51 – Health and financial problems didn’t stop him: Tom interviews Jim Edwards

Episode 051 – Jim Edwards
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody it's Tom here with Episode 51 of Screw the commute podcast. We've got a great guest I've known this guy for a long time he's been there since the beginning when I came around. His name is Jim Edwards. I think I met him at a secret invitation only meeting of internet marketers. Oh god it's over 20 years ago. I don't know exactly when. Down in Florida somewhere but this guy really knows his stuff. So we'll get to his intro in just a moment. Now don't please don't tell me you missed Episode 50 the last episode with sponsorship expert Roberto Candelaria. This guy taught you about getting big companies to finance your business endeavors. And guess what you don't have to pay it back. This is crazy. So make sure you go back and listen to Episode 50 if you missed that. All right our sponsor for today is how to automate your business e-book. This is a book with techniques that we tried to figure it out of how many keystrokes it saved me and this is not an exaggeration. It saved me over seven million keystrokes and that's just in typing e-mails alone. Just one of the techniques I teach you in this inexpensive e-book. There's tons of other tips. I use to handle as many as 150,000 subscribers and in the past run my entire business with one part time temp person. The only time I started adding employees was when my accountant told me I had too much retained earnings and I'd rather pay employees than buy bombs through taxes. So check out that greatInternetMarketing.com/automate it will also be in the show notes at screwthecommute.com/51 this is Episode 51.

[00:02:21] Let's get to the main event. Jim was one of the first to publish an e-book online back in 1997 the same year Microsoft front page came along and a mere mortal could make a web page. He's taught hundreds of thousands around the world about self publishing sales copy email marketing membership sites and a bunch more. And he's most famous for his online software wizards which make critical tasks like writing ads sales letters and webinar scripts push button simple. Jim, Are you ready to screw.

[00:03:03] For the third time today. Yes I am.

[00:03:07] You just got the best answer. Some other guy said oh my wife's name is not commute. You just beat that with that answer. Hey it's been a while since we caught up. You know it's natural when you only live you know thirty five minutes that you never see somebody in 20 years. So tell us what you've been up to.

[00:03:33] Well basically what I've been doing over the last two decades you know it's funny 1997 but back before the turn of the century we were selling e books And pretty much what I've been doing is just keeping in mind the principles of how you actually make money online or any any in any way. And that is by providing massive value for specific groups of people. And my things always been figuring out the next cool tool or the next wave that's coming on the Internet and trying to get in front of that kind of like you down in Virginia Beach surfing you've got to get in front of the way you can't catch it after it's already already past you. So my big thing is just been seeing what wave is coming. And so it's always you know I did e books. We did MP3s we did tele seminars webinars video all these things and we're really in front of them and my big thing's been to use them to build my business but then also to turn around and show people how to use those things to build their businesses too. Because I mean really if you think about it Tom our business we really have two businesses. There's the business of doing what we do which in my case is writing books creating books creating courses and selling them and then the other part of my business is teaching people how I'm writing books how I'm creating courses and how I'm selling them. So I keep pretty busy.

[00:05:02] Yeah I know that's exactly what we do but we are. You did mention we're kind of old school and that's still the basis of what we do is help people. It's just the new tool that might come around. We're still just doing basic helping people in fact I got a new book e-book coming out called The one sentence business plan because I've been using it for 40 years and it's basically taking care of people but so do you ever have a job.

[00:05:31] Oh I had a shit ton of. I had a bunch of jobs I like to tell everybody that and it's true. You know when I graduated from William and Mary in 1989 I quit or got fired from seven different jobs in my first 18 months. And the funny thing is they were all sales jobs including driving for Domino's because you had to kind of be a good salesperson or to get good tips. And so I learned how to work on a 100 percent commission which at the time I thought was a living hell. But looking back it taught me how to make a living by figuring out how not only to provide value but also to communicate that value to people in such a way they were willing to write a check. And so every job I've ever had has been a sales job of some kind or another. And the funny thing is I majored in history. So there you go. So I didn't go to school for this.

[00:06:31] So basically even the Domino's thing was verbal copywriting and I know you're a copywriting expert. It's really a technique involved getting people. So what are some of the tips you'd have to for people that want to sell themselves better.

[00:06:47] Well I think the one thing that you should always do is know the value that you bring to the table and be able to communicate it quickly. So one of the things that I always try and do when I'm looking at either a service or I'm looking at a book or something what can I say in the shortest amount of time that's going to communicate the big idea about that. So it's like you said in my intro you know my big thing is taking complicated problems that people have an online business like how do I write a sales letter. How do I create email sequences. How do we even create a book.

[00:07:25] And I literally have create tools that make it pushbutton simple for people so that would be the first step is you need to be able when when you have your moment to tell people this is the value I bring you need to be able to communicate it really really fast and really really simply the next thing you need to understand is that people don't care about you they only care about themselves. And I don't mean that in a flippant way at all but most people have their brains tuned to one radio station and that is WIIFM What's In It For Me. We're all that way. And as the world has gotten busier and busier and busier with social media and five thousand e-mails a day coming in and all that good stuff you in order to cut through the crowd need to communicate what you have to offer in a way that they can understand the benefit to them immediately. No thinking you cannot force people to think they don't have time to think.

[00:08:30] There was a famous book way back when we started the name of it was don't make me think. Even more important today.

[00:08:40] More important and getting more important every single day. And I would say the third thing the third big tip I'd have for you just when it comes to copywriting and salesmanship in print or in video or whatever which is really what copywriting is it's using words salesmanship is don't think of copyrighting as a separate thing from everything you're doing. In other words copywriting should be baked into everything you do copywriting is really communication. And so when you're communicating with people you should always be trying to educate them to empower them and entertain them but you also need to let them know what you've got. And there are a lot of different quickie techniques you can use to do that. I'll give you one right now. If a lot of us create content online and we use that to attract attention especially in this whole news feed mentality environment we're in now you know it used to be that we could send a single e-mail with an article in a time and we were a rock star for a week. You know I built my business for a couple of years just by sending an article every Tuesday.

[00:09:53] Now you put an article up on Facebook or something it's gone in 15 seconds. So you've got to be able to constantly stay on people's radar but you can't be so hard close sale all the time that you people will get turned off. So one of the things that you can do is any type of content that you do you can add to it an invitation statement and I'm sure you know them and you basically say hey you know here are three tips for how to improve your headline and you give them the three tips whether it's a Facebook Live video. It's a pictographic or whatever it is and then you say to them by the way I'd like if you like this. I'd like to invite you to check out my blog where we have multiple articles on copywriting then the next time you come out with something that's like hey by the way I'd like to invite you to check out my low cost e-book on how to write a sales letter in 30 minutes or by the way. Hey I'd like to invite you to check out this cool software I've got called Easy sales copy wizard. You fill out 27 different blanks takes about 20 minutes and it will create a sales letter for you e-mails all this different stuff. And that's a way that you can put sales copy in with your content really really easily and just subconsciously program people to to know that you are going that you are in business but that you're not like a used car salesman. So those are three tips.

[00:11:24] A Lot of people though are just so afraid of marketing themselves. And I've heard a lot of people say and I've said it myself. Listen you're cheating people if you really believe your product is going to help somebody and you're apprehensive about telling them about it somebody else that's terrible is going to rip them off is going to tell them about. So don't feel bad about it. You're actually helping people that will. Thank you for it. Because if you're a reputable person listening to this then You're going to be taking care of them.

[00:11:59] And you're really cheating people if you don't we don't like to cheat people.

[00:12:03] No we do not. And you're cheating people if you don't get your knowledge out there. And that's what making products is all about. Jim certainly helps with that too. Now you remember the moment or was there a moment when you transition for listen. I'm tired of getting fired with hating these jobs and I'm going to go out on my own.

[00:12:28] Yeah there was a well there was kind of a transition but then there was a specific moment the transition. And it wasn't it wasn't like this. You know the gate opened and I heard the angelic voice and the like. No in fact everything went to hell as soon as I did it. I remember it was nineteen ninety seven and I was working at Century 21 Old Williamsburg and I was the sales manager and I was just done.

[00:12:57] I was just freakin done. And I had been making web pages for other people and I had been diddling around. And I said to my wife I said you know I don't know. I don't know how but I know that my future is this Internet thing. I said and I've got to go for it. And she said Well OK. And so I quit my job started a. And I remember I told the broker I said I'm out of here. I got to go. I just I'm tired of this. I just quit and walked out. And so we started a website design company with a fraternity brother mine and it failed miserably. And I went bankrupt. I developed a heart condition. I lost everything. I was living in a trailer and our dog didn't die. And I had to figure out how to do this. And my wife didn't run off with a pig farmer. But it took me four years to get my stuff together. So it wasn't like I left my job and everything was wonderful. Everything went to hell and it was four years of hell before I got it figured out and I had gotten you know I the business failed. I ended up having to go get another job I went to work for a company that did search engine promotion and you know but I was still trying to work my stuff on the side and all the while I was my skill set was building up but my my trust in myself and belief in myself was actually all going to crap.

[00:14:37] And so I had the skill set but I didn't have the belief.

[00:14:44] How was the home life at the time because a lot of people face these kinds of situations where one spouse is trying to do something the other one is scared to death and afraid. So how did that go.

[00:14:56] My wife is the biggest blessing that's ever been in my life. She has she has she has supported me from day one and never ever ever ever told me I had to give up on my dream. She did tell me you know hey if you can't make this work. What was funny after I got fired from the job search engine promotion company after we had just bought our first house moving out of the trailer park we hadn't even made our first house payment yet and I got fired from the job and she said well you got 30 days to make this work. But then she said something to me that instead of me panicking it it brought everything home to me that that I could do it. She said you know you made three hundred thousand dollars for this guy the one who fired me if you could just do a fraction of that for us we'll be doing better than we've done in a really long time and I was like Damn she's right. And I ended up this was this was June of 2001 and from August 2001 to December 2001 I made more money than I had made the previous four years combined. And and I just did it in other words. I stopped worrying about it. I stopped wishing for it. I stopped doing all the things that we sit around and we paralyze ourselves with it. And I came up with a plan and I just frickin took massive action. I was working 16 18 hours a day seven days a week. But but it paid off and it was worth it.

[00:16:37] I could have been a lot different had she said some other words. Just think of that.

[00:16:41] Yes if she'd said you're screwed. Go get a job. We would not be talking right now. I would not I would not be living in a 7000 square foot house on the water.

[00:16:51] You know what. Once you get out of here let me talk to her.

[00:16:54] She's having fun.

[00:16:58] Oh man what a story I didn't know any of that stuff. She helped you out there but you put in that time. You know that they always say an entrepreneur will work you know 20 hours a day to get out of work and for somebody else 8 hours a day. Yeah and you did it and it came through. So having been through all of that and just quitting cold turkey I don't know how much finances you had in the bank when you just know about it. So having gone through that. What kind of advice would you give to somebody now thinking about becoming an entrepreneur sitting in that cubicle and hating it would you tell them to do the same thing.

[00:17:41] No and I'll tell you why. What you need to do is you need to be hungry but you don't need to be scared. You don't you don't need to be petrified. I was petrified of how we were going to eat and petrified can freeze you what you need to do is get yourself into a position where your basic bills are covered but nothing else. In other words you know you're going to have somewhere to live. You know you're gonna have something to eat. You know the electricity is going to stay on the phones going astounding but gas in the car to do what you need to do but nothing else.

[00:18:15] You don't have money for Netflix. You don't have money to go out to eat. You don't have money to do anything other than just bust your butt and work on your business. That would be the number one thing I would tell you to do. So don't quit your job or don't don't quit your job unless you have an income that is going to keep you in groceries. OK. Not nice groceries but something to eat. You know we delivered papers. I taught computer classes in people's homes at night. I was teaching people how to use Outlook Express in their house at night and they didn't even know how to use a freaking mouse. And I'm I'm trying to I'm just like oh my god what is wrong. But see you can use that as motivation as fuel to drive you when you're busting butt on your business. So don't just up and quit. I also would tell you don't just. Oh I've got a nest egg I've got you know ten thousand dollars in the bank that goes out faster than you'll ever ever think about. So one thing that did happen to me and I did I'm a big believer in the universe. This is true. I'm not making any of this up. The day got fired from my job when I came home. My wife and I had that conversation and she said you know I got 30 days to make it worth actually got two phone calls one of the phone calls was from a lady who I had done some consulting work for I did I made a website for her and she said Hey my assistant just quit. I need somebody to do all my computer work for me and I had a background in real estate too.

[00:19:57] I said Well I'm not showing anybody any houses or anything and she said no I need you to come work my computer and just take care of my e-mail and put together CMA and do all this other she listed off all the stuff and I said well crap let me take a chance here OK. Because I wasn't making hardly any money from the job I got fired from. I was only making eight thousand dollars a year. OK. I said to her OK I'll come work for you 20 hours a week but you have to pay me 25 bucks an hour. And I was like there's no way somebody will pay me money I'm making like 500 dollars an hour now. And I was like scared to ask her for 25 bucks and I said I'll come work for you from 1:00 in the afternoon until 5:00 o'clock in the evening Monday through Friday. And I expected her to say no I can't do that she said done. When can you start. I was like Holy crap I gave myself a five hundred dollar a month raise. And I got half time. So what I started doing was I got up I was getting up at 5:00 in the morning. I would work from six to 12 30 and then I would work for her from one to five and then when I got home I'd work from like 6 8 6 to 9 6 to 10 and but I replaced my income and so don't leave your job until you can replace the income you need to keep moving on down the trail.

[00:21:14] And those that they sound like total busters. But we're going to get in a little later on what the day looks like for you now. Before we get that have you ever been screwed in business and what did you do about it.

[00:21:31] I did get screwed in business really badly in my fraternity brother who I was. Had the website development company with I thought we were partners but I didn't understand agreements and other stuff like that and I didn't have any money and I didn't. I had quit and I quit my job at the real estate company so I put myself in a job I had to take what I had to take. So I ended up owning 5 percent of a company that I had no control over yet. I was responsible for generating all the money and I had to go hat in hand to the person who wasn't making the sales to to ask to get paid. And that was part of what contributed to me and my heart condition and going bankrupt was I. I went six months without getting paid because he was spending money on a bunch of shit stuff we didn't need and it was terrible. And what did I. What did I do about it. I sucked on it until I just couldn't anymore and I said you know what. I'm done. I can't do this. And I learned from it and I learned that nobody writes checks for my business except my wife and me. I learned that nobody takes money for the business except my wife and me and then we pay other people. So I learned a lot from it and I learned you don't go into you don't go into business with with friends unless you really have your eyes on your business. So it's just all around. It was a great learning experience and the most painful ones are usually the best ones. But the biggest thing I learned is that you can't look back and whine about it. So many people will tell you why they didn't make it or couldn't make it or they would've made it if only would have should have somebody else have done something. Screw that. You know that's that's in the past. That's like standing in the back of your boat and thinking that the wake you see out the back is what's driving the boat the wake does not drive the boat the engine drives the boat. You can turn it the the wake is in the past. It's what's out in front of you that matters.

[00:23:26] Same with the tail Wagging the Dog. So let's switch gears. Anything crazy funny happen to you in your business like.

[00:23:33] The thing not funny ha ha but funny. Holy crap was was when I needed to replace my income in that day and I got that call her name was her name is Joyce and Joyce called me and I replaced my income with a single phone call. And then the next phone call I got was from a buddy of mine whose name was Yanik Silver and he called me and he because I'd emailed them and said hey you can e-mail me at home. And he called me up and the first thing he said was congratulations congratulations man. The universe finally kicked you out of the nest and you're going to go make it. I was like holy crap. And so he and I talked on the phone for two hours and outlined a book called 33 days to online profit that basically took everything I had learned over the last four years everything he had learned over the previous two years and in the space of about six months we generated three hundred thousand dollars. So all of that happened in that same day that day I got fired. That's a long day.

[00:24:56] So what do you like best about working for yourself and what's the worst part about working for yourself.

[00:25:02] The thing I like best about working for myself is that nobody can tell me what to do and the worst part about working herself is that nobody's going to tell you what to do. You have to figure out what you should be working on if you have employees you have to figure out what they should be doing you have to become a leader a mentor the kind of person who actually not a manager but really your especially an entrepreneurial organization you are the person who is like the captain of the ship back in the days when they were going out on the oceans and exploring the world. And there was no guarantee that you would come back and there was no GPS. So you need to have some vision and a little bit of crazy. But the great thing is that if I have an idea that I really believe is going to make a big difference in people's lives and that I think is going to bring a whole bunch of value to the marketplace then nobody is going to tell me I can't do it except the market and hopefully I understand enough about my audience that I will be able to give them what they need in such a way that they feel compelled to pay me either pay me what their attention or pay me with their referrals or pay me with their money. So that's the best thing I like about working for myself is nobody can tell me what to do. And the one other thing I would say I just thought about this but I want to make sure I put this in there. You asked me you know any things about working for yourself or stuff like that save your frickin money. I'm going to go off on a little tangent here. I see so many people I have seen and you have too we see these mostly guys who do it all right. I'm not really seeing women do this because I think women are smarter than guys are. They think that their great paycheck this month is going to continue for the rest of their lives.

[00:27:06] So they can get a Lamborghini sit in front of so they get the picture before it gets repossessed.

[00:27:13] And they go and buy a big house if they can they buy a Lambo and they start walking around big pimpin smacking their gum and then all of a sudden they turn into a one hit wonder why because they got lucky with a product idea or something. They got the right person to help them with something. And then there's no substance. There's no audience knowledge there's there's no understanding of the basic principles just bring it right back to what we talked about the beginning. The old school principles of who's my audience how do I. What problem do they have. How do I solve that problem. And so be careful my guiding philosophy is I spend last year's money this year not five years from now money this year which is what most people do with credit cards. So you need to save your money that would be the other big thing I would tell you. I had someone that you know tell me when I was living in my little white house that we had bought after we got out of the trailer park which by the way I paid that house off in 18 months.

[00:28:24] That was the proudest thing I've ever done in my life. And I had somebody say to me someone you know I'm not going to tell you who it is who said to me why are you living in this crappy little house and I was like screw you dude. This house is paid for. But why are you living in this. Why don't you leverage other people's money. And you could be living in a big house. And I remember looking at him and I said well because when I get the big house I'm going to pay cash for it and no one will ever be able to take it away from me. And that's what I and that's what I did. So have a little delayed gratification in your life too because it also will give you the ability to do what you want instead of being forced into that cycle of promotion after promotion after promotion after promotion because you got to make bills this month. And you know Tom you know that the vast majority of people who are doing this. That's exactly the cycle that they're in.

[00:29:16] They can barely make their car payment they can barely pay their rent. But the big shot that this giant release or launch and now there's a big shot of the world. Well no they're not. And I'm glad you brought up the delayed gratification because one of my students her dad has passed away now but he's kind of the one that made this marshmallow principal famous book on it was 4 million copies. The principle was they did this study with little kids and they put a marshmallow in front of them said hey we're going away for 15 minutes and you can eat that marshmallow if you want but when we come back if you haven't eaten it we're going to give you two marshmallows so they came back and some 60 70 percent of the kids that eat the marshmallow before and that was the end of it. They tracked these kids all the way into their 20s and the ones that waited for the second marshmallow in other words that were OK with delay gratification were doing great in school or had great jobs and good relationships everything. Most of the ones that ate the marshmallow to get the quick satisfaction were on drugs had credit card debt. All that stuff. Yes so so famous principle but that's exactly what we're talking about. And people I'm sure the people around here that work for me wonder you know I go on these buying apps like my school I furnished my whole school with these gorgeous cherry desks. I mean we've got 4000 square feet of office space and fifteen hundred bucks. One of the desk would cost fifteen hundred twenty five hundred bucks. But I found them in off of Craigslist ad somewhere and got my pickup truck and went hauled him and cleaned him up. You know they said why are you doing that. You know you're Mr. Big Shot. Well because I wouldn't be Mr. Big Shot if I played Mr. Big Shot by just blowing money all day long.

[00:31:20] Like my my grandpa who was a very very successful man entrepreneur. He started out in the 50s building small single family homes for all the GIs coming home from World War II. And then he progressed to strip malls and then enclosed malls and then mini storage warehouses. And in that order. Now you look back over the real estate of the 60s 70s 80s and was he on the trend and he he was a very very well-off but he told me something I'll never forget. He said no matter how rich you are you can only spend a dollar once.

[00:32:02] That's a good saying. So there's that there's that super rich guy that the stock guy lives in just a regular house. Warren Buffett yeah. Warren Buffett the guy that started home depot just you know Sam Walton was that way too. He drove the old Ford pickup truck to work every day. Don't play the big shot and you'll become the big shot you play the big shot before you are. You'll never get there. So how could people work with you what do you got going. You got so many products over the years. What's what's some ways people can work with you.

[00:32:45] My big thing right now. Well and really into the future. Now my thing is what I do with these I call them wizards and my things always been I've always tried to make what I call the liberal arts end of the Internet easy for non-technical people. And when I say liberal arts and I mean the writing and the content creation in the sales letters and all the stuff that we all need to be able to do like write a sales letter or write an email follow up sequence like create an e-book which we all need to have our own book be able to write adds all these things. It's really hard for people to do.

[00:33:25] It's really easy for them to do if they knew how to do so. So what you and I help people because none of that is all that hard really. You know. It's just the people make it hard like a big monster in their mind because they've never done it before.

[00:33:42] They do and and also since they don't do it on a regular basis when they do learn how to do it it's easy to forget how to do it if you're not doing it all the time. So what I have done is I've taken all these things and turn them into software and whether it's filling an online form and having it spit it out or it's a downloadable piece of software all the way to something that will generate three different kinds of sales letters for you complete email sequence all your ads all these things. And so that's really what I do. But that's that's really what it is.

[00:34:23] If you need to do a podcast if you need to write a sales letter if you need to write a book if you need cool PowerPoint presentation if you need to write a 12 email follow up sequence if you need to write Facebook ads Twitter tweets whatever. All these different things we can help people with doing that. And it's it's real easy to do if you can fill out a form and whack a button. You can be successful.

[00:34:55] All right so in the show notes we're going to have links to various stuff that Jim has to offer so you can you can check it out. Remember this is episode fifty one fifty one. I remember those days. I'm so over the hill I can't remember going up the hill. So when we come back from our sponsor break we're going to have Jim tell us he's already told us what the crappy days look like on the way up with the. You know we're pretty much working 24/7. But it's a little bit different now. I'll bet that we come back from the sponsor we'll get Jim to tell us what a typical day looks like and how he stays motivated.

[00:35:43] All right now let me ask you something folks. Wouldn't it be nice if things happened faster in your business. I mean if things happen faster you could get the same amount of work done in less time or on the other hand that this you could get way more accomplished in the same amount of time. Well my ebook how to automate your business shows you and your employees if you have them, tons of ways to work more efficiently on both your computer and your smartphone. So pick up your copy at greatinternetmarketing.com/automate. We'll also have that in the show notes for Episode 51. So we're back with Jim Edwards prolific marketer from way back in the old days. And Jim tell us what a typical day looks like for you now.

[00:36:36] I'm honestly a typical day for me now looks pretty much like the days 20 years ago. I love it so much. Yeah because I'm doing what I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I mean I'm doing what I love doing. And it's not work for me and I enjoy it but pretty much. I get up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning and I'll do two three hours worth of work. And typically I do organize my day a little bit better. I have my own little planning sheet I use where I pretty much try. Well I don't try my. I get first thing in the morning I get my two most important things for the day. Done first thing in the morning. It's when I'm the freshest in my mind is the sharpest. I'm one of those people that I can wake up in and within 15 minutes I can I'm doing my absolute best most creative work first thing in the morning. So typically two three hours on that and then I'll work out for an hour hour and a half real intense workout like super intense. And so then what I'll do is after that from about 10:00 to noon I'm still doing creative stuff catch up stuff getting getting things done that require my attention and then pretty much the afternoon is when I'll do things like webinars and meetings. Very rarely there's only one person I'll meet with in the morning.

[00:38:15] Well I take that back to people I meet within the morning and the rest of the time. I only do meetings in the afternoon because that's not my creative time that's what I call mechanical time. So that's when I do things like reviewing documents reviewing editing editing for me at least is not creative promotional stuff posting things meeting with my staff and all that kind of stuff. So I mean it's it's pretty much that's what my day looks like but it's very organized and hierarchical as far as what I work on.

[00:38:52] Is your wife involved in the business.

[00:38:55] Yes she's the bookkeeper. She manages all she manages all the money she manages the employees and all that stuff so I don't have to mess with it. So I mean she's great at organization and I'm great at creative and implementation.

[00:39:12] So are these employees outsourced or come to the house.

[00:39:19] No nobody comes to the house except every couple of weeks I have them come. We have including my wife. We have three employees and we have one part time remote marketing assistant. But my employees my niece who's worked for me since 2004 or 2005 and the other is my daughter who works for us but they work from their homes they happen to live across the street from each other but they live an hour and a half away.

[00:39:48] Why should I pay money to a stranger. But we communicate daily using zoom. You used to be on the phone and now we can jump on Zoom I get the hey check this out do this. Boom boom. And so I manage with quick 15 minute meetings instead of every month having to try and rein everybody in with an all day bitch fest.

[00:40:13] So would you suggest I should go have some kids.

[00:40:19] You should marry somebody with kids that's what I did.

[00:40:22] Oh that's a really good idea. See folks you get really great tips on screw the commute. How do you stay motivated.

[00:40:33] My motivation has changed over the years and beginning my motivation was hey screw you guy that fired me I'm going to I'm going to bury you and have the internet celebrate me while they forget who you were and that happened. Now you know and then it changes. Hey I want to create financial freedom for my family and then when I got back then it was Hey can I can I set some pretty lofty goals as far as houses and cars and other stuff and I got that. So now it's really about helping as many people as I can. And I do people use the word legacy and all this stuff and I think it gets overused quite a bit that's just me. I mean I'm cynical but I do think that you should be motivated by something more than just yourself more than just having things you should be motivated by the impact that you can have on the world. And that's kind of where I am now. I really kind of envision reaching back 20 21 22 years however long it's been and saying to that kid 30 year old kid who was trying to figure stuff out. Here's the way to do it here. Here are tools to help you do it so much faster. And this is really going to make a difference in your life. And so that's that's really what motivates me. Trying to make a difference in people's lives make it easier for them and help them realize their dreams. And I know that sounds kind of altruistic.

[00:42:19] I've been in the same way as I get older you know I want to have an animal sanctuary my thing is animals crazy about taking care of the weak souls that can't take care of themselves. So any parting thoughts for all our screwballs out there we call screwballs. People want to get in business or want to improve their business.

[00:42:47] I think that there are three questions that have always guided me with this. Once I understood them and understood what I was trying to get done and no matter what market you're in no matter what you're doing there's somebody you have to persuade to give you money and people pay money to people who solve their problems. So here are three questions that if you will sit down and honestly answer them and then ask them of yourself occasionally just to make sure you're still on track. They will literally keep you from screwing up and that is what problem do you solve. Who do you solve it for and how do you solve it. Those are the guiding questions that will help you to understand where your value proposition is. Who you're communicating with and what your unique method of solving that problem is. So what problem do you solve. Who do you solve it for and how do you solve it really is the underlying foundation of at least my business as an entrepreneur. So if you can answer those questions you'll keep yourself out of hot water and you'll know where to focus your time.

[00:44:03] Very well said. Jim thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us today and everybody. Make sure you check out the show knows all the kinds of great wizards that Jim has and all the other stuff that he has because he's been around for a long long time and many of them know that I'm kind of a consumer advocate and I've never ever heard one negative thing about Jim Edwards ever. And my ear's to the ground. If something goes wrong I hear about it. So so you can be sure that he will take care of you deal with him.

[00:44:40] Please subscribe and review if you're new to podcasts. We've got instructions on how to do that at screwthecommute.com now my next episode is 52. That's my Monday training session. This will be on affiliate selling I make a lot of money by recommending other people's products and I'll tell you about that in the next episode. Thanks to Jim check out his stuff in the show notes. Get yourself a copy of my automation book. And Jim thanks a lot. Catch you on the next episode.

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