God convicted me so I turned off my $3m "brand"... (reality of ecom)

For the past year, I have been running and scaling this brand, right? And I've done pretty well with it. I've done over $3 million in revenue with the brand, um, made a lot of profit with it. And overall, it was a success. I learned a lot, and I learned about a lot of what to do, but a lot of what not to do. But I'm no longer doing dropshipping. I'm done with dropshipping.. And this brand made me stop doing what I was going to do. And that might seem very alarming to you. Just keep listening and I'll explain it and you'll actually see like where I'm kind of going. Um, because it all will make sense at the end. But basically this brand, I'll be honest, guys, it was a product that I was not proud of whatsoever. I was selling to a very specific type of person and an insecurity. My ads were not something that I would show my mom and be proud of, right? Not something that I would show my family and be proud of. And I was honestly very conflicted about it for a long, long time, for, for this whole year. And I was just so conflicted about just what I was running, bro. And it just, it's crazy with, with e-commerce and with dropshipping, dropshipping more, right? Like the lengths people go to to make money. And I'll be honest, I was one of those people.. And as a man and as definitely a Christian man, I need to hold myself to a much, much higher standard than everyone else in e-com, right? And that is something that I definitely felt very conflicted on for a while. And then I remember, dude, literally one day in church, um, I literally fell to my knees because I was like so convicted of it and I felt awful. I was like, I claim to be I claim to be this guy who wants to, you know, reflect Jesus in the right way, you know, someone who's pure and someone who has the greatest intentions and someone who wants to serve others. But in my business, like, I'm not serving others. I'm more manipulating them. And basically from then on, I just turned it off. Like, I straight up just turned off all my ads. And the thing is, that came right after, like, I think a record month. And I was hitting the largest days I've ever hit, and I just completely stopped it. And I was like, from then on, I'm like, I'm just not going to be doing dropshipping. And I'm telling you what I'm gonna do now, and it'll make more sense. And I know a lot of you guys are like, whoa, you're not doing dropship anymore? That's crazy. Um, but I want to just kind of give some more, some more lore, I guess, and just talk about the e-com society in general because like It's really bad. It's actually so bad. And like, there are so many people— there's people who literally have, have— I don't want to call them out directly, but they claim to run a brand, right? That's like their whole persona on the internet. And then you go and look at their brand and it's like softcore, you know what, corn basically. And they're just selling people like that. And it's like, it's the most demoralizing thing. Like, you think these people are doing really well, and then you actually go— and this happens to so many different brands— you I think, you know, people like me or people like, you know, other people who are even like, you know, further ahead of me, and you're like, oh, I look up to the guys, they're doing so much revenue. And then you see how they're making money and it's disgusting. It's disgusting how these dudes are making money. And that's not even— those are people who are not even like super black hat, right? Those are like people who are like kind of like gray hat. I mean, definitely with the ads, it's a little gray. But then you get into people who are just straight up scamming, which is like a whole nother section of the the e-com stratosphere, which is crazy. And I even have some friends who are like, like they don't show stuff in checkout. Like they don't actually, like they're doing some shady stuff. They're taking some shortcuts as well. And like just looking at all this, I'm like, do I really look up to that? Like, is that really what I want to do? Is that, is that next level of e-com what I want to get to? Do I want to have a brand doing, you know, 50 mil a year? But I'm like taking all these shortcuts and scamming people, right? And like literally like just not running a clean business. And I just said like, absolutely not, dude. Like even with what I have now, which is not that bad, like I never blackhatted, I've never done anything like that. My ads were like obviously a little bit manipulative, but, um, never like blatantly scamming people. I'd never have done that. And I felt terrible about that. I'm like, imagine if I got to that. I don't care about that money. I don't want that dirty money. And I didn't want the dirty money enough that I had the actual opportunity to exit this brand that I was currently running and I didn't take it because I was like, I don't want that dirty money. Like, I just don't want it. And so I just ate that. And so now I was like, it literally 2 months of my, like 2 months, dude, I was just thinking to myself like, dude, what? Where do I go from here? And then, you know, you watch certain companies like, you know, like The Operators Podcast, or you watch— there's some people out there who are starting real stuff, real products that are actually good. They're sourced, you know, from the United States, or they're actually legit, and they're actually trying to solve something, and they're making it about something that they're passionate about. And that's what I'm trying to do now. And I have a product now that I really like, and it's like all organic. It's all like super well done, right? Well thought of. Um, and it's something I'm actually passionate about. And I'm going to be building like an actually legit brand. I know I've said that before probably, um, and I didn't do it because I just got lost in the sauce of stuff. But I've literally cut— I've burned the ships now. And, um, I just went on a couple side quests, you know. I went to Hawaii and I went to Moab. I had some friends come over because we're moving out of this really nice house and I'm moving into my own crib. It's going to be a completely new chapter of my life. And from now on, bro, like, I've literally— I've made the jump. I've acted in faith. I received my conviction. I said, no, I'm not doing this no more. Like, I don't care. And I'm going to be building something with honor and something with purpose and something that I can actually show people. And one day I would hope to put my face behind it because that's how proud of it I want to be. I want to have honor with what I run. I want it to actually serve people and be doing something and making a good impact, you know, good ingredients, good impact, rather than just kind of like manipulating people to buy my product, which is pretty much the same as everyone else, right? And that's what I'm doing. And so I'm done with that kind of dropshipping, right? But I'm still doing e-com, I guess, but it's more of a real brand, like, you know, buying inventory and stuff and It's a big jump, guys. It's, it's definitely a lot different than anything I've done. I've always had Kayla data videos or, you know, competitor videos to go off of. And when you're creating something completely new, you got to do a lot of testing. So that's going to be a big chunk of what I'm going to be doing for the next few months is just really just trying to test a lot of different things and try to get on some UGC and stuff like that. And I'm really excited about it because it's going to be very hard to be difficult. It's going to be mentally challenging, but that's how I'm going to actually grow. And if I continue just to start another KaleaRip or another whatever supplement from China, right, like, am I really growing? No, I'm just doing more of the same, more of the same things that don't fulfill me. And one thing I know and I've learned from my life and my walk in faith is that, you know, when I follow and when I just am obedient, I always come out way more fulfilled than before. Um, for example, like, I had I was in a relationship once, right? When I actually moved to Utah, I was in a relationship and it was with a girl. She didn't believe in God. I wasn't fulfilled. It wasn't a good relationship. And I was scared to break up with her because, I mean, you're always scared to break up with people because you're like, am I ever going to find anyone? It's just something that happens, right? It was kind of like a beta, beta freaking mindset. I know that, but it was like, I'm just being real with you guys. That's how I felt at the moment. My emotions were very high. But, you know, I prayed and I felt the Holy Spirit, like, literally felt the Holy Spirit tell me, like, do this for me and I'm going to bless you. And I did it. And then I prayed and I asked for a specific type of woman, and that woman came in my life 3 months later. And now we've been dating for a year, um, and I can't be any happier with, with who she is and how she is and how beautiful she is. Like, it's just, I've been blessed. And so anytime I've walked in faith, including moving out to Utah, that's another big thing I've been blessed. And so this is just another jump, and it's a little scarier because it involves finances, which is like, whatever. But this is necessary for my growth, and I don't want to look back in 10 years' time and I'm running some like $100 million like scam and just be like, dude, I could have like really took the time to build something super cool, right? I want to do that now, and I want to take the right step now, and I've had the conviction I've seen where other people ahead of me have gone and the routes they've taken. Like the freaking— I don't want to say names, but, um, a lot of these dudes on even on YouTube who, you know, are like $100 million brand portfolio, like they're just running the absolute schemiest things and it's just all pure greed. It's pure profit. That's not the aim of what I want to build. I want to build something that is out of love. It's out of serving the customer. You know, it's building something real, something that people resonate with, build a community with it as well. Something that actually works for one. So it's going to be a new chapter and I want to just inform you guys about that. And I just, like I said, I want to grow a greater connection to my audience. And you guys really liked my last video and I'm happy that did really well. And I'm going to be making more of these, also going to be making more like kind of day in my life because I'm not just changing in business, but my whole posture in life has been changing slowly. My whole posture of how I see myself and how I'm going to be operating has changed from my habits, from how I take care of my body, how I take care of my— what I eat, you know, what I do on a daily basis, my time. Exactly. So it's going to be a lot different, but I wanted to make this video I want to be, um, a good example in this space. There's not a lot of good examples out there, and everyone gets into dropshipping to make money, right? To get out of the rat race. And I don't blame people for that, because when you're working at like a Pizza Hut, like, you want to do anything to leave that. But once you get more knowledge and once you do get more information, you have the responsibility to do good with it. And I have that, and I have, you know, uh, an abundance to where I don't need to have something right now. I don't need to be making a crazy amount per month, uh, I can take a step back, associate, or, you know, think and really try to make a good, good step forward. And yeah, I basically— like, because I want to build something, I am building something that when I eventually, you know, show my face behind it, when I reveal it, like, I want everyone in the DTC space not to have a licking thing to say about it, not a negative thing. I want them to be— I want to be an example and show these other dudes like, yeah, it's possible to build something real, something that like you don't have to scheme your way to $100 million. In fact, doing the opposite and actually focusing on a product and focusing on building something real is actually the better way to go. And so that's what I'm focused on. So I know it's another Yap video, but I wanted to post that for you guys. And yeah, I'm excited. The content's gonna be a lot different, um, and I'm excited. I wanna, wanna make some really cool content and build something cool. So I'll Um, yeah, thank you guys for watching. Um, like always, I appreciate the heck out of you guys. Leave a like on this video if you think I'm doing the right thing. And yeah, I will, um, definitely keep you guys informed. I'll update you guys on how it's going. Um, and kind of like, you know, even like give some sauce along the way of like what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, what I'm focusing on, how I got to, you know, $10K a day, how did I get that to $50K a day, and like, etc. And like how I'm like just thinking about this as a whole. I'd love to share that along this journey as well, and I think that would be super inspirational for you guys. So, um, without a doubt, I gotta go to Bible study, guys. Um, it's in, you know, a couple minutes, so I gotta dip. But thank you guys for watching, and love y'all. Peace.