You are on the cusp of amazing results!
I am incredibly excited for you to be hear, but I’m also sick of sugar coated sales copy.
It’s unfortunate that sensitive people will completely miss how much I love and care for others.
Life is not sunshine and roses.
There’s beauty in the storms, too.
In my role as a leader – of a confused and hoodwinked world – it’s my duty to be blunt at times.
It doesn’t make a man a bad person to react instinctively and yell frantically to gain the attention of an unattended child that’s headed towards a cliff.
No, you are not a child.
But, if you are asking me sincerely how to be successful and I see you figuratively skipping towards your demise, I’m going to speak very clearly.
There are 7 billion people in this world who desperately need help, as much, or more than I do.
2 out of 10 people may be offended by my approach, but they’ll forget me.
Meanwhile, the other 8 out of 10 will receive tremendous value.
Let me be clear: My heart hurts for the 2 out of 10, and sometimes they react and try to hurt me, but I move forward.
That’s what leaders do.
I take the responsibility of my legacy very seriously.
We’ll have more kindness in conversations later.
Right now, you need the direct and hard truth.
Obviously I had a bias as a college drop out.
Obviously I have a greater bias, now, as a Founder of an Online Academy.
So take my argument with a grain of salt.
Hell, take it with a warning.
A series of warnings to protect me and you from your own self-preserving expectations.
Business is HARD. Life is HARD. Your only guarantee is that you WILL fail as you move towards success. Just like a baby trying to walk.
I will not sugar coat the truth. And the truth will hurt many people who are scared of it.
If you think a Degree makes someone a "God of knowledge" you are an idiot and far too stupid to benefit from this program. Go away.
All of my success has come at the price of failed attempts, painful rejection, and in spite of constant pressure from family who value "safety" more than "purpose".
We I will not babysit you through that or listen patiently to your excuses.
I care tremendously about your success and that will cost us our friendship. You will receive direct feedback and direction. Not to keep you "safe" and "comfortable" where you are, but rather to help you see what you cannot so that you can make the changes necessary to win.
Students fail and give up every day. No one is to blame for it. That's called life. Accept it.
We are not perfect and I am not your visionary. YOU are your visionary. My team and I will facilitate your growth and provide clarity but you are responsible for your success. We are responsible to deliver what we say that we will deliver.
We all know the appeal of the fast cars and private jets.
And there’s a trend of contempt building up due to the high volume of good looking, fast talking, glamour seeking individuals that are launching courses, raking in tremendous profits, and ultimately providing little value to their students.
“Marketing Bros” is one of the trendiest labels for such a practice.
These courses may bridge some knowledge gaps, but they’re usually chalked full of half-truths and minimal support.
There’s no accountability, which scares consumers, and their “rate of success” is an accumulation of screenshots and testimonial videos that represent 1-3% of their actual students.
Most young and aspiring entrepreneurs are sick of it.
They’re not sick of the solution – they’re sick of burning out, having invested so much time and energy into their dreams only to feel let down again.
They know that success exists because they see literally thousands of people achieving tremendous success in so many bizarre ways while their mom, dad brother, sister, or friends say, “just go get a real job”.
Yet, that’s what’s maddening.
In a society full of people who are too scared to dream, the dreamer feels alienated and alone.
You’re labeled as rebellious, irresponsible, stubborn, delusional, crazy, difficult, arrogant, rude, lazy, a failure.
Private jets? Lambos? Resorts? Fame? Fortune? Crowds? Hype?
Your every day Joe can’t fathom that.
And old people hate all of it because – not only does it ruin tradition – they were left out and it hurts.
Jealous, much? Yup.
Will they admit it? Nope.
Don’t make them, or now you’re just being a jerk.
YOU remind them of THEIR failed attempts.
YOU are reminding them of the dreams they gave up on.
YOU are someone they can protect from failure.
YOU need to learn to be like them, in their eyes, sooner than they did.
What you’re all missing though, is there are bigger, badder wolves right under your nose that you support.
These are the idols of your “traditionalists”:
Why can they be in jets, luxury cars, and resorts?
Because their titles protect them.
Because society sees it as logical and accepts it.
But surely traditional educators and their supporters don’t prescribe to such lifestyles?
They ONLY care about the well-being of their students.
University Deans, Presidents, Professors, and Educators of all types have their cake and eat it, too.
Unfortunately, most people believe it and have no cake at all.
Ok.
So they enjoy themselves, so what?
Let’s focus on why you should be concerned about Universities.
There’s already 1 million articles published each year on “how valuable” they are.
The ROI is undeniable. Or is it?
Statistics prove that University Graduates will make an extra $700 per month over the course of their life. Woohoo!
Seriously, that’s substantial.
That equates to more than $500,000 over a 60 year lifespan.
That’s an incredible ROI, right?
Wrong.
Because the devil’s always in the details and you didn’t account for student loans and the unquantifiable addiction they are causing beyond the hard math itself.
You see, between pizza and beer purchased on a student loan, the interest tacks on an additional $1,300+ in expenses.
And those spring break trips totaling $4,000 that your non-college friends couldn’t afford actually cost you more than $5,000.
So while your experiences have been fun and fruitful, you’re not getting nearly as far ahead as you think.
And you can be mad at me.
But it’s the people behind the educational business model that control your paradigm and emotions.
It’s NOT in their best interest to help you see why Universities are broken and destroying your ability to actually get ahead.
It IS in their best interest, to make the experience look and feel as wonderful as possible.
So what do you do about it?
Ignore it.
Get over it.
I’m not empathizing with you if you’re all about tearing that down.
The University model serves its purpose and does help MANY people find tremendous success.
Stop pissing on others’ success and start making your own.
Go make your own success!
If you want to be successful, then start celebrate the success of others!
And take accountability for your own actions.
So stop blaming everyone else for your own time management problems, your bad financial decisions, and your general lack of discipline.
It’s time to take ownership over the actions in your life, so that you can start taking ownership of your success, too.
Success is not an accident.
Success will not happen by chance.
If you’re ready to gain true freedom and power by making powerful decisions and freeing yourself from the vices of the world, let’s do this!
You should be excited for yourself and those who support you!
Don’t get me wrong, you can go to a University and succeed just fine if you have what it takes.
Yeah, I’m done writing all that out. It’s depressing me for all the young men and young women that subject themselves to that.
NOT the ones who succeed.
The ones who are nowhere NEAR prepared to thrive or even survive a culture as oppressive and restrictive as that.
So online courses are better, right?
Online courses aren’t a joke, but…
They’re a sore subject for most of us.
You see this average looking person with a larger than life dream, inspiring thousands of followers, with an uncomprehensibly cool lifestyle.
And they’ve made it!
And they say that they’re just like you.
You even have 10 things in common that proves you were destined to find them so that they could be your guiding light.
They even have thousands of followers who are all now (on their way to being) just as successful as they are!
And not only screenshots, but videos to prove it!
So you sign up, knowing you won’t be anything close to as successful as they are, but there’s no way you won’t at least be 2-3 times better off than you are right now.
You’re incredibly excited to get started and dive in.
At first, everything and everyone is wonderful.
This community is super happy to meet you and everyone is rooting for your success.
You meet people who are fun to be around and are on the same path you’re on!
You learn amazing truths that are mind blowing!
You begin to dive into lessons that are getting harder and harder.
You begin to get overwhelmed, so you start reaching out to your new friends and asking for guidance, support, and help.
You don’t want to be embarrassed by asking the “gurus” for help.
Afterall, they kind of don’t really seem to get why you’re struggling so much and don’t have the time to babysit you.
But as you meet with others, there’s this eerie nervousness and anxiety that seems to underly most interactions.
Welcome to the fear of the unknown.
Welcome to being outside of your comfort zone.
Most people HATE it here.
Some of you quickly begin to blame others for your decisions.
They tricked you!
How?
Because you thought that your shared common ground somehow meant that they had YOUR life recipe for success?
Do they even know your name?
No.
You made assumptions.
And do you know what it means to assume?
You make an ASS out of U and ME.
And THEY may have made assumptions as well.
So now you’re BOTH big asses.
Own it.
Stop blaming the course.
Stop blaming the University.
In MOST circumstances – not all – both sides made tremendous mistakes if you still feel bad about the time, “so and so” or “such and such” Ripped. You. Off.
It won’t help you move forward to dwell on it.
But two keys can:
Can you still fail and fall on your face?
Yup.
So what.
We don’t leap to be safe.
We leap to be alive, to be free, to experience the rush of risk, to have fun, and to feel our power.
So be powerful!
And be powerful, wisely.
If you can afford to waste your time on addictions like Netflix, you can afford on going, personal growth for the same price, too.
No?! Fine.
That’s why we made it cheaper, at $7.
Have your vice, but be nice, too.
An Academy. A University. A College. An Institute. An Organization. An Association.
I don’t care what you call the Academy.
It’s a stupid battle to debate.
What is the Academy of First Class Businesses?
It’s what every entrepreneur (and their team) needs.
You bet they do, and they need it!
With no extra fee!
Too many entrepreneurs try to make their journey all alone.
Or they hire someone who has no idea what they are doing and flies by the seat of their pants.
Doing that to someone will haunt you.
Huh?
It’ll haunt you if you have a heart.
Too many team members guess their way forward without proper guidance.
No wonder they’re struggling!
And if you’re not careful, they’ll be unhappy before you realize it, and it’s too late…
Can you think of a business with unhappy employees?
What a ridiculous and obvious question!
You may have thought of your own place of work or a place you had to endure in the past.
You may have thought of hundreds of awful business interactions that you’ve had with food servers, bankers, cab drivers, doctor’s offices, car dealers – or ironically – customer “support”.
Maybe you thought of a place that you used to be very fond of.
Are you crying or laughing?
Take your time.
Why is it that there are so many unhappy people in the workforce?
Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, unravels painful truths that’ll blow your mind.
I’m not going to ruin the prophecy he makes about your first employees.
It’s magical.
But I will share with you about the 3 identities that fight within you as a business owner.
Sounds crazy right?
Add in his Michael Douglas sounding voice over and you might think so…
I’ll summarize…
You have a constant internal battle between your personal identity as “The Entrepreneur”… “The Manager”… and “The Technician”…
That’s right, you don’t know how to do it all.
And you simply don’t want to do it all.
But how are you supposed to know what training your team members need?
And if you’re supposed to be delegating responsibilities, but you don’t know very much about how to do them yourself…
Well, that sounds like a recipe and formula for near certain disaster.
Hence why the majority of businesses fail.
Name one SUCCESSFUL company that provides less than amazing training to their team members.
I dare you.
You can’t.
You might be able to recall an “incident” of bad training.
Or perhaps a department with bad training.
But I guarantee you that this incident you’re thinking of, and that department, is struggling and holding back the success of that company.
But the company, in and of itself, is successful in direct correlation with the training that they provide to those who run it.
Yet you.
Your team members get access to the junkyard called YouTube.
And some find value faster than others.
But rarely does anyone find gold.
Rarely, from the YouTube Junkyard, can you extract enough value from the depths of the billions of videos and articles to piece it all together – by yourself – and come out on top with a successful system.
And don’t get me wrong.
Building a successful system requires more than just hands on experience with a guide, but you’re certainly not going to make it with just the manual or a video.
Even with a video of “how to fly the plane”, we’ll see you crash and burn on the other side, if you can even manage to take off.
There’s a better way and it starts at just $7/mo.
Not per team member.
But this is bigger than just access to this incredible Academy that can bring freedom and control to your life!
The movement to change education as we know it, for entrepreneurs and professionals.
The movement to level the playing field for the 7 BILLION great people on this earth who lack the knowledge and resources that they need to succeed.
The movement to help honest, hardworking professionals overcome the challenges that they currently face alone.
For now though, we’re going to focus on the entrepreneurship and leadership courses we’re providing you.
You need to start with the man in the mirror.
But that man or woman you see – deep down inside – craves to build a legacy.
You crave to fulfill your value.
You see, I’ve been studying the course world for a long time.
That’s what you do as a college drop out. lol
It all started with giving my mom an ultimatum though as an innocently rebellious 17 year old:
“Mom, I’m either graduating early or dropping out. Take your pick.”
You see, my brother, had just dropped out a few years before and got his GD. He was working in the oil field – the exact career my mother made me swear to never take on, having experienced first hand the ugly realities of what it means to be the daughter of a driller, and ex-wife of an alcoholic petroleum engineer who knew how to dish out verbal and emotional abuse with greater precision that Rachel Ray can dish out cookies.
I graduated in the summer of my Junior year, having learned the value of classes designed as remedial efforts (it’s almost impossible to fail night school and summer school), plus there were always a handful of beautiful, educated girls trying to get ahead. It was a dream come true for my normal, teenage boy ambitions!
I enrolled in community college where I maintained my care-free, minimal responsibility approach to learning and life. I probably had a 3.3 GPA in spite of the amount of classes I missed, the homework I never turned in, and the studying I didn’t do.
Miraculously, I was accepted to a Private University where I knew I had to take my standards up a notch, so I did. In between going on dates with 27 different girls in less than 21 days, playing pool at nights, and Ultimate Frisbee and basketball all day long, I managed to go to (most) classes and even studied for a test. For the first time ever.
It may come as no shock to you, but to my naively young and over-confident self I stared at the monitor that displayed my Student ID and my score. 22%.
“Ok… so the score takes a few minutes to calculate. I’ll just wait for it to refresh.” I felt like I was looking for my plane in an airport terminal and staring at my gate, yet the screen had no mention of my flight. Don’t panic, just wait for all the planes to scroll through and it’ll be there on the next pass.
22% it displayed a second time.
The out of body, pale, weak feeling that I experienced is difficult to describe but foreshadowed the rest of my University experience.
While I would have been the valedictorian of fun and dating for the semester, I ended my semester, where it begun. With a .33 GPA.
And two of my classes had been easy – a religious studies class and an elective of some sort that I probably blew off.”
– An excerpt from Jackson’s book, Dead and Broken: Jobs are dead and universities are broken. A parent’s guide to entrepreneurship and freelancing.
You can imagine how strange it would be for my past self to imagine what I’d go on to dedicate my life to.
Little did I know, within 6 months, I’d spend the next two years, deep in the heart of villages in South America and that experience would painstakingly refine a young man, shaping my purpose, igniting my passion, filling my heart with love, and creating a vision of how much good I can create in this world by taking massive action.
Call it serendipity or divine intervention.
I’ve run advertising campaigns for some of the best course creators out there.
I’ve mentored High School AP – US History teachers who make more money teaching on YouTube than in the classroom!
And the best part is, they don’t do it for the money!
They do it for the LOVE and the PURPOSE.
They’re creating a legacy by being authentically driven to provide tremendous value to the world.
I’ve made friendships and gained insider information, mentoring with thought leaders like Tracy Childs of Wishlist Member.
Wishlist what?
Wishlist Member hosts more than 109,000 membership courses!
Not students.
Not lessons.
Entire courses!
That’s a lot of data!
I’ve followed his protege, Stu McClaren, who has an incredible program on scaling successful courses.
Mike Weiss, of Client Engagement Academy, actually built out the gamification processes for Digital Marketer before they became what they are today.
You could say that DigitalMarketer set the early standard for online courses in the business space.
I remember purchasing this terribly named LMS program called New Kajabi when Brenden Burchard was pushing Teachable, Grant Cardone, was big on LightSpeed, and groups were still an afterthought for Facebook.
Now there’s hundreds of LMS (Learning Management Systems) platforms being developed.
The amount of money being shoveled to the Education Industry and LMS Industry is nearly unfathomable.
And yes, I got knee deep and added my sweat and tears to developing and promoting courses with some pretty fun names, especially while working with Jake Larsen, of Video Power Marketing.
I met Jake in a remote villa in South America.
In fact, it was my area and he was my new companion.
I was fiery, passionate, driven, and had the best trainer anyone could ever ask for.
Poor Jake had to put up with me.
I don’t know if I’ve ever met a better leader, friend, and person than Jake Larsen.
A few months later, after experiencing how difficult I was and how bad a companionship could get, I happened to run into Jake again.
I was so embarrassed.
All I could do was say how sorry I was, so I did.
He spread his arms out, “I love you dude. Give me a hug man!” and he embraced me like a brother would.
Half a decade later he called me up.
“I need your advice Jackson. You’ve been an entrepreneur for a few years, so you know a thing or to about it. I need your feedback on a course.”
No way Jake!
I felt trauma seeping in.
I treated you like crap in Uruguay and I swore to myself I wouldn’t do that again.
Then came, the best worst compliment I’ve ever received or heard to this day:
“Jackson, you’re the most critical person that I know and I need your advice. Everyone’s telling me I should run with this and how great I’ll be, but I don’t know anyone who has experience like you do that I can trust to be as real with me.”
Long story short, crowned by Google as 1 of the 10 exclusive YouTube Ambassador’s, Jake launched his raw courses and within 6 months found himself being announced on stage at Traffic and Conversion Summit introduced as, “The YouTube Ad Expert of the World”.
When I had the fortune to join Jake’s team full-time a few years later, we ran some of the most successful video campaigns of all time.
Our go-to video producer, Travis Chambers, won the YouTube Ad of the Decade, featuring super stars Kobe Bryant (RIP) of the Los Angeles Lakers and Lionel Messi, of Barcelona on Turkish Airlines.
NordicTrack’s flashmob dance off remains a classic.
John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire and Dan Martell of SaaS Academy ran crazy successful campaigns solidifying their positions as highly respected entrepreneurs of great influence.
And we turned down far more prospective clients than we took on.
That was my job.
My job was to help Jake determine which programs were legit, which ones were risky, which ones could scale, and which ones would be a great reflection on our reputation. We didn’t want to take on clients that hurt the market or that simply weren’t ready to scale.
My knowledge of business models and consumer behavior combined with the humility each of those leaders have (to allow me to tear apart their systems) and advise them on changes that were critical for their growth to flourish led to the establishment of legacies that I’ll forever be grateful to be apart of.
Funny enough, I haven’t yet shared this vision, or what I’m up to, with any of them.
Partially because they’re busy building out their own empires. And partially because I’m excited to see their reaction when they organically come across what I’ve been building up and say, “Whoa. Did the same guy who worked behind the scenes on our projects really just build this amazing academy?!”
It’ll be a fun day when I get the congratulatory calls.
How arrogant of you Jackson!
No, remember?
Successful people happily celebrate the success of others!
To be fair, I couldn’t have built this without seeing behind the scenes of every mentor I’ve ever worked with or followed!
I owe each of them a huge thanks.
My career has been centered around providing extremely high quality value to as many people as humanly possible.
When it comes to what I do for a living, my cup overfloweth, meaning, my heart if full every day.
And I’m crazy about it!
You and I both have the opportunity to continue to expand that purpose beyond our wildest imaginations.
They’ll recognize how YOUR success ties to THEIR success.
They’ll know how YOU fit into the value of what they currently offer.
It’ll be a huge WIN-WIN-WIN day for all of us.
But there’s hard work to be done in the meantime!
That’s just the nature of the game though.
And their loss.
You might be a Champion on an amateur level, but only a pretender on the next.
It’s easy to see because this happens to athletes all the time.
They may be “Johnny great” in college, but it turns out they’re “Johnny nobody” in the NFL.
Entrepreneurs are no different.
This is why, at First Class Business, we sift through the Pretenders in search of Contenders.
What about you?
Are you a pretender?
Or are you a contender?
Most local newspapers simply couldn’t compete with the online world.
The strong newspapers survived and thrived.
How?
By evolving to digital and embracing their adversary.
Sadly, the weak newspapers may not even make the local history books in 100 years.
But on the bright side, history is ours for the making!
April 2015
LinkedIn purchased Lynda.com for $1.5 billion dollars and rolled out LinkedIn Learning.
June 2017
Facebook CHANGES its entire mission – to focus on communities.
October 2020
Meta (Facebook) invested $150 million dollars in Coursera and EdX, not to mention the BILLIONS they’ve pumped into their own course infrastructure and Oculus.
The prosperity and the journey that lays ahead is going to be enjoyed by many!
I hope you take this as seriously as we do.
I hope you decide to join us.
THIS ISN’T A REVOLUTION.
A revolution can be thwarted.
Join the live conversation as though leaders discuss legacy expansion and sustainable revenue growth secrets.