Selling- Bashar Katou | F*** Your Passion! How to Make 8-Figures Selling on Amazon

" F*** Your Passion!"
Bashar Katou is one of the worlds most successful FBA Sellers today. Bashar came on Finding Your Niche with Neish Podcast and told an incredible conversation on his journey to success. We talked about failure, triumph, success, and how to win big on Amazon. We also discussed the mental shifts that need to take place in order to become successful, how to find your WHY, and knowing when its time to say " F*** your passion", and so much more! Become an elite FBA seller as well? Join his FBA education platform BJK University today.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's going on? Everybody? Weare back with another episode of Finding Your
Niche with Niche actually the Miami edition. I'm super super excited to have this
guest on today, as you cansee. But Sharkatu, if you don't
know this man already, you needto thank you so much for coming on
the show today. Thank you,thanks for having me. Yeah, I
am like really really really really reallyI say this with every guest, but

(00:23):
for real, I'm really exciting totalk to you and sit down and learn
about what it is that you doand how you happen to find your niche
in your specific industry doing Amazon sellingand making a lot of money doing so.
So, yeah, thank you somuch for coming on. Yeah,
absolutely, thank you. I reallyappreciate you having me on here. Yeah.
So, you have a very interestingstory, humble beginnings, and we'll

(00:46):
kind of try to speed through someof it and get to the meat and
potatoes so that people can really reallyget something out of what you have to
say today, because I know youhave some really profound things to share.
But so, can you talk alittle bit about kind of where you were
from being an immigrant coming into Americaand making a name for yourself. Sure,
So it started back in two thousandand six, which was about three

(01:07):
years after the you know, theinvasion on Iraq. We we, I
mean, it was a hard time. Who was pretty much war twenty forty
seven in the streets, cars blowingup, you know, people's body remains
on the streets. And that's whenmy father decided that it's time for us

(01:27):
to get the hell out of Iraq, because up until then he was still
optimistic that things are going to turnaround, but unfortunately it got worse,
and so he sent us off.We came to America. I was sixteen
years old. Was actually arrived toAmerica on h six or six or six.
Who. Yeah, that was kindof strange. I had, I

(01:49):
know, zero English, I myou know, we didn't really have a
whole lot of relatives here. Wefirst went to Detroit, Michigan. We
stayed there for one year, andthen from there we moved to San Diego,
California in two thousand and seven,and just a year and a half
ago, actually moved to m toMiami. But you know, when I
first started, some of the veryfirst struggles was needing to learn how to

(02:13):
speak English, um, needing touh, you know, mesh with a
new culture that I've never you know, Iraq, being in a complete eastern
side of the world. Now I'mon the one of the most developed Western
worlds and uh, and I neededto learn how that works. Started making
new friends. And by the timeI started making some friends in Detroit,

(02:36):
my mom was like, well,now we got to go to California.
So now coming to California, youknow, learning again, still learning English,
still making my place in school.And I had this funny long hair,
and I was like a skinny guy, and I used to get you
know, I used to get madefun of a lot in high school.
So it wasn't it wasn't the prettiesttime, but I made through it.

(02:57):
And I wanted to kind of unpackthat a little bit because I think,
I think it's huge, which Ijust kind of said, looking at what
you come from, seeing you know, people in different circumstances in the face
of really insurmountable odds and then cominghere and trying to in pursuing the American
dream, can you kind of unpackthat a little bit about seeing that,
like coming from this certain level ofpoverty into like something totally totally different.

(03:21):
Yeah, So my father owned thesecond largest factory of clothing in Iraq,
so in the eighties early nineties hewas worth tens of millions of dollars.
But in ninety one there was agoal for in Iraq, and what happened
was that Iraqi dinar used to beone dinar used to equal three dollars,
overnight it went to one dollar equalingtwelve hundred dinars. So my dad literally

(03:45):
went from a multi millionaire to completelybroke. His businesses went out of business.
So as I was growing up,looking from outside end, we looked
wealthy because my dad had properties.We had a very nice home, but
he didn't have a cash flowing business. So for the first like ten twelve
years of my life, we wereliving like hand to mouth. You know.
He couldn't sell anything because nothing wasworth anything anymore, and he was

(04:06):
too proud to just like liquid aid. Yeah, any business he'd tried to
do, he just kind of couldn't. He couldn't evolve really, and so
that was very difficult there. Butthen coming to the US and wanting to
kind of like live the life here. I remember the very first day I

(04:27):
woke up after we had made itto Detroit, was me and my brother.
My mother was already in America.I woke up in the morning and
I could hear people speaking English andit was so weird. It was as
if I was in a movie,you know, because we watched you know,
American movies as we as we grewup. I looked over the bed
outside the window and I see it'slike this, this like from the most

(04:53):
perfect like setting. It's this subdivisionwould like houses, you know, perfectly
mode lawn. There's a da pushinghis daughter on a bike and it's I
think it was a Sunday or somethinglike that. I can't remember exactly.
And that's when I realized that,holy shit, I'm in America. Yeah,
you know. And I remember afew days later, my brother and
I were like walking down the streetand we were still just taking everything in.

(05:15):
It was just so overwhelming. AndI stood in the middle of the
street. It was like, Idon't know where we were. I think
we were at the supermarket called Myersor something in Detroit. And I stepped
outside and the parking lot and Ilooked up to the sky and I went
like this and I said freedom.You know. That was one of the
first English words that I knew howto say, you know, and it
was the funniest thing. But Ifelt a sense of freedom. I felt

(05:40):
now there were opportunities that I couldactually do, because in Iraq you couldn't
really think like that. You couldn'tthink five ten years from now. You're
thinking, you know, this militiathat's fighting with the American troops. They're
about to fire a missile out ofmy you know, literally in front of
my house. Is that missile gonnafly this way or is it gonna fly
back and fall to my you know, my living room. So that was

(06:01):
like the day to day there's noelectricity until now. My brother lives in
Iraq. I talk to him sometimes. Yeah, the conversation is like,
hey, bro, what's the electricityschedule? Now It's like, well it's
four on, too off. It'sa little better now, you know.
So like that's what they what they'redealing with. And that's why sometimes when
I talk with people that have andeven my culture that i've you know that

(06:23):
they were born and raised here,I'm like, dude, you have it
way easy, Like you really needto appreciate what you have because, trust
me, other parts of the worldthat's not the kind of live their looking.
You know, do you have anystories that you can kind of recollect
of, like maybe a near deathor where you actually realize that, like
an encounter with the militia or anythingto that nature. Yeah, I mean

(06:45):
a couple a couple of things cometo mind. One of the one of
them, this is like this islike a little one, you know,
not nothing big deal. It wasabout eleven o'clock at night. It's me,
my brother, his friends, andsome of my friends outside of my
house eleven o'clock at either. There'sno electricity, so the guys are like
outside lemon playing dominoes and stuff likethat, using like candles and little torches
and stuff like that. And um, a random car pulls up and there's

(07:09):
like seven eight of us, youknow, it's a big group of us.
Random car pulls up. Um,they roll down the window. Two
of them walk out with guns.Hey guys, we need your cell phones.
Immediately they give us there, youknow, we give them their phones
our phones, they said in thecar and they bounce and that's that.
And that was like a normal day. Everyone went home like nothing happened.

(07:30):
It's like, hey, we're glad. No one of us got killed or
something. Just the phones, youknow, just a small robbery, that's
all. It was just a holdup. You know. Another one we
were one day coming back from mydad's work and we're at the traffic light.
Everyone just like how an ambulance youknow now when you see it,
like go to the side. Itwas a was like a like a bunch

(07:51):
of troops, you know. Therewas like a couple of tanks literally tanks
driving down the street like it's normal. A couple of tanks with a couple
of hunvis and stuff like that.So everyone went to the side. They
passed us, They probably went abouta quarter mile maybe less, and then
a car just went off on theside of the road and you could see
the car just flying like maybe aone hundred two hundred feet in the in
the air and then slams on theground. Had we gone after them,

(08:13):
because we stopped, we waited forthem. Had we gone after them,
we could have probably been blown awayby the by the explosion. Wow.
Okay, so you're in America.You're yelling out freedom in the middle of
the street. Um. I reallyam very interested in having a conversation around
the business aspect of your family andthe business dynamic because your dad kind of
was you can tell me for sure, but spearheaded the business endeavors for your

(08:37):
family. Can you guys talk aboutor can you talk about the mindset that
he had early on and how thatm was a benefit to you and your
family. So one of the thingsthat I believe inspired me was that I
wanted to be like my father.That was the thing for me, you

(08:58):
know, growing up. For me, he was because he was pretty wealthy
at the time. He was like, he had a lot of power.
He was a mover, he wasa shaker, you know, and and
that inspired me, and I wantedto grow up and be like him.
So as I grew up, Ialways wanted to be in business for myself.

(09:18):
I always wanted to do something.I didn't know what it was.
I just knew that, you know, I was destined for something big.
I wasn't exactly sure what it was. And so we're four siblings. Really
I'm the only one that actually hasa business. My sister as a lawyer.
So my mom automatically wanted me tobecome a doctor. When we came

(09:39):
to America. She wanted a lawyerand a doctor in the house, so
that way she can talk and brackto her sisters and her friends, you
know. And she sold me onthe idea actually so the very first few
years because actually was a pretty goodstudent in school, Like I wasn't want
to like, I was actually thecomplete opposite of a troublemaker and a bad
boy in high school. Ok.You know, now I was a player,

(10:01):
but I wasn't a bad you know. Yeah, so um, but
then you know, I as Iwas like coming out, like I graduated
high school at a three point fourGP or something points yeah, and so
actually pretty well. But then asI went to school, as my mom
sold me on the idea that Ineed to become a doctor. Once I
got into that, I was like, wait a second, but that's not

(10:24):
really what I want. I'm notpassionate about this thing, you know.
And I realized that I'm doing itfor my mom more than I'm doing it
for myself. And I was troubled, do I make my mom proud and
kind of do what she wants,or do I do what I want?
And unfortunately, I see a lotof people in that position, and they
chose to I want to make myparents proud version and did they come back

(10:48):
five ten years later and say,fuck, why did I do that?
I want to go the other route, you know. And so luckily I
didn't make that, you know,I didn't make that mistake. And although
up until like a year ago,two years ago, my mom was like,
I know, one day you willgo to school and become a doctor.
You now now she stopped saying it, but yeah, yeah, but

(11:09):
yeah, definitely, I mean myfather definitely spearheaded the inspiration. Yeah.
And I want to ask about thattoo, because the way that you just
worded it right now is you saidyou wanted to make your father proud.
Do you no longer have that endeavorin mind? Or do you feel like
you did make your father proud withwhere you are today? Well, I
think I've made everyone proud because atthe end of the day, I think

(11:31):
our parents want to see us happyand want to see us do good in
life. Right now, each onehas a each one has a definition of
what doing good in life is.Right. Some people is just being a
hippie and just living hand to mouthbut doing things that they enjoy. Right
to some people, it's making billionsof dollars. To some people, it's

(11:52):
going to mars. You know,some people is beginning to being a doctor.
Some people is living a life ofservice and giving back to their people.
So at the end of the day, our parents only know what they
know because they were raised a certainway. They were raised in a certain
society, and society at that timewas do this, go to school,
get a degree, get a job. Right, That's that's how they were

(12:13):
raised. And so I don't likeblame my mom because she wanted me to
become a doctor, right, Butthen now she sees me happy. She
sees that I'm making a difference inthe world. She sees that I'm doing
things that I'm passionate about, andso at the end of the day,
that makes her happy. Yeah.And for some people like your father,
it is owning a piece of restaurantand talking about that dynamic of going into

(12:37):
business with family and what that actuallycosted you in the end. Yeah.
So in two thou eleven, soafter about it was about two thousand and
eight nine, my dad was actuallyable to look with some of his properties.
Up until then we were cash forHe was now able to look with

(12:58):
a some of his properties because againwe owned a couple of houses. He
owned a couple of buildings and likelike downtown Bagdad like probably locations. Okay,
so you know, after he liquidhe was probably worth a couple of
million dollars and he brought some moneyto America and he said, you know,
let's let's start a business. Andso we went and bought our first
business in America in two thouleven.And we worked as a family. Was

(13:22):
my dad, my mom, meand my brother. First time in my
life I worked that many hours.It was like eighty three eighty four hours
a week working at a pizza weiain front of a pizza oven. I
was te Yeah, I just turnedtwenty one. Actually I think I was
twenty turning twenty one. And umand my dad, and my dad was
seventy something, my mom was sixtysomething, so they weren't young. And

(13:45):
there and there chopping tomatoes and on. He's in the morning helping us prep,
going shopping all that stuff. Umand my brother and I were running
and then he brought one of hisfriends. I loved it because we were
it was like a family, youknow, we were all together. But
I also hated it because I wantedto go one hundred and seventy five miles
an hour, and my brother wantedto go like twenty three miles an hour,

(14:07):
okay now, and then we buttedheaded heads a lot. Um he's
older than me, naturally everything becameunder his name. The business became under
his name, that Colm became underhis name, all that stuff, so
he naturally became the boss. AndI just couldn't take that, you know.
And I was like, dude,that's fine, do whatever you want
to do. Let's just like speedup the process. Because our plan was
we're gonna buy one place, We'regonna buy like three four other places,

(14:28):
create like a common theme, andthen start a franchise. Like that's what
my dream was, ok. Andit was this idea to buy a pizzeria.
And then he just didn't speed upthe process though he had his own
ideas, you know, I don'twant to make a sound like, you
know, I had all the goodideas that he did, and he had
his own good ideas. They justdidn't mesh with me. Right, And
the speed as well, right,And maybe looking back at it, maybe

(14:50):
I was trying to go away toofast because I also try to go way
too fast, you know, Andand and other endeavors and they exploded in
my face, you know, andsometimes like you got you gotta slow down
to speed up, right, Andso I'm not sure what the right answer
is really, I just know thatwe didn't didn't work out, So I
decided to do something else on myown. My dad came and said,

(15:11):
hey, here's two hundred thousand dollars. This is your college fund. Do
whatever you want to do with it. You could either go to school,
become a doctor like your mom wants, or you can start your own business.
And I said, fuck that,I'm starting my own business instantly.
So you so, because I feellike when people just get all of a
sudden two hundred thousand dollars handed tothem, that's what you're thinking. You

(15:31):
are already business minded in that sense. You didn't think like, oh'm one's
blurge it, or now I'm gonnago do this and this and this with
it. You decide it. I'mgonna know. Yeah, No, it
was I want to start a business. I was twenty three at the time,
twenty two at the time, andI wanted to do something big,
you know, And I knew Ihad a bunch of ideas and I want
to do something big. And again, it wasn't my money, so I
couldn't just go and like start youknow, blowing it in places. It

(15:54):
wasn't like, hey man, here'stwo hundred thousand dollars, go and do
whatever you No, it was like, go do something with your life,
yeah, right, And I hadI had an obligation. It wasn't just
like, well, I'm just gonnawell, yeah, I'm probably gonna like
vacation and like retire for a yearand then to kind of figure out my
thing, you know. I waslike, I'm obligated. I need to
get to go get a quid outoi and make my dad proud. And

(16:15):
especially because I had just told mymom that I dropped out of college,
right, and that was a big, like a big slap in her face,
and so I needed to make upfor that, right, So I
had no time for conversation telling Honestly, for six months, she didn't know
I was, you know, Iwas taking breaks out of the pizzeria to
go to school. But I waslike, either you know, hanging out
with friends or so what why didit take you six months to tell her?

(16:38):
I don't know, I just notsure. I don't know. I
just I don't know. I justdidn't have it in me, you know.
Yeah, and then it got toa point where I think it just
it's like, look, this isjust ridiculous. I just gotta come out
and tell her. And uh andI remember when I told her, she
almost knew, but it was alsojust like a blow to her face,
and you know, she didn't takeit very well. But yeah, yeah,

(17:03):
wow, Okay, so you havethis money, you decide to do?
What would they? Ultimately, soI had three business ideas. I
wanted to get into the hospitality industry. I also wanted to UM. I
wanted to start a because my dadhad a clothing factory, so I want
to do something in fashion. Ieven tried to like get a degree in
design or something like that, fashiondesign or something, I don't know what

(17:26):
it was. And then m andthen I wanted to Also. The third
thing was I wanted to open aspa. Oh I don't know why,
I don't ask me. I wantedto combine UM girls and boys also do
manicures, petticures, massages, likedo this like you know this like spa
cold place you go, you havedrinks and all that stuff for me was
just everything has to be about fun, like you gotta have a good time,

(17:48):
you know. Even at the clothingplace. I don't know what the
the spin was around like having fun, but I knew I wanted to make
it fun. And the hospitality thingwas like, look, I'm twenty one,
twenty two, I'm parting all thetime. If I can party at
a place and make money, dude, this is like it, you know.
So that's why I chose that.Okay, first, Okay, yeah,
wow, I want to fast forwarda little bit to talk about two

(18:11):
very important numbers that happened in yourlife. Okay, one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in debt versus forty twodollars in ninety nine cents in profit.
Yes, talk about those two numbersand what they mean too. Yeah,
well you've done your homework. Awesome, Yeah, sou one hundred and fifty
thousand. Fast forward three years Apriltwenty eight, two fifteen. It's five

(18:34):
pm. It was a Wednesday,No, it was a Tuesday. I'm
leaving the restaurant to go pick upmy girlfriend, who, by the way,
now was my wife. This wastwenty fourteen. I get it.
Call it's five pm. That's SanDiego, California. I get a call,
Hey, boss, the kitchen ison fire. Okay, put it

(18:55):
out. It's like no, no, no, you don't understand. We're
all outside. The fire department ishere. It's okay. I text my
girlfriend. I'm like, hey,I can't make it. I turn around,
go back to the restaurant. Fivesix fire engines outside. There as
smoke coming out of the kitchen.I can't go inside. My landlord Steve
shows up, which I had beenlate to pay rent for like three or

(19:17):
four months. It's like, well, business wasn't doing good. You needed
a restart. Fresh Star Insurance usualis really good at this stuff. I'm
like, no, Steve, youdon't understand. It's like what I'm like,
I haven't paid insurance in four months. He's like to me, what
it's like, I haven't paid insurancein four months. And you could see
his face just like light up.Yeah. I mean, the guy was
about to triangle me because he's like, this dumb ass kid came and rented

(19:41):
a place from me. He hasn'tbeen really on time with rent since he
started, the last four months hehasn't paid rent. And now you know
this thing. And because to him, It's like, well, my building
is burned, Who the hell isgoing to fix it? Last Crewe this
guy, what's gonna happen here?Yeah? So I owe the IRUs about
forty siven thousand dollars in backup taxes. I I had a bunch of things
the business. Six months into thatbusiness, and this was what I did

(20:03):
with that two hundred thousand, sixmonths into it. I knew that I
didn't know what the hell I wasdoing, but I was too proud to
ask people for advice. Anyone thatprovided me advice or try to. I
told him to get the fuck outof my place. I, um,
that's one thing, one bad thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, this

(20:26):
was one bad thing that I tookfrom my dad. He had a big
eagle, big and I took that, you know, took that from him.
Fortunately I was I was able todismantle that after that experience. But
that's where one hundred and fifty Kcame from is UM. After Alsa and
Done, Steve ended up suing mefor the remaining of the was a five
year at least, I was abouttwo and a half three years into it,

(20:48):
so whatever was left, it waslike five K a month or something.
Like that times twenty four months.So he sued me for that,
and so I came out of thewhole, you know, a drama with
about one hundred and fifty thousand dollarand that to a repose on my credit.
You know, I couldn't even geta credit card, zero money in
the bank, nothing, And afterthe two hundred k, not only did
I lose the two hundred k,but everything that I had invested after all

(21:11):
went in. I used to workone hundred and twenty hours a week,
never made a penny out of thatplace. WHOA did they ever figure out
what happened? What started to fire? So yes, two months prior to
that, my brother decided to shutdown to Pizza Rio because he wanted to
get into real estate. My businesswasn't doing good. We had a consultant
that I finally allowed someone to consultme. He said, hey, bro,

(21:34):
what you're doing doesn't work. Clearly, you don't know what the hell
you're doing, and you're competing againsta restaurant next door which is killing it.
Why don't you change your concept tosomething? You know? What do
I know? I know how todo pizza? Okay? My brother was
shutting down. We brought all ofthis equipment to my restaurant, revamped it,
changed the name, and actually tripled, nearly tripled ourselves in forty five

(21:57):
days. Whoa, So the restaurantactually finally turned around. Yeah, but
forty five days later caught on fire. So the reason why we had two
double deck pizza ovens, those likebig, old, like nineteen sixties ovens.
I brought a Joe Schmo out ofjust like someone's friend to do the
piping. And one of the pipeshad a rust and it was a rusty

(22:18):
pipe and it was gas pipe.So in the middle of service that we
used to stack boxes on top ofthe oven, so there was a gas
lake. The boxes got on fire, and then just the whole time,
Wow, shame on you, JoeSchmo. Um okay, So then this
happens. You become more humbled fromthis experience. Um, you go through
a stent of I'm assuming depression,sadness. Oh yeah, okay, that's

(22:42):
another story. Okay. So yougo through all of the feelings that a
normal person would probably endure after comingthrough something like that, and then you
stumbled upon this remarkable experience of beingable to profit forty two dollars and the
nineteense. Can you talk about yourintroduction into Amazon and how that's changed your
life. Yeah, I met aI saw a friend that I went to

(23:06):
UM me and him took our girlfriendsto high school like snowball or whatever that
party that mid mid mid year partyis called or whatever, And so I
saw him like a few months aftermy restaurant burned down, and during that
time, I started driving for Uberbecause I had I had owed the last
paycheck to a lot of my employees. I didn't have money to pay them,

(23:27):
and so I knew I needed topay pay them because they all lived
in the same city and they oldwere like threatening me every day, like
bro, right, next time Isee him beating your ass because I needed
my fucking paycheck. And so I'mlike, all right, I gotta pay
these guys. Somehow I started drivingfor Uber. By the way, I
had a suspended license, so Igot the Uber under my friend's name,
and I was driving with a suspendedlicense because I got a d UI because

(23:49):
I started drinking all the time afterthe restaurant and one day I got caught
got a d UI. Yeah,so I was driving for Uber. D
his name and then um, Uber, if you're watching this, please don't
sue me, because it was likeseven years ago. Um, and then
I um, and then I starteddishwashing at Helton Hotels. I would go

(24:12):
drive for Uber and then go dishwashingor very humbling. Those are two very
very very hum you know, theUber and not so much you know,
No, Uber. Uber was actuallyreally cool, like I actually said when
I was driving for when my Amazonbusiness started catching up, I was like,
I'll probably never stop driving for Uber. And then until it was like,
all right, making a way toomuch more here, this is crazy,

(24:33):
you know. Um, but drivingfor Uber. People don't realize it's
if you are, like, ifyou're making anything less than whatever, fifty
grand a year, you need toleave that and then go drive for Uber.
And it was not even about theflexibility and the money or whatever.
I made a contact list this long. I was the Uber driver that never

(24:55):
shut up. Okay, right,I don't know if you could tell I
like to talk a lot, youknow, I literally would not shut up
until someone would either tell me like, hey, bro, I'm just trying
to like listen to my music orsomething. Just let tell me to shut
the hell up without telling me toshut the hell up. Otherwise I would
know who they are, where theywork, what they do for a living,
and probably ask for their phone number, you know, and I would
like make contacts. You know.I didn't know how I was gonna cash

(25:18):
out on that. I just knew, like, I need to make contacts.
And so after I started doing that, I met that friend and was
like to me, hey, bro, I work from home. I make
money. I asked them. I'mlike, hey, man, how have
you been. What are you doing? It's like I work from home.
Like what the fuck does that mean? Yeah, He's like, I work
from home. I'm like doing whatHe's like, I work online. I'm
like, I don't know what thehell you're talking about. At the time,

(25:41):
I had a Facebook page that Iwould post like once a year on
had I probably had never been onYouTube, never been on social media,
never been on anywhere on the internet. I would literally still like go to
Google print the thing to get directions, you know, but not even used
like you know, actual maps.Wow, And so I wouldn't. He's
like Google, you know, goto this thing called YouTube. I'm yeah,

(26:02):
cool. So I get on YouTubeand I just start you know,
typing things like how to make moneyonline or from home or something like that,
and I get exposed to this insaneworld that I had never known about.
And I was just mind boggled atwhat I was seeing because here I
was investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, working hundreds of hours, making zero

(26:25):
money, busting my ass, andthese kids are like running around selling online
making all this money. And I'mlike, and that's when the ego,
I mean, you just like grabbeda knife and like, you know,
snatched it inside of my ego.And I really felt like, shit,
wow, you know, because Iwas like, can imagine if I had
taken that two hundred k and investedin an online business? Holy shit,

(26:45):
That's what I was thinking. Andthen the whole what if what if started
coming in and you know, theanxiety and stuff like that. But something
about Amazon FBA, I don't knowwhat it was, something about it just
stuck to me. Really yeah,okay, So what was like the first
thing that you decided to sell?So it was about Christmas of twenty fifteen.

(27:08):
Um, again, I had nocar, I wasn't driving, I
had no license. So what Idid is I found this concept called arbitrage,
okay, And that's where and Iwas doing retail arbitrage. You can
do online arbitrage. I was doingretail arbitrage. Retail arbitrage is where you
go to like stores and you goto the clearing section like Walmart, Tjmax,

(27:30):
whatever, and then you buy productsthere that you can sell them online
for a markup. Okay, SoI learned that you could do that on
Amazon. So what I would dois I would go to places like Home
Goods UM and I would find,and I found, and all we did.
Me and my girlfriend would take hermom's car because she had an SUV,
would literally drive all around San Diego, going around scanning things. People

(27:52):
look at us like we're crazy,you know, And this is twenty fifteen.
Not a whole lot of people reallyknew about this. Yeah, there
wasn't really any online videos about itor any of that. So I would
scan things and then try to seeif there is a certain markup. And
I created my own criteria, likeit needs to make alas ten dollars extra,
I needs to be this way thisor whatever, you know, just
from things that I watched, thingsthat I experienced. And then it was

(28:12):
Christmas and I found this doll.I forget what I was called. It
was. There were two colors.He used to be made, in pink
and purple. The pink one usedto sell like three times more than the
purple. So I found out thatat home Goods I can buy it for
like thing was like eighteen or nineteendollars, and I can sell it on
Amazon for forty two ninety nine,sometimes thirty nine, sometimes forty seven,

(28:33):
just kind of depends. Yeah,the first one I saw it was forty
two niney nine, and I stillremember the first night. First day I
wake up in the morning, thefirst thing I would do is I would
jump on my app, you know, and then check it. I opened
the app and there was a sellforty two ninety nine, and that to
me was like making one hundred billiondollars literally because to me up until now,

(28:55):
in order for me to make money, I had to go a shop
for the food, I had tostore it, prep for, serve it,
clean after the customer. In orderfor us to sell a sandwich on
a beer for ten bucks, wherenow I just literally, you know,
in that forty two bucks, Iprobably made like seven eight dollars in profit
times a day, and it justliterally started that way, right, and
so that's when I realized that thereis something here. But then I was

(29:17):
driving around San Diego going crazy.I would have my sister in law hall
of den Vegas, go around homegoods and buy all those and then yeah,
I say, sister in launch.She wasn't. She was my girlfriend's
sister at the time, you know. And then I realized, Okay,
there's got to be an easier,more scalable concept. And that's when I
came across another concept called private label, which is what I do now and
what we teach our students. Okay, and tell us a little bit about

(29:38):
that. So that's where you actuallyfind a manufacturer. So for instance,
this box here, you go tothe actual manufacturer and then you know it's
white labeled, right, So themanufacturer that actually produces this, you find
out that using a certain criteria,that this product sells on Amazon for X
amount of dollars and it sells xamounty nits per day per month, so
you can make x amount of profit. Get it from the supplier. Usually

(30:00):
we try to get We try tobuy our products from our suppliers. For
twenty five percent of our cell price. So if we're going to sell it
for twenty we try to buy itfor five Donalds, including shipping to Amazon,
okay right, and then from thereyou buy it in bulk. So
two hundred nuts. You create yourown design, your own logo, your
own brand, you try to differentiateit. We have a strategy on how
to differentiate products. You or afew hundred units, and then your supplier

(30:22):
ships directly to Amazon, so allyou're doing is online. You're not touching
the product. Obviously, you havethem send you a sample, but they
should directly to Amazon Amazon stores.And then when you create a listing all
to advertise it. When a customerorders, Amazon ships and they also do
customer service. So when I foundthat out, I was like, Okay,
this is scalable. I can likego all in on this. And

(30:45):
now, obviously I'm starting with onehundred and fifty k in debt. And
this is another thing that I wantto tell your audience and everyone watching,
is like, people come to meall the time. I'm broke. I
have zero money. You know,I'm a student. I'm like, you
know, how much money do youhave in the bank? Two thousand dollars.
I'm like you are one hundred andfifty two thousand dollars richer than I

(31:07):
was when I first started. Wow, how did I do it? There's
a thing called OPM. I knowyou know about it. But unfortunately,
people will go and borrow money tobuy a house, which I think it's
a liability. People think it's anasset. That's another argument for another day.
They'll go and borrow money to geta degree that can get them,

(31:29):
hopefully maybe a job that they canget fired from just like that. But
they won't borrow money to start abusiness, right And that's the mind boggling
thing to me. Fortunately, althoughI was raised with a father that said,
never borrow money, never partner withpeople. Fortunately I was a little
wiser and I decided to borrow money. And actually the first money that I

(31:49):
borrowed was from my girlfriend's mom,who now is my mother in law.
And it's only six months after datingher daughter. Right now, I'm at
leastern. You don't just come aroundto start dating my daughter, let alone
borrow five thousand dollars for me.Yeah? Right? And so was that
a difference? Was that a cultureshot from what you used to was asking
the mom? Well, I askedthe daughter, and the daughter asked,

(32:14):
I was like, hey, look, I need five grand to start this
thing. She's like, I don'thave it. Yeah, do your parents
have it? You know? BecauseI couldn't just go to my mom or
dad and ask for money yet.I mean I had to just I had.
I had completely crashed that bridge,right right? Yeah? Okay,
So I want to unpack this ideaa little bit, because you said Amazon
just kind of stuck with you inthis show finding your Niche With Niche,

(32:35):
I sit down and talk to peopleabout how they specifically, like found their
niche with obstacles and successes did theyovercome in order to get to where they
are today? Um? What wasit about it that you think like that
you thought, this is exactly whatI'm supposed to be doing. I don't
know if I knew that that's whatI was supposed to be doing. I
just knew that I need to dosomething. I was in a situation I

(32:59):
had big dreams, I had biggoals I had given up on for a
little while there. I went intodepression and I thought, Okay, this
is fantasy world, this is realworld, right, I need to kind
of be okay with this and thenI got snapped out of it. But
honestly, it was a few thingsfor me. It was the first thing,
you know, Amazon accounts for overfifty three percent of all online sales,

(33:19):
so all the websites in the world, you know, fifty three percent
of online shopping happens on Amazon.So for me, that was a thing.
The other thing, I think thestat is like I can't remember what
it was, but I think itwas like between forty to sixty percent of
all active Amazon sellers make like onehundred k or more per year. Right.
I was like, Okay, Ican get behind that. You know,
the fact that I could do anonline that was the biggest thing because

(33:43):
I was tired of retail, especiallyhospitality. Yea. All my life I
worked in restaurants. My first jobin America at sixteen, I worked at
McDonald's, and then I moved toSan Diego. I worked at another McDonald's
where my mom and I actually workedat. I was in the front,
she was in the cooking Wow.Right, okay. And then, uh,
this is actually something that I haven'treally talked about very much. I'm

(34:05):
not sure why. Um. Andthen after that I worked at a Greek
restaurant, which until now, whenI go to San Diego, I eat
there because it's the best Greek restaurantI've ever eaten a Greek chicken. If
you ever go to San Diego,you have to eat there. Great Greek
chicken. Yeah, it's really good. Um. And then the and then
from there, I rolled into ourrestaurant, and from there I rolled into
my restaurant, and so it wasjust all restaurants and I was just yeah,

(34:30):
I was And you know, Ihad spent about seven years in restaurants
now and I was just tired ofthat environment. It was a toxic environment.
I just didn't like it. AndI want to do something different.
The fact that I could work fromhome anywhere in the world, all online,
I don't have to be anywhere.I don't have a schedule, you
know, I don't. And andalso the other thing is I had bad

(34:52):
credit. So then I just wasn'tsure if you know, if we should,
like if I if I can getin there or whatever it is.
And in Amazon, they don't care, right, they don't care about like
if you have a misdemeanter, ifyou have a felon or whatever. You
know, we've got a couple offelons in our group, in our community,
you know, and like people thathave spent like ten fifteen years in
jail. It's like, hey man, look, no, no, no

(35:13):
judgments here. I get it.People make mistakes that could have been me,
you know, one one left turn, one right turn. I mean
I got I got arrested for aDUI. There were times where I would
get home, wake up in themorning, be like, how the hell
did I drive my car here?This could have been me crashing into someone
and killing them. Right. Amazondoesn't discriminate, you know, doesn't matter
what color you are, doesn't matterwhere you're from, doesn't matter who you

(35:35):
are, you can go right in. So to me that was a plus
great, you know, and justall these things put together, I was
just like, this just makes sense. Yeah. And I had tried other
things. That's the other thing too. I had tried to feel in marketing.
I tried. I was following aguy who does like penny stock trading.
I don't know if you've heard whatthat is. I had tried doing

(35:57):
that. I got a whole sellingreal estate was like pretty hot now with
courses and stuff like that online.Yeah, so I tried doing that as
well. The course was just alittle too complicated. I got overwhelmed.
Um, what else I think crypto? I invested like six hundred dollars.
There was this thing called bit connect. I don't know what it was,
it was a coin, and thenlike six months later it turned out to
be a scam and I lost mymoney. You know. So I tried

(36:19):
those, you know, a coupleof things, but Amazona was just seemed
legit, all these things put together, you know, and I went for
it. Yeah, and you havea really interesting philosophy because I talked to
a lot of people on the showand they talk about, you know,
when you think about finding your nicheessentially the backdrop of that is to find
your purpose, find your passion.But your philosophy is a little bit different
because you believe in order to findyour passion you have to find the finances

(36:44):
first. Yeah, I say,fuck your passion. And here's why.
Um, today I do my passionand I'm one percent behind it. That's
the thing that drives me. Butwhen you're starting. When I was one
hundred and fifty k in debt andGaryvie tell me find your passion, I
was like to go, fuck yourself. I don't know what you're talking about.

(37:06):
Like, I have that collector's callingme every day. I have threat
messages coming into my phone every singleday. I need to make my dad
and my mom proud. Right,I'm twenty three years old, twenty five
at the time. I've just meta girl that I think is pretty special
and I don't want to lose her. I would literally we would go out
on a day and I would havelike forty five dollars in my pocket.

(37:27):
Right, I gotta make sure thatthere is enough gas in the car.
Yeah, we've gotta make sure thatwe go out, eat, hang out,
do something in San Diego forty fivebucks? Like, how the hell
are you trying to do that?You know? And so I was tired
of that. If I sat theretrying to seek my passion, dude,
I'd be on the streets, youknow. So for me, it was
I need to figure something out.I need to get my finances straight.

(37:50):
After I was able to do thatin twenty eighteen is when I found myself
resting on my laurels. Is whenI found myself kicking back, kicking up
my feet, because you know,I had like a couple hundred thousand dollars
in Bengals like life is good.I had retired my parents, you know,
I had cleared out my debt.I still I still couldn't apply for
a credit card. Actually just gota credit card this year. Wow,

(38:10):
yeah, said almost seven years later. Wow, with a business that does
multiple eight figures a year, Ijust literally got my first credit card this
year, right, And you knowthat's when I was like, all right,
and I found myself in a placewhere I don't want to grow this
anymore. I'm not passionate about thisanymore. And that's when I went seeking
for my passion. And luckily,my passion just happened to be right in

(38:32):
front of me. I just neededto look at it today. That's all
I do, and that's all I'llever do. Every time I feel that
I'm uninspired doing something, I justkick it off. Yeah. Why do
you think, though, why doyou have that philosophy that people should should
worry about getting money before worrying aboutwhat they're supposed to be doing in life.
Again, just exactly as what Isaid, Because when you have that

(38:52):
collectors calling you every day, likeif you want to be if you want
to truly find your passion. Look, unless you picked up a paintbrush one
you were like two months old andstarted painting, or you've got a great
voice, or you're just an awesomesoccer or football player or whatever, that's
different, right, And some peopleeven do it enough for the passion,

(39:13):
they're just good at it, andthen they turn out to do something completely
different. Right. But unless youhave a great skill, which I obviously
don't like, you need to goout seeking for and you need to really
be intentional to find it, right, And you have to come from a
place of abundance. You cannot comefrom a place of scarcity. And again,

(39:34):
when you have debt, when peopleare calling you every day asking for
their money, you're not in noplace of abundance. You are scared as
shit and you want to like getthings done right. So I wasn't in
a place emotionally and mentally. Ididn't have the mental capacity to go seeking
my passion because I didn't have anobvious sign so and I didn't even know
what the hell that meant. Likeagain, I would you know? When

(39:55):
I first went online, the oneat a lot of as people was grankard
own gear rev all these guys,and it was like, you know,
Gary Views talking about like finding yourpassion, doing something your passion, But
I'm like, I don't know whatthe fuck you're talking about. There's nothing
I'm passionate about me trying to gofind my passion right now, I'm like
stressed out all day long? Howdo I find my passion in that state?
You just can't you know, again, unless it's very obvious for you,

(40:19):
you can't do it right. Andagain, I was twenty five.
I had just experienced one of themost tragic things. It's not like I
was. I had a job,because it's also different if you say have
a job, you been in thejob, stuck for ten years. But
you know, you're like like you'vemade things work out, you know,
like it's worked out. You know, yeah, you can spend another six
months looking for your passion. Butwhen you just had a massive life changing

(40:43):
experience and you're in like you know, your back is against the wall,
it's like, dude, I gottafigure something out. I don't know about
the whole passion thing, you know, but there's a line that needs to
be drawn in the sand. Onceyou have made it to the other side,
you must find your passion. Becauseif you don't, you will get
fucked. You will literally just bloweverything off. Because I nearly blew everything

(41:07):
because I found myself on the beachin San Diego again, drunk out a
bar again when I wasn't supposed tobe driving. Luckily, I wasn't driving.
I had a friend that was drivingme. But I had made it
in my sense at that time.Yeah, I mean, this is the
first time I'm making like, Idon't know, maybe like twenty grand a
month in profits. Holy shit,this kind of money is even real.

(41:29):
Like I didn't even know something likethat existed. Yeah, right. I
could literally walk in anywhere and getanything I wanted at anytime. Right.
I couldn't walk into golf stream andget a private jet. But hey,
you know who cares, right,But I was doing a lot better than
the average person that was, youknow, around me, and a lot
better, right, And so that'swhen I realized that, Okay, I
need to, like, what isthis. I don't see myself doing this

(41:52):
for the rest of my life.I need to find something where I could
see myself and plan twenty years fromnow. Okay, So you believe that
people can not really find their passionuntil they get on the other side of
financial freedom, I do believe.So, yeah, you have to again,
you have to come from place ofabundance and you can't come from place
of scarcity. That's good. Iwant to talk to you a little bit

(42:12):
because I think this is an extremelyimportant part to success and possibly to your
success. But the mental shifts thatyou had to do in order to become
who you are today, because I'veeven seen, like some of the pictures
that you pose in videos, youalmost look like a different person, like
you almost are new. And socan you talk about the work that you

(42:35):
had to do or the work thatothers imparted into you in order for you
to become mentally different and have themental capacity to handle the level of success.
So there is there's a couple ofthings. The first thing is this
whole idea of a thing big.I know it's very cliche, it's very

(42:59):
simple, but it's very important foryou to surround yourself with the right people.
So I was this is twenty twentynow in twenty eighteen, late twenty
eighteen, I was hanging out withmy White's cousin actually had a conversation with
last night and he asked me thisquestion, and now I ask almost everybody

(43:21):
that I met this question. Andactually I was meaning to ask with this
earlier before we started. Where doyou see yourself in the next thirty to
five years? He asked me thatquestion, and it changed my life.
And because I know the impact thatit made on me, I now ask
it to every person, and ninetypercent of people that I asked them they
have no freaking clue. Oh Ijust don't plan that far. I just
don't think like that. Oh Idon't know, you know, honestly,

(43:43):
I'm not sure. Well, Iknow in six months, But when you
think that far ahead is when itmakes that shift in your mind. Right,
So for me, when I thoughtof three to five years, I
stared at him in the face.I was like, did I have no
ideas? Like? Wait, Ithought you were like really happy with what
you're doing. I'm like, Iam, but I don't see myself doing
this continuously growing it for the nextthree to five years. Because again,

(44:07):
I was rested, I was doingokay everyone around me. To them,
I was like, God, Ihad made it. You know. My
mom was starting to feel pretty proudof me. Now, you know,
my dad was definitely proud of me, and and that's when I started BJK
University, which is our company rightnow, which is my main focus,
which is teaching people how to youknow, we're an education company and we

(44:30):
teach people how to start online businesses. Currently we're focused on Amazon, but
the plan is to go into otherhorizontals such as you know, a trading
or a crypto or whatever else.But we're a university where people come to
us to acquire a skill they canturn into income with the ninety days or
less. And then the plan isalso to launch other programs where where they
can they can tackle like kind oflike seminars. It's all good, good,

(44:57):
okay, okay, holy shit,we've been on for almost an hour.
God dam might talk a lot,okay. And then so you know,
the plan is to also kind ofadd other aspects of their lives or
or I guess approach their other lifeaspects, which is like their emotional life,

(45:20):
their relationships, their their mindset,all that stuff. Because I know
that's where I made the biggest youknow, the biggest development and drew what
drove me to achieve the financial success. Right, So when I realized that,
I understood that, you know,in order for me to succeed,
I needed to work on my mindset. But it all first starts to what

(45:42):
you're aware of, what you're exposedto, right, and awareness comes from
your surrounding. So in twenty twenty, our business was stag grant. We
were at the same level for thewhole year, and I was just comfortable.
So what I did is I removedmyself from that environment and I moved
from San Diego to Miami, placewhere I knew nobody, place where I
had never been, and it wasa completely new environment for me, and

(46:04):
it put me out of my comfortzone. So it's continually challenging myself,
continually investing in education because it's awareness. People anyone watching, they're probably right
here. And obviously this is differentfor every person. But in order for
you to go from here to here, there is only one thing that's holding
you, and that's level of awareness, right, And the only way you

(46:27):
can gain that level awareness is exposure. Exposing yourself to books, exposing yourself
to podcast like this one, exposingyourself to coaches. This year alone,
we've invested in nearly six hundred thousanddollars in coaching, Mastermind and consulting because
I know how much of a returnit's brought into my life and how much
you can bring into my life.So it's continuously investing. People hear me

(46:50):
say that, and they're like,dude, but I don't have six hundred
to invest. I'm like, yeah, my first course was five hundred bucks.
Right. You can't compare your chapterone to somebody else's chapter mony.
You know, people look at ElonMusk and say, well, he's running
seven companies. Yeah, but hedidn't start running seven companies, right.
He did that when he was worthlike two hundred three hundred million dollars.
And so it's about continuously pushing yourself, continuously putting yourself in new environments and

(47:16):
continuously exposing yourself to new information.And when you do that, you start
gaining new perspectives. And so itwas that was the very first thing,
and then it went more tactical,right it went, so that was kind
of like overall him motivation, andeven earlier than that was rocket Ballboa Honestly
until now, I have a littlemetal thing that I have on my on

(47:36):
my whiteboard. It's a quote byhim. So you know, Rockey bab
Boo the movie silvesi'st alone. He'sone of my one of he's my favorite
actor, and he's got a quotehe says, it's not about how hard
you hit, It's about how hardyou can get hit and keep moving forward.
That's how winning is done. Right. So it was just all those

(47:58):
combined together and then going more tactical, like Okay, Amazon, FBA,
take a course, I want tolearn about PPC, hiring a coach that
teaches me about PPC. And again, it also came because I had the
experience of doing it all by myself, thinking I know it all. I
mean, before I started my restaurantbusiness, I watched reality TV show Bar
Rescue by John Taffer for six monthstaking notes, thinking now I'm an expert

(48:22):
at running a restaurant from watching areality show, right, And so I
realized that an order for me tobecome successful and to keep growing, I
need professional help. And so fromthere it was more tactical. When I
went to growing my consulting business wasSam Ovens became one of his students,
and then kind of grew from there. And then now it's people like Dean

(48:45):
kratzioc Downlock, Tylepez, you know, Gary v All these people trying to
get like one on one time withthem where I can sit for one hour,
you know, literally summarize everything inone hour and then implemented my business.
We need to build a finance department. Okay, who's the best you
know, fractional CFO. Let's gohire them and bring them teach us.
We need to bring this thing.Who's the best that does? Go bring

(49:06):
them and hire them to teach usand and so on. Wow, okay,
and as we get ready to close, best piece of advice you can
give to somebody who might be stuckin or and want to see themselves where
you are. So this is goingto contradict what I said earlier, but
it's not so hear me out.If you're wanting to start a business,
or if you want to and it'snot even a business, you don't need

(49:28):
to start your own thing for youto make it own life. You can
work for someone else. I wasvery close to working for someone else and
I would have done very well aswell. But it's very important for you
to start with your why, rightand this is not your passion, it's
completely different. You need to beclear on your why. And my wife
for me, when I was startingout as I was very strong. I

(49:50):
need to retire my parents, Ineed to gain the respect of my dad
back, I need to clear theone hundred and fifty thousand dollars in debt,
and I need to be able tomarry the love of my life.
And to me, that was strongenough to wake me up every single day,
regardless what life was throwing at me, I was still willing even if
I did not feel good, Iwas still willing to go through the walls

(50:12):
and make it on the other sidebecause my why was big enough. Again,
that's not passion. This has nothingto do with massion. This is
just being clear on your why.Because turbulence will happen, because bad things
will happen. Life is not perfect. Life as a bitch, and trust
me, we'll test you in everysingle way. You wanted to do it
right, So you got to beclear on your why before you started anything.
Otherwise no point in even starting.That's good. I know one of

(50:35):
your wife right now too, isto impact one million lines. Yes,
how close are you to that goal? We're nowhere near, but the plan
is by twenty twenty six we'll wantto be there. Okay, yeah,
well there it is in twenty twentysix. I'm wanted to call you yes,
and i want you to hold meaccountable. Sure, thank you so
absolutely, Thank you appreciate it sittingand talking with me. If people want
to learn about the university and howto be a part of what you're doing,

(50:58):
how can they do that? Sojust go to Instagram Bichard Jaka too
on Instagram and you can watch allabout you know, the content that we
post. You can watch about everythingthat we do. You can check out
some of our student case studies andreally learn just a little bit more about
what do we do and who Iam and what the university is about.
There, it is all right,Thanks shall peace