Lessons Learned Going From $0 to $6 Million in Three Years with Glen Ledwell

James Mel: Hey everybody, welcome to the Get Ahead podcast, I’m James Mel. On this podcast what I do is I find successful entrepreneurs and I dig deep to uncover the strategies, the mindsets, the techniques and other things they’ve done to get ahead in their life and their business so you can do the same. I know if you’re here, you’re a high achiever. I know you want to get ahead. That’s a topic I’ve been obsessed with my entire life and that’s what I want to help you do, is uncover the different strategies and the techniques you need to be able to do that to get ahead in your own life. 

Make sure to grab a pen, a paper or something to take notes with, because as we uncover these gold nuggets, you’re to going to want to write them down. Now, before we jump into today’s episode, I have something really special to give you as a free gift. Like any successful person, I’ve got a mentor and I’ve had one for over 10 years, and it turns out that he’s also my business partner. His name’s Eben Pagan and he’s written a book on opportunity. 

Now if you want to get ahead in your life and your business, it’s super important that you not only know how to spot opportunity, but you know how to take advantage of it and that’s what this entire book is about. I’d like to give you a free copy. Not only that, I’d like to ship it to you absolutely free, so you get a free copy and get it shipped to you absolutely free. The way you can get this is, go to www.jamesmel.com/opportunity and it’s all on me. Go there now, grab your copy, you’ll be glad you did. All right. Without further ado, let’s jump into today’s episode.

Welcome to another episode of the Get Ahead podcast. I’m super excited today because I’ve got one of the most real people I know. You’ll see what I mean as we get started here. Glen Ledwell, serial entrepreneur, too many businesses to count. But what’s interesting is that he did start his first business at 17. Has bought and sold so many since then. Very well known for Mind Movies and it’s taken that from zero to $6 million in three years, which is super impressive. That business has done a lot of revenue online. 

Glen has generated in excess of $50 million online. You’re going to want to grab some pen and paper, your iPhone to take notes. Glen, welcome to the show.

Glen Ledwell: Oh thanks man. Nice to be here James.

James Mel: How do you get ahead? I mean you’ve had some amazing results like I just mentioned. How does that get started?

Glen Ledwell: Well, I think it’s all, I mean we’ve heard this a million times. It’s nearly cliché. I know I do have a personal growth company, but believe me, and we just happen to practice what we preach. But it obviously starts with mindset. We all know this. Logically, we all know this. Do we all do it? We all feel it? Do we all deal with our shit? No, we don’t. But it really is trying to have the right mindset. Now what’s that? That’s trying to think abundantly. Now that doesn’t come natural to 85% of people in America. I’d say it’s probably the entire Western world, but the statistic is 85% of Americans have got a limiting belief around money. 

Now, when you realize that, it’s two things you’ve got to realize… you know if you do, you know if you think a little bit scarcey you’re not always abundant, I mean, hey, well most of us were brought up that way. To try not to do that is a big thing. That’s the right mindset to think abundantly. Not just think scarcely. If you are or aren’t that to identify that in other people and act and approach people and deal with people accordingly, understanding that, that could be the case. I think that step one is just understanding that. 

Then of course, I now file. I mean it really, again, another cliché, you only file when you stop. I mean, and that’s true, not truly a back mind and you could always, I didn’t learn this. I was lucky enough to somehow get this from my childhood, my parents, I didn’t know that, but just maybe I’m just an arrogant prick and won’t stop until, because my ego. I don’t know, that’s probably a part of it to be honest.

If you’ve got a big ego, you don’t want to let people see your file, but it is very, very important. Now looking back, it’s like, well, people used to say to me in all different businesses, I’d a few times like, “Oh, so you’re going to do that. What if it doesn’t work?” And I go, “Oh, I’ll just do something else.” You see the look on their face is like you’re speaking a different language. They’re like, “What do you mean? So having the right mindset, you know where I’m going with this, right? The right mindset or to try to have the right mindset, try, try, try, try, fail fast, succeed slowly. 

Again, these cliché statements, it’s clichés because they true. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I could go into just the file fast, but again, we know this, but it’s so important to realize. Again, we’ve all got insecurities, we’ve all got problems with, “Oh, what if I, what if I, what if I?” Procrastination, thank God I’m not a procrastinator, but say on the opposite, it doesn’t always serve me. I’m ready for a ride. Now that’s costed me a lot of money over the years, that attitude, but it’s made me more. To be the other way and procrastinate, you’ll never, ever, ever, ever get anywhere in business, because it’s, “Oh, I’ve got five ideas. They’re not perfect.” 

Then comes in the perfectionist. We’ve all got that all us entrepreneurs. Then you’ve got not been able to let go because no one can do it as good as me. These things are very early on, I feel in your business life, that you’re like, “Good enough is good enough. I’ve got to get out of my own way.” It’s all eager, right? This perfectionist thing, just take a step. If you’ve got five things in front of you, pick the worst one and have a go at it, better than sitting there and two years later going, “I was going to do one of those things.” Everyone listening has done this. Believe me, we’ve all done it. 

I’ll tell you what, for me it’s the opposite. I’ve just filed a shit ton of times and gone, “Man, I should’ve thought about that, maybe 10 minutes rather than five minutes.” But I really believe that if you can try to be abundant, try not to let those core things we get from our childhood of, “Money doesn’t grow on trees. You got to work hard, dah, dah,” yeah, it’s all bullshit, it’s programming. If we can step out of that and just make ourselves take a step and not procrastinate, dude, you’re 1000 times ahead of the majority of people.

James Mel: It’s 90% of the game is just showing up. Literally, not many people around to do it. What did you find help you out the most when you’re trying to cultivate this mindset, when you’re just getting started or whatever, abundance, not giving up. What do you found helped you the most?

Glen Ledwell: For some reason I was lucky enough. The one thing I didn’t get was a scarcity mind and for one reason or another I had a no fail attitude. A lot of the stuff we teach today, I did thankfully, gratefully already have. The themes for me were, I should have procrastinated a little bit more. I was the opposite. That wasn’t a problem. But that is the biggest problem. 

I’m very grateful that pretty much the two worst things I didn’t have, a scarcity mind and procrastination, but what do I do have, was like everybody else, a shiny object syndrome. You want to do a million things, not focus. I had to really learn that lesson, to focus. Well I had to really learn over several businesses to let go. You imagine this with Mind Movies 12 years ago till about nine years ago, every single video piece of text that went out, I had to see. Can you imagine?

James Mel: Wow.

Glen Ledwell: Even when we were the size we were back then, it was insane. I was working like jazz, dude, but hours, and I had no life and I’d learnt the lesson before, and smaller business I’d been, I’d let go, but then I just realized, I’m like, “Because Mind Movies is me.” “No it’s not. It’s company.” All right. I took everything so personally. That’s a business growth thing. I had the luxury of being 39, 40 years old when I started this company, out of 20 different businesses, I’d learned a little lesson. If you’re listening to this, you’re like, “Oh my God, I can’t just think that way.” Believe me, it took me 40 years to be able to. 

I don’t feel bad if you’re at 20s and 30s and you’re like, “Man, I’m struggling with that,” because it’s something we’ve all got to learn. When I coach people, basically younger people, it’s always comes down to those few things and they say, “Oh my God, I can’t focus. There’s always another opportunity.” Or it’s like, “I just can’t let go.” Man, I’ll tell you, those people, they either let go or five, 10 years later they’re exactly where they were, on the treadmill, probably making good money, probably putting out good shit, but with no lives. Do you want a life? Do you want to really build a proper business or do you want to hang on to these beliefs or habits that we have?

James Mel: Yeah, it’s so true and I’ve learned that lesson in my own business. It’s not always the sexiest thing or mindset abundance this, but I’ve noticed that when I upgraded my mindset from six figure thinking to seven figure thinking, that’s when the seven figures followed, literally. It was just that, it wasn’t any technique or hack or Facebook algorithm, the mindset in getting around the right people, which is so critical. Let’s talk a bit about Mind Movies because you’ve actually taken that and applied it to the business, right? This is something that could help everybody?

Glen Ledwell: Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, like I just said, when I started that I really fruit necessity. It wasn’t like I didn’t know it, I just couldn’t let go, and for the first time. I’d let go in one business early, but it was not any the level of that, that I was able to do it, and what happened the next year, that’s when I really started to have the dream life that I have today was exactly what you just said. We went from about the $6 million mark… No, that first, second, third, the third year was when I really started to let go. We went from 3 million to 6 million, one year. 

Now it’s years, we’ve worked between there and about and seven, eight figure mark. But it was that exactly what you just said. I didn’t do anything differently. I just did it wayless, had more of a life. Trusted more people. A lot of the time, sometimes when we go from a little bit smaller business to… like we went from let’s say three, four people to 10 in one year staff, right? It’s like, “Whoa.” Yeah. We doubled out. We doubled out. You know what, the next year after that, we didn’t go up much more in income. We doubled the team again, but I did even less, so it’s a… 

I think the important thing too, I’m skipping around here a little bit, but when you’re starting a business and you’re building your business, and I think it’s very, very important to know what kind of business you want. You’ve got to get these fundamentals out of the way anyway, but then you’ve got to go, “Do I want to run whatever numbers are? Say, I want to make a couple million dollars a year, I want high end staff. I don’t want to have many staffs. But I’m going to have to work. I’m going to have to work every day. Keep on it. Maybe I’m the face, maybe I’m a coach, maybe I’m whatever.” Or, “Do I want to build a bit bigger company? That, way more overhead, way more stress, way more management, and actually be able to step out of it and just look at the business and work on it, rather than in it?” 

Which I mean, I’m very lucky to be able to do that for a very long time. But again, I had 20 years building, trying to get a business that I could do that with. I was very crystal clear on what I wanted, but even though I did, it still took me a couple of years to get rid of those habits. 

James Mel: Yeah. It’s so true because I find… I know that’s true from a lot of people I’ve seen. They just start going and they don’t even know what they’re creating. But it’s, what is it? Stephen Covey I think said, “Begin with the end in mind,” and it’s no… because then you know what you’re moving towards. I think, I was at a Mastermind recently and they talked about the difference between lifestyle entrepreneur and then, I don’t know, I think it was like ambitious entrepreneur or something like that. No one’s right or wrong, but it sounds like you found the happiness for you by getting clear on what it is you wanted?

Glen Ledwell: Yup. And you know what, that was the thing like, “Yeah, great. Stop with the end in mind.” “Oh, I’m not capable of doing that.” Now, I’m like, “Right, let’s go, let’s get it…” I know I can’t say I’m any better than that today. “There’s an idea, let’s go. I’m not doing business plans and contracts,” unlike, “Let’s get this thing going, that makes some money,” then I step back.

But when it does start to make some money, and I’m not saying this is correct, I’m just not capable of being a big planner on the right spot. But then when it’s something serious and you’re realizing, oh, you’re working like a dog, you might be making money, whatever. You don’t have a life or you’ve realized, “Okay, come on. What business do I really want?” Then you say, “Okay.” That’s how I did it anyway. The correct way, I’m sure, it was do a business plan, work out that ass, I mean, I’m sure it is, right?

James Mel: Yeah. But I don’t know. I think the correct way is what works for you and you know yourself and so you’ve found it and been successful a bunch of times and found a system, I think that’s-

Glen Ledwell: [inaudible 00:13:46] like I said before, start… yeah.

James Mel: Yeah.

Glen Ledwell: It really, like I said, there’s a perfect way probably none of us have that, but like I said, it’s better just start like that though. I know for a fact than to spend months or weeks or days or years planning something, and then never actually get around with it, if… or take 10 times longer than what it could’ve. 

James Mel: Yeah. And I love it because we’ve hung out a couple of times and you’re this way in business and just in personal life, which is so… That attitude I think is still important.

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. It’s funny. Other people, the air business, this industry is so social, unless you’re best friends, you’re business partners. It’s funny though. I started hearing that long time ago like, “Yeah, you just treat businesses such same way as life.” It’s like by Mastermind. People say, “Oh, Flight Club’s basically your personality.” I’m like, “What? Now look, “Get down to brass tacks, meat, potatoes, local make potatoes, content, right? Let’s have a drink, let’s party together. Let’s have some fun.” I’m like, “Oh my God. That’s exactly who I am.” 

James Mel: Yeah. It works. I mean, it’s one of the most successful masterminds. How did that idea come to mind? How did you start Flight Club?

Glen Ledwell: Oh, that was truly a couple of things. But through pressure to be honest, which is the reluctant hero, it’s a great marketing angle, but it’s actually true. I was doing a… I mean, I’ve been in the industry for six or seven years at the time, so I don’t have credibility and reach and recognition to do it. But I was very reluctant again, insecurity, right? Insecurity, well came up again, I’m seemingly pretty successful, but man, people are going to pay me 25 grand, like friends? I can’t take money from my friends. 

That was a big thing. Then one day it was a Tellman Knudson, I don’t know if you know Tellman but I’ve known Tellman for 10 years, and Tellman was at one of my Masterminds. I used to do one big one a year for my affiliates, anyway as a prize. Anyway, but he said to me, “You’ve [inaudible 00:15:53] this Mastermind,” and another good friend of mine, Roland Fraser, he has war room and he’s like, “You’ve got to stop for years and years and years and years,” but it was what Tellman said to me, was what the thing he said, well, I said, “I just got a problem, what do I charge you to come to my Mastermind?” He goes, “I’d charge you, because would you pay me?” I went, “Yeah, I would actually, guys will pay you.” And I went, “Oh.”

It’s that. Then the other hesitation was I knew the way I wanted to do it. I knew it’s never going to make millions of dollars, so it was like a time thing. Then six years ago it was just like, it’s under this level in my life. I’ve got the time. I knew I’d really love doing it. I just bit the bullet and started and of course, it’s my absolute fun, something I do.

James Mel: Totally. But it’s awesome you mentioned one thing there, which again goes back to the mindset of when you first got started. I mean, $25,000 is a lot. Asking your friends or people that acquaintances is difficult. I know a lot of people have that issue, especially with getting started, like money issues or whatever, or asking for the sale. It’s interesting to notice just even with all the business success that you’ve had up until that point, there’s still that resistance. We all feel it once in a while. 

Glen Ledwell: Yep, yep.

James Mel: Being able to-

Glen Ledwell: It’s really… I’m sorry, go on.

James Mel: Being able to push through it is really, that’s the key that leads to success.

Glen Ledwell: I think, that’s why I brought that up because it’s funny. Again, anyone I’ve ever mentored, I always say they, when they’re really resisting on something, I always say, “Let me get inside your head for a minute. You’re scared that everyone’s going to find out that you are not a smart ish as they think you are, aren’t you?” They like, “How the fuck would you know that?” I’m like, “Of course, we all do it. We all do it at every level, every one of us. Every human being does this.” I’m like, “I’ll tell you, the only difference is you go on in business, you get more results, more notoriety, more credibility. What do you do? You get a bit more confident.”

But again, that was exactly my point. I was there in my business life. But let’s be honest, I was insecure. I was scared. I was scared of failing. I was scared of asking people for money. Well, why would I, if I knew what I was delivering, I knew I was going to deliver shit ton of value. Why should I have a problem asking for it? It’s insecurity. Maybe they’ll find out I’m not as smart as they think I am. I’m sure I had those thoughts even then.

James Mel: Glen as I’m thinking, and we talked about this a little bit before, but just how… being yourself is such a novel idea these days. A lot of us think we have to be somebody we’re not, especially online, whether you’re an Instagram star or a Twitter, whatever. But that’s one of the things I love about you and you’re the first guest that I’ve had that is willing to like admit like, “Yeah, I was insecure, I had these vulnerabilities or whatever.” I think it’s so important because from the first time I met you, that’s who you are.

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you Mal. I appreciate that. But you know what, honestly, I guess it’s lucky. I don’t know. Believe me, it doesn’t always serve me. People get offended or not, but it’s truly whether it’s a good or a bad thing, I think it’s a good thing overall, but that’s just who I am. I can’t be any different plus I don’t like that… I mean, we all wear masks to some degree, but I mean, every person wears a mask in front of the camera, the mask when they’re on the stage, the mask when they’re teaching, the mask…. and then you meet them and they’re totally different. I think I just luckily, whatever, didn’t know how to be any different.

James Mel: Yeah. But it’s interesting you mentioned how maybe to piss a couple people off, whatever. But I don’t know the quote exactly, but it’s like you can’t please everybody. You’re trying, thinking you can is the big mistake. Would you say like, I mean, I know when I was trying to get ahead, when I first started my career, it was taking those chances, being a bit bold, putting myself out there that really made the difference. It seems like you’ve been doing that from day one.

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. I think what is, it’s something like if you try to please everyone, you please no one.

James Mel: That’s the quote. Yeah, that’s it.

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. Hey, let’s be honest. I know a thing with me has been a people pleaser. I mean, I’ve done a lot of shit on my work on myself. Like I’d know my stuff, people pleaser is one of them, and when I heard that I went, “Shit, you know what, maybe I need to be liked. Yeah. That’s a pretty insecure thing. Right?” But it’s certain personality traits we have so, you can be a pleaser, you can be a thing that pleases and there’s people like need… I really need to be liked. It’s hard to be the way we are and have a problem with needing to be liked because I know for sure you like me or you don’t.

Like, “He’s all right. He’s a prick or I really like him, I think anyway.” I often think about it, I’m like, Yeah, but, anyway, that’s just how it is. I know I’ve got this feeling that I want everyone to like me, but my personality overrides it.”

James Mel: Yeah. There you go. Yeah, I think it’s really important that’s to just know that and be aware of it because if you want to get ahead, you’re going to be in some uncomfortable situations. The only way you deal with that is part of it. 

Glen Ledwell: That’s leads me when we were starting about fundamental stuff like the fun stuff that I talked about, you just touched on then like the uncomfortable conversations, the number, if I said there’s having abundant mindset, taking a step, not procrastinating, the next one, and they’re all as equally as important, is have the uncomfortable conversations, right? And Richard Branson, my favorite sign I live by to my personal life, my business life and I have ever since I heard it, is the amount… your level of success and no matter what it’s in, your relationship, your business, whatever.

Your level of success is directly proportional by the amount of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to have, and man, it is like, people if you come across confident like yourself, James, and you say, “Oh well he’d always have uncomfortable conversations.” People say that to me and I’m like, “I am sick in the stomach to have an uncomfortable conversation with people sometimes.” I’d have to sit at my desk and say, “I’m going to be more successful after this, I’m going to be one successful after this, I’m going to be more successful after this.” But majority of people, and I mean probably 95% of people choose to avoid because it’s hard.

It’s uncomfortable. No one wants to be uncomfortable. But if you can push through that, man you on 5,000 times ahead of everyone you’ll do business with, which I really found that it’s a bit of a culture thing here more than my culture too. The politeness, not being direct, especially not doing anything uncomfortable. I really noticed it big time when I moved over here, and doing business with people. But what I also realize was if you do it, people love you for it, Guys walk into conversations, you tell people what you think, and the maybe the correct response might be, we’ll go fuck yourself, but it’s always 100% of the time. 

100% of the time, thank you so much for being honest with me. I found that years ago and I’m like, “My God, don’t I need to be an asshole?” But it’s the directness and the honesty people walk. If you can do that, I’m not saying to be an asshole, I’m not saying to be rude. I’m not saying that at all, but tell the truth. Be upfront and honest.

James Mel: It’s so true. I think, because one of the things I’ve learned in business and in life in general is like we’ve all got that intended app, of like, “Can I really trust this situation, this person?” When you meet somebody that’s willing to do that, it puts those defenses in those intendeds down. There’s times where I want to be a people pleaser too. You’re right, it’s tricky. I wrote that quote down because I never thought about, in that sense. Like the more uncomfortable… 

But how true is it, that maybe there’s somebody on our team that we don’t want to work with any more, but we’re afraid of this. We keep them and then that impacts everybody else. When you finally make that decision a year later, everybody’s like, “Thank you so much,” or you’re in some other situation. It’s so true now that I think about that.

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. I mean, I’m in those situations all the time obviously, and the way that I navigate, no one likes to fire people. I mean, it’s dreadful. I think God have enough upper management now where I pretty much never have to fire anyone unless it’s my direct assistants. Because why? It makes me physically sick, to do it. It’s the worst thing in the world. 

But the way that I, a lot of decisions too, I sit there and do that. The other thing I do with the company, I try to separate myself and say, “Not as Glen, the employee’s friend, the partner’s friend is someone I’m doing to deal with, as the CEO of Mine Movies, what do I owe to my business partner and my team? I need to have this, I need to do this hard thing. I need to decide, do that thing,” that helps me sometimes. We going to want to be the nice guy one [inaudible 00:25:32], right? No one wants to people to the height them.

James Mel: It’s true.

Glen Ledwell: But sometimes, not sometimes often in business, if you can’t do that, you will never, ever, ever, progress to that next level and build a big business. I just don’t think it’s possible.

James Mel: Yeah, it’s true. I remember one of my mentors told me that business is the ultimate self-development tool and it’s because of all these different situations, it’s easy to just be behind the scenes and maybe you’re a team member, but as soon as you put yourself in that position of being an entrepreneur, you have to have these situations and conversations [inaudible 00:26:09].

Glen Ledwell: If you want to get past a small, a very small business level, that’s what you do. I mean, I know this to be true and I’ve seen it time and time and time and time again, I can’t even tell you. It’s every single person in business that won’t do it.

James Mel: Wow. I’d love to hear about maybe one of your, on your road to getting ahead, whatever. One of your biggest setbacks and how you overcame that, where you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this happened. I’m down and out.” And what you did to overcome that, because we’ve all been in that situation where we’re behind the eight ball and we don’t think there’s no way out, and then, we’re able to face that adversity. 

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. Dude, I’ve had it so many times in different businesses. Again, this was the, I guess I’d say the luck or luxury, I guess you could say, but where I was lucky in the why, that when I came into the online world, and I realized this very early on, the most amazing thing about our industry is most people’s first business is this business, right? They’re not… how can you be business savvy and understand business if it’s your first business. I mean, you just not. 

I learnt that 20 years before. But what I did learn, I remember you and I back 10 years ago, whatever, when Google just slapped everyone and it was like then you couldn’t do continuity and then email got shit. Then all that merchant accounts study, it’s like so many bits, “Oh, well look, I tried my hardest. I’m done.” I’m like, “What?” They didn’t learn that. They didn’t learn that the money doesn’t disappear. It moves. Money on the earth doesn’t disappear and fall into a black hole. It moves. When things change, you can’t cry baby. Oh well that’s no good. You’ve got to find another way. 

I mean, I’ve had to reinvent ourselves several times in this world, but I’ll tell you, the first time I realized this was, I used to have event companies or nightclubs back in the day. Geez. Like the late 90s, early 2000s, and that was the first big business. I had about 40 staff and yeah, that was a decent sized business, nightmare business by the way. But anyway. But I learnt, what happened was the government brought in GST in one year, and the same year that the 2000 Olympics was on, so the whole city was going to have this big downturn after the Olympics, on who knew? Now you obviously know that. 

Then they brought in GST, which is a big mistake and the government’s part. I mean we literally overnight were 30% down, now that was more than our entire profit, more than. We went from a pretty well profitable business. Literally overnight, to nothing. I’m like, “Okay, well what are we going to shut down?” So many businesses just shut down. We had to get creative, right? We had to find people in different ways than what we were doing. We had to think about different ways, we had to trim the fat. We had to go, “Okay, where can I possibly get some more of this percentage back?” But anyway, my point to it is it doesn’t matter. The reason I’m bringing that up, that’s nothing like our world. But the first time that happened with us here in [inaudible 00:29:29] was 10 years. I’m like, “Okay, that’s no good now.” 

What else are we doing? I’m gone for it right now. The email’s terrible. Facebook’s terrible. We’re doing it again. Trying to find another way, what do you do? You just got to continually evolve and I think to even understand that that’s how business is, that’s just how business is, you’re in front. Because then when it happens, you want go, “I tried, I tried my best, everything hit me at once. I had no choice. I had to stop.”

James Mel: Yeah. No, it’s so true. I love that and I’ve noticed that as a common pattern between all the people I’ve noticed that get ahead, that resourcefulness. It’s not, “Hey, this is where I’m going to wave the white flag.” It’s like, “No, I’m going to find another solution.” And you stick with it and you’re persistent and you just have that mindset. It’s also, what I’ve noticed, Glen, in those situations is that it’s usually the biggest opportunity, because everybody else is just going to quit.

Glen Ledwell: Yeah, you’re right. And you know it is, it’s like you think about it like, and again, I’m talking about it in our world, but you know we’d been around 12, when did we start? Yeah, 12 years now. You go, someone said to me when we were about seven or eight years, “Do you know how many businesses are still around in the online world?” I go, “Well of course,” because probably 98% of people that come into, maybe 95% it’s their first business, they have a crack, they make a little bit of money. Something happens, right? But it’s like I said, I had the luxury of at least having some business experience and understanding that’s how it is.

James Mel: Yeah. So true. It’s one of my, I invest in real estate and my favorite time to buy is when everything’s down because that’s when everybody wants to sell and quit and all this stuff. It’s the best time, contrary mindset.

Glen Ledwell: But one of them coming up down way, this year, early next year?

James Mel: We can’t predict the future, but I think so winter is coming. You know winter’s coming.

Glen Ledwell: I know, I’m selling a piece of real estate right now in, and looking for a couple opportunities early next year. 

James Mel: Yeah.

Glen Ledwell: That’s all another topic. But yes.

James Mel: Whole another topic. Well, winter might not be coming to where you are in Vegas, in Vegas it’s not that bad. It’s so true though. I’m a big believer in doing the opposite of what most people do. If everybody’s fat and happy, that’s the time where I get, what is it? Warren Buffet says, be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. I just think it’s so true. 

Glen Ledwell: That’s right. That’s great.

James Mel: Yeah. That’s great. Do you have any success rituals? I’m curious about that, that you use to differentiate yourself from other people that you’ve found that over the years you’re like, “If nothing else, I always do this thing.”

Glen Ledwell: You know what, I’ve got a couple of things, strategies in business that like to keep partnerships, right? To keep employees, stuff like that. Which I can go into, but overall I think it’s what we’ve already said. I was lucky enough not to be a procrastinator, to be fairly abundant minded and have a big ego to make me have this… I’m honest about that. Like it’s probably ego to I can’t file. What do you mean if I file? I just can’t file. I would just continue, but playing my tees and push forward and I think those few things, I mean, it’s different to most people? I mean, all successful people, very successful people I think have those traits in some way. But I think that’s really the main thing.

James Mel: Yeah. Wow. I relate to a lot of those same things is just when you have that goal and you can’t give up, it’s like you’ve got to find a way. Yeah. Wow, that sounds-

Glen Ledwell: Like you said being resourceful, I think too. Finding a way means not “Oh, hands on the head.” It’s no really find a way. Being resourceful. You touched on that before, I think that’s big too.

James Mel: What have you found when it comes to business success, that sort of stuff, because there’s always so many different things we can focus on. Right? What have you found have been the real big needle movers that you focus on?

Glen Ledwell: Big needle movers, obvious again it’s understanding the type of business you want. The big needle movers to me always are, again, this is still my, sometimes wrong, attitude to things, but trying stuff all the time that might not work probably won’t work. Like thinking outside the box, keeping your ego in check, listening to people. Obviously master minding, surrounding yourself with the right type of people. I mean, that’s it. I mean, I should’ve said that is step one. 

I mean, surround yourself with like minded people. Skip people, playing a bigger game. Yeah, be the smaller fish in the bigger pond. It’s very easy to be the big fish in the big pond. That’s why most people never leave their town. They never leave their city. They never leave their group of friends. They never… because they have a status. I know it always through the years when I feel that, that I feel like I’m the most successful person around. I’m like, “I need to start trying in this?” 

Again, that’s an uncomfortable thing. For me it’s not, it’s an exciting thing. But I know for most people that’s a big deal. You know you’re the King of your peer group, but who wants to then be the new guy? You wouldn’t start new business in the stock and you think this, yeah. If you weren’t like that. Does that answer that?

James Mel: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Last thing I wanted to ask you about is relationships, in particular I know you’ve got a new project right now with joint ventures and whatnot. I believe this is so… similar to how you are, who you surround yourself with. One of the things I’ve realized in my own career is that none of us are like self-made, although that’s the sexy thing is, “Oh yeah, self-made, whatever.” But we have team members, we have partners, we have customers, they are all ones that support us becoming successful. 

I mean, you’re amazing. You’re one of the best people I’ve seen at connecting and relationships, all that stuff and within your Mastermind. What would you say to somebody trying to get ahead in that level? Any tips or strategies that you’ve learned?

Glen Ledwell: What? On how to form relationships? Or-

James Mel: Yeah, form relationships that are connected. The importance of it, the value of it? 

Glen Ledwell: Yeah. I mean, I would say it’s everything. It’s everything. I mean, you’ve got a… step one to success is, “Okay, who do I want to be like? And try to get near them. I’ll tell you exactly what we did. Back in ’07, we started the business, we didn’t know we were doing. At beginning of ’08, Frank Kern came out with these first mass control and that was early in the year. We decided to start doing in the summer. It was nothing to do with the business. We always have these first mass control thing in April. We went to that event as the new kids on the block and I give all this credit to Natalie, my business partner, who was my wife at the time, she was like, at the end of the event anyway, we’re the new kids up at the back, we announced this Mastermind, 30 something thousand, $35,000. Now what was it? Three and a half thousand dollars a month? 

I mean, we didn’t have $1,000 a month to begin with, and she’s filling out this form. And my partner is looking at me, I’m looking at her and she’s gone, “You’re not going to do something?” “No, I’m going to do anything.” She goes, “This is why we’re here. This is why we’re here.” And you know what, it was… Frank was a penny to join his Mastermind, be around that peer group, but just even not even just Frank and in Mastermind, but the people around that, were the people we needed to be around, we wanted to be like that. We wanted that skill set. We wanted to know what it was to be like that. 

I mean, we threw it all balls to the wall. We really did. We’re in so much debt, we didn’t have the money to do it. Yeah. To say that I practice what I preach when it comes to that. I mean man I threw $35,000 that we didn’t have.

James Mel: Wow.

Glen Ledwell: But was it the right decision? Of course, it was. But I always forget those… remember those words from Natalie, “This is why we’re here.” I knew what you meant, because we talked about it. We got to go over there, we’ve got to get around the right people. We’ve got to do it, we talked about it all. But then when someone’s getting you to commit three and a half thousand dollars a month, that you don’t have, to do it. Hoo, that was tough. 

James Mel: Yeah.

Glen Ledwell: Two months before we had to have a team meeting about spending two grand on a product. That was a big deal. You can imagine, right? Like man, where am I getting a few grand a month?

James Mel: Yeah. But being able to face the fear and be able to do that and just trust your own intuition and go all in. I mean, to some extent it makes me think of the Napoleon Hill quote. It’s like burn your bridges. You’ve got succeed. Like there’s no other way. 

Glen Ledwell: And you know what? That’s exactly what we did. We truly, we put ourselves up. Again, it wasn’t on purpose. 110, $120,000 in credit card debt, had a house mortgage, dogs, cars, motorcycles, [inaudible 00:38:52], left it all. Come over here, then spent that money we didn’t have. [inaudible 00:38:58] to do $1 million launch that we had no business doing that, I mean, that launch. We had no business doing any launch, to know what we were doing. But again, ignorance, right? Oh everyone around us is like, “Frank and Jeff, what could they do? Millions of dollars?” 

We’ll buy $2,000 products. We had a hundred dollar product with no upsells. But the thing was, it was that, we did have it on. I remember thinking, if this doesn’t succeed, I’ll have to sell my house. It’d taken me years to get-

James Mel: Geez.

Glen Ledwell: But it was scary, but it was exactly what you said. I forgot about Napoleon Hill saying that, God talk about burning bridges. We were like, “We are screwed if this isn’t successful, you know?”

James Mel: Yeah. There’s something though, I mean it’s interesting and I think we all have those moments and you decide to take the chance at that moment. It’s the same thing of I think back to when I invested in that first investment property of mine, I’m not a handy person. Like, do I look like a handy person? No way. I still I’m not a handy person and I’m an investor for 10 years, but I just knew I was so committed. 

I always got around the right people. I saw that they built wealth by investment properties and I’m like, “I’ve got to figure this out,” and I’m like, “I’m either going to do it, or I’m going to file bankruptcy.” Fortunately, it turned out and when you put yourself in that position, your back’s against the wall and you just have to… magical stuff happens. I don’t know- 

Glen Ledwell: And you know what? If you would have screwed it up and gone bankrupt, that’s cool too. Then you would have redone it again, and you’d know what not to do it. I mean, I nearly went bankrupt twice. Not quite bankrupt, but I nearly went bankrupt twice. 

James Mel: There we go. Yeah, so it just goes to show you.

Glen Ledwell: Its true right? You learn something. 

James Mel: It’s true. I was talking to a friend earlier and we talked about that you actually learn more during your failures than your successes. When everything’s going well, what do you learn? 

Glen Ledwell: Totally. Totally. I’ll tell you one that’s a really good one at some… I know, I learned it a couple of times the hard way over and over. But when you’re starting out. We love, some people don’t like to do business with friends. I love to do business with friends. I love that. Right? It’s one of the best things I love about this industry particularly, but what I realized very early on is never, ever, ever in business trust someone you trust as a friend. Don’t ever trust their ability unless you know for a fact about that ability, unless you know that and I made that mistake very… it costed me a lot of money.

Why so? I didn’t learn it properly the first time I had to learn it again. But that’s a really, really, it could be your best friend in the world, could be a brother, but do you know for sure they know how to do their part of the business? No. You just trust them and you know they’d never do the right thing, wrong thing. Great. Don’t get me wrong. That’s the most important thing. Trust someone, but never trust someone’s ability unless you know it to be at that.

James Mel: There we go. That’s awesome. Glen, this has been fun. Thanks so much for joining. Thanks for sharing these different mindsets and your story. This is this amazing.

Glen Ledwell: No worries buddy. More than happy to be here. It’s been super fun. It’s good to catch up.

James Mel: Yeah, likewise. Thanks so much. Yeah man. Reach out if you need anything and happy to help always.

Glen Ledwell: Cool man. Yeah buddy.

James Mel: Yeah. Enjoy Vegas, see you. Well, I hope you loved this week’s episode. If you did tell your friends that would be a huge favor for me and it can help build this community, and we can all get ahead. Something I’d like to do is give you a special gift. It turns out that one of the ways to get ahead is to be able to find spot and then take advantage of opportunity. We all know this and it turns out that my business partner and mentor Eben Pagan has written a book on this very topic and I’d like to give you that book and ship it to you absolutely free. 

The book is called Opportunity, How to Win in Business and Create a Life You Love, and all you got to do is go to www.jamesmel/opportunity. Enter your details and I’m going to send you the book free, you’re going to get the book for free and I know you’re going to love it. I have learned so much from Eben Pagan over the 10 years we’ve known each other and it’s truly been one of the ways I’ve been able to get ahead in my life, in my business and I know what you’ll learn inside of this book is going to help you do the same.

Go there now www.jamesmel/opportunity and grab your copy while you can. I’ve got 4,000 copies that I’m doing this for and sending absolutely free, shipping is on me. The book is on me, so grab one while you can and thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for joining here. Thank you so much for investing in yourself to get ahead. By you getting ahead, it’s going to inspire other people, and then we’re all going to get ahead. Have an amazing week, and I look forward to talking to you on the next episode.