A (6:34)

I think you qualified. I do understand what you mean though, like when you have multiple businesses or you've tried, you do different things. That's why I asked that question that way because it's a new is like going to be a tricky question to, to answer and because you can't just say oh, I'm a compliance officer for example. Right. For at a tech company it's like, no, like I, I run this business, I'm a CEO of this business. But also like I do this media stuff as well. And then also I do this other thing too. And that's, that's the cool thing about entrepreneurship. I think in 2025, that's the beautiful thing about this is that, and also I think that's, that's the beautiful thing about entrepreneurs, that specifically that entrepreneur identity is like the reason why you become an entrepreneur is because you, you're tired of getting put into A box. A category specifically, you know.

B (7:25)

Yeah, absolutely. How long have you been there in entrepreneurship for?

A (7:30)

Probably my whole life. Like as a, some sort, some sort of capacity similar to you is, you know, you don't really realize you're an entrepreneur until later on. You're like, oh yeah, I was selling stickers on the side of the road and I was selling, I was selling candy bars, I was buying them from the store. You know, my mom would help me buy them for 50, 50, 50 cents a piece and I would sell them at school for what, for a dollar, you know. And so it's like. But they didn't have entrepreneurship at the time.

B (7:56)

No, I could totally relate to that. Just to add to that point, actually, like, I remember when I was in secondary school, I, you remember LimeWire the, the software you could download music? Yeah. So I had the computer, I could burn CDs. So what I would do a lot of times I would download a bunch of music. I'm not saying it was legal at the time, but I'll download a bunch of music. Other than ask my classmates, oh, what albums do you want to get hold of? I would absolutely burn them, the cds, sell them to sell it to them. And I made actually a really good profit from that little business if I can remember correctly. But yeah, you're right. You know, when it comes to entrepreneurship, it's something that really starts from a young age.

A (8:37)

It does. I think most people probably, I think almost everybody has some sort of story because I believe that every, every creator, every person is, is a creator and every creator should own a business. They are entrepreneur probably in their hearts and their DNA and I think we bury that in, in different ways. But I think probably the majority of people have some sort of story in their, their childhood where they had to do something creative in order to make some sort of profit and the profit benefited all parties. It wasn't just a one sided thing. It was like I made a necklace, I sold the necklace for a two dollar profit. They got a necklace they loved, I got money World is better in, in this case in my, my perspective. But to answer your question more, more directly is I've been a full time entrepreneur since 2020. I think 2020, 2021 is probably when I first fully, fully have been, I think probably five years prior to that I was trying to be a full time entrepreneur. Like that was the goal. So it was really clear that I wanted to be full time entrepreneur. I wanted to have passive income, I wanted to like be financially free. I wanted to have Time freedom, location freedom, financial freedom. But it takes some time in order to get to that stage. And it took us, it took us probably probably five years in order to fully be like my wife, you know, can have the option to, to be a full time mom or she has to, to work. Same with me. And so that was important for me. Ever Be was probably our, our, our biggest thing, it was Iraq thing. No question. I was similar to you, selling on Shopify, doing drop shipping, I was doing, selling on ebay a little bit, selling on Etsy, selling an Amazon FBA brand. So I did these number of things also did real estate investing, flipped homes, all this stuff that kind of led me to tech. And then, then we founded Ever Be which was really my love that I fell in love with that, that project and that, that process. Yeah that's, that's kind of what I do on a day to day basis. It's, it's ever been is my main thing now.

B (10:44)

Mm, no, no, totally. I get that. You know Ever Be is huge now. You've got so many different products within just the Everb brand is sense Ever Be brand itself. Which tells me that you know, things are happening and it's going really well. I think one of the things I always want to sort of know with fellow entrepreneurs because you can't really have this conversation with normal people or like non entrepreneurs if I can put it that way.

A (11:11)

Like I don't think anybody would take offense to that that's listening to this because everyone listening to this are, are they don't consider this themselves normal, they're they consider themselves like entrepreneurial. So I think we're safe here.

B (11:23)

Oh, we're in the safe space. Thank God. You never know nowadays. But what I was going to say is that what like what's like when did you know that this is the time to fully transition into a full time entrepreneurship because like you I also like in the beginning would do a lot of side also while working my full time job and I thought that that was the root and I thought that you know, this is what you need to do in order to become a full time entrepreneur. But one thing I've realized and speaking to a lot of full time entrepreneurs is that they all have a, almost a spark, a shift and it happens overnight where they just say effort. I'm going to become a full time entrepreneur and that's that regardless of whatever circumstances they're in at that particular moment in time. I would love to hear your, you.

A (12:11)

Know, your switch man, your guest on my show but you're asking me good questions, so. Yeah, thank you for that, man. So that's a great question. Thank you for that question. For me, I don't think it was one spark. I think it was an evolution of time where I picked up a book, rich dad, poor dad for me. And I saw a different way of thinking. I'm like, I got it. It doesn't have to be this certain way of life. It could, it could be this other life. And so that was, that was probably like one, one moment in time where I read that book, reread it, reread it, and then just kind of like went down this self growth path. But then when after starting multiple businesses and like failing a lot, succeeding some. There was one point though, and it wasn't just one moment in time. It was more like a probably a time of probably months of time where I built up so much confidence. I overcame so many hard things in this like, side business that I'm like, I can do hard things, I can trust myself. I have the confidence level to. Even when my back's against the wall, I will find a way. That was the confidence that was kind of expanding and which led me to the moment of it's time. It's never gonna be a perfect time, but I know no matter what I come up against, I will find a way, I will figure it out. And I think that's. That was the quote, unquote spark. That was it. That was for me, um, that really kind of like took it to the next level. Fortunately, my wife was fully on board. We had, we had kids, we had, we had all kinds of stuff, responsibilities. Um, but because we've proven ourselves, like through these other, other tasks, so much confidence that I knew that we'd, we'd find a way no matter what. That would be my answer to that.

B (13:53)

Yeah, no, that answer is, is the same across the board. That the ability to be like, almost like, I don't care what happens because I know that I'm going to bounce back regardless of the circumstances. I think that is the spark and switch every entrepreneur I speak to has. And, and same for me.

A (14:14)

Like, I want to hear yours. Like, what would you say your spark was to make that full transition in 2021, I think you said.

B (14:23)

Yeah, no, so I did the transition in 2019 when I got made redundant from my old job. Yeah. And my biggest fear was always, how do I actually pay my bills? Because I had responsibilities. Like you had a house and mortgage and all of that stuff. How do I pay my Bills with this thing that isn't a hundred percent certain almost because I had like some good months and some bad months from at that time I was doing drop shipping, right? But then I've got made redundant and I. The first, I think the first month for me was like the change in terms of mentality and mindset. I started realizing that hold on, this thing isn't so bad after all. I, a bit like you, I can fight back from almost anything that happens to my, that comes my way. A lot of hardship at that time as well. But I'm still standing strong, still standing high, still doing my thing. So that moment in time was the time when I said to myself, I am never going back into full time employment work for someone else. I'm going to become an entrepreneur, I'm going to figure it out. And this is that. Then I called up one of my mates or Showma, who's my co founder at Vendor, and then we got together and we just came up with the idea together. This is what was a genuine pain point that we had faced at that moment in time. And then we just launched Vendor without any founder experience. We just learned on the journey because we both had, you know, sort of understood that a lot of times when it comes to growth, you need to be on the journey itself. You can't say, oh yeah, this is the manual towards success, right? You need to be in the journey, learn from your mistakes while you're in the journey, improve while you're in the journey and then take it to that next level as opposed to sitting on the sideline and just hearing people talk about it. That, that, that, that's one thing I think is really important for anyone who's aspiring to be an entrepreneur. You know, you just need to obviously, I'm not saying you should quit your job straight away. You need to obviously know that the gene is in, within you, of course, but like you need to always learn on the job as opposed to trying to learn in theory. I think that is one thing that I sort of hate about the schooling system because another thing I realized when I was in school is that a lot of the people that will teach me about business, finance and etc. Have never ran a business, have never made a successful investment. What on earth could I actually learn from that person in terms of practical business experience, right? And yeah, so it ties back into what I was saying about the importance of actually learning while you're on the journey as opposed to learning on the sidelines.

A (16:55)

Do you think that everyone could be an Entrepreneur or do you think some people are just, they're, they're destined to be. That's just their DNA makeup. They're destined to be full time employees and then some are destined to be like more creative entrepreneurs.

B (17:07)

I, I don't think everyone can be an entrepreneur. And, and this is why I almost discouraged because, because I don't know if you remember, I think it was around the COVID time when it was got. It got really popular and everyone wanted to become an entrepreneur. Right. And to just answer that question, I don't think everyone is made to be an entrepreneur. I think you need to ask yourself this bunch of serious questions like are you willing to downgrade your lifestyle for a number of years? Are you willing to deal with a lot of hardship? Hardship, sorry. Are you willing to like not spend so much time with your loved ones for a bit while you get the whole ship ready? Like all of those questions needs to be answered. And one thing I realized while speaking to a number of people, most people were not willing to sacrifice on those things. Most people actually thought that okay, I'm going to leave this comfortable job right now and I'm going to go into entrepreneurship and I'm just going to make more money overnight and everything is just going to be happy days. Right? It's anything but that. You know, I think every entrepreneur, I speak to them actually, you know, are actually successful in the journey and been been doing it for a number of years, have always had this dip almost where they've just failed so many times and they've actually learned from those failures and then they've applied the differences to wherever venture to go into. Because one thing I realized about business, having been in business for coming up to six years full time, is that a lot of businesses are more similar than what people actually think in terms of the operational mechanisms of those businesses. But yeah, just to answer that question again, not everyone is meant to be entrepreneurs. I think it's a very small minority of the population actually have the capacity to be an entrepreneur because you have to be a bit effed up, you have to be a bit delusional. You have to be a bit. Yeah, nothing faces you almost to be an entrepreneur in reality. Most people don't have that DNA within them.

A (19:03)

I. It's interesting. Thank you for that perspective. I battle this one. That's why I ask it because I'm so curious about your opinion on this. For me, I, I tend to believe that we're all pretty similar. All humans are pretty darn similar. And I do think that we every, just about every single person could be an entrepreneur. I think they could really, I do. I don't think that they, I don't think that they will are willing to be though and, and, but I think that they have the same. I think they could if they saw it and if they're willing to make the sacrifices that are needed to be made now them, just because they can doesn't mean they will. And I don't think that, I don't think the majority will not. 99.9% will not do those make those trade offs. But I have friends that are very successful in their W2 jobs. They've worked their way up the ranks. They could be an entrepreneur. Like they, they, they have the, they have the right, you know, they can, they focus, they're dedicated, they're willing to work hard hours, long hours. They have every. And they have the skills, they're good at learning new skills but they're lacking just a couple things that make up the entrepreneurship difference which is sacrifice. Probably a little bit more sacrifice, maybe higher stakes. Meaning like your family's on the line because you don't have that income stream coming in.

B (20:34)

Yeah.

A (20:35)

Or hey, what happens when you don't have a boss telling you what to do? Like what are you going to do then? But I think those things a lot of times people can figure those. I think you can learn them, you.

B (20:47)

Can learn them on the journey. I do agree with the, you can learn those things on the journey that you mentioned. But I still don't think everyone can be an entrepreneur instantly. Like I think of my mum, I absolutely love my mum but she, I couldn't see her being an entrepreneur. Like I like it just be impossible to see her thinking about that because she's the sort of person that kind of like really knows what she really wants to know what is going on tomorrow, really wants to know what is happening next week. You know. So that, that, that, how do I say it? That unknown that comes along with entrepreneurship. I don't think most people in society knows how to deal with that. Right. And because of that I think it would be really difficult for most people to become an entrepreneur because you like, you need to be able to sort of deal, deal with the fact that things can be drastically different next week, things can be drastically different tomorrow and be able to kind of counteract that and come up with a solution. That's the whole.

A (21:51)

This would be fun. Maybe Case study. What does your mom, what did your mom do for a living?

B (21:55)

She's a nurse.

A (21:56)

She's a nurse. Okay, so she's successful in her career.

B (21:59)

Yeah, she's. She's successful in the career, but she never wanted to go to the top of nursing, even though I think she could have if she really wanted to. But she's gone to that, that middle level, sort of. She's very comfortable there, got her own routine set up. And she's very happy with that.

A (22:14)

Absolutely. I love that. What would happen if there was no such thing as nursing field? What would she, what would she do?

B (22:21)

That's a very good question. I, That's a very good question. I'm guessing she would work with. Because she, she's very social. She enjoys being at social settings and sort of helping people from a social setting. So I'm guessing maybe a teacher because she's quite patient as well, I think. Yeah. Teacher, probably. Yeah.

A (22:38)

What if teaching, what if teaching didn't exist? Just playing ball here, playing games. What if teaching didn't exist or maybe every single job said, sorry, we can't employ you. What would she do?

B (22:50)

Well, that's a very interesting question. I, I'm not sure what she would have to cut. She would have to become an entrepreneur, basically. Maybe she would have.

A (22:59)

Otherwise she. Or she just rolls over and just lets her family.

B (23:06)

Yeah, she probably. Knowing her as a person, you probably have to figure out something to do with what she's passionate about from an entrepreneurship perspective.

A (23:14)

Yeah, I think that, I guess. And maybe that's, maybe that's an unfair exercise, of course, and it's towards scutes, towards to my show and I guess I could do that, but I, I think that we, I think anybody could. I think your mom, she wouldn't choose to. She might not choose to be an entrepreneur, but if her back's against the wall, if she had to do it, she would do it.

B (23:37)

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if your back is against the wall, you, you have no choice. I guess the, the broader question is how. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, it's a good way of looking at it, you know, and obviously like she would learn on the journey as she goes deeper into entrepreneurship, she will figure things out, then eventually she will adjust to it. Right, that, that's interesting way to look at it.

A (24:03)

It's like the same thing. I can think about like third, you know, third. Third world countries or second world countries. I was in India a couple, couple years ago last year. And you know, there's different parts of India. Right. Of course I'm in this specific part, which is a little Bit more rural and we're in this back, back road. It's not in Bangalore. Right. It's like a kind of a back road. And I'm seeing these people who are not entrepreneurial, not necessarily like super polished or even trying to be polished. Not even necessarily into self improvement a whole lot. But these people are on the streets selling beads and necklaces and bracelets.

B (24:44)

Yeah.

A (24:45)

And all these things. So no, in the US and the UK maybe they're not like entrepreneurs the way that we would just, we would think about them. But in my eyes I'm like, these people are entrepreneurs.

B (24:55)

Oh no, they, they are, they are entrepreneurs. I, I, I absolutely consider those people.

A (25:00)

Entrepreneurs out of necessity more so necessity, not necessarily choice, but it's necessity because hey, how am I going to feed my kids when I, if I don't sell five bracelets today?

B (25:11)

You know? Yeah, that's a very valid point to look at. So one could probably argue that in, if you're looking at the, maybe the third world countries where there's less of a, like a, the job infrastructure where you sort of have to go out there and get it for yourself that the rates of entrepreneurship in those countries is significantly higher than what is in the Western society. Probably.

A (25:32)

I would think so. I'd be curious to see that statistic. But yeah, I would think so too. So anyway, it's a fun thing. I've never really had that conversation in depth, so I appreciate you, you playing along there. That was fun.

B (25:43)

No, it's a good point. Thinking about it more carefully because of obviously my mum was born in Nigeria, came to Norway with my dad in the 70s. She, she would tell me that in, in Nigeria when she was younger she would have to like, she had to carry water across different paths and she would make money that way as a, as, as a child and as a teenager. Right. So that is some form of entrepreneurship when you really think about it. Like the toughest woman of entrepreneurship probably. So maybe she could have become an entrepreneur. But I think one thing happens is that when you've kind of had that hardship from a young age and you get a bit of comfort, people tend to be like, okay, I've achieved this level of comfort. I just want to stay here. I don't want to risk going backwards and forward.

A (26:33)

I could see that different levels to it probably. Right. As, yeah, and, and just because you can doesn't mean you should.

B (26:38)

Right.

A (26:39)

Just because you can be honest, it doesn't mean you always should. Should if you're, you know, if you, you value Maybe more stability in a nursing job, which is very stable compared to other, a lot of other jobs. Right. So it's like, and, and the way I looked at it, like I was in tech, I didn't think any job was stable. Right. Like I, I could see in a second, you know, and so I actually think entrepreneurship is a lot of times safer route long term than being full time employee.

B (27:04)

Well, I, I totally agree with you. And, and I've realized this as the older I've gotten, because once you get older, you start looking at the world a bit more rational, Logically. Right. And I realized that in my old job, for instance, I didn't know how much money in the bank my business had, for instance. So I didn't know whether I was going to be there two months from that, three months from that. But now as an entrepreneur, I know that I've got 12 to 24 months Runway. So I know that, hey, regardless of what happens tomorrow, I've got that money in the bank. Right. And obviously, so continue to make more money. I can obviously adjust that accordingly. That's the control you only get from being an entrepreneur.

A (27:43)

That's true. It's like this, this mindset that I just heard you kind of like mention a little bit is what I heard was abundance. Right. Like there's a, there's an abundance of opportunities and all you need is, is time. Probably enough time to figure out which opportunity you want to go after. But there's never a scarcity of opportunities for you. Like, you'll create the, you'll see the opportunities, you'll create great them. And so I can relate to that for sure. I, I always thought that, hey, well, I didn't always think this is eventually, at some point early in my entrepreneurship career, there was a realization that I had is like, okay, I can figure anything out, but it, I will always need time. I was need some time. And time in business equals cash or cash equals time. And so if I had more cash, more Runway for my personal life, my business, then eventually I can figure out any problem.

B (28:36)

Absolutely.

A (28:37)

That's the way I viewed it. I'm curious what your, what your perspective is on that.

B (28:40)

No, no, that's exactly the way I view it. Because like I mentioned earlier, like, obviously we don't know what's going to happen a week from there, a month from now. Right. Or a year from now, two years from now. Right. But if you have Runway cash in the bank, that buys you time, buys you endless time, depending on how long your runways to figure things out. And unlike you, I have this mindset where I think there's just plenty of money in the world and I have the facts to back it up with. Because, you know, they're constantly printing out money. Every day, every week they're printing out money that's just floating in, in the sky. Right. And it's up to you to kind of grab that money using your own initiative, using your own knowledge. Right. Rather than just sitting back. Because if you sit back, all of those people that are just trying to grab the money, whether that's corporations, individual, they will literally grab the money and leave you with nothing. That's the sort, that's the way I look at the world almost. And I think that's the best way to look at it because by doing that you constantly know that there's money available. You just need to figure out exactly how you're going to go.

A (29:48)

Again, one vein is all you really need is one stream, I guess you can call it. And really what, when you say grab, and I know I'm going to translate this for anybody listening to this, what you're saying is that there is unlimited amount of problems in this world constantly being created already existing problems and also new problems are getting created every single day. And when you know that problems is equals, equals opportunity. It's the same thing. Problem equals opportunity. And when you have a solution to one of those problems, even if it's a partial solution, that is a stream of income potential.

B (30:24)

Yep, yep.

A (30:25)

And that's all it is. Problem business is just a solution to a problem repeating.

B (30:30)

Yeah. So it's interesting that you actually meant that because even just being able to like discover problems can lead to income a lot of times, like you might not even have the refined final product and still be able to make money. Like for instance with, I like to use as an example, like Elon Musk and SpaceX, you know, like they, it's all discovery like on how we're going to get to Mars. Right. But he's able to create a company out of that problem that hasn't actually arrived at the final solution yet and still generated a ton of money. So yeah, it's out there, absolutely out there. And it's just a question of really wanting to grab it and like really, you know, work. And towards that I'd say, I think that being willingness to believe that there is abundance of money out there is a fundamental advantage the entrepreneur has. Because a lot of people like throughout, like, let's just say we're going through like a cost of living Crisis. Right. Like, you know, personally, I'm not feeling it. I'm sure you're not feeling it. And it's, it's like that entrepreneurship mindset that kind of allows you to figure out that, hold on. If my bills are going to go up by let's just say 2000 this month, I'll figure out a way to make another 2000s just to cover that sort of thing. That's the belief. An entrepreneur will always have that, I guess. Right.

A (31:49)

You don't feel squeezed as much. You, you see it, see it. Your friends and your family go through it and it makes you like sad. Of course you don't want them to feel pain and discomfort, but you do. We don't really think that way. And people listening to this, you're, you're probably in the trans.

B (32:06)

Maybe you are.

A (32:07)

You don't think this way either, but you're probably in the transition of used to think that way. Now you're starting to see the abundance of things where you know how to create opportunity for yourself. Not that it's easy. No one's saying anything is easy. Nothing is easy. So just get rid of that word. But it's possible and worth it. And that's, that's the beautiful thing about this is you kind of take ownership of your own life when you're an entrepreneur.

B (32:31)

Ownership and accountability. Absolutely. Couldn't agree more with you on that point.

A (32:37)

Yoma. Where, where. What are you doing next? Like what's, what's the main initiative for Yoma? Are you going to continue to, to build your company and also to build your personal brand? Or like how do you see like 2026 and beyond kind of look like for you?

B (32:52)

Well, first of all, I'm really looking forward to 2026. Just let me start with that point because I've got three businesses that are all generating revenue, all doing really well. So the, the way I look at it now is I really want to work on scaling all three businesses, scaling the revenue, making sure that we increase the assets in my property businesses because that's more so an asset driven business than actually a revenue generating business because of the nature of acquiring property. So yeah, really just want to scale on these three businesses across all fronts and just making sure, sure we don't get complacent, you know, and we just keep the work ethic. Because one thing I've realized again is that the work ethic that we've put together as a team across all my ventures this year has been phenomenal. And that's the reason why we're doing so well across the board from that perspective.

A (33:51)

How big are your teams? How big are your teams across three businesses? I imagine the real estate business is probably, there's no full time team, it's probably just you.

B (34:00)

Yeah, yeah. My real estate business is just me and my brother right now in Venoy we've got seven people right now. Yeah. And then in my personal brand business, my media business, my YouTube business, I've got, I've got five people, I've got my secretary Danielle and I've got two video editors and, and I've got two designers. So yeah, six, I think. Five or six. Yeah.

A (34:25)

Okay, so the designers are probably doing thumbnails for you mostly. Sorry, the designers are probably thumbnails, correct?

B (34:32)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

A (34:35)

Amazing. Man, what you've done on YouTube is super impressive, you know that? But man, congrats on, on the growth that you've had in a very short period of time.

B (34:44)

I appreciate that it hasn't been easy, but one thing I, I, I kept looking at it was just the consistency element because I figured that if I'm willing to, you know, sort of put in more work than others, willing to learn as well as putting in work simultaneously, not being shy, not being afraid to put myself out there, I always knew I was going to do well. That's just been my mindset from, from day one. I've never been afraid to have people laugh at me or people say this about me. Those things have never really bothered me as long as I knew what the goal was. Because a lot of people do ask me about YouTube, like, because, you know, people do want to get started with YouTube but they're just worried about people laughing at them, not taking them seriously. But you know, I keep telling people that, listen, if you want to put yourself out there, you're just gonna have to get used to it. The most important thing that you can do for yourself is being willing to understand that you can always improve and you need to improve, but you will know exactly when you need to improve. Like for instance, when I first got started with YouTube, I used, I used my camera phone, you know, I didn't have mics, I didn't have a fancy camera or lights or anything of that. So I knew when the time was right for me to upgrade. I knew that myself. And, and I think that's the most beautiful thing about the journey. You will know when need to improve and when you need to upgrade, but the most important thing is to actually fall in love with the process of creating content, which is something I truly enjoy. And I think that is what drove me into YouTube, you know.

A (36:22)

Beautiful, man. Well, I salute you and I'm so appreciative for you coming on and sharing your time with us today. Yoma, where can people find you? Where can people learn more from you and connect with you?

B (36:34)

So I'm everywhere. You know, I'm on YouTube, Instagram, tick tock, LinkedIn under Yoma, James Cookor it's the same across the board. So very easy to find me.

A (36:47)

For anybody listening or watching, we'll we'll share all Yoma's links in the show notes or the description below. Yuma, thank you for your time, brother. I appreciate it.

B (36:56)

Fantastic code. It's been an absolute pleasure and thank you for having me on the show.

A (37:00)

Talk to you soon, man.

B (37:01)

Take care, man. Bye bye.