EP 23 - Tyrone Odiowei - The Importance of Having an
Awesomer Mindset
 | Awesomers Origin - We'll talk to an Awesomer about where they came from, the triumphs and tribulations they have faced and how they are doing today. An Awesomer Origin story is the chance to hear the backstory about the journey our guest took on their road to become awesomer. These stories are incredibly varied and the takeaway is that awesomers come in all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, creeds, colors and every other variation possible. On your awesomer road, you will face adversity. That’s just part of life. The question as always is how YOU choose to deal with it. |
Truly a "rag's to riches" story, in early 2015 Tyrone's future looked dire. He was unemployed, living on a less than $400 per month, after dropping out of college, & getting fired from his first paid job, less than 10 days after starting. After taking his employer to court, and winning, he decided to invest his compensation money into an online business, after winning coaching with one of the top Amazon coaches in the world. 3 months into his business, Tyrone reached $20,000 per month and in sales and has gone on to gross over $1,000,000 in online sales. Having experienced many up's and downs along the way, including suspension issues just after reaching $150,000 per month in sales, Tyrone has spoken at conferences across the USA and Europe sharing his knowledge and experience in the online marketing space. Tyrone now also hosts his own mastermind conferences, attracting some of the biggest influencers in the Amazon e-commerce space. Tyrone's main focus is now scaling his business through systems and team building to ensure he maintains his freedom while helping grow his existing businesses to new heights. |  |
As entrepreneurs, we all face challenges along the way. Surrounding yourself with the right people, having a positive mindset and plan of action can help you get through it all.
On today’s episode, we get to know Tyrone Odiowei and his classic rags to riches story. Tyrone is a consistent Amazon top earner and founder of the Inner Circle Mastermind. Here are more awesome details on this podcast:
How Tyrone leveraged a terrible work situation to kickstart his E-commerce journey.
The challenges he encountered along the way and the valuable lessons he learned from them.
How to take advantage of any negative situation.
The importance of having an Awesomer mindset and understanding your limitations to achieve your own level of success, and more.
So listen to today’s podcast and be inspired to take action and overcome challenges on your Awesomer journey.
Welcome to the Awesomers.com podcast. If you love to learn and if you're motivated to expand your mind and heck if you desire to break through those traditional paradigms and find your own version of success, you are in the right place. Awesomers around the world are on a journey to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. We believe in paying it forward and we fundamentally try to live up to the great Zig Ziglar quote where he said, "You can have everything in your life you want if you help enough other people get what they want." It doesn't matter where you came from. It only matters where you're going. My name is Steve Simonson and I hope that you will join me on this Awesomer journey.
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1.15 (Steve introduces today’s guest, Tyrone Odiowei.)
Steve: This is episode 23 of the Awesomers.com podcast and as always you can go to the Awesomers.com/23 webpage. That's Awesomers.com/23 to find all the show notes and relevant details about today's episode. Now today I'm lucky because we're interviewing Tyrone Odiowei and he's really a classic rags to riches story. And as recent as 2015, his future looked very bleak indeed. He was unemployed, living on less than $400 a month and he had just dropped out of college after considering going into medicine but realizing that wasn't his passion. He got fired from his first paid job no less than ten days after starting. It was not awesome and what he did then is he was able to leverage kind of a really weird and terrible situation he had with his employer and he won a little Scooby Snack of compensation out of that and he's gone on to double down in the E-commerce world. His first three months of business, Tyrone reached over 20,000 a month in gross sales and has gone to grossed over a million dollars in online sales including many months where he's exceeded extraordinary numbers. He's experienced many of the ups and downs along the way as we all have including suspension issues after reaching 150,000 a month in sales. Imagine the pain that is involved when you get suspended when you're doing that kind of volume. Tyrone has spoken at many conferences across the US and Europe and he shares his knowledge and experience within the online marketing space particularly Amazon related regularly. Tyrone also hosts his own mastermind and is generating big influencers in the E-commerce space at large. Tyrone's main focus is scaling his own business through systems and team-building to ensure he maintains his freedom while growing his existing business to new heights. It's going to be a great episode. Do not go away.
Hello again Awesomers Steve Simonson coming back to you for the Awesomer.com podcast and today we have a special guest. It's Tyrone Odiowei.
Tyrone: Well done Steve. That's a pretty hot name to pronounce.
Steve: Yes I did have to take my time and sound it out but Tyrone is definitely an Awesomer and somebody I've known for quite a good length of time and somebody I know will be a great inspiration to other entrepreneurs and Awesomer out there in the world listening today. Welcome to the show Tyrone. Thanks for joining us.
Tyrone: Thank you, Steve. Thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Steve: Yes, glad to have you as well. And so just tell us right now Tyrone, where are you in terms of your business or your life you know what do you do today that I know that is so Awesomer about you? Even if you don't think that way I know its Awesomer. So tell us what you do?
Tyrone: Okay very good question. So pretty much where am now we've crossed over a million dollars in sales. I started about two and a half years ago in this business. From there I just really developed a passion for really learning how to sell products on Amazon, how to build an online business the right way and the efficient way so I pretty much went all over the world, networked with people, met Awesomers like yourself at different conferences and different events and essentially naturally that grew into a mastermind group which we've now put together pretty much over the past a year and a half and you know we have some of the best people in the world in there, pretty much from all different areas of E-commerce, Amazon, paid traffic, the whole nine yards pretty much. So pretty much I have my own brands which were growing and we have a really awesome group of high network high achievers in the Amazon E-commerce and paid traffic space.
Steve: I love that then and just for your own benefit Tyrone when you talk about crossing that million dollar threshold a lot of people don't know over what course of time that is. I happen to know but do you care to share that with the audience?
5.16 (Tyrone talks about his million dollar sales.)
Tyrone: Yes so it's pretty much over the course of, I'd say we crossed it about just under two years in. We had a lot of success early on in the business. I started off being coached by somebody and pretty much the first couple of months were really really difficult. I was undergoing a lot of pressure to kind of get things up and running like trying a lot of different things, paid traffic funnels, all that kind of stuff and it was a very difficult time during those initial few months and I'll be honest with you during those first months like it almost seemed like things weren't going to work out but I just stayed at it and after the third month in we were pretty much doing over 20k a month after just three months in the business. And from there you know the next the next 12 to 16 months, we did our first 150k month in the business which was really great. We also did our first 42000 we did in one day which was amazing considering you know a few years back I was actually unemployed and signing another job which is that for those of you who don't know, that's basically the unemployment line when you're here in the UK so it was a pretty amazing transition from going for that too you know growing a very sizable business in a very short period of time.
Steve: I love that that journey gone from the unemployment office to over a million dollars in a month is the journey were on today with Tyrone. That's kind of the run rate he's at today and Tyrone before we kind of dive in deeper to kind of watch you up to today, let's go back in time a little bit. Let's talk about your background, as I like to call the Awesomer origin story. So tell us where you were born, sir.
7.17 (Tyrone talks about his origin story.)
Tyrone: So I was born in good old England and actually Manchester, specifically.
Steve: Manchester, that accent that gives away the whole opportunity right there. I love that Manchester accent and tell us what did your parents do for the work when you were born or you know over their life?
Tyrone: Yes, so my mom actually, her profession was as a purchasing assistant. That was what she you know studied and worked as. My dad actually was an entrepreneur at one point and he actually had a clothing business but unfortunately, it didn't go very well and he kind of decided to tuck it in so from there he started working in sales in the UK. So pretty much that's still what he's doing today, he works in sales but you know there is a little bit of an entrepreneurial streak in the family but I pretty much see myself as the one who's going to follow it through rather than bucket it and get the sales job. Obviously, no shade to my dad on that but you know pretty much that's something I've really developed a very strong passion for and I really could not see myself doing anything else or be an entrepreneur.
Steve: Well it is very common for entrepreneurs to come from non-entrepreneurial backgrounds. You know honestly, the fact that you have any entrepreneurial kind of example on some level in the past is very unique and so the people around us often don't understand the entrepreneurial journey right? They're confused by the risks we take, they're confused by the choices and the decisions we make and they try to often be helpful at saying you know, “Gosh are you sure you want to do that?” or “That sounds a little risky.” They tend to give that kind of advice. Have you found any of that type of advice come from people around you; family, friends or others trying to help you but ultimately working against your entrepreneurial drive?
Tyrone: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean pretty much from the get-go nobody ever encouraged me to do anything along the lines of being an entrepreneur. Everything was like go to college, go to university, get a good education. My original career path was actually to become a doctor and it was something I was very passionate about at the time and you know when I did all my high school exams I did really well. I got you know all A's for my GCSEs which I like the high school exams here in the UK but I've always been somebody that kind of questions things. So when I started to really read around subjects and really see how I was going to fit in and live my life as a doctor I just really found that it just wasn't for me. I just found that I became very disenchanted with the whole industry as a whole and you know I just really did not want to dedicate you know five to seven years of my life to do this profession, which you know could have been very financially beneficial and obviously there was a lot of statuses associated with being a doctor. But I surely did not want to do it and so against the advice of pretty much everybody around me, I really took a gamble and you know I just really thought that it was time to try something new. I've heard about people being very successful online and you know I just thought to myself well you know if these people have done it, then surely I should be able to do it as well. And you know after hearing about different success stories and seeing these courses online I finally decided that I was going to pull the trigger and I was going to go all that.
Steve: I love it. It really is a common journey that we that we often take as entrepreneurs. To kind of have to push through the uncertainty, push through the unknown and even against the advice of those around us who love us and are trying to do the best for us. But you know in my nomenclature, the normies are out there they don't understand what Awesomers have to deal with. And I love normies and I cherish the normies around me - friends, family, whoever they may be but I know that the decisions I make and the things that I do and perhaps you feel the same way, it's so clear in our mind we have to follow it. There is no option for us right? It sounds like you went out of Medicine and into entrepreneurial endeavors because you had to do it. Is that fair to say?
Tyrone: Yes because I mean pretty much when I decided this wasn't to me, the medical route, I was pretty much doing quite a bit of soul-searching. I wasn't really sure of where I was going to go in terms of you know the direction of my career and in my life in general and so it really became a journey of trying different things. So I was kind of still looking to do something academic wise. So I was looking into law, looking into engineering simply just because of my level of awareness. I just was not aware of the opportunities at the time of being an entrepreneur, starting your own business just simply because there wasn't really anybody around me who had been successful in that area and was still doing it. So it really came by chance and I say that with some cynicism because I truly believe that nothing really happens by chance. I feel that you know when you really want something, you don't always choose the way it comes but you know everything happens for a reason. And so I ended up working in a sales job during a time when I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do and while I was working there, it was a job that basically I had been given from the Job Center. Essentially I was unemployed. I wasn't really sure of what direction I was going to take in terms of my career and they basically said to me that I had to go and get a job otherwise they were going to cut off all the Jobseeker's Allowance which was what they gave us basically to live on. And I think it was like in US money, maybe like $200 or 4, something like that. It’s pretty small.
Steve: I enjoy the currency translation but not the language translation. $200 a fortnight everybody. That's a hundred bucks a week. Carry on, I love this story.
Tyrone: Yes hundred dollars a week. So essentially I started working this job and it was actually my first real job that I had and so when I started in the job, unfortunately, the employer who was managing everybody day-to-day in the company, he was not the nicest person, to say the least. He was a bit of a bully. He would come in and he would basically make fun of people and just didn't sell them. You know pretty much publicly like in front of everybody. And you know I'm the kind of person, I'm a pretty laid-back guy like if you know me I'm pretty relaxed but you know I always feel like some certain things like I just really don't like bullies and people. Leave the little people. So I kind of stood up not just for myself but for the other people who were working there and pretty much when I did that and that was pretty much you know my days were numbered after that in the company. They pretty much made up an excuse to fire me from the company. But you know what happened was I decided that it was something I had to stand up for and I ended up taking the employer to court to an employment tribunal and because I'd actually had an interest in law previously, I'd already kind of looked into the way the legal system works obviously informally. I hadn't you know officially done a degree or anything like that but I was always somebody that was willing to do my own research, was willing to go onto Google, was willing to you know to look in get the books that I needed to and just kind of look in and delve in myself. So I essentially went and I started the back of employment tribunals I learned the system like over the course of a few months. I ended up winning the case, ended up winning the case against the company and I got a pretty significant settlement of around $10,000 in US money which considering I was only working there around seven days, it was pretty good. So after that experience I just really promised myself, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to take that money and I was going to use it to start my own business and I was never going to work for anybody again. And from there I pretty much came across a course which was called the Amazing Selling Machine and there was a competition and this was really what swayed me to go ahead and pull the trigger. There was a competition to be coached by a very well known E-commerce coach who was called Jason Floodlit and he was doing very well at the time. I think he was doing around 250,000 a month in sales which considering I was living on a hundred dollars a week, seemed like quite a lot of money and so there's a lot of money. So I just saw that as really like my ticket you know and I just committed to myself that I was going to do whatever it took to get that coaching and essentially what I had to do there was a competition. And the competition was that you basically had to launch a product within four weeks, do all the branding, source it from a supplier and get your first sale all within four weeks of starting. And there were several thousand, a couple of thousand people who signed up for this and I think it was one of five who actually managed to do it and that was pretty much like the steam. You know the steam in the engine to really push me even further on. Pretty much then the first month I was doing some incredible things I've never done before. I was doing Facebook ads, I was doing Google AdWords and the thing that really pushed me forward was he basically said that if I did not do all of the tasks each month and I failed on anything then the coaching would stop. So that just really made like I’m so determined to where I would not allow any excuses to come into my mind. And I would just really focus, I really believe in the power of mindset and affirmations, of focus in your mind so I went literally every single day all my goals I would just keep writing them out, I'd keep visualizing them coming to fruition and I would just do whatever it took if it meant getting up at 5:00 A.M., 4:00 A.M. you know working late. You know I did whatever it took and by the end of those three months I managed to do all of the tasks that were set and I had literally grew the business to 20k a month literally.
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Steve: That's such an amazing story. I love the fact and I think Awesomers out there listening can identify with this concept of I'm in a corporate environment or some sort of work environment where the guy I'm working with or the gal I'm working with is a bully, they're mean and they're there, they're making it not fun to go to work right. There's a lot of people who wake up in this world and go I don't want to get up and go do what I have to do. To be able to take that and parlay it into something where you had high accountability right Jason and a brilliant guy in his own right, and a wonderful opportunity to be coached by somebody so smart and awesome. But he instead of bullying, he's like, “Hey here's what you have to do to stay into this coaching program.” So high accountability is not what Awesomers dislike, they just dislike A-holes and in general, we don't like A-holes. I love this story. I love the fact that that was your beginning investment and that in over a course of a short three-month time, you're able to build a business in the $20,000 a month which is a very respectable number in its own right, not to mention where it's taking you today. So notwithstanding what we've already talked about, was there any other kind of defining moment? It seems to me that the you know quitting the job and deciding to hold the guys accountable for their behavior, your old employment was one defining moment for you, was there another defining moment along your journey that you think about today and go, “Wow I really enjoyed that moment or I'm glad it happened or that you look back on ago, “Gosh you know what? Where would I be if that didn't happen?” Can you think of any other defining moments?
21:03 (Tyrone talks about a defining moment in his life.)
Tyrone: Yes I think probably the defining moment for me was we had basically grown the business to a pretty reasonable size. This was like a few months after we cut down after we reached the 20k mark, we basically decided to launch another product in the beauty industry. We were doing a pretty reasonable amount we were doing about 50k a month collectively at that point and something really interesting happened. One of our closest competitors actually got their listing disabled and so when that happened the business that we had literally tripled and quadrupled literally overnight. So we went from doing like 50k 40k a month to you know close to 200k a month literally overnight just simply because the competitor got disabled and all of those sales started coming to us. And that was great but it also posed a lot of problems as well because we did not have systems in place. We did not have you know infrastructure, we didn't even have a team, it was literally myself and my mom it was working with me in the business doing the customer service. So I can remember I was actually in Vegas at an ASM event when this happened and pretty much the whole stay then we were just finding out customer service emails, like 20, 30, 40 a day and we literally was stuck in a hotel the whole time so this was like a real lesson for us. And from there I just really realized that “Hey you know what? Like the technical skills are really great but if we're going to really run this
as a real business and really scale you know we need to actually learn business skills.” We need to start systematizing things and we need to start building out a team so from there I started to really look into how to do that. I read the book the E-myth which is a fantastic book by Michael Gerber and I ended up also taking his mastery program which essentially is it's almost like an MBA from what I've heard from people with MBAs and it basically walks you through like how to systematize your business, how to structure is based on a lot of the skills within the corporate world so from there I really started to build out a solid team, a virtual team in the Philippines. And then another really defining moment happened after that. And this ASN that we had that was literally doing you know close to 200k a month got disabled so you know pretty much the sales like literally went down to nothing, like literally overnight because all of our eggs are in one basket. And you know that really posed a lot of stress for us. So we eventually got it back, back up and running but that really taught me a lesson that in business you really don't want to rely on just one product and if you have just one product and you really rest on that, then it's essentially not a real business. It's just something that's going to be there today, tomorrow but it's not going to be there long term. So from there I really started to focus on building additional products so that we could diversify our risk and when we eventually did get it back up, we started to then focus on growing it off Amazon as well so selling through the Shopify store, also building out funnels so we could get the email addresses and it's like one of those things that they always hear, it's very cliche that through the most difficult times you really gain the most. And really that situation was something that really taught me so much about business and has really helped me to develop on the journey I am to become what I would regard as a more well-rounded business person. Because at the time you know it was great to make all that money from just one product but it's always going to be something that is going to have its season you know. If you don't really start to diversify and really scale off Amazon and just focus on that one channel, then you really put yourself in a very risky position and although we learned the hard way, it was something we were fortunate enough to come back from. And it really made me a much more rounded person in business and a much, what's the word I'm looking for, a much... I would say, good seller.
Steve: Yes fundamentally, you've adapted and trained yourself over the course of time to start to handle these sorts of lightning bolts that show up in business, they happen to every business by the way. It happened to your competitor, good fortune for you when it happened to the competitor to be delisted but what happened to you obviously not as good. So you saw both sides. You know often at you know the Awesomers community we talk about things like strategy, systems and scale and Tyrone's just touched on all three of those. The strategy of having more than one product, that's important right. If you have all of your eggs in one basket, you're subject to some risks that go along with that no matter how great the salad days are when the sun is shining right, everybody's excited and why would we change it when everything's going great? There's always a change in the weather coming and that just happens. So strategy was one of the things he talked about. Systems is another thing. His business ground to a halt when it quadrupled. So you know wonderful success can also be very taxing on you. And that's a hard lesson learned and I remember some of your discussions we've had offline about this, we're you know going to Vegas for a little holiday time, a little conference time you know you got the family along with you it's going to be fun and and it turns into just hustling in the hotel room all day, trying to keep up with you know the firehose of sales coming in. It's a Cadillac problem as we say in America but it's still a lesson that needed to be learned. So that systemization was the lesson you took away from that. And then scale, this is that fundamental point about being able to say, “Hey I need a team. I'm going to go to the Philippines. I'm going to go wherever I need to go build a team that can help me execute the systems that are on point with my strategy.” So I think it's so many lessons in there Tyrone. Very well done. Do you look back at those days? I mean it sounds like both of those, both the positive scenario where your business quadrupled, it was hard and when you got delisted, it was hard. You're smart because you took lessons away from that. Is that how you operate your day-to-day life as you're always looking to learn?
Tyrone: Absolutely and you know I think the interesting thing was and I really want to like touch on this point because I think it really helps to put everything in context. Like we had about four or five people who qualified for the coaching with Jason Fladlien when I first started and one of those people was a guy whose friend of mine and you know unfortunately he did not succeed. You know he had all the tools, he had all the same tools I had, he actually had more money than I had. He was an established person in his own career so he had a lot more capital to play with but you know the mindset is something that I've really focused on over the past few years and particularly always looking for the good in any negative situation is something that's really kept me going. So you know it's like in the book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill stated that in every negative situation there's an equivalent positive benefit to be gained from it. And whenever those situations happened it’s stressful and as you know as negative as they seemed on the surface, I always try to look for something good to take from it. So in the case of the situation where I didn't you know have any freedom literally because the business had grown so big, I said you know what this is a problem but I'm going to learn from this and I'm going to use that to make it a benefit. I'm actually going to develop those skills that I'm lacking in and when the other product went down, I again looked and I said, “Hey this is something that looks really bad but you know there are some lessons that we need to learn from this.”this was actually a safety complaint that a customer had made and although you know at the time I just wanted to dismiss it as “Oh it was a competitor” there were certain things that we realized that we could improve in the way that we actually packaged this product so we then decided we were going to include safety instructions with the product, we were going to include usage guidelines with the products and these were very detailed and these were things that nobody else was doing and still is not doing in this particular niche. And what that did is that known not only helped us to get the listing back up eventually but it also helps us to provide a better service to the customers we had and that along with you know diversifying our really building out a range of products and scaling off Amazon is something that you know paid so so much more in revenue and also peace of mind from that situation. So I really feel like the mindset aspect of being in businesses is so important and that's really what's kept me going through those difficult times and I'm sure you'd agree, Steve that you know like you said we all have these lightning bolts and these issues that come up in business but it's how you really handle it and being able to roll with the punches and keep you ahead during those difficult times. That really makes the difference between those who stay in business and those who don't. So I would say that that’s been like a really key thing I really gained from those situations.
Steve: Boy those are lessons well learned. The reality for me has always been that there are lessons in every situation that come up for sure and the lightning bolts often present the biggest lessons learned. That's not suggesting that Tyrone and I are saying “Hey wishing everybody out there a bunch of lightning bolts to hit you” but we are saying when they do hit you and it's inevitable, they will hit. That you're prepared for it and you're looking for the opportunity to learn. Taking that from a blame situation into you know where we claim the situation and we understand you know what causes it, how to deal with it even if it is a competitor and often we like to blame competitors because it's convenient and easy, there's no point in blaming competition. There's no point in blaming anybody else. There's only the point of solving the issue and making it a systemic solution as you've done long term which will, therefore, help your customers. By default, the better outcome for your customers came about because you put in those style guides or what did you call them the care guides?
Tyrone: It was essentially a general usage guideline. And also it was a Youtube product so we decided to include a spot testing kit with the product as well. Basically used picture illustration saying test this on a certain area of your body first before usage and that really helps to mitigate any complaints that we've had since then. Although we had that down period we have really helped to establish a much higher satisfaction rate for our customers since then and the product is just head and shoulders above everybody else because we're the only ones that are doing that. And that really helped to have higher customer satisfaction but it also helped us to develop a system that we can use and leverage for other products to also improve the customer service. That's something that's really important. I feel like if somebody wants to be in this long term, it’s what the experience the customer has and how can you improve that. So now we include with any product we sell a general usage guideline and safety instructions where appropriate as well.
Steve: Gosh again, what a great lesson because you know, first of all, it's something that customers need right. They need the general guidelines and so forth, the testing kit is really cool because the unboxing experience is really nice for the customer. I can do a little test here and you know see how it works, that's really smart but it's especially helpful for your team because your team now is going to be educated by the same materials that are educating your consumer and so it makes that circle of information within your company, that knowledge base that you're creating something that is much more effective long term. Everybody on your team knows the same information that your customers know and so on and so on and so it’s really effective. I love that tactic and I encourage anybody who sells a product or is a brand owner to take the time to understand what the frequently asked questions are for the customer, what safety concerns if any other, there are concerns with health and beauty, there are concerns with supplements, there are concerns with electronics related safety - why not proactively you know overcome whatever those issues are and talk about those issues so the customers know better about it. A very good advice. So Tyrone is there day in your professional life so far that you look back and go now that was a pretty good day. I know often entrepreneurs have trouble taking victory laps so I like to call attention to this victory lap and where you may just had this moment this glimmer of time where you say “Gosh this is a really interesting day.” I'm glad that I remember this day or I'm going to remember this day. What do you think?
Tyrone: Yes I would say for me there's probably a few days. The biggest one was the prime day we had last year when we did 42,000 in one day. That was pretty amazing and interestingly enough we could have done a lot more because this was our I think it was our slowest moving product and we actually ran out of stock of our best selling product so we could have done a lot more but we still did 42,000 in one day. So that was pretty incredible and I think the other two I would mention would be the two times that I organized my own mastermind event and we had some amazing people. Steve you were there the last one, we did as well and it was a really great feeling to see months of hard work really come to fruition and to see everybody there like in the spirit of sharing and helping each other grow their businesses. I think that those three times were really my proudest moments and in this business.
Steve: Well-earned moments as well. Since I was at the most recent mastermind in San Diego, I think back January 2018, the setting, the meeting format, the whole thing was very very professional. A beautiful place with amazing people and I definitely know that when Tyrone thinks about the entrepreneurial ecosystem he's always of the mind of how can I help these people? How can I give back? You know how do I input into the system? Instead of how do I take away from the system? And this is one of the reasons why Tyrone by default is an Awesomer and somebody I respect a lot so very good job on those events Tyrone.
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Steve: So as we start to wind down, I want to just talk on a tactical level, is there any tool that you think of in your day-to-day that you just couldn't live without? Is there a tool today that you just think is really cool and something that you don't want to continue on in business without it?
37.58 (Tyrone talks about his must-have business tools.)
Tyrone: Yes I would say this, there's a few actually. Really for me, like once we started to make a reasonable profit and reasonable sales in the business, it was more so about having the freedom you know. Because when we made that money, when the business you know quadrupled literally we were making a lot of money but we don’t have any freedom because we didn't have systems in place. So for me the most fundamental things I found to which I literally could not live without right now there are a few things, one of them is a tool called process Street and Process Street is basically where you can list all of your SOPs for your business. So you can pretty much use it as a standalone system so you can basically do a recording of a video of what you're doing, you can just write it out as a document and then you can set it up as a checklist so that each person can go for it one by one. So, for example, how do you answer your customer emails? How to issue a refund? How to you know create a ship and inventory order for your products? All of the day-to-day technical stuff which can be you know not the best use of your time and you can document those things through that tool. The second one I would say which has been really useful is AIA which is a really great SOP creation software. What that does is essentially it goes through and any task that you do online it essentially, you just do the task so if it's issuing a refund you would go into Seller Central, you would issue the refund and that it automatically puts it into an SOP with screenshots and also makes it interactive as well. That for me has been a really big game-changer because we've been able to instead of taking months to create processes we've been able to do it in a matter of hours. So that's been really great and important for me and the other one I would say is the G suite within Google Drive. So we essentially store all of our all of our data within a team drive and we share that across different levels in the company so if we have customer support people we'll have a customer support section for those people. If we have graphic design work done, we'll have a graphic design folder for them and we also have domain emails for everybody so that way if somebody has to be let go from the company or if there's ever any issue and we can essentially capture everything that's been done within that employee because everything is stored within that domain email. As soon as we delete that email or we remove that employee from that email, it all gets transferred over to the master account. So we've had some turnover with different employees over the past year and a half and that's really been crucial to help make sure that we keep everything organized and we keep hold of all of our data. Probably the last one I would say is Slack. So we use Slack for communication and you know conference calls with employees and also the day-to-day communication so I'd say the tools that I could and I couldn't live without right now it's probably those four.
Steve: Yes, that's for sure. that's a fully comprehensive suite of tools. As it turns out the reality is many of those tools I've used several of them. I would use G Suite probably more actively myself except I've got an office in China and Google's blocked in China so we have to use a different service than that but I love the idea that having your own domain and your own email for your own team I think that is an important thing. People often get confused about kind of where the knowledge in an organization lives but you have it well documented and well laid out and within its own repositories which is when you're in the middle of the fight to put together a process or respond to a customer, you don't necessarily think about the long-term impact of those decisions. But boy when you start to build an organization with multiple people and you're growing and it's inevitable to have some level of turnover, this kind of mindset of you know putting together your repositories of information putting together your procedures and your training really really is a fundamental piece of the the e-myth system and it turns out Tyrone system now so you're a very good student of the E-myth, Tyrone.
Tyrone: Thank you, Steve. I'm just trying to be like yourself. You're pretty systems, systems man yourself.
Steve: Well I'm seeking mastery that's for sure. I do love systems and no question in my mind that you know the biggest moments and the biggest heights that we've climbed have always been on the back of systems and those systems were run by Awesomer type of people right. The people run the systems, the system runs the business as the old E-myth saying goes and so I'm definitely a big believer in that. So Tyrone if people want to learn more about you or find you online how do they do that?
Tyrone: Okay so where people can actually contact me is through my email which is [email protected]. That's Tyrone, that’s spelled T-Y-R-O-N-E at I-N-N-E-R-C mastermind.com and I'm also on Instagram as well. You can find me on Instagram my name is @tyodiowei, which is T-Y-O-D-I-O-W-E-I.
Steve: Odiowei, is that right? I got it again. That's to everybody keeping score at home and send in those score sheets for winning a prize. Tyrone will send you a check. So first of all, let's talk about the mastermind that you do. How does that work? And who's involved? And if people are out there and they're saying “Well gosh I want to learn more about Tyrone or his mastermind.” What’s the room like? How do they you know, how would somebody from the outside try to get in?
Tyrone: So pretty much the way that we've structured it is I mean there's a lot of different conferences and events that happened but I really feel that in order for something to be a true mastermind that everybody has to contribute you know. And I think that not only does that benefit the members because everybody is providing value but it also helps to build trust you know. Everybody has skin in the game. There's nobody that's just coming in and taking so you know whatever level you're at we usually focus on people that have at least a million dollar business or more. That's the usual minimum requirement however you know there could be an exception depending on the person but the most important thing is really the spirit of the individual. It really comes down to somebody that is passionate about growing their business, is also willing to share and is willing to basically be humbled by people that know more than them. Like I've learned so much from people that know a lot more than me and I think that that's really the key to growth is that sometimes we can get to a certain level in business which sounds like a lot like at the time and you know I thought I've done amazing, you know doing the 42,000 in one day you know and then when I met Steve and he told me “Hey I did like two million in a day.” I was like, oh my god like that's a bad day. You know I think the most important thing is to really be willing to learn, be open-minded, be willing to contribute and stay humble like being a good spirit and anybody that feels that they want to grow that business feels that they're willing to offer something to a community which is focused around sharing. I would definitely love to hear from you. I definitely love to connect with you and you can send me an email at [email protected] and just give a brief overview of what your company's about, what your goals are and what you feel you can offer to the group. I would love to work with you and try to help you scale and grow your company.
Steve: I love it. Thank you for that Tyrone. The reality of focus is if you don't get around other people who have the same aspirations and dreams then you're kind of handicapping yourself in the race. You don't have the option to see the great heights that people have come and at some other time, we'll talk about my first million-dollar day and then maybe my first two million dollar day from days in the past. And the reality is you know to achieve those things we had to break our own paradigms. There were people that I had to go to break my paradigms of thinking, my self limiting belief. So I really think masterminds are a very effective method of you know kind of sharing that spirit and I definitely respect what Tyrone's done. Tyrone as we wrap up here, are there any words of wisdom that you would give to somebody, particularly somebody maybe who are just starting out and just getting on there their own Awesomer journey, their own entrepreneurial journey? Any words of advice that you may impart to them?
47.49 (Tyrone gives some words of wisdom to Awesomers starting their entrepreneurial journey.)
Tyrone: Yes, I would say this is really based off what I've learned from some pretty experienced teachers and really the only limitations that you have in terms of where you get to like your own level of success, is the limitations that you set up in your own mind. You know we as a civilization have done some pretty amazing things you know over the past few centuries. You know we've we put people into outer space, we communicate through the air using cell phones, wireless technology, these are all things that you know a few hundred years ago if you mentioned that “Hey we're going to be speaking through the air and we're going to be flying out of space...” they would have send the men in white coats after you, you know. So really the only limitations that you have to get to where you want to go are based on your own thinking. You know Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can do it or you think you can’t, either way, you're right.” and that is really so true. If you think and you believe in yourself that you can be successful and you can make it in business then you will do it. You just have to be determined, you just have to stick at it and just like Steve said you know surrounding yourself with people who are doing great things is a very important part of that. And maybe in your environment, there could be a lot of people who are negative, who are not really doing the things that you want to do but you know the internet now is really making the world smaller. You know I travel to the US to meet with these groups such as the Amazing Selling Machine groups and different conferences and from there that really helped me to really believe in myself and see the possibilities that were available with somebody who puts in the effort and puts in the time and when you see people doing great things and you see these people aren't any different than yourself, they've just stuck at it and they've been determined, that's going to really impact you. And so I would say you know really believe in yourself, be honest with yourself, look at the mistakes that you're making and try and improve on. If you're not using your money as wisely as you could be, work on that. If you're not around the people you need to be around, work on that. You know pretty much any situation you're in, you can overcome it. You just have to be determined. You just have to believe in yourself and you know who you're around you become. So surround yourself with those good people, if you have to save money if you have to borrow money to make it happen just be willing to do whatever it takes. And as long as you're willing to do whatever it takes, nothing can stop you. And I know that first hand from my own experience.
Steve: I love it. Yes, stop at nothing. There really is a point where people reach what do they say, “You know what I'm in it. It doesn't matter what it takes. I'll do whatever it takes.” And that's the point where people are most ready and most likely to make a long-lasting change, a positive change in their own lives and in their own businesses so I think it's very good advice. Thank you for that Tyrone. Thanks for joining us on Awesomers. Everybody out there, you're going to find all these details, links, books all the references in the show notes and so you know you don't have to worry if you didn't quite get all the notes taken down. You don't have to go back and replay, record or whatever you got to do. I guess you wouldn't record it, we’re recording it now but either way, the show notes will have all the details for you. Thank you again, Tyrone, for joining us today on Awesomers.
Tyrone: My pleasure, Steve. Thank you very much for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Steve: It's been wonderful on this side. Everybody again, show notes go to Awesomers.com and we'll get those details for you. We’ll sign off for now.
Tyrone: Thanks, Steve.
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Steve: All right to recap, again this has been episode 23 of the Awesomers.com podcast. Just go online Awesomers.com/23 to find out all the links and details that we've talked about on today's episodes. I really enjoy hanging out and talking with Tyrone. Not only is he a great human being but he's a brilliant entrepreneur and he's young and he's motivated, he's passionate and I find his story very inspirational indeed. He's overcome all kinds of you know challenges, setbacks and these are things any of us can identify with. We all face challenges as we go and I think Tyrone and his origin story is a perfect example honestly to show that you can overcome anything. You can get through it all and as long as you take action and get going you're going to be okay.
Well, we've done it again everybody. We have another episode of the Awesomers podcast ready for the world. Thank you for joining us and we hope that you've enjoyed our program today. Now is a good time to take a moment to subscribe, like and share this podcast. Heck, you can even leave a review if you wanted. Awesomers around you will appreciate your help. It's only with your participation and sharing that we'll be able to achieve our goals. Our success is literally in your hands. Thank you again for joining us. We are at your service. Find out more about me, Steve Simonson, our guest, team and all the other Awesomers involved at Awesomers.com. Thank you again.