#37 - Mastering Amazon FBA

Ever think your side-hustle could become a million-dollar company? Paul Anderson (@paul_d_andersen) did. Today on My First Million, we sit down with Paul who quit his 9-to-5 to focus on his Amazon FBA and how his passion became a full-blown multi-million dollar company. Side hustles, getting ‘em out there, increasing your profits, credit lines and more this week! Also, go sub to his new personal finance newsletter: https://wealthfam.com/newsletter/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  I built and sold an Amazon FBA business.

• 0:06Speaker 00

  For me, no VC money, no employees. I was working full-time. I started with 5,000 bucks in my little Chromebook. Building on the back of Amazon, I mean, it has this risk, we can talk about that, but it also has this huge scale and leverage that you can generate.

• 0:21Speaker 00

  Alright, I got the great first product. This is gonna be awesome. Look for enough demand, but not so much competition. Done all my product research and I sourced it out of China. I get this logo off of Fiverr, like, I feel like alright, I got the right pieces in place. And I get it in, I launch it, and it is a total fail. I got burned so bad the first time. I'm hurting because I do not want to stay in the career of midnight. So I'm feeling like so much is riding on this and it's just gotta work. And once I got a little taste of it, it was like, okay, now it's on.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  That first year paid almost six figures in revenue.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  It almost didn't feel real until the deposits hit in the bank and I'm like, oh my god, people are really buying this. The hardest thing to overcome was really my own self-doubt.

• 1:14Speaker 00

  I mean, it felt like every order I placed, I was like putting my whole net worth on the line.

• 1:20Speaker 00

  It was crazy. We put the business on and within, I wanna say a week or 10 days, there were seven full-price or higher offers.

• 1:29Speaker 00

  People can access these types of businesses and with a pretty small bet, like, create a life-changing business for themselves and their families.

• 1:39Speaker 00

  To carry something from kind of the idea in your head, to building it, to scaling it, to selling it, like, you gotta want it.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  Pretty asymmetrical. Like, I started with 5,000 bucks and it turns into a seven-figure business.

• 1:52Shaan Puri?

  Five million is not enough. 10 million. 15 million. 20 million dollars.

• 1:55Speaker 02

  100 million dollars.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  Almost half a billion in revenue. 850 million dollars.

• 1:58Shaan Puri?

  One or two people in a bedroom actually have threats to these like giant multimillion dollar companies because you have creativity and you have nothing to lose.

• 2:07Shaan Puri?

  Add another zero to that price buddy. Add two more zeros.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  Every week, we sit down with self-made millionaires and ask them, how did you do it? I didn't start a podcast. I started my own personal business school and the teachers are the successful entrepreneurs behind the biggest brands and businesses that you find today. I wanted to know the real stories with all the details, like, how did you get your first hundred customers? What did it feel like when shit hit the fan? I ask them, how'd you spend your money now that you're rich? And what would you do if you were starting over from scratch again today? If you're like me and you want to own your own business instead of living a nine to five job, this is the podcast for you. The Hustle presents My First Million.

• 2:56Shaan Puri?

  Paul, what's up man? How are you? You flew in today, today, right? Or last night?

• 3:02Speaker 00

  I did, last night, yeah, late last night.

• 3:04Shaan Puri?

  I was excited for this. You're a listener who is on the show, is that correct?

• 3:09Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 3:10Shaan Puri?

  That's the new American dream.

• 3:12Speaker 00

  I love the show. I reached out to you and here I am, so.

• 3:16Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, and I liked your story because you did something that I think not a lot of people, well, I'll put it differently. You built an Amazon FBA business. And I've seen a lot about FBA, but the people who tell me about FBA are always selling me something for FBA. And so, I hate that. And I like just talking to people who, if you're telling me you got rich, then you probably don't need to sell me something for 9.99 type of thing.

• 3:45Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 3:46Shaan Puri?

  And so, I'm excited to talk to you because you built a successful Amazon FBA business and you're here to tell the tale. What made you want to do this?

• 3:55Speaker 00

  Well, for me, when I was learning the business, podcasts were everything like podcasts, Facebook groups, Reddit threads. I feel like I've gotten so much from podcasts. So hopefully someone will either get a little bit inspired or get educated.

• 4:09Shaan Puri?

  Like you were listening to them or you went on them?

• 4:11Speaker 00

  Listening, no, listening completely. Yeah. There's this guy named Manny Coats who does an Amazon podcast. He never met me, doesn't know me. I mean, I probably would know a million dollar business without, without him. So there's, there's all these people that have been really influential via podcasts that it kind of is fun to come full circle and say like, here's my story on a podcast.

• 4:30Shaan Puri?

  Right. And so, so what is your story? Okay. So we're here on my first million. How did you make your first million? Just let's start with the basics.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  So I, I built and sold an Amazon FBA business.

• 4:42Shaan Puri?

  Okay.

• 4:42Speaker 00

  And let me, I can give you kind of the

• 4:43Shaan Puri?

  Please do.

• 4:44Speaker 00

  The scoop. So FBA, people don't know is essentially selling on Amazon, right? So that gives you access to two of the most powerful things out there, which is millions of Amazon households, prime customers and Amazon's distribution network. So say we want to create a product, Sean, you know, cell phone case, Sean's cell phone case, we put your, your handsome face on there.

• 5:04Shaan Puri?

  Yep.

• 5:05Speaker 00

  We can list it on Amazon. All right. Reached millions of prime households. And when someone buys that product, we're going to use Amazon's distribution. They're going to do pick, pack and ship. We don't have to do a thing and then we get paid. So the net of reaching all those customers and having their distribution means we can scale up a huge business, a seven figure business, which is just one person. Like for me, no VC money, no employees. I was working full time. I started with, you know, 5,000 bucks and my little Chromebook, like, so building on the back of Amazon. I mean, it has its risks. We can talk about that, but it also has this huge scale and leverage that you can generate.

• 5:41Shaan Puri?

  I love it. And so, so FBA stands for fulfilled by Amazon. For those that don't know what we're talking about. And it's similar to other e-commerce businesses, but Amazon is your, in this case, is the main selling channel for you? Was it the main selling channel?

• 5:54Speaker 00

  It was the main selling channel.

• 5:55Shaan Puri?

  And then secondly, Amazon is the sort of back of the house. It is the, the sort of pick, pack and ship so that you can focus on growing the business and not just the operations. I have to hire staff and get a warehouse and do all these other things in order to fulfill your orders. Is that correct?

• 6:10Speaker 00

  A hundred percent. Yep. You nailed it.

• 6:12Shaan Puri?

  And so what, um, what were you doing before you started this business?

• 6:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I was, uh, so I started the business in 2016. I'm about 10 years out of school at that point. I'm kind of reaching this inflection point where I was really not happy in following kind of the, the right path, quote unquote, the right path.

• 6:31Shaan Puri?

  What's the right path?

• 6:32Speaker 00

  Well, you know, you kind of are, whether it's society or whatever else, you kind of hear this, right? You go to school, like I went to school, I studied accounting, I got my CPA, worked for, you know, good firms. And the, at the end of it, I just wasn't that engaged or happy. And I got really scared, like, you know, I'm early 30s, mid 30s now, is this gonna be my next five years? 10, is this, is this it? Is this all there is? And that scared me so much.

• 6:56Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 6:57Speaker 00

  And that was really the, what lit the fire of like, there's got to be, like, I gotta build my own.

• 7:02Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  Life raft out of it.

• 7:03Shaan Puri?

  Because you were winning the normal game, right? Go to school, get a good job, do well in that job. And that's a scary feeling when you're like, I'm winning, but I feel like I'm losing.

• 7:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, it totally is. Yeah, it's a really scary, it feel, it's sort of like this dissonance in your head. Like, I thought I was doing the right things to win this game. And it's not like I was financially that far ahead either, because like, you know, you end up getting a decent car, a nice house. And now, you know, we have a kid recently, so it's like, wait a minute, I don't even like playing this game. And I'm not really getting where I thought I was gonna go. So that's kind of what spurred like, it's sort of now and every time we're gonna be having a kid in the near future. And, um, I mean, as you probably know, like having a, having a kid and starting something are, they're hard to do at the same time. So I felt like all this pressure, like I gotta go and I gotta go now and get something going.

• 7:50Shaan Puri?

  And so do you remember what, uh, do you remember the, the sort of the day you made that decision? Or you, you really felt like, okay, I gotta do this?

• 7:57Speaker 00

  Well, it really comes back to these pockets, like I said, I mean, everything from kind of marinating in the Tim Ferriss world to this guy, like I said, Manny, kind of learning all that. And then I can see myself, like, I can see myself doing this. And you don't need an insane amount of capital, like, I'm living in Minneapolis. I'm not, you know, out here gonna pitch to VCs. It's like, it felt attainable, like I could, I could start it. And I said, you know, at the, the thing I like about Amazon is it's pretty asymmetrical. Like I started with 5,000 bucks and it turns into a seven-figure business. So it feels like, hey, I'll make a small bet, that's gonna really sting if this thing just goes to zero. But I can pick my life up and keep going, even if I, you know, lose every dollar I put into it.

• 8:37Shaan Puri?

  Right. And you, um, what were you, I like this question. What were you making before you quit your job to do this? What was their salary as a CPA? Is that right? Was that what you're doing?

• 8:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, transitioning to finance. So I think, I want to say I was making, I don't know, a hundred and five, a hundred and ten, something low.

• 8:54Shaan Puri?

  Living and living in Minneapolis.

• 8:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, it goes pretty far. Like, it's a comfortable life. And like, I don't, I don't want to say I'm ungrateful or, you know, come off like, uh, you know, totally out of touch, but I just, on the inside of the end of the day, when you lay your head on the pillow, like, I just didn't feel fulfilled.

• 9:11Speaker 00

  So yeah, so it was comfortable, but it just wasn't, something was missing.

• 9:14Shaan Puri?

  Right. And so, okay, so you, you do this. And by the way, we're not going to be able to say exactly what the product is or exactly the company name for, for sort of non-disclosure reasons, because when you sold the business, you agreed to keep things confidential. But we'll talk around it. And, and I think more importantly than the specifics of what your product was, it's the mechanics, right? It's the mindset you had to go into it. It's how you figured out how to actually build this thing. It's the mechanics about what it means to be, to sell online. And then lastly, sort of the, the happy ending, which is being able to sell this for seven figures. And now, you know, you're, you're a new, you, you've sort of achieved the thing you set out to achieve. So talk, talk to me about getting it off the ground. So you, you decide, I gotta do something.

• 9:58Shaan Puri?

  You're inspired by these podcasts. What does that really mean? First, did you start it as a side hustle or did you quit and go, go full on?

• 10:04Speaker 00

  First started as a side hustle. I wasn't, you know, I was optimistic, but not so, not so optimistic. I was ready to stake my whole future on it. So I started on the side. My first product, I can, I can say what that was. I started, um, with this, have you ever heard of Pour Over Coffee? Yeah, popular in San Francisco. Yeah. Um, so I started with this accessory for Pour Over Coffee. And it was made out of wood and I thought like, I've done all my product research and I also like to choose things that were kind of trending upward. And this seems sort of like a hipster, like cool thing. It's going to keep trending and growing. Like, all right, I got the great first product, Pour Over Coffee stance. This is going to be awesome. And I, you know, I sourced it out of China. I get this logo off of Fiverr. Like I'm, I feel like, all right, I got the right pieces in place. And I get it in.

• 10:47Speaker 00

  Launch it and it is a total fail. It flops. It's, it turns out products made out of wood can break. They can crack. And that's what happened with this and I'm getting one star reviews on Amazon. I'm getting all these angry customers. So I'm feeling pretty defeated at that point. I was able to, you know, I probably put 5,000 bucks and maybe I got 4,000 bucks out of it. So I took like small loss.

• 11:12Shaan Puri?

  But how much time did you put into that?

• 11:13Speaker 00

  Maybe three months.

• 11:14Shaan Puri?

  Three months.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  And I learned, it was like.

• 11:16Shaan Puri?

  You got a test run.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  I got so much learning out of that from how to source out of China to how to, you know, optimize a product on Amazon to deal with customers. That like the learning wasn't valuable. And if I can't, if I would have quit there, obviously would have never hit the second product. But like, without that, I might not have ever, you know, been able to grow it to what I did. So, so I, I take a hit there and I'm down, kind of licking my wounds. I'm visiting my parents in Arizona and we start talking and they casually are mentioning what turns out to be my next product now, right? And I think you mentioned this recently on the podcast, like I was, I'm a big believer in like the notes app and like observing everything like we filter out so much. And I was kind of in this frame where everything I was doing, I'm like, could this be a business? Could this be a business?

• 11:59Speaker 00

  And I'm going to put it in the notes app and I'm going to come back to it and I'm going to see what happens with it. And this was.

• 12:04Shaan Puri?

  I relate to that. Yes.

• 12:05Speaker 00

  Yeah. I got probably 30 of them, you know, at least that in my phone. So.

• 12:09Shaan Puri?

  You can turn your brain into a scanning machine for opportunity.

• 12:12Speaker 00

  You can.

• 12:12Shaan Puri?

  If you're wired, if you, if you start thinking that way, you won't even have to try. Your brain will just start seeing everything. Your friend will be telling you about something and you couldn't give less of a shit about what they're telling you. Except for the fact that you're like, huh, is that, is that made in China? How much does that sell for? So do you buy, do you buy multiple of these or just one? You know, you start assessing the business potential, everything.

• 12:31Speaker 00

  It's so true. You start deconstructing it like, wow, I bet I could get that out of China for three bucks. And I bet it's, it's, uh, but you just got to flip the switch because then all of a sudden you do that. And then you can marry it up to, there's these great tools. You can do research on Amazon to kind of see, you're looking for.

• 12:44Shaan Puri?

  So let's talk about some of those tools. So you, you start to get this idea of like, what about this product?

• 12:48Speaker 00

  What about this?

• 12:49Shaan Puri?

  What's the first step of research for you when you were like, okay, how do I figure this out? Is this good or bad?

• 12:53Speaker 00

  Yeah. So there's a couple of tools and essentially what the, what you're trying to do is look for enough demand, but not so much competition, right? So there's sort of the sweet spot. Like if you have no demand and you can be the only one standing there, but no one's going to buy it. And the opposite is true. So there's a couple of tools, helium 10 jungle scout. If people want to learn about those, go check them out. They're great tools to learn, you know. What's selling on Amazon. So this product that zero went on and like, all right, I hear about it from my family. It looks good. Let's, you know, fire another shot here and see what, see what happens. So I run the same play. This again is 2016. Probably put now my $4,000 that I have allocated for, for this into it.

• 13:32Shaan Puri?

  And the 4,000 bucks is going mostly towards the minimum order.

• 13:36Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 13:36Shaan Puri?

  Of inventory.

• 13:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yep. So I think I ordered 500 units at the start, which was the minimum order.

• 13:41Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 13:42Speaker 00

  Found my supplier in Alibaba.

• 13:43Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  I'm up at, you know, nine, 10 p.m. at night, talking on the phone, trying to, you know, come off as that I have half a clue what I'm doing.

• 13:51Shaan Puri?

  And you're private labeling a product.

• 13:53Speaker 00

  Private labeling a product.

• 13:54Shaan Puri?

  You weren't saying, let's invent something together. You were saying, I want that. Was it, did you even modify it? Or you were like, I want that, but here's my brand logo colors, et cetera.

• 14:03Speaker 00

  I did some modification. I think especially now, you gotta do more than just be a total me too. The modification doesn't need to be big. So like, for me, I added something to my product that literally cost me 10 cents. I think, you know, say my product costs seven bucks and with this little addition.

• 14:19Shaan Puri?

  Seven ten.

• 14:20Speaker 00

  Seven 10.

• 14:20Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 14:21Speaker 00

  But the thing is you're trying to increase the perceived value of your product. So if I have product A and product B, and I've got something else in product B that, that A doesn't have, all right, I might pull a bunch of buyers from that for the low, low cost of, you know, five, 10 cents.

• 14:34Shaan Puri?

  Yep.

• 14:35Speaker 00

  So there was slight modification, but it wasn't like a reframe, you know, inventing stuff, doing all these sketches.

• 14:40Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  Nothing like that. It was like, let's get some nice branding and let's make it appealing to people online.

• 14:46Shaan Puri?

  All right. It's 2020, new year. It's gonna be a big year and you know, we had to come in with some new awesome partners. So for January, we are partnering up with Microsoft and my first million. That's right. This episode is brought to you by Microsoft because whether you're just starting out or you're well on your way to your first million, Microsoft Teams can help your team hit the ground running with must have features like real time chat, editing and video calling, all in one easy to use platform. Teams is a no brainer at a price you can afford. Yep. There is a free version of Teams as in it costs $0. See for yourself at aka.ms/thehustle. Again, that's aka.ms/thehustle to check out Teams brought to you by Microsoft.

• 15:28Shaan Puri?

  Love it. Microsoft, that is a trillion dollar company, right? We're talking about my first million, they're on my first trillion. So that's goals for everybody. They got there because they build epic products. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint. These are products that stand the test of time. And now they've come out with Teams to help teams chat, communicate and work together. And I think it's awesome. All right, great. Let's get back to this episode.

• 15:52Shaan Puri?

  And now for anyone who's ever tried to source products from China or Alibaba or overseas in general, there's the natural sort of like, there's a language barrier slightly. There's the biggest thing is trust, right? So how, did you have any missteps in terms of sourcing the product? Or any bad experiences where they ship you something and it's junk? Did you, how did you navigate that?

• 16:12Speaker 00

  No, that was, I was really scared about that at the start because you, the way you pay, you pay 30% to start production and then 70% when production's complete. And I thought, you know, they're going to just take my money and run. I'll never hear from the WeChat messages will just be unanswered. So honestly, it's, I, you know, there was never anything like that. Like, you know, there's always little quirks and little quality things. And, you know, you ask for something and you get something else. Like, that's just part of the deal.

• 16:40Shaan Puri?

  Nature of the beast.

• 16:41Speaker 00

  Nature of the beast, but there was never any big, you know, big problems or issues.

• 16:46Shaan Puri?

  Okay, so you get this product sourced and we can say it's, uh, what's a sort of generic way? We can talk about the, the, the space you were in.

• 16:53Speaker 00

  We can, so there's different categories in Amazon. So we can say it's in the sports and outdoors.

• 16:57Shaan Puri?

  Cool, sports and outdoors category. So you source this product, um, you, you, you spend about how long to do that? That takes a month, that takes a month and a half?

• 17:06Speaker 00

  About a month.

• 17:06Shaan Puri?

  About a month. And, um, how does round two go? So round one, kind of got your ass kicked. What happens in round two?

• 17:12Speaker 00

  So round two, so I think I get the product up the fall of 2016. And then, you know, come Q4 is the prime time for selling online. It can blow your mind, the, the amount of sales that can occur. So, so I've got the product on there. My expectations are fairly low because of what happened around one. And it takes off pretty much from the jump. There's some different things you kind of want to do to get, get the wheel. spinning but it that first year a partial year 2016 did almost six figures in revenue so for someone going from zero to something that that was like wow this is this is huge I mean there's I'm not sure if you sold on Amazon or see but there's a seller app and I was like

• 17:53Shaan Puri?

  checking

• 17:53Speaker 00

  an addict just refreshing that thing like constantly

• 17:56Shaan Puri?

  right

• 17:57Speaker 00

  and it almost didn't feel real until the deposits hit in the bank and I'm like oh my God people are really buying this

• 18:03Shaan Puri?

  right

• 18:03Speaker 00

  the the product so that's when it was like this could really be something and then kind of the rest of the journey was doubling down and trying to just grow it from there

• 18:12Shaan Puri?

  it's a so that sounds amazing and if I'm listening to this I'm like oh hold on I feel like the magic step of like how the order started coming in like what what was that what did you do to get it off the ground in terms of the marketing or acquiring customers

• 18:26Speaker 00

  yeah so on Amazon you need to be at the top of page one if you want to get sales in the organic rank there's a couple of different ways you can you can get there it's harder now than it was then this is somewhat like the gold rush days of Amazon that I was starting in so it was a different time and easier than it is today but you need to get to the top of page one so a lot of a lot of times people will cut the price of their product pretty heavily which will basically entice people to buy the product and then it you get in the good graces of Amazon's algorithm you start moving up to the top of page one so long as your your products good and your service is good you can stick there like

• 19:01Shaan Puri?

  and what did you notice for the algorithm what did it favor was it reviews is there anything else return rates you know what what did it like

• 19:09Speaker 00

  to me the two big variables are reviews and price like if if you have good reviews and you're priced competitively like you're gonna be in the good graces of the algorithm so those are those are so

• 19:20Shaan Puri?

  is that what you did did you did you lower the price initially to get going

• 19:22Speaker 00

  I lowered the price initially yo um and I got some initial reviews there's it's all sorts of funny business going on right now with reviews but back then you know I did it the right way I didn't engage in any of that funny business I got all these legitimate reviews and it just started small there wasn't that much competition then versus now a lot of things are there's still a ton of opportunity in Amazon and you can grow a huge business today but it is a little more saturated and competitive now

• 19:48Shaan Puri?

  So month one, do you remember what you did month one? Was that what you were saying six figures or that was?

• 19:52Speaker 00

  Uh, no, that was the first like three months.

• 19:54Shaan Puri?

  Okay.

• 19:54Speaker 00

  Yeah. So month one, I want to say it was like 10 grand.

• 19:57Shaan Puri?

  And then it starts to ramp.

• 19:58Speaker 00

  And then it starts to ramp. Yeah. And it gets into the, the holiday season and it's just like bonkers.

• 20:01Shaan Puri?

  And how are you feeling? How are you feeling at this time?

• 20:03Speaker 00

  I'm like, I'm just pinching myself because I got burned so bad the first time. And like I said, mentally, I'm in a place where it's like, uh, I'm just, I'm hurting because I do not want to stay in the career I'm in. It's just not the right fit. So I'm feeling like so much is riding on this and it's just gotta work. And then once I got a little taste of it, it was like, okay, now it's on.

• 20:24Shaan Puri?

  Did you give yourself a certain amount of time? It's like, all right, I'm going to give myself six months to try this. If I don't do this, I go back and get my job. Or did you just say, I'm doing this and you know?

• 20:32Speaker 00

  Well, I kept my job, right? So I was, I was still at my job. So it was kind of, you know, if I was single in my twenties, maybe I would have been, been riskier, but I was, we were expecting a kid and you know, had a house, had a mortgage payment. So it was like, I can't be irresponsible and just die.

• 20:49Shaan Puri?

  How was it going to work that day when you're like, well, I'm doing, you know, 60 grand a month right now in my, my, my side hustle. Uh, how was that?

• 20:58Speaker 00

  Very difficult, very difficult to focus. Uh, I have to say, you know, I was a professional. I hoped, I like to think through and through, but I can't lie. Like my, uh, you know, my output or what I gave to the company probably wasn't

• 21:12Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 21:13Speaker 00

  everything that I, I could have just because, you know, it's, it was so exciting. Like something else could, could be hitting here.

• 21:19Shaan Puri?

  And so how long did it go before you did end up going full time?

• 21:22Speaker 00

  So 2016 is when I started in the fall and it kind of ramped up. And then 2017, uh, like halfway through 17 is when my son was born and also I left the company. So that was a big,

• 21:33Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 21:34Speaker 00

  Uh, a big moment there. Um, and 17 was just over seven figures in sales. So that's when it really started to kind of validate like this is legit business. You're always a little bit like, is this real? Is this going to be here tomorrow? And then after you see it kind of run a certain amount of time, it's like, okay, I think it is. And I can,

• 21:49Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 21:50Speaker 00

  I can step away and do it.

• 21:51Shaan Puri?

  So what's a healthy margin on a business? You do a million in sales, uh, for an Amazon FBA business. What's considered good, bad, mediocre? Or whatever, like, give us a sense for the margin you should be looking for, what you actually get to keep out of the revenue.

• 22:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. So I I would target about 25% is is good, I would say.

• 22:07Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  Um, PPC costs, advertising costs have been creeping upwards. So I think like, there's not a ton of like, high sales spots anymore where you're going to be able to pull that margin. Um, but 20, 25% is is pretty realistic.

• 22:20Shaan Puri?

  And you were advertising on Amazon itself.

• 22:23Speaker 00

  Absolutely. Yeah. Advertising is key on Amazon as well. And you can do, you know, like Google, you can get on Amazon, the most powerful shopping platform in the world, bid on a keyword and be the top result, you know, your sponsor, but you are at the top of amazon.com for whatever keyword you want to get and reach millions of people. That's that is serious power right there.

• 22:41Shaan Puri?

  And so at your, let's say, when you were in your your stride, what percent of your sales were coming from the sponsored link versus organic?

• 22:49Speaker 00

  So it was probably 70% organic and 30% sponsored. Yeah.

• 22:54Shaan Puri?

  And what was there any sort of key things you did that were, uh, because what I like about your bit, what I like about what you've said so far is,

• 23:03Shaan Puri?

  there's two types of stories. There's the founder is a genius. It's like, I was a genius for coming up with this idea. I invented this thing that didn't exist. And then when I was marketing this, I came up with this genius idea to to do something nobody else was doing. And then there's the other one, which is more like reality, which is, um, founder's not an idiot. And founder's not an idiot says, I did basically all the obvious things you would expect me to do. And I did them well, and I did them consistently. And then I succeeded and it didn't require and sort of act of God in order to do it. Were there any founders genius moments? Because so far you've told me a lot of the the other one, which is sort of not fumbling the ball. Were there any unconventional things you did or tried that worked?

• 23:43Speaker 00

  You know, not really. I think that's the appeal of this business is that the hardest thing to overcome was really my own self doubt. And, uh, at the start, I was really uncertain. Like, I'm just, I'm a fool. I'm going to lose this money. And I was telling my wife about this idea. I'm going to sell stuff on Amazon. I'm going to take 5,000 bucks and I'm going to send it to China and bring product in and like, she, you know, very loving and trying to be helpful from the start, but saying like, are you, you know, looking at it like a, like she would any business, trying to poke holes in it. And I remember saying like, at this point, like, Please just be a cheerleader because I'm already kind of hanging by a thread like on my own belief in it. So just like tell me I can do it. And then like, once we get this ball rolling, then like, you know, come on in and help me with some of the tactical stuff. But, but no,

• 24:27Speaker 00

  there was no big thing. And I think the biggest thing is like, it's all so much of stuff is right there on the internet, in Facebook groups, on podcasts, on Reddit. Like, if you seek it, and you really want to go out there and, and do it, and actually take action and, and, you know, do more than kind of just look at it and talk about it. Like, it's there if you want to learn it. And it doesn't take, it doesn't take huge capital to build a business like this. I mean, five grand is a lot of money, but it's not, you know, gonna sink someone or gonna take someone forever to save that type of money up.

• 24:55Shaan Puri?

  Did you go visit your manufacturer?

• 24:56Speaker 00

  I did. Yeah, I did go over there.

• 24:58Shaan Puri?

  How many times did you do that? And when did you do that? Early in the process? As you grew or running to vet them?

• 25:03Speaker 00

  So I went, uh, I found the manufacturer on Alibaba. And then as I was finding them and coming out of this business, I actually had a trip booked to go over to the Canton Fair, which if you don't know the Canton Fair, it's like the world's biggest fair with suppliers over in China. And it was insane. I mean, anything you ever would want to source was over there. So I was going over there thinking, I'm gonna find all these products. I'm gonna start my empire. And that was really cool. And I loved being over there.

• 25:31Shaan Puri?

  The Canton Fair is like, I forgot the number. It's like 800 football fields long or something crazy. It's the biggest expo for manufacturers to meet sort of buyers.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  Exactly. Yeah. So I went over there. I didn't actually find my supplier there. I kind of had him on the, on the line ahead of time. But it was still a really good educational experience, kind of both to see different suppliers, learn more about the culture, just kind of get like in the, in the headspace of doing business with China. But then I did go visit my manufacturer a couple of times. And, uh, yeah, it was really interesting. I mean, the first night, I think he just wanted to mess with me. He took me out and we were eating street food. Like, he bought me spiders and crickets and all these things just to, just see, you know, what I would do. I played right into his hands.

• 26:15Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, there's a great game called Fuck With The American. And he played it.

• 26:18Speaker 00

  He played it well. But it also, I felt like going there cements the relationship further. So like, you get, you know, maybe a little bit better pricing, a little bit better look to make sure you get the qualities right. So I think it's such a relationship game with suppliers, like whether they're gonna prioritize your shipment versus someone else's and all sorts of things.

• 26:37Shaan Puri?

  Were they supplying for your competitors too?

• 26:40Speaker 00

  I believe so, yeah. I mean, that's the case for a lot of, a lot of these suppliers.

• 26:45Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, it's gonna be right.

• 26:45Speaker 00

  They'll, you know, they're putting, outputting all sorts of different products and slapping on different labels. So, yeah, they, I'm pretty certain they were.

• 26:53Shaan Puri?

  So you, you went and you cemented the relationship, you spent some time together. Great. So you, you did that. The other question I had was, you talked about, you know, the more successful you get, the bigger your orders need to get. And so you're always in this cash poor business, you know, asset rich game where the business is growing, your asset is growing, but you continually are pouring out money before it comes back. And so, talk a little about how you managed that. Did you do anything with line of credit or anything like that? Talk about some of the mechanics there.

• 27:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, that was, I way underestimated that. You're, you're spot on. That was really a tough component of it. And you feel really poor, even though you're like, I'm showing these profits on paper, but like, the money just immediately goes back out of my bank account. So I, I really just did it based on the profits of the business and drawing them down to, I mean, it felt like every order I placed, I was like, putting my whole net worth on the line, which was a scary feeling, but it was kind of necessary to keep, to keep fueling the growth of, of the company. So I did an, Amazon offers a line of credit. Once you get some establishment, the interest rate's pretty high, like, but you can always pull on, on that, or once you've been up and running a while. But for me, I just poured the profits right back in.

• 27:57Shaan Puri?

  Gotcha. So let's, let's do the formula. So what, on one side, the inputs, so five grand is what you put personal capital into the business.

• 28:04Speaker 00

  Right.

• 28:06Shaan Puri?

  Time, so you started this sort of late 2016, you sold when?

• 28:10Speaker 00

  Early 2019.

• 28:12Shaan Puri?

  Early 2019. And so, let's call it two, two and a half years, roughly, right?

• 28:17Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 28:18Shaan Puri?

  So that's the, that's what came in. What you got out of it? So, so you sold this business. What multiple do these businesses sell for? Are these the types of things that, you know, you could be doing a million bucks and sell for 10, or a million bucks, you sell for a million?

• 28:32Speaker 00

  Yeah. So usually about a three multiple.

• 28:34Shaan Puri?

  Of what? Of EBITDA?

• 28:35Speaker 00

  Of EBITDA. Yep. Three of EBITDA. So it's a lot, you know, relative to other businesses, it's a low multiple. But you're also, Amazon's a risky animal to be on. So like, I think the...

• 28:44Shaan Puri?

  So how did that decision to sell come up?

• 28:46Speaker 00

  And that was so hard because I really liked like this was like the first job, if you will, that I ever felt like I love this. Like I love doing this. So the idea of selling it was hard. And I didn't, when I started this, it was all about I want freedom. I want flexibility. I want to be around when my, my son is here. I don't want to be in commutes and in these meetings. I want like the, you know, the actual time to be here, but also kind of the mental, mental health or mental clarity to be present as well. So, but as I built it and it got bigger and bigger, it seemed like, all right, this is the right thing to do for my family. If we can sell this, this would go a long way. So I started.

• 29:22Shaan Puri?

  Because there's risk, right? That, that was.

• 29:23Speaker 00

  There's risk. Yeah.

• 29:25Shaan Puri?

  Amazon risk.

• 29:26Speaker 00

  Amazon can take you out in a moment's notice for something very legitimate, something not legitimate. So like, I, I mean, I would have nightmares at night like, hey, what if I wake up tomorrow and I have the email from Amazon and I'm shut down and I gotta go through all the hoops and who knows? Like, so that just felt really scary. And like, there's probably a lot of upside left on the table. Like maybe, you know, the, the folks that bought the company from me, they can turn around and sell it for five X in a few years. And that would be, I'd be thrilled if they do that. But for me, it was like to, to bank the.

• 29:56Shaan Puri?

  The win.

• 29:56Speaker 00

  The win just felt like the right thing to do.

• 29:59Shaan Puri?

  And you also mentioned, uh, when we were chatting before we came on here, um, the sort of other risks that are in, in a business like this with physical inventory, you know, you're, you're putting a lot of money into inventory. What happens with a bad batch? What happens? You know, so talk a little bit about that. Other risks that you saw besides the Amazon sort of competition or algorithm changes. Besides that, what else was there?

• 30:18Speaker 00

  Yeah. So it's, you know, when I started, I was bringing in 500 units. It's pretty small. Uh, like I said, 5,000 bucks at the start, but it's a very cash intensive business. Growing is great, but that means your next order from your supplier is going to be that much larger. Right? So it went from these tiny little orders to, you know, 40 foot containers that have. You know, quarter million dollars worth of inventory in them. And if something goes wrong with that, that's like, I'm sunk. So there's also like every shipment, you have this, this low grade fear that like, you know,

• 30:52Shaan Puri?

  Is this container gonna fall?

• 30:53Speaker 00

  Is this container gonna fall off the boat? And then like my business is done. So, you know, to mitigate that, it felt responsible too. There's, there's just various risks. You have all your eggs in that basket. So.

• 31:03Shaan Puri?

  And how'd you go about selling it? What, how did that happen?

• 31:05Speaker 00

  So I used, you had Joe Valian from Twilight Brokerage. I used them. They were fantastic.

• 31:09Shaan Puri?

  Yep.

• 31:10Speaker 00

  Um, I never sold a business. I didn't know this world. So they, you know, I have my former accountant, former CPA. So like my books were, were clean. That's usually a pretty big thing that people.

• 31:18Shaan Puri?

  Mess up.

• 31:19Speaker 00

  People mess up. That wasn't, it wasn't an issue for me. Um, and yeah, it was crazy. Uh, we put the business on and, uh, within I want to say a week or 10 days, there were seven offers, full price or higher offers, which was just like mind blowing to, to have that too. So that was a, a super nerve wracking process and also, uh, an exciting process.

• 31:41Shaan Puri?

  And you went back and negotiated with all seven or took one of them or what'd you do?

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. So there's negotiation. So it's like, I think when I walked into it, it's like, well, whoever names the high number, I'm gonna, you know,

• 31:49Shaan Puri?

  That's what I'm gonna take.

• 31:50Speaker 00

  Right. But when you get into it, you realize some people are, uh, like the guys that buy my business. I had a, just a good connection with them and I thought they would really do a good job running the business. Like they knew what they were doing. They're really capable. They seemed honest, straightforward about things. Whereas other people were a little bit like me a few years ago, like they were awesome, but like they were still sitting in their, in their cube somewhere and they never touched e-commerce or Amazon. I was just afraid like if they inherit this beast and like things, you know, go bad. Like I, I don't know what that looks like. So I want to make sure I pass this to someone that.

• 32:21Shaan Puri?

  You thought what? You thought you'd get sued or you, what'd you think would happen?

• 32:24Speaker 00

  Uh.

• 32:24Shaan Puri?

  Who cares, right? You sell this.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  I guess.

• 32:26Shaan Puri?

  You didn't need this business before. Sorry. This business just came out of nowhere. You, you built it. You sell it.

• 32:30Speaker 00

  I don't know. Yeah. Maybe it wasn't a rational thought. Uh, I'm really not sure. I mean, the other piece was the transition too. It's like, uh, if people know e-commerce and Amazon, it makes life so much easier. They just pick it up and run versus if it was someone that never touched this, it would have been a lot of investment. But yeah, part of it probably was just an irrational fear. Like they're gonna, they're gonna jack this thing up and somehow I'm gonna, it's all gonna get unwound and it's gonna be like, it's a bad joke on me or something.

• 32:56Shaan Puri?

  You know, we've only known each other for, I don't know how long, I've been sitting here, thirty minutes, maybe. But I like, I really like your personality because A, you're a nice, humble guy and you're a smart guy. But B, I think it's cool to see somebody who's not Mr. Bravado, who started a business. Like, I actually think you're quite risk averse. And you just took very practical, pragmatic steps to like, approach this business and get the outcome you wanted, without being like, sort of, hero entrepreneur. And there's a lot of hero entrepreneur stories out there, because that's what sells, right? Somebody taking crazy risk, that's a great story.

• 33:31Speaker 00

  Right.

• 33:31Shaan Puri?

  But what I like about your story, it was a great story to me, is that you were more of a conservative guy, it sounds like, to me. You know, you're like, you know, I got beat up my first time, but you lost only a thousand bucks in three months. It's like, that's nothing, you know, like, that's the cost of entry for business.

• 33:46Speaker 00

  Right.

• 33:46Shaan Puri?

  But the way you were approaching it, I think, really is very, I think will be very relatable. If I'm listening to this, I'm like, okay, this, it's not like this guy's from some, cut from some totally different cloth than me. He's not some alien species that has this different no fear gene. It sounds like you're a regular person who did a really awesome business, and I really like that.

• 34:06Speaker 00

  Cool, yeah, thanks for, I think it's really the truth, that people can access these types of businesses, and with a pretty small bet, like, create a life-changing business for themselves and their families. So I think, you know, I would encourage a lot of, you know, if you feel something inside you, go for it and try it, because you never know what could happen.

• 34:23Shaan Puri?

  And so you sell, and you do, is it a clean deal, cash in the bank? Or you got to do a seller note and sort of, take money down the road?

• 34:31Speaker 00

  It's mostly a clean deal with a small seller note.

• 34:33Shaan Puri?

  Okay. And so money hits the bank, what happens? Tell me about that day.

• 34:38Speaker 00

  Uh huh, it was, I think it was so, going through the process was so stressful, that when it hit, I was just like, this big relief. And it just felt like, like I had run like, you know, an ultra marathon, from like, kind of birthing this little business out, and then carrying it for a few years. And then the culmination of it, it was just like, pure relief. And it felt really good. There was no like, you know, big part, it was nothing, maybe like you'd think, when someone sells a business and they see seven figures drop in their account. It was just like, ah, a big exhale.

• 35:11Shaan Puri?

  And so, so you, you see it coming your bank out and what changes for you in your life, right? You said you, by that point, I assume you had had your, your child.

• 35:21Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 35:22Shaan Puri?

  And so what changes in your life? What did you, what did you change in your lifestyle? Tell us about what that's, what that's like.

• 35:29Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, it really was, is a blessing. It was, and it still is a blessing. Just, you know, wealth in and of itself to me isn't kind of the end game, but it's what the money can enable. And like, my son's two and a half now and like the, the freedom and the flexibility and the relationship I have with him, like it wouldn't have been possible had I still been working, you know, my normal nine to five.

• 35:52Shaan Puri?

  You have your time.

• 35:53Speaker 00

  I have, I have the time and I have, I'm just present and like really happy and open to be with him. It's been the best thing that's ever happened to me, having, you know, having our son. So that honestly, just kind of that time and freedom has been the best thing. It's also given me the gift of just being able to sit back and reflect a little bit like, what do I want to do as far, you know, do next? What type of dad do I want to be partner? I think for me, like I was just on this treadmill, you know, going, going, going. I'm working, I'm traveling, I'm trying to get groceries in the house. You're just going all the time and you don't like, this allowed a little bit of space to, to just step back and think like, what do I want to do next? What do I want to do with my life? You know, so that was a real blessing. And I think a lot of people don't always have the luxury to, to do that.

• 36:36Shaan Puri?

  And so you, you talk about asking yourself that question. All right, what do I want to do now? Sale comes through. You have that sort of anticlimactic day where you, you just feel relief. You don't go do anything. Like I remember talking to Michael Birch, he's like probably the third or fourth episode and, you know, he sold his business for crazy money, like eight hundred fifty million dollars. And they, they went to a movie, like him and his wife went to a movie, like you know, ten dollar tickets movie because he was like, I don't know what to do. We haven't seen a movie in a while and I love movies. Let's go watch, you know, they went, they went and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So, so what did you actually do that day?

• 37:11Speaker 00

  Oh man, I honestly, I think it was such an unremarkable day that I can't, I, I think my son was home from his school and I feel like we just like watched, you know, Mr. Rogers or something and like hung out and like when you're hanging out with a little kid, like you, you go into a whole different headspace. So it wasn't, yeah, it was just a normal thing, which is actually totally fine and how I would have, would have liked it. So it was pretty, pretty chill day.

• 37:37Shaan Puri?

  And you said you started to ask yourself, what do you want to do again? So you had option one, which a lot of people would take, which is great. I got to win. I know how to do this now. Next time, if I did it, I'd be way smarter at it because I know all these new things. And they jump back in and try to, you know, sort of exploit this opportunity again. You didn't do that. Why not?

• 37:55Speaker 00

  Oh, I, I really wanna like, I, I liked this, but I feel like it was sort of a chapter in my life. And like I did it, I started it, I learned a ton and I, I don't know if I have the energy to like, knowing what I know now, like you gotta really want it to carry something from kind of the idea in your head, to building it, to scaling it, to selling it. Like you gotta, you gotta want it deep down, like every single day and keep grinding, keep grinding, keep grinding. And I honestly don't know if I have that in me anymore for an Amazon business. Um, so I'm doing a little bit of Amazon consulting, which I really like because I'm actually like, when you do an Amazon business, it's kind of a lonely existence. Like it's, it's just you, you're talking to your suppliers.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  But you just kind of roll in solo for most of it. So it's been fun. I've been working with, with, uh, some companies to help them sell Amazon. That's been pretty cool. And I'm trying to get into the content space as well, kind of leveraging. So like I said, I'm a former CPA and personal finance nerd, uh, like building online businesses. So I think Sam talked about like, hey, if I was starting something new, you want a weekend business, go build a content site. These guys are in a nerd wallet or wherever they're doing, doing well. So, um, I saw the same thing. I felt the same thing as him. So that's kind of my next.

• 39:08Shaan Puri?

  Yeah. Shout it out. What's the website? Uh, I was reading it this morning. I'm awake.

• 39:11Speaker 00

  Yeah. So it's called wealth fam.com. Uh, it's brand new. I'm kind of, I'm still in that sort of fragile state like I was when like, I haven't, my parents like, what are you building? Does it have a name? Like, no, yeah, yeah, of course it has a name. So it's still kind of in those early days, but the thought is like, I'm a personal finance nerd. I've learned a lot from podcasts and online. So I'm trying to like pull all these things together and put a site out there that people can learn about making money, saving money, financial independence. Like that's became a big thing on this journey too. Like, all right, if you really want freedom, you gotta, you know, get financial independence and financial freedom. So talking about some of those things. So we'll see. I mean, it's such a crowded space and it's a hard thing to do as far as like stand out

• 39:56Speaker 00

  and get eyeballs on it, but I'm starting at the same place as I was before at zero. Give it a shot and I really like to write and I hope, you know, we'll see what happens with it.

• 40:05Shaan Puri?

  Yeah. Wealth fam.com. So you, I think you'll get thousands of visits just from saying that. You'll say three times wealth fam.com, wealth fam.com. You know, people will listen because, because I think, you know, you touched on the right thing, which is financial independence. You know, I regret naming this podcast, My First Million now because a, you know, the gimmick kind of is, is interesting at the beginning, but like then you're stuck with the gimmick because it's hard to change your name. But B, you know, the intention is never really about making millions of dollars. The, what people want is a great life and the good thing about what, what money can provide you is that freedom, the financial freedom to, to live life on your terms, whatever those may be.

• 40:46Shaan Puri?

  For you, it might be hanging out with your kid. It might be writing. It might be consulting. It might be skiing. I don't know. I don't know what all you like, but it enables the freedom for the lifestyle you want. And I think it's really fundamentally what people, what people want and are realizing that, you know, job is one option and it can get you to financial freedom, but it usually gets you there when you're 65. And if you're willing, if you're willing to trade 21, yours 21 through 65, then that's a path that's tried and tested. But a lot of people are now realizing, especially as the internet opens up all these new opportunities, that you can get financial freedom much faster and in a way, maybe that that's more in line with you

• 41:30Shaan Puri?

  and who you are. And once you have that financial freedom, you can play the game differently. Because every month you don't have to sort of wonder where is the paycheck going to come from. And so, so I like that you're teaching that because I think that is the probably the most important thing people can learn on a, in terms of career or finances is that, that one principle.

• 41:52Speaker 00

  A hundred percent. Yeah. And it took me a long time even to realize that, um, you know, I was never really chasing money for the sake of money, but then once you get going and you're like, you know, I'm sure you've heard of the four percent rule, like, which is, you know, if you can, if your burn rate essentially is say 40 grand a year, you need to save a million bucks, 40 grand's 4% of that. So you kind of can like quickly do like this math, like, all right, here's what I need to achieve, like.

• 42:16Shaan Puri?

  So 4% rule helps you figure out what's your number where you would be financially free.

• 42:21Speaker 00

  Exactly right.

• 42:22Shaan Puri?

  And, uh, and it comes from your monthly burn rate, which most people don't even know.

• 42:26Speaker 00

  That's an important first step. Figure out your burn rate.

• 42:29Shaan Puri?

  And so, uh, so do you track your burn rate every month?

• 42:32Speaker 00

  You know, I'm not like hardcore.

• 42:34Shaan Puri?

  But you have a rough sense.

• 42:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, definitely have a rough sense. So like, there was definitely like a number like, hey, if we get to, you know, this number, like, we can live a comfortable life. Like, we're not going to be like, you know, taking month-long vacations to, you know, the most exclusive places in the world. But like, we can be very comfortable, live a very nice life. And like, that was the goal. And we're pretty much at that goal now. And it feels like really, really nice.

• 42:55Shaan Puri?

  And so you set a new goal now or what happens?

• 42:57Speaker 00

  You know, I don't know. I guess so. Cause you gotta keep moving forward and doing something. But, uh, it's, the new goal is a little bit more like do something that's interesting. Like I also want to figure out, like, I feel like in my life, I'm, you know, mid, late 30s now, and I've done like very little to ever like give back or like do anything positive for the broader world. Um, so somehow I want to do that because I think like that will feel really good. And those are the types of things that kind of stick with you and really matter. I mean, that's been a big thing about being a parent, just like hearing about someone else more than you care about yourself. Like actually feels selfishly, it feels like really good. It feels great to love someone that much, contribute that much. So I think like, there's must be some nugget there that there should be some other, other things to do than just keep chasing money, keep chasing money. Cause I don't know how you end that game if you just.

• 43:42Speaker 00

  Continue to try to do that.

• 43:44Shaan Puri?

  Do you, uh, do you know much about Tony Robbins? Have you, you ever followed him or, or read, listened to any of his stuff?

• 43:50Speaker 00

  I listened to him, uh, but I, you know, I'm not, not like, not, I know people that are.

• 43:55Shaan Puri?

  So I'm, so I'm deep in it. Yeah. And basically you go from like, uh, I, I don't know of him and I'm skeptical. Seems like just another motivational speaker.

• 44:04Speaker 00

  It's kind of where I am to be honest.

• 44:06Shaan Puri?

  That's, that's the normal. And then like you take two steps forward and you're in the cult. And it's like, there's no in-between, I feel like with him. Um, and so I went to one of his events. I would actually recommend you go, uh, especially now, cause I think it's, it's best when you're in transitions. Um, or you're in a free space mentally to think. Um, and so I went to one of his events. He has these like events where he'll sell out, you know, 5,000, 7,000 people will, will come to this, um, event called unleash the power within. He has lots of cheesy names because he's like, you know, older and built his fame on like the infomercial days.

• 44:37Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 44:37Shaan Puri?

  So there's a lot of like cringey stuff like that, but his content is very good. Uh, and he, uh, two things stood out to me. One, one, uh, one just for context, which is even if you're not into the content, uh, it's just fucking amazing to see. Uh, this guy is the best public speaker I've ever seen. I, I would say he's the best public speaker on earth. Um, he is able to hold 10,000 people's attention for four days straight from nine AM until nine PM with no breaks in between. And, uh, you know, he says this even during his thing. He's like, you know, uh, most people can't sit through a two hour movie nowadays. Their attention wanders, um, like watch what happens in the, these next four days. And it's true. People are like wired, uh, they're like connected to him. It's just really crazy.

• 45:19Shaan Puri?

  So just from a wow, that's a, that's a, that's what an effective speaker looks like. That is the Michael Jordan of public speaking.

• 45:25Speaker 00

  That's interesting to see, just to take that in.

• 45:27Shaan Puri?

  Before he retires. And, um, when you're talking about your goal and the fact that, you know, you, you gotta come up with a new goal. Um, he talks about this, he's like, you know, you're going to reach what you achieved. If you, if you put the work in, you're going to reach what you achieved and you're, watch what's going to happen. You're going to move the goalposts back. And some people see that as a defeating thing. Uh, but he has a very simple phrase, which is progress equals happiness. Um, and I've, I've really found this to be true, which is you aren't your happy. happiest when you feel a sense of progress towards whatever it is if you're trying to lose weight if you start to lose the weight you will feel happy yeah it doesn't actually matter what your weight is if you plateau you will start to feel unhappy as soon as you start to make progress again you'll feel happy financially same thing career same thing relationship same

• 46:08Shaan Puri?

  thing progress equals happiness and I use this to manage people too because it's like instead of looking at the absolute goal of where people want to be or where they are you just try to measure progress and encourage progress because they will feel happy along the way and it's it works for yourself too so it's a very long-winded way to get to a very simple phrase which is progress equals happiness I wanted to share that yeah no I'll have to check out I'll have to go from you know a mild skeptic to to your level of all in on yeah there is the other one which is oh I checked it out and no that guy's the worst and that's fine you can have your range of opinions but I think if you think there's lots of you know nuggets of gold and his stuff okay so so this has been awesome where can people sort of get ahold of you reach you read your thoughts

• 46:52Shaan Puri?

  obviously wealth fam.com what else is like a good way to follow along

• 46:56Speaker 00

  I just created a Twitter account I think I have 12 followers right now it's brand new it's embarrassing a little follower account but I'm tweeting about you know financial independence building businesses online Amazon all those sorts of good topics it's at Paul underscore D underscore Anderson Anderson's S E N

• 47:15Shaan Puri?

  just buy yourself like a thousand followers just to get off the 12 number yeah you'll get some real followers but you get to a thousand all right go on Fiverr buy a thousand followers

• 47:23Speaker 00

  just to get the credibility yeah yeah you can yeah I'd love to if you're interested in starting an Amazon business you're doing it you have questions thinking about selling it you know financial independence anything be happy to you know converse with you online

• 47:34Shaan Puri?

  awesome dude thanks for coming I like this I like this a lot for a lot of the reasons I said I think that if you're listening to this and you're in the same mindset you were in I'd be pretty inspired to say yeah I can do something like that too

• 47:49Speaker 00

  yeah thanks a lot Sean I think you're gonna be you're gonna just like me at these people that changed literally changed my life and they don't know who I am like you're gonna have people that listen to this your podcast and then you know one year two year three years that You know, look you up, send you a note like, hey, man, you changed everything for me. And I'd have to think that's gonna feel pretty good when that day happens, because I think it is gonna happen.

• 48:09Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, my favorite email that I get from listeners is the one that says, um, you don't know, like, you don't know this yet, but I'm gonna be on your show someday. And I'm like, hell, yeah, that's the, you know, that's the goal.

• 48:19Speaker 00

  That's the spirit, yeah.

• 48:20Shaan Puri?

  You came from the audience onto the show, so you are the sort of good exemplar. All right, man.

• 48:24Speaker 00

  All right, thanks, Sean.

• 48:25Shaan Puri?

  This is great, thank you.

• 48:25Speaker 00

  You too.