0465 | Shane Sams

Hey, I'm Shane Sams from Flip Lifestyle and you're listening to EA Interviews, EA.

Interviews Episode 465, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority effect interview. Expert Authority World. Have you ever wanted to make more money? Have you ever wanted to do it on your own terms? You may be doing it a little bit right now with your business. You might be doing it a lot a bit, but you probably don't have the time freedom you wish you had or started out seeking when you originally started your business. And that is why I'm excited to have Shane Sams on today's episode. And he's going to show you how to take your God given talents and abilities and turn it into additional income right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you, regardless of where you think you your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's EA publishingmethodbook.com All right, ladies and gentlemen, here he is, Shane Sam. Shane, how are you feeling today, dude?

I am feeling great, man, because I'm talking to you, Mario. What are you talking about, man? This is a great day.

I appreciate that. I just got to ask, what were you doing before you started your whole business? Because clearly you're successful, you help all these people, you've been on all these shows and everything, which is great, but what I love most is how down to earth you are. But where did all this come from? Because some, I feel like some people think like, oh, they just were born that way, they woke up this way. Whatever the case was. That wasn't my case. But tell me about your story.

Lord, no, I wasn't born an entrepreneur. I had to become one, man. It's a choice that you make in your life. Actually, dude, I used to be a school teacher in southeast Kentucky. I still live in Kentucky. Born and raised remain today. But back then, man, I went to school to be a US History teacher and a football coach. That's what I was doing. I was actually a football Coach for about 10 years. A history teacher for about 10 years. Probably would have still been on that road and that railroad track. And my wife Jocelyn, she was also an educator, she was a librarian. So we were like the two teacher lifestyle. And I'll tell you what happened, man. One day I kind of saw the matrix. You know how you, like, see the code in the matrix? I was going to work one day, and I was late, and I was trying to take my son to his daycare center. And we were out in the parking lot, and my son, out of nowhere, freaked out and told me that one of the ladies in the daycare was scaring him. And I was like, what's going on? Like, why is she scaring you? He was about three years old at the time, and. About three years old, and then he. He looked at me and he said, she locks me in a bathroom and turns out the lights.

What?

And leaves me in there for a long time.

That's horrible.

Yeah. And I was like. But I didn't. Not right now. I didn't know what was going on at this moment. I was just like, whoa, that's weird. And, like, I didn't have enough information to go start burning down daycare centers, Right? So, you know, I was a young parent at the time, and I was like, well, I can't leave him here. He's telling me something's wrong. He was really freaking out going into the daycare center. And I was like, I need to call my boss or something. Now, we would find out later that there was a lot of, like, horrific, like, abuse going on at this daycare center. It was not sexual or anything like that, but it was, like, punishments. There was an article in the newspaper where this guy, that. This one girl would hold kids down with a beanbag chair and sit on them until they complied. And my son. What we found out later was that he was being punished for potty training accidents. When he would have a potty training accident, this lady would leave him in his mess and lock him in the bathroom for, like, hours at a time to punish him in the dark. She would turn out the lights and leave him in there. Now, I did not know this at this moment, so I needed the day off work to, like, investigate. My son was telling me something wrong, so I actually took him over to my daughter's daycare center. And then I tried to run into work to get the day off. It was. I couldn't get a hold of anybody in the office, and it was kind of too late to call a sub. I went to my principal's office, and my boss listened to my story, and she looked back at me and she said something that changed my life. She looked at me and said, Mr. Sams, is your son in immediate danger right now? And I Said, well, no, but I can't leave him where he is. I need to go figure out something's going on. He's telling me there's an emergency. I don't know what's happening. And she said, well, if he's not in immediate danger, I'm afraid I can't help you. I can't get you a sub. They're all out. I can't watch your class. I know your son needs you, but your job needs you, too. And you're going to have to handle your personal problems after work. Now, I was a good employee, dude. I was always on time, always at work, and I couldn't believe this person. One, wouldn't help me, but two, they thought they controlled my whole life because they signed my paycheck. And that was the catalyst for me making the decision that I would never work for anybody else again. I just said, I'm getting out of here. I'm not giving away my life. I'm not giving away my freedom. I'm going to find a way to go out and start a business or do something else. So that's what I was doing before, and that's kind of like what led to the journey that helped me find online business.

Well, I'm glad you found it, but I'm really sorry to hear that. I like your comment about burning down the preschools and the schools and everything like that. Dude, you and I are very much in the same vein with that. Like, you tell me I can't.

I wanted to kick in the front door, man. I wanted to kick in the front door. And I actually. When she said that to me, I just told her, I said, that's unacceptable, and I'm leaving. And I actually left, and I went back to my son that day, and I could have gotten fired, like, but I only. Now, I only. I only made, like, 2500 bucks a month as a school teacher in southeast Kentucky, but that was half of me and my wife's income, dude. Right? So, like, I actually was driving back thinking, oh, my gosh, am I going to get fired? And at the same time, I was thinking, man, I just don't care, because I don't. I don't want to be put in a position ever again where someone thinks they can tell me what I can do with my time or when I can be there for my kids. And that's what made me go out and try to become something different.

Well, I'm glad you did it, because you not only accomplished it yourself in a very big way, but you're paying it forward, helping everyone else, bringing them up.

Yeah, man. Like that. I didn't start out doing it this way, though. Like, I didn't know I was going to be, like, an online business coach, guru guy. Eventually. When we started out, my wife was, like, really skeptical. She was like, shane, you went to college to be a teacher. You're a teacher. That's what you coach football. Like, what else are you going to do? And I was like, I don't know, but I got to start a business or something. And I didn't actually get online at first. I tried some offline ideas. Like, I called my wife one day, and I was like, listen, I am sick of this. I'm sick of going to work every day. I only make, like, 2,500 bucks a month. So on the way home from work, I'm gonna stop at the hardware store, and I'm gonna get a hammer, and I'm gonna get a tool belt, and I'm gonna get some tools, and I'm gonna become a handyman. I'm just gonna go knock on doors, and all I gotta do is find 50 people every single month to pay me $50, and that'd be $2,500. I could quit my job and I could be a handyman. And my wife said, but, Shane, you're not very handy. And I said, that's a good point, right? She said, your first clue should have been, you don't already have tools, and you got to go buy tools. You can't be a handyman. And I said, you're right, you're right, you're right. And then I started. One day, I was out mowing my grass, and I started listening to podcasts. We were talking off air about how podcasts have been a big deal in our lives, and I stumbled across this podcast by a guy named Pat Flynn. It's called the Smart Passive Income Podcast. And on this episode, Pat's a mega podcaster now, but he. Back then, he was just getting started. But on this episode, he told the story of how he created a blog to help people pass the architecture licensing exam. And he made a PDF study guide for this test. And on his website, people could click a button, like a PayPal button, give him $19, and he would email them this PDF. And then the very first month he did that, he made. He got, like, 400 people to do that, and he made, like, almost $8,000. And, y', all, I about broke. I about flipped that lawnmower upside down. I, like, hit the brake on it. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Forget being a handyman, getting 50 people to give me 50 bucks. Like, I wonder if I could make something online and people would pay me $50. And I brought this idea to my wife, and she was like, this is a scam. This is stupid. People can't make their living on the Internet. Like, this is. What are you talking about? And I was like, look, trust me. I was like, if I can make some money and prove it to you, will you help me build something on the Internet? She's like, yes, if you can go out and build a business, I'll do it. So I started like, three or four websites, and they all just crashed and failed. And no traffic, no nothing. Just. It was not absolutely a disaster. My wife was just getting so frustrated with me. And then, right, like, the week I was. I was like, I'm done. I'm giving this up. Pat Flynn's full of crap. There's no way you can make money online. I. I had a website with, like, affiliate links and Google Ads on it. And somebody clicked a link and I made 11 cents on the Internet. Mario. I made a dime and a penny, but that might as well have been $11 million. Cause I was just starting jumping up.

That's the concept you saw.

Oh, dude. It was all it was. And my wife was like, oh, my gosh, like, you made 11 cents? And I was like, yeah, we got to make more than 11 cents, though, to pay our bills. Like, what else can we do? And we started brainstorming what we came up with.

And what year was this?

This is 2012. 2012. Yep, 2012. And so that summer, we started building a website for elementary librarians. My wife was a librarian. We built another website called us historyteachers.com for US history teachers. And we said, hey, yeah, I know. I mean, I mean, I looked up elementary librarian. I was like, oh, it's available. And then us historyteacher.com was taken. So I just added an S right on the end of it. I was just looking for something. And we said, hey, what if we had a membership site where people could pay us 50 bucks a month and they could log in? Like these teachers. Like, an elementary librarian could log in and get all of her resources for the day. And then she wouldn't have to play he or she wouldn't have to plan lessons at work. They could go home at 3:30, they could enjoy their family, and we would just plan their entire schedule bell to bell. So it was like a lesson plan website for Specific disciplines. And my wife started a podcast for elementary librarians. It was very, very quiet podcast, spoken in hush tones, you know what I'm saying? Really quiet. And she launches this podcast and she gets like a couple hundred librarians listening to this thing. And we basically asked them if we bought built this for you. We'll make it, but you have to pay for it first. And the very first month we launched it, we had like almost 50 of those people buy the products. We made $2,500 in the first month. And then it grew, man. It just like every month we added new people as I was like 5,000amonth. A year later in July, it was like 15,000 in a month. In August of 2013, it was. We had $36,000 in revenue from our membership site selling lesson plans to teachers. And that sounds like a crazy number to people, but like, that's only like 700 out of the 8 billion people on the planet paying you like $50 a month. I mean, this isn't like a massive kind of audience play. It's just high quality, the right people using your God given gifts to serve them. And that's when we quit our jobs, where I was like, man, we're making as much money in a month as we make in a year as school teachers. So we decided to quit our jobs, went all in on online business, and I was ready to write off four hour workweek, passive income. Let's go, baby. I was done.

And then what happened was what led to what we do today is a girl at our church, a friend of Jocelyn's. Her name was Lindsay. She said, hey, that's awesome that you guys quit your job. Everybody else in our life was like, what are you doing? You're crazy. Why are you giving all this up? And they didn't know what was happening, but she noticed that it was a good thing. And she said, I'd like to stay home and homeschool my kids. Can you help me make money online? And we're like, sure, we'll show you exactly what we're doing. And dude, a few months later, she quit her job and she stayed home and homeschooled her kids. That's awesome. And we had repeated the process that we had done. We had built three businesses by that time. We had a site for librarians, a site for high school teachers or history teachers. And then I also launched one selling playbooks to football coaches to help them win more games.

Okay.

And. And we were like, man, we've repeated this four times. Let's go Help other people do this. And, and that's when we decided to launch the brand that we have now. It's called Flipped Lifestyle, where we help people turn their life upside down, start building grow membership sites. You use your God given gifts to go find a hundred people to pay you $50 a month or 200 to pay you $50 a month. That's 120 grand a year. And you monetize your knowledge, monetize your wisdom, monetize your passions through content online.

And what I'm hearing, kind of the.

Long story short, man, and what I'm.

Hearing is you're not saying here you have to start a podcast or you have to do this or this. Because so many trainings I've seen, it's like, hey, I can help you achieve those numbers in this time frame, but you're now going to have to become an expert painter or that handyman or just whatever online thing they, that might not align with them. You're literally have that alignment going, hey, what do you want to do? We're going to show you the methodology behind it. But you get to pick, right?

Yeah. We start with all of our trainings. Start with your God given gifts. Right. Like why did me and Jocelyn start the businesses that we did? Because our life to that point had led us there. Like, right. Like she was a librarian so she could serve librarians. She had the, she had the problem of my first couple of years teaching. I had to stay up until 7:30 every night to get anything done and miss my family so she could fix that problem for other people. I was a football Coach, dude. I was 0:10 my first year as a high school head football coach, dude. Oh, and lost every game. Got running clock eight times. But by the time I finished my career, we were eight and two that last year, right when I decided to go away. So like I had figured out how to win high school football games, I could now help other losing coaches, right. To win games. I just started with what we were and who we are and then we take that out into the world to serve people who might be a chapter behind us in that same space. So you don't really have to learn anything new. Like there's our fundamentals. Like we all in this world today have to create content. We all have to get the people that consume our content to join somewhere with us, whether it's a social media platform, an email list, whatever. And then we have to turn our knowledge, wisdom and passions into products and communities where we can serve our people. So there are Fundamentals. But it all starts that. That kernel that starts the whole thing going. The first domino is you. And everything that's brought you to right here today in your mind, in your soul, in your heart, who you are, that's what you take out into the world. It's not like, hey, you've got to go sell toilet brushes on Amazon Arbitrage and you got to become an expert at toilet brush pricing. No, there's nothing to learn. It's already inside you. We just have to unlock it.

I literally. We have new branding for my new book and everything. It's literally turn your expertise into profits. And I say very similar stuff when we're working with our author clients. It's like, should I write on this? This. This. You know what I mean? It's like, I'm not asking you to make stuff up. Just tell me what you're already the expert on.

Yeah, put on paper wheel. Yeah. Don't reinvent the wheel. Like, right. Like, it's your. That we actually have a process that we do. So we have. And anybody can do this right now. You can take three post it notes and you write three words down on them. You write love, lived, learned. Love, lived, learned. And what you do is then take more post it notes under that and just start with love, because that's the funnest one. It's the easiest one. We usually gravitate there. Just start writing out all the things that you love. Like, what do you love to do? Do you love to swim? Do you love to play guitar? Do you love to raise chickens in your backyard? Do you love watches? Like, whatever you love. Just write down all the things that you love. And then go over to learned. Right. And save the middle columns. Go over to learned and think about the things that you've already been paid to do in your life that you've been trained to do. Like, think of, like, I went to school to be a history teacher. I had been a college and a high school football coach.

Not handyman.

Not handyman. That was. No, that's in the. That's in the one you wad up and throw over your right shoulder into the trash can. Right?

But you know what I love? The ingenuity of just taking. You went into, what can I do that anyone could do that? You're not overthinking it. Some people are always planning and they never take action. My first business was lawn care, power washing, maintenance, painting. It's not my strength. I was 12. It worked.

Yes, exactly. Because you took action on it, right? Absolutely. And like, once you see, once you see all these things, like when, like in the, the middle column is lived experience. So like, like, for example, like, I'll give you an example of each category to see how to do this. But like, in lived experience is things that you've lived through, that you've went through, that those can be like, even, like dark moments. Right. Like in loved. We have a guy that, like, loves chickens, literally. His name is Kenny Toriano. And he's like, I love chickens. I'm passionate about breeding chickens. Do you think I could start an online business on this? And he started a podcast and a membership site where he helps people breed chickens in their backyard, like backyard chickens in cities. And he makes a hundred thousand dollars a year doing that. It's something that he loved to do. On the learn side, it might be something like Jocelyn, she went to school to be a librarian. I went to school to be a history teacher. We used that to start our own thing where we could make money through our, our sites. And then the lived experience, we've had people like, like Robin Fern, she had cancer. She lived through it, but she had survivor's guilt because her friends died of cancer. So it really ruined her life. So now she went back and created. She used that experience to help other people get through that faster. It took her five years to recover it. She helps people get through it in less than a year. That's her goal. Right. So you can, if you write all these categories down, then you will see things that stand out to you, and then you can start looking into them to see, like, hey, how can I go serve people in the marketplace with what I already have? And then your personality differentiates you. Like, you're not going to hear another online business coach with an Appalachian accent. There just ain't many of us. Right. So, like, you're going to. If you like me, you'll like me. If you like a guy from New York, you'll like a guy from New York. But if I'm in the marketplace, the people that will like me can find me. And that's kind of how we start the process.

Yeah. And what's so great about it is people don't realize they think I need 10,000 people to get started. But the reality is, the more niche down you are, like you said, raising chicken is in your backyard. It's not for everyone, but the people it is for. It's hook, line, and sinker. Probably you don't need to. I can't imagine you'd have to really even sell at that point, once they find you, if that's what they're looking for.

Exactly. And people also, like, get kind of scared about, like, well, what? Aren't other people going to be doing this thing in the marketplace? Well, of course they are. There's 8 billion people, and 4 or 5 billion of us are already on the Internet, and we're all coming, right? So, yes, there's going to be other people doing what you do, but they will. They will relate to you the way you teach, the way your personality is, the way your style is over somebody else. Like, you might be the only person that, like, could serve that person because they're looking for you. And what I find is, like, you know, offline, where there's a lot of competition, right? Like, we have competition offline, like in the business world, you know, like, handymans are competing against each other. I'm from. I'm from the. The original city where Kentucky Fried Chicken started. And there's a legend here that Colonel Sanders, when he opened Sanders Cafe, that another chicken guy opened across the street from him, and they got into a shootout because there's only room for one chicken store on the road, son. Right. Like, so, like, there's a legend that says that, and that's kind of indicative of the real world. But, like, in the online world, it's more collaboration. Like, you know, if I want to learn how to start a membership site, there's a lot of people. There's the membership guys, there's us, there's Stu McLaren, there's all these other cool people out there teaching memberships. I'm going to collect it, and I'm probably going to join multiple things and buy multiple things, and you can find synergy in the marketplace. So, yeah, just being out there, getting out in the marketplace, people are going to find you, and you don't need. I mean, you only need 200 people to pay you $50 a month to make $120,000 a year. Think about that. There's 200 people on the planet Earth. That's like 0.0000002% of the planet has to buy your thing for you to be able to make six figures online. So, yeah, everybody's closer to success than they think.

What do you think holds most people back from it? Like, really holds them back. Not that they're. I'll just shut up. What do you really think it is?

I think the most common fears that I hear because we've coached, like, thousands of people through our community, and, like, the first Thing I hear is usually imposter syndrome. It's like, well, who's gonna listen to me, right? I'm not that I don't have a PhD XYZ at the end of my name.

Do you know where that stems from?

The. The expert, the ex. The imposter syndrome.

The imposter syndrome.

I don't know. I mean, I guess it's a lot of programming, and we're all programmed to go, get in our lane, get in our job, go to college, get a degree, blah, blah, blah, whatever they tell us to do growing up. Right. And there isn't a lot of freedom. But I don't know, where do you think it comes from? Where you think.

Well, it wasn't rhetorical. I was literally asking you. Because it's. I. There's so many people.

Everybody feels it.

Everybody, 100%. Even, like I said, our author clients with the books. It's like, there's always this transformational shift, at least with our process, where it's like, you're going from. You were here, even if you're the best at what you do, to, like, wow, this is so different.

Yeah.

And it's like, I think I actually want to find some psychologist and, like, narrow it down so we can articulate.

It better, tell us how to fix this. Right, right. Yeah.

But at the same time, I think, like you said, I think it's just societal norms that are just, you know, who are you to be great? Who are you to. You know what I mean? I mean, the best of the best people, if you don't have a master's and a doctorate and a this, that. The other thing, that's like less than 1% of the population, and everyone thinks that's the high point. And I've worked with those people, and they're doing the same. The same, same things.

And what I find is you may have found this, too. Like, every time I level up and I find a new level, like, I started speaking pretty heavily about two years ago, and like, you know, a couple months ago, I was in LA and there was 9,000 people there, and I'm speaking to 9,000 people, right? And I'm like, I just walked out there and did it. Didn't think anything of it. Now, you go back two years ago to my first big speaking engagement in front of 3,000 people, and I was about to die. I was like, who am I going out on this stage? Like, what? Like. Like this. This thing boils back up every time you reach a new level, and you almost have to get, like, comfortable with it, right? A little bit. If you're going to be truly successful and keep going up to the next level, because we're all going to have. There's always going to be a moment where you're like, can I do this? And the easy choice is, I'm not even going to try. Right? But if you push past that, which is. And that's what we focus mostly on, is pushing people past the imposter syndrome so that they can see it. Once they get that first member, they get that first person. They help. They get people to serve, they get people to opt into their list. People start getting confidence and they say, oh, my gosh, yeah, I really can do this.

When I get first. That's my first. Passive checks, same thing. They weren't large amounts, but it was like, I did this a year and a half ago. I haven't done anything since then. And the money's still coming in from one referral in whatever year it was. And then there's a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. And it's like, oh, this is way better than killing myself working.

You know what it is? You know what I really think it is like, I think that the framing is wrong. Cause I have a. I say this to my students all the time. You have to do what I did. You should not try to do what I do. Because what I do now is I lead a team of, you know, 12 people, 20 contractors. I'm speaking on stages, I'm podcasting, I'm writing books. I'm doing all these things. But, like, what I did in the beginning was, I wonder if we could let a librarian or a history teacher go to school and feel peaceful because they had lesson plans. That's what I need to do today.

And those are the biggest wins. I'm sure when you go, we're going to add another five, six figures a month to our income. That's already at here. That's great. But I just venture. Let me just ask you, was, is that more important than being able to take care of your family and retire your wife and you make sure your son's safe and get over that first hurdle and go, this is possible.

What is what possible? What do you mean?

Would you. Do you like it more now when you go from a high point to a higher point or when you went from where you were to the initial.

No, no, no, no, man. No, it's. It's. It now. Now. It's. It's. It's either it's either scarier or boring when you go up a level. Once you make it past that and it's kind of easier to do it. But like, that's the best part is when you get that the, the first sale is the best sale of all time. Like you can't recreate the very first time that you make money on the Internet off something you made in the past. Like you just.

Some of the best memories I have are in the startup. You know, let's just prime the pump and get this thing going. Because once it's going, it's like, hey, we're at the goal, it's smooth, it's hands off. Which is great, I'll take the win at every time. But. Okay, now what? You achieved it.

Yeah, man. Now what, what, what do you do next? You got there. You know, I, I, I think that, that, but what happens, people that start their business too is you have to take that, that framing is, look at Shane, look at Mario's podcast, man, I gotta do a podcast. Just like Mario with the tie and the awesome background, all this other stuff. And they look at that and they don't look at their next step. And that's where the imposter syndrome, that's where the fear kicks in. And what we, and it's because we're looking forward to what we want to become instead of backwards to who needs our help. And that's the reframing we always try to get people is like, don't focus on like all the things you're gonna do. Like if you're the chicken guy, who's the first person you're gonna help raise a chicken in your backyard? If you're the guy teaching somebody how to play guitar, who's the first per. Who are you trying to help fix a guitar? Like, is it a, is it a college student? Is it an empty nester? Like, who are these people? And look back at what you can do for people. The anal. When I'm speaking in my seminars, the analogy I use is like, imagine you're in the desert and you're driving in the desert and you're stuck and you, and you break down, you have a flat tire in the desert, you're too far to walk out. Like you're going to die in the desert. That's it, it's over, right? And then off in the distance you see a guy in like a pickup truck coming at you, right? It's a beat up truck. The guy looks a little rough around the edges and he pulls up beside you. And he looks out in the car. He looks. He looks out, he goes, oh, man, you got a flat tire, Mario, man. Nice to meet you, Mario. You got a flat tire. I just so happen to have that tire in the back of my truck. And I actually am really good at fixing tires. I can totally jack your cart. Fix it. No, you'll be along your way in 15 minutes. But you know, I like to get paid for my efforts. So if you will pay me $50, right, I'm. I will change your tire. Will you do that for me? And you're looking at this guy, you know, in a back alley. You turn the other way and walk away from this guy, right? But right now, you're looking at this person. You're not going to look at that person and say, can I see your Goodyear tire Michelin certification mechanics card? Because nobody touches my card. But the PhD of all changing tires on the plant. No, it's someone who can help you. Nobody cares. And like, you reframe it. Like, you don't have to be the Michelin certified mechanic to change a tire. You need to be the guy that's there with the tire. And most people then can see, oh, wait a minute, I can change somebody's tire. I can do this, I can do that. And I don't have to help. I don't have to save the world. I just have to help this person move forward in the world. And that helps people get over that imposter syndrome. So I think that's where it comes from, really. It's more like the comparison is the thief of all joy. Like, people are comparing themselves out and that's where the imposter syndrome comes from.

Or they're going, well, I don't have a snap on tire press like at the body shop. Dude, you're in the middle of the desert. I hope to God you don't have one. Caring.

I don't have one of those giant lifts to get my car off the ground. I'll never. Yeah, I just can't.

We're out of business today. We can't. Like, really. It's reminding me of one of my favorite movies, Sahara, from the early 2000s with Matthew McConaughey and Galvanakis.

You know the scene when they, like, break off the plane and make like a wing with it or whatever and just start riding the thing? It's like sometimes you just gotta do that too.

Like, sometimes you gotta build. You gotta build the plane while you're flying it sometimes. That is. That is a true story, man. Like, because we have a. There's two things that I say to my team all the time. You know, I say, ready, fire, aim.

Right?

Like, you don't have time to figure it all out. I got a mentor. His name's Aaron, and I'm sorry, Great guy.

It paused right there. What? Aaron who?

Oh, I said. I said, I've got a. And I've got a mentor named Aaron Walker. And he says, fire the gun, Aaron. Ride the bullet. You know, Aaron.

Aaron's awesome.

Oh, Aaron's amazing, dude. He. He was always at a mastermind with him back in February, and. And he looked at me, and I was trying to. I was getting ready to go do something big, and he goes, fire the gun and ride the bullet, son. I was like, that's a great way to say that, man. But, yeah, man, you just gotta go. You can't figure it all out. Like, I know that's so hard for analyticals, but if you're gonna be. Have authority, you're gonna be an expert, you're gonna go out in the marketplace, you're gonna start a business, be online entrepreneur, whatever it is. Like, you will not have it all figured out until you do it. Find your idea, do get online, find people you can serve and start. And you'll. That's how you actually figure it out. Because the people that find you will tell you what you're doing wrong. They'll tell you what they want.

Oh, you're telling me there's people that'll critique you?

Yes. And it's good. I like it. Bring the hate. I love. I love my. We had a hater Texas, yesterday. I love criticism from my students because it makes me help my students better. I love haters in the marketplace.

What about from all the people you didn't ask who aren't doing anything? They always have the right opinion about it.

They sure they do. Like, dude, everyone we went to, when we went to church on Sunday after we quit our jobs, we're just gonna ask everybody to pray for us. You know, like, hey, pray for us. And I looked around and said, hey, guys, could somebody, like, pray for me and my family? Big undertaking starting a new online business. What are we doing here? And everyone just froze and their jaws dropped to the floor because, oh, my gosh, you're quitting. They thought we were getting divorced on drugs, this, that, and the other. And like, everyone all day that day, man, just said, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And it's because they had never done it. And like we all look to people who've never done what we want to do to get advice for something that we're trying to do big. And that makes absolutely no sense. They have no context. My dad one time was telling me all about or about how to buy a house. I had at this point in my life bought five houses and my dad had lived in the Same House since 1950 something. Right. And I'm like, dad, I got this. We sold a business. Jocelyn and I actually sold ElementaryLibrarian.com and it was a contract for over a million dollars. And I asked a buddy of mine, I said, what do you think we should do with this money? And he looked at me and he goes, I've never made a million dollars like that. You need to go find someone that has and go ask them. So it's kind of like when you find people that are giving you advice and they've never done what you're trying to do, that's kind of like a 400 pound man telling you how to lose weight. You probably should seek advice elsewhere if you want to actually accomplish the goal.

That's a great tip. And yeah, I'm thinking of some people where they're like, yeah, I got this coach, you know. Oh, how much was he? Well, he's free and he comes with the thing that.

Yeah, I mean there's people who don't want to pay for advice and free is the most expensive you're ever going to pay for.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, man. And especially if that person is not experienced in what you want to do. Right. And it's why, I think that's why I tell people too, like, and if.

They'Re selling you something, if you're getting a free, free coach from the car dealership, who's selling you a car?

Yeah. And do they, have they ever, have they ever even drove the car? Have they ever seen the car? Right. You have to, you have to vet these things out. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I mean some of this is just like filter it with a grain of salt because it's. What the heck, Filter, brain cell, whatever. Think through things.

Yeah, you do it. And also too like, don't just like every, every person in business is so different. Like the way we teach online business with the idea first and really going internal to the student. It's not like the, these things that are like, hey, I made all my money, you know, buying shipping containers from China and selling troll dolls on Amazon or hey, if you just do this, you're going to Be everybody. Everyone can sell toilet brushes on Amazon or everybody can be a, you know, so and so guru, so and so life coach. Right. Or whatever, and just do this. It's like, you're not. This isn't franchising, guys. You can't start. That's what worked for that person. And that might be their only context. And it's the only way they know that anything works. So you've got to be able to do it from your perspective, your point of view and your way. That's what's actually going to give you a chance to go out into the marketplace with skills and experience you've learned and, and put it out there in a way that people are willing to pay money and come back and learn from you.

And I'm glad you brought up the franchising because I was going to speak on that with the vested interest, like, now, if it is someone going, here's what you should do, and they get a benefit for it, I think that's fantastic. Because why in the world are they going to steer you wrong?

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Plus, they've also done it before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, too, like, you know, we have a saying. If you can find one, you can find 101. That's kind of a saying that we say to people. Like, hey, the first thing, our first mission is to sell your first membership because we want to make sure someone will pay for it. That's not a unique snowflake out in the universe. There's 8 billion people on the planet. If you can find one, we've got a market we need to go. But it's also the same thing. Like, you can look out into the marketplace at your own skills and you can say, okay, what do I want to do? Are there other people doing it? Are there other people succeeding at it? Not just my coaches and my experts and my mentors, but, like, you know, are there other people teaching X? Are there people other saying Y? Are there people other doing Z? Success leaves clues. The market's a big place. The Internet lets us all have access to the pie. It's not. When you. I think in real life we see somebody doing something, we might get jealous, envious. Maybe it's in our town, maybe it's the only person that can be the mayor. Whatever.

That's not a business problem, though, is it?

Exactly. On the online world, it's, It's. I see other people doing it. Now I can go get a piece of that pie, too. It's actually a good Thing, it's actually an encouraging thing to see other people doing what you want to do on the Internet or finding people who can help you. Cause they've done it and they want to help you do it. Maybe to get a piece of it because, you know, hey, percentages work. But like, how do they go out in the world? How they do it too? They can teach you how to do it. You can do your own thing.

I'll also throw in there the whole Photoshop thing, because there's people I know behind the scenes or just in person, and it's like they're not as impressive as they look. They've just literally killed it on the Photoshop and branding thing. And then there's other people. It kind of breaks my heart. They're doing huge stuff and they're so focused on the clients and serving people and all this. Their online presence looks like.

Old dusty rag or whatever you want to compare it to.

It is a Venn diagram. I actually tell my team this all the time.

That's a good analogy.

It's a Venn diagram of your customer and your marketing. But what happens is a lot of times the thing that you sell online, especially in the online space where you're doing memberships, courses, training, coaching, things like that, that's going to dial in pretty quick. It's the, the, the second step after you find your ideas, we turn it into a product that you can sell online. Our product is always courses, communities and coaching. So, and everything's based on the community because you want to build a movement community kind of around your thing. So, like, if you put a bunch of librarians in one Facebook group, they're going to love it and they're going to stay members because they don't. They're the only librarian in the school and they're lonely and they want to hang out with the other librarians at lunch break, right? So, like, communities are really important to building that. But once you, once you get your product kind of done, quote, unquote, the Venn diagram pulls to where the bigger piece of it is marketing and branding and getting yourself out there. Because you can build a better mousetrap that can, that can kill everybody in the every mouse you see. But the world's not going to beat a path to your door unless you tell the world about the mousetrap. And that becomes kind of. Honestly, that probably comes. Becomes 60 to 80% of your job. Once you have your solution, have your mission, have your process out there is just getting other people to hear about it.

More cheese, less whiskers.

That's exactly right.

How much time would you say you spend on the marketing and branding side of stuff?

Let me, Let me. Let me answer this in a little bit different way because I'm going to go back to when it was just me and my wife working the company, because I think that's where most people come from is they're starting a business that might have them an employee. Right Now I have 12 employees, and I have marketing people that do that. I actually lead my team. I would say that probably at least 3/4 of my time is leading the marketing side of what I do, because it's so important. We've got to tell people about flip lifestyle. Um, that most of my actual time commitments are like this, where I'm being interviewed or I'm on a stage or I'm doing something like that. So even now, most of my time. But I would say back then it was probably about 60, 40. Me and my wife, we would have our business. Basically all of our businesses always follow the same flow. We have a content core staple. Podcasting has been the thing we've chosen, but you can do it with YouTube or blogging or whatever. So we have a. We spent a lot of our time on podcasting, like recording our podcast, editing our podcast, getting that out there. And then we would spend time with our community. But that really boils down to a lot less sometimes because you're gonna have on demand trainings, they're consuming content their self. You're gonna have a community. They're hanging out and talking together. You're just moderating that. And then you might do coaching. Right. But that's about 40% of our time. And then the majority of our time has always been on how do we wake up today and tell someone else about Shane Sam's and flip lifestyle. That's what we have to do. It's the only thing that grows a business is lead acquisition. Right. So once you get the other parts done, you slide that scale over. It may be flipped in the beginning. You may be spending 60 to 80% of your time building your courses, building your community structure. That's not for forever building those things. But that's not forever. No, that's going to go to the side. Then you get to do the fun stuff of finding more people.

For you listening.

I want you to make a giant asterisk note. And I specifically asked him for your benefit. I asked Chalene Johnson the same thing in person, and she said 80% of the time. At least.

At least. At least, yeah. I mean, I'm the CEO of the company, and my job basically is one, I lead my team. So that takes up probably about 20% of my time, I'd say I spend in, you know, just talking to people, telling them what to do.

And it shouldn't have to take you a large portion either, if you have the right people.

No, no, no, no, no. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Everybody knows what to do. They've all got their spots. So we just make sure. We're checking in to make sure there's no fires, basically. And then the rest of my time, man, probably 75 to 80% right now, is either on a stage, on a podcast. I do supervise all of our emails that we send out and texts and things like that, but those are written by somebody else first, so I don't spend the bulk of my time doing that. But yeah, man, how does someone else find out about me and this company and our mission to help people start building, grow online businesses today? That's what you're going to end up doing in the long run.

I have so many more questions. I wish we had hours and hours, but I'm going to jump to the wheel of whatever here. Yellow or black?

Oh, black.

I'm like Batman and I only wear black. Or very, very, very dark gray. You know what I'm saying?

Right?

That's a Lego Movie reference if you never heard it.

Black. See your question right there.

Let's see. No, wait, hold on. Hold it back up.

I can't see it because you're the little screen. There you go. What is it?

There's no questions on there. I originally was gonna make it look like Wheel of Fortune, but then I was like, then I have to change them. Now I can make up whatever I want. Sometimes I do that, though. There's literally nothing on there. My question for you would be, with everything you've already achieved and the thousands of people you've already helped, what is something that you want to go after that you might be a little afraid of?

Oh, that's fascinating. That is absolutely fascinating question. You know, I've been speaking at these.

Big events. I've done my own small events. Like, you know, I've. I've spoke in front of, you know, almost the biggest crowd so far is over 9,000. And then I've hosted events of 100 to 200 people. And I really think in the future, one thing that I want to do is I love the live event space. I love the big audiences, the big stadium type events. I love the seminar Space. Like, we have. We have amazing seminars. We teach like two and three day seminars where we come together and like do intensives. But I would love to take a shot of my own big live event company someday where I'm the one putting five to 10,000 people in there. I'm bringing the speakers. We're serving at a high value and I'm, you know, I can clean up my own event and things like that. So that's pretty scary because I've been in a partnership last couple of years where I've been working with partners building that out from start to finish. So I've seen the back end. I've seen what it takes. Like, it's a monumental event to put on anything over 5,000 people. It's just astronomically. It can get expensive really fast. It's putting the butts in seats. All the. It really would.

It.

Nothing tests every aspect of business like filling up a stadium and having a good event. Right. So I think that would be something that kind of terrifies me is like, can't. Could I do that myself? Could. We could flip lifestyle, become a company that puts, you know, five to 10,000 people in a stadium every quarter. And we have big events and seminars and things like that. So of course that's probably going to happen and. Because when I go that direction, dude.

But I do know that there's a lot on the line. I've done a lot on the line events myself. Again, similar to you, probably even not even as big as yours. And it's still like, wow. It's one thing to just show up and talk, and I love it. If anyone wants me, I'm here. But it's another thing when every single thing is on you. Just like on guesting. I was guesting on a thing last week. I love guesting on podcasts, but it's vastly different when you just show up and you go, okay, I get to relax and say, say my stuff versus right now, engaging monitoring. Do all this.

People don't see the. It's like those, those Hindu sculptures with the 10 arms. And like, you're over here, we see your two arms where you're in the interview, but there's 10 other arms going on with all the sound effects and schedules and.

Yeah, I mean, I had to grab my own wheel right here. What's with this?

Exactly, man. Right. Yeah. So I think that's probably like, I would encourage everybody to like, there's an instinct that we all have to. To stand back and seek equilibrium and not pursue fear. That holds people back. But like man, the way the obstacle is the way. If you feel fear, that's probably what you should do next. Not, not recklessly going forward, but you should turn the ship toward the island that you're afraid of because that's where you're probably going to be destined to go anyway.

That's great. Like I said, we could talk for hours on this. We're going to thank our sponsor and come back with the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what? Don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.

An idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.

Or Catherine, thank you for making my.

Mom number one best selling author.

Or Mary Alice, what he got done.

For me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable John Cody.

I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner.

I can't make a higher recommendation for than to work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario. Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's eapublishing method book.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Shane, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Always. Every action I take is imperfect. It's the only ones I got.

All right, got a couple questions for you. Actually three if someone wants to get technical. It's more than a couple, it's a few. I got three questions for you. Rapid fire, 60 second or less. The first one is what is the fastest path to the profits?

Oh, the fastest path to the profits. Is definitely figure out a solution that you already have to a problem that other people definitely have. Don't look for something new. What have you solved and how can you help a version of you in the past solve that problem and take away the pain quickly. And then one more thing, get all those people that had the problem in a community together so they can solve the problem together. You do that, that's where profits start.

Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making into the fastest way for them to fix?

The biggest problem that I see people making is going out and asking people that aren't entrepreneurs how to be an entrepreneur. Like everybody has an idea and then they go check with their mom and check with their dad and check with their dog and check with their friend Steve who's been at the same job 35 years. Like get the way to solve that problem is hey, you are capable of looking at your own God given gifts, choosing one and putting it out in the world. It may not work, but you gotta stop asking everybody permission for you to be successful. Just go through it like make your own decisions and move forward 100% on that.

Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Let your customers talk to each other, period. That's a huge mistake I see businesses make. They want to keep, they want their own little ego and their one on ones and all this, nope. You got to build a community. People come for the content, they stay for the community. Right? So let your community have each other. That's what will keep them paying month after month. They're going to finish your course in three months. They're going to get sick of listening to you in 4 and 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. That's going to be because they've got dozens, hundreds of other people that they can hang out with and solve the same problems together. So build a community about anything you do.

What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?

My top books, the number one book, I think that anyone who has any kind of income in the entrepreneur world, starting your own business of any kind, offline or off, is you've got to read Profit first from Mike Michalowicz. That is a huge book in our life. I mean it governs everything we do, money wise and it's just a game changer. We've been profitable every single quarter since 2015 and I just happened to read that book in 2015. Go figure. And then Brian Moran's 12 week year, that completely changed the way we think about organizing our team and our goals. So those two books start. Start with those at the very beginning and you'll be all right.

All right. Where would you like people to learn more?

Amen. Yeah. If you would like to find and use your God given gifts to start an online business, start making money online. Maybe go out and find 100 people to pay you $50 a month, 200 to pay you $50 a month,. Make $120,000 a year. All you have to do is go to flippedlifestyle.com Mario, you see what I did there because of our great host. Go to fliplifestyle.com Mario we actually have a free training. It's an idea training. I can take you through the whole process I was talking about earlier with the post it notes and we can identify your ideas, your God given gifts and I'll show you how to research them to make sure they can make money online. So go to fliplifestyle.com Mario and I'll hook you up with that free training.

Well, I appreciate that making that available and the custom link. I'll make sure it's on eainterviews.com for your episode show notes. Shane, this has been incredible. I really wish we did have more time. But thank you for everything you've shared and I really enjoyed it.

I appreciate it, man. Hey man, that just means I got to come back. We'll just finish the conversation later. That works.

Sounds good to me. All right, Expert Authority World, we obviously have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day and God bless.

You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 24 7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started. Now once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it if you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.