JLD: Who’s ready to rock today Fire Nation? JLD here with a bomb of a value bomb masterclass. We’re to be talking with Billie Gene, and this is going be an incredible masterclass about why you should be going physical in a digital world and how Billy is doing just that and setting his world on fire. There’s gonna be some really interesting things to talk about this, about going physical in the digital industry, how to justify the cost, how to understand that sometimes you do have to lose before you win and see that ROI and so much more greatness.

Now, who is Billy? Well, he is the world’s smartest digital marketer, at least according to himself, and he serves as the president at one of the world’s leading digital advertising schools, Billie Jean Is Marketing. He has taught thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners how to turn clicks into customers, and he has something awesome going at learnfrombilly.com. It’s going to be an in-person summit in San Diego, so if you even think you want to learn from this individual in person, check it out learnfrombilly.com.

So, Billy, say what’s up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people know, and yes, we know that you have six X-Boxes, so something different.

Billy: Fire Nation, what’s up? First of all – first and foremost is always you guys are in the right place. I’ve been personally listening to John Lee Dumas for I think man, six years, does that sound right?

JLD: Yeah, six years. Yeah, literally six years in two weeks.

Billy: Literally, he just has not stopped, it’s been continuous and anybody who’s ever tried to do anything for more than like 14 days in a row, you understand how difficult it is to be consistent with anything. Virtually anything in the world. But let alone to do a show for six years, dude, mad props to you. That’s how I want to start this call out today.

JLD: Thank you. Thank you, while I will say 2000 episodes in a row is something I’m definitely proud of, so thanks for bringing that up. And now what something interesting about you?

Billy: Dude, so in the last few years, as you seem kind of like my growth –

JLD: Yeah.
Billy: – with entrepreneurship, I’ve made a lot of douche bag decisions. And what I mean by that is buying some dumb stuff. Like Ferraris, a Bentley, a Tesla, and I will tell you this, ladies and gentlemen the dream – like when I was a kid that was like the dream right? Like, have a nice car and all the stuff. It is overrated! It’s expensive as hell. It’s fun to do – I live two blocks away from my job people. To have those cars is absolutely insane. I Uber most of the time, so you don’t even drive them, and you’re paying all this money for nothing.

It’s like cool to have the accomplishment, but there’s other ways to celebrate your accomplishments. So, don’t waste money on dumb materialistic things. Having said that, the Tesla, the technology and it, is really fun to do. And having said that, going really fast is also fun to do. But having said all of that, stay away from it kids, it just doesn’t make any sense.

JLD: I mean Billy, let’s just get real for a second here because this is real stuff. I mean just picture taking all of that money that you have spent on all those things you just mentioned –

Billy: Don’t do this to me, that’s not how –

[Crosstalk]

JLD: – and you invested that into Facebook ads and Google ads to grow your business. Like all of that into that stuff. I mean just think about – I mean you probably would be buying the San Diego Padres right now.

Billy: Dude, it’s you know – and obviously like right we’re joking around a little bit, but when you really look at the numbers behind that, man that’s like – that’s a half a million dollars that could go into all kinds of stuff, man. Like whether that’s a nonprofit, whether it’s –

JLD: True.

Billy: – investing into like something is going to actually you know, pay me. But then also too, for everyone listening, all of those vehicles that I have, have been featured at some point in one of our ads. And in regards to getting attention, I have actually made money from the vehicles in the ads. And that’s what people don’t get, is if you use these different; I’ll call them props in this example; props in your advertisements, then they can actually be an asset, not an expense.

So traditionally, vehicles for most people, guess their waste of money. But I’ve been able to use them in a way where it’s been like okay, this is actually paid for itself and then some.

JLD: Yeah, but you don’t have to spend $500,000 to use those as props.

Billy: Exactly.

JLD: I mean there’s parking lots with Ferraris right now.

Billy: But then you’re the douche bag who it’s not your car, and you’re pretending, and now you’re just a whole different –

[Crosstalk]

JLD: It’s just a no-win situation. I mean Fire Nation, let’s just be honest, it’s a no-win situation. So, just keep Ubering everywhere if you’re Ubering everywhere right now and invest in yourself, invest in yourself. Speaking of investing in yourself, that’s kind of a little bit about what this audio masterclass is going to be about and Fire Nation, the specific title of this audio masterclass is Why Going Physical in a Digital World is Setting Billie Gene on Fire. Now, of course, will be getting into the details on this but first off, give us some teasers, Billy. What are we to be talking about today?

Billy: First thing I want everyone to understand is the point of this topic, the reason why we chose it, is because I believe buried in this conversation today is going to be the fastest way to grow your business and to grow sales and to get to that point of where you want to go. So, if you pay attention today, take notes, I’m telling you I am going to give you the roadmap to grow your business fast and controllably and predictably. So, what lies within that? Well, I guess we’ll have to dive in.

JLD: So, lets actually define what going physical means first and then why. Why are you going physical in a digital industry?

Billy: Sure. So, right now the trend, the message, what everybody sees on the interwebs is that you know, all you need is a laptop and an Internet connection and you can be extremely wealthy and live this life of freedom. And here’s the thing, it is true like watching you talking you guys follow JLD, he’s literally the epitome of it. That’s how I came up doing the same thing.
But what I also want people to realize is that because the barrier to entry has gotten so low to be a “business owner,” a lot of people have lost trust and respect for it. And so, when you see people in a coffee shop, and they’re just working on the computers people wonder you’re either full of – and you’re completely making it up or maybe you’re the real deal, but 93 percent of the people are absolutely on there just talking to people on Facebook and swiping left and right on Tinder. That’s the reality.

JLD: So, there’s a quote that I absolutely live by, and that is “high barriers equals low competition.” And guess what? It’s the exact opposite if you take that quote the other way where “low barriers equal high competition.” So, guess what? If you’re just that person who has a laptop and a coffee shop in New York City like you have low barriers and you have high competition because everybody can do that.

But when you do something like invest heavily in yourself in a physical space like an office, and you’re just doing it right and doing it real, because those are high barriers and there some struggles to get to that point, but that’s going to turn into a low competition. Billy, I’ve been to your office. I’ve been to your physical space. I walked in, and that’s exactly why I asked you to be the sole sponsor of Entrepreneurs on Fire because I’m like this guy is the real deal. I’ve seen it in person so keep on rapping on this for us for Fire Nation, like bring this home.

Billy: Absolutely. And thank you, and you gotta come back. Especially as we’re putting up this new studio which we’ll get into, okay? So, it all comes down to this, and I’m going to spit some real – at you guys. The number one reason why people will buy from you is because they trust you. Now, I want you to envision this, think about it, like for anybody that’s like into coaching; I know there’s a lot of coaches that listen to this. If the audience that you are putting your message out believed what you were saying 1000 percent, without any doubt, without any certainty that they’d get an ROI on your product or service, that they get that thing that they wanted. And they knew that they would buy from you every single time. Because it would make sense.

But when they’re not buying from you, it’s because they’re saying to themselves well, maybe it won’t work for me. And sometimes the trust is because they don’t believe in your product or service. Sometimes it’s because they don’t believe in themselves. Sometimes it’s because they just don’t believe in you know the industry or trends. But trust is kind of the vehicle that’s ultimately gonna get someone to swipe their credit card. And so, there’s another quote, “nothing sells like proof,” and that’s because proof creates trust.

So, for example, let’s say there’s two agencies, right? Like that’s how I got my start in this whole industry is running an agency and creating one from my mom’s house. And one of the agencies is saying they let me do your marketing and there in an office with 26 employees and they’ve got, you know, fixed expenses which you know in order to have fixed expenses there has to be revenue. For there to be revenue, there has to be clients and people that already know, like, and trust you. So, there’s automatically trust built in.

And then you see another person, who’s like all do your marketing and they’re sitting at home on the bed with their laptop plugged in and like wearing a Snuggie and sure they might be telling the truth, but there’s going to be all kinds of doubts and uncertainties that come with that. So, think about that in your industry for your business. When someone can see you at a glance if they see one of your advertisements, what are your messages, your websites, will they trust you or will they have a bunch of question marks? And I bet you that there’s a direct correlation to where you’re at in regards to your business.

JLD: There’s some things that Billy just said Fire Nation I have to reiterate. People will buy from you because they trust you. Because they know you. Because they like you. You need to be building these things up in your business, and I love that phrase you used, Billy, nothing sells like proof. Nothing sells, Fire Nation, like proof, but Billy I just got ask you, why’d you have to razz on Snuggies?

Billy: Just because everyone knows what they are and their great. I own about four or five different Snuggies. I’ve got some superhero Snuggies and some regular blanket ones, too.

JLD: Can you do one of your videos at some point in the Snuggie? I mean that’s legit.

Billy: I will show you, and I will shout you out and tag you. And really quick before I forget, the last thing in regards to – actually I just forgot it as I was saying that. Nevermind.

JLD: It’ll come back to you for sure.
Billy: In a little bit, yeah.

JLD: let’s talk about justifying the costs. I mean how do you actually specifically justify the cost of going physical in this digital industry?

Billy: You really have to understand your metrics and understand your numbers. So, I’ll give you a real-life, tangible example, okay? So, right now I have a membership site, right? Billy Gene’s Gene Pool. We have a little over 5000 members in there, and the average cost is $109 bucks a month, but some people buy lifetime memberships, etc. And right now, on Tuesdays, I teach live once a week in the studio that you’ve been into, John.

JLD: Yeah, I love that.

Billy: But in that studio, it’s just literally like a Smart Board, I’ve got like three cameras on me, and you know, just like a drawing board, I’m just teaching, right? And so, the challenges right now that if anybody ever wanted to learn in person, they couldn’t. Because there’s no space, we just sit there. So, our office right now today is under construction. Everything is gutted out. And I’m investing about $630,000 into building out a studio where a live studio audience, like Saturday Night Live. You know, like all the talk shows like Oprah had where people can come in, sit there and actually learn in person. Because there’s a lot of people who just learned better actually being in it.

Now, the reason why we did this, and it goes exactly what you’re talking about is barriers to entry. There is a lot of people with membership sites out there, and there’s new ones popping up every single day. But when people are making their decision do I go with option A or do I go learn from Billie Gene and his marketing. Then they sit back and go well man; these guys got a full studio. These people have people traveling from all over the world to just participate for one hour in one of these trainings.

In addition to that, how do I justify it is I understand that I arty have an audience of 5000 people who are willing and have asked to spend money on this experience. I already know based on doing this what they will pay. So, it’s $1000 a seat, and we only have 28 seats. So, this sounds crazy to some people, but I’m not exaggerating when I tell you we spend, I wrote a check for $120,000 just for the chairs.

JLD: Wow.

Billy: For the chairs. Now people go, isn’t that just the most insane thing? I said that I personally said that. And then I thought about it. There’s only 28 seats, I’m operating in creating this thing to compete on a global level, world-class, all the biggest universities in the world and they spend millions and millions of their stuff, so this is just a fraction. If I want to be taken and compete with the big boys, I’ve got to play like the big boys or girls. And for us, I wanted the best experience known to mankind. So, the best experience that I’ve had sitting anywhere has been at the luxury movie theaters. I don’t know if you guys have been to those in your cities or towns.

JLD: I went to the one in La Jolla, The Lot, that is epic.

Billy: Yes, The Lot, exactly. Yes. Where there’s recliner seats, they bring food to you and literally once you go to that theater, you will not go back to the regular theaters. Once you fly first class, you will not go back to the regular. And that’s what we’re trying to create. Once you learn at the Billie Gene and His Marketing Studios, you will not go back to anything else.

So, for me, because we have an audience, because I know people are willing to pay, it was a no-brainer to invest that kind of money into creating a space for people to learn. And then also having a backup plan. Understanding that let’s say everybody changes their mind and nobody wants to buy it? Now I have this environment that there’s nothing like it that exists in the city of San Diego or southern – well maybe a couple in Los Angeles, but San Diego, where people will pay money to rent it out. Now that’s not a goal of mine, but if I needed to create cash, I have the option to do that.

So, being extremely aware of exactly how I’m going to monetize it and people for years have been paying money to come into our office and – so I knew the proof of concept was there. Does that make sense?

JLD: It makes so much sense, and I can tell you right now, I mean I’m already seeing ROI for you. I mean I can remember just a year ago Pat Flynn, and Chris Ducker were looking for a place in San Diego when they like rented out this empty warehouse. They had to go find chairs, and they had to get the acoustics fixed, and they had to get microphones set up. And then they brought the people in, and it was a whole thing. I mean if they could have a turn key operation like yours with $120,000 chairs in there? I mean that’s a mind-blowing thing, and Fire Nation let’s talk really quick about live studio audiences.

Now, this is not something is going to happen overnight for you. This is not gonna happen overnight for you but isn’t this exciting you can have this stuff is a goal that you can be working towards this that maybe one day you are going to have you know a physical space? You know maybe it’s just a nice little WeWork office at first, but then that WeWork office goes into a conference room. And then maybe that goes to your own office space, then maybe starting to have a live studio. You can kind of see how this progress.

Billy: Well John, what’s funny about you saying exactly what you’re saying right now is that’s exactly how it happened for me. Guys, when I started educating it was four or five years ago, and I was at my mom’s house on a Dell laptop that I was just broadcasting from. And I used the microphone that was built into the computer, and I didn’t even use a Webcam, and I just had like crusty like slides. Like it wasn’t anything crazy, but it worked, it was effective, and people loved it.

And then as I started to level up, then I just started to kind of turn on my Webcam and then you know four years later we had an actual office and now are moving to this space. So, you just nailed it. It was not like this overnight thing of let me go get some investors and try and do this.

JLD: Not at all. And it was recently.

Billy: I didn’t even know what to do.

JLD: It was recently. I mean, we talked about this briefly last time, but I mean Gary Vaynerchuk just replayed an episode where he was the keynote at Nick Unsworth Life on Fire event back in 2013 at the W Hotel in downtown San Diego. And who was the person that asked the questions at the back of the room? It was Billy Gene who went to Nick Unsworth’s event, saw Gary Vaynerchuk speak and then he asked a question and guess what? I mean he was absolutely nowhere at that time and point.

Billy: Yep.

JLD: And that was just 2013, that’s less than five years ago Fire Nation. And that brings me back when we’re talking about live audiences, like when I was asked to actually present a CreativeLive back in 2015 up in San Francisco, it was such an amazing experience. I went up there, live studio audience, they had a camera crew. Everything was so legit. I presented, I still get checks Fire Nation from CreativeLive for something I did almost 4 years ago because people still go to CreativeLive, they type in podcasting, they see this incredible production of this podcasting course that I gave. It was amazing. And now Billy’s gonna have this in his studio. He’s gonna have this in his office.

Billy: Dude, you know what’s funny about that? Like we always do this, we always have so many similarities. So, that was in 2015 what sparks you. Guess what? In January I just taught at CreativeLive –

JLD: Oh wow.

Billy: – and did a class there with social media -- and man, let me tell you, I had that exact feeling. Like you guys, when you walk into the studio, and you see how professional it feels and the production quality, it just is the difference from like going to Disneyland and being there versus to like going to like the fair that comes to your city every year. You know what I mean? Like it’s just a different level, and people will pay a premium every single time to get that experience that they’ll never forget.

JLD: Okay, I want to get back to the $120,000 for 28 chairs. And one thing I want to say about that, Fire Nation, is this; are you going to trust somebody if you pay $1000 to go sit in a live session and you’re on these plastic folding chairs? Of course not. So, trust starts at the core. It starts with everything; it’s the amenities. So, now I’m in a sit-down and this amazing chair, and I’m at a feel like I’m in first class on Delta Airlines, and that’s the experience that Billie Gene is giving to me and I just paid $1000. I’m going to start to trust this guy more and more and more.

Billy: Yep.

JLD: I want to talk about the phrase that “sometimes you have to lose before you win.” Because you know – and by win, of course, we like to say in our industry that’s when you’re getting a return on investment. You’re winning when you’re making ROI. So, what does that phrase mean to you?

Billy: Everyone listening, my background is I’m a direct response marketer and to kinda simplify that, it means I use paid advertisements to get customers and my goal is very simple when I run advertisement campaigns, is to make more money than I spend. And what people need to realize with that is when you first start off you are likely going to lose money. So, when I even look at the build-out, I’m like, yeah, like John, I’m going to 650K in the hole before I’m going to start making a dime back off of this thing.

And one, it’s a calculated risk, right? Because I’ve been doing it a long time, I understand we already have the audience, etc. Like I talked about earlier. But what – and this is – when I started this podcast I said I’m gonna give you guys one of the fastest ways to grow, and here it is. The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs making is not understanding and not being patient enough while you’re trying to find marketing that works.

If you guys, right now, all had a Facebook ad that you could just literally press play, click a button to turn it on and you knew within a couple of hours it’s going to bring somebody to the doorsteps of your business, whether that be online or in person it would change everything that you did. Like right now the only thing stopping you from having growth is just having more customers then you need to go heavy into paid advertising.

And this is the beauty with paid ads. If something doesn’t work, then you literally just need to try again in a different way. So, the reason why most marketers are losing right now in entrepreneurs is because you’re not experimenting enough. For example, you spent 30 bucks on a Facebook ad; it doesn’t work. And instead of just trying something different, you decide to make up a rationalization, I live, rational-lie-zation, that Facebook just doesn’t work, Mark Zuckerberg is a scam. All they wanted is my contact information so that they can market to me later and you join the hater crowd instead of the group of winners. You put yourself in the losers because you were unwilling to experiment enough.

So many people hit a small brick-like to go deeper the reason why people have shiny objects syndrome, which means they kind of go from one idea to the next or one business to the next, is because they choose something, and as soon as they hit the first obstacle, the first roadblock, the first challenge they Sprint the other way and they go all man, this didn’t work, maybe there’s something else. And then they go to the next business they hit a brick wall, and then they run the other way, oh that didn’t work either. And then they keep trying.

And then they look up 40 years later and realize that they never made it in business and it’s because you never decided to put your head down and run through the – wall. When you run through the first wall, you get past it; you realize no matter which business model you choose, you could make them all work. Because building a business is really just about solving problems and your ability to do that. And that’s it.

JLD: Fire Nation, Billie Gene is spitting fire right now. I want to go back and go over a couple of things that I was just really fiercely taking notes on. Remember this Fire Nation, the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs are making here in 2018 is not being patient enough when you’re trying to find marketing that works. So, what you need to do? You need to find something that doesn’t work that you’re doing and change it up and try it again and change it up and try it again. Because the answer is out there, it’s just a matter of you finding it and experimenting and getting feedback and pivoting and adjusting and I’m a huge fan, Billy, of going 1 inch wide and 1 mile deep.

So, don’t stop going 1 mile deep until you find something that absolutely works for you. Billy was talking about those people that just you know run around for 40 years and never have any success. Those are people that are going 1 mile wide and 1 inch deep in all these areas in there like, huh, why am I not making any kind of indents or impressions. Because you’re going 1 inch deep. You’re turning around at the first sign of resistance. That’s when he burst through, and hey there is a reason why there’s that quote “there is no traffic along the extra mile” because Billy you’re on the extra mile, I’m on the extra mile, the winners are on the extra mile. Everybody else has gotten off the road before that extra mile even starts.

Billy: It’s so real, and that’s fine by the way, guys, girls, I literally just – even take the example the membership site that I told you guys about. You know 5000 members and people are like holy cow you’ve got 5000 members. But I want to kinda give you a tangible with that experiment stuff I was talking about. The first year and a half, probably the first year and a half that I have that membership site we stayed at about 138 members, and most of them came right when I launched it.

JLD: Wow.
Billy: And we would just lose members and not when. But I didn’t give up and just said oh this membership site thing doesn’t work because I saw so many other people running around me. I just kept trying different ways to get people enrolled. And I tried different marketing videos; I tried different sales letters. I tried different promotions. I tried different strategies. And then finally, we ran this one video ad that just freaking took off, and that same video ad today just got us an additional 1000 members last month.

With zero salespeople, just one advertisement on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube that brought people to a sales video and asked them if they wanted to become a member. And it crushes it for us, and it took us 18 months to find that thing, but now as we are sitting here talking I’m getting members to my site because I was patient, I kept running through brick walls until I found something that works.

JLD: How has surrounding yourself with the right people helped you? Like how has that helped? Let’s get some specific tangible examples around that.

Billy: Okay, so without going like too deep on you guys, I had a very unique background where my parents both grew up on welfare, but then I personally went to private Catholic school my whole life, and I went to the University of San Diego. And it’s there between these two experiences that I really realized – like you’ve heard the expression you’re the average of the five people that you hang out with the most, but I want to dive deeper on that for everyone.

So, for like my parents, the average of the five people that they hung out or they were around to, not that they chose to, that they were born into was drug dealers, drug users, you know like theft, robbery, murder, all these things. That was the average. Like that’s just what you saw growing up. And then the person who was successful just had enough money to have a job to get by and support themselves.

When I went to the University of San Diego, I saw this new average. And it was like, oh you know my uncle is like the manager of a grocery store; mine’s an attorney, mine’s a doctor, mine’s this. And it raises your standards without you even being aware of it. Meaning, you know, the epitome for someone that grew up with my parents to make it was surviving. Surviving was “making it.” For these other people that I was in college with, making it was like being extremely successful, a multimillionaire. That was not even on the radar for people growing up in certain circumstances because it just never seemed possible.

And what I’m pointing out to you guys is your average – look, the people that you may need to sub out in your life, it might be your parents. It might be your sister, your brother, your best friend. But you really got a change that, and so something that I pride myself on and another reason why we created the studio is to create an environment for people where their average automatically goes up. When we have the studio, and it opens here in a month and a half, and we have some of the smartest entrepreneurs, some of the most successful athletes and musicians of all time sharing their entrepreneurial journey with people and being able to be in that because there’s power in proximity, that’s like what gets me excited.

That’s what I’m passionate about is to create this safe haven away from the matter where anybody’s born or where anybody’s raised, no matter what toxic they have around them, they can come to this safe haven and be inspired and be given paths of people who have actually been there and done it. Not from people who are just talking out of their ass.

JLD: Fire Nation, even though Billy used that kind of weird voice when he said you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, there’s a reason why I end every single episode like that. Because it’s the gosh-darn truth. I mean it’s just absolutely reality that you need to find five people who are bringing up your average. And we're not saying never talk to your mother again or your best friend again who’s literally probably a loser. We’re saying just push them out of your top five, and for some of them way out of your top five. You don’t need to say “I’m never to talk to you again, leave me alone.” You can just say “Listen, I am going to be busy over the next year or so and I’m not to be able to spend as much time with you.”

And you can then have that conversation with them and see how they react and that would probably tell you a lot about their personality and themselves as a person in the first place anyway. So, just make that conversation happen, Fire Nation.

Billy: And I love it, and even to just dive deeper on this because I’m such a believer in it and I totally forgot every episode, exactly, ends with that.

JLD: That’s it.

Billy: So, you obviously believe in it too but everyone here, I want you guys to think about this. You know, if your business and revenue is doing under a million dollars, statistically the challenges that you’re having right now usually fall in two categories. Sales and marketing. If you don’t have marketing nobody even has heard about you before, so there’s no one for you or your team to sell. So, it usually comes down to marketing. You’re just simply not getting enough qualified opportunities in front of you to succeed.

So, something that prides myself with like the School of Genius, which is what we created to show people how to use this social media ads to get customers is just think about it. If the average of the five people that you hang out with are a bunch of other marketers who are really good at getting customers, how long do you have to hang out with these people until you finally get it?

JLD: Right.

Billy: Until it finally clicks. Until it finally starts to work for you. Create your own environment, people. Keep listening to this podcast and surround yourself with a bunch of marketers if marketing is the problem. If sales is the problem and surround yourself with a bunch with a bunch of salesmen. If operations is a problem, surround yourself with a bunch of COOs. But most of the people here it’s marketing is the number one thing that they’re missing. I’ve consulted with so many businesses, and it’s almost always the same case. So, it’s time to change your environment, peeps.

JLD: Billy, I want to know, who’s gonna get the first look at this studio when it’s ready and his initials better be JLD.

Billy: So, we’re going to do like a private VIP launch party for just like friends in the industry, right, like yourself and like probably a bunch of other people that everyone on the podcast has heard about before.

JLD: Sure.

Billy: So, like the first time people see a production from the studio, I want those 28 seats to be filled with some of the biggest influences and the smartest entrepreneurs in the world to set the precedence in the standard for what this is, what this is about. And then shortly after that, man, it’s gonna be for all of our students inside of The School of Genius, right? Where we train them, like take care of your people before you just go to the mass-market. So, just bring our community in, and there’s been some people, John, who have been learning from us for like three years. You know I’ve never met them in person?

JLD: Wow.

Billy: So, to like bring them in and like all of these people from all different parts of the world just to freaking hug them. Man or woman. You know what I mean?

JLD: Totally.

Billy: Like just give them a big ass hug.

JLD: I love that, and I mean we just fully experienced that a couple of weeks ago at Podcast Movement. And for the last four years, every year the Podcast Movement is going – actually sorry, it was it’s the fifth year this year. We have been at all five Podcast Movements, and we have thrown a huge Podcaster’s Paradise Party at every single one of them. And guess what? I get to hug it out with Paradise members, many of whom I’ve only interacted with on Facebook, or you know over –

Billy: How does it feel? How does it feel when that happens?

JLD: It feels amazing. It’s like an in person, like you hug it out – at first you’re like “oh -- you look a little different than your Avatar, but hey what’s up” and you hug it out. It’s like a great experience. You just have a great time, and then we get to go karaoke together, and we get to hang out and watch sessions together and just rap together and in person.

Billy: Yes. And those are the memories that last, right? Those are like – it’s like you have one experience with someone like hey you’re both drinking, and you sing karaoke, and you have that song, and it was like this three-minute experience. But this three-minute experience that virtually ties you together until the end of time. And that’s like, again, you know why go physical in a digital industry? That’s why.

And also, too, just the simple concept of zig versus zag. Everyone is talking about online only. Perfect, I’m gonna go the opposite direction and park right here. Because that moment that you just discussed what you created with Podcaster’s Paradise? Man, that’s what it’s all about.

JLD: So true.

Billy: That’s the fun. That’s the memories. That’s the freaking magic. And that’s why on freaking October 5th people –

JLD: Yes!

Billy: – we’re having our event, The School of Genius Summit, where all of our students are coming from all over the world, and we’re meeting, and there’s some freaking amazing speakers. It’s at a concert venue. It’s gonna be fun. You’re going to laugh a lot. You’re going to learn a bunch of actionable steps, and everybody needs to be there, dangit!

JLD: I love it. I love it. And Fire Nation, you’re listening to Billy Gene. I mean, this is the guy that started listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire when he was living at his parent’s house. And then he was investing in himself going to events and asking questions of Gary Vaynerchuk. Then he’s launching his business, and he’s making sales, and now he’s having a physical business and a studio. Now he’s throwing events and concerts and all these other things going on.

This is really exciting stuff. Now he is the sole sponsor of Entrepreneurs on Fire, which you know is so exciting for myself, because I just know what he’s doing in changing lives. And, Billy, this is when I want to make the real strong call to action for Fire Nation because you do have this amazing opportunity, this great Genius Summit that I would kinda want to talk about. So, break it down for Fire Nation.

Billy: Here’s what I’ll tell you guys. You know you’ve heard the expression that entrepreneurship is the loneliest sport in the world. And I think everyone here, especially since I know there’s a lot of solo entrepreneurs there. The thing is that expression is true, but what is also true is that it doesn’t have to be that way for you. You don’t actually have to do this alone at all. You don’t just have to go to that coffee shop, wake up in your room every single day and just work from there. Like I encourage everyone to come out on October 5, be around like-minded people. And here’s which will take away.

If the only thing stopping you right now from reaching your financial goals and having that extra time, that freedom, being able to provide security for the people you love, is getting more customers. Just more qualified people into your business, this is the best event in the world for you. Because it’s all about how to solve that problem. And if that is where you are, if that is where you’re stuck and if you’re doing this alone, please stop wasting your time because that’s the number one mistake that you can make as an entrepreneur is trying to figure it out by yourself.

Do me a favor, go to learnfrombilly.com right now, fill out an application, talk to someone from our team and will be more than happy to assist you with getting squared away to come out here in sunny San Diego, the best city in the world with perfect weather every single day except when it’s too hot and come out here from learnfrombilly.com. Just go there right now, press pause, and you can come back and freak and – just come. Even if you’re not decided, go there fill out an app and let’s talk about it. Talk with myself, talk with someone on the team and get involved. We’ll support you. We have templates. We – remember, I’ve got an agency. So, we work with 1000s of companies in all different types of industries.

You guys, we’ve recorded almost every single campaign we’ve ever done. You have access to a library of advertisements. Whatever industry you’re in, if you think it’s, you know, it’s so unique, it hasn’t been done before, we’ve probably done it. And we’ve got the marketing part figured out, so you can focus on actually operating your business.

JLD: They’ve done it Fire Nation, they’ve done it, and they are going to share that knowledge with you. So, one more time, that is learnfrombilly.com, learnfrombilly.com. And Billy, I love doing this. You just gave a great audio masterclass. So, give us a final call to action. Like if we could only walk away with one tangible thing from this conversation, what do you want it to be?

Billy: Experiment with your marketing and speed is everything, right? Because if it’s taken you a month to try one thing in marketing? That’s the reason that’s scaring you from doing it again and again. If you don’t have a process in your business to be able to test like once, two, one every three days, then you’re never gonna be able to test fast enough to get the desired result without blowing all of your money.

So, if you’re tired of like guessing and you’re tired of wasting a ton of money on marketing that doesn’t work, please, just go to learnfrombilly.com, hug us in person at the event. We’ll coach you up. We’ll give you support. I’m on calls every Tuesday breaking down campaigns, and just learn about the School of Genius. Learnfrombilly.com. read about it. Check it out, apply. Let’s talk on the phone and then let’s hug it out in person on October 5th.

JLD: Billy, wait for it, Fire Nation you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with and guess what? You’ve been hanging out with BG and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to learnfrombilly.com. Take action, have a conversation with Billy or somebody on his team, and just figure out the event that’s is right for you. If you can’t go there in person for any number of reasons, he has other awesome opportunities that his team can guide you towards. So just head over there, learnfrombilly.com, fill out that form, chat with somebody on his team and make it happen. Take action.

Billy, I want to thank you for sharing your truth with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we will catch you on the flipside.

Billy: Hasta luego!