I Challenged A Stranger To Start Her Dream Business In 7 Days

This week I'm using my

start

up experience to help a newbie entrepreneur. I'm a little scared. I have only 4

days

to set her on a new path and hopefully give her the tools to unlock her full potential. Yes, I'm Tim Ferris. Becoming a bestselling author and human guinea pig. I'll show you how to make the impossible possible by breaking the rules together. I will find the best teachers in the world and push myself to the limit to deconstruct, decode and demystify some of the world's toughest challenges. record time if I can do it, can you too? This week's experiment is to build a

business

and instead of being the student, I am one of the teachers, we are here in my hometown, San Francisco, Startup Kingdom to help a beginner get up and leading the other teacher, my partner in crime is Noah Kagan, good friend, I've known him for years, he's the founder and head of Sumo of appsumo docomo or entrepreneurs who want to become entrepreneurs, hey what's up bro?

Do you want to have some coffee, yes, have some caffeine? The student I won't be working with is Cindy Manet, a freelance yoga instructor who supplements her income by doing odd jobs. She now wants to be her own boss and focus solely on yoga. Did you do a lot of yoga? She was doing it in a very similar way. I went to India and did yoga for a month, oh you did, yeah, so I'm not matched, I'm not armed here, uh, yeah, you'll pretty much be able to evaluate, you'll have something to compare this to with Noah. highly analytical asks very good questions.

She has followed hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs as they try to do what she is going to do this week. Alright, we're out the door. I wanted to team up with Noah and go take one of Cindy's classes. to get to know you how we want to experience it first hand no context no backstory no explanation to see what the product is inhale get halfway hold your breath now lift up and turn to the right exhale now your next inhale Open your eyes and get to your first Downward Facing Dog class was solid, but it was also a lot like any other yoga class I've ever been in and I suspect there's more beneath the surface that Cindy has to offer and we're going to have to find out what that is.

How do you choose what to do, exercise or health? I'm kind of a show type person, in fact, I definitely need a very clear endpoint As soon as class ended, Noah pounced on these other students and it became an impromptu focus group. So what I'm trying to explore with Cindy is that you know what kind of yoga can set her apart so that others want to come week after week, but I want to explore some of the things that people really

start

ed to resonate with. in music at your yoga classes which I have attended numerous times, I once had a 70's disco yoga night, oh that was cool, Donna Summers, Michael Jackson, what was cool about that, how often do you listen to music from the 70s and when are you?

By doing yoga, we can discover paths that we can follow to really figure out how you can differentiate yourself and get this thing off the ground, hopefully becoming an entrepreneur. I mean, it's not the easiest path, right? It's difficult, how and when you decided to do it. In fact, I try to make yoga a

business

. You know, I was teaching like three, four times a week, but I also wanted to create my own thing. I saw a lot of people in San Francisco have boot camps for fitness businesses. Things like that. Well if they are doing it I could do it too, I just didn't know what Cindy would be, I don't think she has a very clear goal, we have to help her get EX dreem Clarity Crystal Clarity in my book The 4-.

Time Work Week I describe a framework for creating and growing a business using the acronym agreement d a l which stands for elimination of definition Automation and Liberation Liberation is the ultimate goal, it is a life of mobility and choice, but the first step towards Liberation is the definition, which means quantifying your goals and overcoming any fear that might stop you from starting what you've been doing hasn't worked, so you have to try to say well what's something new, one way I can approach it are there a lot of parties that involve alcohol? What if there are parties related to physical exercise, health, smoothies, juices and all that?

You already know it and you're excited about it and you think you're convincing me. I'm like Timy, I want to have my green smoothie about what happened, even though I like, oh, how do I do that, how do I do that? I mean, what was the worst that could have happened if you had really tried? I guess the worst thing would be that no one shows up like they think so. It might be interesting to try a coffee challenge right now. It was the coffee challenge. It's where you walk up to a random person, the guy there doesn't know, and ask for a 10% discount.

She is very shy. She can be. She is extremely shy and shy, why would she ask for a discount on coffee? We have to train her to get to the point where she can break through those irrational fears and you start with silly things. Have you ever had people ask you for discounts on your classes? um, I guess. I could do it I think that means she should do it Yes, it's all yours I'm kind I'm a little nervous This is cool, don't make me nervous Yes, leave it dead, you'll do great, it's okay, fear is really interesting animal is something that We all face it in different ways.

Can I get a companion for 10% off? You have to get vaccinated to be well against the fear of rejection. Awkward conversations asking for things you think you don't deserve but really need. Yeah, it's like he did, yeah, hey, hey, so thanks for what happened, he says, yeah, sure, what's the special occasion, okay, congratulations, yeah, thanks, you can really train for things. big ones that scare you by practicing with the really small things. Maybe I'd like to explore fear a little more. Oh no, on my first day with Cindy, we started with the deal strategy from my book The 4 Hour Work Week to help her make the leap from freelance yoga instructor to full-time holistic entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is a full contact sport, we're throwing Sydney into the game and immediately making her do things that make her uncomfortable and we're using some unorthodox methods, welcome to the house of air, oh that's cool, the House of Air founders actually used the 4-hour work week as a guide when they were first building their business, so it's the perfect place for Cindy to practice facing her fears. Today we are going to increase her anti by asking her to do her first backflip. I'm a little scared, let's work on this backflip. I'm always afraid of landing on my neck or something, come on.

I want to condition her so that she realizes that she can deal with fear. Worst case scenario if something goes wrong. bad it's not that bad it's very manageable you can recover okay I've never done this before it's okay you can do it I'm afraid I'm afraid now one 2 3 1 2 3 keep going she was 80% of the Until then she continued holding the ropes giving 80 % is like giving 0% is just not enough to reach orbit you have to reach escape velocity and to do that you have to commit and I think that's something you've had a hard time doing That was a big pause I think you can totally do it, okay, it was so close you did it, you're almost there, okay, amazing, no, she finally did it without grabbing the robe in a way, I think that will transfer to the other things. that we are going to do the first backflip in history, that is a big problem, which was more difficult, the 10% discount on coffee or the backflip, backflip, backflip.

Cindy is really starting to understand the critical importance of overcoming fear to achieve her goals. Now it's simply time for her to do it. She defines exactly what those goals are, so I want to ask you a little bit about what really excites you. I just envision, I don't know, kids, people, families getting together and using yoga as a community gathering space, but what's missing, so why? we here I want to make more money okay now we are getting somewhere there is a definition that involves defining your ideal lifestyle through quantification so imagine your ideal retirement that you may be putting off for 10, 20 or more years, what do you have? what you make and how much it costs monthly this becomes your TMI your target monthly income what is more money and what would be a solid amount if I can only make 5000 a month I would be fine with 5K you have an extra 2500 what do you do with it I want to take my parents back to Thailand because as soon as they go on vacation I want to be able to take them back and they don't have to worry about buying that plane ticket now we are clear the amount that Cindy needs to cover her monthly expenses is approximately $2500 and the amount she needs for Liberation, which is between $4 and $5000 per month, but the question remains how she achieves that goal that sets her apart from every other yoga instructor and catapults her into the lucrative Kingdom of the truly unique.

What will the future look like? If you're trying to drive somewhere, you need to know the destination. What idea, besides being another boring yoga teacher, would you like to do if you're going to do it? I don't. I don't want to be a boring yoga teacher and that would suck, you know, that could get me anywhere, it's time for Cindy to up her game, so I'm giving her a real stretch goal. I would like to propose that you organize a disco yoga party. class of at least 30 people and everyone has to pay you got very quiet suddenly I'm like shooting I'm two

days

old I'm already starting to think this will be the biggest IND class he's ever taught and she can make more money than ever before for help her on her way.

I am giving you a book that I consider essential for the launch of any product, so I think you will find it very useful and it might be a good idea to delve deeper into this topic. a little bit tonight, okay, the principles in this book are extremely practical, they are all backed up by case studies, it's a great short book. Tim and NOA definitely bothered me a lot, which I guess is a good thing in a way, the real work is coming tomorrow. My God, everything is fine. to say no yesterday and put Cindy on the clock we gave her two days to host a disco yoga class with at least 30 paying clients her biggest event to date Cindy still hasn't figured out what she's charging and it needs to be a lot more aggressive When pricing the service she offers, I have done events before with hundreds or over a thousand people and I noticed something really interesting when I did free events.

Less than half showed up as soon as I started charging attendance almost 100% right when you pay for it you value it more as the most you've ever charged someone for a group class in the last 10 bucks for the moment let's make it 10 Yeah, okay, okay, now that we've set Cindy's price, she needs to find an effective marketing strategy and that brings us to the second step of my four-part process for building any business by eliminating what you would normally do, Let's say we didn't give you 48 hours to organize the biggest event in your history, what would it be?

The normal process you would go through would probably give me maybe a couple of weeks because I'm afraid of time. I always have a hard time concentrating on one thing and then it's like I doubt myself. I'm starting to question myself. If I'm good enough, I guess the good news is that you really don't have time to be afraid of the weather this week, yeah, yeah, exactly like that, so today we're going to find out what worked, what happened, so we can eliminate it. as much as possible. What we're going to do, which is Quant-based marketing, is list all the different ways you can get 30 people and how many people you think will sign up that way, keeping track. of things is very, very important, you can focus on what has worked, have you tried any particular way of getting clients?

I just posted on Facebook, hey, I'm teaching in the studio, okay, and of course no one shows up, I mean. Of course, what do you mean how often does that happen? Very often. C needs to stop crossing his fingers with passive marketing strategies and try more direct methods. The phone is very effective but it's very uncomfortable, so you need a script and Noah and I are going to help you. she writes a How would you approach Tim to come to your class? It's like, Hey Tim, there's a really cool class I'm teaching tomorrow night. I wish you could make it sound cool.

God, I just got here. There are many things happening. I'll let you know if I can get it right. A common mistake is that we do passive communication. Can someone come to my class? Well, no one came well. I didn't expose myself instead of the opposite. Hi Tim, what are you doing tomorrow night? I'm not sure what's going on. So I can't draw the bull card. It's kind of passive in the way that maybe I have it. I need to be really more direct or direct. Hi Tim, what are you doing? for tomorrow night I haven't figured it out since you don't have any solid plans tomorrow I wouldn't open since you don't have anythingmore to do because it decreases the value of the class ok I would say awesome I'm throwing my second disco yoga party the last one was sold out.

It would mean a lot to me if you came. I can count on you? Here is a link to the event. It will cost $10 and will include yoga disco music and good dancing. Cindy is ready with it. script so now it's time to put it to work hey David hey Tony she hey Casey I'm throwing my second disco yoga dance party it only cost 10 bucks do you want to come Cindy seems like a person from and as a result she closed 11 people and I found an amazing place , incredible. I had never been pressured like this before there was direct action.

Now, instead of just sitting there wondering what I should do, I'm very curious to see how far tomorrow has come, today is a pretty important day. I turn on my laptop. I noticed that I had more tickets sold. My goal is 30. I'm pretty sure I'll get it tonight. I'll be working on that. Today I'm going to ask Cindy to contact me today in a place that I thought would be particularly instructive for her. Here we are Creative Live is a startup founded by a friend of mine that offers top-notch instruction from some of the best experts in the world for free, so you can tune in to live streams online for free, you can watch a 2 or 3 course days about learning the language of photography about anything and then if you want to download it after the fact to access it later, pay, check this place out. and this all started with a boy who liked to take photographs.

Wow, that's it. I thought it was an important lesson for Cindy to see, so she stops thinking about $10 per person per class, one class at a time. Okay, so I can barely contain myself. I want You, to understand me, update me. Where we are? I think we have a little over 30 sales right now. Congratulations, creative life aside. The point of registration was Checker's status. What works. What not. Let's see. on some of the numbers quickly, so Facebook, so you got four per direct message, yeah, Facebook event page zero about phone calls, how many phone calls did you make.

Seven, okay, so you made seven calls and got 10 people. Yes, that's fantastic. after you've done the deletion, remove the things that are trivial, rather than the critical few, the automation takes what's left and scales it, but let's say you decide that calls are the most effective way to get people to sign up , it's something that you can be touchy with another person, so that eliminates you from a whole piece, right, mhm, if the phone works very well, could you find a friend or two to recruit people and give them a 50% commission to Isn't she the only bottleneck now? you don't need to be there mhm, you could be in thailand with your family while this is still happening.

Cindy is still a long way from full automation, but she wanted to plant the seed so that she could at least visualize what she could do for her business. Someday come, I have homework to do, I have to do four more hours, I don't know, it's not much, the night of Cindy's yoga disco party has finally arrived. Cindy has worked her ass off to organize this event in two days, let's see if she can make it happen. Before I was very nervous because it's like a new experience, a new place, a new space, there is no equipment, but now that my friends are here I feel a little more relaxed.

I want you to set your intention for tonight so let's take this moment to Breathe at first it was like the other glass we had with Cindy but once we warmed up the music started playing and it was a completely different Beast okay , inhale, raise your arms and clap your hands to the beauty music, don't be shy, woo a lot. go within 5 minutes of starting class I knew it was going to go well because she had clearly tried hard, had memorized the proper lines and Segways fist pump fist pump fist with right hand lower crouch crouch crouch she made a great job and people really had a great time last night it was amazing I thought you did an amazing job really impressed we need to shake it off it was definitely a growing week for me it was exhausting but I have more confidence in I'm excited to start this week.

Cindy successfully implemented the first two steps of the agreement. Now is the time to give her a task designed to develop that and guide her towards Automation and ultimately Liberation. We defined your target monthly income and You also had this

dream

trip to Thailand with your family, if your goal is 4000 for a month, you made 330 in 36 hours, which is fantastic, we are going to be very, very generous and we will give you until next time Friday to win $1,000. Okay, so if you do that, you can fundamentally change your life. Cindy could become a world-class businesswoman if she wanted to now.

She teaches a class paid for by the director. She has to be there later. She could grow it. She could start delegating. She then she starts to automate, well, as they say in the infomercials, you're making money and you're sleeping, but you have to do it step by step, you can't try to eat the elephant in one bite. I think one of the things you know, Tim. talk about the system is that what you're really looking for is what you can repeat and what will be predictable. Cindy's next challenge is to create a unique yoga experience with a repeatable revenue model that provides her with immediate cash flow at a minimum. $1,000 high five, high five here in San Francisco, the tech startup community is huge and I thought, hey, maybe I could bring disco yoga to the corporate world, so Tim and Noah

challenged

me to win $1,000 in a week, but I actually ended up making $1,050.

So it's definitely a good start. The adventure is just beginning for Cindy. This year she is going to Thailand with her entire family, but more importantly, what about you? What are you going to do and where are you going this year? Hey guys, this is Tim Ferris. One of the things that kills me about television is that you have to take all these incredible images. In our case, we had five to six days of 12 to 16 hours typically a day and you have to cut it down to 21 or 22 minutes, which is a 30 minute show without the commercials, it just makes me want to stab myself in the eyes with the spokes of a bicycle, it's so agonizing, the good news is that we have all that footage, so we've taken huge, extended scenes, we've taken interviews.

I've taken tutorials on everything imaginable that we could get our hands on that we thought was really world class that we wanted to implement and you can find it on 4hourworkweek domcom, all detailed in fur etc. and we really feel like we could have done better. 2 hour documentary imaginable on the topic you just watched or had five different shows of equal quality all different with the footage we captured so check it out there is some amazing stuff and you can also check out the podcast where I do a lot of time on some. In some cases, two to three hour interviews with a lot of the experts on this show and that's the Tim Ferris show, which was nominated as one of the best on iTunes, so I'm very happy and you can watch both as well which finds everything in 4hourworkweek. doomtv and if by the way you think that's an oxymoron you're right if you want a 4 hour work week don't work in television thanks for watching