Young Entrepreneurs – Go Study Direct Response Marketing
by Michael Posted in Retire at 21Multi-millionaire Internet Marketer Tellman Knudson Says Study Direct Response Marketing
Mr Overcome Everything, Tellman Knudson of OvercomeEverything.com and mega successful multi-millionaire Internet Entrepreneur shares some of his tips for success in business.
Tellman and my father, Barry Dunlop recently got to spend 6 days on Necker Island with a small group of amazing entrepreneurs and Sir Richard Branson the Billionaire Founder of the Virgin Group.
Both Tellman and Barry are passionate about helping young entrepreneurs get started and succeeding in business and during a brief rest from all the kite boarding, sailing, cliff jumping and partying etc they managed to record this video along with a transcription.
Enjoy and please comment.
Michael
Transcription:
Tellman Knudson: This is Tellman Knudson with Overcome Everything, Inc.
Hey Michael, how’s it going man? So I’m 32 years old. I have a multi-million dollar Internet-based company called Overcome Everything, and it was my eighth business. I started my first business when I was 19 years old out of the dorm room at my college. It was a salsa company and I basically ran that into the ground.
I started with no money and slowly and slowly built it up, but I really wasn’t interested in studying business or marketing. The primary reason for that… Sorry about the “get your booty on the floor” song, somebody left the door open out there, we’re going to have to just rock out to it, I guess. A little retro-techno.
Barry Dunlop: [laughs] It’s a young audience, they’ll be fine.
Tellman: They’ve probably never even heard this song. So anyway, here’s the point: I avidly didn’t want to learn or study business or marketing when I was 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. At 27, things kind of flipped in my brain and I started getting a little smarter. I’m hoping you’re going to get smarter faster than I did.
I personally had to start all of my businesses on my own funds. I had terrible credit. I was putting myself through college. By the time I finally started my Internet company, which I started on 50 bucks, I was over $200,000 in debt and just barely able to pay my rent. I had to start studying marketing or I was not going to make it.
I really didn’t like working for other people even though I could keep a job and wasn’t fired, I was frequently bored and I went from job to job because I would quit them right before I was going to get fired because I could feel it coming on when I’d start showing up late and that kind of stuff. So I’m the kind of guy that really isn’t very employable because I have my own ideas about stuff and I tend to be fairly erratic in my thinking, actions, and everything else.
So, my biggest advice to you is not study business and marketing, I would advise against that. I would also advise against studying business and marketing in college, personally. Sorry I don’t know if that’s what you are studying or not, I don’t know if you’re in college or not. But most of the people I know that studied business and marketing in college didn’t really learn squat from it, whereas people that studied something they really, truly loved in college got something substantial out of it.
That’s the first piece, if you’re in school whether it’ high school or whether it’s college, if you’re a young entrepreneur study something you love. That will give you a much deeper connection with what you’re working on in your life because that’s really what business is all about is doing what you love and finding a way to make money doing it versus studying lame business tactics just to make money which usually results in some money and a lot of unhappiness.
The second piece is if you’re going to study marketing, study direct response marketing. Most entrepreneurs, especially in the young crowd, either have Attention Deficit Disorder, have a bunch of symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder or think they have Attention Deficit Disorder. They’re very, very, very much quick start people for the most part.
If you’re looking at things online that are only accentuated, accelerated, you’ll find more and more of that. So my recommendation to you is study online direct response marketing because it will give you an immediate response. It’s virtually free to do and you can scale it starting from 50 bucks up into a multi-million dollar company if you’ve got some coffee and you’re willing to put some elbow grease into it.
That’s my best advice for young entrepreneurs is study direct response marketing early. You can use ugly, simple web pages with absolutely no graphic design experience in order to make amazing, amazing things happen. You can do it from something like a dorm room with a crazy idea doing something that you love.
Hopefully, that’s helpful for everybody and young entrepreneurs go ahead and kick some ass. I think you guys are ready to rock and if there’s anything that I can do to help let me know.
Barry: That’s fantastic, Tellman. Do you want to quote anybody in particular from direct response who’d maybe be a good person to study or look at?
Tellman: Well I would selfishly say myself.
Barry: That’s a good place to start because we know, Tellman, you’re on top of the game.
Tellman: If you haven’t checked out any of this stuff, just check out listbuildingclub.com. That’s great and it’s a great beginners program to start learning the basics of all this stuff and start ramping it up and making it work.
Barry: Thank you very much, Tellman, I really appreciate that.
Tellman: Thank you for the opportunity.
Find out more about Tellman at OvercomeEverything.com
PS: Check Out:
http://runtellmanrun.com — Coast to coast Run — barefoot for charity!
31-year-old Entrepreneur Tellman Knudson will run 3,000 miles coast to coast across America to raise one hundred million dollars to help homeless kids find home, health and happiness again as they rebuild their lives with the help of Virgin Unite and The RE*Generation USA network of shelters and volunteers.
If you would like to support Tellman — please visit the above site — and please pass the word along…
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Tellman hit a home run with one point in my opinion, it was about the age that it took him to finally “get it”. I think many people go threw life, and “get it” way too late to actually do something about it, and make sometime better of themselves. I am 22 myself… but I do think I am finally getting a better understand and I think I am really close to “getting it”.
On a side note, that is pretty neat that he is doing the 3,000 miles run for charity, that is very impressive! And I applaud him for that, it takes a tremendous person to do it.
-Randy
Tellman , you have done really very courageous effort. Everybody will inspire with it. your blog is really very inspiring. Nice to share it.
Very noble goal to help homeless children
verry interessting, to bad my engliesh is not to good. so couldnt understand it all. bye
One thing like most doing for good cause, nice you dragging young entrepreneurs here.
He’s obviously done very well for himself despite being 200,000 dollars in debt! That in itself is inspirational. How many people can say they’ve met AND worked with Richard Branson?? Wow
I like the part where he talks about being unemployable. I felt the same way, so I ended up quitting to be my own boss again. I no longer have the patience or motivation to keep working for someone else. I keep seeing all the things that they should be doing differently and I get frustrated when I can’t control those things. Tellman also makes a good point about studying what you have a passion for. You will do so much better if you are truly interested in what you focus your business on.
Very interesting. As Tellman said, we should study something we love to do, because it gives a deeper meaning to what you are going to do. I love this guy! I want to know what exactly he did to overcome that huge deficit.
Regards,
Phil
Yes! that is pretty neat that he is doing the 3,000 miles run for charity, that is very impressive! And I applaud him for that, it takes a tremendous person to do it.
[...] Some of you may remember, Tellman did an Interview and video for Retireat21.com a little while back which you can find at: Tellman Knudson Interview [...]