Vision Pros Live Podcast
Original podcast
What is your vision? Featuring Jay Melone. Podcast Session 1.
3,259 words · 3 speakers
Share with us a little bit about ProfitLadder.
So it is a company where I help service-based business owners turn their sort of high-ticket services that they have into scalable offers that attract ideal clients and help them to scale their business. So they have more time back to serve their clients.
Absolutely, and I tell you, most people want the time back. As I read a lot of information regarding you and your business, that's one of your main focuses as you have a story that I would really love for you to share as how your business got to a level where you are now.
Well, it started by solving my own, like really scratching my own itch. So I ran another consulting business for 15 years. And I sold high-ticket services to large companies and the sales cycles were just really grueling, to say the least. Very long 12-plus months, trying to get in front of executives that are busy. And so like a lot of prospecting and pitching and doing all the sales stuff, you know, like following the traditional playbook. And being ghosted left and right and just kind of like,
you grow some scales to that and your armor goes up, but it also, over time for me, who, you know, I became an entrepreneur and never really wanted to be in charge of sales, but it became my job. And doing a job that you don't like doing, that's exceptionally hard and you're getting sort of rejected left and right. I just wanted a way to make that, that, that job that I had of building my own business easier. I wanted to create offers that people saw as valuable and easy to buy. And let me focus more on doing the work instead of spending so much of my time selling the work.
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting because as a real estate agent full-time, time just sounds really good, more time, right? But of course, we know we only have 24 hours in a day and majority of that is spending time with family or driving. So I definitely get that. So as you realized you were in a situation, what was a, what was the system or the turning point that got you to where you are today?
Well, so I got, well, to be honest, I got so burned out doing the work that I tried to start giving away parts in my job. First, just trying to automate and systematize the marketing and sales that I did. But then even the delivery of the, the work that I was hired to do, which is sort of like innovation and strategy work. I, I said, you know, it's a three and six month project that I tend to sell and that work is very intense. Highly performative. I'm helping executives in big companies make really critical decisions that are seven, eight, nine figure decisions. So, uh, over time I was like, you know, maybe I can take the expertise that I built up doing this sort of like in this product development innovation work.
And I can package it into formats that my clients and sort of their teams could use without me having to be in the room.
Because, because like I mentioned before, it was such a long, complicated sales process. I had to really explain a lot of how we would work, the time I'd need from them, how long things would take, when they could expect a return on their investment. And so I said, like, I, I bet that there's a way that I can take these things packaged up so that they don't need me. They don't need to like spend five, six figures hiring me.
Yeah.
And go through that whole vendor approval process. I could just almost immediately give them access to what I know about the frameworks that I use. And then they can get their own wins and sort of like significantly minimize their time to value and the thing, the problems that they were trying to solve to begin with when they sought out my help.
Nice, nice. So you built a system where they can work it on their own. Um, and are you pretty much the support team if they have questions or things like that?
Yeah. So, um, I called them toolkits. So I took, I took all those resources, my knowledge. I created training videos of how to use my tools, how to go through the process. And so I packaged them into these things called toolkits. And I sold them to like, to hire me to do what I did was often like fifty to a hundred thousand dollars for a six month long project. And now I'm selling these toolkits for two, three hundred bucks. So, um. That at first was a bit of a mindset shift for me to take 10 years worth of expertise and be willing to sell it for a really small nominal fee. But what I noticed is the people that bought them often then went on to come back and hire me anyway.
So it was an unexpected benefit that I had. Instead of just being this new revenue source from these toolkits, it wound up almost being a marketing vehicle that people would drop back into my inbox and say, hey Jay, you know, I used your toolkit. We loved it. We have another project coming up. We'd rather you just do it this time around. We were pretty good at it, but we imagine that you're so much better at it since you created this toolkit. And that made my job of selling, I mean exceptionally easier. So I did have to support them. People would reach out with questions about certain specifics about how the toolkits worked. But mostly people were just like, you know, I want to pick your brain on like how these things work and maybe we can talk about a project that we have coming up.
So my support role almost blended into my ability to sell without even really having to sell.
Absolutely. And then by them watching your videos, they pretty much knew the person behind the business. So why not just go ahead and have him do it? I think that's interesting about entrepreneurship is they first got to get to know you so they can utilize the services, right? So that was definitely very smart. As you mentioned, you had no clue it's going to be a marketing vehicle for them to hire you anyway. So when it comes to profit ladder, of course, we wouldn't be on Vision Pros Live if I didn't ask you to tell me about your vision.
So I have this system that I use today. When I work with clients, it's called a reverse flywheel. And what I think it is, what I think makes for a really strong service business is to put at sort of like the gateway to working with you, which is exactly what you were just saying. Create offers that are easy to understand, easy to buy, easy to use, minimize your time to value and remove you from all of the sort of acting, consulting, coaching work that you're doing. So I build, I help my clients build this sort of reverse flywheel where the goal is to sell as much as you can of your one-on-one work. So I'm, I'm dog fooding my own process. For the next year, I'm going to be working with up to a hundred entrepreneurs that are trying to
scale their service-based business. Then I'll create one-to-many formats from that work. And then as I answer questions, create templates, create assets, I'll package those into do-it-yourself versions of the work that I do. And eventually I'll have my own flywheel, which is very much inception of exactly what I'm teaching my clients to do. Cause it works and I really believe in it. So I want to do the same for my own business.
Absolutely. So I was looking, as I mentioned, me looking on your site and everything and you have the, you know, still getting the leads, still getting people in, you know, it's, it's almost like an ever-giving system that allows you to have continuous growth in the business. What, what was the biggest struggles you faced when you decided to grow Profit Ladder?
Um, at first, jumping to sort of like chasing money. It's always been a thing for me. It's like chasing the revenue and forgetting that, again, dog fooding the process. I have to demonstrate my expertise and my value, earn trust from my market. And so people won't be willing to just drop five, 10,000 bucks to work with me one-on-one. And they probably also won't just buy a toolkit or a template that they don't, they haven't yet gotten to know me. So after six months or so of research, I realized that if I could run masterclasses and be in front of my audience and show them, sort of like teach them the process and get them down the funnel, then it'll be much
easier for them to just hire me or kind of use one of my do-it-yourself offers.
Yes, yes, yes. Makes a lot of sense. So you're now doing masterminds as well?
Yeah, these masterclass, like two-day workshops. Uh, I probably should be charging for them, but I, I really have a good feeling that if I can Bring the right people together and inspire them, educate them on like productizing and finding their own packaged offers. That the right people will lean forward and want to work with me. So I'm keeping them free. At least for now, it's invite only. I have an application process. And so far, the first one I'm doing next week is almost already sold out, or not sold out, but filled because it's free. But I'm really excited about it.
How many you have participating, if you don't mind my asking?
There's eighteen right now, and I said, like, at max, I want twenty, but I plan to do the monthly. So I'll take it like one, one master class at a time. And if it goes really well and I get really confident in it, maybe I can expand it.
Okay. And you said the max you're taking this time would be twenty?
Yeah, so I've got two spots left. Um, applications close this Friday, so it should be filled out by then.
Got it, got it. So y'all hear that? There's two spots left to being educated and sitting with Jay Malone to figure out how to profit and get on the profit ladder. I love the name of that because I tell you, interesting enough is the goal is always to, to rise, right? To increase. And, and like you said, a lot of people are often chasing money. But there's a better way of doing that, right? Letting, and what I see you have done is by having those toolkits and allowing people to do it on their own is giving them an ability to learn and know you first, which is what everyone is talking about now is just building a relationship. So that people can contact you and trust you to contact you and to make their business move forward and climb the ladder.
So not to give away much or a lot, um, you do have a website, which we will announce later. But what tips do you have for entrepreneurs, business owners, or leaders that you can give them?
I think I'd build on top of what you're saying is I think especially service-based business owners, you are sort of led to believe that you gotta chase revenue at first and that the only way to do that is to show up and do what you do day in and day out. You, you know, you're burning the candle at both ends and there's no room left for you to scale your business, let alone enjoy your life and spend time with family. There are ways, if you're willing to, I think like the biggest pitfall is too many business owners, including myself for many years, are willing to put in a little bit of elbow grease upfront to create those offers that do attract people and make things offer and bring in more predictable revenue.
They just wanna like chase the clock and sign clients and move on to the next deal. And that just keeps you on that hamster wheel. So take a minute, think about if there are wedge or gateway offers that you can create that bring your next client to you instead of always having to chase.
That's the way you want it too, is just not, you know, one person, one client, that's done. Now where's the rest of them coming from?
Yes, feast or famine cycles that you get caught up in and it really drives you crazy after a while.
Yes, and interesting is now that me being on the podcast, interviewing a lot of guests and social media, a lot of people are trying to be entrepreneurs based off of other people's visions. Considering you had gone through another business and now you're here and now you're realizing and have realized so much to help other people.
How often do you believe that these business owners and entrepreneurs can reach a level immediately? Because of what they're seeing everybody else do, you know, it looks real good, but.
Yeah, it's, it, social media is really a trap like that, that you, I mean, it's good to be inspired. So the, the good part of social media is that you can very, much more easily these days. You just have to go to seminars and hire coaches and get mentored from these high-power executives. Today, you can open up YouTube or LinkedIn or another social platform and you can follow along the stories of people that build in public, which I'm a huge fan of. The, the trap is that you then put a timeline and unrealistic expectations in terms of time and money that you'll be able to replicate what they did, and it's always an iceberg. You never, very few share the 10-year saga behind.
I mean, my business, my first business is my prototype of me being an entrepreneur, and that was 15 years. Most, many people would give up or just assume that I started Profit Ladder and I made six figures in my first year and I, like, a few months of struggle and pain and I, I figured it out, but there's so much more behind that. So you gotta just, you really have to be inspired, but then be realistic about what you can do with that inspiration.
Absolutely, and I love how you, I say twist to that because it, it is being inspired and there's nothing wrong with being inspired. And, and I, I truly, truly love the way you said that because it can be an inspiration as long as you're not looking for a, a quick fix. What are the common mistakes business owners are making when trying to scale?
I think it's that direct correlation between scale equals more of my time or, or hiring more people, and that can totally be true. I'm not knocking companies that want, like, business, there are some, plenty of business owners that want to grow a big team and that's how they will scale. I've been down that path and I think that it's especially the more we get into the better the technology gets, the better you're able to leverage AI as a partner in the work that you do and manage sort of contractors and virtual assistants. I think you can build a very healthy and profitable six, seven, eight-figure business with a tiny, tiny team.
So I think like, think about what scale means to you. It doesn't need to be always increasing your prices till you praise yourself out of the market, hiring, bringing on all that risk, or working yourself to like really grinding out until you're unable to do the work anymore.
Yeah, yeah. Jay, are you also a consultant? Is that a part of your business as well?
Sort of. I do more, well, I guess no. I do, I'm trying to be more on the strategy side and maybe a little bit of coaching. My first business was consulting and I also grew up in Accenture and had other consulting roles. And I'm trying my best not to build that business, which requires me to always have to show up and do what I do in order to get paid. So it's more strategy work. I give people a lot of the tools and the frameworks. I point out their blind spots. I always use that expression, it's hard to read the label from inside the jar. So that's kind of the, I provide them with a second brain and I'm like, here are two or three offers that are right under your nose that I think would really scale your business. Here's how to build them. So I give them a plan and a blueprint and off they go.
Yes. Well, I had to ask because I'm sure everyone is thinking it. I'm like, hey, I mean, the tips that you're giving, it's like, oh, I could just give them a quick call. He could tell me how to scale my business real quick and give me some great advice. So I'm sure I wasn't the only one trying to figure that out.
Advice and help is totally up. I just don't want to build the offers for people. I think I have partners that do that work. I'm very leery of building another start-to-finish service business like that.
Yeah, yeah. Makes all the sense in the world. And before we go, this is one of my favorite questions. What are the greatest joys of what you do?
So in my last job, I helped big companies move big boulders up big mountains, which is great. And there's a lot of pride that comes with that in helping a Ford and a Rosetta Stone and a Home Depot. Today, I'm working with people like you and I, individual business owners that have gone all in on building their dream. And I know how hard that is. And I now have like a system. It's not just like I do coaching and I can help the next entrepreneur. I have systems that I know work that I use that I give back to people. And it's really, it's talk about inspiration. It's like inspiring and an honor to be able to help those people in ways that'll really kind of move the needle for them.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.
Page updated November 13, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
