From Paycheck Stress To Entrepreneurial Freedom

Ever feel the cost of living sprint past your paycheck while your options seem to shrink? This conversation flips the script and hands you a practical map from wage pressure to ownership, showing exactly where the leverage lives right now. We start with the ripple effect: when you level up, your family, your team, your clients, and your community feel it—and that momentum multiplies. That’s the heartbeat of this episode: build a life that scales because you’re creating value, not just clocking hours.

We walk through two lanes with serious upside. First, the trades—roofing, HVAC, and service businesses—where operators are growing to seven and eight figures and exiting for life-changing sums. Second, the online arena—AI services, content studios, social media marketing, e‑commerce, and high-margin online coaching. Along the way, we confront a hard reality: many white-collar roles will be automated. Your move is to serve the surge—educate, productize, and consult for people who want AI-driven outcomes but need a guide. If AI doesn’t light you up, don’t force it. Choose a field you care about enough to suffer for, because passion is endurance, not just enthusiasm.

You’ll hear a crisp case study of a client who turned a simple studio concept into a seven-figure business by helping local pros create long-form shows and slicing them into short-form content that floods the feeds where buyers live. We break down direct-to-consumer plays that work today, from problem-solving products to authentic demos that convert. Then we dive into online coaching economics—why digital programs can run at 90 percent margins, how to package your lived wins into a clear offer, and why clients pay for certainty and speed, not theory. The throughline is agency: study operators, go to events, read the builders, and adapt what fits your voice.

If you’re done waiting on raises that don’t cover the rent, this is your nudge to pick a lane and go all in—trades or digital, product or service, solo or team. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a push, and drop a comment with the one skill you’ll monetize first. Your ripple starts now.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Ripple Effect Of Personal Change
• 0:45 Welcome And Mission For Impact
• 1:44 Wages, Costs, And Why Ownership Matters
• 2:59 Trades, Social Media, And AI Reality
• 4:22 Passion Over Hype And The Cost Of Greatness
• 6:07 Digital Services And A Seven-Figure Case Study
• 8:02 E‑Commerce And Direct To Consumer Playbook
• 9:25 Online Coaching, Profitability, And Proof
• 11:03 Green Ideas And Learning From Operators
• 12:34 Freedom, Purpose, And The Wealth Gap
• 15:40 Final Push Toward Ownership

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

You know, iron sharpens iron, man. And if you're a positive person, if you're a motivated person, if you're getting results, you create a ripple effect in your life. It first starts at home with your kids or your wife. It's gonna affect your colleagues, it's gonna affect your customers, it's gonna affect people in your community that you see off in your extended family. One person can change hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. And think about how many lives those people change when they're inspired or they get results. That's what I love to think about. It's not just about me, me, me, and what I'm doing. It's like how many soldiers can I create? How many warriors of the light? How many men that level up and elevate themselves that are gonna now go into society and be a positive role model example for others? Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Crane. If you haven't, make sure to subscribe and share my channel. I really appreciate it, you guys. Doing my best to do my part. That means change of lives, impacting people in this world. And I couldn't do it alone. You know, iron sharpens iron, man. And if you're a positive person, if you're a motivated person, if you're getting results, you you create a ripple effect in your life. It first starts at home with your kids or your wife. It's gonna affect your colleagues, it's gonna affect your customers, it's gonna affect people in your community that you see often, your extended family. One person can change hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. And think about how many lives those people change when they're inspired or they get results. That's what I love to think about. It's not just about me, me, me and what I'm doing. It's like how many soldiers can I create? How many warriors of the light? How many men that level up and elevate themselves that are going to now go out of society and be a positive role model example for others? That's how we make change. But anyway, not to go off on a tangent about that, I just typed something into Chat GBT. I typed in top five business ideas for first-time entrepreneurs. So look at if you're somebody listening to this and you're sick and tired of feeling broke, struggling financially, not doing something you're passionate about, becoming a business owner is the ticket to success for you. We live in times right now where wages compared to expenses are there's a huge disparity. Okay, you can pull up in the chart right now, go on Google, type in, you know, disparity between earnings and expenses in the United States of America over the last hundred years, and you'll see the gap between earnings and wages get progressively bigger as time goes on. You can't be a nine to five worker, not even you and your wife, and make it nowadays, especially in California. You need to be a business owner that can earn millions of dollars per year. If you want to have a really good life and for money not to be a problem, that's a goal. How can I earn millions of dollars per year and take home at least high six figures consistently? You'll never do that as a nine to five worker. You'll never do that as an employee. Unless you get in a really great company where you're like a number two or three person and you have equity in the company, you're not gonna be able to pull that off. You got to find a way to create your own business. Now, I'm gonna go through the list of best business ideas for a brand new entrepreneur in 2025 and share what I think. But before I do, if you're a young man and you're thinking, how can I establish myself in a business and grow that business, where should I be looking? Two places that I'd consider social media in the online space or the trades. I'm seeing roofers, HVAC business owners, I'm seeing service-based businesses in the trades grow their businesses to seven or eight figures and sell for eight figures, high eight figures, man. Like I'm talking about crazy life-changing money, and it's it's there for the taken. You know, AI is gonna replace a lot of white-collar jobs. AI is gonna replace all the stuff that people are doing remotely on computers at home. All those jobs are gone in the next couple years. Like your financial advisor, um, let me think. I could just go through a list of them. I mean, anything white-collar, AI is gonna be able to replace and do more efficiently. I mean, Elon Musk is even talking about having AI operate on people, and doctors are gonna be out of the job, surgeons. He's like the AI and the robotics are gonna be more efficient than a human being, less human error, less error. Let's just say that, right? So we're coming up on some crazy, unprecedented times. But the whole message here is if you're somebody that's sick and tired of being sick and tired and broke and not having a clear path forward to better in your life, you got to become a business owner. Now, if you do understand AI and tech, that's the first thing that I'd be looking at. How can I leverage AI and create some type of service or education around AI for business owners, for people that actually want to use this AI, a person like me, right? How can I teach them about AI or create a consulting business or some type of service that educates people on AI? That's the future, right? That's number one when I typed in the chat GBT top five business ideas for first-time entrepreneurs in 2025. Here's the thing, you guys, if AI doesn't get you excited, don't do that. What I believe in and what I'm gonna teach you is to go after something you're passionate about. Because when you're passionate about something, you will get up early, you will stay up late, you will work harder, you will sacrifice, you will have more faith, you will keep going, you will not quit and give up, you will find a way to make it successful if it's something in your heart you genuinely love doing. And I heard Tim Tebow speak last week and he said, You know what passion is? You want to know what the definition of passion is in Latin? He said, It's something you're willing to suffer for. Passion is not inspiration, passion is not motivation, passion is not excitement. Okay, that's enthusiasm. He goes, passion is something you're willing to suffer for. Right? I've suffered to build this physique, I've suffered to build this business. You know, you can say you suffered to form your family, whatever that looks like. Sacrifice, sleepless nights, pain. Anything great or worthwhile in this life will require you to endure that pain. If you're not willing to endure that pain and suffering, don't start because you're gonna fucking quit. Okay? So think about that. If you're not excited about AI, don't do AI. Digital content and online services. Number two, according to ChatGBT on the list of small businesses to start for first-time entrepreneurs in 2025. Think about freelancing, content creation, virtual assistants. I shared a podcast about my client Matt Friedman, who has now scaled his business to seven figures using the exact systems I taught him that I use to grow my company on Stoppable 365. And he is doing content creation, freelancing, and uh social media marketing. Okay. So what he's doing is he rented out of space, turned it into a badass podcast studio. Now he's inviting real estate agents, he's inviting small business owners, even lawyers, anybody in his area that has a small business that would do well to gain more customers, he's teaching them how to create long-form content like I'm creating right now. Then he's chopping it up and turning it into a bunch of Instagram reels, TikTok videos, chopping it up into smaller form content and just throwing it out into the world in abundance, maximum exposure. What happens is now you become exposed to potential customers that don't know who you are. And so he has that skill set and that ability, and they're hiring him. He just scaled that business to do over seven figures in six months. From zero dollars, just with an idea, took action, built the studio, found the clientele through his own marketing, came up with an offer, what he's gonna charge for this service, scaled that business over seven figures. So I helped him come up with the idea. I taught him the blueprint. Once he executed, it blew up. So that's what he's doing. Um, before that, he was a musician, before that, he worked in tech and startups. Now he's an entrepreneur, now he's in the game. Number three, e-commerce, direct to consumer or niche online stores. So we're seeing this become more and more trending. If you're someone on TikTok, you'll see a woman and she's wearing a bathing suit, talking about how great it fits. All of a sudden you notice there's a link in her profile, and she's selling bathing suits for women that just fit way better than the shit you get at Target. Blah, blah, blah, right? There's a million things you could sell. You could sell baby food products. If you have a newborn, uh, which I do, maybe it's something you'll see me doing. Uh, you know, my my daughter little Bella could be like using this really great spoon that doesn't spill. And then like the whole spiel is like, hey, you get baby food. Does your child get baby food all over the place? And every time he or she eats, you got to wash all the stuff, da-da-da-da-da. Well, this baby spoon is spillproof, right? Click the link below and you could order it. Like, that's what e-commerce is. It's direct to consumer, and you could use social media to sell anything. So if you're into supplements, clothing, like you see a lot of women doing this. Certain clothing that you wear, ladies, that fit you good, that make you look sexy and attractive. Uh, let's say, like, you're you're wearing these new mom jeans, this new dress, you know, like, and you're like, damn, this makes me feel good. Like I was young again. Now I got three children, I'm older. Like, I wish more women, uh, more women would want to wear this attire, right? You could create content and have an online store and model it and do cool little videos and like get silly with it, have fun with it. All of a sudden, now you have an online business where you're selling clothing. Uh, obviously, you buy the clothing and you market up and sell it and you get the margin, that's your profit. But boom, now you have a business. Now you're creating TikTok videos every day, selling dresses, hats, you know, freaking accessories, certain mom jeans, sandals, and flip-flops you like. I don't know. You can sell anything. You create the content, you sell it to your people. Okay. There's a lot of stuff you could do online. And if I were you, other than the trades for young men, and I know women in the trades too, but uh, I would I would recommend looking online. Everything's gearing towards the internet and AI. And content is a great way to reach more people and create opportunities that wouldn't be there. Like if one person sees my podcast over the next year and likes one of my messages out of the hundreds of messages I'll put out just on this podcast alone, and and follows me on Instagram or Facebook and then inquires about coaching and signs up. That's one customer, that's one life change, one person I can impact and generating revenue off that relationship because I have a fee for my coaching for the year, right? That was created just by me sitting here and creating content. You're just literally printing money out of thin air. It's a money-making machine. Like, and and I don't say that in a way where it's all about money, but I just want to I want to point, I want to point that out to you. I want to create that illustration for you. Like social media and content creation creates a money printing machine when done right. Okay. Um, let's go to number four. That's a good segue in number four, which is health, wellness, and digital wellness services. So you could start online coaching like I did in the beginning, where it was just fitness and nutrition coaching, using an app that you can white label. You could pay like two to four hundred dollars a month to use this app, structure people's workouts, their nutrition, and then let's say you charge them 200 bucks a month or 300 bucks a month, everything that you make is 100% profit. You're not having to pay a lease out of brick and mortar, you're not having to pay employees because you don't have any yet, you're not having to pay for anything. Maybe your internet bill, right? Maybe if you have to buy a new laptop or something or your phone bill. Other than that, you're 100% profitable. And if you're somebody right now that loves health and fitness, you have a passion to help people, you've maybe overcome some things in your life like depression, addiction, um, whatever it is, you can package that into an offer. Your personal development, the path that you've been on to improve the quality of your life, you could take those things that you changed in your life, those monumental life-changing moments, package them into some type of program or offer, and then guess what? There's millions of other people right now who are struggling with the same things you've overcome. They feel stuck, they feel lost, they feel hopeless. You want to know what the most impactful thing someone can have in a moment of despair is someone to guide them, someone to create hope, someone to hold them accountable, someone who has the results that they want that can show them what to do and change to get those results. Whether it's business coaching, health and fitness coaching, there's a reason why it's become so popular because it works. You know how many people's lives I've seen change right before my eyes? You know how many mentors I've hired that have helped me change my life for the better? It works. When you get coaching from the right people, what you're getting is their intelligence, their experience, their certainty, and you can apply it at rapid speed to expedite your results. You still got to do the work, you got to be willing to do the work and what it takes, but it's incredible how it can change your life so quickly. So if you're somebody that's passionate about helping other people, you're passionate about personal development or health or fitness or getting results or whatever you've done in your life, you can teach other people and they will pay you to teach them and you can create a business off it that is highly profitable. And just for comparison, if you run a brick and mortar and you own some blue-collar service-based business, you're getting like 10, maybe 20% profitability annually. If you run an online business like online coaching, health and fitness coaching, your profitability is 90% and above. So if you make a million dollars in a brick and mortar, you're you're not making shit. But that's why like those figures and revenue are misleading. Oh, I did multiple seven figures in revenue. Yeah, at 10% profitability. You're broke, you know. But online coaching, you're like, dude, I did multiple seven figures last year at nine, 90% profitability. Like that's life-changing money. So things are changing rapidly in the world of business and entrepreneurship. It's all about profitability, it's about maximizing these free marketing outlets like social media, developing yourself so you're attracted to the world and what you offer, people are gonna believe in because you're demonstrating its efficacy. Like it works. You're the proof, right? Okay, last but not least on this list, sustainable, eco-friendly products and services. So basically green products, right? Um, cleaning products, zero waste products, uh, just a bunch of boring shit that I'm not gonna talk about. But hey, if you're into environmental stuff and green products, like, dude, a show you should watch is Shark Tank. Watch Shark Tank, watch Patrick Bet David, watch Bradley, study Alex Hormozy. Like, if you don't know who those names are, Tom Bileu, okay, uh Jesse Itzler, like write these names down. Go follow them on Instagram and start start listening to what they say. Ed my let. Like one of the things that has helped me so much in entrepreneurship and business, number one, I'm very blessed. My clients are seven, eight, nine-figure business owners. On my calls with them, I get value. I'm asking them questions. I'm seeing how they operate. Number two, I go to events and I network. I shake hands, I meet people, I ask them questions, I build real relationships face-to-face in person. Number three, I read books. I read books on successful people, people that have the blueprint, people that have done amazing things. I study them. I love studying human behavior. I love seeing people's journeys and just get inspired by it. And lastly, I observe and I study people on social media. I'm not gonna copy everything they're doing. I'm gonna see what's working and I'm gonna utilize it if it makes sense in my own way. But doing those things over the last five years has helped me to grow my perspective, to develop business acumen, to get results, and also to have a clear blueprint on what I got to do to keep scaling my business, right? Keep changing lives and do what I love every day till the day I die. Because for me, that's the most important thing. I get to make my own schedule, I get to do whatever I want every day, right? And I get to make a living doing what I love. I get to connect with people, I get to see people change their lives for the better, and I get to share in that experience. And it always reminds me of the transformation I went through in jail that was so eye-opening and life-changing. Like I get to replicate that over and over and over through these relationships and not be tied down to a job that I hate, doing something that's just killing my spirit, going to a job that's paying me crap money where there's no ability to grow. Like, that's just not the way to live, man. Now, don't get me wrong, here's the hard part, right? I'll I'll end with this. You know, janitors, service industry, uh, garbage men, uh, freaking roofers, people that come and repair stuff at your house. Like, think of all the jobs that you see in society at a restaurant, taxi cab driver, gas station attendant. Like, there's jobs right now in society, mechanic. There's certain jobs with that they're doing things that are needed, that are adding value to society, but they're not being compensated adequately. So they're struggling. You know, they're becoming like, you know, despairing. They're hopeless. They're they're building a resentment because they don't have enough money, right? And like it's a big issue. The disparity between earnings and and uh and cost of living, it needs to be fixed and addressed. And that's another subject. But right now, I hope this was a valuable episode for you. You guys seek to become a business owner. If you're a young man looking into the trades, don't sleep on the trades. It's gonna go through the roof for the next five years as far as opportunity and what you can earn. Uh, if you're a young person, though, I want to plant the seed. You got to become a business owner if you want to be successful. Try things, find what works for you, and go all in on it. Let's go, baby.