ON THE PURSUIT PODCAST (PRST)
On the Pursuit (PRST) Podcast connects with entrepreneurs, movers and shakers that are making a real impact in life & business and we share these stories to motivate and inspire you to take action in your life. Now kickback and enjoy the show whether you are chilling, working out or on-the-move.
ON THE PURSUIT PODCAST (PRST)
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.
what's up y'all? Welcome to another episode of the honor pursuit podcast. We interview six, seven, eight even not figure entrepreneurs. Today we're in Irvine yeah, back in California.
Speaker 1:Welcome man. You say, hey, what's going on? I gotta introduce you, though, real quick. You know, having been here for a couple weeks, it's been's been about a month. You and I were looking to get together maybe a month ago. Yeah, scheduled a little schedule conflict on my side, but we've been talking through Instagram pretty consistently. You know what I mean. So back here had to connect with you. Listen y'all. I'm sitting next to an eight-figure entrepreneur, a father right husband, a leader, and we're in this over 10 000 square foot office in the middle of irvine where he's inspiring his troops, his team, to generate our revenue and change the trajectory of each and every of their families. So, kim and essie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thanks, bro, I appreciate it man and I know, I know it's a little, a little nice little. You know this is, this is what all the kids are wearing right now just a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's funny, I just got it so a little, you know a little iffy, but you know so so so who is Kim?
Speaker 1:and Essie? And, uh, I know I know you were sharing with me off camera right as we're sitting there saying things up about how obviously you know, covid had an effect, yeah, on your business. Yeah, yeah, but you bounced back after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you bounced back in a big way 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, you were part of the ink yeah, 5,000, yeah, and everything like that. So, uh, breakdown to the people who may not know you, who may not quite know Kim Manessi, the lead God you know on Instagram, social media, who may not know how you have grown this business let's kind of get into that a little bit yeah.
Speaker 2:So my stories. Like some entrepreneurs, you may know, some it may not be, but basically I was a high school dropout. My parents split up when I was younger. 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 to work and it is what it is right. So I dropped out of high school. I just started working full time and during that path of partying, hanging out, doing stuff 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 what I mean Couch surfing on my buddy's couches. Shout out to couch surfing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: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 long of 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 to be able to provide, like financially for myself.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean and it was out of like desperation and, um, pure need that I needed to get something, a vehicle that can actually provide the income that I needed to support myself. That's it. So I fell onto sales, and then that's when the ball started rolling for me.
Speaker 1:So when you say you fell onto sales, what was the first industry, what was the first product or service that you were selling? Yeah, so when you fell onto it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I was basically I was working at a serving job, I was still broke. I got a second serving jobs was working morning and nights. I was even more broke spending money on gas. I just couldn't make any money. You know, I mean, and my buddy was working mortgage and he said, hey, guys are making some good money here, five, ten grand a month, and then when you get into like the real sales, you can make fifty grand a month. You know, I mean, I said, just get me in the door.
Speaker 2:I had no sales experience whatsoever and it was an opening position. Basically you're screening calls 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, pretty decent at it and I think it was just a natural ability, um, that I have, of just being able to communicate and talk to people. But, more importantly, I was desperate, like legitimately desperate. So once I figured out that guys were actually being able to make 10, 15, 20, 30 grand a month, something switched off my brain.
Speaker 1:Like I can do it too. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Like I was talking to these guys on lunch and they're like, oh dude, I was just like you a couple of years ago, like now I, you know, 25, 30 grand a month, right. So I think being exposed to that type of environment at you know, relatively young age I was probably like 22, 23, um and seeing that, like that exposure really did something for me. You know, I mean a lot of these guys were talking and and give 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 making money for fucking 15 years. You know what I mean. Once I knew that it was possible, I've been obsessed with it.
Speaker 2:And not just because I want to make a bunch of fucking money so I can drive a nicer car. I wanted security, dude, I was tired of being broke. I was tired of fucking being poor. I was tired of, you know, not being able to do anything I want to do, right like I was stuck in a box and I got hit with everything in life going on around me, right, and I just felt like I was getting beat up all the time. So money is a tool. It's a tool and it's a resource for you to actually control your life more. You know what I mean? Simple as that. You mean all the other bullshit that comes along with it.
Speaker 2:Those are the perks of having money yeah the real stuff is the security, and that's what I was after, coming from kind of my background.
Speaker 1:So what are some of the things that you learned during that journey about yourself? Because at some point, like you said, you didn't know how to make the money, you were broke or whatever the situation may be, you were looking for an opportunity and you were desperate for the opportunity. So, when you had the opportunity and something switched within you, what are some of the things that you learned about yourself?
Speaker 2: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 Moneybagg yo Me vs Me, right, and that's truly what it is Like. It's legitimately you versus you. No one's gonna pick up the phones for you. No one's gonna show up to work for you. No one's gonna like get you to pitch yourself to get yourself in a better opportunity.
Speaker 1:No, one's gonna, no one's gonna drive me here to interview you, 100%, dude, I mean, unless I get a driver. Yeah, you need a driver.
Speaker 2: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 shit that I was doing, which was partying my ass off right Hanging 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 happen just overnight, like it was a natural progression where I started shedding off some of my friends, my groups, and I started focusing on things that were important to me. So you canceled people, yeah, on things that were important to me, so you canceled people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%, intentionally, 100%. I had all the closest friends in the world and I lived at their houses growing up. But eventually my lifestyle started changing. I stopped drinking and all this stuff and I got obsessed about self-improvement, right and bettering my situation. And I got when I'm talking about obsessed guys like I'm talking all I absorbed was movies about finance, making money. All the books I read was about making money in finance. All the documentaries I watched was about money in finance and self-improvement.
Speaker 2:I did this for a fucking probably 10 years straight. I've watched every book, read every book that's basically been out, um, and I just try to push myself towards, uh, just being engulfed into that world. So when I had a shitty day, I can kind of like pick myself up. You know what I mean. I remember watching videos in my car. I had a laptop because phone I don't think they had phone uh like YouTube, like back then maybe that I don't know. But I had a laptop and had a DVD and a Wall Street DVD, the old one, you know what I mean. I had a bunch of other like movies. I'd pop in there on my lunch break trying to pump myself up to go back into work so I could close more. That's the kind of mentality I have. I think a lot of people don't think that's important, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: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 addictive personality. Yeah, 100% For success, yeah, and if it wasn't on that, it might have been on something else that obviously wasn't driving you in that direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was always addicted, when I was really young, you know, I was really into working out. You know what I mean. I don't work out as much anymore.
Speaker 1:I never need to, I know, but you got what I'm saying. I eat, well, I do a little bit.
Speaker 2:You do some push-ups on the B-line, yeah but you know, I was lifting like crazy right and I was like I was super focused on that. You know, 18 to 25 or 22.
Speaker 1:focus on that then.
Speaker 2:I was in like a band, like a legit like metal band music band, and we were doing little you know shows around and I was obsessed with that everything I got into but unfortunately none that shit was paying my bills right and I had to leave, you know, essentially the music stuff and the partying stuff, all that stuff behind, because I needed to correct my life, my course you know what I mean and I could have been like any other person, just kind of wandering around this world. Or I thought about in 10 years, where the hell do I want to be?
Speaker 1:Who do you want to become?
Speaker 2:100%. I said, dude, I don't want to live this way and I'm going to do anything I can to get out of the situation I'm in and look to better my life. Got you.
Speaker 1:So give like a blueprint to the audience right now. You know, maybe there's a younger Kim Manessi watching this, you know, listening to this right now. Right, they haven't picked up the books yet. Right, they haven't got addicted to success yet, right, maybe they still have people in their lives that you know aren't the most supportive, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what would the younger version of you or they do right now?
Speaker 2:you know what would be that, that blueprint yeah, I think a is absorb yourself with the information. That where you want to be, right. So if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, a filmer, a podcaster, whatever it is right, whatever path that you want to go, you're going to start being obsessed with that. So you got to absorb your world around those type of things. So you got to be listening to stuff, reading about it right, trying to follow somebody, something right to get you to move forward, right. So, because in life it's not these huge leaps that you make, it's just incremental, like uh, movements in your life, right, it's these little things that are like little tweaks, little tweaks, and then you do them. You do those over and over and over again after years and eventually your life just naturally progresses and it gets better. But I think it's just being obsessed with whatever products or service or whatever you wanna do or an offer. Get obsessed with it and then try to absorb yourself into that world.
Speaker 1:So just straight absorption, I guess you could say, Okay, so they get absorbed in it, and then you found sales right. So would you say sales is a good place where someone that really doesn't know where they want to go, how to change their life, is that a good category, a good space to go into.
Speaker 2:I tell everybody all the time I think sales saved my life 100%.
Speaker 1:Okay, and why would you say that?
Speaker 2:Because there's no way I would have been able to make the money that I was making without sales 100%, there's no way. I dropped out of high school. I was, you know, bouncing around. I didn't really have any job requirements, all I had was me right. So when I was working at the mortgage company, I worked there for like almost two years or so and then I realized, you know, the industry is really fluctuated by rates, so rates were really low at the time floor. It was like 800 person company and I was like shit, I got to figure out something to make money. You know what I mean, because right now the rate's a little iffy. Even the top guys dropped down. So I wanted to find a new industry.
Speaker 2:So my brother was working in business financing, uh, doing sales, and he was basically making some good money, you know what I mean. So he so he said, hey, come over and try this product out, right, and I got into that. I got into business financing sales and you know, after, again another year or so, I got actually fired from that job for not performing. But I was doing good, but I was not hitting the metrics they wanted to hit. I wasn't closing out the percentages. But that was like my real first closing job, where I was actually closing the customer from start to finish so you were, so you was learning, though 100 before I was an opener.
Speaker 2:I went from an opener to a closer closing business owners, entrepreneurs, guys. I started with nothing and me little of me, you know I mean 23, 24 years old, trying to pitch an entrepreneur to take a you know a business financing offer that maybe you know they didn't want or as far as the terms they wanted, right. So I had to overcome objections to learn all this stuff. So after a year of working that job I got fired and then I but I knew I'm like fuck, I know I can do this. I saw guys in the office making 10, 20 grand, 30 grand, all that stuff. And then I had a couple of good months in there making seven grand, eight grand, and I was like in that first month I was the top guy in the company the same industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same industry, yeah I was the top guy in the industry or in that, in that company and I made like a 10 or 12 grand check that one month you know what I mean and then I knew like I was going to go on a run after that. I just was cracking off every single month and my last check before I left the company to start this company, I made like a 20 grand check and I framed that in my office downstairs just to remind me that anything I want in life is possible, because I knew where I started from and I have my check that actually got my left serving framed as well. It's a two dollar check for the wages that I was getting paid. So I have a two dollar check and I have a twenty dollar check just to remind me that there's a delta and sometimes two dollar check and twenty thousand dollar check 100% yeah, and that was like maybe, like you know, three, three, maybe four years stint.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to get there right, but that time passed all my buddies, everybody was doing the same old stuff or whatever they're doing, and now I'll start to make some real money. You know what I mean, and then now I knew that I could do the sales. My next thing was how do I make the big money? How do I make what the owners are doing? And that was my next progression.
Speaker 1:So that's really interesting, right, because you said you know you got five for the first one, but it was a great space 100% yeah.
Speaker 1:You were learning a lot and they had a certain standard right and you were successful, but you just wasn't hitting the metrics that they would like to see for the people that was closing for them. Yeah Right, right. So then they let you go. You find another opportunity with another company doing something similar. Now you're starting to crank. Yeah Right, you're hitting. You're hitting even numbers higher than what you were saying with these guys One hundred percent. You find a flow, right, like you said, you go on a run and you know how much time you spend there.
Speaker 2:I was probably there for no less than a year.
Speaker 2:OK, so you spend about a year or so over there and then you like all, now I really want to, I really want to get to the bag.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm back at the, I really want to get to the 100. Because I knew because, like it was 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 in the company. The owner was kind of showing up some days, not showing up other days, and I was like dude, this guy doesn't want it like, but he had some good things about his company. He had a lot of leads coming in. So I knew if I was going to A quit my job which I was making good money and take that risk, I better figure out the marketing side. Yeah, so prior to quitting that job, six months leading up to it, I was testing different marketing stuff every single weekend at the end of the day, you know what I mean and I was testing stuff to see if I can bring in the leads, because I knew I can close at that point right, you just need to be on the phone, 100%.
Speaker 1:You just need the people.
Speaker 2: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:So let's talk about the actual company you have now. Yeah, right, for those that aren't really sure what business financing is or you know what, what do you actually help people with when we touch on that really?
Speaker 2:quick and we talk about how it has grown. Yeah, so the company that I own and found it is direct funding. Now I funded it back and founded it back in 2015 but really really didn't get started to 2016. We provide working capital to small businesses nationwide. So, basically, guys like you have small companies.
Speaker 2:Really, the highest cap of revenue we typically do is maybe $30 million a year in revenue, right, so it's guys that are doing 250K a year in revenue to 30 million, and what we do is we give them basically capital on a shorter terms 12 to 24 months and we go off their cashflow of their business. So, if you're doing 50 grand a month consistently over the last couple of months, you've been in business for one or two years, we can give you potentially, you know, $50,000, right, and you're going to pay us back within 12 to 24 months and there's no collateral needed. You can get approved within 24 hours. If not a couple hours, you can get funded the next day. So it's super fast, it's super quick, it's all online and then you work with our sales team and, yeah, since then, we've done close to a billion dollars funded to small businesses.
Speaker 2:Again, these are not huge corporations, these are small businesses mom and pop shops, john's pizza store, right All those types of businesses and we fund thousands of customers every single year, almost 500 customers every single month and, yeah, every year it gets bigger and bigger. And I think, with the current state of the economy, with rates being high, with inflation, all this stuff, the small guy gets squeezed and big banks is not lending the guys like us, right, they don't they like big, big companies, they like a lot of collateral.
Speaker 2:They want you to put up your house. All we're saying is like, hey, we're going to give you this hundred thousand dollars, but you're going to pay us back this, and then you're done with us.
Speaker 1: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's very 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, they they're not aware that. You know, I might need a bridge loan, or I might need access to capital, or I might need access to some type of funding that's going to allow me to get in front of more people buy, buy, you know, buy more products and services that I need to grow the business, right? So, um, how, how, how are they becoming more aware of your services? How, how are the ways are you able to market to them?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, that's the difference between you and another guy, right? Is you marketing your product? Right, you make it look better than the other guy, or just letting them know that that product's available, that service is available? So we do a lot of outreach to customers through digital, through calls, through email, to everything. Right, I'm a strong believer in the law of multiples, meaning multiple verticals, at all times. Right, I want customers coming at me to my sales floor in multiple different ways through multiple different channels, every single day, monday through friday, yeah. So basically, we outreach to these customers, let them know that, hey, you can potentially be qualified for some business funding, and they apply online with us.
Speaker 1:And then they get assigned to, basically, an account manager and they walk them through the process, go over the options that they're available and help their business get funded so what does that 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 that client yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's say, we email them right saying hey, so cold email.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's say we email that customer saying, hey, it looks like you may qualify for some business funding based off your industry or whatever it may be. You can apply here and see what options are available. Right, they go online, they apply, they legitimately put in 20 questions for their business of just basic business information, right, revenue time in business, industry, estimated credit score, all that stuff, right. And then we ask for four months of business bank statements. That's it Four months of business bank statements With an application done online and four months months bank statements. We can get you approved within a couple hours or 24 hours of real approval terms. Right, and then we're going to go over those offers with you, see what you're looking for, see what can be a good fit for your business and really try to be a consultant for your business. Right, and whatever product or offers available for you, we let you guys know, you choose which one is best for you, you get funded and you move on with your life in your business so what's some?
Speaker 1:I was like scared to do that right. What are some of the terms looking like?
Speaker 2:yeah, terms can be anywhere from 12 to 24 months and as far as the cost of the funds, that's me dependent on multiple different factors. Right, your revenue, your credit score, your time in business. We look at a bunch of different factors, but what we do look at is businesses doing over 250k in annual gross revenue. Okay, been in business for one year and a fico score at least 550 and above.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's like you got to have a pulse, yeah, like.
Speaker 2: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 all the time, that's not a great sign, right um? If your credit's good, then the terms 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, all types of financing. So it's not just a straight uh, basically, funding term um, it's multiple different products for these businesses so where so the lead?
Speaker 1:god? Right, where did that come from? And then, how did you become the lead guy?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I think again to go back to the one company when I started doing sales and I started making some real money, there's one thing that I saw that they're doing really well they're bringing a lot 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 can potentially hire people. Then I can maybe make a lot of money right and I can potentially hire people to join my team to make a lot of money with me, right. So I realized like early on that A sales is, you know, eat what you kill, get crazy good at it and you can print money forever.
Speaker 2:And secondly, figure out how to generate leads for yourself or work with a company that's generating a lot of leads. So you have tons, tons of opportunities and get a good Commission comp plan right, and sometimes you got to prove yourself and kind of work your way up. But get it a company that has a lot of leads, a lot of opportunities, and you want to drive as much traffic for your product or service every single day right, I want my guys so flush with leads. They'll never leave me.
Speaker 2: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 a firm believer of giving these guys opportunities so that way they can hit their goals right. And if I make them hit their goals, they're going to stay with me longer. You know what I mean, yeah, so, again, I think everything that comes down to marketing and generating leads and the lead God just came out on Instagram. Basically, I just wanted to start, you know, having more of a social presence and talking about things that I'm inspired about, which is entrepreneurship, self-development and just really just getting better every day. And Leads is something that I believe in marketing, and that's just kind of something I stuck.
Speaker 1:What are the different channels away on one could generate leads.
Speaker 2:Simple thing your phone dude. You know, like everyone's got a phone and you can call whoever right? So getting targeted lists that are maybe in your sector or industry, jump on the phone and start calling, and there's systems nowadays that you can call people a little bit more or whatever it is right. Emails, texts, all this stuff is like super important, right? So you don't need to go spend 50, $100,000 on Google and Facebook and compete with the big guys. You can do it, you know, on your phone. You know what I mean. So get super strategic with it, try to work within the budget you have and just put max effort in, right?
Speaker 1:If it's sending a bunch of emails out, if it's text messages, if it's calls or whatever it is, call centers, whatever it is, it's just the law of multiples more calls volume, more leads more closings. So um a business that's starting right now, let's say it's been operating for like I don't know six months 12 months yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: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 leads is coming through from referrals and word of mouth. Yeah, I haven't really put any organic out there. They haven't really went crazy with like ads, yeah, so, so, a company that's set up like that, based on your experience, what would you recommend? How, like how, could they turn it over in the next 30 to 60 days?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, when I started, I started with a couple grand budget. That was it. You know, I mean, and just figure it out. But I think you got to figure out what your target market is and you got to start acquiring lists of these customers to start going after them, right. So for you, if you have podcast people, you want to be acquiring people to have these lists that are applied for some podcasts. Right, there's these customers that have applied all around and then you start reaching out to them to offer your product or service.
Speaker 2:Right, going off for referrals and word of mouth. It's gonna get you so far. You're not gonna be able to build a real business off it. 100%. You need to be doing a lot of outreach to customers and, again, thank God for social, nowadays you can do it through social media, youtube, but you need to be doing consistent outflow. So, regardless if it's on a social media post every single day or an email or call, it should be 100%. So, if you're a small business owner and you're just starting to start out and you're trying to get your word out, right, um, again, every industry is different, so there's going to be different obstacles, right? Um, it's going to be different if you're in an insurance company versus doing a pizza store. You're not going to call people to see if they want pizza, but you can send them direct mail. That would be interesting you never know like.
Speaker 2:I got this pizza I could do. But you can go to. You can go offices, yeah, and you can market to them. You can, hey, we do this. You know, catering service, whatever it is, it's out reaching the customers, because no one's gonna know who you are. You got to let people know who you are and there's only one way of doing that. It's strictly outreach. You and I mean other than that you can spend money on Google and deal with their AdWords and their costs, and then you know, at a certain point it's hard to generate big revenue for certain products. You know what I mean. So I'm just a firm believer in outreach, bringing a lot of customers in through your funnel, through multiple different verticals, and then your team specializes and help that customer out.
Speaker 1:So what do you feel like is a good acquisition for a small business in terms of wanting to grow through sales? Would you say like getting a sale, getting like a closer and a setter? Would you say that that business owner should just be hammering the phones? What do you think is like a really important first hire someone looking to grow?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know every industry is different. But you just got to find a good closer and give them a good split. You know, because if you go find an appointment center, then the closer and that guy's not closing, then you're spending money on generating leads. It just gets it costs, it gets heavy. You got to get somebody bought in, give them a good split, right, so they can make some good money and give them a lot of opportunities coming in. If you do that, then they can start closing deals and make money. It's a win-win right.
Speaker 2:So then there you have a model. Then, as you grow and expand and you're bringing more leads in, bringing more sales people in, then you can start bringing in, like, appointment centers, right. But it's a little bit hard right off the bat to bring in appointment centers, then leads and then crm costs and all the other costs that cost, uh, to generate these customers, right. I would say just be strategic with it, right. You just need a good closer Sell your buddy, that's a good sales guy to join your team. Come on in, dude, I'll give you 50% split of every deal you close, right.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, that's not ideal right off the you know, long term, but in the beginning you can offer you know things, because you just need to bring in revenue right and I might just be like, like you said, it could be the homeboy, but it could be just like one person, so you can get that momentum and then you bring on other people. That might be 20 percent, 15 percent or something.
Speaker 2:So the how I brought on my first employee. She was one of the top closers at another company. She wasn't happy, she didn't like the comp, all this stuff. Right, I was telling her how much money I was making. And my brother, he joined my company as well. We partnered. And my brother, he joined my company as well. We partnered up. I was telling him how much we were making, how many leads were getting. I gave her a good split and I said come on over, I'm gonna feed you a bunch of leads, I'm gonna stay out of your way and you're just gonna make money and I mean. But she believed me because I was closing it and doing it myself yeah that's the only way.
Speaker 1:That's the reason why yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't tell her like, hey, I got this idea and I'm thinking, dude, she's like she'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 know that the opportunity was there, and I had to first prove it to myself. Then I had to prove it to my brother, my business partner, to join my company, because I was like, hey, I need, you know, probably someone to join and help me get this thing going. You know what I mean. He's 10 years older than me, so he had this. It's different. I was young, I was 25 when I started. He was 35, right so, and he had way more experience in sales and other stuff, which you know provided a lot of value. But give somebody what they don't have somewhere else and give them an opportunity you know what I mean and share the pie with them. I agree with that. You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, look. So this is how we're going to get you more exposure. Using the pod equals MC square strategy, right? Then we're going to bring out the air fryer and then connect it to the toaster oven method right, I think I wasted my money. Now, until we do all this, we're going to get you a million views and millions of subscribers. I have no idea what you're talking about. I got you. Let me go get something. What's this box about?
Speaker 2:Wow Bro, what is that?
Speaker 1:So we got your long-form podcast right here, right, this is the long-form audio.
Speaker 2:Okay, now I'm getting my money's worth.
Speaker 1:We got a service to get more exposure, get more views and get more call to action to get more sales.
Speaker 2:Let's go.
Speaker 1: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 talking about. Like this right here, ain't 5,000? Yeah, what does it take for business to qualify for that? And then, how fast were you able to?
Speaker 2:get ranked on there. Yeah, so we, our company, really started going in like 2016, but I think by mid 2016 I hired my first employee. By the end of 2019 I had almost 60 employees 60, yeah, so we grew really quick, right. Only reason I was able to go that fast is because I was focused, hyper focused, on generating leads every single day. So I took myself out of sales after probably a couple months and bringing on generating leads 100%.
Speaker 1:I got obsessed with it, just like I on generating leads 100.
Speaker 2:I got obsessed with it just like I was telling you before, I got obsessed with self-development, making money. Now it's about generating leads. It wasn't so much closing anymore. I brought better people than closers than I was. Right I was, that's a good closer, 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, and if these guys didn't get the lead, they would go somewhere else. Do you know what I mean? So again, I got super hyper-focused on marketing, generating tons of leads. At one point prior to the pandemic 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, do you?
Speaker 1:know what I mean, and these are all people that want money too, which which they're going close 100 yeah you're giving them something that they want, so it's not like. It's not like you're calling them something like hey, listen, I got, I got this. Uh, what are those things where people go to the time shares?
Speaker 2:I got a time share no, you're giving people something that they want yeah, I'm knocking on your door, I'm calling your phone, I'm sending an email to john, the business owner, saying hey, do you need money? No, okay, I'm going to follow up with you next week. Do you need money? Again?
Speaker 2:through multiple different channels they, they're eventually, they're basically going to need some money eventually, when he needs money or he has an opportunity or has a need, he applies with us, right. So we wrote to about 60 employees um, we're doing just shy of eight figures a year. At that time and pandemic hit. Okay, pandemic hit, it shut down our industry. We're in small business lending. It decimated our industry. So we went from 60 employees down to maybe five, right, and during that five employees we were all just kind of like hanging around basically waiting for the market to open back up because they're shutting down businesses. They're opening them up.
Speaker 2:Our lending partners did not want to fund small businesses because they kept on shutting them down, right, and we kind of sat back like patiently waiting. It was super, like you know. It was definitely weird at that time because I didn't know when everything was going to come back. We didn't know how many of these things were going to keep rolling. You know what I mean. But during that time, what I did because I really didn't have much to do was I was working on different email marketing strategies and different lead strategies.
Speaker 1:So you were sharpening your like you couldn't close no deals at the time, 100%. You was getting better yeah 100%.
Speaker 2:So during that whole time I was sitting at my house and thank God that I worked my ass off for the last couple years and I was able to have a good amount of savings and basically feel secure, right. So I knew I could just weather the storm. You know, I mean, I was pretty flush right. So I knew I was just a matter of 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 one shot. No, I was gonna jump and do another industry, like a hundred percent. Like I was already in the works to figure out if I was gonna do a different sector or was I just going to stay in my industry. Right, thank God we did. The small business started opening back up again and then we just went on a run. You know what I mean. So to answer your question about the Inc 5000, you get it if you're doing basically multiple.
Speaker 2:So if you do a million dollars one year, you have to do like $5 million three years from now, basically, and they look at like a multiple math, um for businesses that have been in business for like I know, three or four years or something like that, and then every year they rank you based off of 5 000 businesses nationwide and um the first year we got it, we were 325 or 321 of the fastest growing company out of 5 000. It's just really dope% Because we went from like zero in revenue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 325.
Speaker 2:To doing almost eight figures prior to the pandemic.
Speaker 1: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:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You got the team yeah, good office. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So it's not the same obstacles that you had previously. So what do those look like now? Yeah, so now it's completely different, right.
Speaker 2:So I think, like with everything in life, like there's like a level up, right. So you get to a baseline, you figure it out, and there's one or two things which I see I see a our competition, other business owners. They get comfortable, they get complacent, right. They get complacent where they're at and they realize, hey, this is a good life, I can just kind of ride this wave and I don't want to invest a little bit more because a little bit more risky. I've already invested enough and I've already done this.
Speaker 2:And I think that's the difference between myself and some other owners and some of my competitors is leveling up. I always level up, I always invest and go for the next stage. You know what I mean. So for us it's just about constantly pushing the boundaries of what we're comfortable with to increase our revenue, to provide more of an impact to our customers and our employees, and that's it. You know what I mean. And then, by a byproduct of that, I get a big financial windfall, right. So the more I can provide for my employees employees the better lives I can treat them and provide a good opportunity for them. They're going to do a kick-ass job at their position. In return, the company's going to make a lot of money, and then I'll make a lot of money and we're in direct correlation, right, um. So I think it's just about leveling up. You need to keep leveling up and get yourself to the next level, um, and that's kind of. I'm just a firm believer in that what did I look like for you?
Speaker 1:like mindset, wise, right. So what? What are some of the uh preparation you might have done for, like the mental level up, for the mental level ups right?
Speaker 2:yeah, so it's funny enough, dude. It's the same shit I was doing before podcast now, before they didn't have podcasts, right, but it's listening to podcasts, dude. I'm straight up like, I'm obsessed with listening to podcasts. Any entrepreneur that's doing things way bigger than me, right at levels that I have like really aspire at, I'm listening to them. Now, you know what I mean. I'm reading their books, I'm watching documentaries.
Speaker 2:I'm doing the same stuff I've been doing, but just at a higher scale, yeah before I was obsessed with salespeople and closing and you know boiler room type of stuff, right, just like straight commission and guys driving a nice car, like. But then once you get that stuff, you got to start leveling up. You know what I mean. So now it's you know about getting to that next level. And for me, you know, thank god, I've done decently well at business and I have a little bit more of a social following and platform. Now I can start reaching out to these people directly. 100, that's crazy. That was never before. Now I can reach out to guys like you, I can reach out to big guys guys have done way bigger things than I'm doing and I can directly talk to them.
Speaker 2:I was just on a call with a billionaire last night. That's that had two acquisitions for a couple billion dollars. Yeah, straight through a referral and talking through instagram. Right, if I have never done what I was supposed then I needed to do to get myself in the position that I am today and providing a vehicle for not just myself, my employees, there's no way I would have been taking these calls right. But every little step is a natural progression to get better and I think if you're not growing, you're dying, and I just a firm believer in that. Well, what are you afraid of? That's a good question.
Speaker 1:Failure even at this level, yeah 100.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't think about it, as I'm going to lose my business every single day, but I still have this deep gut knowing that it can be taken away from me at any point. Right, it's a business, dude. I've seen businesses crumble. We've seen huge companies crumble overnight. Yeah, it can go away. I, I know it can, but I'm really more for. So a failure of having a fear of not reaching my full potential? Right, and in business, there's no cap. You can make $10,000 a year or you can make a billion dollars a year. It's strictly built off of the back in the work that you're gonna do every day. So if there's no cap in business, my failure is not reaching the potential of having a billion dollar company. Yes, right, and maybe I'll never get there, but maybe I will.
Speaker 2:Back in the day, no one told me I 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 good closer, all this bullshit. I've been getting told all this stuff for so many years. You know what I say to everybody, and I preach this on my Instagram Don't listen to them when they say it can't be done. Right, because everybody all my life told me I couldn't do this, I couldn't have a company. You're too young. You know what I mean. No one's going to join your team, 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 some people higher above me, but I'd never listened to anybody Just on my level or even a little bit above me. I was trying to listen to the guys and see what other guys are doing super, super up there 100%.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think it's just. You know, in life there's so much input of everything going on, from social media to Family to all this shit and it's hard to digest and figure out what you need to do. But when you go to bed at night you know I what your dreams are right, and if your dream is to do what you're doing now, then great. But if your dream is something bigger, then you need to go after it, and no one's going to do it besides you, so you have the next morning to wake up and go after your dreams.
Speaker 1:So who are the, I guess, what are some of the podcasts? And then who are some of the people that you're paying attention to right now that are doing some?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean, like, I think I have like a different like. I have like traditional business entrepreneurs, right, that I'm obsessed with. There's some guys in my space right 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 media people, right, but they're doing something very similar to me, right. But I also have, like, other entrepreneurs that are just, you know, the typical entrepreneurs that you see on instagram that had big businesses and have big, you know, sales. And then I listen to guys that have like um more social media presence now, right, because I'm a little bit more interested in that.
Speaker 2:West watson, right, all these guys, grant cardones, all these kind of guys that have these these big social media presence, and I'm kind of, you know, figuring out things I like and don't like about them, but things 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 of entrepreneurs, you know what I mean. I think you find people that you like and then latch on to them.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How have you found, when you find 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 implement them? Yeah, so what does that look like? Yeah, so like a marketing strategy. Well, like, if you listen to a podcast or if you're reading the book or watching movie, you like, ah, this one thing or these Things would be great. What's your process of taking that information or being inspired by that lesson or principle and then implementing that? How long?
Speaker 2:I think they did. So you doing it right away, 100%. If I see something that like sparks something in my brain, I'll implement it into my business. The next day I'll go to my partner and say, hey, I have this idea. And my partner thank God, he's really. We're just down for it. Right, we're going to try something over and over and over again Not the same thing typically, but we're usually 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 make you millions. So even if it's just like a sales strategy or workflow strategy that I saw online or I saw another company doing really well with right, or a marketing approach, right or simple corporate structures and you know, we're raising a fund here pretty soon to fund our small businesses we're launching a new company that's going to fund the business directly, so we don't use any lenders. We're going to be funding with our own money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty heavy.
Speaker 2:We're raising a big fund and we brought the right people in. And again, it's about learning stuff, implementing it quickly, right, and you know, it's nice having financial resources now where I can go after these things quickly, but you still do them strategically, you still do them with budget in mind, but I think it's just action. I think that's just the difference between me and a guy that's not in my position, I think the difference between a guy that's above me. He had different actions than I'm doing right now. Right, but I know eventually, eventually, I keep implementing action after action. I'm gonna hit, I'm gonna hit something and then boom, your business takes off and then you know you're on the next level so earlier you also talked about like money a little bit right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, about money's a tool and it's a resource. So what are some of the ways that people should look at money that can actually help them grow their business but then also change their lives? Because a lot of people are really afraid of like you know, they hoard the money or yeah, or they keep it. They're afraid to spend it, they're afraid to invest it. They feel like they're gonna lose it yeah, I understand too.
Speaker 2:I didn't have any money, right. So, like I never had any money. And then I started making a little bit of money. And then when I started making money, I was very conservative with it. Dude, like I was, drove a old honda, the cheapest apartment I could, and I hoarded every single dollar I was. I was, you know, shopping at old navy. You know what I mean, making 10, 20 grand a month. So this ain't the old navy shirt. No, not anymore levels. 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 watching my money, looking at it right, daily, 100%. I still, to this day, look at a monthly report of all my fucking money, all the places where it's at. I look at it where it's at right. But in the beginning it was just about watching the money in the savings account, watching the money in the savings account, watching the money savings account.
Speaker 2:But I knew at some point I had to double down if I was going to start leveling up right, double down on on some investment or starting my business, which was basically what I did. So I had a little bit of money saved up probably about 40 grand saved up and I grabbed that money and I started the company and I said, if this business fails, right, I can always go back to sales and make the money.
Speaker 2:There's my safety net, I can blow all the money and that would suck because it took me some time to make that money and save up and pay the tax man and all that shit right. I was super conservative with everything. I took that investment and I turned a couple grand into tens and tens of millions of dollars, right. But I would have never been able to do it if I didn't take an action right and then invest the money. So I think, cool, be smart with your money, save up your money. You should be obsessed with bringing in money for yourself, for your, for your family, for yourself, just as a you know a human. In an economic environment, everything's expensive, everything costs money, so you should be obsessed with bringing it in and figuring out ways to level it up. You know what I mean. So I just kept on be being keeping a close eye on it and then, once I realized I had an opportunity, I took advantage of it and I spent. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: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't able to, once the money came in, that you maybe planted some seeds so that money could bring in other money for you yeah, and I'm not talking about investment properties, I'm not talking to you about that bullshit, dude like I'm talking about investing in my business, right?
Speaker 2:so all the money I did for multiple years as we were scaling up to those 60 employees before the pandemic, I was investing tens of thousands of dollars, fifty thousand dollars, on new marketing strategies, hiring a bunch of employees. Everything was a big investment, right? There was a point at our time in our business when we were scaling up, there was probably about 25 of us. Our competitor closed down. They had 25 employees. Overnight I told my leasing office we need to knock down this wall. I'm putting in desk, I'm hiring all these employees, and overnight we went from 25 employees to 50 employees, like that, and my revenue just shot up.
Speaker 2:But I've never been able to do that. If I was scared, well, maybe I'll bring on one or two and I 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 threw cords, wires hanging around everywhere was wild, you know. I mean, stuck people in the desk and gave him an opportunity to make the money and then our businesses took off yeah but again, that was a huge investment when I could have been like I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 2:So every time I keep leveling up on this, on on the investment in my company, all the new stuff we're doing now. Well, the lending I just told you I'm raising the fun. That costs a lot of money to roll that out, right, but I know I don't if, if I fail, that money's gone whatever, I'm gonna make the money back.
Speaker 1:But if I win, dude you know when big I'm gonna win, real big I already know I'm gonna win big cuz.
Speaker 2:I got, you know, I got the model on the sales floor out there right. So now, now it's just leveling up. So yeah, it just constant. You got to be reinvesting yourself 100% yeah, what about personal brand?
Speaker 1:cuz, uh, I've been I watch you on the gram a little bit. Yeah, I've been doing a little bit more. You got a podcast now. You connect with you. You're connecting with a lot of cool people. Even now, like you said you, you connected with that billionaire, but that was through social media. Yeah, so let's talk about the importance of our personal brand and how you're kind of approaching it yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think personal brand for me. Before, like being on social, I was posting pictures of a dog. You know what I mean, just random shit. You know what I mean. And I just didn't use it for anything. And I looked up guys that were doing it were kind of like self-absorbed and kind of like just flashy, whatever it was. I didn't, I don't know. That's the way I thought about it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But nowadays your social media is actually a business card. It's a modern-day business card who you are, what have you done, what do you know and how can you be of service to potentially myself or people around me or whatever. It is right. That's all social media is right. So the great thing about it it's free and you can blast out. I can post 10 times today if I wanted to, right, and you can do whatever you want whenever you want, at all times. So I think having a personal brand or just having a social presence in general is extremely important to get your message out who are you, what can you do and how can you be a service to your community or people around the world?
Speaker 1:Are you using it consistently.
Speaker 2: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 money into it on a monthly basis and I'm just pumping out as much content as I like and at the same time, I'm trying to get better. I'm not just posting stuff and being like, oh, there's a video, I'm looking at it and I'm listening to it and looking at other guys content and I'm going like, well, dude, my stuff looks like crap compared to his. You know what I mean. I like that strategy.
Speaker 2:So, the same thing I did with marketing, I'm constantly iterating and optimizing what I'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 looking at things and trying to make them better. And luckily I have and I don't think I'm great at it, but I I have a natural gift of looking at things and seeing what the hell I'm not doing, what the hell I should be doing. You know what I mean and sometimes it takes the time to get there, but I know if I keep working on it, um, and eventually it gets better, just like everything else. So what? What platforms are you using? Mostly instagram, okay, um, not so much on tiktok, but you know we'll see what's up with that. And then YouTube.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I mean, you told me yeah and.
Speaker 2:YouTube is. You know I'm still getting my bearings going with it. You know mean. But again, I think it's about starting and then just keep it going Right, like you have a obviously a natural gift with what you're doing. But more importantly, it's the reps that you're putting every day. You're are doing it so hard and so consistently that if anybody comes to your page they're not wondering what the hell you do. They know what you do. You know what I mean Within five seconds. I know what you do, you know what I mean. And then can I get any benefit from this or not, right? And if I do, great, I'm going to follow you and absorb your information or move on with my life and maybe down the might come back right, but um, I think it's just consistency, output and just sharing your knowledge and your experience with.
Speaker 1:You know, the people that are following you. So, earlier you also talked about 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, that addictive personality, right, like you said, he was absorbing books, uh, movies, podcasts on sales, entrepreneurship, whatever, right. So then, when you had down days, you had, you had this reserve that you can go to. Or, if you had a bad day, you had this reserved you can go to. Yeah, nowadays, since it's different, you're successful. Now, are you using that same type of um, you know, uh plan to go back to? If you, you know, when you have these down days, if it's emotional or if it's like a bad day at the office, like how do you work through that?
Speaker 2:It's kind of crazy. I keep going back to this, but like when I have a shitty day in my office or shitty couple of weeks, or things are just not hitting like I wanted to, and you're thinking like shit, did I got any more? Or what am I not seeing? Am I not paying enough attention? I got to get motivated For me personally. I got to get motivated right, so I need to go watch legitimately a YouTube, a documentary, a movie, something about someone Wolf of Wall Street dude Stimulate you, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I got to get this thing ticking again, right, and I got to read something right. I got to absorb something for me personally, because I can have a shitty day, a week, a month, a year, whatever it is, but if there's something that clicks in my brain, it picks me up again. I get that energy. I know what that feels like. The next day you wake up and you're like I got it, even though things might be a little tough and rough again. For me it's just about that motivation, consistent motivation in the times of down. Other times I just absorb it anyways, just naturally. But then when I'm really like struggling, dude, I'm going to go one or two ways.
Speaker 2:Your brain is super powerful and you tell your brain what to do. You know what I mean. Your body is just rolling with it, so your brain can tell you dude, you're a loser, you're a bum, you're not going to be able to figure this. Your freaking dropout, you're gonna be. You know, you knew people that had money. Now they lost it all or shit. You know they're going through some hard times. Look at that guy went and did after that yeah that guy lost everything and look what he did right.
Speaker 2:And that's the kind of mindset I've had is I want to go that way, dude. You know I mean, and but some days where you don't feel like you need that motivation, you know I mean. So I love movies, I love YouTube. I love movies, I love YouTube, I love series, and it's mostly about money. If you look at all my what you got, yeah. If you look what you got, yeah, yeah, yeah. If I find a new show that's about money, I'm in it A hundred percent, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or an entrepreneur that all these shows we Crash just came 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:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So he blew up that company to like $65 billion value in a short period of time and crashed. Anyways, I like hearing these stories about these entrepreneurs that came from nothing 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 went crashing down or not, they did something that no one else thought they can do. I think that's the thing I take in lessons of that and I really that let that absorb in me to help me push me through hard times, dark times or just times that I need to get motivated so what?
Speaker 1:what's a day in the life of Kim and I see, look like Like what. Okay, what's tomorrow, looking like Tomorrow's.
Speaker 2:Wednesday yeah.
Speaker 1:So you're waking up? At what time? What happens before you get here? How do you end the day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, things are a little bit different now. Right, I have a, I have a team probably about 60 employees here, from in office to outside of office and, um, I've set up my company where I have systems, operations, personnel, so I have departments and people handling stuff for me. So it's not like I have to come in and do anything. I have people all doing it for me. But what I need to do is come in and help dictate where that ship should go. You know what I mean. Hey, we should pivot here, we should 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's not a crazy schedule.
Speaker 2: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 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, and I mean in the day before we're already prepping of what my team needs to do and it's not like they're running in with their heads cut off. All of them have their own roles in the company and they go and implement those tasks you know mean, so that way I can roll in to the office and start handling tasks. And basically I, what I do is I have, you know, calendar block schedules with non-negotiable stuff like this right after this, I have non-negotiables stuff like 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 my business poking holes in it figuring out what's going on with that.
Speaker 2:I mean, I love this, but but my I'm a creative mind, right strategy. I like testing, tweaking, you know 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, I go home, help my wife get my kids in bed. They're in bed by 6, 30, 7 o'clock. Then usually my wife hang out a little bit and I'm kind of back on the computer just kind of messing around, looking at my business again or working out at night. That's basically what I do. So it's one of those two things and I just kind of have that same basically day every single day, monday through Friday. And on the weekends I just chill out and hang out with my, my kids, and of course I'm always working and my phone's never off. I'm always available, but our business is Monday through Friday yeah, so.
Speaker 1:So this has been super inspiring for me, just to kind of like hear your story here, hear your growth, you know, see and listen to what you have going on now, and I really like how you know you're super relatable, 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 these are the things that that I'm constantly taking, and I think that's also relatable to more people, because there there is a gang of people out here that don't like reading, right, so if they can absorb, you know, a movie or youtube video, a podcast, it makes it easier for them to take the information. So, um, what, what are? What are a couple of um movies or YouTube channels that you like, that you can share with the people?
Speaker 2:say they can get into it yeah, I mean anything entrepreneurial like I like, I like. So it's for like movies. I like all the classic Wall Street yeah, wolf of Wall Street like billions yeah, billions. I love that show. Succession wasion was a good show. I haven't seen Succession yet. Crazy show. Badass Guys living lives that I dream of. You know what I mean? You're just living on a different planet, almost right. Yeah, any of these financial movies. You know what I mean? Big Short, all this stuff. I like movies about financial ruins.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, when I was seeing it recently. I don't know what I've seen recently. I don't know if you've seen it, but maybe you have a bit conned. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I joined, was crazy again. Like my man said, I always wanted to be a thief.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was crazy, but like again, you can take like interesting things people, but I love stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Like he had a super addictive personality to a drug addict, yeah, but he had a very interesting story in the way that he did stuff. But again, he created something crazy from nothing, even though it was fraud, but what he did was just insane. So you can take little things from that. Obviously, remove the bad shit, but just take the interesting things right, going from nothing to something. You know what I mean, whatever way they kind of figured out. But yeah, as far as YouTube channels, jeez, I can't even think of one off the top of my head. I'm just constantly looking at stuff of podcasts of really just entrepreneurs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, mark Cuban, grant Cardone, yeah, yeah, I was just watching one of JP Morgan last night talking about the economy and he was talking about how he went from bank to bank and how he got into the position. He was Just weird stuff like that. I'm constantly listening to this stuff, you know what I mean so.
Speaker 2:I guess on the top of my head I don't have anything like pinpointing, but if you look at my YouTube right now, it's all entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, you can share some things with me Like text me later. Yeah, I'll put those links below because I definitely want to. I would love to share with people watching this or listening to this. You know maybe two or three things that that are kind of like go to channels or movies for you, because because you talked about the importance of you capturing that motivation so if they can share in some of that, they might be able to pull some of that inspiration.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure, yeah, definitely so we'll put that below.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um. So, as we wrap up, bro, um. Is there anything else you want to share with the people that can inspire them to? You know, have a journey of success like you've currently achieved. What would you say?
Speaker 2:yeah, and I appreciate you saying that and to me personally, I don't think yeah, I'm proud of what I've done, but I'm not satisfied yeah right, I don't think I've done anything special. Dude, you can go down to these offices right next door and the guys are doing the next same thing. You know what I mean. So, like I know I haven't done anything special.
Speaker 2:I've done something cool of some value right now, but I know I have a lot more potential I like right so even when I was in my apartment cold calling people just to you know, sell my product, I knew I had way more potential. So I think it's just believing in yourself, knowing that you can do it. Don't listen to anybody else and just listen to yourself and put in the daily actions. If you you put the daily actions every single day, you're going to receive data back and then you make moves based off that data. You do that over a long period of time. Eventually, your life starts going like this and the money starts going like this, and it's hard to stop it when it starts to take off.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean. So I think it's just consistency putting in the work. No one's going to do it for you. You gotta do it yourself and don't cry that it hasn't happened to you. What's up, guys? My name is ken manessi, aka the league god. I'm the founder and ceo of direct funding. Now. We offer business financing to small businesses nationwide. We're hiring for sales people. I have sales people in my office right now that are moving 50 to 70 000 per month. If you're looking for an opportunity, apply with us online. Hit the link in the bio. Looking forward to talking to you.
Speaker 1:You're basically saying you're not satisfied.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So in life, no one's gonna do anything for you. You are responsible for yourself. So if you wanna be successful, that means you have to go put in that daily, consistent work and when you're doing that work, get the data that you're getting receiving, coming back and make strategic moves based off that data and then you just consistently do that over a long period of time, keep investing in yourself, invest in your business and eventually your revenue will grow up and your income will go up. But no one's gonna do it for you. You gotta pick up your phone and do whatever you need to do to bring in the customers so that you can sell your product or service and then, realistically, you can change your life 100% man.
Speaker 1:This has been great. Um, we gotta come back down so I can spend some time with you. Yeah, I think I think that would be cool. Uh, shoot some more content, show some. Show some lifestyle stuff. Yeah, I think that would be awesome, um, but for those that, uh, you know, want to learn more about you, connect with you on instagram, stuff like that, um, where should they go? What should they do?
Speaker 2: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 is instagram. I actually reply to a lot of people. It's really you. He does reply yeah, 100 I like talking to people. I like just chit chatting, whatever it is, but I like posting stuff about entrepreneurship, self-improvement, um things that I've learned um and you know.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you guys seek some value with that nah, man, this has been, this has been dope. Listen, you guys make sure you tap into the lead guard, ken Manessi, on Instagram the lead guard and maybe there's some questions that you want to ask him that we didn't touch on, or maybe there's some things you want to go a little deeper. Maybe you want to work with direct funding? Yeah, straight up.
Speaker 2:We're hiring who knows they're hiring, right, so listen up.
Speaker 1:We're hiring who knows they're hiring. Yeah, right, so listen. All you need to do is make sure you check them on instagram. Um, at the lead, god, ask him whatever you want to ask him. It's really him. He's really answering those dms and um, you know, we appreciate you guys for checking out another episode of the honor pursuit podcast. Peace, thanks for watching.