Posts in category: Uncategorized

If you’re a manufacturing company, engineering products company, or just a good ole fashion blacksmith, do you consider yourself a media company?

I bet the answer is “no”. We’ve change our mindset on it

A huge challenge for product companies, manufacturing companies, engineering companies, and industrial suppliers is “Attraction”.

Attraction means lead generation is consistent and predictable and you’re getting as many qualified leads as you can convert.

The companies and founders that we meet tell us attracting the customer is the number one pain point they have in their businesses. However, very few are knowledgeable of the new school tactics required to be successful. The Founders and Operators we work with who have embraced the media company mindset have seen their conversion numbers 

How would you rate your attraction score?

Let me know in the comments 

I’m always open to connecting to share my insights.

I’ve noticed that the more ventures I build, the more entrepreneurs that are created… Hopefully, that means we make it look sexy and it encourages others to dream big and live their best life. But

The journey is not one to be taken lightly fellow blacksmith.

Being an entrepreneur comes with an insane RESPONSIBILITY.

You are responsible for feeding the families of the ones who trust you enough to jump into the canoe with you.

Once you understand that, then see how fast you go from:

Startup  Launch   to Momentum phase

depends on your level of “Mindset” and “Resourcefulness“.

Here is the good news on that front – Mentorship can unlock a whole new set of gears for you – if you are self propelled and driven enough to persevere AND you have an open mind…

Take 1, 2, and 3, from this graphic and let’s go dream big and live our best life…

Connect with me if you want to learn more.

Here’s a Case Study on what we chose to do early on to set ourselves up to raise capital for our venture(s) 

Some Qualifiers:
– All my early ventures were bootstrapped (my own time and money), but I found this limits growth and speed. 

– Not being apart of Silicon Valley and not having a huge network are huge limiters when trying to attract capital.

– I don’t believe you should take anything other than the bare minimum to prove “product/market” fit.  I think you only raise capital from other people to scale.

So, we set out to establish the trust foundation early in three (3) distinct areas:

 We started with assembling the best Leadership Team and Board of Directors that we could.  We assembled a Board to build bench strength and depth.  We hired the best Operators who could work within our framework.  We hired openminded talent as employees.

 We focused on the Industries we knew and had experience in.

 We focused on the geographies and locations that were “familiar” to us (the South and Southeast for us is home court advantage).

The marriage point is when each partner (BSV + Investor) share the same affinity & trust in each category.  That’s were the financial magic happens.

I’m open to connecting with any Investor or Founder looking to make real impact in real American businesses.  Together is better…

Met recently with a true ‘blacksmith’ (i.e., Founder) who wants to launch his manufacturing business, but wasn’t sure where to start.

It’s often the customer attraction piece that’s the hardest and causes “trade” Founders the most fear and uncertainty. So, what works? 

Yes, word of mouth still works.

Yes, getting involved and spreading the word around your community still works.

But, in today’s times is about the “AND”…

There are tools available to us today that will allow us to amplify our efforts, pull bigger gears, and solidify our pipeline faster.

So how do we access these tools?

I believe the fastest way is through starting a conversation with others.

I meet so many people through social media channels who have just the right tool that seems to show up at just the right time.

If you’re stuck or your business has hit a ceiling or maybe you’ve hit a ceiling – let’s connect because the right partner may just be one connection away.

Lego Building and Venture Building – The BlackSmith

Man, Lego’s were my jam. I had 2 or 3 buckets of random pieces that I’d put together and just build stuff.

It took 4 Ingredients to do that:

 – A big dream

 – A playbook / framework of “how”

 – YOU (the Operator, team, or individual to put the pieces together)

 – An Investor (aka Partner to fund the build)

There’s a lot of similarities between Legos & Venture Building, which is maybe why I love this stuff so much.

Enjoy your weekend friends. Go build something cool… 

If you get stuck, reach out. I’ll be your wingman. Want to learn more about our BlackSmith Venture’s Launch Program? Click here

Founders… what was the reason you started your business venture?

Share your reason in the comments and I’ll share mine below 

Venture 1: Started in 2007.

The financial goal was simply…

To make a living that would cover our current expenses – middle-class living. What drove me was a desire to prove everyone who said a 29-year-old couldn’t start his own business – and succeed – wrong.

Venture 2: Started in 2017.

Only goal was to work with great people and help a friends biz survive and thrive.

Venture 3: Started in 2021.

Do what we did in Venture 2 at scale to help more founders turn their dream into reality.

Money is never the driver, it’s the tool to create more impact.

Connect with me if you want to learn more.

Let’s talk today about what we’re doing inside BlackSmith Ventures:

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑾𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆

First, the “Investors” who entrusts their resources with us to make them an outsized return while lending their wisdom, experience, and knowledge to assist.

Second, the “Founders, Entrepreneurs, & Business Owners” who own and operate real American businesses making real products that solve real problems.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑾𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒆

We’re an authentic, driven, and experienced group of entrepreneurs (aka problem solvers) that help founders get clear, scale their business, and exit when the time is right.

If you’re an investor or founder looking to make a 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁, we should connect.

Click here to learn more.

Brand awareness is a common problem in many startups struggling to ‘attract’ customers.

One tool we use inside BSV and the companies we work with is video. Here are 3 things I’ve learned about

Using video as a tool while being consistent on social media:

 – You find your tribe

 – You find your voice

 – You recognize that continued growth and improvement is the name of the game.

I feel like the struggle is real, but there are methods to the madness (and remember – video is just one of the tools in your foundry).

If you want to learn more, make sure you connect with me on LinkedIn and if you’re interested in our mentorship program, visit www.theblacksmith.com.

Whether you’re a successful business person turned investor or you’re a seasoned Entrepreneur/Founder, we’ve all been faced with the question, “How Do I Stay Relevant?”.

Here are some strategies that I’ve used recently.

We hear a lot about about 90 day plans which are super important, but do you have a framework that you use inside your venture to ensure what you are focused on in those 90 days is moving the needle?

Let me know in the comments if so…. If not, I’ll share ours 

The goal with any framework (or playbook) is to minimize the noise, frustration, and that feeling of uncertainty we all get from time to time.

Here is one tool from that framework that has helped two of our companies attract B2B clients faster 

We call this the five (5) pillars of Launch:
(pro note: always focus on these in order of top to bottom)

•  – Attract

•  – Nurture

•  – Convert

•  – Delivery

•  – Upsell, Resell, Expand Client Relationship

The goal of Attract is to make sure you are getting enough qualified leads at a reasonable cost.

When these companies stopped putting all their effort into “delivery” and focused 100% of their time on the customer, their wants, desires, and problems – amazing new doors opened up because of FOCUS.

As entrepreneurs, inventors, etc we are wired to solve problems. We must first start with the customer.

The side benefit to this is if you have investors putting money into your venture, you can show them the framework of success (aka Playbook) that you are using to Launch.

#playbook#focus#business