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Problems to Profit
From Rock Bottom to $100 Million: How Aria Boushehri Built a Sales Empire in Just 3 Years
00:42:52
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- [00:04]
A
Hey guys, welcome back to Problems to Profit, man. Again, I'm excited. We've had a plethora of amazing guests on this show and this one is not going to disappoint. Like, I am thrilled to be sitting here with Aria Boucheri. This guy is a badass.
- [00:21]
B
Okay.
- [00:21]
A
Like we were sitting on a panel and it was a panel of like nine figure entrepreneurs having to give advice. And I kept looking over and I was like, somebody bring their kid up here? Like, who's that guy? Like, I mean, you know, he kind of looks 18. He's not, he's 28. Like I got his age out of him. But it's awesome when like, like, you know, and my wife is very complimentary. She's like, you know, gray is the first part of grace, so I'm still sexy. Like, okay, my hair is going grace, not gray. But I'm sitting up there with this like 28 year old kid who's spouting like brilliant advice to a room full of, of six and seven figure entrepreneurs. When I got to meet him, I was so hoping that we could play some. And here we are right now and we're just going to kind of plug in, get his story, hear a little about it, and maybe diffuse some of the bullshit that some of you young guys have about what's possible.
- [01:19]
B
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
- [01:20]
A
Thanks for joining us, bro.
- [01:21]
B
Yeah, I appreciate you having me. It's a pleasure.
- [01:24]
A
So excited. So you're 28 years old?
- [01:27]
B
Yes.
- [01:28]
A
At the moment you're, you're, you're doing right around like nine figures.
- [01:32]
B
Yeah.
- [01:32]
A
Let me, let me, let me say this too, because your business is less than three years old.
- [01:36]
B
Correct.
- [01:37]
A
Okay. Based on where you're scaling and the quality of the, the, I guess it's a service that you provide to your customers. You might double in the next 12 to 24 months and double again in the next 12 to 24 months after that. Yeah, we're going to get into that because like every 20 year old needs to hear what you have to say. But before we get into that, before we tap into like some of the business and some of the tactics or hacks, like I like to call them. Let's. I want, I want to hear a little bit of your story because 28, it's just fun. Like, I love being up there with younger guys. Like, I wish I was still 28. So like, I want to be you when I grow up.
- [02:14]
B
I want to be you. Yeah. I mean, my story goes way back and my family came from Iran and I have an older brother, older sister, and they were born in Iran and then I was born in Houston. So they came and then I was born in Houston. So first generation American. So I learned a lot when I was younger. Like the hustle, the immigrant culture, like, they grew up in an environment where they didn't know, right. They didn't know the language, they didn't know people, right. They had to find their. Find a way to win, basically. When I hit 18, 19, I moved out, dropped out of college and went to Austin. And I had so many business ideas. I had so many. I had like an Amazon FBA business. I had an app, a social media app, which was like, kind of like Tinder, but it wasn't Tinder. And then I needed to make money, so I applied to a job on. Indeed. It was a sales position, just entry level sales at a fitness company. At the time I was 19. I started working there and I was really good. I mean, when you're that young and you don't have schooling, you don't have a plan B, as people call it. No family, no one's in a. It's a new city. You. You got to make it work. Um, which is kind of relates to my, the family dynamic my family came from. Same thing with me going to Austin.
- [03:44]
A
There's a theme here. You gotta make it work.
- [03:46]
B
Yeah, you gotta make it work. So started there and then I was selling. I was really good and I was breaking records. I moved to trainer and then manager. I had a team probably 20 there. And then that company imploded due to leadership reasons. And then I went to another call center that I was higher level manager, doing the same thing, but for clients. And then that company as well imploded for leadership reasons. And then I went to another call center that I partnered into. I was a minority share partner before salesbound. And we're. We were scaling, we were doing amazing, happy. Everyone was making money, but the partners and the majority leaders came there. Right.
- [04:41]
A
So wait, wait, wait. I want to just. You know, there was this psychic that, you know, Chloe the psychic. I want to see if I can like plug in. Did that one. Hold on. I'm getting that. It failed for leadership reasons, right?
- [04:54]
B
Yeah, for sure.
- [04:55]
A
Oh, wow. Maybe I have a new career path. How is that affecting you? You're going through, you're climbing the corporate ladder, you're jumping in all these companies, you're working your ass off and you don't really have a choice. Like, you're a young kid, your family's not there. You really have nothing to fall back on outside of maybe sleeping in your car.
- [05:13]
B
Right.
- [05:14]
A
Success leaves clues, but so does failures. You haven't been through working for one idiot. You've been through now working for three idiots or sets of idiots, Correct. That have put you in the same bad circumstance. Like, we all know the ending of the story, but the ending's cool when you understand the process of how people got there. We all know that. Okay, well now he's like this 28 year old nine figure entrepreneur, but this third time, because you own some of that, you own some of. I picked these people, right? They own the fuck up, but you own the choice. Where are you at this point in time? You're basically like the third failure that you've trusted other people and now you're on your ass starting over again.
- [05:59]
B
Where's your mind after leaving the third one? My mind? Well, it was a long decision. It was one of those decisions where I knew a year before that I needed to go on my own. I was like, hey, this isn't working out. Like doing it with partners like this and partnerships are so important. Right? Like I brought it up on the panel when we were there. Partnerships are the most important thing because you, you, you see them more than your spouse a lot of the time. You're talking to them every day. Every day, especially on the startup phase, you're talking to them 10 hours a day. So if not more so I knew a year before and we were like, we were trying to create some sort of agreement where I was like, hey, can I acquire like the sales? Can I acquire some of the, some of the, the IP here, Yada, yada, yada. And a lot, and a lot of the other partners weren't, weren't having it. So it was very hard. Like it was one of those decisions where I was like, hey, if, if I leave at this moment without acquiring any of these sales like ip, then I have to start fully over from scratch. And it was one of those decisions where Josh, my CEO now called me and said, hey bro, if you don't do it now, you're never gonna do it. You're literally gonna get stuck. You're never going to do it. You're gonna hate your life, you're gonna regret it.
- [07:29]
A
Josh has angel wings, bro. That was like a guardian angel as a person.
- [07:33]
B
Yeah, I've been with Josh since the first call center. So he's outdie for him for sure. Yeah, he's my brother for sure.
- [07:42]
A
I mean, that's awesome, man. There's so many cool ways that we could take this. But so it's a year long decision and that's not a long decision. But I'm sure that felt like 20 years. But it took you a year to make this decision, to take the plunge. Were you angry? Were you pissed? Were you frustrated? Because it kind of sounds like obviously I don't know your situation completely. I wasn't there. But I can't hypothesize here that your partners weren't allowing you to do what you needed to do to get the business where it needed to be to make the right investments because they just, they wanted all the profits and the cash out of it and they were kind of living on your work and work ethic. And you know, I call that milking the baby. Like normally, like if a woman has a baby, she provides the milk. Like sometimes people are fucking stupid. They're like, I'm going to have a baby and I'm going to milk that fucking baby. And it's like that would be the wrong approach to a successful business. How about you let it grow up then when you retire, maybe it'll support you. So where were you at? Were you angry? Were you stressed? Were you frustrated? Were you depressed? Like. Like what? What's that taking you to?
- [08:41]
B
I was, I wasn't depressed. I was. There was a lot of. That's a good question. I would. There was a lot of emotions for sure. There's one thing that you did say and it was the milking the cow reference. Right. So one of the reasons that I had to depart was sure a lot of the profits were being put back into the company that I didn't think would was making sense at the time. But the biggest reason I left, every call center had its own thing, but one theme with every single business that I was a part of, except salesman now but like all the other ones before was the leadership integrity. For me that's a big thing. Because if I'm. Especially the third one, if I'm putting my name on something and there's no integrity from the other leaders then and I'm like, it's my reputation on the line as well. And I'm a man of integrity and morals and ethics. So that was actually a bigger reason of why I left was because of the integrity of the brand, of the other partners and the other leaders at the time.
- [09:59]
A
I love that.
- [10:00]
B
Yeah.
- [10:00]
A
I mean, frankly, you were unequally yoked. There was nothing you could do to pull that yoke without entitling and guaranteeing the success of people that were going to be pulling in the opposite direction to rip you off. And maybe not. Maybe they weren't trying to hurt you or trying to cheat you, but the integrity wasn't there for either the consumer or you or somebody within the process. And in the long run, like, that's cancer, bro. It grows and it kills you.
- [10:27]
B
Yeah, Yeah.
- [10:29]
A
I have a belief on partnerships personally, and I've been through a lot of them. Like, when I was a younger entrepreneur, I was probably ignorant or stupid or both, depending on the day. I made so many partnerships, and I think sometimes I partnered with people because I was either insecure about where I was wanting to, like, about whether I could do it. Like, I needed a teammate to feel like the strength to do it. And other times it was like, oh, you know what? Like, that guy's got money. Like, you know, whatever. Like, there was a million reasons for jumping into partnerships and all, but just a few, they went wrong.
- [11:04]
B
Yeah.
- [11:05]
A
So my role with partnerships is they're either with terms or, for a term, like, you know, if we're partnering in investment, that's different. But if we're partnering in an active business, I mean, that's like a marriage. Yeah. And a lot of times partners are fucking idiots. Like, they're like, well, they base it on a marriage. They're like, it's still death do us part. So you work forever. I'm gonna go home and sleep.
- [11:25]
B
What?
- [11:26]
A
Like, oh, yeah, you're the young guy. So let me. How many times you get buried in.
- [11:30]
B
That one early on in the career? Yeah, there was a lot of that.
- [11:34]
A
Can you tow your load too, dude?
- [11:36]
B
Yeah, for sure. I mean, the integrity matters for me. I'm a big believer. No matter what religion you believe in, no matter what faith, If I had to attach any sort of label to my faith and spirituality, it would be karma. Like, what goes out comes back in. And a lot of that's what we really reside sales bound with is, like, what goes out comes back in. The way we treat clients, the way we treat people, but also the way you walk life. Right. Like, how you make decisions. Like, this decision that I'm making right now, it's going to come right back to me. So how am I leading? Am I leading by example? Is this a good karma position and good karma decision, or is this a. If this comes back to me, I'm going to be upset. Like, that's not how all the other businesses that I was a part of led. And that was why salesbound started with that in Mind, it was like that was a core principle of ours, which is lead with karma first.
- [12:47]
A
And let's talk a little bit about salesbound. Like you've mentioned. That's the name of your new company. That's where like at that time, leave the last company. We don't have to mention its name.
- [12:57]
B
Yeah.
- [12:57]
A
Start your own. You're 26 at that point. Or 25.
- [13:02]
B
25. Yeah.
- [13:03]
A
You have the main skill which is marketing sales, probably some branding skills too. You have the main skills of growth because those are the things it takes to grow a business or any, any type of entity that's going to generate revenue. I mean non profit for profit. You need all those things, right?
- [13:18]
B
Sure.
- [13:19]
A
And you're tired of living out of the operational skill sets of people that don't care when you have the things that are driving the business 25 years old. You've built this thing over the last three years. What is it? What, what, what is salesbound?
- [13:32]
B
So tell us a little bit about.
- [13:34]
A
The company like what you created.
- [13:35]
B
So we specialize in calling customers post purchase on behalf of direct to consumer brands. And we are like a concierge call center that sells more products to the direct to consumer brands to their customers and clients.
- [13:54]
A
So you call customers post purchase. So like, so say somebody goes online and they buy a product from an influencer. You've got their email, you've got their phone number, whatever they filled out on a form.
- [14:05]
B
You're.
- [14:06]
A
Are you, are you kind of like an upsell opportunity?
- [14:09]
B
Exactly. So that's, that's our main business. We have other revenue drivers. Like we have the abandoned cart business in our, in our company where we're calling the abandoned carts. So if someone goes to the cart and they leave, we call them and sell them, you know, get them on. Hey, why did you not buy? Let's, let's get you on the package that you're looking at. But our bigger revenue driver is the, what we call welcome calls. So we call the customers right after they buy and we're another upsell over the phone. But we're almost like coaches. We even call ourselves like specialists and coaches depending on the brand. And we're calling on behalf of that brand to their customers, welcoming them. Very pleasant call. It's not like Wolf of Wall Street. Like it's a really nice call. Good tonality. You know, everyone's, it's really upbeat and then we're walking them through a pitch, pitching them other products that that brand has and other services that that brand has.
- [15:09]
A
So maybe some integrity in the call.
- [15:12]
B
There is a lot of integrity. Yeah.
- [15:13]
A
So you're showing up adding value, showing that you care. You probably take the time to make sure your team is an expert on whatever products they're calling on behalf of so that they know the product, understand the client's needs, understand the niche, the target customer, what all these things that we can go through and dive into if you want. But then you, you, you, you meet the client where they're at and go through with integrity to actually help them.
- [15:35]
B
Yep, exactly.
- [15:37]
A
And that works, huh? You don't, you don't need to be the used car salesman. The douchebag.
- [15:41]
B
Yeah. Whenever I've, I've. When we started sales bound until now, I've. We even have it on our website where it's like. I've tried to push the narrative of what people think of a call center sales team. People think of sleazy salesman, suit and tie, car salesman type of people trying to just be so aggressive and slam products down the customer's throats. The call centers that I was a part of, they were all pro, like, pro aggressive. For us, we're pro, soft assumptive. Like we're not very aggressive on the phone. We're more telling the customer we're not really selling. We're telling, like, we're like, hey, this is what you're gonna do based off your goals. And if the customer doesn't want to do it, that's okay. Because our business revolves around leads. And if the lead doesn't want to do it at the time, then you just move on to the next lead. You don't need to slam the product down their throat and sell them well.
- [16:48]
A
And it's, it's pretty brilliant that you're also calling customers post first purchase because these are people that have already given buying signs, they've indicated that they're interested in the product. Maybe they've already received the product. So you're almost showing up as like a customer service department to, to help the people add value more than, than a hustle and close team, right?
- [17:09]
B
Yeah, it's a very hot lead, for sure.
- [17:11]
A
Yeah. I mean, yeah, I, I love the model. I love the brilliance of the model. Did you come up with that piece or did you model that elsewhere?
- [17:21]
B
No, I, I. The model in itself. So for the client, that, that's kind of our model. But for calling the customer, that's where I kind of learned that when I was at my first call center at the first sales job when I was 19 and I, I just moved to Austin that I learned it there of you could call these leads abandoned carts and customers and they'll buy because they're interested in whatever it is they just saw. And I learned that concept there. My first sales job, I'm from the.
- [17:59]
A
Brick and mortar world. You're from like kind of the click and order and calling and following up world. And it's funny because I think I've had some success in the brick and mortar world, but I always like, look at you guys in the click and order world and sitting across from like a 28 year old who's also a genius. I'm like, God, this is so cool. Like, like, I think you guys are geniuses. You're fascinating.
- [18:16]
B
In this whole world, you're also a genius.
- [18:18]
A
But I mean, yeah, thank you. But everybody likes the stuff that they're not doing, right? Like, it's for sure fun to learn that stuff. And right now, like, hey, let me, let me, let me like, man crush on your business, bro. So you know what I want to tap you into, if it's okay, is what you do, especially at the scale you're doing, because you have a good sized team. I think we talked about two, three hundred people, right?
- [18:42]
B
Yeah.
- [18:42]
A
With the revenue you're doing, there's a large volume of calls, There's a lot going on. You obviously understand selling. Okay, would you mind kind of like maybe defining sales? Because I think a lot of people, they hear sales and they hear a trigger word. Like, I think sales is like a beautiful process. I love selling. Like, I, I think if you care about somebody, you should be selling them on something you think will help them. But I don't think people get that. I think people have negative connotations. Can you give us kind of like your definition of sales?
- [19:19]
B
Wow, that is loaded. I think off the top of my head.
- [19:24]
A
Sorry, not sorry.
- [19:25]
B
Yeah, no, it's great. I think off the top of my head it would be having an interested prospect. So someone who shows interest in whatever it is you're selling, showing them the possibilities and what it is, what their future is going to look like whenever they have purchased what it is they're interested in. That's a sale.
- [19:51]
A
You're telling them a story. I'm going to try to reframe this in my own words. You correct me where I'm wrong. That's okay. Yeah, you're telling them a story of what their life looks like post use of whatever this product is, which is a solution to whatever problem they had, which is why they purchased it or were Interested in it.
- [20:10]
B
Right.
- [20:11]
A
You're showing them what the other side looks like and why their life is better tomorrow.
- [20:15]
B
Right.
- [20:16]
A
Wow, man. It's like that whole Peter Gerber book. Facts tell, stories sell. You're literally telling them story.
- [20:24]
B
Yeah.
- [20:24]
A
Of them.
- [20:25]
B
Yeah. That's what I believe. Selling is like sales is selling, and sales, which can correlate and be similar, is sharing, telling, not selling, and really painting the picture. Future pacing is basically like what the term would be.
- [20:44]
A
Okay, that's a cool term.
- [20:45]
B
A future pacing type of storytelling for the customer, but only if it's. If the customer's interested in it. I don't believe in sales to someone who, like, if there's a product that someone doesn't need and they're really not interested in it, I'm highly against selling that person that product. There's no reason to be selling that. There's billions of people on earth. Go sell it to someone else.
- [21:13]
A
There's another call.
- [21:14]
B
There's another.
- [21:15]
A
Take the next call.
- [21:15]
B
There's another lead. Yeah.
- [21:17]
A
You don't gotta be the Wolf of Wall Street.
- [21:19]
B
No, you don't. You really don't.
- [21:20]
A
Or 6th street in Austin. Right?
- [21:24]
B
There's 6th Street. Yes. Sorry.
- [21:26]
A
I know, I know. There's like, a new street now. I went to all these, like, cool houses in Austin.
- [21:29]
B
What's that so much? Sixth Street. Yeah, the main party street.
- [21:32]
A
So Sixth Street's the main party street. But what's the. What's the other street that has all the little cute houses with all the restaurants?
- [21:38]
B
Rainy.
- [21:38]
A
Rainy. That place was awesome. High school music. I was, like, walking down. I was like, what the hell? Where am I?
- [21:44]
B
Yeah.
- [21:44]
A
Like, it was like Disneyland for drunks.
- [21:46]
B
Yeah. There's also Second street now. So Second. Really cool. High scale, good restaurant. There's a lot. Yeah.
- [21:52]
A
I have a house in New Brunfels. Man, I'm gonna come down and visit you one of these days. We're gonna have to. I don't drink much, but I'll go see all the little bars. They're cool, man. I want to dive, like, a few layers deeper into operations of a company. Because you eliminated partners in one case that had some integrity issues and maybe even some maturity issues in operating a business that they could be forgiven for. Right, but you also dealt with some bosses that had no idea what they were doing and ran their companies into the ground and hurt you. How did you do it differently? What were some of the problems that you solved when you in. Because a lot of the questions around business are around optimization. A lot of the questions around scaling. But 28, to build a business that big in three years or less, you had to do both.
- [22:43]
B
Yeah. So the worst advice I got, I love this, was all the agency owners. You're going to hear this. If you work with clients, stick to one. And again, it makes sense to, to a degree. But for us it didn't. Which was stick to one or two or maybe three big clients and just collect the check and don't grow anymore. That's advice I hear a lot. And I thought about it when I heard. I'm like, you know, does that make sense? That was advice from the first sales job I got. And breaking that mold is what's helped us to scale because we were able to now have a system in place to onboard virtually as many clients as we want and still be able to scale every single one to the degree that we want to scale it and not sacrifice the sales of all the other previous clients.
- [23:56]
A
I like that. And I like that A, because it means you had to add a layer of innovation to your business, which I'd love to go into as well. But also because if you can add, you know, everybody says there's riches in the niches, and I think that's true. And I mean, if I'm you, I'm probably not going to take the same sales guy and have him sell 30 products. I might build teams around each product or whatever. But like, clients change. Like out front of my homes when we build them, I put up front of my model homes, I put a sign and it says, we reserve the right to refuse service to assholes. And sometimes the clients are wonderful when they walk in the front door to look at the house.
- [24:31]
B
Yeah.
- [24:32]
A
Later they're screaming at my secretary. And you know, we've got a real simple process. We've got a clause in our contract. We can cancel any time. And what we found, and this is crazy because builders, you know, one of the biggest things that eats them from the ass end, Warranty. Our warranty cost is one sixth of our nearest competitor.
- [24:50]
B
Wow.
- [24:50]
A
But we build a good home and we don't deal with assholes. We eliminate them through the gestation process of the home production.
- [24:58]
B
Right.
- [24:58]
A
So like, it's like as your clients are evolving on whatever journey they're on, you can be more selective, adding new ones, downsizing one. And like, like, that's got to be like a leveraged market advantage for sure. Most people, they're scaling these agencies, they're running out and they're grabbing whatever, like discount va. They can to, like, virtual assistant, like, out of India or the Philippines at $2 an hour, who barely speak English. Like, how are you overcoming that? Like, because I. I don't see Americans trusting that. I. I hate those sales calls. I answer them.
- [25:35]
B
Yeah.
- [25:35]
A
I talk right back. Like, how do you overcome that?
- [25:38]
B
So our entire. Not just sales team, our entire team is in Austin. So we have a couple offices in Austin. One big one and smaller ones, but all in Austin. The sales team, everyone is together. The operations team, everyone is together. Quality assurance team is together. CS team is together. Executives are all together. Everyone's together. And I am a true believer that especially for what we do, if you do it In Austin, the USA, it costs maybe 20 times more. I don't know. I don't know what the number is, but it costs a lot more. However, the production value of and the quality that we have in our team in Austin, compared to what we could have if we did the same thing in, like, the Philippines or Colombia, like, near shore or offshore, is way outweighs the cost, especially because we're doing a lot of sales.
- [26:43]
A
Okay. So, I mean, you're swerving me, bro. I'm having fun with you. Like, I love you so much.
- [26:50]
B
Yeah, I could go for hours.
- [26:52]
A
You're swerving me a little bit here. Because if that's the case and you're actually using American employees, one, a huge compliment to you. I also believe in hiring people. Where I'm at, I want to see a person, feel a person, and then I think if I can't value the people around me, but I want to sell to the people around me, then I'm taking from my market, not giving back. So kudos to you on that. That's beautiful. Not that I'm saying there's no place for VAs, but I don't think it's the everything place. So I'm really excited to hear that. But you cannot be the cheapest provider if you're spending more.
- [27:29]
B
Yeah, we're not.
- [27:31]
A
So let's talk about price versus value versus results.
- [27:34]
B
Yeah. So we are definitely not. There are other call centers in the industry that try to do what we do, and they charge or they charge probably 10 to 15% cheaper than what we charge. However, I'm. And when people bring that up when they're trying to onboard with me, I'm like, okay, that's great to hear, period. This is how we charge. Because I know the. Our team, dude, Our team. And they're gonna be watching this too. They love watching some of the stuff that I'm on. And they're incredible. And I know that one of our sales team members, you could put them against 50 people or you could put them against anybody. Not even, like, overseas or off. Like, anyone in the. Anyone in the world, they'll outsell. They'll win no matter what. That's the mindset we have in the company. And with the value. So we charge more, but for value, we sell 2, 3 times 4, 5, 10 times more with quality than anyone else. And I'm a firm, but, like, I stand behind that.
- [28:53]
A
Marketing, sales, scaling, all of these are parts to the business. But there's nothing more important in a business. Like my offices, They're. I have some sexy offices. We have loudspeakers. It sounds more like a fucking club. Like, we have great cultures. Oh, hell yeah.
- [29:12]
B
Yeah, we always have music playing. We have like 10 Sonos speakers all over.
- [29:16]
A
I love that. Okay, cool.
- [29:17]
B
We'll get along even more.
- [29:18]
A
But, like, I look around that shit, which is expensive, right? And I often think, like, my people are my greatest resource, and you cannot measure KPIs on someone that's not there with you the way that you can on someone that is so, so massive. Kudos to you, like, growing up and having to figure it out. You know, I think business owners become social psychologists. Where did you get, like, your. Your people education? Because you're obviously charismatic, You've obviously built a team. You're young. But I'd like you to kind of like, frame some advice for the other young guys, the importance of people, because they don't get it and they don't understand this. Like, I was talking to one of the folks at the hotel today, and it was just like a little conversation. I was drinking a coffee, hanging out. I had nothing else to do. And I was talking to a little gal, and she was like, you know, well, I'm not in marketing. I'm not in sales. And I was like, you're in customer service, right? She's like, yeah. I was like, you're in marketing. You're marketing for me to come back. If you do a good job, right? Everyone's in marketing. Everyone's in sales. If I was to ask you market and sell some of your best advice on how to work with people to other young entrepreneurs that need to hear this shit, what would two or three things be that you could give the young guys on entrepreneurship and sales specifically?
- [30:43]
B
Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is, for me growing up, the biggest thing I learned from my family, my brother, sister, mom, dad, even uncles, everyone in the family is like this, which is just having integrity, like having good ethics and having good morals, being a good person and genuinely being a good person. Not acting like a good person. Like, being a good person is first, because if you're starting a business and you're trying to scale your business and you are scaling a business, you have a big business, no matter what it is, the first step is to be a good person because people feel that. People know that. And whether you're trying to sell or you're trying to close or you're trying to get a mentor or you're trying to get advice or you're trying to exit, you're trying to get an investor, all these people feel and know who you are and your intentions and what you're trying to do. So I think the first would be just being a good person.
- [31:53]
A
No, I love that, But I want to challenge that.
- [31:56]
B
Yeah.
- [31:56]
A
Because a lot of people get distracted on this because they don't know who is the arbiter of good. Who should you be a good person for when everyone in the world is telling you how you need to fucking behave?
- [32:10]
B
That's fair. But I think there are some golden rules. Okay. Yeah, let's go. I think. I think some golden rules, like don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat. There's like, those are some really due to others. What you would want to do on. What you would want done to you. Karma, right? Like we brought up earlier, I think karma is a big thing. Like, it's just whatever you want done into your life. Everything is energy, right? Like, everything is energy that.
- [32:44]
A
Can I tell you something? I'm so glad you said that.
- [32:46]
B
Please.
- [32:48]
A
Every single guest, with or without prompting. Yeah, everything is energy. Every single guest. You said that like, you're my fifth podcast episode. Okay. David Baer broke my podcast virginity. Like, we've had, like, you're my fifth episode. And every single guest has said, everything is energy. Like, I love coincidences, bro. So anyway, keep, keep, keep coming.
- [33:12]
B
Yeah, Everything is energy. Everything. And if. If you're. If your energy is coming from a place of lack, from a place of scarcity, from a place of need, need, need. Take, take, take. And from a place of steal, lie, and cheat. Again, the. The integrity part, then it's. It's going to really close, sell, scale, sure, it can work to a degree, but, like, when. When you're really going with the right energy, because everything is energy. The right mindset, the right integrity, the right morals. That's like, again, there's A lot more pieces to it. But I do think that that's a good foundation.
- [33:53]
A
Well, no, I think the golden rule is the perfect frame. I mean, I think you answered perfectly because I mean I wasn't looking for anything specific. I mean, I don't know if that's how I'd have answered it or maybe somebody else would answer it differently. But that's probably the perfect answer is like there's, there's golden rules, like do unto others, right? Like, you know, do what you would want someone to do to you. Like, you know, it's, it's, it's fair. And maybe we can compound it and go say okay, well you know, you should, you can gut check it. Like if it feels wrong, maybe don't fucking do it.
- [34:26]
B
Always right?
- [34:27]
A
Maybe don't do it. But that's a perfect first one. Like what's another one that we. Because I feel like you're the perfect guy. Like, I mean I can go into some 40 year old guy that started at 25 and I mean I was probably, I probably hit like, I guess I hit probably nine figures in my mid to late 30s. I don't know. But like I had a much longer journey than you to be fair. And if I'm looking at the nine figures, it was out of like a title company. And title companies like your revenue is huge because you're pulling in the cash. Everybody else is closing, but your gross profit is 1% and then your net profit is next to nothing. So I mean you can close $100 million. I remember one of my first videos, I did a $200 million in revenue. I mean that was true and I had a lot of investments in that. My cash flow is good, but a huge percentage of that came from a title company. And when I went and looked at the net cash of that, I was like, okay, well maybe I shouldn't brag. So much revenue is vanity profits or sanity. So like nine figures didn't really mean much. Like I'd rather have like a seven figure business with a high profit margin than that nine figure business that would be on par less than the seven figure with a high margin. Does that make sense? Yeah, so like anyway, like obviously I swerve like a squirrel, but like let's go. Another piece of advice here, man.
- [35:53]
B
Yeah, lead by example, right? Like that. I think the first one you could, you could frame it as leading by example. Like having dive into leadership.
- [36:00]
A
What does leadership mean to you?
- [36:02]
B
To me, leadership is carving out a path for others to be able to win. And Being able to create a culture where. Being able to create a culture and help drive a culture. Again, help drive. Not be the only driver, but help drive the culture to be able to win collectively as a team. That's what I think leadership is.
- [36:35]
A
I love the answer, and I love the synchronicities between everyone. My. One of my favorite things to say to entrepreneurs is the difference between leadership and manipulation is huge and small at the same time. Right? Like, a leader influences you and a manipulator influences you. They both guide your behaviors. The difference is the leader cares about you and the manipulator doesn't. So it's a huge difference, but it's a minor piece of the puzzle, like that one little ingredient. I mean, a cake is very different if the salt and the sugar are switched.
- [37:07]
B
Right?
- [37:08]
A
So, you know, I mean, it just. I love that piece of advice. Thank you. I thank you for. I love the synchronicities because people don't get this. People don't hear. We were sitting on that panel together when I was like, who brought their kid? And everybody said the same things. Yeah, we all said the same things for sure. And the whole room's looking at us like, whoa, they're all great. Boyle said the exact same thing. Like, it's not like there's not one secret. It's maybe a science, but it's the same science. If you're 28 or I'm 42 or somebody's 65, if they have the science, they can succeed in entrepreneurship.
- [37:46]
B
Right?
- [37:47]
A
All right, dude, you got a last one in you. I'm pulling gold out of you, man. If your name was Mike, I would drop you right now.
- [37:53]
B
But since it's not, I think for me, it's. I. I learned one thing. Literally, it was one thing, and that would be a big piece of advice. Your mic comment was really good. That's a good piece of advice that I heard earlier in my career. And then I think that it can help people, which is, if you really want to start a business, look at what you're currently doing for someone else or look at what you've currently done in your life that you're good at. And for me, it was when I got that first job, calling customers and calling leads and selling them, that was one thing. There's literally one thing, and I've built my whole career off that now. So I would say, master, be the best at one thing and do all those things that I've already said your career will propel, but. But you gotta take the time though, right? Like, you have to master that skill. I would. When I first started there, I was driving. Josh and I, we would go to the office at 6am and we were there till midnight. We would turn off the lights, we would set the alarms. Like we were there every day, seven days a week. When I was driving, when I was home, I was listening to calls from the top sales agents, I was reading the scripts, I was watching sales videos from like OG sales trainers. And I was just really wanting to master the skill set, that one skill set. And putting in the reps, putting in the dials, always trying to be the person that put in the most reps. But once you master it and you're the best at it, building a business around it is going to be another skill set you're gonna have to learn. But once you have that number one thing you're good at, everything else gets out of your way.
- [40:02]
A
It's so true and it's foundational and I really appreciate you bringing up. It's a huge topic. Right? Like I, I get asked more often than not by different folks that are just coming up for advice and everything else. Like, I want to become an owner, not an operator. And you know, I've been to all the events and I've heard all the gurus and everybody sells this line of bullshit. Be an owner, not an operator. And you know, it's not like that's an untrue thing, but the best lie the devil ever tells is seated with just an ounce of truth. Like you can get there. But if you're trying to delegate something before you've done it, you're a failure. You will fail. Somebody will take advantage. You must do master and then delegate and then measure. And I appreciate just sitting across from a 28 year old guy. I admire you so much. It's like, master what you do. Like, I am excited to see you in 10 years, bro. Like, I might wind up working for you at this rate, bro. Like, you know, this is so cool, man. Hey, you know, I could talk to you for like two days straight. This is so.
- [41:23]
B
This is amazing.
- [41:24]
A
You're in Austin. We're gonna do this again.
- [41:26]
B
Yeah.
- [41:27]
A
Because how, how is that set on that scary movie? I'll find you. But, but for now, like, I, I want, I want, if you're okay with this, to give people a place to find you, to get a little, a little more of this, like a little belief maybe in themselves. Because people never see like our stories, they see theirs in us. And sometimes it's their future. The same as your sales process. Where can people go to, like, follow you, to, like, look you up, to, like, message you and say, you know, how do I do that? Like, where can people find you, bro? Give us your handles so that people. People know how to. How to look.
- [42:01]
B
All my handles are Arya Boucheri. A R I A My last name. B O U S H E H.
- [42:08]
A
R I love it. Yeah, you know, like, my, my. My handle was not available, so I, I was, I was. Preston Brown was not available. Like, they're like, I'm a big headed, like, scrawny shouldered, like, gringo. Okay. And there was this like, handsome NFL player. Like, you know, everybody hears press and they're like, man, once you go black, you never go back. And I'm like, I don't have a choice, dude. I gotta be the white guy. So, yeah, there's some political correctness for you, but no. Yeah, so I had to be, duh, Preston Brown, which makes it sound that much more douchey, but it works.
- [42:41]
B
The official.
- [42:44]
A
The official. Dude. Thank you so much.
- [42:46]
B
Thank you for having me. This is amazing.
- [42:48]
A
I really appreciate it.
- [42:49]
B
Yeah, seriously, thank you.
- [42:50]
A
Amazing on purpose, brother.