From Trailer Parks to $500M: The Truth About Mastery, Mentorship, and Modern Marketing

29:33Then you drop them. Just kidding. But, but that's every, you can make excuses. You can make money. That's what I think. Zig Ziglar said that. So now here's the thing. All the stuff that you described before, when you're talking about gurus and other charlatans, okay? Yeah. They all are talking about the vehicle, which is the lowest common denominator of this whole thing, which is the offer stack. which is, Hey, do you need a, do you need a community? Do you need a funnel? Do you need the, do you, do you need to know how to run Facebook ads? Do you need to know how, but it's, I remember when I was younger, just starting out in business, I heard a story.

30:30I don't remember. It was part of, anyway, guy told the story and he said, young man was starting a soda company and his grandfather was backing him. And he went to his grandfather and he said, hey, I'm going to need to get, I need money to get a, I need to get a desk. I need to get a computer. I'm going to need to get a secretary. I'm going to need to get an office. You know, do we need to buy an office condo? And grandpa said, you don't need any of that crap until you have a customer. Go out and get customers and all that other stuff will take care of itself. Now, that's not an exact comparison, but what it's saying is, until you know who you're called to serve, what promise they're willing to spend money to have fulfilled for them, and you have figured out how you figure into this whole equation and how you're going to deliver on that promise so that they can get the promise fast, easy, simple, and addressing those five areas that I told you before, don't worry about going signing up for a school account or a ClickFunnels account or getting a Kajabi thing or spending$10 ,000 figuring out how to light a video.

31:52Nobody cares. Nobody cares. And that's what you were describing at the beginning of this is why people fail is because they're worried about the vehicle, i.e. the offer stack without doing anything to do with this stuff. And if you skip this, like, oh, I know my customer's hot buttons. That Jim Edwards is a spastic old man. Great. If you don't do all the other stuff, it won't matter because you're going to miss something. Yeah. I keep going and seeing your screen there. And I keep going to where it says the offer, because to me that's offer is part of messaging in the sense of the message of how you're going to you know present your offer um and that's where i feel is maybe the one we're talking about the vault unlocked where you know the the thing that really changes everything is you can know your avatar well maybe not that's the question that's the thing you're trying to isolate it but they They all exist together.

32:57Because what we're trying to do is for this person, the person we're trying to sell, we're trying to answer three questions in rapid succession in the subconscious. Why this? Why you? Why now? Why this? Because we really want it. Why you? Well, it makes sense. You're teaching this. Why now? and that's part of the offer and the offer stack and having some sort of a deadline and real you know reason why to buy those are but but those are all you know you're saying oh what makes a ferrari amazing is the paint job or what makes a ferrari amazing is the 12 cylinder engine or what makes it amazing is you know it's all of this together and and that's why it works so how does if someone's starting out and they they have an idea of the avatar they want to go towards but they don't understand the offer meaning they don't understand the problem they're the actual problem that they can serve they think they understand it this is this is the nuance that i'm trying to and i can't get the words where i see so many people they think they're solving the problem of their avatar but they're not actually solving or they're not marketing to the real problem.

34:15And this is why they get a little bit of success, but they can never actually scale past six figures a month because they actually haven't hit that one thing, that the one, the one hot button that actually changes everything. It gets them to go from why now, why this, why me? But part of that is also testing too. It's, it's, it's, it's notice I said, who is it that you're called to serve? It's a calling. It's not, who do I want to fleece as fast as I can because some asshole on a webinar told me that I could go through these three things and I could analyze this thing. And then I could come over here and use chat GPT to write a sales letter.

34:52And these people, dude, menopause is a big fricking problem. Okay. I can't solve the problem. I can solve it for guys. You know what? I got three rules. You know how I survived menopause. I'm sorry. you're right dear and shut the fuck up jim yeah okay those but that that's like one of those low content books you know i can have the three rules at the front and then 200 pages of lines which you yeah you write all down all the stuff that you might have said but saved your marriage by not so yeah here's the thing you gotta understand is that when you are called to serve someone, you'll figure it out.

35:35And when you're called to serve someone, typically you're called to serve someone you used to be or someone that is close to you that you love. So good example of that second one is I met a guy 20 some odd years ago. I was doing a seminar in England, guy named Paul Chivers Grierson. Great guy. Remember, he sends me Christmas cards to this day. Only met him once and he had a membership site to help parents of autistic kids and because he was the father of an autistic child well guess what as his kid grew he grew with the kid and the parents and the families and all this other stuff because he wasn't just like oh i'm gonna write a book on having an autistic kid and then i'm gonna move on to underwater basket weaving it's like i'm called to serve these people.

36:27So I'm going to figure out what resonates with them. And the way you figure it out is by actually interacting with them. Now, here's the other thing though, is a lot of times we make stuff way too complicated. We need to just get down to, hey, you know, I can show you how to write a book so you'll be able to enjoy unlimited authority in whatever your chosen niche market. You'll be able to establish a competitive advantage over your, over your, uh, any competitors, you'll be able to blah, blah, blah. And all they hear is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If I say, Hey, I'm going to show you how to write and publish your book and become a bestseller in less time than other people take to even plan their book out.

37:17And I've done it for hundreds of people using these exact same tools. In fact, here's three that just came in. And so if you've ever thought or been told I should write a book and use it to build my business, I've got something that will work for you. Now, I pretty much covered all that stuff real quick, okay? Because I understand the audience. So the other problem is that people expect shit to happen overnight because the people who make the promise of shit's going to happen overnight so that they can separate you from their money. And all they got to do is just make sure you make it past the 30 days of the refund period have kind of trained people that they've lied to them.

38:10Yeah. Okay. And so there are a lot of people out there who are want entrepreneurs high on hopium who will believe that bullshit. And so you got to ask yourself, do I want to be a legit professional? Do I want to do real business or do I want to do monkey business? So again, back to some self-reflection. I love it. I want to go back to one thing. When you talked about the promise, we can make the promise, which is the satisfaction of their desire or solving the problem. And in your experience over, you know, decades of writing sales letters and marketing campaigns, what have you seen proven to be more successful when you're selling to the desire or you're selling to solve the problem?

39:02It depends on which is more intense. Which is more intense or intense? Intense for the reader. Are they, okay. So for example, you know, I, God, so many inappropriate examples come up. So, okay. Example of, and really where I really learned this. Okay. I had a program and I think I, this is where you'll hear me rummaging around and stuff. Oh, here it is. Hey, look at that. I'm almost organized. So back in the day when stuff was on CD-ROMs and on audio CD, I had a program called Five Steps to Getting Anything You Want. And I actually, you know, I went in the studio and did the, I was doing, it's going through my whole Nightingale Conan phase.

39:54I wanted to do that. Yeah, yeah, the self-development phase that everyone wants to teach. Yeah. You go on your first seminar and now you're going to be the guru. Got it. Been there myself on it. Yep. So it's actually really good though. Unlike the bullshit. And so you got to, you got to believe in your own stuff. And so I put together a really good sales letter for it and I put it out and the headline on it was how I went from dead broke trailer trash to world famous and rich, something like that. I mean, it was not, it was all about me. And so I'm watching my traffic come through a hundred people.

40:34Nobody buys 200 people. Nobody buys 300 people. Nobody buys 400. I'm like, Oh my God. I'm, you know, that whole thing that goes through your mind of I'm going to be poor again. I'm going to have to go get a job. This sucks. This is a scam. I'm like, this is a scam. I'm like, wait a minute. It's my own shit. I can't say this is a scam. So I asked myself a really important question. I said, okay, what would a world-class marketer do? And instantly, a solo voice said, test the headline. I said, okay. So best way to test a headline is model another headline. All right, well, what's something I bought recently that made me buy?

41:13So I went and I bought this search engine promotion guide. And it was basically how to get an unfair advantage in the search engine wars. I said, okay.

41:26I changed the headline to how to get an unfair advantage in life. And 100 people came through and I made a sale. So I'm like, oh, holy crap. Yes, I saved it. Okay. And then the little voice came back, though, and said, hey, dipshit, if you can do the one, you need to test another one. So I came up with another headline was how to get a positively unfair advantage in business and in life. Another 100 people came through. I made five sales. Okay. So I went from zero to one to five. I had a 500 % increase in sales. And that little funnel went on to make$120 ,000 in like a month and a half, which doesn't sound like a lot now, but back in 2005,$120 ,000 was some money.

42:26Okay. Yeah. Probably around 300 grand today. It's at least double. So my point, though, is that I. By by understanding what's going on with their hot buttons, by taking the focus off of myself, by putting it on to them and focusing on, hey, you know what? I thought their problem was, is that they were Poe. but what they wanted was to feel like they had an unfair advantage. And the other thing, and this is really, this is hard to explain. It's kind of as much feel. If you can phrase it in such a way that they draw their own conclusion from it, as opposed to you spelling it out for them, it is much more effective.

43:26So instead of saying, hey, how to raise yourself up to a six-figure lifestyle. Okay. Well, for some people that's unattainable for other people, it's like six figures. That sucks. I can't be that poor. And all these other things come in. But when I say how to gain a positively unfair advantage in business and in life, you're filling in what that means for you yeah and and that's like where the magic is happening when when you're able to to communicate that but again until you know them real well and you know this stuff and you it you can't do it i mean so you've answered the one thing right and and the one thing is it's it's deeper than just the avatar the offer because like you can think you know the avatar and you can think you know the offer but like there's that underlying uh the nuance whether you can get from testing what i'm hearing from you can get from testing or you just get from experience and or you said you said a couple times now you never said this way or you're being completely authentic in your calling and what you're being called to serve yeah which then comes from a different energetic which will maybe help you find that missing piece and i'll and i'm going to explain you why why why this because one of the most fascinating things that happened to me was how we went from zero to 38 million in 18 months and i you know i built the entire business behind it but i was not behind the pure reason it you know it went which was understanding the psychology of our buyer right and and my partner at the time understood that we were going after people who are the immigrant you know we call them the lower conscious people the immigrant people who just want to be rich and they he didn't say we're going to solve your problem he basically sold the idea that this thing that we're going to teach you is going to make all your dreams come true type of thing he knew exactly how to speak to them and how to get them to believe that just hanging out in the community was good enough right and to me i've always looked back and i said like that how do you bring that to every other business you go to because when you crack that code that's the code everything else becomes easy marketing actually becomes easier right but sales becomes easier fulfillment becomes greater like but what you just described is the classic problem where you get people who are really good marketers that are shitty at delivering and so they ruin it for everybody everybody and and so what we gotta do is it's it's a it's actually real simple and and you've heard this before and i bet your readers listeners watchers have heard this okay sell them what they want and this is where i differ everybody says give them Nope.

46:32Include what they need for success. Okay. That's the difference. What happens is, is that a lot of marketers get drunk on their own power that they're like, oh, I know how to make them buy. Well, good for you, Sherlock. But maybe the best thing to do would be to get real good at getting them to buy and then delivering on the promise. And then you'll have relationship with people. And I don't know what it is, but it's like, this is, this is the disease of a lot of marketers is that the people who are amazing at selling, not all, but many of them suck at delivery when, okay. The problem is, is that it's probably if they were able to create the result that they're selling people on the fact that they did this, then what sucks is just their ability to translate what they did into something that is actionable by the people they're selling to.

47:30But you can solve that if you would actually just get a partner, get somebody that could, you know, get it out of you and turn it into a system. Whatever it might be. They could do it. But that's the big difference. Sell them what they want, include what they need. And you don't even mention this is what you need. So what do you, you've worked with many marketers. I know you work with tons of authors, you know, authors, speaker, business owners, coaches, trainers, coaches, trainers, real estate agents, real estate agents, all the people, literally anybody who's listening and wants to be, that wants to be successful online.

48:07And that's a vast conversation, but I'm just saying anyone that's listening as an online business or wants to use the world, the world of online to sell or promote their product. What do you see today? The number one problem and or number one thing they're doing that's sabotaging their business. It's a two part thing. They don't know who they are called to serve and they don't stick with anything long enough to be able to create a result. And if I could put a third thing on that is that their end run objective is to try and maximize short-term cashflow where their ultimate objective should be to create and maintain a relationship with someone who can buy for decades.

49:02Dude, I got people that have been with me for 25 years buying stuff from me. God bless them. I thank God for them every day. But if I had been focused on just trying to maximize short-term cash flow from, here, I could tweak this little ad and I can do this and I can just cut here. And, you know, I make more money for a month. I would have been hosed. Yeah. Okay. It's the relationships that will save you. Because ultimately what happens, and this is where people screw up. This is this I'm this I'm going to share with you something that a 90 year old guy shared with me when I was 22 years old. OK.

49:49Even if you're doing really well, this is what your income is going to look like. Yeah. OK. This is where most people are living. So even though their income's going up, they're spending money. So basically what they're doing is they're spending next year's money this year. And as soon as you have that one little downturn, you got to hustle. You got to lie. You got to do whatever it's in. And it's never lying. It's just, you know, it's marketing, man. I'm just doing what I got to do to survive, man. Manipulation, misrepresenting, not being in alignment, all of it. This is where you live.

50:34Monetarily. Okay. This is where you live so that you can make the right decisions, so that you can hold yourself to a higher standard, so that you can do what's right for your company, for your customers, so that you have the time to learn and figure stuff out and become competent before you start selling people stuff. Okay. But this is everybody's income and their progression, their education. and another way to look at it i saw recently which is real which actually like even more is i just want to add this as you're doing this for the people that can't see because there's a lot of listeners uh driving right now uh what we're drawing right now and what we're talking about is living below your needs versus above your needs and then the understanding your income and revenue as a business owner and living below them so you can actually withstand the low times and really enjoy the high times.

51:31But what we see, I've seen this too many times and I'm a victim of it myself. We live a little bit above our needs and it compounds over time and it's not good. We also see on the board right now that it's not linear. It's not linear. It's up, it's down, it's left, it's right, it's in circles, it's everywhere. As long as the trend line is going not, you know, you're becoming successful. Right. But you can, but the problem is, is that at the top above it is desperation and stress. Yes. But if you're living below, well below your means. Okay. I've never lived to like, I was making three,$4 million a year.

52:18Okay. I live like I'm making about$10 ,000 a month. That's how I live. But if you have no debt, if you have no debt. Think about that. No debt. Could you live real well on 10 grand a month? If you can't, you're an idiot. Yeah. But this is where down here is where we say F you money. Everybody thinks F you money is like a hundred million dollars. No F you money means if your boss fired you, if you lost your business, if you decided you were done, it'd be like F you I'm done. I'm done for a year, 10 years, the rest of my life. Okay. That's where you want to be. That's where we all want to be, but everybody else is living somewhere in here.

52:59And that's why they're stressed out all the time. That's why they won't take the time to master anything. That's why they're always looking for the next bright, shiny object, the shortcut, all that stuff. Okay. And that's, I mean, and I've seen that for almost three decades now. So it's, and I'm sure it was like that before, but on the internet, it is magnified. Yes. Yes. Magnified to the next level. I seen it. I lived it myself personally. I've been in it. I've watched it happen multiple times. Right. And it's because you just said it is this false hole. You see it every day. Learn how to be a millionaire in 30 days.

53:40Nobody, I mean, 99.9 % of the population is not becoming a millionaire in 30 fricking days. And if that actually worked, the person that's selling it to you would be doing it for themselves and keeping it a secret. It's kind of like I was at a gas station in the 90s, had a guy come up to me and hand me a card that says we create millionaires. And he's got a L Williams magnetic sticker on the side of his 1979 rabbit diesel that was all discolored from the diesel smoke on the back and he's trying to recruit me to sell life insurance for a.l. Williams because they create millionaires yeah dude that's bullshit it's not it's not happening he doesn't believe it you don't believe it here's the other thing when you're living up here you don't believe it that that's the thing you you're a fraud you literally are a fraud that's why I'm talking about you know the thing if you're not still doing it then you're a fraud yeah and i know that people oh i don't agree not bullshit if you ain't doing it then you don't know what works right now you're known to have your toes in it you don't know what is and what isn't working what is you know the changes in ai and all this other stuff you don't know because you're not doing it today i mean i admitted to you dude i launched a funnel and and the first day it pooped but i know how to fix it yes you know most people don't know how to fix it and i'm they don't even to know why it failed that yeah and i get it and and it doesn't work right out of the gate and i think here's something you're not saying that i think is very important there when you're living above that line so again for those that listen we're living above our needs and you're trying to build your business is you don't actually have the time or the money to to actually stay in the pocket long enough for something to work and that's what i see a lot of people that you think by changing and pivoting pivoting pivoting all you're doing is starting from zero and zero and zero versus knowing that like i have i know people that have been working on their funnel for two years three years now optimizing tweaking optimizing and they're now getting that funnel to a seven figure a month funnel but it took time but they've been out in the street making it you know with it going on and that goes back to what we talked about it's easier to be a success in the making.

56:06I'm getting ready to get ready. Someday I'll be a success as opposed to getting out there and getting your nuts pounded flat and being, okay, that didn't work. Let me get a steel cup. I'll go back out and try again. Okay. Now they knocked out a tooth. Okay. Let me put in my grill. You know what I mean? I'm now I'm, I'm, I'm like that kid from toys or not toy story from a Christmas Carol Christmas story. When he's coming out and got a snowshoe on man. I mean, anything truck it hit him he'd be fine but that's just you got to get out and make it happen but if it has to happen instantly i mean i've i've had people over the years come to me and say hey i i need to make twenty thousand dollars by the end of the month i said well do you have an audience no do you have a list no do you have a product no well think about selling a kidney brother yeah yeah and because it's not even all that has not happened in a month right now as we are i mean And wow, I don't think we even touched the surface here.

57:03So I'm going to ask, we're going to see if the listeners want Jim back. I know I want Jim back. We need and must do a part two because we didn't even get to the sales page. Oh, wow. I wanted to understand what it is, you know, what is on that sales page? What are the dynamics of the sales page that make it convert? And I think that's worth a part two. I'm just going to put it out there, Jim. I mean, it's up to you, but you let me know. I'd love to come back as long as your listeners are like, nah, I don't like that guy. He's a jackass. Well, I don't think so. I have a hard time believing that to be true.

57:35Jim, for those that are like, I need Jim. I need, I want to write a book. I want, I need a funnel. I got a funnel issue. I need to understand copy. I need to understand my avatar. Where can people actually find you today? How can people work with you? So the easiest thing is just go to JimEdwards.com. JimEdwards.com. Yeah. It's like not all that sexy. I got links to all my stuff there. But, you know, JimEdwards.com would be your best bet. I'm going to ask one last question. With all the chaos, I'm going to call it chaos because I believe it's chaos. With all the chaos that's going on in the world today, with all the false promises, with all the fake gurus coming up and having the dollars to make themselves look like heroes, but are arseholes on the inside, with all of the, you know, whatever that program is, that software, I don't even know what it's called anymore, where all the women are making millions of dollars, you know, showing off OnlyFans stuff.

58:33Thank you. With every, all of these things that are happening. If there's someone listening right now and they're, they're just like, I just want a small seven figure. I don't even know where to begin. I want a small seven figure income. I just want a small seven figure business, you know, to be able to make a couple hundred grand a year for myself, serve my clients and live a good life and not have to be an employee. Right. What would be your advice to them in today's chaotic world that we live in? So it's the same advice that was given by someone I never met, but I consider to be a mentor of mine from back in the fifties.

59:13Okay. And I'll tell you who it was after I tell you what he said. He said, but no matter what's going on, whatever you see in the world, there are people who are seeing the exact same thing. And what everybody wants is to be led, is to have the knight on the white horse ride over the hill and protect them and lead them to a safer place. And so be that person for the people that you are called to serve. and the number one thing you need to figure out is who you are called to serve, not who can you fleece the fastest. Who are you called to serve and what promise can you make them in order for them to pay you money, cash value for the use value that you give them?

1:00:08Now, I just described the part about the person on the white horse is something that Earl Nightingale talked about in his lead the field program, which I think everybody needs to listen to. And, and so be the hero. Everybody's looking for a hero. And right now the people that are being put out as significant and, and people we should pay attention to. I always want to punch people when they say we're in an attention economy, even though I guess it's true, but it's like chicks with big tits, guys that punch people or do stupid stuff. All of these things that people are paying attention to are not what your customers want to pay attention to, but you haven't stepped up yet to be the hero.

1:00:56And you don't need to be a hero to everybody. You just need to be a hero to the people that you're called to serve and develop a freaking relationship with them and help them over time. It's not wham, bam, thank you, man, one night stand. It's like, Hey, we're in this for the long haul. That's what I would encourage you to do. Be the hero and then help them be the hero of their own life. So I'm going to say this. If you feel like you've been called to serve or to help, but don't understand exactly how to do it, you must go to Jim Edwards.com. Again, if you've been called to serve and you're having a hard time being seen, heard, or being able to communicate with those people you need to serve, go to www.jimedwards.com.

1:01:47Jim, that was amazing. I love it. We are definitely going to do a part two. Thanks for being here. Thank you.