$4m Exit At 21 Years Old: How To Start A Business As A Teenager #TheOnePercent

Email from the attorney saying, all right, the money's wired. And I'm like, refreshing my bank account, right?

Classic.

Just refresh, refresh, refresh. And then it was like, oh, there it is. And it's like this weird, surreal moment. And.

I felt nothing. I was like, oh, nothing's changed.

It takes one free person to create change. This is the show for them. We are the creators of the Free world. This is capital capitalism.com and we are the 1%.

Oh, hey, capitalists. Oh, man, this is gonna be fun. A few years ago, I met this young man who was 17 or 18 years old at the time. He came to a workshop that I was holding, and it was about growing your business to seven figures and beyond. And he had a little business at the time, and he and his partner, they were like 19 and 17 years old. They took some of what they learned and they applied it to their business. And a couple years later, they each made a few million bucks when they sold the company. So they applied some of the things that they learned, both here on the show and also from our conversations in person, into their business that rapidly grew their business. And they had this huge exit. But what's really interesting about this story is when you give a 19 or a 20 year old kid a few million bucks, what happens? Do they get really wise? Do they party it away? Do they start another business? And what's interesting about this conversation is that Jeremiah talks a lot about what came up during that process of what do you do now? And so we explore that in this episode. And you might hear this and have business ideas that you want to start. And if that's the case, that's what we do here. Because the thing that came up was how at a young age, because we've had success stories from people who are 50 plus and people who are 17 and 18. And in this case, that amount of money liberated Jeremiah to go do the inner work that was required for him to find happiness. And that's the really interesting part, this whole journey. But if you want to start your journey, I think entrepreneurship is the fastest way to personal growth and personal development. And it all starts with your first product. And we help people create products and build sellable businesses. If you go over to capitalism.com start, there's some free resources for you to do that. Or if you go over to capitalism.com exit, we can send you the exact strategy that's talked about in this show where it's building product businesses and then selling them. And that was how I made my money. It's how I've helped a lot of people become financially independent. And then the story gets really interesting after money shows up, as you'll discover in this episode. Enjoy.

You're how old now?

23. You're 23.

That's insane. Like you, I think, were you 18 or 19 when we met?

I think I was.

17 or 18.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah. The next level event.

Yeah.

With Chalex from way back when.

I didn't realize it. I didn't realize it. Wow. So from that workshop, within the next two years, there were like eight people there.

Within like the next two years, you blew up.

Well, you, you have, you make like $4 million and they make like $25 million. And both of you were doing under a million dollars a year at the time.

Yeah.

Wow. That's a proud. I just had a proud moment right there. I didn't realize that both of you were at the same workshop. And both of you had such big, big explosions after that. Wow. I should raise my prices.

Probably should.

Good grief. Good grief.

Well, that's what we do here@capitalism.com. we solve money challenges and make people rich so they can do the deep inner work of discovering why they're not happy. There's a sales pitch. So you have this, this exit. You know, you make a few million.

Bucks when you're like 19 or 20, like 21. And you had times just a blur.

Yeah, well, when you're 23, my goodness, that's crazy. So at that point.

I mean, a lot of people go through kind of existential crises when both their 21 and also when they have a, have a money event like that. You had them both at the same time, the money event. And just being in your early 20s, I have to know what you're going through. I've never met, I don't know anyone your age or that age at the time who got that much of like a money at one time. So tell me what the experience was like.

It was definitely surreal. It was, it was the kind of thing that I, it was a year long process going through the acquisition, but I wasn't necessarily prepared for it in the sense of like.

You know, the, we got the letter from the. Or the email from the attorney saying, all right, the money's wired. And I'm like refreshing my bank account.

Right? Classic.

Just refresh, refresh, refresh. And then it was like, oh, there it is. And it's like this weird, surreal moment and.

I felt nothing. I was like, oh, nothing's changed. And it was that same kind of moment that like when, when we originally started Tribe Fitness, me and Johnny would. I remember one time we were talking about how it was like in the early days, we were like, this could be a million dollar world business. This could, we could make some money with this. And but by the, when we, and we were like, oh yeah, we're gonna have like a big party when we, when we hit that million dollar mark. Right. We were like, hell yeah, we're gonna do that. It's gonna be great. And then we got to that point and we didn't even notice it. We just kept going. We didn't even realize we hit the million dollar mark. We were not in any, any way satisfied and not in any way celebrating. Yeah. Because it meant nothing.

It's just another day.

It's literally just another day. So it was that same kind of feeling and it kind of clicked and I was like, this is the same. Nothing's changed.

You mean when you had the exit? Same thing, same thing.

It was just there's more money in my bank account.

So I was like, oh. And then like a week and I was, I was kind of suspicious to why I wasn't.

I don't know, reacting more to it. And that's kind of what started this, the inward journey, if that makes sense.

The same thing with me, right. I mean after, after I made my money, I kind of self sabotaged for a good year and a half where it was, where I, I was just doing dumb things with my money, with my time.

I wasn't as mentally prepared for it as I thought I was. And that just gives you the room to do a lot of self discovery and to discover what does make you happy. I think in our world we're so achievement oriented that it takes some time to unlearn the. Just more. Just more for the sake of more. And I love more. As long as the journey is fun.

Yeah.

So where are you in that journey post exit?

It's been two years, like a year and a half.

Okay.

I guess about that. The, it was, it took about a year to exit.

Okay.

Because we, you know, we were under loi for a while. We had a few different ones. We under contract and we broke some contracts, went off the market, went back on the market and then we found a buyer and closed fairly quickly. But yeah, after all that.

It kind of made me take a step back and kind of like our conversation a few months ago over Skype with Justin, we realized that, all right, we have the resources and the team to step back and that's something we're proud that we've built over the years now. But we were still in the. In the weeds up until that call. Is that. Oh, not necessarily up until that call. We were slowly removing ourselves from the picture, but there was still a lot of stuff going on.

Yeah. My. My sense about you, the last time we chatted over Skype was that you had you. Your next business you were excited about, but you built it the same way that you built the first one.

Yeah.

And it's going. It's going fine, but you don't need the money anymore. You don't need another business like that.

And so you're kind of missing the juice and that both of you needed to kind of recharge in order to have the inspiration to discover what you wanted to build it around. You can apply the same processes, but you were missing the. It was a very logically built business, and it was missing the juice that you need right now to sustain your interest. Yeah. And that only comes when you recharge the batteries.

And I was surprised how fast that came to the recharge. Yeah.

Yeah.

It was actually really surprising because after that I was like, all right. Me and Justin both agreed. All right, we're gonna take a step back, whether it's just mentally, like, checking out a little and, you know, letting the team take responsibility, even if it means sacrificing short term goals like we discussed.

And after a month, month and a half, I started kind of having these realizations that the stuff I'm most excited to do is the stuff that brings the most value, regardless of the payday. And when I bring the most value, things start to change.

That's right.

And money starts to come.

That's right.

Following. So then, like, I started. I used to dabble in influencer marketing ever so slightly, like with Tribe, just a little bit. And it was always, what can you do for me? What can you do for me? I'll pay you money. I'll pay you money, but what can you do for me? And it never worked out for a number of reasons, but that was one of them. And I started revisiting that because that's kind of something I'm excited about. Influencer marketing. I know that kind of the industry that we're in is kind of going that direction.

So I started reaching out to people and saying, you know, just completely leading with value is what I'm calling it, which is pretty basic, I guess, but such an easy principle. It's nothing special. And just reaching out to people and just building relationship with different people. That I think would genuinely add value to the Roam brand. And the Roam brand would genuinely add value to them and their audience.

Roam is your new business.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And.

Those we. I've seen.

10 times better response from 10 times better people.

Who would have thought?

I know.

It'S so. And I'm. I gives me so much more energy to genuinely connect with people.

We think so hard on ourselves, man.

Like, literally. And that's why that conversation this morning was so timely about just shifting your perspective on money.

Would you summarize the conversation we had that you're referencing?

Yeah.

So you were talking about money. Of course. I'm gonna go blank.

You could just say what shifted for.

You, if that makes sense. Yeah. So when we were talking about. Actually, I have my note here. Of course I brought notes.

We were talking about.

Instead of saying, what can I do with this money and what can it get me? Instead of thinking like that, thinking, where can I provide the most value and the money will follow.

That's right.

Yeah. And that was. That was pretty much the basis of it.

Yeah. We talked about being on a date with money.

Yeah.

You know.

So. So many of us are like, holding on to money, hoping it never goes away. Can you imagine if you were on a date with. With money with that same mentality, oh, never leave me, please never leave me, never leave. Eventually, like a person is like, get away from me. This is horrible. You're so clingy. And that's how we are with money.

Really is. But if we.

If we realize that money. Money is just a measurement. It's a measurement of. Of good work, of service, of creation of value so that the. You don't optimize for the measurement. You optimize for the thing that is creating the thing. We measure, you know, we optimize for the creation, you optimize for the value. And the money just measures how much value.

That's right. Brought to the table.

That's right.

That was the shift.

Good. There's too many people make their decisions based on what the data suggests the market wants, rather than just creating for the market. And I measure that on energy. You know, when you've got a winner, not when the market data tells you it, but when your energy is at its highest around that thing. And that's.

That is.

That's the sign. That's the tell.

An alive idea. Yes.

Did you read that post from Susie. Susie Batiz today?

That's our goal. Oh, she's posted today about it. She's posted a few times using that term.

Okay, the alive idea. Yeah, she posted just today about, she was saying just wait for the idea that you can't let go. Don't pursue a good idea. Don't pursue idea that you can logically justify. Pursue the idea that you can't let go. That's, that's when you know you've got a real winner.

I feel like that makes so much sense too. Especially like you just said, we started building Rome on the foundation of what we built tribe with. And the industry in kind of the.

Playing field was much different back then. So certain things being more analytical in that sense and algorithmic with your strategies worked a lot better back then and they still work today. But there's other things at play and you need to be more brand centric and add more value today to succeed while still playing those same algorithmic strategic plays. But you have to add other things to the game.

Yeah, the game, the game's not harder, it's just different now.

Exactly. Yeah.

And it is now more stacked for real brand rather than just like throw this thing and think up and hope it sells. So what have you changed since you started to recharge your batteries and bringing back that new energy into. Into the new business?

So the influencer marketing was one of the biggest things. Just because that has been kind of my pet project anyways that's given me energy.

Would you actually give a quick summary of the business? Sure.

So the business is Rome. We have, we sell outdoor recreation products. We cater to the kind of outdoor adventure enthusiasts, whether it's rock climbers, cyclists, motorcyclists.

Hikers, camping, that kind of. We live in Colorado and it's kind of like the Coloradoan person.

Okay. I love that.

It's like the perfect Colorado avatar.

That's a very clear avatar.

Totally got it. And.

You, I know most your sales come from Amazon, but for a while you were really trying to build up other channels. When I remember you got really frustrated.

So we were kind of operating out of this mentality of scarcity and you see it so much, especially with people selling on Amazon. The grass is greener on the other side. I need to get out of Amazon. Like people, you know, you know, and we kind of were operating under that mentality and we desperately were trying to scale off of Amazon. And not that that's a bad thing by any means. I mean that's a great thing. Power to you if you can do that. Absolutely. But what we realized, and after hiring an agency and over $100,000 later we realized for our product selection currently, it doesn't make sense because our acquisition costs are too. We. Our acquisition cost was too high for your business.

It wasn't the right move.

It wasn't the right move.

And so question. How long were you pushing that rock uphill?

Eight months. At least 100 grand later. And lost total focus on everything we were doing. The team was a mess.

I can't tell you how often that happens. On the bus back from dinner, like an hour ago, guy I was sitting across from was talking about how he so many of his sales come from Amazon, but 80% of his focus goes to him trying to build up off Amazon channels. I was like, well, stop it. He's like, why? I have to xyz. You don't have to do shit. You don't have to do anything. There is no have to. When things are a struggle, it's a sign. Now, I don't mean if things are hard, don't do them. I'm saying if it's a struggle, if it's an energy suck, it means the energy wants to go somewhere else. And he's just sitting there putting all his energy into the thing that isn't working. Why don't you put your energy in the thing that is working?

I don't know what it is about our psyche that makes things so hard on ourselves. This game, this life is supposed to be fun, light and easy. And easy does not mean you don't work hard. Easy means it doesn't have to be a struggle. It's not made to be that way. And.

I hope I have learned that enough times to finally give a lesson.

Right. I'm sure I'll learn it a few more times.

So you went down that rabbit hole for quite a while and then eventually said, it's not worth it. Put your energy back into where there was progress. And that was Amazon. And now you've kind of backed off a bit in terms of like, trying to force things, recharge your batteries. And now you're kind of going the influencer marketing route.

Where do you want to go next?

So right now we're kind of in this process of.

One, building a team. We have a super small team right now, but they're efficient, we love them to death. And we're kind of like the process of us pulling away from the business.

Wasn'T necessarily fully automated. Like, there's still stuff in the weeds that need to be done. So we're kind of helping our team fully take on those responsibilities. That's going really? Well, we're really happy and excited about that. So we'll continue to do that. Continue to kind of build the team culture, corporate culture in our brand a bit better.

So you're becoming a leader. That, that's your transition right now.

That is the transition, yeah. And it's a very different one. Especially because even in the last business, even though it was similar size to Rome now, it was very lean. It was me and a partner, some VAs working in other states. So the transition from that to being a leader and a boss and managing people and having people manage other people, it's a big shift. Yeah, it is.

So a question for you. I read this article today that really pissed me off. It was why do rich people still work?

And it was this analysis and the whole thing was like, because they're greedy and because it's like, oh my God, go. You are. What happened to you when you were a child? I'm so sorry. But I'm curious. You know, when you're.

20 and you make a few million bucks, why not just peace out for a while? Why did you start another business?

I could never. I've tried that laptop, lifestyle.

Mailbox, money on a beach.

I just get bored.

That alive idea, the energy that you get from creating, essentially, yeah. Even if I'm not necessarily trying to create the next Nike, but creating in my space, in building the brand further, taking it further, that gets me excited. Yeah.

You're 23 now. We met when you were 17. My goodness. What would you say to this 17 year old version of yourself now?

Oh my God, the same thing that everyone on your podcast said five years ago. And it's build an audience sooner.

Ah.

Yeah.

And I heard it then.

I'm just too funny.

I mean, you've done just fines. But what about personally, what would you say? Would you say that 17 year old.

Kid that showed up.

Allow yourself to be happy. Oh God. And stop making excuses. Don't put things off until you have enough money and enough this and enough that. Or have the right person or the right car, whatever it is, you know, stop putting off your own happiness for other people or even if it's for yourself that you think it is, but.

You can be happy all on your own.

Yeah, I've said this on the show.

Before, but.

I think I was talking with Alex Hudetan.

I said okay.

I told him I've realized that I could be working at Juice Land, which is a smoothie shop here in town. I could be working at smoothie shop if I'm Having a good time.

That's happiness. Like, I could be just. I could be just as fine working at Juice Land. Having a great time.

Living presently.

Yeah. If you're present and you're happy downstairs. I think it was yesterday, Jason showed me a quote that he liked, which was, be happy and the reason will come.

I love that. That's good.

Just choose, allow yourself to be happy and you'll find the reasons to justify. Because we can be as happy as we want to be and we can find reasons to be sad or depressed.

Or reasons to be really happy. That's good. There's always going to be reasons to be upset and be sad and be depressed. There's always going to be reasons to be happy. That's right. You can choose to be happy. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

What did you do with the money?

Tried to pay as little tax as possible.

Good man.

Shout out to. Well, maybe I shouldn't.

You can shout out whatever you want.

I moved a bit into real estate. I enjoy that. I have a really great property manager in Maine.

Manages my buildings there. That's like quote, unquote, mailbox money, which relieves some stress.

That's your monthly nut.

Yeah.

And so you can be aggressive in the business because you don't need the money.

It doesn't. It's not just money in my bank account getting lower and lower and lower like we were talking about yesterday. Yeah.

If you're attached to that, you can mess things up real quick.

Yeah. I try to invest it, whether it's. I just don't like keeping money in my bank account. Good. I don't want to see it. Yeah.

Well, I know you have a flight to catch.

Yes. Yes, I do.

Is there anything else that you want to say before you go hop on a flight?

Thank you. It's like you said, I mean, When I was 17, we met and you've been a huge inspiration. It's been. It's been a crazy journey and we definitely owe a lot to you. Thanks, man. It's been helpful. All the capitalism, everything.

All of the capitalism, all of the.

Capitalism.

The teams, everything you've done, really pretty much all the. Really. All the content you've done put out for free. Because even when. Even in those times when we were going through, like, the next level program, that we went through that program, but we were just consuming everything, the content you were putting out at the time was unbelievably valuable. Not that it isn't now, but at the time, nobody was doing that. Not many. Anyways, thanks man, absolutely.

You. You know, we've been working together in person for a few years now, and it's pretty rare for, you know, 21 year old, 22 year old to get into a room of other high rollers. I did that and was the youngest one in the room when I was 21.

I'm just.

I would like to hear how that has changed your approach.

What do you mean?

Like, you're 21. You come into a room of people sometimes twice your age, sometimes just a few years ahead of you, but they're thinking differently. I'm just curious if it impacts.

Yeah. Your approach to business so. Well, my approach to meeting people and networking with people has changed in that sense.

You can never really assume you know someone until you meet them, until you really talk to them. You know, like, people might assume things about me because of my age. Right. And.

I do the same. We all do. You know, everyone assumes and judges people here and there. We try to do it as little as possible, but when it comes to, like, coming to these events and meeting people, I just have to kind of force myself to.

Be completely neutral, you know, and just meet people and be present, pretty much build rapport with people and connect with them personally. And the value will come later, too. Yeah.

Well, you're wise beyond your years, my friend.

I appreciate that.

And like, dude, you were in the first inning. Do you. Do you know that? Like, do you know how young you are?

It's. It surprises me sometimes because so much happens and so little time has gone by. Yeah, yeah.

And you're like, you are just warming up. So I am very bullish on you, buddy.

Appreciate that.

All right, man, let's go get you on a plane.

All right. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. You bet.

Hey, I hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. One note. I wanted to draw to your attention if you enjoyed this and you want to hear a little bit more about the backstory. We had Jeremiah on the show a couple years ago when he was right at the peak of his first business, the one that he sold. And so if you just look up the richest kid in Maine, there's an episode on the capitalism.com feed on the Freedom Fast Lane podcast where you can find the interview about that goes a little bit deeper into his business and how that was built. Or if you want just want some free resources, if you want to start doing. You want to start building businesses, businesses that you can either use to replace your income or for you to sell, go over to capitalism.com, start and you can see our free resources or I just started giving out a resource that talks about how to build a product business and sell it and that's over@capitalism.com exit. I hope you enjoyed the show and I will see you on the next one. Thanks for listening.

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