How I Went From 0 to $4M in 2 Years... (INSPIRING)

I'm about to have a heart attack. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I'm like, if I don't get this stuff in the next, like, five or six days, I'm gonna lose like half a million dollars that I don't have. And my company's bankrupt. We literally were like, we'll never get out of this. I called my wife and I said, you need to come home right now. I can't feel my legs. At the hospital gave me two options. He goes, either you have emergency back surgery, like right now, we're rushing you to surgery, or you're never going to walk again in your life.

You go from crippled and bankrupt to two years later of a four million dollar exit.

Yep. I was sitting there, still pretty depressed, and I was watching YouTube one night. Some crazy guy named Ryan Daniel Moran is doing some speak about how you can do it from zero to a million in 12 months.

All you need to focus on is getting to this level. Sounds like a scam.

And I'm like, this guy is so full of shit.

So.

From bankruptcy, crippled and depressed to a successful multimillionaire entrepreneur in less than two years. This is the story of Jared Springer. Within two years of finding my work, he had a multimillion dollar business that he sold for a cool $4 million. In this interview, we are going to talk about what product he sold, how he took it to market, how he sourced the product, how he got to the first million. But more importantly, you're going to hear all, all of the obstacles that Jared had to overcome in order to get to that level. And if Jared can overcome what he faced, then you are left with no excuses. At the end of this interview, I also asked Jared what life looks like after an exit. Going from broke and crippled to a multimillionaire in a very short period of time, that's a big life change. And so we go through what life looks like and how things change after you've had a big success. But my favorite part of all of this is that Jared is now one of our coaches inside of our community. And he only does it because he cares so much about investing in and mentoring the next crop of success stories. So if you're watching this and you're thinking, I'm too late, Jared got started at the right time. I want you to know that half the people that come on this show who are success stories just come on because they care about the next crop of success stories. They started where you are watching the YouTube videos, listening to the podcast, reading the book. And they've all had success, and now they all have an interest in seeing you be in the next crop of success stories. All right, let's dive in with Jared. So, Jared, the way that I often like to start these is just to ask, how did you make your money?

How did I make my money? Well, I actually made my money because of you.

Because of.

I fed you that one.

You did. No, you didn't. So I started an E Commerce brand. Do you want me going into the backstory first or kind of just jump in?

Tell me the end result first and then I want to hear about the climb. Getting there.

Okay. So, you know, it was about a three to four year climb. I went from bankrupt and crippled, and I was bankrupt because my son was actually born with, like, clubbed feet flipped upside down.

And would you explain what that is? Because you told me last night.

Yeah.

And I've heard the term clubbed feet, but wtf?

I did not know it was that. So it's a genetic condition. It runs in certain people's families. And it's basically like instead of your feet, you know, like this.

It's like this, like on the wrong way. On your foot.

Yeah. So basically, like, when you look down, you see the tops of your feet. He saw the bottoms of his feet and they flipped upside down. We knew it was happening because, you know, when they did the 20 week ultrasound to, you know, find out the sex of your baby or what it's going to be, they're like, they did it. And then they're like, you need to wait here. We have to go get a specialist. And like, oh, my God. What's. What do you mean? What's wrong with our son? They're like, oh, he'll be okay. And we're like, that's still not. Yeah, like, you're still freaking me the frick out. Like, I was like, okay. And then they told us, like, hey, you know, they showed us the picture and we're like, oh, crap. So it involved basically five years of surgeries. His first year of his life. Surgery, surgery, surgery. And then every year they put his feet in, or every single week, I should say, they put his feet in casts. And then at the end of the week, we go to the children's hospital, they cut the cast off with, you know, the grinder thing, bend his feet out a little bit. Oh, my God. Recast him in. And we did that for a year, and the medical bills of that just added up. So we were like half a million dollars in debt. So we Ended up filing bankruptcy. We had nothing we could. We literally were like, we'll never get out of this. You know, my wife and I didn't make much money at the time. I did, like, sales. My wife was working at the time. She was working at that hospital, UW Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Luckily, like I told you last night, the specialist that fixes, like, trains every doctor. I believe his name was, like, Dr. Noonan, I can't remember his name exactly. Was based out of the hospital she worked in. So we had the guy who trains every other surgeon in the country taking care of our son. So that's kind of how we got, like, in so much debt. You know, not any of our court. Like, we were always, like, super conservative.

But every single parent would choose half a million dollars in debt to give their kid a healthy, normal life.

Absolutely.

But you. You told me that he was, like, screaming in terrible pain for years.

So the. The surgeries were the worst, like, and just seeing him in so much pain when he would come out of surgery, the one. And I've never shared this, like, publicly or talked about it. For one of the surgeries, when they cut his heel cord, they actually put.

Like, a pole about this long, like, a metal pole. Think of this as your foot from the toe all the way to the ankle, like an entire steel rod through his toe, through his whole foot to the other. And then it had to set after the surgery, and I had to sit there and hold him down. Um, and then I damn near passed out. Cause he was screaming so bad when they pulled it out and getting a little emotional, but I almost lost it. And I was like. So me and my wife were planning on having more kids. That was. We have two boys. Two. Two healthy boys. He runs around, plays, rides a dirt bike, rides a bicycle. Like, he does everything a normal kid should do. Like I told you last night, when you found out about this, you're like, oh, my God. And I was like, I'm thankful because I have a different perspective on life than a lot of people. We could have lived in a country where we didn't have medical care, or we could have been someplace that didn't have good doctors that know how to handle it. My wife literally worked at the hospital where the number one surgeon, caretaker of the whole country, who teaches people all over the world on this was there. And so we had the best care in the world for my son. So now people wouldn't know. Unless you look at his foot, and it's nothing but scars front and back on both of his feet, you wouldn't know. His feet are turned in still just a tiny little bit. But I mean, he runs and blitzes and, you know, does everything a normal kid should do. He's 10 years old. So I'm thankful that we were in the position and the place and everything aligned that he came out of it. And he. He can run and be a normal kid. So that was the most important thing.

Obviously, you're thankful for that, but at the time, you're half. It puts you half a million dollars in debt and you go bankrupt. And if I remember correctly, at around the same time, you. You were in an accident.

Yeah, so it wasn't really an accident. So it was actually more of a mental struggle. This was like, I had started years before this happened, kind of on, like an entrepreneurial journey. I, like, had a real estate license. I was trying to do all these things, but I had this, like, internal battle of, like, you know, do I quit my job? Do I not quit my job? So I never went all in on being an entrepreneur because I was a father. I had two babies at home. Like, I wouldn't allow myself to quit my job. And so I had this mental battle over and over and over. And every time I wouldn't listen, my back pain would get worse. My back pain would get worse. And I spent a year going to physical therapists and chiropractors and all these different things. None of it worked. And I'm like, just give me surgery. Give me surgery. Fix the damn problem. I was miserable. I couldn't stop, stand, I couldn't sit, I couldn't do anything. And this was just after I had filed bankruptcy. So like a year later, now I'm racking up more medical debt. Couldn't work. So I was out of jail, out of the work. My wife supported us. And one, you know, I had a lot of people don't know this. I had an appointment with the surgeon on a Friday, and this happened on a Thursday. I woke up one morning, couldn't feel either one of my legs. They were completely gone. I just. No feeling whatsoever in my legs. I hopped out of bed. Cause my son, who was Isaac, was in his crib screaming because something was bothering him. He wanted out of his babies. They just didn't need attention.

I literally dragged my body on my forearms because my legs did not work. I somehow propped myself up. My other son is 14 months older, so he was around, I think, one and a half, two. I called my wife and I said, you need to come home right now. I Can't feel my legs. At the hospital I pulled my son out of this crib and I blacked out from the pain and passed out. And the only thing I remember is my wife rushing in. And my wife's tiny, she's like 5 to 110 pounds, you know, tiny little person. And I'm kind of, can't tell on camera. I'm 64220 and at that time I was 64 and like 250.

She somehow carried me out in, into our jeep and rushed me to the emergency room and they rushed me into the thing. It filled me full of drugs. Finally they're like, we need to do an mri. And then the surgeon who I had an appointment with the next day comes in and he gave me two options. He goes, either you have emergency back surgery, like right now we're rushing you to surgery, or you're never going to walk again in your life. Because my legs were. And this was, I was 29 years old, so not like an old person. This was like nine years ago. I'm 38 now. So like I couldn't feel my legs. They were like. I was like, you know, I always joke about it like, oh, you know, have emergency back surgery, never walk again. Hard choice, you know, hahahaha. And I'm like, yeah, shit me into surgery. And so I went into surgery.

How long since your son's final operation was this like, what was the gap between these two traumatic events?

Probably like six months to a year. So pretty damn close.

So. So right, so your son's having surgery, you're bankrupt, you're exhausted and your back is hurting. Probably, I mean, probably from a lot of stress, internal pressure, guilt, shame. And then you have to have emergency surgery. So this is all in a period of like 12 to 18 months. Yeah, that's a bad year.

I think the universe sometimes, I always tell people it's the best thing that ever happened to me. In retrospect.

God, I hate when people say that because it's like how I am not that strong.

When people like you say that. I'm like, I don't know that I want the best thing to happen. That's the best thing to happen. I don't, I want out.

Well, I have this mentality, this philosophy that nothing's really good nor bad. It just, you know, anything can be really good or bad. And most people I think, get down because they, they think bad things are happening to them. You know, like I could have not done anything and I could have. That could have been a Bad thing for me, like, you know, all the stuff I went through, but that pushed me to make a change. So it was the one thing that finally was like, hey, dumbass.

Across the head. Like, you're gonna change whether you like it or not. I'm taking away your ability to walk for a year after the surgery. So I'm, like, 29, 30 years old. I'm walking around in a walker. I can't wipe my own ass. You know, my wife is having to help me with everything. And so I think things happen to show you a way. And it's not necessarily bad or good. It just. It's. We perceive things in a way that our mental construct kind of changes them to. But I don't think everything really is good or bad. I think it's just some things are bad scenarios, but they lead you to better scenarios down the road versus if you make no change, you just take everything as a bad scenario.

I once heard some YouTube clip of, like, a brain surgeon or brain scientist or neuroscience, whatever they're called, talking about the fact that people, when they're adults, don't really change unless they experience financial, relationship, or health trauma. And it takes that amount of pain to finally say, all right, I will change. I will do something. And it sounds like you went through at least two of those three, and it got your attention.

Absolutely.

So you obviously recovered from surgery. You're in great shape. You walked in here, so. So, like, happy ending there.

Yeah.

But how long was your recovery? And I want to know, okay, you want to change, but you're still crippled, you're still recently bankrupt. How do you change when you can barely walk or pay your bills?

Yeah. So I'm not gonna lie. I went through a really dark, dark, depressed, probably six months to a year. You know, at the time, you know, I was recovering, I wanted to go back to work, but I couldn't. And so I was like. I felt worthless, you know? You know? You know, I know it's. It shouldn't matter, like, who makes money or whatever, but I felt like I couldn't help provide for my kids. I couldn't provide for my family. I couldn't walk. I couldn't do anything. My wife was having to mow the grass. And I was like, oh, I love mowing the grass. Now I have gardeners. But back then, I loved mowing the grass.

And so it was a really dark period. Very depressed. And the one thing that kind of saved it is I started going back to some of the original teachings that I had learned kind of on my run up to get my, like my real estate license and things like that, like my self improvement, my reading every day, my journaling and. And then I was sitting there still pretty depressed and I was watching YouTube one night. And this is like a video you posted like eight years ago. Some crazy guy named Ryan Daniel Moran is doing some speak about how you can do from zero to a million in 12 months.

Sounds like a scam.

And I was like, what a prick.

What a prick says zero to a million in 12 months. This guy sounds like a goofy prick.

And I'm like, this guy is so full of shit.

So.

No offense, but you know, it's the Internet. And so I started looking actually, you know, I started doing a little digging into you actually. And I had taken some courses, we had some like people that I had followed that knew you. And so I was like, all right, I'll give this guy a chance. I was like, okay, I'll give his.

Free content a chance.

I'll give his free content a chance. And actually joking all aside, I actually didn't think you were like. Something about your speech just like it super inspired me. Like I. I had done all this self improvement to learn how to like fundamentally change my brain and how I thought because I came from, you know, super poor upbringings, no money, you know, no food in the house, you know, broken family, you know, all the things, you know, that everybody, a lot. Well, most us faces nowadays. So like I had this horrible mental programming. So I had kind of fixed that. But I never had anybody who she's like, this is how you make a million dollars. Like I always tell people, I was like, before this I was like a course collector and I would read books Nonstop. And I 10 years I was an.

Entrepreneur, an info junkie.

Junkie.

Yeah. You're just looking for the idea like you're feeding your brain, but you don't have up the path.

Yeah, there's no like clear like point A to point B. It was always like, okay. So I just would constantly like try to learn things, try to read books, try to do this. And something about you is like, this is what you do. It's the same speech you do now, actually. I think it's like the four products, you know, 25 sales a day, you know, a million dollars. I'm like, that is so stupid simple. It might actually work. I was like, there's no. I'm like, okay, he's not doing all the fancy like salesy jargon, you know, all this stuff. It was like simple Path, create a product, serve an audience. Create a product to serve those audience. You know, sell them the stuff, launch another product that serves them. Build a brand, make money. I was like, wow. Like this is stupid simple. The problem was, is I didn't have any money to like hire you buy anything. Like, so I was really in like a dark hole. But mentally I was like, okay, I gotta figure this out one way or another. I gotta figure out how to do this. And so like I went online and I through, I started searching E commerce and then I started doing this and then I found this thing called retail arbitrage. And I was like, I need to make money. I need to make money fast. How do I do it? What do I know? Well, like I told you, I was like an information collector for 10 years. I knew books, all books, anything books. I was a reader. So I was like, screw this, I'm in a walker, a little basket on the front, going to Goodwill. You know any of those savers places buying books for 25 cents to a dollar?

No way.

And I was like, why?

Like any books or self improvement books?

Pretty much any book. Like, and if I, I think they had the seller app at that point, like way back in the day where you could like scan a bar, like scan a barcode or. No, it was like profit ban. I think it was before they had.

They'Ve had some of those. You can like scan something and see what it's selling for on ebay, on Amazon, if you're at a retail store.

Yeah. So I wouldn't, you know, I'd go and I'd spend hours hobbling around in my little walker. Like all I had was like 20 bucks at the time to my name. Like that wasn't like to food or like paying our bills or anything else. And I went around and I would go, and then I'd take them and I'd ship them to Amazon. I would make sure they were like fast sellers so I could flip them quick. Yeah, I'd take that money, go buy more. Then I realized like, oh, I can do the same thing with like Target with clearance aisles and like this thing with this.

And I was like, can you think of a book that sold really well that had good margins that would be super interesting.

I think it was like back then it was like Harry Potter. Like some of those would wind up in like, you know, Goodwill. And I was like, man, those are hot right now. So like if I buy it for 50 cents goodwill, you know, 20 bucks minus fees, I can profit like 15 bucks. I mean, you know, 2 bucks to 15 bucks is a huge return on investment. Like if you're thinking numbers wise, like, I just kept doing this and I did this for a few months and then I started to make enough money and I bought your brand builder boot camp.

You bought that?

I did.

Oh my goodness.

And that's how I got kind of indoctrinated to. With what you did.

I actually didn't know that part. I didn't know that you were an early.

I mean, that was like one of your early. Early.

Yeah, one of those early products that.

Which I think back then, I think I paid like three grand for it. And it was just like an info course. Like there was not like with the 1% now you have like, you know, coaches and help and like that. It was pretty much, I think just like, here's an info course and it's three grand.

Yeah.

But it had all the exact information that I needed to figure out, like how to build a business, how to build a brand. And I was kind of struggling, like, what do I do? Like, I don't know what to make, I don't know what to do. And so I had a dog. I still have a dog. Same dog, name's lucy. She's a 90 pound chocolate Lab. She's 13 years old now. Old and gray. But back then she was like 4 years old. She was, you know, a little puppy. She was, she was just like chilling. So I was like, I love dogs. So I'm like, I'm gonna, you know, start a dog brand. And so I actually like those little silicone collapsible bowls. I invented those. Cause I'm like, this is gonna set the world on fire. I was too stupid to know that I should patent it or I should do any of the back end things. And once I started selling it, I realized like this $5 product that only cost me 50 cents to make, but then had like 450 in, you know, fees for fulfillment. I was making like a dollar per one. I'm like, I'm gonna have to sell a million of these damn things to make some money.

That's why the formula is $30 price point.

So ended up going into higher priced products and serving like dog owners. And I came up with the idea of these like little robotic dog banks. And they like chomped down on the coin and they put it in there and they were like 30 bucks. And so.

So like a toy.

It was basically like a little dog bank and there's like a little dog statue on top and you put a coin in it, and it would like, go, nom, nom, nom, nom. And it would fall into it. But they were like 30 bucks and like $2 to produce. So I had really good margins. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to go all in on this product. Like, I don't have the money for it. So, like, I literally was like, drop shipping some of them to start before I could afford, like, to manufacture them with my own brand on them. And I basically just marketed, marketed, marketed with money that I didn't have with product that I didn't have a lot of the time, like pre sales to try to build this up. And then, you know, I made. I think. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but I think it was like, I made like $300,000 in a matter of a few months leading up to Christmas. And I was like, holy shit, this stuff works. I have money. Like, okay. And so then I actually went back and started building a real brand.

Well, hold on. I think there's so. Because you're one of the case studies in my book, 12 months, 1 million. And in that case study, you talk about how you had all these orders, but you almost couldn't fill them.

Yeah.

So you had made $300,000 on paper, but then there was a moment in which you almost lost it all. Like this.

Yeah. So I think it was actually I had about $500,000 in inventory coming in. It was like, I made like, I put all my money on the chips on the line, ordered all this inventory. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna finally make all this money. I did skip over. That was kind of a really funny story, actually. There's a lot of pieces that involve with it. I'm gonna order all this inventory. Like, I almost crap my pants sending all this money over there. I get it. It's like, a few weeks before Christmas, the stuff gets stuck in customs, and it's sitting in customs, and I have, like, $300,000 plus in orders. Like, all this money tied up. Like, I have to fill these orders. It's sitting in customs. A lot of people bought these because they were a toy for, like, Christmas presents. I'm like, I called the person in customs. I think it was like, in St. Louis, I paid, like, $26,000 to have this stuff air freighted because I'm like, I got to get in time for Christmas or it's not going to work. So I spent all this extra money to get it air freighted, and it sits for two weeks. And I'm just sitting there going pissed. Like, that's a lot of money. And I ended up getting on the phone with the person at, like, FedEx, and they blew me off.

And this is like, six months. I mean, were you walking normally by this point?

Yeah, I was. This was like, probably, like, after the back surgery, I went through a dark period for like, six months to a year. So I was almost recovered, like, enough. So I still was dealing with a lot of pain, but I could move around. I wasn't in a long run.

So you're just getting your head above water, right? And now it's like somebody's threatening you with a baseball bat right when your head pops up from the water and you're about to get clubbed in the head and go back underwater.

I was like, a little baby seal. Like, no.

You're, like, just catching your breath, and then stuff gets stuck in customs right before Christmas. They blow you off. Then what happens?

So I called them, and I finally, like, I kept calling and calling and calling, and I finally got to, like, somebody who, like, they were like, we don't know why it's being held, but we'll do what we can. And I just got super sincere. Like, I didn't, like, scream. I was like, I have so much money on the line. I, like, I'm about to have a heart attack. Like, I was literally, like, my heart was pounding out of my chest. I'm like, if I don't get this stuff in the next, like, five or six days, I'm gonna lose, like, half a million dollars that I don't have. And my company's bankrupt. And I'm like. And I just filed bankruptcy, like, a couple years prior, so I can't even file bankruptcy again. Like, I'm like. And she finally was like, okay. I don't know. Like, I believe in, like, you know what I believe? The God, universe, whatever it is. Somebody was like, tom Cruise.

Yeah, Oprah.

Tom Cruise is up there. You are, Oprah. You get a car, you get your order, you get your material for Christmas. You've been a good boy.

Thank you, Oprah.

And so she's like, I will make sure that it's released today. And I was like. And this was. I'm trying to remember the dates. I mean, this is a long time ago now, but it was like a week before Christmas, and in order to get stuff shipped out, you at least four or five days to ship it. So it was like a week and A half, maybe before Christmas. And it was going to take like two or three days to get to me. So I literally had like, it had to come be boxed and then shipped out, like immediately. And so then I had another problem because I'm like, up until this point, we had small enough orders that I was fulfilling it from the house, you know, And I didn't have a big house. I had a little like 1200 square foot, split level house in Wisconsin. It's December, it's cold. I was like, okay, what do I do? And this is a big lesson of, like, how you treat people, relationships. Business is. Prior to starting my own business and all the other stuff, I was a manager in retail chains. I managed at Walmart, managed at Target. So I had this whole family that I loved, that I managed all at Target. They were from Albania. We called them the Albanians. They're this crazy Albanian family. You know, they all move here, make a ton of money. You know, they have a really good life here. And so I called one of them up and I was like, hey, I need a team of people. I know you guys, you know, you work Target, you stock trucks, whatever. And I'm like, I know some of you may have to work. They're like, jared, for you we'll call into work. I was paying them cash, too. A lot of money. Cash. They're like, for you we'll call into work. And I was like, okay. So I got this team of like 16 Albanians and we took one of them because a lot of these were the. The wives and they had kids. And so there was all these kids running around and we, I had like.

So we're dangerously close to promoting child labor laws on this podcast right now.

A lot of them didn't, you know, like, fully speak English, so there was some communication barriers and we're trying to.

There's going to be no YouTube comments about capitalism and exploitation right now. None at all.

Hey, you.

Hey. So you pay. You pay them cash to come over them, and their children are now in your garage.

Played with my kids and, you know, all the other stuff. We had one good safe. Yeah, they were. They're amazing people. Like, I still, I still. Just so you know, every time I go back to Wisconsin, a lot of them still work there. And I run into them when I go to Target and they're always like, jared, you need anything, we'll come work for you again. They're just great people. The real reason they did it, joking aside, is because I just treat everyone like a human, because everyone is A good person.

I mean, when you've seen the darkest of the dark, you develop empathy real fast. Like you realize everyone's gone through shit. Exactly. And, and everyone experiences events differently. And the people who are grumpy are grumpy for a reason. You, you develop empathy real quick when you've been through shit. So, so they're helping you fill all these orders and you've got to make them in like the next five days and get them shipped out or to.

Amazon or to what we shipped out. So it was, you know, we didn't have time to put it to like a fulfillment warehouse or anything else. So literally it was December. I think it was December 16th. I remember the day because it was like, we have to have this shipped. So that way it has time to get there before Christmas. It has to go out December 16th, I believe the number was. I had 7,000 orders to fulfill in one day. And so in a day, in a day. So I literally had the morning at 9am I had all these, this whole Albanian workforce show up and there's this like table set out in my garage. Like I had before this. I like ordered pallets of boxes from like Uline and tape. Like I had everything printed, all the shipping labels printed, organized by like size colors so we could assemble, assembly line it. Because we're Wisconsin in a cold garage in the middle of winter. FedEx truck shows up at 9am, they back up the trailer drop like a full FedEx trailer full of pallets in my gravel driveway and we just go to work. I borrowed a pallet jack and we'd roll one pallet into the garage or two pallets into the garage and we'd go to work. And the shitty part was is I had scheduled a postal service like 53 Foot Me and the postal service like send an entire truck. I'm gonna fill it, we're gonna, we'll pack it, ship like shrink wrap the pallets, we'll load them for you, get em on the truck. And then you just need to get them to the warehouse or the distribution center and then they'll do it from there. So I go, okay, we'll send you a whole trailer. So all the Albanians get there, the truck drops off stuff, we go to work. It's December 16th in Wisconsin. It's middle wintertime. It starts snowing and snowing horribly bad. And so all of these people are like sitting there and I get a call from the postmaster. It's like, hey Jared, I know we have that trailer coming out to you. That was Supposed to have it filled all day and then we're gonna pick it up at like 5. We need it to leave by like noon. And at this point I think we had packed like one pallet worth of boxes. I was like, no, we can't do that. They're like, sorry, the truck's already on its way. And so the truck driver gets there, backs up, and I'm like, sorry dude, you just got sitting waiting. And he was like, excuse me. I'm like, you're going to have to wait. And at that point I actually did like, I was like, so are we going to have a problem here? And I got all like. But I did actually was very friendly to him. Like, hey, I kind of explained the situation. He's like, okay, what do you need me to do? And the postal truck driver started like wrapping pallets for me. He was like, teamwork, like everything. Everyone was working together. Like we literally. And prior to that I was up for three days straight printing out like shipping labels. I had like stacks of boxes everywhere, like already assembled, like the bottom. They just needed to be packed. So I had been up for like three or four days at this point. And so I was like, finally got the truck loaded. He left at like 4 o'. Clock. We just like assembly lined order after order after order. It was like a well oiled machine. Like I was so blown away, like when we got done and the truck was on its way that I literally just collapsed in a chair and like fell asleep.

So short story, the orders got out.

The orders got out.

You saved the half a million bucks.

Yep.

And was that the foundation of the business that ended up becoming a seven figure business? Yeah, it was selling dog banks.

Dog banks. We specialized in selling things like we didn't want to get into. Like, you know, the market was very competitive for like dog toys or things like that. One of the things we realize is that dog owners love dogs, but they love themselves almost more than they love their dogs. So if they can buy something dog themed but they use it, they're even more apt to buy it because they love dogs. So we ended up selling like, you know, wallets and dog banks and like, we just developed a whole suite of dogs.

Dog paraphernalia.

Dog paraphernalia, basically for dog lovers.

Yeah. You don't think of that as like a hot niche, but what you did was you had a person in mind and you came up with products that they would buy. And even though they weren't logical on like, and first thought, you know, like, they need this dog bank, you're just serving the owner. You're serving the pet owner. Are you covered with saying what you sold it for?

So about $4 million.

$4 million. And what was the time frame? From snowy Wisconsin, packing pallets?

About two and a half years.

Two and a half years.

So at that point, we were probably, like, packing those pallets. We were really only like six months into the business.

And then, you know, we hit a million dollars that first year. And then we kind of just kept scaling and scaling and scaling up.

So you go from crippled and bankrupt and depressed to, you know, buying a digital product, going through problems, and this is where it's just a testament to. You can figure it out. Like, you just figured it out.

You just.

It had to be done, and you got it done.

Yeah.

And getting over that hurdle, then two. Two years later, you have a $4 million exit. Yep. Which, safe to say, that was more money than you had ever seen in your life.

Yeah, I grew up pretty, Pretty. Pretty poor and pretty. You know, we didn't have food a lot of times. So, like, it was definitely. It was one of. I think the best moment I can explain it is, you know, like, selling a business is almost like getting rid of a kid. I mean, if you've ever, like, sold a business. And so it was really stressful, and there was a lot of, like, back and forth with, you know, people and just, you know, banks and, you know, we sell a business, like, all your papers, like, I mean, they, like, what happened two years ago, this date with, like, everything has to be like, T's crossed, eyes dotted. So it's like, finally I remember me and my wife.

We had taken the kids to school that day, and at this time, they were four and five. So I think preschool and kindergarten, or maybe they're kindergarten and first grade somewhere in there. And, you know, you hand over all the Access, all the information into the escrow company, and they're like, okay. They send you the confirmation back that the wire's on its way. And like, every five, three seconds, I'm checking my bank account, like, is it there? Is it there? Is it there? And we're. Me and my wife are like, I'm just getting stressed out now because it's like 3:30 because we're picking up our kids from school. I'm like, come on. Right before my kids get out of school to pick them up, me and my wife are sitting in her Jeep. I check my bank account. I see all those zeros lined up across the board. I look at My wife, because she was a huge proponent in building the business, supporting me. Just so you know, I wanted to go back to work. So many times after my back surgery, my wife refused to let me go to work because she knew that I'd be completely miserable.

That's a good woman.

And she said, no, this is what you dream for. I will keep us afloat while you do this. And there was a lot of ups and downs in the process.

We looked at each other like. Like this. Gazed into each other's eyes, and we just started bawling. We just started crying. And then the bell for the school, like, the kids get out rings. They were like, okay, we gotta go get the kids.

Put it together.

Put it together. And you.

And you walk into school a millionaire. Yeah, Multimillionaire.

And we walked out to pick up, like, the kids, and the kids are like, what's wrong, mom and dad? What happened? It was like, we're multi millionaires. And, like, we. I mean, they were like four or five. So I guess we didn't really. I'm like, we just. We're just really happy. We sold. We always called it Puppy Logo Company because my kids worked in the business and everything else. And so I'm like, we finally sold the business, and we just kind of told them, you know, like, they're like, oh, okay, cool. That was it to them. It was like, okay, another day.

Jeez. This is the best story ever. And it must. You do some coaching inside of the 1%. I have to ask. When a student brings you an excuse about why they can't do it, you must want to crush them because you've had every excuse to quit or give up and you still did it. I'm using. I'm being extreme. Right. Like, everybody has their own story. But what goes through your head when you're working with somebody and they have an excuse, knowing everything that you've overcome.

It'S not as extreme as you would think. I actually have more empathy for them because.

Like, dealing with a lot of my own mental stuff and, like, leading up to building the business and even during the business, I think the hardest thing for me was just doing what I knew I needed to do. Like, and allowing myself to do that. Like. Like, it's really easy to tell someone, hey, go, abc. But if in their brain, they're so afraid of success, and that's really what most people are. Is they're actually afraid of success. I think I was afraid of success, like, in having money, I don't know why I haven't ever figured it out, but I think there's so many times that people know what they need to do. They just won't do it for one reason or another. And so I don't get angry or like, I've been through all this stuff much worse than you. You got it. So I don't go into it with that mentality. I go in and I go, you know, like, okay, what's the real issue here? Why aren't you doing what you know you need to do? And usually it involves, like. Especially with, like, people I coach one on one and dive in. It's usually just diving in to see what is actually happening in their brain that's preventing them from doing what they need to do. And it could be. Every person is different. It could be a million different things. They could be afraid of success. You know, some people, I don't know, they just have, like, some trauma from when they were little that they had to get through to get to be able to allow themselves to do what they need to do. So I don't. I don't think my story makes me, like, like, pompous about it, because I know that it's not about necessarily what you go through. It's just allowing yourself to do what you know you need to do, which I think is what every entrepreneur struggles with.

What do you usually do to walk somebody through that process? Because that. I was having a conversation with our sales team just this morning, and we were going through some of the changes we made in the 1%, like our new AI tools and some sourcing resources that we're bringing to the table. And we were talking about how the only reason why somebody would not be successful with the new curriculum and the new tools is if they didn't believe in themselves enough to do it. Because the steps are there, the tools are there, the relationships are there, the coaching is there, the mentorship's there, the resources. It's all there. In a very logical format. It just comes down to if somebody will believe in themselves enough to do it. And I was telling the sales team, when you run into that, that is when you really have to not let someone go. Like, you do not let someone quit on themselves just because they doubt themselves. That is the part where you can serve them the most. That is the part where you can, like, grab them and say, if you think I'm gonna give you up and let you go because you don't believe in yourself, we gotta have a deeper conversation. But getting them to do the work is a mental hurdle. That needs to be overcome. So how do you coach somebody through that?

So it usually starts with a lot of questions. Like, you know, if someone's like, usually, you know, if I'm coaching someone one on one and I tell them to do certain, certain things and it doesn't happen once, it's like, okay, maybe there was something happened that week or, you know, whatever. It's usually when I start seeing a pattern of like, you know, I've had one on one clients where they won't, they'll reschedule over and over again because they haven't got their stuff done that they knew they were supposed to get done. Or they'll come up with something. I am sick or I'm this. And so I'll give people a break because I know the hardest. The only person you're battling as an entrepreneur is yourself. Like that's the biggest battle in the world is just battling yourself over anything else.

And you know, something a mentor told me once was you've got to let go of this idea of everybody's trying to get you, everyone's trying to help you. The only person battling you is you're. When you're an entrepreneur and you have a vision and you're moving towards it, it's kind of amazing how many people are willing to support you if you let them. So I'm totally vibing with what you're saying. So they're coming up with excuses, not showing up, canceling. You're looking for a pattern. And what do you, what do you extrapolate from that pattern?

So after, you know, they've shown like a few times of like, where they won't follow through or they're doing stuff, it really just, it's usually a really personal one on one conversation of like just diving in of like what they actually want a lot of times and asking them why they didn't get it done repeatedly. And you have to almost get someone to admit that they are their own problem. Like if you can get somebody to admit and recognize that they are the problem, that it's not the external circumstances problem, that it's their problem, that's usually when they go, the light bulb clicks and they're like, I am the problem.

There's no one left to blame.

Exactly. They have to take responsibility for their actions.

There's no, there's no more outside person or circumstance or reason that you can point the finger to anymore. And, and I think that is so empowering that when that person says, I'm the problem so I can be the solution, too.

And it's usually what happens is once they finally, like. And it's not a lot of times, it's not like a light bulb moment. Sometimes it is. I had people go, like, I'm the problem. And I'm like. And they're like, you know, and you just give them, like, not an awkward pause, but a silence for a second. And I've had people break down and cry on the call. And I'm like, that's not what I try to get people to do. But they just. They need that release of, like, I am the problem. You know? You are the only one responsible. One of the things I learned early on is like, no one is coming to save me. No one's coming to save you. No one's coming to save whoever's watching this. The only person who can save you is. Is you. Like, you are the only one. And until you take 100% responsibility for your life, nothing will change at all. That's plain and simple.

Doesn't matter how you got here. It doesn't matter what the road that you took to get here. It's just a matter of, do you take responsibility for it now?

Yeah.

And make changes now?

Yeah. And so that's. That's usually the start of it. And that's usually when I see people kind of go, like, get the realization, like, I'm the problem. Okay.

I can.

I gotta work through whatever I'm working through. And it really just depends on what their whole issue is. Like, there's a million different variables, but it's really just getting them to realize that they are the problem. They need to be the only one who's gonna make the decision. Like, I'm not gonna force you to do stuff. You need to force yourself to do stuff. Because you are the only one responsible for your outcome. I'm not responsible for your outcome. I can give you every tool in the world, but. But if you don't take the tools and, like, use them, it isn't gonna matter. You are the only one who can handle that responsibility. And you are the only one responsible for what happens. Like, I have a really hard time even, like, taking responsibility for my own success. Cause that's one of my own weaknesses. Cause I'm always like, ryan taught me this, Ryan taught me that. And everyone's like, you have a really, like, crazy story. You went through some shit. And I always just like, I did what it was necessary. That's like, everyone is like, people like, in the 1% love my story. You know, people. Anyone who's, you know, followed my story or knows me or read my book. Everyone's like, you inspired me. I'm like, I don't feel that way.

I understand that. I completely get what you're saying. It, there's.

It's, it's just like the reality of the situation. Like, I don't. I'm hearing you say you don't glamorize it. It's just, that's what you had to do. And I don't glamorize my stories either. I've learned that if I tell them in a certain way, it connects with people. But I don't think of my own successes or my own stories as particularly interesting. It's just what happened. And that's what I'm hearing you say.

Yeah. One of the hardest things I still struggle with to this day is I don't see myself how other people see me. Like, everyone looks at me as, like, you know, like, you know, they look up to me or they, you know, my story or this. And I'm like, just a normal dude who did some cool stuff, you know.

You know what I. You know what I have found to be helpful because I'm. You're kind of.

Flirting with this idea of imposter syndrome. Like, other people see this way and you don't see yourself. And something that has helped me with that is simply being happy that they're having that insight and realizing that I have my own logical story, they have theirs, and something about their perception about me is having an impact.

In their story, and I'm just happy for them. So I don't view it as, like, this means anything about me. I might take feedback if somebody says, you're really good at this or this really help. Oh, thank you for that. I can put that in the repository. But I just say, I'm really glad you're having that insight. I'm really glad for you. I'm really glad your story led you to this. And that has liberated me from imposter syndrome because I'm just doing what I have to do or what I want to do. And if someone receives that in a way that's helpful for them, it really says something about them and the path they took to get there. That's it.

It's a big flip on, like, how I see it because I think I never want to be like, you know, the famous, the person people look up to. So changing the script from it's about me to it's about them.

Yeah. That really.

It dissolves the impostorness of it for me. Anyway. You mentioned that you wrote a book. Great freaking book, by the way.

Thank you.

Called I'll be Happy. When would you give a summary of this?

So it kind of starts out with. Because we didn't go into like after the sale much. So it kind of starts out with a little bit of my life story. Like a little bit of my upbringing. Honestly, 90% of the bad stuff of my upbringing I left out because I didn't want it to be a super negative book. But I kind of tells the story I kind of told. And then it gets to the point when I sell the company and I think, like, I'm gonna retire. I'm gonna be just so happy. Like, I went out to Utah and I got the nice house and I got the side by sides and the dirt bikes and the toys and the whatever.

And after about the first six months of like just playing every day, I was miserable. Like I. I was depressed. I. You know, I don't really talk about it too much. Cause everyone's like, poor you rich guy has every toy in the world. But honestly, like, it doesn't necessarily. Money doesn't necessarily make you happy. I always tell people money is a lubricant for life if you're a happy person and money gives you options to do more things that make you happy or experiences. But it just. I had this picture in my head of how I was going to be so happy just because I had money.

Just because your biggest problem went away.

Because my. Yeah, this biggest problem that I thought was the end all. Be. All of my entire life would go away, that I would just be happy. And I. That was so wrong. So wrong. I. And so it kind of goes through the rest of my journey of kind of how I figured out me, like the last. I'm about four years from my exit. How the last four years. And I wrote it about a couple years ago, so I published a couple years ago. So kind of like the first year after my exit, it kind of goes through some of the things I did to just find myself in all reality. These last four years, I've just spent finding myself and figuring out what makes me happy and starting other businesses. I thought I would retire and just lay on a beach all day and I'd be happy. But I like purpose, I'm driven. I like helping people, I like doing things. And so what I had to realize is that was a stepping stone. It wasn't the end of the road. And the reason the book's called I'll be happy when is. Because my whole life, I put off my enjoyment of everything. I put off my enjoyment of a lot of time with my family, my kids. I did include them a lot, but anything that I wanted to do, I kind of left myself out. And I didn't make time for friends. I didn't make time for anything. I was just like, I'll be happy when this happens. And then, like. And it started when I was young, like, if I only had a car, I'll be happy when I have a car. Because, man, I'm going to go get so many girls. We're going to go around. Then I got the car. I'm like, man, chicks still don't like me. That's a problem.

It's always the next event away from having joy, from having fulfillment. So how did you.

What did you do different when you realized that the 4 million bucks didn't make you happy? Which is actually in some ways harder than when you're not happy without money? Because the hope that money will solve that is kind of a guiding light. But once you get it and you're still not happy, a, you don't know where else to hang your hope, and B, there's nobody you can talk to about it. We did a podcast with Adam Hendel, founded ballsy, had a $15 million exit after, like, two or three years. And he said, I never struggled with anxiety until I had my exit. And I said, funny you say that. Me neither. Because who do you like? Who do you talk to about that? It's such, like, I should have called.

You, but it was like, anybody, like, who's done it. But I think I felt. Because that Matcha just got stuck in my throat.

I felt so ashamed. I literally felt ashamed. And I think it was because I was in this position that, you know, I didn't have to work, I didn't have to do anything. I had done very well. Even building up to the sale of the company.

I felt ashamed. Like, I have no one. Like, no one's gonna have. Oh, poor Jared.

You know, there's a couple more Albanians rushing to your house to help you. Right? Because, like, no, Nobody's, like, on your team anymore. You won.

Yeah.

It's like, what are you gonna do for me now? Is at least a perception. I don't know if that's an accurate perception, but that's what we believe when we're newly rich.

Just think. I think I just. I was like, no one's gonna feel like, yeah, no one's gonna. I had no One like, so people only communicate well when they can understand, like, the problem or they can. You know, they can go. I had no one that I really could. I wanted to reach out. I guess I could have reached out to you. There's several people I knew, but I just. I felt ashamed. I was like, I have to be the only one who feels like this. Like, you know, I made all this money. I should just be happy. You know, Like, I thought, like, I kept saying, like, I'll be happy when I retire and I make all this money and all this stuff. And when I retired. I'm 38 right now. I was 34 years old when I retired. How many people have sympathy for me right now?

So it was. And how I kind of got through that, it was just kind of a lot of, like, I really kind of went back to, like, the working on me of, like, what actually makes me happy. Like, what do I like to do? What makes me happy? And it really came down to. I liked helping people. So, like, I started helping a few of my friends that had businesses, and I started, you know, turning their businesses around and helping them out. And I started, like, helping other people. And, like, I wrote my book, and I started doing consulting, and I started.

Being about other people.

Started being. That's a good way. That's exactly what it was. It was no longer about me being the beneficiary. It was about helping other people get what they wanted.

Man, that's so true. It took me so long to figure that out.

Took me a while, too.

And I'm like. And I forget a lot. I still forget. I would tell you my. I can. I can never catch this in the moment, but on the days when I feel depressed, it's because I'm thinking about myself. The minute that I flip it to somebody else.

Yeah.

Changes my whole day. And. And that is a lesson that has taken me a while to learn. And now it's just intellectual and practice. But I hope that it's embodied one day. Yeah, I don't hope I can wake up and just care about other people all the time. I hope, because I'll be happier if I can do it. I'll be happy. When I care about other people.

I don't. I think the big thing out of it like, that I learned is that there's no finish line. The only finish line in life is death. And I don't know how many people are really wanting to get that finish line much sooner than they. They feel they should or, like, whatever. So I think I had to realize, like, there's no moment, there's no point, there's no time, there's no arrival that I'm going to either be happy or fulfilled. What I realized is there's only moments. Life comes down to moments that we have. If you really think back, you know, your memories, they're nothing but snippets of moments. They're moments of when your kids were born or a special event. You don't remember the full. Like, my kids are 10 and 11. I don't remember the full spectrum of their lives. I only remember small moments. And so what I try to do now that really brings me a lot of joy is create those moments of being completely present, being with, doing the things I love with the people I love. Like, we were joking around before this. I've known of Ryan eight years. It's the first time we've met. Is last night when we. We hung out, me and Jason, who's over here, hung out. And the reason was. Is because I was. I wouldn't. The reason I do it now, where I kind of avoided a lot of these situations before because I realized those are the moments that matter. So it was like, I really need to. And that's another thing, is I learned that the only thing in life is relationships. And in those moments and spending time with the people that make you feel good. And so instead of before, I would have said, I'm not going to go to that. I'm not going to do that. Second, you reached out and said, hey, you want to come to Austin and record podcasting with me? And then we'll do a bunch of new content for. For the 1%. And I was like instantly. Yes. And I was like, because this moment is going to be a moment that I will remember in 40 years of meeting you, of giving you a big hug of just that moment will mean everything to me. And that is more than any money, anything else. It's the small moments that everyone doesn't pause to really pay attention to is what life's about.

You're not allowed to make me cry on my own podcast. That's against the rules, but thank you. There. There is something you're touching on that I'm genuinely curious about, and it's that you are one of those unique entrepreneurs that at least now. I don't know if it was always this way, but at least now seems to be able to balance lifestyle and big thinking. So you ride dirt bikes all the time, right?

Bikes side by sides, Jeeps.

You're with your. With your with your kids all the time and you guys homeschool, right?

Homeschooler boys.

Because you want to. And you live in the part of the country that you want to. It's not near a big airport. And.

You have this, you seem to have a rich life at least now, but you also think really big. And most the people that I know are the entrepreneurs that are sort of popularized are either all work or all play. You're either a lifestyle business entrepreneur or you play a really big game. You seem to thread this needle in a delicate way that I don't see many people do. How do you think about that?

Well, I think of there's different portions of my life. It's really hard to kind of like explain it. Like work makes me happy. I don't think like I did a time where I wasn't always like this. I'll jump back building my business. I was like grind, grind, grind, 18, 20 hours a day. I did always. One of the biggest things that I always pride myself of is my kids have never seen me go to work ever. That they, you know, they've never seen me go to work. They've seen me on business trips, stuff, but not like go to a 9 to 5. And I've chaperoned every field trip my kids have had. We just started homeschooling this year, otherwise they're 10 and 11 now. Every field trip up to that point I was a chaperone on. So I made time for that. I always made time for my wife. We go out on date nights, my kids. But everything else kind of got left at the side. I just grind, grind, grind. What I realized is that.

When I grind and I'm behind a laptop and or a computer and I've heard you say this before, I am the least effective person in the world. I get depressed. And so I think really it's a balance of I know what makes me happy. I don't think like I purposely like I do prioritize my lifestyle. Like I'm on vacation a lot. I spend a lot of time with my kids being doing what I want is my priority in life. But I also love working on big ideas, big things, you know, being productive, helping people out. And so I don't think I actually like mentally pre planned anything. It's just like this is what makes me happy. My work makes me happy, my family makes me happy. I'm going to make time for both of them equally. And it just looks like I'm some master plan or not. In all reality it's Just dumb luck of knowing what makes me happy.

Here's how I'm. How I'm processing this. You wrote a book called I'll Be Happy when you figured out that it's about moments, it's about energy management, it's about giving to other people. And the more that you can lean into those three things, the better life works. And the life works is defined by you're sharper, you're clearer, you're happier, you're in shape. And all those things become like.

They all feed each other. Whereas I think a lot of the perception in entrepreneurship is that you've got to rob from one to have time for the other. And I don't know that that's a lesson that you can learn other than going through it, which often looks like grinding your face off until you have a win and then recalibrating somehow. And whether that is it requires an absolute grind to get there or you just don't know any better, I'm not sure. But that's kind of the trend that I've seen is you get to the mountaintop and you realize it's not the right mountain and you've gotta climb a different mountain and sort of recalibrate around fulfillment.

Yeah.

And then in my experience, once you start doing that, business starts working too.

Yeah. I mean, I think what most people lack is realizing what makes them happy. Because if. And you've said this before as well, when I'm happier, I make more money.

Yep.

And so I think most people don't. Most people don't take the time to realize what makes themselves click. They just read a book that says, oh, you got to get up at, you know, 5:00am and do this and hustle and whatever and you'll be rich. Or, oh, if you want to be happy, you got to do xyz. Most people don't take the internal time, which I take a lot of. Like, I don't work that much anymore. I mean, I set a few hours aside per day. I don't work Fridays most of the time. I don't work Thursdays. You know, I take those to like, specifically go with my kids. But I realized what works for me is spending a limited amount of time in front of my computer only doing the things. A lot of times it's coaching calls for either, you know, the 1% or personal one on one clients. And that's really the only time I spend in front of the screen or managing, you know, some businesses, stuff like that. But it's a limited time. And the rest I spend doing things that I enjoy and I make way more money because I'm not just sitting behind a screen because I have the self awareness to go, this is what makes me happy. And just so you know, I'm now to the point where even if I was broke, I would rather be happy and have a slower rise.

Than just grind it out and be miserable because.

The pleasure is in the building, it's not in the end result. And if I what is for six.

Months and then you get depressed again?

True. But I think so many people think the joy comes from the end of things. And now there's even neuroscience and stuff that are proving that the joy is actually in the process. So the joy is in the building. So why do so many of us make it so miserable? To build a business, to build a life that we want to do whatever. They make it a miserable experience on themselves. But you'll look back, like I look back, I don't remember that as that miserable. But if I really go back mentally, it was miserable, it was miserable. And so I think that's what you need to do, is figure out what makes you tick and you happy and everything else just seems to work easier.

Life works better. My last question for you is, if you were in the hospital right after your back surgery and you hallucinated and Jared today showed up and you gave advice to the guy in the hospital bed, what would you tell him?

Honestly, I think I would tell myself to stop worrying, everything will be okay, and enjoy life just a little bit, because it's a short experience that we have here. I recently lost my dad and realized that life can end abruptly. And I think I would just remind myself that the shortness of life, we should probably actually enjoy it. So if you're watching this and you hate your job and you want to do something else, make that change, you know, if you were miserable in your business, figure out how to make it fun again. Because really that's joy. And enjoying life is the only thing that living life. Most few of us don't live life. Living life, I think, is the only thing that matters and having a good experience.

Jared, good to see you, my man. Thanks for coming to Texas.

Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Jared and I met the day that we did this podcast interview and he said, I don't go to events, I don't go to networking events, I don't go to masterminds. I like my life riding dirt bikes with my kids. But I wanted to be here for this because I want to contribute to the community that invested so much in me on my climb to running a multi million dollar business. Jared also agreed to be one of our contributors and our mentors inside the new curriculum for the 1%. We brought in 18 experts in every step of the journey to go from 0 to 100 sales a day. Everything from advertising and sourcing and packaging and building a following and launching and selling a bunch on Amazon and getting reviews. Every step of the journey is covered by someone who has used a piece of that strategy to be successful scaling a multimillion dollar business and Jared is just one of them. Yet we have hundreds of success stories like Jared's of people who started from nothing and built successful seven figure businesses. And if you want to be next in line, go over to capitalism.com1, fill out the form and we'll get you on your road to 1 million. I'm Ryan Daniel Marin with capitalism.com thanks for watching.

See you next time.