Below is the transcription for this episode:
Dave: What's going on my friends. This is Dave Sharpe, legendary. We are here back again with yet another amazing guest 35,000 followers in just three months. The former pastor is going to reveal the secrets to growing his business here over the last. We'll see how long. Josh, welcome to the show.
Josh: What's happening Dave? How are you?
Dave: Good man. So you are a former pastor?
Josh: Yeah, I'm sure if I put that into the notes. I don't know how you do that. But yeah, I had to get out. And I had to do my own thing. I wound up starting a nonprofit to help young adults figure out what career would be best for them before they have been to college doing massive amounts of debt. So I've been teaching affiliate marketing for six years, just the basics to these classes. And then I found a new program on how to get better with my, with my skills, and wound up just going very well. I love the tic tac platform for this whole thing. But yeah, the whole goal was to get financially free. So that nonprofit can continue to expand. Looks like we're gonna be in Northern Ireland next.
Dave: Which is what are you? What are your teaching Internet marketing in your nonprofit?
Josh: Yeah, so essentially, it's identity. So we help them figure out who they are to get that competence. And then we go into discovering what career would make sense for that identity. But I like teaching tons of different things, all the things I wish I would have learned in high school or in my real estate, you know, everything. Just to get them going when they're 1819 years old, it's everything sometimes. Yeah, I wanted a way to be financially free so that we can continue to expand even faster, because you can't rely on everybody else to find you the nonprofit, you have to rely on yourself to get out there to build your legacy. Yeah.
Dave: Wow. That's that, I could see how that would be true. Right, just from some of the charity, you know, marketing campaigns that I've done. It really is a hard thing to raise money. I mean, people think it's it, you know, it's, you know, it's sad, it's difficult to raise money for a nonprofit, because there's usually not a little there's never an ROI involved. Right. It's easy to raise money, you know, in Silicon Valley, and with private equity and stuff, if a business is going to make a big return. That's a life of capitalism. I guess capitalism has its sad part. But it all depends on how you want to look at it, too. So you're using capitalism, fun. Your legacy was the word that you used in writing . You are well, choosing the internet, digital marketing, the future reverses. Would you teach people plumbing skills? I mean, not not to say that those are ever going to go away. But is there a specific reason why you're focusing online, you get what I'm asking for your traditional stuff?
Josh: Well, America is the land of opportunity. And a lot of people are still struggling. And that just kind of blows my mind. But the opportunity is shifted online. And so when my grandpa came here started a business, from My great grandpa, great, great grandpa and started a business and to go out, right? It's not that easy anymore, because everything has shifted online. So that's where that's where the land of opportunity is, is in the interwebs.
Dave: It is right. It is difficult to move into a city just opportunity wise, if we just want to talk about just opportunity, which you're right is why people come here and what everybody's always looking for. Whether you believe that or not, if you really think about it, people are always looking for a new opportunity. Because they like change they like Will they like new and so a new opportunity versus the same old thing, the same Memorial thing well new shiny hot, ooh, maybe this will be easier. Whatever the reason is, hey, yeah, so. So anyways, but you're focused on the internet, not offline stuff. And by the way, there wouldn't be that. Okay. Can you hear the name of your nonprofit? Can you give just some information about that? So if anybody's interested in looking at that they could.
Josh: It's a bad name for marketing, but it's called the industry, you won't be able to Google it. But if you want to, you can go to learn the industry.org. Yeah, we teach, we help them guide them, I really do push a lot of people into trades. I mean, if you're looking at the statistics, the average tradesman I think is like 60 years old now. And so I teach these young people and you want an opportunity, and you want to have a monopoly over a whole industry? Often. So a lot of our young people go into plumbing we have
Dave: A you are you are you're matching people based on the personality, I guess is how somebody might end up being recommended over to one of those trades, right?
Josh: Yeah. And identity is personality, your experiences, the things we've learned, all that put together. And will we find the right pitch?
Dave: Well, so gosh, what's your success rate? Because I'm, I'm hesitant to wonder what the formula is of how you identify somebody and put them into internet marketing. But you know, do you really have your personality matchmaker system? You know, dialed in? Is it really dialed in? Or are you really dialed in? Yeah.
Josh: Well, we've been doing this for five years, and have been successful. And so we partnered with IBM, for two years. They wanted to start. I mean, they're even saying, We don't want people with degrees, we want people with skills. So we've partnered with them. And yeah, our success for it's huge when, when the identity starts to show that they're more entrepreneurial, then we go into the three, the three builds build you, which is to become the person you need to become in order to do the things that you need to do, right. Competence and skills to build income. And that's where we teach online business, build the income, because if you have five to 10 grand coming in a month with an online passive passive income, then build a legacy, which is what is the food trunk? Right. It's the downtown storefront, it's the nonprofit view. If you go and look at all the businesses that fail, what is it like 60 to 80% of businesses fail in their first couple of years? I mean, if you personally had five to 10 grand coming in a month with an online business, would you have to fail, you're good. You could run that thing for free for five years until you make it wrong. You might not want it after you make online money. So it's built you build income, build legacy.
Dave: So what are you so just I was just looking at something real quick. So for those of you just tuning in, Josh owns a nonprofit. It's a place that helps. It's a nonprofit organization that helps people learn skills, and, and find direction and work on purpose in it right now, you're located in Detroit. And you say that you're expanding, and you're using affiliate marketing to fund that nonprofit, because, well, we all know, and Josh put it very plainly, very bluntly, that if you have a dream, you need to be the one who funds it. And so he's taking responsibility for his dream. And he's funding it with affiliate marketing. So that's where we're at in the conversation. So how did you find Legendary?
Josh: Actually, through a buddy of yours, Thomas Garrett. Him and I had been hanging out a little bit. I like the stuff that he promotes. And he was promoting you guys. So I have right on.
Dave: Were you looking for something like this? Or I mean, you needed to fund your nonprofit. I mean, were you looking for a business model? Or had you already been involved in affiliate marketing and helped us connect those dots of how it came to be that you actually were? You know, were you in a tough spot where you're like, Oh, crap, I need this nonprofit dream to die if I don't get something going and get some funds coming in to fund this thing now.
Josh: Yeah, so the pandemic was a really tough time to raise funds, and our costs are very low. Nothing's really gonna ever happen from industry to industry. But the pandemic really hit a lot of our community foundations, a lot of grants. And so and I had a history with Philly marketing, very basic understanding of a YouTube channel of 12 years ago, I said something. And I was like, yeah, like 10 years ago, I forget exactly. I was selling. I was promoting mini trampolines because I had some pretty major health issues. Another reason to be making money online is when you or your family had major health issues. So I didn't even have a funnel for this thing. I was just promoting mini trampolines and the health benefits and make 14 videos. Look back a year later and there was like three or $4,000 in my PayPal account. It's totally maybe this works but again, no funnel wasn't done the right way. I tags are all a mess. It was it was it was the wrong way. So I thought it's just time with the pandemic kidding. I thought you know what, I'm gonna dive in headfirst and go all in marketing and coaching. And yeah, doing very well. It's a lot of fun to I've never been on TikTok. I was one of those guys who just thought it was for teenagers, you know, that kind of thing as long with most if not all adult age people. But I'll tell you, man, once you get going, if you if you look at my tic tock account and the first couple of videos, I had my hair done, right, you know, I had everything all looking pretty and tried to make it look as good as I could because you know, I was I was a worship pastor, I did the music and the young adult pastor and so I was used to being in front of 1500 people a weekend on stage, you know, sometimes by myself for getting on tick tock for some reason. It was still it was still difficult for me. So if you watched the beginning once my hair is done after why, you know, it's cold now. I'm throwing on the beanie. I just don't care and I don't want to do my hair every day. I'm supposed to be promoting an online business from home. So I've got to look like I'm working from home a little bit.
Dave: Very smart. And I just want to point that out to so many so many of you who are listening who just do every day you have to you have to create this, you know your character, what do you want to portray this is the kind of fun thing about online marketing and having a, you know, kind of like an online personality is that well, you can add a little extra here or an extra there if you want to. I mean, think about for example, the WWF and I grew up on Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan and a lot of these guys and I still am connected to some of these guys through friends or just through watching Khan, you know, watching old matches and stuff. But so you think about a guy like Ric Flair. I mean, maybe one of the most prolific wrestlers in the world, you know, for those of you who don't know where Eclair it's the guy who goes, whoa, you know, and, man what a what a performance. I mean, what is in, you know, unfortunately, those guys I think spent a lot of their money on cocaine, but they made a lot of money. And I mean, they made a lot of money. Here's my point, though. I mean, Josh just said, you know, gosh, I am showing up. Not only is it anxious, I'm anxious, but I'm rushing and I'm self conscious while I'm thinking everything needs to be perfect. Well hey, besides just it not being perfect and me not trying to force it to be perfect. Why don't I actually? Why don't I actually try to look a little bit bummy here so I can actually say No not you I'm not used specifically I think you actually look fine. Me though me I went through that same I went through that same I guess a pic funny or whatever. Because for a long time, man, I had a hard time settling into just my own skin I guess for lack of better terms and just getting comfortable behind the camera and just getting comfortable being evaluated every day, I guess by people just being on display. And yeah, did the same thing with the hat. You know, I mean, I feel like legitimately Yeah, it's there. No, I can make it look good. But or I mean, at least I think it looks good. But anyways, man, there's a bit of freedom to when you just let go of the whole How do I look at everything like that? What was that experience? Like for you? What was there to burn? Would you have a burning bush moment? Or was it? Was it a little? What was that experience like, of just kind of letting go of what everybody thought, and just it? And also even taking a bit of control of your image and saying, Hey, let me let me perform a little bit here that there's an element of entertainment here and fantasy and dreaming isn't there?
Josh: So I may have been performing or it may have just been laziness after a little while. We got a sick kid. So getting ready in the morning is a tough one. She's got some major chronic illness issues. But yeah, performing, why not? I mean, you guys watch movies that these guys are making tons of money, and they're performing. But yeah, just get on. Be yourself. That amount I've found too is just being so naturally yourself and authentic. It really helps. You know, it really helps you as a person. That's the weird thing about tick tock, because I've found, it sounds crazy, but I found pieces of myself while doing it. You know, the encouragement, believe it or not, you're gonna get a lot more encouragement than you get hate. Unless you have a video about a side hustle that reaches 2 million views in a couple hours. You're gonna get a lot of hate. That's where you go and filter the comments. Yeah, so when I started, when I started the whole process, I started with a business account, because I just wanted to link up there fast, you know, I understood that I could just get one person that sees a video and go and buy. So even with a business account, I grew that to 30,000 followers before I switched over. And I switched over because of the community guidelines. I wondered if that was the reason. To be honest, I forgot it was on business. So now it's on a personal account. I'm finding that getting followers is a little bit easier. I don't know the real reasons for that. But yeah, we're having fun. I started a couple more. I'm going to go pretty hardcore in these next steps. So I've got a bunch of different accounts to launch out there. But yeah, just be careful and don't freak out because if you start deleting videos, they can't appeal.
Dave: So what do you mean you found little pieces of yourself on TikTok. Can You say more about that?
Josh: I think the big thing is that you talked about being under scrutiny. Nobody is under more scrutiny than a worship pastor at a church for 15 years. You know you're going to hear, you're going to hear from your boss, you're going to hear about the things you did wrong constantly from all the congregation. It's just, it's just one of those things but TikTok really helped me understand that you know. But being on TikTok it was just like, You know what I can be myself. I can wear hats on stage and be okay. And it just learned through that process, it'll give you more confidence like wow, you know every single day you look on there and get more views and learn more stuff. And the goal being to hit that 1000 When you're on a personal account. And then next goal, how can I get more sales? It's just a fun process. I always learned from one of my mentors. Super multimillion guy on the East Coast runs a bunch of FedExes routes. And she would say what are we talking about? Oh, lessons. Oh man, Dave isn't early. Am I just losing track of my mind here?
Dave: No, we were talking about finding pieces of yourself in a tick tock and what that meant for you. And you said that it was about basically learning to be yourself. I can't. I can wear a hat on stage and then your friend who drives FedEx routes and stuff.
Josh: But yeah, essentially, you just got to be who you are. People are gonna love who you are. Even if they don't, they're not going to follow but they might follow you because they don't like who you are. I'm not in the WWF as much anymore. But see, and you know, Kobe Covington is coming out. And some I think was Joe Rogan was explaining like, Are people really going to come and pay to watch Kobe Covington? And he said yes, they're gonna pay because they want to watch them loose. You know, so there's gonna be people out there that are gonna follow you. They're gonna like it. They're gonna not like you, but you might still make some sales. But the idea is just, this is about having fun. This is what my mentor told me. He said, Money shouldn't be seen as something that stresses you out, money should be the point of the game. How do I get more points in this game? And look at it as a fun thing instead of an anxious thing because if you come into something anxious, you're going to act anxious. People are going to feel that Anxiety from you. And they're not going to feel that confidence and they're probably not going to buy. Yeah, that was the big lesson.
Dave: I agree with that less, it's fine. I have brain farts all the time. You know, take that beanie off. Let that let that brain cool down, man that thing over a little bit, you know, um, let that hair. There you go. It's clear. It's color and hell up? Well, it's colder. Maybe hell is cold. I don't know. I don't know why we say that makes a lot of sense. But it's cold in Detroit. You got a big jacket, somewhere near, I'm in Florida, when the AC gets below 70 I get chilly so I'm, I wouldn't survive long up in your neck of the woods. But yeah, what you mentioned about finding yourself on TikTok you're almost what you just described to me was almost settling into a chapter of your life. That is like I'm gonna, I really just want to focus on the basics. And not all the extras in the end, I don't want to take on everybody else's judgment and criticism and feelings, because that's not my responsibility. And quite frankly, what other people think of me is really none of my business. That's what I heard is you're in that chapter in life, and tick tock is helping you to let that guard down a little bit to, you know, not feel, yeah, to loosen up a little bit. And I can relate to that. I mean, I think whether you're a pastor on stage, we're all evaluated, judged and criticized. And, yeah, we gave many years of great work and one mistake, and we are, that's all we're remembered for. And that's kind of how life is. So there is a lot of freedom for those of you who feel kind of, for those of you who want to let your hair down, be yourself more. And yes, I like what you said about money. Money shouldn't be. It shouldn't be the number one reason why so many people get a divorce in this cut. You know, like people say it's the number one leading cause of divorce, it shouldn't be this, this major stressor in our lives. But for some of us, unfortunately, that's so deeply ingrained in us because of how we grew up in what we listened to from people growing up, that it's very easy to fix that money just feels stressful. But what I can tell all of you from my experience is that if you could take that energy, that anxiety or whatever you feel and channel it into action. In other words, sitting with it, analysis by paralysis, from anxiety is how to have that compound and feel worse. Whereas what I learned to do, and I don't know how I learned it. Nobody ever described it. I think all humans have them, I think many people do this. But this is just how I describe what I did. I took all my emotional turmoil, angering her. And I turned depression, anxiety, and I turned that into passion and excitement. For my own business. When I started this, this felt like such a big deal that I had something of my own that I could finally prove myself out from the shadows of have the court system, the judges, the probation officers, the teachers, my parents, whatever, all the different folks that I had sort of been under their shadow for many years, I finally had something that was mine. And I was going to excuse my language and I was gonna crush it. There was no, I was like this, here's I am not losing. I'm gonna figure this out. And I did the same thing. I got on with the hair combed at first and was all mister, who do you want me to be? And then finally I just said eff it.
And I said, I'm just gonna let my hair down. I'm just gonna put the beanie on. And ever since seriously, ever since that my business I've never looked back. Right? I've made millions and millions and millions of dollars and I think if I would have let that moment dominate me, where I wasn't able to just say you know what? I'm gonna stop living and doing business for everybody else, and I'm going to do it for myself. I don't think I would have had that success. I'm glad you had that. And I, and I hope and pray that everybody else listening is able to have that too. Because I think that's the biggest, one of the biggest mountains that you have to climb over is settling into your own skin, and just getting comfortable being you, oh my god, that I know, it's such a weird and difficult and crazy thing. But why is it that we have such a difficult time being ourselves? You said you help people find their identity? Do we not know who we are? Josh, are you asking? I am. Yeah, I mean, I mean, you're working with people through a nonprofit, why do people struggle so much with their own identity in owning it and saying, This is who I am, take it or leave it, this is what I'm doing. We're so easily knocked off of our stool and affected by people's comments to the point where we end up and at some point in our life, not knowing who we are, having no identity and feeling lost. Right?
Josh: I'd say the biggest one would be culture first, you know, a lot of people aren't encouraged to be themselves and are kind of pressured to be like everybody else. So that identity piece starts to go away, then in the community that we're in. A lot of times when you are yourself and you already have a community, that's, you know, this is a big reason I left church, you know, right, when your beliefs start to shift and things start to shift you that community denies you and that's painful, right? So my community was church related, right. And once my beliefs and things started shifting, and started asking the wrong kind of questions, you know, those types of things, that community denied me, and that's a very, very, that's a very deep pain to have an entire denomination, you know, like, just say, Wow, later, I didn't know
Dave: That happened to you, thank you for sharing that do that's, that's a traumatic and big thing, after giving so much of your time in your life.
Josh: So a lot of people will continue to stay this person that they're not, so that they can keep their community. Some other things happened to me that I'm not privy to talk about anymore, right. So, we just had to get out as fast as we could. And it just happened to be that I really had a passion for this nonprofit that had already started building. So it was really great timing. But yeah, when you when you grew up in a culture that's telling, you need to wear these things, you need to be this kind of person, especially when you're, you know, for me, when you're on a stage all the time, people are criticizing you for how your shirts tucked in, like a break, or you shouldn't have worn a hat on stage, the whole people are leaving the church, because you're doing this, you shouldn't have said that just constantly, but you still have that community, right? There, your people, whether they're gonna be jerks to you or not, but when you need to be yourself, you do, like you said early, you just need to take a bucket like, I'm out, I'm gonna be me. And it's a painful process, you know. But then you start finding a community that accepts you for who you really are, you know, for your true identity, the things you like, the things you're passionate about, how you talk, who you are, who you talk to the way you are. And then you're going to find that extreme confidence. I actually probably should do a whole course on deconstructing and leave it leaving the church in a healthy way. Right. Just a lot of that going on. Because there's a lot of bad things happening there. It's not a safe, safe place for a lot of people. But I can't believe I'm saying that publicly.
Dave: Is that a big thing? You mean just for you personally?
Josh: Oh, sure. I mean, anybody who knows me knows what I believe about that. But I guess I've never said that in front of 200 people that I don't know. So have some fun with that information, reach out if you need some help. Because a lot of people are just stuck in that and they're being abused, and they're not allowed to say anything about it because their parents love the church or they have too much honor for a pastor that they're not allowed to speak out about abuse and there's a lot going on. Yeah. Yeah, that's really wonderful. A lot now is people being exactly who they are and launching out and then taking massive action.
Dave: Yeah, well, I love that and I have, you know, I think we all know somebody or have personally gone through what you're experiencing, just growing up and realizing that what we You know, grew up in what was appropriate, maybe for one phase of our life isn't appropriate for the next phase or that not how we want to live or raise our children or whatever I think a lot of us can. It's not just nonchalant, there's passion in that. It's like, there's a lot of emotion in that, you know, because it's our lives. And it's what we went through. And, I think that, I think that, I think that for me, I had a lot of the same, I had a lot of the same experience, just a bit of a different detail, of coming online and feeling a bit of liberation and freedom and independence will, you know, build my own business, be myself be in control of my future, be in control of how much money I made? You know, I really depended on how much I wanted to learn and how much I wanted to work and how much I wanted to try to master this craft. I could continue to increase my income. And in that way it did. I didn't look at it like a game, you know, because at a certain point, once you've met your needs, and even your wants, here, which isn't a lot, I mean, unless you're doing crazy stuff, you know what I mean? Unless you're legitimately living, you know, like, like, like, a rock star, I guess and going to the club and drinking $5,000 bottles every night. I mean, yeah, it's to meet your needs. And then the rest becomes like dream money, investment money, you, you, you, you, you, you get to, yeah, you transmute you, you move from that money is a form of stress in a source of stress to money as a form of it's a resource. It's liberation, if I don't even want it. I mean, I know last month, I got money. And I didn't even want it. I literally turned right around and, and bought assets, you know.
So, listen, it's been it's been I love the conversation and the fact that you're using this as a way, as a way to even boost and pursue another dream. It's, it's just really cool. What would you leave everybody with? In terms of a piece of advice or wisdom that you know, now that you didn't know when you first got started?
Josh: Oh, wow, that's gonna be hard to hear. Because I was so full of wisdom before. Just go for it. Don't freak out. When things seem like they're falling apart, you get hit with a community guidelines violation, starting to tick a tock account, dude, I mean, just do it. Just have some fun with it. Don't be stressed, don't get uptight. Not the world's not gonna turn around and be like, that person's awful. It's not gonna happen. I know, the brain tends to want to tell you that. If I put this thing out there, everyone's going to think I'm stupid. That's ridiculous. You have to acknowledge us as ridiculous. Just go for it. Do your hair for the first couple of weeks, and then put on a beanie just to have some fun?
Dave: There you go. Man. There you go. about somebody who's you know, sending on the checkout page, I noticed I looked at your account, you've invested in your education while needing money for your nonprofit needing, you know, clearly having other ways that you could put that money to use but you've invested in your education here with not only going through a challenge, but also blueprints, I believe in just you seem to be somebody who's obviously a teacher, somebody who's created an entire company and program but somebody who's still invested in your education. What would you say to somebody who is unsure about the value invested in themselves, and maybe on the fence here.
Josh: So I work with a lot of kids who think they have to go to college, and they're going to spend an average of $50,000 to come up with an average of $40,000 college debt. 80% of those kids are not going to use their degree for its intended purpose. And most of them are going to hate their jobs and the other ones are going to have jobs below their means because they have all this debt. Why not invest $2500 bucks? Am I allowed to say that? Why not invest the money into a program that's going to make you that money back if you do it right, or just follow the program again? I didn't do it right. And I still reached 35,000 followers, you know, I made mistakes. Just get out there. Have some fun. Invest in yourself. That's one thing I always tell my students: just invest in yourself. Again, think about all that money I could have that I put into college I could have put in real estate or to business education, I could have made that money back within months, you know, so get out there, have some fun, and just invest and just go for it.
Dave: Well, we all could say that in some way shape or form about money that we've spent on things in the past. But you know, the beautiful thing about the abundance mindset versus a lack mindset, in in coupling that with having a business model and being an entrepreneur that gives you unlimited upside is the regrets of the past about money don't hurt as bad because you know, you literally can, can can make it up, you're no longer looking at your paycheck going, how many decades is it going to take, you can begin to see how, oh, shoot, I can have a you know, I can have a $10,000 month I can have a 15,000 I gonna have a $30,000 month and, you know, get way ahead in. I mean, there's no rules. But you know, this is the world, this is the land of opportunity, coupled with an amazing business model and amazing community. Thanks to you, people like yourself are willing to come back and share your experience with us. So good luck with the nonprofit you guys can connect with Josh on TikTok over money. Josh, and again, your nonprofit, they're up in Detroit and expanding all over the world, is learntheindustry.org. Thanks for your time today, brother.
Josh: Absolutely, this is a lot of fun. Great meeting you.
Dave: You too, man. Come back in. Give us an update in a few months. We'll just talk soon. All right, my friends. Have a fantastic Tuesday. All right. It is the Yeah, first day of the month. It's the first day of the month. Anybody know that song? Drop it in the comments. That's that 90s Hip Hop. Alright, my friends. Talk soon. Get out of here. Have a great Tuesday. And thanks again Josh for a great conversation. Be Legendary, my friends. Peace.
