The "Astonishing Secrets" Thread

[IceCreamKid]

Should I start calling business owners now to validate my idea? If they are interested do I just keep their info and tell them I'll call them in a few months when everything is up and running? Or just ask if that's something they would be interested in?

There is always more than one way to dress your mistress, but here's what I would do...

Contact the business owners but don't outright ask, "HEY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THIS?!". That just wreaks of greed. Ew. Chat it up with them a bit, be casual, fun, and honest. After you build up rapport, THEN you ask them what they think of your idea. Dude...you might even find new ideas and needs while you're chatting it up with them. It's REALLY fun when you get good at this stuff bro. The ideas flow like F*ckin waterfalls and you'll go nuts picking up all the ice cream falling from the sky and into your hands.

Look at it like video games. I used to be a hardcore gamer up until I hit rock bottom with my life. I ended up selling my video games on Craigslist when I decided to finally get serous with business. Anyway with most video games you'll suck when you start out, but you keep getting better after each death. You learn something new after each death. Eventually, you'll get good enough to get to the final level and save the princess from the evil boss. Interviewing business owners is sorta the same evolutionary process bro. You suck, then you suck less, then you get sorta good, then you get good, then you save the princess and win.

If they really like the idea, I'll try to get some pre-sale money because this truly validates that you are solving a real need. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAKE A RELENTLESS ATTEMPT TO GET THE ICE CREAM BEFORE YOU SPEND A DIME ON BUILDING THE PRODUCT/SERVICE/SOFTWARE. Too many people will bullshit you and say "oh yeah I'd buy that" but when it's time to finally bust out the credit card they give some excuse for why they don't wanna pay. People will lie to you because they don't want to hurt your feelings.

If I understood the concept of pre-selling when I was a young devil I would've saved myself so much emotional pain, financial pain, and most importantly time...time is the biggest expense.

EDIT: Pre-selling is a beastly way of starting a business and probably deserves its own thread. If I were to make multiple ice cream threads it would probably be sales/marketing, pre-selling, getting traffic/attention in the media, getting funding, mindset, building a brand that creates a loyal following, and interviewing business owners/customers. None of this is in any particular order...I'm just typing out whatever the hell comes to my ADHD 27-year old mind. Do you guys see why MJ always preaches that ideas are worthless without process? When you take your business to $100k you will finally see how insignificant the idea really is. There are sooo many moving parts to a business that go beyond just the idea omg too many things to do. This is why I get concerned when I receive PM's saying, "bro just help me find an idea. Come on bro I just need that one idea". Bust out the vodka and get drunk cuz the party is far more complex than just an idea.

Pre-selling is a lot more complicated than just asking, "hey will you pay this up front?". You should end up drawing perhaps a picture of the product to give the customer a better idea of what you have to offer, or create a beta version of the software, or create a physical miniature version of the product you want to create, etc.

There are so many facets to pre-selling but probably the most important thing is that when you create a demonstrable example of your idea, it will appear more attractive to the customer and they will be far more likely to give you ice cream up front.

I actually learned this concept from the Dolphin...I forget where the post was. Super neat stuff.

 

[IceCreamKid]

The ONE Thing That You Need

Does this sound like you? You spend months figuring out every detail about a niche that you can. You go to meetups to network with others, spend money on seminars hopefully to find more info on what to do, read more books, blogs, and podcasts on your project. 2 years pass and you have nothing to show for it. Perhaps you set up your website, an LLC, etc. but you haven’t taken any real action towards getting a customer.

You tell all of your friends that you're an entrepreneur. My man, stop lying to yourself. The truth will set you free...but it will seriously piss you off first.

You know deep down what the problem is. Somewhere deep in your subconscious, you feel that you don’t deserve to get rich. You say you want to become a millionaire…shoot, everybody does. But deep down you have doubts about yourself. Afraid to fail, afraid to fly.

Bro, I’ve started 8 businesses in the last 8 years. 7 out of the 8 failed for various reasons. Somewhere down the line, I realized something. Despite all of the failures, I wasn’t dead. My world didn’t come to a screeching halt and my friends didn’t say, “I told you so”. Actually a few of them did, so it was nice to be able to learn who to cut out from my life quickly. =P

I no longer fear failure in business because I’ve becoming quite skilled at failing. Failing doesn’t hurt so much anymore because I conditioned my brain to deal with it. Don't get me wrong, I still would rather succeed 100% of the time but that's not how business works. I don’t resist the possibility of failure like many do. Taking action daily is automatic. Zero f**ks given.

Failure is the foundation of success. It is the soil that the seed of success drops into.

So fail hard. Fall flat on your face. You need to fail fast so you can finally get to winning.

Dude, get that ONE customer. That ONE customer is all you need. Getting that first sale will clear the uncertainty, doubt, and fear. It will be confirmation that your plan just MIGHT work because someone saw enough value in your product/service to actually pay you money for it.

You know what’s emotionally, mentally, and physically draining? Thinking about doing something. It’s easier to think about taking action instead of doing it, but if you think for months or years about taking action then eventually you’ll become more tired from that than if you simply took action. Action brings clarity to the questions lingering in the back of our mind.

So don’t even focus on making the next big business. Just get that one customer first. The 1,000 other customers can come after that lol.


“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” –MLK

Take action daily. Get the ice cream.

 

[IceCreamKid]

How To Reach Out To A Mentor

I got a funny PM yesterday. Hey man, I’m so sorry I’m using your message as an example but I want to help you and others see the difference between an effective email and a not so effective one. You know I still love the hell outta you's!

Anyway, this is the message he sent me:

“I was wondering if I could ever hit you up on skype or telephone?”

My initial reaction was, “Wait…what? Who are you? What did you want to discuss? What business are you in? I don’t know anything about you or your intentions”. I’m sure he had genuine intentions, but his PM was so vague it left me simply confused.

Here’s a formula that never lets me down when I want to reach out to somebody. AIDA

A-Get attention

I-Build interest

D-Create desire

A-Call to action

Hi IceCreamKid,

(Attention)

I’ve been digging around the forum and found some of your posts quite compelling. Thank you so much for that.

(Interest)

I am in the process of building an e-commerce biz and am currently reaching out to people who already have successful businesses in my niche.

(Action/Desire)

Would you be open for a quick phone chat so I can ask about what you’re doing to push your business forward?

(Desire)

If you’re interested, I’d be more than happy to share with you the information that I’ve found from other successful biz guys in our niche.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

DrunkChocolateKid

Do you see how this method attempts to make it a win-win for all parties involved? That's how business works. Make it a win for your investors, business partners, your customers, and yourself.

 

[IceCreamKid]

Welcome To The Desert of Desertion

The guppy tank is in the desert of desertion phase right now and it is an amazing thing. Why is that, you ask? It means that we’re taking action and moving forward. If we were just reading books all day then we’d never get to the desert and wouldn’t be any closer to the pond of abundance.

It’s always important to know where you are located on this graph.

Keep pushing and put in the work yo.

Many people want to be MJ...but they don't want to be the MJ that toiled for years taking action and putting 10,000 hours into perfecting his craft.

Many people want to be Bill Gates...but not the Bill Gates that never took a day off from age 20 to 30. It took him 10 years to hit the big leagues.

Many people want to be Warren Buffett ...but not the Warren Buffett who started reading about investing at age 7. He made his first million 25 years after that. 25 YEARS!!!

You can do it. Just put in the work. When things start to really suck, be grateful for it because that means you're actually doing something and moving towards your destiny.

 

[IceCreamKid]

I constantly feel like I am being pushed and pulled around by other people. I've been working on saying no, but I am still finding myself in places where I feel like I need to spend time/do things that interfere with my professional goals. How do you deal with this, without destroying relationships? Some of them will never understand the choices I make. I have accepted them for who they are, but I don't feel that they have accepted me.

As sad as it sounds, some relationships are better off destroyed. How do you expect to live a positive life if you're surrounded by negative people? I'm not saying to completely cut these people off, but move them to your outer circle and bring positive people into your inner circle.

When Mark Cuban cashed out and became a billionaire he told all of his family and friends, "I'm still the same guy. If you treat me any differently then we're going to have to end this relationship". He even did this to family members.

As you grow your ice cream shop and begin opening up more on every corner of Candy Land, you will find that you outgrow your current set of friends anyway. It's the sad reality. I doubt that Obama still chills with his buddies from elementary school...he's too busy running a country.

Love people. Don't throw them away, but move the negative gremlins of Candy Land to your outer circle...unless you want to be broke and frustrated all of your life.

I used to be that guy who tried to make everybody happy. Then I got back-stabbed a ton of times by ungrateful people that I was trying to help out. Some were even my own relatives. My own flesh and blood, homie lol! That's when I decided to start focusing on me first. Now my life is dope and I have great people all around me who genuinely care about me.

Those ungrateful people who back-stabbed me? They're still frustrated with their lives and say I got lucky. I hope they see the light soon...it hurts to live your life in frustration, you know? The scarcity mindset is quite strong in the gremlins of Candy Land.

Karma is crazy like that...that's part of why I'm hardcore about giving back without any attachment to personal gain.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

Most entrepreneurs younger than 30 simply don't consider the phone as an option.

Man this is so true. All of my friends are afraid of the phone. I'm not going to put up a front like I'm some hero, I was afraid of it too until I realized how much power there is behind using it. But yea, most of my friends are stuck in the mindset of "I just need that ONE idea so I can make an iPhone app then sell it to Facebook for $2B. I won't have to talk to anybody on the phone. I can just have the app coded and make millions. BOOM!".

I wonder how much demand there would be if someone created an educational course targeting 20 year olds to teach them how to pick up the phone and talk like a pro...probably not much demand since people are hooked on texting, but there might be a niche that really wants this product. Who knows...dang man I have business ideas popping into my head every half hour it's almost disgusting.

A Revolutionary, Never Before Seen Phone Strategy That Gets You EASY, FAST Sales Like Clockwork!
For a limited time only, buy this scientifically proven course for achieving MASSIVE amounts of orders with just ONE phone call! We got together a team of the country's most acclaimed phone experts to put together a tried and true yet simple to follow system to get your sales skyrocketing to the moon. Thousands of customers have been satisfied after they used this all new course and their lives have transformed drastically because of it!

 

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[IceCreamKid]

I got a PM today from this guy who sounds like so many who have come before him. I hope my response can help somebody out there.

"I am having some huge mental blocks and I have turned into someone full of doubt and no direction in business. If you are still open to chat, it would be awesome. If not I also understand. Regardless thanks for the great thread."

Bro, have no fear! Feeling this way is quite normal, especially when you’re starting out in business. If you are lost and have clue where to even begin, I invite you to first think very seriously about this concept called the Law of 33%.

Basically you divide your time with 3 different groups of people.

33% of your time is spent helping those who are currently less successful than you.

33% of your time is spent with those on a similar level as you, but moving towards a similar direction.

33% of your time is spent with those who are more ‘successful’ than you and have many years of experience under their belt.

Most people spend 100% of their time with broke people because it’s easier to hang out with people who only talk about how much money they’re GOING to make one day. We become like those who we spend most of our time with. True story, back when I was a lost college kid I had a huge crush on a girl who just so happened to smoke weed daily. We started talking and hanging out so you can guess what happened. I smoked weed regularly for 3 months until I realized that I had a hard time breathing when lifting iron at the gym. Associate yourself with good people. I live and die by that.

Now it’s possible that you feel like you’re at rock bottom and there isn’t anyone less successful than you. If that is the case, read a ton of books and hang out with successful people so that you become a person of value. Hanging out with go getters often enough will rub off on you, I promise you that.

Helping others is extremely important for 2 reasons:

1. It’s just straight up good for the soul. It feels good and creates a mindset of abundance.

2. Other successful people understand the concept of giving back and tend to help others who believe in the same ideology.

So yea, step away from this “I’ve gotta be successful” mindset and follow the Law of 33% for a bit. Help ALL the people in the 3 groups with zero attachment to what you can gain for yourself.

If your life doesn’t change within 12 months of actively doing that, I’ll send you a gift card for Baskin Robbins ice cream.

 

[IceCreamKid]

one shot too many, busted...

Wait, what? 16 seconds of my life...gone forever. No one has made me respond wtf in my head the way you just did, my friend. For that I must give you a post that is the foundation of business and life.

The Rule That Governs My Life

Some people call it karma. It goes much deeper than that though. There is an unwritten rule that governs all exchanges and it determines that whatever you give out to the world, the world MUST return that EXACT same value to you.

As an entrepreneur, you are dedicated to the activity of giving value because it is tattooed on your heart that this unwritten rule holds true. You don't focus your mental space on how much money you can make because you truly believe in your core that as long as you give value, you will receive that same value in the form of cash.

Now here's the pitfall that most fall into:
If you're giving value, but your heart isn't in the right place then the rule ultimately works against you. There are those who give plenty away, but they do it out of fear or pride. They often end up broke and unfulfilled because their heart is not aligned in truth and love.

Genuine giving is an act of sincere joy from the heart, and comes from a place of MASSIVE abundance. When you give without ANY attachment to what you can personally gain, the rule works FOR you and rewards you in direct proportion to the value which you have created.

Bottom line, don't focus on the money. Such a focus will do you no good. It must be viewed as a respected servant for you, but nothing more. If you view it as your master, it will have an uncontrolled destructive impact on your life.

Take action daily, my brothers and sisters.

 

[IceCreamKid]

Only you can build your system to be a problem solver, no one can truly take you step by step.

TELLIN YOU, DUDE IS GONNA MAKE IT.

Those who simply want step by step instructions to building a business will ultimately fail because they lack the resourcefulness of a real entrepreneur. A bunch of people followed instructions to create cookie cutter e-commerce sites. They were doing well for a minute, but when Google released the panda update...BOOM they were doneski.

This stuff happens in the offline world too. My boy JackEdwards was talking about how his employees ran off and created their own clones of his business. When the market changed, all those employees went broke.

Resourcefulness is one of the key secrets of the Dolphin. Quit being lazy and asking ice cream kid for step by step instructions. He will do you a favor by not offering any...because he wants to make you strong and resourceful.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

I recorded myself repeating WHY I really want to be successful, but I am struggling to make it more motivating.

You know what's de-motivating for me? Listening to my WHY and reading it out loud for years yet being in the same place as when I started.

You know what's motivating? Picking up the phone, talking to somebody, having them open up to me up about what their problems are, then solving it and making some swiss cheese for helping them. When you see the ice cream coming in by the gallon size, you will become motivated. But you can only get the gallons coming in if you take action.

Wanna get motivated? Get out of your head and into the world.

IF YOU HAVEN'T MADE A SALE YET, DO NOT SLEEP UNTIL YOU MAKE A SALE. SLEEP IS WHACK AS HELL.

Seriously though man just get out there and make a sale. This is what you should be telling yourself when you get out there...I don't care how many times I get rejected. I don't care how shitty I feel. I don't care if I got 2 hours of sleep. I don't care that I don't have money, I'll find a way. I don't care that I don't have an idea, I'll figure out a way to get an idea. I don't care that I'm scared, I'm moving anyway.

I....don't....care.

Sorry if this came across as some tough love. Try taking some action though. You're gonna like who you become.

Take action. Get the ice cream.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

I'm also studying copy right now. Any advice sir?

1. Don't buy any guru courses. I despise all the gurus who charge $5k for some digital course whose content doesn't even work. I don't mind spending $5k if the info actually works, but you rarely see a course being sold with quality info that works when executed in the real world.

2. Grab some books from the library. Don't get stuck in the learning loop though.

Reality in advertising, scientific advertising, pre-suasian, human hacking, influence, dotcom secrets, ask, trusted advertising methods, breakthrough advertising.

3. I'm going to take some heat for this, but get into affiliate marketing for a bit just to learn the ropes of driving traffic. Then once you've gotten a decent grasp of that, start your own line of products. You want to ultimately own the asset so you can one day have a liquidation event.

4. Try to have at least 5 lines in your product offering. One of them should be your dirt cheap/freebie product. For example, in my carpet cleaning biz we offer 1 free room cleaning without any obligation to buy. The other lines are scotchguard, pet urine treatment, deodorizer, specialty stain removal(red wine, coffee, blood, etc), tile, and upholstery.

It's much easier to sell your way up to an expensive product than it is to offer it straight from the beginning. It's also much easier to start a conversation and gain trust by first offering a freebie.

If you're looking to become a copywriting freelancer, read the threads by @SinisterLex and @Fox

Don't dabble. No drama or pointless conversations. Just focus. Make some moves to help your fellow man and profit for doing so. We're young as hell. Work hard today so we can party like maniacs later.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

Any recommendations here, bookwise?

Mindset:

Skip the mindset books and just read this post. Your main focus really should be customer acquisition…reading books for months about positive thinking won’t get the cash register to ring.

There are no magic pills. You’ll be challenged like never before and you will need to leave your comfort zone if you want to see major shifts in your life.

No excuses. Your business and your life is exactly how you have designed it. If your current situation sucks then it’s YOUR fault. I know that’s a tough thing to hear, but the beauty of it is that YOU are in control and can go stick-shift with your life at any moment. No victim mentality in the fastlane.

Embrace resistance. By choosing the fastlane, you’re choosing to play at a new level and you WILL have resistance. Embrace that and commit to doing what it takes to get results.

Do the work. There is no substitute. If you don’t put the effort in then nothing will change for you.

How To Become A Failure

· Blaming others for your results

· Not reaching out to others for help when you get stuck

· Not rolling the dice and taking a chance on yourself

· Wasting time on BS. Essentially fooling yourself that you’re being productive i.e. creating a logo for weeks, filing for an LLC before you even validated your idea, reading this thread and not taking any action that gets data for you. You want data, data, data.

· Taking forever to accomplish a task. Take massive imperfect action. Done is better than perfect.

· Being afraid to fail. Everything is part of your learning and getting closer to your goals.

· Not being willing to do whatever it takes. Gotta be willing to go ALL IN. If you don’t then the process becomes 1,000x more exhausting because you’ll always be questioning yourself. Now here's the catch: I'd say 95% of people cannot WILL their way to success. They must experience a series of events that lead them to say wow my life sucks so much right now that I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get my freedom. Freedom is the ultimate goal here.

Grow a pair and pull the trigger. We have a tendency to overcomplicate things in our head when at the heart of everything, it’s quite simple.

Sales: Spin Selling. My favorite sales book of all time.

Direct response marketing and copywriting: Dot Com Secrets. I don’t have any book recommendations for copywriting. Just hand copy the writing from your favorite landing pages and you’ll start seeing things differently.

Fantastic courses for direct response marketing: Mike Dillard’s e-mail course and Ezra Firestone’s stuff. If you’re broke then you can find them online for free if you search hard enough, but please support them if you have the capability to do so. Their courses cost a couple thousand dollars, but the ROI will come back 10-fold if you actually execute on what they teach in their courses.

Make sure to test ALL assumptions. It’s been my experience that courses offering FB advertising modules don’t really work and sometimes I’ve found more success by actually doing the opposite of what the guru teaches. Watch what the gurus do, not what they teach.

Business strategy: I don’t really have a specific recommendation on this one because all of the books I’ve gotten were tailored for a specific need. I’m a big advocate of learning on demand. So that means if I need to learn a specific skill, only then will I search for a book on that topic. I find that learning on demand is far more efficient. Jump in and make a mess then learn as you go.

 

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[The-J]

But then again, how can I solve someone's else problem if I cant deal with my own? For example If I found a need, and I wanted to sell software now, then I cant because I dont know how to code, I cant outsource it because I dont have money, Im stuck

At Capitalism and Bacon (the event in Albuquerque), Z said that 'cash is the lowest common denominator'. You don't need cash to provide value. You don't need to give equity to provide value. You just gotta be a little creative, and the creativity part is where most people stop.

 

[IceCreamKid]

What are yinz doing?

Not doing much, about to hang out with one of my buddies for dinner. He pre-sold $10k to design a website for a local business owner this morning so we're about to buy everything on the dollar menu at McDonald's to celebrate. We like celebrating in quirky ways that make no sense.

Oh btw, he doesn't know how to write a single line of code. HAH to all those who think you need money to make money. Heck, you don't even need to be smart. Just clever.

Learn copy. Learn to sell. Learn to solve the needs of others. Then give back to the universe.

 

[IceCreamKid]

The idea that sincerely serving others and fulfilling their needs can ACTUALLY help people AND create wealth for me is ridiculously exciting and powerful. Its a big awakening.

I suspect that this is one of the big reasons why people don't take action. In their core, they feel like they're annoying people or not helping them which becomes a mental block that prevents them from picking up the phone and making some moves. They feel conflict within themselves.

YO! YOU ARE HELPING PEOPLE. GET THAT IN YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS SO THAT YOU NO LONGER FEEL HESITATION TO TAKE ACTION. When you truly feel that you are helping others, the conflict in the pit of your stomach goes away and picking up the phone becomes easy. Just do it. Get the ice cream. Whatever it takes.

Digesting it the past few days it feels like my brain is re-wiring itself. I've been burned enough times, I'm almost waiting for this thread and website to turn into some giant MLM scheme or something.

Crap...they're catching on to my MLM shennanigans...better squeeze some money out of everybody and sell them some mindless motivational books here before the FTC finally shuts me down.

Wait...this isn't an MLM. MLM's don't teach copywriting haha. They teach how to lie, cheat, and preach false dreams. I joined Amway when I was a teenager btw. Ew.

What I'm fighting now is creating the best ground for success to grow in. Inspiration and action aren't lacking, I'm busy all day everyday, but I'm stretched too thin. Something needs to give, or this startup will never get what it needs. I'm just not sure what to give up!

My friend, you don't want it badly enough. If someone held a gun to your head and said they'll pull the trigger immediately unless you start a business tonight, would you tell them you're busy? Shift your mindset. I want you to have an ice cream shop for yourself, my brother! Come party with me in Candy Land!

 

[IceCreamKid]

GUYS LISTEN. The phone is your BEST friend. Stop hiding behind the computer monitor. I build rapport far more easily by using my voice than by typing on a keyboard. People like to do business with people that they like. Build rapport please.

I actually disabled the data plan on my phone because I found that I was becoming a zombie shutting myself off from the rest of society thanks to my phone. I knew it was time to change things when I was scrolling through instagram while at the dinner table with the fam and I was completely incoherent to the conversation that was going on around me. Zombie status.

It's scary at first to pick up the phone, but as you do it over and over again you just might find that people are for the most part pretty nice.

 

[IceCreamKid]

Getting The Ice Cream By Twisting What Already Sells

This post was inspired by the recent B&P thread. I didn’t go so I don’t understand the inside joke behind the giant Jenga posts, but Jenga is one of my all time favorite games so I want to discuss it.

I’m not a visionary. I don’t have the creative mind to create a revolutionary product. Instead, I view business from an evolutionary angle. Take something that has sold plenty of and add some kind of twist to somehow make it more appealing to the customer. Maybe it’s the design, price, or emotions that it evokes from the customer. The options are endless.

Jenga has evolved and twisted so many times, I’ve already lost count.

Classic Jenga, Jenga Boom, Jenga Tetris, Jenga Spider-Man, Jenga Angry Birds, Jenga Space Invaders, Jenga Pink Girl Edition, Jenga Star Wars, Jenga Drunken Tower, Jenga Book of Lovers, Jenga Uno.

Are you struggling to find an idea? Go to Target or Walmart then walk down the aisles and focus on the bestselling products. Ask yourself, “What can I do to improve this? Or how can I twist things from another angle to make it seem more valuable?”.

Teddy bears were just stuffed animals until Teddy Ruxpin, the talking bear, came along and sold millions.

Rubber bands were just stretchy rubber until Silly Bandz made them into funny shapes.

Smirnoff vodka was viewed as a lower quality vodka until they decided to raise the price and market it as a premium drink.

Take something that already sells a lot and twist it. By choosing something that already sells a lot, you are lowering your risk because there is already some level of demand for the product. You don't need to spend money educating your customer about what your product does because they already have some basic idea about how it works.

Dropshipping generic products is dead. It’s time to get creative. We are entering a new era where you need to shake your booty and do the twist.

Who are the most creative people in the world? Children. Ice cream children. They are the greatest entrepreneurs because they're curious, creative, and fearless...until society re-programs them.

The daily responsibilities of being an adult has a tendency to kill the childlike creativity within us which is the key to unlocking the doors to freedom. Screw it, put on the Mickey Mouse ears and enjoy your life so you can bring the child back.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

5 Lessons I Learned From This Thread That Will Change Your Life. I Promise.

Wow, what a thread! After digesting all the information presented in this thread, I can't help it but feel humble and thankful for having the chance to read all this. First of all, @IceCreamKid, you are a madman. Mad respect for what you have done, but most of all for the person you've become on your journey! I feel deep respect for all the people that made you what you are today. I want to build @MJ DeMarco a shrine for giving us this forum. @zen*******, you are simply incredible. All the other legends that were mentioned: I haven't made it through your stuff yet, but I am coming for you Guys, I want to express my gratitude, respect and appreciation for what you've done - THANK YOU.

The 5 lessons from this thread that changed my life:

LESSON 01.
People first, money second.
The ones that aren't rich usually have this picture in mind, that the rich are rich, because they put money above everyone and everything. They don't care about humans. They don't care about you. They only care about your money and how it will come to them. Until I read this thread, I was one of these people. Now I understood that if you are "money blind", you miss out on a lot of opportunities. Opportunities you only see when you follow lesson number two.

LESSON 02.
Love the hell out of others.
If you love the hell out of people, you will be respectful. Respect for others and their circumstances is one of the best ways to understand why we are like we are and you start appreciating how people are. You start understanding that in order to receive, you need to GIVE first. Why would you be the chosen one that can TAKE first? If you love people, you are one with yourself and the power that lies within you. You will be GRATEFUL for all the things you have, instead of being sad about your shortcomings. Once you manage to put yourself into this state of love, you will start showing a genuine interest for people. Suddenly, you will realize the pains and needs of the people around you. Needs that you can solve. Needs that show you how to provide value and give back to people. As a result, you will receive. A lot of ice-cream.

LESSON 03.
Be a kid.
When we were small, we didn't care what people thought. We explored, experimented and invented. We were curious, asked a ton of questions and started to understand how things work. We observed. We dreamed. We created. We were not shy to present our work to our parents, to our family, even to strangers. We didn't care about rules. We ignored the ways the grown-ups were doing certain things. We had our own ways. We would think for ourselves.

Why is it that once we are grown up, these things change? Why are we embarrassed to talk to people about our inventions. Why are we not curious anymore? Why did we stop creating?

LESSON 04.
The F*ck It Point.
How badly do you want it? You don't have money for food, you don't sell anything, but you can go to your grandmother for food? You can always ask daddy to pay your rent? Your girlfriend to pay your drinks? Mommy to pay your petrol? You are afraid of what people might think that you don't have a proper job? That you are one of these crazy people that think they can build businesses and actually earn money that way?

At a certain point in your life, after a long period of not being committed a 100% to following your dream, building that business and actually make it, there will come the point where you say: "F*ck it!". You stop caring about the naysayers, about the doubters and the sarcastic ones. You decided to commit yourself 100% and not sleep until you make a sale. This is where you need to be.

LESSON 05.
Pick Up The F****** Phone.
After you have followed lesson one to four, you found a need, you know how to provide value and you are ready to give it all you've got and more. So what now? You start picking up the f****** phone. You make the phone your best friend. Before you burn yourself, your money and your time, you need to verify the solution you will be providing in combination with the need of your market. How do you do this? You pick up the phone and ask people if they are willing to buy what you are planning to offer. PRESELL. We all want to be hustlers, now it is time to actually become one. The keyword here is active action: everything that is not connected to getting new clients and selling your product is an excuse not to pick up the phone. Leave the paperwork and do real work. And keep in mind: It is nice if you want to make $ 10 million within 3 years. @IceCreamKid challenges you to make your first dollar from something you've created within the first month.

It is not about your ideas. It is not about what you want. It is about the people. It is about what they need. It is about providing real value to real people and help them what they are struggling with. Go out and do it.

 

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[Enki]

IceCreamKid is the raw deal. After talking with him on the phone an Idea came to me almost spontaneously. I used a little copy to market the Idea, I landed my first customer ChaChing!

Things to note:

1.) There are a lot of people with problems (Most of them don’t even know it, they don’t know why they are frustrated or how to make life easier.)

2.) Said people are willing to pay to solve said problems

3.) There are always solutions

Only you can build your system to be a problem solver, no one can truly take you step by step. There is a reason why everything above is abstract, if it wasn’t there would be no such thing as an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is willing to take the abstract idea of problem solving and forge it into a sword. The average person is scared by the risk of taking a hunk of metal and turning it into a fierce, sharp, and polished weapon of problem solving. Too many what if’s pop up for the average person. What if the molten metal doesn’t shape right? What if no one likes my sword? What if I can’t get the fire hot enough ? etc.. The entrepreneur takes a leap of faith. He casts the what if’s that don’t serve him aside. While the entrepreneur is busy beating and shaping the hunk of metal, people pass by. Most of the passersby only see the metal for what it is, not what it will become. They look at the entrepreneur with curious but judgmental eyes. After the fascination wears off they cast judgment and declare the entrepreneur as a madman instead of a visionary.

 

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[Windsurfer]

The greatest lesson of all...

LOVE THE HELL OUT OF OTHERS AND YOU WILL EVENTUALLY HAVE ALL THE ICE CREAM YOU CAN EAT.

I would like to apologize. I think I was the one who started all the drama on this thread when I talked about my marriage and I really didn't mean to. I was looking for some tips on how to bring my wife along into the Fastlane.

As a way of payback to ICK, I would like to say I took his advice (the advice quoted above, not the divorce advice) just this past weekend and week, and have found amazing results with my wife and kids. I have refused to get angry with them when they did something that ticked me off. I kept a great attitude, listened to them, and tried to find a solution. As a result in just the past five days:

• My wife ended an argument with me very quickly, walked over to me, hugged and kissed me (hasn't happened in a long time)
• My son who is very quiet (15 years old), and who has told me in the past that he doesn't feel close to me because I was out at night a lot working on my real estate business, out of the blue thanked me for helping him with everything, and that he really appreciated what I do for him.
• My daughter, who had her mind set on an out-of-state, $200K college tuition, sat down at the dining room table last night, and told me I wasn't being a cheapskate after all. She could see my point of view and will be looking at going to an in-state university, and wants to help me build my real estate business. She said it just makes more sense.

Now maybe these were just coincidence, but they sure coincided with me trying to "Love the Hell" out of my family. I kept a positive attitude no matter what, and great things happened.

I just want to say that I "Love the Hell" out of this forum and really appreciate what all you guys do for me. I am sorry if I derailed this thread. Please, 'maestro ICK'....PLAY ON!

 

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[IceCreamKid]

It is my humble request to you to please take some time out of your day and once in a while and keep checking back on this forum, there are many IceCreamMen like me who will benefit from your advice.

Thank you for the comments, brother. It's quite humbling to check in here once in a while and see so many young guns pushing for their dreams. I'm 31 now and often wonder where I'd be if I had started sooner.

I never really left the forum and probably never will. I just don't post as often because I'm in full fledged growth mode right now which requires an incredible amount of energy and time.

Need tools and resources to get you to the next level? Just ask and I'll give you a list of what has worked for me. I no longer have the time to jump on phone calls, but I always make it a point to respond to 99% of the PM's I get on here. The only ones that I don't respond to are those who are trying to sell me something without at least trying to develop rapport first.

There are still many amazing members here that post far more regularly than me. Just make sure that you're still pulling the trigger daily and don't be so obsessed with perfection. Perfection will only delay progress. So just do your best, stay in the fight for the long haul, and believe in yourself.

If you don't know where to start, grab some books on the following:
1. Mindset(how to handle pressure, how to focus, etc)
2. Sales(how to network, communicate effectively, handle objections, etc)
3. Direct response marketing and copywriting
4. Business strategy<-Spend the bulk of your time on this. Focus especially on how to differentiate yourself from the competition AND how to communicate that to your audience.

Do your best to get your first customer ASAP. The reason why I always stress this is because once you get that first customer, the psychological hurdle literally disappears and a lot of the "what if's" disappear instantly because you now have proven your concept.

Learn how to package things because you'll be able to get bigger profit margins with packaged goods/services. A head of lettuce at the grocery store is $1 while the packaged salads are $5. Go for premium and package everything beautifully to make the experience for the customer amazing.

Every little detail counts...all the way down to the nitty gritty like what colors/fonts work best.

 

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[JAJT]

....He stops talking and waits...........

Silence can be AMAZINGLY powerful.

People, in general, are uncomfortable with it. They fill that void even with stuff they never meant to say.

Next time you get told "no" for something (anything), just wait in silence for a few seconds, say 3-5 seconds - count it in your head as you wait. I bet you'll find they start speaking again about the reasons why it's a "no", what you need to get a "yes", what other people have done, etc... it just starts pouring out as a defence mechanism against silence.

 

[DeletedUser2]

@Windsurfer
you chose your wife for a reason. Trust her. HOWEVER.
there is a point when you need to be the man, and say, THIS is who I am, and THIS Is what I do, and I need your support and love. even if you dont understand it.

My wife, has not always understood what I do, or how. but she knows why. she knows that What I have done, or do, is for US, as a family and our shared vision. just because she cant see the shore, doesnt mean land is not there. I tell her, unfurl the sails, and let me drive. she gets to enjoy the ride.

She is a smart woman, and, supports me in what I want to do. as a result, I have given her an uncommon life.
Z

 

[IceCreamKid]

However I have found finding the 33% that are truly where you want to be hard to connect with in real life. I simply can not find these people and If I do they seem to busy to become friends and build a relationship with.

Is this the truth? Are they really hard to connect with? Or are you the one being difficult to connect with?

There is an interesting force within the universe that many do not see...the yin and the yang side of life. At the heart of everything, the bottom line is this: if you want something from the world then you must give it away first.

If you want power then be the guy who EMPOWERS people. If you want abundance then give abundantly. If you want love, you give love. If you want friends, you give your friendship.

I don't have any statistical evidence to prove this concept, but I can tell you that my life has so far been a manifestation of it.

Here's the crazy catch about all of this though...you don't necessarily RECEIVE from the same direction that you GAVE. Everything ultimately balances out though. Giving your friendship to a particular person doesn't necessarily mean that they will give their friendship back, BUT you will likely receive friendship from someone else to offset this.

Look at the Dolphin's life. The guy EMPOWERS people on an amazing level. What ends up happening? People from all over the place are willing to leave everything that's safe and comfortable to them just to get a shot at working with him even though there is no guarantee of success...that's the secret power: you GIVE abundance away, then you RECEIVE abundance.

All of this connects to the very first post of this thread: love others.

 

[IceCreamKid]

I was tripping for a second. 'Who is this IceCreamKid' that has such high rep and has been around for 4 years that I've never heard of.

Now I get it lol.

LOL YEA MAN had to change my ID. Alright so I come from an Asian family and some of my relatives decided to do some detective work and found out I've been making ice cream in Candy Land these days. Now they expect me to give them money simply because they're relatives. SHEEE-IT.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A BOOK ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH ASIAN PARENTS AND RELATIVES. I HAVE AN IDEA...MAKE IT 50% HILARIOUS AND 50% REAL ADVICE. PEOPLE LIKE CRAZY AND WEIRD. I WILL BUY 100 COPIES AND HAND THEM OUT TO MY ASIAN FRIENDS. I BEG OF YOU.

 

[throttleforward]

Hey folks, just got off the phone with @IceCreamKid. He was kind enough to spend nearly 2 hours on the phone with me discussing my business concepts, copywriting, and a number of related topics. He's the real deal - I learned a lot, and came away with a ton of actionable items for my business. I have no doubt that he's accelerated my growth and has brought me much closer to what I believe will be huge success.

A couple bits of advice I have for you guys:

He's very publicly offered his help both through this thread and personally over the phone. I suggest you take him up on his offer.

But let's make something clear - he's providing you value. Respect that. His advice - like that of a consultant - is worth money. He's offering his advice to you for far less than (free) he could charge you ($XXX's/hr). So, respect his time. Don't approach him with an attitude of entitlement...approach him with the attitude that he's graciously giving his time, which is all of our most valuable resource. Thus, do your homework. Know what you want to ask, read his content, and thank him for his time.

Take this attitude to other areas on the forum too. Think before you post, do your homework, and respect the fact that you have millionaire entrepreneurs spending their precious time to mentor you to success. This is such an amazing place if you approach this forum with the right mindset, and open yourself to being vulnerable, humble, and ready to work.

 

[IceCreamKid]

There is not anybody bigger or better than you...

Man...I really like this SteveO guy.

I often think about the concepts of fear, confidence, and self worth. We're born into this world without any fear and with very high confidence. Then as we get older, society starts cutting away at all of that.

At a young age they tell us, "You can't do X,Y, or Z. You're not old enough, smart enough, tall enough, strong enough, pretty enough". Our brain ends up getting "viruses" installed into our inner "software" and without an anti-virus scan, we don't even realize all that muck is operating and controlling us through our subconscious.

This is why 95% of people struggle like hell to create a successful biz. It's not an issue of having enough info. We have all the info and action items we need thanks to Google, libraries, forums, and books. The real issue is being able to clear the mental blocks that were "installed" into our brain software at youth.

All of us are more powerful than we know.

 

[IceCreamKid]

What copy books do you read?

Gary Halbert Boron Letters. He mentions more books within that book. Follow the breadcrumbs that he leaves inside.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

You still up for all the marketting stuff?
Personally I'd love to hear about your journeys offline. It is so stale, telling us all what we want.
What do you want man.

Yea I'm still up for the marketing stuff, bro. Still working on creating some online marketing content because that's what the people seem to be leaning towards. It's a slow process because I'm learning from my buddy as I go.

My marketing journey offline is pretty goofy. I really enjoy pulling off "shock and awe" marketing tactics to get myself in the media because I can't afford to pay for advertising with real commercials. Real TV commercials are ridiculously expensive.

2 memorable ones for you:
Found out the mayor of my city was going to be giving a speech later in the week. Got 2 garbage bags and filled each one with $2 bills. Called up a bunch of local news stations and told them that I would be slowly emptying the 2 garbage bags from the top of a building onto all of the people below while the mayor gives his speech. I stamped my marketing message for my company on each $2 bill. People went NUTS over it...can you imagine real cash falling down from the sky??? I've never seen people go crazy like that before. Super cheap stunt considering how much media attention it got.

Another event was when I threw a surprise party for a bunch of homeless people. Called up the local homeless shelter then told them that I wanted to surprise all the peeps in there with some gourmet catered food. Called up a bunch of news stations again so my company could get some media attention.

Shit...the media completely twisted the story. The headline in the newspaper the next day was "Millionaire Birthday Kid Parties With Homeless". First off I'm not a millionaire yet, 2nd it wasn't my birthday haha.

Not caring about money is one of the most important mindset shifts that an entrepreneur must go through because once you get to that mindset, you unlock the part of you that becomes childlike and creative. Creativity and flexibility is the core of what keeps a business growing and evolving. Creativity leads to innovation.

When you care too much about money, the lack of it will become a mental limit for you. You start thinking stuff like, "oh I can't get into that business because I don't have capital to start with". The creative child will find a way...he'll open up a lemonade stand on every street corner in the city, hiring the other children to sell for him while he sits back and controls everything. Since the creative child is broke in the beginning, he will promise the other children that they will receive 10% of all lemonade sales after they set up shop on every corner in the city. That's what the creative mind does...turn lemons into lemonade.

I'm telling you...the offline ice cream shop is super fun. It's way more fun than hiding behind a computer. Once you get a real taste of how it feels to produce something of value for the world, there is no going back. I'm serious, it's like some weird addiction. I think that's why you see guys like Richard Branson building companies again and again. It's addicting once you figure out how to play the game. Part of the fun is that the rules of the game are constantly changing since customer tastes change.

But you know what taste will never change? My taste for alcohol and ice cream.

STAY DRUNK FOREVER AND GET THE ICE CREAM.

 

[IceCreamKid]

Im drunk right now, I might regret it. but you know guys, I dont feel this world anymore

Damn man I actually admire you a lot for posting this in the public forum because I get daily emails from depressed people in the forum looking for the keys to the kingdom. I've even gotten a few suicide PM's too, it's kinda sad. If only they realized the key was the person looking at them when they're standing in front of a mirror...they don't realize how much power is within themselves and they tell me so many limiting beliefs...

"Hey man don't tell me that age is a BS limiting belief, it's REAL". Tell that to JackEdwards who made millions by age 25.
"I look too young to be taken seriously". Tell that to all the kids who have gone onto Shark Tank.
"I don't have money to start a business". Tell that to all the people who thought creatively enough to start a successful business with nothing.
"I'm too shy".

The list goes on forever.
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100%-Arnold Schwarzenegger

I know I joke around a lot about being drunk, but it might be best not to drink away your problems bro. They'll fade away for a few hours, but when you wake up from the hangover the problems will still be there so it's best to address them early on before they become major issues.

Im just freaking tired of everything.

The depth of your struggle will determine the height of your success. Instead of fighting it, embrace it and be grateful for the moments of suck. They'll make you stronger.

There is no such thing as a problem. Some people see EVERYTHING as a problem and it takes away all of their power to find solutions. I've never heard of the word problem. All I see are solvable challenges. That's it. End of story. Adapt that mindset and you will bounce back from failure again and again. I bet all of my shiny nickels on that one bro...and if you keep swinging at the plate, you will eventually hit a home run.

Most people try a swing once then conclude that there is no money in a certain niche. Then they bounce to the next idea and repeat that same process. Trust me, I was guilty of it for years LOL. The winners are the ones who dig slightly deeper and stick to one thing to the end. I'm not giving up without a fight, seriously. Gonna give it my all and end up either rich or amazingly broke with some awesome life stories to tell about it.

Focus. Don't just take mindless action, but really focus on executing well. Focus. Take a few steps back to really reflect and think about the shit that you're doing to yourself that ends up holding you back.

I cant let go of my past. Im kind of obssesed with my past.. I want things to be like they were

Tell me, does holding on to your past do any good for you? What would your life be like if you just let go? How would you feel? Do you like that feeling of being free? Hell yea you do.

Celebrate failure. Celebrate the bullshit that life throws at you. There are no problems, only solvable challenges. The pain, the sacrifice, the tears...all of it is there to strengthen specific weaknesses in your character. It teaches you far more lessons than success imo.

Cheers to you for being open and real with it.

You must fail and you must fail fast.

Just let go and throw it all to the wind.