How James reached £250k in sales and left his job with UK dropshipping (Dropship Unlocked Interview)
Video Transcript:
Hi, everybody, it's Lewis Smith here, and I'm delighted to be joined today by James Eardley for another amazing member interview. James joined us last year and is here today to share his story. So James, welcome. It's great to have you here. 00:42 Perfect. Yes. Thank you for the introduction, Lewis. Yeah. Looking forward to our chat today. And yeah, delving into my story and how you've helped me to get where I am today. 00:50 Yeah, for sure. So I mean, before we do dive into how you got to where you are today and share everybody, you know, the results that you've got, just so we can understand how much your life has changed in the last few months. Maybe you could share with us what you were doing before you joined us at Dropship Unlocked and what life looked like for you then. 01:09 Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so I joined in March of last year. And in March last year, I was in my nine-to-five job as a lot of people do that. Start the course, and they stay in their nine to five jobs to start with. A typical day for me in that last March was sort of waking up at eight o'clock, into the office at nine through the day till five, going home and just repeating that over and over again. And yeah, I mean, I knew that there was something more that I wanted to do. And I knew I looked around at the people around me that are 20 years on in my career path. And it wasn't something that I was aspiring to be to be at in the next 20 years. So yeah, that was my sort of day-to-day nine to five very, very classic sort of corporate role. But I knew it wasn't, and it wasn't going to be enough for me at that point.
02:01
Why was it not enough for you? Like when did you reach the point? Because usually there's a tipping point where somebody realises, you know, a specific moment. I know. I certainly remember the moment for me when I realised that this wasn't the path I wanted to go down. But can you talk us through, like when it got to that point where you thought there must be more to life than this? 02:19 Yeah, definitely. So obviously, a lot of people can carry on with the nine to five. And there's nothing wrong with that. But there was just something in me that I wanted to feel like I was pushing myself all the time. And after the initial learning curve of going into a nine-to-five job sort of tails off, you definitely seem to go through the motions every day. And I was conscious that if I carry on like this for years, I'll never really push myself, never fulfil what I feel my potential can be in my career. So that was really it. And it was just the monotony and the repetitiveness and realising that there was never going to be this breakthrough moment in that career where I had the freedom that I was, I'm after. So yeah, that was it. It was realising that there was nothing to aim for that I really was sort of passionate about at that point. 03:08 So if you had continued down that path, and maybe avoided your entrepreneurial urge and just ignored it and carried through a big thing that people often don't consider is the opportunity cost, what would have been lost by not pursuing a different route? So what do you think you'd have missed out on over the coming years and throughout the rest of your life? Had you just stuck to that path that you were on previously? 03:31 Yeah, so for me, I've said the success that I would have been missing out on is freedom. And that's the main thing that I really go for with this business is the time freedom and the location freedom of working from wherever and whenever you want to work. Obviously, with the career, the nine to five, you're given the set hours each day, you're given the set location to work from. And that was it, that the opportunity cost, then was always knowing where I was going to be working from always knowing when I was going to be working what I was going to be doing. And that's it, the opportunities that are out there with different business models like this, I would have missed out on a fighter carried on down that same route. 04:11 So James, if you put yourself back into the frame of mind that you were in when you had the nine to five job and you were staring out the window and thinking, I wish I could, like you said, have that level of freedom, whether it be financial freedom, whether it be freedom to spend time with loved one's family, whether it be location freedom like you said to run your business from anywhere. Can you describe to us what the dream was for you specifically, like what did you envisage? How did you envisage life in a perfect scenario? 04:39 Definitely. Yeah. So for me, as you say, looking out the window and wanting more, more for me was freedom of location and time and being able to do what I want and with who I want, whenever I want. So that if I was to visualise, that would look like me being able to travel to a country for A weekend two weeks away, and the business then still is profitable without me. And I can still make a profit while doing whatever I want around the world. And that really is a goal for me still. And it was definitely back then really what I needed to push me out of my comfort zone and really, really go for it. Love it. 05:21 What would you say then was stopping you from being able to do that at the time? What were the biggest barriers for you? 05:27 So confident in myself, ready to go out there and do this sort of thing on my own, without any knowledge or prior experience of e-commerce or marketing, without any real skills that I knew were going to be transferable to this business model. So that was mainly self-confidence and knowing that I could go out and achieve these sorts of things. And also structure was, was a big one for me. I had all this energy to go out and create something and leave my job and run my own business, but nowhere to put that energy. So I needed a structure where I could know what my day was going to look like to go from zero to where I am now and where I want to go. I needed a structure to follow. So I had somewhere I could place all my energy into every morning and really get to where I wanted to be 06:16 Nice. And when did you first hear about drop shipping than on the journey? 06:20 Yeah, so I made it. I'll go back in time a little bit as well between I was working my job and I took a little bit of time off my job to go travelling. So travelling, and that was in 2020. And it was cut short by the Coronavirus pandemic. But it really taught me a lot in that little amount of time that I
spent abroad was that it wasn't sustainable, the way I was travelling in 2020 because I was
taking a break from my work and obviously earning no income while I was out there. So it was all expenditure, no income, and it wasn't going to be a sustainable way to travel. And from that, I learned that, basically, if I was going to keep being able to travel, I needed to be able to earn money while I was out there. And then obviously, then that brings you on to online business. So I knew that it was going to be somewhere online where I needed to get some income from was an online source. And then you go through all the usual routes; he looked down. Where can I make money online? FBA Amazon selling is quite a big one, and then drop shipping comes up. And obviously, it's got a bit of a bad reputation. So I wanted to work out what sort of business model is going to work and be a genuine business. Yeah, and that's how I really stumbled on dropshipping being my main focus. And then from there, it sort of led on to dropship unlocked. 07:42 And why did you roll out Amazon FBA as an option? And why did you opt to go for drop shipping out of interest? 07:48 Yeah, so it was purely down to the upfront costs to start the business. So obviously, with Amazon FBA, that was certainly what I was looking into as an initial upfront cost to buy in stock. And then that brings with it the risk that you might have a warehouse full of stock that doesn't sell. So with the Drop Shipping model, it was all about as few upfront costs as I could possibly put in to get the business going and start making sales. And we're like I say, and it was as little upfront cost as possible was my aim. 08:20 Yeah. Okay, so you decided that drop shipping was the model you wanted to go with? And we'll go into a little bit about how the model we could use is not the model that people associate with the bad reputation like you say the products from China that low-quality items, so those kinds of things we work with UK suppliers usually offering next day delivery. But what was it at the time then when you first heard about dropshipping? What was it that was stopping you from just starting a drop shipping business on your own, like just piecing together some free information off of YouTube and saying, Okay, I have a business 08:53 Yeah, well, I did start out on my own, and I did do the sort of selling from China from AliExpress. And I really gave it a go and worked out Facebook ads as much as I could on my own. And basically, I spent money on Facebook ads and never made the profit back that justified the ad spend. So I went out and tried it on my own and obviously made a lot of mistakes and had the stress and lost the money as well that I'd invested in trying and getting this off the ground
running on my own. So I knew if I was going to really take it seriously and get it right and learn
from my mistakes and learn from others' mistakes. I was looking for a bit more structure a bit
more guidance into really how to create a business and really make it work.
09:39 So it sounds like you were struggling with the actual concept of the business model. Overall, right? So maybe selling products from China with those long delivery times was the problem that you were struggling with. And it wasn't so much necessarily running the ads but actually how do you find those UK suppliers? How do you choose a niche in the UK market where you can earn 100 Add 200 pounds in profit per sale on? And actually that you said to have that blueprint that guidance, that strategy to get the business up and running. 10:09 Exactly. Yeah, that's right, it was really taking it from the model that I was running at the time, which was low-quality products and low-ticket items. But moving it on to a real UK business with UK suppliers, reputable suppliers, and high ticket items that sell their high quality and customers are very happy with. And also the profit then speaks for itself. So you've got profits of 300 pounds upwards from every sale, and a real reputable UK company that I could create, and customers could trust me. And I could then send out products that customers were going to be happy with. And I wasn't going to have to deal with returns or unhappy customers. And that's what the UK dropshipping through Lewis Smith really has provided and made me able to do. 10:55 Yeah, I think it's the sustainability of the brand, isn't it that if you want a reputable long-term, sustainable brand, like you said, if you want customers to be satisfied and have a high level of pride in your brand, the model from China is I mean, you might make a few pounds, you know, and some light kind of flash in the pan cash with it. But it's very quickly going to come on start, you're going to have problems with refunds, chargebacks, all kinds of issues with payment processors withholding fun payouts, and the whole model eventually crumbles. Whereas I think the model we use is used by national retailers in the UK and has been being used for many, many years, you know, even prior to the internet being in existence. So it's I guess it's just knowing that the model you build your business on is something, especially if you're going to leave your job for it that will still be around in 5-10 years' time, right? 11:49 Absolutely, yeah. And I was only interested in growing a real long-term business that could sustain me for years. And as you say, I saw the short-term products from China from AliExpress. I saw that really as a short-term win. And you might make some money quickly. But
I was interested in a real long-term business. And yeah, as you say, Louis, what you've put
together really, really enables people, to make a long-term business over years. 12:14 And then how did you hear about the dropship unlocked mentorship program? What was your first introduction to us? 12:21 So as I was, I was doing the sort of looking into dropshipping in the UK, obviously, Google and YouTube, as we know, it knows that I'm in the market for a dropshipping course. And it was a YouTube ad that you put together that there was a first time I was really aware of dropship unlocked, and that sort of popped up before the video I was watching on YouTube. And then yeah, I took note and realize that obviously, there were people in the UK creating a profitable long-term business. So I thought it may be it was sort of dominated by the American American market. But yeah, and that was where I first came across you and started to really look into dropship unlocked as an option. 13:01 Okay? And what would you say piqued your interest, because there's a lot of bad information out there on dropshipping, there are people talking about selling cheap products from China, or, you know, listing them on Facebook marketplace or using Oberlo and AliExpress. Like a lot of this kind of piece it together and you can make money doing it. But not if you're going to build a long-term sustainable brand that one day you might exit from and actually sell an asset that someone would want to buy. So what did you feel was different about this model that stood out to 13:29 you. So working with high quality UK suppliers, and having the course that sort of showed you how to find these UK suppliers, how to speak to them when you're on the phone with them, and then working with them for a long term and putting together real long term partnerships with real UK businesses that are running in this country. And they also are running for the benefit of their customers that really stood out and also the fact that because they're UK suppliers we can achieve next day delivery as fast as next day. And knowing that we're really going to be able to produce a high quality product for customers and also back it up with good delivery times and good service after the sale as well. And did you know which products you were going to sell before you joined us? Or did you have suppliers already lined up that you thought these are the people I'm going to work with these
14:20
Are the products I'm going to sell or did you learn all of that using the steps within week two of our program? 14:26 So purely learn it all through the steps yet through the step-by-step guide put together by yourself. And I had no prior experience, as I say in marketing e-commerce. And no real idea before I started off where it was going to take me what products I was going to go into I had no affinity anywhere. So and I definitely didn't have any head starts with knowing about marketing or e-commerce. So yeah, I definitely put it down to what I learned through the course and it shows you which products are more likely to be successful and then you can make your decisions based on the data that's provided. And then you go out and find help from the course. 15:03 Yeah, I think that's probably really played to your advantage and that you came in as a blank canvas and said, I have no biases, no preconceptions I'm coming in. And like you said, using the data to maximize your chance of success, that's everything we do that's the biggest factor that we base our decision making on data Dropship Unlocked. So could you talk us through the moment then that you'd seen my ad on YouTube, you'd heard a bit about Dropship Unlocked and dropshipping in the UK? But could you talk about the specific moment that you decided, I'm in? I'm doing this, I'm starting this business. And when did you actually book your enrollment call and joined us at Dropship Unlocked? 15:40 Yeah. So it was really after I had seen the ad, that I really put together what the benefits were, and how it was gonna help me to achieve my goals of earning money online. So then I got in touch, I watched the free training, got in touch with that, and then booked in my call, to really go through it in detail with somebody about how the course is going to benefit me. Yeah, and on the call, I worked out that I was really committed, I was going to be able to bring a lot to the course as well, in terms of helping everyone else and being on the journey with everyone. And the course really ticked the boxes in terms of being able to give me that structure that I needed to put my energy into. And then yeah, it was on that call. And I thought this is going to be it and I stayed true to that commitment that I made to myself, that I was going to really go for it, get out of my comfort zone and start this business yesterday alongside my nine to five job. But I sort of jumped in and thought, yeah, this is going to be for me, I went for it. 16:44
Fantastic. I love that you came in with the mindset of contribution as well and thought I could
add a lot to this community because that will be one of the reasons why we decided that you were a good fit to work with us and that we were a good fit for you. Because it doesn't happen every time someone turns up with a level of expectation and kind of a level of cynicism and scepticism and say, Well, you know, deliver me the information, spoon feed it to me, but you turned up with a view of I know that this process works. I know there'll be problems along the way like there are with starting any business. But I'm in a community now where not only can I use information but I can also contribute to that pool of information, and help others out, knowing that they'll want to reciprocate as well down the line. 17:26 Absolutely, yeah, definitely. And that that was made clear. And I knew that I could bring in the value of my own and that I was going to join the journey. And I didn't come in with a preconception that it was going to be easy and done for you by Louis and his team, it was very much going to be created by my own hard work. But the structure and the help and the guidance along the way, is really what helped me to stay with it and stay consistent and, and get to get to success. 17:51 Nice. So you said that some of the biggest problems you were having previously with the model, the low quality products from China, the long delivery times the Facebook ads that you mentioned, you spent a lot of money on and it wasn't profitable. How did Dropship Unlocked solve those problems for you? 18:09 So the first thing that I really needed and got a lot of guidance from with Lewis's course, is finding the right products to sell. Otherwise, you're just essentially guessing beforehand, and you're not making your decisions based on data. And Louis really shows you the way to focus on the data and only really make your decision when you're happy and you've got the best chance of success. And that's really helpful. So you're not just taking a bit of a stab in the dark with a product just because it looks cool, or you think it's gonna work. It's based on what the market is telling you. And that was the main thing. And then once I had the products, then it all leads on, and it all builds momentum through the course until you're up and running ads, and you help through the ads, as well. And then your help with running the business day to day after that. So yeah, it just gave me everything from start, to not finish because it's always ongoing with the business. But it gave me a start up to the point where I could go out and was already making a profit, sort of very early on. 19:07
Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting that you said previously that you drew up a list of the benefits.
And you made that decision, you already decided that you wanted to make your living online because of the fact that travel was important to your location freedom. But I think a lot of people have that belief and that desire, maybe not belief but desire. But they never find themselves being able to make the step and pull the trigger on that they're hesitant to invest in themselves, whether maybe they don't believe in themselves, or they think that for some reason, they can't do it. You know, other people can but they can't. What was it that made you believe that you could do this and so much to the point where you took action and got started? 19:48 Yeah, so I really wanted to stay true to the commitment that I made to myself that I really wanted to change the lifestyle and go back to the start of the conversation when we're talking about where you want to be in five to 10 years. So I knew that that wasn't going to come from staying still and staying in my, my job where I was at that time. So yeah, I knew that I was, that was where I was heading to. And that's where I wanted to be. So, and then when I found somewhere that I felt like could facilitate that, I really stay true to that commitment that I've made, and really wanted to go for something, give it my all, so I could get to a place where I was aiming for when I was looking out the window back in the office. 20:27 And then when you did finally decide to make the leap and join us, what was your approach to the program? Did you just jump straight in at the end and start learning how to run out and say I, you know, I have my products already, I just want the templates, the scripts that we provide you? Or did you go through from the beginning and incrementally build upon the action that you were taking on every single module along the way? What was your approach? 20:49 Yeah, my approach was to take it one step at a time. And after each module and each video that you watch, and you go through the cheat sheets, stop and take action at each point. And then what that does is that builds up the momentum that you can see what you're clear what you're doing at each step. And each step leads on to the next and the next. And then you Yeah, that's it, I knew that I was going to take action and every step along the way. And then once you've taken the first step, it's easy, then to take the next and the next and they all lead on to the next until before you know it, you've got a professional website, you've got a professional business, you've got UK suppliers. And then as you go along, you've got the ad, the ad set up as well. So very much getting stuck in it's a six-week course, I think it took me about seven or eight weeks to go through the whole course from start to finish. So I wanted to rush through it as quickly as I could. But at the same time, I wanted to make sure I did everything correctly and didn't miss out on any steps. So it took me about seven or eight weeks to go through. And I took a week off work to make sure that I could just focus on calling suppliers for a full week and make that my focus, as the core sort of showing you how to do. Yeah, and given every step as
much as I could possibly give with the guidance. Definitely, definitely helped me to get there and
get through the course. 22:11 Brilliant. Now, I'm sure as you know, and many of our Dropship Unlocked members watching this will also know we host two weekly live questions and answer coaching calls, where it's life support, you can jump on ask any questions you have along the process and one on one, we'll be able to help you with that throughout the group coaching calls. that's designed to help you overcome hurdles and challenges that you'll face along growing one of these businesses, which inevitably, all of us will. But What value did you get from the ongoing live mentorship calls specifically? 22:46 For me, it was as soon as you hit an obstacle, you know that there's a call in the next few days, always there's not, there's not gonna have to wait too long before you can get firsthand. Speaking with yourself, there's also the Facebook group, which you can rely on answers that day, often. But also having the access to yourself and people that have really created the business already, within a few days was huge. And always jumping on the call with yourself Lewis and you always care for everyone's answers. And when people are hitting inevitable obstacles, there's genuine, you know, help, and you really want to make sure that everyone succeeds. And those coaching calls really, really get you through any obstacles that you might face. And on to the next step. 23:30 Yeah, from my side. It's funny, I noticed that actually, a lot of the time, what they're quite good at is just being a sounding board for people who are building a business but feel like they're out on their own doing it on a desert island. But actually, it's just letting them know that yes, what you're doing is right, you're following the process, you're on the right track. It's that level of kind of encouragement, and I guess, accountability that people often need, rather than the specific tactics. Obviously, we do cover tactics, and we get into the weeds with ads and optimizing conversion rates on sites and things like that. But yeah, oftentimes, that stuff is already covered in the program. So it's really just about making sure that that person is able to follow that and get their business to where they want it to be. 24:12 Definitely. Yeah, I agree with that. A lot of the time you're there creating the business on your own. And you don't know whether you're, you know, doing everything correctly. And sometimes you just want somebody there just yeah, like you say, as a sounding board just to bounce off
and make sure that you're on the right path. And you know, somebody's there in your corner to
help you succeed. 24:29 Yeah, absolutely. So for you then what were some of the biggest eye-openers about the specific home turf advantage model that we teach at Dropship Unlocked? Like, what would you say were some of the biggest learnings that you took from the program? 24:42 Yeah, so the data first, the data driven approach was the first thing to really catch my eye and making sure that from the very start, Louis always teaches that the data is going to tell you where that your best chance of success is, and minimizing your risk as much as possible. Before you set up, that way, once you've got your business established, you've already done a lot of the research and you can be confident that what you're going to set up is going to work. And as long as you carry on and work hard and follow the process, you can then be confident. And yeah, it was that data driven approach that really was a big learning and I really took away from the course. 25:22 Yeah, absolutely. So if we talk timelines, then since when you joined, because that's what everybody always asks, like, How long after you started running ads for your store? Did you make your first sale? How much was it for? What was the profit? So could you talk us through the moment you made that first sale? Where you were how it felt, and what it was for? 25:42 Yeah, absolutely. So you definitely always remember your first sale. And it was I was, I was at work in my old job. And I was out and about, and I left my personal phone in my car. And it was when I went back to the car and check my phone. Obviously, you're always checking just in case. And yeah, the Shopify, I missed the Shopify notification. But I could see that it had come through while I was out. And then it's the excitement and the proof of concept that this is going to work. And that was about a week after I started placing ads that came through. And I just couldn't wait to, as soon as I could and got away from work and everything, get back and fulfil that order. And yeah, like the customer and make sure they have a great experience with us straight away. 26:30
Fantastic. So you didn't miss the notification catching sound, but you managed to get there the
dopamine hit that the notification on your screen gives you? 26:38 Yeah, it was a dopamine hit. Yeah, not as good as the touching. But that came a bit later on. Actually, the second sale I made was, that I was on a live q&a call with you, Louis. And then the first day, which I've just mentioned was about 1000 pounds. And that was about 300 pounds profit. And then the second sale I made on the call with you as it was 2000 just over 2000 pound order. And obviously, my excitement was I was muted at the time, but I came off unmute and shared it with all the grief and the support was there from everyone. And that was about five or 600-pound profit. Yeah, before I was about registered, the size of that profit was amazing. It really just that proof of concept. And that gives you the momentum to keep pushing and really optimize and carry on. 27:25 I love it. I remember that q&a coup, I remember you saying I think I've just made my second site or in so celebrating on the call with you. That's a great moment. So one sale for 300-pound profit, another sale for 600-pound profit. That's 900 pounds in profit. I imagined probably more than you were would have earned in salary from that day job that you were at at the time, right? How did it feel to have just made 900 pounds in profit? Essentially, was doing nothing was your phone was in your car? 27:54 Yeah, that was a breakthrough moment really realizing that while I was at work, these ads and the website was working without me and without needing to swap my time for money. It was yeah, it was an eye opener that I could be going about whatever I was doing at the time. And yeah, the business, the ads, and the website were working without needing my attention all the time. And yeah, definitely dopamine hit with those first few sales. 28:20 Amazing. So that was the first couple of sales. Now talk to us about where we are now. So you joined us last year, what are your total sales to date since you joined the program? 28:29 Yeah. So since starting now, we're coming up to 250,000 pounds in revenue, since I started the course last year, which has been brilliant. And the growth really is taken off recently. And it's
looking to expand and that's it. And yeah, like I say it's all been possible from the learnings that
I've made through your course. And it's so exciting to watch the numbers go up and yeah, realize that you've really created a profitable UK business. 28:58 That's incredible. I mean, I get to hear this firsthand in our conversations in the week because I know you're in our invitation to scale mastermind where we have the small group meetings in person, but around you, in your day-to-day life since you've reached that point of saying I have a business now that's turned over a quarter of a million pounds in its first year with no prior e- commerce experience. And having only just learned about this model that it even existed. What do the people around you think how do they react to their friend's family when you tell them that you've made 250,000 pounds in sales since starting this business? A couple of a year ago? What did people say? And are there people who doubted you at the time who announced surprised by that? 29:43 Yeah. So it Yeah, initially that there was doubt when I first told people about joining during the course and starting in the business. But obviously, it's changed now and the real moment. There was a big one about three or four months ago, I was able to leave my nine-to-five job and go full-time with the business. And it was at that moment that I think friends and family around me could see that and the penny dropped that it was a real sustainable business that I could have the confidence now with the money it was earning to leave my job and go and take it on full time. And definitely, yeah, I know that family and friends have been really supportive. And I think if they knew the work that's gone in and, and the hard work and everything, it'd be really proud of how far I've come in, in a short space of time. 30:29 Yeah, in their eyes, you're probably an overnight success. But what people don't see behind the scenes is that most overnight successes are preceded by a year's worth of hard work with, you know, without much to show for it. 30:42 Yeah, absolutely. So it was hard work. But anything that you really want to achieve is always going to come with obstacles along the way. And overall, it absolutely been the most enjoyable experience and pushing myself has been brilliant. And all the good times outweigh the obstacles that you come across, and then you've always got the tools in your arsenal to come over them. And yeah, really keep pushing on.
31:05
Yeah, absolutely. So jumping forward, then to today, where you're at now, the success that you've had with the business. I know, we talked at the beginning of our conversation about what your dreams and aspirations were when you were working the nine-to-five job and you felt like you couldn't escape it. What has the business that you have now enabled you to be able to do day to day, whether that's spending more time with friends, family loved ones, what kind of impact has it had on your day-to-day life, would you say? 31:37 So day to day, I'm able to start and finish work when I choose. Obviously, I've got a VA in place now, which is taught through the course as well how best to choose a va a virtual assistant that's going to do the day to day tasks and handle the customer service in the order fulfillment between nine and five and make sure customers are always really well looked after and catered to, which means that I'm able to choose how I spend my days from nine to five. And recently, I've been able to go abroad and go on holiday with my girlfriend, and I know that the business isn't just going to be left without anyone working on it, it can still run without me and still make profit while I'm away and on holiday. Which is yeah, it's definitely something that I was just dreaming off last year. And now it started to really become a reality. 32:28 That's amazing. And yeah, I remember you've been joining some of our invitation to scale mastermind calls, in the weeks recently from some great locations. And it's good to see you being able to run the business fully remotely now and having outsourced the day to day operations to a virtual assistant, you freed up your time again, to be able to focus on working on the business as a business owner, and not getting stuck working in the business. So what I would ask is What strategies have you used to grow your business to the level that you're at? Like because these businesses are constantly evolving? You're Not You don't just build it and then say, Okay, it's done, you know, published live there, they're always growing, evolving. So what are some of the things that you've done, perhaps some unique things that you've done, that have got you to where you're at? 33:13 Yeah, for me, it's all about consistently setting new goals to keep pushing towards. So every week, I've got a clear goal of what I want to achieve that week, that I can aim for Monday through Friday, and then breaking that down as well to every day, knowing exactly what I know, that I can work on to really keep moving the business forward. So never letting it really sit still. And always having something to aim for, I'd say as a strategy that I use to keep growing the business. Yeah, and keep feeling like I'm enjoying it every week and clearly got goals to strive for all the time.
33:48
Yeah, that sounds like a great strategy to always be planning for the future. If we were to look back then to where you were versus where you are. Now, if you could go back in time, and go back to the former Jas and maybe sitting in your nine to five job at the moment and give yourself one piece of advice before you joined our program and took that leap. Maybe you're just sitting on the fence not sure whether to commit to something like this not sure whether you could do it or if you should even invest in your own mentorship, what advice would you give to your former self in that frame of mind? 34:21 So my advice would be to go for it and really just go for it and not look back and commit fully. I'd say the two options that I would be breaking down would be either to go for it and invest in a course and get a structured guide to help you get to where you want to be or take the other road which is trying to learn these things for yourself. Make the inevitable mistakes and failures along the way with the additional stress. So for me it came I would give myself that advice. Which way do you want to go? Which made you want to have the proven method and enjoy it along the way or the method on your own with no experience trying your best To stress failures, mistakes, I can only imagine because I had, I did do that initially. And it would have just continued if I'd carried on down that road. 35:09 That's a really good point, the level of time, money stress that it's probably saved you how much time money and stress, do you think it has saved you having a fast track to build this business rather than having to try to figure this all out from yourself pieced together ebooks and blog posts and YouTube videos, how much time money and stress would you say it's saved you having a process laid out for you step by step, 35:33 difficult to put a figure on how much it saves. But it's just knowing that if you're doing Facebook ads, or Google Ads wrong, the numbers add up very quickly of how much you could be losing, if you're not doing it in the way that you've been taught. And if you're trying to work these things out for yourself. So I can only imagine, but I think it would be in the hundreds in the 1000s. Definitely, if I was to just try these things on my own and learn from my own mistakes instead of having other people's mistakes to learn from, as well. 36:02
And I guess the risk would be that you'd probably still be in your nine to five job right now.
funding those mistakes, trying to figure it out for yourself. But without that time, freedom and location freedom that you now have as well. Right? 36:13 Exactly. Yeah, that's it and the stress that that brings in the doubt, because you're not following a proven path. It would be difficult to carry on not written not knowing and not feeling like you're following a path that is going to take you to the success that you want to get to. 36:26 So now that you've built this business, and you've got it to the point where it's sustainable, it's stable, you are able to rely on it financially, you've left your job, you're able to work from wherever you want in the world whenever you want, because you have your virtual assistant now, what are your plans for the future? James, what are you looking to do from here, 36:43 so continue to grow and scale the business continues to be my focus. Now, the beauty of the business model that we've created, it is so scalable, and we found markets from the start that are large enough to sustain real large businesses. So there's definitely plenty of room for growth. So taking it to where I've got to now has been brilliant with the course. I've also now joined Louis's invitation to scale mastermind calls once a week has really taken me to the next level, and then it will be you know, getting onwards of a million per year in revenue to carry on and keep growing. And as well as this really excited me, I want to really be able to help out other people in our community in the dropship unlock community. And as well as growing and scaling my business, I want to be able to help out others that are on the same journey. And they're in my position, which is only two steps back from when they're in, you know, people that are in a full time role and looking to create an online business. So I'm really keen now to help out others to to gain success through the drop shipper unlock program, and helping out wherever I can. Amazing Well, 37:48 we were delighted to have you in our community and being able to help out others. And we're also focused on getting you to that one 2 million per year mark. I mean, that's the next level. And that's where things really start to become exciting. So I'm excited to be able to help you on that next step of your journey. So before we close, James, was there anything else that you wanted to say that perhaps we haven't covered in today's chat?
38:12
Yeah, just to close really, just to say thank you to yourself, Lewis, really, for putting together the course and all the support and guidance along the way. definitely taught me everything I know now, and given me that structure and the guidance to now go on and create a profitable business. So really, you have just to finish off by saying thank you very much for all your help. And really caring about everyone's success in the community has been huge. So you have just finished saying thank you ready? Now. 38:40 That's great to hear. And I mean, you are the exact kind of person that we look to bring more of into our community, you came in with the right attitude, you're positive, you've got a sense of contribution, you're always looking to help and add value and you are why our community works so well. So appreciate everything you do for us as well, James, and yeah, it's been great to chat with you today and to hear your story. So thanks for joining us. 39:04 Perfect. Thank you very much, Lewis. Really enjoyed it. Cheers.