Lambo Goal

Lambo Goal is going on pause. More on that in the show. I know... it's tough. Trust me. We have to say no to some good things right now to say yes to some great things. And there are some great things coming (don't worry, Lambo Goal isn't going away forever). But today's show with Cory McCabe is all about using video to bring people closer to buying what you have to sell. If you want people to buy from you, they need to know, like, and trust you. Video is the fastest way to build those relationships. But is it the right time for you to go all in on video? See, I thought it was for me with seanwes tv back in 2014. I ended up doing a total of 186 episodes, but then I put the video show on pause. It was the wrong time. I share what's next for seanwes tv, why we paused the video show after 186 episodes, and why it's coming back in 2017. You'll learn how to recognize the right time to go all in on video and what to do before you start doing video.

Email marketing is tough. What should you send and when? How much is too much? What if you're afraid of annoying people? All you want to do is create a lasting connection with people. You just want a fan for life. How do you do that? In today's episode, we go a little more advanced and show you how to build out an initial autoresponder sequence to sell your products. If you don't already have a product to sell, we tell you how to get data from subscribers to figure out exactly what to build and exactly what people will respond to. We talk about consistency, staying top of mind with email, mentioning and selling related products (downsells), and why you should focus on one product type and create related products instead of switching to something completely different. Learn what to do when people don't buy, whether you should sell in every email (at a micro and macro level), why you should speak to one person, and why your message should be polarizing. If this wasn't enough, we answer a TON of questions (probably many you have), so be sure to listen to this episode if you want ideas for improving your email game.

How do you find motivation? Motivation seems to be elusive. We can hardly ever find it or harness it when we need it, so where does it come from? The people who are motivated know it doesn’t start with motivation, it always starts with doing. The motivation is found in the doing. You have to take action! But how do you DO when you don’t have motivation? We talk about how to intentionally enter a state of a flow and set yourself up to be motivated—and stay motivated.

In July of 2016, I wrote a book called Overlap (http://OverlapBook.com). It’s a 75,000-word book and I wrote it in 14 days. How? I had a productive routine. I would shut down at 9:00 PM, lights off at 10:00 PM, wake up at 4:30 AM, go for a run, and start writing by 6:00 AM. That’s a lot of things, and they didn’t happen all at once. I worked toward this for many months prior, and it took a lot of steps to get there. We talk about chaining habits together in this episode and creating micro successes. Instead of defining success as this big, perfect vision of the life you want for yourself, I encourage you to redefine success. A successful morning routine starts the night before, so first, define success by when you go to bed. Do that for a couple weeks consistently. Then define success by when you wake up. Keep moving the marker. Once you establish a new baseline, redefine success. This is a very practical episode. If you feel like you have trouble sticking to a routine, or you’ve fallen off a routine you had in the past, or you don’t have habits you want, this episode will help you get back on the horse.

We all want to leave our mark on the world. We want to make a difference, we want to be remembered, and we want to leave an impact. How do you define your big goal? When I was six years old, I had a big goal. Then life happened to me and I became "realistic". It took me 20 years to recover from "realistic" thinking. I don't want a "realistic" life, I want unprecedented results! You have to be unrealistic. You have to think big. But how big? How do you find your big goal? How do you know if it's big enough? Do you need to know how much money it will take to get there? Does it matter? Should your goal be about yourself first and then others? Cory wants to know all of these things, and that's exactly what we talk about in this episode. One of the big take aways is: can you put your goal on a poster on the wall? Sounds like a weird question, but it can actually give you some clarity. If you can't picture your goal on a poster, chances are it's too vague.

What is a mastermind group? A mastermind group is typically comprised of 4 to 8 peers who meet regularly to help one another improve, stay accountable, and increase success. In this episode, we talk about why you should be in a mastermind group, how to find a mastermind group, how to start a mastermind group, and what goes on inside a mastermind group. The mastermind sessions I'm a part of are comprised of four parts: 1. Updates 2. Goals 3. Challenges 4. Commitments We go into much greater depth and detail on what each of those four parts contain (as well as share a bonus 5th part that's possibly the most important). This is the perfect episode for you if you're interested in joining or starting your own mastermind group. You'll learn how a mastermind group differs from having a mentor or a coach but why it's just as critical to your success.

What in the world is Small Scale Sabbaticals? Some teachers and professors actually take off a whole year every seven years as a sabbatical, but I'm talking about something more frequent. Yes, we typically take off a day every week, but I always wondered: why isn't there anything in between weekends and a year-long sabbatical? In 2014, I decided to start taking a week off every seventh week. I'd work six weeks and then take a week off. I even started paying all of my employees to take a week off. The results have been incredible. We've never looked back. In this episode, we talk about the different kinds of sabbaticals, what to do if you think you can't afford to take a sabbatical, whether or not it's possible with a day job, and how you'll be even MORE productive and get a greater amount of work done than if you never took off time in the first place. We actually see an overall spike in productivity. Learn to get more work done, feel healthier and well-rested, and have a happy team.

We're entering into a new season of the show with this episode. You may have noticed there have not been any new episodes on the feed lately. That probably seems strange with how much I talk about the importance of consistency. Strange is certainly a good word to describe the situation! I hate leaving people hanging and the last thing I want to be is unreliable. The reason is I didn't hear from my co-host, Matt, for many weeks. Not a peep. I couldn't fathom what had possibly happened for him to have gone dark for so long. Was he okay? Was he just that busy? I waited for a long time, holding onto hope that I'd hear from him soon so I could learn what in the world was going on! I was in a really tough spot with no information to act on. After a number of weeks, the team decided there's nothing else we can do but move on with the show. Cory, who is on almost every episode with us, would step up as co-host. It would be a different show but a good show, and we set out to record our first episode together, Cory and I. That was the plan, until just 15 minutes before Cory and I hit record. Matt called me.

If the people around you aren't getting you closer to your goal, they're taking you away from it. You have to get everyone on board. Everyone in your life needs to know your goal. Every single day you need to be communicating your goal to the people in your life. Every day, you start fresh. If you haven't communicated it TODAY, you haven't communicated it. Friends, family, relatives, audience... everyone needs to know. Communicate your vision. Get everyone on the same page. Yes, you will turn people off, but only the people that were already taking you away from your goal.

You're setting "realistic" goals. You need to set BIG goals. Massive goals. But setting big goals isn't enough. Most of you can do this. Many of you have done it. But you're missing something. You also must take massive ACTION. Once you have a large goal, now you must take 10X action to achieve it. Never lower a target. Only increase action. Right now, you're taking 1X action. That means you're taking as much action as you think is necessary to reach your goals. That's not enough. You need to take 10X the amount of action you think is necessary. Take the amount of action you think is required to reach your goal. Now multiple that amount of action by 10. That is how much action you must take.

This is the 3rd and final part of our series on Making Your First $1,000. In the first two episodes, we helped you find your business idea and get paying customers. Making an extra $1,000 is cool, but you know what's cooler? Making an extra $1,000 every single month. If you want to make $1,000, the first steps are identical to those of starting a business. If you're going to start a business, why not put in the systems to keep the money coming in? We talk about how to setup a recurring business model, how to scale, and how to break outside of the limited scope you're thinking in. The last section of this episode is the best: we talk about thinking big. Thinking on a whole other level. Don't teach one person, lead a conference workshop for 50 people. Don't mow one lawn, get a crew together and develop processes and dominate. Whether it's your first $1,000 or an extra $1,000 that you're looking to make, this episode is for everyone and it's going to really help you blow it out of the water.

This is Part 2 of 3 in our series on Making Your First $1,000. Now that you have your business idea, we're going to focus on getting customers. There are a lot of ways to get customers. Many of them are longer term investments and cost money. We're going to start with the easiest. That's word of mouth referral. The first place to start is with the people you know. These are your friends and family. This group is the most commonly overlooked and that's a huge mistake. These people are your base. You don't even have to concern yourself with whether your friends or family will buy from you—it doesn't matter. You need to make yourself known to them because that awareness will result in referral business. It's not about getting your Aunt to buy from you. It's about leveraging your base by making sure your Aunt is aware so she can recommend you to her neighbor.

We've got an EPIC series lined up for you. Over the course of the next 3 episodes, we're going to help you make your first $1,000. Today, we're kicking things off by helping you find your business idea. Now, you may be wondering why you have to have a business idea if you just want to make $1,000. Well, I have news for you: if you make $1,000, you have a business. If you don't believe me, just ask the government—because they're going to tax you like a business if you make $1,000. It turns out, the first steps to making your first $1,000 are the same steps to building a business. That starts with finding your business idea. In this episode we talk about the difference between a passion business and a cash flow business, and how getting good at something and making money from it can actually lead to becoming passionate about something.

This was originally a bonus After Show that we decided to share as its own episode. We talk about positioning yourself around the right people and being someone that a mentor would want to invest in. You'll hear Matt talk about big numbers in this episode, but remember that you are the average of your five closest friends. Matt says he's the poorest of his five closest friends and adds that, "the only people I surround myself with that don’t make more than I do is my family." Matt started talking about his mentors (again, this was previously just an After Show conversion for members). I was curious about how he found his mentors, so I asked. Mentorship is something that is given. If you ask for it, what you're doing is asking for consulting (which is a paid service). To get a mentor, you have a be a person someone wants to invest their time in and you have to go places where you can find these people.

My friend, James Clear, wrote a very thought-provoking article, titled The Four Burners Theory: The Downside of Work-Life Balance. You should go check it out. Imagine a stovetop with four burners. Each burner represents one of the following areas of your life: 1. Health 2. Work 3. Family 4. Friends The premise is that: In order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two. I found James’ article very thought-provoking and wanted to have a conversation about it with Matt. We wouldn’t suggest taking the theory as law, but it provided some great food for thought. For instance, I find the lack of a “Personal Time” category peculiar. One could argue that would go under “Health” but that seems like stretching it. Regardless, we really just took the theory at face value as a starting point for a conversation. I don’t expect you to agree with everything. Certainly your priorities are unique. I just expect you to think. If I get you to think, I’ve done my job. Thanks again to James Clear for writing such a thought-provoking article.

You’re not going to save your way to being a millionaire. It’s time to start making money. A penny saved is not a penny earned. Now, many people will tell you this. Their argument is, “A penny saved is MORE than a penny earned!” You may think this is smart, but this is still how poor people think. Poor people save money. Rich people make it. Here’s how I see it: don’t waste time picking up a penny when you should be making a dollar. Would you rather save $100 or make $1,000 dollars? It’s a difference between scarcity and abundance mindset. Creating wealth vs. stockpiling it. How do you create wealth? You solve problems. Look around you. There are problems everywhere. Most people are blind to them. Most people only see their own problems—and then they pay someone else to solve those problems. You need to become a person who recognizes the many problems around you on a day to day basis and makes a point to solve them. Solve the house-on-fire problems. Solve the problems people have to have solved. Open up your second set of eyelids and start to see the problems around you. These problems are your opportunity.

Matt always likes to say to live like you're poor so you maintain a hustle mentality for your business. Seeing someone he knew blow $100,000 in a weekend didn't sit right with him. Celebrating is one thing, but there's a difference between celebrating and having no respect for money. A lack of respect for money is common when you didn't work for it. In this episode, we talk about respect for money. We talk about the difference between wasteful partying and reasonable celebration. We also talk about the value of your time, tax tips, living like you're broke, investing your time, and not being loose with money.

Your biggest threat is anonymity. You can't afford to be timid. You need to sell hard and you need to sell strong. Why when I say that, do some of you recoil? It's because you think "sell" is a bad word. If you don't believe, you won't sell. If you don't sell, you won't make money. If you don't make money, you won't be in business—which is good, I guess, because apparently you don't believe in what you do. Belief is key. You must believe in what you sell. If you don't, you won't take the necessary action to succeed. If you feel awkward selling, it's because your focus is in the wrong place. You're thinking about you. Stop thinking about yourself. Focus on the outcome. Focus on the customer. Your customers aren’t buying your product, they’re buying a better version of themselves. Don’t sell them the product, don’t sell them the features, sell them the benefits.

A common trait I see among successful people is extreme focus on a single goal. Successful people know what they want. They aren't splitting focus, they're going all in on getting to where they want to be. They have one goal in front of them and all of their energy is going into doing the work. I don't like to plan for failure. I'd rather put all of my energy into going forward than slow down and create a backup plan. If I encounter a problem, I'll just face it head on. Even if I fail, what I'm still left with is two hands and a willingness to work hard. Matt has a different approach. He presents a case for making backup plans in this episode—and even backup up plans for your backup plans. I think there's room for both approaches. I also think you're going to really enjoy this conversation on whether it's profitable to spend time, energy, and resources preparing for things that might go wrong.

We actually love being interrupted. That sounds weird because we often talk about disliking interruptions, but secretly we love them. Push notifications, messages, emails... these are things that we allow to happen to us. If you allow life to happen to you instead of dictating what you will do, you'll never get important work done. But we like these things to happen to us. Why? Because it makes us feel important. If you're supposed to be writing, when you sit there long enough, you'll eventually get a notification of some kind. This notification will tell you that someone enjoyed your work, or someone has a question, or someone needs something from you. This feels good. It feels good to be needed. We want to feel important. But if you want to actually get important work done, you need focused blocks of time. You need time where you can be absolutely certain that you won't be interrupted. Minimizing distractions is one thing, but I'm talking about eliminating even the possibility of interruptions here. There shouldn't even be a thought in the back of your mind that there may possibly be an interruption during your block of focus time. We talk about why focused time is important, planning your day, getting into a zone of focus, and minimizing distractions.

Most people default to short-term thinking. They need a mentor or someone to encourage them to think bigger and to think longer term. But I have the opposite problem. I tend to think long-term by default. Long-term thinking is good, but you can't only focus on the long-term. If you do, you'll run your business into the ground. Why? Because you need cash. Cash is oxygen. Long-term thinking is a privilege. It's not something you're entitled to. You have to earn the right to think long-term. I didn't know this. I had to make mistakes and learn the hard way. Finally, someone else told me. We talk about planning and prioritizing your short-term (that's your next six months), and how to get cash quick before you start building assets.

This was a fun episode. Matt gives us 4 tips for staying happy, but before we get there, we share a ton of stories along the way. This episode has such positive energy. We talk about the balance between the hustle and enjoying life. We talk about finding happiness in the now. I talk about my recent few 120-hour work weeks and why things are so intense right now. But above all, we talk about doing what fulfills you. How do you find that? How do you protect it? What do you need to do to get there? All of that and more in one jam-packed episode.

If you're asking the question, "Am I burnt out?" take that as a sign. It's your body calling out. It's the final warning cry before real damage is done. Take note, and take it from someone who just experienced, and is bouncing back from, burn out: Matt. We talk about recognizing signs that you're on the verge of burnout and preventing it, as well as how to bounce back and recover if it's already happened to you.

We stream each of the podcast episode recordings live to the Community members (video and audio). After the show ends, we stick around and continue the conversation in what we call the "after after show". Sometimes it's fun, other times it's deep. This time, we talked about taking a year off. This is something Matt wants to do and something I'm planning to do in 2020. We also talk about what the Lambo Goal means to us. For me, it's a big goal that I think I'll reach in a few years. For Matt, it's much bigger than that. He has a pretty grand vision for the Lambo Goal brand. We decided to share this conversation that's usually exclusive to Community members. Hope you enjoy!

Whether you're working on hiring your first employee right now or not, you should be preparing for the future. If your business isn't making enough to pay you, you're not ready to hire an employee. That doesn't mean you shouldn't plan ahead, but unless you have more money than you need for yourself personally, you're not ready. The first step is to build a runway. I thought about employees the wrong way for too long. It held me back for years. You may be thinking of it the same way: I thought I should hire an employee when I knew that person would make me more than the amount of money I pay them for their salary. Wrong. You need to get super practical about the actual value of your time. I'm not talking about the theoretical value (that's the amount you say your time is worth). I mean actually what you can make in 60 minutes if I said "GO!" When I say, "Go make the most money you can in 60 minutes," the thing that immediately comes to mind for you is the thing you should be focusing on. You should be doing 10X more of that thing, but you're not. Why? Because you're bogged down with other things. Those other things are the things you should be delegating. Your first employee isn't someone you should hire when you know they'll make you money—they're someone you should hire when you know it will free up your capacity to work on the most important things! They're making you money by freeing up your time.

Being able to delegate work is wonderful, but getting there is hard. Ego, perfectionism, and lack of confidence or trust in the right people can make it difficult to delegate. We know how we want things done in our business, so we want to be the ones in control. But you can't scale if you're the one doing everything. You have to identify the tasks that only you can do. Is this task mission-critical and does it have to be done by you? We talk about how to figure out which tasks are critical to you and when you should delegate. We also break down the delegation process, picking the right people, whether they should ask questions or make mistakes, and the importance of clearly defining the desired outcome. There are a lot of great stories in this episode. Matt also shares more of the details of his many businesses than he ever has before, so it's an interesting insight into his world of running 18 businesses.

A lot of people think big goals are unrealistic and you should make smaller goals you can actually achieve. I think I'd rather die trying to get to a big goal. We talk about big goals vs. "attainable" goals today. The show takes on a life of its own. Matt shares feedback from his European friend who listens to the show. She already has two Lambos though and thinks that all of us think too small, so that really gets interesting. Matt is afraid to share what she said because he said it might offend people. I encourage him to share it anyway. He hesitates. I egg him on. Eventually, I got fiery and I go on a #harshsean rant about people expecting great things and not being willing to put in the hard work. It was a rollercoaster of a show. I wasn't sure at first, but then people kept saying if they could only listen to one episode multiple times it would be this one!

I write a TON. About a million words a year. It has completely revolutionized my business. Seriously—when you look at my annual revenue, there's a very clear inflection point where I started writing. Matt writes very little. What he does write is often dictated and put together with the help of his Virtual Assistant. He currently doesn't write regularly or publish anything online. Yet, he has many successful businesses. Should Matt keep doing what he's doing? Is he missing out or leaving money on the table by not writing? How can he write if he's not good at it? That's today's show. It's for you, the busy person, who knows writing is important but doesn't have the time to write. Maybe you don't feel like you're a good writer. Maybe you don't like to write. We're going to help you today. The episode is jam-packed with tips you can use even if writing is a challenge for you.

Do you ever feel awkward selling? Do you struggle with self promotion? It doesn't have to be awkward. We've got a jam-packed, fast-paced episode to help you boost your confidence, fight fear, learn to research, build trust, and position your prices expertly. Yes, you need to believe in your product. You must know in your SOUL that what you're selling is providing value. But there's so much more than that. Join us for some great stories and practical tips to help you feel 10X better about marketing your products and selling. You're guaranteed to get at least several, if not dozens, of insights from this episode.

This show was not planned. We were supposed to do a different show and we couldn't hold back. We're very passionate about this subject and we decided to just let it be its own episode. If you think a million dollars is a lot of money, you might get $100,000. If you think $100,000 is a lot of money, you might get $10,000. This episode is all about upgrading your mindset. Don't worry, we get practical too. We give you the advice you need to hear, it just may not be what you want to hear. If there's one thing you'll take away it's the critical importance of NORMALIZING the things that feel big to you. We tell you how to do that.

A lot of our listeners consider themselves a solopreneur. Maybe that's you. It was certainly me two years ago. I was proud of the fact that I could do everything. I wore "solopreneur" like a badge of honor because it meant I did it all myself. Over time, I realized that I was limiting my potential. I was working way too much (18-hour days sound familiar?), doing things I didn't enjoy, but also doing things I liked doing but knew that I should delegate. I wasn't spending my time on the things that only I could do and as a result, I wasn't very effective. I was working hard, but things weren't growing like I'd hoped. That's where a team comes in. It's not admitting defeat to acknowledge that you need help. There's simply a limit to what a single person can do. As of this recording, there are 8 full-time team members at seanwes. Matt has dozens of employees in his numerous businesses. We couldn't have gotten where we are without a team. But it's not just any team that you want. You want an all-star team. You want empowered people that are given the resources to do work that fulfills them. Matt and I talk about building an all-star team. We help you through everything from what to look for with you very first hire to figuring out what your employees want to achieve so you can help them get there. Whether you're considering building a team in the future or you're actively hiring right now, this episode will help you know what to look for, learn to delegate, and find and empower the right people.

Today, we look back. It's the start of a new year, but it's also the end of an old one. Matt and I share what went well and what didn't in 2015. We both had our best years ever but at the same time, we both fell short of our goals. We share our insights so hopefully you can avoid our painful mistakes. As is always our theme on Lambo Goal, you can expect full transparency and real revenue numbers. We reveal exactly how much each of us made last year, how we did it, and what we could have done differently to reach our goals. It doesn't stop there though. If you stay tuned until the end of this unusually in-depth episode, I share my vision for the future. I paint a picture of where I will be in 5 years and exactly what it will look like. It's an exciting time and we couldn't be more enthused for the future and what's to come in 2016 and beyond.

Do you feel like you're stuck? Have you been in the same spot with your business for a long time, spinning your wheels? Today's show is all about breaking through to the next level and identifying the things that are holding you back. The thing about business growth is getting to the next level always requires solving a new challenge or puzzle. What got you here won't get you there. This means the things causing your plateau in growth could be many. Everything from mindset, to risk aversion, to failing slow, to perfectionism, to superhero syndrome, to cashflow, to marketing, to shiny object syndrome. The good news? We covered literally every single one of those on todays episode along with tips to overcome those hurdles.

Inherently, we're all selfish. Sure, we care about the greater good and it's fun to work on big projects with others, but ultimately we all have our own goals we want to achieve. As a business owner, you have big goals. You have aspirations and you're working hard to put the necessary things in place to achieve those goals. You're communicating your vision with your employees and you're painting the big picture for them so they can get on board. But if you stop here and share your vision, you're missing out. You need to help your employees reach their goals. I was watching a talk by a billionaire at a conference last week and he said the first question he would ask new hires was, "What one, big goal do you need to accomplish in your life before you die?" Then he followed up with, "It's my job to do it for you."

We all want to be more disciplined. We all want more out of life. If you want to be achieving more and you feel like you're falling short, accountability is the missing piece. While we touch on the benefits of accountability partners and how to find them, we focused the majority of this episode on how to increase discipline with an accountability partner and how to get the most out of the relationship. The first step is finding someone compatible who will also push you. The second step is being purposeful about your relationship and taking full advantage of their assistance and leveraging that for maximum discipline.

Matt has this thought experiment he likes to ask people about. You have a contract job: you need to dig a 100ft hole. The drill that could do it in a very short amount of time costs $10,000. You can't afford it. Do you buy a shovel? Do you take out a loan? What is the smartest way to get the job done? It's a fun thought experiment Matt uses to see how people think. It leads to a bigger discussion on thinking outside the box.

You can get a lot on the internet for free. I truly believe you can attain 80% mastery in any field with information freely available online. Why pay for anything then? Time. Free content abounds, but it is fluffy. You have to wade through a lot to get to the gold nuggets. Paid material like courses cut straight to the point. You have time and you have money. In the beginning, you have more of the former. This means you can wade through the free content to find the gold without paying. This is smart to do. Eventually though, if you're growing, your time is worth more than your money. Eventually you have more money than time. If you don't learn to recognize this point and start buying time with your money, you will lose. At some point, it makes sense to invest in a curated resource that gives you everything you need to know and nothing more. Paid resources that people have spent months or years curating will save you a ton of time scouring the internet for something comparable for free. In this episode, Matt and I discuss the mindset behind paying for things instead of only consuming free material. I also share the $1,000 product I bought that made me $18,000 the very next day. It's a good one for those of you who are wanting to create courses too. You get to tap into the mindset of people who are willing to pay top dollar for a small amount of time saved. These are the people you need to target.

When's the last time you told someone you take for granted that you're thankful for them? Gratitude is underrated, but it's so needed. We appreciate gratitude from others, but how often are we the ones to offer it? When's the last time you thanked your audience? Thank YOU, by the way. Today, we talk about the power of gratitude in business. It's something we should be doing anyway, but there are so many benefits to being thankful, it's worth talking about.

Wow. As I write this, it's the day after we recorded and I just did my first day of Matt's 2-Week Challenge. Can you believe it: I actually exercised this morning. This episode got me to exercise. That should be reason enough for you to listen. We talk about waking up early, habits, efficiency, health and wellness, sleep, and so much more. It's a jam-packed episode supercharged for getting you on track with improving all aspects of your life. Food, sleep, exercise, focus, knowledge—this episode really does have it all. You're going to feel revitalized just listening!

Do you have to work 18-hour days to be successful? No. But you're not getting enough done. You're wasting time every day and you're not auditing yourself. I'm not talking about working longer, I'm talking about working harder. I'm talking about more focus. I'm talking a greater emphasis on the things that will really move the needle and make a difference in the bottom line of your business. We talk about why motivation doesn't matter in this episode. We also call out every age group individually. No one gets away free! No excuses! If you're looking for the episode to light a fire under your butt, this is the one.

My favorite thing about this show is the different perspectives. On this podcast, you hear worlds collide and we don't hold back. Matt and I have very different perspectives, but we let them play out here and everyone benefits. I've never operated with a budget—personal or business. Matt swears by them. We talk about the purpose of a budget, who it's for, when you might want one (and when not), and how to make sure you're controlling your money and not the other way around either way. Regardless of your approach, you'll get a lot out of this episode on controlling business spending and accounting for your finances.

You might be thinking about starting a partnership, but I'm not sure you're taking this seriously enough. You know when people say partnerships are like a marriage? It's not just an analogy. You truly are joining together with someone—and that means getting the WHOLE package. Everything about this person comes with the deal. Their punctuality, communication style, mindset, how they treat you when they're stressed—you get it all. It's not just like a marriage in concept, it's like a marriage in that you're joining with a person! If you do decide to go into business with someone, then there's the ownership split, the finances, the compensation, the payouts, the investments—it's all quite complicated. Matt and I both have been (and still are) in various forms of partnership agreements and businesses. We share our insights and lessons learned from those experiences. We give you some tips on starting out and what to consider when thinking about partnering up. We also touch on partnering with friends or family and if it's the right option for you. Matt is in a ton of partnerships and has had success with many different arrangements. But for me, I explain why I have no plans to enter into any more partnerships in the future.

In Part 1 of the traveling to network series, we talked about the benefits of meeting new people and making valuable connections that can serve your business in tremendous ways. But networking isn't just for meeting new people, it's also for deepening relationships you already have! Maybe you have a friend you met online or someone you don't get to talk to in person very often because they live so far away. Getting together in person will accelerate that relationship many times the speed at which you could facilitate it online. Forget meetups and conferences—once you understand the value of the right feedback and insight from the right person at the right time, it becomes a no-brainier to spend a couple thousand bucks Just to fly out and meet even one person because you know that you're going to get tens of thousands of dollars in value from that one interaction. In fact, I'm doing just this. In the episode, I share the story of spending money to go on a retreat with some guys I've never met in person but have online relationships with. I explain why it's an absolute no-brainier of an investment for me and what I expect to get out of it.

Do you really need to travel to meet people when we have the internet? Traveling is expensive and I'm an introvert. Those seem like two good enough reasons to stick to online-relationships. But the value of face-to-face conversations cannot be overstated. You will build more rapport in a day you spend with someone in person than you will with tweets and instant messages over the course of a year. In this energy-filled episode, we explore the multifaceted nuances and benefits of in-person networking. Networking may seem like a lame word, but we encourage you to disassociate from any stigmas you have with it. What we're really talking about is good old-fashioned relationship building. Once you understand that a single conversation can completely revolutionize your business, you start to see the power and value of these kinds of interactions and why they're worth the investment.

What do you do if you want to motivate someone? How do you activate someone's hustle incentive? What drives them? What makes them want to do something? Surprisingly, the answer is not money. That is, while money is important, it's only a baseline factor. People need to be paid such that they are able to live the lives they want to live, do what they want to do, and no longer have to worry about paying their bills. But beyond that, money is not as much of a motivator as you think. It's actually one of the least significant. By understanding what truly drives people, you can give your employees the fuel they need to be motivated to do work. Things like doing work that matters, receiving appreciation, feeling challenged, being given responsibly are all very empowering and are more important that money to many people. We talk about finding what those incentives are for your employees and how to motivate them.

In this quick-fire episode, Matt and I share 4 mistakes we made that stunted our business growth in the past. Had we known these back then, Matt says just fixing one of these would have tripled his business in 6 months. These are lessons we learned the hard way, so hopefully you can learn from our mistakes and avoid them so you don't stunt your business growth.

If you're planning on selling physical products, this episode is for you. It's all about growing an E-commerce business. We talk about which products to start with, how many, which E-commerce platform to use, marketing, shipping, pricing and more. One of the questions we got was, "What if people are asking for multiple products? Which one do you do?" The answer depends on three factors: profit margin, popularity, and ease-of-management. Tune in to hear us go deeper.

We've got a bit of a different show today. It's a shorter recording that was previously streamed live just to the Community members while we were still on air after an earlier episode. It wasn't going to be a show that we released. Essentially, I had a bit of an intervention with Cory (he's our video guy and live broadcast producer). He's recently been saying "yes" to a lot of things and making a lot of commitments. I voiced concern for his focus given that he's saying "yes" to more things than he's saying "no" to. Cory decided we should share the recording publicly with others who are also struggling with saying "yes" to too many things and not focusing. We talk about how you can be unaware of opportunities you're missing if you're not giving enough margin to the things you want to be focusing on.

People often say there’s no such thing as a bad idea in a brainstorming session, but come on—is that really true? Well sure, some ideas truly are bad, but that doesn’t mean they should be discouraged in the context of a brainstorm. An objectively bad idea may provide the perfect contrast and fertile ground for a great idea to grow. This episode actually turned into a kind of brainstorm in and of itself. We talk about some practical tips for coming up with ideas, using a whiteboard, Matt's reverse funnel of specificity, why location matters, the purpose of bad ideas, and why to come into a brainstorming session with a goal.

What if you could double your business? Sounds good, right? But what if you could 20x your business? Sounds even better, no? Most people aren't even doubling. They find something that works, but then for some reason they move on to something else. Why? We're not sure, but everyone seems to do it. In this episode, Matt and I share are most crucial business habits and mindsets. These are what we have observed to be the 7 most important factors to our business success. This is an extremely fiery episode. If you want to get motivated, this is 100% for you. Be forewarned: no excuses are allowed. We embody the word hustle to inspire you. It's not about working as hard or harder than someone else: it's about being the best you that you can be. We're going to teach you the importance of focus. We talk about why age doesn't matter. You're never too old or young to start and you're never allowed to make excuses. You will always find excuses if you're looking for them. Choose not to look for them.

I just launched Learn Lettering 2.0 which generated six figures in revenue by the second day and the launch is far from over. In this episode, I share insider tips that will make you thousands more on your next course launch. I talk about how to validate your course idea, how to get people to care about it, how to maximize your initial launch period, how to create urgency without discounting, how to close strong, how to promote on-going sales after the launch, and so much more. The Community members who listened live were saying it was like I just gave them $2,000 of value. If you're not listening to this show, you're saying you don't care about $2,000. Whether you're thinking about doing a course, planning a course, about to launch a course, or already have one that you're wanting to supercharge and breathe new life into, you're going to get ideas from this episode.