Episode #130 – Dan Meredith on Sacrificing Everything For Rapid Growth (how to put your money where your mouth is)

John McIntyre: It’s John McIntyre here, The Autoresponder Guy; I’m here with Dan Meredith. Now Danny’s an old friend, a semi old friend. I think we started talking some time last year. And he’s done a lot of cool things in the last 12 months – 12 – 18 months. So I asked him, “Can I get you on the podcast so I can pick your brain?”

Dan Meredith: Oh you.

John McIntyre: So I… It’s like…

Dan Meredith: You absolute grub.

John McIntyre: So anyway Dan is a marketer who like – we’ve been talking about his story. I’ll let him tell – you know it’s a very detailed, really – lots of cool stuff happening. He’s working with a bunch of marketers who have probably been on this podcast and they’re all in you known all over the industry.

Anyway he’s done lots of cool stuff. So we’ll get into that and you may remember Dan from the videos that we did in September when we were both at the Titans of Direct Response we spoke about, I don’t know, Dan – what was it – Dan Kennedy and some of those guys. And also Lady…

Dan Meredith: And lady boys [?].

John McIntyre: Lady boys [?].

Dan Meredith: Lot and lots of lady boy [?] based discussions…

John McIntyre: Yes.

Dan Meredith: … which was crucial to marketing. Key to part that.

John McIntyre: So Dan what’s up man? How you going?

Dan Meredith: I’m doing absolutely brilliant mate. I’m just wrapping up things here on a Friday. I just – for anyone I’m apologizing in advance. I do tend to let the old swear word out and the event I just finished was called “Free Shit Friday” in my group I set up called “Coffee With Dan” which was just a little accountability group that I set up because I couldn’t – none of my – I didn’t live near anyone sort of entrepreneurial so, I kinda decided to set up this little group.

Hopefully about 15, 21 friends and I think we’re about 700 now. It’s crazy, but once in a blue moon we do something called “Free Shit Friday” and we just – I encourage everyone to give stuff away. And I think – I literally just left the conversation because I said I’ve got to go, but we’re close to 300 comments and about $45,000 worth of stuff just being given away.

John McIntyre: It’s pretty – so…

Dan Meredith: So crazy group.

John McIntyre: Coffee With  Dan.

Dan Meredith: Coffee With Dan.

John McIntyre: A bit crazy coffee.

Dan Meredith: Amount of Vodka I put in mine, my friend, yeah it’s pretty crazy.

John McIntyre: All right well let’s get into the story. I already told this before, but let’s go back – I think what people find value in is the whole understanding where build come from coz remember I says the end result which is you know so and so’s you know working for this guy – working with you know a bit of you know I overlay, “Oh John’s got all these guys in his podcast,” for example. “Like how the hell he do that?” And the honest answer is I just email people which is you know the answer to a lot of this stuff, but people really appreciate hearing the story of when it was like when you weren’t successful when life kinda sucked. So tell me about that.

Dan Meredith: Yeah well career wise I flipped between kinda recruitment and sort of personal training and a bit of consultancy.

At the age of 33 – I’m 30 – just turned 35. I decided that I really wasn’t happy with my life and I decided to take what little savings, and they were little, even though I’d had some all right jobs before I just kinda knew that there’s never enough money in the pot.

I took what little I had. I maxed out – I think it was 4 credit cards? To quite a pretty penny and opened myself a personal training gym for the facility and before long I was down to, so I’ll do it in dollars coz the international language of market, about $40 a week to life off.

And we were making decisions you know is it food or is it fuel today? And we would – some days we would eat and some days we would put money in the car so we could get to work and get to clients. So yeah it started off pretty lean, to be honest, and I heard about copywriting – I can remember this it was December 18^th in 2013 so, I’ve only been in the game for say 18, 19 months? Maybe 20 I don’t even know. So yeah that’s how long it’s been for me. And it started off with a guy called Paul Mort who does fitness marketing in the UK and I learned about what copy was from him.

Then I thought this was fascinating applied it to my own business, more money started coming in. I thought this was awesome then I came across Ben Settle, Andre Chaperon, yourself John, and then it was the CopyHour, as well and I just became obsessed about it. And I just bought everything to do with copy. And you know I was a bit of a nut job with it to be honest coz like for example you’re supposed to do the CopyHour every year. I decided to do it in 3 months. It was 5 hours a day of hand written copy. Yeah it was intense, but that was my starting point. Piss poor and with absolutely no idea what I was doing.

John McIntyre: That’s a cool – that’s a cool start. I’m curious when you mentioned that you said you had $40 a week to live on, I never actually asked you this, what did you eat? When it came to eating, what did you eat?

Dan Meredith: Do you know what mate? It was oats, tins of tuna, and beans. That was it.

John McIntyre: Mixed together that?

Dan Meredith: Just… Not all the time, but yeah the oats was separate generally then there was tuna and beans. It was just the most simple you know kinda the cheapest most calorie dense protein filled food I could get. Coz least money as possible. One of the things we got into the habit of doing was going down to a supermarket we have here called Tesco’s. And if you get – if you get there about, 9:30 they shut at 10, they’d be all the food that was gonna be thrown away that day.

So we got pretty good at sussin out when the cheap food was gonna be put up and we would eat – you know we would just grab whatever we could. It was you know usually a discount so, yeah they kinda recognized us and we’d always be the first ones there to grab the bargains.

John McIntyre: Nice okay. I’m really curious what oats? This is totally unrelated. Me – I’m just in a funny mood today that oats, beans and tuna blended up together and…

Dan Meredith: They…

John McIntyre: … this little bit of water.

Dan Meredith: I imagine it would taste bloody awful Jonathan, but that – I actually do have the ability to separate my foodstuffs and since we’ve last met I’ve now mastered the spoon. So cutlery is actually something that I can use Jonathan, thank you.

John McIntyre: Good. I mean I was speaking more for me. I mean I used to – when I was in Thailand it was like smoothies – it was a huge smoothie every morning just coz I couldn’t be bothered to sit down and eat. It was just quicker to mix smoothie and just drink it while I’m you know doing my stuff whatever I happen to be doing that morning.

Dan Meredith: Moisturizing knowing you.

John McIntyre: Well sometimes I’d use the smoothie to moisturize. I mean that was – anyway…

Dan Meredith: Would you be drinking the smoothie when you drive one of your cute pairs of underwear Jonathan?

John McIntyre: Getting distracted. So what happened next? I mean what was the – you’ve gone from like this you know from $40 a week you know, spending on food, to you know sort of working for – almost getting mental and working for  a few very interesting people and now – I mean we haven’t spoken actually in a few months. I’m not even sure where you are now or what’s going on.

Dan Meredith: It is pretty cool right now to be honest mate.

John McIntyre: Okay. Okay tell me about that– let’s do that first. What’s going on right now and then we can settle back and look – what happened in the journey.

Dan Meredith: Well okay so, currently I – okay so still got the gym. That’s like turning over you know a very comfortable amount and I don’t do anything for that. I’ve now got this Coffee With Dan group which obviously started off as a bit of a fun, but you know to put it in perspective it – I did well I did a high 5 figures in one afternoon a few weeks ago from that group.

It’s turned out to be crazy responsive so, I’ve got a whole group of coaching clients, provocation clients, I’ve got a copywriting team. So I got 4 copywriters that work for me. I got supplement comin out and I now own a majority stake in a half millimetre digital product company. So…

John McIntyre: Nice.

Dan Meredith: … it’s been a bit nuts to be honest John.

John McIntyre: Okay, okay.

Dan Meredith: Yeah still is.

John McIntyre: If you’re still doing – coz last time we spoke you were doing a whole bunch of say – you were basically on Facebook all day doing deals.

Dan Meredith: Yeah I mean I still – we’ve still got – that was for the copywriting agency and that’s kinda fully booked at the moment.

You know we generally – we were retained by 4 large clients and that covers – I mean that in itself is a big business on its own and that’s only in the health, wellness, fitness nutrition sector. And yeah went to an event in that and then we picked up 2 you know beasts in the market place and that’s actually been something very useful is the events that I’ve gone to every single event I’ve gone to has made me money.

John McIntyre: Okay.

Dan Meredith: So yeah I mean I’ve got a you know about 10 staff now. All around the world, a couple full time and yeah I just literally do what I want. I mean but honestly I preach this to the group I teach. I do about – and I learnt this from I think you were talking about something you learnt from James Franco with the kinda 90 minute blockings?

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: So I do 3 90 minutes or 2 2 hours a day and that’s it. That’s all I do.

John McIntyre: Nice.

Dan Meredith: Everything else is automated. I mean honestly I can fold my business up. I mean realistically as long as I check my emails once a day. Spend about an hour or so on Facebook, I’m good.

John McIntyre: Yeah. It’s funny when you have that. Everyone has that transition point where you’re gonna go from you know doing the work to be going, “Oh I don’t actually have to do the work. I can just hire other people and charge a little bit more for what I’m offering.”

Dan Meredith: Yeah.

John McIntyre: Then done. All you’re really doing – is you’re sort of the chess player at that point.

Dan Meredith: That’s the thing. You know at the moment you know we had a one of our you know retaining copy clients drop off the other week because now I’m just renowned for just that. It’s no stress mate. I mean this is the beautiful thing. When you – you know I’m a big fan we’ve spoke about this before, the power of niche-ing down. 

Let people know exactly what I  do so, it’s so simple for me to pitch now because I just you know I have  team of copywriters all expert in fitness and nutrition professionals, all fully trained copy chiefs. So when I pitch in it’s kinda of a no brainer for people. I take a lot of stress away from – by just handling all of their work.

John McIntyre: Right, right it’s cool, but the funny thing is like you handle the work, but you don’t do the work. I mean that’s the best bit, right?

Dan Meredith: Yeah well that was the kind of the reality is obviously I started you know so we know we both – I mean I still love writing copy, I still do enjoy it, but it’s more kinda for fun now and just doing on bits and pieces that I enjoy.

The thing that I did, as I soon realise once I got my apprentice in, trained him up, and kinda kept doing that. Then I realise I was the one checking all the work still so, it’s kinda on my head and then I basically approached – I won’t name because it’s he kind of keeps under the hat, but you know a known copy mentor. And I said, “Look for an hour a week will you just you know maybe an hour or 2 a week, will you just go through all the work my team create and give it your critique?” And he was like yeah. We pay him you know a decent retainer for that.

So you know the whole system I’m hands off of now. It just works without me.

John McIntyre: Nice, nice.

Dan Meredith: Yeah.

John McIntyre: All right so, let’s hear me out for a second. So like 18 months to 20 – 18 months to 24 months so, almost 2 years ago was when you guys started. You had 40 bucks a week to spend on oats, beans and tuna. And then now you got this same way – you got a few different businesses going, a bit more of a – definitely moving more into that. What if it’s good – I’m like it’s more a – I feel like that’s the entrepreneurial role. Like you’ve got that transition from you have a job…

Dan Meredith: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … then you start a business then you’re self employed, but that’s really just a job and you’re employing yourself.

Dan Meredith: Correct.

John McIntyre: Then I don’t know what the next step is. So the next step seems to be something like the – it gets – when you get other people in – I mean it’s the 4 cash flow quadrants, 1 of those rich dad books, that’s what he calls it anyway. So you go for that…

Dan Meredith: Okay.

John McIntyre: … employed to self employed, to a business owner, which is where let’s say you’re at right now, the next step is investor which is where you use that money, you give it to everyone else to run the business, but it’s this cool thing…

Dan Meredith: Yeah that’s where I’m – I’m just morphing into that right now. Coz obviously I did my first sort of investment about 6 weeks ago?

John McIntyre: Okay.

Dan Meredith: And already you know paying off. And it’s good, and it’s great as well because you suddenly – there’s people out there who can – you can help and you can work with and yeah it’s fantastic mate. I mean honestly you know the thing I like and suddenly I’ve realised the more give away some of the money I invest or just give to people to do things with, the more it comes back and it’s really weird. It’s something that I never you know I’ve heard about that you know concept before and it works simple as that.

John McIntyre: Right, right absolutely. So what’s really interesting, and I think what the listeners might be interested in, is what do you think – and this is always like you never really can be 100% sure about exactly why we’re successful coz there’s a lot of sort of luck and variables that happen into it, but what do you think – what do you think is some of the factors that have made you have what a lot of you would call a rapid ascent in the business world?

Dan Meredith: I think – okay yeah the concept of you know just create this site, click on this button, make all the monies automated, yeah it works to a degree, but I’m not that – I’ve seen it firsthand you know and I’ve met a lot of people and a lot of successful people. And there’s what I think a lot of people don’t realise is there is a fact a period of grind that you have to go through.

And there is a crafty period where you are putting in the long hours and things aren’t working and you’re just putting content and pitches out over and over again. I’d say the thing that has made me successful is the fact that I have had some very tough you know corporate, non corporate jobs before where you had to work hard and I decided to approach that I – it got to the point where yeah I mean I’ve got – we’re lying and my health suffered, my relationship suffered, you know mental health, physical health, you know injuries occurred, digestion got screwed, sleep got destroyed. You know how to – a little bit too much of a fondness with the drink because you get stressed. And it’s the only ways to kinda – I found unfortunately to relax. And one of the things I look back on that period of time now in – I said to myself before you know I’ve worked hard you know foot in like a 12 or a 15 hour day or whatever, but that period of time just about six months, I would say, I would never worked that hard in my life.

I literally there is – there wasn’t an ounce of energy spare. There was nothing else I could have done to do any better. So when people say they’re working hard, I often question them. I’m like, “Are you really?” you know? Is there any – I get to the end of the day, and I always think to myself – thought to myself should I say, “Is there anything I could have done to make today successful?”

And if there was, back in those days, I would get out of bed and I would do it. And I knew it wasn’t gonna last forever, but I thought if I can just absolutely crush it for sort of 6 months or so, yeah, I’ve transformed my life. And if you say to most people, “Look you’re gonna do the equivalent of you know you’re gonna break your back for 6 months. It’s gonna be hell, you’re gonna hate life, you’re not gonna have fun, but after those 6 months your life will change forever?” I think most people would take that, but a lot of the people who are online and offline who sort of promise these overnight successes and get rich quick schemes and you know all these kinda stuff it’s bullshit.

There is a period of hard work in there, but you know if you’re prepared to do it and you, you know, you got a decent idea in your – you know good person you actually want to do something good in the world and that’s the thing like what I’ve wanted to do, I’ve wanted to help people. And I’ve always had people in mind first and that’s the thing.

So basically hard work, not giving up like being a relentless bastard, I mean just like you are with your podcast bookings, I’m the same with my pitching. I’m relentless and that’s it. And it’s accepting the fact that people – you know it is a busy world now and people never gonna get back to you straight away. But just be – never really given up and just go in – going the extra mile mate like it’s – it is hard work and anyone who said it isn’t is lying, but once you get past that stage, kinda the stage that we are now it’s wonderful.

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: There you go.

John McIntyre: An interesting thing I’ve been sort of wrestling with my head for the last few weeks, maybe for the last few months about this about this, it’s like a on the one hand there’s a pure grind. And I mean with everything, like even if we go and start a new business.

Like Elon Musk was here and he grinds his ass off so, the grind never really ends depending on what you’re doing. Either it sort of ebbs and flows a bit depending where you are with it, what stage you are in business or start a new business management whatever. But there’s this aspect of – I found for me, and I think some people that we get so attached to the grind that we get it like – our way of – like our identity is based on doing the work. And that identity of doing the work – actually I find finding – it holds us back. Coz then it – you know if you want to be an entrepreneur you want to be a business owner, not self employed.

You’ve got to get to a point where you don’t derive your value – your identity off the amount of work that you do because at a certain point you’re gonna hire a whole bunch of people to do all the work for you and you’re not gonna have that much left – not that much tangible stuff to do. You’ll be doing strategy and thinking and deals and networking, but a lot of that stuffs so intangible that you – it’s not gonna make you feel productive the same way that sitting down and busting your balls to write a sales letter for 3 days is gonna you know is gonna do. So there’s this interesting – and I’ve spent – I think it’s like it just takes a bit of you know think through and it’s gonna depend on the circumstance, but it’s an interesting idea if like – how do you work hard and you know cultivate that – cultivate it really strong work ethic while at the same time remembering that if you want to be an entrepreneur you’re job isn’t to do the work so much as find the really smart people to do the work for you so, then you could focus on the more important high level stuff like strategy and you know partnerships and all that sort of stuff.

Dan Meredith: So, yeah, I think for me it’s – I always – I’ve – I’ll never forget because obviously mate that hard work phase was so brutal it’s like a scar on my body now, yeah?

I’ll – I never – I knew what I took me to get me here and I’ve now gone from the working hard to the working smart, which sounds cheesy but it’s true philosophy. And I know what idea to keep myself at, but I’m just about to enter a period of growth so, I’m gonna have to go through probably another 2 to 3 months of not as crazy work as I’ve just done, but every time I wanna kind of level up I put in these kind of you know 1 to 3 months stints of intense growth. And then I put in – I you know put in the longer hours, I put in the effort. And that’s the thing mate.

I’ve realised as an entrepreneur it’s like if you’re staying still you’re kinda not really doing it. It’s like it’s hard because I’m always wanting to do better and I’ve you know I used to have a real issue with money and kinda you know coz my sister’s not well and I’m always kinda you know provide for home and save for the future. I was a very – what the opposite of an abundant – scarcity monitor [?]. And since I’ve gone with that more abundant mindset, and we’ve spoke about this before, it’s just fantastic because I’m not scared of investing or spending or putting money into something now because I know that if I do you know do the work, it’ll come back.

And that’s the thing mate. I’ve just realised that you know as long as I – I’m consistent so, for example I don’t really have a day off. I work every day, but it’s on my terms. So I’ll do you know even on a weekend I’ll do 1 or 2 hours of work, but it just means that everything’s ticking along. So for me the key to not going back to where I was is not staying still.

So I’m never complacent. And you know every dollar, cent, penny, pound, rupee, whatever it is I’m given by anyone, I’m incredibly grateful for. And you know I’m always very thankful for the fact that people have invested in me and that’s another key thing. I treat my customers and my clients like gold.

And if you know 1 if we think about this before it’s far easier to keep them than it is to get a new customer. So I just look after the people that pay me money. I’m very, very conscious to treat them very, very well.

John McIntyre: Yeah. Talking about network, is this just something that you’ve been – like me and Rob, a mutual friend of ours, has – and we’ve chatted about you before in the sense that you are an absolute machine when it comes to like networking and this just ability to connect with people that – like I use my podcast to do it and that works for me. I get on the phone and sometimes I stick around to have a chat, we become friends, sometimes I don’t, but you don’t even have a podcast. You just somehow end up – and I’ve noticed – I’ve been surprised I had this like how are you even friends with them? I just don’t – I don’t know. It’s just bond with me. So I’m like how – what’s your you know – what’s your secret?

Dan Meredith: Well I’ve got – well so secret number 1 is I’m very much a big believer in the kinda pay to play model. As in I – every single penny that I – say for example when I bought your product for example? Bought your product, consumed it, made an effort to connect with you, you know, about you know about my experience with your product, asked a few questions. So that was the first thing to this.

So everyone who’s product that I’ve purchased only then do I connect with them. So I don’t expect you know – let’s just say Ben Settle, yeah? I didn’t expect Ben to connect with me until I’ve purchased a product, why should he? But by the you know I bought his product, I’m a customer, you know, I just – I send him a friend request, send him an email, say hello. And I did this with everyone. So first you wanna kinda come across different, anyone you know if I want someone – if I want to interconnect with someone I would buy their shit. Because at the very least it’s a kinda small token to say, “You know I’m interested in your product, your service, you know you what you’re about,” and it wasn’t necessarily – there wasn’t like a grand master plan. I just felt it was a logical thing to do, you know?

Bought their product, use it, you know, give them a testimonial a bit of feedback. Say hello, get a connection with them. But then equally the main thing that I’ve been particularly good at is going to – and you know paid Masterminds, paid events, you know we each went to you know we were at Titans, we went to Ryan’s Ocean’s Four, been to Joe Polish’s 25k, you know?

I go to these things and I pay to be there. You know I’m not a free loader. And when I’m at these events like I see networking, it’s one of those words I find really quite unpleasant. I don’t see what I do as networking. I actually really love people. And if there’s gonna be one secret is really loving connecting with people, hearing their stories and having a genuine interest in them.

If you go into these kinda conversations just thinking about yourself as in, “What I can get out of this?” It always feels wrong. I mean and we won’t name names, but do you remember the gentleman who just collected business cards at Titans? Remember that? Jonathan?

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: Did it dip off there? Sorry mate.

John McIntyre: It jumped off – well actually I made a mistake. I’ve been putting myself on mute coz I may or may not be eating my lunch right now. And seeing when you put yourself on mute…

Dan Meredith: Sorry mate, I apologize.

John McIntyre: … and then you forget about it.

Dan Meredith: So yeah do you remember the guy at Titans that just collected business cards?

John McIntyre: I do, yes.

Dan Meredith: Was – didn’t you just find that cringe worthy?

John McIntyre: There’s a lot – yeah. And there was totally – and this is like events in general. There’s always the – like there’s always that guy, obviously, …

Dan Meredith: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … he use the field which are those guys who – it was just weird about it. It just like come on man like just be cool.

Dan Meredith: And that’s it so, I would say most of my best, you know, if I’m gonna have to call it networking, would happen at the bars afterwards.

As was in it’s really casual. I mean, yeah, there might be someone who I might you know – who I’m thinking you know I’d really love to talk to them, but I wouldn’t steam over and go you know, “Oh ho talk to me.”

John McIntyre: Yeah they say that.

Dan Meredith: You know Mister Person of Influence.

John McIntyre: That’s right. I might you know…

Dan Meredith: We still have Dave Kennedy, remember?

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: And it’s like just – you put yourself in a situation where you’re likely to talk him and so, I would either stand at the bar or you know if I see them going somewhere I’m gonna go – I might walk along near them or get into lift with them and just – it’s a natural process.

You don’t see me darting across you know a bloody conference room trying to grab someone’s attention coz it just looks awful. So I mean the key, to say is not – so a couple of keys from network is number 1 is want to actually be friends with people. Like you know be a normal person. Just be interested in their story as much as they hopefully will be in yours.

And number 2 just be natural, you know if you don’t end up meeting someone, I mean this is a little tip from my recruitment days and I used to do it when I used to go to these big industry events. The very – you know if you didn’t get to meet someone it’s no biggie.

I used to find by sending them a message afterwards saying like, I did this, we got a few people who are at Titan’s who I just didn’t get to meet. “You were so damn busy.” I’d literally drop them a message on Facebook or in their email or on their blog or whatever it was and say, “Hey we were both at Titan’s really wanted to you know have a chat with you at some point. Shame we didn’t get to meet. When would be good for a you know quick 5, 10 minutes on Skype?”

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: How casual was that?

John McIntyre: Super casual.

Dan Meredith: You got the commonality of the event, I might even mention something so, I might say, “Yeah didn’t get a chance to see you at Titan’s by the way what did you think of Ken McCarthy’s bit? I really loved that on the end of the first day.” So you got a nice little you know shows you were there.

It’s real, it’s human, and then just be normal. Seriously the best thing to say about networking is just be – don’t be a freaking weirdo.

John McIntyre: I mean part of this comes down to like just sort of just social skills. Like you get a lot of – and this is the funny thing too. Like this internet marketing thing like attracts a lot of weirdo’s coz you know you can sit in your computer inside in your dark basement, and you know – I don’t know advertise porn or something weird like that.

That’s – but so what you see you got these like people – you know I will get into it who never – I don’t know never you know – they just didn’t develop social skills so, then you go to these conferences and there’s these people who – they’re just weird. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean they can be…

Dan Meredith: Yeah weird is cool.

John McIntyre: Weird’s cool, but when it comes to networking like it helps if you’re going out – take some time to develop and learn how to be – be cool.

Dan Meredith: Yeah it’s like – and to be honest it’s a learned skill. You know I’m not naturally you know super, but it is true mate. I sense it is – hey shut up you! Pig head [?]. But it’s you know it’s a practiced skill. So this is sort of the day when I started in recruitment, I was told to go out every lunchtime to practice my people skills and get someone’s address every day.

So day in, day out it’s just like whether it’s you know running or weight training, or dieting, or anything it was consistency.

So I spent you know weeks and weeks and I think it was months – about 2 months, I think I did it, for every single day forcing myself to interact with strangers. And I was a naturally, quite a very shy, quiet kid. I really was. You wouldn’t believe it, but this is a practice in learned stake. And it can be learned, but you kinda have to – you know the first few times you do it it’s like kinda going up and asking out the first time. It’s like awkward. You bumble, you don’t know what to say, you say something stupid, but it’s just practice mate.

And that’s what I did. I used you know a couple of months in my early 20s I just went out day in day out spoke to people. Very uncomfortable to start off with, but it became natural to the point where I can do it anywhere now.

John McIntyre: Awesome. Hear that?

Dan Meredith: Yeah mate. Just yep. Just was…

John McIntyre: Yeah I don’t know what happened with whoever this was. So you’re just gonna edit this out then.

Dan Meredith: No I’m gonna leave this totally in. Brilliant some really good job.

John McIntyre: So what were we talking about right before I rudely interrupted that?

Dan Meredith: It was – I don’t know coz you – I’m really got pleased you did that with me probably wouldn’t do it with any of your other guests so, thank you for treating me like a lower class citizen. We were talking about…

John McIntyre: It’s the third day I’ve missed the protein delivery. They keep coming and then I’m up here or…

Dan Meredith: Oh sure I’ll stop.

John McIntyre: … they can’t get it in so…

Dan Meredith: First world problems John, how are you coping in your tropical paradise? Do you want to take a moment to have a little cry?

John McIntyre: No it’s more like the third world I think man technically.

Dan Meredith: Shut up. Any…

John McIntyre: Anyway.

Dan Meredith: Anyway. We just wrapped up on networking, I believe.

John McIntyre: Networking all right, yeah, yeah. So point of merit here at your network, I love that – where I thought there was – I never seen it codified like this in the way of all – to jump back a little bit to these so, I’ll buy someone’s product, send them something cool, and then try and get on the phone with them to be like, “Yeah I just thought you know I wanted to connect with you.”

And it’s amazing how… Coz people do this like I mean this is how when you got on the phone on the first time. You know I’ve had this happen before with other people. They email and – you know like if you sound cool in the email usually I’d be like, “Yeah I’d be happy to go on the phone with you and have a chat.” If you sound fun, if you come across like, “Can I pick your brain…

Dan Meredith: Oh stop yeah.

John McIntyre: … I’d like to ask you some questions on my …” If it’s anything to do with business I’m like it’s like, “No. There’s a coaching call like you know you do get paid for a coaching call or consulting for that,” but if you just want to have a chat and you sound fun and yeah you just someone I like to connect with then cool let’s connect.

Dan Meredith: I think the people who you know, just a little tip, you know buying someone’s product immediately makes people take you seriously.

It’s like you’ve invested, you know, I’m not talking necessarily like a $5, $10 eBook here, but if you bought someone’s calls or you’ve invested in one their coaching pre ops so, anything like that anything with a you know slightly higher dollar value.

Like you know you’re a customer. And they, you know, you’ve clearly invested in their product, then they’d likely to take you more seriously. And like this John said – you said there John. By being not weird it gets you very far.

John McIntyre: It’s interesting…

Dan Meredith: It’s really not that terrific.

John McIntyre: The frame’s interesting too. So if you come out like, “I just bought your product and like you know…” and you sort of kiss my ass a bit or kiss whoever you’re trying to get to it’s actually like, “You’re really amazing and like you must be…” like you basically imply that they’re so much better than you they’re not gonna want to connect with you either.

Dan Meredith: No.

John McIntyre: You really need to like approach it like… I – we’re on the same level. You’ve just – you’re just a little bit – a couple years ahead of me or something like that, but I’m just like you, let’s have a chat. It’s got to be like that.

Dan Meredith: Yeah and the thing is, what I found is if you just go in and blow smoke up people’s backside, yeah, then you just come across as a little fan boy, what I used to do is – I you know this is something that so many people don’t do is – I bought in every sample and I bought your product – I bought your product and immediately used it.

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: Then I called you to say I – basically with the – game me some feedback. And you I said about, “Do you want a testimonial or anything I’d be happy to give one,” you know? And it’s not just – it wasn’t false, it wasn’t disingenuous. I’d used your product, I’d put it in my fitness business and The Autoresponder and it worked.

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: So you know I used people’s products. You know I don’t necessarily – I would buy it one day and then message you straight away to talk to you about it. It’s like I’ll use it, implement it, try it, you know? Give feedback where it’s – you know where it’s appropriate.

And yeah that’s right I don’t treat you know even when I was you know piss poor and had nothing. I never saw these people as better that me. I just thought, “Okay you’ve been doing it longer than me.”

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Dan Meredith: And that’s it it was a time thing. You know scroll forward nearly 2 years and you know I’m sort of caught up and accelerated past some of those people that I used to buy their programs.

John McIntyre: Yeah. I mean the interesting thing here is that like we had the – I’ve had this conversation like these sort of questions with a lot of people. And it’s subtle – it’s stuff like – you know when you say like what does it mean to be successful? Or like how do you get success? It’s like set up a landing page, especially in a you know marketing niche.

Like one how to write copy – and all of that’s important, but what you’ve done, I think, is really accelerated your journey looking from the outside in is just the people that you’ve met. It’s probably been about learning from them you know just changing that peer group, but also getting the mentoring from all these different people. You have all these additional perspectives that that then – coz yeah every time I’ve been to one of these events especially the high level ones when you spend a couple thousand dollars to go, it – you have these conversations that shift about the way you think about things. That then changes how you start operating and acting you know as soon as you leave that event and then everything else changes as a result.

Dan Meredith: I, yeah, I completely agree with you. I sort of say you know I did a webinar for my little group the other day and one of the questions are what was you know the single biggest thing that has changed you, your career, you know,  basically your trajectory? And it’s been having mentors and coaches.

I’ve literally, consciously surrounded myself with people way better than me. And every time there’s a skill I’ve needed to learn – so for example when I needed to learn how to write emails, I badgered you know Ben Settle to coach me. When I needed to – I felt I needed to you know learn funnels hassled Ryan. And you know worked for him for free for 9 months for coaching in lieu for that.

And now my current mentor, I can’t sort of name him at the moment, but he – he’s never worked with anyone before, but he lives life exactly how I want to live life, but on a huger scale. So he’s obviously doing what I want to do and that’s a key thing. If there’s someone out there who is living the life you wanna live or doing the work that you wanna do pay them.

Give them money to share some of their time. It’s a shortcut to the top. So yeah I’ve spent you know six figures this year – well like 12 months alone on mentoring and coaching which my friends think is utterly ridiculous, but that has paid back multiple times over. And equally due to the fact that I’ve invested in these people I’ve become friends with their friends, I’m in their networks, I’ve scaled up incredibly fast. And that’s something people need to comprehend.

You know there’s a lot of – there’s a lot of mentor bashing online sometimes you know people moan that they don’t get this or they don’t get that out of it, but they’re just people at the end of the day. They can’t make you do the work.

So if my coach or mentor says you need to write this, you need to do that, you need to connect with these people, you need to put out this bit of content, whatever it is they tell me to do I just do it. I don’t question people who are better than me. You know I’m not gonna take nothing horrible, not gonna take some advice from someone who’s say lower down relatively because, well, they haven’t done it yet. But you know these people are 7,8,9,10 – I mean my mentor’s think 11 figure earner. He’s crazy.

Why would I not listen? But you know I’ve paid a princely sum to have his ear you know a couple of hours a week and everything he tells me he’s done it – it’s the shortcut to the top. And it’s a you know a big takeaway for anyone listening if you’re still listening.

Bored you to tears by this point. He’s a you know a good mentor, a good coach, will not only develop you as a person, but will bring you into their world and open some seriously big doors for you.

John McIntyre: Yeah the mentor thing’s interesting coz I’ve found you know over the last year is this probably had a like 3 or 4 like specific mentors that I’ve hired to actually you know help do certain things and they’re good – I usually find it’s an interesting thing.

You need to find people who you have chemistry with, that’s one thing. But I also find that partly you know it’s very much doing what they tell you, but then certain mentors like certain people would just be good at different things. And like one person is gonna be you know a generalist, you know, sort of like he’s gonna be able to help you with the general perspective about things and help move you forward. Once you got that handled though you probably gonna be better off getting a new coach that’s more going to be focused on the specifics. This is what I found. It’s been my personal experience that you find that each coach for each person – just like we all have a specific thing that we’re really good at and where we can add most of that have value and that’s what you find with a coach.

He’ll add – he or she will add most their value in one I find – one main area and then you’re gonna be a lot better off going to another one coz should of been exhausted – you’re gonna get the growth that you’ve got from one mentor and then after that you’re not gonna get that much growth, it’ll be like incremental gains. Then you go and get a new coach and of that month or two that you first work with them I find you get huge amount of growth initially.

Dan Meredith: Yeah maximum.

John McIntyre: And then diminishing returns over time. And so you go to the next one. You keep learning from all of the different coaches.

Dan Meredith: I find 3 months is a good, you know, I say that to my coaching students as well when I say you know I aim for a minimum of 3 because I struggle to do you know – you – I can get some quick results with people, but I find within 3 months you’ve cemented it and anything longer than that, I don’t find you really need it to be honest. And I agree what you said and move to the next one, but I’ve – I had a – I did a video about this couple of weeks ago while I was out in the States. And I see it – I kind of categorized it as coaches and mentors.

So I see a coach is someone like you said that teaches you a specific skill. So I want to get better writing sales pages, okay well this person’s good at that you can teach me how to do that.

I find a mentor is someone who takes more like the 30,000 tribute and is more guiding you as a person throughout like a business, personal and emotional journey. So there’s someone who’s looking after the – all of you and wasn’t that not that you know I think mentoring is a longer relationship, but coaching, yeah, I think – I see coaching as more like a skill acquisition thing and yeah every 2 to 3 months changing out for someone else who has the same you know has that sort of another area that you want to develop is a brilliant idea.

John McIntyre: Yeah I like that it’s a good distinction. So we…

Dan Meredith: So…

John McIntyre: So… Entonces as they say in Spanish. I’m learning Spanish, I’m trying to get a go on… Anyway entones we’re coming up right on the end man so, before we go…

Dan Meredith: Cool.

John McIntyre: … what – I’m sure there’s gonna be people who want to go and search you out, find your Coffee With Dan or find you on Facebook or hire you as a coach or something or just tell you how handsome you are so to speak.

Dan Meredith: You doll.

John McIntyre: Where are you know where should they do that? How should they get in touch with you? Is there anything…

Dan Meredith: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … any product that you have that people can buy or what?

Dan Meredith: Nah not yet. I’ve got a few little things in the process, but yeah if it’s at my website – well I’ve actually got my blog is quite entertaining which is called deathgloryordisappointment.com that’s where I just ramble about things.

You can always get in touch with me through there or feel free to join my group if you’re on Facebook and just search for Coffee With Dan if you see a kind of astute gentleman holding a very small espresso cup in the image, that’s me. It’s a free group, it’s an accountability group, it’s absolutely buzzing. I’ve got to be honest I am really proud of it, the people in there are quite lunatics. There’s an awful lot of swearing and abuse, but I’ve never known the amount of work done ever. I’ve just – crazy what’s in there.

So yeah join the group or send me a message via my blog and yeah I like talking to people and meeting people as you clearly gathered. So yeah please feel free to connect.

John McIntyre: Boom I just clicked join the group so, it’s pending application.

Dan Meredith: Well I was not be so rude as to have Facebook appearing already [?]. You know I wouldn’t be so rude as to go and answer a protein delivery. Screwing the thing you’ve promised me for a year, but you know here we are.

John McIntyre: Here we are. Man it’s been good to chat I’m gonna have a list of…

Dan Meredith: Mate it’s been too long.

John McIntyre: It’s really good.

Dan Meredith: Thank you very much nice to speak to you.