Why I Canceled $100,000+ in Recurring Payments - The DM Ep.6 Recap

It's kind of like people that, you know, you understand digital marketing, and they're like, yeah, I understand digital marketing, but you and I know they really don't understand digital marketing. Right. On the level that we make. We know it. Right? So the only other time I sat up and changed my mind. I can't believe I'm going here. I don't want to offend anybody.

What's up, everybody? Welcome to another recap show. This is for episode six of the dm.

Six already?

Yeah. We've been flying by.

It's crazy.

These episodes just felt like yesterday we were filming episode one, Right? Yeah. Geez.

I mean, I don't know if that's a good thing. If time is flying by, I don't need to get any older, Mike.

Well, we're having fun doing it though.

That is true.

We're having a lot of fun.

That is true.

Here with Vince Reed, the star of the show. I'm Mike, head of production here at the dm.

And again, as always, wouldn't be possible.

Ladies, chill out, man. He's. He's taking, he's. He's going to start charging 59.95 an application.

I don't know what he's talking about.

These girls got to slow down. Okay, now he's got too many choices. All right? So I'm just, just letting them know my got it.

You know, I, I appreciate, I appreciate.

The help and I like how you tried to blurp out the only fans. You know, I'm going to bring it back.

I didn't even say anything about that. All right, moving on. How's it going, Vince?

It's good, man.

Yeah.

Having a good time, enjoying the process. I mean, like the wall says, hold the vision, trust the process.

You can't see it right now, but that's what it says. Hold the vision, trust the process. Besides the dm, you're building up eboov, the company.

It's building.

Yeah, it's growing. I mean, we're seeing it grow.

It's crazy.

That's the main ship that's bringing us all through this. The DM is a big aspect of it. And I mean, obviously you don't see all the behind the scenes stuff, but this is building of the company. And it's not all sunshine and rainbows. You know, it's. It's. There's some stuff that we still have to deal with.

Yeah, a lot of sunshine and rainbows, Mike. It's always sunshine and rainbows here at the dm.

All right.

A lot of late nights, always happy. There's nothing wrong.

Nothing wrong.

But it is. It is the journey. And I think we were talking about it yesterday too, at lunch. That's the biggest part that sticks with you. It's just the journey, just the grind, putting everything together, the process.

Absolutely.

It's not the end goal, but it's like what you do in between.

I agree. Couldn't agree with you more.

Well, there you go.

There we go.

So let's dive in. First off, the app company, you had to shut that down. You had six figures of recurring revenue that you had to stop.

Why hit the stop button? Recurring, multiple six figures. I said stop.

Would you have done that?

See, that's the question that I put on the post today.

Because here's the thing, nobody was complaining because people had an app. Just so everyone knows, you know, we were just saying we're gonna get it in both the Apple and, you know, Android store. But people knew that depending on the kind of content, sometimes they knew that they may not get approved in Apple. So no one was even mad. I was more disappointed because it was a promise. I wanted to make sure right happen. But I do want to clarify just something. So.

Most people that got in got both apps, right? It was like. And when I say most people, there was hundreds of apps being purchased. So when, at the end, when, when the second we knew that they would not get approved, let's say it was 100 apps, all of those people got refunded. They didn't get an Apple. Like, we just refunded all of them. So, you know, it wasn't like people were mad that didn't, you know, I want to make that clear.

Yeah.

So most people would. Even if it got denied, we would keep working with it and then it would get approved. Once we realized people that did not get approved, like, weren't going to happen, then those people got refunded.

Okay.

And then the people that were paying recurring for training, because there was training inside the members area, I was teaching, you know, how to get leads and stuff on apps. We stopped their payment and we serviced them for a year. We kept teaching them, we let them have it.

Oh, wow.

So even though we weren't accepting new.

Customers, so technically you could have, because you knew this in the back end of what was going on, technically you could have just let this go on 100%.

I could have made another 10 million.

But why didn't you?

I got to sleep at night, Mike.

That's right.

You wouldn't be here if I was that Kind of guy.

That's right.

I mean, it was one of those things like, you know, it's not worth it. It's not long long. You know, the kind of. For that to be the kind of company that I envisioned, had to, we had to get them approved in, in both Apple and Android. I mean, if I would have changed into, oh, we're only gonna do Android. Right.

I mean, and it's your reputation.

Right, Exactly. You know, but I guarantee you people would have kept buying.

Oh.

Because when we stopped it, we just cut off the way people can get in. People were hitting us up, we want our app. We want our app. So it was going on for a minute after that. So.

Okay, well, anyhow, eventually you have to shut that down.

Yeah. So we shut it down. But you know, we refunded everybody that didn't get it in both and we kept servicing even after I canceled the payments for a year. Kept training those people let them have access to the training and they still had their app technically, until eventually we just had to cut everything.

Apple just, Apple denied. Denied. It was back to picking up the pieces for you. Right. So what was the next move?

You know, I mean, you know, at the time, just like, you know, for those of you who have watched all the episodes in the beginning when, when you're searching for how to make money on Google, you start over again. You feel like the world's coming to an end. Especially when you're that close, you know, again, like just bringing up product market fit. Such a cool experience to just see your product just jumping off the shelves without you doing anything. Right, right. And you think to yourself, are you going to ever have another company that's. That hits that sweet spot. We were just, it was the perfect timing. So that part hurts, right, because you put all this energy into and then you go to start all over again.

Yeah.

So yeah, just down and depressed. But you know, my right hand man came at the right time. He was the. Honestly, his energy fed kept me going. You know, sometimes I come in here and I'm like, all this stuff on and I see you guys working hard and I'm like, I got to keep it together. These guys think I'm down and they're gonna get down. So, you know, it was, it was cool having him around because he kind of kept me, kept me going. As you guys saw at the, at.

The end of the episode you get the call from. Was it the VIP guy?

So, because we want to talk about.

Like the branding video.

Right. Okay. So, you know, I was I went to an event somewhere during that time, and I saw a. Like, a video of my mentor. It was like a story video, and everybody was in tears, and I'm like, who made that video? So I hunted the guy down, and he said he was gonna be in Vegas and he could make me a story video. And it was the same time that my buddy from the VIP party was gonna be there speaking at an event. So I just timed them both together.

Okay. So you meet up with the guy from the VIP party. You walk into the hotel room of his, and what do you see? All these computers. Yeah.

It's crazy. It was. It was.

Was it like something from the Matrix?

Well, it was something from the mat. But what. You know, I can see it right now, like, the detail of his, like, analytics on those screens.

And these were all funnels.

Arrows, and down and red, green. And then there was just all, like. You could see everything.

Right.

It was really cool.

So these were the funnels?

These were the funnels. All the numbers from the business.

And he was very particular.

Very particular. He would just sit there and, like, just looking at it. Like, look at it. I didn't see anything moving. I mean, there was so much going on, but he knew.

Yeah.

Yeah. So.

So you guys go to lunch, and you think that you're gonna have one steak for yourself, and he's gonna have another. But then what does he do? He splits it up.

You come to me in Vegas. In Vegas, I'm like, we go to whatever you want. Right? We have a good time. And this dude, man, I'm still mad. And the steak was all right, but I don't even eat porterhouse steak. This thing was massive. And then, like, you know, I joked around about cutting it, but they actually cut the steak for you when you. It's like, cut to make it easy to share. Yeah, but I was joking with him, like, oh, let me cut your steak some more for you. Since we're sharing a steak. Right, Right.

Yeah.

It was cool, though.

That's good.

I do appreciate him. He saved me, like, 40, 50 bucks.

Right?

So.

But he. He brought up a good point about Warren Buffett, because that's someone that he.

Yeah, for him, it was all about watching it grow. That's all he cared about was how much could he make. And watching the number grow. That's how he kept score after that.

Is that when you go out and, you know, meet Mr. X. Cause you're already in Vegas.

That didn't make the episode.

That didn't make the episode.

But there was another Mr. X experience. And for those of you who've missed Mr. X, go back and watch a couple episodes. You'll be wanting to see more of Mr. X. But, yeah, there was a Mr. X episode that night.

Can you give us like a little brief.

Let's just say my right hand man woke up with a pretty bad hangover.

It wasn't your right hand man, though.

Excuse me, not my right hand man. My buddy from the VIP party woke up with a pretty bad hangover.

Yeah.

Thank you for catching that, Mike. See, he's always on it, Always catching it, Always got it. So it was so bad, he. He like almost didn't make his talk.

Right. Because he had to speak the next day.

Yeah, he had to speak the next day. Wow. Yeah. So it was a wild night.

Okay.

Thanks to Mr. X. Yeah, well, you.

Know, Mr. X always. Yeah, he's always there now. You saw what the VIP guy did. He kind of brought you through his whole process and you're like, okay, let me do this for myself. And you come up with the idea of teaching digital marketing for the real estate industry.

Yeah, so I saw what he was doing, but I didn't really understand it.

All.

Right. I mean, it's kind of like people that, you know, you understand digital marketing and they're like, yeah, I understand digital marketing, but you and I know they really don't understand digital marketing. Right. On the level that we may. We know it. Right, right. That's where I was with what he was doing. Like, I just knew what he was doing and I thought I knew.

Right. He was just on a different level.

But he was on a whole nother level.

Yeah.

And, you know, at that point, he hadn't really broken down everything to me, but I knew enough to know that I need to do something like that. And, you know, my background was in real estate, so I went and bought the domain on online real estate secrets.com, which I still own. Own to this day. So I'm taking offers for anybody in the real estate space that wants to buy that domain. And we went. I just got to work, you know, started to do what I thought he was doing at the time.

Right, right.

For that business.

How long did it take you to get up to the point of ready to launch? It was a couple months.

Several months. Okay, several months. Like, I mean, it had to be. It was over three months of just working hard. I mean, because we had to create a lot of content. I mean, this was a whole new business.

And you brought up your, you know, your. Your Right hand man with you?

Yeah. He came and we, we worked every day. Every day. We seriously worked on our business. Worked out. Worked on the business.

Yeah.

Work we didn't do. We didn't go out. Pretty much just. That was it.

Yeah. Just one cycle.

Yep.

Okay. And then after that, you say that the day before the launch, you just, you don't have a good feeling about it. Why?

Okay. So I'm trying to think if I should say what I'm saying. So the only other time I sat up and changed my mind.

Was my, I can't believe I'm going here. I don't want to offend anybody. So it was my, my girlfriend from college. Right. Okay. We had this relationship where we would break up, get back together. Break up, get back together. And there was this point where we broke up, we were going to get back together. And I sat up and had the same thing. I said, you can't keep doing this. And I didn't. And then I met my wife now, and everything was good. So not to bash her, but it was just. That's what happened.

That's how it is.

So anyways, the, that same thing happened. So I knew, like, I believed in that. Like, I had that same, you can't do this feeling. And now looking back, you know, it's like whatever that feeling is, I'm always gonna listen to it. You know what I mean?

Cause you don't want to leave behind.

I couldn't leave behind client base. Yeah. Because, you know, I had built, you know, from all the way back to Net. Divi was digital marketers. It was the home based business industry. It was affiliate marketers. It was these people trying to, you know, build a business from home or online. And that was, that was me because I had lost it all. And I went on Google. Search for how to make money on Google. Yeah. So I felt I was leaving those people. I felt like I was leaving me behind. Like if there was someone that, let's say, like I was learning from my mentor and he went and did like something else.

Okay.

In my head, I just didn't feel like fulfilled with teaching that space. Right. Everything that I knew because I knew there was so much more. And especially the way everything ended with global apps. I had to go, go finish, Finish what I started.

Yeah. You didn't want it to become another disaster again. Yeah. So. So you're, you, you're still contemplating, you know, what to do. Eventually you have the idea, okay, I need to start something different. You know, go back to the original customer base that you had but still teach the same things that you've learned right to them, right?

Absolutely.

But you still have to tell your right hand man this new business venture.

Yeah. So, you know, we put in all this work and I still remember it like yesterday. I remember when he pulled into the parking garage and he was walking and I'm like, man, going to lose my right hand. He's going to be like enough of this guy. So. But you know, he did the complete opposite, which I knew that I, I had the right one.

Yep. That's when you knew.

Just like I know you the right one, Mike.

Oh, thank you.

And you the right one, Connor.

Thanks, dad.

I appreciate it.

Conor with the ones and twos, always producing and. Yeah, I think that's a wrap. Watch, watch the show.

Watch this.

Watch the show. Watch it.

We're out. Great. Peace.

Later, guys.