Episode 03: ClickBank Super Affiliate Robby Blanchard
(upbeat music) - Okay, so we're gonna jump in. So, welcome everyone today. This is the Affiliated Podcast and we are doing our first interview with one of the greatest people doing Facebook advertising today, Robby Blanchard.
So hopefully I said that right, 'cause I practiced it. - Nailed it. - Yes, I'd be a great substitute teacher as long as I don't have to teach. So, what we're gonna be doin' today is just give you a little highlight. Robby has Commission Hero.
It's an amazing Facebook course that's teaching thousands of people to be successful and change their life in whatever way they see fit by learning how to buy ads on Facebook correctly and successfully. In fact, I know I didn't tell you this beforehand, Nick Pounder, one of your students, we work together and he recently, in the last, gosh just couple months, hit platinum status with his very first offer. So, started out learning how to do ads with you and then went and created his own offer and is really changing his life. It's pretty amazing stuff.
So, Robby's been doing that. We're gonna talk a little about that journey today and then he does something unique in his business that I find so powerful, definitely next level, and for any of those people out there that really wanna learn new ways to monetize, I think it'll be a fun conversation. So, we're just gonna ask some questions today and see where it goes. - Let's do it.
- And if it's not valuable it's all Robby's fault. That's just, I'll blame him solely. - I take full blame for it all, yeah absolutely. - All right so first, as we kinda talked about, you know, you haven't always just been buying ads on Facebook.
So, walk me through a little bit, where you got started, how you found yourself in this world of buying ads and how you kinda got to where you are today. - Yeah, it's a pretty random journey. No, if I look back I'm like, wow, how the heck did I get here? But, I started out as a personal trainer. That's how I got started. You know, started a personal training business that turned into owning a boot camp business, turned into owning a CrossFit gym. And at one point in time my CrossFit gym really wasn't doing that well, right.
I was really good at getting people in shape, but I was really bad at getting them in the door, right, and that's not a good formula for having a successful business. So, it wasn't until I finally figured out how to use Facebook ads to get people in the door that I started to have success in my gym, right. And then, I got to about five, six years ago where I really wanted to go online because you know I knew that the people that I knew, they were having success, it was like they had an online business. So I put two and two together, I'm like all right, if I wanna have more success I've gotta have an online business, right, and I wanted to help more people out. So, I basically joined a master mind with one of my mentors. His name is Bedros Keuilian and Craig Ballantyne, their master mind, and basically they taught you how to get started on ClickBank, have a ClickBank product and promote it, right.
And so, I created this program called Dominate Your Double Unders. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of it. Probably not, but.
- I don't know what a double under is. It sounds hard to me. - Sorry, I'm just gettin' CrossFit talk.
So, in the CrossFit world a double under is a jump rope movement. Basically, it's two swings per jump with a jump rope. And so, I put this product together because I saw in my gym that a lot of people were struggling with it. The reason why they were struggling was because they weren't practicing it. So, I said okay, like if I can put together a program that helps them practice it, they're gonna get the double unders and I'm gonna make money, right.
And so, that's what I did. So, I put this program together and I remember going to their master mind. It was in Miami, I'll never forget it, it was in November, went to the master mind, I have this product done, I'm just so excited because back then like it was you know, getting affiliates from OV Emails, right. And so, I went to all these different people in the master mind and said hey, can you promote my product? Everybody said no. And they said no because they all had email lists, but the email lists were all weight loss focused, right, and my product was not a weight loss program, right.
So, I got pretty discouraged. I'm like man, what am I gonna do here? Like, I paid all this money to be in this master mind, I'm not having success right away. So, I got home, to the hotel after the event in Miami.
I remember I'm like, you know what? Maybe I'll just try runnin' some ads 'cause it worked for my gym, maybe it'll work for this product. So, I remember setting up my ads, I had no idea what I was doing on Facebook, set up the ads to start the next day. I woke up in the morning and I had three sales.
I'm like, oh my God, I couldn't believe it. I called my parents and said hey, did you guys buy this, did you buy my program? And they're like, what program? I'm like, oh wow. And so, it was like 1000 light bulbs goin' off in my head because I'm like wow, like someone in the world who I don't know, like literally saw my ad, clicked on it, bought and I made money, right. So that just like, that just changed my life, literally that changed my life forever because then what happened was I started promoting other people's products as an affiliate because there was all these other ClickBank products by people who are much much better at creating products than I am. I'm like, wow, if I could just get eyeballs to their page I'm gonna make money.
And so, that turned into making hundreds per day, and then thousands per day and then tens of thousands of dollars per day. And then, it got to the point where, back in January 2019, ClickBank had a contest, right, and I remember it was like, I think the first week in January and I remember someone messaged me and said, hey Robby, congratulations, you're in third place right now. I'm like, sweet, for what? And they're like, oh, for this ClickBank contest.
I'm like oh cool. So, at the time I was starting to put together a product, like a course on affiliate marketing, in doing what I'm doing Facebook ads, but I didn't release it because in my mind I kinda have that you know postural syndrome sometimes of like, am I good enough? Can I teach people this, you know? So, I made a deal with myself. I said, all right, if I win this contest and I become the official number one on ClickBank, that's the only way I'm gonna release this course, right. So, I ended up winning.
Pushed hard, won the contest. I beat a lotta the big names, you know, on the platform out and then from there I created my course, Commission Hero. We started that April, it was around April 1, 2019 and now to date we have over 8000 people in the course and it's been unbelievable seeing the results, seeing people have success like Nick, you were saying, and a lot of people are just making like life changing income now and just having, which is awesome.
That's literally why I created it, because it kinda brings me back to being a gym owner. You know, I created my gym because you know, fitness changed my life as well, so I wanted to help other people experience that, and it's the same thing I did with Commission Hero, yeah. - That's awesome. I remember that contest and remember having the almost like, who's this Robby guy? - Yeah, that's what everybody said.
- Yeah, it was like, man, I didn't know CrossFit gym owners had so much access to traffic. What is he doing? So yeah, that's super exciting. What an amazing journey, and great to see that you get to continue on that helping, but really in a broader level, 'cause think how long it probably would have took you before in personal training, to change 8000 lives.
- Couldn't do it. - Yeah, there's no way. And now you're doing it in a matter of what, a year has it been? - Yeah, about 18 months, just under 18 months.
And it just keeps getting better and better and I think that the reason why Commission Hero has been so successful honestly, is because you know, my number one goal is to help people get results. Like, I don't care about the money. I don't care about the whatever, the notoriety. That doesn't matter to me. The main thing is like, let's get people results and everything else will take care of itself. You know, I'm a big believer if you wanna get something in life help as many people as you can get what they want in life and it's gonna come back to you.
- Yeah, for sure. Well now, the big question I had after you're tellin' your story is, where your parents didn't buy your first product, have they bought any products you've promoted? Have they bought any of your ads? Are they really that committed to what you're doin', Robby? - They are not. They don't even know what I am doing, you know. A funny story, like my dad, me and my dad are very close and he's a high school principal and he's worked for 45 years in the same school, right, so very regimented routine. And, I'll never forget, I used to do landscaping. I had a landscaping business and he got so mad at me when I told him I wanted to be a personal trainer.
He's like, nobody's gonna pay for personal training. And now, like he looks back, he's like oh, that was a pretty good decision you made to switch outta landscaping. - Yeah, I'd say so, I'd say so for sure. So, well, kinda going back to this whole channeling thing, I think a great question I always like to hear is, if you could pick up the phone and talk to a 20 year old version of yourself, what would you tell yourself to make the next 10 years of your life really successful? - Um, I would just say keep your head down and keep workin'. I think like you know for me, the one thing that really kinda, you know, I'm very goal oriented, right, and I don't like, I don't have specific goals of like I wanna make X amount of dollars whatever.
Like, I have big goals and I think that a lot of people don't. They just kinda go day to day and they just hope and wish they're gonna be successful and it's like, for me in my mind, I've always been like hey, this is my goal. I wanna be here, I don't know how I'm going to get there, but I just know that if I do something every single day that's gonna propel me and move me forward that eventually I will get there. It's not up to me to figure out how I'll get there, 'cause I think the universe kinda figures that out for you.
And so, never in a million years did I think I'd go from being a CrossFit gym owner to then owning a Facebook agency, then to being an affiliate marketer, then having, I mean, that's such a random thing, right. But, because I had in my mind over the past couple of years and getting on this journey, like I wanna be successful. This is where I wanna be, like I think everything kinda goes into place the way it's supposed to be, yeah. - Yeah, yeah.
I mean, always think of what the outcome is, right. They always lean into their journey and kinda the legend that is them. You know, the universe does kinda map those things out for you. So, for all those young entrepreneurs listening or anybody struggling, just lean into it.
Just take those chances, make those goals happen. - Yeah, and I would say like, just stay out of your comfort zone and always look at people that are playing life or living life at a higher level than you are. I think that's one thing for me that, you know, I never, I'll tell you a story here. So, when I was a personal trainer, one of the things that you know, I grew up with kind of a humble upbringing. Both my parents were teachers and we didn't do anything crazy and our big vacation was like driving to Maine for a week, you know, staying at my aunt and uncle's.
And I remember that when I became a personal trainer, like I remember being exposed to like this whole different level of people and business guys and ladies. I had one guy, he had like a 10,000 square foot house and he had like four car garage and he had all this stuff, and I'm like man, what are you doing to get that? I've never seen this before, you know. And so, it totally like threw me out of my little bubble and I'm like, never once did I feel like jealous or oh, this guy. I'm like, what did you do? Show me, teach me. And so, that was a big kinda mindset thing for me because I was able to be around people that were super successful and had big businesses and did well and it totally changed my mindset in terms of like, how to live life, how they view money, how they view success and that really, even though I'm doing something very different than they're doing, those principles really really stuck with me all these years, you know.
And I think that was a big game changer for me, too. - Yeah, that's fantastic. So, you're right though. I think you always see that transformation of mindset, right. When you're stuck in a mindset of myopic narrow scope of only what you've been exposed to, that's pretty much definition of what you're going to live your life as, right. It's gonna be that way always.
But boy yeah, when you step out and get a little uncomfortable, it opens up your mind to a whole world of possibilities, which means you have a lot more opportunities to take. So, that's fantastic. So, going on, obviously those are big positive things. I wanna bring it back to the gutter. Let's go to the negative side.
So, what was one of the biggest headaches that you wish you would've known about? If you could've had you know the ibuprofen to cure that headache when you were first getting started, and let's focus really on the online marketing side of things. What was one of the biggest headaches you wish you would've known when you were starting? - I think it would've been like time would be the big, the big headache because I think everybody, myself especially, like I'm like all right, I'm gonna do this and in my head it's like smooth sailing, straight line to success, it's all good, and then you quickly find out it is not like that, right. So, you know, like my first year when I started online, it was, it was a grind. I mean it was like you know you have setbacks, you'd have ad accounts get shut down on Facebook or you'd have like links, 'cause I didn't know what I was doing, you know. And so, all those things would really kinda be setbacks 'cause they could in most cases like cause frustration and make you wanna quit.
But for me, once again, I had it in my mind like hey, no, this is my goal. I don't care what happens, how I get there, how many setbacks I have, I'm just gonna, if I fall down eight times, I'm gonna get up nine, you know. That's just my thing. And I think the other thing too, with most people when it comes to success, like you know I love the saying, it's like, most people over estimate where they'll be in one year and they underestimate where they'll be in five years, and I think that's so true when it comes to business and anything you do, because it's like, you know, we all have in our mind, like this is my timeline for success and a lotta times it's outta your control. As long as you put in the work every single day, you will have that success. But, I always like the big one for me otherwise, like, I'm pretty stubborn.
So, once I have a goal in mind and I see other people doing it, I always have that kinda like underdog mentality, chip on my shoulder thing where it's like, man, if they're doing it, like I can do it, you know. And then, I just figure it out. You know, that's kinda been my thing. But yeah, definitely the time aspect was one thing 'cause I thought that I would be you know farther along, you know we always wanna be farther along than we are, right.
But, I think that was probably the one thing that was really the big. Otherwise, like there was other setbacks, but nothin' too crazy, yeah. - It sounds like you suffer from what I would call optimist timeline. I know I'm the same thing.
It's like, oh yeah, we can do that. In fact, we should do more. Let's bump that up. And yeah, it always kinda ends up being clinkin' along. I've always thought the idea that success isn't defined by lack of failure, just the accomplishment of a goal. So, time is really you know, squishy in that.
So, I think that's great advice for a lot of people that one, if you're an optimist timeline you probably wanna extend that or get somebody, I don't know if you have anyone in your business that's like, the dream crusher that comes in going what about this, this, this, this and this and this and this? I think you're being crazy right now. But yeah, as long as you're aware of that those people. - Yeah, and Kyle I'd say another thing too, I would say is you know, one thing for me was really kinda learning like how to go through the process, learning how to like take your licks.
And I think the other big road block for me was learning how to say no to a lotta things, right. Because when you first start out in the online business, there's so many different ways you can go to have success, and they're all good. But, you have to, you have to stick to one and dial in on it until you have success with it. You know, I think that so many people, I tell my students this in Commission Hero, where they're like, oh, I don't have more success, I have to promote like five offers at a time. I'm like, no, you don't. You just have to pick one and stick with it until you master it and go through it.
You know, same thing with like you know, me. I could've done YouTube or Instagram or SnapChat. Like, my success has been Facebook, right.
And even with all its kinda quirks and everything, if you have to go narrow or deep on it, I think most people, most entrepreneurs or people who wanna start their online business they kinda get caught up in the weeds and like, they say yes to too many different things. It's like, no, just focus on one thing, get laser dialed on it and just do it until you're successful. - Yeah, yeah.
In a global market you know, just doing one channel really really well will serve you so much better, even if it's like for your own offer initially, just like you had. What is that gonna do from affiliate perspective 'cause there's a good chance all these other off runners don't have that level of mastery that you have. So, that gives me a lotta hope for my TikTok career. I think if I really just hone in.
(laughing) So, that actually transitions really nicely though, as we talk about narrow focus. I really wanna focus. You had the course, but let's talk a little bit about what you're doing in terms of just that singular focus with, I'm trying to think that tier two. I don't really, I was trying to come up with like a cool, clever name for kinda this, this brokered service, but instead of me trying to explain it, why don't you tell me a little bit about what you do with those singular offers that you might push out or recommend to your tribe of 8000 Commission Heroes? - Yeah, it's pretty simple. So, essentially you know, what I do is inside of Commission Hero is we recommend products that are on the ClickBank platform that we recommend our students promote. These are products that I personally have promoted and had success with, or they're top offers on ClickBank and I know they convert really well, 'cause what I teach in Commission Hero is don't go and try to find all these different offers.
Just find the highest converting one that's gonna pay you the most money and do that. And so, you know, I've kinda worked out these deals with these product owners, these vendors, where essentially I make myself a tier two affiliate. So, we basically set up a JB Contract and then all my students are then promoting this particular product and obviously I make a little commission on the side as well. And that's kinda how I've done it.
It's worked out really well because I find that not only do the product owners pay more attention and they actually are incentivized to wanna, I'm like hey, I'm gonna send 8000 affiliates your way, and so they're actually gonna put some time and effort into it, you know. So that's been kinda the way that I've structured it. It works out really well.
And also too, like I think it's good because my students, they really obviously, they trust me and they believe in me and they know when I recommend something to them, it's something that I personally have promoted myself. And so, there's that trust there as well. So, that's kinda how I've been able to do it. And the thing is, and most of the time I don't even have to worry about like finding new offers and stuff because most of the time most of the product owners will come to me.
And sometimes I say no because if it's not a good fit, then I'm just not gonna recommend that to my students. But, most of the time it's the top offers. And the cool thing is is being in the position that I am in now, like being a top affiliate on ClickBank, is that I kinda get the inside scoop and a lotta these product owners, like they have other offers that are like up and coming. And so, they're like, hey, this offer's like up and coming, it's not on the marketplace yet, or it's really alone in the marketplace, but I think it's gonna be a home run. I look at it and I'm like yep, that's gonna be a home run.
So then I let my guys know in the course and then we're able to have that advantage of getting in there first, yeah. - Yeah, so let's, we're gonna break this down and go a little more in depth. So first, I'd love, I just love that it's so simple, right. Like, it's one of those some things sometimes the best monetization efforts are the ones that are the most just glaringly simple. You're like, oh man, like duh, it's just right in front of me. So, walk me through when you were developing the program, was this something that happened afterwards, you thought, hey, this is a really good opportunity? Or, was it the intent the entire time to kinda create this second tier process? - It happened afterward, you know.
So, I kind of, you know as an entrepreneur you kinda build the airplane as you're takin' off. And so, that's kinda what I've done. - That's just the way I want my airplane. I'm pretty sure that's like legend, they're doing that all the time. - So yeah, that's exactly what I do. And so, it was just kinda one of those things where we had some offers and originally when I first started the course, I had five or six offers in there that I had success with and I'm like yeah, just run these.
And then, I didn't even know about the tier two and then I found out about it and I said okay, let's just do this. And that's actually worked out really well. And it's good because like literally we drive a lotta traffic for affiliates. Like, I was just talkin' to Dominick here a couple days ago and he was sayin', you know, I'd sent him a list of like you know 1600 students in the course that I have their ClickBank IDs, and I'm like, how much money has they generated in total this year? And it was something like $22 million you know, they generated revenue, just that little fraction of students, of 1600 students and we have 8000. Like the average person was, I think it was like $26,000 they made on ClickBank with using Commission Hero.
So, people realize that because I find that a lot of product owners are really good at creating their products, but they're not really good at getting traffic to their products, right. So, by having and filling that need with you know, getting traffic to their offer and like doing that with Commission Hero and my students, it's just, it's like such a seamless kinda degration. - Yeah so, with the process, it's not hey, here's a product, go promote it. You said you promote it yourself.
So, how much testing, what does your testing process look like when you find one of those offers or someone comes to you and we could so, I know you did a lot of work with research with this killer offer. So, when Brad comes to you and he's like hey, I got this frickin' bad ass offer, how do you go about testing? What's kinda your qualification process there? - Yeah, most offers, like you know, I pretty much test them over nowadays like over a two or three week period. If I can make $1000 a day personally, like if I can hit that $1000 level, that's good, it works. And that's kinda what I've done. And when I first started I would like you know, I would do a month or two months of testing and now, what we do in the course we actually release like monthly offers as part of our inner circle coaching program.
So every month we offer a new offer, landing page, all the creatives, everything you need like I've done if you campaign for people, and so I have to test a little bit quicker. And so yeah, we test about two to three weeks at the most and as long as I can get that thing to convert and work, like yeah, we're rockin' and rollin' with it, yeah. - And you basically cascade down all the creatives for that inner circle of audience that you have, which man, that has to just be so frickin' nice for those affiliates, just to have like here's winning creative, now just pour money into my money machine. - Exactly.
- So, that's fantastic. So, kinda going into, so that's what you're doing for them and obviously it's been immensely successful, and I know lots of them sometimes even start building relationships with the vendors as well, because they're so successful at it. So, I imagine you mentioned you had a lotta people just comin' to you, inside hook.
So, how do you go about deciding what a good offer is beyond just testing. So, what's your eyeball check? And also, when you're done with that, talk a little bit about what type of vendors you wanna work with or offer owners you wanna work with. - Yeah so, I think the one, you know, one thing I look at is you know, there's, in ClickBank I find there's, there's always the common names that do their products right and they release more and more products. So, if it's somebody that's had home run in the offers in the past, like I'm probably gonna give it a pretty good shot 'cause they know what they're doing. It's literally a formula they follow to get their products going.
So, I do that. The second thing I do is I wanna make sure it's in a category that is a big category, right, because you know, and I usually focus on like health, wealth and relationships, because those are huge categories. Those are also I find in a way, recession proof, because even if the economy's down people still wanna lose weight. And I also think the other reason I do that too, is because we have so many students I wanna be able to offer them an offer that literally there's room for everybody, right. So, because one of the things people say is, Robby, 8000 students, isn't there gonna be saturation? The answer is no. And the reason why is because literally there's hundreds of millions of people in these categories.
And so, there's so much room for everybody and I mean, we're not even close to saturation at all. But, those are the two requisites. And basically, what I do personally, I'll actually go through the VSL, I'll watch it.
And because most of these top offers kinda model each other anyways, you know, it does work. And then finally, the last kinda prerequisite is I look at the average order value, right. I think the average order value is important. And nowadays it's unbelievable. Man, when I first started and when I won the ClickBank contest in January 2019, which was not that long ago, man, I would be pumped if I had the $40 average order value as an affiliate, right.
If I made $40 on a sale I was pumped. Nowadays, because supplements are involved, like you're seeing $100, $150 like that's incredible, right. Like, I made a ton of money with a $40 level.
It's like wow, now it's like you're gettin' paid almost triple, so that's amazing. So, I think nowadays, there's so much opportunity. That's why I keep telling people, like I really think 2021 is gonna be like a monster year for online, yeah.
- Yeah, no totally. It's interesting Thomas and I just did a webinar yesterday where we shared some data reanalyzed the top 100 health and fitness offers, and you're totally right. We saw the average affiliate payoff for our top 20% of that 100 was $113 to affiliates, which I'm just like, whoa. Obviously, I imagine that that means you'll spend a lot more forgiving when you have that much room on a CPA and still be profitable. - Yeah, yeah, and you can be more aggressive. You know, and I think honestly it's great for people just starting out, you know, because you know, when I first started doin' this, like you know, if you're, if it cost you $20, $25 to acquire a customer, then you're kinda creepin' up into the place where you're like, I don't know if I should cut my ads.
Whereas, if you're a new person and you're running ads just getting started and maybe let an ad run too long, maybe you're paying $70 to acquire a customer, well, you're still makin' $40 on the sale even though you did everything wrong. So, I think there's like that nice little cushion, like you know, which I think is man, it's just such a good time to have online business for sure, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, as long as we don't have, you know, the election eating up all the CPMs anymore.
- Yes, and it's gettin' so much better though. I tell you, a couple weeks when the election was goin' on it's still a little weird, but man, it was like, I told my students like, hey, just pause your ads for now, like just ride it out you know, go for a walk, enjoy yourself and come back you know, because that's the other reason why I think 2021's gonna be a big year for people because you know, more people are online than ever before. Like, the payouts are so much higher on ClickBank now, and it's a non-election year.
So, I think that as things kinda settle down, man, I think it's gonna be a perfect storm for success, yeah. - Yeah, no I agree. We've seen a shift in consumer behavior that I don't think will be reversed. When eighty year olds are using Uber Eats and starting to look at Facebook even more for live stream content, you know, it's a different, it's a different world we're living in, you know, because of COVID and what it's done for content. So, one thing I wanted to ask as well is you mentioned you know, broad categories.
So, are there any broad categories that you don't see represented with offers as much, or just some areas where you're like, man, I wish someone would just get like a really killer dating offer or a really killer, I don't know, just something in there that you feel could be an opportunity that isn't being taken advantage of? - Um, the one thing I do notice is like, you know, aside from like the you know, the weight loss categories, you know, the relationship categories, like you know the problem is a lotta these offers like, the do-it-yourself niche, for example. I mean, you have like Easy Battery and you had I think it was like Power Efficiency Guide or Easy Power Plan now. Like, those offers are great and they do well, but they've been around forever, right. I really don't see like a lotta like updated stuff, what you see in the weight loss space, because like in the weight loss space I mean, every year there's what, probably five or six like new offers that are, that are home runs, which I think as an affiliate is important because even something simple as you know, having a campaign that's doing okay, like, just switching the offer in the back, like, that can like super charge your results because nobody's seen that offer before.
And I think that's the one, and I think the do-it-yourself niche is such a huge niche and the thing I like about it too, it's a lot more friendly on Facebook as well. And you're able to run a lot longer. Don't get me wrong, weight loss still crushes, but you know, when it comes to that.
So, I wish people would just kinda you know, if anyone's listening to this, create some offers that are in the do-it-yourself space that you can you know, just do that. And I think that and the survival niche, things like that are, you know, I wish there would be more of that, yeah. - Well, Scrap-N, I think you're gonna see some great survival offers in 2021.
Like, I feel pretty positive you know, conservatives are probably gonna be maybe a little scared for the next four years that there's a good possibility that those will rise again. So no, that's great to hear and I think that's one of the things where often times because we see health and fitness offers working, weight loss offers working, people think that's all that works. So, I'm really glad that you can highlight, there's huge opportunities and you know, obviously, wealth and financial. I think there's gonna be some really great opportunities in 2021. You mentioned survival.
I don't know if that meant off the cuff, but yeah, survival and do-it-yourself, like massive opportunities. So, if people are wondering, hey. - Bitcoin. - Yeah, Bitcoin, oh gosh yeah, for sure.
So but, there's lots of opportunities to maybe some broadly appealing verticals that aren't being touched as much as they could be. So, go and develop and you know spend your plans over this winter, coming up with some cool do-it-yourself products. - Yeah, absolutely.
- What I really wanna talk about, you mentioned 2021, you feel like it's gonna be a fantastic year for online marketers. I don't disagree at all. But, that being said, there are gonna be some headwinds. And so, as we talked about that positive timeline, you know, what are some of the headwinds that you're expecting to face as the clock turns over and we add a one and finally kick 2020 to the curb and go into 2021? - Yeah, I think it'll be interesting. I think you know, I think the election will play a role in that, I think in first quarter for sure.
You know, I think also that's gonna be a big thing. I think also it'll be interesting to see what the you know, from a Facebook standpoint, 'cause I'm a Facebook guy, I always look at the quarterly earnings of Facebook and see if they had a great quarter. If they did, then I'm not too happy as an advertiser 'cause that means they you know, kinda clamped down on stuff. If they had a not so great quarter, then I love that 'cause then they open stuff up for advertising more.
You know, I think that's one thing. The other thing I would say when it comes to like headwinds is that I think that you know, just kind of like updates because everything kinda changes I think nowadays. Like, it's not, it's not what it used to be and everything changes so fast, right. Like, you know like Facebook makes an update or you have to do something different on your landing page or the terms and conditions are different now or compliance with the offers, like you have to, there's all those little headwinds I think they're can cause issues. But really, honestly and truly, I don't think there's gonna be too much. You know, if they go into shutdowns again, which it seems like some, some states are, you know, we'll see how it goes this time.
I think if there's a stimulus check that comes out again, which seems like there might be, and people are home again, I mean I think it's probably gonna be a good thing to have an online business because once again, more people are online. I mean, Harvard University, like they're chargin' full tuition and they're 100% online. You know, so it's like yeah it's insane. And it's like, so it's just, and I think nowadays people are just really conditioned to that, you know. Like, you know, we're at the ClickBank headquarters and there's nobody here and it's 'cause everybody's workin' from home.
So, I think that's really changed the game quite a bit and I know from, you know 2020 actually was an amazing year for online. You know, so I think 2021 is just gonna carry that into it because the trends are heading that way, yeah. - Yeah, you're totally right.
As we continue to be on just connected more, right, and seeking ways to connect with others. I think that's one of the big things that's changed online because you know, we're social networking. But not just that. Like, I know I mentioned it in jest earlier, but look at TikTok and the rise it's had outside of some of the legal and government, political issues. I mean, that platform, the age demographics, I'd love to see how it's shifted from the beginning of this year to the end of it. Because there's such a need for people wanna change those behaviors and how they're consuming stuff, so you're totally right.
One of the, one headwind I'd like to hear more advice on, I think is buyer uncertainty because of economic uncertainty. So, I think that's one where it's always hard to gauge 'cause it's a soft, squishy thing, but are there any tactics or things that you look into when you're media buying, understanding we might go into you know, an economic climate where people are really insecure about their economic future. Or, they just don't have a job and there are no jobs to be had, considering some of the long effects of COVID and stuff. - Yeah, it's a great question.
So, I think, and once again, that's why I really focus on those three big categories, like the weight loss niche, the relationship niche, the money niche, because I mean, with weight loss once again, like even if you have you know, if you don't have a job or whatever, or maybe you canceled your gym membership, but the chance of you buying a supplement that can help you lose weight is probably high, you know, because, and the same thing with like relationships. Like, you're still gonna wanna find that significant other or whatever you know. And with money obviously, if you don't have a job, like you're gonna wanna find like a business opportunity that allows you to work from home and make more money, you know. And that's why we've had a lot of people join you know, Commission Hero this year.
We had a lot of people that actually got laid off or put on furlough for their job and they ended up like actually making more money with Commission Hero and they stopped workin' at the job. But, you know, I think that's the thing. That's why I really, I think you need to stick to those niches I think initially until you kinda see what's goin' on. Some of the other niches like are, they'll probably do well, but they're not like I would say, as kinda recession proof as they need to be you know, because it's almost like a, like a hobby thing. Like, I could do this, but I don't necessarily need that.
Right. Whereas, I think that weight loss, people like it's so kind of ingrained and it's such an emotional purchase and an irrational purchase sometimes. I think that makes a big difference. - Yeah, no that's great advice.
And I think something just for people to always remember that there are those verticals that just, no matter what, we always keep buying and we'll find a way. It's good to remember not to make buying decisions for your customers, right. Just be the reason that they do buy it.
- That's such a great point. You know, and I think this I sometimes I tell my students because I have so many students that are you know, either in their, either they're 40 year old guys or whatever, and they're like, I would never buy this product. And it's like, well yeah, it's not for you. You never advertise based on how you personally would buy. You advertise based on your avatar that you're trying to advertise, too. Like, and so, yeah, you're absolutely right.
- Yeah, yeah. We have a good saying at ClickBank, especially in the biz dev realm. If you like the product it won't do well in our platform.
It's like, unfortunately, we don't employ as many you know, 45 plus year old conservative females. (laughing) So yeah, that's awesome. So, kinda shifting gears here a little bit. I'm just wrapping things up. The last kind of business oriented question before we go into our fast five we wanted to talk to you about is, I just, any up and coming, I know obviously, your Facebook, but are there any up and coming traffic sorta out there that you're seeing? Do you think maybe yourself, they're tempted? Or do you think others should maybe look into to differentiate themselves? I think sometimes if you're the first person in on a new traffic source, just haven't seen, wasn't sure if you've seen anything.
- Um, I mean SnapChat was promising. It's kinda disappointed me this past year, so I really haven't focused too much on that. YouTube is big. I mean, YouTube is like, it amazes me how many people are not doing YouTube right now.
Actually, you know what we're doing when we're updating Commission Hero, we have a whole section on YouTube coming up that's gonna be pretty cool, because I think that's such an untapped spot. It's so massive, and I think the pretty cool thing about YouTube, it's not a new traffic source, but the thing is like, people go there and it's very search based, right, and people are so conditioned to like, sit down and watch a video and then you know, when you take that person who's sitting down and watching a video on YouTube and then you send them to a 38 minute VSL, the chances of them actually watching the whole thing is gonna be a lot greater because they're already conditioned to it. They're on a platform where they're used to watching long content.
So, we're gonna be doin' that for sure. But, for me, I'm always doublin' down on Facebook. Like, I've yet to find a platform, even with all its you know, quirks and drives me crazy sometimes, even with all that, like there's nothing out there that can absolutely scale fast, test with a low budget and just absolutely just crush it, so you know. So but, You Tube is definitely promising, yeah. - Yeah, YouTube it seems the creatives are a little bit of a challenge.
I think from your up front verse Facebook, like the up front investment to figure it out, and top of the funnel is pretty expensive on YouTube ads. But yeah, I agree, the second largest search engine behind Google is YouTube. So you know, the touch points of buying behavior, it makes a ton of sense for sure.
But, I just always like to tell people, hey, if you're going to Facebook, to YouTube, just be aware, your creatives are gonna be way more challenging to come up with. Boy, when it works, man, whew, so. All right, well fast five. So, some of these questions are not gonna be all business specific and they're gonna center around you.
So, first question. What are your strengths as an entrepreneur and how have you refined and improved those skills? - I think my strengths are, I'm very stubborn, I think, like literally I just, I just have a chip on my shoulder and I just get it done, right. I double down on it you know, like we were talking about before the podcast, you know, being from New England, like I have that you know kinda hard work mentality. Like, if it's winter, like I'm still out there. You know, I grew up in a log cabin, right.
So you know, we heated our house with wood. And so, I had to go out in the winter and just carry those logs all the time, so I'm used to that hard work and that ethic. And like, and I really wanna be in that position where I just keep gettin' after it. So that's definitely one of my strengths. My other strength is I've kinda learned to ask for help, which has also been a big one for me. It used to be a weakness where I did not.
But now, like I've just learned over the time like, if I'm not where I wanna be, like I either hire a mentor, a consultant, a coach to just get me there you know, because even though it cost me money to do that, in the long run I save so much money and it buys me speed. And so, that's really two things I've been. And the other thing I've done is I think my other strength is being comfortable with being uncomfortable. I think that's another one that has really helped me out because you know, it kinda comes back to my CrossFit days where I, you know, the expression was like, embrace the suck.
I used to tell my members that, embrace the suck. Like, it's not gonna be good. You're not gonna wanna do it. You're gonna wanna quit in the middle, but at the end of it you're gonna feel great.
You know, so learning how to be uncomfortable and being comfortable with that is huge because as an entrepreneur there's a lotta uncomfortable stuff. Like, there's a lotta stuff that like, will come your wan and your like, oh my God, I didn't even know that existed or I didn't even know that was a problem and trying to figure it out. That's been good. And the last thing I'll say is I've been very, you know, one of my strengths is I look forward to problems, right.
I think that as an entrepreneur you're always gonna have problems and the goal is to go from having problems of like, how do I pay my bills? How do I do this? To then like, hey, how do I write off more so I can save money on my taxes? Or, how can I like diversify more, like? So, that's the one thing because I think when people have when they first start out when it comes to success, they think they're tryin' to avoid problems. And it's like, no, you're always gonna have problems. Like, the only people that don't have problems are dead people. And so, you're not dead, you're gonna have problems, but the goal is to go from bad problems to first world problems.
- Yeah, yeah, all about those first world problems. I love then finding Robby, that we have some similar quotes. I tell my kids all the time to embrace the suck. Like, whenever they complain it's like, you gotta embrace the suck, man.
Like, once you get through that, it makes the reward that much sweeter, which isn't met with kindness from them most of the time. They don't enjoy that. I think it's gotta be a dad quote.
- They will, they will though. - One day, one day, it's a long game. And then, how are you more Idahoan than anyone else in this room? That seems like, with your log cabin and growing up that way, like we just grew up in the suburbs. Well, I don't know about Thomas.
So, you actually transitioned really nicely to the next question, which is, who are some mentors that have impacted your life? And what specifically did they do to impact it? - Yeah so, I would say I got three mentors in my life. One would be my dad. You know, I love my dad. He's been a big influence on me.
He's a hard worker. The guy, you know 45 years, the same school, started as a student teacher and worked his way up to principal, and just you know, just that work ethic of just like, every single day just puttin' in the work and so, he's been a big influence for me. My second mentor was one of my, one of my personal training clients at the time.
His name was Peter and Peter owned 180 McDonald's franchises, right. And so, the cool thing about Peter was he literally came from Italy when he was maybe nine or 10, didn't speak English, you know, dropped outta college, worked at McDonald's flippin' burgers and then he worked his way up to you know, having just a ton of franchises and being one of the top franchisees in the entire country, which is insane. So, I learned so much from him. You know, I personal trained him, but I think it was like 10 years.
Man, I think he taught me way more than I taught him 'cause it was just, it was so cool to learn from him. And then finally, my last mentor was Bedros Keuilian, still is. You know, Bedros is big in the fitness space and you know, being a trainer. Like, I remember I got this, I was in college, I was a junior in college and I wanted to do personal training and they taught you like the exercise science stuff. They teach you the business stuff.
I remember my professor coming and saying, hey, we got, I got this book I just bought, like I don't know if you want it. Like, it might be pretty cool. It was called The Art of Selling Fitness and it was by the guy, Bedros, right. And it was so crazy because you know, just literally like four or five years later I ended up joining his master mind. I ended up speaking at his events, like several different times and I actually ran a lot of his Facebook ads for a long time. We've become good friends.
So, it's so crazy how it just kinda comes. Like, that book changed my life and then, I'm like wow, here I am like me and him are good friends, like I call him up, you know. So, he's definitely a guy and once again, he came from Armenia. You know, they escaped Soviet Russia. You know, he's got that, you know as he says, the immigrant edge, where you kinda have that, you know, that chip on your shoulder, like you've just gotta make it.
You know, you're in the greatest country in the world right now, so you gotta make it happen and make that dream happen. So yeah, those would be my three mentors, yeah. - And you can see that train, or the, it's that constant of just worth ethic grind, right, like love the grind, embrace the suck and look, it's obviously it's worked out for you, all of them and obviously, it started with your dad being that example. What great stories, man. Those are some freakin' awesome mentors, like.
I'm sure if McDonald's has probably highlighted that guy as much as possible, right. Like, that's, that's a story, whew. So, next one, we've all been, at least at some time this year, locked indoors longer than we anticipated.
So, streaming recommendations, what are you watching right now, or what has been the thing that you just have to tell people that they need to watch? - Yeah so, I mean, if we're talkin' Netflix, I mean, I recently I watched the Queen's Gambit, which I thought was pretty good, you know. - Very good. - I thought that was really good. - I didn't think it was gonna be good 'cause I was like, chess, no thanks, but boy, that's a good one.
- Yeah, that was really good. I've watched some other ones, I'm tryin' to think here. I watched this series called Russian Doll, which was pretty cool. That was like, I think it was only one season right now, but honestly like, you know, I didn't spend too much time you know, streaming.
Like, I'm I took the opportunity to like, I'm like wow, this is amazing opportunity right now to just move my business forward and like, as I tell my team, like, you gotta make hay when the sun shines, right. So, you know, it's you know, people unfortunately in life, think in absolutes, right. So, when, when things are really good in business they think it's gonna be really good forever, right. And then, when things are really bad they think it's gonna be really bad. And so, I just knew like with Commission Hero and what we're doing and what we're trying to build, like, this is a moment in time for us where we can help as many people as possible and like you know obviously, having online business has been, has been great this year and it'll be great next year.
And so, that's that's been my focus, right. Like, how can I help more people have success online? And so, so I do a little streaming here and there, you know, just maybe an episode or two a night. But, other than that I'm workin', man, workin' towards my dreams, yeah. - So, the real streaming recommendation is Commission Hero.
So, if you aren't streaming videos of Robby, then you're really missing out. - Yeah, and it's funny because I have so many friends and even my girlfriend, she was like, you know, she'll be like workin' out listenin' to YouTube music and then, and then my ad pops up. She's like, what the heck? Like, enough already, I've seen your ad, get outta here, you know. So yeah. - Tell her just to buy it.
She should buy the course so it'll go away, right. So, next one, little bit weird, but as we talked about like COVID and food has been a big thing. So, tell me about a food that you love that you wish you hated, that you'd get rid of it, but your like listen, I'm in a toxic relationship. Like, for example, mine is Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Covered Chocolate Filled Pretzel or Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels. Oh my gosh, like I wish they tasted like manure to me.
But, it's like pure ecstasy when I just. - Oh my gosh. Well, there was quite a few items. I definitely put on the quarantine 15 for a while there. But yeah, I would say like for me it was probably Oreos because, and it wasn't even my fault. So, when the whole quarantine thing happened, you know, my dad was goin' through some health issues, right, so he had, he had a heart attack and then he found out he had colon cancer from that heart attack.
He went through chemo. He's fine now, complete recovery. I mean, such a lucky guy and I'm glad he's still around. But, he stayed with us for like, like five or six weeks and like my dad is you know, he eats whatever he wants and he had Oreos everywhere. And like, and of course like here I am, like I literally can't stop myself and they're like double, like the mega double stuffed ones that are like three inch high ones. - Just a massive Oreo, like an Oreo sandwich almost.
- I mean, I was, I mean every time I went to the kitchen I was like just takin' a full sleeve and just, I mean, it was insane. So, and then it got to the point where you know finally I got to the point in I think it was like maybe June where I'm like all right, like enough is enough. Like, so I just cleaned out everything out. I started gettin' back in shape.
I actually lost 18 pounds after, just workin' out and everything. So and, I haven't stopped since then. So much better, 'cause man, I felt like crap. - Yeah, I mean there's that moment when you eat the sleeve of Oreos you feel great and then. - You feel great when you're eatin' it, but afterwards.
- Then days afterwards. - No, it was like seconds after. - Have you ever done the peanut butter and Oreo, where you dip an Oreo in peanut butter? - I was doin', I did Oreos with like, not peanut butter. I've done, I've done Nutella. I remember Nutella which was an interesting thing. - Yeah, sorry for us to go like full fat kit here.
Oreos not bad enough. What can I dip it in? - What can I dip it in, yeah exactly? You know, you do the classic Oreo move where you like just you know, you break off half of one and then you combine the two together and now you have like an extra mega triple stuffed. - What do you do with your extra cookie wafers when you do like a mega stuff like that? - Yeah, you eat it afterwards. - Okay.
- Not because you want to, because you have to. - Okay, my wife will leave them. Like, if we have Oreos she'll leave like, I'll find these discs that are just, I mean, who wants to eat that? It's like a muffin bottom, right.
(both talking at the same time) So, for those that don't know Robby, Robby likes to golf. Would we say like? Maybe love would be, would we say love? Love to golf. So, any golfer has some epic golf stories, particularly around an epic golf shot. So, tell us your most epic golf shot that you've had. - I have a couple.
- We can only have one, Robby. Just kiddin', you go ahead. - I'll give you two.
So, one of them was kinda funny. Last time I was out here at ClickBank headquarters, you know, Taylor, who's behind the scenes here, was filming, like we're doing some filming stuff and everything and you know, I had some good shots. And I forget what hole it was. It was like a par, par three or something like that. I just was off the green. You know, I chipped the ball and he's filming all these other things.
Like, I chip the ball, like it goes in and I'm like, Taylor, did you get that? He's like, nope. I'm like, dude, you got all my bad shots, but the one time I chip in for birdie, like you just missed it. So, that was one. And then, I was thinkin' the other, the other time was, I've never had a hole in one, but I've had, one time it was on like, I think it was on like the 15th hole of this local course I play, and par four, I was probably like 160 yards out and you know, just one hop in the hole and that was, that was pretty cool.
And but yeah I mean, that's, it's hard. I mean, golf like you know, I'm lookin' at 10 handicap, so you know the better you get like the less satisfied you are every round you play. And but, I love golf. I mean, that's like my, that's my happy place.
You know, the nice thing is like you know, I have a place in Florida now and playing down there I'll you know, I can paly 18 holes in two hours and then just go to work. So, I do that every day and it's good 'cause I can think about stuff and I can listen you know, take calls and stuff. It's just really a good time where, it's like my thinking time you know, where I can you know, think about business, think about big goals and dreams and that's kinda, that's kinda cool, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. Somethin' about bein' on that grass and that sound. I mean, the sound of a good shot is just, I don't know if there's much better than that.
- I don't think there is. I don't think there is. - Especially with an iron, which I never do, like. But boy, oh, it's just, I can't even describe how beautiful that is. So, well awesome, Robby. We really appreciate your time and glad I got you thinkin' about golf, since it's raining here and not really ideal golf weather.
- I know. - It's more like, what is it, not the, just the open, right. This is open weather that we have here.
- Yeah it is, yeah. - So but, really appreciate your time and just for those of you, you should, are there some handles where people could follow you, Robby? And obviously, you know, people, if you are interested in Facebook ads, you know, Commission Hero is a fantastic course, as we've talked about in here, to get real results. So yeah, if you wanna share anything or anything you wanna close, how people could get a hold of you or find you? - Yeah, I mean, I spend time on Instagram quite a bit, so just @Robby Blanchard, R-O-B-B-Y and then Blanchard and then yeah, if you're interested in learning how to to run ads where most people make money, then Commission Hero is definitely the way to do it, so yeah. - Yeah, any golfers out there, challenge him. Just throw down. - Yeah hey, anyone wanna play golf, please, I'll never say no.
- Yes, that's good. Great, well all right, that's it for today. And everyone, thank you for listening. Be sure to rate, subscribe and review the podcast and look for more amazing interviews from individuals like Robby.
Thanks so much. Have a good day.
2021-03-03 07:38
