In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.
"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.
This week’s Lesson for Hannah
Hannah, sweetie. I want to talk to you about this amazing thing we call life. We live in a big world that gets smaller every day because of technology and the growing connectedness of everything. We are bombarded by interruptions throughout our day, from email to social media to push notifications from apps on our phone, to numerous other shiny objects. And I have no doubt that by the time you listen to this, it will have probably gotten worse, but definitely will have changed.
So, what does this have to do with life? Well, you only get one of them (at least as of now, we’ll see what happens over the next 20 years) and your goal should be to maximize every moment of it. I didn’t truly realize this until your mother and I brought you home and you started to grow. Every day brings something new and exciting. Life is truly about the experiences you have and the daily adventures that you get to unfold. It’s not about things. Years later, you won’t remember the fancy car as much you will remember an experience you had with it. My best advice to you is to seek out new experiences, travel to remote places, and see and feel the world firsthand…not through an app or VR or some other medium.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to work very smart and hard to be able to give yourself the ability to do this (your mom and I will teach you as best we can to create your own success and the ability to fund the life you want), but it also doesn’t mean that the best experiences require a bunch of travel and money either.
And that is true point. Amazing experiences are all around you every day. Just hearing your contagious laugh and watching you figure something new out is so precious to me. Watching you learn to ski or swim and do these things on your own is just as good as visiting Hawaii. The key I want you to realize is to make sure you stay open in your life to see and be present for all the wonderful things and experiences you will have, big and small. Don’t get so obsessed with work or a vision that you don’t take the time. I’ve made that mistake and thankfully have had the right people in my life to wake me up from it. I’ll leave you with this….As Ferris Bueller said “Life moves pretty fast…if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you just might miss it.” Don’t miss a thing in this amazing journey we call life, honey, I love you.
In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Bedros Keuilian. Bedros is a best-selling author, speaker, and high performance consultant. You may have heard of him or no doubt have followed someone or bought a product in which his systems and processes were used.
Dave has been fortunate to spend time with Bedros and experience his wisdom and insight first hand into how to build a high performing business. But, as Dave mentions, the thing he loves most about him, is that he is not just a “consultant” giving advice, he’s in the thick of it and in the trenches every day himself.
Bedros is the founder and CEO of the fastest growing indoor fitness boot camp franchise, Fit Body Bootcamp. He’s known as the hidden genius that the experts turn to when they want to create and launch successful digital info products, best-selling books, and high level coaching and consulting services.
Bedros is best known for his ability to help his clients quickly establish expert and authority positioning and become the predominant brand in their field.
His sales, marketing, mindset and business systems are the secret weapon used by thousands of successful digital marketers, best-selling authors, coaches and entrepreneurs who want to reach more high paying clients and customers without the use of unpredictable marketing tactics.
www.bedroskeuilian.com
Connect with Bedros on Facebook
Bedros has an amazing story. His father was a communist and part of the communist party in Armenia. It was not so much by choice, but by necessity. But, In 1980, his father saw an opportunity and decided to escape his family from communist Russia, who Armenia was under at the time, and flee to the United States. Bedros’s father wanted his family to have opportunity, but more importantly wanted to keep his sons from having to join the communist red army which was required at the time.
So, he found a way to put together $25,000 and escaped to Italy and made their way to the American consulate. Bedros was only 6 years old. They made it to the US 11 days later and settled in southern California…flat broke and not really knowing any English.
As Bedros says, he very quickly became the bread winner for the family at 6 years old…but not in the way you think. All his family members got multiple jobs working for less than minimum wage and Bedros’s job in the evenings was to go to the local grocery store where they dumped the expired food out back in a dumpster. His father would hoist him where he would find food that was still edible for the family.
In the first few years, they lived in 14 different apartments and got kicked out of most of them.
It was the experience of having to persevere and break through resistance that helped give Bedros what he calls the Immigrant Edge. Which he describes as the experiences that help create an almost “suit of armor” that helps you to be able to go through anything because you’ve had to overcome so much to just survive. It’s the ability to break through any adversity that comes your way that gives you a tremendous advantage in the game of life.
At the 10:20 mark, Bedros discusses his philosophy for building a business and what he calls the unfair advantage of “time collapse.”
At the 13:20 mark, Bedros talks about how you can get access to the people/influencers that can help you grow your business exponentially. Specifically here are the actionable steps:
Elements of a great pitch?
At the 21:30 mark, Bedros talks about building a brand and what it takes to be successful.
Tips for maximizing social media?
At the 30:00 min mark, Bedros talks about the discipline and routine needed to build a high performing business and brand.
Advice for starting out online?
Secrets that you share with your $100k Mastermind group?
Favorite Book: "Outwitting the Devil" by Napoleon Hill. Bedros's advice is to listen to it on audio.
Best Quote: “People don’t want to deal with your brand, they want to deal with you. They want to see the face behind the brand and the message and meaning that they are carrying. People will buy your brand because of you.”
Bedros's Misfit 3
In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Russell Nohelty. Russell is the founder of Wannabe Press and host of the Business of Art. Wannabe Press makes weird books and novels for weird people. The company helps people in making the most beautiful and beautifully printed books in the independent market. The Business of Art, helps creatives build better businesses by embracing their inner salesman without feeling negative about it.
It was the latter that intrigued Dave most about having Russell on the show, as one of the areas a lot of people struggle with is sales and selling – even though, discuss in the episode, it should be one of the easiest for people.
Russell is a true Misfit entrepreneur, owning several other business in addition to Wannabe and the Business of Art, and he regularly speaks throughout Los Angeles to groups like the LA Writer’s Society, Scripter’s Network, and at dozens of other conventions throughout the country like ComicCon in San Diego.
www.russellnohelty.com
www.thebusinessofart.com
Russell fell into being an entrepreneur because he couldn’t stand the way the businesses he worked at were run. He went on to build his own companies, but by the time he was 29, he had 4 failed businesses. When he analyzed why he kept failing, he realized that it was because he was not able to sell. He thought he would “build it and they would come.”
So, at 30, he decided he needed to learn to sell and did all sorts of jobs from selling Aflac to advertising to cell phones/plans. Along the way it clicked and Russell learned a few things that worked. As he says, “If you believe in the product and you provide value, then you can sell things without feeling gross about it.” If 2015, he went back out on his own and started Wannabe Press. The Business of Art Podcast sprung from this.
At the 7 min mark, Russell talks about failure and how he learned to overcome it, even after failing 4 times.
At the 15 min mark, Russell discusses sales and why a lot have trouble embracing it…and what you can do about it. He discusses how to remove the fear of rejection and how selling truly is a numbers game – and if you can embrace that, then selling becomes very methodical and much easier.
Russell says 1 out 10 will buy because they love you or your product. There is not much you have to do to get them to buy. Another 1 out of 10 will never buy from you, no matter how good at selling you are. And the other 8 in the middle could buy, but need you to help them understand why they should.
Tips on gaining interest and engagement from 8 in the middle:
Tips on developing a funnel:
How do you talk to more people?
Advice for approaching a Facebook group?
In person?
At the 33 min mark, Russell talks about the importance of following up and the value of a coach and the resources readily available to you today to become a better sales and business person.
Resources to help in sales:
What are the triggers that someone should focus on to elicit more sales? (Top 6)
Best Quote: “Many people think creativity is going to carry them into success and that is not true. Having a great product is the entry. If you can make something fantastic, then you can compete, but that doesn’t guarantee success. What does is the ability to take what you’ve made and to sell it one to one and one to many.”
Russell's Misfit 3:
In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Natalia Wiechowski. Also known as Think Natalia, the Middle East’s leading Edutainer. Natalia is an award winning, bilingual public speaker, impression management coach and digital influencer. She has won excellence awards throughout the Middle East, Africa, UAE and everywhere in-between. She has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Yogalife, Link magazine and others.
But what is interesting is she never started out to do any of this. In fact, at age 15 she was one of only two competitive soloists in a new category – Discodance – on the competitive German dance scene. She danced at international championships and music concerts with audiences of up to 12,000 people. She did this for many years and while completing her studies.
So how then did she end up going from being a top competitive dancer to working in the Middle East to gaining over 100,000 followers worldwide in less than a year and half and becoming a top influencer, speaker, and coach? We find out in this episode!
Natalia started out of college and took the first international position she was offered in the UAE. She spent 3.5 years there and had some success, but wanted something bigger. So, in her 2nd job, she initially hit the mark. She was very successful, won all kinds of awards, and made a lot of money, but something was missing. She was exhausted and found herself getting sick over and over again. It was after enduring this for a while that she quit her job and took a 9 month sabbatical.
As she says, she had hit emotional and physical rock bottom and had to take a break and detox her whole life to find who she really is, what success means – essentially her true purpose.
She changed her routines, her habits, and the way she approached life. She immersed herself in learning and growing herself. She also changed how she approached her social life. She started a blog and started to do more social. People started asking her to help them do what she was doing. She did a lot of early work and consulting for free.
It was through doing this that she figured out who she really was – A public speaker, a coach, and digital influencer. She set her focus on those 3 areas and cut out everything else.
Natalia says that there was no one thing that really crystallized things for her. It was a series of things.
At the 7 minute mark, Natalia talks about belief and how she changed the way she thought and how she approached things to change how she did things and change her results. She gives several examples.
Natalia shares a great quote “People act according to their level of awareness.” And explains how this can impact people, both in a bad or good way, in their lives.
She says that some people think that “If they blow someone else’s candle, theirs will shine brighter,” and that is not the case.
At 12 min mark, Natalia talks about the steps she took to make her vision a reality. First, she had to forget everything she had ever learned and then had to redefine everything. Then, she began to educate herself in the areas to develop her new beliefs and then test what she learned to see if held true. She shares multiple examples of how this testing worked and didn’t work. As she says, she “failed herself to success,” through this process.
Natalia talks about taking action and how striving for perfection is not a good thing. She talks about having the courage to start, even when you are not fully prepared. She mentioned that starting automatically puts you ahead of others and not being afraid of looking foolish is critical because you won’t know everything or have everything perfectly aligned.
At the 20 min mark, Natalia breaks down her 3 main areas of Public Speaking, Coaching, and Digital Influencing and gives advice for the how to be successful in each. She says that there are specific things that work across all areas and really for anything.
She breaks it down this way
Thoughts on personal branding/impression management?
Thoughts on building a following?
3 secrets of Influencing that others don’t talk about:
At the 30 min mark, Natalia talks about how she works across the different social media platform and manages content.
Biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?
Natalia still seeks out coaches and mentors to hold her accountable and help her grow in areas that she feels she needs work.
At the 37 minute mark, Natalia discusses the systems and routines in her business and how they help her productivity and success.
At the 40 minute, there is a great discussion on the mental and physical roller-coaster of being an entrepreneur and how to cope with it.
Best Quote:“Some people think that if they blow someone else’s candle, theirs will shine brighter - and that is not the case.”
Natalia's Misfit 3
In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome his long time business partner, adopted brother, and all around damn good guy, Erik Mueller. Erik is the founder of Grasp Technologies, a multi-time INC 5000 award winner that has averaged over 50% growth per year for almost a decade. In addition, he has been honored as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Executives in the Travel Industry, and is credited with creating the first graphic reporting system for the travel industry.
Erik is one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur as he is a former musician who is a self-taught programmer, turned business owner. He has had an amazing journey from being a self-taught programmer with a vision to transforming to a true CEO of a top performing company. Dave knows as he has been there along the ride for every step for the last decade.
At early age, Erik had a natural ability for programming and bought his first computer at the age of 10 and started to build games. As Erik notes he has always been drawn to the arts, especially music and photography. In fact, he went to college for photography and cinematography. But never completed it. At this point, computers still weren’t a big thing in the business world and he didn’t know that he would ever really end up on that side of things. Instead, he was in a band and did every type of odd job. He was big in the punk rock scene.
At one point, he got bored and decided to do the exact opposite of what anyone thought he would do and he went into the US Army. He says he loved the experience. It gave him discipline. It challenged him to push himself. And it made him realize that he can overcome major barriers.
Once he got out, he got a job at the State of Ohio, but it was not for him. He went back to odd jobs and music. He had a music studio in his basement and a gentleman came in, who worked at Bank One, and saw Erik programming Asteroids on his computer. He mentioned to Erik that they were looking for a programmer to come in and automate some large reporting that they were struggling with. He interviewed and got the job. It was this endeavor that allowed him to create the first graphic reporting system for the travel industry. Of course, doing this while playing in his band at night.
As things grew and got even more corporate, Erik decided it was time to move on. He started his first company, an IT services company, which shortly thereafter spawned Grasp Technologies. He started building the initial Grasp solutions and worked on funding, but then the dot com bubble burst and 9/11 followed shortly after. So, he just continued on building and working the business from there.
At the 9:50 mark Erik talks about becoming a CEO and the transition and realizations he had to go through.
Erik talks about “aha moments” and how there isn’t just one that happens on the journey, but many. You reach a plateau and then bust through it and then on to the next one. And each new level you get, there are “aha moments” and amazing things to discover and do. Erik says he seems to see it as an every year thing in which your challenge yourself to new levels.
At the 18:20 mark, Erik talks about overcoming obstacles and how each challenge you over makes it easier to overcome the next one. He talks about how to bust through your fears and how to let go of the past that may be holding you back.
At the 21 min mark. Erik talks about staying true to yourself and how in reality the more successful you become, the more your true self and value get amplified. As he says, “People that are a$$holes become bigger a$$holes and people that are good just become that much better.”
Biggest challenge as an entrepreneur? Letting go and trusting your team. Giving up the control so that your business can truly grow.
Erik recommends the book Scaling Up as a good blueprint of how to create a great business. The other one he recommends is Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy to help with learning to prioritize correctly.
Best piece of advice for a new entrepreneur?
How do you measure personal success? What does success mean to you?
Staying competitive in technology, are there best practices that are relevant today?
Hardest part in growing a company?
Do you have a coach? Who do you look to for advice?
Will computers and AI take over the world and our live?
Will VR get to a point where people cannot distinguish between reality and lose themselves in it?
How will VR impact travel?
Best Quote: "Great ideas aren't anything, unless you have great people that execute on them and make them happen."
Erik's Misfit 3
In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome author of "Half – The Ultimate Guide to Cutting Your Taxes by up to 50% Guaranteed" and founder of Tax Vantage Consulting, Wes Matejka!
Wes has a diverse career in the he started out in radio and at one point was radio executive of the year, but he had a passion for helping people in a larger way. He founded Tax Vantage Consulting as a way to do this. TaxVantage™ Consulting works with those who have high incomes and their existing CPAs to cut their income taxes by tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. They do this by selling large assets to defer any Capital Gains taxes for 30 years – a really interesting concept. They focus 100% on reducing taxes using their proprietary TrueTax™ Process and then provide a CPA with what a client needs to file their tax return.
It works. Tax Vantage counts some of the most successful entrepreneurs and Hollywood A-listers as their clients. Through it all, Wes has not lost his passion for helping others. In fact, he says one of his greatest accomplishments is that he has not only helped clients save literally millions of dollars in taxes, but also helped to create thousands of acres of permanent green space around the country through conservation efforts.
www.taxvantageconsulting.com
Email Wes: Wes@taxvantageconsulting.com
Half: The Ultimate Guide to Cutting Your Taxes Up to 50% Guaranteed
Wes has a unique story. He spent over 25 years in the radio and music industry. Working his way through college included a gig doing standup comedy which led to doing some voice work for radio and ultimately got him his start in the radio business. As the industry changed and got to be more corporate and lose the small entrepreneur owner mentality, he lost his passion and decide it was time to do something else.
The only challenge was that he decided to make this change at the peak of the recession and was not sure what he was going to do. How did he do it? He prayed about it and stayed open to opportunity, whatever it may be, and the opportunity to work with business owners to help lower their tax burden came along and he took the opportunity. He learned and grew in the space and was eventually able to go on his own and start Tax Vantage Consulting.
Wes talks about transition and figuring out what you want if you are going to make a big change or switch careers. Part of it is being open as discussed above, but really being clear on what you are passionate about is the other. He discussed how we started Tax Vantage and the passion that drove him to do so.
At the 8 min mark, Wes talks about the process and the strategies that they use that many CPA’s don’t know about or have not heard of. The interesting thing is that the items Wes and his team find for a client are concrete because they are simply from the tax code and typically buried deep in the thousands for rules and pages of credits and deductions available. He talks about the difference between deductions and credits and why credits are the better.
He also talks about how the tax code is there to incentivize business owners and entrepreneurs and gives simple, common sense reasons why.
He talks about how a lot of the tax strategies they use are geared toward higher income earners ($500,000/year +) because of the way the laws are written, but offers up some tax strategies that even people making under that amount can utilizes. One he talks in depth about is R&D tax credits and gives examples of them being able to be used by everyone from landscapers to electricians and everyone in between. The rule is that if you are doing “research and development to be able to bring your product to the marketplace” – which most companies regardless of size are, then you can use these tax credits.
Wes gives a great example of how his group was able to save a client over $1.2 million just for finding the R&D credit and going back the 3 years available to recapture it.
At the 18 min mark, Wes talks about his favorite strategy which is how to differ capital gains by up to 30 years. He tells two great stories of this. One of a business owner and one of a Hollywood A-lister.
At 23 min mark, Dave asks Wes if this is too good to be true and his answer is one that everyone should hear. As he says, things are not too good to be true just because you’ve never heard of them.
Wes gives some pretty interesting stats:
Wes’s advice for those that are not high net worth, but working their way toward it as follows:
Wes makes a very interesting distinction when he says, “Your CPA’s job is not to reduce your taxes. There is job is tax preparation, not necessarily tax reduction.”
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs? What holds them back?
Biggest challenge? Making sure to always be staying on point and educating others about his niche and keeping the energy up to do that day and day out.
Advice for growth?
Best Quote: “Seek out those ideas that do seem “to good to be true” and then make them true”
Wes's Misfit 3
n this episode, Dave is excited to welcome two-time Inc 500 entrepreneur and best-selling author, Rhett Power!
In 2007, Rhett resigned from his lucrative consulting career to co-start a toy company called Wild Creations. Less than two years later, the economic downturn left him exhausted and nearly bankrupt. Rhett was not only forced to analyze his company, but himself to see what needed to change. The results of this were that he figured out how to do the right things right and Wild Creations was named one of INC 500’s fastest growing companies 2 years in a row and has gone on to win over 40 national awards.
He is the author of the Amazon best-seller, One Million Frogs, a regular contributor to INC, Success Magazine, and Business Insider… and has a new book being released in the next week called, The Entrepreneur’s Book of Actions. He is also a member of the US Department of State’s Speakers Program.
Connect with Rhett on Twitter: @rhettpower
The Entrepreneur's Book of Actions
This interview has a lot of great items in it, but for those of you that have ever transitioned from a steady job to owning your own business or are planning, or aspire to do so, you will find Rhett’s story and journey of adapting to being an entrepreneur very helpful and useful.
Rhett had a very good job working for USAID around the world, but something was missing. It wasn’t right. Rhett and a colleague would meet and routinely talk about what it is that they wanted and it came down to one thing – owning their own business. They decide to quit their jobs in 2006 and buy a business. They look at all sorts of business, including a “dead body” removal business. Ultimately, they found a very unique business with 1 product. Of all the companies they looked at, it was probably the one in the worst shape, but there was just something about it.
It wasn’t easy. They went through a lot of struggle including multiple years on the road selling a product out of van around the US because it was not shippable. They had no access to additional capital or money and reinvested everything back into the company to keep it going. After a couple years, they were able to turn it into a success and became a multi-year INC 500 company.
At the 9 min mark, we talk about tipping points and what the biggest one for Rhett was. He tells an amazing story of being about 1 month away from going under and decided to take a huge risk that if it didn’t work, they would be done.
Rhett talks about his new book being released in January ’17, The Entrepreneur’s Book of Action and how it came about because of going through the transformation in the business and re-thinking his entire business to make it successful. He wrote the help people who are doing the hard work and focus in their business could have a guide that makes it easy and systematic to work on their business daily.
Rhett discusses the long game and planning for your success. He discussed how we live in an instant gratification world and that is just not reality in business. It takes work, planning, the ability to adapt, and change, and staying after it consistently to truly succeed. He suggests taking time to reframe everything you do and see if it is actually working or not. And if it is not, you don’t have to have drastically change all at once. Instead, you should tackle things in smaller chunks. It’s important to get the small wins and momentum to help you stick with and accomplish big changes. Eat the elephant one bite at a time.
At the 27 min mark, Rhett talks about the power of belief. He gives a great story about Christmas to illustrate how important true belief is in your success. He also discussed how not having an exit strategy helped them to overcome and make the business a success. “Commit. The minute you start talking about getting out is when you will.”
Rhett talks about some of his favorite concepts in The Entrepreneurs Book of Actions:
Efficiency vs. Activity?
You can do a lot of activity, but that is not efficiency. You should also be working toward more efficient ways to run your business. Look at how you’re doing things, what you’re doing, and how you are using resources and time. This also goes to how you are using your time as an entrepreneur. Where is the best place for you to focus?
Best advice for entrepreneurs just starting out?
Bad habits are what hold us back, so make sure you are aware of yours. Money management, time management, and planning are the 3 most critical areas where business often fail
At the 40:30 mark, Rhett gives a great example and advice on seeking and selecting mentors.
Best Quote: "Dream big, but think small as it’s the small details, the daily details, that are going to get you to that big dream"
Rhett's Misfit 3
Welcome to a very special year end edition of the Misfit Entrepreneur – a year end wrap up of the best insights and musings from our Misfit guests. I also want to thank you. Thank you so much for all of the support of this show and for sharing it with others. It continues to grow tremendously and we wouldn’t be where we are without your support. So, again, from the bottom of my heard, thank you so much.
There is so much amazing insight, advice, and life lessons from the 2016 Misfit Entrepreneurs. We could write a whole book with all of the wisdom. And maybe we will!
The best place to go to see all of this great content is on our website at www.misfitentrepreneur.com
There you can see each episode and its detailed show notes. The content in this episode was sourced from the episodes and show notes. We picked out the best insight and advice from each episode and its notes that we thought could help you to most.
So go check out the site and all of the other resouces available to you on it!
Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!"
In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.
"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.
This week’s Lesson for Hannah
Hannah honey, I want to talk to you about the ability you have to overcome anything. We all go through times in our lives that are tough and that test us. This is what makes life so exciting and yes, sometimes frightening, but it is how we handle these moments that makes the biggest difference in ability to grow as individuals and ultimately our success in our endeavors.
Let me tell you a quick story about how your dad made a big mistake, but was able to overcome it…(please listen to the episode for the full story)
The big lesson in how to overcome anything is to remain calm, or at least find calm after freaking out, before you make any decisions. 99% of the time people make decisions out of emotion and that, sometimes can lead to even bigger mistakes. Remember to look at things from a logical standpoint and ask “how can I overcome this or make the best out of this situation.” Asking “how” will open your mind to finding possibilities for yourself and then you can make them happen. Things are never as bad as they seem anyway – we typically make them worse than they are. Remember, when you desire and want something truly bad enough, you’ll move mountains to get it. Believe in yourself, your abilities, be willing to innovate, and you will always be able to overcome anything.
Best Quote: "When you desire and truly want something bad enough, you'll move mountains to get it."
Misfit 3
In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Priest Willis. Priest is the founder of Affiliate Mission, a premier, award winning affiliate marketing and management agency. Affiliate Mission helps businesses ensure that their product or service is prominently featured on as many high quality, high traffic websites, and social sites like Facebook and Youtube, as possible. In short they help businesses find and get new customers easier and faster with strong, relevant content.
Priest and his team work with clients all of the world and managed everything from start to finish, effectively allowing clients to outsource their business or side hustle to work 24 hours a day for them.
It was this ability and the fact that Priest gives a portion of every dollar that the company makes to charity that intrigued Dave about having him on
Connect with Priest on Twitter: @priestwillis
Email Priest: priest@affilaitemission.com
Priest started in 1996 when he built his first computer with his father. In doing this, he found a passion for technology. He got so advanced at building computers, he started a business selling them. It began to grow, but as Priest says, it started to outgrow himself. He wasn’t prepared, did not have enough help, and ultimately started to have anxiety issues. He did all this while holding down a job so he could make sure he supported his young family.
He knew he needed to find a better business and business model to fit his life. He started building websites, but found it too labor intensive.
He wanted to find a business where he did not have to have a physical product and work with other businesses to help them grow. That is how he got into the affiliate business starting in 2004 with Amazon and some others.
Priest coins a term, “Horizontal Money" – The ability to make money while you are laying down and sleeping
From that point, Priest has built the affiliate business into Affiliate Mission, an award winning affiliate marketing firm.
Priest talks about forced unplugging to overcome anxiety. He forces himself to tune out and take breaks. He also makes sure to find ways to delegate and find help where he needs it and have the right team in place.
At the 7:45 mark, Priest explains affiliate marketing and how it works. He talks about how to do it, the types of players in the affiliate game and how you can work with them.
Priest offers advice for affiliates. He says that affiliates get excited about an idea and run after it, they create all these domains to sell through, but then if the idea or success rate begins to fade, they let it go and don’t stay on it. He says focus on your passion and work with merchants that closely align to what you love and what you blog about or share on social media. You won’t fall into the trap of chasing the latest fad or idea and be able to be consistent. Successful affiliates are typically doing something inline with their passions.
Priest gives advice for merchants. He says it is best to understand what an affiliate is looking for. One of the biggest mistakes merchants make is not connecting with and understanding their affiliates. The affiliate is their customer or an extended marketing team and they need to treat them like one. Affiliates are at the front of the line and merchants need to communicate and stay in tune with them.
At the 16:00 mark, Priest talks about how to get started for beginners in affiliate marketing. He especially gives advice on if you have an informational product like an e-book or program (digital asset).
At the 19:30 mark, Priest gives advice to people that are more established and have a blog or larger social media following. (influencers).
Priest talks a lot about how you always need to be innovative and be you. Find your voice and your message. No matter how many people you have in your database, if you are consistent and authentic, it will grow over time. Don’t copy others and try to be like them.
Priest says that right now, one of the hottest things out there are subscription boxes like Blue Apron, Birchbox, and others. If you have a passion for one of these products and actively talk about it, consider becoming an affiliate and sharing your story of using the product.
At the 28:00 mark, Priest talks about how to use Google Alerts and Correlate to see what content is lifting up and gaining traction. That is how affiliates stay up on what is hot and people are interested in. If you are passionate about it, then you can buy a domain that fits it and create Amazing links, etc. and get some traction. He goes on to give other examples of how you can create a business without owning anything and just have a website with a passion.
At the 32:00 mark, Priest talks about how to balance paying commissions if you offer a product to affiliates. Hi advice – give what’s fair, don’t be tricky. Make sure you understand your costs and what you can actually giveaway. Think of a long term approach to your business and look at what other competitors are offering and find the balance.
The future of affiliate marketing? Influencers have definitely become much bigger than expected. Right now, Priest says “Omni-channel” is the future which is really using intelligence to find out where someone really came to them from (online to store or store to online). It is predictive analytics. Priest mentions an example of coupon codes on Impact Radius (www.impactradius.com)
Best Quote: "Knowing who you aren’t helps you to know who you are"
Priest's Misfit 3