How Magic Tricks Helped Me Build a 6-Figure Business

Coins to Comfort Part 4

When I was 13 years old I auditioned to be a magician at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and became a performer there. Over time I negotiated my way into managing the schedule for all the junior magicians and turned that role from a volunteer position into a paid one. I still remember reaching out to one of my favorite magicians at the time and asking him if he thought I should make a career out of being a magician. I started trying to get magic gigs at places outside the Magic Castle.

A few years later I started streaming on Twitch and was blown away when someone gave me money for playing Hearthstone. Over the years I built a community around streaming and learned what it meant to manage a community. I started a Patreon, made merch, the whole shebang.

These were my first couple of forays into building my own little businesses. Then I started my coaching business and everything started to click into place. All of the learnings from getting gigs in magic or creating content from streaming all fused together to support this thing that seemed to be really valuable for people.

Intro

Today we’re going to break down how I did it and how I help clients build their businesses so that you can too! Welcome back to Coins to Comfort. This is part 4! If you haven’t read parts 1/2/3 yet be sure to check those out first so that you’re well positioned financially to start your own business. In this section we will talk about bias to action, overcoming your fears, and getting customers.

Last time we talked about best practices with your finances once you are making enough like automating your money and managing credit cards. The reason that starting a business is the last step in this process is because managing a business is because as long as you are working for someone else there is always going to be a middle man that is taking the lion’s share of the revenue.

Now don’t get me wrong, some people are perfectly content with that trade off. They get something secure and stable, it pays them enough, and they don’t have to put in all the hard work to build a business. And if that’s you that’s great. You can stop reading this article now. But for a lot of people I talk to, they have aspirations for more. They want to have more agency in how things work in a business, or they want to make more. If that’s you, I’m writing this for you.

The cool thing about building a business is that it is the best investment you can make financially. If you invest in the S&P 500 you will make on average about an 8% return, but when people invest in themselves by starting a business I see them make 200% returns.

Keep in mind that building a business is a big topic that many people write whole books on. This is just to get you started. If you want to get more in depth about building your business I would love to have a free no-pressure conversation with you where we sit down and I offer any help I can. If you’re curious click the button below

Just Start

The number one problem I see when I work with people looking to start their business is that they don’t start. They over prepare to death! I always encourage people to have a bias to action in their business. Whatever business idea you have just try it out. See how it goes. See what people’s reactions are. A lot of times when I say this to clients they look at me like a deer in headlights. They are paralyzed and petrified! If you feel the same way, it’s a good indication that you probably are experiencing some kind of fear. Here’s how I help my clients through tha:

So ask yourself, “What is it that I’m afraid of?” And dig deep. Don’t settle for “Well I’m afraid of failing.” Okay…what happens if you fail? And don’t give me the “correct” answer of “nothing.” What is your emotional side afraid will happen if you fail? Even if your logical side knows it’s not right. Once you identify that then you can ask yourself, “Where did my emotional side learn to fear X outcome?” Once you identify that then you can validate it (check out this video for more info on validation) which will help you to feel more safe and be able to move forward with starting.

Getting Customers

Now that you’ve started it’s time to solve an important problem. How the heck do I get customers? Daniel Priestley says, “Everything is down stream of lead generation” What this means is if you can’t get customers it doesn’t matter how amazing your product or service is. Everybody has way more of a network than they give themselves credit for. Open up your phone and look on any of your social media sites or your phone contacts and you will find hundreds of people that you could reach out to.

It doesn’t have to be some sleazy sales call. You can frame it as asking for advice. “Hey I’m thinking about starting this business. What do you think?” If you get a lot of positive feedback then you know you’ve got a good idea. Which leads to the first way that most of my clients get their first customers—people you know. Don’t be too proud to let your mom be your first customer. Your mom’s money is just as good as anybody else’s.

Basically when it comes to getting leads there’s really only 5 ways to do it.

1. Reach out to people you know

2. Reach out to people you don’t know

3. Create content

4. Pay for ads

5. Middle man

Pick the one that feels most comfortable to you and start finding some people. A great strategy when you’re first starting out is to offer your work for free in exchange for feedback. This does two things

1. Help you improve because you’re just starting so you probably have a lot to learn and that’s okay.

2. Any positive feedback you get you can use as testimonials to let people know that you do good work

Don’t Get Caught In The Weeds

A lot of times when I have this kind of conversation with people they’ll ask me things like “Okay but what about my niche? What about my target audience?” Those things are great to have but they often stop people from starting. As you get more experience working with people you will naturally start to find the people you enjoy working with the most and the people that you do your best work with. Look at all those people, see what they have in common, and ta-da you now have your avatar.

And I know this sounds crazy but when people really commit to doing this—they consistently do one or more of the 5 methods listed above and they keep improving their skill by asking their customers for feedback—they build successful businesses. The reason that most people don’t is because they give up.

There are loads of other fun business strategies, ideas and concepts that I would love to nerd out with you about but when it really comes down to it those things aren’t why my business is successful. The reason my business is successful is because since I got my first gig at the Magic Castle when I was 13 I just kept trying to provide people value and eventually I succeeded. Because at its core that’s all a good business is. It’s a product or service that solves a problem for someone.

If you do want to nerd out with me and get into all the fancy business concepts and ideas let me know you’re interested here:

So because persisting is such an important factor of success when it comes to building a business it’s important to find your fuel source and processes that allow you to keep going. This video breaks down how I help clients do that:

And speaking of providing value, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do for you! So feel free to let me know exactly what was helpful about this and what wasn’t and what kind of things would be helpful for you in the future:

Finally, help to empower more people to invest in themselves by sharing this with one person you think could benefit from this :