Key Reflections On Building a $13 Million Dollar Brand in Less Than 5 Years…

You know, I often reflect.  I reflect on pretty much everything.

In fact, I think reflection is one the most valuable qualities you can have.  You might also call it observation, or introspection.  Whatever you want to call it… it’s damn important.

Reflection is the process by which you STUDY yourself.  You make sure you don’t miss any of the golden lessons life is teaching you day by day.  Sometimes we get so caught up, we forget to reflect on our life. This is a bad idea.

If we don’t reflect, our lessons get buried like our emails we just forget to respond to. And reflection is like going back and DIGGING those lessons up… so we LEARN.  So we EVOLVE.  So we don’t keep repeating the same darn mistakes over & over again…

And so recently I thought it would be valuable to reflect on what TRULY were the defining traits, defining moments, defining characteristic, defining skill sets… that led me from being stuck in my parent’s basement with no clue what I was going to do with my life…

… to earning over $13 million dollars in the last 5 years from scratch, and building one of the largest brands to ever exist in our industry.

I thought these reflections might be useful to you, so I decided to share.  Here they are…

Reflection #1: Success Is a Devious Trickster, Who Laughs At Your Pain, Could Care Less About Your Excuses, & Gives You Exactly What You Need Even When You Don’t See It.

The story of how I got started in this industry is CLASSIC.  One of the top Internet Marketers in the world, spending MONTHS on end clicking ads inside a cheesy traffic exchange called “Traffic Swarm”…

… So that he could earn credits to put his ad in front of other people who were clicking ads to earn credits too!  If it sounds kind of pathetic to sit in a dark basement for hours a day clicking ads… well, I guess you’ve never been a true network marketer before. We’re willing to do just about damn near anything.

I literally spent 3 months clicking ads in Traffic Swarm… before I even had a website to send any of that traffic to.

Since I was completely broke, I had someone build my website for free, in exchange for them to put their adsense code on it.  Well… that took 2 1/2 months.

The very first day I “launched” my free 2 1/2 month piece of artwork website inside traffic swarm… I used something like 1600 of my credits in 12 hours.  In other words… that was  weeks of my life’s work gone, and not one lead produced.

  Now it’s during moments like these that I think most people would be disheartened.  But here’s where my reflection comes in…

… I don’t even remember stopping to think about it for more than like 10 seconds.  I came to this conclusion my website did not work very quickly, and instead of feeling sorry for myself, draining all my energy by complaining, & wishing things weren’t the way they were…  I INSTANTLY moved on.

I thought to myself… “ok, well that didn’t work. I’ll try something else.”

And that was that.  I just moved on in pursuit of a better solution.  Pretty simple right?  Easier said then done.  And that’s where INSIGHT comes in very handy.  You see, here’s the Irony of success.

Many people would think something like “Traffic Swarm” is a complete waste of time. But you have to remember… there were barely any mentors back then.   Mike Dillard was just getting started.  No one had a CLUE what ppc marketing was.  I hadn’t ever heard of anyone talking about using the Internet.  I was on my own.

And lo & behold… during the 3 months I spent clicking those stupid ads inside traffic swarm, I started LEARNING Internet Marketing.

I started seeing other people’s capture pages, other people’s sales pages. I started getting on different marketers lists, and learning about email marketing, list building, traffic, and all these other things.

The time I spent inside Traffic Swarm is where I literally got started with my Internet Marketing career, without ever even knowing I was on a path to have an Internet Marketing career.

If I had never found that cheesy, crummy little site... and clicked ads for months on end to get almost nothing… I would not be where I am today. That is just fascinating to think about.

We have no idea why certain experiences come into our lives.  Yet there is a divine order behind it all.  Every experience has the ability to teach us something profound if we let it.  But you have to be committed to STICKING everything through long enough to see what your lessons actually are.

Like the great Steve Jobs said… “You can’t connect the dots going forward.  Only going backward.”

You’ve got to have faith.  You’ve got to have faith in yourself, faith in the universe, & faith that there is no such thing as going backward.  There is ONLY learning.  Only growing. Going backward is an illusion.  You only lose if you quit.  Trust in the divine plan that is YOUR LIFE, and that it’s unfolding exactly as it is suppose to.

Reflection #2: What’s Failure?

This is probably the biggest insight into success, period.

Now, like everyone usually does, I “Failed” my butt off.  Yet I want to dive deeper into what that word means, and propose a few better beliefs for you to go home with today rather than the ones you might have.

I never “failed” at anything more in my life then when I started network marketing.  I didn’t know it was possible to fail so much at one thing.

Literally, every single thing I tried did not work.  There were tiny crumbs of a success here or there.  Like, I maybe signed up one customer here, one other person there… but I lost way more money than I made & worked so hard it was insane.

And while most people wouldn’t wish that on anyone… I wish it on EVERYONE.

That time period of my life taught me the greatest lessons about myself I’ve almost ever learned.  I learned what it means to be UNSTOPPABLE from that time period in my life.

I can clearly see now, the ONLY DAMN REASON I am still here writing this is because I didn’t stop.  I had every excuse in the book to stop back then… along with a completely smashed hope… and no real way I could see how I was going to turn it around.

Yet I didn’t stop.

I just kept attempting one solution after another, after another, after another.  Like a dog that just could not be beat down, I didn’t stop.  As far as I can tell… that is the secret to success.  That is the secret to becoming a true master.

True masters just do not ever stop.  For them, failure is a sign that they are MOVING FORWARD.  They’re figuring out what works and what does not work.

Eventually… I found “Traffic Swarm”, & the rest is history. (haha, yea right)

In our lives, every single one of us will ultimately reach that point where the universe dangles a big giant carrot in front of us, in the form of our dreams.

And then for most of us… we have to do unimaginable things for it.  We have to work harder than we even knew was possible. Get stretched in ways we didn’t even know our being could stretch.  Get challenged like we didn’t even know you could be challenged.

All of this is our TEST.  The “Test” comes to everyone of us… and we either pass or fail.

And guess what, the test was designed for everyone.  It was designed so no one could possibly have an excuse for why they didn’t pass.  Want to know why?

Because you fail if you quit.  You pass if you never stop.

It’s that simple.  Yet never stop doesn’t mean you sit around and read emails like this every once & a while.  You’ve got to stay COMMITTED, plugged into the game. You have to continuously put your energy into your dream… and always be taking action towards reaching it in some form.  That’s never stopping.

Looking back… I can see that I failed forward fast.  Because I tried so many things fast, and failed at all of them… I got to a better solution quicker.  I advise you to do the same thing.

Reflection #3: The Only Hope Of Success You Have Is Contained Within Your Vision.

Well, why would you never stop?  When something hurts, is killing you, is harder than hell… why not just stop?

YOUR VISION my friend.  Your vision.  It’s the only damn thing you’ve got at that point.

If I didn’t have a vision within me… something worth fighting and DYING for… I would have stopped. Can you imagine how much of a shame that would have been?

And unfortunately I think this is most people’s problem.  They say they want to be successful, they say they want their own business… but at the end of the day there’s no substance to it.

It’s like they just say that because they “think it’s cool”.  Or they think it will make them happier some how.  And there’s no real vision for why they want it beyond just that they think they will be happier.

Well, I can promise you, you will not be happier.  In fact… without this vision, you don’t stand a damn chance. You will get eaten alive.

If you don’t have a vision worth any cost, trust me…you WILL be happier just doing something else.

The only thing that makes being an entrepreneur worthwhile is your VISION.  It’s the fact you see a possibility for your life that is so extraordinary, you’ve got to go for it no matter what it costs.

And you’re willing to do whatever it takes to reach it.  Whatever it takes.  Plain & simple.  It doesn’t matter… life without your vision is simply crap.

That’s the kind of vision I’m talking about.  If you don’t have it… you need to reflect.  You need to take a good honest look at your life, & ask yourself… “what is this really about for me?”  “What do I really want?”  “Why am I doing this?”.

Without a vision worth ANY cost you could ever pay… it’s likely you won’t reach knock it out of the park success.  The vision is the driver.

Thankfully, I had some early life experiences where I realized there was more to life than the path being suggested to me.  I knew I could create something beautiful with my life… and no other path seemed to make sense.  I wanted to give back to the world in a much bigger way than any college career paths were offering me.

MAJOR POINT: if you want to quit it’s because your vision is shit. No true entrepreneur in their right mind would ever give up on their vision.

Reflection #4: The Beauty Of Imperfection Is That You GET STARTED.

Now, this part many of you know VERY well.

I don’t have to tell you how often I hear from my students some rendition of “I can’t get started until I’m perfect” come out of their mouth.  The reason I don’t have to tell you about it… is because it’s likely THAT’S YOU.

So pay close attention to this reflection.  Because it’s one that truly sheds an incredible light on the ultra performers.

When I look back at the last 5 years… one thing becomes EXTREMELY evident to me.

HOW IMPERFECT I AM.

I have made so many mistakes, it’s not even funny.  I have created so many imperfect projects, I have lost count.

I remember when we first launched the 7-figure networker system 1ShoppingCart changed their platform the WEEK we launched it… and this giant function we needed to be able to integrate with properly was gone.

In my panic… I rushed to start building my own shopping cart for the system. I spent close to $40,000 and 4 months developing it…

… then one day found a service provider that could handle all our needs & scratched the entire project just to re invest a ton of it in them.  Yea… pure brilliance.

One time… I realized I had been advertising on PPC for almost 5 months, spent over $25,000 on marketing… only to discover that my “thank you pages” were busted the entire time!!  Not one person was even seeing my sales page.

I could not give you an answer for how it’s possible I spent $25,000 on a broken funnel and didn’t figure it out for months.  But trust me, ridiculously dumb stuff is always possible when you’re a human!

I have so many stories like this.

As you can see my RUSH to get things done has come at a high high cost at times…

… yet at the same time, it’s one of my greatest qualities. It’s one of the reasons I’ve grown so fast in such a short period of time.

As it turns out… YOU DON’T NEED TO BE PERFECT to make a lot of money. (or to do pretty much anything.)

What I’ve discovered is that this “thinking everything needs to be perfect before you start” concept, is really just a MASK for someone’s fear.

It’s really just a mask for their fear of failure, fear of inadequacy, fear of putting themselves out there, fear of what others will think of them.  FEAR.

So… in essence it’s complete B.S.  When you think like this, you don’t really care that it’s “perfect”, you’re just coming up with an excuse for why you don’t need to face your fear.

Think about that.  It’s life changing.

Because if you really want to move forward fast… you will go INTO your resistance.  If you find something challenges you… you go INTO it.  Not the opposite like most people, who run away.

If you’re afraid to get started because you feel “you don’t know enough yet”… that’s an EXACT sign you should go get started. It’s an exact sign you should go get started RIGHT NOW & just take some action.

I don’t care what it is… calling prospects, putting up ads, making videos, writing blog posts, 3-way calling…

… if you feel you aren’t “ready” to get started, that is the EXACT sign you need to get started right now.

This is single handedly the most differentiating characteristic of the most powerful & successful people I’ve ever met.

And when I reflect on my life, I discover that this thinking things had to be perfect before I could get started was not present.

I realize now… just how much of a gift that was.  I think it might have had to do with my vision.  My vision was just so important to me… I couldn’t even consider stopping moving forward on it.  No matter what, I was committed to DOING.  Not waiting.

Learn from that my friend.  You do not need to be perfect.  You are ready to get started right now.

Have the willingness to challenge yourself.  When you feel “resistance” to something… that’s a big sign you should GO INTO IT.

If you feel resistance to doing something… DO IT.  If you feel resistance to talking to someone… TALK TO THEM.

The willingness to enter into what you have resistance to… is a profound quality of successful & happy people.  If this willingness isn’t there… we forever live inside our comfort zones, never really stepping out.  Never really challenging ourselves.

Never really experiencing our true potential.

Don’t waste your life like that.  As you already know by reflecting on your current age & how fast it came… life is to damn short.

Final Reflections For Your Continued Growth…

Life is a journey my friend.  A journey.

I know sometimes it seems like there’s a “place to get to”.  I know sometimes it seems like we are actually heading somewhere.  But I assure you… we are not.

In the end… we all die. The only real “place” any of us is going is into death.  And even that… is likely just the beginning of another journey.

When I reflect back onto what’s given me a lot of power, power to just move forward even when it was really tough…

… it’s because there is a core thread of detachment present in my life.

A part of me is just not very attached to what happens.  I’ve realized that I am going to die far sooner than I think… and when I do, everything I think currently matters really won’t.

So why would I not just ENJOY this journey right now?  Why would I not enjoy every process of my life?  Why would I not take the failures, the challenges, the successes, the struggles, the joys…

… why would I not take it all as just part of the journey?  Why weight any of it better or worse than any other part?

It’s all just the experience of life. And last I knew… the point of life was to GROW.  It was to evolve.  It was to experience… and learn from every single thing we can.

So long as I am learning, growing, & evolving along my Journey… I know I’m exactly where I need to be.

I don’t need to reach some made up goal of how many #’s are on a screen inside my bank account to be happy.  That’s for amateurs.  That’s for the people who are still extremely immature in their understanding of life.

The mature understanding of life is far more wise than that… because the mature perspective knows that life is just a brief flame… that you’ve only got a hold of for so long & then it’s gone.

And to do anything other than appreciate each moment for EXACTLY what it is… is the folly of insane person.  Which we all frequently are. 

But hey, admitting it is the first step.  So I admit it.

Enjoy YOUR journey today my friends.  I hope you found some value in my reflections on what REALLY mattered over the last few years to create a fortune.

Go forth & apply these principles to your life & I promise you’ll see some huge results.  They work.

Your friend,
Jonathan Budd

P.S. please get the word out & share this post with your followers & friends.  There’s no reason we all have to repeat the same mistakes, lets learn from each other!