Joey Kissimmee worked at Walmart for ten years. During that time, to make extra cash he went online and managed to bring in a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month whenever he needed it.
He started with eBay, ordering a CD-Rom from a poster he saw on a telephone post. Thinking he could just stick the CD into his car and listen to it, he learned after his wife told him, that no, you need a computer to play a CD-Rom. He bought a computer two months later.
After eBay Joey had a stint with MLM programs then moved on to promoting affiliate products from Clickbank.
His tactic was to learn how to do something, then create videos on YouTube to show people how he did it. YouTube back then was a lot easier to get traffic from and he used it to build an email list of other people who were like him, working a full time job but looking to make extra cash online.
During this time Joey never saw his internet income as a real business, just extra cash. Finally one day when he was at a bank depositing some checks he had made online and his salary check from Walmart, he realised that his online income was greater than his Walmart income.
Although he didn?t quit Walmart immediately, eventually he did and became a full time online marketer in 2010.
In this interview you will hear how Joey grew from a person completely computer illiterate, to a full time internet marketer.
Joey had his first child at 17 years old, and then another two children over the next 15 years. Supporting family has always been his number one priority, hence it took him a long time to have the confidence to leave his job.
Today Joey does a lot of different things. He sells software that provides services, has membership sites that teach people how to do what he does, creates iPhone games and is currently working on a WordPress theme service.
During this interview you will experience the story of Joey?s progression from no computer skills, to hacking together different ways to make money, building his personal brand and then in more recent years focusing on more sustainable, recurring income business models.
??Hi, this is Yaro Starak here. You?re about to hear an interview with Joey Kissimmee who has a really inspiring story because of where he came from before he started to make a living online. He actually had his first child at seventeen and had to obviously get out in the workforce and get a job and eventually, he ended up at Walmart and stayed there for ten years.
But, during that time, he started doing things online to make extra cash, things like eBay and then, MLM and then, he got into selling affiliate products and ClickBank and today, he does a lot of things including membership sites, selling software as a service and teaching other people how to make extra cash online. He actually left Walmart in 2010.
What?s amazing is when he first got started with his eBay business, he didn?t even have a computer. He bought a CD-ROM he saw advertised on a telephone post and he tried to play it on his car as an audio CD and obviously, it didn?t work. So, he had to go buy a computer. You can imagine the learning curve here for a guy starting as a Walmart employee to become an expert in Internet Marketing. You?re about to hear that entire story with Joey and myself.
Before you do that though, just a reminder again, I have a premium interview club called the EJ Insider which are more interviews like this but, in a specialized sequence with regular interviews, lots of bonus interviews and bonus content and really just a professional premium interview club if you?re interested in getting more interviews on a regular basis to stay motivated, to get the Insider techniques and so on.
So, if you want to join my insider club, it?s called the EJ Insider and you can go to EJInsider.com/interviews and find out everything about the program there.
Now, here?s the interview with Joey.
YARO: Hello, this is Yaro Starak from the Entrepreneur?s Journey podcast. Today, I have a special guest on the line. His name is Joey Kissimmee. As I have just been discussing with Joey, we were trying to come up with a claim to fame to convince you to listen to this interview all the way from start to the finish because Joey does a lot of different things. But, I think possibly, and Joey, I?ll give you a turn to answer this question as well, but I think one of the best ways to actually answer this is that you were a Walmart employee for a long time.
Then, you went online, I?ve read your About Page, so you went online and just to make some extra money so you did need multiple jobs. And then, that extra online income started to grow to the point that it was a full time income and then, you were able to leave full time employment and do your online thing completely.
What were going to do in this interview is I like to breakdown that whole process and of course, what it is you did to make that initial bunch of money and then, we can go through all the other things you?ve done, Joey because as we talked about you do launches. You?re a great email list builder. You build membership sites and you?ve helped a lot of other people as you also make money online as well.
Is that a good summary of who you are, Joey?
JOEY: Yes, I guess, it?s a good one [laughs]. I could break it down real quick in a minute. So, if you want I will get people know who I am, what I do, and what I did before. If you?re cool with that?
YARO: Do your minute version so that, we can end the interview. And, you?re good to go.
JOEY: Yes, right [Laughs]
Well, okay so, pretty much, like Mr. Yaro said, I am Joey Kissimmee. First and foremost, I?m a father and a husband which is very, very important to me because I am like a huge family man. I?m a firm and a strong believer in family first.
I have three kids ? an eighteen-year-old, thirteen-year-old, both girls and a three-year-old boy. My wife and I have been together for over 21 years. In fact, we just celebrated our 21st year together last month.
YARO: Congratulations!
JOEY: Thank you. I live in Central Florida where I have been for the last twenty three years and I am originally from Chicago, Illinois where I was born and raised.
I run a blog at IncomePress.com where I basically just talk about the fundamentals of making a living online, not necessarily a gazillion dollars but, a nice full time income that you can live off of. My blog is mainly like a resource type of blog than anything but, I basically teach people how to make the money first.
It?s important that they?d learn how to make money first and then, learn how to make that money consistently. That?s two totally different things ? making the money and making it consistently.
I?m also a software developer, an iPhone app developer and I just recently started a new online business venture which is WordPress blogdesigner/developer.
Before that, I worked at Walmart for nearly ten years. While working there, I was able to work on my online business which later on allowed me to quit my job or retire from work which was on February 5, 2010. That?s pretty much a short version of who I am, what I do and what I did before.
YARO: All right. I know, like me, I?m sure everyone listening to this is curious on the specifics of the making money part of this journey. But, let?s set the story in motion first. So, you said to me before that you have been working since you were twelve years old. What were you doing at twelve?
JOEY: Well, at twelve, I remember I wanted to go to, well before it was WWF, but I wanted to go to WWE event, a wrestling event and I really was crying about it. My dad was like, ?Go get a damn job!?
I said, ?Okay, well go get me one.?
So, he got me a job with working with one of his friends. He owned a restaurant. I was a dishwasher, like I don?t know. I can?t even remember, like $1.50 an hour. I don?t know. All I know is like at the end of the week, he gave me $25. That?s it for washing dishes.
YARO: Was that enough to get you a ticket?
JOEY: No, it wasn?t. But, it was enough to get me toys [laughs], my own toys that I wanted like the Transformers and G.I. Joes stuff that my dad couldn?t get me.
YARO: Nice man, those are my favorites, too. Okay, you were a dishwasher to begin with. As you went through being a teenager in high school and all these, was there anything entrepreneurial in your interest? Or, were you always working? ?
JOEY: No because my dad was really old school, my dad. He?s a strong believer in working for what you got and what you want. ?Forever in a day, he?s just been a blue collar worker, hard worker and that?s the way he taught us. By the time I started screwing around, he?s like, ?Okay, you don?t want to go to school. You don?t want to do that, okay drop out.?
I actually dropped out at fifteen and started working full time. That?s what I did because that?s what I was taught.
Then, at seventeen, we had our first kid. My wife and I then my girlfriend and we had a baby girl which just turned 18. She?s graduating now. God bless her.
I just went straight to work and honestly, I didn?t even know what the hell ?entrepreneur? meant. All I know is that I had my first taste of working a two-job thing, like working two jobs for my first time ever and I had sort of a breakdown.
From then on, when my daughter was two years old, that?s when that happened and I just made a promise to myself that I was never ever going to work two jobs again.
I always had the hustle going since I?m very jack-of-all trades I think you could say. I could do pretty much everything with my hands, work on cards, construction, anything. So, I always did that as a job.
I held one job and then, on the side, I would like either tint windows, lower cars. They had this thing here when I was a kid when they first started doing low riders. I would go around with my little thing and just cut spring from the cars and lower them and tint windows, install stereos.
I think that?s when really when the entrepreneurial thing started, when I started making my own money on the side just to keep from getting myself from working two jobs even though I didn?t know what the hell entrepreneurial was or what it was doing your own business because my dad always worked for someone else.
YARO: Right, I guess, when you were doing car modifications, that sort of like having your own business. In a way, you can see how that might work.
JOEY: Yes.
YARO: So, at seventeen, having a child, I?m thinking one of the most important pressures was just the sense of responsibility. I can see where your family values come from besides your own parents but, also needing to grow up at seventeen, I?m guessing would have been a bit of pressure.
JOEY: Yes. Right then and there, my dad was like, as soon as they found out, they were like, well, you got to go out and get a job, a real job and go out and get an apartment which was really hard for me. That was the first time I was out on my own. Everything was new to me. Family, wife, a kid? I was just horrible at it. I was the worst at everything. All I was worried about was just making money to cover the bills. At the end, I just had a nervous breakdown. I just said, ?Screw this, screw you, boss, this.?
We quit. We lost our apartment. We went back home and we lived there until my wife was pregnant and all that stuff. Then, from there, that?s when I said, ?I got to do something,? and little by little, I went back to work. I got a job. I just made sure that I always had enough money or had a way to make money without working two or three jobs.
I later found out that people did because I didn?t know that people did them. My father always had one job and his hustle was mechanics. He was a very good mechanic. In his garage, he always had a card there from someone, a friend or friends of a friend, always someone. So, he always had extra money like that.
I guess, that?s where I learned it from. I never saw my dad had two jobs or more than that, more than one job. So, when I started getting real jobs and I saw people had two, three, or four jobs, that scared the hell out of me. I?m like, what kind of life is this? Even now, I have my brother. He works three jobs and he has like five kids. No life. I?m like, ?What the hell.?
YARO: So, when did the Internet enter this because it doesn?t sound like it?s anywhere near you at this stage.
JOEY: No, yes. The Internet was, honestly, through my struggles with having a job, a good consistent job longer than I can [unclear], I found Walmart in 2000 and that was the first or the last job I ever held and the last job I ever worked for anyone. Three months in, I think it was two months in, I was fairly new at the job.
All I know is I was going to work one day and that red light, on the right side corner of the street, there was a picket sign that says, ?Call here to learn how to make money on eBay.?
I knew what eBay was because of auto commercials. I knew it was an auction site. That?s when I called. It turned out to be I had to buy this damn CD or something for $10. It was only $10.
When I got it on my house, they sent it to me, this makes me sound like an idiot but, I popped it in in my car radio. I popped it in and it didn?t work. I asked my wife who is like twenty times, or a hundred times smarter than me. I said, ?Baby, this damn thing won?t work.?
She?s like, ?You?re stupid. This is a CD ROM!?
?What the hell is a CD ROM??
It took another two or three months to convince her to buy me a computer and that?s really where I got it. My first taste of the thing is with eBay. It was just a stupid CD telling you, go to yard sales and flea markets and newspapers. Find out moving sales. Buy their junk and sell it. And, it worked! Yes, it did. It worked.
I wasn?t making a gazillion dollars but, I guess, the thing is me not knowing about? business or nothing, I just was comfortable with making enough.
If I made like $400 a month, I was cool with that and I did not do anything else until that money run out then, I would go out there and do some more stuff to get that.
If I knew about business then, I would scale it or? You know how you do business. You find something and scale it to like whatever but, it worked. It kept me from doing multiple jobs.
YARO: Okay so, you have a computer and you?re doing some eBay. When did you do more than that because I?m assuming you working Walmart, raising kids, you must be getting your second child soon?
2000 when you started at Walmart to when you quit, when did you quit? Was it 2008, you said?
JOEY: No, 2010.
YARO: That?s ten years.
JOEY: Yes.
YARO: What were you doing for ten years?
JOEY: Well, I was doing all kinds of stuff, the eBay thing was always there until about 2005 and then, like the Poker boom came and I was already playing Poker so, I started building and selling Poker tables and I was part of, until this day, I?m like one of the most well-known and respectable Poker table builders on these forums.
You got all these forums on how to, DIY forums. That?s really how I started selling online and then, somewhere along the line, I honestly cannot remember, it was probably around 2007 or something or six when I somehow got an email. I know now what it is but, back then, somehow I got an email about this business opportunity to make money.
It was an MLM thing. That?s really the first ?Internet thing? like we know Internet Marketing. It wasn?t really Internet Marketing. They were teaching me how to do it offline. I was like, I know it could be done online because I have been doing stuff online to sell so, why can?t I sell this down line stuff online and I started doing that.
I think that?s really when I started learning about list building and branding and all that stuff and I ran into a guy who was like really popular and big on that, in that MLM stuff, got me to join his program and then, he became my mentor. He lived like an hour away from here in Tampa, where I live at and so, I started going there every week.
From him, I really learned everything about, pretty much what I do now about list building and building relationship with them and all that stuff. That?s really where it started.
YARO: Can you give us an example of when you first put this knowledge into practice because it?s well and good to say, ?I learnt about having a list and I learnt about all that.? But, what did you actually do to apply it?
JOEY: Okay, here?s the thing. I don?t know if you?ve ever been in an MLM but, MLM usually had these systems and programs where you could tell people to go to their website and sign up.
Here?s what happens, you?re building a list in their platform. You can?t take that away. You really can?t email them or send them messages. I learned how to drive traffic to that page by my mentor, tell me all these different weird things about the Craigslist, go to Google, all these different places and YouTube. YouTube market, that?s really where I was driving most of my traffic with YouTube, making videos about this program, people go there.
When I got to my mentor, then, now a great friend of mine, he taught me about why I should be building a list for myself instead of for them. He showed me the difference and that?s when I learned about Aweber and then, how to create my own website.
I learned how to do all that. Literally, I learned how to build websites and everything from YouTube because even my mentor didn?t know how to do it. He paid people to do it.
But, I didn?t have money like that to pay people. So, I learned from YouTube on how to build an opt-in page and to build a list and then, from there, how to communicate with that list in order for them to join my programs. That?s really when I started doing all that stuff and learning how to build a list and communicate with them and all that stuff.
YARO:? You have to tell me how you did life at this stage, Joey because I can?t imagine a guy who didn?t know what a CD ROM was for has then gone on to use YouTube to teach himself how to set a website up. You were still working at Walmart full time, right? You?re doing an 8-hour a day. So, did you just come home at night and stare and watch a YouTube video, here?s how to do FTP, and upload a file to the server and then, do all the HTML code and all that. Was that your life at that point?
JOEY: Yes, literally yes.
I had by 2004 I kind of positioned myself at Walmart to where I had a steady schedule and everything. I was working from Monday to Friday and weekends off and I was working from 5AM in the morning to 2PM.
It gave me a chance to work every afternoon to put my time into this thing. To be honest, I should have said this before, to me, it wasn?t a business. To me, it was just another way to make extra money. That?s it. It was another way to keep me from having two or three jobs.
I live in Florida. There are beaches all over the place and all kinds of ways to have fun. It?s a pain when you?re working and you don?t have a lot of money. It?s a real pain to go to the beach.
A lot of people, they see it on TV, ?Wow, it?s all pretty.? But, let me tell you. It?s exhausting! It?s not as all that? You go to the beach in the morning, you fight traffic then, you got to fight the traffic there to get a good spot. You?re in the sun all day, playing with your kids, all that stuff.
By the end of the day, we?re all starving because we didn?t have enough money. We?ve been just eating chips, potato chips and Doritos and stuff. So, we?re hungry. We?re all sticky. We?re all dirty with sand. We?re all real just miserably, just hot and sunburned.
Then, we got to go home, drive 2-3 hours. Like that. All uncomfortable in a small little car, right? To me, that money was extra money. When I do go out there to the beaches with my wife and kids, we stay there for the weekend. We leave Friday. Stay at a nice hotel then, come back Sunday when we?re all rested, showered up and everything.
Until then, that?s all it was to me.
YARO: You?re just thinking you?re going to work at Walmart, make a living and then, this is the fun play money you get online. That was like your life.
JOEY: Yes, it was play money, exactly.
See, here?s where I really learned how to make money whenever I wanted to. Let?s say Spring break was coming up. My wife wanted to go to the beach. Well, we?d figure out how much we needed. We needed about $1000 for the hotels and all that crap, food and all that sh*t, right? So, I would literally go there, email my list and tell them, ?Hey, join my program. I got a special going. Here?s this, here?s that. I?ll teach you how I?m driving traffic.?
I was really known for driving traffic with Craigslist then so, I would tell people, ?Hey, I?ll give free mentorship for a month if you join my program.? Instantly, I?d get my money that I needed for that. And then, I won?t do anything else.
I think that was the problem with me why my success didn?t come a lot sooner or my retirement from work because all I needed was $2000. I made it and then, that?s it. Then, when I needed to go out for another vacation, I would go out there again and do the same thing.
YARO:? The thing that sounds, and maybe people are thinking this still, you have an ability to do something that had value online. In this case, you had Craigslist and you learned how to get traffic from that which is something other people wanted to know.
It sounds like you did the same thing with YouTube when you learned how to use YouTube to get traffic and you were sending it to your own sites and eventually, you built your own sites and you start building your own newsletter and so on.
That learning process, Joey, was that sort of just you sitting? You had your mentor besides that, just at 2:00 in the afternoon, after you finished work, just sitting there and playing with things and seeing what worked. Obviously, you had experienced from the pool tables and you were using forums to get clients there.
You have to have something of value to give people.
JOEY: Yes, well the value I had at that time was the way I was driving traffic. As long as you had something to offer for them to give you money then, you can make money. It still is to this day.
I would literally just whip up a video in my screen capture and just say, ?Hey, I drove traffic to this website using YouTube this one video. Here?s how much I made. Come join my program and I?ll show you.?
But, let me tell you. I hate to say this but, I was more taken? how should I say this? I was taken advantage of at that time by my mentor then because he?d seen a golden ticket in me. Basically, I was the guy that was filling up the rooms and the webinars and all that stuff and he would make all the money and I would just get a little small chunk.
But, me not knowing any better, that was good enough for me.
YARO: How were you filling rooms? What were you doing because traffic is not easy to get normally, what were you doing?
JOEY: Yes, well because he would use me. By then, I already had a name for myself in that world there? People were like, ?Oh my God, Joey Kissimmee is going to be here live in his webinar.?
That?s how he would jam pack the room and he was really good at driving traffic. He didn?t really teach me all that stuff. He wanted to keep me for himself. And then, when I went out there on my own, which was partly around 2008, I was literally left alone like he did not help me at all.
Basically, to answer your question like how did I get good at all these to the way it is now is literally by trial and error. My learning curve was so long and so huge because I did it all on my own afterwards. Then, somewhere on 2009, that?s really when I started taking it a little bit more serious because by then, I was already making a pretty good money consistently online.
I left the MLM world to go into the affiliate marketing product creation world, the ClickBank world. It was new to me but then, on my way from work one day going to the bank, I was going to deposit my work check from Walmart. We got paid every 2 weeks. I think I was making like $400 or $500 every two weeks and also, I had some other Internet checks, like five or six of them.
Right there, as I?m filling out the form, the deposit form, I noticed that like my Internet checks were like three, four, or five times more than that one little check from Walmart that I had to work two weeks for.
One of the checks was nearly double and that check came from two promotional things, two emails. That?s when I really said, ?You know what? This sh*t really works. I?m kind of tired of doing it the old way that I was taught. I need to change the way I?m doing things. I need to create my own brand, my own products and I need to take a little more serious.?
That?s when I really went all out, in 2009 up until 2010.
YARO: Before you [unclear] I would like to explore becoming Joey Kissimmee, his own brand in teaching. But, I?m still missing a knowledge gap here.
You had these checks that were more than your salary from Walmart and it sounds like one of them was double your Walmart salary. You just sent some emails and sold something.
Can you break down? like ClickBank?
JOEY: How I was making it?
YARO: Did you just go to ClickBank, pick a product and how did you get the traffic to sell it as an affiliate or what? happened?
JOEY: Excellent question. I see where you?re getting at.
There was this program I was a part of. I?m not going to name the name. Anyway, they don?t even exist but, it was what?s called a Two-Up program where you pass up the first sales and then, you get the next two. It?s called a two-up program, right?
That program had a really cool system and that?s really I think where I started to think about Aweber, how to market Aweber, how to do affiliate marketing from that program.
That program in the back office, they had like a series of newsletters , like 20 or 30 or 40 pre-scripted newsletters. All you had to do was upload it to the Aweber, your Aweber and it?s already written.
Then, certain fields will be pre-populated with your name and your website and your brand.
That newsletter was being sent out on, I don?t know. I can?t even remember, weekly basis or every other day or three days, whatever. It was just an autoresponder.
It was a newsletter that talked about different topics. One newsletter may talk about building a list with Aweber. Another one may talk about hosting. Another one may talk about blogging. Another one may be talking about whatever.
So, all I had to do was create an affiliate account with Aweber, with Blue Host, or Blue Host wasn?t around that time but, HostGator. What else was out there with some products that were on Click Bank. I had to become a ClickBank affiliate to get that code, and all I had to do was put that code there.
Those checks were coming from that. I would drive traffic to the website.
YARO: How did you do that?
JOEY: Through YouTube, that?s really how I did it. Through YouTube.
YARO: People put YouTube videos up all day and they don?t get real traffic from? What were you doing differently with YouTube back then?
JOEY: Well, the thing is, back then it was a lot easier than it is now. So, basically, back then, when you had an MLM program or whatever, you can literally put a video up.
Like me, for example, I would make a video and say, ?Hey, I just joined this program and within a week or whatever, within a month, I got this check. Here?s the check, man and I use videos like this. I want to teach you how to do that. Go to my website, joeykissimmee.com and you?ll see what I?m doing.?
That?s it. They go there and the system is already done for you. It?s like a replicated system. I don?t know if you know what that is. You know what a replicated system is?
YARO: I think I can infer from what the title is.
JOEY: A ?replicated system? means that I have a sales funnel, an opt-in page and a series of sales pages afterwards. We?re selling you on the concept, usually a three or four page. There?s an About Me page, a Testimonials page, an Approve page and then, a signup page. That?s usually how it works.
The front page is the Opt In. What makes it a replicated system is that you sign up under me then, you?re able to use that same replicated system. All you have to do is just insert your name in a few places, and your phone number and your email and that?s it. Buy a domain for you, get that link that says program, whatever programitis.com/username. That?ll be your replicated system and then, whatever sales that go through there, you get the credit for.
YARO: That sounds similar to MLM, kind of.
JOEY: Yes, sort of but, exactly, MLM are using that right now, a matter of fact because of the two-up systems. Two-up systems really revolutionize the way everything works, the way things work now. So, I have a replicated system right now, not for that but, for people to be able to use to generate leads, not to make sales for me or nothing, no program. It?s just to generate leads.
But, literally like with YouTube, the thing is, I have no idea how people were searching for it. All I know that the videos people were searching it like crazy. Remember, back then, I did not understand about analytics, about search engines, about keywords, I didn?t even know about that. I didn?t even know I was doing any keyword thing or SEO. I didn?t even know what SEO was.
All I know is from what I learned is to go out there, make a video, branding you that you can teach them how to do that. They go to your website and then, from there, boom! Once they sign up, you left the autoresponder to do the work and make the sale.
Literally, that?s how all the traffic I was getting was from that and then, when I started doing blogging which wasn?t really blogging. It was just the way to promote that program. Somehow, I got really good at SEO. I really got good at it. Not like doing keyword stuff or whatever. It?s just, I had this one way that I would use to get my websites on my pages ranked.
We could talk about that if you want. It doesn?t work anymore but, basically, that?s how I was getting my websites ranked and I would get more traffic from there.
YARO: I just want to get my head around. A lot of people say they made this money during the early days and maybe the messages don?t work anymore. But, it still helps because it sounds to me like the way you built your initial skill set was actually, maybe the MLM days and perhaps before that with selling pool tables online. It?s like?
JOEY: Poker tables.
YARO: Poker tables, sorry. It sounds like you got good at, sort of hustling going to Craigslist and putting an ad up and then, going to YouTube and talking about the success you had.
Once you built these little pieces of success, you were able to then go and create new video saying, ?Listen, I just got a thousand new people to my newsletter. Watch this video and I?ll show you how.?
JOEY: Exactly. It was approve-based.
YARO: Yes, you just kept doing something that worked and you?d create a video to show? It?s very feeding on itself, isn?t it?
JOEY: Yes. That?s when I got really good at branding myself and because that?s really what sells. In the MLM world, for whoever is listening to, you got like a huge audience probably bigger than anyone I know, and I?m sure there?s some MLM people but, that?s really how MLM only works.
The MLM only works if you brand yourself. That?s why I was able to make it work because I was the guy that was teaching you. You saw my face and you actually got to talk to me. Not the other way around where I?m the face and you?re just using me which is what really replicated systems do is, ?I?m the face and they?re pretty much piggy backing off of me.?
They never talk to me. They never do anything [unclear] and then, when they talk to you, it?s like you if you?re one of my downlines, you?re doing it, the same thing I teach you, well, who the hell is Yaro?
The website is only talking about Joey Kissimmee. I want to talk to Joey Kissimmee. Branding is really important with that and that?s where I really got good at. Along the way, I got good at making videos. I got good at making web pages. I got good at teaching people because right now, well, you know because you?re from back in the days but, a lot of people think webinars are new. They?re not. We were doing that way back in the days with the MLM stuff.
The only way so you would see webinars with MLM and we were doing that then. So, I got really good at talking to people and all that stuff, and building all that stuff.
I found my own way to what I?m doing now.
YARO: Which it sounds like you start to express once you? Or, it was right when you saw the checks and you made more money from that in Walmart. Is that when you decided that I should be thinking about quitting my job and changing things?
JOEY: Well, I almost quit to be honest because when I actually asked for my bank statement, I already had made in less than half a year what I made in the entire year at Walmart.
But, there?s something, I just don?t know why, I honestly cannot answer why I did not quit yet because I guess, it was fear, the insecurity or something. I had a secure job like I already knew, I already understood that online was like up and down, up and down. I would make like $2000 one day and then, the next time it would take me like two months to make it. I knew it was a real up and down type of thing, maybe, that?s why I got scared, maybe leaving a secured job that I have been with forever.
I was setting up to only work at Walmart for 20 years, to retire from Walmart in 20 years. They had a retirement plan for you that literally, when I retired at 20 years, I?d be worth like, I don?t know, six or $700,000. I was setting up for that. I was actually setting up for the million because since I was making all that money online, I was actually putting 80% the max that you could put 80% of my income on Walmart. I was putting into that retirement plan. I was setting up for the million.
YARO: Is that retirement plan still sitting for you? Can you access that or??
JOEY: ?I took it all out [laughs].
YARO: Okay [laughs].
JOEY: I took it all out. It ain?t even that much because I retired at the nine-year mark which whatever it was, I think it was like, I can?t remember ?really to be honest. It went away a lot faster than I got it, I?ll tell you that [laughs].
YARO: [Laughs].
JOEY: But yes.
YARO: All right well, you didn?t quit your job. This was in 2008 but, you did quit in 2010. You just sort of kept doing the same thing for those two years?
JOEY: No, actually, when I started getting that check, right? Or, when I finally realized that this was serious and I needed to take it a lot serious and then, I was working towards to the day I would quit in Walmart that I would be able to quit, because by then, I thought that you needed like a million dollars to be able to quit. So, that?s what I was trying to do. They worked out that way.
But, my mentor at that time, the way he taught people and the way he taught me to do it is just to be on webinars all day long, literally for like seven days a week and just be there morning, noon, evening, midnight because this is how you ride his business so, that?s how I was running it.
I got really burnt out with that and my good buddy from London, he got into the affiliate marketing world and all that stuff, product creation, product launches, and that?s when I got into that and said, ?You know what, I like that better because now instead of me chasing people, now the people chase me.?
What I do now, I don?t chase anyone. People chase me. It sounds kind of douche and mean but, what I mean by people chasing me is that people, when they find me, they already know what they want. They already know that they?re looking to learn how to make money.
They already come to me and they find me already knowing that they want to learn how to create an opt-in page or maybe one of my products. They?re already looking for a software that will create their custom cover images for their timeline. So, when they get there, they already know that that?s what they are going to buy.
I am not chasing them and saying, ?Hey, I got a cool software.? You know what I mean?
YARO: How are they finding you, though?
JOEY: Now? Well, now I?m pretty good at doing marketing and all that stuff, a lot of SEO type stuff. I hate to say just SEO because it seems like I? I don?t do any type of SEO stringing or whatever like they say out there.
What I mean by that, well we could get into that conversation later. We?re kind of jumping.
Let me tell you how I got into this here, okay?
When I got into affiliate marketing, when I?m writing early 2009 and I got into, ?Okay this is what I want to do. I want to create my own products. I want to do a product launch.?
Well, I used the old list that I had to make some more money. I created this really quick product on how to market from YouTube and all that stuff and I sold it to them. I made, I don?t know, like three or $4000.
That money was used, me and my buddy from London, we?re putting half to buy Frank Kern?s Mass Control Course. That?s really like when my whole life and my whole business model and that?s when I really learn what business is. That?s when everything changed for me because then, I learned even more like the real list building strategies and really all the ways that you could learn how to do that and that?s what I did.
I started doing that and created my own products and did product launches. The first three [bond?] because my list did not understand what that was, that old list was only for, all I knew was MLM.
So then, by 2010, I started getting really good because I started building a new database, new leads and all that stuff.
YARO: How did you do that?
JOEY: Well, I started using YouTube at the beginning. What I did was and this was a funny story because this almost happened by accident because actually, my buddy in London, this was Johnny. His name is Johnny, for all those guys, probably know him Johnny G.
Johnny and a group of us, right, they were Internet Marketing buddies from all over the world and I was really good at creating this little short tutorials.
Let?s use this example. Since I don?t create web forms often, right? What I used to do is create a tutorial for me, only for me and I would whip up the screen capture. All right Joey, this is how I did this, sort of like a note for myself, right?
I had a whole bunch of these. When my buddies like Johnny and all these other guys would ask me, ?Joey, how did you put that web form there??
?Well, here?s the video. Here?s how I did it.? I really can?t remember. I did it about three months ago. Here?s the video.
They actually got me to, they said, ?Bro, you need to put this on YouTube, man. You could get traffic from this.?
I already knew you could get traffic by doing those self-promotional proof videos, right? So, I started doing that. I put those videos on there. It?s now known as a ?Super Quick Tutorials? but, I started putting those. From there, people found me and my blog, which back then was joeykissimmee.com. That?s how I started building a new list because people found those tutorials.
Until this day, those tutorials are going like crazy. That?s how I use YouTube right now. Then, I started learning a little bit about swapping, the early days of ?Ad Swaps.? It?s now known as Ad Swaps. Back then, they used to call it List Swappers.
YARO: You promote.
JOEY: Well yes. Where I would go to you, ?Hey Yaro, I got this offer. Let?s just swap. I?ve got a list. I?ve got like a thousand leads and just mail out my stuff to your guys and I?ll mail it to my guys,? or my guys to your stuff.
YARO: I?ll promote yours, you promote mine and we?ll both go well.
JOEY: Yes, that type of stuff. That?s how I was building my early years, early stuff.
YARO: What were you positioning yourself as, Joey? Was it sort of just making money online but, did you have an angle like I?m going to teach you how to build a list or??
JOEY: Yes, my angle was that and I tell people, ?Listen, I work at Walmart part-time but, I am able to make a full time job online.? Basically, I positioned myself as the guy who worked but knew how to make extra money.
A lot of the people that comes to me are blue-collar people, people who work and just wants to make a little bit of extra money. That?s how I positioned myself.
I think that?s, a matter of fact, I believe, I know that was my biggest and strongest selling point then is because I?m this blue collar guy who works at Walmart but, I?m still able to make money online and then, I could show you how to do it.
So, when they came to my joeykissimmee.com website, then it was more of an opt-in page than a blog, I had this?I can?t remember the bribe by head. I think it was the bribe of how I made? I can?t even remember the bribe. It was some stupid bribe for a video or something.
They got in there and I would be building a list and then, through there, I would market other affiliate market. When other people would do launches, I would be part of that launch thing. That?s how I was making a lot of money up until 2010.
YARO: Okay so, you basically started a list that wasn?t about MLM. It was about making money and you kind of went with the angle of, ?I?m a blue collar guy making some extra cash. If you?re a blue collar person, you can do what I do as well.?
I?m assuming you were just teaching them the basics of setting up a page with an opt in form with a list and then, give people this stuff on the list and then, promote these products from ClickBank. That was the sort of general [unclear].
JOEY: Real basic, real basic. What I did was we created a self-replicated system which we basically stole the concept from the MLM people that they were doing and we basically created our own replicated system but, it wasn?t branded towards us.
It was just a, if I could define that right now, it?s for free right there on my blog.
YARO: It sounds like PLR, that?s what it?s like ? private labor rights content.
JOEY: No, it?s not.
YARO: It?s not?
JOEY: No because we were selling other people?s stuff.
YARO: Okay.
JOEY: Yes, we were selling like in ClickBank, at one point, everybody was launching like every week or every other day. I would build a list and since it was all about making money online, it was an easy sale because of the fact that I didn?t have to? I was into recruiting. These people came to me, they found me because they want to learn how to make money. Now, they?re on my list.
Any offer that had to do with making money, I could easily just send it to them. It?s a ClickBank affiliate offer, right? So, I get a commission. If they buy I get a commission.
I was literally making like thousands a day, man just by doing it. That?s it.
YARO: Those days must be gone, Joey right? Because there?s just too much stuff.
JOEY: Long gone. I can?t send out an email and do that anymore. Long gone.
YARO: So, take us through to what you are doing today.
JOEY: Okay, well then in, basically, in 2010, that?s when I changed everything and really started making more of a sustainable business. I quit my job. It was really scary and basically, I had to make all that money.
So, what I was doing then to make money wasn?t sustainable because I literally got sick for a month. I went to San Diego and just got crazy sick and I was in the hospital and stuff.
When I was making like $20,000 a month, that month that I did not mail out, that I did do nothing, literally, it went down to like $3000 that month. It was really scary. That?s when I started to, right, I need to do something here, make it more sustainable, make it more of a recurrent type of thing, make it more where it?s always generating.
So, I created a membership site which is still full of people right now and I started creating more, I changed my whole business model to be more of a, like I said, sustainable business and a business that I don?t have to pretty much do anything with, like I set it up once and that?s it. It just makes money. That?s why I?m into a lot of software creation, iPhone game creations and now, WordPress designing and developing.
I do a lot of service-based products which is what I do. There?s three ways to make money online and we want this to like make one product, another one is through membership, subscription-based where you?re making money continuously every month and another one is service-based where you?re creating a software or service of some kind.
I found obviously, throughout this whole interview you realize like I?ve done a lot of crap, right. I?ve found that this is the best model for me and for anyone is service- based because you really don?t have to spend a lot of time on that business. It?s more of a passive type of business. Not that it?s 100% faster but, literally like I have a business right now where I go in there like twice or three times a month and that?s it.
That?s just to make sure everything is working right, you know?
YARO: What exactly, how does that work, Joey because I?m sure someone is thinking, what do you mean? You sell games? You?re not a programmer. Or, you do WordPress templates but, you?re not a graphic designer.
How do these things all work? Tell us about the first one you made?
JOEY: Well, it started in 2010, like I said, when I decided to change my business model from product launch because man, product launches, to be product launch dependent sucks because you?re literally living like check to check, right?
I created this replicated system for opt in pages. You basically just go in there. Once you buy, you get to edit whatever, download the skin, you upload it to your hosting and you got an opt in page of how exactly you want. These are opt in pages that work for me so, these are proven opt in pages.
That was the first taste of really like something that?s evergreen because literally people were looking for this, right.
YARO: Evergreen because you kept releasing more pages like every month, you got a new design, or? ?
JOEY: The difference between evergreen and a one-off thing is one, you do a product launch. You sell the product. You close it down and that?s it. Evergreen is something that people could? It?s always on sale.
If you go to Walmart, there?s always stuff there, right? The same product. The same hand soap, hair solution that you buy. That?s what evergreen is.
YARO: But, you need the traffic then to keep the sales coming through because you always need your buyers. So, where were the buyers coming from?
JOEY: Exactly. Yes, well the thing is that?s the beauty of it that I would create this products based on what people were looking for and were having difficulty with or solutions they?re asking even if there?s something out there on it.
Like for example, right now, people are always looking for a landing page generator. Until this day, mine is like up there like the number one or number two on Google. I get crazy leads from that.
That?s how I was finding that.
YARO: What?s the name of that?
JOEY: The landing page generator?
YARO: Yes.
JOEY: Oh, it?s long. I give it away for free. If you Google ?free landing page generator,? you?ll see it there. It?s like incomepress.com/lpg, I think that?s the short one that I put on my YouTube.
It?s free now but, I used to sell that. I sold one free version and then, to get the other five templates, I had like a little button in there that I would write.
That?s really like no traffic that I drove personally. It was all organic traffic. Then, since then, I really said, ?You know what? This is something here that I want to build something on.? From there, that?s how exactly I done it and until now, I got a good format for finding these things.
YARO: Okay, so what?s the current one that you have member [unclear].
JOEY: TimelineSlicerPro.com.
YARO: What does that do? It sounds like a Facebook tool.
JOEY: It is. It?s basically a tool, a web-based software that you can create custom cover images for. That?s it. That?s all it basically is.
YARO: How did you come up with this? Who made it? You?re not a one-man show anymore are you?
JOEY: No [laughs], well here?s the thing, right? There?s a form in there that I use right now. In fact, that?s how I used it with my website or the new business venture that I?m on. That?s the beauty about online. You can just create something for a minimal cost and see if it works. If it works, fine. If not, you know what I mean?
That?s the beauty of it. If you start it? Anyways, I got it down to a science pretty much of exactly how I find products to create like the Timeline Slicer Pro, okay?
I?ll take you to that one, for example. There?s two ways that I personally do right now to find an audience, a market, and a market that wants to buy. Now, I?m pretty sure you?ve heard this before and it is clich?, ?Find a hungry market that has a passion and has a pain and a struggle and all that crap,? right? You?ve heard that, right?
YARO: Yes, all that crap. Yes, Joey.
JOEY: It is the myth buster. All that stuff is and you can bleep this up, but all that stuff is bullsh*t. You do not need a market that?s painfully hurting, that?s struggling, that?s just in pain and has a passion. You don?t need none of that, you don?t and that?s just a real thing. I?m being honest here, all right.
All you need is to have a market that has a problem with either an existing product out there that you can model out there and create something similar or has a question of, ?Is there a product available on this??
That?s all you need, right. That?s it. People who are in pain and struggling, those guys really don?t have money. The people who are asking if there?s a product out there already like this or, ?Damn, this product sucks. I wish it had these other features.? They got money because they?re basically telling you if it?s out there, they?re going to buy it.
Here?s what I do, two ways.
Number one is gather information. The way I literally do it is I go to, well, I don?t do it. I pay my outsourcers to do it but, you could do this. You go out there and you go into forums, literally, okay.
That?s how I created the Timeline Slicer. Remember the timeline first started when it was just fan pages and Facebook was rolling this out, remember that? People were bitching about it. They were so pissed off. They?re like, ?Why are they doing this? Why? What am I going to do? I don?t understand it. This is huge!?
Because the average person doesn?t know, they don?t have the capabilities to add such a huge image there. If they have an image that big, they wouldn?t know how to set it right, how to make it look good there.
So, there was tons of forums just people complaining about that. And, also they were asking questions, ?Is there a tool out there like this?? There was. There was like maybe two or three.
Now, there?s a lot like a gazillion. But, I?d be honest with you. Mine is the best because what I did was I buy those people recommend and those other products and then, I went in and saw their reviews that they suck, that these feature sucks, that this is too slow that all these, here?s what I did.
I created my Timeline [unclear] version with all the features that they wanted. I made it a lot cleaner, a lot faster and I made it available for those guys.
So, literally, I got my guys to go in there and say, ?Hey,? the same way that they were doing it, ?Hey I found this here.? I got my guys to go in there and say the same thing, ?Hey, here?s another one. I just found this.?
That?s how I created that product. Actually, here?s another tip to do this right, when you create a service, this is why I love services, I got this from this model from my iPhone games, create two versions, a free one and a paid version or pro version where you could charge.
What I did when I first created it, I created a free version. That?s what I was giving away to all these people to the forums then, from there, from word of mouth, the best marketing method ever in the entire world which goes back to before Christ days, word of mouth. Man, that was just crazy.
I started building a crazy list from there before you know it, they actually told me what they wanted from that feature that I had, from that version. So, literally, those people, I asked them what they wanted. They created the Pro Version.
A month and a half to months later, I had a list of about 900 people. I sold it. Sold about 600 plus units in one day when I launched the Pro version with the features that they asked for. They literally paid for that or, they literally created that product for me. They told me exactly what they wanted, exactly what they were willing to do.
YARO: You obviously have a developer on somewhere to create the product.
JOEY: Yes, I did.
YARO: How big is your team right now, Joey?
JOEY: I have teams in the Philippines, here. I have two full-time staff for the iPhone developing company, iPhone games. One is in the Philippines, one is here. Then, I have another developer which lives up in Maine and he basically does the soft programming like the WordPress developers and all that stuff.
And then, I have another guy there that go on and off that for the bigger stuff like the Timeline Slicer Pro which is that?s completely custom, the entire thing is custom and when I need something like that, I go to him.
But, I know people, I know the next question you?re going to ask me.? A lot of people don?t have that luxury, right. It didn?t happen that way because it took me years to find these guys.
The place that I go to and I still go to for certain jobs if my guys are busy, is oDesk and Freelancer. If I have a hard time going on in oDesk, I go to Freelancer.
I get people there on what I need and I hire them out of there. That?s how I did through a lot of programmers, when you find a good one, keep them.
YARO: I think I can probably spend the next hour going through the iPhone game business, the WordPress theme template business but, it sounds to me the way you build your businesses out and you just sort of built up over time is you spend some time in forums and learning about people?s needs and then, you?ve gone and said, ?Let?s build something subscription based behind that and maybe give it away for free and then, have a Pro version.?
I?m assuming there?s been some successes and things that haven?t gone as well but, you?ve got a few now that just keeps selling and that?s it. Is that pretty much how it works?
JOEY: Yes, that?s pretty much how it works. I find the market like how I?m running my business right now, I find a market that just has some complaints about some particular things and/or problems or asking if there?s even something available.
I usually create it for free and give it out there to test the market. Then, right from there, from the get go, I?m already asking questions. There?s usually a questionnaire there or something or say, ?Hey, email me here.? Then, from there, they actually tell me. They actually create the product for me.
Another way that I do it is through surveys. That?s how I?m building my membership site right now. The second membership site right now, to create this because they told me that. We could talk about that if you want. I got a really good way to do that.
That?s pretty much how I do it and once they tell me, I create the pro version and I release it to that current people who are using this. See, that?s the best place for people to sell stuff to and to get feedback and to gather information is the people that are already using a version of it.
You give it to them, or sell it to them. They?re cheap because they are already there and get information. That will give you another chance to really work on the back part of the coding, to make sure the system can handle more than just two people.
At the beginning of the creation process, it?s just you and the developer. That?s it. So, you?re going to make sure your system is able to handle this. So, you do a soft launch and then, get more feedback and add more features that they wanted or take features away if they don?t like it and then, you do a bigger launch and put it out there and use your customers to promote your stuff.
That?s how my Timeline Slicer is running right now. I have no real affiliates like you. The customers are the ones. Word of mouth. The first thing I teach them within there is called the low-hanging fruit method. They are the ones that [unclear], ?You want to make your money back? Here?s how you do it. Go to ClickBank. Sign up here. Get your ID and share it with your friends.?
Literally, I have over a thousand or 1500 affiliates and the average only has like two or three sales but, it?s because they go out there and share it. If they?re going to share it and want to make a few bucks off of it, they?re really pretty much pushing my stuff. Word of mouth.
YARO: So, what do you personally do now, Joey? Like what did you do today? It?s night time, Monday night for you.
JOEY: Today? I spent the entire day really with my son and my kids. Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we?re really busy. I?m really not online a lot because we got Jujitsu class. My son is only three so, I?m with him all day. I don?t turn on the thing at all. And, that?s pretty much it.
YARO: What about a working day when you?re actually working? When do you work? Is it an hour from here?
JOEY: Usually Thursdays and Fridays because Friday, my wife is here all day long and she takes the kids to Jujitsu and all that stuff so, I could lock myself down in the room in my home office. So, pretty much I turn on my computer like around 2PM.
[Laughs] Oh my God, I?m going to sound like a douchebag here but, literally, I spend most of my day with my son and that stuff. Around 2PM, I start it up and I usually get with, like right now, my main thing is the WordPress blog company that I just started for Premium themes. We?re cranking out, I?m usually like about two hours with my programmer and designer and just talking about all right, ?This is good. This is that.?
Whatever test we they had that week, we go over that. And, the next hour, we have a session with people like from the Philippines and people from here for my iPhone games.
Once that?s done, I actually check emails which is a very bad, bad thing everybody. Don?t get into doing that. That?s stupid. But, I do it anyways because I actually answer my own customer support and stuff like that.
I spend about an hour doing that and then, when all that?s done, when all the distraction is gone, when everything is done then, I actually start doing my blogging which is I usually write and make videos or whatever? I have to do for the following week.
I?m down to making to making one post now per week. I work on that post on that. Then, once that?s done, I start writing, which is not hard because if I interview you, I usually do it right then and there. I edit the video and render it and done.
All it?s waiting is for uploading. On that Friday, after I?m done with the blog post and all that stuff then, I actually go ahead and upload that to my LibSyn and then, write a real quick thing on my blog post and schedule it for release on Sundays. I?m starting to do them on Sundays.
That?s pretty much it. I really don?t do much anymore because like I said, I did not want to work like 24-7 on this online thing. I built it. It took me a while, from 2010 to really about mid-2012 where I could literally do whenever I want.
I make sure that my business does not run me. It runs around me. So, I could just crank it whenever I want. On Tuesdays is really when I get, I?m starting to get more word done now because I?m actually doing more interviews now. I have a podcast show called the Income Press podcast and last year, it was pretty much just me and the people.
This year, I?m actually branching now because I?m expanding my brand to what I?m doing now and that?s why I got you on my show. I got a whole bunch of other experts. So, I?m doing a lot more of that so, on Tuesdays usually, I spend about through four hours doing interviews. Usually, it?s just two or three and then, that?s it. I do it the next week.
YARO: All right, Joey, I think, like I said, there?s so many different things you do now that I would probably will get us lost by going through it all. I think it would be best for people to actually just go check out your site and then, follow whatever path of learning they want to follow from what you offer there.
So, what?s the best site to get an introduction to everything that we?ve been talking about here?
JOEY: The best place to find me at for everything that I do is IncomePress.com. That?s my hub. That?s my station. That?s my home. That?s my livelihood right there. I share everything and anything right there.
You can find me on Facebook from there. You can find me on my Twitter from there and you could pretty much learn about what I?m doing and what I?m up to there, I put on a lot of good stuff there.
YARO: Okay, so just any passing words, Joey because you?ve done so many different things and it sounds like you?ve reached the point though that you?ve got a business model that?s awesome, like if you only need to work from two o?clock in the afternoon on Friday, and I?m assuming you?re making some pretty good money nowadays with so many different membership sites. You said, you have 1500 people in one of them already.
There?s a long journey though to go from someone who is just starting to where you are at now. There are pages to create. There?s people to hire. There?s research to find what the needs are. Where does a person at the start, what do they do?
Given everything you know in hindsight, how would you start again now?
JOEY: Well, how I would start now, here?s before I answer that, let me just give you the best advice for starting an online business. I know the word business is really, how do you say it? Afraid? How do you say that word? Intimidating.
The word ?business? especially for a person like me who was always taught young to work for someone else never talk business, the culture of business or whatever, that is really intimidating to me.
Here?s the thing. The best word of advice for that is, and this is how I literally, I live by this, that is to, ?Listen, Learn and Implement.?
That has guided me this entire thing. Once I figured out what that is, this is what I want to do, that has guided me to success. I listened to everything that those people had to say. I lear
Source: http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/12031/joey-kissimmee/
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After 24 hours of hard work at the Disrupt NY Hackathon, Michael Kolodny, Jingen Lin and Ricardo Falletti demoed us HangoutLater, a nifty hack built on top of the Foursquare API. When you check in and a friend is close to you, it will ask you if you want to hang out later. Then, it will automatically find you a central location to meet. Kolodny and Lin already knew each other before the event. They met Falletti at the Manhattan Center. As they already knew what they wanted to work on, they started developing right away. Over the past 24 hours, the team has not slept a single minute to deliver this hack built in Python using the Django framework. They certainly needed Red Bull and coffee to keep going during the wee hours of the night. Yet, The team had a great time and will certainly take part in other hackathons. When asked whether Kolodny will hang out later with fiends that were not at the hackathon, he said that he wouldn’t use the service this afternoon. It’s time for them to celebrate, or more probably to finally rest. Stage demo coming soon.
