 Welcome back to another episode of the growth 40 a podcast in this episode You mean learning how to scale your coaching business like a rock star and make money like Anthony Robbins But before we get into this episode today, if you missed last week's podcast I had my good friend Nicholas Kuzmich on and we talked about the latest trends in Facebook marketing So if you're looking to expand and scale your business on a paid acquisition level I highly recommend you check out last week's episode with Nicholas Kuzmich So today's special guest on the podcast is my dear friend Jeremy Balotti. Now Jeremy Balotti helps entrepreneurs live a high-performance lifestyle He's a TEDx speaker author and founder of fit life entrepreneur and one of the top leadership in entrepreneurial peak performance trainers for innovative startup Multi-million-dollar businesses and he's a thought leader around the world. So today's podcast You're gonna be learning exactly step by step by step on what Jeremy did to scale his coaching business And I'm gonna tell you right now You're probably gonna be shocked and surprised at so many things Jeremy says because he's not gonna be talking about the Traditional things the most people do no he really breaks down the nitty-gritty on what it took to scale his business So stay tuned Welcome to the growth 48 podcast where we interview top entrepreneurs and investors to learn how to master their strategies and tactics from sales systems and marketing automations to how and why they invest in companies Hey Jeremy, how you doing brother? Good man. How are you? I'm good. I'm good, man It's crazy. We were talking about like half an hour before the actual podcast started. I felt like I was interviewing you man It's good for a change, right? I've been like away. I had it like hiatus on a podcast. It's been like six months So I'm happy to be back and especially with this new format, which is like short suite right to the point Which is a great segue into what we're gonna talk about today is like you've been killing it lately and I'd love to know exactly the two different aspects of What it took to grow your online business from the high-level strategy thinking all the way down to the tactics so if you can kind of quickly run us through, you know What was kind of like the inception of your idea and what was a high-level thinking into like how did he actually execute this on a Day-to-day basis? Yeah, no, and I absolutely love the structure So thank you for putting this together because there's nothing worse that I hate then listen to an hour-long podcast And I learned one thing So like the 95% of them out there. Oh my god, I could care less about people's story anymore I've like heard it like give me something tangible to truly work with so yeah Thanks for putting something like this together. This is awesome So yeah when it came to strategy bottom line is my idea was probably very similar to people that are listening Which is I just want to help people I want to serve people Entrepreneurs in particular who are really looking to create something impactful and you know serve others in a really big way And so I wanted to I knew that I had something within me to truly be able to make a massive impact and being able to do that and By all means, you know, I've gone to the conferences I went to you know, all these things trying to figure out and trying to get my ideas validated from other people and What ends up happening and most of the people caught listening this probably know this What ends up happening is that you go share your idea and what do they say? Oh, it's too broad You know that you're not going to be able to do that There's some things you might need to work on and all this just it just ends up it doesn't validate anything It just the only thing it validates is that you need to continue working on all these other different, you know Things that don't really make any difference to the the one thing that matters which is growing your business and You know driving revenues so that you can help more people. So one of the most tangible things that I did was Stopped doing that. I stopped looking for validation from anyone else and really looked at what is what is the tangible thing that? I can offer right now this second that adds value to someone else and Once I started looking at that I found solutions Because what you're doing when it comes to you know, oh find your niche find your avatar Find that person that one person in this world out of seven billion that just fits the perfect person You want to work with that's all in many ways It's just bullshit in terms of how it's presented because niches are not, you know This guy Jeff that goes to his job, you know It's not this one person that wears khakis like niches are necessary solutions to specific challenges or problems So what's that one constant with those you typically work with that you are? Solving for them and so I really started diving into that and really started understanding who I was the value that I brought to the table and I finally it was so clear once you have that conversation with yourself That it's like okay. I'm really passionate about x y and z. Let's say you're passionate about fitness. Okay. I'm passionate about fitness What do I love about fitness? I love the fact that I'm able to transform somebody's body from being You know morbidly obese to being able to start moving and being active and start getting involved with things that they haven't typically been involved with Awesome. Guess what you're gonna focus on weight loss and you're gonna focus on a community that would love to be able to transform their life it's it's very simple and one of the things that I learned throughout this process was Success is innately simple It has to be what does Bruce Lee says simplicity is the key to brilliance. Seriously. Well, if you think about it if you reverse engineer that Success has to be simple because if you over complicate shit, you're never going to be successful So just start re-engineering this stuff and it's very simple going back to the seminar stuff If you re-engineer the the strategy of getting verification from everybody else You're never going to get verified because everybody else has their own damn opinion So then once you discover this what was the next crucial steps to actually launch this Dude, the next crucial steps of finally discovering what the solution is that I solve was understanding that I really needed To get support in doing that. I think that's another thing and what I mean by support is again not validating and all that other junk It's actually Okay, I found the solution now. I'm writing a plan Of how to execute that solution. I have a solution. I know where I want to go Let's say for example, you have a goal of making $10,000 a month and earning six figures, you know, uh in your business Okay, awesome. Now you have a goal. What is re-engineering that goal? What is go working backwards the steps that you would need to take and I'm talking about tangible steps Meaning, okay, I would definitely need a website. I would definitely need a funnel and a way to Bring in money. I would definitely need so what do you say? That's the first thing that you did you started creating your website and may like made a basic funnel Um, so actually no I actually even went one step before that which I think a lot of people overlook Because they get stuck in that creation phase of funnel of funnels and of websites There's actually a step before that which is Actually driving revenue and and we kind of Like seriously, we actually you you mentioned it at the end of us talking just before which is You have to validate your freaking idea You have to validate your business if you're creating a business just to create a business and hope that people are Going to show up and hope that people are going to come. It's not going to happen You have to validate that marketing. It's the best form. I just hope Seriously, I see so many people are Spending six months to a year Building a website, you know building funnels and doing all of this stuff and it's like, okay Have you have you asked your market what they want? Uh, no Um, have you gotten any sales at all during that time? Uh, no Okay, so you don't have a business if you are just creating and not bring if you're not bringing in revenue You don't have a business and I know that can be hard for a lot of people to take because oh, well I'm not starting this business to make, you know, it's not about the money Um, yeah, it is about the money your your relationship with the money Might be all fucked up But that doesn't mean that it's not about the money the money is energy flow into your business that allows you To guess what create more energy to help more people So the money is absolutely the end game It's just you need to reshape your relationship with what money represents in the equation Because money is not this evil tangible thing that you're going after Money is the formula. Let me ask you this Jeremy. What did he do to start pre-selling it? To pre-sell it. I ended up just talking to people Awesome take us through like what did he do? You just called up people? Hey, I got this program or product What do you think 100% so I ended up mapping it out, right? So I have my solution I have what I know what I'm going to do for someone And therefore I called them and so I literally put down a list of people in my network Who I also let's pause there. So that was key right there. You went huge to your network first. Yes. Yes went to the network first. That's the first thing I looked at because You know, I mean bottom line is businesses about relationships, right? So that's that should always be the first place you look at and again You might have a very messed up relationship with going to your network because maybe you got involved with a network marketing company and they told you to make a list and Go hound all over your friends about how to how great your product is. Well Just because the strategy was flawed doesn't mean the method is is not correct So for example, if if you've gotten, you know screwed in investing But Warren Buffett tells you you need to invest It the method is not the problem. It's just the way that you were possibly doing it in the strategy you employed So I you have to make a list those are customers. Those are potential buyers I made a list of the people that were relevant to the solution I was providing meaning there was a very educated guess or educated Assumption that those people were suffering from the problem that I helped solve So you're not just putting friends and family and going to them and just you know starting a conversation This is I mean seriously, you know, you're you're putting down a list of people who you believe has this Problem now, what's a great way to find out a list of people that have the problem Going out asking if people have the problem. I mean one of the best ways one of the easiest things you could do Right now today It's free. It takes five seconds Go start a facebook group go start on meetup.com a meetup group Based around that problem say hey, is anybody suffering from this problem? Or let's say you go start a facebook group that has to do with a specific form of fitness like weight loss People are going to join that group Because they're they're they're interested in that topic or something And so let's say this like once you get them on the phone like how would you actually start the dialogue? So once I was able to let's say get them in a group somewhere or get the conversation going in a wider setting Whether it's on meetup or whether it's in a facebook group Yes, you start asking questions and very simple. You're going to find people who are needing in need of your solution What do you do you ask them to get on the phone with you right? So you ask say hey, I would love to speak with you about solving that problem Or you know about what you're struggling with you get on the phone with them and the first thing you say is hello They put the oh, yeah, you put on Adele's new song. Hello The next thing you say Is not hey, I have this amazing product or hey I know this really you know great guy that I want to speak to you that I want to put you on the phone with Who is like my mentor and I you know, you don't do that shit You ask them what they're struggling with and how They have tried overcoming it to this point Actually talk to them Actually care about what they're going through And through that conversation You're going to be able to one you're going to be able to validate That your solution is the right thing for them And you might even find some new things out about the problem that you're trying to solve Maybe there's some nuances That are really critical for you to recognize and to understand And you can you're so you're doing a couple of things right on that phone call You're one you're speaking to a potential client. So number one, that's a potential sale right there number two If anything the worst thing that happens in that conversation is you have extremely valuable data To be able to now go back into the marketplace and speak to So that call is is so valuable And literally I mean bottom line is if you're talking to somebody like that who you've reached out to this community You have a very clear assumption and a very clear understanding that they're most likely suffering from a problem because they're in this group You get on the phone with them. You verify that problem If you if you present to them, hey, I have the solution to that. I would love to help you solve it Are you interested in that? Most people are one going to say yes to that question And then they're going to say yes to your service obviously if it's priced correctly and all that other stuff so Doing that you're going to get the number one thing that you need to grow a business and that's momentum If you don't I'm glad he talked about that, you know getting the momentum, you know getting and it's also gratification in your end You were going to feel because you exactly. Yeah But why why do you feel amazing? And I think this is really key. Why do you feel amazing because You actually generated what not revenue not money into your business you generated energy Flow into your business meaning someone actually believed in you and your product enough to say yes, I will hand you the monetary form or monetary symbol of Energy that's that's what it is. They extended that trust in you To provide them a service and I'll tell you right now That is the momentum that grows your business But you have to start with that first if if you spend all that time Trying to build a website, which is what most people do What are you doing? All you're doing is just giving all of your energy To doing something that has no major no guarantee of return on investment. So try breathing out try be try breathing out right now all the air in your lungs And not breathe in You're going to suffocate yourself and that's what most businesses do within the first six months Well, that's a problem though You know this goes back to the field of dreams movie if you build a little cum Which is absolutely bullshit and I see it all the time even like big brands that make this mistake, right? I was working as one company. I won't name who's who But basically they spent north of 100k on this online ass online asset And I was looking at I'm like who the fuck designed this and what idea is behind this Yeah, I'm like, I mean you just lost money. I'm like, this is the most foolish thing I've ever seen in my life Dude, I love that you brought up field of dreams because it just it immediately brought into my minds Guess who came once he built that though Fucking ghosts man That's just gonna come into your business if you think that building a website first and doing all these fancy Dancing things are gonna make Those are gonna that's who's gonna come to your website is freaking ghosts And and the mirage of people that you believe Are your target market your quote-unquote target market? That's who's gonna come to your website but if you actually Revolve your business the foundation of your business around Speaking to people getting answers Tangible answers from people You're going to inevitably build the character traits of who your target market is is going to be By the solution you provide around specific problems That's what you start. You also hit something on that's very important over here Uh specifically if you are on the online space whether it's a membership website e-commerce or sass Is people are too Over ups uh over indulging these days in the world of automation. You're talking about funnel automation Traffic automation automation this automation that when in reality what trumps all of this and I I'm going to tell you right now I'm going to put my uh, I'm going to double down on this Way on the double down on this prediction over here I predict in the future the best ROI that you're going to get from an online marketing perspective or online platform Is having an in-house sales team or in-house customer relationship customer happiness center where you can actually talk physically with a human being I completely agree with you and What's interesting about that is that I think it's going to be a curve, right? So the curve is is going to look like a u-shape, right? So right now we're kind of at like the the mixture point where it's it's still extremely valuable But you're right most people are going automation automation automation And so probably you know for the next little while whether it's a year whether it's five years It's going to be kind of the lower half of that u-shape where you know the interaction goes down The automation is kind of going uh kind of the the the high point But um the the the connection is kind of going down But it's going to shoot back up for a couple of reasons number one because Again, business is built upon relationships But just think of it in the next few years Like you said most people are going to be going in one direction And just like Warren Buffett and and these people talk about when when you see the crowd Going all in one direction run the other way and that's what that's exactly what's going to happen People are going to be going all towards this automation and they're not going to have any freaking connection or relationship with their audience Well, guess what you're going to be on the other side of that Speaking to your audience connecting with them building relationships that are actually going to be tangible and sustainable And you're going to win out in the long run and you're going to you're going to grow a freaking huge business So after you had that success with uh Pre-selling it going to your network getting a list of people that Yep may benefit from your product closing some deals. What was the next thing you did? The next step was reinvesting that and again, I think this is a mistake that a lot of people make is that they want to They they think they're making money And they brought in like five thousand dollars And you know that might be seeing baby dude seriously They're thinking dude. I'm like another grand away or two grand or three grand away from making six figures Boom, I just made it and it's like dude. No, you need to reinvest almost all of that into Now Growing your business maybe creating some funnels maybe doing some things that are relevant to your business now what I did Was I took you know, I kind of I was like, hey, I can make sales talking to people Let me just do as much of that as I possibly can and build my price up to a point where I feel comfortable So I honestly I was doing that for a good little bit. Maybe you know A couple of months Now what was I selling most people into I was doing courses. I was doing training So I would use a like a like a go-to webinar or like a service where I could speak to a group of people You know, so I was leveraging I was using technology in that sense But to be able to drive revenue It was hustling man and talking to people And so but once I got that and once I knew that I could consistently bring revenue into the business at At any moment when I decided to meaning okay, if I if I want to go make You know a few thousand dollars today. I know exactly how many people I need to talk to I know exactly how many people I need to reach out to whatever Once I had that consistently known Then I reinvested into growing the systems Building out the systems that would allow me to scale the already proven model that I had and so And so when you mean by systems, can you give us like a quick quick little kind of glimpse of what it is? Yeah, absolutely. No, that's a good question. So the first thing I ended up doing was You know, definitely rein I invested into like a website, but even that was I mean maybe 30 bucks a month for like a hosting or for hosting and for if like a theme or whatever um, and then um, that included like some some Like opt-in pages and things like that where I could start like reaching out to people That was honestly the first step and you don't even need Like a In-depth website So again, don't don't think that you once you go to the website Okay, now it's time to create all the blogs be able to have like just this huge information site Really, honestly, all you need is a landing page That tells people what you do What's the problem you're solving? Who are you? Why are you the credible person to be able to solve this problem? And then just here do you want more information about this and then get them on your list? You know build out the email list build out the list That you started driving traffic to adopt and pages. So it's typically the way that I did it was um, was through facebook and through um, some other channels In terms of the people that I had in my network. So for example, I did a couple of speaking engagements You know, I've I've done a TED talk. So I I really I love speaking. I love being in front of people I love doing workshops like that and so I ended up Doing some speaking engagements with some people that were relevant to my to my audience And we just kind of it was like an affiliate ship But I didn't do that until I validated through the sales So the two things that I reinvested in just to be clear I reinvested in Um in my network So I I reached out to someone who I could kind of partner with do some speaking engagements Kind of reach some more people and and build my email list And then second was I got a pretty much a landing page type site So like literally one scrolling page on on your site No links to like your blog or no links to all these other different pages Literally one page. What's the problem you solve? Who are you? And you know, maybe some testimonials from the people that you already have gotten into your business And then drive traffic through Facebook, maybe some groups You know, again, if you're doing speaking agents, if you're doing workshops And and just tell people hey, this is what I do. Here's my website You know get on my email list. I give great content on a regular basis through email And and that was it It's simple. What's the analogy kiss keep as simple stupid dude seriously, man Honestly the focus that I've had from day one Once I made that initial shift of you know, kind of looking You know in wording and not asking everybody else to validate my my ideas and everything was honestly How can I simplify and optimize? With purpose and presence Hmm How can I simplify it? I love it simplify and optimize with with very strategic purpose And very conscious Like being very very conscious on what I want to create And being present to that So yeah, I think most that's where most people again just kind of go wrong It's like they're trying to over complicate things. They're trying to build out all these websites They're trying to do all these things Before They do the one thing that would actually Allow them to have a business which is just Generate revenue sell sell seriously people are scared of sales and I gotta talk to another human being. Oh no god forbid Yeah, the thing is I don't I I people are on the surface scared of sales Um, but it's more so I think they're scared of The ostracization that comes from Miscommunication and rejection, right? They're they're afraid of what's gonna happen If you miscommunicate selling selling can be I mean, there's actually there's a there's a really good, um, I think it was from awesomeness fest a really good talk from somebody who talks about how you can really Um See selling as an act of like one of the greatest acts of love that you could possibly imagine because what are you selling people? You're selling people a solution to help them get better like what the how can you think of that in any other Way than just positive and amazing I mean you're not it's not like you're selling unless you're selling them like freaking You know peanuts or or like, you know something That that has no massively intrinsic value beyond maybe like a few bucks I mean Yeah, well on that notion. Do you recommend any uh sales book or any books on communication to help people out? Dude, that's I love that question. That's a good question because there's so many good resources to be honest with you It's hard to it's like saying pick your favorite movie. Um, I know I would say, you know one guy that I I honestly I I really like a lot just in terms of the way that he You know delivers his message. I think he's just entertaining and and at least gets my attention Um, Grant Cardone. I think he I think Serious, I think he's awesome with selling obviously But in terms of his you know the way he delivers everything. It's just it's really good. Um, so I think uh seller be sold Seller be sold is his book on his primary book on selling. Um, is a good one Cool, awesome. Well, let's start wrapping up things. Jeremy. I just want to thank you so much for being really open about your journey in growing your business and scaling your business and sharing all your Very very insightful pieces. Where can people find more information about you and your business? Yeah, absolutely. So they can go to um, jeremybalotti.com and um, it's also jeremy balotti across all social media So at jeremy balotti, um instagram facebook youtube You know, um What is it Instagram instagram, what's a periscope and twitter? Yeah, twitter all that stuff So you're on periscope like crazy. You're crushing that. Yeah periscopes going well and then also dude blab, man I think I think blab is where it's at. I think that's going to be the next one that's going to blow up really? Yeah Yeah, because I mean just think of what periscope is And you're able to actually bring people on and communicate with them and like interaction again It's just it's that level of connection Um, so I think that's definitely a good one too Yeah, so and also another thing in terms of lead generation. I think is really important to understand everything is value So everything is value. So even even sending someone to For example your facebook group If you are if you were going to invite somebody on into your facebook group like let's say you send an email to you to um Or i'm sorry not an email a uh, let's say you're promoting to get into this facebook group That's going to add a lot of value for someone Why not send them to an opt-in page first and collect their email and say hey this this is you're going to get Part of a community that's going to help you that's going to grow with you That's going to you know, we're going to be doing some amazing stuff And you know join this community and I'll also send you this amazing gift as a as a thank you to your inbox there's just so many ways to communicate differently That allows people to really see the value that you offer and that's how you do it and that's how you grow your list That's how you grow your connections Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Jeremy. Absolutely brother. Thanks. Hi man. Have a great day. You too, man This has been the growth 48 podcast. Thanks for listening