How To Make Your First Million Dollars (This Year) | Arlan Hamilton

Arlan Hamilton 0:00 There was nothing, zero, to tell me that I was going to have a multimillion-dollar venture fund. So I just don't wanna hear anybody say I can't do it. You're talking to somebody who slept on the floor of an airport, who found a way. I don't think I would have made it several days, several weeks of that if I wasn't thinking about this bigger picture. So I think that's where you have to start. And if you find yourself really stuck, it might be because you're thinking too small.

Calum Johnson 0:26 Before we get into the episode, uh, we just finished filming with Arlan Hamilton. Wow, such a powerful conversation, and here's kinda just a bit of context that I wanted to give you guys, which is obviously at this point Arlan is hugely accomplished, raised over $30M for her fund, Backstage Capital. I think really the special thing, and you'll see it when you watch the episode, is where she started. Literally being homeless at one point. This is not a story of someone that had all of the advantages, but she just figured it out, and the perseverance and the confidence and the ability to be different but then be confident with being different. And let me, let me know even what you guys think. I think after we get into that, there's also a part of the episode where we go through her eight-week method on how someone can make a million dollars. We really get into the nitty-gritty, into the detail, into the practical how-to of how you can do it. So yeah, this is, this is a really special one. It's also a really special one even in the evolution of the podcast to have her on. Before we get in, do me just one huge favor really quickly. It's literally gonna take two seconds of your time. Subscribe to the channel. Uh, if you wanna see us get better guests, bigger guests, better conversations, more authentic stories, please give a subscribe to the channel. It really helps us grow. Without further ado, let's get into it. I wanted to start

Calum Johnson 1:46 where you started in the book.

Arlan Hamilton 1:47 Okay.

Calum Johnson 1:48 So first page of the book you say it was May of 2021, and you're at Julien's Auction in Beverly Hills. Um, basically an auction of all of Janet Jackson's, like, iconic items and, and things that she's owned. Um, rubbing shoulders with Kim Kardashian. Christina Aguilera was also bidding on stuff there.

Arlan Hamilton 2:10 I was not rubbing shoulders with them. They were on the phone. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 2:13 [laughs] I'm trying to give you the big hype-

Arlan Hamilton 2:14 Yeah

Calum Johnson 2:14 ... article.

Arlan Hamilton 2:15 I would, I would love you to, but I wanna be honest.

Calum Johnson 2:16 [laughs]

Arlan Hamilton 2:17 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 2:18 Um, and you end up purchasing this truck that, uh, that Janet Jackson owned, and you purchase it for $114,000. And this is exactly what you write in the book. I thought it was so fascinating. "At that moment, I was overcome with emotion. Yes, it was about winning the truck of my hero, Janet, but it was also about the sheer fact of having arrived at this place at age 40, six years after being homeless and sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco Airport." And it's that second part which is where I wanna start, right? Homeless and sleeping on the floor of that San Francisco airport. Give me the context of that time. What was happening?

Arlan Hamilton 3:02 That was, um, 2015, and I had experienced different types of homelessness my whole adult life. Had a pretty chaotic upbringing. Great family, but we moved a lot, and we didn't have money. And, um, I had some really special times and great times, so I d- I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me, but through a series of events I found myself with no place to live, very little money, and if I had money it was by the day. It was like I had that money for that day to get that food, you know, on the dollar menu. Um, and I thought, "If, if I'm going to be homeless, I think if I were to live outside on the concrete, I think that would be so rock bottom for me that I don't know if I would be able to bounce back." And that's the kind of scenario I put in my head. So I said, "Where's someplace I can have shelter and it's relatively safe because there will be authority there?" At the airport. And on top of that, on top of the safety and the shelter, it was not comfortable, but I could also fool myself. I could tell myself, "I'm just missing my f- connecting flight. You're just missing your connecting flight day after day after day, and that's why you're sleeping on the floor."

Calum Johnson 4:30 Just listening to that, where my mind goes, I think we have, like, different mindsets at different periods of our life, and I think about people that are listening, and even what you said, it sounded almost like a survival mindset. It's this incredibly short-term mindset where it's like day to day. I can't even think a week out 'cause I don't know where I'm gonna be a week out. It's a privilege actually to be able to do, like, this long-term planning, right? And so I feel like there's people that are listening that they're, like, in that place. They're just trying to survive day to day. And it sounds like you kind of figured out a mindset or where you had to go mentally so that you could keep going and so that you could keep kind of pushing towards this

Calum Johnson 5:19 larger mission that you had. What were some of those things on a mindset level that were keeping you going at that time?

Arlan Hamilton 5:29 I had, about a year prior to that, maybe a few months prior to that, I had been working on building Backstage Capital which ended up being the venture fund that I started, and I was broke. I was sleeping out of a hotel room with my mom, and she's in her 60s at the time. There was nothing, zero, to tell me that I was going to have a multimillion-dollar venture fund except for my plans and my goals. And I felt a little crazy because I knew I was different. I knew things were different about me. But I al- it always felt right. But when it got really, really bad the year prior to this story, I walked around the, the parking lot of the hotel we were staying in, and I was, like, listening to music and I was reaching out to a few friends to ask them their opinion. And I really wasn't hearing anything that resonated. And so I c- I closed my eyes and I said, um, "Can you imagine the world..." This was 2014. I said, "Can you imagine the world in 2020 where Backstage Capital does not exist? Where a fund that invests in underestimated people or underrepresented people does not exist?" And I imagined the world in 2020, five, six years later, and it just never happened. I never made it work. And my eyes shot open and I said, "No." In that parking lot, I said out loud, "No." It d- it made me shudder, you know? It was like I can't stand the thought of that. And from that moment on, it was w- what you said. It was the micro, day-to-day, one foot in front of the other, and then it was the macro. It was the what is the world gonna look like projected out five, 10 years from now when you do this? Everything in between, no idea.

Calum Johnson 7:23 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 7:23 And would have probably broken me to think about what I would have to go through.

Calum Johnson 7:27 You know what I think, and I was definitely in this place when I even left my job to do the podcast full time, there's a certain level of, like, naivety.

Arlan Hamilton 7:37 Yes.

Calum Johnson 7:38 Like, you just don't, you have no idea what it's gonna take to reach the point that you want to. The naivety's actually deeply required, though.

Arlan Hamilton 7:47 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 7:47 'Cause to your point, I think if you did know everything that it would entail, you might never begin. Like, it might never start.

Arlan Hamilton 7:54 It's true. It's true. And I can s- I will say this, I, I've never given birth before, but that's what I hear a lot of mothers say, is that, "If I knew how difficult the labor was going to be, I wouldn't have gotten pregnant." Uh, or I would have tried not to. Um, but so it's true. Like, if you know, you're probably not gonna t- step out into it. But then those same mothers say, "It was the best thing I ever did," and that's how I feel about this.

Calum Johnson 8:20 Yeah. You know what, one thing that shined through when I was reading this book, and then also It's About Damn Time, there's like a certain level of confidence, right? And, and it seem, it feels like it shined through throughout. I remember reading, um, a section of the book where you were always talking about being a bit different.

Arlan Hamilton 8:41 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 8:41 Like, even in school, like, feeling like a bit of, like, the weird one or, like-

Arlan Hamilton 8:45 Yeah

Calum Johnson 8:45 ... the misfit or, like, the odd one out. Feeling different, but there seemed like there was, like, a, a comfort and a confidence with that. You even mentioned obviously the things that you did with Backstage Capital and looking out even into 2040 and thinking of the impact that a company like that could have. I'm curious, where did the confidence emanate from? You didn't come from money. You didn't come from wealth. You didn't come, your two parents were, like, big venture capitalists.

Arlan Hamilton 9:13 [laughs] No.

Calum Johnson 9:13 What makes you believe, like, "I can do this." Like, "I'm gonna change something in the world." We are in upgrade season. This is about upgrading your paycheck, upgrading your enjoyment of your work, and that brings us to the sponsor of today's show, Free Agency. Free Agency manages and represents 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 are looking to build out your dream career today, Free Agency is the company for you. Go to the link in description. Check it out.

Arlan Hamilton 9:52 Oh, it's, it's simple for me. I believe I can do anything

Arlan Hamilton 9:56 because I believe all of us can do anything. You know what I'm saying? Like, I, I don't, I know some people, um, in my family and friends and, and others who are, let's call them Black women in this case, who if somebody's walking towards them, if it's, like, a, a white person or someone who is, has some authority, they'll get out of the way. Or they kind of feel like they're taking up too much space in a room, or they'll, "I'm sorry I'm here. I'm sorry I got in your way." I've never felt that because I believe that I'm supposed to be here, and I believe that you're supposed to be here and you're supposed to take up space, and you're supposed to be loud and proud. And I believe that everyone that I'm describing is supposed to because I think we're all equal. So if we think, if you think you're, you're equal to everyone, it's really easy to be confident.

Calum Johnson 10:50 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 10:50 Because you want that for other people. You want them to feel that way too.

Calum Johnson 10:54 Hmm. I'm curious, was the ... I even reflect on this in my own journey. There's different levels to the confidence, right? So, like, there was a certain level of confidence of me just starting a podcast. It was another level of confidence of me, like, quitting my job. There's another level of confidence of getting, like, a million views. Like, like, there's, there's different levels of confidence as experiences kind of rack up. I'm curious for you, even when you just reflect on what you just said of, like, equality, of believing, like, "I can take up space," like, "I'm meant to be here," which is a powerful thing. I'm curious, is there a, is there an experience, is there a moment where you're like, where that was really settled and that was really established? Was it working with the Mark Cuban? Was it-

Arlan Hamilton 11:41 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 11:42 ... launching the fund B- Backstage Capital? Was it the book? Like, was there a moment that you think, like, "I'm here."

Arlan Hamilton 11:48 Five years old.

Calum Johnson 11:50 Five years old?

Arlan Hamilton 11:51 Walking into a, um, a department store with my mom. She was very shy and she needed a belt and she couldn't find it. So I went up to the first person I c- could tell could work there and I said, "My mom needs a belt." I've always felt this way- Confident-wise, confidence-wise, e- even when I had n- nothing, so to speak, you know, 'cause I had something. I had love and laughter and family, but, but I had no money. Um, I think again, it's, it's, it started really early. I've always, like you said, I've always felt like the odd person out. I never felt like I fit in. I could talk to everyone. I could talk to different groups of people and feel like I'm supposed to be here, but I never felt like people understood me back. I felt like I understood people and they didn't understand me back, like I was sort of alien. And I remember, um, i- in school, like junior high, high school, people would call me weird to my face-

Calum Johnson 12:56 Hmm

Arlan Hamilton 12:56 ... or talk about me. Like, I had a lot of bullies. And I told my mom once, I was, like, crying. I was really upset about it, probably at 12, 13. I said, "They're making fun of me," 'cause, you know, I didn't have, like, my clothes were kinda messed up because we didn't have any money, and my hair wasn't, like, done well because just didn't have the right understanding of what was supposed to be. And she said to me, "The next time somebody says you're weird, thank them 'cause they're seeing you." So I, I didn't quite understand what that meant at the time. I totally get what that means.

Calum Johnson 13:29 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 13:29 Because I, I used to get kicked out of class for disrupting, for, for asking questions, have, daring to be curious, and now I get paid to do that. So all the things that made me weird and outcast in the past, I now have an ROI on.

Calum Johnson 13:46 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 13:47 So I, I embrace it. But there, there was never, even as an adult, there was never a moment where I thought, "Oh, I've made it." I don't think I've made it.

Calum Johnson 13:56 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 13:56 I'm on a journey.

Calum Johnson 13:58 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 13:58 So, uh, there's a confidence in the everyday, but there's a, there's a curiosity that takes me much further, I think.

Calum Johnson 14:06 Hmm. You know what's interesting? You said, um, you felt like you understood people, but they didn't understand you back.

Arlan Hamilton 14:14 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 14:16 Kind of reflecting on that, like, what do you think they were missing? Like, what didn't, what about you didn't feel like it was being understood?

Arlan Hamilton 14:23 Probably what I didn't understand about myself, which is that I'm ne- I was not meant to work a 9:00 to 5:00, work at a corporation even, um, as much as I tried. I wasn't meant to live a status quo life. I wasn't meant to go to school, meet a partner, have kids, uh, have a, a certain lifestyle. I think, too, being a, a queer, in fact, in my day we called it gay. You know?

Calum Johnson 14:53 Mm-hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 14:53 Being a gay teenager, that was always in the background, not really understanding myself there. But, um, and so that probably kind of played into it a little bit. But I, I just think that I used to, I used to dre- I would daydream about just going as far away from a classroom as possible.

Calum Johnson 15:16 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 15:17 And it wasn't that I didn't appreciate education, 'cause I love learning. I'm a big nerd. I will learn as much as I can every week. There's not a week that goes by or a day that goes by where I don't learn something on purpose.

Calum Johnson 15:29 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 15:30 But the institution of the classroom and everybody's on the same page and everybody's taught the same thing and everybody is measured the same way no matter w- what your style is or what you wanna be or any of that, it just never felt right to me. So I was always bucking up against the system in a way. I was always challenging, and I was doing it for myself and for other people. If somebody else I felt was being picked on or someone else was not getting their say, I would stand up and, you know, be dragged out of the room because I was like, "That, that's not fair," [laughs]

Calum Johnson 15:59 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 16:00 You know? So I think that people were trying to figure me out because I was trying to figure, figure me out.

Calum Johnson 16:05 Hmm. You know what I'm, I'm kind of, I'm curious about is, like,

Calum Johnson 16:13 the start. The start. And here's where I say the start, which is your, I don't even ... So I guess 40 years old, six years ago, so you would've been 34 when you were at this-

Arlan Hamilton 16:23 Well, I'm 43.

Calum Johnson 16:24 Okay.

Arlan Hamilton 16:25 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 16:25 Um, but I guess-

Arlan Hamilton 16:27 So-

Calum Johnson 16:27 ... when you were in the-

Arlan Hamilton 16:27 The 40-

Calum Johnson 16:27 ... in the airport in San Francisco.

Arlan Hamilton 16:29 Well, the 40 was the, the auction.

Calum Johnson 16:31 Okay. And then I guess the being in the airport in San Francisco, you would've been, what? Thirty-

Arlan Hamilton 16:35 34

Calum Johnson 16:36 ... four.

Arlan Hamilton 16:36 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 16:37 Okay. So the 34-year-old Arlan that's sleeping in the airport, because there's someone, maybe they're not physically in an airport, but they feel like they're in that moment where it's like it's just not working, but they have a vision. They have this ambition. They see something in the future that they want to enact. They wanna make it real life. And the reason I say the start is I think the start is so important, which is, like, it's exactly what you said. You're not gonna know every step, but step one is very important. Step one is where it all begins. And so I'm curious, if you had to go back and give advice to the 34-year-old Arlan that's sleeping in that airport, that has this vision of building something, of being a millionaire, of having an impact in the world, what's the first thing you would tell her? Where should she start?

Arlan Hamilton 17:33 I think I was doing this, and that's why I made it here, but it's like the, the being a millionaire part for me couldn't be enough, the goal of being a millionaire. So there had to be this vision that was way bigger than myself. So that's what I would say to that person, 34-year-old me, and I would say to anybody else who is just like, "I don't know how to get out of bed. I don't know the first thing about changing my s- current circumstance," is if you feel that way, it's most likely because you've made it about yourself or you made it about your very specific current circumstances. To me, in that moment- They were not... I wanna, um, almost say they weren't real. I was, like, delusional on purpose, and it was because the endgame or the goal, the North Star, was about how many people can I positively affect? What would happen if a Backstage Capital existed where in venture capital, less than 10% of all venture funding goes to women, people of color, and LGBTQ founders, where white men make up o- only a third of the country, they get 90% of the funding.

Calum Johnson 18:52 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 18:52 If I can make Backstage Capital happen, how many people would be positively affected? It didn't always start there. It wasn't always that. It was... Actually, to be, to be honest with you, I did start with, "I wanna make a... I wanna raise $1 million for my company."

Calum Johnson 19:11 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 19:12 And in doing the research for that is when I learned that statistic that changed my life. Kathryn Finney, her team put that out years ago, and I learned that statistic and I said, "Wait a minute. Everything I've been thinking is wrong. I don't need to worry about me getting a million dollars, where that might take me. I could probably make it work. I'll figure out a way to make that million dollars, but I need to make that million dollars for us."

Calum Johnson 19:38 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 19:39 And so w- because I had that while I'm sleeping on the floor, and any time I talk about it, by the way, I can feel it and see it. I feel the floor. I have my, uh, jeans rolled up as a pillow, no covers. I have my suitcase right in front of my face so I don't have to see people walking by, and there's, you know, lights are blaring. There's never any rest. And I don't think I would have made it several days, several weeks of that if I wasn't thinking about this bigger picture. So I think that's where you have to start, and if you find yourself really stuck, it might be because you're thinking too small.

Calum Johnson 20:20 Hmm. You know what's interesting? That reminds me of, um, [smacks lips] I'm listening to a podcast. I think it was Emmanuel Acho who said this. Um, he says this quote. He says, "Your calling will call you."

Arlan Hamilton 20:32 Hey, yeah.

Calum Johnson 20:32 "You just need to pick up."

Arlan Hamilton 20:34 Yeah. Yeah.

Calum Johnson 20:35 And it's, it's such an interesting thing, and it's like, a lot of the times the thing that you're meant to do, I think so many people have this question of, like, they wanna build a business or they wanna do something that's a bit non-traditional. It's not just work nine to five. They have no idea what to work on. Usually, the answer of what to work on is, like, something that you're already doing. Maybe you just didn't envision it as a business, and it sounds even, uh, listening to you, it was like you were pulled to do this thing. Okay, quick break. I am in the exact same position as you. I'm tryna make my first million this year, and here's one of the things I'm doing in or- to make it happen. April 9th to April 12th, I'm gonna be at Your First Million Live in LA. Arlan Hamilton is putting on this event. Over 2,000 entrepreneurs, creators, hiring managers speaking about how you can start to build wealth in your career right now. When I tell you the speaker list for this event is crazy. Sheila Johnson, the first woman Black billionaire. Rich Paul, who's LeBron James' agent and runs Klutch Sports. Gary Vaynerchuk, Issa Rae. The names go on and on and on and on. So I'm gonna be there April 9th to April 12th, and here's the thing. When you use the link in the description below, you can get 25% off your ticket to Your First Million Live. I'm gonna see you there.

Arlan Hamilton 21:58 Yes. I had always had dreams. So I dreamed of being a millionaire. I dreamed of going on tour and working on these tours, which I ended up doing quite a bit of, of m- musicians. I dreamed of it. That was me chasing it, running after it. This called to me. I've said that publicly. This called

Arlan Hamilton 22:20 to me. This was a calling, and I don't speak like that normally. I think it's very, you know-

Calum Johnson 22:25 Yeah

Arlan Hamilton 22:25 ... a little high and mighty.

Calum Johnson 22:26 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 22:26 But it was. I was not sitting around saying, "Let me go find this." It came to me.

Calum Johnson 22:31 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 22:31 And so if you are someone where I've, I've just said that, we've just said this to you and you're like, "Okay, I have to wait for my calling for it to be real."

Calum Johnson 22:40 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 22:40 "What do I do in the meantime?" Build skills.

Calum Johnson 22:44 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 22:44 That's what you do in the meantime. Build skills. Stack your skills so that you're ready, like you said, when the phone rings.

Calum Johnson 22:51 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 22:52 The proverbial phone.

Calum Johnson 22:54 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 22:55 Th- because if you don't do that, then you're wasting time. Thankfully, I was doing that without even realizing that and knowing that that was what I was supposed to do. So I was, as broke as I was, I c- couldn't afford most books. I couldn't afford the Fast Company cover that I would be on three years later.

Calum Johnson 23:11 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 23:11 Right?

Calum Johnson 23:11 That's crazy.

Arlan Hamilton 23:12 I loved Fast Company. I would go to the airport. I would read it. You know, I would be at the airport and read it, but I could not afford it. It was $8, $7.99.

Calum Johnson 23:19 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 23:19 I couldn't afford it. Then I was on the cover of it in 2018. Um, but each day I woke up from 2013 to 20... Like, mid-2013 to mid-2015, and I... This was a really tough time for me. And I said, "The one thing you can control, you can't control if you're gonna eat today, uh, if you're gonna make any money, if you're gonna raise any money, if you're gonna get a yes, but you can control how much you learn today." And so I made it a, um, it was, um, a habit. I had to learn something every single day. So when, when I did get that first check in September of 2015, I was ready.

Calum Johnson 24:01 Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 24:01 I didn't have to go out and celebrate. I didn't do any of that. I was ready. I was like, "Okay, now I have some companies to invest in 'cause I already know who I want to invest in."

Calum Johnson 24:08 You know, I think it's one of the best feelings in the world is actually being truly prepared for something. Like, being ready for your moment. Like, a, something that you imagined for months, years, it finally comes-

Arlan Hamilton 24:21 Yeah

Calum Johnson 24:21 ... and you feel deeply prepared-

Arlan Hamilton 24:23 Yes

Calum Johnson 24:24 ... is, is one of the- It's one of the best feelings in the world.

Arlan Hamilton 24:27 Have you felt that before?

Calum Johnson 24:28 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 24:28 You have? What, what was-

Calum Johnson 24:29 Yeah

Arlan Hamilton 24:29 ... something that felt that way?

Calum Johnson 24:30 Uh, I think today is, like, an example.

Arlan Hamilton 24:32 Yeah?

Calum Johnson 24:33 I think it's an example of it, which is, like ... And it's not even the fact that, like, we've recorded, I don't know at this point, over 70 episodes.

Arlan Hamilton 24:40 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 24:40 It's not even that. I even ... I reflect on, like, even growing up in London, um, my parents, and my dad in particular, was always, like, super serious about academics. And so, like, even going into exams, I think about, like, obviously there's the learning of, like, knowing what they're gonna say or, like, what you're gonna write, but not even that. It's like the mental preparation. The way that I would, like, listen to music or I would meditate, like, it would get me in a certain zone, a certain presence, a certain calmness. Um, a lot of that framework is what I use before I step into every episode. Um-

Arlan Hamilton 25:19 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 25:19 ... yeah. It's ni- it's nice to just feel that, that calmness, the composure, poise. You know what? I wanna go, I wanna go deeper because, um, we spoke a few weeks ago. I guess it is a few weeks ago now, right? Maybe-

Arlan Hamilton 25:35 A month ago.

Calum Johnson 25:35 Yeah, maybe, like, a month ago. And we're on that phone call, and you say something to me which was like, "It was so exciting 'cause I just knew the audien- the audience would vibe with it," which is you said, "Anyone can be a millionaire. Like, you can learn to make a million dollars." And I'm listening to, um, one of your podcasts on Your First Million, your podcast, um, and you kind of lay out this structure, this framework,

Calum Johnson 26:07 this eight-week method that someone can go on, and it can put them on the path to making their first million dollars. And I wanted to get deeper into it 'cause I thought it was so good. And so the first step that you kinda outlined was what you called, like, research and development. Like, in week one it's research and development. Can you kinda just speak more to it? Like, week one, research and development, and I can even give, I can even give the eight areas that you kind of outlined, um, where someone could focus and make a million. So number one is an online course. Number two is an online membership. Number three is affiliate marketing. Number four is consulting, either one-on-one or group. Uh, number five is a done-for-you agency model. Number six is in-person or virtual training or service. Number seven is SaaS. Uh, number eight is e-commerce.

Arlan Hamilton 27:04 Yep.

Calum Johnson 27:05 So let's map it out for people. I want it to be so tangible and real.

Arlan Hamilton 27:08 Yeah. Well, essen- well, first of all, I'll say that the, uh, I remember doing the notes for that. So what I do when I do my podcasts that are just straight to audio is I sometime- most times I'll just push record on my phone and go, but this time I just did a draft email, and I thought through many of my income streams. And that's how I arrived at that, you know, because I have that framework in different ways. So it ... I also wanna just say that it's not, like, most people don't even believe they can listen to this conversation and do anything about it. I need you to believe that you can. You can. I just ta- talked about living on the floor of the air- like, sleeping on the floor of the airport for s- too long, [laughs] and now I've invested in more than 200 companies and raised tens of millions of dollars, generated millions of dollars in the last decade. Um, and so I, I kind of break it into those eight, but I, I also break it into three kind of easier ways to think of it. Um, these are just examples, by the way. The three ways are, um, you can, you can show someone how to do something or inspire them to do it, you can help them do it, or you can do it for them. So let me do it a different way. You can teach them, show them, teach them, and do it for them. So that if you look at any of those, um, the ... I go on later to say, "Choose one of those. Don't do them all. Please don't do them all. Choose one so you can focus." You focus on it for a year. This is where we lose 90% of people. We're, we're going to. So if you're listening to this or watching this, and you're one of the 10% who actually puts a year into this, whatever you decide to, to work on, your chances of being one of the thousand millionaires that I wanna help create over the next decade skyrocket. Because most people will simply not do the work. They will simply find it too daunting, too difficult, or too much of a hassle. They'll get really excited about it first week, second week, eight week, and then third, third month, "Are you still working on it?" "No," or, "I'm doing this other thing," or, "I'm doing this other thing." So I, I listed very specific things because I think those are tangible, like I said. Like, you can start an online course, and then I talk about how you can promote that and different things. I, I, um, have a friend named Amy Porterfield. Are you familiar with her? She's, she's, um, she did 15 million in 2022, uh, top line, teaching a course about teaching courses. I also met a woman who does courses, um, and she has done $60 million in courses.

Calum Johnson 30:16 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 30:18 $60 million since 2019. We gotta get her on your show.

Calum Johnson 30:22 Mm. We gotta-

Arlan Hamilton 30:24 We gotta, we gotta get her on your show 'cause she-

Calum Johnson 30:25 Yeah

Arlan Hamilton 30:25 ... is incredible. She teaches people how to ... You know, she teaches people something that she learned herself She was broke, she learned how to do this thing, and then she taught people how to do it. So right now there's somebody, there are many of you who, uh, and I'm sorry to break the fourth wall, I don't know if you like that or not [laughs] but I... It's just how I feel about it, 'cause I always wanna share. There are so many of you who, I talk about this in the book, you have an expertise that you don't even realize you have because of your lived experience, because you've done more of it than a lot of other people. Something that's so mundane to you, something that comes easy to you, something that doesn't come easy to you but you've trained on it, you could teach someone else how to do. Another example is there's a, um, a woman, I don't know her name, but I bought her product off of Instagram. She wanted as a hobby to learn how to crochet because she was going through a tough time and she wanted something to focus on that was kind of light, and she couldn't figure out how to do it. So she looked at a lot of YouTube videos and she just barely figured it out, figured it out. Then she figured something out and she's like, "You know what? 70% of this that makes it so difficult for people to learn is in that first little, like, circle that you make crocheting." I don't... You know, I, I learned about it myself. This first little circle that you make. That's the hardest thing to do is to get started. So I'm just gonna sell things that that's already made for you, and then you can do the rest of it. She sold, like, millions of dollars and went on Shark Tank and got even more. She... It, it's just a such a brilliant, simple thing that you're right now sitting on. Right now somebody has that in their head. And there are multiple ways to express that and get that out to people and package it. Multiple companies. Like, 10 years ago you wouldn't have been able to do what I just described because there wasn't Teachable and all the other ones. I, I like Teachable personally, but there wasn't all these other ones. There wasn't the audience and then there wasn't the content marketing that you can do and the next phase. So you choose anyone on the list that speaks to you and then, um, I... Here's what I think, and I'm gonna say this. I haven't said this before. I think I could take three people randomly with a little bit of an application so I can know a little bit about their commitment, and I think I could take them from zero to a millionaire in two years.

Calum Johnson 32:44 That's special. That's special. Okay. You know what? And I, and I love actually that you, you mentioned this now, but then also you mentioned it in the podcast episode, which is obviously I just outlined like eight ways that you suggested that someone could go about doing this if they wanted to make m- their first million. One of the things that you say is, like, you're not meant to do all eight. And, and I think, and I, and I love the point that you made at the time, which was like, um, so often when you hear podcasts or you hear

Calum Johnson 33:15 conversations, interviews with people that make a lot of money, they talk about, like, their streams of income. They have these different streams and, like, revenue, uh, sources. However, there's, like, a process to get to that stream.

Arlan Hamilton 33:29 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 33:29 That, right, those different options and those different sources. And I think so often it's like, it's almost as if, and I kinda did this, it's almost like you're starting on, like, step 10 instead of step one, and you're trying to do a bit of a course mixed with affiliate marketing, mixed with a membership, mixed with an agency, and it's like the lack of focus is slowing down to completely eliminating your results. Um, and you know what? You made the point of, like, 90% of where we lose people in terms of this m- this goal of, like, making that first million is in that focus, is in just being able to say, "I'm gonna do this one thing." And I think part of the reason why people jump around so much is actually what you outline about week one, which is, like, this research and development phase. They can't make the choice. And I'm sure you've heard this, this question or this objection, 'cause I've heard it so much when I speak with people that are, like, interested in starting a business, which is like, what do I do? And there's all these options that I hear, and I'm hearing about AI and I'm hearing about NFTs and crypto and, like, there's all... There's the new hot thing every few months, um, and I don't know where to start. I'm curious if you were gonna advise someone on, like, there's a process to kind of figuring out, like, what's the thing that you should focus on, what is kind of... What is the process? Like, what would you advise them? Like, this is what you should be thinking in that research development phase.

Arlan Hamilton 35:06 Yeah. And, uh, I think the eight weeks is sort of like this, uh, accelerated path to going the full distance. Um, I think w- w- when you- we were talking earlier about your calling versus something that you could do. There's different versions of what you should do in this moment. Like, if you gotta eat, um, there's nothing wrong with being an Uber driver or a Lyft driver. There's nothing wrong with DoorDashing, make ends meet or working the 9:00 to 5:00 or doing the corporate gig like you're doing, and over time building up to something else, right? I, I don't want anybody to think that I think that you shouldn't, that you have to go all in all at once.

Calum Johnson 35:45 Mm-hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 35:45 That's another thing that's important. Um, you wanna have some combination of starting with what fi- like, um, fulfills you.

Calum Johnson 35:58 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 35:59 What is worth doing, excites you, makes you excited to wake up in the morning? Like, every night when I go to sleep, I'm so excited to wake up the next morning. Like, I can't wait to wake up the next morning and think through s- more strategy. I go to sleep thinking through strate- stra- strategy. I wake... I dream of it. I wake up with an idea. I write the idea down, and then I go up back into the cycle. Th- that wasn't always the case because I hadn't found the thing.

Calum Johnson 36:26 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 36:26 So it has to be something that you're just, to be honest with you, gotta be obsessed with it. If you truly want to make a million dollars doing it sustainably, and that's just your first million, you have to be obsessed with it.

Calum Johnson 36:43 Mm-hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 36:43 So something that's obs- y- you find, be obsessed with, and that's where it goes back to you probably already know it and you don't even realize it.

Calum Johnson 36:51 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 36:52 Also has to be something that is, in my opinion, ethical. Something that helps someone else, because again, that'll keep you going. That'll be, that'll be the, the, the buoy, I think the word is buoy-

Calum Johnson 37:03 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 37:03 ... that keeps you afloat when things-

Calum Johnson 37:05 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 37:05 ... are tough. Has to be something that makes money, and it has to be something that, I'm gonna say this, it might come out the wrong way. It can't be something that you only sell to broke people.

Calum Johnson 37:16 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 37:17 It has to be something, like ev- Like a lot of people I talk to, they have this idea, like something fulfills them, but they're like, "And I want, you know, I'm gonna be the cheapest version of it and, you know, I'm not, I'm gonna make it really accessible for so many people, 'cause I want our people to come up." You make it really accessible to so many people and it's so cheap, it's not gonna be sustainable and a good business model, and you won't be able to keep doing it, and therefore you won't help any of the people you wanna help.

Calum Johnson 37:47 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 37:48 So it has to be something that is actually valuable. Something that's valuable to someone else, so valuable that they'll spend actual money, like real dollars on.

Calum Johnson 37:56 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 37:57 That's another thing. And so we've talked about so many different things. There's some things I wanna go to. I don't wanna forget them. But you wanna kind of lock yourself in a room, go on a staycation, do what you gotta do. Um, pen to paper. What's fulfilling to me? What's something that is helpful to others, valuable to others, ethical? What's something that has a higher price point ultimately, or a version of it has a higher price point that I can get to?

Calum Johnson 38:27 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 38:27 'Cause you think about the Tesla model. They didn't start with something that costs like $5,000, $10,000, $15,000. They started with something that was so unattainable to make it possible for the more attainable. Now, I won't get too much into Tesla 'cause I'm not a big fan of the boy, but that model is interesting. The Apple model is interesting.

Calum Johnson 38:45 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 38:46 Um, anyway, so that's part of the research and development is also in truly, research and development is also truly studying. I'm gonna ask you a question I think is gonna prove this point. How many other people's YouTube's channel, YouTube channels do you study, if you had to guess?

Calum Johnson 39:07 Oh. You know what, it's hard for me to give an exact number 'cause there's a few kinda core channels that I really study, and like I'm aware of like everything they're posting.

Arlan Hamilton 39:18 Yep.

Calum Johnson 39:19 But then I use YouTube so much-

Arlan Hamilton 39:22 Yeah

Calum Johnson 39:22 ... that I'm actually studying like even the smallest channels.

Arlan Hamilton 39:25 Yes. You're proving my point.

Calum Johnson 39:27 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 39:29 Do you know, you probably don't even realize this 'cause you, it's just automatic to you. You're studying. Of course I'm gonna study the thing, almost obsessively probably-

Calum Johnson 39:38 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 39:38 ... that I'm trying to excel in. Most people don't.

Calum Johnson 39:42 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 39:43 Most people don't, couldn't tell you their competition if it, their life depended on it. And I know this, why? Because I get pitched every single day of my life by multiple people, and I ask that question often.

Calum Johnson 39:53 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 39:53 "Who's your biggest competition?" "We don't have any." "Okay, bye." [laughs]

Calum Johnson 39:57 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 39:57 'Cause you're wrong.

Calum Johnson 39:58 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 39:59 Because, so you, the obsession has, i- is, a lot of that is used for the research and you, it doesn't stop at any point. It just gets you started and you, you never stop researching.

Calum Johnson 40:10 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 40:10 So you're, you're learning about it. You're always leveling up, but you're, you're, you're figuring that part out to get you going. And you are gonna start off, if we're talking about people who are just starting, you are gonna start off with lower stakes, lower risk things.

Calum Johnson 40:30 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 40:30 And just g- give it a try. 'Cause if, if you can take on all of the risk for yourself, whereas if it doesn't work out, only thing that was hurt was maybe your, your ego-

Calum Johnson 40:43 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 40:43 ... then you can, you're, you're, you're rich. You know what I'm saying?

Calum Johnson 40:48 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 40:48 Because what people try to do to compensate for not taking too much risk is that they try to go out and raise a bunch of money before they have anything, before they have product market fit, any idea that it's really a, a, a company. They try to, they, they depend on so many other people. But if you take on the, if you take on the risk of the worst thing that can happen is that it'll feel bad. It, it's a little bit of time wasted, quote unquote, and it'll feel bad.

Calum Johnson 41:15 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 41:17 Um, you, you have so much leverage in, in doing that.

Calum Johnson 41:22 Yeah. You know what? There's, and, and this is actually what I was just writing down. There was kinda two key mindsets that you revealed that even from my own journey I've seen, which is the first one is the obsession piece, which, um, my dad when I was growing up, he always used to say to me is like, "Focus on the foundation." Like, the foundation of anything is the most important. So you spend the majority of your time focused on the foundation, 'cause a lot of the times we focus on like the sizzle, like the nice stuff around the edges, not the core, not the foundation. And so the foundation, I think, is really, um... I remember Naval said this, which is, like, you wanna work on things that feel like, uh, they feel like play to you, but work to others. And sometimes those things are the hardest to identify because they come so naturally to you. You make the mistake of thinking it comes that naturally to everyone else. Like, if you, if you love the NFL, like truly love it from the time that you were a child, you're like, "Oh, doesn't everyone love the NFL?" If you love YouTube, you spend all your time on YouTube watching vloggers and all this stuff, like, oh, doesn't everyone love this? No, they don't. Like, that's your thing. Um, and so the obsession piece is so important because then you're just gonna ... It makes everything easier, 'cause things are just gonna ... You're gonna put in the extra work-

Arlan Hamilton 42:47 Yeah

Calum Johnson 42:47 ... naturally-

Arlan Hamilton 42:48 'Cause you want to

Calum Johnson 42:49 ... 'cause it's what you do.

Arlan Hamilton 42:50 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 42:51 The second piece that you, uh, revealed, and I, and I see this so much, and I wrote it down on my paper, which is, like, having, like, this action first mindset, which is ... And even the, the research and development phase, I would almost more call it, like, the experimentation phase in a way because people get bogged down in doing research-

Arlan Hamilton 43:14 Yes

Calum Johnson 43:14 ... of, like, reading-

Arlan Hamilton 43:16 Yeah

Calum Johnson 43:16 ... and listening to podcasts, and it gives you this illusion of making progress. Whereas, like, a lot of the people that have sat in that seat that you're sitting in and have achieved these outcomes, they actually had, like, a deep experimentation phase where they were trying these different things. And the framework that I've kind of realized they're working off, 'cause when I'm asking the questions I start to see patterns, um, in the way that they answer, is, like, they're looking for signal. Like, they're looking ... They, they very quickly kind of put something out or test something, and then they're, like, looking for that spike. They're looking for the tweet that they tweet out and a ton of people are interested. It's like they're looking for something in the wild. As soon as they find it, and it kind of aligns with everything else that you outlined, like it's something, um, that is, like, a passion to them, it's all in on that and it's, like, going to the other, the other phases that you outline.

Arlan Hamilton 44:12 Mm-hmm. And having the, uh, the willingness to risk it, risk it, risk that-

Calum Johnson 44:17 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 44:17 ... and be wrong. You know, another, another part I, I wanna make sure people understand of research and development is also talking to your potential customer.

Calum Johnson 44:25 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 44:26 And that may mean, like, you're selling something, so it's your potential customer. Or if you're a YouTuber, it could mean surveying and just talking to people, or talking to the potential guests, or talking to the people who would, who would consume your content. It's, it's that too. You know? It's all of that, uh, uh, put together.

Calum Johnson 44:43 Mm. You know what? Okay. So being action first and everything that, and, and everything that we mentioned is so key.

Arlan Hamilton 44:50 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 44:50 I wanna move on to the part two, which is coming up with

Calum Johnson 44:52 a main offer.

Arlan Hamilton 44:53 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 44:53 So I've kind of seen the thing. Like I've, I've made the decision of like, okay, I'm gonna focus on this. It's gonna be affiliate marketing.

Arlan Hamilton 45:00 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 45:00 That's the way.

Arlan Hamilton 45:01 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 45:02 Um, and you kind of also ... You know, even before you get to the coming up with a main offer, you outline, like, a few ways that you can, like, support that selection. So, like, podcasting, YouTube, social content, webinars, workshops, publishing.

Arlan Hamilton 45:16 Yeah. And again, you're choosing one-

Calum Johnson 45:18 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 45:18 ... or two-

Calum Johnson 45:19 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 45:19 ... of those. You're not doing all of that at once-

Calum Johnson 45:23 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 45:23 ... at the beginning.

Calum Johnson 45:24 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 45:25 So it's like a kind of name your own adventure sort of thing. So you might choose, like, affiliate marketing, and then the way that I'm gonna promote that is through a podcast.

Calum Johnson 45:32 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 45:32 'Cause what, like you said, what most people do is they have four of the top line stuff. They have, like, a course and affiliate marketing, and also I'm gonna sell a T-shirt, and I'm also gonna do this. And then they have ... Either they have no or one channel, and it's not enough, so it's just a channel and it's like e- everything is banked on that. Or they're just all over the place, spray and pray. It, there's just no focus.

Calum Johnson 45:58 Mm-hmm.

Arlan Hamilton 45:58 So if more of you ... If you think of it more like, I've got ... These are ingredients for a very specific thing. I'm gonna choose one of these things. And affiliate marketing may seem like a too much of a buzzword and feel kinda sleazy, 'cause it sounds like that, but it truly ... I'll give you an example of what you could do is, let's say you ha- you don't have a product, you don't have a service, you don't think that your own course would actually teach people a lot, but you're a good curator. You have good taste. You help people find things that they need. You could have a website built or you could build it yourself, uh, no code or have someone do it, where you have three categories or two categories of things, like for the entrepreneur, or for the, the new bride, or for the new parent, or whatever it is, again, that you've researched and decided you wanna work on. And you find people who already do it really well, who have something really valuable to offer, who also have affiliate programs.

Calum Johnson 46:58 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 46:59 And you put that on your page, and you ex- explain why you love it and why it's good for the other person. That way you didn't have to create your own IP in that situation, and you're getting a p- a portion of each of those sales.

Calum Johnson 47:12 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 47:13 That, like, to me, that seems really reasonable and it ... Attainable for a lot of people.

Calum Johnson 47:20 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 47:20 You know, if you think of yourself as an influencer, you get a lot of people who care about what you're wearing, what you're doing. Don't just be a consumer. Maybe you have a thing where, like, you're getting a- a, a, a, an affiliate, you know, for every time somebody goes to, uh, Amazon and picks up a thing that you bought, or the, like, store that you're, that you bought, or the, the smaller influencer who has their own, uh, affiliate program.

Calum Johnson 47:43 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 47:44 If you know things about technical gadgets, same thing. Like, that's a big one, right?

Calum Johnson 47:50 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 47:50 It's just, it's just one example of many different ways that you can do something. So I just don't wanna hear anybody say, "I can't do it."

Calum Johnson 47:58 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 47:58 I don't want ... This is a big thing before we go on. So many people come to me because I invest in other companies, and they say ... And I, we talk about what they're doing, and I say, "Well, what have you done in the last six months? What sort of traction do you have? What sort of things have you accomplished?" And they'll say, "Nothing, because I wasn't able to raise money yet." And I just have to blink hard at them 'cause I'm like, "You're talking to somebody who slept on the floor of an airport and found a way." So I n- it's not like I'm o- over here on a high horse and like, "Oh, I've never known what it's like to struggle." Of course you don't. You know? Of course you ... There are ways to get out of your current situation. There are ways that you can do it. You just have to, you have to consume what we're saying- Plan for it, and then act on it. Because like I say about my videos and my courses, it's not Netflix. You don't put your feet up and watch it and then go to sleep. You do something about it

Calum Johnson 48:57 Mm. And you know what is, like, the, the word that kinda came into my mind was, was confidence. And I-

Arlan Hamilton 49:03 Yeah

Calum Johnson 49:03 ... I, um, I felt that so much on my own journey, and I've always thought that I was super confident, but even when it comes to the part about, like, focus, that was such a huge obstacle to me.

Arlan Hamilton 49:15 Mm.

Calum Johnson 49:16 Um, and only really recently have I started to get clearer with it. And the reason why I say confidence and focus was linked, I think a lot of the time the reason why people struggle to focus is because it's like a hedge. So, like, you, you laid out eight options. If I do four of the options-

Arlan Hamilton 49:35 Ah

Calum Johnson 49:36 ... maybe one of them-

Arlan Hamilton 49:37 Yeah

Calum Johnson 49:37 ... will work.

Arlan Hamilton 49:38 Yeah, yeah.

Calum Johnson 49:38 Because you don't wanna be like, "Oh, I'm going all in-

Arlan Hamilton 49:41 Yeah

Calum Johnson 49:41 ... SaaS company."

Arlan Hamilton 49:42 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 49:43 And then it fails.

Arlan Hamilton 49:44 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 49:44 It doesn't work. Um, it's the same thing even with the offer. Like, a lot of the times it's like, uh, you don't believe that you can sell something that people would buy. Like, that's-

Arlan Hamilton 49:53 Mm

Calum Johnson 49:53 ... even a confidence thing.

Arlan Hamilton 49:54 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 49:55 Like, "Oh, people are interested in my outfit."

Arlan Hamilton 49:57 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 49:57 But still you're like, "Eh, I don't think anyone would buy it if I put the link to where it is and I got an affiliate through that."

Arlan Hamilton 50:03 Yeah, yeah.

Calum Johnson 50:03 Like, I don't think a brand would... I'm not an influencer.

Arlan Hamilton 50:06 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 50:06 Like, it's, um, the confidence and, like, the limiting beliefs are actually so key. And then it's also just caring what other people think.

Arlan Hamilton 50:15 Yeah. Well, that's why I spent the first third of my book talking about mindset.

Calum Johnson 50:19 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 50:21 It's exactly right.

Calum Johnson 50:22 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 50:22 Because most of it, or not most of it, but a lot of it, a big part of it is just even believing that you're supposed to have the thing, that you could be the person that has that. Sometimes when we're watching things we're like, "That's separate from me. I'm watching a movie. I'm watching a TV show. That's separate from what is my real life. I can't even imagine myself there."

Calum Johnson 50:46 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 50:47 So you have to be able to imagine yourself there, and I go through a few reasons that you should imagine yourself there. And mainly it's because we don't have time for imposter syndrome, not in a world where, um, every time Black people build something beautiful it gets burned to the ground, literat- literally or figuratively. Anytime, you know... Th- th- what was it? The '70s, women couldn't have their own credit cards.

Calum Johnson 51:15 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 51:15 Unless they were married and their husband signed off on it, they couldn't have their own credit card. And of course credit cards just started in the '70s, but that's crazy.

Calum Johnson 51:22 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 51:23 Where so much is going on, we just don't have, we don't have time for it. I'd like to be nicer about it and sweeter and h- hold everybody's hand and say, "Hey, feel better about this," but we don't have time. We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the world and to each other to say, "If Donald Trump can be the President of the United States-

Calum Johnson 51:47 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 51:48 ... I can sell a T-shirt online with confidence." Shouldn't have said his name 'cause I think something, some sort of thing appears when you say it.

Calum Johnson 51:54 [laughs]

Arlan Hamilton 51:55 Some sort of-

Calum Johnson 51:56 Yeah

Arlan Hamilton 51:56 ... [laughs] alien thing comes.

Calum Johnson 51:58 Yeah. You know, on the, on the confidence point I remember, um,

Calum Johnson 52:01 I think it was Alex Hormozi said this, which is-

Arlan Hamilton 52:03 Yeah

Calum Johnson 52:03 ... like, confidence is built by developing, like, an undeniable stack of evidence-

Arlan Hamilton 52:09 Yes

Calum Johnson 52:09 ... that you are who you say you are.

Arlan Hamilton 52:12 Yes.

Calum Johnson 52:12 And so sometimes I think, like, we will put people on a pedestal and think that the reason why they're so confident is 'cause they're just naturally brilliant.

Arlan Hamilton 52:22 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 52:22 But the reason for their confidence is stacking up the daily actions-

Arlan Hamilton 52:26 Yeah

Calum Johnson 52:27 ... that they do.

Arlan Hamilton 52:27 They got the receipts.

Calum Johnson 52:28 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 52:28 They got the receipts.

Calum Johnson 52:29 It's undeniable.

Arlan Hamilton 52:31 And what's exciting about that is that you can start building receipts today.

Calum Johnson 52:35 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 52:35 You can be the person you look up to.

Calum Johnson 52:38 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 52:38 You can achieve that. It's very exciting. Go back and watch any interview with Kobe, with LeBron. Yeah, they got all kinds of swagger later in life, but they got that swagger by ta- they'll talk about, like, I was really... Like, Kobe said he wasn't, you know, he was naturally talented, but he played like he was terrible, because there's always something to learn. And if he had at 18 decided, "I'm the best in the world. I truly am the best in the world no matter what I say, that's it," he wouldn't have had much of a, of a, of a career.

Calum Johnson 53:17 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 53:17 It is in that building the receipts, building, building, build. I'm still doing that. I'm doing that today. I'm doing that tomorrow. Um, and what hap- what's really cool is that you start to see not just the receipts of, like, okay, I did this, I accomplished it. You start to see people come back to you. You start to see come, people come back to you, "This is what this interview meant to me. This is what this article meant to me. This is what your investment or your in- investment of time. That day when we were talking, I met you at this place, we talked for 10 minutes. I took what you said and I turned it into this." Your customers will start becoming your biggest advocates if you're doing, if you're doing it right.

Calum Johnson 54:01 Actually, I think that that journey is kinda, it's like a beautiful journey, 'cause I think in the beginning, and I'm gonna give people the heads-up on this, which is, uh, what I've experienced, which is, like, a lot of the times in the beginning it's like you're climbing this, like, steep ascent. Like, and you're... It feels you're putting something out there in the world, and a lot of the times some- nothing's even coming back. Like, you're not necessarily... It's not necessarily like you put out the first episode of your podcast and it's loved and it's going viral on YouTube. It's like episode after episode, not really any views or, like, a very small increase or decline in views. And then there's, like, this... And I call that period, like, the dark place, because I know for me personally it was where, like- It's where things... It's, it's just difficult. But it's really, it's in that process where you become really good at something, is in that dark place where you just persevere and you just keep doing the thing and you keep learning. And then it's like if that's the steep percent, it's like you get to the hill, and then suddenly things start to get a bit easier. And what you're saying about people coming back to you starts to occur. And now people are looking at your catalog and everything else that you've already done. And it's almost... It's not easy, but it feels comparatively easy.

Arlan Hamilton 55:21 It's different.

Calum Johnson 55:21 It's actually a beautiful... Yeah, it's a beautiful process.

Arlan Hamilton 55:23 It's a different... You have different issues for sure.

Calum Johnson 55:27 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 55:27 But that is a beautiful thing. Like, I don't know, have you had this experience yet where somebody's walked up to you on the street from your podcast?

Calum Johnson 55:34 Uh, I've had it when I've gone to, like, events.

Arlan Hamilton 55:36 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 55:36 Like, people who know. Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 55:37 It's gonna be... Over the next 12 months it'll, it'll... Your whole life will change-

Calum Johnson 55:42 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 55:42 ... I believe. And can I speak, can I speak a little bit to, to what I think about your channel?

Calum Johnson 55:46 Yeah, go for it.

Arlan Hamilton 55:47 Um, I said this to you on Zoom. W- I think you reached out to me. I believe you did.

Calum Johnson 55:53 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 55:54 When you reached... When people... I get asked to go on shows all the time, different things, and I appreciate that, but I say no to most because it's just not, not enough time in the day. But I do research the ones that I'm interested in. And when I went to your site or your channel, I looked at the... I always go back to early, early, early videos.

Calum Johnson 56:13 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 56:14 And I watched, I looked at the stats for your videos, and I saw you were doing some on Zoom, and then you started doing some in this very room. And there were some that had 100 views, 400 views, 1,000 views, 350 views. And then you get closer and closer to the recent, and you've had, like, you know, a breakout 500K plus, and then 100K here and there, and this one will get 10,000 the first day. What to me was impressive, and I did say this to my team on the way over here, what to me was impressive was that if you look at the earlier videos, you have the same passion and the same, I'll say it again, curiosity in the earlier videos as you do today.

Calum Johnson 57:01 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 57:02 It's not like you said, "I'm gonna wait until I have a million followers before I start being really great at this." You said, "I'm gonna be great at this, and then I'll have a million followers."

Calum Johnson 57:14 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 57:14 Right? And I hope that you reach your 100,000 subscriber in 90-day challenge.

Calum Johnson 57:19 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 57:20 I think that would be amazing. I think you can do it.

Calum Johnson 57:22 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 57:22 And people should subscribe right now-

Calum Johnson 57:24 [laughs]

Arlan Hamilton 57:24 ... so that they, they can hear that again because what a great, what a great example for people. And it's, it's... You know, people ask me all the time, "What do you look for in a founder?" That.

Calum Johnson 57:36 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 57:37 There's just some special thing, and it can be taught, it can be developed. You don't have to worry if you're not there yet. But there's this thing where you, you, you step into the greatness of who you are today, so you can meet that person, right? It, it matches. You... I think you've done that.

Calum Johnson 57:59 Mm. Thank you. No, that's, that's amazing. I really appreciate that. Um, so we spoke about the, the research and development, and then it goes into crafting your main offer. The third part

Calum Johnson 58:13 is leads and content, and I think this is something that, like, it's, it's difficult for people because I think a lot of us, we don't think about ourselves as, like, salespeople.

Arlan Hamilton 58:24 Okay.

Calum Johnson 58:24 Or, "I know how to generate leads."

Arlan Hamilton 58:25 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 58:25 "I know how to make sales."

Arlan Hamilton 58:27 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 58:27 Um, how can someone start to go about driving, like, leads and people to their, to their offer?

Arlan Hamilton 58:33 When I'm, when I'm thinking of leads in this case, I'm think- not thinking of sales.

Calum Johnson 58:37 Okay.

Arlan Hamilton 58:37 I'm thinking of marketing.

Calum Johnson 58:38 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 58:39 They're two different things.

Calum Johnson 58:40 Do you want to explain that, actually, what the distinction is?

Arlan Hamilton 58:42 Sales is I'm telling... I'm asking you to pay for something, to buy something from me.

Calum Johnson 58:50 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 58:50 And s- that's... It's a great skill to have. Every founder should know how to sell. It's like you're at an event or you're, you're doing your thing, and you're, you're going out, and you're saying, "Hey, can you s-" Like, think about people who sell CDs, or used to, old school, sell CDs on the street. "Hey, you gotta hear my mixtape. It's $5." That's sales.

Calum Johnson 59:07 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 59:08 Marketing is they're coming to you because of something, of a billboard. You're... Something that's a billboard, but, uh, figuratively. So marketing is where all, I think, all the fun is. And the better marketer you are, the less sales you have to do, or the fewer sales you have to do.

Calum Johnson 59:24 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 59:25 Uh, and the less selling you have to do. So when I think about lead generation, I think about, um, w- how can I draw people into what I'm doing, or how can the person I'm helping draw people in? Just had a very cool episode earlier, um, this year come out, um, where I did a VIP day with a f- with a founder of a real estate company. And we w- walked through, um... VIP day meaning that she get one-on-one with me for several hours, and then we went to courtside at the Mavericks for the first time, and we were in Dallas. That's where I'm from. Um, and she has these beautiful renovations of homes, renovations or custom builds of homes. They're also affordable, and she does an incredible job in Dallas. And she was putting out videos of, like, a little bit of the construction, and, like, here's the team, and this is how it looks. And then she put up videos like, you know, "This is what my company does." But I told her in this, in this, and it was like a light bulb moment from her, for her. I was saying, "Show me the full renovation. Like, the same time you go out there and you film, film beginning, middle, end. Turn that into 30 seconds. Put some music on it. Put a little bit of voiceover on it or a little bit of to camera so that I can dream of my new house."

Calum Johnson 1:00:50 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:00:51 That marketing- ... is worth 10, you know, it's weight in gold in sales. She can go door to door. She can go to an event and pay to have a booth.

Calum Johnson 1:01:01 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:01:01 Or she can get really crafty with being the billboard, being the lighthouse, and getting people to look this direction. And the fun part of it, Gary Vee talks about this all the time, it's free for the most part, right? It's free to post for the most part. Again, you're paying with something else. You're paying with your own attention and your time. Get your phone out if you have one. Start getting creative, and start researching other people, what they do, their advice. So you can go to that episode on Your First Million to see what all the advice I gave her-

Calum Johnson 1:01:35 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 1:01:36 ... and exactly how I s- set it up. Um, but when you think about leads, like to me, that's the, the fun part, and then you can do that on, you can have the podcast, or you can have the, really dive into content marketing or different things.

Calum Johnson 1:01:50 Yeah. You know what, um, you know what comes to mind? 'Cause I do think there's so many people that, like they don't think about themselves as marketers-

Arlan Hamilton 1:01:57 Mm

Calum Johnson 1:01:57 ... or, "I'm not an influencer"-

Arlan Hamilton 1:01:58 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:01:58 ... or like, "Why would someone buy from me?" Or, "I couldn't convince someone to do something." And you mentioned

Calum Johnson 1:02:04 Gary Vee. Something that he says, which I, which I love, and I remember it was a breakthrough moment for me, he says, "Document, don't create."

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:11 Yep.

Calum Johnson 1:02:12 Which is like a lot of the times you're like, "Okay, I'm gonna create content."

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:15 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:02:16 And it's now like this pressure on you, and you have no idea what you would talk about.

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:21 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:02:21 But it's like, what are you already doing?

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:23 What are you already doing? And it goes back to what we were saying is a lot of things that are easy to you or mundane to you-

Calum Johnson 1:02:29 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:30 ... are very interesting to other people because they have either have not done it, didn't know how it was done, or didn't know it existed to begin with.

Calum Johnson 1:02:37 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:38 So if you're documenting... I, I know Gary will be at my event, Your First Million Live. We've known each other for several years. He's very cool. But I've been watching his stuff. I'm documenting my life because of his show-

Calum Johnson 1:02:48 Yeah

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:48 ... his DailyVee. I understand that. And he's been saying that for at least eight years.

Calum Johnson 1:02:53 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:02:53 At least eight years, he said, "Document, don't create." And it's not you have to have a team. Like, you know, make a video of yourself talking about something. Even the important thing is to get the downsides too. Don't get just, "Oh, this is great. I'm, I'm killing it." Get the, "I had a meeting set up. I thought it was gonna be worth something. I was really excited about it. They just canceled on me." You don't have to call them out, but you can just say kind of blindly, like, "They just canceled on me. I feel, feel really bad about it."

Calum Johnson 1:03:21 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:03:21 "But, you know, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make these other three calls and see if I can set up somebody to replace." In that conversation, that being vulnerable, honest, transparent, and interesting, you have just inspired somebody else. Oh, everybody goes through these things?

Calum Johnson 1:03:37 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:03:37 Everybody has these issues?

Calum Johnson 1:03:39 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:03:40 And those micro-moments on a daily basis of building what you're building can end up, at the very least, h- helping a few people.

Calum Johnson 1:03:51 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:03:51 'Cause I think we look at, especially like on YouTube, like if you look at y- y- the people who, the 100 people who are watching your first videos, the 500 people who are watching your first videos, the 400 people who watched my video yesterday, those are people, right? Those are people.

Calum Johnson 1:04:08 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:04:08 And then you get to look and see like, oh, they're watching several minutes of it, several percentage points of this too.

Calum Johnson 1:04:14 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:04:14 So it's not just, it's not just like this, again, spray and pray. It's like a depth-

Calum Johnson 1:04:19 Mm

Arlan Hamilton 1:04:19 ... to it that you're also getting. That will s- that will pay off, but the problem is most people will not stick to it long enough to feel the rewards, to reap the rewards of that. So they'll say, "No, you're wrong. It doesn't work," because they didn't, they did it for two months, and they're like, "Ah, it didn't work out. I didn't get immediate gratification. I didn't get immediate... I'm not a millionaire yet."

Calum Johnson 1:04:43 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:04:43 "So I'm moving on to the next thing. I'm no good at this."

Calum Johnson 1:04:45 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:04:46 "I'm no good at this." Go look at some of those early videos of, of Gary Vee. Go look at early videos of Alex Hormozi.

Calum Johnson 1:04:53 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:04:54 Look at early videos of any of... look, of mine. It's, it's kinda funny. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:05:00 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:00 Like we were pipsqueaks, you know? [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:05:02 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:03 But you, you find your way, and you, you, you make your way.

Calum Johnson 1:05:06 Yeah, and it should be like that. You should look back, and it should be like, wow, the-

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:09 Cringe

Calum Johnson 1:05:09 ... yeah, cringe

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:09 ... yeah, you should cringe.

Calum Johnson 1:05:10 Cringe.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:11 'Cause who said it? Was it, was it, uh, Steve Jobs who said if, if you're not, if you're not embarrassed by your,

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:18 by your-

Calum Johnson 1:05:18 I, I think it w-

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:19 ... pilot-

Calum Johnson 1:05:20 Yeah

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:20 ... or whatever-

Calum Johnson 1:05:20 I know who said it

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:20 ... then you're, you haven't taken enough risk.

Calum Johnson 1:05:21 Yeah, or it took you too long.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:24 Oh.

Calum Johnson 1:05:24 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:24 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:05:24 Like it took you too long to do it.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:26 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:05:26 And I think it goes back to that mindset of like experimentation-

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:29 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:05:29 ... which is, I remember Alex Hormozi said this, which is a lot of people, the problem in their business, it's a pure volume problem.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:36 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:05:36 You just didn't send out enough. You did five podcasts instead of 500. You did f- 10 tweets-

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:44 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:05:44 ... instead of 1,000 tweets.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:46 Can I tell you a quick, uh, example of this?

Calum Johnson 1:05:48 Yeah, go for it.

Arlan Hamilton 1:05:49 I was, another part of my adult life when I was broke, earlier than the first story, um, and I had been working on live music productions 'cause I, when I was 13, I saw Janet perform, and I knew I wanted to work on tour. So years later, I was working on, I was working on like indie, super indie, in a van with Norwegian guys. It's a whole story. Uh, wonderful guys named Golden Boy. And I wanted to work on like arena level, like, like professional level. I sent out, over a two-month period, I sent out 100 emails, and anybody else would've said, "Let me send a few emails," or, "Let me send 100 emails all the same." I s- the reason it took two months is because I sent an email that was customized, deeply customized to each person, and I had to research to find out who to send it to. So it was deep research, 100 tour managers and production managers that I found various ways. And remember, I didn't have any money, so I couldn't buy any industry things. I had to find it all online, figure it out. I received 20 responses that led to three in-person interviews that then led to my first gig with CeeLo Green, and I was his production coordinator for a year and a half. Um, we went o- we went all over the world

Calum Johnson 1:07:06 Mm-hmm

Arlan Hamilton 1:07:06 And that it, it took 100 to get to the one. Easily could have stopped at eight. N- it was, of course it didn't work. I didn't ha- you know, of course this isn't gonna work. I'm no good at this. Uh, no one's gonna hire me.

Calum Johnson 1:07:21 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:07:22 But I said, "No, I'm gonna do 100 'cause 100 feels right for some reason." And I only got 1/5 of a response, so if I o- if I had sent out to five, got one response, what would've happened?

Calum Johnson 1:07:33 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:07:33 Probably nothing.

Calum Johnson 1:07:35 Yeah. No, and you know what, actually, I, um, I loved when you made this point on the, on the episode, which was, like, you literally broke down, uh, how someone can go, how someone can make a million dollars. And you said, in order to make a million, and it's pure logic and it's obvious, but the way that you broke it down really crystallized it, which is, like, making a million dollars

Calum Johnson 1:07:55 is one payment of a million, or 10 payments of 100,000, 20 payments of 50,000, 40 payments of 25,000, 100 payments of 10,000. And I remember when I was listening, I was like, it's not actually as much as you think.

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:10 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:08:10 Like, when, when you're the person in the beginning, a million dollars if you're homeless or you're broke-

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:18 Oh, yeah

Calum Johnson 1:08:19 ... feels like so far away.

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:22 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:08:22 But to your point with the emails thing, it's like you could send 100 emails. One response could change the entire trajectory of your life.

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:30 Yeah, yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:08:31 And it's like once you start to just see it in that context, it just reverses your whole mindset on experimentation, because I think a lot of people, it's like, "I have to put myself out there 100 times."

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:43 Yeah, mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:08:44 But it only real- it only takes one.

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:46 And also, when I think about that, I'm thinking, if I know, if I can be pretty confident that the, at the end of that 100 times I do have a life-changing s- something happen, I'm, I'ma do that every day.

Calum Johnson 1:08:57 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:08:58 You couldn't stop me from doing. You couldn't stop me from producing content or from r- knocking on doors or sending emails if I knew that for every 100 or 1,000 something was gonna happen in my favor, because all that is sweat equity.

Calum Johnson 1:09:11 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:09:12 That's just me stopping me.

Calum Johnson 1:09:13 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:09:14 Also important to note that when you think about, I say this, one million to, in 24 months, 'cause I do think that's attainable, it's not 100, it's not equally d- uh, distributed.

Calum Johnson 1:09:23 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:09:24 That's

Arlan Hamilton 1:09:25 important too, because sometimes when we see things incrementally, it doesn't look like success. It doesn't look like it. When you pull back and you see it over time, it makes all the sense in the world.

Calum Johnson 1:09:35 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:09:36 But if you, if you stop just short of it, you're missing out on the compounded interest of what you're doing. There's a wonderful article, um, that Sam Altman wrote several years ago, that he's actually living out right now, where he talks about compounded success. And he talks about how, Sam Altman being the C- CEO, co-founder of OpenAI, and I'm an investor in OpenAI, by the way, so you know, I've known him for nine years. He talks about how everything that he does, every career that he has, he wants the next career to dwarf the success of that. And you're, he's writing this as he is the f- um, CEO or President of Y Combinator.

Calum Johnson 1:10:18 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:10:19 And before that, he was the founder of Loopt. And you say, well, how can you, how can whatever you do next dwarf Y Combinator, like, running that?

Calum Johnson 1:10:28 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:10:28 Oh, OpenAI. Well, how can something dwarf OpenAI? Oh, nuclear fusion is what he's working on next. So if he had stopped at, "I'm just a startup guy who started this fintech company," that's all he stopped at. So e- that, that's also really inspiring, to know, like, that when you go and get your LLC or your C corp, and you can research which one to get, or you go and do the, the first thing, you know, the first step, whether it works or not, you are adding skill. You are adding experience to your repertoire.

Calum Johnson 1:11:06 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:11:07 And at some point, that's gonna look cute to you. When you make your f- like, I remember getting my first fi- like, 5 or $10,000. Oh, it was for speaking, my first $10,000 for speaking. And I used to have really, really bad stage fright.

Calum Johnson 1:11:25 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:11:26 I got my first $10,000 for speaking, which in itself was a whole story. I remember thinking, "Are you, are you kidding me?" Like, I didn't make $10,000 in a year two years prior to that. $10,000? I get paid 50,000 now, and I'm, I'm headed towards 100,000. I get 50,000 domestic and 100,000 international.

Calum Johnson 1:11:49 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:11:50 Do more domestic than international. Um, I was someone, they paid me, they bought two $25,000 first class, uh, LA to Dubai tickets for me and my mom to go for me to speak, and then paid me on top of that recently.

Calum Johnson 1:12:05 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:12:05 Or a couple years ago. And I remember when I saw 10,000, I was like, "Oh my God, I've made it." [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:12:15 [laughs] Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:12:16 So everyone watching this or listening to this has the potential to be in that position.

Calum Johnson 1:12:24 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:12:24 And there are some people who are th- already there. They're at the 10,000 or they're at the 20,000, wherever it may be, their client or their customer. There's so much more ahead of you.

Calum Johnson 1:12:34 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:12:34 'Cause you've made it so far.

Calum Johnson 1:12:36 You know what, um, you know what's interesting to me? And even going through, like, the education system and, and then going to university, graduating university, going into the working world, I started to realize, like, the mindset of being an entrepreneur runs completely counter to everything that I kind of learned, um, in school, which is, like, growing up, everything was incremental. Um, and even in the working world, everything is incremental. You, you have a salary for your first year working a job, and then maybe as you get a promotion, it's slightly higher, and it's just, like, a little bit higher.

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:08 Yeah, yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:08 Whereas this journey is not like that at all. It's- In a way it's almost like feast or famine. It's like nothing is happening-

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:14 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:13:14 ... and then hockey stick.

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:16 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:16 And then, and so I think sometimes when people aren't getting that progress, 'cause we're so used to having these incremental bits of reassurance-

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:25 Mm

Calum Johnson 1:13:25 ... of like, "You're doing a great job. Here's-

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:27 Mm

Calum Johnson 1:13:27 ... an extra 10,000 on your yearly salary."

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:29 Yeah. Or $10 hour. Like yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:31 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:32 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:32 Yeah. And it's, and it's not like that. And if you can... And that's why I, I loved where you ended the, the eight-week process, which you said week eight is about consistency and longevity.

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:42 Yep.

Calum Johnson 1:13:42 Which is like just don't interrupt the, the process of compounding. That's like the number one rule of compounding.

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:48 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:48 Is like don't stop.

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:49 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:50 As soon as you stop it-

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:51 Yes. Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:13:52 ... it's so-

Arlan Hamilton 1:13:52 100%. And the reason, I'll also say the reason, if you go back and listen to that episode, anybody who's interested in that, uh, $1 million in 24 hours, 24 months, I did-

Calum Johnson 1:14:02 24 hours.

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:03 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:14:03 Incredible.

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:03 I did, um... Well, I've done that too.

Calum Johnson 1:14:05 [laughs]

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:06 Um, the reason I, the reas- [laughs] the reason I did eight, eight weeks honestly is arbitrary.

Calum Johnson 1:14:12 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:13 The reason I did it was because I know so many people need something sooner. So I, I c- I compressed it to say, "Okay, this is like the shortest way you can get started." Because I knew if I didn't do that, a lot of people wouldn't have just started.

Calum Johnson 1:14:28 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:29 And I need you to start. I need there to be more of us. I need it. And so y- you can take a month or two months or three months for each step. You really can.

Calum Johnson 1:14:39 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:39 If you wanna be like, "Okay, I'll do a million in 10 years. I'll do a million in whatever," but I, I shortened it because I wanna show just illustrate just how step by step, including with my book Your First Million, there, there, there are steps to this.

Calum Johnson 1:14:55 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:14:56 There are things, there, there are things that p- people aren't taught anywhere.

Calum Johnson 1:15:00 Mm. Yeah. You know what? We, w- we need to get out of here. So-

Arlan Hamilton 1:15:05 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:15:05 ... I have, I have one more question for you.

Arlan Hamilton 1:15:07 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:15:08 Which is, and you even mentioned, uh, one of the guests that came on your podcast, they made that first 100,000 and the formula and what they figured out in that first 100,000 allowed them to make millions. And I think that there's gonna be someone that listens to this, they make their first million, and I'm curious, you know, we started with, um, a conversation about the 34-year-old

Calum Johnson 1:15:30 Arlan sitting in a, in an airport homeless in San Francisco. And it's like if you could go back to that person, and you could just tell them what the impact would be of making that first million-

Arlan Hamilton 1:15:45 Mm

Calum Johnson 1:15:45 ... what that would mean to their life, to their outcomes, their happiness, family, the whole thing, what would you say?

Arlan Hamilton 1:15:52 [laughs] Oh, um, I would say it was a, a m- mixed bag. I would say that it, it, what you heard about, um, money not being everything is absolutely true. What you heard about money not being able to buy happiness is absolutely true. But what you learned is it can rent happiness, and it can, it can get you closer to happiness because it takes certain obstructions out of your way so that you can clearly see what happiness looks like. And so it very much so takes longer than you thought it would. I'm talking to my 34-year-old self. It very much so took longer than you thought it would, but it was worth more than you ever could have imagined. And no matter... You c- I'll also say this to her. You cannot differentiate 1 million from 20. It really doesn't matter. And I used to hear that all the time from rich people, and I would be like, eyes rolled.

Calum Johnson 1:16:57 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:16:58 Go F yourself. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:16:59 [laughs]

Arlan Hamilton 1:17:00 I'll find out when I get there.

Calum Johnson 1:17:01 [laughs]

Arlan Hamilton 1:17:01 Found out when I got here.

Calum Johnson 1:17:02 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:17:04 Whether it's raising that or generating that for my companies or having something in the bank account, I stay so close to the bone, by the way. I s- I invest back so much. You know, I'm not out here on yachts and, and parting it up.

Calum Johnson 1:17:19 Yeah.

Arlan Hamilton 1:17:19 There's a lot of, of households that I feed. Um, but the main, the two main things that I've learned are that it feels so good to be able to, of all the things in the world for your, your parents to have to worry about or your family or friends have to worry about, your spouse, to, for money not to be that in different times of their lives and to be able to provide that.

Calum Johnson 1:17:50 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:17:51 Um, and the second thing is that if you are an entrepreneur, if you have that spirit, if you have that drive, if you can't see yourself working for someone else for too much longer, when you make your first million, the next thing will be, "What's my second?" It'll be a game. Um, you often hear rich people talk about it as a game. It's true. It's, um... Because 1 million and 20 million are so similar, you have to have this next thing that propels you and gives you drive. And there's the, the, the competition and the game of it is really exciting, and the puzzle piece- pieces. It's not so much racing against someone else. It's more of like, "What puzzle pieces can I put together to make this thing unlock?"

Calum Johnson 1:18:36 Mm.

Arlan Hamilton 1:18:37 And the same people that you looked back on earlier in this conversation, we look back on to say, "Who can I positively affect?" Those same people will be the biggest motivating factor for you once you've made it over if you wanna keep going.

Calum Johnson 1:18:56 Mm. The impact. The impact. No, that's a, that's a beautiful place to end. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Arlan Hamilton 1:19:02 Yeah. Thanks for having me. This was great.

Calum Johnson 1:19:04 This was amazing. I loved it.

Arlan Hamilton 1:19:05 Woo!

Calum Johnson 1:19:06 Before I leave you guys, I need to drop one last gem. That is the sponsor of today's show, Free Agency. Free Agency represents and manages talent in the tech industry. They find you a dedicated talent agent that will help you find and win top of market roles. That talent agent is your career quarterback. They understand you and your career goals. They will help you get interviews at top firms, and they will make sure you get a top of market salary. So if you wanna take your career to the next level, Free Agency is a company that you need to take a look at. Go to the link in the description. Thank me later. Peace.