January 15, 2023 • 49 mins
William left his corporate IT job to chase a different career path that lead to him running his own 7 figure business. Through all his lessons learned he continues to grow at least 1% a day!
What a fun and light episode with a down to earth 7 figure earner. William brings fire to this weeks episode as we discuss important lessons and key information being given on how to break the 9-5 horror and head out to running your own career and taking control. Dont miss out and enjoy the show!!!
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Episode Transcript
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Dustin Steffey (00:00):
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Jaden Norvell (00:54):
Welcome to your top rated business
entrepreneurship, selfdevelopment and smart investment
podcast. This podcast is hostedby creator and founder Dr.
Dustin Steffey and also hostedby coach, music producer and
influencer yours truly Jadenrush Norville, we are blessed
for many accolades such as beingnominated for the People's
Choice Award for Best BusinessPodcast, as well as raising over
(01:14):
$5,000 last year for the CysticFibrosis Foundation as well as
for the Boys and Girls Club,spending a global reach or
podcasts in the top fourdownloads in four countries.
Without further ado, welcome tochopping wood fire ladies and
gentlemen, let's chop it up
Dustin Steffey (01:35):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of
chopping with fire. You'rejoined with your host today
Dustin Steffey I have awonderful, wonderful lineup
planned for today. But first andforemost, let's dive into a
couple things. Please, if youhaven't done so already, I know
I sound like a broken record.
But this is how we get better.
(01:56):
Join us on our social mediaplatforms. We have a Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, tik, TokSnapchat, and well, everything
in between including a website,where I would start first is at
our website, www dot choppin.
With feiyr.com That's ch ro e pi n with feiyr.com. That house
has everything in it kind ofgives you a benchmark on where
(02:20):
you can go. We definitely havetons of updates we are in season
two, we're going to be killingit this year. We killed it in
year one. Let's continue to makethat difference in year two. But
without you guys commenting andgiving us some information. We
can't really make thatdifference. So please join us on
socials today. Lastly, we stilldo support our home and local
(02:43):
charity please, as we go intothe new year, let's hit our
goals. We have big audaciousgoals this year, we want to
raise about $50,000 for CF thisyear. So if you guys haven't
done so already, please head onover to C F F dot o RG. Remember
CF is a rare lung disease thatis like breathing through a
(03:06):
straw. So if you can imaginebreathing through that little
hole to try to get through yourday. It's not fun at all. And we
want to do our part to make surewe're supporting so we can find
a cure for CF. So please, if youhaven't done so, let's head on
over there. And let's donatetoday. I think that's all the
housekeeping that we have. Iwant to dive right into our
(03:26):
episode and have some fun. Ihave on with me, William Wang.
He's an amazing, awesome person.
I got to talk to him in pre rollbut I want you guys to kind of
hear from him some accolades hehas in that support his
credibility or he was a part ofcorporate it. It wasn't working
(03:47):
out for him. As we all know,with our nine to fives, they
never normally work out. They'rejust a job. He moved on to build
his own seven figure businessand he's currently running that
today within his marketingagency. He is a Judit jujitsu,
badass, so don't mess with him.
He has a brown belt and he'sabout to get his black. So if
you guys need some techniques onhow to defend yourself, reach
(04:10):
out to him. He loves to surf.
From what he told me. He is nota professional at it. So let's
let's not, let's not get lessonsfrom him quite yet within the
surfing world. And then ofcourse, most importantly, he is
a father of two. So, William,how are you today?
William Wang (04:31):
Your house.
Thanks, Dustin. Thank you forthat amazing intro did really
appreciate it.
Dustin Steffey (04:35):
I got you, buddy. That's what we're about
here. We're about we're abouthaving the cool people on you
know.
William Wang (04:41):
That's awesome.
Great to be on. And yeah, likehappy to share any new parts of
my story that hopefully inspiresand helps. You know, somebody
out there listening who'slooking to get nine to five or
even figuring out what they wantto do fly for example, not
saying I've got to figure itout. I absolutely don't, but
having to share any part of myHistory or anything that can
help? Yeah,
Dustin Steffey (05:01):
I think the most important thing and my listeners
are really good about this isjust really connecting with
people really understanding whatit takes to be an entrepreneur.
We are not one of those podcastswhere it's like, hey, today's
topic is this, we're more orless like, just everyday people
just trying to kind of giveinformation. And hopefully,
(05:25):
maybe one or two people out ofthe 1000s upon 1000s of
listeners resonate, and thenthey like this episode, and they
kind of jump ship and do whatthey wanted to do or what they
were destined to do.
William Wang (05:35):
Yeah, that's awesome. Love it.
Dustin Steffey (05:38):
So let's let's dive into you. Like, I mean,
obviously, I brought up you, youwere within it before let's
let's get a little bit of yourstory, buddy.
William Wang (05:46):
Yes. So I guess where do you start from I kind
of looking back at life and youknow, the journey and all that
kind of stuff started you know,since son, son of immigrants
came over from from China toAustralia grew up in in a pretty
rough neighborhood, but gettingtaught, you know, about
(06:07):
everything, essentially, thatyou don't want as an
entrepreneur, it was kind ofbeaten into me, you know, the
whole idea of don't talk aboutmoney, don't get attention
flying on the radar, playeverything safe. That was
essentially upbringing, ourhead, and not saying it's wrong,
but you know, it just it waswhat it was, right. It's like
the whole immigrant story aboutsurvival and things like that.
(06:29):
So went through all of thatdeveloped an extremely
introverted personality, and thekind of struggle but kind of
struggled, I think, to meupbringing and how I am
naturally just wasn't reallyaligned. And it created a lot of
issues and challenges, let'sjust call it as I was going
through, including phobia of thephone not being able to
(06:50):
communicate properly. And itkind of meant that by default, I
went through university and wentinto path of this IT career.
And, you know, it was a goodcareer. It was a six figure
career, but I absolutely hatedit. But for what I thought my
personality was, I thought itwas a perfect career for me. But
(07:10):
as I started going through that,no one can dive into this and
what they'd have to share again,any and all parts of it just
turned out that it just wasn'twhat I wanted to do wasn't what
I was put here to do. Andreally, really just didn't like
what I was doing on a day to daybasis. So that's kind of the
story you know, how are kind ofgoing yeah, just philosophy in
Korea that I just absolutelyhated even though on the
(07:32):
outside, it was perfect. Andpeople were like, Dude, what are
you doing for your career way?
It's kind of it just felt likeevery single day was just an
exercise of boredom andexercising just, you know, not
not doing anything right. I justfelt like I was wasting my
potential here. So that kind ofled me to thinking about
business and that in and ofitself is kind of like a like a
(07:52):
whole journey. It's been I thinksix or seven years now so quit
my job and started my businessfull time. And it's only the
past three years where it's beenquite a good journey. The first
three are a massive struggle aswell so lost some Paki
Dustin Steffey (08:09):
so I'm extremely extroverted person. So in school
call it college was awesome,right? Because that's where I
made a lot of different diversefriends. So the introverted
extroverted battle came intoplay and it was it was funny
because I don't know why but Ihad a lot of introverted friends
(08:29):
and so I was the one that likekind of got them out of their
shell almost.
William Wang (08:33):
Yeah, that's awesome. I think for me anyway,
I actually really like hangingaround people who are
extroverted because it meansthat I have to talk like they
can just go and talk to peopleand you know be loud and I just
chill like I'm just in thebackground hanging out and
having fun
Dustin Steffey (08:48):
shit you got a good point there I'm about to
call some of these friends andbe like you guys use me because
I'm an extrovert wrecks it dude,it is a big field right? And
like if I could do my schoolingall over again, that's probably
the field that I'd want to goin. However with the knowledge
that I have now, I don't want towork for the man you know what I
(09:11):
mean? And I don't I just don'tthink it's advantageous and and
honestly, these days it'sgetting worse and worse right?
Because these companies aretaking advantage of people by
giving them 1015 different jobroles for the same Hey, you know
what I mean?
William Wang (09:29):
Yeah, it's it's an interesting idea like looking
back knowing what on and I stillthink it's a good industry but
like all industries, you know,if you have a passion for it,
that's when it becomes reallygood. I didn't have a passion
for the only reason that I gotinto it was because my dad is
for you know, he worked in it.
He absolutely love what he didcomputers and programming, all
(09:50):
that kind of stuff. I hated it.
But I did it because it was easyfor me having to help at home at
that when I was going throughthrough university I was
essentially, I help people sellwebsites on the side. So I had
started to dabble inoutsourcing. And I figured out
that people that I wasoutsourcing to, can help me do
(10:10):
my IP assignments. So that'skind of why I went for it. I
actually started with severaldifferent degrees. I started
with, I started my universitypath in Environmental
Engineering, as a wanting tosave the environment or that
kind of stuff. Engineering thatrequired a lot of mathematics.
And the first maths class that Isat into, the professor found
(10:32):
was like, oh, let's talk aboutimaginary numbers in number i.
And I was like, shit, did Idon't even understand real
numbers. What is this imaginarynumbers bullshit. Marxist. So
very quickly figured out.
engineering wasn't for me. Andthen I went into a whole bunch
of different things. And, youknow, science, and then I tried
to become a teacher. But then Irealized, I don't want to deal
with 30 screaming kids everyday, like, what am I doing here.
And so finally settled on it,just because it was the easiest
(10:55):
path. Looking back at what I,what I with the current
knowledge I've got, I would evensay, if you don't know what your
path is, maybe don't even go touniversity, maybe just have
different jobs, talk todifferent people just, you know,
figure out what it is thatyou're actually passionate that
and you're going to pursue that.
Dustin Steffey (11:16):
So a lot of things that we've brought up in
the past is the old school wayof thinking where you go to high
school, and then after highschool, you get your degree and
all of that. It's kind ofdifferent now, right? Because we
have this powerful thing callednetworking. And furthermore, we
have this powerful thing calledpeople who talk and help others
(11:36):
to be successful, kind of likewhat we do with this podcast,
kind of like what you did. Iknow your buddies, Luke, we had
Luke on a little bit ago. Andit's, it's, it's an awesome
thing. I mean, you're inAustralia, right now, I'm in the
States. And you and I arechatting it up, right? So we
have so much technology to beable to upscale ourselves,
(11:58):
ourselves, you know, where is itboats? The question, is
education, still the importantpathway? Or is it a different
pathway? I mean, if I could dothings over again, buddy,
honestly, like, truly, Iprobably go to a trade school. I
mean, there's a lot of tradesright now that need help. And a
(12:19):
trade school is a lot shorter, alot less money, and you make a
lot more. But I mean, here I amtoday, I have a doctorate in
organizational leadership,right. And so I need to use the
resources that I have doing itall over would be great. I could
look at the past, but I can moveforward. And I can do things
(12:40):
such as what you did. I mean,you went to school to get an IT
degree, you're not 90. So
William Wang (12:46):
yeah, I mean, you bring up such a good point,
like, I think I'll do somethingsimilar. So my wife's family are
actually in in a trade set tothe build stone, beautiful
stone, kitchen, benchtops. Andkitchens, and they've got a very
successful business. So melooking at that, right, knowing
what I know. Now, if I had to goback in through the journey with
(13:09):
the current knowledge, Idefinitely would go through and
do something my hands as well.
That being said, I'm terrible atmy hand products, because I
haven't had the training, but Ibreak everything I touch. So I
when it comes to you know doinghow many, how many people stuff
around the house, that's justnot me. But if I could go back
to or, you know, if I had tochoose my career again, I
definitely would actually startthat because I think it's such
(13:30):
good utility around knowing howthings are put together, knowing
how to fix your own house,knowing if the lights turn off.
Or if the world goes to shit.
Hey, I've got the skill set thatcan actually mean something. I
think that's a really good thingto have in back pocket.
Dustin Steffey (13:48):
So I just learned something about you fun
figure. You are not going to beworking on my bike or truck
anytime soon, because it'll bebroken. So good. Good call
there. No, but you're rightbrother, right. Like everybody
has their own niches right? Forme. I kind of grew up around my
(14:09):
dad in construction. So he'svery much so hands on which
therefore extrapolated tovehicle work and kind of doing
my own things. I some hobbiesfor me, right? I like working on
my bike. I like working on thetruck. I like building some
things, refinishing things, soI'm very much so hands on.
(14:29):
Obviously, it's made me $0 Buthey, whatever, it's a hobby,
it's fun.
William Wang (14:35):
Especially then if the world goes to shit, that's
such a good skill set. Like ifif society comes tomorrow, I'm
gonna be sitting around going,what the heck day like I said, I
want coffee. Want me to writecoffee for you? Like do you want
marketing? No one wantsmarketing like if it only gives
you shade, but you can fix atruck for a bike. That's such a
cool, cool skill set. It'sactually probably something that
(14:55):
I'll start developing Solearning about as well because I
do want to have that and yeah,just In case anything happens,
right?
Dustin Steffey (15:02):
Shit brother the world's already going to share.
So we, we need we need backupplans now
William Wang (15:10):
under present,
Dustin Steffey (15:11):
so let's let's transition a little bit then we
all know that you're in it itbadass but you're not in it
anymore. So how the heck did youburn the boat to go from an IT
job that was stable to buildinga seven figure job and I don't
know being able to surf and dojujitsu and have fun? Yeah,
William Wang (15:33):
I mean, that's a whole journey in and of itself,
I wouldn't say I was great atit. I think one of the things
that I realized pretty early on,and I think it's very lucky that
I did was that it just wasn't mycalling, I was working with
these guys who were just superpassionate about what they were
doing, that would just selfeducate about writing code or
(15:53):
doing all this kind of stuff.
And I hated it. I honestly, itwas Monday mornings, was such a
miserable time. For me, I justhated the idea that I've got to
wake up, get on the bus witheveryone else looking miserable,
get to this cubicle and just sitthere for eight hours looking at
a spreadsheet. It just wasn't myidea of how I wanted life to go.
And for me, I looked at peoplewho were 30 or 40 years down the
(16:15):
career path. And looking atwhere they were in where I was.
And I saw that a lot of themwere very unhappy. A lot of
them, you know, felt that theywere on top of the game or on
top of their career. But if youlooked at pay discrepancy, there
was a certain capital, but itwasn't like, you can spend 40,
isn't it three or nowadays, ifyou're in startups, you can but
(16:36):
in traditional IT, there's a capinto the salary, because you can
never get paid more than theCEO, you can never get paid more
than business owner. So therewas a real cap on what you could
do in terms of income. Thesecond side of it was, it took
such a long time to get there.
So I made a pretty quick jumpearly in my career because I got
good at interviewing, lookingfor new jobs and things like
(16:58):
that. So every six months, I'dget a pay rise essentially,
myself in position to get a 20or 30% pay rise. So by the time
I was 2425, I actually had$150,000 a year salary. But for
me, it was like, it just I justcouldn't do another fair use of
it. Like it just the idea of itjust terrified me. And so I
decided very quickly, hey, I'mgonna go into my own thing, I'm
(17:20):
going to be my own boss, I'mgoing to have complete freedom.
But it didn't quite work thatway. Because there were so many
limitations to it. I triedthings like affiliate marketing,
I tried things like sellingwebsites, I tried things, you
know, everything under the sun.
But when you have $150,000salary you have to replace, it
becomes pretty hard in terms ofwhat you can actually do, or how
you can do it quickly, in a waythat that works. Yeah, and we
(17:43):
can go into it a bit more. But Ialso felt like I left my job a
little bit too early as well.
And the transition betweenhaving a set salary, being able
to pay the bills to having toput food on the table with my
own skills was actually prettydifficult one, and I think
that's what a lot of peoplemight struggle against. If they
don't know how to actually do itproperly.
Dustin Steffey (18:05):
Yeah, let's dive into it a little more. I mean, a
lot of people that listen,right, they listen because
they're sick of their job. Imean, I, I think when I was with
Luke, right, we brought up thejob happiness statistics, and it
was blaring, 60% of people areunhappy with their jobs. So they
need, they need to kind of hearthese stories to kind of
(18:27):
understand, like, how do I getout? Is it possible? Or am I am
I screwed, right? Am I screwed?
Am I working at a ceiling? Wheresome of these people, buddy, I
mean, they they're hard workers,and they're making 40 grand a
year? That's poverty?
William Wang (18:44):
Yeah, it is pretty tough. So I think looking back,
if I was telling myself, sittingacross time for myself, when I
first went into it, I wouldactually say that it absolutely
sucks bid in the job. But do ituntil the business is ready to
support you. So one of thebiggest mistakes I made was I
actually, and so let me justjust go ahead and give you the
(19:06):
full story. I was I figured thatto replace my job with the high
salary I had, I had to becomesome kind of consultant or do
some kind of service, because itwasn't going to sell a $20
widget and sell my way. $250,000a year. So I decided very early
on. One of the things I love andI'm passionate about is actually
reading and writing. And I wasactually quite good at writing.
(19:28):
So I decided, let me become acopywriter. And so I started
freelancing a little bit tobring in some income on the
side. And it got to the pointwhere I saw my clients were
like, Hey, can you do somesocial media writing for us? I'm
like, Yeah, sure, of course Ican. And I figured out the
social media side. And whathappened was, as I was building
up my portfolio as I was gettinggood at the social media stuff,
(19:50):
there's a local magazine towhere I live, and I so I just
happen to bump into them duringa networking meeting. I was
going to every single networkingevent I could more so just so I
could speak to people right Getover my, my, my introversion,
but I met this guy who runs alocal magazine and he was like,
Oh, dude, I've got 100 clients,they absolutely love me. Why
don't you come in, we'll partnerup, you can sell your social
(20:10):
media services to them. Ruralasked me for anyway, when we're
gonna replace your job in like aweek. It's like sweet, awesome,
he convinced me to leave my job.
So I did that. But the firstmeeting, I walked into the sky,
to sell sell on social media tohis clients, they were just
like, Dude, get the fuck out ofmy office, or I'm going to call
the cops. Because what heactually did was he was such a
(20:30):
hardline salesperson, he wouldgo into the offices and sit
there and go, I'm not leavinguntil you pay me to be in the
magazine that next quarter.
He'll be like, I don't want tobe in a you know, have you got a
result that I didn't care Africaplan for you to be my magazine?
Joe, you're in it. Right? So hiscustomers actually hated him.
And I walked into his businessthinking, oh, man, we're gonna
(20:51):
make so much money. Hediscovered his love him. I'm
just gonna sell a bunch ofsocial media packages. And it
didn't quite work out that way.
So I would say that looking backon it, yes, the job might suck.
But if I had stayed in my jobfor another six months and just
built things up on my own, Iwould have been two or three
years ahead of the curve interms of app growth.
Dustin Steffey (21:10):
Sounds sounds pretty similar to like my story.
I mean, I'm still in my nine tofive right now. But I have this
podcast, I consult on the side,my buddy and I just opened up a
pressure washing business. Thebiggest, the biggest thing I
tell everyone is, it isn't aboutgoing all in in one thing. It's
about diversifying. And then asthings start hitting traction,
(21:33):
you start finding what yourniche is.
William Wang (21:35):
Yeah, exactly. I think that's such a I think
that's such a underplayed part,right? You see it all the time
with these rates of returnstories, oh, he just did this
one thing and that he or she nowmakes millions of dollars and
does all this. But if it's ifyou switch to anyone who's
actually legit, the journey isnever like that. There's always
hat on to the struggles andthere's always you know, things
(21:56):
that you try and it doesn'twork. And you just get to the
point, we've been trying hardenough times where there's not
that much more that you can doto fail, and you start winning
from that point onwards. So Ithink what you're doing is
actually amazing. I build it onthe side, and only jump when you
have the parachute ready.
Dustin Steffey (22:11):
Yeah, I had I had someone on that said, burn
the boats early, which, youknow, it works for some people,
but not everyone, right? I mean,this podcast is a good example.
So we're in year two right now.
Right? And yeah, we're comingout the gates firing, we're
coming out the gates firing,because we had a year one. So
there were many, many, manynights that I had with my
partner, right? Where I bang myhead up against the wall, like,
(22:34):
what do we do? How do we dothis? How do we monetize? And
the answer is, is it isn't aboutthinking about and chasing the
money, it's about creating thecontent, upscaling yourself as
much as possible. And theneventually, it's going to,
there's going to be a gas pedalwhere the rocks are
automatically on it.
William Wang (22:53):
Exactly. I'm not a huge fan in the hope in the
boats type play. Just becauseeveryone's context is different,
right? Like if I had startedbusiness, my 20s, before I had
kids and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, maybe maybe that wouldhave been the right approach.
It's also, it's also theapproach I kind of accidentally
took. I'm not saying that I wentand burn all the boats before I
was. But I left my job before Iwas ready. But I had skills,
(23:15):
developing the background, and Ihad a side hustle that I've been
working on for a couple of yearsbefore I did that. But you gotta
look at your own context, right?
Because for me, I was when Ileft my job, my son was just
born. So my wife wasn't working,because she's obviously taking
care of both my kids. And weneeded to pay the bills, right,
we had a mortgage, we couldeither put food on the table, it
(23:38):
wasn't feasible, just burn theboats, I'm gonna drop my entire
entire salary on, we're notmaking any money, who cares?
We're just gonna go making surethat like it just not feasible.
So that's why I'm not a big fanof that advice. In every
context, I think you've got tolook at the context of the
person you're giving the adviceto. Because for a 40 year old
family, man or mom or whateverit is, there's certain
(24:01):
responsibilities that you can'tjust burn when you burn the
boat. Whereas if you're younger,and you're 18 you're trying
different things and living athome anyway, you've got zero
expenses. Fuck yeah, burn theboats, like you don't have any
boats burn, who cares? So thecontext is very important.
Dustin Steffey (24:15):
Yeah, I agree.
The biggest thing that we bringup in this podcast, honestly,
between you and I is do your ownresearch, right? Obviously, the
advice that we give on the manyepisodes that we have, some of
it will click others won't.
That's why we have a diverseamount of guests so we can reach
everyone in some way shape orform. But the biggest thing that
(24:36):
I enjoy about doing this themost in in you and I can agree
on this is we have such adiverse amount of people that
come on that we talk to you thatwe have fun with that we learn
from where you can at least takeone key golden nugget from
everyone and kind of apply it
William Wang (24:52):
Yeah, that's the script was fun. I think that's
the way I approach life andcoaching as well. So I've got I
probably I spend about sixfigures a year in terms of
coaching and education formyself. But not everything that
my coach has told me is alwaysapplicable to my situation. So
it really is about you andtaking what's like the Bruce Lee
quote, right, like, you know,learn from everyone take what's
(25:13):
useful, is making your owndiscard everything else. And I'm
quoting that pretty badly. But
Dustin Steffey (25:18):
so what do you do right now? Is it something
that can be duplicated withothers where you think that they
would find success? Or is itkind of one off and you got
lucky?
William Wang (25:26):
I think it's a bit of both. So I think I got lucky
in terms of I found something Iwas really passionate about. And
I love doing, I got good atwhich is writing. And the luck
element was finding that, butI've always been a big believer
in tuning your skill set andbecoming better every single
day. So I had to work hard atbecoming a better writer, I then
(25:51):
had to get a lot better atselling and marketing myself my
services, which is really adifficult struggle. And then I
had to get better at being ableto build a business because I
was freelancing for a longwhile. And freelancing is great,
right? If you're just planningescape nine to five, hey, maybe
your first step is actually tobecome a freelancer. Because
then you've got these thingsthat you're learning, like
(26:11):
marketing, like sales, or clientcommunications, which you might
not have the skill set, rightnow, you're going to have to
take the time to learn thatskill set. And once you learn
that skill set, like what I'mworking on now is I've just gone
for a period where I'd reallyhave to learn about leadership,
hiring operations, and thosewere my weak areas. And for us
to grow, I had to learn that soI spent a ton of my last 12
(26:32):
months really focusing on thatversus focusing on growth. And
the next 12 months I'm going tobe spending is really around
empowering my team memberslooking at operations, so I
don't have to work in thebusiness every single day. But
it don't just get to, you knowwhere I am or where someone
else's or dependent businessovernight, it is literally a
grind every single day. So themore so so the motto I have is
(26:57):
1% a day, right? Just learn orimprove, or one person a day,
and by the end of the year,you're 37 times better off. So
if someone's in a job right now,don't think about when do I
leave this job, like the jobmight absolutely suck balls, and
it probably does. But just thinkI'm paying the bills, I'm paying
for myself to have theflexibility and freedom to learn
(27:17):
and develop a passion or skillset is very useful that I can
build on and just know that ittakes time to build a skill set,
right? Well, there's people outthere promising you can start a
marketing company and make 10k amonth in like 90 days and
bullshit. You absolutely cannot.
But if you're willing todedicate a year, two years,
three years to it, youabsolutely can build a good
business around what you reallylike.
Dustin Steffey (27:39):
It's kind of where I'm at with the
podcasting, right. I mean,there's a lot of a lot of forks
in the coal right now I am goingto be releasing a podcast school
because I think social media,digital marketing, podcasting,
it's an important thing tolearn. And for some of these
companies that want to get theirbranding out a little more, they
(28:00):
don't do it right. And so I candefinitely teach on that I have
my book. I like you like towrite as well. We'll see if the
books good though. But you know,there there are many avenues
like I, like I said earlier,diversify in business, and then
(28:20):
at some point, it's gonna takeoff.
William Wang (28:23):
But you also brought up a really important
point as well, Dustin, becauseit's not like you just turn
around and decided I've neverdone a podcast, I'm going to
create a podcast and schoolpodcast. And course, you've done
it for a year and you know theins and outs of how to do a
podcast how to grow a podcast.
So therefore you can go andcomfortably teach it to someone
else. Whereas a lot of thepeople out there, just think,
Oh, I'm just gonna buy clothesfrom someone, learn all this
(28:43):
stuff, copy what they do, andI'm going to be free, doesn't
quite work that way. You have tobe at the coalface you have to
be waking up in grinding everysingle day. So like when I
before I became a full timeFreelancer with this copywriting
stuff, I did everything I couldunder the sun and I hustled for
two years, outside of my nine tofive, it was actually a six.
(29:04):
Because you know, when you'regetting paid a pretty big
salary, they expect more thannine to five, but so I would get
home at about seven. So I leftthe office at six, have dinner
play with my kids, and about930 10pm I'd start four hours of
work on my own business on myside hustle. And it took two
years of that before I couldcomfortably go go full time and
(29:26):
just be willing to jump ship andtry to do this whole whole
business thing. But who have gotto understand like, it is a
personal journey. You don't getthere overnight, and you just
you don't buy course and 90 dayslater make 10 grand a month like
it just doesn't happen. No.
Dustin Steffey (29:45):
So like for me if I'm looking at my business
plan with the podcast school,people are going to need
support, right? So they're goingto learn the basic skills so I'm
going to give them what I didn'thave because I failed a few
times. I spent way too muchmoney on some things, right? And
then from there, they're goingto need the support, right? And
(30:06):
that's where I come in tosupport them. Like, because
they're gonna have questions,right, they're gonna fall on
their face, and they're gonnaneed help. So I think when I
look at it, it's it's apositive, I'm giving back, I'm
not only enjoying what I do,because I do enjoy doing the
podcast, I do enjoy, even thoughit takes a long time making the
videos and the social mediaaspect and the ads and all of
(30:27):
that. But I want others to beable to do it as well, you know
what I mean? And do itsuccessfully?
William Wang (30:33):
Yeah, exactly. I think the the biggest thing, you
know, people have asked me inthe past, do you have a course
in the Java program? I actuallydon't. Because I think, you
know, the way that I'd approachit is, I can't give someone
information. And they and havethem internalize to the point
where they can do it, right. IfI was to create a course or
(30:54):
program, the way I approach it,is I can shortcut the learning
process. And for example, ifsomeone wanted to, if someone
turned around and said, Hey, howdo you build a seven figure
marketing company, I'd say,Okay, what's going to take you
years and years and years, butrather than doing it over a
period of five years, which,that's how long it took me to
get to the point of, you know,six years or whatever, to the
point of seven figures, I canhelp someone do that within
three years. And so that's thevalue that we have this value
(31:17):
that you've got, right, you cango and help someone shortcut
their podcasting journey, sothat they can achieve what
you've achieved and half thetime. But you can't just give
someone the skills or just ifthey don't take the action and
do something, you can't helpthem shortcut that there's still
work involved.
Dustin Steffey (31:33):
I think that's the hardest part was society
today. And maybe you all agreeor disagree, but we're in a
society now, where everybodywants instant gratification,
right? So what I mean is, theywant to make that money now. And
they don't want to put in thework to make that money. Whereas
if you take a step back and lookat everyone in life, right,
(31:55):
including myself, and you, let'sgo back to our six figure or our
six figure jobs, our slave jobs,right, we didn't make that six
figures immediately. Andfurthermore, we had to put in
lots of work for that. So I wanteverybody to understand that
when you go down the journey ofchasing something that you enjoy
(32:15):
doing, it comes at a cost ofyou're going to live it and
breathe it for a long timebefore it starts automating
itself.
William Wang (32:23):
Exactly. Like I only saw, quote, unquote, like
aI success, right. And I usethat word very sparingly,
because I by no mean to thinkthat, you know, we're that
successful, or my company isthat great, we've got so much
room to grow, right, we've gotso much potential we haven't
been up to yet. But in terms ofwhere it started to be able to
complete pay my bills, andafford the lifestyle that we
(32:45):
lead. Now. It took me aboutthree years, three and a half
years to get to the point whereit's like, oh, cool, I've
replaced my my salary. Right.
And so what people kind of donowadays is, every 90 days, they
try and do something new, I'mgoing to sell stuff on Amazon,
I'm going to do this, you know,I'm going to try crypto, I'm not
saying any of this wrong. All ofthose things that you see out
(33:07):
there actually works. But youjust need to dedicate yourself
and give yourself the time toget the mastery to make those
things work for you. So ifyou're changing every 90 days,
you're beginning at the lowestlevel again, every 90 days,
versus just knowing Hey, I'vegot a five year horizon, not
saying five years is you knowwhat it takes for someone to
leave a job. But at the sametime, it might be like, are you
(33:28):
willing to dedicate yourself toa skill set, you can build over
five years to leave your job?
Right? Can you think in terms ofa longer time horizon, because
if you can think of a timehorizon of five years, you're
guaranteed to be so good at itby the end of the first year or
second year, that you've gotmore potential to wear the job
versus changing every 90 daysand then starting from scratch
(33:50):
again. So people I completelyagree with you, man, people want
results too quickly withouthaving to put in the work. But
it's appear where they canthinking longer timeframes, who
are willing to get their handsdirty, who are willing to wake
up in each and every single day,they're going to be the winners.
Dustin Steffey (34:04):
Exactly. The ones that are successful are the
ones that are able to put in thework and the time and the blood
and sweat and tears to find thatsuccess. Right. So with your
with your business that youbuilt, you do copywriting
Correct.
William Wang (34:21):
We've evolved a little bit from that time, we do
pretty much end to end marketingnow. So how we work is clients
will come to us and those like,we just want to grow the
business, what do we do? And sowe'll go in and set up the
entire marketing piece. We'llhelp them with the sales thing
as well. You know, trainsalespeople up, give them
(34:41):
scripts, and pretty much justgrow people's businesses for
them. So that's kind of whatstage we've actually evolved
into.
Dustin Steffey (34:49):
Do you have employees that work under you or
is it kind of everybody hastheir separate business?
William Wang (34:55):
Yes, so I've got about 20 employees at the
moment. So we've grown to afairly big size. And yeah, we've
got a fair bit more grown to do.
But at the moment about 20, amix of, you know, onshore,
offshore, outsourced assistantsas well, virtual assistants, but
about 20 people in the
Dustin Steffey (35:14):
company at the moment. That's awesome, buddy,
congratulations on that. Thanks,man, it's, uh,
William Wang (35:19):
you know, as we sit here and record this is very
early into into the new year,it's, it's always a good time to
reflect. And if I had looked atwhere we are now, three or four
years ago, I wouldn't havebelieved that myself. So I think
it goes back to the idea of, youknow, just take one day at a
time, one step at a time. Andjust have a clear intention of
(35:40):
where you want to go. But justknow that if you think of a long
enough time horizon, you'reprobably thinking too small. So
if you're hitting that revenuewith now, I think, you know,
we're actually at the beginningof the journey, whereas if you'd
spoke to me three years ago, I'dbe like, that's absolutely
bloody amazing. And so now I'mthinking in terms of bigger
multiples, but I know that whenI get there, my mindset might be
(36:01):
different again,
Dustin Steffey (36:02):
Eric, I'm in the same boat. As you, buddy. I'm
looking at the new year lookingat all we achieved in the
podcast, especially someone likeme, who dove into it, like,
well, I don't know what I'mdoing. But let's do it. And now,
here I am today. And it's it's anight and day difference. I
mean, a year ago today, right? Istarted this journey and it, I
(36:25):
go back, and I look at theepisodes we recorded when we
first started versus now andit's, it's just so insane.
William Wang (36:32):
It's always it's always for me anyway, it's
always cringy looking back onvideos and podcasts I've been on
in the past. And it's like, oh,man, I can't believe how bad I
was back then. You just have todo it. Like if you don't do it,
you don't get good. So it'salways a good time to reflect.
Dustin Steffey (36:48):
I wanted to delete them all, buddy. And then
and then my buddy was like, No,don't do that. Because it shows
the journey it shows. It showshow much better it's gotten and
the people that have stuckaround. See that? The scary part
is though is you get newsubscribers writer, a new person
that listens, they go back andlisten to episode one. What if
(37:08):
you lose them? You know what Imean?
William Wang (37:10):
Yeah, I think though, I had a lot of similar
fears. Because I've beenpodcasting a lot. And guesting
on podcasts. I had my ownpodcast for a little bit, which
I'll probably revive prettysoon. And one of the things you
know, I had some issues. I waslike, Man, I sound terrible. I'm
stuttering I say a lot of armsand ahhs and little phrases that
(37:32):
really ticked me off, and I hearit now. But it's also real,
like, it's also the real you.
And one of the things I've neverwanted to do, I don't want to
present another version ofmyself, right? Where if someone
bumps into me on the street,they're like, Oh, you're
completely different urineabsolutely ticket compared to
how you said on the podcast, Inever wanted to be like that. So
it's always good to have thereal meat out there. And I think
it's you know, speaks to growthin your mission as well, what
(37:54):
you're trying to do to have thereal you unfiltered.
Dustin Steffey (37:59):
That's what makes us so different. Like I
listened to a bunch of differentpodcasts. And I can tell that
it's robotic, it's edited. It'svery, like, crisp scripted,
right? Whereas our podcast israw. And I like that raw version
of it, because it's peoplesitting around talking, trying
(38:20):
to help others to be successfuland provide some value added
activity.
William Wang (38:26):
Yeah, exactly. I think that's how people relate,
you know? Well, for me, anyway,I relate to the real stuff
rather than Super edited stuff.
Because severity stuff, it justmakes me feel like it just it's
not reality. Reality is messy.
Life is messy and chaotic. Andyou know, and I think you can
learn from experiences, youknow, that there's never black
(38:46):
or white, it's always the grayin between where we live. And so
they're super edited Polishversions are just like, this is
exactly what this is. This isexactly how it should be done.
There's no bullshit, dude. Like,there's so many gray areas, you
can't just come through and saylike, this is the truth of it.
Because, you know, most thingsin life aren't binary. So why
(39:06):
are you presenting like it is ona podcast where this format
here, someone might listen towhat I'm saying, going that that
dude's an absolute idiot. And Ican their context, it could be
right, because my context isdifferent to their context. So
you know, I don't want topresent a context that's not my
own, because then I can't defendmyself and go, No, I'm right,
because it's just toocomplicated. That Ra is awesome.
(39:26):
This is my point. I'm going toin a bit of a circle, but this
format is awesome. And keep itlike this.
Dustin Steffey (39:32):
Yeah, definitely, buddy. I mean, I
have I have people that I lookup to you right. So Tony Robbins
is a badass. I like him. He hashis own podcast. His is way
different from mine, right?
Because it's very structured,very oriented, right? And I get
bored listening to it eventhough he's like an idol to me
because it's not raw right. Andthen you have Joe Rogan, which
(39:55):
you and I both know Joe Roganhas zero ox to give like, ever.
And it's, it's just fun and it'sfun to listen to his because it
is super raw like super superraw. Right? And then you have
Brandon Bouchard, which isanother person I look up to I
like him a lot. He's a verymotivational person. You have
(40:16):
DERM dude, which you've probablynot listened to a ton of my
stuff. But once you do, like,Drew, Drew's a badass, he has
his own podcast. And like hesaid, When you own your own
business, you have the freedomto do whatever the hell you
want.
William Wang (40:34):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. I think. I think the
main takeaway is just findsomething that works for you.
And just you used to you, ifit's a raw form, podcast,
awesome. Because polished,awesome, just find whatever
works, what works best for you.
I think everyone listening heis, it's good to model what
others have done in terms of ifyou think, you know, they're
(40:55):
successful, or you know, if youthink that they've achieved
something you want to achieve,it's good to model them. But
don't be them don't do exactlywhat they're doing. Because
there's context. And there'sthings that are going on in
their minds in their life thatyou don't know about. So just
find some that works for you,and just double down on it.
Dustin Steffey (41:12):
And that's what the New Year is for us. We're
gonna double down on everythingthat we've done lessons learned
and continue moving forward tosomething good. I know our
listeners are probably confused.
Are we talking about a podcast?
Are we talking about sevenfigure business? What are we
talking about? So let's rewind alittle bit, all of what we just
talked about, extrapolate intopeople being able to chase their
(41:37):
own dreams. So what we justtalked about was kind of
identifying and finding yourselfand it's okay to fail sometimes.
As long as you keep getting backup. It's okay to ask for help.
I'm, I mean, God knows that I'm,I'm fortunate and lucky, right?
Yes, I may be interviewing youguys. But at the end of the day,
(41:57):
if I needed something, I canreach out to any one of you
guys, because we've developedthat relationship. And I have
help I have support. Sonetworking, probably in my mind
for this episode is probably thenumber one thing that is most
important is network, startdoing education on on things
(42:18):
that you want to do, askquestions, and then start
building what you want to build.
William Wang (42:23):
Yeah, it's such a good thing, I think the people
around you can make a break inlife. And I've been extremely
lucky. So it's just I so I workextremely hard at networking.
When I first started mybusiness, and I had no money, I
go to every free networkingevent, I could shake every hand,
I could just talk to people. Andthat's, you know, that in and of
(42:45):
itself has led to the growth ofthe business and the way it has,
if it wasn't for the people withmy network, I wouldn't be where
I am today. But you get luckywith it. The harder you work,
the more networking events youturn up to the more people you
meet, the luckier you're goingto get to me that one person
that turns everything around foryou potentially. And then you
know, there are differentstages. There's other things you
(43:07):
can do. For example, for me,now, I paid to go into different
networks just to meet peoplethere. But it all comes back to
what you said like network isever.
Dustin Steffey (43:14):
And then that leads to the next thing. So
networking is important. Andthen learning from other
people's mistakes, I think isanother important thing. So do
your research on what otherpeople's failures were so you
don't fall into the samepitfalls.
William Wang (43:27):
Yeah, and I'd actually add to that, because
even though I got a lot ofreally great coaches and support
around me, some mistakes, you dostill have to make yourself to
truly internalize and feel it.
So don't beat yourself up toomuch. Like, don't go and ignore
everything. Because until yousay, Oh, I've got to make my own
mistakes. Now, there's somestupid mistakes you can really
avoid. You don't need to learnit like that. But some mistakes
(43:49):
you only internalize and becomesreal to you, after you actually
make them and feel the pain fromit. So yeah, there's lots lots
of gray areas, man, butnetworking, definitely learning
from others learning frommistakes, you know, and just
doing doing what comes naturallyto you and being yourself. I
think it's gonna get you a longway. And I know that you know,
there was wasn't anything solidfrom my side in terms of, here's
(44:11):
what you do if you want to leaveyour job. But then there's so
many different ways of doingthat. Like I've just seen people
create insane businesses out oflike some weird crap, right?
There's people on online sellingbathwater, and they become an
auto multimillionaires. There'speople who do consulting in
create great businesses. Thereare people who sell stupid
(44:35):
little gadgets and they becomemultimillionaires. There's just
so many different ways of doingit. You just got to find the
thing that or the way that youresonate with most and just
given enough time and enoughelbow grease to to make it work
for you.
Dustin Steffey (44:49):
Share buddy I remember like five years ago you
remember those stupid littlefidget spinners that made that
person millions upon millions ofdollars.
William Wang (44:58):
Yeah, I mean You know, bouncing, create some
shitty little gadget, sellmillions of it and then bounce
out. That's, that's awesome.
Dustin Steffey (45:07):
That's a frickin dream come true right there. If
I can make a couple milliondollars on that, then I can do
whatever the hell I want.
William Wang (45:14):
Exactly. And in terms of, you know, the freedom
and things like that, I think itgoes back to my I'm a big fan
of, it's not up behind me, I'mactually in the process of
moving. So in my current house,so I normally have a bookshelf
behind me that we've built inall the books in there. And one
of the top books I always readevery single quarter, so read it
four times a year, is The FourHour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
(45:35):
read the first section whereit's like, Dream lining and fee
setting, because to live yourdream life, it probably doesn't
cost as much as you think itwill. And then, you know,
knowing what that number is, interms of monthly, you know, what
you need to hit to live the wayyou want to live. It must be
like it's, well we've enrich,but you've just got to give
(45:56):
yourself a time and space andand invest in yourself to do
that.
Dustin Steffey (46:00):
Agreed? You ready for the fun part?
William Wang (46:03):
Yeah, let's do it.
Dustin Steffey (46:05):
Let's do it rather. So I, I like to end
every episode where my guestsget to kind of leave one key
nugget out of their kind ofrepertoire. So it's your turn,
right? If you could give onesuper important piece of
information that helps others,what would that be?
William Wang (46:26):
In what context as in,
Dustin Steffey (46:29):
it can be business, it could be personal
life, it can be whatever youwant. So like a lot of the past
ones have been. Networking havebeen easier relationships
together have been baby, savesomething, whatever the case may
be one important piece ofinformation.
William Wang (46:48):
I'll say, I'm gonna check entropy, a few
things in here, I would say,don't take life too seriously.
Isn't the number one thing.
Because if you don't, it's meantto be fun, right? Don't take
life too seriously. I think theother thing is expect to each
ship for a long time before youget results. Just know that
there's work right work isalways there. And maybe the
(47:11):
first thing would be it's neveras great as you think it will be
or or as bad as you think itwill be. So your worst
nightmares probably will nevercome to pass. But your biggest
dreams probably won't either. Sowhen you're going to be in some
kind of medium, write some kindof scale putting that in besides
from that, just life's fuckingshort. And just pick something
(47:32):
that you really like doing getgood at it. The best or the top
1% at anything in the world,always makes money. But don't
find something that you candedicate yourself to being the
top one percenter in, and themoney will follow. So for me
that was in copywriting, rightin lead generation I wanted to
be I still want to be the bestin the world at it. And that
(47:53):
means I'm going to grow mycompany, my clients company, but
I've got a passion for it. LikeI love reading. I love writing.
That's what I want to do. But ifyou hate writing, don't pick
that because you're never goingto be a top one percenter. Like,
in my spare time. I read inresearch and writing and how to
use AI to write how to do this.
Like that's my my geek out stuffthat I do my spare time. So if
(48:16):
you can't compete me from thatlevel, find somebody when no one
else can compete with you on
Dustin Steffey (48:20):
some good advice right there, buddy. Now for the
listeners that resonate withyou, how do they get a hold of
you? Yes, the
William Wang (48:27):
probably the easiest way is to hit me up on
LinkedIn. I'm on that platformquite a bit. I'm either will
wing or William Wang. Butfinally, I've got a profile
picture up there. Find me onthat. Drop me a message when you
connect me. Let me know that youfound me for this podcast. I
know who you are. And then yeah,that's probably the best
platform. I put up some stuff onthere. You know, post personal
(48:48):
stuff, business stuff. Probablythe best way to contact me.
Dustin Steffey (48:51):
Awesome, buddy.
I want to just thank you forcoming on. Thank you for your
time, obviously, I know. Well, Idon't know what time it is there
because you're in Australia andI'm in the States but I'm sure
it's polar different time thanhere. So
William Wang (49:05):
it's perfect, man.
There's been so much fun. Thankyou so much. Dustin. You got
some awesome questions, man. Andyeah, if your audience or
yourself need any help in thefuture, please feel free to
reach out and yeah, it's beenit's been fun. It's been
awesome.
Dustin Steffey (49:17):
Thanks, brother.
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Welcome to your top rated business
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Dustin Steffey and also hostedby coach, music producer and
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for many accolades such as beingnominated for the People's
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(01:14):
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Without further ado, welcome tochopping wood fire ladies and
gentlemen, let's chop it up
Dustin Steffey (01:35):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of
chopping with fire. You'rejoined with your host today
Dustin Steffey I have awonderful, wonderful lineup
planned for today. But first andforemost, let's dive into a
couple things. Please, if youhaven't done so already, I know
I sound like a broken record.
But this is how we get better.
(01:56):
Join us on our social mediaplatforms. We have a Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, tik, TokSnapchat, and well, everything
in between including a website,where I would start first is at
our website, www dot choppin.
With feiyr.com That's ch ro e pi n with feiyr.com. That house
has everything in it kind ofgives you a benchmark on where
(02:20):
you can go. We definitely havetons of updates we are in season
two, we're going to be killingit this year. We killed it in
year one. Let's continue to makethat difference in year two. But
without you guys commenting andgiving us some information. We
can't really make thatdifference. So please join us on
socials today. Lastly, we stilldo support our home and local
(02:43):
charity please, as we go intothe new year, let's hit our
goals. We have big audaciousgoals this year, we want to
raise about $50,000 for CF thisyear. So if you guys haven't
done so already, please head onover to C F F dot o RG. Remember
CF is a rare lung disease thatis like breathing through a
(03:06):
straw. So if you can imaginebreathing through that little
hole to try to get through yourday. It's not fun at all. And we
want to do our part to make surewe're supporting so we can find
a cure for CF. So please, if youhaven't done so, let's head on
over there. And let's donatetoday. I think that's all the
housekeeping that we have. Iwant to dive right into our
(03:26):
episode and have some fun. Ihave on with me, William Wang.
He's an amazing, awesome person.
I got to talk to him in pre rollbut I want you guys to kind of
hear from him some accolades hehas in that support his
credibility or he was a part ofcorporate it. It wasn't working
(03:47):
out for him. As we all know,with our nine to fives, they
never normally work out. They'rejust a job. He moved on to build
his own seven figure businessand he's currently running that
today within his marketingagency. He is a Judit jujitsu,
badass, so don't mess with him.
He has a brown belt and he'sabout to get his black. So if
you guys need some techniques onhow to defend yourself, reach
(04:10):
out to him. He loves to surf.
From what he told me. He is nota professional at it. So let's
let's not, let's not get lessonsfrom him quite yet within the
surfing world. And then ofcourse, most importantly, he is
a father of two. So, William,how are you today?
William Wang (04:31):
Your house.
Thanks, Dustin. Thank you forthat amazing intro did really
appreciate it.
Dustin Steffey (04:35):
I got you, buddy. That's what we're about
here. We're about we're abouthaving the cool people on you
know.
William Wang (04:41):
That's awesome.
Great to be on. And yeah, likehappy to share any new parts of
my story that hopefully inspiresand helps. You know, somebody
out there listening who'slooking to get nine to five or
even figuring out what they wantto do fly for example, not
saying I've got to figure itout. I absolutely don't, but
having to share any part of myHistory or anything that can
help? Yeah,
Dustin Steffey (05:01):
I think the most important thing and my listeners
are really good about this isjust really connecting with
people really understanding whatit takes to be an entrepreneur.
We are not one of those podcastswhere it's like, hey, today's
topic is this, we're more orless like, just everyday people
just trying to kind of giveinformation. And hopefully,
(05:25):
maybe one or two people out ofthe 1000s upon 1000s of
listeners resonate, and thenthey like this episode, and they
kind of jump ship and do whatthey wanted to do or what they
were destined to do.
William Wang (05:35):
Yeah, that's awesome. Love it.
Dustin Steffey (05:38):
So let's let's dive into you. Like, I mean,
obviously, I brought up you, youwere within it before let's
let's get a little bit of yourstory, buddy.
William Wang (05:46):
Yes. So I guess where do you start from I kind
of looking back at life and youknow, the journey and all that
kind of stuff started you know,since son, son of immigrants
came over from from China toAustralia grew up in in a pretty
rough neighborhood, but gettingtaught, you know, about
(06:07):
everything, essentially, thatyou don't want as an
entrepreneur, it was kind ofbeaten into me, you know, the
whole idea of don't talk aboutmoney, don't get attention
flying on the radar, playeverything safe. That was
essentially upbringing, ourhead, and not saying it's wrong,
but you know, it just it waswhat it was, right. It's like
the whole immigrant story aboutsurvival and things like that.
(06:29):
So went through all of thatdeveloped an extremely
introverted personality, and thekind of struggle but kind of
struggled, I think, to meupbringing and how I am
naturally just wasn't reallyaligned. And it created a lot of
issues and challenges, let'sjust call it as I was going
through, including phobia of thephone not being able to
(06:50):
communicate properly. And itkind of meant that by default, I
went through university and wentinto path of this IT career.
And, you know, it was a goodcareer. It was a six figure
career, but I absolutely hatedit. But for what I thought my
personality was, I thought itwas a perfect career for me. But
(07:10):
as I started going through that,no one can dive into this and
what they'd have to share again,any and all parts of it just
turned out that it just wasn'twhat I wanted to do wasn't what
I was put here to do. Andreally, really just didn't like
what I was doing on a day to daybasis. So that's kind of the
story you know, how are kind ofgoing yeah, just philosophy in
Korea that I just absolutelyhated even though on the
(07:32):
outside, it was perfect. Andpeople were like, Dude, what are
you doing for your career way?
It's kind of it just felt likeevery single day was just an
exercise of boredom andexercising just, you know, not
not doing anything right. I justfelt like I was wasting my
potential here. So that kind ofled me to thinking about
business and that in and ofitself is kind of like a like a
(07:52):
whole journey. It's been I thinksix or seven years now so quit
my job and started my businessfull time. And it's only the
past three years where it's beenquite a good journey. The first
three are a massive struggle aswell so lost some Paki
Dustin Steffey (08:09):
so I'm extremely extroverted person. So in school
call it college was awesome,right? Because that's where I
made a lot of different diversefriends. So the introverted
extroverted battle came intoplay and it was it was funny
because I don't know why but Ihad a lot of introverted friends
(08:29):
and so I was the one that likekind of got them out of their
shell almost.
William Wang (08:33):
Yeah, that's awesome. I think for me anyway,
I actually really like hangingaround people who are
extroverted because it meansthat I have to talk like they
can just go and talk to peopleand you know be loud and I just
chill like I'm just in thebackground hanging out and
having fun
Dustin Steffey (08:48):
shit you got a good point there I'm about to
call some of these friends andbe like you guys use me because
I'm an extrovert wrecks it dude,it is a big field right? And
like if I could do my schoolingall over again, that's probably
the field that I'd want to goin. However with the knowledge
that I have now, I don't want towork for the man you know what I
(09:11):
mean? And I don't I just don'tthink it's advantageous and and
honestly, these days it'sgetting worse and worse right?
Because these companies aretaking advantage of people by
giving them 1015 different jobroles for the same Hey, you know
what I mean?
William Wang (09:29):
Yeah, it's it's an interesting idea like looking
back knowing what on and I stillthink it's a good industry but
like all industries, you know,if you have a passion for it,
that's when it becomes reallygood. I didn't have a passion
for the only reason that I gotinto it was because my dad is
for you know, he worked in it.
He absolutely love what he didcomputers and programming, all
(09:50):
that kind of stuff. I hated it.
But I did it because it was easyfor me having to help at home at
that when I was going throughthrough university I was
essentially, I help people sellwebsites on the side. So I had
started to dabble inoutsourcing. And I figured out
that people that I wasoutsourcing to, can help me do
(10:10):
my IP assignments. So that'skind of why I went for it. I
actually started with severaldifferent degrees. I started
with, I started my universitypath in Environmental
Engineering, as a wanting tosave the environment or that
kind of stuff. Engineering thatrequired a lot of mathematics.
And the first maths class that Isat into, the professor found
(10:32):
was like, oh, let's talk aboutimaginary numbers in number i.
And I was like, shit, did Idon't even understand real
numbers. What is this imaginarynumbers bullshit. Marxist. So
very quickly figured out.
engineering wasn't for me. Andthen I went into a whole bunch
of different things. And, youknow, science, and then I tried
to become a teacher. But then Irealized, I don't want to deal
with 30 screaming kids everyday, like, what am I doing here.
And so finally settled on it,just because it was the easiest
(10:55):
path. Looking back at what I,what I with the current
knowledge I've got, I would evensay, if you don't know what your
path is, maybe don't even go touniversity, maybe just have
different jobs, talk todifferent people just, you know,
figure out what it is thatyou're actually passionate that
and you're going to pursue that.
Dustin Steffey (11:16):
So a lot of things that we've brought up in
the past is the old school wayof thinking where you go to high
school, and then after highschool, you get your degree and
all of that. It's kind ofdifferent now, right? Because we
have this powerful thing callednetworking. And furthermore, we
have this powerful thing calledpeople who talk and help others
(11:36):
to be successful, kind of likewhat we do with this podcast,
kind of like what you did. Iknow your buddies, Luke, we had
Luke on a little bit ago. Andit's, it's, it's an awesome
thing. I mean, you're inAustralia, right now, I'm in the
States. And you and I arechatting it up, right? So we
have so much technology to beable to upscale ourselves,
(11:58):
ourselves, you know, where is itboats? The question, is
education, still the importantpathway? Or is it a different
pathway? I mean, if I could dothings over again, buddy,
honestly, like, truly, Iprobably go to a trade school. I
mean, there's a lot of tradesright now that need help. And a
(12:19):
trade school is a lot shorter, alot less money, and you make a
lot more. But I mean, here I amtoday, I have a doctorate in
organizational leadership,right. And so I need to use the
resources that I have doing itall over would be great. I could
look at the past, but I can moveforward. And I can do things
(12:40):
such as what you did. I mean,you went to school to get an IT
degree, you're not 90. So
William Wang (12:46):
yeah, I mean, you bring up such a good point,
like, I think I'll do somethingsimilar. So my wife's family are
actually in in a trade set tothe build stone, beautiful
stone, kitchen, benchtops. Andkitchens, and they've got a very
successful business. So melooking at that, right, knowing
what I know. Now, if I had to goback in through the journey with
(13:09):
the current knowledge, Idefinitely would go through and
do something my hands as well.
That being said, I'm terrible atmy hand products, because I
haven't had the training, but Ibreak everything I touch. So I
when it comes to you know doinghow many, how many people stuff
around the house, that's justnot me. But if I could go back
to or, you know, if I had tochoose my career again, I
definitely would actually startthat because I think it's such
(13:30):
good utility around knowing howthings are put together, knowing
how to fix your own house,knowing if the lights turn off.
Or if the world goes to shit.
Hey, I've got the skill set thatcan actually mean something. I
think that's a really good thingto have in back pocket.
Dustin Steffey (13:48):
So I just learned something about you fun
figure. You are not going to beworking on my bike or truck
anytime soon, because it'll bebroken. So good. Good call
there. No, but you're rightbrother, right. Like everybody
has their own niches right? Forme. I kind of grew up around my
(14:09):
dad in construction. So he'svery much so hands on which
therefore extrapolated tovehicle work and kind of doing
my own things. I some hobbiesfor me, right? I like working on
my bike. I like working on thetruck. I like building some
things, refinishing things, soI'm very much so hands on.
(14:29):
Obviously, it's made me $0 Buthey, whatever, it's a hobby,
it's fun.
William Wang (14:35):
Especially then if the world goes to shit, that's
such a good skill set. Like ifif society comes tomorrow, I'm
gonna be sitting around going,what the heck day like I said, I
want coffee. Want me to writecoffee for you? Like do you want
marketing? No one wantsmarketing like if it only gives
you shade, but you can fix atruck for a bike. That's such a
cool, cool skill set. It'sactually probably something that
(14:55):
I'll start developing Solearning about as well because I
do want to have that and yeah,just In case anything happens,
right?
Dustin Steffey (15:02):
Shit brother the world's already going to share.
So we, we need we need backupplans now
William Wang (15:10):
under present,
Dustin Steffey (15:11):
so let's let's transition a little bit then we
all know that you're in it itbadass but you're not in it
anymore. So how the heck did youburn the boat to go from an IT
job that was stable to buildinga seven figure job and I don't
know being able to surf and dojujitsu and have fun? Yeah,
William Wang (15:33):
I mean, that's a whole journey in and of itself,
I wouldn't say I was great atit. I think one of the things
that I realized pretty early on,and I think it's very lucky that
I did was that it just wasn't mycalling, I was working with
these guys who were just superpassionate about what they were
doing, that would just selfeducate about writing code or
(15:53):
doing all this kind of stuff.
And I hated it. I honestly, itwas Monday mornings, was such a
miserable time. For me, I justhated the idea that I've got to
wake up, get on the bus witheveryone else looking miserable,
get to this cubicle and just sitthere for eight hours looking at
a spreadsheet. It just wasn't myidea of how I wanted life to go.
And for me, I looked at peoplewho were 30 or 40 years down the
(16:15):
career path. And looking atwhere they were in where I was.
And I saw that a lot of themwere very unhappy. A lot of
them, you know, felt that theywere on top of the game or on
top of their career. But if youlooked at pay discrepancy, there
was a certain capital, but itwasn't like, you can spend 40,
isn't it three or nowadays, ifyou're in startups, you can but
(16:36):
in traditional IT, there's a capinto the salary, because you can
never get paid more than theCEO, you can never get paid more
than business owner. So therewas a real cap on what you could
do in terms of income. Thesecond side of it was, it took
such a long time to get there.
So I made a pretty quick jumpearly in my career because I got
good at interviewing, lookingfor new jobs and things like
(16:58):
that. So every six months, I'dget a pay rise essentially,
myself in position to get a 20or 30% pay rise. So by the time
I was 2425, I actually had$150,000 a year salary. But for
me, it was like, it just I justcouldn't do another fair use of
it. Like it just the idea of itjust terrified me. And so I
decided very quickly, hey, I'mgonna go into my own thing, I'm
(17:20):
going to be my own boss, I'mgoing to have complete freedom.
But it didn't quite work thatway. Because there were so many
limitations to it. I triedthings like affiliate marketing,
I tried things like sellingwebsites, I tried things, you
know, everything under the sun.
But when you have $150,000salary you have to replace, it
becomes pretty hard in terms ofwhat you can actually do, or how
you can do it quickly, in a waythat that works. Yeah, and we
(17:43):
can go into it a bit more. But Ialso felt like I left my job a
little bit too early as well.
And the transition betweenhaving a set salary, being able
to pay the bills to having toput food on the table with my
own skills was actually prettydifficult one, and I think
that's what a lot of peoplemight struggle against. If they
don't know how to actually do itproperly.
Dustin Steffey (18:05):
Yeah, let's dive into it a little more. I mean, a
lot of people that listen,right, they listen because
they're sick of their job. Imean, I, I think when I was with
Luke, right, we brought up thejob happiness statistics, and it
was blaring, 60% of people areunhappy with their jobs. So they
need, they need to kind of hearthese stories to kind of
(18:27):
understand, like, how do I getout? Is it possible? Or am I am
I screwed, right? Am I screwed?
Am I working at a ceiling? Wheresome of these people, buddy, I
mean, they they're hard workers,and they're making 40 grand a
year? That's poverty?
William Wang (18:44):
Yeah, it is pretty tough. So I think looking back,
if I was telling myself, sittingacross time for myself, when I
first went into it, I wouldactually say that it absolutely
sucks bid in the job. But do ituntil the business is ready to
support you. So one of thebiggest mistakes I made was I
actually, and so let me justjust go ahead and give you the
(19:06):
full story. I was I figured thatto replace my job with the high
salary I had, I had to becomesome kind of consultant or do
some kind of service, because itwasn't going to sell a $20
widget and sell my way. $250,000a year. So I decided very early
on. One of the things I love andI'm passionate about is actually
reading and writing. And I wasactually quite good at writing.
(19:28):
So I decided, let me become acopywriter. And so I started
freelancing a little bit tobring in some income on the
side. And it got to the pointwhere I saw my clients were
like, Hey, can you do somesocial media writing for us? I'm
like, Yeah, sure, of course Ican. And I figured out the
social media side. And whathappened was, as I was building
up my portfolio as I was gettinggood at the social media stuff,
(19:50):
there's a local magazine towhere I live, and I so I just
happen to bump into them duringa networking meeting. I was
going to every single networkingevent I could more so just so I
could speak to people right Getover my, my, my introversion,
but I met this guy who runs alocal magazine and he was like,
Oh, dude, I've got 100 clients,they absolutely love me. Why
don't you come in, we'll partnerup, you can sell your social
(20:10):
media services to them. Ruralasked me for anyway, when we're
gonna replace your job in like aweek. It's like sweet, awesome,
he convinced me to leave my job.
So I did that. But the firstmeeting, I walked into the sky,
to sell sell on social media tohis clients, they were just
like, Dude, get the fuck out ofmy office, or I'm going to call
the cops. Because what heactually did was he was such a
(20:30):
hardline salesperson, he wouldgo into the offices and sit
there and go, I'm not leavinguntil you pay me to be in the
magazine that next quarter.
He'll be like, I don't want tobe in a you know, have you got a
result that I didn't care Africaplan for you to be my magazine?
Joe, you're in it. Right? So hiscustomers actually hated him.
And I walked into his businessthinking, oh, man, we're gonna
(20:51):
make so much money. Hediscovered his love him. I'm
just gonna sell a bunch ofsocial media packages. And it
didn't quite work out that way.
So I would say that looking backon it, yes, the job might suck.
But if I had stayed in my jobfor another six months and just
built things up on my own, Iwould have been two or three
years ahead of the curve interms of app growth.
Dustin Steffey (21:10):
Sounds sounds pretty similar to like my story.
I mean, I'm still in my nine tofive right now. But I have this
podcast, I consult on the side,my buddy and I just opened up a
pressure washing business. Thebiggest, the biggest thing I
tell everyone is, it isn't aboutgoing all in in one thing. It's
about diversifying. And then asthings start hitting traction,
(21:33):
you start finding what yourniche is.
William Wang (21:35):
Yeah, exactly. I think that's such a I think
that's such a underplayed part,right? You see it all the time
with these rates of returnstories, oh, he just did this
one thing and that he or she nowmakes millions of dollars and
does all this. But if it's ifyou switch to anyone who's
actually legit, the journey isnever like that. There's always
hat on to the struggles andthere's always you know, things
(21:56):
that you try and it doesn'twork. And you just get to the
point, we've been trying hardenough times where there's not
that much more that you can doto fail, and you start winning
from that point onwards. So Ithink what you're doing is
actually amazing. I build it onthe side, and only jump when you
have the parachute ready.
Dustin Steffey (22:11):
Yeah, I had I had someone on that said, burn
the boats early, which, youknow, it works for some people,
but not everyone, right? I mean,this podcast is a good example.
So we're in year two right now.
Right? And yeah, we're comingout the gates firing, we're
coming out the gates firing,because we had a year one. So
there were many, many, manynights that I had with my
partner, right? Where I bang myhead up against the wall, like,
(22:34):
what do we do? How do we dothis? How do we monetize? And
the answer is, is it isn't aboutthinking about and chasing the
money, it's about creating thecontent, upscaling yourself as
much as possible. And theneventually, it's going to,
there's going to be a gas pedalwhere the rocks are
automatically on it.
William Wang (22:53):
Exactly. I'm not a huge fan in the hope in the
boats type play. Just becauseeveryone's context is different,
right? Like if I had startedbusiness, my 20s, before I had
kids and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, maybe maybe that wouldhave been the right approach.
It's also, it's also theapproach I kind of accidentally
took. I'm not saying that I wentand burn all the boats before I
was. But I left my job before Iwas ready. But I had skills,
(23:15):
developing the background, and Ihad a side hustle that I've been
working on for a couple of yearsbefore I did that. But you gotta
look at your own context, right?
Because for me, I was when Ileft my job, my son was just
born. So my wife wasn't working,because she's obviously taking
care of both my kids. And weneeded to pay the bills, right,
we had a mortgage, we couldeither put food on the table, it
(23:38):
wasn't feasible, just burn theboats, I'm gonna drop my entire
entire salary on, we're notmaking any money, who cares?
We're just gonna go making surethat like it just not feasible.
So that's why I'm not a big fanof that advice. In every
context, I think you've got tolook at the context of the
person you're giving the adviceto. Because for a 40 year old
family, man or mom or whateverit is, there's certain
(24:01):
responsibilities that you can'tjust burn when you burn the
boat. Whereas if you're younger,and you're 18 you're trying
different things and living athome anyway, you've got zero
expenses. Fuck yeah, burn theboats, like you don't have any
boats burn, who cares? So thecontext is very important.
Dustin Steffey (24:15):
Yeah, I agree.
The biggest thing that we bringup in this podcast, honestly,
between you and I is do your ownresearch, right? Obviously, the
advice that we give on the manyepisodes that we have, some of
it will click others won't.
That's why we have a diverseamount of guests so we can reach
everyone in some way shape orform. But the biggest thing that
(24:36):
I enjoy about doing this themost in in you and I can agree
on this is we have such adiverse amount of people that
come on that we talk to you thatwe have fun with that we learn
from where you can at least takeone key golden nugget from
everyone and kind of apply it
William Wang (24:52):
Yeah, that's the script was fun. I think that's
the way I approach life andcoaching as well. So I've got I
probably I spend about sixfigures a year in terms of
coaching and education formyself. But not everything that
my coach has told me is alwaysapplicable to my situation. So
it really is about you andtaking what's like the Bruce Lee
quote, right, like, you know,learn from everyone take what's
(25:13):
useful, is making your owndiscard everything else. And I'm
quoting that pretty badly. But
Dustin Steffey (25:18):
so what do you do right now? Is it something
that can be duplicated withothers where you think that they
would find success? Or is itkind of one off and you got
lucky?
William Wang (25:26):
I think it's a bit of both. So I think I got lucky
in terms of I found something Iwas really passionate about. And
I love doing, I got good atwhich is writing. And the luck
element was finding that, butI've always been a big believer
in tuning your skill set andbecoming better every single
day. So I had to work hard atbecoming a better writer, I then
(25:51):
had to get a lot better atselling and marketing myself my
services, which is really adifficult struggle. And then I
had to get better at being ableto build a business because I
was freelancing for a longwhile. And freelancing is great,
right? If you're just planningescape nine to five, hey, maybe
your first step is actually tobecome a freelancer. Because
then you've got these thingsthat you're learning, like
(26:11):
marketing, like sales, or clientcommunications, which you might
not have the skill set, rightnow, you're going to have to
take the time to learn thatskill set. And once you learn
that skill set, like what I'mworking on now is I've just gone
for a period where I'd reallyhave to learn about leadership,
hiring operations, and thosewere my weak areas. And for us
to grow, I had to learn that soI spent a ton of my last 12
(26:32):
months really focusing on thatversus focusing on growth. And
the next 12 months I'm going tobe spending is really around
empowering my team memberslooking at operations, so I
don't have to work in thebusiness every single day. But
it don't just get to, you knowwhere I am or where someone
else's or dependent businessovernight, it is literally a
grind every single day. So themore so so the motto I have is
(26:57):
1% a day, right? Just learn orimprove, or one person a day,
and by the end of the year,you're 37 times better off. So
if someone's in a job right now,don't think about when do I
leave this job, like the jobmight absolutely suck balls, and
it probably does. But just thinkI'm paying the bills, I'm paying
for myself to have theflexibility and freedom to learn
(27:17):
and develop a passion or skillset is very useful that I can
build on and just know that ittakes time to build a skill set,
right? Well, there's people outthere promising you can start a
marketing company and make 10k amonth in like 90 days and
bullshit. You absolutely cannot.
But if you're willing todedicate a year, two years,
three years to it, youabsolutely can build a good
business around what you reallylike.
Dustin Steffey (27:39):
It's kind of where I'm at with the
podcasting, right. I mean,there's a lot of a lot of forks
in the coal right now I am goingto be releasing a podcast school
because I think social media,digital marketing, podcasting,
it's an important thing tolearn. And for some of these
companies that want to get theirbranding out a little more, they
(28:00):
don't do it right. And so I candefinitely teach on that I have
my book. I like you like towrite as well. We'll see if the
books good though. But you know,there there are many avenues
like I, like I said earlier,diversify in business, and then
(28:20):
at some point, it's gonna takeoff.
William Wang (28:23):
But you also brought up a really important
point as well, Dustin, becauseit's not like you just turn
around and decided I've neverdone a podcast, I'm going to
create a podcast and schoolpodcast. And course, you've done
it for a year and you know theins and outs of how to do a
podcast how to grow a podcast.
So therefore you can go andcomfortably teach it to someone
else. Whereas a lot of thepeople out there, just think,
Oh, I'm just gonna buy clothesfrom someone, learn all this
(28:43):
stuff, copy what they do, andI'm going to be free, doesn't
quite work that way. You have tobe at the coalface you have to
be waking up in grinding everysingle day. So like when I
before I became a full timeFreelancer with this copywriting
stuff, I did everything I couldunder the sun and I hustled for
two years, outside of my nine tofive, it was actually a six.
(29:04):
Because you know, when you'regetting paid a pretty big
salary, they expect more thannine to five, but so I would get
home at about seven. So I leftthe office at six, have dinner
play with my kids, and about930 10pm I'd start four hours of
work on my own business on myside hustle. And it took two
years of that before I couldcomfortably go go full time and
(29:26):
just be willing to jump ship andtry to do this whole whole
business thing. But who have gotto understand like, it is a
personal journey. You don't getthere overnight, and you just
you don't buy course and 90 dayslater make 10 grand a month like
it just doesn't happen. No.
Dustin Steffey (29:45):
So like for me if I'm looking at my business
plan with the podcast school,people are going to need
support, right? So they're goingto learn the basic skills so I'm
going to give them what I didn'thave because I failed a few
times. I spent way too muchmoney on some things, right? And
then from there, they're goingto need the support, right? And
(30:06):
that's where I come in tosupport them. Like, because
they're gonna have questions,right, they're gonna fall on
their face, and they're gonnaneed help. So I think when I
look at it, it's it's apositive, I'm giving back, I'm
not only enjoying what I do,because I do enjoy doing the
podcast, I do enjoy, even thoughit takes a long time making the
videos and the social mediaaspect and the ads and all of
(30:27):
that. But I want others to beable to do it as well, you know
what I mean? And do itsuccessfully?
William Wang (30:33):
Yeah, exactly. I think the the biggest thing, you
know, people have asked me inthe past, do you have a course
in the Java program? I actuallydon't. Because I think, you
know, the way that I'd approachit is, I can't give someone
information. And they and havethem internalize to the point
where they can do it, right. IfI was to create a course or
(30:54):
program, the way I approach it,is I can shortcut the learning
process. And for example, ifsomeone wanted to, if someone
turned around and said, Hey, howdo you build a seven figure
marketing company, I'd say,Okay, what's going to take you
years and years and years, butrather than doing it over a
period of five years, which,that's how long it took me to
get to the point of, you know,six years or whatever, to the
point of seven figures, I canhelp someone do that within
three years. And so that's thevalue that we have this value
(31:17):
that you've got, right, you cango and help someone shortcut
their podcasting journey, sothat they can achieve what
you've achieved and half thetime. But you can't just give
someone the skills or just ifthey don't take the action and
do something, you can't helpthem shortcut that there's still
work involved.
Dustin Steffey (31:33):
I think that's the hardest part was society
today. And maybe you all agreeor disagree, but we're in a
society now, where everybodywants instant gratification,
right? So what I mean is, theywant to make that money now. And
they don't want to put in thework to make that money. Whereas
if you take a step back and lookat everyone in life, right,
(31:55):
including myself, and you, let'sgo back to our six figure or our
six figure jobs, our slave jobs,right, we didn't make that six
figures immediately. Andfurthermore, we had to put in
lots of work for that. So I wanteverybody to understand that
when you go down the journey ofchasing something that you enjoy
(32:15):
doing, it comes at a cost ofyou're going to live it and
breathe it for a long timebefore it starts automating
itself.
William Wang (32:23):
Exactly. Like I only saw, quote, unquote, like
aI success, right. And I usethat word very sparingly,
because I by no mean to thinkthat, you know, we're that
successful, or my company isthat great, we've got so much
room to grow, right, we've gotso much potential we haven't
been up to yet. But in terms ofwhere it started to be able to
complete pay my bills, andafford the lifestyle that we
(32:45):
lead. Now. It took me aboutthree years, three and a half
years to get to the point whereit's like, oh, cool, I've
replaced my my salary. Right.
And so what people kind of donowadays is, every 90 days, they
try and do something new, I'mgoing to sell stuff on Amazon,
I'm going to do this, you know,I'm going to try crypto, I'm not
saying any of this wrong. All ofthose things that you see out
(33:07):
there actually works. But youjust need to dedicate yourself
and give yourself the time toget the mastery to make those
things work for you. So ifyou're changing every 90 days,
you're beginning at the lowestlevel again, every 90 days,
versus just knowing Hey, I'vegot a five year horizon, not
saying five years is you knowwhat it takes for someone to
leave a job. But at the sametime, it might be like, are you
(33:28):
willing to dedicate yourself toa skill set, you can build over
five years to leave your job?
Right? Can you think in terms ofa longer time horizon, because
if you can think of a timehorizon of five years, you're
guaranteed to be so good at itby the end of the first year or
second year, that you've gotmore potential to wear the job
versus changing every 90 daysand then starting from scratch
(33:50):
again. So people I completelyagree with you, man, people want
results too quickly withouthaving to put in the work. But
it's appear where they canthinking longer timeframes, who
are willing to get their handsdirty, who are willing to wake
up in each and every single day,they're going to be the winners.
Dustin Steffey (34:04):
Exactly. The ones that are successful are the
ones that are able to put in thework and the time and the blood
and sweat and tears to find thatsuccess. Right. So with your
with your business that youbuilt, you do copywriting
Correct.
William Wang (34:21):
We've evolved a little bit from that time, we do
pretty much end to end marketingnow. So how we work is clients
will come to us and those like,we just want to grow the
business, what do we do? And sowe'll go in and set up the
entire marketing piece. We'llhelp them with the sales thing
as well. You know, trainsalespeople up, give them
(34:41):
scripts, and pretty much justgrow people's businesses for
them. So that's kind of whatstage we've actually evolved
into.
Dustin Steffey (34:49):
Do you have employees that work under you or
is it kind of everybody hastheir separate business?
William Wang (34:55):
Yes, so I've got about 20 employees at the
moment. So we've grown to afairly big size. And yeah, we've
got a fair bit more grown to do.
But at the moment about 20, amix of, you know, onshore,
offshore, outsourced assistantsas well, virtual assistants, but
about 20 people in the
Dustin Steffey (35:14):
company at the moment. That's awesome, buddy,
congratulations on that. Thanks,man, it's, uh,
William Wang (35:19):
you know, as we sit here and record this is very
early into into the new year,it's, it's always a good time to
reflect. And if I had looked atwhere we are now, three or four
years ago, I wouldn't havebelieved that myself. So I think
it goes back to the idea of, youknow, just take one day at a
time, one step at a time. Andjust have a clear intention of
(35:40):
where you want to go. But justknow that if you think of a long
enough time horizon, you'reprobably thinking too small. So
if you're hitting that revenuewith now, I think, you know,
we're actually at the beginningof the journey, whereas if you'd
spoke to me three years ago, I'dbe like, that's absolutely
bloody amazing. And so now I'mthinking in terms of bigger
multiples, but I know that whenI get there, my mindset might be
(36:01):
different again,
Dustin Steffey (36:02):
Eric, I'm in the same boat. As you, buddy. I'm
looking at the new year lookingat all we achieved in the
podcast, especially someone likeme, who dove into it, like,
well, I don't know what I'mdoing. But let's do it. And now,
here I am today. And it's it's anight and day difference. I
mean, a year ago today, right? Istarted this journey and it, I
(36:25):
go back, and I look at theepisodes we recorded when we
first started versus now andit's, it's just so insane.
William Wang (36:32):
It's always it's always for me anyway, it's
always cringy looking back onvideos and podcasts I've been on
in the past. And it's like, oh,man, I can't believe how bad I
was back then. You just have todo it. Like if you don't do it,
you don't get good. So it'salways a good time to reflect.
Dustin Steffey (36:48):
I wanted to delete them all, buddy. And then
and then my buddy was like, No,don't do that. Because it shows
the journey it shows. It showshow much better it's gotten and
the people that have stuckaround. See that? The scary part
is though is you get newsubscribers writer, a new person
that listens, they go back andlisten to episode one. What if
(37:08):
you lose them? You know what Imean?
William Wang (37:10):
Yeah, I think though, I had a lot of similar
fears. Because I've beenpodcasting a lot. And guesting
on podcasts. I had my ownpodcast for a little bit, which
I'll probably revive prettysoon. And one of the things you
know, I had some issues. I waslike, Man, I sound terrible. I'm
stuttering I say a lot of armsand ahhs and little phrases that
(37:32):
really ticked me off, and I hearit now. But it's also real,
like, it's also the real you.
And one of the things I've neverwanted to do, I don't want to
present another version ofmyself, right? Where if someone
bumps into me on the street,they're like, Oh, you're
completely different urineabsolutely ticket compared to
how you said on the podcast, Inever wanted to be like that. So
it's always good to have thereal meat out there. And I think
it's you know, speaks to growthin your mission as well, what
(37:54):
you're trying to do to have thereal you unfiltered.
Dustin Steffey (37:59):
That's what makes us so different. Like I
listened to a bunch of differentpodcasts. And I can tell that
it's robotic, it's edited. It'svery, like, crisp scripted,
right? Whereas our podcast israw. And I like that raw version
of it, because it's peoplesitting around talking, trying
(38:20):
to help others to be successfuland provide some value added
activity.
William Wang (38:26):
Yeah, exactly. I think that's how people relate,
you know? Well, for me, anyway,I relate to the real stuff
rather than Super edited stuff.
Because severity stuff, it justmakes me feel like it just it's
not reality. Reality is messy.
Life is messy and chaotic. Andyou know, and I think you can
learn from experiences, youknow, that there's never black
(38:46):
or white, it's always the grayin between where we live. And so
they're super edited Polishversions are just like, this is
exactly what this is. This isexactly how it should be done.
There's no bullshit, dude. Like,there's so many gray areas, you
can't just come through and saylike, this is the truth of it.
Because, you know, most thingsin life aren't binary. So why
(39:06):
are you presenting like it is ona podcast where this format
here, someone might listen towhat I'm saying, going that that
dude's an absolute idiot. And Ican their context, it could be
right, because my context isdifferent to their context. So
you know, I don't want topresent a context that's not my
own, because then I can't defendmyself and go, No, I'm right,
because it's just toocomplicated. That Ra is awesome.
(39:26):
This is my point. I'm going toin a bit of a circle, but this
format is awesome. And keep itlike this.
Dustin Steffey (39:32):
Yeah, definitely, buddy. I mean, I
have I have people that I lookup to you right. So Tony Robbins
is a badass. I like him. He hashis own podcast. His is way
different from mine, right?
Because it's very structured,very oriented, right? And I get
bored listening to it eventhough he's like an idol to me
because it's not raw right. Andthen you have Joe Rogan, which
(39:55):
you and I both know Joe Roganhas zero ox to give like, ever.
And it's, it's just fun and it'sfun to listen to his because it
is super raw like super superraw. Right? And then you have
Brandon Bouchard, which isanother person I look up to I
like him a lot. He's a verymotivational person. You have
(40:16):
DERM dude, which you've probablynot listened to a ton of my
stuff. But once you do, like,Drew, Drew's a badass, he has
his own podcast. And like hesaid, When you own your own
business, you have the freedomto do whatever the hell you
want.
William Wang (40:34):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. I think. I think the
main takeaway is just findsomething that works for you.
And just you used to you, ifit's a raw form, podcast,
awesome. Because polished,awesome, just find whatever
works, what works best for you.
I think everyone listening heis, it's good to model what
others have done in terms of ifyou think, you know, they're
(40:55):
successful, or you know, if youthink that they've achieved
something you want to achieve,it's good to model them. But
don't be them don't do exactlywhat they're doing. Because
there's context. And there'sthings that are going on in
their minds in their life thatyou don't know about. So just
find some that works for you,and just double down on it.
Dustin Steffey (41:12):
And that's what the New Year is for us. We're
gonna double down on everythingthat we've done lessons learned
and continue moving forward tosomething good. I know our
listeners are probably confused.
Are we talking about a podcast?
Are we talking about sevenfigure business? What are we
talking about? So let's rewind alittle bit, all of what we just
talked about, extrapolate intopeople being able to chase their
(41:37):
own dreams. So what we justtalked about was kind of
identifying and finding yourselfand it's okay to fail sometimes.
As long as you keep getting backup. It's okay to ask for help.
I'm, I mean, God knows that I'm,I'm fortunate and lucky, right?
Yes, I may be interviewing youguys. But at the end of the day,
(41:57):
if I needed something, I canreach out to any one of you
guys, because we've developedthat relationship. And I have
help I have support. Sonetworking, probably in my mind
for this episode is probably thenumber one thing that is most
important is network, startdoing education on on things
(42:18):
that you want to do, askquestions, and then start
building what you want to build.
William Wang (42:23):
Yeah, it's such a good thing, I think the people
around you can make a break inlife. And I've been extremely
lucky. So it's just I so I workextremely hard at networking.
When I first started mybusiness, and I had no money, I
go to every free networkingevent, I could shake every hand,
I could just talk to people. Andthat's, you know, that in and of
(42:45):
itself has led to the growth ofthe business and the way it has,
if it wasn't for the people withmy network, I wouldn't be where
I am today. But you get luckywith it. The harder you work,
the more networking events youturn up to the more people you
meet, the luckier you're goingto get to me that one person
that turns everything around foryou potentially. And then you
know, there are differentstages. There's other things you
(43:07):
can do. For example, for me,now, I paid to go into different
networks just to meet peoplethere. But it all comes back to
what you said like network isever.
Dustin Steffey (43:14):
And then that leads to the next thing. So
networking is important. Andthen learning from other
people's mistakes, I think isanother important thing. So do
your research on what otherpeople's failures were so you
don't fall into the samepitfalls.
William Wang (43:27):
Yeah, and I'd actually add to that, because
even though I got a lot ofreally great coaches and support
around me, some mistakes, you dostill have to make yourself to
truly internalize and feel it.
So don't beat yourself up toomuch. Like, don't go and ignore
everything. Because until yousay, Oh, I've got to make my own
mistakes. Now, there's somestupid mistakes you can really
avoid. You don't need to learnit like that. But some mistakes
(43:49):
you only internalize and becomesreal to you, after you actually
make them and feel the pain fromit. So yeah, there's lots lots
of gray areas, man, butnetworking, definitely learning
from others learning frommistakes, you know, and just
doing doing what comes naturallyto you and being yourself. I
think it's gonna get you a longway. And I know that you know,
there was wasn't anything solidfrom my side in terms of, here's
(44:11):
what you do if you want to leaveyour job. But then there's so
many different ways of doingthat. Like I've just seen people
create insane businesses out oflike some weird crap, right?
There's people on online sellingbathwater, and they become an
auto multimillionaires. There'speople who do consulting in
create great businesses. Thereare people who sell stupid
(44:35):
little gadgets and they becomemultimillionaires. There's just
so many different ways of doingit. You just got to find the
thing that or the way that youresonate with most and just
given enough time and enoughelbow grease to to make it work
for you.
Dustin Steffey (44:49):
Share buddy I remember like five years ago you
remember those stupid littlefidget spinners that made that
person millions upon millions ofdollars.
William Wang (44:58):
Yeah, I mean You know, bouncing, create some
shitty little gadget, sellmillions of it and then bounce
out. That's, that's awesome.
Dustin Steffey (45:07):
That's a frickin dream come true right there. If
I can make a couple milliondollars on that, then I can do
whatever the hell I want.
William Wang (45:14):
Exactly. And in terms of, you know, the freedom
and things like that, I think itgoes back to my I'm a big fan
of, it's not up behind me, I'mactually in the process of
moving. So in my current house,so I normally have a bookshelf
behind me that we've built inall the books in there. And one
of the top books I always readevery single quarter, so read it
four times a year, is The FourHour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
(45:35):
read the first section whereit's like, Dream lining and fee
setting, because to live yourdream life, it probably doesn't
cost as much as you think itwill. And then, you know,
knowing what that number is, interms of monthly, you know, what
you need to hit to live the wayyou want to live. It must be
like it's, well we've enrich,but you've just got to give
(45:56):
yourself a time and space andand invest in yourself to do
that.
Dustin Steffey (46:00):
Agreed? You ready for the fun part?
William Wang (46:03):
Yeah, let's do it.
Dustin Steffey (46:05):
Let's do it rather. So I, I like to end
every episode where my guestsget to kind of leave one key
nugget out of their kind ofrepertoire. So it's your turn,
right? If you could give onesuper important piece of
information that helps others,what would that be?
William Wang (46:26):
In what context as in,
Dustin Steffey (46:29):
it can be business, it could be personal
life, it can be whatever youwant. So like a lot of the past
ones have been. Networking havebeen easier relationships
together have been baby, savesomething, whatever the case may
be one important piece ofinformation.
William Wang (46:48):
I'll say, I'm gonna check entropy, a few
things in here, I would say,don't take life too seriously.
Isn't the number one thing.
Because if you don't, it's meantto be fun, right? Don't take
life too seriously. I think theother thing is expect to each
ship for a long time before youget results. Just know that
there's work right work isalways there. And maybe the
(47:11):
first thing would be it's neveras great as you think it will be
or or as bad as you think itwill be. So your worst
nightmares probably will nevercome to pass. But your biggest
dreams probably won't either. Sowhen you're going to be in some
kind of medium, write some kindof scale putting that in besides
from that, just life's fuckingshort. And just pick something
(47:32):
that you really like doing getgood at it. The best or the top
1% at anything in the world,always makes money. But don't
find something that you candedicate yourself to being the
top one percenter in, and themoney will follow. So for me
that was in copywriting, rightin lead generation I wanted to
be I still want to be the bestin the world at it. And that
(47:53):
means I'm going to grow mycompany, my clients company, but
I've got a passion for it. LikeI love reading. I love writing.
That's what I want to do. But ifyou hate writing, don't pick
that because you're never goingto be a top one percenter. Like,
in my spare time. I read inresearch and writing and how to
use AI to write how to do this.
Like that's my my geek out stuffthat I do my spare time. So if
(48:16):
you can't compete me from thatlevel, find somebody when no one
else can compete with you on
Dustin Steffey (48:20):
some good advice right there, buddy. Now for the
listeners that resonate withyou, how do they get a hold of
you? Yes, the
William Wang (48:27):
probably the easiest way is to hit me up on
LinkedIn. I'm on that platformquite a bit. I'm either will
wing or William Wang. Butfinally, I've got a profile
picture up there. Find me onthat. Drop me a message when you
connect me. Let me know that youfound me for this podcast. I
know who you are. And then yeah,that's probably the best
platform. I put up some stuff onthere. You know, post personal
(48:48):
stuff, business stuff. Probablythe best way to contact me.
Dustin Steffey (48:51):
Awesome, buddy.
I want to just thank you forcoming on. Thank you for your
time, obviously, I know. Well, Idon't know what time it is there
because you're in Australia andI'm in the States but I'm sure
it's polar different time thanhere. So
William Wang (49:05):
it's perfect, man.
There's been so much fun. Thankyou so much. Dustin. You got
some awesome questions, man. Andyeah, if your audience or
yourself need any help in thefuture, please feel free to
reach out and yeah, it's beenit's been fun. It's been
awesome.
Dustin Steffey (49:17):
Thanks, brother.
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