How to Protect Your Business with Compliant Marketing Strategies with Anik Singal

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I'm too tired. I said. I'm burned out. I want to be with the kids. I think I'm just going to become a consultant because I know I can make a mill or two a year just in consulting. My wife started laughing and I said, what are you laughing about? She looks at me and she goes, it's really sweet that you want to do that, but don't. You're going to be miserable. If you're not charging for a big mountain, you're miserable. Go find your next mountain cuz if you don't have one, you're not you. Foreign.

Welcome back to the podcast. I was just thinking this morning about a health hack that I do that I wanted to share with you guys and I don't know about you, but if I put my supplements or my glossy in a cabinet, it's like somehow if I don't see it, I'm not going to use it. So a lot of people now are building these little supplement stations where maybe it's right next to your coffee or something that you're going to grab in the morning, or maybe you put your book by a little nook that you have and you keep all of your supplements out for the morning so that you know you're just going to drink your coffee, you're going to go down that supplement station and you're going to do your thing. My friend Britt actually keeps her glossy in a little jar by her coffee pot, so individual sticks left out on her counter so that whenever she goes in her kitchen it's her reminder to use it. So. So you guys, whether you use glossy or not, these little supplement hacks that people are doing and leaving out on their counters is the difference between taking it most days and not taking it. So you can go to getglosi.com and of course we're giving you 25% off with code. Happy you guys, I love seeing all of your testimonials and on the website you're uploading your pictures and your videos and your 30 day pictures. Now we're getting 60 day pictures in you guys, it is really insane. The differences that we are seeing in skin tone, in skin texture. A lot of you are noticing improvements with blemishes, which is really exciting. So you guys go and check it out. And today on the podcast, I have Anik Singhal. He is a best selling author, investor in over 10 companies. He's done nine figures in online sales. If you're a regular listener of the show, you've heard me talk about how important your comeback rate is as an entrepreneur. And Anik is so such a powerful example of what happens when you turn challenges as setbacks into your greatest opportunities in business. When I say we talk about turning setbacks and opportunities, let me just tell you, he's built and rebuilt multimillion dollar businesses and now he went from doing 40 million to nearly going bankrupt when he was hit with a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission. I mean, nobody wants this to happen. And because of his experience, he's here to share how to protect your business and why you can't afford to ignore whether or not your marketing is compliant with the law. This episode could literally save you millions of dollars. Of course, this episode doesn't replace any legal advice ever. It's literally the example of why it's so important to protect yourself legally so you don't go through what he went through and so many other businesses have. This episode covers so many things from marketing compliance to being resilient as an entrepreneur and how to align your goals with a greater purpose. So let's get started. Anik, welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I am so excited to be talking to you today. Thank you so much for coming on.

No, it's my honor. A pleasure. And I'm excited to be here talking to you and to your audience. Thanks for having me.

Oh, my goodness. I feel like what we are about to talk about is going to not only impact a lot of people, but hopefully save a lot of people. Maybe a really heartbreaking, very large lesson that, you know, I know that probably feels really insane for you to have learned, but also I can only imagine, you know, the gifts and the richness that have come on the other side and also what will, you know, be in your future and what you're already creating again. So why don't we kind of rewind And I know that you even have, you know, a great story about how you grew up and thought that you were going to be on a path of something completely different according to your family and ended up in something, you know, I think this happens to so many of us as entrepreneurs feeling that call and being like, oh God, I'm about to disappoint everybody because I think I'm supposed to do something else. So let's, let's start at the very beginning because you have, I think, a story that's going to relate to so many people.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, so again, thank you for having me. And you know, I always tell my, I always tell this story and I, and, and we're going to get into it. We're going to get into some, some Hollywood level drama. I've actually made a movie. Most people don't know this. I, I do crazy stuff. I do stuff just for the experience of it. So I, I am on IMDb. I'm a producer, an actor. I made a James Bond spoof film in Bollywood in India.

I love.

And I got to do. Hey, I got to do Orie. I got to do the iconic scene that every male wants to do, which is I shot a car and walked away as it blew up. Okay.

I mean, I want to do that too.

So yeah, there you go. So that's a, you know, that's a badass scene. But yeah, my story is. And then I always jokingly say, like at some point in my story, about halfway through, if you have a violin, you can, it'd be a great time to play it because it gets, it gets, it's tough, it gets sad. But as a very young kid, us built a little different. And I think a lot of us entrepreneurs can, can kind of always track back and say, yeah, I was thinking different. Yeah, I was the kid in third grade that had the lemonade stand. I know that's pretty cliche, but here's where mine's a little different. I hired a bunch of second graders to run it. So I was inside watching cartoons while they were running it and I was, they would show up at my door and pay me what I was pay, pay me my, my keep. And did that just come from your.

Brain or did you see someone do that?

I just, I wanted to make money and didn't want to work. And so I figured it out. I have no clue where it came from. As a matter of fact, the way my business got shut down was my employee's mother was a very unruly, disruptive force and she came knocking at my door. And my parents had no idea. My parents thought that that lemonade stand was the other kids lemonade stand. And my mom never really asked why they keep coming to the door. They just thought they were coming to Play with me or something. But mom shows up and tells my parents what's going on. And my parents get upset. And I'm sitting there, think, I don't understand why we're upset. I'm making money, they're making money. People are getting lemonade. Like, this is a win, win, win, right? And so. But that was my first venture. And then I would do all these odd end things. So, like elementary school, I found out. I don't know where I got this idea, but I found out who was the head of our community, like the head of the HOA. And as a 10 year old or 11 year old, I showed up at, at the meeting and I said, give me work, give me the stuff that you don't. You know, it's summer, I got nothing to do. So I was painting signs, clearing bushes, doing mulch, mowing the lawn of our community. And my parents, you know, my mom would be like, oh, my God, I can't believe my son's doing all this. Like, because I'm like old Indian traditional a little bit. And my dad would be like, hey, I'm proud of him. Like, you know, he's doing stuff. Yeah. So I was, I was built a little bit different, but at a very young age, I knew that I wanted to be very successful. I wanted to have nice things. And I grew up. I'm very privileged, by the way. My parents. My dad's amazing what he did. I can never kind of match his feet. My dad grew up in a village that had no electricity. He used to study under candles and a street lamp a mile down the road. And the irony is, when he retired, he was a nuclear mechanical engineer responsible for the operation of two nuclear power plants in the United States. And I was like, dude, you had no electricity and now are responsible for the electricity of 10 million people. Like, how crazy, you know? So growing up, I had him to look at as an example, but I just knew that, you know, I saw them struggle. I saw my parents do the struggle. And I was like, I want to grow up to be at a place where money is not an issue. Meaning I don't know if I want to be a billionaire or if I want to have a private jet or whatever. But here's the thing. If I want to fly private, I should be able to do it without being like, oh my God, how will I pay for it? That was what I wanted. That was freedom for me.

Yeah.

So I looked around and I looked at everyone, and now I don't know. You know, I'm Brown. I'm Indian, guys. I come from India. I'm born in America, Patriot flag on my head here. But I am ethnically from India. So I looked around my community. Guess who had the nicest cars, biggest houses and got the most respect? Doctors, right? Never walk into a hospital. 30 of that hospital was Indian. The doctors, at least. And so I, I, ergo, made a decision as a young kid. I said, I'm gonna be a doctor when I grow up. I made my parents very happy. Everyone celebrated me. So all the way through high school, I worked my ass off and I got into one of the best undergrad programs, full scholarship. And that undergrad program had a one way ticket into an Ivy League med school. I was done as far as anyone knew. I was set and I had a full scholarship. My parents are happy. They're celebrating. Six weeks into college. I woke up one morning, Laurie, and opened my eyes and thought, oh shit, what have I done? I'm miserable. I can't. I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. Now here's the difference between me and, I think a lot of other people. I don't let feelings like that just go unanswered. That for me was really important to think more about, to be honest and open about. A lot of people would just 30 years later, still be waking up every morning having that feeling now. It took a lot of guts. And I didn't have the guts the first year because my dad was going through a tough time. I'm on a full scholarship. Everyone's super happy. I've got Harvard recruiting me to come to med school there. And I'm like, freshman year. How can I throw this away? This is like everyone's dream. Second year, I'm in the library, I'm studying. I used to always study with one of my friends. She walks up. I don't know what I was doing. Maybe I was high and was sighing and pying. I don't know what that was doing. All of a sudden she just like, library, quiet. She reaches over, she slams my book shut and she's like, that's it, I've had it enough. I'm like, what the heck got into you? And she's like the nicest person on the planet, by the way. Sweetest person. She's like, that's it right now. Get up, get your stuff, go home right now. Talk to your parents. Enough of you being miserable. I was like, I was sitting there studying chemistry, like, what the heck? So I did, I called my parents, I said, can I come home, it's 45 minutes away. I drove home that night, I told them I'm miserable. I want to switch universities. When I do, I'll lose a full scholarship. I want to go into the track of business. I want to study finance. We don't have anyone in the family that's done that. I won't have any mentorship. I'll lose this whole set life. Thought my parents would be like, you're an idiot. My dad looks at me and says, I don't agree, but you're my son. I want you to be happy and I'll support whenever you do.

What would you have done if they didn't say that?

Knowing me, I probably would have still. Like, I wouldn't. Yeah, I wouldn't have stayed. I. Yeah, but it would hurt more, right? And so I made that decision, made the change. And I tell this story in so much detail only because I want anyone listening right now to say, do you have the. Do you. Are you at that crossroads in your life? Do you need to make that tough decision? Because you're not going to make it to the next step without making that. You have to make tough decisions. Life, I've been making them since I was a kid and I've gotten good at it, you know, but that decision, so it gets funny because then I went to college, I switched universities and did this whole big change. Three weeks into being in the finance program, in the business school, interest in Maryland. I'm like, I hate this now. I'm like, okay, we have a problem. I'm gonna.

You're like, what do I like?

Yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna be a broke kid in my parents basement, you know, With a lemonade. Yeah, with a lemonade stand. Exactly. I'm gonna be like a grown adult. A lemonade stand. So I, I didn't quit. I stayed in it. And I did a lot of self reflection. A lot. And I realized something. The problem wasn't what I was learning. The problem was that I was at a state in my mind where I was like, put me in, coach. I'm ready. I didn't like the idea of just sitting around taking class. I wanted to go do something, get my hands dirty. And so that was when the first time I really started taking this whole online marketing thing seriously. I found it and I was like, let me see if I can make something of this. Or like, so I do something and I got happy. Didn't go to frat parties, didn't go to any college events, didn't go to football games. As a matter of fact, you'll laugh. My first football game I ever went to at my college was two months after I graduated. So like I was really gung ho focused.

Yeah.

Started falling in love with the idea of business. But irony is I got a degree in finance and I wouldn't, if I was you wouldn't trust me with any of your financial books. I don't know what I'm doing but marketing. So from practically speaking, I fell in love with marketing and I love it. I love everything about it. And so that's the trade I went into. And I always laugh and say, what the heck did I do with the finance degree? Like why do I even have this? Well, what did I tell you? We were just talking about this earlier. Life is funny. And the universe delivers things to you in interesting ways. Because right now, the software that we developed that I'm currently, you know, marketing, that could be, honestly right now looks like could be my billion dollar company. Guess what? Space is the number one space that's being attracted to the software. So it's like we never. One thing I try to tell everyone I meet and talk to is that you might be in the wrong place right now. And you might feel like you're in the wrong place. But what's going to be really ironic in 3, 4, 5, 10 years when you look back is you'll realize that if you weren't here, you would have never reached the right place. Totally. Everything is connected. Absolutely everything that happens to you is connected. I went through one of the worst things that not one, this was the worst thing that ever happened to me by far. And I'll give some examples that'll shock people. But the worst thing that could happen to me that nearly destroyed me, that took every morsel of my body to survive, has now turned into the best thing and it's turned into something that might be. I might be on the verge of building a billion dollar company. It's given me a new mission, it's given me a new focus. I'm helping people every day and I'm building a software business out of it that could end up being worth a billion dollars. So you currently, you might be going through a hor divorce, you might be going through some serious health issues, you might be going through whatever. But if you put the land, if you put the lens on of saying how does this turn into an opportunity? How does my mess turn into my message man? You could be sitting on the best thing that's ever happened to you. So that was kind of the early days. And then I just started doing stuff and trying things took me 18 months. I struggled my ass off, couldn't make it. I failed, failed, failed, failed. We didn't have the support back then that we have nowadays. We didn't even have podcasts back then. I mean, Google wasn't even that kind of ages me, you know, Google was just getting started. Facebook didn't exist. And so I was really out there on the trenches doing this myself. And 18 months later started making some money. By the time I graduated, my business was on track to do a million dollars that year. Here's the irony. You want to laugh, Lori, Guess where I ended up. Ended up in my parents basement for opposite reasons. I was so busy, I was traveling so much, speaking at all these stages, doing international stuff. I did not have time nor desire to go buy a place and be on my own and being home with mama's cooking and come home to mom's cooking, you know, like I was only home for like a week out of a month anyway, so I love coming home. And then my parents basement was finished, basement wide open. So I set up an office down there. Had two employees. I always laughed. I said my biggest fear is I'd end up in my parents basement. And sure enough, I did. But on the opposite side of it.

Yeah.

So from there you would, I would love to say the rest is history. It wasn't. My business went up, I took off. I did great things. I got a chance to speak for people like Tony Robbins and travel the world.

And this is all on marketing. This is mostly all on like marketing.

Online marketing, digital marketing, online marketing, affiliate marketing, paid search, SEO, conversion, copy funnels, the usual, right? And was in Singapore and Malaysia and India and Europe and all over the US and my business took off to the point where it was doing about, let's say 5, 5, 6 million a year and then collapsed. 2008. Happens by 2010, our industry gets destroyed. I'm burning millions of dollars trying to build a software company in India. One month in India, one month in us, one month in India. I'm. I don't know, honestly, my parents, at that point, I owned a place down the street from my parents. My mom, she'd call me and be like, hey, honey, you want to come over today for dinner? I made your favorite food. And I'd be like, oh, mom, I'm. I'm in Malaysia. She's like, when the heck I just talked to you yesterday. You were home. I'm like, yeah, I Hopped on a flight five hours after that because I got an invite and I just left. Like, that was my life. I loved it.

Yeah.

And. But then my. I went near bankrupt and then I came back and my business climbed all the way up to, you know, almost 15. 15 is 15, 20 million. And then I went bankrupt almost again in 2018, and then my business went up to 40 million. And then the FTC stuff happened and I went almost bankrupt at that point again. So people always say, like, what keeps you going? I'm like, well, historically speaking, I've lost it all three times and come back every time two or three times bigger. So I'm kind of excited now. I'm like, oh, my next milestone is 100 million. I also was speaking to a billionaire once and he told me something that made me laugh. And he said, you have to have gone almost broke at least three times to be a real billionaire. But then I heard Cody Sanchez say something. It was like, I think it was Cody. She said she was talking to a billionaire and they said that you have to have been sued by a regulator. Gone your bankrupt three times. And there was one more. I can't remember what the third one was, but you know, it's in. All of these things have been going horrible for me. A lot of people get wrapped up and say, God, why is this happening to me? I lost everything. And trust me, I lost a lot. I sit back and think, well, shit, I'm glad I got that out of the way. Now let's go make the good stuff happen, you know, because I'm right on track. I got this right where I wanted it to be. So, so that was how I got my start. I've been out since then teaching online marketing ever since. Love it. 20 plus years in, still doing it. But now because of some recent events over the last couple of years, my mission and my, my, my message has changed, you know, a little more quite a bit. And somehow I've taken a topic that most would say is boring and dull and horrible and people are fascinated by it and are supporting it. So it's great to be here, like yourself. So thank you for having me.

Yeah, let's talk about that. Let's. Let's talk about the, the kind of, the, the final thing that got you to where you are recently. But I want to back up kind of. Let's just go a year before you were sued, right. By ftc. Okay, so let's back up a year prior to that. What are you teaching? What are you doing? What are you Talking about, where are you at in life? How are you feeling? You feel like, oh my gosh, I've already overcome all of these challenging mindset things like understanding that this has all happened to you for a reason. But prob really thinking this is like the up and up from here. Kind of just paint that picture for me.

Yeah. So you want me to go a year before the FTC thing happened?

Yep. Just like, where were you at all? Everything, what you were doing? What are you exactly are you coaching on? Who are you? What are you doing?

Great. Great. Okay. So I had spent 20 years at that point, or 18 years at that point, building up a publishing company. This was a dream of mine. It was like the hardest business on the planet to build. And so a year before this whole thing happened, I was stressed out of my mind. I was trying to put the pieces together and I was falling completely out of love with the business because I was just burned. It was 18 years in, I had a dream of mine that was to sell my company. By the time I turned sell a company. By the time I turned 40, I was fast approaching 39 and my wife and I were planning our family, so we were going to have our first kid. And I was overall just. I was making a ton of money. My company was going to. Was in position to getting close to doing 40 million a year. I had bled a lot of capital and bad investments on tech. We were getting ready to shave that department. So we were going to instantly be 20 plus percent margins. Money was never an issue. We were flying private. We were living the life. I mean, but I wasn't happy. I wasn't, I mean, I think back down. I love my wife. I was personally very happy. I have no complaints, but just generally I wasn't waking up like, yeah, let's go get it fulfilled. Yeah. And so I got an offer to buy the company by the end of 2021. And it was a good offer. And so I said, let's do it. So we went through this really painful due diligence came out of it. And by a, by March, sorry, by early March of 2022, I didn't like the buyer anymore, didn't want to be part of it, didn't like them. But now I had the taste in my mouth of the possibility of selling the company. So I turned down that buyer, walked away. But the good news was we had done all the due diligence. I had my data room done and like, and I had another buyer lined up like this and a really good one. And this one's going to be just a great buyer. They went through the due diligence super fast and said, we just want you to do a couple of things that'll take you a couple of months, get rid of these departments, shave all of it, and we'll, we'll come in and write the check. The money's ready. But this is awesome. It's going to be a multi deca million sale. I'm set. My. My wife is delivering on. So my wife delivered our baby on April 21st of 2022. I'm holding that baby in my hands and I'm like, I'm done, right? We were only about six, eight weeks away from selling. I was gonna. I was. My birthday is June 14th. I was gonna be 39. I'm like, damn, I did it right. And my right hand, who was going to go on to continue being the CEO of the company, he was ready. And I was like, I don't want to go back to work. I'm holding this baby. I'm like, I want to be dad for a year. Like, I want to take some time off and then come back and do the next thing. So I took three weeks off, came back. The first order of business I did was I called the HR attorney and I was like, I want to prepare to announce next week that my right hand is now the CEO. I want to promote him. I don't want the PE firm that buys us to promote him. I want to promote him. And then I want him to shepherd the company through the last couple months of the acquisition so he gets to learn working with them. And I want to ride off into the sunset and just be the chairman of the board and an advisor and super excited. I mean, this is everything I ever wanted. It's. And it was a really difficult business to build, but we did it and we did against all the odds. And the fruit was there to. To be had. May 20th. May 20th. This is three days after I'm back to work from my daughter being born. A month after my daughter's born, I get the FedEx letter in the mail.

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Now, the minute I get that letter, obviously I'm not stepping down now, that would be horrible. I'm not gonna. That's not the gift I wanted to give my right hand. The acquisition's gone. And here's the worst thing I find out. I've built the worst type of company I could have ever built. Because the ftc, when they come and investigate you, they don't. It's not public, it's quiet, it's confidential until they sue you or they settle with you. Then it's public. But they tell. You don't have to tell anyone. I don't have to tell anyone in the company. I don't have to tell any of my experts who I publish. I don't have to tell my customers. But that's not who I am. That's not how I am. So, Lori, let's just hypothetically say I publish you at Learn. So that means I'm running ads with your face, your name, your funnels, processing money on your behalf. You're listening to all the messaging from my team and I call you and say, lori, I got bad news being investigated by the FTC right now. Hey, listen, just an investigation. We can keep doing revenue, we can keep doing business. They didn't stop us from doing business. Naturally. One of the first things you're going to say, Lori, is is my name on that? No.

Yeah.

You mind stopping all my ads? Please can we shut this stuff down? Because you don't want the bleed over. So I have enough respect for the people. I was publishing that on Monday morning. I got the notice on Friday. By Monday morning. I called my team in, 9am, I said, shut it all down. And everyone's like, What? I said, $40 million a year, company gone. So I went from a company that was about to sell for deck of millions to a company worth nothing. In the split moment, notice, because I knew that day, I'm going to have conversations with nine of the top people that we promote and that we are the nine of the top experts. And actually, what ended up happening was eight of them were like, yeah, I would want you to turn it off. One was like, I don't give a crap. Let's accelerate. I'm like, okay, easy, tiger. You know, it's not time to accelerate. So. So we ended up losing 80% of our revenue because of that. And so then by Thursday, which is now, after I got the notice, I had to lay off 80% of my team. And that was really painful because every single one of the people on my team were a players. It took me years to build. And I've got physical scars. I've been hospitalized, had many surgeries. I had Crohn's disease. It's been a total battle. I can tell you the whole saga about that. And I. I had went. Had put heart and soul and body into that company, and I watched it wither in front of my eyes. And now somehow I had to get myself together to fight again to. For the remaining 20% who stuck. Stuck with me for God knows what reason. They've been through hell and back, but they're like, we're not going anywhere because we know you. We know your heart. We know this company. We're going to rebuild it. We want to be here for that. So, you know, a lot of it was like, I got to make it for them. I got to make it for my family. And since then, my wife and I, we had two kids in this whole time. So we didn't think I was joking. I'm like, wasn't hard enough for me to be sued by the ftc, have a business completely falling apart, have all these issues. We thought, this is a great time to add two kids to the mix that's got two kids as well. But now it gave me a new mission, right? I was like, I got these two girls who are going to be total badasses, and I want them to see their dad fight through this, and I want them to see what happens when we face adversity. We don't shy away. We don't turn around. We don't quit. We fight through it. We own it, right? And so that's kind of been a big inspiration and motivation for me, but it's been really, really tough. So where I was a year before was just figuring things out, finalizing everything, about to sell the company. Everything was great. Cinderella's Story was going to get everything I ever wanted out of my life. And in a split moment, just like that, all ripped from me. And I'm finding myself starting over in some ways and having to reinspire, reinvigorate, remotivate and reinvest, albeit with a tremendous amount of knowledge, brand contacts, team. I've got a major head start. But it's tough, you know, it's. It's tough. You know, a lot of people, a lot of people that are very successful say, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't because it was too hard. Right. And here I am making the choice to do it all over again because I can. I know what I can do. My wife and I had a conversation about this and I was leaning towards it. Once the whole FTC thing started, I said, I'm too tired. I said, I'm burned out. I want to be with the kids. I think I'm just going to become a consultant because I know I can make a mil or two a year just in consulting. Yep. And keep it low key for a few years and just be with the kids and my wife. You know, I was serious sold on it. I was like, this is what I'm going to do. My wife started laughing and I said, what are you laughing about? She looks at me and she goes, it's really sweet that you want to do that and thank you for putting your family first, but don't out. I'm like, what? I was like, you know, she's like, you're gonna be miserable. You're not gonna make it. If you're not charging for a big mountain, you're miserable. It's who you are. It's, it's your heart. You gotta go find a mountain. Go found your mountain. The other mountain fell apart. But go find your next mountain because if you don't have one, you're not you. And I remember thinking like, oh, you know, ask me twice. Go, go, go, go find it then. And. And I did. And I did. Thankfully, wasn't the first one I found. Took me a couple years, but. But, you know, I need that. And, and that's another message I would tell the people that are listening is you gotta have purpose. You know, people ask me what powered me through all of this. I gave myself purpose. I found purpose. If, if you don't have purpose, my story became my purpose. Right. My message, my mess became my message. So if you don't have purpose and you're getting ever every day and you're just doing the same Thing and, and you don't actually have a means to an end. You don't, you don't have the thing you're trying to do that the area you're trying to leave impact and legacy and change and it makes it really hard. That's where I think a lot of misery and burnout comes from. Right? In my company, I was burned out before the FTC thing happened, I was totally burned out. I'd lost my purpose. I'd already attained it. We were the number one company in that field and I wanted to do something different. And so I think that's where burnout comes from. Right now you would think I should be burned out. I got two kids, I got, you know, starting something brand new, building a software company while also building an education company. And I'm not, I'm not burned out at all. I'm super excited because I wake up every day with purpose.

Yes. Yeah, I love that. Oh my gosh. I, I, I, you know, the whole time you were talking, you're obviously taking us on an emotional journey because we're all, you know, I think there's so many things that you had said there around. There's so many things involved in that when you're building a company like you really build with your whole self. So your, your heart, your soul, your reputation, you know, like, if you're a good person, you, you do care about what people think to some extent. And you know, you always, it sounds like you want to help people, you want to lead people to their dream, to their mountain, all of those things. So I can only im felt when, number one, you had to tell the people. Number two, when this all, you know, kind of came crumbling down around you. Like, how do I even start something new when this reputation is behind me? Like, I'm in this with you. I'm like having all the feels right now. So tell me, like, what was the thing that happened? Like, what actually happened in the company? Because I know now you know you have this book called don't say that like in this all kind of led up to that. So let's talk about that. What happened? What were we doing wrong? How do we avoid it?

Yeah, I'd love to share one more story that gets to that because you nailed it on the head. The mental torture of me having to face the demon of Am I a bad person?

Yes, yes, totally that.

Because look, I don't have any ill will towards the ftc. People always try to, you know, I got a lot of people try to bait me into It. And I'm like, actually, I still really believe in the purpose of the agency. I think they do a lot of great work. I think I'm collateral damage, but I don't think I deserve what I got. But, you know, they say you can go to prison and ask anybody. I didn't do it. You know, it's like, whatever. I'm not going to get that. That argument. That wasn't Cinderella. I understand there were some things that were done wrong, and we'll get into that. But the part that was the worst is that they're lawyers, right? So you're dealing with lawyers. And so you might say, I would say something, thinking I'm saying something that's. That's going to prove my positive side of me and the good. And they would twist it. It. And it come right back and say, oh, so, for example, hey, we have scorecards. We were scoring every sales call that led to a sale. We were monitoring our agents and making sure if there was anything really bad, we refunded, whatever. Like, we were being very proactive about making sure these sales calls, nothing bad was being done. So they turn around, they're like, oh, okay. So, you know, every sales call that wasn't 100%, you refunded, right. It's like, no, I mean, just, oh, so you knowingly kept money from things that were violations. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out, time out, time out, time out. That's. That's not what this was supposed to be. Like, what did you just do there?

Yeah.

So I got to where I was really starting to feel I. I'm genuine. I was up at night more than anything, wasn't worried about it. My reputation was a very big thing for me. I was like, when that press release hits, what are people going to do to me? But more than that, I was like, did I hurt people? Have I been hurting people? Like, I was never my intention, and, like, I never wanted to do that. And I got. You know, and it was really driving me nuts. And people around me would say, no, man, no, man. And I'm like, like, yeah, but why am I getting hit? And then I'll tell you the moment I felt like God himself came down and said, okay, you need to see this. You need to hear this. And it changed towards the end. Okay. It was about 11, 12 months in, I actually went to the FTC. So I actually went to their office to give them a presentation. Really ironic, because they started the case with me about my webinars, and I actually went there to conduct a webinar. So I created a 40 slide presentation about my company, me. And I thought that was just a little ironic, like. But here's what happens. You walk into the FTC building. It's. They have like, multiple layers. So they have a government building. It's really nice. And in that, they have a wing for the FTC and then a wing for other organizations. So the first security check you do is, like, the TSA literally looks like a mini TSA at the airport. Then you enter this common area and you head towards the FTC wing, at which you have to knock on the glass, and there's another security, and they open it for you. So I had like five, six people with me, my lawyers on my team. And we walk in and I'm kind of behind everybody. And as soon as we walk in, there's. There's a big desk and a security guard at the desk. And I'm kind of in my own head rehearsing my talk and stuff. And I just hear someone say, onyk, is that you? And I'm like, who said that? It's the security guard behind the desk. And he is elated, standing up, and he's like, holy, dude onyx. And he looks. He says these words to me. He goes, what are you doing here? And I didn't know what to do, so I just, like, pointed at the Federal Trade Commission logo behind him. I'm like, you know? And he turns around, he goes, oh, man. Damn it. This is his exact reaction. And so he's like, man, I'm your biggest fan. I've been following you for years. I watch all your videos. You do such amazing stuff. He's like, I've never bought any of your courses or anything, but, like, your free stuff has been so amazing, man. You've made such an impact on my life. And I was like, what is happening? Like, I am in the belly of the beast. And there's someone here who says that I've been helping them. And so there, the FTC attorney comes down to receive us. And my. Of course, my attorney jumps on. He's like, oh, you gotta talk to this guy. Look at him like. And so we're in the elevator. It's quiet. It's a really awkward elevator ride, right? With the FTC attorney in there. And about two minutes, like 20 seconds in it, that FTC attorney just goes, well, that's a first. And we didn't even know what he's talking about. We've kind of forgotten about the whole thing. And I'M like, what? He's like that. Being recognized like that and someone like that, that's never happened. And this guy's been there for a while. So when I left the, when I was leaving, the guy catches me again and he's like, he wants to take a picture and stuff. And he goes, man, you know what? Seeing you today is a sign. I'm gonna go home, I'll buy that course I've been thinking about for the last couple years. And I was like, buddy, you can't. Now we took it down. And he's like, they ruin everything. This is exactly what he said. They ruined everything. I'm like, so I left that and I was like, you know what? I'm going to take that sign that I. I'm not that person. And that was. That person was there to remind me that I've done a lot of good and I've helped a lot of people and that I'm not going to let this organization define who I am. And I'm going to write it off to some misunderstandings. We're going to settle this and I'm going to go back to doing what I do. But to answer your question of what got me into it, this is the other part of this whole process that I hate. So when they come to you, they demand you basically prosecute yourself. So they demand, they send you a civil investigative demand letter. Okay, 36 pages. I had to eventually turn over 600,000 pieces of documents and discovery that cost me million, a couple of million dollars just team cost forensic companies. I had to pay for that out of my pocket. So they ask you for everything. And you ask them one question. Why are you here? What triggered you to look at me? What have I done that is so bad that you are here? And they say, we don't have to tell you. I don't like that. That's not fair. But anyways, that's the answer. So I don't actually know what it is, but I can infer from what things they asked me in that letter. And it was basically things I was saying on my webinars that they wanted proof of. So for example, here's a student or that's made $20,000 using our training. So the two things they asked for, one, give us the proof of that I don't know. She said, so why I improve. And number two, is that the typical result of your typical customer. Show us the typicality study that you did to allow you to use that testimonial. And I was like, huh? I Just didn't know about that. I didn't understand that rule. Now get this. I had a full time paralegal that worked for me and I had a council that I used to consult with on a weekly basis. I paid him a, at least a million dollars over the last 10 years. And as we go through this case and I start to learn and I start to see God, there are so many things. How do I being one of the, one of the, what they call OGs of the space, right? Someone who's been around for 20 plus years, if I don't know these rules and I don't know some of these things, how the heck is everyone else going to know? There's no chance. And I've been good about it. I have a paralegal that reviews all my sales calls. I, I, I constrained my sales team like crazy. I have a lawyer that I paid a lot of money to that I consult with. But I'll tell you right now, at least 60% of what's in this book I never knew until I'm in the process. And that process I found this attorney, Greg Christiansen, who is one of the top compliance attorneys I've ever met. This guy is not only amazing as a person, but he's a brilliant attorney and he started leading my case. But thankfully, I wish I'd met him before, I would have never even had a problem. This guy's brilliant. So he joined in on my mission. He's I, I, at some point, halfway through was like, no, I, this, this will be my redemption. This will be my cathartic, you know, thing. I'm going to write this book whether people buy it or not, because I want to put the education out there because I didn't know these rules, but I want to make sure that people know and have the option to access them. You can't read the Federal Trade Commission Act. You're not going to understand it. It's run by lawyers for lawyers. A copywriter, me, wrote this book alongside of Greg. This is very easy to understand. And so I wrote it and I made the decision to write it in the middle of the case because I was learning so much. Then when the case closed, it took me a few months and we put the book together, Greg and I, and when we rolled it out, I didn't really know what the expectation. I mean, look, think about it, Lori. It's compliance. Who wants to talk about that? Let's go back to talking about how to make millions of dollars. That's what I used to teach people but it's actually been fascinating. The community that we've built, We've sold over 3,000 books now, and people love it. And they're. I'm actually helping people. I'm redoing their marketing with them and making a deep impact. We built software now that companies can use to automatically check their websites for compliance issues. So it's become a whole mission. But really, in the end, you know, we created something called a Pentagon of compliance that's in this book. There's five key things that can drastically reduce your risk of being sued. There's others, and we cover them in the book. But these five key are like the 80, 85% of the. The, the problems. And it's easy, and it's also not at this point, for me, compliant marketing has become like riding a bike. Yeah, I get on, I just start, you know, writing. I don't think about how or where or what. When you first start. We, we've been trained some really bad habits. You know, here's what happened 100 years ago, 200 years ago, someone started marketing. Every generation's learned from that. It's gotten more competitive. And the more competitive it gets, all us marketers start to push the line because we want to do, say more or do more to get attention. And with every generation, we learn from our gurus who are doing things a certain way, and we, we have to add to that and add to that. And it's gotten kind of out of hand. And so now to rip all that apart and say, here's the right way to do it, there's a lot of friction because people have never seen it done that way, so they automatically think it doesn't work. And so I'm just here, the beacon of light, saying, it does work, and I'm doing it, and I can show you. And it takes a little bit of time to learn it, but once you start doing it, you get better customers, lifetime customers, faster growth, sleep better at night. And so actually, if tomorrow you ripped me of all of these rules and said, anik, you don't have to do compliant marketing anymore, go off and do what you were doing before, I would actually say, no, thank you. I actually am a big fan of compliant marketing because I love the customers that it gets me. They're better, they spend more, and I get more results out of them. So anyway, so that was how it started. They quoted a lot of my webinars, but once they were in, oh, boy. They went through my company. They, I mean, they, they. They investigate. They're Very good. They find the most random things and make a fuss of it. So then they went through everything, and then once they found out I had a phone sales team, it was game over because that's where they love to focus on.

Okay, all right, so can we talk about the five key things?

Absolutely. So, number one, misrepresentations. Okay, so what's a misrepresentation? That's a professional lawyer way of saying lies. Most of us marketers, if I asked a marketer, hey, do you lie in your marketing? 9 out of 10 will say, no, I would never lie. Okay, do you do a bonus stack? Like, do you, do you say your Bonus is worth $3,000, this bonus is worth 2500 and this bonus is worth 4800 and stack it up to $29,000 in total value that you get today for 500 bucks. Bucks? You're telling me I get a Model 3 Tesla for 500 bucks? Do you do that? And then they start to get fidgeting. Well, do you do that? Yes. Well, as according to the ftc, that's lying because I can say this book is worth $3,000. Who the hell said that and agrees with it. I have to have actually sold this book to a volume of people for $3,000 for me to be able to say it's established value of $2,000. So, okay, great. Have you ever been on a webinar and said, guys, the first 20 people get this bonus, but then gone on to give it to the first 30, 40, 50 people? We've all done it. It's innocent stuff. But that's a misrepresentation. You are convincing someone to purchase something in a rush on one representation, and then you're misrepresenting it later because you're not following it. You know, how many times have you made up stats or said something but you know, was like, hey, most of the, you know, doctors we talked to approve of this? Did you actually talk to doctors? Well, no. I mean, I've, you know, spoken to a few on the phone. It's like you can't misrepresent the facts. You, you just, you have to say the truth. Even in the most obscene environments, like the first 20 people will get this, or this bonus is worth X amount or, or the best is like fake sales, right? I mean, when you say this is worth 300 and you cross it off and say it's 97 today, that's a misrepresentation. Where did that 300 come from? How did you establish that? So misrepresentation is kind of the first key, very easy door that they can open if they choose to, because most all marketers are misrepresenting something, but it's probably not the number one door they open, believe it or not. Number two, we start to talk about something called Net impression. It's probably the most pervasive concept that the FTC is worried about. And it's the number one way, if you can understand Net impression, it's be going to answer 90% of the questions you have about FTC compliance. So one of the things I've seen out there all the time that people love to do, that marketers love to do, is they love to try to outlaw the lawyers. Okay? And this always makes me laugh. And I used to be one of them. So hey, you can't tell people how much money they're going to make. I don't. I'm reading this statement right here. I said, I said you could. I didn't say you will, I said you could. Aha, I win. And I'm like, really? So lawyers went to law school and all that and like you just, you just changed one word and you win. It's not how it works. And so they've thought about that and so they created something called the net impression. So the FTC and other regulators, like state regulators and other people have a very simple stand on this. They say, look, what is a common person here? If I keep repeating in a 20 minute presentation to you that you could make this, you could make that, you could do this, you could buy this car, you could have this lifestyle, you could, you could, you could, you could. Are you actually hearing that you could, or are you hearing a will? So what you're supposed to do is pretend like this 20 minute video, you pull the person off the street, you say, watch this 20 minute video, they're done, you hit stop and you say, what'd you take away from that? How much money do you think you could make if you followed the stuff that this person teaches? The correct answer they should say is, well, I don't know, that's a cool skill. But there's no, I have no idea how much I would make. But sounds awesome. But if they answer and say, oh gosh, I'll make at least ten grand a month, boom, violation. You create. You, you own the net impression you create. So even if you're not directly breaking any of the rules that the FTC has, but your net impression is breaking them, right? Prime. Another prime example. I always say this, this is an example you'll never forget. So, Lori, let's say I walk you into a room. Okay? You come with me. There's 10 people in the room. Say, Lori, there's 10 people in this room. Person number one is Mike. Mike works for Apple. Person number two is Samantha. Samantha works for Apple. Person number three is Jameson. Jameson works for Apple. Person number four is Nicole. Nicole works for Apple. Person number five is Sandy. She works for Apple. Lori, I'll give you 100 bucks right now on the spot if you could tell me who person number six works for. Who would you guess? Apple. Apple. And I say, haha, Nana, Nana, Nana. Nope, they work for Microsoft. What would your reaction be? You kind of look at me and.

Go, like, why were we doing this? Isn't that.

Yeah. Like you just went on like, what? Like, like, good for you, you won. But like, that was the stupidest. Why would you do that? You led me on. On purpose, right? And so that's what a lot of marketers are doing there. And then I could be like, what? You made that assumption? That's on you. And the FTC just simply. And the regulators simply say, no, no. The assumptions that are being made on the other side are on you if you're influencing them. So that's a net impression. So the third thing, if we move on is claims. I heard a marketer once say the stupidest thing. This is a person of influence. And after my case happened, I was. I was getting chewed apart in their group and not in the group. And I saw the marketer say, the FTC doesn't care about claims at all. All they care is if you issue refunds and keep your customers happy. And it really boiled my blood because I realized, God, this person has a lot of reach and influence. Once. And that is the worst piece of crap advice ever. Because if you read my civil Investigative demand letter, 36 pages, it's full of nothing but substantiate this, substantiate this, substantiate this, this claim. You made this claim. You made this claim. You made this claim. It's all about claims. That's literally the number one thing that they care about. There's four types of claims. Express earnings claims. That's clear. You will get this result. You will make $10,000 a month. You will, blah, blah, blah. Then there's implied earnings claims. This is where I got in trouble. And this is where most people violate implied earnings claims. Like Lori, right now, if I was like, same. Let's go back to that same example. Lori, meet person number one. This person makes $10,000 a month because of me. Meet person number two. This person makes $22,000 a month because of me. Person number three, and I went all the way down to 10 people, and I kept you in that room for half an hour to an hour. How likely are you to buy that product? Probably vary. You've been hyper influenced by them. You now really believe that you can have the results they're having. Well, I just created an implication. I implied unless I can prove that their results are typical, right? My typical customer gets that result. If I can prove that, then I'm fine. I can imply whatever the hell I want as long as I can back it up. But no one can actually prove typical results, typically. So it's an implied earnings claim, right? If I give you testimony, testimony testimonial. It's an implied earnings claim. Number three, performance claim. So now we get a lot of people that are listening say, oh, I'm fine. I'm a weight loss coach. You know, I'm a fitness coach. Well, performance claims are a claim. You lose x pounds, gain X number of muscles, become twice as productive. Like, these are performance claims. And so they still are claims that need to be backed up. And then the last one is the one that I think they just hate the most. Like, they don't go after this the most, but they're always the most sarcastic about it in their press releases and in their complaint letters, and that's lifestyle claims. So right now, Lori, let's say I didn't talk about making money at all. I didn't tell you what you can make. I don't even talk about a testimonial. But as I sit here presenting to you, I got my gold chain on. I got two girls, bikinis next to me, beautiful women. I got a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, a helicopter, a mansion. And I got a money gun right here. And I'm just shooting money all over the place. And I'm doing this interview saying, man, you got to listen to me and live like me. That's called a lifestyle claim. And they hate them. Your little Lambo videos and your private jet ads. You do. They make it into the complaint letters. They can't stand it. I don't know why. They have, like, a special place in their heart against this. Thankfully, never an issue for me. I never did that. I hated it. That's tacky. But those are the four claims. Express earnings claims, implied earnings claims, performance claims, and then, of course, lifestyle claims. So avoid those. Number four of the five is substantiation directly tied to the claims. Anything you say that is an absolute statement must have substantiation, not after the fact, before you say it. So a lot of times they'll reach out and say, prove this. And you're like, oh, I need a couple of weeks. They say, so you mean you said that without having proof of it? This is how they'll twist things. You're like, whoa, wait, what? I. No, no, hold on. I'm not saying that. So if you say something like 9 out of 10 doctors recommend this supplement. Cool, let's see the study. How do I know you didn't just call 10 of your uncles, get nine of them to agree with you? I want to see the actual study that says 9 out of 10 doctors recommend this supplement. Right. Some of the big companies have actually got in trouble for this. Like, like tooth whitening paste and stuff. Like there's been cases against them. It used to be the number one thing. 5, 4 out of 5 dentists recommend this toothpaste. And it's like someone actually got in trouble for that. I'll tell you, in my case, this will really drive home this point. So this became an eight day ordeal. Probably cost me thousands in legal fees to finally make go away when I was 25 years old. Just before I turned 25. I've won one of the greatest honors of that time that I loved. Businessweek magazine, which no longer exists, named me number two entrepreneur in the country under 25. I was really proud of that. That was awesome. So for the longest time, I would say that I'm a past top three entrepreneur under 25 as named by Businessweek. It's true. Problem is, I lost the physical magazine when I was shifting houses. Bloomberg came in and bought Newsweek and bombed the websites Gone. So there's no. The links don't work. So the FTC says, prove it. We don't see it. I showed them a couple of articles, they said, nah, it's not proof. You could have influenced those articles. Like they were written like 10 years ago. Like, are you kidding me? Nope. So I was like sweating and they really made us think about this. Prove it. You said this. Prove it. So thank God. What happened is I found an email I had sent to my father that had the link directly to the story, but the link doesn't work because the site's gone. But thank God for whoever thought about Wayback Machines. Machine. Thank you. Because I went to Wayback Machine, put that URL in, went years back, found a screenshot of it, boom, sent that to Them and they, they were fine. So down to that level of detail, what are you saying? And make sure you have actual proof of each of those things. So the software that we've built now, what's nice is a lot of times people are like, well, I don't really know what an absolute statement is. How do I know? I need to prove something. So what I say is, look, use the software, go pop your copy in there. We know how to recognize using AI what is an absolute statement. And we'll let you know that this needs to be substantiated and you have a button next to it that you click. That's coming soon, in about two weeks from the time we're filming this that you'll hit substantiate, you'll upload your substantiation, it'll tie it to that statement in the future. If you ever make that same statement again, it knows it has proof and it'll tie it. So substantiation is very key. It's probably the number one thing that they're after. They want to make sure that whatever you're saying you have proof of. And you know what, if you can prove it, they'll go away. Literally. They will. They never do though, because no one can ever prove the stuff that they've said. Most marketers just can't. And then last but not least is testimonials the most important, and here's something I'm telling everybody, if you're using testimonials, the FTC has done press release after press release now saying we regulate testimonials the most. Like they are being so loud with me also was one of the big sticky points that got them the door. So I always tell people if there's a background back door through which the FTC is coming into your house, they have told you. This is like me calling you and saying, Lori, I am going to come and rob you through your kitchen door tonight. I'll be entering through your kitchen door around 11 o' clock at that point, Lori, if you don't lock your kitchen door by 11:01 when I'm in your house, that's your fault. Yeah, like I told you, I told you where I'm coming, when I'm coming. They've been saying it now for years, they've been saying, get your testimonials in order. Most people are not touching them, they don't know. So this is the biggest thing you can do right now to reduce risk in your company. Most people love to use results based testimonials Okay, I get it. Old school marketing teaches us that that's what works. So Lori, in your Facebook group, if someone comes and posts a testimonial about you that says, my God, listening to Lori's podcast, I've made like a gajillion ba billion dollars. This is awesome. Obviously you're like, whoa, this is so cool. Like, thanks for sharing. Screenshot. Pop it into my PowerPoints. Pop it up on my website. Comments, not judgmental at all. I did that forever. That's completely illegal for a multitude of ways. So here. If you want to use results based testimonials, there's four rules. Number one, signed affidavit. So you'd have to go to the person and say, hey, I'm about to use your name and likeness to promote myself. Can you please sign a release and an affidavit attesting to those results and allowing me to use this exist. That's number one. Okay, fine. Number two, can you prove it? I need substantiation that you actually made a gajillion ba billion dollars with my stuff. So I need to see the screenshots. I need to see the before, the after. I need a little write up of what you did, what you learned from me that made that money. The person starts to go like, what are you doing, man? Like, and it's intrusive. So a lot of people say, well, why do I have to prove it? It's not my claim, it's theirs. True, as long as it stays inside that Facebook group and you don't use it. But the minute you took a screenshot and dumped it in your webinar and your presentation, it became your claim. You're using it now, so you need to substantiate it. Number three, this is where all results based testimonials fall apart. And that is typicality. It's great that that person made a gajillion babillion dollars. Is that the average result of someone who works with you? The average person who finishes the program with you, Are they going to make that? Because if they're not, you can't use outliers to represent the common. So this is where most of them fall apart. So you have to have a provable typicality studies shown. So if you want to use results based testimonials, you can only use the results based testimonials that are within a range of the typicality study. And then last but not least, you have to have within proximity of the testimonial. I have to have A disclosure and disclaimer. Not just at the beginning and at the end, but right there. Every time you have blocks of testimonials. This is very difficult to do for most people if you're a coach, if you're a consultant, not that hard. You can get proof. You don't have a lot of clients, you can get the signed releases, you can have substantiation and typicality. But if you're out there selling courses, it's really difficult to track all this. So I've switched. And what works even more amazing for me and removes all the risk is I went to simply experience and character based testimonials. My testimonials are now about their experience of the program, which I can control. I can't control the results you get. I can control the experience you have. I can control my character. So their testimony is about me living up to what I promised, how much people loved it, what they think about it. So in that case, all I have to do is get a signed release to use their name and likeness and put a disclosure. I have nothing to substantiate and I have nothing for a typicality. My conversions have been amazing. I'm using testimonials more today than I ever did before, but I'm doing them the right way and they're working really, really well. So there you go. And honestly, I didn't. Those five are not in order right now, if you ask me. Hey, Onyk, which is the number one that you would attack to reduce risk? Risk, I would tell you. Number one is testimonials, number two is claims, and then everything else. Those two are your biggest risk factors that you need to address.

So helpful. I mean, and honestly, there was a moment there, I'm like, well, this is looking bleak for marketing. In your book, do you share the other ways that you're marketing that are getting the results as well?

Well, yeah, so we, we get into it a little bit. But I can just tell you that there's definitely a series, second part of the series coming out, which is. But if you get the book, then you get invited to join us also in something we have called the Compliant Academy. So you can, you can go check it out now. It's compliant academy.com and if you join our Compliant Marketing Academy, which is what you see@compliantacademy.com I have a eight part course, a video course that I did where basically what I did is I took eight parts. Triggers that most marketers love to lean on to create conversion, but they mostly do it the wrong way. So I. I tell you the clean way of doing it. So I tell you the compliant way of testimonials. A compliant way of sharing your own results with people without creating a negative net impression. The compliant way of creating social proof. The compliant way of replacing hype. Because hype can help convert, but who does it convert? So how do we replace it? With something that that's compliant and gets better customers. So that's there in that course as well. And I'll tell you this too, Lori. When I was going through this and I started learning the lessons, the very first thing I thought was, what the hell am I gonna teach? I'm just gonna go buy some subways. Like, what's the point? And then I was like, well, I wonder if the poster on that they put on the subway is even compliant. Cause they never look like that. The sandwich doesn't look like the one in the poster. And so I went kind of deep, deep into that world. And I was like, well, what is and what isn't? And I gotta tell you, I've come out the other end now and I love it. It works. It works great. The level, the quality customer you get is so much better. They stay with you so much longer. It becomes easier to scale and build your business. But it's a muscle. You gotta practice it. Just remember one thing. We learned marketing over the course of years, right? We do things the way we do today over the course of watching others and learning for years. And if you want to do it right, you're going to have to decode, uncode some of those things and relearn. It takes a little time. Now you can do it on your own, which is what I had to do and it took me two years. Or you can come join us and let us join the community, right? If you buy the book, you're in our community. By the way, we give you a free community on Facebook. It's very vibrant. We have 1100 people as of today. And I'm in there. Seriously, I'm in there 15 times a day. So, like, between podcasts and stuff, like I'm doing right now, first thing I was open is I'm in the community answering questions for people because it's something I'm really passionate about. And there. I do help a lot of people. So they'll post something. I'm like, why don't you say it this way? It'll be more compliant. But there are definitely ways. Now, there's some things, right? If someone comes to me and says, well, I want to tell someone that they'll make $100,000. I'm like, there's no way to say that there's no compliant way to make a claim. Right. I mean, you can't. So. But Most all things, 90% of things out there, there's a compliant way of getting the same impact that you wanted with what you're trying to say.

Okay, amazing. Well, where do we find you? Follow you get the book, all of the things.

Thank you so much. Yeah, so don'tsay that dot com. If you go there, you'll have two choices on that page. You can click to our book, which we'd love to have you come buy the book. It's $7 digital version and in the US$10 shipped to your house. There's a few upsells behind it. Please grab some support the cause. That's awesome. We use all of this, use it right back in ads to spread the message. Also, when you go to don'tsaythat.com, you'll see that we have a podcast. Every week we release episodes. They're really tactical. We get into specific, you know, we see what are the recent cases, what are the changes, how do you do this, how do you do that? We talk a lot about how to do things correctly on the podcast and then also check us out at two more URLs. I'll give you compliantacademy.com if you want to be a part of our actual academy where you have access to us at, no extra fees, you can access the attorney, get me to review stuff, get him to review stuff. And then we have compliley.com C-O-M-P l I l y.com that's our AI powered software. If you want to go in there. We, we actually, by the time this episode releases, I think it'll be out. We have a free feature that gives you 5,000 words for free to go in there and scan and get an idea, engage for how our software works. So go in, play with it, join us at Complily and you know, with the combination of the education in the book and the access to the attorneys and access to us through the academy and then of course, the software that helps do a lot of the work. We have tried our best to build the full support that you would need need as you approach compliance.

Amazing. Well, we're so grateful for you for doing that and I will put that all in the show notes and we appreciate this conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's been an honor. And for all of you who've listened, thank you for being a part of this mission now and allowing. Allowing me to share my story. And hopefully it's made an impact.

All right, guys, go check out the show notes. You can find everything linked up that he just mentioned there. And until next time, earn your happy.

Bye.

Bye, everyone.