How to build a thriving community with Kirk Du Plessis :Eventual Millionaire

Founder and Fund Manager at OptionAlpha.com – Kirk Du Plessis

Here’s what you’ll learn about How To Build A Thriving Community:

– The surprising reason why Kirk stopped selling his online courses, opened up his content for free and now focused on building a paid SaaS product around it!

– How to set yourself apart from Day One in your business (and how to do it NOW if you’ve been around for a while).

– The coolest idea for a lead magnet your competition is totally ignoring!

– How to turn a standard forum into an attractive feature your prospects WANT to pay for.

– How Kirk is able to get up to 160 new free members PER DAY with almost NO paid advertising.

– The “$200,000 Phone Call” method to discover your ideal customer’s biggest pains.

Plus, why Gary V’s “hustle” ideology might not work as well as you’d think, what to do if you’re just starting out, and why picking the right mastermind group can be the best investment you can possibly make!

So here’s what you do:

Set aside 36 minutes, grab a pen and a piece of paper, and…Tune in!

Kirk’s Website:

OptionAlpha.com – 12 Specific Options Trading Courses Designed to Get You From Beginner to Professional

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime Masters: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Masters, and today on the show we have Kirk Du Plessis. Now, he runs Optionalpha.com, and when I looked at the numbers of what he has for a membership site, I thought he was not true because it was so many. Thanks so much for coming on the show today Kirk.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Jaime Masters: Okay, so, tell everybody what Option Alpha is first, and then we'll talk about that magic number that I was very impressed with.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah. So, Option Alpha just started as a regular blog and is now a full-blown options trading education platform and then eventually now transitioning into software and SAS.

Jaime Masters: Of course, because everybody's doing it because that's an awesome thing to do.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, of course, that's what you have to do, yeah.

Jaime Masters: So, hey, I want to do it too. So, I can't really say anything.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: So, how many people are in your membership site?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, I just checked this morning. I don't even know if it's updated on the website yet, but we're at 52,111.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, because it said 47,000 -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, I think we -

Jaime Masters: - which was awesome.

Kirk Du Plessis: - haven't updated in like a month. And I think we're like 160, 180 people a day on average join right now, which is crazy.

Jaime Masters: Okay, tell me about that because, I mean, I've been doing this show for a really long time. And I remember interviewing somebody with a similar membership type in this space.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: No. 1.) Their numbers were not this good, but No. 2.) I was like oh, that seems just like a trend that it might not get six years later.

Kirk Du Plessis: Better, yeah.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, exactly. So, tell me a little bit about how that started and how the heck you're doing it.

Kirk Du Plessis: Honestly, I'll give total credit originally to Pat, who's a friend of mine, and I've been involved with him and masterminds with him before and his like one day BB events and stuff that he does.

Jaime Masters: Oh, yeah, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, all right.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yes.

Jaime Masters: All right. I mention him a lot, but yes.

Kirk Du Plessis: P Flynn.

Jaime Masters: Go ahead.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, P Flynn, yep.

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: But originally, a couple years ago, I had this blog, and I was writing about what I was doing. I was trading, and I worked on Wall Street. I used to trade, and so, I was writing about what I was doing. Pat said, "Well, why don't you just start putting out courses?" And so, originally, the first iteration was paid courses because I was like of course, paid courses. Why doesn't everyone do that, right? Now, everyone's doing that. This was like six years ago. And so -

Jaime Masters: And Pat hasn't had his paid course come out yet either.

Kirk Du Plessis: Right, right.

Jaime Masters: But you know it's hilarious. All right, continue.

Kirk Du Plessis: Put it out there, right? And then I thought to myself well, 1.) This is garbage. I don't really give a lot of people, right? And everyone comes in, and it's just like kicking the tires. And they come, and then they take all the stuff, and then they go. And so I thought to myself well, look. I don't really need to make money off of this side of it. I actually do trade. I post my trades and win, lose, or draw, whatever the case is. And so I said you know what? I'm just gonna give literally everything away for free and really see what happens, right? And so, that's really where it started from, and literally it's just grown by there.

So, everyone else in the space has a paid course because that's how they need to make money, and I don't. So, I don't need to make money that way, and so I give everything away for free which eliminates completely the trust barrier that people have to get through.

Jaime Masters: And it makes perfect sense to where things are trending, I think anyway, is that information is going to be free from these big companies that don't use it -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - as their way of making money. But that being said, most people do have to make money. So, what is your business -

Kirk Du Plessis: Sure.

Jaime Masters: - model on this?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, it's simple. I think it's really simple. On a membership site, everything is for free. Everyone can come in and go as they please. There's no hiccups, no trials, no cancellations. But if you wanted more access to me or to our software and research, then you have to pay. And so, it's nominal. I mean, our lowest membership level is $99.00 a month, which I think is reasonable in my space for access to me and to my trades and our portfolio and stuff like that.

And then, obviously, Q&A calls and other little things. And now, we've started to develop more software that people can start to access. That kind of helps them as tools, which I think is good that we actually never developed software until eight years down the line because now we know exactly what people need and what could actually be a good business model for us in the future.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, because I came from the tech world. I don't think people understand how crazy. I've seen so many of my clients spend millions of dollars and have nothing, which sucks -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.
Jaime Masters: - right, as far as nothing that brings any ROI. So, you -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - use the membership side of things as sort of like a lead magnet, right? So, getting -

[Crosstalk]

Jaime Masters: - emails?

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, that's it. I mean, our biggest lead magnet is the offer into the membership, right. So, everything is behind a free pay wall, if you will, and everything leads there, right. So, the membership area is well organized. We've got videos, live-training videos, podcast, webinars, the whole deal, everything.

But all you have to do is become a member, right, and then you're part of the community. You're part of the family, which is eventually what I want, right. I don't want people to just take one thing and then leave. They have to take it all in.

Jaime Masters: Well, and then it makes it a no brainer for somebody to give an email address because an email address for a membership -

Kirk Du Plessis: It's a launch.

Jaime Masters: - site makes sense.

Kirk Du Plessis: It's a launch, yeah.

Jaime Masters: Yeah.

Kirk Du Plessis: They get so much, and then they join all the other people in there. They get to communicate and chat and do all of the other things that they do, so yeah.

Jaime Masters: What do you do community wise because 52,000 is a lot. So, what do you do community wise and platform wise in that membership site to make sure it's not crazy?

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah. So, here's what we did actually. We never had, until recently, a forum, which I think was a stupid idea, to be honest with you, for a while. But then what we decided to do and whether it's good, bad, or indifferent but we did it for our own purposes was to have a forum only for people who upgrade to a pro or elite level. And the reason I did that is because 1.) There's a lot of spammers out there in this space. Everyone's spamming about all kinds of stuff. I probably delete 150 or 200 spam comments on our YouTube channel every day. It's crazy.

And so, I didn't want it to be open to free for people to come in and spam. So, now, it actually ends up being a very attractive piece of why people upgrade to a different level because now they can be part of the community. So, when they're a free member, they're kind of part of the community.

They can interact in the comments and some different pages but not like a full-blown forum community hub. And so, that's actually been really good, right. So, do I think that it probably deters some people away from it? Sure. But once they get into that level, they end up sticking a lot longer.

Jaime Masters: Ah, that makes so much sense because I just assumed it was both sides. Like the forum was that too.

Kirk Du Plessis: Oh yeah.

Jaime Masters: And I assume 52,000 -

Kirk Du Plessis: Well, 1.) That's why we did it.

Jaime Masters: - don't email crappiness.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah -

Jaime Masters: Yeah.

Kirk Du Plessis: - when we originally launched this, there was like 20,000 people. I'm like there's no way I can even manage that. So, now, it's in the more elite level, which is good because, again, they can talk with each other, and they're all on the same page, which is what you want. You want to be with other people who are like you, right?

Jaime Masters: Yeah, and actually committed that will actually care instead of -

Kirk Du Plessis: Right.

Jaime Masters: - like you said, a bazillion spammers because I know you choose the same thing. Oh my gosh -
Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - the comments over there are ridiculous!

Kirk Du Plessis: Everyday, yep.

Jaime Masters: Yes. So, tell me -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - about traffic and getting these leads because people No. 1.) You have a good point to getting people onto the membership site. But how do you -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - get the 160 people to there every day in order to -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - sign up?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, I think this is good, and I don't know. I mean, look. I think I'm definitely the person where if somebody were to ask me are you fast to execute stuff, I would say no on purpose because I actually think it's more methodical to go through a long, blown-out strategy. And so, when I say this, I say that all of this - meaning that it's taken eight years, obviously, to get to this point, right. So, it didn't happen overnight.

But until about two and a half months ago, we did no paid media advertising at all. And so, everything was basically grown through really good content, which I know people say all the time, but it actually works. Really good content, lots of blog posting, podcasting, videos, etc. And I think our biggest channel right now is YouTube because I literally record a video every single night of all the trades that I do, right.

And so, that video goes out to our members first. 20 days after that it gets published live. But it's constant content for me. So, I literally have a video every single day of the trading session, right, showing people I either made this money or I didn't, right. And if I lost five grand, I show you I lost five grand. If I made five grand, I show you I made five grand. But I think that inside the YouTube channel alone bring us our most traffic.
Jaime Masters: Well, and it's funny. It's very similar to Pat's showing his whole income report where you're like oh, we can actually see what's actually happening, kind of, real time.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: I mean, a month -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - difference. But that sort of sets you apart, especially - I'm assuming - in your industry in general. There's a lot of -

Kirk Du Plessis: Nobody does it.

Jaime Masters: - schemingness.

Kirk Du Plessis: Nobody does it. That's why people love it because literally nobody does it in our space, right. So, like two months ago we had a $3,000.00 losing trade, and I got on for 45 minutes to talk about this thing. People are like I have never seen anybody talk about a losing trade for 45 minutes, right. But that's what you need because that's the reality.

Jaime Masters: Because people do lose. Huh, who knew?

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, because that's -

[Crosstalk]

Jaime Masters: A lot of them do, especially if they -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, it's not 100 percent. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Jaime Masters: Okay. And so, how long have you had that YouTube channel? And is that the only thing you're putting there, and how are you getting the people because content is one thing? And everybody - today -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - I've been doing a bunch of interviews - is like content marketing. And I'm like yeah, that's great except there's a wide variance of that.
Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. So, I think about it in like channels or silos, however you want to call it. But really every time that we put up a video, it has a specific topic or a - not spin, but I'm focused on one area and one aspect. I've been doing this long enough that I know for tonight's video I really want to drive home this point, right. And so, anytime that my team then links up the video, they link it up to the specific free courses or free PDF downloads or whatever the case is to get people in the door.

So, we have 12 different trading courses, right. All free, detailed, long courses. Outlines the whole deal. So, anytime we do a video, we link up to one of those 12 courses, or we link up to a related video on the topic or something like that. So, it's always like the next step. Do you know what I'm saying? Okay, this is what we did. If you want to learn the whole process, here's the next step. And oh yeah, it's completely free. You just have to sign up for a membership.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, so, logic, huh. Who knew? But -

Kirk Du Plessis: Right.

[Crosstalk]

Jaime Masters: - what's amazing because you're just saying you're a DigitalMarketer and stuff. It is very logical. But a lot of people won't do it, or, like I was talking -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - with Riley, they don't have 12. I mean, you have 12 different things instead of just sending it -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - to the same thing over and over and over again.

Kirk Du Plessis: And actually, that's not a lot. So, I'm looking at my whiteboard now, which is above my computer. So, I'm not looking at you, but we've got really content for maybe like 30 or 40 different courses if we want to get really, really specific, right, because that's what people want. There shouldn't be a course on just trading. It should be trading for if you're 60 plus and having an IRA account, right, versus 25 and all the money in the world or whatever the case is.

So, I actually think that we do a pretty bad job of not having enough different elements, right. But, I mean, look. It served us very well right now. I'm kinda scared if I actually put too much out there. I haven't built up my team fast enough to be able to handle that many people at this point.

Jaime Masters: Who's your team like right now then?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, it's five people. I just hired a fulltime content manager this week, which is great. I'm so excited for that.

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: Two assistants, graphic designer, transcriptionist, and then we outsource all of our podcasting.

Jaime Masters: Okay. So, how did that grow because that's the other piece? Especially in this type of business, people are like well, who do I hire first? And then what do I do, and then how do we know when to hire who?

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah. I do not know. I mean, I'll just be totally honest. I have no idea what the right stage is. All I knew is that I recently got to the point where I didn't want to handle 200 emails a day, and I was like okay. Now I should hire somebody to start doing that, right. And then I've gotten to the point where I didn't want to do the web development and search online by myself and try to code.

So, okay, now we hire that out, right. So, I think you just get to the stage where just something just has to give. You know what I mean? But I like the fact that we went to that breaking point. You know what I mean? Because at that point, I knew enough to be dangerous to hire the right person without being dangerous and breaking the website. Do you know what I'm saying, or like really burning myself out?

I mean, I've got two little girls I watch at home. Nobody can see in the background, but there's like play zone craziness in the background, right. I say I lease space from my daughters? playroom for our office. So, just at some point, you don't have enough time to do it all.

Jaime Masters: So, how many hours are you working then, especially if you've got that -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: Oh, I mean, not that much now because a lot of it's like reoccurring, right. A lot of the things I do are just repurposing the same content, right. So, I mean, I trade during the day, which is what I like doing anyway. And then I answer usually pro and elite emails, people from our higher levels. And then really it's just the video at night, and that's it. And then the team kind takes the rest of it and repurposes in all the different places and puts it up.

Jaime Masters: That's amazing! How old are your daughters?

Kirk Du Plessis: I have a 10-month-old yesterday and a three and a half year old.

Jaime Masters: Go you. Thank goodness -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - most of your business is automated.

Kirk Du Plessis: Exactly, exactly.

Jaime Masters: That's insane. Okay, so -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - tell me the trajectory of getting here because I think it's one thing to be like oh, we have this many, and it's amazing and awesome, and then -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - to leave out the sucking part of getting to here.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: Because there's a lot that people don't share, especially for how long it might take.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah. It's funny. I was talking to a lot of guys in our mastermind group about this, and people always think oh, you're so lucky. And you're so this. I'm like look. This took time to get to this point. And I hate to say it's like hockey stick growth, but it really is. And I'm talking personally as far as net wealth, income, stuff like that. I mean, it took like four or five years of really, really grinding before we saw meaningful success. And maybe we were doing the wrong things. Had I started all over again, I would have done completely different, right. But it took a long time to get to a certain level, and then from there, it just has really stair stepped. I mean, even the difference between last month and this month is insane, right.

And so, that's why I'm like now, it's a struggle to project and keep up. I need to hire another customer support person like two days ago to keep up with where I think things are gonna be in six months from now.

Jaime Masters: He's accepting resumes everyone. No, I'm kidding.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: So, you said you would change the way you started if you had it all to do over again. So, what would you actually have changed? How would you have started differently?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, 100 percent the thing that I would have done differently is something I did like two years ago, which was all the difference. And that's actually ask people what the heck - I don't even know if I can curse on here. I'm not gonna curse - but what the H-E-L-L? They want it, right. I think the whole mentality around business is so skewed.

And I even talk to people a lot about this, and they're like oh, I'm gonna develop this. I'm gonna put this course together. I'm like do people even need that? Do they even want that? And I did that. Just so you know, everything in Option Alpha was totally done, totally developed. And then I released it, and I was like where are all the people?

I developed this awesome thing. I know what they need to do, but they needed to be shown a different way. So, I think once I went through and really asked people and interviewed people - and I spent weeks doing this, and I was ticked that I wasn't doing anything else. And I had to scrap everything, but it's been the absolute difference in the business.

Jaime Masters: And tell me so many pieces of this -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yes.

Jaime Masters: - because I'm actually doing a beta right now. I call them beta right now where you actually talk on the phone with people -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - who do not actually -

Kirk Du Plessis: Talk on the phone.

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: I met them in person, coffee, yeah, everything.

Jaime Masters: You actually find out huh. Because they're real people, not numbers on a screen. That being said, what was the difference between the course you created before or the thing that you created before and what they actually said? Where was the -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: So -

Jaime Masters: - difference?

Kirk Du Plessis: - I think the difference was it wasn't necessarily in the content. It was how it was delivered. So, my people in my community are people who want to trade for a living or are currently trading but not out of their job, right. So, they want to transition from and probably in the same - people who are listening to this right now you may be in your job, and maybe want to transition out of it.

So, it was in the delivery and the length of the engagement with me, right. So, originally, I would push all this information to them like they had all the time in the world, right, and all the time to consume it. And now, it's in slightly bigger chunks but spread out over time. And so, I think just that realization that everybody I talk to I met at 6:00 or 7:00 at night because that's when they got off work, right.

So, why would I send them an email at 10:30 when they can't read the email at 10:30 because they're at their job, and tell them the next one's coming the next day? And they have no time to do it, right. And I think just, honestly, that changed. I get email from people all the time, and they're like, "Kirk, the pace of the emails is great. You're not burning me out. I feel I can do this. I'm confident. I'm looking forward to the next thing." You know what I mean? I think that's totally undervalued in this industry.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, because as soon as they get the lack of feeling that they can do it, then they stop. And then it doesn't really matter anymore. But you don't know, as far as feedback, go. You just know people are stopping and/or not signing up -

Kirk Du Plessis: Well -

Jaime Masters: - because you have no idea.

Kirk Du Plessis: - and then so, in my space too, I think the fact that everything is free from me is helpful in this because I don't need to recoup an investment. Do you know what I'm saying? And I don't have any paid acquisition costs or anything, right. So, if it takes them six months to get through the training, great. If it takes them three months to get through the training, great. They move at their own pace, and so does our system. Do you know what I'm saying?

Jaime Masters: I definitely do. And yeah, making it free, I'm sure, makes a huge difference to have people be like oh, by the way.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: Did you actually have any business experience before? You were saying you quit and stuff. So, tell me about how you actually got into doing your own business.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I used to work on Wall Street. I used to work for a German based investment bank, and I was an M&A mentally transitioned over and was a trader for them. Left there when I met my wife and moved out of New York and moved to D.C. And I thought okay. The next best thing is a stock analyst. So, I used to cover companies and write their reports like the buy and the sell and all that stuff like that.

And then eventually just realized all of that stuff is totally garbage, and - sorry for anybody who's in that industry right now. But you know it's true - and started trading on my own at home. And I thought okay, I'll just put up comments. And I was still talking with buddies in New York who were trading. And so, I would put up an original Google blog, if anybody knows what that is anymore, right.

And so, I would put that up and just type out my comments for the day. And eventually, people just started asking me like well, why did you do that, or what's your thought process behind that? And so, one thing led to another, and here we are.

Jaime Masters: I see, okay. So, question because when -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - people are listening to that story, they're like okay, that was great for when he did it way back when, and he was one of the first and blah, blah, blah and -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - long-term trajectory. If someone were to start now, especially in your industry or even something similar, I mean, you have a competitive industry in general.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, that's why I couldn't do paid media forever. I mean, you couldn't do paid media. Cost for a click in Google is like $45.00. You know what I mean? It's crazy! Crazy, crazy, crazy! I wish I was in selling Catnip or something. That would be so much cheaper.

[Crosstalk]

Jaime Masters: But, I guess, that's my point. Either oh, we should have done it a long time ago. Ope, too late, or -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - we start now. And we try and figure this out. Do you think anybody can break into this space now knowing what you know?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, well, don't even try because I'll cross you. But if they do break into the -

Jaime Masters: He's not competitive at all.

Kirk Du Plessis: - space - I'm just kidding.

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: I'm just kidding.

Jaime Masters: What would we talk about competitive competition for?

Kirk Du Plessis: What I tell people all the time though is I think it has to be two things. I definitely subscribe to the branding side of things, and I think you have to really brand yourself and protect that brand because that's what eventually takes you years and years and years, right. But I also don't subscribe to the hustle thing that a lot of people do.

And I love Gary V and all that stuff like that, but the hustle mentality I think if you point it in the wrong direction can be really painful and burn you out. So, I think if people were starting out, I would, again, try to fill a void. And it doesn't have to be the biggest void, but figure out something that people really want. I don't trade futures, right.

So, there you go. You take my model and replicate it to futures. Just give me 15 percent, and then we'd be good. But I'm just saying take some model that's good, and apply it to whatever you are actually good at. And I think you can definitely do it.

Jaime Masters: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. But looking at your site and stuff, I didn't see a lot about you specifically. So, you don't -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - have a personal, I mean -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: I'm on there for sure.

Jaime Masters: Yes, you're definitely on there.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: But when we're looking at it, you chose Options Alpha instead of hey, I'm Kirk. So -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah. No, it is funny because I did that for the initial reason of eventually, if we ever end up selling, which not this when I'm so engrained in it, and I actually like it. It runs pretty much by itself that I don't see that happening. But I thought branding wise it would be better for an options trading website to have Option in it instead of my last name, which has nothing to do with it or is extremely hard to spell and pronounce. But yeah, I'm very much the face inside of the courses and training. I mean, it's legitimately all me doing all the content in there.

Jaime Masters: So, I guess that was my question then. So, I mean, I did the exact same thing, right. Nobody could spell my -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - first name and the brand thing. I could have other people -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: That being said I am the gosh darn face. I am right as soon as you get to the site.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: Yours when you get to the site, you have the cartoon. And I didn't see the about, so, I was just curious as to why we didn't just plaster your face right out -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - front.

Kirk Du Plessis: Well, it' funny. I'm the first person that you meet once you sign up. So there's a new video. There's a video right in that says welcome that's just me like this with kid toys in the background that's like hey. I'm the guy that runs this. You deal with me, and I'm the person behind all the training. So, I think brand wise, it's the Option off of brand, but then right behind it it's me very similar to you.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, that's awesome. You don't ever want to sell it?

Kirk Du Plessis: I mean, look. Never say never, but, I mean, I like doing this. And it fills a different part of who I am now. You know what I mean? And I love it. I've met great people through it so yeah.

Jaime Masters: That's actually a really good point too. So, how do you leverage that? So, we were just talking beforehand. I was like oh, you know them? We all know the same people even though you're on -
Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - the business side, you're on the option side. But still we know a lot of the same people. So, how have you leverage those relationships?

Kirk Du Plessis: You mean in the marketing space?

Jaime Masters: Well, in general. In all -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - the relationships that you have.

Kirk Du Plessis: I mean, look. I think when you put out really good stuff, people just naturally reciprocate. You know what I mean? I just talked to a guy literally today who's part of a mastermind group, and I haven't met him yet because he just joined the group. But he's like, "Hey, I love what you're doing. Can you help out?" So, I jumped on the phone, helped him out for 20 minutes.

And he's like, "Oh yeah, by the way, I do real estate." And I'm like, "Well, crap. I do real estate. I'm not at your level, and you're not at mine for online business yet. So, why don't we trade?" I would have never had that opportunity had I not been in this space. So, I think it's just you give without the anticipation of somebody giving back, and eventually they do. And so, I think that's the key.

Jaime Masters: So, what's the mastermind, and how many masterminds have you done because I talk about masterminds a lot too?

Kirk Du Plessis: So, I've done three. I would call one of them a legitimate mastermind, and that's the DigitalMarketer War Room. And I've been a part of that for a little over a year now and been fantastic. And again, it's all about relationships, right. So, a lot of tactical stuff, yes. But it's like you just need somebody to call when you have a serious question.

And on this level, if I'm gonna do something that's major to the website, it might be a $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 change. I want the right answer without going through process and process, right. So, the other two that I was a part of I don't really call them masterminds. They were kind of more like a meet up or phone chat, stuff like that. But it wasn't with people who were either at my level or above. And that's what this group is. You have people who are at your level or above, and I think that that's important. I think you should be with people who are maybe beyond you and kinda stretch you a little bit.

Jaime Masters: That's killer. But it sounds like you invest in yourself quite a bit. I mean, you were saying you did Pat's -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: For sure.

Jaime Masters: And I'm seeing Chris next month for his event, which is awesome.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: So, what do you get -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - out of those? Because that's the other thing. I love the fact that DigitalMarketer you can give them a call. But Pat's or whatever you go, you're like I hope I get something out of this. And then I leave. You know what I mean? And do you actually do -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - something? I mean, there's so many conferences where we get ideas, and we don't even have the time to implement some of them. You know what I mean?

Kirk Du Plessis: I was just talking about that with my wife. I'm like, "I got this whole book here of ideas, and zero time to implement all of them." I mean, look. I think last year I spent $40,000.00 on coaching, right. So, okay, do whatever math you want to do. That's a lot. That's a significant chunk of money. And when I talked to my wife originally about it, she's like,"What do you mean you're gonna spend $40,000.00 -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: - on coaching?" But I think it's like what I said earlier. It's really getting the hard questions answered, right. So, the little tactical stuff you can pretty much learn anywhere, right. But it's like hey, how do I hire the right developer? You know what I mean, or what's your process for onboarding all of your team? You know what I mean? Those types of answers sometimes you won't find in the right place. And I want the right answers for those, and I'm willing to pay for access to that, right. And hopefully, I was able to give this guy today who called me and was like hey, I want to start a membership site, what do I do? And we had a 30 minute talk about all the things I wouldn't have done to start, right. And so, he would not have had that access to me had he not paid to be in the group. So, I think it's totally worth it. I'd do it all year.

Jaime Masters: Well, and I appreciate that it's a time savings, and it's a money savings also. So -

Kirk Du Plessis: 100 percent.

Jaime Masters: - because we screw up as business owners a lot, right. And so, as you go -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - through, you're like man, how much would I have saved if I actually knew in advance not to do that stuff?

Kirk Du Plessis: Well, I think maybe it's good I'm a trader because I realize I can't predict the market, and some traders do. And I say I have no clue where the market's going and where anything's going, right. And also in business when it initially came to development, I had no clue what a developer cost or what they do. I mean, they could literally rake me over the coals if I didn't have the right person, right. So, now, I hopefully have the right person onboard, and I think that's what you pay for.

Jaime Masters: Definitely. And if we had a wrong hire and then we kept moving forward, the wasting of the time and the loss of money, it adds up like -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: It's insane. It adds up like crazy, yep.

Jaime Masters: Well, and so how do you know which pieces to get? So, I'm a coach, right. So, this is easy for -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - me to answer, but how do you know which pieces because we were just talking about hiring? But you're in DigitalMarketer. So you're -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - like oh, I need better marketing and that sort of stuff. I don't know if DigitalMarketing -

Kirk Du Plessis: Kinda.

Jaime Masters: - does hiring.

Kirk Du Plessis: They do a lot of hiring stuff.

Jaime Masters: Oh, they do?

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: I've always debated that. We were just talking about that -

Kirk Du Plessis: That was good.

Jaime Masters: - yesterday.

Kirk Du Plessis: Actually, I was gonna say Molly's one of the people I've talked to about hiring, so yeah. Every look for me it's been pain, right. So, whatever point causes the most pain, that's usually when I need some help. That being said though, I am a big long-term thinker, and I think that's just naturally how I've evolved. I'm a big math numbers guy.

And that's what I do for a real living is I trade options and do all the math stuff. So, when it comes to business, I really want to know what the five, six, seven, eight month plan is, right. And so, for me, it's always like thinking ahead six or seven months and saying okay. What do I need then that I can work on now, right? So, pain points and then really what's the trend, where do I want to take the company.

And a year ago I wasn't even thinking about SAS, and now I'm totally invested in SAS and development and software and research and data. And that's been a huge change but all for the better, I think, right. So, it's a lot of investment now, but it will definitely pay off.

Jaime Masters: How do you take such a big decision and go I'm all in on this, right? Because I have clients that are -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - like do I do this? Do I not do this? Do I have to take investment for this because it's a lot of money and cash flow and, right? There's a thousand things when you're trying to go down the -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - SAS path.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: So -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: I think that what's easy for me is I got sick and tired of responding to people and saying yeah, I wish that broker had this, or yeah, I wish that that was a capability. Honestly, I would get five or six emails a day for a year like how can I do this? How can I do this? And I always have to say well, you can't right now. But they don't do it, or you could kinda do it this way.

And then I finally was like you know what? I've gotta develop this. I know what to do, right. But then it's the backend of, the scary part of okay, where do I start - you know what I mean - with that whole process. So, I think when you start getting enough emails, at least in SAS, that you could develop a product around that, I think that's the best way to go because then you know that people want it. Again, then you know people actually need it.

Jaime Masters: Well, and usually you're waiting for the big guys to actually come out because it would be easy for them to add extra things to their own thing. And then they don't though.

Kirk Du Plessis: So easy. So easy. Yep, so easy. And you know what it is? Especially my industry they're so far behind, they're just sending text messages now. And they're Stone Age compared to where we are, which is good. That's an advantage that small businesses have is that you can come in very quickly and develop it and roll it out and not have to worry about implementation across a massive company. I think that's a huge advantage.
Jaime Masters: So, when you're diving into something brand new like SAS, what do you do to try and not make all the mistakes that you -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - could, right?

Kirk Du Plessis: I think it takes planning. I mean, honestly, I think it takes planning. I think you really have to plan it out. I think you've gotta know where - especially in SAS, I guess in my case, know where your data?s gonna be and who's gonna develop it, how people are gonna interact with it because that's a huge thing, right. So, I did a lot of surveying, a lot of calls, questions.

Like, okay, if we had this, how would you interact with it? Would you use it on your phone? Would you use it on a desktop? Would it be right next to your trading computer? How does that work? And so, that you have more of a framework, again, going into it without just saying I'm gonna build it for myself. But you build it for people to use, right.

So, I mean, look. It's been tough to do for sure, right. I've learned a lot in this industry. I've learned that I should definitely have been a developer or run a development company, and I should also be selling data because the exchanges are making a mint off of me just buying raw data. It's crazy.

Jaime Masters: Seriously. Well, and that's the thing that I find really interesting is that you're the guy doing it. It's not like you're trying to outsource this part of it, the research and development -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - of this. You're actually the guy on the phone even though the kiddos are - you know what I mean - in the background.

Kirk Du Plessis: All the time. All the time, yep, yep.

Jaime Masters: For one how the heck do you that? You have ten people.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: I used to be like okay, everybody be quiet. It doesn't work that way.

Kirk Du Plessis: No, like right now, my wife has them upstairs. So, it's like beautiful because usually I do a coaching call or a call. I'm like listen. If you hear babies screaming, it's not me. I didn't drop the phone. It's just my daughter. But I've done calls where my daughter is sitting right on my lap. You know what I mean? And look. You do what you gotta do. But I think it's more authentic anyway.

Jaime Masters: But that's impressive. Well, my kids had colic horribly, horribly bad, so at ten months there nobody could actually go near them. But in general, it's impressive that you can do both.

Kirk Du Plessis: I want to do both, right?

[Crosstalk]

Jaime Masters: That's great.

Kirk Du Plessis: I mean, doesn't everybody want to do both, right? So, yeah, I want to do both.

Jaime Masters: Well, I don't know. I'm assuming not everybody wants to do both, but yes.

Kirk Du Plessis: You know what? Probably you're right. You're probably right. Nobody wants to do both, but look. I mean, I have made trades changing diapers. I respond to emails right there in the bathtub. I mean, you just make it work.

Jaime Masters: So, I think that's really important though like you were saying. So, Gary V hustle very different than trying to do email while changing diapers and doing other things -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jaime Masters: - because what's important in your life. Yes, emails are important, but not nearly as important as changing baby.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah.

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: Trust me. They stink up, yeah. They stink up. They're worse than customer service emails for sure.

Jaime Masters: So, this is what we're talking about now. The people that [inaudible] [00:36:30] don't have children are like yeah, okay. Uh-huh -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: - thanks.

Kirk Du Plessis: Just make sure you title this episode Podcasting, Poops, and Customer Service or something.

Jaime Masters: That would be hilarious. I might actually do it. Awesome. So, I know we have to start wrapping up in just a second, but sort of give me your trajectory on what you see for your SAS. Are you trying to have it be a big piece of your company? Are you trying to have it expand past it?

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah. So, look. I think it's the natural addition to what we already do. So, what we already do now is train people. When they get to a certain level that they want to start seeing trades, following our trades, they do it. I mean, we're honestly developing the software that we could use as well, right, that other people can use.

So, the whole idea is like right now there's a big disconnect in actually making trades and then analyzing trades, right. So, people are like blindly making them without really knowing if it's gonna work, right.

Jaime Masters: Sure.

Kirk Du Plessis: So, the back testing and optimizing software that we've build is gonna kinda bridge that gap so that they can not only follow our trades but then start to do it themselves, right. And back test strategies, optimize strategies, and then eventually - I'm thinking now like the next six months - is gonna be the ability to then auto trade it, right.

It's like in this industry, it takes a lot of work to do this, and it's not easy to do. But if you could have more of it automated with a robot or trading computer, then that's great. But until now, it's really been for big banks, right. And they keep all that stuff tight. And I know why they do it because they make a mint doing it. But if I can do that and develop it on my end and if it costs me seven figures to do that but then I can roll it out and everyone can have it, so be it.
Jaime Masters: See, that's amazing though the fact that you're going all in because that's a lot to do.

Kirk Du Plessis: It's a lot. Hey look. But I know people want it. You know what I mean? So, people always ask, in fact recently, I've had somebody like, "Are you serious? You're gonna spend that much money on doing this?" I'm like, "I know people want this, right. It's just up to me to actually build it the right way. And if I build it the right way, it's gonna be insanely valuable to them. And I'll make money and have a great product, right."

Jaime Masters: You're gonna be so ahead of the curve because, no offense, but robots and AI - somebody's gonna be coming out with this -

Kirk Du Plessis: That's true.

Jaime Masters: - anyway, yeah.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: It's where it's going. So, at least you know you're sort of skating where the puck will be no matter what.

Kirk Du Plessis: That's good. I like that. Yeah, I like that.

Jaime Masters: Oh, thank you. I do this for a living too. No. It's funny. I know we have to start wrapping up though, which sucks. So, what's one action - and I know you have a lot. But what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Kirk Du Plessis: Call your ideal customer, and don't get them off the phone until they tell you exactly what their biggest pain point is. And don't say it's customer service. No. What specifically? It's leads. No, no, no. What specifically is your pain point? I think the best thing that I did when I interviewed people is I said why like five times until I got to the bottom.

And I don't know where I remember that. I know it wasn't from me. It was from somebody else. I'm not gonna take credit for that. But I'd just be like oh why? And then they'd say something, and I'd be like oh, okay. Okay, why, right? And just keep asking them why -

[Crosstalk]
Jaime Masters: - your daughter, right? No.

Kirk Du Plessis: Right? But literally, call one customer, right. It'll probably change your outlook.

Jaime Masters: I am so thankful that you said that because from the Tim Ferris four-hour work week, we just want to put stuff on the internet and not actually talk or see anybody. But actually -

Kirk Du Plessis: And they [inaudible] [00:39:38] around for a while.

Jaime Masters: Exactly -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep

Jaime Masters: - right?

Kirk Du Plessis: Exactly, yep.

Jaime Masters: And then diving super deep. Then people get scared. They'll do it, and then they won't actually have it work. And they'll be like that sucked, and then they'll hang up. So, the fact that you said to go deep and to really peel back the layers, everybody make sure -

[Crosstalk]

Jaime Masters: - you actually do what he said this week. Because if you hear this and you don't do it and your business isn't as successful as you want it to be, that's why. I'm just saying.

Kirk Du Plessis: Take it from me. You'll spend $200,000.00 and have crap and have to redo it. So -

Jaime Masters: So, you learn -

Kirk Du Plessis: - you don't want to -

[Crosstalk]

Kirk Du Plessis: - right?

Jaime Masters: - learn from Kirk's lessons.

Kirk Du Plessis: The $200,000.00 phone call, yep. You got it.

Jaime Masters: Thanks so much for coming on. Where can we find more -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yep.

Jaime Masters: - about you and, of course, the membership site and all that fun stuff?

Kirk Du Plessis: Just go to optionalpha.com, yep. That's the best place.

Jaime Masters: And everyone's like no, I want to see where his face is on the thing. Now, I want to see how it goes, and I want to - right?

Kirk Du Plessis: [Inaudible] [00:40:25] is just linked at the bottom, so it's there for sure.

Jaime Masters: I don't know. Not at the top. That's why I was interested.

Kirk Du Plessis: Well, the membership button's at the top.

Jaime Masters: Yeah, I know. So, I saw it. I'm like hum.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah.

Jaime Masters: I'm looking at it. Don't you worry. I love websites and =

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: = conventions and stuff. So, that's why I was curious.

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah.

Jaime Masters: You're awesome! Now, everybody now to go to the site because we just fought over it also. So -

Kirk Du Plessis: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jaime Masters: = everybody can check out this site.

Kirk Du Plessis: Where's the button? Where's the button?

Jaime Masters: I know. Dah-dah-dah. How's that? Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really, really appreciate it.

Kirk Du Plessis: No, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Tags: business goals, business tools, content marketing, entrepreneur podcast, eventual millionaire, eventual millionaire podcast, go to market strategy, how to be a leader, jaime masters, Kirk Du Plessis, membership sites, millionaire entrepreneurs, millionaire habits, strategic goals, top entrepreneurs

Categories: All, Beta Testing, Business Growth/Scaling, Business Model, Content Marketing, Featured Millionaire Interview, Launches, Marketing, Marketing Funnels, Membership Sites, Millionaire Interviews, Other

4 responses

James Aitken October 31, 2017
I’m an Elite member at Option Alpha and the reason why is evident in this video. Kirk is a genuine, honest bloke who provides a valuable service for a good price. His video explanations are the clearest you can find on the net, and welcomely free of blabber.

Reply
MacJT February 16, 2019
3 words – Dont do it!

I am an option trader myself, completely self taught and have persevered through trial and tribulation. But now I consider myself so seasoned that if a even get a whiff of a losing position i’m out of there in a hurry. I use 50% of my capital , and get around 3-4% returns annualized. That too without any problem sleeping at night.

If you dont understand option mechanics, then this sort of trading is not for you. Dont EVER believe people who charge you 300$ a month for something you can use your brain and learn for free.
I have reviewed all of Kirk’s trades, and strategies, there’s no magic there, its standard stuff.
More importantly, if i knew something I wouldn’t teach it, it would be my best kept secret! The secret is not the trade but the 300$/ month you pay him.

Reply
- Marcos March 29, 2019
  Hello MacJT, I am Brazilian, I would like to find someone willing to give me some material about the options, since here in Brazil besides having people taking advantage of people’s lack of knowledge the material is not very good, you can help me!?
  
  Reply

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