How Ben Hoang Built A Million Dollar Business In High School

How Ben Hoang Built A Million Dollar Business In High School | Disruptors Podcast

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Ben Hoang: On my eighth grade birthday, my family got into a fight and that initiated a family divorce. And at that moment, I saw my dad struggle with money. Right? Because I didn't know at that time that when your parents get divorced, half your dad's assets is gone. I'd know that.

It got to a point where I was like, okay. I wanna make money, and I wanna do whatever it takes to make money. That way my dad doesn't have to struggle about paying for credit card bills. Because I remember waking up four or 5AM to go to soccer practice, and my dad would look at the credit card, bill on his phone while he be in the car, stressed out, saying, well, are we gonna pay for this? I'd also see him go to my aunts and uncles and asking them for money.

And that's me really shipping to my core because it got to

Steve Trang: a point where we were gonna go homeless. Everybody, thanks for joining us for today's episode of disruptors. Today, we have Benjamin Huang with Bolt deals, and Benjamin flew in from Austin, Texas to talk about how he built a million dollar business in high school. Crazy, crazy figures. Now, guys, I wanna wanna mention Create a 100 Millionaire.

The information on this show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. If you take consistent action, you'll become one. And if you guys get value out of today's show, please share this one with someone you know. That way, we can all grow together. You ready?

Ben: Yes. I am.

Steve: Alright. So let's jump right into it. Let's talk about what was your life like before you went to business for yourself? Well,

Ben: this is or life before business was school. Mhmm. Right? I started this business during the midst of COVID, and there was not much going on in my life besides soccer and school. Mhmm.

So what really started the business was I my eighth grade birthday. I can't remember how old I was, but my eighth grade birthday, my family got into a fight, and that initiated a family divorce. So divorce happens, and I live with my father. Right? Me and my sister, we decided, hey, we wanna live with our our father, and at that moment, I saw my dad struggle with money.

Right? Because I didn't know at that time that when your parents get divorced, half your dad's assets is gone. I know that. So it got to a point where I was, like, okay. I wanna make money, and I wanna do whatever it takes to make money.

That way, my dad doesn't have to struggle about paying for credit card bills. Because I remember waking up four or 5AM to go to soccer practice, and my dad would look at the credit card, bill on his phone while pee in the car and saying, like he's, like, stressed out saying, well, how are we gonna pay for this? I'd also see him go to, my aunts and uncles, like his brothers and sisters, even his parents. Right? So my grandparents, and asking them for money.

And that to me really shook me to my core because it got to a point where I thought we were gonna go homeless. Mhmm. So I was like, okay. I wanted to become a nurse, neurosurgeon back in high school as a freshman, but six months of health science classes. I'm just like, maybe this is not for me.

Right? So during this time, like I mentioned, COVID has happened. So as a freshman in high school, they shut down school so we couldn't go to school. And all I was doing was on TikTok and on YouTube. Right?

Because I have no homework. I can't go play soccer. The whole world's basically on shutdown.

Steve: Soccer. You're in Texas?

Ben: I'm in Texas. Correct. I I grew up in Southwest, and then we moved to Pearland, which is South Houston.

Steve: I'm shocked. In Texas, you couldn't play soccer.

Ben: We we could play soccer, but nobody could go out of their house. There there was, like, a lockdown. So I was quarantined and and all that crap. So I, I got bit by the entrepreneurial bug. Right?

So I go on TikTok. I go on YouTube, and all I see is, like, start a business. The iceberg to start, the iceberg of success. Right? You you see the the tip, and here's what you don't see.

And, it's funny because those memes actually help me persevere through my through my business journey when things were not good. So I looked at every business opportunity there was. There was, drop shipping. There was Amazon FBA. There was, affiliate marketing.

There was wholesaling. I found out about wholesaling from Tang right up in Seattle. And I was like, this guy's Vietnamese, and he seems very, you know, successful. I wanna do that. But the challenge that I was running into is that I was 16 at that time.

15 or 16. I can't remember. And I found out that you have to be 18 for a contract to be, like, viable, like, valid. So I'm like, you know, you can go through the route of having your parents cosign or whatever, but my dad is trying to figure out how to keep the lights on. I don't think he wants to take any bets like that.

So I learned a or I heard a quote from Robert Kiyosaki. I believe it's by Robert where he said, if you can learn to market and you can learn to sell, you can do anything in the world. So I went on this journey. I'm like, what business opportunity is going to help me learn these skills, make money and do it consistently? Right.

Because during this time, I was a big Robert Kiyosaki fan. Rich dad, poor dad, the school, you know, taxes is is a scam. All this propaganda, if you wanna call it that. Right? And I don't know if it's propaganda.

The I mean, it's it's a good message. He rants. Yeah. So the whole thing for me was like, okay. I have to become an entrepreneur.

Right? Because he has that, employee the the quadrant thing.

Steve: Yeah. EBSI.

Ben: Yeah. So So to me, it's like, okay. You wanna be a business owner or you wanna be an investor? Right? So I was like, okay.

I have to start a business. So I go to my dad. I'm like, okay. I wanna do whatever it takes to start a business. So in high school, I would go to my grandparents' house and try to cut their grass.

My aunt who, you know, was doing well financially, she had her own business where she would, do alterations, like clothing and things like that. She would happy, like, build tables and stuff. Give me $20, give me $30. I go around the neighborhood offering to cut grass for $30. I remember there was a day where I door knocked, and I made a $120.

I showed my dad the cash. I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm gonna be rich. Right? So I was doing anything I could to make money.

That way I could start, business, and we eventually started by cold calling. Right? I I pretty much go on, I go on, Google or or Redfin or Craigslist or whatever, and I would just cold call people. I'm like, hey. Can I help you manage your social media?

Right? They would send me stuff. I'd post it. So eventually, we started out at social media. We transitioned to running ads because it was a quicker direct ROI, and then we try, dove into, like, actually scaling businesses.

Right? Because as I was scaling my business, I quickly learned that a lot of businesses are the exact same. Oh, yeah. There's marketing. There's sales.

There's just some sort of fulfillment, whether that's a product or the service itself. There's operations, so finance and legal, and then there's, the team. Mhmm. Right? So those five pillars, from what I've seen, you can copy that into any business, and you could scale it.

Right. So for me, it became the, point of just scaling or learning those, skills, acquiring those skills. That way, I could build my businesses, and as I make the mistakes in my business Mhmm. I can share that with our clients so they don't have to go through the same thing.

Steve: It's all sophomore, junior, or high school?

Ben: Sophomore, junior. Yeah. High school to this day. I mean, I I biz I haven't I don't think I've reached the pinnacle of success yet. Hopefully not.

Hopefully not. Yeah. We'd be in big trouble if if that was the case.

Steve: Yeah. But I mean, for context, everyone was watching, I mean, and listening.

Ben: You're how old? I'm 20 now, but a lot of my growth, I started at 15.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: So the the challenging part for me was that I had to do all of this while still going to high school. Mhmm. And that I mean, I remember I remember vividly, it would be Friday every Friday, afternoon, school would let out around 02:40 02:50. Mhmm. And I just see how happy everybody is.

Right? I'd see how everybody's happy. You know, they're smiling. They're like, oh, this is what I'm gonna do this weekend. And I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, my day hasn't even started.

Because my day starts when I get home after I eat and, you know, shower and stuff. So every single day I would have to wake up at 06:30, go to school eight hours, do nothing besides take sales calls. I'd step out of, classes, take sales calls, deal with VAs and there's tsunamis and monsoons or whatever in The Philippines. Get back into class, try and do the work, come home, eat shower, whatever, work until, like, 9PM, but it's but I'm not done yet. After that, I would hop on a call with my mentor, and my mentor, his name is Joe p.

He's he's up in Wisconsin. He basically has been that father figure for me. Mhmm. And I wanna give him the credit, and he won't take it. But he I believe, and I'm very certain that he is who he made me who I am today.

Yeah. So if I did it all myself, I could've, and it was extremely hard. But having somebody like him, like a father figure in business helped me out a lot. It was like rich dad. Yeah.

It was rich dad, basically. I never thought about like that, but now that you mentioned it, it is exactly like rich dad.

Steve: Yeah. How did you connect with Joe?

Ben: I I met him through a coaching program. He was, one of the sales managers in the in the coaching program I was in, and he was incredibly good at sales for some reason. He was, like, never use scripts. I'll be, like, I'm I just joined this coaching program. He would be he would lead one of the coaching calls, like, the group coaching calls, and I would just ask him.

I was, like, hey. I'm running to I need to think about it. Like, how do how do I handle this? And his whole thing was always, like, give me context. So, like, every single time we talk now, we still talk to the we talk almost every day.

Every, all day every day. And it's because of those conversations, the time that he put into me that made me who I am today. And I am grateful for joining that per, coaching program because if I didn't step out of my comfort zone and join that coaching program, I would be nowhere near where I am today. So I met him through the coaching program because he's one of the managers in it.

Steve: What coaching program were you joining in high school?

Ben: So it it was hard because when you join coaching programs, you have to sign a contract. Yeah. I was 17, so that contract is not valid. Mhmm. So what did I have to do?

I had to twist the truth. Mhmm. I didn't lie. I twisted the truth, and I told him, hey. I'm 19.

And obviously, they're not gonna ask me to send my ID or something. So I just told him I was 19, and, hopped on a sales call. I I was not a very good prospect. I'd took me what? Six months to to hop on a payment plan for, like, two years.

Mhmm. And they they pretty much, they brought me in, and then I just balls the ball balls the wall, started networking with everyone I possibly could, to just learn skills.

Steve: What was the coaching program for?

Ben: Building and scaling marketing agencies. How to scale your marketing agency.

Steve: Got it. Yep. Was it like a Facebook ad, Instagram ad?

Ben: No. It was everything. So they taught I

Steve: mean, like, did did they catch you? Like, you're scrolling on social?

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.

Ben: Yeah. It it was that. So they so I found them through a a coach, one of their their Facebook ads or whatever. But what really sold me was their testimonials because I look at their testimonial wall Mhmm. And some of the people that are on that testimonial wall are the people that I looked up to.

There there were other agency owners that I wanted to be like.

Steve: Got it.

Ben: Right? So that one thing I quickly learned is that if you wanna sell me, there's two ways to sell me. It's consequence. You you address the consequence or you show me a lot of testimonials of people that are exactly in my position. Yeah.

So yeah. That's that's how I found out about that coaching program. I ended up being a coach. Cost you? $500 a month for, like, two years.

So whatever that equates to.

Steve: And you're at a point now in your business where you could write $500?

Ben: Where I can afford $500? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'd say so. Okay.

I'd say so.

Steve: I'm saying back then, like, it wasn't stressful.

Ben: Oh, oh, back then. No. It wasn't. It wasn't. Because we were doing maybe 10 k a month, and then I joined k.

Because I was very You're

Steve: already making you're already making moves.

Ben: Yeah. We were making moves. We weren't as profitable as I'd like to be, but we were making moves. Okay. I mean, I was another challenge that I had in high school is that I went to high school knowing that I made more than my teachers.

So having them tell me what to do was it rubbed me the wrong way.

Steve: Yeah.

Ben: Right? So it got to a point in high school where I just stopped listening to the teachers, and I would just work in the class. I mean, the teach I remember vividly in one of the, the classes I was in. They gave us a test. Right?

It's like a district assessment, and they call it DA. And we they gave it to us, and it was, like, a 100 questions or something. It was ridiculous. The first day, they gave us two days to take it. The first day, I did, like, 10 questions on it because I just I just didn't try.

And then the second day, I completed the entire thing. The teacher looks at me. He's like, hey, Ben. Did you do all this yourself? I literally just told him, no.

I didn't do it myself. He's like, who did you cheat off of? My friend Chase right here. And then he asked me he's like, do you do you think, do you think I should fail you? And my ego got the best of me, and I was like, you're the teacher.

You're free to do whatever you want. And that's the point in my life where I just didn't care anymore. Mhmm. My dad was really upset with me because the way I looked at it was like, he's an immigrant from Vietnam, comes over here, wants to provide a better better education in life for his kids, and his kid is not trying because he thinks he's got this little thing going on. Right?

So my teachers would call my parents. I would skip classes to go to the gym, because I I wanna look good in high school, obviously. And, my dad was not happy about it.

Steve: Yeah.

Ben: He just he didn't really see the vision that I had until I started traveling for podcast. He's like, okay. He he sees what's going on now.

Steve: Well, it's hard contextually.

Ben: Yes. Absolutely. And I agree.

Steve: Immigrant. Right? I mean, like, I went through that a little bit when, you know, when I quit my job at Intel. Mhmm. Realtor of all things.

But, then my parents didn't see it. They're like, this doesn't make sense. Mhmm. Right? So I get contextually Yeah.

Why he would feel that way, especially when he's still in high school.

Ben: Now that I look at now that I look at it, I see his his perspective. Yeah. Right? But back then, it was it was just me. And I feel like that was one of the hardest parts about business for me is that I was so alone, especially sophomore year.

I remember I was just that kid that hated anything and everything. I hated everybody. If you talk to me, I would just try and instantly shut you down. Right? If it wasn't about making money or sales, I literally could not talk to you because I didn't know what else to talk about.

Mhmm. So my teachers, whatever the they would call on me for, like, hey, what's the answer to this? I I I would literally just start stuttering. So because for me, all I care about was business. Mhmm.

And what I believe, if someone were to ask me, like, what are some things that help you get to where you are? I think it was a delusional level of being obsessed. Right? That's what I've noticed in most successful people. And during this, quote unquote, lonely phase of my business, I always had this thought, and then it's from McGregor where I don't know if it's from McGregor, but it's it goes along the lines of, if you don't believe in yourself, who will?

Mhmm. And And just keeping that in the back of my head, really pushed me to get going.

Steve: He had he has one of the greatest belief systems Yeah. In the world. Absolutely. Did the teachers know how much money you were making, or just in the back of your mind you were judging?

Ben: Oh, it it was in the back of my mind that I

Steve: was judging. Your classmates?

Ben: Some of them knew. Like, I would tell some like, I didn't have a lot of friends in high school. So whenever some kids or somebody tells me or tells me, like, hey, how did you grow a business and what did your friends say about you? I had two friends. Mhmm.

Right? So it wasn't it wasn't really hard for me. Because I went from a charter school to a public school. Mhmm. Right?

So it's like a complete, environment change. Like, I went from kids with uniforms and lockers, try hard STEM kids Mhmm. To, like, kids fighting and vaping in the restroom. I I couldn't believe it. I was, like, it was it was amazing to me.

So to me, it wasn't really hard friends wise. Yeah. So Well, it wasn't just the

Steve: friends wise. I'm just wondering, like, you know, are you showing up to school in a new car? No. Right? Absolutely not.

Like, were you wearing nice clothes, jewelry?

Ben: I when I tell you I did not care about school, I did not care about school. Yeah. I there were classes that I've had that I don't even know the name of the t shirt. I don't even know the subject. I just know exactly how to walk to it from when I enter the school building.

My friends, they would see it and they would be impressed. They would ask me how to do it, and I was just always, like, work hard. And then he's, like, oh, nothing's happened. I'm, like, work harder. So Yeah.

So let's talk about

Steve: your first transaction. So you're calling people to help them with their social media.

Ben: Mhmm.

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Ben: So I so for for context, I started, with different targeting different niches. Right? So I target dentists. I target orthodontists. I target eye doctors, etcetera.

And a niche that worked for me, for some reason, was car salesman. Right? Interesting. So the way I found them was on Instagram, but that they weren't my first, first clients. My first clients were just generally in the automotive space.

Mhmm. So my first client was I called him. He was a mobile mechanic. So I don't know how I stumbled across it, that niche, but I just did. Right?

I called up this one guy on a Friday. His name's Christian, and I I I was like, hey, man. I wanna help you get more repair jobs or whatever they call them, with with social media. Like, I'll manage your social media. It was like a twenty, thirty minute call.

Right? And he's like, hey, call me on, Saturday or Sunday, and I will, we we can get this started. I'm like, okay. Sounds easy enough. I I I couldn't believe it, but apparently, he was right.

So I, I called him. I I don't know if I called him on Saturday, but I know that the extra day that I called him, because I normally don't cold call on Sundays. My cold calling schedule was, four to six hours a day, Monday through Saturday Monday through Friday, and two hours maybe on Saturday. Right? And on Sunday, I I closed that guy being at my grandparents' or my aunts and uncles in my grandparents' house, 6PM, 7PM.

He cash apps me a dollar. I saw I thought it was a joke. Right? And then he cash apps me the other $299. And I'm like, oh my god.

I just made my first $300.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: Talking with some guy over the phone. Yeah. Right? So he sends me all the stuff, all the videos, all the pictures, whatever I start posting. And to me, I remember being so excited and so happy because I finally had proof of concept that I showed my aunt.

And the and the reason why I showed my aunt first is because a few weeks prior, I really wanted to invest in a coaching program. Right? I didn't have the money. My dad didn't have the money, but my aunt had the money. Mhmm.

Steve: So I

Ben: went to my aunt. I'm like, hey, I wanna join this program. Like, I need $8. Can you help me out? $8.

Yeah.

Steve: K.

Ben: And she was like, she was like, I'll do it. Like, I'll talk to your dad. Like, I I'm okay giving you the money, and you can, you know, if you lose it, I'm okay with that. She she was a very wealthy Vietnamese, auntie. My dad shut her down, but to me, that made me even more mad, and it drove me to work harder.

But I was thinking about this a while back where if my aunt gave me that that $8,000 loan and trusted me with that money, I would still pay her dividends every single month, but I won't do it as a Zelle or a or like a wire transfer. I would do it as cash. Mhmm. I'll tell you why. The reason I wanted to do it as cash is because every weekend, my parents, they all gather together, you know, just have fun, party, etcetera.

Not party, but they just get together. My, I they they would all get together, and I would want to, every weekend, just, give her the cash in front of all of them. Mhmm. Because they they all talk about it. My dad would talk to them, my aunts and uncles, etcetera, but I just wanted everybody to see what would happen if you believed and took a bet on me.

And that's that's the thought I had to this day. So, yeah.

Steve: So she didn't do it. I mean, who knows? If she gives you that money, it might be too easy. You don't do well.

Ben: Possibly. Right? But to to me, everything happens for a reason.

Steve: And You do the $300. Yeah. The guy has success?

Ben: The guy did have success. I I I kept him as a client for six months. Right? Six whole months as a software.

Steve: Months or

Ben: 300 a month for for for six months. Correct.

Steve: So I'll happy enough to keep paying you.

Ben: Yes. He was happy enough to keep paying me, and then he brought it in house, but that's a whole topic for another day. After that, I brought on, some I bought on a a Honda dealership.

Steve: Well, hang up before the Honda dealership. Mhmm. You're cold calling. Mhmm. Yeah.

Sophomore year ish.

Ben: Yeah. High school.

Steve: Yeah. What sales skills, what hog tracks, what scripts were you using Okay. At 16 years old?

Ben: A lot of it came from YouTube.

Steve: Okay.

Ben: There were some people that I would watch on, on YouTube prior to my cold calling sessions, that I would learn their their their word tracks from. Mhmm. Right? I I don't remember what it was, but it went something along the lines of, hey, can I speak to the owner of x? Mhmm.

Right? They say, yes. I am the owner of x. Right? Hi.

My name is Benjamin. I'm here locally in Pearland, Texas. I just wanted to reach out to talk about how I can help you scale your, or how you I can get you more deals, repair jobs, or whatever the case is using social media. Is that something you'd be open to or completely against? Well, something along those lines.

Right? And they would say yes or no. They'd be like, how much it costs? And then I would to me, those are like smoke screens. And then I would just my my method of learning back then was, just YouTube videos Yeah.

And shorts or TikToks, whatever you wanna call them.

Steve: Yeah. Great time to be alive. I didn't

Ben: It was it was I

Steve: did not have that when I started.

Ben: I've learned more from TikTok and Instagram than I have from actual school.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So then you pick up Honda dealership. Correct.

Ben: Cold calling.

Steve: Oh, I mean, talk to me about that story.

Ben: I so, eventually, I transitioned from, cold calling off of Google to going on Instagram, because if you follow, like, a a person, you have suggested people below. So I had, like, leads forever. Right? And I would text them, but I would also call them because their their contact or whatever is in their bio or their their button. So I just called them.

Exact same thing, and I got I got this was completely luck in my opinion. I got a hold of the manager. Right? And the manager was like, hey, man. What would it take for you to do it for all of us?

Right? Or the entire, you know, dealership. Yeah. I brought him on as a as a dealership. His name was Bill up in Katy, Katy, Texas.

And, that to me was, like, once the once you pop the pop the first kernel, the popcorn effect, everything else just starts popping. Yeah. And that was a very stressful, a client for me. Right? Just mind you, I'm 15.

I have no idea what I'm doing besides how to post on on, on TikTok or on Instagram, and he's texting me at, like, two, 3AM, 9PM. My anxiety is an all time high. I have panic attacks. I have nightmares of this client. And, eventually, I did not live up to their expectations, and they dropped me again.

I had to get back to cold calling.

Steve: So So what were they paying you?

Ben: I think it was $800 a month or if if I'm not mistaken.

Steve: What were the expectations that you did not live up to?

Ben: I I can't remember. It's it's like four years ago. I think I I my scope of work was, posting the short form, and I was like, hey. If we post, not short form, but posting, like, pictures in hopes of getting car sales.

Steve: Yeah.

Ben: Right? And they're like, okay. I'm I'm doing my job of the bargain. It's just it's not generating leads. So that's probably why they dropped me.

Steve: Got it. If I had to guess There wasn't an ROI.

Ben: There wasn't an ROI. Correct.

Steve: You're doing what you promised to

Ben: do. Correct.

Steve: This is an ROI. Correct. Which is a good marketing decision. If it's no ROI

Ben: Yeah. Don't do it.

Steve: That and move on. Okay. So when did you decide, okay, maybe posting on social media is not my not my specialty?

Ben: I I can't posting on social media, I knew. It's like you're just posting, and if you get lucky, you could possibly make money. But I know that with ads, you run ads. It's more it's direct response marketing. You run an ad, somebody clicks on it, they either schedule a call or they pay directly on the funnel or the landing page.

Mhmm. Right? So I wanted to pivot over to that because to me, the way I looked at ads is like money in, money out. Right. It's just easiest way to put it on.

With content, it's like you post, post, post forever. You can post for three years, ten years until you maybe start to pop off. And, most people, they they value speed. Right? And with ads, it's it's quicker and easier to justify an ROI as opposed to content.

So I wanted to pivot everything over to ads. Right? Because it was a lot more scalable.

Steve: So for people that are listening, can you just real quick elaborate on what direct response marketing means?

Ben: To me, the way I my big thing is, like, how do I define it? Right? Because someone's gonna go to a dictionary or whatever. But to me, the way I define direct response marketing as an example is you see an ad, you click on it, and then there is a conversion event, whether it's a call, whether it's a follow, whether it's a, a sale, whatever the case is. It's just in and out.

That's the way that I define it. It's direct response.

Steve: Yeah. So, I mean, for everyone who's listening, they're doing it Correct. Probably. Right? But they might not they might just call it marketing.

So, like, the nuance here is, like, if you're in information marketing Mhmm. Call it direct response versus branded marketing like Coca Cola and how it does. Correct.

Ben: Yep.

Steve: Right? Their marketing

Ben: It's what are you optimizing for. Mhmm. Right? So if you look at Coca Cola or some of these bigger brands, at least the way I look at them, is that they are they're they're not gonna I'm assuming, correct they could correct me if I'm wrong, but they're not gonna run a, like a scan this QR code to Apple Pay, Coca Cola to your door. Right?

They just wanna build a brand like Red Bull. Right? To me, Red Bull is one of the best, companies when it comes to marketing and branding Mhmm. Because they don't they're not pushing a product. They're pushing a feeling.

Right? Their feeling is energy. Right? So they got all these crazy people going to space or whatever. So, for me, where I'm at, I don't have millions a month to invest into marketing, and most of my clients don't either, at least not yet.

We want them to we want our prospects or leads to see an ad, click on it, and buy or call

Steve: us. Take action. Correct. Yeah. So alright.

So you make the pivot to go to cold marketing. How was that journey? To what? Direct response marketing.

Ben: Correct. It was a lot better, but it was also harder. And the reason it was harder is because it was more competitive. Mhmm. Because now people are actually having to spend money.

Right? They're not just paying me, you know, my management fee. They have to pay ad spend as well. So I completely I completely went from car dealership people because they they had no money. They're car salespeople.

Right? Unless you're in anyways. So I went from car salespeople to, real estate agents because that was the that was a craze back then. Right? If you go into real estate agents, you're gonna make money.

Fulfillment is easy. You get everybody results. I'm like, oh, if everybody gets results and it's easy, why not do it? Yeah. But, everything is good or sounds good to be true in in my opinion, but we so we brought our real estate agents.

Right? And the way I brought on my first one, I believe, was through Facebook messaging. And we'd go into Facebook groups, and I would just DM people, friend and DM. Just do that two hours a day, on top of the online classes that I had, because of COVID, in in high school. Mhmm.

So I went through that. I brought in my first, real estate agent in Virginia. I believe she, she she was in, and she was paying me $1,500 per month. So I went from, I went from getting paid anywhere from 300 to $800 per month for posting to, $1,500 per month. And I'm like, woah.

This is this is awesome. Right? Less clients, they have money to invest into ad spend. This is a lot better. Yeah.

So I brought on a real estate agent, and, we ran ads for her for seller leads. And I remember the client that I brought in after her, which really turned things around. This is like the pivot point, was a guy named Anton in Tampa. He's a wholesaler. But when I contacted him, he's an agent, so he's an agent wholesaler.

Mhmm. Agent investor. So I started off doing the agent ads for him for seller, seller leads, like retail seller leads to list, list properties. And then he asked me, can you do the same thing for wholesaling? I knew about wholesaling.

I understand how it worked based on, Kang, but I never got the opportunity. I'm like, this is the opportunity. So we would do that, and that outperformed the agent side because his goal was and faster, easier, etcetera. And the fulfillment is literally the exact same thing besides changing creatives, targeting everything else is the same. And then I was like, oh, my God.

I have a I have something that works here. Right? Because I wanted to become a wholesaler. I wanted to become an investor, and I just cracked marketing for wholesalers. Mhmm.

So at that moment, working with him was like an absolute dream. Easy client, very nice, very respectful. He could actually close deals. Yeah. Doesn't complain.

Anyways, we're not gonna dive into that. Stop the leads.

Steve: Sounds like we got some, some trauma from existing client. Well, not existing previous clients.

Ben: Just just a little bit. Right? So so we, we did it for him. Mhmm. And one of the things I loved about working with wholesalers is that most of them, at least the ones that the him who I was talking with, they have business experience.

Like, they have that business mindset. They have that entrepreneurial mindset of, if I spend money if I spend more money, I will make more money. Mhmm. Agents, for the most part, they don't understand that. They're more, pay after you close and oh my gosh.

We go forever. But Yeah.

Steve: I was shocked when you said realtors are one of your first clients because realtors do not like to spend money on marketing.

Ben: Yeah. So it it was very, very hard dealing with the realtors. They're realtors, that have Realtors taught me how interesting human beings can be. Like, it it truly amazes me that there are some agents that operate and think the way they do. Anyways, with the so wholesaler.

So I so I brought them all. I got amazing results, and then I just like, okay. I'm gonna only bring on wholesalers now. Right? And back then, this was, like, '20 let's see.

2021, I believe. We could get contracts for, like, $500. Mhmm. So he would put $500 into ad spend. Right?

We can get a deal for 10 k, 15 k, and we were just renting. It was absolutely insane, and I, I was like, okay. I'm gonna go after wholesalers now because it's less competitive. It wasn't as untapped Mhmm. Or it wasn't, you know, competitive yet.

So I'm like, okay. This is my niche, and this is what I'm gonna take to the moon. Yeah. So that that was one of he has done wonders for my business because he's given me that opportunity.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So then what did you so you started going after wholesalers. So let's talk about that. What was the plan on how to find more wholesalers, sell Marketing services.

Marketing services. Because yeah. I mean, I was competitive back then. But, definitely, you were not the only one.

Ben: I was not I knew maybe two or three other people.

Steve: Yeah. So what did you do to grow that side of the business?

Ben: There there it was a mix of few things. So I did what was already working for me, and that was reaching out to people in Facebook groups, posting my results. That helped out drastically. Another big thing that helped me out was, we eventually pivoted ads, but we added on ads. So I started running ads for myself Mhmm.

To get clients, and we would mark those results. And those those were those 10 x their company, basically. And then another thing in addition to that was going to events, like meetups and stuff. Mhmm. Right?

So in Houston, the the communities for for, real estate investing and wholesaling is pretty big. So I would go to those, and my intro was always like, hey. My name is Ben. I'm 16, and this is what I do, and here's who I've done it for. And one thing I've learned when it comes to networking is that you're meeting 100 50 to a 100 other people.

Right? You're gonna shake hands and the my mindset at that time was, like, how can they remember me? So my thought was, like, okay. I'm young and I've done I've achieved some level of success for not only myself, but others as well. Yeah.

So those that framework eventually helped me connect with more people, influencers, and eventually, I got those people as clients. Mhmm. And my big thing when it comes to networking events is why should why should somebody listen to me, or why should they follow-up with me post meetup or event? Mhmm. Right?

So way I looked at it is, like, I'm just selling myself to them. Just sales. Yeah. Right? So it was a matter of doing already, doing what's working already because as entrepreneurs, we love shiny object syndrome, and this thing looks pretty.

Let's let's try that. Right? And so we we did that. We did what was working, which was messaging people in Facebook groups. We added on ads to, skyrocket our, our our brand, our direct response, get more people in the door, and then we went to events for branding.

So I take pictures, meet new people, and that right there, that, those three things are really what helped me absolutely skyrocket and bring on more wholesalers.

Steve: It's just hard for me to fathom a 16 year old at a meetup.

Ben: Why is that?

Steve: And I can see that in anyone that young. Right? Like, someone's 21, someone's 25. Like, man, good for you. Right?

You're starting early. 16. Like But

Ben: that's what got people to remember me.

Steve: I get that. Yeah. And so, Willie Coleman, he was on the show, let's see, back in, I wanna say, 19? Yeah. 2019.

And I think he had just turned 20 when he was on the show. It was back in '20 right. So he's an old man now, I'm guessing. But he started going to Rios and so on when he was 16 years old. He caught the bug early.

Right? And he had the same thing, like, you know, contracts signing contracts when he was 16 years old. Yeah. But he caught the bug early. He was able to turn it on, make it work.

But you weren't going with your parents, like, you were legit.

Ben: My dad would drop me off at them.

Steve: Okay.

Ben: And he was, like, why am I picking you up at 09:30 again? Yeah. And, he he wasn't the biggest fan of it, but I had to, like, beg him to let me go to these events. Yeah. And it was it was really hard because for me, everything was just going against me.

Like, the world was just going against me. The way I look at it is, like, that could be the reason I quit, or that could be an amazing story to tell when I make it. Mhmm. Because I remember cold calling in my dad's closet. And the reason why I cold called in my dad's closet, which was on the the other side of the house because it was my sister's bedroom or me and my sister's bedroom, and then my dad's master bedroom would be on the other side of the house, and he had a big walk in closet.

And I did it on the other side, and I'd crank up the TVs because I was so embarrassed that my dad would hear it or, because my dad wouldn't be home because he's working, and my sister, would hear. So I was so embarrassed. So So I go in there, and I remember vividly, one of my biggest dreams was always speaking at an event. Mhmm. Right?

I wanted to share my story. I shared all this crap that I'm going through. So my whole thing now is, like, all the challenges and all the obstacles that I go through right now, I believe it's going to help somebody else because they might be going through the same thing.

Steve: Got it. So and that makes sense, and that's a good story. So then when did you so you started doing ads. It started popping up. So at this point, like, business is easy?

Ben: How would I define business as easy at that point? It was easier. Mhmm. Right? Because as a business scales, there are things that break.

And when things break, you have to learn how to fix it. Learning is not a one equal one plus one. It's not an instinct thing overnight. Mhmm. Right?

So it takes time to learn how to hire. It takes time to learn how to train. It takes time to make sure that your team is doing what they're supposed to doing, like updating their CRM and updating Monday anyways. So it was easy, it was easier, but I wouldn't say it was easy. Right?

Because because we had more money, we had I had the ability to, invest into people, which take, took a load off my plate. So it gave me leverage to do other things. So I wouldn't say it's easy. It was easier than before because from my experience, when you're lifting off the ground, it's always gonna be the hardest. From my experience, the first two years is always the hardest because it was hard for me because I'm just trying to figure out what to do and how to do it.

Mhmm. Right? And then after that, once you get some money, once you learn some skills, you can leverage those skills to hire people, to implement software, whatever the case may be. So I wouldn't say it's easier. It would just be easier.

For example, if you were to ask me the same question now, are things easier easy now? Absolutely not. Right? But things are easier than when I first started.

Steve: So let's talk about that. So you're you're doing better scaling and getting all these accounts. So what were the things that were breaking in the at this time?

Ben: Everything. Starting with the back end. Right? This was something that a lot of people, was against, especially in my coaching program, but I built my agency backwards. Right?

My whole thing was make sure your clients are happy and then use those results and get more clients. Oh, you bought. I'm sorry?

Steve: That's how you bought.

Ben: Exactly. That's how I bought. So that that that was my entire methodology, and my coach, the coaching program would always tell everyone would just tell me. I'm like, hey. You have to bring on a lot of clients and then, make sure that they're happy.

Because if you don't have any other any clients, how are you gonna make sure they're happy? But I was like, I I have clients. So I have, like, ten, fifteen right now. Mhmm. Right?

And it got to a point where I was so paranoid that if I had 10 happy clients that were actually making money, not happy because, oh, he's a nice guy, but happy as in they're actually making money, and one of them was somewhat upset, I would I'll be like, my company's I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I'm clueless. I'd go back to the coach coaching program. I'll be like, hey. Like, I I can't get the sky results.

And this is when I learned the importance of bringing on quality clients. Now I don't want somebody to be watching this and be like, am I a quality client versus not a quality client? Because there are clients that I look for. There are people that I want to work with.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: You're not a bad guy. You're not a bad investor. You're not a bad wholesaler. I'm sure you're a great person if I got a chance to meet you. You're just not what I'm looking for, and what I've noticed will help our clients actually scale and win.

Right? So to me, the first thing that broke was the client success side. Like, the the team I had was not capable Mhmm. Whatsoever, But it wasn't their fault. It it was my fault.

Yeah. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to lead a team. I didn't know how to implement systems and processes. I know how to do SOPs.

I was I think I was pretty good at doing SOPs. I enjoyed writing SOPs because, I was pretty good at writing SOPs in high school. So I loved writing SOPs, but I didn't know how to get my team to to follow those SOPs. Yeah. And now that I look at it, it's like, why should they?

Mhmm. Why should they follow my SOPs? Because at the end, if they follow my SOPs and, I I'm as the company makes more money, they don't exactly make more money. Yeah. Right?

So that was, like, my one of the, sort of stepping stones that, taught me about leadership. Mhmm. Right? So back to your question, the biggest thing that broke was client success.

Steve: What does it mean for client success to be to have broken?

Ben: So everything fulfillment wise. Every so as soon as I enroll a client, everything after the second after, I enroll a client, the guy signs a contract and pays the invoice, that's client success from there. So for example, we have something called an ABR call. It says, it stands for anti buyer's remorse. So as soon as we, enroll somebody, within five minutes of a client, coming on, my director of client success will call and introduce, introduce himself, to the client.

I'm like, hey. So I know you just spoke with Ben. Here, I see where you're at right now. You're at two to three deals per month. You're looking to scale to 15.

Here's what exactly what you're going through. Alright. Here's your goal. Here's exactly what your, obstacles and constraints are. Here's how we propose to solve it.

So it's like the reason is a second thing off the call, there's I believe that there's a little bit of buyer's remorse, and my goal is to kill that as soon as possible. Right? So we have something like that. So everything post sale is client success to me.

Steve: So it's really more the onboarding process versus, like, the existing 10 clients. Like, the existing 10 clients weren't getting less happy. It was anyone you brought in knew.

Ben: It was actually they they actually a a little bit of it was because we were bringing on so many clients to the point where they these current clients, my quote unquote legacy clients weren't getting the attention that I believe they deserve.

Steve: They're getting neglected.

Ben: Exactly. So that's something that absolutely broke and, we there are many iterations of us, like, almost losing our entire agency and having to rebuild it back up again.

Steve: But

Ben: I think that's what makes business fun because if you do it if you could do it once, you should be able to do it multiple times.

Steve: Yeah. So what were some other big learning lessons there?

Ben: Big learning lessons during, let's say, sophomore year. A big one for me that I still carry to this day was, like I mentioned earlier, bringing on the right client. Mhmm. Our whole messaging and our marketing, process, our mess I guess messaging or offer at that point was really tailored towards beginners. It really attracted beginners.

And for me, I didn't really know any better. Right? So I was like, okay. Yeah. We can help you scale.

Steve: As long as the check clears.

Ben: Exactly. Right? A credit card doesn't balance or whatever, like, we're good. I would bring them on, and then I would send them all these leads, because I would look at the leads myself. Right?

I'd in the middle of class, I would copy and paste the lead, put into Zillow. I'm like, okay. He's asking for a 100 k. Property's worth a 110. I think he'd make it happen.

Right? I didn't really know what how to run numbers or anything back then. So and then the clients would start coming to me, coming to me, and they would be like, oh, some of these, we can't close these leads. I'm like, why not? Because I'm so used to, like, just send leads, and he'll close it.

Right? Just give him some motivation, and he'll he'll get it taken care of. And the client started not closing deals, and I'm just like, why is this happening? What what are these guys doing? What is Ryan in North Carolina doing, that this guy isn't?

Ryan's been in the business for twenty five years, done hundreds if not thousands of deals. This guy found out about wholesaling six months ago. Mhmm. Interesting. So I it took me almost a year and a half to learn that because I was just like I I thought I was the problem.

Mhmm. And to be completely honest, I was the problem. I did not do my due diligence on the client Mhmm. And set the proper expectation before bringing them on. I didn't know any better, but to me, I learned.

Yeah. And I know that I learned is if I don't make that mistake again. Mhmm. Because if I do make the same same mistake again, I would classify myself as a not so smart person.

Steve: Got it. So we're talking about the context here of, you know, building a million dollar business in high school. Now, obviously, a lot of people that graduated high school already that are Yeah. Watching this. Let's just disregard the high school part.

Ben: Okay.

Steve: But building a million dollar business, a would would you classify yourself as a marketing agency? What would you call yourself?

Ben: Right now, I would consider myself a, marketing consultancy. Right? Because we help with with the market, but we also consult with the clients on how to scale. Mhmm. So and and the reason why I define that is because our bread and butter is the market, is the paid ads.

How do we generate leads? Because if you don't have leads, who are you gonna sell? Mhmm. Nobody. Right?

So our first, first primary thing is the marketing, but we have coaches, on our team, specifically, you know, people that have actually done the business that coach our clients on how to actually scale. Mhmm. So I'll give you an example. Our, our director of client success, perfect example, he's been in the business for twenty five years. For context, as of this day, he's been in business longer than I've been alive.

Right? He's coached Fortune 500 companies, and on top of that, he's built a land flipping land wholesaling company himself. Mhmm. Right? So he teaches me about wholesaling.

Right? Because he's actually done the business. So I get to leverage his expertise to be able to coach our clients, and he coaches our clients. His specialty is in team building because prior to, prior to working with us, before COVID, he had a company where, he would, do corporate retreats on building teams and things like that. So I'd leverage his experience, and the mistakes that I made to actually help our clients scale.

That's why I call it a consultancy as opposed to just an agency.

Steve: Okay.

Ben: Because anybody can generate your leads.

Steve: Yeah. Right? So then let's talk about, you know, someone who wants to build this. Right? Like, what what are the skill sets?

Who are the people that are there? Because someone wanted to replicate this business.

Ben: The agency or the wholesale business? Agency. Because you

Steve: already because you're you're doing well Mhmm. On the agency side. Right? So if someone wanted to, like someone's in high school, or college or or whatever Okay. And they're like, hey.

I wanna do this.

Ben: Uh-huh.

Steve: Like, what are the things they need to know to be successful like you've been successful?

Ben: I guess the first question I would have is before any of that is why do you wanna start this business? Because if the why to you is not big enough, if it's just, making money, and I'm not gonna sit here and say my goal was not to make money and only make others like that, I would absolutely be lying to you. Right? I know I wouldn't make money, but I know I would get more fulfillment making other people money and getting a piece of that. Yeah.

So first thing I'd ask is, like, why do you wanna start this business? Is it just for the sake of making money? Mhmm. Because no, you're not gonna last very long. You're gonna lose to people like me.

Mhmm. Right? And, you know, that I I tip anyways. So first thing is why do you wanna start this business? Mhmm.

Right? You dial that in because that why, that statement that you that that you answer is going to push you through when things go bad, when you you think you're about to lose your company and whatever. Right? So first thing is have a big why. I know it sounds very wishy washy, but that's something that helped me.

Right? From there, skills, the first thing I would learn is if you're gonna sell something, you better be the try and become the best in the world at it. So in this case, if you wanna start a marketing agency, you should probably learn marketing. Mhmm. Right?

If I were to go back, I would, I would try and intern for somebody. Right? I would I I don't know if they have paid internships. I'm not familiar with how this internship process work, but I try to get some sort of job to learn marketing. Because now if I get a job or an internship at a beer company, I can use that name to help me, market myself and acquire clients myself.

Right. Right? So I would start there. I learn the skills, and from there, you start your outreach. Right?

Start reaching out to people, cold calling. You can text blast people. You can, you go on Craigslist, you go to meetups, you do all these things. Just find one, outreach channel and stick to it. Yeah.

Right? The second thing is learn sales. The way I define sales is sales is just. The ability to influence people that say you're selling a belief that that to me is what sales is. But the reason why sales have been has been so life changing for me is because sales has helped me make money.

It has helped me become a better communicator in with my team and relationships. It's helped me become a better networker. It's helped me think, become a better thinker, make decisions more logically, because for me, the way I, the way I justify decisions is I have to sell myself on it. Mhmm. Right?

So learn sales. So it it changed my life. Right? If let's just learn sales.

Steve: Right? You had an argument for me.

Ben: Yeah. Yep. Learn sales. Sales slash psychology. Mhmm.

Because if you learn how to influence people, I guess that's very similar to understanding how the mind works, which will help you out sales. So those two things really helped me. I feel like if you learn those two skills, marketing, not only for yourself, but for your clients, you will get clients, and you will be able to convert them. Mhmm. And to me, a portion of sales also helps you lead a team.

Right? You have to sell people on why should they should work for you. So as an example, whenever I'm on a, an interview. Right? I'm interviewing somebody that I really want on my team because of the track record, that he that he or she may have.

Mhmm. I always go into the frame, and I state the agenda of, hey, as much as I am here to see if I'm the right fit for you or you're the right fit for my company, I want you to understand that I am completely aware that you are trying to determine whether or not I'm the right fit for you. Like, are you somebody that wants to stay with me long term? Mhmm. And Steve, at any point in this conversation, if you feel like there's a misalignment, please let me know, and we can end this call right then and there.

Mhmm. Right? So for me, learn sales because it will carry into everything else. Yeah. Another massive, massive skill that has helped me is finances.

Everyone focuses on revenue Mhmm. Which you can't. You can't buy a car with revenue. At least I haven't been able to. I don't know if you have, Steve, but I haven't been able to buy a car with with revenue.

To me, profit is what matters, but I have to go a step deeper. There's profit, and then there's free cash flow. Mhmm. To me, the way I define free cash flow is how much money I can take outside of the business after reinvesting into tools, material, property, equipment, whatever, that that I take outside of the business and actually buy cars, buy houses, things like that. So the thing that I focus on and I stress our clients and our partners to focus on is that number, below profit, free cash flow.

So once I've learned that and and the reason why this, this this whole thing of learning about finance has been so important to me is because I remember last year, we hit an insane revenue month. Right? I was 19 doing, like, a $150,000 per month in the agency. I look at the profit at the end of the month. I'm like, why is this I mean, it looks nice.

Right? Because my bookkeeper screwed it up, but that's a topic for another day. But my bank account didn't reflect that. I'm like, where's all my money going? So I just didn't understand.

So I went on this whole YouTube thing of, like, learning accounting, like how to read a balance statement, how to read a p and l. What does this mean? What percentage of my marketing, what what what should my marketing expense be on my p and l, like, things like that. Mhmm. So because of that mistake that I've made in my business, I share with my other clients, and they're like, oh my gosh.

I'm running through the same thing. And a part of me makes me somewhat sort of happy that I was like, okay. Maybe maybe I'm not the only one that made this mistake. I'm not alone. So I take those lessons I share with our clients.

That way, they can be more profitable because at the end date, that's what most people, especially wholesaler that I speak to, are in this business for. Yeah. They're not venture backed or anything.

Steve: So Well, I think the the the whole deal with, understanding accounting Mhmm. I think that's a skill that separates the wealthy from everybody from everybody else. Right? Yeah. We can all drive revenue.

We can we can learn how to drive revenue. Mhmm. P and L, profit. Profit's nice too. Yeah.

We've talked about it on the show before. Profit isn't everything. It's like how could profit not be everything? It's like, you can still run out money. Yeah.

Running a profitable business.

Ben: Yep.

Steve: Right? And so we have Marcus Crickle. He's gonna be here in a couple of weeks, talking about finances and and and so on because that is the key, for the wealth component. Yeah. So I wanted to touch on a couple different things.

First, can't buy a car with revenue. I would disagree with that. Only if you have a big enough company where you can just get loans against it. For example, Facebook, Tesla, and so on. Right?

Ben: I feel like Facebook and Tesla makes a little bit more money than I do.

Steve: So Open door. Right? Like Yeah. These guys don't make money the way you and I have to make money where we actually have to have a profit. Correct.

Ben: Right? They have leverage. They have investor capital, so it's a little bit different.

Steve: Yeah. So you can't do it. Just not quite at our level. Correct. The other thing, though, you're talking about you gotta find your why.

So I disagree with this only because, like you, we started poor. I started poor. And it was all about making as much money as possible. Eventually, I found my purpose. But it was a long journey to find my purpose, right, to find my why.

I just knew I was going to crush and dominate regardless.

Ben: Mhmm. I

Steve: didn't know what my why was. I didn't know what my purpose was. Mhmm. I just knew I was going to win.

Ben: Mhmm.

Steve: So that that belief system was enough for me. And I do think that there are a lot of entrepreneurs that have that. So if you're in it just for the money, I agree to some extent that, yeah, if you're in it just for the money, you're gonna quit when things get hard. But if you got if you're in it for the money and you have a chip on your shoulder, the why doesn't have to be crystal clear yet. Eventually, you'll find the why.

Ben: Gotcha. So I guess what you're what you're saying is if if someone, is just in it as an example for the money, I guess the question I would have is, would they be in business long term?

Steve: So if it's just money by itself Mhmm. No. But people that don't have a purpose Mhmm. Or don't have a clear distinct purpose, don't are in it for the money can succeed so long as, they have this other inner drive. So, there's an assessment strengths finders.

Have you taken that one?

Ben: I have not.

Steve: So on that one, I've got, like, they talk about, like there's, like, 32 skills or something like that. Mhmm. And then, like, they you get, like, the top two or three for free, and then, like, to learn the other the rest, you gotta pay for it. Right? Okay.

Like, $37 is is, like, not a big deal. Okay. And I wanna say, like, number one was my for me, it was learner. Love to learn. Addicted to learn.

Number two was achiever. And achiever, what it said there is that you want to achieve, you don't know why. Like, that's specifically what it says in there. I was like, oh, that's me. That makes total sense.

I want to win. I wanna beat you, but I don't know why it's so important to me.

Ben: I feel like the answer the the the achievement of winning is is enough.

Steve: Well, I would say if that's the case, you might not be clear, right, on your purpose. Because eventually, I did find my purpose. But, man, the roundabout way. Right? Because, you know, you got Simon Sinek's, video.

The TED Talks start with why. Right? Your video?

Ben: That's his book. Yep.

Steve: Right? Like, I think it's, like, the, fifth most viewed ever on TED Talks is, like, 70 something million million views.

Ben: Oh, wow.

Steve: Right? Great talk. Didn't really care for the book because I thought it was just the same thing as the video.

Ben: Yeah.

Steve: But, there was another book after that, which was Find Your Why. And that book actually helped me figure out my purpose.

Ben: Interesting. Right?

Steve: Because, like, here are all the questions. And it was it's not even, like it says find your why. Mhmm. But it's about helping someone else find their why.

Ben: So it's

Steve: not I don't understand the title. Right? Yeah. But I got it because, like, yeah, I wanna find my why. So I wanna do it.

So I went through the book, and you're not supposed it's technically you're not supposed to do if you're supposed to do for other people. Right. But going through it's like, okay. That makes sense. I wanna help other people, and that's what fulfills me.

That's what drives me. Right? So what you said a moment ago, like, you wanna make a lot of money so that you can help a lot of people, and you can just keep a little bit of it. That makes you happy. Right.

That's me too. I didn't know that when I started. It wasn't until I started coaching people. I was like, oh, man. Watching people win, this is great.

This is fulfilling.

Ben: I think for me, it it came because of the fact that I remember when I, closed my first client, Christian, I was only happy for an hour. Mhmm. And it's I still have this feeling to this day, but it's like bringing on a client, it feels fun. That check hitting, it feels great. Mhmm.

But seeing a client close and make money, that way they can take care of their team, that makes me even happier. Right. So that to me, I guess, has been my

Steve: But that was when I saw when I had that experience is when it clicked. Okay. Getting clients, getting commissions, that was never like, that was cool. Yeah. Right?

It's the dopamine hit. Yeah. It was temporary. Yeah. It wasn't until I opened my brokerage, I was bringing realtors in, I was transforming realtors' lives.

Mhmm. I was like, oh, that's it. Yeah. But when I was helping a homeowner sell their home Yeah. When I was buying people's houses for cash, when I was helping a young couple buy their first house, like, that's cool.

Yeah. The commission is nice. Yeah. But this is not rewarding. Right?

So took a while. So I I guess where I'm going with this, everyone is watching that doesn't know the purpose, is to keep going, and your purpose will reveal itself. Yeah. As long as you keep going.

Ben: For me, again and I'll I'll I'll stay firm on mine. For me, what worked for me as Ben is having that why very early on. Right? Yes. It absolutely is.

But I'll

Steve: make the argument again, like, you're I would say you're in the minority and that you got to know it. Interesting. Yeah. So, like, here's the other thing. Right?

So I have my own different coach, And he's talked about, like, the problem with the finding your why question. His perspective is a why is always in the past. Right? Purpose is the future. Why is you're running away from something?

Interesting. Because if I ask you, like, hey. Why did this happen? Mhmm. It's always in reference with the past.

Why did you do this? Yep. Why do you want to do this?

Ben: Yeah. It's always

Steve: in the past. Ask a what and how question. What are your goals? What's your purpose? What do you wanna accomplish?

These are future oriented questions.

Ben: Oh, I like that.

Steve: That's Right? So that's the reason why, like Yeah. So I stopped asking what's your why almost over a year ago.

Ben: What's your purpose?

Steve: What's your purpose? Yeah.

Ben: What do

Steve: you wanna be remembered for? Yeah. Now we're talking about, okay, here's where I wanna go. So, like I said, I think you're very fortunate that you knew it early because there are a lot of people, like, what's your why, and they just get stuck. Yeah.

Right? And I was that person for the first half of my career.

Ben: Mhmm.

Steve: So, okay. So then let's talk about, you're also mentioning hire based off track record. What are you doing to find people's track record to figure out who you wanna hire?

Ben: What am I doing to hire people's track to Hire

Steve: people based on the track record. Right? So it's easy to say. Right? It's obvious thing.

Like, hey. Make sure you hire someone who's done it. Yeah. How are you inspecting to ensure they're not full of it?

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Ben: It's funny because my creative director is, is on the other room watching this. And, I I don't wanna say I don't wanna say poach, but provide others with a better opportunity. Mhmm. That that, aligns with their long term goals. So what's worked for me is, obviously, being in Facebook groups and networking.

Right? Mhmm. And, somewhat reaching out to people that I know have have done something. Mhmm. Right?

And just offering to hop on a call, getting some sort of coaching, paying for a con coaching consulting session or something. And And I actually learned this from Dan Martel. Right? And I I I wish I had his book when I first started because that would have saved me so much time, energy, and stress. But I remember his process when it came to networking and recruiting was he would go on LinkedIn, and he would, he would he would DM people or message people.

Hey. Can we do a, a consulting session a session? Or who do you know? His line would be like, who do you know that is as good at this as you are? Mhmm.

And most people would all be like, I'm pretty good. I mean, I'm down to hop on a call. Why would I bring you somebody else? So that was just, like, bait to from from what I saw to to get people on a call and eventually nurturing, keeping a solid recruiting pipeline, and, consistently keep in touch.

Steve: Yeah. That's a secret, right there. That's a sneaky secret.

Ben: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Like, hey, who do you know as good as Facebook marketing as you?

Ben: Really, the big thing has been referrals. Yeah. Here.

Steve: Me. Right here.

Ben: Yeah. Referrals, referrals seeing my and this goes to salespeople as well. Like, if I'm trying to recruit and hire salespeople, my mindset is always, like, the best salespeople are already working somewhere. For sure. Right?

Like, how do we how do we get those people into ours? Maybe it's because they don't they have a manager that they absolutely hate. There's absolutely no lead flow. Mhmm. The, on OT's on track earnings were overpromised, and they're nowhere near.

Like, there's no clear alignment to actually achieve that. There might be no growth potential. Mhmm. Right? So the same way, this is why I say sales is so important.

If you can learn to sell a prospect as to why they should work with you, why they should sell their house for you, you could probably sell somebody to quit where they're working at right now where they're not satisfied and come work with you where you could provide a better opportunity. And this is exactly why I never refer to it as poaching. I'm simply providing a better opportunity where both parties win. Yeah. That to me is how I would define sales.

Steve: Gotcha. Now there's also so we talked about a lot of the challenges, and we talked about, like, you know, the wins and so on. But there's also the raw side of entrepreneurship. What are the what what's the raw side of?

Ben: What is the raw side of entrepreneurship? It it's not like it looks on social media. No? Like, I I thought it was, like, all Lambos and mansions and yachts and stuff, but, unfortunately, You

Steve: just gotta rent the Lambos and the Airbnbs and you'll be good.

Ben: Yeah. I mean, some something like that, but I was, I was misled. So someone lied to me. Mhmm. It is not as pretty as it seems to be on social media from my experience, and I have a belief, and I guess some people would call it a hot take, where if somebody says if if I ask somebody how is business going, and they say, oh, business is going great.

In my personal opinion, I believe it's a lie because from my experience in working with my clients, business is never going good. There's always something that's gonna be broken.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: Right? It might not be like, oh, you're about to lose your company, but something's gonna be broken. A manager left, a process broke, CRMs down, something. Right? So it's not as it seems on social media.

Steve: Right.

Ben: And the raw side is that I believe that every business has some parts of it that suck. Mhmm. Right? It's just does the pros or what's working outweigh the the bad stuff. Right?

So for example, the agency team sales people as an example, they have to take a leave. Right? So boom. I have to jump back on sales calls. Right?

I don't want to, but it's like, okay. I'll do it. Right? Or, you know, a, your one of your operations manager screwed up a an automation with a client, and now there's 20 leads that came in in the last day, and the client spent 500 on these leads, in ad spend, and they didn't go to the CRM. Right?

So client's pissed. They're about to leave. They're like, where are all my leads? Yada yada yada. Are you stealing my leads and trying to click, like, oh, anyways.

You got your, you got internal politics. Right? I haven't had much of this, now, but before we did, I mean, I would have, like, a manager that, would would would play games while yelling at everybody else. Right? Just terrible leadership.

Right? Whose fault that? That's my fault. Mhmm. We got, c r oh, for example, the the big one was the h u p thing that screwed us for, like, a month.

Right? There are mistakes I made where I, I I would post things that I did not have, permission to post. Right? For example, whenever a client would get a get a deal, I would screenshot that. I'd screenshot the information of the contract, and I would post it on Facebook.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: Right? With the seller's information and stuff. I didn't know that. But the client I mean, I remember I I've had clients leave me because of that. Really?

Yes. Absolutely. I'm trying to think what else. We you got clients, you know, I'm trying to think of a a really good one. What what's a unique one?

I had a client on a on a call on a check-in call once who who was not happy. I can't remember exactly why, but he would do, like, some weird demon ritual or something. It was really weird. I I I can't I I I just it was really weird for me, and I thought I was gonna be, like, possessed or something, and my entire business was gonna, was gonna, get blown up. And then the biggest one has is is a mindset thing.

Yeah. And here's why I say that. And I guess the reason why I say that is because when I first started business, my mindset was very, very bad. And the reason why I say it was bad is I had a very scarcity mindset. Yeah.

Right? I never wanna invest into anything. I don't trust anybody. Like, networking is, you know, only for their benefit, not mine. Just all the limiting beliefs that I believe I had.

Right? And it the biggest growth happened when I overcame those limiting beliefs. For example, not everyone's gonna steal from you. Yeah. Right?

Some people will. Some people will try and cheat you, but not everyone will. Mhmm. Right? And understanding that bad things are gonna happen.

Something that was really hard for me to, swallow was that business cannot be a 100% perfect. Mhmm. I everyone would tell me, my coaches who's doing 7 figures, 8 figures in a coaching program, they would tell me like, oh, you can't nothing can be perfect at all time. I'm like, maybe not for you, but for me, it's gonna be perfect. Just watch.

Mhmm. Right? And this goes back to the fact that I had a delusional level of confidence and and obsession. So things like that is is what was reality.

Steve: You know, you talk about, like, the nasty side. Right? And how it's not as sunshine and rainbows and this and that. So I'll say, like and they're saying it can't be a 100%. Like, one or 2% at a time, everything's perfect.

Ben: Yeah. Let's see how long that lasts.

Steve: One or 2% of the time Yeah. It's all perfect. Yeah. And then this complaint. Yeah.

This broke. This automation. This happened. Mhmm. Someone's upset.

Someone's thinking about leaving. Right? Yeah. But, like, for, like, there are periods of time.

Ben: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I actually For an hour

Steve: or two hours every single week. Like, yeah, things are great.

Ben: Yeah. And the the mindset I have is always, like, you be grateful for the good times because understand the storm's coming. Mhmm. It always is gonna be there. Right?

And I unfortunately, I have not found a way to control that yet, but for me, things even my clients as well. It's like we have clients doing twenty, thirty deals a month. Right? On the sales call, it sounds great. Like, you got a sales team's happy sales manager, you got DISCO TC dialed in.

You bring them in, you look at their p and l. I was like, oh, so so where's the money? You guys, where's the profit? I was like, oh, no. That that's the problem.

Like, that's why we brought you on. I was like, gotcha. So at least there's something to fix. Right? So to me, business, and for anybody watching this, if you wanna take advice from a 20 year old, but anyways, business will never be a 100% perfect.

Yeah. Not from my experience. And anyone that tells you it is, I believe you're lying.

Steve: Right. So you said the mindset was a big thing. Right? So you started scarcity mindset, and now you changed your belief. What did you do to change your mindset?

Ben: I found Joe.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: The reason why a little context about Joe is that he knows what I'm thinking before I know before I know what I'm thinking. Mhmm. Like, he knows what I'm gonna say and how to act. He's he's like my, what's that what's that dude from Star Wars, the green thing? The Yoda?

Yeah. That guy Mhmm. Or girl. Joe's like my Yoda. Right?

He knows exactly what I'm gonna think. He knows what decisions I'm gonna make, exactly what's gonna happen. He could read my mind Mhmm. Without me having to say anything. So the biggest thing that helped me was him.

He would sell me, sell away these limiting beliefs. Right. He would logically explain to me and influence me, persuade me why these limiting beliefs are not going to help me and what would happen if I maintain those limiting beliefs, hence, consequence. Right? It's like, oh, if you have the sibling belief, here's what's gonna happen.

Three, six, or even twelve months. So having somebody like him, in my network has been very, very helpful. And one of the other hot takes that have ruffled some feathers that, that I believe based off of my experience is that coaches want you to do good, never better than them. Mhmm. Mentors do.

Again, this is my experience. And then another another one is, you pay for coaches and you find mentors. Mhmm. And I feel like the reason why that has ruffled some feathers is because some coaches, try to position themselves as mentors. Mhmm.

And the way I look at mentors or if I had to define what is a mentor Mhmm. Is, somebody who just wants you to do who someone who truly wants you to do good without any benefit towards them. Mhmm. That's how I would define a mentor. A perfect example would be your parents.

Mhmm. Right? My parents. Right? They want me to do good, and, obviously, they want me to do better than them.

And they don't it's not like I'm paying my dad to be my dad. Right? But if I wanted to get better at soccer, for example, I would hire a coach. Right? But if and again, this is just my opinion based off my experience.

If I did better than a coach, he would develop some sort of envy, and he would try to, like, slow me down. That way, I'm not ahead of him because if I'm ahead of him, why am I still paying him? Mhmm. So that that's been my experience. But going back to Joe, he's been somebody that, from what I've seen Yeah.

Truly wants me to win, at no, with with little to no benefit to him.

Steve: I see why you wrestle some feathers with that statement.

Ben: Why? Why do you feel it that way? What are

Steve: you saying? If the the the the blank statement is that coaches don't want you to do better than them. I can see why coaches are upset with this statement. Yeah. Right?

A lot of people in the coaching industry.

Ben: Yeah. Coaching is not a bad thing. I I coaches helped me become who I am today. I'm just saying, generally speaking Yeah. These are my opinions, and, if it bothers you then.

Steve: Okay. So the other thing you were saying earlier, going back to social media and the how whether talking about entrepreneurship, you felt like they lied to

Ben: you. Yeah.

Steve: Right? Well, on the flip side of that, it was TikTok and Instagram that pushed you Correct. Down this road. Right. And so, my first mentor when I got into the business, I didn't realize it at the time, was lying to me the whole time.

My mentor. Right. Right? But I'm incredibly grateful that he did. So a lot of the other people he mentored, because we're all working together Right.

Were very upset. And, like, they were just they're pissed off, lost trust, and, like, whatever. Screw him. Like, we're moving on.

Ben: Is this for the agent when you were an agent? Yeah. Okay.

Steve: But for me, I was like, well, whatever. I have all the success I have because he told me what I needed to hear. Yep. Right? Was it the truth?

Was it reality? Or the you know? No. But it's what I needed to hear to start my journey and quit my job, right, at Intel to believe in this other reality, right, of being self employed and doing all those other things.

Ben: Correct me if I'm wrong, but you said he was a mentor, not a coach. Right?

Steve: He was a mentor. I mean

Ben: Okay.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, I didn't I paid him and that he was my broker.

Ben: Gotcha. There was a there's a quote that just crossed my mind. It I feel like mentors tell you what you need to hear. Mhmm. Coaches tell you what you wanna hear.

Because if you tell them or if if the mentor tells you what you wanna hear, you're gonna be like, okay. I get validation. It Mhmm. Sparks dopamine, and I continue paying them. Mhmm.

And I guess that's also that that's just the thought that I had just now where, yeah, mentors tell you what you need to hear, coaches tell you what you wanna hear. Yeah.

Steve: And, like, for me, I have no animosity towards him. Now he's got animosity towards me because, like, a lot of people end up working for me. Oh. Right? Yeah.

So there's that. But I'm so grateful because if I had not met him, who knows, I might still be in a w two world.

Ben: This is a quote that, this is something that Joe taught me. He was he I can't remember what we're talking about because it was a while ago, but he said, it takes a village to rage raise a kid. Mhmm. Right? And what this means for me is that you will have people will come and go.

Mhmm. Right? There are friends that I've started out with where we grew up grew businesses together Mhmm. That are just not here anymore. Mhmm.

Right? They're coaches and mentors. For the season. Exactly. Not yep.

So I feel like that is something that, most people don't see about business. Right? And it's hard when some of those relationships get

Steve: Well, I mean, it's it's it's funny because you mentioned coaches, mentors. Right? So, like, I got another mentor, you know, Nick Peterson, and his thing was, like, you got coaches, and they'll get you from here to here. Like, your job is even from here to here. Mhmm.

That's it. Right? We got the mentors who are whose job is to pull you up. Right? Push you past your comfort zone.

Yep. Right? They're not necessarily technical. It's like, get you past your comfort zone. Mhmm.

And the last thing he says, he got your ring man.

Ben: A ring man?

Steve: Yeah. So the guy in boxing, right, the guy that's in your corner the corner man. Sorry. Corner man.

Ben: Okay.

Steve: Corner man. Right? Who's basically, like sorry. Corner man, where he is, like, constantly telling you, like, hey. This is about to happen.

Yeah. Sounds kinda like a little bit like Joe. This is about to happen. Be ready for this. K.

This is about to happen. You need to level up on this skill Yeah. For this next part of your journey. Yeah. Right?

And this is typically what it says, like, someone that's, like, 60 plus because they've seen it all. Right?

Ben: Old Joe's 50, and I I I yeah. He's

Steve: But, like, I'm, you know, I'm 45. So per Nick's definition, I'd be a good mentor, but not necessarily a good corner man because I can't tell you everything that's gonna happen. I feel like I could do a pretty good job of it. But per his definition, the guy that's 60 who's mentored a lot of people Uh-huh. He can see, alright, he's about to crash and

Ben: burn. Wow.

Steve: Right. Like, hey, what he's this this trajectory he's on, he's doing good now. He's gonna do good for another three years. Yeah. But he is on the path.

Something bad is about to happen. Yeah. If you can only see that, you're 60.

Ben: The beautiful thing is that you can ask your mentor Nick as an example why why he feels like that's the case. Like, why do you feel like he's about to burn? And he'll tell you exactly one, two, three, four, five why he's about to burn. I was like, okay. Cool.

I just gotta avoid that. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Was it, Charlie Munger? Right? Yeah. If you can tell me exactly where I'm gonna die, I'll make sure I'll never go there.

Ben: Oh, I never I thought you're gonna I thought you were gonna say the other quote where it's like, oh, if you tell me, like, the you tell me the incentive, what you'll tell what will happen.

Steve: Yeah. Show me the incentive. I'll show you the results.

Ben: Yeah. Put that on the slide. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So, then we'll be talking about how you got here, but let's talk about bolt deals. Correct. So what is bolt deals?

Ben: So bolt deals is a marketing agency, specifically a marketing team consultancy that focuses on helping wholesalers scale with predict predictable marketing and a profit first methodology.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: So we run, marketing campaigns specifically on PPC. We used to do Facebook. We pivoted over to PPC, in order to generate higher quality leads of sellers who need to sell as opposed to just wanting to sell. I call them sellers who are serious, not curious. And we use our marketing skills, our sales experience, team building, etcetera, to help our clients build profitable wholesaling companies.

Steve: So interesting that you leave with Profit First.

Ben: Right.

Steve: Why do you lead with Profit?

Ben: Because many wholesalers and I I'm glad that you asked that because many wholesalers, when we first hop on our initial discovery call, they think they want more leads, higher quality leads. But my question is always why. Mhmm. Because they can confer into deals. Okay.

But why? So I can make money. Okay. So you're aiming for revenue. Is that correct?

Are you sure? Mhmm. No. Yes. I'm sure.

I was like, okay. So profit is not important to you. And they're like, oh, no. We we want profit. I'm like, okay.

So you're not optimized. You don't want the most amount of leads. You just want the most amount of profit. Is that correct? Like, cool.

So we shift the entire conversation to profit. Because if we can get a campaign, a seven x ROAS, and they're at a two x ROAS right now, nothing else has to change. They're gonna be more profitable. Alright. So what are the few levers that we can pull in order to maximize output, throughput, in this case, profit?

Right? So, for example, many wholesales that I've spoken to, they they run into the issue where as they scale, there's diminishing returns, especially on the profit. Not only does our margin go down, but they're just net, free cash flow. It goes down. Right?

And the mindset they go into is like, wait. I was making more, or I was making the same at two to three deals per month than I am at 10 deals per month. So why not

Steve: just

Ben: scale down? Right? And more stress. You gotta deal with, you know, VAs, salespeople, all this stuff. Right?

So for me, we wanna work with our clients because and and I guess another reason why I say profit is that in order to get what you want, you let me rephrase that. You have to know what you're optimizing for. If you're optimizing for the most amount of leads, you're gonna get the most amount of leads.

Steve: Makes sense. You get a

Ben: a cluttered pipeline now, and your sales team doesn't suck on their thumbs all day. Right? You you get the most amount of contracts as an example. You're you tell your salespeople, hey. We want a dog load of contract.

They'll give you contracts, but if 20% of them actually goes to the closing table, still sucks. Right. You want the most amount of closed deals? Obviously, this is very important because without deals, you can't really have profit. Hey.

We want the most amount of deals. But then the question becomes, do would you rather get, 20 or 10 deals at $5,000 a pop, $5,000 assignment fees, or would you rather get two deals at $25,000 a pop? You're still making the same, but it's just volume. Mhmm. Most people would say the $25,000 two times.

Right? Question is why.

Steve: Or the 25,000 ten times.

Ben: Yeah. Yeah. That too. But the question is why. Right?

It's, less work, but they're making the same if not more. Mhmm. So if you draw it out on a, like, a, like, a line or write it out, everybody wants profit. At least most people that I speak to, that's what they really want. Mhmm.

Right? And the way we do that is by starting off with having profitable marketing campaigns. Right? And then good sales, because if you lock it up too high, either there's no margin or the deal does actually close. Mhmm.

Right? And then you have a team. Right? Because from my experience of what I've seen working with wholesalers, five deals per month is that, quote, unquote, hypothetical max of what you could do solo, and then you have to bring people on. Right?

So now you have to learn a new skill set of, hiring, training, and managing new people. But then the question becomes, with salespeople, since you are, paying them a commission, right, the more, the bigger these cyber fees, the bigger their check is. Right? So how do you bring on a team, add on these softwares, and still be profitable? So that's what we work with our clients on.

Right? Optimizing for profit or free cash flow.

Steve: Yeah. Got it. So it sounds to me in principle, all of those things sounds great. Oh, yeah. The differentiating factor is you work with the business owner.

Ben: We work with their teams

Steve: as well. Yeah. You work with the client Mhmm. Their organization.

Ben: Correct.

Steve: So it's not just, like, take the credit

Ben: card And and run ads.

Steve: And then hand you off to an account manager. No. I was like, you're still passionately involved in all this.

Ben: Absolutely. A 100%. Right? And and I will dive into this RevShare partner private client thing in a second. But with all of our clients, we're not just running the marketing campaigns.

We train their sales team as well. Not me specifically, but someone who's actually done it because I've never closed a wholesale. I've I've closed a flip. I've done flips, but I've never closed a wholesale deal. So my logic is, like, if I've never done something, what right do I have to teach you who's done this business for five, ten years Yeah.

How to close a deal or even your team. Right? So that's where my director of client success comes in. He has experience. He has a track record.

He has a hud's to prove it. Coaches our client's team. Mhmm. My zone if if my big thing is, like, I'll help you with finances. I'll help you with leadership, and and recruiting.

Those are, like, my main three things. Right? And if you wanna get some motivational talk, you can go to JT for that. I I'll just I'm a little too blunt, and some people take it the wrong way. But we're also in the sales space, so it's like people sort of like it.

Right? I

Steve: can definitely see that. What else makes you different?

Ben: The biggest one is obviously the market, but we work in our clients' businesses. I'm training their sales team. With some of our clients as an example, we talk with the acquisition managers and the sales managers more than we do the CEO or the yeah. The CEO or the COO. Mhmm.

Right? So we actually best way to put it is we are, like a fractional marketing consulting firm.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: Right? I don't ever treat a client as if they are a, a client or an account or another number on a roster. More so, they are, we are an extension of their company. Right? Because everything that we do is under their name and their brand.

I'll give you an example. Like, just this, yesterday. Right? I'm talking to a seller right now for one of my clients, one of our private clients, where I we're trying to save this deal. Right?

We got the deal under contract for, we originally offered 25,000. We went up to 45,000, and the deal is closing in ten days. We're the the seller wants to go up to 65,000. I spent two hours on the phone with them yesterday. They're like, hey, we want 65,000, but we're willing to take 54 or 55,000.

I can't remember. I'd have to check. And closing to ten days, and I'm like, we got a buyer secured, etcetera. And I'm like, I really don't wanna change this. Right?

So I I try not to do this, but I will sometimes take sales calls, or, talk to sellers with our clients. And to me, it's kinda fun too. Because I'm an external, I'm not as attached in the sale. So I I would say those are the big things that that make us different.

Steve: So then with this model Mhmm. There's a limit to how far you can scale. A 100%. You've acknowledged and embraced that, or you're like, there's something's gonna change?

Ben: I absolutely agree. Like, my goal is to not have 200, 300 clients. I've I've been, a a third of that, and it's I I love all my clients and I appreciate every single one of them, but it was it was not fun. I I it it was it sucked.

Steve: So you wanna roll your sleeves up, get dirty, get involved, and be a part of your clients' business. Correct.

Ben: It's so fun.

Steve: Yeah.

Ben: It is so fun because I get to see everything in the entire the the entire, operation. Like, you can't hide from me. Yeah. Like, if if I see, like, your, MQL rate, MQL is marketing qualified leads, so how many opt ins actually become qualified leads who need to sell? If I see that's down, I will get on my team like, hey.

We gotta fix this. Right? If there's a sales constraint, right, I'm like, why is your guys' speed to lead seven minutes? Like, we and I will and so a part of the onboarding that that I do is that we see who their competitors are and my way of go to you, and I love Top Gun Maverick, and you'll see how this, attaches to it in a second. But, like, Steve, if you don't call this guy stunning homes, they will.

Mhmm. Right? So what do you think is gonna happen? If don't tell me what's gonna happen, show me what's gonna happen. Right?

So to me, I want to make sure that our clients, are on top of their stuff Mhmm. Because they are gonna be my, quote unquote, walking billboard. Yeah. Right? So in other words, quality of clients over quantity of clients.

Yeah. And that is something I am absolutely okay with.

Steve: Yeah. Well, it's good. I mean, you're clear, which is big. I wanna before we transition, one thing that's funny is, you lost a client because you've posted a contract on Facebook.

Ben: Not a client. Multiple clients. Really?

Steve: Yep. You've post multiple contracts?

Ben: I didn't learn from them first time. Yeah. I learned from the first time and I was anyways. Yeah.

Steve: What were they upset about?

Ben: The, leaking leaking private information or confidential information, something along those lines. Yeah. I don't wanna get religious or anything, but or or get canceled, but

Steve: That's insane to me. Like, for me, it's like, whatever. You're sharing successes.

Ben: I am. But, I mean, I I I understand why he saw that to be a problem because he's like, oh, it's under contract. What if somebody tries to swoop in and steal a deal? Like, I get it.

Steve: If someone would so if someone's giving a five I don't know what your typical ROAS is. If someone's giving a five to 10 ROAS, I'll be pretty graceful. Now if we were, like, two and a half, I've been, like, annoyed. Okay. For sure.

That's that's the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Ben: So I'll I'll tell you something that, we've also dealt with, multiple times as well. So, Steve, you obviously have competitors, like when you were still wholesaling. Right? You're in Phoenix also. So And there's a few.

I'll be yeah. Just a few. If I, post you and your competitor sees that, I'm running your marketing, that I'm helping you achieve x y z level of success, And their marketing, they wanna achieve x y z level of success as well. Who are they gonna come to? They're gonna come.

Exactly. Yeah. And is that going to bother you? No. Well, with our clients, yes, it does.

Because there's there are clients in the same market. From my experience, our clients don't like that. Right? They it's funny because they're like, oh, we've worked with so many other market agents before. We'll, we'll we'll shout you from the rooftop.

Steve: No. No one shared a secret with.

Ben: I'll tell you. And this this is the line in the sand that really proved me this, this was the case. I had a guy that was a part of, Love is Blind. Mhmm. This Netflix show.

This dating show. Okay. Right? He has half a million followers

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: On, on Instagram. Right? And he tried to get me to work for free, and and, you know, offered to promote you to his Instagram. Mhmm. Right?

I ended up saying no, but we still closed them for what we asked for. We got this guy like a 11 x ROAS in six weeks. I have the number because he was we we had his partner on a podcast in Austin a few weeks ago. He had 347,000 in closed and funded deals in the first six weeks. Mhmm.

Right? And guess what I asked them? I asked them, hey, did we get a, get a get a shout out? Nothing. Yeah.

Never happened. So to me, I just like I appreciate I love the conviction, and how how confident, and I love that the fact that you trust us with the most important part of your company, which is the marketing to to run it for you. But, I I will I will have to see it to believe it.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. It's funny that someone can't solve that. So so I wanna get a hold. Wanted to work with both Mhmm.

Both deals. How would that work?

Ben: The there there's many ways. You could obviously go on our website, boltdeals.io, and fill out the short form where I can learn more about them, their business, what's going on right now, and how I can help. Or if you wanna get a hold of me directly, you can, message me on Instagram at official Benjamin Huang, h o a n g. And, I have a YouTube channel as well where I document everything that we're learning, every mistake, everything that's working for us right now, today, And, you can take the information, go make money, and if you do and you wanna make more money, you come to me.

Steve: There you go. Simple. Yep. What does your look like what does your life look like right now? I mean, you're 20.

You got, I'm imagining no responsibilities and obligations. You're doing pretty well.

Ben: Not by the know of. I'm just joking.

Steve: Yeah. What does your life look like right now?

Ben: I'll break it into categories. Right? So so professional life, I wake up around here. What time do I wake up? Seven, 06:30.

I wake up at 06:30. Right? 06:30 minutes. I and then so I I get, you know, brush my teeth, whatever the case is. And around seven ish, 07:30, I'll be at the gym with my creative director, and we'll work out until about 09:30.

Mhmm. We'll be in the gym, and then 09:30 to ten, I'm driving home in the morning traffic, and then I'll hop on, peaks. My days always start off with meetings, typically a sales huddle, and then I do a client success huddle. Mhmm. So sales huddle obviously is get the team up happy, etcetera.

And then, our client successful, we go through every single client, one by one. So, for example, not every single client, but, like, half of the clients today, half the clients tomorrow, etcetera. Make sure, you know, everybody's on track. Everybody's within KPI. If there's not if they're not within KPI, we have action items, to make sure that, you know, the classic care of.

Then after that, I typically do my, I call it my morning admin task or my morning checklist, check your bank accounts, check marketing KPIs, check client success KPIs, check response messages, emails, Slack, text messages. I'm I'm not good at it, but I'm getting better. And then either I will have some sort of a a check-in call with a client. So I have, like, an hour, two hour block with those, a phone call on FaceTime, then whatever the case is. I have sales calls, and then after that, I have deep work.

So deep work is building something to solve a problem, or a constraint. So something that's broken, not something we're really trying to achieve. I save that ambition stuff for for the weekends. And then around so on Mondays from, 06:30 to eight, I got bible study. And then after that, typically from eight to 10:00, I go play pickup soccer.

Mhmm. So that's something that has made me very happy lately. Mhmm. So there's rooftop open soccer. I come home, go to bed, or come home, eat, watch TikToks or YouTube for, like, an hour, and, I would try to be in bed by, like, eleven Yeah.

Midnight. And so that's that's professional life. Personal life, I guess I need some categories. Let's think, fitness. So something like I said, fitness is something I'm taking more seriously, because if you look good or if you feel good, look good, you perform better.

Eating better has been something that I'm trying to get better at because I love eating Chipotle every day, and my air Is it

Steve: only that good for you?

Ben: It it's not. No. Especially if you got the honey chicken and drowning in Tabasco. No. It's not.

So health has been a lot better. Relationships is something I'm working on. Mhmm. And and the reason why is I say something is working on is I wanna I don't wanna say the wrong thing, but it's like, I want to I I now understand what I'm looking for Mhmm. In a in a girl.

Right? So, you know, that that's something that I'm, you know, going out, you know, setting. I treat it like a sales funnel. Anyways, so dating is something that I'm obviously working on, and one of the mistakes, as an example, I made in the past, is that I let that consume my, professional life. Mhmm.

And I swore to never make that mistake again. And I have people around me to help me make sure that's not happening. But other than that, we have a a because what am I so this is a business so far. Right? A lot of what I'm telling you is business.

The the second thing I have, I guess, on the side I don't wanna call it a side hustle, but it's a side quest, I guess, is the best way to put it, is I wanna document so I have a second YouTube channel where I wanna document and share all everything I wish I knew when I first started. Mhmm. Like, all the lessons, all the mistakes. And the reason why I love this channel is because I'm the the frame that I go into is that I'm just talking to my younger self. Mhmm.

And this really inspired the the the what really inspired me to do this is because I saw a TikTok, ironically enough, where it said something along the lines of if you're not happy or you're not satisfied with where you're at right now, just think of what the, seven year old self would would, say to you right now. Right? And that really hit me because I I'm proud, but I'm not satisfied. Mhmm. Right?

And I got that by, a guy named Christian Guzman who has a gym in Houston. Right? It's one of my favorite gyms, one of my favorite entrepreneurs that I look up to. And I I'm happy with I'm I'm proud of what I've done, and what I've been able to do, but I don't think I'll ever be satisfied because I feel like the second you admit that you're satisfied, it introduces complacency, and that's when if you're not growing, you're dying. Right?

So I wanna share everything I wish I knew when I first started. All the mistakes, all the lessons, what it really is like to build a business, because I feel like business is not for some people. Right? And I I love that channel so much because and we've only have, like, what, one, two videos on it. So we're we're starting to ramp that up more.

But I just what is the seven year old been you know, like, imagine a seven year old been next to me just talking to me. Like, hey, you've you've you've done something.

Steve: Yeah. Right. Well, it's that everything we're upset about is everything we wish for.

Ben: Yeah. Absolutely. So Yeah. That to me is is the vision. And then in addition to that, the way I'm gonna, quote unquote, monetize that is it's not for me.

Right? I guess it is for me, just not monetarily. In addition to that, one thing I really wanna do is I want to, start a charity, where it's Benji serves.

Steve: Mhmm. I

Ben: just came up with it. Right? Benji serves where we're we're gonna build schools in, in countries in poverty like Vietnam, somewhere in Africa, just all over the world, and have people, like, you know, if they watch the channel and support it, they, like, you send money into it or something, or, like, give money to the charity to, build schools. And the reason why I I wanted to do school specifically is school provides what? Provides an education.

Right? And you see all of these other charities, not nothing against them. They're obviously good, doing good for the world, but my logic behind this was food supplies, that stuff, it goes away. Right? You eat it, it's gone.

Right? But you can't take away somebody's education. Mhmm. So that to me is the long term goal, because just seeing other people like, not everybody's blessed with the opportunities that I would say I have. Right?

I grew up in America. Right? That to me is already one of the biggest blessings that I've I've gotten.

Steve: Right there.

Ben: Yeah. Exactly. Right? So having that, not everybody gets that opportunity, unfortunately. Not everybody gets to have a roof over their head.

You know, I I wouldn't say we grew up extremely poor, but we we grew up at a questionable neighborhood is what I'll say. Yeah. Right? And not everybody got everybody got that opportunity, and so whenever I look at whether whether or not, you know, I'm whenever feel, like, too cocky, I just know that somebody would die to be in a position that I'm in right now or the opportunities that I've had, I've been grand or blessed with.

Steve: Yeah. And then someone would kill for it.

Ben: Yeah. Like that for me.

Steve: They'd kill for it. Yeah. So two things that stuck out for me there. Pick up rooftop soccer. That's interesting.

Is that do you live in an apartment?

Ben: No. It's it's in it's in Austin. You pay $75 a month. You play unlimited soccer.

Steve: That's fascinating. Yeah. Second thing, you genuinely care about your client's business because, like, you're their accountability partner. They're keeping their

Ben: product I'll say a little bit more than accountability partner because it's, like, if they're if I'm just their accountability partner, they're just paying me for a trainer, basically. Like

Steve: But you're calling them out when they're when they're slipping.

Ben: Yeah. Absolutely. And I they have the power to call me out when I'm slipping.

Steve: Yeah.

Ben: It was it's a mutual partnership.

Steve: That's huge. Yeah. So question we brought up earlier, what do you wanna be remembered for?

Ben: The biggest thing is that, the school thing. Like, I building a school is a big thing, and I want to be in a position where I could give away all the information that I know when it comes to building businesses and just becoming what I would consider Mhmm. A good human being. Right? And the easiest way I would define that for myself and where I wanna be in life is just do good for the world.

Right? If you've helped somebody in some way improve their life, to me, that is being a good person. Right? If you do the opposite, I would say that is being being a bad person. Right?

So, and yes, obviously, it would be cool to have a family legacy, be like the Rockefellers, and have this waterfall trust, and that's great. I'm not gonna sit here and say I don't want the material stuff. I absolutely want the material stuff. Right? I want a a Porsche.

I want to buy a, a a platys. Right? A plane. A private jet. Right?

I want all that. Right? But I know that if I help our clients make a lot of money, that will give me the skills and the money to venture into other, business ventures. Right? And eventually, I can have that car.

I can have that jet. Right? I'm not gonna sit here and say, like, oh, no. He just like, he doesn't wanna buy like, I absolutely wanna buy a

Steve: nice car. You're not a monk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

What's your superpower?

Ben: First thing in my head is what what do I define as a superpower? Is it something that I have that other people don't? Is it trying to find in my head what is a superpower? That's a really good question.

Steve: What do people say that they admire most about you that they wish they had? That you make look easy?

Ben: I I would say it's the way I think. I I think they say that, from other people's words, my mindset and the way I logically think through things, is something they absolutely love and admire. Mhmm. And I I can understand why is because I used to be the emotional thinker, the the emotional decision maker. Mhmm.

Right? And then I became more of a logical thinker. So just like the question you asked me, like, what is a superpower? Somebody could say, like, I don't know. They're good at sales or whatever.

Right? To me, it's I I just define, like, what what is a superpower. Right? And I instantly think of, like, the Marvel guys, the the superheroes or whatever. Like, Batman has this one thing, and the red dude has that other thing, green guy, whatever.

Right? So but, like, Batman has this trait that the red guy doesn't.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ben: Right? I I didn't watch any of this growing up, so I don't know their names. So to me, it's like, what do I have that I don't believe most people have? I think it's the way that I think. The way I logically walk through concepts and think through things.

Just define words, and I think the way that I do a lot of this is that it's not what is the definition of word, it's how do I define it. So I think that's something that has helped me, and I guess that's my superpower.

Steve: You definitely look at things from a different perspective. Yeah. What are some of the last words you wanna leave all the listeners with?

Ben: If me being in high school, 15, 16 year old years old can do it, you have absolutely no reason that you can't achieve what you want. Like, I get you have kids. I get you have

Steve: to have a roof

Ben: over your head. But I believe that if you want something bad enough, you will find a way. Get it. Right? Life's going to suck in the short term for my experience.

But if you take that sacrifice, it will not suck forever. Yeah. That is, I believe, a promise that I can make the viewer based off of my experience.

Steve: Yeah. Makes all the sense. Thank you so much.

Ben: Thank you for having me.

Steve: Thank you guys for watching. We'll see you guys next time. Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.

How Ben Hoang Built A Million Dollar Business In High School

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Ben Hoang

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5 Lessons I Learned In 2025 You Must Copy To Crush 2026

How Ben Hoang Built A Million Dollar Business In High School

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5 Lessons I Learned In 2025 You Must Copy To Crush 2026