1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,010 announcer: a marketer of the Day episode 802 The Code of Business 2 00:00:05,010 --> 00:00:09,150 Building, marketing, product development and launches with 3 00:00:09,150 --> 00:00:10,440 Tracy Childers. 4 00:00:15,269 --> 00:00:17,639 Robert Plank: Hey everyone, welcome back to another exciting 5 00:00:17,639 --> 00:00:20,669 interview inside Double Agent Marketing. My name is Robert 6 00:00:20,669 --> 00:00:24,149 plank. And we're going to talk today to a really smart guy. His 7 00:00:24,149 --> 00:00:27,179 name is Tracy Childers. If that name sounds familiar, you might 8 00:00:27,179 --> 00:00:30,149 have heard of his dad, John Childers, who teaches people how 9 00:00:30,149 --> 00:00:33,719 to speak and sell from the stage. He has a brother JJ 10 00:00:33,719 --> 00:00:37,499 Childers, who teaches you how to protect your assets, save money 11 00:00:37,499 --> 00:00:41,219 on taxes, but you're gonna be blown away by that even better 12 00:00:41,219 --> 00:00:45,749 children's Mr. Tracy shoulders. He is probably one of the 13 00:00:45,749 --> 00:00:49,289 smartest marketers I've ever come across in the past 1020, 14 00:00:49,289 --> 00:00:52,379 even 30 years or more, he's going to talk to you about how 15 00:00:52,379 --> 00:00:56,969 to work a lot smarter with your business and outsource it so 16 00:00:56,969 --> 00:01:01,349 that you can still make money but not do as much of the work. 17 00:01:01,349 --> 00:01:02,339 Hey, Tracy, what's up? 18 00:01:02,639 --> 00:01:05,819 Unknown: Hey, Robert, thanks for that kind introduction. I don't 19 00:01:05,819 --> 00:01:07,469 know if I can live up to all that well, 20 00:01:07,859 --> 00:01:09,899 Robert Plank: oh, well, you know, you're a humble guy, 21 00:01:09,929 --> 00:01:12,689 outspoken guy, but I'm pretty sure you can live up to that and 22 00:01:12,689 --> 00:01:16,739 more if you put your mind to it. So I top of what I just told 23 00:01:16,739 --> 00:01:19,769 everyone about you. I mean, I mean, if someone asks, what do 24 00:01:19,769 --> 00:01:21,779 you do? What would you tell them? I guess? 25 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,140 Unknown: That's kind of a funny question. I mean, all of my 26 00:01:25,140 --> 00:01:27,930 friends here in town are like, you know, we've known you for, I 27 00:01:27,930 --> 00:01:31,770 don't know how many years, but we still just don't know exactly 28 00:01:31,770 --> 00:01:35,910 what it is that you do. Like, we know that you work from home, 29 00:01:35,910 --> 00:01:38,280 and we know that you have a nice house and a nice car and 30 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,760 everything, but we're kind of questioning it. You know, it 31 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:48,810 really, you know, you said some kind words about being a good 32 00:01:48,810 --> 00:01:52,830 marketer. And, you know, if when you're talking to some people, 33 00:01:52,830 --> 00:01:55,200 you say, really, that's ultimately what it comes down 34 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,790 to? It's, I'd say that I'm an internet marketer. Now it to 35 00:01:59,790 --> 00:02:04,350 break things down into what most people would understand in terms 36 00:02:04,350 --> 00:02:09,150 of what do I actually do? I'd say that I'm an owner of a small 37 00:02:09,180 --> 00:02:12,660 software development company. And so naturally, people 38 00:02:12,690 --> 00:02:17,520 immediately think, Oh, so you're a programmer? Well, no, not 39 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,190 really a programmer, I don't even know how to write code. And 40 00:02:20,970 --> 00:02:24,240 that that really throws people for a loop. So what what I 41 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:28,770 basically explained to people who say, so imagine a contractor 42 00:02:28,770 --> 00:02:32,850 on your house, you say, hey, I want to build this house. And 43 00:02:32,850 --> 00:02:35,730 the contractor says, Okay, I know all of the steps that it 44 00:02:35,730 --> 00:02:38,400 takes, in order to get that done, then we're going to get a 45 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,040 different person to do the plumbing, we're going to get 46 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:43,290 somebody else to do the framing, and then we're gonna get 47 00:02:43,290 --> 00:02:46,770 somebody else to do the electrical wiring. So it's very 48 00:02:46,770 --> 00:02:49,980 much being like a contractor of house, I guess, I'm a contractor 49 00:02:50,130 --> 00:02:55,140 in terms of building software, products, and, and then people 50 00:02:55,140 --> 00:02:59,100 say, oh, so maybe you do that for a client? No, I don't ever 51 00:02:59,730 --> 00:03:04,380 do that for clients for a piece of work. We do that, because we 52 00:03:04,380 --> 00:03:08,190 try to find out, what is it that people would want to buy? So 53 00:03:08,190 --> 00:03:12,090 ultimately, that leads back to, hey, I'm really an internet 54 00:03:12,090 --> 00:03:13,140 marketer at heart. 55 00:03:13,860 --> 00:03:15,750 Robert Plank: So it's almost like you're like a software 56 00:03:15,750 --> 00:03:17,310 contractors for yourself? 57 00:03:17,670 --> 00:03:20,550 Unknown: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, we're building a company, 58 00:03:20,550 --> 00:03:23,310 I mean, I've always just kind of been interested in technical 59 00:03:23,310 --> 00:03:27,270 things and such. And so I just kind of learned, hey, software 60 00:03:27,270 --> 00:03:30,540 is really the stuff that I'm most interested in. So why not 61 00:03:30,540 --> 00:03:33,630 try to make cool software that other people like as well, and 62 00:03:33,630 --> 00:03:36,840 then make money from selling it to them. And really the thing, 63 00:03:36,990 --> 00:03:40,500 when I said I don't really do things for clients, I didn't do 64 00:03:40,500 --> 00:03:44,730 that in the past, what I realize is, I really wanted to focus on 65 00:03:44,730 --> 00:03:49,260 one thing, and make it as good as possible, and then sell that 66 00:03:49,260 --> 00:03:52,800 said, that same thing over and over and over and over and over. 67 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:56,610 So, you know, many of the products that I have, you know, 68 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:02,310 this the exact same product has been sold 1000s of times. So 69 00:04:02,310 --> 00:04:04,650 that's, that's kind of a good position to be in. 70 00:04:05,459 --> 00:04:07,889 Robert Plank: And I mean, that's such a good point. Because, I 71 00:04:07,889 --> 00:04:10,679 mean, as a guy who does software myself, I was in the same 72 00:04:10,679 --> 00:04:15,179 position, I would make software or do jobs for other people 73 00:04:15,179 --> 00:04:18,659 before doing it for myself. And it's like, I mean, you're never 74 00:04:18,659 --> 00:04:23,129 gonna care as much doing it for someone else as for yourself. 75 00:04:23,159 --> 00:04:26,459 Right, right. Oh, yeah. So and it's like, you do a job for 76 00:04:26,459 --> 00:04:29,489 someone and then you get paid, you know, by hourly or for the 77 00:04:29,489 --> 00:04:32,039 job. And then it's done. But it's cool. Like you said, this 78 00:04:32,039 --> 00:04:35,939 sell 1000s copies to improve it over the course of two or three 79 00:04:35,939 --> 00:04:38,789 years of like trial, different features, or even to be the 80 00:04:38,789 --> 00:04:42,059 contractor to be the guy in charge and say, We I want to add 81 00:04:42,059 --> 00:04:44,819 this feature, or like this feature maybe the competitors 82 00:04:44,819 --> 00:04:47,939 have or this sounds cool, but we don't want to go in that 83 00:04:47,939 --> 00:04:48,449 direction. 84 00:04:49,260 --> 00:04:52,110 Unknown: Yeah, and you know, you said something like when when 85 00:04:52,110 --> 00:04:55,890 you do the work for a client, and then you get paid for the, 86 00:04:56,580 --> 00:05:00,300 the work and then it's over. I think Robert Kiyosaki was The 87 00:05:00,300 --> 00:05:03,810 one that I first really kind of understood that in his book, 88 00:05:03,810 --> 00:05:06,420 Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you know, he calls it, you know, you're 89 00:05:06,420 --> 00:05:10,860 really just trading your dollars for hours or your hours for 90 00:05:10,860 --> 00:05:14,160 dollars. And, you know, I just want to be able to focus on 91 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:18,480 something, then continuously and consistently make it better and 92 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:21,690 better and better, and then still be able to sell it to 93 00:05:21,690 --> 00:05:24,900 multiple people. So that that's really kind of how I got into 94 00:05:24,900 --> 00:05:25,380 all that. 95 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:27,990 Robert Plank: And then, I mean, it sounds like, um, we'll talk 96 00:05:27,990 --> 00:05:31,200 about some of your businesses in a few minutes. But the way that 97 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:35,670 you set things up, once you kind of have it in motion, you don't 98 00:05:35,670 --> 00:05:36,990 really have to do too much. 99 00:05:37,170 --> 00:05:41,670 Unknown: Yeah, exactly. And I guess that's kind of really the 100 00:05:41,670 --> 00:05:45,270 thing that I always kind of focus on, you know, a lot of the 101 00:05:45,300 --> 00:05:48,480 products that I've done in the past, you know, I have done them 102 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:51,900 a little bit differently than the way I'm doing things now, in 103 00:05:51,900 --> 00:05:56,700 the sense that, you know, it was really, it was kind of just me 104 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:01,410 and working with outsourcers. But then it's like, I was kind 105 00:06:01,410 --> 00:06:04,500 of the brainchild on it. Like I set everything in motion, but 106 00:06:04,500 --> 00:06:13,290 but my whole, I guess focus is always kind of how do I remove 107 00:06:13,290 --> 00:06:18,750 myself from the picture? And what I mean is, like, once the 108 00:06:18,750 --> 00:06:22,800 product is able to sell, I mean, how do I get out of doing all 109 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,590 the technical support, because I think when you and I first met, 110 00:06:25,590 --> 00:06:29,340 that was something that you were doing a ton of time on. And what 111 00:06:29,340 --> 00:06:32,730 I realized is if you set it up the right way, in the beginning, 112 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,200 and you're gonna have to realize that the majority of the, the 113 00:06:37,230 --> 00:06:40,230 questions for technical support will all come in in the 114 00:06:40,230 --> 00:06:43,410 beginning. So you kind of have to answer them. And then 115 00:06:43,590 --> 00:06:46,350 ultimately, when you answer them, then somebody else can 116 00:06:46,350 --> 00:06:50,610 come in and say, Oh, now I see how it was done. So I can just 117 00:06:50,610 --> 00:06:53,400 follow in your footsteps and do that. And then I get somebody 118 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:57,390 else to take over. And now I'm on to, you know, whatever else 119 00:06:57,390 --> 00:07:00,810 I'm going to be doing. So really, all of that is the way 120 00:07:00,810 --> 00:07:08,340 that I work is I never, ever, ever get paid. For the stuff 121 00:07:08,340 --> 00:07:13,410 that I'm actually working on right now. It has to all be 122 00:07:13,410 --> 00:07:17,610 finished. And then whenever it's finished, that's when I started 123 00:07:17,610 --> 00:07:22,080 getting paid. And see, it's kind of cool because I get paid. And 124 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,080 I'm not even working on that I'm completely done. And I just keep 125 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:29,490 generating money. And now I'm focusing on something new, that 126 00:07:29,490 --> 00:07:32,460 will kind of move down in that cycle. And whenever it's 127 00:07:32,460 --> 00:07:36,450 finished, then I get paid on that. So you can imagine, you 128 00:07:36,450 --> 00:07:40,680 start getting these multiple entities out that are past, 129 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:43,620 those are the ones that are generating money. So that's why 130 00:07:44,310 --> 00:07:50,100 your income can really, really increase. Because it's not 131 00:07:50,100 --> 00:07:52,890 limited to the amount of time that you have. 132 00:07:53,670 --> 00:07:56,070 Robert Plank: That makes total sense. And it's so cool, right? 133 00:07:56,070 --> 00:07:59,970 So to get paid for stuff you did 2345 years ago, and it's still 134 00:08:00,090 --> 00:08:00,750 paying you every 135 00:08:00,750 --> 00:08:03,150 Unknown: day, every month. It's a great way to wake up. 136 00:08:04,650 --> 00:08:06,930 Robert Plank: That's for sure. So, you know, before we get to 137 00:08:06,930 --> 00:08:10,770 off on a tangent, tell me how you've been how you got or how 138 00:08:10,770 --> 00:08:13,890 did you even discover, you know, into marketing and software and 139 00:08:13,890 --> 00:08:14,610 that kind of stuff? 140 00:08:15,060 --> 00:08:17,220 Unknown: Well, it is a good question, brother. You know, you 141 00:08:17,220 --> 00:08:21,900 had mentioned that my father has done quite a few seminars and 142 00:08:21,900 --> 00:08:25,800 also our brothers into up. So when my brother and I were at a 143 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,910 very, very young age. I mean, my father just kind of got us, you 144 00:08:29,910 --> 00:08:33,630 know, into working in his business. And I mean, basically, 145 00:08:33,780 --> 00:08:37,650 he wasn't internet marketing, back then it was information 146 00:08:37,650 --> 00:08:42,870 marketing. And the majority of the way that he did all of his 147 00:08:42,870 --> 00:08:47,550 was he sold things from seminars. And so you know, he 148 00:08:47,550 --> 00:08:51,120 taught people how to invest in real estate and really like when 149 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,540 I was 11 years old. It's crazy, because I have a son that's at 150 00:08:54,540 --> 00:08:59,160 age. Did you hear that? Oh, yeah, I had lots of hair back 151 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:04,440 then. But I mean, when I was 11 years old, I started duplicating 152 00:09:04,470 --> 00:09:09,000 audio tapes and putting them in the binders and packing them up 153 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,210 in boxes and shipping them to things. So I just that's the 154 00:09:12,210 --> 00:09:17,310 natural way I thought in terms of business is Oh, wow, he 155 00:09:17,310 --> 00:09:20,310 created this thing one time, and now we're sending it to you 156 00:09:20,310 --> 00:09:23,730 know, 1000s of people. So I always kind of thought that way. 157 00:09:24,030 --> 00:09:27,600 And then I also always kind of got into computers as they were 158 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:31,500 coming out and started learning new things about computers. And 159 00:09:31,500 --> 00:09:39,030 so naturally, right before the the internet came along, I was 160 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:43,800 really getting into computers and I was doing database work 161 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:47,280 and exactly what I say I don't ever do I used to do, I used to 162 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,310 actually go to a client's office, and I would kind of 163 00:09:50,310 --> 00:09:53,670 analyze, Hey, what are you doing and how are you doing it with 164 00:09:53,670 --> 00:09:57,090 your computers? And how are you tracking everything in terms of 165 00:09:57,090 --> 00:10:00,570 your database, and then I would design databases for small 166 00:10:00,570 --> 00:10:03,810 businesses, so I kind of got into a little bit of 167 00:10:03,810 --> 00:10:07,440 programming, but I was using a program called FileMaker Pro, 168 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,710 which was, you know, it was kind of like Microsoft Access. And it 169 00:10:10,710 --> 00:10:14,400 had a really nice scripting system. And so I didn't really 170 00:10:14,430 --> 00:10:18,300 know how to write code, but I, I could build stuff. And so then 171 00:10:18,300 --> 00:10:23,010 the kind of evolution goes, I went in, I started creating 172 00:10:23,850 --> 00:10:27,180 databases that were actual products. So I created some 173 00:10:27,180 --> 00:10:32,010 products, then my father was selling them at seminars. And so 174 00:10:32,010 --> 00:10:34,890 it really started doing that and pretty young age. And then as 175 00:10:34,890 --> 00:10:38,130 the internet came along, I just like, Man, this is just a 176 00:10:38,130 --> 00:10:41,640 natural fit. So I wanted to learn everything there was about 177 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:44,850 how the Internet work and how you could sell things. And, and 178 00:10:44,850 --> 00:10:48,000 that's kind of where just kind of went on from there. 179 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:50,940 Robert Plank: Awesome. And I mean, and you have some of the 180 00:10:50,940 --> 00:10:54,360 coolest, the coolest sites, and the ones that I know about, I 181 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:58,110 know you have like a video player product, and then you 182 00:10:58,110 --> 00:11:01,440 have a character at your site. How did you even stumble across 183 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:02,130 that? Yeah, 184 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:05,220 Unknown: well, those are both completely different stories. I 185 00:11:05,220 --> 00:11:09,450 mean, I'll just mentioned the caricature site real quick. I 186 00:11:09,450 --> 00:11:13,980 started traveling to the Philippines. And I started 187 00:11:13,980 --> 00:11:16,770 working with programmers over there. And then through the 188 00:11:16,770 --> 00:11:20,190 course, we we met a guy that was just an extremely talented 189 00:11:20,190 --> 00:11:24,060 artist, and he really specialized in doing 190 00:11:24,060 --> 00:11:27,690 caricatures. So we, you know, that's, that's how that 191 00:11:27,810 --> 00:11:33,210 caricature site got created. Other thing is actually, I 192 00:11:33,210 --> 00:11:38,010 think, kind of a more important lesson. And the product is 193 00:11:38,010 --> 00:11:43,200 called f L v, producer FL, V stands for flash video. And the 194 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:46,320 products actually been out for quite a while now, you know, I 195 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:49,920 think I've been selling it for about six years. So you can 196 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:55,140 imagine, back then everybody was fighting, they didn't really 197 00:11:55,140 --> 00:12:00,060 know what the ultimate video format was going to be the 198 00:12:00,060 --> 00:12:04,710 standard. And you know, Flash video kind of emerged as the the 199 00:12:04,710 --> 00:12:08,850 winner at that time, you know, and so people, people wanted to 200 00:12:08,850 --> 00:12:12,570 have Oh, playing in a flash video player on their website. 201 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:16,320 And really, there were only a few ways of doing it. And back 202 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:19,830 then, probably the most popular one was a product called 203 00:12:19,830 --> 00:12:24,420 Sorenson squeeze. And what I, what I found was that every time 204 00:12:24,420 --> 00:12:28,590 I would talk to people, they would say, almost exactly the 205 00:12:28,590 --> 00:12:33,270 same thing. And this is really, really key. Because once you 206 00:12:33,270 --> 00:12:37,320 understand this thing, this is how I have faced the majority of 207 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:42,690 my products and businesses. They say, yeah, man, that's a great 208 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:47,490 product, but it's just very complicated to use, or 209 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:52,140 complicated to understand, or it just doesn't do this, I wish it 210 00:12:52,140 --> 00:12:55,650 would do that. And so I just kept hearing that over and over. 211 00:12:55,650 --> 00:12:59,730 And so then it was decided, hey, you know, something needs to be 212 00:12:59,730 --> 00:13:03,900 done better. You know. So that's where the FLV producer came 213 00:13:03,900 --> 00:13:09,480 along. And it was a better scenario than almost anything 214 00:13:09,540 --> 00:13:13,200 that was out there at the time. You know, since then, a lot of 215 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:16,740 people have figured out, you know, video is a hot thing. And 216 00:13:16,740 --> 00:13:19,170 now there's, I mean, when I did that, that was even before 217 00:13:19,170 --> 00:13:24,030 YouTube, no Vimeo, or anything like that, you know, it's 218 00:13:24,030 --> 00:13:27,030 really, really changed quite a bit. So that's the same thing. 219 00:13:27,180 --> 00:13:30,750 You know, now, I have other software that's, you know, 220 00:13:30,780 --> 00:13:34,350 gotten to be quite popular, and we have a big company behind it. 221 00:13:34,350 --> 00:13:36,900 But it was a very similar scenario, in the sense that 222 00:13:37,170 --> 00:13:41,130 people were saying, I wish there was a solution that did this. 223 00:13:41,940 --> 00:13:44,430 Robert Plank: And that's, that's a cool way of going about it. 224 00:13:44,430 --> 00:13:48,000 Because, I mean, it always sucks. If you're the first 225 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,100 person, I mean, like, say, you were the first person to come up 226 00:13:50,100 --> 00:13:53,730 with an FLV, video player, it would kind of suck because you 227 00:13:53,730 --> 00:13:56,250 wouldn't have anything to base it on. You've put in all this 228 00:13:56,250 --> 00:13:59,460 work into it and wouldn't really know, you know, if you were 229 00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:01,980 designing it right, or if it made sense. And then when 230 00:14:01,980 --> 00:14:05,460 someone inevitably knocked you off, then you'd feel like, well, 231 00:14:05,460 --> 00:14:08,250 I, you know, I was the guinea pig, I did all this work. But on 232 00:14:08,250 --> 00:14:11,850 the other hand, if you see that, there already are video players 233 00:14:11,850 --> 00:14:14,160 out there, and some do this, some do that and you're like, 234 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,320 Well, I'm just kind of, I'm not going to copy what I'm just 235 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:20,190 going to see, you know, they spent a year or two figuring out 236 00:14:20,190 --> 00:14:23,940 what, what what was right what was wrong, and then I'll make my 237 00:14:23,940 --> 00:14:28,350 own knockoff, but my own version of this, and then if someone 238 00:14:28,350 --> 00:14:31,890 else knocks me off, what's it's okay, because it's just, you 239 00:14:31,890 --> 00:14:33,810 know, I knock someone else off to begin with, right. 240 00:14:34,350 --> 00:14:37,530 Unknown: Yeah, I mean, I think that you said some pretty key 241 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:43,440 stuff there. Robert. Number one is you say to be the very first 242 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,850 person to me, you know, there are people that are the very 243 00:14:47,850 --> 00:14:52,650 first and to me, that seems to me like it's the most 244 00:14:52,650 --> 00:14:58,440 complicated scenario around where I think the majority of 245 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,210 the money is, is being Seeing almost first, you know, you can 246 00:15:03,210 --> 00:15:06,960 see what's kind of working. So you don't have to completely 247 00:15:07,260 --> 00:15:10,560 create something from scratch, you see what's kind of working? 248 00:15:10,590 --> 00:15:14,790 And then you make it really good. You know, I mean, I spent 249 00:15:14,940 --> 00:15:19,020 tons of time on FLV producer and tons of things that I didn't 250 00:15:19,020 --> 00:15:22,380 know and other people didn't know. And we made it better. But 251 00:15:22,380 --> 00:15:26,220 then what happens? After that you said, then there's knock 252 00:15:26,220 --> 00:15:29,760 offs. I mean, I, you know, I guess you could take it as a 253 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:32,610 compliment or so. But there were people that were coming out, and 254 00:15:32,610 --> 00:15:36,960 they were seeing my success, and they were copying, almost to a 255 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:40,080 tee exactly is basically they were saying, hey, I want to make 256 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,310 a clone of this software, I want it to do exactly what that one 257 00:15:44,310 --> 00:15:47,040 looks like. And I want it even to look the same. And people 258 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:51,300 were making players that looked almost identical. And you know, 259 00:15:51,330 --> 00:15:53,820 you know, then they, they probably made a lot of money. 260 00:15:53,820 --> 00:15:56,100 But I just don't think that that's what you want to be. And 261 00:15:56,100 --> 00:15:59,340 I think you want to be just after first and kind of be a 262 00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:01,890 little bit innovative, but not have to create everything on 263 00:16:01,890 --> 00:16:02,190 your 264 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,240 Robert Plank: one. And what's funny is those people who tried 265 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,540 to knock you off, exactly, I bet that I mean, it wasn't an exact 266 00:16:09,540 --> 00:16:12,180 copy. And they're probably like, maybe a few little things that 267 00:16:12,180 --> 00:16:15,030 you said, Well, you know, maybe they didn't even realize that 268 00:16:15,030 --> 00:16:17,280 they made their own improvements. And it's, it's 269 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:20,760 kind of like capitalism, right? Like, yeah, like, they knock you 270 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:23,250 off. And then you can kind of like, absorb the changes and, 271 00:16:23,730 --> 00:16:27,210 and, you know, get one step ahead of them again. Yeah, yeah. 272 00:16:27,930 --> 00:16:30,690 And I mean, I hate always, whenever I talk about software, 273 00:16:30,690 --> 00:16:33,570 if you will always end up going back to like, like Apple and 274 00:16:33,570 --> 00:16:36,300 iPhone stuff. But I mean, everyone always kinda, you know, 275 00:16:36,420 --> 00:16:39,150 talks about whatever, like iPhone versus Android. And it's 276 00:16:39,150 --> 00:16:40,830 like, always, like, the Android phones, they always come up 277 00:16:40,830 --> 00:16:43,530 with, like, the newest features first, but they're always kinda, 278 00:16:44,130 --> 00:16:47,430 you know, they're the guinea pig. And I mean, it's, I didn't 279 00:16:47,430 --> 00:16:50,850 take like a year or two, for even an iPhone to come up with 280 00:16:50,850 --> 00:16:53,880 copy and paste, because they just wanted to see how everyone 281 00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:57,000 else did copy and paste on the phone. And then their way was 282 00:16:57,090 --> 00:16:59,490 the simplest, because they said, well, there's five ways to do 283 00:16:59,490 --> 00:17:02,160 it. There's only one that makes sense. Yeah. 284 00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:06,300 Unknown: You know, I know, we don't have a lot of time, 285 00:17:06,330 --> 00:17:10,290 Robert. Yeah. And you mentioned apple and iPhone and stuff like 286 00:17:10,290 --> 00:17:14,040 that. And I do want to say one thing, because a lot of times 287 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,670 people, you know, hear about software and stuff like that, 288 00:17:17,670 --> 00:17:20,340 and they're like, Oh, well, that's all good for Robert and 289 00:17:20,340 --> 00:17:24,180 Tracy, because those guys are technical. And, you know, Robert 290 00:17:24,180 --> 00:17:29,010 can write code. And I really, really want to emphasize on the 291 00:17:29,010 --> 00:17:34,980 fact that I really do not know how to write any code. And so, 292 00:17:35,010 --> 00:17:39,000 you know, people, it's almost like they're using that as a 293 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,380 scapegoat. You know, you mentioned Apple iPhone and Steve 294 00:17:43,380 --> 00:17:48,030 Jobs, you know, I mean, this is a guy that changed the world 295 00:17:48,330 --> 00:17:54,030 with his ideas, you know, and I can guarantee you that Steve 296 00:17:54,030 --> 00:17:58,170 Jobs didn't know anything about soldering a motherboard or, you 297 00:17:58,170 --> 00:18:02,280 know, these electronical connections, he just knew and 298 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:07,650 was very, very good at saying this is what I want. And let me 299 00:18:07,650 --> 00:18:10,830 tell somebody what I want so that they can do it. And that 300 00:18:10,830 --> 00:18:13,800 right, there is the exact same way that I go about creating 301 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:19,290 software, you don't have to know how you how to do it, you just 302 00:18:19,290 --> 00:18:23,940 have to get really good at explaining what you want. And 303 00:18:23,940 --> 00:18:28,170 that's the whole key to the whole thing with outsourcing and 304 00:18:28,170 --> 00:18:31,590 really working with somebody in order to create a great product. 305 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,920 Robert Plank: So So I mean, let's explore that if someone 306 00:18:35,370 --> 00:18:39,120 was like you, and they had an idea for a piece of software, I 307 00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:44,490 mean, how would they explain their idea? How would they get 308 00:18:44,490 --> 00:18:47,100 it developed? And and how would they remove themselves from the 309 00:18:47,130 --> 00:18:47,610 equation? 310 00:18:48,030 --> 00:18:50,190 Unknown: Well, I mean, there's a lot of places that you can go to 311 00:18:50,190 --> 00:18:54,540 outsource. One of my favorites, you know, back in the day was 312 00:18:54,540 --> 00:18:59,460 rent a coder.com. And now I believe it's called V worker for 313 00:18:59,460 --> 00:19:02,910 virtual worker.com. But basically, you can go there, and 314 00:19:02,910 --> 00:19:05,970 you can post a project. And you can just describe it. I mean, 315 00:19:05,970 --> 00:19:09,000 they, you know, you can, you know, you can type things out 316 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,580 and tax and say I want it to look like this. And then here 317 00:19:11,580 --> 00:19:15,210 are some examples and stuff. But another great thing is a piece 318 00:19:15,210 --> 00:19:19,890 of software called Jing. It's made by TechSmith. And you know, 319 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,550 you can capture your screen and you can draw arrows, and you can 320 00:19:23,550 --> 00:19:27,240 point at things and you can just talk I mean, you can just tell 321 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:30,570 people you say, you know, I want this little thing I want a piece 322 00:19:30,570 --> 00:19:35,220 of software that's like example, I want to a countdown timer, you 323 00:19:35,220 --> 00:19:39,810 know, and I wanted to have three blocks one is the hours one is 324 00:19:39,810 --> 00:19:43,200 the minutes and one is the seconds and then in order to set 325 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:45,900 it I want to be able to click on some buttons and I want these 326 00:19:45,900 --> 00:19:49,860 buttons to have up arrow and down arrow. When I click on the 327 00:19:49,860 --> 00:19:53,160 up arrow, it makes that number go higher. If I click on the 328 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:57,300 down arrow, it goes lower. You just kind of have to envision it 329 00:19:57,300 --> 00:20:02,370 all in your mind and be able to show What you have in your mind, 330 00:20:03,390 --> 00:20:06,390 to somebody that's going to actually build it in sometimes 331 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,480 that might even be drawing it out on a piece of paper, you 332 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,450 know, draw on the piece of paper and say, Hey, I realize that 333 00:20:12,450 --> 00:20:16,740 this doesn't look very good. But this is a general idea of what I 334 00:20:16,740 --> 00:20:19,890 want. Now I found this other program, it does something 335 00:20:19,890 --> 00:20:22,980 totally different. But I really liked the way that it looks. 336 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:25,920 Make this program that you're building for me with this 337 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:29,070 functionality that I just described, look exactly like 338 00:20:29,070 --> 00:20:33,810 that. And if they don't do it, right, then hey, you kind of did 339 00:20:33,810 --> 00:20:37,800 it right. But here's what I wish you had done and change it. Just 340 00:20:37,830 --> 00:20:41,550 be really, really picky and get into as much detail as you 341 00:20:41,550 --> 00:20:42,510 possibly can. 342 00:20:43,590 --> 00:20:46,260 Robert Plank: And it's funny that you mentioned, you know, 343 00:20:46,260 --> 00:20:48,330 when you're when you're saying, you know, I want the software to 344 00:20:48,330 --> 00:20:50,580 look this way, act this way, it's funny that you mentioned, 345 00:20:50,580 --> 00:20:53,100 you know, telling people, well, there's a similar piece of 346 00:20:53,100 --> 00:20:56,400 software here, I want it to look like this, because I don't know 347 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,130 about you, but I have some Google Alerts on some of my 348 00:20:59,130 --> 00:21:01,260 software. So someone mentioned, it's like the name of my product 349 00:21:01,260 --> 00:21:04,020 or my website, I'll get an email. And every now and then on 350 00:21:04,020 --> 00:21:07,230 one of the sites like you know, V worker, or like oDesk, or 351 00:21:07,230 --> 00:21:09,990 something, someone will mentioned when one of my 352 00:21:09,990 --> 00:21:12,780 pricing, they'll say, Well, I see this guy's got a pop up 353 00:21:12,780 --> 00:21:16,110 software, can you make it look like this? But then like you 354 00:21:16,110 --> 00:21:19,860 said, also add this, or also you'll make it behave in this 355 00:21:19,860 --> 00:21:22,260 way as well. I mean, do you guys see that? Which says, for 356 00:21:22,260 --> 00:21:23,340 example, you see, yeah, 357 00:21:23,370 --> 00:21:25,680 Unknown: you know, and I mean, sometimes I'd see it all the 358 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:30,450 time. And especially back in the day with FLV, producer, I'd see 359 00:21:30,450 --> 00:21:33,930 people post projects, and like, I just want a clone of this 360 00:21:33,930 --> 00:21:37,500 software, I went to do exactly like that. And yeah, with our 361 00:21:37,710 --> 00:21:42,090 WishList Member software, I mean, we have people doing stuff 362 00:21:42,090 --> 00:21:45,600 like that all the time. And I mean, we had a competitor, that 363 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:50,640 that surfaced in is like, it was kind of a funny story, because 364 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:54,000 we had a competitor that really didn't have a very good product. 365 00:21:54,480 --> 00:22:00,300 And then instead of fixing his product, he created yet another 366 00:22:00,300 --> 00:22:04,770 product, which was a competition to his other product, which was 367 00:22:04,770 --> 00:22:09,360 basically a knockoff of ours. He didn't get it right the first 368 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:13,680 time. So instead, I'm just going to clone theirs, and have a new 369 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,280 prop, which is kind of funny, but you know, and then 370 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,120 ultimately, stuff like that is really going to happen. So then 371 00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:25,500 that's where you kind of come into the situation where it 372 00:22:25,500 --> 00:22:29,520 really takes more to be a success than than just the 373 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,070 coding of a product. I mean, there's a lot of other things, 374 00:22:32,070 --> 00:22:35,100 you know, how you deal with customers, how you market, how 375 00:22:35,100 --> 00:22:38,070 you position your stuff, and you just really have to do it 376 00:22:38,070 --> 00:22:41,460 exactly how you want it. And that's really the key. 377 00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:45,060 Robert Plank: And and, I mean, it kind of ties back to in the 378 00:22:45,060 --> 00:22:47,220 beginning you were talking about? Well, you know, I'm a 379 00:22:47,220 --> 00:22:50,640 marketer. And I made a lot of these guys. They're just coders 380 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,460 and they'll just, you know, copy what you have. But then they 381 00:22:53,460 --> 00:22:55,710 don't have the marketing, they don't have the traffic, they 382 00:22:55,710 --> 00:22:57,690 don't have the list, they don't have the customer support. So 383 00:22:57,690 --> 00:23:02,100 it's like, they feel like they've cloned you, but they've 384 00:23:02,100 --> 00:23:04,290 only got like, 10% of it. Right. 385 00:23:04,439 --> 00:23:07,439 Unknown: Yeah. You know, and I mean, you're right, you said a 386 00:23:07,469 --> 00:23:09,779 lot of these guys are just coders and stuff. And I mean, 387 00:23:09,779 --> 00:23:14,039 some of them don't even have really good English skills. And, 388 00:23:14,429 --> 00:23:18,509 you know, a lot of people ask me, like, what does it take to 389 00:23:18,509 --> 00:23:24,239 have, you know, a successful website or a successful product 390 00:23:24,239 --> 00:23:27,119 that's being sold on the website. And like, you know, it 391 00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:31,349 really is not that complicated. You know, there's not like, 392 00:23:31,349 --> 00:23:34,439 there's just a magic formula, you know, you hear about the 393 00:23:34,439 --> 00:23:37,589 other copywriting formula, you have, you know, a specific 394 00:23:37,589 --> 00:23:41,309 headline and testimonials and stuff. Here. Here's really the 395 00:23:41,309 --> 00:23:48,209 magic formula. And it all boils down to one very, very simple 396 00:23:48,209 --> 00:23:52,649 thing. When somebody finds out about your product, and they 397 00:23:52,649 --> 00:23:59,369 come to the website, do they get this feeling of? Wow, this is 398 00:23:59,459 --> 00:24:05,789 exactly what I was looking for exactly what I was looking for. 399 00:24:06,149 --> 00:24:10,919 And the majority of the time when you go somewhere, you don't 400 00:24:10,919 --> 00:24:14,879 say yes to that answer, you know, or that question. You look 401 00:24:14,879 --> 00:24:18,449 at it, you're like, Man, I think this is what I'm looking for, 402 00:24:18,449 --> 00:24:23,069 but I'm not sure if it does this, you know, I'm not sure 403 00:24:23,099 --> 00:24:27,809 some I just they haven't really described this thing properly. 404 00:24:28,019 --> 00:24:31,019 Maybe it does this or maybe it does, I'm just not sure you 405 00:24:31,019 --> 00:24:35,609 ultimately need to your visitors need to come there and look at 406 00:24:35,609 --> 00:24:40,829 what you have, and say this is exactly what I wanted. And if 407 00:24:40,829 --> 00:24:43,859 you can get some people saying that you're going to have a home 408 00:24:43,859 --> 00:24:48,299 run and an extremely successful product. So how do you do that? 409 00:24:49,079 --> 00:24:54,119 Well, I mean, you do it a multiple of ways. And number one 410 00:24:54,149 --> 00:24:58,379 is you have to put yourself in the position of a customer and 411 00:24:58,409 --> 00:25:01,829 sometimes that's not always easy because, you know, you're 412 00:25:01,829 --> 00:25:07,019 thinking, you're thinking, Oh, this is exactly what everybody 413 00:25:07,019 --> 00:25:10,799 wants, and then you're not really the end user. So you 414 00:25:10,799 --> 00:25:13,589 really need to be an end user of your product, meaning I'm 415 00:25:13,589 --> 00:25:17,129 building something that I would use for myself as well. You 416 00:25:17,129 --> 00:25:20,669 know, we rebuild WishList Member for membership sites, we also 417 00:25:20,669 --> 00:25:24,719 run membership sites. So we have a pretty good pulse. Now, once 418 00:25:24,719 --> 00:25:29,519 you once you get to the point where you're selling it, and now 419 00:25:29,519 --> 00:25:31,649 you're going to be getting a feedback from your current 420 00:25:31,649 --> 00:25:35,459 customers. And you know, I wish you could do that. And you 421 00:25:35,459 --> 00:25:39,389 touched on this, Robert, earlier, you can't do everything 422 00:25:39,389 --> 00:25:44,159 that every customer asked for. But when people are asking for 423 00:25:44,159 --> 00:25:47,249 things, and many people are asking for the same thing, it's 424 00:25:47,249 --> 00:25:49,799 a pretty good indication of that's a popular thing. And you 425 00:25:49,799 --> 00:25:53,669 really should implement it. Another thing is, when you're 426 00:25:53,669 --> 00:25:57,059 early getting started out, get some of your friends or your 427 00:25:57,059 --> 00:26:02,249 family members to take a look at it at your website and say, Tell 428 00:26:02,249 --> 00:26:05,969 me what you think about this. And sometimes they'll just say, 429 00:26:06,239 --> 00:26:11,219 Wow, I totally get it. I understand what you do now. But 430 00:26:11,219 --> 00:26:14,309 sometimes they're like, I don't understand this. And the reason 431 00:26:14,309 --> 00:26:17,669 why is you you just automatically assumed, like, for 432 00:26:17,669 --> 00:26:22,979 example, WishList Member, you know, we might have initially 433 00:26:22,979 --> 00:26:25,859 just automatically assumed people were running WordPress on 434 00:26:25,859 --> 00:26:29,819 their website, you know, but somebody new, they're like, Oh, 435 00:26:29,819 --> 00:26:33,389 I get it, you're doing a membership software. They don't 436 00:26:33,389 --> 00:26:36,629 even know what WordPress is. So you got to be very, very 437 00:26:36,629 --> 00:26:40,859 specific and explain that. So that's just kind of an example. 438 00:26:41,459 --> 00:26:45,479 And there are also some of these other sites that have popped up 439 00:26:45,479 --> 00:26:52,499 recently, where you can go and request feedback. I think one of 440 00:26:52,499 --> 00:26:56,519 them's like feedback, army.com, or something like that. But you 441 00:26:56,519 --> 00:27:00,989 can pay like 100 bucks, and you get people fresh people that are 442 00:27:00,989 --> 00:27:03,869 reviewers that don't know anything about your site, and 443 00:27:03,869 --> 00:27:06,539 they will go to your website, and they'll just record their 444 00:27:06,539 --> 00:27:10,199 first reaction. That's an awesome way to find out what 445 00:27:10,199 --> 00:27:12,119 people are thinking when they hit your website. 446 00:27:12,810 --> 00:27:15,690 Robert Plank: Especially if they're not the crowd, you're 447 00:27:15,690 --> 00:27:18,390 used to if there's like, like a mass market coming in off the 448 00:27:18,390 --> 00:27:21,900 street type of person. Yeah, for sure. Well, that's cool. No, I 449 00:27:21,900 --> 00:27:23,940 mean, I know we're, we're out of time. But in the last couple 450 00:27:23,940 --> 00:27:27,570 minutes, I want to talk to you about WishList Member, because 451 00:27:27,570 --> 00:27:32,640 it's like, it's too good to pass up. I mean, I mean, you guys, 452 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,070 definitely, you know, you guys weren't the first membership 453 00:27:35,070 --> 00:27:38,100 software definitely weren't even like the first like 2030, or 454 00:27:38,100 --> 00:27:42,600 probably even like 100. But as far as I saw, I mean, before a 455 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,150 wish list member came out, if you wanted to have a membership 456 00:27:45,150 --> 00:27:48,990 site, you'd have to kind of, you know, install this software, 457 00:27:49,020 --> 00:27:52,380 tweak these files, add all these other plugins, I mean, setting 458 00:27:52,380 --> 00:27:55,740 up one membership site used to take a whole day pretty much. 459 00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:59,700 And you guys were the first, like big, or I guess, like, you 460 00:27:59,700 --> 00:28:05,040 know, popular membership software that ran as a WordPress 461 00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,830 plugin. And, you know, ever since then, there's been a lot 462 00:28:07,830 --> 00:28:11,670 of, I guess, copycats, but that's just kind of going back 463 00:28:11,670 --> 00:28:14,340 to like we're talking about, people already had membership 464 00:28:14,340 --> 00:28:19,050 software. But then, you know, when when you tried to set up 465 00:28:19,050 --> 00:28:22,950 member sites, or Sue did, it was such an ordeal. And so you guys 466 00:28:23,460 --> 00:28:26,580 really, like filled the hole in the marketplace? So I mean, how 467 00:28:26,580 --> 00:28:29,190 did you? How'd you get involved in that one? 468 00:28:29,790 --> 00:28:35,670 Unknown: Well, that is really a great story. I mean, I don't 469 00:28:35,670 --> 00:28:39,750 know if you ever knew this or not. But Stu and I have been 470 00:28:40,170 --> 00:28:45,510 great friends for a very long time. Probably like, nine years, 471 00:28:45,540 --> 00:28:50,970 maybe. And whenever I used to teach at seminars, I would speak 472 00:28:50,970 --> 00:28:56,250 at seminars. And I used to sell products from the stage. And I 473 00:28:56,250 --> 00:28:59,100 had done a fair amount of speaking of seminars and selling 474 00:28:59,100 --> 00:29:03,000 products. But the very first time I was speaking at a seminar 475 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,960 and selling my own product, which was, here's how you can 476 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,180 create your own information products. I've taught people how 477 00:29:09,180 --> 00:29:11,760 to record themselves in the audio and stuff. You know, 478 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,360 you're always a little nervous, and you're not sure if anybody's 479 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,920 going to buy it. So I made my presentation, then I made my 480 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:24,510 offer. And the first person in the room to stand up and buy my 481 00:29:25,530 --> 00:29:30,900 product was Stu McLaren. And so Stu was my very first customer. 482 00:29:31,230 --> 00:29:34,530 And we developed a great friendship. And then, over the 483 00:29:34,530 --> 00:29:40,140 years, Stu had just become phenomenal marketer. And Stu had 484 00:29:40,140 --> 00:29:46,680 never really done any software products or any real products 485 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,800 where he was selling products over and over and over like we 486 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,670 talked about earlier in this interview. And so I told him 487 00:29:53,700 --> 00:29:56,610 kind of where I was at and I was kind of shifting gears and I had 488 00:29:56,610 --> 00:30:00,570 assembled a software development team and I said, you know, we 489 00:30:00,570 --> 00:30:04,680 can build anything. And I was kind of in the midst of looking 490 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:07,440 for a new project. And he said, Man, I have some great ideas. 491 00:30:07,710 --> 00:30:13,290 And so the idea initially was a membership solution. And, you 492 00:30:13,290 --> 00:30:19,440 know, exactly like you said, Stu, was very frustrated in 493 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:23,100 trying to set it up. I mean, just very similar to what I said 494 00:30:23,130 --> 00:30:25,800 earlier on about the Sorenson squeezed people like, 495 00:30:26,100 --> 00:30:29,100 everybody's using this product, but everybody's saying the same 496 00:30:29,100 --> 00:30:33,420 thing. It's complicated. And, you know, I won't mention any 497 00:30:33,420 --> 00:30:38,070 names of software programs, because it only will mention a 498 00:30:38,070 --> 00:30:43,740 member ship software. I won't throw them under the bus. But I 499 00:30:43,740 --> 00:30:48,900 will tell you that Stu was trying to set up a member. 500 00:30:49,770 --> 00:30:56,700 Right. And so anyways, yeah, he was using a member, and he just 501 00:30:56,700 --> 00:30:59,790 couldn't get it. And, you know, Steve's actually a pretty 502 00:30:59,790 --> 00:31:02,880 technical guy, you know, he can set up a website and stuff. And 503 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,810 I'm, like, if, if I can't do this, there's got to be tons of 504 00:31:06,810 --> 00:31:10,470 other people that can't do it. And so you're right. There were 505 00:31:10,470 --> 00:31:15,000 maybe a hand a couple of other programs that were actually 506 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,620 WordPress plugins. And they actually had kind of a major 507 00:31:19,620 --> 00:31:24,690 flaw in them as well. And the big flaw that we saw is, number 508 00:31:24,690 --> 00:31:27,540 one, they weren't doing what the customers wanted, because these 509 00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:31,440 guys were coders. And they were running membership sites. And, 510 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:36,150 but the other flaw is, what they were doing is they were building 511 00:31:36,150 --> 00:31:41,100 kind of a membership solution, and then turning it into a 512 00:31:41,100 --> 00:31:44,820 WordPress plugin. Okay, so the difference is, it looked like 513 00:31:44,820 --> 00:31:48,300 what they originally built, but then they just made it work for 514 00:31:48,300 --> 00:31:53,640 WordPress, afterthought. Yeah. So what we did instead was like, 515 00:31:53,940 --> 00:31:56,160 this thing is going to be a WordPress plug in from the 516 00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:00,840 beginning. And so the way we built it was like, Man, this is 517 00:32:00,870 --> 00:32:04,140 all the functionality that WordPress should have had to run 518 00:32:04,140 --> 00:32:07,890 membership sites, it looked like WordPress, it felt like 519 00:32:07,890 --> 00:32:13,980 WordPress, it was WordPress. And so people were completely, you 520 00:32:13,980 --> 00:32:16,560 know, drawn to just like, Man, this just all makes sense. So 521 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:20,400 that's really kind of how we got into that, and kind of 522 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:24,360 differentiated ourselves. And really, just as we were going, I 523 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:28,800 mean, Suez did a great job with all the marketing and building 524 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:32,730 up the community. And we also really, really focused on 525 00:32:32,730 --> 00:32:36,180 listening to the customers and what they wanted. And we just 526 00:32:36,180 --> 00:32:37,320 continue to do that. 527 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,730 Robert Plank: And that's one way that I mean, that last, I'm 528 00:32:41,730 --> 00:32:43,650 really like, wish this. And when we tell people about it, we're 529 00:32:43,650 --> 00:32:48,000 like, Well, I mean, I'm sure there's lots of other lots of 530 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:52,890 other membership solutions that will give you digital access to 531 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:57,900 a membership site. And, and they'll try to, you know, 532 00:32:57,900 --> 00:32:59,910 they'll, they'll do things like they'll match feature by 533 00:32:59,910 --> 00:33:02,700 feature. And they'll say, Well, we do we do, you know, 50 extra 534 00:33:02,700 --> 00:33:05,400 things? And we'll say, well, that's fine. Except for you're 535 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,370 probably not going to use all those 50 things. And it's so 536 00:33:08,370 --> 00:33:10,980 complicated to use. I mean, wouldn't you? I don't know, it's 537 00:33:10,980 --> 00:33:13,980 like, which is better, a simple membership plugin that does what 538 00:33:13,980 --> 00:33:16,800 you want, and you can use it or one that does all kinds of crazy 539 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,590 stuff, but you can't even figure out how to how to turn it off. 540 00:33:20,190 --> 00:33:25,530 Unknown: Yeah, and, you know, Robert, some of those other 541 00:33:26,250 --> 00:33:29,940 competitors and stuff, you know, yeah, you know, I can't I can't 542 00:33:29,940 --> 00:33:32,100 knock them down. You know, I mean, some of them have some 543 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,060 pretty good solutions. But one of the things that we hear a lot 544 00:33:36,060 --> 00:33:39,420 of times, like, man, the owner of the company actually got on 545 00:33:39,420 --> 00:33:42,750 the phone with me and installed this thing for me. And I'm 546 00:33:42,750 --> 00:33:47,100 thinking, what's wrong with that picture? You know, I realized 547 00:33:47,100 --> 00:33:49,380 that that's a good thing where somebody gave you really good 548 00:33:49,380 --> 00:33:53,730 customer, but if the owner of the company has to get on and 549 00:33:53,730 --> 00:34:00,630 install the thing for you, is it really that easy to do? You 550 00:34:00,630 --> 00:34:05,430 know, okay, that might be the one that you want. But that's 551 00:34:05,430 --> 00:34:09,540 not what we want. We want it to be a scenario where we have 552 00:34:09,540 --> 00:34:12,960 1000s of customers that can do it on their own. And we have a 553 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,630 support team that backs them up whenever they get into trouble. 554 00:34:15,990 --> 00:34:19,560 And I mean, that would just be I just couldn't live my life, 555 00:34:20,220 --> 00:34:24,540 dealing with calls all day long, doing customer support, and also 556 00:34:24,540 --> 00:34:27,510 trying to run a company just without being back to trading 557 00:34:27,540 --> 00:34:29,850 dollars for hours. Right. Exactly. Yeah. 558 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,430 Robert Plank: So I mean, just just to my understand your role 559 00:34:32,430 --> 00:34:36,990 in this, so pretty much Sue said, I have an idea for a word, 560 00:34:37,020 --> 00:34:40,890 a membership plug in that's actually built in WordPress, he 561 00:34:40,890 --> 00:34:45,690 designed it and then and you then you did you like, like 562 00:34:45,690 --> 00:34:48,750 improve the designs or your job was like you made it in terms 563 00:34:48,750 --> 00:34:51,180 like a programmer to understand or, I mean, what role did you 564 00:34:51,180 --> 00:34:51,810 play in that? 565 00:34:52,410 --> 00:34:55,440 Unknown: Well, I really kind of had the role of just sort of 566 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,830 piecing the whole team together, you know, and, like, here's what 567 00:34:58,830 --> 00:35:02,460 we want to accomplish. Shouldn't here's, you know, some of the 568 00:35:02,490 --> 00:35:05,730 some of the sometimes, like, with the technical details, like 569 00:35:05,730 --> 00:35:08,820 with databases and stuff that, you know, that kind of falls in, 570 00:35:08,820 --> 00:35:12,030 like, I just have to explain what, what it is that a customer 571 00:35:12,030 --> 00:35:14,550 is going to use. And there's just a lot of little decisions 572 00:35:14,580 --> 00:35:19,770 along the way. But I really do, and I acted very much as a team, 573 00:35:20,100 --> 00:35:23,910 continuously working with the programmers and such. And I 574 00:35:23,910 --> 00:35:27,360 mean, we're just very fortunate that I found, you know, an 575 00:35:27,390 --> 00:35:34,140 excellent programmer that can really take in. You know, and, 576 00:35:34,380 --> 00:35:37,170 and that's one of the things that I've learned along the way 577 00:35:37,170 --> 00:35:40,350 is, you know, a lot of times people will say, Yeah, well, 578 00:35:40,650 --> 00:35:44,250 that's good for you. But the program is I'm working with, he 579 00:35:44,250 --> 00:35:46,920 just, he just can't get things done like that. And it's like, 580 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,100 Well, you got a major problem, you need to get rid of the 581 00:35:50,100 --> 00:35:53,340 person and find somebody else. You know, just because you've 582 00:35:53,340 --> 00:35:55,590 liked a person doesn't mean that they're always going to get the 583 00:35:55,590 --> 00:36:00,270 job done. So you really do need to have some good talent that 584 00:36:00,270 --> 00:36:02,280 can do the things that you're asking for. 585 00:36:03,210 --> 00:36:05,400 Robert Plank: Makes sense to me. And that's such, I mean, I think 586 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:08,100 that's such a good way just to, you know, wrap this all up, tie 587 00:36:08,100 --> 00:36:11,370 this all together is that, I mean, you don't have to do 588 00:36:11,370 --> 00:36:14,760 everything yourself. And there's some things that, you know, 589 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,180 you'll never be good at. So you know, why even try just, you 590 00:36:18,180 --> 00:36:22,740 know, focus on what's fun for you what you're good at. And 591 00:36:22,740 --> 00:36:26,370 then if it comes down to, you know, maybe if, if you can put 592 00:36:26,370 --> 00:36:28,140 some of your own skills in there with like, you know, designing 593 00:36:28,140 --> 00:36:31,770 the database or figuring out like, what's the best way to 594 00:36:31,770 --> 00:36:33,840 like structure this, but then when it comes down to things 595 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,450 like, you know, coding and things like that, you don't need 596 00:36:36,450 --> 00:36:39,570 to know everything, you just have the right person to do it. 597 00:36:39,870 --> 00:36:42,420 Unknown: Yeah, absolutely. Having the right people is 598 00:36:42,420 --> 00:36:46,770 always key. And, and it goes back to the example that I said, 599 00:36:47,490 --> 00:36:51,270 as being a contractor on a house, you're going to tell me 600 00:36:51,270 --> 00:36:56,430 exactly what you want. And I need to take your vision, 601 00:36:56,700 --> 00:37:00,690 saying, hey, Roberts really wanting to build this nice 602 00:37:00,690 --> 00:37:03,570 house, and he's going to want it done, right. And if I go in 603 00:37:03,570 --> 00:37:07,170 there, and I have somebody that's, that's not a really good 604 00:37:07,170 --> 00:37:11,220 plumber, is just going to make me look bad. You know, like, I 605 00:37:11,220 --> 00:37:15,180 gotta have the right people to do these things. Because my job 606 00:37:15,450 --> 00:37:19,770 is to make sure that the end result is what's going to work. 607 00:37:19,860 --> 00:37:24,990 And that's really sums it all up. You need to make sure that 608 00:37:24,990 --> 00:37:30,090 what gets done was your vision. And that's what the customers 609 00:37:30,090 --> 00:37:32,490 wanted that that's really it boils down to that. 610 00:37:33,300 --> 00:37:35,640 Robert Plank: And it's the funny, especially with software 611 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:39,900 is that. I mean, you really do have to be kind of like a neat 612 00:37:39,900 --> 00:37:42,900 freak here. I mean, like, I mean, as someone who doesn't 613 00:37:42,900 --> 00:37:44,850 know, software, they'll say, Oh, I mean, they'll have a picture 614 00:37:44,850 --> 00:37:47,190 in the head of I wanted to look this way. And they'll explain 615 00:37:47,190 --> 00:37:49,590 it, and they'll assume people know. But I mean, if you don't 616 00:37:49,590 --> 00:37:51,720 say, I mean, like you said with like the countdown timer, if you 617 00:37:51,720 --> 00:37:55,410 don't say separate hours, minutes, seconds, yeah, these up 618 00:37:55,410 --> 00:37:58,110 and down arrows, and then see what the comeback was and say, 619 00:37:58,110 --> 00:37:59,910 Well chant, you know, you might have to go through several 620 00:37:59,970 --> 00:38:03,270 iterations. But it's like, you almost have to be like, overly 621 00:38:03,270 --> 00:38:06,600 tedious and just be like, well, even though you don't say like, 622 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,600 well, it's got to be a gray button, and have like, the 623 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,900 triangular arrow just because I mean, that's the way that the 624 00:38:12,900 --> 00:38:16,980 ones look, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, cool. So I mean, we 625 00:38:16,980 --> 00:38:20,340 talked about a lot of cool, interesting stuff. Today, I'm 626 00:38:20,340 --> 00:38:23,550 really glad I finally heard the story of, you know, how you got 627 00:38:23,550 --> 00:38:28,980 into information marketing, how you, you know, went from 628 00:38:29,220 --> 00:38:32,670 designing databases for others into making your own products 629 00:38:32,670 --> 00:38:35,130 into kind of just saying, what now I'm going to, you know, 630 00:38:35,130 --> 00:38:37,920 establish the business and I'm going to establish this, you 631 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,200 know, I know this guy who is an artist, I'm gonna get all the 632 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,040 system in place, get the order system, the sales letter, all 633 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,560 that shopping cart, all this stuff, and make a caricature 634 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:50,100 site. You know, things like every producer, where you have 635 00:38:50,100 --> 00:38:54,390 the software made, and then you use it, and you figure it out, 636 00:38:54,420 --> 00:38:57,060 you know, how you would want it to behave, what improvements you 637 00:38:57,060 --> 00:39:00,210 wanted to make, then got customer feedback, or even saw 638 00:39:00,210 --> 00:39:04,650 how people would use it without even knowing about the software 639 00:39:04,650 --> 00:39:08,910 and kind of making it more intuitive. And I mean, I don't 640 00:39:08,910 --> 00:39:12,120 know, I guess there's, there's always things where someone 641 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:14,400 makes a statement, and it kind of sticks with me, like my 642 00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,550 entire life and something one thing that that you said to me a 643 00:39:17,550 --> 00:39:21,270 couple of years ago was and we've talked about this before, 644 00:39:21,270 --> 00:39:24,180 when we're talking about the support desk, you told me that 645 00:39:24,180 --> 00:39:28,740 for this fo a producer piece of software that you had not even 646 00:39:28,740 --> 00:39:34,320 logged in to the support desk in like two years I think. And even 647 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,080 that was like two years ago so I mean now it's been like four 648 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:40,200 years so I mean as soon as he told me that it just blew my 649 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,620 mind it changed the way I looked at the entire thing I you know, 650 00:39:43,620 --> 00:39:47,250 I realized that I don't have to do everything myself. And it's 651 00:39:47,250 --> 00:39:51,720 kind of it kind of is cool to get to the point where no one 652 00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:54,000 really knows what you maybe even eat or know what you do you just 653 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:57,450 the guy who you're like the owner, the contractor you do the 654 00:39:57,450 --> 00:40:00,810 fun, like high level setting up stuff, maybe First you do a 655 00:40:00,810 --> 00:40:03,180 little bit of the work and figure out, you know, how am I 656 00:40:03,180 --> 00:40:06,840 going to answer these top five top 10 questions, maybe you're 657 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,450 going to figure out well, I'm going to tweak this in the sales 658 00:40:09,450 --> 00:40:12,000 letter or changes in the software. But then what's so 659 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,820 cool about digital products, information, marketing, 660 00:40:14,820 --> 00:40:19,230 software, all that good stuff, is that once it's set up, then 661 00:40:19,230 --> 00:40:23,430 it's done. And so I mean, then you have it sell over and over. 662 00:40:23,580 --> 00:40:27,630 And so then, and so I really want to thank you for helping 663 00:40:27,630 --> 00:40:30,540 everyone who wants to know how to make software because they 664 00:40:30,540 --> 00:40:34,050 should just go to V worker, and then maybe describe maybe look 665 00:40:34,050 --> 00:40:38,370 at some of the other jobs use this tool, like a gene to kind 666 00:40:38,370 --> 00:40:42,600 of record a video and show, you know, I want to look like this, 667 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:47,100 and we base it on this other competitor, or maybe even draw 668 00:40:47,310 --> 00:40:50,940 what the design looked like. And I liked the way he broke down. 669 00:40:50,940 --> 00:40:53,220 She said, Well, there's like, there's the design part of it, 670 00:40:53,220 --> 00:40:55,680 like we use the Countess, and remember, there's the design. 671 00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:58,140 And then there's like the functionality, like maybe 672 00:40:58,140 --> 00:41:01,620 there's these buttons, but then also there's, they're like, 673 00:41:02,190 --> 00:41:04,110 they're pretty much like making like a tutorial like, well, 674 00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:06,990 there's the look, and there's the buttons, but if one could 675 00:41:06,990 --> 00:41:11,910 actually use it, maybe I would, you know, set this time, then 676 00:41:11,910 --> 00:41:14,790 hit the start button, and then it will start counting. And I 677 00:41:14,790 --> 00:41:18,030 think a lot of programmers or coders who don't actually use 678 00:41:18,030 --> 00:41:20,820 the thing they're making, they really missed that. They just 679 00:41:20,820 --> 00:41:23,190 say, Well, you know, it's gonna be a membership plugin. It'll 680 00:41:23,190 --> 00:41:26,910 have all these strings. I'm done. But the way that I kind of 681 00:41:26,910 --> 00:41:30,120 see, the way that wishes was designed, is you kind of design 682 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:34,170 as well, what's the easiest way for someone to install it? 683 00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:37,440 What's the easiest way for someone to now allow someone to 684 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:41,010 purchase access using the soft internet? I mean, like, there's 685 00:41:41,010 --> 00:41:44,400 not just the look and design, but there's also like the steps 686 00:41:45,030 --> 00:41:48,780 someone goes through. And I hope everyone listening got that 687 00:41:48,810 --> 00:41:52,650 website was called feedback army. And I've never heard of 688 00:41:52,650 --> 00:41:55,080 that, I'm going to try it out myself where you can have people 689 00:41:55,380 --> 00:42:00,750 try out your website and give you feedback on what were their 690 00:42:00,750 --> 00:42:04,320 first impressions. And I mean, you just solidified how 691 00:42:04,530 --> 00:42:08,130 important it is to, you know, have your own team have your own 692 00:42:08,130 --> 00:42:11,610 products, because if it wasn't for all those assets, all that 693 00:42:11,610 --> 00:42:14,610 stuff, you had a notion to be in with the system, then you would 694 00:42:14,610 --> 00:42:19,650 not have partner with Sue on wishlist. And I would I would 695 00:42:19,650 --> 00:42:22,200 say that which is probably would not have been made or wouldn't 696 00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,950 have been nearly as popular as it was you guys work together, 697 00:42:25,950 --> 00:42:29,100 you guys had the vision, you had a design, and then put it out 698 00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:32,970 there, got the feedback, saw what other people were doing 699 00:42:32,970 --> 00:42:35,160 with membership software stuff the customers need and saw what 700 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:40,260 you guys needed. And you know, just had a way easier time 701 00:42:40,260 --> 00:42:44,220 worked way less than if you were still doing work for clients. If 702 00:42:44,220 --> 00:42:47,550 you're still going around setting up databases instead, 703 00:42:47,550 --> 00:42:50,580 you're like the software contract for yourself, set it 704 00:42:50,580 --> 00:42:55,860 up. And and that's all I'll done. So my final question to 705 00:42:55,860 --> 00:42:59,940 you is, if someone wanted to see what you're working on what 706 00:42:59,940 --> 00:43:01,890 you're doing, where should they go, Tracy? 707 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:08,220 Unknown: Oh, wow, that's a good question. You know, a lot of lot 708 00:43:08,220 --> 00:43:11,460 of people, you know, have their own site. And I think I have a 709 00:43:11,460 --> 00:43:14,070 personal site that I haven't updated in like three or four 710 00:43:14,070 --> 00:43:18,450 years or so, really the best place to go to find out what I'm 711 00:43:18,450 --> 00:43:22,740 currently working on is wishlist products.com. And that's the 712 00:43:22,740 --> 00:43:26,430 site for our company. And that will kind of lead you off to the 713 00:43:26,430 --> 00:43:30,180 different things about WishList Member and our wish list insider 714 00:43:30,180 --> 00:43:33,540 community and different things of that nature. But I really 715 00:43:33,540 --> 00:43:36,240 spend the majority of my time now on wishlist products. 716 00:43:37,140 --> 00:43:40,710 Robert Plank: wishlist products.com. So that's it wish 717 00:43:40,710 --> 00:43:46,380 li STP or ODU cts.com. So I mean, what are you going to 718 00:43:47,130 --> 00:43:49,560 start using Twitter man, I thought you were finally getting 719 00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:50,070 on that. 720 00:43:50,730 --> 00:43:55,920 Unknown: Yeah, I I've done a little bit of it and just just 721 00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:56,970 too lazy, I guess. 722 00:43:57,720 --> 00:44:00,330 Robert Plank: Too busy doing the fun stuff doing the contracting. 723 00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,020 I don't maybe it's just go to V worker and outsource your 724 00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:06,060 tweeting, outsource your blogging that way. You can just 725 00:44:06,060 --> 00:44:10,020 be like, well, now everything is outsourced. Right? Yeah. Maybe 726 00:44:10,020 --> 00:44:12,960 someday. But until then, I guess everyone should go to wishlist 727 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,830 products.com. Go ahead, go there right now find out what new 728 00:44:16,830 --> 00:44:20,340 exciting things Chase is working on with software, which WishList 729 00:44:20,340 --> 00:44:23,130 Member with their community versus insider and with any 730 00:44:23,130 --> 00:44:26,040 other plugins that they are adding. On top of that we're 731 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:29,220 just products.com and thanks, a bunch, Tracy Childers for 732 00:44:29,220 --> 00:44:33,960 talking to us in this extra long session about outsourcing 733 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:34,860 products and software. 734 00:44:35,430 --> 00:44:37,500 Unknown: Thanks a lot for having me, Robert. I appreciate it. 735 00:44:42,090 --> 00:44:45,930 Robert Plank: Do you have wine podcast.com forward Slash Free. 736 00:44:46,140 --> 00:44:49,200 Go there right now to see what you could be missing in your 737 00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:54,300 podcast. Maybe you aren't active enough on social media? Are you 738 00:44:54,330 --> 00:44:57,780 writing and broadcasting an email for every episode of your 739 00:44:57,780 --> 00:45:01,290 podcast? Do you follow up with your PA Podcast guests do you do 740 00:45:01,290 --> 00:45:04,710 things to make your podcast interview and content creation 741 00:45:04,740 --> 00:45:10,200 easier go to do flight podcast.com/free to claim your 742 00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:11,280 gift right now