323: What Sets Successful Students In My Course Apart From The Failures With Steve Chou

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You’re listening to the My Wife Could a Job podcast, the place where I bring out successful bootstrap business owners and delve deeply into the strategies they use to grow their businesses. Now today I’m doing another solo episode where I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned from working with almost 4,000 students in my e-commerce course. Now what makes a student successful and what makes them give up and what are the keys to predictivity? Listen in for more. But before we begin, I want to thank Postscript for sponsoring this episode. Now if you’re in an e-commerce business of any kind, you know how important it is to own your customer contact list.

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And this is why I’m focusing a significant amount of my efforts on SMS marketing. SMS, or text message marketing, is already a top five revenue source for my e-commerce store, and I couldn’t have done it without Postscript.io, which is my text message provider. Now, why did I choose Postscript? It’s because they specialize in e-commerce stores, and e-commerce is their primary focus. Not only is it easy to use, but you can quickly segment your audience based on your exact sales data and implement automated flows like an abandoned cart at the push of a button.

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Not only that, but it’s price well too, and with the holiday season rolling around, SMS is the perfect way to engage with your customers. So head on over to postscript.io slash dev and try it for free. That’s P-O-S-T-S-E-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash dev. I also want to thank Klaviyo, who is also a sponsor of the show, and it’s safe to say that most of us have been doing a lot more online shopping lately. And if you’re an e-commerce brand, that means you might be seeing more first-time customers. But once they’ve made that first purchase, how do you keep them coming back? That is what Klaviyo is for.

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Klaviyo is the ultimate email and SMS marketing platform for ecommerce brands, they give you the tools to build your contact list, send memorable emails, automate key messages, and more. A lot more. And that’s why over 30,000 ecommerce brands like Chubbies, Brooklinen, and Living Proof use Klaviyo to build a loyal following. Strong customer relationships mean more repeat sales, enthusiastic word of mouth, and less depending on third-party ads. So whether you’re launching a new business or taking your brand to the next level, Klaviyo can help you get growing faster. And it’s free to get started.

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So visit klaviyo.com slash mywife to create your free account. That’s klaviyo.com slash mywife. Now onto the show.

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Welcome to the My Wife Cooder Job podcast. Today I’m doing a solo episode and I’m going to talk about what sets apart these successful students in my class from those who give up. Also, I’ll provide you with a framework on how to be more productive with your time. Now I’ve been running my Create a Profitable Online Store course for about a decade now. And through the years, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know thousands of students on a personal level. Now some students are wildly successful and start making money right away. So for example, Toni Anderson made $25,000 in her first three months.

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and a hundred K in her fourth month alone. Abby Walker, another student in my class made seven figures with her product very soon after launch, but on the flip side, some students languish and don’t ever launch a product. Some students never opened my course after they purchased it. So what separates those two groups of students? Why are some students successful right away? Whereas others are destined to fail. Now, after a decade of experience, I believe that I have the answer and it has nothing to do with intelligence. Here’s my tape.

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So first off, sincerely believe that my course is the most comprehensive e-commerce course available on the market. And if you follow the strategies outlined in the class, you will be successful. There’s no question in my mind. However, you can learn all the tactics and skills in the world, but you’ll never be successful unless you take action. 99.9 % of the time, your lack of success is an output issue. You need to be able to produce consistently over time. And by over time, I mean years and not months.

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Now because your business is a marathon and not a sprint, you need the mental fortitude to weather the ups and downs and your success largely depends on how you respond to setbacks. Some students immediately stop what they’re doing at the first sign of trouble and give up. Other students push through the pain until they find a solution. So as a result, the first step in becoming a successful entrepreneur is fixing yourself. Now this video will focus on the five changes you must make in your life that are within your control to boost productivity.

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maintain your motivation and achieve the output required to be successful. So change number one is to stop filling your body with junk. Now, have you ever had a big meal that ruined your productivity for the rest of the day? Now, back when I worked a day job, I would routinely go out to eat with my coworkers and my afternoon output would be destroyed because of the garbage I put in my belly. Now it’s hard enough motivating yourself to get work done in the first place, but being productive is infinitely more difficult if your stomach isn’t right.

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Now the other day I decided eat ice cream for the first time in over a year and it actually put me out of commission for the entire day. Now my point is that you can’t be productive unless your mind is clear. In order to prevent food coma, you have to watch what you eat. Now for those of you in your twenties who are watching this video, this might not be much of an issue for you, but I guarantee that as soon as you hit your thirties and forties, what you eat will become a huge problem. Now when I went for six pack abs many years ago, I actually accidentally stumbled upon a diet that would transform my entire way of life.

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Now by removing most carbs and junk food from my diet, my mind immediately cleared up. And these days I can easily work for 12 to 16 hours a day without any loss in productivity. But if I were to eat like the average American, I wouldn’t be able to work anywhere close to my maximum efficiency. So the main rule of productivity is if you were eating junk food on a regular basis, you are drastically cutting into your productivity and your motivation. And by changing your diet, you can change your life in more ways than one. So for example, you’ll look better, you’ll feel better.

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you’ll be a lot more productive and most importantly, you’ll feel more confident. For more information on eating for productivity, I recommend exploring a low carb or paleo related diet. Change number two, you got to remove all sources of dopamine. Now starting a business is fun, but it almost always involves pain and suffering. Now as humans, our brains are wired to seek pleasure over pain. And as a result, we naturally gravitate towards activities that make us feel better in the short term.

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Now these brief moments of pleasure are caused by dopamine, which is a chemical released by the brain when something good happens unexpectedly. And in today’s day and age, the average human is bombarded by dopamine hits throughout the day. So for example, your brain releases dopamine every time you get a like on social media. You receive a text message, you play video games, you watch a YouTube video, you go to a party, you check your Google analytics, you get a notification on your phone. And in fact, the most abused drugs in the world cause the release of dopamine, which makes them addictive.

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Now what does this have to do with productivity? Because working on your business isn’t always pleasant, your brain will naturally gravitate towards anything that gives you a quick dopamine hit. Now here’s a quick test to see if you are experiencing dopamine overload. Does your mind ever wander when you try to sit down and work? Do you find yourself checking social media constantly? And have you ever accidentally watched YouTube or TikTok for hours when you should have been working? Now in order to be more productive, you have to cut all the dopamine out of your life. And this actually starts with getting rid of your cell phone.

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Now when you sit down and work, keep your phone somewhere else, close all browser tabs and focus only on the task at hand. Turn off anything that can bring you pleasure and avoid all external stimulation. After all, you have to train your brain to do the hard things. You have to train your brain to avoid what is easy and you have to learn how to deal with long periods of boredom and the grind. Now when I was a kid, my parents used to make me study all the time. I actually started preparing for the STTs in the fourth grade.

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and I spent a good deal of my childhood doing things that weren’t fun while my friends were playing outside. And for four summers straight, I attended a six week overnight camp where we literally studied eight hours a day with two hours leisure time at night. And when I played volleyball for my high school team and the junior Olympics, I used to play for four hours a day. And then when I got home, I do jumping exercises to improve my vertical leap for another hour before bed. Now looking back, these times weren’t that fun, but they trained me to embrace the pain and I saw the results.

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So bottom line, if you want to make progress, eliminate as many dopamine sources from your life as possible. And after all, you can enjoy building a business if there are other sources of pleasure all around you. Now this means no YouTube, no social media, no phone, no games, no TikTok, nothing. If you sell on Amazon or run any online business for that matter, the most important aspect of your long-term success will be your brand. And this is why I work with Steven Weigler and his team from Emerge Council.

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to protect my brand over at Bumblebee Linens. Now what’s unique about Emerge Council is that Steve focuses his legal practice on e-commerce and provides strategic and legal representation to entrepreneurs to protect their IP. So for example, if you’ve ever been ripped off or knocked off on Amazon, then Steve can help you fight back and protect yourself. Now first and foremost, protecting your IP starts with a solid trademark and Emerge Council provides attorney-advised strategic trademark prosecution, both in the United States and abroad for a very low price.

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And furthermore, the students in my course have used Steve for copyrighting their designs, policing against counterfeits and knockoffs, agreements with co-founders and employees, website and social media policies, privacy policies, vendor agreements, brand registry, you name it. So if you need IP protection services, go to EmergeCouncil.com and get a free consult. And if you tell Steve that I sent you, you’ll get a $100 discount. That’s E-M-E-R-G-E-C-O-U-N-S-E-L.com. Now back to the show.

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Change number three is to ruthlessly eliminate everything that detracts you from your goal. Now you can’t get something from nothing and everything has a cost. And for most of you who want to start an online business, you’ll likely have to make some hard choices on what to eliminate in your life. Now, when my wife and I first started our e-commerce store, we cut out our friends for an entire year and sacrificed our nights and our weekends. Now you can’t have everything and you need to systematically eliminate anything that distracts you from your goal.

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Now I’ve had students sign up for my course immediately after buying a fixer upper house. I even had a student start a business immediately after filing for divorce because she wanted to be self-sufficient. did any of these students succeed? Probably not. And bottom line, if you want to maximize your chances at success, you have to ruthlessly prioritize. Now, if you have friends who are constantly dragging you away to go drinking, then you may need to cut them out of your life temporarily. If you have people in your life who are constantly doubting you, then they need to go.

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Your brain only has a finite amount of power every day and you need to preserve every last bit where you can. So for example, many successful entrepreneurs I know eat the exact same thing every day, the exact same clothes every day and own as few possessions as possible. And if you have to think about what to wear or eat, you are wasting brain power. If you have a house or a car that is constantly breaking down, you are wasting brain power. Becoming a minimalist may sound a little bit extreme, but if you sit down and think about it,

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your possessions actually suck away a lot of your brain power every single day. So for example, last week I was shopping for a brand new wireless router and I literally spent most of the day doing research on which one to buy. And then I spent another two hours trying to get the best deal. And what can I say? I can’t help being cheap. Now, if this purchase wasn’t so crucial to my online businesses and my kids’ virtual education, I probably would have put it off. But bottom line, if you’re going to start a business, be prepared to go all the way and follow through. This might mean fighting with your wife,

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sleeping on the couch, losing your friends and sacrificing activities that you enjoy. might mean avoiding carbs and your favorite foods, but success in life is really a test of your endurance and how much you really want it. And the best type of success is the type that you earn through hard work. The more extraneous activities you can eliminate from your schedule, the more likely you’ll succeed. Change number four, maximize the time that you do have. Now almost every successful entrepreneur I know follows a set routine.

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After all, if you are all over the place and don’t set aside a time to work, you’ll never get anything done on a consistent basis. Most of you will be more productive during certain times of the day. So for me, I work the best in the mornings from about 730 AM until noon. And in the afternoon, I get distracted a little bit more easily and I don’t concentrate as well. As a result, I set aside the work that requires the most brain power for the early morning hours of my day. Now this includes writing blog posts, coding up new plugins and producing videos.

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For the afternoons, I typically reserve less brain intensive tasks like answering emails, interviewing guests for my podcast, or just paying the bills. In addition, I only try to accomplish one major task per day, max. Now this is important because unless you are Superman, you probably don’t have the skills and stamina to tackle more than one major thing at a time. After all, I’d rather finish one task and do it very well than halfheartedly complete two separate tasks. And to ensure that I’m at peak productivity during my morning time slot,

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I literally try to make my room as dark as possible and turn on only a single light at my desk. In addition, I listen to 80s music with my noise canceling headphones on and this helps me remove all external distractions. But overall, you should find the optimal time slot that works for you and try to accomplish just one task per day. Remember your business is a marathon and making forward progress, no matter how small should be your primary objective every single day. And then the final change is to not focus on the money.

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Now when it comes to running a successful online business, your goals should never be the money. And instead money will be just the byproduct of your hard work. So for example, the reason why people buy my e-commerce course is because my students are successful. And when I want to sell more courses, I do not focus on short-term sales tactics like upsells, cross sells, tripwires and hidden fees and all the other strategies you hear online. Instead, I focus my time on making my students successful and the money just comes naturally.

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Most of the successful guests on my podcast have followed a similar pattern. Now did my friend Eric Chang become an underwater photographer for the money? No. Instead, he focused all of his time on taking better photos and the money just quickly followed. Did my buddy Joe Jitsukawa start producing videos on YouTube to make money? No. But what started out as a hobby turned into a business once he perfected his craft. Now being a top entrepreneur is rarely about the money. You have to be good at what you do and then the money follows afterwards.

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Now many people email me for the easiest way to make money online and right off the bat, this is the wrong mindset to have. Being the best always requires practice and doing the work that sucks. There’s no easy button and you eventually have to do the parts that don’t feel good. You have to tackle a task that you aren’t good at. So what is the secret to business? Well, you can learn all the strategies and tactics in the world, but it’s pointless unless you can execute. And execution starts with getting your life together first. As a result,

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Don’t start a business unless you are willing to make some sacrifices you were willing to put in the time and your mind and your body are ready for the work. Now, if I were to choose any single change to focus on that I mentioned in this video, it would be to remove the dopamine in your life. The most satisfying pleasures in life come from hard work and short-term hits like social media always feel great, but only last for a microsecond. In order to experience long-term happiness, you have to feel the pain first.

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Hope you enjoyed that episode. Now can almost guarantee that if you follow the tips mentioned in this episode, your productivity will practically double overnight. But let me know what you think. For more information about this episode, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 323. And once again, I want to thank Clavio, which is my email marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. You can easily put together automated flows like an abandoned cart sequence, a post purchase flow, a win back campaign, basically all these sequences that will make you money on autopilot.

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So head on over to mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIO. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIO. I also want to thank Postscript, which is my SMS marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. With a few clicks of a button, you can easily segment and send targeted text messages to your client base. SMS is the next big own marketing platform and you can sign up for free over at postscript.io slash Steve. That’s P-O-S-T-S-C-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash Steve.

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Now I talk about how I use these tools on my blog, and if you’re interested in starting your own eCommerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and it’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.