Below is the transcription for this episode:
Dave: Leslie, Tell us about the experience with the mastermind, how you found Legendary and what you experience has been like since then.
Leslie: I gained a lot of traction after the mastermind. I had like 600 followers during the mastermind and I got to 1000 on New Years Eve. Now I'm at 28,000. I had a lot of fun with it. focus on so I was like, Okay, I'm gonna focus on the business and just kind of, you know, go from there. So that's when I actually started really focusing on it in January.
Dave: And so what happened in between January and now what happened after that?
Leslie: So I in January was when I was doing more of the backend stuff and like creating the funnels and doing what I have right now. And I started posting consistently right off the bat I was posting two to three times a day even though I didn't really feel comfortable and then I just kind of pushed myself to eventually start making videos where I was talking on camera and I think I did that within the first two or three weeks. And as soon as I hit 1000 followers, I went live the next day. So I've just been kind of pushing myself through the process even though it feels uncomfortable.
Dave: Yeah, so what do you think? I mean, what was that big lol that happened? I mean was that do you think that was really that life was busy or do you think you ran up? Do you think you ran up against a little bit of discomfort? Do you think that you did, did you get the blueprints and then you didn't go through them? So you actually still felt like you didn't know where to get started? I experienced that with a lot of people.
Leslie: This lesson I had gone a little bit through the blueprints but I didn't fully, you know, set everything up, you know, for the business to run. It was just more like something new. Not wanting to fail and then just you know, doubting. And then also, I didn't tell anybody that I was doing this. So I didn't really have anybody supporting me. So it's just me that I had to, you know, push myself.
Dave: Okay. So what has changed? I mean it's obvious that you started taking some action and you really kind of, you know, you mentioned that but what has changed? I mean, what do you think has thrown you into this? This state of taking action and now getting results?
Leslie: focusing on what my end goals are. So like why is it that I'm doing this? It's not just for the money, it's to live the lifestyle that I want to live. help anybody in the process that wants to either start the online business or just you know, get started with something you know, even if that's soon for their confidence, or try something new.
Dave: And what do you think was standing like was it was it if we were to be if we were to try to be more, you know, descriptive with what was you feel was really at the root cause of you getting started and then kind of stopping or you know, drifting away for a little while. Do you believe that? Do you believe it was really all mostly up here? Was it mental? Was it emotional? I mean, more than that, it was your capabilities, right?
Leslie: Yeah, it wasn't my capabilities because I knew I could do it. It was just me just kind of doubting myself and having to put myself in a position where I have to fail and where I have to step out of my comfort zone and try new things.
Dave: Yeah, and I mean, define failure. What does failure even mean? I mean, basically put yourself in a position where you could succeed. I mean, because there are so many bumps along the road. But I mean, we throw failure around like it's a loose word, but I mean, when do you ever really fail, you know, when you quit, but how do you, you know, fail, but is it a fake fear?
Leslie: Yeah, it was just kind of a learning process. So I think what I mean by failure is, you know, not succeeding at it in the first place, but just kind of learning from that process.
Dave: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's scary. I mean, anytime we do something new, you know, whether it's a job or a business, or a relationship, but for some reason, starting a business and coming online has a different set of overwhelming things that come along with it. You know, when you get into a brand new relationship with a new person. It's not certain that there's a lot of distractions and so forth out there. But really, the challenges are more just with that one direct person, right? It's like, oh, how do we coexist together? How do we live together? What, when I came online, I didn't just have you know, there were now all a bunch of things that I started to see. And so I had, you know, things coming from lots of different people. And I had to learn how to cut off those distractions and really focus and I had to define what focus actually meant to me. How have you dealt with all of the many distractions? Do you try to juggle lots of different things with lots of people or do you really keep your inbox clean? Are you really trying to focus on, you know, creating content versus consuming content, basically how do you not get sucked into the distraction monster?
Leslie: So in the beginning, I would get distracted, but I have gotten better at just keeping track of what it is I want to take care of. So like, so to do lists, I've been really helpful and just writing everything down. And if I get distracted, which I do sometimes, you know, it happens. As soon as I realized that, okay, I got back to what it is that I'm doing and just kind of brought my focus back to the important part like what it is that I need to focus on and why I'm doing this.
Dave: Yeah. And the distraction can be big, right? It can be like, it can be, oh my gosh, every day I log on to my email I Love You know, it's the first thing that I check when I log on, and I spent 45 minutes chasing rabbit holes of other people's marketing agendas that can be one way that I get distracted. So for me personally, I keep my inbox really, really clean. I don't just have and this is just something that I wouldn't expect everybody here to, you know, it wasn't like that. At first I subscribed to 50,000 different email lists. But for me, I had to really think about it well, if I'm getting up and spending 30 to 45 minutes, just simply checking my email and seeing what everybody else is doing and then I get sucked into maybe something that they're doing. I just lost a lot of early days, precious morning time. So how do you manage your time? I mean, how do you know what day looks like for you and how do you fit in little pieces of recording content or things that you need to do?
Leslie: So when it comes to recording content, I will batch create content. And so recently, I posted a video and it's been performing pretty well. I'm getting a lot of comments on it. So I took all those comments, made the video responses and I have them all drafted. So I have all that ready to go. So that helps so yeah, I just batch create content, I'll try to do at least 20 videos when I'm creating like in like one session or one day and obviously that ready to go.
Dave: So a lot I mean in I would assume that if you're if you're batch creating even in one day 20 pieces of content. You don't have a whole lot of time to re-record every single video 50 times. How did you were you ever that person who was like, Oh, that's not good enough. I need to re record that 20,000 times in do you still do that? Or how did you stop doing that?
Leslie: So now, if I re-record something, it's because I said a word wrong or there's some weird noise in the background. So probably like the most that I'll re record something is maybe three times at most, which isn't too bad compared to in the beginning where it would.
Dave: Add up that can still add up if you're doing but anyways, you went from a lot more to three and now working on less you know, it's either between zero or three is what you're what you're not going to you're not going to stick around on one piece of content or one section of one piece of content for too long.
Leslie: Yeah, because I would do that in the beginning and just kind of get in my head but in the end of it the more time you spend on something like it's, it doesn't really matter. Just put it out there and let people you know, watch it and if they like it they like it. They don't, they don't.
Dave: Yeah, I mean, there's an element of being strategic and there's an element with advertising. It's not just posting videos on TikTok, it's even the biggest marketing firms in the world. There's always an element of luck. There's all in an element of throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping that something sticks sure you try to use good principles you try to you know, include a good hook or good story good call to action, but at the end of the day, you don't really know which piece of content is going to take off. And usually it's the simple one. It's the one you didn't think was going to do well. And a lot of times it's because when you created that, you just did it and you didn't overthink it. And it was natural or it was just something about it that connected with people. Have you noticed that when you don't overthink it, that your content does better?
Leslie: Yeah, that happened. I just posted a video on Monday that's performing better than my recent videos and that one took me less than a minute to make.
Dave: Yeah, yeah, that's been the case time and time again, throughout my career is that I'll spend tons of time on something like an email or you know, a video that I'm recording and you know, then I might make another version or redo it and just throw it together or whatever. And it's so often the one that I just that I just naturally did that I just didn't overthink what is your current challenge right? Now with creating better content? Let me give you an example. Like a lot of times, there's people who are really smart who start creating content and they and they talk over people's heads. You know, they use words that are, you know, complicated or that a lot of people might not use or they just like that can be a challenge for me is to keep things concise. And keep things simple and speak at a fifth grade level so everybody can understand what I'm saying. That's an example of something in my content. That that I try to work on and be aware of. What's something that it's hard to tell somebody? If your business is not taken off? It's because your content and your marketing is not interesting enough. That's hard to say. But it's something that we need to say to each other because we have to keep getting creative and being creative. And we can't just rely on copy and paste or somebody to do it for us. We have to eventually take the skills and then apply them. So what is something that you're working on with your messaging or your content that you feel is like I'm aware of it and it's hard to do but I'm working on it.
Leslie: I think for me right now I'm in the process of trying different things on like, like different editing techniques, the one that I'm putting the videos together I have a lot of videos where I would just be sitting in one spot and talking so I started trying doing videos where it would cut to different clips of me doing different things or in different location locations and I can see that those are performing a little bit better. So for me, it's just trying to make the videos a bit more engaging and not just be in one spot.
Dave: Nice. Are you doing all that within the TikTok app? Yes, so
Leslie: I did try using other apps for editing but I just mainly use TikTok
Dave: It's amazing that you know, we don't even have to as you know content creators and marketers even go outside of that app. There's enough to learn there's enough to use right inside of that app. That's cool. And I know exactly what you mean you know, the what we've always called jump cuts are sort of the or what we used to call jump cuts. You know, it was not always popular. The quick cuts to, you know, in cutting out the space in between, you know, that became really popular as people's attention spans got shorter and shorter and shorter over the last few years. That kind of content, and now short form content, the 15 seconds to click Content is the content that gets consumed the most, because it's shorter. So what are you are you like, I don't know what your experience is or how much you if you had any experience before this, but as a young person, looking at this what we're doing here looking at this opportunity, are you like freaking out a little bit at like, how big of how exciting it is how cool it is that you I know you I think I heard you say you dropped out of either high school or college was in college. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, that's obviously a thing that normally in past years, you'd be like, an outcast of society. frowned upon, drop out, you know, yuck. Go over there and stand in the corner. But, you know, now it's like the whole entire game has changed in all I mean, let's just be honest people. There's a lot of people out there, who went to college and are very successful, but there's a whole lot of people who dropped out of college and started companies like Apple and Facebook, and you are what a huge tech company. I'm a high school dropout. It's been proven that you know, those things are not necessary to succeed. But here's my question. As a young person, even with the experience of being that outcast, are you excited as hell about like, Do you see a big future with this? Is this just a bridge to something else for you? Can you share with us what you see?
Leslie: So yes, I am when I first started getting into this, it was just more to like, make some extra money, but then the more I got into it, it's like, okay, like I can actually do something with this. And see, I get very excited because I know what I'm capable of, and I know what kind of life I can create myself by doing this. And eventually I'm going to be you know, working on my own offer and just helping people get started with the online space and build their confidence and just things like that for new content creators and business owners that you know, are doubting themselves or just need help getting started.
Leslie: Wow, society just conditions people.
Dave: I mean, you can literally do anything and I believe that over the next few years, this style of business of Congress of, you know, our economy as a whole is moving more towards this one to one moving back to a say like a mom and pop. But it's not much. It's just person to person. Like what we're doing and what we're teaching, whether it be an affiliate, directing somebody the way that we teach or whether it'd be like you just mentioned, somebody wanting to learn something and seeking out somebody that they relate to on social media. Yeah,
Leslie: I think also because not a lot of people can just sit in a lecture and learn that way. Some people need one on one mentorship and coaching. That's me. I can't sit and learn or teach myself I need help. I need step by step training just because it takes me a little bit longer to retain information.
Dave: It's also Who are you learning from? I call it writing. I call it the right information, right person, right environment. It's not look like the person has to be relevant and the person has to have relevant experience. But the game has changed so much that if a professor was teaching business 10 years ago, and he's teaching it today, you better have a whole lot of continued education because the game has changed. Right information. I mean, the information has to be relevant. I mean, we're we're we're doing Wake Up Legendary. We're doing all these different things, because we want to talk to people today who were doing it and then the right environment I mean, you know, college classrooms, all these kinds of things, oftentimes inspire learning oftentimes, they don't know, does home inspire more learning. Lastly, a lot of people are so used to going into a class and having somebody stand over them, and therefore they turn in their assignments and do their work because of that. How do you hold yourself accountable to actually get things done? Because I see a lot of people buying training, and then not going through it, and then wondering why they don't know where to get started or So how have you held yourself accountable to go through stuff to then apply it without somebody literally, you know, saying, where's your homework?
Leslie: For me to do lists helps because it keeps me organized. But then also, I just think about my goals. It's just my end goal. Like why is it that I want to do this and thinking about how I hated my last job and not wanting to go back to a regular job. So I think that kind of helps. keep me focused on you know, the important things and what it is that I want to achieve.
Dave: Yeah, it's interesting. You know, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a little bit of a conflict that I've begun to have with the way we throw around the word mentor in this industry. It just opens up a lot of doors for people, for example, to come along and just say, Oh, I'm a mentor, you need a mentor. And then all of a sudden people get, you know, kind of taken down in rabbit holes and they end up buying, coaching from people and mentorship that they don't really need and what I find is a lot of people like for example, Leslie, we literally just had a mastermind in Orlando, and there was 50 people let's It was between 50 ish people sitting in the room. And everybody who said I don't know where to start, or I don't know what to do. They had just simply not gone through the training. That's nothing they didn't do anything bad. But we I'd like to bring some awareness to the fact that before everybody goes seeking out another savior, another mentor, another guru, you know, and you do your own training, or you're considering for example, buying in our Blueprints. Go through the training because you may not need what you think you need, and I'm speaking to everybody here. Lastly, not just you, I certainly want your opinion. But I'm going to be beating this drum so hard every day, because again, people are stopping themselves from getting started. Because they're like, I need somebody to come here and sit, sit down with me and kind of show me how to do it in what I find from my experience. 10 years working with people is what they're really saying is I want somebody to come and stand over me and point and tell me exactly what to do. So I don't have to do any critical thinking, or I want somebody to do it for me. And that's not entrepreneurship, I'm sorry, sustainable and long term. And you never learn anything. If you do it that way. And so I'm going to be beating this drum, people are going to be like, Dave, I'm just so tired of hearing this. But you know what, I don't care. Because being in this industry for 10 years and watching people may, you know, say they have the same reasons why they can't succeed, and then actually being able to talk to them and see in here and you didn't go through the white hole. The question that you have is answered right here. Let me show you right in the affiliate marketing business blueprint. And so what's your opinion on that and what comes up for you as I rant about this, go through the training, and learn how to apply like an entrepreneur, rather than hoping and praying that somebody's going to come along and be that perfect person who's going to make it all make sense for you?
Leslie: I would say for them to go through the training and see, you know, and try it out and like, you know, implement the stuff that they're learning first and see what kind of results they're getting. And then from there, if they want some extra help, then they can go for it. But even getting the extra help, it's just all on you either way. Whether you get that or not.
Dave: Yeah, I mean, you could sit on endless one on one sessions with a new MIT mentor every day. And again, what you do with that information after how you continue that's what matters. You know, that's what matters. It's kind of like I went to physical therapy yesterday. And, you know, I've got another appointment next week. But you know what? I previously had my last appointment over a month ago and I didn't do anything last month. I didn't do any of the exercises. You know what I mean? Like I didn't do any of the stuff you're supposed to do at home. And guess what she asked me so how's your shoulder? I had COVID and like it just hey, works. I had more things that came up and excuses than results for me. That's me. I gotta own that. And so she said, Where's your shoulder? I said it's exactly where it was when I came in here a month ago because I ain't done shit. That's a little
Leslie: A bit every day to like sometimes I know it's nothing. Nothing at all.
Dave: But it's so liberating to just own that too. That's another thing that I talked to the mastermind about was just being honest about if you've done shit or not, if you hadn't done anything, just say I haven't done shit. You look so much cooler. Just saying I haven't done anything and that's why I don't have results other than trying to make up some shit or blame somebody else. That's the way of the entrepreneur. That's what I had to learn that this road is not about me finding blame. It's about me, the exact nature of my actions and web done and really own and then it's like radical honesty and kind of self responsibility because why? Well, because I had a job I always complained about somebody else being in control of my not my life. So now that I have it, I can't complain about it.
Leslie: It is different from the last job that I was working at. I was a supervisor at a warehouse so I had a boss working above me and then I had employees working under me so it's kind of in the middle. But that was a very stressful job for me to have. So now I am just coming out here and just you know, not having to deal with anybody working under me. Or working above me. It's very different. And that is why you have to hold yourself accountable. There's not going to be anybody there telling you what to do.
Dave: I know and it's like, sometimes it's you know, people we complain, no matter where we go. It's like, you know, we really got to learn how to turn, you know, dirt into diamonds, you know what I mean? As an entrepreneur, it's really about looking at every situation and saying, you know, hey, I'm the ultimate one who's in control here and I'm gonna like I have a choice to make this absolutely the best I can make it or sit around and complain. And that's usually what people do. They hate standing around and they complain. So make sure everyone that we don't treat our business like we did our job. You know what I mean? And that's one of the reasons why I always tell people if you still have a job, work that job like get your business because how you do one thing is how you do everything, you know, work it hard until you get to leave it. It sounds like you've left or you quit your job and you're doing this full time now?
Leslie: I quit my job before I found out about legendary because I just could not take I could not take it anymore. So I quit my job before. But I was still getting income from the military. So that kind of helped me out of it. Yeah, and right now I just kind of helped my dad or his shop, here and there. So that's just a little bit of extra income that I get. But yeah, I'm not working a regular job at
Dave: A lot of stuff for hot rods and, and bikes and stuff but so yeah, you don't want to work for pops though. You want to branch out, you want to cut the umbilical cord. I can tell you're not as somebody who wants to hang out, you want to go, you want to spread your wings and travel around the world and you want to do what you want to do.
Leslie: I've always been interested in business actually when I was in college. I was going to college for business.
Dave: Yeah, yeah. What's your dad think of your journeys and choices and everything? Can you support it?
Leslie: Always all about this. I have a bunch of siblings. So my dad's all about, you know, pushing us to be better and make our own, you know, make our own income and because my dad's not the type to just hand us money. He wants us to work for it. So yeah, ever since I was young, I've always just been kind of working for myself during the military, after the military joined, joined a university and the reason why I did the military was to help pay for college because I knew my mom couldn't help and then my dad wouldn't just hand me the money. I had to do it myself.
Dave: Well, Tara said thank you for your service, and I do too. Lastly, is there anything else we need to know right now before we talk to you again in a couple of months hopefully.
Leslie: For anybody that is just kind of interested in doing this, I would say you know, just go for it and don't think anybody or anything wants you back.
Dave: Even yourself, but you know, we are mostly the ones who hold us back I have I have had a lot of make believe people and voices in my head that I tried to say there the reason why I'm not going to do something, but really all the voices are just me myself and I Yeah, it's always just me talking myself out or me. You know, fair enough that somebody is stopping me somewhere, you know, but it always just comes back to me. It always comes back to if there is a will there's a way if you like you said stay focused on what you want, and not what others say. We did this exercise this winter. You know, we broke through a board, you know, that had some sort of a limiting belief that was like holding us back. And on the other side of the board was what we wanted, you know, and it's kind of like if everything that you want is on the other side of something somewhat difficult. Or you not going to go on through that thing headfirst you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm not standing around on Facebook or wherever. In complaining about it. I'm not I'm not going to stand back in everything that I want. Everything that I want is on the other side of an uncomfortable, semi difficult moment, never ever in the history of mankind, past or into the future. That there was ever a moment where a person's obstacle suddenly just magically disappeared. And everything was handed to them. I know every single human being that's walked this earth has suffered through for what they want, have sacrificed. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes shorter, but every person has had their own journey and had to walk in and what I love watching people walk their journey in glory and with courage and with creativity, and that's what I see you doing so keep up the good work. Thank you. All right. We'll see you back here maybe in a couple of months if you'd be willing to keep sharing with us. Yes, that'd be awesome. All right, Leslie, tell your pop. So we said hello, as well. Thank you. Again, keep up the great work. And we'll see you hopefully in a couple of months. All right, come back and give us an update. All right. All right, my friends. Whoo. There it is. That's a bad thing to say from the 90s. You know, I'm a 90s dad now. All right, my friends there it is, though. For real Thursday, Thursday. Where are we on May 19. Wow, we're coming up on 50% of the Year. I just like to, you know, occasionally get up above the weeds, you know, because so often we're down in the weeds of the daily grind. What time is it? What day is it? But occasionally, you get to pop your head up and say, Where are we at in life? Where are we at this year? And we're about halfway through this year 2022. And here's what's going to happen. Okay. Hold on a second. Let me get out my crystal ball. Okay, here it is. Here it is. Okay. I am going to rub my crystal ball. Okay, I'm rubbing it. Yes. It's a it's a large roll of toilet paper, but we're pretending that it's a crystal ball. And I am rubbing. I am rubbing my crystal ball. Okay, I have it. I have it. I have the future. I've seen the future before and I have the future again. Here's what's going to happen. The rest of 2022 You know, people stock portfolios, we're moving into what seems like a little bit of a recession, right? Because we had such growth, right? All through 2020 and 2022. Now that doesn't mean everybody did but just the main economy, you know the stock market, Wall Street, which we know is not mainstream. But anyways. Now 2022 is here and guess what, internet marketing in those of us who are marketing online, got to take advantage of all that growth. But here's what's going to happen. As I rub my light crystal ball. What's going to happen in the future is that things are going to be corrected and they're going to go back down and guess what? Once again, people are going to need opportunity. They're going to need solutions. They're going to need to access things online, just like they did when things were up. And guess what we're going to do? We're going to capitalize on that. Like we have capitalized in this business model the core for affiliate marketing, or selling courses, coaching or events. We've, we've capitalized on recessions, and we've capitalized so the rest of 2022 as the recession looms in craziness happens out there on Wall Street. What's going to happen on the internet, and with those of us who have prepared to get lucky, what does luck mean? It means preparation meets opportunity. And we're going to shift our message slightly to, hey, things are down out there on Wall Street, but guess where they're not right here on the internet. You need to create your own economy or whatever niche you're in, you slightly shift the message and guess what?
We continue to see growth. And we continue to be in a business model and in a business that thrives and has an opportunity to grow no matter what's happening out. There. Real Estate on Wall Street, any of that because why people are always looking for opportunity. And all you do is slay li shift your message just a little bit. You'll see a lot of people doing that, a lot of smart marketers doing that. Talking about and in and sort of getting what they're talking about to what's going on in people's lives. And we'll continue to capitalize my friends. There were a whole bunch of people who through all the last cycle of growth we had through 20, mainly 2021 You know once we kind of came out of that 2020 shift, but we had growth in 2022. All the people who had got started thought that they had got started then, so they could capitalize on that. And in this next cycle, whether it goes up or whether it goes down, will cap out because it's just a small shift in messaging out there and your content and stuff. All of you who get started right now who begin to build your own business and build your own economy are all going to be banking. You know, whoever is your home, you're gonna be thankful that you did that and you got started. And I promise you, I promise you the absolute best time to get started was last week. The absolute second best time to get started is today. See you tomorrow. Peace.
