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Editor:
Today, I’m thrilled to be chatting to Jason Fladlien, a trailblazer in internet marketing, webinars, and so much more. With product sales in excess of 250 million, Jason’s journey from humble beginnings to becoming a global influencer in internet marketing is nothing short of inspiring.
Now alongside Wil Mattos, he co-founded Rapid Crush Inc., a company that has revolutionized digital marketing strategies and set records in the internet marketing space. And he’s also the author of the influential book, One to Many, which delves deep into the secrets of successful webinars.
His achievements really do speak for themselves, but I guess we should speak to the man himself.
Jason, welcome.
Jason Fladlien:
Pleasure to be here.
Editor:
Now could we start by asking a little bit more about your early days and what led you from being a rapper and a monk to a leading figure in internet marketing?
Jason Fladlien:
Yeah, you could really start anywhere in this business. That’s the good news.
I was always interested in music and specifically hip hop, and I started rapping in front of audiences at seven years old, seven or eight, somewhere along there. So, it felt very natural to me.
And I always thought music would be where I would end up. So, I tried that off and on throughout the years.
But I had a lot of traumas that went through my life when I was growing up. I was in a household that there was a lot of drug abuse and a lot of chaos.
And I ended up being about 18 years old and just so depressed. I had all these panic attacks all the time. I ended up having agoraphobia, which is afraid of open spaces, meaning you really don’t go outside much. And I’m just sitting there just lost.
And a friend of mine who was in the music space, had went and he travelled with the Hare Krishnas for a little bit and he came back and he was telling me about that.
Jason Fladlien:
So, I was intellectually curious, always was, still am. So, I started Googling around and looking at it and I started reading it and I’m like, “Okay, I’m at my lowest point in my life. I can’t focus, I can’t do anything. I’m staying up till 7:00 in the morning, sleeping until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. That was my life living with my dad in this little tiny apartment.” And so, I said, “I’ll try it and see what happens.” So really saved my life.
I eventually got rid of all my panic attacks in a few months and I just felt really invigorated to go out and do something boldly. And so, I tried that with the music.
The music, unfortunately though, it was at about the worst time you could launch a music career because CD sales were dying out, but streaming hadn’t been figured out yet.
And I wasn’t frankly very good at it. I had to work eight or nine hours to do something that talented musicians could do in one to two hours
.
Jason Fladlien:
I’m not one to give up though. I was trying really hard at this, that, and the other. And so, I started looking at the business and marketing side of the music and I started trying to apply those methods to the music that I was putting out there and it wasn’t working well.
Jason Fladlien:
And out of desperation, I said, “You know what? I need capital. That’s the answer to the music business.” Because I didn’t have any money. So let me make some money online and then I’ll pour that into the music business.
Jason Fladlien:
That was about 2006. And now here we are going on in 2024, still haven’t circled back around to the music, got into the internet space and just kept going.
Editor:
And what a success that has been. Did you regret perhaps leaving the rapping behind or is that something that actually-
Jason Fladlien:
No.
Jason Fladlien:
I always thought that the music would be the thing that switch me on, and I didn’t find anything else as attractive to me. But the marketing very quickly became as attractive if not more attractive to me. So, I had the passion for it, but I also had the skill set to it. Whereas music, I had the passion for it, but I lacked on the skill set side.
So you really want both. You want something that you’re passionate about that also comes naturally to you, and it still will be hard, don’t get me wrong, but at least you’re predisposed to getting it and you can do something with it.
And that’s what I really saw with the marketing was, “Wow, I like it. It’s very interesting to me. It motivates me, it gets me excited, and I can get it right away. I don’t have to practice extra hard for many, many more hours just to be barely competent at it. I can pick it up in a decent timeframe so therefore maybe I can get some traction and some momentum.” And that’s why I don’t think I ever came back to the music.
Editor:
You mentioned that it was at the time when CDs were dying out and streaming hadn’t been figured out yet. That’s probably around the same time, I guess, as the internet was really finding its feet. We’ve been through the dot-com boom and bust and the internet was really starting to come into it. So, when did you first get online?
Jason Fladlien:
Way long ago.
So, I was actually only 14 when I first got online. So, this was 1997. And I remember I bought a little 286 computer. So, this was not a tower. You laid it flat on the desk and I painted houses for a month just trying to make some money to save up. And I bought my first computer and I got the internet.
And I was really fascinated with how the internet worked. And this was in ’97 when it was just… Nobody even… Barely anybody had the internet.
And I started learning how to build websites back then. And that was really so cool.
We were doing music back then. I was working on music, so I was trying to produce albums even when I was 14 and I was building websites around anything and everything because really to put anything online back then…
Jason Fladlien:
I had a lot of different interests and passions. And then in order to put anything online, you had no code. It’s not like these days where you just go to Twitter and type it on your phone.
So, starting when I was 14, I really got onto the internet and then I didn’t look at it as a way to make money until maybe seven years later with the music.
Note from the editor:
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