Editor:

This time we’re talking with a U.K. based online marketing expert, Wayne Crowe. Now he started his business around about 18 years ago from his bedroom, with just a £25 investment, and has now carried that through to making more than £150,000 per month. He’s also the mastermind behind courses such as Traffic Domination, 30 Day Email Journey Hacks, and so much more.

Wayne Crowe, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

Wayne Crowe:

It’s awesome to be on here, mate.

Editor:

Oh, well listen, welcome along. 18 years, you must be doing something right. How did it all start for you?

Wayne Crowe:

Oh wow. It started basically from I’m still in the same house as when I started. I started in what is now my daughter’s room. And like a lot of people, you start this thing online and you wonder what it’s all about. That’s how I started, literally from a bedroom I can see out my office window. That’s exactly how it started all those years ago.

Editor:

Fantastic. Whereabouts are you based?

Wayne Crowe:

In Norwich, Norfolk.

Editor:

Okay. And you’re still in the same house. I mean, have you not been tempted with the revenue that’s been generated over the years to buy the big mansion with the swimming pool at the back?

Wayne Crowe:

I don’t know about that. I want to move abroad, but it’s the wife. It’s the wife. I want to move to Spain, that’s where I’ve got my heart set on. But yeah, the wife, our families all nearby so it’s that kind of situation. Plus I don’t really want a big house, if I’m honest. I do like where we live, and if or when we move, it will be overseas, somewhere warmer.

Editor:

Got you. I mean, as we record this the rain outside is lashing down here. I don’t know if it’s the same for you?

Wayne Crowe:

Exactly the same here, mate. Exactly the same.

Editor:

Yeah. So Spain is definitely high on the agenda. And of course, I always say when you buy a big house it just means more cleaning to do as well.

Wayne Crowe:

That’s exactly what I think. Exactly what I think. I’m not a Hoover and dustbin type of person, so the bigger the house, the bigger the work you have to do.

Editor:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, Wayne, we talked about the fact that you’ve gone from a £25 investment. What was life like for you back then?

Wayne Crowe:

It was tough. I worked in a factory. I was working three shifts per month. So one week I’d be doing a wake up at 5:00 AM, work until 2:00 PM. Then the next week I’d do 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM. The next week, 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. I’d done that for seven years and it absolutely destroyed me in the end. But one thing I absolutely hated was working for someone else, a boss who was just put there. You’ve got a lot of the time, no respect for him. They don’t seem to work that hard, but somehow they’re managed to be your boss, telling you what to do. And that used to drive me absolutely nuts.

Editor:

So what tempted you to look at the internet as an escape?

Wayne Crowe:

I don’t know. I’ve always been, especially when I was younger, I was a gamer. I was always into strategy games. So it’s that kind of thought pattern and you think oh, I wonder if I can earn money at my computer? Like a lot of people when you start, there must be something I can do to earn £20 an hour, $20 an hour, where I can just sit on my computer and do it. And that’s how I started, much like a lot of people, I think. I just went to Google and put in how to make money online, and that’s pretty much how I started.

Editor:

Fantastic. I mean, from that obviously your business has grown, but what was your earliest success? What was the thing that compelled you to continue doing this?

Wayne Crowe:

My earliest success. I’ll remember this for pretty much the rest of my life. My earliest success, I used to sell stuff online. Okay. So I used E-commerce and we absolutely dominated Google for one search, then you managed to get it to number one for everything. And I remember taking all these to the post office, filled the car up, this one product, take it to the post office. And I remember going to the bank afterwards and I withdrew £500 which is about what, $700, something like that. And I thought, wow, I’ve got £500 in my bank. And now, thinking back, you think, wow. To think £500 is a lot of money, well it is when you’ve got new money, because literally I was always in the overdraft. And that was the first time I thought, you know what? This stuff really works. Really, really works, just from that 500 quid.

Editor:

And how did it snowball for you from there, and how quickly did it snowball?

Wayne Crowe:

I think I was a bit of a slow burner to be honest. Because I mean, from then we were seeing good success, but then the supplier of that product dried up so we had to look for the next product. We found the best seller on Amazon. We imported it from China and literally we couldn’t import it quick enough. It was a number one best seller on Amazon. It was a grey product so Amazon themselves weren’t allowed to sell it, but it was allowed to be sold on Amazon. We sold tonnes of it. And that led me into doing more and more E-commerce.

And then I actually met a guy in a taxi. I went to taxi. So from the factory, I was like, well, I need to take this internet thing seriously so I left the factory, went and become a taxi driver so I could knock the days on the head one day at a time. And I met a guy in the taxi who I just started speaking to and he just shut down his E-commerce business, so we formed a partnership. And from there we literally, or I literally, took that business from zero to 27 staff in about two years, all from zero money, just through pretty much hard work. And that was fantastic.

From there I just went on and bought other business. I started to realise how creative I was with money, funnily enough, and numbers. I started to realise how creative I was and I actually bought businesses that were doing well with zero money. I bought another business and another business. But then, at one point I think I probably had 70 staff, which is insane number of people, but I’d done this internet marketing thing not to have 70 staff, I’d done it to do what I want when I wanted to do it. So I actually stopped all of those businesses, stepped back and thought what do I really want? You get to that stage, don’t you, I think where it’s no longer about how much you turn over or how many staff you got, you think what kind of life do I want? And that’s what led really to where I am now, is I’ve stopped everything. I want to use all my skills, all of my knowledge I’ve built up to transform the life in the way I want. I made the plan and luckily at worked out.

Editor:

Great. And what does the business look like today? Because you say you’ve sold off some of the old businesses, you’ve got rid of a lot of the stuff, so what does the business look like now?

Wayne Crowe:

Business looks like, so basically I’ve got a little log cabin at the end of the garden. I run everything from this. I call it my bat cave. This was my dream to have a log cabin at the end of the garden. So a lot of people say I’m lucky to say it, but I’m living the dream. I’ve got pretty much new money worries. I’ve got new real stressors, but I’ve got an awesome team of people.

So when you’ve got a brick and mortars business you’re there with the staff. You’re watching them, you’re managing them. You got to deal with holidays and sickness and all this other stuff. But now I built my team in such a way, for example, we actually took on 12 new people in the last week because of the way the business structures and the goals we’ve got. So we’ve probably got over 30 people in the team now, but it’s structured in such a way that it’s pleasurable. I’ve got an awesome team that just works wonders together. We turn over, on a good month I’d say, probably 300,000 to 500,000, somewhere in that ballpark. I don’t really look at the figures, I just look at the profits.

And it’s an absolute pleasure waking up in the mornings and think what should I do today? I actually really enjoy working. I’m one of the weird ones. A lot of people do it for the lifestyle and that kind of thing, which is great, but I do it because well, for the enjoyment and the journey it takes you on. Really takes you on a journey to becoming a successful person almost, and that’s what I do this stuff for.

Editor:

A lot of people think that setting up a business on the internet is a risky thing to do. Is it a scam? Is it all going to come crashing down tomorrow? What do you say to people like that, Wayne?

Wayne Crowe:

The real key to being successfully online, I touched on that, is realising that it’s a journey that you have to go on. When you start any business, any business doesn’t matter if it’s online or not, you are not the person that can be successful, especially if it’s your first business. So you’ve got to learn the skills. And the way you learn is by completely immersing yourself in it. Look at the people who are making the profits. Look at the people who are making the money. What are they doing? What actions are they taking? What mindset have they adopted to become successful? It isn’t always what you’re being sold is what you need to do, if that makes sense. It’s the same in real life.

And people think there’s risk. Well, if you look at a big franchise, easy one to pick, McDonald’s, for example. You have to pay a $1 million, let’s say, and you can still fail. You can still fail at a McDonald’s franchise. They still fail. People still fail with those, with the most proven model in the world. When you come online a lot of people think you can pay a few dollars and be successful. In fact, you can come online and pay nothing and be successful if you immerse yourself and really learn as fast as you can.

A perfect example is I remember when I first started this journey, you’d never get me on video, and now I’ve done thousands of videos. You’d never get me on a call. I couldn’t even pick up a call and speak to a stranger. I could never sell anything to anyone. Now I speak for probably 10 hours a week, selling stuff to people, so it really takes you on a journey. You’ve got to understand it is a journey. Some people will come in and seem to make lots of money very quickly, but they often quite often fizzle out because they found success quickly. They don’t actually know why they found it so they can’t adopt that into their habits. Whereas those that maybe are a slower burner, they inherently understand the business better, so they can have the longevity. Because you can do this stuff once you get the skills and the knowledge, then you can do this stuff forever. And it is awesome.

Editor:

Yeah, absolutely.

Wayne Crowe:

That was a bit of a long answer.

Editor:

No, no, no. That’s great. In terms of your own business now, what kind of stuff do you offer? I know about the courses, the Traffic Domination, the 30 Day Email Journey Hacks, and so on. Maybe you could explain a little bit about those, but also the rest of the business. What is it you offer?

Wayne Crowe:

So my primary skill always used to be traffic, paid traffic, and then I moved into organic and hallmark and that kind of stuff. Now what I realised is when you look at the internet markets it’s all based on JVs and affiliates, and they take a long while for a new person to build up. I don’t rely on any affiliates or any JVs. So the way I think of what we do is we reach down and help the newer people. We give them the hope that they’re going to need to get a head start, gain the knowledge the quickest, giving them the shortcuts that they really need, instead of trying to break into this circle of all these affiliates that are out there.

So that’s really what we try and do. I do teach paid traffic, but when you’re new it’s hard to break into paid traffic. There’s always this big cavern, if you like, between where you are now when you start out and where do you want to get to, and we try and bridge that gap with all our courses.

Editor:

Excellent. I mean, in terms of the business moving forward, obviously you do the coaching. Do you do events as well, Wayne, is that something?

Wayne Crowe:

Wee have done events. I’ve done an event with Nick three years ago. We’ve done an event there. We’ve got events planned for this year. So we do live events. We do online events. We do everything we can to help as many people as possible, and at the same time fulfil our business goals, and pushing ourselves as hard as we can. That’s what I love.

Editor:

And this is all master minded from the log cabin at the bottom of your garden?

Wayne Crowe:

All master minded for my little log cabin at the end of the garden. I love it because sometimes I walk out of the house and you think bloody hell. If you’re having a bit of a down day, because we all have them no matter where we are in life, you look at the cave and think bloody hell, I’ve got all these people I’m looking after, all these, not just my employees, we’ve got many successful people who have been with us for years and that perks you up again when you’re having them down days.

Editor:

Yeah. And what tips would you offer to anybody that’s just starting out or thinking of starting an online business? Is there one thing that you think they should do first?

Wayne Crowe:

The first thing, so there’s two answers to that question. The first thing that everyone I think needs to work on is something that’s not sexy, is never really sold, because it can’t really be sold when you don’t realise you need it, but is mindset. That really is what everyone needs to work on when they’re brand new. Because I watch other people’s journeys who are up and coming, you can almost see when they start working on their mindset. Now, when I started I thought I’ve got the right mindset, I’m just going to work. That was my attitude. I’m just going to make it happen. It wasn’t until I started seeing this bit of success, so maybe five figures a month, when I thought right, I get why I need to work on my mindset now. It’s not until you have a bit of success that you realise how important mindset is, or in my case anyway. So my real key for everyone is work on your mindset. Don’t think you just know it, like I did. Really start reading, start applying, start gaining experience as fast as you can.

And the other thing is the confidence I always had. I’m not a confident person, I’m an introvert. That’s one thing that the internet marketing’s really good for, I think is introverts, because it brings out the best in introverts. But it’s that confidence. I always knew I’d be successful. Always, I always knew it. I had that deep down feeling that I’d be successful. But the important thing that I had was I don’t care if it takes a year or 10 years, I thought I don’t care. I know I’ve got to improve. I know I’ve got a go through this journey. And when I’m 60, let’s say, that 10 years isn’t going to matter. I could either still be in the minimum wage job working at the factory or could have tried, made it work and be sitting there looking after the family, having my dream home in Spain, for example, and achieved all that stuff.

So, mindset and really understanding and having the confidence that no matter what, you can do it.

Editor:

How supportive were your family at first? Did they believe that you could do this as well?

Wayne Crowe:

You’ll hear a lot of the stories, but I was lucky that my entire family, because I’ve always been driven. It used to be sports until I had an injury and I couldn’t do it. So I’ve always been a driven person to better myself, so they’ve always been supportive. I actually remember because we do a lot of Facebook organic marketing, and I remember the day I said to my wife, I was like, “Look, you’re going to see a lot of weird stuff on Facebook.” Because obviously I do a lot of sales posts on there. “You’re going to see a lot of weird stuff. Friends might mention it. Family might mention it.” I was really scared of doing this, what everyone else would think. I started doing it and I got absolutely nothing from my friends and family. And that one tactic has made me millions.

Editor:

Just goes to show, doesn’t it. Sometimes you have to get out of your own way in order to achieve the success that you’re looking for.

Wayne Crowe:

Exactly, you do.

Editor:

So what challenges did you face along the way? And what are the things that have stuck in your mind as to things that you’ve overcome, but you wish hadn’t have been there in the first place?

Wayne Crowe:

Well, there’s hundreds of them. I think every single challenge is personal to yourself. The biggest one for me was probably, the thing that made the biggest difference for me, was going on camera, I’d say. And that was probably the biggest challenge. In fact, I’ve got a Facebook group and my first ever video is still in that Facebook group from years and years ago. And I’d hate to even look at it now, but that was my biggest challenge.

And I actually like challenges now. You realise that success is on the other side of that fear, as it often is. So I actually enjoyed that challenge. Everyone’s got a challenge of money. How much money will it take as well? I didn’t have a lot of money, but somehow I made it work. Where there is a will, I believed, and where you can be creative. It’s surprising what happens when you’re stuck in a corner and you let your mind be creative, how creative you can be. So money was always something that I felt held me back, but now if I went and done it again, I’d do exactly the same without money because you learn. That’s the only way you learn that creativity.

So I’d say the biggest ones were the things that stopped me early on the move were just my own fears.

Editor:

Now what’s your reaction now when people say, “Yeah, but Wayne it’s all right for you. You had it easy. There was less people, less competition on the internet when you got started. You are comfortable now, I’ll never get to that.” What would you say to those people?

Wayne Crowe:

I’d say just do it. That is normally my answer. When people say I don’t want to go on camera, it’s like, just do it. If you want it bad enough, do you want this thing bad enough, you will find a way. I know if I start another internet business now with everything I’ve learned, I know I’d be successful at it because you build that confidence. You build that experience. You’re probably a bit more cautious in a new field, but you just need to do it because there’ll always be excuses. Excuses come to you all the time, but just taking action and just doing it is the only thing that will say whether you’ll be successful or not.

Editor:

Yeah. I mean, you touched on this a little earlier, but what are some of the things that you’re most proud of that you’ve achieved?

Wayne Crowe:

Blimey, that’s a good question. I never thought of that. The things I’m most proud of is, I would say, it’s actually to do with the staff. I’d actually say it’s to do with the team. I’ve got team members now that worked for me for seven years and I’d class them as very good friends, and being able to provide for their families. And also the same with people we’ve brought into our system, we’ve worked with those, they’ve quit their jobs and looking after their families. I think that is such a big, big achievement, a really big achievement. And being able to help others is the big thing really. Everyone says this, “Oh, I’ve made my millions. I’ll give back.” That kind of stuff. But for me, it’s about keep earning profits in the future so I can keep helping people. But yeah, helping the staff’s a big one, I think.

Editor:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, there’s not many people that can actually take care of that many staff. And also, as you say, you’re providing their life as well, their lifestyle, so that’s quite an achievement, Wayne.

What does the year ahead have in store for you? What are you working on next? And how do you keep motivated?

Wayne Crowe:

So what we’re working on next. We’re always looking at scaling the business up. People look and think it’s greed, it’s not that. We do this thing because we love it. I think a lot of internet marketers get to a certain size, they do it because they absolutely love it. Well, I do. I absolutely love what we do. So for me, it’s about growing the business, because if you don’t grow you find you go backwards.

And it’s the excitement of looking at the figures, working out where we need to head and working. In fact, we had a phone call just before this with our team, working out what figures to look at, where we need to focus our efforts. And getting it right. That’s the exciting thing. Yes. Because we get a lot wrong, we get a tonne of stuff wrong. But when you find that one thing that works, that’s a real excitement. So I’d like to think we can do seven figures a month, like million dollars plus a month, so that’s the big goal. Not because of the money, just to see if we can actually do it.

Editor:

Interesting. I mean, good luck with that. That sounds like a good challenge to set yourself. And good luck as well with, well, when you do this, moving to Spain. It looks like that might be something for the future, but still something to look forward to.

Wayne Crowe:

It’s exciting. It’s warm.

Editor:

Whereabouts in Spain have you got in mind?

Wayne Crowe:

I don’t know. We’re going on holiday. So two weeks off to Fuerteventura. Maybe summer we’ll go somewhere, sort of Marbella. And we’re just going to plan holidays to see, well the wife doesn’t know this, but for me it’s to see where’s nice.

Editor:

Nice plan. Wayne, it’s been an absolute pleasure meeting you. Where can we find out more about you?

Wayne Crowe:

The best place to go is to our system, which is olspsystem.com. Create an account there. You’ll get to join our Facebook group, which has already got 125,000 members on it. And you’ll find out more about me and what we do.

Editor:

Fantastic. Wayne Crowe, thanks again. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Wayne Crowe:

Thanks very much.