James: James Schramko here with John Lint from 10XPRO.io. Good day, John.
John: Hey, James, how are you? Hello, everybody.
James: I’m very, very good. Here we are with our regular catch-ups. And we’re talking about things related to marketing. Of course, you’ve got that platform there 10XPRO.io. It makes putting your courses and memberships out there very easy, because it’s all ready to go, just a few buttons and you’re in progress. And today, we’re going to address one question that we get from time to time and that is, how long does it take to be successful from when you start out until you start collecting income with your online business?
John: Yeah, so that’s a very broad question. And the answer is that it will depend on what you have right now. You know, very important, obviously, do you have an audience? If you don’t have any audience, you’re starting from scratch, obviously, it’s going to take much more time and it’s important to be realistic. I know that we hear all these… I was going to use an F word, but let’s not use that here. You know, those gurus, I made $7 million in two minutes by doing nothing, blah, blah, blah, right? And you and I are not like that, we don’t talk about these things. So I think it’s important for people to be realistic.
And it’s about, what we’re doing here is that we are building an online business. We’re building a business. It’s not a hobby. It’s not a joke. It’s not something that you’re not going to do anything and be a millionaire. It’s a business, meaning that you’re going to work on it, you’re going to invest on it, you’re going to do whatever it takes to be successful. As part of the deal, you’re gonna fail a ton of times. It’s normal. We all do that. If you don’t fail, you cannot succeed. So you know, it’s important, I think, to have those are realistic topics in mind, to know how soon can I be successful? It will depend on you.
Do you have an audience, like I said? Are you building that audience? That’s number one. What’s your positioning in the market? Do people look up to you as an expert because we are in the information publishing business? That’s what you and I teach. That’s what we do. We specialize in that, right, when it comes to building an online business. So that means that you need to be perceived and be an expert in your topic. Why? Because our job is not to just create content or just create videos, it’s about helping people with their problems, it’s about giving them a solution. That’s why they’re going to buy. Because they want a solution to their problem, they want something, otherwise, they’re not going to buy, they’re just going to keep on watching Netflix, and they’re going to be cool. So if they’re going to be joining your list, if they’re going to be buying your product, it’s because they want something from you, they want your help. So that’s number three.
And of course, that comes back to what you always teach James, which is an offer that converts, right? You need to have an offer that converts. Meaning that you need to have something of value that is going to help them, you need to do the right things to be able to convey the message that why this is valuable, right? You need to tell them about it. So not only do you need to actually have a good product, you know, we think about Apple and all that stuff? Well, you know, it’s because they have a good phone. And that’s why they became successful. It was a good product. And I think a lot of people forget that in the online space, they just think, oh, let me just throw a couple of videos. And that’s it, that’s my product. We need to have a good product. What’s a good product online? It’s something that solves a massive problem that something has, it’s something that’s going to help people get a specific result and that’s why they’re going to buy. So that’s my good product.
Now, the next step is I need to make sure that I say the right things on my pages, on my emails to let people know that this is why it’s valuable, this is why you need to have it because you’re sick and tired of dealing with this, this and that problem, right? It’s annoying, it’s frustrating, it’s overwhelming. Are you finally ready to move on to next step? That’s our job, we need to make sure we do the right things to highlight the fact that this product’s going to solve those problems and therefore that’s why they should invest in it, right? So we need to have that offer that converts. If you have all of that in place already, you have the positioning, you have the audience, you have the awesome product, you have your copy in place, then sure it can be very fast, right? You can just put things together, create a funnel, and there are tons of different funnels and as part of 10XPRO.io, we teach those funnels, and you can easily deploy them with one click in 10XPRO.
So if you want to do a launch, you want to do a limited sale, you want to do a webinar, you click a button, all the pages are there. But none of those funnels will work if you don’t have the elements I just mentioned before. So once you have those massive elements, then you can deploy your funnels. And sure you can be up and running very fast and you can be successful very fast. But obviously those main things I talked about will take some time, especially if you’re starting out. If nobody knows you, if you don’t have an audience, if you don’t have your positioning in place, if you haven’t created a product. Well, just like if you’re going to be running a marathon or maybe you want to get bigger muscles, you want to lose weight, it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a consistent amount of effort every single day on a regular basis. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot, by the way. I’ve been through hell…
James: I can tell. That’s 5 minutes straight. You’re doing well.
John: You know, we’ve been to Maldives, you and I, you know, we talked about this a lot in the water, we got fit and all that. And I got into it more and more. And I think a lot of people forget about the importance of consistency, because let’s say you don’t have the body that you want. And let’s say maybe you want to lose a few pounds. Well, how did you get to that point? It’s because you consistently took the wrong action, but you were happy about it because consistently you ate the wrong things or you didn’t do your workout or you didn’t do any activity. Consistently you did that. So in a sense, you are kind of successful about it, because you are successful at doing the wrong thing.
What we need to do is we need to be successful about doing the right thing and consistently taking the steps to do the right things. In your life, in your health and of course in our business. So consistently, you need to start building a list, get your positioning straight, help people, provide value and then you can launch and hopefully get the results that you want.
James: I love this. So in short, it could be long or it could be short.
John: Exactly.
James: How long did it take you to be successful with 10XPRO to the point where you are making sales every single day now? Was 10XPRO the first business you had online?
John: No, of course not. I started online in 2003. I did a bunch of things, I failed a bunch of times, I lost a ton of money.
James: But you kept going.
John: A few years ago, I lost $40,000 in Facebook ads because I had no idea what I was doing or I was doing the wrong thing. The reality is that we fail all the time, those gurus they fail all the time. Yes, it’s not advertised because you’re not going to say that, that and that. But you know, the reality is that, any successful entrepreneur will fail. It’s all about taking that action and getting that data, that result. Okay, this worked for me, this didn’t work for me, I like this, I don’t like this, I want to do this, I don’t want to do this, I need to build a team, and then you just keep on improving. And as long as you help people, I believe that then things will materialize in front of you and you’ll get the results and the lifestyle that you want.
James: And then it just gets better and better like at the moment. We’re in the stage of, we’ve gone from grapes to wine, to fine wine, winning awards now. This program, 10XPRO.io, it is getting such airplay in my community, the success stories from members coming through is phenomenal.
I want to share a couple just because I think it’s really interesting. This question of how long does it take? It’s usually raised by the people who are struggling, and then I’ll reflect back on my own journey and something you said is so critical. What are you bringing to the table? Because when I started my business, my online business the event that preceded that was a client of mine asked me if I would come and train his team of financial planners how to sell properly because he bought so many cars from me and I was at Mercedes-Benz at the time, that he wanted me to tell them what I was doing. And I went to my boss and said, Can I teach this guy about selling? And he said, Yeah, sure, but just make sure you’re charging plenty. So I invoiced him $4,000 it was invoice 00001. I didn’t have a business name or anything, no logo, nothing. So I went and registered my business, invoiced him 00001, $4,000 he paid it. I bought a Toshiba laptop with it. And I built my sales presentation for his team and went in and delivered a half-day workshop.
That’s how I self-funded my online business. That was the easy part because I brought sales skill, I brought reputation, I brought knowledge, I had impeccable results. But then when I went online, different story. I was an unknown, I was nobody, I had no team, I had no product, I didn’t even know what I wanted to sell. I tried to sell Jay Abraham materials as an affiliate, didn’t make a single sale. And then I started trying to figure out other things to sell, no sales. It took me about nine months.
Eventually, I stumbled over through a series of trying multiple different website building tools, which were really, really hard back then, in 2006. And I found this software that made it easier to build a website, it’s absolutely nothing compared to what 10XPRO.io is now. But I started making some sales as an affiliate and I built up and I built up and then I made a cheat sheet and then an info product and then I started a membership and then running CPA offers and affiliate stuff and then coaching people, you know. And then fast forward, over 10 years of running a membership, over 10 years of podcasting, I’ve recorded probably 1000 episodes, John. And, you know, you look at my business now.
Yeah, sure. I work three days a week, 20, 25 hours a week, I go to the beach, I surf, I have a great life, Maldives, you know, life’s amazing. But I have put in the work to build what I’ve got, at the momentum. And now if I start a new project, I can bring skills to the table. I can bring reputations, I can bring audience, I can bring my offer that will convert quickly.
John: Yeah.
James: And also, I’ve invested in a copywriter. I spent more on my copywriter than I made in the first year online. Right? Even my hosting bills and website development, my team. I would pay my team probably equivalent to what I used to make as a wage. So, it’s a game that matures over time and that’s one point.
A couple of people who’ve asked me lately, you know, how long does it take? They’re really struggling. And when I look at it, and one of them’s, you know, hyper-competitive market with massive players, and there’s no real point of differentiation. So in terms of the product quality, it might be good, it might not. But people buy the cover, not the book, and he’s got to really lift the copywriting in particular, and maybe the design but almost certainly it’s the copy. It’s the offer, you’ve got to get that offer that converts. And the other one has been trying so many different things and being going around in circles.
I think she’s just worn out. And she’s getting too tricky and is too fixed on what she wants to deliver but hasn’t focused so much on the market, you know, discover that the market doesn’t have financial capacity or intent, discover the market doesn’t want to consume things the way she’d like to sell it. So one thing we have to realize is our opinion doesn’t matter. It’s only the prospects that matter.
And the third one I want to bring up is someone who has done really well lately. That’s our friend, Ian, you know, he went from being on the Maldives not knowing anything about online marketing, to reading my book, Work Less Make More, to struggling a bit to set up a page with WordPress and figuring out what he’s trying to sell to whom. He switched over to 10XPRO. He got much clearer on his offer, he learned a bit about paid traffic, he’s just done a campaign and I’ve just found out he sold like 21 sales in a little launch, which is a massive win for him. So in terms of our timeframe, it probably took him a year of dabbling, and then it took him about three to six months of really getting clearer. And then it just took him a few weeks to go from the first few sales to the next 20 sales. Because he had a campaign, he had a specific offer, he had the right tool, he had good words, he got traffic to it, and it converted. That’s totally possible. But I predict that in another year from now, he’ll be flying. Because he’s got confidence. He’s got momentum. He’s reinvesting back into his toolset. He’s understanding more about his audience and he’s got momentum.
So look, it wasn’t a short answer in today’s video. But the bottom line is, the more you can bring to the table, the clearer you are on your offer, the better you can focus yourself on worrying about what the customer is going to see value in, the faster you’ll get that win and it could be a day like when I sold my first sales coaching, it could be nine months like when I tried to figure out what the hell I’m going to sell. But you will get there if you’re consistent and if you get some help from John and myself.
John: Yeah. Exactly.
James: So anyway, I’m James Schramko, that’s John Lint from 10XPRO.io. If you want the right platform, at least take that problem out of the equation, go to 10XPRO.io, grab the tool. There’s so much training there and lots of pre-done templates, you can just build your first campaign. All you have to figure out is what you want to sell and what people are going to buy. And then put in your PayPal and Stripe details and your autoresponder and away you go.
John: Thank you.
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