Below is the transcription for this episode:
Dave: Hey, what's going on my friends, this is Dave Sharpe. Welcome to Wake Up Legendary. As you can see, I'm in a little bit of a different location. Because I'm having some work done on our office house, it's kind of noisy over there hanging in, I'm gonna, I'm gonna walk around in my backyard here. And, you know, we might be joined by my son right over here. He was just, he just joined me on the last call. And it was pretty exciting. So if he decides to come, I don't know. But we'll, we'll find that out. So this morning, I'm gonna be welcoming Mel to the show, which is yet another amazing and wonderful student that has gone through our training and gone through a challenge there. It's just, you know, it tends to become a pattern here, when people are, you know, succeeding. They've gone through education. And then, you know, surprisingly, they've, they've applied it. And it tends to be the, that tends to be the defining mark, between those who are successful and unsuccessful. I guess, as a matter of fact, yesterday, we had somebody post in the Facebook group that what was the word she used, you know, she wanted to celebrate, she'd made her first sale, she followed all the Legendary training to a tee, and she made it for sale. It's like, golly, you know, when you follow it when you use it as directed, you know, and, you know, I can't complain about a medication if I don't use it as directed. And I say that it doesn't work, you know. So our education, the directions are, use it and then apply. That's the direction if you know anything less than that, you're probably not going to get very good results. So with that being said, Mel, welcome to the show.
Dave: How are you? Where are you calling from?
Mel: So I am in the UK in a place called Pall Mall which is right down the bottom of the UK.
Dave: Very nice. Great. So tell us how you found Legendary, you know, how did you get started online and eventually make your way to us.
Mel: So I guess at Christmas time, I was feeling pretty rubbish. I have a product based business. And it wasn't doing so well. And kind of pretty, pretty rough time and felt like we really needed something to bring in some extra income that I could actually do alongside my product based business. And this one really stood out to me, the link went through the funnel and came across the 15 day challenge. And I literally did not hesitate. I signed up for $7 there and then bang done. I just felt $7. You know, it was worth a risk. Because if it's absolutely rubbish I'd have wasted $7. It wasn't like hundreds of 1000s of pounds or going to university or signing myself up for something for six months. And I felt like it was something I could do there and then sign up and learn and earn, learn and earn at the same time. So that's really what brought me here.
Dave: I literally don't know because I wasn't able to read your kind of bio stuff before we got started. So I don't know anything about how that panned out. Tell us when exactly was that start date and, and what has happened since?
Mel: Oh, sure. Yeah, so that was around Christmas time. So between Christmas and New Year, kind of had, you know, the major meltdown of what should I do? And started going through the 15 day challenge between Christmas and New Year so once I started I was oh just immersed myself in it. I loved it like literally the values that I felt within the challenge for $7 was incredible. I think on day three, that was really good. I just felt very inspired. And yeah, like immerse myself in the Facebook community and watch all the Wake Up Legendary shows. So like, really thrilled to be here, because I saw so many. And they just gave me some inspiration, I just, I really felt like this was something as an older person that I could do, and that I wouldn't need to have like, wasn't massive skills, like anyone can do this, it didn't seem like out of reach, it felt like something that gave me hope, is what it did is it gave me hope. Yeah. And I literally got onto TikTok and thought, well, while I'm learning, I'm going to set up my TikTok and just begin to feel familiar with that app, because that seemed to be the place where people were getting a really good result. And that felt like the right platform for me, like, I'm not much of a Facebook person, I do a lot of Instagram with my other business. And I know how long that takes to build up a community. So I said, that's what I did. So I leapt onto TikTok, and, you know, spent hours of my life falling down rabbit holes on tick tock. And just, you know, and then thought, right, I've just got to start making videos, and you know, they were fringy, I have to say, they were bad. But I just did them and just thought just do it. You know, if you're gonna do something, commit and do it. So that's what I did. So I didn't mess about when I just started. I just started
Dave: Nice. Nice, nice, sorry, if I'm doing this, I'm just making sure that I'm hearing what you're saying. I mean, did you say, Did you refer to yourself as older? So what business does an older person have? You know, starting an internet marketing business in 2022? Could you maybe speak to that point? I'm sure there's some folks that are your age that are like, Okay, wow, I didn't know I was too old. Or I didn't know that I could still do this. Like, can you speak to people who are thinking, Oh, I'm too old for this?
Mel: Yeah, sure. That's exactly how I felt. I'm 55. And I've come from an era that we didn't have tech. So you know, I didn't have the best I didn't have a phone. You know, when I grew up as a youngster, we didn't even have mobile phones, let alone computers, you know, the sound box at the end of the street. So I, you know, and I went into my work life without being in a technical environment. So I think that was the biggest point for me, where I felt challenged would be I haven't got any digital skills . You know, I see a lot of nerdy type people. What even is a digital skill?
Dave: Are you able to navigate like a piece of hardware like a computer, turn it on, navigate it and use a cell phone is kind of how we all are? I think what you're saying is great, whether we're technically savvy or not, right?
Mel: Yeah. 100% 100. So yeah, literally that like even going onto Facebook, and learning how to become part of a community on your own private Facebook, when you've never had that it just is overwhelming. And as an older person, when you haven't grown up with it in your life, signing up to anything in online banking, or online shopping can feel overwhelming.
David Sharpe: Well, I can't say that I don't feel like that everyday, to be quite honest with you. I mean, I'm being serious. I mean, there's things out here that are just like, really, you know, it's, it's, well, I want to speak to those folks for a second because, you know, I really am, I'm serious when I am not overdramatizing how the overwhelm I feel with some tech. I mean, it's real. It's, it's not, we got to not combine it all together, because it's really just certain hardware and I guess, software or whatever. But here's what I found. I mean, I was really uncomfortable with my iPhone and all my computers and devices when I first got them and now some, you know, months or years into it, I mean, it's like it's like an extension of my arm, you know? So there also is that if somebody is quote, technically savvy or whatever, I mean, what do you need? Morals quite frankly, and you feel technically challenged. Sure, or whatever feeling like, maybe that might not be your strong suit? What are some of the things that can make up for that? You know what I mean? What are some of the things that if you're on the air, you'll be okay. In your opinion?
Mel: I just think you just need to know that you want to do it. So have a bit of what would be the word persistence? I would say, So be persistent in your desire to do something. So if you really want to do it, then you can, you can learn the skill you can't use. So the technical stuff is challenging, but you can learn it, there's always somebody that will know the answer, there's always someone you can ask, but what they want, no one can tell you to do is to do it, is to be able to use TikTok is to go and make your video and, and put it up there. So I think there's a lot of people where I am included, that I will procrastinate over something. So I will think of all the reasons why I shouldn't do it. Or maybe I should just do this bit first. Or maybe I should just do that bit first. And you know what, it really doesn't matter if it's perfect or not. It doesn't matter. You just have to if you want to do something, whatever it is in life, you just need to start taking a step forward, and then another step and then another step and have some common sense. And know when to ask for help.
Dave: What you just said is so important. I mean, you know, it's imperfection. I think there's a saying something like perfectionism is the enemy of all things good. Or I don't know, maybe somebody can drop it in the comments. So, perfectionism is really the enemy of all of all creation, you know, in my opinion, and what you said there was just really important, because I think what I found with older, older folks is that they, you know, they really care about things getting done, right, you know what I mean? Like, that's my experience with with my older relatives and people, whereas the younger generations are like, okay, with it being like, if you look at memes and stuff, like look at the meme revolution on the internet, like those photos, and those images are not highly produced, they're thrown together, you know what I mean? So, the younger generation doesn't care as much about things being kind of put together and looking perfect. They just care about the, you know, the content. Whereas I think the older generations because of, you know, just just, there wasn't an internet, there wasn't as much, you know, there wasn't as much content being created. And so everything was more stylish, and style was really important. And it being done, how it looks, the presentation, kind of all those things. And nowadays, we just, I mean, you got COVID that kicked in, we're all working in our underwear from home. Memes are everything nowadays. And they're being shared all over the world. We just live in a different world where if you really pay attention, and look around, nobody expects anything to be perfect. And quite frankly, nobody wants anything to be perfect. Because it almost looks out of place in this world of just, like hodgepodge stuff that's thrown together. I mean, honestly, like, if you look at all the things that we love on the internet, it's YouTube channels that people are filming, just like vlogs or what like things from home or we're spending time on tick tock watching people on their phones versus sitting and watching Netflix, I mean, people would prefer this style of content. So if you're listening and you've struggled with perfection, then please understand that nobody even wants that from you anyways, and but I want to validate and acknowledge the fact that it's probably not perfectionism, it's really just that you want to do a quality job.
Mel: When that's the key at the end of the day, isn't it? You're putting a message out there, regardless of what you're doing if you're trying to get something out there to get something back. If you're doing marketing, then obviously, not sending 100%.
Dave: Yeah, and your speed is important. This is the other thing that's really important, is not so much like how it looks. And oftentimes even like the message and the speed at which you get it out is the most important, not how it looks not if there was misspellings, not if the pictures perfect, not if the video is perfect, not whether you say whether you go on the radio, I mean, that's not that doesn't even what matters is is the quality of the content, and then the speed at which you get it out. And the reason why I say that is because the moment you have an idea, every second that goes by that you don't execute on it is the second that it's going to lay down and die. And the ideal graveyard. Do you agree with that?
Mel: Yeah. I mean, I feel my content on the hoof, you know, I try and sometimes batch create, so that helps, and keeps a load of stuff in my draft folder on TikTok, but quite often, it will be inspired in the moment. So I'll see something and think, Oh, I'm gonna go make a video on that. And I'll just do it there. And then so, you know, I've always often got the dogs in the background. And like, the other day I was filming one, I've got a really big dog. And halfway through the filming, she suddenly leapt off her arms and my shoulders and added a little dancer there. So I've just kept it in the video, you know, it didn't look ridiculous, but actually silly little things like that, actually, you know, you can put it out there because people are scrolling through scroliosis. And off, they go scrolling. And it's something that catches people's eye. So, you know, you could spend half a day setting it all up to make it look perfect, and nobody's looking at it. So it's much easier just to so many people say about tick tock in particular, it's the really crappy videos that they've made and put out that took them two seconds to make are the ones that go viral are the ones that get a lot of views, the ones that interest editing, do nothing so and you'll grow your tick tock channel will just grow naturally will the more you put out and the more consistent you are, you will you will gain a following.
Dave: So yeah, regardless, you got to be clever with content. It's like how have you not just become a copycat of everybody else's stuff, but figured out how to learn from what other people are doing and even model it, but yet still maintain your own, you know, identity or, or message or is that difficult for you? Like how are you coming up with ideas and executing on them?
Mel: Yeah, sometimes it can be difficult. I think what I did is I picked out probably half a dozen marketers that inspired me, and then I followed them and then I, I literally went and studied them. So I went and studied what they were doing. So during the period when I was still learning, I studied them a lot. And I watched what they were doing and how they style things. And some of the messages they were putting out and then recreated that in my own way. So maybe change the music, not that I didn't reinvent the wheel. You know, some of it was very similar. But I filmed it in my home, and it's me, it's not them. So, you know, and I am older, so maybe some of the more useful stuff with the dancing, I don't really do that, because that's just not me, I don't feel particularly comfortable doing that. So actually, I try and you know, so just do something that feels right for me. So it's natural, that's what it is. So it comes across as me. And I've mixed it up a little bit. So I do some fun ones, and do some educational ones. And then I sprinkled a few just about me so a bit about my life and who I am. So trying to give a little bit of a balance.
Dave: That's fantastic. And yeah, that really helps. You know, if you are finding yourself, you know, looking after and modeling a lot of videos from other people and you kind of are or want to make sure that you don't come across as just another copycat channel. You know, that's just, you know, or copycat profile or whatever, you just don't sound like this. Because that's why you get shitty comments guys is because you sound like everybody else. You know, I mean, let's just not let's just not bullshit each other. I mean, I don't have time to bullshit you and I don't give a damn to somebody who never buys another thing from me doesn't really matter. If that upsets you, then you know, go buy from somebody else. Learn from somebody else. But nobody, you know, these are just these are just facts. It's just a lot simpler and it's a lot easier than we make it out to be. I find that I complicate a lot of things. Now that I don't need to complicate, and, and I make things a lot more difficult on my own self than they need to be, you know, and I find that you can, you can take a test of that very easily by being honest with somebody about the actual things that you say to yourself or about yourself, and then ask somebody if they've ever thought the same thing about you. And what you'll find is that, you know, if others talk to us the way that we talk to ourselves, we'd beat we'd beat him up, you know, because we're so hard on ourselves, we're so critical of ourselves. And the truth is, it's just not that important. You know, I'm a freckle on the pimple of a gnat's ass and this big universe. It's not a big it's not I'm not you know what I do? You know, I can't say that one human being doesn't make that much of a difference because if you look at what's going on in Russia and Ukraine, you can see that one piece of shit does make a difference. But you know, I'm not invading countries with tanks and shit, I'm just posted on tick tock so nobody reads, you know, it's not that big of a deal. You know what I mean? It's, it's, it's just, you got time to evolve your skills, and you have time to, you know, get better in quite frankly, people might like this new, this, this brand new, rough around the edges version of yourself better than they like whoever you think you need to be. And that's what I found Mel was that I was the scrappy street kid who hadn't, you know, an eighth grade education dropped down to ninth grade, I didn't go to high school or college. And I don't know a lot of words, like in terms of, especially when I first started out, I would get words confused, I thought ends meet meant you were so poor, you could only afford the, the ends of the meat, you couldn't get the center slab, you could only buy the ends of the me, you know, I mean, this, this is the stuff that I come up with on my own in my own head. And, you know, it was a challenge. It was a challenge to really accept myself for who I was. And in the things that others were going to Oregon to accept me to. But as I, the further away I got from who I was, you know, when I would, when I would comb my hair with a perfect part and put on a shirt and try to talk a certain way and you know, all this kind of stuff. It was like people could sense that wasn't the real Dave No, that was when I was really looking like a lookalike. And the more I started to tell my story, that was a big breakthrough. And then the more I just embraced me, and just my, like, who I really am in my content, not it's not about you know, I just my own personality. That's all I'm saying. Each one of you has a unique personality that is special and funny, and people love it when they're around you when you let your walls down. When you're not, when you don't have all the masks on the walls, right? And that's what life does to us. It makes us put up my mask and wall so we can protect ourselves from you know, bullies, and it makes sense. But it's not a survival skill that's so much needed anymore. That was what you needed on a childhood playground. Ironically, I'm walking across the childhood playground in my backyard right now. But I think you get my point here.
Mel: Yeah, I was the same day. You know, I literally, I went to normal school. I never went to college and never went to university. My two sisters were the bright ones. I was the you know, obviously no hope or in the family. I got married when I was like 19. I had my child when I was 20, I couldn't make ends meet, you know, never had any money but always had that bit of entrepreneurial spirit and would do anything to bring some money in and provide for my family. Funnily enough I was only talking about it the other day. I lived in this tiny village and we were miles away from anywhere and I took on some cleaning around the village to clean people's houses to make some money. My car broke down and I couldn't get to this lady's house and the next village I walked to my neighbor, rode their horse to the next village, tied the horse up, did what I had to do, and rode the horse back home.
Dave: I think we're embarrassed as humans a lot about our history or our past or family or where we come from. So there's a lot of shame around that, and, and we it's just, it's just misplaced shame a lot of times, I think it's just shit that's passed on from generations, and we don't even know why we feel that way. But to have pride in yourself, and to be able to turn your struggles in the strings or your mess into a message is a real gift that you give people. And it's a real gift that you give yourself. Because when you combine that with a product, it's what gives the product a story. You know, and people like to buy products with stories, they don't like to just buy products. So if you the marketer, you the affiliate, now I'm going to include a story when they get to me better believe it. So, you know, if you ain't gonna tell his story, you know, I'm just saying for you, if you're an affiliate of ours, if you're not, then make sure that you include a story, you know, because if you don't include a story with the product, you're no wonder people are just treating you like a product. No wonder people are shopping you around, no wonder people are in your DM saying, Well, this business over here or this training over here look, because you got to, you got to make it to where they're not. They're not contrasting or choosing between two products. They're choosing between a product in a story they're choosing between a product and a brand or choosing between a product and a team, a real company, you know, it's just different. It's just like the difference between buying from Tiffany in the mall and at the flea market. I don't know how to explain it, but because all it takes is a story. It's just a story. And that's, that's what you're giving people when you just include these little pieces in even as Mel said, you can still model other people's videos. But the real, the real thing that I think you're doing that is so smartest, you're sprinkling in videos, which tell your story. And here's some other examples that maybe some of you guys could do. Hey, I want to get real about something that I haven't told you yet. You know, we did an episode a couple of months ago on hooks. If you scroll back through wakeup it looks like it was a valuable one, it was all about the hook the first three seconds of the video how you catch somebody's attention. And hey, you know, I've been I've been keeping something from you that I want to tell you, those sort of intros those hooks to where then in that video, you can go and get a little bit more deeper, get a little bit more real, you know, tell somebody, for example, I was watching this bit on ESPN last night about a golfer who has secretly had a club football, you know, all his life. And he just came out with that. And it's like making this news all over the place. Because, you know, he's bringing people into his life, in giving them just, just just, it's not effortless, because it takes courage. But he's not doing anything except just opening up and letting people in. And you know, he's making all these headlines and making all these news, he's getting all this attention. So, you know, I've just found that when I'm, I'm embracing my, you know, you've been looking at this morning, hard, you know, because I was about to get on live. And I've done this before. There's just, there's just like, oh, is this going to be professional? Like, are people going to be okay? But then when you do it, and you just embrace it, whether you're shooting a tech talk about something that's more personal or what I don't know, or whether you're just deciding to go live and walk around in your backyard or at a park or whatever. The rules of what you're used to playing by don't apply here. And then probably if you can do the opposite of what you're feeling, you know, the opposite of what you learned in corporate America, the opposite of what you learned in school, you'll probably be okay. Right?
Mel: Well, funnily enough, yes. Because like, the flip side is that the product business that I've got is all on Instagram. So that Instagrams are all very slick and professional, and, you know, everything is aesthetically pleasing. So it's almost the flip of what I've done with the marketing. So it's an interesting contrast.
Dave: And that's, that's wonderful. So you're saying on Instagram, you're more, just this my sound is bad, so I didn't hear as well, but your Instagram is more kind of polished and your TikTok is, is that what you were saying? Yeah. Yeah. And that makes sense. I mean, that makes sense to offer a different feel on a different profile. I mean, it's, we're already repurposing enough content. And I often find that, you know, if somebody follows you on one platform, they're probably going to follow you on another platform so people are seeing it. So for you to offer a little bit of a different look is definitely smart.
Mel: Yeah, very cool.
Dave: Well, what else can we learn from you? Give us one last nugget, give us one last tip Mel that you think would be helpful to somebody who you know is just like you. Maybe at the beginning what could help somebody to get started?
Mel: I think the overwhelm so I see a lot in the Facebook community where people are in such a panic about getting their funnel spill and getting their link out and getting to 1000 people on Tik Tok, I just think don't put so much pressure on yourself because it will happen, whether it takes you It took me three weeks to get my funnel bill it you know, it just did. And I did have a few moments of yours and stress and a little bit of overwhelm. But eventually it does get there. And then I put my link out and then guess what Tumbleweed you know, it was Tumbleweed. So take some pressure off because it will happen. You know, take a couple of when you're trying to build those first few funnels, take a couple of days off and go and do something nice and then come back to it. That's probably my biggest takeaway when I was beginning.
Dave: Don't go in and mess with it 1000 times after you've gotten it. It's not when you're getting 12 hits to your landing page a day. That's not enough traffic to know whether your opt-in pages are not converting well. Okay. So get up, get that thing up into hundreds of visits per day. And then we'll talk about your split test.
Mel: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Just get it built. Don't give yourself too much grief. Try not to cry your eyes out with stress, you know, just get it bill and then get it out there. And then just enjoy making the content because the rest of it will follow. It just takes time. It's a process. Follow what you've been taught step by step and it'll happen.
Dave: Yeah, awesome stuff. Well, thank you for being so patient with me this morning. And it's been wonderful to have loved this and I can't wait to see you continue to grow. Come back in a couple of months. Just keep us posted on your journey. All right, my friends. You can follow Mel the dot affiliate. Now that's where Mel is on Tiktok and Instagram @Melthe.affiliate It's already past the first quarter. It's if for whatever reason, whenever we go to end the show, I always like to start reflecting back on the previous months of the year. But, you know, we're in the second quarter of 2022. already. It's just important to pay attention to the calendar and sort of where we're at, I think because, you know, I like to take my years from the first to the 31st of December and what did I accomplish in that period of time. But anyways, what's most important is the moment in the day, so use this day to do something powerful for your business, at least one powerful thing if you can make a list. What's the one most important thing to put it right at the top? And make sure that you accomplish that one thing today at the very least, and it should be a successful day for you right if you accomplish the most important thing on your to-do list every day. Isn't that a successful day? All right, my friends. Be Legendary. We'll see you back here for another episode on Monday.
