How to Turn Your Online Business into A 7 Figure Tribe Without Paying A Cent On Paid Advertising with Mark Bowness: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Content is Profit. Today, we're pulling a timeless EO Fire episode from the archives, so the giveaway may not be active. And we'll be breaking down how to turn your online business into a seven-figure tribe without paying a cent on paid advertising. To drop these value bombs, I brought Mark Bonas into EO Fire Studios. Mark hit rock bottom and then built a business that appeared in 200 media outlets and became a TV show.

0:39Mark teaches online business owners how to build tribes that increase their income and impact. And today for our nation, we'll talk about how to fill your trust point bank with prospects and grow your numbers, how every business owner should launch a Facebook group and turn it into a tribe, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mark and our sponsors. Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business with episodes like how to get out of your day-to-day operations without crashing your business.

1:14Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Mark, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know. Hello, Fire Nation. It's absolutely awesome to be here. So something about me that most people don't know, when I was younger, I used to have this passion to be a children's TV presenter and actually ended up on Sky TV presenting children's TV shows. You know those crazy, wacky kind of presenters? I was one of them for a while. Well, listen, I knew I loved your energy. I knew I loved your vibe. It must have come from somewhere.

1:49So you have some really cool experience all up in that. in Fire Nation. As I mentioned in the introduction, we're going to be talking all about how you can turn your online business into a seven-figure tribe without paying a cent on paid advertising. Awesome, awesome stuff. But before we get into that, we're going to hear your story, Mark. But even before we get into that, I do want to mention something just because it's really important that you stay tuned till the end of this episode, Fire Nation, because Mark has a really cool opportunity for you. So Mark, take 60 seconds now, kind of wet our appetite for this group launcher live challenge, and then we'll dive into more at the end.

2:26Sure. So I'm offering Fire Nation the opportunity to work with me for 14 days to actually embed these principles into their business to generate leads for free by launching a Facebook group and turning it into a tribe. Fire Nation, this is an opportunity you're going to want to learn more about and then take full advantage of because as you'll know by the end, Mark knows what he's doing. He is making the magic happen. But before we get down to that part of the episode, how can a rock bottom bottom be the foundation for your success? Yeah, great question. So I'm a big believer in life happens to us.

3:03Very briefly, John, in terms of my context, at the age of 26 years old, my life really did hit rock bottom. I was in a Christian environment. I was brought up as a Christian. I was a church leader. I studied theology at university. I was married. But my marriage ended. And when it ended, I lost my job, my income, my community. I had to go back to the other side of the UK to live with my parents. I was literally homeless. I was a homeless guy with a crazy idea. And I had an idea to lease a 200 acre island in Fiji that had nothing on it whatsoever and launched a business called Tribe Wanted and inspired the world to join me in building an eco island from scratch.

3:44It appeared in 200 media outlets from all over the world, was filmed for 18 months and became a TV show in three countries and secured a six figure book deal. So it's my belief that we experience rock bottom moments in life, business relationships, when business is going well, not well. And it's that moment that business success starts or ends in the mind. And so rock bottom forces us to stand in the mirror, look at ourselves and make a decision about who we want to be and what we want to achieve. Fire Nation, we all have these experiences in our lives that we can build upon going forward. And I mean, Mark, you have really had those experiences.

4:24So kind of talk about that rock bottom, bottom and how we can build that as a foundation for our business success, like you were able to do for yourself. Yeah, well, I believe that there are kind of three paths that we can either go down when we hit a rock bottom moment. Path one is the path of what I call wild destruction. And some of us may have been there, some of us can relate. For some, it's kind of binge eating or getting lost in alcohol or whatever it is just to kind of keep ourselves distracted. Path two is the path of least resistance where we kind of simply think, well, life stays the same and we live on this unhappy treadmill existence.

5:00And then path three is what I call the path of free flight in which we choose to soar to most unimaginable heights. What happened to me in that moment was a realization that with our lives, we can touch life, interact with it, mold it however we want. And however we choose to live our lives, it's up to us. But it's that moment, that decision that we have to make to take hold of it and to really chase our business dreams. So those three paths, break down path number one for us again. So path number one is the path of wild destruction where we just kind of go into free fall, just do crazy stuff to keep ourselves distracted.

5:40And Fire Nation, path two is that path of least resistance and take it away for path three. It's the path of free flight where we go, hold on a minute, life is this precious gift. If all these people that I look up to in business can achieve what they've done, they are no different to me. And now I'm going to solve. And now is this kind of like a process that we go through as entrepreneurs? I mean, do we have to start at number one to get to number three? Or how does that process work? I don't think so. I think we choose a path based upon our mindset. As I say, business success starts or ends in the mind.

6:14And at that moment that I was in, I could have gone down this path of wild craziness because I thought life was unfair or why should this happen to me? But instead I thought, wow, I can choose my life to really be whatever I want it to be. And it's just a decision that we make. And I think it's important to say that, you know, we all have those moments, whether our business is a six figure, seven figure business, it's not simply that the numbers, the money's coming in and life's easy. There's always, you know, leads are working this week, but they're not working the next week or something's going right.

6:47And then something's going wrong. And every single moment we make a decision. And in that, that moment, it's a defining decision that can lead to the success of our business. Should we choose. Now, one area that you've had a ton of success in is building a tribe. So break it down for Fire Nation. What exactly is a tribe in your words and why should every business build one? Cool. So this is really, really super important to me. So Fire Nation, if you have a notepad, grab a notepad, get notes because this has changed my business. Let me start with telling you what a tribe isn't. So this surprises most people.

7:22A tribe isn't a Facebook group. It's not an Instagram profile, LinkedIn profile, or YouTube channel. These things are vehicles for the tribe, not the tribe itself. So big distinction there. So I believe in an old model of building a business, an online business where you have a website, you're all over social media, and you're trying to get people to get to that website to buy a product or to book in a call. But the foundation of building a tribe is what I call the 100 trust point system, which it's my belief that every single prospect has a trust point bank that we have to fill with 100 trust points before we even start talking about a product or a service.

8:02So in this way, I don't consider somebody as a sale or a no sale. I'm just building trust points. And as a result, people come to me in their numbers wanting to learn more about how I can help them because the trust, the like, and the rapport is there. So that's the foundation of building a tribe. So that's what a tribe isn't. What is a tribe specifically? Like it's not a Facebook group. It's not a YouTube channel. What should Fire Nation look at as what a tribe should be? Beautiful. So there are four things that comprise of a seven figure tribe. Firstly, an unstoppable dream. So we've got to take our audience on a journey.

8:37Somebody become a client, a prospect, becoming a client or a customer is just the beginning. My goal is to take my clients to the place of torchbearer where they are raving fans about my work. So we start with an unstoppable dream. So my dream is to help 100 ,000 coaches, consultants, online business owners to build tribes of 10 ,000 people and together impact 1 billion lives. My clients are so focused on that unstoppable dream. Number two, an authentic leader who steers people towards that dream. So the guide from the side, as opposed to the sage from the stage, to really humble and authentic in the way that we serve our audience.

9:13Then we have three multiple ways to engage with one another and communicate that unstoppable dream. So a tribe is online and offline. It's not just those who are on your Facebook page. And then finally, a way to monetize that purpose. Fire Nation, that was just a breakdown on what a tribe is. And I love how you started that off, Mark, an unstoppable dream. I mean, if you, Fire Nation, aren't working towards an unstoppable dream, if you don't have an unstoppable dream, that's the starting point like that is your foundation that is your core that is your why that unstoppable dream now let's get specific because a tribe will help you raise your profile like it will help you get heard above all this noise like i love to say in the online world specifically like there's so much noise there's so much saturation it's like you know just i picture this girl just like screaming into the wind and like you know she's screaming but you can't hear anything is it so loud there's just so much going on there's so much wind And how will a tribe help Fire Nation raise their profile above all of this noise?

10:16I totally agree. So most business owners online are posting all over social media. And with the ever-changing algorithms, it means that less people are seeing your posts. So I focus first on building a Facebook group and turning it into a tribe that enables you to create this, what I call this zone of influence. So when I first started off, I was in other people's groups. I was posting on social media. But it takes people eight to 10 times to see your post before it actually starts to sink in. And if you imagine how many times people are actually seeing your content online. So I thought, hold on a minute.

10:50I need to create this zone of influencers Facebook group and fill those trust bank banks of my prospects and grow those numbers. So those numbers are the evidence of success. So then with the evidence of success, with the increasing numbers in my tribe. So I have a Facebook group called We Build Tribes. It's got 33 ,000 people in it. And the opportunities are now endless. And what happens is then what I call the tribe to authority loop, which is that people join your tribe. As a result of that, you've got evidence of your success because you've got numbers. And then the media and speaking opportunities come your way.

11:27As a result of those media and speaking opportunities, more people are joining your tribe. And therefore, as a result, more media and speaking opportunities come. So then you become the authority and stand out amongst everybody else that's working within your space. The tribe to authority loop. Like I loved how you phrased that. That's why I want to kind of double back onto that because Fire Nation absorb that part of what Mark just shared. That tribe to authority loop. I mean, I just love that visual. I love that image because that's what you're working towards. And Fire Nation, Mark's dropping value bombs left, right in the center.

12:02And if you think he's even close to done, you got other thoughts coming. We have some value coming at you after we get back from thanking our sponsors. I remember back in 2013 when Entrepreneurs on Fire was scaling fast. And in those early days of our business, we sometimes found ourselves struggling to keep up because we couldn't find software solutions that were easy to use and that would grow with us. Wasting time worrying about software that's complicated, a pain to use, and that doesn't do what you need it to do is not fun or productive. So what do we wish we knew back then that we know now?

12:36That a powerful all-in-one CRM platform that will accelerate your business growth is a HubSpot CRM. Unlike a lot of solutions we were using back in 2013, HubSpot's CRM grows with your business. Whether you have an MVP or you just IPO'd, HubSpot CRM is built for scale because your tech stack should work for you, not against you. And with over 1 ,300 flexible apps and integrations, you can customize HubSpot's CRM to the way you do business. Get started for free at HubSpot.com. That's HubSpot.com. So Mark, we're back and I want to get right down to those core foundations that every tribe should have.

13:18So break that down for us. What are those core foundations? Okay, beautiful. So most business owners start off with launching their business online. They've got a product, they've got a website, and they just launch it. And they're out there kind of just trying to promote and get people to buy. But the reality is that you've got to have a movement first. If you don't have an audience who is going to buy your product, I realized this very early on. And this idea of you build it, write it, even podcast it or launch the course, if you appear in the media and expect those things to build your tribe from scratch, they won't.

13:52So you've got to have this reason for people to come. People come for content. they stay for community so the first core foundation of a tribe is you've got to have this movement around what your tribe is and we'll go deeper into some of those principles in a minute but the idea to start with i've got to build an audience first because if i keep launching these products to nobody my business will be over very quickly so core foundation number one number two the monetization piece how am i monetizing my business and i talk passionately about how there's many opportunities for online business owners to take their content, their wisdom, and even become an authority through teaching what they've done.

14:32So I have what I call a million dollar wealth triangle, which is one set of IP. It's one set of concept that we turn into three different products. So we've got low ticket mass impact, which is like a$2 ,000 do it yourself type eight week program, high ticket mastery three six nine twelve month uh program which could be say four to twenty five thousand dollars and then we have one-to-one high ticket coaching at eight thousand dollars plus so we've got this one set of ip that we deliver in different ways to our audience which means that we're kind of really making money from our movements and increasing our impact in the world i went from struggling to sell my service in a hundred dollars an hour so now one-to-one is like$100 ,000 a year.

15:15And I never thought that would be possible. It's building a movement first. So finally, media. So once you've built the movement in place, you know how to monetize, then there's the opportunity to appear in the media. Let me give you two very quick examples. One of my clients, she wanted to appear in the media. And I said, No, let's build a movement first. Let's make money first. As a result, because she had that credibility that I talked about earlier before the break with the tribe to authority loop she was apple's number one trending news story a thousand people joined her tribe within 48 hours all reaching out wanting to work with her the alternative a media celebrity in norway that i talked about recently in the media everywhere but was saving his business from bankruptcy because he didn't have a way to monetize his business so he had the profile without the monetization so movement monetization and media are the musts for every online business owner.

16:10So critical, Fire Nation, that you understand these three points. Number one, create the movements because people come for the content, they stay for the community. Number two, monetization. And a lot of people shy away from this. You can't shy away from this. You have to find out your community's biggest struggles and then create the solutions for them in the form of a product or a service or a community or one-on-one coaching, group coaching, whatever that might be, like you'll figure that out. and you're obligated, Fire Nation, to generate this revenue so you can keep creating this impact. And then number three, I love everything that Mark said about media, so key, so I won't go over that again, but really impactful stuff.

16:48And so we talked about the core foundations that every tribe should have. Let's talk about the main elements of actually building that movement, Mark. What does that look like? Beautiful. So I have what I call eight tribe builder principles that I encourage all of my clients, my audience to embed into their business and we'll go over those very quickly. So first, as we've discussed already, is the unstoppable dream. Having that vision that takes your audience on a journey. Now, it keeps me awake at night and gets me up early in the morning. You've got to have that unstoppable dream. Secondly, connecting with your audience is hell on earth, really understanding the tangible pain points that keep your audience awake at night so that we can really speak into what we're moving away from and then taking them towards a bigger vision with that unstoppable dream.

17:33number three is a roadmap so as i said being a client becoming a client is the start of the journey so with my clients we have a beautiful roadmap with the goal of reaching 10 000 people in their tribe we have a beautiful tribe of 10 000 award and every single step of the way they take off a goal along the roadmap and they receive a certificate so whether it's media whether it's sale whether it's building a tribe of a thousand people that they're actually rewarded along the way so they're engaged in that journey at a deeper level number four moments of magic so my big passion is not having herds and thousands of people in my tribe without their intimate experience so we create these moments of magic whether it's sending flowers birthday gifts bonjour videos creating these special interactions then we have merchandise clearly obvious brings people together they love wearing the identity mini gatherings online and offline the tribe needs to be branding.

18:31So creating branding that really connects with your audience at a deeper level. And finally, language. So utilizing language in a way that brings your audience together, makes them feel a part of the community, but also outsiders want to know more about the community because they feel like they don't quite know what this language is and they don't want to be left out. So much value there, Fire Nation. Number one, I love how, Mark, you started off again with that unstoppable dream because that truly is the core. If you have a stoppable dream, why are you even starting? Like you have to have that at the very beginning.

19:04It's that unstoppable dream that I love how you talked about connecting with your audience, what actually keeps them awake at night. You got to move them away from pain and towards pleasure, Fire Nation, towards a solution and then accountability for that roadmap. They should be getting rewards along the way and having those moments of magic. Like that's such a great phrase, Mark, moments of magic, so powerful. I love the app Bonjoro that you mentioned. I use it for every single person that joins Podcasts Paradise. They get a personal Bonjoro from me and every one of them honestly makes a comment about that.

19:34Like, I can't believe you took the time to create that Bonjoro. It was literally 15 seconds out of my day and I batch them. So I'll do one or two days a week. I'll just do a ton of people that have joined over the past week or so. And it doesn't take me a ton of time, but it means so much. And then the merch, the language, like get to make them feel part of the tribe. Like Fire Nation, Why don't you think I keep saying Fire Nation? Like I'm letting you know, you're my tribe. You're part of Fire Nation. That's what makes it so powerful. So Mark, that was amazing. And we're going to end with a bang before we have our grand, grand finale.

20:06Let's talk about generating Facebook leads, not at cost, but for free. This is something, Fire Nation, that you want to pay attention to. Take it away. So I've generated a million dollars in sales on Facebook without any ad spend. And this is how I've done it. so I believe that every business owner should be launching a Facebook group and turning it into a tribe building a movement around it now I used to have a Facebook page and spend lots of time getting people to like that page and then I would post on that page and nobody would see that content and you can relate by nation so build a Facebook group there are two key Facebook group algorithms that if you hit means that Facebook will promote you in the suggested groups column so your group in the suggested groups column.

20:52I'm sure Fire Nation have seen that on Facebook. That means Facebook is promoting your group across Facebook to those who have liked a page or joined a group that's similar to the topic of your group. What does that mean? Facebook are sending you high quality leads for free. I'm gonna share with you those two key algorithms in a minute, but one of my clients, Blair Robinson, implemented this. He's got 20 ,000 people in his group for free in six months. with no paid ad spends. The two key algorithms, number one, the amount of people joining your group, which is why everything we've talked about within this podcast episode so far is important because you're building a movement, not simply a Facebook group.

21:34It's an experience. So the amount of people joining your group, and secondly, the amount of engagement taking place in your group, get those two things right. Facebook will promote you in the suggested groups, groups column across cross Facebook, which means your direct target market, high quality leads joining your group, your movement, no cost whatsoever. Fire Nation, I mean, if you are not overwhelmed with the amazing value at this point, that's okay because you're about to get overwhelmed right now because Mark, you have something that we were teasing at the beginning of the episode that everybody in Fire Nation is going to want to be a part of.

22:08Why? Because you're going to be Fire Nation, the value is through the roof. So Mark, break down the opportunity that you have for Fire Nation. So the information is overwhelming and I'm so passionate about every business owner building a tribe. So I have this beautiful group launcher live challenge. 14 days, I take you to the exact process that I've used and implemented to create a group and turn it into a seven figure tribe. So every day you'll watch a video a day for 14 days, you post the homework in the group and we will actually respond the team myself to every single piece of homework to ensure that you're building your tribe on the right foundation.

22:48By the end of the 14 days, your Facebook group will be launched. You'll have turned it into a tribe and have the exact system and process to hack Facebook and send them leads for free for$47. And if at the end of the challenge, you think tribe building isn't for you, we'll give you a full refund, but I'm confident that you'll love it. And where can Fire Nation go to learn more? Awesome. So launchyourtribe.com is the place to go and we'll be launching the next round very soon as this podcast episode goes out. So launchyourtribe.com. Launchyourtribe.com. I mean, Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

23:27You've been hanging out with MB and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And if you head over to eofire.com and just type Mark in the search bar, his show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz, links to all the stuff that we chatted about. But your call to action, Fire Nation, is to visit launchyourtribe.com. Find out more about what Mark's offering over this incredible 14-day challenge. You're going to learn so much. It's going to take all these principles that we had to kind of smash into like this 30-minute episode, and it's going to break it out over 14 days so that you, Fire Nation, can go step by step and build your tribe, build your movement, make your impact.

24:15Launchyourtribe.com. Mark, thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much. And of course, I'd love Fire Nation to join me at We Build Tribes, which is my Facebook group on Facebook. Thank you so much, Joe. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Mark and successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big goals, huge goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step.

24:48So visit thefreedomjournal.com. Use promo code podcast for a$15 discount. And a thank you for listening to my podcast. And I'll catch you there, Fire Nation, or I'll catch you on the flippity flip side. Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business with episodes like how to get out of your day-to-day operations without crashing your business. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts.