Jeff Ross (00:00)
Welcome to the Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show. I'm your host, Jeff Ross, the caffeinated kangaroo from Down Under, here to help you navigate the wild world of social selling and AI mastery. Whether you're a frustrated affiliate marketer, an inspiring coach, or a seasoned network marketing pro, you're in the right place. And each week we'll be deep diving with key experts from the online business world, sharing their tips and tricks and stories
to help you elevate your game. Plus I'll be serving up some quick coaching episodes packed with actionable insights to keep you ahead of the curve. So grab your favorite cuppa, sit back and let's hop into another episode. Welcome to the journey of mastering the art of social selling and AI while balancing life as a laptop lifestyle legend. Let's get started and enjoy the show.
Well, good day legends and welcome to our very first episode of the Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show. Hey, I'm your host, the caffeinated kangaroo from Down Under, and I'm as excited as a caffeinated kangaroo jumping around on a trampoline and so stoked to have you here. So let's start unpacked first, the name. Why the Laptop Lifestyle Dad? Well, because this podcast is about mastering social selling and AI mastery for Laptop Lifestyle legends.
You know, mums and dads, like I started off serving dads because hey, I am a laptop lifestyle dad. Got three amazing young boys, Harrison who's 12, Lachlan who's 11 and Jackson who is eight. And my wife and I, we just love, live and breathe the laptop lifestyle. So we're all about helping you, our listener, you know, help to create a beautiful laptop lifestyle while balancing the beautiful chaos of it all, being a dad, being a mom, working from home.
So let me introduce you to our little AI buddy, the Caffe D 'Aida Kangaroo, and tell you how he came about and just share a quick story. So I've been doing this AI social selling gig now for the last 10 months and been the laptop lifestyle dad and we've had a Facebook group and I've been a coach in this space and I wanted to create a brand that was memorable and stood out and everybody just loved, right?
You know, I read a lot of books on the branding over the last 15 years. And one of the key aspects there, especially Russell Brunson shares in his book .com secrets is to create an avatar of some sorts that people can relate to and connect the story to. So I'm Jeff Ross, your laptop lifestyle dad. And I'm also known as the caffeinated kangaroo. And how did that come about? Well, I wanted to come up with an expression that shared my passion, that shared how excited I was.
I didn't want it to say I'm super pumped or I'm fired up or I'm excited. I wanted to come up with something that was a tagline that everybody just remembered every time that that was mentioned. Yep. That's Jeff Ross. So I used AI to help me come up with something very creative. So I got in and used ChatGPT and I gave it the framework. I said, here's what I want it to create. I want you to emulate people like Steve Irwin, you know, Aussie icon. In Australia in the nineties here, we had a fella by the name of called Big Kev.
And his catchphrase was, I'm excited. It was simple as that, but it was the way he delivered it with such passion and posture. And, you know, everybody just knew that that was big Kev when anybody said, I'm excited. So I gave the frameworks to Chatty and, and I said, I wanted to come up with something that was new and unique and 100 % Jeff Ross. And it came up with a few different expressions, especially the Aussie tone. And one of them was I'm as pumped up as a platypus in a pool party.
You know, I didn't quite like that one, but my mate Dave Miller, he loved it and he ran with that. You know, there was another one there was, I'm as excited as a Tasmanian devil in a tinny. You know, for those guys who are over in the US, a tinny is like a Aluminium boat, what we call here in Australia, one of those small boats. So as a tinny, right, you can just imagine as a Tasmanian devil. And I live in Tassie. So that was a close second. But the one that jumped out for me was, I'm as excited as a caffeinated kangaroo jumping around in a trampoline. So, voila.
The caffeinated kangaroo was born and he's been my little AI mascot buddy ever since. So you'll see the caffeinated kangaroos through all my branding, through everything that I do. And yeah, just wanted to share that quick story with you. So why, what's the why behind this podcast? Like there are a thousand and million and one podcasts out there. So why would I want to throw my hat in the ring, you know, and share my voice? Well, the first question is why not? Right?
You know, like I'm 16 year veteran in the digital marketing space. I do have a lot of wisdom to share. I'm a million dollar plus earner in the digital marketing space. And, you know, one of the top network marketing recruiters for a company called DreamTrips International. You know, just published a book last week, been a coach in this space now for the last 18 months. And, you know, I've got a lot of experience and a lot of wisdom to share. So the next evolution for my own journey was seen to be. Let's start a podcast.
You know, over the last few months, I've been invited to speak on, you know, virtual events like the AI symposium, you know, hosted by my good mate, Tom Simons and the LA Tribune podcast network. You know, I've been invited to speak in some other big events now. So it just made natural sense, the evolution of my own journey to start a podcast so I could serve a wider, broader reach and a broader audience. But let's, you know, why would you want to listen to, you know, this crazy Aussie?
Jeff Ross, the caffeinated kangaroo. Well, probably the best place to start is for me to share my story. So just quickly, and I'll try to keep this as quick as I can, because it's a bit of a roller coaster ride of a school of heart knock story. But I started just like most of you in here in this space, going through on the online journey, trying to figure it out for myself. And I started back in 2009.
See back in 2009, the doctors wrote me off. They put me on a disability pension because I got three crushed disc in the back of my neck. And, you know, I live with chronic pain syndrome. And so I had to turn to the online world to try and provide an income for my family. I had no other choice. My back was against the wall. So back in 2009, I learned all about Facebook ads and website development and funnels and all of that jazz. And I learned how to master the game way back then. I started a little digital marketing agency called Ripple X Marketing.
which I started with a partnership and you know, that imploded, I learnt very early on that a partnership is like a marriage, right? You got to go into it. You got to, you know, be like a full -fledged partnership and marriage in that space. And I learnt the lessons the hard way around that. Fast forward to 2017 off the back of that, you know, that learning curve, I aligned myself with a really awesome digital marketer by the name of Adrian Morrison. He owns a company called the Ecom Success Academy.
And he's really big in the econ space now. You know, back in 2017, I became one of his first pioneering students to, you know, take his blueprint and, you know, get some pretty decent results from it. From taking his blueprint and the, and the journey that I had already had with Facebook advertising and all of that sort of, you know, education that I had behind me, I was able to take his blueprint and do $1 .6 million in sales in just four months, selling a stuffed toy elephant around the world.
Now, as great as that story sounds in the front end, it was actually a bit of a disaster for me because I grew too quickly. I created a perfect storm scenario for myself and it imploded on itself. I had supply issues, you know, from China. They couldn't keep up with the supply and demand that led to shipping issues that led to customer service issues that led to me having to refund a lot of people in that space. But so I went through a four year marketing and business degree, I reckon in what would probably be four months.
what people sign up for university, I did the whole lot. And so I come off the back of that, I clean myself up, I dust myself off again, get back on the horse. And I went back to what I know. I went back to the, you know, providing a digital marketing service for small to medium sized businesses, especially here in Australia and New Zealand. And we created a digital marketing agency called Your Marketing Nerd. We did very, very well for ourselves. We employed five guys full time. And then we'll crack it along from 2017 to 2020.
And, you know, we were probably one of the biggest and most successful places in Australia to go and get your customer acquisition pipelines. We specialized in serving massage centers, cryopractors and gyms, the health industry. And then that dreaded C word came along in 2020. COVID. And I lost my business overnight and, I had to let go of my team. I had my clients bringing up left, right and center just canceling contracts because we served in the health based industry.
They were one of the hardest industries to get locked down, especially in Australia. Anyway, so I saw that, you know, as a bit of a blessing because I was that burnt out workaholic father working 80, 90 hours a week, running that agency, missing out on the quality time with my young boys growing up. And, so I was on the road to burn out before COVID and, and, you know, come along COVID it took away from me. And now I saw that as a blessing in disguise on the other side of that. Once again.
dust myself off, you know, come around 2021, 2022. It took me a little while to recover from that. But after I bounced back and was ready to get back into the saddle and, you know, get back on the horse, I decided to go all in on the network marketing industry. And I come, I align myself with a travel club called DreamTrips International. And you would think with my background, and I thought so too, that I would crush it straight away. And guess what? Absolutely, totally sucked.
You know, I tried to over automate a relationship building game. I tried to use my digital marketing brain. I tried to create a faceless brand and, and it just does not work in the network marketing industry. It's called social selling for a reason, right? That's that social part. We need to have that heart to heart connections. We need to build relationships with people. So for the first 12 months, I'm finding my feet with, you know, this company. And then all of a sudden I cracked the code. I'd worked out, you know, how to create a customer value journey.
how to leverage social selling. But what I really worked out was I worked out how to use these amazing AI tools in the content marketing space to create an amazing brand, leverage attraction marketing. So the last 14 going on for 15 months now, I've been one of the top global recruiters for DreamTrips International. I'm not only that I've been able to help a team sort of build around us and start duplicating these similar results. And then that spills over to a heart to want to serve the industry.
the affiliate marketing, the network marketing industry. We're working now with companies from like Golden Drops to, you know, Amari to DreamTrips to Young Living, you know, and a few other different products and amongst that now. And I positioned myself in the last 12 months as an AI social selling mastery coach. And now we've got this awesome podcast to be able to help take that to the next level.
So that's a bit about my story. You know, the power, learning the power of social selling, learning how to master AI has absolutely changed the game for me in a big way. And I can't wait to be able to help equip you, empower you to do exactly the same thing. See our mission here at the Laptop Lifestyle Dads is to be able to help Laptop Lifestyle Legends, Mums and Dads learn how to make their first $10 ,000 a month online.
so they could become the fun vacation dad, fueled by dad jokes of course, so they can make memories with their family. See, I'm all about helping people live their own best lives, a life by design, a life by purpose. And the network marketing industry is such a great vehicle to be able to help people do that. But like anything that's worth having, it takes hard work. It's leveraged work, but it still takes work. It still takes massive action.
So I've got a few things here that I want to share with you, some wisdom, and I'm also going to start interviewing experts in this space so we can bring their success tips to the table, so we can bring their stories to the table. And we're all about building a community of like -minded legends, dads, moms, affiliates, network marketers, and online business pros alike, all striving for success while maintaining that work -life balance.
Let's unpack that quickly for a second. I think it's a bit of a myth, work -life balance. But however, we can with the laptop lifestyle create a business that supports our life. See, I say to people, I don't have a nine to five gig. You know, I don't have, yeah, work from nine to five and then go have time with my family. What I do have is the laptop lifestyle. And let me explain that for you. What that looks like is I have a business that supports our life.
I have a business that I don't even think I'll ever retire from because why would I want to retire from something that I'm passionate about, something that I love doing? I have a business that fits in around our life and in our life and through our life. You know, my young son, Harrison, was just diagnosed with MS there six months ago. You know, we had to spend a lot of time in hospitals and see doctors and specialists and all that sort of thing. Yet my businesses, and I run three of them, are still able to tick along.
and support that, you know, I'm still able to support my business from a mobile phone and an internet connection while I'm sitting by my son's hospital bed. You know, I do a lot of travel. You're actually off to Thailand in August. And, you know, I've done a lot of travel in the last 18 months, but yet I'm still able to run my business from the airport lounges, from the beaches, from wherever I am, you know, in amongst all that amazing travel. So I don't say to people, I have a nine to five gig, what I do have and what you do have at the Laptop Lifestyle, what's possible.
is we can have it in between the hospital, in between the school runs, in between the beach, in between the travel, in between the life, in between the parenting gigs and everything else in between gig. That is what I call the laptop lifestyle. It still takes massive action. It still takes some hard work, but we work smarter. We work leveraged and we work wherever we want. That to me is geographical freedom. We can have time freedom.
And we can have financial freedom at the other end of this. I'm living proof of that. I built my entire business off the back of a disability pension and, and, you know, central link payments. I'm able to position myself now as a successful network marketer, as an, you know, an awesome coach to be able to help people like you do exactly the same thing. I bootstrapped everything from the back of a disability pension. So what to expect from the, the laptop lifestyle dad show.
So each week, I'm going to give you not one, but two episodes. One episode is going to be an interview with a key expert from the social selling and AI mastery arena. We're going to get them to share their stories, their insights, the successes and the lessons that have come from that. And the other will be like a quick coaching episode from myself, where I'll give you actionable tips and strategies that you can go and take and run straight away and implement.
You know, I'd rather see ignorance on fire versus knowledge on ice. It's what served me really, really well. I'm actually going to start writing another book very soon. It's called Fail Forward a Thousand Times and sharing the lessons around, you know, failure and how it builds up our character and to be grateful for it and how we can learn and grow from that. You know, topics we're going to cover each week. It's going to be everything around leveraging AI for your business, mastering social selling techniques.
to practical tips, to managing your time, to staying productive, all while working from home from your laptop. I'm all about helping you to become that laptop lifestyle legend, right? We're also gonna have exclusive content just for our listeners and for our Facebook community. Once every sort of six to eight weeks, we host a free bootcamp, which is our five days social selling and AI mastery bootcamp. We've got one coming up at the end of July. And we're gonna have
unannounced master classes, we'll do in -depth Q &As together and hot seats and, and you just can expect absolutely massive, massive value to help you stay ahead of the curve, to help you learn how to master this game, just like I have and just like our team has and just like you can too. So what's in it for you? Well, by tuning in, you're going to gain cutting edge strategies. You're going to be able to boost your sales, save your time and it's true.
I'm sorry, achieve true freedom for your business. Learn how to leverage the laptop lifestyle and create an everything in between gig just for you and your family, right? My goal is from that is when you could do that, your family will become more bonded and more connected and a healthier family unit. That's going to spill over and serve your community. That'll serve your local area. And this is how we can start to add love into a world.
that is starving for love and connection. And it all comes off the back of community and doing what we love to do ourselves, creating a life by design, creating a life that is heart -centered, purpose -driven, and going out there, and it's helping you to achieve the life of your dreams. I truly, truly believe that through this vehicle, through this opportunity, whatever product that you represent, we can...
have the life of our dreams, we can have heaven on earth. We're gonna talk about how to become a personal brand. I'm gonna show you how to grow an amazing community. And I'm gonna give you some awesome tips along the way on how you can monetize that by creating a profitable and predictable customer value journey for your business. So closing thoughts here just before we move on and we wrap up this introduction. First off, I wanna thank everybody who's helped me get this far so far.
You know, it's helped me to build up this awesome community of the Laptop Lifestyle dads. You know, huge shout out to my mate, Dave Miller, who's been one of my pioneering students through the whole way through now for the last 10 months and what he's stepping up now and shining in the custom GPT space and helping his clients with little AI helper tools. Like man, this guy is shining big. And I just loved that I was able to help bring that out in him and help him to step up and shine. You know, huge shout out to our rock star.
our virtual assistant, Jade Winsley, who is setting herself up to become the systems and funnels queen. You know, I could not get to this point, Jade, if it wasn't for your help and support over the last six months. Truly, truly appreciate everything that you've brought to the table. I do have a huge shout out to my, my, my, my family, my beautiful wife and my beautiful three boys. You know, how you have empowered me, how you've supported me, how you freed me up to be able to do what I need to do in this space.
Once again, couldn't be done without your support, without your love, without you going, go dad, go dad. You know, I really truly appreciate all of my family here. I think my mentors, you know, Tim and Sharon, Kylie Thompson, Martin Ruoff, you know, Mark Smith, just to name a few. And guys, we've got an amazing lineup of speakers and, you know, interviews coming up. You know, just shortly, you know, over the next few episodes, I'll be chatting to people like Kyle Rogers, you know, to comment, to comment.
Sorry, two comma winner for the ClickFunnels Awards. We've got Karen Fox, who I met through the AI Symposium. You know, Sarah Chevrolet, who I met from the last AI Symposium. You know, Joe Graham, who's also become a good friend now. He's a master when it comes to sales. You know, Austin Armstrong, we've got an interview coming up with him. He's got over a hundred thousand followers and he's got a huge AI following. You know, I've got people like Jeffrey J Hunter, Jonathan Mast, and you know, we've got Joe Thomas.
who's the founder of EZ messenger. So we've got a huge lineup of amazing AI specialist in this space. I can't wait to deliver those episodes that we've got coming. And hey, if you're an expert in this space and you'd love to jump on our podcast, please reach out. We would love to interview. So these guys and girls are all experts in the social selling and AI space. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. Until then, keep up and take awesome massive action together.
Stay caffeinated, whether you like to drink coffee or not, and enjoy the laptop lifestyle. I'm Jeff Ross, your caffeinated kangaroo, your laptop lifestyle dad. And hey, I would be amiss if I didn't end with a dad joke, right? So one of my go -to dad jokes, since this is our first introductory episode, I'll lead with this one. How much does a polar bear weigh? Don't worry, I've got no idea either, but I'm sure it's enough to break the ice.
Now the ice has broken between us. I look forward to building an awesome relationship and engaging with you along this journey and connecting with you and truly getting to know you. It's called social selling for a reason. So I'm a big believer in social part of it, being the H2H part of it, being the human to human contact, being the heart to heart interactions. I love to chat, I love to talk, all things travel, all things network marketing.
All Things Social Selling and AI. And my wife and I have also just started an online church. You know, so we love to talk all things faith based and discipleship as well. Anyhow, I'll sign off for now. Thank you for your time. And I look forward to seeing you on episode two, where we're going to be interviewing Austin Armstrong as our first guest. All right, talk to you soon. Bye for now.