The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi

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Speaker 1
Average is the enemy of greatness. Welcome to the Grit Factor podcast where we strip away the highlight reel to reveal the darkness beneath it all and the battle plan used to conquer.

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Speaker 1
I'm your host, Carl Jacoby.

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Speaker 1
Jimmy. Welcome to the show, my man. It is

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Speaker 1
amazing to see you. It's an absolute honor to have you in the studio today.

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Speaker 1
Karl. Thanks, man. It's been so great.

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Speaker 1
You know, being invited on this. I'm excited to talk with you about everything. And it's always been,

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Speaker 1
It's been great knowing you for. I don't know how long at this point. 6 or 7 years, probably, I guess. Yeah, at least seven years.

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Speaker 1
So, yeah, you're a great friend of mine, and I'm.

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Speaker 1
I'm so honored to be on this podcast.

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Unknown
This is.

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Unknown
Just.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. So I'll just go back to kind of the origin story of. And he's starting to sell products online.

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Speaker 1
You know, back in it was 2015 when I started selling,

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
and at that time I was just looking for a way to start bringing in side hustle, side income from my typical 9 to 5 job. I used to sell corporate insurance,

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Speaker 1
know, insurance to businesses, liability insurance, worker's comp, etc..

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Speaker 1
And I really just didn't like it. You know, I did well with it.

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Speaker 1
I didn't like my job. I didn't like having somebody always watching over me. I didn't like having to be away from my family.

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Speaker 1
And so that got me into looking into two different avenues. One was real estate investing, and the other one was Amazon.

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Speaker 1
You know, just doing arbitrage and buying products from one store or selling them on Amazon for anybody that doesn't know that. And your audience,

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Speaker 1
so that's kind of what got me started. I chose,

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Speaker 1
the Amazon business,

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Speaker 1
and that took off from there for the next couple of years. It was a side hustle. Ended up moving back to Saint Louis from, which is where I'm from.

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Speaker 1
And, continue to sell insurance,

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Speaker 1
with a different company for a couple of years there until I decided to leave that role to fully pursue Amazon,

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Speaker 1
full time. And, from that point, we grew the business to over $100,000 a month. I think our largest was right around 200,000.

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Speaker 1
And,

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Speaker 1
in 2019, we,

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Speaker 1
I started, to do a training program because I was asked to by a friend of mine.

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Speaker 1
And,

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Speaker 1
you know, that took off. I thought it was going to be like a month or two of my time, and it ended up being the last six, seven, eight years at this point, however long I spent,

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Speaker 1
seven. And so that's how we met you know, we met in the same communities and, yeah, I mean, that's kind of the backstory, but really what what started me in all of it that I don't really talk about a ton,

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Speaker 1
is just the, the internal struggle of wanting to be with my family, wanting to be at home, wanting to control my time versus, well, I've got this, seemingly

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Speaker 1
secure job. Right. And,

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Speaker 1
know, that's kind of what got things going is I, I prioritized family, friends and autonomy more so than the so-called security of the job, which I personally think is riskier than being an entrepreneur. We can get to that at a different, or later on the call if you want to,

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Speaker 1
like, being an entrepreneur is more secure.

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Speaker 1
But yeah. So that's kind of the, the origin story.

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Speaker 1
discourse. And in this program and yeah that's you know really right around the time you and I met and, and

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Speaker 1
when we look at the way we at least in that ecosystem in that world, I would attribute a lot of that in to what you curated.

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Speaker 1
Right. You brought all of that into the spotlight. You you did all the heavy lifting in to develop

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Speaker 1
what we see today. You know, a lot of people that coined as we place replenish will inventory things you could buy over and over and over again and resell and so forth. But

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Speaker 1
I think one of missing one of the points that you miss making is a lot of what we see today, at least in a lot of communities, is because of what you curated.

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Speaker 1
Right. You specifically Jimmy Smith, you created this. You you systemized

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Speaker 1
an outside looking in. I think this one, amazing gifts that you have is the ability to systemize things and approach things from a systemized perspective

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Speaker 1
so that you have the time you can prioritize family time over,

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Speaker 1
you know, the micro level grind of business. What are your thoughts on that?

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Speaker 1
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, I

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Speaker 1
think one of my, my gifts and skill sets is being able to create systems and processes.

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Speaker 1
not just for myself, but for other people.

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Speaker 1
My whole goal is that,

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Speaker 1
not just something that I can,

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Speaker 1
follow and that I understand, but how do I actually teach it to somebody else?

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Speaker 1
That's a it is,

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Speaker 1
just something that I, that I have,

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Speaker 1
you know, but what's great about that is that people learn differently from different people.

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Speaker 1
so maybe some people didn't learn from me, but they've, they've learned from somebody else that learned from me, but that somebody else is who's taught them how to do plans and, you know, I didn't come up with the plans concept.

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Speaker 1
I was the first one to really scale it, to the level that,

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Speaker 1
at least as far as I'm aware of, to doing over 100,000 a month. But,

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Speaker 1
yeah, you know, it's been it's been an honor. It's been a blessing. I mean, it's been tens of thousands of people at this point that have gone through different trainings or have

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Speaker 1
seen me on YouTube or something like

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Speaker 1
that.

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Speaker 1
If I look at the actual annual revenue,

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Speaker 1
that comes from re plans, in the way that we teach it, I mean, it's easily over $100 million a year

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Speaker 1
in annual revenue just from the re plans models. If you really think about it, it's not that it's not that many people to get to that. It's like a thousand people.

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Speaker 1
A $10,000 a month in Amazon sales gets you there.

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Speaker 1
And you know, that's really not that much 10,000 a month on Amazon. We have people that do two, three, $4 million a year on Amazon. And so,

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Speaker 1
you know, that's just kind of the foundation. So if you really look at the scale,

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Speaker 1
this is one of the things that I love about entrepreneurship.

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Speaker 1
And then I, I try to look at it from time to time to keep myself motivated. Is that okay? Let's say there's a thousand people that have a $10,000 per month business, and we've got $100 million a year in revenue. How many other people does that impact? You know, are their employees and team members. So the kids that see their parents start, a job or start a business and succeed even at a small level or at a high level like that impacts them and their future and how they train their kids, etc..

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Speaker 1
And so

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Speaker 1
there's so much that goes into it, not even to talk about the customers that purchase these products and you know, how they get certain things. And during Covid, people couldn't get stuff. And so you and I,

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Speaker 1
as at the time, arbitrage sellers were supplying those to people, through Amazon. Like, there's so much that goes into business and that's, that's why I love it.

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Speaker 1
But,

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Speaker 1
you know, it's hard, you know, and I think that it's, I don't want to miss on this podcast

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Speaker 1
fact that it's not just about, okay, where were you?

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Speaker 1
Seven, eight, nine, ten years ago, but it's what kind of things are we dealing with today? Because that never goes away. That internal battle

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Speaker 1
kind of the struggle of, first off, fighting your own, demons, so to speak.

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Speaker 1
And second off, just the doubt and the fear and, you know, the economy and all these other things.

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Speaker 1
That never goes away. And I don't want people to think, oh, Jimmy's made it. Finally, after ten years of hard work, you know, there's it never feels like you've made it that for me anyway. I've never felt like I've made it.

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Speaker 1
And, you know, there's always more that you want to push. There's more that you want to do.

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Speaker 1
And, you know, I just, I think that that's an important thing to realize that no matter whatever the number is, it doesn't actually come back to the number like the numbers. Never a satisfactory thing. It's going to be about the life that you're building around that.

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Speaker 1
And so for me,

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Speaker 1
that's something that I struggle with is how much push do I have? How much pull do I have?

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
You know, do

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Speaker 1
I keep pushing or am I going to you know, kind of take away time from my family because I'm trying to build to hit a certain number, right. Those are like it's a constant battle.

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Speaker 1
So I don't mean to ramble, but,

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Speaker 1
yeah, it's kind of what I'm dealing with.

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Speaker 1
you know in some of the areas that you brought up, you know, especially the internal battles. Right. That that is something that I personally can associate with is, you know, having the ever it's an evergreen problem, if you will.

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Speaker 1
Right. It's it's constant. There is no monetary thing that makes that just like oh it goes away.

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Speaker 1
it just does it. Oftentimes unfortunately too many people don't see that. And I and I attribute that to that. It's not talked about enough. Right. And that's an excellent point.

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Speaker 1
let me go back a little bit because there is a pivotal time.

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Speaker 1
And this is where I would like to highlight for a moment. You mentioned in your profile the defining moment was missing a solar eclipse.

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Speaker 1
You know, with your family. Take us to that moment in that parking lot

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Speaker 1
while your family was together without you. What what did it feel in your gut in that moment?

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Speaker 1
So for me this was probably back in 2017 I think

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Speaker 1
and I was working that corporate insurance job that I had mentioned and there was an eclipse and I think it was I don't know if it's solar or lunar, but you know, it was it was like a, not a once in a lifetime eclipse, but pretty close to that.

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Speaker 1
Especially coming over Saint Louis, where I lived at the time. And,

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Speaker 1
you know, obviously they happened in different parts of the country, but it was just in Saint Louis. And so it was in the middle of the day. It was a workday, and I wasn't with my family to watch it. Instead, all of us coworkers at the insurance job went out of the office.

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Speaker 1
We sat in the parking lot. I mean, it's kind of a cool moment, but it was the thing that got me to realize, okay, I can't miss these events. I don't even have kids. I still don't,

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Speaker 1
but I didn't at the time, and I didn't want to miss those types of things because I was at a job or because I was in an office.

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Speaker 1
And so, you know, there's some great things now in kind of the working landscape of the remote work is more possible. So if I ever did have to go get a job, I would be a remote worker.

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Speaker 1
But the importance of being able to control my own schedule and time and not miss those important things,

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Speaker 1
that is what got me to realize.

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Speaker 1
Okay, it's time to time to leave and to take the risk. Worst case, at the time, I would just go back to selling insurance. You know, now I don't even have my insurance license anymore, so

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Speaker 1
I can't do that. But,

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Speaker 1
yeah, that was the thing that got it for me. You know, for some people, it's they miss their kids dance recital or they missed,

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Speaker 1
baseball game.

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Speaker 1
For me, it was. I missed, the eclipse, watching that with my family, having that memory. Instead, I have a memory of sitting in the parking lot with,

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Speaker 2
a

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Speaker 1
a bunch of coworkers that I never talked to anymore.

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Speaker 1
know, so it's

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Speaker 1
post disappointing, but I can look at it and say, hey,

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Speaker 1
that was a defining moment in my life.

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Speaker 1
And I think it's important

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Speaker 1
to appreciate those defining moments, even if they were difficult at the time.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
You know, what? If this fails? What if I don't have enough money? What if, what if what if what if? But you know, if I understand correctly, you're like, you know, screw this. I'm. I'm going all in. Right. And,

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Speaker 1
So what do you say to that person? Right. That's listening right now, that's

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Speaker 3
This is.

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Speaker 1
there's going to be those people I can speak to and there's others that I can't fully relate to. You know, I can't relate to the single mom of six that supports her family with,

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Speaker 1
an online business or is trying to,

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Speaker 1
because I've just never been there. I also had the advantage at the time of being young,

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Speaker 1
you know, I mean, whenever I quit, I mean, I'm still young, right?

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Speaker 1
I'm 34. But whenever I was,

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Speaker 1
getting into Amazon, I would have been 24.

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Speaker 1
And so, you know, I quit at 26 or so.

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Speaker 1
And there's definitely an advantage at that. I didn't have kids. But

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Speaker 1
here's the advice that I typically give to most people. And it was actually kind of what I followed at the time, which was if you're able to build a side hustle,

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Speaker 1
and you're doing it at 20 hours a week or ten hours a week, whatever it might be, if you can get it to where you're making, let's just say at 20 hours a week, you're making half your typical 9 to 5 income.

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Speaker 1
Well, the logic then would, you know, if you keep following that would actually be that if you were to leave your job and you were to work full time on the business, then you should grow it commensurate to how much you're working. Right? So,

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Speaker 1
let's say you go from 20 to 40 hours a week, then your, profits or your revenue should double if you continue doing the same things.

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Speaker 1
The issue that people run into, which is what I did right away, after I quit, was I try to do a lot of other things

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Speaker 1
and none of those things worked. Right. And what ended up actually working for me was doubling down on the thing that was working initially.

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Speaker 1
But that would be my suggestion.

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Speaker 1
So anybody that's sitting here that's listening to this, they're trying to decide if they want to, leave their feeling that stir, so to speak, to support their family.

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Speaker 1
Don't just leave your job to go do something.

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Speaker 1
You need to be smart about it.

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Speaker 1
But start, you know, tell your family. Hey, I need to sacrifice 5 or 10 hours a week, to focus on this. After you go to sleep or in the morning

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Speaker 1
or, you know, kind of a combination and work on that till you get it built to a,

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Speaker 1
level where you feel comfortable that if you were to leave your job and you were to focus 100% of your time and attention on it, that you'd be able to do that, I think that that's when it's safer.

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Speaker 1
Some people wait till it's 100% of their income. I waited till it was about 50% of my income for my,

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Speaker 1
you know, full time insurance job. And that's whenever I ended up walking away.

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Speaker 1
I mean that's that's gold right there. Right. That really gives a pretty solid framework for some people to to you know, aspire to, to hit, you know, some type of goal. Mark. Right. Because there's a lot of talk of you know,

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Speaker 1
what to do and so forth, but providing some type of goal mark, like this goal process moment where, you know, they reach in hopes of because, I mean, people need hope these days.

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Speaker 1
Right.

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Speaker 1
There's so much going on on social media and news and so forth. People need hope.

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Speaker 1
So to give them that hope, that glimmer of hope, like, oh, okay, here's the path to to to walk essentially to get to 50%, 60%, 80% or whatever that number is. Right? To me, and it's gold. I appreciate you sharing it because,

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Speaker 1
you know, that's that's definitely a good path for for folks to take.

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Speaker 1
mentioned that you did a number of things, right. There is a lesson that I, that I caught there, which I could relate to, and I think a lot of founders, builders, entrepreneurs can relate to this

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Speaker 1
the lack of focus. Right. They're spread too thin. What were some of the things that you were getting involved with and

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Speaker 1
what caused you to laser focus?

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Speaker 1
What was that moment?

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Speaker 1
Yeah. So whenever I left my job at the time, I was, fully reliant and dependent on Amazon.

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Speaker 1
As a seller to provide me income. And so I didn't like that because, as you know, and as I know, Amazon can suspend you. And now it's just as risky if not more than it was then, although there was a wave of suspensions that happened around that time, to people that I don't think deserved it or didn't do anything wrong.

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Speaker 1
So it was kind of a weird time, but,

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Speaker 1
I got worried about. Okay, I just left my job. And I'm only dependent on Amazon, and if they were to suspend me or something were to happen, and, I'm without any income. And so I decided to try other things. Some of it was working with local businesses, trying to, there is I don't know if you remember, local merch.

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Speaker 1
This is a

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Speaker 1
thing where you would, work with local businesses to try to, create merchandise for their local business that then they would sell and you get a percentage. I tried doing that for a little while.

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Speaker 1
Did more with wholesale. Try doing some private label stuff. I know there were a couple other things that I looked into, and I can't 100% remember at this point, but those were all distractions that I tried to do to get some extra traction.

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Speaker 1
And so for me, I realized after 2 or 3 months, okay, our business didn't grow like I expected it to. Whenever I'm full time in this, and I had to kind of do an audit of why.

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Speaker 1
And the reason was because I was too

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Speaker 1
distracted. And so I decided, all right, well, hey, you know, I left my dog and my, job to do the same as on think full time.

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Speaker 1
I should probably do it full time and just see how it goes.

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Speaker 1
Commit to it fully. Get a warehouse.

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Speaker 1
got a warehouse. Got a couple people working for us. I focused all my time, on sourcing products instead of having to do the prep and ship, which I hated doing. That

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Speaker 1
was one of the things that kept me from doing more.

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Speaker 1
And so that is what helped me is actually being fully, doubled down and focused on the one thing now, as I've grown, in my businesses in different ways, I've added multiple streams of income. But you can't do that.

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Speaker 1
Personally, I don't think you can do that until you have one that's solid that you've actually done well with, and then you can branch out from there.

00:17:47:21 - 00:18:04:13
Speaker 1
You don't want to go from selling on Amazon to trying to do real estate and then also doing crypto. You want to do selling on Amazon to maybe writing a book on Amazon or doing wholesale on Amazon, or doing a private label product, or doing a different e-commerce platform like Walmart or Shopify or Mercari or something else. Right?

00:18:04:17 - 00:18:05:03
Speaker 1
So,

00:18:05:07 - 00:18:14:12
Speaker 1
you can do it in a logical way. And that's part of what I, you know, like to talk about a lot now. But, yeah. So that's kind of the problem that I ran up against.

00:18:14:17 - 00:18:35:19
Speaker 1
Man thanks for sharing it Matt. I, I personally can relate it just about everything you just said and sense of you know spread yourself too thin right in. I there's a phrase I heard several years ago I don't remember where I came from, not really relevant, but you know, basically it boiled down to millionaires didn't

00:18:35:20 - 00:18:38:15
Speaker 1
get millionaires because they were spread thin, right?

00:18:38:15 - 00:18:49:16
Speaker 1
Because of multiple, multiple streams of income. They became millionaires because they were laser focused on that one thing. You know, once that one thing was bolted down, then, you know, they were able

00:18:49:19 - 00:18:59:13
Speaker 1
to expand more often times in the same vertical rate. Or, you know, that was an alignment of whatever it is that they were doing that was complimentary, right?

00:18:59:15 - 00:19:12:07
Speaker 1
You know, for example, if you're a became a millionaire by starting a car wash or, you know, having a car wash, you don't go off and say hello.

00:19:12:09 - 00:19:14:23
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:19:15:01 - 00:19:27:19
Speaker 1
Sure. That would be edited out. Maybe, I don't know. But, you know, if if the guy who became a millionaire by starting a car wash, he's not going to go off and start, you know, a bank or,

00:19:27:21 - 00:19:35:23
Speaker 1
you know, whatever new hot new thing or agency or something of that nature. Right? It's typically, you know, complementary using the already the skill sets.

00:19:35:23 - 00:19:50:17
Speaker 1
They curated perfected in their craft. You know, so yeah, appreciate sharing it. Let me jump into, into an area that I think hits a lot of high achievers

00:19:50:19 - 00:19:53:20
Speaker 1
in, in the sense of like an identity

00:19:53:22 - 00:20:04:19
Speaker 1
crisis, if you will. And I hate the work. We're crisis. But you listed that, you know, idea is tied to success. And I mean, I think a lot of people can resonate with

00:20:04:19 - 00:20:13:01
Speaker 1
this as as far as being it, the biggest challenge or one of the biggest challenges when you finally quit the job to go full time.

00:20:13:01 - 00:20:19:20
Speaker 1
Did did the excite that you handed that ever go away or did this? Did it just change shape for you?

00:20:19:20 - 00:20:38:19
Speaker 1
That's a good question. You know, I haven't really thought about that too much in terms of the anxiety that I had. Because it's hard for me to tap back into, you know, 10 or 8 years ago. I would say the anxiety has changed and morphed over time. So I have both a, and earned confidence and knowing that I can make

00:20:38:21 - 00:20:44:00
Speaker 1
money, doing just about, you know, doing a lot of different things either online or in person.

00:20:44:04 - 00:20:51:15
Speaker 1
I have confidence in myself because I've been doing this for eight years. However, the anxiety of, it going away or,

00:20:51:21 - 00:21:04:01
Speaker 1
you know, economic and political changes happening that could hurt my business or, Amazon making some sweeping change, to, you know, ultimately hurt some of the people that I helped train and work with.

00:21:04:06 - 00:21:13:09
Speaker 1
You know, those types of things are still there. You know, one of the things that I probably struggle with the most is some anxiety over that, which causes me to work harder

00:21:13:12 - 00:21:25:19
Speaker 1
in some ways. But, you know, also is a detriment because you can't, work with a clear head if you're anxious about things. So, you know, there's there's that constant struggle and battle of not wanting,

00:21:25:21 - 00:21:29:14
Speaker 1
the things you're comfortable with to change or go away.

00:21:29:16 - 00:21:45:07
Speaker 1
Let's just put it that way. And, you know, I think if I look at it just, you're the initial question that you had, trying to remember exactly what that was, about. No, I'm for now. I'm blanking on it, not just the anxiety. What was the initial question that you

00:21:45:07 - 00:21:59:07
Speaker 1
The initial question was when you left that security. Right. The security. We'll get to this in a second because I know you're itching to talk about this other part, but this perceived security of the insurance job that you had when you left

00:21:59:09 - 00:22:06:16
Speaker 1
that right. Did that anxiety go away when you left that chapter that season, or did it just change shape?

00:22:06:16 - 00:22:26:00
Speaker 1
Yeah. It's definitely changed shape. So I mean, it's gone away at the time, whenever I left, I was worried if I could even make it work. And, and now it's not. Can I make it work? It's, you know, will something change on me? Right. There's this fear of the unknown. I know I can make things work, you know, but you take bigger and bigger risks as you get bigger and bigger

00:22:26:00 - 00:22:26:11
Speaker 1
into business.

00:22:26:11 - 00:22:39:19
Speaker 1
Whether you're buying more inventory or you take out a loan or you're putting yourself out there more, in the public eye. And so now people can, make fun of your hair or something like that. And, you know, these types of things just create new anxieties.

00:22:39:21 - 00:22:52:04
Speaker 1
And ultimately, I think the other question that you had, I remembered was, just the, kind of the viewpoint of wanting to always hold up that allure of being successful, kind of a deal.

00:22:52:04 - 00:23:03:21
Speaker 1
Right? That other people view me, and I get value, or I'm only valuable if I'm successful. That is something that I do struggle with is what if I made a business mistake and something goes

00:23:04:00 - 00:23:13:00
Speaker 1
south and now everybody doesn't like me? You know, I think that those are questions to have. Or what if things. This is a different side of the coin that I haven't struggled with.

00:23:13:00 - 00:23:16:17
Speaker 1
But what if things go really well and I get really successful and then my friends

00:23:16:17 - 00:23:20:08
Speaker 1
don't like me, you know, or something like that. So there's,

00:23:20:10 - 00:23:31:16
Speaker 1
there's always going to be something internal that you're battling with. It can be failure or it can be the fear of success. It can be anxiety or depression, whatever. These are hard things to deal with, and it's always going to be different.

00:23:31:16 - 00:23:40:00
Speaker 1
There is no protocol to say as an entrepreneur, go do this x, y, and Z and you're going to avoid all these internal battles. No. I mean, you can

00:23:40:03 - 00:23:52:00
Speaker 1
go and do the exact same process as somebody else, but the reason you fail is because of your internal struggles and the reason somebody else succeeds, maybe because of their internal, you know, just ability to push

00:23:52:02 - 00:23:54:11
Speaker 1
through or their ability to have joy in every season.

00:23:54:11 - 00:25:36:23
Speaker 1
So, I know this isn't probably as directionally helpful, the but it is something to keep in mind that everyone deals with these things. The words that you say to yourself, the people you surround yourself with, do determine, how you will succeed. And, you know, I think that that's an important thing to know.

00:25:37:01 - 00:25:57:03
Speaker 1
So there's an element of a 9 to 5 that feels safe because you're not always responsible unless you're a salesperson. You're not always responsible for your income. So it kind of, subsidizes your your life. In some ways, it's. You go to this job, you enter numbers into a spreadsheet, you get your check or you go to this job and you serve people food and you get your check.

00:25:57:03 - 00:26:11:21
Speaker 1
And yeah, there's health insurance and there's other benefits that come with that and that feels secure. However, I think that there's a, an inherent understanding, especially ever since the, you know, 2020 Covid and people getting furloughed and losing their jobs. People understand more

00:26:11:21 - 00:26:20:10
Speaker 1
than ever, at least in our current era, that jobs are fragile and you can lose them at the drop of a hat, so to speak.

00:26:20:11 - 00:26:35:21
Speaker 1
And so to me, I appreciate as an entrepreneur or somebody that at least has side hustles, even if you have a job and you have a side hustle, having that gives you some more security, because if you lost your job, you've already got income stable, a little bit stable. Or

00:26:35:23 - 00:26:45:09
Speaker 1
if you are in a particular role where you start seeing the tides shift a little bit, you start to see that, okay, Amazon is not working as well as it used to.

00:26:45:09 - 00:27:04:05
Speaker 1
Or, you know, maybe it's harder for me to get a supplier like my supplier raised prices and it's no longer a profitable item. And so now my income's going to go down because of that. Well, you can see these things early on. You don't typically just wake up. And that income stream is completely turned off for you usually now there's always that risk.

00:27:04:05 - 00:27:15:04
Speaker 1
In any business, even if you're a regular business, you could be an accountant and have a chargeback or two. And then your merchant processor shuts off your account and you can't process payments. I mean, there's risk in entrepreneurship, but,

00:27:15:09 - 00:27:24:00
Speaker 1
ultimately you've typically got a good runway of being able to see, all right, this is changing or this is, going down.

00:27:24:00 - 00:27:38:19
Speaker 1
It's not working as well. And so I'm going to add another stream of income. I'm going to switch how I do things so that then I have another, opportunity to to change it up. If you're a contractor and some, you know, big contracting firm moves into town or something and starts

00:27:38:21 - 00:27:44:04
Speaker 1
taking on your work, well, maybe you have another opportunity to change up how your business operates.

00:27:44:06 - 00:28:09:17
Speaker 1
There's there's so much to it. I think that you've got an ability to pivot where with a job you do not, with entrepreneurship, you have the ability to double, triple, quadruple your income, in a year with, business or with, being an employee, you do not, and you're just a number, especially at, if you're working with any kind of big company, you know, and Orlando Disney is one of those big companies here.

00:28:09:21 - 00:28:18:09
Speaker 1
Everyone. There's just a number. And it's so much just a number that they have a points based system. And, you know, if you hit so many points, you get fired. And those

00:28:18:11 - 00:28:41:08
Speaker 1
points are, you know, they don't care about what you're going through. Typically. And, you know, that's going to be one thing that just happens because you're so large, they have to make those cuts, or you're working at Amazon, and Amazon needs to be beholden to their shareholders, and they need to save 1% or one point on their stock pricing and stuff, like they just cut 30,000 jobs bill.

00:28:41:09 - 00:28:42:09
Speaker 1
That would be one reason,

00:28:42:11 - 00:29:02:19
Speaker 1
right? So being an entrepreneurship, or being an entrepreneur, gives you that ability to pivot, gives you the ability to grow much faster than in anything else. The best investment typically anyone can make is in a successful business that they're operating. Now, you can also fail, and that is a reality where with employment, you can't really fail unless you don't show up.

00:29:03:01 - 00:29:19:11
Speaker 1
But you don't have control over your, decisions, like you do in entrepreneurship.

00:29:19:13 - 00:29:26:23
Speaker 3
This is.

00:29:27:01 - 00:30:18:15
Speaker 3
This is.

00:30:18:17 - 00:30:34:23
Speaker 3
This is. Yeah.

00:30:35:01 - 00:30:37:04
Speaker 1
This.

00:30:37:06 - 00:30:58:04
Speaker 1
I think with that, you know, there's there's the reality of life too. Sometimes you just having your own business would be too hard to get going. Because of your situation. You've got you got mouths to feed. And so having a job is totally fine. And I'm not somebody, you know, you may have heard this before, Carl, and I, you know, people saying, oh, I've

00:30:58:06 - 00:31:00:13
Speaker 1
been an entrepreneur for so long, I'm unemployable.

00:31:00:18 - 00:31:12:06
Speaker 1
I do not believe that I'm unemployable. I think I'd be a great employee. And I would be open to doing that if that was what was required to feed my family. The goal, though, the hope is that I don't need to do that.

00:31:12:08 - 00:31:16:07
Speaker 1
And that I've got so much of a runway and so many different opportunities.

00:31:16:07 - 00:31:35:11
Speaker 1
I mean, the opportunities online and even in person have gotten tremendously larger over the last ten years. In my opinion, to make money in so many different ways that there's some, so many opportunities to pivot. That's why I have over, I think, 15 different streams of income at this point, is because I can pivot if I need to.

00:31:35:11 - 00:31:38:06
Speaker 1
I be able to be able to add them in over the last ten years. And

00:31:38:06 - 00:31:53:11
Speaker 1
so if one fell down, some of the others support. Now, if I had a huge one fall down and, you know, it just went away tomorrow, the others wouldn't support my lifestyle the way that I have it now, but it would be at least a softer landing than if I had a job.

00:31:53:11 - 00:31:58:06
Speaker 1
And they just cut me loose, and then you're left with nothing. And so that's kind of how I view

00:31:58:06 - 00:32:53:20
Speaker 1
Yeah. That's an excellent point man. Appreciate you making that.

00:32:53:22 - 00:32:55:11
Speaker 3
It's just.

00:32:55:13 - 00:33:16:22
Speaker 1
So, yeah, there's actually some, I don't know if it's scientific, but there's definitely literature to back this up. There is a point, where, I believe it's roughly $80,000 per year in the U.S that, that makes a huge difference in lifestyle and happiness. And that's because it can help pay for groceries. You can get, you know, good health insurance.

00:33:16:22 - 00:33:19:11
Speaker 1
You can typically go on a trip, and you

00:33:19:13 - 00:33:34:00
Speaker 1
can pay for your pills and kind of be a middle class or upper middle class level. I think that that is an important goal, typically 80 to $100,000 in profit, or revenue that you're, you're able to pay, your own personal expenses from. That's usually at that point.

00:33:34:03 - 00:33:35:13
Speaker 1
Now, beyond that point, it's kind

00:33:35:13 - 00:33:57:15
Speaker 1
of a law of diminishing returns, whether you make $30,000 per month, out of profit, or you make $1 million per month in profit, really, your happiness level doesn't change a ton. It's just more stuff you buy. And so I do think that there is a point that, you know, you're going to be a lot happier if you can make X number of dollars.

00:33:57:17 - 00:34:02:01
Speaker 1
I would say that's roughly 80 to $100,000 a year. And then

00:34:02:01 - 00:34:18:01
Speaker 1
after that point it becomes, more just personal goals and challenges to try to grow, try to maybe get ahead just in case things were to fall back behind. And so I would say at that point, it's you need to be cognizant of kind of where your heart

00:34:18:01 - 00:34:22:11
Speaker 1
is, is your heart, and only the money is your heart and only the success.

00:34:22:13 - 00:34:41:13
Speaker 1
Or are you trying to use that for bigger goals, things that actually drive you forward and, improve the world in different ways? You know, I think that I have more of a heart for impact and community than I do for trying to make as much money as I possibly can. And that could be kind of a downfall in some ways.

00:34:41:13 - 00:34:45:01
Speaker 1
And it can also be a benefit the more you can impact people. A lot of times the

00:34:45:01 - 00:35:00:20
Speaker 1
more money you can make. But obviously there's a trade off. You can't just give away everything for free and impact a bunch of people and then make $0 for your time and effort. So there's always that tradeoff. But I don't know if that answered your question, but I do think that there is a real reality, and you can look up the the news and

00:35:01:01 - 00:35:01:20
Speaker 1
literature about it.

00:35:01:23 - 00:35:25:06
Speaker 1
It used to be about 70 to $75,000 a year. With inflation. It's up over 80 now. And obviously it'll be different on different regions of the country, whether you're in California or you're in, you know, Missouri. And so, you know, there is a number and once you get over that number, it starts to diminish how much it actually impacts your life.

00:35:25:08 - 00:35:26:11
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly.

00:35:26:13 - 00:35:28:01
Speaker 1
Exactly.

00:35:28:03 - 00:35:34:02
Speaker 3
Yeah. This is,

00:35:34:03 - 00:35:41:11
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:35:41:13 - 00:35:42:23
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:35:43:01 - 00:37:01:22
Speaker 1
All right. This is.

00:37:02:00 - 00:37:19:15
Speaker 1
Yeah. You know, somebody is working 80 or 90 hours a week and they haven't started to outsource certain things. There's probably a couple things going on with that. One is they're either charging not enough money for their time, and what they're doing is just not not working. So that they don't even have the money to be able to pay for somebody that's a risk that you have.

00:37:19:18 - 00:37:35:09
Speaker 1
But another issue a lot of times is that and I've run up against this where I think that I can do, my business better than anybody else. And so I can't hire somebody to make this decision, when in reality it's kind of kind of doesn't make sense because I learned it. I'm sure somebody else can learn it.

00:37:35:09 - 00:37:38:11
Speaker 1
It's not like I that completely invented something new. And it only came

00:37:38:13 - 00:37:55:15
Speaker 1
from my brain. And that you have to continue to invent, like and if that was the case, then all the other things underneath that invention, like you can outsource all of that, but you would be, the person in charge of inventing new things. But anyway, so whenever you look at this, I would just say, okay, look at your time.

00:37:55:15 - 00:38:02:21
Speaker 1
Look at what you believe your time is worth. A lot of, businesses have, multiple things that they're doing that are probably 15

00:38:03:01 - 00:38:15:18
Speaker 1
to $25 an hour jobs. Or if it's admin online, it could be 5 to $6 an hour if you can hire, virtual assistant in the Philippines or something. And so is your time worth $15 to do this?

00:38:15:18 - 00:38:40:02
Speaker 1
One task for me, that was prep and ship and, the Amazon business, you know, I was doing prep and ship for 20 hours a week whenever I had quit my job. And I looked at that, I'm like, well, I can source new products and I could make $75 an hour. Why don't I just pay somebody 15 to $20 an hour, and then I can go to the $70 an hour task, and then eventually I was able to outsource that so that then I can focus on other things as well.

00:38:40:02 - 00:38:43:22
Speaker 1
I could outsource the sourcing. It comes down to how do you value your time and

00:38:44:01 - 00:39:01:22
Speaker 1
if it really is a math equation, right. If you are a plumber, then you can hire another plumber, a junior plumber or an associate or something to do it for $50,000 a year. And you can go grow your business by another 70 or $100,000, because now you're better at selling than you are at plumbing.

00:39:02:00 - 00:39:08:13
Speaker 1
Then you know, these things, they add up. It's a true, you know, you've got to take a little bit of risk upfront

00:39:08:14 - 00:39:18:15
Speaker 1
to train somebody. And it doesn't always work out. Sometimes people leave, or they'll take your ideas and they'll go try to start their own business. But if you're always worried about that, you'll never grow anyway.

00:39:18:17 - 00:39:39:05
Speaker 1
You know, I recently hired two more, people. They're in the Philippines, but I took that risk. You know, I was looking at my numbers, and I'm like, I don't know if I can fully afford this, but I talk a big game that, hey, if my time is worth, you know, the, more than 7 or $8 an hour, then I should be able to, you know, divert my attention.

00:39:39:05 - 00:39:49:08
Speaker 1
And it it's worked. It's worked out so far. Right? And, it's scary even even if it's 5 to $7 an hour or somebody you're hiring in the Philippines, like, it still feels like an expense that you don't want to

00:39:49:13 - 00:39:57:11
Speaker 1
spend, because maybe this business is kind of tight and it's got a, you know, it's not as profitable as you want, but the only way for it to grow.

00:39:57:16 - 00:40:13:14
Speaker 1
And the other thing that I also think about, it's not just the only way for it to grow, but is my time with my family worth $6 an hour? Absolutely. You know, I would definitely, you know, I'd spend way more than that to have an extra hour with my family. And so, you know, you've got to look at that.

00:40:13:14 - 00:40:14:13
Speaker 1
You still have to be smart.

00:40:14:14 - 00:40:31:08
Speaker 1
You know, if you have $0 or you're negative, you can't just go spending a bunch of money to try to outsource everything. But, you know, you can do it in a slow and controlled way. Outsource the lowest value tasks first, the most repetitive tasks first. And then you start focusing your own time on higher value things.

00:40:31:10 - 00:40:47:12
Speaker 1
And that's usually the way that I recommend it. Now systems and all of that's a whole different thing now. But with AI you can build systems fairly easily. And, it's that's changed the game over the last 3 or 4 years.

00:40:47:14 - 00:41:25:21
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:41:25:23 - 00:41:47:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, the chances are definitely minimal. I think there's other things that go into that thought that, should be addressed. One that sounds like a lack of confidence in yourself to actually compete. You don't have confidence that, you can actually continue to win at a high level. If you were to train somebody to do something, I would look at that first.

00:41:47:07 - 00:41:51:19
Speaker 1
Yes. You know, most likely you're not going to have an employee, somebody that has that mindset of

00:41:51:20 - 00:42:08:18
Speaker 1
an employee that would end up leaving to start their own thing, especially if you bring them in and you show them all these things that you have to deal with, and you're trying to train them on 5 or 10 of them, and they're going to say, I don't want to do the other 95 things that you're dealing with, like, I'm just going to do my thing and get my paycheck right.

00:42:08:18 - 00:42:09:07
Speaker 1
The majority

00:42:09:09 - 00:42:26:05
Speaker 1
of people think in terms of, how do I just get my money so that I can, you know, have my Monday through Friday and then on the weekends I can do whatever I want. And so that's usually the case. But yeah, if you're worried about that. Yeah, I think there's a couple other things. So it's not just that you're worried about it.

00:42:26:05 - 00:42:38:17
Speaker 1
You probably don't have enough confidence in yourself. It's also you don't, believe in the fact that the market's big enough. Now, as somebody who has trained thousands of people to replicate my

00:42:38:19 - 00:42:49:16
Speaker 1
business, selling on Amazon, the market's big enough. Okay, I can I can guarantee that there was a fear that I had whenever I first did that course was that, hey, I'm going to do this, and people are going to just saturate it.

00:42:49:16 - 00:42:56:07
Speaker 1
It's gotten harder. But it is not because of me that it's gotten harder. It's not because everybody's doing this now, and it's so much

00:42:56:08 - 00:43:07:11
Speaker 1
harder. It's, you know, because the platform has changed a little bit. So that has gotten a little bit more difficult. But yeah, the opportunity is still there. People that are succeeding at a high level on Amazon are succeeding at a higher level.

00:43:07:11 - 00:43:25:19
Speaker 1
Now it's just a little bit harder to start. So if anything, I'm in a better position now than I was, you know, 7 or 8 years ago. And so there's, there's those considerations too, is it's even if they were competing, more eyeballs on a thing, raises the eyeballs on your own business. So that's why you see a McDonald's and a Burger King

00:43:25:20 - 00:43:31:19
Speaker 1
on the same exact corner, or CVS and Walgreens, you know, or a Starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts are always right around each other.

00:43:31:19 - 00:43:43:07
Speaker 1
That's why there's a whole row of car dealerships. It's because the attention that multiple different businesses bring to one location or one business, allows for good competition, but also brings out an awareness that

00:43:43:09 - 00:43:54:18
Speaker 1
more people are going to end up, purchasing from that. And so then it's just being a savvy business owner, you know, if you're just letting them crush you, competition crush you, then you're going to be dealing with that anyway.

00:43:54:20 - 00:44:08:14
Speaker 1
You know, that's never that's always a concern. But to train somebody and then they run off and do the same thing, you're going to be upset about it, but you still have to have some belief in yourself. So.

00:44:08:15 - 00:44:56:20
Speaker 1
That's.

00:44:56:22 - 00:45:15:11
Speaker 1
Yeah. So, there's a couple extra questions that I would want to ask that person, for things that they like to do, the type of business they want to run. I could tell them easily to say, hey, go and start an Amazon business or an eBay business where you're buying products and you're reselling them, at a higher markup.

00:45:15:16 - 00:45:17:13
Speaker 1
However, that business model is

00:45:17:13 - 00:45:31:13
Speaker 1
not what everybody wants. In some cases, it may be better to start a service business if you've got a particular skill and you know you're good at fix and stuff up, you can start a handyman service. You could go power wash, you know, garbage bins. I see that people sign

00:45:31:14 - 00:45:33:06
Speaker 1
up 20, 30 bucks a month for that.

00:45:33:06 - 00:45:55:07
Speaker 1
Right. You can do all kinds of things. So I have more questions about that. The easiest thing if somebody has gotten $0 is to go around their house, sell some stuff on eBay or Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, get some of that capital, and then start doing more of that. But the quickest path to getting money, in your bank account, it's going to be a

00:45:55:13 - 00:46:06:23
Speaker 1
service based business, where you are essentially selling, you know, you house painting or doing power washing or something like that, where you can not have to buy any inventory upfront.

00:46:07:01 - 00:46:09:11
Speaker 1
So it just really depends on your level. If you've got

00:46:09:13 - 00:46:39:14
Speaker 1
$50,000 and you're trying to figure out how to invest it, well, then maybe a little bit different. Let's look at building a brand. And, you know, actually creating something that has a long term sellable, aspect to it. But there's so many ways to make money at this point, that I've got multiple different, avenues that I would recommend to anybody, depending on their skill sets, what they're interested in doing and how they want to live and work their lives.

00:46:39:15 - 00:46:48:08
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:46:48:10 - 00:46:48:13
Speaker 3
This

00:46:48:14 - 00:47:00:01
Speaker 3
is. Yeah.

00:47:00:03 - 00:47:19:02
Speaker 3
This is.

00:47:19:04 - 00:47:40:21
Speaker 1
would actually say it's the same exact definition for me in every season, which is doing what I have to do, every single day. No matter whether I feel like it or not. And so that to me is grit, actually getting up, being responsible, doing the, you know, 3 to 5 things that I want to or need to that day to move my business and life forward.

00:47:40:23 - 00:48:02:03
Speaker 1
You know, we've talked about things before, like the power list for Mandy, for seller and those types of things. That's basically grit to me. And that would apply to everyone. Whether you have six kids and you're a stay at home mom or you're single or you know, you're married with no kids like myself. You know, it's a situation where you can at least apply that to your life.

00:48:02:03 - 00:48:22:18
Speaker 1
So it's okay, I have to do these X amount of things per day, and whether I want to or not, I'm going to do my best to do that more days than I don't. And so that's the whole goal. So that's my definition of grit.

00:48:22:20 - 00:48:28:18
Speaker 3
This is.

00:48:28:20 - 00:49:26:08
Speaker 3
This is this.

00:49:26:10 - 00:49:41:21
Speaker 1
It's a good question. You know, there's probably a few things, some of them are business related in terms of administrative things that, you know, I always felt like I had to stay in control of my email. And I finally have gotten that kind of off loaded. But, you know, as an

00:49:42:01 - 00:49:50:16
Speaker 1
online entrepreneur, it's easy to become isolated, even if you're speaking to people on zoom all the time, which I do.

00:49:50:18 - 00:49:54:09
Speaker 1
And so for me, I'm trying to be a little bit more intentional about building local

00:49:54:13 - 00:50:09:15
Speaker 1
community. You know, I moved to Florida a couple years ago, and, you know, I've made some friends here there. But, I'm focusing more on that. And so kind of removing myself from some of the business operations so that then I can focus on the local community.

00:50:09:15 - 00:50:16:01
Speaker 1
I would say that's more of an add in than a removal of things, but it is. I had to remove administrative tasks. I had to remove

00:50:16:04 - 00:50:25:17
Speaker 1
things that were on my plate for, you know, 4 to 5 hours, you know, every day or two. So that way I have time to be able to, build those relationships.

00:50:25:17 - 00:50:29:01
Speaker 1
So, yeah, I would say that would probably be it. I've. I've

00:50:29:01 - 00:50:46:07
Speaker 1
been pretty good for years about staying on a typical workout schedule and eating certain types of foods and all of that. So I've gone through those processes of how do I remove bad foods from my life and have, you know, 80% of my food be good stuff.

00:50:46:09 - 00:50:52:11
Speaker 1
So I've gone through all of those different stages, and at this point it's about, just trying to maximize my time,

00:50:52:13 - 00:51:24:23
Speaker 1
and build community and then hopefully be able to set myself up to, if we're blessed with children in the future, being able to be present for that. So I don't know if that answers the question fully or not, but, yeah.

00:51:25:01 - 00:51:42:21
Speaker 1
To keep moving forward, maybe a little bit differently, I would say for me, the, there is a scripture, that comes to mind is a couple of them, obviously. But yeah, as a Christian, you know, that's impactful for me, the one that's been on my phone for the last two years as my like, home screen,

00:51:42:21 - 00:51:48:08
Speaker 1
is, Psalm 3414, which is seek peace and pursue it.

00:51:48:10 - 00:51:55:21
Speaker 1
And for me, it's not just about, oh, I want to have a peaceful life. It's, that is an active, directive

00:51:55:21 - 00:52:11:10
Speaker 1
for us. You seek it and you pursue it. So it's not just seek it, it's also pursue it. Like, there's so much that goes into trying to have a peace filled life. And we are surrounded by so much, in the world that tries to distract us from that.

00:52:11:12 - 00:52:17:15
Speaker 1
Our lives, are on our phones a lot of times on our computers. And,

00:52:17:21 - 00:52:31:09
Speaker 1
the very intention of social media a lot of times now is to distract. And, that causes an internal turmoil. And so as much as you can, trying to control that, and

00:52:31:11 - 00:52:39:00
Speaker 1
intentionally pursue peace filled things, which for me could be reading my Bible, could be spending time with family.

00:52:39:02 - 00:52:54:07
Speaker 1
Friends, etc. another one that, always comes to mind for me in terms of Bible verse is, I don't have the first written down, but I resolve to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. And that for me, is just a reminder that.

00:52:54:09 - 00:52:56:05
Speaker 3
You see.

00:52:56:07 - 00:53:08:02
Speaker 1
The main goal for me is to know that, Christ and him crucified everything else that I have that feels like it props me up is just an illusion. Security.

00:53:08:07 - 00:53:09:21
Speaker 1
And,

00:53:09:21 - 00:53:22:14
Speaker 1
it really is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. And so I need to remember kind of the order of importance that if I knew nothing else but Christ and Him crucified, then I would be good.

00:53:22:16 - 00:53:23:12
Speaker 1
All right, if that's

00:53:23:12 - 00:53:25:09
Speaker 1
all that I knew. But I know other things.

00:53:25:09 - 00:53:29:15
Speaker 1
But that has to be subservient to to that main, capstone,

00:53:29:15 - 00:54:01:07
Speaker 1
so to speak.

00:54:01:09 - 00:54:02:19
Speaker 1
From a business standpoint,

00:54:02:20 - 00:54:15:08
Speaker 1
like failures in business.

00:54:15:09 - 00:54:19:19
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:54:19:21 - 00:54:37:11
Speaker 1
Absolutely. You know, I mean, I've been divorced before, so that would be one, you know, that takes a couple of years to, to work through. You know, so that would be one that, held held me back for a little while. In terms of, you know, business, I've made some bad real estate deals, and, you know, it cost me a bunch of money, before.

00:54:37:11 - 00:54:38:07
Speaker 1
And I've

00:54:38:07 - 00:54:50:07
Speaker 1
invested into programs that at this point, let's see, it's been I've gotten the money back for probably half of this, but over $100,000 of scam courses, because as somebody that, teaches and

00:54:50:07 - 00:55:01:17
Speaker 1
sells courses and content and whatnot, I am also a consumer. I'm probably one of the easiest sells for a course person because I'm interested in kind of how they teach and how they sell and all these things.

00:55:01:20 - 00:55:13:00
Speaker 1
And there's because of the industry, I've fallen prey to a bunch of, mistakes. So personally would be, you know, having to work through kind of the, the difficulties of, of the divorce

00:55:13:02 - 00:55:25:07
Speaker 1
and kind of my identity being tied up in a relationship that was no longer, you know, there. And then also with business stuff, just making mistakes that cost me a bunch of money that I could have put towards other things, but

00:55:25:12 - 00:55:26:06
Speaker 1
they weren't mistakes.

00:55:26:07 - 00:55:27:13
Speaker 1
You know, I've learned and,

00:55:27:19 - 00:55:29:05
Speaker 1
you grow from that.

00:55:29:10 - 00:55:39:00
Speaker 1
But, you know, the great thing is that there's other things that I've made a lot of money from that I did buy that were good courses. And, you know, one of them was the Amazon one, right

00:55:39:02 - 00:55:40:01
Speaker 1
back in 2015.

00:55:40:07 - 00:56:20:08
Speaker 1
So, you know, these types of things you work through and, those mistakes happen.

00:56:20:10 - 00:56:29:09
Speaker 3
Just.

00:56:29:11 - 00:56:36:06
Speaker 1
Let me ask because this could be considered a cop out. Does the Bible count?

00:56:36:08 - 00:56:44:20
Speaker 1
Okay. Okay. Well, then, if that does count, I'll, I'll try to give you two answers, because I know a lot of it's like the Sunday school answer. Of course, the answer

00:56:44:20 - 00:56:46:05
Speaker 1
is Jesus. Right. And

00:56:46:08 - 00:56:48:20
Speaker 1
so, in this case, the Bible.

00:56:48:21 - 00:57:02:20
Speaker 1
You know why? Because I think that that is, if you really look at life, I think the most important question you have to ask and answer and try to answer is what happens at the end of it? And where do you go and what do you believe about it? If you don't have an answer to that question, then a lot

00:57:02:21 - 00:57:03:23
Speaker 1
of this stuff is meaningless.

00:57:04:03 - 00:57:12:20
Speaker 1
And my opinion and for me, where I found that answer is through Jesus and, through my faith, now, that's something that I didn't always have.

00:57:12:23 - 00:57:26:19
Speaker 1
I grew up in the Christian church. I looked at the Bible as a textbook because it was another class that I had. And so in only in, building my relationship by reading through it fully, knowing what I even agreed to is a Christian, right?

00:57:26:19 - 00:57:29:15
Speaker 1
A lot of Christians are out there. 70% never read the Bible.

00:57:29:17 - 00:57:30:15
Speaker 1
They've essentially

00:57:30:15 - 00:57:44:05
Speaker 1
signed up a signed a contract that they don't know what's in the book. And so I'm not judging because I've been there. But it's so important to read that if you say you are a believer and even if you don't, why do so many people, around the world, die for this thing?

00:57:44:09 - 00:57:44:19
Speaker 1
And I

00:57:44:19 - 00:57:46:09
Speaker 1
think that's also an important,

00:57:46:10 - 00:57:58:02
Speaker 1
question to, to ask and to try to answer, even if you disagree with it. Totally. Fine. And so for me, it's impactful. There's more in the Bible about money and business than there are about a lot of other topics like love,

00:57:58:03 - 00:57:59:20
Speaker 1
and, you know, so

00:57:59:22 - 00:58:06:16
Speaker 1
looking at that would be another reason that in terms of impactful books, I've got I'm looking back on my, little shelf back

00:58:06:19 - 00:58:08:08
Speaker 1
here trying to think what would be

00:58:08:09 - 00:58:20:22
Speaker 1
the one, Evangel Preneur by Josh Tolley was a book that, significantly impacted me about the importance of being a, an entrepreneur, while especially if you're

00:58:20:22 - 00:58:25:05
Speaker 1
a believer. And the reason is because, most,

00:58:25:08 - 00:58:35:08
Speaker 1
couples in today's world, they leave for the majority of their day to go work at a job that they don't, that they put their best foot forward on. And then they come home and they have like 25 minutes

00:58:35:10 - 00:58:39:18
Speaker 1
to spend with one another, and they're usually angry and upset about their day.

00:58:39:21 - 00:58:52:03
Speaker 1
And it's just not good. And so I really would say that impacted me quite a lot. Additionally, let's see, there is let's, let's look for another business book that I have to think

00:58:52:06 - 00:58:54:06
Speaker 1
of.

00:58:54:08 - 00:59:11:08
Speaker 1
I really did like the Four Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss for its principles more than its actual application. It's, it's very difficult to work for four hours unless you're extremely wealthy, but, I like the principles behind it, which is what we talked about today

00:59:11:10 - 00:59:12:06
Speaker 1
on systems.

00:59:12:06 - 00:59:33:19
Speaker 1
So, and outsourcing. And then my question, for the next entrepreneur. And that's a tough one. I, I'm going to have to think about that a little bit. I think. But, my question would probably be tailored to whoever that is, but if it's anonymous,

00:59:33:21 - 00:59:43:19
Speaker 1
I think the question would be if you had to start over today from everything that you're doing, what would you do if you had to start over?

00:59:43:19 - 00:59:53:22
Speaker 1
Would you do the same exact thing, or would it be something completely different? Because opportunity and landscape always changes.

00:59:54:00 - 01:00:43:04
Speaker 1
Okay, awesome. Awesome.

01:00:43:06 - 01:00:58:16
Speaker 1
Yeah. So, you can find me online pretty much at any, social media network at Ask Jimmy Smith. You can also go to Ask Jimmy smith.com. You know, a lot of the stuff that I talk about is Amazon related, but also business related to. And I'm expanding that stuff as

01:00:58:17 - 01:01:02:11
Speaker 1
well. If you're on LinkedIn, it would be a different handle, but that's at my website.

01:01:02:11 - 01:01:18:05
Speaker 1
So you can go to Jimmy or ask Jimmy Centcom to, to find that LinkedIn. Link.

01:01:18:07 - 01:01:20:21
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thank you for having me, Carlos. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

01:01:20:21 - 01:01:21:05
Speaker 2
Awesome.

01:01:21:10 - 01:01:48:19
Speaker 1
We don't grow by just listening. We grow by doing. The gap between average and excellence. It's just action. Even imperfect action. My challenge you to be simple. Just take one specific tool or insight from this conversation. Maybe it's all in your time, or finally hiring that VA and use it in the next 24 hours. Do not wait to feel ready.

01:01:48:21 - 01:02:19:16
Speaker 1
Action creates the feeling and remember you are one decision, one habit, and one moment of grit away from a completely different life. But you cannot build a life of substance alone. If this episode adds value to your life, please do the unseen work of a leader and share it. Texas. Link to one friend or a team member who needs to hear this message today.

01:02:19:18 - 01:02:25:20
Speaker 1
Be the catalyst for growth. I believe in you and I'll see you for the next rep. Let's get after it.