Episode 81
81 - The Origin Story: How Connect & Convert Sales Accelerator Podcast Began
Connect & Convert is your Sales Accelerator podcast where small business owners learn insider secrets to grow their sales faster than ever. Hosted by Wizard of Ads partners Dennis Collins, Leah Bumphrey, and Producer Paul Boomer, this podcast delivers actionable insights on marketing, leadership, company culture, and sales strategies tailored for small business growth.
In this special edition, our hosts share the origin story of the Connect & Convert podcast. From Dennis's first experiences at Wizard Academy over 20 years ago to how the trio came together to create this resource for small business owners, you'll hear the authentic journey behind their mission to help businesses grow. Learn how they offer free consultations, answer listener questions, and bring their diverse expertise in culture, leadership, sales, and marketing to help small businesses thrive.
Transcript
Hey, a warm welcome back to Connect & Convert your Sales Accelerator podcast,
Speaker:where small business owners tune in to learn the insider secrets about how
Speaker:to grow their sales faster than ever.
Speaker:Hi, Leah.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:Leah?
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:And Dennis, I, I wanna tell you.
Speaker:I don't get nearly enough time with you.
Speaker:Not nearly enough time with Producer Paul.
Speaker:You guys beautifully invited me to be part of this podcast.
Speaker:That's almost two years ago now, and I've loved every minute of it pretty,
Speaker:I think that was a pretty smart move on our part.
Speaker:But I, I have some questions.
Speaker:I have some questions and these are gonna be,
Speaker:we don't do questions.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I know that we are sponsored by WizardAcademy.org.
Speaker:And that is because we love it and because they, they, uh, understand
Speaker:what it is that we're trying to achieve for small business.
Speaker:But how did this idea start?
Speaker:Dennis?
Speaker:Tell me how it started because I wasn't.
Speaker:I'll tell you how it started for me.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'll give you my own personal, uh, first time Wizard Academy.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, the first thing is you have to understand those of you who
Speaker:know the academy and know the 22 acre campus that it sits on.
Speaker:There was no campus, it was a building, uh, that was part of
Speaker:Roy Williams marketing, and on the bottom floor of that building was
Speaker:a, a makeshift classroom that was.
Speaker:Very small.
Speaker:And my first experience there was to see Michelle Miller, who is a Wizard of Ads
Speaker:partner and an author and, uh, quite a very studious and very capable person.
Speaker:And her topic was marketing to women.
Speaker:Okay, marketing to women.
Speaker:She eventually wrote two books about that, but I had radio stations
Speaker:that appealed mostly to women.
Speaker:Okay, well, I think my, uh, light FM was probably 75%, uh, female audience.
Speaker:So I really needed to learn everything I could learn about marketing to women,
Speaker:and Michelle taught me that, and I never went, I, I never stopped going.
Speaker:Roy Williams, I met him personally for the first time there, and he
Speaker:picked me up and put in his pickup truck and took me up to, uh.
Speaker:This spot, a top of a of a, of a hill in the hill country of Austin, Texas.
Speaker:And he said, there's gonna be a campus on this spot.
Speaker:I said, okay, Roy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:When, when's that gonna be, Roy?
Speaker:I mean, how soon?
Speaker:You know, and I did not know Roy well enough to know that when Roy says he
Speaker:is gonna do something, he does it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Does.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And sure enough, a few years later it started sprouting up.
Speaker:So, you know, uh, I guess.
Speaker:Uh, it was kind of magical to kind of be in on the, on the, on the ground
Speaker:floor of what's now the academy, uh, Tuscan Hall, which is now, uh, the
Speaker:property of Penny and Roy Williams.
Speaker:They use it for private events.
Speaker:That was the first classroom.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I was actually there.
Speaker:It was a magnificent building, uh, to hold a class in.
Speaker:I taught classes there and I also took classes there.
Speaker:So, yeah, my story goes way back to the very beginning.
Speaker:This is 20 plus years ago.
Speaker:How about you?
Speaker:Okay, so now I want you to fast forward for me, Dennis.
Speaker:How did you and Paul create or start thinking about creating Connect & Convert
Speaker:? Oh geez,
Speaker:because that came from your Wizard Association, Paul, producer
Speaker:Paul might just pop in here.
Speaker:Well, I've known Paul for.
Speaker:I bet close to 20 years.
Speaker:I mean, I met him, he was one of the first partners, uh, when Roy decided
Speaker:to go, uh, the partnership route.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And of course, I, I had known him from being at the academy.
Speaker:He was a frequent flyer there as well.
Speaker:And uh, that's where I got to know, I got to know probably all
Speaker:of the original partners because I went to the academy so often.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So that's how I got to know him.
Speaker:When I, uh, became a Wizard of Ads partner, uh, I was immediately
Speaker:attracted to employee optimization.
Speaker:That's what Paul is in charge of for the Wizard of Ads Partners.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And, uh, I, that was the, you know, closest thing that fit what I do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I immediately called him and we started talking and.
Speaker:We just started brainstorming.
Speaker:I had always wanted a podcast.
Speaker:It's one thing I think I told you that Paul, I always wanted to do
Speaker:a podcast and I just never had.
Speaker:The topic.
Speaker:I never had the the people to help me.
Speaker:I needed help.
Speaker:And all of a sudden it appeared.
Speaker:Isn't that something?
Speaker:Isn't that what happens when, when, when.
Speaker:But this is what you talked about.
Speaker:Roy.
Speaker:Roy saw something and then it happened.
Speaker:You're the same guy, Dennis.
Speaker:You see what you wanna make happen and it happens.
Speaker:Am I not right, Paul?
Speaker:You're absolutely right.
Speaker:And and, and that's the funny thing that you just said.
Speaker:He said, I didn't have the topics.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You had a lot of topics and that's why I said we're doing this thing
Speaker:called Connect & Convert . And you said, great, let's do it.
Speaker:So we did it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And here we are.
Speaker:Paul pushed me into it, and not that I went kicking and screaming.
Speaker:I loved every minute of it, but you know, that was the
Speaker:first time that I actually had.
Speaker:A catalyst.
Speaker:You know, we often need catalysts in life, don't we?
Speaker:It's
Speaker:true.
Speaker:What's that old saying?
Speaker:When when the student is ready, the teacher appears?
Speaker:Well, that's kind of what happened.
Speaker:The teacher appeared, the mentor appeared, and here we are almost two years.
Speaker:Well, I, I love being part of, with you guys.
Speaker:I love being part of it all.
Speaker:Now we have a couple of things that we offer to our listeners and our viewers.
Speaker:So Dennis.
Speaker:I know you particularly love the free one that we do, the big free one.
Speaker:So why don't you tell
Speaker:Yes, it's free, because we really want to see how we might be able to help you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And the best way to do it is to just have a talk.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And yeah, it, it's a structured talk.
Speaker:We have some things that we'll ask you, some things about
Speaker:you, about your business.
Speaker:We care about.
Speaker:Uh, how you founded your business, why you founded your business.
Speaker:We care about how you run and operate your business.
Speaker:We care about all that stuff because that is important to whatever it is we
Speaker:eventually might be able to do with you.
Speaker:So, and you know, we don't come in with any preconceived ideas.
Speaker:Obviously Leah and I work mostly in, uh, and, and, and Paul, I'm sorry,
Speaker:in the culture, leadership, sales, marketing, uh, not so marketing.
Speaker:Most of our other partners are experts at marketing.
Speaker:Now, Leah, of course, is a, a is a gifted writer.
Speaker:Paul is a gifted coach when it comes to strategy, when
Speaker:it comes to, uh, leadership.
Speaker:Uh, and so we all kind of have our, our separate niche, but we can
Speaker:probably handle most anything you need.
Speaker:Uh, to make your business grow.
Speaker:That's what we do.
Speaker:We grow businesses and we can do it in many different ways.
Speaker:That's perfect.
Speaker:I love the way you said that.
Speaker:Now, Paul, when we have people that are not maybe ready for 60 minutes free with
Speaker:us, you are the guy who, uh, takes on all those, uh, emails that we get where
Speaker:people are asking specific questions.
Speaker:So do you wanna speak to how that works or do you want me to go?
Speaker:You go for it.
Speaker:Well, I mean, sometimes there's just things from the topics that we're talking
Speaker:about or some other sales process that you're hearing about that you're gonna
Speaker:wanna know what do these guys think?
Speaker:Or have they heard about it?
Speaker:Or maybe it's even an something that we'll take as an idea for a future show.
Speaker:You can email myself.
Speaker:You can email Dennis uh Leah@wizardofads.com or
Speaker:dennisCollins@wizardofads.com.
Speaker:paulboomer@wizardofads.com.
Speaker:Send us an email or at the bottom of this podcast, our contact information is there.
Speaker:If you have a question, we will answer it.
Speaker:And when we answer it, we're we're thrilled because it's an
Speaker:opportunity to, we call it a gravity.
Speaker:Well, right now, you're listening to us and you're getting some ideas,
Speaker:and we want to take you closer and closer to taking full advantage of how
Speaker:marketing, how culture, how business should be, and that's what we're about.
Speaker:That's what we're about.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, I had to use my,
Speaker:I don't a hockey talk on the side, right, Dennis?
Speaker:I had, I had to leave my canadian.
Speaker:So I have a question for you, Leah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:How did you get into the Wizard Academy?
Speaker:Now, before you answer that, I wanna make sure that we distinguish
Speaker:Wizard Academy and Wizard of Ads are two separate entities.
Speaker:Completely separate, but there's a lot of.
Speaker:Cross pollination, so.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, wizard Wizard Academy is a nonprofit business school.
Speaker:It's a non-traditional nonprofit, uh, non boring business school.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, the Wizard of Ads is a group of, of misfits that we're extremely good at, at
Speaker:our, at our ni niches and extremely good.
Speaker:I often ask, why am I here?
Speaker:Uh, but.
Speaker:They are two separate entities.
Speaker:So, but I wanna know from Yulia, how did you get involved with Wizard Academy?
Speaker:I was very fortunate to be working for a radio group in Canada, very
Speaker:forward thinking, very customer first owned by a couple of brothers who were
Speaker:very intent on doing things right.
Speaker:They actually had a, a sales system that they called the seven.
Speaker:Steps to Glory, if I remember correctly.
Speaker:Or the pa Yeah.
Speaker:The Seven Steps to Glory.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And you know that that's a little bit, uh, if you wanna talk
Speaker:about, uh, different language.
Speaker:They had everyone's attention at that.
Speaker:But they were introduced, they were introduced to, uh, the
Speaker:Wizard of Ads Roy's first book.
Speaker:And then, uh, someone, uh, in the organization went and saw him speak
Speaker:and then someone else, and they went, this guy, his philosophy.
Speaker:And our philosophy, they match.
Speaker:We gotta have 'em come up here.
Speaker:So Roy was brought up to Saskatchewan, hard to spell, fun to say.
Speaker:And Roy toured around the province, and this is back in the day that you could
Speaker:get him to come out, um, out of Texas and, and, uh, out of his comfort zone a little.
Speaker:And we had him speaking to thousands of business owners.
Speaker:And as a salesperson, I loved, I loved having the information
Speaker:on how to really run with.
Speaker:What I knew was a great product was word of mouth to the next
Speaker:level, but how to explain it.
Speaker:He gave us that, that framework.
Speaker:And from there it took me a few years, but I finally was able to
Speaker:go to his signature, um, signature course, the uh, magical World.
Speaker:And that was just when he had moved from, but Texas.
Speaker:To where Venice got to tour and Tuscan Hall was where we met and
Speaker:I was there going, oh my goodness.
Speaker:So I just kept going and kept going.
Speaker:And eventually Roy told the, um, ROCO radio, that's the radio group to, to
Speaker:just, you know what, you run with it.
Speaker:It's not Roy's way that you should be calling it, it's the Roco way.
Speaker:But I just kept tapped into Roy and a lot of his information and his Monday morning
Speaker:memo and that gave me the opportunity.
Speaker:To take more and more classes and ultimately to meet people like
Speaker:you guys who are just like-minded.
Speaker:It's about a customer, it's about business.
Speaker:It's about how can you make a difference?
Speaker:And I, I just found my tribe.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I wanna go there, Leah.
Speaker:You make me want to get on a plane right now.
Speaker:Well, that's what we're trying to get people to do.
Speaker:That's why they should be emailing us and talking to us.
Speaker:'cause wow.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Uh, WizardAcademy.org, right?
Speaker:WizardAcademy.org is the website.
Speaker:And on that website you will find classes.
Speaker:They don't have traditional business school titles, and that's on purpose.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Because they are not traditional business school classes.
Speaker:They are totally untraditional, but totally mind expanding.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:I dare you to go to a class at Wizard Academy and not leave there at the end
Speaker:of usually it's what, a couple days?
Speaker:Two days?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And your head will be exploding now.
Speaker:In a good way.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Look at that.
Speaker:After the first time I went, Dennis, and I've told you and Paul this story,
Speaker:I was absolutely determined that my three boys were gonna go so far.
Speaker:Two outta three of them have, and uh, Fletcher, he's gone I
Speaker:think more times than I actually have been able to get down there.
Speaker:My husband is gone.
Speaker:It is just wonderful to find people.
Speaker:That really care information that really works and, uh, is about growth and doing
Speaker:things the right way, which is what we're doing at converting and connect
Speaker:, A retreat, not a resort.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it, it kind of feels like a resort.
Speaker:The rooms, the, the rooms and Englebrecht House and Spence Manor.
Speaker:Wow, you'll say Yes.
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:So, uh, I don't know.
Speaker:We've been talking about this for a long time, haven't we?
Speaker:Leah, what's, what's holding you back?
Speaker:What's stopping you?
Speaker:Okay,
Speaker:I wanna go right now.
Speaker:I'm, start checking flights.
Speaker:I mean, what, what the food Oh.
Speaker:They cater in the food while you're in class.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Some of the best restaurants in Austin, Texas are used to cater in your food.
Speaker:You don't have to go out to eat right there.
Speaker:It's all there for you.
Speaker:And it's top drawer food.
Speaker:If you go online and you're looking and you have questions,
Speaker:ask us the questions about it.
Speaker:Let us know what, what is holding you back.
Speaker:'cause we will find a way to, to talk into it and not sell you
Speaker:on it, but talk you into why.
Speaker:And I guarantee you, you will make friends that will you ha you will
Speaker:have for the rest of your life.
Speaker:I still know people that I met there in like the Wizard partners who are
Speaker:now I'm partners with, but uh, these folks I'll know for the rest of my life.
Speaker:And there are certain people, not even Wizard partners that I met
Speaker:there and cherish that meeting.
Speaker:Good people.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Get the plane.
Speaker:The plane.
Speaker:Look at the website.
Speaker:Make a choice.
Speaker:You can't go wrong.
Speaker:And the cool thing is once you become an alumni, you get 50%
Speaker:off of the list price of a class.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Once you become an alumni forever, that's true.
Speaker:One class and you get it forever,
Speaker:all.
Speaker:Yeah, we do.
Speaker:Uh, let's wrap this one up.
Speaker:Uh, this was a special edition of Connect & Convert . A little bit
Speaker:about our sponsor, the Wizard Academy.
Speaker:WizardAcademy.org.org.
Speaker:Look 'em up, you'll love it.
Speaker:Uh, Connect & Convert . Will be back soon with another episode for small
Speaker:business owners looking for insider secrets to grow sales faster than ever.
Speaker:See you next time.
Speaker:Send in your questions.
