Executive Voice
“It Doesn’t Matter What You’re Selling” How Andrew S. Kaplan is Teaching Entrepreneurs to Stand out on Their Terms.
Whats Your Backstory?
After nearly a decade of playing the same old 9-5 game, Andrew S. Kaplan decided to switch things up. Years of doing his own brand of sales, marketing, and copywriting on the side had left a hunger for even more. Before long, he switched gears entirely, and his part time passion became his new full time obsession.
He went straight to work, creating projects and products designed for the type of people who were willing to bank on themselves in a world where we’re usually forced to settle for less.
His latest book, “It Doesn’t Matter What You’re Selling,” was penned in only 5 weeks and is currently in its second edition on Amazon.
Andrew devotes a portion of his schedule to helping other entrepreneurs enjoy better revenue streams by providing more dynamic offers for their customers. He’s been featured in Men’s Health, on Playboy Radio, and on Hot97 in New York City, where he currently resides.
His “Shatter The Mold” Business Podcast achieved Top-200 status on iTunes within 48 hours of its launch earlier this year. It’s goal: help others escape groupthink and level up all aspects of their lives.
What Made you decide to choose this Career Path
I’ve always wanted to work for myself, and I’ve always been interested in people. Human nature and psychology are beyond fascinating to me, and the way I do my work these days gives me so much opportunity to interact with people, learn from them, and help them learn from me – all on my terms.
Nice cars, big houses, fancy watches – these are all cool, but for me, the number one luxury in the world is doing things your way on your terms. Most people don’t afford themselves that luxury – even the ones with the cars and the houses, and they have no idea what they’re missing out on.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
After spending close to a thousand dollars on a shoestring budget my first month in business, I attended a trade show and asked friends to attend to show a little extra support. I took the opportunity to have my brother take a few photos so that I could post them to my project’s website. A week after they went up, one of my friends asked me to take half of them down because she didn’t like how her ass looked in the photos. The mistake I made was in not anticipating that people are going to throw obstacles in front of you whether they actually want to or not. The lesson I learned was to over-prepare for moments like these. I should have grabbed a lot more photos, especially ones that didn’t have my friends in them. P.S. her ass looked fine, and the project went nowhere.
What do you think makes your company/personal brand stand out?
When I market myself, I go very strong on things I can actually do, and very weak on things that I’m not best at. So you’ll never hear any stories about me running someone’s Facebook ads – just not my thing. But helping them refine the copy of the ad so that it pulls in the perfect customers while repelling the wrong ones – you’ll hear that all day. So I think I stand out by being crystal clear about where I can help and where I can’t. Last thing you ever want to do is sign someone up on an empty promise that you can’t actually deliver on.
Whats a quote that you live by?
In both life and business, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling; it matters who you’re being.
