Path to Richness As Digital Business Owner with James Wedmore

Hey there, real quick, before we jump into the episode, listen, if your earnings treadmill hasn't set you free yet, running faster won't either. Listen, hustle without principles just going to burn you out. So here's what I want for you. I want you to join me for my money machine experience live. It is three free trainings. Deep dive into how to escape the treadmill and build a money machine that actually works for you. All right, grab your spot here by going to moneymachinelive.com and I'll see you in the free training. Hey there. Welcome to this episode of the absolute Entrepreneur show. This one, this one's a special one because I got a chance to spend some time, a fair amount of time with a dear, dear friend of mine, James Wedmore. And we had a chance to talk about the elements of what it takes to live a rich life, to create richness through a digital business. You know, if you've ever wanted to build a personal brand, if you ever wanted to create a coaching program, if you ever wanted to create a. An online product, James is the guy to understand it from. And we walk through some of the key elements and the key pitfalls, the things, the mistakes that people make that hold them back from hitting their. Their dream level. And we kind of navigate that process and we talk about what do you need to do next and give you some resources that you can go and make it happen at an accelerated pace. So enjoy this episode with James and I on the affluent entrepreneur show. I'll see you in the episode. This is the Affluent Entrepreneur show for entrepreneurs that want to operate at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth so you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect so you can scale your business, scale your money and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom because that's what it really means to be an absolute entrepreneur.

Hey there, James. So good to have you on the show once again. It's so, so cool.

Thank you. Thank you for bringing me back. I guess, I guess it wasn't too bad. If it was that bad, I wouldn't have gotten a call back. So.

No, no. And you're in your kind of your new studio there in Sedona and, and everything. We just had a chance to hang out together, which was a ton of fun.

I know. Is that great? Let's hang out in person. And then. And then go record virtually.

Yeah, but, yeah, we could have done this, done this live, but what the heck. We're going to do this using technology. But.

We'Ll talk more about why we were hanging out at the end of the episode and. And some of that. So this is going to be fun, you know, every time, y', all. As if you've watched any of the episodes with James either on his show or my show. Anytime we get together, clearly we don't know where we're going to go, and it just can go wherever for a little while and. But we're going to talk about entrepreneurship, we're going to talk about business, we're going to talk about wealth. We're going to talk about, you know, the things that you need to have in place to create.

A business by. By design, a life by design. And what it took for him kind of the. The pathway that he took, the lessons that he's had. I've watched him go from. From basically multiple six figures to eight figures and what it took in the growth in there.

So. Because he was spying on me down on the street.

I was. I was. I was. I was showing up in his office, just kind of like, you know, you know, kidnapping him, and we're just going and hanging out.

Like, there's. There's that phrase, you know, keeping up with the Joneses next door. It was quite literally keeping up with the Abrahams.

He gets a Tesla. I'm like that, SOP now I need one.

Yeah.

On and on it went. But there was. It's been very awesome to. To have our journeys, like, mirror each other and coincide and be, like, so close and. And good friends. Along the way. We first got connected. What was that? 20. 25th. Yeah. Fall of 2015. I think it was.

I think it was 15. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow.

So we're going on eight years, dude.

I know. If we would have had a kid, he'd be like, in the, like.

Yeah, we'd be giving him keys to a car already.

Yeah, yeah. We. We.

This is the problem. You know, the people our lives say the two of them need adult supervision constantly.

Absolutely. I wouldn't have it any other way. Is the biggest sham. And really, I do say that about you. Like, we. We get along for many reasons.

But I think the biggest of all and is something that gives me hope for my own future is you are the most immature, mature person I've ever met in my life. Next to me. Next to me. And I'm. I. I think the secret to life, I think the secret to the health and longevity and happiness is being a kid. And you have such a childlike.

Energy in the sense of you don't take things too seriously. You always find a way to be fun, to have fun. You're never, like, needing to be somewhere else that you're not. I, I don't think I've ever heard you complain. Like, truly, I complain about things more than you do. I don't think I've ever heard you utter a single complaint. You always have a smile on your face. And I think that's the secret. And, and I think that is so important. And I think we've just kind of mirrored each other in, in so much that way. And that needs to happen in our business. We need to be having fun in our business. I, I, I tell people all the time, if you're not having fun in business, you're either doing it wrong or you shouldn't be in business. And I think that is an important core value for me. But maybe it is for you, maybe it isn't. But I like to have fun and good time.

You know, I, Dude, I first, I appreciate you saying that. I mean, there's probably a whole lot of people around me that might not appreciate that, but it's good to know that you do. But I think you're right. And it actually is core to even some of the things that we do and why we do them. It's, we want to have, we want to make a difference. We, we want to impact lives. We want to, we want to serve, we want to support. But if it's at the cost of the quality of our life, the fun, the joy, if at the end of the day, I'm going, thank God that day's over. Now, I'm not saying that we enjoy every minute of everything we do, but if, if the predominant feeling isn't joy and fun, why are we, why are we in the game to make money?

Isn't it funny too? You definitely grew up in this more than I did, but we both grew up in a, in an energy and a culture of like, pick the path that's going to make the money.

Yep.

And listen, that time is done. Because today, more so than any time, and this isn't just like opportunity, this is just fact. People have found a way to make money doing anything. And, and that is pretty true. The opportunities that have compounded. And what, what makes me so happy about that is it used to be compartmentalized. Your happiness, your mental well, well being.

You know, and your passion and your Hobbies were separate very much so. Your job and you moonlight your hobby, you moonlight your purpose, you moonlight your happiness. And it's like that's, that's baloney. And what I would say, especially if there was someone younger listening is like more that, more so than ever. Follow your heart. Follow the thing that already feels fun and light because I believe that is your soul, that is that higher aspect of yourself trying to lead you down what you're here to do and leave it to Mel and I. And I'll just, I'll just, I'll just toot our own horns because that's what we do is toot our own horns all the time. We're the most, most humble and we will, we'll, we'll help you figure out how to make money with it. There's a way, there's always a way. The, and the logic is there. Like I have a friend, I just reached out to her today and during the pandemic, which there's so many pandemic businesses that popped up, she just started documenting her interior design journey of her own home. She was like bors, now she's a frickin interior designer. But not just the traditional type. Like she's the online influencer, you know, interior designer where she's getting commissions off of what she recommends on like online products, e commerce and stuff like that. And she's getting brand deals and all that type of stuff and she's doing the consulting and interior design. And that all just started because during that time she got really passionate about that. And now I'm hiring her to fix some things in my house, you know, and that's just how it's so exciting. So, well, saying our parents world anymore.

You know, well, it's not, it's not even my world anymore. You know, when I came up, it was, there was a single path. You go get, you, you go get the education, you go get the degree and, and there's this pathway. As an accountant, there was a pathway. You go to the firm, you, you, you become a manager, you become a partner, and, and then you're, you're beholden to this, this journey the rest of your life. But.

I truly believe that we've been put here with a specific gift or specific gifts, plural.

And it's our duty to whatever universe you want to talk about. But is our duty to the gift to, to bring it to life in whatever shape or form that is. And, and yet we tend to, for either.

Safety reasons, for.

Fear, for expectations of others, suppress the gifts and Suppress our joy in the process.

And it's all baloney. Yeah, nonsense. And that's the work. That's the process. You know, I, I, I've said for a very long time, and I, I use myself as that example because that's what I'm always doing, is I'm looking at where my growth was and said, you know, what got me here, what attributed to this, And I've said for a very long time, your, your business is a reflection of you. So you grow, the business grows, and that tends to be the last place we look. You know, and don't get me wrong, I'm all about, you got to have the right strategy. I think Tony Robbins, the one who said, you could head east all day, but you're never going to see a sunset. Right. So you got to have the right strategy, but who's running the strategy? And when you're in, you're in a space like ours, like, where you become a personal brand. Yeah, that's even, that's even bigger. And the work for all of us to do and the invitation and, you know, I don't know how far you want to go with this is like, all that stuff you're mentioning has to go. It has to go. And I noticed all of that stuff, I did not want it to go because we all love to hold on. So I'm more, I'm, even when I got started, I was worried about, what are my high school friends going to think of me? To what is that first hater gonna say? To what is that person gonna say when they refund? What are my competitors gonna say? I don't want to rock the boat. I don't want to say anything people aren't going to like or they're gonna be offended or upset or this and that and all of that. And it absolutely drops you in and keeps you in survival mode. And from survival mode, it's, you're leaning back and it's. Everything is about, how do I not, how do I not lose? How do I not do something wrong? How do I not make a mistake? How do I not fail? And then you end up doing the very things that you're worried you're trying to avoid because you focus on that, your attention is. And when you start to realize, you know, everyone's doing the best they can, including you. No one's perfect. Failure is inevitable. It's totally inevitable. I'm still waiting for the first entrepreneur on the planet to sit here and say, I got, I got somewhere significant without any failures or Mistakes can't happen. We spend so much time trying to avoid looking bad, avoiding the mistakes, and that's where you waste all your energy. Then you're tired. You wonder why inspired anymore? Because you spent all day trying to avoid all that to survive instead of just saying truly. And this is, this is a not an easy place to get to, but it is the place you will end up. And if you end up in this lifetime, you won the game. You won the game. There's a giant grand prize waiting for you at the finish line, which is none of it matters. None of it matters what some stranger thinks of you versus.

The fact that you can have a roof over your head, provide for your family, be there with the time that you want to provide with them, do the things that you want to do, take them on the trips, do something that is making a difference in the world, or do whatever that nega bot hater, raid complainer, stranger on the Internet is saying about you. When you really put it into perspective, none of that noise, none of those concerns on those fear, none of that freaking matters. If you're having fun and you're helping people and you're making money, doing like.

Matters, right? So that's the place to get to. That took me a really, really long time.

And for me, I know that there's times it's still, it's still a struggle when I'm trying to pivot, when I'm trying to shift, when I'm trying to change. And there's that, that, that creeping up of, should I do this? What? You know, because it's easy to get comfortable. I could be comfortable the rest of my life, but I find that.

One, I feel the best when I'm challenging myself and growing. I also feel that I serve the best when I'm challenging myself and growing. So I start to look at it and go, it's a win, win. And nothing I do most, nothing, most everything, nothing I do is terminal. I mean, y', all, if you haven't heard the story, one of the first, first webinars I did, I was the talent in the tech. That was the first time I did it. I thought it was a webinar and it was just my slides and my voice and that's. It turns out that the web account webcam was on and I had no shirt on, so. And yet I still sold 30 grand worth of. That's when I had abs. Yeah, grand worth of stuff.

I think that's because you had a bonus of Mel's at Home workout as part.

How do I get those abs? Yeah. That's amazing. I love it. You know, they've done studies on this. It's totally been proven. But money is, is a very ineffective low form of motivation. Once people have enough, the same drive, and it's a different type of drive does not exist when that's enough. And, and that will be. This is something depending on where people are. You're either here now, which is the dangerous place, which we call no man's land, where you're not driven by those survival things, you know, we've all been, or we will be eventually. It's kind of part of the hero's journey. That dark place, that dark night of the soul. It's like, I gotta figure my out. I gotta figure something out and now is the time and it's urgent and it's important and I gotta get serious. You know, those become blessings in our life because they kind of cause us to learn or pay attention to something we've been avoiding. And then you get through that. And if you go. Some people, a lot of people, they get addicted to that.

Yeah.

And they will continue to put themselves back into those predicaments because it's the only way they know how to. It's the only type of rocket fuel they know to propel themselves forward. And I've watched people self sabotage and get into these repetitive patterns and cycles because they love who they are in those tough moments. But there's other types of rocket fuel. And instead of a, an away from motivation where it's like, I need to move away from this crappy situation. Obviously no man's land is when you're away from that. But you're not compelled or pulled toward or drawn towards something like something that is pulling you forward. And, and if you just stay in that middle, that's a dangerous place to be because that's where like you get comfortable. That's where you settle. That's, you know, and I love those cliches. It's cliche because it's true. It's like if you're, you know, if you're not growing, you're dying. So let's just talk about the business. Not us personally, but I guess I, I guess every day we're getting closer to death. So there's a morbid, macabre thought for everybody. But following us, what's. We're dying, we're all dying. But what's drawing us forward and, and that gets to become something bigger. And it's usually bigger than us. And then that becomes More what people talk about when they talk about their purpose. And that was, that was huge for me. That was the big thing that took me from 2 to 10 million is that I had been in the fear of I'm going to lose what I created. It was a fluke. It's just a matter of time. The shoes is going to drop. And I was putting my energy on that, I was feeding that, I was focusing on it. And it put me in this dangerous self preservation mode where I was just trying to preserve what I had. You can't grow that way. When I was able to recognize that, it just went to like, here's what I'm here to do, so let me just go do that. And it was like, how do we reach more people? How do we serve? How do we put the best events on? How do we put the best programs out there? How do we create the best case studies, testimonials results, how do we create the best podcast? And that was, that was just the focus. And that's where you hear those quotes like you get what you focus on. But so much of what we focus on we are unaware of it because it's like unconscious to us. You didn't even realize feeding this fear. And then you wake up and you can't sleep at night because this thoughts, that's what you're focusing on and you get what you focus on. And so the entrepreneur, the business owner needs a vision and we need to be focusing on that vision. An intentional, crafted, invented future vision. That that's where we continue to put all of our attention. Because if you're not doing that, the default survival mode is going to pull you back into fear. And you got to train your brain to focus on what you want, what it's going to, you know, that's, it's like worried it's going to, that's going to happen. So it gets hooked by that. And we all are humans, so we all have to learn how to manage that, you know, without a doubt.

And I think that this kind of speaks to something that I talked about with this idea of everything we need to do has to have an intentionality to. It has to have. There needs to be a deliberate choice. And we tend to make the mistake.

Of getting into a flow of a current, whether that current is the societal expectations, media expectations, parental expectations, career expectations and we just go along for a ride. And you know, Bronnie Ware in her seven regrets of Dying said that one of the biggest regrets on as, as they lay on their deathbed in Hospice was the realization that they lived a life that wasn't theirs. And I'm like, look, even if I create a business that is half as successful as I would have liked, it's still 50% more on the journey that I belong on than a hundred percent of a journey.

I don't. Yes, that's. That's huge. And I understand the. The resistance that comes up for people because it's like, is it selfish? And I'll just say this, but it's. What Mel was saying is just like, is capital teach truth? Like, who are you living for? Is this your life because you're the only one living it? There's other people in your life, but at the end of the day, it's. It's you, and it is your life, and no one else is ever going to live it. No one else is ever going to face the direct consequences of actions, of choices, of the effort, the work, everything. But here's something I know to be true. When I figured this one out, this was such a game changer. When there's this call to help people or be of service or whatnot, you start to get really fascinated about, like, well, what. What are the ways in which you can help people that really create change? And I'll tell you this. For someone who has a podcast, who teaches and on online programs and events and stuff, the number one way that I see that people learn from me is by. By modeling and just observing behavior. So when people are in that, like, objection or concern of, like, it's hard to put me first in what I want to do in my life. Understand that doing that helps the people you love and the people you care about, the people around you, to do it as well. Because you're showing that it's. It's a gift. And I've seen, because I am a very independent person, I love my family and my friends, but I'm also a very independent person and that it inspires the crap out of them. They're like, james just always does what. What he wants to do. And he's just no if ends or buts around. And he's also there for us. It's not like either or.

Right.

You know, so that's. That's a big one. That's if. If that's not there. I saw some quote that's going around Instagram right now, and it's like, it's just a guy saying something like, I've never met someone who put everyone first who is also happy.

Yeah. And it's wonderful to Be there of service. It's wonderful to be there for others, but you can't give when you've got nothing yourself.

You truly have to take care of yourself first.

And, and you know, when it comes down to business, this becomes really important to, to think about.

You.

We're no good to someone if we're no good to ourselves first.

And it's not about materialistic, it's about taking care of ourselves at a level that we can show up. You have a team. You, you, you have, you know, a decent sized team.

Yeah.

You know, and everything, but when you look at it and one of your team members that they're expecting a child and, and everything. So you've got to look at it and say, and realize that as an entrepreneur, as a business owner and, and you have employees or team members or even contractors, there are family's lives depending on you being at the best you can be. And I, and I think you have a responsibility to that.

Absolutely. I mean, I have a personal assistant and I had to start that conversation by saying, look, I'm going to ask you things and out of context, it's going to make it sound like, it's going to sound like I'm a freaking diva. And I want you to know where this is coming from and that that's not what this is about. This is about the way that this business runs. There are certain things that only I can do.

And the better I do them, the better we all win.

And if I have these other things on my plate, then it takes away from that and that actually affects everybody. And it's just all about everyone understanding their role and, and their function, you know, and, and she knows that because I don't, I don't like asking for things like that. Like, oh, will you like, pick up my dry cleaning? Like, oh my gosh, like, who are you, James?

But, but worst thing, I didn't even know you dry clean things.

I, I know I was just a made up example. I just, I just, I, I just throw it away after a single use, you know, I knew.

Now that's a diva.

But you know, like, we're at a point where we're like, we might need a house manager. No joke. And there's just like, there's a, there's a lot I do in the business and that, that's a big key distinction. Like, and, and this is something that's hard to put into words that I really want people to get it. I stay busy in the business.

But there's a difference between being Busy in the business from a place of like, it needs your busyness to run versus a business that has a certain level of success that allows for other doors to open, that you get to independently and freely choose which doors you walk into. For example, it is a joy that Mr. Abraham would say, I would love for you to come back onto my podcast. That takes physical time. There's no way around that. I can't have somebody else do it. So that becomes a joy of something I get to do.

And so I stayed busy with a lot of those things, speaking at events and interviews and masterminds and whatnot that I get to do. Then those are the things that keep me busy today. And so because I'm so busy with those things, like, oh my gosh, I could spend all week just like trying to manage the day to day things that obviously today I'm at a level at a privilege where I, I don't have to.

But I think that's also very important in the like, person who stays busy in the business doing the things that are just the prerequisites for it to like, stay above water, you know, and like chug along. And I get those things off my plate. I got, I got those things off long ago. And people say, well, that, yeah, that's easier for you because you're making money. I say, no, no, no, no. I make money because I got those things off my plate.

I think this is a great point and this is where we, we actually started to talk about this before we started recording. This is this idea of entrepreneur versus business owner and, and how we start to look at things differently. And I would add another. Oh, because I think I just finished a keynote, 2,000 people. And talked about the fact that we're actually on two parallel journeys as business owners, as entrepreneurs, and one is an earnings journey and the other is a money journey. And so there's a difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur. And I know that you and I tend to agree on it and, and how it's viewed. How do you, how do you see it? Because you've actually.

You have, you have the characteristics of both, which I think for a lot of people it can be challenging to be able to straddle and move in both, in both realms.

Yeah, I think, I mean, I, I want to spend a good amount of time here because I think it's been coming up a lot for me and I think it's a very relevant conversation.

I think today everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and loves that title and there's something very exciting about it. And there's this certain lifestyle that seems to be attached to it. Like, part of the privilege that I have is. Is working. What a blessing. I work with entrepreneurs at every level. Like, someone that's still trying to figure out their niche to people that are at $5 million and they're like, how do I double this? And everywhere in between. And that's so awesome. But I only work with the online expert personal brand, so that's my bread and butter. I love working with those people. And the reality is, what I continue to see is.

A lot of them are really bad business owners. And I don't mean this disrespectfully, even though it kind of sounds disrespectful, but, like, they just. Just bad business owners. And I think that's what gets a lot of these entrepreneurs into a lot of trouble.

Yeah.

Is bad business owners. And I'm gonna make the case to say, being a better business owner will give you a better lifestyle than the one that was promised to you when you were sold on the idea of being an entrepreneur. And I think we love this word. And keep calling yourself an entrepreneur. I don't. It doesn't matter. We use a term in my world called the digital CEO, but the whole concept and premises, we. We got. We got to learn how to actually run a business. Like, a business. And I just see today with working with so many people, and they come in from. From every different area and like, you know, some have, like, learned from other marketer gurus and stuff like that, and some just figured out on their own and got to a certain level. And when I keep coming back to, like, man, like, this thing is like a house of cards or a sandcastle built at low tide. And it's like, you're one bad launch away. You're one bad or one great person leaving away from this whole thing crumbling.

Yeah.

Busting at the seams. And you have to keep up this crazy ethic and work ethic and this, this, like, manic, nonstop hands and everything, eyes on everything, balls in the air, hats on the head mentality to keep it going. It's like, do you think that's sustainable? And there's something today that impresses me the most about someone who owns a business. And it's not the amount of money they make. It's not even the profit they make. This is relevant, but it's not. What impresses me the most, what press impresses me the most. What could impress me more than anything is the consistency and Longevity. Anybody can have a breakout year. Anybody wrong here where they make good profit as well. But show me someone that even if they keep it at that number or have consistent growth year after year after year after year, and that, my friends, is freaking rare. And it's especially rare in this space. I mean, it's almost like the music industry with people with their 15 minutes of fame. Someone's there and then gone. And. And nothing gets me, like, more excited today and passionate about everything that you and I both teach. Then that being the magic pill for you, that it's one thing like, let's say someone says, like, I want to get my business to 300,000 a year. 300,000. And I don't. I don't mean this. Like, I remember when I was there, $300,000 a year in an online business isn't that much money. You know, if you had 50% profit margin and you're, you know, taking home before taxes, 150,000, like, yes, you could sit there and say, oh, I'll go work, you know, in a corporate exec position, and maybe that's. That's what I make there. I don't know. I don't know how much people make today in jobs. Right? But. But it's good money. And if you could maintain that. And I don't know what your thoughts on it because you're the expert on this, but this is just like what my perspective has been. You just look at that isolated on one year, that's one thing.

But I wonder what changes when that's what you're doing year after year with even 10 to 20% growth. Year after year after year, you're doing the same thing. You're gonna do it better. This is what's gonna happen when you do the same thing. You're gonna better, and it's gonna take less work of you to do it. There's so many people out there that built the damn thing. And it took all your time and energy to build it. And then when you ran it, you said that wasn't worth it. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze, Mel. And it's like, hold on, you just built it. And the thing that you built, you get to reuse. That's like building a car in your garage. And it took all summer, and you drive it to the bank and back and said that wasn't worth it. It's like you get a car for the rest of your life, now you can drive it wherever you want. And you just equated all that summer of Building it to one trip downtown, like that's, that's no erroneous thinking. You built something that use again and again and again. And once you build it, you don't need to build it again. You refine it, you improve it, you tune it up, you tweak it, you, you customize it, you enhance it. And when you do that with a business, it gets bigger, it gets better, it gets more profitable, it gets higher conversions, higher performance, it gets even more fun. And a momentum builds. Because as you're producing that consistency, not only is it performing better, but more and more and more people find you. And even if it only grew by 10, which is a very conservative number, I think 10 growth year after year, and you keep that profit margin roughly the same proportionately. You just created something that's going to continue to work to cause. Require less work from you, but still bring in that revenue, that income year after year. And like, I look at that and I go, and I don't know if this makes sense. I mean, I know that made sense, but like this next piece is like, I don't look at the need to. I have to go grow my business if I want more money. You know what I look at? I just look at time. I just need more time.

Yeah.

Does that make sense?

It's like it absolutely makes it, dude. It's, it's the same principle in business as it is in wealth creation. Same thing, same thing. Time is our greatest lever. Consistency is our greatest, our greatest fuel. And it's not the big grand slam home runs, it's the consistent. There's a study out there. 10,000 millionaires and 30%, 31% of them.

Became a millionaire. And their average earnings was only a hundred thousand dollars. And one third of them never made more than six figures. So we keep swinging for the fences. Versus hey, let's get in the game. Let's stay in the game, let's tweak the game, let's adjust it for our lifestyle. Let's stay in the process and, and allow it to get a life of its own.

Exactly. But then you. So, so I say that's where we start looking at the energy of the business owner versus the entrepreneur. The entre entrepreneur is driven by the new novel, exciting idea, innovation and creativity, which don't, I mean, don't talk about. I mean, that's my jam. I love that. But as soon as the novelty wears off, as soon as it's not passionate anymore or exciting, it's on to the next thing. And they're starting over and there's like really the secret weapon as we're saying is, is that consistency. And if, if this was just this consistent thing, like if you give this five and I know that's the only time, I'm not like it's going to take five years. But if you're doing this the same thing you're doing for five years and you're growing 10, 20, and a lot of people grow way more than that. And we've, we're seeing people that are like 3 to 5x in their businesses in a year. We just interviewed a client on the podcast last year. She had $500 to her name and she has a multi seven figure business this year. It's like, it's fricking unbelievable. Some of these case studies are coming in. People will get their first million in two years. So I'm, I'm just talking conservative like not like you hit a jackpot, accidentally chose the perfect niche and the stars aligned and all these things in an unreplicatable way. I'm saying like anyone putting something out there that can build a multiple six figure that grows consistently over time, wow, that's just so valuable. And that is, I've been doing this for 16 years and I, and I look back and I go that I can't ignore that as the consistency. And I, I will do an event, I will do a webinar, I'll do a training and I'll say raise your hand if you ever joined any of my YouTube products like Video Traffic Academy. And 25% of the room goes, hands go up. That was 2011?

Yep.

Are you kidding me? Like, let this blow your mind for a moment. You could be doing something this month, in 2023 that causes someone 10 years from now to give you money. That's what I'm talking about. Like people that buy my stuff today because like I bought that program 10 years ago, 12 years ago. It was amazing. I saw something else. I didn't, wasn't for me, but I saw this and I had no, I had to have it. Wow. These are the sexy things, you know, they're just people want to talk about the latest lamest and AI funnel or whatever. Great, that's wonderful. But let's learn how to be a fricking business owner and you will get the lifestyle that is being sold as being an entrepreneur. I guarantee it.

Look, I could, I couldn't agree more. I mean I've obviously not focused just in the, in the online space. I've helped build businesses that are Very traditional. One of the companies is founded in the 1880s. Okay. Their fifth generation. We built it up to 200 and well, 300 million this year. You know.

So how old were you? That company was, was founded. I forget.

You know, I was, I was still in diapers when we founded it.

I mean on the board now, I think 20 years.

Wow.

Yeah. And, and we built it back then. We were doing about 20, 25 million in, in revenue and we're doing 300 now and.

Wow.

It's an old time business. It's, it's a traditional business. There's this tremendous amount of overhead and tremendous am. But the principles are the same. The beautiful thing for those that are listening, those that are looking at the online space and looking at the digital space and, and the things that you're doing is the barriers to entry have never been lower. The access to reach has never been higher. And the difference that makes the difference is exactly what you're saying. Getting in the game and consistently staying in the game.

Yeah. Because anybody can get in. Yeah. Show people that you're not just one of those people that. I got in because it was easy and I, someone told me it was quick and it's, and it really like breaks my heart because I see how many of those people are out there that want to do it, but only want to do it if it's quick and easy. And I am, I'm so happy that it's, it's not quick and easy. You know, can it be simple? Can it happen faster than you? It could even expect it. You frickin betcha. Will it take something from you? Most likely, yes. Will it give you something that is worth it 1 million percent? I mean I look at my data and it's like I cannot help but be consumed by gratitude on a moment by moment basis. And I spent a lot of years struggling. A lot of five years of just nothing. I mean, moved back in with mom and dad, had nothing in my name. And then it was three years of like 10,000 a year. Like no CPA would even take me because they're like, what's the point, kid? Like you're below poverty line. Like I don't want to waste my time with you. You know, do your own taxes and, and now you're, you're making eight figures. I have seven properties more I want to buy. I live in my 5,500 square foot dream house. On two acres was a horse ranch. I don't need all that land. But I liked the house and in, in my Dream town. I mean, like. And all of that becomes possible. And it was like, I, I've ex. I've reached a point in my life, which was a hard thing in a beautiful way. I was like, that went beyond what I thought was even possible when I started. And then you have to kind of create a whole new vision, which, like I said, is more about a purpose driven than just like, oh, stuff I want, you know, more money or something, but. And then that's what allows even more to, to come in. But it's worth it.

Especially when you're. And you're having fun, you know, and.

Because with the fun, it doesn't feel like we're gonna, you know, not everything is, Is enjoyable. But I, If I look at my life in 80%, 85% of the time, I enjoy what I do. I love what I do. I love the people I talk to. I love being able to serve. I love being able to see light bulbs go on. I love to be able to see the dreams coming true and to know that if there was just a little seed that came from me, then I'm doing what I was put here to do.

Amen.

And I think that's the thing that, that we ought to, to really look at, if you want. There, some of you out there are probably sitting back and saying, I have this yearning, I have this desire, I have this idea, I have this wanting. Well, it's. Now's the time to really look at it and say, well, when is there a better time for us to do this? When is there a better time to maybe get some guidance to. To sit back and say, I'm going to choose the path that I know I'm called to choose and to find the life that I, I want to find? I mean, James and I used to be neighbors. He lives in a different town now. He lives in a different environment now. I'm by the water, he's by the mountains. Okay. But it's a life of his choosing. It's a life of my choosing. And we get to live it each and every day. And I don't, I don't take it lightly. It's a privilege, it's a blessing. I, it's an honor. But it was worked for consistently over time. And, and, and I don't know, I don't think that anyone is exempt from it. And maybe this is my idealistic view, but I, but even if it's not easy, it is a simple process, but we have to stay in the process. We have to stay in the game. And we have to do the things that, that business owners do to give us the things that business owners deserve. And part of that is creating value and change and solutions for people and, and, and doing it consistently over time and, and then doing the right things.

To have, you know, call it karma come back to us in a way that, that pays us in space.

Well, you know, it's like if someone came to us and said, you know, Mel Jams, I want to get into the best shape of my life or I want to lose a little bit of, of extra weight. And we said, okay, every day I, I want you to do intermittent fasting so you don't have your first meal until you know, six or seven hours. I have to get up, I want to make sure you drink at least 1 gallon of water and I want you to do inner interval training, sprinting every other day and 30 minutes of weight training on those, on those in between days. And you take one day off. And we want you to do that every day for six months. You could say that is very simple.

Very clear. I've been able to think.

Where it gets hard.

Is those days that you don't want to do it, the days you want to give up, the days where you did give up and then you got to still try and get back on it the next day. And business is the same thing where it's, it's actually really frickin stupid simple. This business specifically is stupid simple. And we overcomplicate it and then everyone else overcomplicates it for you and then it's not a straight line of growth where.

You'Re going to meet your match somewhere. We all have our match. For some people, the their match that they've met is right at the starting line, just getting started, just putting it out there. For some they're like, I'm ready, that's easy. And it's like.

Selling or scaling or getting it to six figures or getting it to seven figures. Everyone's going to meet their match. Everyone's going to have you're, I promise you, you're going to have your opportunity to be humbled and learn some lessons. Where that is, I do not know. You will know it when you see it. But it is inevitable. And the, the reality is, is it is still simple. It becomes hard for everybody at some point because when anyone does something they've never done before, you're going to have to venture out of your village of safety and familiarity into the forest of the unknown where you face the treacherous creatures of ambiguity I don't know what's out here. I don't know what, I don't know. I don't know what pitfalls and traps and dangers await for me. And that is inevitable. But it's simple. Attract your audience. Sell them what they want. That is the most simple we could ever make. Get any easier than that. It does not get any easier. Attract your audience. I, I mean Mel's a great example. You know, I always tease him and say like, you know, if, if everyone that actually knew you followed you on social media, you'd probably have like 200,000 followers. Eddie has like 10. And.

I mean I'm going to use my sister because this is, this has been the full circle joyful moment. My sister buys VBD a year ago or actually the year before. So 2021, she buys VBD, by the way. She, she buys it, calls me and says, james, I didn't get a welcome email. I don't, I don't get access to your program. Like, I didn't get any information. I'm like, hold on, let me, let me get to the bottom of this. Well, the reason she didn't get any information is because I had already gifted her the program like two years prior. She had never opened it, she didn't even watch the frickin welcome video. But she was ready and she was ready to pay. You know, and that's a really interesting phenomenon with people, especially when it comes to selling. We get in our selling stuff, we have to remember when people don't pay, they don't pay attention. They don't value free, they don't put skin in the game, they don't have that powerful decision point where they say I'm in it to win it. And so my, when I gave it to my sister for free, she didn't do anything with it. When she had to put her own hard earned money in there, she's like, I'm, I'm ready. My sister has still to this day, but then as well, no website. She didn't have a single post on Instagram pertaining to the niche and the topic that she wanted to talk about. So not only did my sister, no email list, obviously no nothing. Like literally the most beginning you could start with. No list, no website, no following. She had friends and family on Instagram and she was talking kids and her dog and the occasional my brother is amazing. No, she never did that. She never. Can you believe that? Never posts about that.

And sisters do that all the time.

I, I know that's it though. She'd never purchased another program, Nothing. So she's like, she. It's so great because she's a purist. You know, a lot of people always go, you know, they hear a story. Oh, yeah, but you were doing this over here for this. Well, my sister, you can't say that about. She had not. Nothing, nada. And she comes to me as big bro. I wouldn't coach her. You know, I said, you got to use the program. That's what it's there for. I mean, you can pay me 15 grand and I'll. I'll do a one day with you. What a jerky. Big brother, huh? But, hey, you know, no wonder she's.

Not posted about you.

So she goes, okay, James, I'm going to finally run my beta launch, which is like putting my. My first version of my product out there. And she goes, I honestly, I don't have any audience. I don't have any. I don't have anyone. So my goal is three. And then she told me later, she goes, yeah, I lied. My goal was one. But I told you three. But my real goal was just one. If I could just get one person to join this thing, then that would tell me I got something. And she didn't get one. She didn't get three. She got seven. She got seven people to join her beta program within two months of. Of joining. And then about two weeks later, she did call me for this one. She goes, I need some advice. Help me. Help me go, what's. What's going on? She said, I got a problem.

People are hearing about my program and they want it. I'm like, oh, that's the problem. That's. That's not a problem. That's called a good thing. She's like, well, what do I do? And I was like, you let them in. I'm getting nine people into her, into her program, and every single time she's launched it since it, she keeps doubling her numbers. And she's a mom of two, no business experience. She was also homeschooling her kids and was the primary caretaker for my father as he was sick and passing. And, I mean, it's like, it's hard to use my sister's case study because there's always someone who's going to be like, yeah, you probably did it all before. I did not.

I could attest to that.

I definitely did not. And I'm like, no, I'm gonna treat you. I mean, you're my sister, so I'll be there as your brother. But is a Business coach. I'm gonna. I'm gonna work with you the same way I do with. With my clients. And, like, you don't get special treatment. And she followed the process and. And she did it. And part of it was like. And today she's like this inspiring people. Just, like, love, love her. Because sometimes it's just about getting started. Sometimes it's about getting that car built so that we know we can drive it. And when you get a paying client, you got proof that you got something that's working, and wherever we are is where we are, and we're just here to take the next step. And she sent me these texts that were just like, you know, she'd get off these calls coaching her clients, and she's like, this is the happiest I've ever been. She's like, don't tell my husband or my kids. But, like, I feel more lit up, more fulfilled. And this is just the most incredible experience. Like, I'm doing what I'm here to do. And I'm like, well, you know, me receiving that text is like, that's me doing what I'm here to do. Because I think there's a lot of helpers out there. A lot of people have, like, a really amazing message or they really want to help people. And I like to say that my purpose is I'm here to help the helpers. And I just think they're. They're great at what they do, and they're not great at being known for what they do. So they tend to be pretty bad at marketing and running the business, the business that houses all that. And I got really good at those. I just got. You know, you mess up a lot enough over the years, and you figure a thing or two out. And that's really what I want for people, is like, how if you learn how to run a business the right way, it will change your quality of life. One thing we say over and over again, inside the rise of digital CEO, inside business by design, is the more structure you put in the business, the more freedom you get back in your life. The more structure, the more consistency, the more planning. I have a big post coming out on this, and the post goes something to this effect. I wonder how much more money you will make when you plan more. These are the unsexy things to business. People get in this reactive, urgent cycles where they aren't looking at their numbers, they're not strategic and they're not planning. They go, I need some money. And so they just, like, flap something together. They try to do something really fast, really reactively. And guess what happens when you do things reactively? It always falls shorter of what you hoped and now you're really screwed because it falls shorter than what you hope, which means you have to do it again and you need more money. So you reactively and you get stuck in this cycle and you can't get out of it when it's the very thing that you're doing is causing and perpetuating to stay in it. I see, and I see people, that's where they burn out and that's where they, they burn their business to the ground.

When, when we do the things that we do. I just noticed now and it just gets me so fired up and I'm so passionate about it that like we just, we just do things so differently. You do it too. Here's an example. You're in the same mastermind as me and one of the things we ask people is they go, hey, put your launch dates in, in this like group board so we can all support each other during launch time. Don't think I didn't notice.

But you were the only one we did this in quarter one. You were the only person that had a launch date beyond quarter one. You had quarter three. No one else had quarter two. Quarter maybe like, maybe, maybe the first month of quarter two. But no one had like June, July, definitely didn't have August, let alone September. Nothing passed there. Did you notice that when you, when you did?

I did notice that. But you know, it's funny, it's the way I'd run my life. I look at things in a 12 month cycle. I, I know what my numbers are like. I was just talking to my wealth team this today because they were talking about a tax strategy. And I said, we can't do it. And he says, why? I said, because let me tell you what my numbers are going to be this year. And he goes, so our tax rates are going to be way too high to try and use this strategy. And he goes, wow. He says, you know that. And I go, I know that. I, I mean I know it, you know, I, I can see it. And so, so you got to put it on the calendars, you got to put it in the game. You gotta, you, you gotta plan it out. And because some dear friend of mine, Bo Eason, said to me once.

He said, schedule your fears. And when you place your fears on a schedule, your mind starts to work to deal with the fears. Your body starts to make decisions, your heart starts to move forward. But Once we put it on the calendar, no matter what it is, things have to start to align to stay congruent with a commitment and a declaration you made. And so that's why I do it.

It's kind of like a slingshot. So if you put your. Whatever, your rock or your marble in the slingshot, we know the further back you pull it, the further this thing's gonna go. That's just the law of, you know, physics here.

Yeah.

In action. So the same becomes true. Mel has a. Has a big promotion in September. So he has pulled back. The longer you, you know, using the metaphor here, the longer you plan something out, the more you stretch and pull back our slingshot, which means it's going to go further. So why is that? Well, let me give real freaking examples. Mel, who is just speaking at event, probably all these other speakers and great people is now working with, can start building relationships now with people that could become strategic partners. He could start networking with them even on ideas now that could go towards his launch. Then he could be doing things with his audience now. That starts to build up the anticipation and the momentum, and that builds. We are T minus 29 days away from the kickoff of my annual launch. And that, that date is on the calendar a whole year. And like, we. We plan it days after it's done. We're already choosing the next date. Right. So there were things that I was doing in January for it and February and March, but now, as I was telling Mel's like, oh, man, we are, like, picking up this crazy momentum. And it's that crazy momentum that could not be there if I just started it right now. And I'm like, I think I'm going to sell something in 30 days to do something two weeks. Like, and, you know, I'm not. You have to choose wherever you are in your journey of, like, I'm not saying, like, society. You're going to sell something and wait a year before you do it, because people don't. That's not what I said. But if you don't give yourself enough time to plan and it's just reactive, like, I need something now. You've already set yourself up for failure nine times out of 10. Like, the reactiveness doesn't. Like, no one got their acceptance speech. And I was like, I'm so glad I was reactive. Rushed, got in my head and. And acted out of fear. That's the reason I'm here today, you know, And. And there's. I was talking to someone else about this, and it's like, like, if we look at things in terms of energy, like, you know, you get around someone, you kind of feel their vibe. And when I'm around people, I'm always, especially the entrepreneurs and they're telling me about their business or I'm coaching them. I'm always trying to get just a vibe of who they are. And there's this certain type and, and I don't mean this disrespectfully or judgmentally. I'm just, I have to give examples here. It seems to always kind of be up in the air and they're always just kind of like bouncing around from whatever is. It's almost like a dog. And you just put the shiny little thing in front of it and it's just like, boom. And those are the type that sadly, they, they just plateau pretty quickly.

Yeah.

And they can't, for whatever reason, seem to grow beyond that. But they're, they're the busiest. I mean, they're. I get tired watching them. I'm like, I'm exhausted just listening. I almost started crying once when this person told me the amount of work they have on their plate. And my heart just like ached. I was like, it sounds like you're doing 17 hour days or something. And they're like, yeah, about, about like 15. And do you take days off? Like, no, I don't. I can't. And they're at like a 300, $400,000 a year. And I'm like, yeah, hey.

Like I'm gonna cry for you. That just sounds awful. And it's always this next thing or the latest, greatest. And there's so many weird counterintuitiveness to being a great business owner that will give you a great business. Great businesses are built, you know, by great business owners being a great business owner. And there's so much counterintuitive, like you have to say, no way more than you say, yes, you gotta move slower. The. All these things are like, what the what? And, and I say this, I'm quite the contrarian, as Mel knows. Like, I ruffle feathers not because I want to, but because I have some things to say that just are opposing that identity. So like when I say, you need to slow down if you, if you want to be a better business owner, slow down. The fastest way to speed up is to slow down the entrepreneur. He said they're all about quick start, do it today. You know, but there's such an intentionality, as you were saying, there's such a calculated presence. And the tortoise. I had a, I Had a mutual friend of ours, mastermind client, text me today. This, this makes me so happy. And this is what they sent me because I'm trying to, I actually talked to her and I said, you are an example of this quintessential business owner archetype that I, I, I know that this type will always be successful. We can always be this type. It's a, it's a choice. It's not like it's hardwired and you're fixed. Right. And she said to me today at 5:53pm Pacific Standard Time. So it was like literally an hour before we started recording. James got an update. We just passed 500, 000 in cash collected for the year. And you know, it's, it's, it's maybe. Yeah, yeah, you got a million dollar business. This is amazing. And the emoji, you want to know the guess the emoji, guess the emoji they put after this, it made me so happy and it spoke volumes. What do you think?

Probably the party emoji.

That's what you think they sent me the turtle.

The turtle. Iron man, the turtle. Yeah, it's true.

One of the other. It's, it's, yeah, it's slow and steady run wins the race. And there's a time and place for, for everything, you know. Yeah. I want you to get it to market, but that's because if you're in your head and you're overthinking things, you're going to be wasting time and energy. But if you're not in your head and you're calculated and you're present and you're strategic, you're doing something over and over again. You know, there's a slide I share at my live events that people still to this day comment and saying, this is the most impactful visual I've ever seen you share. And it's the history of business by design.

Yep.

I program Mel was there when I started it, and in that very first iteration of it, 2016, it did $18,000. And it was just a small little beta thing I was doing. I just made a little bit of money and then I said, okay, now.

He didn't even have a name for it.

I didn't. It was, well, the name was James Wedmore's super awesome sexy beta program. Yep. So, you know, there was don't, like, don't get me wrong, like, there's that leap and the net will appear, build your wings on the way down kind of mentality, but then it's like, stay the Course. And I showed on a graph the trajectory of this and how it continued to grow. But it took three years. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was like 250 launch. The next one was 250, then it was 500 and another one was 500 and then it was like 600. You know, I was doing well, but then all of a sudden like two and a half, three years, it just hockey sticks and all of a sudden 4 million, 5 million, 5.76. And that happened at three years. And I know it's so stupidly cliche, but you've seen those little memes of the guy who stops digging for gold.

Yes.

Eat or inches before he strikes it rich. And you're probably doing the same thing. You give up on your idea. You give up on the thing that you're working towards when you don't understand that that thing takes time to turn it into what it's meant to be. That's why you created it in the first place. So you had a vision, you started it, and then you give up on the vision and it's never going to come to its full fruition, you know.

Well, and I, not to get too esoteric, but I think part of that process is because.

It requires you to become who you need to be to have it where it needs to be. Yeah, you have to grow into the business owner, the entrepreneur that is required of you.

To have that, that, that level of success.

Well, if that's too esoteric, then people are really screwed. Because to me that is like the biggest secret.

I stated the average person. Well, we liked us entrepreneurs and business owners call the normies the normies out there. Most of them don't have goals. That's really sad. You know, I lived a large part of my life not really having goals either. So I really get that. It was like live for the weekend or a day off or that dream about the next vacation or whatever. No judgment, totally fine. Then you read a few books like the Four Hour Work Week and you're like, I'm going to start a business. And you start having goals. If you create a vision board or you write it down somewhere, everywhere you're going to see it. And that's amazing. Here's what no one freaking taught me all those years ago that I wish someone had shooken me by the shoulders because it's just so stupid simple. It's more of this stupid simple that I love. Right. Because I want to keep it simple. The moment you create a goal, what you're doing with a goal is you're saying, this is what I want.

So to want something is a simultaneous acknowledgment that you don't have it. So if you don't have it, you haven't done what you've needed to do the right way in order to have it. That's why we want it because we don't have it. And we don't have it because we haven't done it. Okay, so there's an acknowledgment. Yeah. Which means there's also an acknowledgement that you don't know how to do it. Otherwise you would have done it. And you would have it because experience is the only true giver of knowledge, a concept in your, your head. I can read five books on how to swim or how to write a book. That doesn't mean I know how to swim or ride a bike. Until I'm doing it and experience it, I don't actually know. And the same goes for all of us. So the stupid, simple process is as soon as you know what you want, you must know what the thing that you want wants from you or rather needs from you. And, and you live into that. That changes everything. So I want to build a million dollar business. Great. And this is another thing. This, this came up before. You know, people ask like, what's realistic? And I go, we gotta screw realistic. Because really anything is possible. You want to say, I want to go to 0 to 1 million in one year in my first year in business. That is absolutely without a shadow of a doubt possible. But the plan and what it's going to take and what would it would require of you to get to zero to a million in your first year of business is probably something you're unwilling to do.

Yes.

It's like, hey, would you be willing to spend a quarter million dollars in ads to like build the brand and get the name out there and build a list? No. Then there you go, right? So you got, I don't have a quarterman. Great. Then you're going to have to use another resource. But going back to this, you say, I want to build a million dollar business. You go, great, what does a million. And I'll bring it down again. I'll do the lower version. So it's like, maybe that's 2, 5%. What does a million dollar business require of me? What is a million dollar business need? What do I need to let go of? What do I need to be doing differently? What value do I need to be delivering? What else does it need to make this possible. When you start asking those questions and actually like you have to kind of sit in the unknown of I don't know those. Yeah. Know that once you can be move past the uncomfortable of I don't know. Because our teachers told us growing up that not knowing the answer is bad, but not knowing the answer means you're in a receptive state. That's where you get to like daydream a little bit. That's where the magic is. So you just take it down to 100k, you're at zero. You just started your business yesterday. What does 100k your business look like? What does it need from me? What do I need to do? What do I need to let go of? How does the digital CEO of that business operate? And let that and the answers to those questions begin to guide you. Otherwise, if that's not guiding you, then guess what? The person making $0 that wants a hundred thousand dollar business is guiding the direction of the business. That person, no disrespect, has no clue how to do it. Because like we already acknowledged they've never done it before.

Right.

Let person who has a, who has only created a zero dollar business make all the decisions for 100k business that ain't ever gonna happen. And this is why that gap eludes people for so long. At every level. I had to change the way I looked at things. I had to change my thinking, I had to change where I spent my time. I just change like my identity and where my value went and what I worked on, what I said yes to, what I said no to, how I made decisions, all of it. And that's what allowed me to continue growing. So it's simple. But again, it goes back to where some of it doesn't mean.

This is, this is such a beautiful.

Perspective.

And we're using it as business, as, as business right now. But imagine the viewers, the listeners, imagine if you did that in every aspect of your life.

Yeah.

What does the relationship need? What does my health need? What does my family need? And we start to come at it from that perspective. Can you imagine the richness that we create not only in the business, in our lives? It's a wonderful perspective.

Change your lives because it's our ego that gets so rooted in like this myopic, you know, all of us are guilty of this to some degree because we all have an ego. This myopic, like I'm the center of the universe kind of mentality of like more me, me, me. Why don't I Have me, me, me, me, me. So that perpetuates what do I need? I don't have this. I focus on what I don't have, but what I need. And here's my problems that I need solved. The me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And these questions force you out of that and really.

Disassociate you from the, the current situation to say, what is this thing need from me? Or what does it just need? It doesn't need to be from you. I could sit there and say, yeah, you know, your business, it needs an amazing marketing director, an amazing marketing team. Might be up to me to go hire that team, but it doesn't need it to come from me. I. You become. You need to look at your business like it is this entity that has no voice. It cannot speak up. So you are the, the liaison, you are the advocate, you are the caretaker. And if you don't tend to its needs, no one else will. So if you don't know what it needs, you can't tend to its needs. And if you can't give its needs, it ain't gonna give you what you want. Yeah, that, like you said, is with anything in life. Everyone says they want to be in a loving, incredible relationship, marriage. Everyone says they want to find their soulmate. But it's a rare person that says, what does this person need for me? What does this relationship need from me in order to make it extraordinary? And everything is a give and take. And so people come to me and they say, james, part of my fear and hesitation, what comes up is I just, I don't feel like I don't. I'm worried. I am afraid I don't have what it takes. And I say, do you want this business? And they say, yes. And I say, you really want it? Like what we were talking about before, like, this isn't your parents dream, this isn't. This is what you want, right? And they say, yes. And I say, if the desire was born from it within you, I can promise you, I can guarantee you, I can say with absolute conviction and certainty you have what it takes. It's simply a matter of if you're willing to give what it takes and what it takes. A lot of my friends.

What it takes a heck of a lot of is letting go.

Any process of growth is a process of letting go. A lot of people think it means I'm going to need to work more. Well, you're going to need to let go of the belief that you have to work more to make more a Lot of people think it means more stress. Well, you have to let go of all your control issues. You have to let go of all your perfectionism. You have to let go of the fear of making a mistake or failing or getting it wrong or worrying about people judging you or perceiving you, or it's going to change everything in my life when I'm successful, my family's going to hate. You know, you have to let all that go to let in the thing that you want. That's the process. And when people say, what is it going to take? And as I say, it's going to probably take letting go of the things that you've been holding on to near and dear and very tightly. And that's where we can say it's simple. But it becomes hard. We make it hard. Yeah. Hard by our own choosing.

Yeah. This is so good. Now we're. And then we could talk for days and we usually do. But. But I mean, because here's the thing, you're actually going to go deeper on some of this. You're going to work through some of the mind stuff, some of the system stuff, some of the processes, what it takes to truly, whether you're at zero, whether you're at a hundred thousand, whether you're at a million, what it takes to become the business owner, the digital CEO that you need to be, to have the success that you envision and beyond. And it's a special kind of training that you're doing that's absolutely free. Coming up soon, called the rise of digital CEO. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Tell them about it. Because y', all, if you have any desire to kind of walk this path, if you have any desire to create an additional income stream, do you have any desire to accelerate your path to wealth? This is the journey to be on. Because a digital business is one of the highest margin businesses that you're ever going to find on earth.

And it's the most fulfilling, fun, rewarding type of business you could possibly do. And I've said this before to you, that I think the greatest asset we could ever acquire is that of a personal brand. You know, and you just look at some of these people like the Bezos and the Musk's of the world and love them or hate them as irrelevant. They, you know who they are and whatever they go touch tomorrow turns to gold. And it turns to gold because they created a name for themselves. And no one ever Southern said what a mistake it was to build a personal brand where more people Got to know me for something and built a relationship with me. You take that with you wherever you go. So I've been doing this for 16 years. Today we have a business that has consistently been doing eight figures year after year. And I, I do this training once a year that tends to piss off what people call, quote unquote, competitors because I do things a little differently in my, my world. Like basically what is in people's paid programs that you pay like $2,000 for is what I just give for free in the free training. And there's a few reasons why I do that. One is because I do have a paid program and my paid program is less, just a bunch of course videos of watching, more information and it's more the Lego instruction manuals, the step by step processes, the SOPs and the execution guides for actually running the business. So in the free training, basically here's what I'm going to do. If my business was a car, then the first thing we do is pop open the hood and I'd show you how it runs and what we do in there. And it's a very healthy business that is run. There's only eight of us and it, it gives us not just like the fun and the fulfillment, but a lot of free time as well. And it's because we do things very differently than most people and how we run it and that includes how we create our offers and how we sell them. So this is an invitation to anyone who is or has that itch to, to be the online expert, the personal brand and monetize any type of digital product. We are going to help you plug in the business model for making that happen. This is where we end the game of let me, let me chase the latest gimmick, the latest funnel wizzoo whatchamacallit that is promising you to make a million dollars by tomorrow. And this is really for those that are like, I am serious about actually building a business around this and not just a quick cash grab and then I'm going to flee to Mexico or something like that. This is a call to the real businesses or at least desire to be the real business. And I'm going to show you how to, how to build something real and sustainable. And it's actually way easier in my opinion. It's just completely different. Yeah, different, not harder and makes things better. The more structure you put in your business, the more freedom you get in your life. The other phrase you're going to get to hear a lot from me and really discover is the reason you are plateauing. The reason you are overworked, the reason you are not getting the results that you want despite the effort is because of a very simple business truth. The role that you fill in your business will determine the results that you receive. So we're going to take a good hard look at what role you've been filling, what roles you've been avoiding, and what roles are required of your business at the phase it is. Your business is in one of four phases. There's a big reason why a lot of the advice you're getting is either bad advice or isn't working for you. And it's because business growth happens in stages. And so what can be great advice in one stage is awful in another. And if you don't understand what stage you're in, you don't know what advice is good and what is bad. So that's what. That's kind of one of the most blessing part of what I do is I literally, like I said at the beginning of this, I work with someone who just started their business yesterday and I can, I have people that come in the business by design and work with us that are at, you know, two plus million dollars. How is that possible? Because everything that we do is designed about identifying what phase that you are in and then plugging in the structure and the processes and the systems required for that phase with one simple intention get you to the next phase. So we're going to cover all of that again. It, it rivals the paid courses that a lot of people are buying and it's an intense live three part mega series. But I really say it's, it's just for the people that are, that are serious. And I hope you are because I had to get real serious. You talk about that current of society and parents and upbringing. I felt like I had to paddle upstream for four years before I could create my own current, my own stream. I don't want that to be four years for any of you. This is what I wish I had when I got started, that I had to figure out the hard way and I wanted to shortcut that success. A lot of what drives me today is if I can get anyone like that, like we were saying, that hard work and that struggle, we have to honor that. But if I can shorten that for you, if that can be the next six months or a year of your life and not four and a half, five with the, the ever accumulating doubt that amplifies and goes exponential of maybe this isn't ever going to work. Until the point where that over comes you and you just give up. We don't ever want it to get that far. We gotta, we gotta shortcut you through that. That's what it's aimed to do. It's called the rise of the digital CEO. We kick off June 1st.

I will make sure that we hook up the links in the show notes. I will be there live behind the scenes with James.

And I'll get you all the, all the schedule, everything so you can get access to it. It's free. Here's the deal. It's going to take time, it's going to take focus, but it's going to take you to a whole new level. I hope you join me. I hope you join. Join James, because I've watched this training. I've been part of the training for many, many years now. And it doesn't matter how many times I go through it, there's always a new. Aha. There's always a new perspective and there always a new shift that I can take away from it. And if I can do that after as many years as I've been doing this, you can too. So. So click the link that we have in the show notes, get yourself registered, grab a spot and make sure that you, you, you join us live and. And I'll be there to help you along in the process. So, James, my friend, any last words before we say see you later. Not goodbye, see you later, because I'm going to see you later. And as we go on our way in this episode, at least.

I don't have any other words other than what was already said. But.

You know, now really is your time because now is all that we have. And.

As much as it feels like there's stuff and all the reasons why not.

None of that changes until you decide to do it now. And I'm so glad I figured that out, because.

The perfect metaphor is you're planting seeds every day. Your decisions, your actions, your habits, your behaviors, your planting seeds, what you grow and if it even bears fruit is totally up to you. And I look at things I was doing a decade ago that, that bear the fruit that it has today. So why we would ever delay or hesitate or put anything like our purpose or our goals or our dream business on, on hold.

I. Escapes me. So now is the time. And I think people over the last few years and the challenges they've seen and the uncertainty of old traditional paradigms falling away, more and more people are waking up to Joe. I need to be doing my own thing. And I could not agree more. And I think those that are in a virtual digital space that can transcend time and location and all that type of stuff are we're just in the most perfect spot and more and more people are going to figure that out. So you better be one of the that sooner rather than later, folks. So now is. Is absolutely the time. So come join us and we'll have a ton of fun, I promise you that.

Yeah, without a doubt. Without a doubt.

Dude.

Man, always a joy to hang with you and, and chat and I think I'll be seeing you seeing a handful of weeks out there in.

That's right, yeah.

In Scottsdale and Phoenix and at the rise of digital CEO and everything. So thanks buddy for joining me and always, always fun.

See you, buddy. Thank you.

Cheers. Thank you for listening to the affluent entrepreneur show with me, your host, Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join. Join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabraham.com group and I'll see you there.

And that's it for this episode of Building your money Machine where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. It's if you do me a favor, go to Apple, Apple podcast or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people because I truly believe that financial freedom is your birthright and I want to help each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.