From High School Dropout to Eight-Figure Entrepreneur: Kim Manessi's Journey to Success

Ken Manesse, an eight-figure entrepreneur from Irvine, California, shares his compelling journey from a high school dropout to a leading figure in the business world. Ken's story is a testament to the transformative power of self-improvement and the relentless pursuit of success, offering listeners a masterclass in turning adversity into opportunity. He draws on his experiences in sales and the mortgage industry to emphasize the importance of surrounding oneself with successful individuals and breaking free from stagnant habits.

Listeners will uncover the secrets to Ken's success as he discusses the dynamic world of small business funding and lead generation, highlighting fast and accessible ways to secure capital. This episode promises insights into building a business from scratch, focusing on hiring the right team, navigating challenges like the pandemic, and maintaining resilience in the face of uncertainty. Kim reveals his strategies for gaining exposure and adapting to industry shifts, providing valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make their mark.

From leveraging personal branding to mastering the daily routines that fuel growth, Ken shares actionable advice on embracing a mindset of constant improvement. He explores the significance of treating money as a tool for growth and the importance of ignoring naysayers on the path to achieving one's dreams. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone eager to harness the power of an "addictive personality" for self-improvement and entrepreneurial success. Get ready to be inspired and equipped with the tools to level up in both business and life.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
what's up y'all?
Welcome to another episode ofthe honor pursuit podcast.
We interview six, seven, eighteven not figure entrepreneurs.
Today we're in Irvine yeah,back in California.
Welcome man.
You say, hey, what's going on?
I gotta introduce you, though,real quick.
You know, having been here fora couple weeks, it's been's been
about a month.
You and I were looking to gettogether maybe a month ago.

(00:30):
Yeah, scheduled a littleschedule conflict on my side,
but we've been talking throughInstagram pretty consistently.
You know what I mean.
So back here had to connectwith you.
Listen y'all.
I'm sitting next to aneight-figure entrepreneur, a
father right husband, a leader,and we're in this over 10 000
square foot office in the middleof irvine where he's inspiring

(00:53):
his troops, his team, togenerate our revenue and change
the trajectory of each and everyof their families.
So, kim and essie, welcome tothe podcast.
Thanks, bro, I appreciate it manand I know, I know it's a
little, a little nice little.
You know this is, this is whatall the kids are wearing right
now just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, that's funny, I just got it so a little, you
know a little iffy, but you knowso so so who is Kim?

Speaker 1 (01:16):
and Essie?
And, uh, I know I know you weresharing with me off camera
right as we're sitting theresaying things up about how
obviously you know, covid had aneffect, yeah, on your business.
Yeah, yeah, but you bouncedback after that.
Yeah, you bounced back in a bigway yeah 100%, and not only did
you bounce back in a big way,you got recognition in a big way
because you know you were, youwere part of the ink yeah, 5,000

(01:39):
, yeah, and everything like that.
So, uh, breakdown to the peoplewho may not know you, who may
not quite know Kim Manessi, thelead God you know on Instagram,
social media, who may not knowhow you have grown this business
let's kind of get into that alittle bit yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
So my stories.
Like some entrepreneurs, youmay know, some it may not be,
but basically I was a highschool dropout.
My parents split up when I wasyounger.
I end up living with my mom.
My mom gave me a choice at 17,16 years old, saying go to work
or go to school.
I decided I just want to go towork and it is what it is right.

(02:13):
So I dropped out of high school.
I just started working fulltime and during that path of
partying, hanging out, doingstuff with my friends and trying
to figure out my own life right, because at the end of the day
I moved out of my house at 16,17 years old, just trying to
figure things out, you know whatI mean Couch surfing on my
buddy's couches.
Shout out to couch surfing.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, yeah and yeah, I mean, at the end of the day,
it took me a couple years to,figure, fill up my car with gas.
You know what I mean if so longof not be able to go to the
doctors or whatever.
It was right, just struggling,uh, working a restaurant and
serving and doing all that crap.
I finally realized that, hey,if I want to, like, fix my
situation in my life, I need tobe able to provide, like
financially for myself.
You know what I mean and it wasout of like desperation and, um,

(03:00):
pure need that I needed to getsomething, a vehicle that can
actually provide the income thatI needed to support myself.
That's it.
So I fell onto sales, and thenthat's when the ball started
rolling for me.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
So when you say you fell onto sales, what was the
first industry, what was thefirst product or service that
you were selling?
Yeah, so when you fell onto it.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, so when I was basically I was working at a
serving job, I was still broke.
I got a second serving jobs wasworking morning and nights.
I was even more broke spendingmoney on gas.
I just couldn't make any money.
You know, I mean, and my buddywas working mortgage and he said
, hey, guys are making some goodmoney here, five, ten grand a
month, and then when you getinto like the real sales, you

(03:39):
can make fifty grand a month.
You know, I mean, I said, justget me in the door.
I had no sales experiencewhatsoever and it was an opening
position.
Basically you're screeningcalls for the closers, right?
So basically, like a setter,100, just qualifying people and
just sending them over and um,yeah, anyways, I got the job and
I became, you know, prettydecent at it and I think it was
just a natural ability, um, thatI have, of just being able to

(04:02):
communicate and talk to people.
But, more importantly, I wasdesperate, like legitimately
desperate.
So once I figured out that guyswere actually being able to
make 10, 15, 20, 30 grand amonth, something switched off my
brain.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Like I can do it too.
Yeah, a hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Like I was talking to these guys on lunch and they're
like, oh dude, I was just likeyou a couple of years ago, like
now I, you know, 25, 30 grand amonth, right.
So I think being exposed tothat type of environment at you
know, relatively young age I wasprobably like 22, 23, um and
seeing that, like that exposurereally did something for me.
You know, I mean a lot of theseguys were talking and and give

(04:39):
me some good advice, and then,um, yeah, and then that's kind
of what turned me on.
You know know what I mean.
And then I got obsessed with it.
I've been obsessed with makingmoney for fucking 15 years.
You know what I mean.
Once I knew that it waspossible, I've been obsessed
with it.
And not just because I want tomake a bunch of fucking money so
I can drive a nicer car.
I wanted security, dude, I wastired of being broke.
I was tired of fucking beingpoor.

(05:00):
I was tired of, you know, notbeing able to do anything I want
to do, right like I was stuckin a box and I got hit with
everything in life going onaround me, right, and I just
felt like I was getting beat upall the time.
So money is a tool.
It's a tool and it's a resourcefor you to actually control
your life more.
You know what I mean?
Simple as that.
You mean all the other bullshitthat comes along with it.
Those are the perks of havingmoney yeah the real stuff is the

(05:21):
security, and that's what I wasafter, coming from kind of my
background.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
So what are some of the things that you learned
during that journey aboutyourself?
Because at some point, like yousaid, you didn't know how to
make the money, you were brokeor whatever the situation may be
, you were looking for anopportunity and you were
desperate for the opportunity.
So, when you had theopportunity and something
switched within you, what aresome of the things that you

(05:46):
learned about yourself?

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, guys, no one's
going to do it for you, right?
It's you against you, 100%.
There's a song that's Moneybaggyo Me vs Me, right, and that's
truly what it is Like.
It's legitimately you versusyou.
No one's gonna pick up thephones for you.
No one's gonna show up to workfor you.
No one's gonna like get you topitch yourself to get yourself

(06:09):
in a better opportunity.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
No, one's gonna, no one's gonna drive me here to
interview you, 100%, dude, Imean, unless I get a driver.
Yeah, you need a driver.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, you're right but uh, yeah, so no one's gonna
do anything for you.
So I realized that, like dude,if I want to change my situation
, I can't A do the same shitthat I was doing, which was
partying my ass off rightHanging around my buddies that
were just broke and, you know,doing the same shit I was doing.
You know what I mean.
So then again, it didn't happenjust overnight, like it was a
natural progression where Istarted shedding off some of my

(06:38):
friends, my groups, and Istarted focusing on things that
were important to me.
So you canceled people, yeah,on things that were important to
me, so you canceled people.
Yeah, 100%, intentionally, 100%.
I had all the closest friendsin the world and I lived at
their houses growing up.
But eventually my lifestylestarted changing.
I stopped drinking and all thisstuff and I got obsessed about
self-improvement, right andbettering my situation.

(06:58):
And I got when I'm talkingabout obsessed guys like I'm
talking all I absorbed wasmovies about finance, making
money.
All the books I read was aboutmaking money in finance.
All the documentaries I watchedwas about money in finance and
self-improvement.
I did this for a fuckingprobably 10 years straight.
I've watched every book, readevery book that's basically been
out, um, and I just try to pushmyself towards, uh, just being

(07:22):
engulfed into that world.
So when I had a shitty day, Ican kind of like pick myself up.
You know what I mean.
I remember watching videos inmy car.
I had a laptop because phone Idon't think they had phone uh
like YouTube, like back thenmaybe that I don't know.
But I had a laptop and had aDVD and a Wall Street DVD, the
old one, you know what I mean.
I had a bunch of other likemovies.
I'd pop in there on my lunchbreak trying to pump myself up

(07:46):
to go back into work so I couldclose more.
That's the kind of mentality Ihave.
I think a lot of people don'tthink that's important, whatever
it is.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
But for me it was a passion that really you can
correct me if I got this correct, but that basically you had a.
It sounded like an addictivepersonality.
Yeah, 100% For success, yeah,and if it wasn't on that, it
might have been on somethingelse that obviously wasn't
driving you in that direction.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, I was always addicted, when I was really
young, you know, I was reallyinto working out.
You know what I mean.
I don't work out as muchanymore.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
I never need to, I know, but you got what I'm
saying.
I eat, well, I do a little bit.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
You do some push-ups on the B-line, yeah but you know
, I was lifting like crazy rightand I was like I was super
focused on that.
You know, 18 to 25 or 22.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
focus on that then.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
I was in like a band, like a legit like metal band
music band, and we were doinglittle you know shows around and
I was obsessed with thateverything I got into but
unfortunately none that shit waspaying my bills right and I had
to leave, you know, essentiallythe music stuff and the
partying stuff, all that stuffbehind, because I needed to
correct my life, my course youknow what I mean and I could
have been like any other person,just kind of wandering around

(09:05):
this world.
Or I thought about in 10 years,where the hell do I want to be?

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Who do you want to become?

Speaker 2 (09:10):
100%.
I said, dude, I don't want tolive this way and I'm going to
do anything I can to get out ofthe situation I'm in and look to
better my life.
Got you.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
So give like a blueprint to the audience right
now.
You know, maybe there's ayounger Kim Manessi watching
this, you know, listening tothis right now.
Right, they haven't picked upthe books yet.
Right, they haven't gotaddicted to success yet, right,
maybe they still have people intheir lives that you know aren't
the most supportive, right?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
So what would the younger version of you or they
do right now?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
you know what would be that, that blueprint yeah, I
think a is absorb yourself withthe information.
That where you want to be,right.
So if you want to be asuccessful entrepreneur, a
filmer, a podcaster, whatever itis right, whatever path that
you want to go, you're going tostart being obsessed with that.
So you got to absorb your worldaround those type of things.
So you got to be listening tostuff, reading about it right,

(10:05):
trying to follow somebody,something right to get you to
move forward, right.
So, because in life it's notthese huge leaps that you make,
it's just incremental, like uh,movements in your life, right,
it's these little things thatare like little tweaks, little
tweaks, and then you do them.
You do those over and over andover again after years and
eventually your life justnaturally progresses and it gets
better.
But I think it's just beingobsessed with whatever products

(10:27):
or service or whatever you wannado or an offer.
Get obsessed with it and thentry to absorb yourself into that
world.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
So just straight absorption, I guess you could
say, Okay, so they get absorbedin it, and then you found sales
right.
So would you say sales is agood place where someone that
really doesn't know where theywant to go, how to change their
life, is that a good category, agood space to go into.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
I tell everybody all the time I think sales saved my
life 100%.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Okay, and why would you say that?

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Because there's no way I would have been able to
make the money that I was makingwithout sales 100%, there's no
way.
I dropped out of high school.
I was, you know, bouncingaround.
I didn't really have any jobrequirements, all I had was me
right.
So when I was working at themortgage company, I worked there
for like almost two years or soand then I realized, you know,
the industry is reallyfluctuated by rates, so rates

(11:18):
were really low at the timefloor.
It was like 800 person companyand I was like shit, I got to
figure out something to makemoney.
You know what I mean, becauseright now the rate's a little
iffy.
Even the top guys dropped down.
So I wanted to find a newindustry.
So my brother was working inbusiness financing, uh, doing

(11:39):
sales, and he was basicallymaking some good money, you know
what I mean.
So he so he said, hey, comeover and try this product out,
right, and I got into that.
I got into business financingsales and you know, after, again
another year or so, I gotactually fired from that job for
not performing.
But I was doing good, but I wasnot hitting the metrics they
wanted to hit.
I wasn't closing out thepercentages.

(12:00):
But that was like my real firstclosing job, where I was
actually closing the customerfrom start to finish so you were
, so you was learning, though100 before I was an opener.
I went from an opener to acloser closing business owners,
entrepreneurs, guys.
I started with nothing and melittle of me, you know I mean 23
, 24 years old, trying to pitchan entrepreneur to take a you
know a business financing offerthat maybe you know they didn't

(12:22):
want or as far as the terms theywanted, right.
So I had to overcome objectionsto learn all this stuff.
So after a year of working thatjob I got fired and then I but
I knew I'm like fuck, I know Ican do this.
I saw guys in the office making10, 20 grand, 30 grand, all
that stuff.
And then I had a couple of goodmonths in there making seven
grand, eight grand, and I waslike in that first month I was

(12:49):
the top guy in the company thesame industry.
Yeah, same industry, yeah I wasthe top guy in the industry or
in that, in that company and Imade like a 10 or 12 grand check
that one month you know what Imean and then I knew like I was
going to go on a run after that.
I just was cracking off everysingle month and my last check
before I left the company tostart this company, I made like
a 20 grand check and I framedthat in my office downstairs

(13:11):
just to remind me that anythingI want in life is possible,
because I knew where I startedfrom and I have my check that
actually got my left servingframed as well.
It's a two dollar check for thewages that I was getting paid.
So I have a two dollar checkand I have a twenty dollar check
just to remind me that there'sa delta and sometimes two dollar
check and twenty thousanddollar check 100% yeah, and that

(13:32):
was like maybe, like you know,three, three, maybe four years
stint.
I'm trying to get there right,but that time passed all my
buddies, everybody was doing thesame old stuff or whatever
they're doing, and now I'llstart to make some real money.
You know what I mean, and thennow I knew that I could do the
sales.
My next thing was how do I makethe big money?
How do I make what the ownersare doing?
And that was my nextprogression.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
So that's really interesting, right, because you
said you know you got five forthe first one, but it was a
great space 100% yeah.
You were learning a lot and theyhad a certain standard right
and you were successful, but youjust wasn't hitting the metrics
that they would like to see forthe people that was closing for
them.
Yeah Right, right.
So then they let you go.
You find another opportunitywith another company doing
something similar.
Now you're starting to crank.

(14:15):
Yeah Right, you're hitting.
You're hitting even numbershigher than what you were saying
with these guys One hundredpercent.
You find a flow, right, likeyou said, you go on a run and
you know how much time you spendthere.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
I was probably there for no less than a year.
OK, so you spend about a year orso over there and then you like
all, now I really want to, Ireally want to get to the bag.
Yeah, I'm back at the, I reallywant to get to the 100.
Because I knew because, like itwas a small company, maybe like
10 people, but I was, you know,I was making 10, 15, 20 grand
checks month after month.
Yeah, and I was the top guy inthe company.
The owner was kind of showingup some days, not showing up

(14:47):
other days, and I was like dude,this guy doesn't want it like,
but he had some good thingsabout his company.
He had a lot of leads coming in.
So I knew if I was going to Aquit my job which I was making
good money and take that risk, Ibetter figure out the marketing
side.
Yeah, so prior to quitting thatjob, six months leading up to
it, I was testing differentmarketing stuff every single

(15:10):
weekend at the end of the day,you know what I mean and I was
testing stuff to see if I canbring in the leads, because I
knew I can close at that pointright, you just need to be on
the phone, 100%.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
You just need the people.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
And then once I found that, then that's when I made
the switch, and that first month, I think we brought in like 50
or 60 grand by myself.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
So let's talk about the actual company you have now.
Yeah, right, for those thataren't really sure what business
financing is or you know what,what do you actually help people
with when we touch on thatreally?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
quick and we talk about how it has grown.
Yeah, so the company that I ownand found it is direct funding.
Now I funded it back andfounded it back in 2015 but
really really didn't get startedto 2016.
We provide working capital tosmall businesses nationwide.
So, basically, guys like youhave small companies.
Really, the highest cap ofrevenue we typically do is maybe
$30 million a year in revenue,right, so it's guys that are

(16:02):
doing 250K a year in revenue to30 million, and what we do is we
give them basically capital ona shorter terms 12 to 24 months
and we go off their cashflow oftheir business.
So, if you're doing 50 grand amonth consistently over the last
couple of months, you've beenin business for one or two years
, we can give you potentially,you know, $50,000, right, and
you're going to pay us backwithin 12 to 24 months and

(16:23):
there's no collateral needed.
You can get approved within 24hours.
If not a couple hours, you canget funded the next day.
So it's super fast, it's superquick, it's all online and then
you work with our sales team and, yeah, since then, we've done
close to a billion dollarsfunded to small businesses.
Again, these are not hugecorporations, these are small
businesses mom and pop shops,john's pizza store, right All

(16:45):
those types of businesses and wefund thousands of customers
every single year, almost 500customers every single month and
, yeah, every year it getsbigger and bigger.
And I think, with the currentstate of the economy, with rates
being high, with inflation, allthis stuff, the small guy gets
squeezed and big banks is notlending the guys like us, right,

(17:05):
they don't they like big, bigcompanies, they like a lot of
collateral.
They want you to put up yourhouse.
All we're saying is like, hey,we're going to give you this
hundred thousand dollars, butyou're going to pay us back this
, and then you're done with us.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
We're not taking any equity, it's a straight
signature, basically funding,and then you're off to the races
yeah, yeah, see that that'svery interesting because I feel
like a lot of business owners,even small business owners, they
don't even know that exists.
Yeah, I know right, theythey're not aware that.
You know, I might need a bridgeloan, or I might need access to
capital, or I might need accessto some type of funding that's

(17:39):
going to allow me to get infront of more people buy, buy,
you know, buy more products andservices that I need to grow the
business, right?
So, um, how, how, how are theybecoming more aware of your
services?
How, how are the ways are youable to market to them?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
yeah, I mean, that's the difference between you and
another guy, right?
Is you marketing your product?
Right, you make it look betterthan the other guy, or just
letting them know that thatproduct's available, that
service is available?
So we do a lot of outreach tocustomers through digital,
through calls, through email, toeverything.
Right, I'm a strong believer inthe law of multiples, meaning

(18:12):
multiple verticals, at all times.
Right, I want customers comingat me to my sales floor in
multiple different ways throughmultiple different channels,
every single day, monday throughfriday, yeah.
So basically, we outreach tothese customers, let them know
that, hey, you can potentiallybe qualified for some business
funding, and they apply onlinewith us.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
And then they get assigned to, basically, an
account manager and they walkthem through the process, go
over the options that they'reavailable and help their
business get funded so what doesthat process look like as far
as um a lead that might be cold,may not even know you exist,
how you get in front of thatclient yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
So let's say, we email them right saying hey, so
cold email.
Yeah, let's say we email thatcustomer saying, hey, it looks
like you may qualify for somebusiness funding based off your
industry or whatever it may be.
You can apply here and see whatoptions are available.
Right, they go online, theyapply, they legitimately put in
20 questions for their businessof just basic business
information, right, revenue timein business, industry,

(19:04):
estimated credit score, all thatstuff, right.
And then we ask for four monthsof business bank statements.
That's it Four months ofbusiness bank statements With an
application done online andfour months months bank
statements.
We can get you approved withina couple hours or 24 hours of
real approval terms.
Right, and then we're going togo over those offers with you,
see what you're looking for, seewhat can be a good fit for your
business and really try to be aconsultant for your business.

(19:25):
Right, and whatever product oroffers available for you, we let
you guys know, you choose whichone is best for you, you get
funded and you move on with yourlife in your business so what's
some?

Speaker 1 (19:35):
I was like scared to do that right.
What are some of the termslooking like?

Speaker 2 (19:38):
yeah, terms can be anywhere from 12 to 24 months
and as far as the cost of thefunds, that's me dependent on
multiple different factors.
Right, your revenue, yourcredit score, your time in
business.
We look at a bunch of differentfactors, but what we do look at
is businesses doing over 250kin annual gross revenue.
Okay, been in business for oneyear and a fico score at least
550 and above.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Okay, so it's like you got to have a pulse, yeah,
like.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
But basically, the terms get better as you're doing
more revenue, right um?
Your cash flow looks better.
We're gonna look.
If you're going negative allthe time, that's not a great
sign, right um?
If your credit's good, then theterms and the rates and all
that's better 100.
But we offer lines of credit,we offer sba products, we offer
um more equipment financing, alltypes of financing.

(20:23):
So it's not just a straight uh,basically, funding term um,
it's multiple different productsfor these businesses so where
so the lead?

Speaker 1 (20:30):
god?
Right, where did that come from?
And then, how did you becomethe lead guy?

Speaker 2 (20:34):
yeah, so I think again to go back to the one
company when I started doingsales and I started making some
real money, there's one thingthat I saw that they're doing
really well they're bringing alot of leads consistently.
So once I saw that I said, okay, if I can bring in a lot of
leads and I can do the sales,then I can maybe make a lot of
money right, and I canpotentially hire people.
Then I can maybe make a lot ofmoney right and I can
potentially hire people to joinmy team to make a lot of money

(20:56):
with me, right.
So I realized like early onthat A sales is, you know, eat
what you kill, get crazy good atit and you can print money
forever.
And secondly, figure out how togenerate leads for yourself or
work with a company that'sgenerating a lot of leads.
So you have tons, tons ofopportunities and get a good
Commission comp plan right, andsometimes you got to prove

(21:17):
yourself and kind of work yourway up.
But get it a company that has alot of leads, a lot of
opportunities, and you want todrive as much traffic for your
product or service every singleday right, I want my guys so
flush with leads.
They'll never leave me.
You know I mean, that's what,that's what I believe in, at
sometimes crazy costs.
You know what I mean, but I'm afirm believer of giving these
guys opportunities so that waythey can hit their goals right.

(21:39):
And if I make them hit theirgoals, they're going to stay
with me longer.
You know what I mean, yeah, so,again, I think everything that
comes down to marketing andgenerating leads and the lead
God just came out on Instagram.
Basically, I just wanted tostart, you know, having more of
a social presence and talkingabout things that I'm inspired
about, which is entrepreneurship, self-development and just
really just getting better everyday.

(22:00):
And Leads is something that Ibelieve in marketing, and that's
just kind of something I stuck.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
What are the different channels away on one
could generate leads.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Simple thing your phone dude.
You know, like everyone's got aphone and you can call whoever
right?
So getting targeted lists thatare maybe in your sector or
industry, jump on the phone andstart calling, and there's
systems nowadays that you cancall people a little bit more or
whatever it is right.
Emails, texts, all this stuffis like super important, right?
So you don't need to go spend50, $100,000 on Google and

(22:32):
Facebook and compete with thebig guys.
You can do it, you know, onyour phone.
You know what I mean.
So get super strategic with it,try to work within the budget
you have and just put max effortin, right?

Speaker 1 (22:55):
If it's sending a bunch of emails out, if it's
text messages, if it's calls orwhatever it is, call centers,
whatever it is, it's just thelaw of multiples more calls
volume, more leads more closings.
So um a business that'sstarting right now, let's say
it's been operating for like Idon't know six months 12 months
yeah, you know what I mean.
Going into year number two and,um, you know they don't really
have a marketing budget crazy,they got a little bit of money.
Um, all their, all their leadsis coming through from referrals
and word of mouth.
Yeah, I haven't really put anyorganic out there.
They haven't really went crazywith like ads, yeah, so, so, a

(23:16):
company that's set up like that,based on your experience, what
would you recommend?
How, like how, could they turnit over in the next 30 to 60
days?

Speaker 2 (23:23):
yeah, I mean, when I started, I started with a couple
grand budget.
That was it.
You know, I mean, and justfigure it out.
But I think you got to figureout what your target market is
and you got to start acquiringlists of these customers to
start going after them, right.
So for you, if you have podcastpeople, you want to be
acquiring people to have theselists that are applied for some
podcasts.
Right, there's these customersthat have applied all around and

(23:44):
then you start reaching out tothem to offer your product or
service.
Right, going off for referralsand word of mouth.
It's gonna get you so far.
You're not gonna be able tobuild a real business off it.
100%.
You need to be doing a lot ofoutreach to customers and, again
, thank God for social, nowadaysyou can do it through social
media, youtube, but you need tobe doing consistent outflow.

(24:06):
So, regardless if it's on asocial media post every single
day or an email or call, itshould be 100%.
So, if you're a small businessowner and you're just starting
to start out and you're tryingto get your word out, right, um,
again, every industry isdifferent, so there's going to
be different obstacles, right?
Um, it's going to be differentif you're in an insurance
company versus doing a pizzastore.

(24:26):
You're not going to call peopleto see if they want pizza, but
you can send them direct mail.
That would be interesting younever know like.
I got this pizza I could do.
But you can go to.
You can go offices, yeah, andyou can market to them.
You can, hey, we do this.
You know, catering service,whatever it is, it's out
reaching the customers, becauseno one's gonna know who you are.
You got to let people know whoyou are and there's only one way

(24:47):
of doing that.
It's strictly outreach.
You and I mean other than thatyou can spend money on Google
and deal with their AdWords andtheir costs, and then you know,
at a certain point it's hard togenerate big revenue for certain
products.
You know what I mean.
So I'm just a firm believer inoutreach, bringing a lot of
customers in through your funnel, through multiple different
verticals, and then your teamspecializes and help that

(25:07):
customer out.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
So what do you feel like is a good acquisition for a
small business in terms ofwanting to grow through sales?
Would you say like getting asale, getting like a closer and
a setter?
Would you say that thatbusiness owner should just be
hammering the phones?
What do you think is like areally important first hire
someone looking to grow?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, I think you know every industry is different
.
But you just got to find a goodcloser and give them a good
split.
You know, because if you gofind an appointment center, then
the closer and that guy's notclosing, then you're spending
money on generating leads.
It just gets it costs, it getsheavy.
You got to get somebody boughtin, give them a good split,
right, so they can make somegood money and give them a lot
of opportunities coming in.

(25:48):
If you do that, then they canstart closing deals and make
money.
It's a win-win right.
So then there you have a model.
Then, as you grow and expandand you're bringing more leads
in, bringing more sales peoplein, then you can start bringing
in, like, appointment centers,right.
But it's a little bit hardright off the bat to bring in
appointment centers, then leadsand then crm costs and all the
other costs that cost, uh, togenerate these customers, right.

(26:10):
I would say just be strategicwith it, right.
You just need a good closerSell your buddy, that's a good
sales guy to join your team.
Come on in, dude, I'll give you50% split of every deal you
close, right.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Like, yeah, that's not ideal right off the you know
, long term, but in thebeginning you can offer you know
things, because you just needto bring in revenue right and I
might just be like, like yousaid, it could be the homeboy,
but it could be just like oneperson, so you can get that
momentum and then you bring onother people.
That might be 20 percent, 15percent or something.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
So the how I brought on my first employee.
She was one of the top closersat another company.
She wasn't happy, she didn'tlike the comp, all this stuff.
Right, I was telling her howmuch money I was making.
And my brother, he joined mycompany as well.
We partnered.
And my brother, he joined mycompany as well.
We partnered up.
I was telling him how much wewere making, how many leads were
getting.
I gave her a good split and Isaid come on over, I'm gonna
feed you a bunch of leads, I'mgonna stay out of your way and
you're just gonna make money andI mean.

(27:01):
But she believed me because Iwas closing it and doing it
myself yeah that's the only way.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
That's the reason why yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
I didn't tell her like, hey, I got this idea and
I'm thinking, dude, she's likeshe's a breadwinner for her
family.
You know what I mean?
There's no way.
You know what I mean.
So, um, she, she needed to knowthat the opportunity was there,
and I had to first prove it tomyself.
Then I had to prove it to mybrother, my business partner, to
join my company, because I waslike, hey, I need, you know,
probably someone to join andhelp me get this thing going.
You know what I mean.

(27:25):
He's 10 years older than me, sohe had this.
It's different.
I was young, I was 25 when Istarted.
He was 35, right so, and he hadway more experience in sales
and other stuff, which you knowprovided a lot of value.
But give somebody what theydon't have somewhere else and
give them an opportunity youknow what I mean and share the
pie with them.
I agree with that.
You know what I mean, yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Okay, look.
So this is how we're going toget you more exposure.
Using the pod equals MC squarestrategy, right?
Then we're going to bring outthe air fryer and then connect
it to the toaster oven methodright, I think I wasted my money
.
Now, until we do all this,we're going to get you a million
views and millions ofsubscribers.
I have no idea what you'retalking about.
I got you.
Let me go get something.
What's this box about?

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Wow Bro, what is that ?

Speaker 1 (28:12):
So we got your long-form podcast right here,
right, this is the long-formaudio.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay, now I'm getting my money's worth.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
We got a service to get more exposure, get more
views and get more call toaction to get more sales.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Let's go.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
This is what you need to do to get more of this.
Now do you understand?
I completely get the vibe now,before I don't know what she was

(28:44):
talking about.
Like this right here, ain't5,000?
Yeah, what does it take forbusiness to qualify for that?
And then, how fast were youable to?

Speaker 2 (28:47):
get ranked on there.
Yeah, so we, our company,really started going in like
2016, but I think by mid 2016 Ihired my first employee.
By the end of 2019 I had almost60 employees 60, yeah, so we
grew really quick, right.
Only reason I was able to gothat fast is because I was
focused, hyper focused, ongenerating leads every single
day.

(29:07):
So I took myself out of salesafter probably a couple months
and bringing on generating leads100%.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
I got obsessed with it, just like I on generating
leads 100.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
I got obsessed with it just like I was telling you
before, I got obsessed withself-development, making money.
Now it's about generating leads.
It wasn't so much closinganymore.
I brought better people thanclosers than I was.
Right I was, that's a goodcloser, I can close a lot of
people.
But I brought in killers, right, and I told them hey, I can
bring in a lot of leads, so, andif these guys didn't get the
lead, they would go somewhereelse.

(29:33):
Do you know what I mean?
So again, I got superhyper-focused on marketing,
generating tons of leads.
At one point prior to thepandemic hitting, when we had 60
employees at the end of 2019,we were generating probably 800
calls a day to our floor, right?
So endless opportunities, doyou?

Speaker 1 (29:52):
know what I mean, and these are all people that want
money too, which which they'regoing close 100 yeah you're
giving them something that theywant, so it's not like.
It's not like you're callingthem something like hey, listen,
I got, I got this.
Uh, what are those things wherepeople go to the time shares?

Speaker 2 (30:06):
I got a time share no , you're giving people something
that they want yeah, I'mknocking on your door, I'm
calling your phone, I'm sendingan email to john, the business
owner, saying hey, do you needmoney?
No, okay, I'm going to followup with you next week.
Do you need money?
Again?
through multiple differentchannels they, they're
eventually, they're basicallygoing to need some money
eventually, when he needs moneyor he has an opportunity or has
a need, he applies with us,right.
So we wrote to about 60employees um, we're doing just

(30:28):
shy of eight figures a year.
At that time and pandemic hit.
Okay, pandemic hit, it shutdown our industry.
We're in small business lending.
It decimated our industry.
So we went from 60 employeesdown to maybe five, right, and
during that five employees wewere all just kind of like
hanging around basically waitingfor the market to open back up

(30:49):
because they're shutting downbusinesses.
They're opening them up.
Our lending partners did notwant to fund small businesses
because they kept on shuttingthem down, right, and we kind of
sat back like patiently waiting.
It was super, like you know.
It was definitely weird at thattime because I didn't know when
everything was going to comeback.
We didn't know how many ofthese things were going to keep
rolling.
You know what I mean.
But during that time, what Idid because I really didn't have

(31:11):
much to do was I was working ondifferent email marketing
strategies and different leadstrategies.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
So you were sharpening your like you
couldn't close no deals at thetime, 100%.
You was getting better yeah100%.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
So during that whole time I was sitting at my house
and thank God that I worked myass off for the last couple
years and I was able to have agood amount of savings and
basically feel secure, right.
So I knew I could just weatherthe storm.
You know, I mean, I was prettyflush right.
So I knew I was just a matterof time before it's about to pop
up.
And if it didn't pop up again,dude, I wasn't gonna be like, oh
they're like that was my oneshot.

(31:43):
No, I was gonna jump and doanother industry, like a hundred
percent.
Like I was already in the worksto figure out if I was gonna do
a different sector or was Ijust going to stay in my
industry.
Right, thank God we did.
The small business startedopening back up again and then
we just went on a run.
You know what I mean.
So to answer your questionabout the Inc 5000, you get it

(32:04):
if you're doing basicallymultiple.
So if you do a million dollarsone year, you have to do like $5
million three years from now,basically, and they look at like
a multiple math, um forbusinesses that have been in
business for like I know, threeor four years or something like
that, and then every year theyrank you based off of 5 000
businesses nationwide and um thefirst year we got it, we were

(32:27):
325 or 321 of the fastestgrowing company out of 5 000.
It's just really dope% Becausewe went from like zero in
revenue.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, 325.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
To doing almost eight figures prior to the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
So, like at this point in your journey, what are
some of the obstacles you have,because now you're making the
money?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
You got the team yeah , good office.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
So it's not the same obstacles that you had
previously.
So what do those look like now?
Yeah, so now it's completelydifferent, right.
So I think, like with everythingin life, like there's like a
level up, right.
So you get to a baseline, youfigure it out, and there's one
or two things which I see I seea our competition, other
business owners.
They get comfortable, they getcomplacent, right.
They get complacent wherethey're at and they realize, hey
, this is a good life, I canjust kind of ride this wave and

(33:17):
I don't want to invest a littlebit more because a little bit
more risky.
I've already invested enoughand I've already done this.
And I think that's thedifference between myself and
some other owners and some of mycompetitors is leveling up.
I always level up, I alwaysinvest and go for the next stage
.
You know what I mean.
So for us it's just aboutconstantly pushing the
boundaries of what we'recomfortable with to increase our

(33:39):
revenue, to provide more of animpact to our customers and our
employees, and that's it.
You know what I mean.
And then, by a byproduct ofthat, I get a big financial
windfall, right.
So the more I can provide formy employees employees the
better lives I can treat themand provide a good opportunity
for them.
They're going to do a kick-assjob at their position.
In return, the company's goingto make a lot of money, and then

(34:00):
I'll make a lot of money andwe're in direct correlation,
right, um.
So I think it's just aboutleveling up.
You need to keep leveling upand get yourself to the next
level, um, and that's kind of.
I'm just a firm believer inthat what did I look like for
you?

Speaker 1 (34:12):
like mindset, wise, right.
So what?
What are some of the uhpreparation you might have done
for, like the mental level up,for the mental level ups right?

Speaker 2 (34:20):
yeah, so it's funny enough, dude.
It's the same shit I was doingbefore podcast now, before they
didn't have podcasts, right, butit's listening to podcasts,
dude.
I'm straight up like, I'mobsessed with listening to
podcasts.
Any entrepreneur that's doingthings way bigger than me, right
at levels that I have likereally aspire at, I'm listening
to them.
Now, you know what I mean.
I'm reading their books, I'mwatching documentaries.

(34:41):
I'm doing the same stuff I'vebeen doing, but just at a higher
scale, yeah before I wasobsessed with salespeople and
closing and you know boiler roomtype of stuff, right, just like
straight commission and guysdriving a nice car, like.
But then once you get thatstuff, you got to start leveling
up.
You know what I mean.
So now it's you know aboutgetting to that next level.
And for me, you know, thank god, I've done decently well at

(35:03):
business and I have a little bitmore of a social following and
platform.
Now I can start reaching out tothese people directly.
100, that's crazy.
That was never before.
Now I can reach out to guyslike you, I can reach out to big
guys guys have done way biggerthings than I'm doing and I can
directly talk to them.
I was just on a call with abillionaire last night.
That's that had twoacquisitions for a couple
billion dollars.

(35:24):
Yeah, straight through areferral and talking through
instagram.
Right, if I have never donewhat I was supposed then I
needed to do to get myself inthe position that I am today and
providing a vehicle for notjust myself, my employees,
there's no way I would have beentaking these calls right.
But every little step is anatural progression to get
better and I think if you're notgrowing, you're dying, and I

(35:44):
just a firm believer in that.
Well, what are you afraid of?
That's a good question.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Failure even at this level, yeah 100.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, yeah, I don't think about it, as I'm going to
lose my business every singleday, but I still have this deep
gut knowing that it can be takenaway from me at any point.
Right, it's a business, dude.
I've seen businesses crumble.
We've seen huge companiescrumble overnight.
Yeah, it can go away.
I, I know it can, but I'mreally more for.
So a failure of having a fearof not reaching my full

(36:16):
potential?
Right, and in business, there'sno cap.
You can make $10,000 a year oryou can make a billion dollars a
year.
It's strictly built off of theback in the work that you're
gonna do every day.
So if there's no cap inbusiness, my failure is not
reaching the potential of havinga billion dollar company.
Yes, right, and maybe I'llnever get there, but maybe I

(36:37):
will.
Back in the day, no one told meI was gonna do the shit that I'm
doing now.
Everyone told me it's too hard,you can't figure out the
marketing, you're not a goodcloser, all this bullshit.
I've been getting told all thisstuff for so many years.
You know what I say toeverybody, and I preach this on
my Instagram Don't listen tothem when they say it can't be
done.
Right, because everybody all mylife told me I couldn't do this

(36:58):
, I couldn't have a company.
You're too young.
You know what I mean.
No one's going to join yourteam, that marketing's dead or
whatever it is.
I never listen to anybody.
I listen to the daily actions,what I did on a daily basis as
data and feedback.
Of course, I'll listen to somepeople higher above me, but I'd
never listened to anybody Juston my level or even a little bit

(37:18):
above me.
I was trying to listen to theguys and see what other guys are
doing super, super up there100%.
So yeah, I think it's just.
You know, in life there's somuch input of everything going
on, from social media to Familyto all this shit and it's hard
to digest and figure out whatyou need to do.
But when you go to bed at nightyou know I what your dreams are

(37:39):
right, and if your dream is todo what you're doing now, then
great.
But if your dream is somethingbigger, then you need to go
after it, and no one's going todo it besides you, so you have
the next morning to wake up andgo after your dreams.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
So who are the, I guess, what are some of the
podcasts?
And then who are some of thepeople that you're paying
attention to right now that aredoing some?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yeah, so I mean, like , I think I have like a
different like.
I have like traditionalbusiness entrepreneurs, right,
that I'm obsessed with.
There's some guys in my spaceright now that are doing 50 to
$100 million a year in revenue,right, so I watch them, I listen
to them, right.
I listen to their podcasts.
They're not big social mediapeople, right, but they're doing
something very similar to me,right.
But I also have, like, otherentrepreneurs that are just, you

(38:28):
know, the typical entrepreneursthat you see on instagram that
had big businesses and have big,you know, sales.
And then I listen to guys thathave like um more social media
presence now, right, because I'ma little bit more interested in
that.
West watson, right, all theseguys, grant cardones, all these
kind of guys that have thesethese big social media presence,
and I'm kind of, you know,figuring out things I like and
don't like about them, butthings that maybe I can
implement for my strategies,right, and stuff that I want to
do for social stuff.
But I think it's a variety ofentrepreneurs, you know what I

(38:50):
mean.
I think you find people thatyou like and then latch on to
them.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot ofsense.
How have you found, when youfind these strategies, that
you're fast to implement them?
Yeah, how have you found, like,when you find these strategies,
that you're fast to implementthem?
Yeah, so what does that looklike?
Yeah, so like a marketingstrategy.
Well, like, if you listen to apodcast or if you're reading the
book or watching movie, youlike, ah, this one thing or
these Things would be great.
What's your process of takingthat information or being

(39:16):
inspired by that lesson orprinciple and then implementing
that?
How long?

Speaker 2 (39:20):
I think they did.
So you doing it right away,100%.
If I see something that likesparks something in my brain,
I'll implement it into mybusiness.
The next day I'll go to mypartner and say, hey, I have
this idea.
And my partner thank God, he'sreally.
We're just down for it.
Right, we're going to trysomething over and over and over
again Not the same thingtypically, but we're usually

(39:42):
gonna learn at some point.
But we're gonna try new things.
A lot, right, and probably 95%of them will fail, but the 5%
that works, that's gonna makeyou millions.
So even if it's just like asales strategy or workflow
strategy that I saw online or Isaw another company doing really
well with right, or a marketingapproach, right or simple

(40:03):
corporate structures and youknow, we're raising a fund here
pretty soon to fund our smallbusinesses we're launching a new
company that's going to fundthe business directly, so we
don't use any lenders.
We're going to be funding withour own money.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, that's pretty heavy.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
We're raising a big fund and we brought the right
people in.
And again, it's about learningstuff, implementing it quickly,
right, and you know, it's nicehaving financial resources now
where I can go after thesethings quickly, but you still do
them strategically, you stilldo them with budget in mind, but
I think it's just action.
I think that's just thedifference between me and a guy
that's not in my position, Ithink the difference between a

(40:37):
guy that's above me.
He had different actions thanI'm doing right now.
Right, but I know eventually,eventually, I keep implementing
action after action.
I'm gonna hit, I'm gonna hitsomething and then boom, your
business takes off and then youknow you're on the next level so
earlier you also talked aboutlike money a little bit right.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
So yeah, about money's a tool and it's a
resource.
So what are some of the waysthat people should look at money
that can actually help themgrow their business but then
also change their lives?
Because a lot of people arereally afraid of like you know,
they hoard the money or yeah, orthey keep it.
They're afraid to spend it,they're afraid to invest it.
They feel like they're gonnalose it yeah, I understand too.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I didn't have any money, right.
So, like I never had any money.
And then I started making alittle bit of money.
And then when I started makingmoney, I was very conservative
with it.
Dude, like I was, drove a oldhonda, the cheapest apartment I
could, and I hoarded everysingle dollar I was.
I was, you know, shopping atold navy.
You know what I mean, making 10, 20 grand a month.
So this ain't the old navyshirt.
No, not anymore levels.

(41:35):
But uh, you know what I mean,but you know what I mean.
So money needs to be treated,obviously, with respect.
You got to understand that.
It comes at you sometimes fast,but it can leave you even
faster, right?
So I was obsessed with watchingmy money, looking at it right,
daily, 100%.
I still, to this day, look at amonthly report of all my

(41:56):
fucking money, all the placeswhere it's at.
I look at it where it's atright.
But in the beginning it wasjust about watching the money in
the savings account, watchingthe money in the savings account
, watching the money savingsaccount.
But I knew at some point I hadto double down if I was going to
start leveling up right, doubledown on on some investment or
starting my business, which wasbasically what I did.
So I had a little bit of moneysaved up probably about 40 grand
saved up and I grabbed thatmoney and I started the company

(42:18):
and I said, if this businessfails, right, I can always go
back to sales and make the money.
There's my safety net, I canblow all the money and that
would suck because it took mesome time to make that money and
save up and pay the tax man andall that shit right.
I was super conservative witheverything.
I took that investment and Iturned a couple grand into tens

(42:38):
and tens of millions of dollars,right.
But I would have never beenable to do it if I didn't take
an action right and then investthe money.
So I think, cool, be smart withyour money, save up your money.
You should be obsessed withbringing in money for yourself,
for your, for your family, foryourself, just as a you know a
human.
In an economic environment,everything's expensive,

(42:59):
everything costs money, so youshould be obsessed with bringing
it in and figuring out ways tolevel it up.
You know what I mean.
So I just kept on be beingkeeping a close eye on it and
then, once I realized I had anopportunity, I took advantage of
it and I spent.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
And I kept on spending, I kept on spending and
that's all I did over and over,and I still do it to this day
where were ways that you weren'table to, once the money came in
, that you maybe planted someseeds so that money could bring
in other money for you yeah, andI'm not talking about
investment properties, I'm nottalking to you about that
bullshit, dude like I'm talkingabout investing in my business,
right?

Speaker 2 (43:30):
so all the money I did for multiple years as we
were scaling up to those 60employees before the pandemic, I
was investing tens of thousandsof dollars, fifty thousand
dollars, on new marketingstrategies, hiring a bunch of
employees.
Everything was a big investment, right?
There was a point at our timein our business when we were
scaling up, there was probablyabout 25 of us.
Our competitor closed down.

(43:51):
They had 25 employees.
Overnight I told my leasingoffice we need to knock down
this wall.
I'm putting in desk, I'm hiringall these employees, and
overnight we went from 25employees to 50 employees, like
that, and my revenue just shotup.
But I've never been able to dothat.
If I was scared, well, maybeI'll bring on one or two and I

(44:12):
don't know if I can do it and,like I said, let's do it.
We knocked down a wall.
I have pictures of it.
Knocked down a wall, we threwcords, wires hanging around
everywhere was wild, you know.
I mean, stuck people in thedesk and gave him an opportunity
to make the money and then ourbusinesses took off yeah but
again, that was a hugeinvestment when I could have
been like I'm not gonna do it.
So every time I keep leveling upon this, on on the investment

(44:33):
in my company, all the new stuffwe're doing now.
Well, the lending I just toldyou I'm raising the fun.
That costs a lot of money toroll that out, right, but I know
I don't if, if I fail, thatmoney's gone whatever, I'm gonna
make the money back.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
But if I win, dude you know when big I'm gonna win,
real big I already know I'mgonna win big cuz.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
I got, you know, I got the model on the sales floor
out there right.
So now, now it's just levelingup.
So yeah, it just constant.
You got to be reinvestingyourself 100% yeah, what about
personal brand?

Speaker 1 (45:01):
cuz, uh, I've been I watch you on the gram a little
bit.
Yeah, I've been doing a littlebit more.
You got a podcast now.
You connect with you.
You're connecting with a lot ofcool people.
Even now, like you said you,you connected with that
billionaire, but that wasthrough social media.
Yeah, so let's talk about theimportance of our personal brand
and how you're kind ofapproaching it yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
So I think personal brand for me.
Before, like being on social, Iwas posting pictures of a dog.
You know what I mean, justrandom shit.
You know what I mean.
And I just didn't use it foranything.
And I looked up guys that weredoing it were kind of like
self-absorbed and kind of likejust flashy, whatever it was.
I didn't, I don't know.
That's the way I thought aboutit.
You know what I mean.
But nowadays your social mediais actually a business card.

(45:42):
It's a modern-day business cardwho you are, what have you done
, what do you know and how canyou be of service to potentially
myself or people around me orwhatever.
It is right.
That's all social media isright.
So the great thing about itit's free and you can blast out.
I can post 10 times today if Iwanted to, right, and you can do
whatever you want whenever youwant, at all times.

(46:03):
So I think having a personalbrand or just having a social
presence in general is extremelyimportant to get your message
out who are you, what can you doand how can you be a service to
your community or people aroundthe world?

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Are you using it consistently.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
A hundred percent, yeah, so, like everything else,
like in the beginning I was slow, sort of ratcheted up r,
ratchet up, ratchet up.
Now I'm investing more moneyinto it on a monthly basis and
I'm just pumping out as muchcontent as I like and at the
same time, I'm trying to getbetter.
I'm not just posting stuff andbeing like, oh, there's a video,
I'm looking at it and I'mlistening to it and looking at

(46:39):
other guys content and I'm goinglike, well, dude, my stuff
looks like crap compared to his.
You know what I mean.
I like that strategy.
So, the same thing I did withmarketing, I'm constantly
iterating and optimizing whatI'm doing right and I want to do
it bigger, better, faster,cleaner, better content or
whatever it is right.
So it's constantly just lookingat things and trying to make
them better.
And luckily I have and I don'tthink I'm great at it, but I I

(47:06):
have a natural gift of lookingat things and seeing what the
hell I'm not doing, what thehell I should be doing.
You know what I mean andsometimes it takes the time to
get there, but I know if I keepworking on it, um, and
eventually it gets better, justlike everything else.
So what?
What platforms are you using?
Mostly instagram, okay, um, notso much on tiktok, but you know
we'll see what's up with that.
And then YouTube.
Okay, so I mean, you told meyeah and.
YouTube is.

(47:26):
You know I'm still getting mybearings going with it.
You know mean.
But again, I think it's aboutstarting and then just keep it
going Right, like you have aobviously a natural gift with
what you're doing.
But more importantly, it's thereps that you're putting every
day.
You're are doing it so hard andso consistently that if anybody
comes to your page they're notwondering what the hell you do.
They know what you do.

(47:47):
You know what I mean Withinfive seconds.
I know what you do, you knowwhat I mean.
And then can I get any benefitfrom this or not, right?
And if I do, great, I'm goingto follow you and absorb your
information or move on with mylife and maybe down the might
come back right, but um, I thinkit's just consistency, output

(48:08):
and just sharing your knowledgeand your experience with.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
You know, the people that are following you.
So, earlier you also talkedabout and I feel like I want to
share shares with them.
You talked about, like you, you, you in built up within
yourself, like that, thataddictive personality, right,
like you said, he was absorbingbooks, uh, movies, podcasts on
sales, entrepreneurship,whatever, right.
So then, when you had down days, you had, you had this reserve

(48:29):
that you can go to.
Or, if you had a bad day, youhad this reserved you can go to.
Yeah, nowadays, since it'sdifferent, you're successful.
Now, are you using that sametype of um, you know, uh plan to
go back to?
If you, you know, when you havethese down days, if it's
emotional or if it's like a badday at the office, like how do
you work through that?

Speaker 2 (48:48):
It's kind of crazy.
I keep going back to this, butlike when I have a shitty day in
my office or shitty couple ofweeks, or things are just not
hitting like I wanted to, andyou're thinking like shit, did I
got any more?
Or what am I not seeing?
Am I not paying enoughattention?
I got to get motivated For mepersonally.
I got to get motivated right,so I need to go watch
legitimately a YouTube, adocumentary, a movie, something

(49:09):
about someone Wolf of WallStreet dude Stimulate you, yeah,
yeah.
I got to get this thing tickingagain, right, and I got to read
something right.
I got to absorb something forme personally, because I can
have a shitty day, a week, amonth, a year, whatever it is,
but if there's something thatclicks in my brain, it picks me
up again.
I get that energy.
I know what that feels like.

(49:30):
The next day you wake up andyou're like I got it, even
though things might be a littletough and rough again.
For me it's just about thatmotivation, consistent
motivation in the times of down.
Other times I just absorb itanyways, just naturally.
But then when I'm really likestruggling, dude, I'm going to
go one or two ways.
Your brain is super powerful andyou tell your brain what to do.

(49:52):
You know what I mean.
Your body is just rolling withit, so your brain can tell you
dude, you're a loser, you're abum, you're not going to be able
to figure this.
Your freaking dropout, you'regonna be.
You know, you knew people thathad money.
Now they lost it all or shit.
You know they're going throughsome hard times.
Look at that guy went and didafter that yeah that guy lost
everything and look what he didright.
And that's the kind of mindsetI've had is I want to go that

(50:13):
way, dude.
You know I mean, and but somedays where you don't feel like
you need that motivation, youknow I mean.
So I love movies, I loveYouTube.
I love movies, I love YouTube,I love series, and it's mostly
about money.
If you look at all my what yougot, yeah.
If you look what you got, yeah,yeah, yeah.
If I find a new show that'sabout money, I'm in it A hundred
percent, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or an entrepreneur that allthese shows we Crash just came

(50:39):
out and up.
What's the company name?
Oh, my God, I'm drawing a blank.
The rental office space, was it?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we were.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
So he blew up that company to like $65 billion
value in a short period of timeand crashed.
Anyways, I like hearing thesestories about these
entrepreneurs that came fromnothing that got to somewhere.
I'm obsessed with that story.
You know what I mean.
And then who are they to do it?
Regardless if it it wentcrashing down or not, they did
something that no one elsethought they can do.
I think that's the thing I takein lessons of that and I really

(51:13):
that let that absorb in me tohelp me push me through hard
times, dark times or just timesthat I need to get motivated so
what?

Speaker 1 (51:20):
what's a day in the life of Kim and I see, look like
Like what.
Okay, what's tomorrow, lookinglike Tomorrow's.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Wednesday yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
So you're waking up?
At what time?
What happens before you gethere?
How do you end the day?

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, I mean, things are a little bit different now.
Right, I have a, I have a teamprobably about 60 employees here
, from in office to outside ofoffice and, um, I've set up my
company where I have systems,operations, personnel, so I have
departments and people handlingstuff for me.
So it's not like I have to comein and do anything.
I have people all doing it forme.

(51:51):
But what I need to do is comein and help dictate where that
ship should go.
You know what I mean.
Hey, we should pivot here, weshould do this, or hey, guys,
I'm seeing this in here, right,and that's kind of where I'm at
in my stage.
But as far as I wake up, it'snot a crazy schedule.
I've got two toddlers right now,so I'm up at 5.30, 6 o'clock
helping them get up and you know, make sure my wife's good, I'm

(52:12):
usually into the office by 8.30,9.
You know what I mean.
That's still early, yeah.
But yeah, my team's on it, andI mean in the day before we're
already prepping of what my teamneeds to do and it's not like
they're running in with theirheads cut off.
All of them have their ownroles in the company and they go
and implement those tasks youknow mean, so that way I can
roll in to the office and starthandling tasks.

(52:34):
And basically I, what I do is Ihave, you know, calendar block
schedules with non-negotiablestuff like this right after this
, I have non-negotiables stufflike this right after this, I
have non-negotiables.
Right, I have a company meeting, I have meetings with lawyers,
I have meetings with my teams,whatever it is right, I have
non-negotiable meetings.
But in between those meetings,that's where I like yeah,
because I like playing with mybusiness poking holes in it

(52:57):
figuring out what's going onwith that.
I mean, I love this, but but myI'm a creative mind, right
strategy.
I like testing, tweaking, youknow what I mean, like figuring
out what's working, what's not,and then that's when I play with
that stuff.
So I usually work about 5 30, Igo home, help my wife get my
kids in bed.
They're in bed by 6, 30, 7o'clock.
Then usually my wife hang out alittle bit and I'm kind of back

(53:18):
on the computer just kind ofmessing around, looking at my
business again or working out atnight.
That's basically what I do.
So it's one of those two thingsand I just kind of have that
same basically day every singleday, monday through Friday.
And on the weekends I justchill out and hang out with my,
my kids, and of course I'malways working and my phone's
never off.
I'm always available, but ourbusiness is Monday through

(53:38):
Friday yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
So this has been super inspiring for me, just to
kind of like hear your storyhere, hear your growth, you know
, see and listen to what youhave going on now, and I really
like how you know you're superrelatable, like yo man, like
listen, I mean, I'm in the money, I'm in the finance, I'm gonna
watch a money movie.
Yeah, watch a finance movie.
You know, I'm saying like theseare the things that that I'm

(54:00):
constantly taking, and I thinkthat's also relatable to more
people, because there there is agang of people out here that
don't like reading, right, so ifthey can absorb, you know, a
movie or youtube video, apodcast, it makes it easier for
them to take the information.
So, um, what, what are?
What are a couple of um moviesor YouTube channels that you

(54:21):
like, that you can share withthe people?

Speaker 2 (54:23):
say they can get into it yeah, I mean anything
entrepreneurial like I like, Ilike.
So it's for like movies.
I like all the classic WallStreet yeah, wolf of Wall Street
like billions yeah, billions.
I love that show.
Succession wasion was a goodshow.
I haven't seen Succession yet.
Crazy show.
Badass Guys living lives that Idream of.

(54:44):
You know what I mean?
You're just living on adifferent planet, almost right.
Yeah, any of these financialmovies.
You know what I mean?
Big Short, all this stuff.
I like movies about financialruins.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
I don't know why, when I was seeing it recently.
I don't know what I've seenrecently.
I don't know if you've seen it,but maybe you have a bit conned
.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I joined, wascrazy again.
Like my man said, I alwayswanted to be a thief.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah, yeah, it was crazy, but like again, you can
take like interesting thingspeople, but I love stuff like
that.
Like he had a super addictivepersonality to a drug addict,
yeah, but he had a veryinteresting story in the way
that he did stuff.
But again, he created somethingcrazy from nothing, even though
it was fraud, but what he didwas just insane.
So you can take little thingsfrom that.
Obviously, remove the bad shit,but just take the interesting

(55:28):
things right, going from nothingto something.
You know what I mean, whateverway they kind of figured out.
But yeah, as far as YouTubechannels, jeez, I can't even
think of one off the top of myhead.
I'm just constantly looking atstuff of podcasts of really just
entrepreneurs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, mark Cuban,grant Cardone, yeah, yeah, I was
just watching one of JP Morganlast night talking about the

(55:50):
economy and he was talking abouthow he went from bank to bank
and how he got into the position.
He was Just weird stuff likethat.
I'm constantly listening tothis stuff, you know what I mean
so.
I guess on the top of my head Idon't have anything like
pinpointing, but if you look atmy YouTube right now, it's all
entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Well, listen, you can share some things with me Like
text me later.
Yeah, I'll put those linksbelow because I definitely want
to.
I would love to share withpeople watching this or
listening to this.
You know maybe two or threethings that that are kind of

(56:25):
like go to channels or moviesfor you, because because you
talked about the importance ofyou capturing that motivation so
if they can share in some ofthat, they might be able to pull
some of that inspiration.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Yeah for sure, yeah, definitely so we'll put that
below.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Yeah, um.
So, as we wrap up, bro, um.
Is there anything else you wantto share with the people that
can inspire them to?
You know, have a journey ofsuccess like you've currently
achieved.
What would you say?

Speaker 2 (56:42):
yeah, and I appreciate you saying that and
to me personally, I don't thinkyeah, I'm proud of what I've
done, but I'm not satisfied yeahright, I don't think I've done
anything special.
Dude, you can go down to theseoffices right next door and the
guys are doing the next samething.
You know what I mean.
So, like I know I haven't doneanything special.
I've done something cool of somevalue right now, but I know I
have a lot more potential I likeright so even when I was in my

(57:05):
apartment cold calling peoplejust to you know, sell my
product, I knew I had way morepotential.
So I think it's just believingin yourself, knowing that you
can do it.
Don't listen to anybody elseand just listen to yourself and
put in the daily actions.
If you you put the dailyactions every single day, you're
going to receive data back andthen you make moves based off
that data.
You do that over a long periodof time.
Eventually, your life startsgoing like this and the money

(57:27):
starts going like this, and it'shard to stop it when it starts
to take off.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
You know what I?

Speaker 2 (57:31):
mean.
So I think it's justconsistency putting in the work.
No one's going to do it for you.
You gotta do it yourself anddon't cry that it hasn't
happened to you.
What's up, guys?
My name is ken manessi, aka theleague god.
I'm the founder and ceo ofdirect funding.
Now.
We offer business financing tosmall businesses nationwide.
We're hiring for sales people.
I have sales people in myoffice right now that are moving

(57:51):
50 to 70 000 per month.
If you're looking for anopportunity, apply with us
online.
Hit the link in the bio.
Looking forward to talking toyou.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
You're basically saying you're not satisfied.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Yeah.
So in life, no one's gonna doanything for you.
You are responsible foryourself.
So if you wanna be successful,that means you have to go put in
that daily, consistent work andwhen you're doing that work,
get the data that you're gettingreceiving, coming back and make
strategic moves based off thatdata and then you just
consistently do that over a longperiod of time, keep investing
in yourself, invest in yourbusiness and eventually your

(58:22):
revenue will grow up and yourincome will go up.
But no one's gonna do it foryou.
You gotta pick up your phoneand do whatever you need to do
to bring in the customers sothat you can sell your product
or service and then,realistically, you can change
your life 100% man.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
This has been great.
Um, we gotta come back down soI can spend some time with you.
Yeah, I think I think thatwould be cool.
Uh, shoot some more content,show some.
Show some lifestyle stuff.
Yeah, I think that would beawesome, um, but for those that,
uh, you know, want to learnmore about you, connect with you
on instagram, stuff like that,um, where should they go?
What should they do?

Speaker 2 (58:53):
yeah, so I'm at the lead, god.
So you can find me on instagram, youtube, tiktok, but really my
main portal that I use isinstagram.
I actually reply to a lot ofpeople.
It's really you.
He does reply yeah, 100 I liketalking to people.
I like just chit chatting,whatever it is, but I like
posting stuff aboutentrepreneurship,
self-improvement, um things thatI've learned um and you know.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Hopefully you guys seek some value with that nah,
man, this has been, this hasbeen dope.
Listen, you guys make sure youtap into the lead guard, ken
Manessi, on Instagram the leadguard and maybe there's some
questions that you want to askhim that we didn't touch on, or
maybe there's some things youwant to go a little deeper.
Maybe you want to work withdirect funding?
Yeah, straight up.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
We're hiring who knows they're hiring, right, so
listen up.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
We're hiring who knows they're hiring.
Yeah, right, so listen.
All you need to do is make sureyou check them on instagram.
Um, at the lead, god, ask himwhatever you want to ask him.
It's really him.
He's really answering those dmsand um, you know, we appreciate
you guys for checking outanother episode of the honor
pursuit podcast.
Peace, thanks for watching.