How Traveling The World Could Help You Grow A Massive Online Business w/ Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie

As far as I believe, we only get one shot, why not go for it? You know, and the fear is there. Sometimes it's crippling. You understand the entrepreneurial struggle. It sounds good on the podcast, it sounds good when you're interviewed. I know what it's like to have worked 90 hours a week and be broke, but I have to eat or, like I have to pay the electricity bill or my car insurance bill. Like that's the journey that, like, every entrepreneur can relate to. Hopefully it never got that bad for you.

I'm just speaking the journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, John Mendez.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Walk to Wealth podcast. If you're tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories, make sure to do yourself one teeny, tiny little favor and make sure to give us a follow, because I don't want you to miss out on any of the amazing guests I got coming on this year. Without further ado, let's get right into this one. I got a very special guest that I met at a conference last year called Podcast Movement. It was my first time attending that conference, so I really didn't know what to expect and, if I'm not mistaken, we were at like the ending networking party that they were doing and we bumped into each other and had a good conversation and since then we've been in touch on IG and then you reached out to hop on a show and I was like let's do it. And now we're here, and so let me make sure I get this right. I should have asked this before we hit live. But Kwayto right.

Kwayjo with a J.

Joe almost had it, Sheesh.

But don't worry, look at my name. I mean, nobody's gonna pronounce that unless you're from Ghana, where my name is from.

Edit this part out and live All right, Kwayjo, so I'm glad that you're here on the show today and for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to get to meet you, to get to know you yet and tell us your elevator pitch man, who are you and what do you do Okay, well, simply, I am a Facebook ads manager, which I serve people in the online space, mainly, course, creators, helping them scale up from, let's say, low six figures to high six figures, low being like 200K annual revenue, high being 900K annual revenue.

And who am I? Well, I live down here in Mexico with my wife and my two kids, and we've been here for three years. Before then, we were in China for 12 years. So I guess I'm a man in the world. I love traveling, I love speaking foreign languages and, most of all, I love connecting with people.

Amazing and that's why we're here today and one quick nugget before like we actually get into the podcast. I love how you just said like low six figures. I suppose six figures is like a low number Cause like a lot of people like that are not in the business space, are still like haven't gotten numb to these numbers yet and like for me, like I hear and it's like yeah, like that's amazing, and it's a lot of people's like six figures is crazy. Hi, I never even seen anyone in six figures. So it's so like funny how like perspective man, like everything is relative. I love it, man, I love it.

And so let's get no, I was just gonna say it's a small like world and definitely a unique niche that we're in right, where people just throw around the word six figures, low and high, like normal. You meet people and you immediately start talking about how much you make. Like that's normal, you know? Yeah, I just love the business space.

So much man Cause. It's like it's so much more, so much more normalized, like when you're out, especially like in a digital entrepreneur space. I, just from the people I've been able to come across, it's like so much more normalized to talk about money and like throwing out like revenue numbers and stuff like that. And it's like growing up Like he never heard anyone talk about money. It's like it's crazy. I like the people who have the money are just so comfortable talking about money, but other people who are money oriented it's always makes for great conversation. But Kwejo, take us back in a time machine a little bit, man, like what was little Kwejo like when you were first growing up? Like where did the story all begin?

You were supposed to prepare me for that question how little do you mean little first of all. Well, where does your?

story begin, man, as far as you, as far back as you want to take us.

All right, well, a little snapshot then. So I grew up on the West Coast, kind of by Seattle Northwest, in a city called Tacoma. If you ask about little Kwejo, well, little Kwejo grew up yeah, I grew up in the hood, even though I don't sound like it. So my dad immigrated from Ghana, right, and my mom is from Missouri, and basically they raised me. I wasn't allowed to leave the block and I don't think I had any friends on the other side of the street from me for like the first 10, 11 years of my life. Like I think the furthest I could go was like two houses down the street. So that's kind of like the area I grew up in and like my dad being an immigrant from Ghana. Like you know, two jobs, day jobs, swing, shift working all the time, like my mom cleaned house, and that's kind of how I grew up, and so a lot that went into the person I am now is right. Before I went to university I just kind of got turned on to foreign languages and then did something pretty, just pretty out of the norm that my parents hated. But, like you know, like son of an immigrant, he wanted me to be a doctor, so I kind of did not want to do that, went the physics route to make him happy. And then I just straight up and went to France and started working. And that kind of sparked the travel bug in me and I realized like I got a gift for languages and I love communicating with people. And so fast forward to now, like basically, I got married and tricked my wife into going to China for 12 years and we took a vacation right in January 13th, 2020. And so everybody knows what happened then I won't say the names just in case, like this is going out on social media because we know like some reach, some platforms dial down the reach when you say stuff like that. But anyway, so we're at Mexico vacationing, like, and then we have to start quarantining. And then we're happy to quarantine because you know tacos and guacamole and all this good stuff, and then we find out, like five months later, that China is gonna shut down their borders. You know, because of this wonderful thing that's running around the world, and we could not, we ended up being stuck outside of our house in China. So, 12 year home in China, imagine never planning to leave. And we went on vacation with a one check-in luggage, two kids and a couple of carry-ons, and so that's how I live in Mexico now, and that was about three, four years ago, four, wow, yeah, four years ago already. So, yeah, that's kind of me, not your typical behind the screen Facebook ads manager who just loves to like crunch numbers with no emotions. You know, like actually I'm super people person, like I think that's why you and I clicked. I was super impressed when, I think, that Chinese lady introduced me to you and I was like this guy, if I had my stuff together, like he does at his age, like I could have took over the world by now.

So like I love. Thanks, man. It really does mean a lot. And I wanna ask you a couple of things, because I'm also a child of immigrants, right, and so it's like, for whatever reason, like the college degree, the university degree, is like the pinnacle of like American success, like that, not even just American success, just success in general, I feel like for like immigrant families from all over, regardless of whether they where are they immigrated from. And so I also went against you know, my grandparents, like for me, I was the golden child and I was the one pretty much all my cousins from my grandparents that I live with, right, it's like maybe like 15 of us in total, and like all of them stayed back. So it's like I was the only one who had amazing grades in school. Like I never stayed back. I got into a bunch of colleges and so like they were like, oh, john's gonna be the first one to graduate college, like he's gonna do it. And so I was like the I guess they're the ray of hope, almost like make the Mendes family proud when, for me, pandemic happened. So I didn't get locked out of China, but I dropped out of college in the middle of the pandemic. And so like yeah. And so I dropped out midway. It was my sophomore year and I just left university, didn't talk to anyone about it, and going into it, I made sure not to need any help from my grandparents or anyone in my family, because I always knew that college was a scam. Going into it and for whatever reason, like if things didn't work out I didn't have to worry about like, oh, but I have their money in mind. Or oh, but they helped me get into college Like a lot of people get stuck like that. It's like, oh, but my parents took out these student loans and now they feel forced to finish their four year degree Right. And so, like, for me, make sure no one helped me, or at least in my family, so that I could leave and not have to hear any of them say anything. But they all still had something to say. Like they all pretty much like, oh, john, like what are you doing? Like you're crazy. And then I still did it anyway. I didn't consult with any of them because it was my decision to make and my life to live. And so I say all that to say you, going against the grain and deciding to, you know, embark on your own journey Like. What was that like for you, especially at that age?

It was scary but exciting, I think at that. So that first are you talking about the first time I went abroad and kind of went on my own path. Yeah to France, yeah to France, so yeah that was scary and exciting, but I mean, I was in college so it was more exciting than anything. Like I did a work abroad program first of all, which it wasn't even regular study abroad. It was like you fly over there, you have a two hour orientation and they give you two binders. One binder is jobs that, like the previous participants had like secured in Paris, and the other binder was previous, like hosts, well, like apartments that people had lived at. And so they're like great, this is a pretty independent program. So like go before you run out of cash, like, and you can't stay at the hostel or the hotel anymore, like go find a job, because you have all the paperwork to get a job legally in this program and go find an apartment. And so like I was a bit terrified because I kind of snuck in with not quite the financial means that I needed to have. We'll just say that. But I was. When you're doing something, maybe you don't know that you were meant to do it, but you got to follow that excitement and so like at that point I didn't know that foreign languages was really my thing and I really loved traveling the world and meeting new people and communicating and all this, but I was just super excited and it was a fun time.

Yeah, and then another question too I wanted to ask you because I like to travel as well. We were talking a little bit about traveling, traveling the world and stuff and I haven't got to travel the world as much as like I've been traveling the US quite a bit over the past year or so, but what's like what you know France, from what I know, china and Mexico that's at least three completely different countries right there and the US. So it's like so far, from all your travels and your journeys, like what are some of the biggest things that you learned? Like how that helped shift your perspective on life itself.

All right, I'll just keep this one simple. I learned that people are very, very different, yet at our core, like we're very the same, we're, like we're really the same. So what do I mean? What do I mean by that? I mean, going to France was the first time I met people that didn't grow up around me, that didn't believe like me, growing up as a Christian, like didn't believe either same faith or just didn't have the same cultural values, right, but at the same time I made great friends with them. And that was the first time like I ever encountered somebody who thought differently than me, somebody who looked at my country and thought things that I didn't agree with, you know. And so how can I summarize that? Like I met this guy who was a priest, like we're talking, had dedicated already like 11 years of his life in the Catholic Church. I met this other guy from Toronto who went to the University of Miguel, a great university there. Don't quote me if it's not. If it's not, don't fact check me. It might not be in Toronto, but like he was studying to be a rabbi we're talking like over a decade, at the age of like 19,. You know, cool, great friends. I met this model, pretty girl, awesome, right, and she had spent most of her life it was Paris modeling, you know. And so like, of course, like as a single guy, like I'm going to meet Paris. Actually, I'll take a quick side story. So I went there, had two weeks to find a job, ended up partying most of the time and then spent all the money that I didn't really have in the beginning and couldn't afford, like the chief's apartment I couldn't get. And so actually, like then I went to these models and I was like, hey, we've been partying together, how about you let me sleep on the floor? They're like wait, we don't know you that well, I'm like wait a second. And so I ended up having to leave my luggage in their apartment and I was homeless for two weeks, where I was still looking for a job. I didn't have a place to stay. And so, if you know Paris, the Notre Dame, right in the center of the city, that big cathedral, there's a little cafe across from it called Shakespeare Company and it's like starving artists scene. So I like slept on that floor, went to parties, to go home with people not in that sense actually to couch surf, before couch surfing existed, but yeah, you meet people around the world and I guess at their core I mean, there's some mean people, but I have choose to assume that people are positive, people care about you and that I believe people are worth caring about and definitely worth loving. And like I remember in China I was at this get together and I meet this guy and he was from Afghanistan and he looks at me and like he didn't think I knew where Afghanistan was. So he looks at me straight in the eyes like your country drops bombs, like on my villages or something, and I was like oh, and then I just kind of put my arm around and I was like look, we're not here to be about our governments. You know, it's just like me and you and I think you're cool and like let's chill. And he ended up becoming a good friend and like he's running a bit an education business over there and like that's kind of what has impressed me most, crossing these different cultures. You know, like you meet people who are just really good people, like they come from different spots, they had different walks in life and it's really exciting. That's why I will convince anybody and everybody to get out there and travel, just go see and go meet and go communicate.

And I definitely I'm with you 100% on that. I feel so many people, especially here in the States, complain so much about what we have going on here in the States and I think it's so like naive to think that you can understand anything about this world without ever leaving these borders in the States, like I went to when I went to DR, when I went to Guatemala, like I was living with my family out there, so we were in a countryside, we're like country countryside, like, especially when I went to Guatemala I'm talking like I literally right out my window, was like six pigs, a bunch of turkeys and chickens, like a bunch of roosters. I did not get a good night's sleep once. Every morning at five o'clock, for the whole time there was just roosters yelling and once they start screaming then all the other animals start screaming. Like it's a very, very different way of life out there, man, and it's like you learn so much, you gain so much from our perspective as to like what's out there in the world and it's not like this bubble that we live here in the States and so well to move on from traveling a little bit. I'm curious to figure out because one thing you didn't mention yet, because I know you're a business owner, but you didn't mention like we're along this traveling journey. How did you even get into business? I know you were working at France. Hopefully, you you know you weren't homeless forever, right, you found the job. Like when did this entrepreneurial bug ever kick in? Was it like early in your journey, or like something that had to rediscover? Or it's like how did that come about?

Yeah, I would say first of all, good noticing that I didn't mention that. I would say I didn't try being an entrepreneur until so this will date me a bit. But there's this company called Rosetta Stone and they had kiosks in the malls and in the airports. Like they taught foreign languages and they had these like little yellow boxes and big TV screens right. And so I worked in sales there and that was the first time I had a job where you could put more effort in and immediately get a much bigger return. And so I stepped into business through sales. I was a mediocre salesman but could look in the computer system and see that like there were some kiosks that were absolutely crushing it. And since I knew our commission structure, basically one day I took the day off and I drove like an hour and a half up to a kiosk that I saw like the numbers they were posting were insane, Like we're talking, definitely working part time, but making more than full time income because of their sales. And so like I knew the guy who was selling the most, I showed up during his shift and I'm like teach me what you're doing, because I need to make like what you're making. And he basically just told me sales has nothing to do with your passion, it's just a process, and if you learn the process then you will sell more. And I was like give me something I had somehow I don't know how I knew to ask him for a book, but I did. He gave me a book. I went home and devoured it once it arrived from Amazon and in one night and I think like my sales increased like 30% and then from there true entrepreneurship started, when sales is still a job right, and at least mine was and they changed the commission game on me and so I went from making more than full time income like on a part time job to really struggling, even with the same numbers. And so then like on the job which I don't recommend this if you're on the job, do your work well on the job. But I was already jaded, struggling to make ins meat because they killed my commission. So I was looking on YouTube. A guy told me that I should start window cleaning and he was like let me teach myself on YouTube about window cleaning. And I think Monday I started watching YouTube videos. Wednesday I had flyers printed out and I had already gone to the local spot to get my window cleaning gear and that Saturday I had, like my first houses contact me back so I could window clean and so jump from sales to window cleaning. Then I got real crazy and started like doing some MLM businesses and went to China initially to do that and then in China I started businesses teaching English, like plenty of people in China will teach English at a school, but I met a lady who was absolutely crushing it, running a tutoring business out of her house. So she taught me and before I knew it like it was, that there was good times like tons of pink $100 Chinese bills and just like really organized operations tutoring out of my, out of my spot in China. And so many different things like I made an app to learn languages. I was selling oil paintings where, like wedding photographers in the US could like send the picture and then I would take it to the just little Chinese neighborhood in the city I lived in and the local painters would just do up these beautiful oil paintings and then I would ship it back to the States. And many things which brought me eventually to an online business teaching Chinese to people who were learning Chinese in China. And then that all fell apart during the pandemic and I started doing Facebook ads and coaching people in the online course space. How's that?

Quite, a bit, man, quite. But one thing I noticed there's a recurring theme that you've been kind of bringing up throughout this whole conversation so far, and the recurring theme is you're, you just go. You sound like a very much a ready fire aim guy and I could tell, because I'm a ready fire aim guy, I don't wait, I never aim, I'm only ready in fire, I'm always shooting. I get an idea and I go. Like one time I'm pretty sure you probably are familiar with the book called extra secrets by Russell Runson yeah, and so like literally in page six or like page seven of the book, it said like I'm reading a book for the very first time. I got the book, ordered it and it was like do a virtual summit. I'm like, bro, I have a podcast, I already know speakers, you know I close the book. I ain't touched the book for another. Like three months after that I read that line Close the book up, did a virtual summit. It flopped, but I did it. And so it's like I get an idea and I just go all into it. And so it's like with you going to France, with you, you know, starting your business, like when you or all of those businesses, like you just got an idea and you could just kind of ran with it essentially and didn't really have anything. For example, like even with the commission structure thing, you looked up like, ok, who's the top guy? Let me go to it. And I think most cases, like, no matter what industry you're in, you can usually tell. Even if you have a job, if you just look, you can see who's doing the best. It's not hard to tell. You probably tell by how they walk in the office. If you're at a job, or you know if you're at a sales job, you could probably tell who the top guy is, a top gal is. And so it's like most people don't do what you did, though Most people don't seek the answers, most people don't have the curiosity. So, like, where does that stem from? How did you get that word? You get that from? What do you think at least it comes from? Because you went out of your way an hour and a half to go talk to some guy, not knowing if he would actually talk back or, you know, give you some attitude or actually give you game. You're just like, all right, I know he's going to be there, let me just show up and see what happens. Yeah.

You make a good point like and I can't say where that comes from in me Like I've just always had this impression that, like people are great to meet and that people want to help me. And I do believe, like, however you view the world, like you end up like some people call it this, like manifesting, and like I don't believe you can manifest anything that God has not already created and destined for your life personally, but, like for me, I just believe that people are great to meet, you know, and I assume, like if I'm going to go meet somebody, they're going to be meetable and have and fun and wanting to like help me out if I need help and I can help them. You know, kind of I was talking to you before the podcast and so I guess that's just how I've always been like. But you know, sometimes you get an idea and it excites you or you want something and the best thing to do is just to go get it. Like I remember I had an apartment that I was living in and the apartment manager came through with the apartment owner, the guy who owned like all like 40 units in the apartment, and like they knocked on my door because they just were coming through the various places and they're like hey, can we come in? And I was like and just look at the quality of your spot. And I was like I remember, as soon as I saw that he was in charge of like the whole thing, I was like basically I don't know you, but I've always wanted to know about owning an apartment building, like coi, meet up. And he was like here's my card, come to downtown Seattle. And you know, I'll meet with you for 30 seconds, for 30 minutes, you know. And like he probably just saw like this young black guy and he's like I want to help him out, you know, because he's like curious. But that curiosity, I think people respond to that. I think people, no matter how optimistic or pessimistic they might be, when they see somebody that's curious about learning and wants to advance, and it's just, like you know, willing to meet, they're willing to help out, you know. And so hopefully that answered your question. I don't really have a solid answer.

It's one of those things that, like I said, I can't really it's hard to find like really stem, like that, like the root of it, like so, noticing that in you and know I have it in me. I just wanted to hear what your thoughts are kind of on it. But you mentioned to. But, like just being young, young black guy, right, whatever young in general, I feel right, if you're young and hungry, like, I feel, the people who really got it in life, all the people who already made it, there's nothing, much more money that will make them happy. So the only thing that they could do, right, it's just passed the game on, I feel. And so, from what I found personally, it's very similar. I had a very similar experience. I know a lot of people talk about getting scammed and screwed and stuff like that and, yeah, that happens out there. I'm not naive. I know bad things do happen out there, but for me personally, I can only speak to my experience and everything so far it's been like people want to help you, especially when you go out of your way to get it. If they're going out of their way now and that's another story they don't want to help you. But if you're going out of your way to be curious and learn and you're young and you're getting after it. You have such a leg up on everybody, young and old, because a lot of people either they're young and they're not doing nothing or they're older and they're not doing nothing At least nothing big Sure. It's like a lot of those people, as I said, that have made it. Those people are just willingly like hey, let's me, or let's hop on a Zoom call, or now let's hop on a podcast and actually just get some sneaky one on one coaching, but it's still a podcast interview. But I asked them everything I want to know. And it's like people see that and it's. I think hard work is a universal language, I feel, and no matter where you're at, I think everyone respects hard work for the most part, because most people know that most people won't do the work, and to see someone doing it, right, it's like. And then add young on top of that and I say, okay, all right, now you got some steam going. Now you're doing something. You said earlier too jokingly, I know, but you said if you started when you were my age, right, you would have conquered the world by now. It's just like I get that or something similar, some variation of that, pretty often and it's like it always feels like great to know that I'm on the right track Because, as you know, like everything always looks great on the outside when it comes to this entrepreneur space especially this digital entrepreneur space and so like. I hear it and it's like all right, I'm on the right track. It's always reassuring because, like man, like the whole past two years been crazy man and like dropping out of college try to figure out, I was working like 70 hours at one point, plus the day for my real estate exam, and so it's like right after I dropped out she's like in the middle of a global pandemic, not knowing you know whether or not I'm on the right track or not. I've just seen the Alex Ramosy video too, on Instagram. The other day was like the thing about entrepreneurship is like you'll never know whether or not you made the right call, and I think that that kills the dreams of a lot of people. At that uncertainty, right. And I was like man, that's true. Like there's days I question, like right now I would be a college graduate. You know, if I had not left, I would have graduated back last May. And it's like, well, now I'm also starting to finally catch my stride and it's like okay, well, at this point in time I'm making about the same minus money as a college graduate. Fresh out of college, I was like huh, but I also have two years of experience in the actual business world, meeting millionaires, meeting people like yourself, meeting people from all backgrounds traveling the world, going to business conferences right. For the past two years. It's like all right, very different track. The reason? I don't know. I'm going a little bit of a tangent. It's like I wanted to circle back to what you said, because you mentioned some good stuff about, like um, manifesting and like how you can't manifest anything that God hasn't already destined for your life, and one of the things that I always believe that and I heard this from Russell Brunson, actually but it's like you have to be a good steward of your ideas, right, all these little ideas that you get, like oh, let me start a lemonade stand, or oh, let me, you know, sell some shoelaces or something like that. It's like if you can't see God in the little things, right, you can't get take advantage of the little blessings, right, that you get. How on earth are you going to be able to handle the big ideas when they come? Right? And it's like similar to you, like I've been, I try a bunch of things and when I get an idea, I go, I go with it fast. I don't really do too much thinking, right, I just throw myself into it. And it's like, for better or for worse, not everything went well. And I think I don't think being a good steward of your ideas is about succeeding with those ideas, but it's about putting them into um, putting an honest effort into making it work and seeing what happens, cause usually, at least in my case, none of it worked so far until I stumbled across AI. And now I'm starting to finally catch my stride and starting to get a little bit more, you know, get noticed a little bit more. I'm starting to finally make some money with this digital business right. It's like but had I not? It all started with a $500 one. Well, technically it started with me reading, which I poured that, and then I started going on YouTube university and I bought a $500 course on wholesaling, and then I got my LLC and then from there I was getting ready to get into real estate wholesaling. That ended up not working out I'm turning, misinformed me and then I was like, all right, screw that, let me focus on real estate. And then I decided to drop out. And then I didn't sell any houses in real estate, but along the way I started my podcast and then, four months into real estate, I got access to teach a social media class and I was doing and everything just led up until one. I tried everything and so far virtually all of them have failed. Right, but I tried a lot of them and it helped get me to where I'm at now.

And um, Well, you know, yeah, it's okay. I think you told me the age of the average listener. You know pretty young, which is awesome, and we can't be afraid of failure. Like I learned this phrase called fail forward. You know, you fall over, like just like a baby who's learning how to walk, like they don't fall down, and then wonder, oh, is this like walking thing for me? Maybe I'm just not meant to walk. You know, I see other people walking, or I guess everybody walking, but maybe walking is not for me. You know I've fallen down. It's like no, a baby will always get up, you know, and like that's the thing, like we got to embrace failure, like the path to success is paved with failure. But to your point, like how would somebody know that unless they weren't around the right kind of people like feeding themselves with the right kind of books, you know, and I think like that's something we share, where, like you know, I'm assuming you're well read and like just devouring books. I mean, you talked about a book that like I have the same book where I looked over at my bookshelf I'm like, yep, I got that book and something I would share with a listener that served me well, that I was super fortunate to be told way early on was that if you want to do something and you kind of want to know is it going to work out or what it could look like and what the outcome of that is, go find somebody who's done it for 10 years already and then ask them about it. Because, like a lot of times, we want something but what we really want is a lifestyle that we think that thing will get us. You know, like you mentioned wholesaling. You know, and for me, like I started with computers, it's like we want to do something but really we want the lifestyle associated with it and so, like the shortcut, the hack, is find somebody who already did it. You can see if you enjoy their lifestyle, you might find out. Okay, being a doctor is not for me, because I'm looking and they're just complaining about the long hours and all the insurance hassles and this, and that you know and like or maybe you wanted to go and sell, like I don't know sell jets. Like I've ever been fascinated with people that sold jets. I'm like how could you sell private jets? But like there's people that do it, but you talk to them and realize, oh, like the Daily Grind doesn't actually meet what I thought it would that desire inside, and then, um, yeah, that's all I wanted to share. But, john, how did you decide how? I'm really curious when you made it to AI.

Yeah.

Did you know? Or do you know, like is this, is this going to be it like the thing that you go big with? Or was it just that it kind of hit you different, you were more excited about it? Or like how did you, how did you get?

to AI and stick with it. So around December of last year, right I. Or in 2022, I found out about Chad GPT, so pretty early on because it came out in late November, and so I started dabbling around with it just for show titles, right. So show titles and show notes, and then super simple stuff. I wasn't into prompt engineering or like any fancy AI strategy or whatever. Whatever. I was like hey, can you make a title for an episode? I talked to this guy about this thing, give me some ideas, right, boom, and it usually come up with some stuff and I had to tweak it a little bit. But then around that time, I was at a point where, as I said, I tried a lot of things. I was working at a restaurant, I was trying to be a real estate agent, I was trying to do social media classes, my podcast numbers were going down and so I wasn't making any money. Now it's winter time again, restaurant super is super slow and I was like man, like what am I gonna do? I already stopped focusing on real estate. I try to turn this. I was teaching like social media classes and I was getting a hundreds of people to register for my classes, but like I never had and it wasn't a business play for me. And then I try to turn into a content creation agency. After my first client, I was like this sucks, never doing this again. And then from there I said my podcast numbers are going down and I ended up finding a Japanese concept called icky guy. Okay, yeah, I started doing a lot of like, pretty much reflecting, and I was like you know what, let me go all into my podcast. And so between like late December of 2022 and like March April of 2023, I probably hopped on like a little over a hundred shows. I was hopping on podcasts literally back to back to back to back on Muslim days and a hundred shows yeah that is ultra impressive.

I don't know if, like the person listening can respect that. That's that's. That represents a lot of hustle too, because if you hopped on a hundred shows, how many people did you contact in order?

to get hundred to say yes and then I thought I'm not, but I still had my show, that I was doing, that I was still recording and that that point in time I was doing like a 2 to 3 episodes a week for my own show, right, plus all the interviews and stuff. But long story short, say that to say that I met this guy named Jason. He had a mastermind me and him hit it off after I hopped on his podcast and we hopped on another call and he was like hey, like you know, I would love for you to join, like stop by a call this Friday's call, stop by the call, and I love what he had going on, right, and I've connected with him. Same way we connected, he was like yeah, you know, if you'd like, you know, I want to offer you, you know, a deal to hop in a mastermind. And I was like all right, how much is it? Then he gives me the magic number, right how much is? it like the question, like you always want to know, and I'm like 400 month at least, that's what it was at that time that's it no, but listen, I was like a month one, I'm like, alright, I got it. Month two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten I was like man, I don't know where I'm gonna find these four hundred dollars. Yes, at that point in time I still wasn't making no money, having sold a house social media agency thing they work out, podcasting is monetized. I was like man, I don't know how I'm gonna do. That's like a whole car note of. And I was like you know, maybe the reason I don't have any money is because I'm playing scared with my money to begin with. And so I was like, all right, let me do it. Boom. So I've s in a mastermind. In the mastermind, he had a course on how to use chat GPT. I don't remember anything I learned in that course. The only thing I remember is that at the end of it he screen recorded himself using chat GPT to make the very same course I just watched. And that's the nozzle I broke ain't no way. He just like he. Just it's like a magician doing a magic trick. And like right after you say, alright, so here's how I did it. Right, that's like so, that's how it like. Oh, that's how it's, you know it's done. And at that time I said, remember, I was just using it for show notes and show like show descriptions. I was like I wasn't using anything fancy at all. Yeah, I was like all right, I'm gonna teach a class on how to use chat GPT. I use a chat GPT to create the webinar presentation like out line I used to create the information on that I was gonna put on each slide. I use it one app called tome app to create the actual presentation slides, dolly and mid-journey to create the images I had chat you create the event right landing page information. Yeah, right, I use mid-journey to create the event background like event photo and a flyer, stuff like that. I use chat GPT for the email to get people to register. Yeah, remind them to show up. I had like 300 people to register at the end of it first time ever, I said, hey, I'm doing a workshop. This is a Wednesday. I teach the works, the webinar. I was like, hey, I'm doing a workshop on Friday for two hours. I took a deeper into this stuff. It's a 197. It's 20 spots within 24 hours, all spots sold out. I mean yeah, 4,000 in that, one hour after a class that AI did most of the work for. Yes, it was about three and a half months of me working at the restaurant job and how does that feel I feel like dumb one, because I feel like I've been playing a game wrong forever. Okay, I could have been making money. My first class had 440 people signed up for it, right, and every class from then on had, like I said, my, the least amount of registrations I've ever gotten for a class, like to something, wow. And so it's like I could have been making money teaching the free classes. But I was fighting with two things. One I never did it do like turn into a business. I was actually teach a class on social media just because I was a third of age, most people, I was in a couple of free, realistic communities and I was like, oh dope, this is my way to give him back to the community, get myself known, right, and start building referral partners, right, that's what I want, really wanted for, but only John. After my second class, one of my friends she's a millionaire agent down in Maryland she was like John, never teach another one of these again for free. Like what's your Venmo, what's your cash app? Like, put it in the chat. And then they were like, oh, I got trying to peer pressure me into putting my Venmo so I can put it in the chat and it could pay me. But I was like I was it. I felt so cringy because it was never for money and then I did the chat cheap to teach class and I was like, oh, I could keep teaching these free stuff and then at the end upsell something and like make a whole bunch of money all the free. You got the value, I get paid. And then the people want to go deeper. They gave him more information and coaching. It's like everybody wins. And so that's when I knew like, alright, I gotta go all into this AI stuff.

And since then I started going crazy with AI plus, I'm sure you saw that once you started charging, people took what you were saying more seriously and you probably got more testimonials, because when people have their own skin in the game, so to speak, like when they actually pay for something, they're more likely to follow through. If, just because they're like, shoot, I just paid 197 for this, like I better get my money's worth and actually learn, you know, yeah, yeah pay attention.

It's one thing I took me a while to learn, but it's like by not charging people, you're doing them a disservice. This is like if you really want to help somebody, you have to charge them. Like it is like your moral obligation to charge people, yeah, so that they take it seriously not for you but for themselves, right, or else it's gonna be almost impossible to like actually transform them. Like you can give free information all the time, but if you actually want to make a transformation from what I found that you have to charge people yeah, don't I?

just, you feel like giving free information really helps. And then that person deems you and you have, like this, I don't know, over the course of like five days maybe, maybe hour and a half of like deeming back and forth and you're like, yeah, I'm doing good, I'm helping them, but it's like, actually, you're not like the quicker you drop a link and say you know what, I want to help you, but come on this consultation call because I'm busy and it's, you know, 297 an hour or whatever, and then I can help you like I've helped so many people for free, only to like check up on them later on, you know month down the line. And it's like, oh yeah, I decided to go this different way. Or, oh yeah, I just feel like you know, in the Christian world they'd be like I feel like God had something else for me and I'm like, yeah, I got how it worked for you. You didn't want to work and so did. You went to something else.

Yeah, I'm not no man. I don't mention that. I feel like so many things, like I'm Christian as well. It's like man, like the amount of Christians that just live life in fear is like for me personally is I can't come, I can't come to understand it because, like for me personally, as I said, like me and a Christian, like believing in the God I created, all this that we have here in front of us right in six days, right, and everything that's here that's amazing and wonderful, was made by him. It's like and I know that he has the best, you know, the best plan for me, like he's not out to get me or sabotage me. He wants the best for me. He wants me to be safe and be loved and, you know, prosper, right, and it's like there's so many quotes in the Bible, verses in Bible, right, that just talk about like how, like we're meant for more and like how he has our back and like you know, this is like for me, like it's not that I'm not scared or half no fear, right, because that's a human, like such part of the human experience, yeah, but it's just like it's about courage and I feel like there's so many Christians who are just have no courage and it's like. For me it's like how do you have faith in him but don't live out your life as a son? And this is not to come off of a place of me judging anybody, it's just me trying to come to a genuine understanding, because it's almost contradicting to believe in a God that powerful that you know, as I said, where there's plenty of evidence that says like he has our backs. And it's like a lot of people don't take action at all and they just live in fear, they live in mediocrity and for me, I refuse to get to the end of my time and be like oh well, left a lot on the table, left a lot of gas in the tank Right. Like. I could have done this, this and that and you know. But now it's all over. I saw it's all said and done and I don't know. I wouldn't know how to live myself if I knew that like I completely felt short of what I could have been, yeah.

It's like the years seem long, but there's this saying like you know, the years go by faster. It's like a roll of toilet paper the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes.

Yeah.

But you get to the you. We just don't want to arrive at the end of our life Like you just said it, you said it so well. You don't want to arrive to the end of your life seeing all that you could have been. And then it's like over. As far as I believe, we only get one shot. So it's like, why not? Why not go for it? You know, and the fear, the fear is there and sometimes the fear I'm less be honest Like, sometimes it's crippling, like for, like you understand the entrepreneurial struggle. It sounds good, it sounds good on the podcast, it sounds good when you're interviewed, but then, like, let's talk about how, maybe at the day job, like I had, I got upset when I put in overtime and worked like 60 hours a week. Let's talk about how I left that behind. But then I know what it's like to have worked 90 hours a week, but then and be broke and or like, put in, like like many 90 hour weeks not to see the results yet, and then you're like, oh, shoot, like, but I have to eat, or like I have to pay the electricity bill or my car insurance bill, like you know, like there's. That's the journey that, like, every entrepreneur can relate to. Hopefully it never got that bad for you. I'm just speaking from my experience, like at certain times, you know so. But it's exciting, you know it's exciting.

It is the same Like and I heard this from Alex at Hermosian. He was like one can't wish for a strong character and an easy life, because the price of one is the other.

One can't wish. Oh, say that again, because I need to get it, which means the listener needs to hear that again too. Say that one more time.

One can't wish for an easy life, both an easy life and strong character, because the price of one is the other.

Ah, the price of easy life is strong character, and the price of strong character is an easy life.

Yeah. So you see that you have one or the other. You can't have both right. If you have an easy life, you'll never build strong character right. Strong character is built in, you know, in the, you know in the thick of it, when everything's going bad and the tough times, and so to have an easy life, you're giving up having strong character right and to say you can't take one without the other type of thing. And it's like I think a lot of people want it easy without the hard work and I feel like a lot of younger people feel entitled to an easy life With all their first world problems I like to call them it's like you know. And feel entitled. It's like man go put in some work, like you don't know what struggle is. You don't. Most people don't know what real hunger is right. Like I fasted for like my longest fast was like 42 hours, but even still there's people who like fast longer than that. It's like people don't know what true, true hunger is. I was like really hungry, but like even still, I said, there's people that go longer than that. And then I'm talking about-.

And you could go to the fridge, right? Yeah, exactly, it was a real fast. It wasn't like a fast like your refugee, or you're trekking across the you know somewhere and you didn't know where food was gonna come from next.

Yeah, exactly man, and it's just like that's one of those things that, ah, man, it just ticked me just the hard work just need doing and it's like you have to. You know this entrepreneur, as you mentioned, like I got a lot of good points that I resonate so much with this entrepreneur stuff and just like it's just sucking for so long. And like it sucks for so long, but it's like, well, it's the lesser of two evils, because I'd rather be a slave to the system than you know. So I guess broken, hard working is my only option for now, until I finally figured this out. Thank God that after two years like two, yeah, I started catching my stride like mid last year. So after two and a half years in because I dropped, I started at real estate September 2021. So three years really took me about like almost three years before I finally just started to, you know, caught my break, all right, and a lot of people don't see what went on in that three years. People had to stop talking to it, not because, like I wanted to, or not because I cut them off or we got into argument, but just because, like, your path just starts to diverge and it's like then you realize that most people you were only friends with because you've seen them, it was convenient to be friends. And then, as you start going on your journey and it's like, well, you know we talked about my memories and that's great and all, but like what you got cooking up Now, what you working on this year, where you going this year, man, like let's talk some big stuff, like some big dreams, like big everything, and it's like you don't have to be there, but it's like where your head space at, and what books are you reading? That's what I wanted to mention. You mentioned about books and people. Right, there's a quote it's like the man who's illiterate or chooses not to read only lives one life, while the man who reads lives many. And to say you lit, and so that's one thing. So I haven't read that many books, right, but I listened to tons of podcasts and YouTube videos. It's like I'm always consuming information, right, in some way shape or form. And it's like, and then, on top of that, traveling, and you just get so much more perspective, so much better outlook on life and you're able to navigate the world better when you have all these different viewpoints and perspectives from people you agree with and, like you said, when you were in France, people that you completely disagree with have had completely different viewpoints and morals, right, and still be able to be friends with those people. And one thing that I think I got from Jordan Peterson, I think, or something about like how you have I don't think it was Jordan Peterson, I don't wanna misquote him, but it was something like how you have more in common with like Hitler and Joe Stalin and all these people that are claimed to be evil, more than you realize, because we all have a shadow and under the right circumstances right, we're them right. If we grew up in the same situation. They grew up in and had the same exact experiences, they did nine times out of 10, we end up the same exact way they did. And when you realize that all humans have this capacity for evil, a lot of people try to hide it and tuck it away. But it's like no, you have to embrace it. And another quote I love let's just keep spitballing quotes. It's like to go with the flow of things. It's like it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener at war, right? And so you have to embrace that evil, that monster, that shadow in you, and then learn how to keep it under control. That way, if it ever does show up, you don't go on a rampage and accidentally black on the people that you love and start yelling and calling people out their name and stuff like that. It's like no control that, so it's always kept in check. And so it's like I don't even know where I was going with that tangent. But yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

I don't know either, that's okay, though I agree with you, though we all have that dark side, and for me that's I don't think I understood being a Christian salvation, so to speak, until I really, like you said, not quite embraced that dark side, but realized I have this part of me which is just wrong, you know, and it's like I could try to deal with it mentally by, like reading this book, you know, I could try to say, oh, I'm not gonna do this thing, but like, ultimately, that whole self-denial, I'll be a become a better person through like my whole actions, like it just didn't work, you know, and so, like going to Christ and being like alright, through faith, I believe that, because of what Jesus did, this part of me like number one, I had no rights on having like a relationship with the Creator as far as, like my actions were concerned, done for, like he had every right as a holy God to be done with me. Yeah, he still gave his life to pay the price. Only he could pay, but he didn't have to for my sin. And it's like and I can take that to him and be like God, change my heart because, like this book's not doing it, like me going and like doing these like cerebral things aren't doing it, you know, and I still got this stuff and then, through time and through, like it's just like we're hanging around and like jiving, you know, like, but you get to hang around with the Creator and then, like his nature starts to like become a bit of yours, so to speak, like that's. That's that to me, that's an awesome exchange and it takes away. It takes away the darkness completely. So like I love it. You had said something and now I forgot what it was that made me think of it, but maybe, maybe, maybe to come back up.

I was going to say it too to your point, man, it's good to not find other people who also believe. You'll get into this entrepreneurship space and for anyone that's listening, like and whether you're a believer or not, but for those that are, it's like a lot of people are successful and a lot of people have a lot of money. A lot of people have the time freedom that you may be looking for and location freedom right, and a financial freedom that you may be looking for, and not a lot of them are always Christian and so then you always, like I started going back to church this year and not this year, but I've been going to church on and off and it's like I used to go a lot more back, like in third grade, up and through middle school, then went to college, then the pandemic happened and kind of fell off and then kind of started to come back last year and because, like, you get into these, these rooms, all these people that say all these things, like, well, where's that stemming from? Is that of God? And then it's like, well, it seemed like they have good advice because that clearly they're successful, they're on stages, they're speaking, they're you know, they got everything, but it's like, all right. Well, is that the success I'm looking for? Because if it's not of God, then it's like I'll pass. But it's like it's hard to discern you know what's what and who's what when you don't have that good of a relationship yourself. And I started getting back right so that as I start growing, I start getting these bigger rooms, I start getting in these you know, private masterminds and all these stuff and it's like, well, I can start being able to weed out like all right, who's you know, and that's not to say I can't be friends with some of these people. But, as I said, it's like there's a verse I love it's do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. There you go, there you go. And so it's like not to say that they're bad people are bad, anything, but it's like it's not of God and me being so I've got. It's like I got to make sure that I used to. People are like close to me, are, and that's not to say I can't be friends with someone who's not just the people close to me. You got to be tapped in, you got to be tapped in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man, we could talk forever. Man, I feel like, I feel like we could like we just connected.

But now, now I can tell like that's why we connected in the beginning like um so great.

oh, man, where can we find you at man? Where can we connect with you? Work we have going on Because like yeah, we got to get more of you, man.

No, because I'm laughing, because this is like the kind of episode that I'm going to start a new segment on my podcast where business because my podcast is the art of online business first of all to answer your question, like where somebody could get in touch with me, like if you want to hear more from me about online business tips and tricks and strategies to scale your online business so you can scale up your income and your impact and scale down or lower your overwhelm, you know, and your burnout, then just go to the art of online businesscom or just look it up on Apple podcasts, also the art of online business on YouTube. But I was saying, the reason I was laughing, john, is because I'm actually maybe two weeks away from starting a segment like this where we're not just talking like oh hey, how's it going? Like share your business expertise and the episodes done, but like businesses, the backdrop and we're more just connecting because, like, I miss like just human connection, being here behind the screen working all day, you know, as a Facebook ads manager, and so it's like I told you before the call like you want to meet people, I'll introduce you and for me, I'm meeting more people.

So, um, yeah, that's, that's where you can find out more about me, amazing man. And so now it's time for our famous five questions rapid fire around. We're going to have some quick, heavy hitting questions for you. Make you think a little bit. But it's rapid fire, so you got us wherever first comes to mind. So with the gut. Alright, let's do it. Question what is the most impactful lesson you've learned in life?

Oh Jesus, at first you don't succeed, try again. It's a cliche, but it's. It's where it's what I've lived.

What is the most admirable trait a person can have?

Can I do two? The most average admirable trait, I believe, is optimism. One, because we're not, in fact we're guaranteed that we will experience adversity and usually like, it's that optimism that sees you through. Second most admirable trait that I value, that I see somebody can have, is just consistency. Like if you're optimistic, if you choose to exercise faith, but then if you're consistent in like what you're trying or you're striving for, like you get it, you can have it, like you can't be denied.

So those two together If you had to change someone's life but only had one book, which book would recommend?

I read oh geez, I'm looking at my bookshelf. You know, other than the Bible, I'm looking at this book called the coaching, the coaching habit. I think, yeah, I'm looking at this book. It's a blue and yellow book called the coaching habit. By, hold on a second, they can. I grabbed the wrong book.

The coaching habit rapid fire round coaching habit, rapid fire round.

But basically I would recommend this book because it teaches you how to think, like through coaching. But like before I encountered a book like this, I didn't understand that like, oh, if I'm behaving a certain way, it's probably because there's like a feeling and a thought behind that. And in books like this they teach you about like something like called a thought model, where you have a feeling that produces a thought I might be getting it reversed that produces an action and that produces a result. And if you want a different result, then you need to think differently about the situations that you've been experiencing. And for me, as a Christian, I've always heard the scripture like about renewing our minds, but I never understood that so much. I was like, oh, I'm going to think about like more scripture in the Bible and stuff. But like then I realized, oh, renewing your mind has to do with whatever situation you're experiencing. Like thoughts go along with that. If you start inserting different thoughts into this loop, then you get different feeling and action and different results. And so, like a book like this, rapid fire, rapid fire, let's go.

Oh, what is the legacy that you're looking to leave behind?

Very simply, I think that the world should be traveled and, more importantly, specifically, I do think that other cultures and other people should be, like just experienced, communicated with, and so, although I am an online business owner and definitely focus on this online business niche, the bigger legacy and definitely something I try to instill in my kids is like to meet new people, to communicate with new people, because I look out into the world and I see a lot of issues, and most of those issues not all, but many of them just come from misunderstanding of the other side and a willing, a lack of willingness to go meet people who believe utterly different things from what you do believe, and so that's, that's the kind of legacy I want to be leaving behind one of connection, one of communication, one of embracing people who have just backgrounds from yours.

Final question for anyone that wants to embark on their walk to wealth today what is the first step you recommend they take?

I'm going to go with what you did. Mastermind, that's a very quick, that's a very quick and easy step, like if you have the money, get around, go find a mastermind that contains people that have the thing that you want either the kind of business, the kind of lifestyle, whatever and maybe mastermind because that word just means the exchange of ideas, maybe. Maybe the mastermind, at least in the Christian world, is just a small group of people who have the kind of faith that you want. Go get in that group of people and you just will accelerate toward whatever you're trying to accelerate for 100%.

That's all for this episode. Thank you again, brothers, for hopping on for having this conversation. You're welcome. Excited to hop on your podcast and continue the conversation. Super, just stay in touch overall and continue collaborating. They see your man.

Thanks for having me Take care, John you.