IAM366- Entrepreneur Helps Developers and Designers Build Recurring Revenue

Jason helps developers and designers discover their niche, plan out and market themselves to build recurring revenue. So that they can live the life that they want and ultimately reach the goals of why they started their own business in the first place.

He has run his own web development business since 2010 helping established online businesses, increase sales through optimization, conversion, and behavioral strategy. He does this through on-site personalization, email, and marketing campaigns to learn more about the potential and existing customers to decrease the time to first purchase and increase repeat purchases.

• CEO Hack: Sunday morning review
• CEO Nugget: i) Charge what you're worth (ii) Efforts matters more than anything else
• CEO Defined: Serving first

Website: https://rezzz.com/

https://rezzz.com/feast
https://rezzz.com/how-to-start-freelancing-successfully/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rezzz

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:30

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jason Resnick of rezzz.com. Jason, it is awesome to have you on the show.

Jason Resnick 0:39

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I want to do was just read a little bit more about Jason so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Jason helps developers and designers discover their niche, plan out, and market themselves to build recurring revenue. So that they can live the life that they want and ultimately reach the goals of why they started their own business in the first place. He has run his own web development business since 2010 helping established online businesses, increase sales through optimization, conversion, and behavioral strategy. He does this through on-site personalization, email, and marketing campaigns to learn more about potential and existing customers to decrease the time to first purchase and increase repeat purchases. Jason, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Jason Resnick 1:26

Absolutely. Let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 1:28

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Jason Resnick 1:35

Yeah, I mean, what started my business was just really the compass of the whole thing is so that I have time and freedom, I want to be able to build my business so that I could see my kid's first steps and hear their first words and be home and go to those sorts of school events, although my two sons are two and a half and two months old. So they're not in school just yet, but ahead of the game. So, for me, that's the compass of why I do what I do. And for me, it came really early on that I wanted to do, My parents weren't entrepreneurs. But, really, really young, I knew that I just wanted as an adult to be in control of my own time and not have to ask for permission because it was awesome weather outside on a Tuesday afternoon to go spend time outside, so, for me, that's, why I started the business that I have today.

And being a developer, I mean, that was the first step in creating the business, running my own development firm, even though I'm a solo business owner, but helping my clients and helping them grow their businesses. And then when my first son was born, that's when I realized I had a bigger purpose, if I wanted to help other developers and other designers reach that goal. Because immediately when he was born, my dreams were realized I had built that business, I had built the business around the life that I wanted to live.

And so at that point in time, I was like, Okay, how do I do this? How do I do this in a way where I can help other people realize their dreams we didn't start a business ultimately, to have more bosses or work more or anything of that nature. So that's what I've been doing for the past 12 to 18 months, really helping coaching, mentoring, selling digital products, running a community, to help other features, as I call them, we're living in the feast. And helping them in any way to essentially learn what I've learned and what I'm doing today.

Gresham Harkless 3:56

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that and appreciate it even more that, highlights the fact that, we as people a lot of times because of circumstances, whether it be having, a son or daughter or just something happens in life, it's sometimes our goals and our aspirations and what we're looking for changes. So I appreciate you for being able to do it for yourself, but he would appreciate you even more for like helping so many other people be able to tap into that and build their life around what their goals and aspirations are.

Jason Resnick 4:24

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. And for me, I tried to help in a way that I wish I had back in 2010. There was somebody there and so nowadays, there's so much going on, there's so much information out there that people can consume. There are so many other great people doing similar work that I am, but I'll ultimately who we attract is who resonates with us and our vibe I have a business coach Chris Ducker and he says Your vibe attracts your tribe and so, having that out there and me who I am, I have a podcast to podcasts, in fact, but those listeners often will convert into coaching clients or anything of that nature because they're attracted to hear me, right like yourself, I mean, we're talking to each other here.

But there's the listener also like the fly on the wall, and they hear how we talk and what we think about things and our perspectives and our stories, ultimately, and that's what's going to resonate with whoever it is that you can help. And so I always encourage everybody, whether you're an introvert like myself, which I say I have introverted tendencies, but just put yourself into whatever you're doing. And you'll find that it's going to reap the benefits, even more people are going to enjoy the people that you work with, and you're not going to feel like you're dreading the day, because you have to work on this. If you can inject that personality a little bit more into it, you'll find that you'll appreciate the work even more.

Gresham Harkless 6:07

Nice, yeah, definitely appreciate that perspective. And Your vibe attracts your tribe even more because a lot of times you don't know, whether you should be yourself or not. But I feel like the answer, just like you said, is always to be yourself and be as much of yourself as you can. Because the people who genuinely want to be around you and want to buy your services and products will be attracted to you just like bees and honey. So I wanted to hear a little bit more I know, you touched on a little bit but tell us what you're doing to support the clients how you're doing the coaching and consulting, and then what you feel is kind of like your secret sauce, and what makes you unique?

Jason Resnick 6:41

Yeah, that's a big question, and a lot of questions in that one. But yeah, made for me, as I said earlier, the development services side of my business is the big arm, right? And so, I've been doing that since 2010. I love my clients, they're recurring clients, for the most part, yes, I do one-off projects for folks. But the 85% of the revenue from the services comes from predictable and recurring income. And I will always do that. It's what I enjoy the most, I have some clients that have been with me for four or five years. And so I'm always going to be doing that stuff. Because the world in which we live changes so fast. So what worked for me last year is three years ago, definitely five years ago doesn't work in today's market. And so when I turn that back on to helping other developers and designers, they see that I'm walking the walk that doing what I'm saying I'm doing and I share with them the quote-unquote, failures are the learning experiences, I call them and I want to be able to share that with people like, hey, look, I tried this, it's a new spin on an old strategy, and here's the template, and this is what I use.

And here are the results, I'd love to share them with you. And that's the premise of really what my coaching and some of the community feast is all about. It's really just helping people figure it out. In a way that is a smoother road than where I had to do it. Right? And so that's for me has always, I don't know, I shouldn't say always, but that for me, fuels my fire more so than anything else at this point in time. What makes me stand out and unique is that I am walking the walk, like I would come out and say that I'm never going to not do the service work because I enjoy that side. Right? People always say like, that how you do both things is so different that the marketing of one is not the same as the marketing of the other. And so, and you're only one person, so how do you manage all of that? And so, you know, for me, it's a fine balance. It's a lot of time management and planning things out. And that's just me, like, I enjoy doing what I do. Yes, I have a podcast. Well, I don't like audio editing. So I outsource that, right?

And that's my only outsourcing thing. I do all the development for my clients. I do all the coaching one on one, I do all the marketing, and all the rest of it. But it's for me, I feel like if I'm not doing it, and yes, there's that mindset of scale and hiring and all the rest of it. But for me, that's not my mindset. And it's if I know what levers I'm pulling and working. That's ultimately going to get me to where I want to be because, as I said earlier, my compasses that time freedom and spending time with my family and things of that nature, and so I only need a handful of clients on the services side, right? And so I don't need 100 people coming in. I don't need that kind, I stopped marketing, and I don't need that constant paid, which I've never actually run a paid ad for my services ever. I don't need that stuff. So I'm just acutely aware of what I need and how I want it, and how I make my decisions to make sure that it aligns with my ultimate lie.

Gresham Harkless 10:21

Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. Because I think it's so noisy that you can end up like you kind of touched on chasing a rabbit that you didn't even want to chase. But being able to stay true to your watch ray trace, stay true to exactly what you want to do is definitely something that's huge. So I appreciate you for doing that. And then again helping people to be able to tap into that. And I think because you're coaching, you're consulting, a lot of times people will start a coaching consulting practice after they've worked in a business.

And they do it to get away from that. But like you mentioned, there are so many changes that happen that you really need to have more than a toe dipped in to kind of understand where the currents going, where the currents are going to go. So I appreciate you for being able to tap into both of those. I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And you might have already touched on this, but I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be like an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Jason Resnick 11:17

Yeah, I've been doing this for a long, long time, it's my Sunday morning review. And there's not an app for it, it's just my habit. And what I do is I grab my cup of coffee in the morning, and I sit down and they do my weekly review.

Gresham Harkless 11:34

Right, I think that's a huge thing, just because a lot of times even when we think we're cutting things off, and it's the end of the day, a lot of times we hold on to things but I find and I don't know, if you find the exact same thing when you're able to write it out or even plan it out, or I'm going to deal with that there a time block this and this place, whatever it gets it out of your head gets it off your shoulders, and it makes you more present and be able to tackle whatever that happened at that current time. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And I know you reference these as well. But this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Jason Resnick 12:11

I would say the words of wisdom, and this really two things. One, charge what you're worth, and don't apologize for it. The second is effort matters more than anything else.

Gresham Harkless 12:25

Absolutely. I love both of those nuggets. And I think especially related to Eph, I always used to say control what you can control. And if you can control your effort, you can control that you can't control all the invoicing system that doesn't work or whatever those technological things that happen often. So sometimes you just have to be able to control those things. And I think that at the end of the day, it also brings a lot of peace because you know that you did everything that you could do. And those other things happen. But you did all that you could do. So I think that also brings some peace. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Jason, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jason Resnick 13:02

What it really means to me is serving the customers or clients, serving your family and who you're essentially responsible for whether it's your family, whether it's your employees, whether it's friends.

Gresham Harkless 13:18

Yeah, absolutely, I think it's one of the greatest gifts to be able to give and to be of service to others. And I think that you have done a phenomenal job, I appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule to give us so much value and information, what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get a hold of you.

Jason Resnick 13:38

Sure. Yeah, if you're trying to figure out your way, right, especially like, I know, myself, I ran into a problem where I tried to run a business myself twice. And I hit the same wall twice. I was like, maybe this just isn't for me. And I was thinking of giving up and I even told my then-fiance at the time that I was just gonna go back and get a full-time job, Maybe this just isn't for me. And so she kind of gave me the kick in the butt that I needed. And this showed me the support knew that's not what I wanted. And that's not what we wanted, as a family and such. And I was surprised by that. But what happened from that was this self-reflection on my business.

And it was really just taking a look and taking stock in who I was working with types of projects that I was working on, figuring out what I liked and didn't like, and then figuring out some common elements amongst all of those things. And what came out of that? And this was a really long self-reflection probably over the course of a week about 20 hours. Where out of that I had my ideal client and the red flags list. And so I knew a matter of speaking, I was specializing in my business. And that's why you mentioned earlier that I helped establish online businesses establishes a key word there, I don't work with people who have no online presence, right? I can't help them in a way that I can help if you already do.

Gresham Harkless 15:18

Nice, nice, nice. And for people who want to follow up with you, Jason, what's the best way for them to do that? And then also, subscribe to your podcast and hear all the awesome things you're doing.

Jason Resnick 15:27

Yeah, you can find me@rezzz.com. There, you can opt into my free email course, which helps. It's an email course that helps you get the best kinds of clients that you want. And my two podcasts, that's Live in the Feast and Ask Rezz are the two podcasts and the two different formats are kind of like on either end of your spectrum. One's a real short of five minutes. And the other one's an interview-style show, which is about 40 minutes or so. And if you want to reach out on Twitter, that's usually my social media platform of choice. I'm rezzz there as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:08

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I'll have those links in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you. But again, I truly appreciate your time, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Jason Resnick 16:17

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it.

Outro 16:19

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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