Are you looking to start a business or do you already have one? Then your success depends partly on understanding that the reward of reaching your destination is the journey itself. But because people often focus on goals instead of the entire experience, episode 500 of the Sell or Die Podcast is all about what it really takes to be successful and how you can become a better person from overcoming your obstacles.
But before we dive right in, let us introduce ourselves in case this is your first visit. Welcome to the Sell or Die Podcast. We’re your hosts Jeffrey & Jen Gitomer. Between the two of us, we’ve written the books The Little Red Book of Selling, Sales in a New York Minute, plus 15 other best selling books. We’ve also created the 7 figure sales formula program and the Breakthrough Business Babe Community.
Sell or Die is for sales professionals, sales managers, entrepreneurs and business owners who want to sell more at full price, earn loyalty, and have an unlimited stream of referrals. Every single episode will give you real-world, easy to implement solutions so that you can get your calls returned, your proposals read and acted on, while creating relationships that you can take all the way to the bank.
It’s time to sell or die…
In this episode, we have a very special guest: James Wedmore who has been teaching entrepreneurs and online business owners for over ten years how to leverage the power of online video and YouTube marketing to reach more people, share their message and convert more customers. Plus, James is the host of The Mind Your Business Podcast, teaches the mindset needed for entrepreneurship and created his signature program, Business By Design.
So read the seven points below to find out more about James Wedmore’s journey and his top tips for success. And for even more details on each point, listen to ALL of episode 500 of the Sell or Die Podcast on your fave streaming platform!
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For James, his entrepreneurial journey began when he got a flat tire in front of a bartending school. He ended up getting a bartending certificate, but couldn’t get a job. That’s when he decided to start his own business, renting out his bartending services and doing private parties, weddings, birthdays, you name it.
Then one day, he realized that he could grow his business faster if he taught people how to bartend instead of just doing it. He began an online bartending school, which taught him how to market and sell his services online. But before long, more people were asking about how he was creating his videos since this was back in 2008. So James kept learning more about YouTube and video. That’s when he built an entire business on showing people how to make videos on YouTube.
This led James to the biggest career decision he would ever make. He kept creating courses and training programs and online classes for people to learn how to make videos, and people were loving it. But James kept thinking, “Like, congrats, you make a video. But that video doesn’t build your business.” There was so much more people had to learn along the way. So he decided to start a podcast in 2016 and talk about all of the other skills and strategies that made a big difference for him and his business.
When James released his podcast, it was the scariest thing he’s ever done in his business to this day. Because he had a huge email list and millions of views on his YouTube channel and a reputation of being a “tech guy,” and he could lose that all. After all, in his podcast, he wouldn’t just be talking about tech tips. He would be sharing a message of a lot of the deeper, inner work that he’d been doing to help his business.
If he didn’t share that message, though, James knew he would be lying to others and not truly sharing what he attributed his success to. So he released his podcast…and he lost a lot of email subscribers. But he had to let that old audience go in order to bring in a whole different audience, and his business has grown exponentially since then. And, seriously, James’ name comes up more than once a day in our office. He’s basically a messiah in the entrepreneurial space.
And the way he got there is really by being honest with himself in what made a difference for him in his business and sharing that full-heartedly with others. And to some extent, James doesn’t believe that he should be at this level of success. People wouldn’t recognize him 10 to 12 years ago, when he was 70 pounds heavier and had horrible self-esteem and low confidence. But his own journey to self-confidence and success is also why James can work with clients from the pace of thinking: “If I can do this, anybody can.”
James has a lot of nostalgia for the hustle phase in his business where you’re just trying to figure everything out and you don’t even know what’s going to happen. So an important takeaway for anybody listening who is just getting started, trying to figure something out or down to your last dime is to fall in love with this time. Honor this time, because when you get to the place you want to go, you will look back and you will miss it to some extent.
Really, the journey is what makes the destination as great as it is.
One thing we have in common with James is that we’ve all invested our last dollars to our names in ourselves. And if you’re willing to do that, then you’re really willing to take the step to become successful. If you are not willing to do that, something’s missing in your belief system.
And the way James words this mistaken belief that you need money to transform is “conditional operating.” This refers to when people are letting their current circumstances dictate which decisions and which actions they take for the future. So they might think that they don’t have enough money or time or knowledge or support to take that next step. And so often we let our dreams die because someone else can’t see our vision. But remember that it’s our job as entrepreneurs to see what others can’t see and to hold onto that vision.
So, basically, what “conditional operating” involves is letting the past and the present moment determine your future. And when you let your past determine your future, you repeat your past. That’s why most people stay stuck.
How can you do the opposite instead? Focus on the next goal or milestone. Then, act how you would act once you achieved that goal. So if you want to have a twenty-thousand-dollar-a-month business, begin operating, thinking, acting, making decisions, and taking actions like a twenty-thousand-dollar-a-month business. The more you do that, the more we align our actions with the results that we want. But the tricky part is not always knowing the answer of how you should act or think, and being curious and experimenting with the answer.
So, diehards, make all decisions based on the person you want to become, not what happened in your past.
Others’ lack of belief in you is simply a test for you. It’s testing your belief in yourself, and the good news is, is you don’t need anyone else to believe in you, your vision, your business, your goals, whatever. Their belief in you has no bearing whatsoever on your performance unless you let it.
And even when the people closest to us give us an experience of them not believing in us, it’s still our choice how we interpret that lack of belief. In James’ case, when he started his business, he moved back with his parents and a lot of his friends laughed at him for that. But the whole meaning he got from that lack of belief was simply, “I can’t wait to prove them wrong. I cannot wait to laugh at them when I show them how wrong they were.”
James started talking about some of the “woo” strategies he implemented into his business in around 2016. And he defines “woo” as putting a spiritual and energy based context on our experience of life, recognizing that there is more to life than meets the eye and what we experience in the 3D physical world is not all of reality. Or as I would put it, woo is the idea that “Shit happens for a reason” and that the harder you work, the luckier you become.
The biggest benefit James has found in including “woo” in his life and belief system and business is that it almost gives you a fifty thousand foot view of your life. After all, I think humans are naturally inclined to ask why things happened. But when you believe that things happen for a reason, you can find peace. Instead of saying that you just can’t get a break or that all these bad things keep happening to you, you can focus on what lesson that event is trying to teach you. And the only reason that you don’t have the goal, you don’t have the revenue, you don’t have the thing that you want is because you haven’t learned the lesson yet.
In fact, one of the most life-changing realizations for James was triggered by a quote about how life is always rigged in your favor. So even in the darkest of times or the worst of problems, you know that this is happening to you for a reason that’s here to serve you.
If you’re going through a hard time right now and you’re not sure how to hold onto this perspective that even obstacles in life are serving here, here are a few suggestions from James:
James is one of my (Jen!) personal mentors, so I hope you take full advantage of all of the tips, suggestions and strategies he shared in this episode. And like he said earlier in this episode, if he can do it, you can too, so use his advice to make some major progress in your business or life sometime soon! And don’t forget to tune in to episode 500 of the Sell or Die Podcast to learn even more about all seven points outlined above.
Thank you so much for listening to Sell or Die! We hope that this episode has helped you to transform the way you think, given you new ideas, and provided a new perspective on the sales and business challenges you face every day so that you can win the customer all the way to the bank.
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Known as the King of Sales, Jeffrey Gitomer is the Author of 16 best-selling books including the Little Red Book of Selling, the Sales Bible, and his newest book Get Sh*t Done. In 2008, he was inducted in the Speakers Hall of Fame – the highest award in the speaking industry. His world-class list of clients include companies from Fortune 500 companies around the world. His digital Learning academy and signature course, The Seven-Figure Sales Formula, offers individuals and teams real-world sales strategies they can implement immediately.
Jen Gitomer gained her prowess in NYC as both a salesperson and award-winning sales leader for a Fortune 500 company. She is the best-selling Author of Sales in a New York Minute, CEO and Founder of Breakthrough Business Babe and a master business growth coach.
Jeffrey and Jen thank you, Diehard, for helping Sell Or Die achieve more than 2 million downloads!