TAS 621: Why Josh and Jill Stanton CLOSED Their $300k Online Business (BIG Lessons Learned)

What does it take to build a thriving brand online? How do you create a following and leverage your influence to achieve your goals? What happens when you feel the need to make a shift and end up walking away from the very thing that brought you all that success? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he welcomes his guest, Jill Stanton. 

Jill and Josh Stanton are the co-founders of Screw The Nine To Five. They are serial online entrepreneurs and world travellers. In her conversation with Scott, Jill opens up about their journey, why they decided to move from affiliate marketing to building a personal brand, the value of getting clarity in business, what it takes to connect with a large following, and much more. You don’t want to miss a minute of this engaging episode featuring Josh and Jill's story!

Hard work pays off.

Jill and Josh started their journey in 2011 working jobs they saw no future in and decided that they needed to make a change. They leapt and started putting together an ecommerce business focused on skin care. While it took a lot of hard work and sleepless nights, their hard work paid off, and they were able to secure their first month with $1,000 in profit. They ended up selling that business for $50,000 and went on to start several other businesses in 2012. The big takeaway from Jill and Josh’s initial success is that they were sick of their current circumstances and decided to do something about it. In short, they took action! They weren’t experts in skin care; they were just willing to go out there, put in the work, and trust that profit would follow and it did!

Don’t become a slave to your business!

Success and growth are a what every business leader is after, right? But what happens when all of the success becomes a weight that drags you down? From Jill and Josh, the complexity and daily demand of their business began to take a toll and caused them to rethink their approach. The last thing you want in business is to find yourself shackled to something that doesn’t fulfil you. It might sound crazy, but their story could be your story! What will you do when that moment comes and feel like you’ve become a slave to your business? Will you stay committed and miserable or will you make the changes necessary? To hear how Jill and Josh pivoted and took their efforts in a new direction, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller!

What do you really want?

At the end of the day, one of the best things you can do for your business is to identify your “why.” If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about helping sellers like you figure out this important aspect of entrepreneurship. Do you know your “why?” When was the last time you reevaluated it? For some people that “why” will be a constant but for others, it will need to change as their business grows. Learn from Josh and Jill’s story and how asking the question “What do I really want?” helped them get to the core of their “why” by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER

• [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast!
• [5:20] Jill Stanton join the podcast to share their story.
• [12:00] Jill talks about their affiliate marketing efforts.
• [14:00] What led Josh and Jill to focus on building their personal brand?
• [17:00] Why you need clarity in your business.
• [24:00] Jill talks about connecting with a large following.
• [28:50] What is QBR?
• [32:10] How has life been since Josh and Jill pulled back in their business?
• [36:00] Jill talks about their traffic strategy.
• [42:00] Attention is the new currency.
• [44:40] What do you really want?
• [47:45] If you want to change you’ve got to start forming positive habits.
• [53:30] Closing thoughts from Scott.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Screw The Nine To Five
• Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself
• theSkimm
• Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself
• Atomic Habits