Most people think they’re not that good enough to start a business or even how to make money out of their idea, concept or service. Some even think and feel they don’t have what it takes to be a successful business or company owner. If you listen to our guest today, Sean Castrina – You’ll understand that your situation is not unique – you’re only limited because you’re believing that story. He’s not an expert in anything but figured out how to leverage communication, personality and bring value to the market – which made him millions of profits, even from passive income alone. I know you’ll get inspired – as well as smile, at times from his humorous analogies and real-life examples – as he shares the startups of his companies, the secrets, and successes behind them.
Sean grew up in a middle-class family but with strong resilience and conviction in his beliefs and mindset. One of which is his natural mentality way back in college as a division one wrestler: if it’s my will versus yours – I will outlast yours. He believes that in real-life, we can’t always tag a partner, and that, to get anything done – we need to be better than what we had to excel. Something that one would bet his life on. He admits that he’s not an expert or a professional in anything. He even had lost his dream job back then, and had to start selling insurance though he only lasted for a year. However, he had built his first company at a young age of 23 – coming from a simple but strong idea of having to service all the cars of the sales people he had to meet with during that time. He started that wax master mobile detailing company, and sold it – gaining him $35,000 passive income during that time (which is a lot in value today). Later on, he tried to convert his home office into an office in Charlottesville, Virginia. He wanted to hire a handyman who could help him with that – yet he can’t find anyone, nobody can even refer anybody. This made him start Advantage Handyman services which made for him a John Gotti kind of money. 21 years later, it has eight different companies and he’s making millions off them.
In this podcast, Sean shared to us how we he was able to build successful companies (more than 15 successful companies to date) from scratch – back to basics and grass roots. Even if he isn’t an expert in fields or by profession, nor a mindset-speaker, he has made top selling books in Amazon: 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Start-Up Success and World’s Greatest Business Plan. If you purchase and read them, they’re literally a non-BS and practical yet powerful. Be sure to take notes as Sean inspires us with his passion, his beliefs and convictions, as well as teach us tips and strategies in business startups and partnerships, in hope that you, our dear tribe, will also be able to get out from your comfort zone and make your very own dream business or company built starting now.
Here’s What You Missed:
- Going after Passion or Going after Profit
- Business Startup 101 in Simplest but Non-BS Method
- You-Can-Do-It Marketing Strategies for Starters
- Effective use of Value Proposition, and Good Hiring Secrets
- 50-50 Partnerships – When and How 50% is more than a 100%
- Self-discipline – Get out of Comfort Zone; Change Your Story
Sean Castrina: How To Make Sure Your Business Will Work For You?
Knowledge Nuggets:
[01:32] The only way to get anything done was you had to be better than you had to excel; can’t excel at everything, but you gotta have a few things that you would bet your life on, that you can do. “…I have that natural mentality that if it’s my will versus your will – my will will outlast yours…” [03:36] You gotta know your why. Why and Passion is like our two words and success space – that, along with mindset, and all three can steer you in a wrong direction. [4:48] There’s actually this virus has introduced – I think what’s happened now is every individual with a skillset has a business. They just don’t realize it, and it’s up to them. That’s that little middle ground that I’ve come to discover over the last year. [08:17] “…it’s either you solved a big problem, had a massive innovation, or there’s a massive marketplace for it” [09:07] “…if you can create a niche, you’ll become rich” They took something that’s very familiar, very common, and they’ve improved it. They’ve solved one or a couple of pain points that people have always talked about but nobody thought to take care of. [11:12] My philosophy is this: passion is an entrepreneurs Mitch’s Mistress. You can be passionate about something, but it fundamentally doesn’t go through the business plan check boxes. Is it marketable? Profitable? Is there a demand for it? Not everything is a fit. You can be passionate about something, but it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. [12:37] You can weave the two together. I’m passionate about owning my own business because I can create my own income, I can dictate it. [13:20] Hobbies don’t make great business. Just because you’re passionate about something still doesn’t mean you don’t run it through the vetting process of it being a good idea, fitting the marketplace, is there being a demand for it. Can you staff it? Can you scale it to a level that you know you’re going to make enough money? [14:52] “…in business you got to have the fundamentals in place”. [18:27] “If you don’t have a demand, you don’t have a business.” The first thing you have to do is you’ve got to confirm that your idea is wanted by somebody and they’re willing to pay for it. If you don’t have that, you got nothing. You have to do something that gives you the confidence, some data, or verification. [20:01] You got to have a market, and you either confirm that because you’ve done some beta testing or there’s competition. If you’ve got competition, and you gotta niche it. You got to ask yourself: Does anybody want this? How can I advertise? How am I going to market it? How to attract customers. [21:04] What is your competition doing? You can copy everything they’re doing but niche it; make it unique. Where are they advertising? Are they on TV? Are they doing Facebook ads? Etc. Mirror it a little bit, make yours unique. That’s the easiest way to do it. [27:37] Write the ad for exactly what it is you want. i.e., I want to start somebody today, but I want you to have A, B, C, and D – do not waste my time if you don’t have these. If you have these, shoot me a text. [28:35] “…I reached out to…and I found all the things they did that were wrong. There was a little bit they did that was good, but it was always something that they had a major flaw.” So, I cherry-picked all the good stuff, created my own casserole. [29:39] “…I knew I needed to have a partner. So I gave up 50% of my profit.” 50% of a lot is better than 100% of a little. 50% of anything that you don’t have to actually do every day is better than 100% of something you got to do every day. [31:22] You gotta get a, you gotta build one thing first. You gotta have a lane, and you gotta have a model – something that you’re confident in and build off of that. [32:56] “…that’s what you’re trying to do in business. You’re trying to build a durable, sustainable business. You don’t do that in two years.” [35:57] “…All of these impressions don’t mean anything to me. I only got three questions for you, if you can explain that to me every month like I’m a 12-year-old with a learning disability.” That’s me. I want it that simple. [39:35] “I don’t do anything with that company. I bankrolled it, but I bet on a superstar. I knew he was going to be a superstar. I knew I was going to win, and so did that and 50-50 partnership.” I make enough money in passive income right now, just off that company that would put me in the top 10% of income owners. [42:58] “…if I could go back.. or change anything.. I would want to go back to college, or I would have made money first or did it at the same time” Being in college, I had no idea what I was going to do. It’s a waste. [43:11] “You gotta have confidence, you got to know how to talk. You need to know how to express your ideas, learn how to build a team.” There are so many things and skills that you could’ve learned that have nothing to do with college. If you don’t have them – you got bigger problems. [45:12] “I don’t have this; I don’t have this and that – but I want to be a millionaire…everybody wants everything so fast.” My point is, I don’t think it’s the speed – it is going further. It’s not thinking fast up – rather, start thinking I want to go further. i.e LeBron – he’s great not just because he’s 260 pounds and six foot nine – it is what he does with that, that makes him an outlier in sports. You gotta be great at something. Find your thing, and you gotta be great at it. [49:07] Motivation without Education is WORTHLESS. You can get excited all you want but I can teach you how to achieve that. [52:53] Whenever I hear this in a course: ‘You don’t have to do this, that.’. Don’t buy it. You have to work to make money. You have to do things you don’t want to do in the beginning. If you don’t want to do that? Fine, stay poor. You need to get out of your comfort zone – maybe you’re the problem. [54:47] The problem is you’re allowing your situation – your STORY – to BE what defines you. You have to change that. You got to get your goal muscle going. [55:25] Self-discipline is the number one muscle in success. If I was starting from nothing, I would just do two things: (1) I would stop talking about what I lack; (2) I’d start with 30-day incremental goals.
Important Reads and Links:
Recommended readings:
8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Start-Up Success by Sean Castrina
World’s Greatest Business Plan by Sean Castrina
https://worldsgreatestbusinessplan.com/
Sean Castrina Website: https://seancastrina.com/
Sean Castrina Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sean.castrina/
Sean Castrina Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seancastrinapage/
Sean Castrina Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanCastrina
Sean Castrina YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DX7lLt3zS37jtDELR3rRw
Sean Castrina LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seancastrina/
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