“Be humble or get humbled.” – MindTraps
I got schooled.
Clowned, exposed, humiliated — embarrassed as badly as I’ve ever been, in my career…
…All while standing in front of a group of the most successful entrepreneurs in my industry.
The year is 2011, and the place is Las Vegas.
The setting is a rented conference room at the Wynn hotel, and the group is 12 of the heaviest-hitters in the sports training industry.
(including ILoveBasketball, JumpUSA, Alex Maroko, Todd Herman, and several others)
We’re here for a mastermind meeting:
To network, cut deals, share what’s working in our businesses, and maybe, if there’s time…
(there’s always time)
Get a little twisty.
So there I am, up at the front of the room, giving a presentation on what I called:
”The ultimate online business model.”
What was so ultimate about it, you ask?
Well, everything.
Literally — it included everything:
Paid ads, emails, micro-sites, affiliate marketing, blogging, webinars, SEO, SLOs, OTOs, cross-sells, upsells, front-ends, back-ends, you get the idea.
Beaming with pride, I display my brainchild for the room to see:
(real screenshot of the funnel I sketched out in 2011)
”I’ve done it,” I thought to myself.
“I’ve revolutionized marketing forever.”
Never has there been a business model…
…Nay, a business masterpiece…
…So glorious, so disruptive, so utterly game-ch —
— “What the hell are you building, the Pentagon?”
My body stiffens.
Who said that?
My eyes rapidly scan the room, anxiety welling up and becoming panic as I recognize the voice:
Craig Ballantyne.
I don’t even know why he’s here, honestly:
He’s way too big a fish for our little pond.
Craig is an OG of the fitness industry, and had been running a multi-7-figure fat loss empire since I was in middle school.
He rarely spoke…
(no joke, I think he was actually reading a book during my presentation)
…So when he did speak up, the room went dead quiet.
The silence hit me like a gut punch.
Craig continued:
”I know businesses doing a million a month sending paid traffic to a VSL — nothing else.
Do you really think your little 10k/month business needs all this crap?”
As the color drains from my face…
(probably, I couldn’t actually see my face)
…Craig softens — slightly:
”Listen man, all you need is:
One offer.
One way of getting traffic.
One funnel that converts traffic into customers.
That’s it. None of the big boys do any of this fancy sh*t.”
Time moves in slow motion as I thank him for his advice, and drag myself back to my seat feeling three feet shorter.
As the weekend continues (along with the “Pentagon” jokes), I begin to digest what Craig said:
One offer, one traffic source, one funnel.
And slowly, as the shock of embarrassment gives way to acceptance and understanding, his message begins to sink in:
Maybe business doesn’t need to be so complicated.
Maybe I’m making this way harder than it needs to be.
Maybe trying to be smart is the dumb move.
And maybe, just maybe:
Scaling this basketball business can be a lot easier, and a lot more straightforward, than I think.
I flew home on Monday morning with renewed hope, and — not quite clarity, not yet…
…But the quiet sense that clarity would soon come — and that, when it did:
My business and my life would be unlocked in ways I could not yet imagine.
I was right.
Tomorrow, Part 2…
- T
P.S. It’s almost time.
Tomorrow, I will begin accepting applications for FounderLab:
A live, 6-week incubator for early-stage online businesses who want to scale to 10k/mo, and beyond.
I am only accepting 15 founders.
And the first to apply will get first priority.
So if you’d like to join our early-invite list, reply with the word “interested” and I’ll make sure you hear about it first.
In the meantime, here’s where you can catch up on earlier parts of this series:
Part 1: This advice could ruin your life
Part 2: The business I never told you about
More to come…
“More companies die of indigestion than starvation.” – Bill Hewlett
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