IAM1611 – Entrepreneur’s Business is Dedicated to Raising the Small Business Success Rate

Frank Goodman Teaser 0:00

Actually bleeding bulb our main focus is growth strategies, well our core Services I should say, our core services are growth strategies, websites, and apps; those are the core services and as far as products, we have something called the bulb Suite which is a collection of six applications all geared towards productivity. So everything is about making a small business owner more productive while keeping costs low.

Intro 0:24

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  0:50

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 Frank Goodman of bleeding bulb. Frank it's awesome to have you on the show.

Frank Goodman 0:59

Hey it's great to be here man.

Gresham Harkless 1:00

Awesome. What I want to do is just read a little bit more about Frank so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Frank Goodman is an entrepreneur from Washington DC dedicated to raising the small business success rate through strategy, website, and apps. He went from troublemaker to an accomplished engineer and business owner. He has a BS in computer engineering from Old Dominion University and an MS in systems engineering from the George Washington University. His company bleeding bulb was inspired by his reputation for having tons of ideas. Frank are you ready to speak to the I am CEO community?

Frank Goodman 1:34

Definitely man I'm ready to start.

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Gresham Harkless  1:37

All right let's do it. Alright, so the first question I had for you was just to learn a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business?

Frank Goodman 1:45

Yeah sure so like you said as far as the whole troublemaking thing that kind of led to me having to write a letter to get into college. After I was able to get into college through writing that letter and I was very fortunate for that, that pretty much put me in the position to be the first generation for both sides of my family to go on the university route and get a degree. Then from there I went into Corporate America. I worked for Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton and some companies like that. I was able to gain a lot of experience there but over time I always had just the entrepreneur bug, like I always had a side hustle. I always had something else I was working on and it was only natural for me to go in that direction. But, one of the main things or some of the main things were I really didn't like not feeling the impact of things that I was doing because in a lot of cases with corporate America, especially these larger organizations you can do a project and it could be a multi-million dollar project and that client can just throw it out the window like it's that simple or not a big deal. You could spend years putting a lot of time, energy and thought into everything that you do and they could just be done. So I wanted to find a way to be a little bit more impactful but still use my skills because my skill set that I developed, I did enjoy using it but I just didn't feel I was getting enough from it so that kind of led me down the direction of saying hey, look I need to do something a little bit bigger and also try to figure out how I can get more of the slice of the pie. That's 2010, bleeding Bob get started and initially are more focused on development  because my background is engineering so we had a lot of apps and websites and things like that, that we were pushing which ended up being a good thing. Later on we transitioned into just focusing on growing a small business as a whole because we found a lot of gaps after we were passing off products. They were kind of just sitting there and people weren't really being successful with what we were delivering. Over time you kind of feel like you're not really serving a real purpose because you're just delivering a product again and then the impact goes away, so we just want to help throughout the whole spectrum. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless  4:03

Awesome man and I appreciate you obviously for being able to work for those large companies. But I know that hurt my heart when I heard that sometimes if you work for something in a year, a couple of years or even like a day or a month and then you decide not to do it a part of my creative genes died with that. I'm glad you decided to kind of shift and start to do your own thing. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what you're doing with bleeding bulb. We kind of touched on the website, the app, and the development part but could you tell us how exactly you serve your clients.

Frank Goodman 4:32

Yeah. Actually bleeding bulb, our main focus is growth strategies, well core Services I should say, our core services are growth strategies, websites and apps; those are the core services; and as far as products we have something called the bulb Suite which is a collection of six applications all geared towards productivity so everything is about making a small business owner more productive while keeping costs low. You'll find that some of our applications may seem or you may think like say for instance social media management, you could say well we already have something that's for social media management or we already have that's not any other. The whole purpose why I went ahead and made some of these applications is just to be able to control the costs and also the features. I know with some small businesses, I mean subscriptions is so easy for them to stack up and just go crazy so any way that I can take some of that burden off of them and say like hey you as a part of bleeding bulb we can make sure that we can keep costs low. This will still satisfy your needs, we could keep costs low and as we need features as a community we can make those decisions and start to just have that application evolve until everyone can just benefit as much as possible. Right now we're really just focused on getting the products together. Another strong product is bulb factory where we focus on training. That's really like an eight module Journey where we really focus on everything from my company where you're trying to identify what your company is, what its personality is, what it stands for, what it stands against, everything to kind of start to build that cult into partnerships, how you can leverage partnerships, competition, how you can lower your costs by leveraging competition and research, then getting into different things like traffic website and SEO, demystifying that whole thing. This is because a lot of times customers come to us and they're asking for certain services or products without understanding how it aligns to that goal and that's one of the main things we focus on looking at their business from a holistic view so you can sit here and say like okay what are your goals and then let's backtrack from that. Regardless if we can provide the services or not we have a lot of relationships also that we don't have to be a dead end, we can still hand you over to the right people or we can find out ways that we can help you meet those goals. That's really what everything is right now.

Gresham Harkless  6:53

Awesome, that makes perfect sense especially like you mentioned when you're doing some type of services and then you realize that maybe their actual business infrastructure isn't put in place as well as it could be or should be, then it kind of is like you mentioned before with the Lockheed Martin and the companies you work for kind of all for not to some degree, so it's great that you have that comprehensive like you mentioned a holistic kind of approach to making sure you sit down with clients and making sure from beginning to end they're taken care of. I think that's pretty awesome. That brought me to my next question which is what I usually call your secret sauce so to speak or your kind of differentiator, what do you feel is bleeding bulbs secret sauce?

Frank Goodman 7:28

I think we have a couple. One of them is the fact that we're like process based and technology driven since we have such a strong background in that. When it comes to processes which I have a strong background in, we can make our system more efficient as well as other people. As far as us, we have our own internal application where we can manage different things anytime we think about ideas that makes sense, we can just start development. I think that's very important when it comes to structuring your business to scale and making it more automated like we're able to hit the ground running and make it happen. There isn't a whole lot of decisions outside of us just making the decision collectively, so I think that's definitely a big thing. I would just say like my experience as far as every service or offering that we have, I actually spent time doing it first, like I presented the product, I did the service first before I brought on a team member. So, I offered everything before we were able to expand to have a team. I think that also helps because the level of understanding from one product or service to the next is important for the owner to understand the ins and outs of it instead of just a super high level view.

Gresham Harkless  8:39

Exactly, that's a huge thing where you can sit down and say, hey I actually use this or this provided this type of results for my actual business so this is why I want to recommend it to you. So I think that's a phenomenal differentiator that you have. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack and this might be an app, it might be a book or might be just a habit you have but that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Frank Goodman 9:01

Yeah, for me I would say if I thought about a hack I would probably say every day I make sure I take time out and figure out what could I have done, what can I do today or I guess the best way to say it is, from what I did yesterday how could I've been more productive if I were to do it all over again? Basically always looking back on my past day and trying to find gaps or trying to find inefficiencies so that I can start to fill that gap and just become more and more efficient. Another tool is audible that helps me with multitasking while still learning and making sure I carve out an hour for just thinking, just general thought not people's tasks and an hour for education in some way shape or form.

Gresham Harkless   9:47

Yeah I love those kind of hacks and it's all about getting better and build it upon yourself and looking at how you're doing, what type of results that had, and then seeing how you can improve that and then making sure you're super efficient to be able to take in as much information as you can while doing other things. Audible is definitely another phenomenal CEO hack. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and this might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice you might have for other entrepreneurs and business owners.

Frank Goodman  10:13

Yeah, the main thing I would always try to tell people and the thing that I always end up repeating is just don't get caught up in buzzwords and trims. Always focus on your goals and your audience's problems because if you focus on your goals then you can stay on track, but there's just so many distractions with all these different trends and buzzwords popping up daily. As far as the problem, focusing on your audience problem usually solves any of your problems within your business, so as long as you focus on their problems and solve them that typically takes care of everything else within your business. I mean number one thing is usually cash flow, right?

Gresham Harkless 10:48

Yeah, absolutely. I think that even what you were talking about before when you were saying that a lot of times people will come to you and say oh I want to get SEO or do you do this or do you do that, it's because it's a buzzword, because it's in the noise so to speak and people hear it and want to associate it. But it's great that you know that piece of advice aligns with what it is that you're doing from your business standpoint where you're saying what's your goal and yeah it's out of line with your goals so.

Frank Goodman 11:11

Absolutely. One other thing I would also say enjoy the roller coaster, like learn to enjoy it because it's almost inevitable. There will be lows and highs and just learn to appreciate the whole process like because it's gonna just keep going.

Gresham Harkless  11:27

Exactly.

Frank Goodman 11:27

It will keep on going and you just keep adjusting but once you get used to it and you get comfortable with it you understand you have that expectation so you can plan and work around it a lot easier yeah.

Gresham Harkless  11:38

Yeah that makes sense you understand it becomes a new normal so to speak, the roller coaster itself, there's going to be highs there's going to be lows but you know that's normal so that's just part of being a CEO so to speak. Now I wanted to ask you my favorite question which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different types of CEOs on the podcast so I want to ask you for you specifically what does it mean to you to be a CEO?

Frank Goodman 12:00

For me to be a CEO I look at a couple different things. I think it's your responsibility to have the clear Vision first. You have to have the clear Vision and you also need to put people and processes in a place or in a position to grow. I'm saying that you shouldn't be the only or be all, you shouldn't just be that person people go to with all questions. I think you should be empowering your people and getting them to the point where you're encouraging them to have independent thinking and try to get them to think their own thoughts and be able to problem solve on their own so that way you can focus on your vision and other things and you know that you can hand things over. I mean if you put people in a position where they understand your expectations and they understand how you think and you can start to mold them that way, it's empowering for them because they know that there's trust there, they know that you're putting them in a position to where it's like okay I don't have to just listen to what Frank says even if he hands me something if I can improve it, I have the liberty and improve it without being punished. Now I need to make it make sense because I know there are consequences for that but it's not a negative thing for something to not work out but you should take that risk and that's something that I think all CEOs should really encourage. Not to not make people afraid of failure. There are so many CEOs I think that make people feel like I can't mess up or I'm going to lose my job if I make the wrong decision and that ends with all the creativity and all the opportunity out the window because now they're thinking in this little small bubble. You have to give people room to make mistakes and just allow it to happen. Just keep them on the right path.

Gresham Harkless  13:40

I would absolutely agree with that. It definitely stifles your creativity from your teammates and the people that are on your team if they're afraid to make mistakes. They're afraid to color outside the line so to speak from time to time and that's really where a lot of the innovation happens, where people that are able to do that and creating a culture by which it's okay to do that. I think that's a phenomenal kind of definition. Frank, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. I wanted to pass you the mic so to speak just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best people can get a hold of you.

Frank Goodman 14:11

Yeah so the way that you can get a hold of me is you can contact me at frank@bleedingbulb.com you can go to our website www.leadingbulb.com if you ever want to have a consultation they're free. Sign up for a 30 minute you can just click on the calendar and find the time that works for you and basically just keep pushing. We have bulb factory, we have some other apps. Check out bulb Suite, see the different applications, see how they apply to you if they can be beneficial to you, if you find areas for improvement like always let us know. We always appreciate feedback and yeah just keep pushing man, just keep pushing. Don't give up and focus on your goals.

Gresham Harkless  14:49

Awesome. Well, thank you so much Frank I truly appreciate the time that you provided, all the great insight and all the awesome things that you're doing and I just hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Frank Goodman 14:58

Thanks, Gresh. Appreciate it.

Outro 15:00

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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