Winners and not WHINERS.

So, in response to my Case Study post on Facebook the other day – I got a comment from someone who said this:

My response got a few people riled up.

And you know what?

I’m f*cking glad it did.

Because here’s the thing:

There are TWO types of people in the world:

1. People who make excuses.

2. People who make sh*t happen.

My point about McDonald’s is TRUE.

$500K before you see any sort of cash-flow.

And Amazon.com?

10 YEARS to profitability.

So if $10K (technically about $5900 if you ACTUALLY do the math on our first 6 months revenue) is too much of an investment in yourself…

And if 6 months (not 10 f*cking years) is too LONG for you to see a 2:1 return on something that’s going to change your life forever…

Then I’ve got news for you:

You ain’t built for this whole entrepreneur / business owner thang.

Wanna know what it REALLY took for me to get going?

Let me tell you the story:

I quit my corporate job, moved into a 400 square foot apartment with my wife…

With my wife’s $500/month PhD stipend as our ONLY income initially.

We moved back to the US from Hong Kong with NOTHING but 2 suitcases of stuff, and our cat (a rescue from China).

When we landed in the US, we lived on my wife’s $40K/year salary as a Museum Curator.

We rented a cheapest, sh*ttiest apartment in one of the poorest (read: lowest cost of living) cities in the US – Brownsville, TX – by CHOICE. (hint: we avoided Manhattan and San Fransisco)

Our only furniture?

A $200 mattress to sleep on…

A desk we bought for $10 bucks.

And two folding lawn chairs we got for FREE when we opened our corporate bank account.

That was IT.

Cable TV? Nope.

Movie nights? Nope.

Restaurants? Nope.

Sh*t we lived on a $50/week grocery budget – shopping ONLY at Wal-Mart so we could put EVERY SPARE PENNY into the business…

THAT’s what it took, my friend.

I didn’t “have the money” either.

Most people are too prissy, or whiny, or whatever you want to call it to just f*cking do what it takes to make it through those days.

One of my clients, Perry Marshall likes to call it “Your baloney sandwich and ramen noodle days…”

Everyone I know who’s REALLY successful…

I’m talking all my OTHER friends who ALSO have high-margin, seven figure businesses…

We’ve ALL gone through these days.

That’s the TRUTH, my friend.

It’s the reason why guys like Dan Meredith…

Who applied to be my copywriting apprentice (and DIDN’T GET THE JOB…) are on the path to being WILDLY successful.

Dan didn’t quit.

Dan is f*cking relentless.

Dan doesn’t make excuses.

Dan makes stuff happen.

And he INVESTS in himself.

Like, when he invested $7,500 he DIDN’T HAVE to come to my last Ocean’s Four event in Miami.

And from that?

Parlayed that trip into a position in MY company (as my “Client Concierge”)…

As WELL as a position with one of my CLIENTS (Agora Financial…)

And is now doing stuff with friend of mine and LEGEND in the Direct Response world, Brian Kurtz (EVP of Boardroom, Inc.)

And he’s just getting started.

The question is this:

Who do YOU want to surround yourself with?

Guys who go from baloney sandwiches to seven figures?

Or guys who make excuses.

Winners? Or Whiners?

Something to think about on this fine Tuesday morning…

Ryan “Laying the Smackdown” Levesque

P.S. – Speaking of surrounding yourself with WINNERS… So with the exception of my Oceans Four ELITE Mastermind…

I RARELY attend live events.

Mainly, because most are a waste of time.

AND I’m VERY selective in whom I hang out with…

In fact, aside from my upcoming O4 ELITE Mastermind on October 4-5th in Austin, TX…

And *potentially* a LIVE workshop / mastermind / training I might hold later this year…

There is only ONE live event I’m attending for the rest of 2014.

Any guesses what it is??

Go ahead – HIT REPLY and take a guess.

Seriously. Take a guess.

I’m CURIOUS to know what you think it might be.

HINT: It’s an event I’m NOT affiliated with at ALL. And one I am NOT getting paid to talk about it.

I’ll tell you what it is TOMORROW.

Because if you want to hang out with me (and a bunch of other ELITE winners in PERSON…)

Then you’re gonna want to hear about this.

As Sir Dan Meredith – winner from across the pond – likes to say:

TTTFN

You’ve read 4-hour workweek, right?

(Of course, everyone has…)

Now, I don’t agree with everything Tim Ferris says…

But one thing I DO agree with…

Is the importance of outsourcing the BS stuff you don’t like doing.

Like yesterday for example…

I shared my BIG Productivity Secret…

Eating the same thing every day.

Which for me?

Means 3x smoothies + 2x salads + 1x fresh green juice daily.

(By the way, if you tried clicking on my “Productivity Secret” link yesterday and couldn’t access it – I’ve made it public here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100371710795391&set=a.780886210621.2238533.1008516

Anyway, moving on…

Now this diet is truly AMAZING for your productivity…

(And your ability to crank out copy and flush out funnels…)

The only problem?

It’s a pain in the arse to make all that sh*t each day, right?

Solution?

Go all 4-hour work week…

And hire someone to do it for you.

Bingo.

So that’s what I did.

In fact, we hired a housekeeper / nanny to prep all that food each day (and take care of the rest of the house…)

So I wouldn’t be stuck with “kitchen duties” each night before bed.

Now it’s just wake up, eat, and put the dishes in the sink when you’re done.

Boom.

Nice, right?

Think YOU can’t afford it?

Well, you might be surprised…

Here’s how you make the “should I outsource it” decision:

For me, my “hourly rate” is about $500/hr.

Yours might be more.

But that’s what monthly consulting clients pay me per hour of phone time (booked solid with a wait-list, which proves it might be time to raise my rates again…)

And when I spend time on copy and funnels, my time is actually worth MORE than that.

Anyway…

For 2 years + my nightly routine was to make the salads, smoothies, HB eggs, and green juice for the family the following day.

Total time in the kitchen each night?

45-60 mins.

Bleh.

I’d typically start at 8:00 PM after putting my son to bed…

And then, after cleaning up…

It would be another 1-3 hours writing copy, responding to email, etc.

(My days 9-5 are virtually booked up with client calls.)

That schedule?

Was not sustainable.

That 45 minutes (minimum) each night was worth a cool $375/day in extra cash in my pocket.

So knowing that…

And knowing I could USE that time to write copy (and thus go to bed an hour earlier each night…)

As long as I could find someone for < $375/day to do that work?

It was a no-brainer.

So that’s what I did (after procrastinating WAY too long).

In fact, you can see my job posting here:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/8d14e78b-4963-4f35-98b9-f386861ae38d/e46d0a0a9644869903c228035ad4e60

(The Craigslist and Care.com ads have since been taken down.)

The point of this email is this:

Time is precious.

You can’t get it back…

Yadda, yadda.

So my whole operational mindset?

Is to spend that time doing just TWO things:

a.) the stuff you enjoy…

and

b.) the high-revenue money-suck tasks you do best…

Your secret sauce…

The stuff you do better than ANYONE in the world.

That’s it.

And then?

Hire specialists to take care of everything else…

Mowing the lawn…

Making your smoothies…

Writing your copy…

Building your funnels…

For me?

My “secret sauce” is building a VERY specific type of marketing funnel for a VERY specific type of client…

(High-level clients with certain pieces in place already…)

And consulting with a VERY specific type of business owner to help them get their biz to that point.

(Using the same model I’ve used to do it myself…)

That’s it.

And I do it on a fee + royalty basis.

And because of that level of clarity?

I turn away 90% of the businesses that come my way and people who want to hire me, because:

a.) You need to qualify.

and..

b.) You need to be able to afford me.

Simple, right?

So my question for you is this:

What’s one thing YOU know you should be outsourcing, but haven’t gotten around to it?

Something to think about as you work on building your OWN business…

Peace out!

Ryan

PS – Susan, our housekeeper is my *second* most important hire… The #1 MOST important person I’ve hired? I’ll tell you tomorrow…

PPS – If you’re reading these emails for the “marketing tips” they contain… There’s a meta-tip in every email.

Pay attention to what I say and how I say it. (Same way you should read the Gary Halbert Letter, btw)

There are at least 3 meta-tips in this email alone. Did you find them?

SFF Student Case Study: Pet Market (After Starting from Scratch.)

I thought you’d like to see this…

So what you see there…

Is the first 6 months of one of my students – we’ll call him Roger (not his real name) – breaking into a BRAND NEW market using my Survey Funnel Formula process…

The niche is a Pet Market (specifics are withheld to protect my student’s – and my – financial interests).

Now I want to draw your attention to something important:

The THREE phases you see in that image:

PHASE I – This is the “Deep Dive” Survey Phase. Where we’re gathering data – and spending a little money on advertising to drive traffic our Deep Dive survey.

(Remember: The point of this phase is understanding the market’s hot buttons, and figuring out what segments exist.)

PHASE II – This is “Optimization” Phase. Here we’ve launched the Survey Funnel style funnel, we’re driving traffic to it, but we’re not yet profitable.

We’re STILL LOSING MONEY here.

In this case, the only revenue we were generating was off of ONE product, through SVS (Same Visit Sale) ONLY. No email followup. No “Profit Maximization” upsell sequence. And under optimized headline and landing page design.

PHASE III – This is the “Tipping Point” Phase. Here you see a RADICAL shift in the economics, and we are IN THE BLACK.

In fact, here we’re making better than 2:1 on our advertising.

We have our funnel down.

This thing is ROCKIN’.

And by the way, in case you’re wondering about the relatively SMALL numbers?

Well, right now…

We’re ONLY advertising on Yahoo/Bing.

Which represents < 20% of the market – when we factor in Google Adwords.

(It’s even LESS than that when we take into account Facebook.)

We used Yahoo/Bing to optimize the funnel, work out all the kinks, and now we’re about to SCALE by adding Google Adwords as our next traffic source.

And when we do that and grab the REMAINING 80% of traffic through Adwords (on the same KWs we’ve proven convert) the numbers will look more like $15,000/mo in revenue…

And typically, when I expand to Google Adwords traffic from Bing…

My margins actually improve. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this translates to an $8500/mo in PROFIT business, which would put things around $100K annualized.

Not too shabby for a relatively small, obscure Pet Niche.

So what’s this got to do with YOU?

A few things:

First, most people who go through the Survey Funnel Formula process for the first time…

Lose faith or at least QUESTION the process as they’re going through PHASE II – the “Optimization Phase” where you’re not QUITE profitable yet.

In fact, one of the BIGGEST MISTAKES I see is when people get to this point – and they GIVE UP.

(Little do they know how CLOSE they are to that “Tipping Point” that’s so typical when building one of these things from scratch…)

This is that whole “Three feet from gold” thing Napoleon Hill talks about in Think and Grow Rich.

This is what that looks like in real life.

So when you get to that point?

Don’t stop.

You’re damn close.

Keep going.

That’s the first thing.

The second thing is this:

To go from “Losing Money” to “Wildly Profitable” – you DO gotta do a few things.

It ain’t just happening with magic and “intention”.

(Sorry to burst yer bubble  )

In this case, the specific “things” that got us to the “Tipping Point” were as follows:

1. Segmenting people into our 3 main segments using the “Bucket Survey” I teach in SFF…

2. Adding a 1-click upsell “Profit Maximization” sequence like I teach in SFF with just ONE product…

3. Adding a prospect “Do You Hate Me” email sequence like I teach in SFF – culminating in a 60% off SALE of our front-end product…

4. Adding a customer email sequence that sells customers “more stuff” after the initial purchase (in this case – 2 affiliate products, and 1 additional product we created.)

And that’s it.

Roger gets the credit with for sticking to the plan – and ruthlessly implementing. He followed the system. Trusted my guidance. And he’s rockin’ and rollin’.

If you’re going through my Survey Funnel Formula training – then you’ve got the blueprint too.

It’s all there in front of you.

You just gotta put one foot in front of you – like Roger.

And if you want to work with me one-on-one to help accelerate the process and DRAMATICALLY increase your odds of success?

You can go ahead and sign up for my priority notification form for the NEXT time I open up private coaching / consulting slots here:

http://www.ryanlevesque.net

It ain’t cheap.

It’s $2000/mo + 5% royalty on gross sales for bi-weekly calls.

And I’m pretty much booked up through 2014.

But if you ARE interested – get yourself on that list.

Because whenever I DO make spots available – they go fast. Last time, I made 2 spots available and they were snatched up in less than 45 mins after opening them up.

So I’ll leave you with that for now.

Remember:

Three feet from gold.

Don’t stop.

Keep going.

The “Tipping Point” is nigh.

Peace out!

Ryan “King Maker” Levesque

So the other day I posted something on FB that’s been getting a lot of buzz…

Has to do with one of my BIGGEST productivity secrets…

Because a lot of people recently have been asking me how I constantly get so much done…

Run multiple businesses…

Write copy for half-a-dozen markets…

Run a booked coaching practice and sold-out masterminds…

The secret?

(At least one of them…)

Is right here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100371710795391&set=a.780886210621.2238533.100851

Hint: Einstein did this too.

Check it out…

Ryan

PS – If you’re wondering what this has to do with persuasion and building funnels that convert…

The answer is LOTS.

If your brain juice is all dried up and evaporated by the time you sit down and bang out some copy…

Your stuff is gonna suck.

It’s gonna be boring.

And you’re gonna look like everyone else.

This is why my clients consistently become leaders in their respective markets:

Because the funnels I design and build…

Don’t follow the same old tired “lead-gen / squeeze page” format every tries to jam down your throat.

I don’t have….

The #1 Golf website in the world…
The #1 Tennis website in the world…
The #1 Alkaline Diet website in the world…

As clients for nothing…

(hint: there’s a reason why they’re now all #1)

And I don’t have juggernaut companies like Agora, Boardroom, and ACCO (the billion-dollar company that makes Mead notebooks, TrapperKeeper, At-A-Glance planners, etc…)

…Calling me up each week to pick my brain for ‘nothin.

You gotta get rid of all the mundane decisions in your life so you’ve got creative brain juice left to focus on the important stuff…

(Or get someone on your team to do it for you…)

Peace out!

Listen, because time is tight right now, I’m gonna get right to it:

Did you see the training webinar I did on Wednesday teaching my Survey Funnel Formula?

In case you missed it, here’s the REPLAY:

http://lymurl.com/go/5xfgg

*IMPORTANT: I’m told that link is only going to be up through the end of the day TODAY (Friday, July 18th) until 11:59PM PST…

Which means…

If you’ve been *thinking* about picking up a copy of my Survey Funnel Formula training course after hearing all the buzz that’s been going on…

This might be the last time you see it offered for awhile.

You can pick up your copy by checking out that link as well:

http://lymurl.com/go/5xfgg

Okay.

I REALLY gotta run.

Peace out!

Ryan

P.S. Why such a rush today?

Well, I’m in downtown Austin right now at my hombre Keith Baxter’s mastermind…

Hangin’ out with my boy Kevin Rogers, Charles Kirkland, members of my PAID “Next Level” mastermind – Ben Johson and Mike Colella… And my partnership director Andy Hussong…

And I gotta fire out this email NOW…

SO I can get my ass over to Whole Foods downtown to pickup some MCT oil and Collagen BEFORE we get started this morning in a few mins…

P.P.S. What the hell is MCT oil and Collagen protein?

Welp… If you know without looking it up – HIT REPLY to let me know…

I’m gonna be doing some cool sh*t with biohacking expert Caleb Jennings…

AND if you’re interested, let me know and I’ll tell you about it and report what it does for my productivity in my daily marketing tip email… (If you’re into hacking your body or health, I think you’re gonna like this stuff…)

Ever seen the show “Naked & Afraid” on the Discovery Channel?

If you haven’t…

Basically, they take two people – one man, one woman…

And put them on some deserted island or remote jungle…

Strip them down till they’re NAKED…

And see if they can survive off the land for 21 days…

Voyeurism at its CORE.

(And I LOOOVE it!

What can I say?

Guilty pleasure.

Anyway…

On the show…

Each person is only allowed to bring ONE survival item with them…

Usually some sort of knife or fire-starter…

Which got me thinking…

If you were dropped into some random city…

With no connections…

No cell phone…

No computer…

And as a marketer…

You had to “survive” for 21 days…

What would be your game plan?

AND more importantly…

What would be your ONE item???

Seriously…

What would it be?

Let’s pretend iPhones and MacBook Pro’s and anything over $50 bucks is off limits…

I’ll tell you what my thing would be.

It would be this:

http://www.amazon.com/OXA-Classical-Multi-Function-Rechargeable-Integrated/dp/B00GMEL0TI/

Why?

Because I know with certainty…

I can walk into ANY city across the country…

Find the business district…

And ask business owners one simple question:

“What’s the single biggest challenge you’re struggling with your business right now?”

Hit the record button…

Jot down some notes…

AND…

As soon as I get the first response that demonstrates:

a.) Hyper-responsivity…

and…

b.) Is something I’ve got the SKILLS to fix…

I am in business.

In fact, this is essentially the EXACT I approach I’ve used to successfully enter over 17 different markets with (nearly) 100% success…

Using my “Deep Dive Survey” to figure out if a market or product is worth pursuing…

BEFORE putting resources into it…

And tomorrow…

(Wed, July 16th) at 3 EST / 2 CST / 12 PST…

I’m doing an online training as part of the “Online Business Superhero Summit”…

Where I’ll be revealing the SAME “Survey Funnel Formula” I’ve used to enter market after market…

And show you how YOU can do the same.

Who’s this for?

If you’re looking to launch a NEW business…

Get into a NEW niche…

Or get a NEW product off the ground…

This is literally THE secret to my success…

You can sign up for this training webinar by clicking the link below:

==============

Survey Funnel Formula Training
Wed, July 16th @ 3EST/2CST/12PST
Sign Up for This Training Here »

==============

Now, in case you’re wondering…

Yeah, there WILL be a pitch…

And yeah, I WILL be selling my FULL “Survey Funnel Formula” training program at the end for folks who want to go deeper into my process…

(So if you already own this program – you might want to pass on the training tomorrow…)

But if you MISSED OUT the last time I made this paid program available (it’s currently not available for purchase anywhere else…)

This is your chance to get in…

Here’s the link one last time:

==============

Survey Funnel Formula Training
Wed, July 16th @ 3EST/2CST/12PST
Sign Up for This Training Here »

==============

Remember:

Armed with nothing but this process…

And a little white matter between your ears…

You can literally enter ANY new market…

Naked and afraid…

And be successful.

With survival skills like that…

You (and your bank account) will never go hungry…

Peace out!

Ryan “Clothed and Fearless” Levesque

http://www.surveyfunnelformula.com

Right now?

I’m writing this email overlooking the afternoon sun hanging over the warm, tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico…

And even though I’m having a BLAST…

(As evidenced by this crazy photo below of my little man…)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100483439220731

I’m cutting my vacation short.

Why?

Well, I’ll explain in a second.

But first…

I DO need to be honest.

Because when I take family vacations like these?

They’re WORKING vacations.

I ain’t just tossing around two year olds in the pool for two weeks

You see, when you’re in 17 different markets…

Booked with client implementation projects through November…

With 7, 8, and 9 figure businesses DEPENDING on you to make THEIR cash register ring…

The money train don’t stop.

But that’s not why I’m cutting thing short…

The REASON why I’m packin’ up early…

Is because NEXT WEEK…

I was invited BACK to speak at the “Online Business Superhero Summit”…

(After delivering the HIGHEST performing presentation, the ONLY person invited back from the LAST Superhero Summit, I believe…)

And I’ll be delivering an UPDATED training session on how I use my Survey Funnel approach…

To break into NEW markets…

Launch NEW products…

And get NEW projects off the ground…

With virtually 100% success…

EVEN when I don’t have a list…

Or even a website…

(And how YOU can do the same…)

I’m sharing it all LIVE – NEXT WEEK on Wednesday, July 16th at 3 EST / 2 CST / 12 PST…

Want IN on this training?

Well, what the heck are you waiting for?

Get yerself on the dang “priority notification” list by clicking below:

Get Access to This NEW Training

And by the way…

In case you’ve heard me do my “Survey Funnel Talk” in the past…

Yes.

Some of what I’ll be covering is going to be a REPEAT of what you’ve heard before…

BUT… (And this is important)

I’m going to be revealing a NEW piece that I haven’t EVER shared publicly…

Which is how I use my funnel system to break into NEW markets…

(Perfect if you don’t have a large, existing business OR you want to start something NEW…

And you’re looking for “benchmarks” to know whether a project should get the GREEN light or if it’s not worth pursuing…)

I’ll be explaining exactly what “markers” I look for when I decide to attack a new market…

And you can discover exactly what those markers are for yourself (as well as how to apply my survey funnel system to NEW projects) by signing up for my training next week here:

Get Access to This NEW Training

Okay, I’ll leave you with that for now…

Gotta get back to some pool shenanigans…

I’ve gotta two year old outside dancing to “I like to MOVE it MOVE it…” begging Daddy to get back to the pool…

Peace out!

Ryan

PS – EVEN IF you can’t make it LIVE… But you want to get free access to the REPLAY?… Yeah, add your name to that list…

PPS – If you ALREADY have access to my Survey Funnel Formula product… You’re in store for a little treat

Because I’ll be adding an additional “bonus” training session covering how I approach new markets in detail – along with the REASON why I’ve had nearly 100% success (with one failure) breaking into NEW markets…

Fear not. You’ll be getting access to this at no additional cost.

That’s how I roll…. Cool?

Stay tuned…

This new training will be comin’ round the corner at the end of this month…

Rock on!

Manufacturing the buying process.

This is something I talk about a lot. When it comes to sequencing elements in a product funnel… Whether it’s an evergreen funnel or for a time-sensitive launch…

The question you want to ask yourself is:

“How does this approximate the actual buying process, if we were in the real world.”

Let me explain with an example…

The Buying Process

Right now, I’m in the middle of designing a funnel for a private client for selling a $2,000 water ionizer.

We’ll be launching this to his list. And this will be an evergreen funnel after that. In this case, what you want to do is this:

How would the prospect NATURALLY come across the idea of purchasing a $2,000 water ionizer.

Well, it might look something like this:

Guy visits his friend, carrying a Dasani water bottle in hand…