Hey guys. The Fastlane book is the best book I've ever read in my life. And as embarrassing as this is to admit, it's the first book I ever actually read cover to cover besides 'Catcher In The Rye' for my pre-Google high school English class.
What caught me right from the start was MJs stories about his past. I can relate to everything he was saying. I felt like he was writing my own biography. The failures, the missteps, the beliefs of 'it won't happen', the days of sitting in bed not wanting to do anything - I experienced all of that and sometimes I still do.
I've been in business for myself since 2006. I always loved watching informercials when I was younger and quickly realized (luck for me) that the 'Tiny Ads' guy made his money selling his info, not doing the ads. Same thing with Sheets, Paul, and the rest of them. In 2006 I bought an "internet marketing" course late one night. I'll admit I was looking for the 'get rich easy' way. After reading the ebook for a half hour or so I quickly realized that what I was seeing was Infomercial 2.0. These people weren't making a dime doing what they taught. But they were crushing it selling what they were selling. And it was basically a hands off business. Affiliates send traffic, customers buy, download instantly, payment gets split up, and everyone makes money.
So I jumped right in and started teaching people how to write copy, which I was really good at and actually was successful at in other ventures. I didn't hit a homerun but I made money, quit my job and was selling ebooks full time.
To cut out all the useless info in my story, fast forward to 2012. Everyone is told "the money is in the list" but no one has an answer for 5% open rates. Clickbank changes, Paypal is banning people as a hobby, and other payment processors and networks are so full of scam garbage that I didn't want to be involved.
I came to the realization that two things had happened. 1. Digital Info wasn't selling "hands off" like it was in 2007-2011. If you weren't consistently "launching" you weren't making money. Products had a shelf life of a month, tops.
2. I had never built any assets. I spent all this time building a "business" and I couldn't liquidate anything at all.
At that point I decided to stop what I was doing. I had no idea what I was going to do next but I knew that what I was doing wasn't worth the time, effort, or stress. I picked up a few books on licensing and that really got my interests going. I looked at a few books and Mixergy interviews on Software as a Service and loved the model.
Then I picked up TMF and went cover to cover in 2 and a half days. If I was awake, I was reading and taking notes. I was cooking dinner with my iPad in my hand. The book changed everything for me. I have to say though that the book didn't really teach me anything I didn't know. It did however validate what I believe and it also made me ask the question "If you know this stuff why the hell aren't you doing it??"
I still don't know exactly where I'm going as of yet but I know one thing is for sure - IT WILL BE FASTLANE!
I really look forward to networking with all of you and hearing your ideas, war stories, failures and successes.
BTW, I'm in New York City if there are any local groups in the area.
Edit - I just noticed that MJ recommends the book "One Simple Idea - Licensing Goldmine" by Stephen Key. That's the licensing book I read that got my interests going on the topic. I'm not really sure if licensing is Fastlane or not but I love the idea.
What caught me right from the start was MJs stories about his past. I can relate to everything he was saying. I felt like he was writing my own biography. The failures, the missteps, the beliefs of 'it won't happen', the days of sitting in bed not wanting to do anything - I experienced all of that and sometimes I still do.
I've been in business for myself since 2006. I always loved watching informercials when I was younger and quickly realized (luck for me) that the 'Tiny Ads' guy made his money selling his info, not doing the ads. Same thing with Sheets, Paul, and the rest of them. In 2006 I bought an "internet marketing" course late one night. I'll admit I was looking for the 'get rich easy' way. After reading the ebook for a half hour or so I quickly realized that what I was seeing was Infomercial 2.0. These people weren't making a dime doing what they taught. But they were crushing it selling what they were selling. And it was basically a hands off business. Affiliates send traffic, customers buy, download instantly, payment gets split up, and everyone makes money.
So I jumped right in and started teaching people how to write copy, which I was really good at and actually was successful at in other ventures. I didn't hit a homerun but I made money, quit my job and was selling ebooks full time.
To cut out all the useless info in my story, fast forward to 2012. Everyone is told "the money is in the list" but no one has an answer for 5% open rates. Clickbank changes, Paypal is banning people as a hobby, and other payment processors and networks are so full of scam garbage that I didn't want to be involved.
I came to the realization that two things had happened. 1. Digital Info wasn't selling "hands off" like it was in 2007-2011. If you weren't consistently "launching" you weren't making money. Products had a shelf life of a month, tops.
2. I had never built any assets. I spent all this time building a "business" and I couldn't liquidate anything at all.
At that point I decided to stop what I was doing. I had no idea what I was going to do next but I knew that what I was doing wasn't worth the time, effort, or stress. I picked up a few books on licensing and that really got my interests going. I looked at a few books and Mixergy interviews on Software as a Service and loved the model.
Then I picked up TMF and went cover to cover in 2 and a half days. If I was awake, I was reading and taking notes. I was cooking dinner with my iPad in my hand. The book changed everything for me. I have to say though that the book didn't really teach me anything I didn't know. It did however validate what I believe and it also made me ask the question "If you know this stuff why the hell aren't you doing it??"
I still don't know exactly where I'm going as of yet but I know one thing is for sure - IT WILL BE FASTLANE!
I really look forward to networking with all of you and hearing your ideas, war stories, failures and successes.
BTW, I'm in New York City if there are any local groups in the area.
Edit - I just noticed that MJ recommends the book "One Simple Idea - Licensing Goldmine" by Stephen Key. That's the licensing book I read that got my interests going on the topic. I'm not really sure if licensing is Fastlane or not but I love the idea.
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