Should you "pay-to-play" in high-ticket sales?

If you clicked on this video, you exist on a spectrum and not the spectrum you're thinking about. I'm talking probably a spectrum of belief around high-ticket sales. Maybe you're a full believer, you know it's possible, you know people doing it, or you're like 30% and you're like, I hope this guy is going to tell me that it's a total scam. Well, I'm not here to tell you that it's a scam. If you see this plaque behind me, I got this at my wedding from some friends for 100 people that we got to $10,000 or more in a month in commissions in this space. I've been doing this for 4 years and I've seen a lot of people pay to make it easy. I've seen a lot of people try it for free. I've seen a lot of people run with it. I've seen a lot of people fail. In this video, I'm going to break down 8 different considerations on why people choose to do this through a paid route versus a free route. For each of the reasons, I'm going to talk about the free route, I'm going to talk about the paid route. But at the end of the day, guys, it comes down to efficiency. If you are a 100% believer that this is possible and it's just a matter of you figuring it out and you already earn well, the time in between the 2 locations, the 2 destinations, is wasted time. It's inefficiency. If you make $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 per month like I was making when I got into this industry, it is inefficient for you to dilly-dally around, not get with a good team from day one, start earning fast, and your odds of fumbling around and flunking out of high ticket and going back to what you don't want to be in to begin with are a lot higher when you don't have certain things. So without further ado, you guys, let's break those things down. First and foremost, we're talking job sourcing. Now, In my community, we post 600+ jobs per month. I think it was around 8,400 or so over the last 12 months, and it came out to like 23.96 jobs per day over the last year. If you do this for free, you can find jobs. You can go on LinkedIn, you can go on Facebook groups, you can send cold Instagram DMs. When you go on LinkedIn, you're going to find insurance, you're going to find financial products, you're going to find all sorts of stuff that may or may not fall into this consideration of high-ticket sales. If you go on Facebook groups, there's a lot of noise. There's, there's so much noise that it can actually be hard to like cut through and find the quality things. Now, I've seen people land really, really good roles on Facebook groups or through Facebook groups, but there's a lot, a lot, a lot of noise. And if you don't know how to decipher what's good and what's not, there's a chance that you onboard, bad offer, waste your time, churn out. 2 months goes by, you think high-ticket sales is a scam. And let's just be honest, like cold DMs on Instagram, the lowest leverage use of your time is cold messaging or doing outreach to people that have not shown publicly that they are hiring. Now, it's a strategy if you really want to work for like a specific company, but if you're just blasting 100 outbound Instagram DMs per day, like there is just a more efficient way to do that and it's through a sourced pool of opportunities. So the free way is kind of run and gun. You take what you can, you're just not going to have as many opportunities and then you're going to have to do the due diligence on the opportunities and hope that you know what you're doing. The paid way is like these sales teams, they're high. They didn't raise money. They're high cash flow online businesses. When they post a role, they need it filled now. The easiest way for them to vet who is serious about this industry, who already understands the one-call close, the commission-only nature, they get it. They don't have to explain that. They don't have to take a bet or sell somebody on commission-only sales is working with people like me, working with sales trainers, working with recruiters or agencies that already have warm pools of committed people who are ready to do this. So yes, we can go do this for free, but it might take longer. You might have to dig through a little trash to find something good. I touched on it a little bit, but the second thing here is going to be job vetting. In this commission-only space, a bad job is not a base pay and your bills paid. A bad job is zero and actually you coming out of pocket for your living expenses and the opportunity cost of you leaving something that is working now, kind of, maybe not to the level that you want it to, but it is working. You're paying your bills. You leave that for high ticket, you get in a bad job, it's zero, and now you're coming out of pocket. Now you feel the pressure. You're pinched. Having somebody in your corner that's been there, done that, that can tell you what a good job is, what a bad job is, the right questions to ask based on the information that you have, the information that you need is invaluable. A bad job is not zero. A bad job is negative. When you go into a Facebook group that has 50,000 people, many of which are not in this industry and kind of window shoppers because it's a free group and the intent is low, what kind of super high quality business is posting jobs in there? I mean, some for sure, but like a lot of these people are posting not serious roles to a not serious audience. This space is pretty small when we're looking at the actually legit offers. And so the numbers is one thing I talk about that a lot, the revenue, the cash collected, the number of sales reps, the makeup of setters versus closers and what they're earning top and bottom compared to the OTE and adding one more person into the mix. That's one thing. But then there's another side of this where like the founder has a reputation, the company has a reputation. They may have had salespeople on their team before, managers on their team. And if it's a decent team, man, like having insight into what that experience was like from somebody else, someone who knows somebody, is super valid in the whole job vetting process. So when you do this for free, you almost have to like hope that it works out. Like you can run the math, whatever, whatever. But when you do this with a network of people, someone like myself, people who are committed to this, man, like they have your best interest in mind. And it's nice to have that counsel that you can come back to that can tell you, hey dude, I know you're like, Really interested in this for this, this, and this reason. But this is a really big red flag that you're not considering, and I think you need to. That's invaluable. Again, taking into consideration that you probably make money now and you know you can make money over here, the time in between the two, the longer it is, the lower it is, the more waste you are experiencing. Building off the second job vetting, we go into number 3, which is the network. The network of people who will share when their team is hiring, the network of people who will share when their friends are hiring, when an old boss is hiring when they put that stamp of approval on something that otherwise you wouldn't have even seen. The best offers in this space, again, they're hiring through these closed-door communities because the level of intent is so much higher. And the last thing that I want to do as a recruiter— and I've done recruiting in this space, I had a sales agency— is spending time digging through hopeless, hopeless, hopeless applications, watching 100 Loom videos of just really unqualified prospects. I'd rather have like 10 where I know, hey, this went into this community, this sales training, all these people are legit. Show me those 10. So the network is going to give you access to job vetting help. It's going to help you source more jobs. It's going to give you a soundboard. It's going to give you that counsel to bounce ideas off of and see what's working and what's not and what's regular and what you should tolerate. A lot of things stem out of the network here, which I'll talk about more. But overall, like you do this alone, Lone wolf trapped in a box. You have no point of reference for what is good, what is normal. You see on YouTube, even my YouTube, you see the highlights, right? But in the network, man, you're seeing more than just the highlights. You're seeing the average results. You're seeing the troubles and how people are getting over those. And I think it just gives you a much more round perspective to make the most out of this industry. Which leads me to point 4, learning from others. You can learn from other people's mistakes, how they got fired, how they lost an interview, how they took forever to land a job because they only did applications here Or in this way or on these days or at these times. You get to join a series of live calls perhaps and see quite literally people who are 2 steps, 5 steps, 10 steps ahead talking about what's working and what's not. That real raw perspective from the trench is invaluable. You don't get that when you are doing, you know, at the end of your 9 to 5 shift, when you're thinking about dinner, trying to go on Facebook and find 3 applications, you're gonna be like, oh, I have to do this chore and find these jobs to apply to. And you're just like not stoked about it. Because you can't see the end result yet. When you have a network that you can learn from, anytime you log into it, into an app, into a group chat, whatever, it's alive, it's breathing, it's there right in front of you and you can't deny it. Now, sure, again, you can try to join these free groups, these Facebook groups, these WhatsApp groups, these Telegram groups. But like, dude, the quality of people in those is just shit, to be honest, dude. It's a bunch of uncommitted people. It's the blind leading the blind. If you surround yourself with a bunch of unserious people, You are going to brainwash yourself into thinking that that is the reality of this space. And it is not. Okay? It's better than nothing. And sure, you will have a handful of people who take these groups seriously. But realistically, man, you're going to have a lot of people from parts of the world that are rather impoverished just there hitting their head against the wall and they don't know what they don't know. The blind leading the blind. Whereas if you're learning from others who are equally as invested into this opportunity as you are, they have both their own and your best interest in mind. Number 5, the leverage that comes with brand reputation. So if you are in the Cereal Sales Community, that's the community I've been running. People like the Cereal Sales Community. Business owners like the people that come from us because we set proper expectations. We ramp people up to know what's normal in this industry and, and what's far-fetched. I mean, the first call that I have one-on-one with every single person is basically an expectation setting call. It's like, okay, dude, you're coming in with this experience, this schedule, this amount of sales acumen. You should probably go for this role. And here's your plan B. Let's split the applications like 70/30. And our whole thing is not letting people come into this industry expecting $30K per month to happen in 30, 60 days, because when they go in month 1, they make $5K and then they're frickin pissed. For the person who has right expectations set, $5K is like, oh dude, this is awesome. This is real. I can quit my job now. So like the same result completely flipped expectations. When people come through our community, at least I can't speak on behalf of others, business owners take that into consideration. It gets them interviews when they wouldn't have been able to have them because of the name on the resume or the name drop in the Loom or the access to the job. If you submit a Loom video and say, hey, I found this in the Cereal Sales Community, That business owner might think highly of you. This also has an inverse effect if you're a part of something that's just not that serious, does not have a great reputation. But the short of it is, if you're lone wolfing this, you have zero leverage. You don't have any names. You don't have any business names, any business owners, any community members, any people to name drop, man. You're just another guy that doesn't know anybody who wants to start. Who's not hungry in this industry? Let's be real. I should have elaborated more on that. Yes, you can use the business name, the business owner name, but what about the name of the people who are on that team? That are sharing the jobs. What about the name of the sales manager? What about the name of the top sales rep on that team when they share these jobs and and you being able to say by association that this person put this job in front of you? That's a pretty pretty good leverage point for sure. Really quick, guys, before we get into number six, you're watching this video because you're probably not yet in this space or you're not where you want to be. And building on the idea of doing this for free, I want you to go down below to the second link in the description. That is my fifteen hour free training. That's actually Part 1 of the 15-hour free training. If you want to do this for free, that's your best bet. If you don't want to do this for free, go to the first link in the description. That's my community. Been running it for 4 years. Really, really, really good. I'm so involved in the product. In fact, mostly involved in the product. I have some people who help, but there's 2 options for you down there. The free version, second link, the not free version. The free version leaves you a lot of unknowns though, even though it's good content. Okay, back to it. Number 6, proof that it works. Again, I talked about the social media highlight reel. I talked about the YouTube videos, the $10K, the $20K, the $30K. But what about the everyday Joe? What about the guy who's pushing for that first $10K month and has for a year? You're not really getting exposure to those people in an incentivized environment when you do this alone, which means your North Star, the light at the end of the tunnel, whatever analogy we want to give, it doesn't exist. Your North Star is someone who's posting about how they made $100K in a month in commission. And that's like a different language, or it's a $30K per month commission when you're still stuck in a job and you've not made a single dollar in this space. It's like, that's 2 different conversations that we're having here. So if you have somewhere that you can go day in, day out and just be proven that like, dude, I know this is not easy, but all these people are doing it, why not me? And you can see that and have that affirmation that these people who may have less sales experience, Less time, more up against them, more financial responsibility, more dependence. They're doing it. Well, why not me? It's very valuable. Keeps the wheels turning, keeps the fire burning. Whereas when you're doing this alone, it's really easy to take a day off. It's really easy to say, ah, it'll come later. I'll do it later. I mean, I get FOMO. I'm a FOMO guy. Okay. And when I see people doing something that I know I want to do in the back of my mind, even if it's not top priority, I'm feeling left out, man. I'm getting a little fired up. It's going to push me to do a little bit more, get there a little And not to mention, you guys, like, you get the proof that it works, but you're also getting the exposure to the next level and access to those people, like the $10K, $20K, $30K per month testimonials that you're seeing on YouTube. You get access to those in groups, in trainings. Like, you could talk to those people, get on a live call, set up a call, direct message them. Whereas when you see something on social media, it's like a one-way parasocial relationship that doesn't really serve you because anything that they're talking about, you might be able to figure out how that applies to your situation. But what if you could just talk to those people? Just be like, hey dude, I'm new. I've seen what you're doing. Ask them a question. When you do this alone, maybe you send someone a DM on Instagram, but like they're busy, man. They don't get back to you. You're just a DM on Instagram. You're just a DM on LinkedIn. Number 7, you guys, is something you aren't going to like to hear. Unfortunately, it's a really big part of what we do when people join the community that we run. Yeah, we have course material. We teach them some things. I teach a lot on YouTube. Like if you watch my YouTube channel, you know most of what you need to know, but what you get when you get into a paid network, community, training, hopefully, is accountability. I'll be honest, like, if you're this far into the video, you probably know what you need to do already, but you don't have anybody holding you accountable to take those actions and to commit to those actions and to set big goals and to actually pursue them. And it's the boring part, man. It's the unsexy part. It's the part that we all say that we can turn it on when we need it, but we don't need it yet because of this thing or that thing. When you get into some sort of paid network, Hopefully, at least with ours, like there are staff members that get paid when you get the results that you come for, which is getting into this industry, starting to make your first dollars online. This is probably one of the bigger things that I have problems with as a business owner, or when I was in this space as well. Like nobody is there to tell you to stop being a lazy piece of shit. Your friends and family don't care. Like you got a job now, you're doing good, man. On paper, you're doing good. But there's just something to having that person in your corner, that team in your corner that can help you show up when you don't want to, when it's not easy, when it's early in the morning and late at night, when you don't really need it and you'll be fine without it. When you know that this is something that you want, you want the 1099 life, you want the remote life, but you'll be okay without it. It pays to have someone in your corner who can kick you in your ass and hold you accountable to apply to jobs, film your Loom videos, take these interviews, find the time outside your work hours, especially if you have, you know, a You have a significant other, you have kids. I mean, it's hard, man. It's hard to chip off the time that you need to make this a priority. But at the end of the day, you're doing it for them. You know, you're doing it for yourself so that you can do other things for your people, right? And so it's like a short-term sacrifice for long-term gain. It's just hard. It's very difficult to show up day in, day out, make the hard decision, do the boring work. And not to mention as well, like we, we were talking about job sourcing and job vetting. What have you do make the commitment to doing the boring work by yourself, but then you're not even applying to good jobs. You're not even getting into conversations with legit players. Like you're almost spinning your wheels in mud. And that's the most frustrating thing. That's the thing that's going to lead you to being a month in, being 2 months in and saying high ticket sales is a scam. Like, dude, you were hustling in the wrong direction. So that's why it's really important if you can find the time to hold yourself accountable to do the boring work We need to make sure that you're not wasting it. Again, if you're making money now and we know we can make money over here, we are wasting time if we're holding ourselves accountable but not having access to these jobs. It is just inefficient. There's so many variables to where if you do everything right but one down here goes wrong, you're wasting your time. And that unfortunately for a lot of people becomes a reflection of the entire industry. And I could show you dudes that have been making $15K, $20K, $25K per month for multiple years on the same team back to back to back, you're going to have this picture that that is not legit, that that's not my experience. So like, that's not normal, like whatever, whatever. So number 7 is accountability. It's the boring shit. It's doing the boring shit when you really don't want to do it. And when you almost start to convince yourself that you don't want it that bad because it's hard, it's boring, it's not fun. Number 8, the last on the list is going to be how enjoyable is the experience? Is it fun? Do you have community? Do you have people to celebrate the wins with? Do you have people that understand what you're doing and they understand the significance of you hitting these milestones and can celebrate and make this an enjoyable experience? Because if you don't, it's lonely. Lone wolf, man. Not as fun. I don't know how deep I have to go into that one, but like, there's something about the little wins that help you keep the momentum and the celebration of the little wins and the incentivization of you sharing those. That just keeps the ball rolling because there are highs and lows. Like any kind of sales job is going to have highs and lows. But if we have a group of people that not only we can share these with and get the praise, get the feedback, but then also build our social status, our reputation to be known as the guy who's done this thing against all odds, got this result, it just compounds into your solidification into the market as a serious player so that when somebody on a good team posts a job and you apply, they're like, dude, I've seen you crushing it. I know you're legit. Let's go, dude. Like, I'll set up the interview, whatever it might be. You can do this with your friends, your in-real-life friends that have no idea what this is, that don't care to pursue this. You can do this with your family, but there's a little bit more to it when these people understand what you've been through. And not to mention, you know, community events and in-person meetups and meeting with people like local to you or going to like annual events like the one that we're hosting in a few weeks here. Think about your favorite hobby. It's probably more fun with your favorite people involved. And some of these hobbies don't even work without other people involved. But the point stands, man. Like, having people that get it is valuable, makes it more fun, makes you sustain longer the highs and the lows to the point where you eventually have no option but to see success. A combination of these 8 things is why most people who actually do well in this space have paid to become a part of some sort of training, some sort of community, to have that support, to have the clear picture, and to have the checks and balances and to have the jobs sourced and to get the intros where they matter. Because if you're doing this all alone, none of that exists. You're just cold application, cold application, cold application, hope for an interview, hope that they're hiring. And then let's say you get into something, but then it doesn't work out. So then you're back to square one. You have no momentum. You're just back to cold hiring, back to cold hiring. Whereas like your network and your reputation can compound in these communities by showing up to live calls. Like I host 2 live calls a week and we have one every single day of the week. I know every single person that shows up and makes an effort, and I'm so much more likely to reach out to them directly when someone, a business owner, hits me up looking for a killer, or when someone asks for like, hey, in the community, who are like 3 of the best setters that are looking for jobs? Like, proximity is power. But if you have proximity to nothing but yourself and the open market, it's overwhelming. And if you know that you're the person capable, whether you're already making a lot of money now and you just want to do that over here, or You're making just okay money and you want a significant change in your life. You guys all know the saying, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. It's true. I mean, you're not looking into this space to do it for 3 months and then dip out. I take it not, especially if you watch this far into the video. You're looking into this space because you want to do it for more than a year. And if it works well, 2 years, 3 years, at least some serious time. The likelihood that you get to the point of this serious time, if you don't have all the things we just talked about, are very much so lower. And I think you understand that now. Like, it's at the end of the day, man, it's math. Okay? You make money now. You want to make money here. If you're not making the money, you're losing the money, especially if you know 100% that it is possible. You see these kids, these idiots on social media making $20K, $30K per month, $40K per month, and it's pissing you off because you're like, these kids are idiots. Like, I could run circles around them. You're right, but these kids were just dumb enough to fail. Maybe that's the situation. They were just dumb enough to pay to make it easy. They were just dumb enough to get the accountability, to get access to a community where you, similar to me, you might be a little hardheaded. You might be, ah, I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to try it for free. In the pursuit of trying it for free, you might figure it out. But what's more likely to happen is you realize this is hard. And then you just think that's a reflection of the entire industry. And unfortunately, this industry is a little bit pay to play. So that's my 8 things, you guys. If you are convinced that doing it solo is an uphill battle for no reason and you want to do it with a group of serious people, again, this plaque back here on the wall is for 110K per month interviews. I think we'll probably hit that Q2 of 2027. We're at about 70 right now. If you Check out the end of this video. There's a playlist with all the interviews. You can see them. I mean, it's like 30 hours of one-on-one content. I have another one lined up, 11.8K last month, UK-based guy selling paid ads coaching for a US-based company, working pretty part-time. So if you want to go alone, go to the second link in the description. That is the free training, 15-hour. If you want to go far, go to the first link in the description. And thank you guys for tuning in. If you have any questions, drop them in the comment, drop a like, subscribe. And we're about to up the YouTube cadence, 2 videos a week. So I'll see you there.