ET27- Sales and Entrepreneurship with Aaron Janx
All Business Is Sales- Learn How to Get In The Mindset to Win!
Aaron Janx was a sales pro from his earliest days and that ability has lead him to become a successful entrepreneur.
Any time you are in business you need to be selling, whether it’s customers, vendors, employees, investors, lenders or just your selling yourself on your ability to succeed. Having the right mindset has a lot to do with it as we discuss on this episode of Entrepreneur Talk Podcast by CapForge.
Show Links:
Website: http://www.aaronjanx.com/
Email: aaronjanx@gmail.com
Twitter: @AaronJanx
Referrals
If you would like to make $100 for referring someone to our bookkeeping service, go here.
If you think you could potentially refer a lot of people to us (or more than one or two, anyway) check out our affiliates page.
Links
Our itunes link for Entrepreneur Talk Podcast
Our Stitcher link for Entrepreneur Talk Podcast
Listen right here:
Transcript
Matt: I’m excited to announce. For today’s episode, I’m speaking with Aaron Janx of SocialSpurs.com and The War Ready Podcast. Another successful entrepreneur we’ll bring into the show. Jumping in to what they can share with us, Aaron, thanks so much for being on. Why don’t you just kinda start off by giving us a little of your background and tell us where you at now?
Aaron: Matt, I’m excited to be on. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
Matt: Thank you.
Aaron: A little bit about me so I don’t bore you down because I know you’re listeners want to get some actionable advice, hear some things that they can put together in their life. But a young age of 18, I started in with a fortune500 company as an errand boy. But then, I was shortly promoted and I got to rise up the ranks, set all kind of world records with this company and it was in the advertising field. I’ve sold millions upon millions of dollars in advertising. I hated working for somebody. I got into real estate as a real estate investor. I did very very well, but market crashed. I crashed with it – basically broke. I started all over as a consultant, bunkering around and I gained momentum in that. Today, I lead several quite large mastermind groups with entrepreneurs and of different levels. I have hosted the War Ready Podcast. It’s one of what I think, one of the most copies podcast out there. We’re not the biggest but since we came out, people are copying us like crazy. Some of the names that you will be familiar with, they’re using some of my terminology. They are doing some of the stuff that I kind of invented. Take a listen to our podcast too, as well as Matt’s. Hopefully you can get ready to win the war of success because there’s a war.
Matt: That’s an interesting take. A lot of people, when they are talking about entrepreneurship, are a little more – I don’t know they are sort of visualizing, and manifesting and that kind of stuff. Your approach is to look at it as a war. That’s kind of a different take on it.
Aaron: I don’t know about, Matt. But I found it to be a war. Basically, everything is hard when you want to try to do something. There’s nothing easy. If it is, it’s probably a scam or it’s not worth doing in the first place. I found it to be – you have to count the cost before you start the war. You have to see if you can win it. You got to scat up territory. You got to work your way up. It’s a struggle. It’s a war. People are against you. That’s the competition. You have to fight your inner struggles – being lazy, all this being complacent, being an average, or your limited thinking. It’s a constant war to win. And then once you do win, you have to fight to stay there. So, I’ve always subscribed to the mentality that you have to win the war of success. It’s a war every single day but when I wake up with that mindset, it seems to put me in the right frame of mind. You know what I mean?
Matt: Sure. Everybody’s got to do what works for them. I agree, there’s not a lot of stuff that’s handed to you in business. And if it is, you’re right. It’s probably a scam. If there’s an easy business in a box solution that you think is gonna make you the next millionaire, more likely your just handing your money over to a scam.
Aaron: Its right, man. I’ve also – Since I began to share the War Ready Mindset, the response has been overwhelming. I first started the podcast – I was going on Social Spurs. That’s the name of our company. Then, I kinda felt like I really wasn’t being myself. I wasn’t speaking the way I want to speak. I wasn’t interviewed in the really way that I wanted to. I was interviewed in the way that I thought people would want to be interviewed. I decided, screw that! I’m gonna go and I’m gonna speak from my heart the way that I have achieved success. I’ve always used that phrase in my life – War Ready. I’m war ready. If I’m going out to the store, I’m war ready. I’m trying to be my best wherever I am to win. I then changed to war ready and people started to e-mail me. “Tell me more about this war ready mindset.” So, I started to put together more masterminds. I already had some masterminds. I’ve build several others and we’re launching a new one. So, it just kinda taking on the life of its own.
Matt: Yeah. Again, if that’s what works and gets you motivated and put you in the right mindset, then, more power to you! Obviously, it resonates. I think it’s really hard to do something where you don’t feel like you’re being authentic. Sales guys always fail or do a lot worse anyway when they’re not selling something they really believe in. they just reading of a script. If you believe on the product you’re selling, you’re a much better sales person. I’m sure you can speak to that having the records in the claim that you did in your sales career. You have to believe in what you’re selling or else it just comes off as fake.
Aaron: I have to second that in agreeing to what you’re saying. I have to resign from organizations because maybe they changed the sales funnel. They change what they’re selling and I just didn’t believe it anymore after a while of kind of abusing your conscience. You just get to a place where you can’t do it any more in good conscience. I rather have a clear conscience than to make some money because it’s just not worth it for me. That was my approach in War Ready.
Matt: When the real estate crash happened, you kinda decided that wasn’t where you’re gonna be or that wasn’t where you’re gonna focus anymore. How did you kinda picked yourself up and decide consulting and building this business is what you wanted to do? How did that kinda come together for you?
Aaron: Well, it came together, Matt, to be candid, because I didn’t know what else to do. I knew advertising and I thought I hated working for somebody else and that’s what happened when I got into real estate investing. I turned lots and lots of properties. I said “I love working being an entrepreneur. I hate working for somebody else.” Even when I was setting those records, I hated working for somebody. So, I know I didn’t want to go back to working for somebody else so I thought, well, I’ll just be a consultant and maybe on the side try to start things that I am passionate about or interested in. I just got into it and I contacted people and ask if they needed help with consulting, advertising, putting together marketing plans, and they did. And so, I was a wandering generality. I wasn’t a meaningful specific. I really wasn’t like a teacher at war ready. [Inaudible 0:11:03.1] to take anything. I was just kinda wandering around out there and when you wander around its easy to get lost. I slowly start to find my place. What I mean by that is that “What am I here to do?” Honestly, I want to live a life. I kept on increasing my clientele. I kept on increasing it as an independent consultant. I started my own magazine then I got invited to speak places. People started to say “Hey, can you coach me on how to be successful in what I’m doing?” Because I know so much about how to get businesses started because that was kinda what I would do in a lot of startups. From then on, I started to develop mastermind groups where I instead of coaching an individual one-on-one, coach them and set to 12. From then on, I started to do that and they said “Hey, you should do this podcast thing.” So, not too long ago, I decided “Okay. I’ll join the masses of people starting podcasts.” And start one. So I did.
Matt: Cool! I think the mastermind in the particular, you talked about that for a minute, and I think a lot of business owners feel like they’re sort of alone in the world. Their spouse may not be involved in the business, doesn’t particularly want to hear about it. The people that work for him, obviously, you can’t share the inner details of the business – how it works – with the employees because you don’t want to give them the wrong idea, customers aren’t there, vendors. So, what are the things that get out of the masterminds and how is that sort of a powerful boost to the person to the person that’s otherwise kinda working in the dark by themselves?
Aaron: Well, you know, you said a lot of it there, Matt. They have other people to connect with. What I do is I try to sort people since I ran several masterminds. I try to sort people as to their level of experience because if you are a very experienced entrepreneur and you’re in a room with all newbies, you’re not gonna get much out of it. As a matter of a fact, you’re now gonna be a consultant. If you’re the other way around, then that also doesn’t work. So, I try to create a nice balance in each of the groups. I kinda group them and grade them as accordance to where they at in their experience level. What they get is that. They get to come out and be around the right people. So, I mastermind the masterminds – put together the right folks. The second thing that they get is they get ideas from the other guys or girls in the group. I kinda facilitate it. I bring the bear upon the group what I can offer to them which is a lot of experience in startups and entrepreneurial ventures at different levels. And, they all have all those things combined all in the comfort or in the safe zone. What I mean by safe zone is that, I don’t allow people to pitch each other. So if you got a deal in there, you have to sign that you want try to solicit other members of the group. It’s a safe zone so that they can come in there. They also sign a NDA – Non Disclosure Agreement – that you’re not gonna tell what’s going on with the groups. It’s a safe zone place where they can connect with other guys without feeling like somebody’s gonna sell them. Not to say that you can’t form partnership. Were very careful about that. So, they get wisdom, they get accountability. They get commodity. They get strategic insight and they get a mentor through me and assignments. I give them assignments to the group and people are doubling, tripling their businesses and start new businesses at different levels. It’s kind of amazing. I feel very humbled that I even get to participate there.
Matt: Yeah. That definitely sounds like something that would be really beneficial to the vast majority of small business owners out there. Is this something that happens virtually like over Skype or Google hangout or something? What’s the format for it?
Aaron: Yeah, Matt. Through Skype.
Matt: Through Skype, yeah, that’s definitely is. That’s great because you can obviously reach people from all over. That sounds like a huge value add. Let’s jump over to the podcast. You mentioned as well, there are a ton of people entering the space. You’ve had some pretty significant success in growing your brand pretty quickly. Do you have some tactical advice for people who are thinking about this as a marketing channel?
Aaron: Absolutely. I was thinking about getting into teaching podcasting stuff but I thought I would. I thought I would stick with what I do which is another important part to winning. But I have a ton of advice for somebody if they want some. I’ve actually taken on a couple private coaching clients on starting their podcast just for whatever reason they connected it with me so they thought that I’d be a coach for them. But, I take that on a case-by-case basis. So if you’re listeners want to reach out to me, feel free to reach out to me but don’t be put off if I don’t take it because I just can’t take everybody. But here’s my advice, before you start your podcast, you have to count the cost because it’s not easy to start a podcast. It’s very involved as you are probably is already learning, Matt. You get a guy to interview and you guys talk – First of all, before all that, you got to figure out your niche. You got to figure out what new things are you gonna bring to the table. If you think that your personality is enough to bring like “I’m gonna bring something new because I have a unique personality.” Well, that’s not gotta cut it. You have to have something a little bit more cutting edge that you’re gonna bring to the table. So, that’s one thing. Then, you got to figure out your interview style. Okay, so now you think you have an interview style figured out before you even started, then, you start and then you figure out “I think I like to change my interview style. I like to tweak it.” and then so, you have to consider all that. Then, you get people to interview. You’re getting along. You’re changing your style and as you’re going through, you realize that these people – you asked me a little about this before the interview – well, and I’m getting back to your original question. These people are not as apt to share their interviews as you might think they are. As a matter of fact, they don’t really share them at all except on twitter and things like that. To be candid with you, nobody really listens to most people’s Twitter because Twitter is kinda paved now, one. Two, the people who do share on Twitter, they hardly have any engagement. So, if you think that you’re gonna grow your podcast through your guest sharing it, you got another thing coming because this doesn’t happen like that. So, I’ve wrestled with that, tried to get different ways. I would say, if you’re gonna start a podcast, you should get a coach of some sort not just taking the chords because it’s good to have that one-on-one approach, some coach from somewhere. If you want to reach out to me, that’s fine. But some from somewhere. Get a coach that can walk you through this because you got sound issues. You got interview styles. You got artwork. You got your website. You got posting. You got servers. It’s so much. If you have a dream or goal or start a podcast, don’t give up because of the technology. That’s what keeps most people away. Get a coach that somebody can hold your hand and walk you through all that.
Matt: Wow! I definitely found that it’s more involved than just sticking a microphone in front of your face. That’s for sure. You’re right. Just like any other business, you’ve got to bring, hopefully, something unique to it. otherwise, you’re just another one of the thousands of options out there. You’re not gonna stand out. you’re not gonna last very long. Then, I think, particularly for people who are expecting to generate revenue from their podcast, they are really gonna be likely to quit if they don’t see some results pretty quick. And yet, it’s kind of a long-term play. If you’re not in it for the long term, it’s tough to build the audience which in turn, it’s tough to get any revenue from it. that’s if you’re depending on advertising. So, like anything else, you’ve got to way the costs as you said before you jump into it.
Aaron: That’s right. If you’re gonna start podcasting, count the cost and also, it’s the number one thing my grandfather would always tell me. whatever you’re gonna do, you’re success is gonna be contingent upon your level of commitment. So, if you’re gonna start a podcast and you want to win, you have to be a 100% committed and be like the guys in the movie 300 where he’s like “I’m gonna die out here on the battlefield.” You’re gonna go out there and treat it like that. It’s like it’s not over until I win. Whatever your version of winning is, I don’t know what it is but you know. If you don’t know, you need to know. Then, that’s what it needs to be for you that you’re not gonna quit this thing until you’re where you want to be and you’re gonna get better. You’re gonna do what it takes to get there.
Matt: That’s a lesson for business, in general. Again, I think one of the things that keeps coming up when I talk to people, generally in entrepreneurship, is perseverance. You don’t have to be the smartest guy in the room. You don’t have to have the most money but you can’t quit. As soon as you quit, its game over. If you keep plugging away, sooner or later, you’re gonna have some wins and those are gonna turn into bigger wins. But as soon as you give up, you’re done.
Aaron: That’s right, matt. I always say in my mastermind groups that every day there is somebody starting in whatever you’re doing that they more talent than you, and maybe they have more privilege than you. So, you can’t consider those things. What you have to set your mind to do is keep going, just like you said, Matt. And also, be committed to working harder than anybody could expect you to work.
Matt: Definitely. In terms of attracting your market listeners to your podcasts and your business owners interested in your masterminds, how do you reach out to them? How do you find them and attract them to your offerings and get them involved in your process?
Aaron: Well, I have an assistant out of the Philippines and she invites people on to the Podcast. now, I’m picking up a lot of people who are asking me to be on my podcast. and so, I do that. They come on my podcast. another thing that I do to weed out other people is I make them say that they’re going to mail their list. But just because they say they’re gonna mail their list, it doesn’t mean they’re going to. You could say “Hey, we require you to mail your list.” It doesn’t mean they’re gonna mail their list. I do some other things that help. But the main thing is, you can’t rely on those people who you’re gonna interview to get the word out. what you have to do is rely on your content, the way you stir the show, the quality, the intro, the outro, if you have a mid-roll, you have to rely on how good you can be to get attention in that way. You have to do your own hustle. You can’t wait on them to do it because they are not gonna do it. some of them will, but most of them wont. You have to do your own hustle. Get relying upon what you can do not what they can do because if you’re waiting on them to do something for you, they’re not gonna do it. they go on podcast all day. That’s what they do because they’re getting their message out. don’t rely on them. Do your own hustle. Figure out a way to do your own traffic through Facebook ads, through doing all kinds of stuff, meeting people but the number one thing is make sure your show is freaking awesome. That’s how you’ll get people and become sticky.
Matt: That makes a lot of sense. You can’t argue with common sense there. Where do you go from here? You built the podcast to the number of episodes you’ve got. Well, over a hundred. You’ve got a few different masterminds going and the social spurs website. What’s your plan for the future?
Aaron: You know Matt, my plan is to focus in on the podcast and just make it better and better. I still could be a lot better than I am right now and to keep on growing these mastermind groups. I’m looking at to bring on some coaches to host these mastermind groups with me because you can’t scale it if you don’t have any people to delegate it to. So, to bring on more mastermind groups and my mission is to just spread the war ready mindset. I’m writing the war ready book. That’s pretty much it, Matt. Keep building the mastermind groups. Keep building the show and reinforcing the brand through the book.
Matt: Awesome! I think focus is one of those things as a serial entrepreneur, that so tough to keep. Opportunities get thrown at you all the day. You mentioned you could go down the direction of teaching podcasting. I’m sure there’s 25 other opportunities you’ve had just since Monday. On the same way, if you start pursuing those, then whatever your main thing is starts to lose your focus and the whole thing kinda goes to hell. So, focus is one of those key attributes along with perseverance that I think makes a successful entrepreneur. But it’s easier said than done because there’s so many things out there that look like lucrative, low-hanging fruit.
Aaron: Yeah. Those a lot of “Get Rich Quick” Schemes, a lot of those things – what kinda screws with their mind is when we hear those exceptions to the rule like “A guy started a podcast and he’s making zillion dollars and it only took him this amount of time.” Well, that’s the exception not the rule. Most of the time, timing played a huge part of what happened like these guys who invest at the right company and at the right time. They didn’t know that it was skyrocket and they hope that it would. Everybody hopes that the business you invest in would skyrocket. But they did it at the right time and it skyrocketed. So, you can’t bet your fate in the exception. You have to bet it on the rule which is hardwork, perseverance and becoming better everyday equals success.
Matt: That’s interesting. You bring that up. Bill Gross, I think I’ve got his name right, the founder of Idea Lab was doing a talk about timing and he was saying exactly that. People attribute a lot of things to great leadership and brilliant mind and all that stuff but a lot of it comes down to timing. Facebook is a huge multi-billion dollar company but before they were around, MySpace was there. MySpace tanked and went away. Facebook just hit everything kind of at the right time with the right platform. But they weren’t the first and they won’t be the last. They just hit it at the right time. Same with Netflix, same with a lot of other examples you could name. so, you can’t discount the value of hitting it just at the right time.
Aaron: But that screws on mine. Matt, like when you start something and you hear of the guy who got this amazing success and he’s basically doing the same thing that you want to do, but you got to consider the surroundings, the atmosphere of when he came in. don’t get yourself depressed because you’re not achieving that level of success. You come in at the different time. Besides that, you have a different story and everybody’s story is different. This is just a chapter for right now. So, bet on the averages not on the exceptions. Then, one day you could an exception by being exceptionally good.
Matt: Yeah. I hundred percent agree with you. I think that’s completely true. Alright! Kind of the last question here to wrap things up, is there anything that you would do differently? Or looking back, would you change anything up to get where you are faster or without any of the troubles that you went through to achieve what you’ve got now? Is there any kind of advice, in hindsight, you wish you would’ve taken?
Aaron: I would’ve done what you said a few minutes ago, which is to stay focus on one thing. Ever since I’m a little kid, I have known that I’m supposed to be a motivator. I’m supposed to be a guy who spurs people on the action. It was always music and motivation for me in my life as a kid. A lot of times you could look back and wanting to be a kid, and get a good idea what were supposed to do. So, I would’ve started masterminds. I would’ve started all that kind of stuff a long time ago and figure out a way to do it right out of high school. I started doing it in high school but over a decade later, I am doing it now. I’m becoming very successful at it. I’ve been successful for a little while now so I would’ve focused on what I knew I was good at from the very beginning.
Matt: I could tell you exactly the same story about myself. I’m sure there’s a ton of entrepreneurs out there who share the exact same experience. For people listening now to take away, I think is don’t wait another day. If you know what you want to do, then start doing it. just go for it. don’t wait till the timing is right, the economy is right, or you’ve got a couple extra $100 in your pocket. Start now.
Aaron: Start now, man. You got to live everyday like it might be your last within reason because one day you’ll be right.
Matt: Yeah. One day you’ll be right. Good point. For people who are interesting in getting in touch with you and finding you online, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Aaron: They could go to socialspurs.com. what I would tell you if you want to get started with me and you’re interested in the mastermind groups that were starting more all the time, contact warreadypodcast@gmail.com. Send an email saying “Hey! I’m interested in the masterminds.” And one of our people will field you, get you fit in. you could talk with me and see if were right fit. Then, I’ll put you in the right group. I host all of them right now. You could do that to take your business to the next level for this new year. You can do that. Go to the war ready podcast. go on there. Get plugged in and win the war of success! You don’t get the insights to win the war because every day it’s a war. If you’re not thinking about it that way, you’re gonna get picked off or worst of all, live an average life.
Matt: Well said. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today. All the links that you mentioned will be on the show notes. I’m sure you’ll share it with your audience.
Aaron: Absolutely!
Matt: We’ll get the word out so more people can get war ready! Thanks again, Aaron. I appreciate it.
Aaron: Thanks, Matt!