Business Scaling Through Automation With Michael Dallas-Petersen

Michael Dallas-Petersen: [00:00:00] Are you a work at home rockstar or do you dream of becoming one? Then you found the right podcast. Your host, Tim Melanson, talks with successful work at home rock stars to learn their secrets and help you in your journey. Are you ready to rock?

Tim Melanson: Here’s Tim. Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Very excited to be talking to a fellow Canadian here. He is the head integrator at the Integrator Academy, and what he does is he helps, uh, working professionals. Spread their job by teaching them a skill that is very hard to find. Very excited to be rocking out today with Michael Dallas Peters, and, Hey, Michael.

You ready to rock? I’m

Michael Dallas-Petersen: ready. Thank you for having me.

Tim Melanson: Perfect. So we always start off here on a good note. Tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Uh, so just like, um, I think a lot of, a lot of other people’s stories, I, I had, uh, a tremendous amount of. Trial and error in the beginning, and I’ve had a, a rough go.

So I think, you know, if I can inspire anyone, I’d like to, you know, maybe talk about like, I guess how it started and, and, uh, you [00:01:00] know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a long story, so I’ll just sum it up as I, I was, um, you know, an alcoholic, I, you know, was in comatose, dying in a hospital, liver failure, things like that.

And I ended up having this, uh, you know, Kind of chats to, to, to, to get out of it and, and, and really like fight through it. And, you know, I had a wife of the, or my girlfriend at the time, who’s now my wife, and we got two beautiful children. But um, you know, she just gave me an ultimatum and it was the one thing that really kind of inspired me to, to get going.

And I was like, you know, I’m so much more than just, you know, what I’m doing. And so, you know, with a family of addiction and stuff like that, it was hard. But, uh, you know, I beat it. And I’ve been, um, sober since 2012. And, uh, ever since then I’ve been kind of like, you know, working my way up inside of like businesses.

I did tires, I did management. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve, you know, run 5 million stores, all that kinda stuff. But it was just quite never enough. And, and, and the, and one of the, my biggest problems, I suppose was just the, the corporate, um, I call it the corporate bullshit. If, if it’s okay to, you know, swear. But it’s, uh, [00:02:00] I.

I just constantly got, you know, harped at, and, and, and beaten down. I call ’em the boomers, the boomers of, um, you know, um, but you know, Cal Tire in Canada, it’s a big, huge chain. I was like one of their managers for, you know, a decent sized store, and they were just like, beat me down, berate me. Oh, you, you know, I, I, I, I changed my, I I never changed my son’s diaper until two weeks after he was born and making me feel bad about like, taking time off and being with my wife and my new, uh, uh, um, newborn Elliot.

And, uh, so I was like, you know what? Screw it. I quit. I had no idea what I was doing. No, no fucking clue. Uh, but I quit cold Turkey and I went to, um, I went to just like, affiliate marketing and I was like, I’m gonna try it out. I’m gonna try affiliate marketing. And then I went into multi-level marketing, and then I went into a marketing agency.

And then I went into e-commerce, and then I went, I, I spent an entire year jumping from one, you know, one, one rock to the next rock to try and figure out what I was good at. And the crazy thing was, is I was like, I. I was mildly successful in everything I did. I always made money, right? I never made a, a substantial amount [00:03:00] of money, but I was always successful.

I always had things up and I think I was just like, my sales ability or something like that was just like, I was never too pushy or whatever it might have been, right? And I was just never the influencer, like, you know, take pictures and of my life and put it online. And I was just never that person, right?

And so I was like, oh, you know, the year was up and I was like, you know, I, you know, in Canada here we have ei and I was able to take it for the year and it was ending. So I was like, oh shit, I gotta go do something. So, So this, um, entrepreneur in my town was like, start a tire shop. Let’s go into competition with Cal Tire.

I was like, ah, all right, sounds good. Let’s go to competition. So I started this tire shop up from the, the ground up. Had to buy all the tools, hire the staff, build all the procedures, and uh, we grew that store in the first six months to a quarter million, which is like pretty crazy for, you know, a little tiny town and just starting off and stealing the business from another tire shop and stuff.

But, um, What I realized in that little, you know, to sum all this up, what I realized was I was really not good at the whole selling and like the whole like influencer and like getting my life out there. What I was really good at was like the systems and the [00:04:00] building and the, and then the processes and then really like tying in, gluing it all this stuff together to make it work.

Because after a while I wasn’t even running the tire shop. You know what I mean? They were, and so I, I was like, you know what, I’m gonna reach back out to all the people, you know, from the multi-level marketing and, and from the affiliate marketing and the marketing agencies. I’m gonna reach back out to these people and be like, Hey, do you want me to help you with this?

And so I was starting to help them with like their funnels and their emailing and their marketing and, and, and their websites and, you know, uh, maybe delegation and helping ’em find virtual assistance and helping him find virtual assistants and all this kind of stuff. And so, Uh, I ended up like helping out two or three people, like friends, and then all of a sudden they started referring me out and then, you know, one client was like, oh, hey, I’ll give you 1500 bucks a month.

Can you just stay in my Slack channel and help me out? I’m like, 1500 bucks a Oh, is that us? They’re like, yep. I’m like, oh man, that’s like, that’s like 2200 bucks a month already. You know what I mean? Like, I was like stoked on life. And, and so it just like, from there it just like got progressively better and better and better.

And so I guess my, I guess my inspiration is that like, you know, it may seem like you’re, you’re trying absolutely [00:05:00] anything and everything, but sometimes in behind there’s this little tiny hidden message or this like, This, this, this nuance of what you’re doing that you can’t really see and you just gotta kind of think outside the box.

And however that is, is whether you’re, you know, you go and you take a, a big long walk or do something you’ve never done before and maybe go to a museum or go to, you know, somewhere with a ton of information, things that you can read and, and just like maybe, you know, books and stuff like that. And I find that I get a ton of inspiration from that kind of stuff and, and, and I start thinking way outside the box.

And so, um, That’s what, that’s what basically took me from, you know, having to work the corporate grind again to, you know, not even like after I got that store going, you know, I said six months within, you know, month eight, I was ready to quit. And, and I just basically told my wife, Hey, don’t go back to work.

Raise our children cuz our number two was almost due. And, uh, raise our children and I’m gonna, I’m gonna keep working, building a business. Keep keeping you guys at home. And then, and then when I’m ready, then I’ll, uh, then I’ll quit. So yeah, I ran the [00:06:00] business, um, ran another business and, uh, and then, um, eventually was able to come home too.

So. Love it,

Tim Melanson: man. Love it, man. We have a very similar path. I did all those same things. Yeah. I didn’t do a, I didn’t do a tire shop. I, I did. Repair instead, but, um, but wow, like, awesome, awesome stuff. Now I, I’d love to hear the next part of this because with the good note comes some bad notes. So I’d love to hear about some of the things that didn’t go as planned as you were going through all these, uh, things.

I’m sure you got a few to talk about, but can you pick one that we can learn from?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: I would say, I would say the biggest, biggest lesson I’ve learned over the last seven years is, um, I think money. And it’s nice to earn it. But it’s also a lot nicer to to, to manage it properly. And the problem that I was never taught, and I think entrepreneurs never get taught, and you have all these gurus out here with all these myriad of courses and all this kind of stuff, they never really teach you about tax [00:07:00] prep.

They never teach you about formation of businesses. They never teach you about saving. They never teach you about like profit first or, you know, creating multiple accounts and organizing your, your bank accounts so that you actually have, you know, proper structure. How to interview and hire an actual accountant.

And so I think my biggest problem was with money is that, yeah, I was earning it and I’ve had months where I’ve made 120 grand. You know what I mean? It’s amazing. But you know, I, I eventually had nothing, you know, and it’s like, well, where did it go and what did I do with it? And Oh my gosh. And, and it took me a long time.

And I think my, one of my biggest rock bottom problems was actually just recently, a couple years ago when the stock market took a dive with Covid and all that kinda stuff. And a lot of my clients were in the financial. Niche. And so I didn’t properly prepare and so I was making all this money, doing what I was doing, not putting anything away.

And then tax time came and you go from making 190,000 a year take home, you know, for your family to making 90 and then you’re paying taxes that you didn’t prepare for that, you [00:08:00] know, maybe you lost in crypto or whatever it was. So, long story short, I think money management and learning and, and hiring and interviewing and, and all this kinda stuff and taking proper advice from people that actually know what they’re talking about, not just.

Gurus who think they know what they’re talking about, I think is, is the best. I, hiring an accountant and spending the $60 an hour to jump on a call with him for two or three hours are probably the best money I’ve ever spent. So I’m, I’m resisting

Tim Melanson: the urge to say Me too again.

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, uh, I, I think it’s, it’s, it’s, uh, It’s like an epidemic or a, it’s an, it’s one form of a pandemic.

It kills a lot of businesses. It’s just not right. It really needs to be taught more and it needs to be more apparent. The government’s not gonna teach you. The government wants their interest, they want their, they want their penalties, they want all this kind of stuff, especially the Canadian, you know, them like the Oh yeah.

They, I be confused. Worse, but Yeah. Yeah,

Tim Melanson: yeah.

Michael Dallas-Petersen: So I think, no, I, I agree. I think that would be probably one of the biggest lessons. Um, or one of the, the biggest rock, rock bottom. And I think the, the, the [00:09:00] next one is just not taking care of yourself is like working and grinding and not eating properly and eating processed foods and, and just like the quick stuff and, and not exercising and just s sitting at a desk all day and it’s just like you go from like doing tires and all this kind of stuff to.

Now sitting at a desk all the time, and then you’re like, oh, I’m gonna have a quick this, I’m gonna have a quick that I’m, I’m making money, I’m successful, da, da da, da, da. And then all of a sudden, you know, you go to the doctor and they’re like, well, you got high cholesterol and triglycerides, like, you, you need to walk, homie.

Get off your ass. And I’m like, shit. Um, you know, so I, I think that also with the money thing feeds into this massive mindset problem that I had. Depression, anxiety, all this kind of stuff that, you know, I’ve now. I’m on top of and it’s, it’s a lot better. But you know, it’s, um, yeah, you just gotta be extremely proactive in, in that regard.

Everyone who wants to hide away from it, but you gotta gotta just jump ahead of it,

Tim Melanson: so, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And as you get older, it just gets worse and worse, right? I mean, [00:10:00] you Yeah. You know, when you’re, when you’re young, I mean, geez, you can eat whatever you want and everything seems to be fine, but as you get older, it, it starts to get even worse.

And like, uh, especially when you’re eating poorly, like I find that. Like now, I, I, I just turned 46 a couple days ago, and, uh, I find that now I eat a fast food meal and I feel terrible. Like, yeah. Almost immediately. Yeah. Like it’s, and

Michael Dallas-Petersen: especially, especially if you’ve been, if you’ve been being healthy for a while.

Yeah. There’s a stat I read and there’s a podcast that I actually listened to the other day and it’s like, uh, eating ourselves to death. Um, and I forget, it’s by, um, I can, I can, I can show you it afterwards, but basically inside of there, they said, um, You know, 75% of America is obese and 95% of America has a, a metabolism, illness or problem.

And, um, and uh, it, it’s, it’s basically like, you know, it’s, you can live with pre-diabetes for up to 10 years. Your body can manage itself for up to 10 years before it shows up properly. You know what I mean? And so that [00:11:00] was so scary to me cuz I’m, you know, I’m a little bit, I’m only 33, but I’m like, man, like.

When, when’s that 10 year mark? You know what I mean? Yeah. My goodness. Why I should get ahead of this And I, you know, so that’s the next thing. So, you know, I hike every day. We try to eat like whole foods and, you know, no sugar, no processed oils and all that kinda stuff, and just do our best. I mean, it’s never 100% and never, never can be.

Right. Like this weekend I had just, You know, a shitty burger and some fries and, you know what I mean? And then the boys and I had shared some candy. You know what I mean? Like it is, it is what it is. But for the most part, the majority of my week is, is, is, is, is, is good. Right. So,

Tim Melanson: And that’s, that’s funny about it, is that the better you eat, like you say, the more you notice how badly you feel after you eat something bad like that.

Uh, but on the other hand, it tastes great and it’s a good experience, so why not, you know, reward yourself for the soul sometimes, right?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Yeah. Reward yourself a little bit. Like, the thing is, is like, you know, you go back 200 years ago and there was, you know, the average person was eating six pound of [00:12:00] six pounds of sugar a year, and then now, You know, you’ve got over 120 pounds of sugar a year per person.

You know, it’s like, this is, this is not sustainable. Something’s gotta change. And, and so yeah. Anyways, it’s a great, it’s a great podcast, uh, not to pitch a podcast on a podcast. Um, yeah, it’s definitely something that, that, you know, you might want to, um, to, to listen to. It’s, it’s eye opening for sure. Yep.

And

Tim Melanson: I, and I think it’s a really important point that, uh, we need to make really, as entrepreneurs, because we are responsible for everything, we’re responsible for the mindset, for the, the energy going into the business, right? I mean, If you don’t feel right, then how can you show up in your business? A hundred percent

Michael Dallas-Petersen: right?

Yeah. Yeah. It’s just if you, if you’re not happy, then neither will your clients. And so yeah. You, yeah. Take care of you first and foremost, I think is probably the number one thing in a business is take care of you first and foremost. You know, move your body every day. Right? Eat at least, you know, well for six days outta the week if you can.

And, uh, you know, get some proper sleep and, yeah. [00:13:00] Yeah,

Tim Melanson: absolutely. Great advice. So now what about the band? So let’s talk about the people that you have around you. Like what, how do you go about, you know, finding, you know, subcontracting, all that kind of stuff. Do, do you do any of that stuff?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Yeah, so that’s what, like, that’s like one of the, the biggest, I guess, you know, we call them failures and I, I just, you know, it was just one of the speed bumps that, you know, you fail your way, uh, to success.

So, um, I, I started off with like a lot of, like, the integrating was like, you know, um, delegating and, and, uh, automating and, and eliminating things that weren’t necessary. And I, uh, I was, I was fortunate at a, uh, early in my, you know, entrepreneurial career to find a, a girl. I. In the Philippines who was just, uh, you know, a die hard, amazing, crazy work ethic.

And of course she knew a lot of people. And so we went around just training a lot of like, virtual assistants in the Philippines to be, um, you know, those, those, uh, Remedial task Masters I call them, is where they’re, they’re doing all the [00:14:00] stuff that you shouldn’t be doing. All the shit tasks that are, you know, pretty, pretty, um, monotonous and, and the things that, you know, all business owners tend to just neglect and not do.

Right. And so we, uh, right from the beginning we’re, we’re working with. Um, you know, uh, virtual assistants from the Philippines. I’ve gone to Columbia, I’ve done a Pakistan, I’ve done India. Uh, I keep on going back to the Philippines. And, uh, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had offers that I’ve been on and, you know, clients that we’ve, we’ve placed a hundred vir virtual assistants in one offer before, and that was, you know, that was absolutely probably one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever done.

Um, but it was, it was, it was very rewarding because we grew that, we grew that company to a million dollars a month. Um, pre, pre, pre, um, a financial collapse there. Um, but yeah, it was, it was crazy. It was, it was amazing. So

Tim Melanson: amazing. Yeah. And, and that’s the thing is that in, uh, in the Philippines, as I understand it, the, the financial system is very different there.

So you can pay a fair bit less and that’s actually very good for them. Right. Is that how it works?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Yeah, so it [00:15:00] depends, like there, there are still the people from America and Canada that are pay paying people about two to three bucks an hour, three 50 an hour. And I, I still don’t think that that is like, um, a livable wage even though they can get by and they can, you know, it’s, it’s just, it’s, it’s uh, it’s still like lower class, uh, pay, pay structure.

So. I pay my virtual assistants a minimum of five bucks an hour now, um, which is still pretty, pretty good. And some of my virtual assistants are up at eight, about eight 50 an hour. And, um, I’ve actually had one virtual assistant who no longer works with me. I ended up having, uh, putting her full time on a different offer, but she, she makes 10 bucks an hour.

Right. And so, you know, that’s substantial. A lot of, like, uh, my virtual assistants have worked with me since 2018. They’ve been full-time employees. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve, uh, kept them employed since then. They’ve built houses for their parents. They’ve, uh, they’ve put their, you know, siblings through schools.

They’ve, um, you know, helped, uh, family members start businesses. Um, all, most of all, actually I would say every single one of my virtual assistants right now all have side businesses and side hustles that they do after they work for me. And so, um, [00:16:00] you know, it’s just, it’s inspiring. It’s, it’s pretty cool.

Tim Melanson: Love it. I love to hear all that stuff.

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Hi, it’s Mark Ney from Natural Born Coaches, and I want to give two very big thumbs up to Tim Milson and his Creative Crew agency. I have been using them for a long time and I am 100% happy. They get the job done right? They’re fast and they let me focus on my business.

I don’t have to worry about anything. So again, I want to give them two very big thumbs up. I have no problem recommending them. I don’t give testimonials for everyone because my name is attached to it, but I gladly do so for Tim and the Creative Crew Agency. So use them. You won’t regret it and good luck.

Tim Melanson: So now what about, uh, what about the marketing side of it? So how do you generate fans in your business?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: Yeah, so gen, how do I generate fans? So like a lot of, I would, I arguably, and, and, and I’ve, I’ve gotten into many arguments that arguably word of [00:17:00] mouth is always the best form of marketing in my opinion.

And so I, I’ve always been like the, you know, just over deliver and just have tremendous cus customer success regardless of who this person is. Because the one thing that even a bad customer is gonna do is refer you to a good client. And so I’ve always, I’ve always just been, you know, I, I, I, I’m not scared to ask.

And so I think that’s one of the biggest problems a lot of business owners have right now is they, they don’t wanna ask for the five star review. They don’t wanna ask for the referral. They don’t want to ask for anything above and beyond what they’ve already, you know, sold to the client. Um, or, or performed a service or whatever product, whatever it might be, right?

And so, I think that my, the, the best form of marketing right now is the fact that I get on calls, I jump on, uh, with my clients after the fact. I ask them, Hey, do you have any people that are going through the similar problems right now that we can jump on a call with right now? So my best form of marketing, in my opinion is mine.

Extremely proactive in the fact that I’m asking my current clients and even my past clients, how their friends and family are doing. And I’m jumping on calls and I’m jumping on tutorials, and I’m jumping on people’s. [00:18:00] Know, you know, uh, I would say coaching lessons and, and doing, you know, just like, Hey, how to build a CRM or how to build a, build a funnel in under an hour and how to do this.

And, and I’m just like putting myself out there. And so I think the best form of marketing is like in yourself, like getting yourself out there as much as you can. And, um, in terms of, in terms of, um, Clients and, and what I do for marketing for them is I teach the same thing, right? Like, always ask the question, right?

Because no one ever likes to, everyone’s scared of a no. Um, but I, I think that’s just a, it’s a formula, right? You get 10 nos, you get a yes. So just count the nos and then you get a yes, right? Like, I just, like, I’m pretty analytical that way. So, but, um, my biggest, my biggest form of marketing that I do for clients right now is email.

Email and s m s and I set up massive, massive three lane marketing. Um, systems, um, and it’s, it’s called like the sidewalk, slow lane, fast lane. So most, most marketers and most business owners have a, a one lane, a single lane of like, where they dump all their clients into a nurture sequence or dump all their clients into one thing, [00:19:00] and it just, all these emails go to them, and maybe it’s good fit, maybe it’s not a good fit, but that’s it.

So I like to think of like, My marketing systems and the way that I do things is three, three different lanes. People are on the sidewalk. They’re not really sure about their problem. They’re not really sure about you, but you know, we’re kind of interested. And then they have a different metrics in that lane, right?

And we have the slow lane where, you know, they know they have a problem. They know about your solution, they’re not yet convinced. And then we have the fast lane, which is like, they know about you. They know about your, uh, they know they have their, they know exactly what their problem is, and they know exactly what your solution is.

They’re just waiting for you to, you pitch ’em, right? And so I have these three lane that I build for a lot of my clients, and we go with this, um, methodology, if that makes sense. And that way we’re building assets for each lane and when we’re nurturing them. Have you ever heard of lead scoring? Yes. So we lead score from one lane to the next.

And so what happens is every time someone opens, clicks and, um, replies, we give them points. And so as they hit different points, levels, say 20 [00:20:00] points, they move over to the next lane, and the next lane’s gonna do different things. Like, it’s gonna give them testimonials, it’s gonna give them longer content.

It’s gonna maybe also have retargeting campaigns that start on TikTok or Facebook or whatever it might be, depending on how elaborate you want to get, right. And then as they engage more, they get up into the fast lane, fast lane’s, like extremely, like 90 minute webinars. You know, they’re, they’re totally engaged.

It’s very casual. Buddy, buddy. You know what I mean? Whereas the sidewalk is very structured and corporate and branded and logos and things like that. Right. And it’s like maybe three to five minutes worth of attention span. Right. So that’s, that’s where I build a lot of the marketing system. So I have, um, I’m not, I wouldn’t say I’m like, um, a hypocrite.

I have those systems for myself, but I truly believe that the best form of marketing for myself, because I have the luxury of being able to choose, pick and choose my clients now cuz I have. Too many. Um, and that’s why I built the academy. But, um, I have the luxury of being able to do that now. Whereas, you know, some people don’t, right.

They have to have those systems and elaborate, um, um, you [00:21:00] know, um, I would say methodology in place. Right. Right

Tim Melanson: on. That’s cool. I’ve never heard that strategy before. That’s a good one. Um, now are you using a specific set of software for that, or like, is this like HubSpot? Like, like what are you using for this?

Is this something that you created?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: No, no, don’t. So, um, you can use almost anything. Uh, and I, that’s, that’s the one thing that I really like about my position is I, I love software and like, that’s, that’s what I do, is I connect, I glue things together, right? And so that’s what I teach too. The main softwares that I use are like active campaign.

If, if clients already have elaborate CRMs and systems built already, I’m not gonna like move people over to an entirely new system, right? If people don’t have elaborate systems, and it’s gonna be a quick move. I use go high level. Um, it’s a, it’s a fairly new, um, product. It just came out about 20 18, 20 17 ish.

Yeah. Um, it’s, uh, it is got its bugs, it’s got its hate. A lot of people don’t like it because it’s more, it is very affiliate driven. Yeah. Um, but if you can separate your, separate your side from the BS of that [00:22:00] or whatever, it’s a great product. And, uh, I find that. It has everything inside of it. It’s got the attribution, it’s got the tracking, it’s got the funnels, it’s got the website, it’s got the emailing and text messages, and voicemail drops, forms, surveys, website, chat, widgets, you know, you name it, it’s got it.

Um, and so why I like it is because it’s very, In internally, automation based, trigger based. So you can have in intern inside of it, you don’t have to go to like Zapier or Pavley or um, make and Integra Mat and all these kind of gluing softwares like connecting A to Z or something like that, right? You can actually just do it internally without having to go outside.

Um, so you don’t need multiple softwares. Like for $97 a month, you have 2025 features, whereas if you were to go to like Calendly and, and Pipedrive and Active Campaign and Sly broadcast and. Twilio, and you know what I mean? Like you start adding this up. I mean, you’re at a thousand bucks a month, you know what I mean?

And it’s just, it’s just, it’s outrageous. So I, I, I default to go level only because of its price, in fact that it’s easy to learn after you get the hang of it. And because it does so much. [00:23:00] And so I, I build my own systems in there. I don’t go outside of it. I build everything inside of go high level for myself too.

And, um, it’s got the, you know, the lead scoring, it’s got the, you know, the ability to do math and all that kinda stuff and custom fields and, yeah. I’ll have to give

Tim Melanson: them another chance cuz uh, I did have issues with, uh, with go high level. I found it buggy as you say too. Yeah. Uh, but you know, it’s probably improving over time.

Right.

Michael Dallas-Petersen: And and I would say too is like if you’re not an agency owner, if you’re not gonna have multiple accounts, find someone like myself. And just buy an account from them. Why? Because we have the training, we have the coaching. Yeah, we have the support, we have all of that stuff. Whereas if you go directly to go high level, then you go and ask a question in the community or something like that.

That’s where that’s stands. It’s like the old ClickFunnels, remember the old ClickFunnels community getting the ClickFunnels and it was just toxic? And what do you mean you don’t know how to fucking do this? Nah, nah, nah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Aiding you and all this kind of stuff. And so I would say that if you’re gonna get into high level, right?

You could go get your own agency account and you’re gonna have all that, whatever. Cool. Or you just make a deal with someone like [00:24:00] myself. My crm, I call it nurture to profit, right? Nurture to profit. And, um, I’ll make deals like people, if people want to have and sell it to their clients or whatever. I will, I’ll handle the support and I’ll, I’ll, I’ll go 50 50 with you.

You have clients that come in, I’ll, I’ll spend it down Now. I don’t, I don’t care. Like it’s not about profit, it’s about providing an, an extremely good service and having the systems and stuff and, and being able to integrate. Their, their, their, their life. You know, eliminate, automate, delegate, right? And, and, and, and, and just really just make a difference, right?

In, in that regard. It’s not totally about the money. It’s, it’s nice to have the recurring coming in. Don’t get me wrong. Um, but yeah, if I were you, I’d give ’em another chance. And if you want just, and, and this isn’t a pitch, like you could, you could see what we’ve got in place or whatever, but at least you have, you know, we have weekly coaching you can jump on and be like, Hey, I’m, I’m stuck here.

Hey, I’m stuck here. And you’re getting honest to God feedback from people that are actually doing it, not, you know, People that just wanna sell you an arm and a leg, you know what I mean? Yeah. Every, you know, they’re not, they’re gonna give you half truths or half this or you know, or they’re gonna berate you or, you know what I mean?

Or you’re gonna get on 13 calls just to figure out [00:25:00] how to do X and it’s like, that’s just a waste of time. So.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, I think you and I agree on tools as being awesome and, uh, use a lot of different tools. So is there any other like, cool tools that you would recommend to any entrepreneur?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: So if you’re, if you’re just starting off and, and you really want to get into like the mindset, the, the solution oriented mindset, and you wanna really just like kind of hone in and, and, and learn something that is like you can use for a lifetime, right? You can make a career out of it. I would say, um, go high level.

HubSpot, Zapier, uh, Integra mat, um, active campaign, softwares like that are something that people should really learn. And in my opinion, those are, those are kind of, those are softwares that will keep you employed forever if you can master them. Integral

Tim Melanson: map. That’s the only one I haven’t heard of before.

I’m

Michael Dallas-Petersen: gonna have to check that out then. Oh, it’s, it’s called Make, it’s kind of, it’s very similar to Zapier, uh, or Zapier, whatever. One. I, I, I always get argue. Uh, it’s Zap Zapier. I think it’s Zapier. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, some people are like, it sounds better when you say Zapier. I’m like, eh. [00:26:00] Okay. Um. But, um, Integra man is very similar, but it’s, it’s got a little bit more techie ability to it, if that makes sense.

Right. Okay. And so what I really like is it’s got a very, you know, zapper just came out with, like, looping. Have you ever heard of looping? Very, it’s, it’s kind, it’s very techy. So a lot of people don’t know what it is, but it’s the ability to just like loop through multiple variations, um, of, of, of, of, you know, custom fields or whatever you’re, you’re, you’re putting into it, right?

And so Integr does that very naturally already. And so, That’s what I really, I like. If I’m, if I’m building something extremely robust and it needs to be very accurate, it needs to be very, um, quick and efficient and all this kind of stuff, I will just default to make just because, um, it’s, yes, it’s harder to set up and yes, it, it, it seems a little bit more complicated, but I find that it’s just more far more accurate.

Um, but if you’re just like connecting A to Z and you’re just doing like, you know, a couple, you know, maybe a 10 step Zap or something, or a five Step Zap or something like that. Then I would just, I would just go to them and, and just learn that I would start with Zapier. If you’re gonna try [00:27:00] anything, start with Zapier so you get an idea as to how it works.

Right. Um, and to be honest with you, my aha moment, my line in the sand moment, my, I’m gonna be an integrator moment came when I saw someone building a 16 step 16 or 17 step zap one time, and I was like, Wow, this is, this is crazy. Like, I could do, this is so easy. I could do this for a living. And then now I do, you know, it was like, it was so cool.

It just like inspired the crap out of me because it, you know, to some people it might be extremely boring. I don’t wanna touch that. I just wanna sell, I just wanna do my, you know, whatever it is. But that was just like, blew my mind. I was like, I wanna do that for a living. And like, um, I built some crazy, I’ve had, I’ve had over 70 step zaps before.

Not that you would ever wanna try doing that, but yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Okay. Yeah, I, I don’t even think I’ve gotten past the three steps app. Never needed to yet. But, uh, but that’s, that’s really cool. And, uh, I think you’re right about, uh, you know, the go high level, the, the, uh, HubSpot, you know, any type of CRM is, uh, And it took [00:28:00] me so long.

I used spreadsheets for a good 10 years, I’m sure of it more than that before I started moving into the CRMs. But there’s so much you can do with it. Like, actually, can you, can you share with me what would be the, the, the big advantage of using a CM rather than, you know, tracking it on paper or, or in calendar or something?

Michael Dallas-Petersen: The accountability. Um, and most people, most people lack it. And so, uh, one thing I really like about a CRM is, is the accountability. It ads, right? You can, you can go ahead and. In a lead to your Google Sheets or something like that, right? You can do it very easily. You can. You can have a virtual assistant put them in there for you, but the only thing that Google Sheet’s not gonna do is gonna go, you know, Hey Tim, follow up with that lead.

It’s been two days. What are you doing? You know what I mean? Like no Google sheet on the planet’s gonna do that for you. Right? And so when I build CRMs for people and when I’m like really structuring them and, and making them, you know, you know, we want it to be as, as successful as possible for the client, right?

We add in those accountability systems and I find that a CM is probably, especially go high [00:29:00] level as internal and external notifications. It can be like, you know, Hey Tim, you just got a new lead. Press, press one to connect right now, and it’ll actually phone you and you have to press a number in order to connect and you’ll, you’ll, it’ll, it’ll make you dial that phone number right then and there.

Right? And so, wow. Um, there’s little tiny things like that. You can send you a text message, we can send it straight into a Slack channel, right? So you have to mark them off that you’ve actually followed up with them with direct links that take you to the CRM and stuff like that. And so it’ll, it’ll, it’ll pin you push notifications, it’ll do all of that.

And so the, the big, one of the biggest stats I read a long time ago was like, In the real estate niche, it was like, it was like something like six or seven or $8 billion a year is spent on real estate marketing and only, um, 65% of the leads generated with that money never receive a first response. And I was like, oh my God.

You know what I mean? Like that just blew my mind. And so I’m like, okay, so you could have the best CRM on the planet. But if it doesn’t hold you accountable, it’s useless. Right. And just like a Google sheet, right. And I can build an accountability system into a Google sheet if you really want me to. I could, I could do it with Azure.

I could, I could definitely do it. But, um, [00:30:00] it’s just not, uh, that’s, I would say accountability is probably one of the biggest things. Yeah. And then, um, and then organization, right? Just being, being able to organize. Most, most entrepreneurs and most business owners don’t even understand their sales process from left to right.

Right. If you’re gonna take one person and move them into your pipeline stages from left to right, what is your, what is, what is, what is your sales process? Or what is the marketing process before even you, you, you’re getting into the sales process, right? Like people don’t even understand it. So it’s like really understanding that.

And so I could go on and on forever on this, to be honest with you.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I’m, I’m, I’m with you. Like having spent some time in network marketing as you did, you, you learn that this is not normal. Like people do not like sales. They just don’t do it. And yeah, I mean, you, like you said, you, you, you get, when we people onboarded into network marketing, we get them to write a list of the people that they’re gonna call and they’re super excited to call them and they don’t, and it’s just, it, it just is natural.

I mean, we just, we, we had this, you know, inherent fear of the no, right. [00:31:00] And so when you have that system in place where it just prompts you to, to call or, you know, some of ’em are super automated, where actually even send the email automatically, right? Or send a, a text automatically. Of course, picking up the phone is always better, but, uh, but anything to keep you accountable and actually you have to now click, no, I’m not gonna call that person.

Or you have to put it off yourself. It, it’s, it’s a mindset

Michael Dallas-Petersen: game, right? It’s, it’s just like at the end of the day, like what the, I think people struggle with like knowing what to do at the time. And so everything else becomes more important. And so the way that I like to structure, like say Slack channels for example, and like Slack.

Slack is probably the one of the best things I’ve ever, that’s ever come out in terms of accountability and stuff like that. In my opinion, communication is because like when a lead comes in, I always put into a Slack channel and I always have a process in there. It’s like, mark this with a check mark when you’ve followed up.

And so when you go into a Slack channel at the end of the day, and I’ll do this to my clients, I don’t, I, I, I have zero Fs to give when I like, [00:32:00] I’ve just, it doesn’t matter. You hired me, you don’t want me around, I’ll leave, but I’m gonna be this guy for you. And I’ll go into Slack channels and I’ll see 13 or 14 leads that don’t have a check mark on it.

I’ll screenshot it, I’ll DM them, and I’ll also go in that channel and go at owner name. Why, why, why is there 13, um, uh, tasks still yet to be done? And then that doesn’t, that angers and pisses people off so much that, you know what they do? They go and get it done. Yeah. And then after that they, they, they, they go, Hey, you know, next time you could be a little bit lighter.

No, but thank you. You know what I mean? And it’s just like, cuz sometimes ego is hard for people to be let go of, but um, yeah, I’ll do that. I, I, I do that. And so I like it because even for the virtual assistants, right, like a lot of times I’ll have the virtual assistants do like a, a pre-call, right? Instead of jumping on with someone that’s just gonna waste your time, I’ll hire a voice ba that’ll come out and they’ll actually, you know, do pre-call, right?

And so, you know, same, same sort of scenario, it’ll be like, Hey, these people need a pre-call. And at the end of the day, you know, [00:33:00] the funny thing is, is a virtual assistant has check marks all the way down. All, all the time. All every time.

Tim Melanson: Every time. Yeah. Every time. They have no connection to it. Right?

There’s no psychological connection. It’s, it’s the same as hiring a, uh, you know, the, the secretary in your office? They, they, they, they don’t own em the business. They’re just pick up a phone

Michael Dallas-Petersen: calling. Right. The other, the other really cool thing, and I, I know we’re probably crunching time here, but, um, the other really cool thing that I’ve done too is I’ve, I’ve, I’ve, when a lead comes in, generally you’re grabbing information, you’re grabbing like a form, uh, like, you know, questions and stuff like that.

And so what I’ll do sometimes is I’ll actually formulate the questions inside of their form in strategically to be like, Hey, um, owner name. Tim has reached out over Facebook or custom field, um, and it looks like they wanna make $15,000 a month. Um, but they’re unmotivated and don’t know what to do. And you know what I’m, I’m grabbing their answers from the format.

I’m making it into a story for them. So they read it right, and they know exactly. And then now they’re like, oh. [00:34:00] Then they feel the pain and then they’re more motivated to call. And so like, I’ll use different strategies like that to actually motivate the clients if I have to. Right. And it’s just, I find sometimes that’s way more successful than just putting new lead, Tim, email, phone, you know what I mean?

Whatever it might be, kind of thing. Like, it’s like that’s boring sometimes. Right? But like, if you build a bit of a story, it’s like, wow. Like wow, that’s a great

Tim Melanson: idea. You’re right. We are running out of time and we should have a follow up. But before we do that, what’s your, what’s going on? What’s, what’s exciting in your business right now?

It’s time for your guest

Michael Dallas-Petersen: solo. Yeah, so like the, the Integrator Academy is, um, very new. Uh, and I, I don’t like to, I don’t like to to lie or stress the truth or anything like that, but the, the need for the Integrator Academy came from me just having far too many clients that need more work for me and I just don’t have enough, um, time.

And so, um, one of my clients was like, well, why don’t you teach other people to do what you do? And I was like, well, that’s a really good idea. Maybe I should do that. And so I built the Integrator Academy, which is. Starting people off at the very basics like CRM and Zaps and all this kinda stuff. Um, to try and, [00:35:00] and, and, and, and, and, and hopefully retire, you know, them from their corporate job or wherever they’re at.

Not immediately, not right now, but hopefully make a little bit more extra money. Like I have one guy, his named Sam, he’s out about 4,500 bucks a month recurring right now. And he just started about two and a half months ago. And there’s a massive need for this, you know. Um, For, for, for what we do. And there’s so many clients out there, thousands upon thousands that it, it is never, I don’t, I can’t imagine it’ll be ever, ever, ever be saturated.

And so, uh, the, the exciting thing is, is like we’ve got the integrator Academy up. It’s, it’s fairly new. We’ve got tremendous success already with a ton of people. Um, you know, men, women alike or whatever. And, uh, and so we’re just, we’re just. Trying to spread the word and trying to like go, Hey, it’s, it’s super possible you don’t have to go through all the failures I did.

You can skip it and you can, you know, learn a skill that is literally going to employ you for the rest of your life. A hundred percent. Wow. How do we find out more then? Well, the integrator academy.com or you can just, uh, you can just search up Michael Dallas Peterson on Facebook and friend me up or follow me.

And, um, there’s a [00:36:00] lot of lookalikes on me, so there’s a lot of people trying to be me on, on, on Facebook. So you’ll be able to find, it’ll, I’ll have like 15,000 followers or something on Facebook and you’ll, you’ll, you’ll see there’s a big difference between, you know, some of the profiles in mind. But, uh, yeah, be ca be careful if someone’s asking you for money in dm, I don’t do that.

So. Well, that’s what,

Tim Melanson: that’s what you get when you teach people to do what

Michael Dallas-Petersen: you do, right? Sometimes. Yeah, I’m good to, yeah, I mean, I mean, yeah, like, I think, I think it’s, um, it’s, it is humbling at the same time, right? It’s, it, it is definitely, it’s definitely good. Never thought I’d be here, but, uh, at the same time, here we are and yeah, we just need to, we need to get more people, we need, need to get more people and help more people and, uh, hopefully inspire more people and get them to, uh, you know, quit their jobs and do something they like from wherever they want.

So. Love

Tim Melanson: it. Which is now is the right time. Right? Um, oh yeah. I think this is the way of the future. So

Michael Dallas-Petersen: what was that website again? Uh, the integrator academy.com. The

integrator

Tim Melanson: academy.com. Awesome. Thank you so much, Michael, for rocking out with me today. This has been a good fun.

Michael Dallas-Petersen: [00:37:00] Yeah, I, I enjoyed it. Thank you so much.

Right on.

Tim Melanson: So the Rockstar is on the line here. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast. Thanks

Michael Dallas-Petersen: for listening To learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one, head on over to work@homerockstar.com today.