Best Ideas On How To Start An Online Business After Escaping The 9-5 Mindset

On this episode, Ryan sits down with Jon Mango, Founder of Beyond the Iron. We discuss the Best Ideas On How To Start An Online Business.

On This Episode:

• Jon talks about being a defiant kid and making the decision to stop being a “good student.”
• Discover the power of one simple decision in alignment with your goal.
• Jon shares how a sales position fundamentally changed his personality.
• Hear the genesis of Jon’s first business.
• Learn the value of stepping out of your comfort zone.
• Get the keys to self-improvement and a solid daily routine.

Key Takeaways:

1. If you’re an introvert, you can still be successful.
2. Limit bias and look objectively at information.
3. Put yourselves in position to overcome small fears.

Tweetable Quotes:

• The pursuit of trying to be cool is one of the most uncool things you can do.
• You can’t be a leader if you’re a follower.
• Commit and don’t quit.
• All of humanity’s problems stem from a person’s inability to sit in a room by themselves.

Connect with Jon Mango

• instagram.com/JonMango

Best Ideas On How To Start An Online Business. From Online Businesses, Free Courses, Top Ten, And Even Ways To Start Your Own With No Money.

Subscribe to listen to more episodes on the Best Ideas On How To Start An Online Business. Search ideas for an online business.

To find out more information about the Home Based Business Podcast and host, Ryan Allen Bell, visit ryanallenbell.com.

TRANSCRIPTION

Speakers: Ryan Allen Bell and Jon Mango. Ideas for an online business. 

Jon: You’re listening to Episode 18. Hey, this is Jon Mango, from Beyond the Iron, owner of the online fitness coaching company, and if you want to learn how to build a successful home based business, you should be listening to the Home Based Business Podcast with my good friend, Ryan Allen Bell. We’ll be discussing the top online business ideas. These are great online business ideas. 

Intro: You’ve seen the future, you know where your life is heading, but you know you haven’t taken the right steps to get you there. Welcome to the Home Based Business Podcast, where we believe the only way to future proof your income is to create a plan to build a successful home based business. It’s time to create a life of freedom, security and impact with your host Ryan Allen Bell. Let’s learn how to start an online business. I am ready to learn how to start an online business. 

Ryan: Hey, welcome to the show, I’m your host Ryan Allen Bell. I believe the only way to achieve true freedom is to future proof your income by creating a plan to quit your job and start a home based business. In this podcast, I’ll be diving deep into everything home based business related and interviewing thought leaders in their space who are creating successful home based businesses. So, if you want to learn the new way of business, if you want to develop the mindset and skills to get you from where you are to where you want to go, then you’re in the right place because this is the Home Based Business Podcast. Today, I’m with my friend Jon Mango, the founder of an online fat loss coaching company called Beyond the Iron. We dive deep into story and how he was able to change from a 9-5 mindset to building a successful online business. Let’s take a look at online businesses. I am ready for online businesses

Now, before we jump to the episode today, if you thought about starting your own home based business or you’re currently working on a home based business but haven’t fully figured out how to achieve the level of success you desire, have me and my team help you out, head over to ryanallenbell.com/workwithme to learn more and we can hop on a quick call to see if we can be a good fit to launch a home based business for you; that way you can achieve the freedom you truly desire in your life, that’s ryanallenbell.com/workwithme. There are so many free online business courses out there to learn from. What are great free courses? 

Ryan: Yo, what’s up? Today I am with Mr. Jon. What’s up, bro? How are you man?

Jon: What’s up? I’m doing great. I’m so pumped to be on here, man.

Ryan: Dude, I’m so glad we finally found time to knock this out. You’re over in Canada, right?

Jon: Yeah, just outside of Toronto, little, not really little but a city called Mississauga; just outside of Toronto.

Ryan: Dope. It’s crazy man, I’m over here building a business from Southern California, you’re over there building a business in Canada and we could connect like this and share our message with the world. It’s pretty dope, man. Let’s look at starting an online business. Starting an official one is great. 

Jon: Yeah man. I feel like I’ve known you forever at this point, we’ve been chatting on Instagram for so long, it’s like we might as well have been neighbors this whole time, man, like, that’s a great thing. This is how to start a business online. I will show you how to start a business online. 

Ryan: And this is a lesson for you guys listening is, you could connect with people on social media. I met Jon on Instagram, built that relationship and then over time, you guys get to do great stuff together.

Jon: No doubt. I’ll share the best online business. 

Ryan: 100%. All right, Jon, let’s dive really deep into it. I really want to go into your story before you came in entrepreneur, before you started developing an entrepreneurial mindset. So, who was Jon back in the day? Let’s say like elementary, middle, high school. 

Jon: So, in my younger years, let’s say elementary school, I was more of a quiet shy kid to be completely honest, that’s really just who I was. I was always what people now would term introverted, extremely and I’m talking extremely introverted. I, even since I was a small– like a really young kid, I would have preferred to stay home and work on my Legos than go out to a friend’s birthday parties and that type of stuff. So, that’s who I was when I was younger, I played hockey, played different sports but again, mostly kept to myself. I still made friends pretty well, but I was just a lot more shy. And so, going through high school is really I guess we could say a bit of a turning point in the sense that I decided, I remember I made this decision when I was younger that in between– somewhere between elementary and high school, I was, “Okay, I want to be popular or I want to try to be cool or have more friends.”, this type of stuff. And so, I started doing naturally what we think is the best in order to do that and that is tried to be cool. So, do what the cool kids do, just act this way, do this thing, whatever it is. And I did have quite a few friends in high school. I wasn’t the most popular kid, but I was definitely the guy who went to all the parties and I was a terrible student to be completely honest, but that terrible student thing came in that shift. So, before when I was very introverted, very focused, very keeping to myself, I was an insanely good student because that’s what I would focus on, but as that shift was made in high school, and I started to try to be cool, and I wanted to be the party guy, the life of the party and this, that and the other, as a result, I saw no importance in grades because that didn’t contribute to that goal, at least not in my mind. I care about the top ten. What are the top ten?

And so, I just decided, not because I was dumb, maybe I appeared so, but I decided I didn’t care about school. And in all my life, one thing I can tell you that was consistent ever since I was a little kid, I was always defiant, always; meaning when I was maybe four years old, I was known as Dr. No by my family because I would just say no to everything. I didn’t want to be told what to do, I hated rules, I hated authority and over time, throughout high school as I got a little bit more, I guess, self-expression or the potential to express myself more and so on, I defied authority even further, and that didn’t work out in my favor at that time, because my grades were terrible. I had a good relationship with some of the teachers, but I was just, I was a bum to be completely honest, I was making the wrong choices all in the pursuit of being cool and being popular. And so, that’s who I was, I was I was a bit of everything. I was a bit of the athlete so; I was on the football team. I was cool with everybody, like I said, big party guy, terrible grades but that’s, I guess, in a nutshell, if I were to describe some of the qualities in the whole transition, that’s how it went when I was younger. So, I had quite a few friends and I have a lot of friends still now from high school, a lot of close friends but that was really my goal in high school is just, “I want to be the cool guy. I want to be the party guy.”, and I think that I achieved it to a decent degree. Let’s choose one to start. I am ready to start. 

Ryan: Wow, bro. Okay, so I want to circle back to a few things that you talked about. Number one is, you started your life as an introvert and so, I think that proves to you guys listening that if you’re an introvert, you could still be successful, like you could still like, change if you don’t want to be an introvert anymore and I think that’s like, a stigma society has is like, “Oh, I can’t be successful if I’m an introvert.”. But just to let you guys know, I myself am currently an introvert and so, it doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or an extrovert, you could for sure, find success in whatever you’re pursuing. So, I just wanted to point that out, bro, is like, you start as an introvert, but that doesn’t even matter, like you could still have success if you are an introvert. What is the best online business? I’m ready to learn the best one. 

Jon: Just to add on that, I think Mark Zuckerberg is an introvert, I think Steve Jobs was an introvert, I think some of the greatest, I don’t know if– whether you consider them the greatest or not, some of the most successful entrepreneurs were introverts. And on the other side, some of the most successful were extroverts as well so, no doubt; I’m with you on that. Time to start an official one. I’m ready to start an official one. 

Ryan: Dope. Okay. And the second thing I want to point out is, your desire to be popular, your desire to be cool. So, what I’m seeing in this is okay, you’re introvert, you’re introverted, you’re living life a certain way, then all of a sudden, you change environments, you get into high school, and now you have a new desire to be someone different than who you have been. And what’s interesting is, all you did was make a decision to change who you were, and you said, you achieved that. So, you literally changed yourself based off of what your goal was at that particular moment in your life. And so, I just wanted to touch on that is, if you guys aren’t happy with who you are, and where you’re at in life, and there is like this desired vision for where you want to go and who you want to become, all it takes is a decision; just like what Jon did, and that’s what you did, bro, you made a decision and like you said, you achieved it. And was there any other like underlying power that was pushing you to become popular, become cool? What was like the main driving force behind this? I can talk about how to start one. It can be simple to learn how to start one. 

Jon: I would say, if I can remember what my thought process was in order to do that, basically, it was this, I remember the shift being somewhere around where people started getting together and party, okay? And back in my let’s say, grade six, grade seven days when I was more of the nerd, if you will, or introverted guy that focused on grades, I realized that I wasn’t being invited to these parties, because I wasn’t, I guess you could say cool enough. And so, I think a lot of it stemmed from a desire to want to fit in and not be left out, which I did want to preface by saying, I wanted to pursue popularity and being cool and now today, I advise almost everybody I encountered that the pursuit of trying to be cool is one of the most uncool things you could ever do. This is honestly what I– quote unquote, that’s what I tell people, and that’s what I learned. However, like you asked, and like I mentioned, at the time, it came from this unfulfilled desire of, “Oh my god, I’m being left out.”, which now I look at as a positive but back then I thought it was, I just didn’t feel good about it. I thought it would be happier if I– “Okay, I want more friends. I want to be cool and I want to fit in.” Let’s talk about how to start your own. You’re ready to learn how to start your own. 

Ryan: I like what you said is like you were at this undesired spot, you realized, “Okay, this is a desired spot for my life.”. And so, I think that’s key for all of you guys listening to this is, no matter where you’re at in life, and no matter what stage you’re at in life, we’re always in this spot where we know we can become a better version of ourselves, and that’s exactly what Jon did. He was just like, “Yo, okay, I’m in this undesired spot, I have this desire spot I’m shooting for it. Let’s figure this out. Let’s go after it.”. And yeah, the last thing I want to talk about that you’re talking about Jon is, you were defiant man. I think that character trait plays an important role in most entrepreneurs that I meet. Because we’re born into this environment, where we’re listening to our parents, we’re going to school, we’re listening to our teachers, we get a job, we’re listening to our employers and whatnot and yet, people that become entrepreneurs, they just don’t– they just like listening to themselves pretty much. So, I want to talk about that, bro. Like, the fact that you’re a defiant like, even though maybe at the time, it was causing bad relationships or bad circumstances to happen, I know for sure that trait played off in your favor once you started becoming an entrepreneur. So, if you could touch on that man, like, how did that shape like your mindset, and like who you’ve become to today? 

Jon: I think I couldn’t agree more with the fact that it has to be one of the most important precursors to somebody ultimately becoming an entrepreneur with no money, and the reason why is because with no money, if you want to pursue the best version of yourself, then you have to realize that you have to go against the grain, which also entails going against the beliefs that have been pushed on you. And when I was a kid, for whatever reason, I don’t know why, I guess you could say I was born with it or maybe certain events happen, but as I went through life, even as the youngest kid, I remember, I was maybe 9 or 10, when I saw what my mom and dad did every single day, which was wake up, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to sleep, wake up, go to work, come home, and I remember telling them, if that’s the life I was living by 35, I would put a bullet in my head because I didn’t see; I just didn’t see the point of living, if that’s all it’s going to be. And so, throughout life, I noticed people would say certain things, right? Like, I remember when I was in high school, and I decided not to care about my grades, subconsciously, there was a thing there. So, for example, I was always pushed on, “You need a degree, you need a degree, you need a degree.”, and I just inherently felt, “I don’t need a degree, if I am an actual, like, good person with good character traits.”. In other words, I just– flipping everything on its head, and I always used to argue things all the time and people would say something, and everybody would just go along with it and I always wanted to challenge it. Again, I’m not quite sure why, I can’t pinpoint why that is, it’s always been like that for me. But what I learned as I grew up was that the opposite of what most people believe, actually tends to be closer to the truth.

And so, it’s funny because all the people that used to try to condition me or engraved these thoughts and beliefs in me now, they are listening to me because they start to see me where I’m at now in my life, and the things I preach and the things I taught them and they say, “Okay, maybe he was onto something.”, because I didn’t get a degree and I’m doing better than the people with degrees, right? I’m not trying to boast or brag, I’m just saying those same individuals now find themselves in a spot where the conditioning of society let them down. And me being the sort of black sheep and being defiant and always trying to think for myself, I think is the most important part. I wasn’t necessarily defiant, just to be defiant, I was defiant because I wanted to think for myself and I just despised people projecting their beliefs, and what they thought was right, and what society said and what the teacher said, just because they said. It didn’t make it true in my mind, I wanted to take a step back and say, “Let me actually think this through, is this really what I choose to believe? Just because they believe it doesn’t mean I need to.”. And so, I know I’m probably running around in circles a little bit there but that’s the evolution as to why I was always defiant and now how today, I see the defiance as almost like a superpower to be able to think for yourself on ideas for beginners. Ideas for beginners are essential. So, eliminate the bias, okay? Because almost everything you hear is going to be biased, take a step back, eliminate the bias, look at it from a challenging or opposing point of view. So, now you have synthesis– you have a thesis, antithesis, so if somebody gives you a thesis, I like to think of the anti-thesis, the antithesis, and now you can get closer to the synthesis, which is the truth somewhere in the middle. So, that’s my thought process behind it and how it’s helped me. 

Ryan: Wow, bro, what a beautiful lesson that is. And just to reiterate to you guys, the lesson here is, everyone is conditioned as they go through life by a society, by authority figures, whether that’s your parents or teachers or whatnot and the lesson is, if you could decide to fall into those belief patterns and you just become part of the system, you become part of who they are, and you just get sucked in, or you can make a decision is like, “Hey, let me take a step back and challenge these beliefs, do I want to believe what they believe? Or should I figure out what I want to believe?”. And once you guys could grasp that lesson, it’ll change everything for you. Because I’ve gone through the same thing, Jon, I’ve gone through the same exact thing where I took a step back from home, and I was like, “Hey, I need to start thinking for myself.”. And from home now look at this, now you’ve become a thought leader in your circle, and people are looking up to you for– they’re looking for you for advice and how to think in. Now what’s interesting is, what I’m seeing is, instead of you being conditioned by society, you’re influencing people in your circle, and essentially, you’re conditioning them how to think for themselves. 

Jon: Yes, yes, I agree. Because the most successful leaders are never going to be– you can’t be a leader if you’re a follower so, the only way a leader becomes a leader is by being able to influence others. And if you’re just repeating most of the same message that society and others have repeated on you all your life, you can’t be a leader. If you can’t think for yourself, if you can’t decide for others what you should think or what may be, might be a better solution, or whatever the case is, you’ll always just be a follower who listen to everybody else, which is fine, not to take anything away; if that’s where you want to be, that’s fine. But being a  successful leader means you can’t be a follower, it’s just that simple. And if you’re listening to what everybody else says and believing what they say, simply because they said it and without thinking for yourself, then unfortunately, you will likely be stuck as somebody being influenced rather than the influencer.

Ryan: Wow, love it man. Okay, so when do you start getting into business? When do you start becoming an entrepreneur? When does this transformation start taking place?

Jon: What happened was, the initial spark was, I worked at LA Fitness, that was my first job out of college, right? Now, I went to college for health and fitness promotion, it was just a two year, nothing crazy. But I jumped in LA Fitness, and what happened was, I got a sales position. And now, I have the same notion I think everybody else who’s never done sales has about sales, which is, “I don’t know if I want to be a sales guy.”, heard the thing about sales but being that I was defiant, I said, “Hey, you know what, everybody hates sales, okay, let’s give this a shot. Let’s see if it’s really as bad as people think or say.”. Okay, so, I dive into sales and I was selling personal training and this position changed fundamentally who I am forever. In fact, remember, I told you I was an introvert most of my life, and that did by the way, still carry for the most part throughout high school, the sales position fundamentally shifted my personality and actually made me more extroverted, and this is where everything began. Because when I started selling, and I started not having a cap on my income, and I realized, sale, you know how the saying goes, sales is the hardest working– highest paying hard work, and the lowest paying easy work, I found that out to be first hand experience, more importantly, I found certain character traits through that sales job, which was like, being uncomfortable and getting myself out of my comfort zone and forcing myself to speak to other people in situations where I otherwise wouldn’t have being my introverted self. And so, I developed these traits and I start to gain this ability of just this super human ability I found it to be, of just being able to talk to anybody, at any time, have a conversation with any stranger ever, which I didn’t realize at the time, is a life changing thing for me. And if you struggle with this, by the way, anybody listening, if you’re very introverted, you have social struggles, if you will, I would recommend putting yourself in a situation where you need to sell and put yourself out there because what that does is it turned my confidence around. Now, all of a sudden, I’m learning extremely self confidence, everything starts changing my life, I started realizing, “Hey, you know what, I can make more money, I can– I’m not confined to 50k a year.”, or whatever the norm was, or is. 

And so, I ended up leaving the sales position due to some politics as there usually is in those areas, but also to pursue something greater. So, I decided to be a freelance trainer, a studio coach, and next thing you know, I’m making a lot more money than again, “what’s good”. So, people think good, I used to work at Costco back in the day, they’d be like, “Oh, this guy’s making 25 bucks an hour. Like, he’s got it made.”, and I’m sitting back thinking like, “25? Is that really what life is about?”. So, I’m like, maybe 22 at the time, 23 and I’m making close to 100-120 an hour freelance training and studio coaching, I’m getting my name out there and I decide, “Okay, I think it’s time for me to start my own, true own business.”, and the reason that happened was because I found this gap in the industry I was working in, which is the fitness industry. And what happened was, as I was training, as I was coaching, I started observing over the couple of years, the lack of people’s knowledge when it came to nutrition. And I saw people working out thousands, I’ve worked with thousands of people, working out all this time, and very few would see results because of their nutrition, because of what happened outside the gym. And so, I decided, “Okay, I’m gonna find a way to do this and start my own thing so, I can actually put a dent into this industry, a positive dent in the sense that I’m sick of coaching people, putting my all into this, but them not seeing results because they don’t realize what’s missing.”. So, I decided to fill that market gap and say, “Okay, there’s an issue here, and if I’m going to solve it, I got to do it myself. I can’t rely on nobody else. I’m just going to figure out how to do this and I’m going to start my own thing.”. And I always knew I wanted to start my own business in the past and this just so happened to be the best opportunity for me to do so. 

So, I started my business, got my first client online, I had no idea what I was doing, they’re like, “Hey, do you do online coaching?”, and I was just like, “Yeah, for sure.”. Like, “How much you charge?, I was like, “How much you want to pay?”, that was pretty much the beginning, they’re like, “How about this much?”, and I was just like, “Yeah, that sounds pretty good.”. That was the first interaction I had, and from there, the rest is history, as we say.

Ryan: Wow. Okay, there’s a lot I want to unwrap from what you just shared with me. Number one, let this podcast be the podcast where we change the sales stigma, if you have a sales stigma, number one is, without sales, the world would not be what it is, it is the most noble career in the world. Think about every product that you have, period, think about all the food that you have, think about the clothes that you have, think about the phone that you’re listening to this podcast on, the computer that you’re using, the car you’re driving, everything is a sale and without it, the world does not thrive. And so, I just want to get rid of the sales stigma is, sales is great and you just got to embrace it and when you embrace it, what ends up happening, which what happened to Jon, is, he developed this superpower, he called it a superhuman power, where he was able to talk to whoever, strangers and what happened is, it built this confidence within him and the rest is history, like he said. His confidence led him to taking leaps of faith in his life and led him to changing certain aspects of his life. So, I just wanted to touch on that Jon, just say like you embracing sales pretty much was the catalyst that helped you become who you are today. 

Jon: Oh, 100%, and just real quick to add on that, here’s one of the fundamental reasons why. When I was doing the sales position, I remember this guy came into our club, and he was a new sales guy, but he had been doing sales, but he was new to our club. So, he comes in, and he says, “Are you ready to play the game?”, and I’m thinking, “What’s the game?”, he goes, “Okay. You see the gym floor, right?”, this huge gym floor, super intimidating, okay, if you worked at a gym trying to sell training, you don’t want to talk to people, they got their headphones on. He goes, “Okay, I’m going to point at somebody, and you have to go up to them and try to sell them training and then you point at somebody for me, okay?”. And I’m over here, I’m shaking, he has no idea but I’m like, “Yeah, sure.”, trying to act all cool. And he does, he points at them and I almost had no choice in that moment because I was like, “I’m not gonna back out of this.”, and I went for and what I didn’t realize was putting myself out of that comfort zone, just for those small interactions, suddenly, I overcame that fear, right? Just like anything, we overcome fear, I overcame that fear and that changed– and next thing you know, I’m the one going, “Let’s play the game. Let’s play the game.”, and I’m talking to everybody and it’s smooth and it’s fluid, and next thing, you got no more fear. And when the fear has been broken, I’m telling you guys, sales is, you said it man; sales is so noble because few understand how difficult it is but as a result of the people who are great in sales, they needed to develop character traits that are so important and so empowering. So, I couldn’t agree more man.

Ryan: Wow, I love it. And I love how you mentioned the comfort zone because you guys could use that for any area of your life. If you’re thinking about whatever you want to do, but you fear– you feel a fear in that area, all you have to do is act in a way that is outside of your comfort zone and boom, you’ll eliminate the fear. So, you just have to have that courage to take action in spite of that fear, even just one step could actually do it for you.

Jon: And having accountability to do so would help. In my case, I probably wouldn’t have done that if that guy wasn’t there being like– if he was like some buff guy just like, “Come on, man, let’s go.”, and he would point to the best looking girl in the gym too, which made it only that much harder. So, having somebody to hold you accountable and doing so as well, I think will make sure that you actually put yourself in that position.

Ryan: Use this podcast as your accountability partner, go out there and just change, get out of your comfort zone, make it happen.

Jon: Do it, just do it.

Ryan: What you mentioned was, you filled a gap in the marketplace, that’s what you noticed and that’s what entrepreneurs do. What entrepreneurs do is, they figure– they have a bird’s eye view of the marketplace and they figure out, “Where is there a gap or I come in, fulfill that gap with a value and impact someone in the marketplace?’, and I think that’s the key and entrepreneurship overall, wherever you’re at, all you have to do to become a successful entrepreneur, is find a gap in the marketplace and fulfill that gap. And so, that’s what Jon did, was, he found a gap in nutrition in the fitness place, and he came in there, and boom, he fulfilled it and what did he say? He got his first online client by doing that, by fulfilling the gap and getting out of his comfort zone and actually going after it. 

Ad: This is exactly the kind of topic that we’re constantly talking about in our Facebook community, the Home Based Business Community, it can be really hard to find a community of like minded people who are working towards similar goals. If you want to join the conversation there, it’s absolutely free. So, head over to ryanallenbell/community and click the join button.

Ryan: Alright, Jon, what happens after you start getting your first online clients? What’s the personal development from this point forward that helps build this big brand online?

Jon: Well getting that first client was definitely pivotal in the sense that the second you stop getting paid for your time, meaning directly paid for it, right? Like, they just paid me outright for the month and now it’s, “Okay, now I just have to help them in XYZ way.”, that unlocked, that just fully blew the top off that ceiling that was there thinking that there’s a limit as to how much income one could make. So, for me, it was super empowering to realize, “Oh, wow, if–“, so now you start doing math, “Okay, I got one client at 300 a month. So, if I got 10, that’s 3000. If I got 100, that’s 30,000.”, you see what I mean? So, the mind starts working, right? And once that ceiling gets lifted. So, that was huge. And when it came– so from there, it’s, “Okay. Now, it’s a journey.”, and that self development process happen, it never ends. I’m still going through it as hard as I’ve ever done today. And that self improvementjourney really became, “Okay, so it’s trial and error. So, I go through this first client.”, and you start getting feedback with it, “Okay, am I helping them?”. And the service was terrible at first, because I really had no idea what to do, I would text them individually, I gave them my all, but I didn’t have a system, I didn’t have a way to deliver the service that I wanted to deliver effectively. So, it was all over the place, it was messy, it was scattered, I’m trying to post on Instagram, I’m starting to invest in courses all the time, I’m reading. 

One thing that the sales position got me to do as well, by the way, was start reading, which fundamentally changed my life in and of itself. And but now I’m building a business, okay, I’m watching the videos on how to do this and how to sell better or how to market yourself, how do you market your service and I’m taking courses and reading books and just trying to learn as much as I can about what I’m trying to do and about business in general, if I’m going to run it, that’s what you need to do. So, I’m learning every skill, copywriting, I’m learning marketing, content creation, I’m editing everything, I’m okay YouTube. So, though I was scattered, it was all with the intention to just go through the trial and error as quickly as possible and constantly learn. I made sure too, any money I got, I didn’t save, I dropped all of it into investing, into my brand, my business and myself. And so, over time, what that led to was three years now, I’ve been doing the online business for about three years, it led to a very refined process much more, in the sense of how to deliver coaching. So, now, with our coaching, we deliver our clients results, like no other fitness coaching program online can do and we do it in such a systematic, simple, straightforward way that benefits and empowers the client and getting clear on how you want to run the business and you start running it and all sudden things crash and you say, “Okay, how did that happen? Why did that happen? And how do I fix it?”‘. So, moving along this path, you start just throwing everything at the wall, seeing what sticks and then picking up the pieces from there and ideally one of the main things was, I started to realize how important it is to invest in getting help. So, I invested in masterminds, in coaches and the last coach that I invested in, I’m actually finishing up my term with him now, really just changed the game for me even further, he really leveled up my whole business strategy and all of that, my client acquisition. 

So, constantly investing in yourself, I think is the most important, constantly learning, you should be taking time out of every single day and direct it towards specifically your own self learning. And I’m not talking about just reading fiction books, you can read a fiction book, but there’s got to be something with a skill, I think you need to learn all of the skills, I don’t think it’s enough to just know one, if you want to be the entrepreneur. If you want to work in a company, let’s say you’re in a sales position, sure, you don’t need to learn too much about how to build the systems on the business, if you don’t want to, if you plan on being there, fine, focus on mastering sales. But if you want to be the entrepreneur, you really need to spend that extra time to invest and learn every single component, every in and out of your customer, your business, your marketing, your branding, your messaging, which is obviously a process but I think there’s ways you can speed it up, especially by investing and having somebody again, not to hold not to just hold you accountable, but to help you through that learning process.

Ryan: Wow, bro, so much value in all of that. What I created from what you said was, pretty much a four step process to like, to create mastery within your business. So, what I see is number one, it starts with personal development, like you’re learning all these skills, like you said, copy, marketing, whatever it is, you’re learning all these skills. Second, is you’re getting this feedback from your clients, you’re like, “Okay, what’s working, what’s not working?”. So, you’re getting this feedback with also the skills that you’re learning. And third is the income that you start earning, you’re reinvesting back into your personal development so you can learn how to create systems. So, that’s the fourth step is systems. So, number one is personal development, two is feedback, three is reinvesting and four is systems. So, I came up with this four steps and that’s literally what you’re doing and so, what I really want to dive deep into is the power of systems because I understand that’s one of your strengths and maybe you could touch on, like how that comes to play inside of your business and why someone should start implementing systems into their business as well.

Jon: Yeah, great question, man. And definitely one that I wish I understood and knew the power of sooner in my business, it would save you a lot of time if you do. So, I’m glad that we’re able to provide this value in this particular area. So, systems are really the backbone of your business but in reality, the backbone of success in any area, you look at somebody successful in anything, Michael Jordan had a system for how he trained, how he got prepared for games and all these things, Kobe Bryant, right? These guys, any successful athlete has certain systems in place, any successful business requires systems. And why that is, is because it keeps you narrowed and focused on what matters for one, meaning if you don’t have systems, you’re really scattered, you wake up, your day should be a system in and of itself. Imagine you wake up, you’ve got no plan for the day, you should systemize your day, “Okay, I wake up and I do this first, I do that next and I do that first, and I do that third.”, okay, that’s a system. If you don’t have that system, you wake up and you’re basically winging it and when we wing things, especially business, you can only get so far before you hit an inevitable plateau. So, the system is important in all aspects so, you want a system to deliver the service to your clients or product that’s effective, that saves you time, saves the client time and most importantly, if you have a system, then you can tweak and refine the components of that system to continue to produce more and more effective outputs. We teach and coach fat loss, predictable fat loss, muscle gain, overall healthy lifestyle, lean lifestyle living, and we do so in a systematic way. There’s certain components that we add to your day to day, week to week lifestyle, where we can predictably lose fat and that’s the next component of systems. They create predictability. 

So, if you’re not tracking anything, okay, if you want a system, you need to be tracking, for example. So, if you’re not tracking any numbers in your business, and let’s say you make 10 grand this month, I know people have made 10 grand in a month, they’re like, “I made 10 grand.”, but then the next month, they might only make two grand or six grand and then two grand again and 12 grand, okay, you want predictability. And so, systems help create that predictability and those are really some of the main reasons why systems are so important and why if you don’t have systems in place right now, and you’re listening to this, I think one of the next steps, don’t put all your focus there but at least dedicate similar to some self learning time, dedicate some time to work on how to refine the systems, the the service delivery, the client acquisition, the marketing, all these systems, the sales, conversion system, take time to create these, and you will save yourself hassle in the future.

Ryan: The way that I see systems, it’s like, you’re creating a tunnel vision towards your vision for your life, where now you could see your goals and your vision with so much clarity and it helps speed up your path to your vision; that’s really what systems do. And it’s just what Jon said, is the opposite of a system is winging it. So, the question for yourself is, “Hey, do I want to wing my business? Or do I want to create a predictable business that’s going to get me results?”, I think that answers it in itself right there, man.

Jon: Yeah, I know, you said it perfectly. You said in a very concise way, that really is it, right? If you aren’t tracking things like same with fitness, that’s what we preach with our clients, “Look, you want to get in the best shape, but you want to do so in the fastest way possible, that’s still healthy and sustainable, you need to start taking inventory things, you need to stop guessing.”. And ultimately, you can’t guess your way to success and that’s why systems are needed, you said that right my man, 100%.

Ryan: Wow. Can’t guess your way to success, I love it, you need to steal that quote for yourself if it’s your own. Yeah man, love it, trademark it. Okay, I understand another one of your skills is content creation, too, because you have a YouTube channel, you have a huge audience on Instagram. So, maybe you could say a few things on the power of creating content and just creating content that really matters and influences the marketplace.

Jon: Yeah, so creating content is, here’s the system, as we just spoke about, “Here’s a system I would definitely have in place to make your content effective.”. And that, it’s going to start with you figuring out your ideal target client, who is it that you’re trying to help? Get very specific, as specific as you can, as clear as you can. And from there, list out their pain points. Ideally, you want to talk to this customer, you want to talk to your customer, your target market, and you want to, because a lot of people make the mistake of making content that they like, okay? Which is fine to a degree, but you need to have the person, the audience in mind, obviously. There’speople that go out there, I’ll give you an example, people in the fitness space, because obviously I’m there, they’ll go out there, and they’ll just talk about them all the time, right? “Oh, this is what I did today, this is how I’m doing this, this is why I do..”, which is fine, again, there’s people that are interested and want to listen to that but they don’t usually have successful businesses built off of that because where’s the value? Just because you can do it for yourself doesn’t mean you can do it for others. 

So, I think looking at marketing, or content and marketing as the customers first, what’s their struggle? What’s their pain points, what are they– what’s keeping them up at night? I’m sure people have heard that one before, figure this out and now build your content strategy around that, build it around their pain points, their struggles, but also in a way that gets them to know and trust you. You want to have a calendar set up ultimately, like we mentioned previously, system is key. So, I like to have a calendar set up and I’m going to determine what posts are going on what platform, on what day, what type of post it is, what the call to action is, am I asking the question? What do I want to get out of this piece of content? How do I want to help the person listening with this? And then, I go about structuring the content from there. So, that’s really my formula to making that content. And then, when it comes to people, they’ll say, “Oh, wow, you’re so good in front of the camera. I wish I was this good.”, it’s really just practice, guys. I’ve done– people look at my YouTube videos, 400 videos, and they’re like, “Oh, I can’t speak to the camera like that.”. Listen, you should see my first videos, they were terrible, as they always are for most people. Get the reps in, don’t worry so much about– don’t be so self consciousabout, “Oh, how do I sound or how do I look?”, just create your content from the place of, “I’m just here to provide value.”. Sure, you might stumble over your words, you might mess up a few times, who cares? They’re not there to make fun of you and, “Ha, look at this person.”, right? It’s like, how do you provide the value? And if you could just get that message across and make sure you make it about the audience and things that will help them, of course, it helps if you’re passionate about it; I would imagine that’s something you build a business around, then you’re going to have a winning formula for content.

Ryan: Wow bro. To make this super simple for you guys, use systems to create content for your audience. Don’t use systems to create content for yourself, it’s all about the audience and speaking to them. Cool, man. So, what’s your vision from this point forward? Like, where do you see yourself in the next five years with your brand and where you’re going?

Jon: So, for us, my company name is Beyond the Iron and the vision that I’ve set out for it is, we’re looking to make this one of, if not the biggest, online coaching company out there, okay. So, it’s a massive vision, looking at least five years, probably more like a 10, maybe even a 20 year type of thing but the ultimate vision is to really, like I mentioned at the beginning, it’s always been the same, make a positive dent in this industry, and in this world, to eliminate the whole complex around fad diets and the things that have kept people from being fit all this time, we want to be the forefront of what true online coaching in the fitness realm and lifestyle realm, we want to be the forefront of what that service looks like, getting people real results, predictable, sustainable results, ultimately have a massive team, we’ve got a team of four coaches at the moment, we’re growing pretty much every month with our team, we’ve got some other individuals working with us as well. We’re looking to make this into a pretty big corporation, to be honest, because I got some big dreams and we, all of us as a culture, we just love to help people as much as possible. We want to change your life, but not in the way that the marketing would make you think, we want to change your life in a way that you can sustain forever, that you’ll never forget, and that you can then go and help others change their lives. Because we understand the ripple effect, the power it holds and ultimately, we want to make sure we help as many people as possible in a way that could ultimately change the world.

Ryan: Wow, bro. Big dreams, we got to make it happen for you, man, for sure.

Jon: We will, we’re dedicated man. We’re dedicated. 

Ryan: Yeah. Okay, let’s change gears a little bit. So, since this is the Home Based Business Podcast, I have a belief, my belief is that, you know, the only way to achieve true freedom in our lives is to create a plan to quit our job and start a home based business. Jon, I want to ask you the same question so, my audience could get a different perspective, not just me, but from someone else who is successful as an entrepreneur, building a home based business. So, same question, do you believe that the only way to achieve true freedom is to create a plan to quit your job and start a home based business and why?

Jon: I think the first part of that is true, in the sense that you need to quit your job. Now, it all– the second part is going to depend on who you want to be. So, you listening to this, who do you want to be? I’ll give you an example. If you want to try to build an Amazon, then it’s not just gonna be from home, it’ll start from there, most likely and like I said, that’s why partially true in my opinion, because it all depends on how far you want to take it. If you are– if your goal is to build a home based business, and that’s how you want to create your wealth and you want to stretch that as far as you can, which by the way is quite far, but there’s going to eventually be a step– or maybe, let’s say maybe you want to do something else, some sort of retail brick and mortar type thing, maybe you want to do a gym, I think that’s going to depend on the person and the direction they want to go in. If you want to do home based, then I think that’s definitely the key, right? I don’t think it’s the only way, I think it depends first and foremost, as the listener, who do you want to be? And how do you want to build your wealth? And how wealthy do you want to be? How big is your vision? Because from there, now we can get clear on the next steps. I think the first part is true, I think it’s going to be ultimately maybe not impossible, but as close to impossible as it can be to build generational wealth or big visions or freedom from a 9-5 so, I do think the first step is definitely finding a plan to move out of that. However, the next place you go, I think home base is great, obviously that’s what I do. Now, depending on how big you want to build that, eventually you might need some offices, you might need to get out of the home, but if you want to go brick and mortar that may be best for you; that all depends in my opinion.

Ryan: Wow Bro, I love that. Your vision for yourself and for others is so vast because you’re like, “Yo, starting a home based business that is just a stepping stone to who you can become.”, I love it bro, that is so dope. All right, man. So yeah, before we hop off, what– so my audience, they’re in a position where, either they’re considering starting their own home based business, or they already have their own home based business and they just want to get better at it. So, what is the best advice that you can give to them based off of your personal experience from growing your own business?

Jon: Well, if you haven’t started yet, then every second wasted is only working against you, okay? That’s something. Now, you might be confused as to where to start, if that’s the case, really just, like we mentioned earlier, find something that you can help people with, that you’re passionate about and from there, so, for those of you who maybe have something going, just understand this, when you’re going down the entrepreneurial path, you’re going to be bombarded with stats, you’re always constantly told, “Oh, 96% of businesses fail, and you’re never going to make it.”, or whatever the case may be. The truth is, what I’ve realized, as an entrepreneur, somebody building a home based business, or otherwise, just an entrepreneur, it will be entirely dependent on your work ethic and your commitment to it, okay? So, for example, if somebody put a gun to your family’s head, I know it’s an extreme example, but somebody puts a gun to your family’s head say, “You need a million dollars by the end of the week, or else they all die.”, I’m willing to bet most people will come up with that million dollars. Now, that is an extreme case where it’s very difficult to generate such amounts of commitment and urgency without that happening but the point is, if you commit 100%, and you take all responsibility, and you’re prepared for the tough times, the rejection and all that stuff that’s going to come, just know that all those stats mean nothing. If you commit, you will make it work, and it’s just that simple. So, the stat is 100% of businesses are successful for the entrepreneur that commits and has no other choice, but to make it sell. I know, it’s pretty vague, it’s really just try hard, if you will but it really comes down to that. The only way you’ll fail as an entrepreneur is because you, whether you like to admit it or not, did not commit as much as you could have and that’s, I guess, that would be my ultimate advice. If you haven’t started yet, start now, like literally this second, do the smallest thing, just register the business, whatever it is, just take 10 minutes today, figure out who you want to be, something like that. But if you are in the business, just know that it’s entirely predicated on you, if you fail, it had nothing to do with outside circumstance, none. It had to do with you and your ability to adapt and overcome.

Ryan: Wow, bro. I love that so much, man. That’s– it sounds cliché, but what I tell people that I work with is just commit and don’t quit, it’s that simple and you’ll figure it out.

Jon: On the same page. 

Ryan: Yeah, dude. All right, man. So, I’m a huge quote guy and I feel like the right quote, at the right time in someone’s life can really impact and change their lives. So, what is a quote, that’s really, you know, worked for you over the years, or it could even be something that’s recent?

Jon: So, and I was talking to you about this previously, I have got a bliss of them and I swear, I pick a new one out of the hat every day to go with my quote for the day. For the one today, I would say the following and it might seem a little odd on the surface, but it is, “All of humanity’s problems stem from the inability of someone to be in a room alone with themselves.”. So once again, “All of humanity’s problems stem from the inability for a person to be in a room alone with themselves.”. What does that mean? It means that, if you can’t shut out the noise of the world, again, this may be thoughts, beliefs, peer pressure, distraction, okay? If you can’t put Instagram down for an hour, if you can’t stop texting, if you can’t turn– all this is to say, if you can’t shut the noise out, and take the time to get clear on who you want to be, what you want to do in your life, and focus in on it, and cultivate that passion for it then, just as the quote mentions, it’s probably going to be a problem. And most people find themselves there because they’re too trapped in the noise, they’re too trapped in listening to everything else, rather than listening to the only person that matters which is themself. So, that’s the quote I’m gonna go with today.

Ryan: Wow, bro. I love it, so powerful. All right, man, what’s the best way people can reach you? For those who want to get in reach with Jon, what’s the best way for people to reach you, bro?

Jon: Yeah, Instagram is the best. My handle is simply my name so, @jonmango, J-O-N-M-A-N-G-O, just like the fruit and send me a DM on there and I answer all of them. I’d be happy to connect with any of you guys, any business related questions, fitness related questions, I got you covered, as well as my man Ryan does, I know. Yeah, that’s the best way to reach me.

Ryan: Dope. Jon, you’re the man bro. Thank you so much for the value today.

Jon: Likewise, I appreciate you having me on, and I look forward to doing it again someday, maybe on my podcast, I’ll have you on there soon.

Ryan: Yeah, let’s do it, bro. Peace. 

Jon: Cool, see yah.

Outro: That’s all for this episode of the Home Based Business Podcast. Now, it’s time to set your personal plan in motion. To set up a discovery call with Ryan himself, join our Facebook community, filled with others just like you who have seen what it takes to make their home based business dream a reality, join the conversation at ryanallenbell.com/community and we’ll catch you next time right here on the Home Based Business Podcast.