my scary new path to financial freedom

You know that saying, what God gives, He can also take away?

Yea I know it a little toooo well.

There was a point my life, where I was consumed by my own selfish ambition (like most entrepreneurs lol).

And I don’t say this, to say I’m “better” than anyone.

It’s just to call it how it is and let you know that we all really live the same lives.

Also, if this our first time meeting, let me properly introduce myself.

My name is Stan and I’ve been selling Digital Products for about a year now and I’ve recently decided it’s time that I start building my business in public.

For 2 reasons.

Number 1, having a brand gives your business an advantage you can’t wake up and buy.

Number 2, I want to have a real impact on Entrepreneurs building business online and leave the space a little bit better than when I found it.

Anyways, consumed by my ego, pride and own selfish ambition…

I found myself on a constant hunt for more in life.

More money, expensive clothes, a big house, an expensive car.

Similar to what a lot of you who are reading this are probably after.

What originally started as a journey of me wanting to “take care of my family”, quickly turned into trying to build a “name” for myself.

Puffing up my own chest.

Being the guy who had it all.

And that’s when it all came crashing down. (sounds like a Disney movie intro loll.)

I’ve been an entrepreneur since the ripe age of 14.

I’m 24 now.

Honestly it started off as just wanting to finally wear some nice shoes to school.

I was going to school being bullied for the shoes I was wearing and that probably was one of the most depressing times of my life.

I still remember the pain like it was yesterday.

I’d go to sleep thinking about what other people would say about me the next day.

I didn’t want to get out of bed.

I didn’t want to get on the bus.

I didn’t want to go to class.

and I HATED being early, just waiting around in the courtyard.

At the time, I felt like the entire world was closing in on me.

But looking back, it honestly wasn’t that bad. And it could’ve been 10x worse.

It felt like there was no way out, my parents didn’t have extra money to spend on shoes.

My grandma used to save up and buy my school clothes, which was a huge help to my parents.

So knowing that, how could I possible ask them for more?

I was super grateful for what I was given and I didn’t want to be a burden on them.

So I kept my mouth shut for as long as I could.

But one day, my friend introduced me to reselling.

It’s the simple process of buying something for less than it’s value or before the value goes up and just selling it for more.

When I found this new opportunity, boy I’ll tell you.

I felt like I had control. I didn’t have to bother my parents and ask them to buy me shoes AND I could make money on my own.

It was a win-win situation.

But one problem.

I had no money.

So on my 14th birthday, I decided to use all of my money to buy my first pair of used Jordans. it felt like an entire world of possibilities opened.

From there, I was just focused on getting more sneakers, more than I’d ever have before.

My process was simple, I’d buy a used pair for cheap. Clean them up, wear them a few times and flip them. I did this with probably hundreds (maybe thousands) of sneakers at this point.

I finally went to school with a light in my eye, excited and ready for the bus.

One shoe, quickly turned into two, then three, and the next thing you know, I had a collection of over 30 by the time I got to 10th grade in High School.

This is what sparked my entrepreneurial journey and got me started in the world of business, I learned about profit/loss, how to negotiate, how to make an offer, how to counter-offer, how to network and plethora of other skills.

It eventually got to the point where I was making $1-2k profit a week, while still in High School.

But it didn’t stop there, as I got older, I tried a bunch of other business models (most failed) but the important thing is that with each lesson, I grew more and more.

By the time I graduated, I was making a lot more than I ever had.

And it went from wanting to just wear shoes to wanting to take care of my family.

As I found success in some businesses and had some losses in others.

Somewhere down the line, I got greedy.

And I’m not talking about the greedy that everyone knows about.

I’m talking about the secret one, that sometimes you don’t even realize yourself.

The years flew by, I was enjoying life and was in a constant phase of just wanting more.

I was exposed to the entrepreneur life, seeing my successful friends, and other successful entrepreneurs constantly.

Like everyone else, I wanted to build my empire.

But I lost the most important piece to any puzzle.

I lost God.

Yes, I still prayed every day.

I still loved Him. I was respectful & kind to everyone.

But deep down inside, I thought I was the lord over my own life.

I thought I could control how every situation turned out.

I praised myself more and more.

With each new milestone, accomplishment and win, my sense of pride got higher and higher.

My new found success was all because of me.

So, I thought…

Until one day, everything came crashing down.

The well dried up and money slowed down, then eventually stopped coming in.

I felt like that little helpless kid in middle school again.

But it was different this time, I had skills.

These skills helped me to pivot quickly.

I already had a few ideas I wanted to execute on (like every entrepreneur).

So I began to work on an E-Learning platform for new entrepreneurs.

Basically, you’d be able to learn different side hustles that you can immediately start profiting from.

Side hustles like reselling, amazon fba, trading, etc.

I invested my personal cash into it.

Most of my savings, to be completely honest with you but I quickly realized something.

I had no audience.

Nobody knew who I was.

Meaning I had no source of traffic. And I felt like it’d take months before I could build a brand so I quickly pivoted into communities.

I mean, who would trust someone to teach them anything, if they had no idea who they were?

Which is where I stumbled upon Dan Koe.

Which is also where my close-friend Bryan introduced me to Skool.

That started this tidal wave of learning how to market and sell Digital Products.

It’s funny because at this point, I’m learning about Digital Products and how building a brand plays a vital role.

To take things a step further, I was getting back into really cultivating an honest relationship with God.

One where, He was the Driver and I was the passenger.

I started reading my bible daily, doing devotion consistently.

Fasting, praying, journaling, doing things I never was able to do in the past.

(well consistently that is)

Side Note: It isn’t easy at all and some days are harder than others. But all we can do is put one foot in front of the other and keep pushing.

and to add on my fear of putting myself out there and creating content held me back for so long.

I literally didn’t want to create my own social page lol. The entire team was running one “brand” account.

Anyways, in that time, we put out literally dozens of digital products. From ebooks, to guides, to courses, communities and coaching.

Most of them flopped.

A lot of them flopped actually.

But we learned with each step that we took.

(we spent a crazy amount on ads, I’m too ashamed to even admit)

No, seriously though, we tried to avoid creating content so much, to the point where we were just paying Facebook for fun.

Flushing money down the toilet with each ad camp we ran.

The worse part was, any profit that we made, immediately went back into ads.

And you can guess what happened when we didn’t get a return from ads.

Yup, money stopped coming in, once again.

I say that to say this…

Failure and lessons are part of the journey. I can probably name hundreds more but we’ll save those for another day.

Embrace the pain.

Embrace the lessons.

Because with each lesson, you become a little more.

You build your experience and eventually level up your character.

As long as you submit to God and seek the Kingdom first, you’ll be fine.

Just keep pushing through the trials.

As you can see now. We finally threw in the towel and decided to create content.

Arguably, one of the best decisions we could’ve made.

But we were in for an even bigger wake up call.

Now that we had spent most of our money on ads, launches, etc.

We needed to grow our social profiles and build our brands.

Summer 2025, we started taking content seriously.

There’s always drawbacks though.

We didn’t realize how much really went into creating good content that actually grows a brand.

So of course, this was the next obstacle that we’d have to overcome.

Yet again, we had to learn a completely new set of skills.

What type of content grows your page, what type of content makes people want to buy, what video formats help you to stand out, how do you attract the right audience. And hundreds of other questions.

Wait, how do I even talk to a camera and look comfortable????

It was scary at first but after you just start, you realize that nobody really cares.

And if they do, hate never comes from above.

Always below.

Within this 12-month journey, we had completely turned around.

Working on things we never in a million years would have thought.

It was crazy.

We were creating content, building a community, all while helping others do the same thing!

Now, focusing on a completely new set of lever movers, tasks and skills to develop/grow.

That’s where I’m at now.

Putting the reps in and getting 1% better every day.

Excited to serve others just like you, who were in my same situation and have no idea what the first step even looks like.

Which brings us to the new mission that God has uncovered for me while on this journey.

It’s to help entrepreneurs all around the globe to build a simple, profitable business online from their passion, skill, or expertise.

I believe that everyone has the opportunity to build a profitable online business.

It’s a matter of doing the lever movers that really push your business forward and sticking with it long enough to get good at it.

I’m confident that I’m no where near where God is planning to take me yet.

So there’s a lot of work, a lot of hours and a lot of obstacles that still have to destroyed.

But I truly believe, down in my heart.

That it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, or where you’ve been.

God can change your life.

You have time to build, create or do something.

And I just want to use my gifts to add a few stepping stones between you and your goals.

My first day creating content was so scary, I had no strategy, no mentor, no guidance.

Just a vision.

I knew I had the will to keep fighting.

No matter who was laughing.

No matter who was watching.

No matter who was judging.

My faith is in God and my support system.

So, whoever is reading up until this point, go chase your dreams.

Pursue that wild business idea that people told you would be impossible.

Chase that dream until it comes true.

Put the work in.

Don’t conform to what society says you “should” be doing.

And remember,

To get, you must first give.