341 : CJ Johnson – Becoming a Digital Nomad is kind of in his blood – Helps to have Amazon Merch too!

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You have to love the dreamers! They put an image into the universe, sets their heights to the heavens and find a way to exceed them. Yes they see full glasses everywhere. They see a way when no one else can. You see there are non-negotiables when you have the “Dream”. Have you ever heard of a “Digital Nomad”? Did you know there are meetups in Vegas and Chiang Mai Thailand? Go and meet your fellow dreamers, who know they will fulfill their dreams.

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Digital Nomad Conference in Chiang Mai Thailand

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Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)

New Speaker:                   [00:00:00]               If you, if you’re on that mindset where you’re not tied down to a place that you can move around and you can also make money and you know, you don’t have to actually just make money online. You could go travel, do, do a Gig, do something, you know,

Cool voice guy:                  [00:00:11]               welcome to the ECOMMERCE, but we focused on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peters in.

New Speaker:                   [00:00:25]               He wanted to talk a few moments about some sponsors scope from seller labs. Um, when’s the last time you created a listing? Right? And when you create that listing, you’ve got to come up with the keywords, right? It’s all key word dependent. I don’t care if it’s a private label or wholesale. You’ve got to get it right. Well, what’s the best way to get it right? If you’re selling a similar product that’s really successful, you go and you take and use their keywords and that’s what scope does for you. So phenomenal tool brought to you again by seller labs. The leaders in technology, when it comes to Amazon right now, they are just crushing it with all their products, but scope allows you to get that listing right, get ranked for those key words as fast as possible. Therefore you get the sales. So go to sellerlabs.com, forward slash scope.

New Speaker:                   [00:01:14]               Use the code word momentum, save a little bit of money, get some free key words to test, try it out and see if you see an improvement. If you don’t adjust, what’s cool about what I love about a seller labs is that you then message and say, Hey, I didn’t get this right tyler. Hey Jeff, this isn’t working right. What am I doing wrong? And Boom, you’re going to get the help you need and that’s what you’re going to get from sellerlabs. And, and it’s a very special group. Had been very. I’ve been very fortunate to be connected with them. And again, I look over time they’ve delivered every single time, you know, same thing I can say for Karen from solutions for ecommerce. I mean, she’s been carrying my account for a couple years now. Um, and our account, my wife and I, and she really does handle things for us.

Stephen:                             [00:01:55]               Um, I mentioned, uh, just last week we created a new listing with, I forget how many variations, but again, all the flat files uploaded done as I needed. I pop in, so she’ll send me a template, I pop in some information and then boom, it’s handled, await. These pictures weren’t done right, blah, blah blah. This UPC, Nita poom modified, adjusted and again, the communication been phenomenal too. I get an email saying, hey, this was done or this, you’re missing this Steve. Hey, you got to do this. So, you know, we have those challenges too. And that’s why I like working with somebody who’s been doing it. I’ve been doing it for a long time to do, you know, Karen also does listings for Ebay. Yep. Lots of them. So if you want to build out that channel, which of course you should, it’s q four, you should be selling everywhere.

Stephen:                             [00:02:39]               You can, um, Karen can help you with that too. So you gotTa tell her I’ve sent you. So you’re going to go to solutions four ecommerce forward slash momentum. You’re going to save 50 bucks every single month. You’re going to save that $50, but more importantly, you’re going to get an inventory health report. Um, did you just get hit with monthly longterm storage fees? Well, guess what? If you haven’t, they’re coming. You want them to get that inventory right and she can help you with that. You gotta tell her I sent you again, solutions the number for ecommerce forward slash momentum will get you into that. Save the 50 bucks. Get that inventory health report though. That’s really, really important. Get that going right away and I don’t want to miss my coach when it comes to retail arbor online or when I have a question and I do.

Stephen:                             [00:03:19]               Not that we don’t, we don’t really do much of it anymore, but when I do have a question, I go to Gaye Lisby’s because why? Because she’s really. She is a coach. I mean she’s really phenomenal, but she also puts out a daily list and you’re going to get that list five days a week. You’re going to get tons of leads, the number of, uh, agreed to amount that you’re supposed to get. She at least she usually gets to those in the four days and then the fifth day seems to be a bonus most of the time. Phenomenal Group, small amount of buyers where this list is going to. And the best thing is the nuggets that you learn. Hey, why is the red one better than the blue? One? Gaye can help you with those questions. I saw. Hey, I got, um, I got to the dreaded letter about a brand.

Stephen:                             [00:03:58]               Here’s the, here’s the way you approach it. Hey, receipts, um, how do you, what’s the best practice? I saw her leaving instructions, teaching me the accountant how to do a better job with it. And it’s phenomenal. So it’s Gaye Lisby, um, made a million dollars selling. Um, I’ll have the link in here. You’ve got to use, um, the, my, my link and it does help me. I don’t want to say it that way, but um, it’s part of amazing freedom with Andy slamming, Iran Hirsch corn and nate’s lamins. So, you know, you can trust. Okay, so come out to the website, take a look at it, and you will get a savings and you can get two weeks free right now only through my link. You get two weeks free. Try it. You don’t like it? I get it back off, but right now is the time to make money.

Stephen:                             [00:04:41]               Get cashflow going right now and so join you. Get two weeks free. The only way you’re gonna get the two weeks for if you use my link, it’s on this episode. Come on out and give it a try. You will not be disappointed again. You’re going to see me in there, so reach out if I can help you too. Let’s get into the podcast. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 341. Cj Johnson. Alright, dreamers, this is your podcast. This is the one where you’re going to sit back and say, man, I could feel the breeze in my hair. I can. I could. I could hear the surf at the water. I’m in Thailand. Now. Picture that. Wait, I just heard elephants. I was just feeding them and I heard him. Yeah, that Cj’s life right now. Cj is on track a work in progress, a digital nomad in training might be a fair way to say it is life.

Stephen:                             [00:05:32]               Um, these college educated got a master’s degree. I mean, this is not somebody who’s just can’t figure his life out. He just realizes that that’s not his life. It’s his life for now and he has a job, but he got a taste of what it can be growing up to be free to be location independent. Perhaps the ability to go and see the rest of the world to go to pools. You were a kid when you didn’t have one and now it’s completely in him. It’s in his blood. It’s is. There’s no way he’s not going to do it. And so cool. This nomad, some of the digital nomad. It’s nomad summit.com is what I’m talking about, but it’s so cool because it’s a whole group of people that are likeminded and um, I loved the way he describes the, the way they share the collaborative effort, um, and the success they’re having and they wish upon you and how infectious that is.

Stephen:                             [00:06:25]               So again, this is for the dreamers, this is for somebody who’s saying, I want something, I’m missing something in my life, my soul hurts. I would love to go repair it. I think this might be something that’s good for you. Let’s get into the podcast. Alright, welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast for excited about today’s guest. I’m, it’s sexy. He sexy, uh, in a couple ways. Not In the way you’re thinking. Don’t go there. I’m talking about the way he’s designing his life. Um, it’s intentional. Um, sounds like it was necessary. Needed to make a change. And I think I applaud that. And Man, I respect him already. I’m very, very excited to hear her story. Cj Johnson. Welcome cj.

CJ:                                          [00:07:10]               Hey, how’s it going everybody? It’s ycs young chief in, also in cheese taxes though. A 200 in from Dallas, Texas. How’s it going?

Stephen:                             [00:07:18]               Oh, Whoa, okay. Didn’t expect that. That was a, that was a pretty good intro. You, you, uh, you have said that once or twice avenue.

CJ:                                          [00:07:25]               Yeah, I’ve said it a couple times. I do some spoken word poetry sometimes. You know, go to a, you know, speakeasies and stuff,

Stephen:                             [00:07:32]               you know, uh, hope you weren’t offended by my sexy term, but it’s true, I think. I think, uh, how old are you? Twenty seven, 27. And your goal is to be a complete digital nomad. Do you want to hang your hat wherever it lands?

CJ:                                          [00:07:50]               Exactly. Is that fair? Exactly. Exactly. I want to be a location independent and pretty much remote entrepreneur, um, that can run his own business online and then travel the world. You know, who doesn’t want to travel the world and see all the sites.

Stephen:                             [00:08:03]               Well, I think that’s, that’s what makes it sexy. I think a lot of people want that life. A lot of people desire that life, but for most people it’s completely inaccessible. It’s foreign. It’s like, what are you talking about? Nobody does that. There’s nobody who sells tee shirts on Amazon. What are you talking about? Nobody does any of these things. Cj. That’s what most people, when you tell that to, right? If you had an elevator speech and you told that to them, they’d look at you like you’ve got a third eye, right?

CJ:                                          [00:08:29]               Yeah, a lot of people don’t think the same way, you know, some people are only thinking to that nine to five, they’re confined within their own cubicle prison pretty much. And that’s in their mind to. And I was there as well when I had my first corporate job and that is kind of what pushed me into finding out about Thailand and digital nomads as a whole.

Stephen:                             [00:08:48]               Well, I can’t wait to talk about digital nomads it, that again is very attractive, especially at, you know, it’s funny as I get that becomes more attractive. You would think I’d want to settle down more than that. No, man, I want to see the world because you realize that your life is limited, your time is limited, so it’s very attractive to me. Okay. So let’s go back though. You come from, and this is your quote, very humble beginnings. Is that a fair statement?

CJ:                                          [00:09:14]               Yeah, that’s a fair statement. So I was born on a reservation in Florida, but I was actually raised and we woke Oklahoma, which is the capital of the seminar nation of Oklahoma and um, seminar. And my dad has a tribal leader achieve similar nation and yeah, uh, so that’s Kinda like the humble beginnings. Before he was chief, you know, I was the first person in my family to go to college, so I graduated high school with a four point, oh, GPA, a Valedictorian. And I went to college at the University of Oklahoma. I always wanted to go to the University of Oklahoma since I was a kid. Uh, you know, we’d Watch the game with my dad and my grandpa and my uncle and things. And I watched the game back in 2000 when they won the championship. Um, and they played against Florida state seminoles, oddly enough because that’s, those were both our teams, you know, University of Oklahoma is our team because we’re in Oklahoma, but Florida state seminars, you know, that’s our, that’s our, that’s us. That’s you. So yeah,

Stephen:                             [00:10:10]               that doesn’t fit the, you know, to be honest with you, what you’re describing doesn’t fit my image of what I’ve been led to believe. I did ask cj that I can ask a couple of uncomfortable questions up front because I want to be respectful. But that’s not the image that I’ve been led to believe about living on a reservation and growing up on a reservation. What is, what is that like today? And what was it like? How different is it today than what it was when you grew up? Um, and I’m sure it’s significantly different than your parents.

CJ:                                          [00:10:40]               So where I grew up, I grew up in, we woke up, which is like a, already a, a low income area, are real urban area, a lot of native Americans, a lot of African Americans. Uh, you know, Hispanics, Mexicans or Hispanic Americans. Um, and the school, you know, it was a two, a school, small town, only 3000 people in the town. I’m not like you’d have to drive 15 minutes or 30 minutes to go to the next Walmart, you know, if you wanted to go to the movies, you’d have to drive 45 minutes, you know, if you wanted to do big things like just normal, kind of, not big things but normal things. You would have to go far and kind of. When I grew up, my parents, they didn’t go to college. So, you know, they had a high school education and they found jobs through that.

CJ:                                          [00:11:19]               Uh, but you know, I grew up in with four little brothers and little sisters, uh, as the oldest of nine and the youngest one is six right now. Uh, so you kind of, we had to find ways to save money and my mom pretty much was very thrifty. She was always 30. She knew how to sew, she knew how to cook, she knew how to like, you know, this and that home remedies of cleaning and all types of things like that. She was always into like finding a way to save money and also bonding things to use again. So we will go to garage sales, we would go to thrift stores, we’d go to my dad’s thing with pawn shops. My Dad loved pawnshops because he always to go see them to get, try to get the new electronic for cheaper

Stephen:                             [00:11:56]               pretty much. And you could, right. I mean there’s absolutely a great place to get that stuff. That’s cool. That is cool. So you saw that. What, what was it, did you think? I mean, most people who grow up in that environment, you know, poor is a state of mind as always. Dave Ramsey says, right, you didn’t think you were poor. You just did you. Did you want for anything that you know, you, you,

CJ:                                          [00:12:19]               anything that I wanted, unless it was like the new, like as a kid, maybe a whole pack of pokemon cards, you know, that wasn’t realistic as it’s bad, you know, you can’t have them all, you know.

Stephen:                             [00:12:31]               So it’s like any other kid, you know, just like you want, you know, when you’re sick, you just ate a bowl of ice cream. You want the rest of it. Right. I mean it’s like that. Okay. Alright. So that’s.

CJ:                                          [00:12:39]               Yeah, never. I, I, my parents always provided for us and my dad was always also, he was an entrepreneur. He was very nomadic himself in a ways that he had his business. So what he would do, he was a director of a museum, the seminar museum for a while and for a good amount of years. And He, so he knew a lot of history and knowledge and then he would travel to different states and cities, uh, and even countries to go perform, not even perform, but to share his story and share our story and shared his knowledge but play music and play the flute. And he passed that down to me and I played the flute as well. And Oh, you know, you get to travel with him at all as you. Yeah,

Stephen:                             [00:13:16]               all the time

CJ:                                          [00:13:19]               went to go see. We made it a family trip. We all hopped in the truck and we all went as a family and we’d get a hotel, we get to go to the swimming pool and all that stuff that you get to do that. And then still we would go to different thrift stores and garage. Like if we could get your garage sale or we go to pawn shops for sure, you know, still in different cities. So it was kinda very nomadic and entrepreneurial itself. That’s kind of how I grew up. Like, Oh my dad’s doing this, and we could stay at a hotel and go to swimming to go to the swimming pool. Like I want to do that.

Stephen:                             [00:13:47]               As opposed to your friends whose families didn’t travel. Right? I mean, was that, that? Were they looking at you like, wow, you’re going to the big city and you’re going here, you’re going there. You’re, I mean, that had to be very attractive to them. It’s got to be something that’s really a kind of, uh, uh, what’s possible, right?

CJ:                                          [00:14:08]               Because I think about this. You might not have seen this stuff. No, I just don’t want to miss this because I think if you didn’t get that experience, if your dad didn’t bring you on those and give you that experience, you might have never known that this part of the world existed. Do you get what I mean? Yeah. Going to trips, going to thrift stores, being thrifty, like garage sales, my favorite. We’re still pawn shops because you know, you can get the video games, you can see how much it is. It was like straight up what it is.

Stephen:                             [00:14:33]               I think it’s very cool and it’s very cool for your parents to give that experience to you and obviously that’s why you have this urge today. I mean there’s no doubt. Right. And you know that that’s the connection. Yeah. One hundred percent. Okay. So, so they sparked this interest in, you know, when did you decide that you wanted to make a dime and sell something that you’re buying because you went to these things to buy stuff for you to play with and stuff, but when you say, hey, maybe I can sell this stuff and make a little bit of money.

CJ:                                          [00:15:03]               Well, um, I started doing just as a kid when video games, like I found Ebay as a kid, like growing up 12, you know, 12 up to 16 was whenever I was like really hitting you back in like for high school schooler I thought. And pretty much I started doing video games and video cards, pokemon cards, stuff like that. Then shoes, some shoes. So a lot of my friends were in the shoes at that time. It was a, you know, nearly had a song, air force ones. So everyone wanted to wear that was all cocaine, white air force one shoes, you know, I, I rock a low top. Some people like the high tops and people wanting to keep those shoes, the toes of those shoes without a crease, you know what I’m saying? So they had these things called shoe decreases. So whatever. I started selling on Ebay and I was selling, you know, one off video games, pokemon cards, whatever. I could get my hands on shoes sometimes. Whatever. I was like why can’t I just need to find a product that I can buy a whole lot of and then resell it. So I found the shoe decreases and I called the manufacturer and I bought $100 for $5 each and then I’ll put them on Ebay for $20 each. Wait, how old were you? Uh, I was 16 and I think

Stephen:                             [00:16:05]               so 16. Do you call the manufacturer and say, Hey, you know, you obviously didn’t say you were 16, but I would like to buy a decent man. Dude, that’s cool. That’s that. Anybody who’s a seller right now is giving you a little bit of respect because that takes nerve. And where does that come from? That, that confidence as a 16 year because most 16 year old kids today. Right. You know, looking at your, your younger brothers and sisters, do they have that confidence? Do they have that?

CJ:                                          [00:16:29]               So at the time, my first job, uh, well my second job in high school, my first job I worked at a cone snowcones less donut shop that was owned by my mom’s friend about my second job. I worked at a call center so I was always on the phone talking to people, kind of salesy, kind of like wolf of Wall Street but not, you know, it’s like kind of that field but not really. We would just really just, a lot of people will just go back, smoke cigarettes and eat snickers and then come back and just be on the phones, you know, like asking questions. And I even represented a group at one time, the Frederick Law Group. So I actually had people give me money for debt settlement and stuff and I didn’t really know what I was doing it and the whole thing got shut down and I think it was a like a, a hoax or something and I didn’t know.

Stephen:                             [00:17:09]               But you, you gained experience, you gain that confidence and so therefore you’re able to take. And. And how much money did you make when you sold all those? A shoe decreases.

CJ:                                          [00:17:18]               Oh, so the greasers. So it was like 20 bucks I sold it for, so I got off for five. And then you include like all expenses. Not that much. It was only like, it was in the hundreds. So it was just like a cool look.

Stephen:                             [00:17:31]               You’re 16 years old mean you figured out that you can buy volume. So you, you understood the concept of wholesale at that moment?

CJ:                                          [00:17:38]               Yeah, just go buy a whole lot of them. Because also in native culture we go to powwows. There’s a lot of artisans and there’s a lot of people who sell things. I’m at the powwows, like a Ho. Everyone has a booth there,

New Speaker:                   [00:17:50]               you know, everyone has their own way to tell their story through different art. If you paint, if you draw, if you bleed, if you had t shirts like me, I’ve statement tees so everyone has their own way of, you know, even food, like Indian tacos getting slipped up, gay, just our native food, just different foods there and also seeing different tribes that I might not have seen or met before. It’s pretty cool. So you got to see that also growing up. Yes you are going up. So you saw. So it really then, and this is some, this is news to me and this is ignorant again, white man not understanding this. So that whole entrepreneurial environment is, is very ingrained even rooted because you know like hunting and gathering, trading post, you know,

New Speaker:                   [00:18:35]               it’s always going to get a resource and bringing it back and using it. How you, how you best can. Okay. Alright, well that’s very cool. So that’s inspiring. Okay. So you, you had some success there. Um, how do you move forward? Did you sell right up through college? Yeah, I kept on going to college, I finished off selling machine decreases, but then I kinda got distracted on his, like girls in the class, like I partied pretty hard my first semester and I finished with a three point two five. So then that next semester I went back, partied harder and I got a four point zero formula diagram. I got this thing figured out. Um, so the girls and the partying take a toll on your sales business that I joined some organizations but I always was still selling on Ebay a little bit so I was still selling on Ebay a little bit.

New Speaker:                   [00:19:25]               I was flipping some clothing. Uh, I got him into a youtube when I was in college and I was like, how to make money online. And I saw this guy named see breaking. He was flipping close and Blazers and stuff and I got onto one of their shows and they were doing a giveaway and I, I won because I guess the name of the brand that his tee shirt was on and I got a blazer guide for free. So then I started reading that. Then I started flipping blazers. I started slipping a flip in other clothes. I still got some blazers right now actually. Um, and then that’s when I was like, okay, well I want to be able to sell more. Then I started getting into Fba. Amazon Fba. I did online arbitrage, online arbitrage. That was my first sale on Amazon Fba. And at the time I was with my ex girlfriend and my girlfriend at the time.

New Speaker:                   [00:20:08]               Now my ex girlfriend pretty much I was like telling her about this whole thing. Oh, you can flip stuff on Amazon. Look like we just need to find stuff online. You can go online and go to the clearance aisle. So I went to toys r us clearance aisle, I guess before Torres was closed down hard. That goes down or something? Yeah, they’re gone. Yeah, they’re out of business. Yeah. Well before, before they went out of business, I got A. I hit a lick on men. So they, they said they had these $4, fifty cents a advocate calendars. They’re like monster high advocate calendars. Count down to like Christmas or something like that. And you’re like, go get it in. The little kid pulls it out and it’s like a little, like maybe a makeup or a toy or something for a girl. And she was like, oh my. She’s like, oh my sister likes monster high. She said you should look at that. So I looked at it and then I’ll check it on Amazon and they’re going for like 40. So I bought 50 of them. So I had these big advocate counters shipped to my dorms and I had like six boxes piled up and I had the uh, the people, the resident directors calling me saying, Hey, you need to come pick up these boxes. They like took over the whole office. So.

Stephen:                             [00:21:09]               So everybody got to see that part of you that you are still going to hustle at that moment. Right there. They’re looking like, what is this dude doing? And boom. And so you were, the beauty there is you send them right into Fba, probably in the existing boxes, right?

New Speaker:                   [00:21:22]               Yeah. I send them right back into their inboxes. I printed out the labels, slapped it on him, boom, put it in the back of the box, shipped it right back through the label on it, you know, the ship it right back and dropped it off. Yeah. And then boom. And then it was like, Dang, this is so real quick, this might be something here with Amazon. And then I started like going and getting textbooks and I was on college campus so I had people that I knew I would go to their house and I would just scan all their books and be like, all right, I can give you this form. And I’m like, okay, cool. You know, I was like, Dang, this could really be something. I even made her like a little business fire. I said like books the books, uh, you know, I’ll come buy your textbooks, all the other slide by your house, see what you got and I’ll give you a price where I can give you.

Stephen:                             [00:22:00]               And so that part of it was attractive because you could do it around your schedule, right? You still didn’t interfere too much. You didn’t have to deal with the shipping, right? I mean you send them into Amazon of course, but you didn’t have to deal with the orders. You didn’t, you don’t get a lot of customer service questions. Right. There are very few. Not like Ebay, right? Not like a day.

New Speaker:                   [00:22:20]               Yeah. I just sold a magic the gathering card that I had in a, like a stack of stuff for 70 something bucks and uh, I got to ship it out tomorrow, but it’s bothering me. Like this is like, it’s kind of giving me anxiety. I’m like, oh, I gotta get this together. Shipping, you know, I didn’t really, I don’t really like that that much, but I’ll still do it here and there.

Stephen:                             [00:22:37]               Yeah. And I get it. I mean, I understand because that, that’s not where your mind is right now. This and that. That doesn’t fit the digital nomad life. Does it mean to be honest with you, right. That’s not location independent. Yes. You could ship that card from anywhere you are. There’ll be a post office somewhere, what have you. But it’s not the same. It’s truly not the same

New Speaker:                   [00:22:56]               minimalist stuff. Like when I went to Thailand, I went with one backpack and that’s it. And northface is strap. I was like, if I can’t fit in this backpack, it doesn’t need to go.

Stephen:                             [00:23:06]               How different. I mean now when you tell your family, okay, in a they’re proud as heck. College graduate, right? Their first college graduate, graduate, bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Right. So there. Oh. So now they’re saying, you know, our, our son is doing well. He’s ready to take the corporate world on. He’s going to be somebody. He’s going to be somebody,

New Speaker:                   [00:23:27]               right. I like finally I’m living the American dream, you know, like American dream, whatever that is supposed to be. You know, you go to high school, you get good grades. I did that. I got a four point. Oh, you know, like go to college, go to college, get a degree, go to college. I got another degree. Alright. I go to, I go to work corporate boon. My first corporate job, I hated it. Man. What’d you hate about it? What’d you hate about it? I hated it. It was literally in a box. It was like they tried to make it not a hassle cool desk and it wasn’t so bad. It didn’t really, it wasn’t like one of those, you know, you know, in the movies, cubicles, but it was still a cubicle, you know what I’m saying? It’s very cubical and shape. The diy feel enclosed is that part of it that you feel don’t close? I feel like people’s watching my every move, watch my bag, like I can’t, I don’t have my own freedom to like just work in peace,

Stephen:                             [00:24:18]               you know? And so that wasn’t meant for you, weren’t meant that way. You’re not going to be constrained in any way.

New Speaker:                   [00:24:24]               Exactly. But uh, so what I was doing was I was still like youtube and how to make money online. I was youtube and all these like videos and I ran into this guy named Riley Bennett and youtube videos and he made logs and he was traveling, he was doing all this stuff and I was like, okay, cool. I actually ran into him from Krista freelancer. He did an interview on him and then that’s how I found them. And then I watched all these videos and I’d heard that he was doing pretty much private label Amazon Fba and I was okay cool. Like I know a little bit about that and he, they were out to living in Thailand and that’s how I got heard about the digital nomad stuff and I was like, had it been more on instagram? We started chatting back and forth and I was pretty much, he was just pretty much said come out. And I was like, all right, cool. I’m coming.

Stephen:                             [00:25:07]               And that was that. One of the things that I hear you talking about when you’re researching something gives you using youtube generally, is that when you think about the education you can. I don’t know what your, your master’s degree is in, but when you think, okay, so in hr, when you think about that degree and then you think about kind of the degree you give yourself on youtube, how different. I mean if you’re into it, you can consume, you can get a, we call it the rabbit hole of Youtube, right? You start going down that and you can be gone for hours and hours and hours, but you could get an incredible education in whatever you want to do on youtube a fair rather than going to school and spending a fortune for a master’s degree. And I think about that with what you’re describing, what you do, and we’re going to get to merch by Amazon in a second, but that, that education you got from Steve Raking and then you got from the next gentleman and now, now these others to find out about digital nomad that education costs you nothing but time correct.

Stephen:                             [00:26:11]               Yeah, exactly. Alright, so let’s now talk about intention and attention and action. I mean, the missing piece for most people is they watch the thing and they never take action with it. Right? So I’m going to Thailand, right? Go into Thailand. You’re taking action. Yeah, exactly. How’s that conversation go with your parents? Well, I mean I just tell them I have to do it. It’s my destiny. And they said, okay, wait, so, so did your dad get it? I mean, when think about him did, he did like, he knew, he just sees it. Like my boy. Yeah, he’s got the abilities and this and that. But it’s in them. Yeah,

CJ:                                          [00:26:53]               they, it’s different to them. But you know, my mom is all into it. I’m trying to get her on to a murse right now. She’s waiting for her approval. So.

Stephen:                             [00:27:02]               So she sees that opportunity but it’s different for them just because it’s different. Right. Because back then it was the only way you could do it is get in your truck and drive and go and

CJ:                                          [00:27:11]               like Internet as heavy as we do.

Stephen:                             [00:27:13]               Right. And so now, but you’re doing the same thing, you just don’t have to drive for it. Okay. So you go to Thailand for digital mammo. I guess we should mention that, that you’re in Chiang Mai, Thailand and you’re there for what? What are you going to learn there?

CJ:                                          [00:27:28]               I’m there for the digital nomad. Saw me. I’m there to meet a Riley who was there. I’m also was there to meet this guy, other guy named Tex. He, uh, I knew him already. I had met him in Austin actually, so I knew one person going and we had went to a meetup called the green room meet up in Austin and uh, that was like a few years ago and he said he was going to Thailand because he was doing Fba and he had his business all online and he could just do it like that. And I was like, okay, cool. I was like, well, I’m going to Thailand to. I’ll see you there. He’s all right. Cool. And then I hit him up like a week before I’m there and I’m like, Hey, I’m going to be on Thailand. He’s all right. Cool. And then I don’t see him the whole summit. First Day and that night we go to the party on top of my mom or you can see the mountains and there’s bars there. It’s really dope. Uh, and he, I walk up to him and I say, oh, hey, what’s up man? He’s like, oh shoot, you’re here. I’m like, yeah, I made it.

Stephen:                             [00:28:14]               That’s crazy. Think about it all the way around the world and to see likeminded. When you think about where you fit in, was that. Is that. Is that your crowd? I mean when you. When you see that crowd, when you [inaudible] you just spoke at the newest one

CJ:                                          [00:28:29]               talking about that to the summits and the like the meetups and they don’t even have to be national. I like a whole conference. It can just be if you just meet another person that’s like minded, but whenever you’re with the whole team of people that are likeminded, like in focused on one energy, like it just, it just feels like.

Stephen:                             [00:28:45]               What’s that energy? What is energy? It’s just like

CJ:                                          [00:28:49]               you just want to show love to everybody because the opportunity. There’s so much love, like the abundance mindset. There’s so much love out here. There’s so much ways to make money. There’s so much ways to make money on your own time that we can all share and be, you know, everyone finds their own tribe of people they connect with and the people that are like in the same business as them or you know, other people and it’s just like, you make so many connections that you have like it’s Kinda like a coworker that is a nomad. You’re not necessarily like working biome where you’re at, but you can video chat them. You can chat it up. I had one girl, a Marie shout out to Marie. She, uh, helped me out with some photoshop, photoshop girl that lives in New York City and does some stuff. And she got on there with me for 40 minutes, an hour for like, she didn’t even charge me. She just showed me looks because we met at that conference. It’s all about networking. It’s all about collaborations and it’s all about so in love and sharing what you know with other people

Stephen:                             [00:29:40]               that love. Do

CJ:                                          [00:29:41]               you think it comes from gratefulness? Because I’ve heard you say that a little bit, that you know this opportunity and there’s so many ways to make money in this and you got to be grateful for that. Right? Yes. I was so grateful because when I was between jobs, when I look, when that corporate job and I split ways, let’s say, uh, that gave me a second.

Stephen:                             [00:30:03]               You agreed. You both agree that it’s time you move on. We got it. Yeah. That’s all right.

CJ:                                          [00:30:08]               But I did it strategically to where, you know, also had marched by Amazon. That pretty much was the foundation of my money coming in to pay all my bills and feed my family and do whatever I needed to do.

Stephen:                             [00:30:19]               Okay. So, so, um, I think that, that love phrase where you get a bunch of likeminded people that are helping each other because they want to see you be successful and that goes against everything that you were taught. It’s, get ahead, got to get ahead. You got to get ahead. You’ve got to do better than the guy next to you. You got to do that. No, you don’t have to, you. He can be just as successful, matter of fact, he might be more successful than you and if that’s his thing, that’s awesome. What you want is your success. That’s relative to you, right? What you’re looking for. I think that that is such another big difference in today’s society versus what your parents grew up with, which, which is my age. Your parents would probably my age. And so it’s, uh, it’s very, it’s a very different world and what I’m, what cool to me, and that’s why I’m wanting to do this interview, is that you figured this out at a young age and, and you appreciate it.

Stephen:                             [00:31:10]               I guess that’s it. It’s not like you’re taking it for granted. You’re putting the effort in, you’re doing the work that, that’s grateful. And to me that’s a very, very cool place to be as a dad looking down at his son, I’d be like, all right, that guy gets it. I appreciate that. You get it so much means a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So merch by Amazon, when did you start and, uh, do you think you have a skill set? I mean, oh, well, let’s talk about which skillset set in March do you have? Because some people are great listers, some people are artists and they know how to do all that stuff. Some people are know how to hire well and outsource and they have deep pockets. What are you?

CJ:                                          [00:31:50]               I say I’m a type of,

CJ:                                          [00:31:54]               uh, it makes it a little bit all, all I, I feel like I’m more of like I can see something and if I think it looks good, I can recreate it my own way and I can do that with the APP on my phone and I just do like a lot of basic texts, you know, basic white text on black shirt is like my forte. And uh, other than that, I’ll just outsource. Like my little brother, he’s an illustrator. I just moved him out here to Dallas. He started his first day of college two weeks ago as a graphic designer. I got him an internship where I work currently for a nonprofit, uh, that, that effect that pretty much pretty much help out native Americans in dfw or anywhere really in Texas.

Speaker 5:                           [00:32:30]               Um,

CJ:                                          [00:32:31]               you know, with different healthcare and different scholarships and things for students, internships and stuff like that. Yeah.

Stephen:                             [00:32:36]               So, so for you, you, you say you put your own twist on it, you know, people can hear in your voice, you’ve got a little bit of an artist in, you write music artists, I can hear it right. A little bit of it. Right. Is that, is that a, is that a twist that you put on? Is that a, is that an advantage you have because you do that?

CJ:                                          [00:32:56]               I think that is part of a just culture growing up of like hip hop, recognizing hip hop, like hip hop is pretty much a big super huge trend. It’s like it’s like the biggest trend out there probably right now, you know, it’s ever been ever. It’s always been and I just like to follow trends of hip hop and things like that and things in my world and things that I like.

Stephen:                             [00:33:17]               No. And then you spin it though unmerge. Exactly. That’s a pro tip right there. So if you’re into something, spin it, don’t try to fake it.

CJ:                                          [00:33:27]               Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have, I have sourced outsourced like my first shirts that I designed a. I didn’t design them technically on the computer and click the buttons, but I had the vision. I said, hey, this is my vision. Can you do this? So Hustler hacks, Glenwood Hustler hacks. I’ll tell you what the merchant minds like, those are the, like I met them a long time ago at one of the meetups and we went out and we played foosball. We got drinks, we kicked it with your voice, talking, talking like, you know, how we’re doing this, talking games, I’ll, you know, business talk and you know, all this stuff. And that was a really dope tonsil. Shout out to them.

Stephen:                             [00:33:58]               I think, uh, I think that that is one of the best things that I’ve heard is you take your spin, the stuff that you’re into and you apply it to that business because if you’re into country music, right, let’s just take another example. And you then take that approach to your merchant and then that passion shows and do it different with your spin. And I just think that that’s what makes it unique. Otherwise, you know, every shirt is going to look exactly the same. So I think it’s very cool. Now you built that into a significant piece of this digital nomad life that you’re building, right? I mean, is it a foundation? Yeah. Is it the way you’re looking at? Is it a foundation? Is that how you look at it?

CJ:                                          [00:34:36]               Yeah, so like I feel like merck is a door. It’s like another tool, another resource, just like Ebay was just like Amazon Fba was. I don’t think this is the end all, be all. I think this is like what’s opening the door for me to like move around and connect and build a business. I don’t think this is the end. I don’t know what the end is, but I’m excited.

Stephen:                             [00:34:54]               Yeah, it. Well you can hear it in your voice, but it gives you, like you said, an opening and each one of these things build that experience you learned on Ebay, helped you get on Amazon that Amazon experience helps you sell merch by Amazon. Right? And so all of those things build on each other. Um, the other thing it’s done is it’s giving you access to these impressive people. So now let’s talk about digital nomads. So some people are saying, what do you keeps using this phrase, digital, digital nomad, digital nomad mean to you? Yeah. What does that mean to you? Because I think it could be different for everybody.

CJ:                                          [00:35:25]               Yeah. So, you know, a digital nomad, a pretty much of what I’ve experienced a meeting different, a different digital nomads and different people who call themselves that or don’t really call themselves that, you know, just you talking about what they do. Uh, if someone that’s like a location independent person, like you don’t have to be in one place at all times, you can move around, you can hop different cities, you can be a live in a whole nother country. You know, you could do whatever your style is. Like if you want to go six months here and six months back in the US, you know, whatever you want to do. If you’re nomadic, if you, if you’re on that mindset where you’re not tied down to a place that you can move around and you can also make money and you know, you don’t have to actually just make money online. You could go travel, you do a Gig, do something you know, and make money that way. You don’t have to necessarily make money online to be a digital nomad, but that’s what a lot of people are doing because it’s so freeing. It’s like that freedom of, of just being able to go where you want whenever you want to, and also connect with other people that are just like you.

Stephen:                             [00:36:27]               Yeah. I think it takes away a lot of the negative to the heavy travel because you know what’s cool about your shirts, for example, when they sell, they sell. You’re not involved in any more than that, right? You don’t have to worry about packing them up and shipping them in. Right. But if you’re a, if you’re an artist, I’m a comedian and you’re traveling, you’ve got to get to the show by [8:00], right? You got to be there and you got to make sure their tickets are sold and then you’ve got to stay, you know, you know what I mean? That’s restrictive. What you’re describing, the digital version, I think takes away even more restrictions from a lot of those independent because you’re right, because it could be a, somebody who owns, um, owns a business, but the has a manager running their business, right? That they could be a digital, could be a nomad, excuse me. They could be, they could live in another country because the responsibility is different

CJ:                                          [00:37:16]               like that and communicate with your team, you know, working, you know, that’s still digital pretty much that

Stephen:                             [00:37:21]               it, it’s, it’s a fascinating way of life when you look at the age of the people going to the digital nomad, how, how, uh, how gray is the audience?

CJ:                                          [00:37:32]               Well, um, I’m trying to inspire people to go with me this January 20, 19, January 15th, we’re headed out, we’re going to land on the 17th. We’re going to have one day to vibe and just collect our thoughts with the city. And then boom, we’re going to the mixture of the next day. So, uh,

Stephen:                             [00:37:47]               where’s that? Where’s this one going to be? This one’s in Chiang Mai, Thailand in Thailand. This because it was just in Vegas and we’re gonna talk about that in a second. So I was asking this question was how gray was the audience? Meaning how old? How old?

CJ:                                          [00:37:58]               How old was I? Oh, how great. I thought, you know, because I’m an old man with gray hair. There’s a good amount. There’s a really. Yeah, it’s awesome. When you wrote out with digital nomad group, you know when you’re rolling up to the club, you might have like a grandpa 60 year old making like 30, 30 k, you know, drop shipping on Ebay and you might have like a, like a girl that’s like a mom. You might have, you know, some other chicks or you might have your homeboy like this little boy rj. It’s Filipino, like we all look so different shapes and sizes. But one thing that’s so great about us is our mindsets are the same.

Stephen:                             [00:38:34]               You that, that,

CJ:                                          [00:38:36]               that 60 year old grandfather making 30 g’s a strap shipping on Ebay because of the lifestyle that they live. Right? Because typically when you have this digital nomad lifestyle, it’s a more modest lifestyle as you described it. Most. Everything you had was on your back, right? Yeah. And that’s not that unusual, right? Isn’t that one of the other thing that’s very freeing about this lifestyle is you really don’t have a lot of bills when you’re that location independent, right. You, you have, wherever you’re living that cost for that night, right? And your meals, but you don’t carry a lot of other. Most people don’t have cars, right? They don’t have car insurance, therefore, and Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. That other piece of it, you can live on a lot less. Correct. [inaudible], you can move around, you can get mopeds. You can do in Chiang Mai. You can do a dollar us and he’ll take you almost anywhere in the city. Like you’re good

Stephen:                             [00:39:27]               when, when, uh, now do you have kids yet?

CJ:                                          [00:39:30]               Yeah, I have a son. He’s four. He’s just about to be five on the 20th of October.

Stephen:                             [00:39:35]               So how is that going to work? Wanting to be a digital nomad. Now, looking back at your experience of being a nomad with your dad, right? And traveling, how different is it for you with

New Speaker:                   [00:39:46]               or your old to do that right now? He couldn’t come, but I, I’m putting that into his mindset of, you know, those types of things. He’s already in love with Youtube. He watches a toy reviews in different languages and stuff like, you understand what they’re saying is they’re like these Russian people like playing with the newest toys and stuff like that. Uh, and he was like, yeah, I understand they’re displaying. I’m like, okay, cool. So He’s already in that. He’s a dreamer, kind of like me. My mom says he’s a dreamer. I was, I’m a big daydreamer. Like I’ll just zone out and just dream and think about something and,

CJ:                                          [00:40:19]               and just zone out and just be like, oh, well, you know, back to reality,

Stephen:                             [00:40:23]               you know, I was reading on the digital nomad site, what it’s about. Um, it’s for those who wanted to live a different life far away from the rat race and the nine to five cubicle office for people who want to live free and take charge of their own lives. So when you’re at that event, do you really feel free, I mean, is it like if somebody’s looking at the clock, hey, we got to get started, hey we gotta get to here, we got to make this, you know, or is it like, is that, is it really a Cil level even for the event,

CJ:                                          [00:40:51]               for the main event? I would say, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s all clockwork. Johnny gets that down. He always recruits a good team. They have like camera guys, they got, you know, they got a different tables and booths. They have, you know, runners, they got people who are guiding the show. They got a pretty good production I would say. And I think on the workshop days, you know, the workshop days are a little bit more relaxed, you know, like the speakers are pretty much just running their own workshop. You can do different activities. You can, you know, do it was my style, I just showed pretty much how someone had to actually make a shirt and I uploaded it and I made pretty much a nomad shirt and then I said, if y’all want to go buy him a boat and at cost right now I’m only making nine cents go by and then a few people bought it and so I’m actually gonna actually kind of brand that shirt and put it out to different people that are also nomadic that I know that, that are in Dallas. There’s other people in Dallas that are nomadic, uh, that live entrepreneur lifestyle that are pretty much, they don’t even know what they are, but there are digital nomads.

Stephen:                             [00:41:45]               How different was it for you to be asked to speak as opposed to being an attendee? I mean, I had to be a big deal for you.

CJ:                                          [00:41:52]               Yeah, so pretty much I applied to speak. You have to apply. They go through the application process like they have. They have been down to the whole nine yards and it’s really good. It’s really good.

Stephen:                             [00:42:01]               Thank you. We’re going to get accepted. Did you know? I knew I was going to get accepted. There you go. Alright. I like it. I like there’s a confidence about you. I like it. I was like, I just went. I met, I met Johnny there. I didn’t know for sure because I didn’t really have a relationship with johnny, but it was like I had, I had already put my mind to it already locked it in and I was like, I’m getting into this show and if I’m not getting into the show, I’m still going to the summit, you know what I’m saying? You believe in that stuff. Correct. If you put your mind in those places, where does that come from? I think it just comes from,

CJ:                                          [00:42:35]               I don’t know, just trying to stay positive out of a, out of negative situations, dreaming, being a daydreamer. Like I said, I’m a daydreamer. I like to dream of like big things,

Stephen:                             [00:42:45]               so, so that negativity though. How do you, how do you get past it? Because it happens in everybody, right? I mean think about it, right? Everybody happens. I would say find people that are like you and group up in a

New Speaker:                   [00:42:58]               like a support system whenever you’re a nomad. That’s great thing about being a nomad. A. Sometimes you are a lonely, like there’s this. They had a whole presentation about one person, you know about it. I’m not complete. No Man yet. I’m still working for a nonprofit and I’m working my way. You know, everyone’s on their own spectrum of being a digital nomad and I’m working my way in sharing my journey and going. I’m still going.

Stephen:                             [00:43:19]               When, what do you think you’re gonna have to give up to be a digital nomad? Is that. I mean, does it frighten you?

CJ:                                          [00:43:25]               I have, I would have to give up. So right now I’m working for a nonprofit for native Americans and right now I feel like I’m kind of just happened to put it in my work, put it in, like earned my stripes, you know, pay my dues to my peoples, my culture, help out my people, use the skills that I got in college. I might as well use them for you.

New Speaker:                   [00:43:42]               Good. You know, uh, use that skills. I did collect a lot of core skill from that corporate job that I had and I have a whole story for that, uh, have, have my side of the US will turn them on, main hustle that for that. And uh, that corporate job gave me the skill set that I have now two for this nonprofit. So I took what I learned in the corporate world and in college and I brought it back to my community and I feel like I’m kind of earning my stripes. My brother had an internship this summer. They got my sister and my brother and scholarship, you know,

Stephen:                             [00:44:10]               so it’s a big deal. I mean, this is, you know, this, this effort that you put in a new college now is changing your family. A family of nine. Luckily one gets to go to college. Not, not, sounds like a couple, three of us right now, three right now, man, that’s a big deal. I mean, everybody listening is going to feel good that. Okay, so, so you are building out this life. You have this job, um, that’s related to what you did. You build it into a side hustle, you’re building out your merchant business, you do still do a little bit of flipping on the side, right? Be a little bit, little bit, not too much. You’re getting ready to start a podcast, which I’ve been a hold of detail. You’re going to start this podcast, right? And your goal being to do what I mean, because I was thinking about, you know, one of the questions I asked is that this is this an opportunity because of white man understanding.

Stephen:                             [00:45:04]               So we qualified it. And again, I did ask a cj if I can ask this with trying to be mindful and respectful, but, you know, one of the things that I’ve always been told is that it’s very difficult for jobs. Um, and I’m on reservations, you know, and maybe it’s more rural or reservations than not, but it’s just a challenge. Is this opportunity because it does sound very entrepreneurial to teach this internet, to give them access to this internet world. Um, is this an opportunity that exists and this is an upper. Is this an opportunity for you to touch that community,

New Speaker:                   [00:45:39]               to touch the native community pretty much back on reservations and people who, well, not necessarily,

Stephen:                             [00:45:43]               you don’t have to do it on the reservations, but to touch and to expose that this opportunity exists and there, but the, uh, I always say they’re about an education goes some of the best people in the world. They just don’t have access to this stuff. Like

New Speaker:                   [00:45:56]               I felt pretty much everyone that I know about merch by Amazon have a facebook group with my homeboy rj. We collabed on that. He already had it and we kind of teamed up on it now and we have a whole group of people in there helping out each other. You know, there’s a whole community on Instagram, a shout out to Rj Martinez and merge elephant. They’re real cool on instagram that always show a lot of love.

Stephen:                             [00:46:16]               And so, so you’re getting a way to touch back into that community by doing it this way. All right, that’s very cool. That’s what I was hoping.

New Speaker:                   [00:46:22]               No, I tell every single person, uh, I got my sister and my brother are applying for, to be approved. My brother’s the illustrator. He’s already working on stuff. My character, I’m on Instagram, he drew that. He’s a dope illustrator. He’s, he’s learned in design right now. But uh, for like what the pen tool or a real pencil mechanical pencil or whatever you have,

Stephen:                             [00:46:41]               he’s sick. Is your, your image on instagram? It is phenomenal. I mean, it really is good. I mean it’s, it’s looks like a, a, um, a comic book. I mean, it’s that level of quality. I mean, it’s really good. Yeah, he’s wrong. He’s wrong. So I think we understand where you’re going, which is eventually to be completely free and that doesn’t mean. Well, I was going to say, that doesn’t mean that you’ll might leave your area. Right. But just not having any shackles at all. Sounds very attractive to you.

New Speaker:                   [00:47:11]               Yeah, I might stay, you know, I might go for a little while, come back. Right. You know, I might just go travel, uh, I might just go to Oklahoma for a little while. I might just, uh, you know, go to Florida, go back to the reservation. I haven’t been back there since I was a kid. I want to see what that’s like, you know, maybe I’ll go to Thailand, maybe I’ll go wherever. I like when you go to the digital nomads siblings and stuff, you meet so many people and there’s other nomads going to other places. Like one girl was like, oh, it’s my birthday next week and I’m going to Cabo. Who wants to go? And then everyone’s like, oh, there’s like a couple guys, like, oh, I’ll go with you. And then they bought their flight and I was like, man, that’s what I’m working towards. That’s what I mean.

Stephen:                             [00:47:44]               Just imagine that everybody is sitting there saying, wait a second, you’re sitting in Thailand and somebody’s like, hey, let’s go to Cabo, everybody. And it was like, okay,

New Speaker:                   [00:47:53]               sure. Oh, that was when I was in Vegas. But Vegas. But yeah, in Thailand too, everyone’s like, oh, let’s go to Bangkok or let’s go to the islands or you know, where are you going next? Let’s go to Hong Kong. You know, it was only three hour flight. You know, there’s, there’s tons of things you can

Stephen:                             [00:48:05]               do. This freedom is real. When, when, when you think about freedom, what is it to you? Is it, is it money? Is it location, is it time? What is it for you? I feel like it,

New Speaker:                   [00:48:17]               it’s a balance of having enough money to be able to pay for things that you need and people you want to take care of. So if you had a mount and I’ll also given back to your community some way, if it’s through a scholarship and Mr something, um, you know, I wouldn’t be having enough money to give back to the community and build, build, build up on this, you know, give back to different, you know, I want to have a scholarship for someone that went to my high school

Stephen:                             [00:48:44]               that’s native American, you know, things like that. So you could change their life to the way yours has been traveling

New Speaker:                   [00:48:50]               money out. Like when I was growing up in high school, I always was hustling and stuff and always just wanted money, money, money. I was always just like, no, I want the money because I wouldn’t be able to take care of my people pretty much and you know, it always wasn’t just about me getting nice things. It was about making sure everyone else was good.

Stephen:                             [00:49:07]               Hmm. So when I think about next steps for you, so let’s, let’s get this commitment from you. You’re going to launch this podcast soon, right? When podcast soon. I don’t have a date yet, but if you don’t want to hear you by the end of October. Oh yeah, I should definitely be launched, but I’m going to hold you up to that. I’m going to go back and check. I’m going to personally check on you to make sure that you do this because it’s an important piece of getting your story out, right? That’s part of what you want to do. So you’ve got to, you’ve got to follow through and that. Okay. And you definitely plan on going to the next digital nomads summit in January 15th through. I’m trying to. I’m getting off for four weeks is what is my goal is. So for weeks ago, most of the people that I’ve recruited to go with me to like have a, you know, a pack pack of people are pretty much, you know, a group

New Speaker:                   [00:49:56]               like a, you know, a tribe, they’re going to go for about a week from some, from the 15th though, head out from wherever their homes are. I’m heading out from Dallas and the 15th, uh, will land. They’re like the 17th, uh, and we’ll have that day to chill. And then the 18th is the mixer and that you go out that night. And then Saturday is the big conference day, like the Summit Day, uh, with all the guest speakers. That’s where most of the people are, you know, have you have a lunch, there’s like three levels of food is, it’s crazy. It’s amazing that someone is just so much energy. There’s walking around high and everybody, you just feel it

Stephen:                             [00:50:29]               because everybody’s grateful that they had this opportunity. How much money does it cost for somebody? So when you’re sitting here listening and they’re saying you got a, you got to see it as an investment. Cj would tell you, Ryan, I’m going to put words in your mouth, but this has been one of the biggest investments that you’ve made and and it’s changed your life. It wasn’t just an investment, it was like a vacation investment. You know what I’m saying? It reset you. Yeah, it really did. So how much does it cost for somebody?

New Speaker:                   [00:50:57]               My flight was 1100. If you buy it early, you can probably get it tonight. 100 or something. But I met this guy who’s like a master with credit cards and American Airlines cards and stuff where he can get a flight super cheap. So I’m trying to learn that craft, you know, but there’s people that when you go to summits, there’s ways to do things that you never heard of. I was like, really? Okay, well I’ll check it out, you know, but he is real. He does, he does that. He gets she lives by doing something like that. But in reality, if you just want to buy it yourself, it’ll probably be around a thousand bucks.

Stephen:                             [00:51:27]               Okay. And then, uh, the event itself, how much is this summit team member?

New Speaker:                   [00:51:31]               It’s not me. I think was $100 or $200.

Stephen:                             [00:51:35]               Okay. So it’s dirt cheap and when you’re there

New Speaker:                   [00:51:39]               it’s like we don’t want that to be a barrier. You don’t want that to be a barrier to you to come, you know the tickets like a lot.

Stephen:                             [00:51:45]               Okay. And so the housing and meals in Thailand is pretty inexpensive? Correct.

New Speaker:                   [00:51:53]               The housing is super cheap. You can get, like if you go for longer, you can get like an, a one bedroom apartment, you know, for like not too much, like maybe suit 5,300, maybe even cheaper. I know one of my homeboys is living on one of those hotels, hostels, things like it’s a, it’s kind of like a hotel, but the, you know, they come and clean your room but you don’t share it like it’s your own room, one bedroom, one bath and do to $50 a month or a month. But if you go from my week, my week was one 87 because I was only there for a week if you don’t, if you don’t do it. But I went, I bought mine straight off AIRBNB. I went to new Brown, like I didn’t go my first time. There’s like, if you get to these groups and you ask people and you make connections, like I know a guy named Max fraud, he’s a local out there, his wife is Thai and he pretty much, you know, he has a lot of connections. He hooked me up with the elephant walk, you know, he did his thing with, you know, a lot of things. I bust everything.

Stephen:                             [00:52:48]               And so that’s the trick is you got to find your way in. Okay. So, so that event is in January. If you have any interest and we’re going to have a CJ’s contact for this. So you spoke at the last one. How did that change you in any way? I mean a, you probably walk a little taller, right? A little more confident, right? Because you now have some recognition. People know, you write your, you, you, uh, stand out a little bit. Does that change you now going forward because you kind of, you’ve kind of established yourself, you kind of said, hey, this is me now. I’m that guy. You got to follow through with that. Right,

New Speaker:                   [00:53:21]               exactly. I got to keep it going. I got to keep the energy up and what I’m doing is I’m just being, trying to be active in my facebook group, keep people around me that are doing the same thing as me, keep engaging with people on instagram, like all the homies that are on instagram and just keep, keep that alive and also like talk with my brother, do some artistic things, say, hey, design this this way. Like, keep the dream going even though I’m not in the city of back at my nonprofit position where I work at right now. Uh, and it’s still pretty, you know, it’s, it’s good. It’s, I liked that job, but you know, I still want to be completely free.

Stephen:                             [00:53:57]               You, he been your building. I always describe it this way. It’s like a master plan. You build this garden right? Your plan is to build the garden. Well, you can’t put it all in one year, so you gotTa, you know, put segments in and every time you add something it’s always working towards that master plan. And that sounds like what you’re doing.

New Speaker:                   [00:54:12]               Oh, that’s a beautiful analogy because that’s crazy because we actually have a garden where I work at nonprofits, the community garden.

Stephen:                             [00:54:19]               So there you go. See you think about that, right? It’s brilliant. Ooh, we a little chills coming up my spine. It’s very cool to me too. I know. It’s very cool to me too, is that uh, you didn’t fail at Ebay. You didn’t fail it. FBA. You didn’t jump into private label and fail you, uh, you’re having success with, um, merge because you’ve weaved and bobbed and found something that makes sense for you. And I hope other people hear that and sit back and say, but wait, Steve Freaken says I need to sell. And I love Steve. Steve and I are friends. You’ve got to sell blazers. And it’s like, well no, you don’t have to sell Blazer Steve. Right? Steve knows that. But it’s true though, right? I mean, you don’t have to do all these things is the shiny objects syndrome is real. Everything everybody puts it makes it look attractive to be honest. Well, and, but it, it makes they make it look attractive and it looks like, Oh yeah, that’s the answer. That’s the answer. Well that’s not the answer for you perhaps. So figure it out the right one for you. And Youtube.

New Speaker:                   [00:55:22]               Not For me. Like I cannot keep up with orders unless I have someone working for me. Like I don’t like that one officer being I realized that’s not for me, but I appreciate the skills that I learned from that platform and I still use it today.

Stephen:                             [00:55:33]               Well I have, I have an amazing interview coming out with Prince Patel by the time this comes out. Okay.

New Speaker:                   [00:55:38]               Hey Dude,

Stephen:                             [00:55:40]               it sounds a million dollars a year on Ebay. Ebay. Very few skews, but he’s an outlier and he’s legit and that’s his lane right now. Right? And so, but that’s him. And so that’s cool. And Yours is merged right now for what you’re doing and it’s filling in that gap and you’re working towards something. I think it’s a very, very cool. Alright, so let’s do this. Before I ask my final question, I want to make sure that people, if they want to, if this is interesting to you and I hope it’s interesting to a whole bunch of people that are single, that don’t have a lot of responsibility and they’re like, man, I would love to see the world will see Jay will tell you that there is a way to do this and now is the time to do it. Um, go to the digital nomad summit. I don’t benefit in any other way other than seeing you have success. So please

New Speaker:                   [00:56:26]               and go to the top of the mountain, get blessed by Buddhist monk and receive your wristband and go back and flourish

Stephen:                             [00:56:34]               and your life changed, right? You can change your life.

New Speaker:                   [00:56:37]               It will change your life. If you come out to Chiang Mai, Thailand in January for the digital nomad summit, any of those discomfort, the summit, if you can’t come for long because that’s where all it’s going to be like 507 digital nomad or entrepreneurs on different spectrums. You know, some people might just be, what is this, you know, I’m interested, I want to learn how to make money online. Or some people might be making 30 k a month or some people might be just bawling, you know, people are all in their own spectrums, but everyone respects that journey, you know?

Stephen:                             [00:57:04]               Yeah. And, and there’s no judgment about the person who’s doing small because everybody started somewhere. And I, again, that’s what’s so attractive. Again, that’s where that love is, right? That gratefulness. Imagine being around. All right, let’s pause for a second because I’m getting the chills thinking about this. Imagine, right? I think of all the stress that we’re all under and imagine being around a group of people who are so grateful for the opportunity and the chances that they’ve been given and they took advantage of that. They’re all given out love. They’re all high fiving each other. They’re all and not like in a, um, amway kind of way. I don’t mean to be negative day anyway. I’m sure there’s a place for that. But, uh, but, but I mean, this isn’t fake phony. This is cool. I mean, it’s like, you know, cult, it’s cultish, it’s just, it’s the cool part of a uh, oh, you called it a tribe. That’s your phrase, right? That’s back to you being a tribal.

New Speaker:                   [00:58:04]               Yeah, and arson nomads, nomads that people throw tribe around. It’s cool. Like everyone is on the tribe, you know, so like everyone finds their tribe of people who were into the same thing they’re in or people who are doing something they need to learn about like ads or something or ad funnels and all this and that. Like you just mix and mingle with people that can help you out.

Stephen:                             [00:58:23]               Pretty much. I love to be around a whole group of people that just want to give love and grateful. Oh, mentioned it.

New Speaker:                   [00:58:29]               Everybody in your world was grateful going to a Thai, Thai food, just going out, hanging out, maybe having a drink, going out, just talking business, having fun, you know, it’s like, it’s so like you could be talking business in the club or you can just be feet and elephants and the waterfalls, or you can be going up to the mountain top and just talking business. Talking about bitcoin and stuff, you know, it’s just crazy. It’s like, it’s like, it’s not like on and off. It’s like an ongoing freedom where you can do business and what you want. At the same time.

Stephen:                             [00:59:00]               It’s very sexy again, twice cj sexy because it gets very, very cool. All right, so if somebody wants to find out more about you, wants to get in touch with you, follow up please. I hope you follow up on this. If this is any spark in your life, if you’re losing life in your soul and you’re saying I need to recharge, this might be the thing. Please consider it. Um, what’s the best way to get in touch with you about this?

New Speaker:                   [00:59:25]               That’s what hit me up on instagram. Follow me on instagram at chief stacks. His dough stacks has doe d o e dot a as a deer, a female deer. Uh, and uh, I have all my information. I have all my links there. I have my link to my website or you know, different interviews, uh, others immersed by Amazon Guide. I’m collabing with this other guy. We’re going to revitalize the push out a new one. Uh, you know, there’s a video, there’s all types of other, other resources there and that’s where they could also talk to you about this event to, to me, hit me up in the side of my dms just through the Thailand, the Thailand flag and don’t know what’s up and stops you out and say what’s up and talk to you and see

Stephen:                             [01:00:07]               again if you go and you know, somebody that’s very powerful, that really

New Speaker:                   [01:00:10]               takes away the nervousness. Many people came up to me, they were like, I was really on the fence cj, but you made me want to go. And they bought their ticket that day and showed me. I was like, wow. I was, I’ll think about that.

Stephen:                             [01:00:22]               I think about whose life did you change? You never know who’s listening, right? That’s one of the things that you gotta think about. You never know who’s listening and you might’ve changed somebody’s life.

New Speaker:                   [01:00:33]               Yeah, I mean, shout out. That’s powerful. Out to Riley. Shout out to Johnny, FD shout out to uh, Glen with Hustler Hack Shit out to young. All those people, Rj Martinez, our day Mac, like if I forget anybody that you know, the green room of people, all those people were very important to my success and it’s crazy because it was like your facebook groups and Youtube and instagram that I’ve built, these coworkers are like these peers are these mentors. Tribe. Yeah. This whole just, you know, movement and everyone was vital in my success to learn this, learn that, learn. They started that. Oh, and everyone was always helpful when I went to meetups. Just started with those meetups back in Austin. So.

Stephen:                             [01:01:13]               And now you get a chance to give it back to me. That’s somebody who gets it right. That’s somebody who doesn’t forget that he was given that chance. I love it. Okay. All right. So, so the goal with this podcast is to help people who get stuck, right? Because that’s, I think a lot of people, you know, they’re, they’re selling on Ebay or they’re selling on Amazon or they’re doing private label where they’re doing wholesale were they are selling on etsy or they’re writing a blog or they haven’t started their podcast cj. And so they get stuck, life happens, right? Let’s have some of your best advice on how to get past the point of stuck.

New Speaker:                   [01:01:49]               I would say find someone with your mindset and clean to them. Call them, put them, make them one of your best friends. For example, when I went to the summit, I met this dude named Jay Mac. Oh, he’s a Filipino guy. He’s already doing burglaries. She’s running to a shopify store for another company. Like he’s already working remotely. He’s already doing his thing and me and him are calling on the same level and we kind of are stuck at this little, like we’re stuck at this level to where we’re comfortable. But, you know, we’re almost, you know, we could, we’re not great, but you know, we can make more money. We could do other things. We could change it up, spice it up, you know. And we were both like, we agree, like we met for a reason. It was crazy how we met because I was going down, uh, to go to the workshops.

New Speaker:                   [01:02:29]               It was the worst tops on Sunday at 11. And uh, it was like 10 something 10, oh five. And I go to go to the elevator and boom, there it is. And I’m like, Hey, what’s up man? And I was his, I was like, where are you going? He’s like, I’m going to the champagne brunch real quick. Oh cool. I’ll go have like a understand pain or get some brunch, you know. So we started talking and then I’m like, okay, well I think I’m going up. I don’t know what position I made. I think I might be second or third, I might be number one. I don’t know. And he’s like, yeah, you’re number one. I was like, okay, cool. So it was like 10, 45 and he’s like, he’s like, so how are you going to perform or do your workshop? I was, I was going to log in and show them how to do it, show them the dashboard.

New Speaker:                   [01:03:04]               We actually show them how to create a shirt on their phone through an APP called over. And then pretty much we just, he said, what do you want me to show them about Bertrand former and stuff like that. I was like, yeah, I don’t really know nothing about that, but that’s your style. We can just tag team this and get it done. Right, and that vibe, that medium had we just like put together a workshop. It’s like that. Pretty much. I had a good idea what I wanted to do, but our vibe made a connection and pretty much on our same level. We teamed up and we’re like, uh, his home base is actually in Dallas. His Mom and dad live in Dallas. It’s crazy. So do you have what you’re describing? It’s meant to be. Exactly. It’s meant to be. Shout out to rj Mac too.

Stephen:                             [01:03:38]               So. So that’s the advice then is to find and you have to put yourself out there, right? You have to be uncomfortable to go to Google, go, go, go, go do google something.

New Speaker:                   [01:03:48]               Groups are something that are doing stuff. There’s a group in Dallas called think tank that meet on Tuesdays. That’s a dope ass group of entrepreneurs and Djs and graphic designers and

Stephen:                             [01:03:58]               and they exist today. I always had a meetup this morning, believe it or not, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If you’re interested in that, let me know. Message me, and it was, it blew me away. The level of the people to the coolness and the, as you say, the kindred spirits that the likeminded was phenomenal. Phenomenal. Okay.

New Speaker:                   [01:04:18]               Very good. And it’s amazing because I get to show my brother and sister this lifestyle of like not having to be some somewhere. My brothers, the illustrator, like I’m like, Bro, you’re only 18. You could do this. Like you can be a king by the time you’re 27.

Stephen:                             [01:04:32]               Incredible. I mean, just think about that. You’re exposed. I get the tingles. Dude, I, uh, I’m very excited about this. I will have all the links for instagram and again, I hope somebody who’s interested in somebody who wants to consider this lifestyle. If this is attractive to you and it could be a great, you know, they used to back in the old old days, you know, they used to go backpacking across Europe, right? That was the one that went pretty much. Yeah. It’s the new way of backpacking around the world, but you’re not limited to Europe. You can go anywhere and I think the digital nomads summit sounds so cool and I think it’s such a cool opportunity. So again, I’ll have A. I’ll have cj’s links instagram go look at his picture that his brother did, which is pretty cool. Give them comments on that, but you know, find out some more information if there’s any interest in this. Dude, I really appreciate you taking the time because again, I applaud, I just applaud that you get it, that you realize that there’s a lot more to life and you could touch a lot more lives by doing what you’re doing and I just think the world’s better for it. So thank you so much. I wish you nothing but success.

Stephen:                             [01:05:39]               How cool. Twenty seven years old. I said, dad, you all sitting there like, all right, that’s cool. I want my kid at 27 to have that confidence in his life, the ability to be responsible and know that he’s working towards something. He’s not ready to do it yet. He’s not jumping off without a plan. And to me that’s what makes a cj so special is a. He is figuring it out. He has figured out a bunch of things. He’s figured out stuff he doesn’t like. Right. I like that he’s figured out things that he’s good at, but he doesn’t like, Hey, not my thing, and then he figured out things that he’s really good at and he likes and he’s like, I can do more of this, and so I’m going to build on it and patients. Right? He’s building it out knowing that he’s going somewhere. Again, he knows where he’s going and I just think that that’s so cool. ECOMMERCE momentum.com ecommerce.

Speaker 2:                           [01:06:25]               Thanks for listening to the momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today, it can be found at incomers momentum. Doug, come under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and like us on itunes.

 

Stephen-Peterson

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