Gabriel Machuret is a SEO expert, Internet Marketer, and full-time Entrepreneur. He believes in people, in dreams, and in passion. He worked as a SEO consultant for over 4 years, helping over 200 clients each year with coaching, link building, and ranking strategies
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Resource Mentioned:
- Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
Success Quote
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky.
Business Failure
- Gabriel was the SEO King. He had a boatload of happy clients, many ranking #1 in Google. Then, while on a celebration vacation in Figi, Gabriel learned about Google’s latest “update”. It crushed his clients, and it crushed him. Listen to how Gabriel rose from his own ashes.
Entrepreneurial AHA Moment
- I love Gabriel’s AHA moment… we should all hope for one this clear.
Current Business
- Gabriel sees the future of mobile and is getting way ahead of the curve by creating awesome materials for App stores. You must check them out if you are in the mobile game.
Small Business Resource
- BaseCamp: Project management software, online collaboration.
- Asana: Task Management for Teams.
- Remember the Milk: Online to-do list and task management.
- Time Doctor: Time Tracking and Time Management Software that is accurate and helps you to get a lot more done each day.
Best Business Book
- The Universe Doesn’t Give a Flying F*** About You by Johnny B. Truant.
Interview Links
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!
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Full Transcript
John Dumas: Hire Fire Nation and thank you for joining me for another episode of EntrepreneurOnFire.com, your daily dose of inspiration. If you enjoy this free podcast, please show your support by leaving a rating and review here at iTunes. I will make sure to give you a shout out on an upcoming showing to thank you!
John Lee Dumas: Okay. Let’s get started. I am simply ecstatic to introduce my guest today, Gabriel Machuret. Gabriel, are you prepared to ignite?
Gabriel Machuret: I’m absolutely ready! I’m here in Australia, ready to ignite.
John Lee Dumas: Love it! Gabriel is an SEO expert, Internet marketer, SEO professional and fulltime entrepreneur. He believes in people and dreams and passion. He worked as an SEO consultant for over four years, helping over 200 clients each year via coaching, link building and ranking strategies.
I’ve given Fire Nation a little overview, Gabriel, but why don’t you tell us who you are, where you’re from, how old you are, and then a little bit about your current business right now?
Gabriel Machuret: Okay. I’m a strange mix. I was born in Colombia and I live in Australia, as you do. I work with the small businesses doing mainly anything that can help them to get traffic and leads to their website. So mainly what I do is Search Engine Optimization or the famous SEO. The different thing about my business is that I live in one of the smallest towns in Australia and I only work from home. I have two boys – three and six – and my whole business is literally remotely. So I don’t go and see customers. Everything that I do, I do it from my little office at home. So yes, that’s my business. I help people to rank higher in Google, hopefully.
John Lee Dumas: Wow! Now Gabriel, you kind of have one of those timeless faces. You could be 20 years old or you could be 40. I just can’t tell.
Gabriel Machuret: [Laughs] I’m actually 35, yes. I keep the same photo everywhere in every single social profile. I learned to keep the same photo everywhere. So yes, I’m 35. Yes.
John Lee Dumas: Oh, well I love it. I can really relate to what you’re going through, Gabriel, and it’s just a dream to be able to live and work from wherever and to reach so many people because just 20 or 30 years ago, if you lived in that town, that was going to be your reach, but now just because of how we’ve progressed with the Internet, with smartphones, with Wi-Fi, with high speed Internet, you can reach anybody anywhere. How exciting is that?
Gabriel Machuret: Yes. It’s kind of amazing. Even in Australia, I have customers in the US. I mean initially you think it’s going to be an issue, but sometimes people don’t even care where you are working from. It’s pretty remarkable. So yes, it’s very easy now.
John Lee Dumas: Results are the only thing that matter, Gabriel.
Gabriel Machuret: Absolutely. Yes.
John Lee Dumas: So listen, let’s transition now to our next topic. I mean, there’s a lot of energy going on in this interview. I’m pumped. We’re going to keep that going with a little motivational success quote. I know you have a good one for us, Gabriel. [Hit us].
Gabriel Machuret: This one is a sport quote. It has been applied in business many times and it’s “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” This is from a hockey player called Wayne Gretzky. The funny thing is that Michael Scott from The Office has said that a few times before. You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take. Literally, this has become my motto in my business.
John Lee Dumas: It’s a great motto to have. I mean, it’s a great success quote, but it’s also nothing could be truer to reality than that. I mean it’s such a fact. You are absolutely going to miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Gabriel, how have you applied this mentality, this quote to your everyday life?
Gabriel Machuret: Well, in my case, because I have usually all the reasons and excuse not to do something. Okay? I mean if you realize, I have a strong Spanish accent. I’m in Australia in a very small town. Literally, I could take any reason and justify any reason not to do something. Okay? What I realized is that you have nothing to lose by taking the shot. If you take the shot and you miss, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. But what is interesting with Internet marketing or business is how many times just by taking the shot, just by trying something, you have a huge chance of success mainly because other people are not even willing to take the shot. So when you think of competition, when you think of potential competitors, really not everyone is competing because people are not taking the shot. So just by trying to do something, just by launching something out or just by pulling something out that other people can actually reach and buy or purchase, I mean you already achieved more than 99% of the people that are just thinking about it.
John Lee Dumas: Gabriel, give us a ground zero example of when you were on one side of the basketball court. You had a basketball in your hand and you threw the ball, left-handed, hook shot, across the entire basketball court and you swished. Interpretation: you took a shot you had no idea you could make and you made it. Can you give us an example of that?
Gabriel Machuret: Yes. I mean literally I can give you a very recent example. I mean lately I’m working with something called “ASO” that is App Store Optimization. When I was doing the research about how I could offer this service to companies, I decided that the best way was to write a book about this, but keep in mind that English is not my first language, that I’ve never written a book in my life, I’m not an app developer. Literally, what I did is I sat down and I decided to take the shot. I wrote a book, I contacted all the people in the industry and I wrote one of the best books out there about App Store Optimization. It has been downloaded like 2,000 times in the last month from app developers and app companies.
Now the whole idea was on the concept of just give it a go, just try to research, try to write something, reach people and see how you go. Now, if you have analyzed my chances of failure, it was so high there was no way I will ever take a shot, but the idea once again is just go for it. I mean just see what happens. If you fail, it’s not a big deal. No one was expecting anything. But if you succeed, there you go. I mean surprise. So yes, that’s a perfect example of how by trying something and launching something, the success can be huge.
John Lee Dumas: That is a perfect example. Thank you for sharing that with us. We’re going to use that to move into our next topic. Gabriel, you’re an entrepreneur, I’m an entrepreneur. Both of our lives and our journeys have been riddled with failures on some levels. Challenges, obstacles that we’ve had to overcome. There’s too many to name, but can you go back to some point in your journey when you failed or when you came against an obstacle that you had to overcome? Name that failure, name that obstacle and how did you overcome that.
Gabriel Machuret: Well, this one is funny because my business does so well that we spent a lot of time in Fiji with my family. We were in Fiji in this amazing resort, a five star resort, and things were going great. I had my clients that were all ranking in Google perfectly, working in SEO, and Google decided to make one of their crazy changes, one of the most radical changes ever, and I had like 25 customers that literally lost ranking suddenly. I mean from first position to position whatever, 55. Literally, the whole rumor, the whole trend in the SEO industry was SEO is dead, this is not a business. I was getting emails from customers upset, “This is not working. What’s going on?” I remember that I sat in the shower in this five star resort, almost crying. I was like, this is it. My business is finished. There’s nothing else I can do. Google changed the rules. SEO is dead. I mean I have to pack my bags when I go home and go and work in McDonalds. Okay? Literally, I believe with entrepreneurs we’re usually black or white. It’s like I’m going to be the king of the world or I’m going to fail dramatically.
John Lee Dumas: That’s so true.
Gabriel Machuret: And starve. The most ironic part of this is I was in a five star resort in Fiji with my kids and I was still thinking I’m failing in life. Okay? So that’s a perfect example of a moment of when I felt that this is complete failure. I’m done. Obviously, you’re never done. I mean you always manage to overcome it.
John Lee Dumas: That’s a great example and you’re kind of leaving us hanging here because I’m loving this story, I’m loving the journey. Give us a little bit of a glimpse into what happened over the next couple of months with that failure.
Gabriel Machuret: Well, I mean, I realized that I had to change my strategy and change the way I was focusing on my business and literally, instead of pretending that Google was going to adapt to my SEO business, my SEO business had to adapt to Google. Literally, what I did is I changed the standards, I changed the type of clients. Instead of doing just SEO, I was doing more coaching, more overall strategy, and literally my customers changed. I mean they changed from being the small customer that wants something fast to the customer that is looking for coaching, for more different type services, and the business keep doing fantastically. I mean I still do great. Now the important thing that I learned from this whole thing is that business is completely unpredictable and regardless who you are, you’re always working with a third party. I mean let’s say you’re doing a podcast, like you depend on let’s say iTunes. If you are an app developer, you depend on Apple. So you always need to understand that that third party like Google can change the rules one day or another one. So you always have to be ready to change. Obviously, you don’t want to change when things are going great. You always want things to remain the same when you’re making good money, but yes, it’s not predictable.
John Lee Dumas: Such a great lesson you learned, Gabriel. One way to look at it too is when you were in that shower and you were having that moment of despair, I mean yes, the landscape had changed, but guess what? It changed for everybody. So there is definitely opportunity for somebody to rise quickly from the ashes and kind of be that beacon and light to say, “Hey, follow me. There have been so many people that have been devastated by this. I’m going to take you to the promised land.” Did you have any of that going on?
Gabriel Machuret: Yes. I realized that. I mean my wife said something very interesting. She said to me in this crisis that the people that are going to make it are the people that are not going to close the doors right now. I mean the real winners will be the ones that manage to survive the storm. Yes, I realized that. It’s like people were looking in that stage who are the people that were going to stay in the game. The fact is many of my competitors right now don’t exist anymore because they didn’t manage to overcome that time.
John Lee Dumas: That’s great, Gabriel. Thank you for baring your soul and sharing with Fire Nation that dark moment and how you overcame that. That is exactly the kind of inspiration and the lessons that we try to pull from every interview with our spotlighted entrepreneur. Let’s move away from this segment now and go to the other end of the spectrum because that’s the aha moment, Gabriel. You have those every single day, I know, having talked to you in our pre-interview because you’re just an inspirational guy. I mean you’re always learning, you’re always [figuring out] new things, you’re having these little aha moments, light bulbs are always going off. Take us back to a point in your journey when you really had a big aha moment when the sun just burst through the clouds and you said, “Wow! This is going to resonate so well. I’m going to do this and crush it!”
Gabriel Machuret: I think the aha moment was the moment where I realized that I could sell myself as the person that I was. Okay? Literally, when I started doing this business in Australia, I thought that I had to have an Australian accent, a virtual office in the center of Sydney, in the fancy area. I will have to travel around the country with a tie and suit to meet these top executives and trying to sell them something that I wasn’t. The moment that I realized that people will like me for the way I was, it changed my whole world. It was very, very funny. I made a sales copy for one of my services and I put the photo of me and my kids on the sales page. Someone called me and they said to me, “I want to hire you because you also have two boys like me.” That changed my world. I was like, “The reason why you are hiring me is because I have two young boys like yours?” He’s like, “Yes. Because I know how important they are for you and I know that we are the same.”
So I realized that the human factor is 10 times more important than the business factor. The connection that you manage to do with people in an internal level is way more important than the connection you can do by making an offer or a discount or a business proposition. Obviously, you need to have a business proposition, you need to have a very good offer. But if you can’t manage to connect with people in a person level, forget it. It’s not going to work. So once I realized that I could brand myself, I started embracing everything that had to do with myself. Before, when people were asking me where do you come from? I was saying I come from South America because I was thinking, oh, if I mention Colombia, it’s going to be this nightmare of people asking me all these questions, “Oh, Colombia. Do you have drugs? Ha ha ha!” This whole typical jokes that people do. What happened is I started saying to people, “I’m from Colombia,” and then automatically, people were saying to me, “Oh, I have been in Colombia” or “I love Colombia” or “My cousin is from Colombia.” So by showing more of myself, I was allowing people to connect with me in different ways, in different levels.
John Lee Dumas: Wow! That is such a valuable aha moment and your actions after that aha moment just really speak to the kind of person that you are and your belief in the fact that it’s the genuine person inside, if that shines through, that is going to make a successful business because you’re going to resonate with the right people. It’s going to be a direct line from what works for you and what works for your clients and that’s going to have a happy symbiotic relationship. Have you found that to be the case?
Gabriel Machuret: Yes, absolutely. I mean the more you embraced yourself, the more comfortable you are with yourself, I mean you start even like becoming a brand. I mean in my case, people know me like, oh, you are the guy with the funny accent on the videos about SEO.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs]
Gabriel Machuret: To a certain point, it’s difficult. I mean branding yourself and going on a podcast or a video is not easy, or putting your photo. I talked with many CEOs of big companies that are my clients and they will never do that. They will never put their face up. They will never go on a video. So it’s not for everyone, but if you embrace it and you’re a real entrepreneur, then what happens is everything that you do is starting to help your brand. Every type of interview is helping your business automatically because you and your brand becomes the same deal. So yes, absolutely.
John Lee Dumas: So Gabriel, you shared with Fire Nation a moment of despair. You’ve also shared a great aha moment that’s really propelled the success that you’re now experiencing. Have you had an I’ve made it moment?
Gabriel Machuret: I think. I mean it’s funny how the I’ve made it moments, they are different for anyone. I could tell you that the I’ve made it moment will be at the end of the financial year when I saw my balance on the bank account or how much money I made, but I think the moment I realized I made it was when I managed to – we live in Australia, keep in mind. Okay? So this is not like in the US – and I managed to take my kids out of school for 10 days and we went skiing here in Australia. That it’s extremely expensive to go to snow in Australia by obvious reasons. We don’t have too much snow. I was watching my kids skiing, they’re three and six years old, with private instructors, and I realized, hey, I could from South America. I never saw the snow in my lifetime because obviously, there’s no snow in South America. And here I am on a working day with my kids, skiing in Australia. That’s the most unusual thing to do in Australia that is extremely – I mean it’s a luxury and this doesn’t represent any stress for me or my family. Okay?
So that is when I realized I made it. I mean I managed to provide to my kids through my business, through something that I created from nothing, something that I never had. I think any kind of entrepreneur always want that kind of like a better life for themselves, but when you apply the better life for your kids or your girlfriend or your wife, the satisfaction is 10 times better. Like when you invite your wife out or your girlfriend to a big dinner after you made it or you made some money, that feels 10 times better than paying tax or knowing how much money you have or a big contact. It’s the little things that make a huge difference.
John Lee Dumas: Wow! What a journey, Gabriel, and you really, truly say it so eloquently and I really appreciate that. The reality is so many entrepreneurs work so hard to reach these lofty goals that they set for themselves, and then they reach those goals, and then they just set that next goal even higher and drive towards it. EntrepreneurOnFire, it’s about the journey. You’ve been so generous sharing your journey and it’s such a great one, and I’m so glad to hear that you’re enjoying that journey because it’s so important to enjoy the journey and to actually appreciate these achievements that you’re coming up to and that you’re accomplishing on a monthly, yearly, five years basis. So I definitely commend you for what you’re doing, Gabriel.
Gabriel Machuret: Thanks, man.
John Lee Dumas: Keep enjoying the journey. That’s what it’s all about. So let’s move now to your current business. You have a lot of exciting things going on, Gabriel, but if you had to take it down to just one thing that’s really exciting you, what would you say?
Gabriel Machuret: At the moment, I’m basing all my effort in App Store Optimization. I mean it’s the way the apps rank in the App Store. You call it the App Store for Apple or Google Play for Google. Literally, I’ve been working the last six months trying to learn and figure out what makes an app ranking when you search for a certain term and what make other apps not ranking. Initially, I thought it was going to be a very easy process, and once I started doing some research, it was like a completely different universe. My theory is what’s happening with the apps right now is what happened in the late ‘90s with websites. Trust me, in five years’ time, you will spend more time on your iPad, on your iPhone than on a computer.
John Lee Dumas: Absolutely.
Gabriel Machuret: That is what really excites me at the moment, is the amount of – I mean smart things are going on on apps on how developers are trying to figure out how search works in these different markets.
John Lee Dumas: Very interesting. So Gabriel, with that noted, what is your vision for the future of your business?
Gabriel Machuret: Right now I’m working with app companies with their strategy of how they can launch apps and how they can market their apps to different markets and different app stores. I’m developing a course for ASO that is App Store Optimization that will be launched hopefully in November. Literally, what I see my company doing is working more with companies that want like an overall solution from their website and their app and not just ranking a website. So the whole purpose of my company and the new direction is focusing more on apps, focusing more on training app companies and developers to be able to be in charge and take control over their own ranking and provide them with the knowledge and tools they may need if they’re going to be doing this by themselves. So I see a lot of coaching and training that I absolutely love. I mean talking to people is absolutely awesome.
John Lee Dumas: Now what do you foresee the platform that you’re going to use to provide this course?
Gabriel Machuret: Literally, I mean right now we’re making these courses in video presentation. I mean recorded PowerPoint presentations or as screenshots, Camtasia recordings and we’ll be providing this training on a membership site where people can actually go and watch the videos on their own rhythm and pace or potentially download the MP3, download the transcribed information. So it will be all self-provided so they can actually manage and take the information in their own speed and time.
John Lee Dumas: What are you going to be using for a membership platform setup?
Gabriel Machuret: Literally, I’m a WordPress guy all the way in. So for the WordPress, it could be something like WishList that works perfectly or – I mean I have tried before also aMember, but right now WordPress is such an amazing system and you can have so many cool plugins that are so affordable and you can find so very cool developers and guys that can actually set everything up for you so easily that I think something like a WishList membership will be the way to deliver the course, yes.
John Lee Dumas: Yes. I could not agree with you more. I actually have my membership platform, “Ignite,” which is just for the elite mastermind of Fire Nation listeners, is set up on the WishList platform through WordPress and I use OptimizePress as my theme and it’s so great for all the reasons you just said. I’m actually having Stu McLaren on the show tomorrow. He’s just such a great guy. He’s the creator and cofounder of WishList. It’s just they’re doing a lot of really cool things. I’m just glad to see you’re on that path. I couldn’t agree with your path more and I’m definitely excited to track your progress.
Gabriel Machuret: Yes. I mean the guys that develop these WordPress plugins are like – I mean that’s why [Unintelligible] because they’re a freaking genius and the amazing things that you can spend on $100 and there you go, you have a whole system set up that is going to run your business automatic forever.
John Lee Dumas: It’s so amazing.
Gabriel Machuret: Yes. It’s great.
John Lee Dumas: So Gabriel, we’ve now reached my favorite part of the show, the Lightning Round. This is where I get to ask you a series of questions and you come back at us, Fire Nation, with amazing and mind-blowing answers. Does that sound like a plan?
Gabriel Machuret: Yes, absolutely. Let’s go for it.
John Lee Dumas: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?
Gabriel Machuret: I think the whole idea of fear. I mean my fear will be with the South American mix. So when a South American has fear, it’s a dramatic fear of you will fail and you will starve and you will lose your house. It’s that mentality of what will happen if I don’t get paid next month? So that was my biggest fear. If anyone has kids, they can understand this. When I started to do my business, my first son was one year old and I was thinking, here I am, I’m quitting my job and trying to make a living from this. What if I failed? Okay? What if I can’t pay the mortgage? What if I can’t pay the school fees in four years’ time? It’s funny how dramatic we are when we’re doing entrepreneurial things and how far are we looking sometimes in time. We don’t give ourselves some time or some decent enough time to prove to ourselves that we can work out. It’s we have this all or nothing mentality many times. Usually, this is what stops people because people think if I would start a business, I need to make money tomorrow to justify that I’m starting a business. Also, the social pressure. When you tell your friends I work for myself or what do you do for a living, that’s the best question ever because it’s so complicated. Obviously, it’s always the social pressure and the fear of not making it.
John Lee Dumas: What is the best business advice you ever received?
Gabriel Machuret: Well, this is not like a business advice. It’s something that I heard Frank Kern saying in one of his courses. Frank Kern, the Internet marketer. He said something that was pretty funny and pretty ironic and said, “Whatever happened, no one can come out of the computer screen and hit you for something you did.”
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs]
Gabriel Machuret: Okay? I love that one because usually when I was sending an email or an offer, I was always scared of what people will say of me, what people will think about me. But then once you understand that statement, you realize you are in your home. I mean this tiny town in Australia, no one knows what I’m doing, who cares if I contact this big guy? I mean in the worst case scenario, they will say no. Okay? But at least they know my name. So that is my mentality right now, is if I can contact someone, I will contact anyone that I can. If they say no, at least they remember my name on the second time I contact them. Hey, they kind of come out of the computer screen and hit you. So go for it!
John Lee Dumas: I love that. What’s something that’s working for you or your business right now?
Gabriel Machuret: I think what works for me right now very well and it should work for any kind of business is the idea of smart content generation. I mean it’s literally be able to provide very good content out there with the idea of the evergreen content in that the type of things that you can do for your business, that you will know that it will last forever. An example is this podcast. I know that the podcast will be there forever and my kids in 25 years’ time, they can still listen to this podcast. And not only my kids but potential clients or potential leads. The same thing goes with creating content for a blog. So instead of writing an article for a blog that I’m just writing for writing is how can I write something that it will manage to provide me leads and business for the next five years? So you’re looking for a more quality and more like evergreen action that you can take that is going to help you for a very long time rather than the quick fix.
John Lee Dumas: I love the thought of your kid in 25 years listening to this interview. I really do.
Gabriel Machuret: Yes, it’ll be cool.
John Lee Dumas: Let’s give him a shout-out. What’s his name?
Gabriel Machuret: Sebastian and Dominic. There are two of them.
John Lee Dumas: Sebastian and Dominic, are you prepared to ignite? [Laughs]
Gabriel Machuret: They’d be like, “Who’s this guy?” Yes [Laughs].
John Lee Dumas: So Gabriel, do you have an Internet resource that you’re just in love with like an Evernote that you can share with us, Fire Nation?
Gabriel Machuret: Oh man, I have so many tools. Actually, I’m like the same way women try to collect shoes, like my wife loves to buy shoes. I’m always looking for different tools that can actually help me with being more efficient. So literally, I’m in love with online management collaboration tools. I have a group in the Philippines that work for me and we use from Basecamp, that is the typical one, to Asana, that is the new management collaboration tool. Anything that can actually help us to be more effective. So I’m huge fan of Basecamp and 37signals tools, especially to provide for my customers. So my customers will use those tools to contact me. So anything that can stop people sending me an email is an asset for me. So anything that can be online will be the best way for me to go. Regarding other tools that I use a lot, I use from the most basic tools, but my team also uses them. From baby tools like Remember The Milk that is for simple time management or things to do to 37signals to I use something called TimeDoctor. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but it’s amazing tool if you have outsourcers. So TimeDoctor allows me to know what are my outsourcers in the Philippines doing at every single stage of the day. So I can see if they’re checking Facebook or they’re working and what they’re working on and I can see all this type of tools, all this kind of information from one mainstream. So anything that can help me in productivity, I’m all for it.
John Lee Dumas: I love that. What’s your favorite business book, Gabriel?
Gabriel Machuret: Well, it’s funny. I mean I actually asked you before the podcast if I could say curse words. I mean I’ve got to change. The title is “The Universe Doesn’t Give a Flying F About You.” This is a very small book from Johnny B. Truant. This guy is amazing and The Universe Doesn’t Give a Flying F About You, it’s actually in his blog, but you can download it in Amazon. It’s like imagine Tony Robbins compressed in seven pages. I mean all the information, all the power, all the fire that you see in seven pages. Actually, I read this stuff once per week because it fires me up. Okay? So every time that I’m down, I go back. I have it on my iPad and I go back and read it. And after reading it, I feel like, “Yeah! Let’s do it! It’s time for me to rock the world!” I absolutely love it. So I’m more into things that can ignite me and empower me rather than business strategies or mentalities. I prefer something that’s going to give me energy rather than tactics and blueprints and stuff like that.
John Lee Dumas: I’ve been a Johnny B. Truant fan for some time now. We have him coming up on the show, but I haven’t read that specific one so I’ll get that down tonight. Gabriel, this is the last question of the interview. It’s kind of a tricky one so you can take your time, digest it, and then just hit Fire Nation up with an answer. If you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand new world, identical to earth in every way, but you knew nobody. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have right now, but only $500 in your pocket and a computer with Internet access. All of your food and shelter is taken care of. What would you do in the next seven days?
Gabriel Machuret: Okay. I love this one. I was thinking about that last night. Actually, I cheated because I heard your previous podcasts and I was listening to people’s answers.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs]
Gabriel Machuret: I think for me, it will be I will set up something to sell a service. For me, the easiest way to make money anywhere is to sell something to another business. Small businesses always have a budget. They always have money to spend. I know many people will set up a website, will create an e-book. Although I love the idea of doing that, the fastest way to make money is to sell something to someone that has money. Okay? I mean it’s directly going to people and offering something. So if I have $100, hey, I’ll have money left. I mean for sure. You can set up a website and make a specific offer. By specific offer is what do you get, how much does it cost and how long it takes you to deliver the service. So it could be something where I can sell a web design or sell a Facebook fan page or Twitter marketing, or something that I can literally outsource to someone else, but it will be easier to go directly to someone that they have the budget in their cash machine, in their [till], rather than trying to look for traffic online or to expect that people are going to buy something from you. So my mentality has always been the best way to make money is to target the people that have the money and the people that are looking for people like you. So that will be my strategy in seven days, and hopefully, I’ll collect my money back.
John Lee Dumas: Well, that’s a great strategy, Gabriel, and you’ve just given us great actionable advice this entire interview and we are all better for it. Give Fire Nation one parting piece of guidance, then give yourself a plug, and then we’ll say goodbye.
Gabriel Machuret: Well, for all the entrepreneurs listening to this in their car while they’re driving and thinking, “Should I go? Should I do it?” My advice is whatever you’re thinking of doing, it’s better if you do it now rather than you doing it tomorrow. Doing business is like having babies. You’re never ready. Okay? You’re never perfectly ready to have a baby. Regardless of how much you think you are, you’re not ready. So it’s better to start now and fail as fast as possible and enjoy the whole process rather than waiting for that special moment where you can quit your job or where you have enough money in the bank account. There will never be enough money in the bank account.
If anyone is looking for information about SEO, about App Store Optimization, they can go and check my website. My website is called InternetMedia.com.au. You can find my blog there and my contact information. I will be more than happy to have a chat with you. There’s a little chat button there where you can actually go and annoy me with questions. So yes, I’m more than happy.
John Lee Dumas: Awesome!
Gabriel Machuret: John, I’ll just stop just a second to say you are doing an awesome job. I’m a huge fan of what you’re doing. Congratulations goes to you. I think your public needs to know that you are recording this during the storm and that shows how much passion you’re putting in the podcast because you’re giving so much to people out there.
John Lee Dumas: Thank you so much. The Sandy is bearing down upon us. We are battening down the hatches, Gabriel and we’re still producing this content for Fire Nation!
Gabriel Machuret: You’re recording it outside at the moment, yes.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] Oh. Well, listen, Gabriel. I appreciate that little shout-out. It really means a lot. It’s people like you that make these interviews so enjoyable for me and so valuable for Fire Nation listeners. Thank you for your time.
