Let us tell you the story of how 
What I consistently get asked is:
How do you make money online?
How can you be successful?
The critical component is good collaboration.
Work with the people you already have who are following you, and the Joe Parys & Jerry Banfield story, is an awesome example of that because Joe Parys and I, have never met in person, yet we've worked online for three years. We've helped each other a lot and you will see how we've done this. I will make it more obvious on how to do it for you.
Joe would you like to tell us how you got here today?
Joe:
Yes, Jerry.
I really appreciate you spending the time here, and us being able to share this story with people. It's an amazing story, we have never met each other in person, but yet I feel I know you really well. We are good friends and obviously we have known each other for years now and have done so much together that it is amazing.
We haven't met in person yet, but a day will come where that definitely happens. I’m grateful for being here and excited to share this with the community, and really tell people how we have gotten started and what happened. I really appreciate this and I'm excited to tell the story.
Jerry:
Excellent, I'm excited to hear it again. I'm just going to suggest that I give you my cell phone number today. We've taken it to a whole new level of e-mail, Skype and all the other messages.
Where was the first place you ever saw me online?
Joe:
The first place I saw you online was on Udemy.com and I had started on Udemy right around the same time that you were really putting in a lot of effort there. I started in the beginning of 2015, I launched my very first course and had a lot of success, and then the key which really helped me with that very first course is, I took one of your courses on how to teach on Udemy. It was your very first one and you really helped me with the process of the review process and how you could get students enrolled in your course before it was actually launched on the marketplace, and then also walking through the step by step process of how to get the course on the marketplace.
I was trying to launch my very first course, Udemy was being like, "You need to do this better audio," this and that, it was very frustrating. You being able to walk us through that, showing us in your course, was so helpful, and then my very first course launched. I started following you more and more, and your success, because of that course that was teaching us on Udemy, and then an idea came to mind on the collaboration and teaching together.
I saw that you were expanding, and then you were teaching other people the benefits of co-teaching, so we've taken it to a whole new level. It's absolutely amazing when you put two minds together. If not more than that, and one plus one here is definitely equal the least eleven, if not more with doing this collaboration.
That's how we got started and that was years ago now, but that's where I found you on Udemy, that's where we first started together. You were so helpful in that course that I remember I wrote a review for your course, I get it like a five stars and I said, “Thank you so much for sharing this. As somebody who's new to instructing and who really wants to do this, that video tutorial is very helpful."
You saw that and we instantly built some report there, that was very interesting how we first come across pass.
Jerry:
Thank you for explaining that Joe and to synthesize what you said, in other words from my point of view, how did I get Joe Parys as a follower?
I went through something and struggled with it, and then I took the time to remember that other people are going to be doing this after me, and I thought, how can I make this easier for people after me to do it, than it was for me?
I found video tutorials, I made a course. I gave the course away for free, I posted about it. I started off thinking, "What can I do for Joe?" essentially, and then Joe used the help I provided, and then posted a review on the course that helped me out then. That's how we ended up being here today several years later, because my first thought process helped others and in receiving the help Joe wanted to collaborate with me more.
If you've been asking how do you get followers online, how do you build up all this? That to me is the core, what I have in common with almost everyone is that initial setup.
Do you remember Joe rather you found me in a Facebook group or did you actually find me on Udemy.com?
Joe:
At the time it was through the "Udemy Studio" Facebook group. You posted a bunch of free coupons and you were just giving yourself away for free, and I was like, "That’s great. Why wouldn't I enroll in this?"
I just instantly resonated with your way of thinking and you were so helpful like you said, and you really truly cared about us as students. I really valued that because that's how I am now, and at the time you were serving hundreds of thousands of students that began to grow and grow. Now, I'm serving hundreds of thousands of people and it's amazing when you truly do sincerely want to help others.
So many people will want to get back and help you as well on the back end, and I really truly felt that, and you felt that. When I wrote that review it was genuine, and my advise for anybody who's reading this is, don't worry about the results right away, just genuinely give and just enjoy the process of creating.
If you are a creator, if you are somebody who's thinking about doing online business or working online, just share and give, and the more that you do that, the more that it will come back to you on the back end. Who knows which way possible?
That's how I did find you. It was through you giving away so much of your stuff for free to get started, and it made the barrier of entry easy, that you've now have a lifelong follower. We've made some amazing business transactions and deals that have paid monetary way more on the back end than that free course or two that you gave out. It's amazing how the more you give the more you receive.
Jerry:
Exactly and that leads me to the next question.
What was the next big step we took after you took the free course, and then you posted the review?
I basically gave you my best stuff for free and you gave me a very nice review back.
What did we do next to take it to the next level?
Joe:
The next level was actually working together. I created my first couple courses on Udemy and they were successful in their own rights. They had plenty of really good reviews, I was earning money, thousands of people were taking them, and then I saw that you were working in team teaching together. I looked at that as an idea and that seemed interesting, because I'm seeing that if I can work with another person who is getting some really good results, not only am I going to learn from them, but that's going to help myself.
Also I'm sure they can learn from me, and if together we create something it can really take off because people are going to gain different perspectives, we can leverage our talents together and I was really excited about that idea. I saw that you were messing around and playing with that idea and that it was something which was possible online.
The thing that I really liked about it too is that it was different, and a lot of people when you go to their online profiles and see what they are teaching, they are doing the same things. I saw this approach as something different and I wanted to at least test it and try it.
So many people fail to actually test something and try it, if it doesn't work well then that's okay, at least you tried, and then you can move on to finding what does work, but you don't know until you try it.
I came to you with the idea I said, “Hey look why don't we create something together?Let’s test it, let’s give it a try and let's see how this works," and you were very open to that idea. We ended up to be creating that course together, you kept me really accountable too, because I felt like, "Jerry is counting on me,” and I got to perform here.
I believe you were like "This Joe guy who's just getting started, I see that he's applying a lot of the things that are going to make him successful as an online instructor and somebody who's going to be just sharing a lot online. Yes, let's do something together and let’s give it a try."
That’s how we got started, we created our very first course and I think it was how to teach online again, because we both had experience with that. We niched it a little bit, it was something more specific, and literally my revenue doubled from the month before when we launched that course together.
Ideally I said, "Okay this is what I'm talking about." I knew that the results would be there, and then I just saw that we could just scale this and the more that we worked around this, I had plenty of failures working with and without people, co-teachers and all that stuff, but you don't know that until you do it.
I'm happy that we got started and we tried it because now look at where we are years later, both doing things online full time, but we have the time here in the afternoon to even sit and talk about this, it is absolutely amazing, hopefully that answers your question, that's how we got started.
Jerry:
Yes, that's quite a journey, I enjoyed making that course with you and what helped me was that I had the opposite experience. I had tried to work with an existing instructor in an opposite situation, he already had a bunch of students and sales, and the experience with them was totally disappointing.
They didn't follow through with anything they promised. I wanted to make sure that I do a good job and not just try to exploit Joe, get all his followers and money over to me, but really do a good job and make sure essentially that I give more in terms of income, like I’d give more essentially, and then at the same time, we make a deeper partnership.
As Joe grows, he will be more equipped to give back. I've just been thinking how interesting the revenues flowed with us because I naturally gave you free courses, then we partnered together to make sales for you, or we made sales together, then you won a bunch of those contests I did, in the courses as well.
Initially you might have looked at it like Joe is coming out pretty good in terms of the income. Joe is just doing good making his money, and you might think, why would I bother with that? Like just purely from my point of view, you might think that I can make more money doing something else, then after I got banned from Udemy, then I lost almost all my income, what's happened since then Joe?
Joe:
Since then, we've been testing and trying a lot of new things, and it's amazing how your mind will find solutions to problems. If everything came crashing down on me as well, like Udemy went just under and the whole platform fell apart, well now I'm building my own school. I have that as a backup and I wouldn’t have learned that, had you not have gone through the thing that you did with Udemy. I've been able to benefit and to learn from that as well, now we are on Steemit.com together, this is a new little venture that you've introduced me to.
I'm excited about the Steemit community, you can follow Jerry @JerryBanfield and me Joe Parys @Joe Parys, we make it simple and easy for you. What's really amazing about this community is the amount that we can share and give back as well, like the fact that you introduced me to this community and now I've taken my own content that I've created, shared it with the community and because I've been able to learn through the processes, how you've been able to just build a following, I followed you on Steemit at first to understand how it worked, then I had a post get noticed by some of the most prevalent Steemit community members, it's made me over $300 and that's amazing.
I'm happy and grateful for that, again following other people and working together with somebody that you have a lot in common with, that you have a like-minded relationship with, there are many different avenues that you can go and take it.
I remember that you were making all these posts on your YouTube channel, this was about a month ago, when I started Steemit. I was like, "Jerry is talking this crypto currency stuff, I don't even know what he's talking about," and then I'm not sure what video it was, it was one of your videos on YouTube where you were saying, "I made, I don't know, $5,000, $10,000 in a month on Steemit." I was like, "What is this?"
I’ve watched that video and I saw what you were seeing with the potential, and thought, "Well, I got to do this!" There's a calling because I'm already making all this content, we are already sharing all these things, we are already making amazing videos, we have hours of tutorial videos, we are really helping people, and I said, "Why not just make blog posts and other content, and just share it on Steemit, why not do that as well?"
That's where we're at today, we're also working with ad campaigns together, you help me advertise my business much better, you help me be more aware of Google AdWords, Google Analytics and all that stuff.
It's amazing where we are today, compared to where we were with Udemy, the relationship has really grown, it's just gotten a lot better and our revenues have gone through the roof.
I really want to say one last thing before we change the topic, investing in a mentor, and I looked at Jerry when I first was working with him as a mentor because he knew things about Udemy that I did not know, when we worked together and we collaborated, we got to have these talks. It was really this mentoring process that has been the single best thing that has ever happened to me in my process teaching online. We both now earn about hundreds of thousands of dollars teaching online, we both do this full time, we're serving hundreds of thousands of people and that's amazing results.
The main thing that I tell people is, get a mentor, work with somebody who first hand is getting the results that you want, then just talk with them. Literally get yourself immersed in their processes and their thinking, it's going to take you to a place that you've never been mentally, then you're going to start to play with new ideas, and then you're going to start to see things differently because in life it's all about becoming more aware. The more aware that we are, the better our results get. I'm just so grateful and thankful for all of that and I just wanted to share that with the people who are reading this as well.
Jerry:
That's an outstanding point Joe, you've done so much better at that than me, I have struggled to have a mentor in what I've done online and you've done outstanding with that. What I hope we can share in this call is that working together online, we try to focus on genuinely helping each other, that means whoever's up or down in one respect, to try and work together to raise that up. Like when Joe started and first found me on Udemy, my money was blowing up, it was crazy, I had all kinds of students, Joe was just getting started with his very first course, it made sense for the money to essentially flow out from me to Joe, to get Joe students and sales.
Then, when I got banned from Udemy, and my business started to tank, I was struggling and frustrated. Guess what?
Joe then hired me to be his mentor just when I really needed some more money and was unsure of my own business. If you focus on helping each other, you're planting seeds, you're helping people be in a better position to help you, like now Joe has invested in Steemit.
Joe can upvote me, I'm able to upvote Joe, we can both give back to each other. So, we don't only look at this in a certain context, we easily wouldn't have kept collaborating like when I got banned from Udemy, if you were just trying to use me to get ahead, when I got behind, it would have been over after that.
I find that the best relationship are the ones you work together through a lot of different changes, because you get to help each other out in different ways and that promotes a high level of trust. When you've got a high level of trust, you don't have to waste your time on all this other BS. You can just straight go to work.
I'm grateful Joe that you've helped me out with that, and several of the videos I've done with you getting lots of views on my YouTube channel, and lots of the sales I got through my courses were through our bundle we did together.
You've helped me out a ton just to have confidence in my own business again, after I was seeing myself as a complete failure for getting banned from Udemy, but you weren't seeing me that way. So I appreciate that a lot.
Joe:
For sure.
Jerry:
I hope we've communicated what it looks like to just meet and have a genuine relationship online to work together.
Joe, what are you most excited about in your work online going forward?
Joe:
The thing I'm most excited about is all the opportunity, I see that there's so much growth potential and with this Steemit community it's just starting, I'm seeing for the first time with an online website, it's not the same as Facebook, but it has the same components where you can like and comment where people are genuinely trying to help each other and really trying to get the best content across to people.
I've never felt so engaged with the community where I'm writing a post or something where I'm like, "Is this really going to help somebody?" and there is incentive for me in the back end and there's incentive for them in the back end, but it's amazing how that's all structured. So I'm really excited about that and I'm really excited about how I'm in control of my own destiny as an online instructor, and as somebody who's teaching and working online. We do have that control, as much as it is stressful at times to work, and then to choose your own hours and what to do and all this fun stuff.
We do control creation and it's amazing to be able to create content that is going to help people and I was literally just walking down the street here and somebody was watching one of my videos and said, "Hey, you haven't come out with one of those motivational videos lately, what's going on?" and I replied, "Yes, I was traveling," but it's amazing how many people are actually watching your stuff and how many lives you're really changing.
I went to school for teaching and I have a degree in education, and so it's fitting what you're wearing today. That is the amazing impact that you can have as somebody who is working online and you can reach more people than you ever have, and we've impacted each other's lives so much, it's just an amazing thing.
So that's what I'm excited about, this continued growth, continuing to work with amazing people and really just seeing people comment and even when you just walk down the street saying, "Hey, I appreciate what you're doing," that is so satisfying and that's what I'm really looking forward to as more continuing of that in the future.
Jerry:
I am too, Joe and I'm grateful you've helped me to see with my own business that it's important for me to be listening and connected, and stay connected with people over time, because the problem is the more growth you get the harder it is to maintain relationships.
So many new people that want to work with you and want to collaborate, then the question becomes, how do you choose who to say yes to and no to?
How do you choose who to work with as you keep getting more and more opportunities thrown at you?
I've realized that there needs to be a good system to be able to collaborate with people and the people I've been working with the longest are the relationships you want to make sure to maintain first. Once you've done that then it makes sense to let new people in.
So I'm excited to keep working with you and especially you've powered more Steem up, that's more of a Steem upvote for me. I'm excited you're excited about Steem because that confirms my own excitement in it. I appreciate you suggesting filming this call and talk about what we're doing online today.
I hope this has been useful if you're wondering how to collaborate. Joe and I have the exact lives I used to fantasize about. We don't have to wake up to alarms. We have our own hours. We have our own businesses. We have people who work with us and for us. We're well known online and if you want to do that, it starts with helping other people and working together. That's not all I have to say, but it's a good point to cut me off or I'll talk for another hour. 😆
Joe:
For sure. We'll go ahead and wrap it up.
Thanks again Jerry for helping me create this and hopefully everybody who's watched was able to get something out of it, and we encourage you to follow the both of us because again, Jerry and I both have the same mindset of we want to give, we want to share, we want to help each and every one of you genuinely, and hopefully that comes across in our video.
We can go ahead and wrap it up Jerry and thanks again so much guys, and I guess we'll see you hopefully in more of our content, our videos, very soon.
Jerry:
Yes, I hope so, thanks.
Thank you very much for reading this post, which was originally filmed as the video below!
If you found this post helpful on Steemit, would you please upvote it and follow me because you will then be able to see more posts like this in your home feed?
Love,
Jerry Banfield with edits by @gmichelbkk from the transcript by GoTranscript
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