From Hero to Zero: The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

We're seeing all of these people using the app. It's really cool. People are, you know, making videos on social media about it. People are, you know, posting their pictures and we're just looking at each other like, man, this is like, this is crazy. And then I get the email from Apple and I say to myself, you've got to be kidding me. Hi, my name is Vince Reed.

Hey, what's going on? Vint Reed here, and welcome back to the dm. You got to admit, that last episode, it was fire. Now, for those of you who've been following along and you are just hooked, make sure you hit the like button and you subscribe so you don't miss any of the future episodes. It really helps out the channel. And also be sure to check out the recap show where we go behind the scenes and we cover a lot of the stories that I don't get to share in these episodes. And with that being said, we. Let's get started.

So I get an email. App denied. Get another email, app denied. I get another email. You get any more apps denied, you're gone. Guess what? That email came. So essentially, a company that was printing money. I mean, we could hardly keep up with the money. In fact, there was one point through this process where I checked my account and there was over $60,000 that was deposited into my account. And I had no idea where it was coming from. And I went and I did some research with the merchant company and they said, hey, that was payments from American Express. American Express was holding some of your funds because, you know, they thought something fishy was going on because these transactions were happening and it was irregular. That's how crazy this time was. So finally I started to figure out that this company, we're going to have to shut it down. You know, what was crazy about it was that all the customers, they were happy because their apps were getting approved in Android. And, you know, they knew that it was going to take some time to get, you know, apps approved in both Apple and Android. But being a person, that's a man of my word, I just couldn't continue to offer this product. And, you know, knowing that we were not going to get these apps approved, So I had to go into my merchant account and I never will forget this day. I looked at it and I said, if I close down this company, I'm going to have to shut down multiple six figures in recurring payments. Now, we met with the manufacturers in Vegas and I told them the issue, and I know that we could have continued to Try to fix it. And who knows, maybe we could have solved the problem. You know, Apple kept telling us that we have to create these working apps, they have to be a useful tool. So we played around with it and again every now and then one would go through, but then, and very quickly it would get denied. And I knew this was just going to be something where we were going to be consistently swimming upstream and we had to do something about it. So I felt bad because my new right hand man who I brought on, who was going to come and help me run this company, I had to basically tell him that, you know what, I'm going to make the hard decision and I'm going to stop basically this situation that's printing me money. So I contacted all the individuals that purchased the apps and fortunate enough, there weren't that many people that we were essentially collecting payments on that we were able to refund all of them. We continued to service all of the people who had apps, both in Apple and Android for well over a year. But ultimately I had to hit the stop button and cancel what I believe would have been a hundred million dollar company. And now I was left once again trying to figure out what I was going to do. I had to take a little step back, resurface again with a new idea. And I knew that I had a skill set that would continue to pay me as long as I utilized it. But at this point, you know, I was at, you know, my lowest point. I mean, I was at rock bottom trying to figure out what I was going to do. You know, during this time I'm watching, you know, some of the people that I know coming up, right, their businesses are crushing it. And you know, I had this amazing wave that was literally turned off overnight because of Apple. So now it was time to move on and start over again.

So a few months back, before the big debacle, you know, you probably heard the story in the last episode where I talked about, I went to that big marketing event and what was cool about that event, one of my other mentors had a video that was played at this event. And it was like his story. And it was really compelling. I mean, it left people in tears. And I remember, I'm like, who created this video? And there was this guy that really blew up overnight. And I'm like, I'm gonna call this guy and I want to set up, you know, a meeting with him to shoot my story video. I wanted to use this video to, you know, build my personal brand and put out there on the Internet. And he said, you know what? I'm gonna be at this big event coming up, you know, in a few months, and you can come out there and you can meet me at this event and we'll shoot your video. And it was perfect timing because, you know, my buddy, the guy from the VIP party, you know, he was going to be in Vegas at the very same time speaking. Speaking at another event, a massive marketing event. So it just ended up working out. I was like, you know what? Right now, you know, I'm not really doing much. Just shut down this company. Let's go out to Vegas again and enjoy this event, get this video shot and we'll see what happens. So right when I touch down, I'm excited because everyone's in town. And I knew that I was going to be able to connect with my buddy from the VIP party. So I call him up and he tells me what room he's in in the hotel. And I get there, I go right to his room and I walk in and. And you know, I was shocked because I knew how much money this guy was making, but he was just in this regular room and we had like two queen size beds. It wasn't like this suite that I expected. But what was crazy about it was that everywhere there was just computers. And, you know, after a little bit of chit chat, him telling me, you know, about his talk, what he was going to talk about the next day at the event, you know, I couldn't help but ask him like, hey, man, what's all this on the computers? And he's like, that's. That's my business. I'm like, man, it looks like you're like trying to, you know, do some kind of crazy code to like, break down the universe. What's going on here? So he said, these are all of my funnels. These are all of the numbers. I know everything. I know when people are coming into a specific funnel. I know how many leads I'm getting. I know who's on the phone. He's like, watch this. He could even click a button and listen in on phone calls. And then there was this other little number that I saw like in the corner. And it was like, well over, you know, $103,000. And when I got to his room, it was, you know, I think just after 10am in the morning. And I'm like, is this what you've earned? And he's like, yeah, from that particular funnel. So that was just one funnel already. Literally before I had even had breakfast, this guy had already Made over six figures. And I was just so, like, blown away. I'd never seen any kind of operation like this. Someone that was so dialed into his business. So we, you know, were chatting and, you know, every now and then I would hear certain things, like, go off from the computer and he kind of peek over at it. He'd get on a phone call every now and then or just kind of chat with someone on his team and he would come back and then, you know, at this point, it's getting closer to lunchtime. I peek over again, and now it's well over 150,000 that he's earned for that day. And it's not even noon. So he says, all right, let's go grab some lunch. And you know, there's a good steakhouse, you know, in the hotel. Let's go, let's go grab, grab a steak. I'm like, all right, cool. So we go down to the steakhouse and as we're walking down to the steakhouse, he says, yeah, man, they have this 70 ounce porterhouse steak. He's like, we should get it and we can split it. Because if we split it, we can save $40 versus buying, you know, you know, our own individual steak. That could cost us anywhere from like 70 to $120. We can just get this 75, you know, $80 steak and we can save money. And I remember looking at this guy, I'm like, dude, aren't you worth like, you know, 50 million or something like that? Like? He's like, yeah. I'm like, so why the heck are we going to split a steak? He's like, man, every dollar counts. And at that point, I knew there was something different about this guy. I'd never seen anybody make so much money but was so damn cheap, right? So we get in there and I feel like a little child splitting a steak. I even joked around with him like, you want me to come over the table and cut your steak for you and feed it to you? But he said, you know who else is really cheap? And I'm like, who? He said, warren Buffett. He says, you know, Warren Buffett lives in the same exact house, you know, that he had before he made all of his money. He's like, that's what I'm about. I'm about, you know, seeing it grow. I like to see it grow. And I kept asking him all these questions about it, and it was the complete opposite in terms of how he was, you know, building his business and his lifestyle compared to everything that I had Seen, you know, me, you know, I started making some money. I'm trying to buy the fancy whip. He's making money, he's putting it back into his business. So I was learning a lot from him, you know, just kind of watching what was going on. So anyhow, we go up to the hotel room and I couldn't help but go run to his computers when I get in and I kind of start boxing him out, playing around. I'm like, let me see where you're at now. Thinking that it would go up from like 150 to like maybe like, you know, 170. And to my surprise, it didn't go up, you know, to 170. It didn't go up to 190. This man had made over $260,000 literally that day. His focus was just something I had never seen before. Let me give you one example. Cause I know some of you like, well, what was he doing? And I'll definitely get to that. He expressed to me, he said, the reason I'm able to do this is because, you know, I understand how the numbers work. He's like, I have one goal and I focus on specific KPIs, and once I figure out what the KPI is, key performance indicator, you know, I focus in on that and I try to break the record of that number each and every day. So for example, let's say, you know, in your business you need to generate 100 leads a day to be successful. And you know, the day before you generate 91 leads. He said the next day his goal would be to generate 92 leads. So if the next day after that he generated 80 leads, the goal the following day would be to generate 81. So he's constantly trying to break the records from the day before. Even if the numbers are lower each and every day, he says as long as he stays on point with those KPIs, he knew that he'd have a successful business. And then he went down the line in terms of, for his specific KPI was, you know, how many people are booking the calls, how many people are actually getting on the phones. And you know, he knew that he would hit a specific number that day. And he said, the reason I'm at the number that you're joking around with me about is because, you know, today we had more booked calls than we had in the whole prior last few months in terms of day to day tracking. So he knew he was going to be at those numbers and the numbers literally were true. So I knew that I Needed to learn more about what he was doing. I knew that I needed to pay more attention to my numbers. And that's why with every company that I build to this day, I'm so focused in on the numbers. But we'll get more to that here in a second. I tell my buddy from the VIP party, I gotta go, I gotta go make this story video. And now I'm off to meet to go shoot this video. All over Vegas. This man has me walking all through Vegas. People are looking at me like I'm crazy. Like, who is this guy getting followed around with the camera? Cause back then it wasn't like it is today. People thought you were kind of weird with someone following you around with the camera. But it was really cool. That story video still to this day gets people reaching out to me, saying, man, that was a cool video. It was inspiring and I can't wait to connect with you. So if you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, make sure that you get some type of branding video that you can put out there that tells a little bit about your story. It definitely will help you in your business.

So now I'm back home and it's time to get to work. I have downloaded into my brain a true proven system that I witnessed with my own eyes print a quarter of a million dollars before lunch. So now it was time to execute. So, you know, I started to think back. I said to myself, who can I serve? You know, what's a market that I can create a system, help them with their business and create a model very similar to what my buddy was doing. And time and time again, I kept coming back to the real estate industry. Now for those of you who saw the first episode, you know, I got my start in digital marketing when my real estate career pretty much got shut down. You know, banks stopped lending. That led me to go on to the Internet and find new ways to make money. And I thought to myself, you know, had I known the skills that I now know in terms of lead generation and marketing back when I was in real estate, how much easier would it have been for me to grow my business? So I remember I went on to godaddy and I started to, you know, check on different domains. And I remember I purchased online real estate secrets and, you know, my right hand man came over and I was telling him about what I had learned, you know, in the hotel room in terms of the system, and he was blown away. And I said, we're going to create a similar system, but we're going to do it we're going to target real estate agents and loan officers and we're going to teach them know the power of digital marketing and lead generation. So we got to work. I mapped out all of the things that I needed to do to execute this system. I started to make all of the material, I started to create all of the training and you know, we had to figure out how we were going to, you know, house all, all of this, this content. And I remember there was this company that just had, you know, got started and now it's funny, they're like a massive company. It was Kajabi. I think we were one of the first people to test it out. So we created a Kajabi account and we started loading our training in there and we were going to sell this program and start teaching real estate agents, you know, everything. I mean we turned everything off. I said we need to have extreme focus. Okay. We are going to literally work out and build this company. So we would come in and we would plan it out. I remember we had a whiteboard. We mapped out every single training, how we were going to take people through the process, how are we going to get to where we too could start generating, you know, multiple six figures a day. And, and we would make training, we would talk, we would strategize and it was cool. Where I was at, it was this apartment building and it had like a rooftop pool. So we would work out, we would go up to the rooftop pool and we would, you know, dive in, have fun for a few hours and then we would come back and work and that was our, our process for, for months. And finally it was time to launch. I was excited. You know, it was cool because this was one point in my life, you know, it wasn't going to be a business that I was creating that was depended on anything else that could, you know, stop me. For example, when I was doing real estate, banks stopped lending. Business went under. We're launching this massive app company. Apple doesn't like me. App company went under. Now with my information, you know, I was able to offer it and when people purchased the money went right into my bank account and it had high margins and that was exciting. I remember myself and my right hand man, we're so excited for this launch. You know, I kind of got quiet. I'm watching all these other marketers absolutely just destroying it online and, and I want to get back into the game. I'm like, man, this has been crazy but I know people are going to love it. I go to sleep that Night. And I'm like, bothered by something. And I don't know why I'm bothered. I mean, you would think someone that knows that they're in a position to make the kind of money that I was positioned to make in a market that had no idea about the things that I could teach them, I'd be excited, but I wasn't excited. I was bothered. I felt bad about what I was going to do. And I remember I sat up and I was like, why are you feeling this way? Why are you bothered? And it just kept coming to me. The same kind of answer kept coming to my head. And it was basically, you know, you can't leave these people behind. And I'm like, what people? I'm talking to myself. The market, the digital marketers, the people in the home business space, the entrepreneurs, the people that believed in you. You know, when you launched this app company, that app company, you know, it didn't do all the things that you expected to do. Granted, it was out of my control, but it's still a situation where these people believed in you. You know, they were going to use this to help them generate leads that was supposed to change their life and their business. How are you going to just flip on them and go start teaching real estate agents? Because that's where, you know, your, your core started. How are you going to flip and go to a place that you've never served? And at that moment, I just said to myself, I can't do it. I'm not going to launch this company. I can't leave the people behind. And the first thing that came to my mind is, how am I going to tell my right hand man now for the second time, he's not going to be in position to, you know, see the benefits of all of our hard work. I mean, he was supposed to help me with the app company, and that was supposed to be his thing. He was going to run it. Now we're going to do this real estate company and he's put in all this work. And when I tell you he put in all this work, I mean, it was amazing to see someone just, I mean, literally put in this kind of work, you know, for what I was paying him at the time, which was not a lot of money, because there was no money coming in. We're trying to figure out what to do. He would meet me every single morning at the apartment, and this time when he pulled up, I called him, he said he was almost there and he was excited because this was the day we were supposed to launch. And I remember I met him, you know, in the parking lot, and I saw him walking up, and he saw me standing out there, and I could see the look on his face. He knew something was wrong, and I knew something was wrong. I didn't know how he was going to take it. I didn't know if he was just going to up and quit, because here's the second time I had to pull the rug out from under him again. And he's walking up, he's like, what? What's going on? And I look him right in the eye and I say, hey, man, I don't think we're gonna launch this company. And actually, I'm not gonna launch the company. And he goes, what do you mean, man? Why? I'm like, I can't do it, man. I can't leave these people behind. I feel like I still owe them more. I feel like I need to finish what I started. And he just looks at me, and he just doesn't say anything. And he walks by me towards the door to get into the apartment complex. I'm like, oh, God. Like, he must be, like, pissed. And I turn around, he's at the door, and he just looks back at me, and he goes, let's go. Get to work.

Thank you guys so much for watching. As you can see, it's getting better and better and better, which is why you need to make sure that you hit that, like, button and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And with that being said, I'll see you on the Internet later.