Finding Purpose and Riches through Serving Others with E-Commerce Expert Neil Twa

Speaker 1

00:00

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Speaker 2

00:33

Hey everyone. This is Jamie with from adversity to abundance, just chatted with Neil trois of voltage digital marketing Neal. Neal's is a story is a wild one. He's been through a whole lot of adversity. What I find with these episodes is the adversity, we end up focusing on is primarily either Financial Health or relationship focused, and we discuss adversity that Neil has gone through with regard to all three of those things. He went through a divorce, you went through a bankruptcy, and then he went through some very real Health struggles with his actually. His wife went through very real Health struggles while she was pregnant and had a massive impact on his personal family situation and their financial situation. But through all of that, he was able to turn it around, take control, take ownership, not blame others, not A victim, and he was able to. Now grow a very profitable e-commerce business and now he goes coaching and is still very heavily involved with his own e-commerce businesses, but he goes coaching and training for others. To show them how they can get to a point where their business is an almost as he says in almost automated six figure income within 12 to 18 months. So that's his focus is, he's a, it was a fantastic conversation. Tons of principles. He's learned along the way that he shares with you. A lot of valuable book recommendations and you know, he says he wouldn't change a thing. And so he's become the person. He is today because of all the adversity and the lessons, he's learned through that. And the growth he's made through it, and he's just a positive force in the entrepreneurial world and E-commerce space specifically. And we talk about Partnerships, good, bad and ugly and how to, how to approach those in a healthy way in a profitable way. And how Neil is really focused on his business as opposed to in his business. So I really enjoyed the conversation. I know you will as well.

Speaker 1

02:50

 Inspiring stories of real people overcoming incredible odds to live life to the fullest. We are all guaranteed to face hardships. How will we handle the adversity? Join us to be moved by everyday people who have turned poverty and prosperity, and weakness into wealth Be Inspired as these relatable Heroes, get vulnerable and former counterintelligence investigator Jamie Bateman puts his interviewing skills to the test, restore your faith in humanity as you experience. True Cinderella stories of average people turning surreal struggle and deep despair into booming, businesses and financial Fortune. Take ownership Ship of the life, you are destined to live and turn your adversity into abundance. All right, here's the deal. You work hard for your money. Isn't it about time? You put your money to work for you if you are an accredited investor check out Labrador Lending.com.

Speaker 2

03:52

Our integrity income fund provides monthly cash flow from an investment backed by hard. Physical real estate, our income fund which is uncorrelated to publicly traded stocks and bonds invests. In first lien, mortgage notes Diversified by geography property value and borrower type. So you're not investing in one project. You're investing in a diversified portfolio of first lien mortgage notes. Our integrity income fund aims to pay its investors monthly distributions at a preferred rate of return of 8% annually. Possibly, the best part though, the fun showcases, a short 12-month commitment. So you can invest your Capital today and have access to that capital in one year. Check it out today. Labrador Lending.com Welcome everybody, to another episode of the form adversity, to abundance podcast. I am your host Jamie Bateman. And I am thrilled today to have special guests, Neil trois of voltage digital marketing Neil. How are you doing today? I am doing wonderful. Thank you for having me on. Absolutely now, we dealt with a minor technical issue so hopefully we can overcome that. We have already dealt with a some adversity today to make you go. So Neil, I know you're in digital marketing and you have done had a lot of success in Generating passive almost automated income and you help others do the same. But for our audience who may be unfamiliar with you, what are you up to today? And why should we listen to you? Yeah, so, in simple, terms of voltage, the company, I mentioned, we launched, and we grow. We make profitable e-commerce, brand predominantly focused starting with the Amazon FBA Channel. We also acquire an exit, those brands with a mature. And so that's one of the things which is primarily working on its part of a Holdings. Company that also has multiple divisions our own businesses in e-commerce based both on and off Amazon. As well as another division solar trailer division where we're deploying a 12 prototype trailers into the marketplace that are five kilowatts on dope and power stations that can occur anywhere in the field, anywhere in the world. So those are some of the things that were working on right now. Okay. So our listener who's out there listening to you? Ultimately, what are they going to get out of this episode where before we dive into your backstory, what's this? The value-add here. Well, I mean as it is we were talking about a little bit in the green room. Before we had our technical issues because I live in the country, we have about 45 Acres out here and one of the squirrels must have died. So the internet went down operating this on my phone, at the moment. We will see how long this goes is to learn. You know that I was given an opportunity. My personal testimony through a number of things that to this point in life have been major challenges, major issues, maybe things people are extremely afraid of. I have had to walk through that. Both personally financially professionally. Personally, and so because of that, it's given me a great opportunity to speak on variety of topics of personal experience, and all of those areas. And so maybe today, one of you listening to, this might be an adversity with a family. Might be going through divorce been there, you might be looking at bankruptcy or the financial concerns that face in your business, or personal life because of decisions have been there as well. And you might be facing health or Wellness, concerns with family, personal friends, wives, husbands, Etc. And I have been there as well and had to overcome that adversity. My family and those are all topics of great importance to me and maybe for some of you today as well. Yeah, that's great. I mean, it's not great that you had to deal with all that but Ryan unfortunately, you have checked the, the all three of the, the primary boxes that I have tend to find without my show, that the kind of major pain points in people's lives, tend to fall into one or more of those three categories. So come in threes, come in threes. Well, hopefully, you know, you can stick with the abundance path for the first day it's been quite It for a while now. Yeah, knock on wood. I have something here. It's been quiet. There you go. Nice. So let us jump back and you can start wherever you'd like with a maybe. The first. We're going to dive into one of those three a little bit more in-depth than all three. But if you could kind of just hit on those three as far as what you have had to deal with from a Financial Health and relationship adversity standpoint. Yeah, we lost our entire relationship one because, you know, you're young and you make dumb decisions and you do Things in life that, you know, baguette the question, you know if you go back and talk to your 18 year old self, what would you tell? You know, tell yourself. Now, I would literally, and this is gonna sound really odd, but I would tell myself, don't change her and think because you're going to love how this turns out. But the guy that, you know, was in that period in storm, would probably think very differently. If he heard me say that, because he was dealing with personal relationship issues, he found a girl at 19, by the time they were 20, he was 22. They got married, and then divorced by 28. 8. So the issue in relationship to that was just growth and maturity. I lived in a very conservative family, which is cool because I am now a conservative family. However, their boundaries were probably a lot more strict than mine and so when I had the opportunity to leave to go to college, I kind of let loose a little too far to find myself and to go out a little too wild too far and eventually kind of settled back in to something a little more conservative. But in that place you know, the arrogance and pride and the goal and drive and ambition that I had personally given to me ingrained as to something that was very misplaced in maturity at a young age and because of that, I took less time and interest in the people around me and one of them was my wife and because of that, that suffer greatly in the self pride and arrogance and things that were powering that ego kind of left her behind to the point where she eventually stepped out of the marriage and was seeing other men on the internet and traveling around the country to visit them when I was traveling. And I didn't know that was occurring and so that was a pretty heartbreaking situation that took a long time to kind of reconcile and realize my place in that, you know, my issue, my concern, what was my fault? And what I did wrong as a husband or a person that led to those things, and sure, really some time to really think through that and adjust my thinking considerably and because of that adversity, it's led me into a deeper relationship with folks around me in life. Now I value them very differently, it's the second pillar of my life fund. Knowles. That's fun. People in profit. We can unpack that a little bit, so, but the value of that, I see very differently. Now, through that experience that I needed to have an order to get me past that point. Yeah, that's I am sorry. You had to go through that. I do appreciate. I mean, well, you know, on some level, I mean, it sounds like you have recognized the your ownership of it, you have taken ownership of your role in all that, it sounds like and there's no victim here, right? I am responsible for what I did in my Place in that, that dance. No doubt about it. Yeah, I think that can be liberating for sure, but easier said than done to get there mentally and be game. You got to forgive yourself. That was the biggest thing in the longest thing. It took me the heart, it was the hardest path. You know, once I had forgiven her for the things she did, I had to reconcile the things I did. And I had to forgive myself for the way I was and the things I did to her. And what allowed her to become that person that she became because of the way I treated the relationship. Yeah, the end of that. That was a His part to reconcile got it now I appreciate you sharing a. No it's not you know it sounds like you're in a healthy Place. Absolutely. Why we're way past that now that one ton of time that was a very cheerful conversation but that's your own. All right well we will see if we can get you to cry on something. Now you're not in crying, you're not talking raisin marketing. That's right. Okay. So it's that was 28, I think you said is when the divorce actually occurred and then walk us through the next few years. How did things? Pan out for you. After that. Well, I mean, I was still a bit on that destructive path. I hadn't got to that reconciliation Point yet that I was just telling you about. So, my pride and arrogance were still leading me around quite a bit. And because of that, I kept pushing and pushing for new things and do things. And I met a wonderful girl in that process, very level-headed, girl, a very different girl than the one that I had married previously a better fit, you know, they say opposites attract, right? Turns out. My first wife and I were too much like each other and that created an enormous amount of conflict. My wife Katie and I are very different people. Now, in 17 years later that makes for a very good relationship but at the end it was you know a continued path of self-destruction that led to relationships that Drew people towards me who were destructive. You know, they say you can attract right and what is it? Traction marketing or attraction? Well, if you're spewing, negativity out in the world you're going to find — people. If you're acting bad in the world, you're typically going to get in a line with bad people. It seems like Common Sense yet so much of the time we look around and watch people do this right? Well soon. You to see another's than it is in ourselves, I think. Well, we're blinded Ryan. Our cognitive dissonance is kicked in, and we don't want to say that we don't want to accept it. We don't want to believe it's true because of that, we're just going to keep operating in that space. That we feel most comfortable in. Men, change is hard. Okay, so, I didn't want to change. I knew that was there. And I just wanted to give us to pass it and I thought the best way to do that was just keep forcing forward and business and because of that, I could not see certain things people were doing around me. I didn't want to see them and wouldn't acknowledge Him. And one day I had got myself kind of Far into a business transaction with a couple guys that seem like a very great opportunity and there're patents in it and it was just really cool startup, and we divested a lot of time energy and money into that. I became a little to leverage walked in one day and discover the books weren't exactly the way they were. Why am I not getting paid? Well, that sort of answers that question, where's the money been going? I don't know if I want to know the answer to this and the end result was a strategic business bankruptcy that basically collapsed our Financial situation in order to protect us from that. But also just to get out from underneath. The problem, we created was a very difficult decision. I like to own what I make mistakes on and I did make a plan to reconcile that I just had by the grace of God standing with my pregnant wife at the bottom of Tulsa City High. Where was the city hall or where it was? We were down there and it was just a situation that was just like you could have like, Joel. This is Joe Versus the Volcano. I forgot that the other day, but he's living like in the basement and the Sir of them, and they're linked. It looked just like that, just all gray and fluorescent. And I am going to man is sucks, and we go into this room, okay. We're having to own this decision and just like a few weeks, prior, the company showed up to repossess the car like 10:00 at night. And my pregnant wife is standing. There crying is they take the minivan away with everything in it? Like, kids car seat toys, ever. Not the case, due to his car seats. Don't use commas. Be careful. Thomas till this is important.'. There is an important ' there. It's like, you know, Here car seats for you and Grandma or eating Grand a head Grandma. We're not in the car seats but that was it's this thing that led to the next steps which was having to go in and actually face the bankruptcy judge and go through that process. And I remember going through these double grade ores and more fluorescent and it just opened up into this room. And there was just a table and every table had a judge and every judge was dealing with the bankruptcy, and they were one running. I said in waves, and I was like I have never seen like you think you're going to go from a judge in a court. Oh man, this is some sort of Hollywood thing. No, you're going into a room with a bunch of guys and gals sitting there who were determining, the fate of whatever comes out of that, out of that financial situation. And by the grace of God, this gentleman who took a look at our situation, saw the backstory for a moment and the summary recognized that while we had been a little bit of a victim. We had victimized ourselves in that process, but he took Mercy on us, and he wiped or dead out. So he gave us an opportunity to reset Stark. I knew at that point and gave us a little bit of Hope and opportunity. See that if we change things and got on the right path, we were just given a big gift of opportunity. He didn't have to do that, but in a swipe of a pin, he took care of it and said, yeah, you see, you got a plan and you're willing to take care of this. But I am going to get, you know, here's my pregnant wife, and I was having their dealing with this, and he's like, you just, you know, who peers your ears, your goal, don't mess this up. This is your chance. So just found a couple of. So, what type of couple question because I mean, you know, I am getting into Partnerships as pretty critical piece and I have dealt with yes or no ships that some have gone. South as well. So, first off on the business side, any lessons you could throw out there for the listener. As far as how to pick them. Absolutely part of the reason why that was easy for him to swipe the pin in that instance, was that the debt was actually in the LLC that we had formed, okay? So the LLC protection had a general liability insurance policy on it as well to an okay. So, don't do business in the public World unless you're doing it in and Beyond an LLC and make sure you have general liability insurance for that LLC. The LLC should own the other businesses that you're involved in and there should be a business that owns a business. If you do that, then you're basically hoping to protect your assets from the separate asset. They may be doing business in the world by combining those assets example, my partners, LLC owns his 50% in voltage and my Enterprise owns 50% and his LLC and together that LLC does business in the world. So just these things were learned and how to protect and identify yourself do business the right way. Build a chart of accounts and be very accountable to your best business practices. Get a CPA, go into the weeds and do the financial things and look at the — like didn't go. Good to Great, says Jim Collins. You got to pull that rock up and got to look at those nasty things underneath it. As even as hard as it is. Right that power and look at it and I yeah until that point I wasn't willing to look at some of Financial problems that we were getting ourselves into and I could have made me turn it around sooner. If I would been a little stronger in that, gotcha, how about as far as even picking that partner in the first place? Any lessons there? Well you know, greed is a very powerful emotion and I sort of bought into the idea that this was going to be a billion dollar company. Now, later on, as I would get past all of that and go into the world and see the other aspects of that business being replicated through major corporations, I, I would realize that was in a tremendous opportunity. However, it was squandered by weak minds and weak Minds in the business. I ended up being a victim of a week buying, I created a weak mind and myself, but the other gentlemen, I was not smart enough Savvy enough, and I was not willing to ask, the kind of questions that would have finally led me to understand their mindsets. They were not as strong as they presented themselves. So the answer to that was time. I am as an ally, okay, time, can you know, be an ally and the in the intent of weeding? Longer to determine and see the reactions of an individual, the way they do things and give it enough time. So as you have a very accomplished what they're doing, right time can also be a detriment to you because you may need that time to gain something and you can't necessarily wait the 12 or 24 months at might take you to evaluate that relationship because you might need money now. Or do I need the business now so time can also be a weapon? Can also be bad nonsense as well if you are Our again time can be an ally to determining, whether that's not those people are sincere. You look around them for a while, do your diligence and determine whether or not they truly have a consistent pattern of behavior across multiple point and then you don't trust and verify right and those were things. I was not willing to do because greed got in my mind and I just said I can't miss this opportunity. So big, blah, blah. You know. It's going to be this great big next thing and yada. And you know people look at you and roll her eyes right now. That's really good. Those are some really good lessons. You have pulled out. I mean there's always going to be risk, you know, you can't do every says Rich sounds of risk. But that's really good. So now just you mentioned the business bankruptcy, but it sounded like, was this a personal bankruptcy that you had to file as well? You know, llc's are tied to yourself, right? So, if the business goes down to your personal computer now with it, sure, no. As the business had to strategically remove itself from that liability. It removed our opportunity and income as well. Gotta and therefore, we personally suffered from it understood? Okay. So how so sounds, like the judge that you went before was I guess ruled in your favor in a sense and then how did things go from there. So once we got that, and we were little bit dumbfounded and kind of came off of that moment and realizing wow, what was this opportunity? What did it mean? I kind of went back to some of the core fundamentals of business and skill set that I knew I had because I had this point sort of reinvent myself as to like, what am I in business? And what am I going to do the possibility of going and getting a job was on the table because income needed to be there very shortly after that of My wife got very sick and because of that it led to a situation with a high-risk pregnancy that forced her to have to stop working. So all of a sudden we were at zero income. So there is just got a lot greater. And with that dad had to take on more of the responsibilities of the household. She was put on bed rest. She was considered high risk, and we were taking her to the doctor twice a week. We thought we'd maybe at one point, six months in. Thank God, that didn't happen but the end result was medical conditions. Now trumped all of life. Sure, absolutely. And then the background that we all thought was so big and everyone's so afraid. The financial crab. What happens if I don't have all tell you what about, you know, you can fall in a relative's couch and you can bounce back but when medical issues are faced, you may feel as work when you have 11 wish, all right, listen Health, trumps everything else. So at that point I didn't have that same desire to go get a job even though I know we needed the income because all of a sudden, I had a little babies, we had four girls, and they were all born. Four and a half years. So suddenly I had all these little kids, and I was sick wife. And I had to take care of her, and I had to make sure that was, and it was an important part of that. And, you know, the provisions came the Persians, I will say, are based on my faith, and they work. They came from my God and he is powerful. And he just said, you know what, you guys said, here you go. Take care of your family and let me handle this stuff until the money just sort of showed up. I remember one month we needed 1856, dollars and change to make those month's bills and get everybody fed and take care. Care of the lights and make everything go. And I don't remember where that came from, but it was there well. So, and I certainly do believe in the power of faith and as well. But logistically speaking, who did that money actually come from, was it people from your church or family or honestly do not? Remember I can't tell you the details. I just know that it showed up and from there things started to change as the has a health situation, kind of progressed to through the pregnancy. One of those things we learned was why we're why was this starting to occur in her system and how do we actually resolve it because of the medical issues that were there? And she was in, in simple terms, she was becoming toxified by her environment. So my the food, the chemicals, the dyes, and the type of food, we were eating and things, they were toxifying, her body, and she, and because of the taxing of the baby on her body, it was affecting her faster than before she was pregnant, even though it was affecting her then she just didn't know it. And so that basically escalated that, so we became a process of learning. Learning about how to treat that and how to trade in discovered. It was in my daughter's as well as genetic. And then how to treat them through that process, which has become a 15 plus year Adventure in resolving that, including moving to the country and having organic chickens and eating organic beef, and cleaning a very clean holistic diet. Even down to the kind of shampoos. In fact, I created a shampoo line that my kids can use. That is non-toxic gluten-free dairy-free. It's got Chloe, dull silver in it. It's on Amazon and they can buy it. We get it, and they use it and it helps them. Stay detoxified. And so that's, they get opportunities to figure out what new incomes and because of that, I went back to Beady it. Now some experience and media my online for lead generation that I have done for previous companies and I started into the mobile lead generation side of things. I was uploading spreadsheets into systems. There was no you know Facebook ads and YouTube ads and there was no right. Grandma Tick-Tock. I mean those are just all in the last 20 years, right? And so we were uploading spreadsheets. And I was learning how to do Mobile Media Marketing and have a number of campaigns that I figured out how to get going really well. And suddenly, we were going to 100 200, 500 thousand dollar days in profit. Yeah, from there things started changing really fast. Yeah, and I love to dive into your business, you know, today's business in a minute. So as far as kind of getting out of it, I guess before you how did you make the decision to start focusing more on income? I guess. Was it your wife's Health situation was a squared away and then what was that process like as far as your mindset Change our your focus. Well I never went away, right? Priorities. Were obviously, to take care of Health and Wellness first, but that got to be very expensive. Extremely expensive. The girls could not eaten. The regular kinds of formulas, they couldn't use this. The regular diapers because of skin rashes and things that were sensitivity. They had to use this special formula that you know was a little 15 ounce can that went out in like two days, and then we were running up like those in three days. All of a sudden were spending fifteen hundred dollars a month and formula alone. So I am like okay this problem. Has to get solved. So now, the business has to be focused on because the medical issues have now created a need. I have got to fill that need. How am I going to do that? Yeah, and so that was makes a lot of sense. I need Fillion, right? And if that's the thing with all this stuff it's and I don't mean to the gloss over and notice the that's the risk with my podcast to be honest with you as we just almost come on for like two hours. And yeah, well that nobody. But the other the flip side is we just gloss over some Will, you know, pain and adversity that people experience? But the point I wanted want to make, is that it's all related. So it is your health, your health, medical issues are related to your finances and related to relationship, you know, struggles or upside if you will, so it. But it's trying to navigate, you know which one they're all related, but you can't have them all. But they're all related because to some degree, I mean finances, we get health and health, sometimes requires finances and so that's what he comes. A circle. But in the difference was, I changed from more of a greedy self Pursuit that led to those problems and more of a I need to there's a need that needs filled, and I am going to fill it because it's for someone else. So we're purpose changed. Yeah, are essentially, right? I meant that with my back against the wall, that purpose was just now. How do I take care of the basic needs that are met here? That's all I care about this point, right? I have no more grandiose goals. I have no big hairy audacious, whatever. I don't have any Five-Year Plan. It's like, how do I get to next month? Sure. Yeah and I think it's that's been a common theme with it with my guests, to be honest with you, as far as people who have dealt with very challenging situations. And how did they get through that? Well, I think probably the number one thing I have learned myself through these. These episodes are eventually you got to focus on others and that really can become your purpose as a very good motivator, right? And that's where to nation and tenacity, okay? There's the courage to start something and a lot of people have that courage. Yeah. They lack the tenacity and the consistency to see it through to the end. Sure. Yeah, that is something that I struggle with. As a, if you do the disc profile, we talked a little bit about this earlier. When the wealth of that Wall Street was my investor DNA, or how do I look like a business and you should all go take a free disc assessment and find out exactly kind of what your personality and business profile is, I now know why, Maddie I okay, I start things. Great, and I am good at influencing and moving things forward, but I have got to have that structure of someone behind me who follows in the consistencies and my Partner for ten years, has been that person. My wife is that person and now I have a network of very super smart people around me, who help keep that focused, and they allow me to be me and that purpose in those people is now what drives me forward. Their Happy's drives me forward. So there's the fun and people part of my personal thing now, right? And from that, the third part is of its profit right? And from that profit came opportunities to make money and money has flowed by focusing on the fun and people part of that equation. In first and now I have not just profit and finances but profit and people profit and life profit and relationships. Another Prophet that is just not Financial. That's great. Now, I think it's critical. Critical to understand yourself. Like you said, the disc profile is one of many, you know, ways you can start to do that. But at some point, your drive and your purpose has to come from something much bigger than yourself. Exactly. I am so. So, how did the business? Okay. So you have got the health situation, I guess. Realized or at least improve or figuring it out. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And but you have still got, you know, at this point whatever what year is this when things started to kind of take off for your businesses that are in around 2012 2013, when I sort of took data initial mobile stuff, I was doing in the Years passed, and I was working with some e-commerce companies which was part of the transition. And, so I am now doing buying free column and all of a sudden strikes me one day, I should be building my own brand like they're not doing anything at the last mile here that I couldn't do. So why am I not taking it from lead and acquisition through to the end. And in that process of due diligence, because at that point, it was set up employee set up a warehouse set. Up our product set up, a lot of other logistics that make that more complicated than I even knew how to do yet. And was figuring that out and someone said, hey, you should see what Amazon just did. And I am like, what do they just do? And I was like, well, just a few years ago, they brought a company, and they have called it now, Amazon FBA fulfilled by Amazon. I am like, well, what is that? If it, again, if it's eBay, I want nothing to do with it. That was all like garage sale shipping, all this stuff yourself. I am not Or that like no, no, you send your sir product to Amazon, and they put it in the warehouse, and they delivered to the customers on, like, two days. And all you need to focus on is like the business and the product and Logistics and marketing on my own. I can do that, right. Let us figure it out. So, I started flipping products on Amazon first to see how that would work. Because to me, it was just another traffic Source. This point. It was people buying product, and then we're just buying books anymore. They were buying all kinds of stuff that was what opened up for Amazon. You want. I am just books to all kinds of products, all of a sudden. So this cool. So it's very, you know, two lane Highways at this Point and not did not what we know it is today. And, so I just got into flipping products on Amazon to start and I started to realize while this is fun, I can make good profit at it. I want more products. So, all of a sudden it's like I can see this working bigger and then discover private label. I would never private labeled a branded product before of my own and that was discovered in that process. Can you explain what that is for a listener? Yeah. So there's, you know, the wholesale FBA side, you may be familiar with that, which is basically taking someone else's products and flipping it through Amazon. There is Drop Shipping which is getting a product that's pre-made already and then just, you know, getting the difference in the purchase of that product and sending it to somebody. And then there's white label which is a product that's already been manufactured but it's ready for you to slap your logo on it and send to somebody. So it sort of looks like you and then there's private label. And the biggest difference is customization, so a private label product can be customized. We can innovate, that product make it unique, make it our own IP trade market and to go even as far as patent pending later on if necessary. Necessary. And that product becomes part of our IP as part of our brand, okay? It is our Taco Bell to Tacodile whatever the other places, like a Burger King and McDonald's. As a better analogy it's like CVS to Walmart. You have a brand that competes with other brands, and we have a customized branded product that goes in the market that created more of an organic continued, buyer habit, emotional into connectivity, to those products than the previous ones were. Just bought on the current need or that emotional status. At that moment, they weren't real. Ran driven, the ones I have learned the difference in private label with brand driven, Affinity. All of a sudden, the organic and the upside potential of the business goes through the roof. You know, most of us are brand driven. We just don't necessarily want to admit it, but I can make a fight on this call. Right now, I will ask you who loves Android and who loves iPhone. Yeah. And all of a sudden you're going to be arguing with each other. Absolutely. Because like it or not, we're branded driven. Absolutely. So now, I guess 24, how important is Amazon to your business? Us right now. I mean, in other words, you know if Amazon goes out of business tomorrow, highly unlikely, but or if they change their rules, which I know they do sometimes. How does what do that? How does that affect your business? Not as dramatically now, is it used to in the past Amazon's created more brand affinity and brand connectivity and bran driven aspects of their business. Now to support other brand owners, and are moving very fast away from anything Arbitrage, Drop Shipping, wholesalers cetera. So if you are in line with them about business, if you're a brand registered, And you move to a certain level of business. They sign is brand, reps, they assign is account reps. So the risk of Amazon is considerably lower in the way that we do the business model, OKAY? The other business models are extremely risky and usually outside of their terms of service. So Amazon is a big component of the first stage of business. When we launch a first product, we take it to Market on Amazon. It's 38 percent of the market share 630 million dollars in state a and sales. It is buyer. Purchase intent. It's one of the number one things all e-commerce sales you're trying to get even if they're over on a storefront. I like Shopify trying to run Facebook ads on it. They're trying to get somebody to buy their product. Well, Amazon has that buyer traffic already. So I go there first, and I approve the product and concept in that market. First, when I do it, I am looking for Mass Market appeal. Amazon is like the new as seen on TV, because if it's on Amazon and it's being seen, there's typically a woman 27 plus who's clicking add to cart two to three times a week to the tune of about a thousand dollars a year in purchasing power on Prime members. I want to take advantage of that because that's I wanted. Hours a year and each person to come to me in my Brands instead of somebody else's. So Amazon creates that opportunity. But we have multiple channels. We have businesses that are on Shopify in running you know, the whoo regular Commerce if you will traditional website Commerce, but they always cross over to Amazon. Okay? And Amazon should cross over to the other website. Its multiple channels, very important for risk and management as well. As the connectivity of the emotional people who get on and may look at it and say, well I saw your Facebook Etc over here but I am going to go on Amazon real quick and make sure that I find you or to see if you're legitimate, I see Amazon now is like the old days of brochure websites to determine whether or not the business is legit. If you're selling a physical product and I can't find you on Amazon, I most likely I am going to buy it from somebody on Amazon because I trust it and I know the return policy. But if I bought it from your website, I don't know a lot about you, and I am taking a little bit more risk. So both of those channels and multiple channels should be involved in the business. If you're really going to build it as a business, got it. Um, so my daughter has been following these Air Jordans when they drop, and then she came to her and I said, alright she wanted a pair of herself and I said, all right I am gonna find your next purchase if you can sell that. So this pair of sneakers for a profit, and so she did she bought, I mean these things like they it's done, and they're sold out in 20 minutes, you know? So we both were actually. Yeah. So it's who she bought this pair of Air Jordans. Put it on Sneakers.com and made I don't know 30 bucks or something like four little girls exactly within you know, a day so those pretty good. So try and take it to the next level. So you and I might have to talk offline. You can also Man actually see, I am actually starting an intro to entrepreneurship course tomorrow or ice Co-op Homeschool Group where I will be teaching them the beginners basics of Entrepreneurship and business and fundamentals. E-commerce will be one of those legs. And there's about eight people signed up for an hour right now. Yeah, well, team knuckle up and so, Going to teach them the basics of business in Arbitrage. Only one of the things I can learn about my 14 year old is done that as well, I think in products and slipped them for money and was like, hey, yeah, I want to do this in more, right? Yeah, meeting of the fundamental business. Well, that's exactly it because I gave her the option. I said, well, if you want to, you know, then by your own pair of sneakers, that's fine to keep. But she's she hasn't done that yet because she got she, I think she has the edge now. She really look for that next pair of Jordans to go grab. Huh, exactly. It's repeatable. So yeah, that's awesome. So, what is your kind of I guess what? Walk us through maybe just a day in the life of Neil trois. What is, what does it look like for you today? How much time do you spend on your own e-commerce business versus your coaching? What does it look like today for you? Yeah, we do have multiple e-commerce companies both on Amazon and off as I mentioned, but I have an operations team now. So I really don't spend any time in those details anymore. I spend I am in on the business but not in the details. So I keep up with what's happening in those divisions and make sure everything is going great, but I am not in the operator status anymore so that only takes me. Maybe one to three hours a week now is completely operational. So That point I am out mem evangelizing cocking, going to network events like I did in Alabama recently doing podcasts, like this and overarching Lee seeing the movement of voltage Holdings forward. That includes the other divisions way do as well as the solar trailer side. And we're looking at, even building of a new Mini fund this year with the guys that went with a Wall Street, that will potentially be a buyer acquisition firm, that is going to go out and purchase companies for passive income, for those who get involved in it. So we're looking at that division, so we're working on that as Well, so the day in the life of deal right now is business discussion deals, think forward-thinking being the CEO miking. Sure, I can try to avoid icebergs out there in the ocean and just trying to help direct the entire company forward. As a leader, which is sounds like plays right into your Euro, your god-given strength and skill set, right? I mean, it's not. You already said you're not the best operator. I mean, you already. It's not where your strengths in any way, guys. Super-smart operators around me. Yeah. So how did you do that? I mean, how did you, how did you? Coach building that team will initially trained. Some of them upright? And I trained a long side of my partner. He is more of the traditional MBA speaks two languages corporate you been never in corporate buddy, was in the business side of the world and learn how to build companies through the operational component. So, he's very much the opposite of me and because of that, he doesn't understand all the marketing and Communications and things that I do or have to do with the level. I am operating the company. So he has liked you handle that when I trust you to do all that. And I trust, 100% to do the rest and together to know one. Each of us, create one person in Ohio, one mind if you will in that. And so learning to give him that space or to teach in the things about what I know, and he's helped me structure, certain things about the finance and operations that I didn't know has been a very great learning and opportunity to grow together. And for the last 10 years, which has been extremely important. So I have trained myself and trained operators and been trained by them. So each of the people that run those different divisions were trained up a bios together. And then they become operators in that typically they're already moving companies themselves in terms of Amazon for the race, smart about what we do in those areas business or direct-to-consumer. We have a partnership in there, well, who's a very strong direct consumer Channel marketer, and we work them as well. They're operator. So, how did you overcome the fear? I presume was there from, you know, from the partnership that went South, how did you, why didn't you just say? I am never having a partnership again, I am only working for, for my and with my staff. So, Really, it really gets down to how you structure it. So each of our individual operating entities is a disregarded entity under our Enterprise and because of that we are indemnified by whatever implodes in that LLC showed that partner not operate correctly, and we cannot remove them and or place a new operator in or the business itself is just not viable. For whatever reason, or something goes wrong with it. We have the opportunity to Simply attach that LLC from the meme Enterprise and not jeopardize the overall operation. Got it. Okay. And if it does well then we give them other chances to operate. Other entities, got it. So how big high level as far as you know? You were, you were at Rock Bottom? I mean, you went through some crazy adversity on all three fronts at this point, what do things look like for you and your family? Personally, you know, you don't have to give us exact numbers per se, but how does a business treat you? How is it treated you financially? Extremely well, it's Of the reasons why I was at the wealth conference learning about some new things in terms of wealth building, becoming my own banker and diversifying into other areas may be real estate Etc on Mortal and flipping side and looking at other opportunities to grow that getting smarter about Taxation and Taxation structures and ways to, you know, play by the rules, but you still have opportunities to reduce taxation. So I have got some new relationships there, which are cool, which it's been fun, and that's given me a lot. Easier ability to keep more of my calendar. It always turns goes right back into the markets and prop act and people the power our economy and a blessing to me and my family, but my others. And so that's your because we're getting double size that we need to hang out. Those are think we're going to share a, we operate as a family unit. We homeschool our girls I am home here every day we get to go to co-ops and do things together. Like I said, tomorrow, I am teaching that Co-op class For the next 14 weeks, which is going to be fun. So I get to be there in my daughters are going to be a part of that, and so I just get to do life very differently. Now because I chose to choose a lifestyle driven business model, that allowed me to keep that fun people and profit priority and the right order. And that's actually touched on that before because I do have some rapid fire questions will throw it to you but I can touch on that real quickly. You know, because I am an entrepreneur, I have several different businesses that I run myself and it's very easy to just keep working. Time. I am sure and that's guys. Yeah. But where people actually, how do you have things? How do you have that structure? As far as, how do you stop yourself from doing that? You have already touched on it? Some but from a kind of day to day. Yeah, personal level for the entrepreneur out there. How can they structure their week to make sure they don't go overboard and, and don't over work themselves? But don't take calls unless I absolutely need to. There's a justifiable reason for that call. I will take it if it has an email or audio or a Loom capability, I will do that instead. Yeah, like give me the opportunity to be more mobile, right? I use my mobile device. A lot more. I try to balance that too, because I don't always want my children, seeing the mobile device in my hand, but at the same time, they also see that as a tool. The same way I would be swinging a hammer if I was building a house. So we address that in terms of mindset, we address that in terms of the tools and whether or not I can actually set it down if needed and the answer is I can. And so what I do is remind myself that I can and I will give myself permission to step up. From the business, right? And I know it sounds weird in when you still think about, you have to give yourself permission to say, it's okay that for the next two hours. I am not involved in any business activities today, why? Yeah, because I can, the truth is, is I mean, if you don't, if you don't set that boundary, it's never-ending. There's now the work is never done. It can't. And you know what, did you have a calendar and you need to schedule things because that works well for your profile. Your mind then, literally Market an hour that says go play with the kids or on An hour that says go have coffee with why for an hour that says I mean schedule it and be intent 21 days to a habit. Does it mean you're going to do it all the time? It just means when you start to build that habit of giving yourself permission and actually putting it down as a time like the way you would do with any call or this podcast and the next step is actually been actionable on it, take out and execute on it. And then you start RI yourself up from, you know, trading time for money because that's all you're doing anyways. No, no, absolutely. If you look at someone's calendar, or Their checkbook, their bank account transactions. You can essentially see what their priorities are, whether they have been intentional about it or not. That's, that's exactly learning. So what they say because then you start to realize why I can actually make more with less. Yeah, that's life. Can be valued very differently and it seems very odd to be on this side of it now. But I am trying to remember what it was to be on the other side. Sure. Right. And so trying to keep that as a real, you know, viable emotion that's still alive. Live in me helps me to create balance in it. So, you know, that's part of the reason why I am okay talking about it is because that it creates balance and memories are there. So the history does not repeat itself, that's really good. I am going to fire off a few rapid fire questions, and then we will talk about your little bit more about your business today, like the green M&Ms. and off the show. Then what's one thing that people Stand about you? They think that I am too aggressive or mean, or not as personal as maybe. They think I should be. Okay, I can under, I can relate to that five. So I am also not simply imposing a little bit. I shouldn't say a little bit because then when I meet you, you know, we will see if you could go back and you are already through this one at us already, but if you could give your 18 year old self some advice, what would it be? Be stay the course, man. Don't change a thing. Nice. I love it because you have grown you have taken lessons from your adversity and you have applied them in your better person because you went through all that. What would I change today? I think people would say what you want more money, we will know. And that's not really the point. Again you have to look at profit is more than just Financial right? The same for a lot of us health is wealth, right? And you have to understand the values in different things at different times and how to reprioritize those? So no, I would say, don't change that, you need those things. You are not going to mature without them, that's great. If you could have coffee with any historical, Would it be any historical figure have coffee? Oh, what could be there could still be alive today or not? It doesn't have to be your favorite person ever, you know? It would be my uncle. Okay, why is it? He's the, he's the quote unquote, Rich, Dad, in my Rich, Dad, Poor Dad story. My dad was a hard-working man. Still is 80 years old lives, just up the hill. We can literally go run up the dirt bath and see my parents that live on the hill on our property but the end result is, is that He was more of an entrepreneur, he had a boat company, he got involved in a lot of opportunities later on in money and business and gave me the opportunity to see things very differently about finances and money. And started setting me on that path along ago, to understand better. The things I know now that I didn't understand what he showed me, then with my dad who's very strong blue collar, worker, Etc. Money was a four-letter word in our house. We didn't say it. Yeah knock. So what's your view on entrepreneurship across? That s***. Should everyone be an entrepreneur? Should everyone have a side hustle? Or is it not for everyone? How do you view that? No. Yeah, everyone is an entrepreneur. I would have, doesn't mean you can't be entrepreneurial in the business that may be led by an entrepreneur again, if you know your profile and you know what works? Well, you know how to be, okay, in your space, confident in what you do and where you are. And that doesn't always mean you're the leader who's going to take the arrows, going up the hill. First. That is not the sexiest position. Sometimes, it's okay to be number two. All right, in that case you taking fewer arrows. So no, I don't. And I think that not everybody is in the right mindset for the risk that it requires that most people think comes very easy to some of us. And it actually comes from a lot of School of Hard Knocks lessons. So speaking of Lessons Learned in business, what, what's one thing that surprised you wouldn't have thought of ten years ago, that you have learned from business. One of the things that businesses surprises me is the amount of different ways. You can actually make money in today's world and how many people are still complaining? That they can't find a way to make money when there are so many opportunities, it's probably more analysis paralysis than anything else. Sure, I just can't everyone smile. I get people to come, and they're like, well, I am doing this and here's how I make my money. And pop up on. I am like man I never thought of that lie for you like that's amazing, and I am not talking about only fans just, so we're clear. I am not talking about selling feet pics on the internet because I suppose that's entrepreneur to. But right, right with the internet has come the opportunity to create all kinds of income opportunities. That doesn't mean you have to be entrepreneurial. It means you may have something in the side household or hobby business, but I would always caution against that from a true business perspective. That is actually a limiting mindset, belief, maybe people don't understand it, but let me explain if you go ahead and save this. Side, hustle. I am going to, I need to make x amount. To make this major, this thing, occur or whatever. I am trying to do with that money. And I am only going to be able to set aside, like 1 hour, or a day or a week to do that. You already created limiting mindset, believes the entrepreneurial or the person who recognizes business would say, I will do whatever it takes. I will stay up the, whatever it takes, I will make that happen, no matter what it takes, I will get this done. I am in abundance mindset now and I recognize scarcity, very different, it hit me very hard when I got out of the W2 situation at IBM and I left to become a freelance magazine. Management Consultant and start my own management consulting firm right out of the first five years of my entrepreneurial life. All I recognize is that when I went to those first contract and I shot the moon and I said, sure 250 bucks an hour, I will come back and do this IBM said, at that point. Sure go ahead. Let us do this. So, I went from a W-2 employee to like less than 18 months later making $250 an hour on their billables, but all I was doing was trading time for money and more money and a nicer class house. Right. Right. And so it took a long time to recognize the differences and that in scarcity and abundance and realize how sneaky That is. So now if you're going to do business, you need to do business as a business. Yeah, you're not treated as a side hustle or a hobby already. You're creating scarcity and limiting beliefs and you want to set up yourself for opportunity. Since May guys, I think of the Robert kiyosaki's Cashflow quadrant essentially if you take that tape trading time for money as a business, you're essentially in that self-employed quadrant still which is not the same as actually running a business. You just traded. You're working for yourself. Yes, but you just you have another job. That you're probably working twenty to forty percent more than you were as a W-2. It's another opportunity with different leashes and different Masters. Yeah. Great way of saying it. Let us talk about your current business and the opportunities that you have for people out there. So currently we are involved in the launching and growing of e-commerce companies we focus predominantly starting with the Amazon FBA channel for private label companies to start up. Our goal is to build that what we call the Platinum principle, which is that is Okay, cash flow business. That can exit for greater amounts than any time during the business building phase. So, for that reason, we build a structure of a business with the exit in mind. So, we launched products into econ, we start with Amazon. And then from Amazon, we move into multiple channels and then eventually we exit that business, and I am only focused on that for ourselves. We have a small coaching and Mastermind group that also participates called our business Builders and typically looking at around five people a month enjoying that, not a lot, and I am very choosy about who gets involved. Don't have a sales team, everyone talks to me, it's a Process. I want to qualify the right people in my network from there, you know, network is net worth. So my uncle's taught me long ago, you're too, you know, they get you in and it's what, you know, that keeps you there. So yeah, getting involved with that community of people who are building as well, is an opportunity for those who will qualify for those positions, and then we help them build a companies. We work with them, we have done for you, components of working with them, but we keep them at 100% ownership in that company. And then we help them exit that business later on by teaching them how to do the whole business model. Initially on how to replicate it as I go. What's the specific profile or Avatar of the ideal person you work with? So ideally they typically balance between a d and a c in terms of personality and disk, because they can start it. But they also have the consistency to keep it going. That is a little bit of a unique hybrid and the people. So a lot of times they bring someone with them who fits that opposite profile could be a lot of couples in here. We have got couples working with children who are helping them grow their businesses. We have got it. Dividual entrepreneurs, and they're in their partners of yours coming in and working together because they know their strengths and weaknesses and sometimes we have people who come in as solopreneurs that ledge on our strengths and weaknesses and to help them in Reverse overcome. Any challenges of consistency in mindset, they may not have as we coach and Mentor them and move them into advisory roles. So that person is typically more conservative because I kind of fits with the nature of business. They are more, they have been married for quite a long time. They typically understand the capitalization requirements of business. They know, they might lack knowledge. In certain areas and like me, if I am going to go start doing land flipping, I am going to pay the coach who goes landscaping and help him. Teach me how to do it because I am not going to waste time. Trying to figure out all on my own. Yeah. And so they understand the value of education and knowledge in the world. I am not necessarily institutional knowledge, knowledge by association, which would be working with a mentor and somebody who's going to teach you how to do this, and they're typically those who are looking for other types of income streams. And Amazon can be passive later on. It's not passive to start it up. It can create what I call. Most automated income. So if you think we're going 10 to 15 hours a week and your business, but maintaining a multi seven-figure business with very strong profits is good and I mean 18 to 25 percent net profit. Then that's the kind of model e-commerce can provide for you and provide, a lifestyle driven business, I have shown. And then you can replicate that Operator by operator Channel by channel, so you're not limited to the growth and opportunity. Once you set the First Foundation in place, that's awesome. Those folks usually understand all that to get it there, and they have been looking for it. Maybe they have been riding around for a year or two or three, Bouncing off, all the courses, and make money gurus and the done-for-you scams of a, you know, auto shipping and Walmart Automation and stuff and all this nonsense because it doesn't sound right to their ears. And then they recognize when they understand someone else's speaking business language, and they recognize were bidden, we're building businesses with intrinsic value. Yeah, I love it. That's fantastic. A couple more questions here before we wrap up. What is a book? A book or two that you could recommend for my audience? So there are our books that helped challenge me in life. Well, I am gonna go with the obvious one for me personally. And there's a lot to learn from the Bible. If you study and go through it many lessons about life and finances, even raising your kids from the world side. If you look at like feel the fear and do it anyway as that's a mantra I have literally set in my life by Susan Jeffries their most of the principles. She extols are very good for just reminding yourself that you are going to have fear in life and business, but you should probably do it anyways. To get over that feel and if you're in, expand your thing right. Then the question behind that she ask is what's the worst that can happen? Well, I faced it and some of you are afraid of it and you're not willing to push that risk because your fairy the outcome. But I am telling you, there're worse things that can happen. You can do anything you need to up to and death. So you got to get out there and make it happen and the final book is good to great. I know it sounds like an old and a little bit of a cliche, but Jim Collins really nailed it. Even if 20% of the data is now outdated, the principles lined in that book of determining where you are in business, I am a hedgehog. Okay. Okay, and if you read the book, you will understand what I am talking about. But the end result is when I get into something and I put my teeth on it, I am not going to let go, and I am going to do it with everything possible. That's both a positive and a negative for me. If I don't have a good support and Community or base of people, I trust around me, I will end up like that guy who crashed the business, but I also need to be that guy because that is intrinsically who I am. And the people around me now, understand that. And they know that if they let me go, but they also helped me stay with and balance everyone gains the opportunity. And so we work well in that way, but I am at Hedgehog, good to great. Jim Collins is a great study in business. That's great. That's three. Very good recommendations there. I guess the Bible is what 66? So, actually 68 books, you just recognize the a, by 68 books of reading. I will take you through the next few years. That was an efficient way of recommending that many blows out. So looking back, just all the adversity. You faced. I know you said you wouldn't trade it in and do it over again but What's one or two? Just high-level lessons learned that the listener can take away. Surround yourself with the right people and life gets a lot easier if they don't sound right, if you're a more positive, and they sound more — you might need to distance yourself a little bit. If you see people to the positive, maybe doing masking activity with productivity, so be careful to balance out as well. So there's a median level of life where you try to find balance in between. Don't be so extreme. Okay, try to find a balance that allows you to work within the different types of personalities and gives, but gives you the freedom to Year. That's a huge life lesson. It's been so many ways. That's great. That's really, really good meal. Anything else you want to drop any other info? Where can our listeners find you online? Sure. I mean, you can Google me. I encourage it and you will trois. You're going to find me a probably. I think there's a small Asian guy out there and with someone named to me or drowned in there and find that you know, the airline that used to be in business until it got bought. So I encourage you. You can find me at voltage d m.com as well. Voltage DM dish. It will media.com, there's a free podcast on there. I have got a podcast high-voltage business, Builders podcast, you can check that out on Spotify and apple as well. And listen to some of the case studies success and other people in the end I consider to be high business, Builders high voltage and then you can get me on any of the social media networks out there to Fantastic. Awesome. Thank you so much Neil. This has been really good. I have really enjoyed our conversation. I am happy to hopefully get to know you better over the next few months and to our listener out. Feel free to reach out to Neal. We recommend it and thank you for spending your most valuable resource with us and Neal and that is your time. Thanks, everyone. Take care.

Speaker 1

58:02

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the form adversity to abundance podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast that helps others find the show, and we greatly appreciate it. Thanks again for listening, and we will catch you in the next episode. Road.