[Question] What Are You Working Towards Right Now?

[pixelvendor]

I am glad you are realizing this as well.

The Amazon biz is a "race to the bottom" as MJ talks about in his book "The Great Rat Race Escape ."

I would also recommend that you read MJ's 3rd book (Rat Race) before reading Unscripted .

The audio book for book #3 really drives all the key points home, and the way it was put together with the fictional story he tells throughout the book (that runs in parallel next to the "teaching content") is just incredible.

I know I sound like a living breathing walking advertisement for this book, but the fact of the matter is...

The Great Rat Race Escape is one of the best books I have ever come across for brand new entrepreneurs because it breaks things down in such an easy to understand way. Adding to that...the story MJ tells alongside the teaching of the concepts in the book drives the point home so clearly for the brand new person to really absorb what MJ wants people to understand before they take action on a business.

The book is so good that I recommend people reading that book first before I even talk about MJ's first book.


In regards to this idea.

Here are my thoughts...
1) You have definitely identified a need/problem that could to be solved with a business
2) You have definitely identified a specific market (the mom's who have the kids)

Here are the other thoughts that matter...
-->The target market is the mom
-->The hook you would use for that "mom market" with this business is: "Is Your Child's Social Media Addiction Ruining Your Family?" (Or something to that degree that points out that the kids addiction to social media is really messing things up either in the relationship or with the family as a whole).

Here are the things that you need to also think about...
-->Put yourself in the shoes of the mother in your market who is interested in what you may have to offer. Let's say that she came across your ad online and clicked it. What is on that page? What is your offer?

Now taking it one step further...think about how your offer impacts the market you are targeting.
-->Will your offer be a product that the mom can use that will give them the tools and mechanisms to help their kid not have the "unhealthy addiction" or will the product be for the kid itself to use on their own.

My guess is that the market that would be better to go after would be the mom who wants to solve the problem, and the product you create is catered directly for the mother to use so she can work with her child directly.

Here's why that market is the better choice...

The chance that the "addicted kid" wakes up one day and says, "I have a problem, and I need to find something that helps me not be addicted to social media" is very very slim.

Remember...
-->People don't change unless they really need to change (or have the deep desire to change)...the idea that you would create a product for the mom to first come across, for the kid to then use to help them get rid of their addiction wouldn't work well in my opinion (but I do accept that I may be wrong)...The data will always do all of the talking.

In regards to the deliverable for your offer (that is always easy to figure out, but it should come AFTER speaking with and interacting with the market that you will focus on serving with your business)...which in this case would be the mom.

Right now with this idea...you must do more work by diving deep into the market of mom's with kids who are addicted.

What I would do in this instance is...

Find 10 moms with kids who have unhealthy addictions to social media, and have conversations with them. When you talk with them notice how frustrated they are by the issue, and if they are willing to seek out a solution to solve it.

Here are some questions you can use in those conversations...

Q1 - Tell me about your child's addiction to social media
Q2 - What typically happens when you want them to get off, but they choose not to?
Q3 - If I could give you a magic wand that would give you the power to make things better, what would that look like for you when it came to you effectively managing your child's addiction to social media?
Q4 - What is the outcome you would want to create and work towards with your child and their social media addiction?
Q5 - What ways have you tried to solve this problem before? What did you learn? What other solutions did you consider?

I would also then do this exercise as well...

Put yourself in the shoes of a mom with a kid who has an unhealthy addiction to social media, and search online for a solution as if you were in the specific situation yourself.

This is where you will exercise your "empathy muscle" to better understand what is currently in the market to help mom's solve a problem like this (if they have it).

I would also do keyword research for this niche as well, and again look up the key terms that you believe mom's are searching on the internet when they decide they need to find a solution to help their child's addiction (but they currently don't know what to do).

Another way to start testing the market (if you don't have any access to moms with kids in your network) would be to run ads targeted to moms with the hook message similar to what I explained above (About how the addiction is runing the family).

Once you get the mother's info, focus on having one-on-one conversations with them to really figure out and identify the pain points they have, and how they would love to have you help them solve it. After these specific conversations, it will allow you to have a better idea to decide if this is worth pursuing or not.

That's all I have for now.

What are your thoughts?

Appreciate your recommendation, I've ordered the great rat race escape and gotten the audiobook so I will focus on getting through it as soon as I'm done with Unscripted ! Also, you're not alone in recommending MJ's books like a broken record - I've recommended TFM to everyone in my family more than I can count already.

Regarding the idea, you've given me some very practical advice to see if it's worth pursuing further. I thank you for that and will get back to you once I've gotten some insights from my target audience. So far I've tried reaching my target audience through Reddit but need to be more creative as most Reddit communities don't allow surveys.

I plan on looking on Facebook next and will most likely keep trying to camouflage my intentions on Reddit in an attempt to find some ideal candidates. Something I've noticed so far is that a lot of social media/videogame addicts eventually end up in the trenches of porn addiction which might be the hardest one to quit, since it speaks to your biological instinct to reproduce. Since all these types of addictions kind of connect due to the way our brain's reward system works where we require bigger and bigger hits of dopamine to get the same sensations we have gotten used to it might be worth looking into the worst types of addictions as well. I should probably just keep that in mind for now though and focus on what I initially planned on. Time to move the needle forward!

Thanks for the inputs as always!

 

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[Trismigistus]

Hi Tris,

Fantastic progress on the book! You are well on your way.

Do you have any plans to read MJ's 3rd book as well? It is by far one of my favorites.

After reading your intro post (the other thread) here are my thoughts...
-You are operating from a position of strength! That is awesome!
-Working from home, and earning a great income is amazing!
-It's great that you see how it doesn't matter what you are being paid right now in your job, you are still one "bad economy" or "stupid messed up event" away from "being on the streets" (which obviously has inspired your fastlane pursuit)!
-Very cool about how you went into the military (I have family who went in and out as well)
-I love the line where you say, "Now my heart and mind are in my business" (I am the same way every day too)
-I love reading how MJ's book changed your point of focus outside of your job (So awesome)

Now to your post...

For your "Tell me about yourself" question (and what biz success have you had etc), here is what I will share...

PHASE #1 of My "Tell Me About Yourself" Answer.
My entrepreneurial journey started with reading Rich Dad Poor Dad my sophomore year in high school (2002).

I played baseball in high school, and came home from practice one day where the book was on the couch. I called my dad up and said, "What is this?" He replied, "It was on the national best sellers list and I think it would contribute to our conversations about business, life and the economy." (Little did he know that this one book would shift me from wanting to be a roller coaster designer to wanting to build an empire that made me wealthy and in control of my time where I could live like I wanted to 24/7/365).

After reading RDPD book, I went on to read EVERYTHING Kiyosaki wrote because I was fully committed to creating the life I wanted to live.

I also read books from other authors like Robert Allen, T. Harv Eker, Napoleon Hill etc.

During this time of my life, I became a student of creating wealth...and spent more time "figuring out what I needed to do to make it happen later" so I could execute it later after college was over.

Before high school ended, I was recruited to pitch and play baseball at Boston College.

Interstingly enough...in the middle of my senior season, I started having back problems (bulging disks) that created a horrible sciatica pain that was sent down my leg. This will matter later in the next phase.

Also...before high school ended, I was exposed to the MLM business model (It was brought up in a book from Robert Allen that I read). This will matter in the next phase as well.

PHASE #2 of My "Tell Me About Yourself" Answer.
When I got to college, my commitment to "finding a way to not have to 'get a job' after graduation was in full force."

I took this on as a personal challenge, and kept it as a focus on my mind.

With the context I had after reading all of the Rich Dad books, the idea of "Going to school, getting good grades, finding a safe secure job with benefits, and sailing on into the distance and a great future" WAS NOT how I wanted to live my life after graduation.

And then...something totally f*cked up happened to me.

I was hit by a proverbial MACK TRUCK less than 3 months into my freshmen year at college.

The bottom line is...

I lost my father to a silent heart attack right in front of me. His wake was on my 19th birthday, and his funeral was the day before Thanksgiving. This all happened back in Boston during the same week.

Going through the pain of this event in my life at the time was so totally f*cked up, and the timing couldn't have been any worse for me and my future. Everything was now on my shoulders, and I couldn't rely on my father to help me with anything going forward.

PHASE #3 of My "Tell Me About Yourself" Answer.
After taking the time to grieve my father during my freshmen year, and doing what I could to get back up on my feet in the best way I knew how to, I was hit with another challenge.

The back problems I had in high school started getting worse, and eventually led me to walking away from baseball entirely. My personal health got to the point of either choosing to continue playing Baseball (and risking me being able to walk in the future ever again) or putting my health and wellness first to start creating the life I wanted to create given all the information I was armed with after reading all of the Kiyosaki books.

As I continued going to college here are the other bullet points that make sense to share with you...

Point #1 - I ran the Boston College Entrepreneur Society from 2006-2008
------>This is where I wish I had MJ's books to learn from (but they weren't written yet)
------>During college I spent a lot of time and thousands of dollars in the MLM game (because I didn't know any better)
------>While in the MLM game, I started learning how to use the internet to build businesses
------>The skills I acquired while building MLM's online back then with my sponsors teaching me and guiding me along include, copywriting, email marketing, autoresponder setup, email list building, lead generation, sales-based conversations, lead-based conversations, market research, wire-framing websites etc. etc. etc. (basically all of the key skills any smart business person has and uses when starting, building and growing a company)
------>I still use all of these skills today that I learned from my MLM days (even though I never really created "MLM Success" in my eyes). Back then to me MLM success was building a "residual check" to $10,000/mo or more.

Even though my time in MLM was a total complete shit show with thousands of dollars and thousands and thousands of hours wasted trying to build one successfully, the skills I acquired during that time, and how I have used those skills has generated me thousands of dollars over my life time being in the entrepreneurial game.

Point #2 - Running the Boston College Entrepreneur Society Triggered My Next Step
------>I had a budget and would invite speakers to speak to the club (and they would get an article in the school newspaper)
------>One of the relationships I formed with one of the speakers eventually led to my first gig that I landed after graduation
------>I initially got a job with the Macy's home store (corporate) upon my graduation (to please my mother), but left the job on the graduation day of the training program to help this one speaker launch a brand new book (which kicked off my entrepreneurial path out of college). This guy is relatively well-known today and eventually used what I helped him build at the beginning of his publishing journey to get a book deal with Penguin. If you want to know more details about this, I will happily talk with you over the phone and/or in a private message here on the site.
------>Eventually I parted ways with this author in July of 2009 and then started a marketing consulting company after in August 2009.

POST IS CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

Hey Scott!

Thank you for the kind words, it is good to hear from you. That is pretty cool you got recruited to play baseball at Boston College, I played football growing up but never did anything after that, sports is a lot of fun, teaches crucial lessons. But that totally sucks about the injuries, I hear a lot about bulging discs and how painful they really are. I had a hairline fracture in left knee while playing football, not fun!

It's even more insane that you lost your father at 19, that has to be totally F*cked, I can't imagine what that is like, it is something I have yet still to face, I'm sorry for your loss.

I usually hear a lot of entrepreneurs starting off with MLM. I have limited exposure to MLM. The only experience I have with it, is when I was in the military, a buddy of mine and his wife would throw these get togethers all centered around these products. But it sounds like you learned A TON while you were doing it, and from the sounds of it, very valuable lessons.

The entrepreneurial experience you have gained through the years is very admirable, especially with the independent consulting company. You were out there trying shit out and trying to make it work not knowing if it would or not, that is F*cking awesome. I haven't even launched my first business yet and hearing about all your experience makes me very eager to get out there and give it a shot myself.

The advice about starting a business from a position of strength is great! That is what I am really trying to go for. Even though I am a slowlane rat, I believe that this is the best time in my life to be able to start a business, from a resources standpoint and a knowledge standpoint. Coming out of the military, I had no knowledge of business or what the proper way of going about it would be. But now I think I am in the perfect position, I think God has put me on a path to become an entrepreneur. I went through college with the selfish notion of "I don't want anymore bosses" or "I want to be my own boss", not even thinking about the market one iota. I am truly grateful for my position in life, God has given me everything I've ever asked for. But I know it can be ripped away from the slightest of upsets in the market or in the country or globally. I never had a dream job growing up and this really bothered me, I thought something was wrong with me. Even up until a year ago, I always thought I was supposed to have a dream job and work toward that goal, but as hard as I tried, I never had a dream job. I ended up selecting business and mathematics in college. I F*cking looooved mathematics, and I finally realized why, it is because I F*cking love solving problems. This past year, having my FTE and reading through MJs books, I realized I am not supposed to have a dream job, I am supposed to be an entrepreneur, it just made so much sense for me. I believe I am in a position of strength, now, to start a business. I work remotely and have a high paying IT job, so much so that my wife was able to quit her job a bit ago. Now I have her reading through all of MJs books, she read fast lane and is working on unscripted right now. I am finished up rate race escape this weekend. She is now spitting out great ideas for business and I love it, one of the reasons I wanted her to read the books. She is totally down with starting a business. She seems just as motivated as I am. She is one of my aces in the hole, she can essentially be a full time employee from the git go. While I am working my 9-5, she can move our business along when I can't, then when I am off I can also contribute. I try to contribute 3-4 hours a day, with taking Friday nights off and Sunday mornings, need to keep some sanity haha.

Being a Vegas dealer sounds pretty interesting, Vegas is an insane place haha, I can only imagine the crazy shit you have seen and the shit you will see in the future. I think it's awesome that you are out there trying and racking up experience and not giving up, it really seems like you embody the entrepreneurial spirit. I just read about the email list in the great rat race escape , and it blew my mind hearing about morning brew, pretty cool stuff. I have started making sure I keep this sort of list building in mind when I move forward in my business, I didn't know it was so beneficial, now I understand why ever website I go to they are trying to grab my email, I stay checking out as a guest forever haha, but maybe now I will give it up a bit easier to help out the owners.

As far as the idea stuff, my immediate plans are to finish the great rat race escape . My wife just started unscripted a couple days ago. The plan is to have her finish all the books by Nov 2 and have all of our idea generation done by then too. Then have the CENTS analysis and all the other ways MJ gives us to analyze the business with done by November 11. Then on November 11, our anniversary, we will select the best idea according to the analysis and begin planning how to get to launch. But I will let you know more about the idea once we get closer, now that my wife is full force in on this with me, I want to talk to her before I go blabbing about our ideas haha.

It was really great hearing from you Scott, I wish you the best of luck with your dealing and working on your newsletter and your facebook page. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,
Tris

 

[NewsletterScott]

Appreciate your recommendation, I've ordered the great rat race escape and gotten the audiobook so I will focus on getting through it as soon as I'm done with Unscripted ! Also, you're not alone in recommending MJ's books like a broken record - I've recommended TFM to everyone in my family more than I can count already.

Regarding the idea, you've given me some very practical advice to see if it's worth pursuing further. I thank you for that and will get back to you once I've gotten some insights from my target audience. So far I've tried reaching my target audience through Reddit but need to be more creative as most Reddit communities don't allow surveys.

I plan on looking on Facebook next and will most likely keep trying to camouflage my intentions on Reddit in an attempt to find some ideal candidates. Something I've noticed so far is that a lot of social media/videogame addicts eventually end up in the trenches of porn addiction which might be the hardest one to quit, since it speaks to your biological instinct to reproduce. Since all these types of addictions kind of connect due to the way our brain's reward system works where we require bigger and bigger hits of dopamine to get the same sensations we have gotten used to it might be worth looking into the worst types of addictions as well. I should probably just keep that in mind for now though and focus on what I initially planned on. Time to move the needle forward!

Thanks for the inputs as always!

You are welcome for the recommendation!

I look forward to your feedback about the book. It seriously is so well done! I always feel good about recommending the book to a brand new person in my network if they ever express any interest about starting a business.

LOL! Cheers to being living, breathing and walking advertisements to MJ's work!

You are so welcome for the advice! I am glad you see the value of what I shared!

Here is another lesson for you that I learned from a mentor of mine...

LESSON: The Money is In The Approach!

Here is what that means...

When you are clear about the intended outcome you want to achieve, you then have to figure out the best way to "approach" the market to have the initial conversation with them.

Example
Let's say you are selling kitchen mixers.

Approach #1 - Find every husband in the known universe and ask them, "Does your wife need a new kitchen mixer?"

Approach #2 - Create a facebook ad targeting moms asking, "What sucks about your mixer?" (And then create a specific and focused campaign around that hook at the beginning that leads them to buying your mixer)

When you say "Reddit doesn't allow surveys..."

Your approach is flawed when thinking about this.

You have to figure out a cool non-spammy way to get what you need before moving to the next step.

Of what you have brainstormed (above and beyond of what I have already given you), what specific methods are you going to implement to speak to your target market? (Please list them out in your reply to me, and we will take it from there).

Also...

You say, "Camouflage my intentions"...

Be up front about your intentions. You will get better feedback...

Again..it all goes back to your specific approach when reaching out to the market in the first place.

I'm curious why you believe you need to be all "secret" about your intentions. Care to share?

Please let me know your progress as soon as you get the clarity you need.

I'm here to help you with any of it...even down to the step-by-step process to create your "approach strategy" to make sure you are speaking to the right market to get the info you need before you start taking the next steps.

I look forward to your reply!

Best,
Scott

 

[NewsletterScott]

Hey Scott!

Thank you for the kind words, it is good to hear from you. That is pretty cool you got recruited to play baseball at Boston College, I played football growing up but never did anything after that, sports is a lot of fun, teaches crucial lessons. But that totally sucks about the injuries, I hear a lot about bulging discs and how painful they really are. I had a hairline fracture in left knee while playing football, not fun!

It's even more insane that you lost your father at 19, that has to be totally F*cked, I can't imagine what that is like, it is something I have yet still to face, I'm sorry for your loss.

I usually hear a lot of entrepreneurs starting off with MLM. I have limited exposure to MLM. The only experience I have with it, is when I was in the military, a buddy of mine and his wife would throw these get togethers all centered around these products. But it sounds like you learned A TON while you were doing it, and from the sounds of it, very valuable lessons.

The entrepreneurial experience you have gained through the years is very admirable, especially with the independent consulting company. You were out there trying shit out and trying to make it work not knowing if it would or not, that is F*cking awesome. I haven't even launched my first business yet and hearing about all your experience makes me very eager to get out there and give it a shot myself.

The advice about starting a business from a position of strength is great! That is what I am really trying to go for. Even though I am a slowlane rat, I believe that this is the best time in my life to be able to start a business, from a resources standpoint and a knowledge standpoint. Coming out of the military, I had no knowledge of business or what the proper way of going about it would be. But now I think I am in the perfect position, I think God has put me on a path to become an entrepreneur. I went through college with the selfish notion of "I don't want anymore bosses" or "I want to be my own boss", not even thinking about the market one iota. I am truly grateful for my position in life, God has given me everything I've ever asked for. But I know it can be ripped away from the slightest of upsets in the market or in the country or globally. I never had a dream job growing up and this really bothered me, I thought something was wrong with me. Even up until a year ago, I always thought I was supposed to have a dream job and work toward that goal, but as hard as I tried, I never had a dream job. I ended up selecting business and mathematics in college. I F*cking looooved mathematics, and I finally realized why, it is because I F*cking love solving problems. This past year, having my FTE and reading through MJs books, I realized I am not supposed to have a dream job, I am supposed to be an entrepreneur, it just made so much sense for me. I believe I am in a position of strength, now, to start a business. I work remotely and have a high paying IT job, so much so that my wife was able to quit her job a bit ago. Now I have her reading through all of MJs books, she read fast lane and is working on unscripted right now. I am finished up rate race escape this weekend. She is now spitting out great ideas for business and I love it, one of the reasons I wanted her to read the books. She is totally down with starting a business. She seems just as motivated as I am. She is one of my aces in the hole, she can essentially be a full time employee from the git go. While I am working my 9-5, she can move our business along when I can't, then when I am off I can also contribute. I try to contribute 3-4 hours a day, with taking Friday nights off and Sunday mornings, need to keep some sanity haha.

Being a Vegas dealer sounds pretty interesting, Vegas is an insane place haha, I can only imagine the crazy shit you have seen and the shit you will see in the future. I think it's awesome that you are out there trying and racking up experience and not giving up, it really seems like you embody the entrepreneurial spirit. I just read about the email list in the great rat race escape , and it blew my mind hearing about morning brew, pretty cool stuff. I have started making sure I keep this sort of list building in mind when I move forward in my business, I didn't know it was so beneficial, now I understand why ever website I go to they are trying to grab my email, I stay checking out as a guest forever haha, but maybe now I will give it up a bit easier to help out the owners.

As far as the idea stuff, my immediate plans are to finish the great rat race escape . My wife just started unscripted a couple days ago. The plan is to have her finish all the books by Nov 2 and have all of our idea generation done by then too. Then have the CENTS analysis and all the other ways MJ gives us to analyze the business with done by November 11. Then on November 11, our anniversary, we will select the best idea according to the analysis and begin planning how to get to launch. But I will let you know more about the idea once we get closer, now that my wife is full force in on this with me, I want to talk to her before I go blabbing about our ideas haha.

It was really great hearing from you Scott, I wish you the best of luck with your dealing and working on your newsletter and your facebook page. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,
Tris

Hi Tris!

That is cool how we connect with sports in a different way! Yes - injuries suck, and I still have to manage my back being 37 (turning 38 in November).

Yeah - losing my father the way I did was bittersweet. It's bittersweet because I know for a fact that I would have never become who I am today, but at the same time it still F*cking blows that he isn't here to share my life with me.

Yes - the MLM experience actually added a shit ton of value to me given what I was exposed to, and how I learned how to start leveraging the internet to generate leads, build systems, and then turn that into a machine that spun off traffic, leads, and revenue. I learned so many foundational principles that have totally served me well from then to now.

In regards to my entrepreneurial experience, I bring a wealth of knowledge to the table given what I have gone through and learned. I even told MJ that I will be creating a "value bomb" post here in the forum to share my entire entrepreneurial journey (in more detail) and then share the lessons I learned along the way given each thing that happened. What you saw was only the "surface level version" but it actually goes a lot deeper with even more value to share with you and the community. The post will be put up within the next 6 months is what I am thinking.

What I will say is this though...you have a MAJOR head start having MJ's books as your guide.

I didn't have MJ's books or MJ as a part of my personal network.

I am jealous of you (in a good way), and I am excited that I get to be a part of your future success story.

I would love nothing more than in the future after you sell your company for millions to have you share, "Yeah, one reason why I created success with this business is because this cool dude in this entrepreneur forum I am a part of...he gave a shit ton of value to me for free without expecting anything back, just because he loves seeing people achieve what they want for their life!"

As I learned very quickly after my father's passing...

"Life isn't about stuff, it is about the things you can't buy and the things you can't see... The relationships, moments and experiences that you have with those that you love are what I am after before I die. Those are the "things" that live on forever because all the other bullshit you have (stuff) deteriorates into nothingness, or ends up in a landfill."

I always like to play the "deathbed test" with my mind...

Where I think...

If I were to be laying on my death bed right now with a terminal illness, what would I want to have around me right at that moment? We all know the answer, even though most people will never admit it to themselves.

The experience I had with my father taught me this at a very young age, and has helped me use the experience as a guide throughout my entire life.

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YOU SAID: "Even though I am a slowlane rat, I believe that this is the best time in my life to be able to start a business, from a resources standpoint and a knowledge standpoint."

ME: AMEN AMEN AMEN!

I absolutely wish I could start over from college knowing what I know now, I would do things so much differently it's not even funny!
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YOU SAID: "I went through college with the selfish notion of "I don't want anymore bosses" or "I want to be my own boss", not even thinking about the market one iota."

ME: Isn't it funny?! It's amazing how we all mature...eventually (but some aren't so lucky)!"
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YOU SAID: "Even up until a year ago, I always thought I was supposed to have a dream job and work toward that goal, but as hard as I tried, I never had a dream job. "

ME: Isn't it amazing how the script is like "gravity" (reference to MJ's Unscripted book)...and then leaves you exactly like that without a solution (unless you seek it out)?
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YOU SAID "This year I had my FTE"

ME: What exactly happened?
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It is amazing how you have a strong and supportive partner! I have the same! It really makes a massive difference!

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YOU SAID: "Being a Vegas dealer sounds pretty interesting, Vegas is an insane place haha, I can only imagine the crazy shit you have seen and the shit you will see in the future. I think it's awesome that you are out there trying and racking up experience and not giving up, it really seems like you embody the entrepreneurial spirit."

ME: The bottom line is...being a casino dealer is the easiest "time-for-dollar trade" I have ever done to earn money (and I have fun doing it, especially those nights when I drop $50,000+ or more in tips for all the dealers to share that day). This "Job" works with with where I am at in my life, and is in alignment with what I am currently pursuing.

The specific thing I am working towards now is MAKING MY CASINO DEALER JOB AN OPTION ASAP by making my current business and other projects kick a$$ (create leveraged income that leads to a sale of the business)!

The best part to this entire situation is that I don't mind doing the casino work. I really don't mind it, and at times I have a lot of fun.

But I am not going to lie...my mind is in my business 24/7 at work which I am sitting on dead high limit tables waiting for the player to come in and lose their $100,000-$1,000,000 marker (credit with the casino) on a baccarat or blackjack table. This "thinking time" makes "being at work" valuable for me, and because I get a 20 minute break every hour during an 8 hour shift I can use my breaks to get work done as well. Not to mention, free food, free parking, paid time off and benefits etc. While those are the normal "employee perks" that everyone loves, I look at them like..."Yeah, I have these things, but after I sell my business and walk with at least $10,000,000+ after all is said and done, these things won't matter! haha! Get my drift?
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.
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YOU: "I have started making sure I keep this sort of list building in mind when I move forward in my business, I didn't know it was so beneficial, now I understand why every website I go to they are trying to grab my email, I stay checking out as a guest forever haha, but maybe now I will give it up a bit easier to help out the owners."

ME: Depending on what business you build, will depend on how you and your company will utilize email marketing. I will help you figure it out when the time is right.

Here's a cool story...With one of my recent projects we built an email list to 53,000+ subscribers in 45 days. I have the experience and can certainly help you figure it out!
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I am so glad to hear that you have a solid plan in place to get things executed and moving forward!

I can't wait to get the next post from you (in reply to this one), and about the idea you guys will pursue (in November).

I will help you strategize it out the best way I can so you can be on the right track from the get go!

I will help you shave THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS and THOUSANDS OF HOURS off from your learning curve...guaranteed! LOL

It's going to be really fun!

Talk with you soon!

Best,
Scott

 

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You are welcome for the recommendation!

I look forward to your feedback about the book. It seriously is so well done! I always feel good about recommending the book to a brand new person in my network if they ever express any interest about starting a business.

LOL! Cheers to being living, breathing and walking advertisements to MJ's work!

You are so welcome for the advice! I am glad you see the value of what I shared!

Here is another lesson for you that I learned from a mentor of mine...

LESSON: The Money is In The Approach!

Here is what that means...

When you are clear about the intended outcome you want to achieve, you then have to figure out the best way to "approach" the market to have the initial conversation with them.

Example
Let's say you are selling kitchen mixers.

Approach #1 - Find every husband in the known universe and ask them, "Does your wife need a new kitchen mixer?"

Approach #2 - Create a facebook ad targeting moms asking, "What sucks about your mixer?" (And then create a specific and focused campaign around that hook at the beginning that leads them to buying your mixer)

When you say "Reddit doesn't allow surveys..."

Your approach is flawed when thinking about this.

You have to figure out a cool non-spammy way to get what you need before moving to the next step.

Of what you have brainstormed (above and beyond of what I have already given you), what specific methods are you going to implement to speak to your target market? (Please list them out in your reply to me, and we will take it from there).

Also...

You say, "Camouflage my intentions"...

Be up front about your intentions. You will get better feedback...

Again..it all goes back to your specific approach when reaching out to the market in the first place.

I'm curious why you believe you need to be all "secret" about your intentions. Care to share?

Please let me know your progress as soon as you get the clarity you need.

I'm here to help you with any of it...even down to the step-by-step process to create your "approach strategy" to make sure you are speaking to the right market to get the info you need before you start taking the next steps.

I look forward to your reply!

Best,
Scott

I appreciate the insights you've shared once again and I see how the better way of approaching things is.
That being said however, here is what my "best" approach has been so far:

I posted in a Facebook parenting group trying to sound like a parent while still asking the important questions. It was a very open and welcoming post, basically inviting people with screen addicted children to share any problem or progress they have or have had with their children (I can send the text if you're curious).
Other than this I've tried posting in r/addiction on reddit but got no useful replies sadly. Next I'm going to have a stab at parenting communities on Reddit while I wait for feedback on my Facebook post (if it gets accepted).

What I meant by camouflaging my intentions is that I'll have to bypass the reddit communities rule of "no surveys" somehow while still extracting the information I want from the parents. So basically I'm going to have to package my message a little differently.

Also, I've stumbled upon some bumps in the road. There's apparently a huge business already doing almost exactly what I was planning on doing called healthygamer.gg

They started out helping streamers and gamers with video game addiction (which is a bit out of my current niche) but they've later developed to dealing with parents as well and selling them programs + coaching that help deal with their kids video game addictions. One of the co-founders is a Harvard trained psychiatrist and recovered gamer addict which gives him ultimate credibility + he has a huge Youtube channel where he puts out helpful content for free, not to mention the huge list of testimonials he's gathered. Safe to say I'm a guppy compared to this guy right now lol.

The positive side of this is that I can learn a lot from his course since it already works, actually a huge positive when I'm thinking about it LOL. I mean it probably took him a good amount of trial and error to get it to where it's currently at, so imagine if I had to do all of that from scratch, clueless as I am I'd probably be ripping my hair out for years before getting it right. Another little positive in this is that he's US based and only serving english speaking clients (as far as I know anyway) and I'm based in Sweden and will start off with the Swedish market, only moving internationally when I know I have some type of edge over him.

This creates another issue though, now I know that there's a market and that it can be done but I don't know if Swedes in particular will be willing to pay for this type of service? So maybe that shifts my homework to exclusively finding Swedish parents to interview and trying to get the core question of "If I guaranteed that your kid will be addiction free following this protocol in 2-3 months would you be willing to pay for it?" I don't expect the market to be that different from the US market but there is a risk that the Swedes are too frugal for this type of thing. Especially considering that all health care and therapy is free for kids in Sweden and barely costs anything for adults.

The obvious answer to it is to grab those 10 swedish parents ASAP and shove the questions down their throat and then iterate accordingly. Which might be slightly more challenging since I haven't been able to find many Swedish parenting groups on Facebook but will give it a shot once I get accepted into the one I did find. I also sent an email to the municipal of the city I live in. They host free group sessions for parents with kids from the ages 3-12 to talk about how to avoid fights with their kids, so I asked them to help me reach some parents who may be interested in responding to my questionnaire which is made in the purpose of creating a free video program that helps parents with their childs screen addictions. (It's technically going to be free at launch) One last resort I have been considering is to get in contact with schools that may be interested in helping. I'll just be straight with them and let them know that if the project works out anyone who participated will get free lifetime access to the program.

That's where I'm at currently anyway! I haven't made that much progress in the business this past week but I took some huge action towards freeing up more time in my schedule by preparing to get rid of my other side hustles and some other time sucking bad habits, putting me on the highway clear of obstacles, ready to get this thing moving.

By the way I have a question for you, how do you go about entertaining multiple ideas at once or knowing when you should drop an idea/start looking for new ones? It's not that I don't have hope for this one anymore but I am sensing that there may be trouble monetising this in Sweden. I wouldn't jump the ship before getting my test results first though!

Thanks for sticking with me and supporting me as best as you can, I was not expecting this when I joined this forum lol!

Cheers!