0:02

He's a humor guy. And he asked me,

0:04

are you touching your dick when you're

0:06

alone? On

0:09

interview. You know? I

0:12

was not expecting that question. I

0:15

was so peaceful.

0:18

And I said, of course, you know.

0:23

Two

0:24

times I almost got in

0:26

an accident on the highway. I was

0:28

so exhausted that few times I got

0:30

asleep on the highway. And

0:33

my friends were telling me, stop it, don't do

0:35

that. It doesn't work like what you're doing.

0:37

And I was not listening to anyone.

0:41

I lost approximately $6,000. And

0:44

for me, that moment, it was

0:46

incredible amount. I never had $6,000 in my pocket.

0:50

Never. A year of roller coaster and hard

0:53

work and no sleep. And

0:55

I like, fuck it. I have to do it.

1:00

My name is Anatoliy Labinsky. And

1:02

currently I'm in Portugal. But I'm

1:05

Ukrainian. And I'm 31 years old.

1:08

I'm the founder of Golden Stream Media Agency.

1:11

Basically, our agency is focusing

1:13

on the Shopify store owners who

1:15

has brands and looking to scale

1:18

the brand to the next level,

1:20

like six, seven figures and above.

1:22

If you have problems with

1:25

the skills or lack of team

1:27

or just time, this is exactly

1:30

when we are jumping to our clients' side

1:32

to help them to scale their businesses

1:35

by implementing our ecosystem

1:37

for their internal

1:39

store, which is Facebook, Google,

1:42

email marketing, SMS marketing, TikTok.

1:44

We're implementing everything one by one. And

1:47

the ecosystem is just generating

1:50

consistency

1:51

and the most important, higher

1:53

profitability for every single business

1:55

where we're diving in.

1:57

And how many clients do you have today?

1:59

I will tell you that for sure right now, it's

2:02

more than 35 clients. Every

2:04

single week, couple of clients are joining us.

2:07

And most of the clients staying with

2:09

us for five plus months. Couple

2:11

of clients who are staying with us already

2:14

for a year, or about a year.

2:16

And one of the biggest client who is

2:19

with us since the beginning, and so

2:21

far we have made for her 6.5 million.

2:24

And how big is your company? As far as employee

2:27

count or revenue, can you give us some other metrics?

2:30

For the company, of course, we are 40 plus

2:33

employers at the moment. Mostly it's

2:35

media buying team, sales department, graphic

2:37

designers, store developers, and

2:40

management who is managing everything

2:42

together with me. And I'm as a CEO

2:45

and founder.

2:46

And so you help people who already kind

2:48

of have started a Shopify store or something

2:50

on a similar platform. And maybe

2:52

they're not doing as well as they hoped. And you

2:55

kind of bring in your systems, if you will, to try

2:57

to help them make their e-commerce website

2:59

better.

3:00

Yes, we were actually started

3:02

with the beginners. Our journey as

3:04

an agency, we were helping a lot

3:07

to newbies in the drop shipping

3:09

space, who were planning to open Shopify

3:11

stores and selling the items from

3:13

AliExpress website. So

3:16

that was the beginning journey of our

3:18

agency. And slowly we moved to the

3:20

branded stores, which is like

3:23

on the beginning of their journey, but already generating

3:25

some revenue. And they just not

3:27

sure how to move forward and

3:30

to on

3:30

what direction. So we find out there

3:32

is much more interest

3:35

from our side and client are

3:37

more serious because for drop

3:39

shipping, people usually jumping in

3:41

or for the last price on their end

3:44

or just not serious, they expecting to

3:46

make it first million in a month or

3:48

two, which is obviously won't happen if

3:50

you're just starting. And the

3:53

most important, enjoyable stuff for me,

3:55

it's a scaling. So with

3:58

the beginners, you implement.

3:59

implementing, you're launching, you're

4:02

testing and when winning

4:04

product is becoming active

4:06

in your store, you start scaling

4:09

it. But it takes a lot of time. But

4:11

when we have a brand who is

4:13

already generating at least 30,000 and

4:16

joining us by following all the criterias

4:19

for our pre-qualification, then

4:22

it's the fund started where we are able to

4:24

take all the data and just scale that

4:26

over six figures and then over seven figures

4:29

just by, as I was mentioning before,

4:31

implementing the ecosystem. That's

4:33

unbelievable how it becomes useful,

4:36

the ecosystem, since 2021, since iOS 14 has been

4:40

in the market, breaking issues, became

4:43

on Facebook, restrictions,

4:45

bonds and so on. And

4:47

so

4:48

many businesses shut down the doors because

4:50

they were not able to manage that.

4:52

And we, in the same time, just

4:55

find out what exactly was the

4:57

reason. People usually focusing

4:59

on one or maximum two traffic

5:02

sources to their stores. And

5:04

that's exactly the weaknesses in our

5:06

days. If you want to have consistent

5:09

business, you must be everywhere and

5:11

have omnipresent online in

5:13

the different social media platforms. And

5:16

when some of the platform is broken,

5:18

like Facebook got restricted or just

5:20

performance optimization failed, you're

5:23

just making sure that you have a Google TikTok,

5:25

email, SMS marketing, which is going to be covered,

5:28

all that fails and continue

5:31

running while you're going to be fixing the problem

5:33

on another platform. So that's

5:36

what is all about ecosystem and how

5:38

the agency is actually working and what we are focusing

5:41

on.

5:41

I mean, that makes sense because if I own a store

5:43

and I'm good at it, I feel like I could

5:46

probably be pretty good at one or

5:48

two. But if you don't have other people working with

5:50

you, it's too hard to learn all the intricacies

5:53

of say, if you're trying it on LinkedIn

5:55

or YouTube or Pinterest or whatever,

5:58

like that's too difficult for.

6:00

one person to do. So it sounds like they

6:02

hire you and then you can help them with those

6:04

extra platforms where, especially if

6:06

you just have one funnel, let's pretend we have one, you're

6:09

definitely screwed if it was all through Facebook. But

6:11

the more you have, the more variety you have, the

6:13

more diversity you have, the more likely

6:15

you won't be hit very hard if one of these

6:17

have an issue. So it sounds like when

6:20

these people come to you, you help them do that. But

6:22

my question is, who are the clients

6:24

that you're, I guess, targeting and how are you

6:26

actually getting them? Are they a lot of them like

6:29

US-based businesses

6:30

or are they European-based? I

6:32

mean, it seems like it really shouldn't matter in e-commerce,

6:35

but I'm just interested to learn more about your story

6:37

here.

6:38

Yeah, of course. Just before that, I

6:40

will just add it to what you just mentioned, that

6:42

unfortunately, that's exactly

6:44

what is happening in 95 cases of the

6:47

time. That people

6:49

are killing it on one platform

6:52

and even making like seven figures a year.

6:54

Yes, with only Facebook, only Google.

6:57

But they're really not

6:59

scaling that further just because

7:01

of lack of time. Most of the

7:03

cases, it's lack of time or lack

7:06

of the right employers or just

7:08

like they have employers, they have

7:10

time focusing on other parts

7:13

of the business, but they have not enough skills from

7:15

their side or from the employer side. So basically,

7:18

by hiring agencies like us, like

7:20

Golden Stream Media, they are

7:22

hiring the team who

7:24

has already done that several times

7:27

in the different cases and knows

7:29

what to do. So basically, they become a CEO

7:32

of their company from day one

7:34

and just hiring the full marketing

7:36

team on board who is going

7:38

to be managing everything for them together with

7:40

them. So it's like a partnership,

7:43

which is win-win for obviously

7:45

both sides. So that's actually

7:47

what's really why we decided

7:49

to move forward that direction because so

7:52

many business owners almost all focusing

7:55

only on one maximum two platforms. And that's the

7:57

mistake. That's why so many businesses are working

7:59

together.

7:59

great brands staying on the six

8:02

figure level in a year or seven figure

8:04

year level in the year instead of moving

8:06

to eight figures, even nine figures and after

8:08

that go to sell

8:11

the brand. And nobody, everyone

8:13

wishing to do that but they are not big enough to do

8:15

necessary steps to make it

8:17

happen.

8:18

And to answer on your question,

8:21

our main clients are in US

8:23

but we have clients as well from New Zealand, Australia,

8:27

Canada. It's a majority of the clients

8:29

before we had clients from UK and

8:31

Europe. Right now we have in

8:34

Europe, I believe only one or two

8:36

clients, I believe one for sure,

8:38

just because most of our audience

8:41

is on United States. Most of our audience,

8:43

most of our networking and people who knows

8:46

me Anatoly Wabinski in e-commerce

8:48

space,

8:48

they are from that part of the world.

8:51

Yeah, so this is the main directions,

8:53

my locations where we have clients

8:55

based. And how do you find your clients?

8:57

Are you using some ad based model

9:00

to try to target and track them? Or how

9:02

are you able to actually find them for your business?

9:05

Yeah, it's a good question. Actually, everything

9:07

started from just me being

9:10

online and sharing my story, sharing

9:12

my journey. And it was organic.

9:15

So I was making posts, I was active

9:17

in publics, like go Facebook groups.

9:20

When I started getting my first results back in 2017,

9:24

2018, I was not selling

9:26

anything, I mean, and not offering any

9:28

services. I was not running my stores only.

9:31

And my first results through all the

9:33

fails, I was just sharing motivational

9:35

posts with the results which

9:37

I have made. And people start

9:40

reaching out to me. I become super

9:42

active online and people start reaching out to me

9:44

and asking, can you help

9:46

me out? Can you show me? By

9:48

that being said, I become a mentor. And later

9:51

on, people start asking, hey, can you manage

9:53

for me? And this is how the

9:55

story begins. And this is our one

9:57

of

9:57

first clients who still with us joining.

9:59

it that time. And since

10:02

that moment, obviously, the company were growing,

10:05

I was less focusing on the

10:07

postings, motivation, all the things.

10:10

Instead of that, I was focusing on growing my agency

10:13

and my company, hiring the right team. And

10:15

we moved to the paid advertising

10:18

to acquire customer. And mostly

10:20

it's Facebook, Google,

10:23

YouTube, but majority of

10:25

the ads is the Facebook.

10:27

So when you said you were sharing stuff, were

10:29

you originally just sharing it on Facebook,

10:31

like your situation of growing your own store?

10:33

And what was the name of that store?

10:35

Oh, that store. I love these

10:37

questions. Usually when people ask me, then

10:39

first store and the name, it was

10:42

my kitty cat zone.com.

10:44

I remember how long I was staying

10:48

at night and was thinking brainstorming

10:50

how I will call my store.

10:52

It was like all the you know, all the beginners

10:55

in ecommerce usually even never

10:57

start the journey just because they cannot

10:59

find out the name for their store. It's

11:02

true. It's so simple, but people just don't

11:04

know how to name the store and they decided

11:06

to quit before even starting. It's

11:09

all odd thing, but that's why

11:11

I'm laughing now and smiling just

11:13

because I remember how difficult

11:15

it was to choose the niche and

11:18

choose the name of the store. So yeah,

11:20

that's the name of the store will be staying forever

11:22

with me, my kitty cat zone.com.

11:25

Yeah, I see you need to have like redirect to

11:27

Goldenstream media or something. It says sorry,

11:29

this shop is currently unavailable, but that used to be

11:31

yours. That's where it all started.

11:33

Yeah, I stopped that store like

11:35

it was a store where I have got my first

11:37

results. So I started in 2017.

11:39

But my first results I have

11:42

got in February 2018 when

11:45

I already lost everything what I had

11:47

like if you're going to be speaking about my past,

11:50

there was so much failure before

11:52

I got the first results and this

11:54

first results actually was on my last

11:57

whatever I had even start asking

11:59

people. money to continue running ads

12:01

because I promised to myself that I

12:03

won't quit, I will find out how

12:06

this works because 99% of

12:09

beginners are quitting

12:10

and I promised to myself that I'm going to be that

12:13

one person who will win

12:15

and that's actually what keeps

12:17

me going that moment and

12:20

I found out the first mentor and

12:22

I just followed what he said and I realized

12:24

that first six months, actually

12:27

five months of my journey, I

12:29

was doing everything wrong just because I

12:31

wasn't following the steps which

12:33

has to be and even having a look on the right

12:35

KPIs what needs to be followed.

12:38

When he showed to me what I missed

12:40

out, I just copy paste what

12:42

he said and I made in the first 15 days my

12:45

first ever $8,000 online

12:48

and that was the huge win for me.

12:50

It was an incredible win.

12:52

And what year was that? 2018? It was February 2018 exactly but

12:54

I started August 2017.

13:00

Okay, so I mean we're still not talking about long

13:02

ago so like five years ago was kind of your first

13:04

guess trial into this e-commerce space and you

13:06

just weren't hitting it for the first, would you

13:08

say year, like it just was not working out till

13:10

you eventually got a mentor that kind of helped you out

13:13

and told you the key performance indicators

13:15

that you should look for? Yeah,

13:16

he just actually it was so

13:19

basic things which he explained

13:22

it like the majority of the problems which

13:24

beginners on I believe not even in

13:26

e-commerce in any kind of business people

13:28

start starting everything in

13:30

the same time like for example I

13:32

was following tens or even twenties

13:34

of youtubers, facebook groups,

13:37

different mentors, I was following and trying

13:39

to catch something for free which is fine

13:41

you can I mean there is nothing bad there

13:44

is in YouTube a lot of great things for free how

13:46

to run an e-commerce store but you

13:48

have to filter out that if

13:50

you're going to be following 10-20

13:53

people like I remember I was doing

13:55

the changes on the ad account

13:57

every 15 minutes to one hour.

14:00

Instead of the number one

14:02

thing, let it optimize for 24 hours

14:04

at least. Do not touch it. Launch

14:06

it. Don't touch it. And I want to touch it

14:08

every single hour. It's like,

14:11

oh my God, no sales. Okay, let's decrease budget.

14:13

Let's increase budget. Let's duplicate. And

14:15

simply, I even didn't find out

14:18

what KPIs to look for. I didn't know what

14:20

does it mean, KPIs, I mean, in the

14:22

ad account. So when you are

14:24

doing something and what you don't know

14:27

yet, try to find out one single

14:29

person

14:30

or maximum two and follow

14:32

them and see what they are doing. Ask

14:34

questions in their community and follow

14:37

their strategy if you are speaking about e-commerce

14:40

because what's working for them, it doesn't

14:42

work for another 19 people.

14:44

Everyone has their own strategy. And

14:46

when you mix up all of them together,

14:48

it's a mess and it won't produce. At

14:51

least you have a huge experience,

14:54

great skills, and you're just finding for the

14:57

updated algorithm hacks.

15:00

So then you can look on different people and according

15:02

to your experience, implementing something on

15:04

your end and see what's going to be working

15:07

for you with your touch.

15:10

Because you already feel that, you already feel

15:12

everything by just skills, having

15:14

the experience from the past. And that will allow

15:16

you to get fast from five, seven

15:18

different influencers, get fast, one

15:20

simple strategy, which is going to be like a mix of

15:23

everything. But again, don't

15:25

do that when you're just starting, you will

15:27

lose all the money. That

15:28

makes perfect sense because whenever I start

15:31

to learn about something in business, I listen

15:33

to tons of different podcasts. When I go into

15:35

a niche, like today there's so many podcasts, you

15:38

might find 20 podcasts in that niche. Much

15:40

less if I said search e-commerce

15:42

podcast, there's probably at least 300.

15:45

What you say makes 100% sense to me

15:47

because I've gone into the niches of even listening

15:49

to certain podcasts about a business idea

15:51

or something that I'm coming up with. This guy says

15:54

this, but this other guy says that. And

15:56

yeah, when you start looking at all of them, you're

15:58

just

15:58

going to mix them up. Overall, so as long

16:01

as you understand that in the beginning, hopefully

16:03

this helps a lot of people. It's just like, hey, it's

16:05

okay to listen well at the beginning, but you kind of have to figure

16:07

out who you vibe with the most and who you want

16:09

to go with and kind of go with that person.

16:12

I mean, you are becoming overwhelming

16:15

on the information.

16:16

And instead of get a piece of information

16:19

and utilize that, you just consuming

16:22

information everywhere, from everywhere,

16:24

from every single person. And you don't know

16:26

what to do with that kind of quantity of

16:28

the information and you don't know what information

16:30

to trust because there is so many gurus who

16:33

are going to be sharing the screen on their

16:35

coaching sessions or whatever from

16:37

PDF. And there is no proof that

16:40

it is actually working. They can tell

16:42

you that it's working for them, but it is a PDF

16:44

file, which is like

16:46

in 60% of the time, more, I

16:48

believe, even 80% of the time. If

16:51

you're buying something from someone

16:53

and he jumped like 60 days mastermind

16:56

or something like that, once in a week calls

16:58

where we will go through the different subjects

17:00

and you become a great dropshipper, let's say.

17:03

And you dive in and it's like PDF

17:06

slide shows and he going through and no

17:08

live examples. And he's saying, it's

17:10

working, just go and implement. But

17:12

at the end, like, hey, I implement

17:14

it, doesn't work. Oh, okay. So sorry,

17:16

I sorry to hear that, but

17:19

because he provide you some information,

17:21

he's just taking out his responsibilities

17:24

because you're going to be implementing on your end or

17:26

it's going to be working if he's a real

17:28

person or it could not work

17:31

even if he's a real person. There is

17:33

no proof that he's wrong or

17:35

right because he was sharing not

17:37

the life experience, he was sharing the PDF

17:40

picture. Like I know so many examples

17:43

in the industry where people were following

17:45

them and

17:46

at the end finding out that they were

17:48

just coming. I mean, they were just duplicating

17:51

some other people's stuff and

17:53

using as their own. So when you're

17:55

following some person, you need to understand

17:57

the real background, the how long he's going to

17:59

be.

17:59

is on the market, what's the background, what's

18:02

the reviews, what the people are talking about

18:04

them. There could be bad stuff and

18:06

you shouldn't be worried about that because every

18:08

single big company or big name has

18:11

their haters and it's fine but

18:13

you have to see a good stuff as well on the other

18:15

side and you have found someone who

18:18

has nothing on the background

18:20

or it means he most probably just

18:23

like starting and trying to test on you

18:25

or in the same time he has only

18:28

good reviews, no bad reviews. There is as

18:30

well some kind of tricky stuff

18:32

behind. Even Apple has

18:34

haters, Samsung has haters,

18:36

we have haters to be honest. We have

18:39

as well something like who satisfied, who

18:41

doesn't satisfy, you cannot please everyone

18:43

but in the same time you have a real story

18:46

behind, you have real reviews behind,

18:48

real people talking behind and

18:50

that will show you okay this person is real,

18:53

he knows what he's talking about and he's

18:55

not just sharing the pdf on the calls,

18:58

he actually like my first mentor why I

19:00

was so excited. It was like a

19:02

group calls, so he's jumping

19:04

on the zoom call and he's asking

19:07

to get access to your ad account

19:09

before the call and he's reviewing

19:12

together with everyone on the call and

19:15

he's telling in life okay this campaign

19:17

you have to make sure that you will

19:19

do xyz before the next

19:21

call and when it's going to be happening

19:24

if it's performed you have to do xyz

19:26

from that step and this is how I generate

19:29

my first income on e-commerce. It

19:31

was step by step guidance on my

19:33

particular campaigns, my particular

19:35

paces and that's I

19:38

actually almost never seen online

19:40

because people are lazy to do that and I actually

19:42

done my mentorship exactly on the same way

19:44

and people love it because online

19:47

there is really usually like 60 90 days

19:49

programs where it's pdfs and like feedbacks

19:52

and like oh it doesn't work no worries,

19:54

try again instead of going live

19:56

and check and analyze together with your

19:58

students. That's something

19:59

but if you find that such kind of person

20:02

for yourself, you will win

20:04

definitely if you won't quit. That's

20:06

another part of fail as well. People

20:09

are quitting too early.

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21:32

I'm here with John Austinson. How are you doing today,

21:34

John? Hey, Austin, doing great. Thanks

21:36

for having me. Absolutely. Well, thank you for

21:38

supporting the podcast. And I interviewed John

21:40

on episode 250 of this very podcast.

21:43

So you can hear more about John's story and how

21:45

he grew Fran Bridge Consulting right here. But

21:47

in the meantime, would you mind reminding our listeners

21:49

what you do and what you could potentially help

21:51

them with? Yeah, you know, I work with entrepreneurs

21:53

and investors across the country, helping

21:55

them get into business ownership through franchising.

21:58

And when I say franchising, you likely.

21:59

think fast food and yet there's so many other industries

22:02

out there from home and property services

22:04

to health and wellness from kids, pets,

22:06

the aging population, oil changes, all

22:08

of these understandable cash-flowing businesses

22:11

that oftentimes are recession resistant and 90%

22:14

of our clients end up purchasing an opportunity they

22:16

never thought about. We work with the largest brokerage

22:18

in the country, over 600 different franchise companies.

22:21

Having been a franchisor or a franchisee myself, I'm

22:23

very picky about which ones that we show to our clients,

22:25

only the best of the The great thing, Austin

22:28

is, it's entirely free to work with us. We're

22:30

funded by the companies, very much like an executive

22:32

search type model, so our clients never pay us a nickel

22:35

and we do more deals for our clients than anybody

22:37

else in the country. And what does a typical client

22:39

look like for you? Two-thirds of our clients

22:41

would be looking to keep their day job. They're looking to get

22:44

into business ownership, maybe as a side hustle

22:46

or maybe they're already a business owner and they can't get their full

22:48

attention. We work with doctors, lawyers,

22:50

existing business owners, corporate executives,

22:52

really a wide array of backgrounds all

22:55

around the country.

22:56

As far as anyone who might be interested in your

22:58

service, is there a best way for them to reach you?

23:00

Yeah,

23:00

come out to our website, franbridgeconsulting.com,

23:03

that's F-R-A-N bridge consulting

23:05

dot com. For all of your listeners, Austin,

23:07

we'll also send them a copy of our new book, either

23:10

audio or PDF version or they can purchase

23:12

it on Amazon, but I would love to share that. Our book

23:14

is called Non-Food Franchising. We've gotten great

23:16

feedback since its release. If you're interested

23:19

in taking a next step, you know, let my assistant Ashley

23:21

know and she'll schedule a call and

23:23

we'll discuss your situation and what could be a good fit.

23:26

Yeah, and I know you've already scheduled a few call with our listeners.

23:28

Could you just tell them what that typically is like, like

23:31

how long and if it's free for them to do? Yeah,

23:33

we've had a great response from your listeners, entirely

23:35

free. Because of the caliber of folks that we

23:38

work with, we cut to the chase. We usually

23:40

spend 20 to 30 minutes on that first call

23:42

and then as the next step, that following week, we'll come

23:44

to them with opportunities, usually around 10 or

23:47

so in their market. They're available, they check

23:49

all the boxes and we talk them through those

23:51

and then make introductions to the ones

23:53

that seem most intriguing to them. Well,

23:55

that sounds awesome and again, if someone was interested

23:57

in scheduling a call, where's the best place for them to

23:59

go ahead? and sign up. Yeah, come out to our website, franbridgeconsulting.com,

24:03

F-R-A-N-Bridgeconsulting.com, and

24:05

we would love to engage. Well,

24:09

thank you for the advice and hopefully anyone who

24:11

is listening, I think now they understand it's

24:13

like, yeah, you just need to do your research on

24:15

if you're going to go do a coaching program or understand

24:18

it. And again, I think the main thing is not buying 10 different

24:20

courses on the same topic because maybe that just

24:22

says something about you. If you do one person and

24:24

you keep implementing what they're saying and at least trying it, you

24:26

can at least see that you're doing something and not

24:29

just overthinking it. So hopefully

24:31

that helps everybody. And I guess your website,

24:33

do you mind giving it to us so that people can maybe check it

24:35

out during the interview or maybe afterwards, especially

24:37

if they have an e-commerce site and

24:39

see if you can help them out?

24:41

Yeah, our website, goldenstreammedia.com

24:45

and my YouTube channel, Anatoliy Labinsky.

24:48

I'm sharing for free several videos

24:51

for last year, completely free

24:53

value about the e-commerce, about

24:55

now we're moving more to the general business

24:58

subjects. I would say it's full of

25:00

educational materials there. Anatoliy

25:03

Labinsky, YouTube channel, go

25:05

and check and goldenstreammedia.com.

25:07

E-commerce by Anatoliy, Instagram.

25:10

So everything

25:11

is there.

25:12

Great. Well, thank you for giving us kind of an overview

25:14

here in the beginning of your company.

25:16

Why don't you tell us where you grew up and then maybe

25:19

jump forward to maybe where you went to college and came

25:21

out and kind of got your first job. So why don't you

25:23

just jump in at what year it was and tell

25:26

us a little bit about your background. Yeah,

25:28

I love this subject as well because

25:30

actually I just proud

25:33

of myself because where I grew

25:35

up, I know so many e-commerce guys

25:37

who has similar stuff. When you grow up in

25:40

the average family, we had

25:42

a lot of debt. My mom and my father

25:45

got divorced when I was eight. Me,

25:48

my sister, my mom were living alone. Father

25:50

was helping a bit, but we didn't

25:52

have that much money and we have a lot of debt.

25:55

Yeah. Were you in Ukraine at this point? Because I know

25:57

you said you were from Ukraine.

25:58

Yes.

26:00

23 years age, I

26:02

haven't been never outside

26:04

of Ukraine. Actually, I almost haven't

26:06

been never outside of my city Zaporozhia.

26:09

Never. Because we have always money

26:12

problems, always financial problems

26:14

that for me going somewhere to another

26:16

city, which is like 40 miles away

26:18

from us, it was like, wow,

26:21

wow, it was like emotions for

26:24

a whole week ahead, that it was a traveling,

26:26

you know. I grew up in the city

26:28

and I was always in the city. Well,

26:30

how do you spell the name of that city? I'm trying to

26:32

and I didn't catch that. Zaporozhia.

26:36

Okay, I got enough of it. Z-A-P-O-R-I-Z-H-I-A.

26:41

That'll get you close enough, everybody. Exactly.

26:44

Yeah. Yeah. So it's

26:46

a factory city and not the small

26:48

one, but not the huge one. I

26:50

grew up there and my

26:52

mom, her main goal was to give

26:54

my sister and for me high education,

26:57

so like some kind of degree. And

26:59

when we finish a school, I actually during

27:01

the school, since I became 13, I

27:04

used to work in the construction sites.

27:06

I used to work on the different,

27:08

different type of works just

27:10

to get some extra

27:12

income for myself. I mean,

27:14

my mom could give me something for school, but

27:17

if I want a phone, if I want to go

27:19

on date with my girlfriend, if I want

27:21

anything extra, I have no money

27:23

for that. So I used to work

27:25

in and I used to do

27:28

that kind of things to hustle to find

27:30

out the work. And it was always physical

27:32

work, always. I was doing gym, I was strong

27:34

guy and I was just handling the

27:37

heavy stuff on the construction. And

27:39

I was super young since 13.

27:42

But yeah, we were saving some money

27:44

and I went to university

27:47

and got actually a master's degree

27:49

in finance. But even during

27:51

that time, we got even more

27:53

debt. My mom just done

27:56

the refinancing for the house to

27:58

get money for the education.

27:59

education and there was

28:02

not enough. I was working at nights

28:05

as a labor in

28:07

the supermarket, just, you know, the person

28:09

who is bringing like a water,

28:11

beer, bakery stuff and

28:13

putting on the shelves from the storage.

28:16

So like I was just a simple worker

28:18

there at night. And during the day

28:20

I was trying to get my education.

28:23

So it was actually a difficult

28:25

time. Actually recently I was sharing that

28:28

story with my son. He's five

28:29

years old and he was like, how

28:32

come, pap, you done that. And after

28:35

that you didn't sleep. I said, yeah, I

28:37

slept for one and a half hour and went to

28:39

your university. That's how I was living.

28:42

Not like you have, like my son already

28:44

flew over 20 different directions

28:46

in his five years old and

28:49

me in 23 years old, I never been

28:51

anywhere. So I

28:53

used to work on different part-times just

28:56

to get some finances and

28:58

paid for education.

28:59

So I finished university

29:02

with master degree. Thanks to my mom,

29:05

thanks to my papa as well, but he wasn't

29:07

able to give a lot.

29:08

But thanks to myself in the same

29:10

time.

29:11

When I graduate, I got the

29:13

first job in the private bank because

29:15

I been there in the internship and

29:18

show up myself. What's the main thing?

29:20

When I was doing some work, I was always

29:22

show up and show up a lot in

29:24

terms of performance, in terms of results.

29:27

And I made a great job on the internship

29:30

that they actually invited me

29:33

to while I was receiving master

29:35

degree. It was one year ahead

29:37

to get the diploma. The private bank

29:40

invite me to work

29:41

with them in the same time when

29:43

I was studying.

29:44

And yeah, I started working in private

29:47

bank. It was great experience.

29:49

I was super young. It was 2010,

29:52

my first real job, but on

29:54

the construction. So somewhere else I was

29:57

making more money than in bank.

29:59

What's happening? My father is proud of me,

30:02

my mother is proud of me. They

30:04

are so happy, the sun in the suit,

30:07

with the tie, with the jacket,

30:09

but I'm not really satisfied because I'm making

30:12

peanuts in there. I

30:15

decided to move to the private sector,

30:17

to the sales, because in private bank,

30:19

what I realized, I was actually

30:22

one of the first. It was top three. I

30:24

was second, I believe. I was second

30:27

in the Rosaporozia region in

30:29

the age of 18 or 19

30:29

in terms of sales in our overdraft

30:34

department in the bank. That

30:36

shows me that I love sales. In

30:38

this kind of age, I was doing the cold calls.

30:40

I was calling to people and offering them

30:43

loans for the business people. That's

30:46

where I learned to myself that you

30:48

shouldn't be scared to hear no. It

30:51

was my first sales experience and

30:53

I realized that hearing no, it's

30:56

perfect because you're learning, you're understanding,

30:58

and it's not scared to

30:59

speak to people who you don't know. It's

31:02

actually funny and actually you're

31:04

so proud of yourself and you overtake the objections

31:07

and no becoming yes. That

31:09

was an incredible experience and I decided to move to

31:11

sales in the private sector. I got invited

31:14

to one private company, which was

31:16

selling the alcohol and bakery

31:19

stuff. I became their number

31:21

one person in my department

31:24

and then moved to the bakery company.

31:26

They just offered me really great

31:28

income for that moment in

31:31

my country, in Ukraine. But

31:33

I had always dreamed to see the world and

31:35

move somewhere for the experience to

31:37

do something different. That

31:40

moment, it was 2013. I

31:42

broke up from my eight years

31:44

relationship with my girlfriend and

31:47

I met another girl. She

31:49

was so great, she was so beautiful,

31:51

she was so amazing. And before that,

31:54

I made the decision that I will go

31:57

out of Ukraine and find out how.

32:00

For me, it was something unrealistic. People

32:02

who like me, who grew up in one city

32:04

and never been outside, even all of the city

32:06

almost, to believe that you can fly somewhere,

32:09

it was difficult to believe. Like, it was for

32:12

me, unreal to believe. But I promised to

32:14

myself that, hey, I'm going

32:16

to make it happen. And one of my friends went

32:18

to Dubai, he got the job there

32:21

in the hospitality, and he said, hey,

32:23

would you like to pass interview? I said, I don't

32:25

know English. Never mind, like, just

32:27

try it. And without English

32:29

skills, it was just like at Cirque, not

32:31

in the interview. But I got

32:34

on Skype interview with

32:36

the CEO of one restaurant, and

32:38

he offered me a job as a food runner.

32:41

I was the person with the master's

32:43

degree, with the background in

32:45

bank sector, one of the

32:48

best salesperson in the industry

32:50

where he was working. And here I'm

32:53

receiving the offer, food runner. It's

32:55

a person who is going to be cleaning the

32:57

tables and pick up the dirty plates

32:59

from the tables to kitchen, to washing

33:01

area. This is the job. I was

33:04

the happiest guy ever. I said, yes,

33:06

I want to do that. First of all, because there

33:08

is even with my good salary, it's much

33:11

more payout than I'm having now. And

33:13

I need to help my mom to pay out

33:16

of the refinancing of the house. I'm

33:18

in the loan, which we took at the mortgage. And

33:21

plus, in the same time, it's an unbelievable experience.

33:23

Finally, I will see the world. So I got

33:25

that work and went to... Actually,

33:28

it was the first place where I used to work

33:30

in the UoE. It was Abu Dhabi, Cipriani

33:33

restaurant. And this is where fun

33:35

is beginning. I mean, this is where my e-commerce

33:37

journey slowly, slowly, but

33:40

started. It was 2013 when I moved to Dubai.

33:44

Yeah, before we move on to that part, that

33:46

was 2013. So you're about 22 or so,

33:48

you're saying?

33:49

It was 2013. I promised

33:51

myself in May, my birthday party

33:54

on 22, that I promised to myself

33:56

I will go to Dubai, because that moment

33:58

exactly my friend went to Dubai.

33:59

Dubai and he said there is opportunities to pass

34:02

interview. And that was my promise, which

34:04

is I never been sure about anything

34:06

like that. And I promised to myself on

34:09

my birthday party and in four months

34:11

I left Ukraine and moved to Abu

34:13

Dhabi. Well,

34:14

before we jump into that part, I

34:16

was debating whether I wait till the end, but I'd rather kind of just touch

34:18

on it now. I mean, is your mom still in

34:20

Ukraine?

34:21

Actually, since like I

34:23

haven't speak about here, but

34:26

in Ukraine is a war right now, as

34:28

most of you know,

34:30

when everything started, I was the

34:32

person who was responsible from

34:34

the men's side to take all the ladies,

34:36

my mother-in-law, my mother, my

34:39

sister-in-law, my sister, their

34:41

kids, my wife, my

34:44

son, to bring all of them out

34:46

of the country and make sure that they're

34:48

going to be in the safe places. So

34:50

yeah, thanks God I made it happen

34:53

and all of them are saved. My mom right now

34:55

is my sister and niece

34:58

in Germany.

34:59

I didn't want to wait till the end and hear about

35:01

that or hear what's going on, but thought they were

35:03

obviously able to get out.

35:05

If we would be starting speaking about

35:07

that, I had recently

35:10

interviewed with one of my friends as well, and

35:13

we made one and a half hour. That

35:15

was conversation about how I get out

35:17

of the country when everything started, all

35:20

the bombarding, shooting and all the things.

35:22

It was incredible, incredible

35:25

experience, not the best experience. I

35:27

was sharing that story, so if you would like to

35:29

go there, it would take a lot of time

35:32

if I will be sharing in the details

35:34

because when I was

35:35

trying to remember that all the body is

35:37

shaking. Right now obviously, everyone

35:40

overtakes that, but that moment,

35:42

it was the scariest moment in my life, like

35:45

honestly speaking. Totally understand. Maybe

35:47

at the end, you can tell me where that was located

35:49

and people can kind of check that out because that's what I figured.

35:52

I mean, that's not something that, yeah, like you

35:54

said, at least an hour and a half conversation. I'm

35:57

trying to keep it positive, but also be realistic.

35:59

We all go through.

35:59

and I know we'll touch on some of that business-wise,

36:02

but that's one thing too growing up, you never

36:04

fucking think it's gonna ever happen. I would imagine

36:07

so. Well, yeah, let's go ahead and jump back

36:09

into you moving to Abu

36:11

Dhabi and UAE

36:14

and you being a food runner and you were saying even though

36:16

you had a good paying job in Ukraine because

36:18

UAE, if they have so much money

36:21

that you actually made more money as a food runner,

36:23

it sounds like and that's why you went over there to

36:26

help your mom start paying off some of this loans.

36:28

Yeah, I will tell you how much I was making up

36:30

for Ukraine. It's a good money. It was

36:32

a good money in that moment in 2013. So

36:36

I was making $800 a month and in the bank sector, I

36:41

was making like 400 or 350 a month. So

36:46

that's like average salaries in Ukraine

36:48

and 800 is quite wow, quite

36:50

not bad, not bad. Right now it's $2,000, it's

36:53

a good one and

36:55

not bad it's 1,900 still the same level but

36:59

average right now 400 even less. My

37:02

mom were making $120 a month before the war. So

37:07

it is the shittest income

37:09

in general to compare with all the

37:12

tier one countries. So this is for

37:14

you guys to understand what I'm speaking about.

37:16

So you need to pay university which is

37:18

like less than $2,000 a

37:20

year for five year university we supposed

37:23

to refinance our house because it was incredible

37:25

amount to get. And right

37:28

now it's funny

37:28

to listen

37:29

this when I'm speaking about it for myself

37:31

but it is as it is, it's my

37:33

past. But as a food runner,

37:36

they weren't giving me like approximately 1,100

37:38

or something like that. So

37:41

not much more but

37:44

I understood that it's a much bigger opportunities

37:46

possibilities and plus I will learn English

37:49

and plus I will have experience in some other

37:51

country and that was exactly

37:54

the case. I went there, I like

37:56

I used to work in Cipriani Abu Dhabi

37:58

it's a restaurant on the... middle of

38:00

the Formula One circle.

38:03

So I came there exactly before

38:05

Formula One season. It was incredible

38:08

experience for the young guy. Incredible.

38:10

Even who I used to work, how? I

38:13

mean, I was like a cleaner, let's say, in

38:15

other words, even not a waiter. But

38:17

I was the happiest young guy in the

38:20

world. I was feeling myself in that side.

38:22

And yeah, before I moved to Abu Dhabi,

38:25

I met the girl, which I mentioned before, and

38:27

we become in love. I mean, she said,

38:29

please

38:29

don't go, don't leave me. But I

38:32

said, no, I want to see the world and

38:34

so on. But she was good in Ukraine. She was in

38:36

pharmaceutical industry, making

38:38

good money and driving

38:40

great working car. It was

38:42

for sure, like it's not going to happen.

38:45

I won't stay with her because she has great

38:47

life and I have to fight for my life. But

38:50

in three months, I went to

38:52

Abu Dhabi in October 2013. And by December, she

38:56

said to me that I'm so missing

38:59

you.

38:59

I'm getting bonus at my work because

39:02

of New Year. And I'm going to be spending

39:04

that amount to come to you. I wasn't

39:07

able to pay for her because I was sending all the money

39:09

to my mom to pay for mortgage,

39:11

to pay as fast as possible. That was the goal.

39:14

And I was shocked that the successful

39:16

lady missed me. The

39:19

guy who went to work like a laborer

39:21

in the other country cleaning the tables

39:24

and she wants to spend money to come and meet

39:26

me because she missed me. I was like, wow,

39:29

that's something weird. And

39:31

she came to me on vacation in January 2014.

39:35

And we become really in love. I used

39:37

to be in love with her, but I understood

39:40

that person who deserve to

39:42

be with me. And I have

39:44

to catch her. And she was so

39:46

happy to see me. And I made a proposal

39:49

and she said, I'm going to be waiting

39:51

for you. I promise her that in a year,

39:54

I will come back and we'll get

39:56

married. It's happened. We get

39:58

married in a year. I was promising

40:01

that I will come back with money, but unfortunately,

40:03

I'm the luckiest guy who never had the luck

40:06

with money. I mean, I'm earning and

40:08

sending everything home, having some troubles

40:10

there in Abu Dhabi, expenses

40:13

more higher than I was thinking about

40:15

and so on and so on and so on and at the end I'm coming back

40:17

for waiting with no income, with no money

40:20

and I said listen I'm going back so

40:22

if you want come with me, if you

40:24

don't I don't want to do and so she

40:27

made a decision to come with me

40:29

in 2015.

40:29

She left everything, all

40:32

this great life in Ukraine which she had

40:34

with the great income and because of me

40:36

she started working in labor work

40:38

as well because she has no English.

40:41

We moved to Dubai for that moment, she

40:43

found a job there as a salesperson in

40:45

the glasses store. Anyway,

40:48

the long story short that we moved to

40:50

Dubai, we start living together and I

40:53

never had enough money to bring her

40:55

so I have to borrow the money to bring her.

40:57

I'm just taking some, I

40:59

just got some income and give it back

41:02

to someone who I just borrowed. So it was

41:04

awful, a race

41:06

again and again and again and again and

41:08

I was sure that when I will be there

41:10

I will be making enough money to make it

41:13

and become wealthier and so on. But

41:15

unfortunately, I wasn't educated that enough

41:17

about life and how I have to handle

41:19

the life. Only what was one thing for

41:21

me, I was super

41:24

excited for the next level.

41:26

I was super excited every

41:28

single day what can

41:29

be done because I have seen all these

41:32

luxury cars, I have seen all those luxury

41:34

guests in the restaurants in Dubai, I moved to another

41:36

successful restaurant in the financial

41:39

area and actually

41:41

I start selling myself. There

41:43

was financial guys, there was bankers,

41:46

there was... I thought you're gonna say you're becoming

41:48

a prostitute if you're selling yourself. That's

41:52

where the entrepreneurship started. That's

41:55

a good one. I start

41:57

actually sending myself to customers

41:59

in the

41:59

restaurant when they come into business lunch, I

42:02

start just like I become a speaker.

42:05

I start speaking to people and telling them

42:07

my background, I have a master

42:10

degree, finances, so on so on

42:12

so on and always failing on get

42:14

anything. I got couple of times business

42:16

cards, I called them and they were like

42:19

responding so they were just

42:21

now good nice enough to give me

42:23

a card but it's and it never finished

42:25

with something great. I was trying to find out the

42:27

opportunities to get another job out

42:29

of

42:29

the hospitality. So what I have started doing,

42:32

I just took hundreds of CVs,

42:35

took my friend on the day off and just

42:38

like a day off it's Monday or Tuesday

42:40

during the week and I

42:42

just was starting going to high

42:44

scrappers. I'm just pass through

42:47

the reception by somehow

42:49

and going to level 60

42:52

and just going down level by level

42:54

and going visiting the office buildings, visiting

42:57

offices and giving them CVs. Like

42:59

hey here it is, here it is, looking

43:02

for the job, master degree and so on and

43:04

never get luck. To be honest it was the shittiest

43:06

idea ever. I don't recommend you

43:09

to do that but I was hustling

43:11

without the knowledge I would say like that and

43:14

I was applying for cabin crew,

43:16

I was applying for office clerks,

43:18

I was applying for financial guy, accounting

43:21

guy, so many different positions

43:23

and to be honest with you without joke because

43:26

I was having a tracking plus I started using

43:28

the software which is worth delivering

43:31

all my CVs to different companies. I

43:33

sent over 10,000 CVs to 10,000 different companies

43:35

in a matter of two

43:39

and a half years approximately and

43:42

got maybe not 100 but

43:44

over 50 interviews during

43:46

this period of time and

43:49

always worth failing for stupid

43:51

reasons or no reasons. There was so

43:54

much fail on my journey

43:56

and I passed the cabin crew finals

43:59

from H people only five left

44:01

and I'm one of those five and like

44:04

I'm performing one of the best and the

44:06

guys can see it we discussed that I'm like oh my god

44:08

I will take this job fly Dubai Emirates

44:11

I will be cabin crew it's it's like it

44:13

was more than I could dream and always

44:15

they were choosing someone else for reason

44:18

no reason or reason we need girl or

44:20

we need XYZ but I

44:23

wasn't understand how that could happen

44:25

to me this fails again and again so guys and

44:27

girls this kind of fails happened to us

44:30

to teach us to be stronger

44:33

and learn on our mistakes and don't repeat

44:35

them nothing against you life

44:37

happening for you not to against

44:39

you remember that because I

44:42

wasn't understanding I was thinking that I'm

44:44

the unluckiest guy ever but

44:46

to be honest I start reading business

44:48

books in the same time when I was searching

44:51

for different jobs living with my wife trying

44:54

to survive because I bring my wife I

44:56

wasn't having to place to live I have to rent

44:58

the place before if you're staying alone

45:00

in hospitality they're giving you some kind of

45:02

room but when you bring your wife

45:05

you are out of it and you have to pay

45:07

for everything by making almost the

45:09

same money and like oh shit

45:12

and that's what was happening I was fighting

45:14

for better job is the better salary

45:17

and I was understanding that I don't want to be

45:19

a waiter the most important point when

45:21

I came to Abu Dhabi I was a runner

45:24

and I was show up so hard I

45:26

was doing so much without even

45:28

English that in three weeks I become

45:30

a assistant waiter for me it was like

45:32

I become a CEO I mean I was so

45:35

excited because again

45:37

as always if I'm doing some work I'm

45:39

just one of the hard worker guy

45:41

in the room and in three weeks they

45:44

give me promotion and after when

45:47

I moved to Dubai I become a waiter and

45:49

I become after that header waiter and

45:52

during all this journey I was searching

45:54

for anything out of hospitality

45:57

and always fail every single time

46:00

And I started reading the business books and understood

46:02

one thing when I read the Jack Ma story,

46:05

that, wow, that guy failed

46:08

on 25 different works. Nobody

46:10

took him. And after that, he became one

46:12

of the richest guy in China.

46:15

I was like, shit, that means

46:17

something. I feel myself in his

46:20

story. And I decided that this

46:22

fails will bring me somewhere. And

46:25

from there, the fun has been

46:27

started. I found a job. Finally,

46:29

I got the proposer to work in construction

46:32

sector. As a salesperson,

46:35

they will give me a car, which was even

46:37

more than a dream. And I'm

46:39

going to be a salesperson, so it's not a hospitality

46:42

anymore. But salary will be two times lower

46:44

than I have in hospitality. I like

46:46

my room, which I'm renting. We were

46:48

not living in the apartments. We were living in the

46:50

room.

46:51

We were renting the room from Filipino family.

46:54

Two-bedroom apartments, one apartment

46:56

is Filipino family, another room, it's

46:58

us. Me and my wife. And I

47:00

came to my wife and said, listen, dear,

47:03

you remember, we were planning to bring

47:05

me outside from hospitality. And this is the

47:07

chance. But we won't be able to cover

47:09

the apartments. We won't be able to

47:11

cover the food, because our expense is

47:14

much higher than the salary is there. So

47:16

we have to count on your salary a

47:18

lot. And then we will be able to survive.

47:21

And I will get all promotion or different job.

47:24

And she agreed.

47:24

She was crying every... Not

47:27

every, but pretty often at night, she

47:29

was crying. And I was trying to keep

47:32

her calm, because she was hating everything

47:34

around. She had a successful life in Ukraine.

47:37

And she moved to the labor work in Dubai.

47:39

And it was difficult for her mentally. And

47:42

I was feeling so embarrassed

47:44

because of that. So basically, I

47:46

moved to this construction work. And

47:49

I realized that this income is even

47:51

worse than I expected. It's

47:53

really not enough a lot. And

47:55

I started finding for some part-times. And

47:57

I found out part-times as a waiter in nightclubs.

47:59

as a waiter on the

48:02

private wheel once, two times

48:04

in a week, at night after the work. And

48:06

I start doing that and we start making like extra 50%

48:09

of my salary and like, oh, we

48:12

start feeling a bit better ourselves. And

48:14

here is 2017, February,

48:18

my wife coming to me and saying, babe,

48:21

I'm pregnant and we are living in this

48:24

small room, have no money in the

48:26

pocket. And I understand if my

48:28

wife will go out

48:30

of work, we won't be able to pay for the

48:32

bills. And delivery of the baby

48:34

without insurance, it's 25,000

48:37

dirhams, which is for me, it was seven

48:39

months of work. And I was

48:42

the happiest guy ever, but

48:44

she started crying.

48:45

So we're standing in the middle

48:47

of this room and she's saying

48:49

go and buy another test. I don't believe that.

48:52

I said, I will go to buy another

48:54

test. And I went outside and

48:56

I started realizing these things like

48:58

insurance, if she will lose the job, we

49:01

are renting the room, not even apartment,

49:03

how we're going to deliver the baby and so

49:06

on. And my knees start

49:08

shaking. I'm staying on the middle between

49:10

pharmacy and my room.

49:13

I mean, on the street, it's super

49:15

hot and I'm just shaking and almost

49:17

crying. And I just stop it and

49:19

promise to myself one important

49:22

thing. My baby won't come

49:24

in this world in the financial position

49:27

where I am right now. I will

49:29

do whatever it takes to make it happen,

49:32

to change everything and just

49:34

move forward to pharmacy. So after

49:37

that, my wife was already a couple

49:39

of months of the pregnancy and it was April 2017.

49:43

I got opportunities to get gas

49:46

company. I like gas company

49:49

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49:51

you understand what is Emirates,

49:52

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49:55

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51:45

I'm here with Megan Bennett. How's it going, Megan?

51:48

It is going great. Babbel's my favorite

51:50

podcast host and the most handsome young man.

51:53

I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for stating

51:55

the obvious, Megan. But we're here to talk about you

51:57

and your company, Lightyears Ahead.

51:59

I interviewed Megan on episode 177 of this very podcast.

52:04

And she helped all of our Patreon members

52:06

on group call three. So you can hear more about

52:09

Megan and how she helped our Patreon members there

52:11

as well. So would you mind telling us what

52:13

you do and how you could help our listeners, Megan?

52:15

Yes. So my agency

52:18

is Light Years Ahead and we're boutique,

52:20

but we're a national PR firm. We're

52:22

women owned and we focus on emerging

52:25

brands, experts, and services in the consumer

52:27

lifestyle space. We're based throughout the

52:29

US, we're in New York, Kansas City,

52:32

LA, and Dallas. And we really specialize

52:34

in maximizing media exposure

52:36

for brands and experts, which can then create

52:38

more sales and brand awareness and

52:41

influence buying decisions. Our clients

52:43

range everything from small startups looking to

52:45

make a name for themselves to large brands

52:47

that are trying to become relevant again. My agency

52:49

Light Years Ahead, we target the very top editors,

52:52

writers, and producers across all different

52:54

media outlets. And we've been doing this for over 20

52:57

years, which has earned us a very strong

52:59

reputation with the top media

53:01

with outlets like Buzzfeed, Today

53:03

Show, Good Morning America, Refinery 29, PopSugar,

53:06

Forbes, and many more. We can

53:08

help you grow your brand into a household

53:11

name.

53:12

That sounds awesome. So if someone might

53:14

be interested in your service, what's the best

53:16

way for them to reach you? The best

53:18

way to reach out is to email me at megan, M-E-G-A-N,

53:21

at lightyearsahead.com. That's megan

53:23

at lightyearsahead.com. Or you can

53:25

check out our services and capabilities at

53:28

lightyearsahead.com, our website.

53:30

And I know you've helped a few of our past guests

53:32

as well with their PR and they do sing your

53:34

praises. So hopefully it can help some of our

53:36

listeners as well.

53:37

Absolutely. And we love working with

53:39

your listeners and entrepreneurs who are really

53:42

passionate about what they're doing. And

53:44

this is what we want to offer your listeners. The

53:46

first five listeners that schedule

53:48

a call with us to develop a PR

53:50

campaign will receive $500 off

53:52

their first month of services with

53:54

us. It's a great deal. Awesome. And

53:57

one more time, what's the best place for them to reach you

53:59

to pick you up on that?

53:59

offer. You can reach me at Megan

54:02

at lightyearsahead.com or check

54:04

out our website at lightyearsahead.com or

54:07

you can go to our Instagram page at lyapr.

54:11

Yeah, I always knew oil and I

54:13

figured energy so okay. Exactly,

54:16

yeah. So when I was there

54:18

as a waiter, as a food runner, it was

54:21

a dream for me. Like I can't imagine

54:23

if I would work on gas company

54:25

or oil company. I was like dreaming

54:28

about it would be unbelievable and one

54:30

time I received a call. This is the

54:33

story what I was telling before. I submitted over 10 000 CVs

54:36

and in one day I got a call. Hey, we

54:39

just opened another round of interviews right

54:41

now and

54:41

we found out you from the past CVs

54:44

who was submitted to us. Would you like to come

54:46

to us for the interview?

54:48

I said yeah and plus I was looking

54:50

for solutions. You know I started working a lot much

54:53

more on the part-times because my wife

54:55

is pregnant. So I was thinking again about

54:57

physical work. More physical work will

54:59

bring us more money. That was my

55:02

understanding

55:03

and I wasn't ever thinking to be an entrepreneur

55:05

because my father was an entrepreneur and

55:08

unfortunately unsuccessful. Unfortunately

55:10

and for me it was being an entrepreneur it's

55:12

like the worst thing which could happen for

55:15

person. So I have to be a manager

55:17

somewhere. I have to grow up to the head of

55:19

the department and I will be great in terms

55:22

of income and I will love my life but

55:24

it is not the case.

55:26

In Dubai unfortunately there is everywhere

55:29

people are lying. So I

55:31

went to interview. It was the hardest interview

55:33

ever which I had. It was the hardest

55:36

one but because I was so hungry

55:38

and desperate because of my wife's pregnancy

55:41

I passed that interview super

55:43

easy. But the secret is there

55:45

was only nationalities. Filipinos,

55:49

Indian people and Pakistani

55:52

people and Arabic people. No Europeans

55:55

and here I am European

55:56

and they like they took

55:58

me but they took me because of how

56:00

great the interview passed because they were asking

56:03

me such difficult questions, which is like,

56:05

usually people are going to be lost. But

56:07

I was like so straight to

56:10

all the answers and it was actually funny, but

56:12

super, super hard one.

56:14

Real quick, what were some of the questions? Can you remember?

56:16

Technical questions were like, I'm not an

56:18

engineer. It was engineering work. I mean, salesperson,

56:21

but selling engineering stuff. And they

56:23

were asking me somehow, I'm going to be learning that,

56:25

especially in English. But there was as well

56:27

questions like, to put you in difficult

56:30

situation, how you're going to deal if you're going

56:32

to be in front of the oil company

56:34

CEO, what you're going to be saying if the

56:36

contract is XYZ and he

56:39

decided to go with another company. And

56:41

there was several, sorry, and at the end, the head

56:43

of sales department, he was my first mentor.

56:45

He became my first mentor.

56:46

His name is Mr. Hamza. And

56:49

that moment, he has a huge

56:51

humor mindset, you know? He's

56:53

a humor guy. And he asked me,

56:55

are you touching your dick when

56:57

you're alone? On

57:00

interview. I

57:03

was not expecting that question.

57:06

I was so peaceful.

57:09

And I said, of course, you know. And

57:12

we start laughing and he moved deeper

57:15

in some kind of other questions. And how

57:17

are you doing that? You know, he's asking me. So

57:20

what's the point of that? Actually, it's not a

57:22

healthy interview, I would say. But he

57:24

was checking how

57:25

good you are in the stressful position.

57:28

Because when you are dealing with the high

57:30

paid managers or even

57:33

sales of the companies, which I supposed

57:35

to visit, which I have to arrange

57:37

a meeting with and to present the gas

57:39

company, it's not like selling lamps

57:42

or chairs or whatever. It's selling

57:44

the gas, you know, gas

57:47

supply.

57:48

And he was trying to see how I'm

57:50

going to be dealing in case of the stressful

57:53

situation. In other words, I

57:55

passed the interview and salary was 1000 extra. So it was.

57:59

Still super low. I like

58:02

gas company. Why is it so low?

58:04

But they promised to me, that's what I

58:06

was saying about Dubai. They promised to me that

58:08

at the end of the year, it was April, 2017. At

58:11

the end of the year, if you close deals,

58:13

you will get commission from the sales

58:16

because you are in the sales.

58:17

And tell to my wife that I'm

58:20

going to be changing the work. And here my babe,

58:22

here is going to be everything changed. I'm in gas company

58:24

from now on. Like it's only high, high,

58:26

high, higher and higher to another companies

58:29

and so on. And higher income, but

58:31

my income grow only from 1k. It's

58:33

still less than minimum. I

58:36

said, it will be commission. You have to go

58:38

to Ukraine. Let's deliver the baby in

58:40

Ukraine. And it was difficult.

58:43

My wife started hating me that I

58:45

made this decision,

58:46

but it was necessary. At the

58:49

beginning of summer, I brought her to Ukraine.

58:52

It was pregnancy months five, I

58:54

believe.

58:55

And I moved from this room with Filipino

58:57

people, two bedroom apartments with

59:00

seven people inside. Seven people

59:02

inside and two bedroom apartments. I rented

59:05

the bed space. This bed space

59:07

become my educational

59:09

place because this is from where I

59:11

start changing myself. So

59:14

my wife in Ukraine, she quite hate

59:16

me

59:17

for everything. What was happening

59:19

because she's alone pregnant.

59:22

When it's in parents house, she feel embarrassed

59:24

because in parents house, in her age

59:27

pregnant, her husband far away,

59:30

no money.

59:31

But I said to her, I will do whatever it

59:33

takes while I'm here alone to save

59:35

as much as I can.

59:36

And I finally read the book,

59:38

Rich Dad, Poor Dad,

59:40

Robert Tiyosaki.

59:42

And that's changed my mind forever

59:44

that entrepreneurship investments

59:48

is something that is must go

59:50

through and employment. It

59:53

won't make me reach

59:55

the goals, which is I'm looking for. And plus

59:57

in the gas company, I already like start work.

1:00:00

I start delivering results and I start seeing first

1:00:02

disappointments that all the promises which I

1:00:04

get in an interview are not exist,

1:00:07

are really worth fake. And in Dubai,

1:00:09

this is working like that. If you want signed it

1:00:11

on the papers, what has been promised, you

1:00:13

will get screwed. They can promise you a

1:00:15

lot, but if it's not on the paper, they will

1:00:18

screw you. And usually, they are like promises,

1:00:20

promises, but at the end, when it's time coming,

1:00:22

they are like, who told you? I don't

1:00:24

want to go up on that, but yeah,

1:00:27

that's the rule of Dubai, which I learned

1:00:29

from myself.

1:00:31

That's important because I mean, every culture is different.

1:00:33

So there are certain cultures where they'll fuck

1:00:35

you and promise you certain things.

1:00:37

And there's other ones, like maybe

1:00:40

Asian cultures or some other ones where it's like a handshake

1:00:42

deal, right? Or I don't know specifically,

1:00:44

but even country or region. If I travel

1:00:47

to some certain countries like in Southeast

1:00:49

Asia, there are certain people always trying to rip you

1:00:51

off. But if I go to maybe like a European

1:00:54

country or something like that, it's not the same

1:00:56

culture. So it's like understanding that everything's

1:00:58

different. And unfortunately, you learn that

1:01:00

as you go.

1:01:01

Yeah, you're right about the cultures.

1:01:03

And I don't want to say anything personal to anyone.

1:01:06

Believe me, guys, it's not about that. It's

1:01:08

about UAE in general, the place where

1:01:11

there are a lot of cultures together

1:01:13

in the same place over the world. And

1:01:16

everyone

1:01:17

just lying. I mean, if

1:01:19

it's not on the paper, it's became

1:01:21

like a rule. If you didn't sign out

1:01:23

on the paper, that those words doesn't mean

1:01:25

nothing.

1:01:26

And it's usually so strong, those words,

1:01:29

so believable, so sweet that

1:01:31

you're like, no, it makes sense. Especially when some

1:01:33

particular person told me.

1:01:35

And Hamza, Mr. Hamza, my

1:01:37

sales manager, he was really

1:01:39

a person of the world. And he said to

1:01:41

me, and I trust him. But when

1:01:44

I read the poor dad, rich dad,

1:01:46

and plus in the same time, I have seen

1:01:49

how rude the CEO

1:01:51

of the company were firing

1:01:53

this head of sales department.

1:01:56

I realized that being a manager

1:01:58

in some company, it's...

1:01:59

super unpleasurable.

1:02:02

I mean, the person who worked, he was the

1:02:04

number one guy in Pakistan in sales department

1:02:07

in the bank sector. He went here

1:02:09

in the gas company in Dubai, worked

1:02:11

for five years, built the sales department,

1:02:14

made them millions and millions of dollars to

1:02:16

that company. And he made incredible

1:02:18

results. He was having so much plans,

1:02:21

so much things. But just because

1:02:23

he was always argue with the son of

1:02:26

the CEO, which is was

1:02:28

CEO of the company. Because

1:02:31

of that, they fired him like

1:02:33

a dog. Five years, the guy

1:02:35

was working five years, he had four

1:02:37

kids and fifths kid burn

1:02:39

in November in autumn has

1:02:41

been delivered and they fired him

1:02:44

exactly when deliver happened.

1:02:46

They left him on the street without notice period

1:02:49

without nothing. Like it was 5 30 p.m. they

1:02:52

call him secretary calling him in the another

1:02:54

office of the CEO. He going out of his

1:02:57

office and the secretary taking out the

1:02:59

laptop in front of us, closing shutting

1:03:01

down the door to sales guy

1:03:03

office. And that's it. This is the

1:03:06

how they fire him. After five years,

1:03:08

the guy was living there 5 a.m. he

1:03:10

was at work 11 p.m. he was living

1:03:13

and it was five years he was doing

1:03:15

incredible job. And for me it was the biggest

1:03:17

life lesson that you

1:03:19

can be on the street in one shot no

1:03:22

matter what. But on that moment, I already

1:03:24

knew that I'm going to be an entrepreneur. I already

1:03:26

was disappointed about everything. And

1:03:29

so like three times a week, part times at

1:03:31

night when I'm in the gas company

1:03:33

during the day at night, I'm in some villas

1:03:35

or nightclubs. And then when

1:03:38

I read the book starting from

1:03:40

zero, there was simple explanation

1:03:43

about the advertising

1:03:45

on Facebook.

1:03:46

Like how to start dropshipping business

1:03:48

with the Facebook ads by investing

1:03:51

only $100. Obviously, I didn't believe in

1:03:55

that BS, $100 only,

1:03:58

but what I believe it's

1:03:59

is in the system. I mean Facebook

1:04:02

advertising. Wait, wait, wait, what?

1:04:05

On Facebook platform, it's not that's it.

1:04:08

There is something behind and behind it's a business

1:04:10

manager, which is you just locate all the

1:04:12

ads, rather targeting people,

1:04:15

finding out different target things, investing

1:04:17

money, getting paid from it and so on.

1:04:19

Like, whoa,

1:04:20

what AliExpress, I can

1:04:22

sell the items without even seeing that item.

1:04:25

Drop shipping model. When I read that

1:04:27

book, I just like it was 180 pages.

1:04:30

Friday morning, I done that in a matter

1:04:33

of like less than two hours I

1:04:35

read all the book. I was so excited. I

1:04:37

was just consuming every single page

1:04:39

and I said to myself, this is what

1:04:41

I'm going to be doing till the end of my life. It

1:04:44

was the clearest moment in my life, what

1:04:47

I'm going to be doing

1:04:48

from now on.

1:04:50

I don't know how, I don't know when,

1:04:52

but I will get the results. August 2017, middle

1:04:54

of August. And I

1:04:57

start studying, or as I was just mentioning,

1:05:00

beginning YouTubers, several

1:05:02

YouTubers, oh my God, in YouTube so

1:05:04

much content. Before I was watching

1:05:07

YouTube, Grant Cardone for the inspiration,

1:05:09

Guy E. V. for inspiration, and it was helping

1:05:11

me out to be honest moving forward because I was

1:05:14

failing every single time when I'm doing something.

1:05:16

But they will help me out to be

1:05:18

motivated, yeah? Plus, sales studies

1:05:20

from Grant Cardone.

1:05:22

And I understand that, oh my God,

1:05:24

in YouTube, in Google, or in Facebook,

1:05:26

in Facebook, there are so many groups where

1:05:29

people are sharing their skills

1:05:32

just for free. I wasn't believing,

1:05:34

I was trying to explain to my wife, through Skype, listen

1:05:37

babe, here it is, this is how it

1:05:39

works, it is scum. Because

1:05:41

in Ukraine, if you are successful,

1:05:44

people will never share their success

1:05:47

formula. They will be hired because

1:05:50

everyone's scared that you will steal from them.

1:05:52

This is the mentality of Russians, Ukrainians

1:05:55

from USSR. People

1:05:57

were, 1990s, worked, made

1:05:59

breaking their wealth and

1:06:02

never ever sharing it with anyone. But

1:06:07

what I found out in the US

1:06:10

side, everyone is sharing and

1:06:12

you are becoming more successful and

1:06:16

wealthier just by sharing with other people

1:06:19

and even selling that information to other

1:06:21

people. Which is fine,

1:06:23

and nobody was believing me. Everyone was telling

1:06:25

me it's a scam. Because

1:06:28

guys, if someone is Ukrainian listening, I believe

1:06:29

you would understand what I mean.

1:06:31

But for me, I was the only one who

1:06:33

started opening for myself USA

1:06:37

mentality in terms of business.

1:06:40

Because I never thought that people can share

1:06:42

something. So I started asking questions

1:06:44

there in the groups. I started

1:06:46

reading a lot of strategies, posts, but

1:06:49

I didn't know what I'm doing. And I have

1:06:51

some savings. And I

1:06:53

created my store, mykittycatzzone.com.

1:06:57

29th of September, it goes

1:06:59

live, 2017. And

1:07:01

first ads at the beginning of October

1:07:04

has been launched. So October, November,

1:07:06

December, I lost all

1:07:09

the savings. Like in October, I

1:07:11

already, in the first launch, I

1:07:13

like waste so much. And all the savings,

1:07:16

like I would tell you, I lost approximately $6,000.

1:07:19

And for me, that moment, it

1:07:21

was incredible amount. I never had $6,000

1:07:24

in my pocket, never before. And

1:07:26

that was six months of basically salary from the other

1:07:28

place, right? Exactly. Like,

1:07:31

yeah. In that time, I was making maybe

1:07:33

1.5K, but I was paying for the apartment.

1:07:35

You know, I was paying for the living. In restaurant,

1:07:38

I wasn't paying for anything almost. So

1:07:40

that's why that income was staying with you. So

1:07:43

the main point, yeah, $6,000, it's

1:07:45

part-time, set night, tips,

1:07:47

you know, all the things. I was collecting everything.

1:07:49

And my wife was saying, please, by delivery,

1:07:52

it was October 2017, by delivery, come back

1:07:55

to us. I said, I won't come back, but I will come

1:07:57

for delivery. And in gas company, it was

1:08:00

another story that they were not allowed

1:08:02

me to go because I'm not working six months

1:08:04

in the company yet. You should work minimum

1:08:06

six months to be able to go somewhere. But

1:08:08

this is what I was saying about Mr. Hamza. He

1:08:11

was my mentor. He was

1:08:13

teaching me what's important in life.

1:08:16

It's a family and why and how

1:08:18

to deal with. And he is the

1:08:20

head of the sales department in the company. He

1:08:22

was saying,

1:08:23

if I will do everything for you to make

1:08:25

it happen that you will be able to go

1:08:28

to delivery of your baby because they

1:08:30

catch your baby, take it on

1:08:32

your hands on the first minute of his

1:08:35

life, nothing could be comparable.

1:08:37

You shouldn't miss that. But I said,

1:08:39

how I would go, you are not allowed me to go.

1:08:42

They are not allowed me to go. How I will go. And

1:08:44

he explained to me,

1:08:46

do you fucking matter what I'm thinking

1:08:48

or other people thinking?

1:08:50

I just described to you what's really matter.

1:08:52

Do you think they will fire you when you come back?

1:08:55

Or even if they fire you? Do you think you won't find

1:08:57

another job? And I was like, wow,

1:09:00

that's fucking strong. He's my manager. He

1:09:02

shouldn't say that. But he's a real man.

1:09:05

He teach me something important what

1:09:07

from that moment I'm following and all what's really

1:09:10

important and matter in life. And

1:09:12

I went, I said, I don't know guys, if you're

1:09:14

not allowed me, but I'm still going. It's up to you.

1:09:16

Accept it or deny it. And I left.

1:09:19

I left and I borrow money from friends

1:09:21

for this flight ticket. But my wife didn't know

1:09:24

because I already waste almost everything

1:09:27

in the first months of

1:09:30

our income. Actually I

1:09:32

didn't have 6k on the moment. It was like

1:09:34

a couple of K and after that delivery

1:09:36

happened. I promised to my I was super excited.

1:09:39

I paid to one guy $300 from UK. He

1:09:42

will be handle my ads. He scum

1:09:45

me. So he got paid and disappeared.

1:09:47

You know, it was my first scam experience. I

1:09:50

like shit. I said to my wife

1:09:52

smiling, you know, everything is great. I

1:09:54

have a business idea and she like, what kind of business

1:09:56

idea? You're not businessman. I said,

1:09:58

believe me, everything will go.

1:09:59

be great.

1:10:01

And I take care of my

1:10:03

son, I take care of her, and coming

1:10:05

back in beginning of November to Dubai,

1:10:08

they obviously accept

1:10:10

that I left. They said, never do

1:10:13

that anymore. I said fine. That

1:10:15

was the reason. And I start working

1:10:18

even harder because I waste so much money.

1:10:20

I have no money from the trip. I have

1:10:22

already owned the ads or burned

1:10:24

it a lot. Plus my friend, I

1:10:27

own him money for a trip. And I take

1:10:29

in credit card and decide to

1:10:31

invest in the crypto. If you remember 2017,

1:10:34

November, crypto time, when

1:10:37

it started coming to 1000 and so up, up, and

1:10:40

up. So I

1:10:42

invest in crypto, mining, and

1:10:44

start working on the part-times

1:10:47

seven days a week. I have got five

1:10:50

different jobs during

1:10:52

the days. Gas company, 7.30 till 5.30

1:10:56

p.m. After that, one

1:10:58

day it could be private dinner in the villa. Another

1:11:01

day waiter in the bar. Another

1:11:03

day night club. Another day

1:11:05

it could be private villa dinner. And after that

1:11:07

night club, after that Friday

1:11:09

Saturday, it's usually weekend. Now

1:11:11

they changed it, but before Friday Saturday, it was

1:11:14

a weekend for UAE. So

1:11:16

Friday, during the day in the private

1:11:18

villa, in the evening, I'm on some

1:11:20

restaurant as a waiter. I just got

1:11:22

a lot of networking from the part-time

1:11:25

space where I start working on stop. And

1:11:27

plus I have got in Bollywood

1:11:30

possibilities to make a shooting

1:11:32

Bollywood movies in Arabic

1:11:35

ads for the bank sector,

1:11:37

for some different sectors. And

1:11:39

I start making a good money. I mean, I

1:11:41

start making around $3,000

1:11:43

or 2.5 something like that.

1:11:45

And I was wasting all of them,

1:11:48

all of them in the ads. I just getting

1:11:50

paid and I'm just throwing that back

1:11:53

in the ads and don't know what I'm doing.

1:11:55

And the thing is that I invest from

1:11:57

credit cards to the crypto. My

1:11:59

wife doesn't know that and obviously

1:12:02

she would kill me at that moment. She's asking

1:12:04

me every single time, come back, come back and

1:12:06

I said no because first of all, I was

1:12:08

embarrassed after five years in Dubai, I have

1:12:11

zero dollars in my pocket and

1:12:13

I'm making good money and nothing is left because

1:12:15

I'm just investing in debts and got

1:12:17

only one or two sales in

1:12:19

total. And

1:12:22

it was really hard. The thing

1:12:24

is that I'm going to work 7.30, 5.30 I'm

1:12:27

finishing, I'm going to some part-time and

1:12:30

I'm coming back home from 12 to 2 a.m.

1:12:34

And after that I sit down with the laptop and

1:12:36

watching YouTube videos and studying

1:12:39

Facebook algorithms and going to

1:12:41

sleep around 5 and 7.30 again

1:12:44

I'm at work. Few days during

1:12:46

that period of time, few days I

1:12:48

slept only 40 minutes. To be honest

1:12:50

with you, it's possible

1:12:52

but it was a fucked up life

1:12:55

journey for me.

1:12:56

I was a zombie and I was saving on the food,

1:12:59

I was having breakfast, a cookie

1:13:01

for one dirham which is 30 cents. It's

1:13:03

full of sugar, flavor and

1:13:05

nothing else. I was having a breakfast

1:13:08

with that cookie because it's only one dirham

1:13:10

by saving on the ads. I

1:13:12

had the food on lunch in the cheapest,

1:13:15

ugliest restaurants for a couple

1:13:17

of dirhams like 1.5 bucks to

1:13:20

eat some curry, some Indian food,

1:13:22

Pakistani food. For me, I was

1:13:24

paying the price to be able to

1:13:26

reinvest. I get a salary, I'm directly

1:13:29

investing in Facebook. So actually all

1:13:31

that investment, it was during all

1:13:33

the time since I launched the ads

1:13:36

from October and so on. And

1:13:39

main thing is happening like December,

1:13:41

my wife saying to me, you have to come back. I

1:13:44

said no, I lost everything what I already

1:13:46

made. There is a Christmas time, there

1:13:48

is a lot of part-times, I'm busy,

1:13:50

I'm not sleeping. She said, you're like a zombie.

1:13:53

I said, believe me, I'm doing what I have to, there

1:13:55

is everything great but nothing is great. Everything

1:13:57

is awful, everything is so ugly. I

1:14:01

lost myself, I was like a zombie inside

1:14:03

as well. Two times I almost had a

1:14:05

car crash just because I was slept

1:14:08

during the driving.

1:14:09

Two times I almost got

1:14:11

an accident on the highway. Always

1:14:14

during back home I was so exhausted

1:14:17

that few times I got to sleep on

1:14:19

the highway.

1:14:19

And my friends were telling

1:14:22

me stop it, don't do that. It doesn't work

1:14:24

like what you're doing. I was not listening to anyone

1:14:26

because I know that I'm going to be that one person

1:14:29

who's going to succeed, who's going to make it happen.

1:14:32

So when did it start happening? So

1:14:34

yeah, January and middle

1:14:36

of January I'm finding out amazing

1:14:39

news.

1:14:41

2018, I'm receiving

1:14:44

a call from already my friends. I already

1:14:47

got a couple of friends around the e-commerce

1:14:49

community where I was online, you know.

1:14:52

And one friend is co-estined since that moment

1:14:54

we are best friends. I mean, he was in UK

1:14:56

that moment now he live in the US. I

1:14:59

was visiting him and his wife in US

1:15:01

last year. So we finally met each

1:15:04

other offline. His name is NEX. One

1:15:06

of the best people who I ever met online.

1:15:09

So guys, don't be scared to speak with people

1:15:11

online. Sometimes you can meet their your

1:15:13

business partners, which is I met as well, which

1:15:16

is I will tell direct bit later. And plus

1:15:18

you can meet great friends for

1:15:20

the future. And that person actually

1:15:23

pushed me for the crypto investment. We invest

1:15:26

together in the mining company

1:15:28

and he called me Anatoly. Sorry, but

1:15:31

they run away. I

1:15:33

said, who the company where we

1:15:35

invested and I invested $3,000 from credit card. So

1:15:38

I have no money. I already own here and

1:15:40

there. And plus I to use

1:15:42

the credit card money to make

1:15:45

something from the crypto. And he's saying

1:15:47

to me that Anatoly. Sorry,

1:15:49

but we we lost everything. And

1:15:52

plus he's the person who if he's giving the

1:15:54

bad news, he's giving the worst

1:15:57

news ever. So he make it that even

1:15:59

stronger. You know what? A couple

1:16:01

of people today suicide because

1:16:03

of that. I like, what the fuck? Why you telling

1:16:05

me that? I was

1:16:07

already destroyed. I remember I was

1:16:10

on the middle of the office, staying in

1:16:12

the suit, in the tie, in the classic

1:16:14

shoes, you know, looks like successful

1:16:17

guy in some company. On the middle

1:16:20

of corridor, he telling me next

1:16:22

to the toilet, I'm staying and he telling me that

1:16:24

we fucked and some people made a suicide

1:16:27

because they lost everything. And I

1:16:29

understanding that I lost even more

1:16:31

than everything. I have nothing

1:16:34

at all and now I have to cover credit

1:16:36

card and I promise to my wife that I will

1:16:38

come back to Ukraine at the beginning of spring,

1:16:40

but I have nothing to come back with

1:16:43

and now I have even credit loan, you

1:16:45

know, which I have to cover. I just stay

1:16:47

on the middle of the corridor and say to

1:16:49

myself, if you're going to be crying, it

1:16:52

won't work out. But if you decide

1:16:54

to move forward, you'll figure it out. And

1:16:56

nothing was working for me that moment. And

1:16:59

I just came back home, left my phone in

1:17:01

the room and decided to walk.

1:17:04

And I was walking till night, walking,

1:17:06

walking without the phone, just walking. And

1:17:08

went back home and slept. I'll go

1:17:10

to sleep. No work, nothing, just sleep.

1:17:13

And next morning, that's the thing. This

1:17:15

is moment when people are quitting. When they

1:17:18

decided that everything's so bad, they start crying,

1:17:20

fell down and not standing out.

1:17:23

I decided that there is no reason to cry because there

1:17:25

is no way back. I just stand up

1:17:28

and in next week, I found

1:17:30

out by somehow the guy who was always

1:17:32

so online in Facebook, but I

1:17:34

wasn't looking on him because his prices were expensive.

1:17:37

$100 a month, $100 a month

1:17:40

and I will be analyzing your ad accounts. I

1:17:42

like no fucking way, $100 a

1:17:44

month. No fucking

1:17:47

way. It's too expensive. It's funny.

1:17:50

At least for me, it's super funny. But

1:17:52

I saw his ad only now till

1:17:54

end of January. If you join, it

1:17:56

will be $47 per month. I

1:17:59

like $47 per month. It's like 150 dirhams. I

1:18:02

can afford it. Let's get it chance.

1:18:04

I have another 300 bucks left for

1:18:07

the ads. Let's do it. And 29

1:18:10

of January I joined his program and

1:18:12

in 15 days I met my first $8,000 with

1:18:14

my store. In

1:18:18

the first 15 days. It's incredible. Just

1:18:20

because he was pointing out what should I

1:18:22

do. I was in the right moment,

1:18:25

in the right place. After I decided

1:18:27

I won't be quit, I found out something

1:18:30

what was gold

1:18:31

in mine. I failed after that a lot of

1:18:33

times, but that was different

1:18:34

fails. That was business

1:18:37

fails. But I already understood

1:18:39

that it's possible that I can

1:18:42

generate income from e-commerce.

1:18:45

It was profitable $8,000 in my store. It

1:18:48

was incredible. My first winning product was

1:18:51

t-shirt with the pocket and

1:18:53

in the pocket is the kitty. When you

1:18:55

just move pocket down, the

1:18:57

kitty is showing you middle finger. It

1:19:00

was kind of funny t-shirt which

1:19:02

gives emotions for purchasers.

1:19:05

That was my first winning product. Then

1:19:08

in September 2018, I'm

1:19:11

coming back to Ukraine and I had

1:19:13

already a lot of feedback about

1:19:15

my work from social media. That's

1:19:17

what I mentioned before that people start texting

1:19:20

to me. I was sharing all my journey, all my fails.

1:19:22

Remember that when I started getting results, all my results

1:19:24

and how I got those results. People

1:19:27

started reaching out to me and I got one person who

1:19:29

was kind of my friend from the same mastermind.

1:19:31

He said, let's have a call. In September,

1:19:34

we had a call and he had a store which was

1:19:36

generating but failed. He said,

1:19:38

you have skills in Facebook and I love to

1:19:40

manage the store. Let's be a partner. I'm

1:19:42

going to be managing the store and you're going to be managing the Facebook

1:19:44

ads. That was the really

1:19:46

changing moment. Before that, I was making like 1000 a

1:19:49

week or something like that during

1:19:52

the summer. But when we

1:19:54

decided to work together in October, I got

1:19:57

another mastermind, another mentorship.

1:20:00

got our first $50,000

1:20:02

together in his store. After

1:20:05

that $150,000 by end of December, middle of

1:20:08

December, and after that March, $250,000 recorded

1:20:10

months in that moment. And as I said, there

1:20:16

was another different business owner

1:20:18

fails, but we get

1:20:21

so much success that by

1:20:23

middle of 2019, I got from my

1:20:25

mentor the plug of seven

1:20:28

figures made online

1:20:30

through Shopify Store. We made our

1:20:32

first million, which was for me something

1:20:34

unreal when I was trying just to

1:20:37

imagine it. And I got it in

1:20:39

a matter of one and a half years

1:20:41

since I started.

1:20:42

And it was only in my opinion an

1:20:44

important moment that I said to

1:20:46

myself, no matter what, I will

1:20:49

continue until I will

1:20:51

get results.

1:20:53

That's my message to everyone that you

1:20:55

must fight and promise

1:20:57

to yourself that you won't quit if you want, if

1:20:59

you really want, because I have a strong

1:21:02

why. My why was it's my

1:21:04

son. I have to bring

1:21:07

what I promise different financial situation

1:21:09

to my family for my son. And

1:21:11

my wife why was so strong

1:21:14

that I made it happen.

1:21:16

And then everything went by itself.

1:21:18

Successful stores, we did a lot

1:21:20

of requests for the mentorship for management

1:21:23

and we decided to move to the agency space.

1:21:25

So that quite long story short.

1:21:29

I'd say long story long, but that's fine. That's

1:21:32

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1:23:25

I really apologize if it was too long,

1:23:28

but believe me, it's maximum short as I could

1:23:30

share. And guys and girls, if you're

1:23:32

still listening to us, first of

1:23:34

all, I appreciate you and all

1:23:36

the tossing that he gives me time to

1:23:39

share that. But if you're still listening,

1:23:41

you are that kind of person who really

1:23:43

need to hear that you are

1:23:46

a person who's looking for the answers. And

1:23:48

it doesn't matter if you already went seven

1:23:51

figure maker, eight figure maker, but you

1:23:53

stuck remind yourself why

1:23:56

you start doing that. And then all

1:23:58

the things what.

1:23:59

or hold it you back, won't

1:24:02

be matter anymore for you.

1:24:03

That's what actually I remind myself time

1:24:05

to time, because all of us sometimes we are

1:24:08

stuck on the same level.

1:24:09

Or if you are in the beginning of your journey

1:24:12

and trying to get from scratch, believe

1:24:14

me, that's a huge thing for you to

1:24:16

remind yourself. And I think

1:24:18

from your story, it's that I kept trying

1:24:20

to let you roll, is that you just

1:24:22

didn't really give up on all these other things. So it's

1:24:24

like, if I'm ever thinking about something

1:24:27

and like, I need to put an extra hour or two

1:24:29

today to get something done on my business

1:24:32

or next business, I can think of, oh, well,

1:24:34

this motherfucker who I just listened to was

1:24:37

sleeping an hour a day for weeks in

1:24:40

a different country, why is wife somewhere else? And

1:24:43

you slept in a two bedroom place with

1:24:45

seven or eight people. It's not that hard

1:24:47

if I need to work an extra hour or two today to try

1:24:49

to make my dreams come true. So

1:24:52

that's why I always find the type of stories

1:24:54

like you have super inspirational, especially

1:24:57

when you have to battle through so much more than I

1:24:59

think a lot of people do.

1:25:00

Yeah, to be honest with you, that's

1:25:03

for me, a real example when

1:25:05

something is struggling, the business coming or in

1:25:07

life for me, I'm just trying to remember that

1:25:09

year. It was a year actually. We

1:25:11

won't go deeper, but it was a year

1:25:14

since August 17 till August 18,

1:25:17

a year of roller coaster and hard

1:25:19

work and no sleep and

1:25:22

I like, fuck it, I have to do it.

1:25:24

What is the main thing when you think you're looking back

1:25:27

on anyone who's listening now, what

1:25:30

they can learn? Do you feel like you got lucky that you found this, it

1:25:32

sounded like one guy who was offering a cheaper

1:25:34

thing that you could afford and then finally

1:25:36

invested in it? The work ethic really stands

1:25:38

out to me, but I'm just trying to think what else people

1:25:41

could learn from your story here.

1:25:42

Yeah, I have exact message about

1:25:44

that. Never look for the cheapest thing. Never

1:25:47

wait for the cheapest thing. You know, what

1:25:50

does it mean that cheaper offer for me

1:25:52

in that moment? If you're the person

1:25:55

who never quit and you set

1:25:57

up your goal and decided do not quit,

1:25:59

no matter.

1:25:59

or what and believe me sometimes

1:26:02

it's so hard like I lost everything

1:26:04

and instead I had to go cry and

1:26:06

quit because it's logically right

1:26:09

to quit and do not move forward

1:26:11

because you're already in deep shit

1:26:13

but if you are that

1:26:15

kind of strong person and you're gonna be

1:26:17

overtake all the underwater

1:26:20

stones all the fails and difficulties

1:26:23

and stop failing to yourself that you are

1:26:25

the luckiest person in the world instead

1:26:27

of that going to be focusing on the result this

1:26:30

kind of cheap offers or

1:26:32

in another words right offers

1:26:34

right people right opportunities

1:26:36

right doors gonna be

1:26:39

open in front of you but if

1:26:41

you're gonna be sit down and just

1:26:43

waiting

1:26:44

then something best coming to you

1:26:46

it will never ever come so

1:26:49

that's why the main message here

1:26:51

it's not about the cheapest thing or wait

1:26:54

for something it's about never

1:26:56

quit and you will get what

1:26:58

you want by somehow which is you couldn't

1:27:01

even believe that it could be happen

1:27:03

in our agency when we have some troubles

1:27:06

always the number one message we

1:27:08

are going to manage that and that's it

1:27:10

we have only one setup in our brand we

1:27:12

are going to manage that and doesn't matter how

1:27:14

difficult it is doesn't matter that war happened

1:27:17

and half of our team was under the war

1:27:20

under the shell we are fucking manage

1:27:22

that guys and after that we

1:27:24

just set up the brain and move forward so

1:27:26

that's why and doors are start opening you

1:27:29

know they're not when the next door will be open in front

1:27:31

of you

1:27:32

I'm just being proactive like you kept showing

1:27:34

like all those other things how many things did not work

1:27:36

out finally one did but again

1:27:38

if you're one listening and you know even

1:27:41

what we talked about in the beginning if you're trying

1:27:43

to go after ten different gurus at once it's not

1:27:45

gonna be you have to do something so at least you're

1:27:47

always trying something or we're doing something

1:27:49

so

1:27:50

taking that from you had the work ethic

1:27:52

to keep doing it and sure there's days you

1:27:54

cried or you're like am I doing the right thing

1:27:56

you know all of us have that so if you have that now

1:27:59

too

1:27:59

It's understandable, but

1:28:01

maybe you take a break for the rest of the day and you come back

1:28:03

and try to attack the next day. Like you said, one night

1:28:05

when you just kept walking around. It's

1:28:07

important. Yeah, you need those breaks sometimes.

1:28:10

Just

1:28:11

vent and relax and reset and just trust

1:28:13

your instinct that you're doing the right thing.

1:28:15

Yeah. By the way, great books

1:28:17

would really help, in my opinion, what

1:28:19

helped me. It was 10x

1:28:22

rule, Grand Cardone, Be Obsessed or

1:28:24

Be Average, Grand Cardone. Those

1:28:26

two books were really pushing me further.

1:28:29

When nothing was working,

1:28:31

it was just mentioning it, make one

1:28:33

more thing.

1:28:33

I mean, when you're like, I have to

1:28:36

stop, make one more. It was a big

1:28:38

pusher for me. Well, thank you for sharing all those

1:28:40

different types of resources. Sometimes

1:28:43

you find these, quote unquote, gurus. Sometimes

1:28:46

I'm into Gary Vee, sometimes I'm not, but those types of people.

1:28:48

My thing is, sometimes if you're on

1:28:50

the edge of feeling so

1:28:52

down, you don't know if you should keep going. I

1:28:54

think people, even with the, they have good energy regardless.

1:28:57

I think you can't really debate that, that pushes

1:29:00

you, that sometimes you need that little extra

1:29:02

motivation and maybe that's kind of what you got

1:29:03

from them too. But thank you so much for sharing

1:29:06

those resources. I guess, you said

1:29:08

there's a podcast, I guess, that people want to

1:29:10

hear more about your story. You're telling

1:29:12

me, I guess, right beforehand that it hadn't been published

1:29:14

yet, but we'll have a link to it at the end

1:29:16

of the episode notes. Well, thank you again for

1:29:18

coming on, sharing your story. And

1:29:21

I think it was fantastic. I think if any of us are feeling,

1:29:23

I'm motivated or feeling like we did a

1:29:25

lot today, I think if we hear your story,

1:29:28

it'll make me think about, okay, well, I didn't

1:29:30

have to do anything you've ever had to do in your basically

1:29:32

whole life as far as like work ethic. So

1:29:35

I think I can put in an extra hour or two to make my

1:29:37

dreams come true as well. So thanks for coming

1:29:39

on. What's the best way for someone to reach you and say thank

1:29:41

you for doing the interview?

1:29:43

Yeah. One of the best ways

1:29:45

where I'm personally can answer it in the DMs

1:29:47

of Instagram, which is

1:29:49

Piccom by Anatoly,

1:29:52

my Instara nickname.

1:29:53

And there you can ask any kind of questions.

1:29:56

You can see all our stories, highlights from

1:29:58

the past results for the past.

1:31:55

ask

1:32:00

an expert question. So I

1:32:02

tried to compare my group calls. I started joining

1:32:04

random entrepreneur groups and just joining

1:32:07

their group calls then try to see what they're like. Dude,

1:32:09

the one you were on and all of them have kind of gone

1:32:11

that way. They're all 10X better than any

1:32:14

other group I've been in because

1:32:16

become a member to find out.

1:32:20

So with Patreon, I heard it many times

1:32:22

cause you have that many episodes of sign

1:32:24

up. So that's always in the back of mind. But then

1:32:27

I checked it out a few times and I was

1:32:29

like, do I really want to do this? So I'll

1:32:31

push it off a little bit. And then you posted

1:32:34

your goal achievement of 69

1:32:36

Patreon members. And I was like, you know what

1:32:39

better time than now? Originally

1:32:41

I was going to go for the lower one than $9

1:32:43

a month. But one, I want to have the conversation

1:32:45

with you. But two, I always find

1:32:47

that anytime I cheap out, I always

1:32:50

find that I want to return it and upgrade

1:32:52

to what I really, really wanted. So

1:32:55

that's why I'm paying the higher one, if

1:32:57

that makes sense. But it was just

1:32:59

constantly pushing it off, pushing it off.

1:33:02

And then I would just say, fuck it. I

1:33:04

already listened to all of them, so why not?