Episode #612 - There Are No Shortcuts To Success! With Derral Eves, Co-Founder at The Chosen

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Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

It's good to, to provide some insight into how you go through the concept stage. Like, you have the idea and you have a few knowns, but there's a whole, there's many more unknowns than knowns. You don't know what you don't know, but you got a plot, you know the direction, you know, and you know, be thankful for that. But you know, those of y' all out there getting started and you can get ideas, a lot of times if you don't have an idea from people have been down that road before and you start to say, that makes sense to me, I could do that. And you got to start moving, but how does that the things come to you to do next and to start moving forward like that.

So once again, that's my process that I go through in every July and I'll give you one specifically. So my heart was saying, Darrell, you need to spend more time at the chosen CEO of the chosen at the time. And you know, we're just building it and I needed to put more time there and I'm like, okay, how am I going to try transition out of my consulting job with YouTube, not, not throw it all away, not sell out. Because, you know, I have people that are very, very, you know, dependent on this business succeeding and their families. And so what can I do? And so I process that as, okay, I'm going to go away from one on one. So instead of doing one on one where I'm helping very strategically clients, I'm going to go one on many. So I'm like, okay, I needed to get a coaching program and, and, and that will help me, you know, navigate, you know, going for one on many. So it was like, like maybe in four hours a week I can, you know, coach thousands of people instead of just doing one on one. And so that was the goal. I says that was the mechanism. And for me just the goal was to spend more time with the chosen without losing the revenue. And so I needed to hire someone that could support it, brought someone on, they needed to understand what I did. And this person had no experience on YouTube at all. I had to bring them up to speed. So that's another goal, right? And then the goal would be to take what was in my head and to create a program out of it in the sense of, here's what I work with clients on, I'm translating here and I want to be able to see is it actually doable, you know, if, if it, if someone's just learning about it. So I need to do a beta group of people coming in. So we got like 30 people out of the gate that, that came in as initial, you know, students that I mentored and I taught them the system and, and we, we literally analyzed what was working, what wasn't working, and we're making better content and, and figuring out how to go through their questions and so on. But that, that was the process. Now here's where everything comes in. So like my whole goal, my whole goal is to spend more time with the chosen. And I needed coaching students. But you also need to create awareness, right? So I'm like, okay, I'm going to create more awareness and I want to do it in a way where people would naturally come into a funnel organically or if I want to put paid behind, I can do that. But I like organic. I want to create a funnel with a feedback loop. Well, how can I get the best feedback loop of bringing more awareness of what's going on? And I'm like, okay, I need to write a book. Well, what do I need to write a book about? Well, I need to write a book about the system that I'm teaching my students. I need case studies. Who should be the case studies? It should be my students. Like every case studies in here is either clients or students that I've worked with very specifically. And this is the beginning group. This is like the whole process was I needed to get the case studies before the book came out and I had a deadline, so I had goals with them and I had to get them passionate about those goals. And when you read this, it's just so amazing. And then for me, I wanted visibility, so I wanted the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, bestseller type thing. And it was like the whole reasoning of the why was because if I do this right, I get to spend more time at the chosen. If I do this right, I'm going to have more people want to be mentored me by 12 weeks, you know, and go deeper with me and my group coaching, right? Why? To free up my time to go, not have to change time for money, but do what on many and then create a system around it. And, and we did that literally in three years. And this is where visions come in. When I hired the guy that, that was going to handle the coaching program, I. This is what I told him, I says, you know, I want to hire you. He had an mba, like really, just really, really smart guy.

Yeah.

I says, you're going to hate me. And he goes, why? Why would I hate you? Like, I'm an easy going guy. I go, well, because I'm only going to give you one job, one responsibility, and until you understand it, I can't give you another. And you're going, it's going to be something that anyone can do. You're going to think, oh, this is beneath me, you know, and, and you're going to hate it, but I need you to do it so I have no other way to know how to train you. And he goes, well, what is it? And I says, every consultation that I do, you're going to transcribe for me and you're going to do notes. And I know that I'm paying you really well to do that and I can get it done a lot cheaper, but I just don't know how to train you and give you what's in my head in a way that you can understand because I don't have it. And so I want you to pretty much take notes. And then we're going to have conversations of what you're learning and what you're doing and the moment that you can anticipate me. We want to have an in depth conversation. And so that's how he started. And I says, the goal that I have is, number one, I want you to help me develop this coaching program and you will do everything in it. I'm going to be the mentor, you're going to be the coach. And so we're going to get you positioned right, but you need to know your stuff and you need to be able to work with people. So he did the sales and the whole thing, like the whole thing, right. And all I did is I brought the content in and I came in and mentored people. But what was beautiful was three months into it, he's like, Darrell, you know, super smart. Got this, I know this. And you had this call and did you think about doing this? And I says, so I go, I really appreciate you taking initiative. You apparently watched a video from this guy, right? And he goes, yeah. And I says, you definitely don't know what the hell you're doing. I'm sorry. And he goes, what do you mean? I'm like doing all this research out there. And I says, you're not listening to the right person, you know, and, and I want you to really listen to the right person. And the right person is who you're transcribing for, not some guy that made a video on some hack. Cause we don't do hacks. There's a system behind this, and I want you to anticipate that. And it. It kind of rubbed him raw a little bit. Cause I'm a very blunt guy. And. And yet he went into it, and it was about four months later. He goes, oh, my gosh. It just opened up to him. He goes, I'm finally getting what you're saying. And we had a conversation. I said, okay, great. Now I want you to train someone to transcribe all this stuff and give me notes, because you now know it, but I want you to be in charge of it. And now let's put this program together. And then we just kind of mapped it out. And then ultimately we did it. We launched it at my conference, and we did it where it was just a booth that said ultimate jumps or channel jump start. 30 seats left. That's it. Didn't have my name on it. Didn't have anything. People had to come up to him, and then he had to sell them on it. And that was my whole thing. I go, you got to learn how to sell it. Because, like, I'm here. People, every. Everybody in this conference knows who I am, because I'm putting on the conference now. You got to sell it. And he did. He got that first 30. And the goal was, can we get them to succeed with the program, to get them to be a case study? Because when I write the book, I want say, this is the formula that works, not just because I'm doing it, but this works because people, if they follow my system, they're going to succeed. And that's where this came from. And so that all came.

Basically, it's duplicatable. It's not personality dependent, personality driven. It's a duplicatable system.

Absolutely. And the reason why I did that was my main goal is to free up more time with the chosen. And that's what I needed to do to free up more time with the chosen, but also have be a lead gen in to a feedback loop of bringing new people aware. Like we sell at every class. I have never spent $0 on advertising. You know, I've done podcasts a little bit of my time, but everything's been organic. And what's been beautiful about it is seeing the lives of my students change because of what I'm teaching them. And then what's more beautiful about it is I'm able to Go on my passion project and spend the time that I want to on things that I really care about. And so I'm able to still transfer that information, help them, but also it's helping families and going from there. Now, another thing I always want let you know, just so that you understand how I operate. I told him at the time of saying, okay, we got this program that we're developing. And I says, I go in three years, because this was in July, right. In three years, I want you to be the president of this company. Because I can't do it. I can't. I got. I got all this other stuff over there. So this is where I want you to be. We need to get you up to speed to that. And it was three years to the date. Well, three years to January at the time that he became president of this company. And now, you know, I literally only spend like four or five hours a week on this company. And all it is is just things that I only can do is the group, stuff like that.

I don't know if you'll appreciate me saying this, but I think it's a tribute to you in the sense you may be abrupt, but you've got a whole lot more patience than maybe you give yourself credit for. In the sense that you did not shout out to my wife, Larry, because you did not fire his ass on the spot when he came in and said, I've got a, you know, you're doing great, Darrell, but I've got some suggestions for you. The fact that you did not fire his ass on the spot.

Yeah.

Speaks to, you know, the wisdom that's going on in your head, and it paid off for you. But I think it's important for us as entrepreneurs to realize that people are great with it. Education's great. You got to have people with education. But a lot of times it creates layers of resistance and preconceived ideas that have been laid down in an education that they are preconditioned to see things. They come in with a whole bunch of filters, and he was taking notes from you, but it's still only so much penetrated through all those filters. And he was writing it down.

Yeah, I think it's this. It's like he need to understand what the assignment was. Like he wanted to impress me is what he was trying to do. He's like, I'm learning. I did some outside stuff and I'm learning stuff that you might not have picked up on. And he wanted to show value. Now, the thing is, when I hired him, I was impressed with how he got his master's in business administration. He got it in record time. Anyone that gets it in record time, I'm like, okay, he just wanted to get a piece of paper to do X, Y or Z. And it wasn't necessarily the accomplishment, but it was like he did it in record time. And so I was really, really impressed by that. And so I knew he had aptitude to take action. And then when that happened, I just needed to hone it in on where he should look for a source. Now I can honestly say there's no doubt in my mind that he can know about 80% of what I know about YouTube because he's heard it over and over and over and over again. I always surprise him just because new situations that he's not aware of or we haven't gone through, he doesn't know how to respond to a lot of those. And I'm like, oh, I know it. Well, the reason why is because I've been doing it since 2005. I get it, I've seen a lot of data and, and then two, God made me understand. Like I, I just see things that really clear and so. But anyway, it's a great lesson that.

You do not give. You did not. You know, it's easy to be intimidated. People come in with credentials. They've been here, you know, there was a, you know, ambassador, you know, they, they, you know, in the United nations. They've been around the world, they've worked with this president, that president. They come in all this stuff and it's like, oh, I gotta, you know, kind of, you know, bow down and pay attention. Maybe there's stuff I'm missing. But in your business, if you're making a success, trust your instincts because it's such a fine line between mediocrity and greatness. And you know who's great at that? James Patterson. You know, he's the greatest living author in terms of volume. Book sold a number of that. But I mean, you know, he works with a lot of different people, but when they give him suggestions about his marketing plan and this that he says, I think we're going to go with a guy who has had 32 or 60 something bestsellers. We're going to go with his opinion, not yours.

Well, and too, you need to listen. I think if you think, oh, I don't want to listen to anybody else's opinion because I did X, Y or Z, I think that's detrimental too because I think at the end of the day, um, the, some of the best ideas come from getting feedback and getting other people's opinions. So I value that. I really do. Um, the only reason why I had to reset him is because he was putting a lot of authority on something that had a million views, but it was hogwash.

Yeah.

Um, and so he just had wrong expectations of why that was important. Right. And so he just didn't have the complete picture. And so once he was able to do that, it was easier, for sure.

Well, it's a great. It's a great idea if when you hear it, it doesn't matter where it comes from, but it's a great idea if when you hear it, you think it's a great idea. You know, when you heard. When you saw the Chosen, you said, I love it. That's got something I want in. You know, and, you know, you didn't come up with the chosen, but when you heard it, you know, your. Your life experience, your instincts said winner and I want in. And, And. And it's. You got to learn to trust those things.

When I, When I. Let's. When I. When I met the creator, because it was like, I've seen influencers before and I know kind of their personality and makeup, and I saw a short film that he made, so it wasn't even the Chosen, but it was like. It was a short film that he made about. About the birth of Jesus Christ. But it was in a very impactful way. But as soon as I met the creator, I'm like, okay, he's an influencer. He is like a YouTube influencer. We just need to raise money like that, and we need to build an audience around him, and that's coming through content and having him share his heart on the vision, mission, and purpose and the why, and we can have goals. And it just all clicked. And then as he was developing the show, it was like, man, it was speaking to me like no other. And it's just like, okay, now we just need to get more people to watch and experience it.

So.

Yeah.

Well, Darrell, you've been very kind. You've taken. Been more than generous with sharing your insights, and I know the people listening have enjoyed it every bit as much.

Larry, can I give one last thing? Just one last thing? Because it's really important for me, and I really appreciate your willingness to give so much to your audience, but anyone watching or listening to this right now, if you want to do something and you don't have a date on when you want to accomplish a buy, it's just a dream, it'll Always be a dream. You're never going to take action. You got to get very specific on explaining when you're going to do it. And if it's a really high goal that's way out there, then you might need to do smaller goals that will lead you to that bigger goal. And I think that you need to put the energy and effort and time into that plan. And there's no chance to convince me otherwise. I truly believe that anything that we put our mind to, but also our energy, we can achieve. I truly do believe it. And I'm hoping that the people that are watching and listening right now are inspired to take action. Because the only way that we're going to change the world, the only way that we're going to make it a better place is, is when you change your dreams to become reality. And the only way to do that is to actually make them goals and really make a plan to make it happen.

And I know you'll agree with this, but the reason behind why I wrote my book serial Winter so many years ago was the fact that the world is full of people who almost do great things. And we need more people who actually do great things.

Amen. Yep.

So thanks so much, Darrell. It's been a ball. Look forward to talking to you and hope to see you in person down the road.

Sounds great.

Thank you.

Bye.

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