361 James Ballidis

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] James Ballidis is a seasoned trial lawyer with 37 years of experience, an entrepreneur, an inventor with patents, and a successful business owner. In the past six years, he's been a mentor to other CEOs. Through this experience, James had a revelation. He realized that his well intentioned advice often stifled the grand visions of others. 

Determined to change. He discovered a way to control this vision killer instinct in himself and others. He focuses on helping business owners create and implement actionable big visions. He shares his insights in his book, vision Maker.

And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Bill, a graduate, who says, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program has transformed the KPIs we're using to accelerate growth and profits.

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Well, hello, Deep Wealth Nation. Welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Now you heard it in the official introduction. We have a former trial lawyer. Yes, a trial lawyer, but also an inventor, an entrepreneur, a thought leader, an author, all things. All he is just one heck of a guy. So Jim, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast.

Absolute pleasure to have you with us, Jim. I'm curious because there's always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

James Ballidis: Well, the cliff notes on that Jeffrey, would be, originally I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I actually wanted to be in venture capital. I wanted to go and help turn companies around because I was in business. I was [00:04:00] working in the carpeting industry when I was young and we were doing a lot of incredible things, but I kind of hit a ceiling there and needed to move on.

But I didn't think I could do it. So I, instead I chose a, an alternative. I went to law school and became a lawyer and then became a trial lawyer and I had a successful 35 year career. and I don't have any regrets for that, but there was always this gnawing thing behind me. Ooh, you want to be an entrepreneur, you want to be an entrepreneur.

And I don't know how many of your listeners believe this, but, sometimes when it's gnawing at us, we really ought to be listening to it. And so, during my law career, I invented some products and actually was successful in selling them selling the ideas and the patents, and I also did a couple of businesses where I would invest with other people and let them do the work and just be a, an angel investor, and I enjoyed those things, but I wanted to really get a little deeper.

so I had to transition from law and as a trial lawyer, you kind of, you're almost a necessity within the [00:05:00] organization. I mean, if you leave, customers leave, clients leave, people that rely on you leave. So you have to figure out a way to replicate yourself. And that's not an easy task. But then also, it's getting over this idea that, well, I really want to follow a vision, but what vision is that? And when you start confronting that, you get a little bit more concerned about, well, I've got to make a living, I've got to pay for my kid's college, all those other things that demand on us financially. and so, I had to come up with this idea. Well, what's it gonna look like? What's it gonna be like?

And I'm well read in all of the heroes of our country, right? I look at athletes and how successful they are. I look at, you read their books, and you read the books of the business people too, and they're successful. And you think of Steve Jobs, and oh my God, what a successful visionary. And you wonder, I don't know if I'm that guy.

I don't know if I'm that creative. I don't know if I have that capability. I have an idea or two, but I'm not sure I can do those things. it was out of [00:06:00] necessity that I actually found a way to transition and become more visionary, less doer. And in so doing kind of this process that I uncovered for myself worked so fabulously that I ended up in a company that we took it to 20 million in three years and sold it.

I was really happy with that and, some other things and I transitioned out of law because of it. When I began advising clients because I've coached about a hundred now CEOs, I would say, Hey, I did this. You want to try it? They would have these great results. So I put it in a book. I just felt like I couldn't really just sit on it.

And the book's called Vision Makers and it's on Amazon. That's the story of my business anyway.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What a terrific story and for listeners in the show notes, it's a point and click vision maker, three weeks to creating a powerful directive that will inspire your team and ignite your business. And Jim, before we get down that whole path, [00:07:00] I've got a question for you from your years as a trial lawyer, you're a trial lawyer for quite some time.

My best guess is. You saw the, I call it the human condition, the good, the not so good, everything else in, in between having that kind of experience, seeing those things upfront and personal. And what's your take on people in general? Where are you on that? Because I feel that today with social media and the algorithms, we see what our own biases are.

And that's a whole other episode that we can talk about why that's not so great, but someone who's been there. With the people of all different kinds of backgrounds, I suspect, and stories and doing some great things and probably some not so great things. Where are you on that?

James Ballidis: I think the perception that people have of, of those that go to lawyers is that somehow or another they're greedy or that they have a desire to get more than what's fair or reasonable. In the business world, that's for sure true. In the personal [00:08:00] injury world, that's true. And so there's often this conflict.

Because of the way in which that perception is created and you start out at sort of in a negative. And I challenge people to think differently about this. And actually I was, I nicknamed myself the fund lawyer because let's have fun doing this. Let's find a way to get through this process and enjoy it.

And of course, if we have a nice paycheck at the end, it's always enjoyable, right? But in addition to that, let's not get, Two wrapped up in that. And that was a really successful, way for me to do business and be a trial lawyer and, and have success. I even encouraged jurors, arbitrators, Hey, you know what let's solve this problem, but let's solve it in a way that seems to be a little bit more congenial than the typical process in the legal field.

So my answer to your question is that most people that came to me, I won't say all, but most people, they're very hardworking, just want to get through this. They've been. They've been wronged in some [00:09:00] way and they need to figure out how to set things right. And and sometimes that requires us to, get into litigation and do it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. Interesting with that. And I would imagine that the strategy that you deployed, and you referenced this earlier as well, when we began talking, the strategy that you deployed in litigation or as a trial lawyer and how you look at things and how you try and figure things out, that there's a lot of application to business.

Thoughts on that?

James Ballidis: Yeah, absolutely. in business, we want to create a plan, right? And then we want to execute on that strategic plan. And if we don't do that, we're kind of taking some risk. And that risk can be minimized if that strategic plan is created. Well, the same thing is true in litigation. Often what I would do is I would set out a whole plan for how this case is going to evolve and what the ultimate outcome I expect from it based upon the things that I would assume to happen.

 and often I would announce this plan to the other side. I'd [00:10:00] say, this is what we're going to do. And then, they would scoff or laugh or say, oh, that's outrageous, unreasonable. You're not going to do that. You can't prove that, whatever it is, and then slowly over time I'm implementing each little step.

of that plan. Eventually, people, when they start seeing those steps coming true, start to think, you know what, this guy's got something here, he's executing on it, and maybe we need to reevaluate it. And oftentimes, that led to really successful, really high settlements of cases that were not expected by either the other side or my clients.

So it's kind of a fun way to look at it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Interesting. So instead of keeping it top secret, just between you and the client, you're putting it out there for public display. And at the same time, you're planting some seeds. And as they see, oh my goodness, we thought this was crazy. But look at this, it's actually starting to happen to your point.

Hey, maybe we're not on such solid footing that we thought we were. Let's reevaluate. And so, Jim, from [00:11:00] that perspective, it will start getting into, I love what you're doing with your book, Vision Maker, in business in general, what are your thoughts about that strategy when we're now in business, we're in the marketplace, are we broadcasting according to your playbook, some of our strategies, even to the competition and the marketplace, or are we keeping that to ourselves, where are you on that?

James Ballidis: The first thing let's take two chunks out of that. So, how do we announce it? Well, we have to have, if we don't have the right vision, and it's big enough, then announcing it isn't going to do us any good. I want to spend a moment on that, if you don't mind.

Oftentimes, we create a vision that's too small. I want to increase my revenue by 50 percent next year. I want to hire and create a culture that's more dynamic and more consistent with my morals. Those are great goals, but truthfully, we have to ask ourselves, is that really a vision? The reason that I say that is because typically when you announce to the world your goal that you want to double your revenue.

Nobody else cares. Nobody else cares about your [00:12:00] revenue goal. When you're doing your business model and you're trying to sell your product, nobody cares that you want a double revenue. They want to know what the product is going to do for them. But more importantly, they want to know the vision that your product is going to fulfill for them. And so your vision has to be aligned with your customer. So creating that vision is really important before we go out and announce it. And the inhibitor, the thing that was really difficult for me as a doer, is, well, I don't want to get out too far ahead of my skis, right? I don't really want to, I don't want to say I'm going to do something and then, not be able to do it.

I don't want to aggressively announce some vision, and then later on, I'm just. I never, I couldn't even get off the ground with it.

That's the vision killer. And it's not only in us, it's in those around us that care about us and love us, appreciate us, right? They always want to protect us. Even I find that in my own son.

He's 18 now. I found [00:13:00] several years ago, I was killing his vision. Like he had a vision and right away I was in, well, how are you going to get that done? So here's the key component that we need to remember when we're creating our vision. In my mind, it has just been a moment of clarity. All vision killing is in how do you get it done?

All of it. I've challenged hundreds of people, several podcasters. Nobody can tell me an example of a vision That is being killed by anything other than how, the how. So we need to set that aside for a moment. And when we enroll other people to talk about our vision, as we're forming it and collaborating, then it's great for us to just say, Hey, listen, let's not talk about how to get it done right now.

Let's talk about what we really want to do. That expands us and expands our vision. And when we get a vision that's bigger than us, and honestly, if you can create the vision Bigger than your customer, it explodes. You have this [00:14:00] tremendous success. So that's the key component right there. And then, building that connection with other people that can support you by suspending the vision killer while you're developing the vision.

There'll be plenty of time later to analyze how.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely, and for Deep Wealth Nation, I hope you're paying really close attention because Jim, what you just shared, that's not gold, it's platinum. How many dreams have just been thrown out the window because people get imposter syndrome. Who am I to do this? Or I can't even imagine, here's the how I'm going to do this, or well intentioned friends or family.

Jeffrey. Come on, who do you think you are, that really you're going to do that? And couldn't agree with you more that if we can take the how out of it. And as you're saying that, Jim, I'm actually reflecting back on my own journey. And most times, ignorance is not bliss. In my case, at the start of my company, Embanet, ignorance was bliss.

Because if I would have known back in the day, what I knew a few years later, I'm not so sure I would have started. [00:15:00] Because the mountains to climb were very high and there were a lot of them, but I just was passionate. I loved what I was doing and I said, you know what? Tomorrow's a new day. Figure it out tomorrow and we made some progress today and we'll just keep on going and the small consistent actions day over day with the right people added up to massive results.

And so I couldn't agree with you more. And I also love what you're saying. We call it the world's favorite radio station with what you're saying, Jim, WII. FM, the what's in it for me, not for us though, but for all of our stakeholders, you could want to 10X the revenues. Customers don't care. The marketplace doesn't care.

What are you going to do for them in that process? And actually it's a great segue into, and I love what you're doing in the Vision Maker book. I mean, talk about a short period of time, three weeks, and then off you go with that. And so in week one, you are talking about the vision killers, and you've talked about some of them now, the how behind that, or well meaning family or friends [00:16:00] that are putting all these seeds of doubt in your mind.

What else would you add to the vision killers that you would want us to know about?

James Ballidis: Well, to the vision killer, I think you can identify them in others fairly quickly, but look at yourself too. Look at how many times you yourself say the things that you were just saying. I don't know if I have the worst power for that. I don't have the people. I'm not, I don't know anybody.

And yet if you met the right person, which is going to be a little bit later in our conversation about collaboration, but if you meet the right people, all those problems go away. I use the example of, well, go ahead, I want you to feed a million people in a week. And you go, that's impossible.

Oh, by the way, I'm gonna introduce you to Elon Musk and he's got an extra billion dollars he wants to give away. All you got to do is present it to him. Then it suddenly becomes, okay, well, that's unrealistic. But see, in a smaller scale, that's exactly what happens.

We just don't [00:17:00] necessarily have a big name to it or a billion dollars to it at the start of things.

But I'll bet you, you had your experiences where suddenly the opportunity came to you when you were building that business on a problem that was sticky. And the opportunity came to you because you were looking at it. You were saying, hey, you know what opportunity is here? What way can I create that, that will solve this problem while I continue to, to grow?

And yeah, it's always, when you look back, sometimes you always think, gosh, that was a big mountain to climb, wasn't it?

Jeffrey Feldberg: absolutely.

James Ballidis: look back a little bit. I'm never climbing up to the top of the peak again. I did that with Mount Whitney. I'm never climbing Mount Whitney again.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And, you know, Jim,

James Ballidis: It was a lot of work,

Jeffrey Feldberg: I hear you on

James Ballidis: I, you know, but it was fun after fact.

It's terrific fun.

Jeffrey Feldberg: absolutely. Looking back, appreciate the journey, perhaps not at the time, but after the fact. And isn't it so true, even in our nine step roadmap in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, step number one, Jim, to your point is exactly what you're talking about. We're asking, okay, what's an inflection [00:18:00] point? What's a.

Massive problem. It's a small problem right now. Most people probably even haven't heard of it, but given time, it's going to become massive. So we're looking for the so called problems are really opportunities and then not figuring out how we're all going to do this in a day, but identifying it, putting some plans around how we're going to really tackle that and get that done.

And if we do it right, create a market disruption. So what I like with what you're doing in week one, it's really two things. And you can say, Jeffrey, you're on base or off base. So in week one. Not just having a vision. I agree with you. It's not, okay, we want to grow 20 percent or 50 percent make it massive.

Make it big, make it your moonshot or your beehive or whatever your operating system is, whatever word you want to use, but make it a massive vision. And then while you're at it, look within for that negative self talk, otherwise known as a vision killer, and also look externally for people who potentially could be the vision killers.

And it sounds remove them or keep them away from you or not listen to them or something, just not have it infiltrate you [00:19:00] to have you dealt.

James Ballidis: Can't remove your wife or the other people around you, your friends, even your CFO. It's really hard to remove those people. So instead you say, hey, play with me in vision right now. You give them permission. to play and say, we're not going to worry about how to get these things done right now.

Just play with me and you'll see an amazing transition. It worked for me as a doer, not a visionary. okay, so you don't want my ideas on how to get it done right now. You're not pressing me to get it done right now. You're just asking me to be creative. Then suddenly, Now you're enrolling my expertise as a visioner.

You're enrolling my expertise and I'm going to come up with things you didn't think of because I'm just in a different space. Don't push them away if you can't. Now, there are some that you have to. They're destructive. You know them. They're destructive people that they're never going to be happy.

They're never going to enroll in something and we all have them in our business and we all have them in our, but usually The people that are [00:20:00] close around us that are our advisors of sort, they're usually people that we have a high level of confidence that they have good judgment. And so enroll them, even though they're going to say, Oh yeah, Jim, that's ridiculous.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay, and so actually this is now a nice segue because we're in week two of the Vision Maker process and what you're talking about in your book where you're collaborating with others. And so really what I'm hearing you say, and again, Jim, tell me, Jeffrey, you're on base, off base. Some people, yes, they may be such big vision killers, even asking them to collaborate with you isn't going to happen, so figure out how to deal with them.

But for most of the other people, what I'm hearing you say is ask them as well, hey, put the how aside. Let's just play this out. Let's just try and figure this out together, bigger picture wise, and then Two heads are better than one, and you can multiply that and off you go with the different people that you have in your life, on the personal or on the business side.

Is that where we're heading with that in the collaboration?

James Ballidis: Yeah, exactly. And I go on a [00:21:00] deep dive for a week with you. If you do the exercise in the book, what I'm really trying to do is show you, because I can't be you, right? And when I'm showing you, it's are you the kind of leader that you have a vision and you really just want everybody to just sort of agree with you? So that isn't going to collaborate. That's just simply You know, at the worst case, it's yes, people, right? It doesn't really help you. and then on the other side, are you the type of person who, in collaboration, you're not a good communicator. So there's a matrix of four, right? We have doers.

They're pure doers. They just do. they walk into a room and they can look at something and go, I know exactly how to do it. That's them. They do not vision well, and they do not communicate well with visioners. That's it. Because visionaries go, okay, we're going to paint it blue, and we're going to have a window over here, and they're going to go wait, let me take some notes.

And, the visionaries going, well, I'm not ready yet to say yes, I'm just giving you my ideas. They can't comprehend that, so we need to learn how to communicate with them.

[00:22:00] Then you have the pure visioner and the pure doer. And then you have the blend of the two which are the visioner who's trying to become a doer and the doer who's trying to become more of a visioner.

And we need to figure out how to communicate in that level as well. And so in week two, we talk about communication. I don't go directly about it, but how do we communicate with each other in a way that's going to be building that positive outcome for that creative vision? , that seed you started and making it bigger and bigger.

And when you're enrolling other people in collaboration, not just your people around you, the people you know but you're actually willing to talk about your vision in a cocktail party just to see if other people might be interested in joining you and collaborating in the vision. You're willing to talk to almost anybody about it.

You're so excited about it. And they're excited because it's a vision bigger than you. And it's a vision bigger than your customer. So I go to a cocktail party, oh yeah, I'm providing a really great product for my [00:23:00] customer and they're not you, but you're interested in collaborating with me the, person at the party is going to go, no, that's nice, I'm glad you're doing it for somebody, but it doesn't apply to me. But if your vision is bigger and it encompasses some of the interests that they have, and they don't have to be social. Like you don't have to come up with some big social plan. I had one woman at a pool tell me, I don't care about elephants in Africa. And I had to go upstairs and write a chapter right after that.

It's true. So what we want to do though, is we want to learn to communicate with them. And that's what really chapter two spends time on doing. Identifying, figuring out who they are. Surrounding yourself with a great list of people, going after those people that you don't necessarily think that they even know you.

Going after them to see if they're interested in your vision and if they are, then you instantaneously start to increase your capability of getting it done as well as the expansion of the vision. So that's what the chapter delves into.

Jeffrey Feldberg: what I [00:24:00] like about that in Jimmy, actually, if I'm not mistaken, you did this right up front in the book, maybe even in one of the first few chapters where you're saying, Hey, when it comes to your vision, forget what the social programming is telling you or what you're seeing on social media. It's not some big, long, complicated.

Statement with these words that are taking up space on the paper and really mean nothing. It's just corporate talk where some high price consultant came in and came up with this thing. And the next day, after some long corporate retreat, no one even remembers. And I loved how you gave some examples and you correct me if I'm on base or off base, but the one that really stood out, he said, Hey, let's take a look at Disney.

I mean, Disney has been around for a century now and they are just permeating everywhere. Their vision, if I'm not mistaken, is four words to make people happy.

And so how simple, but not to confuse simple with simplicity, how simple, how easy is that? But how does that make you feel as a listener to make people happy?

It kind of gives me the warm advice. I don't know about you, Jim, but it's a vision I can get around [00:25:00] and I actually get it. I understand it.

James Ballidis: that's a great summary. I wish you wrote the book. It would've been a lot easier on me. It's a great summary for it because yes that's right. I do not advocate the idea that we create some document. That we slide in the drawer or we put on a poster on a wall.

And the telltale is if I go into a business and I talk to somebody and you at home, you can do this, you listeners, you can do this with your own people, bring in three of your trusted employees, higher up, and then three of your, the lowest employees, bring all six of them in and ask them, what's your idea of the vision of this company?

You'll be astounded. If they're not in line with your vision, they won't be able to say it. They won't identify with it, which means they can't share it, which means that you have all these salespeople around you, potential salespeople around you, who would talk about your company, who would talk about the employees that you want to hire, who would give you opportunity to expand on your vision, and they [00:26:00] don't know it.

They're not aligned with it. So, that little test alone is exactly what you were talking about, Jeffrey, where yeah, high priced guy comes in and he writes down some really cool words, it all looks fancy, but nobody pays attention to it. That's not what we're talking about. We need to evolve away from that.

It doesn't work. It doesn't work.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so true. Actually, it's no coincidence that in the Deep Wealth Mastery program, that's one of the things that we talk about an X Factor, a culture, what makes your business stand apart? And we ask the business owners, Hey, go to, from your frontline employees, all the way on up, ask them what the company vision is.

You're probably going to hear different things, but guess what's going to happen when your future investor or buyer is thinking about coming in, wanting to pay top dollar, giving you the best deal, not just any deal. They better not be hearing that. Now, I'm not so sure if this is an urban myth or not, but the opposite end of this, the story goes, I believe it was in the early sixties.

President Kennedy was at the NASA space center and he's [00:27:00] walking around and he saw a janitor and he said, Hey, what's going on? I'm so and so. And he said, Oh Mr. President, I'm helping put a man on the moon. And so, I mean, that's the original moonshot. And that being the case, I mean, there's an example from a frontline employee all the way up.

Everyone knew what the mission at that time was. What's NASA doing? We're putting a man on the moon, simple, a few words, but everyone got it. They understood it. And this, I suspect, is where you're encouraging the listener, hey, make sure everyone's on the same page, that it's a simple vision. It's one that's easy to understand, but also everyone knows it and they can roll it off the tip of their tongue.

James Ballidis: I love that example. I think that's awesome. I often tell people when you have, if you have a really great vision, the employees you've been struggling to find come to you because they hear about your vision. The customers that you want come to you rather than you having to market so hard to try and increase your revenue.

They come to you because [00:28:00] they not just, oh, you have, your product has a better feature, but because they align with your idea of what it is that you stand for, what it is that you're creating here. What it is that you're trying to do. And if this sounds too, too slippery for you as a, as a listener I just encourage you, just read the front and back of the book the things on the Amazon thing, because it'll give you some idea of what I'm talking about.

It doesn't have to be like a big social program. give you an example. There was a fellow that brilliant engineer, created uh, software program, he was an engineer, he didn't really know how to talk about this thing. And so he had stumbled and he wouldn't say anything to anybody, et cetera, so the truth was when I finally figured out what he did, the truth was that he created the security protocol when you went online to buy something, nobody could hack into that online buying purchase.

He created a security protocol for that. So of course, he [00:29:00] talked in, ones and zeros and this and that, and SaaS programs and that, he went on and on about this stuff but I made it real simple for him. I said, well, what would it be like if you went to a cocktail party? And you just said, I handle, I make sure that you're busy, that you're secure when you do an online transaction. The light bulb went off.

He goes, wow. , really? that makes sense. And then he started saying that to people he wanted to hire. He started getting, he got another doer to do what he was doing. He got a visionary to take the business to another level. I wish I didn't have a conflict.

I would have been, I would have invested in that one. That was a good one. And he took it big. It was huge.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's so true. And circling back to what we're speaking about earlier of how important this is, we were talking about Disney earlier. This I know is not fiction. It is fact. Disney, believe it or not, and we should believe it, they spend an inordinate amount of time and money on training the people who are on the grounds and they're sweeping up the garbage on the [00:30:00] floor.

Why? Well, firstly, they want Disney to look immaculate when you're walking around and you just have that good, clean, safe feeling. But they also realize that the groundskeepers, the janitors, whatever you like to call that particular role, that's really the spokesperson for the company when people have a question.

That's where they're going to go to and ask, not the president in some ivory tower or someone with a fancy title. And so they are trained to know everything and anything that they possibly could for the guests to have them happy. And so this is not just theory. This is the actual strategy from the trenches that works.

And then Jim, with that in mind, I want to go to week three. And again, I love the brevity of how you're doing this, how you're keeping things simple. Now, in week three, what you're talking about is taking the vision to the world. But I love one word that you use at the start of the chapter or the title of it.

You said evangelize. You didn't say communicate the vision. You didn't say take the vision. You said [00:31:00] evangelize the vision. And what a difference that one word makes. Can you share with us a story behind the story on the power of being an evangelist?

James Ballidis: To be an evangelist, you have to be so committed to this. It has to be in your core, doesn't it? If I'm communicating something, okay, I'm passing it on, or, this looks like a good opportunity, or, there's a pro and a con to this, et cetera and so forth. But if I'm evangelizing I'm really committed to that idea.

And the concept comes from this bigger than you vision. So, for instance, in the creation of, in my personal life, in the creation of me as going forward from trial attorney, nobody cares about me wanting to be in business, be an entrepreneur. They didn't care about that. They didn't care about my personal transition, other than my friends, just curiosity and support, right?

When I decided I wanted to transition into something that was meaningful, and you see a lot of young people saying this, and we need to be listening. want to do something that's [00:32:00] meaningful. I want to really create something that's much bigger than just my everyday needs, wants, desires, etc.

Something I think is really important. And then you start to talk to people about that and they start to support you because they believe in it too. Then it leaps you into the next level, and that's exactly what happened for me. So I began saying, you know what, I'm going to do this other thing.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna create this other company with another visionary, and we had a doer as well, and okay, what we wanted to do in video editing, and uh, it's a whole nother segment for me to talk about my failed career as a producer. Producer, a television show producer is just absolute failure, but that's okay.

But I wanted to have more bays than four bays. You could have four editors on a, segments at a time economically, you just couldn't do anything else and computing speed and storage speed and [00:33:00] all that stuff. What we came up with was something we said, well, if we could increase the capacity to store product. Then what would that mean for us to create bays? Well, it wasn't hard, it wasn't a hard leap for us to go from there to now we have 16 bay editing capability. And even then, that's the application of the vision. The vision was I had a person that I was collaborating with that had this very intimate knowledge about the area of storage of computer power.

And I said, well, shouldn't we be being more efficient about our storage? And wouldn't it be great if we could even get more into a little tiny chip or a little tiny, thumb drive or whatever than we can already? And of course, the answer is yes. And so when you start talking to people about that, they're interested, they're curious.

And of course, if you're in IT, you're very curious. And then from there, it wasn't a hard leap to take it to the next level. And that's kind [00:34:00] of how you start. That's how you do it. And so for the segment of computing power, we had a great product, great service.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And, speaking of that, of having to evangelize that, and you have the big vision I mean, another evangelizer, none other than Steve Jobs. When you think about it, I mean, what Apple did, what Steve Jobs did, they weren't the first to invent it, but the way they put it together, and then more importantly, how it was presented, how Jobs would just be out there, he had this, it seems like a magic spell over people that they were just enamored with it.

That it helped take the company to the next level. So it's so interesting, Jim, going back, really, it's a full circle to where we began our conversation of how it doesn't have to be complicated. Simple, not to be confused with simplicity, is something that people can understand. But when we have a big vision, when we're thinking of other people, of the what's in it for them, when we're evangelizing.

We can be a startup, but that's how all the titans of business today, [00:35:00] that's where they began and that's how they became the titans of business. I know I'm oversimplifying things in that regard, but at the crux of it, that's what's going on there. So let me ask you this before we go into wrap up mode, Jim, I'm wondering, what's the method to your madness, your secret sauce?

A CEO, founder, entrepreneur, hey, Jim, help me help my company. We are stuck. We want to go from zero to hero. What's your process like? What am I expecting to be doing? How long is it going to be taking? What's that looking like?

James Ballidis: that's a great question. I've had a personal revelation over the last couple of years, the last two years of coaching. I would often find that people were spending a lot of time, CEOs were spending a lot of time, cash flow issues, personnel issues. Where do I find the people that I want to hire?

How do I create a better marketing program? What are the ways in which to compare my marketing programs one to the other? Competitive mode, etc., and so forth. Pricing schedules, all of this stuff. And [00:36:00] we would make these changes and they would have some success. The quick start was when I said to them, well, why don't you create a bigger vision, start really thinking big here and apply these principles.

It was, it is, that's why I'm sharing it. is incredible, so much so that I'm no longer counseling clients on anything but vision.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting.

James Ballidis: There's plenty of people that can help you, implement your next credit strategy or your next CFO strategy or how to hire certain people or, what to do and there's a need for that.

But I see the greatest movements, the huge movements, and I'm not talking about just one in 10, I'm talking about like seven of 10, huge movements, double, triple revenue in one year. That's incredible for somebody that's had For three or four years at a million dollars and then doubled it to two million.

Then the next year went to five. All because of a newer vision of how she thought [00:37:00] her business should be presented to others that were, in this particular case, going to do event planning. What did that mean? What kind of an event were we talking about? Oh my God, that field is saturated with people with ideas, but you've got to have a vision.

And when you have a vision, people want to do work with you. They want to be a part of that vision. So the quick start, the easy method, you don't need the book, you heard it today, actually, Jeffrey, it was a great interview. You heard it today, right here. You heard what you needed to do.

Now take it seriously. If you need the book as a guidance, great. But if you don't, that's okay too. It's not going to change my life but if you. Really put yourself to it, and you really start putting a couple of thought process, it cost you zero, and you can really take a giant leap forward, and then you'll hit the roadblock, you'll hit the vision killers, just hear me, them, and Use that phrase I suggested, copy or come back to this podcast or whatever you got to do, hear it [00:38:00] again, how to deal with them, then how to get your other people around, you can't do this alone in today's environment anymore, and then evangelize, and you will be successful.

Jeffrey Feldberg: my wheels are turning. I'm going in so many different directions. Again, what I really appreciate about this is you've taken the guesswork out of it. You've boiled it down to the absolute essence, and we spoke about this. It's worth circling back to it, Jim, one more time, because you're not just coming at this as a quote unquote inventor or entrepreneur, behind this, I can really see the genius of you in that trial lawyer kind of role of having to think through the strategy, the human condition, what's there, what should I be doing, what's this going to look like, and it's really such a unique formula, your own formula, so unique to you that you've put together, but it's now for the benefit of everyone.

Jim. And before we go into wrap up mode, Gemma, I'm wondering, what's the one low hanging fruit? And we spoke about several today, but if you had to pick one low hanging fruit for the listener of the Deep Wealth Nation, before they go [00:39:00] on to the next meeting or phone call or activity, whatever it's going to be, after they finish this episode, if they could do one thing, low hanging fruit, perhaps it's low effort, high reward, what would you say that is?

James Ballidis: Let me give some thought to that. I think, I think the first step will pay dividends hugely is to see if you can't communicate with a couple of your customers directly. Find out what your customer, not just what they're, this is what the typical inquiry is in marketing and sales departments is do you like the product, do you like the service, did you have this, did you have that.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the customer and what it is that they wanted to achieve. Remember our sales hierarchy, I'm sure you all know this if you've been in business at all, right? You got need or want, the next hierarchy of success is going to be status, the status of a person, right?

And then right and wrong. Those are the three kind of really big sales ladders I've coached on. And you want to find out from them, well, what is this product or service doing for [00:40:00] you? Why is this product or service providing you with something you needed? if you can, get them to tell you about how it changed their status or in their own mind or in the mind of those around them in a way that they understood or a good versus evil.

Whatever your product is, there's a level there. And in that, you're going to hear the makings of the beginning of your vision search. And what will happen in that is you can immediately transpose that into a marketing message and make money. the low hanging fruit is financial gain, you'll immediately have some success in that.

That's a done deal. The secondary Benefit of that, though, is you start on this journey of really growing bigger, and it's a nice, simple, easy start. Four or five customers, that's enough. You don't need to do 50 or [00:41:00] 100.

Jeffrey Feldberg: on this one is Embanet, an e learning company. We had mastered the art of keeping the seats filled with online students.

Most programs would have a 70 or 80 percent attrition rate. So imagine every 10 customers, you're losing seven or eight. Embanet came onto the scene and with our hosting, our support, our way of doing things, you were keeping 80 or 90 percent of your customers, your student base in this case. We're really good at doing that, but I made it a point to speak to the customers, particularly the larger ones.

And I remember I asked this one question to an associate dean of one of the business schools, Hey, what's keeping you up at night? He said, Jeffrey, I'm so glad you asked me. I'm going to a board meeting right after this call, actually. And I have to tell the board. Why next semester our sales are down.

The program may not be profitable because I can't fill the seats. You've got this crazy thing called the internet. You've got this video conferencing by competition. They're setting up shop in town now, [00:42:00] and I can't fill the seats like I used to. Do you think you can help me with that? That one question, Jim.

I thought, being so, boisterous, oh, yeah, sure, give me three weeks, well, it took three years, but that one question set us on that journey that eventually, over time, we became not only the masters of keeping the seats filled, but filling the seats created a whole new industry, a whole new category, and that added tremendous value.

To the company, all going back to what you're saying. So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. This is not theory. This is from the trenches and it works. So Jim, we can go down so many rabbit holes. I'm really tempted to do that. We are bumping up again sometime. So with that said, it's a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast where I have the privilege, the honor of asking every guest the same question.

It's a fun one. Let me set this up for you. Jim, when you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that fabulous DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time. So the fun part, Jim, is tomorrow morning, you look outside your window, not only is DeLorean car [00:43:00] curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go back to any point in your life, Jim, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what would you tell yourself in terms of life lessons, or life wisdom, or hey, Jim, do this, but don't do that, what would that sound like?

Wow,

James Ballidis: Wow, that's a cool question. would go all the way back to college and I would completely change my college experience. I was so intent. And for you new entrepreneurs that are going to college, this is helpful, I think. I was so intent on making sure that I followed the curriculum and I learned what I needed to learn and I got the grades I needed because I thought I would be able to get out and transition into business and I'd be appreciated for who I was.

The truth is, That you get out of college and it's what you earn, it's not, it's what you do, it isn't how many grades you did, it has a place, and it might give you an interview, and it might even get you into a position, but the real quality of the position that you want is going to be in that, and I would have completely [00:44:00] changed around, and I did have a professor that was an entrepreneur, I would have taken more, done more attention to that, and really focused on it, And then, as I exited college, probably would have started my own entrepreneurial process right then. That's what I would have done.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So what would you have said in a sentence or two to your younger self? You just laid out the strategic plan here. I love that. What would the advice have been?

James Ballidis: Be open to opportunity at that young age. Don't think that you have to follow the form and structure.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. So be open to opportunity. And if I could say it in such a way of maybe even challenge the status quo.

James Ballidis: Sure, you can do it. You can actually enroll the status quo into your new idea, right?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. So just be open to opportunity and really fast forwarding to today. It's, Hey, don't follow the social programming. Be open to opportunity to see where the journey takes you. And Jim, before it's an official wrap, for a listener, they have a question. [00:45:00] They want to become a client. They want you to coach them.

Any, all of the above. What would be the best place online for someone to reach you?

James Ballidis: Vision maker. net, I'm offering this now, I won't be offering it in two, three, four months you can book 15 minutes with me free, there's no coaching contract, there's no coaching. Pressure. There's no sales or anything like that. I'll just talk to you because my intention, my vision, I'm going to enroll you right now, all of you.

my vision is that we change the way we vision. And I don't just do this because, Oh, gee, this is going to financially help me. The reality is, I believe in our society, we need visioners in our politics. I believe we need better visioning in our social environment, in our social structure, in how we take care of other people.

I think we need bigger, better visions. Visions that are much more comprehensive and they take into consideration some of the true challenges that we face in the next 25 and 50 years. And while there are [00:46:00] some, I think we need to listen to a few more. But we need to create even more than that.

So the only way we're going to do that is if we really go after it. And the only way we're going to go after it is if we change the way we create vision. That's my goal. And if my contribution is 15 minutes with you, I'd be more than happy to do that.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, what a terrific opportunity. And again, Deep Wealth Nation, it doesn't get any easier. Go to the show notes. It's a point and click. Not only to Jim's site, but also get the book, Vision Maker, three weeks to creating a powerful directive that will inspire your team and ignite your business. Come on, you can't tell me you can't take three weeks out of your already busy schedule, but it could be a game changer and take it to the next level.

Well, Jim, a heartfelt thank you and congratulations is official. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

James Ballidis: Thanks, Jeffrey. It was a real pleasure today. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it [00:47:00] up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy [00:49:00] and safe. Thank you so much. God bless.