Earn Your Leisure – THE KEYS TO MAKE $250k A YEAR SELLING ANY PRODUCT
Podcast: Earn Your Leisure
Hosts: Rashad Bilal & Troy Millings
Episode Date: December 8, 2025
Main Theme: How to build a successful sales-based business, transition from a 9-to-5, develop a winning mindset, and practical steps to reach $250k a year selling any product.
Episode Overview
This episode delves into the practical and psychological strategies behind earning a quarter-million dollars a year through product sales. The hosts, Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, along with an entrepreneurial guest, unpack actionable steps for transitioning from traditional employment to entrepreneurship, mastering the sales process, establishing effective goals, and developing habits to sustain long-term success.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Building Your Business on the Side
Timestamps: [03:16]–[04:24]
- The entrepreneurial guest shares how he started his business while working a full-time job, utilizing time on his "off days" to generate extra income.
- Set modest goals to start, such as selling four T-shirts at $25 each on days off—focusing on consistent small wins.
- Transition gradually: As income from the side business increases, scale back traditional work hours methodically.
Quote:
"If I can put time into my job, I can put time into my business. So I started hitting these hundred dollars each off day...by the time I quit my job, I was working a day a week." — Entrepreneur/Host [03:49]
2. The Gradual Transition Out of a 9-to-5
Timestamps: [04:24]–[05:47]
- Success comes from incremental progress, not drastic leaps.
- Avoid the “all or nothing” approach; let momentum and income naturally phase out your day job.
- The hardest part is staying committed, especially when profits are small and discouragement sets in.
Quote:
"It wasn't really a fear [to leave the job] because it happened so gradually... The hard part was sticking when I'm only making $200 a week, or... sticking when I'm not really making any money." — Entrepreneur/Host [04:41]
3. The Life Cycle of a Good Idea
Timestamps: [05:47]–[07:25]
- Five Stages:
- Excitement
- Evolution (improving the idea)
- Engagement (getting others involved)
- Resistance (facing rejection or obstacles)
- Expansion (scaling)
- It's critical to keep excitement alive at every stage, especially during Evolution and Resistance.
- Use resistance (e.g., rejection) as feedback to improve the product/service instead of jumping to a new idea.
Quote:
"Excitement, then evolution, then engagement... but then with engagement comes resistance... Just don't get excited about something else. Fight through it. Take all that data, get re-excited about the same concept. Retool it.” — Entrepreneur/Host [06:58]
4. Mastering the Sales Mindset: Handling “No”
Timestamps: [07:29]–[09:12]
- Sales often begin at the first "no"—most people are conditioned to initially reject offers.
- Persistence is key: make prospective clients say "no" at least twice, sometimes more.
- Overcoming personal discomfort and fear of rejection is crucial. Rejection is NOT personal.
Quotes:
- "A sale starts when somebody says no." — Co-host [07:29]
- "One of my mentors said, yo, make them tell you no twice... I was able to leave the Cheesecake Factory and jump into the kiosk. I make you tell me no till you walk away." — Entrepreneur/Host [08:06]
5. Sales as a Foundational Skill
Timestamps: [09:12]–[09:24]
- The hosts strongly encourage anyone interested in business to spend at least a year selling anything (life insurance, products, etc.), as it develops essential resilience and communication skills.
Quote:
"If you could sell something, it takes that fear away and you'll realize that the worst thing in the world is not a no." — Co-host [09:12]
6. Focusing on Work Goals, Not Only Revenue
Timestamps: [13:04]–[18:20]
- Shift focus from sales numbers to activity numbers: prioritize the number of people you approach, not just sales completed.
- Set work goals (e.g., "ask five people per day") rather than reward goals—keep your eye on effort, which you can control.
- Consistency builds skill, expands pipelines, and eventually drives results.
Quotes:
- "Make your goal the work, not the reward...the reward is scary, because if you don't get it, you're disappointed. But what you can control is the work." — Entrepreneur/Host [14:10]
- "First step is just set a goal...ideally, if you're new in entrepreneurship, you don't want to set a sales goal or reward goal. You want to set a work goal." — Entrepreneur/Host [17:13]
7. Persistence and Avoiding Discouragement
Timestamps: [16:19]–[19:42]
- Persistence in sales translates to persistence in all areas of business and life.
- Conditioning yourself to push through initial “no”—from selling to relationships—strengthens your resilience muscle.
- Many entrepreneurs fail because they only set monetary goals ("I want to make $100k") without reverse-engineering the activities needed to achieve them.
Quotes:
- "How you do anything is how you do everything." — Entrepreneur/Host [16:19]
- "The goal is not to sell ten products. The goal is to speak to a hundred people." — Co-host [19:11]
Actionable Steps For Listeners
Transitioning from 9-to-5 to Entrepreneurship
- Start by leveraging free time to build side income—don’t jump ship prematurely.
- Set small, achievable daily/weekly goals and monitor progress.
- As income from your side business replaces your work income, phase out your job hours.
Developing the Sales Habit
- Make your daily/weekly goal centered around the number of people you reach out to, not just the number of sales.
- View every “no” as a necessary step toward eventual success and as valuable data.
- Build resilience by treating work activity (calls, pitches, networking) as non-negotiable.
Calculating Real Revenue Goals
- Instead of aiming for a big annual target, break it down by product and per-action metrics.
- Example: To make $2,000/week, determine how many products must be sold and then reverse-engineer how many prospects you’ll need to reach.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “If I can put time into my job, I can put time into my business.” — Entrepreneur/Host [03:49]
- “Just don’t get excited about something else. Fight through it. Take all that data, get re-excited about the same concept.” — Entrepreneur/Host [07:00]
- “A sale starts when somebody says no.” — Co-host [07:29]
- “Make them tell you no more than once.” — Entrepreneur/Host [08:08]
- “Make your goal the work, not the reward.” — Entrepreneur/Host [14:10]
- “How you do anything is how you do everything.” — Entrepreneur/Host [16:19]
- “The goal is not to sell ten products. The goal is to speak to a hundred people.” — Co-host [19:11]
Episode Segment Timestamps
- [03:16] Starting a side hustle on off-days
- [05:47] The lifecycle of a good idea
- [07:29] The real sales process begins at “no”
- [13:04] Setting work goals and overcoming refusal
- [16:19] Persistence as a transferable skill
- [17:13] Step-by-step for transitioning to entrepreneurship
- [19:11] Reverse-engineering earnings and activity targets
Tone & Style
The conversation is lively, relatable, and candid. The hosts and guest use humor and real-life anecdotes, making potentially intimidating business lessons accessible and actionable.
Summary
This episode of Earn Your Leisure is a masterclass for aspiring entrepreneurs—especially those looking to replace their 9-to-5 income with sales. It breaks down the incremental steps, resilient mindset, and day-to-day practices necessary to reach $250k (and beyond) in annual sales. Key takeaways include building gradually, focusing on effort over immediate results, reframing rejection, and understanding that how you approach sales and persistence will spill positively into every other aspect of your life and business.