GE 217: How Colin Jones Built Blackjack Apprenticeship After Winning $4M by Counting Cards at Casinos (podcast)

Hey everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with Colin Jones, creator of Blackjack Apprenticeship.

Tune in to hear Colin share tips and tricks to help you hone your card counting skills and win BIG in blackjack, how to strategize and optimize your entrepreneurial game via insights from this ace blackjack player, and the SEO strategy he used to rank #1 for “how to count cards.”

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Colin Jones Built Blackjack Apprenticeship After Winning $4M by Counting Cards at Casinos

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:38 – Review and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast
• 00:56 – Eric welcomes Colin Jones who runs Blackjack Apprenticeship
  • 01:01 – Improve your blackjack skills by sharpening your card counting skills on Blackjack Apprenticeship
• 01:15 – Colin’s entrepreneurial journey
  • 01:15 – Waited tables at Red Robin 15 years back
  • 01:36 – Put in $2,000 from his savings to try card counting
  • 01:52 – Started playing full-time and won over $600,000 playing individually and over $4 million while partnering with a friend
  • 02:12 – He started Blackjack Apprenticeship where people can pay and hone their card counting skills
• 02:50 – A documentary was made about Colin’s team, “Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians”
• 04:22 – Membership and Fee Structure
  • 04:22 – Membership to Blackjack apprenticeship gives you access to videos, forums, training drills and a “Yelp for card counters” to help scout out games
  • 04:56 – Blackjack bootcamp where hands-on training is provided to blackjack enthusiasts
  • 05:08 – Membership is around $300 per year
  • 05:20 – Bootcamp will set you back by $3,000 for two days
• 05:34 – Blackjack apprenticeship currently has 500 members which brings in a revenue of $150,000 per year; Bootcamp contributes equally in revenue
• 06:17 – Understanding the nuances of Colin’s SEO strategy
  • 07:33 – Created great content to rank first for the search “How to count cards”
  • 08:18 – Replicated this same strategy for the search term “Blackjack strategy”—ranked number one for a year with this generic these search term
  • 08:36 – Skyscraper technique involving looking at the competition and beating them; your content can then be linked with other resources to further drive competition to your page
• 09:42 – What has card counting taught you about business? – Figuring out what will create value for customers in the long-term and not worry about the short-term
• 10:55 – What advantage do you gain by card counting?
  • 10:57 – Casino has half a percentage over you if you adhere to the basic strategy
  • 11:23 – The average gambler is playing at a 2 percentage disadvantage
  • 11:58 – Card counters get a 1-2% advantage over others which is considerable when you consider thousands of hours of play
• 12:31 – Colin brings along $70,000-$80,000 on a gambling trip to Vegas to weather out a losing streak and allow math to do its bit
• 13:07 – Colin’s biggest loss was when he lost 40 grand in a few hours; his biggest win to date has been 50 grand in a day
• 14:32 – Hone your blackjack skills via training drills and through the Blackjack Apprenticeship iOS App
• 15:12 – “It is not going to be profitable over the long haul unless you are going to be perfect at it”
• 16:02 – It is normal for casinos to ask card counters to “back off” and stop playing blackjack
• 16:24 – Act normal and avoid making huge betting variations to avoid being earmarked as a card counter
• 17:13 – What’s one big struggle you faced while growing this education or membership business? – Colin offered 80% of his content on his site for free, for a year—sales were dismal and the site was not given the status it deserved
• 18:26 – What is next for the business?
  • 18:55 – Overhauling their training drills to make them more valuable
  • 19:00 – Adding more betting software
• 19:18 – What’s one big change you’ve made in the last year that has impacted you or your business in a big way? – “I overhauled our lead magnet”—drawing from the strategies espoused by Storybrand, Colin managed to generate 4x opt-in rates
• 20:44 – What’s one new tool that you’ve added in the last year that’s added a lot of value, besides Troops? – Switched over to ActiveCampaign from GetResponse
• 21:39 – What’s one must-read book do you recommend? –Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud
• 22:50 – Connect with Colin on his website or Facebook

3 Key Points:

1. Figure out what will create value for your customers over the long-term; don’t get bogged down by pleasing them for the short-term.
2. Studying competitor content and creating better content is the “Skyscraper Strategy” that results in driving more traffic to your website.
3. Card counters get a 1-2% advantage over others which is considerable when you consider the thousands of hours of play.

Resources From This Interview:

• Blackjack Apprenticeship
• Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians
• Training drills
• iOS App
• Storybrand
• ActiveCampaign
• Must-read book: Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Dr. Henry Cloud
• Facebook page

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