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In this week’s episode, I asked my Business Coach, James Wedmore, to share the real behind-the-scenes stories of building an 8 figure online business.
James has been teaching ambitious online entrepreneurs how to skyrocket their businesses for the past 15 years—and doing it himself for even longer (you’ll hear how he really got started in business inside the interview)
We explore parts of James’s story that he rarely talks about publicly, geek out of communication and how to show up more effectively as an online brand, plus dig into…
- The bomb he dropped in the first 30 seconds of the interview that SHOCKED me about his past
- A specific, tactical activity you can do TODAY to kickstart your breakthrough
- Why we should stop referencing impostor syndrome (and how to view it instead)
- The two core things all entrepreneurs need beyond strategy
- The #1 mistake business owners make that keep them on the content creation hamster wheel (and how to fix it)!
This one is packed with inspiration, insight and is damn entertaining. So if you’re not making the progress or impact you desire, this will be the fire to get you moving.
A few of my favorite episode Highlights
From being a shy kid in high school to having a million dollar business
“I started this business 15, 16 years ago. I was the most shy, awkward, kid growing and ironically, the shyness, the awkwardness, the introvertedness is what drove me to the internet.
I realized really quickly, I do not want to work for anybody else.
And when I stumbled upon this model in 2007, 15 years later, it is still the most profitable, scalable, and fulfilling business model that exists online. My heart was in it — getting paid to teach digital products information, coaching, you name it. I created a $97 product teaching people how to make their first set of videos. I had a program called 48 Hour Film School and sold that for a couple 100 bucks, and I had a million dollar business.
And you know, I’ve had this 15 year journey and have been in many other niches, a lot of bad ideas and things I did. At the end of the day, I look back and everything was stacked against me — the no skills, no expertise, no knowledge.
But today, there’s just the most giant smile on my face because I realize all of that stuff I went through was so I could have the experience and accrue the value to then offer that to others because we only really truly learned through experience.”
The two big things beyond just the strategy that people needed
“The first is the internal – with us.
As an entrepreneur and as a business owner, we have to understand that you’re a high-performance machine and we got to treat ourselves like one. We got to fuel ourselves with the right mindset and energy and attitude and perspectives.
Pain, believe it or not, is a blessing. It’s hard to hear that at the moment and I get that but the pain is what forces us to pay attention. The problems that you’re dealing with, especially in your business, are there to show you what you can’t see. And my best advice is when you go through a problem you want to take it on from a new lens.”
“The more structure you have in your business, the more freedom you get back in your life.
“It was because it freed up my time to do the things that actually make you money and that really becomes the real question. How are you expected to make more money in your business when you spend all day doing things that don’t make you money? And when I changed my role, when I changed my function, my value and where I placed my time and energy, that changed everything.”
The Power of the Pyramid
“In business, problems are unavoidable and inevitable. We are in the business of solving problems, and our job is not to avoid problems or pretend that they don’t exist. Our goal is always to see how much can I master the ability to conquer this problem, to move through this problem.
So the moment a problem exists, the way through it is that we disassociate. You’re going to create three points: you and the problem and then the third point is you observing you viewing the problem. See yourself outside of yourself to see what you can’t see. And so when you can learn the ability to separate, that’s everything.”
Untangling the Employee Mindset
“The employee mindset is just telling you, if you just push and act and only work and operate in a 3d of more action, you’ll be successful.
The moment you’re in business, there are a series of roles that exist in the company. Each role all has a function. Those functions are fulfilled by people that become a role. If you’re responsible for all of the roles in the company, it adds up really fast.
Now you know why you’re overworked and seeing little results because what we end up doing as a default way is we tend to spend all day in the lower-valued activities and the lower roles. You spent more time on the things that don’t make you more money than the things that did. And so the ultimate role is the role that we call the digital CEO.”
There is power in Humility
“The more humbleness you come from, the more powerful you’ll be. I’m still learning this every day but this is the truth.
We have natural gifts and talents and tendencies and that’s all it ever is. You just need to remember that you have something that can offer something to somebody else and that’s what we’re all here to do. At the end of the day, any one of us can lose it all tomorrow and who are you then?”
Why you’re overworked and not getting any results
“ If you don’t have a plan, a proven replicable like I can do it again and again, and again, sales machine, system or strategy for selling your stuff on a consistent basis, then you’re going to get into that content hamster wheel where you’re doing all the things with no strategy.
We want to work backward from the end in mind. Once you have a revenue goal, everything is worked backward.”
Communication as a learnable skill
Communication is the forgotten stepchild of billionaire skills – t’s everything. Leadership, how you speak to your VAs to get them to do their job. If you couldn’t communicate effectively, they’re not going to do it and that’s gonna affect the business, our audience, our customers, our students, or how we teach everything.
So I made it a priority and an intention to get better and better at it. But you can’t get better at it if you’re not looking at it yourself while also observing how did it land for others? And there’s so many tools and techniques and things that you can learn and when you’re willing to learn these skills that changes everything.”
About James Wedmore:
James launched The Mind Your Business Podcast and his signature program (Business By Design) to help other content creators, authors and coaches make their mark online and leave an impression that LASTS.
Building an 8-figure business has given James the financial freedom to do exactly what he wants. His mission is simple: show business owners how to make serious cash doing what they’re good at, so all work and no play becomes all work is play.
