0050: Profiting from Persistence with Author, Speaker, Founder & CEO & World’s Leading Landscaping & Window Cleaning Influencer Keith Kalfas

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Join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority Effect interview.

Welcome Expert Authority World. I'm excited to have another episode for you with another great guest. We're going to have a great interview. I'm excited to bring to you Keith Kalfus.

Have you ever thought about starting a company?

Have you ever thought about maybe starting a second company? Keith has done this very, very successfully and not only has he done it for himself, he has helped other people. Not just a few people, not just a dozen people, but hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of others. So we're gonna bring him up right after we thank our sponsor.

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Gentlemen, Mr. Keith Kalfus. Keith, how are you doing today?

What's going on?

Mario, I'm having a great day and excited to have you here. I want to dive in and know what is the inspiration for starting your company? Martin, why did you want to do it out of anything in the world?

Why? Landscaping, you know, really man, landscaping is the last thing in the world I wanted to do. I just started cutting grass when I, when I was a kid and I didn't know anybody who knew anything about anything and I was just kind of a broke kid and was out on my own by the age of 15 and I had to find a way to pay my bills so I was you know, lying on job applications and.

Then eventually started my own. But it's just, it's just a means to an end, a way to make money.

There's a lot more to it. But yeah.

What were you doing before that? Tell me a little bit about your story there.

When I was, I had my first two, I was working two jobs at 14, two part time jobs. I was in like an auto mechanic shop as like a cleanup porter boy and then busing tables at restaurants and working at hungry highways pizzeria. Just anything I could do to help put some food in the fridge at my house.

So ever since you started your company, I mean you did it because you wanted to make some extra money but what inspired you to but not only stay there, what made you want to help others with theirs?

Yeah, so I actually didn't Start because I have a landscaping business here in Michigan and I didn't even start my business until I was 28. So from, literally from let's just say 18 to 28.

That'S what the whole first part of my life, working for other people, stuck in a limited mindset of not having any access to YouTube or anything at that time of a bunch of young entrepreneurs saying, you can go do it, you know. So I was stuck, miserable working for other people.

And it wasn't until I was, you know, 28 that my whole life came crashing down on me. I wasn't making enough money to pay my bills. I had just gotten in.

Just kind of financial trouble and my back was against the wall. So I started going out at night and on the weekends I would get off work at my crappy day job, you know, and then go out and to literally dark, knocking on people's doors, posting ads on Craigslist asking people if I could pull their weeds. Like pulling because I was flat broke, head nothing, dude. I was like borrowing. I didn't even have a car. I was borrowing my wife's car and going with like lawn bags. And I would show up like I would sell a job on Craigslist. This is how I started my business, right, because we had an eviction notice on the door at our apartment. And I was like terrified. I was like the biggest, most terrified man. And I would show up to people, I would sell a job over the phone, not even know at the price. And then I would show up in my wife's car. And I've literally had people come out of their house. It's like, no thanks, please go away. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm an expert landscaper. I've been doing this my whole life. Gimme a chance. I'm starting up my own business. I don't care. You're like, you're not in a lettered truck. You don't look professional. I don't. How am I? So it was one of those things like just going home defeated, but I literally did that. I was able to replace the income from my job in six weeks and start my own small business.

Congratulations. That's huge.

Yeah, so it's funny what you could do when your back is against the wall. You can go out and become a person that you never thought was possible.

You know, six weeks. 12 years of being stuck in dead end jobs replaced my income in six weeks. I always thought you needed 20, 30,000 startup capital to start a small business. I didn't Know, you could literally just go start now if, if you're like in the restaurant industry, which I've done plenty of that when I was a teenager, like busing tables and waiting tables, you can't just go start your own restaurant. But the interesting thing about the service home services business.

Plumbing, painting, drywall, siding, landscaping, lawn care, window cleaning, I mean, you can literally just start with nothing but your fingertips. And so within the next 24 months, I got the business up to six figures just by working my guts out and saying the word yes. And then now you asked the question, inspiring other people to start their own business.

For me, with what you do on YouTube and your trainings and your books, I mean, you clearly have successful not only one company, but multiple companies, which is admirable. But a lot of people would just be complacent and stay there. Why did you want to go out and help other people do the same thing? Because you went from just running the company to teaching others how to do it, which is a whole other business and a whole other mindset. What inspired you to expand on that, if you will?

I believe that, at least for me, there's a saying that I love. David Data said this. He said, lock yourself. David Data is an author. He wrote a book called the Way the Superior Man. He wrote. He said, lock yourself in a room with a notepad and a pen and do not come out until you know your purpose. So I went through a pretty severe depression and you know, 2011 and 12 and ended up in that same position, you know, locking myself in the house.

And I just had a total breakdown. I was crying and sobbing and I believe in God and I believe in Jesus. And I was just like repenting and just trying to like renew, you know, who.

To become a person who has an attitude of gratitude. I really felt that my, my whole life. I used to have these dreams when I was a little kid. It was weird that I was in a suit and tie on stage in front of thousands of people, like with tears in my eyes, screaming some message of hope. I know that sounds really weird, but that's the number one thing that drove me. So I started making these videos on YouTube and documenting my entire story of how I went from a flat broke nine to five Joe, who is stuck in a dead end job and miserable, fighting with his wife over money issues and an eviction notice on my door, stuff like that. And in debt with debt collectors calling me of how I was able to transition, start my own business, get it off the ground and literally go out, out and pay off all my debts and get to the point where I have, you know, multiple streams of income and 13 bank accounts and two businesses.

Within a five year period. So when I tell that story on the Internet on YouTube.

Because I have like 1500 videos on YouTube now and have just crossed 20 million views. And.

I wrote and I published two books and two online courses. I have a new online course coming out soon, a new book coming out soon. I have my own live seminar event that people fly all over the country to come to my event. This one we're having in September, there's gonna be three to 500 people. I think we're gonna sell it out. 500 people. I just don't have a doubt with, with that.

But I really believe that if you want to say, become what they call like an influencer or whatever, it's as simple as just picking up even your cell phone. Because I have videos with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. My cell phone, you get an inspiring moment.

I really like. I know I'm kind of jumping around, but I'm piecing this together. There's a couple paths to enlightenment, and one is the way of the cross. It's enlightenment through suffering. And there's these times when I'd be on a job site, the sun is beating on me, I'm dripping in sweat. I'm totally frustrated. I just under quoted this job, you know, as a contractor if anybody's here and you know what that's like, and you're just anxiety and you're suffering the thing out at the same time. You know, the material showed up late, then this thing broke down, then the employee is sick, and then you're going through all these things and then you come home for dinner and you're supposed to be present with your family and put on this smile when you're just like. So I would, in these moments, whether it be three o' clock in the morning or in the middle of a job site, I'd pick up my phone and I'd be like, dude, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I would speak about it in a learning way. Not like a victim, but I would share these transformational stories of like, ah, the silver lining to all this. This is the journey. And you know what's interesting? If you get really vulnerable, there's a book by Brene Brown called the Power of Vulnerability. And I encourage you to watch her TED Talk. And that really kind of changed my life. Well, that one book alone I've read like 470 books now on audible.com and just a Wild Landscaping. And that book is amazing because she talks. When you're vulnerable with people, especially, you know, on the Internet, there's something so tangible about that that people can emotionally wrap their heart around. And then they go from, you know, judging you to actually, you know, resonating with you. Certain people do. And if, if you know who you're talking to and you're speaking from coming from a position that you've actually done the thing you're using, you can create a lot of credibility with a lot of people really, really fast on the Internet by doing something that's called the anti guru effect. You're not saying, hey, I'm a multimillionaire and I've done all these things and I'm going to show you how to do it in this five step process that works with some people. But what if you're saying, hey, I'm not a multimillionaire, I've gone through some really tough stuff and I'm here today in this place I've always dreamed of being, being at. And I'm so like thankful because I used to be there and I got to share with you like these few things that just changed my life.

You have that servant's heart in the gratitude. You're not trying to loop people in, if you will. You're just sharing your experience with them, which they can relate to.

Yes. Now at some point when you build an audience, I mean, doing stuff on the Internet is, gets really time consuming. You have to, let's quote, unquote, monetize. And I believe that if you, if you create products and programs and coaching, consulting and courses and things that kind of revolve around what you're teaching them, then you build so much reciprocity with your, your audience or your following that it'll get to the point where they're mad at you because they just want to give you money. They're upset with you because they, they want to buy something. And you can literally get it to the point where.

When you release a product, it's like floodgates. They all just buy it. And that's the times when you make, you know, you can make five grand or ten grand in a single evening and you're just freaking out. I remember when I did my first product launch, I never made that much money in my life in one night. And I was literally just jumping. I created an online course called how to Start a Landscaping Business Right now with no Startup Money and It's. It's a compilation of step by step videos of me on actual job sites doing property walks and pricing how to start a business, how to legitimize it. It comes with a downloadable ebook and an audio book. And I sold that to my audience with a continuity, a membership option, a monthly membership option. And then all of a sudden, all these people signed up. And then what it did is when. When. So when you're taking your journey, your struggle, and your story, and then now you're being seen as like an authority online or kind of the spokesperson for that sector of the industry, that demographic, and you begin to learn how marketing works. And now you're communicating with an audience and. But you're with them. It's an us thing because there's like a you space, there's a me space, there's a we space. When the customer. I mean, at the customer. When the people watching you on the Internet feel like there's a we space, and then they come in, and then they. They. They buy your course. That transaction is almost, like invisible. It's just the next step.

Yeah, now they want it. They're expecting it. You know, they read the book, but that's not enough. They want to go deeper with you. And it's a disservice. I tell my clients all the time, it's a disservice to them if you don't have the course. And a lot of people think it's like, well, I don't want to push this on them. And you don't need to. You'll have people begging you, going, how do I learn more? How do I dig deeper? And it sounds like you're experiencing that, bro.

So if you can get yourself in your mind to. Okay, so at my last year, my marketing ROI Live workshop event here in Michigan, it's sold out. My. My buddy Eric Reno, he's got, like, a $5 million roofing business, and he's got an amazing story. And I said, why don't you come to the hotel conference room, because the event's in two weeks. And I just want you to kind of look at all the, you know, picture. You're going to be speaking in front of these people for the first time. He's not a speaker, but he's got an amazing story. And he actually gave one of the best speeches. People were crying, Dud. He was like that Victor, that valor, like, crush it, dude. And he's. He's like, oh, I'm good. I'm going to crush. It's going to be okay. Not in an egotistical way, but he stood in this conference.

You got to have confidence, though the world is a nasty place. You got to have confidence. If you're not operating 150%, you need to have a little bit of wiggle room. And it's not to say, look at me. I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread, But I tell people, you can't be at 100, because the second you get one nick, you're below 100.

That's interesting.

So you had to come into the room. He was checking it all out. Never spoke before.

Yeah. And so I follow a lot of public speaking, online training. One guy in particular. His name is Beau Eason. And he said that you should walk around the room, put your hands on the tables and chairs, go to the corner, put your hands on the walls and mark your territory. Stand in every position of the room and throw. And the way I perceive this is as you're in the back of the room pretending you are an attendee, watching yourself speak. Then you go to the front of the room. Then you go to the side. You walk in and out the doors. You go to the bathroom, you look out the window. You make sure what you're doing is you're really familiarizing yourself with the room, and then you're dominating and owning it. So when you actually go on stage that morning.

Now, you're so comfortable in that room that people. You're almost you. You. You appear natural, like you've been there before, even if you haven't. That's why you need to get in the room and scope it out. I'm speaking in a couple weeks here, and I'm next week, actually, and I'll be doing that as well. But anyways, Eric, he.

I say, eric, this room is packed right now. Everybody's looking at you. And then I changed. I flipped the skirt on him. And I'm not gonna really cuss here too much, but I said, dude, you went out. You went from living in a trailer park trying to be a famous rapper. So was I at one point. But to building a $5 million business. And you have a successful family. You have everything you ever wanted. And people want to know how you did this. They want to know your story. And you selfish bastard for not putting just, you know, sharing that with other people. There's people craving this knowledge, and how dare you. And in that heat, people don't talk, like, to him like that because he's the boss man. But have a good friendship and all of a Sudden, like, dude, he just went cold. Like, white, pale face. Goosebumps, bro. And he looked at me and it hit him like a ton of bricks. He's like, oh, my God, in two weeks, this room is going to be packed. I've crossed the Rubicon. There's no backing out of this. And the very next morning, dude, he showed up to his office, like, at 6am and started preparing his speech. And we started going over it. He got dead serious about what was about to happen. And he was calling me. I was coaching him over the phone. Not that I'm a great speaker, but. And I was pointing him to the resources. And, like, that dude, that he showed up, even though he wasn't a professionally polished speaker, he crushed it, bro. Like his. I don't want to say. I can't say what he said.

But the last, like, 30 seconds of his speech, he talked about how.

The big dog, like the big fish, the hungry shark, always wins. If you come to my town and you start putting roofing signs all over the place, trying to compete with me, that's okay, because I'll effing crush you. And then he walked off the stage. But now it's not what he said, it's how he said it. Because I watch men in the audience, mostly men, because it was a very masculine type of stoic thing that he was communicating. People were crying because he was talking about reaching deep down inside and grabbing that. Grabbing a hold of that place inside of you that just wants to be an alpha, that wants to stop being afraid and wants to just go out and just attack.

Your goals and dreams in a. In a vigilant type of way. And that's what he's able to do. And then now, so I could go on and on about this, but. So that's. That's where all the passion comes from and inside of me. And now I actually coach and help other people kind of do this. And I'm really excited about it because.

I believe anybody who is an. Who spent years in their life developing a skill and who. Who's now becoming or has become somebody, like, you're successful, dude. Like, you're successful, girl, because you figured this thing out. Like, you're not giving yourself enough credit of how far you've actually come. There's so many people dreaming that they. They wish that they can do what you've done. And if you just open your mouth and turn on the video or make a podcast or do something, you start. Like, aside from the money, you actually start to create value for Thousands of people. And if you think nobody's going to listen to you, you're wrong. Because check this out. There might be somebody that you're comparing yourself to in the industry of experts or influencers that you're like, well, I can't be like them. Look how polished they are. Look how great they are. They're not you. And when you be your own unique self and you be authentic and bold and.

Vulnerable, you know, let's say. Let's say you have like, some. Like, some. What's that called? Like a huge birthmark on your face, and that's okay. That will become, like the most beautiful thing about you. Let's say you have a lisp or you talk or you stutter. It doesn't matter what it is. When you're your own authentic self and your spirit shines through that could be. There's this dude I follow on YouTube. He's a Bergsmar or something. He. He does, like, video reviews and he loves GoPros. And the dude is Death. He's literally like, GoPro. This dude is the shit. I love this guy. So he's got, like, millions of subscribers and he's one of the best communicators on YouTube because he doesn't let being deaf stop him. He actually uses that as, you know, like his greatest gift. Right. Like me, I, like, blink and I have twitches and a little bit of Tourette syndrome. Like, I was really insecure about that for a long time, but now I say, hey, all these people that, like, have these weird issues and their mom. My mom died of a heroin overdose. Like, people that I know, that's kind of deep, but sorry to hear. People who go through. Who've gone through that stuff, if you be your own unique self and you let all that stuff just show, then all these people will.

You don't let it stop you because it's worth so much more. It's like when I got my first car, all my friends, parents were buying them their cars. We were all turning 16 or whatever, and I wanted a car, I wanted a boat. And I remember my parents saying, you can have anything you want as long as you pay for it. And I actually started my first company again, landscaping, also when I was 12. And by the time I was 14, 15, 16, I had money to pay cash for the car. And it was worth so much more because you know what it took to get there. Just like, you know, with your books, with your show, with my trainings with this show and all the different things, it's like, if one thing doesn't go right, you're not going to go, well, I'll just go get another job. You're going to go, I'm going to fight for this. Like your friend Eric was talking about to the point of the vulnerable, the vulnerabilities and the flaws, if you will. You know, I found it most interesting. Do you remember aim, AOL Instant messenger in the little icons before all this stuff? You remember the one with the, like, the mole on here? The. The icon with the mole on the face?

I don't remember that.

There was a smiley face icon with a mole on it and was actually modeled after when they were making the emo icons off of Cindy Crawford. Yeah, you know, think about that. The modeling industry, it's like, where everything has to be perfect. And it's like, no, absolutely not.

She, like, redefined that.

So with what you're saying, with the books, the training, the podcast, what's the biggest transformational story you can think of of someone who's bought your book, your training, listen to your show. What's one story that just blew your mind that you probably weren't even thinking about? What's the biggest transformation you've been able to give to someone?

Multiple confirmed prevented suicides because of my videos. So I've.

Woken up in the middle of the night. It's a spiritual thing to me where I feel this something's. I have to make this video. My wife would be like, what are you doing? Doesn't matter. I have to go out and make a video. I'll take my cell phone with the. The light on, like, blinded by it. And I'll just make some deep video about something that's, you could say channeling or rushing through me, just.

And I knew I had to make that video at that time. There's a few of these videos on my YouTube channel @Keith Kelfas. If you got K e, I T H K a L, F A s, you'll probably see in the show notes, just type my name in anywhere in the Internet and you'll see all my crazy videos. But.

I'll feel very compelled to make a video. Then a week later, it'll loop back to me that something happened. It changed someone's life. It started a business, it's prevented a suicide. And, you know, I've broken down crying because I don't know what or I don't know why, but I really believe if you believe you have a message that you need to share with somebody and you're worrying that, like, your Makeup isn't right or you got some bags under your eyes or you have something going on.

Anything. If you have to set a set up. I have a friend who's crushing it on YouTube right now. Him and his wife live in this tiny little one bedroom apartment. There's so much stuff in the apartment that they don't even like, they don't have any place to even make a video. But they picked one little corner of their apartment and they made it nice with some little studio lights and they put up some like. And I. On the video, it looks dope, it looks sweet, but if you just turn the camera a little bit, you can see they're in a little tiny apartment and they're crushing it. And they're excited now. And now they're making money online, they're selling their digital products, and they're about to move into a luxury condominium as soon as they get their tax returns in the next 30 days. And I'm so happy for them because if you get stuck in your kind of current reality, you're not giving yourself enough credit of how much you can. What I could tell that you want to, you want to say something, man.

No, I'm just agreeing with you because so many people think that they have to go from I have nothing, quote unquote. Because there's clients of mine who have won more awards than you could count. You'd recognize them if I said their names. And I've been at their house and look at their fireplace and there's literally dozens and dozens of legit trophies. And they're like, who's going to listen to me? And then there's other people that have nothing. And they're like, I know I have a message. And it's that self believe, that self doubt. The whole reason I'm starting started the show is to raise the identity of humanity. Because no matter where you're at, we always have that disbelief. So I'm just nodding in agreement with you because no matter where you're at, you can turn on a camera, a couple of lights, share your message. And maybe today you get one person, maybe today, the next day you get two people. Then you know, a month later, I mean, time's gonna go by either way. What are you gonna do, keep it bottled up inside of you?

Now you gotta get it out on the Internet. And as long as you're not discrediting other people, slandering other people, you're not talking about other people's personal information, you're not whining and Complaining and crying about your problems on the Internet. I have this thing, it's like a zero and up is positive. So I never go below neutral. And if I do whine or complain about something, it's only about something in the past that I overcame. And I'm speaking about in a learning conversation of what I learned from that. So I'll go, I'll dip into the emotion, like the little bit of the suffering thing and then I'll come out of it and I'll talk about how that was a pedestal for growth. And I got a confirmation because one of the gurus that I look up to, I found one of his videos where he made a couple years ago where he made like the 17 minute video talking about how his business was. He was miserable. Miserable. He's a multi million, he has like $10 million business day. But he talked about how he went through this struggle period. And he, dude, he was all stressed out in the video and he goes, dude, I would, I was just miserable, man. I was. And he started going into the emotion again like he started suffering. I was like, this is gold. This is gold. Because people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And they don't, they won't buy into your story unless they feel that you're a real person and that you can, you've been through the hell, you've been through the struggles, right? And you embrace and honor the struggle. You probably heard that. Like I like how Tony Robbins, dude, the guy's like a multi hundred millionaire or whatever. He's probably, he's a billionaire. And this dude gets on stage and starts talking about how when he was living in like a 400 square foot studio apartment, sleeping on like a cot or something like, because you gotta circle back to that. And I believe that bridge that gap.

In the connection because that's where people are relating to you at that they're either at that point or maybe one or two steps above it. They're not 48 steps down the road, not at all.

Most people are. And if you look at.

We have the greatest opportunity in the history of humanity in front of us right now. And if you're not already having, you know, sharing your message online, if this, if you want to, and if you're watching this podcast, you probably want to. But if you, if you're not already sharing your, your message online and monetizing it, then.

You'Re gonna miss the boat. Because this is the greatest opportunity ever. Like, if you really, really see this for what this is right now.

I don't think anything else is more important than getting really serious about this. Because, dude, it's like.

Oh, this. Any other time in human history, if you would have lived anywhere else in any other time in human history, this isn't even an option. Like, you would have to.

It'd be so rare. Dude, you can pick up your phone and potentially talk to millions of people and change their lives. You can help other people change their lives and get paid for it by making videos. This is amazing. So here's what I want to give you. A little tip real quick. You say, but what do I make a video about? I don't have anything epic to show in my videos. I don't have professional cameras and lighting and an editor and all this stuff. You don't need that. All you have to do is give people good information. For instance, hang your content on a framework.

Past, present.

Future. There's three pillars, high, low. So a high point, a low point before, after. So you could say like, today I'm, I have a six figure business. Or I had these skills. I'm good at sewing. I don't know. People make six figures. Teaching knitting online, right?

Basket weaving.

Basket weaving. So I used to suck really bad.

What's going on here? Okay, I used to suck really bad. And I struggled. But I had a dream. And then I got really bad. But I figured something out and it changed everything. And then little by little, I came to here and now I'm here and I'm going there. Like, when you talk about this to people, you're hanging your content on a framework.

From fat to skinny, from broke to rich, when there's contrast. And you talk about things like that. Where the five step.

Five steps to success in this thing, right? What are the five steps? Or it could be three steps, five steps, seven steps, right? When you speak in terms like that, people go, wait, there's seven steps. I didn't know there were seven steps. There is. I got to know what these seven steps are. So if you talk about the seven steps and you hang your content on a structured framework that people are going to want to listen to you. The videos I make on YouTube always get minimum 5 times the amount of views. If I literally just take my cell phone when I'm done here and I talk about the five steps to starting a small business, it's going to get 15,000 views. Because.

Now if I made a video just talk about, you know, starting a small business, that would get some views too. But if I said Five steps. Because there's so much content on the Internet. And just like with anything, when you start to get serious and you treat it like a professional.

The way you communicate, you've just rose up to the top 10% of everybody else who just put in a bunch of crap out on the Internet, right? So.

Oh, I can't show you because I got my, my webcam here. But on. So I have these storytelling structures and frameworks. There's a guy named Michael Hagg. You know who that is?

I've heard of him.

The Hero's Journey. So he's a Hollywood screen writer. He's, he gets hired by Hollywood movie people to create these amazing scripts. And he's identified that there's six compelling acts that happen in every hit film and there's different versions of this. And when you actually just implement these into the community.

Into your communication, then people just get hooked. Right?

So let me ask you this, because you're talking a lot about your videos, but how have you incorporated it in your books? And what has publishing your books done for your business?

Well, aside from providing. Creating multiple streams of ice, could say residual income coming in, which is really cool because without, without monetizing the message, you can't, you can't continue to share your message. Right? So when you make money off your message, like publishing my books, I have ebooks that I've also turned into paperback books that I've also recorded in a studio with a microphone and turned into an audiobook. My last two audiobooks I recorded with my cell phone. Right. I just spoke into my phone, the whole book, and uploaded it to audible.com. i'm making it sound easy. It wasn't easy, but you know, and that then, then you promote it, you get on Instagram. You guys, I'm really, really excited. I have this, this new book coming out soon. And oh my God, you guys are gonna love it. And you're especially gonna love in chapter five, I tell this, this breakthrough story of how this, a five step framework of how to actually do this thing. It's in chapter five, right when you say that, oh, I gotta get the book, I get it. So if you're putting out content and you build this reciprocity and you say, you know What? The first 20 people who buy the book, I'm gonna give you the free audiobook version. You just create little things to excite people. And what will happen is when you just take that little extra step and you allow yourself to get excited about it. Believe it or not, you put up A webpage. Get your little book ebook download and you send people to it, collect their email address. I mean, you will literally sell books and you'll wake up in the morning and you be like, honey, I can't believe this. I have made more money while I was sleeping than I made in the last three days at work. So when that happens, that change your whole life. Because now. Oh my God, no. I got to do the paperback book, right? I'll show you my two books. One sec.

So I'm not trying to sell you my books. I'm just trying to show you an example here. My third books coming out soon. So this one here, Sorry. My first book was.

How to start a landscaping business right now with no startup money. The messaging is, right. It's to my audience. My audience and my whole YouTube channel is about how to start a landscaping business.

Very specific audience.

Yeah. And I was like, what do I name the book? I have to name it something amazing.

Hmm.

What are people typing in when they're going on YouTube and they're trying to figure out how to start a landscape business now? Right. So I was a little embarrassed about that. I was like, you can't name a book how to start a landscaping. Yes you can. Sure you can buy it because they're gonna find that.

I did the same thing with my first book. I was teaching video marketing. I've been doing that for years. And I was like, who am I talking to? Business owners. Guess what the name is. Video marketing for business owners.

Duh. Right now it seems like low hanging fruit. Way too simple. Couldn't be that simple. Simplicity really wins. Now I went and found one of the top industry leaders and I got him to write a blurb for the top. And I just went out and modeled with kind of the best selling books do. And like this, I got this kind of blurb on the back with the ISBN number. I did all this through Amazon Create space. And I went and created a URL link and GoDaddy so people can go to the webpage and buy the book. And then half the book I wrote, the other half I sat here on this microphone and I spoke it into Google Docs.

Okay.

And then I was typing and speaking the book, chapter 17, how to register your business, blah blah blah, blah blah. And I talk. And then what's all done? You can just go on like upwork.com and hire an editor, somebody to go through and fix it. Now this book was a little sloppy. I sold this for 8,99 on Amazon. It's like 6 bucks on audible.com youm can buy it on my website. Ebook audiobookeethkelfis.com Then my next book was a little more professional. I started reading how to do all this stuff. This. I stayed up till 4 o' clock in the morning on Photoshop. I designed both these myself. And I had like something like 78 revisions of this. Like I would make one out. Yeah, I would do this orange line. I have to bring it up a little up. I don't like the way all that money's showing. That's kind of cheesy. Let's just make the money just a little bit in the corner. Oh, I don't like that. Needs to be. Oh, the orange. I have too many. Now, here's a kind of a rule of thumb. You want two colors, a maximum of three, two fonts, no more than two fonts. If you have to have an extra font, it has to be something like. That's just like, just stick with two colors and no more than two fonts. What are your colors?

Keep it simple.

Yeah, keep it simple. Stupid.

And that's the thing. So many people listen to audiobooks, they don't realize for everyone listening to the audiobooks, you can also create the book with audio. And it's a great way to do it if you're not, quote, unquote, a writer. I mean, I tell people all the time, I failed English seven times and I, I wrote my number one international best selling book. Well, how'd you do that? Because it says best selling, not best written. The goal is to get there and to reach your audience. So I'll leave you with this thought before we go to the imperfect action round when people are going, well, why would I want to do a book? Why would I want to do podcasts? You hit on it, you hit it home. When you were talking about Eric, look at all the people in the room. You get to help, right? He's affecting those lies, providing that transformation and really doing a service for him. Now think about this. If you have one person listening to your podcast, if you have 10 people buying your book, if you have 100 people watching your video on a regular basis, think in the realm of public speaking. Everyone goes, oh, I'm speaking to, you know, 50 people, 100 people, 500, 1,000, 10,000. And you look at the numbers of people in a room. But guess what? The Internet now, like we were touching upon, has enabled us to speak to these people at any point, any single day through these different mediums. So when you build Up a hundred people, 500, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000. It's like you get to speak to the imagine yourself on stage speaking to them every single day. So I'm going to ask you some more questions along that line and dive deeper. And we're going to go to the Imperfect action round right after we thank our sponsor. Invest automatically, save for later and spend today.

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We'Re back with the Imperfect action round. Keith, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Let's do it.

What's the fastest path to the cash.

Selling? Go directly to your target customers and create an offer and ask them to buy it right now and have a way to collect that money.

I love that direct response marketing. And you said the key have a way to collect that money right now. I've ran into too many people where they want to do a book signing. They're like how do I take a payment? Like really? I want to sell online. How do I take a payment? Friggin Google it. Have not only one way to take a payment but have multiple. Because what happens if one isn't working and I'm not going to name them but if one isn't working, what do you do? What's your backup? I remember telling my girlfriend's mom in high school, I like to have three backups. You want to have no Stress in your life, know what you're doing, do it well, and then not worry if stuff hits the fan because it can do it multiple ways. In short of the entire world of losing electricity, which would be a greater problem than making a sale.

You're going to be okay.

It's going to be okay. There's no business emergencies, so thank you for that. Not only ask for the sale, but have a way to collect it because you don't want to stop at 99%.

So the fastest path to the cash.

Is be prepared and ask for the sale. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making in the fastest way they can fix it?

Oh, the biggest problem that my prospects have is the BS story that they keep telling themselves in their head that they can't.

Start their own small business. And you said, how can I fix it?

Yeah, how can they fix it?

Oh, how can they fix it? Is to.

Literally put the mute button on all the negative people in their life, including, even if it's family members, it doesn't matter. You temporarily just mute them and then immediately get around people who are showing. Sorry, my headphones. Get around people that are showing the fruit on the tree who have what you want to achieve in your life and just get around those people. If you can't do it in person, get around them online immediately, and then your belief will just change.

Excellent.

Solid belief problem. It's the one domino, the high leverage point.

I love that. So the last question of the imperfect action round revolves around customer lifetime value. How do you maximize it in your businesses?

Okay, so in my Internet business, to maximize the customer lifetime value, I have something called an integrated product suite. So it starts out with a $7 tripwire offer which kind of like greases the skids, gets their foot in the door, and then it elevates them through what's called the customer elevation model. 7 to 37 to 47 to 97 to 297. And then now I have a product coming that'll be 497 and eventually 997. So as they're going on their path and their journey, you are just creating like a lucky charm trail of stuff and creating more value for them. So you can keep. I mean, you just keep the ball rolling.

Yeah, yeah, it sounds like that you're giving them the opportunity to dive deeper. Instead of just a book, they can take a training course, but you're letting them opt in at whatever level they want. If they want a little bit more, you have that. If you Want a fair amount more. Like the. What is it? Goldilocks and 3. 3 1. Which ones? Which one's just right is. And you let them decide. It sounds like right.

Yep. And then in my landscaping business we do landscape and landscape and window cleaning or residential services. Always asking the customer if they want to sign up for quarterly maintenance, if they keeping in touch with them via email, marketing postcards, calling up, following up and then trying to turn a customer into a client that we service regularly instead of just like disappearing. Because I think if you serve a client and you disappear and they liked your work and they like you and now they go hire somebody else, they're actually mad and you disservice that client because they wanted to work with you again. It's really easy. All you have to do is just keep top of mind and you can increase your average customer. Ltv.

That is a great point. And it's also relatable to anyone listening to this that wants to write a book. I can also say from experience, if you stop at the book, there is a good percentage that want to go deeper. So always, always make a back end course because you will irritate them. And they say, I want to go deeper. And you go, should I add a chapter? No, you should build a course around it.

By the way you're talking, it sounds like some of your audience wants to write books. And one thing that I learned, I took the Experts Academy by Brendan Burchard. I also read Guy Kiyosaki's book called how to Write a Book. I also read a book called Book the Business by Dan Kenned and then took other copywriting courses. But directly inside of the book, I'm doing what's called seeding and threading and I'm name dropping my online course where they can dive deeper, different resources. And at the end of the book, I will adamantly and very expressingly repeatedly ask them to go on Amazon and leave me a positive review for this book. Come on, do it. I'm practicing what I'm preaching.

Making sure you got that in there.

The what?

Making sure you got the CTA in there.

Yeah. Yep.

So speaking of books, let's close this off with one of your favorites. What's the book that's impacted your life the most?

Well, I've read 470 books now. I love books. And I think the Top one is Dr. Wayne Dyer. There's a spiritual solution to every problem. You want to hear more? Because I can ramble.

It sounded like you had more to say.

Yeah. So Robert Kiyosaki's Cash Flow Quadrant and the whole Rich dad series. Amazing books, obviously. All the greats like Napoleon Hill's Thinking grow Rich. There's one called Burke Hedges, Parable of the Pipeline. Beautiful book. All of Dr. Wayne Dyer's books. Deepak Chopra, Zig Ziglar.

Anthony Robbins books are amazing. Like the Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant within it. Books on llp, nlp, How I raised myself from failure to success and selling. The thing that I love about. Yeah, dude, I love audible.com. i got the highest package you can get, and I regularly. I'm jamming through it. At least minimum a book a week for the last 10 years straight.

That's huge.

One thing I want to add.

Yeah.

So there's a point where you have like 80% learning and 20% action, then 70, then 60, then 50, and then you get to the point where you're strategically learning, where you don't want to learn anything else. Like, I'm listening to Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the Nike founders book, right now. And right now he's. He's like, in the factory. He's 20 in China, he's locking down his first deal. They don't know that he's not an ambassador, that you knew it. Like, he's not successful. He's just winging it. It's a great book, but I shut the book off because I said, you know what? This doesn't have anything to do with exactly where I'm at, what I'm up against right now. I need to put this down and focus on, you know, fixing the copywriting on my sales letter and moving the needle forward in my business right now. Instead of pontificating with all this, it's like, let me. I'm too afraid to go do the thing, so let me go learn all these other things and hope that your subconscious, mine will just, like, reshuffle the deck and you'll. You just, through osmosis, start moving forward. No, there is hard work. You have to buckle down and shut your phone off and really, really buckle down and hire the right people and do the things that move the needle forward. And if you want to know what those things are, they're usually probably things you're avoiding that are the most painful. I have them.

Yeah, we all do. And I'm glad you brought that up. The episode with Matt Davis from Obstacle Racing, we were talking about very similar things. You can't just sit there and I use the example of the secret, and you can't just sit there going okay. You know, I'm gonna think about it. Think about it, think about it. It's like, I'm gonna get a hundred new clients. I'm gonna get a hunt. No, no, you need to call one of them, email one of them, text one of them, and start the ball rolling. So I. I'm glad you touched upon that. You know, always be learning, but also be putting in the action also and be strategic about it because, you know, I love Kiyosaki. I've read over 14 of his books alone, and he's one of my favorite authors for many reasons. But at the same time, if you're not going into real estate, you probably don't need to do a deep dive on his real estate courses. However, if your goal is to learn sales, he's got other ones about that. And if you've never heard about the difference between, you know, employees and consumers and businesses and investments, well, Cash Flow Quadrant is going to help you there.

There's a book that changed my life.

Oh, what's that one?

So I've read a couple of books like Ynab, you need a Budget. But this one is Mike McCallowitz, profit first. Dude, that book's amazing. He talks about his triumph and then failure and how he went out and basically I went out, opened up a bunch of bank accounts, and my money is extremely organized now because.

I know what it's like to not be organized. And I just sat down with my accountant yesterday and I found out that.

Things are pretty good. And my wife and I are. We're talking to a mortgage broker right now about getting a. Getting into a house. I don't know how I feel about that with the economy, but it's interesting to look back over all these years that sometimes the things that seem so hard, that takes so much willpower. If you put a systematizer process in place, then it just kind of like you said, you automate that thing, it just starts to take on a life of its own. And you can step back and go, oh, my God, like, like I'm not having to stress so much about that. And you'll get stressed out about the fact that you don't have to stress about it. And you start getting all paranoid, like, how is my life running smoothie? Something has to go wrong. It's like, if you came from where I came from, you can relate. And I probably have to do more self work of letting that stuff go.

It's just a new level. And congrats on, you know, that's fantastic to hear because I think ultimately that's everyone's goal.

Well, I've appreciated you for sharing. I would, you know, one more time let everyone know what's the best way to reach you. Where can they find your stuff?

Yeah, Keith Kalfis that's K E I T H K A L F A S Keith kalfis.com Keith Kelfus on YouTube if you go to Keith kelfis.com you can get my free marketing mini course. It's just a free program that I put out. You could check that out and Keith Elfis on Amazon. Just type it anywhere in Google there's like 20 pages of stuff.

Excellent. Well, I appreciate it Keith. I look forward to connecting further with you. Have a great day and I'll see you soon.

Thank you so very much.

Have a great day and God bless.

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