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Chris Murrin

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Sep 21, 2018
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Hi all,

I've never signed up to any forum before but after reading both of MJ's books a couple of times, I felt compelled to give it a go.

After taking the ancient advice of doing what you love, I became a musician/guitar teacher and have been doing it for the last decade now. While I do still enjoy some parts of it and I'm still as much in love with the instrument and writing music as I have always been, making a living from it has proven really, really hard over the past ten years. I can't sustain being so broke all the time.

After 4 failed guitar tuition websites my latest has started gaining some traction. It's far from generating thousands of dollars each month but it is making multiple sales each week. My mind was totally blown the first time someone bought one of my courses. I checked my inbox late one Friday night and someone had sent me $20! I was stunned, that was the first time ever in my life that I had sold anything (other than my time) and I couldn't believe that I had made it happen.

I'd been creating educational courses for a while but in 18 months, I hadn't made one single sale. It's safe to say I didn't have a clue what I was doing and looking back, I'm not surprised no one bought anything from me, the courses were so bad.

Last month my site generated $500, which of course isn't enough to live on but it's growing every month the more I work on it.

I think one of the main reason why it's starting to grow is because I took MJ's advice, I started to focus heavily on providing value for people, as oppose to thinking me me me. I hunted for hours to find what people's problems were and I searched for an area in the industry that wasn't providing the solutions, then I went to work.

I've made about 100 sales now and have had one person ask for their money back. I've had a hell of a lot of thank you messages from customers and people telling me how much they love the site, so I feel that people are genuinely liking what I'm offering.

I have bigger plans for the site but after reading Fastlane/Unscripted , I realise that I'm breaking the commandment of time. The business will only run if I'm in there and I fear that this could be a problem longterm.

One other idea I've been pondering lately is perhaps starting up a directory for guitar teachers. Guitar teachers can sign up and students all over the world can hire them for video-call lessons, teachers then get rated and so on. I think it provides value to both people wanting to learn guitar and for teachers alike.

One thing that's true is that this shit is hard, it took so much work just to make that first $20. But now I've generated a few sales, I just want to keep growing. If I can make $500 a month I see no reason why I can't make 10x that, or more even.

My whole family is pretty middle-class and I grew up around middle-class people and employees. I feel as though too many of my friends are stuck in the past, proudly commuting 3 hours a day to London to do some mind-numbing job. I can't relate to it and hate the conversations they have about cars/mortgages/jobs/holidays and other superficial crap.

I don't know anyone else that would ever even consider starting up any kind of business and that's a strong reason for me signing up to this forum, I'm alone in my adventure. I want to interact with like minded people and hear first hand of their struggles and successes, I want to learn more and if I can in anyway, help others too.

I want to prove to myself more than anything, that I can live on my rules and that I can be successful without following the crowd.

More than anything though, providing value to people and making their lives better is what really excites me. Whatever I do it has to be good natured and help people positively, the last thing I ever want to do is rip someone off.

My main 'why' for wanting to succeed is that I fear not being able to support myself and if I were ever to become a father, to not be able to take care of my family.

I'm excited to be here, I'm still so new to entrepreneurship and I have so much to learn.

Thanks a lot for reading.

Chris
 
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superb

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Sep 8, 2013
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Welcome! We're glad your here. I'm a guitarist as well and have had a couple of music related ventures myself.

Kudos for sticking it out to try a fourth time!

Even though the numbers are low, the fact that you are generating some sales is a good sign, you have something people are looking for.
 

Overdrive

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Chris, welcome to the forum! For the longest time guitar playing has also been my passion and I used to define myself as a guitar player/ music fan before anything else, but now I define myself first as an entrepreneur (though I'm a newbie myself and haven't made a dime yet, but your self-image is what counts). I have now sacrificed all my guitar playing time so I have time to work on my business idea . But then it helped that I developed a case of musician's dystonia in my left hand starting last year which practically put an end to guitar playing whether I wanted to or not.

As MJ says, there is nothing wrong with following your passion if you're exceptional at what you're doing. Teaching guitar online can be a great Fastlane biz, but it's hard to stand out from the crowd, I believe, since there are so many competent guitar players out there on Youtube alone. Not long ago, I purchased about $300 worth of online courses from a Youtube guitar teacher in Denmark and I wasn't disappointed. Even though this was before my current entrepreneurial aspirations and before I had read MJ's books, I already knew then to appreciate the elegance of his Fastlane business, but I also knew that my own guitar skills would not cut it to do something like him. This teacher later put out a course teaching guitar enthusiasts how to create their own guitar-course based Fastlane biz (of course he didn't use this term). It looked high quality but I never saw him promote or even mention this course again, so I believe it didn't resonate with too many people. But the truth is also that you need to have exceptional skills in order to be successful at this, just like MJ says. Just being say an intermediate player trying to teach beginning guitarists (and making money from it) will not work in practice.

I'm sure you're at a competent level though since you've been teaching guitar for a decade already. What is your specialty or niche in guitar playing? Maybe if you work from that angle, it could be easier to gain some traction on the market, and you don't have to be able to play like Jimi Hendrix to capture your audience (unless you know how to play like Jimi, of course).

I think your idea of a guitar teacher directory doesn't sound like a bad idea. But one problem is probably that nowadays it's so easy to find great online guitar teachers just using Youtube and Google and there is already lots of great stuff available for free, especially for beginners. So there may not be a real need for such a website, especially on the consumer side. But it's a good starting point to explore the needs of people wanting to learn guitar.

I wish you good luck!
 
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harlansjobs

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Oct 31, 2018
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Hi all,

I've never signed up to any forum before but after reading both of MJ's books a couple of times, I felt compelled to give it a go.

After taking the ancient advice of doing what you love, I became a musician/guitar teacher and have been doing it for the last decade now. While I do still enjoy some parts of it and I'm still as much in love with the instrument and writing music as I have always been, making a living from it has proven really, really hard over the past ten years. I can't sustain being so broke all the time.

After 4 failed guitar tuition websites my latest has started gaining some traction. It's far from generating thousands of dollars each month but it is making multiple sales each week. My mind was totally blown the first time someone bought one of my courses. I checked my inbox late one Friday night and someone had sent me $20! I was stunned, that was the first time ever in my life that I had sold anything (other than my time) and I couldn't believe that I had made it happen.

I'd been creating educational courses for a while but in 18 months, I hadn't made one single sale. It's safe to say I didn't have a clue what I was doing and looking back, I'm not surprised no one bought anything from me, the courses were so bad.

Last month my site generated $500, which of course isn't enough to live on but it's growing every month the more I work on it.

I think one of the main reason why it's starting to grow is because I took MJ's advice, I started to focus heavily on providing value for people, as oppose to thinking me me me. I hunted for hours to find what people's problems were and I searched for an area in the industry that wasn't providing the solutions, then I went to work.

I've made about 100 sales now and have had one person ask for their money back. I've had a hell of a lot of thank you messages from customers and people telling me how much they love the site, so I feel that people are genuinely liking what I'm offering.

I have bigger plans for the site but after reading Fastlane/Unscripted , I realise that I'm breaking the commandment of time. The business will only run if I'm in there and I fear that this could be a problem longterm.

One other idea I've been pondering lately is perhaps starting up a directory for guitar teachers. Guitar teachers can sign up and students all over the world can hire them for video-call lessons, teachers then get rated and so on. I think it provides value to both people wanting to learn guitar and for teachers alike.

One thing that's true is that this sh*t is hard, it took so much work just to make that first $20. But now I've generated a few sales, I just want to keep growing. If I can make $500 a month I see no reason why I can't make 10x that, or more even.

My whole family is pretty middle-class and I grew up around middle-class people and employees. I feel as though too many of my friends are stuck in the past, proudly commuting 3 hours a day to London to do some mind-numbing job. I can't relate to it and hate the conversations they have about cars/mortgages/jobs/holidays and other superficial crap.

I don't know anyone else that would ever even consider starting up any kind of business and that's a strong reason for me signing up to this forum, I'm alone in my adventure. I want to interact with like minded people and hear first hand of their struggles and successes, I want to learn more and if I can in anyway, help others too.

I want to prove to myself more than anything, that I can live on my rules and that I can be successful without following the crowd.

More than anything though, providing value to people and making their lives better is what really excites me. Whatever I do it has to be good natured and help people positively, the last thing I ever want to do is rip someone off.

My main 'why' for wanting to succeed is that I fear not being able to support myself and if I were ever to become a father, to not be able to take care of my family.

I'm excited to be here, I'm still so new to entrepreneurship and I have so much to learn.

Thanks a lot for reading.

Chris


Welcome fellow newbie. I have been unsuccessful at every business venture I have tried so far. Reading fastlane and not giving a F, to find out why. I admire your determination and your mindset. Hopefully this will be the path you are looking for. Welcome aboard!
 

Danieldotinc

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Nov 7, 2018
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9
Tehran, Iran
Keep work on your product and make it better. Your quality of recordings, your scene behind you for when you teach... Seek and find all the value arrays that you can skew and do your best to improve it. In sales you can create a youtube channel and teach quick techniques that people can immediately apply and learn and set a link for getting the full course on your website. If you created sth of value, then you should focus on getting attention and introduce yourself to your audience in every possible way. This is a great video on how to get people attentions for sales: Sell Anything . Good Luck
 
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Chris Murrin

New Contributor
User Power
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214%
Sep 21, 2018
7
15
Welcome fellow newbie. I have been unsuccessful at every business venture I have tried so far. Reading fastlane and not giving a F, to find out why. I admire your determination and your mindset. Hopefully this will be the path you are looking for. Welcome aboard!

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it. What business venture have you tried so far?
 

Chris Murrin

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Sep 21, 2018
7
15
Welcome Fellow!!! What a good Intro. Your are on track and just keep doing and improving. You are better than most of us (me including) in action. So keep it up and start your progress thread.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate your words. I'll start that progress thread!
 
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Chris Murrin

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Sep 21, 2018
7
15
Welcome! We're glad your here. I'm a guitarist as well and have had a couple of music related ventures myself.

Kudos for sticking it out to try a fourth time!

Even though the numbers are low, the fact that you are generating some sales is a good sign, you have something people are looking for.

Thanks a lot man, what music ventures did you have? Did you have much success with them?
 

Chris Murrin

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Sep 21, 2018
7
15
Chris, welcome to the forum! For the longest time guitar playing has also been my passion and I used to define myself as a guitar player/ music fan before anything else, but now I define myself first as an entrepreneur (though I'm a newbie myself and haven't made a dime yet, but your self-image is what counts). I have now sacrificed all my guitar playing time so I have time to work on my business idea . But then it helped that I developed a case of musician's dystonia in my left hand starting last year which practically put an end to guitar playing whether I wanted to or not.

As MJ says, there is nothing wrong with following your passion if you're exceptional at what you're doing. Teaching guitar online can be a great Fastlane biz, but it's hard to stand out from the crowd, I believe, since there are so many competent guitar players out there on Youtube alone. Not long ago, I purchased about $300 worth of online courses from a Youtube guitar teacher in Denmark and I wasn't disappointed. Even though this was before my current entrepreneurial aspirations and before I had read MJ's books, I already knew then to appreciate the elegance of his Fastlane business, but I also knew that my own guitar skills would not cut it to do something like him. This teacher later put out a course teaching guitar enthusiasts how to create their own guitar-course based Fastlane biz (of course he didn't use this term). It looked high quality but I never saw him promote or even mention this course again, so I believe it didn't resonate with too many people. But the truth is also that you need to have exceptional skills in order to be successful at this, just like MJ says. Just being say an intermediate player trying to teach beginning guitarists (and making money from it) will not work in practice.

I'm sure you're at a competent level though since you've been teaching guitar for a decade already. What is your specialty or niche in guitar playing? Maybe if you work from that angle, it could be easier to gain some traction on the market, and you don't have to be able to play like Jimi Hendrix to capture your audience (unless you know how to play like Jimi, of course).

I think your idea of a guitar teacher directory doesn't sound like a bad idea. But one problem is probably that nowadays it's so easy to find great online guitar teachers just using Youtube and Google and there is already lots of great stuff available for free, especially for beginners. So there may not be a real need for such a website, especially on the consumer side. But it's a good starting point to explore the needs of people wanting to learn guitar.

I wish you good luck!

Hey, thanks for the great reply.

Oh no, you had dystonia - how is it now?

Yeah I agree, there are so many people out there teaching online already and that certainly makes it hard to stand out. My niche is fingerstyle and arranging, I used to try and teach the whole lot and please everyone but packing that in was a really smart move I think.

I do think (without wanting to sound arrogant in any way) that I have the ability to be one of the best in the field. I'm very confident in my ability and have practiced my arse off and continue to practice for hours upon hours every day. But the competition is so fierce, everyone wants to do it!

That's a valid point on the directory, as I say my site is taking up all of my brain time currently, but I occasional ponder other ventures because I know the site only works if I'm in there. There are other possibilities though, I could take on other teachers perhaps and get them to create courses and what not.

Anyway, what are you working on currently? Have you had any failures yet?

Cheers
 

superb

Bronze Contributor
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Sep 8, 2013
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Thanks a lot man, what music ventures did you have? Did you have much success with them?

The first was a recording studio. I was more interested in being in the studio then out getting new clients! Got paid well when I had work and I had a few bands that would come in on a regular basis. This was back when home recording was just beginning to become prevalent because of inexpensive gear. A few other studios popped up around that time, but really there wasn't enough money in the local market to support that many studios. Clients I had loved my work. I knew I needed to get out and sell myself to more bands/musicians but was too lazy to do it.

I have also done custom guitar amp builds and musical equipment repair. Full time for a few years and then as a side hustle after relocating to another state. I made a living, but not much more than that and you can see how the commandments of time and scale were violated.

While I still enjoy these activities, I've changed and they have been relegated to being hobbies.
 
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Chris Murrin

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Sep 21, 2018
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The first was a recording studio. I was more interested in being in the studio then out getting new clients! Got paid well when I had work and I had a few bands that would come in on a regular basis. This was back when home recording was just beginning to become prevalent because of inexpensive gear. A few other studios popped up around that time, but really there wasn't enough money in the local market to support that many studios. Clients I had loved my work. I knew I needed to get out and sell myself to more bands/musicians but was too lazy to do it.

I have also done custom guitar amp builds and musical equipment repair. Full time for a few years and then as a side hustle after relocating to another state. I made a living, but not much more than that and you can see how the commandments of time and scale were violated.

While I still enjoy these activities, I've changed and they have been relegated to being hobbies.

Yeah, eliminating time is maybe the hardest commandment.

What are you doing now?
 

superb

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Sep 8, 2013
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Sales and marketing for a company that manufactures products for the aviation industry.
 

Lionhearted

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May 29, 2012
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Killeen Texas
Hi all,

I've never signed up to any forum before but after reading both of MJ's books a couple of times, I felt compelled to give it a go.

After taking the ancient advice of doing what you love, I became a musician/guitar teacher and have been doing it for the last decade now. While I do still enjoy some parts of it and I'm still as much in love with the instrument and writing music as I have always been, making a living from it has proven really, really hard over the past ten years. I can't sustain being so broke all the time.

After 4 failed guitar tuition websites my latest has started gaining some traction. It's far from generating thousands of dollars each month but it is making multiple sales each week. My mind was totally blown the first time someone bought one of my courses. I checked my inbox late one Friday night and someone had sent me $20! I was stunned, that was the first time ever in my life that I had sold anything (other than my time) and I couldn't believe that I had made it happen.

I'd been creating educational courses for a while but in 18 months, I hadn't made one single sale. It's safe to say I didn't have a clue what I was doing and looking back, I'm not surprised no one bought anything from me, the courses were so bad.

Last month my site generated $500, which of course isn't enough to live on but it's growing every month the more I work on it.

I think one of the main reason why it's starting to grow is because I took MJ's advice, I started to focus heavily on providing value for people, as oppose to thinking me me me. I hunted for hours to find what people's problems were and I searched for an area in the industry that wasn't providing the solutions, then I went to work.

I've made about 100 sales now and have had one person ask for their money back. I've had a hell of a lot of thank you messages from customers and people telling me how much they love the site, so I feel that people are genuinely liking what I'm offering.

I have bigger plans for the site but after reading Fastlane/Unscripted , I realise that I'm breaking the commandment of time. The business will only run if I'm in there and I fear that this could be a problem longterm.

One other idea I've been pondering lately is perhaps starting up a directory for guitar teachers. Guitar teachers can sign up and students all over the world can hire them for video-call lessons, teachers then get rated and so on. I think it provides value to both people wanting to learn guitar and for teachers alike.

One thing that's true is that this sh*t is hard, it took so much work just to make that first $20. But now I've generated a few sales, I just want to keep growing. If I can make $500 a month I see no reason why I can't make 10x that, or more even.

My whole family is pretty middle-class and I grew up around middle-class people and employees. I feel as though too many of my friends are stuck in the past, proudly commuting 3 hours a day to London to do some mind-numbing job. I can't relate to it and hate the conversations they have about cars/mortgages/jobs/holidays and other superficial crap.

I don't know anyone else that would ever even consider starting up any kind of business and that's a strong reason for me signing up to this forum, I'm alone in my adventure. I want to interact with like minded people and hear first hand of their struggles and successes, I want to learn more and if I can in anyway, help others too.

I want to prove to myself more than anything, that I can live on my rules and that I can be successful without following the crowd.

More than anything though, providing value to people and making their lives better is what really excites me. Whatever I do it has to be good natured and help people positively, the last thing I ever want to do is rip someone off.

My main 'why' for wanting to succeed is that I fear not being able to support myself and if I were ever to become a father, to not be able to take care of my family.

I'm excited to be here, I'm still so new to entrepreneurship and I have so much to learn.

Thanks a lot for reading.

Chris
My first sale was a $0.05 commission on Youtube but it was enough to prove to me that the concept worked! From there I just worked on the same you are working on, getting better at it and providing value. I now make my full time living from it. But I understand MJ's principles and I am nowhere near Fastlane, yet. But working towards it and unplugging from 9 to 5 is life changing.
I want to be "options" rich and so far this has given lot's of options and my freedom has been greatly enhanced. It's not just about the money for me. I want to be rich in ALL aspects of life Health, Wealth, Love, Peace, Success, Happiness. So far I can see that I am moving in the right direction.
I can also say that hanging out in this forum has most certainly helped me grow, focus and changed my life for the better in very significant ways (Thank you MJ and all the positive contributors and even some of the negative ones too). All the best to you on your journey and I can truly say it's been more than worth it to me on just the growth factor alone.
 

Overdrive

Contributor
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Sep 9, 2018
33
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Taiwan
Hey, thanks for the great reply.

Oh no, you had dystonia - how is it now?

Yeah I agree, there are so many people out there teaching online already and that certainly makes it hard to stand out. My niche is fingerstyle and arranging, I used to try and teach the whole lot and please everyone but packing that in was a really smart move I think.

I do think (without wanting to sound arrogant in any way) that I have the ability to be one of the best in the field. I'm very confident in my ability and have practiced my arse off and continue to practice for hours upon hours every day. But the competition is so fierce, everyone wants to do it!

That's a valid point on the directory, as I say my site is taking up all of my brain time currently, but I occasional ponder other ventures because I know the site only works if I'm in there. There are other possibilities though, I could take on other teachers perhaps and get them to create courses and what not.

Anyway, what are you working on currently? Have you had any failures yet?

Cheers

Hi Chris, you know I could talk about this topic for a long time, since I've looked both at the producer side as well as the consumer side of a guitar-course biz for a while now, just because it fascinated me endlessly how these people can make serious passive income just by doing what they love. Of course, I realize there is a LOT of work involved, so in reality the time aspect of CENTS is rather weak in these biz models, although you could theoretically stay away from your biz for weeks on end and still get revenue flowing in. The name of the guitar teacher I mentioned and whose customer I was is Claus Levin. If you don't know him, just search him on YT and you can see what he does. His specialty is soloing and improvisation on electric guitar. This guy is a marketing genius in my mind (he actually comes from a marketing background). I'm quite sure he studied TMF too. His biz model is very straightforward. He has created a massive following on YT by churning out hundreds of high quality videos at an insane rate. He has probably a dozen or more downloadable courses on his website, each costing between $70 and $250. The most expensive course I purchased from him cost $150. And I can confirm he does provide good value for money most of the time. Factor in 100K+ in subscribers and boom, Fastlane success!

There are other biz models in this area, most notably the subscription model. Search "Active Melody" on YT, another online guitar teacher I admire. His subscription is only 20 or 30 bucks per month (edit: it's $10 per month or $69 per year). But again massive value both on his subscription site as well as for free on YT and a huge loyal following. He's putting out one video per week, doing what he loves. Doesn't get any better than this. Then check out "Learning Guitar Now" on YT, another great guitar-teacher-entrepreneur I considered giving my money as a consumer. His biz model has got elements of both of the foregoing two. Another great site is Artistworks where I have been a paying student for about six months and would have happily stayed for many years to come if it were not for my focal dystonia (and no, it's not getting better, unfortunately, but I've successfully redirected my passion and energy towards entrepreneurship). Finally, there is the great example of the founder of Fundamental Changes, a guitar teacher turned writer/publisher of music books. Have you heard of him? He's from the UK too. His books have been hugely successful and are selling super fast on amazon (I know, I bought three of them myself). Definitely raking in millions. Fantastic success story and he doesn't even have to have a massive and time-consuming YT presence. Amazon works wonders for him.

I'm currently building a biz in a field totally unrelated to music. I've turned my focus to the legal field as that's where I have actual domain experience (from 15 years in the Slowlane and counting). Before, I had tried my hand at importing and online sales of physical products around seven years ago. But business never took off due to many mistakes on my part (and without the benefit of MJ's books), so that was my first (and I hope last) failure at entrepreneurship. I'm definitely pursuing the fastlane now.

If you're good at teaching fingerstyle and are willing to put in the time and effort to build a strong YT presence, then definitely go for it. Look at the existing businesses that I mentioned and then innovate and do your own version. I think you're well on your way now if you already make $500 in a month. That's really awesome, actually!
 
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