Full Transcript for Secrets of E-Commerce Success and Family Fulfillment

they are starting today on that journey. 00:02:27.478 --> 00:02:35.627 This is the third one they've done now with their homeschool co-op as part of their adventure, so it should be pretty fun to watch that come out. 00:02:35.627 --> 00:02:38.275 So we just, you know we balance things between myself and my wife. 00:02:38.275 --> 00:02:45.822 I really like to joke that she owns the company Twaner Prizes, which owns Voltage and the other assets, and I'm just a worker for it. 00:02:45.822 --> 00:02:48.877 So if anything happens to me, it all gets transferred to her. 00:02:49.198 --> 00:02:52.856 But in terms of life and business, we've spent the last 17 years doing that together. 00:02:52.856 --> 00:02:55.382 We got married in 2007. 00:02:55.382 --> 00:03:01.283 I left my corporate career and fired the man in 2007, went out on my own into new business ventures etc. 00:03:01.283 --> 00:03:10.277 By the time we got married that same year, in March, and I left IBM in June and we found out by September we were pregnant with our first daughter all in that same year. 00:03:10.277 --> 00:03:14.731 So starting the business, starting the family, starting a new adventure was just all part of the package. 00:03:15.754 --> 00:03:22.581 Don't necessarily recommend all new couples who are newly married do that because it puts a lot of stress on the finances and family. 00:03:22.581 --> 00:03:33.165 But if you've got the major pillars of faith, family, finances and the goal of freedom in mind, you know you're normally can be pretty unstoppable if you don't give up Uh. 00:03:33.165 --> 00:03:50.003 And so we worked through that uh and through the challenges and opportunities that have been created as a family, you know, decided that we would homeschool our kids after that process and just kept going and never stopped uh with that and that's just led us to a life now that I feel more blessed than stressed to be a part of. 00:03:50.003 --> 00:04:03.415 And we are just a great family unit and do what we do on the home and business fronts to kind of, you know, team up and combine the activities of the operations and control of our family, our life and everything else, and it's wonderful. 00:04:03.717 --> 00:04:18.642 Couldn't see it any other way so just to correct me if I'm wrong, but you're not only juggling your own business and family, but also juggling the roadmap of making your kids the next generation entrepreneurs. 00:04:18.642 --> 00:04:25.201 And you are an author of yourself and you have a family of author the next generation, your daughter. 00:04:25.201 --> 00:04:31.263 So tell us a little bit about your books and your authorship journey before we hop into your digital marketing. 00:04:31.891 --> 00:04:38.043 So I told my daughter about a year and a half ago that I was going to publish this book and that we were in the process of doing it. 00:04:38.043 --> 00:04:47.382 And as we compiled it and worked with the 15 different individuals who came on my podcast

and we pulled that information together and wrote the 15 chapters in that book. 00:04:47.382 --> 00:04:50.264 As each of them was guest, we went through that process. 00:04:50.264 --> 00:05:06.091 She got to see that In part of learning the business of e-commerce and writing and copywriting of the listings and products, she discovered she had more of a personal affinity towards the writing than anything else and so that kind of sparked her interest in writing and putting her creative thoughts onto paper. 00:05:06.091 --> 00:05:13.980 And then you know, in the way we structure our home and kids get up, we got animals, we got chores, we live on a homestead, so that has to be taken care of. 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:18.379 Daily, monthly and nightly, every day it has to be taken care of. 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:37.024 But when they get through their schooling and criteria that they do with mom in the kitchen and they get through each of their activities, things they're supposed to be doing, studies, et cetera if they're freed up by noon, one or two o'clock in the afternoon, depending upon which studies take, how long or whatever, they're free to do whatever they want with the rest of their time. 00:05:37.024 --> 00:05:40.473 And with that she set off to start writing and during her free time for an entire year she focused. 00:05:40.855 --> 00:05:43.982 I published my book in January of 2024. 00:05:43.982 --> 00:05:51.002 And with that it kind of led her to realize it was possible I'd help her with her marketing, and so we finished the final components of it. 00:05:51.002 --> 00:06:05.597 I got her an editor and a writing mentor to take her raw talent and just make sure that this wasn't a bad American Idol experience and throwing my daughter on a stage where she squeaks and no one was willing to tell her the truth and she sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. 00:06:05.597 --> 00:06:07.932 I wasn't going to do that to her, so I got her a mentor and an editor on a chalkboard. 00:06:07.932 --> 00:06:11.939 I wasn't going to do that to her, so I got her a mentor and an editor and they said, hey, this is actually great, it's raw talent, let's keep going. 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:13.203 And so that was encouraging. 00:06:17.710 --> 00:06:19.076 If it wasn't her bent, I didn't want to take her down that direction. 00:06:19.076 --> 00:06:21.105 If it wasn't going to be a good, you know, focus of her time and in balance with their studies. 00:06:21.105 --> 00:06:23.131 It's a great learning and entrepreneurial journey. 00:06:23.131 --> 00:06:23.913 But she ended up. 00:06:23.913 --> 00:06:29.860 We got it done and published and ready to go and launched it in June, right ahead of her birthday. 00:06:29.860 --> 00:06:38.307 So she got her book out, because I got my book out and that was part of the leader thing there was to do it together and to see that it could occur, so that she could walk that path too. 00:06:39.310 --> 00:06:42.838 Well, kudos to the next generation of Twas. 00:06:42.838 --> 00:06:43.942 I guess Yep. 00:06:44.389 --> 00:06:44.870 And I find those. 00:06:44.870 --> 00:07:16.805 Next, my second daughter has been really engaged in video and editing and she's been working on looking at creating some shorts and video and promos for the business and for products we have and she's getting stronger and better at that and we're going to figure out how to turn her into a little self-employed media expert, where she's been really enjoying making the videos and combining the photographs and the images and using AI voices and techniques with CapCut and other things to create those videos and there's a little creative spark in her energy and we're going to see where that goes next. 00:07:17.685 --> 00:07:19.925 So one at a time, right? 00:07:19.925 --> 00:07:21.367 Yes, definitely. 00:07:21.367 --> 00:07:29.060 And the way I see it, you are building your own team within your house, pretty much Between the writing and everything. 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:32.011 Yep, I'm kind of building up a team of who can get involved in the business. 00:07:32.011 --> 00:07:42.956 Right now they're just washing windows and cleaning dishes, but as it comes along, the opportunities for them to grow and learn into the business, as they become, you know, capable and trained, are obviously there. 00:07:42.956 --> 00:07:49.639 To learn how to build that up and the strengths that they find most interesting to them and, and yeah, go ahead. 00:07:54.509 --> 00:08:01.622 Yeah, I honestly think there is one point for sure we want to discuss, based on your experience of raising kids and the next generation of entrepreneurs. 00:08:01.622 --> 00:08:06.722 It's not every parent does it, but it's very unique. 00:08:06.722 --> 00:08:09.525 What you're doing is to recognize the talent Each person is different. 00:08:09.525 --> 00:08:10.811 Each person is different. 00:08:10.811 --> 00:08:12.074 Each kid is different. 00:08:12.074 --> 00:08:30.084 Each kid have their own interests, their own skillset, their own talent and to recognize it as a parent, to nourish it, to support it and to help in whatever way we can in terms of providing the resources, for example, providing the mentors for writing a book. 00:08:30.084 --> 00:08:32.999 It's very unique, right? 00:08:32.999 --> 00:08:40.649 Does that mindset come to you Because you went through that entrepreneurship journey? 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:53.658 How did your mindset transform when you quit the job from IBM to start your own journey, what actually triggered it and how your mindset changed during the course of time? 00:08:53.884 --> 00:09:00.519 Well, yeah, I lovingly refer to that change as burning the boats and not the bridges. 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:08.135 I believe that phrase was borrowed from somewhere else I don't remember exactly who said it, but but in essence I understood something in some historical context. 00:09:08.135 --> 00:09:09.610 Let's go back for just a sec.

00:09:09.610 --> 00:09:14.556 I had a you know dad who worked for 28 and 29 years in the same job, same mechanics. 00:09:14.556 --> 00:09:30.105 He didn't graduate from high school, he actually went to the Navy and two tours of Vietnam and was just a tough, a tough guy and, you know, was a strong man, leader, not particularly in the finance world or business world, but he was ethics integrity strong. 00:09:30.105 --> 00:09:38.153 He was hard work strong he was, you know, suck it up buttercup, do the job, you know no slackers and let's get out there and put the work in. 00:09:38.153 --> 00:09:42.796 And that's kind of how he learned to do things and he taught that, you that, and built that work ethic into me. 00:09:42.796 --> 00:09:46.625 The challenge with that work ethic was well, he didn't have certain opportunities. 00:09:47.047 --> 00:09:58.143 Through his work and effort I was given the opportunity to do things in business that I couldn't have done through the family and relationships that helped extol that. 00:09:58.143 --> 00:10:04.855 One person in particular my uncle, all of my uncles, were individual self-employed contractors in the construction world. 00:10:04.855 --> 00:10:10.096 I never really realized that until later in life because that's not how I saw them, but because of who they are. 00:10:10.096 --> 00:10:17.947 I kind of saw the way they acted about business and the way they thought about doing jobs and working in that field and taking care of their own business. 00:10:17.947 --> 00:10:36.448 But one of my uncles in particular was very good at building boats and he actually built a boat company out of San Diego and as I watched that boat company grow and go and get bigger and by the time I was 16 and 17, it was a full-fledged business I really got to see the idea and the conversation and it started to change towards the entrepreneurial and the business and the development side. 00:10:36.448 --> 00:10:52.157 And he was gracious enough to let me pick his brain and have conversations with him and got introduced to people and my brand kind of started to expand and expand and he always suggested do your own business, get a franchise, do something, take that opportunity. 00:10:52.606 --> 00:11:07.514 And because of where I'd come from and my mind hadn't fully changed yet, I realized I needed opportunities where they currently were and that's when I personally went to college but I dropped out because I just didn't see where that was going to take me and at the time the internet was coming online, I said, well, that's something I really want to do. 00:11:07.514 --> 00:11:18.350 And academia was not caught up because we were literally just installing computers into labs for the first time and the corporations were catching up somewhat because they were just deploying a lot more capital. 00:11:18.350 --> 00:11:27.576 So I got into the workforce and it actually led me to being on one of the first teams that launched the first mobile phone at Sprint in Kansas City into the market. 00:11:27.576 --> 00:11:28.728 That's how old I am. 00:11:28.728 --> 00:11:31.092 A lot has changed very fast. 00:11:31.092 --> 00:11:33.726 I'm not terribly old, but lots have changed in the last 30 years. 00:11:33.726 --> 00:11:42.912 And then from there, that opportunity and putting in the hard work and learning the phrase it's who you know that gets you there and what you know that keeps you there. 00:11:42.952 --> 00:11:57.147 I've made good friends with a partner from IBM who had come to be on a project with Sprint in Kansas City where I was at that time, got to be friends with him and that opened the doors of opportunities to talk with these individuals who had come from a different location. 00:11:57.147 --> 00:12:07.971 They'd flown in, they had, you know, graduate degrees from Yale and Stanford and Harvard and they were, you know, these guys doing this business and I was nowhere near that level of knowledge and skillset yet. 00:12:07.971 --> 00:12:13.053 But they were gracious enough to drag me along and I just listened and I learned and gleaned and made friends. 00:12:13.053 --> 00:12:22.493 And by the time I got through the you know opportunities that had presented itself in Sprint, they said, hey, why don't you come check out one of these opportunities in IBM? 00:12:22.493 --> 00:12:23.794 And I said, sure, absolutely. 00:12:23.794 --> 00:12:27.711 And I went to Armonk, new York and did the 15-minute interview. 00:12:27.711 --> 00:12:31.549 That took me longer to get there than to do the interview and they offered me a job and I went to work for IBM. 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:37.954 So by the time I got through that, in 2007, they were transitioning my division into a new location. 00:12:37.954 --> 00:12:49.781 We were doing knowledge management infrastructure and knowledge gathering using artificial intelligence and machine language learning and things that were way more advanced than we even see yet right now in the marketplace. 00:12:49.781 --> 00:12:51.046 So AI is just tip of the iceberg from what I can see. 00:12:52.331 --> 00:12:54.721 And I realized that I kind of reached the pinnacle of technology career. 00:12:54.721 --> 00:12:57.469 If I just kept going it'd be another job, another job, another job. 00:12:57.469 --> 00:13:01.156 And I was actually sitting around one of the end groups. 00:13:01.156 --> 00:13:11.331 We had like a group dinner at the end of the project and I was kind of towards the last project before I left IBM and we had this group dinner and I'm sitting around looking at these individuals and I think the kind of scales just fell off my eyes for a second. 00:13:11.350 --> 00:13:15.928 I looked around and saw everybody kind of pragmatically realizing that was going to be me in 20 and 30 years if I didn't change. 00:13:15.928 --> 00:13:18.251 And not that they were bad people, it was just the life. 00:13:18.251 --> 00:13:26.552 And they were in a conversation about

you know how they're looking forward to see their kids and they were going to get home and I didn't have a family and kids at that point, so I really didn't have that connectivity. 00:13:26.552 --> 00:13:38.777 But in a moment of grace I was able to see something that you know where my future life could have gone and I I basically rejected it, not because it was bad for them, but because it was bad for me, and I just said I don't want to be that person. 00:13:38.797 --> 00:13:45.903 I don't want to be here in 20 years talking about how I miss my kid's birthday, how I can't wait to get home to see them, can't wait to get there because I'm missing all this stuff. 00:13:45.903 --> 00:13:47.250 I'm like I just don't want to be that person. 00:13:47.250 --> 00:13:48.450 I didn't have kids yet. 00:13:48.450 --> 00:13:50.152 I just didn't want that to be my outcome. 00:13:50.152 --> 00:13:56.288 And so IBM was like well, hey, guess what? 00:13:56.288 --> 00:13:57.630 You know, we're moving Argentina. 00:13:57.630 --> 00:13:59.351 And they said well, you get early retirement. 00:13:59.351 --> 00:14:06.959 So by the time I got married in March of 2007, I was, quote unquote, retired with early retirement from IBM, and that set my career off. 00:14:06.999 --> 00:14:14.145 So, it was a series of circumstances that I could have rejected, not looked at, not wanted the risk. 00:14:14.145 --> 00:14:15.508 I could have gone on and reapplied for more jobs. 00:14:15.508 --> 00:14:18.012 I could have tried to like hang on to that whole thing, but in actuality I knew my time had come. 00:14:18.012 --> 00:14:29.075 My instigation really for all of that was that the uncle who had kind of led my mind, opened my mind and given me opportunities to really think very differently about life and business, he died in an ultralight aircraft accident in 2005. 00:14:29.075 --> 00:14:35.491 Two years later, by the time IBM and I was looking at parting, I said I can't stay here, like that's going to be one of the major catalysts. 00:14:35.924 --> 00:14:37.326 I look at where all these guys are. 00:14:37.326 --> 00:14:43.570 I look at the you know mentor I had had, who's no longer there, and I look at where I'm going and I'm like I just better get out now. 00:14:43.570 --> 00:14:46.052 I better run for it and never look back. 00:14:46.052 --> 00:15:00.801 So I fought tooth and nail to stay in my own business for the last 17 years and in time as the saying goes, 17 years to an overnight success I finally reached a place in business where I am stable. 00:15:00.801 --> 00:15:03.182 We've got great business, we've got our opportunities. 00:15:03.182 --> 00:15:16.129 We've got our opportunities, we've got multiple streams of income and revenue and I've basically been able to put my family and purpose above profit in those businesses and been able to keep them as the focus of everything I've done and stayed around them their entire lives. 00:15:16.129 --> 00:15:24.375 I've flown maybe three times in the last 17 years and been away from them for maybe less than a handful of times. 00:15:24.375 --> 00:15:28.190 Otherwise I've been with them every day of their life and I wouldn't change that for the world. 00:15:30.846 --> 00:15:48.970 I think most of the people don't really understand how much effort, how much time, how much bravery and persistence it requires to keep ourselves going, especially at the starting stages of setting up your own business. 00:15:48.970 --> 00:16:09.774 Right, yeah, yeah, they only look at the final product but they don't look at that sweep and the leap and the effort and the rugging, and I think you specifically mentioned it very clearly, saying like I fought to the nail to survive in a starting. 00:16:09.774 --> 00:16:11.317 You know we made compromises. 00:16:11.378 --> 00:16:15.032 We sold our house we had built so we could keep the dream going. 00:16:15.032 --> 00:16:24.656 We, you know, eventually got leveraged in too much uh of an opportunity that didn't see the foresight to get out of and had to go through a bankruptcy to deal with that nonsense. 00:16:24.656 --> 00:16:35.471 And so that was just part of the struggle of staying in the fight and not going back to the old ways, you know, just because it felt comfortable or maybe it felt more safe or whatever the case may be. 00:16:35.471 --> 00:16:39.589 We just set out to keep going forward and there was no going back. 00:16:39.589 --> 00:16:42.976 That was where the boats getting burned was just not an option. 00:16:42.976 --> 00:16:43.677 I didn't burn the bridges. 00:16:43.677 --> 00:16:55.334 In fact I made some contract relationships with IBM later on as a subcontractor and had quite a few management consultants working with me under my brand that was staffing backwards into IBM projects later on. 00:16:55.334 --> 00:17:00.994 So you know, don't burn the bridges but just keep walking forward. 00:17:00.994 --> 00:17:02.395 Even in through the difficult things. 00:17:02.395 --> 00:17:03.618 Just keep going, Literally. 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:44.825 Yeah, and I think you also mentioned a very great point what people are looking in terms of lesson learned through the podcast and through your inspiring story, for example in this one is keep going and how much of effort it takes, how it all started for the voltage digital marketing and I know you struggled at the starting times, but what triggered that idea of digital marketing when it was really new in the market? 00:17:44.825 --> 00:17:47.362 Right, it's a risky call at that time. 00:17:47.742 --> 00:17:57.885 Yeah, Well, as I was learning to become more of a business owner and less of a self-employed, because originally, you know, I traded my time for money at a job for W2. 00:17:57.885 --> 00:18:05.318 Then I got some contract arrangements where I was the lead consultant, and so then I was just trading more money for time still. 00:18:05.318 --> 00:18:10.537 And then I realized, you know, as I

got a mentor who kept reminding me, sales fixes everything. 00:18:10.537 --> 00:18:16.269 You need to be focused on the sales and growth of the business, not just the operations, and you, you know, booking your time. 00:18:16.269 --> 00:18:18.643 You need to get other people involved in the business. 00:18:18.643 --> 00:18:26.644 He really pushed me for that, and so I started to hire more consultants and then I spent more time in the marketing and development, and an aspect of that was getting more online marketing. 00:18:27.536 --> 00:18:30.865 With online marketing came, you know, less social networks. 00:18:30.865 --> 00:18:36.886 When I was doing that, in the 2008 to 2012 time, there just wasn't that much social media. 00:18:36.886 --> 00:18:38.480 It was relatively new. 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:47.747 We didn't have the paid traffic systems and mechanisms everybody takes for granted today, like Facebook traffic and YouTube traffic and buying media that you can get fingertip access to. 00:18:47.747 --> 00:18:49.942 Literally anybody anywhere can do that now. 00:18:49.942 --> 00:18:53.399 So when we were doing marketing, it was a little bit more guerrilla. 00:18:53.399 --> 00:19:02.759 And then there was aspects of the online marketing to some degree, due to websites and other things, but we just simply didn't have the power of the social media engine that's there today. 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:05.267 So I learned to buy media. 00:19:05.267 --> 00:19:12.266 I learned to buy media from third party providers that had sold traffic onto airwaves for cell phones. 00:19:12.266 --> 00:19:23.098 Because I had a background in cell phone and mobile marketing, it was a natural expectation that if I knew mobile, knew the systems and I knew how to get advertising in front of them, I should try that out and see if I can't get more clients. 00:19:23.098 --> 00:19:27.015 Turns out, what I got was a whole lot more affiliate sales. 00:19:27.015 --> 00:19:35.143 So I actually got into affiliate marketing and driving a lot of traffic and lead generation for other people's products and actually got really good at it. 00:19:35.182 --> 00:19:39.144 By the time I was doing more than a thousand dollars in profit per day on my affiliate marketing. 00:19:39.144 --> 00:19:51.107 I figured it out and so what that became was in around 2010 and 12, as that was growing and I was looking for new ways to expand that, I realized I need to own the offer. 00:19:51.107 --> 00:19:51.489 I wasn't. 00:19:51.489 --> 00:19:56.682 You know the affiliate thing is difficult because once you get it running, if someone changes the offer, it stops working. 00:19:56.682 --> 00:20:03.963 You just there's a time life cycle that goes very quickly If you can't keep it or you can't own the offer. 00:20:03.963 --> 00:20:12.865 And so I'm like, well, I need to own the back end of the offer, I need to own what I'm actually driving leads for, and it's just a natural progression of the business evolution.

00:20:12.865 --> 00:20:15.650 As you stay in there, you start to realize I need to do these things. 00:20:15.650 --> 00:20:22.711 You may want to set off and immediately do them all, but I guarantee you you got to step your stones to it first because you just can't bite that whole thing. 00:20:22.730 --> 00:20:28.018 So as I was growing and doing that and learning the marketing and then being successful in the marketing, it was like, okay, I need to own something. 00:20:28.018 --> 00:20:35.565 So it became the idea of owning physical products, where I could take capital and put it into a physical product and run the legion and connect those dots. 00:20:35.565 --> 00:20:39.528 So these systems and infrastructure just wasn't caught up with me yet. 00:20:39.528 --> 00:20:44.751 If you did that, you needed a warehouse, you needed people, you needed to pack and ship those products. 00:20:44.751 --> 00:20:50.817 And I'm like, dang, I don't want to create a whole infrastructure of people. 00:20:50.817 --> 00:20:51.239 That's pretty costly. 00:20:51.259 --> 00:20:55.788 And then someone introduced me to Amazon FBA and said, hey look, they built this you know marketplace for books. 00:20:55.788 --> 00:21:06.434 And now they've evolved it into physical products and they've acquired this logistics company that they've rebranded, called FBA or fulfilled by Amazon, to ship those products and deliver them to customers. 00:21:06.434 --> 00:21:08.256 And I'm like, well, that's really cool. 00:21:08.256 --> 00:21:09.217 What does that mean to me? 00:21:09.217 --> 00:21:10.738 And so he gave me. 00:21:10.738 --> 00:21:13.839 The explanation was like look, you could be the direct marketing guy. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:19.423 If you just get the products and Amazon can deliver the products, you just send the products or you can even ship them yourselves. 00:21:19.423 --> 00:21:24.306 And I said, well, it's like eBay, I don't want anything to do with it, because I knew about eBay. 00:21:24.306 --> 00:21:26.366 And he's like no, it's not eBay, it's got to be private label. 00:21:26.366 --> 00:21:29.288 You can flip products, but it should be your own products. 00:21:29.288 --> 00:21:30.829 And I thought, okay, well, that's pretty clever. 00:21:30.829 --> 00:21:35.793 And so I got started on it and I did flip a few products just to see how the whole thing worked. 00:21:35.793 --> 00:21:41.361 And I thought, oh my gosh, this was actually pretty easy. 00:21:41.361 --> 00:21:41.762 No one's doing this. 00:21:41.762 --> 00:21:50.164 Yet I actually took a little course and realized they weren't teaching me anything I didn't already know in business, but it just kind of helped amplify what I thought was possible. 00:21:50.826 --> 00:22:00.779 And when I was about to go ask for a refund from the course, I had a mutual friend connect me with my current partner who's named Reed, and we had a conversation in one hour. 00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:07.425 We realized that we were going to be doing business together and that first hour led to realizing, you know, he was a different brain than mine. 00:22:07.425 --> 00:22:20.827 He was the logistics and operations and management and real estate and doing deals and mortgage brokering and he had a lot of financial and background around numbers and building businesses to scale with the financial side, but he didn't know the marketing side. 00:22:20.827 --> 00:22:27.679 Well, I knew the marketing logistics, I knew the narrative, I knew how to build a brand, and so we're like, hey, we're two halves of the same coin. 00:22:27.679 --> 00:22:29.422 Maybe we should get together and kind of figure this out. 00:22:29.422 --> 00:22:30.604 Two brains are better than one, right. 00:22:30.604 --> 00:22:35.061 And so we started launching physical products and we just found out we had a really great aptitude. 00:22:35.061 --> 00:22:39.962 As long as I focused on product and development, he focused on logistics and supply chain and these kinds of things. 00:22:39.962 --> 00:22:45.204 We could move relatively quick, got our first seven figure brand and physical products around 2014 on Amazon. 00:22:45.705 --> 00:22:56.170 From there it was learning systems and operations and controls and replication of that and building that engine into eight figures and then building multiple brands and eight figures teaching others. 00:22:56.170 --> 00:22:59.223 This was just a natural byproduct of hey, what are you doing? 00:22:59.223 --> 00:22:59.905 We want to know. 00:22:59.905 --> 00:23:09.826 We actually helped a lot of people in that original course who couldn't get success, and when they saw us having success at the very beginning stages of Amazon FBA, they were like, hey, teach us how to do this. 00:23:09.826 --> 00:23:15.556 And so we, we just did a lot of one-on-one work and they were like, okay, we need to do it in groups because we can't handle you all. 00:23:15.556 --> 00:23:19.707 And so then we just kind of turned back into what we were originally management consultants. 00:23:19.707 --> 00:23:22.921 So it kind of went back to the management consulting world. 00:23:22.921 --> 00:23:30.506 Didn't really want to do the course world but, long story short, we did a course for about two years and it did okay. 00:23:30.506 --> 00:23:34.381 But then we kind of ended that and said that's enough of that, we want to just do our own business. 00:23:34.381 --> 00:23:43.984 And it has evolved since then as we continue to mature systems and we've got our own software, our processes, our methodologies and pipelines for building products into our brands. 00:23:44.868 --> 00:23:52.096 And then just assisting and managing others in a consultant format led to the realization that we could get bigger if we went and became an aggregator. 00:23:52.096 --> 00:24:02.748 So in 2019, the holding side opened a portfolio division that was intended to take all that operational knowledge and skills and SOPs and acquire brands

into it, which is an aggregator. 00:24:02.748 --> 00:24:15.502 So we raised about $50 million from two home offices and had that going to the books and getting very close to closing that by November 2021, we hadn't taken the funds yet. 00:24:15.502 --> 00:24:25.913 But by November 2021, we realized that they were buying at like 40% above market share and at that point too many were buying with just too much dumb money and it was too dangerous to get involved. 00:24:25.913 --> 00:24:33.563 So we pulled the plug, didn't take the money and that just evolved into relationships upon relationships and all the time we'd spent to do that. 00:24:33.634 --> 00:24:42.099 And that led us to more management consulting of existing brands or people who were like hey, well, if you're not going to buy a company with me, will you teach me how to build one, or teach me how to buy one? 00:24:42.099 --> 00:24:53.688 And that's where the evolution of Voltage kind of came from was a management consultancy specifically around growth, acquisition and merging of these companies, launching new brands and taking them to exit. 00:24:53.688 --> 00:25:11.065 And so we've kind of evolved past the incubator sorry, aggregator and now we were really more like an incubator as we help clients grow and build existing brands or we take them out with new brands in the process or we look to acquire companies, bring them within the portfolio and manage them ourselves. 00:25:11.065 --> 00:25:18.377 Which is one of the things we're very adamantly working on right now is getting five new brands in the company by 2025. 00:25:18.377 --> 00:25:21.469 We've partnered with a company called Patriot Growth Capital. 00:25:21.469 --> 00:25:25.098 It's a PE firm owned, manned by veterans, run by veterans. 00:25:25.098 --> 00:26:16.617 When we grow these businesses in, we've got two right now that we're very seriously looking at an LOI letter intent to purchase them they're both doing between 10 and 20 million a year in sales and we look to grab them up and pull them into the business if it makes sense and the numbers all work and they tell us everything that they're telling us turns out to be true as we go through that process the due diligence, yeah, and then exit those businesses with them later or bring them in as operational controls and give veterans an opportunity to have a business, a model, provide for their family, maybe even own companies later on. 00:26:17.058 --> 00:26:21.959 So it's mission-based now, not just aggregators for profit, which was the wrong way to do it. 00:26:21.959 --> 00:26:32.676 So I'm quite happy that we didn't go that route and I'm quite disappointed to see how the aggregator market has blown up with all the corruption, challenges and problems and just overspending of money. 00:26:32.676 --> 00:26:38.189 But the multi-channel and beyond Amazon is a requirement, as everyone is. 00:26:38.189 --> 00:26:42.922 You know maybe listening to this that might have a channel or

have considered that you always want to have multiple channels. 00:26:42.922 --> 00:26:50.307 We won't acquire companies that don't have multiple channels or a very clear and quick path to an additional channel as part of the acquisition process. 00:26:50.307 --> 00:27:04.701 So it must be, you know, on FBA, it must be on Shopify or TikTok or have an omnipresence or a website strategy, or we'll move it into one of those places and expand that out as we acquire it as part of our strategy, but an omnichannel is very important. 00:27:04.701 --> 00:27:06.281 That's a long-winded answer to your question. 00:27:06.281 --> 00:27:08.345 I'm sorry, but that's it. 00:27:08.414 --> 00:27:28.944 No, I think it's a kind of you have beautifully put down the roadmap of how the idea of your startup evolved during the years and the transformation of your organization, which is very important for people to know, right, so you start-. 00:27:28.984 --> 00:27:29.727 It's transformative. 00:27:30.515 --> 00:27:30.916 Yeah. 00:27:30.916 --> 00:27:53.905 So you start with an idea, but you adapt to the market, you adapt to the demands, you reassess your skills and what your team can do and you keep on either acquiring new skills, acquiring new operations, or you expand what your organization vision was compared to as you grow through through that branding. 00:27:53.966 --> 00:28:05.872 It's now moving me out of hey, it's neil and he does amazon or he does shopify or tiktok shopster, e-com or whatever, um, to its voltage and the brand is now moving forward ahead of me. 00:28:05.971 --> 00:28:32.971 I'm now able to kind of step back, uh, more into the ceo role and I and I have a team's relations and other people that are coming forward that are a part of that and are leading the brand strategy as well as the conversation and voltage, first in the branding and so, as any normal evolution at this point is to pull me out of the primary spot of it was Neil and his company to its voltage and oh, by the way, there's Neil and all the other team inside of it, and that's one of the strategies of the next steps. 00:28:32.951 --> 00:28:43.318 It was Neil and his company to its voltage and oh, by the way, there's Neil and all the other team inside of it, and that's one of the strategies of you know, the next steps which are evolving very quickly this year and into next year, which are pulling me back into conversations more like this and out of the day. 00:28:43.318 --> 00:28:52.724 You know, operations are out of the visibility and only brand visibility of the language and what we're saying and the narrative of what Voltage has in our business model and our brand. 00:28:52.724 --> 00:29:03.338 That's all coming out of our clients and our people and our operators and just the brand that's starting to lead itself, as opposed to just being an operator and a brand, if that makes any sense. 00:29:04.260 --> 00:29:04.662 Yeah. 00:29:04.662 --> 00:29:20.924 So let me go back, neil as a person, as a husband, as a parent, as an entrepreneur, as an executor of a multimillion dollar company, and let's talk about the multi-dimensional Neil. 00:29:20.924 --> 00:29:24.194 One more dimension an author. 00:29:24.194 --> 00:29:29.778 So what did trigger you to write the book? 00:29:29.778 --> 00:29:36.563 And please give us, as we wrap up this podcast, five or four things about your book. 00:29:36.563 --> 00:29:38.423 What it makes very unique? 00:29:38.423 --> 00:29:47.068 Does it contain the lessons that you have learned over the years, how we can help people to start their own new dimension of life? 00:29:47.068 --> 00:29:48.230 New dimension of life? 00:29:49.871 --> 00:30:01.027 Well, I mean, the authorship was just an evolution of a story, a narrative and an executable framework that we actually use inside of Voltage, called our Greenlight 5x5 Product Launch Playbook. 00:30:01.027 --> 00:30:23.441 So the Product Launch Playbook that we've used to build eight-figure brands is a particular strategy that in some ways goes against the narrative I hear online continuously with the Hopium Guru lottery mindset and really focuses on the business, the fundamentals, the foundation of an e-commerce brand, the profitability of that brand and then its ability to get growth and scale through the right and correct brand narrative. 00:30:23.441 --> 00:30:42.568 How do we present the products and you know omni-channel the products and present this, the value statement of the brand and the products that deliver to the emotional connectivity of the people who buy it so they'll come back and buy more, which means we're not just flipping products, we're actually building an experience and an unexpected outcome from the products and we develop into these brands. 00:30:42.568 --> 00:30:54.620 So, as the authorship kind of goes along with that strategy it was brought to my attention I could write a book just in the format of set down, write a book, figure out the chapters and go. 00:30:54.620 --> 00:31:08.528 Or, since I have all this time and built it into my podcast and I have all these wonderful guests who have to meet this certain requirement to get on my podcast of how much business they've done and how connected they are and who they are. 00:31:08.528 --> 00:31:15.827 I said, well, why don't we just bolt it into the podcast and make the book part of the podcast as well as the podcast part of the book? 00:31:15.907 --> 00:31:51.870 And that outcome was we had 15 different podcast guests and their expertise all ties around the different areas of our strategy and how we implement our green light, from the fundamentals of product selection and research to the numbers of profitability, the competition and metrics and analytics of a data-driven decision model, and how we tie that into the brainability of the product, as we are trying to capture demand that's already existing and how much more we can capture of that through the traffic that's existing on

Amazon as one place to incubate the brand from a starting block and finding out. 00:31:51.870 --> 00:32:17.905 Can we test it, can we validate it, can we see the demand and can we capture that demand and how much can we capture over, you know, one, two, three, four years and then move that into different you know channels of opportunity creation or demand creation channels like social commerce channels, tiktok, et cetera, and then you know, be able to take that brand into a saleable asset position and build it out what we call the platinum principle, which is taking all that in mind from the very beginning and structuring it. 00:32:17.905 --> 00:32:21.782 Like you would structure a house with a good foundation, good walls and a good roof. 00:32:21.782 --> 00:32:27.199 How do we build this all into a wonderful, saleable asset that somebody would want to trip over themselves to buy? 00:32:27.199 --> 00:32:33.116 And so that process then got laid out in the steps and the strategy that is outlined in that book. 00:32:33.116 --> 00:32:43.675 You can get books on Amazon tactics, but really, when it gets down to that, there's no particular growth hack or specific tactic that is going to improve your business from five to eight figures. 00:32:43.675 --> 00:32:50.415 It is process, strategy, execution and repetition of what's good and removal of what is bad. 00:32:50.415 --> 00:33:02.905 Okay, so systems and processes that turn you into a seven and eight figure business and that based on the knowledge and expertise of those individuals is what's laid out in that book and kind of a question and answer format, chapter by chapter. 00:33:03.474 --> 00:33:06.660 I had the expressed what's the right way to say it? 00:33:06.660 --> 00:33:07.841 Humility. 00:33:07.841 --> 00:33:08.622 What's the right way to say it? 00:33:08.622 --> 00:33:10.265 Humility. 00:33:11.466 --> 00:33:22.137 My good friend wrote the foreword, kevin Harrington, who is the, as seen on TV for one of the first shark tanks. 00:33:22.137 --> 00:33:23.801 He's the guy sold $6 billion in physical products and I was. 00:33:23.801 --> 00:33:37.778 He was gracious enough to accept the invite to write the foreword for the book based on what we'd put into it, and so honored to have him as a part of that, as the book has gone out and just more strategy around what it takes to build a, you know, a large e-com company. 00:33:37.778 --> 00:33:42.179 He knows one or two things about that, um, and we wrote that part into the book as well. 00:33:42.179 --> 00:33:43.986 So it's a real study. 00:33:43.986 --> 00:33:58.442 It's got case studies in there of our successful clients and how they develop their brands and products, as well as, as well as real subject matter expertise in the areas of finance and research and brand and development and many other things as well, and that was launched in January 2024. 00:33:58.442 --> 00:33:59.464 It's getting good reviews. 00:33:59.464 --> 00:34:05.841 It's continuing

to go great Love the book being where it's at and doing what it's doing, which is just continuing the message. 00:34:07.375 --> 00:34:14.664 And Neil, thank you for offering some free copies to the audience of the podcast and audience. 00:34:14.664 --> 00:34:28.290 We will send all the related information attached to this podcast recording so that you can claim and get the amazing knowledge which is filtered out from a lot of self-made millionaires. 00:34:28.290 --> 00:34:32.064 So again, neil, thank you for offering that. 00:34:32.064 --> 00:34:36.546 It's very sweet of you and your team, absolutely yeah. 00:34:36.546 --> 00:34:40.545 So we are going to wrap up this podcast with four things. 00:34:40.545 --> 00:34:56.178 What we usually do is watch your suggestion, based on your experience in life, to teenagers, to kids who want to create their own pathway as an entrepreneur. 00:34:58.040 --> 00:35:03.972 So I taught an entrepreneurial course in our homeschool co-op and had, you know, a bunch of children show up to that. 00:35:03.972 --> 00:35:10.386 Here's the one thing I would actually challenge either the children or the parents who are listening to this who have children that might want to go. 00:35:10.386 --> 00:35:15.931 From my own personal, you know experience from a moment of humility with you. 00:35:15.931 --> 00:35:28.751 If you're not willing to pour into your children and figure out what it is they're most interested in and then spend time with them, focused time on helping them determine what that is and helping them actually execute it, it's going to be harder for them to navigate it on their own. 00:35:28.751 --> 00:35:36.460 There's a lot more on the online and social media and other things that can trip them up and cause confusion or just be from a safety and security perspective. 00:35:36.460 --> 00:35:43.968 So I would challenge the parents first to get involved in finding out what it is that child is interested in and how they could how you could help them. 00:35:43.968 --> 00:35:50.896 Maybe make that an opportunity to dig into what it is they're most interested in and see if there's not ways for them to turn it into a little side hustle. 00:35:50.896 --> 00:35:56.603 Mine back in the day, because there was no internet, was mowing the neighbor's lawns and my parents helped me. 00:35:56.603 --> 00:35:59.903 You know, go in and make some flyers, and I got a little side hustle. 00:35:59.903 --> 00:36:01.548 You know pushing a lawnmower. 00:36:01.548 --> 00:36:04.256 You know, go in and make some flyers and I got a little side hustle. 00:36:04.256 --> 00:36:05.079 You know pushing a lawnmower. 00:36:05.079 --> 00:36:07.101 So you know there's a lot of ways for kids to do that nowadays. 00:36:07.101 --> 00:36:13.292 Even just you know getting a power washer and renting it and going out and helping people power wash their driveways as a little side hustle right, or even down into AI based stuff. 00:36:13.292 --> 00:36:19.648 Or making little videos for shorts for people to help them out with their time, and taking their podcast and cutting it into two or three videos. 00:36:20.169 --> 00:36:21.232 There's a need for that. 00:36:21.232 --> 00:36:22.962 Find a need and fill it From the kid's perspective. 00:36:22.962 --> 00:36:33.250 Find something that you love, that you tackle, that you think is fun and enjoyable and you would love to do all the time and then figure out how to turn it into something that people are willing to pay you for. 00:36:33.250 --> 00:36:36.529 First thing you can do is give something away for free. 00:36:36.529 --> 00:36:44.107 Give it away for free and then say, hey, if you like it, I'll cost you X amount to do it next time. 00:36:44.107 --> 00:36:46.750 If it's a monthly fee or something, hey, I'll give you the first month free. 00:36:46.750 --> 00:36:48.012 I'm going to give you five videos. 00:36:48.012 --> 00:36:50.234 If you love the videos, then you pay for the next five. 00:36:50.234 --> 00:36:58.672 What do you think and give before you get and you can build up an opportunity to start a little side hustle? 00:36:58.672 --> 00:37:00.058 Get on Fiverr and Upwork. 00:37:00.058 --> 00:37:10.659 It's great places to just showcase your work, especially if you're younger and parents you got to help them do that, because usually they need to be over 18 or you'll have to help them sign up and do it themselves, but just pour into them. 00:37:15.380 --> 00:37:25.960 Your suggestion for people who are new parents right and they want to create business of their own or side hustle of their own. 00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:33.824 What are those key qualities or key characteristics that they need to build to make that happen? 00:37:34.667 --> 00:37:44.672 I always challenge the folks who think about creating a business to never treat it like a side hustle or a hobby business, even though they might do it on the side while they're doing something else. 00:37:44.672 --> 00:37:58.755 If you really wanted to replace the income and create opportunity, maybe, as you're doing it in the evenings or weekends, the goal there is to look at it, making a full business, run at it so that it has a replacement opportunity to your job. 00:37:58.755 --> 00:38:11.826 If you think about it in bigger terms, you're actually giving yourself the opportunity and the permission to go bigger, whereas if you think about it as just a side hustle or a few extra hours or a few extra dollars, you're actually going to limit and create scarcity in the opportunity. 00:38:11.826 --> 00:38:14.221 So I challenge you to think bigger, think more abundantly. 00:38:14.221 --> 00:38:22.174 Think, if I do it on the side, like Adam, who's a full-time pharmacist, I can turn that into a full-time job later on so I can get back to my wife and children. 00:38:22.174 --> 00:38:27.592 And that's been 40, 60 hours a week in a pharmacy because he's actually done that and successfully launched his products.

00:38:27.639 --> 00:38:41.933 He's now moving to his full product launch and with that opportunity, in three and six, nine months from now, he has an ability to replace his income to give him a position of taking the business and moving it into his primary life and moving away from the pharmacy. 00:38:41.933 --> 00:38:48.533 And so he's very, you know, turned that into a real, true mindset, goal of purpose over profit. 00:38:48.533 --> 00:38:57.951 The purpose getting home and being more time with his kids, and the profit being a byproduct that allows it as a tool to help him do that, the same way that a car gets him to the pharmacy job. 00:38:57.951 --> 00:38:59.541 He sees it as a tool. 00:38:59.541 --> 00:39:02.668 Now it's not just a side hustle or a hobby business, he sees it like a real business. 00:39:02.668 --> 00:39:10.069 So I would encourage anybody who wants to do a business to not go in at a fear, to not go in at a scarcity or limiting beliefs. 00:39:10.069 --> 00:39:11.753 Go in all or nothing. 00:39:13.580 --> 00:39:19.402 All or nothing, and profit and comfort, all that purpose. 00:39:19.422 --> 00:39:24.330 Purpose will lead you to profit, even if it takes you longer than you expect to get there. 00:39:24.330 --> 00:39:26.894 Purpose should lead over profit and profit will come. 00:39:28.099 --> 00:39:28.980 Awesome, okay. 00:39:28.980 --> 00:39:45.584 Do you, on the voltage to digital marketing, provide any learning services or any coaching, for you know the people who are the audience, who are interested to learn more about digital marketing. 00:39:46.365 --> 00:39:47.087 We will. 00:39:47.087 --> 00:40:02.326 As we are an incubator for existing brands, we will also take on new individuals who might want to become a CEO operator and learn how to create a real business, like I mentioned Adam did a minute ago, and work with us under 12 month engagement as a management and consulting role. 00:40:02.326 --> 00:40:03.721 Where we come in, we help you. 00:40:03.721 --> 00:40:23.862 You know you're 100% owner of your business, but we're going to consult with you, incubate you into our process as business building the framework of setting the company up correctly, what products to sell, the software and technology and methodologies to test those products out and begin them selling and get them to a specific goal of 100K in net profits in 12 to 16 months. 00:40:23.862 --> 00:40:27.071 All right, so we set some performance and consulting goals to do that. 00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:31.991 For those who are interested, you might be already in a wealth without Wall Street mindset. 00:40:31.991 --> 00:40:33.925 You might be a high W-2 earner. 00:40:33.925 --> 00:40:40.969 You and your wife or a significant other are making more than $150,000 a year and you're like okay, we already looked at rentals and short-term rentals. 00:40:40.969 --> 00:40:50.109 We looked at real estate deals and we looked at these other deals or vending machines, and we looked at parking lots and mobile homes and we looked at these other things, and e-com is maybe something that you've considered along the way. 00:40:50.109 --> 00:40:53.641 Those individuals typically understand the value of an investment. 00:40:53.641 --> 00:41:05.528 They understand the value of a virtual and a physical play which is online and a physical private label product, and they're looking to build a real business, and those typically resonate with us. 00:41:05.748 --> 00:41:14.806 Maybe you're even considering a franchise, but aren't sure they want to work with 14-year-olds behind the counter at Cold Stone or something or Flip Burgers themselves. 00:41:14.806 --> 00:41:17.937 Ecom doesn't require you to have to do that. 00:41:17.937 --> 00:41:19.582 You don't have to have forward-facing customers. 00:41:19.582 --> 00:41:27.166 You don't have to touch the inventory if you don't want to, and there's giant warehouses and machines, like Amazon's system, that will deliver it to your customers. 00:41:27.166 --> 00:41:37.224 So you don't have to, because you can live on the country on a Starlink internet, in the middle of 50 acres and live your dream at your farm and your homestead and do the business too. 00:41:37.224 --> 00:41:43.352 So if that sounds of any interest to you, then you can check out what we're doing and see if that's something that fits for you. 00:41:44.199 --> 00:42:14.219 Definitely Um uh, the voltage ritual company uh website and related information would be uh attached along with this podcast, uh publishing uh information so you guys can find different ways to get motivated and learn more uh from Neil Twa Uh, he's a brand by himself and thanks again, neil 12, for coming in and offering three copies of your book and providing your amazing knowledge that you have filtered out in 30 minutes, that you have learned in 30 years. 00:42:14.219 --> 00:42:16.780 So I would say thank you so much. 00:42:16.840 --> 00:42:18.442 I appreciate that thank, Thank. 00:42:18.481 --> 00:42:19.721 you guys have a great day ahead.