The Number 1 Ingredient of Entrepreneurship – SCCMH [Podcast 86]

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Jim Edwards: Hey everybody, Jim Edwards here and welcome back to the Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks Podcast…

This is Episode 86…

I’ve got my trusty Podcast Producer and co-host, Mr. Stew Smith, here today.

Hi, Stew.

Stew Smith: Hello, Jim.

Jim Edwards: How are you?

Stew Smith: I’m good. It’s Wednesday.

Jim Edwards: I’m glad!

Stew Smith: Happy Hump Day!

Jim Edwards: I am doing any of that this morning, but I did get dressed to do some workout.

So, today we’re going to be talking about the number one ingredient, the number one ingredient now I’m not talking about sugar…

I’m not talking about flour…

I’m not talking about water…

I’m talking about the number one ingredient in becoming an entrepreneur or moving your entrepreneurial business online or your regular business online or pretty much doing anything if you wanted to be successful.

Stew Smith: Caffeine.

Jim Edwards: Today, we’re going to talk about the number two most important ingredient because yes, the number one ingredient is caffeine.

But no, we’re wrapping up the series that we’ve been doing over the last few episodes for really professional people are newbies to move their online business or move their business online or to do better online marketing.

We talked about tools and resources.

We talked about targeting your market, your funnel, business model, product design, and creation.

And really the last two topics we wanted to talk about were habits and knowledge, but we realized those could really be combined into one.

Now, what are we talking about?

What is the number one ingredient?

How long am I going to go without telling you what it is?

And I’m not going to go any further.

All right, the number one ingredient is not caffeine, the number one ingredient is called “Getting up off your ass and doing something.”

Stew would say that’s action.

But ultimately, here’s what happens especially in the world of online business, but offline business too, but it’s more accute in online business is that there are a whole lot of people out there soaking up a whole lot of data…

Teading a whole bunch of stuff…

Watching a whole bunch of videos…

Buying a whole bunch of courses…

Buying a whole bunch of tools…

Getting ready to get ready. Ultimately, you have to get your ass in the arena, and you have to get to work.

Ultimately, you have to take action.

I’ll tell you why.

Because ultimately, how you’re going to make this work is by making it work.

And the only way to do that is to take action.

Because experience combined with data and information is what creates knowledge.

And knowledge is what’s going to help you to navigate your particular part of the internet to be able to find the customers you’re going to be able to sell to create the offers that they’re going to respond to…

Follow up with then build relationships become the attractive character and build the business that you want to have is only going to happen through applied knowledge.

And that means taking action every day based on the best data that you have now.

And I look back at the things that I’ve done over the years, I look back at stuff that I wrote 20 years ago, and I’m like, “Man, that kind of sucks.”

But I see where I was going with it.

And at the time, it was the best effort that I could put forward based on the knowledge that I had.

Have I changed my tactics over the years, yes, I have adapted my topics.

I do not flip-flop, like some politician trying to get a nomination for some office or  something like that.

They’ll flip flop in a heartbeat.

Stew Smith: It’s embarrassing.

But I have adapted my tactics over the years as things change, but the principles have never changed.

So learning principles, applying them, and actually doing it.

There’s all these people who can tell you all about Content Marketing.

We talked in the Jim and Stew show live on our Facebook group, which by the way, you should be a part of if you’re not if you’re listening to the podcast, but you’re not part of our group on Facebook, we’re almost 20,000 strong now at the Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks with Jim Edwards group on Facebook, it’s free to join, you have to fill out a little form.

So we know you’re not an axe murderer.

And then we’ll let you in.

We can’t know if you’re an axe murderer or not, but we’ll assume you’re not.

But the thing to do is just get out there and do it.

Because so many people will tell you how it should be done yet. If you go look at their Facebook profile, if you look at their blog, if they even have one, if you look at their podcast, if they even have one…

If you look at their YouTube channel, if they even have one, you’ll see that they post content like once or never, not every day or multiple times a day.

They’re not engaging with audiences.

They’re not going into other groups in answering questions and seeing what’s going on, keeping a pulse of what’s going on in the market, and then creating or offering products around those needs.

They’re not consistently doing what we know works, which is to see exactly what people want and sell it to them and consistently follow up over and over and over and provide value.

They’re just not doing it.

Stew Smith: You got to stay relevant.

Jim Edwards: And you only do that by doing it.

Stew Smith: Yep.

Jim Edwards: So, what are your thoughts?

I was pretty much my opening monologue on cable TV shows.

Stew Smith:  That was a great monologue.

So yeah, this is a kind of a culmination of a series of podcasts that Jim and I did to answer one question, and the question was…

“I want to take my current business and make it online and available as an online coaching service for people that aren’t comfortable coming into the office or whatever.”

We went through a whole series of here’s what you need to do that.

But this last one is kind of the secret sauce if there is one.

As I saw this quote, Jim, and it kind of encapsulates everything.

And I posted it up on the group right before the show, and it’s called…

I don’t know who said the quote, but it’s entrepreneurship.

And it says…

“Is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

Jim Edwards: I like that.

Stew Smith: Isn’t it awesome!

But like I thought back like 20 years ago, when I was starting it, man, I was just hustling, and there were no courses out there to do what we were doing, and you just muscled through it.

And at the end of the day, you still weren’t done.

But you started the next day, right where you left off and just kept on rolling and kept on grinding.

And eventually, things started working.

I remember when I sold my first e-book online, and I had published three books before then, and I was like, this changes everything.

Jim Edwards: Yeah.

Stew Smith: And it really did.

And I spent the next year creating content and more downloadable products and found a way to put it on a store and then get that out there.

There’s no social media back then; it was email lists and newsletters.

And things just evolve, and you just have to stay in the game.

So you can evolve with whatever’s making things a little bit easier.

Easy, but it’s just gonna be an easier method.

Like, I will use social media now more than I use my email list.

It’s just works.

Jim Edwards: But you don’t neglect your email list.

Stew Smith: No.

Jim Edwards: You still keep the stuff going.

Stew Smith: Yeah.

Jim Edwards: I think what it’s coming down to is that there’s no shortage of information out there on how to do just about anything.

Stew Smith: Yeah.

Jim Edwards:  Whether it’s free or paid or what or somewhere in between.

But ultimately, once you’ve gotten inside, I hesitate to say once you’ve gotten enough information…

Because I know there are a lot of people I need to know how to do this next thing, this next thing, this next thing, all you need to know how to do is what you need to do next.

And once you know what you need to do next, you need to go do it.

And then you’ll be able to figure out the thing that comes after that.

It’s like I know where I want to end up.

And I know where I am.

So I got to kind of take the steps to get there, and I want to make it as straight a line as possible.

But I know that there are going to be some bumps in the road, and I just got to get out on the road and make it happen.

If you think about driving home from work, there’s 10 different ways that you could go down different streets.

You know the one way that’s probably the fastest way, but there are alternative ways but what if you didn’t know the fastest way you could still get home if you got in your car and started driving east.

Eventually, you would make it there, and you would figure it out.

And you know, maybe if you saw somebody on the side of the road that look like they knew what they were doing, you could ask them for advice, but you’re still taking a chance that they really don’t know.

So maybe you go to the place where the person should have the advice.

You go to the gas station, or used to at least be able to go to the gas station attendant may be able to tell you how to get somewhere.

Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not…

You have your smartphone.

So you can use technology to help you get there.

But at some point, you got to get in the car, turn on the engine, hit the gas, and go. And you’re going to make mistakes, but that’s part of the process.

But until you actually do it, you’re just one of the 99% that want to talk about it, want to debate about it, want to have all these discussions in Facebook groups, they want to criticize the people that are doing it, they want to over-analyze the people that are doing it, but yet they’ve never done it themselves.

I love the story from David Goggins’s book about “Can’t Hurt Me” how, when he was going after the world record for pull-ups, that he had people that were just savaging him online, saying that he would never do it saying that he had the wrong body type.

You had the wrong form the wrong all the stuff they were saying.

And these are guys that probably were 500 pounds that we’re hoping to get on, you know, my 500-pound life on A and E.

Stew Smith: The last thing you ever want to tell David Goggin is you can’t do it. Jim Edwards: Right.

Stew Smith:  Mean that’s just fueling him up to do it.

Jim Edwards: We have people listening live, Anna just made a really cool comment.

I’m glad I looked down at this, you said, “Committing to taking action on what I had before I invest more money on some other shiny object.”

God bless you, Anna.

That’s really what you got to do.

My whole mindset has always been, I’m going to do what I can with what I have where I am right now.

And if I need a tool, if I really need a tool, I’ll figure out a way to get it.

But I’m gonna move with what I’ve got, and that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, and you’re doing things that you shouldn’t be doing.

Like if you wanted to do software, it doesn’t mean you go become a software developer necessarily, but you figure out a way to find a software developer and work a deal with them for a percentage if you can’t afford to pay for it upfront. And it’s just being smart, moving forward, taking action, taking your licks, figuring it out, making it happen, and most people won’t do that.

Most people want to be perfectly ready before they take the first step.

And part of the problem with online stuff, Stew and tell me if I’m wrong, is that by the time you’re perfectly ready, that particular opportunity may be gone because somebody else got down there hustled, grinded and did it?

Stew Smith: Yeah, or it’s even evolved to the newer method to do it.

Jim Edwards: Which you didn’t learn, because you weren’t in there doing it and teaching it and figuring it out.

Stew Smith: Right?

Jim Edwards: I mean, that happens to me with the scripts and stuff that we do the scripts in the wizard, I come up with the script.

And then I go and use the crap out of it myself.

Because I know that until I’ve used it and used it and used it and used it and used it, I’m not going to know where it’s not right.

And until other people have used them, I’m not going to know where it’s not right. And only after I’ve gone through that process do I know that a script is right.

And so that means being wrong for a long time in some cases before I’m right. But then I have the confidence in it that I know a, you’re just answering the question wrong because other people are using this just great.

So you’re the anomaly.

You can’t read instructions, right? Just saying.

Stew Smith: Maybe? Yeah.

You know, it really comes down to your mindset in the end.

And if you think you’re good at something, and you think people want to hear about your skillset.

Jim Edwards: And gets the results that you know how to produce.

Stew Smith: And get the results that you know how to produce, get out there and let people know about it.

And just create some content on that topic.

Next thing, you know, you’re like, “Oh, wow.” then you start getting questions, and those questions can start fueling new content.

Next thing, you know, you’ve got enough content out there to create a downloadable product, something that you’ve tried out with other people that worked and, it just grows.

So content, daily content is a snowball that will just get bigger and bigger and bigger.

And if you don’t learn to repurpose that content into other products and services, it’s really wasted.

So, you’re constantly always moving.

Jim Edwards: You’re always auditioning content, some of it that’s people are interested in product ideas and all that other stuff.

But the one thing I would also say is while you’re taking action, you got to learn to embrace the suck.

Because if it was easy, everyone would do it.

So, at some point, you have to understand I’m going to start out and there’s going to be a dip.

And at some point, I’m going to have that come to Jesus meeting where I have to decide

“Am I going to keep going or am I not going to keep going?”

“Am I going to keep pushing and pushing?”

And what you also need to understand is on the other side as long as you are really, really clear on the outcome that you want, you may not get the outcome that you want.

But you may get something that’s just as good.

So that’s the other thing that some people don’t understand.

I will tell you a quick story.

I’ve told you that story, Stew; when I was a freshman in college, I was an ROTC I really wanted to…

I mean, I’m not comparing this to anything that you’ve done.

I’m just saying this was when I learned this lesson is that I wanted to go to airborne school.

I was 17 years old. I wanted to be the second freshman that they ever sent from that program to airborne school.

I was going to be a paratrooper.

I know that’s a five-jump commando and all that stuff, but it’s when you’re 17 that’s a big deal.

Stew Smith: Big deal.

Jim Edwards: So I busted my ass, and I remember one of the Cadre said you had to get up three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday had to be at the gym.

At quarter to six in the morning, which, when you’re in college, is tough.

You had to be there, and the first day there were 75 people there, 75 people that were going after 10 slots.

And the guy said, look around.

If you really want to go to airborne school, you’re going to airborne school.

And I believed him.

He said I don’t care what shape you’re in right now; we can get you in shape to be able to go to airborne school.

If you really want to go, so I believed him.

The next time we went there, only 65 people there by the end of the semester, there were about 25 people that were still showing up because the way they did the only time they did, it was actually a PE class.

They somehow worked it out that the cut it was arobics, and it was PE, so you were there for PE credit so you could drop it.

But we showed up in uniform.

And I mean, it was brutal because I had never done any kind of PT before, but I believed him, and he said it if you really want to slot, you’re going to get to go.

So I got up to the point where I met and then exceeded the standards, but I didn’t get a slot.

And I was like, crap, I was ready to quit.

But I told him, I said, “Man, you said I was gonna go.”

He said, “Look, stick around. If you really want to go, you’re gonna get to go.”

So about four weeks later, he called me on the phone.

He said, “Okay, you got a slot.”

What happened?

Well, someone said I can’t go.

So you’re next in line.

So I was like, Yes!

So I called my mom.

I was all excited. “Hey, I gotta slot to airborne school.”

She says, “What is airborne school?”

I had made a mistake.

And I told my parents I wanted to do this.

She’s like, “What is airborne school?”

So I told her, I was all excited.

She said, “There’s no way in hell you’re going, you’re not going!”

I mean, I wasn’t on scholarship or anything.

I mean, I had no contract.

I mean, it was just purely…

Looking back, it was not the brightest way for me to have handled it.

So Long story short, my parents threaten to throw me out of the house.

And they meant it.

It wasn’t a threat.

They said, if you go to Fort Benning when you come home, your stuff won’t even be in the yard because it will have been picked up by the trashman.

And oh, by the way, figure out how to pay for college and where you’re going to live and all this other stuff.

I said, “Well, I guess they’re serious.”

So I didn’t go.

And this is like a French film right now.

It’s like it’s ending the film with the dog being dead.

And it’s like, this is terrible.

The end.

Stew Smith: And the protagonist should have known his audience a little better. Jim Edwards: I should have known my audience better.

Stew Smith: For an internship in Columbus, Georgia.

Jim Edwards: If I thought about, I would have told him I was doing CTLT, and then it was just cadet troop leadership training.

I was going down there to just shadow officers for three weeks and all the stuff I’ve thought about it.

But I didn’t because I was young and stupid.

Stew Smith: Sure.

Jim Edwards: Long story short, though, the equivalent benefit that came out of that, so I put in all that work, I put in all that work.

I mean, it was hard.

It really sucked.

And I put all that stuff in, but what was the equivalent benefit that came out of all that struggle and even that disappointed in the end, I’m not getting the thing that I thought I wanted.

I have, for my whole life, been able to draw on that experience of doing something really hard and never quitting.

And always and plus it kind of got me addicted to working out and other stuff that held for a while, and I lost, but I got it back.

But the biggest equivalent benefit that I got was a frame of reference that I could do something that other people said was impossible and that I could totally transform my mind and my body through sheer force of will.

I have used my whole life.

And that is certainly better than anything, and it has given me the courage and other situations.

So if you commit yourself to it 1,000% what we’re talking about here, this entrepreneurial journey and all the things we’re getting out there and taking action, you will get hit in the face with a 2×4.

I guarantee it.

But on the other side of that is so much self-confidence, so much energy.

Changing who you are as a person, that it’ll be worth it.

And maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones that the first thing you do turns into a gazillion dollar thing, and I want you to send Stew and me a million bucks each because we help to inspire you, and we deserve it.

But if not, it’s gonna build a frame of reference that gives you a solid foundation to move forward so you won’t be like some of these chuckleheads that make it easily, and then they lose everything because they didn’t build a foundation to be able to maintain it, or to handle it, or to value it once they do have it.

Stew Smith: Yeah, any of these movements into something new is intimidating.

It is for everybody.

And for anybody to say, it’s not that big a deal.

They’re lying.

It is intimidating, but there’s going to be struggle, there’s going to be failure, there’s going to be reworking something because you didn’t save it, and you got to recreate it, and there’s just gonna be times when it just sucks…

But there’s going to be the moments that also make every bit of that struggle worth it.

Jim Edwards: Yeah.

Stew Smith: And then from there, you just have a newfound energy to just keep rolling and keep going and a better path.

Jim Edwards: And you’ll know you made it when the people who told You along the way we’re like, “Ah, you can’t do that, or you should quit, and you should go get a real job.”

“Are you still messing around with that online thing?”

The ones who are the haters and everything that will be the first ones once you make it to then turn around and say, “I always knew you could do it. I told everybody I knew you were gonna make it.”

And you just want to go…

And just like whatever.

“Hey, thanks!”

Stew Smith: I always liked that one when they say when are you got to get a real job, right?

And I was like, real jobs pay real money.

It’s all say it.

Jim Edwards: What the hell does that even mean, Stew?

What do you mean? Jobs pay real money.

Stew Smith: I mean, I have a job that pays money; it is real.

Jim Edwards: All I do is look I’m and say why would I want to take a pay cut?

Stew Smith: That’s even better.

Jim Edwards: Why would I want to take a pay cut I’m certifiably unemployable.

Stew Smith: Yeah, I don’t think I could work for someone right now.

Jim Edwards: No one’s gonna hire somebody that makes 10 times what they make.

I mean, I’ve got some acerbic comments when people say stuff like that, but it’s family members so I can talk to them anyway.

Stew Smith: Yeah, but that’s the life of an entrepreneur.

People don’t want your people don’t understand what you are trying to do.

Jim Edwards: Until you’ve been the smack dab in the middle of it.

And it’s like Winston Churchill said if you’re going or was it Patton, who said when you’re going through hell, keep going.

Stew Smith: It was Churchill.

Jim Edwards: That was Churchill.

Okay.

Some famous dude.

Stew Smith: Yeah.

Jim Edwards: Anyway, all right. Cool.

I think we’ve beaten this one enough.

Stew Smith: Any good comments on this one?

Jim Edwards: They’re all good comments, aren’t they Stew?

Stew Smith: Of course they are.

Jim Edwards: Naoki, I hope I’m saying this right. It says it’s amazing how taking even just a little bit of action every day leaves you with a mountain of experience by the end of the week, month, or year.

That’s good.

I like that.

All right.

Well, that’s all we got.

Appreciate everybody being here.

Stew, you did a great job.

Stew Smith: Thank you, Sir!

Jim Edwards: If you are not a member of the Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks group on Facebook, you should be.

Go Facebook and do a search for Sales Content or Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks, and you’ll find it fill out the little form.

If you need help with your sales copy, head over to copywriting secrets.com grab a copy of my book for free, a real physical copy of our 40,000 copies sold worldwide so far, changing lives, and it’s still free; just pay a small shipping and handling.

And if you want to get in good shape, head on over to…

Stew Smith: stewsmithftness.com.

Jim Edwards:  I did, and look what happened to me, kids.

Stew Smith: Another little reminder of the little nuggets that you get when you’re going on this journey.

I remember when Jim was in the process of writing copywriting secrets.

And he I think he had texted me or called me up and says, “I can’t believe copywritingsecrets.com is available.”

That was just one of those little nuggets that I saw…

Jim Edwards: Wasn’t…

Stew Smith: What’s that?

Jim Edwards: It wasn’t available.

I had to pay a bunch of money for it.

Stew Smith: Oh, really? It was something…

Jim Edwards: It was something else I told you that was a domain I was like, “Holy crap!”

It was insane bonuses, insanebonuses.com that was the one that I was like, you’re grabbing me.

Yeah. And I was telling other people I got like, no way.

Was I still available?

Yeah, no, it wasn’t copywritingsecrets.com I paid a premium for that one.

Stew Smith: Oh, my bad!

Jim Edwards: But insanebonuses.com was the one likes it.

Stew Smith: Like you said, there’s a little victory that you get that just kind of keep you going.

Jim Edwards: Absolutely.

Stew Smith: Just take a little chunk, get a little victory.

Little more motivation for the next one.

Jim Edwards: Absolutely, absolutely.

Cool.

Well, everybody have a great day, and we will talk to you soon.