Episode 136 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:01.934)
Welcome to the show. How's it going?
Athin Cassiotis (00:04.494)
Yeah, thank you. Awesome. And yourself?
Heather Porter (00:07.054)
Good, good, good. I love the conversation that we're about to have. I purposely have hit record right at the start where I didn't get to know you too much because I made mistakes. I'm sure you have to as a podcast owner or host where you like, my gosh, I should have hit record on that conversation. I thought we'd just start, just jump into it and have a chat and record everything.
Athin Cassiotis (00:27.086)
Yeah, that's the best way, right? Let's go on the fly. I'm sure it'll be a lot of value being shared.
Heather Porter (00:31.38)
Absolutely. All right. Before we get to your backstory and who you are and how you help businesses, we're going to start with your own tips around growing a business smarter. I mean, obviously there's so much out there right now, but people burn out, you know, stress, anxiety. It's a thing and it's especially a thing with business owners. So how do you personally, during your moments of a little bit more overwhelm and maybe growth in your business, how, what are three tips or so that you use personally to manage those times?
Athin Cassiotis (00:59.748)
Yeah, definitely. So one thing is taking those times of being aware when you are in those states, right? Where you've maybe pushing a little bit too much overwhelm or whatever. And I normally like go outside and do some grounding, right? So hopefully you've got some grass out the back or maybe just go somewhere to a park down the road if you don't write, if you're in an apartment and literally, you know, I don't care what people looking, you know, if I take my shoes and socks off, right. And I literally would just stand on the grass and I'll just take some deep breaths, right. And even just.
in your house at any time, just taking three deep breaths, very slowly holding them and, everything like that is actually proven to reduce stress and overwhelm. Then if you take it to the next level, when you do it with grounding, where you've got your feet flat, you know, on the grass or, know, dirt or something there, that's the earth. And you're sort of breathing through that where you're breathing, you know, through the earth in, you know, out in, and in releasing it, it actually is also proven to, you know, help you even more. So that's a one way.
that I do that. And I do it throughout the day because, you know, we're not machines that can just go hard for eight hours straight, right? We need to have little breaks in between and those little breaks are aware. So that would be one thing, right? That I would say is yeah, that's how you can help yourself to get back and get focused again on growing. So that's more from the, I guess, the awareness side. You know, if we're going to talk strategy now, right? In those ways as well about growing, is that the way we want to go to now on the strategy side too?
Heather Porter (02:00.525)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (02:27.572)
you it's completely how you what you do in your business. So yeah, I love that. I love that you're kind taking a couple aspects. So yeah, please go where you want to take it.
Athin Cassiotis (02:35.086)
Yeah, definitely. So, you know, from a strategy perspective, I would say that understand like how, if you want to grow, right? What are the key things that you're growing? So look at your current clients. Let's assume that you have a great product or a decent product or service right now, because there's a lot of different renditions of who we help, but you've got something decent that you're offering to people. So like, where are your best clients? You know, which are the ones that are the most profitable, the ones you like working with? Who are these people really understand that and go, okay,
How did you get these clients? Where are they coming from? Because normally there's a thing called the 80 -20 rule, which you probably know of is that, you know, 20 % of, you know, the outcome, you know, creates 80%, right? So what is the 20 % of the actions or 20 % of the clients that create 80 % of the great revenue, whatever it is like that. So understanding where are these key clients? Where are your best clients? Where have you got them from? Do you need to double down on those activities, right? So understanding where they're from. And I would say, you know, from a marketing sense is that
Think about marketing like a chair where a chair has four legs. So ideally we have four ways of attracting leads into our business. Cause a lot of businesses out there, they rely on referrals, right? Word of mouth. yes, referrals, word of mouth are great. It's shortens the sales cycle. Everyone loves them. It's very easy to get them over the line a lot of the time. but it's a little bit of a sort of, know, what happens there if you don't get any referrals, you know, word of mouth for a few months, you know, your business dies, right? So
You need other ways of getting leads here. And I'm sure we'll talk about this a little bit later, but it could be some things that you're offering for free, some sort of lead magnet, like it's an ebook or checklist or something. Maybe you're doing some events and free events or things like that. what are some things, partnerships is a massive one, right? You could do advertising, organic things. There's a lot of different ways. And it's a lot of testing. try a lot of different things because every business is a little bit different.
It's, know, if, if everyone knew you just did this one thing and you make a million dollars a year, you know, or a hundred million or whatever, then everyone would be doing it and business would be easy, but it's not like that. So you have to test, keep changing. And then eventually, you know, you'll crack the code. That's the type of mindset you need and the type of action you need in terms of marketing. Right. So that would be, you know, one big thing that I would say for people is keep trying until it works. And sometimes you may need to, you know, try to change your, audience, your, your avatar, your niche.
Athin Cassiotis (05:01.252)
things like that potentially because where you're going may not work, right? If you're doing it for a period of time, but don't just do it for a month and assume results straight away, try it for, three to six months or so, and see how well you're going there. So that would be another tip is testing a few different things there. And then, you know, sales is really important, right? If you're talking about growth, right? In the business is, you know, are you really obsessing in a good way and wanting to master the art of sales? Cause that's really the most important skill. And some of us have
Heather Porter (05:15.853)
Nice.
Athin Cassiotis (05:30.4)
you know, these crazy experiences or whatever, where, you know, you feel like you're being sold to, it's the car salesman or what sleazy things like that, that unfortunately can stop us from, you know, actually being able to sell properly. And sales is really about serving, right? The other person, that's the way you think about it. It's just a process that we go people through. It's no hard tactics here. We're just trying to, you know, determine does this person have a problem that we can solve? Cause that's what entrepreneurship is all about is understanding that we've got a problem that we're solving.
And then does this person have that problem? If they do, great. Then, you know, offering that to them and then it's up to them, right, to do that and put it in a nice process. And when you understand that sales process really well of building rapport, digging on that problem, qualifying them as well. So not everyone that you want to speak to is a good lead, right? You want to qualify them that they're the right fit for you. And then, you know, offering them, you know, how to work together. And I think that those are some really simple key steps.
Heather Porter (06:18.264)
Yep.
Athin Cassiotis (06:27.856)
that you can do from a higher level, which of your own energy, but then focusing on the 20%, the marketing and the sales, right? If that's what you're wanting for growth, that's going to get you the biggest outcomes. Those revenue generating tasks, basically, right? Instead of spending three hours on emails in the morning, that may not be, you know, affecting you. So that would be some of my top tips there.
Heather Porter (06:47.534)
Absolutely brilliant. You know what I love what you said about the marketing piece and tip two around testing is I actually tied that back into anti stress and growing smarter because so many people that I've met and known over the years, they get so attached to an idea or concept for a campaign and then it like fails and then they feel like a failure. So I'd love that you'd said just like don't get attached. Just keep testing stuff, you know, makes it more fun and lighthearted. And the sales thing too, that you just quickly put in there the qualification piece, making sure that you're
speaking to qualified people that also limit stress as well. think the fact that you actually don't want to work with everybody, right?
Athin Cassiotis (07:23.598)
Yeah, definitely. Definitely great points and why get on a call that's not really relevant and wasting time. Technically, speak to people that you want to speak to and that want to speak to you and then you have a much better time and more relaxed and more efficient and effective time.
Heather Porter (07:26.659)
Mm.
Heather Porter (07:30.392)
Totally. Yeah.
Heather Porter (07:40.14)
Yeah, love it. Okay, so you are a business growth expert. do loads of speaking. You're an investor. You're right in there with the business scene. And what I'd love to know is how you became a growth expert. What's your past like?
Athin Cassiotis (07:55.28)
Yeah, definitely. I'll share a quick version of my story. So I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. So, you know, Adelaide's like a big country town. Parents as high school teachers and started my entrepreneurial journey at high school in year 10, about 15 years old, where I was selling VCD movies. I was one of the first people to get a CD burner for those slightly older people of today. Yes, the youth of today, what's a CD? you know, getting these...
Heather Porter (07:58.776)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (08:14.645)
my, I love it.
You
Athin Cassiotis (08:21.296)
You know, on two CDs and Fast and the Furious number one, that's how long ago it was, was the first one that I did. used to get these, you know, from my cousin and, I had to think strategically ahead just quickly, right? Is going, I didn't know anyone else who had a CD burner and I got this and I was like, I want to sell these for $10 each, but I need to, I want to do as many as possible in one go. Cause as soon as it goes out, anybody else could burn this as well. So I would, you know, sell five to 10 at a time, make $5 ,100 and I would keep doing that for multiple movies. Right? So that's thinking ahead strategically. So that's where my entrepreneurial journey started.
Heather Porter (08:49.12)
Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (08:50.992)
I actually ended up dropping out of high school in year 12. My parents as high school teachers didn't like that as you can imagine, but I got a job at a big environmental company after I worked my way up and then the head office in Sydney moved me to Sydney, which is great and a lot of great experience there. And everyone was talking about business, all their degrees and I had nothing. I just worked my way up. And then I realized I could get into an MBA, a master's business administration at UTS, one of the big unis here, just based on about eight years of experience working, which I had at the time.
I skipped the school and bachelor and just went straight to the masters and started learning about business, started really loving business, a lot of the core subjects. And then there's a change of management. wasn't enjoying work there after 10 and a half years. And I left that job and started my first company, which was a waste management consulting business. So taking all of my knowledge, right. And basically giving it to the industry now. And, know, got Westfield as my first big client, saved them like $4 million a year, 20 million over five years.
Heather Porter (09:38.945)
Okay.
Heather Porter (09:47.214)
Incredible.
Athin Cassiotis (09:48.366)
work we came out and target and defense and office works and a lot of, a lot of big brands, which is cool there to add specific value. And I go to networking events and people would be like, I think I've got this problem in my business. What do you think? I'm like, I want you to do one, two, three, four, five. And they're like, that's really good. I need to write that down. Tell me that again. And this would happen multiple times. I was like, okay, I've got a very good strategic brain, a good memory with my MBA, with my own business experience with, you know, my knowledge. so, and my coaches are mentors of what I'm learning as well. So.
I should create a business out of this. So I started a business coaching mentoring as well in 2019. And, you know, ever since then as well. So still doing both companies and really helping, yeah, business owners grow and scale their businesses to create wealth and freedom. And I've helped anyone from startups to six figure, seven figure and eight figure businesses, all different levels, you know, which is great sort of with my all my nine keys, the business growth mastery there and, also finished my MBA in entrepreneurship as well as
Heather Porter (10:34.103)
Incredible.
Athin Cassiotis (10:43.568)
become an NLP master practitioner. So I'm able to reframe mindsets because sometimes that's a big thing, right? On holding business owners back, know, one mindset shift could make the big difference. And, you know, from there, you know, I've started my podcast as well, the business growth show, you know, started COVID over four years, 200 episodes and counting. And then, looking at doing other things. I've invested in many companies. I'm looking at acquiring companies, other deals, things like that, which interests me. the way I think of it is, you know, having multiple streams of income, right?
Heather Porter (10:47.202)
Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (11:13.218)
multiple businesses I like, know, less risk diversification, because you never know what happens and really building that up and helping my clients do that. so they can create more wealth and then freedom, ideally to do, you know, what you want to be doing.
Heather Porter (11:25.314)
You an incredible background, just so diversified in such a brilliant journey and love that you're a fellow podcaster as well. Speaking on that before we move on. So the business growth show is that you do interviews for it. Cause obviously people listening to this might want to know what's your podcast about.
Athin Cassiotis (11:42.266)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. The business growth show, it's all interviews basically, apart from the first episode that was me. So I've interviewed a lot of big names like, you know, Bruce Buffers, Jay Abraham, you know, a of people in Australia as well, as well as, know, just normal entrepreneurs as well. They're just, you know, wanting to share their story and, and share some value on the podcast. we go, it's very wide, right? So anything to do with business, but it's also what's connected to business, you know, whether it's the mindset, the health side and things like that, that affects our business, like what we're talking about today, as well. So.
Heather Porter (11:49.581)
Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (12:11.504)
Really, really leaving it open and yeah, over 200 episodes. So I love for people to join in and maybe I can interview someone and maybe I can get you on there as well, Heather. And you know, we can, we can share the love so to speak.
Heather Porter (12:24.046)
That'd be great. Thank you. Now, just a kind of an interesting question. I'm curious because you, you know a lot about business. I'm really curious about you personally. What are you great at in business? What are you great at?
Athin Cassiotis (12:39.3)
Yeah, I think one of my biggest skills is strategic thinking, right? Or, you know, accurate thinking, whatever you want to call it, right? So thinking many moves ahead, basically. So, you know, one of my clients had a very great business. You know, we did a lot for her multi -million dollar business. And I'd always be like, if this is going to happen, this could happen. This could happen. This could happen, helping her really thinking ahead. So when she was going into a situation, she would do this. And then we finished, she went with another
standard coach, let's call it that was more specific for industry. And she called me up three months later and she says, Aithan, I didn't realize when you called yourself a strategist and you were doing all these things to me, you were preparing me for a lot. And this other coach that I got later, which is telling me to do things and I was just doing them without telling me what could potentially happen. And she had to shut down the business three months later liquidation, right? Which is crazy because we had it in a very good spot. And she goes, I didn't realize the value of your strategic thinking and
Heather Porter (13:26.122)
Mmm.
Heather Porter (13:31.554)
Wow. Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (13:38.222)
now and what it is there and just don't follow people blindly about what could happen if you make the decision. So you're ahead. So, it's a bit of a challenging story, but it shows you right. That if you're, don't just follow people blindly, like think if I do this, if I do that, this could be for business decisions. This could be in a meeting, right? If if you're preparing yourself for that, for a sales call, this could be for a partnership. Like always think if I do this, this could potentially happen. This could potentially happen. So think that's one of my biggest skills and, helping others to think like that, or just in my coaching sessions to.
allow them to do that. And that's from me having a good memory from me being around a lot of entrepreneurs from a lot of different industries and seeing, you know, at different stages and knowing, you know, what's coming as well. So yeah, that's probably one of my biggest skills. You know, I can teach all areas of business mindset, all that type of stuff. I'll say that would probably be the number one.
Heather Porter (14:27.468)
Nice. Now you mentioned earlier the nine keys to business growth MBA, mastery MBA system, I think is what you called it. With that, I'd love to know more about how that works. And if you perhaps maybe have a case study or somebody that you could tie to that and how you worked with them through that program or that formula, that would be excellent. So tell us more about the nine keys.
Athin Cassiotis (14:49.21)
Yeah, definitely. So yeah, my nine keys to business growth mastery. So there's three key phases, right? We've got design, deal and deliver. So the design phase, it starts with mindset, the most important, right? Cause I can teach everyone the same thing, but we get different results. We've got to fix that first. Then strategy and then planning, right? So these are the three design, really foundational areas. Are we going in the right direction with our strategy? Are we then planning for our success? So once we've got those three areas, right, then we go into the deal phase, which is branding.
Heather Porter (15:04.28)
Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (15:19.032)
marketing and sales, how we branding ourselves, personally business, how we marketing, getting leads. We've already been talking about that. And then, then sales, right? How we get in the clients. So that's the real deal phase, the engine there of growing the business. And then in the deliver phase, it's numbers, systems, and leadership. So you've got to know your numbers in your business, really important, not just financial numbers, but numbers around your clients and other things like that.
you know, what are the systems to automate a lot of things that you're doing and, in your business there, and now AI is coming into that to even, you know, supercharge that now. And then, you know, leadership is, know, you can, technically grow, you know, to a six figure business by yourself, by wearing all the hats, but that's a lot of stuff and could make you overwhelmed and things. Ideally you need to hire people, right? Whether that's outsourcing or in your team and really to be a leader for them to really want to work with you. Right. So that's, that's the nine keys. And in terms of a case study where.
a client that I've helped with. So client Siobhan had a great business. and I just went, okay, let's do every, we're doing all of these keys. I work out which key is going to give us the quickest results first. Right. and normally mindset is done all the way through, but I was like, what's the strategy? Okay. Do we need to make a little adjustment? Okay. Let's get, start planning. Let's do plans, you know, weekly, monthly, 90 day, you know, yearly plans, right? Like really there consistently. Okay.
How are we branded? Okay, we're looking pretty good right now. Do we need to make any adjustments? Okay, how are we marketing? Let's add some marketing elements here, right? Sales, she already had a decent sales process. I didn't need to change too much on the sales process. Numbers, we're evaluating a lot of numbers, right? In her business that she wasn't looking at before. implemented heaps of systems, like huge. She wasn't using project management systems, you know, all these other things that would really help her to, you know, work with a team and grow the team there. And then,
You know, with the leadership side, she started hiring people and we quadrupled her business in less than a year, right? Quadrupled the income, the revenue, which is amazing. Right. And I've got a nice video testimonial of her, you know, my website, but basically she says it, she goes, we did all these things, right. and everything like that and worked on her mindset. So, you know, that's why, you know, some people might be more specific in helping a business and that's fine as well. Maybe a bit more specialist. I go to the fact that you need to know all these areas because they all interlock with each other.
Heather Porter (17:16.887)
That's amazing.
future.
Athin Cassiotis (17:39.822)
And I can bring specialists in as well when needed, you know, to work together with too, but I'm more of the GP doctor, I guess, where we can go through all of them and make them all work together well to then, yeah, get the best outcome.
Heather Porter (17:47.118)
you
Heather Porter (17:51.5)
Now, did you work with her personally or did you have other team that, like you said, you have specialists that come in as well, but were you the main point of contact?
Athin Cassiotis (17:58.594)
I was the main point of contact for her for this one, right? So we didn't go external. The only thing that, you know, we might've gone a little bit external was, you know, looking at maybe updating a website branding or things like that, right? Where people are providing a particular sort of consultative service there where she couldn't implement herself, but basically everything was just me on this one. Now other clients, you know, we may bring other people in, right? You know, to grow things and that area there. Cause the way I see it, especially if you want to outsource is that
Heather Porter (18:01.153)
Okay, yeah.
Heather Porter (18:10.061)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Heather Porter (18:18.114)
Amazing.
Athin Cassiotis (18:27.982)
You need to know a decent amount of all these areas that I've told you, even if you're not going to do it yourself. Like for example, the marketing, right? You need to know enough about marketing that are you hiring the right agency to outsource your marketing to? Do you know the right questions to ask them to know that they actually know what they're talking about? So you don't get burnt like some people have been burnt in the past, right? So you got to know enough to be able to get the right people on board and everything in your business. So that's what I'm upskilling them on. Hopefully if they can do it themselves, great. Or if we need external help.
Find the right people that's gonna be with our business and work together to get the result that we want.
Heather Porter (19:02.582)
You know, I always say that to people you need to learn, you need to understand a base level of knowledge. So I love that you said that. think that's so important. So do you have a, like a standard sort of coaching model where you meet with your clients and then you give them the action steps and then you just hold them accountable through your, through your nine keys program? Is that how it works?
Athin Cassiotis (19:23.268)
Yeah, definitely. So, you know, where I get the biggest results is a lot of my one -on -one coaching mentoring, right? Like we might be fortnightly sessions normally. I give unlimited support outside of that as well. So if they want to, you know, reach out to little things along the way, I tried this, what do you think, Ethan? Or, you know, can you check this out that we're doing? So that also helps. And that creates a lot of momentum, right? Because when I did my MBA, I did the studies, I did it, you know, I had to build my business and did all the research for it, for coaching.
Heather Porter (19:28.458)
Yeah. Okay.
Athin Cassiotis (19:50.64)
If someone just says they're going to do something, they do it 20 % of the time. If someone has a coach mentor, they have regular sessions they're invested in and that they complete it 90 % of the time. That's like four and a half times the output, right? Of someone there. So this is where one -on -one ongoing sessions really allows you to create, you know, what you're wanting to, you know, going forward and get massive results. Now,
My one -on -one time is capped, right? Yes, I can get other people involved. I only want to do people that are really, you know, committed to wanting to go. And normally I will work for at least 12 months with people because it takes some months to build momentum. Right. It's that kind of, it's like one session. I might fix a few problems now, but there's going to be another hundred, right? Over time that we need to, we need to work on as you grow down that journey. Now, some other people might just want to come to an event with me and learn some knowledge, which is great as well. But then are they going to implement? Most people don't implement, right? They will learn, go to an event, write some notes.
Heather Porter (20:24.438)
Absolutely.
Athin Cassiotis (20:42.656)
employment. That's where the one -on -one comes in or the ongoing coaching, mentoring to really do that. So that's where I really can confirm as best as possible without doing the work for them that they're going to get the greatest results.
Heather Porter (20:54.858)
Awesome. So I want to talk about live events and stuff because you, know you're a speaker and you just talked right there. You said in person at workshops, how much of your business or how much of what you do is in person and at events.
Athin Cassiotis (21:08.048)
Yeah, like I started doing more in person this year in 2024 before that, because when I started, it was sort of in the 2019. So it's been, you know, COVID obviously happened after that. So was a lot of virtual stuff that was happening first. So, you know, I do a bit of both, right? Like I think the benefits of COVID is that we were able to connect to a wider audience, right? So you weren't just having to deal with people in your local city. You know, you could deal with people all over Australia or deal with people all over the world. So I've had.
Heather Porter (21:11.693)
Okay.
Athin Cassiotis (21:37.552)
people from over 10 countries, you know, that I've worked with virtually with different types of events, whether they're for a few hours, whether they're for more, I've done three day events, right? On zoom or I've done, you know, three day events in person, right? So I have like my, my business growth workshops or my three day MBA that I do in person here. And it's really great. Like I, I love, I love the in -person there's obviously a bit more risk, there's a bit more costs. You've got to pay for venues, AV, you know, all these types of things, but you get more of a connection with people as well. So understanding.
how that works is it, and this comes down to the testing as well, right? Like you're not going to just hit it out of the park, the first event you do. And a lot of people, you know, there's a lot of intricacies with in -person events, right? Compared to a virtual, which is a lot easier. So I think for everyone is like started virtual events. It's a great way to test, know, just using zoom or whatever. And then you can just, you know, as long as you've got a standard tech set up, you know, there, then you can provide some value to people and ask, you know, how people can do that. Maybe that's a one and a half, two hour.
you know, webinar type thing, your seminar that you do, and then you could obviously do some, some more paid events. So that's sort of, yeah, my model is testing different things out, you know, there I'm still testing, right? It's always testing in business there and just giving people specific value or teaching them all of these areas and going, now you've got the plan, you have the business plan, the marketing plan, all of these areas, you know, now it's time to implement from there.
Heather Porter (22:59.554)
Yeah, nice. I'm glad you said that because quite a few of our listeners are really keen and interested in the whole event path. I mean, I have a guy who runs a big cybersecurity company who's just trying to do his own events. I have a styling company, a big mix of clients. So I'm glad that you said that and you keep reiterating that theme of testing and trying new things. So important. Branding, I want to talk a little bit about that because you as a speaker and being out there in public facing of your business.
How important do you think it is these days to be a front man of your business and to be out there and be visual and visible?
Athin Cassiotis (23:35.46)
Yeah, definitely. Branding is so important. think, you know, as a great saying is that marketing is the engine of your business and branding is the fuel, right? So branding is what really maximizes it. So if you've got an average brand, know, putting all this money into marketing isn't necessarily going to help you that much, right? So branding is the key foundation. We've got business brands, we've got personal brands. You know, I think personal branding is becoming more more important now, especially as a speaker or a coach, right? People are buying you, people buy
Heather Porter (23:43.437)
Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (24:04.804)
you people that don't buy products and services a lot of the time. So you need to be putting yourself out there more as a personal brand and that, can just start as social media, right? As, as your personal brand. then, you know, you can build that up to have like, you know, your own website and other areas that you do with your personal brand. And the benefits of that is, you know, you could do multiple businesses this way. So, you know, as you're doing different things or attracting partners for your business, you know, of my coaches said that, you know, people will only partner with you if.
They perceive that your brand is on the same level or above them. Right. So how are you being perceived in, your brand and my, my personal brand just recently got updated. and it's now, you know, looking like how I am now, because it was a few years old and I've had a lot more growth since then. So, you know, be aware of what it looks like and what are people looking and feeling and, it's really, it's becoming really, really important now. you know, there's a lot of opportunities that are coming from that. People are wanting to do business, in a lot of different ways. So.
I would just say, if you don't have it already, get your first name, last name .com or get official in there or whatever it is, if you're a John Smith and, you know, and start to build something around that. Cause then, you know, it's not just limited to what you do in your current business. It can offer much more than that later as you start thinking bigger and other bigger opportunities, you know, for these multiple streams of income there. So think it's, I think it's extremely important. You should all be building that and there's multiple ways, right? So.
Just quickly, if you want to be building authority, right? To grow your authority as your personal brand. Celebrity branding is a big thing, right? Whether you like celebrities or not, other people do, unconsciously. So if you're hanging around with all these celebrities, or got pictures with them at least, or potentially interviewing them, then all of a sudden, like, Ethan must be somebody, Heather must be somebody, right? If they've got these people there. Speaking on stage, speaking. We just talked about speaking, right? So.
Heather Porter (25:58.317)
Yep.
Athin Cassiotis (25:59.216)
Most people have a fear of public speaking. So whether you're speaking in a group of 10 people in person, virtually, know, whatever it is, thousands, I've spoken in front of a thousand, two and a half thousand people in Los Angeles, doesn't matter the size necessarily, but speaking, get those photos, get someone to take it of you, automatically elevate your authority. You know, being an author, it's in the word authority, and that could just be an ebook initially, if you don't, you know, want to create a massive book right now, getting into media where you can.
And getting results for people is really important. Getting on podcast interviews, being interviewed on a podcast, right? Like we're doing right now. It's a great way to build your authority and obviously results, you know, with your clients. I mean, a case studies like we've been talking about today. So all of those things add to your authority. So thinking about how you can differentiate yourself. So when people look at you, they're like, wow, yeah, you know, Aith and Heather, they're, they're, you know, much more amazing than potentially a couple of other people that I'm looking at. want to work with them.
Heather Porter (26:52.472)
People do business with people they know, like, and trust, right? So that's, that's, yeah. And that's why I had to ask that question because I am always beating people around the bush saying, guys, you have to, you have to do personal branding. You've got to get out there. You know, it's so important. What's the future of business look like? What's a trend or two that you're finding that people need to pay attention to?
Athin Cassiotis (26:55.941)
Definitely.
Athin Cassiotis (27:13.092)
Yeah, definitely. I think the big one on everyone's lips is AI, right? Now it's getting a lot of traction. whether you're, you know, I think everybody should be using it every day, right? ChatGPT, minimum, right? There's a lot of other AI tools out there, but let's just start with that because it's gaining a lot of, and get the paid version. There's a lot more you can do with the paid version, you know, with creating images or videos, or you can upload documents and get summaries from them. can do a whole range of things and it's just understanding how to prompt it, right?
Heather Porter (27:16.514)
Yes.
Athin Cassiotis (27:42.702)
You know, there, there's a lot of stuff that goes into that, you know, probably a lot of knowledge there, but you know, you could even ask how to prompt it, right. You know, which is a fun part of GBT. you know, which is, which is fun. I would be thinking about, you know, how can you incorporate AI into your business? Right. Or, and then that's like, don't think about it as having to get rid of people, but it could be like, can you make yourself or your team double as efficient potentially, right? Where AI is doing half the work.
Heather Porter (27:50.862)
I've done that too, yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (28:11.578)
So imagine you could grow your business double without having to hire any more people. Right. So this is the potential of AI. And then also, can you build something that's unique to you? Can you upload information into an AI that you've created that is unique to your business and then you can extract information from this is where it starts to get more powerful. Right. And then, and then if you could do it for your business, you know, maybe you could even do it for an industry, right. At a later point. So this is where things are going now where it's incorporating AI into what we do. So.
Definitely be playing with it every day. It's moving quickly. And there's a lot of other tools out there as well that do stuff like I've got to, you you probably use this as well, but there's a cool, you know, video platforms that just extract, you know, little snippets from these podcasts episodes and create the videos now and all of that. Right. So there's a lot of cool stuff where it would take hours for someone to do, but now it takes minutes, you know, for, AI to do it. So why use the heavy lifting for someone in the team when AI can support that. And then, you know, you can work on other bigger things that it's going to help grow the business as well.
Heather Porter (29:10.22)
Yeah, love that. Now, who's your ideal client, Ethan? Who would you love to work with more of in the future?
Athin Cassiotis (29:16.612)
Yeah, definitely. So for me, where I get the most fulfillment and I love working with is clients that already have some traction in their business. So they're making six figures, seven figures, even eight figures in their business already. And they're just going, okay, I want to grow. I'm a bit stuck. It's not growing too fast. Like how do I get to that next level of growth, scaling, more clients, more revenue, but then ideally wanting to make.
more wealth and freedom so that you're not working too hard. You're working smarter, right? In terms of what you're doing there. And I've worked with over 30 different industries and know a lot more, predominantly service -based, but I've worked with some products. So the industry doesn't really matter to me because business is business a lot of the time. There's only a few nuances in each industry and I've helped help them all. But as long as you've got some traction, then yeah, they're normally the best clients. And I've had clients in over 10 countries. So the country doesn't really matter. It's just, are you really committed?
to really grow in the business and doing what it takes. And then, you know, we can work together as a team and get it to the next level.
Heather Porter (30:13.09)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (30:17.388)
Amazing. So where do they find you if they're interested?
Athin Cassiotis (30:20.08)
Yeah, definitely. So check out my new website, athencassiotis .com. So my name, .com there. you know, it's got my nine keys to business growth mastery, ebook there as well, as a free resource that you can get, there. And I want an ebook competition of over 400 people on that. So even just get it, not just for the gold value, but also how to model an ebook study, right. to, get something that, that people like, and it talks about everything, right. And also on, my social media.
Heather Porter (30:38.222)
Study it. Yeah. Yeah.
Athin Cassiotis (30:47.544)
It's only one of me, Aithan Casiotis. So if you find me on all the, all the platforms like Facebook, Instagram, you know, LinkedIn, YouTube, all of that there. And yeah, love to connect with anyone, you know, if I can add value a little bit or anything like that there, but get the, get the resource, you know, follow me, reach out, always adding a lot of value and yeah, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much as well, Heather, for having me on here. Look forward to hopefully repaying the favor soon. It's been a pleasure.
Heather Porter (31:14.051)
I'm loving every moment of our chat. And as we start to wrap up, is there one last word of wisdom or advice that you'd like to leave our listeners with who are growing their businesses and are maybe having a stressed out day and they're thinking, I want to give up. What would you say to them?
Athin Cassiotis (31:28.548)
Yeah. it's just keep going. Most people quit too early, right in their business. And if you never quit, you always succeed. Right. So one thing that I'll say is if, if something's holding you back, whatever, everyone gets limiting thoughts from time to time, right. And normally it's the mindset shift that can make everything. So if you're, if you're saying business is hard or whatever that negative thing that's coming up for you, just be aware of it, catch it in your mind and then go.
Okay. What's the opposite of that? What do I actually want to believe? Business is easy. Business is fun. I'm a master of business, whatever that is for you. Right. And you can stack multiples of those, make sure they're in the present tense, right? Like I am a master of business as an example. and, and then say these, I put them in my phone, right? That's what I did a lot, you know, at the start of my businesses, especially put it your phone and then just tell these things to yourself every day, because, this will help re -script your brain from
those other negative thoughts that have potentially been holding you back or making you feel overwhelmed and there, and then start to think about who is the person that I am now that I want to be becoming, but believing you already are that now. So your unconscious mind goes, okay, this is now, Aithan, I'm going to move forward and this is, I'm focusing on what I want. So I think that would be my biggest tip. Those little shifts that can make a massive difference in your business. You know, I've had a business, had a multimillion dollars. It came to me.
went from 15 staff to five, I did one mindset session on him and his biggest month ever in his biggest business the month after that. No strategies, no tactics, right? So that's not to impress you. And we did strategies and tactics later. It just shows you the power of the mindset, right? It could just be one shift and then bang, you know, it could take your business to that next level of where you wanted to go.
Heather Porter (33:06.03)
Absolutely.
Heather Porter (33:11.6)
brilliant. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Much appreciated. Had a great conversation and I'll talk to you soon.
Athin Cassiotis (33:18.288)
Definitely. Thanks so much.
