so fear is a big one right fear of
failure fear of judgment from your peers
fear of judgment from your social group
or your partner fear that you're gonna
invest time and energy and it's not
gonna work and like hey that's gonna
happen welcome to the game you're gonna
fail a whole bunch so like fear is what
tends to limit people's willingness to
jump in often fear of how they are going
to be perceived by their closest social
group because that's what you care about
the most what are the people that you
care about think of you this is just as
human beings what you care about it's
unbelievable the difference it makes
we're talking you know earlier I think a
lot of people a start they're doing
everything themselves whether
one-man-show solopreneur you know going
back to the fear I think a lot of people
their fear is and I can relate to this
as we giving up control or we have this
egotistical believe only I can do this
no one else can and you know working
hard only get you so far and you get
burnt out as you said but you've got to
work smart at a certain point in today
but here's the thing people don't get
busy
it took us from 2010 to 2015 to have our
first million dollar years it's like the
real game is not how much money can you
make this year the real game is how much
money can you make over a decade can you
plant a tree and water it for a year and
a half and let it grow a mango tree that
than just trying to go on Amazon and
rank and spear a fish
people will say I hired someone and they
suck I'm like no you suck how much did
you invest in them did you give them
access to education did you tell them
exactly what you wanted them to do and
then give them a way to win give them
courses send them to events here's the
interesting thing about the passion
thing right humans follow winning
behavior we like to win we repeat what
we are successful at people who do well
at things continue to do those things
and so I think that the number one skill
and I feel like but this is the name of
your brand I think the skill that you
want in life is the skill of mastery
which is the willingness to put your
attention consistently in one area over
time
hey everyone this is Stefan James from
Project life mastery and I'm here right
now at seller con in Las Vegas and I'm
sitting next to Ezra Firestone he's a
founder of smartmarketer.com provides
some really incredible training and
resources for people that want to learn
marketing online specializes in
e-commerce you've had so much incredible
success in EECOM you start in 2007
you've been involved in so many
businesses and niches the boom brand by
Cindy Joseph has been a huge success for
you and just in the last three four
years you mentioned you did sixty-five
million in sales which is pretty
incredible so thank you brother Leon I
appreciate it thank you for watching
yeah so do you mind just showing people
a little bit about yourself and your
story how did you get into this - I
guess where you are today yeah you know
I think most people who become
entrepreneurs are chasing some form of
freedom financial freedom time freedom
location freedom freedom from things
they don't want to be doing a job they
don't like and you know I was no
different I grew up without money I grew
up poor and I always had the goal of
generating resource because I wanted to
take care of my family I wanted to do
cool things in the world I wanted to be
able to contribute to causes that I find
Noble and I had realized I grew up
playing poker hustling just doing
anything I could you know side jobs
whatever and I got the game of oh the
people with resource are the ones who
have ability to do things and so I'm
gonna be someone who figures out how to
generate resource and so poker was great
it was really fun but it's like you stay
up all night you sleep all day you're
with a bunch of degenerates there's no
women around it was like not my scene
but I was playing underground poker in
New York City and I'll back up a little
bit I grew up on an intentional
community which is another way of saying
that's kinda like an alternative
lifestyle experiment a hippie commune a
group of people who have opted out of
the mainstream and decided to live life
a little bit differently than most folks
and through that I was exposed to a lot
of viewpoints that people don't get
exposed to very often you know
conversations around what happens when
you get a group of people together
jealousy money
possessions communication sensuality
like all the stuff that happens in a
relationship is what this group was
studying and teaching courses on and
that's like that what they were doing
with their life and so I grew up in that
environment and my parents in this group
they teach courses on all these
different subjects about like how to
have winning relationships across the
gender line or otherwise and so I was
playing poker for a living and I met a
guy who had come around to take these
courses as it was there's a place in New
York where they have them and he was
doing a life coaching now this was
before coaching had penetrated the
mainstream now there's relationship
coaches and health coaches and business
could everyone's a coach which is great
but back then we're talking 2004-2005 he
was selling digitally delivered ebooks
on how to start a coaching business
online using search engine optimization
as his source of visibility so he had a
traffic source which was Google people
typing in queries like how to make money
and he was selling information very
similar to like what we do but way back
then and the cool thing about coaching
is there's not really a governing body
so anyone can be a coach it's both the
positive and the negative right but he
was really great at it and he helped a
lot of people and I saw this gun I'm
like he's making money from his laptop
I am grinding all night to make like
$200 with sunny franchisee and Joey
bananas and Vinnie to limo and Jimmy to
atone Johnny how you doing and all these
ends like this is I got to figure out
what this guy's doing so I did a trade
with him where I taught him poker and he
taught me search engine optimization and
once I learned that and I sort of like
saw the opportunity of the internet I
was like oh my god I need to do this
this is what I didn't go to college I
was like not that but in considered by
the school system to be a dumb kid like
I just didn't fit into the box and so I
always had some like the thing that was
not mainstream that I was doing and I
found the Internet and I just never
looked back so did you start first
selling digital products with SEO or did
you yeah I start starting her up to do
and then just how did you transition it
into physical so here's what happened I
started with him and he had an
influencer based business on his persona
and he was doing you know content
marketing all the way back then and
then content marketing was a newsletter
you put out a newsletter you got email
subscribers he was using Google AdWords
to buy traffic and Google search engine
optimization because that was the only
game in town yeah it's a social media
Facebook none of that existed and so
this is an aside I want to remind me to
come back to what Amazon business owners
don't understand about social media but
what he understood was query-based
traffic people typing in queries and
going to find stuff and so I started
working for him learning search engine
optimization doing all his landing pages
doing all the technology learning how to
run webinars and I just kind of learned
this business I end up taking that
business over and growing it to seven
figures and then one day he experienced
what most entrepreneurs experience which
is burnout
he was working too hard he didn't have
work-life balance down he was doing it
all himself and he had adrenal fatigue
and he burned out and that business went
away and at that point I was like oh my
god this was great but it was all
predicated on this one guy and when he
bailed the whole thing fell apart so I
was looking for a model where I could
leverage the the skills that I had
learned of traffic generation through
SEO and paid google ads and sales funnel
optimization which back then was real
simple and I realized physical products
are where it's at because you can
control the whole customer journey it's
not predicated on you as a person which
by the way I'm a big fan of influencer
based businesses obviously but they have
that downside of if you stop working in
them they go away they're not assets
they're they're cash flow so I made the
switch in 2007 and I've been doing it
ever since
yeah and I think that was at the my
costume wigs my constant wigs so you
started with that and well dropshipping
back then everyone does drop shipping
now and mostly what they're doing is
they're like drop shipping stuff from
China that they've never seen they don't
care how it's made they're getting it
off Alibaba and it's like that has a
whole host of moral problems as far as
I'm concerned of like not knowing where
the is made and it's just not good
back then by the way I understand you
got to get started somehow and hey maybe
I have to dropship to make some money so
you can then invest in a brand and cool
but like it has problems back then the
way you did it was you found American
dropshippers people who had who sold
barstools people who sold gift back
it's people who were in America making
products who did not have them on the
internet and you went to him and said
hey I want to put your products online
let me build the store yahoo store OS
commerce or whatever it was you know and
you built a store using their stuff and
that's how you did it and that still
works today by the way you can still do
that model got it and I'd love to hear
is about how you got into the anti-aging
niche with the the boom brain mind share
oh wait ok Pro Age anti anti-aging yeah
but basically like I had learned about
SEO and search engine on paid
advertising with Google Adwords and all
that kind of stuff and I was living with
Cindy I moved when I was 17 from New
York City to or sorry from California to
New York City to live with Cindy because
Cindy was the create the creator of the
face she's the face of it she was the
influencer behind the brand but she was
a former makeup artist and had turned
into a fashion model see what happened
was roundabout 2000 two three four the
big brands started realizing that the
baby boomers were the demographic that
had money and that they wanted to
represent baby boomers in ads and so
Cindy went from being a makeup artist
she got approached on the street and
became a fashion model she was in the
jgo catalogs billboards at Time Square I
she was a friend of my family so when I
wanted to move to New York New York I
called her up said hey let me move in
with you I want to make a play run at
playing poker in New York we became
really close friends and we would have
conversations about like what it's like
to be a young guy in society what it's
like to be an older woman in society and
I've learned about e-commerce and I said
hey you know you were a makeup artist
now you're a fashion model we should
make a brand selling cosmetics to the
baby boomer demographic but have it be
about content about the conversations we
have about Pro age and the experience of
being a woman and how everyone is
telling you that your value was
declining over time and it's anti-age
anti-wrinkle Botox like we can take the
opposite stance which is what we believe
and so we've kind of just built from
there and she was the face and
influencer behind the brand and I was
the marketer you know all that that's
awesome and you guys have had some
incredible success I don't know if you
mind sharing a little bit about or what
you guys yes so boom does about 20
million a year in revenue but here's the
thing that people don't get is it took
us from 2010 to 2015 to have our first
million dollar year
it's like the real game is not how much
money can you make this year the real
game is how much money can you make over
a decade can you plant a tree and water
it for a year and a half and let it grow
a mango tree that will then fruit for
generations rather than just trying to
go on Amazon and rank and Spearfish
maybe you want to reinvest the profits
for the big picture
you got to it's not everyone's looking
at how much can I get out it's about
what can you put in what how much can
you invest who do you know that can help
you I learned this from I get the
opportunity to be the consultant for
private equity funds when they're going
out to buy ecommerce brands 10 million
20 million 30 million 100 million
they'll come to me and they'll say hey
look at their analytics look at their
add accounts look at their email
accounts tell us if you think number one
it's a good deal and number two how
would you grow it and what I learned
from looking at all these big brands is
what they do is the opposite of what I
did I grew up with no money so my thing
was if it doesn't make money turn it off
turn off any ads that aren't performing
be real tight try to make it all work
and what they were doing they all had
one source of profitability
it was either Google AdWords SEO or
Amazon one source of profitable
customers and they were taking all the
profit the company was making and
putting it all back in to acquiring new
customers growing their footprint
building their social followings
building their email list running ads
building that footprint at a loss so
that when they would run a sale they had
a watch much bigger footprint so most
people are looking at like what can they
get out but the question is what can I
invest over 36 months keep your job keep
your side hustle invest everything you
have because the snowball gets bigger
and then when you do draw from it it's a
bigger snowball people cannibalize the
growth of their business by taking money
out of it too soon yeah I mean it's
essentially the Amazon model to a Jeff
Bezos writing me and just reinvesting
back into the big picture of you know
it's gonna take over the whole world
eventually right but it's a good model
because it gives the operation time to
mature I think people look people judge
their their operations about a year
early so basically most people try
something for about six months or 12
months and then they judge it my
experience has been it takes three to
six months to figure out what you're
doing to get a product then it takes
three to six months to build the
technology
you stack get all the tech right get it
on Amazon get it on your own Shopify
site whatever then it takes three to six
months to market it then you've now got
your product six months you've built it
all out six months you've marketed at
six months you'll learn from that and
then you do another six months of
marketing now at 24 months you can judge
a new operation if you judge it before
24 months you didn't give it enough time
to like mature and everyone who's
starting out is so hungry I understand
I've been there you you want you're in
pain you don't have money you're working
a job you don't like you're stressed and
so you want it to work but it's like you
got to just yeah and just give it time
yeah so let's talk a little bit boat
mindset since we're on that topic
because I mindset is everything you know
it's what's gonna determine what you do
with the strategy and what you learn in
there I'd love to hear from you what are
what are some of the the mindsets that
hold people back from getting started in
this business or someone that's already
doing well from scaling to that next
level and then I'd just also love to
hear any other mindsets that you think
can help people so fear is a big one
right fear of failure fear of judgment
from your peers fear of judgment from
your social group or your partner fear
that you're gonna invest time and energy
and it's not going to work and like hey
that's gonna happen welcome to the game
you're gonna fail a whole bunch so like
fear is what tends to limit people's
willingness to jump in often fear of how
they are going to be perceived by their
closest social group because that's what
you care about the most what are the
people that you care about think of you
this is just as human beings what we
care about so that is the one when I
talk to I get the opportunity like you
to relate with and talk to a lot of
entrepreneurs and when you really get
down to it the ones who have not fully
jumped in are scared that's like you're
right to be scared it's dangerous it's
risky it takes a lot but also you have
no chance of of making it if you don't
leave you got at some point make that
leader so I think that the the biggest
kind of thing that holds people back is
some form of fear and then I just
mentioned the lack of investment right
like here's there's the Spider Man quote
of with great power comes great
responsibility
if you flip that around it's
more true with great responsibility
comes great power what I'm getting at is
most people do everything themselves
when you take responsibility for buying
help ten hours a week you buy an help
from someone you're saying hey I want
you to help me in my business for 10
hours a week I'm gonna pay you 15 20
bucks an hour you are taking
responsibility for their salary you're
taking responsibility for taking money
out of your pocket and paying that
person but then you wield the power of
that 10 hours and so the interesting
thing about buying help and this is
really what allows you to grow a
business is how good you get at
delegation and the ability to buy help
the interesting thing about help is it
gets better over time that 10 hours week
one is worth a fraction of what it's
worth week nine because the person who's
helping you gets better they get more
tuned they get more skill and people
will say I hired someone and they sucked
and I'm like no you sucked right how
much did you invest in them did you give
them access to education did you tell
them exactly what you wanted them to do
and then give them a way to win give
them courses send them to events have
them find all the blogs like here's a
good example
I took someone who was working at
Cracker Barrel a friend of a friend and
I said hey I'm looking for a social
media manager do you want to give it a
shot I can teach you how to do it she
said yeah I don't like my job I want to
give it a shot I said okay look here's
our goal within three years I want you
to be the best in the world at social
media for e-commerce here's how we're
gonna get you there you're gonna go
through one course every three months
you're gonna document it you're gonna
take notes you're not look at what we
could implement in the business you're
going to attend these two events a year
these are the six vlogs I want you to
read I'm gonna have them populate into a
slack channel you're gonna consume six
hours of blog content a week you're
gonna make notes you're gonna come and
say this is what we're gonna do you're
gonna cut your teeth by implementing in
my business gave her a way to win gave
her access to education gave her a goal
to shoot for gave her my attention one
to two hours a week like really invested
in her and now she's our lead social
media strategist three years later so
it's like it's about how much are you
willing to invest in the people around
you and I started with no money so I got
my cousin's hey come work for me for
free I promise at some point I'll be
able to pay you it's gonna be fun like
you just people instead of looking
outside themselves for what what can I
get to help me you need to look around
who's around now whose energy I can use
to support this goal that's the first
question to ask is who is
here now that can support me is that my
partner is it my friend is my cousin but
that collaborative energy when you're
not isolated in your own little bubble
but you have someone to bounce ideas off
of someone to relate with someone to
help someone to talk to
it's unbelievable the difference it
makes yeah we're talking you know
earlier I think a lot of people they
start they're doing everything
themselves rather one-man-show
solopreneur yeah and one of the you know
going back to the fear I think a lot of
people their fear is and I can relate to
this is real giving up control or we
have this egotistical believe only I can
do this no one else can and you know
working hard will only get you so far
you get burnt out as you said but you've
got to work smart at a certain point
yeah and used to you know outsource and
delegate and be more the business owner
than the operators so starts with one
person yes and I call it the everything
person get someone set them right next
to you show them everything you do get
them to do the customer support emails
like just anything that's repetitive you
can delegate you you look at everything
that you're doing and you often start
with like the things that aren't giving
you the highest return maybe customer
support so that you can free up your
time to focus and my income skills yes
and the thing about people is they want
to feel autonomous and like they're
contributing and that they're a part of
something they don't really care about
how much money they make so if you give
someone freedom you say hey look how can
we make this better I'm interested you
tell me after doing it what could we do
to improve it how could we collaborate
and give them a way to feel a part of it
not just following orders doing these
tasks but like be willing to let them
contribute really really because it
helps you you can't see everything you
can see what you can see and if you're
willing to let go and it is hard by the
way when you first start cuz you're
worried about it like you're not doing
it right but it takes people time you
know I want to talk and just you know on
the mindset around ecommerce a lot of
people that might be watching this they
know about Amazon you know Amazon's
often one of the best ways for them to
get started and grandmas on one hundred
and hundreds of millions of customers is
a search engine all great courses ASM
all that that's available for them but I
think a lot of people they have a
mindset there's gonna sell a widget but
they're not taking a big picture about
building a brand and I know you're
involved in building brands and then
also something on Shopify as well but
what's what do you see it I guess on the
mindset that people have around this
whole EECOM getting it started and where
where there's
go with it I'm gonna take one level up
and then we'll come back to this
question the level up of like the way
that I'm looking at this is I'm looking
at I have a 20 years 20 years left on my
work life of working at this pace I'm 32
I'll be 33 in six months I'm not going
to work this hard for about for much
longer I got 15 to 20 years okay so I
know that's the work/life window of how
how long I want to keep this pace and
then I want to taper it down I think the
game is resource generation how much
resource can I generate that I can then
use towards causes that I find Noble
taking care of my family supporting my
community saving the rainforests doing
things in the world that are meaningful
so I want to generate resource and I
want to leverage business and
entrepreneurship as my vehicle to do
that so when I've looked at this what I
realized is that cash flow businesses do
not generate the kind of wealth that I
am trying to achieve they're great
they're wonderful they're fun they're
awesome you should do them but the way
that you generate wealth from what I can
tell is you sell assets or you acquire
assets operate them and then sell them
it's not usually from cash flow
businesses it's from from being able to
come across big chunks of money all at
once and then deploy that to either buy
another asset or invest in something
that then has a return in the future so
you can keep running that so my goal is
to build assets businesses and then sell
them or take the money that I make from
selling assets and acquire more and
operate them and sell them so if the
goal is resource generation and the goal
is liquidation events sale of our assets
that we build or buy and we want to then
have those be the most impactful Amazon
alone is not the most valuable asset
Amazon is inherently volatile in that
you know you got negative reviews
Amazon's undercutting you building their
own products it's the most amazing thing
in the world because like you said half
of America only shops there 50 cents out
of every dollar is spent there it's easy
to get started it acts as both your
traffic source and your sales platform
it's great but it's cash flow it's not a
business so if you have a brand on
Amazon you want to start looking
how can I build what are what I label
brand assets off of Amazon brand assets
aren't you don't even need to take
payment off of Amazon but you need brand
assets emails facebook Messenger
subscribers email addresses facebook
Messenger subscribers Instagram
followers YouTube followers Facebook
Likes
you need a group of people who are
actively engaged with you over time that
when you encourage them to buy something
they do and the way that you do that is
through content through what you are
doing right here you find a group of
people and the people who are buying
your products have what I call a shared
experience so businesses are engaging
with a group of people who are having a
collective experience putting content in
front of that group of people that adds
value to their life and comments on that
experience and then making them offer so
give you an example boom is
communicating with women over 50 who are
experiencing the process of aging and
having all of society tell them that
that is bad we create content that is
about that experience about menopause
about under-eye circles about silver
hair about makeup about beauty about
dating about the experience of being a
woman over 50 and we put that in front
of them and then they consume it
consumption is a way of subscribing to
online earning,make money online, earn money online, online earning, online earning sites,
make money online free, online money income, earn money online free, money online, best way to earn money online, online income site, money earning websites, best online earning sites, easiest way to earn money online, earn money payment bkash, online money income site
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment