EP.4 Nicholas Kusmich | MODERN ONTRAPRENEUR

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EPISODE 4
NICHOLAS KUSMICH: NICHOLASKUSMICH.COM

Nicholas Kusmich, founder of nicholaskusmich.com and creator of The Art Of Lead Generation, is best known for creating impressively high marketing ROIs — up to 973.32%! Nicholas specializes in using his proprietary Contextual Congruence methodology to create mass influence on social platforms. He provides strategic oversight and fully managed marketing campaigns to many well-known clients including industry thought leaders, New York Times bestselling authors and Fortune 500 companies.

IN THIS EPISODE

What if someone told you reading for business is overrated? An unpopular opinion, sure — but one that master Facebook ad strategist Nicholas Kusmich credits for the rapid growth of his business. The young funnel architect has been on an information fast for three years and counting — propagating that the fruits of innovation lie in immersion. But acquired knowledge alone isn’t enough to drive a business forward: It takes an authentic client relationship predicated on integrity. In Episode 4 of MODERN ONTRAPRENEUR, Nicholas Kusmich and Landon bonded over today’s hottest business commodity and how to stay on the cutting edge of technology without getting sucked into fleeting trends.

JUMP TO TOPIC

1:04 - Vigilance on the Cutting Edge
Kusmich talks about getting ahead by being leery of new trends until proven effective.

2:07 - Information Fasting
Nicholas’s business has grown leaps and bounds by generating learning organically.

3:39 - Be the Most Referable Person You Know
When doing business, don’t be just a vendor; be a strategic partner.

5:28 - Integrity and Accountability Are Everything
Poor results? Here’s how Nicholas redeems himself.

6:31 - Authenticity: Today’s Hot Commodity
The modern entrepreneur is doomed if driven only by metrics.

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

LR Welcome to MODERN ONTRAPRENEUR. I'm Landon and this is episode four. Today we have Nicholas Kusmich with us. He's the founder of nicholaskusmich.com. It's K-U-S-M-I-C-H. He's the creator of The Art Of Lead Generation. He's best known for creating impressively high marketing ROIs up to 973.32 percent. Nicholas specializes in using proprietary contextual congruence methodology to create mass influence on social platforms. He provides strategic oversight and fully managed marketing campaigns to many well known clients, including the industry thought leaders, New York Time's best selling authors, and Fortune 500 companies. Thanks for being here Nicholas.

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NICHOLAS KUSMICH

We've had many instances where we just couldn't get the results for the client. They still referred us out because of how we treated them or how we dealt with it. It wasn't a business transaction.

NK That's a mouthful.

LR It was a mouthful.

NK You were rambling there.

LR I actually know you as the Facebook guy.

NK Right.

LR That was the simple version.

NK That's the easier way.

LR The easier way. You said that you're still learning a ton every day. What are you looking forward to learning next?

NK I'm just excited to see where the world is going. For me personally, I think we do okay on the agency side. We also have a division of our business that's the consulting side, and now more often we're looking to pick up the speaking side. From a personal side, I would really like to see where the speaking thing can go.

But beyond that I think we're just living in such a fast-paced, technological world with AI coming and all this other stuff. I'm excited to see where that goes and what that means for us as consumers as well as entrepreneurs and how we can mesh it all together.

LR It's about staying on the cutting edge and seeing what's coming.

NK It's staying on the cutting edge and seeing what's coming without being this fanboy trend jumper. To be like, oh that looks cool. That must be where we're going.

LR It must be nice to hang out.

NK I feel like the world is moving so fast and if we can just consciously stay on top of it, there's a lot of beautiful things that might be able to come from it all.

LR What do you read? What publications do you read to stay on the edge?

NK You might not like this answer. Three years ago is when our business had the greatest development in growth we've ever had. That was the result of me going on a hundred percent information fast.

LR So you don't read?

NK Not anymore. We replaced consuming content ... now granted, if I'm working out I'm reading or listening to a podcast to some degree. I haven't blocked it out completely. Right now most of our learnings come from being in the field. In the trenches on our knees working the platforms, figuring stuff out, and through that we're generating or learning.

LR How do you stay on the edge? How do you see what's coming if you're fasting?

NK Great question. From the advertising world it's obviously playing with all the new features that Facebook releases every week on it. That's just learnings in and of itself.

Secondly, it's like coming to things like this. Interacting with people who are cutting edge in the various fields and having real conversations with them about what they're seeing and what's going on and then diving in if we can and getting full kind of exposure or immersion to the various technology and things that are happening.

LR Well great. As we get our businesses from a place where we're hand to mouth and trying to figure out if we can put it together up to the next level where we have a going concern. Our vision rises off of the immediate moment onto the horizon a little bit. I wonder what you think about when you think about what your legacy will be.

NK This is such a great question because the term legacy even scares me. Because it's this big idea, grandiose that's many years down the road. I just don't know, I can't grab it. Putting even just a slight a bit of thought to this like if ... I always try to set my intentions to be the most referable strategic partner for my clients. At the end of the day, I want to be the person that even if things don't work out with them that they're saying well you should consider working with Nick. I know that's just a small piece of legacy but rather than just talking numbers - and our business talks a lot of ROI numbers - we're in the advertising space and a lot of this and a lot of that and how many leaves did you get this month.

Beyond all that I want the people I work with not to see me as a vendor but a strategic partner. At the end of that, again, to be the mostreferable person that they know so that even if things don't work out. We've had many instances where we just couldn't get the results for the client. They still referred us out because of how we treated them or how we dealt with it. It wasn't a business transaction.

People always ask me, hey are B to B? Are you B to C? Do your strategies work? At the end of the day I'm like look, there's only way we do this and it's H to H. It's human to human and no matter who I'm on the other line with or who's across ... at the end of the day, that person, whether they represent a fortune 500 company or they're a small ma and pa shop, they're a human with needs. If I can show them that I'm here for their needs more than just the business, hopefully a little bit of that leads to legacy in some small way.

LR I think that that kind of perspective on the client relationship is again, really strategic and probably a function of your ability to say no to customers. Instead of walking into a relationship and promising the world, you're walking into a relationship saying we're going to work on this together and see what happens.

NK To that point, and this just happened so it's fresh in my mind. A week ago I thought we could take on a client. We've had our clients pretty well before so we can get some good results with them. So I vetted a client, we engaged with them, and the whole thing bombed. Just zero results. I was the first person to call them rather than them call me. I'm like, look things aren't working out. A: I'm going to give you all your money back for our fees.

Number two: we'll extend this for another month so we can continue to try and do something but if it doesn't work I just want you to know that you're not out a penny with me. That's a long game play. On the shortterm it's like, god that's vacation money or that's like ... I mean it's a good chunk of change. But long term, what could come of that is through the referrals and through the reputation we build that way. Hopefully, that continues to spread.

LR Of course the opposite is a disaster. You have one person running around saying this guy took my money. It's over.

NK Especially in today's social media world. The reputations really hard to get back.

LR Exactly. We've called this thing MODERN ONTRAPRENEUR. What do you think it means to be a modern entrepreneur?

NK I think the currency. This is me in the social media advertising world. I think the currency that we are all ... so we're fighting for attention and I think the thing that gets the attention today is authenticity. Not that it never was but for the longest time if you just had sneaky tactics or you said the right word at the right time or you put up the perfect sales page the right way with the right color, that would generate sales. I think there's some truth to that still, but I think people are so blinded by that now that they're just looking for someone to be real and to say this is who I am and this is really how it's going on. To me, the modern entrepreneur is someone who may not necessarily be fully driven by the metrics but driven by advancing humanity, by being the best authentic version of themselves.

LR Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. Can I get you to sign our wall?

NK Oh yeah. Absolutely.

LR Thank you so much.

NK For sure.

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