Uncommon Advice

7 to 9: The Wild Journey of Building and Selling Online Businesses

• Zenen Chamizo • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Join hosts Nate Kennedy and Zenen Chamizo in this episode of Uncommon Advice as they discuss the wild journey of building and selling online businesses. From humble beginnings to scaling up to a 9-figure valuation, Nate shares his experiences and insights into the world of online entrepreneurship. Along the way, they discuss the challenges and triumphs of building a successful business, the importance of persistence and adaptability, and the valuable lessons learned from failure. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or simply interested in the world of online business, you won't want to miss this inspiring and informative episode. Tune in to Uncommon Advice to hear Nate and Zenen's candid and insightful conversation about the journey of building a 9-figure business.

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Nate Kennedy:

What you need to do is make sure that you've got a viable business opportunity, like a viable business. Like is there a need? Is there a, do you have a solution to a problem? And once you define that, once you define it, I have a solution to the problem. Get it out there. You don't need to go focus on all this other stuff. Just put it out in the marketplace. See if it works. Then you got something. Then go worry about all the other stuff. Hey, you help'em figure what they want outta life, but you know everything and come with a price. Wanna maximize your money in time? Might have to take the uncommon advice. Hey, listen to this. Might have to take the uncommon advice. Let's dive on in. We are here at another episode of the Uncommon Advice Podcast, Koch. Zenan with me and Nate Kennedy are your host here today. We're excited to dive into some more stuff, uh, the uncommon advice that is required to, uh, being successful in today's online business world and going from there.

Zenen Chamizo:

So, are you excited? Oh, I'm super excited. I mean, this is not just another, this episode two, so it's gonna, it's gonna be fun. I mean, as we get into this episode, I'm excited to put out the knowledge in the world. Of growing a business or being an entrepreneur or being resilient and all these other things that it takes to be successful. So that's gonna be fun. Yeah, absolutely.

Nate Kennedy:

So I, I'm excited as well. Uh, we're going to, you know, dive on in, man. Absolutely. You got, I know today it's gonna be a little more, you got questions?

Zenen Chamizo:

Oh, we got questions? Well, we got questions, but the questions really is, is questions that a lot of people nowadays are doing and it's, we're gonna share the insights and how to grow an online. And no one better than you. You've, you've grown'em, you've sold six, seven, and now, like you said, now you're, you're trying to get the nine figure exit. Yeah. So. Let's, let's dive into some of the things needed, right, to grow these kind of businesses. Yeah.

Nate Kennedy:

We're skipping over eight, so if you don't dream big, are you really dreaming at all? So, yeah, it's, I gotta skip over, uh, skipping over that eight figure exit. We're gonna go shoot for nine, you know, and, uh, see, see how it goes with the plans there. We just gotta.

Zenen Chamizo:

Exactly. So having the experience you have, but what really got you into the online business world? Like what really was the thing that we saw in the last episode? Mortgage was it, but that's not really an online bus. What really got you into the online business world? Yeah, the

Nate Kennedy:

on the online business. I got introduced to it. I talked a little bit, I believe previously. Uh, buddy Mark, the dm, Mark Evans dm, the deal maker. He, uh, I, I met him through my, my, my now wife Susan was college roommates with his wife now. And so she was like, Hey, do you want to go to the beach? Susan and I just started dating. She's like, you wanna go to the beach? I was like, yeah, let's go. You know, you, well, I guess you need a ride. Uh, I said it jokingly, right? Because we had just started dating. But uh, so we go down to the beach, we end up in, uh, Daniel's Island, South Carolina, and in Daniel Daniel's Island down there. It was kind of just small island. Wasn't really built up yet, but pretty cool little spot. And I meet Mark, uh, we're hanging out in their condo and we are going out to like the one restaurant they had at Daniel's Island. Basically for all of our meals. And Mark and I just kind of started talking and I started learning what he was doing. He was getting ready to release his first book coming up, so he was super excited about that. He's got like 12 or 13 now and then, so I was understanding what he was doing with the book, and then we just. I was in the online space, I was in a mortgage space, he was in the online space and we just started talking and I was intrigued by what he was doing. He was intrigued by what I was doing, cuz it was two different worlds. And he had really just started basically packed everything and started traveling and that was his goal, was to travel and run his business from wherever. And I got it. That's how I got introduced. I mean, it's really my first understanding. I was, I understood online marketing. I kind of started doing a little bit of it, but I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't understand, so let me to answer your question, that's the first time it hit home and I understood the power of it. That's probably what it was. You know, like the moment that I truly understood what could be done online was at that time, and that was in, I believe, Was that? No, September, maybe September of 2006, maybe. Okay. And, uh, I think that was cuz he was just getting ready to like launch his book and, and all that at the time, his first book. And so we started talking. He said, Hey man, you should do a mortgage book. Cause I was in the mortgage space and I'm like, all right, cool. Let's do it. And so I end up, you know, reaching out to some other, uh, Mortgage marketing coaches and getting'em all in the first book that we did. And then I, I'll never forget, man, the guy, I didn't know what I was doing at this time. I was just executing. I basically, we did a book for the, uh, insider Secrets, the most successful mortgage brokers, and it was all these different mortgage guys in the industry that were teaching how to do marketing and how to generate leads in your business. I didn't fully understand. What I was doing at the time, how I was gonna build a site up or how I was gonna do that. But I was like, all right, well I gotta build a site. Does anyone know anyone can help me build a site? And I get connected with this guy, Jay. And then Jay was like, oh man, I got you. He hooked me up with a sales page and he was like, by the way, you probably need to put some upsells on this thing. You need to, you know, make a different offer. Don't just let people buy your book. He is like, I don't buy a bulk of books. I don't buy a training. Like it really taught me a lot, man. Jay was. And, uh, he built the page and then all of a sudden we did this big call and I got all these guys to drive people into a phone call and, uh, it was like$5,433 and like some change that night that we made. Like on a one hour phone call and I text, I text mark. I was like, holy. I was like, this works. I'm like, send it to him. And, and uh, he, he, so he, he took forever to upgrade. He always had the razor phone. He would never upgrade to the iPhone. Took him forever to do it and they finally did it. But he used to always have that text for years, many, many years later on that, on his phone. And, uh, but yeah, I mean, I would say that's how I got introduced to it. And then that book launched in 2007, so it was just execution. Right. I had no clue what I was. But I was willing to just do it and, and I think that's what it was. And then I really, that's, those are the moments I really understood the power of the internet and what you could do with it. So with the

Zenen Chamizo:

power of the internet back then, compared to someone who's trying to do what you did back then to now, how much, how much easier? Well, I won't say easier. How much easier to, is it to learn it than it was back then? Cuz the internet was, it was growing a lot more nowadays you. Search it up and you can do a full course on like HubSpot or something. Mm-hmm. How much easier is it now for an entrepreneur who wants to start an online business? How much easier is it for them to, to do it? Other than it was back then where it was, you had to know people. You had a more network where now you can actually learn. Learn it yourself

Nate Kennedy:

in some of these courses? Back in my days, I mean, there's still stuff there, right? Like they were using, I mean, this whole thing, Google was still there, right? So I'd do the same thing I was doing, but I mean the, the like, the knowledge, the content, the demonstrations with YouTube and the video that's available to walk you through stuff like, it's, it's super, it's so much easier now. In regard, you know what, maybe not. It's easy. You have faster access to the information. Mm-hmm. But it might not be easier because. There's too much information, right? So you can look at too many things and maybe not fully understand exactly what it is that you can do with it, right? Because you get, all right, well, do I do this process or this process or this process? There's so much information that it can be challenging, I think, to decipher what's the right information, but at the same time, it's you just gotta execute. Right? But

Zenen Chamizo:

there's also a lot of competition too. Yeah, and there was like back then the online business world, I mean, everybody nowadays you have the drop shipping with e-commerce, and you got people trying to build. Funnels and stuff that we'll get into. But I mean, the competition also, which that comes back to what you just said, execution, you gotta execute to be able to compete with some of these bigger names that are already out there. That started back when, 2007, 2008.

Nate Kennedy:

Yeah. So competition's up. The fake guru competition is up too. There's plenty of them people out there. So, you know, I would say definitely it's, it's, you got more access to information, but now you have more competition. Now you have. Too much information at, at, at times. And then just picking a path, right? Because shiny object syndrome is a real thing and shiny objects are bouncing from one thing to the next and it's too easy to say, well, that didn't work, so I'm gonna go ahead and change to this. And gotta be able to stay focused, focused, focused, focused. And we talked about this on a, on a video in the past about, you know, a whole ready, fire, aim thing. It's it, it's more plan focus. You know? Yeah. So

Zenen Chamizo:

starting your first online business, how, let's, let's start with an entrepreneur as yourself. What was step one to basically having up and running so people out there know what they gotta be doing and what the steps to actually get to a successful online businesses?

Nate Kennedy:

Great question. So having a successful online business, here's exactly what you need to do right now. Buy a domain, set up a website, set up your llc, get an email address. I'm just kidding. Those are all things you, that everybody does in the very, very beginning Is this so the so, so the things that you do not need to do is all that stuff right now. Uh, what you need to do is make sure that you've got a viable business opportunity, like a viable business. Like is there a need? Is there a, do you have a solution to a problem? And once you define that, once you define it, I have a solution to the problem. Get it out there. You don't need to go focus on all this other stuff. Just put it out into the marketplace. See if it works. Works. If it works and you're picking up customers and you're picking up clients and you're helping people, then, then you got something, then go worry about all the other stuff. Right. You know, and, and I, and don't get me wrong, like, uh, jokingly earlier he asked me the first step to, we're working on a new brand internally that, you know, with time to come, we'll reveal it, but we're pretty excited about it. And it's, you know, he, he asked me and he was like, what's step one? I was like, oh, by the domain.

Zenen Chamizo:

So, and when Nate means by the domain, Nate, you know, people have things they. Well, Nate is buying domains. The man probably has hundreds of domains, so if you're ever looking for one, just contact

Nate Kennedy:

them. You can probably find it for you. Yeah, two things I like. White tennis shoes and domain names. So, uh, you know, it's funny and, um, but, you know, the, the white, I've always, I'd never had a lot of shoes growing up, right? I was always like one pair a year. I was allowed one pair of cleats and one pair of school shoes, uh, every year. So with that, what I ended up doing is like, now I like shoes. Right. And so, uh, and it's coming back to bite me cuz now my son's kind of becoming a sneakerhead, which is, which is kind of funny, but yeah. You know, domain names, you know, so, so the first thing you need to do is just make sure you got a viable business opportunity. Yeah. If you got, if the business makes sense and there's people that need it and you're solving a problem, run with it. Then you can get into the llc, the paperwork, all that other stuff and everything else later, just go test it, you know, and, and once you test it and you feel like it's a good, i good op opportunity for you to scale and grow. Then, you know, dial in that perfect color on your logo and mm-hmm. Your brand name and all that stuff after that. What's the

Zenen Chamizo:

hardest part you'll say in that beginning? Cuz a lot of everybody wants to start a business. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. But a lot of people, they do, they do it for maybe a couple months, but after they go away, why? What do you need to continue doing in those that first year, the first two years to make your business successful? Because a lot of people don't know how to handle. They fail and they think it's over. So how did that, how did you go through your online business? Did you fail or were you pretty successful off the. How did that go for you?

Nate Kennedy:

A hundred percent success rate. Nah, I'm just kidding. No. Yeah, so I, I, I, I think failures massive, like you're gonna have a lot of failure inside of business. You're gonna have days, you're gonna have small failures, you're gonna have big failures. I mean, oh, Hell, I, I lost everything. I mean, I, I went big, uh, tried doing something really, really big. I got a, a little arrogant along the process thinking it was because of me, and I was that, and I took my eye off the end prize and I, and I ended up losing everything. So I would say the one, the two things that I, probably three, there's three things that really matter when you're starting. One is consistency. Be consistent, doing boring things. Is if you can be consistent doing boring things, you can move mountains long term. The challenge is, and, and I'm at fault for this too, I, I, sometimes I'm doing stuff and this's just so boring. I've been doing this forever. I know how to do it. But at the same time, when I learned real quick, it's the boring things that you can do consistently are the ones that. You know, big levers, you know, help you move big levers because other people aren't willing to do the boring stuff consistently. So that's, that's one, one important piece. The next thing is focus, because if you don't focus on what you're doing and where you're going, now you're, you're an end game. Someone's like, well, I got a five year plan. Here's what I'm be in five years. That's gonna change, that could change every quarter, right? So you have to be understanding that that end goal might adjust your vision when you start, might change a little bit over time, but your ability to focus on the things that need to be done and know that eventually you'll get where you're going. So focus on, on the goals, uh, is super important. And then the second one is, You have to be resilient because you're gonna get smacked around people that are in your corner, that you have known forever, that you believe in, that you thought like, Hey man, this guy's got my back. You're gonna find out they don't, and then you're gonna get discouraged because you're like, man, and then you're gonna kind of get mad about things, right? So, cuz the people who have your back might not be there when you get where you want to go because you learn that they didn't really have your back. They, and, and so, and they're gonna doubt you, right? So they're gonna have people in your camp that doubt you and go, Hey, I don't think you're gonna be able to do this, so you shouldn't do that. That's that's real. You know, but that's why you do what you do. I mean, that's why entrepreneurs do what they do and they create the things they create, and that's. You know, they, they solve so many problems in the world because they're willing to take those risks. Not everybody's willing to take it. And if they can't see themselves doing it, they obviously don't wanna see you doing it. Cuz then it makes them feel kind of, you know, weird about themselves. Right.

Zenen Chamizo:

Yeah. And then you bring a resilient, yeah, you just finished yesterday. A nice, nice artwork on, um, on his arm. It's resilient. But Nate does, yeah. You can't really see it, but you can't see it now. But Nate does, has mentioned that a lot, even since I started working here, is resilience. He, he preaches on it. If you go on his, uh, social medias, he does a lot of videos of being resilient, but it's also in the office. We got it up there. Um, it's up there. He's, he has it on his arm, so it's just continue going. But Nate, so someone is kicking off. They kicked off. They had, so let's do it this way. So someone kicks off. They have a little bit of success. What is their next step to grow, right? They have a success. It's one man, one man. He's all by himself. What is his next step to get to that 7, 8, 9 figure exit? What does he really need to put in place into a business to do that? So I've struggled with,

Nate Kennedy:

with this over the years. I, I mean there's, I've talked about it a lot, and building a team is the most important part. So what you need to do is, As you're growing and learning and building your business bef, you need to start reading and learning about how to be the person you need to become, and you have to figure out who you need to become. To be able to be that leader, to be that visionary, to be that person that can hire people that were, are willing to drive that mission with you, right? So one is you gotta figure out how to become and learn to become the person you need to be. Because right now, and even myself, currently right now, I'm not the person I need to be to get to that nine figure exit. But I'm learning and figuring out and trying to understand what things I need to become good at to be able to be that person. So I think that's, I. And then that becomes down to, once you understand that, then you can build leadership and, and become a better leader. And as you become a better leader, you're, one of the great that I've seen great leaders do over the years and I try to emulate is they build vision. Uh, and it's always been tough for me being an introvert. I'm like, you know, I could say two words one day and be happy. And, you know, you and I just had this conversation recently, like I, wow. I was breaking down what we're doing and I'm like, but it's been a while since I've talked about that vision to everybody in our, in our core group of team. Right? And so I need to go back and do that. And I think once you have the vision, it's reiterating that vision over and over to the team, which, which is one thing I'm working on. So vision and being able to, Outline that vision. It's not about following you, but it's about working with you. It's about being in the trenches with you. It's about helping go towards that end goal with you, as opposed to like, a lot of times in business there's leaders that are almost like just dictators, right? Mm-hmm. It's like you're doing this and, and an ego get involved. Right? And sadly I can. From experience, cuz when I was younger it was more along those lines than it was more of like, how do we get to where we need to go as opposed to how do I get where I need to go? So I think that those are a couple big things, you know? Okay,

Zenen Chamizo:

so just so leadership is big. So someone that's growing it nowadays, I mean, we talked about ways to do it nowadays you have all this new AI stuff that keeps coming out daily, G P T, and you got all these different things that people can I. Um, into it. So as they're getting into that nine, they're growing, growing it up. I hear a lot of companies say, marketing doesn't matter. I've come from that, even for Comcast, companies that I've worked for. No, we don't need to do anything for marketing. Well, we don't have to do this. Well, we never done marketing. But then you go around there on newspapers, it's like, well, that's marketing. You're, it's, it's not the marketing. I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you more digital, but that you're still marketing. So yeah. You do marketing. Mm-hmm. That's how you grew your business. So how important is for these business to have a marketing strategy or marketing plan in. To grow these online

Nate Kennedy:

businesses? Yeah. I mean, there's a, there's old school and there's new school. Mm-hmm. You know, old schools. I, for me, I've never had a desire to have to jump on a plane and go meet clients and close deals. I mean, that's never really, that's sales, right? Mm-hmm. So I've had to figure out how to leverage marketing to change the conversation. So marketing is, you've gotta use marketing the color of your logo's, marketing the color of your, it's brand marketing, right? The, the, the font you use, the way your website looks. All that is. So if you want. People nowadays. And on top of that, people nowadays look at your stuff. They go and look at you. They're looking at, uh, if you have a business, what do they do? You go look at their Facebook profile, you go look at their Instagram side, you go look at their website, you look at these things that they're doing and try and get an understanding if that stuff is from like 1996 or even if I had my old site, you can go back to way back machine and go look at my first website@natekennedy.com and you go, go look at all the iterations we've had over the years. First you. And a lot of'em. But, uh, so you have to evolve in marketing. But the marketing is, it, it's, it's the core, right? People say what's more important? Sales are marketing in, in today's day and age, they're very, they gotta work together because your marketing should make it easier for your sales and, uh, your marketing should attract leads. It should attract customers. It should attract people into your system. Whatever it is you sell or do. And it should also, nowadays it's very important. And one thing we're trying to focus on, not only is just attract. But also get people to really like, bond with our brand and bond with us and, and, and look at our brand as something they identify with, right? And so there's more to marketing nowadays, but it's massively important. So if marketing doesn't matter if you, if you got, if you work for a cus says marketing doesn't matter. I don't know. I mean, it's, if it were me because I'm, I'm diehard into marketing, I'd be like, I'd go look for a different place. Uh, cuz it's just a matter of time before they, you're, you know, things don't end well. There would be my guess because if you're not marketing, you're not bringing in new clients and growing.

Zenen Chamizo:

Yeah. No, you got a great point. So in the marketing side, how much, so you got a revenue, what percentage of that revenue you should put back into the business, into marketing? Is there a certain percentage or is it basically as whatever you can do? How, how does, how does that work knowing what the budget you need in place you need to put in place? I,

Nate Kennedy:

so I'd actually, I'll answer this, but I wanna hear your answer cuz you come from a different world than I do. Right. Like I, I come from, I've always just always been an entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. Right. And. You've got entre, you're, you know, entrepreneur, like mindset and growth, but you've been in some corporate environments that probably operate differently. So for me, marketing is, I'm usually, I don't really have a set percentage and every brand's different. When I'm in the very beginning, I'm putting a ton of money. If I'm trying to launch something, I'm putting a ton of money into marketing. That involves, like in our media company, there's months that we will, we will put 40% back in. There's months that we'll put 10% back in so that that budget changes based on what's going on in that business. But f you know, there's always money dedicated and allocated to marketing. You know, there's no real definitive, like, I, I, a rule of thumb, like, you know, 20% goes into marketing. It's tough to say because every business is different. Different, you know, and cost of goods are sold. Like the, the marketing budget for this is way different than the marketing budget for. Correct. You know? Yeah. So two different worlds in the way that we reach it. So what about you though? I mean, you've been in multiple different environments, so,

Zenen Chamizo:

so from where I come from, I've always learned, right, from what I've heard and stuff, is 10% of revenue. Mm-hmm. Should go there. And I agree with you. The one thing that I learned going from corporate is the inconsistency though, go going from these bigger companies is the inconsistent. In my last job we did for the whole year of 2022, our investment into digital marketing, running paid ads, um, doing a couple display retargeting campaigns. We spent like 62,000. The ROI and revenue return was like over$600,000 in sales came from that. And the problem with, we could have done better, but it was inconsistency. We had it on for one month. We'll shut it off for the next month. We had it on for, we'll do 5,000 this month and then we will shut it off this month or 10,000 this month, 2000. So like the inconsistency was so big. It's like we were seeing it succeed and succeed, but it just kept hurt and I see it too coming. Also working at an agency, how a lot of these people don't understand how important the market. They come to you and they ask the question, well, should I have a website? I mean, yeah. That's, that's your, that's your online storefront. Mm-hmm. That's where people come in and say, okay, this is what, like you said, they learn about you. So when you don't have those things in place, when you don't invest back into the company and all, you think you've grown your company because it's word of mouth and this, which is great. But there's also a lot bigger, if you're trying to get to like what this whole topic's about instead, that 67, 89 figure exit, you gotta get your name out there. And the only way you can do that is marketing, right? There's different kinds of marketing. There's digital marketing, there's traditional marketing. Uh, you can do influencer marketing. There's so much marketing out there that you can do. But coming from my world, I think the biggest learn was how big of an impact it consistency in marketing can have. I think it impacted what last year, what we could have done in that. Which I think we could have gotten over a million dollars in roi. It was$600,000 in just web sales. That's not accounting for how much traffic I drew to dealers that were also selling our products. So it just, it, it, it just depends. But yeah, for my experience, I've always learned 10%, 20%. But for me, it's always like, what's performing? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I put 10,000 and I'm getting huge roi. Let's throw a little more in, let's see what caps it off. Mm-hmm. Where, where do I not see my return? So that's where, that's what I've learned.

Nate Kennedy:

Yeah. And I think that's, that's huge. Right? So the, the big takeaway from what you're saying is yes, the, the numbers can shift, but it's the inconsistency. Mm-hmm. And marketing tends to be the first budget that goes. Always.

Zenen Chamizo:

Always.

Nate Kennedy:

So, always the first thing, uh, I had an agency for a long time, right. And we had clients. When you're cranking, you're the, you're loved. When revenue's great. You're loved. When revenue's down, you're the most annoying expense in the world. Right? And what did you do wrong? What did you change? I'm like, I, I don't know. What did your, what happened in your inside your internal business? We drove leads. Even if your budget does fluctuate, Just don't turn it off. You might need to tighten up. So companies might need to tighten up on budget. Mm-hmm. But if you have the data, if you have the information correct, you can make the decision and go, you know what, Hey, our Google search campaigns are providing, we're spending, uh, this 10 grand a month on Google search and we're getting a four to one roi. Or, but we're spending, we're losing money on our Facebook campaigns. So the question is, Where do you cut? What happens is a lot of companies just cut it all.

Zenen Chamizo:

Exactly. They don't go in depth and look

at

Nate Kennedy:

the data. Yeah. And if you got the data, you can make decisions.

Zenen Chamizo:

Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I mean, I mean, that plays a big role in looking at the data, and that's something that I feel like everybody needs to look at. And like what Nate said, If your marketing is failing, don't just say marketing is failing. Go look at did you change your sales team? Did you change the way you onboard a lead? Did you change the way you contact the lead? What are the other changes that also can be impacting this? Because it's not always on marketing. It can be on did you fire someone that was actually really good at sales that was killing it for you and you just fired them and now you're, you're, you're, mark, the leads that are coming in are not converting. Is it really the marketing or is it assist internal, uh, situation that you're having? So, yeah, that's a good point. On having it. But jumping back into the nine figure exit conversation we were talking about, um, hey, tell us the plans. What, what are the plans to get to this nine figure exit? And, and those plans tell us, get a little in depth so some of these viewers can see, okay, this is his plans. How can I not copy it, but how can I do something similar to get there?

Nate Kennedy:

So there's a missing thing in the world right now that we need, and I think we need to put umbrellas and. Little toothpick with an umbrella on it, and then we're gonna stick it in a drink. We're gonna dress it up. No, I'm just kidding. But the company made, think about those little things like, I mean, I like when you look around the the world and the everyday things that we do. The person who created those little umbrellas that goes and drinks. Made tons of money. Right. So were not to, to get back onto your, your, your question. But it's true though. It that is a good point. There's little things all over the world that these cameras right here that we're using. Right.

Zenen Chamizo:

It what's the difference of these with another set of cameras that already came out. Yeah. So it's like it's all marketing though. Yeah. Because they're getting their name out there in front of those people. Yes,

Nate Kennedy:

absolutely. And they're, and they're solving a problem, right? Mm-hmm. So, uh, the plan. I wish I was this, this clear today when I got in, when I first learned about building audiences, building email list, I learned about the power of it in 2006 and seven. I didn't really understand the magnitude of it until about three years ago, and so nine Figure Exit to me is all starting with building the audience. If you have an audience that you, an audience, a. Multiple audiences, frankly, but an audience that has the ability that is engaged with whatever it is you're doing, an audience that identifies with the stuff that you're doing in an audience that becomes rabid buyers of the stuff that you're doing because of it. Right? Because they identify with it and they, they like what you're putting out. So for me, on the nine figure exit, I know that it all gonna be based on the audience sizes that we own, but not only the size of the audience. But also the engagement of the audience. And if you look at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, I'm sorry, meta, uh, who owns all that, but, uh, you know, in TikTok and you look at what's going on in these ad platforms and go like, you know, and you look at these g, these ad platforms, they control audiences and look at the valuations of those companies because they control the audience. When I look at audiences, I just look at it and go, you know, I'm not gonna go build the next Facebook or the next TikTok. It's just not, it's, it's not my, uh, zone of genius, nor do I have that desire. But I do know the power of owning audiences even at a smaller scale, right? And owning that data in the, what we can do with it. So my goal is to be in hyper targeted niches where we own the audiences and then we can grow those with different products. And. And our first dive into that piece. So it's going to be our nine figure exit will be more, it won't be one, just one audience, one brand. It'll be a, uh, a company that owns multiple different audiences in multiple different brands over time that we build, and that it becomes more of a rollout. So, for example, this is our first take right here on, we have a pretty large conservative audience and that conservative audience and American freedom loving audience. I guess I, I, you know, I, I will put it, but, uh, so maybe as opposed to conservative, but American Freedom, loving, you know, it's, and it's. Liberty Coffee. Just, you know, the whole premise of that is fuel your freedom, right? Like, you know, we, we have high, high achievers buying that coffee. We have adventures kind of buying the coffee, right? So there's, with us, that's our first take on really trying to grow some of that audience, take one of our audience to put a physical product. Their home that they use. So we're building the audience and then we're ultimately gonna own a lot of the products that those audience buy.

Zenen Chamizo:

You guys know it. He just told you the Secret

Nate Kennedy:

Liberty coffee.com.

Zenen Chamizo:

Nice. Own your audience. I mean, yeah, but you could see it and it's owning your audience and staying in front of them. I always, I always thought about this, but the one company that I think has done probably one of the best marketing strategies I've ever seen has been. When you hear, just do it. What, who? Who do you think of? Nike. Exactly. Yeah. Because that's what they've stuck on and they build an audience. And that audience is all of us. We all wear Nike, all the athletes, they all wear Nike. So those people continue and all they did was just make a slogan that everybody remember, just do it. And now you hear that around it's, they

Nate Kennedy:

have the audience, but they've also built, I. Correct. Right. So they've built the identity, a thing that people identify with. Mm-hmm. And I think that's, that's a

Zenen Chamizo:

huge part. Oh, absolutely. So, Nate, people getting into the online business is really tough. Um, right now, competition. So what are some of the challenges, some of these entrepreneurs getting into it, my face or what is what, what are some of the oppor big opportunities you're seeing today that some of the, these entre new entrepreneurs should take advantage?

Nate Kennedy:

The challenge is really just comes down to focus, right? I mean, it's getting it done. Yeah. Being, being able to focus is gonna be the biggest challenge most entrepreneurs have. And, and not jumping ship when it do day one, day 15, you had a hard day. You know, like, it, it, it's just the way it's going to be. So I think pushing through that kind of stuff is super important. And so keeping focus is really the main thing that's gonna help you succeed. And the next thing is, Are, you know, and I've already kind of mentioned it, but if, if you're not solving a problem or creating an, or creating something that people love or, uh, or solving a problem like, and you're just being another me too solution, uh, you're gonna struggle, right? Cause one thing that we've done in business, Over the years is back in the agency world. So back in 2011 and long story, but I'm gonna get to the point. So back in 2011, we created this. So I was in paid traffic building funnels, uh, running paid traffic. I had to figure out how to do a lot of it on my own and then pay people to help me and, and all. I can't say I had to do it all my own cause I'd paid a lot of people to. Uh, get where I wanted to go cuz I like to leapfrog. I don't like to slow, slow grow. I wanna get there fast. And so that fastest way I knew how to get there was just pay people. Like I'd be, I was the guy that wouldn't, if you, we showed up to a club and there was a really long line. I had a couple hundreds in my hand walking up to the guy in the front, like one waiting, you know, let's

Zenen Chamizo:

say I got, we gotta go to the club with Nate. Gotta get in there quick. I don't

Nate Kennedy:

do clothes. It's too packed for me now. But, uh, you know what I mean? Like, it was just how can I get speed to where I'm trying to go? And that's the same thing in business. I would do that, but it's super important to do that. Right. You gotta, you gotta stay, stay focused. You have to turn around and make sure that you're investing in other people to get, like, to kind of leapfrog mm-hmm. The process. Do you see

Zenen Chamizo:

any, any, any, any trends or do you have any predictions of what the, what a good market would be to get into some of these people are looking at, or just basically just, just stick to. You keep mentioning solving the, solving a problem. Is there anything you're seeing right now that we can give them a jumpstart of something they can get into?

Nate Kennedy:

So well take a step back, right? Take a step back to what I was getting ready to say on that, that, uh, 2011 thing. So we had always, I had to learn all that paid traffic stuff, but we had to go from, when I saw that everybody was becoming like a paid ads person, we became, we created a, a brand called Funnel Architects and we became, The Funnel building company and then from the funnel building company, uh, and then in 2014, that was in 2011. Then 2014 a company ClickFunnels rolled out and just exploded. Right? And now there's all kinds of funnel builders. They're not the only one out there. That company exploded and now everybody became funnel builders, and so we moved into funnel optimization. Right. So we're like, we saw that everyone was a funnel builder. We're like, well, what's the market need? Everyone's got funnels. What do they need next? Well, they need someone to actually make that funnel, make money, because solving funnel the problem. Yeah. So we were kind of just constantly kind of stay ahead of what was going on, and then what happened was people started becoming funnel op optimization companies, and then Facebook ad agencies. Then the niches started popping up. So then we kind of came back and we're like, you know what? We're gonna go back to where everyone's f Everyone has forgotten. Email. Right? We're going back to email because, and now what's funny now is, so we've been back on email for almost three years now, like really dialed into it and focused with it, and you're starting to see more and more people talk about building in these new newsletters and these, and there's softwares coming out for it, right? If there's sort of go roundabout to your question of what you just asked. I don't know that there's technically a. Kind of like an industry that I would say go into right now. Okay. I don't, I don't know that answer, but I would say if I were, for me, what I'm looking at is where money flows. There's two ways to think people, some people say, we're headed towards a recession, right? We're in a recession and things are gonna crumble. For me, back in 2008 when that happened, I didn't really pay attention to it. I ended up losing everything. But now going through that 2008, the one thing I'm looking at is where's money flowing? Because money didn't go away. In 2008, money just flowed to a different place. And so if I were you and you're looking to start something, I'd go research what happened previously and I'd start looking at where does money flow in times where economies are tighter and start looking for something inside of that avenue. Which is, I mean, something that we're doing can't tell you right now. You're just gonna have to wait and see it come out. But, uh, you know, you wanna look at where, where money flows and where those needs are at, if you're gonna build it. But more importantly, no matter what you do along the way, make sure the audience is big enough that you can grow it.

Zenen Chamizo:

Yeah. So you guys heard it. Step one, you gotta do your research, uh, because if you don't do your research, You're ba basically going back to what your, your video was yesterday. Ready? Yeah. Fire, aim. Yeah. You don't know what you're going into, so make sure you're, we're doing our research, but yeah, no, I think we are, we're wrapping it up here. Um, guys, again, this is, this is where we're gonna keep giving you guys as much knowledge and as much tips as possible. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 figure exits. All it takes is you gotta be consistent and they said it tunnel. You have to have a focus. You have to have a vision in mind, right? It can be five years, 10 years, that vision might change throughout, but as long as you know that that's where you want to get to, you'll get there. It's the people that, uh, have a vision in mind, but then they get so distracted with all the other stuff that's happening in the world and the clubbing and the partying and doing this and doing that. It's like all that is fun, but there's also times you gotta focus to help you grow, cuz as you get older is you're gonna see your buddies driving the Ferrari or having the big yachts or having on the private plane, and you're over here still trying to figure it out. That's, that's really all I gotta say. That's, that's what I'm trying to, trying to do is not be one of those 23 and I'm trying to get up

Nate Kennedy:

there. And also your buddy might want a Ferrari. That doesn't mean that's what you want. Exactly. And I got, uh, my close friend, I mean, he's got, he's got, uh, Ferrari. He is got three rolls. Three different rolls. Oh man. Uh, Escalade like loaded, but he loves cars and that's what he wants. And there's times I look at those cars and I'm like, man, I need to get me one. And then, uh, and, and then I

Zenen Chamizo:

look at, you've been close on Getty one? Yes. Yes, I have. Which one? Which one would you. I

Nate Kennedy:

almost hold the trigger on a, uh, a Rolls Royce ra. Man, almost pulled the trigger. Matter of fact, I told the guy I'd buy it and I would, the, the, the best text I ever got back was it already sold because I look at the price of that car when I went to buy it versus what it's worth now with everything changing and I'm like, Ooh, glad I didn't do it. La Huh? So, yeah, they, those had the one out, that model had dropped quite a bit, so, but it, it went up really fast and it came down right. So, I mean, maybe one day I will Right. Uh, get something like that, but, and I use that as an example. Like, you gotta define what you want, right? And so I talk a lot of times about, I, I've said this in the past, but you don't have to keep up with the Joneses. If you are the Joneses. Yeah. Right. Set the standard. Set the standard of your life. Don't, and, and don't let, and what happens is a lot of people start looking at, as an entrepreneur, and you start making that money and get money coming in. You're like, ah, I went to Fry, I went to gwa and I want all these materials. But, and if that's something you wanted prior and that's a goal of yours, go get it. Right. But if it wasn't a goal of yours, don't go buy it because you think you have to, which a lot of people do. Right. And they think they gotta go get it because that's what success looks. So understand what success looks like to you. It may not be the cars. I got a, another buddy of mine, he was like, I, I drive a Jeep. That's what I love. You know, he got the, he's got a decked out Jeep and he could go buy three, four Ferrari. He could buy a Lambo, he can buy all that stuff. But he, his thing is he loves the Jeep. Like that's what he wants. So I think as you get going forward, I know we're wrapping up and so I'm going on a tangent here, but like, just stay focused on what you want and if you are, look at yourself as Joneses and that's you living the life you want, doing the things you want to do. Not worried. What the neighbor's doing or what the other business owners showing you on Instagram. Right. And showing that success is what you define it to be, and don't let it be influenced by what you think it should be because of what others are doing.

Zenen Chamizo:

Correct. I mean, and, and like you said, social media plays a big factor in that right now. Yeah. Social media plays a big factor. I mean, as I was young, I get 2, 2, 3 years ago, I, I was also seeing people, oh man, 20, this guy, oh, 21 years old. I sold this and now I have Deuce and I go to Dubai and it's. That's great. But at fir right when you see it, you're like, man, that's cool. That's awesome. Yeah, it's like you said, but once you set the standard of what your own standard is and what you like and what you want, that's when, uh, that's what things, things change. So minus to get a house on the lake. So, and I just,

Nate Kennedy:

and you said young, he said young at 21, and now he is 23. So Yeah, so at 43 I'm like young,

Zenen Chamizo:

but yeah guys, hey, make sure. Like, subscribe, make sure to follow us on at Uncommon device on uh, Instagram. Nate, drop your handles cuz hey, there's a lot of knowledge that Nate drops, guys, that you guys are missing out on. And the more you guys are seeing this, the more you're looking. You're gonna learn a lot. He's posting daily, he goes live. What are you going live at now? Two, three times a week. As many as I can. But um, make sure you guys follow and stay up with it cuz it's gonna show you and Nate's an open book. That's, that's something I've learned from him. It is an open book. Not saying now you come in here and you're trying to like really like, Might charge you a couple grand, but No, I'm just kidding. But he is an open book and he's always willing to help out. So guys, just make stay on top

Nate Kennedy:

of it. Yep. So Nick Kennedy, MD is where it's at. So yeah, that's where all my stuff's at. But either way, thank you so much. Uh, you know, we brought Z in here. He's been helping us and I, I'm appreciative cuz he's forcing me to do these and get outta my comfort zone. And, uh, a good, a good, uh, one Twoo punch here on the, on podcast. So I'm super excited to be pushing forward with this with you and, and, and whatnot. Absolutely and

Zenen Chamizo:

stay guys for the future. We're gonna have some special guests. Some of those names he's dropped that do have those three Royce Roys and stuff. We're gonna try to get him in here to pick their brain next too, so, all right, sounds good. Thank you. Have a good one.

Nate Kennedy:

Might have to take, Hey, listen to this. Might have to take the uncommon advice. Hey, get Rich. Might have

to take the.