Aleksander Vitkin Podcast

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Today, you are going to find out whether or not developers are capable of learning sales.

Most people think sales cannot be learned. They think that you have to be born with a natural ability to communicate.

I did not have any kind of skills when it comes to communication. I was only playing video games in the first 18 years of my life and I did not do anything to improve my communication with other people around me.

Then, I started learning sales and I am became really good at it. Furthermore, I am now coaching people in sales. In my opinion, everyone can learn sales no matter if you are a developer or other type of person.

If you want to be a freelancer or owning your own business, you need to learn sales. There is no way you can be a business owner without know how to do proper sales. Sales is the most important skill in business. You can be the best developer out there, but if you do not know sales, your business cannot survive.

You can run a business without knowing sales if you have a business partner who is knows sales. The problem is that the business partner will control of your company. He will know how to negotiate a better deal for himself. Negotiation and deal making is part of the skills that you learn when you learn sales.

If you are a developer and you are tired from attending to annoying meetings where people are telling you what to do and pushing you to work faster, then you should consider starting a business.

If you are your own boss and you are in control of your own meetings, you can choose which clients to work with. You can determine the method of communication, delivery and so on. Moreover, you can outsource most of the work to other people and build a real business.

How do you actually learn sales?

You need a step – by – step process. We have a 7 – step process in our mastermind Daily Business Hustle. It takes a few weeks to learn sales if you dedicate yourself to learning it. Most business owner are never going to be as good in sales as you are if you implement the 7 – step process properly.

Some people think that sales is a scammy thing where you convince and push people into buying what they don’t need. In fact, a sales person is a trusted valued consultant who is doing what is in the best interest of the client.

Sales is not pushing people into buying. It’s choosing the right people to work with. That is how you do sales at a high level.

Building stuff is where a lot of the actual value is produced. That is why developers are so in demand these days. It is easier for them to sell their products and service, because it is of very high demand.

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

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Check out my free business training: http://www.vitkin.net

I have had complains from my students that they cannot achieve explosive growth in their companies like other huge international companies. Some people think that it is because the big companies have more money, more resources and as a result more people want to work for them. In fact, it is not that simple.

Giving the lack of money as an excuse is a wrong approach. If you approach an investor with the reason that you need more money, because otherwise you cannot grow your company, most likely, he will reject you. Investors are looking for a lot more than someone saying that he needs money for growth.

Most business owners think that to create explosive growth they must make massive changes. In fact, if you can leverage the force of workload, you can learn how small improvements in certain areas of the company that are lacking can result in geometric growth for the entire company.

Here is what to focus on if you want to build an explosive growth company.

The person who asked me that question was traveling around the world while running his online business. So, what is the difference between his business and businesses with explosive growth?

The explosive growth businesses are based on one location. All the processes in the company are very well outlined. Everything is based on one type of operation, one accountant, one type of operations and so on. They create long term stability and long term growth. They choose business models that have high potential.

If you are running a product based business, you have to do a lot of support stuff and that is not a profitable business model. For example, a company like Amazon did not make any money for 10 years.

On the other hand, service businesses are profitable early on. They have much bigger profit margins compared to product based businesses.

A lot of people buy iPhones these days. The value of the iPhones goes down with the time. Apple makes a profit not only from the product itself, but also from the backend side of things like apple store, itunes and many other things.

That is a real business. They created something that millions of people would like to use and monetize it with very little human interference.

Most small business owners have a few services at the most and overall, things look much more complicated. There are many complains and people are not satisfied with the service or the product.

Build an agency first. Build business models. Learn sales. Learn operations from this business model and then build a different business. That produces these explosive growth businesses.

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Today, you are going to find out the difference between a small and a medium – sized company. You are also going to find out what to pay attention to if you want to grow to a medium – sized company.

Most people face many difficulties when they want to grow to a medium - sized company. The bigger the company gets, the more people got involved and the more people have a word in the company. In other words, the bigger the company gets, the more problems arise.

A business partnership is when two or more people team up in the ownership and operation of a business. If a partnership works, the business can run like a well-played symphony.

There has to be incredible amount of trust between all business partners in the company. It is vital for your business to choose your partner wisely.

For example, we had a situation in our company where our payment processing system collapsed. That brings a lot of conflicts between the members in the company.

We had to do everything related to payment processing manually. Then, we went from that to complete automation in the same year. Other people in the company thought I was sabotaging the company and I needed to regain their trust.

Moreover, when we on-boarded more coaches in our company. Each coach has his own way of coaching and his own agenda. This caused a lot of confusion for students. They want a single plan that works and that they can implement. They do not want to be told information that is contradictory.

Another big problem in growing a company, which I call: “The killer in any company”, is politics.

The problem with taxes is very complicated. The simplest solution is to hire an expert who can fix everything. But, when we tried to hire someone, he did not even understand what we are talking about.

Then, we decided to go and look at much bigger companies. They have complete automation in every single process in the company.

Another very important aspect you need to take into consideration is that you need to make everything into a contract. That may sound ridiculous for some of you, but if you are running a very big company with many people involved, everything can become a misunderstanding. Human nature means that it’s hard for people to work together. That is why contracts can become a vital part of running a successful business.

Very clear and preferably standardized contracts are highly recommended. If you can make things crystal clear, it’s less likely that there will be a disagreement.

There are disagreements sometimes even if everything is clear. So, imagine what could happen without contracts if there is no trust between both parties.

You can never predict everything, but with good contracts and maintaining good relationships with your clients, business partners and employees, it avoids these situations.

I hope you take these things into consideration when you decide to grow your company to a decent level.

This is not health advice and this is not medical advice, it's for entertainment purposes only since it's a personal opinion.

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/aleksander.vitkin

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/aleksander.vitkin

Check out my free business training: http://www.vitkin.net

Want to connect on Instagram? @AleksVitkin

You are going to find out how to deal with stress as an entrepreneur and why you should take 2 days off per week with no Internet.

Nowadays, people are constantly looking at their phones and surfing the Internet. It is pretty hard for them get their eyes off from the virtual world. We have all been trained to obey the Internet.

While cell phones provide an efficient and easy way to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers, they can be very bad for our health.

In fact, the high frequency of cell phone use can have negative effects on our stress levels. Excessive cell phone use can be a risk factor for mental health issues in young adults. The more we use the Internet, phones and computers, the more stressed we are and the crazier we become.

Here is how to get rid of the lack of focus, become more productive and more successful in general. The solution is very simple. Leave your phone off for two days. Do not touch your phone, unless you would do something related to your trip like Google Maps or taking a picture to capture a lovely moment.

Let me give you a situation from my personal experience. I cheated and looked at my phone during my trip. Accidentally, I saw that my account is suspended and I freaked out. I was in the middle of a holiday in a hotel, but I immediately started investigating the problem.

At the end, it turned out that my account is not suspended. I wasted 15 minutes of my vacation worrying about the problem and I almost ended up with a heart attack.

The constant ringing, vibrating alerts, and reminders can put a cell phone user on edge. It’s better for your mental health and productivity if you check your email and notification once a day and not on vacation at all.

If you do a research about how bad phones are for your health, you will realize that some people spend 25% of the day looking at their phone. That is a very scary number.

• Are these productive hours?

• Do you need to be there during every notification?

• Does it produce any results?

There is an app which tracks what you are doing in front of a computer. It gives you very detailed stats about how productive you are. Then, you can outsource the unproductive work to employees and you will be able to focus on the productive work.

That produces better results in business. You can leave the $5 an hour tasks and you can focus on the $10K an hour tasks.

CEOs in bigger businesses have multiple layers with people between them and anyone who wants to talk to them. They want to talk to their people only when they want to.

Aleksander is on top of the mountain to discuss the myth of instant success.

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

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Check out my free business training: www.vitkin.net

Want to connect on Instagram? @AleksVitkin

In this podcast, you’ll find out how to start your business successfully, or be one of the 80% – 90%, who fail in their first year.

The number one newbie mistake, is that people think they’re going to just cash in some checks. They’re going to start a company, and starting cashing checks, without having to do any of the work, and not build any of the skills. They think they’ll just start a company, and just because they have a pretty website and logo, that they’ll start cashing in, and travelling the world.

This isn’t how it works, you need to develop skills, and usually it takes a few years, and even then most people fail their new business.

Another newbie mistake that I come across, is that people don’t actually want to work, when it’s time to. They’re like: “I feel resistance, I feel like hiring someone to do the work for me”. Fuck that, if you can’t do this, then you’re never going to start a company. If you do this, you’re going to fail, you need to lead from the front, if you want to start a company.

You can’t just hire sales people, and expect them to do all the work. You need to climb the mountain yourself, and have other people show you the route up (that’s how it is).

Another thing, is that people tend not to put in the time, they tend to give up after a while, and are like: “let’s try something new, let me try out a new route, let me try a new skill, let me try a different kind of company, It’s easier if I do something else”. In reality, anything you try could lead to success. You could try sales, you could try a YouTube business, you could try out whatever, and eventually get success, and develop the skill to reach a higher level.

People don’t want to pay you if you’re not at a high level. You need something where you stand out. You can’t expect to learn the basics, and rake in the cash, or get passive income.

Aleksander Vitkin reveals the concept of the outsourcing frenzy, how it's a new trend to outsource EVERYTHING, what to outsource and what not to...

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

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Check out my free business training: www.vitkin.net

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In this podcast, I’m going to talk about the outsourcing frenzy. Today, in the entrepreneur community, there’s this huge trend that they outsource everything, and I mean everything.

I have friends who are I like: “I don’t want to write this email, I’ll just hire someone from Odesk to do it.” I’m not necessarily against outsourcing, in fact most of my clients outsource most of their work, they outsource a lot of stuff, but there’s a point where it becomes kind of ridiculous. So when you’re implementing a new system into your company, and you can do it yourself perfectly well, and you’re just making five figures, do it yourself. If you can’t write an email, it gets kind of ridiculous. You need to have a certain skill set, if you want to run a company.

Most entrepreneurs in the beginning, especially the successful ones, they kind of do a lot of the stuff themselves in a business, and outsource just one little thing in the beginning, and then maybe two little things when they hit six figures, and maybe up to eight little things when they hit seven figures.

They don’t outsource everything, just the bare minimum. Some skills you want to learn yourself, you want to be able to email, and know how marketing stuff works. If you outsource a super important part of your marketing, you’re not going to be able to know what the hell is going on, especially if they’re doing a good job, or not.

This is not an easy thing to do, it’s not something that you can hire someone who cares, about what you do. I actually noticed, that a lot of the places people out source to like India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, for people who earn $2-$6 an hour for work. A lot of the time, if the works more complicated than what they’re used to, they’re going to give it to you in the best quality that they could produce, but maybe not up to your standards. It’s going to be full of mistakes, because they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

Aleks goes into some examples of how to think as an investor, build your business and your long term wealth as opposed to quick cash.

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

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In this podcast, I’m going to talk about how people spend a lot of money outside their business, once they have some money coming in.

I have a friend, and he just started making about $6000 a month, for the first time in his life, as an online entrepreneur. He’s living the ‘lifestyle’ now, and we were discussing some stuff recently, and he was saying: “yeah now I have the income, I’m going to start living the lifestyle. I’m going to go the Gucci store, and buy a shirt. I’m going to hang with the Gucci crowd, and they’re going to see I’m part of them, because I’m wearing the attire I’m supposed to wear, to hang out with them”.

Now he thinks he’s this big entrepreneur, with a big ego, and he’ll be with the ‘in crowd’, and they’re all going to accept him, because he’s wearing the Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. The difference between him, and real entrepreneurs like some friends of mine, who make seven figures, eight figures, is that they reinvest almost every single penny back into their business (they are always pretty much broke).

If you read the book about the founding of Amazon, they didn’t make money for ten years. They reinvested everything, and more into the company (they were basically making a loss).

A real entrepreneur who owns a business, and wants long term success (not cash in some checks, and buy some Gucci), they reinvest everything into themselves, by learning new things, by going to seminars, by hanging out with people who have a clue, and joining masterminds. They don’t just go round spending their cash on consumer items.

An entrepreneur, he spends his money, he reinvests some of his money, whereas a consumer spends his money, as if it’s a ham burger, where he gets an instant good feeling, which goes very very quickly, and doesn’t have a long term result.

How I tried to copy someone more successful, lost the authentic voice in my podcasts and ultimately got it back.

Got any questions? Ask me on Facebook:

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Check out my free business training: www.vitkin.net

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A copycat entrepreneur tries to model another entrepreneur completely. It’s completely normal to take someone’s business model, and adapt it a little bit, to make it your own, and improve it, and just make it work, because it’s an existing proven business model. I do this, and a lot of other business entrepreneurs do it as well.

However, there is also the copycat entrepreneur, and what they do is creep up very very sneakily. I was looking at someone’s videos on YouTube, and thought wow this is awesome. He’s so expressive, he’s so on point, and his stories are well formulated. His confidence was just perfect, I wanted to be just like him, and if you’ve seen some of my videos, you’ll have noticed that I tried being a little bit more like him. Like the guy who’s on twenty million dollars a year, and just a few steps ahead, and I wanted to be a little bit more like him, I just wanted to copy him a little bit more.

You can see in my videos and podcasts that I’m stifled, and people are commenting about how stifled my body language is, and that I’m not expressive. They were right, I was trying to copy someone else, I was trying to copy someone else too much.

If you want to become an entrepreneur, and copy an existing business model, that’s perfectly fine, but you need to develop your own personality, your own persona, you need to develop your voice (especially if you’re in marketing, email marketing, on YouTube, or anywhere else).

You need to develop your own voice, so that people know, just from a single sentence, that it’s you (be recognisable). You can have greetings that you always use, an intro that you always use, and a logo that you always use. The same thing that identifies you, and gives you a signature, and also a certain set of ideas, that keep recurring in your communication.

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John Sonmez was an employee working for other companies. Then, he started doing a lot of freelance work hourly consulting clients and now he is the founder of The Simple Programmer.

John wants to teach other people the things that he pursues his life. He was heavily involved in the software development space, but once he started learning skills like communication and marketing, he knew that he had to switch to personal development.

The business partner of John is running The Simple Programmer right now and this company makes $40K-$50K per month in revenue. Their website generates a lot of traffic and gets a few hundred new email subscribers per day.

Moreover, they are selling many books and online courses. The rest of the revenue comes from affiliate deals.

They have a constant stream of traffic. They do hardly any advertising. Having so much organic traffic means that you do not have to worry about running ads every day and the business is as much automated as possible.

Having a system and having a process in place is critical. Automation is the secret weapon for your small business.

In the beginning, John was doing everything by himself in his business and knew that if he stops working for a few days, his business will die. Then, he read a book (E-Myth Revisited) which opened his eyes. He realized that he can outsource most of the work to other people.

John went through his business and made everything into a process. He recorded every step of the processes in his business step by step.

John went from being stuck in the business working 60-70 hours a week to where he can get most of the work done by someone else. He was able to travel Europe, work just one day per week and have income coming in at the same time.

On the other hand, if you think you are going to work a few hours per week and you will be fulfilled in life, you are absolutely wrong. Happiness is hard work. You need to have a purpose in life. You cannot just lie on the beach and do nothing.

You have to set higher goals and put a lot of effort to achieve these goals. That is what is going to make your life more interesting and you will feel more fulfilled in life.

You can create a business where you can work 4-5 hours per week, but it won’t grow. If you want to scale your business, you have to put hard work into it.

So many people spend 50-60 hours per week just maintaining the business. They are working in the business instead of on the business. There is no time to make the business grow.

It is very hard to create 2 videos a day for several years. John reveals that the secret is that you have to commit to it 100%. You don’t have any other option. That is a life or death situation and you will find a way to make that happen no matter what it costs.

Sometimes, you might not be in a good mood or you don’t have any idea what you are going to talk about, but you do it anyway, because you must do it.

John always takes notes of interesting things that happen in his life. As soon as you think of a topic idea, you should drop it immediately on your Trello or Asana board. That is how he comes up with new topics for his videos. Moreover, any time he is in the gym or running, he listens to audio books in 2x or 3x speed.

Another great strategy is to pick one day as your shooting day and record 15-20 videos per day. After you do 2000 videos, you get good to a point where you do not have to do any kind of retakes and that makes the life of your video editor so much easier.

Very few people on Earth have shot more videos than John, so he has so much experience in this part of his business.