How To Use Multiple Business Models To Build Your Online Business
Using Multiple Business Models To Build Your Affiliate Marketing Business
How To Use Multiple Marketing Strategies To Build Your Online Business
Dave: Legendary family this is Dave Sharpe Welcome to Wake Up Legendary excited to have a good mate from Down Under. On the show. That was, that was the dad joke of the, of the hour, sorry I had to get one in. If you guys are. If you guys are ready to rock I am too. Okay, um, let's jump into this let's get this done as you guys can see 19 year old Australian uses multiple business models to build his online business with that being said let's welcome to the show, Ryan, give me your last name Ryan This is Eric saying,
Ryan: I get this a lot, Ryan Lee Vacarro.
Dave: Okay, I'm just, you know, I'm just such an old construction worker, you know, can I just call you, can we, let's just go with Ryan. Ryan, bless his brother, welcome to the show.
Ryan: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Dave: Are you currently calling from Australia?
Ryan: I am, yeah so it's like midnight for me right now.
Dave: Oh my gosh, you look you look awake, though,
that's good. Yeah,
Ryan: I'm a night owl so it works out.
Dave: So, we're gonna be talking about your journey through kind of Amazon and drop shipping, and then eventually yeah affiliate marketing. Tell us, take us back and, you know, kind of take us through that journey, kind of the milestones in a nutshell, and what eventually led you to Legendary.
Ryan: Yeah, so, pretty much, I didn't focus or I didn't give a go, anything when it comes to online business at all until about May of last year. Before then, I was just, you know, living the expected lifestyle working full time, You know, and then COVID hit. Lost it.. And I was basically just left confused because before that I was, I was thinking about online business for a really really long time but never really gave it a go. Yeah. And so then I figured, okay, I got no job, I'm not really doing anything and might as well try it.
Dave: You ever seen that movie Friday? It's an American movie?
I haven't, no. He's like you ain't got no job, you ain't got shit to do. And basically he was implying he was implying that they're gonna get high that night.
Ryan: Well I didn’t do that.
Dave: Good for you.
Ryan: Yeah, but I just, yeah, I figured I better not just sit on my ass do nothing but just, I've been thinking about a while, I might as well give it a go. That's why I got introduced to ecommerce tried it for months on end failed for months on end lost quite a bit of money, but eventually I was able to make it work I did join a course that helped me out a little bit then a bunch of research, research, research that's been going well for the past five, six months, and then I was able to automate it a little bit so I decided to expand. And then I found affiliate marketing. I'm like okay, I'm gonna give this a go because I know it's possible with free traffic. And then just through a quick Google search I found a 15 Day Challenge and then that's pretty much how I got started.
Dave: Wow. Really, yeah, yeah. You're a result of good old SEO Marketing?
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't find your course through an affiliate, like I just searched it up and then you were there.
Dave: Okay, so we're ranking for some stuff that's pretty gangster. Oh yeah baby
oh yeah okay so I mean what is the difference to you besides, you know, between like drop shipping and Amazon and now affiliate marketing?
Ryan: Well, Amazon actually never, never gave it a go because I wanted to. Just through research found that it might be a little bit more difficult for me in Australia to do that, compared to starting my own thing. So I started out with Shopify, pretty much doing what everyone else is doing fulfilling from Aliexpress getting agents doing all that stuff, and I think the main difference here is that with affiliate marketing, I had what at the same time I can build my personal brand, which isn't really something I was doing with dropshipping I'm trying to build a store, all this other extra stuff. And I think, looking back in hindsight I think affiliate marketing would have been the easier choice for me to go with as a beginner, because I didn't have to set up all these sort of logistics and all that there's really not too much that I have to do to start this. Yeah, I think that would be the main difference that I wish I knew last year but
Dave: So you say personal brand, explain what personal brand is, for those that are new and also why you think that building apart what do you think the advantages are, and why do you think it's important to build a personal brand.
Ryan: Sure. So, when it comes to your personal brand and to just sum it up briefly and pretty much means putting your name out there throughout social media so you're known, and basically building up a loyal following and a loyal community of people that know your name, and, and trust your content. And I think that, that alone, having a community that trusts you, is very, very valuable. And you can leverage them in so many, so many ways, including promoting products as an affiliate or even through drop shipping having a store and you could promote it through. Promote your store through your audience, I think it's one of the most powerful assets you could have. And, yeah, that's the main difference that I found between doing this and drop shipping because it's not something I was doing before, but now, having done it. I can see how powerful it is and it's something that I want to continue.
Dave: Well, I don't really have to explain much with words because for all of you who are here watching the show and within this community. I've sort of built a personal brand within this company, right, so yeah. So, you know, it's kind of it's kind of right in front you know sometimes the AHA lightbulb moments are sort of staring us right in the face and sometimes we just, we just missed them. So the power of building a personal brand in the in the affiliate marketing slash selling information industry is that, you know, eventually, as you move from not only doing affiliate marketing but if you want to sell your own courses and coaching and do events or virtual events that it's, it's a lot easier because you've already established, like people trust you and then if you're going to be the one who's going to be delivering the information or at least in some way marketing or selling the information. Then, then it, then it's a lot easier, Right, yeah, in it here at Legendary I've done two I've sold information two ways. I've both, both marketing and sold, and then been the one who's delivered the training but also been the one who's brokered the training out essentially to other people. So that's another thing for you guys to kind of think about is that the skills, the skills don't always the skills open up lots of opportunity because if you have the marketing skills if eventually you want it to partner with somebody who might whom their strength might be delivering the information or doing the training, then, then you bring your skill sets they bring their skill sets, and it can be a beautiful match made in heaven. You were kind of smiling a little bit at what's coming up for you?
Ryan: Oh, just, you know, just listening to what you say, agreeing with you. Pretty much,
Dave: Yeah I mean personal brands it's it's I didn't really expect to think about I didn't expect to talk about that with you but I think that it's such an under Estep it's such an under. It's it's it's not talked about enough, and I don't think we even talk about it enough because when people come in and they're new, we kind of present affiliate marketing like, and we even not just even with affiliate marketing we say hey look you can have your own personal brand, and you can be the spokesperson, or you can actually go out there and find like royalty free images, or, you know what I mean and kind of build a pen name around even a face that, that of a person that you've bought their royalty free image off of like a stock photo or whatever. And, or you can even create content on a channel like TikTok that never shows your face and it is more like a success for entrepreneurs, yeah, yeah, I mean like yeah, Instagram and stuff. But what I hear you saying is is that the opportunity to build that personal brand, and then and then combine it, marry it with affiliate marketing so you can focus 100% on building your personal brand and you already had products and sales funnels and marketing that was ready to go that you could just send traffic to was sort of a match made in heaven for you in your goals here in the future is that what I'm hearing, though?
Ryan: Absolutely yeah that's 100% Right, and I was fully aware that I could have gone and used royalty free images, text and built some sort of pen name. I've seen people do it, but the reason I chose to really put my name and my face out there is I think that that is that little extra that viewers will get with it feels a lot more personal when it's coming from, you know me, a person. And, yeah, I just, I'd much rather have that sort of personal connection with my viewers with my community, so that I can build, at least in my opinion, a lot more valuable trust that I can also combine with my ecommerce ventures affiliate marketing, all this other stuff and I'm going to.
Dave: So, trip pivoting here a little bit. Yeah, do you in your, in your questionnaire. What are you getting results from and you were kind of like my results come from consistency I always preach to my followers and students, that failure is a prerequisite to success. What do you do?
Failure is a prerequisite to success. Yeah, that is something I preach, very, very hard, and it's basically just through my experience because when I was doing a calm. I didn't just get results like that straightaway. My money is made. Now through econ, and now affiliate marketing as well but it wasn't always like that. The first six months, maybe even longer than that of me doing a calm was horrible. I was losing money consistently, the days that I did make money, maybe a week later it would lose I'd lose it again it was super super inconsistent. And I think that people, when they think of side hustles like a gun. They expect that they expect the best, they expect to be able to try it for a week, a month, and then just, you know they make it happen and make some money and then live off it like that. I never really went into it with that sort of mindset. I went, knowing that, look, if realistically I'm starting a business, and this takes investment this takes dedication. This takes failure. And I think knowing that going in, you will be a lot more prepared for the challenges that you'll inevitably face, so that you can. Whatever you do face and you can take a step back, you can overcome it, you just keep going. And as you get better and better, you just get better every day and then eventually you make it work because yeah that's that's basically what I mean by that because these sorts of things you know they're not get rich quick sort of stuff like people claim it is it's actually, it takes hard work, and that's something that I want people to be aware of if this is something they're thinking of getting into.
Dave: Are you 19?
Ryan: I'm 19, yes.
Dave: Really impressive.
Ryan: Thank you.
Dave: Did you decide to go to as you guys call it there in Australia uni, or are you not going to any, any, any college slash uni?
Ryan: I did go to uni, like directly after high school for media production, because it's something that I was interested in and it's something that I found fun, but it wasn't something I wanted to do as a career. I only did a very very short degree and got my diploma. And I was lucky enough to find a full time job in the field but as you know, COVID lost it. And then this is when I started this thing which I kind of like, I like running my own show.
Dave: Yeah, I think it's very wise, that you at 19 and this early on, have this have discovered and realized that failure is a is a, as you call it a prerequisite for success, and that the way in which you, you, you look at that and you can either of course look at it like there's something wrong with you and you're destined for failure and look at it a glass half empty. Right, yeah, you can take the learning lessons from it and kind of like hot stove, don't touch that again type thing, why many people man, as a young person who is not too far away from your childhood I mean certainly a lot closer than somebody who's 40 5060, blog posts, than me. Why do you think so many people are? Why do you think so many people interpret their failures as like differently than you do. Why do you think that they don't, why do you think that they, they, allow their failures to become sort of perpetual.
Ryan: You know, you're this sort of perpetual kind of reoccurring recurring cycle to where you try something and then you're, you know, you, you, you just continue that same cycle and then all of a sudden, everything becomes this sort of pessimistic and then they become pessimistic over the, over their life, what, why do you think so many people interpret failure differently than you do.
Dave: Right. So, in general, obviously you can come down to a lot of factors, it could just come down to the way they were brought up in the lessons they were taught, while young these sort of things can influence the way a person thinks when they're mature. But when it comes to things like online business or E commerce I think that there's a heavy skew towards the way it's presented through social media by people who are currently doing it. I can't tell you how many tech talks or YouTube videos, or any sort of content I've seen preaching about doing these things, and not going over the actual challenges that are, that come with it. They make it look really really easier than just for example with a calm, find a product, build a store, run ads, make sales, it doesn't work that way. Nothing is that simple. I know because I've tried it. And I think because it's presented to be that easy. When people try it, and they encounter their first mini problem, they get scared, and they just drop off. I think that's, and that happens to a lot of people, because, for example, there are people who aren't into business, maybe that they just wanted to do it on the side, and then the problems they encountered okay it's not worth it, then they drop off. There's a lot of people like that and I think that's why the overall idea of EECOM affiliate marketing the, the whole concept of it is thought to be a scam, or something that's not worth it is not a legitimate business. And I think that's the main reason why people expect too much and then drop off when they don't get it just simply because of the way it's presented. You know, and that's something I tried to change, at least with my personal brand, when I talk about it. I tried to mention like okay this is going to happen this is going to happen
because talking about that stuff creates more trust with your followers. Do you think that that that, that increases sales or do you think that presenting the full story hurt sales?
Ryan: No 100% I think it builds more trust I think. Let's say if I were running a coaching program. I think the idea of being transparent and honest. Maybe it will give you less leads but it will give you more high quality leads, which means less refunds, and I think that's more important. I could go on TikTok and say okay yeah it's this easy, maybe a lot of people by the face the first challenge they give up, or I could be like okay, this is what's possible. This is what's required to reach that result. And I think the fact that I'm just being that transparent about it creates a lot more trust, and we'll bring in clock leads that are actually dedicated to the process of learning. And I think that's a lot more important. So, yeah, in short answer, yes I think it's a lot better to be honest and transparent with your content.
Dave: And just to be clear if in case you just logged on, to be honest and clear about the challenges about the difficulty of balance, the fact that nothing's that simple, about the fact that you can and should expect challenges, and not, not be shocked and surprised
Ryan: 100% Yeah
Dave: Right. And part of that is our responsibility and I think this is another piece that I'm interested to get your take on. If we want to be entrepreneurs, there is an element of us taking ridiculous responsibility, because the boys are with us. Okay, so if I'm going to buy something and this is something that I hear sometimes well, the marketer or the salesperson, got me excited. Right. Well, okay. And are you, would you consider yourself insane, unable to make decisions for yourself do you consider yourself infantile not able to, you know, ultimately have the last say about things in your life. Right, because we have to make a decision: do we want to be helpless, do we want to be victims, or do we want to be, you know, do we want to be powerless or do we want to be powerful.
Ryan: Exactly, exactly.
Dave: We have that choice, right, and there's a difference like I'm from 12 step recovery, overcoming drug addiction and the first step is. Admit that you're powerless over your addiction and that your life has become unmanageable. It's not power, You're not powerless until you put it in your system. As long as it's optimized over it. Yes, so the same thing applies in life I got to make a decision whether I want to be powerless whether I want to be the victim, or whether I want to be powerful and I want to be the victor of my life, and I write, that it's a simple it's as simple as that. Now it's a complicated decision because it's like, oh, do I really want to be totally responsible, it's there's some comfort in being the victim. There's some comfort in it not being my fault. You know I can kind of take mental comfort in that that man if there were only good honest people out here in the world and I keep getting screwed over that right and it's like yeah, yes, that's a comfortable story that you've told yourself, and a lot of people tell themselves that and it helps them not take responsibility, because taking responsibility is hard, it's look myself in the mirror and say, Ah you baby boy. It's you. It's you who needs to level up so how do you do it, you know, how do you deal with that, how do you think about that was there a time where you were raised, to take responsibility? What did you have to make that transition now into entrepreneurship and be more diligent about it?
Ryan: I don't think I was raised in any sort of way that would be considered special or unique. I think I was raised in a fairly normal situation, and I wasn't, I didn't always look at business the way that I do now, when I started econ. I kind of was a, I kind of did have a victim mindset like okay, I'm going to make this work and if it doesn't work, you know I got tricked or something. And that's something that I learned to outgrow through reading, because when I fail, multiple, multiple times, reading was something that I did in my spare time and that's something that helped me so to understand. Okay, look, I started a business yes, this might have been inspired by some video of a guru or something. But ultimately I made the decision to stop, and now it's my responsibility to keep at it and finish what I started and all mistakes I make along the way. It's not because I wasn't told or whatever it's just because I didn't put in the effort to prepare myself for what I got into and that's entirely my fault. And that's the same mindset I went into with affiliate marketing and I think that's why I was able to do what's well soon. Had I thought that it was just going to be bom bom bom, like people say it will be. I probably wouldn't have tried it for longer than a week. But since I did have that mindset already from my ventures in ecom, I was able to make like an I, I was fully prepared for all the challenges I faced and what I did, like, okay, instead of crying about it, or getting stuck. I just immediately went into problem solving mode, problem solving mode, problem solving mode, and then just got it done. And yeah, that's, I think that's one of the most important mindset that you can have because it makes you more tenacious and makes you more hard working and you just, if it makes you just solve problems quicker, which is why you can, if you're prepared for anything.
Dave: Yeah, so, so, I heard a word there that stood out like a sore thumb. It was a beautiful word, and it was, it was a, I think it was a major key to us being successful. Okay. And it's that word outgrow by outgrow, I had to outgrow some of what, what can you speak more about that
Word? I mean as a 19 year old guy, there's, there's a lot of people who are much older. On this show, that, that, that also. And speaking as a 37 year old man myself there, I'm still outgrowing things. And my hope is that at 50, 60, 70 I'm also still outgrowing things, how, how much do you think that that word applies to entrepreneurship, from both a perspective of me just growing up as a person, me emotionally growing up like emotionally growing myself up. Also make outgrowing things that may have been relevant or useful at the beginning of my business that work, that aren't going to be useful now as I move from one figure to two fakers to figure four fingers to talk about that idea of out growing things.
Ryan: Yeah, I think, throughout your journey with whatever you decide to do, I think outgrowing or growing is an essential part, because when you, you know, when you start you're brand new, and the mindset you have, it's not. Let's be honest, it's not the mindset that you want forever. When I started, like okay I'm gonna make money quick, and all this other unrealistic stuff and that's something that looking back now, I just looked at myself when I started. Okay, you're kind of an idiot. And I think it's important to learn every single day, throughout your, your journey, I think, in doses one book I read where your goal should be, should be to get 1% better every single day because that 1% will compound, and then your sort of your productivity and your basically your outlook on on your business and life itself also will just do this and just keep going up and up and up. And that's something that I try to do every day and I do that through. When I do my work any sort of issue I come across, I analyze okay how can this be avoided. Next time I read in my spare time I do all these little things to make sure that I'm improving every day, which is exactly what, What you want, you don't want to. But you don't want to look back on yesterday, and say that you could have done better, because if you could have been you should have. So that's sort of the mindset I have towards business and all that and I think, yeah, outgrowing your, your previous self every single day is exactly what you want.
Dave: Well, that's good, that's a very well put. It's amazing that this is a transformation that's happened for you hold on about a year to where you close close to a year now, I think,
I mean I would say that what you're saying here, I believe, because of your, of your journey over the past year going from being somebody who would if whatever you were doing didn't work out, you were, you had the mentality of, first of all I got tricked or scammed or whatever it's somebody out there out to get me dark gurus and all this stuff and now. Yeah, like you've, you just you've gone from consumer to creator, man.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, I just, I, I don't know the way I sort of think about things now, it's just, even though it's hard but it's really hard the process of all this I run into challenges every single day. Headaches constantly. But the way I think about it is that I'm going through all this struggle, might as well get something out of it. So, that simple sentence you just okay just get over it, keep going because it pays off. It has to pay off and make it pay off. And also this just adding this all the comments, I'm getting on the stream I appreciate all of them, they're saying really really nice things so I just wanted to address that. So thank you, that's making me real smile real big.
Dave: Yeah, great man. Well, you know, they Yeah, awesome. I'm glad you're glad you're getting value back from this, from, from the audience because I can tell you they're getting an incredible amount of value from you today. And I think you're gonna have fans and followers and people in your network who are going to be looking forward to continuing to learn from you.
Ryan: That'll be nice.
Dave: What you've mentioned reading a couple of times, what are some of, how do you approach reading, where does it fit into your daily routine, and what are some of the books that you've read that have helped?
Ryan: Okay, um, I like to fit in reading, it's kind of a little bit inconsistent. But basically, my schedule is wake up Jim eight and then just do my work and my reading goes in. Whenever I have a writer's block, or if I feel a little bit overwhelmed with the type of work that I'm doing. And I just think that I need a break. That's when I go pick up a book and read and that book could be anything from a mindset book to a marketing book to a business theme book. That's sort of where I fit in reading, also a little bit before I sleep as well that's where I like to fit it in. And on weekends where I take breaks I like to read on weekends too.
Dave: So you're saying that when you're, you run into a wall writer's block idea block are you just feeling tired, or before bed, you're saying that you don't pick up your phone and scroll through social media?
Ryan: I've got to be honest. Yes, I do do that because I think everybody does, it's like, belonging to you now.
Dave: Yeah. Are you, uh, what, what, I guess. You see where I'm going with that, I think. So how do you balance, how do you balance, reading, and getting away from screens while also being, you know, doing what we all do, which is, which is, which is kind of surf the internet and scroll down, areas. How do you balance those two pieces?
Ryan: Right so I'm not going to pretend like I never scroll on the internet and all that, all that I think I accidentally do it all the time, but it's just the matter of making it a habit over a period of a month or set a new rate it's a mental challenge you really have to force yourself to put your phone down because it's very hard, especially if you've already made it a habit to scroll on your phone. So it's really just one day you just make a decision about okay, this point forward, I'm going to make a change and you have to stay dedicated to that. For as long as possible, pretty much. And then from that day forward, whenever I do go to read, I just, I put my phone. My phone down anywhere in the house and then I go read outside in the backyard. Nice. Yeah, same thing when I'm working, I sometimes when I work, I like to put my phone in a different room, so that when I do hit a wall or a writer's block the closest thing to me is a book and not my phone. Little things like that, that help make it more convenient for you to pick up a book instead of your phone can help. Yeah, especially after you've made the decision to make that commitment. So, those little things I think really helps me make it a habit. And even now, sometimes I still pick up my phone like it's a thing but is. Those are the little things that helped me do it.
Dave: And that's totally normal, I just, I think it's valuable, some of the tips and things that you just gave in terms of the separation and the boundary around different rooms and stuff. So were there any books that you've read that have been particularly impactful to your mindset or about entrepreneurship?
Ryan: Yeah so I think the first mindset book that I read was The, I think was called The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, very incredible book it helped me, like, sort of, basically changed my entire outlook on my business and life as a whole, it's quite. It is quite religious, but still brings up very good points on how you should think, brings up. Little, little hacks that you can do to train your brain to always be inspired or motivated, and you just get to work. So I think that was one book that transformed my mindset. And then there was another one called the magic of thinking big, that was another one that I really enjoyed. And then I had four more as well, mostly the type of books I read now are business related like the one I'm reading right now is called Cashvertising. It's all about direct response marketing, how to get a prospect to just read your content, take action straight away and I'm only a little bit through the book, but it's, it's great so far.
Dave: Yeah, I've read that I've read a lot of the old school direct response marketing.
Ryan: I think that's an essential skill, yeah.
Dave: Oh, for sure. I have a I have a comprehension problem. I've always had it. So when I'm, when I'm, when I'm reading, sometimes I have to read something like two or three times to kind of really, that's it. So, one thing that helps me is, is grabbing the audiobook and then going on walks, because if, if I'm easily distracted. If I'm easily distracted, if I'm reading and there's any distractions around me, then I can start thinking about that and then I put I'm still reading. And then I realized I haven't comprehended what I just read, you know. And that's been something that's plagued me, add to the tilt, right, like so, it's been something that's been a problem for me my entire life. So yeah, I try to, for me personally, I try to combine exercise with reading, listening to books, and if I'm feeling really strong, I'll even put a weighted vest on. And I'll go on a walk, and I've got this little trip this little path that I take, it's about two and a half miles. It usually takes me about an hour to walk, and it's one of my favorite things to do, it's like a simple thing. Now sometimes I'll also and I wonder your perspective on this. Sometimes I also just like to walk in quiet, and I like to spend time just thinking and clearing my head and I think that nowadays there's so much noise. And there's so many different ideas, And we always think that we're missing something or need to hear us, and then what happens is we just before you know it, we've got everybody else's ideas and everybody else's opinions and everybody else's words in our head and we get disconnected from our own authentic identity and our own creativity, what's coming up for you as I say that and how do you stay connected to your true self in this game?
Ryan: I relate to that 100% Then there are moments where, even today, actually, I'm doing my, my thing I'm working on my business. And then, my mind just because like I have a complete. Suddenly I just get disconnected from everything I'm doing, and get overwhelmed either by the amount of stuff that I need to do, or like you said other people's opinions. Did I make the right decision doing this and this and this. It's a lot, man. And when I, when I do that, like I said, I like to read when I hit a point like that or there are times where I just like to go sit somewhere and just do nothing, either on the floor somewhere in my bed, whatever, and just 510 minutes just tried my best to clear my mind. Yeah, that is something that I actually write about in the book I mentioned earlier, but I think it's necessary man because your brain is just constantly working all the time throughout the day. Because you work very, very long hours, it's very easy to get exhausted and overwhelmed with all your thoughts so yeah man I relate to that 100% And what I've been doing to address it is just taking those, those short breaks throughout the day. I like to do it by default in the morning as well. Before I go to sleep. Yeah, yeah, I think fitting in those little, I guess you could call them meditation breaks where you just breathe slow, drink some water and clear your mind. I think those are very very necessary if you're going to pursue something like a column or affiliate marketing.
Dave: Yeah, yeah, this is a lot right man, it's, I think it's I think it's mandatory and, like, I love, love to smoke cigars, like, oh my god, I just if I could smoke a cigar, like if it was healthy for me to smoke through cigars a day I would, you know what I mean yeah I got to, like, like, even three cigars, breakfast, lunch and dinner like I just love a good cigar. But it's but it's, it's less about the cigar, it's more about the relaxation. Yeah, definitely. For me, it's just in so I personally don't enjoy smoking, you know, Morning or night, or excuse me morning or daytime, I prefer it at night, and it's a way that I decompress, but I don't do that every night so usually when I take my walks like I just described is at night, and, and sometimes I take them during the day to like yesterday I took one. I walked from my work house that I work out of over to my primary house that I live in, and that was a nice little walk, you know, and I should do that more often. My wife is home with our son and I just kind of walked, walked over there, it wasn't. It's not that far. But, but, for me, you know, meditation doesn't come easy for me like sitting in just, you know it's just it's not an easy thing for me to do, man. Practice, I'm not super practiced at it, and I'd like to sit here and say I'm this meditation guru, but the truth is that I'm not like I, it's, it's hard it's it's a practice skill it's not out enough, you know what I mean. But the muscle that I do work out a lot, is the going on, walking in my head, and, and it just, you know what I found, Ryan, is that the challenge for me is not finding more information in getting new ideas. I have enough ideas, man,
I got it.
Ryan: Yeah, I'm sure
Dave: I got enough ideas and most of us do. It's that we need to clear out the noise in order to connect back with our authentic self, our own creative ideas. We need to tap into our own personality, and we need to come up with original stuff original ideas, you know, I mean there's definitely a basic template of stuff we can talk about in content. And there's a basic template of ways to structure a sales letter and all these things are already pre determined they're, they're kind of templates, it's not once you kind of understand what the template is. Now the question is is what am I going to put in the template? And if you just are constantly putting everybody else's ingredients inside of your template. Yeah, really baking your own cake man, you're never connecting to your own self so you just sound like everybody else. And then it's also, you get into this comparison because you're like well I don't like the way I sound, and it's because you tried to be him or her over there and of course they do them better than you can do them right. So, it's kind of like, it's like this impossible thing we try to achieve by sounding like other people when we could never be that better than a. We can only be us. And, and so that's just, like, in my, in my most recent year life in business. That's been the thing that I've done more than ever, like at the beginning of my career I read a lot of books and I did a lot of kind of, you know I was a learning addict and it was always a new thing and all this. And now I've got just a couple of places that I seek information, and, and the rest of the time is really spent trying to connect back to my authentic self and my own ideas and my own creativity, and I just, that's a part of the growing phase.
Ryan: 100%
Dave: I don't think that that I don't think that that's got to be true for everybody. I just, that's my, that's kind of been what my journeys look like.
Ryan: Yeah for sure man. Honestly, that happens to me all the time and that's actually a very common cause of things like writer's block or hitting a wall just the, the overwhelming thoughts of comparing myself to other people. For example, in the, in the world of econ. I have. I know people who do ecommerce as well and sometimes they say, well this product with this marketing strategy. It works really really well or maybe another person says the same thing about a different product, different strategy and then just hearing that. And then when I do my own thing in the back of my head. Maybe I should try to leverage that and make it work for me. Or in the case of affiliate marketing, I see, let's say with tick tock I see content that absolutely blew up, and I'm like okay maybe I should recreate that myself and see if I can make it work for myself and then all these things they add up, and it just leaves me stuck. And then I've got a little collection of quotes that I sort of live by and then one of them is actually extremely relevant to this, this conversation, the quote was, I forgot who it was by but it was comparing yourself to who you were yesterday. Not to who someone else is today. And then when I just say that in my head I'm like okay, relax, that's something I say when I do my little break things, but when I say that it helps me remember, okay. I'm my own person. I don't need to live up to anybody else's expectation or, or, I don't need to replicate anybody else's results because reality is I can't. And I, that's not something I should want to do in the first place. I should be able to actually want to be original, create my own content and build a build success for myself. That came from me, if that makes sense.
Dave: No, yeah, I mean, all but I'm not saying, and I, and my perspective is not that there's not, you can't be successful being a generic knockoff. Because that is that is a business model that is very successful, you know what I mean.
Ryan: Oh yeah yeah for sure, like, like you can be a knockoff of somebody else, but I think Bill I think affiliate marketing and doing information marketing the way that we teach here at legendary allows you to kind of do both, like exactly is the best of both worlds. You can use things that already worked, you know, you can use things and, like for example if like, you're building a TikTok. That's a traffic source that you're building, then it's like okay I'm going to limit my research today to 10 minutes. If I want to recreate a video that somebody else did, and I want to do it in my own words, then that's fine but I'm only going to spend 10 minutes, researching and I'm not going to spend endless hours looking at other people's content. Until, until I get until I get to the point where I just feel like I, there's no way I could ever measure up I'm going to have a clear boundary. And then I'm going to create that piece of content and then I'm going to be done looking at other people's stuff. Now I'm going to pivot into creating something of my own, because I got to work that muscle. If I work that muscle. If I don't work to be authentic and create my own identity, find my own voice in my business. Then I'm going to like not knowing what I'm doing, you know what I mean I'm going to always feel lost because I have no sense of direction I have no sense of who I am. And I think this is a big common issue with people in life to like, like they're always like, giving advice, I listened to Lewis Howes, the other day. Okay, and he just a quick little quick little quote that he had was, he said, I would never ask anybody for advice. He said instead what I would do was I would ask somebody, I'm so, or I would say to somebody, I'm so inspired by your success. Um, so would you tell me your success story and talk about some of the challenges you've had to overcome. And he said that, by, by, by, by asking questions like that. It allows him to never ask for advice, like Yeah, but he gets all the answers because people love to talk about their success and I and the reason why I say that is because I think that so many people just in general in life are so addicted to everybody else doing the thinking for them. And it's just it's a self esteem thing, right, it's a self esteem thing that's why I say that the bedrock of success is self esteem, because at a certain point, like in my life, I had to I had to grow myself up, and I had to be willing to take responsibility for outcomes and say okay, I'm going to really think about situation and think, What if I could ask nobody else for an answer. Nobody else for their opinions, what would I do. Right. And then I do it, and then I learn from that and then it becomes fun because now all of a sudden I learned to trust myself. Hmm. I learned myself, which is something that I never did before I never trusted me. Which is why every time I parted with my money, I was like, Oh God, I hope they come through, because I don't trust me I didn't trust that I was what I was gonna do with the information or with the opportunity it was, well I hope they give me the right support or don't trick me or whatever, and unfortunately I was just tricking myself because I didn't, I didn't trust myself. What's coming up for you?
Ryan: I'm actually happy you brought up the fact that you can do it. Let's say you can do both. You can learn from other people and then you could, you know, run your own show, create your original content I think that was a very good to bring up because that's exactly what I do when I first started my affiliate marketing, I obviously I'm a beginner, I don't really know too much about the process I model my content based on what's working. And then, over time, as I build a, you know, the initial following off of that, then I get more experience and I learn more and then I start to rely on myself and my own creativity to produce my content because I think that is key, because if you're. Let's say your entire business model relies on it functions around doing what's already working for other people, that means you are reliant on other people, basically to run your business for you. Let's say if they're gone, or if they tank or they stopped creating content, you're lost, because like you said you don't trust yourself you don't trust your originality you don't trust your own creativity. Now you can't do anything. So I think, very good advice. Yeah, it's important to do both. If you need to. At the start, definitely learn from other people, figure out what's working and model yourself after that, but don't neglect your own creativity, either because that is how you're going to grow and get your name out there, not just replicate somebody else.
Dave: Yeah. And also, like, one way to, like, when I whenever I whenever I or I do something, it's almost like I can violate myself. Obviously, other people can violate me right. I mean humans violate other humans all the time, but like the way that I behave, I kind of traumatize myself and violate myself which is why I don't trust myself. Right. And here's an example like people will get started on with an internet business they'll buy a training program, and then they won't really go through it or they won't really do anything with it, and then some, they'll get back on social media, because they're addicted to like the idea that there's some secret sauce, and so they then buy another training program, and then spend more money. And then all of a sudden they don't go really go through that or implement that so then they get back on social media back on the internet scrolling by another training program before you know it, they've got four gurus six training programs, none of which they've really gone through, none of which they reflect it. And then they say well I didn't get the support I got tricked or scam but really what's happening is they violated their own boundaries, and they don't trust. Right, themselves, and, and this can happen in every area of our lives like we violate our own boundaries and our own values and then what happens is, again, it's easier to look at somebody else and blame somebody else. But really what I've done is I've violated myself, and now I don't trust myself. So I'm mad. So what I need to do and I'm scared, right, because I'm living inside the body of somebody that I don't trust. I don't trust my own decision making process. And so, now what I need to do in order to regain my trust is just like how you rebuild a relationship with somebody that's been cheated, that that's, that's, you know, been unfaithful? It is possible. Right, yeah, it takes a lot of work, I gotta really lean into that relationship I got to really show that that I care that I'm here, that you know, I gotta, I gotta let that person know that they're safe, I'm not going to do this again like, I'm here for the long haul. I'm so sorry. And so this what I need to do in my business now if that's been my, my pattern is I need to. Here's the solution, it's really simple. If I buy a training program. What I need to do is commit to going through it and then implementing that shit, that's the yes solution.
Ryan: Oh my god, yes.
Dave: It's not it's not I'm not about to drop a stone tablet on everybody's head in part, the sky is and show you God as little baby Jesus or whatever like it's not a big burning bush moment it's just the way that I regained my own trust is I just do what I say I'm going to do.
Yeah, If I say, oh I'm gonna buy this training I'm gonna go through it, and then I don't go through it, then I've just broken my own trust God got us if we sit gotta be real careful about the commitments that we make to ourselves.
Ryan: Definitely, definitely, like mad that that simple, thinking of thinking that there's a secret sauce or just some magic formula, that'll make things work. That is what gets people in the shit of buying multiple multiple causes and then none of it works because they don't implement anything and then they just blame the people who, who sold them the course, that, that simple mindset is something that you just want to erase completely because there's no such thing as a magic formula, or a secret sauce you can't just, you can't just start your business, do a couple things and it's just gonna work. That's never been the way it works it'll never it never will be the way things work. So, I think, more instead of when you buy into a training. Instead of focusing on the processes that they teach, let's say, for example in ecom, if the costs etc Okay this is how you set up Facebook ads. Instead of putting all your energy into that. I put all my energy into how Facebook Ads work, what the metrics mean, the different aspects of marketing whether it be your offer angle, ad creative, ad copy all this other stuff. Focus on the fundamentals because once you understand the fundamentals, and what they mean. That's when you can go and follow the rest of the course 100% and then test for yourself but then once you test. Now that you are fully aware of the fundamentals, you understand how they are, how they relate to the results that you've gotten and now you can change based on your data. So, if you don't know if you don't know what gets, for example, if you don't know what gets customers to click on an ad, and then your ad performs shit. You don't know how to improve. And then because I know how to improve you you suddenly think, okay, I must have been taught the wrong formula, which isn't true. You just made a mistake. Everybody does that. So make sure you understand the fundamentals so that when you do make a mistake, you know exactly what caused it and then you can refer back to it, make the change, test again and again and again and again. Eventually you'll make it work. If you keep identifying issues in your funnel or in your process or in your website if you keep identifying them, making the change and then trying it again. Eventually you're going to find that perfect match and it will work for you. It's just not a magic formula that you can do the first trial because you're never going to get it right the first try. It's always trial and error that's the way it's been with ecom, affiliate marketing, anything in life, ever anything.
Dave: Yeah, well in what you do, the process that you just laid out there so eloquently and simply is the formula to learning to trust yourself so when you go into something, you know that no matter what you do you can be successful. And honestly, here's a dirty little secret I'm going to just drop on everybody's head. The business model is really important. but the truth of the matter is, is when you develop this mindset and you develop this follow through and you develop this trust within yourself, you actually can be successful with any model that you try online. You actually, because you now have the follow through, and you now have the ability to, you know, to recoup to regroup and get back up once you get knocked down, and that you will follow through. But, you know, until you really learn to trust yourself and you stop, you know, violating your own commitments that you make to yourself. It's, it's, it's, it doesn't really matter what you do, even affiliate marketing, which I think is the easiest, simplest business model that that exists out there because there's your love for all the reasons that we always talk about. Yeah, I mean that it's the easiest model doesn't mean that it's easy, it means that, that if you start if you buy one of our programs and you go through it. Well, you go through a couple of videos and then you don't do anything. Then, you're, you're, you're kind of re-traumatizing yourself, you're violating your own trust, and you're, it's almost like it's almost like doing more harm to yourself and then not even trying at all. You don't I mean, which sucks to say that, you know what I mean Yeah, but it's the fucking truth, and can I get is, can I just tell the fucking truth today, and not just be with all this bullshit about, you know, look because, look, the fact is that some that many people are just not, they're just, they're just not going to even though they'll even listen to this, what we're talking about today and, and they'll be like, You know what, and I don't know what it is, whether it's laziness, whether it's just whether it's just lack of self esteem, whether it's whether it's just how we were raised or whatever, but some people are either incapable or unwilling, you know, and so I think also, like, there's this love, there's this, there's the self honesty that we have to say which is what are my limits, man. Like what are my limits, like if I know my if I know I get overwhelmed, easy, like if I know I get anxious and overwhelmed too easily. I need to set more realistic expectations doesn't mean I still can't build a business, but, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it an hour a day, and that's it, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna give myself longer to succeed. But yeah, no, you get overwhelmed easy and you can only do an hour a day, don't try this, don't, don't get mad when you ain't a millionaire in a week. Right, exactly right. Yeah, you're gonna work your butt off every day, like if you're going to do 18 hours a day, and you're going to, you're going to grind and you're going to follow through and you're determined not to violate your own trust and your commitment to follow through, then you can have a bigger expectation, you can be like okay, I want to get to 10,000 A month after 90 days or six months or whatever. Yeah, but yeah, we got to match the expectation that we have with the output of the realistic energy.
Ryan: Yeah, there's all these people that they, they put in less and expect more. I don't know where they got that sort of expectation but it's just not the way it works, and I'm glad you brought up that you preach that affiliate marketing is the easiest sort of business to get into, but that doesn't mean it's easy. If you start affiliate marketing by putting on work, you're still gonna get nowhere.
Dave: Zero still equals zero.
Ryan: Exactly right. Yeah and I think someone, someone in the comments. His name is Brad. He said something and it just stood out to me, he said, winners aren't the ones that get knocked down the least, it's the people that get back up the most. That is 100% true and I think that is something that you need to do when you're starting something like this because, um, Yeah man, you need to be able to develop and build a trust within yourself and your ability to overcome problems you need to be able to rely on that instead of rely on a proven formula, because there's no such thing. Like, it may have worked for other people. Yes, but it's not just the formula that works for them, it's also their mindset and their work ethic that's what that's what they leveraged in order to make the formula work, there wasn't a formula, it was them. And that's something you need to build up yourself, and then you find a formula that works for you. That's how it works, man, you can't just expect to just put in the easy work and then and then make hundreds of millions of dollars, it just doesn't work that way man. So I'm glad this is like the topic of our talk because it's something that I preach really hard.
Dave: Yeah, well, yeah, Share this with your, your audience. And, and I think everybody in your audience, for sure, and then we're gonna blast this out because there's been just some really powerful mindset, strategies and approaches here that have been summed up in this last hour, and that like, it's like, this is like a one on one class but, unfortunately, like most people are not ready to hear all this like on day one so it's kind of better that if you guys have been around for a little while and you're probably more open to this now, because when you first buy and you're like first getting started, like, you know, it's kind of like, it's kind of like, it's kind of like, why they don't give like masters level or PhD level stuff on day one of university.
Ryan: yeah, exactly right. Yeah.
Dave: You gotta you got to it's almost, good for you to kind of get up and get in and have ignorance on fire for a little while, and kind of be a run into a couple of brick walls and make some mistakes and then be like okay cool, like, yeah, you're requisite you prerequisite Exactly, yeah, exactly. Dude, I gotta jet, this has been incredibly good. Totally. I'm totally excited to have you back on for part two in the future if you'd be willing okay?
Ryan: I am yeah I'd for sure be willing for that man, sweet.
Dave: People have been blowing up the comments, and I appreciate that. Let's see. No, it's great. I mean, people are impressed by you and I'm excited to see where things go for you in the future and, and, you know it's an exciting journey man when you implement the stuff that we talked about today. So, dude, thanks so much. You should be well rested tonight. Yeah, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ryan: Thank you so much.
Dave: All right, my friends. Wow, that was, that was just there was tons of that just bombs nuggets gold bars in there. So, yeah, go and give Ryan a follow his, his TikTok handle is there, this is a guy who you certainly would benefit to have in your network I mean as I, as I say, with everybody who's on the show. Have a great day. Have a great day guys, as you know that, and I say a lot as well. This is on Apple and Spotify, so if you want to re-listen to this episode you can we'll try to have it uploaded by the end of the day, and guys have a fantastic excellent Legendary day. Peace.
