Jason lost his job and wants to build a business in personal development and coaching. Evan Carmichael says skip network marketing schemes and instead promote products you already use, take a part-time job in the field to learn, then start with one-on-one coaching before creating your own courses and books.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm answering a question from Jason, who's one of my newsletter readers from Sacramento, California. So thanks for the question. Jason wrote in saying that it's a long email, so I'll try to summarize for you guys. So he lost his job last week. And his wife has been very supportive in that process. He wants to start his own business. His really strong passions are in personal development, motivational speaking, and relationship advisor/expert. He feels a rush to get back into the 9-to-5 job because he has to make money for his family. He's thinking about instead doing something in network marketing to try to create an income to bring home. Wanted my advice on what network marketing ventures might help him. And he doesn't want to live the rest of his life making $30,000 a year and wanted my advice on what to do. So thank you, Jason, for the question. Sorry to hear about your job, but I'm glad you see it as an opportunity. That's a common characteristic of successful entrepreneurs, is taking, you know, things that most people see as a negative and finding a way to make it a positive. In terms of network marketing, I don't have a lot of experience doing network marketing. I think for you the most important thing is not necessarily finding the right network marketing experience, but focusing focusing around something that you are really passionate about. So you say it's around the personal development relationship expert kind of field. If that's what you're really good at and that's what you're really passionate about, and in your email here you made that, you know, a little bit bolder in capital letters, so that's good. It shows you're really, you know, excited and passionate about it. So that's where you should focus. And it may not be your own product, and there may be network marketing products out there to help you, you know, those products that you can sell, if it's Tony Robbins or Brian Tracy or whoever it is, people who you respect, then that could be an opportunity. It doesn't necessarily have to be something that we're marketing though. And I wouldn't jump on something that's outside your field of interest, you know, not just something to try to make money, but something that you feel you can really touch people's lives with, where you can add a lot of value to them. And you want them to say, thank you, you know, what you did really changed my life. And that will not only be really personally fulfilling for you, but it is also the start of a business opportunity. The more you're able to help people, the more money you're going to be able to make. So for you, I would start trying to find opportunities. Look at things that have impacted your life. If there's a product or service that you use, or a specific coach or speaker who you really respect, and you've gone to their seminars and you've bought their CDs and books, maybe that's where you start and see if they have an affiliate program. Because if they've had an impact on you, that's something that you're going to be able to convey to other people really easily. If it's some brand new product that you have no idea what you're selling and you don't use it yourself, if you're not in love with it, your clients aren't going to love it. It's not going to come through. They're going to go find something else. So focus on what you're really good at. It's also going to bring you a lot more joy and satisfaction. Now, I don't want to say, you know, don't get a job, but with the job aspect here, there is an opportunity, and a lot of successful entrepreneurs started by having a part-time job. I think if you're going to have a job, to do it in a field that helps you grow in the area of interest that you're in. If you don't get a 9-to-5 job, even if it is full-time 9-to-5, do it in something that will help you learn about the area that you want to start a business in. It can be tough to start a business full-time right away without having any kind of income on the side. If you're going to get some income on the side, do it in something that's going to help you learn about personal development, relationship expert, how to build up that kind of business. So try to find those kinds of opportunities so when you're ready to go launch your business full-time, you have some experience there already built up. So there's nothing wrong with starting part-time. For you, if you're gonna make money, remember the magic ingredient here is adding value. So the longer-term success you'll probably find is creating your own products and services if you become a coach yourself, or you write your own books, or create your own CDs or DVD program, or whatever it is, you have to add a lot of value to the people who are going to buy it. The more value you add, the more money you're going to make. And so you have to think about what is unique about you and your story and how you deliver your message that people will really attune to and want to connect with you and buy your products and hire you to speak and coach them. And that may not be worked out yet. It may be too early days for you. You may know that you're really good at it and you want to learn more about it, but you don't quite know how to package it all together yet. And that's fine. That's part of the learning experience. You're not expected to know everything from the start. So that's where trying different offerings will help. So you— especially a service is often the best way to start because it gets you close to your customers. So start some kind of service-based business. So you're able to really connect with people one-on-one, learn about their challenges, and from there you can branch out and create products. But also, if you do get some kind of part-time job in your industry, then that'll teach you, you know, how to be able to grow a business in that company, in that kind of market, and then also give you some ideas for what is missing from the other companies out there and a hole that you could potentially fill with your products and services. So hopefully that helped. Good luck on the launch of the business. It's an exciting and terrifying time, I'm sure, for you. For those those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. It makes me want to do more of these videos for you. And if you have a question about this video or a question about your own company, feel free to leave it in the comments below. I always read those and I try to respond to as many as I can. So thank you and we'll see you on the next episode.
