Apr 23, 2012 · 1h 12m · mixergy
#715 HearAndPlay.com: Turning $70 Into A Multimillion Dollar Instruction Web Site – with Jermaine Griggs
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this Mixergy interview, entrepreneur Jermaine Griggs shares how he transformed a seventy-dollar investment into HearAndPlay.com, an eight-figure digital music education platform, by mastering direct-response copywriting, early web marketing, and automated recurring subscription models.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Andrew holds 31.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Andrew as informed peer 3.1 Guest teaching 4.1 Guest disagreement 0.4 Andrew pushing back 1.2
speaking balance: gold is Andrew, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 48:55 Dismissing critics of long-form sales pages
Jermaine rejects conventional design feedback advising him against long copy by bluntly stating critics wouldn't question his methods if they saw his bank account.
Hardest push from Andrew ▶ 1:00:59 Challenging the ethics and logic of recurring continuityAndrew directly challenges Jermaine on why customers should pay month after month when standalone courses already teach how to play.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:01:15 Explaining the 4 Ps market frameworkJermaine educates Andrew on selecting markets based on Passion, Positivity, Progression, and Patience, explaining how ongoing skill-building justifies continuous subscriptions.
Andrew holds their own ▶ 1:06:40 Andrew demonstrates real-time copywriting and direct-response anchoringAndrew riffs on direct-response sales techniques, calling out pricing anchoring and risk reversals, prompting Jermaine to recognize Joe Sugarman and Robert Cialdini principles in action.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Andrew as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Andrew pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From Inner-City Long Beach to Multimillion-Dollar Success | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Andrew sets up the narrative arc by prompting Jermaine to share his early childhood struggles in Long Beach and the milestone of hitting seven figures at age 22. The dynamic is purely collaborative and biographical. | |
| HearAndPlay.com Revenue Metrics and Continuity Business Models | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Andrew inquires about exact business metrics and recurring subscription structure. Jermaine outlines his annual revenue ($3M-$3.5M) and explains his CD and digital continuity programs. | |
| Early Hustles, Childhood Discipline, and Passion for Sales | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Andrew probes why Jermaine gravitated toward sales and hustle as a kid over other creative outlets. Jermaine explains his early experiences selling greeting cards and Avon. | |
| Sales Philosophy, Naive Experiments, and Outsider Mindset | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Jermaine outlines his philosophy that sales only start once a prospect says 'no' and discusses feeling like an outsider between church, the inner city, and suburban magnet schools. Andrew expresses deep camaraderie with this mindset. | |
| Meeting His Partner, Shared Ambition, and Initial Music Lessons | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Jermaine describes meeting his future wife and how she supported his early entrepreneurial pamphlet-copying ventures. Andrew strongly validates the ambition-driven lifestyle over high school party culture. | |
| Self-Taught Marketing Education and Subconscious Repetition | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Jermaine discusses studying Corey Rudl and Napoleon Hill, including looping audio affirmations to program his mindset. Andrew relates with his own running and audio loop routines. | |
| Launching HearAndPlay.com and the Breakthrough Sales Day | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Andrew asks why Jermaine wasn't too embarrassed by an ugly early website to launch. Jermaine details transitioning from a minimal product page to a 22-page direct-response sales letter that triggered his first $1,100 day. | |
| Guerilla Traffic Generation and Expanding Paid Acquisition | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Andrew asks how early traffic was acquired and tests technical assumptions about email harvesting. Jermaine clarifies his forum participation, signature lines, Yahoo group building, and subsequent transition into Overture PPC and affiliate marketing. | |
| Scaling to Six Figures, Market Downturn, and Continuity Pivot | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | Jermaine recounts scaling through sequential revenue milestones before hitting a severe sales drop during the 2008 downturn, which forced him to launch a continuity training center within 30 days. | |
| Marketing Automation with Infusionsoft and Market Selection Framework | 4 | 6 | 1 | 3 | Andrew pushes Jermaine to explain how he justifies ongoing recurring subscription fees when one-off courses exist. Jermaine delivers a masterclass on his 4 Ps framework (Passion, Positivity, Progression, Patience) and why music instruction fits lifelong progression. |
Statements from this episode (11)
Griggs grew HearAndPlay to $1M revenue by age 22 starting with $70
“That was the year that we hit seven figures, and you know, incredible, having started with 70 dollars, and having taken no capital, or not even knowing that those avenues existed.”
Griggs: HearAndPlay generates $3M–$3.5M annually with 10,000 paying subscribers
“So, since inception, we've well hit the eight-figure mark per year. That looks like about 303 and a half million dollars this year will do. We get about 15,000 subscribers a month, and our total list is about 300,000 musicians that play by ear, and out of that…”
Griggs argues that Web 2.0 businesses are reluctant to sell directly
“A lot of two point, though, there's this, I don't know, this reservation about just selling.”
Early piano pamphlets became HearAndPlay's flagship product two years later
“Those books would then go on to be The basis of my primary product of Hear and Play just two years later.”
HearAndPlay generated $1,100 on its 2002 launch day via a Yahoo group
“That day we would do 1100 dollars in sales. On that day, I skipped every class I had that day in psychology. I called my girlfriend, Sarah, at the time, who's my wife now, and I said, baby, we gotta go do these books, because, you know, 1100 dollars are coming…”
Griggs paid $70 monthly for a Yahoo Directory listing for ten years
“I'm still paying for that same listing. I think they get me for 70 bucks a month. I mean, I'm working. I mean, 10 years of that, you know, from day one, and every time my card expires, I go in, and I think it's just a ritual for me now”
HearAndPlay generated $8,000 in its first month from a 700-person list
“They come to my site and it took me two years to get 700 people. And for many people listening, 700 people, you know, it doesn't sound like a lot, but when I think about it was that same 700 people. That gave me that 1100 dollars in that one day, and I, I'm no…”
HearAndPlay nearly reached $200,000 in revenue during its first year in 2002
“I remember 2002, we'd go on to almost hit 200 grand that year, like, starting in March, right?”
HearAndPlay doubled its revenue year-over-year for five years starting in 2002
“You know, my glory days, I call them, from about 2002 to 2006, seven was up, up, up, like. We, like, doubled year over year”