Breaking Barriers Discover Business Growth Through Alliances | 11 Minutes

Start making connections. So I'm a big believer that the easiest way to sell your product or service is to connect with people who are already selling to your target base. The hardest thing to do is to go one at a time, one at a time, one at a time, trying to deal with potential customers. Where the easiest thing to do is partner up with individuals and businesses who already know your target audience, who already have the audience themselves, and can introduce you to them. Then by introducing yourself to one person, you're reaching potentially thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people. So as it relates to my book, I'm just starting to get into the marketing side of things. We're just finishing up the copy edits. It's in the publisher's hand right now, and I don't have anything else to write, so I'm kind of sitting like this on Tuesdays. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna start making some connections, start getting the marketing side rolling a little bit. And for me, you know, when the book comes out, I'm obviously gonna tell you guys about it. Hopefully you guys will support it. But after that, I don't wanna just go try to reach people one at a time. The strategy's gonna be partnering up with people, making alliances with people who also have a big audience for them to help promote it, share it, ask questions. So on the channel, I've already done collaborations with Michael Gerber and Brian Tracy. There's some new ones coming up soon. With Ryan Holiday and Chris Guillebeau and Lewis Howes and Gary Vaynerchuk. And I'm working my way into James Altucher, Tony Robbins, Robert Greene, and a bunch of other authors and influencers. And so the strategy is I want to get on their radar, I want to have them on my channel, I want to interview them and get to know them a little bit more. I just came back from New York where I met Ryan, and then Chris was here on, on Monday. And then when I'm ready to go, right, like you give first, I'm helping them promote what they're doing, and then when my book comes out, they're gonna be having me on their podcast or their interviews or their YouTube channel, whatever, however we work it out. And so it's really important, like you wanna start making those connections, start making those alliances, because it's a lot easier to set up a partnership call, an alliance call, if you guys can help each other out than just trying to go do a sales call, and the potential influence is much greater 'cause these guys can help impact you and introduce you to thousands of people instead of one at a time. So start thinking about who you can make connections with in your business to help you really expand and grow. So let's get to the questions. First one came in from Rita. There's no way anyone else could read it the way you do, not to mention most readers want the connection with the author. Yeah, last time I was talking about how we do have an ebook coming out and an audiobook coming out. I wanna be able to read the audiobook. And again, I haven't talked to my publisher about it, but I'm assuming they're gonna want me to do it. For the ebook, it's gonna be a deluxe ebook that also has half an hour of video in there. So I gotta figure out what kind of bonus 30 minutes of footage I can fit in. I may ask you guys for feedback once we release the title and the concept because it's kind of hard without knowing what it's all about. But yeah, there's a lot of love going in. You know, my publisher said this is an option, but you're gonna have to spend the time to create and edit the videos. Like, that's not a problem. I'm willing to work. Like, I will work. I will make the videos. I will record all of the audiobook. I'm gonna put in the hustle. Nobody else is gonna do it like I will do it. As soon as that's ready, I'll let you guys know. Kitsune Goddess: I love this episode. You have been a great inspiration and motivation for me. Thank you for that. I have a question. I have a fear of failing and leaving my comfort zone. Every time I want to try to draw panels and pages from my manga, I freeze up and end up just looking at the sketchbook or tablet. I fear that I will fail and mess it up. I've never done it before, so I'd be leaving my comfort zone too. How do you get the motivation to leave your comfort zone and not be afraid to mess up or fail? I think the key thing there, one, you know, totally understand, totally get it. Everybody faces that. I remember when I was first doing videos for the YouTube channel, I was afraid that I would suck, and then I filmed it and I thought that I did suck. That's anything, like anything new that is exciting for you, there's also that attachment of fear. But if you don't go out and do it, then you're just gonna keep living the life that you have right now and never do anything exciting, interesting, or challenging for yourself. At least what helped for me is expecting to suck. So I don't see, you know, if I were you, I wouldn't see my first manga as trying to be amazing. Like, you have these expectations for you want to be up here, but your skills aren't there to match, right? You know what is good, but your skills can't measure up yet. But you get better every day. My goal is always to create something better than I did yesterday, right? If I looked at my channel and said, well, Listen, I'm not Tony Robbins, and I look at Tony Robbins, I'm like, he's maybe one of the best there is, or Les Brown or Eric Thomas. I'm not that guy, so I'm not gonna get started. That would prevent me from getting as far as I have. And if you look at the start of my channel to where it is now, you see me get a lot better and have a lot more impact, and it's helped people like you. And so there are people who will appreciate what you have. Just focus on making it better every day, because as long as you keep that blank page, Daily, you're never gonna learn, you're never gonna get better, you're always gonna be afraid. Draw something, and then draw something tomorrow, and then draw something the next day, and just focus on making it better each day instead of looking at the people who are the best and saying, "I'm not like them, and I suck." Expect to be terrible at the start and get better every day. Relaxing Sleep Station wrote in to say, "For me, audiobooks are much easier to consume and would be eager to hear yours when the time comes. Keep changing lives." Thank you for that. And yeah, I'm not a big consumer of audiobooks, but I know a lot of people are, especially people who commute a lot. I think because I don't commute to work, I don't really listen to audiobooks, but it may just be a personal preference thing. But yes, we announced that a number of months ago, I believe, on the channel. Super excited to do it. And as soon as it's ready to go, I don't know the timing of when the audiobook's gonna come out, how much it matches with the actual book, if it all comes together or there's a delay or not, but as soon as that's ready to go. I'll let you guys know. Martin Macedonian is asking, multi-level marketing, is it a scam? Multi-level marketing is just a business model, right? Multi-level marketing, network marketing, is just a business model. The scam is not in the business model. The scam would be in the companies. But it's just as much of a scam as in anything else, right? I could open up a business online and pretend to sell you something and never actually ship it. So it's not that MLM is necessarily a scam. It just depends on the companies that you end up working with. I would say though you want to work with a company. The biggest flaw is people go in just thinking they can make a lot of money, where what you want to do is focus on a product or service that you actually use, that you love, that you can tell a story about, that you would recommend to your mother, that you would tell your friends to use because it's adding so much value to your life. If you do not actually use the product and can't talk about it in a personal, emotional way, then you're never going to have success. So some people may say MLM is a scam. It's not. It's just a business model just like anything else. It's the companies that are behind it, and some are going to be great and some are going to be bad, just like any other industry. Next up is Shubham asking, hope you get my message. I'm pretty messed up with the situation. I'm a college student and not even financially strong to start a business, but I have a startup idea and I've even made a team for that. It's an event organizing company— I mean, online event organization company. So I'm pretty confused. Shall I start this business or not? Many have demoralized me regarding this and many have motivated me, but my heart does not listen to anyone else. I just want to start this business. This month. Do you have any piece of advice for me? I'll be glad to follow that. Thank you. This is a great question and one I think a lot of people can relate to. I think when you come up with an idea, there's gonna be a lot of people who hate on it. There's gonna be a lot of people who tell you you can't do it, say, well, you've never run an event organization company, so you won't be successful. And it's great that you actually have some people around you who are motivating you and that you are, at the end of the day, you're gonna listen to yourself because too many people live somebody else's version of their lives instead of their own version. You can take counsel from people, but at the end of the day, you're making a decision because it's the right thing for you in your heart, not because somebody else thinks you should do it. In terms of getting started, you just wanna find the smallest, easiest way to get started. It's great that you have a team, it's great that you have partners who are helping you out on this. This is a business that is very time-intensive, but doesn't have to be very capital-intensive, which is great because you have a lot of time, but you don't have a lot of money. So you're not out spending tons of cash building inventory, buying equipment, getting vehicles, getting locations, right? You don't need to pay rent or do anything else. You can start with just your hustle. And any business you can start with just your hustle is a perfect business to get started. So start, try it, see if it's for you, see if it makes you come alive, see if you enjoy it, see what the customer reaction is. You know, you may get into it and it may be the best thing that ever happened to you when you go all in and you have an amazing career. You may get into it and you hate it. You figure out, you know what, it wasn't what I thought it was, I don't wanna do this, I'm gonna go off and do something else, and that's a great learning experience as well. You need to get some answers, and the only way to do it is to do it. So start. Last question is Julian. I have a YouTube channel which covers my songs, but some people tell me, Julian, you should record recent songs or songs we hear on the radio, and this is my question. Must I record recent songs even if I don't like them just because people listen to them? For example, I recorded "Unchained Melody" from the movie Ghost. I love the song and people love the song too. So is this the combination you were talking about? This is an interesting question and I'm glad that you asked it because there's a lot of different ways to grow a business. There's a lot of different advice you can get from people. I can give you a lot of different marketing strategies, but you have to figure out which is the one that works for you. So I think as musicians, it is super easy to do your own take on songs, right? If you took a Lady Gaga song or you know, some super popular song right now and put your own twist on it, that's the easiest way to stand out compared to creating original work. You know, Unchained Melody is a well-known song, maybe a little bit dated, but if you love it, then that's what's gonna make you come alive. You're gonna put a lot more energy into it than if you try to do a cover of a song that you're not a big fan of. And so it may be the best strategy in the world, but if your heart isn't into it, then it's not gonna work for you. Right, if I said, go make a cover of Thrift Shop and you hate Thrift Shop, then it's not gonna be a great cover and it's not gonna help you. So you gotta find the songs that you do like, whether it's creating original work or if you're gonna do covers, finding the ones that you do really enjoy, like Unchained Melody, and keep going all in on that. It'd be great to see your take on it, right? As an artist, you gotta figure out what you're bringing, what your creative expression is so that when, and somebody listens to it, they feel something, right? The point of art is that when I listen to your music or when I see your painting or when I, you know, see you dancing or whatever it is, I get moved emotionally. And the only way for me to be moved emotionally is for you to be moved emotionally when you are creating it. So if you're not moved emotionally, then don't create it and spend your time doing the stuff that does move you. So thank you guys so much for watching. If you have a question about the topic, which was about creating connections, or you wanna learn about my book, or a question about the book writing process, leave it in the comments below and I will answer you in next week's video. Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for your support. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.