Eric: Hey everybody, this is Eric Y Chen of the Y – Factor podcast. I want to thank you guys so much for tuning in to our very first episode here. I’m super excited and super pumped for what I have in store with you guys. This episode is going to be just a little different, where I will actually be the guest speaker on the show and I actually have my marketing manager who will be the host for this very first episode, but don’t worry the remaining episodes I will be interviewing a bunch of phenomenal CEOs and guest stars alike so say hello Rebecca to everybody. 

Rebecca: Hi everyone Thanks for tuning in and listening. I’m really excited to be hosting this episode today and to ask Eric some questions and learn more about him and his business journey, so thank you for tuning in and let’s get started. Sound good Eric? 

Eric: That sounds great.

And just so you guys know Rebecca [00:01:00] has her hands in helping me produce this podcast as well. And that’s why I wanted her to join me on this very first episode here alongside me, so thank you so much for joining.

Rebecca:  course my pleasure and it’s been a great journey so far in doing these podcasts with you. I personally have learned so much and I’m really excited to flip the table and ask you some questions.

Eric: Yeah, go right ahead. 

Rebecca: Well, we’ll just start with you explaining who you are, what you’re doing, what you’re working on and then maybe dive into your why for your business and just get right into it. 

Eric: Yeah, definitely. So everyone for everyone else out there. My name is Eric Y Chen, and I decided to start this podcast for everyone to pretty much have an opportunity to learn from other business owners other entrepreneurs and other amazing individuals out there. You know whose story should [00:02:00] be shared. I think there’s a lot of phenomenal stories and lessons to be learned and primarily the reason why I started this was because I wanted to pursue a life of Entrepreneurship.

On my own and part of that Journey has led me to meet some phenomenal individuals along the way and so with me getting to know these people I’ve learned so much more about them, take in you know, lessons from them and even mentorship from a lot of these individuals as well, and I wanted to take that opportunity to also be able to share that on a platform.

Or a medium for everyone else to listen to and that’s exactly you know, why I’m doing this podcast in order to share more value, you know with everybody, you know, it’s not just for myself to learn but everyone else who, you know may be interested or wanting to start an entrepreneurial journey whether it’s for a business or a project or a side hustle, whatever it might [00:03:00] be I’m trying to  interview a lot of different  people from different walks of life to be able to share their stories and you know for someone to relate to as well and have a lot of that resource and information out there for everybody.  

Rebecca: Okay. Yeah, so you and I we met traveling. 

Eric: Yeah. 

Rebecca: Which is a funny story and it just shows how small the world is and you never know where your network is going to be and where you’re going to get connected and everyone travels for a reason and when you do travel you get to talk to people meet new people and hear their stories, and that’s what I did with you and you and I had some discussions about you know, where you’re from and why you are traveling and what was next for you and it ties into your  entrepreneurial journey. So why don’t you share a little bit of that side of your story with us? 

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely where we met at, we, where did we meet? We met in…

Both: Lagos, Portugal

Eric: Yeah, that’s yeah [00:04:00] south Portugal. That was an awesome town like quaint little hostel that we were at super super relaxed. I actually was introduced to go to Lagos because of the party scene.

Rebecca: Which does not exist like it is not really a thing there. 

Eric: Really? Because I well I guess it might just be the hostels right?

Because when I…

Rebecca: It was the hostel

Eric: yeah when I when I went I actually purposely chose a non-party hostile to go to in order to relax. Then I’m super glad I chose the hostel that we went to is because I wouldn’t have met you otherwise, right?

Rebecca: Me too. I’m happy about that too.

Eric: Yeah, so I mean part of what led me to, you know embarked on my travels.

I actually had you know, basically just quit my corporate job back in early 2017 and wanted to go and hit a bunch of bucket list  items  that I had for a while now, and the reason was I started working in the corporate world and I realized that I had just never really took a [00:05:00] long vacation.

I you know did some small traveling, you know, go to Seattle go to New York or something like that, but just kind of stopped the exploration phase of my life and there’s just so many things I wanted to see so much so many things I wanted to do and so that’s essentially where it kind of led me, but before that is actually an even crazier story that kind of prompted a series of events that even lead me there. 

Was that working in the corporate world, you know, I was actually enjoying my time there. There’s actually just one, you know fateful night. I guess faithful might be the word to use where I got into a near-death car accident.

And so my friend was driving and I was in the passenger seat and we ended up crashing into a tree and majority of the [00:06:00] impact was mainly on my side as a passenger and so what ended up happening was the the seat belt had ruptured my intestines.

It pulled on my stomach so hard it ruptured my intestines and, so I ended up basically going to the hospital and to the ICU Intensive Care Unit and getting operated on and so all the while all of this was happening, you know, I don’t even remember anything really I just one night I go out for just one drink with a couple of friends just to catch up in the city and then next thing I know I’m waking up in the hospital with you know, tubes down my throat. 

And just waking up extremely scared actually, I was freaking out on the bed. I remember still very vividly to this day just waking up and realize like thinking that I couldn’t breathe because there’s just all these tubes that were, you know down my throat and just freaking out but you know, they had a calm me [00:07:00] down. They actually did sedate me because of that and then I woke up like an hour later. They explained to me that I had been in a car accident and so it was just extremely scary to kind of be in that scenario, right? So they cut my stomach open reattached my intestines.

So I have just this big big scar that just runs down the center of my stomach and that wasn’t even a turning point in my life at that at that moment where you know, I a lot of people as like, oh is this a life-changing moment that led you into entrepreneurship and everything like that.

It actually wasn’t. After that accident I was bedridden for about three months or so had a recover and kind of learn how to walk again it took about three four months for me to you know, gain my core muscle and start walking again. All right.

Rebecca: Wow

Eric: Yeah, and so if you’re sitting at home or laying in bed for three four months all you want to do is go back to a normal [00:08:00] life. Right? So, all I wanted to do is go back to corporate and I had the opportunity to get a job at Google through their vendor program as a digital marketing consultant and so all I did was sell Google AdWords, uhm Marketing Solutions to basically small businesses to to large businesses and.

That basically gave me an opportunity to learn about online businesses. I was talking to all of these different companies where you know, you meet one man teams, five man teams that are doing, you know, these crazy sales numbers and and I’m like, wow, you know what like I’m kind of on the wrong side of the telephone, you know, and I wanted to basically like explore this new world where I’m [00:09:00] here doing, you know, I’m killing it at my job as a sales person at Google and the money to me was just very limited for the amount of effort that I put in and so, you know talking to these people about their entrepreneurial journey, I actually ended up reading this book called the 4-Hour workweek.

Have you heard of it? 

Rebecca: Mhm yep. It’s on my Kobo right now.

Eric: Oh, perfect and a Kobo I actually learned from you was like what the European version of a Kindle right? 

Rebecca: Yeah

Eric: Most people know what a Kindle is, but you told me what a Kobo was that’s a basically, you know, a digital device or a device that you…

Rebecca: An e-reader.

Eric: Yeah e-reader. Yeah, so. The 4-Hour workweek really opened my eyes to more of the different types of businesses and business models and being able to create teams virtually right and Tim Ferriss himself, I presume as the [00:10:00] forefather of basically you know the digital Nomad world and being able to build out your business and creating freedom.

And so I explored that and it ended up being these conversations I’ve had with you know prospects and companies ended up being me like hey, you know, did you ever read 4-Hour workweek and the business owner be like that’s exactly why I started my business or exactly why I quit my job or exactly why you know, I did this or it’s my side hustle, right?

Or they were able to quit their job or they were able to  support their family financially, right? So just things just started lining up and at the end of the day, you know with some more health complications due to the accident six months after  the recovery it I ended up having to go back and forth to the hospital so when you sit there in the hospital bed again getting operated on, you know, this is where my life had changed where you know, it’s like, okay well, I [00:11:00] did go back to the corporate world. I was working at a phenomenal company, but you know, I don’t feel fulfilled the the work that I was doing even though I was you know, three hundred percent of my sales quota, like killing it.

I just wasn’t too happy right? And so I decided you know what I gave him three months notice that I was going to quit my job and take off and basically travel the world and that’s exactly what I did and that’s basically where it led up to meeting you, I mean I was able to knock off a bunch of things on my bucket list.

Like I was able to run a half marathon for the very first time ever with my sister  and go see the Northern Lights travel all over Spain go to Cinque Terre in Italy or hike through the trails so just everything that I wanted to do like in such a short amount of time I was able to accomplish just because of the accident,  I realized, you know being at supposedly one of the best companies in the [00:12:00] world wasn’t going to make you happy and so I basically took the leap of faith. I decided on the conversations that I had with all these business owners to start a business while I  was traveling and so that’s why I ended up doing I ended up starting selling on Amazon and basically took my marketing expertise, you know consulting for companies and slowly built out the business that way and this is kind of where it’s led me to.

Rebecca: Wow, what a story. 

Eric: I know it’s a little long but that’s basically three years of the backstory of what got me all started with this. 

Rebecca: Wow. Did you have any inkling before you were in your accident that maybe the corporate lifestyle wasn’t going to be fulfilling or did it take that

completely to derail your original train of thought which was corporate is the dream working for Google is the [00:13:00] dream. it’s the goal after you graduate University?

Eric: Yeah, I mean, I’ve always grown up in the sense that I wanted to be an entrepreneur or I wanted to own my own business or not even  that I just wanted to be a very badass businessman right?

I did not know what being a businessman really meant when I was young. I just knew and this is kind of the upbringing that I had where my dad would actually actually take us on some international travels when we were growing up and he would take me along for business meetings, but at that point I realized that the business meetings we’re going to where the post business meetings where the client or the prospects that he was meeting with, you know take you out to dinner, right?

So that’s why he was able to take his family along so we go out to dinner and like this this is business, right? 

Rebecca: This is the dream. I can do this!

Eric: Yeah, we get to get to travel and you basically have a meeting and then yeah you go out and sing [00:14:00] karaoke with these other, you know businessmen and then.

Rebecca: then that’s it

Eric: that’s how business is done. Like yeah, you just signed a you know, half-million-dollar contract. It’s like cool, right and that’s what I wanted to do, or at least that that was the exposure, you know to going into what I thought was entrepreneurship, but right after college and I think you know what when you’re a senior in University and things are starting to get real and your peers and colleagues are all or two getting jobs lined up and you basically you have a degree in international relations and economics and you’re like.

Well, Mom, I’m not going to be a doctor. I’m not an engineer. I have no idea what I’m gonna do but I am going down the the sales path right after college and I was very fortunate enough to get phenomenal sales training as my first job out of college and I [00:15:00] basically had the idea that this  was it.

I was just going to be a sales rep and become a sales manager and then become a VP of sales probably when I’m 35 years old and that’s basically the cap and then maybe start a business, you know, like start a restaurant or something with with the family and that would be you know my life right? And so I think everything happens for a reason. I I truly believe that and just the series of events that has led up to, you know, the decisions I’ve made to pivot, you know, you kind of find it as a silver lining right? Like I truly believe like this did not happen just for me, too get injured in a car accident and then just go back to a normal life. I definitely did take it as a sign that life is short and you should really do what you want and I think some people get tattoos as reminders, but I have this like eight nine [00:16:00] inch scar just down my stomach that I get to look at every day in the mirror as a reminder that life really is short, right and so just do what you want and I’ve basically taken the the series of events and steps to really pursue entrepreneurship and I think we’re fortunate to be in a time where you know, the digital space, e-commerce, social media marketing all of this is created new opportunities for so many people out there that this is a new type of business and I look at myself today where I am going to meetings.

 I am shaking hands. I do get to go to events and go to go drink afterwards with, some of the people we meet and it’s like hey, maybe maybe this is this is business. Right? Because I get to collaborate with these people or basically strike deals with people I meet and it’s like I am, living the dream of what I had imagined right and me meeting you is a phenomenal opportunity [00:17:00] alongside with meeting a few other individuals where we did talk about business opportunities and so I’ve kept in contact with people that I’ve met from all over the world right from from London from from Asia from Australia and so like these are all connections that I hold dear. 

And so when the opportunity comes to basically reach out and you know continue to work globally and or expand, you know, business opportunities, so that’s in a nutshell I did and didn’t always know right and it’s just the path that I’m walking on now that that’s really just, continuing on. 

Rebecca: I like how you said that what you’re doing now is kind of what you had imagined you would be doing like you’re meeting people you’re shaking hands you’re making deals and it just looks different than how you had originally thought in your mind.

I think that’s a good point because business these days it can looks so different than how it did because of our technology that we have the ability to work over spaces. I’m in Italy you’re in the States and we [00:18:00] have a working relationship and that is a newer concept it’s still business and so I think I like how you mentioned that, that was really neat.

And you also host events. You host local events. You do Amazon Seller meetups, so can you tell us a little bit more about that? Tell us a little bit more about your public speaking.  Is it something you’ve always loved or is this a new part of the business journey that you’ve kind of delved into?

Eric: it’s funny you say that right like. I do a lot of public speaking events. I’m starting off this podcast and interviewing people and talking to people and I do host seller meet ups here in the Bay Area for Amazon sellers right now and I think it’s pretty funny that I was a salesperson and sales people have to talk a lot and talk on the phone was that I’ve never really been that great of a speaker growing up. 

I was [00:19:00] always seen as kind of the shy kid and I I think I had an opportunity in high school to really, you know, flourish in the sense of wanting to put myself out there and work on my public speaking skills and I think it was because I got a lot of bad grades when it came to presentations.

I had to present to a teacher or I was part of a business club in high school and I basically just never won any of these like pitches that we were doing. All of my friends did, everybody got trophies, and me and I’m like this is the kid who wants to be an entrepreneur when he grows up right a businessman going to meetings, shaking hands and so I really took a huge effort to pick up my public speaking and what I ended up doing was hosting the lunch events at school and [00:20:00] hosting the rallies my senior year. 

I ended up becoming a student representative for the entire city during that time, right? And so that gave me  opportunity to speak a lot and then it ended up phasing into me becoming an MC with buddy. He was a DJ and I’d basically be the MC and then it got out of control because you know, we started getting hired for you know our teachers weddings and stuff and it’s kind of weird think about it now and you’re 17 year old kid seeing like your teachers, you know get wasted. 

Rebecca: Getting married.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah, we’re getting married but getting wasted at the same time too right? But yeah, so I really I really took a conscious effort to you, you know work on something that I knew I wasn’t that good in the first place and I think it’s gotten me, very far in the sense that as a salesperson talking on the phone a lot or [00:21:00] basically being able to moderate and host a seller meetups and events and go to speaking gigs and I think you know, you will look back on this very first episode and kind of see how how things evolve with whether it’s my speaking or even just the interviewing aspects or the questions that I asked too so, yeah.

Rebecca: So I’ve read and listened to podcasts that have said both:  improve your weaknesses and focus on your weaknesses and also ones that say don’t and more so like hone in on your strengths and use your strengths  when you’re doing your entrepreneurial work, so what do you think about that considering your public speaking background and what you’re doing now with that with what was a weakness is now one of your strengths?

Eric: Yeah, I think it’s if you take a weakness and you want to turn it into an opportunity. I think that’s when it’s a good point to work on your weaknesses, right because there’s a lot of people say like just stick to your strengths and do what [00:22:00] you’re good at and then people say like, you know hone in on your weaknesses and make yourself more well-rounded person or stronger person.

I think when people say that in context they’re at totally different levels of context in that sense, right you know, I like I, although I’m Asian. I am not very good at math, and I will say I think I know I failed calculus like in University as well. Right? So it was not it was definitely not my forte and it got to the point where it’s like I will try and continue to try and I studied really hard to pass the class right but it’s not like I ever got an A on my test and math will always be my weakness and that is something I’m okay with right because I’m not going to take that and become an even more well-rounded individual to do some type of like cost analytics or financial reportings or [00:23:00] anything like that.

It’s more like hey as long as I know basic math, and I can do profit and loss sheets and everything like that, then that’s okay, but in terms of you know applying that to you know, business models and you know using derivatives then like yeah, that’s that’s not going to be me.

So I think in people’s skill sets or areas of life some people may have a weakness that they should focus on right like it’s I think it’s more of things that people are afraid of that is a weakness versus just like an ability like math or something like yeah, you can you can study and work hard and you know hone in on math, but like if you consider something a weakness only because you’re scared, then that is something that you can work on to improve and that will improve yourself to make yourself a more well-rounded person. Right? Just like public speaking is probably a fear for a lot [00:24:00] of people and that’s why there’s things like Toastmasters where they try to teach people how to present or how to communicate and there’s you know, all these communication coaches.

So in order to hone in on I think that is very important to work on and those are the types of things that will bring in more opportunities, right because talking to people or presenting something that’s a very crucial aspect of business or just interaction in general with people. 

Rebecca: Right. I like how you said that it makes me think about how two years ago when I was getting more serious about my career or looking at my career paths and thinking I need to be more skilled in technical aspects because there’s so much competition when it comes to the economy and the jobs available so I was looking at learning how to code and all these things are not me, it’s not a strength of mine, but I felt like I needed that skill set in order to make myself a better employee [00:25:00] or make myself more hireable.

And so I like how you said that you you know, if it’s something that you are going to apply into your career or your business and something that is more so a fear than “I need this skill set” that’s when you should focus more on your weakness per se than your strengths.

So, I mean there’s a question that I think a lot of people ask and it’s something that we’ve seen throughout the episodes that we’ve recorded so far what do you say to the person who’s 18 years old sitting at home thinking do I do college? Do I spend the 40 50 60 thousand dollars or do I jump right into becoming an entrepreneur? What would you what I think that’s the big like overarching question? What would you tell somebody who’s asking 

Eric: Well, well one, statistically I’ve read this [00:26:00] somewhere that most people who do listen to podcasts. They make an average wage of $70,000 or so they like or they’re high income earners or higher income earners as a demographic.

Rebecca: Everyone keep listening.

Eric: So yeah, if you are listening you’re pretty much in that bracket, I’m sure or you’re well on your way, you’re well on your way there. 

Your checks are on your way on the way. We’re sending them shortly. 

Eric: disclaimer, I’m not sending a $70,000 check, but to answer your question. I think a lot of people they’re distracted by social media.

And it’s more of just like, you know, what’s out there what people are flaunting or in this sense what people are flexing right their nice watches and their nice cars and in the past when I was in college what I was exposed to was more of a you know, the the college dropouts right like college isn’t important or it’s not necessary for you to become a multi-million or a multibillion-dollar like right Zuckerberg dropped out of school, right?

I don’t [00:27:00] remember if Bill Gates did or not, but it’s…

Rebecca: Probably

Eric: Probably, but all of the entrepreneurs or the rag to riches stories of like, you know, they had their trials and tribulations and they dropped out of school. So a lot of the arguments say like, you know schools not important and it’ll lead you down a path of success and wealth and I think a lot of younger people take that story and misconstrue it in the sense of well, they didn’t go to college so I don’t need to either but if you read their autobiographies or their books or their stories, they are there’s an absolutely big reason why they did drop out and it’s because they were already very diligent about their work, their career or their projects that they were working on and it gave them absolutely every reason to drop out of school in order to pursue that so I think that’s one thing that a lot of people should take into consideration if they [00:28:00] are, you know, young or thinking about their future path or career.

And then the other thing was I believe school is definitely worth it.  It’s become a precursor to even get a job opportunity because even if you don’t pursue entrepreneurship right away there’s still a lot of learning opportunities and growth opportunities within corporate. Right and it’s a networking opportunity as well to surround yourself with other individuals who can bring in more experiences or you can find mentorships within an organization.

So something as large as Google, for instance, we had a summer intern there. Her name was Caroline and she basically took that entire summer as an opportunity to network, and kind of as a comparison to a few of the other interns the other interns basically just did their job that was assigned to them and that was it.  But as an employee you get access to the entire [00:29:00] database of Google people there, so you can literally look up job titles and get their email and basically email anyone or ping them on Google Hangouts and basically asked if you want to grab a coffee.

I believe people innately are always willing to help but they can’t help you unless they know what you need help with, so Caroline as an example took that opportunity to network with so many individuals at the end of her internship. She got a full-time offer before she was even graduating from school.

Okay, and that’s that’s like she took that upon herself. Right? And that was the hustle that was there. So even going through school going through University, right? It’s a precursor. Like if you want to get a job at Facebook Google wherever.  you’re going to need a college degree, right? It’s like unless you’re creating an app.

That’s going to change the world or have some sort of impact like that’s when you can [00:30:00] bypass that step of you know job applications where Facebook will then go and buy your company out and then you can work for Facebook at that point. So I think that’s where a lot of people should you know, look at you know what they want to do and take necessary steps and if it’s if they want to start their own, you know business.

You can totally do it on the side, right? There’s a lot of these entrepreneurs that we’ve talked to on our podcast where they were building out their side hustle or their side business while working full-time one guy even didn’t realize that he could quit his job. He was making more money from his business than his full-time job as a as a consultant and it wasn’t until he went to an event with other entrepreneurs and they said, Well, he’s like, oh I have to leave this event and go back to work tomorrow it’s like but why like, why don’t you just quit your job, you’re already [00:31:00] successful and he just like you’re absolutely right.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Eric: right? 

Rebecca: Mhm

Eric: he goes back to work puts in his two weeks and then he’s out of there.

Rebecca: Mhm

Eric:  until you get to a point where you either have the financial backing to pursue something like that and build out a business on the side, I think that’s absolutely what everybody should do, whether it’s side income passive income or aggressively building out a business until you quit.

That should be the goal in mind. 

Rebecca: Yeah, I think we are around the same age and we have always had for Our Generation you finish high school you go to university and you get a job and I think now with the rise of digital Nomads and blogging, influence marketing, entrepreneurship, selling on Amazon.

There’s been a bit of a shift towards skipping the. Education phase or not education phase with the university face. So it’s I liked what you said and I think it brings, you know and [00:32:00] a whole rounded view of how University can further propel your entrepreneurial Journey.

Eric: Exactly. I mean school-wise and this is more of the people who aren’t listening right these people who are going to listen to the podcast or those that are going to be interested in entrepreneurship and one way or another.

The rest of the people who do go to university because they know what they want to do. They want to become a teacher. They want to become an engineer software engineer, doctor, lawyer. 

Rebecca: Right. 

Eric: There’s a set path, right but there’s only a finite amount of those types of people, the rest of the people are the ones who are getting a communication major, poli sci major, like what are my choices? Right? Like when you come out of college as it is a marketing, is it going to PR agency? Like what what does that even look like and it’s just so broad that that’s what I think what is so scary, but with today’s world like the possibilities are endless, I mean, I know plenty of people who make way more than my doctor friends right [00:33:00] now, right and so opportunity and you know career is just what you make of it.

What you want to do is just there’s just so much so much Commerce out there like 

Rebecca: so much. so I have another question for you. You mentioned social media and you mentioned the rags to riches story and I don’t think that we read the rags to still rags stories.

Eric: Yeah

Rebecca: and forever rags stories is that a little bit why you wanted to do this podcast? Can you share maybe be a little vulnerable and share a little bit of the not necessarily rags to rags but the rags to difficulties challenges not getting over those challenges as quickly as you had thought the facade of rags to riches.

Eric: Yeah. I mean like because of social media, there are going to be people out there who are going to flaunt their numbers and their sales [00:34:00] figures. I’m a seven-figure seller, eight figure seller and you know, they they’re not going to showcase like everything that took to get them there and.

They’re also going to be those that are frauds too right? Those who basically prey on the idea that people are looking for, you know wealth right? There are three things that sell it’s basically wealth, health, and sex right? These are all three areas that just sell in the market marketing world, right?

That’s why you see lingerie ads or sexy ads and basically how to become rich right or how to become healthier in terms of like Fitness and things like that. These are the three core things that people always want to improve upon or work on and so these are all things that all these say online people will try to.

Flaunt as well and but also prey upon for other people, so it’s just something that people have [00:35:00] to make sure they watch out for especially if they’re like selling you something there’s a lot of great information that’s already out there whether it’s on YouTube or just people that already are validated in terms of if they are selling a course, you have to make sure they are validated or that they’re selling something that is going to be valuable, and I think with the like the rag the rag to riches stories like for those who do flaunt it on social media today, I personally think it’s well deserved as long as they’re using it for for good and I know a bunch of individuals who do it in order to capture their audience, but they’re also providing the value to teach these other people to create, their wealth channels. 

I think for everybody else they get sucked into that idea, they try an attempt, you know to build out an Amazon business or a drop shipping store because they see all these high numbers and then they get discouraged, you know, once it doesn’t work and then they they kind of quit [00:36:00] and so I think a lot of people just don’t try hard enough or kind of stick to it. 

If you see yourself jumping around to trying so many different things than it, of course, it’s not going to work right these people who are good and professional at what they’re good at is because they’ve just been doing it and grinding it out every single day up until the point where they finally hit success and that’s why they can flaunt it.

Right but that’s not what the show they’re not going to show the the rags to the rags portion because that’s not sexy right? It’s just normal. Like I’m not going to show like, yeah, we didn’t make any money, you know this month for instance and it’s like cool story bro.

Rebecca: laughter

Eric: Like what was the point? What was the point of sharing that right?

Like everybody struggles? What’s so cool about that. But it’s like the moment you get to flash your Lamborghini or Ferrari and it’s like, oh cool like I want what he has but let’s figure out what the quickest way to get that is and so you know for me, I [00:37:00] feel like I’m still very young in the entrepreneurial journey and the sense of building out all of these different channels and platforms as of now and so the idea to be able to kind of share that journey along the way and have kind of a look-back period to see how far we’ve come I think is something that I you know, always wanted to do just just so we can get that out there. 

A lot of the guests that we have on the show, they are already very successful multi millionaires right in terms of their business or their wealth and a lot of the questions I asked isn’t really about how they built their business or how much money they have or like what the process was. to me the most common question is like why do they do it?  

Eric: Because anyone can tell you like Hey Rebecca, you should just open a coffee a little coffee shop, right? That’s a business. If I told you you could generate half a million dollars a year and you can net, you know a [00:38:00] hundred fifty thousand dollar salary, you’re owning a little cute little coffee shop on the streets of Florence like

Rebecca: yeah

Eric: would you do it?

Rebecca: That’s the dream

Eric: That’s that’s could possibly be the dream right? But for someone else like, you know, they say I would love to make $150,000 a year, my life would be set if I can make a six-figure salary but if I told you. Yeah, just open a coffee shop. It’s going to be long hours. You can have to wake up at four in the morning to prep the coffee set up the tables clean up afterwards.

You know, you’re going to make six figures but is that really what you want? Is that what you really enjoy so then the the question I ask you is like why would you want to run a coffee shop? And you say oh it’s because I love serving coffee and talking to the customers and having like this customer base that you know comes to your coffee shop every day to do their work out of or you know, bring their friends or families to enjoy like a really, you know, great cup of coffee and that’s what makes you happy, that’s exactly why you will stick to the long hours or having to wash the dishes and stuff like that. 

There’s [00:39:00] always a bigger reason to like run a business or own a business, that’s why you’ll see a lot of people who   see the wealth the numbers that people are putting up on Drop Shipping and on Amazon and they’re like, oh great great I’m going to start this business or start the Amazon business and then they just they do it because that person is making seven figures I want to do it, so I can make seven figures but there’s no real internal why.

Rebecca: Right

Eric: Why are you even doing it in the first place? Like if it’s for the money that’s only gonna get you so far and I think a lot of the guest speakers that we talk to you share a lot of the different reasons,  why they do the business that they do what whether it’s for passion, or maybe they fell into it. Maybe it’s what they wanted and then maybe for personal reasons they share exactly why they stick to the business from the hard times  from the beginning and all the trials and tribulations, they had to go through too write from just sleeping on the floor basically the real rag to riches [00:40:00] and being able to share that story with everybody else and be exposed to it. 

Rebecca: Right. Well, that’s a good segue into what my next question was going to be which is can you give us a few little hints of who you’ve interviewed and who we can be expecting on the show, or is it a secret and it’ll be revealed? 

Eric: Well, I think in terms of what people want to hear is like who we have and I think it’s more of you guys gotta stay tuned for the guests that are going to be coming on board. 

I mean, these are all individuals that I’ve met in person before and what I really want to do is talk to people that I myself, respect a lot in a really find them to have a lot of valuable and insights to share with the audience. I mean just people who come from different backgrounds from an immigrant family to just normal kids who’ve [00:41:00] had a great upbringing for instance and people who have had a tough time growing up too or even being able to work through some type of sickness or illness for instance everybody has a story everybody has their own trials that they had to go through and I think what was really phenomenal was,  talking to one of our other employees and how one episode, that she was able to preview. 

She resonated with that guest speaker story more than I did right because she’s like, oh I related to the whole immigrant family story and coming up with the things that they had to deal with as well.

Right and that’s something I didn’t have to deal with during up and so I couldn’t exactly relate but another guest speaker for instance, I understood where they came from because they also went through the whole corporate route and quit their job type of journey and so I think for everybody else there will be you know, someone they can relate to and I think it’s a phenomenal opportunity to be exposed to to that and know that it is possible and and at the end of the day [00:42:00] everyone has to figure out there they’re why and why they want to do the things that they do and if they want to build out their business, you have to figure it out, you know your own story from there. 

Rebecca: Yeah, and also from my own personal side of what we’ve done so far just editing transcribing and working on the podcast. I myself have resonated, I’ve been inspired, but also I’ve been equipped with resources that I would not have had otherwise in an entrepreneurial setting and moving forward and it’s made me change my way of thinking and way of looking at the way people do business and opportunities and seeing them all around me.  I think they include very valuable information as well as a why behind business and behind the journey and why people choose and do what they do, so thank you for what you’ve done so far and what you shared with us and just as we close up, are there any final words that you want to say to those listening? 

Eric: Well, yeah. I just want to thank you guys so [00:43:00] much for staying and listening to this very first episode with me and Rebecca.

I’m really excited for what’s to come and I hope you guys stay tuned for all of the new episodes that do come out in the near future here. So thank you guys for tuning in and we will we will catch you guys later. 

Rebecca: Thank you. Everyone. Ciao. Ciao. 

Eric: Ciao.

Together: Ciao – laughter.