Clint Brown dropped out of college in 2003 to start a business with his brother, but years of struggle left him on food stamps by 2009. A $1,200 gig from a Facebook post became his turning point. He packaged the method into a product and made $29,000 in the first hour.
Hey guys, my name is Clint Brown, and in 2003 I got a wild hair and dropped out of college and started a business with my brother and did what you're supposed to do. We went and rented a space and got a loan from the bank and got equipment and started a business, and we had a successful business. But it was one of those things where we were serving people well, But barely surviving. I mean, we were just eking by. And we ran that business for 6 years because we were told that if you want to be successful in business, you've got to be willing to be poor for a long time to make it work. And we did that. It wasn't the right mix for my family. I knew I needed to get my wife back closer to her parents. So after 6 years, we decided to sell the business to a competitor, basically for just to pay off debt. And we moved from Kansas to South Dakota, which was great. My wife has great parents and they're awesome grandparents. We partnered with a guy, another business, and I helped him grow his business and we did phenomenal, but he did not make good accounting decisions, which hurt us financially. And we found ourselves just in one problem after another. We had a contract in Kansas that didn't renew. And my wife and I started hemorrhaging money the summer of 2009 after we moved here. And then that gentleman that I moved up here to work for wasn't paying me, not what he should have been or what we agreed to. And in the winter of 2009, we were really diving into the worst debt ever. And then the spring of 2010, we really— the only money we made was our tax return, our birthday money, and leftover Christmas money. And I ended up having to part ways with that business owner. And in the summer of 2010, we went on food stamps around May or June. And I'd say that's not something you, you know, as a kid grow up and say, you know, someday I'm gonna have a wife and 3 kids and I'm gonna take us to a place where we're on food stamps. It was humbling, to say the least. And I was just doing everything in my power to I knew, you know, to make money, I knew I wasn't supposed to do the traditional thing. And I don't have a degree, and I don't have like a trade. And so the places I could get hired would be $8 an hour, and I'd have to work 2 or 3 of those jobs just to even, you know, break even. And so I did what I thought I knew. I reached out to somebody. I was on Facebook and saw that somebody was having trouble with their website, and I reached out to this gentleman and said, I can help you, but I'm broke. You can pay me whatever you think I'm worth. I'll work for you for 2 weeks for free, and if you think I'm worth the money, then send me a check. I worked for 2 weeks, and he sent me $1,200, which at that time felt like hitting the lottery. I mean, I've It was so much money for what we needed. And through that course, I was looking for a way to generate income online and figured out a way to generate a lot of leads. And he saw that, the same gentleman saw it, and he told me to turn it into a product. And Katie's parents had paid for a family trip the year before that we were taking at that time. And while they were off doing the family trip thing, I was on my laptop trying to turn this thing into a product at this guy's request. We had lots of trials and tribulations during that period, and that night, guys, we, you know, the first hour it was on sale, you know, my take was $29,000, and it just changed everything, guys. And looking back, why did I, why did I take that shot, you know, the one shot to comment on someone's Facebook status? You know, no connection with them really. Why did I speak up? I think it was from a point of desperation, and I had nothing to lose. And I think you'll find yourself in those times of one shot, guys, where when God strips everything away, you have no choice but depend on him, and he presents opportunities, and you got to take it. Guys, that was my one shot. Looking back, had I not Commented on that Facebook status and started working with that gentleman to come up with a product. And had he not given me that shot to create my first product in the marketplace, I don't know. I don't know what would have happened. We had already sold our cars back to the bank and sold our kids' toys. And I mean, maybe moving in with Katie's parents would have been would have been the option. And you know, guys, you don't know when it's going to come. You don't know how far down you got to go before God will get your attention. But you might be in a time where it's your one shot to do something. Maybe you're saying, I can't take any more of this. I've gone as far as I can humanly take it. God might be presenting you with an opportunity in an unexpected way to take your one shot and go for it. But when you find it and it happens, you've got to go a million miles an hour and strive. And you can look back and change your life. I mean, that's a— It was an actual changing point in my marriage and in our finances and in my life. And so I just want to encourage you guys, if you're in the midst of that trial and tribulation, you're at the food stamp moment, you need to open your eyes and look around because God might just be putting your one shot right in front of you.
