The Power Of The Hand Written Note with Rick Elmore | OM011

Today I am joined by Rick Elmore, former NFL player turned entrepreneur, and the mastermind behind Simply Noted; a company that combines the personal touch of handwritten communication with the digital world.

From starting with a fake, early prototype to now running a thriving company, his story is a testament to the power of perseverance and genuine passion.

Tune in now to be inspired by Rick’s story and discover the remarkable impact of genuine human connection in the digital era.

About the Rick Elmore

Rick Elmore is an entrepreneur, sales and marketing expert. As the Founder and CEO of Simply Noted, Rick developed a proprietary technology that puts real pen and ink to paper to scale handwritten communication, helping businesses of all industries scale this unique marketing platform to stand out from their competition and build meaningful relationships with clients, customers, and employees.

Founded in 2018 and based in Tempe, Arizona, Simply Noted has grown into a thriving company with clients of various sizes across the country including in hospitality, real estate, insurance, nonprofit, franchise, B2B, and others. Rick has served as the company’s CEO since its founding, for more than four years, and has over a decade of sales and marketing industry experience.

 

“I help businesses of all industries to stand out from their competition & build meaningful relationships by using unique marketing platform”

Connect with Rick

Website: https://simplynoted.com/

About the Host:

Jim Padilla is the founder and CEO of Gain The Edge – a done-for-you provider of industry-leading sales systems and unicorn sales professionals which he co-heads with his wife and entrepreneurial partner-in-crime, Cyndi Padilla.

Through their unique blend of laser-targeted selling systems, inspirational team-building expertise, and 60+ years of combined sales experience – Jim and his wife have generated over 1/4 bn in sales for a long line of high-level, visionary entrepreneurs.

Jim’s mission is to help purpose-driven thought-leaders untangle themselves from the day-to-day minutiae of seeking leads and sales for their business so they’re free to amplify their impact.

When Jim’s not making dollars rain down from the sky, you’ll regularly find him at the driving range – hitting a bucket of balls. Jim credits his time on the driving range as the main source of his best ideas.

Recently relocated back to California, Jim & Cyndi are immersing themselves in family time with their three daughters & four (soon to be five) grandchildren.

Connect with Jim at https://jimp360.com

If you want to see more great content like this, make sure to subscribe and ring the bell so you will get notified whenever we post a new video. And don’t forget to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript
Jim Padilla:

Hey, opportunity makers. Welcome back to the

Jim Padilla:

podcast. You know, in today's digital age, everything,

Jim Padilla:

everything is about technology. And the world is trying to

Jim Padilla:

replace the human side of things as fast as possible. AI is

Jim Padilla:

coming on strong technology is robotics bots everywhere. And it

Jim Padilla:

makes you feel like, you know, the human doesn't have the

Jim Padilla:

value. You know, even though God says otherwise. And I'm a firm

Jim Padilla:

believer that technology should always enhance humanity, not

Jim Padilla:

replace it. And, you know, today's guests got a great

Jim Padilla:

interview for you. With with with a rockstar named Rick

Jim Padilla:

Elmore, who played college and pro sports, jumped into

Jim Padilla:

opportunity in it, he's going to we're going to talk about his

Jim Padilla:

product. And I think it's something that you should take

Jim Padilla:

advantage of and check out because it's something that

Jim Padilla:

helps just keep a little thread of humanity just to touch in

Jim Padilla:

your business and what you're doing. But really, you know, in

Jim Padilla:

the opportunity maker side of things, I'm always wanting you

Jim Padilla:

to see, where's the place you can lean in? Where can you go on

Jim Padilla:

offense? Where can you take that chance to jump in to solve that

Jim Padilla:

problem, be a difference maker, because that's what opportunity

Jim Padilla:

makers do. Right? And, you know, we're going to talk about,

Jim Padilla:

there's some key components in here that we'll unpack and we

Jim Padilla:

will unpack it. In our subsequent episode, we're going

Jim Padilla:

to we're going to talk about this piece deeper, we're going

Jim Padilla:

to talk about the human side of technology, and how they dance

Jim Padilla:

together and how they enhance you in your business and scaling

Jim Padilla:

and taking advantage of opportunities. But you're going

Jim Padilla:

to see in this particular, in this particular conversation,

Jim Padilla:

we're going to be talking about just really finding the mean,

Jim Padilla:

and jumping in and taking a chance and not having to be the

Jim Padilla:

expert of all the things around the solution, just understanding

Jim Padilla:

how to pull the right resources and people together to deliver

Jim Padilla:

the solution for the marketplace. Because what you do

Jim Padilla:

matters, and you deserve to be paid well for it. And you can't

Jim Padilla:

get paid well for it if you can't get found. So make sure

Jim Padilla:

you're leaning in so that you can become that opportunity

Jim Padilla:

maker step in and draw the crowd and say, Hey, I'm here, I've got

Jim Padilla:

the cure for what ails you, right? Because that's what we do

Jim Padilla:

here, gain the edge, we focus on entrepreneurs that are scaling,

Jim Padilla:

that are very much exponential thinking that want great

Jim Padilla:

outcomes and want to step in and make a massive difference and

Jim Padilla:

deliver on the calling that that you have been put in place to be

Jim Padilla:

able to deliver for the people who's who you serve. And we help

Jim Padilla:

monetize that for you. We build scaling, we help you scale your

Jim Padilla:

mission with sales teams and sales strategies and sales

Jim Padilla:

events, and love the opportunity to be able to help you so make

Jim Padilla:

sure you check us out in the notes. There's in the show

Jim Padilla:

notes. There's There's links and resources for you to be able to

Jim Padilla:

reach out, talk to us and see how we might be able to help if

Jim Padilla:

that's something of interest. And enjoy the episode. And enjoy

Jim Padilla:

the conversation because we have a lot more coming. Give us some

Jim Padilla:

feedback. Let us know how this works for you. What kind of

Jim Padilla:

questions you have what your what you're taking away from

Jim Padilla:

this and what kind of what kind of content you would like to see

Jim Padilla:

in the opportunity makers podcast. Right? We'll talk soon.

Jim Padilla:

Why don't we just get started with you know, telling people

Jim Padilla:

about you? Let's I guess give a quick synopsis of your your

Jim Padilla:

journey. Who's Rick?

Rick Elmore:

Sure. Yeah, well, my backgrounds in professional

Rick Elmore:

sports in college athletics. grew up playing football is

Rick Elmore:

fortunate to find a knack for it after a few years. I wouldn't

Rick Elmore:

say I was super good at it early on. But I got recruited played

Rick Elmore:

at the University of Arizona was a three year search starter

Rick Elmore:

under Mike stoops had a good career there I was drafted into

Rick Elmore:

the NFL in 2011. Got to live out my childhood dream played for

Rick Elmore:

just over three seasons bounced around as a journeyman, like a

Rick Elmore:

lot of the guys there. But when I got done and made the

Rick Elmore:

transition to corporate medical sales, like a lot of the guys do

Rick Elmore:

still had that drive that fire that passion wanted to do

Rick Elmore:

something very rewarding, highly competitive. That allowed me to

Rick Elmore:

use all the skills that I developed as an athlete over

Rick Elmore:

almost two decades. But beyond 2017 You know, after being in

Rick Elmore:

medical device sales for almost six years, I was a rookie of the

Rick Elmore:

year my first year and then I was either top 1% or top five

Rick Elmore:

rep in the company for the last six or five and a half years.

Rick Elmore:

Just there's an itch I couldn't scratch. So I went back into my

Rick Elmore:

MBA, I still have a couple of classes left, but I started the

Rick Elmore:

company based off a lecture that I was in kind of had a light

Rick Elmore:

bulb moment when I was sitting in a lecture. So yeah, that's

Rick Elmore:

kind of a little bit about my background.

Jim Padilla:

Awesome. You know, and that is a common trend

Jim Padilla:

right? What I'm always very attracted to athletes. I played

Jim Padilla:

junior college baseball. And you know, I love working with

Jim Padilla:

athletes because they have an innate understanding of high

Jim Padilla:

volumes of preparation. Yeah, yeah. For small amounts of

Jim Padilla:

effort, you know, your football, you're gonna practice for 25

Jim Padilla:

hours a week to play for seven.

Rick Elmore:

Yeah, yeah, it did say an insane amount of film and

Rick Elmore:

same amount of practice as gym classroom taking care of your

Rick Elmore:

body just to go get, you know, 40 or 50. Snaps if you're lucky.

Rick Elmore:

Yeah. So I totally understand that.

Jim Padilla:

How does that translate in your world to

Jim Padilla:

business? How do you see that benefiting you? As an

Jim Padilla:

entrepreneur?

Rick Elmore:

Yeah. So I, you know, I'm a father, now. I

Rick Elmore:

would, I'm coaching my son in football. Now, I would advise

Rick Elmore:

anybody out there who has kids to allow them to play sports,

Rick Elmore:

because you start at an early age developing skills that

Rick Elmore:

you're going to use for the rest of your life. You learn how to

Rick Elmore:

be a good teammate, a good friend to work hard to work

Rick Elmore:

through bumps and bruises, persevere, plan, prepare,

Rick Elmore:

compete, right? All these things that if you can develop early

Rick Elmore:

on, those transferable skills are massively, massively

Rick Elmore:

valuable to anything that you're going to do in life. And that's

Rick Elmore:

really what's made me successful is just taking what I developed

Rick Elmore:

over my, my athletic career and applied it to everything else

Rick Elmore:

that I was doing, I would not say I'm a good, the greatest

Rick Elmore:

salesman, I would not, you know, I started a tech software

Rick Elmore:

industrial, industrial automation company with no

Rick Elmore:

experience but what is allowed me to excel is just having an an

Rick Elmore:

innate in massive amount of drive competitiveness,

Rick Elmore:

understanding how to overcome obstacles, you know, break

Rick Elmore:

through barriers, persevere. And that's what's really allowed me

Rick Elmore:

to, you know, be successful in my career in my life after

Rick Elmore:

sport.

Jim Padilla:

Amen. Yeah, I so resonate with that. And I

Jim Padilla:

recommend that for everybody, if you're thinking about, you know,

Jim Padilla:

not like you need to have a, you know, it's not like discriminate

Jim Padilla:

against anybody else. But in the Learn to have a bias for people

Jim Padilla:

who understand the power of preparation, the power of having

Jim Padilla:

to sacrifice to get something on the back end. And in today's

Jim Padilla:

climate, it's so it's not even rewarded anymore. Like

Jim Padilla:

competitions not honored. Hard work, isn't honored. Everybody

Jim Padilla:

thinks it should just be ease and grace and peace. Yeah. I've

Jim Padilla:

never seen it work that way.

Rick Elmore:

When I went to University of Arizona actually

Rick Elmore:

redshirted so I was the dummy for the first year, you know,

Rick Elmore:

the guy on the practice team, basically. And I really didn't

Rick Elmore:

have like real success. Until, like, really good success until

Rick Elmore:

my redshirt junior year. So was that year three, you know, so

Rick Elmore:

like, I went through a lot, you know, hard times just to get to

Rick Elmore:

some success, you know, and I, I mean, I think that's just a

Rick Elmore:

great metaphor for life. And a lot of people want things now

Rick Elmore:

and I, you know, I'm, I'm a consumer of content, I go on

Rick Elmore:

YouTube, I do courses all the time. But it's really hard

Rick Elmore:

nowadays. Because everybody makes it seem like it should be

Rick Elmore:

easy. Like, oh, I made, you know, $100,000, in the first

Rick Elmore:

three months of launching my business, they want to be a

Rick Elmore:

guru. But really, what you have to be good at is understanding

Rick Elmore:

how to filter out all that noise. If that's true, it's an

Rick Elmore:

anomaly. Success comes over time, there's a reason, you

Rick Elmore:

know, at least 10 years ago, they talked about the 10,000

Rick Elmore:

hour rule, you don't become a professional in something until

Rick Elmore:

you're been doing it for 10,000 hours, you have to be really

Rick Elmore:

disciplined, you have to have really good filters to

Rick Elmore:

understand that there's a lot of noise out there telling you, it

Rick Elmore:

should be easier than it is. It shouldn't, it should be hard. If

Rick Elmore:

it is hard, you're you're growing, you're learning, you're

Rick Elmore:

you're you're overcoming, so you got to live outside that comfort

Rick Elmore:

zone and constantly be trying to break through the ceiling.

Jim Padilla:

You know, something else that I would have been

Jim Padilla:

drawn to you about Rick is very similar to myself. He has every

Jim Padilla:

business i First, this is my third, I would say official

Jim Padilla:

grownup business, I've done all kinds of side hustles and try

Jim Padilla:

different things. But my alarm company, my mortgage company,

Jim Padilla:

and now sales organization, all of them I started on accident.

Jim Padilla:

And all of them I started with a without any qualification. It

Jim Padilla:

was just, I think I can do this, I can make this work, you know,

Jim Padilla:

jumped into the opportunity. And you know, you've done similar

Jim Padilla:

things, especially with your company. What's the thing about

Jim Padilla:

you that made that that made that make sense?

Rick Elmore:

It's passion for it, you have to be obsessed

Rick Elmore:

about it, you have to love it, you have to believe in it. To

Rick Elmore:

make anything work, it's an incredible amount of work,

Rick Elmore:

especially for those first five years. That quick success is not

Rick Elmore:

real. That's something that really helped me get this going.

Rick Elmore:

You know, when I was sitting in my my marketing class ma MBA,

Rick Elmore:

you know, the light bulb moment came off. And you know, the

Rick Elmore:

professor said he was in I was in a sales role. He said

Rick Elmore:

handwritten notes at a 99% open rate. I just thought it was such

Rick Elmore:

a good idea. But really when that, you know, seizure, they

Rick Elmore:

call it the entrepreneurial seizure when that moment comes

Rick Elmore:

over you and you just All these emotions and excitement for what

Rick Elmore:

you're doing is when you see at work. So I think when an

Rick Elmore:

entrepreneur tests a product, they see how it works. And they

Rick Elmore:

believe in it, you get really excited about it. But the

Rick Elmore:

problem is, is just, you know, understand that excitement is

Rick Elmore:

going to fade. You start like, lifting up, you know, picking up

Rick Elmore:

rocks, like, oh, like, this is gonna be a really hard thing to

Rick Elmore:

overcome. And then you got to figure out how to get over it.

Rick Elmore:

And then the next step, like, oh, what's behind this door? Oh,

Rick Elmore:

that's a really hard obstacle to overcome, too. But I just think

Rick Elmore:

you gotta be really passionate about your product, you have to

Rick Elmore:

be really disciplined in your lifestyle. And you have to be so

Rick Elmore:

committed to the purpose of what you're doing, that nothing's

Rick Elmore:

going to shake you. And I think that's what's really helped me

Rick Elmore:

be successful.

Jim Padilla:

Yeah, I heard this quote two different times in my

Jim Padilla:

life. And it's interesting. One was, when I first the first day,

Jim Padilla:

I showed up for my sex ed for my second or junior college

Jim Padilla:

baseball, and, you know, Coach told us, today is going to be

Jim Padilla:

the most excited you're ever going to be. Because from here

Jim Padilla:

on out, it's work. And, you know, I made it and then oh,

Jim Padilla:

crap, now I gotta go earn it. And, and then I've also heard

Jim Padilla:

John Maxwell talk about that in leadership, when you when you

Jim Padilla:

pull a new team together, and you and you love that you share

Jim Padilla:

a vision, and this moment is the most excited you ever going to

Jim Padilla:

be about it? Because now it's about the work.

Rick Elmore:

Yeah. Right. That's That's definitely how it isn't

Rick Elmore:

starting a business that you're excited to get started. But you

Rick Elmore:

know, seeing all those athletes on TV, you don't realize are

Rick Elmore:

these you know, these? What do you call it actors? They've gone

Rick Elmore:

through decades, decades of failure, trying and failing,

Rick Elmore:

trying and failing? Well, try fail, improve, try fail,

Rick Elmore:

improve, right? And it's always funny like that, that feeling

Rick Elmore:

you have when you start something, but it's the people

Rick Elmore:

that can you know, keep going when that feeling is gone?

Rick Elmore:

Because that feeling is going to be gone? Quick? Yeah.

Jim Padilla:

Sure. Yeah. So I want to start talking about I'm

Jim Padilla:

talking about your company. But the one one last thing before we

Jim Padilla:

talk about the specifics, is, again, as somebody who started,

Jim Padilla:

like you said, jumped into a company that you did not really

Jim Padilla:

you did not have you were not the expert, you're not the

Jim Padilla:

technical expert, etc. How do you turn that into a win by

Jim Padilla:

stepping into a space that you're unfamiliar? And now

Jim Padilla:

you're you've got something that's, that's rolling?

Rick Elmore:

Well, I think, you know, I talk to my wife about

Rick Elmore:

this all the time. And she's the one who actually tells this to

Rick Elmore:

me, she sees it more than than I do. She's like, No

Rick Elmore:

entrepreneurs, there's just entrepreneurships in your blood.

Rick Elmore:

You know, I think what makes a really good entrepreneur, is

Rick Elmore:

somebody that can understand what their strengths are. And

Rick Elmore:

for me, it's sales and marketing, I just, I'm really

Rick Elmore:

good at you know, the sales and marketing wasn't good at

Rick Elmore:

building websites, or building robots or building software, I

Rick Elmore:

had to find people to do that. But in order to be successful,

Rick Elmore:

you have to, you have to be able to build a team around you,

Rick Elmore:

that's going to help you go far. If you want to go fast, you can

Rick Elmore:

go alone, but if you want to build a business, that's going

Rick Elmore:

to be an awesome business and thrive and hopefully be

Rick Elmore:

something that can be acquired someday, that's, you know, the

Rick Elmore:

goal of our company, is you have to build a really great team

Rick Elmore:

really good. A lot of systems and processes. And you just have

Rick Elmore:

to set up those goals and attack them. But what we've been really

Rick Elmore:

good at is finding the right people, basically, researching,

Rick Elmore:

developing and attacking what we want to go after, and having the

Rick Elmore:

right people to help us do it. But yeah, I'm no expert in

Rick Elmore:

robotics, or building software, or trying to figure out how to

Rick Elmore:

do 10s of 1000s of handwritten notes, a data warehouse, I had

Rick Elmore:

to hire a lot of people. So it cost a lot of money, ignorance

Rick Elmore:

can cost a lot. So make sure before you jump into something,

Rick Elmore:

you really do think it all the way through. But it's been

Rick Elmore:

really fun. And I think anybody who's a true entrepreneur is

Rick Elmore:

going to be excited about whatever opportunity they're

Rick Elmore:

gonna go into. Because all the growth that comes out of it,

Rick Elmore:

there's nothing like it, you're gonna get 40 years of, of growth

Rick Elmore:

out of five years of being an entrepreneur. And I would never,

Rick Elmore:

I wouldn't trade that for any other career out there. It's

Rick Elmore:

been very rewarding, doing what we've been doing for the last

Rick Elmore:

almost...

Jim Padilla:

Yeah, I'm a firm believer, I don't know anything

Jim Padilla:

that develops you more as a human. Yeah, in

Jim Padilla:

entrepreneurship.

Rick Elmore:

Well develops you technically, mentally,

Rick Elmore:

emotionally. It's gonna test you on every level. You know, you're

Rick Elmore:

gonna have all those night like those sleepless nights, and

Rick Elmore:

you're gonna have all those doubts, and you got to learn how

Rick Elmore:

to overcome all of that. And that security of that w two,

Rick Elmore:

that's not there. So you got to wake up and make it happen every

Rick Elmore:

day.

Jim Padilla:

So simply noting, first, tell us what is simply

Jim Padilla:

noted, so the listeners can understand. And then why did you

Jim Padilla:

put everything on the line to start this business with no

Jim Padilla:

experience jump into something real because you were what was

Jim Padilla:

the need that you were solving?

Rick Elmore:

Yeah, so great question. So simply notice a

Rick Elmore:

handwritten note platform. And what that means is that we've

Rick Elmore:

built the world's only purposely built writing robot. We've spent

Rick Elmore:

over $850,000 into this amazing technology. But what we do is

Rick Elmore:

help companies integrate and automate. So think of like a,

Rick Elmore:

you know, a payroll system or like a web form, or CRM or

Rick Elmore:

whatever. When things are happening, we can help people

Rick Elmore:

automate it, birthdays, anniversaries, so we help

Rick Elmore:

companies automate it, or scale it. So like, right now we're in

Rick Elmore:

the holidays, you know, companies are sending 10s of

Rick Elmore:

1000s of holiday cards, their employees or customers. So, you

Rick Elmore:

know, we help them integrate automated or scale it. And

Rick Elmore:

really, why this was started really was just a need. When I

Rick Elmore:

was in that marketing class, I was trying to think of ways to

Rick Elmore:

be more successful trying to apply everything that I was

Rick Elmore:

absorbing in my MBA. And I had a marketing professor said, going

Rick Elmore:

through, you know, a lot of the marketing stuff, direct mail,

Rick Elmore:

cold call, you know, email, digital, everything was super

Rick Elmore:

nominal, very low. Any end of the lecture saying handwritten

Rick Elmore:

notes have a 99% open rate I was like, and I was knocking on

Rick Elmore:

doors trying to get doctors to talk to me. And I was like, Man,

Rick Elmore:

if I can get in front of that doctor 99% of the time, like,

Rick Elmore:

I'm going to be so much more successful. So what we did is we

Rick Elmore:

flew some technology in from South America worked with a

Rick Elmore:

mailing house here in Phoenix, who wrote like a cheap little

Rick Elmore:

robot in from China. And after about a month of trying to get

Rick Elmore:

this thing to work and putting together some handwritten notes,

Rick Elmore:

we sent them out, like really fake, really bad early on,

Rick Elmore:

really bad product. But we sent them out to some doctors that I

Rick Elmore:

couldn't work or I have wasn't working with. And I got 28

Rick Elmore:

doctors to call me back, which was, you know, as a sales rep,

Rick Elmore:

having a customer call you is a big deal. And these doctors were

Rick Elmore:

like, like First off, like, Hey, Rick, this is really cool. Like,

Rick Elmore:

nobody ever sends me a handwritten note. So they were

Rick Elmore:

automatic, like, automatically was on their good side, right?

Rick Elmore:

Because I was impressing them with something that wasn't

Rick Elmore:

normal. And they're like, hey, this offer sounds good. Like,

Rick Elmore:

let's set up a lunch and talk about it. And those 20

Rick Elmore:

handwritten notes or what have or responses, I got $280,000 in

Rick Elmore:

sales, when my monthly quota was about $50,000. My whole team was

Rick Elmore:

going nuts. My company is going nuts. Like I was going nuts.

Rick Elmore:

Like that's when like the entrepreneurial seizure was

Rick Elmore:

like, This is it. This could be a business. I knew it would

Rick Elmore:

work. I got $20,000 in commission. I was like,

Rick Elmore:

businesses on autopilot. Like, let's go, this is gonna work and

Rick Elmore:

I just saw a need. I was just like, business is so impersonal.

Rick Elmore:

It's always an ass. It's all digital. It's all noise. Like

Rick Elmore:

there's nothing out there like this. So got to work, did some

Rick Elmore:

research, there was a company that's no longer around that was

Rick Elmore:

focusing on the wedding industry. I was just like, that

Rick Elmore:

is the worst thing you should do. Because there's bride Zilla

Rick Elmore:

as anybody who has been married and planned a wedding. That and

Rick Elmore:

then there was like a company that's still around today. But

Rick Elmore:

they're more focused on b2c. And I was like, That is terrible to

Rick Elmore:

like, people don't have the budgets. Like why isn't anybody

Rick Elmore:

doing this for business? Like they have the systems, the

Rick Elmore:

processes, the budgets? So yeah, it's been fun. I just I believed

Rick Elmore:

in it so much. You know, I grew up without a phone, I got a cell

Rick Elmore:

phone. I was 16. So writing handwritten notes was, you know,

Rick Elmore:

common, like coaches who recruited me sent me handwritten

Rick Elmore:

notes. Those are keepsakes. I played for the San Francisco 40,

Rick Elmore:

Niners in 2012. So when when I left, Jim Harbach sent me a

Rick Elmore:

handwritten note like that's literally like in my bookcase at

Rick Elmore:

in my office at home. So it's like, such an appreciated

Rick Elmore:

powerful thing that we can do. In an era where it's it's so

Rick Elmore:

impersonal nowadays, it's all digital, you know? So I just wanted...

Jim Padilla:

As you say that that's a trip because my

Jim Padilla:

daughter and I had a little struggle, like, about 15 years

Jim Padilla:

ago. And we didn't talk for a couple of years. And then she

Jim Padilla:

wrote me a Father's Day note, a couple of years later, I still

Jim Padilla:

have this right here on my desk.

Rick Elmore:

Right? It's, it's empowering. It's powerful. It's

Rick Elmore:

it's, it's emotional, it connects with you differently,

Rick Elmore:

right?

Jim Padilla:

Definitely. Yeah, it just does it, you know, and

Jim Padilla:

it does it. To me, it just means more. I mean, I have you know, I

Jim Padilla:

got we have all of our reporting, and every we have all

Jim Padilla:

our dashboards and all of our digital, but I have all my sales

Jim Padilla:

tracking stuff right here on flip charts on the wall. You

Jim Padilla:

know, I just touch tangibility. Yeah, to me matters.

Rick Elmore:

Yeah, that's, I mean, that's what we're trying

Rick Elmore:

to do. I mean, everything we do is genuine, it's real pen,

Rick Elmore:

right? There's a lot of companies out there that will do

Rick Elmore:

like a laser printed font, but we're just you know, we're one

Rick Elmore:

tiny step below, you know, if you were actually doing it, but

Rick Elmore:

yeah, you know, if we're doing our job right, it's gonna look

Rick Elmore:

as authentic as possible. It's gonna look like you sent it. So

Rick Elmore:

that feeling that you have right there with that hindered no But

Rick Elmore:

we're trying to automate that and scale that for our clients.

Jim Padilla:

Awesome. Amen. So what's the real payoff on this?

Jim Padilla:

Then? You know, I mean, why it's cool business? Great, you know,

Jim Padilla:

like you got you covered that your own niche. But why is this

Jim Padilla:

matter?

Rick Elmore:

I just think it's something that's not around.

Rick Elmore:

Well, starting a business number one was extremely important to

Rick Elmore:

me, I wanted to prove that I can do it. I wanted to challenge

Rick Elmore:

myself. And this was the best way to challenge yourself as a

Rick Elmore:

young adult is trying to build a product, build a company, and

Rick Elmore:

see if you can be successful doing it. But I just believe so

Rick Elmore:

much in the product. It's, it's, it's the last thing, you know,

Rick Elmore:

really in the world that I believe that people think that

Rick Elmore:

can be genuinely automated. Like, you can automate

Rick Elmore:

everything else emails, text, phone calls, voicemails, gifts,

Rick Elmore:

like, but it all looks like it was automated, you know, this

Rick Elmore:

doesn't. So I just think there's a real need for it, especially

Rick Elmore:

today, especially after post COVID. You know, a lot of the, a

Rick Elmore:

lot of the interactions are, are not in person as much anymore.

Rick Elmore:

So I feel like people are craving something that's more,

Rick Elmore:

you know, tangible and personal these days.

Jim Padilla:

Definitely. So how can people get a chance to check

Jim Padilla:

this out? And and who's the right person that do you do you

Jim Padilla:

do is most beneficial for someone who's doing a volume

Jim Padilla:

play? Or is this work for small business too.

Rick Elmore:

So yeah, our websites great for anybody. So

Rick Elmore:

there's simply no.com, anybody can go on there and send one

Rick Elmore:

card create their own card, we try to help businesses just

Rick Elmore:

because they have the systems in place to automate it. So they're

Rick Elmore:

more of like a ongoing client. But our website is great for

Rick Elmore:

anybody to send once and 10 500 No, a lot of our corporate

Rick Elmore:

accounts will contact us directly, so we can be a little

Rick Elmore:

bit more hands on. But if they go, if you guys go to our page,

Rick Elmore:

you know, our simply noted homepage, just in the top right

Rick Elmore:

hand corner, you can request a free sample, and we actually do

Rick Elmore:

a really nice job of putting together this big kit that we

Rick Elmore:

send you before you even spend $1 with us. Lots of handwriting

Rick Elmore:

samples, you know, case studies, writing styles, different, you

Rick Elmore:

know, things, you know, flyers and stuff. So, I would just

Rick Elmore:

advise anybody who's remotely interested to go request a

Rick Elmore:

handwriting sample, because if you don't need it, now, there's

Rick Elmore:

gonna be a time in the next six to 12 months, like, hey, you

Rick Elmore:

know, I need to send that handwritten card and I don't

Rick Elmore:

have a stamp, I'll just go to these guys and let them take

Rick Elmore:

care of it for me.

Jim Padilla:

You know, we we have not had the opportunity to

Jim Padilla:

engage the simply noted process yet, but I think we're

Jim Padilla:

definitely definitely attracted to it. But here's another

Jim Padilla:

perspective on it, guys, just to think about this, we just, Cindy

Jim Padilla:

and I just got a message from a client, just a couple of days

Jim Padilla:

ago, we sent out we sent out cards to everybody there and we

Jim Padilla:

send them out individually. And we always put something custom

Jim Padilla:

on it. So they don't ever feel like this was a blast. We had a

Jim Padilla:

client to just call and left call this the other day because

Jim Padilla:

she got a call a car for Thanksgiving. And she thought it

Jim Padilla:

was just going to be a hey, Happy Thanksgiving from gain the

Jim Padilla:

edge. And she turned it over. She had just done a TED talk.

Jim Padilla:

And she turned it over. And there was a picture of her with

Jim Padilla:

her TED Talk and logo. And it was congratulations. We're

Jim Padilla:

proud. Right. And it moved her because she was like, Wow, you

Jim Padilla:

guys. Are you paying attention to me? Yeah. Yeah. And

Jim Padilla:

obviously, it wasn't the handwritten note, but it was it

Jim Padilla:

was, but that's what the handwritten note does. Right. It

Jim Padilla:

gives that I'm taking the time to do something for you.

Rick Elmore:

Yeah. Yeah. Like, and that's really, you know,

Rick Elmore:

what it is hard to do nowadays is that everybody's being pulled

Rick Elmore:

in different directions. So it's hard to give people five

Rick Elmore:

minutes. So I think that's like what you were just explaining

Rick Elmore:

this is showing that you're paying attention and that you

Rick Elmore:

care and it's just a meaningful, thoughtful way of doing it.

Jim Padilla:

Amen. So what would be your your wisdom to people

Jim Padilla:

who are listening for hungry, wanting to solve problems

Jim Padilla:

wanting to, you know, take a take a piece of the burden of

Jim Padilla:

the marketplace? But it's a little fearful right now,

Rick Elmore:

Yes. You know, I was, you know, just get started

Rick Elmore:

The thing I told anybody who wants to start a business,

Rick Elmore:

you're never gonna have all the answers were five years in. And

Rick Elmore:

every time you solve a problem, there's going to be three new

Rick Elmore:

problems to figure out. So just getting started is the most

Rick Elmore:

important thing that you can do. Because you don't it's just like

Rick Elmore:

compound interest. You know, just a little bit of work every

Rick Elmore:

day adds up and before you know it after 12 months, you're gonna

Rick Elmore:

be so incredibly proud and shocked of how far you came

Rick Elmore:

versus if you tried to wait 12 months and try to figure it all

Rick Elmore:

out. So I tell everybody, get started. Because it's, it's what

Rick Elmore:

it's going to take. It's just work. You're never going to have

Rick Elmore:

it all figured out. Also, you know, be really, you know, don't

Rick Elmore:

take massive risks. Don't you know, I follow the bullets in

Rick Elmore:

bowling ball technique. You know, you do fire a bunch of you

Rick Elmore:

know, you have one bowling ball, you have one say you have

Rick Elmore:

$10,000 to start a business, you know, make $50 investments $100

Rick Elmore:

investments Test test test test test until you can point that

Rick Elmore:

cannon exactly where you need to go. And you have that one ball

Rick Elmore:

to fire. So, do a lot of tests before you go crazy and go, you

Rick Elmore:

know, make some massive investment. Yeah, I would say

Rick Elmore:

those are the three things I would recommend anybody who's

Rick Elmore:

thinking about starting a business.

Jim Padilla:

Awesome. So go to simply noted, comm all of Rick's

Jim Padilla:

information will be in the show notes so you can get access to

Jim Padilla:

him on LinkedIn, all the places to find him and as well as get

Jim Padilla:

to simply know to go check it out. Just Just look at doing

Jim Padilla:

business a little differently. And I cannot make enough of a of

Jim Padilla:

a stand in a statement for not trying don't lose connection

Jim Padilla:

with the human side of business. And we were trying to digitize

Jim Padilla:

ourselves out of everything. And we got to hang on to the few

Jim Padilla:

things that we can still do to keep people feeling important

Jim Padilla:

and unique and special in business because otherwise we're

Jim Padilla:

all heading in the wrong place.

Rick Elmore:

What's well said I couldn't have said it any

Rick Elmore:

better.

Jim Padilla:

Outstanding. Rick Elmore, appreciate you, man.

Jim Padilla:

Really glad you do. You stopped by the show and for the

Jim Padilla:

opportunity makers out there. And you are definitely an

Jim Padilla:

opportunity maker and we'll see it well and looking forward to

Jim Padilla:

the next version or the next iteration or what comes after

Jim Padilla:

this. So excited for it and appreciate the time and good

Jim Padilla:

luck in 2023.

Rick Elmore:

Thanks for having me on, Jim. Appreciate all

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