Limitless

[AndrewNC]

Been making a lot of contacts in the Vegan/Fitness market lately.... not sure how this will pan out, but i have a feeling it may turn into something - somewhere somehow

Not entering the Vegan market at this point...it'll be a distraction.

I'm about to go through a major growth phase for my business and settle down some more in my life.

For the past couple of years, I've been kind of coasting on autopilot. I've been making passive income since March 2014. Quit my job in June 2014, and began traveling the country ever since then. Moving from city to city every 3-6 months. East Coast, Boulder, Scottsdale, Seattle, and taking road trips everywhere in between.

Growth Phase Update

I met with a group of Fastlaners at a bar/restaurant in Denver last night.



I've seen many of them at the conferences over the years, and now they are more like friends at this point. Haven't seen them in a while, so we met up one night to talk busienss. Talking about selling companies, traveling the world, and I naturally start talking about personal development. It's like my default topic during conversations.

One of the members works in the education industry as well, and does exactly what I'm looking to do. And he's been doing it a lot longer than me.

After we left, he talked to me for about an hour and a half, giving me mentorship on my first "real" product launch. Basically, he outlined the whole strategy, and it has worked very well for him in the past. Today, I was on a Skype call with another entrepreneur from Europe, helping him through something in his life, and after that, he gave me some more good best practices from his product launch.

I did noticed some limiting beliefs and blockages during our conversation last night, so I spent an hour working those out this morning, and I already have really high quality sales copy, and a lot of free content written up, to deliver value to my audience.

The founder of Startup week emailed me the other week, offering to sponsor my first international trip, out of the country. I have two place in mind, and let him know I would like to go to Europe in August.

So while for the past few years, I've been living a lifestyle business, I maintained, but I didn't grow. It's time to grow, so I've been quickly bumping up my workload to long days, and began cutting out all the distractions in my life, and cutting out people who are not going to help me grow my business.

Settling Down

Last Summer, I was driving up the Pacific Coast Highway from Southern California to Seattle.

I was driving up the rocky bluffs just north of San Francisco, on the coast, and I see these two surfer girls in a yellow Jeep open up the gate to some narrow, rocky road. I'm on the side of the road filming YouTube videos, like I always do.

The wind was too much to get good audio quality, but they seemed interested so we started to talk.

They say they are about to go back to college, and are spending the night on the beach having a campfire and surfing. I walk down the beach with one of them, Katie, and we share a moment together. Something inside of me shifted. I've been walking this journey, virtually alone for two years, making lots of friends, dating...but never made the time to make any deep, meaningful connections.

After we parted ways, I started to shift to wanting a woman by my side, for the next stage of my journey...

I met the perfect woman for me a few months ago, here in Boulder, Colorado, where I'm staying until August. She wanted to just be friends, so I spent 3 weeks crying to myself about it, and working my a$$ off at the gym, and doing some personal development on myself to build confidence. Now, I'm starting to attract a lot of women into my life.

One of them stands out - She is a Junior in college to become a storm chaser, and is in the process of building a drone to fly into tornadoes, gathering data that they currently can't gather, and is raising between $5 million and $10 million in government grands, forming a partnership with NASA to use their satellites to transmit real time weather data.

Then she began talking about a strategy to grow my brand from the local, to the state, and eventually to the national and international level, starting by doing presentations at schools, with the skills I've acquired over the years. I reached out to one private school who is looking to improve their curriculum, and will start there. I used to date one of the teachers there, so I reached out to her to put in a good word.

And by settle down, I mean I'm going to travel through Europe in the fall, living out of a backpack, working off of a laptop...most likely with the girl that I've kind of started dating...I'm not sure where it will lead, but I feel much more aligned with everything, now that I have her in my life.

I guess I'm starting to see @Vigilante 's side of things when it comes to relationships and business.

This woman is real supportive, and I'm supportive of her.

So yeah, been making a lot of great contacts lately, raised some capital for one of my projects, and about to go through a major growth phase of my business.

Today, I have total clarity.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndrewNC]

For anybody looking for that big secret to success with your business:

I'm not too sure this will be my most popular video out there...no lamborghinis or mansions in the background.

 

[AndrewNC]

I started hanging out with a lot of people in a specific industry - not for business idea extraction, but just as friends and having fun. Went hiking with them, went to dinners with them, rock climbing.

And they are all very influential people throughout the entire industry, and they asked for my help with what I've learned about online marketing and persuasive communication.

I feel there is a very big opportunity here...

But none of this was to try to grow my business - it was just to help people and make friends.

 

[The Grind]

Good shit Andrew, good shit indeed.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

For anybody looking for that big secret to success with your business:

I'm not too sure this will be my most popular video out there...no lamborghinis or mansions in the background.

What's interesting for me is that I'd like to watch it because I know it's only 52 seconds long (from the email you sent to your list), but I don't have my headphones on me and don't want to wake my wife up.

The chances of me remembering to come back to watch it are slim.

I've been getting a lot of my videos transcribed when I put them on my blog - mostly for SEO. Now I wonder how many would read but not watch...


EDIT: Also, for me, the fact that it's only 53 seconds long is a selling point - so is it worth mentioning that to get people to watch it?

I believe Twitter allows us to upload videos up to 140 seconds now too?

Can you get the transcription added to the video and post it to Facebook, natively? Then when it autoplays without sound, people can read what you're saying (I'm going to have try that soon with my own videos).

 

[Andy Black]

Got interviewed on a podcast today.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/explor...est-andrew-alexander--author-and-entrepreneur

This link doesn't work.

 

[Andy Black]

I started hanging out with a lot of people in a specific industry - not for business idea extraction, but just as friends and having fun. Went hiking with them, went to dinners with them, rock climbing.

And they are all very influential people throughout the entire industry, and they asked for my help with what I've learned about online marketing and persuasive communication.

I feel there is a very big opportunity here...

But none of this was to try to grow my business - it was just to help people and make friends.

"Idea extraction" sounds so painful. I've never liked that phrase.

"Just help people" works so much better for me.

For me, business is all about building relationships, and helping people.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Great post. This is the direction I'm continuing to walk every single day. I noticed in my past that leading by example is the best way to go. Kind of reminds me of that phase when I first read about entrepreneurship and preached that to my friends, before I had any success.

Actions speak louder than words.

"People listen to experts, they follow leaders."

www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/people-listen-to-experts-they-follow-leaders.67450

(I must get that transcription loaded...)

 

[AndrewNC]

What's interesting for me is that I'd like to watch it because I know it's only 52 seconds long (from the email you sent to your list), but I don't have my headphones on me and don't want to wake my wife up.

The chances of me remembering to come back to watch it are slim.

I've been getting a lot of my videos transcribed when I put them on my blog - mostly for SEO. Now I wonder how many would read but not watch...


EDIT: Also, for me, the fact that it's only 53 seconds long is a selling point - so is it worth mentioning that to get people to watch it?

I believe Twitter allows us to upload videos up to 140 seconds now too?

Can you get the transcription added to the video and post it to Facebook, natively? Then when it autoplays without sound, people can read what you're saying (I'm going to have try that soon with my own videos).

I like it!

Added to the task list! I did the 53 second thing after seeing your post about it and on Tim's four hour workweek blog, he says 'this article will take 6 minutes and 40 seconds to read)

 

[AndrewNC]

"People listen to experts, they follow leaders."

www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/people-listen-to-experts-they-follow-leaders.67450

(I must get that transcription loaded...)

I've been reading a lot about 'servant' leaders lately.

By facing the things deep down in the trenches, and putting themselves out there to help others.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

I like it!

Added to the task list! I did the 53 second thing after seeing your post about it and on Tim's four hour workweek blog, he says 'this article will take 6 minutes and 40 seconds to read)

A forum member has been doing my transcriptions.

You can also use rev.com

 

[AndrewNC]

Taking a new approach to the business going forward.

A lot of the market I advertised to are money chasers who are selfish, and care nothing about more than "making $10,000 per month" with no desires to help other people in return.

The other night I was at a networking event and met this girl who is really into healthy eating and fitness, and the passion just radiated from every ounce of her body for wanting to improve the health of others.

She is already motivated.

She is driven, but she is stuck.

She doesn't have the education to really take an amazing service she will provide to market. I began teaching her the things I've learned about business over the years, helping her define her target market, narrow down her targeting, and build a loyal following that will love what she has to offer. She is dedicated and won't jump to the next idea when she faces a struggle. She acts on the advice I gave her, and I'm personally investing my time to help her...because I know from the person she is that she is definitely going to be successful.

I hear a lot of non-fiction authors say they keep one person in mind as they write their books.

On Monday, I am releasing a low-cost monthly subscription entrepreneurship training academy for people like Mandy who are committed to putting out great things in the world, and just need help with the mindset and the education to make their dreams a reality.

The way I'm structuring my offer is $1 for the first 3 days. On day 1-3 I'm packaging everything I used on my NLP clients to gain clarity with their direction in busienss, and the confidence, and motivation to make it happen.

From there, I'm thinking $19.95 per month will be the cost of their education.

Month one will be a fundamentals of entrepreneurship training course (similar to courses I've created in the past, but more geared towards entrepreneurs like her...).

After that, I'll teach personal development, energy, focus, interpersonal communication skills, and everything I learned from being an entrepreneur for five years and starting 3 successful businesses.

Over time, I'll slowly take my own content out of the business and replace it with top experts in each area. I already contracted with two others who are interested in working with Limitless. One company does market research and consumer psychology services for businesses - they will provide their knoweldge up front and I will offer a discount on their services to the students of Limitless. The other is a sales rep who sold over $500,000 worth of products in face to face sales and online - he will record a module on sales training.

A higher priced item is an updated NLP Practitioner Training Program as well as my coaching.

I've been seeing a lot of success in the people I coach and helped one on one, so I'm excited to get this all in video format to help as many people as possible.

 

[AndrewNC]

Been spending a lot of time with some really passionate influencers in the health/wellness markets, and they are all very interested for something I'm building. Been building great friendships with them, helping them out with their lives and their goals, not expecting anything in return...

My time is SWAMPED right now....I'll be spending about 30 minutes a day building out a product that could really help them - and once I do that, they said they would be more than willing to do 90% of the promotion for it.

Never saw this opportunity coming, and never chased after this 'business idea'... just tried to help people and it seems to be here.

If somebody could invent more time in the day - I'll be your first customer!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndrewNC]

Say yes to everything.

Editing an interview yesterday from another entrepreneur in the personal development space.



today is sunday...

 

[AndrewNC]

Video uploaded: Talking about a lot of the mental shifts on my journey through entrepreneurship.

 

[AndrewNC]

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndrewNC]

I should write a blog post on how I got my business sponsored on a professional race car (without paying a dollar)....

Still so excited for this!

Entering a new market in the Health industry

For the past five months, I've been immersing myself in an expanding, scalable market.

Google trends is showing a massive upward spiral of growth in the industry.

I'm already friends with all the influencers.

I have the knowledge and expertise to create a product that solves a very specific problem for everyone in the market.

The market is so passionate about what they are doing, and they see the value I bring. I know for a fact that the entire market will share my product with anyone and everyone they know once it is released.

The main lesson I learned from this experience is that by getting out of my house and surrounding myself (in person) with the market, going to industry events and conferences, and helping a lot of the influencers themselves improve their business/presence...opportunities are already there, and I wouldn't have found it if I hid in front of my computer.

The next step is to create an MVP of my product, and then run it by the community that I'm a part of - and get their feedback for improvements before I release it to market.

By using this "focus group/beta testers", they have the knowledge and experience in the market and I know once I get their stamp of approval, once it hits the market - it will spread like wildfire.

Growing market + passionate community who will do anything to spread what I'm helping people with = formula for success.

Projection:

1. Week 1 - Create MVP of product
2. Week 2 - Get feedback from influeners who want to help.
3. Week 3 - Refine product
4. Week 4 - Bring product to market.

After that, I already know how I'll market the product, but it's too soon to plan that out in detail.

 

[AndrewNC]

Just spoke with a friend in the industry I'm targeting now. She's setting me up to have lunch with 2 published authors in the niche, and really excited to help my brand grow big into the market because she sees I can make a lot of difference.

 

[Goobii]

This is awesome man! From the sponsorship to the leverage you've created.
I think the key I'm learning here is create value for others, which is a lesson being on the megaphone on the forum since I've been on here.
We'll done Andrew.

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Angelic]

Awesome thread, really looking to see how far you can take this product in the health industry. This is a great example of how networking with different people and genuinely helping people can unlock so many opportunities for potential business.

 

[AndrewNC]

Health Foods Bar-

In my marketplace ad, I started talking about how I met a girl named Chelsea at a Barnes & Noble in Boulder Colorado.

She was talking about how she wanted to start an energy bar company, we exchanged contact info, and I started helping her get started. Despite running out of gas on her way from NJ to California, losing her debit card,and having to beg for money in front of Walmart, she is taking massive action.

We are talking daily now via Facebook, when she can find a hotspot for internet connection. I don't think her phone even works.

She said her favorite band was playing in the area and tickets were $60. She didn't go, and instead, she bought organic products and a blender to start creating the product for her business.

When she sent pictures of the first product she made (in the back of a tiny house she is pulling behind a truck)...I thought she was cooking meth.



It's about a week later, and after driving back from a business networking event in Denver, I stopped by her mini-house, now parked outside a walmart in Broomfield, Colorado. She put all her money into making the first round of samples - and they tasted good. I took some home for my roommate and they all liked them too.

They are chewy, organic, vegan, paleo, and I think gluten-free - which will appeal to a wide variety of markets.

And they are infused with a special ingredient, which makes them very unique (no, it's not marijuana... [HASHTAG]#colorado[/HASHTAG]).



Last weekend, I went to a health foods conference in Golden, CO and began asking a lot of the vendors advice about the regulations, distribution, and process of starting a food company. I've started businesses before, but none in the food industry, so I went to seek out mentors.

Coincidentally, for my own brand, I got invited to speak at a few events later this year, and to speak at the conference next year.



Just by showing an interest in their products, and asking one or two simple questions when their booth was slow - I learned a lot about how she can get really affordable packaging/labeling, and learned about something called the Cottage Food Act where she can sell less than $10,000 of each product, as long as she sells direct to consumer.

I was hesitant to do this for her, because I feel she should learn to do these things herself, but she is taking more action than anyone I've ever seen since I started helping other entrepreneurs..so I wanted to do my part to help her get up and running quickly.

Normal regulations require her to have a commercial foods kitchen before she sells. But with the Cottage Foods Act in colorado - she can get around that until she gets a commercial kitchen.

Also asked around at a local farmers market who confirmed a lot of things I learned there. They said many restaurants are more than willing to rent out their kitchen after hours at $300 per month to fulfill the commercial kitchen requirement for startup brands.

It's rewarding finally helping someone who is taking massive action, and virtually has her product ready for sale, within the first week of starting her business.

She went to a local park today with a picnic table she bought - and started handing out samples, collecting donations, and getting an overall positive rating from everyone who sampled her product.

Next step for her: Packaging, labels, and then getting some sales via setting up a stand at parks and in farmers markets before moving on to finding a commercial kitchen and distribution through retail.

 

[AndrewNC]

Packaging #1 for Chelsea's product - Printing out stickers at the library today.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndrewNC]

1. Her packaging and labels are done - ready to start selling at a farmers market in the area.
2. Connected her with two fitness/health brands in the area who are going to have her do a workshop/showcasing her food.
3. Connected her with the CEO of a large probiotics health company in denver who will eventually mentor her on the ins and outs of growing a food brand.

Next step - using EFT + NLP to help her overcome her fear of her products not being great (they are)

 

[AndrewNC]

Spent my Sunday night handing out flyers at the Warped Tour in Downtown Denver with a lot of people in the market I'm beginning to serve now - everyone I talked to is really excited for the product to come out.



Things to note:

1. Didn't start helping them with the intent to make money. My purpose is to cause a huge change in the world, and they are super passionate about working together on it.
2. Spent most of my Sunday night doing this.
3. I was with my girlfriend an hour before the event. She resisted me going. Didn't want me to do it, and doesn't agree with it. When I was driving her back to her house, she was giving me the cold shoulder about me doing this instead of hanging out with her. I did it anyway.

 

[Jake]

I should write a blog post on how I got my business sponsored on a professional race car (without paying a dollar)....

Would love to read it..because race car.

I'm sure dollars were spent in the meeting and acquiring of contacts to get it done but..would still be an interesting story to read.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndrewNC]

Would love to read it..because race car.

I'm sure dollars were spent in the meeting and acquiring of contacts to get it done but..would still be an interesting story to read.

No dollar spent at all

EDIT: swamped with work but I'll post one soon

 

[AndrewNC]

First 3 sales for Chelsea's product! Met with her last night and plan on working on creating a shared marketing source together (email list) since we both are selling (different products) in the same industry and she has the drive and hustle of someone I want to work with!

 

[AndrewNC]

Just got my first guest article published on Secret Entourage.

http://www.secretentourage.com/motivation/are-limiting-beliefs-holding-you-back/

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndrewNC]

Learning more about creating social movements and social change.

Got invited to a meeting last night with one of the more vocal/controversial animal rights activist groups.

They are the group behind this video...it was quite an interesting expeience

This specific group does a lot of disruptive protests, with the intent of getting national media attention for their movement. After speaking to a lot of other activists, I was told that the tactics this group uses is not effective, and actually goes against what the cause stands for...

This group bases their tactics based on what has happened with previous social movements such as the civil rights movements.

What I learned is that a lot of the members of the group lack effective communication skills, and the way they try to influence others actually builds more resistance to their cause. Also, a lot of the younger members of the group (early 20's college students) are blindly following the advice of the leaders, when they don't even know how/why, or even if it works.

My friend and I who know a lot about influence and human behavior went to the meeting last night, and got wrapped up in a discussion with one of the guys who does a lot of the videos for this group, and we taught him more effective video marketing strategies as well as other things we learned, which could increase the impact of their message.

They were very open and receptive to our message, and I exchanged contact information with the three leaders of the Denver chapter of this group - and I'm in the process of helping create a training document that will help them out.

My plan to help this group

1. Teach the leaders more effective communication, that they can pass on down to the organization

A lot of the more...peaceful?...activists say I shouldn't work with this group because of their controversial tactics and how they don't help the cause...but nobody else is really stepping in to help.

Interesting things I learned:

1. They are so passionate - getting arrested for their cause is not a concern for them. This is something greater than themselves and they won't stop at anything to achieve their goal.

 

[AndrewNC]

View attachment 13029
Learning more about creating social movements and social change.

Got invited to a meeting last night with one of the more vocal/controversial animal rights activist groups.

They are the group behind this video...it was quite an interesting expeience

This specific group does a lot of disruptive protests, with the intent of getting national media attention for their movement. After speaking to a lot of other activists, I was told that the tactics this group uses is not effective, and actually goes against what the cause stands for...

This group bases their tactics based on what has happened with previous social movements such as the civil rights movements.

What I learned is that a lot of the members of the group lack effective communication skills, and the way they try to influence others actually builds more resistance to their cause. Also, a lot of the younger members of the group (early 20's college students) are blindly following the advice of the leaders, when they don't even know how/why, or even if it works.

My friend and I who know a lot about influence and human behavior went to the meeting last night, and got wrapped up in a discussion with one of the guys who does a lot of the videos for this group, and we taught him more effective video marketing strategies as well as other things we learned, which could increase the impact of their message.

They were very open and receptive to our message, and I exchanged contact information with the three leaders of the Denver chapter of this group - and I'm in the process of helping create a training document that will help them out.

My plan to help this group

1. Teach the leaders more effective communication, that they can pass on down to the organization

A lot of the more...peaceful?...activists say I shouldn't work with this group because of their controversial tactics and how they don't help the cause...but nobody else is really stepping in to help.

Interesting things I learned:

1. They are so passionate - getting arrested for their cause is not a concern for them. This is something greater than themselves and they won't stop at anything to achieve their goal.

After watching this video- I'm asking myself the question...do I want to help a group like this? Or stay away?

Hmm...