Interview With Alex Genadinik • The Udemy Professional

Meet Udemy Millionaire Alex Genadinik

Zach Miller: Hi, everyone! Zach Miller here again. Today I have a very special interview. I've been able to get a hold of Alex Genadinik and he is from problemio.com.

If you guys don't know who Alex is. He is a top-selling Udemy coach, with over a hundred thousand students! He's a best-selling author on Amazon. He has over a dozen publications on there.

He is a business and marketing coach with thousands of students and more than four thousand five star reviews detailing his expertise. He's flat-out one of the top guys online right now. So whether you know nothing about marketing or you know everything, this is the brain that you want to pick. So guys I'm happy to introduce Alex Genadinik. How you doing Alex?


Alex Genadinik: I'm doing great, Zach, thank you for inviting me it's a pleasure.

Alex Genadinik's Area of Expertise


Zach Miller: Awesome. So diving right in. I know a lot of people in my audience are just starting off, some are at that intermediate stage. For that portion of the audience that doesn't know what you do. Why don't you just explain a little bit to them about what you teach and your expertise...


Alex Genadinik: Right. So, I spend a lot of time online. Because of that, I have few areas of expertise. I've dabbled in mobile apps, and I have some mobile apps with a few million downloads. After that, I started teaching others how to do it and coaching others. I have a book about mobile app marketing, and mobile app business. My apps are more about business planning and I've helped over a thousand people what that so far.

Business Development Coaching

Since then, I've started my coaching practice. I offer coaching in business planning and I’ve even created an innovative way to plan a business. Traditionally, creating a business plan was really hard to innovate and expediate.

Business Planning

The business model canvas is a little complicated, so I made a very simple way around that. You just start with a 3 sets of business plans and turn that into a one page. Then turn that into one full business plan. That helps people stay with it and not quit.

Most people, if they just followed a template, they 're still going to be confused afterwards. The most problematic thing, is that they're entering the wrong content in each section which dilutes the quality of the entire business plan.

Top Seller on Udemy

My way of helping people, is guiding them & showing them how to do it correctly. I also sell books on Amazon. And now I have a large Udemy following and expertise for becoming a Udemy top seller. I have a few other areas of expertise, but I guess that'll be enough for us here.

Alex Genadinik Talks Business Development


Zach Miller: Awesome. So for those of you who don't understand. Basically five minutes of planning can save five hours or probably even five months of work. That's what personal business development is really all about. Getting that plan so you know how to take action and move forward, right Alex?


Alex Genadinik: Yeah. Early in my career, I was making mistakes that were so easily averted. If I had just talked to a coach or somebody who knew the industry a little better, they would have saved me like six months of bad business. Not to mention money and effort by just steering me in the right direction. So that's really why I got into business planning. Because I saw that I personally was making so many mistakes that were easily avoidable.


Zach Miller: Oh, I've been there. I can tell you it's a hardship that every entrepreneur goes through, isn't it?


Alex Genadinik: Yeah.

HOW DID ALEX GENADINIK GET HIS START?


Zach Miller: So first off, how did you get started in your industry, Alex?


Alex Genadinik: Well, I have been in so many industries. I was in San Francisco during the.com boom in the late 90s and you know I just caught the bug. I wanted to do startups. It was very electrifying! It had so many promises. When I finished high school, it was like wide open for me and I jumped in and I rode that way up. And I it rode the way down and it just never stopped and I was always like "really?!" But the main thing that really persisted personally, was pursuing my own ideas in the beginning they flopped completely because I liked my ideas but I didn't know business.

So making those mistakes on top of my ideas at first, led me to spectacular failures. Then they were just okay failures. Then they were kind of successes. Then I just started slowly becoming a little bit... Well, I'm not going to say successful, but you know, the things I had been doing started getting better and better overtime.

So it's just kind of an evolution. Mostly the theme that I've had is: I like pursuing my own ideas. And I think that's true for everybody. I like it so much that it really pushes me, like a lot of people like it but not every one takes action on it.


Zach Miller: Awesome.


Alex Genadinik: yeah

You're Going to Fail Your Way to Success


Zach Miller: What I want to get through to the audience is, that failure is inevitable. You failed Alex. I failed. I'm trying to get that through to my audience.

But I think that a lot of the modern-day gurus (obviously we don't try to be them). We just try to be the experts that we are. Gurus fail often to tell people that they themselves fail. I think that kind of creates a mentality where people being to expect instant success. But it's actually failing your way to success. That's how you got to where you are, right?

Alex Genadinik on Failing in Business


Alex Genadinik: That's totally true. I remember my first success. It was right after a real, real struggling business that ended up failing. But through that failure, I had to figure out so many solutions and things out on my own that it actually made me a stronger entrepreneur.

It taught me what real hustle is and then on top of I gained experience I feel like I'd rather have avoided. But it made me a stronger entrepreneur. A lot of people do say that it's not necessary to fail like Peter Thiel. You know he has a big theme that he doesn't think people should fail.

I think it's debatable. I feel like that failure gave me a lot of really hard experience. I also know it's really hard to talk about your failures. Because you know you don't like to admit your failings (it becomes an ego thing) because I fail more than I'd like to admit.


Zach Miller: I think we all have. That's the thing to keep on everyone's mind. Whenever you see all the success that someone is having or that we have that we've created for ourselves, remember there was definitely a long journey behind it, it didn't come overnight as a lot of people think.


Alex Genadinik: Definitely not overnight and longer than I would have liked.

Alex Genadinik Speaks on Why People Fail


Zach Miller: So from your experience what is the number one reason that most people fail?


Alex Genadinik: They flake on themselves (myself included). I used to try to search deep like "why did I fail" and it's not the business. The business part is easy, like business strategy is easy you know. You can put together a good business strategy and if you're sitting with an expert.

For example, I can put together a business strategy for people within 30 minutes an hour no problem. That's the easy part. The human issues are the really hard part. The business things you can solve them quickly, but there's a reason that psychologists retain clients for years.

What Tendencies are Holding You Back?

So it's really our human tendencies. Like some people may procrastinate. Some might have low confidence. Some people might have a hard time being accountable to themselves.

I see this a lot, they get really excited. They're like "oh I'm going to totally do this" and then they don't do it. They don't have the self discipline. So it's really super basic human things that are hard to fix. Because if they were easy to fix, whoever has them would already fixed them. For example focus is a huge one. Let's say I've solved goal setting. For me that seemed to be easy, but staying focused is like a never ending thing that's hard to maintain.

Importance of Developing Soft Skills

I already fixed all the things that were easy. It's the things that are hard that linger and pull people back; causing failures in their business. I think as soon as people focus on developing soft skills they'll begin to improve their business. Soft skills are things like anger management, emotional management, emotional intelligence, goal setting, ect.

There's about 30 different fields under which you can call soft business skills or productivity skills. Everyone has a few that really hold them back. As soon as they fix it, their business shoots through the roof. Because they've already solved a whole bunch of other ones. They just need to solve the ones that are currently holding them back.

Which is really the hard part. Then you usually hit a plateau. Plateau and then I fix something in myself that used to hold me back and I'll leg up you know and then again plateau, plateau, plateau and then leg up so on.

Self Development is Crucial for Long-Term Business Success


Zach Miller: Amen. I couldn't agree more with that. That's exactly on point. So with that in mind, really it's self-development holds us back from the success that we can achieve. It's not any external forces.

Is It Too Late If You're Just Getting Started Online in 2017?

So with that in mind, if you really get started online today 2017. I know there's a lot of people that feel like they're "late to the party." I'm putting big air quotes on that one, because there's always plenty of pie to be made. And if you started today online Alex, what would be that first step that you would take to getting started?


Alex Genadinik: Yeah. Actually, today is a really good time to start; there's so many new things. Like crypto currency, AI tech, virtual reality. I guess it's not early days, but it's not late days. So they're right on time. Facebook live, YouTube live. There are so many things that are happening today and it's still early for them. It would be silly to think that it's late to the game. So that's one thing I think when people get started online they want to be successful right away.


Zach Miller: Right.

Alex Genadinik on How Stress Alters Our Brain


Alex Genadinik: Going back to the soft business skills. There is a really interesting thing that like no one ever talks about. There's something that happens to your brain. Why do most people go into business online? It's rarely out of hobby. Because if that was the case they would have already been in online business. If that's the case, they'd already be the kind of nerds that are in on it.

It's usually people who maybe have a financial hardship that need extra income. And financial income causes some of the worst kind of stress you can have. So for people starting out when they're in stress... And usually when they're first starting out, they're totally stressed.

Stress is Killing Your Business

That stress causes the part of the brain that has the long vision the good decision-making (the pre-frontal cortex) to just shut off. And the only part of the brain that's working fully is what's known as the animal brain, the amygdala. Which is responsible only for like things like anger and stress. It's only concern is how do you relieve the immediate stress and than make a buck today. That leads to all the problems people face. They try to make a buck today which does not coincide with long-term solid strategies.


Zach Miller: I agree with that. Yeah. We over here in the states we call it the reptilian part of our brain. We've all been taught that's the one part of your brain you don't want to operate from unless you want to make bad decisions, am I right?


Alex Genadinik: Hundred percent. That part of the brain can only handle the immediate so when I say fix your goal-setting. Or fix your emotional intelligence, whatever has that stress, they're thinking "that sounds great, but I cannot focus on that right now." The person has to conscientiously be say "okay I'm in stress, I need to get a hold of myself or else I'm going to cause more damage to myself if I keep going in this direction".

Reduce Stress And Run A Better More Profitable Business

There are many things people can do to relieve the stress. Eat better, sleep better, exercise more. Those are all things that will put you in a better state of mind. Do more meditative tasks, not necessarily meditate but like take a walk without your phone. Something that gets your better part of your brain working.

So those are a few immediate steps to get motivated right now. Improve your thinking so that your reptilian brain doesn't completely take over. Because if you're 24/7 in front of the computer stressing, naturally you're just not going to listen to sound advice. Following bad decisions over and over will continue leading to bad decisions which will lead to lack of success. Lack of success will lead to low confidence, low confidence will lead to quitting and so that's why people fail.

Is Your Reptilian Brain Controlling You?


Zach Miller: I couldn't agree more. I mean a decade plus ago, when I first started online, I could totally say that my reptilian part of my brain was making all the decisions. And that's why I spun my wheels for so long.


Alex Genadinik: That's why I talk about it. I think back to myself. It was really hard to get out of the reptilian brain thinking. Really hard. But whoever can do it will be so much better off. Like three years from today they'll be so much further along than if they didn't change their ways.

Tools to Ensure Success


Zach Miller: With that in mind, that leads me perfectly to my next question. A lot of people are fighting with these sorts of issues. A lot of people like you said, they're starting out coming from a place of fear. Instead of a place of peace or happiness where they focus on helping people. Versus trying to make that quick buck.

So what are some resources that are available to help ensure success? What are some things that you offer that would help people get past these issues?


Alex Genadinik: Right. So after a while of looking into soft skills and working through them with myself and my clients. I wrote a book called '20 principles of productivity'. In the '20 principles of productivity' is where I talk about everything. From getting focused, to self discipline, to making productive decisions and life goal setting. Because if you choose a wrong life goal then no matter how productive you are, its almost entirely wasted.

The other part, is increasing your emotional intelligence. It's like a course in how to be smarter - emotionally. I also teach how to think outside the box. How to be more creative and teaching the logical fallacies we fall into. You know for example like, inductive reasoning versus deductive. Where you make a conclusion and then find the facts that support it. Which can totally leave you in the wrong direction. But when you actually look at the facts objectively, and let the facts lead you; the outcome can be a lot different.

Personal Development = Business Development

There's about ten logical fallacies that often come into play. Even after I put them together, I started noticing myself still falling into them. I'm not one to toot my own horn. However, I think it's fair to say I'm not a beginner anymore. Those are the things that I focus on that have helped me the most. I think for beginners, they want actionable things they can follow click by click. Like how to make money or how to relieve the immediate stress.

But to become more experienced you've got to develop soft skills because your mindset dictates every second of your life. Your brain controls everything you do. Make the best decisions you can every second, because your mind directs everything you live in it, it’s your whole world.

Are You The Master of Your Fate and Captain of Your Soul?


Zach Miller: Exactly! And for those of you listening, you've probably heard me talk about Richard Bandler, the founder of neuro-linguistic programming. These are the exact same techniques Richard talks about. Bandler says that all you guys need to do is operate from the perspective of cutting down the time you work on your tasks by at least half while making at least four times as much money, when you have that state of mind it's a lot easier to be successful, isn't it?


Alex Genadinik: Yeah


Zach Miller: So one more time, I just want the audience to know you can get that book on Amazon. That's the 20 principles of productivity correct?


Alex Genadinik: Yeah


Zach Miller: Awesome! So you can get that... I believe the Kindle book version is free if you want the paperback version which I always suggest guys...


Alex Genadinik: The Kindle version is $4.99


Zach Miller: Ah, $4.99


Alex Genadinik: Paperback is $12.99 but I recently started accepting Bitcoin too. So whoever wants to pay in bitcoin it can be cheaper.


Zach Miller: Awesome. So that's another great book for you guys and then we're just going to be wrapping up here. Cause I think that that perfectly places everything in people's heads of which direction to go. But, I just want to finish by talking about a few misconceptions inside of your industry. Anything that you'd like to clear up for the audience, before getting involved with you and diving into your products?

Alex Genadinik on Consistent Action & Healthy Habits


Alex Genadinik: What I see a lot, is people get very excited and enthusiastic about their ideas. You know, things they want to do. But there's very little follow-through. That's crucial because the excitement isn't the business. The excitement is just a good emotion to get started.

When you get started it's kind of like nerdy work. It's not always fun. Sometimes, it's boring. Often, you're sitting at home a lot by yourself. So that excitement quickly drains if you if you don't develop the discipline. Which over time develops healthy habits like time management and all that stuff. They're easy if you consistently implement them.

Give It 100% Every Time!

They don't work if you only implement the strategies to 60% or 80%. After all, you're competing with Giants, you're competing with billion-dollar companies in almost every industry. And even if you're not competing with billion dollar companies - you're competing with a swarm of online entrepreneurs. Some of them are not very good, but some of them know the rules and they'll take your lunch. So you got to bring your A-game.

You always want to work on yourself and implement everything 150%. It doesn't have to be overnight - it won't be overnight. Because this kind of advice can immediately trigger the perfectionist in people. They begin thinking things like "oh my gosh, if it's not amazing then I can't start." Done is better than perfect. Start now. Just don't stop until your product is the best in the market and your marketing is the best in the market and then you’ll win big.


Zach Miller: I agree. As I always tell my student’s: one step forward in your marketing - one step forward in your knowledge and you'll be balanced.


Alex Genadinik: Perfect. Yeah.


Zach Miller: So the final thing that I want to wrap up with and I love doing this because I want you to stick out from the crowd. What is something that's true in your industry, that almost nobody agrees with you on? What's something that you kind of feel is your little seek your little dirty secret?

Alex Genadinik Shares His Success Hack


Alex Genadinik: Well, I don't have a conversation about how to promote a business without mentioning Facebook marketing. Especially, Facebook ads. For me it's going great things for my businesses. But what I really like, is to look where everybody is going, then I'm going that way. That's what I like and you know I kind of take a little bit of pride in that. I'm a little creative so what I like to do is I like to look for all the green pastures.

It could be Facebook marketing, it could be SEO. A lot of people think SEO is just Google but it's not really just Google. It's like Amazon, it's a search engine. YouTube is also a search engine. iTunes is a search engine. The google play store is a search engine. The apple store is a search engine - they're all search engines. Even Udemy is a search engine.

Who Do You Show Up Next To? - It's Not Just About Rankings

Then people make the mistake of thinking "okay, I've got to rank my product in search and then I'll be good" right? Well, yes and no. Yes, you'll rank and you'll get more sales of course. But you'll never get more sales than their are people searching for them. Which is sometimes a low ceiling; if it's a high ceiling you always want to try and break through that.

The best way to win is to choose a platform. For example, if you sell a book on Amazon. Or a course on Udemy or a video on YouTube. You've got to be next to the books or videos or portions that have a million views.

You've got to get yourself to be recommended next to them. Because that is the quickest way to get the platform to promote you. It's the biggest way to drive not only traffic but real sales right real revenue. That's the number one way to build authority fast.

YOU NEED TO BE SEEN AS AN AUTHORITY

I think most people, they think in terms of strategy and that's alright. But outside of the funnels and email marketing getting ranked next to the best-selling experts that's where it's at and no one talks about it. Everyone's like Facebook, Instagram, ect.


Zach Miller: Awesome. Well, that definitely does set you apart from the crowd pretty starkly. With that being said, I want you guys to understand that Alex is creme de la crème of his industry. If have any questions on personal development and productivity. You can contact Alex for coaching here.

Again, the first thing that Alex suggests that you get his "20 principles of productivity." You can get that on Amazon, it's just $4.99 very inexpensive. And it's going to revolutionize your business so why the heck not. Alex, I want to thank you once again for joining me and my audience today. We can't wait to have you back on again.


Alex Genadinik: Awesome. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.


Zach Miller: Awesome thank you

Alex Genadinik: bye-bye.

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