Episode #633 - The Journey Towards Success In The United States with Joel Yi, CEO at Joel Yi LLC

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

Welcome Joel Yee. Hello, Joel.

Hey, Larry. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Glad to have you on Excited about this from Vancouver.

Yes, sir. Vancouver, Canada.

We're going coast to coast and Joe, who's monitoring things is in Ireland. So we're from Ireland to Palm Beach, Florida to Vancouver. So we've got the globe covered, at least part of it. And which the point of that is people all over the world want to do something big and they're looking for answers. And it's amazing to me how strong that desire is in so many people because that desire is what fuels accomplishment because it fuels people looking and for answers, the right people to follow and causes them to pay attention when they do find it and actually use it, you know, and without that drive, it's just going to be too hard. And so thank goodness there are people like you and people that listen to you and work with you around the world because this is where all of the great things in the future are going to come from. It's coming from the driven people who want can, you know, they just feel like there's more out there. They want to do something special with their life, they want to make an impact and they look at other people and they say they're special, but I could be special too. And so they just need some direction. So congratulations for getting off to such an amazing, productive start early in your career. So let's dig into how that happened. But give, let's just give people a taste, you know, some of the, what do you think are your biggest accomplishments that so as a background you've got, you do have seven years of time with the, in with the, the Army Reserve or the.

Correct, the U.S. army Reserve and U.S. army Reserve.

And that's been a big piece of your formative experience and we don't talk about that enough. You know, I think about what a value that can be to people in terms of, you know, to get some discipline in your life. You don't have to sign a four year commitment. You can actually get in the reserves.

Exactly.

You know, and you can kind of pick up a lot of those things without throwing your, you know, your whole four or five years of your future locking it up, you know, but so we want to tap into that. But you know, you're on, you've got a lot of accomplishments, but how do you get on the Forbes Council, whatever that, that. What is that?

That you're on Forbes Business Council?

Yeah. How do you get on that?

You have to a company that does over a million dollars in revenue, you go through an application. I did this a while ago. I believe there's an interview because I've done a few. And then once you approve, you're in. But they check based on your merit and the businesses that you've run and what you can bring. So it's not about just taking. Right. It's about what you can give, what you can bring to the table for the rest of the members too.

And what does, what is the table? What, once you get in, what happened? What do you do?

So you are in a forum with other Forbes Council members. So you can send direct messages to people, you can connect, you can write articles, you can answer questions, you can get them published. So it's really a place where you can speak your thoughts as an expert and share your insights.

Sounds like a high level LinkedIn.

Absolutely, it sounds like it. Yeah.

And you can apply for it. That's the one thing people like me who've never even thought about it was like, so many of these awards out there are. You can apply for them. I thought they all came looking for you. But it's just like, no, no, you have to raise your hand and say, what about me? Look at me over here in the Cor.

You know? All right, well, you have to pass your application process too. But yes, you apply, then you go.

Through the interviews and so how did you hear. Hear that you could even do that?

I work with. So I have a PR guy, his name is Ulysses, and he actually works with a lot of entrepreneurs. And basically they have different. They have different aspects of pr, right? They have press releases, articles, you know, podcast, TV shows, awards, stage speaking events, groups like these, right. Like the entrepreneur.com, the inc group, the Forbes Group. And basically not all of them. You can apply for some of them. You have to be selected, right? But the ones that you do qualify for, you can try your best to apply and make it through. But I heard it from him and.

It shows me that you were looking ahead, looking forward to even have a PR guy. How'd you get a PR guy? How'd you find out about Ulysses?

It's funny, Larry. I was at an event last October in Miami. One of my mentors, his name is Jeremy Haynes, he runs media Buying Facebook ads agency, right. For clients and Ulysses or ulysses spoke at that event. And when I heard about it, you know, I realized one thing which is like, this is true of the Internet marketing space of the world that I'm from. Right. Is that there are so many people, we call them the experts, the unknown experts. Right. Which is actually not a good thing, because people are so good at what they do, but because they have no visibility, the world can't see their true potential and see the value. And so I didn't want to be an invincible expert. I wanted to be an invisible expert. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how I got connected with ulysses.

And the sign that he was probably pretty good at his job is the fact that he was speaking on stage and he was promoting himself.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And so you like to find successful leaders to follow. It takes a lot of the guesswork about whether or not I should pay attention to this person or not.

And to be fair, he's worked with some of the biggest names. Right. Like ed mylett, Josh ngo. Right. Rudy moore, Some of the biggest entrepreneurs in our space.

Yeah. Unbelievable. Well, let's get going on how you got. What I see about you is you've been able to compress into the early years, which are difficult, to make a lot of progress in the early years of your career. Because most of us are trying to learn the basics. We're really not sure what we want to do. We're making our contacts, getting experience. Basically, we're in a survival mode and trying to make our mark, climb up. We don't know what that means, but in terms of doing the things, the variety of things that you've done, you've made a lot happen in a short period of time. And what that's done has equipped you for a lifetime of being able to use that experience in those contacts. So that's incredible advantage. So how did this get going?

Wow. I'll share with you the story of how I got started, which is pretty fun story. I think it will resonate with a lot of people I do know. Before I share that story, I did want to add one thing that you said, which is really important. There is, at least in my experience now there is that benefit of not necessarily being in survival mode, because it's not good to be desperate and chasing skills. Right.

But sometimes you have to.

What I've learned is that in the part of my career, what I did wrong was I tried to elevate my lifestyle too quickly. Right. Getting success in your head. Oh, I'm gonna buy this fantasy thing. No, that's not, that's not good. So what I've learned now is like I'm more mature. I'm like, you know what, I'm just gonna live my life at a very certain level and I'm not gonna increase it. But it's not that I'm, it's not that I'm in survival. I'm just living in a way where I'm okay, I'm happy with what I have.

Right.

I learned it's a, happiness is a trainable skill. I used to think that people could be born happy or not happy, but I think you could actually train happiness. So I've learned to flex my happiness muscle to be content. I think that's pretty key to being successful in this space.

Yeah.

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And the survival mode is full. You know, you have food, shelter, clothing for you and the people that depend on you for support. But that doesn't mean you have to be a wild consumer. So that, that survival level food, shelter and clothing is a penthouse in the biggest city in town. And you know, you know the, the nothing but the most expensive restaurants and everything. Yeah. The thing is you, the, you like to build your net worth as once you get that, that income and everything you get the basics covered to give yourself financial independence because that frees up your thinking. Now you're, now you can relax and, and know that you're going to be able to survive and in my case feed my family, which is important. You know, you want them to be able to get the groceries and have the clothes and everything like that. But then when you get extra income, you pass that threshold. The more and the quicker you can get a nest egg built up and starting to accumulate that gives you a peace of mind, starts to get over and then you're able to think about what do I really want to be doing with my life? What's valuable to me and to me that's what winning is. That's why I make it a big deal of this is like winning can be working at a charity. It could be, you know, some people, you know, they're motivated by helping other people. We have a guy down the street from where I live, Jack the Bike man, and he's built. For the last 25, 30 years, he's raised money. He's, you know, he. He looks like a homeless guy, basically, in terms of his clothing and his personal car. You know, he doesn't spend money on that, but he has massive empire he's built up of where they get used bikes, repair them, and then hand, you know, turn them out back into the neighborhoods and everything. But that's his motivation. Not.

Not. No.

And so it can be whatever your motivation is to be winning. It's like, are you doing what you want to do with your life? When did you get to the point now where you started to get decisive about choosing this, choosing that? And because you don't have this kind of results, you don't make this kind of progress by accident? There's a design. There's a design and a discipline. And so talk about how you got going. What was. What was your want to.

Or.

And what age were you, you know.

Yeah. So to me. So we were talking about the design of what my signif. What significance means to me personally. Is that the question? Yeah.

No, no, no. What was motivating you? And what was. Yeah, what was motivating you when you got started to say, yeah, I'm a nobody. I'm a young kid. I'm coming up. I've got to make my mark. What was your drive?

Let me. Yeah, this is. This is great. I'm glad you asked it. So you don't know this, Larry. I don't think many people do, actually. An immigrant to the country now when I say I'm an immigrant, I mean.

Okay, you got to get out. You've let the secret out. You got to leave now.

Exactly. Not my parents. Right. I'm not first generation. I am the immigrants. I immigrated here to the U.S. but you immigrated. Wow. Yeah, I got married a few years ago, but I. My family's not here. My. My family's back in Malaysia.

Really? Congratulations.

But this is the. This is the turning point in my life. So when I. I was born and raised in Malaysia. I got a chance to come to the US back in 2012 when I was 16. And when I came to the US I was just like an ordinary international student. I just wanted to come and Get a college degree and, you know, maybe one day go back home and do something back home. But here's the turning point. When I came to the US And I met my fellow American peers, right? So I'm actually, actually came to the US I live in Canada now, but I am from the US So this is where the story gets a bit interesting. But when I came to the US And I met my American peers, the one thing I realized that really blew my mind was how much opportunity and blessings that the American people had in front of them. And what was shocking to me was comparing myself going from a developing country, right, like in Malaysia, to America. How few people took advantage of this situation. How few people.

What was your age? What was your age?

I was 16 when I came to.

The US so we're still 16. And how did you immigrate by yourself? I mean, we. Your. Your turn. You're leaving parents. I mean, you know how. Because when you go at 16, this has been developing for a few years. This is not like, okay, I'm going to the United States tomorrow. You know what I'm saying? There's things have been simmering inside of you that things situation been going on for years. You have to set this up to.

Be, to be fair, I just, you know, I just wanted to leave home. I just, I grew up in a very strict, restrictive Asian household, like, very controlling. I had to get perfect grades. So the moment I had a chance to leave my. My home, I, I just left. So I, it wasn't like, it wasn't like I was trying to be vague or anything. I was trying to leave, trying to get out. Yeah. And so if there are other, many.

Other brothers and sisters there, I'm the only child. Oh, yeah, but this is only child and you left. Good Lord. Your parents are over there in withdrawal.

This is how I close. This is how I convinced my mom my dad was okay. My mom. It was hilarious. So. So I think you know this, Larry. You probably heard the stereotype that every Asian kid will become a doctor, a lawyer, engineer. That's it. Okay? Now, in order for me to get my mom's approval to come to the U.S. i told her I was going to be a doctor.

Okay?

That's what, that's what made her go like, okay, fine, if that's the case, I'll let you go now. She cried for like six months after she left me right in the US but to answer your question, how I immigrated was back in 2019, three years after I got to the U.S. the U.S. government back then, it was Obama. He reopened a program called the military accession vital to national interests. It's an army specific program where. Yeah. They allow foreign nationals. You have to, you have to meet two criteria. You had to be either a medical professional, which I wasn't, or you had to speak a foreign language that they needed. So I spoke a foreign language that the military needed. And so I, I listed. Right. I enlisted and I became a U. S. Citizen. Fast track through that. Yeah, that's it. That's how I became, that's how I immigrated here.

Ah, congratulations. So you had to have your antenna up. How long did this whole process take? Oh, man.

So I heard about this program in 2015, probably in early 2015. I joined, I enlisted June 8, 2015. I went to basic training February 2016, and I became a US citizen April 2016. So in less than a year, I went from being a Malaysian citizen to becoming a US Citizen. Wow. Crazy fast. Yeah, crazy fast.

And so citizenship was part of the deal. You would, you're not getting like a green card or you're getting no citizenship.

Yeah, we skipped, we skipped the green card process. It was, it was unheard of.

Yeah. And so you've already demonstrated early on your ability to sell in talking your mom into and your, your instincts figuring out the doctor is my. Is the way I can sell this thing.

Absolutely. That was it. And I never became, I mean, I'm not, I'm not in medicine. Right. I did not do that. Right.

I won't, I won't tell her. Did you. Was there a program with the military where you could have possibly gone in and they would have put you through school, become a doctor or something like that? Was, was that part of the, the con for your mother or something like that?

Oh, no. You know, when I, when I came to the US and before I joined the military, at that point, I think she already knew. She already knew that I wasn't going to do medicine. Right.

All right.

Now she was terrified, though, when I told her I want to join the US Military, obviously. Right. She was terrified. But thankfully, you know, everything has gone well so far. I also did go to speaking about paying, you know, paying for tuition in school. I actually joined ROTC or ROTC back in my university, and that's where I commissioned. I became a commissioned officer and they paid for my bachelor's degree.

Yeah. Yeah, Fantastic. So when you, you're in school, what do you, what, what does it dawn on you, you want to study?

You know, this is the part where, like I said, it Was funny because initially I told my mom I wanted to do medicine, so I started biology, organic chemistry. I hated it. And I was like, okay, this is not going to work for me. I'm going to switch to communication. And you should, you should look at my, the expression on my mom's face when I told her that over, over Skype or Zoom back then it was like, there is like she was mad. She was pissed. Like, you, you told me you're coming to the US to be a doctor and now you're going to be a communications major. It was. Yeah, it was bad, right? It was bad. But she finally accepted it. Right. But yeah, I think communications as my first bachelor's. And then when I, when I went back for ROTC in the military, I had to stay for another extra year with the military. So I just said, you know what, I'm going to pick another degree, like a double major. So I majored in computer science. Yeah, communication and computer science on my bachelor degrees.

Okay. And so as you're, you're getting out now, where. How soon is our ideas crystallizing in your mind about the real direction you're going to go? What intrigued you specifically? What did you like and what did you not like?

Yeah, well, this is what I didn't. Okay, this is what I didn't like when I graduated and I commissioned as an officer in the National Guard in the reserves. Right. I needed to get a full time job. Right. A full time paying job. Because obviously my military service was only part time. And the biggest piece that I didn't like was when I was applying for jobs, I only got job offers that were wanting to pay like 40k a year. That was it. And I thought to myself, there is no way. My parents sent me all the way to this country, borrowed thousands of dollars from my uncle and I had to go get scholarship, go and spend 5, 6 years in school to then come and get a 40k year job. Right, Right. I knew there had to be, I knew there had to be a different way. I wasn't trying to be rich at that point. I was just trying to like, I was like, this is just too little, like. And that's when, that's when my journey into entrepreneurship started.

Right.

That was the turning point.

Yeah. And I might as well ask you now. Well, I might as well ask you now. In your Instagram you have entrepreneur and then Christian, I guess, or Jesus. Jesus. Yes, Entrepreneur and Jesus and cross emoji. Why is that?

Yeah. So a big part, and this is part of my story I want to share is that I grew up in church, but in the early years of my life, especially as a kid, teenager, I did not have a relationship with God myself, personally. Right. It wasn't until a few years ago, again, when I'm, you know, more mature, I look back and I realize literally all of the blessings and the reason I am who I am today and where I am today and why I'm even here is thanks to God. And so now I've made it a passion for me to share the good news when it makes sense to people that are willing to hear. Because people ask me, well, Joe, how did you become like that? How did you get so successful? And I'm like, it really isn't me. I give thanks to a higher being. And in this case, it's Jesus and God. Yep.

Well, there's a. Congratulations on reaching that level of maturity at an early age. Again, because there's. There are people that are 90 to 100 years old that have not reached that level of wisdom.

I appreciate that, Larry.

They don't realize, wait a minute, there's something else going on here than just you, you know?

Yeah. It's not. It's not me. I can tell you for a fact, it's not me. I'm just allowing him to use me as his vehicle.

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