Next Level Business Podcast
Next Level Business Podcast was made to help entrepreneurs grow their wealth and business. We cover buying your first piece of commercial real estate, stocks, marketing, business strategies, and more.
If you are a business owner and want to grow your legacy and build your empire, this is the podcast for you. Hosted by QLA mentee and 8-figure business expert & Rockwall Texas Marketing Expert Josh Pather along with Shane Mara who has more than 20 years in business banking and real-estate.
Next Level Business Podcast
Two Bags And A Big Dream | Josh Pather Rockwall Marketing Expert
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Rockwall Texas, Marketer Josh Pather
Two bags, a decade of paperwork, and a flight to Dallas one week after 9/11. That’s how Josh Pather’s American story starts, and it sets the tone for everything that comes next: risk, reinvention, and learning the hard way. We talk about what it’s like to leave South Africa, sell off almost everything, and land in a country that’s tense, grieving, and suspicious of anyone who sounds different. If you’ve ever made a big move, started over, or felt behind because you didn’t have the “right” head start, you’ll hear yourself in this conversation.
From there, Josh walks us through the real ladder of entrepreneurship. First jobs, early money mistakes, and the mindset shift from “I need a paycheck” to “I need skills.” Then we get into the origin of his photo booth rental business, built from DJ weekends, a homemade booth, and a simple insight: people don’t pay for gear, they pay for a moment. We break down customer experience, emotional buying at weddings, and the unsexy advantage most business owners ignore: calling leads back fast and delivering consistently. You’ll also hear the SEO and keyword research strategy that helped “Photo Booth Dallas” rank on Google and drive inbound demand without relying on modern ad trends.
We also go deep on the stuff that protects your upside: understanding bookkeeping, reading a P&L, avoiding expensive accountant chaos, and staying ruthless about overhead as you scale. Josh explains why he chose to merge business operations with commercial real estate, how he navigated financing, and what changed during COVID with SBA support. We finish with a data-driven take on crypto, focusing on scarcity, real transaction problems, and why hype is not a strategy. Subscribe for more founder stories like this, share this with a friend building something from scratch, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
Rockwall Texas, Marketer Josh Pather
Meet Josh And The Big Move
SPEAKER_00How's it going, team? I am here with Tycoon, entrepreneur and discreetly one of the probably most wealthiest people in Texas, my man here, Josh Petha. How's it going, my man?
SPEAKER_03Bro, welcome, man. Welcome to Texas, man. Welcome to Texas.
SPEAKER_00Bro, it's been amazing. Man, how have you been?
SPEAKER_03Been great now. We got the right president in office. Yeah. I'm gonna catch some shit for saying that, but you know, fuck it. People have been telling me I gotta keep that to myself, but you know what I mean? There's a lot of people that I know that are gonna make a lot of money from it. And uh, we all made a lot of money the last time he went for a four-year streak. Yeah, and we're gonna make more money this time because we're sharper and wiser now.
SPEAKER_00Bro, so for people that don't know, where are you originally from?
SPEAKER_03Originally from South Africa.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And for for for I know that so historically, South Africa's been quite a tough country to live in.
SPEAKER_03Financially deprived.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, man. And I know, I know that the crime is out like outrageous. Yeah, it is. Poverty is quite high. Crime is that all-time high. How did you guys migrate and who did you migrate with to the United States?
SPEAKER_03Well, we were fortunate in in many ways. We I had an aunt that actually was a nurse, and so she immigrated to America and probably about 30 years ago. Yeah. Probably 40 years ago. Uh, because
South Africa And The Long Wait
SPEAKER_03there was a shortage of nurses. And so when they arrived here, yeah, she told me the story. She they took them from she was in London originally, then they needed nurses in America. So she landed in a New York airport. They like gave them their social security cards upon arrival. Wow. And so then she started, you know, her career. And my parents came to visit when I was a baby. I was probably six months old. Yeah. They came here to visit. So that's my mom's sister, and they saw how life was. This was in 1990. Yeah, 1990. Wow. And so they started the paperwork then. So it took them 10 years. So we were we immigrated in 2001. It was like a week after 9-11. Wow. Yeah. Whoa. Tell us a little bit. For everybody on the immigration stuff that's going on right now. It takes a lot of time to get that stuff. It's not like a quick process. You know, people don't really know what the process is like. And people are quick to say, oh, well, they can just do it the right way, you know. But it's not that easy to do. You know what I mean? If it's not like, oh, we just go create an account on a website and submit your application. You know, it's not like that. Like it takes a long time. And you know, some people don't have the capacity, the means, the funding to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00Bro, you were you're saying that you guys migrated when you were 11. Tell us a little bit about South Africa, bro. What is it like? Like, is it back then or now? Well, back then, bro, in the crime, and like what are the what are the small things that you take for granted now that you were like, wow, that was crazy back then. And you're like, well, it's way more different now, more freer in the United States.
SPEAKER_03I would say back then it wasn't as bad. So we were just coming out of apartheid in the city.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, like 1994. Yeah. You know, Nelson Mandela, like that whole thing, you know. So everybody was like finally free.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And it was like on the uptick, you know, like it was it was like America in the 1990s, like 91 to like 2000s, right? Everybody's free, you know, segregation is over. Yeah. Because they had all the, you know, the Africans in one community, they had the whites in one community, they had the Indians, you know, and the first four years of my life was like that until like 1994. Wow. And so, but I don't, you know, recall that, but my sister does, you know, my parents lived through that, you know. So they went through a lot, you know, going so I think the time when I was growing up, prosperity, right? New freedom, everybody adjusting to like the new the new normal. Yeah. The new normal, right? We haven't heard that one in a while. So I would say, you know, like it was it was good. It was good. It wasn't like dangerous like now. You know, obviously now we hear a lot of stuff with the crime and stuff like that. But I think back then it was I mean, we lived life, you know, we were able to get ahead and spend time with you know with your family. And yeah, we were talking earlier about someone going to this to the store by themselves. Like I would, you know, go to this the store and you know buy bread and stuff like that and come back home. I I would be able to go outside and play by myself, uh, you know, and and life was good.
SPEAKER_00And so you when you c when you arrived, what did you come with?
SPEAKER_03Two bags.
SPEAKER_00Just two bags.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we had to sell everything. So upon making the decision getting the paperwork to move to America, yeah, we had to like liquidate assets, if you will, right? Yeah. So we had to sell the house, we had to sell the furniture, we had to sell the cutlery, we had to sell the TV, the stereo system. Everything from the house had to go, plus the house. So we had to we open the doors, and there's no Craigslist, there's no Facebook marketplace back then. There was no internet back then, right? Yeah. So we had to open the door, put a for sale sign. People would come into the front door, like buy the couch, and walk out with the couch and like buy, you know, whatever, anything we had, like laying around. We just had to get rid of everything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then the rest of the stuff we had to go to a flea market and sell it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So this is from my earliest transactions that I was doing when I was 10 years old. I was selling my toys at the flea market. Hustling, hustling at a young age. Hustling at a young age, man, selling my Lego, my marbles, my Matchbox cars, all that. Because I can I can only bring so many things with me. You know what I mean? And I had a great collection of Legos, great collection of Matchbox cars. I remember that. So that was those like my first transactions that I was doing back then, and the rest of the stuff packed up in the suitcase.
SPEAKER_00What a risk, bro. Like, for your parents to have taken that risk, yeah, you know, and not know that there was a a complete certainty in the States.
SPEAKER_03There wasn't, yeah, because 9-11 had just happened. We were we're sitting that Friday, I think we 9-11 was what, like, was it a Friday morning or Tuesday? It was like a week, uh, like a week before. We were sitting in the living room, and then we see like this, you know, they keep running the same image over and over that plane hitting the building, you know. And so everybody's scared and panicking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And we don't know what security is gonna be like, you know, what did you guys regret it?
SPEAKER_00Did you do you recall your dad regretting to your mom and being like, I don't even know what we should whether we should continue to go?
SPEAKER_03No, they they knew they saw something, you know, they saw like what was happening is like after being, you know, like the Africans that were there, yeah, like after being segregated for so long, yeah, they wanted retaliation. Yeah you know what I mean? And so like there was a lot of that civil unrest starting still starting to happen at that point. And you know, obviously from being colonalized by the British and stuff like that. This stuff goes back centuries of time, right? It's not like something brand new, but it's now like okay, segregation is gone, it's time to take back what's ours, you know what I mean. And so like that was starting to happen, and the the crime rates and stuff was going up. And you know, my dad was was a banker back then, and so he he could, you know, he had access to frontline to see kind of like what's going on, right? Yeah, and so you know, we wanted you know the best for the family, and so he made the decision to to move.
SPEAKER_00And so you guys came week one week after 9-11?
SPEAKER_03After 9-11, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think the US economy wasn't doing too too well after that point, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, everything tanked.
SPEAKER_00And so do you recall, did you guys arrive straight into Dallas?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, straight into Dallas. We went to actually went to went from Durban to Johannesburg, yeah. Johannesburg to London, Heathrow. Then from Heathrow, we took a train to Gatwick, and then we're dragging these massive suitcases. Each of us had two, there's four of us. We had these massive suitcases that we were dragging. And I remember taking the the train from Gatwick to to Heathrow. Yeah, and like we had to like lug these bags through the train station, and it's like a 30, I think 30 or 45-minute drive from one airport to the other airport. Yeah, and this is all back to back, right? So we go from Durban to Joburg, Joel Burg 12-hour flight to London, go to the airport, take the train, take the train to the other airport, and then hop on another flight 12 hours to Dallas. So we're like getting crushed. I'm so uncomfortable. Get lagged, get lagged, you know what I mean? Like economy seats, man. So uncomfortable, man.
SPEAKER_00What was it like, bro? So you guys arrived. Yeah. Was it hard to adjust to the American way of living? Because obviously you would have had an exit. Yeah, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03Did you bully tax? Yeah, no, yeah, I mean, slightly, slightly, you know what I mean? Because everything was like back then. Focus on 9-11. Yeah, focus on 9-11, right? And it was like, are you American or you're a foreigner? And anybody foreign, whether you were Latino or was an enemy, was an enemy, right? Like that's what it was that time. So anybody, even if you're from India, like they were getting bullied. Like everybody, just not from America, was getting bullied at that time, you know. I never physically got beat up, so I'm gonna say that shit for the record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got that out there, yeah. But you know, just like name calling and stuff like that. But it's all from ignorance, right? I mean, yeah. In that time, I feel like we didn't have access to social media, so we're not like aware
Landing After 9 11 Culture Shock
SPEAKER_03what's happening on the other side of the world, and there's other worlds outside of America. Yeah, you know what I mean. And so what what school did you go to? I went to Coyle Middle School, sixth grade, walked in there. First time having a school that's indoor, had to didn't have to wear a uniform. I was writing in a pencil instead of a pen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Had to first time ever using a cafeteria. Oh, wow. Yeah, never had a cafeteria here. Yeah, so it was a big adjustment. Big adjustment. Did did you ever miss home? Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what did you miss when you came over?
SPEAKER_03Man, the family. You know, when you're leaving at the airport, like this, you're talking about 2001, right? No WhatsApp, no iPhone, yeah, no messenger, Instagram, nothing like that, right? Yeah. I mean, you had to get the pay, the little cards. You had to buy these cards at the prepaid store, and then you had to use that to like them. I don't know if you if you know about those. So you like when you're at the airport, you don't know if you're gonna see this person ever again. Yeah, so everybody's crying, you know. It's it's a sad time, you know. Like I was crying like the whole flight pretty much, you know. Yeah, and I was young back then, and that's a lot to process when you're when you're 11 years old, you know, the whole world changes.
SPEAKER_00And so fast forwarding, bro, where was your first job? Where where did you first get employed?
SPEAKER_03First employed, let me see. First employee. First official employment was at I think Dino's Italian restaurant.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. What was the role? What did you do there, bro?
SPEAKER_03I was the bus boy there. Yeah. Oh, Dino, man. He didn't want to pay me.
SPEAKER_00So give us an idea of what your tasks were, bro. Yeah, so and how old were you got that when you lend us this job?
SPEAKER_03I think I was 15, that's why. Like I wasn't quite old, because 16 is the the age to work, yeah, legally, but I think I was 15. So it was a little Italian restaurant. I went in there, he was the owner, and I was like, hey, I'm looking for a job. And he's like, Oh, yeah, we need a bus boy. We just opened. So yeah, I used to like clean the tables, bring out the rolls whenever people would sit down. Yeah. I think I used to make drinks, like, like get them like sodas and stuff like that. And then like at the end of the day, like mop the whole place, clean the bathrooms, take out the trash.
SPEAKER_00What why did you get the job? What was the initial reason for getting it?
SPEAKER_03Money, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Was it was it your parents they got it well forced you to get it, or were you just like, I want I want to make some money?
SPEAKER_03No, I don't think they forced me. I don't like force. I like to do force on people, yeah. Against me. So was it because you wanted to hustle and get some money? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think it'll be that, like be able to buy my own stuff and buy clothes and stuff like that. You know, you go to the store and you like, mom, buy this designer shirt or whatever, right? Yeah, you're like, oh no, I was gonna go to Walmart and do shop. I'm like, man, fuck that. You know, I'm already getting teased and shit.
SPEAKER_00Do you do you remember what you used your first paycheck on?
SPEAKER_03Man, that's a good one. I probably went and bought some clothing to be honest. Yeah, yeah. I was really into like fashion and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00So what was your role? What did you do after that, bro? So you you you stayed there for how long?
SPEAKER_03So I was there for maybe like eight months or so. Yeah, it was very quick. Yeah, it didn't really end well because he was like paying me under the table.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I see. And what was that how how much an hour were you getting? Oh, it must have been like eight dollars an hour, maybe. Wow, under the table.
SPEAKER_03Under the table, you know, that kind of stuff. It was fun, you know. And then after that, I think yeah, I turned 16, and then oh yeah, I was working at Alberton's, so this was a grocery store. Yep. Yeah, grocery store. I was a clerk, like a checking out people. Yeah, yeah. At that. After that, I went to Bank of America, I was a teller. Yes. Nice. Yeah, so I was and it was funny because the the bank was inside the Albertsons, which was a grocery store. Yeah. And so, yeah, I was there, and then after that, went to Experian, which is a credit bureau here. So they were doing a job fair. We went up there, got hired on the spot over there. That was a big pay jump. I remember that pay jump was like a four-dollar pay jump. Yeah, yeah. We thought we were like, that was it, man. We're going out tonight. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, I was there for like so that that job, I think like 2010, maybe. Yep. And then I stayed there till I started my photo booth business.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So, so talking about that business, bro. So people don't know this, but how did you come up with the concept, bro? Because it's so smart. So you obviously purchase the booths, and then you basically sell the booths, but you also sell marketing material and obviously how to utilize the booths. But it's such a smart model because what you do is you utilize weddings, you leverage off like emotional buys, and you get people the ability to basically be their own self-employed bosses. So, how did you come up with the idea, bro? Where did you see the opportunity?
SPEAKER_03So, I I've always been into music and I used to DJ weddings. So, I was doing that while I was working at Bank of America. There's a guy I used to work with, Man Manny Perez, he was a DJ, and I always like music and stuff like that. And so he used to DJ weddings. So I would go to the weddings with him on the weekends, and I would be like his roadie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I didn't really have much going on at the time, so it was fun for me. I'll go help him out. And I was like learning how he does it, how he talks on the mic, how he connects his equipment, what equipment is needed,
First Jobs And Learning To Hustle
SPEAKER_03that kind of stuff. And so eventually he got so busy that he was like double booking. Yep. I ended up getting my own equipment, and then I started doing events myself, DJing my time. DJing. DJing wow. So I'll DJ events, you know, like shout out to the bride and group coming out for father-daughter dance, mother-son dance. Like I was doing the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00What were the most common songs that people would would request for Cupid Shuffle?
SPEAKER_03I can't stand that song.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That one, and like that's just like the main one that sticks out. I'm like, oh, I hate that song.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, but they love it. Dance floor loves it. They always come out for that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, I was I went to a wedding and then uh saw a photo boot there.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so someone already had the concept.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, someone had the concept. Yeah, so it was barely coming out, it was like around 20, early 2012. Yeah. Around that time, yeah. But it was like really not good quality. It was a homemade one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so they were able to get there after the event started, leave before the event ended, and they took all my crowd from the dance floor. Oh, wow. So you saw that. Yeah, so I saw that. I was like, okay, that seems a lot easier because as a DJ, you're working like eight hours, nine hours. Correct.
SPEAKER_00And you're you're you're basically kept to time because how many hours you work is basically how much money you're gonna make.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so you got to get there before everybody, set everything up, then be there throughout the event, and you're like one of the last ones to leave.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, so that's pretty annoying as well, especially if you're a DJ because people are always bugging you. Can you play this? Can you play this? Can you play this?
SPEAKER_03I feel like it's gotten worse now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but maybe back then it wasn't so bad. But I feel like now it's like, you know, people just don't care, right? They'll just come up to you and ask you, you know. So yeah, so that's what I saw. I saw it and I was like, okay, that's good. Let me go ahead and make one. So I made I built my first one. Me and my business partner, I had at the time, we built our first one. Went to Home Depot. We got three-quarter inch MDF wood. Yeah, heavy. Yeah, yeah. So heavy. I don't even know why we used this kind of wood. It was so heavy. And then we we cut it, we painted it, we used the inkjet printer, we had an old computer and a screen and a keyboard and a webcam. And that's what you use. And that's it, man. Wow. Posted ads on Craigslist. Got a got our first booking December 6, 2012. Was uh, I think Friday or Saturday night. $500 for DJ and Photo Booth for two hours.
SPEAKER_00So you did a combo deal?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was a combo deal, yeah. Wow. So our first event, we went there, we set up. I get to the event, I forgot my laptop. Oh no. Yeah. So you couldn't even DJ. No, well, I DJ with two iPhones, bro. Yeah. You had to make it work, man. You gotta make it work. Back then the iPhones had the headphone jack, you know? Yeah, yeah. So I had the two cables, so I DJed with two iPhones, made that work. We had the photo boot set up, and yeah, we were cutting the photos, bro. Like the photos would take like two minutes to print with the inkjet printer, and it cost like 50 cents a print. Uh it wasn't like an actual photo printer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So it would print, we would cut it, and then hand it to the to the So it would be about what two to three minutes before the customer will get the photos.
SPEAKER_03Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_00What was the one thing that you found that customers loved about the photo booths?
SPEAKER_03I think the it's the experience, what you're selling.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03The lights, no, it's just ground. They're there with the like, like let's say if we go to an event tonight, me, you, and Darren take a take a photo, right? Yeah, like it's funny. You guys came in that moment, we'll remember, you know, like that's like hey, the boys came in here, that's what you're selling. You're not selling the photograph. Yeah, you're not selling the camera.
SPEAKER_00It's the feeling.
SPEAKER_03A lot of people get confused with that. You're not selling this stuff, right? When they call me, oh Josh, what kind of printer, what kind of camera? I've done a thousand events. Nobody's ever came up to me and asked me that. Yeah, right. You're taking a picture with grandma, the bride and groom's coming in, you're there with your cousins, right? It's a special moment in your life. The day you're born, the day you get married, the day you die, right? And we're gonna capitalize on that.
SPEAKER_00So you sell them on all three occasions? No, no, we don't. I was gonna say the funeral would be a bit of hard one, ain't to do a photo booth for that. Gee, but you'll be smart, man.
SPEAKER_03This is what I'm talking about, like from for the rentals, right? Like, like as far as experience goes, like at the at these events. Because you got people flying in from all over. Yeah, I remember this customer called me. She's like, hey, I need to get the photos from this event. My grandma passed away, and that's the last time we got a family photo. Wow. You know, so it's like those moments, that's what you're selling.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know. The smart thing about it though, bro, is that you leverage off emotional spend. So people are highly emotional emotional on those events, so they'll they're more than happy to spend anything.
SPEAKER_03On the rental side, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I mean, you know, people spending $3,000 on cookies, spend $50,000 on a venue. Yeah. Omni downtown Dallas, you're not spending less than $80,000 over there. Wow. Win's their whole life, right? I mean, every girl's dream is like to get their wedding. To get their wedding day. That's what they think about, you know. And so they don't want to cut corners. If you're willing to provide a better service, a higher quality, yeah, have good customer service, call the customers back. People not even calling people back now. You know what I mean? I got some customers, they get leads, they're not even calling them. Oh, I need to call the lead. Come on, bro.
SPEAKER_00That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. So in your first year of operation, what was your turnover, bro?
SPEAKER_03If you don't mind me asking, 156,000 the first year. 156,000. We're blown away, bro.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. Yeah. And so that was 2013. Right out the back. Was that 2012? So it wouldn't be.
SPEAKER_03No, that would have been uh it would have been the entire calendar year of 2013.
SPEAKER_002013. Yeah. And following year, roughly, what was that?
SPEAKER_03About 350.
SPEAKER_00What's going through
Building The First Photo Booth
SPEAKER_00your mind right now? When you hit 350, yeah, and you're like, holy crap, we talked to your business partner, you're like, well, we're on a cash count right now. Yeah. What do you guys do immediately? Because I know a lot of businesses what they do wrong is that they take from they take the icing off the cake straight away. What did you guys do? Scale.
SPEAKER_03No, no, we put everything back in. Which I I wouldn't say to do. I wouldn't say no, I wouldn't say. I would I wish I would have peeled off some, put some money in SP 500, buy some Bitcoin. Diversify. Yeah, not diversify, take some to invest.
SPEAKER_00You got to.
SPEAKER_03You know what I mean? Because this whole thing about putting every single penny back into the business, yeah, and then and then let's say it doesn't go as planned. Yeah. Right. Sometimes business does go as planned, but not every time it does, right? Let's say COVID happened back then, right? It didn't go as planned, right? But let's say if I peeled off some of it, I'm not saying all or a chunk that's going to make the business suffer.
SPEAKER_00But it's just like an insurance search. Yeah, like 10%.
SPEAKER_03You know what I mean? Hey, put it into some kind of long-term investment. Yeah. I wish I would have done that a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so that would be my advice, you know, for new entrepreneurs that are just getting started.
SPEAKER_00What was your biggest grossing year? And how much, if you don't mind me asking, how much did you guys make on that year?
SPEAKER_03The biggest grossing year was probably I think 2015. I mean on the rental business. Yeah. The rental business. This was like 2015. I'd say it was probably about 900,000.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's amazing. Yeah, we did we did about 850 events that year. Wow. And what was your success for gaining leads? Like, how did you guys did you guys use Facebook market? Uh sorry, Facebook ads, was it word of mouth?
SPEAKER_03What did you guys ads? I don't even think was around back then in 2013. Maybe at just getting started. Yeah. You know, Ty Lopez would know that one, right? He was the first to there, all these platforms, you know. So it was so I prior to getting in into the photo booth rentals, I started learning how to make websites.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you see.
SPEAKER_03And so I we had a really good website.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03The website, the business was called Photo Booth Dallas, right? It's what it is and where it is. Smart. Right? Yeah. Now I named it that because I did some keyword research on Google.
SPEAKER_00On Google, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that specific term got 500 searches a month.
SPEAKER_00How did you find out that information though?
SPEAKER_03Uh you can use uh paid keyword research tools.
SPEAKER_00Oh, wow. So that was available back then. That was available back then, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's true. That's so smart. Yeah, so that's the premise of SEO is you do keyword research first. So I did keyword research first. The company is called, I mean, I saw a photo boot Dallas. I was like, that sounds perfect. Let's just do that. So I registered the domain, and within about three months, we were number one in Google. Wow. And so we had a really good website. It provided people the right information that they were searching for, which is what uh Google's entire business is based off of. Making a more efficient, straight Yeah, giving them the information what they're looking for. That's the premise of Google, right? So if you understand what that that, then we provided them the information they were looking for. It's photo booth rentals in Dallas. This is what we do. We had our contact form on there, and yeah, people were finding us. We were posting ads on Craigslist. That's this is like a you know Craigslist? Yeah, yeah. So we had that. That's pretty much what we had back then. There was not a many resources, and so that's how we got started.
SPEAKER_00Were you obsessed when you first started? You must have uh you have to be obsessed now.
SPEAKER_03You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Like you have to be Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You can't win. I mean, how are you gonna win? You know what I mean? You don't know how to build a website. You're gonna hire some guy to do that, he's gonna screw you over. Yeah, we got fucked over by the accountants. Went to throughout the 12 accountants, bro. You know what I mean? Everyone is fixing from the last guy. Yeah, you're gonna get screwed over 100%, right? You gotta be obsessed with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Now you don't need to know everything, but you need to know enough not to get screwed over. Yeah, right. That's just uh that's just the point that you need to know.
SPEAKER_00Tell us a little lesson that you've learned along the way, bro, about that. About that.
SPEAKER_03The accounting lesson is right. Most entrepreneurs, I don't want to deal with it. My accountant doesn't. How many times have you heard that?
SPEAKER_00Heaps, yeah, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, my accountant does it, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, my tax guy. I don't know my D. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what I pay, this and that. Oh, you can go and throw a ball and hit someone and they'll tell you the same thing. Yeah, right? If if they tell you that, I know 100% they're getting screwed over. 100%. There's no doubt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Right? Something is wrong. There's gonna be some miscommunication, there's gonna be a breakdown. Your accountant or your tax guy or whatever, he got 200 clients, and you ain't nothing to him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You're not, he don't give a fuck about you or your business. Yeah, you know what I mean? He's there to get that retainer every month.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. And if you don't know enough to catch what needs to happen, that's not getting done, then you're gonna get five.
SPEAKER_00So what happened, bro? What happened in your in your story?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so this guy was, you know, he had us, first of all, he had us on this antiquated accounting software that only he had on his computer in his office. Oh, so you couldn't even see the transactions or we had to like email him, like, hey, can we get a copy of the PL? We didn't even know to look at this back review, right? So now obviously we got QuickBooks set up, you know what I mean? And so you can pull it up on your phone, you can see where the business is at, right? Yeah, so back then we were on that software. Then like we when we needed stuff, the communication was bad. Yeah, right? It felt like it was an inconvenience to ask him for something. Like, motherfucker, we're paying you, bro. What the hell's going on? Yeah, you know, what are we doing here? So, like, and also we didn't take enough time to take a look at the numbers. Yeah, take a look at the numbers, understand what the numbers is, how to read a PL, how to read a balance sheet, yeah, that kind of stuff. Like, we didn't now I would recommend people like, hey, you can go on Udemy, buy a course online, you know, and just go through it.
SPEAKER_00Upskill yourself on the accounting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, two hours, boom, you're good. You can understand it.
SPEAKER_00How much did that decision make uh cost you?
SPEAKER_03Oh man, 100,000.
SPEAKER_00Wow, USD. Yeah, USD. Jeepers, that's crazy, man. One Bitcoin? Wow, yeah. As of recording right now. So, how did he, if you don't mind me asking, but how did he screw you guys over? Was he pocketing money? Was he not declaring all the texts?
SPEAKER_03No, I didn't he didn't steal. It was just more like we
SEO Wins And Accounting Pain
SPEAKER_03paid him to do a service for something, the service wasn't done correctly.
SPEAKER_00Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03Then we moved over to someone else. Then this person is now, oh well, this guy didn't do this properly. I need to redo everything, it's gonna be 500 bucks. And then we go, you know, then something is not done properly, find out more and more than the next guy is doing. I'm like, this is out of control. Yeah, you know what I mean? I gotta learn this to know enough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you end up doing really well with photo booths, and now you've come from South Africa. Well, you came from South Africa, two bags. You also now have reinvested in real estate.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00Tell us a little bit about that, bro.
SPEAKER_03So every every well, not every, but when we started the rental business, yeah. We started it out of a condo. It was a two-bedroom condo. Oh, wow. Berry Trail apartments, yeah. Preston, Preston Road. And how did you store your stock? Oh, we just had two photo boots at the time. Yeah. So we just had two photo boots, and then the business was growing. So it was like a thousand square feet. So we went and rented a storage unit. Yep. So in the storage unit, we had all the equipment. So when we had an event, we had to go to the storage unit, pick up all the equipment, then go to the event.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Then that turned into two storage units, and then that turned into three storage units at one facility. We had three storage units. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Three different locks, three different keys. How big were they? All up? Easy individually, sorry.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, about 500 square feet. Like but it was just like very annoying to like have to go.
SPEAKER_00Go and sift through it, look through. Yeah, exactly. How many units did you have at that time?
SPEAKER_03Oh, at that time in the storage. I think we had like four.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was like four. But we had a lot of like backdrops, like all these other stuff, the accessories that you need to keep. Yeah. So from that, we're like, okay, we need to get an office. So from there we went to what's the name of this place? Can't name it, but it was like a small office place. Yeah. It was like 2,000 square feet, 500 square feet of office, 1,500 warehouse. Yeah. It was inside a storage facility. They had like these office warehouses. It's called Flex Space, is what we call it here. And so we up we signed the lease with them. I think it was like $1,500 a month. Yep. And then we operated there for like, I want to say probably about two years. Yep. Then after that, we went to another space that was about 3,000 square feet.
SPEAKER_00So you're constantly just scaling. Yeah, constantly scaling. Constantly just scaling.
SPEAKER_03Overhead's going up. It's unbelievable. This is another thing. This is overheads going up. As you're growing, overhead's going to go up. So you got to be very mindful of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03A lot of people get killed with the overhead. You know what I mean? Salaries, the lease. You know, you guys just reviewed a lease right now, right? Yeah. You guys checking the lease. So lease was going up, and I'm like, okay. Around that time is when I'm at Shane. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Shane came in. We were going through business stuff. He's like, dude, you need to buy a building.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So I was like, nah, I'm not going to buy a building. You know?
SPEAKER_00Well, how come you're hesitant? Wizard, because of the risk.
SPEAKER_03I was small-minded, bro. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, it's like, I can't, little old me, you're going to buy a building.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know? And then he started breaking down all the numbers. Shane will whoop out a calculator on you. Right. Once that calculator comes out, numbers don't lie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So we started uh crunching the numbers. It's like, okay, well, I can come out with my own building and just paid, you know, $500, $1,000 more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so And then you then you've got the S it. You own the SI.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And so we started hunting for a building. Started looking for a building. And then one day, a sign came up on this building that was in between my current office and my house.
SPEAKER_00It's the one that we came to? No. No, no.
SPEAKER_03It was like it was the one before that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So yeah, so I saw the sign came up. I went there and I knocked on the door and I was and I asked the lady, I was like, hey, would you own or finance the building to me? She said, no, no, this is my retirement. I was like, okay, that's fine. So I called up the agent that was listed on there, Mike Gull. Shout out to Mike. I still do business with him till this day. 10 years.
SPEAKER_00So is your agent that you use for you or real estate?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we've been doing business for 10 years now. We've done a lot of deals together. So I called Mike up and then I was like, hey, you know, yeah, I'm looking for this, this, you know. I called Shane. Shane came with me to the to the take a look at the property. He's like, dude, this is perfect for you for your first building. It was 5,000 square feet. Yep. It formerly used to be a preschool though. So it wasn't really So it's not really fit for purpose. It wasn't yeah, it wasn't fit, but I was able to to configure it afterwards. Yeah. But the price was really good, the location was perfect.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And you know, it was it was a good next step for the business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Instead of how so did you have to change your strategy from that point where you guys had all their steel storage units to then look into obviously reinvesting into a building? How how did you change your strategy, bro? Were you guys just saving money, saving money? Yeah, we were saving, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03The bank accounts were real flushed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So we had a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00That'll be so good to see all that money in there, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was so good, bro. And then I was like, I was scared, man. And you know, like buying commercial real estate. I mean, I was how old was I? I was like 24 at that time, yeah, 25 at that time. And I'm buying a half a million dollar building. Wow. You know, and so I'm so I'd tell you a story about this though, but so I couldn't get the the financing to go through.
SPEAKER_00Why? Because of your trading history or didn't have enough.
SPEAKER_03No, yeah, like the the cash flow. It was a cash flow, yeah. But what happened is so I called the the listing agent and he's like, hey, I got a company that can help you. So he introduced me to Mike Anderson at Reliance Mortgage.
SPEAKER_00Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03So Mike Anderson's a heavy hitter in Dallas. He does like $80 million of business a year. And so he rest in peace, Mikey, man. He did a lot for me, passed away last year, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sort of here, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So so he puts me on the phone with Mike. Mike calls me up, he's like, Yeah, yeah, we'll get it done, we'll get it done, whatever. Send him all the stuff. So we get the building on the contract. We're 60 days out. I'm like, okay, we're going back and forth with the bank, the bank wants this, the bank wants that. They want every everything. Everything. You know what I mean? And um, it's so annoying. So we get to like a week out, and and then the bank's like, oh no, we we can't do the deal. One week beforehand. One week before closing, you know. So I called the listing agent, I call Mike Gall, and I was like, hey, Mike, you know, I don't know, the bank's saying they can't do it, you know, we're just gonna cancel it. No, no, no, no, no, no, we're not gonna do that. I'll call you back. So he hangs up on me and he calls Mike Anderson. So he calls Mike Anderson and he tells him, like, hey, lend him the money, and you know, we'll do the deal. So Mike Anderson calls me, and he and he's already got my file. They've been working on it for for there. Because I Josh, you you you seem like a nice guy. I'm gonna lend you the money. Wow. And and and we can refinance this. I don't know what the fuck the bank he cusses like a storm, smokes a whole pack of cigarettes a day, and he's like set, he's like he was like 70 something, but he moves like he's 19 years old. He gets shit done. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00So he just he he basically brought you the building, sorted all that for you, bro. Yeah, so based off what, just because of your energy, your drive, your positional yeah, that and I I'd only been on the phone with him a couple times after that.
SPEAKER_03He saw the business, and so he calls me up, he's like, Yeah, I'm gonna lend you the money and then we'll refinance it.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03Let's do it. So it was a hard money loan,
Buying Buildings To Cut Overhead
SPEAKER_03you know. So I paid a little extra points on it, which is fine.
SPEAKER_00Got into the property, but it got you into the property letter.
SPEAKER_03People are so scared. Oh my god, what's the financing rate? Yeah, what's it gonna cost me?
SPEAKER_00It's it's not always the best thing to switch on the small things for the bigger vision.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. But so many people are so stuck on that yeah, interest rate or whatever it is. Give us the mind CD. Yeah, exactly. And I'm like, what's the opportunity cost here? You know what I mean? Because I when I sold that same building, I made 200,000.
SPEAKER_01Wow, off the cuff, just when you sold it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, when I sold that building, yeah. But I paid, I mean, Mike Anderson probably charged me $10,000 to do that loan, which is fine. He gave me half a million dollars. He didn't know me from anyone else. You know what I mean? And so it's all part of the game. Everybody needs to eat, you know what I mean? Yeah, a lot of people don't want that.
SPEAKER_00They say, You don't just want to rip it off the table and don't leave anything on the table for you.
SPEAKER_03Exactly, yeah. Everybody got to come out positive on the deal. So, yeah, so he lends me the money, we get in there, we refinance it like three months after that. We get it down, we get the rate, you know, fixed rate on it, 25-year loan. So then we operate in a business. Business is going real good. Trump's in office in this time. Yeah, yeah, right. 2016? 2016, no, 20, yeah, 16. This was like 18. So it was like midway, yeah. Yeah, midway in. Yeah, money's rolling, things are good. And you end up selling the building? Yeah, we ended up selling the building. So then COVID happened. This was like 2020, COVID happened. You know, we had to like kind of shut down a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then I ended up moving to a different city during this time. So I started looking for uh buildings in the in the city that's which city was the part. This is Rockwell. This is the one that you came to.
SPEAKER_00Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we found this building right off I-30. Great building. It was uh it was big, man.
SPEAKER_00It was big.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, excuse me. Yeah, it was real good. Sitting on an acre there. So the building was listed for 900,000. Yep. We got it. I saw another building listed down the street, which was a little bit cheaper and a little bit bigger. Oh, yeah. So I sent that listing to the agent. I was like, look, I don't know how you guys are coming up with this price because I can go buy this building for cheaper. And then I submitted the bid for $850,000 and they accepted it. They accepted $850, they accepted $850, so $50,000 less than what it was listed for. So around this time with all the COVID stuff happening, the SBA was doing a program.
SPEAKER_00I remember you telling me, yeah, they made it easier for what they were stimulating the economy by giving money to small business owners and then they yeah.
SPEAKER_03So any any loans that you did with them, they were gonna make six months of payments.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So when I acquired that building, they actually paid the first six months of rent for that.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So that so I went ahead and acquired the building. I sold the other one, made 200,000 profit on that one. Yep. And then now we got you know this one for sale for like 1.3 million. So we'll make a nice little Wow.
SPEAKER_01From two.
SPEAKER_03And all this, all this is happening behind my business that I'm operating. Yeah. This is why it's it's possible. It's possible, and you must. I mean, not must, not for everybody, but for businesses like you know, ours, where we need a facility to operate from, why you must merge real estate and business together. And if you guys want to know more, check out my boy's book, Shane, ShaneMarrell.com. He wrote a book exactly on this whole strategy. I'm one of the case studies on there, and this works. Right.
SPEAKER_00He's helping us out with our transaction too, and he's awesome. Yeah, he is actually really awesome. Yeah, so that's from a young boy, two bags, come from South Africa, yeah, owning a multi-million dollar business plus real estate. What are some words of wisdom for people that don't know what they need to know when they get into entrepreneurship? And what are some fake things that people get mixed up, bro? You know, what are some things that people get mixed up with? Like they think that it's all glamorous, they think it's all like lavish and you know, no headaches, but they don't realize that there's a lot of stress. You know, there's moments where you probably sweat at nighttime. What are some real real advice about for people that need to know about entrepreneurship?
SPEAKER_03Man, a lot of the stuff floating around online is like not true. Like on Instagram reels and and stuff like that. Uh, you know, there's very few people like it's so easy just to put a camera now and you know, time flaunted, you know what I mean? So I think if you get exposed to that early in your entrepreneurship career, yeah, you think that that's how business actually is. Yeah. But you don't really understand. Okay, you gotta know bookkeeping, you need to know marketing, you need to know you know how your taxes, how to do taxes, how to do payroll, payroll taxes, what are the implications of hiring, yeah, whether they're a contractor or an employee. You know, these are all things that you need to consider. And so be just be careful where you get information from.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so make sure, you know, whoever you're getting it from has accomplished what you want to do. What you want to do.
SPEAKER_00I've seen a saying, don't um don't listen to those closest to you. Listen to those that are closest to your goal. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03I recognize yeah, I love that. Yeah, there's a lot of people that, you know, and there's a lot of many ways to make money now, right? I mean, you can make money online and you don't need office and all that. And that's all fine and dandy, you know what I mean? And you can live a great life doing that. You know, uh those opportunities were not around whenever I came up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I wish it was, but it'd been a lot easier for me. But you know, I had to learn my lessons that I how many hours a day would you say that you work, bro?
SPEAKER_00Or even when you were first hustling, how many hours in a day would you have worked? 24 hours? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Close to 24. I mean, I'm addicted to it. You know, now just have like onto like different stuff that I work on. Yeah, you know what I mean? But it's like uh you get bored, man.
SPEAKER_00It's not really work when you love it, eh?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's not, yeah. But you know, learning is like part of who I am. I really like to learn. All I'm always watching stuff, you know, growing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I know that you're looking into well, you're actually trading crypto. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that about that, bro. People don't actually know that. I personally think it's the future of money. Yeah, exactly. And obviously, Trump being a big advocate and his current administration being massive on crypto. Tell us a little bit about that, bro.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, started diving into that once again. Thanks to Shane. Exposed me into all this because uh it's funny because everybody has a Bitcoin story. Yeah, anytime I bring this up to somebody, you can just see that like the cells in their buttons close up. I think it's a pyramid scheme,
Bitcoin Data And Real Use Cases
SPEAKER_03a scam. What is it? How are you gonna scam me, Josh? You know what I mean? I'm like, bro, just chill. Look at the numbers, right? Look at the numbers. I love data. I don't realize how much I love data until we start diving into crypto. Yeah, because it's all data and it's all open. Anyone can see anybody's transactions, yeah, you know, on the blockchain. And so when you start looking at the data just on Bitcoin alone, right, 21 million Bitcoin was only created. Yeah, we know that Satoshi has a million by itself. Where their rumors are or data-based, five million of them are lost, right? Yeah, lost on hard drives, losing your key, the keys, losing the keys, that kind of stuff. So you're left with 16 million more, right? You got over 70 companies that are carrying Bitcoin on their balance sheet. Yeah. Once again, you got to know your balance sheets, right? They're carrying Bitcoin. So 70 companies, you have 10% of that, about seven countries are Michael Saylor's one of the biggest holders there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, one of the biggest, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You got Michael Saylor, you got BlackRock, you know, that's buying. You got seven countries that are now holding it as treasury. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00I think USA are one of the biggest or the biggest holders of China.
SPEAKER_03We do hold some. China is up there, Russia is up there, but it's not like a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which they are working on. Trump just signed in something today regarding that sovereign wealth fund. Wow. Yeah, so that just got signed in. So if you start looking at the numbers and you're like, okay, there's only 16 million left.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And there's only 3 million left to mine. Sailors buying, you know, X amount every week. Crazy. On a weekly basis, billions of dollars is being purchased from it. So it's such a scarce asset, and they're not making more of it. You can build another building, right? You can we can build another building anywhere. You can buy land, you can find gold. Yeah, right. A new gold reserve was just discovered. I don't know which country just annoying, uh announced that. So when you start looking at all that data, it's like, okay. Then you start looking at. I actually read the white papers of Bitcoin. Oh, whoa. Yeah, so I went back and I was like, oh, let me just dive into this. Yeah. So you start looking at the problem that it solves.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Now, if you're a business owner, you have this problem because the first couple of pages it illustrates that there's a problem of me having to transact with you, then we have to go through a third party.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with the banks. We don't know that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right. This is where the central system and this is where you know we're gonna circumvent the banks, right? With the blockchain. And so if you start looking at that premise, then I start thinking like, okay, if I'm ordering stuff from someone, I gotta go through Visa, MasterCard, then I gotta go to the central system. Oh, the third party, right? And now I'm paying fees, I'm paying three percent on everything. So everything I'm charged has a fee on top of it, then I'm paying taxes on top of that, then I'm paying taxes on my income. Yeah, right. Like we're taxed at no end over here. So if we look at it from that, then I as a business owner, right? I'm getting if you come buy a photo booth from me, like I have to pay 1%, 2% to the credit card companies, right? Then I have to try, I charge you 4% off the back. I'm gonna make a little scratch off of it. You know what I mean? Yeah, so then now you're paying 4% more, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And you can take this product and you can go and dispute the charge in 60 days, right? Yeah. Now I gotta spend time and energy and sleepless nights fighting your case with visa on why you feel like, oh, you need to return this photo to me, right? The whole system is flawed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that that's too many people, too many people trying to thing the pie. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So if we're transacting between each other, if I can just send you money and you give me services or goods or whatever it is, from that standpoint makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Right? I'm I have a videographer in Bangladesh. Extremely difficult to send any kind of money there. I've I'm literally using Western Union now to do that. Wow, yeah. Western Union is a company that was created in the 1800s. Yeah, I have to use this company with antiquated systems from the 1800s to wire money to this person who's doing services for me. You know what I mean? So if you look at that, like I can't wire him money, I can't like PayPal, don't work there. Yeah, and several other companies don't work there. So imagine now him having access to crypto. He provides me a service, I can send him money. Instant payments free. He doesn't pay no people, whatever the case is, he doesn't pay no you know, company or anything like that, no bank account. He gets the money, all this money. Small fee, you know, small fee that you pay, you know, to the network, which is fine. Yeah, so if you start looking at all this data, once again, come back to data, because people think crypto is an emotional game.
SPEAKER_02Hey, bro, buy this, yeah, buy this coin. Yeah, it's gonna blow up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's gonna blow up to the moon, baby. Right? When you when you put all that bullshit aside and you start looking at the data, we started you know becoming daylight analysts now. Yeah, and so when you look at all of that and all the problems it's solving, just that it was solving my business, yeah, because I have to deal with that. When I'm sending money to China, like I gotta pay 30, 40 bucks to send that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You can't travel with more than a certain amount of cash. 10k, yeah, 10k, right? Yeah, I could have millions of dollars on my phone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right? Even on your cold wallet, eh?
SPEAKER_03And the cold wallet, yeah. And so when you start looking at all of that stuff, it becomes interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Now, the general population is not doing that, right? People who are plugged in and are looking at these kind of inefficiencies in the marketplace, those are things that we look at, and then we look to you know profit off of that. And yeah, so that's you know the long story of crypto. As far as trading it, you know, we're I invest into cryptocurrencies that have intrinsic value. So the value of Bitcoin is obviously stored value, yeah. That you know, it's a hedge against inflation. Yeah, money's a you know, melting ice cube. You know, Michael Sailor Sailor says that. And so that's what I trade. I trade Bitcoin, I trade Solana, you know, because of the intrinsic value of it, because it actually adds value. Like this application is being built on it. And you know, I don't know everything about crypto, but I can see the data and what's what's it being used for and the use case of it. Once something, once you understand something's what it's being used for and and how it can be deployed and how it can improve life for everybody, then you can get behind something. Yeah, and that's why like I'm like heavily invested into that now. And then trading it because you know it can go up and down and and there's uh patterns, you know, there's something that I've been able to identify, you know, throughout my life is like patterns. So you can notice when patterns how the market reacts with you know with Trump's tweets, yeah, something like that. And uh, you know, there's inefficiencies for that that you can profit off of. Yeah, and you know, I don't see why not to do that, to take an opportunity. It's not for everybody, you know, you really gotta be dive.
SPEAKER_00You have to take the big risk, eh?
SPEAKER_03But I will say for all the people that I've told it to, which is it's has been the most fascinating thing to see people's reactions whenever I like.
SPEAKER_00When you're when you're right on something.
SPEAKER_03No, no, when I when I tell them like, hey, look, look, this is what I'm doing, and you can make money doing this, but just like how they react to it. Like, yeah, they're so defensive, they get it motion. Can't be true, can't be true. Can't be true. Like, it's fascinating to see that. So it's very interesting when I tell people that that stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What are the three top crypto coins you're gonna that are going to be bullish this this current bull market?
SPEAKER_03Uh man, Bitcoin, Solana, and the third one, I think we're looking at Suey. Suey and and Zeus. Yeah. But yeah, there's those are the ones that I would that I'm invested in.
SPEAKER_00You're you're holding. What are to finish off, bro? What are three keys, well, three, three
Three Rules And Where To Follow
SPEAKER_00words of wisdom that you would encourage anyone that's looking to get into entrepreneurship, bro? What are what are some things that people need to need to implement in their life? Like you you you spoke about obsession, work ethic. What are some things and do you mind elaborating elaborating a little bit about that, bro?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think fear killed more dreams than actually going out there and doing it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Right. So a lot of people that I I speak to all the time, like they're so worried about failing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that kills more dreams than actual failure.
SPEAKER_00Not even trying. Not even trying. Right.
SPEAKER_03That's the biggest failure. So go out there and and and chase it. And if it don't work, that's okay. Not every business that I tried worked. Yeah. And whatever you start now is not going to be the business that you'll end up in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I never knew I'll be, you know, doing photo boots. Yeah, photo boots, trading crypto, real estate. I mean, who would have thought all this, you know, 20 years ago? So I would say, you know, that would be the first thing. Second thing, like, know enough so you don't get screwed over. You know, come back to that accounting rule. And this goes for anything. Like, you hire someone to build a house for you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, I recently built my own house and I got to see the whole process, but I studied heavily in that because that is an unregulated industry. Yeah. Anybody can be all pools. People can't cowboys. Yeah. Anybody can be a pool builder. So no enough afford. And then at work, you know, Elon Musk, you know, there's videos of him servicing, like, oh yeah, I'm gonna sleep in the factory tonight. You know what I mean? Because we're gonna solve all the problems. Yeah. This guy got rockets coming back in the space. I mean, he's doing such last night at 11 p.m., he hosted Department of Government Efficiency. Last night. Last night, 11 p.m. There was 91,000 people on there. And they were exposing all kinds of stuff, talking about all kinds of US governed NGOs funding the Wuhan lab. That's crazy. Everything's coming out to surface now. And if there was ever a guy or someone to be able to do that, Elon will be the one to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so, I mean, outworking people. Yeah. Because him, Vivek, was on there and two other like state senators were on there last night. 11 o'clock at night. I was trying to go to bed. I saw this pop. I was like, oh shit. I want to hear Elon talk. You know what I mean? This guy just spits wisdom.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But his data-based, which I love. You know what I mean? All analytics in the day. Yeah, exactly. So it's all analytics. So, you know, be able to outwork people because there is signs of success that come from outworking.
SPEAKER_00Man, it's been a privilege talking to you, my brother Josh Man. That's great. Bro, if anyone needs to get any story or any message out of this, bro, it's basically just to work, dream big, hustle hard, and just like what you said, just make sure you're checking all your numbers and make sure your database, bro. But thank you so much for jumping on board, bro. It's been a pleasure interviewing you. Bro, what are the what are the handles for people to come and see you? Well, look at your Instagram, bro.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Instagram next level JP. You can find me on there. That's and then uh I'm on I'm on X now. I'm switching over to X at Josh Pather.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much, my bro. All right, bro. Thank you, Josh.
