Episode #634 - The Importance Of A High-End Skill 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.

Well, how did you, when you got started with, in the job world, the business world, how did you matriculate through there, you know, to where you are now? What are the steps? Because it's like I see you moving through the business world. It's kind of like they got this thing on Instagram now. This girl who like, you know, a reel and she's climbing the wall like she want, she, she, she climbed a wall and set a world record. But I mean, she, she runs up quicker than I could run across the room and still like. And so that's the way I picture you climbing the, the wall of business and, you know, accomplishment out. When you're getting on your own, you know, there's, you have to climb, you have to move up, you have to pull yourself up, you got to reach your hand up and go for things. And you, you, you went, you went after things in a hurry. And so how did that, what was that process all about? Yeah, so my other words, it's like this. Where did you, where did you learn what you've learned? Your instincts are one thing, but the thing is you, you've taken those instincts and hit the ground running with those instincts, accomplishing things. And then, you know, that set the stage for you to be able to advise others. Okay. And have some credibility there. So talk about how, how you hit the ground running and you know, you know, you walls you ran into that didn't fall down and things like that, you know?

Absolutely. You know, even today I'm still hitting ceilings and knocking my head and trying to figure out where I'm going, right? It's still happening. But going back to 2019, when I wanted to, to do more in life and not just get a 40k a year job, it's funny, I was literally scrolling on Facebook and I saw this guy, he was in a red suit, Asian guy, and he was saying, oh, you have to learn a high income skill to change your life, right? And he called it high ticket closing. Really, it's sales. And in the beginning I was like, yeah, this guy is just one of those get rich quick people. Probably not real, right? I was like, whatever. Now the funny thing was I've been seeing his ads for two weeks. And then one point, my wife, now, who was my girlfriend at the time, she had to go for training in the military. So she was gone for like five weeks. And I actually moved out to Illinois. I grew up in Seattle, Washington. I moved out to Carbondale, Illinois. I had no friends, no family there. My girlfriend left me alone and I was like, what's the worst that could happen? Let me watch this guy's webinar.

Right.

I watched it. Long story short, I took out a credit card that I didn't have any money on and I bought his sales course.

Yeah.

So now fast forward. His name is Dan Locke. He's got over 4 million subscribers on YouTube. Does a lot of business stuff online and shout out to him. He's my first mentor. He taught me the importance of having a high income skill. Yeah, I think that was like a turning point where I realized that, right. I needed a skill that could pay more than just the bills.

Yeah.

I developed that over the past five years and that is sales and persuasion. Right. So now what I've done at that point is like in Dan's company, I roll through the ranks. Right. I started closing. I actually made my first six figure paycheck in commissions through sales in my first year. So it was really good. And he promoted me to, you know, sales manager, sales director. I was leading a team of as big as 110 salespeople. So my salesforce was 110 people and I had 10 sales leaders.

And you end up going to work for him?

I did. He brought me into his company. Yes, yes.

Yeah. And then you went up through the ranks there. So that. And what were you doing, what were you doing before that when you moved to Illinois and all of that up to that time?

Yeah, I was in my transition from graduating and commissioning, finding a full time job. I had a three month.

Okay. And so you, you hit the ground running with him and then what happened?

Yeah, so I hit the ground running with him. I made my first six figures. He brought me into his company, gave me promotions. Right. I started managing a sales team. And then I realized one thing. I realized, well, I'm now just building someone else's legacy.

Right.

I had no, I had no equity of the company. I know ownership. I was, I hit my max promotional, like max promotion level. Right. There's nothing else I could do anymore here at this company in terms of growth. I just couldn't grow. I wasn't necessarily wanting to just make more money. I just couldn't grow. Yeah, I was frustrated. I couldn't grow. So exactly a year ago today, Larry, I left Dan's company April 30th last year. Really? 12 months since I left this company. Huh? Yeah. And so I started my own sales consulting, sales management business. In the beginning, that's what I did.

And so, yeah, because, good lord, you're what, 26 years old and you're. You're just slaving a well, building somebody else's company. So you said, I don't want to waste my life doing that.

I just felt. I just felt like, you know, because.

I mean, it is funny, though. I mean, these things are obvious. Once you hear it, however, it is surprising how many people are like another 20 years down the road before the light bulb goes off in their head is like, hey, you realize, you know, you're working hard to make somebody else's. I think, you know.

Yeah, I think the difference there, Larry, is the whole high income skill thing. I realized that my sales skills were. Were good to a point where if I went out on my own, I could probably make it work. So it gave me, I guess, the risk tolerance and the bravery to be able to do that because I had a skill.

Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, this is great because I know we've got a lot of young people are wondering how to hit the ground running, you know, clues and, you know, picking up ideas for how to get out of the gate fast, move up. And it's much easier if you're in a situation that values production, getting the job done, and you're on a commission. You know, the big fields in that in the past were always insurance, real estate. Those were the two big ones. Now you've got the tech things, you've got other things out there, but it's going to be in sales and, and beyond sales, Sales management, because it's the, you know, we have this thing, we say that sales is great. And I, you know, I was sick of management once I got out of construction because I was tired of fooling with all the subcontractors, right? But then when I got into sales, it dawned on me, wait a minute. You know, and for a while I was happy that when I got up in the morning, my whole organization was up. If I was working, my whole organization's working. Then it dawned on me, well, yeah, but if I want to take the day off, my whole organization's taking the day off. If I get a virus or something like that, it's just like, wait a minute. It'd be nice to have some stability and multiple income streams. And so that's when you start looking at sales management, which is kind of a first Step into being an entrepreneur. Sales management is kind of like when you're on commission, Sales management is a way of having your own company within a company. So I'm just kind of putting things out there for young people on the way up to look for opportunities like that, because then you can have the unlimited growth up to a certain point, you know, you're not going to go point past the top people, but up to a certain point you're going to have unlimited growth. And they're probably not going to be holding you back and, you know, then they'll be encouraging you, you know, because a lot of corporate situations, there's limited positions and you have the jealousy and they're trying to keep you down. And, you know, a lot of the union situation, you know, the union type situations where, you know, we don't need anybody working hard to give the people in charge the idea of how much we, how hard we all should be working. So it's like, cool it, you know, but they're going to be excited if you dive in and go around the clock, you know, and move up fast. But when you get what was your plan? Let's, let's talk about that. You have had to have some semblance. Like, it's one thing I can be, you know, confident I can sell, do this, but on the other hand, like, sell what? You know.

Yeah, you know.

So what was your plan?

Yeah, so when I left Dan's company, I had a. So before I put in my notice to leave Dan's company, I gave. I give them a month's notice, A month and a. Maybe I give them two months notice actually. So I give them plenty of time. Right now during that time, I had a buddy of mine, his name is Henry, and he runs a company called Invest with Henry. So what he does is he's an options.

Wait a minute, Let me absorb that. Yeah, this company that's, that's so smart because it's sticky. You know what I'm saying? It's like I've never heard that before. Invest with Henry. That's beautiful. We're giving him a little plug right now. I don't even know.

Absolutely. So yeah, go ahead. No, but you know, when I was, when I was with Dan, the first four, the first three, four years, I was always in this mode of like learning. Right, learning. So I was investing in courses and programs. So one program I happened to buy or invest. Invest in, back in, you know, probably 2020.

Talk about that for a minute, though. I'm going to interrupt you In a second. Talk about that. What do you mean you were investing in pro? And why did you do that? What was your thinking?

Great, great question. So when I. When I first invested in Dan's program, like I said, in the summer 2018, I became a high ticket closer. I bought his course. It was $2,500. But here's the thing I realized with that investment, I made a hundred thousand dollars.

Right.

So to me, it was like, oh, if I put 2.5k here and I can make 100k in 12 months, that's a pretty good investment.

Yeah.

In myself. So once I had that bug, I caught that bug. I just kept doing it again and again. So I bought more courses, I learned from more people. I just kept on stacking knowledge. Right. And skill.

Yeah. And so what were the kinds of courses that made the biggest connection with you and gave you. You know, because there's all kind of courses.

Right, Right.

People do them in different ways. And so what kinds of courses made, you know, was it easiest for you to work your way through it all? Because a lot of these things get hard to stay awake while you're watching a long video or something like that, you know?

So I have to be very like, this is, I think, also good advice for a lot of people watching, listening to this is that when I first started in sales, I was blinders on full, full focus, like a sponge on sales only.

Right.

I wasn't learning some other things. I wasn't trying to do crypto or marketing. I was just going all in on sales. Right. So all the courses that I invested in were all sales training programs.

Yeah.

Like cold calling courses, inbound sales, you know, sales tonality, sales scripting. Right. So for the first three years of my career, I only spent money on sales training. So that's why I kept learning, improving sales after that. That's when I told you about Henry. Right. His company, Invest Henry. I was like, okay, I've made a good sum of some of money with commission. I don't want to just waste it all. Let me learn how to invest it, like in a financial market.

Right.

That's why I thought. So I found. I saw this guy, investor, Henry. I think I saw him on YouTube. He has a big YouTube channel. I'm gonna consult this guy. So I paid him. I paid him for an hour consultation first. I was like, let me get to know this guy. Get to know him. We became friends. I bought his course. I started learning about options trading. It was like, cool. Now, right before I left Dan's company. Henry reached out to me and said, Joel, I've needed help now for a year and by that point we've known each other for over a year. And he's been always asking me whether I could help him in his business. And I always said no because I was working with Dan. But when I realized that I couldn't promote any further in Dan's company, I became open to the idea of, well, what if I helped Henry but not as an employee, as a co owner in his business, as a business partner. So that's the reason why we made that deal work. And then I put in my, I put in my leave at Dan. Yeah.

And so how long were you with Dan exactly?

Four years.

So you're there for four years. But the important point about it was not that you were just working like a dog, you know, and training and going from layer to layer of success. You actually had your eye down the road. I think this idea of having my own thing doing, you know, what was beyond the Dan show. That came to you early on, I think. And so you were preparing yourself for bigger and better things even though you're. So here's, here's what commonly happens. People come in incredibly successful. I can't believe it. And they pat themselves. They either go off the rails, spending the money, right. Like I never thought I'd make this much money in the, you know, and so. And they start enjoying, they start enjoying the fruits of their labor too soon, right. Or they stay on track inside that company, which is what you're, you know, you should stay on track. You know, if something's working, stay with it, develop it. This, that and the other. But that does not mean that you can't take on a part time job, Right. Of prepping yourself for other things bigger and better, you know, but most people will either go off the rails, you know, start spending the money and goofing off, get a bunch of lazy friends that, you know are happy to help you spend your money.

Right.

Or, or you become a monomaniac on a mission inside of a company. You got keep, you keep the blinders on, but too tight, you know, because usually that's, you know, that's a something that is praised. You know, good old George, you know, he just never gets off track. He just stays right with it. Consist. Yeah, but what else is George doing that's going to fuel even greater growth for George? Because sooner or later in any company you're going to reach, you know, you're going to bounce off the top.

Yes, yes. 1,000%. Well said, Larry. And so for me, you know, that was it. Right. Having Henry, that platform where I could say, okay, you know what? I can go from being an intrapreneur. Right. Building a sales team.

Right, right, right. Yeah.

Which is great, by the way. Great, great point. Great point for just developing yourself, being an interpreter, learning all the ins and outs of the business without spending my own dime. The best part. Right. Without spending my own money.

Watching how that is the best part of building. You know why it's best to. It's a great training thing for being an entrepreneur is being a sales manager inside a.

Yes, absolutely. And so. And I went from entrepreneur, a sales manager, to becoming a business partner with Henry.

Yeah.

So that's my. So you see, I wasn't. It wasn't that I had my own business right away. I didn't just jump and say, okay, goodbye, Dan. I'm gonna start my Joel company.

Right.

Do my own thing. Right. I. I went with Henry. We. Wait. We did really well last year. You know, before he met me, he did about a million dollars a year. And Last year we actually 3x'ed his top line while keeping the same margins. So we tripled growth in one year.

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