If you don’t want to read it, you can watch this video.
I’m going to tell you how I started a multi-million-dollar business with a $289 investment. I’ll tell you the good, the bad and the ugly on how to do this. I’m going to tell you my story and how I did it. Then, I’m going to tell you the takeaways.
In 2009, I started my YouTube channel. I had a few goals. The first goal was to make $50K a year. My second goal was to write a book and leverage that into a publishing contract. None of that happened, and Thank God it didn’t.
So, I did that and I found out something really interesting. You can virtually build a company out of sweat equity using the internet as leverage. It was very new to me. A lot of people aren’t as fascinated by the internet as they should be. They aren’t blown away.
I want you to think about that. I downloaded a book from my head into a PDF, an eBook and also created physical books. I made money. I want you to really think about that. There is this thrill or enthusiasm I get every time I create a product and I sell it, and I make money. I don’t care if it’s $5 or $5000.
Essentially, I spent $289 to get started with $189 of that paying for my web hosting. The rest went to various things like domain hosting and stuff like that. I created my own WordPress blog called the Urban Packrat which doesn’t exist now. That was all I spent for two years. That was the infrastructure. That was the total investment.
After I got set up, so many opportunities came my way. Today there are people doing what I did and they aren’t even spending $289. They’re just out there hustling.
Part of the thing is, you’ve got to have a certain level of talent. I think this is something that many people overlook and don’t really talk about. My talent base came from my work ethic. My work ethic came from writing all of those Craigslist ads and buying all of those storage units and meeting thousands of customers face to face.
A lot of people don’t want to discuss the mindset issues. What people don’t seem to understand is that the right mindset must come first before you can make the money. Many people who use the course and the tools without the proper mindset are frustrated because it is not working out. The reason it is not working out is because you have the wrong mindset.
This is essentially it. I started the YouTube channel. I wrote a book. I put links under videos that go to the blog and Amazon. That’s how I made money. That’s an overview.
It sounds simple. On the surface it is simple. I have notes. Step 1 is to create an intention. This is hands down one of the best things you can do for your business. My intention, which was a written goal, was to make $50K a year and use the YouTube channel as a marketing arm. That’s it.
Now the next part is action and execution. A lot of people have done their research and they have the knowledge they need, but they aren’t in a position to execute because they don’t have the money. You have to have skin in the game.
Your intention is very important. Then you write it on paper. Then you start to do it. There are three action points that increase your chances of getting what you want. You have to have an intention, write it down, then immediately start executing.
Let’s look at my execution. My execution was sloppy. My book had typos. I had a lot of haters. In my videos, I looked like a runaway slave because I looked scared. But I still executed.
You need to remember this. Sloppy execution beats no action every day. I look at it and realize there were typos. The book cover was nothing to write home about. It was mistake after mistake after mistake.
But I had execution points. I created the blog. I created the videos. I created the blog posts. I created the book covers. The more work you put into it, the more likely something will pop.
What got me through was telling stories. That was the reason the channel was successful enough to generate a certain number of views.
I did not have a lot of subscribers when I made the first million dollars. I had like 1700. I used to keep track of my YouTube channel in a binder. I didn’t have Excel spreadsheets. People expect their success to look a certain way. The reason I killed it is because I didn’t have all of this pressure on my goals.
Let’s talk about the story telling. One of the reasons I have so many stories to tell is because I executed a lot in life. I executed on the storage auction trail. I executed on Craigslist. I executed the Upscale Garage Sale. I executed when I started dating these chicks.
What happens with a lot of people is they start a YouTube channel and do 20 or 30 videos, then they hit a wall. They don’t have enough content. Why don’t you have enough content, because you don’t have enough experiences.
For you to build something, you must be something. Being something takes time. I didn’t see all of this stuff coming, but it came because I executed.
Patience is also an important component to my success. When I started out, I gave myself 24 months to make it as a writer. This was a written goal. I knew I had to make this happen or I would have to do something else. The sense of urgency was there.
I crushed my goal in 11 months. One of the things I did from the beginning on this channel was I prepped people to buy something. Granted, some of the execution points were clumsy. Some people saw my channel as a scam and left without buying anything.
The fourth reason for my success was revision. I was always revising things. This channel has had like six major revisions. When something isn’t working, I have to move on. Some people refuse to make necessary changes. They are what I call purists.
If you want to make money, you must revise. The internet is not static. The internet is dynamic.
Scaling is a very important part of success. Many people try to build, figure out what they’re doing and scale at the same time. That is way too much to do at once.
You have to set realistic goals. Instead of expecting results in 90 days, if you give yourself two years, you will be blown away by what happens. When you remove time and you leave yourself open and practice patience, a lot of good things happen.
Balancing out is another factor. Each time I scale, I balance out. Like with Hustle Camp, I will raise the price again as I add more to it. Once I try some stuff and figure out what else I should do, then scaling is like flipping a switch.
You have to plan for long-term growth. This is my ninth year on YouTube. I’ve got the basics down. Now where do I want to go? Now I have to decide where I want to go in the next ten years and the next fifteen.
Where are we going? We’re going to help people become entrepreneurs.
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