The Restart Podcast

Day 9: How I'm building a business with zero dollars (ep. 56)

Arthur Toole Season 7 Episode 9

Welcome to Growing a Business with Zero Dollars! I'm Arthur Toole, and I’m here to share my raw, real-time experience of building a business from scratch—without any initial investment. This daily series is designed for aspiring entrepreneurs who might be struggling in silence, unsure where to start (or restart), or feeling overwhelmed.

Through my journey, I’ll show you that you’re not alone. From setting up your business legally to finding potential funding sources, overcoming everyday challenges, and learning key lessons along the way, this channel is all about giving you the knowledge, motivation, and resources you need to succeed.

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Speaker 1:

All right. The last 10 weeks I've prepared for a pitch competition and here are the results. I won. What was cool about it was not that I won, it was that, you know, my circle came around and they made sure that the pitch was right, and this time I was surrounded by coaches through the program.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to Brenda, you know, pat, elizabeth, double Day, Joe, obviously, wynn that each focused on different areas and the challenge with this is that I didn't agree with a lot of stuff they were saying and what it came down to is that I've been in the weeds with Grenada Nut for five years and I saw things a certain way and it's not that at the end I was wrong and they were right, or I was right and they were wrong, it was more so. A communication gap, right, how do I effectively communicate the vision and back that up with data to support that? And that was the toughest part but won $10,000 to grow Grenada Nut and I am going to go all in on that and take advantage of this opportunity that I've been afforded. My hope is that by this time next year, grenada Nut Company Megalief is averaging at least 400 sales a day. Nobody believes it's possible, but I know all things are possible with Christ, right, and so that's what I'm going to stand on right now. Over the five year period, we average about 15 to 30 sales a day, but for this calendar year we're averaging like one a month, and that's because we've done zero marketing.

Speaker 1:

I've been so distracted with trying to figure out making sure everything balanced in life the job, you know, trying to put down other opportunities, trying to figure out if I want to, you know, explore a hobby for myself and then just living life. You know. It's just all those things, and what ends up happening is that you go through all those emotions and transitions, that you end up just staying stuck. That's one of the beautiful things about documenting this journey and sharing it with you all is that I get to see where I was, and it's objective, right, you can't romanticize where you were a year ago. If you have a video of you saying where you were a year ago, right, so that's where it is.

Speaker 1:

Also, you know, the elections happened a couple days ago. Donald Trump won and some people are rejoicing like he's the second coming of Jesus Christ and some people are mourning like they literally died. I think you know who's ever controlling media should be ashamed of themselves because they have split the country. They got people thinking it's a black and white issue, it's a money issue, and they got neighbor turning against neighbor, when we're all the same. If you're a Republican and she's a Democrat, y'all probably are going through the same things, right? You're probably struggling trying to just put food in your family up on the table. Take care of your family. There's some benefits to having Republicans, republican principles, and there's some benefits having Democratic principles.

Speaker 1:

And by me just saying this here, that triggers something in you. You need to check yourself. If you can't even listen to someone talking about something in politics, just listen. You've been victimized.

Speaker 1:

We live in a country today where you can't talk about politics. You can't talk about your salary and the money you make. You can't talk about your faith in Christ. You can't talk about the things that actually impact your life. So what's left? Football we can go all day about football and the Olympics every four years, but your faith will determine how your life is shaped today, whether you have faith in God or not, and where you will be in the afterlife.

Speaker 1:

Your finances you're not the only one in debt. Okay, but you may have someone right next door to you that has figured out how to get out of that debt that you're in, but you're too embarrassed to talk about it or you've been programmed not to talk about it. You sit in there at work and you don't know if what you're making is more than the next person or less than the next person, or if it's even the market value. You can't talk about it because you're afraid we can't move, we can't grow in that status, but anyways, let me get off of that status. But anyways, let me get off of that. My hope is, about 12 months from now, that I am able to do McAleef 100% of the time full-time, which means to let go of the job with the college.

Speaker 1:

I do believe the season has transitioned to the end time because they're doing things that I just can't truly, in my core, agree with. Nothing ethical, nothing ethical. It's just I don't like the decisions they're making and it's not based on logic anymore. It seems like it's based on fear and emotions and relationships which I can understand, but I don't want to stay there, and relationships which I can understand, but I don't want to stay there.

Speaker 1:

I thank God for the pitch competition. I thank God for my family. I thank God for the experiences. I thank God for the trials and the tribulations that I have experienced, both those that were self-inflicted as well as those that I didn't see coming. So what's next?

Speaker 1:

I will continue to do this daily, for your benefit and for mine, because I want to show you what can happen when you trust everything to God and you keep your head down and focus on consistently doing the work and then watch how God will bless the works of your hands. I want that for you, I want that for me and I also want my kids to see that as well. So let's do this together. If you have questions about anything, let me know, and I'm just going to continue to document the journey. Whether it's just you that sees it or you plus 10 billion other people, I don't care about the numbers. In ways to God, be the glory all right. Peace. Thanks for the prayers that you were praying for me to win the funds and if you're seeing this later, listen, you can do more, you can do better. You can do it faster. Just stick with me. All right, I'm out of here.