“Finish this sentence,” Eman said to me. “The biggest mistake I made in my business was…”
It was no small ask.
She’d given me weeks to think about it and I knew she needed a good soundbite for the first thirty seconds of the interview. My armpits were sweaty and my heart sped to Thrill Of The Fight-level beating.
I took a deep breath.
“The biggest mistake I made was trusting Jeff Walker.”
I immediately wanted a takeback. You can’t say that on a public podcast, Tarzan. What will people think? What if someone on Jeff Walker’s team reads your emails? What if Jeff himself hits reply and says, “To think I bought you lunch that one time, you two-faced bitch!”
The truth is, I’m really really grateful for the lessons I learned (and un-learned) via Jeff Walker. He really did change my life.
So I named him, despite my reservations. And I am so proud of this interview with Eman Ismael on her podcast Mistakes That Made Me.
In this episode, Rejecting What Made Me Rich, we also talk about:
- What a “large group awareness training” is and why they work so well for selling 10K programs
- How customers are primed to blame themselves and use language like “I wasn’t ready” when they fail
- Jeff’s “rim world” analogy and how leaders teach you to distrust the opinions of your closest people
…grab a coffee because it is storytime with Tarzan! I spun a really good yarn on this episode.
I’m still not sure it was a good idea to name him, TBH. There might be fallout for me. It most likely won’t matter much at all to Jeff.
But it matters to me.
The lineage of almost everyone I ever learned online business from can be traced back to Jeff Walker. I’ve never bought one of his programs, but I didn’t need to. His influence is everywhere in the online spaces I inhabit.
I would probably not be where I am today if not for Jeff. I’m really grateful to him.
I hope you’ll take the time to listen to this interview. It contains a lot of hard-won lessons from growing a 7-figure business, then pulling it apart piece by piece, and learning to do business differently.
Listen to my interview on Mistakes That Made Me —>
And definitely let me know what you think!
XOT
