James Schramko: The Secret to Getting Rich…Ask better questions and solve more problems

James is a man who came literally out of nowhere, zoomed to the top based on no advantages at all.  He was holding down a 16 hour a day job.  He blows to dust the idea that someone does not have time to make it as an entrepreneur.

He is in my inner circle.  When he talks, I take notes.

In this presentation, he lays it all out. How to become successful no matter what market you are in. You can’t afford not to watch.

The Secret to getting rich is to ask better questions so you get better answers.

Also, solve more problems.

He targets the US because he likes large markets. Sell to oceans rather than small ponds.

There is no shortage of good ideas.

What you need to do is find people with problems and develop a service to solve those problems.

6:20 First Step: Define Your Constraints:

1. Don’t know what to do
2. Lack of self confidence
3. Lack of tools
4. Lack of business model that workd
5. No support network
6. Lack of money

8:36 James introduces himself and talks about his history

He didn’t want to build someone else’s million dollar business so he became an internet marketer.

His turning point: Flew from Australia to Los Angeles to attend an event. Six weeks later he quit his six-figure job.

At the event he took notes. One night he took action. Built a website with a presell and linked it to a charity. Won speed of implementation contest at the seminar.

You have to meet the right people and keep learning. You can’t become successful overnight.

12:21 Continues with his story

13:50 How to get moving and become successful as soon as possible

Take the skills you have and leverage them. Write for your own products. Build your own website and sell your services.

Deadlines work. Set a deadline to implement something from the Action Seminar

If you want something you have to act on it. Do something you have been holding out on.

How bad do you want it? You have to have a strong reason why.

Be like water. If you hit an obstacle just flow around it.

You have to outsource the things that you shouldn’t be doing, in your personal life, as well.

Go to masterminds.

Chop out people who hold you back.

You need an opportunity filter. He looks for recurring income/continuity…something that can be leveraged.

Deal with addicted buyers. Find out who is already buying and sell more to them. Sell more stuff to your own buyers.

Is the idea evergreen? Some things are consistent regardless of chages in technology.

Do you have an affinity for it?

Sell things with high price points.

Concentrate on passive businesses. Can it be systematized or automated? Can you find a partner that will be active in the business?

25:40 How to leverage internet marketing skills

Start with local businesses

Sell information products Create products, run a workshop and record it.

Sell related services.

27:27 3 step method for selling stuff

1. find prospects
2. see what they are buying
3. sell it to them

27:45 how to find prospects:

1. Google alerts: Google will tell you when something is happening in your market.
2. Ask current prospects what they want.
3. Alexa: plug in website and it will give you their keywords and what websites people visit before and after this site. Also dempgraphics
4. Google insights for search
5. Keyword spy: Tells keywords and ads companies are targeting
6. If you take screenshots of these results and show to a prospect and it will make you look like a genius
7. Market Samurai: ID phrases people use to discuss your products. His keyword tool of choice
8. Magazines: See who is advertising, read headlines, find out what is happening, if there are more than a few magazines then it is a big enough market

32:12: You have to use SYSTEMS

(SYSTEM Saves You Stress, Time, Energy, Money)

You should have more than one screen, whiteboard. Not too much stuff on your workspace

Work on one project at a time. Can time yourelf if you want.

Invest to learn – saves you time over learning everything yourself

You get what you focus on. If you focus on not having money, you won’t have money. Focus on what you want.

Feed your brain by continually getting information

34:55 What he focuses on in his marketing:

Provide valuable solutions to desperate proven buyers with problems you can solve in the largest market you can easily access

The best client is often the one you already have. You can sell more stuff to them more easily than finding a new client.

Where to rabid buyers hang out?

Forums: He found out they are most active between noon and 5 pm on Mon-Thurs

Find a forum, find the most active discussion, summarize the problem and find the responses, make up a report and give it away in your signature line.

Build a list and sell over and over to them

He had a list of people who went to a live event, and sent them an offer to go to another live event. Within 24 hours he had earned over $12,000.

40:22: Find out what’s working and model that.

What is working for him:

1. Webinars: They do regular webinars for members of their community and record them.

His next live event will be done via webinar.

Heat map – Crazyegg.com (still in business) He puts content in the places people are looking

2. Joint ventures: Find complementary businesses to partner with.

Clone: Take what’s working and do it again. He found his most popular posts on his current blog and is getting it rewritten and put on new blogs

46:25 Clean up projects (he does this monthly):

• Whiteboard everything you are doing, including projecte, “to do” lists and business models
• Identify what is working and what you should stop doing/thinking about. Put it in a file cabinet and get it out of your mind.
• Identify what is missing
• Eliminate, reorder as needed
• He makes a lot of videos and posts them to YouTube and Viddler for traffic.

47:26 Productivity Hacks

Gmail: Can filter and train it. You can get junk out of your inbox

To run his business he uses Basecamp. He has no staff but has virtual staff around the world. He uses it to communicate with staff,

Also uses it to communicate with mentoring clients and business clients.

He uses app called Sherpa to communicate with basecamp from his iphone

He has a vBulletin community and uses Tapatalk to communicate with them.

Get an inexpensive video camera and tripod

Get a helpdesk once the business starts growing

Large screen

Why he likes Gmail

Filters:

1. Facebook hit and run: He gets email FB alerts so make a rule that labels them as FB and keeps them out of his inbox

Don’t leave social media open on your desktop

2. Spy lists: He has a filter for them

3. Urgent lists based on certain words, ie cancel

His autoresponder confirm page has a helpdesk link at the bottom and join links for social media

53:40 His business model:

• He drives traffic to a blog where he builds his list giving stuff away. All upsells are for recurring memberships,
• He uses his membership as a bonus for affiliate products he is promoting
• He uses his blog to promote his workshops which he records for his membership site,
• His workshops give him a “superlist”, to which he can promote high-level coaching and servicesf.
• He has private licensing for his services

55:33 John said that James has put this business together over a 15 month period, from a zero start. No contacts and from Australia. He did his networking right, always starting at a point of giving rather than asking favore.

57:47 Question and Answer

1. What tips does he have for effective webinars?

Uses Go to Webinar

Use 2 screens. Show people things on the second screen so they don’t see your private files.

Use 2 computers. Have one logged in as the user so you can see what they see.

Get a transcript done of the webinar. You can post the transcript on a public blog to get traffic.

1. Think about how you can create a membership site for people in your niche. Even if you sell physical products you can provide regular information about topics that interest your prospects. It can be very inexpensive because the maintenance costs are minimal.
2. Add a membership element to your blog. It can be a very simple plugin to start and you can develop it as you go along.
3. Create a list of topics your prospects would be interested in, and note which ones you can address and which ones you may need to interview others.
4. Create some simple videos or audios that address the issues with which you are familiar. Add them to your membership site.
5. Create a simple landing page to sell your membership site and link to it from your blog.

James Schramko mentioned the following during his presentation:

You can get a lot of timely information about topics relevant to your niche with Google Alerts.  Click here for a video showing how to set this up yourself.

You can get a lot of information about your competitors by using Alexa.com

You can find trending topics using Google Insights for Search (also known as Google Trends).

We have information about free help desk software:  osTicket and Hesk