The Day I Knew Online Advertising Would Make Me Rich - The DM Ep.1 Recap
4 Dec 2025 · 15 min
This is a conversational recap (The DM Ep.1 Recap) where Vince Reed (guest) and Mike (host) revisit Vince's origin story and the moments that led him into digital marketing. Vince describes growing up in Watts, Los Angeles before moving at age 7–8, attending Servite High School in Anaheim where he started as a freshman on varsity football, and a personal work-ethic awakening after seeing a teammate make the NFL. He recounts an early job at ING doing high-volume phone sales, the disruption of the mortgage recession that forced reinvention, and the moment he discovered online lead generation (clicking a Craigslist/Google ad) and realized he could be the one placing profit-generating ads. The episode closes with a tease that Vince will share a concrete business idea that could earn listeners significant income in the next episode.
Questions this episode answers
December 30, 2022
Guest: Vince Reed; Host: Mike (head of production at The DM)
Watts, Los Angeles (lived there until about age 7–8; later associated with Orange County)
Servite High School (Anaheim)
Eight years old
Chapters
People today have no idea how easy they have it. There was no click funnels. There was no eboo. That's my company. There were no things like that. Right. There were things that make life easy. At the end of the show, I'm going to share, like, something that could make a lot of you guys probably an extra million dollars. And it stems from just the lesson you're talking.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the DM Recap show here with Vince Reed. I'm Mike. I am head of production here at the dm. So let's get right into it. I know for most of you, hopefully you watched episode one. That was a great story, a great foundation.
Nobody watched episode one. We just started. It's a new show.
They watched episode one.
Not many people yet. They will.
For the ones that did, though, you know, you're already in. But for the majority who haven't watched it yet, why haven't you yet? First and foremost, but we're gonna get right into it. We're gonna go into detail, things that weren't talked about in episode one. I'm just gonna ask Vince, you know, what actually went down, you know, what are the other stories that he has or things that he can add to the stories.
I don't know. That can get dangerous.
Hey, that's what it's all about here at the dm, you know, we're gonna take the things that haven't been told and bring them to light. So let's get right to it. So first and foremost. All right, so you're growing up, right? And you said Watts, right?
Yeah, I want to elaborate on that because I was that. What was that? I know people that are. That know me. This boy didn't grow up in Watts because they know me from Orange County. In fact, when I was in college, my nickname was Disneyland, because they knew I went to Servite, which is in Anaheim. And everybody thinks Disneyland is, like, nice and whatever, but I grew up in Watts, la, a bunch of different places in LA until I was like, late seven, almost eight years old when I moved with my dad. And at first I used to think, like, you didn't really grow up in la. But my memories are so crazy of, like, how scared I was all the time. I can remember that time. And my daughter just turned eight and she's just so, like a grown woman. Like, she understands. So to me, it was real. So I did grow up in la. Like, there's a lot goes on. I mean, there's a lot in a little seven, eight, Year old person's life. So all you guys didn't think I didn't grow up in LA. I grew up in LA. Yeah, I left when I was 7 and 8. That's the truth. I would go back and visit all the time. So it wasn't like I just left. But yeah, that's the grow up. So just we get that part straight.
Okay. And I know you mentioned too, you know, you were walking with your sister, she told you to hide in the bushes. She would get in fights.
The original Floyd Mayweather.
Did you get in any, you know, any fights?
Oh, I used to fight all that. You mean in those fights? No, they were too big. This was like legit. I mean, back then we would take this bus to school and what was.
That story with the bike?
We don't need to get in that. So when I moved to Orange county, like, that's when I got tough.
Got it, got it. Okay.
So like, people would try to mess with me and I, you know, my dad had a rule. He was like, you got a choice. You're either gonna fight or you just need to act crazy. That time I had to act crazy. And it worked. Thank God it worked. Cause I would have been in trouble if it didn't.
Yeah, that was a crazy story.
I mean, long story short, eight guys tried to jump me and I just acted really crazy and they all got scared and left. Eight guys? Yeah, it was eight. Maybe it was like six, you know, but it was definitely over five, let's put it that way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. You know, I actually want to know a little bit more about the time when you were in.
Playing football, right? Like, you know, you said you wanted to. Your dream was to play football on Sundays in the NFL. Since playing Pop Warner, you went to high school, Servite, our alma mater.
And you got to go to Servite to work here. My man Connor, behind the ones and twos, went to Servite.
Credo.
My man Mike went to Servite.
So it's all in the family. You were the, what was it? The. The first and only starting freshman that I know of. That you know of in the school's history.
I've heard, and I've heard that up until like last year. I don't know what happened this year, but.
Yeah, but you hold that, you held that title for a while.
Yeah, to start four years on varsity and make. Make first team.
Oh, and first team.
Yeah.
Okay.
That was the difference, too.
That's the difference. Yeah.
Pretty good. Mike.
Mike. It Is pretty good. I had one of those, like, football.
Like, flyers from a game. And they would have, like, pictures or like, names of everyone that's like, all American, you know, all county, things like that. And then I remember, like, your pictures right there. For some reason, it stood out. This was, like, way before we met. Way before we met. And it's like, it's meant to be. It's meant to be.
But, you know, you had a coach. I remember you were saying you had a coach that said, you know, you got to work harder. You got to. You know, you were just relying on your athletic ability. And when you got into college, that kind of opened your eyes, like, oh, there's another level.
So at the end of the show, I'm going to share, like, something that could make a lot of you guys probably an extra million dollars. And it stems from just the lesson you're talking about. You know, when you're young, you have all the answers, but you just think you know everything. Everybody can remember somebody giving them some type of advice. And, you know, I can remember the coach. His name was Coach Sanchez. And he would just say, you need to practice harder. Like you need to. He'd just be like, you're not practicing. You got to practice like it's the game. And I heard him, and I believed him, but I just. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't go there. And when I got to college, everybody practiced like it was their last. And that is a muscle you cannot turn on. Same with business. It's literally the same business. You can't just say, oh, I'm gonna work hard today in business, like, next week. I'm gonna, you know, do it. Like, we had a talk before this. We're like, should we do this recap show, or should we wait and release two? And we're like. And I'm like, no, we got to just do it.
Yeah, stick on.
Because you got to build the muscle now, no matter how hard it is, and eventually it gets easier. And you're like, man, like, it was actually pretty easy, but I didn't have it. It was something I just couldn't turn on. I could have if I had the right mindset, like I have today, Because I should never say I couldn't, but it's very difficult, like, that type of thing. Work ethic is literally a muscle.
Where was like, that, that switch? Was there a switch? Or was it gradual over time where you kind of realized, taking this.
I guess this whole scenario that you're going through, realizing that There's a whole nother level. Was it gradual over time on how you transitioned over to business and what you did and like the rest of your life leading to where you are now?
Sorry, Mike, I gotta reply to this email.
Hey, we got business. We still got business.
All right? Now it's gone. Apologize, you guys, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. There's this kid on our team, right? He played in the NFL, slow, had great hands, worked hard. And I remember there was this one drill we were doing, and everybody on the team would pretty much coach through it, but this kid would go hard all the time. He had no other speed like he had no other way. It was like when they say, oh, this is a 70% drill. He was going 100. And it would annoy players. That kid made the NFL. And when I was sitting at home when I was putting on all that weight and I saw him go to the NFL, that's when the switch came on for me. Because I realized that kid, that kid was practicing and preparing for something greater. And that's why I have this attitude. I can't. I cannot understand lazy people, right? Even though I was the lazy person. And I realized that it's going to take a lazy person to hit rock bottom, to, like, experience someone else outwork them and see that that other person got the thing that they wanted before the switch comes on. That's how it happened.
Fast forward to when you get the job at ing, right? So how was that?
Was that something where, you know, you were automatically making phone calls right away, like, you know, this is what I need to do, or, you know, was that hard for you?
It was the. That was the best thing that's ever happened to me in my life. 1. I didn't understand what money, real money was. I was just working because I had nothing and I was just happy to have a job. But to be in a situation where you. There was no answering the phone and making calls at ing the phone headset, beep, hang up, beep, talk literally the whole time. Eight hours you're on the phone, legit. I mean, I can't. I couldn't believe the amount of people calling in to this bank. It was an online bank. So it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I got a chance to talk to people. I mean, you think about it. Imagine calling your bank, calling bank of America, Chase, wherever you bank with person picking up the phone and them getting you to apply for a mortgage. That's a skill set. Like you're not just calling to check on how much is in your bank, you're checking or savings. You got a checking and a savings account, right?
Well, you did more than that. Right. That kind of prepared you, but that.
Prepared me because, like I understood like how to sell. They taught me like, you know, how to communicate with people.
And how did that come natural to you or you have to like learn?
I mean, I always, you know, my dad had the gift of gab. I think I took that trait. So I'm not going to sit here and say this doesn't. It was like not natural, but it wasn't easy. You know what I mean? It wasn't easy.
So how long did it take you to kind of get to a point where like you're proficient at it? Like.
Okay, like from the phone perspective?
Phone perspective? Yeah, selling.
You know, I worked overtime. I got as many. I mean, I was, I don't think there was, I can't remember a time working where I didn't work 12 hours, like a day, not just the eight hour shift. So pretty quickly. And I was competitive. So you could see other people, what they were doing. It was, I was still right out of college. Right. And it didn't help that we were, I guess I should say it did help the fact that we were in such a nice area where the bank was, where I could look out and see nice things.
Yeah.
But it was frustrating to know that there was no way where I was at I was gonna actually get any of those things.
Recession, that was trying to make me cry. It's part of the story.
Okay.
That was a big deal. You know, I think for a lot of people in the country, in the world, but I think it hit you especially hard because you were in the loan industry. Right. The mortgage industry. So can you dive a little bit deeper on like how that was from, you know, ground level, you know, from where you were?
It was tough because that time, in my opinion, gave a lot of people a false sense of accomplishment. Kind of like the digital marketing world right now. Everybody thinks they're great, but we're going to see who's really good right now and during the time we're in today. Right. And as things change. But banks stop lending, I mean, jobs were gone, there was no jobs. You couldn't do loans and you had to reinvent yourself. Which is why the digital marketing space is so great. Because the first thing people do is do what I did, go on the Internet and find a way to make more money. That's why this is the greatest skill set in the world. And I remember when I was like, when I saw Lead Generation, when I stood up and saw. And I want to elaborate on this one part because I watched the episode and I remember thinking this. When I stood up at that desk and I could see those ads, and I knew that I was onto something. When I was saying, like, there has to be another guy that lost everything, that searched for how to make money online, I remember thinking, what if I'm the guy where they're clicking on the ads and it's my ad and I'm the one selling stuff? I don't think it came across on the show. Well, I don't think I articulated that well. I saw it, I said, there. Everyone is like me right now, hurting, searching for ways to make money on the Internet. What if I'm the guy that's putting the ads and they're clicking on my ad buying stuff and I'm making money? And that's why I was so driven and did some of the things that they're gonna see in the next episode. Can't tell them that yet.
That's right. You gotta stay tuned. Actually, before we head out, just on what you were just talking about, what made you, like, click on that ad and what made you want to invest your money with that guy and his company? Because, I mean, back then, it's not like how it is now, where, you know, you can PayPal, you can send it. What was it, through a check?
I mean, that's why I'm saying people today have no idea how easy they have it. There was no click funnels, There was no ebove. That's my company. There were no things like that, Right? There were things that make life easy. You had to hire a guy, pay him 3,$400 to build a website. You'd get it back, the video would be over here, the form would be over here. I need 200 more dollars to fix that. There was no easy way to build funnels or make videos or put a product together. It was difficult. So to be honest, the only thing I can think of was the fact that I had heard that it was possible for my brother, which I, who I didn't believe. I thought he was doing some scammy thing like a lot of people do when they hear about Internet marketing. I just. God, to answer your question, that's the only way. I mean, how do I not leave out of that office? And just. If I leave out of that office, who knows where I am right now, today? That's the only chance. I'm here, sitting here today, I go on the Craigs, I see that ad, make money on Google, and I just take her number down and go home. And in my mind, I'm making money on Google. I don't know what I was gonna do, but I knew I was gonna figure it out.
And with that, that's a wrap for the recap. We'll see you on episode two for the recap.
Oh, I hope you ready.
It's gonna be a good one.
Later. Later. I hope you enjoyed that episode. As you can see, it's getting good and it's only going to get better. So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I'll see you on the next one.
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