. And that's why I do what I do.

Andrew Stotz 02:56
It's such a true, you know, statement, because I think about this, a couple of people that I have in my email box, you know, my inbox, and they send messages, I mean, like everybody does nowadays, and email series and stuff. And there's plenty of them that I you know, say, okay, unsubscribe, I've, I've heard enough, I gotta, I gotta go, I don't have time. But there's a few of them, I just leave in there. Because, you know, I'd like what they say, but it's not time right now. And then, and then I remember, you know, clicking on one of them, and just immediately buying, after having that email in my email box for about a year, coming in with new ideas and stuff. So I just had like, is like on the peripheral vision, I could see that person's what was going on, but I just didn't have the time, the bandwidth, you know, the, it just wasn't time. But when it was I immediately clicked on it and bought from so I know, what you're talking about is, you know, is so critical. And, you know, one of the other things I wanted to ask you about, you know, we were looking at LinkedIn and talking about LinkedIn, and you know, what, you've, you've helped me now thinking a little bit more about my LinkedIn profile. And you know, what you've on your LinkedIn profile, you know, you've made it pretty clear, here's my position, you know, my job. And number two, here's the value that I bring, and here's who I bring it to. And number three, here's a call to action, you know, DM me, or click on the link below to access this. And maybe you can just help the audience out there because I know a lot of people you know, the default for LinkedIn is like I don't know your position senior executive vice president of you know, and most people don't even think about even changing that. But can you give some advice to the listeners and the viewers about you know, how to handle that headline and why it's that headline is so important.

Tara LaFon Gooch 04:44
Your headline is so important, guys. Really, it really truly is. So your headline. So think about this when you comment on someone else's post. So let's say Andrew, I go ahead and comment on your post. And then There's a bunch of second degree third degree connections on that same feed that have never seen me before. Well, that's a first impression of me. Right? And what do they see? When they see that comment? Well, they see a picture, hopefully. And if there's anybody listening, that does not have a profile picture, do that immediately. So that's your call to action. That is the first thing. Then the second thing they see when they see that comment is that headline. So that headline is your billboard, it is telling the world what who you are, what you do, who you serve, and why you help them with that problem, and what or what solution you solve for them, right. And then it should have a call to action at the end that gives explicit instructions of your best method of contact. And you got to make it really simple, you have to make it concise, and you have to make it very self explanatory. Because you get such an instant impression, just quick five seconds at that first impression. And then somebody could be on to the next. So what is it about your headline that makes me want to connect with you in five seconds?

Andrew Stotz 06:19
Yeah. And to read out, I'm just going to read yours out to the audience. I train corporate executive teams and CEOs how to increase sales, get more clients, and increase reach on LinkedIn through personal brand branding and sales, training, and then you say, DM me to book an appointment. So really straight to it. This is who I help. This is how I help them. And I think that that's a good lesson, then you've got me thinking you and I talked about mine. And my headline, I take a different tact in the sense that I have been focusing on something that's like really unique. And now I'm going to the branding thing that you talked about. And at the beginning, but what I've done is focused on the worst podcast hosts, I love my worst investment ever podcast. And so you could say that I'm kind of going for shock value, you know, like or unique value. But I mean, I can tell you that I value companies, I can tell you that I invest money, I can tell you that I fix company's account, you know, finances and stuff. But you know, there's about a million other people that are saying the same thing on LinkedIn. And I did it this way. Because one of my past guests, Chris Reid also did something unique. And he is basically calls himself The only CEO with a mohawk, it used to be the only CEO with a pink Mohawk. But now he's changed a mohawk. And I saw that kind of uniqueness. Given that, you know, I'm a little guy in a little town, and I want to have a bigger profile. So what are your thoughts on that?

Tara LaFon Gooch 07:49
Absolutely. And my answer is, it depends on my brand might. That's why it's a personal brand. It's unique to you. But it also has to signify something to your target audience. So my specific target audience are executives, right? So primarily director or above C suite level CEOs. I make it very clean, very professional, because it's targeting a specific type of person, but it's also part of my brand and who I am as well. So you know, what works for some won't work for all and you know, but finding that uniqueness about you, is totally fine to put in your, in your headline, make it unique, make it stand out, make it memorable. But you want to also make sure that it's attracting the right audience, the right target audience for your goals, your career goals, whatever. But you know, that's so important to anything.

Andrew Stotz 08:48
Yeah, definitely. And I think for the listeners out there, I mean, if I was to take away from our discussion here, the first takeaway is, fix your picture. If you don't have a great and attractive picture, fix it now. Because as Tara's mentioned, that's the first thing that people see if they see your comment on something or whatever. Number two, fix your headline. And try to bring into it, who you help you know, how you help them what results you get, so that people can see exactly what you do. And I think that's out of this. My feeling is I've got to do a little bit more work on mine in that space. So I've got some homework and I think the homework for all of the listeners and viewers is to get focus picture and headline that tells them what you do, how you do it, and how to contact you. And I think that call to action is critical. So that would be my summary of that great advice and for everyone out there. I'll have a link to Tara's LinkedIn and all the other contact information so you can learn more and she's actually on to coming out with a new thing. I see the LinkedIn personal branding In playbook,

Tara LaFon Gooch 10:01
yes, it's very exciting. So I'm developing a personal branding program. And it's going to be over 30 videos long in total, each video will have its own worksheet that goes with it. But then beyond that, it's differentiated in the sense that because so many, such a small percentage of people that actually sign up for courses completed. That's why my goal was not to create a course, my goal is to change lives, and help people become more the most successful possible version of themselves possible. So you're I, my goal is for people to take the course, but have a cohort style meeting fashion, so that all of the participants who purchase the program, we have bi monthly meetings that last an hour long we go through q&a, we go through random profile reviews and questions. And then we talk about a subject specific for that day. So it's a live action event that helps people take the practices, the tools, the skills that they've learned during the program, watching videos that I've created, and put them into real life action, but also gives them a sense of accountability, and community as well. Because part of building a personal brand is not just about you. It's about the community that you serve an impact that you make. And if you're a business, you can afford to not network, it forces that networking, it puts those communication skills that I preach in there in the real life action. And it helps filled questions as you go through in progress. So that at the end, you feel like you can fully be accountable to LinkedIn, and achieve the success that you desire.

Andrew Stotz 11:57
Exciting, and I will have links in the show notes. And you can also just go to Tara's LinkedIn to find out more, but congratulations on that. And I know, I had my valuation masterclass. And I've had 1000s of students go in it, but it's tough to get them to pass. And I remember hearing a statistic that 10% of people who enter online courses complete them. And I thought, yeah, that's not uncommon, you know, even myself, I have courses I've entered, particularly if they're low priced courses that I got on Udemy or something kind of like I haven't done them, but it doesn't bother me because it's only 10 bucks, right. But what I did is I started an additional course called the valuation masterclass bootcamp. And it starts at a specific time, I took me Porter fields course, which I feel like, you know, was great and gave me the inspiration to do it. So now we have a cohort of students that join together and go through a process. It's intense, but we get a 70% pass rate. And, you know, it's very tough. So, you know, we naturally you're going to lose some because of that, and they just don't have the time and all that. But yeah, it can really, really make a difference. Because like you say, I don't want to teach a course what I want to do is transform a life.

Tara LaFon Gooch 13:16
That's right. Absolutely. In philosophy, I like that.

Andrew Stotz 13:20
Yep. Yep. So now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to then tell us your story.

Tara LaFon Gooch 13:33
Oh, exciting. Um, so my worst investment? I have? Well, first of all, I don't consider any failure, a failure. And if you learn something from it, so I will preface with that. But my worst investment has ever happened this year. Would you believe it? So? It? Yes, it's still you're still young? Well, that's true. Yeah. Thank you. Um, but yes, it happened earlier this year, so. And it was a business. And I had a business partner. And so that's why I put in my bio to time business founder. Right. So I had a business partner and we had this amazing idea. And honestly, it the idea was great, right? The customer base was there. It was exciting. Um, you know, I was in the middle of still, you know, being CEO of best branding, but this other opportunity came up. I've got lots of energy. I'm excited person by nature. I thought why not? You know, let's let's try it. Of course now, looking back on it, it should have been a clear No. It was a new industry that I've never been in, but I was not intimidated. By that, I was excited by that. So we were basically, you know, 5050 partners. And my title was executive vice president. And, you know, we took it from an idea to national level, in that a very, you know, long period of time, again, less than a year. So we were at the point where it was, it was in advertising, it was out of home advertising. And we had a truck fleet that went nationally and was absorbed into every single state in the United States, within seven months. So it was incredible rain, I thought, wow, this is going to be amazing. This could truly be the worst, not the worst, the best thing ever, right? Of course, you don't think it's gonna be the worst, this could be the best thing ever, because this could make a lot of money, it could put me in a totally different place in life, right? Well, everything sounds great. But your business partner can really dictate the progression, the strategy, the flow, and ultimately the success of anything that you touch. So my word of caution to any entrepreneur is things look shiny, they look amazing, they look so shiny, that you just want to touch it and you know, be all about that. Don't get distracted. And properly vent business partners. Because like any investment, it's a time investment, you could put personal funds into it, you could have gotten investor money into it, other partners, potentially customers and former customer, customer base and all of these things. And if your partner's not in it, there's no way you can have success, it doesn't matter if it's the greatest idea of all time.

Andrew Stotz 17:19
And when was a time when you realize that your partner may not be in it the way you thought they were. And then also, maybe you could explain kind of when was the day when you realize this is over.

Tara LaFon Gooch 17:32
It's so easy for me to remember, because it was the fourth of July. So the fourth of July, you may have time off, you have some a moment to reflect, and you're not at work. So you're not really thinking about work, you're just kind of hanging out with friends and small talking. And a lot of times, that's when your brain kind of comes down and gets into that realization of something's not right. This is not working out. It's not, it's okay. And it was Fourth of July, I came to that realization. And I said, Tomorrow, I'm gonna make a call. And it's, it's gonna be it's I'm gonna pull out. And I did. And it took a lot of courage. I had spent a lot, you know, the prior five months, built, like I said, building this up doing, you know, marketing, the company forming business partnerships, I had a business partner in Croatia, that we were going to create a mobile application together. So I had all of these business partnerships. I had a strategy lined up, I had all of these things. But I couldn't be the only one doing all the work. It just didn't jive. So on the Fourth of July, as we're eating our hamburgers. I had that realization and it was a lightbulb moment. And I said tomorrow, is it? Yep. Yeah, that's simple.

Andrew Stotz 19:07
And then when you did that call and went through it, was it easy to get out of it? Or how was it as far as extracting yourself from that situation?

Tara LaFon Gooch 19:15
Yeah, you know, I think at the time it was the decision, I think, thank goodness, I will say this, I'm an extremely decisive person. So once I decide something, that's it. I don't generally look back and regret or think of different scenarios. My I listened to my intuition. And the only reason I failed with this was because I didn't listen to my intuition from the jump. If I would have listened to my intuition from the very start. My intuition would have told me this is going to be the worst investment ever.

Andrew Stotz 19:57
Was it what was your intuition telling you? Like? Well, was that first instantaneous feeling or intuition that you got?

Tara LaFon Gooch 20:07
You can't be the only one. You can't, you just can't, you're already running another company. And it clicked as well. You know, someone told me once there's, there's no, there's no secret industry out there. There's no secret method out there, we have so much access to all the information in the world right now more access than we've ever had in human history. So nobody has some secret. It's veteran, you have to have a strategy. And you but you can't be the only one with the strategy. Or if you do have that strategy, it absolutely, implicitly must be followed. And it has to be aligned, you have to find alignment in business. You cannot have one person that's aligned with the way something should be with the strategy. And then somebody that is totally unaligned and misaligned, you go off the train tracks, you don't succeed.

Andrew Stotz 21:13
So how would you like? Right? So let's, let's now wrap it up by summarizing the lessons that you learn 123 for the listeners?

Tara LaFon Gooch 21:24
Yes. So number one, vet, vet vet, you know, do your research, guys. So whatever that is, whatever investment or you're working on, make sure you bet it. Do your research, ask questions. And if it feels uncomfortable, that's a sign that your intuition telling you something, right. So that's another part that's, that's part two. Part one is bet. Part two, listen to your gut. What is your gut saying, don't listen to what other people say, listen to that voice inside of you. That's your guiding light, that is something that is very powerful. Don't turn off that light, it's there for a reason.

Andrew Stotz 22:10
Fantastic. Maybe I'll share a couple of things I take away from it. Well, first of all, you said something in the beginning, which I think for the listeners out there to, you know, be aware of this, this, if you ever say this statement, just be careful about it. This is going to take me to a totally different place in my life. Yes. You know, people who are really good salespeople also really can get you excited about that. But the point that I would say is that, just be very careful about that. Because you know, you know, there are opportunities that will take you to a different place. But it may not be the place that you want to be. So be careful about that excitement, which is the second thing I wrote down was the word excitement, you know, every time that a new opportunity comes, oh, you're bringing it to me? Oh, this is, you know, I'm at this stage now where I can really, you know, do this, this is, you know, all of the excitement of that is, is great. But you've got to move beyond the excitement. And then and then you mentioned something you said, you know, your realization that something wasn't right. And you talked a lot about intuition. And if I would say one of the big learnings I've got from the podcast is that, you know, you have your mind to analyze things, and you have your emotion to feel things. But intuition is something different. Intuition is kind of an instantaneous, momentary, ephemeral response that your, your being has to a situation. And it goes pretty quickly. And then it may transform into an emotion or may transform into a thought. But it starts as this instantaneous, the electric jolt kind of thing. And what I've learned from the podcast, and interviewing so many people is really people who avoid big mistakes, pay attention to their intuition. So I think that's the second. The other lesson, let's say that I take away and then for you, I was just as I was writing down, I was writing down that, you know, that Fourth of July was your independence day?

Tara LaFon Gooch 24:21
Oh, I like the very I had never thought about it like that. Yeah.

Andrew Stotz 24:26
became your independent in that you made your independent decision on it. You were independent in that you broke away from something that wasn't you know, right. And, and so congratulations on your independence. Anything you would add to that summary of what you said.

Tara LaFon Gooch 24:42
That's perfect. And you know, like I said, there's no secret sauce to success. The success comes where you put your energy. So once I redirected my energy and put it back into branding, which is where it should have been all along Hmm, everything changed in this success that I wanted actually did happen, because my energy was in directed in the right place.

Andrew Stotz 25:11
Beautiful. So and that's a great message for everybody's protect that energy. Because, you know, I'm amazed every morning I wake up without an alarm clock, and I start very early, I go to the park, I go to the gym, I go exercise, I do early interviews and everything, but I never use an alarm clock. And I'm always amazed that I just wake up with the energy, like, it's like a bank account, you know, like they, God has deposited a certain amount of energy, and I've got it, and by the end of the day, it's gone, you know, it's clearly gone. So you can say that, you know, energy is the one thing that we have. So, you know, ladies and gentlemen, use this as an example of, you know, applying your energies on the things that make a difference. So based upon what you learned from this story, and what you continue to learn, I want you to think about that young man or woman that's listening right now. And they've got that great, shiny object in front of them a great opportunity, they feel like this could take me to a totally different place in my life. And it could, you know, we can't say that we don't know, however, I want you to think what one action, would you recommend our listeners take in that situation to avoid suffering the same fate?

Tara LaFon Gooch 26:18
Definitely, you know, the only reasons for failure are? Well, there's a lot of reasons for failure. But it's really, you're not thinking big enough on yourself, guys, if, if you're relying on somebody else to give you success, it's not going to happen. Success comes from within, it's about the action steps that you take every single day. And, you know, if you improve 1%, every day, at the end of the year, you're about 37 times improved. So the action, all the answers are right within you at any point in time, you don't have to rely on an outside resource, it's okay, perfectly fine to use somebody as a guide as a helper as a mentor as a coach. But to think someone is going to take you them there by all by themselves. It's not the case, it starts within and you have to put that daily action in. Because if you don't, ultimately, it's you who are setting yourself up for sabotage. The difference between somebody that is uber successful and not is the amount of action they take. And that's almost, it's really the amount of action they take, how strong their vision is, and how much faith they have that it will be done. And it belongs to them already. Got to have that mentality. Man, hallelujah,

Andrew Stotz 27:37
I want to add to do that. Yes. That inspired me from my day ahead. So what is a resource that you recommend for our listeners,

Tara LaFon Gooch 27:49
my one of my favorite books, it's called The Science of Getting Rich, it was written in 1910. And it was published in 1910, written by Wallace D. Wattles. If it was written today, I have read that book probably 70 times. It is one of the most profound books and it's it again, if you think success and wealth is not for you, and that it's for other people read that book and read it until it tricks your mind into believing that you too can have the success and wealth that you know, you deserve.

Andrew Stotz 28:24
One of the pioneers, you're the first person to recommend that book, but it's one of the pioneering books on that topic. In fact, I have a short course that I'm going to put a link in the show notes called don't read these 36 books. I read 36 books on achieving your goals, time management, that type of thing. And I summarized it into a very short course. And that of course, it follows a timeline. And so at the beginning of the timeline is the science of being rich, and you know, that type of stuff. So that was at the beginning of that timeline. So great recommendation. Alright, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Tara LaFon Gooch 29:05
Gosh, you know, I rewrite my goals all the time, because they're, they're just not big enough. So my number one goal for I want financial freedom. So I didn't start entrepreneurship so that I could be working 60 hour weeks and be stressed out. I started entrepreneurship because I wanted freedom and independence to do what makes me happy because I want to jump out of bed in the morning and have a fire lit under me and just that's what I want. I want inspiration just out of living. And by showcasing my zone of genius to others and helping other people live better lives. But I want that 100% that financial freedom and total independence in 12 months. That's my goal.

Andrew Stotz 29:54
Beautiful, beautiful listeners. There you have it another story of laws to keep you Winning. If you haven't yet joined that become a better investor community just go to my worst investment ever.com to claim your spot. As we conclude, Tara, I want to thank you again for joining the mission. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for our audience?

Tara LaFon Gooch 30:25
Listen to your intuition. Follow your gut. Know that you have the power within you already. But take action and take it today. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Start today changed your life and it is possible.

Andrew Stotz 30:41
And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth fellow risk takers let's celebrate that today. We added one more person to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.