We were lucky to catch up with Craig Tomanini recently and have shared our conversation below.

Craig, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

In 2018 I wrote my first book called “The Power To Change” it was mainly about my life and how I grew up but it also encompassed my time with addiction to drugs and alcohol. I also outlined how I was able to experience redemption from those things and several others (you will have to read the book).

It was a short time after I published the book that I was interviewed by someone who had a podcast and I had explained to him that people who were buying my book had started to reach out to me on social media to ask me questions about what I had shared in the book. They would ask all kinds of questions from money to marriage, addiction and everything in between. I shared my stories with them in hopes they would find out what I had. It was at this point in the interview he said so let me understand, people read your book, they searched for you on social media and just Ask Craig T (my last name is Tomanini) questions…?

I went home and watched the interview a few days later and it was then I realized he had branded me…my purpose was clear if you needed answers to questions related to the experiences I had, you could just simply ASKCRAIGTEE. I went with this spelling of it mainly because at the time I was following another influencer who used VEE as part of his branding. Secondly because it was what was available on social media when I decided to create a FaceBook Business Page for the first time.

So now you can learn all about me at www.askcraigtee.com

Craig, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So I have been an entrepreneur officially since I was 13 years old. The story I often share with people now as a speaker and coach is that at that age I asked my mother for $20 to go to a movie and she reminded me how poor we were and said but craig there is always a way, never an excuse. She was telling me there is a way to get $20 (legally) if I really wanted it. I went to a local automatic car wash and stood outside for tips and made $80 that one weekend.

So as I am further in my life at nearly 45 and 14 businesses later I decided that what I really wanted to do was help other business owners (whom I was already sitting with because of my book) and impart my experiences and knowledge as a business owner to help them avoid the usual pitfalls of owning a company. However I needed to mesh my whole life experiences into this idea so I needed to consider the 9 to 5 jobs I had also throughout my life which mainly included over 25 years of work in Information Technologies as an engineer with the discipline of Software Development lifecycle Methodologies.

I know it sounds so exciting, and for a while I truly loved the work. The part that I did not like was working for someone else. As an entrepreneur I never liked the idea of working for someone else but as a matter of survival mostly I did what was needed. The best part though is now as a coach I am able to help my clients in ways that in my opinion no other coach is capable or willing to do.

So as I have the unique advantage of having been closely aligned to all the evolutions of technology from the ARPANET to what we know as the Internet a.k.a World Wide Web and all the things between that make it possible to run a business in our current landscape. So when I work with clients today I am focused on one thing and that is establishing operational efficiencies for business owners so they can focus on their clients and specifically spend less time running the business and more time reaping the benefits of owning one. Isn’t that one of the reasons we started in the first place…?

So as I look at my business now I am most proud of having helped nearly 100 clients establish these changes in their individual work flows which in most cases results in financial and time dividends for them. This is my primary metric because my mission at ASKCRAIGTEE, LLC to help ten thousand businesses reach 6 figures or above creating a minimum of $100,000,000,000 in business revenues through our efforts with companies around the world by leveraging technology.

The biggest trend I see is the lack of technology being used by business owners due to fear or lack of education in how to leverage it. This is the other part of my vision for the business. I want to transfer as much of my knowledge to clients as possible to empower them to take control of their business (technology) themselves as possible. Specifically I see an absence of systems like CRMs and ways to nurture customer relationships through outbound marketing tools. This is where we specialize in the business. Assessing this gap and finding the best solution for them to fill this need.

Establishing efficiencies in business is critical to sustainability from both an operational and mutually beneficial perspective between the customer and business. If your business is struggling to understand how to scale your business to the next level, we should talk about if technology could be the key and we can establish a strategic plan customized for your business.

www.askcraigtee.com

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is like the dark horse of marketing, everyone knows it is a necessary part of the overall strategy but most people have very little knowledge of why some are able to explode a huge presence and some cannot. Here is the simple truth that should blow your mind…we all have the same platform and tools, so that is not the problem. So what is the answer it is 3 fold you need these things in order to build a massive following:

1) Professional clean profile – no nonsense, politics, religion provocation etc…

2) Be authentic in what you share, trying to be perfect all the time is not attractive. Flashy cars and planes & jewelry etc is not what people seek when they are in the scroll hole…they want honesty, realism, truth and vulnerability

3) Good copy, Most people try too hard to be fancy in their posts just be intentional with what you really want to say, then say it. Your posts do not have to and should not be 8 paragraphs long. Thats what a BLOG is for. Keep it short to the point and if you are using it for business make sure to include a clear CALL TO ACTION. This is what you want the person reading to do. Is it a link to click a comment on the post, maybe to simply share it with their friends. Whatever it is ask them to do it somewhere in your post.

When using social media remember it is an extension of real life (or should be) most people miss this and come off as fake. The social proof is I have built business profiles with over 100K followers and while that sounds impressive, the real success is having authentic interactions and from a business perspective conversions.

If you need help my company can definitely help yours…

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

My business follows the philosophy of having multiple revenue streams.

I had a mentor in business teach me once what I had heard before that the average millionaire has at least 7 streams of revenue. I dug into this and learned what that truly meant. now my business model reflects 9 streams at this moment. The idea behind this is simple in that take a look at what can/does bring in revenue to your business. Then determine where the different levels of income potential are and focus your efforts and energy there.

This philosophy had me in my first year of business establish a 6 figure income and operationally my business was stable and remains that way to date.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.askcraigtee.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thetechnologybusinesscoach
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetechnologybusinesscoach
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/askcraigtee/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ASKCRAIGTEE
• Other: Google Business Page – https://www.google.com/localservices/profile?spp=Cg0vZy8xMXNmZ3Z6cWZ3&scp=CgAaDmJ1c2luZXNzIGNvYWNoIh9idXNpbmVzcyBjb2FjaCBjb2xvcmFkbyBzcHJpbmdzKg5idXNpbmVzcyBjb2FjaA%3D%3D#ts=3

Image Credits
Michelle Blanchard – Aspire Images