Misfit Entrepreneur July 2019 - 154: Go Where Your Competitors Aren’t; From $0 to $50 milion+ in less than 5 Years with Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond

Subscribe and Listen Today!

Inspiring and Actionable Content Weekly from Misfit Entpreneurs

Subscribe on Itunes

Subscribe on Stitcher

Subscribe on RSS

Dave Lukas Chats with Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond

154: Go Where Your Competitors Aren’t; From $0 to $50 Million+ in Less Than 5 Years with Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond. Jeff and Jason are the co-founders of the trading and investing education powerhouse, Raging Bull. Jeff and Jason started out in completely opposite directions. Jason went from school teacher and being $250,000 in debt to becoming a self-made millionaire trader and Jeff failed building 4 business, even trying his hand at being an online poker player, and became a multi-millionaire at age 35.
Together, Jeff and Jason have taken Raging Bull from idea to an over $50 million a year business teaching people how to invest and create financial freedom worldwide.

I’m really excited about this episode, as a lot of you know that I have my own trading and investing strategy that I teach and I’ve wanted to bring on some of the most successful traders in the world to open your eyes to the possibilities that exist for you – as well as have you learn from two guys in the trenches every day of not only trading, but building a massive business.

www.RagingBull.com

Don't Miss Even More Resources to Help You Each Week. Click Here and Subscribe to the Misfit Minute!

Show Notes

Jeff and Jason started in totally different paths. Jeff started in Texas and Jason was in New York. About 15 years ago, after failing in a few businesses, Jeff got started in internet marketing. He always thought that working online would be his path to success. He was writing online articles on financial websites and built a few financial related businesses when he came across Jason. Jason was a teacher that hard started a small trading education business and reached out to him to collaborate.

Jason was a school teacher working on his 2nd masters degree to be a principal. His wife was a teacher as well. He was 7 years in when it really hit home that with the $250k in debt that they had and the minimal raises they were getting, that it wasn’t going to cut it. He started dabbling in stocks and quickly lost some money, so he started searching for someone to teach him how to trade. That is how he found Jeff. He had seen him as a professional trader online.

Jeff and Jason made a deal that if Jeff taught him how to be a professional trader, then Jason would use his skills as a teacher to teach others how to do so.

It took 3-4 years to get things off the ground together, but then turned into something big.

Jason, you went from being a school teacher deep in debt to building this $50 million+ business with Jeff in 3-4 years, what have you both learned about building a successful business that is critical for entrepreneurs to know?

It is a lot of hard work, but it is a commitment to do it every day more than when you got started.
You need to be in the right space for your skillset.
If you are looking to focus on a business, there are 3-4 areas where you can really make great money:
- First, any area where you can benefit someone’s kids and help them
- Second, health and vitality.
- Third, Finance and how to make more/protect their money.
- Fourth, nowadays, for many, pets are like kids.
Jeff and Jason found a niche in small cap stocks and built a brand around it.
They were able to resonate with thousands of investors in this niche and that is what built the business. You don’t need millions to buy your product – you need to provide a great solution to a hungry niche and serve them well.
Communication is very important. Being able to simplify complex things, make then easy to understand, and teach in a an easy way so people can learn about your product or service is extremely important. The way you communicate has a big impact on your success.

At the 12 min mark, Jeff talks about how the internet changed the game and allowed them to really carve out the niche.

What is your best advice for entrepreneurs starting out today?

You will have times where you will be very successful and times where you will not.
Your first business will most likely not be the homerun.
You must be open in life to have the failures and set yourself up to be able to handle them.
For example, if you are going to take on a business, work to keep your personal debt low so you can weather any storms you go through getting off the ground.
When you are in failure, you do need to know it is ok, but pressing on is the tough part. Your resolve will be a big part of your success.
“You only have to get rich once. You can fail a lot of times, but if you get rich one time that is all you need.” - as long as you stay smart and respect it.
You will eventually find the one thing that works because opportunities are abundant in this world.

Can you talk about the mental side of succeeding as an entrepreneur?

Jason talks about how important education and preparing yourself is. He and his wife used Dave Ramsey’s course on how to get out of debt.
Going through this to get to a point to where he could quit his teaching job taught him a lot of things.
Self-education is critical, but so is looking for people to mentor you and model yourself after.
Jason talks about how Jeff was good for showing him how to live a cash lifestyle and staying out of debt.
Disciplining yourself and delaying gratification is one of the hardest things to do, but it is something you must do.

At the 20 min mark, we have a discussion about the ways people look at wealth.
Talk about how you’ve built your community of clients…

You have to go above and beyond to stand out.
You can fool someone once, but that is it.
If you are going to do it right, you have to prove yourself so you clients continue to buy from you.
That means you have to deliver on your promises and in your products.
You have to give great value
Showing clients what they were doing in real time with their own money resonated well with clients. They put their money where their mouth was.
Look at it from the perspective that you want to earn people’s business for the rest of their lives. Put the client first.

At the 32 min Mark, Jeff and Jason talk about the systems they have created that help grow and sustain their business.

You have to create a great culture. At RB, almost every employee has some aspect of their pay tied to sales.
To get good lead flow, you have to be aggressive and invest in marketing.
Online marketing is something you have to be doing and figure out. Even if it is starting with $50-$100.
No matter how good your product is, the odds are extremely low that you will get great growth just by word of mouth.
One way to market is to go where the bigger competitors aren’t. Don’t go head to head in all the markets. Find a way to stand out or use a different medium
- For example, Youtube has been great for RB because it is not leveraged by the competition, so they have gotten some great return on investment.
No matter what, these companies like Google, etc. will make their money – so don’t think you can “beat” them. Use them as the tools that they are.
Facebook has not been as good for them. Other channels have worked better for them.
Biggest lesson – Bet on yourself and put your chips on the table investing in your business. The reinvestment of profits back in is critical. Delay gratification.

What does it really take to be a successful trader? What is most important for people to know?

The smoke and mirrors confuses people.
The next best thing is always going to be there and we all want to buy into the latest and greatest, when the more important thing is to find something that is good and learn and stick with it. Jumping from strategy to strategy is not the way to succeed.
You have to put in the work.
The quick and easy way doesn’t exist – there are lot of people that will “sell” you that, but in reality, you have to learn, do the work, and focus.
Stock trading is like consistently working out. You have to be disciplined.
You cannot become successful just by copying someone else – but you can by learning from them and taking what works best for you and making it your own.
A good trader is like a great artist. The really good ones standout.

At the 54 min mark, Jason and Jeff explain the world of penny stocks and how it works as well as insight into trading options…

Biggest trading mistake and the lessons learned from it?

Jeff – going too big and gambling too big on stocks or options. Being so sure and even doubling down on something that went against you.
Stocks can always go lower or higher than you ever think,
Jason – Position sizing. Making sure not to put too much on one trade. Risk tolerance is important.

#1 Quality trader’s should develop?

Jason – Discipline
Jeff – Knowing your risk tolerance and listening to it.

Best Quote

Tweet This: “You cannot become successful just by copying someone else – but you can by learning from them and taking what works best for you and making it your own.”

Jeff: Success is just a thing in life – it’s not THE thing.
Jason: Bet on yourself.

Jeff: The relationships you build are way more valuable than any money you can make.
Jason: Believe in yourself and your potential.

Jeff: Success is also important and is a measuring stick in life, so we should strive to compete and win.
Jason: Give yourself permission to get rich.

Show Sponsors

Do you know one area that has incredible power for your brand and business, but most entrepreneurs never fully maximize? It’s your website. Whether you’re developing your personal brand, building your own business, or working for a large organization, your online presence is critical to your success.

Pantheon is the leading WebOps provider, powering more than 285,000 websites and trusted by small businesses, startups, and some of the most well known brands, like Coach, Lyft, and IBM to name a few.

Rated as a Leading product for both Small Businesses and Enterprises and named one of the Top 10 Software Products of 2019 by G2 Crowd, Pantheon’s WebOps platform helps you build, manage, and optimize your most important brand asset: your website.

Whether you’re just beginning to build your dream or are already well on your way, Pantheon can help you deliver the best online experience and future-proof your digital presence.

And you can get started today as Misfit Listener for FREE with an account that gives you:

Two free sandbox sites
Git-based Dev, Test and Live environments
Free HTTPS (SSL) Certificates
Integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN)
And more

Just go to Pantheon.IO/Misfit.

It seems there is always something to write up. And many times, a lot of what we write is the same thing. Whether it is responding to clients, writing blog posts, business messages and emails, show notes, and so on. There are so many things we type repeatedly…what if there was a solution that remembered all of these things that we type all of the time and with the stroke of key, automatically filled everything in.

Well, guess what, it exists. It’s called TextExpander from Smile Software. Imagine shaving seconds and minutes out of your day, every time you type. Using TextExpander, type your email addresses, chunks of code, brand messages, directions and data at speed, and reclaim that time you spend correcting your typos. Give each of these words, phrases and messages a short abbreviation you type instead, and watch your “snippets” of text expand. You can Even create Mad-Libs style fill-in-the-blanks to customize on the fly.
In fact, the average user of Text Expander saves over an hour a week in time and productivity. And it’s simple to set up.

Smile Software is giving you, the Misfit Entrepreneur audience, a 30 day FREE trial and 20% your entire first year. Just go to TextExpander.com/podcast 