"Sharing knowledge is the most useful and rewarding thing you can do for mankind."
Meet Antonio Martinez – a 41 years old computer programmer, born in Venezuela and currently living in Chile, who started as a solopreneur in the Knowledge Industry back in 2015 selling online courses to the Spanish market. This allowed him to sell up to $1M dollars in less than 3 years without a team and without even spending a single dollar on advertising. He grew an audience of 150K+ subscribers on YouTube and that was his sole source of traffic. Due to a huge mistake, he lost his business and his reputation almost overnight and had to force himself out of depression to find a way out of that hole.
“Turn your mess into a message” by Tony Robbins was the phrase that showed him the light at the end of the tunnel. Now, as an experienced Infopreneur, he’s teaching people how to build a business by monetizing their knowledge, skills, and experience.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Antonio Martinez: My name is Antonio Martínez and I call myself an Infopreneur. I was born in a low-middle-class family in Venezuela in 1980 and I moved to Chile in 2010 looking for better opportunities. Worked for 1 year as a computer programmer for IBM Chile and then I quit to find my own path as a solopreneur. I tried and failed a lot of times for at least 4 years after that while carrying a huge debt of $80,000.
Selling knowledge online was the business model that allowed me to earn $1M+ in less than 3 years all by myself. Now, after learning the ultimate lesson of my life regarding honesty, I’m helping people to build a successful business by sharing their knowledge, skills, and experience online
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Antonio Martinez: I think it can be both. Some people are born with that spark inside of them and some can light that fire later in life. However, you can’t force anyone to become an entrepreneur, people need to be willing to shift their mindset.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Antonio Martinez: I’m an Infopreneur!
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Antonio Martinez: I am my company, and what I do is sell knowledge online. At first, I was sharing my findings, I was studying forex trading and I built a basic course for beginners that sold over half a million dollars within 3 years.
This proves that you don’t need to be a guru to sell knowledge online. If you’re in level 6, you can help people on levels 0-5 to reach your level, it’s that simple. Then, a year later, I created an advanced course that sold another half a million.
Now I’m not teaching as a student, I’m teaching my experience as an Infopreneur, as someone who was able to build a successful 7-figure business by selling courses online. I was in the Spanish market and I’ve recently expanded my business to the English market, so now I’m teaching and coaching people to do the same thing I did.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Antonio Martinez: It’s gonna be hard work, you’re gonna fail a lot of times, you’ll mess things up several times, you’ll have to learn from mistakes, you’ll have to invest in yourself and your business, it’s not going to be quick but most importantly, it will be worth it!
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Antonio Martinez: Yes! I assumed that little lies doesn’t matter and I learned the hard way that they actually do! I had to lose my only source of income and my name to learn that. I had to overcome a huge depression but again; I was worth it! Now I get to live a completely honest and transparent life, I’m proud to say that I have nothing to hide from my loved ones or anyone. That’s so liberating and your business will undoubtedly work a lot better if your are truthful, sincere, to you and to your clients.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Antonio Martinez: Be honest! Nothing beats that!
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Antonio Martinez: Sell for the lowest price: That’s the worst business advice ever. If your marketing strategy is based on low prices, anyone can compete and win, but the winner in that race turns out to be the biggest loser, right? Instead, strive to overdeliver high quality and high value products, the best customers will come to you and leave those freebies hunters to your “competitors”.
If there’s something I want people to take from me is “Be always honest” You’ll succeed without Imposter Syndrome and with no regrets.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Antonio Martinez: COVID forced us to go online to do things we used to do face to face, so one of the first considerations you should have when starting a new business is, can I do this online? You business model must be sustainable even if you can’t touch or see your products, your providers and your customers… Even your employees, if you plan to have any.
Demand is what hasn’t changed… Well, it has changed: It increased!
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Antonio Martinez: “If you follow your passion, you will never work a day in your life”. Well, that’s easy to accomplish if your passion is linked to a highly profitable niche with high demand, but that’s not always true. If your passion is to watch shapes on the clouds, you’ll have to figure out a way to monetize that, otherwise you’ll starve to death. And that’s exactly the thing here, in order to make money, you need to be able to solve a problem, avoid a problem or entertain. You need to make sure that your passion is tackling one of those items. Get creative, ask people for ideas, go online and research, just find a way to solve people’s problems or entertain them, otherwise, you won’t be able to make a living following your passion. It could be your hobby, but not your source of income. I love this phrase from Zig Ziglar: You’ll get everything you want in life when you help other people get what they want in their lives.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Antonio Martinez: You need to be willing to fail, not only that, you need to be prepared to fail, but most importantly, you need to use your failures as teachers to learn what not to do and try again applying your findings. This is a trial and error endeavor
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Antonio Martinez: Mindset is the most important muscle you need to work out to be an entrepreneur.
My goto book will always be “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki, but you’ll also need motivation, so read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill”, you’ll need a launching strategy so, read “Launch” by Jeff Walker and you’ll need marketing skills so, read “Sell Like Crazy” by Sabri Subi.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Antonio Martinez: Teacher. Sharing knowledge is the most useful and rewarding thing you can do for manking.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Antonio Martinez: There are and have been so many wise men and women in our history, but if I have to pick only one, I would choose Madam C.J. Walker. She was an African American woman born in 1867, the first in her family to be born free. Her parents and siblings were slaves. Orphaned at the age of seven, she had only three months of formal education. But despite all of that and even in those times, dealing with extreme discrimination because she was black and because she was an uneducated woman, she became the first American Woman to Become a Self-Made Millionaire. She became known also for her philanthropy and activism. She’s an absolute HERO to me!
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Antonio Martinez for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Antonio Martinez or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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