How Joseph Juter Built PREPAGENT – The #1 Real Estate Agent Exam Prep Resource

Unknown Speaker 0:01
Unknown Speaker 0:02
This is the digital nomad quest podcast with Sharon Tseung. teaching people how to build passive income, become financially free and design the best lives. Hey guys, it’s Sharon from digital nomad quest today. I’m excited to have Joe from prep agent. How are you doing today? Good. How are you? I am good. Joe and I met because I actually purchased your prep materials for the real estate agent exam and then kind of interviewed me as a testimonial on your YouTube channel. Right. You know, it’s been great knowing you too, because like, I learned that you were a digital nomad before, and then we started relating because you also were from the Bay Area. Right?Unknown Speaker 0:39
Well, I guess by definition of digital nomad, I work from anywhere.Unknown Speaker 0:42
Yeah, I mean, that’s pretty much what I would say as a digital nomad. So that’s pretty cool, like cool, seeing how you’ve built up prep agent, and like, it was super helpful for me. So thank you for creating prep agent, maybe you can tell us a bit about yourself. And I just sort of did an intro, but maybe you can go in depth about your journey and what an agent is, and everything like that. So simply said prep agent is more or less videos and practice exams and different study aids to help people pass the real estate exam, the big thing we did was try and make it more personable, which is why you see me talking all the time. It’s why I got my hat, which I like. And I tried to be more relatable. So it’s not just website, it looks like some ambiguous thing where people purchase study aids, and they don’t really see anybody behind it. So we really tried to give that feeling of an actual person explaining things rather than just an ambiguous site. And it kind of blew up a little bigger than I expected in our YouTube channel is now going to be at 100,000 subscribers soon, right, which is not something we expected from doing real estate exam prep, that with like famous people or music or things like that, it really kind of emphasizes people underestimate the value of a niche. And I guess people also underestimated even myself the value of being relatable these we see all the time, like these beautiful people on Instagram or these famous people on YouTube. And sometimes there’s something to be said for just being really clean, professional, relatable, especially when you’re dealing with something that scares people like real estate exam. Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s already great advice right off the bat. What was your the timeline? So you know, when did you start prep agent? And when did it start picking up and stuff like that? Funny? You mentioned that because I was just talking to my partner last night about when everything started. Yeah, so my first idea to do any form of real estate exam prep at all was in 2004. Wow. Okay, so that was a while ago, but prep agent as you see it now actually really started in 2015 2016. So for years, it was me just struggling a lot of trial and error with fat advice. People help me who say they could do things they could in a basically anybody who’s ever tried to hire people to do stuff from building a house to building a website to anything experienced this is 10 times over two is years and years. There’s just a lot of trial and error and getting going till finally it hit and what really hit was the YouTube channel. So you’re saying like 2004 you had the idea or like you already started kind of taking action on it and like hiring someone to build out the site? or How did that work? thousand four, I hired somebody to build a website and I paid $500. And that was probably too much for what they did. What happened like what do they make? They did some basic probably template website that right now you could probably build from a basic Squarespace thing. And it was terrible. I mean, I’ve endless stories of hiring people that did not come through or over promised or under delivered or things of that nature. Did you build your YouTube channel on 15th? Or was that like a work in progress up till then you so the YouTube channel started before that YouTube channel really took off in August of 2015 actually know the date. And for those guys who work on YouTube channels who try and have a business where you’re working from home, you’ll find that the progress isn’t always this kind of gradual thing, you know, sometimes you just work on it, work on it, work on it, and then something just hits and you know, people smarter than me to kind of figure out why. But for most of us, it’s just like, I don’t know why, but that’s working, you know, and for me, that moment happened in August 2015. And that was a webinar I already was I did a lot of short videos using my head short videos if you want to see that you got to think to yourself like what works for you doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody else wants to see that like you may be unique in my head real estate exam content super boring, as you know, because you studied so if I can make short videos explaining concepts, you know how, you know real estate for dummies, that type of thing, but maybe in a more video animated, simplified way. But what I really liked, which shocked me is one day I just did a webinar with four ladies just talking to him and I put that up and that went boom, underestimated the value of people want to hear a conversation kind of like what we’re doing now. Yeah, makes sense. We’ll just listen to the whole thing. And I actually also learned about YouTube I guess I learned the lesson that YouTube actually rewards you a lot more if you have longer videos, which is some value to understand before Yeah, but if you can maintain people’s attention Then YouTube loves you. I love it. I love how you’re dropping tips already. That’s awesome. But yeah, like before you had that idea and then like hired someone, right? What were you doing? So like, were you an agent? And like, you were just like, Oh, I see the challenges with this. I want to create the site, like, how did that go about?Unknown Speaker 5:17
Well, for this, I was a real estate broker in Los Angeles. So I actually did real estate I understood a lot of people going through, but more importantly, I understood what it was like to be scared of the exam. You see a lot of people who do very well in school who are just very honest, could you know, look at books and sinks in and they sit there and say, Oh, the exam so easy. And I look at them, like, it’s easy for them. That was not me, you know. So even when I was practicing real estate, I saw how many people were scared. Most people get into real estate, it’s their second or third career. And there’s a feeling of fear. Like somebody who goes to law school, graduated law school goes on their job, they’re ready to take on the world, people got into real estate, maybe ready to take on the world. But usually they’ve been burned before. Usually, it’s like they’re coming across, like I got to get this done. Usually they’re coming from a place of fear and desperation. And many people do very well. But I understand where people’s starting point is, it starts with that exam. And I was one of those people, you know, I lost a job, I was trying to figure out what to do. And a lot of people say, you know, what work for somebody didn’t work for me, I need to go on my own. I don’t know anything about starting a business. I don’t know, you know, how to open up a restaurant or how would open a store in a mall. I don’t have any other real skills. I just know, there’s this real estate thing where I get my license, if I could sell a home, I’ll get a commission and I’ll go from there. Maybe if I work really hard, I could do really well. A lot of people are coming that vantage point. So I know I had to kind of relate to people who are scared. People are starting a new career. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. And it’s a, you know, the, the prep materials have been great for me, or were great for me, right? It’s like super easy to consume. So it’s great that you created that. And so after, you know, 2004, you said like you hired someone that didn’t do a good job. Did you hire like another person? And like, Where did you find that? So I found these people through friends or whatnot. And then I tried 20 ideas, this idea that I had this one idea, and I knew it would stick and lasted forever, I always knew is a good idea. I just didn’t really know how to really make it work. I mean, have you ever had an idea? You know, it’s good. But something’s missing. like something’s missing. It’s just why isn’t this working? Something’s not going right. So I tried a lot of different ideas. And the fact is, and this may help people to know is, I have no background in programming. I know one question on asking about programming, I had no background in programming, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know difference between HTML, Java, or any of that is on the web means, you know, I mean, I was sitting there calling the GoDaddy rep have hoping they don’t screw me and hoping to get through it just like anybody else. Trying to find websites, I could build it myself, I was missing a basic understanding of a lot of stuff. And you know, so I tried many different ideas before this phone work. When you say like different ideas, you mean different completely different business ideas, or you’re saying like with the site, you did different things, or like, had different stuff on it a little calm a little from column B. So I tried different businesses with different some in the youth sports realm. Other things within real estate, try to open house side, I tried a broker search site, I tried different things with the current one, he’s also is limited by my ability, you know, and so this really probe agent took off of that YouTube channel, but then it took off more where I reconnected at a very serendipitous time, hopefully, I’m using that word correctly, with an old friend who you know, connected with me. And we just kind of reconnected at a perfect time in our lives. And he was more technically savvy with all this stuff than I am. But a lot of people in the webinars here. He mentioned a guy named Arthur on the webinars if you ever listened to it, and he became the Yin to my Yang, and everything really kind of took off. Oh, cool. So you said the YouTube channel took off? Was the site already built with the quizzes and all that stuff yet? Or was that like later? Yeah, it was I was on a WordPress site before. And you know, I hired a guy who’s very nice guy who helped me build a WordPress site, then the YouTube channel took off didn’t really well. Then when he came into picture, he kind of knew how to make everything I was going and make it really work. Well, like really taking the next level, I kind of uses the analogy with us that I built up a Pinto, and he took the Pinto and turn it into a Ferrari. You know, okay, cool. And then like, in terms of the marketing you did for the business, would you just say like, YouTube was the main thing, like you just started giving out that free content. And then people just started, you know, coming in and like wanting to learn more? Yeah, I think that was a big thing. We gave away a lot of free content to people to get a lot of viewers and a lot of people get into the site. That was huge. And people underestimate free content. At the end of day, you got to get people to your website. Yeah, I mean, I feel like you give away like a lot of material already. And then people end up just wanting to buy it because they want the quizzes and then the step by step and all that stuff. So I definitely feel like giving that educational value just brings people in and then you can if they want one step further for you. Yeah. people emailing us, offering us to give us money.Unknown Speaker 9:56
Wow. Really?Unknown Speaker 9:57
Yeah, because they’re just like, you know what, I just want To watch YouTube videos I chose is really helpful. It gives so much free work and I donate like, you know, write a nice review. Yeah, does the free content, it really builds a nice rapport with people and it helps build you reviews too, because there’s that many more people who are now using it when they paid for it or not. They’re using your stuff they’re listening to you. And that builds a lot of reviews. And as you know, not people, not a lot of people gonna write a bad review and they haven’t given you money. Mm hmm. Yeah. So they’re using your stuff for free. They’re gonna end those reviews are powerful right now on Facebook. I think we have almost 805 star reviews.

Unknown Speaker 10:34
Wow. Okay, that’s Kaley.

Unknown Speaker 10:36
Yeah, that’s another reason. And they’re they they kind of go on LinkedIn, they go on all the comments. If you look at the comments of the YouTube videos, or the comment on Instagram, you see a lot of positivity, the free content, let’s just give like tons of five stars, right? That’s amazing. Our website is pretty good, too. It said you used it. So it wasn’t just getting five stars because of the free content. I think when people do buy it, you know, they’re pretty happy with Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I felt the same way. I was like, Oh, this is great. Like, it gives you much more past the free content too. So that’s awesome. I feel like that’s kind of like a marketing strategy that you use really well, where you like, get in touch with your students that have succeeded and try to see their what their experiences and then share that with the world. Are there other like marketing tactics you guys use? Or was it mainly those two? Well, from my standpoint, like I said, my partner does the more technical stuff. So another day, you know, you could talk to him if you want, but the more technical side, but for me, my side is all about making it relatable. And a big part of it was what you’re talking about, which was interviewing people who just passed and getting their opinions, because you don’t always need like some big celebrity endorsement. Like if you notice, I also did an interview with Ryan serhant, the guy from million dollar listing. I didn’t say it, but that’s cool. Yeah, he’s on there. And it’s like, it didn’t feel as natural. Like he was great and did a lot of good things. But really, the power of my marketing is with people who just took the exam in a day, people are not looking for a celebrity stuff and not doing it to like entertainment, you know, with my stuff on about other stuff. It’s not an entertainment thing, which by the way, I recommend if you could give a product, that’s something people need, you’ll have a lot easier time to try to entertain people, entertaining people. That’s very difficult, you know, writing a 45, documentary or show or music that’s a lot harder if you can kind of help people get their goals in some very simple way. It’s way easier, for example, is way easier for me to interview you after you’ve passed your exam, rather than trying to get like, you know, some big like Justin Bieber to be on my thing. Oh, for sure. You’re not like super famous? You are. You’ll be wonderful. Oh, gosh. No, yeah, that’s smart. That’s awesome. So were there any, like huge challenges you guys face with this whole journey that you can recall? Honestly, not really. Knock on wood, you know, it’s been going pretty well. The challenge is, was just getting it started. Okay. You mean like just building up the site and the tune all that? Yeah, because we’re talking about digital nomads. Here’s her title. A lot of people have online businesses, I assume. Right? Yeah. And like just about passive income as well. So I talk a lot about both of those things. And I feel like those help you create that financial freedom and location independent lifestyle, you know, and the thing is, if you do those, what you learn is a snowball effect. The hardest part is getting it going. My partner very often says it’s a lot harder to go from zero to $10, and is from $10 to 1000. That makes sense. Actually, I can totally see that. Yeah, cuz with my businesses, it definitely exponentially increases as you already kind of set up the right parts, kind of getting that going and knowing what to do and figuring out what to do. Once you get it going. It’s just like, yeah, you know, and you kind of see it move, and then you just want to double it over and do it again and again. And sometimes you learn the hard way. It’s not that easy to double it over. Like, I don’t know, if I could do this site Exactly. Again, you know, do it for I don’t know, like taxidermy or accountants. I don’t know if I could it’s not that simple. You kind of learn Getting started is difficult. Yeah, I get it. No. And, you know, it’s a great thing. And I mean, I feel like you’re more passionate about this, for sure. That’s, that’s obviously gonna be harder and to try to build it up for something else. Right. Let’s just you put so much effort into it. You know, have you ever played Jenga? Yeah. You know, and you build it up, you build it up and you build it up and you’re so excited. You’re so into it, you’re like, so like, focused on it, but the whole thing falls down. Like I don’t want to play again, I’m over it. It’s like, if you don’t feel like starting over again, you know, once it gets going, you’re like, ooh, you’re excited. You’re into it. Nobody touch it. Nobody can touch the tower. Everybody leave the tower alone. Nobody go near. Don’t breathe on it. Don’t sneeze on it, you know, but if it follows you, but you say logically and say, Well, if you like it so much. Why not do it again, but you don’t like if it falls over? You’re like, I’m so done with this. Get this stuff out of here. Right? Yeah. So it’s like more passion is it’s getting going but my passion of where I’d start this from scratch.

Unknown Speaker 14:43
I get it.

Unknown Speaker 14:44
I totally get it. Yeah, you know, I mean, talking about real estate exam content is exactly like the most fun thing. That’s Sure, actually. Yeah. I mean, speaking of which, so has your business become more passive? We’re kind of making a passive income or do you still have to kind of spend a lot of hours there and like, how often do you do you know, the videos and the webinars and all that stuff? do webinars five days a week, mostly doing videos or webinars for me at this point, kind of keeping it going, keeping it going and just kind of make it go more and more and more as it’s passive income in that there’s no one act i would do that day that would justify the money we get and that one day and if I stopped doing that act, that money would not stop. In other words, the income I get in that day is not related to an activity I did that day. Yeah, now that makes sense. It’s like you’re kind of maintaining thing comm source

Unknown Speaker 15:32
not really like to build on that snowball.

Unknown Speaker 15:34
Yeah, that makes sense. Do you see yourself doing that for like a while these videos are you gonna kind of retire wherever? Yeah, I mean, this is what you’re promoting, right? I’m loving what you’re trying to do right now. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I mean, I’m just wondering like, because, you know, some people just want to chill, like as a nomad and maybe not even have to work again, is that because, you know, you said, you don’t need to be pumping out this content anymore. You’re like, good, basically, is not doing what we’re doing today, then we would still make money. Yeah, fine. Like to make more and do more and help more people and become better at what we do you know, and just further expand what we’re doing and improve what we’re doing. But you’re right, if we just stopped today. Yeah, we’d be okay. Yes. You know, if you see my videos on my channel from what I started four years ago, with the videos like really doing this, you’ll see a drastic difference from the video I did this week. The one I did four years ago. The sound quality of what you helped me with. I got the mic. Would you not even use them? Like using the headphones?

Unknown Speaker 16:28
I am using it just can’t see it right here.

Unknown Speaker 16:31
Okay, the headphones.

Unknown Speaker 16:33
Okay, awesome. Well, I’m glad you got like a new mic. And it was all

Unknown Speaker 16:37
I did. I did the video with you. I was like, she sounds really good. My sounds terrible. Like I was talking to you. I was next year. I was like, man, but it’s true. The more you do it, you learn little things. And you start to see little things you start to kind of pick up and that’s true for anything you do, right? Especially when you’re doing this kind of thing. You got to put yourself out there and talk to different people and just pick up little things here. And there. It was every scares. They don’t know anything. But you just got to push and just push and push your idea through.

Unknown Speaker 17:01
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 17:02
Yeah, definitely. So you’re doing right now?

Unknown Speaker 17:04
Yeah. Now, of course, I definitely learned a lot from just speaking with people like you. So it’s great having you here. So you know, you said you do like videos five days a week and stuff like that. How many hours? Would you say you like work per week, then?

Unknown Speaker 17:19
Oh, that’s like a trade secret?

Unknown Speaker 17:20
Oh, really? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 17:22
But it’s on our own accord.

Unknown Speaker 17:25
I mean, I’m sure it’s like pretty minimal, like how much how much time you put, it’s not minimal, but that’s by choice. Like, if I checked out went away for a week, nothing would stop. Which I think is what you’re getting at. You know, like, if I wanted if I want these, it’s truly passive is what you’re talking about. But what am I gonna do sit there and just stare at my dog? You know, I mean, whatever I do, it’s because we want to do it. You know, we want to improve on stuff. But I know we’re talking about passive income. But yeah, I mean, I could sit here and do nothing and go play Jenga, or whatever. No, I mean, that’s cool. Because I think I told you before how like, when I was a digital nomad thing, I was just like, not fulfilled by just chillin with my passive income I needed to I came back because I was like, let me work towards some type of purpose and like, build my skills, and then kind of inspire people with like, how to build passive income become financially free and stuff like that. And what I learned about it is, it’s not really the ultimate goal like you. It’s just like a means to an end to, like, let you live the life that best suits you, or, like, you know, your best life. And that’s, I guess, that’s kind of why I asked because, like, it’s cool that you’re still doing it, because it’s something like it’s fun for you. And it’s like, you get to connect with your students help them with their journeys. So it sounds like you’ve found the thing that like you, you know, you enjoy your life you love like giving back like that, that’s awesome. Because like being a digital nomad who can build passive income, you can still like work towards something and not have to be like, I’m just gonna chill on a beach forever and like, not do shit. And I know most of you want to be successful with it. I mean, at some point, you make a choice, like I got my passive income, right? Most people will say three hour workweek, I get it, I could sit around, do nothing. But most people will think I probably want to start another business, you know, see if I can make more money. But what you learn pretty quickly is in going back to the analogy of it’s easier to go from $10 to $1,000 is from zero to one, you actually realize, if you make more sense to take that thing, it’s making passive income that’s making you let’s call it $1,000, just hypothetically, and make it make $10,000 or $100,000, then it would be to start a whole nother thing and go from zero to one. I agree, though, a lot of people would say alright, start something new. I got this thing. It’s already working. You know, maybe I could ramp it up some more I find a lot of people do in their free time. You know, once it’s going it’s like, Alright, you know, what else can it do? I just built this monster. Let’s see what else I can you know, no, I mean, I think that’s like great advice of like focusing on one thing and building that more exponentially. Because I mean, I’ve had like issues where I tend to jump because I’m like, Oh, this kind of work. So let me try something new. But like now I’m really trying to build up one thing and it’s like way more fulfilling and fun. That’s cool. And I also to your point that like A lot of people end up doing other things or starting new businesses. I’m seeing, like, you know, people in Chiang Mai, who are like, just like, I just want to chill with my life, like, I don’t want to do anything anymore. And I think it’s cool that you know, you are focused on one thing and, you know, working on that and like giving, like creating impact, you know, I mean, so it’s awesome. Yeah, you know, to try the things but it just doesn’t have the same, you know, momentum that this does. Now, I agree. And I said, I do other things, and I try and do other business things. But at some point, you got to know where your your bread is buttered, for sure. So how did you end up becoming a digital nomad and kind of traveling all over the world? Like, when did that happen? It wasn’t by choice. I mean, it kind of was and it wasn’t like I knew the story of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. No, I know. The gist of it is Anthony Kiedis lead singer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. You’re a musician, you know, and I know

Unknown Speaker 20:47
who they are. But I don’t know that. He

Unknown Speaker 20:49
lived a rough life was very poor. And he I’ve never forgot this. He was singing at a local bar. And he was talking about other guys who came to Hollywood to try and make it as a singer. And for him, he wasn’t trying to make it a singer. That’s all he could do. That’s how he ate it wasn’t like he would get food when he worked at the bar or whatever. What In other words, his success was born out of necessity. Not desire wasn’t one of these guys who dropped everything and then moved to Hollywood with a guitar trying to make a big like for him. He was just like, wow, I’m not an accountant. I’m not a writer. I’m not very you know, I don’t have a degree I don’t have any skills is all I could do I need to eat tonight went got a gig got food and went from there. So for a lot of digital nomads, you know, including myself, sometimes we’re here not because we saw this great flexible lifestyle Do we want because the normal corporate world didn’t accept us. You know, it wasn’t an option. I got fired from many jobs that many things didn’t work out, I wasn’t really a salesperson there comes in attitude, where if you’re driven and you’re focused in house and drive, you say, you know what, screw them, I don’t fit there. But I’m still gonna find my way. There’s got to be a place for me in this world. And with all this new technology and internet and all the rest that we enjoy out here and social media, there’s a lot more opportunities for that. So did I want to be on my own shirt, but a lot of it was because my friend who went to be a lawyer, who was the top of his classroom in school, graduated number one from his university, number one for his grad school, work for whatever law firm, yada, yada, that wasn’t an option for me. Now, ironically, he’s miserable. You know, he makes a lot of money working with a top law firm works from six in the morning till 10 at night, you know, he can’t quit his job, because the amount of money he makes you can’t replace with something else his family’s dependent on that income, you know, the common corporate track, which is I think, something you’re trying to help people get away from. Yeah, I mean, I think if it’s not your passion of like, staying in a job that whatever, like maybe you enjoy it, then like, go for it, stay in that job. But like, if you hate it, you know, there are other options, right? So that’s kind of what I’m trying to open up people’s minds up to that, like you can start your own businesses, you can do a bunch of things like the online world has, like kind of opened up so many opportunities for people, right. And I said, I keep thinking, my friend who’s on that track, he followed everything to the tee that I learned in school, and you probably did to do well, you go to college, and you do well, in college, you get to go to grad school, you go on to grad school, you get to work at the best firm, and you get to work with the best firm, you get a lot of money like he did everything and it’s just seems horrible. So if I could choose this life, I would I mean, ness, I kind of did choose it. But it was also because I rejected from that and thank God I did get rejected from that, like, interesting. So I mean, but I thought you were a broker. So you kind of choose your own hours and stuff like that. Is it was that not the case? Right. But still, you know, I was still do my own thing. My own schedule and even that, that got a little to be a headache. I’m there’s a point when my phone rang, I got stressed, I say, yeah, was that the motivation? Or like starting this business of like, I want to really decide my own hours. And you know, not have people just calling me all the time and stuff like that? Well, no, I mentioned that person got into real estate because they want to be their own boss. And I started the same way I didn’t know much about real estate, I was just like, but I know lots of you make money with it. If I try real hard, I’ll figure it out. Something’s got to be in this niche. For me. I actually did a lot of conferences when the internet first got big in 1997. So I was kind of exposed to a lot of that. So I had this belief that maybe I can figure out how to some online market, get clients and help my real estate agent get clients different things of that nature. So I was always just kind of thinking of what I could do. You know how I could do it. And always just try and that’s what I managed, pushed and pushed and pushed and tried and tried and opened up every door that was available to me. Yeah. So you decided to become digital nomad, where you kind of using geographic arbitrage where like the expenses are kind of lower, so you can start building up your business have nothing fancy word arbitrage. Right. So what do you mean by that? What do you mean by geographic? Yeah, especially the Bay Area. Like it’s super expensive, right. So like for me, I left also because I thought it can be financially responsible in a way to build up your businesses while you’re traveling. Besides like being able to live life and stuff you’re, you know, you’re spending a lot less than you wouldn’t want Like in San Francisco, right? So I was spending area Yeah, right. I spent like 1400 A month after everything like entertainment travel, like accommodations, everything for like nine months, I spent that much and like SF rent is already passed that, you know, I thought was a financially irresponsible thing. So that’s kind of what I’m asking of, like I said, geographic arbitrage is basically kind of using that difference of expenses in different parts of the world. And then like, for sure, yes, yeah, definitely do that. Yeah, I may have not used that word before, but I certainly do it. And I certainly, you know, live that quite a bit means I lived in the Bay Area, too, for a while. And I got out of there pretty quick myself.

Unknown Speaker 25:37
Yeah. Okay. So that was like, what you mean by Oh, I was forced into it? Is that kind of what it is forced into your? Yeah, you’re saying like, I didn’t choose this, like I sort of did. But like, a lot of it was that, you know, that corporate world rejected me kind of make things work. So yes, I had to figure out my own way to make money, but also kind of enjoyed the creativity of trying to create an online business, there’s a lot that drew me to it in real estate, just having to give me an avenue to pursue it that worked out really well. That’s why I’m still pretty familiar with real estate. And I did run a brokerage when it was all said and done. But here I am now with you. So it’s kind of like I merged different worlds. And the biggest thing I learned, which a lot of people could take is people get intimidated, because when they’re starting on my business, very often they’re talking to other people who started online business who were probably successful, or techies who are successful, and they don’t realize that’s not your audience, you know, more than your audience does. Your audience is people who are just kind of going on to Facebook, Instagram basic stuff. So to come off as an expert isn’t as hard as you think.

Unknown Speaker 26:35
Now I agree with that.

Unknown Speaker 26:36
People kind of forget that muse. They seek experts, they’re comparing themselves to other people who are pretty advanced. And that’s not most of the world. Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of people get scared to position themselves as the expert when like, you really just need to know a little bit more than the average person and can provide some knowledge. Right, right. So it’s a little easier than than people may think to get going. I mean, having all my business really just about pushing and being consistent, don’t you think? Yeah, no, definitely, I think consistency as well as like being intentional with like, how you’re being consistent. So I find like, for example, my YouTube channel, right, I would be pretty consistent. But then I could tell I wasn’t putting in that much effort of like, I was just, I mean, I was putting an effort, but it was like random kind of videos that I was making, instead of being intentional of like, this person who would be interested in my videos, would want to see a series on this topic. I didn’t script A lot of it out. Like I was just like, you know what, this relates to me right now. So I’m gonna talk about this, and then this really smooth right now and talk about this. So I think, you know, consistency with that intentional thinking really just it’s like a magic point, you know, I mean, right? It’s not rocket science. For example, people look at these Instagram models, for example, like these fitness models, we see them all the time, he will talk to him about these fitness models and how they always follower and I say to them, you know, not all of them are just these good looking people who just put up photos, you know, granted, they’re all googling Google Photos, but I asked them, How can you see some super good looking people only have 2000 followers, and some have 200,000 they’re all good looking. They’re all super fit. So what’s the difference? That was 200,000 had a little more mind to just be super consistent, you know, with their mission and their drive, like they’re gonna do these type of pictures, you know, whatever they may be, whether it be doing push ups, or whatever stuff, you know, the rest of the world, like, oh, stupid, another Instagram model fitness person does dumb, you know, but as somebody who’s done what I do, I look at it, I say that person has something behind them more than just being a good looking person do an exercise, because there’s lots of those, and a lot of them only have 1000 subscribers or 2000. When somebody has 500,000. There’s more going on than just them being like a good looking person doing push ups. Yeah, very true. And I guess my point is, what I noticed with them is there’s a lot of consistency with what they do. Now, I don’t care how shallow you are, they still have to make sure they do their work and kind of take the picture and put it in a certain way and kind of have it every single day. And my point is it’s not rocket science, not that complicated. It’s just a matter of being consistent with what you’re doing. And I just love that example. These people you know, in our era love to trash those people you know, about shallowness and superficiality and all that’s accurate. Don’t get me wrong, but I think they’re missing something. I believe you can learn something from everybody. And I say to almost like okay, if they’re all superficial and trashy, how come this one is 500,000 subscribers and this one is 2000 there’s more to learn than this. Then you just looking at some dude with chiseled ABS doing pull ups in Venice Beach, you know? Yeah, that’s a great example. I mean, that’s a good mindset where you’re like, I can learn from everyone I just look at it is obviously for all the wrong reasons. Just super competitive thing. How come? This one’s doing this? Well, and this was doing that. No, I mean, you did music You know how it is. There’s a lot of music. How come some of them get so many followers and some of them don’t? Is because their musics that much better? You know? Yeah. Now for sure. I mean, I was like pushing out. I did this thing called St Sunday. And then like, it’s like every Sunday I would have a cover ready and that just like took off really well when I was like really into doing this stuff. And like being on YouTube for music and stuff like that. So totally agree. And I think it’s cool that you started in 2004 and announced like 2020, and you’re still pumping out stuff and you’re still helping people. And I, it’s definitely a long term game. A lot of people, like underestimate them think it’s like, oh, I don’t see traction, I’m just gonna give up. Like, it’s like, oh, you know, it is awkward. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s super awkward. I mean, we talked about being superficial and shallow. And I was referencing the fitness models, the majority of people and I believe even them are not really totally comfortable with it. Like that person who’s super shallow and into their body and their Look, they may be able to take like a few pictures, you know, and be all into themselves. But to crank it out in the consistency we’re talking about, you know, at some point, it becomes effort, it becomes awkward becomes a little uncomfortable.

Unknown Speaker 30:44
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 30:45
So it’s definitely something I had to get over because craggy out regularly with your face or your voice. Like for me, it’s a lot more of my voice, but it’s still like a little bit awkward. And sometimes it feels weird giving people advice.

Unknown Speaker 30:57
Yeah, no, I agree that you guys say yeah, about

Unknown Speaker 31:00
you. But with my ego or lack thereof, sometimes our lack of confidence or too much confidence. Sometimes it feels weird telling people you shouldn’t be like this, or do you like this? Or did it? Yeah, because you’re giving advice on passive income, and you’re doing a great job with it. I’m sure at some point, you’re just like, you know, it’s kind of awkward. No, I agree with that. Yeah. So you know, you said like, kind of your journey of when you’re building up everything, like you were saying, the corporate world rejecting me, right, and all that stuff. But like, I still wanted to make this happen. Are there any feelings of like fear when you’re building this up? of Oh, my God, this isn’t work? Yes. Every day still. Every day. By most accounts, I be considered a fairly successful person at this point. Yeah, definitely. There. It’s the income or the subscribers or how I live my life, the hours. But still, if you struggled, I don’t think that goes away. I mean, what are you scared of now? I mean,

Unknown Speaker 31:51
yeah, to me, it’s like you’re so successful,

Unknown Speaker 31:53
right? Knock on wood. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 31:56
there’s not that much the sounds, I’m afraid to say if it’s true, what can happen, you know, because like, the YouTube channel goes away, the website goes away. These are stuff where it would take for me for my bid start doing bad, it would be very gradual thing, we would see a company there be a decline in my audience, wouldn’t you like boom, everything just stops one day? I don’t think it’ll happen. Because I mean, like, people know, your brand. That’s some people’s issues is like, they’re not building that branding. Even if everything went away, they know you, you know, I know, I could wear the hat and start another. I know I get it’s totally illogical, but I still kind of push it and I still kind of invest my money conservatively. Whether it’s the stocks or real estate, I still kind of put it places. I get it, though. I don’t. It’s weird. Like, if I go to Starbucks, I’ll see like, oh, here, it’s $5 $4. And I know logically, that shouldn’t factor into my mind. Like, if I want to get a nice watch. I could probably do it, you know, without any issue. Do you think a smart it’s funny in a mere way that fear is driven me? It’s like, yeah, just keep going, keep going, keep going. And that’s, again, a whole nother separate issue. But I think you’ll find the more successful you’ll get the more sponsor those you develop to take care of people around you. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s awesome. I mean, you hear it all the time, these pro athletes, they get a big Signing Day, and then all sudden, so we’re no different. You’re saying like you, you’re taking care of your family and all that stuff. And that’s like you’re thinking of all the time pending? Or Yeah, I mean, it just more people come dependent on you. Okay, got it. Yeah, I mean, now we’re talking about what happens when you start to get some money and everything’s passive people see you sitting around, they see you can afford stuff. So when you go to help a local kid soccer team, for example, and they don’t have any money they can’t afford in New Jersey, where do all the eyes go? And also, they even have to ask you your own heart. You’re just like, you’re sitting here. You’re working with a kid, you’re teaching me kick a ball and you’re like, I could get them in your shirt. You know, every gets a new shirt, all the kids go, yay. I mean, of course you feel so that stuff builds up. That’s nice that you know, some people are still selfish, themselves. Oh, that’s nice that you’re kind of trying to give back and stuff like that. Right? And very often giving back isn’t like this big thing of starting a massive foundation. It’s just seeing little things where you could help like that kid soccer team, maybe getting your mother a trip or helping your sister with a credit card bill or something. I’m just saying I’m not trying to sound like a nice guy. I’m just saying this stuff kind of starts to add up and also you morph into this role whether you realize it or not, and you realize what you built a lot of people rely on it so it can’t go away. Now that makes sense, though. So then there comes that fear you’re just like oh, man, yeah, so I mean leading into like your goals and stuff. So what are your future goals? Like I am looking to expand prep agent even more now that you’re so successful and stuff like that? Yes, we want to expand it even more. And just keep going because this goes along with like, we could start something new and I probably couldn’t have thought of just branding like myself as an individual and things like that. But really, we just want to keep this going even more point where it’s just more the same. That’s a beautiful thing to like people asking what would my ideal life be?

Unknown Speaker 34:57
You live in it?

Unknown Speaker 34:58
Yeah, I mean, pretty You’re much right as I’m looking at you over your shoulder. There’s a beautiful beach. You know tonight’s thing. That’s nice. Okay. Yeah. I mean, speaking of which, where are you? Now? I know we talked about it, but like, maybe for the viewers out there, you see, it’s kind of hard to see right now, the way it’s like, it’s like all sunlight. But uh, I can tell that it looks nice right now, but like beach apartment in Central America. Awesome. I have a beach house. That’s so nice. Do you feel like you because like, most of your audience is in the US. Right? So the US

Unknown Speaker 35:32
I’m just having to be at the beach place right now.

Unknown Speaker 35:35
Yeah, I was just wondering, like, you’re mainly at this, you know, this beach place? Right? So it’s like, Do you find it difficult, like to measure business remotely? Do you feel like No, okay, it’s also got good Wi Fi, which always started this call could be an issue. But no, no, whether I’m in New York, or California doesn’t matter, okay. And like growing the business, like, you don’t feel like you need to be in the US to do it. No, that’s the choice is counterproductive. Because we thought about going to conferences and whatnot, the amount of time I spent with people in front of me, like the amount of could have gotten done, my computer is like, tenfold, I tired of driving to them and seeing them this is an argument for a lot of people working remotely, but having to drive in a location, Park in the car, getting any eat, which you always do is I’ve done driving and want to get time, you know, talking to them time at nonsense for like 10 minutes. I mean, just save that stuff for social reasons. You know, seeing friends, dating, going to see family, whatever it is you want to do. Just feel like seeing people in person for business is kind of like interesting. I mean, actually, for me, like, I feel like with networking, it has helped me a lot. I mean, going to conferences has helped. But I think that the purpose is different for you. Because it’s like you can do things at scale when it comes to helping your audience. Right. I think for me, it’s like having the network of like minded people has been really nice, like getting that in person talks with them to like, develop that relationship. But then at the same time, if you’re trying to help people, you can do it way more at scale, when you’re like doing it online raise to your it’s that point, like every once while you’re right. Networking does have its place, but I’m limited with it. Especially if that’s not your thing. If you become like a digital nomad and your customer remotely kind of awkward doing the whole, like, you know, meet and greet, exchange business cards walk around the room, and some people are super good at talking to people and politely moving on from conversation and conversation without cutting people off. I mean, that’s kind of a skill unto itself. Makes sense. And so what is some advice you have for people, you know, who want to, like create their business remotely or even not remotely? Like even if they’re at home? Like if they want to start something new quit their job, what’s your advice for that, I’m not gonna tell people quit their job, I don’t even know their idea, maybe terrible, you know? What’s nice, then, maybe like, you need to gauge if your idea is good, I would tell people pursue it 100% obviously, they need income, they need income, but be consistent with it based on what we talked about before, just be super consistent, and just keep going, you’re gonna see it evolve as you get better. And you’ll be shocked how people will follow you if you’re consistent with everything. Yeah, and you have a message, you just stay with it. Um, I was talking to a lady who’s selling cat litter box, like a new form of a cat litter box. And she’s doing well, but she just keeps she had a goal, she was going to talk about certain issues related to cats, and people started following her. And you may think there’s a million cat videos, and there’s a ton of them out there. But you have to realize you don’t need a million people seeing you to be successful. You think about thousand subscribers isn’t that hard to get? And half of those people bought her cat stuff. And he’s got it for like, you know, a long time. And if she’s consistent with it’ll build or build, in other words, don’t think you have to like take on the world to kind of be successful. Yeah, because I’ve met people who maybe they have like 10,000 subscribers, but they’re already making a full time income on YouTube because of the way they’re like monetizing it. So it’s like very, very being consistent figure it out. Yeah, definitely. Like I gave the example of the mic when I spoke to you. It’s just by keep doing interviews over and over and over again. I stumbled across you and I’m like, Okay, then I saw you had experienced music. I was Oh, she knows what she’s talking about the last curve and then he said I was like, Okay, let’s go you know, I’m glad to help. Yeah, I’m sure people are interested in learning more about you. Where can people find you YouTube? Um, prep agent just look up prep agent look for the guy in the hat. If you look at real estate exam prep, you’ll find me so yeah, is is great speaking with you. I feel like you gave so many great insights and so many tips. I I did ask him the end like what some advice but like you are giving advice the entire way. So thank you for that. I feel like I learned a lot from this interview. And thanks for being on the show. Joe. Thank you. I appreciate it. And you’re definitely special person that follows I hope everybody listens to you. You got you got that energy. No, you got good stuff to offer and you do everything right. You’re consistent. You’re awesome. You got your stuff together. You got a good message. So

Unknown Speaker 39:51
that’s awesome. Thank you so much. I’m not

Unknown Speaker 39:53
saying that now. You know, I said that to me first met to

Unknown Speaker 39:56
you did, I really appreciate that that very touching. So thank you so much. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode, please make sure to rate review and subscribe. It really helps our podcast grow. And thanks again. I’ll see you guys in the next one

Transcribed by https://otter.ai