Living in a supply closet to multi-millionaire in a few years... Learn the incredible story (and coaching funnel) of the impressive Akbar Sheikh...
Steve Larsen:
What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen. You're listening to another fantastic episode of Sales Funnel Radio. This episode, we've got a special guest on here for you, his name is Akbar Sheikh. He's going to be representing the author/speaker/coach/consultant category of funnels.
Now, this is actually the biggest category of ... probably people online actually in general, who are entrepreneurs. So, this represents a lot of you guys. Now, as we start going through this, I want you to know before I introduce the guest, before we start the episode ... Akbar has made many millions, and he is more than qualified to be on this podcast thing and teach us.
What you'll notice though in this interview is, how much he doesn't focus on the funnel. Meaning ... the funnel is important, the funnel is there. You have to have it, there's elements ... every single piece he has thought through action by action, piece by piece of what he has inside of his funnel.
It's very important obviously, and he's going to go through those things with you. But you'll notice as I go through the interview, more importantly, is his mindset.
I'm not going to lie, when I first started going through reading marketing books, and business books, I kind of thought that that was a little bit of a frilly thing like, "Ah, you've got to have a great mindset, mindset, mindset," but it's the way that he approaches it that is so key I think to his success with this. It's fantastic, probably one of the most humbling stories and beginnings I've ever heard in my life.
So anyways, sit back and enjoy the episode, but take key awareness of what it is that he's teaching you to do with your brain, very different look at this. Honestly, probably a more developed theology on what it takes as far as the right mindset than most entrepreneurs out there.
Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoy the episode, and let's get right into it.
Announcer:
Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host Steve Larsen.
Steve Larsen:
All right. Hey, today we have a very special guest on ... Frankly, I'm excited that you're all here and I got to hit the actual record button, because I actually want to talk to him probably more than anyone right now. I'm really excited for what he's going to share.
This is going to be the author/speaker/coach/consultant segment.
This is part of the six part series we have going on right now, and there's no one else I can think of who is probably more of an expert, but also extremely hard to find to be honest. He's very very humble, he's a bestselling author as of late, which is awesome, has multiple "Two Comma Club" awards, if not physically in hand and well deserved.
I'm very excited for you guys to all hear ... His name is Akbar Sheik, how are you doing my friend?
Akbar Sheikh:
What's up Steve? Doing great, phenomenal, how about you?
Steve Larsen:
Oh, doing so good, living the dream. Thanks for getting up early and do this.
Akbar Sheikh:
My pleasure.
Steve Larsen:
A crazy schedule, that's for sure. Hey, I first heard your story ... You're part of the "Two Comma Club" coaching program, right?
Akbar Sheikh:
I am a "Two Comma Club" member, yeah.
Steve Larsen:
That's right. So, you're actually a member itself. I see your award all over the place, which is awesome, really exciting. But, I heard your backstory, and how you got to where you are now, and it was frankly extremely humbling. A huge reminder to myself, and I think for everyone else who's going to listen to this. You can do this, it's really not rocket science.
I love the story, and without me kind of botching it up or anything else, do you mind sharing some of that story?
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah no, I'd love to Steve. It's a wild story actually, and I'll kind of just try give you the highlights. The reality is, as a human being, I ... Okay here's what I believe: I believe that everyone is consisted of several orbs. I believe you have your physical health, your mental health, your spiritual health, and your big "Why?"
These are the four magic orbs I believe that create a human being...
With me, right? A few years ago, all these orbs were pulverized. In other words, I was 60 pounds overweight, I was a fast food junkie, they'd have my name on the parking spots at Burger King, Wendy's, all these places.
Steve Larsen:
I would have no idea, 60 pounds overweight, no way.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, I was 60 pounds overweight. Mentally I was ... Actually, I don't really talk about this too much, but I had crippling anxiety.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
Crippling, debilitating anxiety, which took over my life. I was in a completely toxic relationship, I hated what I was doing with a passion, and I didn't have a big "Why?"
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
All of this combined, and I wasn't very spiritual, and stuff like that. I didn't pray or meditate. All of this combined broke me as a person. I literally ended up in the hospital half dead. I literally ended up in the hospital half dead from frankly, partying too much. I was just a party animal to be honest with you, and I should have died. But, I truly believe God saves me, okay?
I took advantage, I took advantage of this second chance at life, and I overnight dropped all my bad habits cold turkey, by the way. I lost 60 pounds, and I did it all the clean way. I took my name off the parking stickers at McDonald's, I stopped going to fast food, stopped drinking sodas, I just started eating clean bro. I just started eating organic and cleanly.
If I couldn't spell it, I'm not going to eat it. If it contains more than three ingredients, I'm not going to eat it. Just some light exercise.
Honestly, that's the thing. It's not complicated frankly, but it just ... I'll talk about what that one magic thing that it takes to do these things.
Steve Larsen:
It seems to be the thing that pushes over to the funnel area, and your personal life, and whatever it is, you've done [crosstalk 00:06:25] now.
Akbar Sheikh:
It is, yeah. So, I lost that weight, I got out of that toxic relationship into a healthy one, I started meditating and becoming spiritual. I started praying and stuff. So, I completely ... I just changed, and I was on the road to recovery now. My anxiety was still there, because one orb was still malfunctioning. That was my big "Why?" What am I doing here? What do I do on a day-to-day basis? Why am I here? All that.
I was on the road to recovery now, I had obviously lost everything, and I didn't really have much frankly, because I hated ... You're not going to be very productive if you hate what you do, right? At this point, I migrated West to my birthplace, which is San Francisco.
Steve Larsen:
Okay.
Akbar Sheikh:
No money at all. I'm taking a tour by this lady of an office building. Now, I have no idea why I'm taking a tour of an office building, I don't even have any money for an office, but I'm just on this tour.
At the end of the tour, there's this ... Honestly, I'm not trying to be dramatic, but there was this dark corner, and there was this door over there and I'm like, "What's that?"
She's looking at me like I'm some weirdo and she's like, "Uh, that's the electrical room." I don't know what came into me, but it was kind of like divine intervention and I was like, "Hey, can I see that?" Again, she's looking at me like, "Okay, this dude is really weird, should I call the police?" She's like, "All right, fine whatever."
She opens the door, it's an electrical room. It's the size of a big walk-in closet, and it's got no windows, there's wires and stuff, and exposed vents. I'm like, "What do you with this?" She's like, "We house phone wires for the building." I was like, "Dude," and I just told her my situation. Honestly, I just ... and listen to this, I opened up my chest, and I opened up my heart, and I didn't try any cheesy sales language, I didn't try any marketing stuff.
I just looked at her in the eye, and was completely vulnerable to her, and I just told her my story. I said, "Hey look, I almost died. I'm trying to recover, I'm fixing up my life. I'm doing a good job, please help me. Let me live here." You know what? It worked. She was an old school hippy, and she had mercy on me, and she let me live there.
Steve Larsen:
Wow.
Akbar Sheikh:
I had no hot water, I had no showers, I had no windows, okay? If I wanted to shave or something, I'd have to get a pot of water, put it on my little plate heater, heat up the water, and kind of wash up. You know what I'm saying?
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
So, I lived like that for a while. All right cool, now I got a place. Again, where is my big "Why?" Now, everyday I am searching, everyday I'm ... everyday. You know what? Funny enough, I turned to Craigslist. Everyday I'm looking on Craigslist, I'm just looking for something, some sign, something to do, something "Why?" Something to do with my life. Everyday, everyday, everyday, past days, days, days, days.
Finally, I bump into the worldwide web. I bumped into [inaudible 00:09:29] marketing, and it was like this, "Ah" moment where I saw some website that was selling ... It was informational products. It was digital products like motivational books and stuff like that.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
Honestly dude, I felt like Neo from the Matrix. I just saw everything for the first time, and I'm like ... Everything was crystal ... This is the first time I'm exposed to this, and I just saw everything crystal clear. I'm like, "Wait a minute, I know why that call to action button is there. I know why that button is red. I know why that testimony is there. I know why they have big smiley picture there."
It just all became crystal clear to me. I'm like, "This is freaking genius, this is what I'm going to do."
To get involved in this business, there was obviously some seed money, some startup costs, and it was around about $2,000. I had obviously nothing to my name, I had one possession to my name, and it was some rinky dinky hoopty car, a 1986 Mercedes. It was actually banana exterior, peanut butter interior, but it ran like it shouldn't have ran.
It was worth $2,000 barely on a good day, and I sold it, and people thought I was nuts. They're like, "Dude, you're homeless, you have no money, how are you going to get around to try to get a job? How are you going to go get food? What are you doing? You're cashing in your last chip." No, you know what? Yeah, I am you're right, because I'm burning the ship.
This stuff works, because I see all these people's working for, why can't it work for me? It will, but I'm going all in, and I'm going to make this work.
I cashed in my last chip, I bought into it, and boom. Over night, now I'm an internet business man. I was like, "Yep, here we go, homeless. I'm going to go live on my yacht pretty soon," and this and that, right?
One month goes by bro, and I'm pounding the phone every day, using the internet, getting leads, trying to make sales over the phone, high ticket sales, did not make a single sale.
So, I cashed in all my chips, I got no money, I got no car, I'm living in a closet, a month goes by, not a single sale.
Steve Larsen:
Wow.
Akbar Sheikh:
This is where 99% of the people quit, but I didn't. I didn't. I said, "Listen, wait a minute now," because at this point, you know what happens? Most people, "Oh, the system is stupid, this is a scam [inaudible 00:12:07], I'm going to go get my job." I'm not mocking anybody by that, we're just having some fun.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
At that point Steve, I'm on the phone every day, so the system is working, it's me that is not closing them. I tweaked my script, and when I did that ... Instead of blaming the system, I blamed myself, and I tweaked my approach, boom, first sale $500 bucks.
Steve Larsen:
Oh man.
Akbar Sheikh:
Second month total sales, 1,000 bucks. Third month, $2,000, then five, then 10, then 20, then 30, and on, and on, and on. I became a top one percent earner in that $186 billion dollar industry, and it all started from that closet.
Steve Larsen:
Wow, amazing.
Akbar Sheikh:
And the fact that I just would not give up like, "I don't care, this is happening."
Steve Larsen:
When did you hit to the point wherever you're like, "Hey, maybe I should go get a real place to live? Can I get one with a shower?"
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah I know. When I started making money.
Steve Larsen:
Oh, that's so cool. That's amazing. So, you went through ... Just for everybody else listening, we were having so much fun talking before I hit the record button, and I had to stop us so that I could hit it, so we could keep going. But, you and I were just talking about the reason why you're not "doing it."
Some of the reasons why you think people don't do it, or they don't get past that 30 days, and finally get to that tipping point like you found out. Could you dive in a little bit about why you think people don't get there, or the reasons why they don't do it?
Akbar Sheikh:
It's a couple of things Steve, in my estimation, and I talk to people regularly. It's a few things. Number one, if you want to talk about ... Remember, I lost the weight, and I went through all those transformations and I quit all my bad habits cold turkey. I lost all this weight, and we did all these things. If I was to boil it down to one word bro, it would be discipline.
Steve Larsen:
Okay.
Akbar Sheikh:
Which is funny, because I was the most ... I'm like ... My friends from yesteryear would laugh if they hear me say this right now, they'd be cracking up, because I was like the most undisciplined person in the world. I was totally free bird, hippy, party. Discipline was not my last name, you know what I mean?
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
But the thing is, if you are disciplined with the way you're running your internet business, what I teach people to do is, you have to do three growth moves every single day. Basically if you do this: If you write down your goals, "Okay, my goal is to have a funnel that's making X amount of money. To have X amount of money, I need to have X amount customers.
To have X amount of customers, I need to do this much marketing, have this much of a conversion rate."
You can kind of boil it down that way...
Then, you kind of keep boiling it down, boiling ... "Okay, to get that what do I need? I need a landing page, I need a sales page, I need a checkout page. Okay, for that to work, I need it to be optimized.
For an optimized checkout page, I need trust icons, I need a testimony, I need my support number." I need all these things to fully optimize, and to get a high conversion rate.
All that stuff's out there, all that tech stuff's out there, it's just a matter of being organized, and having the discipline to every day, checking off three things. "Okay today guess what? I got a CRM system," or "Today guess what?
My checkout page is optimized, I put in the trust icons, I got a testimony." Every single day, you need to doing three growth moves.
What ends up happening is, people just end up being like information junkies, and they're just not doing anything with it. I got a great rule for that: Listen, read a book or listen to a podcast, or take a course, whatever. But here's the thing, if you're reading a book for example, do not pass chapter one without implementing everything you just learned.
Steve Larsen:
Gosh, I had the same realization that ... Because it's addicting, you fill yourself with these ideas of progress, because you're learning and you're like, "I'm getting smarter," but you're not actually doing anything.
Akbar Sheikh:
Right.
Steve Larsen:
I realized I was asking for anyone's credit card anywhere, I wasn't asking for ... I hadn't created a product, I had done anything, but I was ticked off that I wasn't being successful. It was this really introspective moment for me when I was like, "Oh my gosh, I am the guy to blame. I haven't been doing the three growth moves every day." Anyway, just massive backing that up, because that is so true. I had to literally consciously decide to stop reading books for a while. It sounds ludicrous, but that's what it took for me to actually do stuff, and stop distracting myself.
Akbar Sheikh:
Right. Another thing by the way, and I need ... I'll be honest with you listen, I'll be a little vulnerable with you guys, I don't mind. I need a little bit of babysitting, okay? I need someone on top of me sorting things out. For example, I'm not the world's most organized guy. So, that's a negative.
What did I do? I got a solution. I hired a VA, and I literally told them in the interview I'm like, "Listen, you kind of need to babysit me a little bit. Take a look at my calendar, if you saw that I had this meeting yesterday" ... Ask me, "Hey, did you followup on that?" Make this spreadsheet, because I'm not that guy who's going to sit there ... I'll make the spreadsheet, but I'm not the guy who's going to sit there and update it, because I'll just get to busy doing other things.
That's a void, but we need to fill that void...
The thing is, pretty much anyone listening to this, can afford a VA. I'm not saying get them full-time. I have people like that, but start off small. Listen, just hire a VA for an hour a day for now, and have them plug whatever void it is you have. For me, it was organization, and staying on top. The thing is, this will plug your excuses for not implementing these three growth moves, if you get some accountability.
Steve Larsen:
Right. Oh, that's powerful. Super powerful. You know it's funny, I always thought, "Hey, hiring outside help or doing something that isn't my own, that means it's no longer my product." You know what I mean? We all fall in love with these things, and make it our baby, and we refuse to ... But the moment I did, I remember it was several year ago, it was the first time I ever outsourced anything. I remember, I was in college at the time, and I came back and my product was done.
I was like, "Wow, this is crazy. I can move forward. What else can I outsource?" I got outsource happy and I was like all over the place. Anyways ...
Akbar Sheikh:
The thing about that, right? When I say outsource, it doesn't necessarily mean outsource it overseas. Totally do things domestically. Here's one thing I say: I truly believe that God has given all of us talents. We're all talented individuals. I say, stick to what you do best, and outsource the rest.
Steve Larsen:
Yep.
Akbar Sheikh:
Now, I'll give you an example. On the quick funnels page, I go through it and I'm like, "Dude, what are these people talking about?" I see all these posts, and these people are asking the most minute little technical details and it's like, "Hey, I just spent the past three hours trying to figure out how to do my STMP."
I'm like, "Dude, why? Why? Do you have any idea how valuable that three hours was? Hire a guy to set up your STMP emails, and spend those three hours on what you specialize in, because that's what's going to take your business to that next level. By the way, that's going to deteriorate your brain, spending three hours to set up your STMP. You're going to get frustrated, because you only have" ...
Our number one commodity is our time. They're not making any more of it. Time up, they're not making any more of it. The thing is, people really undervalue their time so much. It's a simple calculation, watch this.
Steve Larsen:
Okay.
Akbar Sheikh:
People think they're only valued at like $50, $100, $200 an hour, right? In reality, their value is far more, they just don't know that. So say for example, let's just use low numbers, let's just say you're valuing yourself at $100 an hour. You just spent three hours trying to figure out this tech nonsense with your gif email service, right?
Now, that cost you $300. Well guess what? You could have paid someone well, some expert $20 an hour, he would have got that done in $60. Now, you need to spend your hours on the activities that you specialize in, which is going to scale your business.
If you're not, then you're going to be just goofing around on the internet asking people, "Hey, how do I fix STMP for the rest of the day?"
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, absolutely. The first time I actually had traction with anything is, because of that very principle. I was outsourcing all the stuff that I knew wasn't the most important activities of my own expertise, and I'd get up at 4 a.m. every day, and I'd work for three hours before working came around. Then in the evening, the same thing.
I'd work another two hours in the evening. I'd sleep four or five hours a night, and just hustle that way on just the activities that I knew I was really good at. The rest of it pushed out ... Anyway, very much agree with what you're saying there. That's the only way I actually got traction with it. That's fascinating.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, sweet man, that's nice to hear.
Steve Larsen:
That's super cool. So, with your ... amazing backstory that you have.
Akbar Sheikh:
Thanks bro.
Steve Larsen:
You go and you hustle like crazy, you figure out how to sell the product. What kind of funnels were you using? I mean, a lot of the stuff whether in click funnels or not, whether it's a phone funnel, you know what I mean?
Akbar Sheikh:
Right.
Steve Larsen:
Regardless of whether or not you decided to, or it was on purpose, everyone has a sales funnel. Every person, whether or not they wanted to actually make one, somehow they get sales, that's their funnel. I know that you're probably far more deliberate than most people with that.
Could you walk us through a little bit about how you were doing that on the phone, or what the funnel looked like, or ... I know you got recent, your coaching funnel, you've been putting up. You said on click funnels, things like that. Could you walk us through how you've been doing that?
Akbar Sheikh:
You know what Steve? This is the first time ... This is a breakthrough moment for me man, because this is the first time I've realized something. When I was homeless bro, my first every funnel ... Wow, is pretty much set up exactly the same way my coaching funnel is right now.
Steve Larsen:
Sweet, that's cool man.
Akbar Sheikh:
This is the funnel actually. I don't know how I didn't realized that before. Okay, I cannot do cold calling. I would rather be homeless than do cold calling, that's just not my thing.
Steve Larsen:
Whoa, I thought that's what you were doing in the closet?
Akbar Sheikh:
No, not at all.
Steve Larsen:
Oh really?
Akbar Sheikh:
No, never.
Steve Larsen:
Wow.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, no I can't do it.
Steve Larsen:
I can't either.
Akbar Sheikh:
Oh God, I'll stay homeless. Being homeless is not that bad, by the way. It's all a mindset. It was terrible until I fixed my mindset.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
Listen to this: This is how really people need to do their funnels, and they don't even need the phone aspect by the way. I would send traffic to a webinar, okay? After they saw the webinar, and it was very well put together webinar that covered all what I call, "Ethical Principles of Persuasion," things as authority, scarcity, phenomenal copy, tenacity, social proof, reciprocity, likability, all these fundamental core elements that I've in my life, have identified that you need these core seven elements to have a seven figure funnel.
I sent them to a webinar via traffic. After they see the webinar, the call to action is to set up an appointment to talk to me. So, I'm only talking to people who watched the webinar, and who have an interest in what I was talking about in the webinar.
Steve Larsen:
Oh, that's nice.
Akbar Sheikh:
Do you see what I'm saying?
Now, actually I remember, when I was homeless ... When I first started, it wasn't a webinar I was sending people to, I was sending people for a 10 minute ... because this was a while ago ... No actually, they were sent to a webinar, but the people were training me to send them to a 10 minute prerecorded call, which was a 20, 30 minute prerecorded call, which was the webinar before that they were webinized.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah. No but then I did, I sent them to a webinar, and that's what I did today. I have a funnel and check this out: It's done in the past three months ... and this is just one of the funnels, it's done six figures, it's an ugly funnel, the webinar doesn't even pause, there's no email JIP system at all ... I collect your email, but I don't email you at all. There's no automated email sequence, and I don't spend ... I haven't spent a dime marketing it.
Steve Larsen:
That's amazing first of all, because a lot of those things are like the reasons why ... I'm the coach for "Two Comma Club" coaching, and a lot of the reasons people get paused, or they get stopped, or the big hurdles that they hit is that, "Well, I don't have enough money for ads."
Personally, I'm the same way. I never spend money on ads, there's other ways to do it, I just don't want to get into that world, I don't like that world. "I don't want to spend money on ads," or "I don't want to write emails," or ... Those are all things I think that expand you, and they can make you blow up, but at the core of it, those aren't sales. That's not how you get the sale.
Akbar Sheikh:
Exactly, and by the way, if I had all these things in place, if I had the emails in place, and if I tidied up the funnel and all these things, honestly the past three months, it would have done ... I honestly think I could have done ... Hold on, I could have easily over half a million, easily.
Steve Larsen:
Sure. They're good to have obviously, but man, don't let it hold you back. If you don't have those, just start, just launch.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, you could totally launch and have a massively successful business, absolutely.
Steve Larsen:
So, you were using what I would call is, basically the high ticket coaching funnel. You got traffic going to webinar, puts us to a phone call, so you change the selling environment, that's awesome.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, sorry?
Steve Larsen:
No go ahead, what price points were you selling, what was your product price point usually?
Akbar Sheikh:
In the beginning?
Steve Larsen:
Uh huh.
Akbar Sheikh:
There were different products ranging from $500 to $25,000.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, just the whole spectrum really. When I first started, obviously selling a lot of the $500 stuff, but then later when you start figuring things out, [inaudible 00:27:40]. I remember my first $20,000 check. The interesting thing about that was, is that that really kind of solidified, "Okay, this year they work, this is happening." I remember when I got my second $20,000 check, it wasn't a feeling of excitement, it was just a feeling of responsibility.
Honestly, I'll put it to you this way: Once you figure out ... all the technical stuff is out there, and I really want to put this out there.
How do I make all this happen? How to build a nice seven figure business? All the information is out there, and we teach all that. But once you actually figure it out, and you put these simple formulas in place, and you start seeing that money coming in, with great power comes great responsibility.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
I truly believe that. We're at a point now, where honestly we can sell anything to anyone, because we've mastered the psychology of sales. We know exactly what to say to the person to tap deep into their mind, right?
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
But the thing is, you have to use these powers for good. Now, there's a lot of companies who have these powers, but they use it for bad like, when the cigarette companies were marketing towards kids, or today, the soda companies are targeting children, the high sugary extraordinarily unhealthy sodas, and it's working like crazy.
I reject Steve, a lot of money man on a monthly basis ... Because of the way I have my funnel set up, and the psychology behind it, people come to me and they're ready to buy.
I reject a lot of people who have a lot of cash in hand and I say, "No listen, your idea is no good. This business idea that you want to launch, it's not good. You should not be launching." Either that, or it's some unethical ... Not unethical, but something that I feel is not going to make the world a better place. I feel that everyone has X amount of hours a day, why not spend that towards something good?
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
I've had some people lately just trying to ... I've had a lot of them, must be some fad or something. A lot of people are trying to get me to build a funnel for them for the steaming service, where they can get HBO and all these things for free, and apparently it's totally legal. I'm like, "Okay, how is that helping the world be a better place?"
That just sounds like some Napster fad, you know what I mean?
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
Back to that hour thing, right? Only X amount of hours a day. You and I have the same amount of hours in a day as Elon Musk, as Bill Gates, as Richard Branson, as all these guys, as Russel Branson, as Steve Larsen.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
Why not build an empire? Why are people going after the quick buck? Why not build something of longevity with a legacy that you could leave to your family? My mind has really opened up lately. I spoke to a gentleman who raised over a billion dollars for our school systems, and he really opened up my mind man.
I talk to people everyday in this funnel world, and this online world, and they all say the same thing, or most of them say the same thing when I ask them, "Hey man, how much are you looking to make?" All saying the same thing, "Oh, I want to make a million dollars, I want to make seven figures, I want to make $80,000 a month, I want to make $100,000 a month," it's all pretty much the same thing.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
What I've realized Steve is, in the spectrum of one to 100, getting to a million dollars is like really step one bro.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
Everyone's got that as their end game, you know what I mean? The vision goes that far, "Oh the main thing? I just wanted to have a million dollars." I'm telling you from a dude who's gone from homeless to helping create several seven figure funnels, I got to tell you that it's not the end game. It's just the beginning. It's just the beginning of something special, where you can take these skills that you're acquiring, and really make a serious footprint in this world and make this world a better place.
We now have the capabilities, through the skills you learn, through all my marketing, believe it or not, and the psychology of sales, and all these great things in funnels, this will empower you to make the world a better place. You will not be able to contribute to solving world hunger, to helping all the orphans out there. Do you know that 20 million people die, are dying from starvation? Have you been to a restaurant lately? Do you see how much food is being wasted?
You will get to the point where you can be a fault leader, and you can change ... Honest to God, I'm telling you from a dude who lived in an electrical closet, who had to go find change in awkward places just to get enough money to go to the dollar menu for dinner, I'm telling you, you can change the world from funnels.
Steve Larsen:
It's amazing. I recently was talking to Russel, we use Vox a lot, and we were talking about the exact same thing. I was telling him that ... He was telling me, "Hey man, thanks so much for what you do, and being here and all that," and I was like, "Man, I gotta tell you that" ... I was talking back to him and I was like, "Hey man, I gotta tell you, I truly believe in what we are doing. It goes way beyond a software company. It goes way beyond any kind of marketing thing, far beyond any kind of dollar amount. It changed people's lives."
I've seen it many times now, and a lot of my own students that's done that for the now, and it's like, when you see that in another person, it is so rewarding. It's beyond any other dollar amount you could put up to it, it's very rewarding. When I walk into click funnels, guys wherever you are and you walk into your zone, and you get into the space where you're going to try and produce and being an awesome producer, and put value out in the marketplace, think of it as hallowed ground, I do.
Because what you're about to go do, can have direct impact generationally for people all around the world.
Anyway, firmly believe that, very much to my core even, and it's one of the things ... Several people ask, "How do you guys not sleep so much? How is it that you guys can go as fast as you can?" Well, it's because our "why" is huge. My "why" is gigantic. You feel a little pain with sleep like, "Man, I dare you to feel a little bit of pain if that's what it takes for you to go start getting into really deep why and fix yourself." Anyway, 100% completely agree with everything you're saying on that, it's so huge.
You recently, right before we started the call too, you were talking about how ... I'm so glad you brought this up, because this has been something big on my mind lately also. You said, you go and you start building this funnel. Obviously, probably the term funnel hacking may not have been a big thing yet, or whatever but you said, "Funnel hacking is pretty misunderstood." Do you mind diving into that a little bit?
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, no I will. Just to add to what you were just saying before I get into that real quick is, what I've realized is that yeah, for the first time in my life I've had this "why," and it truly unlocks you as a person. What I've realized is, every person I talk to, if you boil it down to everybody no matter how much money they're making already, no matter what success level they're at, they only want two things: They want time and financial freedom.
I have to tell you, when you make it, you really get a true sense of freedom, because you're truly liberated. True freedom is when you don't care that you just made $20,000 today. It doesn't matter to you, because it's about a bigger purpose. You're working towards something that's much bigger than you. For the first time in my life, I've really attained true freedom, and that's only when I put other people's needs before mine. I'm with you 100%, and it's so nice to hear that Steve.
But yeah, funnel hacking ... Every time that word "Funnel hacking," I wish there was an asterisk, and a little disclaimer, honestly. People got it so wrong. Okay, people think funnel hacking is just going to some successful funnel, copying and pasting.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, right.
Akbar Sheikh:
That couldn't be any further from the truth. So, there's this great saying I always used to tell people, "Don't listen to what they are saying, see what they're doing."
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, it's not about the pages.
Akbar Sheikh:
Right. It's about the formulas. There's certain formulas that work, yes. Take a look at that, but understand something: You are you, everyone has their own unique fingerprint, and everyone has their own unique brand. So for example, if you're copying Dan Henry for example, right?
Dan Henry who's got a great funnel by the way, but he's got his own crowd. He's got his own product, he's got his own brand, and it's geared towards that.
Now, you can take some of these successful formulas, right? Dan's a really nice guy by the way. You can take these formulas, but you get melt your fingerprint into it. You need to melt your brand into it, and personalize it towards your audience to talk into your people, your prospects.
You see, so it's not copy/paste. This copy and paste is so bad, that I've seen people copy and paste emails, and the emails at the end will say, "All right love you from, Steve."
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
They copy and paste it, and their name is Brian, and they didn't even realize, and they're email says, "Hey love you, Steve."
Steve Larsen:
Yeah no seriously, I had a guy do that to me the other day. He totally jacked my emails and everything, and then left my support email address in, because he was too lazy ... I was getting ... all the support people were all mad. Yeah, anyway.
Akbar Sheikh:
Take a look at the logic of it though, Steve. The thing is, is it's that simple. "This dude is making a million dollars, if I just copy his funnel." If it was that simple, then it would work, but it doesn't work like that does it?
Steve Larsen:
No, it doesn't. Oh my gosh. I got to hold myself back, because I'm about to go off and say things that I'm going to regret, and this is being recorded, so I can't do that. Anyway.
Akbar Sheikh:
We'll talk.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
When you read an email, read it through a different lens. Read it and see, what are they really saying? Read in between the lines, "Oh okay, over here when he says" ... For example, and I got to get this off of my head, but ... For example, "It's not your fault that you haven't succeeded before with Facebook ads. It's not your fault, you were just trying the wrong thing."
When you read that, understand the psychology behind that. What they're doing is, they're aligning with you. They know you've had some sort of failures, and they're going on your side. They're saying, "Hey, it's not your fault, the program was bad." Then, people by nature, they don't want to be blunt and say, "You know what? You're right, Steve, it's not my fault, it's their fault, I'm with you 100%."
Now, there's a trust being built. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm becoming your friend now via the email. So, read in between the lines and really see what they're messages, and what emotion they're trying to evoke out of you, and then use that in your own product and your own brand, and your own email, in your own words.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, and your own thing. I love that you said melt your own finger into it.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah.
Steve Larsen:
Very powerful, it sounds like a t-shirt. Yeah, that is a good t-shirt. It has nothing to do with ... There comes down to a point after a while where it's like, "Okay yeah, maybe a green button is better than a red button," or I don't know, but from the very deep foundation level, it has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with pages, it's all about offer structure and the marketing behind it, and it's more than just, "Hey, where are they getting their traffic? I'll get it from there too." It's so much on a deeper level than that. I'm glad you brought that up though.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah.
Steve Larsen:
I wanted to ask just a few other questions here about the funnel itself. Is this the same funnel type and strategy that you're continuing to use as you did back when you were living in the closet?
Akbar Sheikh:
Sure. Yeah.
Steve Larsen:
Profit, webinar, phone? You push them to a ...
Akbar Sheikh:
Now it's a little different. Now, I'm not even pushing ... Yeah, I used to send traffic funny enough via Craigslist. So, I'd have an ad on Craigslist, it would send them to the website, and then they would call me after the webinar.
Steve Larsen:
Wow.
Akbar Sheikh:
Now, people go directly to my webinar, if they like it they schedule a call with me. Now here's the interesting part, I'm not actually even sending traffic. All my traffic is organic. People when they hear this they're like, "Well okay cool, what does that mean?" It's so funny ... It's funny, I want to talk to you like I'm an 80 year old man right now, and I'm in my 30's.
Facebook is the most powerful platform I've ever seen in my entire life...
It's funny I say that, because I literally just got on Facebook several months ago. I never really had it before, but for social reasons. My friends were old school, they were not on Facebook, so I was never into it. I just got onto it a little while ago, so I'm discovering all these things. I'm like, "Man, this is awesome. This is so powerful."
You know they say you're only using five percent of your brain?
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
People are only using one percent of the power of Facebook, and funnels by the way. People are only using five percent of the power of funnels, and really, people are not taking advantage ... What do I mean by organic traffic? Let me be very straight forward and clear about this, and I really get into this, and I'm hosting a mastermind and I'll tell you about that, but I really ... The whole point of the mastermind is to really delve into this topic right here.
When you click on someone's profile on Facebook, all these people who are in this internet marketing space, it gives you a little description about them. You read this, "Hey, I'm a Facebook ad expert," right?
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
People have the dumbest things in the world on their profile. When you click on, "Hey, serial entrepreneur. Enthusiast hardcore photographer."
Steve Larsen:
I know. "Seeking new opportunities," I hate that one.
Akbar Sheikh:
"Thrill seeking mom. Serial entrepreneur. Author, coach, foodie." I'm just like, "What are you doing? Go to mine. You have no idea ... That is your own billboard in Time Square, and you're putting some goofball picture of yourself saying, "Hey, I'm a foodie." Like, "What are you doing? No you're not a foodie, you're a number one top five percent Facebook ad generator, or whatever you are."
If you click on me, what does it say? It says ... I'll actually go look, but it says something like, "I build wildly profitable funnels."
Steve Larsen:
It caught my eye. When I saw it, and I was looking at it, I love that headline.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, and it's true. I build wildly ... The thing is ... People say, "I'm new to this." Well listen, you think you're new, what about me? I started off in a closet. Everybody starts somewhere. Every single person that you see that's at seven figures, eight figures, whatever it is, they started off exactly where you are.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
Nobody came ... If you don't have any results, I hate that ... I hate that excuse by the way. If you don't have any results, go get some quickly, and immediately. If you can't ... and offer your services for free to people, your product or whatever, and get those testimonies. If you can't do that very quickly, then honestly, you're in the wrong ... You need to switch business, because you're not good at that. Do you see what I'm saying?
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, and it's a hard pill to swallow for some people I think, but I am glad that you brought that up. I was coaching somebody one time, and he could not figure out how to turn Skype on. I was like, "Uh man, you might to switch. If you can't even open your computer up," and I was like, "Oh man."
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah exactly. No but the thing is, that I truly believe that you ... People say I'm not a marketer, I'm not a salesman, and I really hate that language too. By the way, I use the word "hate," I don't actually hate anything, because I'm not of that mindset, I'm just being frank with you guys.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
Understand this: You don't hate sales, you hate the negative connotation. You think of some cheesy used car salesman, but understand this, this is powerful: If sales did not exist, society would crumble fast. Fast, immediately, over night. The economy?
Crumble...
Society, culture? Crumble. Why? Listen to this, you have a significant other, right? Steve, are you married or single?
Steve Larsen:
Yes sir, two kids.
Akbar Sheikh:
Awesome man, me too. Listen, take a look at this concept of marriage for a second. Some person you did not know for the majority of your life, some person who lived somewhere else, different upbringing, not a part of your circle, some stranger really. That stranger you now share your life with them, you live with them, you trust them with everything, your children, your finances, your everything, you're in the same room with them, you spend nights with them, and how does that happen?
It happens by developing ... You had to convince that person that you are trustworthy to live with, that you are responsible, that you are capable of taking care of her, okay? What do you think that's called? That's sales.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, there's a lot of selling going on on my side [inaudible 00:46:38]?
Akbar Sheikh:
You did such a good job. Let me tell you what a great salesman you are. You're so good at it, that you convinced someone to drop their life and live with you.
Okay, you all have a job, right? Hopefully not, hopefully you all have a nice business, but at some point you all had a job, right?
Well guess what? Someone's paying you to spend your time doing the work that's very important to them. You created some sort of resume, you went for an interview, you showed them that, "Yes, hey look, you can trust me. I'm capable of doing this work. I will do a great job at it. I will take your company forward." That's a great selling job right there, and you won. You got that job.
Understand this: Sales is not that cheesy, used car salesman stuff. Selling is simply good communication.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, it is. It's the transfer of belief, that's how I've heard it described.
Transfer of belief...
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah. By the way, if you improve that ... Some people are not that good at communicating, but if you improve that ... and there's simple ways to do that, your whole ... Not only will your business scale bro, but all aspects of your life, your marriage, your relationships will be better, your health will be better, your business ... Your whole life will be better.
Steve Larsen:
Right, absolutely. So, inside the Facebook page, you're trying to, "Oh, I'm going to soft sell right off the bat," you're just at least selling the opt in for the webinar I'm assuming, right? That's what you said about billboard.
Akbar Sheikh:
I have my website right there, and I present my big point. All of you have some big point, what you do, right? For me it's, "I build wildly successful funnels." I put it right then and there, and I said, "Hey by the way, do you want to see how we've built several seven figure funnels recently? Click here, sort of thing. Check out my few master class." Who doesn't want that? We're just educating people.
You need to tell people, "Hey, do you want this?" You need to know your audience very well. Most people don't take the time and research their audience, but you really need to know, what do they want badly, and give them what they want.
Steve Larsen:
It can't be that simple.
Akbar Sheikh:
It is. I'm telling you ...
Steve Larsen:
I know it is, it's awesome.
Akbar Sheikh:
Steve, you know what I hate bro? Again, you see that on a lot of these pages, people talking such hardcore tech like, "Oh, I'm going split test between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Does the color green is better than red in the morning?"
I'm like, "Dude, cut. Stop. Cut that out." I don't test any of that stuff.
Steve Larsen:
It's either honestly.
Akbar Sheikh:
Okay, so coming from you man, that means a lot, because I know that you guys are pretty thorough.
Steve Larsen:
What we split test like offer structure like crazy, but green button, blue button, that stuff, we really don't. We don't do that often.
Akbar Sheikh:
This is good news for people, this is good news. A lot of people are very successful offline, they want to go online, and they're kind of nervous. A lot of people are not trying to make it online, and they're struggling. This is a great breakthrough for these people listening to understand that, it's not as complicated as some people might make it seem.
Steve Larsen:
No, it's really not. Have a good offer, know what people want, provide value, you'll make money.
Akbar Sheikh:
Don't give up.
Steve Larsen:
Don't give up, just be a little gutless with it and ... Could you through the remainder of what your actual funnel is now today?
Akbar Sheikh:
One of my funnels, which is like my coaching funnel is super simple man. It's just you go directly to an opt in, and the opt in convert is really well, but I think it's like ... I have to check, I don't even check funny enough, but it's like 65 plus percent opt in, 65, 75% opt in.
Steve Larsen:
Wow.
Akbar Sheikh:
What it is, it's very simple ... Actually here, I'm on a computer, I can pull it up just to give you ... just so I can walk you through, we want to give people like a crash lesson, and how to have a good opt in page. Basically, you pull in ... Okay so, I have a picture ... Again, it goes back to audience research. What does mine say? It says, "I help business scale to seven figures by ethically injecting principles of persuasion into their funnels. See the exact steps recently taken to help create three seven figure funnels, watch the free master class."
I have a picture of me on the left, and it's really a picture of authority. I'm wearing a nice suit, I have a nice watch on. Right now if you look at me, I'm wearing a click funnels t-shirt, and flip flops, right? That's me. But, I have a nice blue suit on, I got a nice tie, I got my hair done, and my eyes are looking at that text.
Steve Larsen:
Okay.
Akbar Sheikh:
I'm holding what people want, which is my "Two Comma Club" award. Okay. So now a dude dressed up, looking at the words, because that's just a psychology thing, you're going to look where I'm looking. I've seen funnels where people have pictures looking to the right, and all their text is to the left. That's kind of funny. That messes up it all by the way.
Steve Larsen:
It does, we actually do follow that exact same thing you're saying right now. We do that personally.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, awesome. Then, "I help X do X by X." It's a simple formula. That's it, and just fill in whatever it is your business is doing, right? Then, watch the free master class, and I have a nice ... That's another thing by the way, a lot of people say webinars and stuff like that, I say master class. Here's another thing: You know what's kind of played out? Here's a great little practical tip that you all can do right away, and I honestly feel you'll see better conversions: I think everyone's got this 30 day guarantee, right?
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
I just play it out. I discovered something that works a lot better. I don't even know if I should be sharing this secret. I actually don't believe in competition. No, and I don't mind sharing any secrets honestly, because I don't believe in competition. I feel the internet is infinite, and I feel that competition is irrelevant. That's my mindset.
Check this out: Take out your guarantee, because everyone and their uncle is using that. Put in for example Steve, put in the Steve Larsen promise. The Steve Larsen promise, and go to your graphic designer, go to Fiverr, or whatever and get a nice badge made out of it. A badge, not some icon, a nice badge, and put the Steve Larsen promise.
What this is, from a psychologist sales point of view is, you know what's really powerful when you're selling to someone in person?
If you can look someone in the eye, put your left hand on their shoulder, and take your right hand and shake their hand nice and firmly and look them in the eye and say, "Hey listen, I promise I am going to treat your business like it's my own, and we're going to help you out."
That exchange right there is extremely powerful. Now, we're online. How are we going to do that? This promise can do that, this promise is our version of that. This is our virtual version of that strong handshake, and looking someone in the eye. The promise says ... It'll have your picture, and your signature and say, "Hey, I promise" ... For example, I recently did a probiotic funnel, "I promise that we are using the highest quality ingredients.
We promise that we give this to our own families, and we consider you our family. We consider you our family, and so we keep that in mind. We promise that these probiotics will help your digestive tract within 48 hours."
It's just promising what you're delivering, and you're using the word promise. You have your picture there, right? You have your signature there, and now you're building real trust, you're building relationships. Now listen, whatever you're promising, make sure you're delivering on that, okay?
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
Because I'll tell you something about that, and I'm going on a little bit of a rant here, but the past 30 hours I've made over $20,000. You want to know how?
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
Through this concept of relationships. I treat people good, right? I treat people right just because it's the right thing to do. But what happens is, I give a ton of value for free. Now ... Check this out, you all said you don't like sales, right? You remember you said, "Oh, I don't like sales, I can't do sales." Guess what? Here's a little hack. I've created ... and I don't even pay for this guys, I've created a massive sales team.
Let me explain, I have all these loyal fans, followers, because they love my content, because I open up my heart, and I tell them my secrets, because I don't believe in competition, and I truly in my heart want them to succeed. So, I give them content, I give them value.
Now, recently on one of these Facebook pages, someone was saying, "Hey, I don't have a six figure business, I need help to scale to seven figures. Who can help me?"
There's posts like this all the time, and no matter what business or industry you are in, there's posts like that. Say for example, your Facebook dude is like, "Hey, I need a Facebook guy," or "I need a CEO guy," or "Anyone know anyone good for probiotics or supplements?" There's always someone calling your name out there. Check this out: Because I've given so much value to people, when that person asks for recommendation, their inbox got lit up by people saying, "Go check out Akbar, go check out Akbar."
When I first started I had to say, "Me me me, pick me, pick me." I had to go there, "Hey pick me, me, me, me." Now, I don't do that at all, because I have my sales team who I don't pay just from the basic core fundamental of reciprocity, because I give them value, they go out there they're like, "No, no check out this guy, check Akbar, check out Akbar," and that's the value of keeping your promise.
Steve Larsen:
That's seriously, that one principle you just said is the reason that I have ... One of my little side hustle site businesses runs. That exact same thing just pumps so much value out there, solved so many legitimate problems really quickly. I think one of the reasons people sometimes aren't is, because they kind of remain in this fake zone, where they right off the bat too quickly expect a dollar for what they're doing. They expect to be compensated ... It doesn't work that way.
Akbar Sheikh:
There's such a scarcity mindset, right? I reset that book, and thank God it did well. Listen, there was a point in my life I couldn't afford a paper and a crayon for me to draw a book cover. Now, we can thank God by the grace of God, we can afford any graphic artist in the world. But the thing is, I wanted my people to be involved, and I wanted my people to prosper with me.
I put out a contest and said, "Hey guys," I assume that there was some graphic designers in there. I said, "Hey guys, I'm doing a book cover contest. Submit your cover on this thread, and the winner gets to be my cover. I'll choose and I'll use it as my cover."
Of course you had one hater, right? There's always a hater, "Oh, smart man. Getting everybody to do, getting a book cover for free, want all of us to do the work for you." I'm like, "Dude, I don't care." By the way, I'm not cheap and actually, I have a legitimate spending problem, which I've gotten a coach for so I no longer have it, but bro let me explain something to you.
I did this to empower people, because guess what? I pick the winner, and I gave him a shout out to all of my followers and I said, "This guy is awesome."
Now, for the rest of this guys lif, for the rest of his life he could say, "I have a cover on a number one international bestselling book."
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
What do you think? Do you have an idea how saturated graphic design in that industry is? It's so saturated, and if someone's picking between Dave and someone else, and Dave could be like ... That's his whole thing now. He can go to people. If someone's asking, "Hey, I need a good graphics guy." Dave can be like, "Well listen, I just did a book cover and it landed number one international bestseller."
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, you just paid him massively.
Akbar Sheikh:
I just paid him massively. I'm empowering people, because what I've really realized through this journey guys is, if you put other people's needs before your own, meaning your customers, right? You're going to win 100, you're going to get so much more money.
Don't try to get a quick buck. I recently had a guy, he wanted me to build him a probiotic funnel, and there was this one upsell where it's like ... It was just like, "Add this bottle for a dollar," and then he's like ... Then I was reading the fine print, which was super fine, and it was like, "When you click this button by the way, we're going to send you a bottle every month for $9.99."
I was like, "Dude, what are you doing? This is not obvious at all, people think that they're just paying a dollar for an extra bottle. What is this?" If you want to do that, I got to put it clearly, "Hey, this is a monthly subscription." He's like, "Well you know, that's just what they do." I'm like, "I don't care if that's what they do, this is not how you build an empire. You're going to get so many charge backs, people are going to lose trust in you, you're going to lose this customer. This is just a quick buck."
The thing is, if you treat them right, and you give them value, and you keep your work and your promise ... The toughest thing to do is, to get someone to pull out their credit card and buy from you, but the easiest thing in the world to do is to get that person to pull out their credit card again and buy from you again, if you've provided them value and a positive experience.
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
Do you see what I'm saying?
Steve Larsen:
Oh absolutely, yeah. There's no longevity, there's no sustainability in that kind of model, just be honest [crosstalk 01:01:28]. Tell people what's really going on, yeah. We've been going for a bit, and I honestly could talk to you all day. I love ... I had no idea you and I are so similar.
Akbar Sheikh:
Oh yeah, that's cool man.
Steve Larsen:
Our mindsets I think, and anyway just kind of pull it full circle and to be the author/speaker/coach/consultant category, you ... Just to kind of wrap up with this funnel, you've got the Facebook and other organic traffic strategies running, that's going to a squeeze page, which is amazing.
I've seen it you say, "I help blank do blank by blank," which is amazing, watch the free master class. You have your own guarantee in there, which is the Akbar promise with your own badge, which is amazing also.
Then after that it pushes to, is it a webinar, then coaching call? Which I'm assuming now you have other people you've trained to help do that, and field those as well?
Akbar Sheikh:
It's just that exactly. It goes right to my calendar, and you can book a call. Yeah absolutely, you can get salesmen. Then, my closing rate, because ... I need to work on my filtration system, because people who ... My closing rate right now is 50%, which is low frankly, because ... Put it this way, it's actually a lot higher for qualified people. It's actually a lot higher.
Steve Larsen:
Sure.
Akbar Sheikh:
Probably 80, or 90%. For some reason, some people who are not even supposed to be on that call, they slip through the filtration somehow, but yeah no. The point is, when you have ... I always say, "Set up a good filtration system. Don't talk to anyone unless they're a hot lead if you're in this kind of space, in the high ticket space, because it's not about cold calling, it's about talking to the right people at the right time."
Steve Larsen:
Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. That's really interesting though that you have that realization too ... It really is as far as steps and like you said, the seven elements you have of the ethical persuasion, and those things. It really is very similar funnel to what you were using when you were living in a closet, which is so cool that it works that way.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah no, that's crazy that we came together on this show man, it's true. So yeah, I guess gosh, I guess it started with that when I had nothing. That kind of eliminates all excuses for everyone man.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah, that's so cool. Well Akbar, I want to thank you so much. Where can people find out more about you? By the way, just for everyone, in case you haven't caught it in between the lines, I just want to pull it out there, Akbar has put a best selling book out there. That's insane. That's not easy to do, could you tell them what the name of the book is, and where they can find out more about you?
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah no, so we were blessed it was an international best seller in six countries including America.
Steve Larsen:
Oh man.
Akbar Sheikh:
The book title is funny it's, "Seven Figure Funnels - I'll slap you in the face with a cold, wet fish blueprint on how to build a million dollar business online in just seven ethical steps :)"
Steve Larsen:
I laughed when I read the title. I was immediately intrigued. You're doing your job as a marketer. I was like, "I have to read that book."
Akbar Sheikh:
My editor had a half hour conversation, be like begging me to change the title I'm like, "Nope, nope, nope, not doing it. Not doing it. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it my way."
Steve Larsen:
Oh that's awesome.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, but no listen, we're hosting ... I talked about how we generated ... I really want to break down for people how I've done all this stuff. I gave people a lot of great gems I think in this podcast, but to really break it down, I need a full weekend, which is why we're hosting a mastermind in actually just a couple of weeks here in Dallas.
I really invite you guys to join us, it's actually going to be me, Rachel Peterson, who's the queen of social media. We're actually having implementation bootcamp, mastermind weekend here in Dallas, where you are going to come in with your business that's going to be in a certain type of shape, and it's going to leave in a totally different ... You're going to actually leave that weekend with a totally different business.
That's what I love about internet marketing is, that instant gratification.
Steve Larsen:
Yeah.
Akbar Sheikh:
I just love it, because you can make some changes and see benefits right away. That's what we're going to be doing guys, that's on my website, and that's where all of my stuff is. If you just go to my name dot come, which is akbarsheikh.com, A-K-B-A-R-S-H-E-I-K-H dot com, that's where you can find out more about me, and hopefully see us on the mastermind and we can ... If your product or service is out there to make the world a better place, I'm with you 100%, and I'm more than happy to help you scale to seven figures.
Steve Larsen:
I appreciate that so much. You had mentioned before too, honestly an insanely generous gift that ...
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah.
Steve Larsen:
I just want to make sure that they get it, because it's so cool. I'm so excited for everyone here.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah no, it's my pleasure. I think Steve does a great job, I think he's a great guy, and I think that you guys ... Every honest ... I truly believe that every honest, hard working person deserves a thriving online business. It's life changing, and I truly do want to make the world a better place. One of my offers is to contribute to that is this book, which is $47 on Amazon right now if you take a look.
However, for you guys it'd be my honor to give you guys a free copy...
Steve Larsen:
Oh.
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah. If you just go to my name dot com slash Steve, S-T-E-V-E, it would be my privilege and honor to give you guys a free copy.
Steve Larsen:
That's so generous of you, thank you very much Akbar, that's huge. Everyone go get that, and that's very exciting. Check out the mastermind also, he'll be hosting soon with Rachel Peterson, and Andrew, and obviously it's going to be fantastic. I hope I can be there, that would be cool, but ...
Akbar Sheikh:
Yeah, would love to have you man.
Steve Larsen:
Anyway, thanks so much Akbar, and thanks for all the value. Guys, go get the results first, provide actual value for people, and the business, and all the tech stuff gets a lot easier too as you move down.
Akbar Sheikh:
Oh yeah.
Steve Larsen:
Hey, thanks so much. Anything else you want to add?
Akbar Sheikh:
I'll add one last thing guys, one of my big secrets to success and it really has nothing to do with funnels is that ... I hope you don't mind Steve, me adding this one last thing, but ... I'm just telling you, I'm not preaching, but I'm just telling you what I'd do is, give ... The more, more that this figure to this out, the more, more money you're going to make. But whatever you're making, I give 10% away to charity. I find it to be one of my biggest secrets of success. I find that you get a lot more in return, a lot more.
Find your passion, what you're passionate about. Are you passionate about helping starving people? Are you passionate about orphans? Those are the two things that I'm passionate about, but you may be passionate about animal cruelty, or other things. Donate to these causes, at least 10%, and by the way, if you're at the point where you cannot afford it, that's fine. But then, donate your time. Donate your time to these causes.
Now, if you don't have the time, then at least call up your mom or a relative, or someone and just make them smile.
Steve Larsen:
Right.
Akbar Sheikh:
Even when you're going to go get your coffee, or you're going to go ... Just deal with people. Just look at them and smile and say, "Thank you," and ask them about their day. That's charity too by the way, if you don't do those sorts of things.
You'll see when you do that by the way ... God wants you to smile you know why?
Because when you smile, natural endorphins are released into you and you actually have a better day, this is scientifically proven. Guys, I really recommend to give as much as you can. It's really done wonders for me, and so so many people. I'd love to leave you on that note.
Steve Larsen:
I appreciate that. Anyway, I do that also. I strongly believe that that's actually ... The 10% thing, I do that also.
Akbar Sheikh:
Oh cool man.
Steve Larsen:
Anyway, thanks so much Akbar, appreciate it. Guys, go check out akbarsheikh.com/steve for a copy of your free book, "Seven Figure Funnels." Go check out the mastermind, he's going to be putting up here soon also. Thanks so much Akbar, appreciate it.
Akbar Sheikh:
God bless dude, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:
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