Summary:

In this episode of #70secondCEO, Carl Gould explains how acquisition growth—specifically roll-ups—can give you a strategic edge in competitive markets. By owning multiple businesses that submit separate bids for the same project, you significantly increase your chances of winning the contract. In a down market where access to decision-makers is the biggest challenge, not price or product, controlling more of the competition can be your biggest advantage.

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Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.

One, you're doing what’s called a roll-up, I’m buying that business I’m rolling it up in my mind I’m taking their name off the side of the truck or the side of the wall, off the side of the building and it’s now my name. You have just, you have two offices or you buy it you leave the name on it. So every time that you're submitting a proposal for a project they’re submitting one also. What do people do? They like to get three competing bids or in some cases five competing bids, well how would you like to have two dogs in that fight instead of one. Instead of one out of three how would you like to be the two companies out of three or the two companies out of five,mreally stacks the deck in your favor. Organic growth, strategic alliance growth, acquisition growth the reason why we focus on this today is we’re in a down market, access is your hardest challenge it’s not price, it’s not process, it’s not product, it’s not supply chain, it’s access to decision makers.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Summary:

In this #70secondCEO episode, Carl Gould introduces the power of S-A-P growth—Strategic Alliance Partnerships. He explains how actively cross-promoting complementary, non-competing services to shared ideal clients can accelerate growth. By referring trusted partners like a carpet cleaner promoting a gutter cleaner (and vice versa), both businesses gain credibility and access to pre-qualified customers. It's a smart, low-cost growth strategy based on mutual benefit and client trust.

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Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.

Next area to look at S-A-P growth, Strategic Alliance Partnership growth. This is a slightly different strategy, what you're going do is active cross promoting of complementary services to similar ideal client avatars. What does all that mean? Active cross promoting means I find another company that services a similar client (hey Rob) we have the same ideal client, homeowner, dentist, doctors office you name it but we have non-competing products. Maybe I’m a gutter cleaner and you're a carpet cleaner. So if I’m a gutter cleaner, I’m gonna write a letter to all of my clients and say “hey I know Bob’s gutter cleaning they’re fantastic”. I clean the carpets, he cleans the gutters. If you're in the market for somebody for somebody that does that I vetted them they're really good and they’re gonna give you a special price just because you're a client of mine, thank you for being my customer. They’re gonna do the same thing “hey you should see Carl’s service” they’re non competitive and because the referral comes from a trusted resource they are likely to trust the referred.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Summary:

In this episode of #70secondCEO, Carl Gould challenges the common urge to discount services when launching or growing your business. Using Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson as examples, Carl emphasizes that true experts don’t lower their prices to gain traction—they lead with value and confidence. If you're an expert, price like one, and always include a high-end option in every proposal you present.

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Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.

If Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey were going to launch a mentoring program and Oprah said “hey! Listen you know I wanna, I’ve never done this before, I’m starting a mentoring practice where I will be mentoring people personally”. Would Oprah Winfrey have to discount her services to get market share? Think about that, she left the higher staff just to vet the opportunities, you do the same, you are an expert in your field! Charge like you're an expert in your field. Richard Branson would not, if he started in mentoring program, he’s not gonna say “hey listen I just wanna get a few people in, so I would normally do this for a hundred but I’m gonna do it for twenty-five,” not doing that. So you don’t have to discount your services, give the higher price option with every service or contract you put forward.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Summary:

In this episode of #70secondCEO, Carl Gould explains why your business must have a top-tier, premium-level offering—regardless of whether anyone ever buys it. This “McDaddy” or white-glove service elevates your brand, creates perceived value, and acts as a powerful marketing tool. Carl walks you through how to price it (hint: double it... twice) and how it influences customer perception just like a luxury car displayed under spotlights in a showroom.

Read full transcript:

Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results.

So, here’s what you need in your business. Whether somebody buys it or not you NEED to offer a VIP, or exclusive or premium service, or white glove treatment, concierge or McDaddy, or the whole enchilada. Whatever you want to term it. But you need that platinum, titanium offering where it’s the highest level engagement with your company. How do you know what to charge? Take your current fee, cross a line through it, take that number, cross a line through that, double that number! So, you double it, and then you double it again and you bundle products, services and bonuses and perks that to your clientele would make that price seem reasonable. That’s when you know you have a high enough price offering. Think about it, you walk into the showroom of an automobile dealership. What car do they have in the middle of the showroom , behind velvet ropes with the spotlights on it? Right, their most expensive car, which nobody ever buys. Why do they put it in the middle of the showroom? Because they know it will attract you into the showroom, you will be convinced the brand is worthwhile and then you’ll go buy something else off the menu.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Summary:

In this episode of #70secondCEO, Carl Gould shares a simple framework for building a consistent social media presence by balancing timeless (evergreen) and timely (real-time, relevant) content. Discover how to save time and energy by outsourcing your timeless posts while focusing your creative efforts on timely content. Plus, learn Carl’s 5x5x5 strategy: 5 posts a day, 5 days a week, on 5 platforms—a scalable formula for social media success.

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Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.

What we do is, we look at social media in the standpoint of timeless and timely. Timeless social media is evergreen content. Right? Talking about Easter, talking about Christmas, talking about Passover, talking about New Year's day, talking about Fourth of July, right? Timeless. Right. Now what we have found is, you know, social media is–it's a relentless effort. You've got to stay on it. If there's a lot of content, it's hard to do. Right. So what we have found is that you can farm out your timeless social media very easily. There's a lot of resources out there for it. And it's the timely social media that takes a lot of your time, energy, effort and creativity and last, right? So we like to look at it both ways. We'd like to have a really good timeless social media chromic. Timeless social media. And ours, what we do is we post five times a day, five days a week on five platforms. Five times five times five.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Summary:
In this episode of #70secondCEO, Carl Gould breaks down a simple but powerful time management formula to help leaders get others to perform at a high level. Using the 20-20-60 Rule, Carl shows how to divide your time:

• 20% coaching, mentoring, and empowering your team
  
  

• 20% strategic thinking and planning
  
  

• 60% doing your core responsibilities
  
  

You’ll learn how to become the center of a coaching ecosystem—managing up, coaching across, and empowering down. This framework helps leaders scale results and build stronger teams.

Read full transcript:

Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results.

You need to get others to perform at a high level. That means you have to empower them, that means you have to coach them, guide them, and mentor them. So let me give you a couple of statistics here to play around with a couple of formulas how you spend your time. Alright, you are gonna take on in Stage 3 here, is “How well do you get others to perform at a high level?” So I'm gonna give you a little time management formula called 20-20-60: 20% of your time, 20% of your time, 60 % of your time. So in Stage 3, 20% of your time should be spent coaching, guiding, enabling, mentoring others to make them better. You ever hear the expression “you have to manage up and coach up?” That's right. You coach, you're a manager on how to interact with you better. You coach your stakeholders, your colleagues, the people that you deal with on a regular basis that are one degree of separation from you. And if there's anyone that does report to you, you coach and empower down as well. So you become the center of a coaching and empowerment network or ecosystem. And that's how you’re gonna make them better.

• 20% of your time on coaching, mentoring, guiding, and enabling.

• 20% of your time on strategic thinking: How do I make things better? How do I plan? How do I set goals? And how do I achieve those goals?

• And then 60% of your time on your job description.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more, my name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Summary:

In this episode of #70secondCEO, Carl Gould shares insights from a decades-long study showing a major shift in what drives business value. Back in 1974, 95% of value came from tangible assets. Today, it’s the opposite—72% of value now comes from intangibles like brand equity, intellectual property, and mission. Carl highlights how companies like TOMS thrive not just on product quality but on brand promise and purpose. The takeaway? Don’t just polish your product—build a brand people believe in. That’s what makes your business truly valuable.

Read the full transcript:

Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results.

There was a study done in 1974 by the Sloan school of business and they said, “What drives value in a business? And 95% of what drove value 40 and 50 years ago, was the TANGIBLES of the business, its physical assets. Well let's fast forward to today. A follow up on those 10,000 companies and the second part of the study showed that 72% of what drives value in business is its INTANGIBLES. Its intellectual property, its brand equity, its brand promise. Toms shoes- is it the shoes? Or is it the fact that that company goes out and for every pair of shoe you buy, they buy a second pair and they give it to an underprivileged child somewhere else in the world. Which one do you think it is? So stop falling in love with your product or service. Yes, you want your product to be impeccable. You want your service delivery to be outstanding. No question about it. Logistically, we want those things to run well. Understand though, people will pay more, they will pay more for the other aspects of working with you.

Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more, my name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.