The School of Greatness - 27 How to Make 1 Million Dollars Online (Even If You're Broke)

Episode Date: August 16, 2013

Ever wonder what it's like to make a million dollars? I'm not gonna lie, the first million in sales my company did was kinda surreal. Especially since I was broke, in debt, and sleeping on my sisters couch just two years prior. And to be honest, as big of a dream that it was for […]

This is episode number 27, and you are tuning in to the solo round. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Hola chicos y chicas fantasticas.

Thanks so much for tuning in today. Super pumped for today's episode because yes, it's come back from popular demand, and it's a solo round. I did a solo round, I think, back in the first 10 episodes, and so many of you said that you wanted me to do another solo round. You love the guests that I bring on, but you asked me to come on and just talk a little bit about what I've learned myself and not about what someone else has learned. And today, it's all about how to make $1 million or your first million dollars online without any money to start. And I know that may sound a little crazy. How do you make a million dollars without having any money? Or how do you make a million dollars if you are in debt and have zero money? So we're going to talk about that today.

And I want to start off with a quote, and it's by our good friend, Abraham Lincoln. Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Boom. Now, it's attributed to Lincoln, but we actually don't know if he actually said that or not. There's no actual proof, but I like it. Lincoln, but we actually don't know if he actually said that or not. There's no actual proof, but I like it, and I think it's good for today's episode about how to make your first million online with no money to start. Before I get into the content, I've got some juicy, juicy stuff for you guys. Before I jump into it, I want to talk about the fan of the week.

The fan of the week is from my man, Jordan Fithian. He is on my USA National handball team, one of my teammates, and he's at JKFithian44 on Instagram. And he said he was, he tagged me in a picture of him running, training, and he had his USA handball shorts on that we wore down in Argentina in the last tournament. And he was listening to the Champions Blueprint, Dr. Jeff Spencer, and talking about his training. So I wanted to give a quick shout out to Jordan. I thought he would be appropriate as my shout out of the week because I am living the dream right now, guys. I have to tell you what, a few seconds, if you don't mind me talking about this, I'm in Spain right now.

For two years, it's been my goal to play professional handball in Spain. And right now I'm playing in Leon at Eremar, which is one of the top clubs here in España. And I tell you what, it's been an amazing journey so far. I've been here for about a week now. And literally, I was greeted by press and media at the airport. Each day at practice, there's been newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, journalists from all over. I've been in probably about 20 different news and press outlets in the last week. It's been kind of crazy what's been happening over here. And I guess I think there's never been another American who's played professional handball over in Spain, or at

least in Leon. So I think it's just a unique situation for them. And they're covering the story about my journey to playing the Olympics. Some of you know that that's my journey. My dream is to play in the Olympics. And I moved to New York City a few years ago to learn the sport of handball by joining the team, the New York City handball team there. And it's just been a blessing. I've been so grateful for my welcome. The teammates are amazing, first off, in handball. So I'm learning a ton.

The coach is great. The city of Leon is beautiful. The people have been so welcoming here. And I could not be more blessed and grateful for the opportunity so I've not actually signed a contract with them yet but hopefully soon I will and I'll be playing with them more often so I want to make this sure I give a quick shout out to Jordan even though there were so many of you who posted pictures in the last couple weeks and I've been MIA the last couple of weeks because I've been over in Europe, but I thought I'd just take some time to record this episode for you guys before I head back next

week. And that's it, guys. Today, it's all about how to make your first million online. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and jump right into this week's episode. Since there is no introduction to who I am, you guys should all know who I am. I'm going to go ahead and jump right into this. And I've got six key points for how to make your first million online, even if you have zero money in the bank or if you're in debt. And this is just my journey. This is how I did it. This is not the only way. This is not the way. This is not the Bible of making money online. This is just my experience, but also what I see many others have done as well. So I'm not the only one who's done this.

A lot of my friends have done this. Some people had money before, and money will accelerate you making your first million online because of a few different things that I'll talk about in these points. But again, I started off with zero money. I was in debt, I think around $25,000, and I was living on my sister's couch. A lot of you know my story, so I'm not going to go over that again. But it was a struggle because I was like, how am I going to make money? I could really use some money right now. I remember it was 2008, and I was like, man, I could really use some money. I'm broke. I'm sleeping on my sister's couch. I remember it was 2008, and I was like, man, I could really use some money. I'm broke. I'm sleeping on my sister's couch.

I feel like a loser. I feel like an idiot. I can't even buy my own food. I can barely put gas in a car that I paid $500 for the year before. I don't have my own apartment. I didn't feel like a man. All these different things. I didn't have any basic needs really met.

And so I was kind of in freak out mode for a while. And anyone, again, can do this. What I did is I started somewhere that I was passionate about. So point one is start somewhere that you're passionate about. Don't just say, oh, I want to make my first million. I want to start making money online. Or I really like to make some money right now. And I like to have this lifestyle that all these people have online where they're traveling

or they're doing what they're passionate about or they're spending time with their families. So I need to make some money. That's the wrong way to go about it. And if you go about it thinking, I just need to make some money. I don't care what I do. You're going to fail. You're going to burn out. You're going to crash. You're not going to be excited. And I think the only reason I was able to make it through the one and a half, two years of not making any money was that I was so excited about what I was doing. And that excitement gave me the energy to spend 14, 16 hours a day working on it nonstop and hustling my face off. Because without hustle, there's no way this was going to happen for me. And again, I'm just talking about for me.

For others, maybe it could happen. But for me, without hustle, I would have been, you know, I'd still be on my sister's couch or I'd be doing something else. Or I would have finally got a job and be miserable with that job. So you got to start somewhere you're passionate about. So for me, I started with the whole concept around sports because that's what I just finished doing. I just done playing professional football. I was just injured, but I was like, you know what? I love sports still. So this is something I could talk about and I'm interested in learning about. And I didn't know how I was going to make money.

I just knew that, okay, let me just get started. And this is the big thing that people make a mistake with. They're like, but I need to know exactly what I'm going to do. I need to know, I got to create this website and it's got to be on this topic and it's got to be specific. And I have to have the logo perfect and I have to have the design right and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And people freak out because they think they have to do one thing. But to be honest, when you get started, you're probably not going to do what you originally did in the long run. The first couple of years, you have to look at it as an experiment. You have to look at it as, okay, this is my real master's education and this is the education that's

actually going to matter. I'm not discounting my college degree. It's great, great experience. But this is the education for me that set me up for the rest of my life. Now I know I can make money at any time. And I can live the lifestyle I want without having to stress about money because I've learned how to create it. And a lot of it starts with value. So what I did originally was I started a site called sportsnetworker.com. And what I was doing is I was using LinkedIn a lot. For a lot of you know me, I was using LinkedIn constantly, six to eight hours a day for that first year and a half that I got on there.

My mentor suggested checking it out. He was like, maybe you can find an opportunity or a job and just check it out. So I started connecting with all these sports professionals and executives and agents and sports management people, sports ticket sales people, marketing, whatever it may be. I was connecting with everyone. And I thought to myself, how can I add value to these people? These people I'm connecting with are powerful leaders in the sports industry, but I'm just a bum with a broken arm and sleeping on my sister's couch. Why would they want to talk to me? Why would they want to give me any advice? Why would they want to give me any money?

Whatever it may be. And so I said, you know what? I got to start giving these people some value. So I created this site, sportsnetworker.com. And again, for six months, I freaked out about the logo. And I freaked out about my designer. And I freaked out about the name. I searched for domain names for probably four months, like three hours a day. It was like the biggest waste of time ever, ever. And again, at the end of the day, the design, getting started, the domain name, all these things are not like the biggest things you should be focusing on. What you should be focusing on is value, value, value, and just learning. And I get tons of emails, messages on Facebook and Twitter all the time from people asking

me questions about how to create this lifestyle for yourself and build a business around your lifestyle and be a lifestyle entrepreneur. How do you make money? I'll get all these people just graduating or starting out or want to quit their job who want to learn this stuff, and they get freaked out about these little details that honestly do not matter. Yes, details matter in the big scheme of things, but at the beginning, these specific type of details do not matter where you're worrying about certain things. That worry does not matter. In fact, it really imprisons you as it imprisoned me in the journey. Again, I take nothing back from what I learned because it was a lesson for me. And I learned that I don't need to stress

about the logo or the design or whatever. And that good and done is better than perfect and never done and never profitable. So remember that good and done is better than perfect and never done and never profitable. And so many people try to be perfect with everything, and they never make a dime because they're stuck in their own tracks. So I created sportsnetworker.com. And I just said, you know what? I'm going to interview these executives, these experts in sports business. And I'm just going to post these interviews on the website. And by doing that, I'm going to promote them through the context that I've shared on LinkedIn and really just try to get the word out there about these experts that I've been connecting with and learn about their journey, their story, how they made it successful in their

careers or in their businesses and promote it. I was also using LinkedIn, like I said. So I was, I started hosting these LinkedIn events. I said, you know, what can I do to make money? How about I bring some people together and see if I can charge five bucks at the door and make a little bit of cash at least to get me by so I can buy some food this next month, right? As opposed to just eating all of my sister's food, my poor sister. She's so amazing. So I started hosting these LinkedIn events. I won't get into the details here about how I did that. But with these events, I started to make a few thousand dollars a month. Then I said, okay, I'm going to create a book and write a book. And I started selling the book. Then I did my first workshop about LinkedIn. Then I did more speaking about LinkedIn locally. And then I finally created a bigger ticket product and started doing webinars. locally. And then I finally created a bigger ticket product and started doing webinars. But again, for me, it's all about starting somewhere that I was passionate about. This is what worked for me. It's starting in the sports business area because I was passionate

about learning about it. And then also with LinkedIn, because I was using it so much all day, every day that there was definitely a need for this. So that's my first point is start somewhere that you're passionate about. Now, the second point is find mentors. I mentioned this briefly in the first point about my mentor making suggestions for me, but this could be probably the biggest point in your growth and acceleration. Finding mentors. in your growth and acceleration, finding mentors. Study as much as you can from people you admire or want to be like online and invest in your online education. Invest in yourself.

This is so crucial and important. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to spend money. You can, but it does not necessarily mean that's the way to go. So when I say invest in yourself, here's some things that I did that worked for me. I spent, I think it was 80 bucks for the year and joined a local Toastmasters club and learned about professional speaking and public speaking because I was terrified to speak in front of five people, let alone an audience of a thousand. And I would tremble at the thought of walking up on a stage and presenting in front of an audience, at the fear of what people would think about what I said, and messing up and looking stupid or whatever it may be, all the fears that I had.

and messing up and looking stupid or whatever it may be, all the fears that I had. So I invested in overcoming my fears, which was speaking publicly. Other things that I did to invest in myself was I went to conferences, all the top online marketing and social media conferences. I freaking got on a Greyhound bus. I hitchhiked to the conference. I slept in hostels with puke all over the bed that I stayed in from Europeans traveling around the U.S. I did whatever it took to get my butt to these events and invested in my time and energy and learning from people and meeting people at these events. energy and learning from people and meeting people at these events and sitting in these speaking sessions, taking notes, doing whatever it took to learn from the experts because

it's a lot harder to learn everything yourself. I'm going to tell you that. But finding someone who's done it before you and learning from them is going to accelerate your process. And when I started reaching out and finding the mentors that I admired, people that I really said, man, this is a person of character. This is someone I admire. This is someone in a position that I would love to be in one day. I really like their energy, their style, what they stand for, their message. I started reaching out to those people and doing whatever it took to get in front of them,

adding value to them, working for them for free, doing whatever, anything I could do to get in front of them and learn from them, I did it. I didn't ask them for advice. I just said, how can I serve you first? And by serving them, they were more than welcome, more than happy to share with me and support me. So that's something that you really need to focus on. The second point, which is find mentors and study as much as possible from people online. There's tons of free resources online. Again, this is a free resource. The School of Greatness is free. So you don't have to spend money to invest in this, but you have to invest in yourself with time in learning these things. There are lots of courses out there.

I have products and services that I sell. Invest in yourself. Buy some products if they are going to teach you exactly what it is you need to know from people that are experts. Not everyone is willing to give you time and mentor you, but if they've created products or content online, then read their stuff. I look at Tim Ferriss as an early mentor to me, even though I didn't know him for the first few years. Now we're friends and we talk every now and then. But for the first three years, I read his book and I read his blog and I invested my time in those things. And I saw him speak and I did whatever it took to learn what he was

talking about. So for me, people like Tim, and there are other people out there that I just had, they were my mentor from afar, or I learned from them from afar. So find mentors. And another point to this, I would say, I'm going to do another solo round probably just on this one point of mentorship and masterminds. But you need to join a mastermind ASAP. This is probably one of the biggest keys to making millions in sales is a mastermind alone. And again, I will have to do a whole other recording on this and what it is, how to find them, how to join them, how to create your own. recording on this and what it is, how to find them, how to join them, how to create your own. But Mastermind is essentially a group of like-minded people working on like-minded things where you can support each other, call each other out on each other's BS, have the collective mind

support each individual to achieving their goals, and then supporting everyone else in the group as well. So find one, join one. If you have more questions about that, make sure to post a message to me on my Facebook page, facebook.com forward slash Lewis house. And I'm definitely going to be doing another solo round about that just because I could talk about it for 20 or 30 minutes and get a lot out of that. So find mentors, invest in yourself and your online education. That's point number two. Point number three, if I could do it all over again and I could start all over again, I actually wouldn't change anything. But let's hypothetically say that if I was starting all over again and I was telling you, here's what you should do from the beginning, what I would do

is build a list without a site. And again, so many people are concerned with creating the site that they forget the most important thing is actually building the list. When most people actually finally get the site up after six months or a year of trying to be a perfectionist, they forget to add a form or an opt-in spot on your site and they actually don't even build a list so they've got this site that actually isn't is useless and they start putting content up there they're not passionate about it and then they're not making any money it's been a year two years later and they're frustrated and they stop because they're not passionate about it and they didn't create an opt-in form anywhere on the site to build a list so the biggest thing is building a list don't worry about so much the site the design whatever

may be again you can do it all at the same time but you want to figure out ways to build your list and you can do this by guest posting on different sites and sending people just back to a landing page. It doesn't have to be this perfect website. It can literally just be like a free guide, one page. It could be lewishouse.com slash free guide or whatever, or thesecrettosomething.com, whatever it may be. You're giving away something for free. It could be a video. It could be a free guide. It could be a infographic. It could be a tutorial. It could be a video. It could be a free guide. It could be an infographic. It could be a tutorial. It could be a checklist. It could be anything. Give something of value away for free that serves a purpose and that supports people in achieving some type of goal. Again, if you have zero money, what you can do

to get free traffic is guest post. That's the simplest thing to do. Guest posts. Find the sites that are relevant to what you want to talk about and write an article for them. Again, there's ways to get in touch with the owners of the site. I'll have to do a whole other solo round about that as well, about relationship building and really connecting with influencers as that's a fine art in itself and really connecting with the right people. But creating these guest articles on different sites, driving traffic back to your landing page or a single static page or your own website

and getting those opt-ins is crucial. You want to build your list. Without a list, you can't sell anything. It's going to be very difficult for you to sell if you have no audience, no distribution, no list. And again, if you don't have any money, you need to start doing this. You can't just buy Facebook ads and drive traffic to build your list.

Again, if you have money, then that's going to accelerate your first million. But without money, you've got to start creating some type of content. You've got to put a little bit of effort into this. Okay. So if I can do it all over again, I wouldn't even build a site at first, which took me six to nine months to put up there. And then I ended up scrapping it in the last place. I would just create that list. Okay. Number four is learn sales and marketing and sell, sell, sell. Now, there's ways to sell without being salesy, but you've just really, if you want to make your first million, you've got to work your butt off.

You've got to sell. You've got to learn marketing. Again, this is where you go back into finding mentors, investing in education, products and books, reading, learning how to do this that works best for you. But you can't just put up a product online and hope people buy it. It's just not going to happen. You've really got to put the energy and the effort in to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell,

sell. You've got to learn how to sell. People don't make money by people hoping people show up and buy their products. They do it by putting their butts on the line, getting in front of people and saying, hey, I want you to buy my product. I want you to invest in my service. I want you to buy my software. And then they get the transaction. That's how it happens. There's no secret. You get in front of a person and you say, here's a product I have. I know it's a challenge for you to achieve this goal because you have this, this, and this in your company.

have. I know it's a challenge for you to achieve this goal because you have this, this, and this in your company. This, my product, my service solves that problem. I do it for you better, faster, cheaper. Here's how. Here's the different experts who rave about it. Here's the different case studies I have to prove that it works. Here's the price. You ready to sign up now? Let's do this. You've got to learn sales and marketing. For me, when I finally realized that I learned sales one-on-one, and again, I was making money, but it wasn't the type of money to build a lifestyle around. So for me, what really worked, again, this is just me, but for me, what really worked was webinars. Webinars were key for me and for my business partner, Sean, and our company. It was really key in building our business and reaching that first seven figures because it allows you to get in front of more people at once. So instead of one-on-one, me selling to you one-on-one, face-to-face, this is me selling to 1,000 people at a time.

people at a time. And learning how to deliver valuable content and resources on webinars and then sell without being salesy is an art. And it's a way of being authentic and real and knowing your stuff and backing it up. And I've got more in my ultimate webinar marketing guide. If you guys want to pick that up, it's on Amazon for, I think, like 10 bucks or something, where I give you the whole process for how to run effective webinars that convert and that sell and that make you lots of sales. So make sure to go check that out if you're interested in more. But learning sales and marketing, again, surrounding yourself with these mentors are going to help you about that as well. Number five, building credibility.

So if you really want to build a business as well, you've got to build the credibility. Because if no one believes you, if no one trusts you, if you have nothing backing you up, it's going to be challenging to really grow at the rate that you want to grow. So you got to build some credibility. What I did was I wrote a couple of books about the topics. I wrote a book about LinkedIn with a mentor of mine, Frank Agin, who was my co-author, and I would not have been able to do it at that time without him. So big shout out to Frank Agin. Got a lot of love for that guy. I wrote another book about webinar marketing because everyone was asking me about webinars.

So I said, this is an opportunity to build credibility. Let me write a book about this. And I partnered with gotowebinar.com. These guys are amazing. And a big shout out to gotowebinar.com, who sponsored my book, actually. And I've used their platform for probably over 500 or 700 webinars. I used another platform for some automated webinars, but for them on the live ones, they're the top, they're the best.

So building credibility. Again, I write a lot still, and I wrote a lot of guest articles on many different sites. I was like, I'm going to be on every site that I want to be on that I read first in my niche, in my area, in my industry. And now I write for Forbes and Entrepreneur regularly, that I want to be on that I read first in my niche, in my area, in my industry. And now I write for Forbes and Entrepreneur regularly and will continue to write for magazines and sites as well because it adds a lot of brand credibility for myself. Speaking at trade shows is another great way to do this.

Writing for newspapers, magazines, radio, creating a podcast. I created the School of Greatness to build credibility and to add value. Anything you can do to build this credibility and increase your personal brand is going to be valuable for making that first million. And the last point I want to leave you guys with is hustle, hustle, hustle. Be consistent. No one is going to hand you a million dollars. Let me just repeat that again. No one is going to hand you a million dollars. And if they did, it wouldn't be worth it and you'd blow it anyways. and you'd blow it anyways. So it took a few years of me with constant 14-hour days of hustling to the point where myself and my business partner generated our first seven figures. And now I'm able to leverage my time and money to create greater products and live my lifestyle

at the next level. So really, it comes down to hustle. And that's when it comes full circle into point number one, that if you don't start with something you're passionate about, you're probably going to quit pretty fast. And you're not going to want to put in these 14-hour days. But it comes down to hustling and doing it over and over and over again and building your business. So again, there's a lot that I could continue to talk about here. But to be honest, this is a good start for you guys. And I could go into detail step by step about how I did each point and cover it all. go into detail step by step about how I did each point and cover it all. But really, it comes down to you and you making a decision of when you're going to start. Because you can always ask

questions and keep learning and learning and learning and go to seminars or buy products or read a bunch of articles. But the only way it's going to count is if you start. The only way you're going to start to see some results is if you put your neck on the line and you take a risk and you jump and you go for it. So right now, I'm inviting you and I'm challenging you to the invitation of taking the jump. Are you going to step up? Are you going to make the jump. Are you going to step up?

Are you going to make a decision? Are you going to take action? Are you going to finally start building a list? Are you going to find a mentor? Are you going to finally dive into that product that you bought a year ago that's going to teach you exactly what you need to know? When are you going to take action? When are you going to invest and believe in yourself that you can actually do this and that you are the one who's going to make it happen when are you going to stop doubting yourself when are you going to stop beating yourself up for not taking action yet when are you going to forgive? When are you going to forgive yourself? When are you going to start really falling in love with yourself and believing that you can have it all? You can achieve all your dreams. You can make it all happen. But it starts with you taking the first jump. I invite you guys

to jump with me today. And remember, I've got your back. I'm here for you. I love you guys to jump with me today. And remember, I've got your back. I'm here for you. I love you guys. It's been a blessing and an honor to create these episodes for you and bring in some of the top experts in the world in different areas for this podcast. And I'm so happy and proud that I've created this and so happy and proud to have such a large audience listening each and every week. And I'm pumped to continue this journey with you all. I'm here for you. I want to make this the best podcast, the best part of your week. Every time you tune in, that I'm giving you the nuggets that are going to just continue your education.

With that, guys, hopefully this second solo round has been a good one for you. Again, please tag me on Instagram, wherever you are in the world, listening to this episode. Let me know what you're thinking. I'm over on Facebook. I'm on Twitter, at Lewis Howes, everywhere online. I'm going to have more videos out soon. And there will be all the show notes over at schoolofgreatness.com. Love you guys. And remember, make sure to do something great. Every area, every area, every area Every area, every area, every area

Every area is the crime Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,