Rick Elmore, the founder and CEO of Simply Noted, offers an insightful journey through his career in a recent podcast interview, reflecting on his transition from college football to entrepreneurship and the lessons learned along the way. Elmore’s story is a testament to the power of transferable skills, the value of relentless motivation, and the importance of technology and standard operating procedures in today’s business landscape.
Episode Highlights Here:
Rick
why we believe so much in the service that we provide is because you know, I grew up in a generation before cell phones, I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 16. So handwritten notes, you know, to my classmates.
Jessica
Our topic for today’s show is the importance of relationships in business, and how to do handwritten cards efficiently and on an automated basis, because that’s just what you bring to it at the moment. But let’s talk about the importance of building relationships in business. And I think you know, your story about your professor talking about how handwritten notes, right, they’re not common, they get people’s attention. And it does help build that relationship. So talk a little bit more about that, you know, what, what have you learned about that? What can your listeners take away? You know, who are also entrepreneurs and trying to grow their business? What can they learn from that talk to us?
Rick
Yeah, well, first off being an entrepreneur, I mean, in being in sales previously, I knew how important it was like loyalty is royalty when it comes to business and sales. Otherwise, we’re chasing our tail and filling a leaky bucket, right? You know, if you’re trying to sit there and constantly add new clients, to your business, every single year, you’re gonna get burnt out, you’re not gonna able to scale, you’re going to have a business that is going to struggle and if you want to sell it someday, it’s gonna be a lot harder to sell. But um, you know, why we believe so much in the service that we provide is because, you know, I grew up in a generation before cell phones, I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 16. So handwritten notes, you know, to my classmates, where I saw that a box of handwritten notes from people I used to write in like middle school, like that’s like how special they are. Also, when I got recruited to play college and football, many coaches sent me something printed. It didn’t mean wasn’t, didn’t mean that much. But then when a coach sent something handwritten, like that was something I walked around, it’s like, check this out, like this coach sent me this right. And then I played for John, or Jim Harbaugh organ in San Francisco, the 40, Niners in 2012. And he was actually a coach at Stanford when I was at UVA. So I always played against him. So when I left San Francisco, he actually wrote me a handwritten note, just like thanking me for my contribution to the team, all this stuff. And that’s actually a keepsake. So handwritten notes, you know, especially in today’s digital age, they’re incredibly important. When’s the last time you sat there and you got a text message, and you know, you printed it out, and you kept it and put it in, you know, your, your keepsake box, you know, it just doesn’t happen, right? There’s just something about it. It’s just so genuine and real. But when you think about your customer experience, and relationships, and how that can affect your business, you know, there’s tons of stats I’ve been quoted on this American Express, customer service study that they did recently, they said, you know, by just increasing your customer retention by 5%, year over year, revenue will grow 25 to 95%. And I thought that was incredibly powerful. Also, they said, customers who don’t feel our customers that don’t feel appreciated, 33% of your customers don’t feel appreciated, and they’ll try somebody else, just for the sake of trying somebody else. That’s 1/3 of your business. Think about that, like you have to replace 1/3 of your business every year. Because you and I get it right, you don’t have the time to pick up the phone, go grab lunch, you know, get ingrained in their lives and build that deep relationship, like what’s a good way to do it. And we believe, you know, a handwritten note a couple of times a year keeps you top of mind, it’s appreciated. And there’s just really nothing else like it. You know, without going crazy overboard and sending like a $200 box of gifts. You know, it’s just something authentic and real. Well,
Jessica
I think that would make a difference with your employees to write that’s part of what you also recommend your service for I mean, with all the quiet quitting that you hear about these days, right? Yeah, employees are just showing up they’re punching a clock they’re doing their work, but they’re not doing anything extra and they’re feeling unappreciated underpaid, right, the whole story
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About Rick Elmore
Rick Elmore is an entrepreneur, sales and marketing expert, and former college and professional football player. Following his football career, Rick translated his competitive drive to sales and entrepreneurship by founding Simply Noted, an automated handwritten letter company founded on the idea of making it easy to create simple, scalable, powerful, and meaningful real pen-written communication.
Rick developed a protected technology that puts real pen and ink to paper to scale handwritten communication, helping businesses of all industries stand out from their competition.
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