264. Charlie Cina Interview: Why Business Is All About Creating Relationships

Susan Sly 00:02
Well, hey, what

Charlie Cina 00:03
is up Raw and Real entrepreneurs, I just want you to pause for a moment and take a deep breath. You made it, you made it. And I want to give a shout out to Mandy who gave such a great five star review on iTunes. Girl, you rock and I'm so happy you are loving the show. I'm actually doing today's show from We Care spa in Palm Desert. And I've been coming here for 10 years to juice fast and I am on day five today. So you never know what I'm gonna say in the show when I'm so excited that I have a brand new dear friend who's going to be my co pilot today. He's got a lot of wisdom to share. And I just wanted to do a quick announcement. If you haven't gone to Susansly.com lately, I have some new resources up there for you. Number one, The Perfect Presentation is up and I just updated it to include how to pitch to raise money for your startups. You want to check out that white paper, it is epic. I also have a new checklist for those of you who are employees who want to become entrepreneurs. And of course, it is all free. So go to Susansly.com, I would love to give you those resources. Anyway, my guest today, I just met him actually. I was speaking at The Weekend NBA event with Bradley and Sean Castrina in Miami and I sit down, and there's this very well dressed gentleman. So friendly, helps me get my chair adjusted. And we start talking. And it turns out he's from Las Vegas, he works with Brad, he's consulted to some amazing companies, including fortune 500 companies, and we start this conversation and I'm so engrossed in the conversation, I literally almost missed my time to go up and speak. It turns out that he has some incredible tech that he just found, we're gonna talk about that. And I'm using it myself. I'm so excited. Just before we went into the show, I saw what it would look like. We are going to talk about that. And overall I mean, he's just an awesome human and his specialty is client acquisition. And he has built seven figure businesses from the ground up getting gritty knocking on doors, asking for the sale, being rejected. And I know some of y'all are like, I just want to post on you know, Facebook, or do a reel or have a TikTok video and make millions of dollars. Sweetheart, as lovely as that is, this is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, and even my friend who make a ton of money as Instagram influencers, they didn't do that with their very first reel. So you're here because you want it raw and real. And here's the thing I want to tell you, because it's common sense doesn't make it common practice. And that's what this show is all about. So in addition to all of his accolades, my guest today is an amazing husband, incredible dad, and he is the founder of a new piece of technology called One Tap Connect. So with that, Charlie Cina is here live from Las Vegas and Charlie, thanks for being on the show.

Charlie Cina 00:18
It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Charlie Cina 01:30
Charlie, I want to jump in. You know what, I asked every guest the same question because we have a lot of children who listen to the show. They're listening with their parents in their car. What was your first business?

Charlie Cina 03:25
I started selling newspapers, in Buffalo, New York. And yeah, I,

Charlie Cina 03:34
I, the lady down the street, this is when

Susan Sly 03:37
Well, I was born in Toronto. My dad is a huge Bills fan like he lives and breathes the Bills, Charlie.

Charlie Cina 03:37
newspapers were a thing, right? So a lady down the street used to have a hub where all the kids from the neighborhood, the news truck would pull up, drop the papers in their neighborhood and all the you know, kids from a mile radius would come and pick up the papers to deliver them. And I always saw this one older guy that would pull up in a you know, I think it was like a 1971 Cutlass Supreme. Like back you know, this was, I was, this was probably 1979, '80 for me, I'm dating myself here. But that being said, I used to watch him pull up his car and throw the papers into the back of his car and leave. And I'm like, Why is that guy, he's older, like, what is he doing? So one day I rode on my bike. And I found out that he delivered the papers in a high rise tower. And literally I clocked him one day, he would go in there with two bags over his shoulders. And five minutes he was out. And the cool thing is the building was air conditioned in the summer and he did in the winter. And I don't know if you've ever been to Buffalo, New York since I've ever been— well, you're from Canada, right?

Charlie Cina 04:51
So there you go. So similar weather, right? So buffalo is no joke. It's freezing cold. We get the blizzards. So I approached the guy and I said, you know I said hey, you're pretty old. We have this paper, why don't you give it to me? So, about whatever, six months, a year later he, he saw me and he said, Do you want to buy my business? And I said, Sure, what do you want for it? He goes, give me 100 bucks, kid and it's yours. So that was like my first business deal, right? I gave him 100 bucks, I got the premiere paper route, in the Kenmore, New York area, this little village that I lived in outside of Buffalo. And in the summer, I get there, start on the sixth floor. And literally in six minutes, I was just dropping the papers in front of the door, and I was out. And then in the summer, it was, it was air conditioned. And what I didn't realize, I wrote a book called Expose and Close. And what I didn't realize is how that business opportunity impacted me and how it really set me up to become a sales professional. And I learned, you know, a simple tactic, the more you introduce, the more you produce. So the more doors I knocked down, the bigger my distribution got, the more papers I delivered, the more money I made, and then back then, you used to have to go around

Charlie Cina 06:09
and collect for the subscription. So every

Charlie Cina 06:13
Sunday, Monday, I go knock on my client's doors and say, Hey, it's $1 and a quarter, if they got the paper for the week, and they'd give me two bucks, or they give me three bucks, or they'd give me five bucks, and I'd make tips. So I didn't realize it at the time but I was really preparing myself for a career in business. And you know, more importantly, in sales, and learning how to present, overcome rejection, and, you know, create something that helped me go next level.

Susan Sly 06:40
I love that sorry. I had a paper out too, the Ottawa Citizen. And Ottawa, Canada is also very cold, and it is no joke, and especially the weekend edition, that thing is heavy. And so, Charlie, now that you've said, I've never really thought about that, you know, with regard to the paper route, and how much character it builds, and having to collect the money, and then, you know, being a little kid and knocking on the door, and the person isn't there. And they haven't paid their bill for a couple of weeks, and all of those things, and now, you know, they just drive out and buy the car and sling the papers, right? And it's, it's so different. And kids don't deliver papers anymore. It's adults who deliver papers. So how old were you when you bought that business?

Charlie Cina 07:23
I don't know, somewhere, maybe, you know, 11, maybe 12. And then, and then, and then

Susan Sly 07:31
So you had a lot to learn. You had to, you had to find, you know, essentially employees, people to do the work when you weren't available. You had to have those management skills, you had to be organized. These are all excellent skills for an entrepreneur. So what was the next business you started when you were, you know, older, let's say you know, either in college or out of college.

Charlie Cina 07:31
I started getting more, I delivered the Buffalo News, the Courier Express, the PennySaver. And, and really started getting my buddies to help me so if I was, you know, short, or didn't, you know short staffed or didn't have time to do it, or when on vacation, I would sub it out to my friends and pay them.

Charlie Cina 08:14
As I progressed, I was always in some type of sales. In high school, I sold, I became a waiter. First I was a short order cook. And then I realized that that's not for me. I, it did teach me how to handle a certain level of stress. Because very hectic, very hectic job, then I said, I need to be in sales, I went and got a job selling shoes. And then I became a waiter and get on the other side of the restaurant business, which if you're a waiter or waitress, you're selling, right? You get a piece of whatever that ticket is. And a lot of people that are in that industry really don't understand that. How you, how you present yourself and the experience that you give people is where their gratuity comes in. So that was a huge lesson for me. And then my first real sales position where I learned how to present, learned word tracks, I learned the art of closing, I cut my teeth on the phone, and I was selling advertising specialty products to contractors. So I get on the phone and call these contractors and someone ball hats, key tags, T shirts and swag for their business. And if there was no internet, there was no warm lead, there was no Hey, get online and see a picture of that or watch the video. Your words that you said how to trigger the right pictures, to trigger an emotion to say, you know, for the people to say great, send it, send it out, give me, give me two dozen, give me 100, give me 500 Or whatever the deal was. So that taught me a ton. When you learn how to sell on the phone with just words and raw emotion and learn how to connect with no pictures or videos involved, that really that really taught me a ton.

Susan Sly 09:59
Do any of those from, during the cold calls, do any particular conversation stand out, especially perhaps a negative one or, or something that still sits with you today?

Charlie Cina 10:13
Every time somebody hung up on me, it was devastating. Everyone's time— someone said, I'm not interested initially, it was devastating. But it's no different than what you're doing now. You're at a place right now going through we'll call it a fasting experience or exercise, or even better a commitment, because that, what you made is a huge commitment over a five or six day period, or however long that you're there. So how you overcome the mental game of being able to pick up that phone again. What can you do differently to get that person to say yes, instead of say, No. So I learned grit. I watched other people and some were kicking button, and taking names and taking orders. And they made it look seamless. So it's like anything else. Iron sharpens iron, as they say. And when you're starting out, you have to be willing to be terrible and know what you don't know. And that's the key. You don't know, we've all heard this, you don't know what you don't know. And then you know what you don't know. So once you're able to identify what you don't know, and you're willing to make that commitment to do whatever it takes,

Charlie Cina 11:28
here's what I've learned.

Charlie Cina 11:30
It's not about skill set. If you just make that commitment, and you keep working at it, you're gonna build that skill set. The real key, what I'm learning late in my career is skill set is great, mindset's the key.

Charlie Cina 11:46
So if I can share anything with your

Charlie Cina 11:47
audience, you asked me a question before we got on the call. What's something that somebody never has asked you before, Charlie that we can talk about? I think that's it. I think a lot of us in business work so hard on our skill set, we go to school, they say read this book, take this test, you're trying to you know, you're trying to get a,

Charlie Cina 12:07
a grade on a test

Charlie Cina 12:10
that really doesn't develop your skill set. Doing it does. But now doing, it's not enough. It's the mindset that's attached to it. That's going to help you get over all the negative self talk, uncertainty, insecurity, lack of confidence, and everything that goes along with it, or when you hit an obstacle.

Charlie Cina 12:29
How do you overcome that? Most

Charlie Cina 12:31
people stop. So if I can share anything with your audience, for me personally, skill set now has become rather easy for me in business. I feel confident that short of going out and representing a company that's you know, nuclear science, or some intense medical product, I could probably go into any company based upon the formula that I now know of how to sell a product or service. And with my skill set, succeed. When you couple that with a superior mindset of how to, of how to think and knowing how to control your emotions, that's just going to take you next level.

Susan Sly 13:13
Ultimately, it builds character, right, Charlie? So you know, as you're aware, so Jim Rohn. I used to say, I shared the stage with Jim three times back, and I'm dating myself now. But Jim Rohn, and Zig Ziglar, and I've had Tom on the show a couple of times, his son, there was this ongoing debate, you know, education versus motivation. And Jim was always saying education, skills, right? And then Zig was always a motivation. And so one day, Jim says to Zig, he's like, yeah, if you only have motivation without any education, now, these are Jim's words online, you're going to have a bunch of motivated idiots. And to your point, it's garnering the skills because there are skills, right, and you are masterful at teaching them, their skills to acquiring leads, acquiring clients, closing a sale, but the close is just the beginning. Because in the long game, it's about the relationships. And then it's the mindset to see things through when it's challenging, and that's what builds our character. And even for myself, I mean, you and I are cut from the same cloth. So whether the deal I was closing was, you know, $300 or $150 million, that range is not that significant, because the skill set and the mindset stays the same. It's just a number on a screen, really and truly, so let me ask you this. What was a big character building moment for you?

Charlie Cina 14:50
Well, me moving to Vegas.

Charlie Cina 14:52
I come from an Italian family upbringing in Buffalo New York so I had the privilege of knowing my great grandparents. My mother's side, my great grandfather came from Sicily. My dad's side, they came from Sicily as well. So they didn't, they spoke no English. And I grew up every Sunday, after church, you were, you were at dinner. And if you weren't, there was a problem. Right? But the whole family showed up. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and there was always 20, potentially 30 people, there were three dining room, three dining rooms set up. One of the kitchen, one in the, another area and one of the main dining area. The kids sat in the kitchen, the young adults sat in the middle dining room, and the married couples and the seniors sat in the living room. And no one really left Buffalo. Very, very few of my family entered in to college. I think my uncle on my mom's side was one of the only people that actually went to college in my family that I can, I can remember my immediate family. That being said, no one left the nest. So when I came out to Vegas, I came out cold turkey, 19, 20 years old, with whatever I had— four or 500 bucks in my pocket. And you know, from there, I grind it. And when I look at a lot of the millennials of today, and again times are different things are way more expensive. But that being said, that was a defining moment for me. Like I left, I got in my car, I knew I wasn't going to stay in Buffalo. My goal was to excel in the hospitality industry. I went to a junior college in Buffalo, New York, and I had scholarships to finish up at UNLV from the Hotel Motel Association and the Statler Foundation, and that was my dream, to be in the hospitality

Charlie Cina 16:52
business. And then I started advancing my

Charlie Cina 16:57
sales career while I was in college, got into sales, got into management, and never, never pursued hospitality. Looking back, though, I mean, the skills that I built, priceless. The ability to present and persuade, and, and learn how to shake a hand, priceless, priceless skills

Susan Sly 17:21
I could see where that would definitely be character building. It's hard. You know, leaving, when we left Canada, we left all of our family. And my husband, Chris, and I grew up in a town of 20,000 people and our dads went to the same high school, Charlie, and my aunts went to the same high school with my father in law. And so when we left there, it was there was a lot of pushback, you know, why are you leaving, and, you know, this isn't the right thing to do. And I'm an only child. So even, you know, some of my other family members felt like I was abandoning my father. And, and but at the same point, it was about us creating a life for ourselves and for our kids and making our choices. And it is hard. I've walked that walk before and I completely understand and all of those dinners and everything, and I completely get it so I can I can relate to that. And anyone listening, if you've ever left home, especially, you know, leaving the nest, so to speak, it is, it is very character building. So Charlie, you know, you have spent decades really teaching people how to acquire clients. And what would you say one of the biggest misconceptions there is out there right now about client acquisition?

Charlie Cina 18:45
The biggest misconception for me, with where we're at, as a world, things have changed.

Charlie Cina 18:58
Everything's on social media. Everybody wants to learn sales, and everyone wants to be a closer but the reality is people don't want to be closed. That's number one. And two people may be on social media

Charlie Cina 19:16
but that doesn't mean they're social. What I see, when you

Charlie Cina 19:22
meet people in person, they might be, a buddy might call them keyboard warriors, right? There's people that get on line and they can articulate something online or they'll get aggressive and cocky online. But when you meet them in person, they don't know how to shake your hand. Now you said something at the beginning, because it, because it's common sense doesn't mean it's common

Charlie Cina 19:47
practice. I believe that the concept of "you had me at hello," works.

Charlie Cina 19:59
And then that's how I brought up. And what was common sense and common practice for me is if I walked into my house, if I walked into a place of business, from the time I was old enough to communicate, my parents taught me, you make eye contact, you shake a hand, you say, Hello. If you walk into the house, and you were front of family, or friend or family member, if you were in my house, male or female, I went up to you, I hugged you, I kissed you. I said, Hello. If I went in and didn't kiss my uncle's Hello, I get a beating. And I don't mean that literally, right? But I would say key, hey, come over. It's just, just the culture. Now, I'm not suggesting that that's what everybody should do. I'm just saying that's how I was raised. Respect wasn't a word. It was a common sense practice. So you said, because it's common sense doesn't mean it's common practice. And I believe that's why I'm on your podcast, why? I was sitting down at an event, a woman sat down next to me, her chair was not properly positioned.

Charlie Cina 21:15
Before she got comfortable, I

Charlie Cina 21:17
said, allow me, you stood up, I fixed your chair, you sat down and said, thank you. And I stuck out my hand and I said, my name is Charlie, what's your name?

Charlie Cina 21:30
And that's where it started.

Charlie Cina 21:33
So I believe that if people just get back to common practice,

Charlie Cina 21:39
your life will

Charlie Cina 21:41
change. And you can still shake a hand, both online and offline, by using the you know, using the right words, but that's the whole thing for me, how do you introduce yourself? How do you build rapport? How do you gain credibility, and then you'll start to have a conversation, and you'll start to see if that person has a problem, or a need or a want, or something that you can fulfill. And then if you could fill that, that void or present that product or service for, again, just the interaction of a relationship.

Charlie Cina 22:20
They'll want what you have.

Charlie Cina 22:22
And then before you know it, that person is calling you saying, Hey, would you like to be on my podcast?

Susan Sly 22:29
Exactly. Well, and—

Charlie Cina 22:31
that's how we got here. Because we're, you know, I've known you, I think we've tried to reach out to each other. I think I pulled up an email, where I was reaching out to you five years ago when you responded, but we're not, we're not besties. But here's the good news, in a very short period of time, we're now building a relationship, where, you know, truly, I feel like I've known you for five, six or seven years. And it was just at the small time that we spent at that event.

Susan Sly 22:58
Well, and it's the impact, right? And I think that, I love what you said about you know, how do we, how do we introduce ourselves? And that's a perfect lead in to your new tech company. And I want to, I want to paint a bigger picture for the audience, too. So Charlie, and I, after I spoke, I had to run and catch a plane, but I had a few minutes. So we sat down, and we're talking about his company. And I got really excited because one of my zones of genius is really taking a look at someone's idea and really taking it even farther, and how big can we stretch it and you know, using, you know, technology to amplify the effect for the consumer. So Charlie's walking me through this tech. And so I got it set up. It was super, super easy, even while I'm fasting and maybe a bit delirious. And, you know, I'm already thinking because naturally, when I have a new friend, and I want to support them, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, who needs to know about this? And I was telling Charlie, all these different people. And so it isn't for Charlie, it isn't just him being a gentleman, how he introduced himself, you know, having a conversation without an agenda. What can I do to serve you, Susan? And I'm like, What can I do to serve you, Charlie? And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm going to be introducing this new company and this technology to everyone I know who's raising money for their startup or who's in technology, does trade shows. I'm about to go to a trade show and speak at a 3000 person, one for Lenovo. Then I'm going to speak at the National Restaurant Association, big show in Chicago. It's 20,000 people. I'm going to meet so many people and so with One Tap Connect, Charlie's new company, I'm beside myself like I really, really am. So Charlie, let's talk about firstly, you know why you started this company. And then we'll talk about what the technology does, but why did you start it?

Charlie Cina 24:58
Well, a friend of mine immigrated here from Israel like 15, let's say call it 15, 16 years ago came with nothing, got into the construction business. And I helped him scale. His company helped him get clients. And one day he shows up at my office at lightspeed with a young gentleman, who also came to the States from Israel. He was a tech guy. And he said, I have this technology for a digital card. I said, Well, what's that? Show me. So he showed me the technology. I liked it. But it was missing something. So I didn't invest in the company. And I didn't get involved. And my buddy was telling them, if anyone could teach you how to network or get this on people's radar, it's Charlie. So listen, I appreciate it, not for me. Then I started buying some stuff off the shelf. And I used a lot of them or researched a lot of them. And I would go out and text people to digital card or have them take a picture of a QR code. And then the whole tap thing came out. And they were always missing something. And then I did an event, Susan, just before COVID hit. And these two guys came up to me and said, We could make you a better, a better digital card. Because when I'm presenting at an event, I would put up the digital card to give people my information. And I said, Okay, how much is that? They said, well, we can't afford to hire you as a consultant, why don't we do a trade deal? you can coach us will help you with your card. Started to make further headway. Long story short, I really wanted to develop something that wasn't a digital card, not just a transference of information but something that allowed you at the first point of contact to brand position and differentiate yourself. So with One Tap, it's based around my sales process. And when you tap somebody's phone to transfer the information, or you have them take a picture of your QR code, or you text it, email it or send it through social media, the objective is it allows you to present a micro presentation of who you are, what you do, and what problems you can help people solve. So literally, everything's right there, your LinkedIn, your Instagram, your Facebook. People can call you, text you, email you, as you scroll down, there's a video on your company. There's video testimonials, before and after shots of your products that you know, like the contractors, the house before they did the addition, the house after they did the addition. So it becomes almost like an infomercial for you. And rather than just handing somebody a paper card, it's not interactive, where people will take it and dismiss you. This allows you to start a conversation that converts. And it's, and I based it around everything that we just talked about for the past 20 or 25 minutes, how do you knock a door? How do you meet somebody at an event and pull their chair out? When they say do you have a card, How do you impact that person so they know exactly who you are, what you do, how you can help them? How do you get them at the first point of contact to want what you have, instead of you having to convince them that you have what they need. So—

Susan Sly 28:23
It takes the friction out, Charlie. That, and that's the thing, sorry to jump in, like I am, I you know, when I sat down with Charlie, I'm like a million users, a million people in every aspect of sales and connecting and there's no friction. The you know, I love it. Because, you know, we meet someone, it's like, oh, let's connect on LinkedIn. And then that person, you know, oh, I'll send them a video. And then I'm like, Oh, my gosh, there's so many steps and people lose interest, right? And this is like, all right there. And I love that it literally creates the app on the person's phone. So it's like, you can't forget that person.

Charlie Cina 29:02
Not only do you have my information in your phone, I'm right on your home screen aren't I?

Susan Sly 29:10
Yes. And that's the, that's the power in this. And the thing I want to say to everyone, especially, you know, women out there because I have Fem Boss Incubator. Charlie didn't code this himself, right? He has lived and breathed sales since he was 11 years old with buying his first business. And so you have to understand to be a tech founder, you don't need to be a tech coder, you just have to have the idea. There are lots of amazing people out there who can take what's in your head and turn it into a tangible product. And I know this is going to be a winner. And I you know, I don't say that lightly because people come to me all the time. And they'll say look at my pitch deck. I mean, this happens almost on a daily basis. And I'll say no, you're not there yet. You have to hyper verticalize, you have to take the friction out whatever it is, this is such a winner Charlie, I'm so excited for you.

Charlie Cina 30:05
Well, thank you so much. I'm very excited. And it's, it's almost like everything that I've done since I was 11, now I've created this, this tool. And what's

Charlie Cina 30:17
more exciting, the whole

Charlie Cina 30:22
analogy of when you, it sounds cliche, but when you bring people value, when you really love

Charlie Cina 30:28
what you do, it's just so refreshing that people

Charlie Cina 30:32
are, are calling me or texting me after they purchase and saying, I love it. How do I get more? I just refer to you know, my boss or this other company and, and people are now networking as well. I'm bringing other people together and helping people put different deals together. So it's, it's really been a dream product service that is now growing some tremendous legs, and we're excited to take it next level.

Susan Sly 30:57
Oh, everyone needs to go to one tap Connect and check it out. It's awesome. It's awesome. I'm not an affiliate, just go. I have to disclose that. For the FTC, I'm not an affiliate. Just go check it out. It is awesome. I love it. Love it. Love it. I'm like, Who else can I send it to? And after we're done the show, Charlie, we have to talk because I just had an idea for you. Anyway, so if you want to find out more about Charlie definitely visit Charliecina.com. And it Cina spelt C I N A, the Italian way of course. And Charlie, thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to see you in the future. And everyone Hey, If this episode has been of value to you, Charlie, and I would love a five star review, share it on social, tag us on social and you know, just know that you heard Charlie's storiy today, you know, for whether buying a business at 11 for 100 bucks, or getting out there cold calling, knocking on doors, building his character to now being a tech founder of a company that I feel will actually have some significant value very, very soon. So Charlie, you are amazing. And thank you for being such a bright, shining light in the world. And thank you for being here today.

Charlie Cina 32:09
Thanks for having me, Susan, looking forward to working with you on other projects. And hopefully I'll see you here in Vegas in a couple of weeks.

Susan Sly 32:16
You know

Charlie Cina 32:16
it. Well with that, thank you everyone, Raw and Real entrepreneurs for joining us today. And check out some other great episodes of other founders like Charlie who are willing to get Raw and Real and share what it is they've learned to help you thrive as an entrepreneur. So with that, God bless, go rock your day, and I will see you in the next episode.