In today’s episode of the Best Passive Income Model, Mark talks with Mark Asquith—host of Excellence Expected, the number one small business podcast out of the UK.

Excellence Expected is a way to share actual advice and inspirational initiatives borne out of the trials and tests he was faced with when he started and ran his businesses.

Mark is also the co-founder of an online podcasting platform, PodcastWebsites, which he runs with John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire.

Mark delves into how he broke through the noise in the market and created his own noise to get traction and drive sign-ups.

Three important factors are:

• Run test experiments.
• Build an avatar or profile of your ideal customer.
• Get out there, boots on the ground and talk to people!

Listen in for all the details!

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Mark Podolsky: Read, Ask: The Counterintuitive Online Method to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy…Create a Mass of Raving Fans…and Take Any Business to the Next Level by Ryan Lavesque.  Also, learn more about Mark Asquith at Excellence Expected.com

Mark Asquith: Read, The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Robert Fitzgerald—a book that will walk you through how to question people, how to talk to people in an unassuming manner, how to extract the right type of information from people so that you get the details that you need and your secret. Also, read, Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money by Patt Flynn. This book will teach you how to talk to your customers for research as well.

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In this episode of The Best Passive Income podcast, Mark talks with Jefferson Lilly—ParkStreetPartners.com.

Jefferson is a self-made millionaire and mobile home park investment expert, educator, and industry consultant who has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg Magazine, and on the Real Money television show.

Jefferson provides affordable housing to help people become homeowners. He tells us why he chose mobile home parks and how it’s structured so that you don’t have to put much time or money into it, making it a true passive income!  

We also discuss:  

• The parts of the business that suck
• Managing the parks
• Using outside capital 

Want to know more about this lucrative scaleable extension of the land niche?

Listen in as we delve into mobile home investing! 

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Mark: Go to IFTTT.com to automate searches. And also, learn more about Jefferson Lilly at ParkStreetPartners.com.

Jeff: Go to SearchTempest.com—a website that goes out and prowls through both Craigslist and eBay where you can type key words and find them.

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Leslie Samuel—creator of the popular blogs Become A Blogger and Interactive Biology, joins Mark on today’s episode to talk about breaking through the noise in the competitive world of blogging.

The simple answer, BE DIFFERENT… and that is what he set out to do with his biology blog. Leslie wanted to take a complicated topic and break it down one concept at a time and make videos that are fun.

Leslie’s blog grew from 400 in the first month to 8,000 in the first year and ultimately to 15-20,000 a month which eventually landed him a job as a professor!

Leslie’s passion for education led him on a mission to change the world one blog at a time. With a simple message of creating content, inspiring others, he is changing the world while building a solid online business.

Listen in as we delve into:

• How Leslie built his blog
• Creating Good content
• Identifying your target audience
• Monetizing
• Email marketing, and more!

Understanding the different networks, choosing one and going all in, focusing…that is how you will have an impact especially in this noisy world we’re living in, when it comes to social media.

Leslie Samuel

TIP OF THE WEEK

Mark: Learn more about Leslie and go to BecomeABlogger.com where he’s creating a ton of value.

Leslie: Read No Excuses by Brian Tracy. It doesn’t just go through the psychology and all that stuff but it also gives you actionable steps you can take. For me, the book was a game changer.

Thank you for listening to the Best Passive Income Model podcast. Your support helps me to invite guests who share their knowledge that you can use to grow your business.

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I think if we can just be aware that there’s so much poverty and suffering out there, we would not be willing to flaunt our wealth and be more stealthy and actually do what we want do. So just focus on yourself. Otherwise, you’re focusing on trying to make yourself  look good in front of other people who don’t really matter.

Today’s guest, Sam Dogen, is someone who is helping millions of people think about the deeper issues of investing, real estate, retirement planning, career strategies, money philosophy and achieving financial independence through his website, FinancialSamurai.com.

A little about Sam Dogen:

• 13-year finance veteran with an MBA from Cal Berkeley. He’s been writing on personal finance for over 7 years.
• Has an MBA for UC Berkeley, rated a 5.0 as a tennis player, a 16 handicapper in gold, and speaks three languages.
• He has lived in several different countries and has visited over 40 as of March 2015. 
• He has also been seen in The Wall Street Journal, The L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Bloomberg, and Kiplinger.

Sam worked in the banking industry, specifically in equities, from 1999-2012. And while he found this high-stress job fun, it all went south in 2008 when the housing market crashed. He lost 35% of his net worth in six months and that’s when Financial Samurai was born in 2009, to help him make sense of it all.

Today, we delve into into the premises behind his book, How to Engineer Your Layoff: Negotiate Your Severance and Be Free—a book that teaches you how to negotiate a severance package.

Listen in as Sam talks about the WARN Act and why it shouldn’t be confused with severance pay. We also talk about how to get laid off when you’re a star performer.

What my book tries to do is empower the employee. Because employees have this mindset that the corporation, with their lawyers, and senior managers, and whatever, are the Goliath and we have no power as an employee to do anything. But I think people have to realize that we have way more power than we realize.

Sam Dogen

Hearing feedback from people after reading his book, who say their lives are so much better after leaving their corporate jobs, has been very rewarding for Sam.

I really think the fear in our heads is much greater than the reality.

When asked for his definition of happiness, Sam says it’s PROGRESS and expands on that.

Sam and Mark also get into a discussion on the concept of stealth wealth—the way you think about money and how you want to be perceived by your peers, friends, and society. 

With a plethora of information and opportunities out there, Sam and Mark both agree that in this day and age, everybody should try to leverage the internet in some way and try to make a lifestyle they want.

And finally, what does Sam think about Mark’s Passive Income Model? 

Listen in now to find out…

TIP OF THE WEEK

Mark: Go to FinancialSamurai.com and read the most commented posts on the sidebar:

• How Much Money Do The Top Income Earners Make?
• Creating Powerful Friends
• How Much Should People Have Saved in their 401ks at Different Ages
• The 1/10th Rule For Car Buying Everyone Must Follow

Sam: Save an amount that hurts you a little bit. If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not saving enough. Everything starts with a fundamental aggressive savings model for you to be free and build those passive income streams.

To better guide parents on how to raise financially savvy children, read my articles:

• How To Convince Your Parents To Buy You Everything You Want
• No Wonder Why Millennials Don’t Give A Damn About Money
• Children should read, Spoiled or Clueless? Try to Work Minimum Wage Jobs

Also check out the article, Scraping By On $500,000 a Year: Why It’s So Hard For High Income Earners To Escape The Rat Race.

Thank you for listening to the Best Passive Income Model podcast. Your support helps me to invite guests who share their knowledge that you can use to grow your business.

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In today’s episode, Mark Podolsky, the Land Geek talks to Jim Palmer, a marketing, business builder, and in-demand coach. Jim is the founder of the the Dream Business Academy, Dream Business Coaching, and Mastermind Program. He is also the host of Dream Business TV watched by thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses. He hosts Stick Like Glue Radio, a weekly podcast based on Jim’s own unique brand of smart marketing and business building strategies. He is internationally known as the Newsletter Guru and creator of No Hassle Newsletters and No Hassle Social Media.

Jim’s 30 years of practical business experience and his kind of staying power is anchored on powerful customer relationships. As an old school thinker, he believes that getting up every day, delivering value, and focusing on service first will give you a longer lasting and profitable business.

Jim set out to be a Vice President by the time he was 40. He achieved it but when he turned 41, his position was eliminated and he was unemployed. At that time, he had four teenagers to support and mortgages and bills to pay. He suffered through 15 months of unemployment and was even diagnosed with cancer. This brought him clarity and he started his first business because he was at a low point in his life and the only place to go from there was up. His first year of business was revenue free but it eventually caught hold and took off, becoming a 6-figure business. After 5 years, he started all over again. He created No Hassle Newsletters. 7 years ago, he started his own coaching business.

Mark mentioned speaking to The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur author, Mike Michalowicz. He has written other books, including the Pumpkin Plan and Profit First. When an entrepreneur starts a business, there’s a lot of time but no money. However, when the business gets bigger, there is money but no time. Only about 5% of entrepreneurs are able to get systems and processes into place, allowing them to be free. Jim’s wife jolted him back to reality when she asked him when they were going to go on vacation – something they were unable to do during the lean years. The reality of time freedom hit him. Then, he hired his first virtual assistant.

Jim brought up an interesting concept, “When I,” which is about moving your goal past when you should be investing in the future and the future company you want to have. The fastest way to get there is by getting a coach or working with somebody with experience. Another point Jim brought up is automating his business and documenting everything to a point where if something happens to him, his wife could effectively take over. Mark has done the same thing. Putting systems and procedures in place will allow you the flexibility of either continuing your business or selling it to a new owner who can then take over two days later and continue to run it. That’s a big part of getting top dollar for your business. For Mark, it’s in a Dropbox folder named, “In Case of Death.”

Jim’s journey to becoming a prolific marketer and author of six books started with his first book. From this experience, he has learned that you don’t need to be perfect. A lot of people suffer from perfectionism, which prevent them from doing things they can be doing. Jim’s advice is to decide you want to be judged on the value of the information and content you’re providing. Being his authentic self has been liberating for him. Just be a prolific curator of the content. The content draws people to you. You just have to remember that people consume content in a number of different ways.

Adam Grant’s book, the “Originals,” talks about people like Mozart and Bach who create original work. They kept creating work and as they did this they created masterpieces! Getting stuck because of perfectionism is something you can avoid. Good is good enough and you can always go back and iterate your past work. Mark calls it, “embracing the suck!” What’s important is that you have to be your authentic self because it’s liberating. Putting yourself out there will attract the right kind of people and repel people you’re not meant to do business with.

You also need to be immune to criticism. You will not have a shortage of people who are going to tell you that you should be doing things differently. Jim mentions a hater who commented about his video where he also featured his dog. The hater said when Jim looked at his dog, he was disrespecting the audience. One way to deal with it is like water off a duck’s back. Grant Cordone’s take on this is if you’re not getting haters, you’re not working hard enough. Even if you only have 30% of your audience that’s going to love you, you can already make a nice living off them.

One of the main things you need to do to be successful in business is to cure a pain and solve a problem. Starting with his No Hassle Newsletter, several other businesses came from that. The ideas usually came from customers who wanted more help. Jim says you shouldn’t overthink. That’s what gets you stuck. He doesn’t celebrate initial transactions but rather, he celebrates lifetime customers. It’s your job to find out all the other ways you can help them enrich their lives.

In dealing with haters, Jim asks his assistant about the background of that particular hater and if no business has been generated out of that hater, he just hits the unsubscribe button. He will not put up with being disrespected.

When asked if Mark had the Best Passive Income Model, Jim says he’s got one heck of a killer model. More importantly, Jim pointed out Mark’s clarity, enthusiasm, and passion for the business. He also pointed out vital things you need to succeed in business such as the processes and systems that are in place and that Mark knows his numbers. Since buying and selling raw land is not something the big companies are interested in, Mark is essentially flying under the radar too! Jim also applauded Mark’s abundance mentality. “Sharks swim in dense packs where there’s ample food supply,” a successful person once told Jim. Mark says that there’s always room for innovation similar to Cirque de Soleil’s model. They took the zoo, combined it with theater, and created a completely new market segment.

Tip of the week

Jim: If you want to make a boatload of money, stop answering your phone. You will earn significantly more income for who you are than what you do. It’s about your positioning in the marketplace. As a coach, it doesn’t help me to answer my phone like an operator. If people jump through hoops to be able to talk to me, I have already positioned myself because it now becomes a big deal to speak with me. You also want to have someone in your business, who will hold your feet to the fire so you can get things done and that is how you grow.

Mark: Get Jim’s free ebook, “Decide: The Ultimate Success Trigger” for free. You only have to pay $6.95 for shipping and handling for a 200-page book that will teach you how to finely tune your mindset and start the business you’ve always imagined. You can get it from DecideForSuccess.com.

 

In this episode of the Best Passive Income Model Podcast, listen in as Mark Podolsky chats with digital marketer, Eric Siu. Eric Siu is the CEO of the digital marketing agency called Single Grain and has worked with Fortune 500 Companies such as Sales Force, Yahoo, and Intuit. He is also the founder of the podcast, Growth Everywhere.

In this episode, Mark and Eric talk about how he got started. Eric graduated from college and was doing data entry at a cubicle somewhere when a friend suggested he try out digital marketing. Instead of rotting away doing the same job every single day, Eric decided to go for it. From there, Eric got an internship and never looked back.

Eric worked with his mentor, Neil Patel, as the Vice President of Marketing online, an educational marketing company called Treehouse when Neil asked him to help his cousin out and run the company. Eric eventually took over the company two years ago, paying $2 out of his pocket from the company profit. He then brought it to where it is today.

When asked about digital marketing, Eric said that it never ends. Social media has blown it up to a point where everything can be measured. It is important to have the ability to look at the numbers to see whether they’re working or not. 95% of the people start with something that you can draw conclusions from and this is a good start.

Eric started Growth Everywhere because he saw that there were no marketing podcasts out there. It also allowed him to talk to founders and pay it forward. It was a chance to put people together. It has grown by itself and Eric humbly says it gets nice comments. He has since started a training course behind the podcast. He believes that it is a complement to Single Grain and it’s also free branding for them.

For entrepreneurs, those doing a side hustle, want to increase their passive income, or are new to marketing, Eric advises the listeners to choose a path. Choose something and stick with that. Get good at it. Neil Patel at QuickSprout.com did just that. He came out with content every week for years. It’s about going an inch wide and a mile deep.

Eric advises having a budget of about $20,000 to $40,000 to get a funnel working. However, not a lot of people who are starting out have this kind of budget. He suggests that everyone can learn content marketing. He says it’s free to learn and be the expert. You can also eventually learn to articulate your message into words. When you do it consistently, you’ll get better at it, it will start compounding over time, and it’ll eventually get noticed. Building an audience is the hardest thing to do, according to Eric. If we’re not collecting email addresses or creating one-to-one relationships with our prospects, the platforms own us. Perry Marshall says that the goal of each email is to entice your customers to open the next email.

As a marketer, your job is to bring people to the point of sale. It’s all a game. Every single marketing tweak you make can add to or decrease your bottom line. To be a great marketer, you need a growth mindset. Keep pounding away at it. When you’re starting out, you have to learn a couple of times a day. If you say it’s too hard for you, you shouldn’t be in business.

On hiring a copywriter if you have a low budget, Eric suggests going through a Facebook Group called Cult of Copy. Siphon off as much information as you can. Educate yourself first. As a rule of thumb, ask yourself if your content is interesting to you. Is it something that makes you proud to share it with people? That would be a good parameter, according to Eric. To know who to trust and who not to trust, you can take in as much information as you can but it’s on you to determine signal from the noise. Look at consistency. How do you feel after listening to a podcast? Do you feel like you’re being dumped into a marketing funnel? 99% of the time, your gut will tell you when you’re getting the value or the runaround. Check out Frank Kern, Seth Godin, Eric Siu, Ryan Lee, Ryan Deiss, and Neil Patel. They all show up everyday. They are prolific and you get a sense that they really care. You get a sense that they love what they’re doing and that they just want to give.

When writing email, differentiate yourself with others by writing as if you’re writing to your mom. Have a long-term view of it. Build a relationship over time, as suggested by Gary Vaynerchuck. You can’t keep throwing right hooks because people will start to hate you. A good ratio agreed upon by Mark and Eric is 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 in terms of sending content before the promotion. The basic idea is to send 4 or 5 good pieces of content before you do the promotion. On Keyword Searches, Eric suggests that it’s something you don’t need to pay attention to. The more important question to ask whether or not you’re adding value to the world.

It is important to practice your writing every day. It’s like going to the gym and exercising. It helps you get better at it. Eventually, you start seeing the fruits of your labor. Eric set a goal of writing 500 words per day and inputting this into a spreadsheet that tracks the number of words he’s written in a year. When you get into the habit of doing that, you are able to automate the process. Keep going.

When asked about newbie mistakes that make him cringe, Eric talked about giving up too early. In terms of content, it takes about 12 to 24 months for things to compound and for you to see the machine giving your returns. You just have to play the long game. In the beginning you’re gonna suck. You just have to embrace it. You have to suck first to get good. However, when you no longer feel passionate about your work, maybe it is time to let go. 36 months is a perfect time to let go. As Seth Gold says, when you fail, you’re done. Move on to the next thing.

The strategy that’s working right now for digital marketing is Gmail Advertising. He says that it was something Google wasn’t consistent in implementing it. Not a lot of people are hitting it. Now is a good time to get in before it becomes saturated.

Eric also talks about playing a bigger game. He says he already has something that’s giving him a good cash flow. The next step is to figure out what he can do next to make him happy or how he can make an impact on the world. This is a game people optimize and play until their lives end.

When asked about Marks Best Passive Income Model, Eric said it sounds sexy. He also says that he can’t say much about it but at a high level, it’s interesting and he can’t really put fault in it.

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Eric: Long form content with 2,000 words or so are important to have out there. There are over 2 Million blog posts produced every single day. 300 to 500 word articles are not enough. Visit www.growtheverywhere.com and read “21 EPIC 10x Content Marketing Examples We Can All Learn From.” Read those and learn why they’re good.

Use a dashboard tool called Cyfe that helps you monitor your business data from one place and would cost $20 a month. It’s a steal and you can make as many dashboards as you want. Ahrefs allows Eric to see how many links he’s acquiring for SEO services. However, it’s fairly expensive.

Mark: Subscribe to Growth Everywhere Podcast and check out www.growtheverywhere.com. There are tons of resources on that website. My favorite tool out there is the Bad Hire Calculator.

Thank you for listening to the Best Passive Income Model podcast. Your support helps me to invite guests who share their knowledge that you can use to grow your business.