How A 24 Year Old MAN Built A $20.1M Business From His Laptop @willchangelives

Will 0:00 Before I even got to that 50 grand, I made my first $10. Like, I remember I was working and I got a notification on my phone that I had just made $10. And that day changed my life because that day confirmed to me that I wasn't crazy. I was like, "Oh, wow, this shit works." [laughs] Like, okay, if I can make $10, I can make 100. If I can make 100, I can make 1,000. So people think I'm crazy for this, but the day I made that $10, bro, I quit my job and I went all in, into this business because all I needed was that confirmation that this actually worked.

Calum Johnson 0:27 I have this crazy goal right now, which is in the next three months, so the next 90 days, I want this channel to hit 100,000 subscribers. Insane. Here's how you guys can help me. Right now, 96.9% of people that watch the podcast are not subscribed. If you've enjoyed this podcast, if you've gotten even one nugget of information, inspiration from this podcast, please subscribe. Help me reach my goal. On your Instagram bio, it says, "Felon at 17 to eight figures at 24." You've been in business for five, six years, but even just this year alone, you guys are on track to exceed $20 million in revenue. But here's where I wanted to start because you said something so interesting when we spoke on the phone and I, I just wanted to share it with the audience, which is, "Anyone can build a successful business. What's hard is becoming the person who is willing to do it." And I feel like there's, like, multiple layers even to that, but here's where I wanna begin. Tell me about the person you were at 17. Like, give me that context.

Will 1:30 Right. So yeah, at, at 17 years old, I was, um, a senior in high school. My whole life I played sports. So I played, uh, basketball, like, all throughout middle school, high school, so I was very competitive as a kid, but I didn't have any business acumen whatsoever 'cause I just didn't. Um, you know, I grew up in a single mom household. Um, at a young age I watched my mom work very hard and make a little bit of money, and no one in my family was, like, successful as far as business. Everyone worked regular jobs, so that's pretty much all I knew. And even my friends and people around me, I didn't see anyone that was doing business whatsoever. So I always thought that you just had to work and, you know, make money, or you would go to college and get a nice degree and make a lot of money. So at 17, like, my only aspiration or goal was to get it... get through high school, which I wasn't a good student. Um, I actually m- was hoping that I would get a basketball scholarship to be able to go to college, um, but that didn't end up happening. You know, like, my senior year, I, I played all the way through my senior year and then out of nowhere we started getting 6'5" point guard transfers from different schools. [laughs] I was like, "Yeah, probably not gonna work for me."

Calum Johnson 2:34 [laughs]

Will 2:34 I was like, "Probably need to find something else to do."

Calum Johnson 2:36 [laughs]

Will 2:37 So, you know, I ended up getting a lot of jobs around 17 and, uh, yeah, man, I was just, just working trying to make money. And, uh, it wasn't until I actually went to a networking event while... when I was, like, 18 years old that I realized, oh, wow, like, it is possible for people my age to make a lot of money. And I tell people this all the time, like, you can really only grow to what you've been exposed to. And up until that time, I wasn't exposed to being able to make a lot of money in different ways other than working a traditional job. So, um, you know, I'm blessed to have been able to been exposed to business and to be- people that are successful in business at around the age of 18 because that's when it actually started to click in my head that it could happen for me for real.

Calum Johnson 3:19 Mm.

Will 3:20 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 3:20 You know, you know what's interesting to me? Alex Hormozi always says this thing where he goes, "To reach any level in business," although, to be honest, it applies across the board, so even things outside of business, "there's two things you need." So it's one is belief and then the second is skills. People focus a lot on the skills part of it. I think really what you're speaking to is the belief, which is like all... It's mental. It's a mental game, and sometimes that can be the most difficult part to, like, unwind and fix. And so I'm curious, I think it's such a good thing that, that you say, which is, like, you can only really kind of aspire to what you're exposed to. I think with the internet you will see someone that's, like, super successful, maybe on YouTube or Instagram, TikTok, whatever. To see someone but then also have the belief of like, "I could do this too," that's another step. Like, someone can see someone do it, but to think, "I could do that," is different. It's a different game. When did that click? What made that click for you? Like, "I can do this too."

Will 4:29 Right. So around

Will 4:30 that 17 and 18-year-old, um, you know, period of my life, I was watch- I was working at an Amazon warehouse from, like, 6:00 PM to 4:00 AM every single day. Um, I was also going to college from, like, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, so barely sleeping. Like, I was going to school, going to work, going to school, going to work. And eventually I was like, "You know what? I gotta pick one." And school had never been my thing, so I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna just focus on making money." So I dropped out and I was just working full time. And while I was working full time, I remember just being in bed one day after work and I was on my Instagram and someone had posted on their story that there was a networking event in my area. And keep in mind, like, when I was younger, I was very introverted. Like, I didn't really like meeting new people just 'cause I wasn't a good communicator. And but I knew that I had to go to this event because the position that I was in currently wasn't a position that I wanted to stay in and, uh, the, the pain was just, just bigger than me just being complacent at that time. So I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna go to this networking event." So I, I drove to this networking event and there I met people that, you know, they weren't super successful people, but they were people my age that were doing, you know, you know, big things like real estate agent, um, investing in real estate or crypto, stocks, just different things that I wasn't doing at the time, that I wasn't even exposed to at the time. And even before that, I was already doing my own research on YouTube, like how to make money, how to make money online, how to make money as a, a teenager. Like, and I was looking at all these YouTube videos, like you said, seeing people that were my age making a lot of money, but it hits different when you meet someone in person that's doing it. So it's like I was seeing all these people online, but then when I went to this event and I was shaking hands and rubbing shoulders w- with people that were in my area that had gone to similar schools, lived in the similar ZIP code as me, that were actually doing it, that's when I was like, "Oh, wow," like, "this is real and I can do this too." So that's when, like, my mindset kinda shifted.

Calum Johnson 6:23 Mm. You know, you said something very interesting and I, and I, I remember this quote always comes to mind for me 'cause I think it's so good, is, um, [lips smack] "You will make the change when the pain, the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of the change."

Will 6:40 Right.

Calum Johnson 6:40 So a lot of the times, like, it's difficult to make changes. At, no matter what point you're at, it's difficult to stop, like, stop doing a certain habit and start doing something else. That is difficult. It is painful. But when the situation that you're currently in is so difficult, that's when you will make the change.

Will 7:02 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 7:02 Like, that's what will push you.

Will 7:04 It's back against a wall mentality. Um, there's really only two things that can, um, force you to get out of your current situation, and it's inspiration or desperation. And 90% of people, it's always the desperation because it takes a unique person to just be inspired and then have, like, this super drive to go after something, whereas most people, you have to literally hit rock bottom before you're like, "All right," like, "let, let me do something else," or, "Let me-

Calum Johnson 7:27 Yeah

Will 7:27 ... try something else."

Calum Johnson 7:28 Yeah. And it's ... And you know what? I think, um, [lips smack] it's so important to share with people what is that like ... What is the step one? Because I think you're so, you're so right, and, and we've all done this to a certain extent, which is, like, the point when we make the change is when we're in a desperate spot.

Will 7:47 Right.

Calum Johnson 7:47 Like, there's no other option essentially. And so for that person who, like, they're in a situation where, like, and maybe it's like you, where, um, they're doing one thing half the time and then another thing the other half of the time, and it feels like it's killing them. Like, it feels the, the fatigue, the weariness

Calum Johnson 8:09 of, like, having to do this thing over and over again, and, like, the drudgery, I can even imagine, of, like, doing Amazon Warehouse and then sleep for a bit, school, Amazon Warehouse, school, Amazon Warehouse. What was kind of ... What was the first step? Like, obviously you're working at Amazon, but you have bigger aspirations. What is the first business step? [page flips] Okay. We spend 50% of our time at work, so it's critical that you enjoy your work. That said, the sponsor of today's show, Free Agency, is gonna help you do just that and be properly compensated for it. Free Agency represents and manages talent in the tech industry. They provide you with a dedicated talent agent that will help you find and win top of market roles. So if you're looking to build your dream career today, go to the link in my description. I've hooked you up. I've helped you out. Use Free Agency. You will not regret it. [page flips]

Will 9:08 Yeah, so I was working at my Amazon job, um, just 'cause obviously I had bills to pay, and, uh, I didn't even have a car at the time, so I was Ubering to work every single time, and it was like 50 minutes away from me. It was, like, in a warehouse in Jefferson, Georgia, which is, like, in the, like, the rural part of Georgia. Like, it's far away from where I was living. So half of my check was going into Uber. And, um, every night when I would come home from work, I would just go on YouTube and learn about ways to make money online. But because I was going to school I didn't have much time, which is when I just made that mental sacrifice of, like, "Yo, I need to drop this school thing so I can put more time into actually learning how to make money online," because I know that this guaranteed can make me a lot of money if I figure it out, and this school route isn't guaranteed gonna make me a lot of money, and it's gonna take me four years to even touch the money. And, you know, I watched my mom work so hard all my life that I wanted to be able to repay her, and I didn't wanna wait four years to, to be able to do it. So I was like, "You know what? I'ma drop the school. I'ma just go to work and use all the money that I make from here after, you know, after I pay my bills and everything, anything that's left over, I'ma use it to learn, like, a skill." And I didn't know what that skill was gonna be at the time. Like, I was watching YouTube videos. I was seeing people flip iPhones on eBay. I did that. I saw people flipping cars. I did that. I saw people, um, you know, drop shipping, like, sneakers, like, reselling sneakers. I did that too. I tried literally everything, and the only thing that kinda stuck to me that made sense to me at the time was this business model called Shopify Dropshipping, which is basically where you take one product that you don't own, um, and you sell it on a website for a, like, a higher marked up price. So, um, at the time I had found this product, and it was a bracelet on this website called aliexpress.com which is kinda like the Amazon of, of China. And, um, there was a bracelet on there for, like, $2, and I had listed it on my site for free, but you have to pay, like, $8.95 shipping. And, um, the only reason I knew to sell that product is because I kept seeing ads of it on my phone. So I literally reinvented ... Like, I didn't reinvent the wheel. I took a product that I already knew was selling and I placed it on a store, you know, by watching all these tutorials on YouTube on how to do it. And that product made me, like, my first 50 grand. But, you know, before I even got to that 50 grand, I made my first $10. Like, I remember I was working and I got a notification on my phone that I had just made $10. And that day changed my life, because that day confirmed to me that I wasn't crazy. I was like, "Oh, wow," like, "this, this shit works." [laughs] Like, "Okay, if I can make $10, I can make 100. And if I can make 100, I can make 1,000." So the day I made my first $10, like, people think I'm crazy for this, but the day I made that $10, bro, I quit my job and I went all in, into this business, because all I needed was that confirmation that this actually works.

Calum Johnson 12:00 Mm.

Will 12:01 And, you know, I took my last check from my job and I paid someone on YouTube- Who, he actually has a big channel now, but at the time he didn't, 'cause this was, like, in 2018.

Calum Johnson 12:10 Mm.

Will 12:10 I paid someone on YouTube for, like, a coaching call that had better results than me. Like, he was making a lot of money doing this, and he taught me the game, and that was all I needed. That call was all I needed, and I haven't looked back since.

Calum Johnson 12:21 Mm.

Will 12:22 But that was the first business I started. I later evolved into, like, a better business model, like on Amazon, which I'm sure we'll talk about.

Calum Johnson 12:28 Mm.

Will 12:28 But, uh, yeah, that was, like, the first thing, like, my first, uh, business in entrepreneurship that was successful for me, that got me out of my job, and I haven't worked a job since 2018 because of that.

Calum Johnson 12:38 Mm. You know what? Let- l- let's talk about it. Let's talk about the Amazon stuff because I think one of the things, uh, and I always tell myself this, which is we constantly underestimate the power of momentum.

Will 12:52 Right.

Calum Johnson 12:52 Which is, like, a lot of the times you're looking at a goal. Like, if I just said to someone who's never started a business, like, "You can make $50,000

Calum Johnson 13:00 selling a necklace or a bracelet," whatever.

Will 13:03 Right.

Calum Johnson 13:03 They'd be like, "That's crazy. I'm never gonna do that." But what if you just sold one for $10? The momentum from that is gonna give you a certain level of confidence that's then gonna compound into something far more in the future. And so let's talk, let's talk about Amazon. What is kind of... If I'm like, okay, I'm in that desperate spot, or maybe I'm in that spot of inspiration even.

Will 13:27 Right.

Calum Johnson 13:27 And I'm like, "I wanna, I wanna get started. I wanna make, I wanna start making my first dollars, and I wanna do it now. I don't wanna watch, like, a bunch of shit and procrastinate."

Will 13:38 [laughs] Yeah.

Calum Johnson 13:38 "I wanna do it right now." What is kinda the pathway? Like, where should someone start with that?

Will 13:43 Yeah, I mean, it's, it's actually pretty simple. So the business that I was talking about previously, um, I had did that, I did that for, like, two, three years, and I got out of it because you always had to find, like, the next trending thing. You had to be a good marketer. Like, you had to know how to run Facebook ads and Instagram ads, which took me forever to learn. And you always had to build new websites for these different products so you could market it correctly. Um, and eventually I got out of that because I discovered a new business model called Amazon Wholesale, which is what I teach people how to do now. And essentially it's a, it's a better business model because you don't have to be good at marketing, you don't need a lot of capital, and you don't need to create a website, so you don't have to be tech-savvy. And all Amazon Wholesale is, is you're opening up wholesale accounts with brands that are already well-known, such as, like, Sony, Logitech, Fiji. You're opening up wholesale accounts with these brands that have already figured it out, and you're buying their products at a wholesale price, and you're selling them on Amazon where 80% of the US population is already shopping. So you don't have to run any ads. You don't have to create your own product. You don't have to create your own brand, and Amazon is your website. So that's the business model that I later ventured into, and I've been able to teach thousands of people how to get into it. And the only two things that you need to open up a wholesale account with a brand like, let's say Lego, for example, is you need an LLC and you need a resellers permit. So, like, a LLC, you get it in the Secretary of State website for whatever state you live in. In Georgia, where I live, it's, like, $100. In New York, I'm not sure what the price is. It's a different price in every state. And then a resellers permit in Georgia where I live is free, and in most states it's also free or it's very cheap. And then with those two things, now you have those, the two documents that these companies will ask of you to open up a wholesale account with them, and you're pretty much, like, [laughs] ready to go.

Calum Johnson 15:28 Is there even... And, and, and that's great, and w- and we'll get deeper into it, but is there even a version of that where, like, I can get started even easier, where I'm like, okay, I don't wanna open the LLC yet.

Will 15:41 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 15:41 I don't have, like, uh, a few hundred or $1,000 or whatever it would take to kinda get that up and running.

Will 15:48 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 15:49 I just wanna be able to go out right now with what I have in my pocket and my time and my hustle, and I wanna make something happen right now. Like, I wanna start the momentum train right here. Like, is there an even easier path?

Will 16:03 Yeah, yeah. So it's crazy you say that. Um, there is, and my little brother, who's, like, 16 years old, he actually started making $5,000 a month on Amazon using the method I'm about to share on this podcast right now. And you know, he didn't have an LLC, wasn't even old enough to get one, doesn't have a driver's license, didn't have a lot of money. And, uh, what you can do if you're in a position where you have more time than money is you can actually download a app. It's called Scan Profit. Um, it's on the App Store. And what this app allows you to do is it allows you to scan the barcodes of different products, right? Every product that has a box, every product has a barcode on it. So you can go to stores like Costco, Sam's Club, um, Ollie's, stores that usually have discounted products, Marshalls, Ross, and you can go in there with that app and you can start scanning these products. And what that app allows you to do is it ch- it pulls up the Amazon analytics of that product. So if you see, uh, for example, a, a protein shake at Costco that costs $5 and you scan it, it'll show you that it actually costs $12 on Amazon. And after all Amazon fees, after all shipping, your profit per unit will be $4. So now, you know, let's say you only have $100 to work with. You know that you can only buy, let's say, 20 units of this product right here. But you don't need thousands of dollars. You can just buy what you can afford, and you already have proven that it's profitable to sell because the app is telling you it's profitable to sell. The app is telling you how many people are ordering it a month. You can now ord- buy it from Costco or Sam's Club, wherever it is you're buying this product, and you can then go sell it on Amazon, make money, and then you can go flip it again.

Calum Johnson 17:41 Mm.

Will 17:41 So it's literally like you're legally trapping.

Calum Johnson 17:43 Mm-hmm. Okay.

Will 17:44 But, um [laughs]

Calum Johnson 17:44 I c- I c- I get you. I get you. And it's almost like a, it's an arbitrage in a way. Like, you're taking-

Will 17:48 Yeah

Calum Johnson 17:48 ... something from one place and then selling it at a higher price-

Will 17:51 Right

Calum Johnson 17:51 ... in the next place. Okay, here's where my mind goes if I'm, if I'm that person that's thinking about that, is so I go on Amazon. When I click on a listing on Amazon, there's, like, a bunch of sellers usually, right?

Will 18:03 Right.

Calum Johnson 18:03 And so, and you'll even see it. You'll see, like, I guess Amazon fulfills some of them, and then some of it's, like, actual sellers, and it might even be, like, used items or, like, the condition, whatever.

Will 18:13 Right.

Calum Johnson 18:14 How- I guess how is the traffic specifically going to you, right? Like, if I'm buying something at Walmart, which is almost like a commodity, like it's not, it's not any sort of like specialized product that only I can access-

Will 18:28 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 18:29 ... and I'm putting it on Amazon, and there's a ton of different sellers, is there something that I need to be doing so that, like, people are buying from me instead of the, just the next seller that's also on Amazon selling the exact same product?

Will 18:42 Yeah, so that's a good question. So I teach people how to sell name brand products, right? So products from big brands. These big brands, um, like let's say if you search Fiji Water on Amazon, there's only gonna be one listing of it.

Calum Johnson 18:54 Mm.

Will 18:54 And when you click on that listing, like you said, there may be multiple sellers under that one listing, but the way Amazon works is it shares the sales amongst all the sellers. So if there's a, a product doing 1,000 orders a day or 1,000 orders a month, just to keep it simple, if there's 10 sellers on that listing, each seller's gonna be getting about 100 orders a month. So the buy box, what they call it, like the buy button, it rotates amongst all the sellers. So you might go on an Amazon listing and let's say under the buy now button it says, "Sold by Will," right? You might check it three hours later and it might be someone else, someone else's name. But people don't really notice it 'cause it's so small under the buy button, and people really only care about the actual product that they're buying, not who's actually selling it. And some of them will say fulfilled by Amazon because Amazon has a program called FBA where, let's say you go to Costco and you order 100 protein powders or protein shakes. You don't actually have to keep those at home. You can actually ship those to Amazon's warehouse, and every time you get an order, Amazon will ship it to your customer with Prime shipping, and then you get paid out. So that's why sometimes on Amazon you'll see s- it'll, it'll say sold by, and it'll be just a random person's name, and then it'll be like fulfilled by Amazon or shipped by Amazon.

Calum Johnson 20:14 Mm.

Will 20:14 And that's because they have their inventory stored in a Amazon Warehouse.

Calum Johnson 20:18 Yeah. Okay, cool. You know, one, one of the things I've realized, uh, in business is like there's different phases, right? And so what got you from point A to point B is gonna be different than what gets you from point B to point C and so on. And so I think kinda what you've laid out is like if you just have time and access to a Walmart, a Ross, or whatever the shop is, you can do that method where you can get the app and you can simply with hustle and like pounding the pavement-

Will 20:47 Right

Calum Johnson 20:48 ... you can scan different products and just look for that opportunity to resell at a higher price. What's almost like, what's the next phase of that? Because I guess that could ... Like how much even, how far could you take that? Like how far have you seen people take that in terms of like the money they're making?

Will 21:06 Yeah. So, uh, one of my students, his name is Terrell, I actually interviewed him. It's on YouTube if you guys wanna see it. But, uh, he, him and his family, um, so he has a wife and then he has, I think two or three kids, they actually do this business together and they do it in the, the way that I talked about where they go to stores physically, they scan products, they buy as much as they can afford or whatever their budget is, and then they take it home and then they ship it to their customers. So they don't even do, they don't even use Amazon. They ship it themselves to the customers via like UPS. And they did around, um, $100,000 in 11 months.

Calum Johnson 21:40 Yeah.

Will 21:40 His first 11 months. And he's scaling now. So you can turn it into a six-figure business for sure-

Calum Johnson 21:46 Mm

Will 21:47 ... doing it that way. Now, there's other people that I've taught that are now making over a million dollars a year, and they're doing it in the more advanced way of now, you know, instead of going to Costco, let's say if they're going to Costco to pick up a Premier Protein product, which is a brand of protein, instead of going to Costco, they're just calling Premier Protein or they're emailing a sales rep from Premier Protein and they're ordering 1,000 units via email or via phone and they're not having it shipped to their house. They're having it shipped right from Premier Protein's distributors directly to Amazon's warehouse, and then they're just selling it that way. Um, and that's kinda how you scale.

Calum Johnson 22:23 Yeah. And okay, so it's almost like I guess the, the, the mindset is I have this product that I know that there's consistent demand for-

Will 22:32 Right

Calum Johnson 22:32 ... and I know that there's the arbitrage opportunity. Rather than me almost using Walmart or r- like whatever the store is as like a middleman that I have-

Will 22:41 Mm

Calum Johnson 22:41 ... to purchase from them, 'cause every time you use a middleman they have their own markup-

Will 22:45 Right

Calum Johnson 22:45 ... in the price. It's like let me just go direct-

Will 22:49 Exactly

Calum Johnson 22:49 ... to the manufacturer and then it's an even bigger arbitrage for me, and then I can go to the customer.

Will 22:54 Exactly, 'cause you're essentially doing what Walmart and Costco are doing.

Calum Johnson 22:57 Mm.

Will 22:57 You're just buying directly from the source. So obviously your margin just increases because now you're buying directly from the brand at wholesale price rather than buying it from Walmart, who bought it directly from the brand and is now selling it to you.

Calum Johnson 23:10 Mm. You know what's interesting? When you were saying your story, it was like you found the necklace or the bracelet, it doesn't actually matter, it's you found the product that you knew that you could sell.

Will 23:22 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 23:22 As soon as you found that product and it was selling, quit your job, all in on that product, scale to $50,000. I feel like the, the mindset is the same here where it's like, okay, the, it's the protein powder-

Will 23:34 Right

Calum Johnson 23:34 ... that's the one that's like flying off and working for us. Let's go all in on that, build the relationship with the

Calum Johnson 23:40 distributor or the manufacturer, and then just go all in on that.

Will 23:43 Yeah, 'cause at the end of the day when it comes to like eCommerce or just online businesses in general, all that matters is three things. It's product, and then it's traffic, and then it's like the marketplace, like the website that you have. Like product, traffic, and then where are they buying it from, like your website or your funnel, whatever it is. And when I was selling the bracelet, I was selling through Shopify. You know, I had my own business technically. I had my own Shopify website, so that was like the website. Then the product was the bracelet. And then the traffic, I had to create traffic. I had to spend money on Facebook ads, show people my product, and that's how I got traffic to my website. And Amazon is the same thing except they handle the traffic for you because there's already millions of people on that website every day. They handle the website part for you too. You don't have to create a website. It's already amazon.com. And the product part is kinda half solved already too because, yeah, you have to pick your product, but the product already has millions of customers. Like, if you pick Lego or Premier Protein or Sony or Fiji or Logitech, they already have a huge almost, like, fan base, customer base that's looking for their products on Amazon every single day. So it's kinda like you're hacking the, the online business model-

Calum Johnson 24:57 Mm

Will 24:57 ... when you go the Amazon route.

Calum Johnson 24:59 Yeah. Okay. No, that's, that's interesting. So I guess almost, like, phase one, I would say, is you can do it just with, like, hustle. Like, you don't even really need a bunch of, uh, startup capital. Once it's starting to work, I'm curious at, like, even when you're speaking with students like Terrell, because for every case of there being, like, a Terrell who goes all in on it and makes it a success, and it's actually, like, a, it's a meaningful amount of money.

Will 25:33 Right.

Calum Johnson 25:33 Like $100,000 in 11 months, a meaningful amount of money for them, and something that they could imagine even doing long term. For every student like that, you probably have countless other students who paid for the course or watched the videos, who, like, tried it a bit, it didn't work, and is now like, "Oh, yeah, that just doesn't work," or like-

Will 25:57 Yeah

Calum Johnson 25:57 ... "It's a scam," or whatever. I'm curious from your perspective, and just even reflecting on the different students that you've seen, what is the biggest difference be- between a Terrell, where, like, it worked for them, versus the person that just never got any traction?

Will 26:14 Yeah, I mean, it's, uh, it's pretty simple, honestly. And yeah, that is the majority. The majority of people actually get into, like, the program where they learn, uh, the Amazon game, and they actually end up doing nothing with it. Um, but you can replace my product with also any other product out there, and it's the same thing, you know? Hey, I'ma let you get back to the episode, but if you're watching this right now and you do wanna learn how you can open up wholesale accounts with brands like Fiji so you can start making money from home without doing any marketing, without needing any tech skills, and without your own website, then you need to be in my program, Ecom Degree University. It's a step-by-step program on how I've taught thousands of people how to open up wholesale accounts with brands like this, and how to sell their products on Amazon and make thousands of dollars every single month. We provide you the scripts, we provide you the suppliers,

Will 27:00 and we provide you the community of other Amazon sellers that you can network with that are already getting the results that you want. So if you want access to that program, the link is gonna be in the description, and I can't wait to see your results. A lot of people might ... Let's say you drop, like, a podcasting, like, program. A lot of people might take that, and the majority won't actually end up starting a successful podcast.

Calum Johnson 27:19 Mm.

Will 27:19 I could teach stocks or real estate, and again, the numbers would literally, uh, stay the same. Like, if it's, if it's 80% unsuccessful, like, it's gonna be 80% unsuccessful people that go through. And it's because the majority of people just don't know how to make a decision. Um, the difference between the people that are successful and the people that aren't successful is the people that are successful made the decision that this was gonna work for them. Um, I don't know if you know who ... Do you know who W. Clement Stone is? So he was, uh, like, good friends with Warren Buffett. He's like a billionaire. And, um, you know, he used to have, like, a huge penthouse, I think, here in New York. And, like, on the way down the elevator from his penthouse, he would always, like, say this phrase. He, he would always say, "Do it now," like, all the way down. Like, he was obsessed with that phrase. And he had a lot of people that would work for him, and when they would come in for work, they would have to say that phrase 100 times every, like, every shift. And it's because he understood, like, the biggest reason why people aren't successful isn't, like, the information or it isn't the inspiration. Most times it's literally delay. It's, like, delaying the decision-making, right? A lot of people, they might see what we're doing, they might see what I'm teaching, but in their head they're not really fully committing to the idea or the business model because they have shiny object syndrome of all these other businesses out there. And that's really the reason why a lot of people, like, don't end up getting results in the things that they strive to get results for. Um, and I say that in a lot of the trainings that I do. Like, whenever I do, like, a webinar or, like, a, a live event, I tell people, like, "Listen, if you really wanna get results, I want you to commit to yourself in your head right now, and to make the decision that this is gonna be the last event that you go to."

Calum Johnson 28:58 Mm.

Will 28:58 "This is gonna be the last webinar that you attend." Because in reality, you don't need another one. You're convincing yourself that you need another one because you see a new opportunity and you're like, "That's it," or, "That's it," or, "That's it." But in reality, I can show you someone that's successful in, in stocks. I can show you someone that's successful in podcasting. I can show you someone that's successful in e-commerce. I can show you that- someone that's successful in real estate. Meaning all of these business models that we see online, all of them work.

Calum Johnson 29:25 Mm.

Will 29:26 There's no secret. It's just the, the difference between the people that make the decision that it's gonna work for them and the people that don't.

Calum Johnson 29:33 Mm.

Will 29:34 That's it. That's the bottom line.

Calum Johnson 29:35 Yeah. You know what it is? I think it's like once you build the commitment, and I, and I say it that way intentionally, because the commitment actually builds, right? Which is like, even if I was gonna take my example with a podcast, it's like in the beginning, the only commitment that I made was to do 10 episodes. That was the only thing I said. I would just do 10. And then you do 10 and it's like, "Oh, okay, I'm gonna start doing this, like, once or twice a month," like, ongoing. Then you make the decision to do it every week. Then you make the decision to leave your job to do it. Then you make the decision to get a studio and start doing it. And, like, it just ... The commitment is literally building, right? But it does start with that first step. And I think one of the things, and I, and I wanna go back to it, which is what you told me when we, when we initially spoke, which is, like- Anyone can build a successful business. What's hard is becoming the person who's willing to do it. And so I'm curious from your story, where were the moments where, like, you look back now, especially in those initial stages, and you were like, "Man, I coulda got to the... I coulda got to where I was going a lot faster if I had just been more committed." Like, in the moment, I thought I was committed, but looking back on it now, I s- I wasn't there yet. I was delaying.

Will 30:56 Yeah, I mean, I've been there. Like, I've- I've been in the position where I had a business that was successful. Like, maybe it wasn't successful to the point where I wanted it to be, but I was producing revenue. And as I'm, you know, working on this business, I've already put in a lot of time into it, years into it. I'm on Instagram like everyone else, and I see a new opportunity, and then I go and try something else like Airbnb, or at one point I had a- a whole moving... I had a whole eCommerce company and then a moving company too. Then I tried to do Airbnb. Then I saw the- the crypto bull run and the NFT bull run. I'm over here trying to do that too. And it's just like all of these things are just distractions at the end of the day because if you really just zone in and focus on what you have in front of you, you can create something huge, right? And I see success as, like, a long, like, a long hallway. That's kinda, like, how I picture it. It's a long hallway with a bunch of doors on the side where it's like you can- anyone can get to the end of the hallway, but you got these people that are walking down this hallway and they're going through these side doors.

Calum Johnson 32:00 Mm.

Will 32:01 They know that their, that their end point is all the way over there, but they might go into this door right here. They might go into this door right here. One of these doors might be a relationship. One of these doors might be a- a whole side hustle. One of these doors might be, like, toxic friends or going out all the time, whatever. And it's like you're gonna get to where [chuckles] you wanna get to, but it just might take you way longer than someone that's just heading straight there.

Calum Johnson 32:24 Mm.

Will 32:25 No distractions, you know?

Calum Johnson 32:26 Yeah. You know what? It's, uh, it's funny that you say that 'cause I- I'm so in that moment where I realize, like, the focus is everything. And it's funny 'cause I w- I was on, uh, Twitter maybe, like, a week and a half ago, 10 days ago, and I see this post. It's about Jony Ive. So Jony Ive is, like, like, the chief designer at Apple.

Will 32:48 Mm.

Calum Johnson 32:49 Um, and he was talking about Steve Jobs, right? This revolutionary founder that- that created all these great products that we use, that we use every day, right? And he's like, "Steve was the most focused person that I've ever encountered." And he said, "The common mistake that people make about focus, they think it's about what you say yes to." Steve didn't think about it like that. It was about everything he was saying no to. Like, legit- like, passing up great opportunities or good opportunities because he only wanted to go after great ones. Like, 99% of everything that comes across his desk, "No, we're not doing that. We're not pursuing that in Q1 or Q2. Like, maybe a few years down the line, but right now we're focused on just these products." And I think even in the, even in the process that you kind of laid out where it's like, okay, Terrell in his first y- in his first year made 100,000, um, from kinda, like, flipping these products. If he wants to take that 100,000 to a million, it's focusing on, like, okay, what's the one product that he was selling that performed better than the nine- the other 99%, and build a relationship with that supplier and just sell that one. Can you kind of go a bit deeper into kind of what that phase looks like? The 100,000 a year to a million dollar a year phase. Like, what is... When- when we say focused, like, just add some more detail to it. Like, what am I focusing on? Like, what am I doing?

Will 34:25 Yeah, I mean, in the Amazon business in particular, it's just focusing on building more relationships with suppliers because it's a supplier relationship business, you know? Um, Terrell, he might be doing 100K a year selling, let's say, 10 products on Amazon that he has good relationships with the- the brands, or in his case, he's actually just going to the stores, so he doesn't even have relationships with the brands. So something that could easily get him from, like, 100K a year to maybe, like, a quarter million a year is if he actually stopped going to the stores and he started building relationships with the brands that he's buying at these stores. That by itself could double his profit and his revenue.

Calum Johnson 35:03 Mm.

Will 35:03 Right? Because now he's buying everything at a cheaper price. And as you build a better relationship with these companies, they'll keep dropping their price because they're literally, like, manufacturing their products. They, they make them for so cheap. So that's one way to make more money in the business. Another way is just by opening up more wholesale accounts. There's trade shows that happen every year. Um, there's events every year. And also, there's al- Like, you have the advantage if you live... Let's say you live in New York. There's distributors in New York, and there are suppliers in New York that are only in New York. So it's like you have the advantage of driving to these places and talking to these people that are in your local area that the competition doesn't have access to.

Calum Johnson 35:44 Mm.

Will 35:45 So it's, like, building relationships that way too because in this business, the more hands you shake, the more money you make.

Calum Johnson 35:51 Mm-hmm.

Will 35:51 Like, that's how it works. Um, there are a lot of people that make millions of dollars a year on Amazon, and it's strictly off just networking with these

Will 36:00 suppliers and, you know, you'll get referrals to other distributors. So that's kinda how you get to the next level in this business. And then obviously, the more buying power you have, the more products you can buy, and the more you can sell.

Calum Johnson 36:13 Mm.

Will 36:13 So, you know, establishing credit lines with these companies, getting business credit from your banks as well, uh, to be able to, like, buy more products.

Calum Johnson 36:21 Yeah. You know, there- there's this phrase and it's, it's bandied around and it's said so much of, like, your network is your net worth. Um, I think we've all kind of heard it. I remember I've gone through certain stages where, like, that constraint of the network was so frustrating to me.

Will 36:40 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 36:40 Where it was like I knew what I was gonna do if given the opportunity, but let's be honest, especially when it comes to business, people like to work with people that they've already worked with.

Will 36:51 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 36:51 People that have a track record. And it's frustrating when you're looking for that first look, where you're like you kind of need someone almost to make like a bet on you. You don't have the long track record.

Will 37:03 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 37:03 You don't have the history of sales that you can point to and they're like, "Oh yeah, this guy's a sure bet." And so I'm curious from your story, as you start trying to go around and, like, build relationships with suppliers or even, like, places that can even give you finance and, like, all of these things, was there a frustrating point for you where it was like I know what I'm gonna get to, but I need, I need someone to give me the look. I need someone to give me the opportunity and because it's ... I'm kind of in the initial stages, it's my first time doing this, no one wants to give me the look.

Will 37:42 Yeah. I mean, um, I tell people all the time this, and, like, sometimes they don't wanna hear it, but the, the best networking hack is to actually be good at something, right? 'Cause, like, the way you earn- the way you get to the tables is you earn your seat. Everyone wants to be friends with and network with someone that is an expert at something. So if you can get really good at one thing, you'll always have a seat at the table. So for me, I already had all this experience selling things online with Shopify in my previous years. So when I would talk to these suppliers and, and they would meet up with me, they'd be like, "Dang, this kid's young. He's showing me that he's made, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars on his phone," like all these screenshots and stuff. Like, they wanted to work with me because they wanted to learn from me, because I had already put in the work years prior. And it's the same thing with other things I do in business too. Like, I'm always able to get into the rooms I wanna get into because for the past six, seven years I've focused on one thing and I became the expert at that one thing, where I can actually provide value to the table. So it's like if you get really good at one thing and you're able to share that and people wanna know more about what you do, it's easier for you to network and build a huge network.

Calum Johnson 38:51 Mm. You know what, actually? I think that's actually one of the most valuable things that you could share, is like the process of becoming really good at something. And I understand this firsthand because I think especially at ... You're, you're at a point where, like, you just really want something. You start almost, like, chasing opportunities, right? So you're like, "Oh, the crypto thing is hot?"

Will 39:16 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 39:16 "I'm the crypto guy now." And then the eCommerce thing is hot, "I'm the eCom guy." AI right now? AI.

Will 39:22 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 39:22 NFTs? Like, you're just searching for whatever's hot. And, like, here's the thing that I've realized. When you're good, the market just comes to you.

Will 39:32 Right.

Calum Johnson 39:32 Like, you are, you are the market when you're truly good. But there's a process to actually getting good. Can you kinda talk about that? Like, even when you talk about, uh, when it came to Shopify and selling stuff online, you actually became good. Can you kinda talk about what went into that? Like, genuinely getting good at something.

Will 39:54 Yeah. I mean, [laughs] the thing with getting good at something is you have to be bad at it first, and people don't wanna be bad at it. It's like they wanna instantly be good. So for a year straight when I was trying to sell something online, I didn't make any money. I literally just lost money for a year straight. So a lot of people aren't just- aren't willing to do that. I mean, imagine going to work 6:00 PM to 4:00 AM every single day, and every single check you get you're just essentially burning it. You know, [laughs] you're spending money on ads, on products that are not selling. Every single week just your paycheck is going into this business. And someone will look at that as like, "Dang, he's just burning money." But the thing, the, the way that I look at it is I was already in the mindset of this has to work or it has to work. Like, it has to work or it has to work. Like, I ... There's no way that it won't work. So every time I would spend money and lose it, yeah, I was losing the money, but I was failing forward.

Calum Johnson 40:46 Mm.

Will 40:46 I was learning every single time. And it just got to the point where all of the things that I learned had just compounded to where my moment came and I found that one product that worked, and that was all I needed to find. Because after I found that one product, it sold consistently for six months straight and I made a lot of money to the point where I didn't have to work a job again. And I think that's ... A lot of people see someone like, let's say you post an episode and it gets millions of views, right? A lot of people might look at you and be like, "Dang, that's- he's a overnight success." But they don't see all the other episodes before that. And then before you even posted your first episode you were

Will 41:25 putting in work.

Calum Johnson 41:25 Mm.

Will 41:26 You know? So a lot of people don't see that, and it's ... You just gotta be willing to put in the work. And it sounds so cliche, but it's like for you to be really good at something, you have to be really bad at it first.

Calum Johnson 41:35 Mm.

Will 41:36 And over time you just, you get better. And obviously there's ways that you can, I call it time traveling. You know, you can time travel if you actually, you know, meet mentors and pay people to teach you to be better. That- those are ways to kinda like hack it and, and shorten the timeframe of you getting good at stuff. But you still at the end of the day have to put in the work.

Calum Johnson 41:54 Yeah. You know, that's so good. No, I, I talk about it. I call it, like, the dark zone, which is like I think if you look at any successful person, they had this period of their life where, like, to your point, they just sucked. And this is, this is the part that no one tells you, right? Because it's not a glamorous part of the story. It's not a glamorous part of the story the one year when you were making no money, working harder than you ever have with very little result to show for it. Like, literally in the weeds. But that, that's how you become good at something, is, like, being in the weeds. And it's funny 'cause I, um- I read Kevin Hart's book and, like, he's one of the most successful comedians now. But there's this period where he's coming up in the comedy scene where he's going to these different comedy clubs in

Calum Johnson 42:50 New York and Philadelphia, and he's shadowing, like, these great comics. And a lot of the time he's not even getting on stage. Like, think about that. Like, he's showing up to these different venues. He's not even performing. He's just watching other greats perform. And they're like, "Yeah, you'll get your turn eventually. Like, it's coming. Trust me, you got it." And he's, like, driving around. He's, like, driving through the night, making no money, like, just about covering rent, and there's no forward progress. But that is ... That point is crucial. Like, that's where he learnt the art of comedy. It's the dark zone. I'm curious for you, like, in that dark zone where nothing was really working, it's so easy to, like, lose ... It's so easy to lose the motivation. It's so easy to lose the hope. In that period, like, what was keeping you going? Like, that mindset of, like, it's just gonna work. Like, I'm gonna make it work. What was propelling that?

Will 43:51 Yeah, I mean, for me, my mom has always been a big motivation to me. And I just remember, like, I went, like, two years where I didn't talk to anyone. I was just zoned in, locked in, watching. I probably watched every single eCommerce video on YouTube in 2018 'cause I was watching. I was obsessed. And Grant Cardone has a book called Be Obsessed or Be Average, and I'm gonna just save y'all the whole having to read it. The title is basically the book. If you're not obsessed about something, you're gonna be average. And the reason why I found success is 'cause I was literally obsessed with making money online. Like, I was obsessed about being able to do it. Like, I would be s- sitting

Will 44:30 down eating food and my phone was propped up. I'm watching a dropshipping video. Like, just a tutorial. I'm chilling, like, on my bed. I'm watching a video until I fall asleep. I'm at work at the front desk and I have a video propped up, AirPods in, I'm watching the video. I'm driving, I'm not listening to music. I'm listening to a video on how to, like, sell products, how to market it. So I was obsessed with learning this thing, and every day I was learning more and more and more and more. I wasn't making any money, but this was, like, a huge compounding effect that was bound to happen because I was just learning so much. And all the money that I was making, I was investing it into learning even more. I was buying courses. I was buying coaching calls. I was spending it on ads. You know, I was actually taking action. I wasn't just getting all this information and doing nothing with it. I was getting information, spending money on ads. It wasn't working, but I was just learning during this process. And I remember one day, like, my mom had called me and, um, she knew that I was, like, working on, like, a business. She didn't really know what I was doing, but she knew, like, I was working on something. And she had called me 'cause I guess she thought I was making money already, but I wasn't. And she was like... She was like, "Hey, Will," like, "I need this surgery done." Uh, I forget exactly what the surgery was for, but she was like, "I'm like $3,000 short. Like, can you help me out?" And I remember, like, my heart sinking in that moment because I didn't have it.

Calum Johnson 45:50 Mm.

Will 45:51 And, uh, that day I was like, "Yeah, Mom," like, "I don't have it, but I'll let you know if anything changes." And it's like even now thinking about it, like, I get a little emotional because that was kinda like a, a, a shifting point for me too, like a turning point, 'cause I was like, damn. I was already, like, on my grind up to that point, but just hearing my mom's voice and then not being able to help her still-

Calum Johnson 46:13 Mm

Will 46:13 ... I was like, oh, hell no. Like, I real- [laughs] like, I gotta figure this shit out, like, now.

Calum Johnson 46:17 Mm. Mm.

Will 46:18 And, uh, that was really all the motivation that I needed. And then I told myself, like, "You know, I'm gonna take care of my mom. I'm gonna buy her a house. And then once I buy her a house, I'ma allow myself to have fun." And that's really what I did. Like, I worked all the way up and to the point where I was able to buy my mom a house. I bought my mom a car. And then after I did that, it's, it was like a huge weight off my shoulders. And I think the reason why I'm successful is 'cause I gave myself that unnecessary pressure. Because essentially, like, you know, most people don't think that way. Like, most people don't think that they, they have to do that for someone. But I kind of forced it upon myself to where it was like, if I don't do this for my mom, like, I'm shit. Like, I'm nothing. Like, I-

Calum Johnson 46:59 Mm-hmm

Will 46:59 ... I'll feel terrible about myself. So it was, like, that unnecessary weight on my shoulders that I just put upon myself, and I was eventually able to, to do it. And, uh, that, I think that's what accelerated my success.

Calum Johnson 47:11 Yeah. Nah, man, I feel that. I feel that because it's like, I think especially as a man, you're kinda like ... You're, you're kind of taught to be, like, that you can provide. Like, if there's a problem, like, people can look to you as the solve.

Will 47:29 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 47:29 And it's like ... And it gets to a moment, especially when it's something critical, like something that is really needed, and you can't be the solve, it's almost like it creates, like, a, a void, I feel like. Like, it's almost like, I dunno. Like, it almost gets to, like, your utility as, like, a person. Like, I just couldn't ... The fact that, like, I just couldn't deliver it in that moment.

Will 47:53 Right.

Calum Johnson 47:54 And that pressure is different. Like-

Will 47:55 Yeah, it was just like, I never wanna feel this again. Like, this-

Calum Johnson 47:59 Mm

Will 47:59 ... feeling that I'm feeling right now in this moment, like I, I told myself, I was like, "I'm never gonna feel this again, so..." And then, you know, I just put in the work and I, and I got the results.

Calum Johnson 48:08 Mm-hmm. No, that's impressive, man. Congrats to you. Congrats to you. You know, you said something that I think i- is so powerful, which is you used this word obsession. I think obsession has a lot of, like ... Has a negative connotation to it, really.

Will 48:24 Right.

Calum Johnson 48:24 But here's the thing, right? Like, if you really want to achieve something special that typically people don't do, like none of your friends have done it, no one that you grew up with has done it-

Will 48:34 Yeah

Calum Johnson 48:34 ... none of your family members have done it, you do need to get to a level of obsession. And obsession is the right word because, and this is what I've seen- Sometimes people will talk to me about like podcasting or YouTube or like the media strategy or like everything that goes into making this happen, 'cause this is, this is my obsession. And as I'm explaining it, you almost come off like a bit weird.

Will 48:58 [laughs] Yeah.

Calum Johnson 48:58 Like you're like a bit strange. They're like, "Oh, okay. I guess he's really into this shit." But, but that is what it is. Like you kind of have to get to this mental point where like you just care so much about this stuff. 'Cause if you care that much, you're gonna care about the detail. The detail is what no one thinks about. Like that's what people can't really replicate is the detail. Um, when did you kind of realize like, "Oh, like I'm kind of different"? Like the, the way that I'm getting after this and like you just... D- Drake has this thing he says, uh, in one of his songs, he says, "My confidence level is getting settled." Of like I feel like there's like this point where you're like, "Oh, like this is kind of my thing. Like I'm really about to like run it up." What was that point?

Will 49:44 I think for me was, um... This was again back in like 2017, 2018. I realized that, that I was different, like you said, because I was different. I was literally different. Like I wasn't... No one my age or none of my friends were doing what I was doing. I remember like being up at 12:00 AM tired 'cause I had just got off like work, 'cause this was after I quit my Amazon job. I, um... And this is actually an essential part to the story. So I eventually quit my Amazon Warehouse job because I knew that this dropshipping stuff was gonna work. Again, I had made no money, but I had already made the decision in my head that, "Okay, yeah, this is gonna be my way out of the system. Like this is gonna work. I just have to figure it out." And once I had realized that this was gonna work and I just had to figure it out, I quit my Amazon job and I got a job at LA Fitness so I could have more time to learn the dropshipping business. And I went from $11 an hour at Amazon to $8 an hour at LA Fitness, so I took a pay cut. But it's because I knew that $3, that, that minus $3 didn't mean anything because I'm over here chasing like millions.

Calum Johnson 50:50 Mm.

Will 50:50 So it's like now I have more time to learn about this. So I did that, and I remember I would come home from LA Fitness and just, you know, work on my, my, uh, business. And it would hit like 12:00 at night, and I would get tired, and I would just slam like a black coffee and get another like three, four hours, and I was doing that every day. I don't recommend that.

Calum Johnson 51:10 [laughs]

Will 51:10 But like I was just obsessed about learning, and I remember just being up at 3:00, like 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 AM, and I would go on like Snapchat and I would see like my friends, 'cause all of my friends are in college at the time. They're freshmens or sophomores in college. And they're all at like parties, they're at the bars. And in my head I'm like, "Damn, like must be nice."

Calum Johnson 51:32 Mm.

Will 51:32 But never in my head was like, never in my head was, was I like kind of regretting what I was doing though.

Calum Johnson 51:38 Mm.

Will 51:39 It was just like, "Damn, it must be nice." But I was still focused. I was still locked in because I knew that this was gonna pay off eventually.

Calum Johnson 51:46 Mm.

Will 51:47 And that's kind of when I knew like, "Okay, like there's something going on here to where I'm literally mentally locked into this, and I think I have a level of focus that is unusual."

Calum Johnson 51:58 Mm.

Will 51:58 "But I, this is what I need to, to be successful." And if... I think obsession is needed to be actually be successful. Because if you look at... It's kind of like what you were saying. Like when you talk to people, they kind of sense that obsession about you when it comes to podcasting.

Calum Johnson 52:11 Mm.

Will 52:11 Same thing about me when I talk to my friends about like what I do, they sense that as well. And, um, anyone that's great at what they do is obsessed about what they do.

Calum Johnson 52:20 Mm.

Will 52:20 Like for example, if you talk to... Or if, or you could even sense it in their lifestyle. Like for example, a bodybuilder. A bodybuilder weighs everything they eat. And to us we might be like, "That's weird. Like why is that dude walking around with a scale?"

Calum Johnson 52:35 Mm.

Will 52:35 Like, "Why does he have a scale at this restaurant? Like why is he weighing his steak? Like that's weird."

Calum Johnson 52:39 Yeah.

Will 52:39 But at the same time, that's why he has the body that we don't.

Calum Johnson 52:42 Mm.

Will 52:42 Because he's taken his diet to a level of o- of obsession that is abnormal to, to regular people.

Calum Johnson 52:49 Mm.

Will 52:49 And it's the same with our businesses. It's like we've taken it to a level where a lot of people can't understand it and it seems weird, but that's actually the level of obsession, of obsession that you need to be successful.

Calum Johnson 52:59 Mm.

Will 53:00 And, uh, you see that in every like area of expertise, like bodybuilding, this, um, athletes. Some athlete, uh, he might train super hard, and people might look at him and be like, "Dang, all he does is train. Like he needs to have a work/life balance. Like why doesn't he hang out with his friends?" And those athletes that train all the time end up being the greatest of all time.

Calum Johnson 53:21 Mm.

Will 53:21 And it's like you can't really have balance when you're chasing to, to be great.

Calum Johnson 53:25 Mm. You know what I, I love about conversations like this is like once you really boil it down, the thing at the heart of everything is like the commitment. It's, it's, it's the commitment to doing something, and I think sometimes people get so fixated on the medium of like, "Oh, does it have to be eCommerce or does it have to be crypto? Or should I be doing a podcast or should I be doing content?" Or like I think... And I, and I think you made such a great point which is like people are successful and making money in all of those things. All

Calum Johnson 53:56 of those things work, but you're mi- I think so much of what is missed is the commitment. Like you have to make the commitment that you're gonna do this thing for a long amount of time and when logically, so looking at the results, it makes no sense. And I remember this is something that Kevin Hart said in an interview where he was like, "The toughest thing about the journey is waking up every day and putting in just as much work as you did the previous day but not getting any results." So on the face of it, you're no closer to the outcome, but you're gonna wake up that day with the same enthusiasm, the same energy, the same hustle as if everything else worked out when it didn't, and you're gonna do that countless number of days. That's the commitment level you have to get to.

Will 54:46 I'm not trying to convince anyone to do Amazon. I'm not trying to convince anyone to do anything. But if you actually listen to the story, like my story is a story of someone that made a decision and someone that committed themselves to that decision, right? You can replace Amazon with anything. If I w- I made the decision to do that, but if you replace it with stocks, we would be talking about how I just made 10 million with stocks.

Calum Johnson 55:08 Mm.

Will 55:08 If I would've picked bodybuilding, we would've talked about how like I won a bodybuilding show. 'Cause it doesn't matter. You can replace Amazon with anything. The reason why I'm at where I'm at is because I made a decision to be successful at that one thing. So like whatever it is that you're thinking about right now, like make a decision to actually commit to doing that one thing, and you're gonna be successful. Because remember, success is just a long hallway. If you get caught up in these side doors, if you get distracted, you can still become successful, but it might just take you a long time. And before you get to that door, you might end up quitting. But if you commit and you stay focused and you make a decision, which is the most important part, you make a decision on and you pick one thing, and you stay focused on that one thing, like you're gonna be successful. There's ... It's inevitable almost.

Calum Johnson 55:56 Mm. I love that word inevitable. Like I love that. That's like my thing, like be inevitable. Um, and it's interesting 'cause like I think ... And, you know, it's actually, it's really cool to see, um ... 'Cause you can tell actually just when you speak to someone if they're truly locked in. Like there's ... And it, and it's kinda interesting. I started to reach this point on my journey where I just felt ... There was a period where I just felt so dialed in, and I feel like that now. It's like you always feel present almost because you're like, you're so locked in on this thing. You're, you're just dialed in. Uh, it's like tunnel vision. And even the thing, I had a similar thing where, um, it was Halloween actually of this year, and everyone goes out on Halloween.

Will 56:39 Right.

Calum Johnson 56:39 And I think it was on like a Saturday night or something, like Saturday night was actually Halloween, uh, day. And like everyone was out, and I was just like sitting reading some autobiography, uh, like a business autobiography, uh, in bed just chilling, and then wake up the next day and then go again.

Will 56:58 Right.

Calum Johnson 56:58 And I think the s- the sacrifice makes it better. Like I don't know. It's weird, but it makes it actually feel better because you're like it's the next level of commitment. It's like almost it puts it in stone of like I'm truly committed. Like I'm actually-

Will 57:13 Yeah

Calum Johnson 57:13 ... giving something up to pursue this.

Will 57:14 And that, that's when you realize like you, you truly are who you say you are though.

Calum Johnson 57:18 Mm.

Will 57:18 It's moments like that. It's like it's an accumulation of all those moments, like you working on Halloween, and then it might be like you working, um, during spring break while all your friends are out, or you working during Christmas break or whatever. It's a c- accumulation of all these events over time that give you the commitment level and the confidence level of what you have right now. Because a lot of people, they're always like, "Yo, like how do I gain more confidence?" And it's kinda a hard question to answer because I tell people like the reason why I'm confident is because all of, of all of my previous actions. Like I can look at my life and be like, "Oh, yeah, I did this, I did that, and I did that. Oh, yeah, that's why I'm confident because I did all those things."

Calum Johnson 57:57 Mm.

Will 57:57 "And I know who I am." So it, it is funny you say that because it's like, yeah, I mean, you working on that day, I'm sure when you look back on it now, it's, it's ... You can see it in your character. Like the way you move and the way you talk-

Calum Johnson 58:10 Mm

Will 58:10 ... is because of events like that that have happened in your past.

Calum Johnson 58:13 Yeah. You know, that, that's such an in- interesting point that you make. I remember, um, this is the way that Alex Hormozi broke it down, which is like at the end of the day with confidence, you're just stacking evidence, right? Like that's what builds true confidence, not the people ... And when I say true confidence, I'm not talking about people that are like loud. A lot of people are like just loud, either in real life-

Will 58:38 Right

Calum Johnson 58:38 ... or like on social media.

Will 58:39 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 58:39 Like they just talk a lot and then try to like masquerade that as confidence.

Will 58:43 Yeah. It's just personality.

Calum Johnson 58:44 Yeah. [laughs]

Will 58:45 It's a whole different word.

Calum Johnson 58:46 Yeah. But like I think to really get to the true confidence, it's like you need to build the evidence. And, and here's the thing with when it comes to evidence is the w- only person you can't really lie to is yourself 'cause you're aware. Like you might try and tell yourself like a story or like, you know, refashion something that you did to make it actually seem positive when you know kinda deep down it's not. But like that it creates an insecurity because it's like it's the evidence. And so I think what you said is so critical, which is like the moment when you realize like you are who you said you are, that is almost like ultimate confidence.

Will 59:27 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 59:27 Where it's like everything that I projected into the world, there's an alignment with who I actually am. Everything that I show people is what I do in private.

Will 59:36 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 59:36 There's not like this double life.

Will 59:39 And that's when you become super powerful because you start to realize that everything you say you can do, you can actually do.

Calum Johnson 59:46 Mm.

Will 59:46 And everything that you strive to do, like it's a goal that's actually attainable. You know, like I'm at the point where it's like if I say I wanna make 100 million, I know I can do it. Now I just have to figure out the how. And then more important than the how, I really just

Will 1:00:00 have to figure out the who, like who can get me there.

Calum Johnson 1:00:03 Mm.

Will 1:00:03 And, uh, you know, I, I've talked about this on like other podcasts. Like you ... The ... You're not at the level you wanna be at yet because you're not the person you need to be yet to be at that level. You know, the same person that I was at, that I was at one million is not the same person that I am now at 20, 30. You know, I had to evolve-

Calum Johnson 1:00:22 Mm

Will 1:00:22 ... as a person. But as long as you have the mindset that, that you understand that equation, you're able to keep evolving.

Calum Johnson 1:00:30 Mm.

Will 1:00:30 A lot of people don't even believe in themselves to, to make 100,000, and they say they wanna make 100,000. But it's like the mindset shift has to come before the income shift.

Calum Johnson 1:00:39 Mm.

Will 1:00:40 And that's why I believe like reading books like Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, those are like very important before you even get into business because if you don't even believe that you can do it, you're already like done for before you even get into the business side of things.

Calum Johnson 1:00:53 Mm. You know what I'm interested in? So- [lips smack] You come in and at first you saw this bracelet for $10 and then you managed to scale that to $50,000. At this point, obviously you've sold millions and millions and millions, not of the bracelet, of just in general. Like, you've sold- made millions of dollars. If you had to reflect on the person that when they just hit that $50,000 in total revenue to where you are at now where it's, like, over $40 million-

Will 1:01:20 Right

Calum Johnson 1:01:21 ... what is the biggest difference? Like, what is the shift? What is different?

Will 1:01:25 Yeah. [laughs] What's crazy is, um, I'ma go back to, like, what I said earlier where you can only grow to what you've been exposed to. The only reason I was making $50,000 back then is because I was only exposed to other people that were making around the same amount of money, like 50,000 off one product, 100,000 off one product, 200K off one product. But then when I started getting into the millions, it was because I was getting into rooms with people that were in the millions.

Calum Johnson 1:01:51 Mm.

Will 1:01:52 And I feel like once you have your first business success off of something that you were taught by someone else, you start to realize, "Oh, wow. If this person can do it, I can do it." And once you get into that mindset, that's extremely powerful because now you know that everyone is pretty much equal. Like, if this person can start a successful podcast, I can start a successful podcast.

Calum Johnson 1:02:13 Mm.

Will 1:02:13 If this person can go and make $10 million online, I can go and make $10 million online, right? So I started just networking with different people making different money, and that allowed me to, to be able to make that same amount of money or more.

Calum Johnson 1:02:26 Mm.

Will 1:02:26 Um, so that's actually how, how I got to the next level and how I'm gonna continue getting to these other levels. It's literally just by meeting people that have already been there and realizing that if they got there, I can get there, and y- you know, obviously getting some tips along the way, too.

Calum Johnson 1:02:42 Yeah.

Will 1:02:42 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:02:42 I'm curious, what did they ... When you met them, what did they show you? And, and here's what I mean, which is, like, it feels like to get to the first $100,000, you can get there through hustle.

Will 1:02:53 Right.

Calum Johnson 1:02:54 Just through doing the work and showing up relentlessly you can make the first 100,000. It feels like to me the 100,000 to a million is relationships.

Will 1:03:03 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:03:03 So having the right relationships and then pairing that with an obsessive focus can get you to a million. When you start getting into rooms with people that are making millions, tens of millions, what is it that you're picking up? What is it that they're showing you that you're like, "Okay, this is phase three. This is the next phase"?

Will 1:03:22 Right. So when I was already, like, making, like, a million dollars, like, selling products online, I remember I was talking to one of my mentors, and he was like ... He asked me a question. He was like, "Yo, Will," he was like, "So," he was like, "You know, you're making all this money on Amazon, but do you only care about income?" I was like, "No." I was like, "What do you mean?" He was like, "Do you, do you only care about income or do you care about impact, too?" I was like, "I mean, I care about impact and income." And then he was like, "Then why are you being selfish and not teaching anyone how to do what you do?" [laughs] And then I was like, I was like, "Oh." I was like, "Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess you're right, bro." I was like, "I don't know." I was like ... I mean, I posted on social media, like, I actually did already have a program at the time. I was like, I posted on social media. I just don't really focus too much on it. And then he was kinda just explaining to me how, like, if I wanted to get to the next level, um, if I show enough people how to get what they want, I will always have what I want is pretty much what he told me. And then I was like, "Okay." So I started looking more into, like, how to, like, create this huge education company to teach people what had a- what I had already done. And, um, I remember I was learning about that, and I started making, like, an extra $100,000 a month just teaching people how to get into Amazon through, like, hosting, um, like, live events in my area 'cause I was, like, the only person in my county that was selling products online. I was hosting events. I was posting on social media. And then I remember one time I had spent, like, $7,000 to go to an event in Miami that my mentor was throwing, and at the time, that was the most money I'd ever spent to go to an event. So I was like, "Dang," like, "this is a lot of money." Like, I've never even spent this much money on myself, like, on a designer item or anything before. Like, I, I just don't spend that much money. So I was

Will 1:05:00 like, "You know what? I'm gonna spend $7,000 to go to this event." So I went to that event, and I remember the event was about, like, how to grow your social media, like how to increase your impact. And I was just lear- I was learning all these things at the event. [lips smack] And then I remember, um, there was this one guy there who was also an Amazon seller who had a big Amazon program, too, so literally, like, what I was trying to do. Like, he was selling on Amazon like me, and he was making millions with, uh, like, teaching other people how to sell on Amazon, too.

Calum Johnson 1:05:27 Mm.

Will 1:05:27 So literally exactly what I was trying to do, and I asked him, I was like, "Yo," like, "how do I get to the level that you're at?" And then he told me, he was like, "Read this book," and then he was like, "Do webinars." And then I was like, "All right." And the thing is, I already knew about webinars. A webinar is just a live virtual event. I already knew about them, but I had always thought that they were kinda, like, saturated or that they didn't work. And [lips smack] what I realized when he told me that is people only ... Pe- people who pay pay attention. And because I had paid $7,000, information that had, that I had thought wasn't valid, I actually listened to him. I was like, "You know what? Even though I think webinars don't work, this guy is richer than me, and I just paid $7,000 to be here, so I'ma just do whatever [laughs] he fucking says," right?

Calum Johnson 1:06:15 Yeah.

Will 1:06:16 So I was like, "All right. I'ma do webinars, and I'ma read this book." And I did a webinar, and I read the book he gave me, and I made my first [laughs] million dollars. Like-

Calum Johnson 1:06:23 Yeah

Will 1:06:23 ... and it sounds, like, so simple, but that's literally what I did.

Calum Johnson 1:06:27 Yeah.

Will 1:06:27 I read the book he gave me, which was, uh, it's called One to Many. It's a book that breaks down how to do a webinar. And then I started, uh, doing the webinars, like he said, like every Sunday. I've done a webinar every Sunday for the past two years live-

Calum Johnson 1:06:40 Yeah

Will 1:06:41 ... um, where basically I break down how to make money on Amazon for two hours, and then at the end I give people the opportunity to, uh, you know, join my program and learn step-by-step weekly calls and all that stuff. So I've been doing that for, like, the past two years. So I learned from him how to do it. I read the book, and I did it, and that time made my first million dollars as far as, like, the education side.

Calum Johnson 1:07:01 Mm.

Will 1:07:01 And then, um, the second year I made 10 million, so we 10Xed.

Calum Johnson 1:07:05 Mm.

Will 1:07:06 And then we've just been going up ever since.

Calum Johnson 1:07:08 It's actually interesting 'cause you mentioned mentors, like one of your mentors told you this, and, um, people always have this question of like, how do I get mentors? Or like how do I get people that I aspire to be like to-

Will 1:07:20 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:07:20 ... want to mentor me? And, um, I actually think one of the key things is listening and application.

Will 1:07:28 Right.

Calum Johnson 1:07:28 And here's what I mean, right? I feel like, um, I see it when people ask me about podcasting, so I can only assume someone who's like a millionaire or multi-millionaire, when someone asks them how to make money or how to make a million, it's almost like, it's like a tiring question to even answer because-

Will 1:07:49 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:07:49 ... they know that you're most likely not gonna follow anything that they say.

Will 1:07:54 Right.

Calum Johnson 1:07:55 And so it's actually very rare when you tell someone, like people ask me about starting a podcast, and I'll give the answer, like the legitimate true answer, and I can tell it's like the way that they're receiving it, they, their eyes almost like glaze over.

Will 1:08:10 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:08:10 Like they're not really listening.

Will 1:08:12 And I think, man, I think it just goes back to what we discussed of like the networking hack is to actually be good at something.

Calum Johnson 1:08:18 Mm.

Will 1:08:18 Like actually put in the work. And then again, people who pay, pay attention. So if you combine those, like if you put in the work and you get decent at something, and then you pay someone or you pay to go to an event, those two combined will take you to the next level 'cause let's change that situation that you just talked about. Think about it, think about if you threw an event and it was $5,000 to go to the event, and someone actually pays you to go to your event-

Calum Johnson 1:08:47 Mm

Will 1:08:47 ... and then they come. But it's not just someone that's like, "Hey, how do I have a good podcast?" It's someone that actually already did 100 episodes.

Calum Johnson 1:08:55 Mm.

Will 1:08:55 They already got decent production. They already got like a name, like thumbnails. Now you can actually help that person because one, you increased the barrier to entry because you already know that this person is serious because they paid to be there. It's not just some random person asking you like, "Hey, how do I..." You, like if someone just asks you that question, you don't know if they're serious. Now you can kinda gauge like, okay, this person is serious 'cause he paid to be here. Like I threw an event in New York, doesn't even live in New York, he flew here, like he's serious. And then you can also gauge his work ethic because it's like, oh, he's not just asking me how to start a podcast. He actually already started one and put in the effort, and his episodes may not be that good, but now I can help him better because I have something to work with.

Calum Johnson 1:09:38 Mm.

Will 1:09:38 Like I can kinda see. So I feel like that's the best way to get mentorship is already have something going for yourself. It doesn't have to be good, but at least someone can see that you have some type of work ethic and something going for you. And then also just paying because when you pay, they understand that, you know, you're actually serious.

Calum Johnson 1:09:56 Mm. And that's the thing, it's being serious. It's like commitment is like the operative word in our whole conversation. It's commitment. And so even when you talk about paying for something, that's just, it's just one form of commitment, which is like the fact that someone paid means that they're more committed than the person that hasn't paid. But there's other ways to demonstrate commitment.

Will 1:10:18 Right.

Calum Johnson 1:10:18 But that's the, that's the common ingredient. That is the core ingredient is like you have to be committed. And when you're committed, the, the way that that kind of plays out is like someone who's achieved the result that you want will tell you to do something, and you will purely listen to what they say and then apply it.

Will 1:10:39 Right.

Calum Johnson 1:10:39 You won't be like, "Oh, is this right? I need to go listen, watch a YouTube video and see if this is-

Will 1:10:44 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:10:44 ... what's the counterpoint of view?" It's like, no, just apply-

Will 1:10:47 [laughs] Right

Calum Johnson 1:10:47 ... exactly what they said. Um, and you'll probably get like a, a similar result.

Will 1:10:54 It was, I wouldn't, I don't wanna say easy, but for me, you know, I kinda, I studied marketing, I studied eCommerce, I paid a lot of people to like learn business and like marketing and all this, and I under- through hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent to learn all this stuff, I learned that story sells. So when it comes to me promoting like my programs and growing my communities, I don't really lean too heavy on the information. I lean heavy on my story. And that's why like if you go on my Instagram, my bio says, "Felon at 17, but multimillionaire at 23." And I lean heavy on that story because at the end of the day, if you can resonate with somebody, it doesn't matter the vehicle that you're teaching them, they're gonna wanna ride that with you because they resonate, they see themselves in you. So when you have a product or a service, the better your story, the more of it you'll sell. And movement and story are kinda similar. You know, Nike has a, has a great story behind it. Um, all these brands that have great products have a great story behind them. Um, most good movies, they're good movies because they have a great plot, a great story. So story literally sells, and story will always sell more than the features and benefits of a product.

Calum Johnson 1:12:13 Mm.

Will 1:12:14 So I just lean heavy on the story. I simplify my story with, yeah, uh, you know, my senior year I got arrested on a felony charge, and after that, you know, I had to get a job working at a warehouse, Amazon Warehouse from 6:00 PM to 4:00 AM. And through working in Amazon, I kinda saw the, the inside and outside operation of what running an online business looks like 'cause I was literally loading the semi-trucks for these Amazon sellers.

Calum Johnson 1:12:39 Mm.

Will 1:12:39 And then through, you know, doing research and like paying mentors and all this, I actually learned the game, and then here I am now. And obviously that's a condensed version, but I learned that if I can just show someone that I was where they were at and I got the result that they want, and Amazon isn't necessarily what everyone wants, but what they do want is the financial freedom that it brings.

Calum Johnson 1:13:01 Mm.

Will 1:13:02 Again, like I said earlier in the podcast, you can replace Amazon with anything else.

Calum Johnson 1:13:06 Mm.

Will 1:13:06 Stocks, any business opportunity. But the end result is financial freedom, time freedom, location freedom, et cetera, which is what people want. So I just link those two together and, um, people are able to resonate with it.

Calum Johnson 1:13:20 Yeah. You know what? And, and here's... Maybe we can close with this. The financial freedom is everything, right? Like, we think that it's, like, the money, like, the, the get rich-

Will 1:13:31 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:13:31 ... but it's really, like, the freedom that it provides. And I think about the, I think about the story that you mentioned where it's like your

Calum Johnson 1:13:40 mom calls you and she needs something, and in that moment you couldn't give it. And so I'm curious for you to just reflect on, like, on, like, what has that freedom meant? Like, what, what has that meant in your life, like, having that level of freedom?

Will 1:14:00 Man, it's meant, it's meant the world to me. Like, literally, um, now I'm able to spend my time doing the things that I wanna do. I'm able to spend it with my family. I have three little brothers that I'm able to spend time with. Um, I'm able to, you know, provide for other people, you know, friends, family, and it's allowed me to do a lot of the things that I didn't, like, necessarily, like, people weren't doing for me growing up. But, um, I'm able to provide a better lifestyle for my family and my friends too, and that makes me feel good. 'Cause at the end of the day, what brings me the most fulfillment is helping other people.

Calum Johnson 1:14:37 Mm.

Will 1:14:38 And, um, I feel like a lotta times s- people will hear that and they're like, "Nah, he's lying." [laughs] But, um, it's, it's actually true. Like, I, I get the most fulfillment off of, you know, giving my mom something that I know she really wanted, or, like, giving my brother something, or, like, teaching my brother a business lesson at 15 years old that I didn't learn until I was 23.

Calum Johnson 1:15:00 Mm.

Will 1:15:00 So I'm getting fulfillment 'cause I'm like, "Bro, like, you don't understand, like, what it took me to learn this, and I'm giving it to you young, so you better do something with that [laughs] shit," bro.

Calum Johnson 1:15:08 [laughs]

Will 1:15:09 So it's like I get fulfillment just off, like, being able to just provide and, like, give people this information that, that I worked so hard to get.

Calum Johnson 1:15:18 Mm-hmm.

Will 1:15:18 Um, so I really do just like giving. Um, you know, I even started a gym in Atlanta.

Calum Johnson 1:15:23 Mm.

Will 1:15:23 It's called Rich and Fit. You need to come when you're in Atlanta.

Calum Johnson 1:15:25 Yeah, for sure.

Will 1:15:26 But, uh, we did, like, a huge turkey drive. You know, we gave away, like, hundreds of turkeys to the community.

Calum Johnson 1:15:31 Mm.

Will 1:15:32 And, um, the whole, like, the whole, like, reason we started that gym was because my trainer, Timmy, um, he- we were actually training at multiple gyms. Like, we were training at, uh, like, LA Fitness, Lifetime, and we would always get kicked out. Because if you meet him you'll realize why. Like, his energy is just crazy. Like, he'd be screaming and stuff.

Calum Johnson 1:15:50 Yeah.

Will 1:15:50 But he's like, he's a real good dude. Like, probably one of the, the best people I've ever met. And I asked him one day, I was like, "Bro," like, "what's your dream?" Like, "What do you wanna do?" And he was like, "I wanna own a gym one day." And I was like... And then when he told me that I was like, "All right," like, "I'ma ma- I'ma make it happen." So a couple months later I opened up a gym and I made him co-owner. And now we don't have to, uh... 'Cause the, the biggest problem he had was he would always get kicked out of other gyms 'cause they didn't like his energy, and now he has his own gym with, where he has all his clients-

Calum Johnson 1:16:19 Mm

Will 1:16:19 ... and we're able to do that together. Um, and you know, there's been multiple scenarios like that where I've been able to partner with people, and it's not really about the money with me, it's more so, like, because I know I'm fulfilling something that they really want, um, you know, it makes me feel good about myself.

Calum Johnson 1:16:37 Yeah.

Will 1:16:37 So, uh, you know, you're, you're able to do that when, when you have financial freedom. So it's not about the money. It's more so, like, the things that you're able to do for other people and the fulfillment you get out of it. And then even Terrell, the guy that we talked about earlier, he was already making six figures. Like, he was, like, a... He was working for an insurance company. He was making good money. But last time I talked to him he was like, "Bro," like, "the reason why I like this Amazon business isn't the money, 'cause I was already making good money, but now I have something that I can do with my kids. Like, I have a business that I can do with my family which allows me to spend more time with my family."

Calum Johnson 1:17:16 Mm.

Will 1:17:16 "And when I was working this job I would only see my family when I'd get off, when they're about to go to sleep." And he was like, "That's why I'm truly thankful for what you did. You know, it's not the money, but I'm able to get my family back."

Calum Johnson 1:17:30 It's so interesting and, and it's powerful because it's like at the end of the day, I think it becomes really... It, it goes to another level when you have something that you can give to others. Like, it, it, it turns... It's different when, you know, your friend wants to start a gym and you can actually, you can provide that look. Or, like, um, even I think, I think a lot of people in, like, the business sense, it's, like, the legacy of it. There's somewhere where my kids can work.

Will 1:17:59 Right.

Calum Johnson 1:17:59 Like, if my, if my kid wants an internship, like, I can give him that look, or I can give her that look. Um, I think that takes it, I think that takes it to another level. You know what? We spoke about, um, giving, and here's where, here's where I wanna close and, and give something to the audience, which is, like, I think about what you said in the beginning, and I think about where you were at 17, and I think about the number of people who are, like... Even the thing where you were saying that, um, you wanted to go into, like, sports, like be an athlete, and it kinda became clear that that path wasn't open, like, kind of that, that door being shut. And then I even think about, like, your friends all going to college and, like, you working at Amazon and then doing this eCommerce business and having to go through that struggle of, like, it's just difficult, and because most people don't follow that path, this is how it felt to me. I, I don't know if it was like this for you, but there's certain moments where you almost feel like an idiot because it's not working for you yet-

Will 1:19:07 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:19:08 ... and everyone else is, like, it looks like they're, like, enjoying life and doing all these things, and you're like, "Maybe I just chose the wrong option." Um- I'm curious, for that person that is in that moment, who's in that moment that you were in at 17 or 18 or 19, and they're like, I don't know, they're, they're pushing for something that hasn't really happened. If you had to ... We spoke about focus. If you had to say, "Just focus on one thing. Just keep this one thing in mind. Just stay, just stay geared and dialed into this one thing," what would that one thing be?

Will 1:19:48 Wow, man. I mean, I could definitely relate to that, 'cause there's definitely been, you know, times where when I was working on my journey and I'm like two years in making no money, and now I'm thinking to my head like, "Dang," like, "my, my friends are about to graduate in two years," and it looks like I've done nothing in two years, right? But I've actually gained all of this knowledge, but I'm not thinking about it at the time. So what I would have to say is you have to really ... Like, whatever it is that you're doing, you have to realize what the consequences are of you not being successful at that, right? Because you can easily say, you can easily say like, "Yeah, man, this hasn't been working for me. I think I'm doing the wrong thing." But what's the, what's the alternate version of that? Like, if you weren't doing what you're doing right now, what would you be doing? Would you be working a regular job? Would you be ... Like, what would you be doing? And is that other option, is that fulfilling you? Is that, you know, hitting the goal that you set out to hit? Because if it's not, then you're doing the right thing right now, because you're working towards something that you wanna do. Like, for example, I got into selling products online not because I wanted to make a lot of money. I got into selling products online because I wanted to buy my mom a house, and I knew that if I didn't crack that, I probably would have never been able to buy my mom a house. And if I would've gave up two years in to selling products online like eCommerce and Amazon and got a regular job, I wouldn't have looked at myself as more successful because I had a good job, because my mom would still be living in an apartment. I still wouldn't have had enough money to be able to fulfill that goal and that dream of hers. But because I committed to the years of hard work of learning this Amazon game, eventually I was able to crack it and buy my mom a house, buy my mom a car, and now I can feel good about that. So for those of you guys that are listening to this right now, like, really realize that even if you don't have the results that you have right now, if you know what you're working towards can eventually get you to that end goal, then you're doing the right thing. Because you can actually feel good about yourself at night knowing that you're working towards something that you eventually will get. And it may take longer than, than you hope for, but you're eventually gonna get there if you put in the work, whereas if you throw in the towel and quit, you'll never get there.

Calum Johnson 1:22:11 Mm.

Will 1:22:12 Right? So is that worth it to, to, to quit because something's not working as fast as you wanna work it, as, as you want it to be, and do something else that's not gonna get you to that end goal? You know, that's something to think about.

Calum Johnson 1:22:24 Mm.

Will 1:22:24 Um, and, and especially if you're doing something for someone else, right? If you're doing something for someone else, then you gotta keep them in mind too, because it would be selfish of you to quit and take the easy route that now you know is not gonna benefit that person.

Calum Johnson 1:22:39 Mm. Nah, man, that's the ... That's reality right there. Nah, I really appreciate you coming on, man. This has been sick.

Will 1:22:44 I appreciate it, man.

Calum Johnson 1:22:45 Been good. Yeah.

Will 1:22:46 Thank you, man. It's, it's been great.

Calum Johnson 1:22:48 Okay. Before we get out of here, I had to give you guys one last gem. The sponsor of today's show, Free Agency. Free Agency helps you find and win top of market roles. Here's how they do it. They are your career quarterback. They provide you with a dedicated talent agent. They understand you and your career goals. They will find you interviews at top firms and make sure you secure a top of market salary. So if you're looking to take your career to the next level, Free Agency is the place for you. Go to the link in the description for more information.