Plus, see how they make over $600k per year in semi-passive income (in a niche they know nothing about)
If you had a $1 million, could you turn it into $2.5 million in 2 years?
That’s exactly what this father-and-son team did, except they didn’t have a million dollars sitting around.
Today, you’ll hear how they cleverly bought a $1 million website in two days using other people’s money (no banks involved), plus:
- How they turned the $1 million into $600k per year in semi-passive income
- The mindset required to buy two websites in a niche they know nothing about (and double its revenue & valuation very quickly)
- What its like to run & operate a multimillion $ content website (and the team you need to make it a semi-passive investment).
- How they bought a under-value website before it went on the market, saving them (potentially) hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- How they doubled a websites earnings from $300K to $600K in less than a week with one simple strategy (this works on any big traffic content site)
David and Connor are perfect examples of what’s possible when you focus on progress instead of waiting for things to be perfect.
Tune in to hear the lessons they learned from turning $1M of other people’s money into $600k per year in semi-passive income.
Want to learn the website buying skills that started it all for David and Connor? Learn more here.
Matt Raad: It’s Matt Raad from the e-Business Institute Australia, where we teach beginners how to buy profitable websites online.
I have something very unique today because usually, when people get online, particularly as a beginner, they often don’t think about the asset value of websites and just how valuable they can be.
So, in today’s interview, I’m going to share an incredible story from a father and son team, David and Connor. They’ve kindly agreed to talk openly about some amazing websites they recently bought that are now worth millions of dollars. And they did this by following our course on how to build your online income portfolio the smart way.
David and Connor are students of the Digital Investors program. I think you will find this story inspiring, not just because of their personal story and how they got into it, but what they’ve done with it.
How Simple Passion Websites Can Be Worth $ Millions…
There’s a big lesson in their story that I want you to take home and realise that these websites are hugely valuable and can be worth millions. And you are certainly going to see that today in this interview.
So, thank you for coming here and agreeing to talk about your websites, traffic, and things. We always have so much fun on our calls and get super excited. And I know on our last call, you said, “Hey, we’re happy to do an interview with you.”
David: Absolutely.
Connor: Yes, thank you for having us. You’ve been a great mentor to us as well.
Matt: Thank you, guys. Let’s rock into it. I want to blow everyone away with your numbers.
Today, we will talk about two sites you have bought. So, can you tell us the niches you’re in? We don’t want to give away exact websites, but let’s talk about some traffic stats.
Their first content website purchase was a niche farming blog making $280,000 pa
David: Alright, I’ll do the first one, which is the first website we bought in 2019.
This website is in the farming niche. I don’t have a background in farming, but I bought the site through Quiet Light Business Brokers. When I first inquired about it, it just said “farming”. So, when I heard about it, I thought, “Wow, is this really a thing?” But then I looked at the statistics and they were pretty solid.
I was going through a whole different type of e-commerce training. They were saying you really need to have a content site that drives traffic to your products. That’s how you do well on Amazon. So, this was the initial reason for us becoming interested and investing in content sites.
This particular site averages about half a million page views a month during the season. It almost approaches a million during the season (spring), and then it tapers off during the winter.
Matt: And how much does that site make you a year?
David: It makes around $280,000 – $300,000.
Their second site purchase was a pet blog with 1 million page views a month
Matt: Awesome. And then, Connor, tell us about the big site you purchased.
Connor: In 2020, we acquired a site in the pet niche. That site gets around a million page views a month.
Matt: Wow.
Connor: So, from 2018 to 2020, I was in medical device sales, but during COVID, I was let go from my distributorship. While at home during lockdowns, I bought an online course even though I couldn’t afford it. But I went through this e-commerce course because I wanted to learn how to do dropshipping and work from home.
I remember one day, my dad came over, and I was showing him all the notes that I had been taking. I really wanted to change my life. I no longer wanted to be an employee and wanted to take control of my future. That’s why I was so interested in e-commerce and starting an online business.
So, I showed Dad all my notes, and he said, “Well, I just bought this niche farming website. Why don’t we just work together?”
That’s how we came to purchase the pet niche site in August 2020.
Matt: And this is just a standard pet niche site. If you’ve been to our events, you’ll know we always talk about this niche in our community. And if anyone looked at this particular site, they probably wouldn’t give it a second glance. It’s just a standard pet content site.
They doubled the website’s value from $1Million to $2.5 Million in under a year!
Matt: How much traffic does it get, Connor? A million page views a month?
Connor: That’s right. And it’s funny because if you looked at the site when we first acquired it, I don’t think the previous owner ever changed the theme from when he first started it. It was a standard site, and you would be surprised.
Matt: Yes, it was a content site started by someone passionate about pets. It’s just a bog-standard content site. It looks like any of the other sites we show on our course.
How much revenue does this site generate a year? We’ll go back to what it used to do, but how much does it generate now?
David: The site makes $500,000 – $600,000 a year.
Matt: Awesome! So, this is a multimillion-dollar website. I would say it’s probably worth $2.5 million now, and that’s what I want you to understand. You’re sitting on a super valuable asset that’s as valuable as commercial real estate.
And I know our readers are sitting there thinking, “Wow, these guys are sitting on two of these sites!” You also have some other sites that you’ve built since being on our course. But you’re sitting on two big multimillion-dollar websites.
Why this professional investor now loves buying website assets
Matt: David, can you share your background? It’s quite an interesting story! How did you get into this game, and what did you do day-to-day before this?
David: I’m an investor, and I love trying to find businesses that are good investments and assets. I figure out how to run them passively or build a team that can run them. I can still be involved but don’t have to do the day-to-day work.
And that’s where the websites have been spot on for sure. But you got to have someone like Connor who’s helping you. Then, as you grow, you need to build your team. And we’ve built our team in the Philippines.
But my background over the last 20 years has been selling medical devices, hip and knee replacements, etc. I then sold that and invested in commercial real estate such as mini storage, etc.
Then I sold one of my commercial properties and bought the two websites. When I told my friends, they said, “You did what?!”
Matt: What was the commercial property you sold?
David: I sold a Burger King, a ground lease underneath a Burger King, which is gold over here in the US. It was like a 6% return. That’s the typical cap rate return you get on commercial real estate over here for high-quality leases.
I still own another one and am involved in commercial real estate. But I really enjoy doing the websites also.
Matt: And I’m sure you like the financial returns of the websites too.
Why David chose to spend $1 million on a pet website
Matt: You’ve done some really smart things with the sites you bought, particularly with your pet site. This site is now worth $2.5 million, but how much did it cost you?
David: It cost me less than half of that. It’s still a good chunk of money, but this is the part I enjoy doing.
I had been looking for over a year before I bought the site. I looked until I found one and saw an opportunity where the owner only had AdSense on it.
I knew the traffic and page views, and I knew from the other site we had bought the kind of revenue we could achieve from those page views.
So, I tried to close him through one of the brokers over the weekend. I figured this because sometimes the brokers give certain people access to listings before they send them out to everybody.
I knew the brokers were sending it out on Monday, and it was now Thursday or Friday. So, I knew I needed to get it under contract over the weekend because anyone experienced would say, “Wow, this guy has no idea what he has.”
Matt: How much money was it making when you bought the site?
David: It was making about $300,000.
Matt: $300,000 a year. And can you say the purchase price of the website, because I think it’s a really cool story?
David: I paid $1 million.
Matt: Compare that to commercial real estate, where you get a 6% cap rate. This is an online business, and I want people to realise these are valuable assets.
How to double a website’s earnings from $300K to $600K in less than a week with one simple strategy…
Matt: So, you paid a million dollars. How long ago was that? Two years ago?
David: Yes, two years ago.
Matt: And now it’s worth $2.5 million.
So, you need to understand the story here. This is a bog-standard content site with lots and lots of articles and traffic, which we will talk about in a minute. And it now it makes $600,000.
What was your main renovation on the site over those two years?
David: I added Ad Thrive from the other site.
I knew that if I added it to this site, it would add a dramatic amount of revenue per month. It currently does $30,000 – $35,000 per month in ad revenue. The previous owner was doing less than $1,000 a month.
Matt: Wow, that is super cool. See how simple it is when you’ve got the knowledge to do this? You’ve just created millions of dollars long-term as well.
If we think out five to ten years, that’s a big solid asset. It’s a nice hobby site with a really high domain authority.
Can you easily earn more than 6% cap return with website investments?
Matt: The website sold for $1 million, which is nice for the seller. But you’re now sitting on an asset worth multimillions and have doubled the cash flow return. So that compares very favourably, I would imagine, as you are also a full-time investor in commercial real estate.
David: Yes, very favourably. You’re talking about a 30-40% return compared to the 6% you get on commercial real estate.
How ‘hands-on’ do you need to be with website investments?
Matt: And as you said to me David, while you are a professional investor, you’re a passive investor in this instance because you’re involving family like Connor. But it’s not quite hands-off. Do you see yourself just as an investor or an operator as well?
David: Definitely.
When it comes to commercial real estate, they pretty much wire the money into my account, and you don’t do anything for 20 years. But depending on your personality, that can get pretty boring. You almost feel like the world’s passing you by because you’ve got all that money invested in something that gives you a very steady return, but it’s not going anywhere. It increases a little bit, but nothing like websites.
But with websites, there are moments when you encounter things like Google updates, issues with the hosting company, and times when the site goes down for a little bit, etc. And when you’re making that much money and the site goes down, you know about it!
So, it’s not always a piece of cake. I have to mentally tell myself daily, “Dave, it’s only a matter of time before something happens. So relax, and don’t overreact.”
Connor’s very good at keeping me calm. He says, “Dad, this is like a Rubik’s cube. We just have to figure out how everything’s supposed to be set up.”
Matt: It’s great being able to talk to a father-son team here, and you guys work so well together. So, I want to cover that in a minute.
The smart strategy they used to buy a $1 million website in just 2 days using other people’s money
Matt: For that purchase, Dave, you mentioned before a really smart way you had to buy because there was a tight timeline. The site was $1 million, and you wanted to do the deal by Monday through the website broker. What did you do to make sure that deal went through?
I think this is a good lesson for our readers. It opens our eyes to the fact that there are alternative ways you can get into these big deals.
David: Well, first of all, I didn’t have a million dollars, so I had to get an investor. And so, I had to convince that person very quickly.
I talked to a couple of family members, and they turned me down. They’re like, “What are you crazy?” But I managed to convince another family member, which had to happen quickly.
The importance of using a quality broker for bigger website deals…
David: I then had to get it under LOI (letter of intent) as soon as possible because his broker said he wasn’t even sure the owner wanted to sell it. I did all my maths beforehand and asked the broker, “How much does he want for it? $1 million? Let’s do it now as a cash offer.”
The broker talked to him and said he wasn’t 100% sure he wanted to go ahead. He’s unsure if he can get more, and I think, “Oh boy, here we go.” But the broker did a great job keeping the owner calm and convincing him, “Hey, this is a legitimate offer. The guy owns another site, and this is a cash deal. You need to do this.”
And so, we got them to sign over the weekend.
Matt: Awesome. Are you happy to say who the website broker is?
David: Yes, it was FE International.
Matt: They obviously achieved an excellent outcome for you both.
And so, you raised an investor over the weekend so that you could agree to a cash deal by Monday.
David: I knew that once a more experienced buyer saw this deal, there was no way I’d get it later because it was such a good opportunity. I would lose it if I didn’t do something over the weekend.
Of course, we’re talking a lot of money, and it’s a pet website. Are you kidding me?! But I knew I needed to jump on it; fortunately, it’s all worked out.
Matt: This is a good lesson for anyone reading this on why it’s worth developing good relationships with website brokers, especially when you’re ready to step it up and buy bigger websites. And as you’ll see on our website, there are lots of good quality brokers out there.
So, you guys have bought websites through Quiet Light and FE International, and that’s worked out really well.
Connor started working with his dad online as a complete beginner
Matt: Connor, let’s have a look at your role here.
You were learning e-commerce. But then you started doing this full-time with your dad, and he’s bought these two fairly big websites. Looking back, I see there was a bit of pressure on you, mate. You were still quite a beginner with content sites.
Connor: On a scale of 1-100, when I decided to work with my dad on this, I was at level 1. I was totally new to this and had no experience. My only experience was studying drop shipping.
Matt: Yes, so you hadn’t even started a website at this point. And suddenly, you are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from these content sites.
Obviously, you discovered us as well. How did you guys find us at the eBusiness Institute?
David: I have a good friend who knew I owned the first website. I’m not sure how, but she found you somehow.
She said to me, “David, take a look at this course and tell me if I made a good decision investing in it.” I took a good look at it, and said, “You need to study this course as much as possible. This is the best course I have ever seen on SEO, running websites, and buying websites.”
I then joined her in taking the course because I had a relationship with her. So, we created a relationship with you, and Connor went through the program, too.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes because she has yet to buy her first website. She wanted to be on a podcast like the Digital Investors Podcast, and I said, “Well, you need to buy a website first!”
The mindset it takes as a beginner to make $600,000+ per annum online
Matt: And Connor, as you said, you were a complete beginner. Your dad gave you access to our course, you jumped on, and you’re learning all about content sites.
I want to say a big congratulations because you’ve done a great job running these two sites as a complete beginner. You’ve always asked the right questions and are out there researching everything.
As I’m sure you can appreciate, there are lots of people in our community like you who are just starting out. But they don’t get the opportunity to jump straight into a multi-million dollar content website.
What does it look like running these sites day-to-day, particularly from a beginner’s point of view? What are the main things you’re doing?
He learned as much as he could from the previous website owners
Connor: When we purchased our first website, we had someone who ran the site who agreed to stay on and train me prior to us starting our study with the eBusiness Institute Australia.
On top of that, the owner of the second website also trained me for 30 days after purchasing the site.
I don’t know if you’ve ever started a new skill, but it’s like drinking from a firehose! So, for those first 30 days, I constantly had a notebook with me at my desk and was always taking notes. I was studying every single day and being trained by both of them. That gave me an awesome foundation prior to starting the Digital Investors program.
But I guess as far as mindset goes, when I first started, I didn’t really see it as overwhelming or daunting.
There was no room for hesitation or fear of execution when running large content sites
Connor: The option of being an employee sounded a lot worse, so I knew this was exactly what I wanted. This may not have looked picture-perfect, going exactly the way I was thinking, but it was much better for me than the other option of putting my resume together and going job hunting during the pandemic.
So, I didn’t really have an option, but I kept my head down, trying to consume and learn as much as possible. And it was weird because I think when we start something, there’s all this hesitation on execution.
That’s one thing that I at least dealt with outside of this. I swam professionally for 17 years, but when I got into the corporate world, a big hang-up for me was trying to execute. When I first got into the corporate world, I was doing life insurance sales and going door to door, knocking on people’s doors. So that is the same thing.
But for whatever reason, with computers and learning SEO and running websites, I didn’t have that fear of execution. And it might’ve been because we had excellent training from the previous owner, and then your course. But I just kept my head down and executed on it every single day.
There was no room for being daunted or feeling like, “Oh my God, I don’t know anything.” You just have to do it one day, the next day, and the next. It’s the same thing as working out every single day.
Connor is driven to take consistent action every day, no matter what…
Matt: That’s awesome. And Dave, you must be very proud of Connor. What a brilliant business partner to have. Because my observation is you are very driven, conscientious, and work your butt off. And it’s interesting when we’ve done these calls, it’s all about making sure you’re overcoming the fears, like you said, executing.
That’s what we see across our community. It is scary. Many of us are total beginners online, and hitting that publish button is scary. Have I done the right thing here? What am I doing?
But you’ve done so well where you are now. You always ask the right questions and are on it the whole time. That’s why I think you’ve got such good websites. You’re in a really good position, and obviously love what you do here.
What sort of team do you need to run a multi-million dollar website portfolio?
Matt: And your team’s not that big. It’s not like you’ve had to start managing lots of people suddenly. How many people are in your team now?
Connor: We now have a new editor and around four writers. Some of them are on Upwork, and others are full-time.
We have four full-time writers. We hired these writers through an online platform, and they are all based in the Philippines because the Philippines is one of the top-rated English-speaking countries. So that’s basically how we had done that.
Why perfection doesn’t always pay when working online…
Connor: And to wrap up that thought around a beginner mindset, it’s much better to be out there doing something rather than to wait for it to be done perfectly.
Matt: Perfect. That’s what I teach everyone here when I’m private coaching.
Matt’s saying is:
“Don’t think, just do.” – Matt Raad, eBusiness Institute
I’ve been saying that for years, and I had to learn that myself when working online, too. Sometimes, you just have to hit the go button. It’s not always going to be perfect.
So, say your one again, Connor.
Connor: It’s better than waiting to be perfect.
…as long as your articles add value and help your readers…
Matt: And look at those results. That’s what you’ve found works well online, then?
Connor: For sure. Because we have some articles that, knowing what we know now, they rank and get good traffic. But based on our SEO training and what we’ve learned about putting together an article, it’s pretty average but gets traffic.
So, it really just depends, and it’s a numbers game.
Matt: It’s about helping the audience.
Connor: My dad always likes to quiz me. He’ll call me some mornings and say, “What are the three things you learned from swimming that you can put into today?”
Growing up as a 13-year-old, I had a pretty intense training schedule, mainly because of him. Obviously, I wanted to hang out with my friends, but I’m grateful for those experiences.
I would say for sure what helped me be successful is consistency. So, make sure you block out some hours at least a day to work on that, no matter what. You need to keep learning and keep growing. Just be better today than yesterday.
Matt: That is so important. And you’ve done that really well. You don’t let up, and it works.
You’ve mentioned something really interesting there, Connor. Even when we post what we know are pretty average articles, they can still work because you’re just turning up and getting visitors to your website.
Learn as you grow, and forget about perfectionism…
Matt: Now you’re getting a million visitors to your website every month. There are a lot of people interested in pets. I know you love pets and everything, but it’s not like you’re an expert in the pet niche or anything, are you?
Connor: Not yet! Dad joked when I first started (when I was learning SEO) that I’m now a pet food nutrition specialist.
So basically, you build the plane on the way down. You just learn as you go. I definitely wear a lot of hats.
Matt: For sure.
How much content do you need for a 1.5 million page views a month?
… and what it’s like to operate a multi-million $ content website…
Matt: What I do want to have a quick look at is content. People are going to be fascinated by this. You have one site that gets nearly a million views a month, and the farming site gets 500,000. So, we’re talking 1.5 million page views a month, which is big.
So, what’s the content velocity? How many articles are on, say, the pet site? Let’s stick with that one because it’s the simplest and double the size of farming. How many articles are sitting on there? And what’s the volume of articles that you’re creating each week?
Connor: So, the number of articles is a pretty stark difference.
Because of the content that the previous owner was putting out, we have close to 5,400 articles on the pet site. And we now put out at least one article daily on top of updating several articles a week.
Matt: You and I have worked on that with our web reno calls on your site, and it’s so much fun. Any of you reading this who are SEO nerds would understand. It’s so much fun reviewing Google Analytics and looking at which articles work.
There are about 5,500 articles now sitting on your site. Remember, this is a multi-million dollar website, so we want to give you an idea of the realities of running this level of site.
Connor has trained his writers to write specifically for their pet niche websites
Matt: So, you are producing about an article a day with a team in the Philippines, and you’ve got about four full-time writers? And they’re not subject experts, are they? These are just standard writers that you would find on Upwork?
Connor: Yes, so we have four writers that we found on the platform we told you. I would say they’re pretty equivalent to someone you would find on Upwork. They’re just in the Philippines, so obviously, the US dollar goes very far over there.
But they have pretty basic writing skills, so we’ve trained them, which has been a lot of work, but it’s paid off.
Matt: And so, you’ve got four writers and two editors.
Connor: Correct. We are hiring more writers, but in the meantime, we are still trying to put out as much content as possible.
We do have two Upwork writers for the farming site. I believe there are two other Upwork writers for the pet website as well.
So, we will assign them articles that perhaps aren’t as crucial to the SEO level we want. Then, we gently groom them as we work with them. “Hey, great job. We’d like to see a little more of this, a little less of that, etc.”
…and he has edited hundreds of articles himself…
Matt: And Connor, part of your journey over the last two years has been editing and fixing up the articles, too, haven’t you?
Connor: Yes, hundreds and hundreds. I’ve lost count of how many.
Matt: Great, that’s what I wanted you to say. Don’t hold back. Let everyone know this has been a big part of your journey. You guys are very hands-on here.
So, even on a big multi-million dollar website, you are getting in yourself and editing up hundreds of articles because it’s worth it.
David: Oh yes. We also have a graphic design person who does infographics for us.
Connor: That’s right. He was our first employee prior to the writers.
Matt: And I think Dave, you also said you’ve got an actual farmer who writes for you as well?
David: Yes, and I found them on Upwork.
And then, on the pet site, we have somebody we inherited who has helped us build the YouTube channel.
Matt: Awesome. So that gives everyone an idea of what it’s like to run and operate a content website. It’s pretty straightforward, just at scale.
For our readers – if you’re starting out buying a small website, you’ve heard what these guys are doing. They’re running exactly the same system as if you’ve purchased a $10,000 or $20,000 website. This thing is just at scale.
So, there are three to four full-time writers, a few part-time writers, and a couple of editors. And you also heard that Connor himself has gotten in over the years and edited hundreds of articles.
That means he can now teach his editors and team. They’ve got a role model to follow, haven’t they?
Connor: Exactly right. I’m also learning to write copy’ too. I’m constantly training and learning.
Matt: Yes, learn and train. That’s awesome.
Even More Lucrative Monetisation Options: big corporates advertising directly on the site
Matt: I want to talk about another interesting aspect of the website. At the beginning of this interview, we said that the number one big reno you did to fix up the monetisation was to simply change over to Ad Thrive. Doing that doubled everything.
But another interesting thing we spoke about was that because your site is so big and in the pet niche (which is huge), big corporates regularly approach you now. And you’re being approached by some big players out there in the US?
David: Yes, pretty constantly, right, Connor?
Connor: Definitely. There was one big aggregator that wanted to buy our site.
Matt: And this is something we talked about. It will happen a lot for you guys now because your site is definitely on the radar. Both of your sites rank very highly because they’re in cool niches.
The other thing you’ve mentioned is how many times you get commercial advertisers wanting to advertise and do deals and joint ventures.
In the first 2 years, the sites made money from AdSense & Amazon…
Matt: I want our readers to understand this is not something you focused on in the first two years of running your websites. But now you’re starting to consider some of the opportunities of working with these big commercial direct advertisers and aggregators, other than just AdSense.
Until now, your site’s just been monetised by AdThrive, hasn’t it?
David: Yes, and Amazon.
Matt: Right, but Amazon isn’t that big on your site, is it?
David: We’re making $15,000-$20,000 per month through Amazon.
Matt: Oh wow, okay. Great, so as a percentage, that’s still working well for you. Nice one.
Connor: We heard your strategy, where you say to focus on just putting out good content. You talk about where some people don’t even have a backlink strategy. They just put out content that gets them the backlinks because they focus on quality content.
So, it’s the same kind of principle here, where you focus on content and then get approached by advertisers. So, you just focus on that.
…and now they’re opening up to corporate sponsorship and advertising
Matt: It’s cool to hear that, Connor. So, our readers are hearing this from someone who owns a site with a million views a month.
That’s what your experience has been over these two years. Corporates automatically approach you now. And one of the ones we spoke about recently sounds fascinating with the deal they’re offering you for a sponsored post on your website.
Connor: Some sites have the means to have someone do that full-time, where they just reach out to people for you.
There’s only do so much in a day if you’re the operator. So, I’d say the number one and two things you could be working on starting out are content and updating content.
Matt: And that’s what you guys have basically focused on over the last two years. You just stick to that, and it works.
I want to bring home to our readers – you’re looking at the team right there. It’s a father-son team. You don’t have all the hours in the day, but if you want to, you just hire more team members.
How David is operating these sites as a semi-passive online business
Matt: David, when you look back at how this whole business works, is this pretty simple for you day-to-day?
David: For me, it’s very straightforward. It’s about having the right team. And fortunately, I have Connor.
Matt: That’s right, your secret weapon!
David: Well, things really worked out, because the opportunity was great for Connor. His enthusiasm, knowledge, and willingness to learn were amazing to me. So that’s why it worked so well; I’m in semi-retirement looking for more of a semi-passive investment.
1 Connor is constantly building on his own digital skills
David: So that’s where Connor comes into play, where he’s just building his career and building all these skills on podcasting, YouTube channels, SEO, and running websites. He’s building all these skills that any company in the world would love to have him on their staff.
So that’s the kind of skills you want to learn and are in high demand. But fortunately, we’re going to keep working together on building the sites. Connor’s going to be an owner in the sites, so hopefully, we just keep growing.
2. They are scaling their team to the next level
David: But it’s all about scaling. It’s all about building the team now, where Connor is involved more in recruiting and managing the team. That’s how you compete with the Goliath businesses in our niches, the real big ones. It’s just about scale, right?
Matt: Yes, and that can be your next level.
3. They both take extreme ownership for their roles in the business
Connor: I don’t know if there are many father-son or investor-operator relationships out there. But just say my relationship with my father from a business standpoint doesn’t work, then it makes it difficult to run effectively.
So, I think that’s the most important part. You mentioned I’m a secret weapon. But you have to want to be the secret weapon. My dad and I are both very intense people. Sometimes we don’t always agree, but we are committed to the future of the business.
It comes down to extreme ownership from both sides. That’s how you make it work. So, I’d like to plug a little book, because if you’re also a standalone operator, you must take extreme ownership every single day.
Matt: Is the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink?
Connor: Yes, I listen to his podcast all the time.
Matt: Same here. He’s a pretty intense guy.
Great, so that’s where you’re learning it from. It’s an awesome book, and I’ve got some affirmations that I use for myself every day. Just own it.
Don’t sit around waiting for things to happen. There will rarely be a perfect time. Just get out there and make it happen.
Learning the digital skills for a multimillion-dollar website is easier than you think…
Matt: I want to say a big thank you to you both because I think we’ve covered a lot in this podcast. And I’d love to have you back again next year to get an update on what’s going on.
I think you’ve just gone and inspired a lot of people here in our eBusiness Institute community. You’ve given a lot of clarity and hope to people to realise that going up to the next big level is exactly the same as the skills I’m learning as a beginner on a small website. And that is super cool.
David: Absolutely. We get so motivated anytime we speak to you. And we look forward to every time we get to have a Zoom call with you because you share your experience, and we share ours.
You’re always so excited and have great insight and answers for us. So, we’re hoping the relationship continues for a long time. We consider you almost like part of our board of directors.
Matt: All right. I love it, Dave.
Why it’s important to have a mentor when learning your digital skills
Connor: I wanted to make one last point on top of what my dad said.
If you’re starting websites, you definitely need a mentor like Matt and Liz Raad. It helps to have someone guide your ship, guide the direction of your business, guide your goals, and help you stay focused, motivated, and excited about the business.
Having someone like Matt, who you can talk to and strategise with, is one of the most important things. Then, obviously, on top of having a mentor, you need to work on the business every day consistently. So, I would definitely recommend Matt.
Matt: Thank you, Connor. That’s awesome. And again, I want to reiterate my congratulations. You both work so well together, and you’re just on it.
With all these things you’re doing, your dad must be very proud of your success, particularly when you started out at level one on a scale of 100. I love that analogy. And you’ve absolutely nailed it.
So well done, guys, and a big thank you for sharing your story.
Want to learn the same digital skills that started it all for David and Connor?
Watch our free masterclass on how to buy and renovate websites for semi-passive income.
This is the same free masterclass that taught them the digital skills they have today to make $600,000 a year in semi-passive income with just 2 years of experience.
