Todays post is an Interview I recently did with Neil Patel, Neil is one of the nicest guys I know. Having spent time with him at Yanik Silvers Underground Seminar in March this year I can truly say that Neil Patel is very entertaining!!

Most of the interviews I have on my site are people who I met at Yanik Silver’s event. So you can see how much of an impact it has had on my business! HUGE!

Neil Patel is a self-proclaimed computer geek who has a knack for numbers and analysing things. His companies generate a ton of money and he has a big goal of building a company thats worth more than $100 million. I know he will do it because he is so focused.

I have known about this huge point for a long time – Neil Patel brought it up again in the interview:

You take your 5 closest friends, you add up their income and you divide it by 5 (so pretty much you’re taking the average) and that’s gonna be the average worth of your income.

I have got the transcription of the interview below for those of you who want to read it.

For those of you who prefer to listen here is the audio file, I hope you enjoy it and take a lot of value away from it:

Download Mp3 of Interview Here

Neil Patel Interview Transcript……..

Aaron: Hi guys and girls, this is Aaron Darko from Millionaireat24.com and today we have a very very special guest. His name is Neil Patel and he is a co-founder of two internet companies, Crazyegg and Kissmetricks. And he’s got a personal blog which is at quicksprout.com and through these two companies he’s helped large corporations such as AOL, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard and Wiacom make more money from the web. By the age of 21, not only was Neil named top 100 blogger by technorati, he was also one of the top influences on the web according to Wall Street Journal.

Neil are you there you with us?

Neil: Yes, I’m here, thank you for having me.

Aaron: No worries. Now, I’ve actually met you back in March didn’t I, On Yanik Silver’s Underground seminar?

Neil: Yep! Yes and we even had, I think, a drink together or so?

Aaron: Yeah, it was pretty cool, pretty cool. So, how are you doing?

Neil: I’m doing good.

Aaron: Cool man, so let’s get straight into it. So, tell us a bit about yourself, and what you’re about and your story, if you would please?

Neil: Sure, so, I’m just a 25 year old entrepreneur. I started in the whole business when I was around 16 and since then I’ve been doing a lot of .com stuff.

So, whether it’s a consultant company or analytics company and there’s a lot of other fail startups in between. And, yeah, I’m just an internet guy and a computer geek that loves doing stuff that’s online.

Aaron: Sweet, so could dive into bit more about what, how your school days were and what you used to do for money when you were at school?

Neil: Sure, so when I was… still, two things, so, in high school I used to do things like: sell pirated black-boxes, hack satellite cards so that way people could get adult content on their TV or, specially, the kids could…

Aaron: [Laughs]

Neil: (…) I could burn CDs and DVDs so people could get movies before they came out, that way they didn’t have to pay 10 – 15 dollars for music CD and I would do it for, like, dollar, two dollars…

And while I was at college, I had an internet marketing consulting company that I cofounded with my business partner. What we used to do is just help out other companies get rankings on Google, right?

Like the General Motors of the World and the HP’s so that way when you typed in “cars”, General Motors would show first at the top.

Aaron: Wow, that’s smart. So, when you were in college, what caused you start your own company with your business partner?

Neil: What caused me to?

Aaron: Yeah.

Neil: So, I actually started that when I was in high school and then I just carried that company on into college. I didn’t want to go to college but my parents kinda forced me, so I ended up going to… I took my time, took me 5 and a half years to graduate but um, I went to college so…

Aaron: So, what company did you start when you were at high school and which you carried on to college, what was that called?

Neil: That was called ACS; it was an internet marketing consulting agency and our goal was to help people get more traffic from the internet. But, it was also to get traffic that converts, right? Because, you can drive a million visitors, but those million visitors may not convert to customers.

Aaron: Sweet, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, what got you started, so now you start investing in businesses, that’s what you do now, right?

Neil: I spend most of my time with my startups, I passively invest in other companies, it’s not something I try to focus on or, you know, do full time by any means. But, you know, if few friends of mine are investing in a startup and I like it I’ll just tag along and I’ll put in a small, yeah, chunk of money.

Me and Neil Patel - of QuickSprout.com - Such a cool guy!

Aaron: Yeah, so after ACS, what company did you start up next? What was your next project?

Neil: Crazyegg.

Aaron: Can you tell us a bit about that please?

Neil: Sure, Crazyegg is a heat map analytics. It’s really simple, right? There’s all these analytical solutions out there like Google, Omniture, Quantmetrics…. but the thing with all these analytics solutions is: when you see the report, it doesn’t really help you visualize the data. With Crazyegg we do one thing (and I would like to think) really well. In which we show you where people click on your website so that way you can actually take that image and figure out: “alright, users are clicking on this image when they shoudn’t, users are not clicking on this button when I want them to”.

And based on that data points, what you do is, you redesign your design and you run another Crazyegg test to see if your design actually impacted the user experience.

Aaron: Wow, that’s amazing. So, that’s basically targeting people with businesses online?

Neil: Exactly!

Aaron: Yeah… So, what criteria do you use when you invest in business?

Neil: There’s a lot of criteria but the main is my friends really to like it, then I’ll look at it. Other than that, I want companies who already have revenue, I don’t believe in this bullshit that: “I got this idea that’s gonna make me a million dollars”. Well, alright, go and do it and then show me if it’s making money, then I’ll be potentially interested in investing.

I also like scrappy entrepreneurs, because you, like, won’t make money forever, there’s ups and downs in a business and people who save the most money are probably gonna last the longest.

And, I also like very dedicated entrepreneurs. Good friend of mine, I have money in him through the fund called “The Founder’s Club”, his company’s named Aperture, and this guy is getting married at the end of the month and I’m like: “Oh, where are you going for your honeymoon?”, and he’s like: “I’m not going on a honeymoon, I’ll probably do it later on, maybe in a year or to, I’ve got way too much work”, he’s like: “I’ve got to make my business curl”.

That’s dedicated entrepreneurs; those are the people I want to give my money to!

Aaron: Yeah, so, just to wrap it up in a nutshell, what you just said there is: you don’t give money to people who have just plain idea, you give money to people who are making money, who want to increase their revenue.

Neil: Bingo!

Aaron: Ok, so, for the young entrepreneur starting out, would you advise people to borrow money to start businesses?

Neil: No, I just recommend starting a business, and start making money and then if you need more, go look for it.

Aaron: Apsolutely! So, you subscribed to the popular motion that you can make money without money?

Neil: I definitely agree with that, a lot of my businesses were started when I had no money.

Aaron: Yeah, so, just for people out there, ‘cause they’re thinking, you know:” I can’t really do this without investing anything”. So, give us an example of a business you started without investing any capital.

Neil: Sure, ACS! It just took time and effort, as I was consulting I’d pick up the phone and call a call.

If I needed money I would do things like: I would get a 9-5 job and I worked picking up trash whilst at school and I used that money like do things like buy a computer, basic things like that.

The issue with most people is, they say they need money, they say they don’t have money, but for some odd reason they are able to find themselves partying at a club on Friday, Saturday nights. This ends up costing them a few hundred dollars every night and then they’re like: “I don’t have enough money to start my business”.

Well, you don’t really need a million dollars to start a business. You’d be surprised on how far a few grand would get you.

Aaron: Absolutely. I totally agree with you because most of my, most of the people that I have known in my life they’ve always said that they hadn’t had any money but they would be in a club just like you said. So definitely it’s a case of putting your priorities first and getting in the mindset of: “Ok, I want to start a business, what’s it gonna take me to start one?”

Neil: A gentleman by the name of Andrew Warner, he needed money to start a startup. He shopped at a clothing store called J Crew. He called them up and he’s like: “Hey, I have all these J Crew clothes, would you let me return them?” and they’re like:”Yeah!” but he’s like: “But I wore them, would you still accept them?” and they’re like:”Yeah”. So took all his old clothes, even new ones that he was wearing, returned them all and he ended up using that money to start a business, an internet one, and that business ended up earning, I think (don’t quote me on this), like 15 or 18 million dollars of profit every year.

Aaron: Wow… crazy stuff. All because he took his clothes back to get him capital he needed to invest right?

Neil: Exactly! There’s a lot of people who have started companies that are really big without raising much money. Microsoft, I believe, only raised, was it 1 million or 5 million? I think it was 5 million… I could be off.

But, back then the money was also worth a lot more money, but in theory, you also needed a lot more money back then to do stuff on internet than you did now anyways.

You know, then again it’s like,

You don’t need a ton of money to create business.  Yeah, you wanna create a Google or something like that, sure, but thats not for everyone and the chances are you’re not gonna succeed if you try to create a Google.

Aaron: Yeah, and my next question was gonna be, so, basically, you started your business, so what separates Neil Patel from everyone else? What makes you different from the average Joe out there?

Neil Patel at His Computer

Neil: I’m not sure what makes me different, I think I have a really big drive to make money, I don’t know what it is, but I love money. Even if I don’t need a dollar more I’d still work to make more. I’m not saying I don’t need any more but I just love it and it also drives me.

Aaron: Is that the only reason or is there…?

Neil: Money allows freedom. I don’t have to worry about mortgage payment; I don’t have to worry about car payment. I don’t have to worry about living on the street. Money helps with a lot of those things. I don’t have to go and get a job if I don’t want to.

Aaron. Yeah, absolutely. That brings us to my next point. I’ve heard plenty of times: “The bigger the Why, the easier the How”. So when you started out what was your reason? Was is just that you wanted a lot more money or was it that you wanted to provide for your family. What were your reasons?

Neil: I just wanted a lot more money.

Aaron: [Laughs] Oh, that’s great. So, we talked about your business, your first business, ACS. And your 2^nd business that was Crazyegg and I’ve recently found out that you’re doing Kissmetrics. So, can you talk more about that?

Neil: Sure, so Kissmetrics; there’s two part of Kissmetrics.

There’s Kissmetrics and the other one is Kissinsights. Kissinsights is actually launching on the 15^th or 16^th of this month so, in a few more days. And what Kissinsights is it gives you actual insight on your customer. So, when they’re doing a specific thing, so for example, you’re a blog, or you have a blog, what you can do is on a specific blog post you can ask people: “ Hey what did you think of this blog post?”. And more so this little question will pop up on the bottom right corner and you can ask them this question right away when they first visit that post.

You can only ask returning visitors, ‘cause, you know, they’re more loyal. Or you can even ask a question, let’s say, 10,20,30 minutes or seconds after that person has been on a page, ‘cause, you know, the chances of them reading that blog post are higher.

And through this data you’re able to improve your website, your product, your business, right? So, it helps you provide actionable insights on your customer.

Aaron: Wow, so you can really increase your comments and everything?

Neil: Exactly! The second product, Kissmetrics, and this is our quote product is an analytical solution that helps you track people instead of visitors. The problem with most analytic solutions is that you have a hundred visitors, or a thousand, or maybe a million, how accurate is it, right?

I have a computer at my home, I have a computer at my office, I have a computer in my bedroom, like, I have computers everywhere so that way I don’t have to take a computer with me from room to room. So, if I visit a site from 3 different computers it doesn’t mean I’m three different visitors it’s just that I have three computers.

So, we help you to track people instead of visits.

The other thing that the product does is, it’s very simplified. It’s only 1 page report. We don’t show you all the dog’s whistles that Google Analytics or Omniture shows you. Pages, we need visitors, bounce rate, all that kind of stuff, Omniture and  Google Analytics do a great job at showing that, but what we wanna show you is, and going back to that, not so much the unique visitors because that’s actually more people-oriented, so 3 unique visitors counts probably off, but, so going back to what I was talking about, It’s very simplistic, we really do 1 thing, we try to do 1 thing really well. We focus on conversions.

We try to help you track conversions and try to help you determine what you need to do to improve your conversions. So, in other words, the part you need to figure out before you run a Google Website Optimizer test is what we really specialize in.

Aaron: That’s great, so, for people starting online, how important is it for them to know how many people land on their site?

Neil: It’s very important because, would you rather know that you have 500 readers or would you rather wanna know you have 10 000 visitors?

Aaron: Yeah.

Neil: Right? It’s gonna be people, because visitors are arbitrary numbers that don’t really mean anything. But I really wanna know how many people I have reading my blog every single day. ‘Cause that tells me how engaged they are. “Oh my God, I have 500 people reading my blog and I have a 100 unique comments”, not bad, 20% of your readers are commenting.

On the other hand, if you have 10 000 visitors and yet, you have a 100 comments you’re like:”I barely get any of my readers commenting”. And that’s because your visit count is inaccurate, it doesn’t matter.

Aaron: Yeah, so, It doesn’t matter how many visit do you get, it matters about how many readers you get and how long are they gonna stay on the site?

Neil: Exactly! Because a visit is a visit, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Neil: There’s a damn person behind that visit. It’s not a robot that’s actually visiting your site, it’s a person.

Aaron: Yeah, absolutely. So, the one thing I got from that what you said there is that all your businesses; they have 1 thing in common. They focus on a problem people have and they provide a solution and you basically, your secret of business is just focusing on doing 1 thing really well?

Neil: Bingo! I don’t like big products, big ideas with all these features, I like very simplistic solutions.

Aaron: Yeah, and one thing, your solution, appeals to mass market ‘cause everyone has a website and there, as we know, there’s millions of websites out there, so, that would apply to a whole mass market; even if it’s a simple little solution right?

Neil: Yes, so everyone does have a website and everyone does need but our clients aren’t everyone, they are all people who have a website for business purposes.

Aaron: Right, cool. So, we talked about a bit of business and stuff and I’ve read your blog first and I’ve read that you live in a hotel?

Neil: Yeah I do…

Aaron: So, can you talk about your reasons behind living in a hotel and what lifestyle it allows you to lead?

Neil: Sure, so, I’ve been living in a hotel because: 1, I got a good deal; 2, I was a bachelor that didn’t know how to cook or clean and do all those other types of things. I could figure it out; my first job was actually cleaning. But, my whole thing is, I can spend that time making money and I’m gonna be more more productive and the amount of money I make is gonna be a lot more than if I spend that time cleaning.

Aaron: Yeah.

Neil: So that’s why I’ve been living in a hotel on such a convenient location. I also have few buddies who live here, and I actually live underneath one of them, it’s good enough and working for me so…

Aaron. Yeah, definitely. There’s another point I wanted to talk about. In “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill talked about the mastermind, power of the mastermind, so how do you think is important for people to, like, get around with people and share ideas.

Neil: I think it’s a really good concept, because

If you’re not around like-minded people it’s not gonna help you grow mentally.

Aaron. Hmm… definitely! So what business lessons would you give to young entrepreneurs? Because I know, after looking that quicksprout, your personal blog, you give a lot of value for people in general about business so what lessons do you have for people getting into business or currently in business?

Neil: Yeah sure, so,

Number 1: stay laser-focused. If you try doing 20 different that’s fine but the chances are you’re not gonna have a big business that’s gonna make a lot of money just because you’re so distracted.

Number 2: Time is money. Don’t do what you wanna do, do what your customers wanna do. Because you gotta be agile, you gotta move quick and if you end up doing what you wanna do you’re gonna end up wasting a lot more time money, right?

Aaron: Yep.

Neil:

Number 3: “Dot your i’s and cross your t’s!” So, what I mean about that is, make sure you have a good accountant, make sure you have a good lawyers because sooner or later you’re gonna run into legal problems or accounting problem. It’s just a question of when. Especially if you’ve been in business for a long time.

And by having good accountants and lawyers you’re gonna protect your ass; because, once you make a mistake you can end up losing everything you’ve been building up for the last 10 or 20 years.

Aaron: Yeah, definitely. That’s really good advice, and also, being laser focused, I believe that’s the best and most important part. Because there’s so many opportunities right now, where we live in and people get bombarded with opportunities, you just have to pick one thing and run with it.

I like to say: “Pick one thing and take it to the bank!”

Neil: That’s correct!

Aaron: So, we talked about your life, your business lessons and stuff, what have been your biggest mistakes in business?

Neil: My biggest mistakes in business have been, I, I didn’t have laser focus. In addition to that, another big mistake that that I really made was, I invested in the idea, not the people.

So, one time I invested in an idea with the wrong people, and it ended up in a cost of around million dollars.

Aaron: A million? Wow… Can you tell us a bit more about the learnings that you got from that?

Neil: Yeah, sure, there’s one really big one. Make sure that people you put money into are really good, talented people. Because, then there’s a day, the vision, the product, the business model can change, and probably will over the lifetime of a business, if the people aren’t good, they’re not gonna be able to adapt with it which means that you’re gonna end up losing a lot of time and money.

Neil Patel delivering one of his many keynote speeches

Aaron: Yep, definitely. Do you think that business people in general are different than the person who works from 9 to 5? Like, do you think they are really different or do you think there’s just few things they do differently?

Neil: I do think they are different.  Their mentality and their mindset are totally different.

I’m not a 9-5 worker, I can’t be sitting in front of a computer and working all day, I need to be on the phone, I need to be making sales, I need to be doing business relationships. It’s just, I’m not cut out to do the 9 to 5 type of thing.

Aaron: Yep. We know that you need to take action in, like, everything in general, like in business. “Money follows speed”, I’ve heard that before. So, what other tips, you have on decide to take an action, ‘cause we hear that a lot.

Neil: What was the question again?

Aaron: Yeah, what other tips you have besides taking action? ‘Cause, you know, everyone tells us to take action, but then, taking action is only like, half of it …yeah…

Neil: Sure, so,

Don’t have a big idea. Too many people try to create a really big company, and, you don’t really need to, ‘cause, to be happy you don’t really need much money. It could be 5 grand every month, 10 grand every month, figure out what the number is and figure out how can you start a business doing that much money.

And this doesn’t have to be a cool, crazy idea that no ones ever thought of. It doesn’t have to be the next facebook or twitter. It can be a business that’s already been around for a hundred years and you’re just copying it and, you know, literally creating the same exact business, right? From word for word, from concept to concept.

Because, at the end of the day there’s a lot of businesses out there that make money.

For example, restaurants will always make money; consultant companies will always make money. So,

You don’t necessarily have to create a better consulting company, you just have to create a comparable one.

And it doesn’t even have to be as good and if it isn’t, you can still make money.

Aaron: Yeah. So, it doesn’t matter how many people are doing what you wanna do, you can still… there’s always space for you if you create something a tiny bit unique?

Neil: Exactly! I’m not saying there’s a big amount of space, but there’s always space for more people on market.

Aaron: Yeah, I think that’s a really big point for people, ‘cause, some people just look at people in their niche and think oh, wow, I’m not gonna be able to compete with him (or her). But, there is space for you if you just have a competitive advantage.

Neil: Yeah, I totally agree with that.

Aaron: So, if you had to start all over again, what would you do, where would you start?

Neil: I would end up starting, hmm… That’s a tough one, I’d probably start exactly where I was, and I would repeat the whole process, because wherever I lost a lot of money, those mistakes got me where I am today.

Aaron: So you’d start by doing the ACS again? You’d start that up tomorrow if you had to start again?

Neil: Yes, I would start that up again.

Aaron: Ok, so, knowing what you know now, is there anything you wish you could have done differently than when you started out in business?

Neil: Yeah, have laser focus. ‘Cause if I only did 1 business ( ‘cause, I have a tendency to hop around with many different businesses), if I did 1 business and I did it really well I would have been probably ten times richer.

Aaron: Yep. And, how do you keep motivated? ‘Cause, obviously, it must be quite hard to keep motivated with such money coming in, you don’t really have the urge to work?

Neil: For me, there is no motivation, I just enjoy what I’m doing; and because I enjoy doing what I’m doing, I don’t really have to be motivated right, I don’t see it as work, because I really enjoy it. And, for me, if I’m not working .. I’m like: “what else is there to do?”

Aaron: Yeah. What is, like, your advice for young entrepreneurs who wanna get started in business? Because my blog basically targets people who wanna get started online, but they’re like, kinda, on the fence. So, what will be your advice to those people?

Neil:

Just start, right? You can look for advice on blog like yours, but, what you really have to do is just start. You can’t ask people: “how do I start a business, how do I get it up and running?” You just gotta do it. Because, at the end of the day, if you need someone to walk you through that process, you’re never gonna succeed in life.

Aaron: Absolutely. So, just start and, my blog’s a good place to do that, and just start… Just get knowledge, because I believe in making yourself knowledgeable before you actually dive in and do something, because otherwise, you’re just gonna lose money or waste time right?

Neil: Yes.

Aaron: Yeah, absolutely. So, what are other life lessons, that you’ve learned over your business career, that can be shared with people? So they can get a lot of value out of this?

Neil: Let’s see, one thing that I’ve learned is:

Surround yourself with other successful rich people and not just because they have money but because they’re really your friends.

‘Cause the rule of thumb I have is,

You take your 5 closest friends, you add up their income and you divide it by 5 (so pretty much you’re taking the average) and that’s gonna be the average worth of your income.

Aaron: Yeah, that’s a very good point. Because, that’s a very, very very big point. So what would, how would you do that, how would you make friends with someone who’s making like a million? And, for them not to see you as just someone who wants their money? So, be a genuine friend to them instead of just, being their friend because they have a lot of money. How would you go about creating, building that relationship?

Neil: Sure, I’m not a hundred percent sure how would you go about doing that, maybe go to a networking event and just get to know other people. Like for me, it happened naturally, I didn’t try to, necessarily, surround myself with wealthy individuals, it just kinda happened. Because of the industry I was in and the friends I knew that are making. But, I would say that the best bet is to just go to networking events, ‘cause that’s how it works for me right?

These networking events and congresses are where I met most of these wealthy people.

Aaron: Absolutely. That’s so important, ‘cause where we met as well, right?

Neil: Yes, just as well, but I don’t know if I’m wealthy.

Aaron: [Laughs] I beg to differ!

Neil: [Laughs]

Aaron:            So, we talked a lot about business and life lessons, you’ve given a lot of value to people, and basically, the one thing that they should take from this, I don’t know if you agree with what I’ll say, but, just focus on one thing and get that done.

Neil: Exactly!

Aaron: Yep. So, what… taking risks is obviously a part of business. Like, every single day, as an entrepreneur you’re taking risks. So, what is your definition of risk taking and when it comes to taking risks, like, how do you assess whether it is a good, calculated risk or not?

Neil: Sure, so, it’s hard to calculate, you just really have to believe in the vision, the team, the product and that it can make you money. But, you really don’t know, you just gotta try. I

If you don’t take any risks, you’re never gonna make a ton of money. And, it’s hard to tell whether a risk is a good one or not, you just gotta, a lot of times, go based on what your gut is telling you.

Aaron: Yeah, so, following your gut feeling is a big one, I’ve heard that a lot from business professionals, following your gut instead of just diving in without knowing too much about it.

Neil: Exactly.

Aaron: Yep. So yeah, mindset, do you read any books about mindset or self development stuff?

Neil: [Laughs] I kind of do not. I have a tendency not to read books; I know that’s really bad. I read a lot of stuff on the web but I don’t really read much stuff about mindset.

Aaron: So, like, you basically just had a desire to earn money from your very young age and you just took action provided value and then created your wealth?

Neil: Yeah, pretty much. [Laughs]

Aaron: [Laughs] I wish everyone could be like you Neil.

Neil: It’s not a sexy inner feeling, trust me, right? The grass is always greener on the other side.

Aaron: Yep, definitely. So, you had a big burning desire to make money, to create a better life for yourself, and a lot of people, they need more reasons than just money. Because, a lot of people say: “I want more money”, but, truth is any money would suffice because they’re not being specific. And that’s another thing about success; you have to name it to claim it right? So, if you don’t know what you want, you’re never gonna get it.

Neil: Exactly!

Aaron: I think that’s a very big part of it as well. So, yeah, what makes you get out of the bed in the morning? What makes Neil Patel get out of the bed, is it the excitement of business or “I’m gonna make more dollars today”, what is it for you?

Neil: You want the real answer? The sun actually wakes me up every morning, so whenever the sun wakes up I just get out of bed ‘cause I hate the sun that early in the morning, pity I didn’t close my blinds.

Aaron: [Laughs]

Neil: But, it could also be money too, right? But, I really get out of bed every morning ‘cause of the damn sun rises and the high as the building is, it’s just blinding me.

Aaron: [Laughs]. Don’t you have any blinds or anything?

Neil: I do but I’m too lazy to get up to close them and open them every day.

Aaron: [Laughs] Yeah, I was gonna ask you, I was talking to my friend the other day and I was talking about you, how you live in a hotel and I was thinking that in business sense that very smart because when the hotel wants to sell or if they ever wanna sell, they’d have to consult you first don’t they? Because you obviously own a part of the…

Neil: No, they don’t have to consult you at all, they can do whatever the hell they want to do.

Neil's Home is in this Hotel!

Aaron: Really?

Neil: Yeah, it’s actually not the smartest financial decision because when you buy a place, a house, you own a land. The hotel is a first part of the building, I own a condo in a hotel, so technically, what ends up happening is, I don’t own land, I own air. [Laughs]

Aaron: [Laughs]

Neil: The hotel owns the land, so technically I don’t own any of the land. So, it’s not always the smartest decision.

Aaron: Wow, that shows how much I know about business. [Laughs]

Neil: Yeah, but for me I never really bought it to make money or anything, and don’t get me wrong, I think I’ll make money on it, because I don’t like buying stuff if I lose money. But, it’s not gonna make me rich or anything. I just bought it, more so, for convenience.

‘Cause, like, I have a lot of meetings today right? Instead of walking to a coffee shop I just tell them to come downstairs, right? And I have a few of those every day, It’s saving a ton of time.

Aaron: That’s great, great lifestyle. I’m sure any people you call are envious. [Laughs]

Neil: It’s not as sexy and appealing as it may sound.

Aaron: [Laughs] Well, you do get room service right?

Neil: I get room service, I could get it, but I never do get it because it’s too expensive.

Aaron: Oh, right. [Laughs]

Neil: I just go downstairs and eat in the hotel restaurant, ‘cause it’s same food but you don’t pay the 18% delivery charge. And then you gotta pay a tip on top of that right? So you get raped.

Aaron: [Laughs] Oh… crazy, crazy. I just had a question in my head about credibility, ‘cause I know this is a stumbling point for a lot of young people and old people alike, it’s how do I build up my credibility just starting out? So, how would you answer that question?

Neil:

The best way to build your credibility is to help other people out at first for free. Help them out with whatever you can or whatever you may know of. Whether it’s a little knowledge or a lot of knowledge; just give a lot of people free advice and that really helps build your credibility, your brand, more than anything else.

Aaron: Definitely, that’s great advice, great advice. And, I’d like you to add onto that, ‘cause you obviously know about social media, you use social media, you help businesses market their business effectively online, so, how important is social media as a segment of your marketing mix in your business?

Neil: Social media is very important, right? ‘Cause you drive so much audience, like twitter or Facebook. That, they’re some of the most popular sites. Twitter is the 11^th most popular site in the world, Facebook is number 2. By really leveraging these sites you’re getting access to a lot of people, whether they seem like they’re for young people or not. Because they’re so popular, everyone’s on them, so you have to leverage them.

Aaron: Absolutely.

Neil: Because, you, by creating a conversation on twitter, or looking up who is on twitter or doing searches whether for business or engaging with those people, or creating a Fcebook fan page and getting other business people to join and become fans, so…

Aaron: Definitely, there’s a lot stuff you can do to market yourself for free.

Neil: Exactly!

Aaron: Yeah, definitely. And, I was gonna say, what inspires you, because you don’t really read any personal development and stuff, so, what inspires you in your life?

Neil: [Yawns] I don’t know. I would say freedom. Freedom inspires me, makes me happy, and more importantly, money probably inspires memore than anything else. I like counting it.

Aaron: [Laughs]

Neil: Absolutely, I love money so much, I would take all the money I got and I would put it in encyclopedias to make the dollar all crisp and straight and, like, I would just savor it and count it and stuff.

Aaron: [Laughs] I used to do that to. Not as much as you. [Laughs]

Neil: [Laughs] Worst part is, I think my parents gave away those encyclopedias and I bet you there was a lot of money in them.

Aaron: [Laughs]

Neil: Like, I don’t read them I want the damn money inside of them.

Aaron: [Laughs] So, what are your plans for the future? What’s in store for you?

Neil: Nothing much, my goal, I want to build a company that’s worth more than a hundred million dollars. I haven’t done that yet. So that’s my big goal.

Aaron: Sweet. That’s pretty sweet. So, oh yeah, that brings me to my next point. So, when you build a business do you always start with the end in mind?

Neil: No, I don’t really start with the in mind, I start with the problem in mind.

Aaron: Right.

Neil: You can’t start a business with an end of the game; you gotta start a business with a problem that you can solve.

Aaron: Yep, definitely. But then, who do you plan to sell it to, do you have when will you think of selling it?

Neil: That’s not the first part,

You think about the problem that people are experiencing, is that problem happening today, and, can you solve it within a short period of time, within a few months, you know the idea. And, would those people be willing to buy the solution and how much would they be willing to pay?

Aaron: Right, definitely, that’s really good advice. Contrary to what I was thought I can tell you that. I was always thought: “starts a business with an end in mind”. But, listening to people who are successful, who are really doing it it, like yourself… So, that’s great.

So, you’ve answered like, every single question I’ve had for you, you’ve answered everything.

Neil: [Laughs] That sounds good dude, if you ever have any other questions, you can always hit me up. I appreciate you taking the time and interviewing me.

Aaron: No worries man, thank you very much for providing this value and my last question is: where can my listeners find out more about you?

Neil: Quicksprout.com. You can find about me on that site and everything you wanna know or don’t wanna know about me is on there.

Aaron. Yep, and I’d just like to tell everyone that Neil is like, one of the most approachable guys out there. Like, if you just email him, he’ll email you back. Comment on his blog, he’ll talk to you and anything you want, he’ll sort you out. So, get in touch with Neil, he’s a great guy.

Neil: Yep, take care!

Aaron: Thanks Neil, cheers!

So there you have it! A wonderful interview – I certainly gained a lot of valuable info from it. I hope you enjoyed it.

As always please apply what you learned in your own life. Neil shared alot of ‘golden nuggets’ that will help you tremendously – especially in business.

Watch out for the next post coming soon its a BIG one too!

Your friend

Aaron

P.S. Comment below and let me know what you learnt from this interview.

Also if you think its as valuable as I say it is please RETWEET.

Thanks!

***Neil Patel has a new blog called http://www.onlinepokerlowdown.com/ Check it out!!