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AFP 25: Mastering The Art Of Saying No

Justin Cooke June 22, 2012

Everyone talks about getting started, taking action, etc…but we thought it would be interesting to discuss the (often difficult) path towards mastering the art of saying “No”.  While it sounds a bit negative, we’ve seen tremendous growth in our business when we got better at picking and choosing the battles or projects we really should go after and wanted to share some of our experiences with you.

Why Mastering Saying No, Helps You say Yes to More Opportunities

Saying “No” is often more difficult…at least initially.  It can be uncomfortable, it can feel like you’re missing out on an opportunity, passing up on free money, etc.  The truth is this:  Once you’ve gotten better at saying “No” to people or projects you can devote quality time to those things that are truly important to you and your business.  We cover exactly how we do that in this episode.

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Justin:
Welcome to Episode 25 of the AdSense Flippers Podcast. I’m your host Justin Cooke and I’m here with Joe “Hot Money” Magnotti. What’s going on, buddy?

Joe:
What’s up everybody?

Justin:
It’s good to be back on the show. I know it has been a little while. I’ve been really busy with the projects. We’ve kind of been fluctuating on our weeks but we are back with you. We’ve got a great episode lined up this week. We’re going to be talking all about how to say no, why to say no, when to say no, that type of thing and that’s no to projects, no to new ideas, no to distractions. We’re going to get into that a bit more but first let’s do some news and updates.

First thing, we still got our niche site giveaway going on. So for any review that we get on iTunes, we’re going to be randomly selecting someone to receive a free niche site from us. That’s good through June 30th. So if you haven’t left us an iTunes review, please go do that and you will be in the drawing.

Joe:
Awesome. And that’s from any country or just select countries, right?

Justin:
No, buddy. Yeah, US, UK, Australia and Canada only. I know we got some people asking about Germany. They said, “Hey, we love the podcast in Germany.” We will do something special for Germany here in the near future so we will give them a little bit of love.

So next thing we got is your trip to Manila. You left me, buddy. It was like five, six days?

Joe:
Yeah, it was nice. Got away. Got to meet business professionals. Got to have a little fun. Got to have lunch with Dave Starr of PhilFAQS.com. He bought me lunch so thank you, Dave. Yeah, it was a great meeting.

Justin:
Cool, man. Yeah, I heard you met up with another guy Bob. You met up with his assistant and talking a little bit of business over there.

Joe:
Yeah, yeah, talking call center stuff. They have a pretty big operation, 130-man operation over there in Makati and was checking that out, went to dinner with them, so just working the business contacts as usual.

Justin:
Yeah, the call center stuff does really, really well in Manila. I mean it’s not that big here in Davao. There are a couple of major call centers but it’s really fragmented down here. It would be interesting to see some like large companies start heading down here. I know they’re starting to get a little more infrastructure in Davao. It would be interesting to see over the next few years as that kind of developed a bit.

Joe:
But I tell you, a low margin business, man. You got to have a lot of seats to make any money.

Justin:
Yeah. That’s the thing, man. If you’re only making I will tell you $100 to $200 a month profit per agent, I mean you really got to be – you got to have a ton of agents.They brought business to you. You would be chasing business.

Joe:
Yeah.

Justin:
Chasing business.

Joe:
And not only that. All the expenses. You really got to look at expenses. You really got to justify every little cost because some months, you could be making a little bit of money and then some months, you can lose your ass.

Justin:
Yeah. I mean if you’ve got a higher margin business and you’re going to outsource in the Philippines, it’s nice because you can do those extras, right? Like you can have the beanbags and the flat screen TV in the office, like in the break room. So if you can do something like little extras that you wouldn’t normally see in call centers here and that will help attract the better talent. But yeah, it’s really hard to do that in the call center industry because everything is so cutthroat. It’s like really going to zero. Not zero but really cheap, right?

Next thing man, I just bought myself a present. Samsung Galaxy S3.

Joe:
Yeah, you upgraded. You had the original Samsung Galaxy.

Justin:
Yeah, it was slow. The RAM was miserable and it was just sucking. I open the Kindle and it would like lock up on me to take like 10 minutes to restart my phone. Dude, I was not happy with it. So I upgraded. I did get the white phone and not the dark blue so I don’t know. But still, it’s inside that counts, right? I mean who cares what it looks like?

Joe:
Yeah, you put a case on that thing. No one will know that you have a girly phone.

Justin:
Thanks, man.

Joe:
We have to do a little side by side comparison with my phone because I have the Galaxy Nexus and supposedly they’re supposed to be almost the same phone. So it would be interesting to see what they look like side by side.

Justin:
Almost the same is the operative term there. So next point of business we had is John “The Intern”. John K. DeVries has a new site up. I really like it. It’s called WhatTheDev.com and here’s the basic idea. He has been working on us with some projects, some development projects and working with offshore developers and onshore developers, that type of thing and it’s a real pain in the butt.

I mean for anyone who’s like kind of a marketer or maybe a business guy but not a tech guy, it’s really difficult to figure out what kind of program are you needing. So John has the unique ability to kind of be clear. He’s one of those programmers, designers that can kind of like communicate well to you which …

Joe:
Right.

Justin:
… isn’t always the case. And so I think he’s uniquely suited to kind of help guide people to do that process. So he started the site. Give it a look, WhatTheDev.com. I’m digging it. I think he has a lot of content ideas, wants to help people find good programmers, developers for their projects. I like it too because it can help him connect with people that are like really doing interesting stuff I think.

Joe:
Yeah. I’m really interested to see where he takes it and what kind of feedback we get from the listeners and readers when they go over there and read some of his posts. So it will be pretty interesting.

Justin:
Yeah. If you take a look and check it out, if you could leave some feedback, let him know what you think. Then maybe you can help steer him in the right direction. You guys have been really helpful for us.

Joe:
So the last thing I want to mention, Justin, is we are trying to take some feedback here from our listeners. We would like to get some of their questions on the air the next podcast, the next episode. So we have a little link down the bottom in the show notes where you can actually record your own question. It’s through a little service, a free service that we have available but check it out. And if you have a question for us out there, please record your voice and we may put you on the next show.

Justin:
I love this feature, man. What’s the name of the company that does this?

Joe:
Hold on a second. I will have it for you. It’s called SpeakPipe.com.

Justin:
Speak Pipe.com. It’s cool. Yeah. So basically it’s push button. You push a button. You can record your voice. Ask questions, leave comments, that kind of thing and then we can add you into the AdSense Flippers Podcast Show in the next episode. So we will do that every episode. If you want to say something and ask a question, just say hi. You can do that and just let us know and we will get the email.

Joe:
Yeah. Maybe we can have a new segment, questions from the listeners.

Justin:
Yeah, man. Listener questions. That’s cool. Last point I want to talk about is TechTalks.ph. So when we were in Cebu, we met up with Tina and she started this group called TechTalks.ph. And it has really grown, right? They had a fantastic growth rate on developers and designers and businesspeople joining this group, getting together, having dinner, talking about their new projects they’re working on to the point where they decide to launch a Startup Weekend in Cebu which I thought was fantastic. Right? It was really cool.

Well, she wants to open up something like that in Davao, Davao Branch, right? So she talked to us about it. See if we would be willing to do it. The truth is, I really wanted to. It’s one of those things that you definitely want to do. The problem is I know I’ve got way too much on my plate right now.

Joe:
Yeah, and it’s not the kind of thing you want to half-ass.

Justin:
Yeah. I don’t want to screw it up because I want it to be good because I know it has the potential to be, right?

Joe:
Yeah, and plus Tina is the real deal and people over at Tech Talks are the real deal and I would hate to let them down. I hate to say yes and not follow through all the way. That makes me really lose a lot of value, lose a lot of respect in their eyes.

Justin:
Yeah. Well, the cool thing is we’re able to turn Tina on to Dulce who runs a group here in Davao’s bloggers. So we’re still going to be able to get it done but we’re going to do it and have her kind of spearhead it and we can be involved as far as sponsors, mentorships, right? And still meet up with the groups, see if there’s anyone that we can hire for projects. So we’re still going to be able to get it done. It’s just that we’re going to be taking a lesser role and I think it was a really smart move for us honestly.

Joe:
Yeah, I think so too. I know we really have to focus on our own business unfortunately. Now I hate to be selfish but there is a limited amount of hours in a day kind of thing.

Justin:
Well that leads right into the heart of this week’s episode.

****The AdSense Flippers Podcast****

Justin:
So this week’s episode is all about mastering the art of saying no and it’s funny because everyone tells you yes. You say yes to things and be more involved and try to reach out and put as many fingers in as many pies as possible and sometimes, that’s decent advice but we’re going to talk about all the reasons that it’s not today.

Joe:
Yeah. I hate to be so negative but this is pretty important and I kind of – as my career has gone on and I’ve gotten older and older, I kind of love saying no because it really makes you selective which is one of the things we will get into later but you really – the things that you say yes about, like Derek Sivers says, right? It’s either, “Hell, yeah,” or “No.” I mean if you’re not really interested in doing it and you’re just kind of like – you’re very blasé about it, then you should just throw it on the no pile and look for things that you’re a lot more interested in.

Justin:
Well that’s the problem too is that if you’re kind of interested, right? It’s so much easier to just say yes. You can just throw the yes out there and – but then everything that comes with it and we will get into that in a bit but we have a buddy of ours we were talking to recently. Damian, who just realized like a light bulb went off in his head and he said, “Wow, I’m starting to tell clients no from the outset. When something seems a little off, a little fishy, I’m telling him no, I’m not going to do business with them and I’m realizing that I just saved myself two or three months of heartache with this miserable client.” Right?

And we didn’t figure that out for a while either. It was maybe a couple of years ago that we started to realize that because at first, with outsourcing, we take on anyone. We said, “Oh, they want to give us money? We should take their money. That’s a good thing, right?” But we started realizing that if it wasn’t a very good fit for us, it ended up horribly.

Joe:
Now this doesn’t mean that it won’t be hard work. I mean there could be clients that come to you and it could be a difficult job to do but if it’s something you can do and they’re willing to pay for that, then it’s a balance, right? It’s probably something that I would say yes to if I had the bandwidth to do it. But if you have a client that’s just going to be over the top, take a lot of your time away, be overbearing and not pay you a lot, that’s probably a client you have to say no to. And I’m glad that Damian has learned that because when we learned that in the outsourcing game and stop chasing those clients, well, it made the deals that work so much better.

Justin:
It always makes you wonder because I know we’ve said no to deals that might have worked but for all the ones that wouldn’t have, we saved ourselves time and money.

Joe:
Yeah. I think if we had a bigger organization, maybe this wouldn’t be as true like …

Justin:
I don’t think so. I think a bigger organization makes it worse. It compounds the problems, right? So if we have 180 agents, right? And you take on some of those projects that are kind of miserable too, now we’re just kind of spreading that miserableness out throughout our bigger organization.

Joe:
Yeah, but if you had a small team that was just in charge of implementation and that went through the clients and you could measure those new clients, it could really have a hold on things and it wouldn’t take too much of your time. The problem is with our organization, we have to actually go through the process ourselves.

Justin:
Yeah. Well, before we get into our six points, one more thing I want to point out. I know a guy named Todd and he used to talk about this. I really like this. He would say, “Let’s have the yes days.” And so his idea was whether it was his wife, his kids, people at work, he would practice for one entire day saying yes. Honey, can I have some money to go shopping today? Yes. Dad, can I get some extra money to buy some candy? Yes. And he wouldn’t tell anyone but he would do these yes days and I think it’s an interesting experiment. I just want to throw it out there before we get into the negative nos, right?

But yeah, I think it’s an interesting experiment. I’ve tried it on myself and had some really interesting success and interesting things happen. You kind of go down these rabbit holes that you wouldn’t normally and it’s a great – it’s kind of a lifestyle trick you can play every once in a while. It’s cool.

Joe:
Yeah, it’s interesting. I remember playing it at the office too. I don’t think it lasted a whole day though. I think I did have to say no by lunch time.

Justin:
Yeah.

Joe:
So …

Justin:
That’s not terribly surprising though. First point, saying yes is costly and you don’t always realize it when you’re getting into it. So you say yes, right? It’s a little – it makes you feel good. It’s like a weight off your shoulders because you say yes to them, right? And then later on, you realize, oh my god, how much time, effort, cash, energy you’re going to have to put in to this project that you said yes to. Kind of just a feel better at the time. Do you know what I mean?

Joe:
Yeah. And I would say even backing off from projects, just talking about middle managers. We have a friend who’s moving to Manila to take a job and he’s becoming a middle manager and I think one of the first things he probably has to learn is to say no. When you have employees come up to you and go, “Hey, how about this new project?” or “How about we do this?” or “How about we do things this way?” your initial reaction, you want to be friends with your employees. You want them to like you. You want them to – you want to please them and so therefore you say yes to a lot of things without realizing what the cost is long term in terms of productivity, efficiency, overtime, all that kind of stuff.

Justin:
Same things work with vendors too, right? You get vendors in your office. You have people trying to sell you something and especially if it’s kind of interesting. You want to say yes. But then you realize all the different changes you’re going to have to make within your organization to implement whatever it is that they’re selling.

Joe:
Yes.

Justin:
You have to learn something new, right? The training cost and then the time spent there.

Joe:
Yeah.

Justin:
That it can be kind of miserable.

Joe:
Yeah, a good example of that is the ISO-certified.

Justin:
Yeah, ISO certification.

Joe:
Yeah, ISO certification. They want us to pay money to do it and come in and do all the documentation for us. I looked at it and really the bigger problem more than the cost and then doing all the work was all the process changes we would have to do. So yeah, vendors that it seems like it’s not going to cost you a lot in the beginning. Long term, it could cost you a lot.

Justin:
Yeah, I think it’s the time too that can be burdensome, right? Because there’s an opportunity lost. If you say yes to this thing that is kind of mediocre, what happens to your current projects, right? And you can put yourself in a position to where you’re giving less love and attention to something that’s a higher value or that you care about more honestly, that you’re more interested in.

Joe:
Right.

Justin:
So that little bit of feeling good and saying yes can really hurt some of the projects that you’re focused on now. You need to be careful with that and consider the costs.

Second point is that learning to say no is difficult and generally difficult things pay off. I will give you an example. Someone is chasing you, right? You make your way to the stairwell. Do you go up or do you go down?

Joe:
Up.

Justin:
Up, right? Up is better because if someone is chasing you, there’s a good chance you want to get away from them more than they want to get to you, right? So if you go up, you make it much more difficult for them. It’s a more difficult path or road to take. So it’s generally better to take the harder route and saying no is often harder. It’s more difficult to say no.

Joe:
So your theory here is that if it’s a really good deal or it’s a really good project or whatever it is, if it’s good, then by saying no, you will just convince the person to try harder if it is actually a good thing. If it’s a bad thing and it’s not really going to work out, then saying no will have them kind of just go away?

Justin:
No, not really. No, that’s not really what I meant. I guess I’m saying that things that are more difficult are in a better position for you to succeed and be better, right? To do better. So you’re going to be able to get away from problems. Your competition that’s chasing you down, right? So when you start something, if there’s a low barrier to entry, anyone can join. Everyone can do it. So you’re racing against basically everyone up the stairs.

If it’s a really difficult staircase, you’re going to have less people trying to compete, right? Oh, I don’t want to have to go all that distance and all that way to compete with these guys. I’m going to go for the easy route. I’m going to pay my $17.95 for the ebook and take the easy way out. You know what I mean?

Joe:
Yeah, I got you.

Justin:
Just the fact that saying no is more difficult tends to make it a better route to take because you want to separate yourself from the competition.

Third point is saying yes and not following through is poor integrity.

Joe:
Yeah. Like we were saying before with Tech Talks, right? This is the real reason why I didn’t want to say yes is because I didn’t want to have to commit a whole bunch of time, effort and energy to something that I knew I couldn’t do right now and therefore lose respect by someone that I consider not only a colleague but a friend and it would be a sign of poor integrity if I didn’t follow through.

Justin:
Yeah. It’s easy to fall into the trap of online anonymity, right? To think, “OK, well it doesn’t really matter because I can say yes to this or chase after this and not do it. It’s not that big of a deal. No one is going to care.” But people do care, right? And especially doing business is doing business whether it’s online or in person. It’s doing business.

So it’s really important to keep your integrity. I mean business is all about trust, right? And working with people that you know, respect and trust and if you’re finding yourself working with people that don’t do things when they say they’re going to do them, take on more than they can chew, you’re going to start to avoid those people for really good and interesting projects you want to work with them on.

Joe:
Yeah, I mean we’ve had examples of people who we’ve reached out to to do things for us. They’ve said, “Yes, I will do that for you,” and then two weeks later, they said, “Oh, well, I couldn’t do it because of X, Y and Z excuse,” when really they should have just said no upfront.

Justin:
Yeah. Just puts you in a position where you don’t want to work with them again. So I want the people that I’m working with to know that I am onboard. We are working together. We’re going to get this done and for them to be confident in the fact that I’m going to say no to things that aren’t on point, that aren’t part of our goals.

So the fourth point, saying no keeps you focused on your yes’s.

Joe:
I love this one because it’s absolutely true, that if you have a limited number of projects that you’re focused on, you can focus more time and effort and energy on those particular things going on. I see it all the time where we talk about this all the time. People get the shiny new object syndrome and oh, I’m going to do this now and now I’m going to do this, now I’m going to do this. You know what? If you just take a couple of items and focus on those items and say no to everything else unless something really good comes along, you will be that much more successful.

Justin:
Also, the more projects you take on, you’re really diluting yourself and there’s a cost in between, like focusing on one project to another. So any of the time management guys will tell you this but when you have to switch from one particular focus to another, it takes a little while to make that adjustment, right? So the more times you have to do that and the more projects and things you’re working on, the more losses you take that add up throughout the day, the week, the month, that type of thing.

Joe:
Yeah, and just the thinking energy that it takes to focus on different projects. I mean it’s like changing gears in a car. It just takes a lot of energy.

Justin:
And our fifth point, you have your own best interest at heart. I think this is absolutely true, right? So when someone comes along and they say, “Hey, we should do this,” or, “I think you should do this with me,” a lot of times, they’re not even considering your value at all, right? And those are the worst. Those are the people you don’t normally do business with anyway.

Joe:
Right.

Justin:
But they’re totally focused on themselves and have no interest in your benefit.

Joe:
Well, I think we’ve either had it on a podcast or we could make a whole another episode on the win-win philosophy, right?

Justin:
Yeah.

Joe:
But that’s for another time.

Justin:
But even the people that do come to you with a win-win philosophy, right? They don’t know all the things that are going on with you, all the other things that are going on your head, your capability at that moment, right? So there are things they can’t know. They’re trying to look out for your benefits but there are things they can’t know about your schedule and capability and where you’re at. So you’re the best person to decide that for you, right?

And you’re the one that’s going to know what’s best for you as far as your career, as far as your project path, so you saying no. You’re the only one that can, right? No one else will say no for you. If everyone else had their opportunity, you would say yes to everything they present.

Joe:
Yeah, yeah. And I would say this extends further than just business and this could extend to other parts of your life. I mean it’s so easy to look at someone and want to say yes all the time but you really do have to look at yourself and put your needs first and make sure that you’re looking out for number one.

Justin:
Yeah. Do you want to go out Tuesday night? Someone else calls you up. Well, do you want to go out Thursday night? Why don’t we go out drinking? Why don’t we go do this? There’s lots of things to do that can distract you and it’s fun to have a yes day every once in a while. But if you’re constantly saying yes to these types of things, you’re going to get completely distracted and not really focused on what you need to be doing.

Our sixth point and final point is it makes your yeses that much more meaningful. So people know if they come to a point.. will typically say no and I will graciously say no, right? I can’t do that and I will explain my reasoning. But when I do say yes, they know I’m onboard, right? And I think that’s the difference is that I want to know that if I go to someone with a particular plan, we want to work together on something, that if they are onboard, it’s an absolute yes.

The people that say yes all the time are kind of half part of the mean it and move on to something else because they say yes to everyone. That’s hurtful. That’s not helpful.

Joe:
Yeah. This goes back to your other point, point number four about you’re diluting yourself, right? When you say yes too often. So …

Justin:
Well you’re hurting your reputation too. I can’t believe that you’re actually going to get it done. You’re going to be flighty.

Joe:
Right.

Justin:
Right? So don’t be flighty. Don’t be flighty to others so they can have that respect for you that you want from other people. So when I go to the people, when they say yes, I know they mean it, that’s the kind of person that I want to be. So I aspire to be that way. I’m not naturally that way honestly. I’m more of the yes. I want to say yes. Oh, that sounds cool, right? So I think I’ve learned a lot of that from you actually because you’re more of the no guy. No, no, I don’t want to do it. Convince me that I should do it.

Joe:
Yeah. Well, I hate being the no guy but yeah, I’m definitely more of the “convince me” guy and I want to see it explained to me. I want to go through the points. I want to do the Ben Franklin analysis pros and cons and I want to really make sure that everything I get involved with is something that I can throw my weight behind because if it’s not, then I will just move on to something else.

What you shouldn’t do is be so desperate for a project or for work or for anything that you’re willing to say yes. Don’t fall into that trap. I think that’s a problem that entrepreneurs fall into which is they’re like, “Well, I just need the business so I’m going to say yes.” Try not to do that. That could definitely be a downfall.

Justin:
What about the one – what about this, Joe? So you’re in a situation where someone – they want you to get onboard with something, whatever that something is. Get involved, spend some time, money, whatever it is. And you kind of like it. It’s interesting but there’s that feeling of like if I don’t get involved and I miss out on an opportunity. How do you avoid that, do you think?

Joe:
I would look at your other opportunities, the opportunities that you have already and this may not apply to everyone out there but it should apply to most of you. So whatever you have going on, probably make some money and probably could make more money, well why not just invest more time and effort and energy and do something you already know instead of the unknown? That’s how I look at a lot of these things. If I say yes, it’s an unknown. You could lay it out for me on spreadsheets and papers and have the best plan but you really don’t know what’s going to happen once we implement whatever it may be.

Justin:
It’s an unknown universe. So I was listening to this commencement speech by this guy a while back and I will try to link to it in the show notes. It’s great. The guy talks about even when he was young – he’s a writer, right? And he had a goal and the goal was this mountain. He said, “I’m going to continue to head toward that mountain.”

He was given opportunities to make as a young guy kid, whatever, $60,000 a month being a writer for this newspaper or magazine or whatever but it was further. It was pointing away from that mountain. He said, “No, I still have a goal.” So he turned down the opportunities because he wants to continue down the path and there are times where those jobs are in between him and the mountain. And he would take it, right? Until he gets to the point where he can’t learn anything more and he needs to let the job go so he can continue on his path.

I think that’s a good way to think about it. Have a long term goal in mind and if things are leading you toward that goal, take it. If they’re not, pass it out.

Joe:
Yeah, I like that. I think that’s exactly a good way to look at it but you should definitely be flexible and open. I don’t want the crux of our argument here to be, “Say no all the time until someone really convinces you.” You definitely need to have an open mind. You need to be flexible. You need to have the ability to adjust and adapt, things we’ve always talked about before. But yeah, in general, unless it’s a convincing project, going to build towards a long term goal or going to meet some other needs that you may have monetary or otherwise, then you shouldn’t say yes.

Justin:
The worst too though is that if you’re going to say yes, then jump in full force. Don’t half-ass it, right? Being mediocre in internet marketing, in anything really, is horrible. Writing a real – being in the middle is terrible, right? You need to be all about it if you’re going to say yes. So just know that it’s going to take up a good portion of your time and you need to be completely invested in it or you shouldn’t do it at all.

All right, man. Let’s get right into the ninja marketing tips, tricks and our plans for the future.

****The AdSense Flippers Podcast continues****

Justin:
So our first tip that you should definitely check this out, it’s called The Buried Life. I’m a little slow in this. I think it’s like they have an MTV Show or something back in the States but anyway, here’s the deal. There’s a group of guys and they’ve gone together and basically decide to live out a bucket list, right? So their goal was to – they made up a list of goals. Some of them clearly outrageous and said, “We’re going to pool our cash. We’re going to start doing these goals and we’re going to start getting them done,” and one of the goals too was for every goal that they attained, they’re going to try to help someone else attain their goal, which is kind of cool, like a pay it forward type thing.

So to start off – and the truth is, they’re doing some amazing shit, man. It’s really cool.

Joe:
Yeah. I mean I’m looking at a couple of items here. Basketball with the president.

Justin:
Yeah, that’s one of their goals. They want to play basketball at the White House with the president. First they were told no. Then they finally got on and showed up there and the president walks up with his basketball. Dude, that’s ridiculous. Second thing is they threw the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game and another one is they put $125,000 on one roulette spin, one, and then doubled down on the next spin.

Joe:
And didn’t win?

Justin:
Didn’t win, man.

Joe:
Yeah.

Justin:
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars they lost, betting on black or whatever it is. Crazy stuff. I mean really, really cool. I mean these are guys that are just doing amazing stuff, right? And the cool thing is they’re helping other people do these amazing things as well. So it’s definitely something for you to check out. I think it’s TheBuriedLife.com. I forget exactly what it is but I will link to it in the show notes. You could argue that the reason they’re able to get these things done is by saying yes to things.

Joe:
Yeah, that’s what I would say. I mean, why is this a good reason to know?

Justin:
Well, think about this buddy. Like, they had to say no to a lot of other crap to make this happen. They had to say no to their jobs. They had to say no to all the people who were telling them it’s a stupid idea, right? They had to say no. They’re getting probably lots of offers right now to do this, that or the other that they have to say no to. So I mean there are a ton of nos. You see the cool yeses and the cool things they’re doing but you kind of think about all the nos that are happening there as well. Anyway, amazing stuff. You should definitely check it out.

Joe:
Interesting. I will check that out.

Justin:
Second tip is from Internet Business Mastery. These guys are the godfathers of internet marketing podcast. They’ve been around a really long time, put on a really good show. You should check it out. But if you check out their blog, they’ve also got a case study on niche sites.

So they start going through like different monetization methods but are kind of looking at it as more kind of like general thing, like the different ways you can monetize these niche sites and they’re legit guys. So it’s really interesting to see them getting into it as well and I see that they’re pretty popular posts. I will link to that but it’s definitely something you should check out.

Joe:
And did they say no to a lot of things or …

Justin:
I don’t know, man. I’m guessing they do. We could probably ask them about it but I was listening to – they were on the Foolish Adventure Podcast with Tim Conley and I was just listening to it while I was out for a walk and listening and they were talking – they ended up mentioning AdSense Flippers Podcast and they said they love the – how ridiculous it is. People will pay 300 bucks or they’re looking to pay 300 bucks for someone to create them a niche site that makes 300 bucks a month.

Joe:
Yeah.

Justin:
I thought that was pretty funny and I saw them on Twitter or whatever and I was like, “Hey, guys. Check this out.” So I looked for like five minutes on oDesk and saw like three or four of those job offerings. I will pay you $300. You prove to me you’ve made this niche site that makes $300 a month. Show me the proof after it has made it for two months then I will pay you your 300 bucks. So after this made $600 for me, I will pay you $300 for creating the site. It’s ridiculous.

Joe:
It really is.

Justin:
Who believes this crap?

Joe:
I don’t know. I mean the only thing I could think of is that these people are looking to leverage third world labor somehow because they can’t get AdSense accounts …

Justin:
Well they think they’re retarded then.

Joe:
Yeah.

Justin:
I mean that’s basically what they’re saying. We think you’re …

Joe:
Yeah, but really what they’re doing is they’re setting themselves up to be scammed.

Justin:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I will do it for you. I will give you fake screenshots. I will click on your ads to make sure that you make enough but then your AdSense account gets banned. Not my problem.

Joe:
Of course, of course, or maybe you just pay me $50. I can get this, this and this done but not do anything. I mean it’s just obviously setting themselves up because if they really believe that somebody would do that, I mean you’re just not the smartest tool in the shed.

Justin:
Joe has got brains to sell you.

Joe:
Yeah.

Justin:
Well that’s it for Episode 25 of the AdSense Flippers Podcast. Thanks for being with us. Make sure to check us out on Twitter, @AdSenseFlippers and give us a shout. Thanks and we will see you next time.

Joe:
Bye-bye now.


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Topics Discussed This Week Include:

  • iTunes Giveaway, Joe’s trip to Manila, and Justin’s new Samsung Galaxy S3
  • John The Intern’s launch of WhatTheDev.com
  • The 80/20 rule, Derek Sivers’ “Hell Yeah Or No” philosophy, and having “Yes” days
  • The true cost of saying Yes How saying No keeps you focused and can highlight integrity
  • The Buried Life and Internet Business Mastery

Mentions:

One more thing…we just started using SpeakPipe!  This service allows you to record messages to us.  Please feel free to give us any questions you have, shouts of encouragement, etc. and we’ll try to fit them into our next podcasts!  Simply click the button below to record a quick message…that’s it!





Now…over to you!  Let us know what you thought about the episode in the comments below or feel free to give us a shout on Twitter!

Discussion

  • Nate says:

    What is your stance on using domain names with brands or company names in them? I heard it is against Google TOS. Does Google ban accounts that do this? Will companies sue you?

    Thanks for all the great info

    -Nate

  • Chris says:

    Hi Justin and Joe,

    This is not related, too (sorry guys, I listened to the podcast but I’m not yet at the level where there are proposals I can say no to. I like listening to your podcasts, though, whatever the topic).

    Anyway I read in one of your posts (can’t remember which one) that you’re thinking about changing your theme. I just read a post by Ramsay of blogtyrant.com titled Why News-Style WordPress Themes Are A Bad Idea For Some Bloggers. There he talked about image sliders and other features that are present in the theme you are using. I just thought you might get some tips in that article, in case you haven’t read it yet.

    Also I think your blog will look better with a full width header, like Pat’s and most of the others, although of course it’s just my opinion. 🙂

  • Jason says:

    Not related to this podcast, which was good BTW. Small benefit of your domain name. When I want to go to facebook, I type fac, chrome fills in the rest, enter – bam muscle memory. Twitter – twit, same thing. Every time I check my adsense earnings, I type ads, chrome auto fills, press enter (damn muscle reflex). Wait! This isn’t my adsense account. Sorry for inflating your direct traffic stats.

  • Steve Wyman says:

    Hi Guys

    The $300 guys on Odesk are so Amazing.. !! And yer Jo your right they are just dumb.

    Really enjoyed that pdocast lots ground covered. I say Yes/No 🙂

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Yeah…crazy stuff on oDesk, eh Steve? Hard to believe people think that’s realistic. As Joe’s mentioned, they’re setting themselves up to be scammed, for sure.

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