Serial entrepreneur and successful internet marketer Alex Jeffreys knows a thing or two about building a successful business. At the age of 24, he launched his first six-figure business and hasn’t looked back.
In the years since, he’s built a string of multimillion dollar online businesses and helped many other entrepreneurs and internet marketers make money through his coaching programs. Jeffreys’ current company, Marketing With You, has earned a spot on Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies for the past two years in a row.
How did he get here? Jeffreys attributes much of his success to a single business investment he made early on — working closely with skilled mentors in a mastermind. Having a trusted team of advisors saved him years of struggle and created the freedom to focus only on winning internet marketing strategies with the ultimate profit, he said.
Jeffreys shares some of the wisdom he’s learned from mentors over the years, including how to avoid distractions, find your true worth, and more.
Learn From Someone Else’s Mistakes
“I’m not the smartest cookie in the jar, but there’s one thing that I’ve learned many years ago and it was this,” Jeffreys said. “To get ahead in business and make more money online, you want to invest your money in mentors and really learn from their mistakes.”
More specifically, Jeffreys recommends finding mentors who have achieved the goals you aspire to reach for yourself and for your product. For Jeffreys, this means investing in mentors who have grown hundred-million-dollar businesses.
In addition to the invaluable advice and guidance, mentors who have built the businesses you aspire to will give you a roadmap for achieving the success you dream of. Following in their footsteps allows you to learn from their mistakes and build that super funnel they’ve been able to create, saving years of time and agony of figuring it out the hard way, Jeffreys said.
Stay The Course
In addition to telling you what not to do, a mentor’s roadmap gives you clarity and insight on what you’ll find on the road ahead, Jeffreys said.
When most entrepreneurs start their businesses, they mistakenly believe they have to trade time for money, Jeffreys said. They believe they must spend every waking moment on the business for it to become successful.
What actually happens is that they start to get distracted with a variety of projects and busywork they create — either out of guilt or fear of success. Overloading with extra projects leads to even more guilt and fear that you’re not being a strategic entrepreneur, he said.
A good mentor shows you the path ahead and keeps you moving forward. This guidance will keep you focused on the goal you’re working to achieve, whether that’s making an easy profit or building a funnel that will generate traffic for your product launch, and navigate any obstacles along the way.
“Mentors can keep you on track so you’re working on the business, not in the business,” he said.
Stop Sabotaging Yourself
Having a trusted advisor also gives you the courage and confidence to find certainty in an uncertain world, Jeffreys said.
“Everybody’s looking for certainty in an uncertain world,” a mentor told Jeffreys. “So now that you know it’s uncertain, it’s up to you to go forward and figure out what works and what doesn’t. And just focus on what works.”
For Jeffreys, these words sparked a change in his mindset and made him realize he had been sabotaging himself. Until this point, Jeffreys had always seen himself as the underdog. But once he changed his mindset, success followed, he said.
Having mentors gives you the confidence to succeed and build your online business step by step, which is the ultimate key to finding certainty in an uncertain world.
Know What You’re Worth
The second act self-sabotage many entrepreneurs unknowingly commit is not knowing what they’re worth. Many don’t believe they can charge a high price for their services, Jeffreys said. So they undersell themselves and thereby decrease their potential for sales.
When Jeffreys started his first coaching program, he was only going to charge $197, because he didn’t think he anyone would pay a higher price.
“Mentors were pushing me to put it at $500 – and I still thought that was a stretch,” he said.
Eventually he listened and raised his prices. He also implemented a few strategic moves, which paid off to the tune of $8 million, along with an invaluable lesson about believing in yourself.
“People out there are willing to help you,” he said. “They’ll guide you, [and] give you precise information that can change your life in an instant.”