How Brian Lofrumento Leveraged His Love for Soccer into a Lucrative Business

[00:00:03] Hector: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the how to scale a business podcast. My name is Hector Santia Esteban, and I'm your host. Our special guest today is Mr. Brian Lofermento. It's interesting because right before we hit , the button, it's like a lot of times the experts and the digital marketers and the gurus, they come on here trying to sell courses, but he doesn't have any of that.

[00:00:20] Hector: But he has all of that knowledge and all of that expertise. So anyways, Brian, welcome to the show.

[00:00:25] Brian: Thanks so much, Hector. Yeah, it's so much fun. 16 years into my entrepreneurial journey, it's the hardest question in the world to answer is what the heck do you do? And so it's fun for me that I no longer have those courses, retreats, any of that stuff. So just excited to have a real conversation with you today.

[00:00:41] Hector: I was doing a little bit of research and you're 800 episodes into your show. And so that's its own kind of journey. But I think what's nice about the show is that it's all been either about your learnings, your musings , or, the experiences that you or your guests are going through along the way.

[00:00:55] Hector: So catch us up on your professional journey. What's that, what that's been like. And then we mentioned that you've. You've gone through some adjustments and changes. So let us in on a little bit about what you're doing or planning or up to now.

[00:01:07] Brian: Yeah, for sure. So for me, so I'm the son of an immigrant mom. So that is a core part of my DNA, which I think that understanding my family's journey to the United States, it was always really ingrained in my mind to be a little bit of a rebel. And so with that in mind, I think so many of us rebels turn out to be entrepreneurs.

[00:01:23] Brian: So soccer was a big part of my life all growing up and all through high school. And then when I got to college, all of a sudden I wasn't playing soccer anymore. And so I had all this free time. Academics always came easy to me. And so it was the summer after my freshman year of college that I took a look inside and I said, what do I want to do with all this time?

[00:01:39] Brian: What do I want to make of these four years that are very expensive for years? And I decided I love soccer. I love writing. I love the internet. So why not write about soccer on the internet? So when I was 19 years old, I started a soccer blog and at first it was just for fun, or so I thought it was going to be just for fun, but fast forward to junior year of college and I had 20 people working for me, I was hiring my college roommates.

[00:02:00] Brian: Which was such a cool experience. We had grown into one of the most red soccer websites in the world. Three and a half million visitors every single month coming to this American college kids soccer website. I was flying to England, interviewing Wayne Rooney, Jose Mourinho, like you name it in the world of soccer.

[00:02:14] Brian: And I was face to face with these guys, actually interviewing them in a good old American accent, which was a bit of a surprise at the time to so many of the faces in soccer. But that really turned into a real business, which is why I love your show, because I think that when we focus on growing.

[00:02:29] Brian: Business is something we don't talk about so much. We talk about all that watered down advice of follow your passion and all of that. And people could pick that out from my story. I followed my passion into soccer, but it wasn't until I viewed it as a business and I started having the mindset of a business owner that things took off.

[00:02:46] Brian: So from there did really well at the soccer blog, helped me pay for school, started a marketing agency to help other businesses with the digital marketing that I had learned. And then in 2013, 15 published my book, want your printer to entrepreneur because I knew a lot about marketing back then sold a bunch of copies.

[00:03:01] Brian: So I was waking up to emails from people all over the world saying, how do we get more? And I was like, more, it's a book. It ends. And so finally caved a year later in 2016 and started the want your printer to entrepreneur podcast, which, as you mentioned, we're 800 plus episodes in top 1. 5 percent show in the world listeners in 150 countries.

[00:03:20] Brian: Hector, it's been crazy and it's wild looking back at it all.

[00:03:23] Hector: Yeah, it's so cool. I, think I started, I found the whole media thing like in middle school. And that's where I, at least that was my first instance of it. It took a while for me to, like you said, treat it like a business. How far back though, you mentioned like the, was writing always. A tool or a habit that you had and you leaned on or where did that emerge from?

[00:03:44] Brian: Yeah, I think in childhood, we all have these influences where we look up to these people, whether it's a big sibling or an aunt, an uncle, a teacher, a coach, whoever it may be. And in my case, it was my uncle. So my uncle Fran was always the uncle that I've been the closest to, and he was a writer. I saw that he traveled the world.

[00:04:01] Brian: And. The best that my eight year old self could understand it. I was like, wait, he gets paid to write stories and talk to interesting people and turn it into written words. So I always wanted to be just like my uncle. So those projects that we had, gosh, I think back to second grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, all those projects where they were like, you have to write a book, Hector.

[00:04:19] Brian: I took those projects so seriously. Like I wanted to have the best books ever. So yeah, ever since I was a kid, just modeling after the lifestyle that I saw, my uncle got to live professionally. I didn't. Fully understand what he did, but just writing became such a passion of mine. Is that sort of expression?

[00:04:36] Hector: And then fast forward because running a business, it requires so many different hats. And that's one of the things that we talked about on the show is that you mentioned that switching that mindset from it being like a, a hobby or something that you're just doing on the side to actually treating like a business.

[00:04:50] Hector: What did that mean for you? What were you good at that you felt you'd lean on? And then were there any like oh, shit moments where you're like, I don't know how to do this. I need to hire somebody or I need to get good. What were some of the growing pains, if you will, that you experienced during , that transition process?

[00:05:05] Brian: Yeah, that's a really good question, Hector. And it's something that, when you start a business out of passion, like I just, I love soccer. I could talk about soccer all day long, seven days a week and literally never run out of ideas. So writing about soccer came so naturally to me, but what I realized was you can write about soccer until the cows come home.

[00:05:22] Brian: And if. Even if you're getting an audience, if you don't know how to sell advertising spots, if you don't understand monetization strategies and how to grow revenue, and then on that point, how to actually manage cashflow, these are some of the many different hats that you allude to that we all have to wear.

[00:05:37] Brian: And so I'll never forget really what pushed me into this not being an option anymore and being mandatory for me to confront was a company out in Seattle, Washington emailed me. This was probably like I don't know. Let's call it 18 months in to me starting my blog. So I had no money at that point. I was a broke college kid, just like so many other college kids.

[00:05:56] Brian: And this company emailed me and they said, and I probably had about 300 readers a day at the time. So nothing big, but this company emailed me and they said, Hey, we'd like to advertise on your website for a month. How much would a month long advertisement be? And that's when I was confronted with the fact that I don't know how to price things.

[00:06:14] Brian: I don't know how to quote deals. I don't even know what's his motivation. How can I tie that to some KPIs? What are my KPIs that I can monetize? What's the value add that I bring to the table? And so quite frankly, the way that I bailed myself out of that business problem was I made it up. And so I told this guy, I said, yeah, you can advertise for 200 a month.

[00:06:35] Brian: And so this dude paid us for a 200 a month advertising spot. And I will admit Hector, that that was the moment. It was the light bulb moment. People always ask me about the name of my podcast, want your printer to entrepreneur. And that was the moment I went from entrepreneur to entrepreneur because dollars were exchanged.

[00:06:51] Brian: It's just like when we talk about professional athletes, when do you become professional? When you get paid to do something. And so that forced me to look inside and be like, wow, if I'm actually going to grow and then that 200, this is an important disclaimer that 200 made me realize, wait, now my blog is self sufficient.

[00:07:10] Brian: I can invest that 200 in. Paying some additional writers to get more blog content, paying for different distribution channels or investing in tools. I was just so reliant on Google analytics at the time. I had no paid softwares that I was using. So it made me realize that one. Money is very important to focus on, and you need to know how to convey the value and understand the value that people are looking for from you.

[00:07:32] Brian: And then to the power of money. Money really is impact. It's influence. It's reach. It's scale. It enables all of those things. And I think that we as entrepreneurs, we focus on how much money do you. I want to make and we forget that money can make more money and money can expand your reach. So those were things that I was uncomfortable with Hector.

[00:07:52] Brian: Nobody teaches us those things. And I had to learn it the hard way, which at the end of the day, I think we all do. I think it's just like riding a bike where the only way to learn how to ride a bike is to put your, butt in the seat. You can't read about it. You can't watch YouTube videos about it.

[00:08:03] Brian: You can't listen to it on a podcast. You just have to do it. And that was the hardest thing for me to learn for sure.

[00:08:09] Hector: Yeah. One of my influential books, if you will, is the, and for a lot of people is the E myth by the great Michael Gerber. And I think a lot of people go through that transition where they can't be the technician anymore, right? And in your instance, you couldn't be the only one writing that there were, you had to go out and put food on the table.

[00:08:27] Hector: You had to go out and be the rainmaker if you will. So there's two things that kind of comes along with that. The first is that most founders end up being led into the sales position. So a lot of them have to learn sales. And then the second thing is that now they've got to work through other people.

[00:08:42] Hector: That they just can't, they can't go in and do it because there's no way that one person can do everything that needs to be done in a, high performing organization. Can you share with that? You know what, whether it was giving up the work or whether it was working with other writers, like when you started to have a little bit of a team, how did that evolution come about?

[00:09:01] Brian: Yeah, it's a really good observation from you because I don't think this is something that we talk about often enough within the world of entrepreneurship. It really is. Gosh, Hector, you've so succinctly summarized. It's those two paths. You have to, something's got to give on one of those sides. It's just like a seesaw.

[00:09:16] Brian: And for me, what I realized was, I was really well equipped to talk about the value that I could bring to the table. And it's something that I'm obsessed with. Actually, even when I first came across your show and the title of your show, I was like, what does it mean to scale or grow a business in any sense?

[00:09:32] Brian: Like at the end of the day, what does, Building a business as opposed to a hobby or a passion product project. What does it actually mean? And what I've become obsessed with is that conveying a value, figuring out, okay, if there's two people at the table, what do each of them want and where are those synergies and how can we message it and position it so that both parties see exactly how it's mutually beneficial.

[00:09:53] Brian: Because at the end of the day, that's good. Business is mutually beneficial. So I quickly realized that was something I enjoyed. It's a, if. It came down to either writing soccer articles or talking to potential partners, sponsors, advertisers. It was the latter that I really wanted to focus on. Also, I was a business student.

[00:10:08] Brian: I majored in economics and finance. So that side of the table really appealed to me. And so you're right. At that point, it became a question of not, am I running a soccer blog? What I quickly realized was, as you said, I'm no longer the practitioner. I'm the business owner. So I had to manage a team and I'd say the biggest lesson there, I'm pull on a tennis analogy.

[00:10:29] Brian: So when I moved to Los Angeles in my mid twenties, I picked up tennis for the first time. And I remember I didn't grow up playing tennis. So my tennis coach, when he was working on my serve, I would do the serve and Hector, I'll be the first to admit my serve is not the best. Okay. , I've never been taught how to.

[00:10:44] Brian: Properly

[00:10:44] Hector: judgment here.

[00:10:45] Brian: Yeah. And but , my tennis coach, he was a professional tennis player. He played in the Davis cup for Turkey. And so I felt that judgment because his serve looks so beautiful. And when I turned on the TV and Roger Federer play, everything looks beautiful. And my tennis coach quickly said to me, he goes, Brian, you have to understand the difference between the fundamentals versus the stylistic elements.

[00:11:07] Brian: And so when I first started managing other people, I always had to remind myself of that because I know the way that I reply to emails. I know the way that I write blog posts about soccer. I know the way that I do things. And at first, I was 20 years old, 21 years old. I thought everyone would do it the way that I wanted to do it and the way that I would do it.

[00:11:26] Brian: And I quickly realized, no, you have to understand the stylistic elements. No one will ever do it the way that you do it. So people, when they join my team, I've got. An amazing team all around the world who work for me and my different businesses. And they always say, Brian, are you happy with our work? Do you want to constructively criticize any of it?

[00:11:44] Brian: And I'm like, no, because you're doing it the way that you are doing it. If there are fundamental things that as a brand, as the way we want to show up in the world or just process wise or strategically, we want to show up differently, we stylistically, people will only ever. Be able to be themselves. And it's something that I know as a soccer player when I was growing up that when I was able to thrive in the way that I could, that got the best out of me.

[00:12:10] Brian: And so simultaneously, I had to learn all these lessons as a 20 something year old really early on. And I think that's such an important distinction. And Hector, I'd argue that's the number one reason why people delay or hesitate or even worse, never hire anyone and outsource that stuff, which is robbing themselves of opportunities to grow is because they don't understand that stylistically other people are going to do things differently from you.

[00:12:33] Brian: And it's not terrible and it's not scary. It's just different. And that's perfectly okay.

[00:12:38] Hector: When we get back from break, Brian, I want to ask you've talked to a lot of people, you've done a lot of episodes. are the fundamentals of this entrepreneurship? really the scaling part is just , the second phase, right?

[00:12:48] Hector: It's like you go entrepreneur to entrepreneur to actually you've got a business, right? Like they're, I think they're just a continuation of each other. And so when we get back from break,

[00:12:56] Hector: I'm curious your perspective on that.

[00:13:00] Hector: Hey y'all. Today's episode is brought to you by Amplify Media. And we are a content and podcast production company. We like to think of ourselves as platform builders because chances are, if you're listening to this, you probably have a product, a passion, mission, a message, someone like Brian.

[00:13:12] Hector: You may not have the time, the team, or the tech skills that Brian has to be able to do it. So if that's the case, go to amplify media. com. , that's a M P L a F Y media. com. You can also check the show notes for info. And with that, let's get back to the conversation with Brian.

[00:13:27] Hector: So Brian when you think about this transition process going from entrepreneur to entrepreneur, and then at a certain point, I think that process doesn't. Stop right. Because as a business, we're always creating new initiatives. We're always launching new products or new services.

[00:13:43] Hector: I was just telling you at the break, we're bringing on somebody new to the team.. have These things going on at kind of these fractal levels, if you will. So I think it's really relevant to anyone at any stage of their journey. But what are the things, what are , the fundamentals for you that you think are worth sharing for someone who's in that stage where they've started to figure it out on their own, but now , they want to turn it into something real or , They've gone zero to one.

[00:14:08] Hector: How do you go from one to whatever that next number?

[00:14:12] Brian: Yeah, I'll there's a million ways that we could answer this and there's entire master classes that other people put together about this with a lot of really good strategic content, but Hector on my show I think one of the big things is that we really like to simplify. I love that Albert Einstein quote I quote where he said, if you want to impress someone, make it complicated.

[00:14:28] Brian: If you want to help someone make it simple. And so I've had the great honor and I so cherish these opportunities. I'm so grateful. I've interviewed literally hundreds of amazing entrepreneurs at all different levels, people who have sold businesses for 500 million, people who are just running 10 K a month solopreneur businesses, which is a lifestyle dream for so many people, like that's such an amazing accomplishment, but three things really stand out in all of these conversations that I have with these entrepreneurs, as well as.

[00:14:53] Brian: In addition to my own entrepreneurial journey, the first one is for sure. Mindset. Gosh, business is not complicated. It is not rocket science. There's nothing inherently tricky about business. I remember when I first started my first business, I was convinced that there were some secrets out there that nobody had let me in on just yet.

[00:15:10] Brian: I was convinced that if I bought enough business books, listen to enough podcasts, watch enough YouTube videos, read entrepreneurial blogs at that time were really big. I was convinced that there was going to be some secret that I hadn't learned that was going to unlock the success for me. And what I really realized was it's just.

[00:15:25] Brian: Mental resilience. That's a necessary part of the equation to go along with some other things that we need. So that's the first thing I want to call out. The second thing is the least sexy thing to talk about because we'd rather focus on fancy social media graphics or increasing our social media engagement and followings.

[00:15:41] Brian: But what really matters is a repeatable sales. Knowing how and where your clients are going to come from is the most important thing to get right in your business, because if you figure that out, you can hire people, you can pay for tools, you can so adequately streamline all the other facets of your business.

[00:16:01] Brian: So I think that's so important. Again, though, not sexy. There's not many books about sales processes and lead generation and how to reliably get clients, but it's such an important thing. And then thirdly, and Hector, again, I guess I'm just like bringing the non sexy things to your audience today, but I think they're incredibly important because that third thing is all these amazingly successful entrepreneurs who I talk to when I ask them, cause my guests, I always keep in touch with them afterwards and I'll text them and I'll be like, Hey, what are you working on these days?

[00:16:27] Brian: And so many of them, they just constantly say, Same things I've been working on, just keeping that ball rolling and keeping that snowball effect going. And I think that's the biggest difference between newer entrepreneurs or those entrepreneurs out there and successful entrepreneurs is that the successful ones just do the same things over and over again.

[00:16:46] Brian: Whereas the newer ones, I'm guilty of this. I used to always have a whiteboard where I was drawing out very complex, fancy marketing funnels and lead generation funnels and email autoresponder sequences, but the successful entrepreneurs just. Find what works and they say, how can I do this as many times as possible over and over and over again, and they stick to it.

[00:17:06] Brian: So I think that those three things, if you just focus on those things for a year, you'll totally transform your life and your business.

[00:17:13] Hector: Yeah. It seems like the first stage, like the baseline is just building the habit both at an individual level. And then the next thing for, for a lot of our listeners is building that at an organizational level, which is, I don't want to say, more is trickier because that's not the right word.

[00:17:29] Hector: It's just and I don't even know if more companies, Complex is the right word. It's just different when you're working, but also the same thing in the same way, it's just it's taking the time to build in that habit and then you can start to get. As you said worry about the, the aesthetics or the style.

[00:17:45] Brian: Yeah, for sure. And it's funny, it was a Reddit post many years ago when super viral on Reddit, where this Reddit user talked about the concept of no zero days. And that's stuck with me forever. This is probably like close to 10 years ago that I originally saw this post. And in that. He very simply said, if you want to start working on anything, whether it's business, fitness, relationships, whatever it may be in your life, learning a new language, you name it.

[00:18:10] Brian: And he said, the real key Hector's your point is just first step, do something every day, no zero days. And so a lot of people in their business, it's just actually, I'm going to call out one of my closest friends in the world. He's one of my business partners in an online fitness company that I co own with him.

[00:18:24] Brian: He's a former pro soccer player. Mark Zimmerman is the only personal trainer I ever see that he straight up tells people if you're going to go to the gym for one week only. Save yourself the effort. Just don't bother because going to the gym for one week is going to do absolutely nothing for you.

[00:18:38] Brian: And so I think that so many things in life, you have to make that commitment to say, I'm going to do this regardless of results in outcomes. I'm just going to keep doing it. So that concept of no zero days says do not have a zero day. Even if that day you're exhausted from work, you've got kids that you've been running around after you have a lot going on in your life, send one email, just do one small thing that moves your business forward, even in the smallest possible way.

[00:19:06] Brian: And I think that if you start accruing so many non zero days, it just starts getting easier. And I think that you set yourself up for failure. If you say. I'm going to do this for six months and then assess if it's working. When I started my podcast, I decided I'm going to get to a hundred episodes, no matter what happens out of the gates.

[00:19:24] Brian: I don't care if I hit new and noteworthy. I don't care if I'm in the top charts, I'm going to do it for a hundred episodes. And did anything magical happen in the first 10 episodes? No. Did anything happen in the first 30, 50, 100? Maybe not, but the reality is 800 plus episodes in. You heard me humble brag at the top of this episode that these things compound.

[00:19:42] Brian: So yeah, it's your point about habits. I think it's so important. And again, not sexy, but this is the real stuff that we need to talk about.

[00:19:49] Hector: There is , the fundamentals. And then I always like to finish these episodes with what's next. And maybe this is the part where we talk about the style, right? Because at a certain point, maybe it does matter, or maybe that's where that, that can keep it fun or interesting. And so when it comes to.

[00:20:05] Hector: style. Like what are the, if somebody gets that and they've laid down the fundamentals and they're like, Brian, yeah, I've done the kick a thousand times. What's next? What's your like, what's next that you think is worth people paying attention to?

[00:20:19] Brian: Yeah, I'd say when I think about the stylistic stuff, I think about systems and tools because yeah. There's no wrong way to build a business. People always ask me like, Oh, can I build a business just on Facebook or, Oh, I hate TOK. Do I have to use social media? And the answer is you don't have to do anything when you grow a business is the real truth.

[00:20:37] Brian: You could grow a business. I know a guy, he's an older guy, but still he. Only deals with clients over facts, and that works for him, and he has a multiple seven figure business doing exactly that. So whatever it is that you commit to, it doesn't mean every client is going to work with you. The more restrictive that your style is, but it does mean that whatever style you choose, you can do it.

[00:20:57] Brian: So I always look at what are the tools? What are the marketing methods and channels that we can stylistically turn to and really crush and leverage? And . For me, obviously I love technology at the root of every podcast is so much tech that supports everything behind the scenes. And so AI is a wave that we can't ignore.

[00:21:15] Brian: It's a question that me and my team constantly ask ourselves is one constant question is, Hey, are you doing anything that sucks? And if you're doing something that sucks, we will tap into that and say, how can technology solve that problem for us as far as marketing channels go? Hector, I think more and more people are getting so jaded with all the cliche Facebook and Instagram ads that we see, which are, do you want to learn how to make 10, 000 in the next 30 days, I'm going to show you this proven webinar funnel and framework.

[00:21:44] Brian: I think people are getting over that. And I think what's really tapping into it is just more proactive. Outreach going after the people directly that you can serve. It's funny. I think we're coming full circle and it is going back to the more old school ways of growing a business. I think those are coming back, which I'm grateful for because it allows you, your brand, your personality to more be the differentiator in that stylistic manner that you're asking about, because now we get to choose the way that people engage with us.

[00:22:11] Brian: And I think that's really powerful. The people who have leaned into. Understanding themselves and leveraging themselves and building their brand around a unique personality. Those will be the people that stand out moving forward.

[00:22:23] Hector: Such great advice and insights here, Brian, if people want to get more connected with you, get deeper in your world, where's the best place to go?

[00:22:29] Brian: Yeah, for sure. So super easy. Nobody can spell my last name, even though it's exactly as it's written low fermento. So the easiest way to go deeper into my podcast, which is the entrepreneur to entrepreneur podcast is you can either search for my name or search for entrepreneur to entrepreneur on any podcasting platform, or very simply now that you've met me here on Hector's show, just go straight to I met Brian Dunn.

[00:22:51] Brian: easy for people to find me there and they'll find the link to my podcast on all the platforms five days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So there's no shortage of content that our team is pumping out, which I'm really excited about.

[00:23:04] Hector: Brian, appreciate you and all of the listeners that suck around today. We appreciate you being here and we'd be forever grateful for a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:23:11] Hector: And if you know someone who is in the midst of scaling their business and needs to hear this, hit that share button. And we'd love to grow the community together. Thanks for being a part of the tribe. Y'all we'll see on the next one.