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Episode 66: The Failure/Success Equation to Grow Your Business with Adrian Brambila
182 Plays5 years ago
Entrepreneurship is about learning what works—and managing risk. If you can manage and mitigate the risk of failure and keep forging ahead, that can become a real recipe for success. The challenge is to learn and not give up too soon. When it comes to building an audience and making money on the internet, too often, people give up too soon.
In episode #66, we talk with Adrian Brambila, who operates numerous online businesses by asking a simple question: how is this supposed to make money? Adrian went from making less than $30,000 at a desk job, to making 6 figures a year, to making 6 figures a month. This is passive income he can earn from anywhere in the world, which is why he and his wife have been traveling the world for the past year.
Adrian Brambila learned how to do this by learning how to monetize and how to leverage the successes to create even bigger successes. Adrian first learned this lesson as he turned his passion for dance into an online audience of fans, and then turned those fans into customers willing to pay to learn from his expertise. With numerous affiliate marketing platforms and a marketing agency, Adrian is doing the work, gathering the data, and living his Uncommon Life on his terms.
what you will learn in this episode:- The networking power of spike ball
- How to make money based on how God has gifted you
- The role of practice and intention in becoming successful
- How to build a tribe of people who love what you do
- What number of conversions you should look for from 100 responses to an online offer
- How to help your audience and yourself through affiliate marketing
- Why small wins can add up in a big way
- How to stick with an audience-building platform until it pays off
- Why understanding money management is such a critical part of entrepreneurship
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Transcript
Introduction to The Uncommon Life Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring. Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey.
Meet Adrian Brambila: From Dance to Digital
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Life Project. I am your host, Philip Ramsey. And I am Brian Dewhurst. Super excited to be in another episode with you. Thank you for tuning in. We got a great guest for you. And I really think that this is going to be super valuable given the times that we just came through.
00:00:54
Speaker
the old COVID-19, the coronavirus. And what industries out there are thriving? This is one of them. So let's get Adrian, let's get his bio out. Let's just get him on the show. Cannot wait. Yeah, so we have the one and only Adrian Brambila with us today. And his bio goes a little something like this. I'm going to freeform this one today.
00:01:16
Speaker
Basically, Adrian grew up in central Iowa and started off in college. And then he went on to be a professional dancer with T-Pain. Then got into the call center world and hated his life. He then got into internet marketing and has not looked back. Adrian is the owner of multiple companies and online brands. He lives in Hawaii with his wife and family. And we can't wait to hear the rest and have you fill in the rest of your story. Welcome to the show, Adrian.
00:01:45
Speaker
Hey, thank you for having
The Power of Diversifying Income Streams
00:01:47
Speaker
me. This is my very first podcast that I can attribute the relationships to a quirky game called Spike Ball. And a surprising fact, this is not our second person that is on the show because of the Spike Ball. So the last one was amazing. So we're expecting a lot out of you, brother.
00:02:05
Speaker
I have big shoes to fill. Yeah, repping that spike ball. When I started getting into the world of internet marketing, it was after dance, I created my first YouTube channel. I didn't know it at the time, but when I was posting these videos online, it would eventually turn into my first online e-commerce store where I was teaching people how to dance and also selling dance apparel. And that was 10 years ago. So 10 years of
00:02:34
Speaker
doing internet marketing from starting a little side hustle when I was basically at a call center making 27 grand a year and then making your first dollar, $100 and then $1,000. And then what's crazy still blows my mind, especially right now because I feel very fortunate and grateful to say this is right now a lot of people are losing jobs. A lot of people, their main source of income comes from where they work.
00:03:01
Speaker
And I have dozens of income streams and brands. And right now, because people are home, they're buying stuff online. And so I have multiple brands. I'm spending thousands of dollars a day in ads. And my businesses are like all-time highs and records during this period, which is
Inspiration from The 4-Hour Workweek
00:03:19
Speaker
insane. It makes me go back to a book I read.
00:03:22
Speaker
when I was 20, called The 4-Hour Workweek, that first put this idea in my head that you could make a living from the internet. And now I feel like I could be in that book.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, like you basically just summed up the whole podcast. So that was it, everyone. This is the value that we're... So let's try to unpack this because I feel like so many people are sitting there right now thinking like, I want to side hustle. I want to do something. What's the best way to make money? And Brian and I, we would say to those people, stop trying to get the silver bullet. Start figuring out what you're passionate about.
00:04:01
Speaker
instead of thinking like, well, how did they make money or how did they make money? Like the point of all this is, no, make money the way that God has uniquely gifted you. And so I want to draw back and really talk about, wait a second, you started dancing and I love the story, I know more than most, but you were not a dancer at the time.
The Dance Journey Begins
00:04:22
Speaker
And so you start thinking like, hey, I want to be a better dancer.
00:04:26
Speaker
How do I start unlocking, one, my passion? Because I've always wanted to be a better dancer. And two, how do I make money with this passion? And you in line both of those. And not only that have started a trajectory that is second to none. And you're passionate about it, which is so powerful. So where were you when you were like, one, I want to always want to be a better dancer. And how did you correlate like, wait, maybe I can get paid for this.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah. When I went to in Madison, Wisconsin, there was this breakdance battle. It was the very first one. Um, I think I was 18 years old. I had never really danced before actually. And so when I went there, there was dude spinning on their heads and backflips and like people doing body waves, you know, they looked like didn't have bones and like that to me, it was like, right. That's where you met Brian. Do hers.
00:05:11
Speaker
That's where I met Brian. He was like, so many head spins. Like those people, like, I was like, I didn't know any of this stuff was possible. And like, that just blew my mind. So after that, I was, this was my freshman year in college and I was already tinkering around with trying to spend my time not drinking and trying to find things to do. So I tried guitar and
00:05:35
Speaker
all kinds of weird hobbies and clubs. And the reason why we even looking for things not to do sized drinks because my parents, this is the biggest privilege and advantage I've had, especially my family story. My dad was an immigrant from Mexico and grew up in poverty. He saved and his biggest goal in life was to get me through college and pay for it. And that's what he did. So my freshman year when I was partying and drinking,
00:05:59
Speaker
I, when I got back that first break semester and my dad asked me how colleges, I felt really guilty, like almost basically lying. Be like, Oh, I'm taking it seriously and stuff. So then when I, that second semester was like, that's kind of messed up what I'm doing. I feel like actually a lot of kids do this and they just don't realize like how severe it is. Um,
From T-Pain to YouTube Success
00:06:18
Speaker
but.
00:06:18
Speaker
that second semester i was like i was looking for stuff to do um and dance i saw that battle and then i i got back and i was going on youtube i was looking at up dance tutorials and that's what i did like my friends knew me like as the guy who when they would go to the gym they would they would see me in the gym basically in this little you know little square room with a mirror like dancing and learning uh how to dance and then a very so like
00:06:46
Speaker
Dancing from 18, something definitely, I think I always refer to it as like, this is a little God's miracle. This thing changed my life is after two years of dancing, T-Pain had an open call audition to send a dance video to anyone in the world. T-Pain. I mean, I called him yesterday and T-Pain and I are tight. Not true. He's on the show. He's coming off show next, right?
00:07:09
Speaker
He had this open call audition. I submitted a video and I made it to the live audition in Florida and that to me was already a success. And then he was supposed to take one dance or he ended up taking 10. So like I can say that experience changed my life because
00:07:24
Speaker
I got submersed into a world I never even knew existed. T. Payne is actually quite the entrepreneur. He inspired me, I think, to be an entrepreneur today because there was a moment when we were on tour where we were performing at B96 Summer Bash in Chicago. He released a song right in front of our eyes. Then a matter of 10 minutes later, I had a million downloads. I watched him make a million bucks in 10 minutes. To me, I was like, okay, dancing is cool, but I got to learn how to do that.
00:07:53
Speaker
No, that's a really good point because I think where those other 10 dancers were, the backup dancers, that was the epitaph of their career. They have made it and this is the career for them. You were like, no, this is the scratch itch of my passion, but there's more to this story. There's more that I can do and there's more I can give and serve others in a way. Love the story. Keep going. Keep going.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, so when tour ended, it was my senior year in college, second semester. And I was in Iowa still. And if I wanted to be a professional dancer, I would have basically had to quit college and moved and go to LA at the least what everyone told me. But LA scared me.
00:08:37
Speaker
Dance was actually really fun. It was a hobby. It was passionate. Being a professional dancer, it sounds really awesome, but you're really dancing like 5% of the time. And 95% of the time you're in a, I guess I shouldn't make assumptions across every artist, but you're in a treacherous environment, especially if you're someone like me who started dancing to not drink alcohol.
00:09:00
Speaker
It's like you have to have really strong moral code and ethics debate. Because if you want to drink and party at 9 a.m. every day and do whatever, you can. You could. Yeah. You could. You could. So when I got done with tour, I did not want to go to LA. I did not want to be a professional dancer. But I love dancing still. And so I mean, Dubuque's not the most happened in place to be a pro dancer. Dubuque, Iowa is not the hub of
00:09:31
Speaker
No, I tried it, man. So YouTube was it. I started creating dance tutorials online and posting dance videos. I would dance to trendy songs, teach people how to arm wave. And the best way to put it, how it went, my super excited
Monetizing Passion: Dance Tutorials
00:09:51
Speaker
energy. And I'm thinking like I was a hot chucks and SRT pain, it flopped miserably.
00:09:55
Speaker
I thought I was going to graduate and already have some six-figure business and just be traveling the world. Heck no, man. First six months, I think I had 10 subscribers. The only person I watched was my mom out of those 10. Shout out to your mom though. Shout out. Super fan. Super fan. Still to this day. What do you think that was? What do you think it was? Just not enough history or what was that?
00:10:23
Speaker
I think the I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, YouTube, creating a business on Instagram, Facebook, all these things, they're easy to access for us. So it seems like anyone can do it. But you there is real strategy, there are real tactics. And there's real, there's a real learning curve, if you want to take it from I'm someone who's post
00:10:47
Speaker
or consumes YouTube to be a content creator on YouTube. And that's different from being and monetizing and actually having a business on YouTube. So all these things, I don't know. I'm just passionate. I just want to post videos and have this naive expectation that I keep posting. People will show up. But that frustration, you know, the quality questions you ask in terms of quality of your life you have. So asking the question, like, how do I get people besides my mom to watch my YouTube videos? I love my mom, but I got to get other people. It's like that leads you to a path of exploration of
00:11:16
Speaker
How does ranking on a search engine for YouTube work? How do you grow a following? After six months, this is where I got my job at the call center because I had to pay bills and I was graduated, but I was working on my YouTube business. Now, after a year and a half,
00:11:38
Speaker
I had I think probably around between 10 to 20,000 followers. But I still wasn't making any money. And so that was very frustrating. But then the question I asked was like, how do I monetize this? And, and actually,
00:11:53
Speaker
My subscriber gave me the idea. One of my subscribers, they said, Adrian, I really love your tutorials, but can you make something that's more like, you know, in depth? I like, you're teaching all these little moves, but I want something more in depth. I was like, okay, I'll try it. So I created my very first own digital products for different 60 minute videos at $25 a pop. And then when I launched that and I posted, I already had 20,000 followers, a few emails. I made a thousand dollars.
00:12:22
Speaker
And that month when I launched it. And so that to me was like a massive moment. For sure. Absolutely. Come on, Brian. I feel like I'm monopolizing this. I have so many questions. I think the thing that I've learned from our short time together, Adrian, is that you just don't quit.
Persistence Pays Off in Business
00:12:42
Speaker
I heard this Japanese proverb once. I don't know if this is true or not, but some mentor of mine told me this. And he said, the Japanese are committed to a business for seven years and they will reinvest profits for seven years before they take a dime out of that business. Wow. And I don't think it took you that long, but you have that tenacity to like see things through. And I think a lot of us, you know, we dip
00:13:04
Speaker
one toe in the water and we want all the reward and it just doesn't work that way and you experience that. And so I think that's for me a big part of your story. So you're in this call center, you've kind of like come back to reality, I got to have cash and you're messing around online and I wouldn't say messing around because you're very focused, you're building 20,000 subscribers followers is a lot. Walk our listener through kind of that
00:13:32
Speaker
that ramp to where you are now of like really figuring these platforms out and really driving the content that people want. If you can just kind of keep going on that. Cause I think that's huge for most people as they just quit and you quit.
00:13:50
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. What's funny is that month, after a year and a half of doing this and not making money, I thought I was supposed to make money, but I never bothered to ask, how do I make money? And so that subscriber told me the answer. A lot of people are very passionate. I get probably 500 messages a day across my social media platforms. I'm actually blown up on TikTok recently, gone viral a few times. These messages are flooding in, and everyone has so passionate. And people should
00:14:19
Speaker
use that passion but a fundamental question when you create a business, people forget to ask, how do you make money? I didn't ask that question in my first business, so it took me a year and a half. I think if I would have tried to explore that, I would have probably been able to monetize in the first month because I would have an offer in place. Now, even if you know the answer, the strategy I did, I didn't know I was doing it right but
00:14:44
Speaker
creating value online through content is a sweat equity way where that doesn't require a lot of capital to build a brand and business. And that's what I was doing. So I got lucky in guessing that strategy at the beginning. But after I made that first $1,000 and again, working at the call center, $1,000 is still a lot of money to me today. But back then, it was like a massive amount.
00:15:09
Speaker
So the next question I asked was like, how do I do this full time? And that led me on the exploration, I think, where I learned what I consider a modern day superpower today, which is learning how to sell online through paid ads. Because in college and before, people always would tell me that if you know how to sell, you'll always have a job. But I think today, if you know how to sell online, you'll never need a job.
00:15:36
Speaker
because it's that much of a superpower where today I'm going to spend between $1,000 and $2,000 in ads across Facebook, Google, and YouTube on Instagram. And these ads are selling while I'm sleeping, while I'm on this podcast right now, across different niches. Again, I'm not going to lose $1,000 and $2,000 because both these campaigns have scaled up over the last a few years. So there's
00:16:02
Speaker
programmatic elements that say like if a sale doesn't come in by the time I spend this much, that ad goes off. If it does, if it is bringing leads at a more efficient cost, then I'm going to ramp up the budget. So I'm leveraging this automation technology, which is so freaky and a superpower because here I am speaking with you guys. So that, that is, um, that's, that exists. The Four Hour Workweek, that book planted the idea in my head that it's possible.
00:16:30
Speaker
And then when I got that first $1,000 through basically creating organic content, building, following, trying to scale, which in other words is trying to run an ad.
Scaling Business Through Online Content
00:16:39
Speaker
Someone basically searches and that, for my dance business, someone would go on YouTube or Google and say, how do I dance the robot? So I was running an ad on that keyword or search phrase. This person has no idea who I am.
00:16:52
Speaker
But they see my ad, they click on my ad, they read my page, they learn a little about me. They like that I'm goofy. And they say, I would like this product. Here's $25. So I was trying to do that. And it took me two years. I absolutely love that it's the robot and the dance set.
00:17:08
Speaker
Because I think there's some people that are listening to this is like, man, I can't do, but you know, fill in the blank. But the fact that you're dancing to a robot and making it work is so powerful. It's a proof of concept, right? And that's what you've proven. And so what I'm hearing from you, and this is why I wanted to get you on the show, is one, it takes passion.
00:17:28
Speaker
then it takes a strategic way and it takes practice like you never would have got to where you are today without practicing and in that small little room and all your friends are walking by watching you practice dancing then it's trial and error right like it's benefits and risks which one is smart which one is not and you're doing this constantly with every little avenue of this whole path that you've talked about all three of those by the way
00:17:58
Speaker
And so it's great to meet and not only you don't have to be perfect But the cool thing is in the cheat code of life Brian and I always say this on the show is mentorship Right getting with somebody who's already screwed up so they can speed you through this process and now you take other people through this as fast as they humanly possibly can and Get them to a place where they can be sitting where you are on a podcast or sleeping and making money
00:18:24
Speaker
Something really cool and it's scaling my mind and I think Brian as well is just automating or downloading the stuff in your head so people can consume it without you talking about it. It's already done. The hard work is, it is hard for the record, but once it's done, people can consume it. Tell me how that process was for you. And it seems like it was more natural. For me, that is not natural.
00:18:52
Speaker
is something I'm supposed to admit, but it's just not natural. Like every time I think I'm supposed to sell something, I'm supposed to be some face to face, honestly. So yeah. Yeah, that's no, I mean, I mean, it's, it's crazy. Like a lot of people make decisions online and big decisions, buying decisions. I think we all do. So, so
00:19:13
Speaker
I think some things can't be sold completely online but you can drive interest and have someone say I'm interested in working with you guys but I need to talk to you guys first but the online I think that that's definitely a massive opportunity for every single business right now especially during covid like businesses that
00:19:32
Speaker
like, knew they probably should have done something online and never did. Like, they're the ones that are going to hurt the most or not be around anymore. And the companies that innovate, and even if they're a brick and mortar store, but innovate in some way to be online, that's where the opportunity is. That's why I feel so fortunate that I knew about this. You mentioned something about mentorship. I do want to touch on that before I answer your question. And so, a couple years
00:19:56
Speaker
Later, I had left the call center and I was working at a marketing agency in Iowa. I was able to grow just my dance business. I worked on my second brand, which is like now selling dance products like sweatpants and hoodies and stuff. I think my total income together at that point, a couple years later, was around $3,000, $4,000 a month. Can I just speak? Is that over the advertising costs that you're paying?
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'm talking profit. My total gross was probably around $5,000 or $6,000. I usually talk profit because today on my TikTok and all my content, I post a dashboard.
00:20:42
Speaker
That's one of the first people questions people ask like, what's your profit though? What's your profit though? Cause there are some snakey people out there who will like post their gross numbers and really they actually didn't make a dime. Um, but yeah, great question. Um, so a couple of years after that, I ran it, I, I was seeing ads of this guy online who actually was in Cedar Rapids and I was in Cedar Rapids. Um, and his ads, I, we were actually like quasi friends and, uh,
00:21:10
Speaker
He had an online business and it looked by his persona and his ads that he was crushing it like he had a million dollar company, but no one knew about it. I thought I was so skeptical. I was like, I want to meet this guy.
00:21:26
Speaker
After I met him and he showed me his stuff and I was like in the most professional way I was like I was so curious like is could this guy really be doing that numbers cuz I'm I was like now my I've been working on my YouTube dance business and I could not get past you know 4000 a month and like To scale I just could not do it and I didn't know what I was doing wrong that am I at the max I rank everywhere number one for robot I think the niches are so tiny so I met this guy and he's actually showed me like
00:21:55
Speaker
Even though he wasn't necessarily a mentor, he was someone that was doing it and he put the belief in me like, holy crap, this guy, my age, he has a seven figure e-commerce company and he's doing it all by himself plus virtual assistants. He's the first person I've met that could be in the 4-Hour Workweek book. That guy actually is now a best friend of mine.
00:22:22
Speaker
I'm marrying him and his wife this year actually. I think that's another moment because T-Pain, when he released that song and he had that million downloads, it makes sense because
00:22:37
Speaker
He's T-Pain. He has this massive audience. He's all over the radio. And that's really hard to relate when you're starting out. It's like, well, I'm not T-Pain. I'm not famous. I don't make music. How am I supposed to ever do that? So when I met this guy in Iowa, it was like, he did this. I can do this too. It's possible. And it got over a lot of mental barriers and gave me encouragement. Now, it doesn't mean the next day I was able to do it. But I was now working with The Belief, which I think is a big
00:23:04
Speaker
mindset that people lose track of. And so like your point about getting mentorship, mentorship or finding other people that are trying to do what you do, but are doing at a much higher scale and level, man, try to have those conversations with those people.
Learning from Success: Mentorship and Innovation
00:23:19
Speaker
And they may not tell you something like a specific tactic, but just by having a conversation and listening to how they talk, what they're doing, what's their day like, I learned a lot just by being around him.
00:23:29
Speaker
So good. So good. So you talk about, you know, spending money to then get leads. My question to you is like, is there ever a diminishing margin of return where you're spending 17, let's say 20 grand a day and you're making 20 or 30,000, right? A day, I don't know, whatever the thing.
00:23:53
Speaker
Is there ever a point where like, oh, you could spend $2 million a day if you wanted to make 3 million, you know, like what is it is like, okay, you haven't talked to me. Great question. I can say that I have never reached that point yet of where I'm spending the most I can and I'm getting the most out of it. But I imagine if that day comes, I imagine there's a lot of businesses only like the biggest brands in the world are maxing out online ads. And because they've maxed it out,
00:24:19
Speaker
Now they're going over to TV and traditional, where it's more about just top of mind. But for a small e-commerce store, for a small side hustle, whether you're selling candles, whether you have a coaching business, financial advice, whatever it is.
00:24:34
Speaker
I'm going to talk about two specific tactics that people can actually walk away with. One of them is my, I call it the 100 QC test. I talk about it in my courses and stuff. It's basically a way that you can validate any idea, any product, any service, online, offline. And the concept is to get 100 qualified people to your landing page where you are presenting your offer. The offer doesn't mean
00:24:59
Speaker
take out your wallet and buy. The offer could be fill out a form, fill out a survey, sign up for an email. Whatever the offer is, you're trying to get 100 people to this page. Out of those 100 qualified people, not just anybody, qualified, if they don't take the action, then you're way off. The product's bad. The price is wrong. Something is just way off and you need to revamp. But if you can get at least one or two people to basically buy it, sign up,
00:25:27
Speaker
Here's my email and phone number. Give me a call. Then you are on the right track to scale something and invest more. So it's a way to test any idea. And what's crazy is technology today, it's never been easier to target exactly who you want.
00:25:42
Speaker
and every single niche or service. Facebook, we're all on Facebook or social media. Google, literally people still go to Google and say, I'm looking for a financial advisor. I am looking to buy a leather sofa. They're literally saying what they want to buy and you can run an ad on that. So the technology, it's never been easier. Now it's just about, is your offer the right way? And then another way, this is more of a philosophy on running ads.
00:26:06
Speaker
100 FUSI test. How many should have bought those? I'm sorry, I just wanna go over that quick.
00:26:14
Speaker
I'd say at a bare minimum, one person needs to convert two people to convert. It would mean that you're, you're on the right track. And, um, basically, so I'm, I'm every day I run, I launch around 20 new campaigns. I'm a massive, um, affiliate marketer and I have a, it's not just me. I have a full time for people. And, uh, so we're launching these campaigns every single day. And so we're running a lot of 100 QC tests and the cost to test that idea probably costs
00:26:43
Speaker
If every click costs a dollar, it's going to cost me $100 to know if this has legs or not. But yeah, out of those 100 people driving, at least one or two people should take the action. So if you get five people that take you up on that, winner, winner, chicken dinner, Yahtzee. Exactly. Right? Exactly. Now, the other point you mentioned is like, what about the profit? What about the profit and the money? And I think at the beginning, it's
00:27:09
Speaker
you know it's hard to hit a home run on day one week one but so at the beginning i'm just you're just trying to measure does it have legs and then it goes to when you when you start scaling it you have to measure your ry you know you wanna know how much money is coming in how much you're getting out but the one thing i'll mention this is a philosophy that i run i'm super aggressive.
00:27:28
Speaker
All my businesses are based off a value ladder system. I'm running an ad for them to basically take out their wallet and buy, which is the biggest action of trust online. And if they can do that, I don't care. I'm actually trying to just break even. That's how aggressive I am. I'm spending to get new people. If they break even on the first sale, that is success in my mind, because I know
00:27:49
Speaker
through the back end of my businesses, they might buy again or they're going to upsell or they're going to get the high ticket along the road. A lot of businesses are trying to make a profit on the first sale, but if you're planning on being in business for the next 5-10 years, your mindset should be try to run ads, get customers,
Business Strategies and Resources
00:28:08
Speaker
and your profit comes from the second, third, fourth sale if you have a good business.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah, I want to touch on this right now. So we've been talking a lot on the podcast about the value ladder. We actually have a free download for you from our website. If you want to know more about that, www.uncommonwealth.com backslash gifts, seven ways to launch a business or seven steps to launch a business, the value ladder is in there. I highly recommend that we're approaching our business that way. And a lot of our business owner clients, we're imploring them to develop one immediately.
00:28:39
Speaker
So can't echo that enough. I totally agree with you. And I think we've wanted to have someone on like yourself that's having success online, YouTube, e-commerce, all these things. But there's a lot of bad and savory people in this business. And I think you're like a breath of fresh air.
00:28:59
Speaker
where you're not saying you want to upsell someone just to sell them something else, but you are creating quality products, you have character, morals, ethics, and you're doing real valuable business and giving real tangible information because you've done it. You've paved the path, you've paid the price, you've stayed in it. And so that's how we're approaching our business too. And it's
00:29:21
Speaker
It's fascinating to me is because we have to figure this out as business owners and entrepreneurs and COVID-19 to me is proof of that. And we're trying to finish our book right now, our first book, which will be one of our main first products that we're actually going to sell and not give away.
00:29:37
Speaker
and this is very complicated you know digitizing your business or productizing your different business in the different packages so that people can get to know you but you're not just giving everything away for free it is very complicated and i think you lay it out in a really.
00:29:54
Speaker
um natural and easy way to like grab onto so i'm gonna like cut to the end we don't have to end this but you have an online course you're kind of promoting on this podcast and i actually took it i went through the whole thing and it's brilliant was it about how to pop and lock please say yes please say yes i definitely need more dance moves if uh if any of you have seen me dance you know that's true so
00:30:17
Speaker
But no, this is an online course to kind of help you go from zero to 60 of like, how do I make money online? What are the main ways? What would be a good fit for me? What's the risk? You really lay it out in a really approachable way. It's so easy to understand. And I think as someone like Philip and I, and he kind of alluded to it,
00:30:37
Speaker
you know, we've approached our business more from the traditional sense as financial advisors and now we're trying to shift into kind of this digital age and this value ladder. And I was just like, it's such a big pool to learn, you know, and it's such a, it's complicated if you don't really understand the technology and you're short on time. And so can you walk listeners through kind of like what you, the one thing in the course you kind of talk about is how you went from and what you use for most of your businesses, how you went from like blogging,
00:31:07
Speaker
to affiliate and how you start stacking that into actual monetization of a passion or a niche. I just thought that was really brilliant. Yeah, definitely. Right now, if you want to start a side hustle, everyone has different situations. Some may have some cash that they can invest. That's great. That means you can run ads and get results faster. Although I would admit, if you're just starting out, if you're going to run ads for the first time, you're probably going to lose it all.
00:31:35
Speaker
then the other way is to create content organically and this is i think the entry point for so many people because if you have an extra hour every single day and you want to start to build a side hustle you can actually invest that hour into creating content for a net fly fishing chest whatever and start building a brand that years from now if you're consistent
00:31:54
Speaker
could be the number one dominator in a niche and you can do that with just your time in creating content content is video it's it's blogging it's email it's social media posts photos it's such a low point of risk to do if you if you want to try a side hustle so i think you know every side hustle and every stream of revenue is complete different if you ask the question how do you make money from this you know if you're dominating a niche
00:32:21
Speaker
A lot of people try to gravitate towards sponsorships and endorsements. That is super valid, but you need an audience, and the audience is not going to come for a long... That's a long-term play. If you want a short-term play, then start building an audience, build an email list. Once you have 1,000 emails, I don't know why fly fishing came apart, but let's say you've got 1,000 fly fishers, that's enough people where you could send one email.
00:32:44
Speaker
and promote a new rod or fishing backpack or whatever, pants. And you can send an email to those people and they could potentially, if you're doing a good job and they trust you, they'll go and they'll buy that product. And an affiliate, they could use an affiliate link which is basically the way to be 100% commission saleswoman or man for this backpack. And let's say out of the 1,000 people, 100 people click, and then five people buy. It's a $100 backpack.
00:33:14
Speaker
And you make $10, 10% commission on the backpack. So one email, you just made $50. And imagine you have an email every day or once a week, then that's where your numbers start to stack up. But it goes back to how do you get started? Well, the easiest way thing you can do is build a blog, build a website, and start creating content. There's different strategies and tactics that you can spend hours learning online.
00:33:39
Speaker
But all I try to measure and care about is making daily progress. So start with one blog a day. If that's too much, start with one blog every two days and you basically start compounding this library. Um, and before you even get to a point of scaling, like this is exactly how I built my first YouTube business. I just was focused. I was, I was creating two tutorials every single day. Today I have over 300 tutorials. People, I think I still teach around like five to 10,000 people a day how to dance. Now it's,
00:34:07
Speaker
It's unfortunate for these people because they're learning from a 22-year-old Adrian and then they're like, oh man, this guy's all old now. But all that content that compounded over time, if you still search how to dance the robot online, I still have the number one site. My sales are way down because I don't focus on it anymore, but it still brings in around $1,000 passively. And that's the power of content that delivers value that's evergreen. It's on the internet forever until another dancer comes and takes me out.
00:34:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, thanks. So I want to ask you this quick. Let's say I think I have two things here. One, I want to go back to you said the 100 QC tests, then you had another idea. So I want you to remember that. But let's say like, and I'm speaking specifically for uncommon wealth. And Brian and I, we have I can't even tell you how many articles brother a lot blogs that I don't know if anybody has ever read for the record.
00:35:00
Speaker
maybe three people and my mother and Brian's mother is one of them. So whoever that other one is, what would you say to us? Like we got, we got content for days, brother. Now we're probably not going to be able to shoot videos as fast as like every day to be honest, but I think we have a pretty good, like we're there with blogs.
00:35:19
Speaker
That's awesome. Um, this right here is a specific takeaway for everyone that has a business because even large businesses do not have this. And, um, it's not that content goes the waste, but the most powerful thing online is scale. We're running ads where your content does, it drives people.
00:35:37
Speaker
But in order to scale and take you to the next level, you have to have infrastructure. Every single platform online in search engine has a base code that allows the people on your website to collect data. So this code completely free and it needs to be installed in every single page of your website.
00:35:59
Speaker
I actually had a friend of mine who sent me a text this morning. He has a solar company. He says, hey, I'm running ads on Facebook. I have a $15 a day budget and I'm trying to get leads for my solar company. It's not working. He's a friend of mine.
00:36:15
Speaker
I was like, okay, let me check it out. I went to his website and he didn't have any codes for Facebook or anything. I mean, he has Google Analytics, but Google Analytics doesn't collect data in the way you need it to scale. After talking to him, I basically told him, you got to go back to the beginning and set the infrastructure. Then when people hit that landing page, that data can basically compound and that's going to be your biggest tool to go out and scale.
00:36:41
Speaker
You can still create right now. Obviously, I don't know if you guys have that infrastructure. You guys need to set that up so it starts collecting that data. Then when you're ready to launch an ad, you have 10,000 data points of people who've already
00:36:57
Speaker
been consuming 10, read one blog, 10 blogs, who are fans of you, listen to your podcast, and now you have your first offer, that book. They're waiting for you to make an offer and the audience has been built. It's like having an email list, but without a cap on it, you can reach as many people that are qualified. That is a specific technical advice
00:37:20
Speaker
Go to your website right now if you have one and see if you have all the infrastructure. Google has one. LinkedIn has infrastructure. Facebook has one. Ask those questions because just by having that, installing it today, that means every day moving forward, that data is starting to build.
00:37:35
Speaker
And so once you get that data and you get a good capture of kind of the demographics that are coming in, then that's when you can launch a very specific email or like, let's say marketing thing to those people outside of the network, right? So it's just like a picture of like who's really
00:37:53
Speaker
conceptually eating my data or taking in my content and then taking that and then going out and be specific on who you market to. Am I right on that or am I crazy? No, that's spot on. I think the very fundamental marketing campaign that should always be running is called a retargeting campaign. So anyone that's been to your website in the last 30 days
00:38:15
Speaker
you should always have an ad running towards those people because they just visited your website. They're top of mind and you can present them with an offer or at a minimum collect their email so then you can capture the lead. It's easier to do that than it's always easier to do that. And it's always way more cost-effective than to try to convert someone who has no idea who you are. Why not just go, you probably have, you're sitting on a massive data pile of people that have already watched your blog. You just haven't presented an offer in a way that they can take action on it yet.
00:38:43
Speaker
That's true.
Embracing Content Creation and Online Marketing
00:38:45
Speaker
That's true. That's good. That's good. The other thing I think, you know, we're things just progress so quickly. And I think sometimes, you know, we're taught as business owners or you hear just, oh, we got to spend money on marketing. But this is a deeper, what we're talking about is much deeper than marketing. It's really like the next generation. And even I think our parents, you know, uh, our moms are consuming our content online and
00:39:09
Speaker
But this is how people are learning. This is a deeper thing than just buying and selling. People are educating themselves in a new way. If you as a business aren't creating content to educate the people that could potentially be customers, you're missing just a ton of opportunity. Would you agree with that or shed light on that, what your thought is? Yeah. The shift towards data-driven, algorithmic,
00:39:38
Speaker
marketing is a shift that happened really fast. And so traditional marketing agencies that could just place this stuff on billboards and TVs, a lot of them, instead of taking the time to learn or hiring, paying people the right talent to do it, they basically didn't want to go out of business. So then they started offering services that they don't know how to do. And a lot of businesses that don't understand digital, instead of taking the time to truly test and learn,
00:40:08
Speaker
they just write it off and they're missing out a massive opportunity. Right now, specifically, TikTok.
00:40:14
Speaker
As much as people want to joke about it, now I just passed 100,000 followers yesterday and I've created business content and I've gotten high ticket leads. I just had my first coaching lead from TikTok and it's $2,000 a month. And then I've had one marketing agency client come, that's $5,000 a month. They're a vegan supplement.
00:40:39
Speaker
And now I'm promoting a course on there and I've probably sold over $30,000 from TikTok. And so I could have done the same thing like everyone else right now because it sounds TikTok's bunch of girls and crop tops dancing.
00:40:55
Speaker
No, I tested and tried. And if it didn't work, at least I would say I tried it all and it doesn't work. And that's what a lot of people, businesses do. They don't really test it and try, and they just write it off. And they're missing out on these massive opportunities. Because internet, I have never come across any niche where online marketing does not work. And I have done marketing through my agency, like trucking insurance.
00:41:18
Speaker
I've done like, and I'm in the, most of my clients are credit unions. Um, and so the financial niche, um, where there's a lot of red tape, I've done marketing for lawyers and of course, fun ones too, where they do make sense, like, you know, food products and, and stuff, but like every single business, uh, can make it work if you, if you test, or as long as you can say you tried and it didn't work, then at least you can say that, but don't just write it off, you know? Well, one of the other things that I think is important to touch on, cause a lot of people hear this stuff, Adrian, and they're like, well,
00:41:47
Speaker
I don't want to be in front of people. I don't want to have to make a video every day. I'm not wired the way you are. This won't work for me. Could you shed light on the fact that some of these companies that you own, no one would even know that you own it or that you're affiliated with it and you've set it up to be that way. Can you walk our listeners through how that works or what that opportunity is like?
00:42:08
Speaker
Yeah. So online, you can create a personal brand. That's basically what I've been doing now recently in business for the last six months. Or you can create a brand that's really not, it's not a personal brand. It's an actual brand you can create. Like you can create a blog on uncommon wealth. Like you, you guys made the conscious decision that you guys are the faces of uncommon wealth, but uncommon wealth, you guys could have easily created this blog and create this content without being
00:42:35
Speaker
your faces on it. Let's say, you know, it could be this massive of financial. Yeah, exactly. A news, a financial news media. That's definitely a route. It could still be that way. You guys could pivot. So the internet allows you to, to create a brand. It does not have to be personal. Now I've even had people say like, well,
00:42:53
Speaker
I want to be a YouTuber, but I don't like being on camera. You could still be a YouTuber. There's so many YouTube accounts that do product reviews or that do compilation reviews or even the guy who makes those funny lip sync videos where they take NFL players and they lip sync him. His face isn't on the videos and that's a massive channel. So you don't have to be a face on it if you don't want to.
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a huge point. Um, you know, we run into that as we're working or coaching with entrepreneurs and they're just like, Oh, well that wouldn't work for me. And they kind of just close their mind off totally to it. And I'm just like, you don't have to do it that way. And to close yourself off to the internet is a huge mistake. And in my opinion, uh, especially with what we just went through with COVID-19, I mean, I was kind of in this last several weeks,
00:43:42
Speaker
I was just like, oh my gosh, how much more I wish we would have invested on the front end to have four or five more digital products right now? Just to reach more people and help more people too. And I think that's where you're at. You're getting so much feedback of like, wow, I need this and I need it right now. How do I go from zero to 60? So can we talk about your course a little bit or whatever you want to talk about? I mentioned it.
00:44:06
Speaker
But I just think it's the way you laid out the course was just so approachable to like entrepreneurs, business owners, or people kind of looking to get into business. It's a very easy way to get started without having to like, you know, like you're not launching a franchise or something like that. It's very, very step by step.
00:44:25
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to create a course that's like the best intro for someone who has the passion, has a little bit of time or a little bit of money, and wants to get started, but they don't know which one to do. Maybe they've done some research and they looked up like, hey, how do you create a store on Etsy? Or what's this Amazon FBA thing?
00:44:47
Speaker
or something more difficult like drop shipping or affiliate marketing. It actually walks through my personal top 10 legitimate side hustles. I can say I've tried them all. They're legit. I'll mention right now, there's a lot of side hustles out there and there's a lot that I avoid personally too. I talk about this in my course, a way to measure and basically almost like a
00:45:09
Speaker
a gut or personality quiz if this is a right one for you because like my wife, she talks about how MLMs, multi-level marketing, those companies that basically recruit, you recruit people and you build underneath you and you sell. Oh, we know about them. We know about them here on Commonwealth. Oh, you do? I can't wait to hear what your wife thinks about them. Keep going.
00:45:28
Speaker
Well, oh gosh. No, she was saying is that like it works, for example, is this one that she went to a party. She didn't know it was an it works party. And so she was like blinded by it showed up and then she was like explaining how they basically put this plastic wrap on her stomach. And after 15 minutes, she would lose weight or something. And like,
00:45:50
Speaker
It's those trickery things like that, that I just don't think are good. If you have to sell your family and friends, you don't have a real business. And that's what a lot of MLMs do. I talk about like, there's a lot of sickening. It is. It makes me want to vomit. And there's other people that like them. Like, I don't know who else would like them on this call.
00:46:07
Speaker
No, so I talked about like how to measure so you avoid things like that and you don't get trapped. Or like cryptocurrency, day trading, you know, I could go off all these bad things. But the sucky thing is people don't
00:46:24
Speaker
There's a lot of dark people on the internet that will sell you
Avoiding Internet Scams
00:46:28
Speaker
on your hopes and dreams and then you try something that's just so risky. It's a walkthrough of that. Basically, out of the 10 side hustles, six of them, you don't need any money to get started. You just need time. You're putting in your sweat equity. Then if you do have some cash, out of the
00:46:48
Speaker
There's four of them where you could start learning how to run ads and build or scale. To sell on Amazon, for example, that's the most expensive one that I teach or just give an intro to, is Amazon, you need to buy a bulk amount of inventory of product.
00:47:03
Speaker
Now, there's a whole process to figure out what to put on Amazon and things like that, but that costs money. You can't get around that. You have to buy it. Some people don't have that money, so that's not the best one to start, but it basically gives a good variety. What's funny is I do marketing for clients and stuff. When I was trying to run ads in scale,
00:47:25
Speaker
my side hustles, a lot of it was just based to learn better and get better at ads. I do it for clients. I know I don't screw it up. I feel like a mad scientist. I've tried all these things and I'm running. I didn't know it could scale to this big.
00:47:40
Speaker
I don't know how much bigger it can get, but I think it's just crazy having a record month right now. So it's just insane. The opportunity is there for anyone who has a time or a little cash or one of the other to get started. There's definitely good ways you can spend your time if you don't want to be just binging through Netflix during quarantine this whole time. So cool.
Connect with Adrian Brambila
00:48:00
Speaker
So Adrian, how do our listeners hear more about you or reach out to you? What's your contact information?
00:48:06
Speaker
Awesome, yeah, agentbrainbalo.com is my personal brand website. And if there's links in there for everything, my mini courses, social media links, right now I'm probably posting the most on TikTok and Instagram. And then my agency link is on there too. But that'd be the place for free to reach out for any questions, tips. I won't respond immediately, but I will respond to every email. I try to make that effort at least.
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah, and we're going to have in the show notes of this the link to the course that we talked about. And I truly encourage you, if you are an entrepreneur, business owner, or thinking, how do I make money from something I'm passionate about? I highly encourage you to take this course. I took it. I took the whole thing. It was invaluable, well worth the money. And I think you're going to be refreshed by Adrian's personality and acumen.
00:48:57
Speaker
He's put in the work. And so thank you so much, Adrian, for being part of the show and sharing your perspective and your, you know, just the effort you've put in over the last decade. It definitely comes through. And I definitely want to have you on the show again. Cool. I would love to. Thank you so much. Thanks, Adrian. Appreciate it, man.
00:49:15
Speaker
That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.