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Earn Your Leisure
From Cop to Millionaire: How Paul Alex Built a 7-Figure Business with Automation
01:06:09
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- [00:00]
A
All right, guys. Welcome back.
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B
Yes, sir.
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A
URL. We are home. And we got a special episode. Paul Espinosa.
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B
Yes.
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C
What's up, guys?
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B
In the flesh.
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A
How you doing?
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C
I'm doing good, man.
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A
How you doing?
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C
So using my government name, man, it's usually Paul, Alex.
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A
Oh, you want me to say Paul?
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C
I'm just kidding.
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A
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
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B
Easy, easy.
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A
I mean, we could go either way.
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C
Yeah, I'm just. Just kidding.
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B
I'll be clean as hell if the Fed's watching.
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C
So.
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A
Yeah, you know, award winning detective. I don't even know detectives won awards.
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C
They did, bro. I didn't know either. Like, literally, it wasn't until, like, they were like, hey, bro, we need you to come to this Saturday event. I was like, am I in trouble? And they're like, no, no, no, just come. And it was like, literally, like, probably like a hundred different, like, police officers, agents, like my command staff. And they were like, hey, here's his award. Thank you for being, you know, one of the top detectives in our area.
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B
Outstanding community service.
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C
Yeah, it's just talking to people, man. Yeah, that's what I always tell people, you know, especially in that field.
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B
How. How long were you in. In the law in Fort Miss Field?
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C
Dude, seven years.
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B
Seven.
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C
Seven years.
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B
Which date?
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C
In California.
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B
Okay.
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C
I worked for city of Oakland.
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B
Okay.
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C
Did. Did two years as, like, just a beat cop. And then I was volun. Told by. By. I remember Captain Williams. She. She was cool as hell. And she was just like, hey, Espinoza, you do good work. She's like, I'm put you in a detective role. Investigations. I was like, okay, dude, like, 20. What? Going into 28. I was just like, all right, let's do this. So go in there. And then you had, like, veterans, like, just salty, you know, coworkers. Just like two years of, you know, police work, dude. Like, really? And they put you as an investigator. So already with, like, the naysayers and, you know, haters or whatever goes into industry, but we could get into that.
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B
Yeah.
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A
All right. So you transitioned from law enforcement and became an entrepreneur and has helped thousands of entrepreneurs generate over 34 million, including 1 million. He's generated over 34 million, including 1 million in 60 days. And for the online marketing and has a company, MerchantAutomation.com. you guys participated in Invest Fest.
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C
Yeah, we did, man. It was a great event, by the way, guys.
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B
Appreciate that. If you're at Invest Fest, you may have heard of the company.
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A
Appreciate it. So this is an interesting story. We had another gentleman on Jamal King, I don't know if you heard, heard of his story, but he was a Chicago police officer.
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C
Yeah.
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A
For like 20 years. 9 to 5 million follow each other on Instagram.
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C
Never met him in person, but I would want to.
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A
Yeah. So like a cool cat. And then he, he got real big in real estate and he has real estate daycare center and personal security. So his thing was that he was a, a millionaire while he was still working 9 to 5 job. So he teach, he encourages people. Like that's his story. Nine to five millionaire.
- [02:48]
C
Yeah.
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A
Um, so similar situation as far as coming from law enforcement and then, you know, becoming a serial entrepreneur. So first and foremost, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. I appreciate you guys for sure. So. All right, so how did you, what was the steps that you took from even wanting to be an entrepreneur, being in law enforcement? Most of the time when people have a career like a police officer, I'm assuming they're just doing that. They're not, you know, doing full time entrepreneurship.
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C
Yeah, no, absolutely. And great question, guys. I mean, just, just flat out right there, like, I didn't know what I wanted to do when I got out of high school. I barely graduated high school, bro.
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A
And you're from San Francisco.
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C
I'm from San Francisco, yeah. And I was primarily raised in the East Bay, so it was probably like around 20 minutes away from San Francisco. But I come from an immigrant family. We weren't well off. My mom, she immigrated from Peru. My dad was from Mexico. They actually divorced when I was 2. So this is like the scenario I'm basically paying you since we were talking about movies before this and you thought.
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B
You were Puerto Rican.
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C
I thought my stepdad was Puerto Rican, Yeah, I did when I met him. He's from New York. He has an accent, you know, but yeah, man, I mean, ultimately, hardworking family, they poured a lot into me, but I was just that black sheep. Out of three siblings, I have two sisters, one's older, one's younger. They both studious, became registered nurses. My mom was a phlebotomist at UC San Francisco. And I would always see my parents just working majority of the time, so they were never at home. And I knew it was just because they were grinding for us, so I took that into consideration. I started working at 15 and a half, man, and barely graduated high school because I had no direction. I didn't really have any financial literacy. Right. Like, no mentors, nothing to tell me what to do with money. The age of 18, guess what? I started getting into nightclubs. And that's why I know in Invest Fest, man, I know you guys had to have like a mini army to set that up, man, because when I was throwing nightclubs, I was throwing nightclubs for like thousand people on a weekend myself. And funny story, a couple of the friends that. The little group that I would hang around with. I don't know if you guys know, like the rapper Love Rants, he had that song. It's probably like an older song. He had it with 50 cent. It was called Up east coast thing. It's like more with two short E40.
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B
Okay.
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C
But anyways, look him up after. Great guy. But anyways, that would be my circle. Like, they would be the promoters that would be handing out the flyers, like, like, you know, bringing in the audience, and I would be behind the scenes. So I was do more in like the operations logistics. And I did that for six years as basically my entrepreneurship journey. Right? And I didn't really have anyone to go ahead and say, like, hey, Paul, invest all that money that you made from nightclubs into another business. And that's with MySpace era. So, dude, I was in there, like learning HTML codes and sending out like little HTML flyers outside to, like bring people in. Just imagine if I had somebody, like pouring into me right there and then at that age, from 18 to 24, and say, like, hey, dude, like, you could take that skill and actually invest it into another business that make your money grow, right? And I almost gave up on just being an entrepreneur in itself, man, from that age. So six years in corporate America, worked for a company called Ecolab. Start from the ground up. It was basically a glorified dish machine repair guy. Dude, imagine getting paid, like minimum wage. You literally have to wear the ugliest uniform known to man, drive a big white van, and then go and get spat at by like, owners of restaurants, hotels, and saying, like, clean my or fix my dish machine. And they're like in major, major, like, chaos. Because restaurants, typically, there's a lot of dishes. You got the water splatter on, you got the food debris, dude. And then on top of that, they want you to sell, so you're doing inside sales. So that was my first taste in sales. Right? Okay. I did that from 21 to 26. Got promoted like three, almost four times, I think. Started learning soft skills, man, because at the end of the day, I was an introverted kid. And, you know, to be an entrepreneur, you've got to be sort of extroverted. You got to know how to talk to people. That's the biggest thing. So then at finally the age of like, 24, 25, I was with my ex of seven years. Her cousin was a SFPD sergeant. And he was just like, hey, bro, you know you're pretty good at the sales thing. You know how to talk to people, you know how to present yourself. Why don't you become a cop? Never crossed my mind. I was just like, cop. And to be honest, dude, during that time, I like, I fear the police. That's just what it is, right? I was just like, you should only deal with the police if something bad is going. It's going to happen, right? Or it's like your worst day that you're actually interacting with police. And that was my mindset back then. So then I remember, I was just like, all right, well, you know, sales wasn't fulfilling me anymore in corporate America. I was just, dude, I was done. I was just like, what am I doing here, right? At such a young age. And plus, here's the thing. I was driving. I remember a. Was it like a Chevy Malibu? At the time, it was like, we would call it buckets back in the day. So it was just like a small little bucket. But I was happy with it, man. It's just like, that's just what it is. I didn't really think of the bigger picture of how to elevate myself. So then I saw going into law enforcement as opportunity. Why? Number one, it was different. Number two, I didn't know nothing about it. And number three, the Oakland Police Department at that time, they had a big banner that I would drive by on the freeway going home every day from work, saying, make six figures being a police officer. And that's unheard of, man. Because if you think about it like that, I know you guys are from New York and you guys are from the east coast, but in the east coast, they don't get paid that. Especially not back then. This was roughly like 2013, 2014, right? So that was like six figures. As a cop. That's good money, right? So I went and applied. Didn't get picked up the first two times. Third time, finally got picked up. Why? Because I actually did a ton of community work, dude. Like, I went to see. I went to all the shelters. I really put my best foot forward, and I helped out, like, homeless people. I was at food banks, dude. I was putting in work. It was basically my second job. I was determined to be a police officer there. So then finally, that was the end. So volunteer from several of the shelters was like, hey, you're A good dude. You'll be a great officer here. So they gave, like, basically the blessing with the department. Department is like, all right, green light. You're in the academy. I got in there, dude. I'm telling you right now, I'm not paramilitary at all. I'm, you know, I come from, like, sales. I come from a diverse family. So at the end of the day, I'm more of, like a nurturer. Like, I speak from my heart. And over there, it's very paramilitary. They were just yelling at me like, do your work. I was like, dude, I'll do whatever you guys want me to do. Just quit yelling at me, please. Okay. And graduated academy, man. First two years, they put me in East Oakland, which. I don't know what's the worst part in New York, but imagine the worst part of New York and 10X that there was literally murders every week. There was 20 plus robberies. There was. It was just control chaos, dude. Which no regular person should be exposed to. But I was exposed to it. I was able to handle myself because of the life experience that I had already. And within those two years, got volunteered to go into investigations during those next five years. Towards the last two years, I was like, dude, I'm working 80 to 100 hour work weeks. I'm working my regular 40 hours as a detective and then another 40 hours to be able to live in a decent neighborhood, cover my mortgage, help my parents out, help my siblings out, and live life. That's it. Because the Bay Area is expensive, just like New York, just like Miami. It's. Inflation's through the roof back then.
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B
Yeah.
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C
So I was just trying to figure it out. And people, you know, they always say, yo, used to make almost a quarter of a million dollars as a cop. I was like, yes. But what you don't understand is the time that it took me to actually make that money. I had no life.
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B
So you made the. You made the six figures, the salary base, but the overtime added. Is that how you got to the.
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C
Yes.
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B
Okay.
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C
Yes. A lot of people don't realize that, like, with police work, like, let's say. And I always get this question, like, hey, Paul, like, let's say I have any money to start any business, and I have these ideas that I want to do. I was like, the path of least resistance. If I was to do it all over again, if I was 21. And you don't even need a college degree, because right now all police departments are hiring massively, right? They just need good people. Good people that actually can communicate with the community. And I would go ahead, apply to a police department, learn the foundations of what they're going to teach you and then make it your own. Go ahead. And it's customer service based job. That's what I tell people. It's customer service based. It doesn't matter what situation you're in, you're always going to stay neutral. You're going to go ahead and put your best foot forward. Now, majority of the departments, they're doing overtime, they have unlimited overtime because they're so low on law enforcement officers throughout the United States. So guess what? What do I call that in business? Leverage. Leverage that. Go ahead, you're not going to. What are you going to do when you go home? Are you going to go ahead, relax, Netflix, and then you're going to wonder why you haven't moved up in life, why you're not starting that business, why you can't afford that vehicle, or maybe why you're running low on bills is because you're not taking imperfect action to go ahead and make yourself uncomfortable and go get it. We have to go ahead and change or old life for our new life. And I always tell people that. Was I super uncomfortable being the police dude? I'm telling you right now, the first night I was exposed to police work is when I had to put my bulletproof vest on my uniform and people were like, hi officer. I was just like, there's no way. I was like, this feels so weird.
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B
You're that guy.
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C
I'm that guy. I was like, damn, dude, like, like this. I feel awkward, right? But I got used to it, actually. I feel like I've changed thousands of people's views on police work in that specific city because when they would meet me, dude, I'm a regular guy. And I always say that I'm an average dude. I'm an average dude that just did good decisions and that's it. I know how to communicate with people. So towards the last two years, man, this is what happened. This dramatically changed everything. And I think because I've been exposed to so many high end entrepreneurs just like your guys selves, but like mentors that I paid a ton of money to be in their circle because being in specific rooms changes your mindset. And I know you guys know that, but the last two years, man, I was in the part of my life where I was 29 and I was looking at it like, damn, I got no life. I got a horrible relationship right now because I was still with my ex seven years. It was Just toxic, bro, because I was never at home because I was at work. And then I was just like, what else can go wrong? And this is what happened. My biological dad died. My mom had a mini stroke. So half of her face was, like, paralyzed, bro. She's the hardest, hardest working woman I ever know in my life. My stepdad got on dialysis. So it's just like all these three factors, man, which equals what? Money, money, money that I didn't have. So ultimately, it put me on my back against the wall. What am I going to do? What am I gonna do? And at that moment, man, I was just like, you know what? I already had a side hustle, which this is why I'm a true believer in very simple businesses. So I started out with ATMs, initially. ATMs, automated teller machines, you know, cash machines that we see at Liquor Source.
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B
Yeah.
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C
And that was one of my first side hustles while I was in the police. And the police force was ATMs, which made me financially free. They make me a multimillionaire now, but it made me financially free. So I was able to generate anywhere between 12 to $15,000 in residual income from that.
- [14:14]
B
Where'd you get the idea? Because it feels like I'm listening to your story, and it feels like everything that you've gone through has prepared you for the next moment, Right. One of the things that you didn't have at the beginning, you said was financial education. So as you're making, I mean, a quarter million is a lot of money, but also, obviously, you put the grinding and the work in to get to that salary. How are you becoming financially disciplined? Who's putting you on to these ideas to say. Or are you going through neighborhoods and seeing a need and saying, all right, this is opportunity? Like, how. How are you, like, taking this perspective?
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C
No, man, that's. That's a great question. And what it was. It was actually a friend of mine. He had about 15 years more than me in police work. And I remember he would always be so happy to talk to me about entrepreneurship and business. See, in. In my police department, I'm not going to say that it was a toxic environment as far as with my employees, but their morale was down. So think about going to a workspace, right? And being around just people that complain all the time about what they do, right? And this is what allowed me to separate myself from them, because I'm a very optimistic guy, guys. I'm very solution driven. Dude, the house could be burning down. I'm going to find A solution to stop it, right? So that one friend who had 15 years on, he would always talk about business ideas and I would be the only one to hear him. So you know what, we'll sit there, drink coffee, he'd be like, dude, you know, it would be awesome. What can make us financially free? I was like, what? He's like, so I was going through the Internet, I was going through Facebook. And at this time, guys, I wasn't on social media for eight years, okay? So I was completely off the grid. And he was just like, dude, I saw this thing on social media with ATMs and you could put your own money in it, you could buy the machine for the manufacturer and then you can make residual income off of that. You can make off the fees, surcharge fees. And I was just like, oh, that's interesting, right? I didn't, I didn't take it seriously. Like I was going to do it at that time, but he had put it in my ear. And then when it came at the moment where all that critical events happened with my family, and I was just like, dude, I got to figure it out how I can make either the same amount I'm making right now working 80 to 100 hour work weeks, but reduce the time that I'm investing in doing that. And that was the first step. A lot of people, they think of, how can I become a millionaire right now? And that is the wrong path to think like that. And the reason why I say this is because in business, you guys always want to use leverage. You guys want to go through the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance for the average person like myself, for anybody watching this right now, is that you want to leverage what's already working in the market in any niche. Okay, so if you see that ATMs is working, why can't you do it? What is stopping you from doing it? Well, the thought process behind new entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs that don't go into business and don't know about investing is they think about the negative stuff first. And that's what it comes down to. Man, I thought of the negative stuff first when I first started my first couple businesses. My family still thinks negative stuff about starting businesses. Whenever I would tell my mom about starting, whether it was the ATMs or the credit card processing or probably the digital consulting, or moving to Miami or moving to San Diego the past few years, or even being a police officer, every single time that I would tell anybody my ideas, they would shoot them down. They would shoot them down and I know that everybody watching this right now, including you guys, you guys gone through the same thing where you guys are like, we're gonna have one of the biggest podcasts in financial literacy. And I could guarantee you, each one of you guys probably had one person.
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B
Say, sure, yeah, I got some text messages.
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C
Still saved your little podcast, right? I've had exes say that above me. Your little business is not gonna work. You're in law enforcement, you're a cop. What are you thinking of doing? Like, you're a grown man. Be serious about it. Which led to me splitting from an ex, but that's another story. But. But to go to it, man, that one friend is what put that idea. So when it came down to it, and I had my back against the wall, dude, it just made sense. I was able to delegate one day out of the week to it, and I was just like, okay, I have experience in sales. I know how to talk to people, so why not? And that's what. And that's ultimately how that idea was able to come to reality. I was able to go ahead, buy 10 ATMs initially. And at that time, ATMs cost around $2,100. Right now they cost around $2,300. And I was able to deploy them out there, man. I was able to go to businesses, talk to the owner, tell them the value about having my actual machines rather than the competitors. Because a lot of people think like, well, isn't the market saturated as of right now? Yes, the market is saturated because the business has been around for so long. And this is why I still have that company. It's still going, but is it growing massively like the past few years?
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B
The scaling of it.
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C
Exactly.
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B
So, so the ATM scenes now, you said they're getting 15,000.
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C
Yes. So I had 30 ATMs, which they were generating me $15,000 on a monthly basis.
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B
So you're doing $15,000 a month. I'm looking at this. At what point do you say, okay, the time that it's taking me to get this type of money is far less than what I'm doing in this career. It's time for me to make the pivot and look at entrepreneurship as a full time thing, not just a side income thing. I like, like hustle, because it takes grind. It takes a lot of dedication, takes a lot of sacrifice to do it. At what point is it you're saying, all right, I'm putting this, putting the badge down. This is what we're going with?
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C
Yeah, man. To be honest, it really comes down to your environment. In my environment, like I said, I came from a family that didn't have. We weren't rich, we weren't even middle class. We were lightweight in the poverty section. But it was the mindset of my parents and who was around me, basically because I felt like I had to justify my decision making. And I feel like a lot of people, especially nowadays, they have to justify the decision making, whether with their spouse, who's around, their circle, their friends, family, whoever it is. And that actually, I feel, blocks a lot of people from actually starting and being great. So when I went ahead and it took me 18 months to hit those numbers, the 12, $15,000 in residual income, that allowed me to reduce my workload from 80 to 100 hours to now 40 hours.
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B
So overtime is done.
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C
Overtime's done. Gotcha.
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B
Gotcha.
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C
So then at that stage of the game, I'm a serial entrepreneur. So I started thinking, okay, what else could I do? And then that's when I decided to jump on Facebook. I did decided to jump on Facebook. And remember, guys, I wasn't on social media for eight years since MySpace, so I didn't know what I was looking at. But this is coming in the beginning of 2020. And in the beginning of 2020, I get targeted on an ad from Zuckerberg, and it's a book from digital marketer called Russell Brunson. He actually has a pretty massive company called Clickfunnels. And then I got targeted by another marketer called Dan Henry, and his book was called Digital Millionaire. So inside these books, okay? I wasn't a reader, by the way, as you guys know, in the very beginning of the story, you know, I'm a black sheep in the family, so it wasn't stud. Dropped out of college after getting my associates because I needed to work. You know, I felt like as a man, I shouldn't be asking money from my parents, right? So then decided to get these books for about two bucks each. Read them, and I'm not shitting you, I read them like six times, both books. And I was just in awe, dude, because I'm sitting there at my desk and I'm like, this is amazing. This is like a movie, right? Go back to the movies, man. And I'm like, these guys were able to create multimillion dollar businesses off of digital products. And mind you, this isn't all to me because I haven't been online, so I haven't seen the change of. When Instagram appeared, Twitter appeared. Like, I heard of the names, but I never used them. And that just shows you you don't got to be hip to knowing social media to. To actually build up another business on social media or in the online space. Because if you take my example, I took those books, I had so much conviction that if it can work for those two gentlemen, that it could work for me. Because why? We're all human. We're all human. The power of executing imperfect action will take you farther than someone who is knowledgeable, somebody who has a master's, somebody who has a PhD but then is stuck on being a perfectionist. And being a perfectionist is a dream killer. Taking in perfect action. You're able to learn from the best school that I believe is the best school in life. And what is that school?
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B
Hard Knocks, man.
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C
Exactly.
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B
We got a doctorate.
- [23:16]
C
Exactly. Hey man, you gotta go through the trenches.
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B
Yeah.
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C
You know, at the end of the day, that's the best way to learn. Because you're never gonna forget from that experience. You're always gonna say, hey, we don't do that because we've already learned this way from our first venture or the first time that we attempted to this. And that's the best way to learn. So I was able to go ahead and invest my first $10,000 in actually learning how to go ahead and make my own program online. And I remember when I signed up for this first mentorship, it was, okay, what are you good at? That was the question they asked me. And I was just like, dude, I'm a cop. And I also do ATMs. They're like, go with ATMs because no one likes the police. Straight up. His words.
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B
And I was just like, good advice.
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C
Yeah. I was like, that was great advice at that time. I was like, all right, all right, good, good enough. So then I go ahead, man. And I launched the ATM program that I had. The first program that I launched was called 30 Day ATM Biz. I know it was not the sexiest name, but I went with it right in perfect action. And I also launched a Facebook group. Okay. And my idea was like, dude, I want to build a community of like minded individuals that want to talk about ATMs. That's it. Like, I'm going to help them out. Even if they're beginner, even if they don't pay me, I'm still going to help them out because I just want to add value. Right. Type of guy I am. So then started out with like five members. And throughout this next six month period, dude, we're talking about April of 2020 to about the end of 2020, I probably made roughly around $7,000 off of that program. And now, dude, I'm literally thinking, like, why is it that I haven't generated quite a bit of money from this program that I just launched? And you got these other guys with these claims saying like, dude, I'm making a hundred thousand, I'm making 300,000amonth, I'm making a million dollars. What's so special? So what did I do? I took a step back, right? Which entrepreneurs? We don't like doing that, but we have to do it. And I did market research. So market research is, I went to go see what my competitors are doing, okay? And I was just like, what is working for them? And I started analyzing it and I was just like, okay, if you're able to make any niche, think of any niche that you would want to do in life, you can make it simpler, faster and easier for people, especially in the online world. Because you got to think about it right now. Covid dramatically changed everybody's mindset when it comes to convenience. Okay? Think about it. People want things now, right? So if you're able to make it easier, you're gonna win no matter what industry you're in. So I went with that idea, that concept, especially during that time. I started the business, the online business, building it during COVID and I was just like, you know what? I know the people to go ahead and find locations for people. I know the people that can actually ship them out, the machines. I know the people that could provide them, the network. I'll just go ahead and talk to them. We'll create such an infrastructure. We'll all market where we actually are hands on and we build the businesses for people and we just charge a startup fee and that's it. We're not going to take any equity. They keep 100% of their profits and it's a win win. And then I remember it was in January of 2021, three days before my birthday. My birthday's in January 18th.
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A
Cool.
- [26:37]
C
Capricorn. But I remember I was talking to a military veteran and he goes, paul, I got no experience in going out there and talking to business owners. Do you have anything for me where you guys can actually help me one on one? And I have not even created the outline of this program which was to become a $27 million idea. Okay, at this time. But this was the aha moment. So I'm talking to this vet and I'm like, well, what if my team could go ahead and Actually, like, find the location for you, place the machines for you, and then we set up everything. And I even have a tech, like, go one on one with you and show you how to program and all that. Would you be interested in something like this? He goes, yeah, that sounds great to me, man. You're. You're saving me a ton of time. Awesome. How much? Dude, at that time, I was selling my program for 997 for $1,000. And I started looking at the overhead. I was like, okay, okay, it's roughly going to cost me this much. And how much do I want in profit? All right, cool. All right. $6,000. 15 minute conversation. 6,000. $6,000. Payment dramatically changed my mindset on the possibility of adding value, actually making an offer that's simpler, faster, and easier that people get it and they'll be willing to buy and pay for it. After that, man, it was like, literally push it to the limit. I started mass hiring my first month that I made six figures by myself. I was still in law enforcement, just like, you know, the 9 to 5 entrepreneur, millionaire, millionaire, millionaire, millionaire.
- [28:17]
B
That's a fact.
- [28:18]
C
Where he was still doing his law enforcement job. I made my first six figures in March of 2021. I made $120,000 with 80% net profit. And I was still a cop. And the only reason why I didn't quit right there and then is because of my environment. So what did I do? I went to the first girl that I truly love, my mom. I was like, hey, mom, check this out. This is crazy. You know, I was like, I just made this off of, like, one of my newest ventures that has nothing to do with my tangible ATM business. I think this could, like, essentially, like, make me financially free. And, well, I was already financially free with atms, but I'm like, real money. And she's like, okay, unless you've generated like a million dollars from it, don't quit. And I was like, why benefits? I mean, I mean, that's just what it is, benefits, right? It is important, man. It is important. But here's the thing. If you can make tens of thousands of dollars in profit, you can afford benefits, man. Benefits is like, what, thousand dollars for top tier benefits, man? You know, if you got a family, probably gonna cost you like 3000, but if you're making tens of thousands of dollars in profit, man, you could cover that all day. And that's the thing. And that's what I'm talking about, right? You know, me and my mom, we talk almost every other day. And the conversations that we have is just like, she didn't really believe me until she saw the actual transformation. And the transformation I'm talking about is maturity. Because I had to mature with the way that, number one, I would explain things to her. But then also, she had to see the concept actually work.
- [29:59]
B
Are you maturing as you're making this money? Because, I mean. I mean, at this point, it sounds like you're like, late 20s, maybe early 30s.
- [30:05]
C
Yeah.
- [30:06]
B
I could imagine. And this has happened, Right. Like, I walk into school, I'm a teacher.
- [30:10]
C
Yeah.
- [30:11]
B
I'm making money, doing my entrepreneurial journey, and I start making my salary, and I'm making more of my salary. And then you're making more than a principal. And if you're not mature enough, you're walking in there with a different feel, a different swag. Right. Yeah. You almost want to. You're trying to tell people how excited you are about this thing. They could care less. You're trying to tell them you're gonna go, I'm about to leave here. They could care less. Are you mature in this moment? Enough to say, all right. They don't see my vision. I know I'm leaving here at some point. I'm going to try to help as many people as possible.
- [30:41]
C
Yeah.
- [30:42]
B
And if I can't any, it doesn't matter. I'm just going to continue the journey. They'll get to watch it from a distance. Like, what's the mindset at this point?
- [30:48]
C
No, that's a great question, man. The mindset at this point is you guys got to think about it. Like, I had already started an ATM business before I got into anything related to digital marketing.
- [30:57]
B
Right.
- [30:58]
C
So I already had tried to help a few of my coworkers by trying to get them into that venture, and I just got shitted on. So I already had the mindset of I have to help myself first before I can help the masses. And that was the mindset that I initially took while I was still at my 9 to 5. So what I would recommend for everybody that is looking to build up capital to invest into their business. There's massive opportunities out there. There is. There truly is. For anyone. Okay. Whether it is actually going ahead. I was talking to the gentleman that was driving the Uber. I mean, there's so many ways you guys can make money to save up for a business to launch your idea. The thing is, what's going to separate those 2% of people that actually do it compared to the other 98% is the sacrifice of what you're willing to do to actually make that happen. So for me to paint the scenario even further, I was still running a tangible ATM business. I hired two part timers, which meant less profit for me. So they can manage it so I don't have to deal with loading the cash, dealing with customer complaints, all that jazz. And then the second part of this, I'm over here and I'm self educating myself on a brand new industry, which is digital marketing, which I didn't have like a mentor in front of me. Like, it was literally like courses, courses, right? So I really had to believe and self motivate myself every day, man, to actually get it done. And then on top of that, launching the actual program, which in itself, digital marketing is one of the most time intensive things you could do. And I'm pretty sure you guys all the experience on that, man, because I launched a podcast in March. So much work, I'm like, dude, I'm getting gray hairs every day, you know? So it just goes like, social media makes everything else look like it's so glamorous, dude. It's great being an entrepreneur, but if you were to ask me again, they're like, dude, if you were able to make the same money that you do in entrepreneurship, but you were just a cop, would you just stay as a cop? I would say yes, 100%. And the reason why is because entrepreneurship, there's always something that goes wrong every single day, no matter what it is. If you're big enough. If you're big enough, and when you get to the point where you have, let's say 50 to 100 employees, you're managing people, man. So think about it like that. I like the concept that you guys said with school and like, if you're a teacher, right, imagine now you're just dealing with adults. But each adult, they have to get along. They have to believe in the culture, on the vision that you created, and you have to keep driving that every single day. So now just imagine like we were talking about with one of my business partners earlier before the pod, is like, if people don't want to work for you, man, you can't build nothing great. This is why I believe, like somebody like Elon Musk, he got really good as a connector. He got really good at as being a connector, being a motivator, putting the right people at the right places to make his companies grow. Because he's not doing it all by himself, man. That's just what it comes down to, right? That's what I had to learn I'm more of a visionary guy. I'm not the smartest dude. I know how to place people. When I meet people and I talk to them, I could tell where they come from, if they're genuine, and then I'm able to see what they're good at. Because just because let's say you graduated with a PhD and you're super smart, you're an engineer, it doesn't mean I'm going to put you in a sales position. Because in a sales position, it's completely different dynamic and you have to have a different style of speaking to people, right? You have to be a little bit more, you could say entertaining, more engaging compared to somebody going in finance or somebody building processes, which is boring work, right? Nobody wants to do that, but we have to hire the smarter people to do that. But no. Yeah, man. So I was able to go ahead and delegate my ATM business. I was able to go ahead and I actually started up the digital consulting business and I was still working my 9 to 5. So this is what dramatically changed my mindset again. Remember, it's the people around you. I had a good friend, he young, young, young police sergeant. He just got accepted to be a sergeant. And I had told him he was one of the only ones I would talk to about business. And he was just like, hey, man, so how's your online gig going? And I was telling him, I was like, dude, look, like, this is amazing. He's like, what are you still doing here? He's like, bro, leave. Like, put in your two weeks and leave. Like, seriously, like, go grow that business. And after that conversation, man, even though my mom was totally against it, I was just like, okay, so I went all in, man. I didn't just quit, I, I put my two weeks, called my real estate agent and I was like, hey, I want to sell my house. He's like, why? Because I just want to leave the Bay Area. I want to start over in a new environment that's going to motivate me. I want to be around people that are going to motivate me to be great. And that's what it was. This is key. This is huge. Because you got to think about it like this. If you're in an environment where everybody else is around you is negative, right, and you're trying to build something great, how much harder is it going to be for that person to succeed? It's going to be massively hard because entrepreneurship in itself is hard because you have to have that self belief inside of you to go ahead and actually take that imperfect action that you need to. But if you have people around you consistently every day going ahead and telling you you can't do it, this is not going to work. They're just waiting for your demise, man. So that's what, that's why I had to move from the Bay Area to San Diego. Why did I pick San Diego? I didn't know nobody there, man. It did have a beautiful beach. So I went to a penthouse downtown San Diego. Literally, dude. Like, I would just work, sit on my office where I'm able to see the view of the ocean, wake up every day, had a nice balcony, drink my coffee, get to work, and that's it. That's how I was able to grow the first company called atm together.com to 2 million the first year. And then the upcoming years, it grew up to 27 million.
- [37:12]
A
So what are some steps for people that want to get into the digital marketing space? Like what, what, what are the how to steps as far as to how to make money in digital marketing?
- [37:21]
C
Oh, yeah, man. So you gotta realize that, number one, there is a couple of key factors that comes into play. Your story and personal branding is everything. If you have a personal brand, you gotta really look at yourself and take out like a notepad if you're watching this right now, or like type notes on your laptop. But you gotta really emphasize all the bullet points. What makes your personal brand great? Where is it that you came from? What was your environment? This is actually something that I do with my mentees. It's called your million dollar story. If you guys go to any of my ventures I have online that I've created over the past four years, Million Dollar stories, essentially a PDF or a guide that I usually give people for free that don't know me. The reason why is because, let's say, if you were trying to sell a product, who has the higher chance of converting as a customer, someone who relates to you, who likes you, who knows you provide value because you resonate with their story, or somebody who's totally cold that just saw your ad, Right? It's gonna be the person that resonates with your story. This is why I'm a big believer, especially in the online space, that all of us as entrepreneurs, we can nurture our audience. Going through the path of having them sign up, let's say to your website or an email list, and then almost thinking that they should immediately buy. That's actually the path of least resistance. And what I've learned is that it actually ends up costing Entrepreneurs online that want to make money, a lot more money on ad spend because you have to keep spending money so Zuckerberg can push your ads out and all that jazz. Right? But if you guys go ahead and you tell your story, you actually make reels. And if you guys follow me on Instagram, Paul, Alex, you will see all my reels. It's about parts of my life, man. Even I just got married two months ago.
- [39:13]
A
Congratulations, man.
- [39:14]
C
Yeah, thank you. But with my wife, we have such a great, dynamic story. And the thing is, like I told her when, before she got married to me, I told her everything. Good, bad that she's going to have to experience in our marriage. And what I mean by bad, I mean that the long days I'm going to be in the office, you know, the times that I'm not even going to, I'm not going to be able to possibly spend with her because, you know, I'm building a future for us and our future kids, you know, and I, and I think as a provider, you know, that's, that's number one. But to go back to it, man, for somebody that wants to start, really think about if you want to be what we call the attractive character, Their attractive character is essentially the person behind the company. Okay. Whatever product you have, are you the attractive character? Now, if you're not the attractive character or you don't want to go ahead and share your story, that's fine. I would recommend to go ahead and actually hire somebody that you can use their story. That's what I've been able to do as well. I've been able to take mentees that successfully taken my program and I've actually reached out specifically to a few of them. I'm like, hey, man, you know, I'm building a third company and I need somebody to take over as the face of marketing. Not saying that you're going to take over as the decision making, but just we're going to leverage your story. We're going to leverage how you were able to use my program or my services. And then guess what, we're going to share your story and I'm going to pay you a retainer for that. And it's successfully been done, man. I mean, there has to be attractive character. If you look at social media nowadays, why is it so powerful for marketing? Because back then, I'm 36, but back then, guys, when I was in my teens, in my 20s, who were the companies that were able to afford billboards, news stations? We're talking about just the cost of marketing itself compared to nowadays, right. It makes the playing field leveled for the average person to go ahead and actually market their product. So if you want to save money in marketing your product, make sure that you create your million dollar story, meaning that you guys create a free asset, free digital asset that people can read. It could even be what we like calling a mini course where people are able to see videos and you're explaining how you were able to come from point A to the success, what people are looking at. From there you're able to articulate what your product, what your item, what your service, what your program is and you have a higher chance of converting your audience. That is truly the path of least resistance when you're starting a digital marketing. Not a lot of people teach that. They go ahead and they start now. New platforms like School, School's a great platform, S K O O L But here's the thing, right? And this is some, I guess, information that I've heard that with school. As a beginner, you gotta really think about it like this. If you charge people, let's say 20 bucks a month to join your community, how many people are you going to need to make $20,000 a month to actually live from making a product like that? So when you really think about it, is that the path of least resistance? No. If anybody's looking into creating a program, the path of least resistance here is high ticket. High ticket is essentially 5K. But you have to add massive value in order to charge that people have to want to be around you. Proximity, right? This is why people charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend time with them for a weekend. But you're getting massive value that can completely change your life. Me, myself, I've invested over a million dollars in just my self education, man, not even college self education. Because I'm a believer that if I'm around in the same room with people that are greater than me, okay, then I'm going to be able to pick up on what makes them great and then I'm going to be able to add it to my bolt, I'm going to be able to use it, execute and then that's going to convert into money. And most people don't think like that. They think it's a waste of time because they don't see the instant gratification anymore. So within digital marketing guys, the path to least resistance would be sharing your story, creating a personal brand, and then waiting as long as you can to launch your product or your offer. Just like equivalent to starting a Podcast. Right. Right now I'm in the stages of still learning the podcast, but. But look at my results. I'm an average guy. It's called the level of podcast with Paul Alex. Here's the strategy that I do and I know you guys are going to love this because. Because you guys do your thing.
- [43:44]
B
Let me take some notes, man.
- [43:47]
C
So there was a. A podcaster, he goes by Ryan Steuben. So roughly seven years ago, he did five minute motivational. Just episodes, bro. Five minutes. Think about that. What target audience are you trying to attract with that? People that don't have time. Right. So I would listen to these motivational quotes when I would wake up first thing, because I believe in waking up with some motivational, powerful affirmations. It's just how it's going to go ahead and it's going to allow you to actually be the best person that you can every single day. And the same thing, when I go to sleep, I wanted to listen to positivity. I don't want to go to bed mad. I don't want to go to bed angry, worried, you know, have anxiety. None of that, man. You have to go ahead and truly believe the words that you're absorbing every day. So when it comes down to it, I used to listen to this podcast. I was like, dude, it's so great. And then he ended it. And I'm like, why? It's what made him successful. It's what initially started him off to greatness. Like now the dude is a monster in business. Okay. So when I started this podcast back in March of this year and 2024, I was just like, all right, I'm ready. I'm going to call it the Level up podcast with Paul Alex. It's just going to be self help. That's it. Self help, motivational, mainly talk about mindset. Just like what we're talking about, right? Because why? That is the number one needle mover behind any entrepreneur. When it comes to any business, it doesn't matter if you have all the resources. How many times have you guys read of highly successful families? And then the son or the daughter ends up going ahead broke. Even though they were set up for life, man, they had a silver spoon in their mouth. Why? Because it's their mindset. Everything comes back to mindset, man. You guys wouldn't be able to create all of the. You guys created. Been able to scale invest fest the way it is, which was massive. You guys did a phenomenal job within four years because it's taking people like Live Nation for example, years to get where you guys are at, right? But the reason why you guys been able to do that is because of your mindset. You know, I'm pretty sure you guys probably have social proof where you guys written this on the wall or on a piece of paper on your notes. And you're probably looking at, you're like, damn, this is crazy, bro. Me and my guys, we talk about that all the time. So my podcast, I keep it five minutes, I do Monday through Sunday, guys, last two months we reached 2 million listeners and I'm number two in business. I'm number 56 on all categories right now.
- [46:21]
A
Congratulations.
- [46:21]
B
Congrats, man.
- [46:22]
C
Thanks, man. It's impressive, but it just shows you like the, the power of going ahead and taking a perfect action. Like I said, I don't know nothing about podcasts, guys, like, and people are like, why is he saying that? He's embarrassing himself. No, I'm not. I'm being honest. As an entrepreneur, you're not going to know everything. The thing is being willing to get uncomfortable. And I was super uncomfortable, man. I was just like, dude, am I saying this right? Like, am I going ahead and saying like what people want to hear? And it was tough, man. Just imagine you guys sitting up, especially your guys first episodes, you guys are putting out these podcasts and you're putting your soul and your passion into it, man. And then there's only two or three people listening to it. You probably get a review on YouTube saying, Haha, no one's listening to your right? And you feel like crap. But no one sees that. No one sees the beginning. And it. And it wasn't until now, dude, we got like millions of listeners and it's freaking awesome because I know I'm making a difference. I get messages every day. People are like, dude, I listen to your podcast. It motivates me when I go to work. Like, it's so awesome. And guys, I don't even do ads. I don't sell anything on there. It's all free. And the reason why is because the person who adds the most value, especially right now in 2024, is going to win. If you're able to add value to people's lives, where they're transforming their mindset and even their environments, dude, you're going to have a forever client. That's what I've been able to build for myself. I've been able to help 4,000 clients throughout different niches, different small businesses. But clients that bought into the first business, they go ahead and buy into the Second business and then the third business, and then they go ahead and they actually absorb everything else that you create. I mean, it's awesome, dude.
- [48:04]
A
Well, what's up? I was going to say merchant automation.
- [48:07]
C
Yeah, it's a great story, man. So with merchant automation, that's primarily what I'm working on now. Merchant automation was an idea that actually started in December of 2022. And since I was already doing ATMs, I was already like in the financial services industry, right? So credit card terminals, that's what it is, credit card processing, right. How many times do we go to restaurants, convenience stores, bodegas, all that, and we pay like a convenience fee or the owners end up paying that convenience fee for allowing you to use your credit card. Right? So I met two mentors out of California where I'm originally from, and they're nine figure entrepreneurs. They built a massive company called Paybacks. And they are an ISO independent sales organization. And what we've been able to do is they basically connected with somebody that knew me who went to dinner and they were like, Paul, this is the big blue ocean. Here's the opportunity. Okay, credit card processing. What do you think about it right now? And like with most people when they first hear this, they're like, dude, it's saturated. Everybody has credit card terminal. What are you talking about? Right? But what you don't know is what you don't know, man. So essentially I went ahead and I got asking deeper questions and they go and they tell me, well, think about it like this. There is a strategy that was launched and back then, it was launched two years ago, it's launched called the cash discount program. And this cash discount program is where essentially you could go ahead and charge the merchant's clients the convenience fee instead of the merchant paying for the convenience fees. So let's say if you have a bodega, that right now, on average they typically make around $200,000 in revenue going through their credit card machines. If you as the credit card terminal provider were to offer this service to them, it does a couple things and it's amazing. Okay? Number one, it saves the business owner who is using your credit card terminal 100% of the fees. So now if that man was paying $2,000 a month for credit card fees, because that's the average what somebody would pay if they were doing $200,000 in revenue, dude, you just helped them save a lot of money for an entire year. We're talking about what, $24,000. And think about it, that's a Nice chunk of change. What can that owner do with that money? Right? And I'm like, okay, all right, all right. You got something going on. All right, what else? And they're like, you can also use this as a marketing technique. What do you mean? Because I'm a marketer. He's like, well, when you go into these businesses, your approach of adding value, educating them, and building foundation is the way you want to go. Think about it like this. The big three Chase, Wells Fargo, bank of America, they offer credit card processing right to business owners. But do they have local agents that you can actually call and be like, hey, Carl, what's up, man? Hey, I have an issue with my credit card processing machine, man. Like, well, what's going on? You can't. Usually when you call, it's going to be somebody from out of the country or it's going to be a banker who doesn't really care. Okay, so what's our advantage here is we're a smaller company who cares? And this is where the value comes into play again. Every company that I start now, the first thing I want to emphasize is value. How much value can I provide to the customer so they can see that we actually care? And then in return, guess what? We're getting paid. That's just the equal equation that most people miss, man. We don't talk about credit card terminals. We don't even talk about the service. We talk about how we can save them money. We could talk about how we can make their systems better, and we could talk about how we can help them build a secondary source of residual income. So it does two things. Saves the merchant, the store owner, 100% of their fees. And number two, let's say if one of you guys or both of you guys were interested in actually providing the credit card terminals, now you guys are making residuals off of their clients. In return, what if you get actual merchants that are like, hey, but I want to make some money? Too easy. You guys can actually split the residuals if the revenue is big enough. Let's say it's 200K. You guys get 1% of the residuals from that 200K.
- [52:29]
B
What is that, 1% of 200,000.
- [52:34]
C
$2,000. $2,000, dude, for one terminal, one account. Let me ask you guys something. Okay?
- [52:40]
B
How many terminals are you doing, though?
- [52:42]
C
So I'm personally doing 80. So right now my residual income is at 30,000. Okay, but we're talking about for my clients that I help get into this business now as well, because here's my Bigger picture. Here's my vision, okay? If you guys don't see it, my vision is, yes, I could go ahead and I could travel to New York. I could travel to these different states, close these deals myself.
- [53:05]
B
Right?
- [53:07]
C
That is the harder path. My mindset as an entrepreneur, it is what is the path of least resistance Sense. If I already built a successful company the first time, I have 4,000 people that believe and trust me. Why not show them the new opportunity which I have and help them make a secondary source or a third source of residual income? Because that's what it comes down to. It comes down to time, Right? The new rich, I don't believe the rich anymore, really care about the Lamborghinis and the mansions. No, dude, it's time. Freedom. How great is it for you guys to have businesses and be able to travel the world without worrying or stressing about the income? You know, that's true freedom. It's in here, man. It's just like knowing that, hey, my bills are going to get covered, business is still going to handle, and I don't got to be in there on Slack or any of these communication systems, talking to my team, making sure they're doing what they're doing right. And that's what it is. That's what I focus on first to cover my bills.
- [54:06]
B
So when you had the ATMs, you got merchant automation. It feels like these are fintech companies in a sense. Right. So when I, when I think fintech, I think valuation.
- [54:17]
C
Yeah.
- [54:18]
B
And I think if we umbrella, it becomes a holding company for a larger vision. Where it's now, this is a fintech company who can now come and at one point maybe package this up and sell it. Is that on the vision board? And then back to that part where you're saying division, it's like, all right, I got 4,000 people that trust me, I teach them the skill. Is there, is there percentage inside there that now is a kickback because you've, you're giving them locations, correct?
- [54:44]
C
Okay, yeah, that's good, man. You know what you're doing. Okay. But, but yes, it, it, it, it comes. Here's the thing. Somebody who doesn't have the experience in business, when you first start off, let's be honest, a lot of people are greedy. They're gonna be like, I want it all myself. And I was like that too, back in my nightclub promotion days, which is why it didn't last. Right. So at the end of the day, when it comes down to, I'd rather partner up with somebody who knows what they're doing and give them a percentage. The reason why, because I knew that they're gonna do good business by me because it also affects their business. So that's exactly what we do. We essentially, we'll start them up. Okay. Where we set them up with everything, whether they're a proactive entrepreneur or whether you're more of a passive investor. Okay. Just really depends on time. How much time do you have to invest into starting this business? And I have to the same conversation with the driver, but it goes into, if you have, let's say roughly four to five hours a week and you're willing to go ahead and sit through what we call weekly clinics with my partners where we'll actually teach you, hands on, man. How to go ahead and sell this. Because I feel that everybody in this country knows at least 10 businesses that they could approach and ask a very simple question. Do you pay credit card processing fees? And less than 5% of businesses in the United States right now are using cash discount program. So probably going to be a high percentage that that person's going to say yes. Okay. So in business we call this big blue ocean. There's a massive opportunity for a lot of people. And people are not catching this on yet because everybody that does merchant services, guess what, they're baby boomers. They're people that have been in the game for so long, dude, that they haven't integrated digital marketing. So now that I've met guys that have been in the game for 20 years and I'm basically the face, I am their partners and I'm more into using marketing. I'm now exposing this technique because I see it as an opportunity to team up with entrepreneurs and even 9 to 5ers that are looking to invest into something sustainable but then also willing to get mentored by us. Okay. Because it's a partnership. And if we're able to get hundreds of people in every single state, oh, dude, yeah. Valuation is going to go up. Sounds like fintech. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna be very honest with you guys. I'm never gonna retire. And I know a lot of people are like, like, no, you're gonna retire. No, I'm never gonna retire. It's just in me, dude. I've always been a worker. Like, with me it's just working smarter, not harder. You know, I have back injuries from law enforcement, dude. Like, it just, I, it wore, it wore me down, bro. Just seven years in that city, it was crazy. But now I work smarter. So what I'm Trying to build is. I'm in the next stage of my life, man. I just got married, dude. So now I'm looking to making some kids. I want, like, three or four kids with my wife. Even my wife, she's like, babe, I want to launch, like, a consulting program for women that need help finding, like, their true love of their life. And I'm like, hell, yeah, let's do it. You know, I have the resources. Like, I know what to do. Like, it's in my head. Let's. Let's rock. And that's what I'm really trying to do, man. I'm really trying to build things that I'm passionate about. And this is. This is one of them. Merchant automation is one of them, because it's already changed the lives of dozens of my mentees, dude. Like, I have so many stories. If you guys go either on my website or on my Instagram, that's what I promote the most. I don't even promote what I have. I could give. I could care what I have. It's more about them. It's about the transformation of what we're doing for people. So to give you a great example, I did another podcast with another podcaster, and I have brought one of my mentees who dramatically changed his life. Dude, within seven months, this guy went from owning a construction company, okay, in Colorado, and he has a wife, he has two kids, and he gave his first chance with us because of our social proof, our results. And he talked to one of our prior clients, and he went all in, dude. And he went all in. And within seven months, he was able to scale to 40 accounts. And I asked him, I interviewed him in front of my audience, and I was like, hey, man, how was it possible that you went to 40 accounts without having, like, a massive team like me? And he goes and he says, the product sells itself. It truly does. Because you think about it, what are the cons behind it? The objections that we've gotten is, well, what if my clients don't want to pay their own convenience fee to use their credit card, right? But when you think about it, that only gets into effect if they're doing high ticket. Let's say you're buying a nice watch. Watch is like $90,000 now. You got to pay 4% of that. More than likely, that's not going to be your ideal client. You want to go for actual customers, like businesses that people use every day. Breakfast, cafe shops, coffee shops, food trucks, convenience stores, bodegas. What is it? Auto repair shops, things that have High volume of transactions. Those are the best businesses to deploy this exact strategy because they're paying a very small percentage. And the volume, you got to think about it like this. You're getting paid per swipe. So the more volume it has, the better it is for your business. Because it's not going to affect the actual client buying the service or the product. And that's what I always tell people. I mean, right now we have over a thousand accounts that we've signed up under our umbrella in the past year. And it works. We don't get no kickback as far as just like, hey, I don't want your machine, I don't want your service here. No, people love it because it's saving the business owners tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the people that were helping get into this business, it's making them a lot of residuals where they're able to quit their 9 to 5. And they're also able to focus on this growing residual income that's going to last them a lifetime, man. It's a beautiful thing.
- [60:55]
B
How large scale can you grow these accounts? Obviously, bodegas, grocery stores, that makes sense. Are you looking at sporting venues, large accounts like that, arenas, where you're talking about 20,000 people coming in, you're talking about 100, 000 people. If you're at a college Saturday, you know, you go to your arenas, you're talking about 110, 000, your Ohio State is that. Can it grow that large scale?
- [61:18]
C
It can, it can. That's the future, okay? That's the future, man. We, we literally just started a little bit over a year and within 60 days, I did it as a one man startup and we were already a million dollar company within 60 days, cash collected, dude, like it was amazing. But the reason why is because we started with that push behind the current clientele that we had. They believed in us, they believed in my vision when I, you know, presented it to them and I was just like, hey guys, you know, this is the vision I have for this new company. This is the great opportunity that I believe that I'm investing in for my family. So it's like, think about it. If you were able to invest into Uber in the very beginning, the humble beginnings of Uber or Amazon, this could go that big. It really can. With the right management, with the right belief in the right culture of employees that we do have. I truly believe that just because I'm leading that and that's why I've been able to go ahead and hire CEOs for the rest of my businesses, because I want to go all in on this one because of that belief. Right. But to go into what you were just saying is, I think that's the future, but not now. The reason why I want to focus on helping hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs first accomplish true financial freedom through this, and then we can focus. I'm pretty sure throughout those hundreds of thousands of mentees or agents that we do get, there's probably going to be a handful of people that already going to have the connections, because I'm a true believer in our network. Right. Your network can truly change your net worth. So what's going to end up happening is we're probably going to get one or two people that have such a humongous, humongous network that they're going to be like, dude, I can present this to my people and I could get all these accounts for myself. And that's what's happening already. We're getting a few people, like top affiliate companies that work with, like Russell Brunson, for example, that they're like, hey, dude, we have over 200 basically foot soldiers all over the east coast that can go ahead and present this to accounts. He's like, how can we set it up with your business where essentially we could do a partnership? You do the training, you do the deployment of the terminals, you find the location, and you just direct our 200 affiliates, and I'll pay them, you know, whatever I get from my residuals. And I was like, yeah, dude, let's do it. So that's something that we're working on for later on this year. But do you see, like, the opportunity is huge, man. I'm sure you guys have a huge network, you know, huge network that you're probably thinking right now, you're like, bro, I know so many restaurant owners, so that can use this because it's going to save them a ton of money. And then on the back end, it's going to make you guys a lot of money on residuals.
- [64:06]
A
So before we leave, what's some departing words that you can leave to entrepreneurship, your journey that you personally went through? That kind of. Some words of wisdom?
- [64:16]
C
Yeah, no, absolutely, man. I mean, you got to believe in yourself. At the end of the day, it's the conviction and the passion that you have as a person. Don't do yourself a disservice by actually listening to people that haven't gotten to the life that you dream of or the lifestyle that you want to actually live. My entire life, I'VE been judged. I've been judged when I was a corporate America. I've been judged in high school. I've been judged as a police officer. I've had, you know, co workers say, hey, dude, you're not gonna. You're gonna be a bad cop. But then it went in reverse, right? Because of the conviction and belief that I had in myself, at the end of the day, no one can take that away from you. So key takeaway here. Anyone listening to this? Just do it. Just do it. Literally just like. Like Nike. Just do it. Imperfect action is going to win over getting stuck on analysis paralysis. The best thing I ever did in my life was invest 20 bucks on a couple of books. And I know it sounds cliche on a couple of books that changed my mindset and dramatically changed the lifestyle of my family, man. It dramatically changed everything for everybody, dude. Bloodline breaker. And that's what it's about, man.
- [65:22]
B
We appreciate you. We appreciate you being that investor. Us, man. What was your takeaway from the event?
- [65:27]
C
Oh, dude, it was awesome. It was awesome. Like I said, man, like, I was a Niko promoter for, like, six years, and I know what it takes to basically, like, orchestrate and organize an event that massive. And I think you guys, you guys killed it, dude. You guys did a great job. I think it's a great platform for people that really want to educate themselves in entrepreneurship. And I think, dude, I'm just waiting to see what you guys do next.
- [65:52]
B
It's 2025.
- [65:54]
A
Appreciate it. How can people follow you on social media, website, everything?
- [65:58]
C
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's Instagram, Paul, Alex. And then the website isjust merchant automation dot com. Guys.
- [66:04]
A
There you have. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, guys. Rocking with. See you next week.
- [66:08]
B
Peace.