How One Bad Manager Sparked A $100M Journey

We had great results in our parent company and the offer we had in our parent company up to that point that was driving us, supporting us, giving us a leg to stand on with our e-com brands if needed. And then we made one change to our marketing. We tested a new lead magnet versus the old lead magnet that had propelled us to success for years. And that new lead magnet posted double conversion rates. It cut cost per lead more than half. And so we were like, okay, we need to switch the lead magnet out, focus on just using this lead magnet. And we did. And then we just saw our results plummet.

Welcome to the Speakeasy Mastermind Podcast, where the real conversations happen behind closed doors with the boldest entrepreneurs, creators, and growth minds in the game. No fluff, no filters, just the raw strategies, personal stories, and mental models that move the needle. I'm Eric Berman. Now let's get into it. In today's episode of Inside the Speakeasy Mastermind, I'm so excited to bring on Josh Marsden, an incredible e-com guru expert, having done over $100 million in sales since 2013, created the ARM5 formula of success for growing any business, any commerce brand, and has then since become an expert at finding, buying, and selling e-commerce brands and has an incredible entrepreneurial story of how what's worked, what doesn't work, that gone from huge growth to downsizing and all the things we all go through. And you're going to learn some incredible entrepreneurial lessons. Plus he shares a very cool personal story after a little sip of ayahuasca. So get ready to hear that. So welcome to Inside the Speakeasy. Welcome, Josh.

Yeah. Thanks for having me, Eric.

Yeah, my pleasure. All right. Let's dig in. So, you know, being a recovering, I should say, or surviving, maybe a surviving recovering agency addict, you know, person myself. You went through that and typically agency owners don't like, hey, what do you want to grow up? And you know, what do you want to be when you grow up? An agency owner? Like, let's take me through the beginning a little bit. Like, how did you get into e-com in the first place?

Yeah, yeah, sure. So Infusionsoft, I have to thank for that. So back in early 2012, I was at a Fortune 500 company here in Phoenix called University of Phoenix. I had been there for 7 years. I was fairly successful. I was one of the top ranked managers in the whole company. Won a bunch of awards, and then I decided to switch careers because the private education industry was getting hit by Obama's regulations and it was restricting our business and how we can grow and how we could even do our job as managers even. And it was affecting our ability to get raises. So I was just at a point where I was open to other potential opportunities, and I had some friends that were at Infusionsoft. They kind of sold me on coming over and selling at Infusionsoft. And I was, I was a manager at University of Phoenix. So, so I basically kind of took a responsibility step down when I went to Infusionsoft. But it was at Infusionsoft that I was on the phone with different business owners and hearing all these crazy ideas of how they're making money online. And I was just like blown away. I was blown away and just fascinated. And then at the end of 2012, my second manager at Infusionsoft, him and I kind of subtly butted heads a little bit.

Yeah.

And he decided to fire me, which was a blessing in disguise.

At the time, you're like totally pissed off emotionally. What's going on?

Yeah. I mean, I was like, I was number 2 or 3 on the sales floor in October and he let me go like around December 10th.

And he's probably worried you're going to take his job.

Yeah, possibly. I mean, like, I didn't agree with his management style and I didn't tell him directly and I wasn't disrespectful, but I think he can tell through my body language and also just doing the activities he wanted us to do. Like for example, he was the type of guy that his team had to be disciples. And if he wanted to go to lunch with everybody, you stopped everything. You went to lunch because you just want to hear everything he says. And I just didn't agree with that. I was the type of person who was like, hey, I want to plug in. I want to get the job done. I want to get results. That's all I care about. That's what I care about the most. And, you know, we just didn't mesh. And so he, you know, let me go and it was a blessing in disguise. And that's really like the kick that got me starting my company.

And then, and it's interesting because, you know, as you say this, you weren't initially like, hey, I'm just going to go out of college and just do the whole figure out and just start some widget idea I had. You started in the sales side and said, wait a second, you backed into being an entrepreneur.

Yep. Yeah. No, for sure. And actually, you know, I was really backed into becoming an entrepreneur, like maybe a month or so after that, after doing freelance work for maybe 2 months and just, barely making enough to kind of get by, I started at another company. And this company, it was a sales job again. It was a B2B sales job where you had to actually go out and build relationships with people, knock on office doors and talk to, you know, owners, managers, et cetera. They wanted me to work 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. I told them that I had a 3-year-old son. I had to pick him up from preschool at 5:30, 1 to 3 days a week. You know, it wasn't like a big ask, but they had a hard time with it because they had a culture expectation. And so that was really like the second push, you know, the second kick in the pants to say, you know what, I'm going all in on building my business and the rest is history. So that's really how I got started. I started my company as an agency. Didn't quite know what I was doing back in 2013. I just knew that I, you know, was all in on it and I was, I believed in myself and I knew that I can do it. And I really just focused at the time on Infusionsoft services, you know, just helping people implement and run Infusionsoft. And then I, from there, I kind of grew into a digital marketing agency focusing on sales funnels, focusing on paid traffic, Facebook ads especially. And then we became the ARM5 Formula company, you know, several years after that.

Nice. Okay. So you started with Infusionsoft. You just led that transition. By the way, I'm sure at this point, if nothing else, you know, maybe you're not making the money out of the gates, but you're like, damn, I don't have an ass manager to deal with. So you're way happier. You're already running ahead in the beginning months. You're just like, okay, I'm happier. I remember those times as an entrepreneur, you're like, I might not be making it yet, but I'm actually enjoying it because you're responsible for your own, you know what I'm talking about, right? When you feel your own responsibility, it's a different feeling.

Totally, man. I mean, that first year I made only $74,000. I didn't make that much money, but I definitely enjoyed the autonomy. I enjoyed, you know, being reliant on myself, having my own schedule. You know, I used to be in boxing, Muay Thai, and a little jiu-jitsu even. And it was great, you know, because I could just go take a noon class, go back to work afterwards, you know, and it was awesome. I enjoyed those little things, you know, back then, but man, you know, things have changed a lot since then, you know, 74,000 a year. Well, that was a long time ago now.

Nice. I love it. All right. So you just mentioned it. I'm going to bring it back. Kudos for naming. We always talk about our companies. If you can name a process, that's always a win. And in fact, it's always, you know, it always increases the value of your company. Hey, we have a process. You have the ARM5 formula. Sounds, sounds badass and cool. Let's talk about it. Is it, what is the ARM5 formula?

Yeah, I appreciate it, man. I had a really good coach that helped me craft it, Ollie Bilson, who I definitely recommend to anybody that wants a really good coach that's direct and very, you know, business savvy. Something about British people, man, like I have a few British friends and just really business savvy.

Yeah.

You know, it must be baked into their education and we just don't even know it.

It's all the tea gets them focused.

Probably. But yeah, he helped me create the RM5 formula. He just, he said I needed a big idea. I need a big idea in my company. And so I was a bit inspired by Ryan Levesque, who is actually my business coach now even. And I worked with him years ago too, back in 2016 for a year in his mastermind. I was kind of inspired by what he did with the ASK method when I was creating the ARM5 formula. And Ollie, you know, again, was a great advisor guide on helping me craft this. And, you know, it stands for authority, reciprocity, and monetization. And then the 5 profit amplifiers. And so basically what it comes down to is it comes down to when we work with companies, in the past it was clients, now it's our own, we help these companies become authorities in the industries that they're in. We help them create reciprocity through the value that they put out in the market, through lead magnets, through content, and then we monetize, you know, it's simply that.

Got it. And what's the 5?

5 profit amplifiers. Persuasion matrix, testing matrix, so the authority engine, customer monetization, and then it's retention marketing.

Got it. And I gotta say, like, again, for anybody listening, and I know I kind of just brushed on it, but I think it's such a brilliant marketing move to coin a process. And, you know, we all do a lot of similar things as agency owners, but to actually coin a process and then draw, you know, I've been to your website and you have a really cool visual that shows it, it really makes it team. And I'm not saying what you're doing wasn't special, but it just creates that image and it's a really smart thing to do if nothing else. Okay. So you're running that, you're getting clients and you're doing, you know, you became this, you know, amazing e-com guru. And then, you know, tell me about the success and some of the things I know you've done over $100 million. You did over $100 million in revenue on e-com. Is there a niche within niche in e-com? And then I'm going to lead into, we're going to talk a lot about your acquiring e-com companies as a way to grow, which is fascinating.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, we focus on just physical product e-com. We didn't have like a niche, like an industry necessarily, but we definitely seemed to gravitate quite a bit towards health and beauty. And even today, like our portfolio is health and beauty and we're only focused on buying health and beauty brands, you know, for example. But back then, you know, as an agency, I mean, it was like supplements, for example, we had a lot of success with supplements. Like we had one company that saw like a 1500% ROAS from Facebook advertising over 6 months. They saw significant, you know, result there and they grew, I believe by like 2.6 times versus the previous 12 months before they worked with us, for example. And that was just one example, but you know, we worked with even companies like Genius Network, like Genius Network worked with us for a year and we beat their previous advertising results and they worked with Nicholas Kuzmich, who's a very respected, you know, online marketing and advertising expert. But we were able to beat his results with our results, which was nice. So we worked with like a lot of e-com brands, e-com businesses, and you know, as long as we were set up with the right client, then we definitely got great results.

Got it. So you got a lot of results and if I'm here listening, can you share like what are, I mean, 'cause you're still doing that now today, you're obviously acquiring companies and then you're adding your magic sauce in there. What are a couple of maybe tips or techniques you can share like that's helping you really win?

Yeah. You know, today it's like, you know, my hat has shifted quite a bit. You know, back then I was obviously much more of a hands-on marketer because, you know, smaller team, you know, smaller business doing more of the marketing. Today I'm more of a director, if anything. So I'm really good at being able to like see a business and see the holes, see the gaps, and then delegate that stuff and then hold the team accountable and make sure that we're making those shifts, we're getting things done, and we're making those impacts. So I wouldn't say like there's like this, you know, crazy strategy or anything that I'm doing today. I'm just, I'm a CEO more so today than ever. But you know, just to give you maybe some feedback, like we've got some companies in our portfolio right now. They're literally at like a 75%. Customer return rate, which is pretty much unheard of in e-com, typically struggle with the follow-up and they typically are very front-focused. And that's a big mistake that I've seen for probably 10 years in e-com. That was a big value proposition we had whenever we worked with e-com businesses was helping them on the backend generate more results from their list, from their customers. This way they can see their ROAS and their lifetime value go up.

So the mistake that you're saying, the mistake to avoid is focusing so much on just the general acquisition and then saying, okay, let me just put all 80/20 into that versus wait a second, how do you nurture them? How do you make sure they have a great experience so they'll refer others, etc.?

Yeah, totally, man. Yeah, totally. I mean, the money's made on the back end, you know, that's the bottom line. Yeah.

Yeah. You get— you work so hard to get the lead. I hear that so, so much. And it seems that it's such an— I think it's one of those things you say and it seems so obvious, but it is incredible how many times people miss it because it's just like, get that role, get that. you know, first month, you know, break even, you know, kind of thing. And you're like, yeah, we'll just fix it back here and fix the leaky bucket. Once you get the lead, you're going to have more success, right? Fix your messaging, fix your follow through. Are you emailing them correctly? You're asking for, you know, all that. That's great. Okay. So you had a lot of success over the years with, I assume, following your own formula, your own system that you're building out. Now I get it. You built up and you've done what a lot of us entrepreneurs have a hard time doing, which is delegating and bringing on a team. And getting out of your own way. Was that tough to do? Was it hard for you to like figure out how to build systems and not control? A lot of us have that.

It is still hard. You know, it's still hard. I think with me is just, you know, I had a lot of challenges in trusting people and communicating the right way and not trying to do the work myself because I've heard this from colleagues even that are having the challenge of growing, you know, their business and growing their staff and delegating more. We always feel like we can do things faster and it's true, you know, we probably could, but you know, at the same time you have to know the value of your time and you have to stay in your lane and focus on your 80/20 with your, you know, special sauce, your, you know, special skills that you can apply to a business to grow a business much faster. And so, you know, I don't know if that answers your question, but that's what I kind of struggle with over the years when I, started to expand and started to have a team. And even now, like, you know, I have to be like, I have to hold myself back a bit. And it's something I've always kind of struggled with.

What's, I mean, what's clickjocking? What got you to finally over the hurdle of saying, I gotta give up control? Like what was the, do you remember or was it just a mental shift at some point that happened? Was it just sheer like volume of work that you didn't have a choice?

Yeah. I mean, all the above. I think it's a, it's a muscle, you know, it's a muscle. When you start using it, you get better and better at using it. And it was a lot of books, a lot of education, you know, a lot of advisement from different mentors over the years too. You know, I feel like I've reprogrammed myself, you know, over the last 10+ years. I read lots of material that really is all about being super efficient with your time and knowing the value of your time and knowing how to maximize your impact on your business by using, you know, that framework. You know, all that stuff has been basically like now over the last several years, kind of in my DNA almost. So I mean, I've got books and things like that I could definitely recommend to help someone if they're struggling with, you know, making that transition where they can really like almost reprogram themselves like I have. Because now, I mean, I'm like super vigilant with my time and very efficient, very organized, you know, with my schedule. And I delegate like crazy and follow up, hold people accountable, and a very conscious of not putting like time into stuff that I shouldn't, you know, because sometimes, you know, I'm sure you feel this too. You have this impulse like, I want to do this or I want to work on this, you know, or you just start doing it and then you're like, wait, wait, this isn't the best use of my time right now. I have people for a reason. Let me delegate this out, you know, and I catch myself when that happens.

Yeah, no, I think for me, it's definitely the Dan Sullivan, who, not how, and just that philosophy, which I think I've had on, I always say like, analogy I always use is never get in the car alone. If you're going to take the wheel, somebody's got to be in the passenger seat watching immediately. Otherwise you're never going to get out of the car. So like take the wheel first, second time you're driving, let them take the wheel and you sit in the passenger seat. And then the mistake I often make is getting out of the car too fast. All right. I hired somebody. They should be getting out of here.

You go, here's the car.

Have fun. And then you're like, oh shit, it just crashed. I wonder why I try to get out of there too fast.

All right.

Let's move over into, I want to talk about the real exciting stuff from what I wanted to learn from you is on the acquisition side. You have a commerce agency, you're doing really well with these brands, and all of a sudden something triggers and you say, well, wait a second, maybe I should start buying these companies, rolling up. What's, what happened and where are we at today?

Sure. Yeah. So going into 2020, I was definitely like at a point where I felt a little bit burnt out on agency services. And so I remember I was at a mastermind retreat with Ollie Billson, who I mentioned, in San Diego, early 2020. Before COVID he put me on the hot seat and I told him, you know, what challenges I was having in my company and what he told me, I did not expect. He came back and he told me on the hot seat, you should sell your company. And I was like, I was like, oh, okay. And so that was really like kind of what started it. I started the transition. So from early 2020 until late 2021, I had 5 different LOIs to buy my business that were signed. And in 2020, I had 3 and I really thought the 3rd one was going to go through. And then he completely ghosted me like a few days before my birthday, which is Halloween. And then that fell through, obviously. And, and then 2021, I did sell my agency, 50% of it to someone in early 2021. And then a month and a half into it, we had to dissolve it because we just had misaligned expectations. He didn't realize that we would have to hold on to our clients and that would also take up our bandwidth in order to continue to produce capital and support ourselves. It's like he didn't come in with the expectation that I have to really invest money into this to make this transition. 'Cause he had his own e-com brands that he wanted us to focus on to help him grow those brands to become, you know, much more valuable brands. But he wasn't willing to really go all in. Is I think what happened there. And so we amicably dissolved it. And then at the end of 2021, I was partnering up with 3 other people and we even went to New York City, made a big pitch to Grasshopper Bank about building an e-com aggregator with a software component, actually a few software components, building like an e-com ecosystem basically. And, and they loved it and they said, yes, we're in. But then 30 days later, January 2022, one of those guys out of the 4, he wouldn't sign papers to sell his business to the lead of the 4. And I was, you know, one of the 4. And so, you know, I saw that whole thing kind of falling apart. And luckily I had started to be proactive and started to shift my wheels, so to speak, into buying e-com businesses myself versus depending on this, this opportunity, this initiative that we were putting together. So I knew for a while that I wanted to get out of the agency space because I saw it being just commoditized, you know, unfortunately, you know, Russell Brunson, I think, is to thank for this. No knock on him. He's a great marketer, but, you know, he was marketing how easy it was to make money online at one point to get people on ClickFunnels. And I think that it caused a lot of people to think that they could sell marketing services and then deliver results when they didn't have experience. And that and some other things, I just saw like the agency space just getting commoditized. And I also knew that, you can't build wealth selling services.

Yeah.

You just, and a multiple too on an agency is like 1.5. It's not very high. And so you can't, you know, you can't even sell your agency for a good multiple unless you're like $10 million plus a year, which is a lot of work and takes a lot of time and is an operational nightmare basically. So, you know, all that kind of led to me making the big pivot going into 2022 and, you know, not selling services anymore. The last time I sold Agency Services was late 2021, and I just started buying businesses in early 2022. Just learning from Roland Frasier and what he teaches people. The rest is history.

Yep. Yeah, no, it's brilliant. Roland, one of our initial founding San Diego members back in the day, Speakeasy Mastermind and others. But yeah, no, he's awesome. Love what they teach over at Epic Network Mastermind now. And in fact, one skill that I regret not having learned more of, and I always go back and say, If my current sort of projects don't go well, I'm going to go see Roland and go deep into his projects. So yeah, you got ahead of me there. Fantastic. So you learned again through, you know, what Roland teaches and others, how to really find the right deal, how to negotiate, get the right value, acquire and buy for very little money down kind of thing. Is that you follow a lot of the playbook that he teaches?

Yeah, no, no, for sure. I mean, I got to know it very intimately. His lead coach in 2022 is a good friend of mine, Adam Lyons. He's no longer working with Roland, but he helped me out a lot too. Gave me lots of guidance, lots of feedback at times. But yeah, I just, you know, I'm a student first and foremost, you know, and when I focus on learning something, I just, I go all in and I consume, you know, ravagely so this way I can, you know, grow and, you know, learn how to skill that I'm trying to skill, uh, to learn.

So let's jump ahead. So, I mean, you immerse yourself in that, you learn some incredible skills on the acquisition side. Yep. And how's it going? Like, where are we at today? Like, what did maybe of all those things you learned, what would be maybe the top, you know, one or two things you're like, oh my God, this is the biggest thing that I think has helped is, you know, looking back on.

Yeah, man, it's gone overall, you know, well, you know, 3 and a half years now, you know, we've been an e-commerce aggregator and we've had the most success I've ever experienced as an entrepreneur due to that. And, you know, I'm blessed to say that, you know, we've had some phenomenal investors that have really supported us and believed in our vision. And you know, we grew a portfolio up to, it was like just under $10 million. It was at $7.8 million at one point. Then, you know, I learned a lot of lessons early last year. So we had a high in December of 2023 where we raised over a million capital just in one month. We had a good portfolio and it was putting up good numbers and I had, I really had invested into getting a really solid team. I kind of had, I was inspired by the basketball Dream Team, you know, because I'm a big basketball fan and I wanted to bring in really good internet marketers and new e-com. And that's what I had focused on up to that point. And then in early 2024, you know, I had more cash than I've ever had to be able to invest in my company. And I was really doubling down on us getting to our milestone for 2024. And so I invested into mentorships. Sponsorships, mastermind groups, people, you know, got payroll was all the way up to $175,000 a month. And I thought I was doing, you know, all the things you're supposed to do to go where you're at. You know, I was almost at 8 figures to 8 figures and beyond. But what I didn't realize is that the pendulum swings very fast when you have that much cash and capital needs. If your engine, you know, if you are a cash flow business, fails and you're living play by play, well, you know, it can affect the entire business.

And, uh, that monthly note doesn't just disappear when cash is down one month. It still sits there.

Yeah. Yep. For sure. So that's what happened is that we had some great results in our parent company and the offer we had in our parent company up to that point that was driving us, supporting us, giving us a leg to stand on with our e-com brands if needed. And then we made one change to our marketing. We tested a new lead magnet versus the old lead magnet that had propelled us to success for years. And that new lead magnet posted a double conversion rate. It cut cost per lead more than half. And so we were like, okay, we need to switch the lead magnet out, focus on just using this lead magnet. And we did. And then we just saw our results plummet. But, and we didn't know, we didn't think it was that. You know, I thought it was the sales team failing honestly for a few months. And then after I let go of the sales team and I dove into the marketing and I, you know, did some analytics and identified our lead-to-sale ratio with new leads coming in from the new lead magnet versus the old lead magnet, I saw that there was a 25x impact in conversion. And that was why basically we weren't seeing the same level of results. Yeah.

So, so lesson there to kind of recap for those listening, it's interesting, you know, when you have a lot of eggs in one basket. And if you're going to make the full switch, you better damn look at your data and be careful and maybe not go all in right away, you know, slowly, gradually. And it sounds like you had enough data out of the gates based on that first test. And you're saying, okay, this is it. Let's get excited. Let's go all in and just, and you went, look, I'd made that mistake. I think a lot of us have made that mistake. So it's went from feeling really good about yourself, feeling like you're going to make it and then you go the other way. So how does that happen emotionally? And how have you swung back out of that?

Man. So I've used this metaphor quite a bit as I've explained this. It felt like being a boxer in a boxing ring and being knocked down 20 rounds in a row and just getting back up and continuing to fight. And it still feels that way. So, you know, mentally it definitely has been, you know, challenging at times. You know, luckily, you know, I've stayed true to my Christianity. I have a great relationship with God. I read the Bible every morning, you know, pray every morning. And you know, that strength of spirit, strength of will has really been what's helped me get through this, to be quite honest. So, you know, that's how I've been able to kind of get through this storm step by step. So yeah, that's the best advice I can give anybody.

And how are we doing today? Like what's been the tweak to, to get you back on track? And by the way, I heard a quote yesterday at an event. It was really good. I mean, just all winners have been, are multiple losers first. Like you have to have lost before in order to win. Like otherwise, You're not even playing the game, which most people don't even play. And that's the journey we go through as entrepreneurs. Like it's, you know, the more losses you have, the more, you know, the bigger the win. So kudos to you for getting back on your feet and today. So what's happened?

Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. So, I mean, so we still have an e-com portfolio company. You know, we made the Inc. 5000 this year too. Uh, it's had some success, but, but we have a smaller portfolio now because we lost some businesses because we couldn't make payments on those businesses because our parent company was supporting everything basically at that point. And, you know, we're kind of in a, we're in a rebuilding place, honestly. And we're also, we're slightly pivoting. We're going to be an e-com aggregator. We're not changing that, but we're just pivoting our strategy basically because of the loss of momentum, because of the decrease in revenue, because we're at like $2.8 million now top line when we were at $7.8 at one point. So we've lost a lot. We've now kind of shifted our strategy quite a bit. Like we've got, a much smaller team. I'm not committed to $175,000 per month in payroll. Thank God. Because that was a lot of stress and a lot of pressure. I'm recommitted to culture building, systems, operations, because my previous kind of mindset and thought process there was to bring in best of the best type people and they could help create that process, that system, that structure with a bigger team. And it just, that doesn't work. They still need systems, process, structure, reporting, accountability in detail. You know, so I'm really like honing in on that right now, working on that a lot. There's definitely some growing pains there for sure.

That's a great lesson. I want to make sure to restate again for those listening, you know, just because they're amazing on paper, look like all-stars, doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be an all-star on your team within your system. And sometimes we think we're just going to hire our way out and into success with the right people, and it— they, you know, and like I said, all right, here you go. I'm going to get out of the car. Good luck. Go drive. And going back to what you said earlier, and again, I'd love to get a, maybe a takeaway from you on the acquisition side. You know, clearly you like that strategy. You're going out there. Is there something that for those of us that, that are maybe thinking about doing that or been interested in that, you know, any tips for like how to start or what to look for, like in a company, if you're going to maybe acquire them?

Yeah, it's kind of a broad question, but you know, I would just say that, you know, Everybody has different goals when it comes to buying a business. You know, like if you're buying a business, it could be, I want to expand my agency, so I'm gonna buy another agency. Or it could be, you know, I'm gonna buy brands that I could put all my knowledge and strategies and team into. This way I have more assets, you know, for example. It just really depends, you know?

So I'm thinking more on the commerce side, like if you're looking at an e-com company.

Yep. Yeah. I mean, I would just try to find a brand that is tenured. More years the better, predictable, obviously, no negative net profit months over the last 12 months, ideally super turnkey on revenue, meaning that they have a really solid customer return rate, subscription offer possibly as well with a good subscribed base of customers, diversified marketing strategy. So they're, maybe they have a few ad channels running, plus they do a great job with influencer marketing and building brand. This way there's organic traffic. And then, you know, in an industry that has a lot of potential for growth. You know, that's what I would look for. And that's what I always look for, you know, first and foremost when it comes to buying a business.

So you have your own little checklist that sounds like you just rattled off 6 or 7 good little things there. They sort of have to all hit those items and then, okay, now let's talk. And then obviously what's the price, where's the owner at? And from what I've learned, just hearing Roland and others, it's just so surprising at how many people are just burnt out on the business. You know, just let me go out and you run the thing and I'm happy to you know, take a check or, you know, pay me a little bit along the way. I bet you find a lot of that, right? Or they're just opportunities that they're missing that you're like, there's 10 things you could do here you're not even doing and you're still making the money. I guess that's a skill I wish I, you know, intuitively understand it having seen some of the, you know, programs that Roland teaches and others. And I'm like, damn, there's such a big opportunity for people that, oh, let me say it a different way. It's amazing how many people are doing so well in different businesses despite doing a lot of wrong things. And if you can go in there and fix 'em, it's just like, wow.

Right.

Anything else that I didn't ask you with respect to the business side on some of the cool commerce stuff you're doing and others?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I'd love to highlight how we're now helping people find and buy their own e-com businesses. Oh, cool. So it definitely was inspired by Roland. We're just niching down. We're focusing on helping people buy physical product e-com brands. And, you know, so far it's gone really well and I believe in our process. We've got a great rigorous due diligence process and, you know, a lot that we put into just our acquisition department over the last several years. And also a lot of lessons too that we've had. Oh yeah.

I mean, we've been through it. So that's outstanding. So you took the skills that you guys did to acquire over the last few years and said, all right, let's now teach that method, which your spinoff version of what you've learned and kind of adding your own magic sauce based on your niche. That's great. You know, definitely love to chat sometime. I think, you know, I'd be interested in that myself. Well, very cool. And then before we exit the podcast, you have a very cool story that you told me in the quote virtual green room here. I want to talk about destiny. You had a cool story about how you have your youngest. Tell me that story.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Scarlet, my 2-year-old daughter. So yeah. So back in 2020, I was intrigued by drinking ayahuasca. And I remember I was dating a girl the first 5 months of 2020, and we both were very open-minded about ayahuasca and that we talked about it and we both wanted to try it. And then I remember after we stopped dating, I got offered the opportunity to go to a retreat in Southern California and to drink ayahuasca. And I didn't even hesitate. I said, sure. Sign me up, you know, and I signed up right away. And then I went and then, you know, I, I went through, you know, the experience of going to, you know, this retreat. It was like maybe about 10, 15 people at an Airbnb, pretty nice house. And it was a lot of preparation going into it. You know, you, you have to eat a specific diet. You can't drink alcohol 10 days prior or something like that. You know, there was all these conditions that you had to meet before you went in there. And then you go in there and, you know, they prep you for the evening when you're going to start drinking and you can't eat anything all day. So you have to do it kind of like on an empty stomach. And then they have their ceremony and it's led by a shaman and there's music playing and, you know, he goes through his procedure and then we all drink however much we chose to drink. And I remember the person that introduced me to this connection told me, drink a full cup. I'm like, okay. So when it was my time to get my cup and they ask how much, I said full cup and I got a full cup. So I have a full cup in my hand and I remember like, you know, holding it up and then drinking it, everybody drinking at the same time and it tastes like barbecue sauce. And then all of a sudden I just wait. I know it's something's gonna happen.

Yeah.

Yeah. What's gonna happen? I'm just like, okay. 'Cause you know, and then it just hits me and it starts hitting me and everything just slows down. And I look around and people near me are like, you know, really slow and then they start vomiting even. And you know, it just, and it's really, it feels like really loud and scary and my anxiety is growing and my nausea is there also at the same time. And I'm like, I hate throwing up. I don't want to throw up. And so, you know, I luckily do not, as they call it, purge, which is throw up, but I pretty much get myself into a ball and just hold it all in the nausea. And I go through my thoughts and I remember like the next few hours as I'm experiencing this, it was literally like, like walking into the spirit world and seeing different things. And one of the things that I saw was I saw a vision of me with a woman and a baby girl. And I remember when I saw it, I cried and I was like, I didn't know what it meant. I thought maybe it meant the girl that I just had feelings for, but it didn't. And it was basically a vision of the future. And then fast forward to early 2021, I meet my girl, my fiancée, and then, you know, in mid-2022, she gets pregnant. And then in March 2023, we have Scarlett. So, you know, it's just crazy how, you know, life works out. It's as if God had this plan and he was showing me his plan.

I love it. Now, what did you tie the two together when you're like, okay, this was my dream? Like, did that just like when, when she got pregnant or after you just knew you had a girl or what was the—

Oh yeah. I mean, it was definitely after she got pregnant. Like, you know, it's funny cuz you know, she got pregnant and prior to that we were talking about like, I want another kid. I'd like to experience another kid. And I told her about the, you know, what happened with ayahuasca and whatnot. And then, you know, we went through, you know, we went to the doctor, found out she was pregnant, and then leading up to us finding out the gender, I remember, you know, she went through her tests, got an envelope, and then we went into the car where she opened the envelope with the gender reveal, and then we saw it was gonna be a girl. And I was like, wow, this is crazy.

Come on. You knew it was gonna be a girl. You didn't even have to open the envelope, right?

You're like, but you're still in disbelief, you know, because you know, that's just, you know, just crazy to think about that you have a vision of the future and then the future actually happens, you know? I mean, but, but yeah, I mean, that was definitely some powerful stuff and a powerful vision.

Very cool. And I guess my last question, and I haven't really been asking these, but I am more curious now as I go through, because most of our interviews are people that are in the community. When I first met you, you came to San Diego to our San Diego chapter and at my beloved good friend Mike Keating's house. And then you went back to Scottsdale where you live, and then we have our amazing leader over there, Jasmine. And how's it been so far? Like, are you enjoying, and you sounds like you've been to a lot of different types of masterminds before. You said you invest a lot. How's your Speakeasy Mastermind experience?

Yeah, no, it's been great. I mean, you know, you guys have done a great job of just growing the community fast and, you know, there's lots of great people in the community and it seems like everybody's got the right, you know, mindset being a part of the community, just wanting to give and just help and support each other, which has been awesome. You know, I've met some new people. I've also, you know, reconnected with other people that I've known for a while. It's been awesome. And yeah, I love it so far.

Cool. Appreciate it. Well, we're glad to have you and glad to have you on the podcast as well. Thank you so much for coming in today, Josh.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Take care. And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Podcast. If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, review it, and pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the Real Mastermind? Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, and don't be the smartest one in the room.