Transitioning from Depression to a Marketplace SuperHero with Stephen Somers

Speaker A: You know, when I was in my early 20s, I mentioned earlier on I was looking for just kind of a bit aimless. I was in the music industry, didn't work out, and I was working as a data processor, uh, because that was what was funding me really, while I was doing that, living in Dublin, which is the capital of Ireland, and I got to a point where the band finished and, you know, I started eating bad food and drinking every night and feeling sorry for myself, uh, when I was about 21 or so, and I did that for like a year. I got really fat and really lazy. And I remember going back to my old college because I got student of the year and they were giving me the award, which it happened much later after I'd left, obviously, because it was for the previous year. And everyone looked at me were just like, what the hell happened to you when you left? You didn't look like this. What's going on? So I realized I was kind of going through a mild depression, felt very aimless and, um.

Speaker B: Welcome to Men of Abundance, the podcast for those looking to level up their lives by hanging out with some of the greatest leaders and established professionals in our community, living a life of integrity, honor and the abundance mentality. Prepare to pay it forward with your host, uh, former army medic turned lifestyle entrepreneur, Wally Carmichael.

Speaker C: What is going on, you amazing, abundant leader? I am Wally Carmichael, your founder and host of the Men of Abundance podcast, the Pay it Forward community, proving to you that you can in fact live a life of abundance in family, faith, finances and fitness on your way to having more. Now, today's conversation is going to be really cool, especially with everything going on right now. A lot of people are in transition or looking for career change for various reasons, and you might be looking for a career change transition, uh, or maybe even just a side hustle, something to back you up in case you do have to jump ship and decide to go do something else because you want to go spend more time with family or you just want to get away from a toxic situation, whatever the case may be, this conversation is definitely for you and there are many, many options for you to create a side hustle, create a new career. One thing I want to caution you on, rather you use what we're going to talk about today or just anything else out there, consider taking on a mentor, a coach, or following someone who has done what it is that you want to do and done it successfully for a period of time so that you ensure that you can, what I refer to as cutting the line, ethically cutting the line, you know, you can shorten the learning curve. A lot of people want to go back to college and spend a lot of money and go that route. That is no longer a guarantee. And I'm not knocking college. It depends on what you plan on getting into. College can definitely help. But when we're talking about business and we're talking about creating some sort of a side hustle, generally college is not going to help you in that regard. You're going to need some sort of course. You're going to need mentorship and coaching and consulting. All of the above, or variations of all of those. Here's something very interesting that I've learned. When I talk to people who are transitioning out of the military or out of corporate or just changing careers or taking on something new in their life, many people try to go it alone. They think they can figure it out on their own. They can watch enough YouTube videos, read enough books, and they can figure it on their own. Look, that's very much possible. I'll tell you from my personal experience, anytime I decided I wanted to do something new in my life, uh, and I tried to do it on my own, I may have gotten some results, but it probably cost me much more time and money. Whereas when I hired a consultant or a coach, I got it done much quicker, much cheaper, much more effective, and quite frankly, exceeded my own expectations. Every high performer that you think of, rather they're in sports, business, personal life, whatever the case may be, every single high performer has at least one mentor, coach, consultant, or multiple. Okay? So consider that as you decide to move over, move on into whatever it is that you decide you want to do. Now, of course, before I introduce our featured guest today, I want to give you the opportunity to be abundant in your actions today and pay it forward others. It's simple. Just take a screenshot of this podcast, uh, and share it on social media. Wherever you are on social media, share it with your friends. Talk to people about it at work or at church. Talk to people about it on your podcast. Share men of abundance with other people. Because these conversations will definitely help somebody. You never know who it can help, and I promise you, they will thank you for it. I get conversations, I get messages, I get emails, I get Facebook messages, posts, all kinds of people thanking me for the conversations that they find on men of abundance. And I'm grateful every single day that I'm able to do this. So be abundant in your actions today. Pay it forward. Share men of abundance with others. Now, let's get right into it. Our featured guest today is the co founder of Marketplace Superheroes, online education and services company that helps people all over the world learn how to sell their own products globally on Amazon from complete scratch. Along with his business partner Robert, Stephen has won five, two comma club awards for Marketplace Superheroes, which is now an eight figure business. And the guys have also helped over 7,000 people to create multiple income streams online. Men of Abundance, um, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Stephen Sommers. Stephen, welcome to Men of Abundance, brother. How are you doing today?

Speaker A: I'm doing great, Wally, and I'm absolutely honored to be here to chat with you and your audience. I'm just, I can't wait. Let's go.

Speaker C: I greatly appreciate you jumping on where you at in the world?

Speaker A: I'm in Ireland, actually, uh, in a little town called Wexford in Ireland, which is, uh, not the center of e commerce, that's for sure. Our business, it's a little fishing town here in Ireland. And funnily enough, you know, maybe a lot of any of you listening today, you might have had that thing when you were a little younger. I'm 30, nearly 34, so I'm not exactly old. But when I was in my 20s, you know, I thought, I want to live in the US I want to live in all these other places. And I've seen all those places, which are all wonderful places. But, you know, something about your hometown is, uh, I don't know, there's a pull to my hometown. So I love being Irish. I love living here in Wexford. Flying the flag and building a global business from a little town is pretty cool.

Speaker C: That's so awesome on so many levels. And as we get into our conversation here, guys, you're going to see that, you know, it's even more dynamic of what where Stephen is at based on what he's been able to do not just for himself and his business partner, but for so many other people from this tiny little town in Ireland. I just love these kind of stories, man. That's just absolutely amazing. I like to start out with an attitude of gratitude, man. What do you have to be grateful for today?

Speaker A: Well, so many things. You know, it's funny. I'm grateful today for hot water. And I know it sounds like, uh, you know, where does this guy live? But we had problems with our water for the last couple days and we got it sorted out today. Uh, you don't want to know something? Hot water is an amazing thing. We should all be grateful for that.

Speaker C: I totally agree. It's so funny you say that because I was just having this conversation, my wife and I with our 11 year old and we were talking about growing up and living in um, Panama, where my wife is from Central America. And while it is hot there, where when I lived there, when we lived, my wife and I lived together, we didn't have hot water. And taking a cold shower in when it's hot outside is quite the thing. But I've also lived in places where, like in Bolivia where I was at drilling water wells. And in fact, um, for Bolivia, they had a five year water job and they didn't have water. You know, they had those tanks on top of the roof and you could only use water like certain times of the day and certain days of the week. Yeah, I've seen that, take that stuff for granted. You know, I've seen that in the

Speaker A: U.S. i remember, um, I was, we did a great journey myself, my wife, just before we got married, we traveled from San, uh, Francisco right down to la, did the whole drive and uh, it was so hot that year actually we stopped by Yosemite, which again, for anybody who's not been there, you got to get there at some point in your life. Incredible place. And when I was there there like it was that kind of deal. And then surrounding areas too, like, you know, you couldn't turn your, your whatever your hose on at certain times and things like that. So yeah, it was, and they were saying it was only like 3% of the snow cap or something like that was in uh, Yosemite that year. So there you go, you know, and then I think that's like in the current time we live in now and the, you know, world 2.0 or 3.0, whatever the hell we're in now, you know, we're starting to learn new ways of living. Right. Because this whole, uh, coronavirus thing has forced us to do that. And it's a frustrating time to be alive, but equally an incredible time to be alive. And I think as we go forward in the conversation today, there's plenty of things that are actually in my life, business life that are thriving better than ever right now, which is odd. Uh, but same time then from a personal level. God, I wish this, I can't wait for this to be over. Ah, so, uh, yeah, but you learn a lot. I'm learning a lot about myself during this time, for sure.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And good for you. And I completely agree. We are tested and those of us who are really entrepreneurials, I mean entrepreneurs, we roll with the punches and so many other people do in general, but, uh, a true entrepreneur can truly roll with the punches and find, you know, not just ways to survive, but ways to thrive in just about any environment. While, by the way, adding to other people's lives, not taking away from other people's lives. That's what we're talking about today, right? Abundance. And there's more than enough in the world, and you don't have to take from others to increase your own personal abundance, right?

Speaker A: 100%. You know, I've been. I was reading a book there that's long ago. I don't know if you've read it before. Highly recommended. You and the listeners. I probably recommend a ton of books today, by the way, Wally, just to warn you ahead of time. Uh, but. But the book is, um. It's a book by Dan Kennedy, one of my favorite, uh, business thinkers. And it's called, uh, Wealth Attraction in the New Economy, I believe it's called, um, one of the first chapters in that book. He talks about abundance and talks about the fact that there is more than enough to go around for everybody. Like you mentioned, more than enough clients, more than enough money, more than enough everything. And it's interesting because I literally just listened. I was just listening to an Earl Nightingale conversation about attitude and how attitude is the most important fundamental thing when it comes to creating my success in your life and also having more abundance in your life. And I think when we put those two philosophies together of having an attitude of opportunity, consistently changing our language from language of need and scarcity into opportunity, while then coupling that along with this reality that there is an abundance of absolutely everything. It's like understanding then that there is the soil, there is the sunshine, there is the rain, there's all these fundamental resources that we have access to right now. And it's up to us as men of abundance to take all of those resources and to direct them into, you know, things that help other people, as you mentioned. So that's definitely my, like, definitely my philosophy when it comes to life and business. And certainly, you know, the Zig Ziglar quote, which is almost cliche now, but I think it's like, if you can keep returning back to this, you'll be very successful. Which is, of course, you know, uh, if you help enough people get what they want, you'll get what you want lots more. And so that's definitely how I've been living my life now for the last maybe. Well, definitely the last six, seven years. And, uh, I've been able to do that. But, uh, you know, the more and more we do that, even in these weird times, the more we can all thrive, you know?

Speaker C: Yeah, 100%. I can't. I've lost count. Long time ago how many times I've used that same Zig Ziglar quote.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: And, um, I'll recommend a book to you right now. Before I forget, if you haven't heard me say it before, the book is simply called Abundance, uh, by Peter Diamandez. And being a data guy and a statistics type of guy, this book is one that I listened to, but then I had to get the hard copy because I've got tons of notes in it. And it's all about the abundance of education, natural resources. You, uh, name it, and there's data driven behind it. It's just a matter of proper distribution of information. You know, people used to always say, the truth will set you free. Well, that's true, but only if you share the truth. Knowing the truth will set you free. The truth is out there. You just got to know it and find it. So you're going to be revealing a lot of truth here today. Um, because some people have looked at what you do, your industry, and they've just like, what? No way. That's just not. We know at this point it's possible. Now it's just about how, you know, that's what we're going to get into at some point. But before we do. Yeah, you know the deal, man. I like to get into that kick in the gut moment and really make our listeners feel that kick in the gut moment. Because sometimes that kick in the gut moment changes the trajectory of your life and puts you on a path that you may be on. Now, if that's not the case, cool. But I would really like to hear a kick in the gut moment and really make us feel that. Then we're going to unpack that, see what you learn from it.

Speaker A: Well, you might think my kick in the gut moment is kind of trivial, but it truly changed the course of my entire life. And it, uh, was actually when I was about 10 years old. Right. 33 now. Remember, everybody? Now, believe me, this actually is relevant. So I was big into soccer as a kid. Here in Ireland, soccer is a big deal. And in the UK it's a big deal as well over this part of the world. And so I was a really fast sprinter, but I was not good at kicking the ball, which, as you might have guessed, something that's called football. We call football over here. You guys call it Soccer, it's fairly fundamental that you can kick the ball properly. So, you know, here I am sprinting past everybody. I literally, Literally no one could catch me when I had the ball. And I get to the goal, and I literally kick the ball wide every time. And what we call I toe poke the ball, which means you use your toes to kick the ball. It's really bad. It's not a good way to kick the ball at all. So, uh, long story short, I cannot get into the team at all. My coach tells me, no, no, not today, Steven. Not today. You know, it's what we would say in Ireland. It's lashing rain. It's raining really heavily every single match because it always rains here in Ireland, and I'm never getting into the team. And I remember one day in particular, I turned up, I'm 10 years old, turn up in the car with my mom and dad, and, uh, the coach comes over and just says, you know, Stephen, it's not really even worth your while today, actually, like, you know, putting on your gear, because you're not going to be playing. You're not going to be on the substitutes bench. It's just not going to happen today. And I remember just going. I just said, no, I'm going home. And I remember getting home crying and all the rest on my bed and doing the whole deal. And, uh, my parents came in and they taught me a really valuable lesson, and they said to me, are you going to let this person tell you you're just not good enough? And I thought, no. So they said, I'll tell you. Tell you what you're going to do later on. You're going to call this guy this evening and you're going to speak to him. And So I did. 10 years old. I rang my coach and I asked him, why will you not put me in the team? And he told me, he said, you're just not part of the winning combination. Now, that was a real kick in the gut initially. Uh, but what it did, it lit a fire in me, and the fire still burning. You know, we're talking 14 years later. Sorry, 24 years later, almost. My God, I'm getting older now. And, uh, what happened was I just said, you want to know something? I'm going to go every single day, and I'm going to. I was told if I use a tennis ball, I would get really good at controlling the ball. I would get really good at kicking the ball because it's really hard to kick a tennis ball. So I did that. I kicked the Ball every single day all summer long, uh, again and again and again and again and again. I left that team. I moved to another team. Uh, long story short, I instantly improve as a player, and I go through a whole season, you know, really playing well. I'm, um, probably one of the top players in the league now. And then the next season in soccer, in underage soccer here, basically, you go into what's called your bad year, which means the kids are all older than you because you've gone up in age group, but you're a year younger, so you typically cannot get into the team. You end up on the B team, which is the second team, but I end up on the A team, starting on the left wing in soccer, and I'm absolutely killing it. And that season, so it's like a year and a half later, I, uh, play against one of our rival teams. I score the winning goal. Their manager comes to me and just says, stephen, uh, I'm actually the manager of the county team. Uh, I'm going to be your manager this year for your age group, and I want you to be the captain. You don't have to come to any of the trials. You're the captain. So that was all in the space of about a year and a half, nearly two years. And that Wally taught me the value of hard work. It taught me the value of, do you know what? I know something. Proving people wrong. And it taught me the value of gritting my teeth at different times and just saying, I'm going to show these people what I'm made of, uh, and what I can do. And what's interesting about that story is during my teens, I was trying to make it in the music industry, and it didn't work out for me. As you might have guessed, I'm not a rock star at the moment, unfortunately, but I'm happy enough. I wasn't supposed to do that, but the point is, I forgot that moment for literally about 13 years. So until I was in my early 20s, I kind of coasted through life. I was playing music, I was organizing gigs, and I was being somewhat entrepreneurial, but never really doing a whole lot. And it was only when I was, um, 23 years old that I remembered that lesson again whenever I first met my business partner, Robert. And we can go through that whole deal now or later, whatever you want. But that was my kick in the gut, and that's the lesson I learned. And I'll never forget that because it truly changed my life.

Speaker C: That's a great story. I dig it. One word that you use that really stood out for me though is when you said, you know, after kicking the ball, the tennis ball all summer and then the next season, you instantly became, you know, a much better soccer player. And that's the, that that's part of the problem, guys, is some of you think you're going to instantly become great at something regardless of what it is. Uh, and it takes hard, it takes work. Well, it takes focused work. Hard work does. I use this all the time because my dad worked hard, but he never really got to where he wanted to be. Uh, as a man or as a person. I know many people who work hard. It's the smart, the hard, smart work that's really important. And then of course, you know what, sometimes those kicking the guts, those people telling you that, you know, you're not worth it. And recently I've been watching, um, have you seen Undercover Billionaire? The one with the. That later one with Grant Cardone.

Speaker A: And I've heard a lot about it. I have. Yet. I haven't watched it yet. But I do intend to watch it.

Speaker C: I'm watching season three or episode three. I was kind of getting through it because my family doesn't really dig one. You know, I have to watch it when nobody else is around because they don't get into it as much as I do. And to me it's like watching football or soccer or baseball or whatever. It's just sport to me. Um, to watch, you know, restaurant impossible and you know, bar rescue. All these things. Just. Yeah, for sure. Especially for what I do personally. It's, it's like education for me. Anyway. One of the, one of the things that I, that, you know, comes up at time and time again are people that have been told that they're not worth anything and they believe it.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: And that's it. They're just done. They're not, they're told you you are nothing, you're never going to be worth anything. And they believe it. And that's just one. The person that tells people that is just a terrible, terrible person.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker C: But that's their observation at the point in time. But it doesn't have to be said all the time. You know what I'm saying? But it's unfortunate that those people that are told that don't have the drive that you had and on top of that, don't have people in their life to say, like your parents who say, you really gonna believe that? Because that's not true.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's. And it is fascinating because my parents are great people, uh, not entrepreneurs in any way. They both work part time. You know, they. They just didn't have that. That type of motivation and drive. But they really. That lesson they imparted on me was huge. I often wondered about that. I don't know if they would have called. Maybe they would have. Maybe they wouldn't have. I'm not sure they. I don't know if we can ever answer that, but they told me to do it, which was absolutely a great lesson. But the thing about my parents, like your own father. My dad worked in factories a lot of his life, you know, and, uh, that is hard work. It's hard physical work. Right. But the one thing that people, uh, were. It's like my parents were shown another way, but at the same time they didn't search for another way. So you kind of have this difficult, uh, moment in people's lives. And my father would always say his dad didn't support him. Right. And my dad wanted to be an electrician and never did it. And it's a. It's a kind of a. It's an awkward conversation because dad would say, well, look, if my own dad didn't support me and he could have helped me, and he didn't. So I ended up doing what I did in my life. And I've thought about that. And I know a lot of other people here in Ireland who would have been in even worse financial situations than my own dad without support of their parents. But they figured out a way, you know, and I'm not speaking badly, uh, about my own dad or anything. It's just that they were never told there was another way. Like when he was in school. I don't know if he had the same experience, Wally, but I mean, my own dad, it was like his teachers told him they were no good, they were useless, they never meant anything. And like you just said, like my dad, I think he truly believed that for a while in his life. And so he never looked for another way. And that's a tricky thing. So for anybody listening, like, you know, you do have to. There does come a time when you have to want more for your own life. But then you have to go in search of the information. And if you're never a searcher, you're never going to find anything. And so for me, you know, my life's been very much a search for information. Absolutely. But, um, bigger than that really now, you know, my life changed more when I met Robert, my business partner, uh, because he was doing it like I'd Been talking about doing it for many years like a lot of people do. And I was looking for that, those instant results like you mentioned earlier on some people come uh, to you with that same issue. And I wanted to make money online and make it overnight and all that kind of jazz. Didn't want to put any effort, didn't. Just thought I could get it all handed to me. Very entitled. And uh, Robert just showed me, no, like this is a real business, you know, selling products on sites like Amazon and ebay at the time. And then we ended up just selling on Amazon for a number of years. A lot of our members doing that now, uh, you know, it's a real business. It takes, it takes work like you said. But bigger than that, you have to understand how you can get leverage. Like, you know, how can you get something working for you where you don't have to put in your time all the time. You can have something that runs a little bit without you. And um, you know, we've had the four hour workweek and all that kind of stuff, which is a good book, but it's not really about a four hour workweek. And that's the thing, people misconstrue. It's more about what we're talking about here, which is understanding the, the leverage points, the levers that can make your life easier, uh, but also front loading effort in a business, doing the work up front and creating a bit of a machine that's able to run without you, that's able to fund your life. And in understanding it's going to take work to build that machine and it's going to take money as well. And a lot of people that come to me, they don't want to accept the fact that it's going to take capital, but that's because their attitude is incorrect. They don't have an abundant mentality. And abundant mentality understands that you don't ask how much does it cost, you ask how much is it going to make? And it's things like that, little changes like that of belief and understanding that absolutely can change everything for a person.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And another correction in terms, you know, to add on to what you said as far as being abundant, thought process is you don't ask how much it's going to cost, if it is a lot and it's more than you feel you can handle. The next question is, how can I make this work? How can I figure this out? How can I, what do I have to sell that I'm not using to get this money? You know, or, uh, uh, because it's an education, it drives me nuts. And you know, you got me riled up now because, you know, somebody asked the other day, uh, uh, in a forum and they said, wally, how is it, you know, because I mentioned, oh, by the way, you need to get a coach regardless of what it is you want to do. And I said, well, how does somebody who can't afford a coach get a coach? And my reply was this. There are hundreds of thousands of people for many, many years who have paid anywhere from 15,000 to over $200,000 for an education on information that they would not be able to monetize for four to six years. And they don't call their coaches coaches, they call their coaches professors.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker C: Right. They figure out how to get the money. They either finance it, they borrow it from grandma, they borrow from auntie, they get a grant. Some of them even guess what? Worked their asses off. Yeah. To, you know, after school, whatever they had to do to get that education that they wanted. And oh, by the way, a large majority of them don't even use that education. They never monetize that information. They go a completely different route. So don't sit here and tell me that you can't afford the education that Steven is offering that we're going to talk about here in a minute. And you can't afford my coaching to get to where you want to go. And our stuff, quite frankly, it's probably a better, uh. I was going to say gamble, but I wouldn't even say gamble. It's a better return opportunity, definitely. Better return, for sure.

Speaker A: 100% like. And it's so funny because God forbid, with some people, God forbid you should ever invest in coaching. But you know, the. That is a great example of. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist now. I really am not. We're not going to get in. We're not going to talk politics or anything like that. That's not my, not my thing to talk about. I don't talk politics. But the whole thing when it comes to society is it's like in the movie the Dark Knight, I love, obviously, Marketplace Superheroes is my company. So I'm into superheroes, right? And, uh, I love Batman. It's my favorite. My favorite superhero. But the thing about the Dark Knight, that movie, for anybody who's seen it, there's a scene with the Joker and he's trying to turn Harvey Dent, who's two face, into two face, into this bad dude who was a good dude. He's Trying to turn him around. And he says, he talks about the fact that, you know, let's say um, uh, there's like, you know, in the military, right? Let's say there's, there's a bus full of soldiers and they, it's blown up or whatever and then the soldiers are killed. It's like there's no, it's like that's part of the plan, as he would say, right? Which, which is in the film as what I'm quoting. And then it's like, boy, if one person, something happens to that one person in one place, it's like now everyone goes crazy because that's not part, that's not part of the plan, right? And it's that thing as well of college and stuff like that. It's what's part of the plan. It's. Society has accepted this is what we are going to um, invest money into. Uh, because it's all about education. And I think that's the thing too. Like, I mean I get riled up about this as well, Wally, because the end of the day, like, um, these are all the beliefs that kept me stuck for many years. And I'm not saying college is bad because good and bad are like, that's a 500 year old mentality. There's no such thing as good and bad.

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker A: Everything is gray these days. But you do have to look at it and ask yourself, you know, what is the real value of uh, a college degree in many subjects. For example, like what we teach people how to build online businesses and we do it as well, right? And I'm happy to talk about that because we do it and we do teach it as well. But it's like people ask me often, well, it's so good and blah, blah, blah, why do you teach it then if you're successful? And I always laugh at that. And I can give many reasons. Like number one, how else do people learn? Like I learned because I had a mentor, I had a teacher, number one, uh, I'm from that, you know, I can't sell every product on Amazon even if I wanted to. It's impossible. There are millions. And it goes on and on. Like, I mean it's. And also we build a long term relationship with our clients where we actually own a, a freight company now and we can get into all that jazz. So we have a long term partnership. Point is anyway, there's always skeptics around uh, online education from non universities, but there's very little skepticism around accepted college education when, you know, I was in college for a little while, I never finished. And I can tell you, all my lecturers. Well, not all my lectures, but a number of lecturers I had, right? They had never been in the workforce, ever. They never worked in a company. They never started a company. They went from college to doing a master's degree to then become a lecturer. And you have to ask, like, what's the value of that? And I've actually spoken at the top, uh, one of the top business universities in Europe. It's called the, uh, Smurfit Business School here in Ireland. It's a highly regarded European business school. I Talked to the MBAs, the top, top, top people in that college. Uh, and I gave a talk. And these guys thought I was from outer space, you know, because I was. I was talking about things they couldn't even begin to understand. And it's because the education system when it comes to this kind of stuff is just not good. So I agree, you know, um, whatever. Like anything, we actually sell courses. Coaching, consulting. It's incredibly inexpensive, especially when you compare it to what you're talking about and someone studying, uh, you know, 200 grand or whatever. When you take into account all the fees and the, you know, the accommodation, everything, and end up working in a job that pays them, you know, 30 grand a year, it's like. It happens, you know?

Speaker C: Yeah, uh, absolutely. Now, um, you know, don't get us wrong, guys. If you're gonna. If your goal and, you know, mission in life is to be an attorney, a doctor, and any of those other trades that require a degree and require certifications and licensing and all that kind of stuff, you got to go that route. But if you're going just to try to figure, figure yourself out, go to a freaking networking group, man, because you can meet up with people there and figure, figure yourself out, you know, or go on a walkabout, travel the world, spend the money way. Because I'll tell you right now, having been traveled all over the place, traveling is the best education you'll ever give yourself and your family. One thing, I heard this quote, and I'll use it a couple times, and then I'll call it mine. And that is, uh, and I'm going to paraphrase it, that a degree in entrepreneurship is like going to school to get a degree in baseball and expecting you're going to make it in the pros. It's just not going to happen. You have to get out there and get beat up. You have to learn from people who are actively doing what you want. To do in the industry that you want to do it in. Yeah, so let's get into that. I want to get into a little bit more about what specifically it is that you do and who do you do it for and how did you get, how did that whole thing get started?

Speaker A: Yeah, so we run a number of companies now. Our main company we're known for is Marketplace Superheroes. And we teach people all over the world, actually mostly from the U.S. but 60% of our audience from the U.S. but, uh, we teach people all over the world how to build their own business selling their own branded products on Amazon physical products. And typically we teach people who have no previous experience in online entrepreneurship, uh, how to start, how to find the right product, how to brand it up with their own brand, how to get their own barcodes and everything so that they can protect their product on Amazon, and then how to take that item, multiple items, and sell them in multiple Amazon markets all over the world. So that's our main, uh, business. But we've actually built a number of companies off the back of this because a lot of online, um, course companies, what they do is they kind of expect people not to use the course and so they keep selling them other things. Uh, uh, is kind of how it works. But what we do is we have our main program, uh, we've coaching and we've consulting on top of that. But then we built a freight company because we looked at it and we said, you know, we've got thousands of members now, people who want to sell on Amazon, people who are complete beginners. You know, we have everything from people who are professionals and want to free up their time and do this on the side right through to, you know, people who worked in a job like I did. I was a data processor in an office job and wanted to figure out a business that was doable and they could get started. So anyway, uh, we built this freight company last three years, now two and a bit years, superhero freight, um, because we needed to help our members make it easier to ship from China, as typically where these people are shipping from, into the U.S. into Europe, into Australia, into Canada now. So we've warehousing in all those different countries that we own and control. And just to give you an idea, uh, last year 2020, we shipped 2 million items. We're going to ship about 6 million items this year. Some of them are our own and our partners, both. Many of them are from clients. And we've uh, 8000 members of Marketplace Superheroes, about 1200 members in Superhero Freight. And uh, we do other stuff for our members too. Like we have services like translation services to translate for listings, we do product photography. Basically we're a one stop shop really for starting and selling on Amazon. And so how that got started was when I was in my early 20s, uh, I mentioned earlier on I was looking for just kind of a bit aimless. I was in the music industry, didn't work out. And I was working as a data processor. Uh, because that was what was funding me really while I was doing that, living in Dublin, which is the capital of Ireland. And I got to a point where the band finished and you know, I started eating bad food and drinking every night and feeling sorry for myself uh, when I was about 21 or so. And I did that for like a year and I got really fat and really lazy. And I remember going back to my old college because I got Student of the Year and they were giving me the award, which it happened much later after I'd left obviously because it was for the previous year. And everyone looked at me, were just like, what the hell happened to you when you left? You didn't look like this, what's going on? And so I realized I was kind of going through a, uh, mild depression. Felt very aimless. And I'm sure a lot of people listening, you can relate. Directionless and all that. And I started reading personal development books. So the first book I ever read was by Jack Canfield. And it was called how to get from where youe Are to Where youe Want To Be, which became the Success Principles. And I'm actually in a Mastermind with Jack and a couple of others now, which is pretty cool. Uh, totally changed my life. So I started reading everything I could about personal development. And I did that for nearly two years. And it was great because I got a lot fitter and healthier. And it started bringing me down the path of like, you know, uh, reading and buying courses about business and trying to figure it all out. But my issue, Wally, was I became a consumer of information and I didn't implement anything. So I was listening to all this positive stuff every day. You know, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, you name it. And I wasn't doing anything with him. I was just listening to positive stuff all the time, working in a job that I hated. And so, uh, it just hit me one day. I remember I heard the story about Jack Canfield. He set this income target of, I don't know, 100 grand or something like that. And he wrote a book and he sold the book, sold the rights to the book and he made his 100 grand a year, 99 odd thousand or whatever it was in the story. And I remember just, just up until that point I kept on looking at my income and saying, well, what can I cut from my income? What can I slash, like free up money? Because I was trying to get 10 grand into a savings account. That's where my head was at the time, which is so pathetic when I look back now, but that's where I was. And I just kept on going, well, if I don't eat this or do that, then I'll free up another €200 or dollars a month, right? And it was just really silly. And so I realized at that point I need to learn how to make more money. And it's such a basic concept. But I just, I didn't even think about that at that time. I was, I just, my mentality was not uh, tuned up to that. So that's when I started really searching for someone to help me. And long story short, I started telling a lot of people about what I wanted to do. I figured out I wanted to sell physical items online because I wasn't an expert in anything. So I couldn't like sell a course or something. Who the hell was going to buy something from me? And so, um, my aunt heard about this. She lived in Northern Ireland and she introduced me to this guy Robert, who's still my business, business partner to this day. And he was selling stuff on Amazon and ebay in the UK at the time. He had two warehouses, he had lots of staff. And I basically, uh, you know, he heard I wanted to learn business and he said, well look, come up and check out my operation. So I did. And it was a cold warehouse, there were rats running around the place and it wasn't all that, ah, pretty in there. But I tell you what, I realized this is what I want to do because I saw real products getting sold to real people. It was a no BS thing. There was no cloak and dagger. It was just a real simple business and just seeing the numbers and I really got excited about that. Long story short, I quit my job. I worked for nine months, uh, with Robert for free, learning everything that I could about that business. And I was reading tons of business books at the time like the E. Myth Revisited and stuff like that. And that was the book that really gave me my break because I was learning, learning, learning. I was selling some stuff on the side myself. Uh, Robert had secondhand products lying around and I was selling, selling all that on ebay, learning about copywriting, learning about writing listings, learning all these skills that I had to develop, and I was making some money. And so while I was working in the warehouse during the day doing a bit of that on the side, uh, and I was reading these books, I had this kind of like, flash of like, wow, this is what we need to do. Uh, and long story short, Robert's business sold in all these different marketplaces, but the products he was selling were saturated. The rolled the. There were consumer electronics accessories, like TV brackets and stuff like that, or TV mounts, you might say, in the US really just too competitive. And I just said to Robert, hey, what would happen if we just completely changed and we just sold on Amazon? And, um, we used this thing called fulfillment by Amazon, which basically just meant that we could get rid of the warehouses, get rid of all the staff, and utilize Amazon's warehouse facility, uh, to store products and ship products out. And basically that's what we did. We got rid of everything. And he and I, we worked our asses off for like, you know, 12 to 18 months. And, uh, started pretty much from scratch, you know, because all the products he had, a couple of them still did well, and we sold some of those. But really we started selling all kinds of different products in multiple niches on Amazon. And we treated it like a stock market where we would look at the demand behind the product and we would look at, is there an opportunity here? And we would sell that. There was an opportunity. So we were selling everything from, you know, some speaker men's through to, you know, like, vacuum storage bags through to, uh, cedar hangers to keep your wardrobe dry and fresh and everything in between. And, uh, we built a really successful business. We were doing about 1.6 million a year in revenue, about a 30% net profit before tax. So, you know, we're making a couple of hundred grand. Uh, of course, we kept reinvesting that and got to a place after doing it for a few years where we were just, like, not working. We were enjoying life. You know, we used to bring both our families on vacation to Disneyland in Florida. We love going there. And Universal and all that. And that was really enjoyable. But then I kept studying business and I kept learning about marketing and things like that. And I started to see all these people that were talking about how to sell on Amazon, and I looked at what they were doing and I was like, man, Robert here, I know what I'm talking about. But Robert is an ultra expert in this. He's doing this 20 years now. Uh, and he's a guy who's got a lot to say and I believe I can help him get the message out there. And I've got something to say too, because I was learning and had learned for many years and obviously it sold millions of dollars of stuff on Amazon at that point. And so, uh, in 2014 we started drawing a program. No, uh, one knew who the hell we were. We're two weird Irish guys, and I suppose we still are two weird Irish guys. Uh, but, you know, um, we just started getting some clients and slowly but surely building that up. And now it's 2020, uh, 1, and we've got 8,000 clients. Um, we've sold personally. God, it says 12 million. We've done much more than that now, but our community has sold between 2 and $300 million of uh, products on Amazon in multiple countries. And uh, yeah, say we run all these different businesses now and I suppose cumulatively now we're uh, heading for the 20 million plus per year mark. So it's been quite a ride.

Speaker C: Wow, that is a lot to unpack. I want to take that a different direction though. But I do want to point out, guys, that everything that Stephen is talking about here, him and his partner Robert, it's been a lot of, of study, it's been a lot of uh, on Robertson, at least trial and error to get to that point. There's so much to do and so much to learn. And then I really like the fact that you really, you decided actually to focus on one platform with that being Amazon as you know, and then, and then focus on more specific products and how you did all that. Guys, there's just too much to learn. And in the entire industry, I'm personally know, uh, to have that conversation here. So here's where I want to take the rest part of this conversation. What are the average, you know, when you get contacted and some of the folks that are listening to this go, I can do this, man. If he can do this, I can do this. Some, some crazy dude from Ireland can get this done and others have gotten it done. First off, I want to say this, guys, there's anomalies out there and we don't count anomalies. There's people that appear to just start something and see instant success from it. That's not what we're talking about here. So if you would, Steven, share with us a particular story, you don't have to use any names, but a particular story of one of your clients who came to you and really just kind of Started. You know, some people, uh, the way I want to take this is not everybody needs to be a millionaire to be financially free. I personally am not, and I've been financially free for almost three years now. Yeah. You know, so can you share that one of those stories with us?

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, got loads, uh, loads and loads of stories, and I will. I think it's a brilliant point. You know, myself and Robert, we were financially free years and years ago now, you know, um, but I got to a point where I wanted to. And Robert wanted to impact at a different level, and we wanted to solve different problems in our marriage. And that has translated into a very big business now. And it's not a lifestyle business like it is in some ways, but in many other ways, it's not a lifestyle business like it used to be. Uh, and I'm cool with that because I want to impact at a different level. So that's just kind of an important point to make before we get into this. You do not need to do all the things we have done. Uh, you know, and I do think as well along the way, we've been fortunate, although we've bloody worked hard for this too, you know. But anyway, yeah, um, uh, some great stories. You know, one of the stories I really love, uh, and if people want to check out my YouTube channel, Marketplace Superheroes on YouTube, we do these case studies all the time. Uh, but there's two guys called Pete and Rich. They're over in Boston. And they got a third partner, Tony actually, as well, but he's kind of more of a silent partner. I don't chat to Tony very much. These guys came to us late 2017. Right. They landed into our Irish boot camp, which we used to run whenever you could do those kinds of things. And, you know, Pete's wearing like, a fisherman's hat, and, you know, Rich is this tall dude, and the guys love the Guinness and everything. And we're having a good time. And they said to us, you know what, guys? We're really happy to be here. And what we're really excited about is this is a million dollar business. And I was like, oh, uh, well, we know that, but where are you guys now? Like, how much money have you made then so far? And they said, nothing, zero. And I was like, okay. But they said, but look, we know that this can go to a really good, really cool place. We get what you're saying. It makes complete logical sense, and we want to learn. And so they took everything they learned from that event and our program, obviously, as well, and so they started into it in 2018. They got their first products into stock from the far east into Amazon.com in the US and they started making sales. And then they're just checking in with us every few months, showing their sales. They're doing ten grand a month in revenue. Then all of a sudden you see them doing, you know, 20 grand a month in revenue. And now with 20, 21, you know, they're doing this now, uh, nearly three years from starting from scratch. And this year I believe they're going to do revenue in the region of 1.2 to 1.6 million like we used to do. And they're just three regular guys. You know, they don't do it full time. They do other things as well. And they started completely from scratch and they've built up their business and they're not, not tech wizards, they're just older dudes. And, uh, you know, we met their wives and everything when they came over, and they're just regular guys who did it, you know. And then you've got other people in our community, you know, like Loretta, she's now one of our coaches, she's over in Canada. She started with us a couple years back and she sells like over a thousand different products, I think now on Amazon. I did a case study with her and she's now one of our coaches. Sold, you know, hundreds and hundreds of thousands, probably millions at this point on, uh, Amazon. And so all these people, uh, they were not special, they weren't tech wizards, they had no experience in online business before. But the real, I suppose if there is a secret, is the fact that we're leveraging Amazon's marketplace with millions of customers. And our job really is just to get our, uh, research process solidified. Because when you've got a solid product research strategy, strategy, you're able to find products that people are already looking for, they're looking to buy on Amazon right now. But the offerings that are there are not that great. So you can come in, make a better offer than everybody else is making, improve the photography in your listing and all that kind of stuff. And fairly, I'm not going to say easily, but fairly simply come in and take a share of that revenue and in many cases dominate, uh, those channels. Uh, so, yeah, there's nothing, I would say, really special about what we do. Uh, it's just, just our research strategy is really, really great and the numbers work for us because if you sell a product in just one country, that's cool, but whenever you can start selling the same product in multiple different marketplaces on Amazon. And remember, ah, utilizing Amazon's fulfillment services. So you're not going to do the day to day fulfillment. They'll ship it out to customers, they'll do the customer support and obviously you pay for that but you only really pay every time you make a sale. So it's what we call a variable business model where the more you sell the more fees you pay. So it's very, very good from that perspective. You don't have these big bills coming in, stuff like that from Amazon. And I think the missing component then to all this which our members would tell you is our freight company because Amazon made a change uh, last year and some people would say it was just in line with Corona as Amazon blew up and went absolutely insane, uh, busy wise. But I think it was always something Amazon were looking to do. Which basically means that if you get something produced in the US or even in China now you can't send in all your units. Like if you had 300 units or something you can't send in all 300 anymore. Amazon um, have changed the rules there so you really need what we call a pre Amazon location where you can store products. Some people use their own home, uh, but our members don't because our superhero freight offering is just so simple and great it wouldn't make sense. Uh, and then obviously you just send a quantity of stock into Amazon and then as you sell you're going to replenish your stock and we help our members replenish and so um, there is a lot to learn Wally, as you mentioned. But I will tell you we have actually cut out a lot of the learning curve because we now offer these services to our clients and it's really cool because the more successful we make them with our education, the more that they ship with us. Us as I mentioned we're going to ship about 6 million items this year with our freight company. And then uh, if we don't, if our education is not good then they won't ship stuff. Therefore we won't make money long term. So we're truly in it for the long term with our clients. And uh, I think that's, you know, I would say if anybody speaks about us they'll tell you we're the most transparent people uh, in this industry. Um, you know number one we got not in the hype. And number two, like, like that's what people want these days. We want to trust people. We need people that are transparent and authentic and real and that's what we do, you know.

Speaker C: Yeah. Well, that's a brilliant, brilliant business model. And, um, there's so much to do with Amazon, quite frankly. I was teaching an entrepreneur class to veterans a couple of years ago and I met a guy talking about, you know, because I bring this up because, um, you were saying about this was Amazon was planning on doing this stuff pre Covid. They actually bought a whole fleet of electric vehicles that got recalled, quite frankly, um, um, unfortunately. But I knew this because I met a guy who was starting his own Amazon distribution company. And they have these hubs all over the place in here in Tampa. I think they have off to the top of my head like maybe 12, and don't quote me on that, but he was, was buying one of those 12. And what he does is he gets a fleet of vehicles and then he has employees and he has so many. And that's his job, that's his business is, you know, delivering all these things and stuff like that through Amazon. So it's very, very interesting, um, the whole process, uh, that so many ways to make money out there. Amazon's got multiple ways in itself because you can do fulfill by Amazon, but then you can also sell your own products through Amazon, which by the way is a hard road to go if you're selling for instance, toothpaste, your own. I know a guy who's selling charcoal toothpaste and he's competing with Colgate and you know, yeah, nuts, you can't compete with those guys.

Speaker A: Yeah. And that's why product research is so important. And just to pick up on what you said a second ago, just to clarify that when you're using fba, you will be selling your own products, your own branded stuff, just utilizing that to distribute your products out to customers. Because you see, in the Amazon space it is kind of common, complex, uh, because there's different things you can do. There's like what they call arbitrage, which means you can go to say, uh, a, uh, Goodwill store in the US for example, and you can buy stuff that's a branded product, it's secondhand, and you can scan it and see how much you can get for it on Amazon. And you make the difference between what you buy it for in that store and what you sell it for on Amazon. A lot of people do that. Lower risk, but not going to be, not really something you can scale into a big business you've got in wholesaling, which is like, like let's say you're able to get access to a whole bunch of Colgate Toothpaste, for example, just picking that example, actual Colgate toothpaste, you can buy it at a price that makes sense and sell it for more. That's wholesaling. But, uh, what we do is private label and that is the most controllable thing. Uh, and it does take a little bit longer because obviously you're establishing a brand new product on Amazon. But listen, we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of case studies, people who just got started, and there's one, Arun and Maya, uh, you guys can search that on, uh, YouTube. And these guys started from total scratch. And you can see in like their first 60 days or something, they did nearly 10 grand in sales. You know, so it's not like it's not impossible to start from scratch. You just need to, your research needs to be right. Because if you start getting into products that are too competitive, like the charcoal toothpaste, it's a nightmare. Because you have to understand like that, yes, you're fulfilling existing demand on Amazon, but if there's too much supply, then you're never gonna be found. And that's why our research strategies stands above everybody else's. And our, and our strategy overall, uh, just makes so much sense, you know?

Speaker C: Yeah, you know, that's what I refer to that, what you're talking about and getting the help and getting the training and the coaching, consulting, whatever you want to call it. I call it cutting the line, you know, learning curve, whatever. But so many people try to learn. Look, you can learn all of this stuff from, um, I wouldn't say all of it. Let's say 70% to be fair.

Speaker A: Fair.

Speaker C: Perfect example. Several years back, when I first started doing what I'm doing now in business and marketing strategies, I shared some strategies with the guy and he goes back and then he comes back on the follow up and he's like, you know, Wally, I was talking to my uncle's brother's cousin, you know, and he says, you shouldn't pay money for that kind of stuff because you can find that stuff in about a thousand places on Google. And I said, you know what, John? Um, tell your brother in law, sisters, cousin or whoever. Uh, he's absolutely incorrect. And I pulled it up. I literally showed it to him because we were meeting face to face. I said, you can find business strategies in 1.8 million searches and locations on Google. My question to you is, is do you want to go sift through all of that and decide which of those strategies are right for your business, where you're at today based on where you Want to go? Do you want to take the time to do that, or do you want to be working on your business? I know all this stuff, and what I don't know, I'm connected with other people who are, and I get the answers. I don't guess on anything. So, uh, with people that want to work for you, they can figure this stuff out on their own. But guys, if you want to really actually replace a job that you're concerned about right now, or you're currently laid off because of the situation, whatever the case may be, or you just, you're just tired of doing what you do and you think this might be a route you want to take. He's got a free course, for goodness sake. I mean, you go to his website, uh, marketplacesuperheroes.com and there's some free information there. He's got YouTube channels. What else do you have, Stephen, that can help these folks out to make the decision if this is something they want to do?

Speaker A: Yeah, I would say the YouTube channel is your best place, everyone. Because, like, we have tons of, I do tons and tons and tons of research videos, you know, the business model videos. We do case studies with clients. There's, there's everything there. But here's the thing, and I think it's a great conversation because your example is great. Not only is the 1.8 million a problem of, uh, searches, but, but, uh, it's not like everything on the Internet has been vetted and made sure that, yes, this all 1.8 million pieces of information are as valuable as the other. Who the hell knows what some of it's about, right? And I think that's the trouble. And even in our industry it's like, uh, who can you trust as well? Because there's a lot of weirdos out there and sharks out there, unfortunately. And so there's that too. But also in aerospace, the kind of really beautiful thing really is, um, you know, it's not about information only, actually, because there's a lot of really real things you've got to do because you've got physical items, like you have to import the items if you're going to bring them in from the Far east, for example. And so if you go and try and get a freight forwarder yourself and stuff like that, it's a nightmare. It takes a lot of time. It's complicated. Um, you know, certainly you can write your own listings for Amazon, but you know, how about go to one place and, you know, everybody who, who writes your listing for you, if you don't have time. They're already trained to know what they're doing. You know, like, all these services are where our business really is at as we go forward. Because as I say to our clients now, you know, I don't want to sell courses anymore. I want to sell partnerships now. Because that's what is happening. You'll find in the coaching space in general, like they're becoming partnerships more so, you know, uh, because that's how I think as well. It's the way you can sustainably survive and thrive without constantly needing new clients is figure out different services, things that your clients are going to need on an ongoing basis that you can put together because you own the distribution channel. That's just good business. As well as also being for our members because a lot of them are beginners, you know, they don't have the kind of resources we have. They absolutely love us. Because it's like, thank you for making shipping easy now from the Far east. Because we literally do it all for our clients. We speak to the suppliers, we organize it. We have an online tool makes it super easy for people. We even allow people to pre buy their shipping, which you can't get anywhere else. It's like buying cell phone credit for your phone. Right? Can't do it anywhere else. Not possible. Freight companies rip you off. So, yeah, it's. And again, I think, I'm sure you're the same with your clients, Wally. It's like I look at it like I'm a protector of my clients and I have to protect them from people who have information that's not good. And so, um, we're very protective of our clients because of that. And also that's why we build so much trust, you know. And, um, whenever people come into our community, that's what they see straight away, that our clients trust us because we don't fill them with crap. We tell them what it's going to take and then, uh, off we go, you know?

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I've got multiple stories that I'll refrain from telling right now about how I protect my clients and rescue them, quite frankly, in many cases, as well as I'm sure you do. But you bring up some very good points. There's a lot of information out there, plus the information, especially in the tech industry. And then online, anything online, it changes constantly. That's why, for instance, you know, like if I sent my son, for instance, to go get a, uh, cybersecurity degree from a college which they didn't even have textbooks, which was Actually, one of the smart things they did because you can't write text on this stuff. It's constant. Amazon's constantly changing, the online searches in Google and everything's constantly changing. And here's the thing, guys, if you're going to start your own business in this industry, you got to decide, are you in the education portion of the business or are you in the fulfillment portion of the business? Because if you're in a fulfillment portion, you still have to continue to get educated. That's why it's important to be connected with somebody like Steven and his partners, because they're in the business of the education side as well. They're going to be feeding you the updates. And it's so much. Trust me, I've been in multiple industries. I've tried over the years. I'm 52 and I've done all kinds of stuff that from MLM to selling baseball cards and cleaning business and all kinds of stuff. And I've been in the online space for a very long time. It changes too quickly. And unless you're the one doing the research and educating people, you need to be connected with somebody who is in that industry if you're going to work in an industry. Because it makes it so much better, right?

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We stay educated too. You know, I invest literally hundreds of thousands every year in my own education because, you know, knowledge is power. And then when you, when you couple that with execution, um, you become unstoppable, then, you know.

Speaker C: Absolutely. All right, brother, we're going to use the, uh, get into the pay it forward round, I call it, if you will. Got about. Really Just three quick questions. You ready for that?

Speaker A: Hopefully I'm going to do my best for you.

Speaker C: You're going to do awesome, man.

Speaker D: I trust you're getting a lot out of this conversation so far and there's so much more to come. Come. I just want to take this short break to let you know that I am searching for some true, abundant leaders with a business mindset. If you happen to be in the process or even considering a career change or you're in a transition right now, and many people are at this point, then I want to introduce you to something that may be your next career. Here's the deal. Many businesses owners have needlessly struggled for many years, not just over the last couple of years. And now with everything going on, they are struggling even more. The fact is, most business owners are brilliant at what they do. As a technician, a chiropractor, a dentist, an attorney, a, uh, dog walker, uh, auto detailer. They're brilliant at what they do and

Speaker C: they decided, well, I'm going to start

Speaker D: a business around this. Well, most business owner fail to realize is that business ownership is a completely different skill set and a completely different mindset from whatever it is they do within their business. And they lack that training, which is the reason why they struggle so much needlessly. As business and marketing strategists, our team have been doing everything that we can to help these business owners, but we can't do it all. There are ways more business owners in need than there are business strategists on our team. At this point. Even with over 800 business strategists in 24 countries, this is where you come in. If you are in transition or you're looking for a career change, go to AP businessmastery.com AP businessmastery.com I have a

Speaker C: short video there for you that explains

Speaker D: a little bit more of what I'm talking about so that you can explore the exciting possibilities of you being a business strategist and giving back to your community. The way I see it, when I help a business owner improve their business, I'm not just helping that business owner and their family. I'm um, potentially helping their employees and their families. I'm um, potentially giving back to that

Speaker C: community in a much bigger way.

Speaker D: Sometimes I'm even saving marriages and saving lives by saving a business.

Speaker C: It really is that serious.

Speaker D: On top of that, being a business strategist allows me to live the lifestyle that I want to live and I can do this as long as I like. We've got one business strategist on our team that is 92 years old and he's still out there helping business owners. So go to AP businessmastery.com and see if you have what it takes.

Speaker C: Give, give our listeners one to three action, actionable steps that they can take today. Yeah.

Speaker A: So first actionable step you can take today is look at your life so far and ask yourself, have I been consuming more than I've been producing? And if the answer is I consume more than I can produce, I want you to start immediately focusing on producing more on a day to day basis. So do less reading, more action. Uh, that's number one. Second thing that you can do is you can go and look at uh, you can go look at our YouTube channel. I think it's a very useful thing to do and look at one of my research videos, check out what I do there. And the third thing to do is do what I'm doing flip open Amazon, flip open Wikipedia. You'll see I have these research hacks. Go look for one of my videos on a research hack and go try it out. See if you find some products, see if you find some ideas. And then, you know, at least you'll be in action. Then you'll be, uh, learning a bit of a skill about research today.

Speaker C: Great. Absolutely spot on. What do you feel holds most people back? You know, you said it and it makes perfect sense. People that are course junkies and book junkies. I would say pick one. They all, they all work to certain degrees. Pick one and just do it. But what do you feel holds most people back from living a life of true abundance?

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, there's a few, but I'd say entitlement and an entitlement attitude. I think all, a lot of people back. You know, um, people feel like they should just, it should just be easy and they should just be successful instantly. Um, there's that and then coupled with that, well, if it's so easy, then, I mean, I don't have to try very hard and I can, you know, I go and there's no grit nowadays. There's like you, you know, you know, you've had a, quite a background in military and stuff like that. Like, there's no, there's a lack of discipline these days. Right. And staying with something. And so, yeah, like, I think that that entitlement attitude is something that has to change. The world owes you nothing. It's what you bring to the world. That's where you're, what you're going to get paid for. And, um, there's abundant opportunities out there, there's abundant resources out there. But if you come at this with an entitled attitude, you're never going to get anywhere. So change that up immediately. Start, start looking at how can I execute more? What can I do? What can I do today? What's the one thing I can do today that makes everything else easier, RR relevant? It's that type of attitude. It's going to get you somewhere.

Speaker C: No, I dig it. Absolutely, man. I mean, I'm sure, guys, you're a beautiful person, your family loves you and you mean a lot to your family. But the question in this case is how valuable are you to the marketplace? That's what it comes down to. Because, you know, your family loves you, but that doesn't make you money, not in itself. So what does being a man of abundance mean to you? So, Stephen.

Speaker A: Yeah, for me now it means giving. And, uh, I know it sounds like A Miss America answer. But I really mean it, because I've read the book the Go Giver, I don't know how many times now, and, uh, that book really changed my whole life. And so for me, it's like, what can I give to people to help liberate them from their limiting beliefs, from their limiting actions? How can I spread this mentality of abundance with others so they can see that there are no real limits? The limits are cliche, what you place on yourself. And so for me, it's like abundance is understanding. There's more than enough resources to go around, and it's up to me to channel as much of those that resource as I can. And I think in many cases, fix people's mentalities and help them see the truth. And the truth is that it's all out there if you just reach out, grab it, and go with it.

Speaker C: Absolutely. Giving of your time, treasures and talents. It is by far the highest degree of happiness by far. I, uh, mean, it has been measured and proven multiple times over. So that is a great answer. Now, we had amazing conversation. We talked about all kinds of stuff and very valuable information. I greatly appreciate your time. Time. What did we not talk about? That you want to ensure that our abundant leaders get out of our conversation today. And of course, I will have your website, marketplacesuperheroes.com linked up in the show notes, as well as your YouTube channel, because you mentioned that multiple times. We'll make sure we have that linked up in the show notes, guys, so you don't have to write that down. But what are we going to talk about? Do you want to ensure our listeners get out of our conversation today?

Speaker A: Yeah, you might have. You might have read between the lines, but, uh, for me, you got to be educated. You know, Um, I know I talked about consuming less and producing more, so it might feel like a contradiction of terms, but it really isn't. Like there's, you know, thinking, uh, grow Rich is a. An interesting book, and there's an interesting history to that book as well, which we don't have time to get into, unfortunately. But long story short, with that book, um, you know, Napoleon Hill died pretty much broke, and everyone's like, how the hell did the guy who wrote the greatest, you know, abundance book in the world die broke? And it was because he didn't channel this mentality into one particular thing. Uh, but this other guy called, um, uh, my brain's not going to work. Now, Stone was his surname. W. Clement Stone created one of the biggest insurance companies in North America. And all he did was take the philosophy in that book and apply it to a very specific business. And so if you can take a philosophy of abundance and success and you can point it towards a particular proven business, you're going to get great results that way. So proven business and that mentality and then point it towards that business, that's what you need to do. Whereas that's the mistake I made for many years. I didn't have a business, a pre proven process to point all my enthusiasm and energy towards and that's why I struggled. So that's what you need.

Speaker C: Laser focus. Absolutely. Great, great answer. I love that. Thank you. I appreciate it that so much and excellent conversation. I knew it would be. I, uh, appreciate all the wisdom. I learned a lot. Go out, live your life of abundance, Stephen. Keep paying it forward. You're making one hell of a difference in many people's lives and I greatly appreciate it.

Speaker A: Thank you, Wally. I appreciate your time and I know how much effort goes into creating all the content. So thank you for having me on today for sure.

Speaker C: I trust that conversation. Got your wheels turning to decide on if you want to transition or start some sort of side hustle. Rather it's working with Steven or Robert, with Amazon or whatever the case may be. There are so many opportunities out there these days for you to change careers, transition into something else, or even just start a side hustle so that you have something that you enjoy doing and make a little bit of money at it. More importantly, provide a service to others that people need.

Speaker D: That's what it's all about.

Speaker C: That's truly the end game, is to provide a service. Because if you're not providing a valuable service, rather you work for somebody else or you're doing it through your own personal business, then quite frankly, there's no reason for anybody to pay you, your employer or your client or customer. So your action step for today, should you decide to do so, is explore the many different types of business opportunities that are out there. Whether you need a certification for it, you need to go to college to get some more education to better provide that service, or you need some sort of coaching or consulting.

Speaker D: Keep this in mind, regardless of the

Speaker C: service that you decide you want to share with others and somehow get paid for is a completely different skill set and mindset than owning a business or actually, uh, starting and owning a profitable business. Anybody can start a business. Few actually have very profitable businesses because that's a completely different skill set and a completely different mindset. You might have heard me say that before. Now go out, live your life of abundance and be sure to pay it forward.

Speaker B: That's all for today, Abundance Leaders. For more about about our guests and the powerful information we shared with you today, be sure to sign up for our mailing list@menofabundance.com we appreciate your time and look forward to hanging out with you on our next episode. So until then, be sure to pay it forward and live your life of abundance.