Meet the Former MMA fighter, high school dropout, and single father who had absolutely zero business background bought a business for $500 on an online business flipping site. 9 years later, his business is doing $35 million a year.
His advice to you? “Don’t start a business, buy one.”
Here’s how you can do it too…
But first, here’s a quick background on Ramon Van Meer
Today Ramon Van Meer is the CEO and founder of Alpha Paw, a website for pet owners that offers products for every dog breed-specific health issue. Ramon bought the business for $300k and has built it to $35M in revenue within three years.
Where’d he get the money to buy it? Through a series of website flips that started with a small content blog about financial credit, a site he bout on Flippa for $500. He promoted it and built a small following and sold it. He did that again about 3-4 more sites.
You can watch Ramon’s incredible exit story below or listen to it in the Quiet Light podcast, but want I wanted to show you, is the site Ramon and thousands of others go to buy and sell websites. Flippa.com.
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Want to Buy or Sell a Website? Meet Flippa.com
Flippa.com is an auction site where you can buy and sell internet businesses. Don’t know how to code or build a membership site or dropping shipping store? No problem, just buy one.
What Can You Buy and Sell on Flippa?
Flippa lets you can buy and sell websites, drop shipping stores, domains, and even mobile apps. The portal is aimed to assist website owners in selling their websites as well as assisting others in purchasing established websites, domains drop shipping sites, and mobile apps.
Sites can range from just created with zero revenue to multi-million in reoccurring sales…
If you’re interested in learning more about how to use Flippa and the pros and cons of the platform, check out this full report and guide from Niches Pursuits.
The Billion dollar Patagonia brand was started by a bullied teenager living off fifty cents a day learning how to be, a falconer…
And the original source material for the products he made, came from the dumpsters he was diving in.
The Bizarre Beginning of the Patagonia Brand
From it’s very beginning, the brand never really cared about being cool or even making money. Instead, it focused on making gear for the sport they loved while being environmentally responsible. Today they’ve become a status symbol for the biggest and richest companies in the world.
Here’s the story of how the Patagonia company was born…
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Patagonia’s Roots in Black Smithery, Falconry, and Rock-Climbing…
Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard was born in 1938 in Lisbon , Maine and raised in a French-Canadian community that spoke little English.
His father, a hard working blue collar man, moved the family to Burbank CA when Yvon was only 8 years old. An experience that turned out to be a pretty shitty one for little Yvon.
Shitty because Yvon was bullied at school for not being able to speak English. He was also the smallest kid in his class which didn’t help his position. Not knowing what to do, Yvon would just simply run away. He spent most of his time alone in the wilderness. Hunting and fishing by himself.
Then one day, Yvon discovered, of all things, falconry…
He joined a local falconry club where he made friends and learned how to train hawks and falcons. For the first time, Yvon belonged to something.
One of the members, Don Prentice, was a mountain climber who trained the club how to rappel down cliffs to in order to access falcon nest located high up on mountain rock ledges.
So What’s the Blacksmith Connection?
The club became obsessed with the sport. Traveling all over the country rappelling down America’s tallest cliffs. They did it for the most part, without any gear…
Eventually the group turned their attention from rappelling to climbing. Were they’re lack of equipment became problematic (opposed to repelling down, climbing up requires a lot more than a rope).
With only 200 mountain climbers in those days and no store to provide their climbing gear, the group was forced to make their own in the early days of the sport. One of those items were pitons (the stakes mountain climbers hammer into the rock face to clip onto for, “safety”).
“Hey Mountain Climbers, Clean Up Your Shit!”
The problem with the original pitons was they were permanent. Climbers would just leave the stakes poking out of the side of the mountain for others to use later on…It became an eyesore and Yvon wasn’t having it.
Yvon taught himself how to be a blacksmith (in a chicken coop in his parents backyard) where he invented the first sets of removable pitons, changing the sport forever. They even turned out to be stronger and more reliable than the permanent European pitons they originally used.
He didn’t even charge his friends for them in the beginning. He would just hand them to other climbers to help clean up the mountain side. They were an instant success.
From Climbing Gear to Clothing Icon…
Pategonia eventually got into the clothing business after Yvon took a climbing trip to Scotland where he bought a Rugby shirt because the material looked tough enough to climb a mountain in (and it looked cool). Plus he thought the collar would help keep the climbing ropes away from his neck.
Climbing in his Rugby shirt back in the states, Yvonn stuck out like a sore thumb in his flamboyant colored shirt. In a good way. Other climbers asked where they could get a “fancy colorful climbing shirt”.
Here’s a review of some of the original 1980s rugby shirts they launched with:
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So Yvon licensed a series of durable and colorful rugby (I mean climbing) shirts. They sold like hot cakes…
But while the clothing brand famously went through many ups and downs over the years, Patagonia today is one of the most recognized clothing brands on the planet.
All thanks to a badass little kid who climbed his way up in life on his own terms.
Somewhere in remote Montana, right now, there’s a guy getting paid to shoot an assault rifle at any bird that lands on his pond. In order to save their lives…
He’s a hero. In order to understand why, you need to know about the Berkeley Copper Mine.
It’s a cocktail of death, especially for un-expecting waterfowl.
The levels of copper are high enough in the water table that Montana Resources has mined copper directly from the water itself!
But the Berkley Pit is a Graveyard for Waterfowl…
In 1995, a flock of migrating geese landed in the Berkeley Pit and died. A total of 342 carcasses were recovered.
After inspecting the corpses, scientists discovered their insides were lined with burns and festering sores from exposure to high concentrations of copper, cadmium, and arsenic.
The water burned them alive…
On November 28, 2016, several thousand snow geese died after a large flock landed in the pit’s water to avoid a snowstorm. Immediately after the event, officials made efforts to scare birds away and prevent more from landing in the area.
Now, in order to protect any waterfowl from dying a very painful death, this man gets paid to protect them. By shooting at them…
Don’t worry, he doesn’t hurt them, he only scares them away for their own protection. Crazy job…
Toshiba is a brand that’s been drowning in scandals for years. Including a recent one that involved overstating it’s profits to shareholders by $1.2 billion which resulted in the resignation of their CEO.
The company was once one of the most innovative businesses on the planet, they produced one of the first laptops. They were credited as being the first company to mass produce one. Chances are you owned one…
They were sued and settled to pay $1billion in a class action lawsuit for faulty equipment.
Despite being such an innovative company, Toshiba has experienced some massive setbacks over the years that have resulted from a combination of both poor business decisions and public scandals.
This video y Company Man highlights the most notable ones. Here’s a video that highlights the history of Toshiba’s insane series of scandals.
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The Surprising History of Toshiba
Toshiba traces its history in Japan to 1875. The company rode the post-war Japanese manufacturing boom in the late 1950s to high growth portfolio of unique and innovative products. Toshiba began selling products in foreign markets during this period and continued to expand its businesses across the globe during the following decades.
Today, the conglomerate operates business units on a worldwide scale in a variety of diverse industries, including semiconductors, personal electronics, infrastructure, home appliances, and medical equipment.
Toshiba reported net worldwide sales of more than 3.38 trillion Japanese yen or $31 billion for the 2020 fiscal year. The company employs more than 125,648 people worldwide.
There’s a growing multi-billion dollar industry that’s sprouting up from, of all places, homeowner’s basements. Here’s a peek inside the growing “Microgreen Industry” that one of your neighbors is probably cashing in on.
Here’s why…
The global microgreens market size was valued at $1.3 billion in 2019, and is now projected to reach $2.2 billion by 2028. Growing demand for microgreens, along with recent interruptions in global supply chains have created a local cash opportunity.
Especially amongst innovative homeowners looking to cash in on their un-utilized square footage.
What the Hell Are Microgreens?
Microgreens are young seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs. Unlike larger herbs and vegetables that take weeks or months to grow, microgreens can be harvested and eaten a week to 10 days after leaves have developed. Like baby carrots but for herbs…
These tiny plants only grow to a few inches and can come in 50 to 60 different varieties. Microgreens were originally limited to fancy dinner plates and boutique grocery stores due to their higher cost. But now they’re a multibillion dollar industry.
And did I mention, you can grow them in your basement? The set up cost is low and the growing cycle is super quick, meaning you can be harvesting and selling your first crop in just a couple of weeks.
Interested in this as a side hustle? Here’s an e-Book to get you started…
Microgreens can be grown in a small space and can sell for $50 per pound or more, making them an ideal crop for small farms and “urban growers”. In an area as small as a shipping container, a garage, or basement you could generate thousands per month growing and selling them.
Here’s the full story on how one couple makes $120k/year selling microgreens from the basement of their urban home.
There is an obnoxious amount of pontificate around the topic of passive income streams. Here’s an actual one that’s super underrated. Meet a guy making almost $100k/year with zero employees or customer interaction.
Selling ice out of vending machines…
Ice Vending Machines. Yes They’re a Thing Now…
You may have seen one of these giant ice vending machines selling ice for a low price of $2.50 or less.
Typically located on high traffic locations, perhaps next to a gas station, convenience store, or dollar store.
They’re freestanding and allow someone to drive up and snag 20 pound bags of ice at. Apparently people love them…
It’s an easier and more affordable way to get lots of ice for a party by the pool, a trip to the lake, a hunting or fishing trip, or some other special occasion. According to Road Less Traveled Finance, if you’re interested in getting into ice vending, you can expect to earn upwards of $3,664 per month in profit (and the margins are hella high).
Here’s how this guy makes $71k a year selling ice as a passive income stream with zero employees. His names Brad. Seems like a cool guy. No pun intended…
Watch the full video if you’re interested in a business that makes money while you sleep.
Airbnb was the stupidest idea for a business. The idea was to rent an air mattress in someone else’s occupied apartment. A Literal air bed and breakfast. I mean, who would pay to sleep on the floor of the apartment of a complete stranger?
Turns out quite a few actually. While no longer air mattresses, today Airbnb has over 150 million hosts who’s properties accommodate more than a half a billion guests a year
You Won’t Believe How airbnb Got Started!
Today, Airbnb is one of the most successful short-term rental businesses in the world today. Since its formation in 2008, it has experienced massive growth, starting out with just a few friends renting extra space in their home to an international multibillion-dollar corporation.
Here is the insane inside story of how 3 guys turned that into a $31 billion company.
The story is crazier than the idea. Watch founder, Brian Chesky explain the crazy story of how 3 college kids created one of the world’s largest companies on the stupidest for a business to LinkedIn Founder, Reed Hastings, at a Y Combinator event.
“All my life I’ve seen murders and robberies. I came from that world where everything was dog-eat-dog. If you had money or jewelry, if you couldn’t defend it or protect it, you’re going to loose it.”
– Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson was first arrested at 10 years old. 38 more times by age 13.
Needless to say, he grew up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn. If you couldn’t protect yourself, you got taken advantage of. Mike was in over 400 fights in his life.
He quite literally fought his way through life and still is to this day…
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How Mike Tyson Blew a $600 Million Fortune
By the age of twenty Tyson was one of the most famous figures on the planet. Namely for being the most talented boxers of all time. And for biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear off during one of the most televised matches in boxing history.
Here’s that throwback…
During his boxing career he amassed over $685 million and he accomplished to spending all of it. Every last penny…
He not only managed to blow through a half billion in cash, he then eventually owed over $50 million in debts, including another $13.4 million to the IRS.
So What Did Mike Tyson Spend $685 Million On Exactly?
Mike routinely traveled with an entourage so large it rivaled the size of a small country.
He owned Siberian tigers and spent hundreds of thousands/year to care for them.
He bought over $400k worth of pigeons too…it’s a long story
He had fleets of luxury vehicles, a posse of prostitutes, and a 21-bedroom mansion.
He was known to spend over $240k month for entertainment and another $100k/month for Jewelry and clothes.
During his lifetime, Tyson reached the peaks of fame and fortune most of us mere mortals will never know or experience. He climbed from the gutter to the height of success. But even at the top of the world by the age of 20, he still had a darkness inside of him…
Watch Mike explain his incredible life story and lessons of gratitude from his personal experiences literally fighting for his life.
Taco Bell is the largest Mexican restaurant on the planet by volume. Here’s how they did it…
Taco Bell has been dominating Mexican fast food since the 1960s. They own over 7,000 locations consistently generating over $10 billion dollars in annual sales.
Watch the full story how or read the summary below.
First and foremost, Taco Bell wouldn’t be a thing without it’s founder, who knew how to spot a potential opportunity when he saw one.
A cook who served in WW2, Bell returned home to start a restaurant in San Bernardino CA. Inspired by the McDonald’s franchise, Bell copied the model. Literally, Taco Bell used to be called Bell’s Hamburgers, they originally sold cheeseburgers and hot dogs.
Until one day Glen added tacos to the menu, altering the course of taco history…
2. Taco Bell Single Handedly Introduced the World to Tacos
The second reason for Taco Bell’s now icon status, was their role in introducing tacos the American market.
After 14 years in the restaurant business and having gone through 5 different restaurants and concepts, Glen launch Taco Bell in March 21, 1962 in Downey CA.
At the time, most Americans had no clue what a taco was. When ordering, most customers asked for a “tay-ko”, simply because they simply had never heard of a taco. Kind of like the whole gyro “guyroh” thing…
And they obviously fell in love with them. Putting Taco Bell on the map.
“I always smile when I hear people say that they never had a taco until Taco Bell came to town”. – Glen Bell
3. Pepsi Gave Them a Shit Load of Money
Another reason for their success was their partnership deal with Pepsi.
In the 1970s Pepsi was expanding and looking to invest in new markets. They bought Pizza Hut for $315 million, giving them access to sell their sodas to customers dinning in the largest Pizza Chain on the planet up until that time. Pepsi wanted to saturate the Taco consumer market too. So they gave Glen a handsome $125 million for the right to sell Pepsi products at every Taco Bell.
Pepsi’s infusion of cash enabled the franchise to massively scale. They went from just under 1,000 locations in 1978 to nearly 7,000 by 1998. Meaning, almost every Taco Bell you’ve ever visited was started between the 80’s-90s Pepsi infused growth period.
4. Absolutely Bat-Shit Crazy But Catchy Menu Items…
While declaring to serve Mexican food, no one buys into that claim when it comes to Taco Bell. That’s because they have become famous for coming up with bat-shit crazy menu items.
The fourth key to the mega taco franchise model was their dedication to marketing. Especially standing out in crowded markets through their off the wall menu item.
Items like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch, the Mtn Dew Baja Taco Blast, their most successful product launch; the Crunch Wrap Supreme, and most recently the Doritos Locos Tacos. Or finally the rather nachos fries.
5. Taco Bell Excels at Marketing to Drunk People too…
Despite how much you want to hate them, Taco Bell continues to stay relevant across generations. They have a consistent track record of being customer focused and keeping their cost low. Something they have been promoting in their ads for decades…
One of their most successful marketing campaigns was “the forth meal of the day” commercials. After noticing a high influx in sales late at night (wink wink), the Bell starting promoting a “4th meal of the day”.
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On a more serious note though, probably the biggest reason Taco Bell has been so success over the years has been their commitment to their original mission; “thinking outside the bun”. Mission accomplished…
Host of Dropping Bombs podcast and CEO of LightSpeed VT dropped a knowledge bomb on a recent episode of Dropping Bombs podcast. Host, Brad Lea commented on the importance of developing a personal brand for C-Suite Executives.
When talking about the importance of creating a personal brand, Brad stated:
“People don’t follow brands they follow people. So your personal brand is ultimately what’s going to tee up doing business.”
In short, Brad believes everyone should develop a personal Brand for their business, no matter what business you’re in.
With over a half million social followers and hundreds of thousands of monthly podcast downloads, Brad knows a thing or two about how to leverage a personal brand.
Here are Brad Lea’s tips on getting starting creating a digital brand presence.
Brad Lea’s Step By Step Advice to Create a Personal Brand:
Let the world know who you are
Get on the big 6 social media platforms and put yourself out there; share your thoughts, opinions, values, beliefs. Don’t just repeat what everyone else is saying.
Don’t be afraid to be polarizing, not for the sake of confrontation, but for the sake of confronting the elephant in the room as it relates to your industry.
But that can often be scary, that’s where tip #2 comes into play…
Don’t be afraid of what other people think
The biggest reason Brad says executives are not active on social is they worry too much about what other people think. Especially on social media where anyone can leave a comment or offer a difference of opinion.
Remember, not everyone will agree with you but that doesn’t matter. You’re goal is to connect with those who do.
As Brad says” “if you never feel the hate, you never feel the love.”
Now for the last and final tip.
Continue to push out content over time
While the actual amount of time will depend on your individual business and circumstances, for a small to medium-sized business, a strong content marketing strategy generally takes between six and nine months to yield real results.
These are just a few of the tips Brad Lea shared in a recent podcast episode. Watch the full clip below.
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About Brad Lea:
Brad Lea is the founder of Lightspeed VT, the most advanced training platform on the market. Soon-to-be billionaire and host of the Dropping Bombs Podcast, Brad Lea built LightSpeed VT into a multi-million dollar global tech company from scratch.
As its Founder and CEO, his vision led to LightSpeed VT becoming the world’s leading interactive training system, a system that he’s proud to share with others. In addition to being a CEO, Brad is also the author of The Real Deal.
Brad has helped generate millions for countless companies and individuals, including heavy hitters Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Grant Cardone, Tom Hopkins, World Series Poker, Top Chef, Chase Bank, and so much more. He’s also been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Inc. Magazine, GCTV, and is a regular guest on several top-rated podcasts such as The $ales Podcast,Success is a Choice and The Inner Changemaker.
