Finding a Winning Product and Growing Your YouTube With Noah Brewer (E-Comm Mini-Series 3/3) | TNE070

At what age did you start working towards being financially independent? Most people don’t start considering this until they’ve crossed over to the other 20s - but not my guest this week! This week, we’re joined by Noah Brewer, who’s widely regarded as a kid genius in the e-commerce industry. Noah went from being a broke 16-year-old dropout to becoming a force to be reckoned with in the e-commerce space with his incredible e-commerce empire that he built in just four years. His success story is unlike any rags to riches story you’ve heard before!

For the third and final installment of The Nomadic Executive’s E-Commerce Mini Series, Noah and I got together and talked about the extraordinary and downright unusual experiences he’s had since he embarked on his remarkable journey. In this episode, Noah shares how he went from being a door to door salesman to becoming a wildly successful e-commerce entrepreneur earning six figures a month with his two e-commerce businesses. He also shares how he effectively handles his large remote staff with minimal effort. Noah Brewer is a guy whose story, hustle, and mindset will blow your mind. 

Timestamps:

[24:55]What drives Noah to hustle

[27:30]Why Noah dropped out of school

[37:49]Noah on his plans for the future

[39:44]Business strategies from a kid genius

[41:40]Noah on starting and managing a team for your business

[44:00]How to handle your remote staff

Noah Brewer's Links:

Instagram: @noahdbrewer
YouTube: Noah Brewer
Website:  www.noahdbrewer.com

Omar's (Host) Social Media:

Instagram - @nomadables

TikTok - @nomadables

Facebook Group - NOMADABLES - Accountability & Growth Community for Remote Workers- Perfect to meet fellow online entrepreneurs, remote workers, and digital nomads.

YouTube - Omar Mo

LinkedIn - Omar Mo Nomads Cast

Twitter - @nomadables

Pintrest - @nomadables

Clubhouse - @pods

WEBSITE: https://www.nomadables.com/

Transcript

Finding a Winning Product And Growing Your YouTube With Noah Brewer (E-Commerce Mini-Series 3/3)

Omar  

Today we're joined by one of the most meticulous people I know in the ecom space. He dropped out of high school and now makes six figures a month with his two agencies in the ecom space. This guy is the only guy I know who took someone under his wing and then brought their income up to 10k a month while recording the entire thing on video. No joke, check out his YouTube. 

We're joined by Noah Brewer. Kid genius, although he's too humble to call himself that. Fun fact: Noah is the only person I know that rocks basketball shorts everywhere I see him. I'm serious about that one to be sure to check him out on YouTube though he really puts his heart and soul into the content he puts out there.

Alright, Noah Brewer. Welcome to the Nomadic Executive, man. Super stoked to have you on. Met you at Scaling With Systems about two, three weeks back, we had some mutual friends. I've now interviewed one of your clients. And now I'm sitting here interviewing you. 

You've got an incredibly successful YouTube channel and incredibly successful two businesses. And a pretty funny background sign on your wall as well. So why don't you give my audience a small little elevator pitch intro about yourself, man?

Noah Brewer

Yeah, so elevator pitch for the last three or three and a half to four years, I've been focusing on making ecommerce businesses profitable. And I've been doing that, you know, through Facebook ads, content, stuff like that. And, you know, just really narrowing down my Facebook ads strategy, which I run two agencies. 

One of them we strictly focus on Facebook ads, and the next one, we do content, which is Viral Ecom Adz, as you can see it, like right there. But, yeah, that's pretty much it. And I've really focused on mastery of Facebook ads, and came at it from the agency angle, which I think is really unique. And it kind of separates me from a lot of the other ecom guys in the space because I've been able to manage a lot of accounts. I do real estate. I'm not that into stocks. But you know, I got a lot on my plate, and a big team, you know, like, I've been having success with team building and all that sort of stuff. So it's been a wild ride.

Omar  

It's been a hell of a ride, man. And you did all of that in four years. And you accomplished this much in four years. And you started from practically nothing you would say, right? Like, where were you four years ago? Who was Noah Brewer?

Noah Brewer

I was a 15 year old brat. You know, really cocky, you know, I'm gonna be rich one day kind of guy. And I mean, I wasn't, I wasn't wrong, but you know how it is, like, when you first get in the business, you start understanding this world, and you get really cocky. And, you know, I was young too. So mix that in, I was a super douchebag. 

And I got into door to door sales. Like really quickly. That's kind of one of the first things that I tried out. And that humbled me like real fast. Because you know that it's very difficult. It's one of the only entrepreneurial things that I've done that has legitimately made me cry. 

Omar

Right.

Noah Brewer

Like, out of fear, you know, being scared, being pissed off... like it brings every single emotion out of you, in the most extreme way possible. So it was super cool. And obviously, I got really good at sales and selling my service through that. 

So 15 year old, 16 year old Noah was like, you know, money generating activities. And within a few of like really starting it in sales, I was able to grow, you know, a six figure income just on my own.

Omar  

Right. So having a bunch of doors slammed in your face in the first year kind of led to that resiliency and knowing and understanding how sales really works and other deeper human psychology works to be able to bounce off and do what you did. So... 

Noah Brewer

Yeah, yeah. 

Omar

Do you think you would have been able to accomplish even like the first two years that you saw your success? Do you think you would have been able to accomplish that if you didn't do door to door sales?

Noah Brewer  

No. I mean, that experience... I mean, I would recommend anybody to do door to door sales cold calling door to door, I would say is the most extreme version of sales. Because it's all in person. It brings out like I said, the extreme of every single emotion that you could possibly feel. Because there's so many different things that can happen. 

You know, you feel guilt, you feel fear. You feel extreme happiness, like when you get a win. It's not like, you know, with e-commerce, like, “Oh, I found a winner.” It's like when somebody says yes, you get pumped. 

So it's like, you're having a really shitty day. You're having a really good day. And I'm just going through that and it really allows you to like discover yourself, figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. And, you know, it also allows you to push your limits. So - 

Omar  

I can really relate to that. I did door to door sales for about six months. It was one summer when I was... when I was trying to save up some money for a music festival. I think I must have been 18.And that, like you said, the highest highs but seriously the lowest lows. 

And especially like when I was wearing the stupid pizza shirt. I was selling coupon books for a pizza place. So I'd walk around door to door wearing this T-shirt. And the first thing that opened was like, “Do you work at the pizza place?” And like, “I'm not really working for them. But I'm here to talk to you for a minute.” 

The amount of doors I got slammed in my face... So I totally know what you mean man and I can totally relate to that. And it's funny right? It's ironic, don't you think? Like the jobs that are looked down upon and look like, are trashy almost when you're younger like “Oh, you work door to door sales?”, “Oh, you work at a call center?” are the ones that prepare you the most to become a fucking boss.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, right. Cuz that was like really in the dirt, you know, I was able to make door to door work. So, you know, one of the big pivotal moments of my life was when I transitioned from door to door to doing online sales. So you know, like working in Facebook groups, getting on calls with people doing that sort of thing. And I was actually selling web design. 

And you know, making that transition was like, smooth as butter. Like, it was so easy to sell people in Facebook groups on web design compared to selling them, you know, solar in person. So, you know, that was kind of like the next step from door to door, I kind of transitioned into designing websites. 

And, you know, I would go into Facebook groups and sell them for 500 to 1000 bucks. And I was able to actually make five to seven grand in one month, within a couple months of just starting that. So that was like my first taste of internet money. 

And I was addicted. I loved it. I knew it was the way. I wasn't, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to scale it and go really big. But I knew that it was the way so that's when I went all in on that. And I was like 17 at the time.

Omar  

Right, so when you first started that, I mean, I'm guessing you didn't know that much about web design, did you?

Noah Brewer  

No, not really, I was mainly doing ClickFunnels.

Omar

Right.

Noah Brewer

Oh, I was really, really good at building funnels. I don’t know how I got good at it. I think it's just like, it's something that I naturally grabbed on to and every single funnel that I built, converted at, like 50%, you know, on a front end opt in offer. 

So that's basically what I would tell people is I'll guarantee you a 50% opt in rate on the front end, and I would build their offer, I would build the marketing strategy and the entire funnel. And I was only charging, you know, 500 to $1,000 for that. So I don't know, I was able to work my way in. And that's what introduced me to internet marketing. Yeah.

Omar  

Now you're an ecom agency. Did you ever actually do any ecom products or shops yourself?

Noah Brewer  

Well, I have, since… you know, starting my agency, obviously, I've done it on my own. But in the very beginning, no, I actually started inside of e-commerce like without really knowing anything about e-commerce at all, with a client. So it was this weird situation where I was actually selling somebody else's course as an affiliate or a salesperson. And this other person was somebody who actually knew what they were doing. 

They grew a store to a couple million dollars in sales. And now they made this course. And one of those people that bought the course was like, “Hey, can you run my ads?” And I said, “No, I have no idea what I'm doing.” And he said, “That's okay.” This guy had a ton of money. So he offered, he just wanted to automate it, he didn't really care who did it or whatever. But he offered to actually pay for my mentorship to run his store. 

So the best way I can say it, is I was getting free mentorship by growing his store. So he was essentially paying for my mentor. Like, most people, when they get a mentor, I think it was like $1500 a month back then, which I didn't really have. He was paying me the $1500. 

Omar

And you get it done.

Noah Brewer

And then I gave the 800 to the mentor. And the mentor taught me how to run Facebook ads for dropshipping. And that's when it really started taking off for me. 

Literally the second I touched ecommerce, I don't know what it was, you know, it was the help of the mentor, it was the hustle, it was everything leading up to that point, like we just blew up. And you know, within six to seven months of touching my first e-commerce store, I was able to generate a total of a million in sales for my e-commerce clients.

Omar  

So that's when you knew that was your calling? Just about that point?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, we -  everything up to that point was like, you know, a couple grand here and there. But e-commerce was the thing that like I really excelled that, you know, doing Facebook isn't even e-commerce, it was more Facebook ads, because I was just running the ads for it. 

But really excelled really, really, really fast. And I had a great mentor and somebody who taught me a base level strategy. And I was able to build off of that. And eventually I developed my own methods. But all those fundamentals stuck with me even to this day. 

And, you know, now sitting now, like three and a half years later, we've been able to rinse and repeat essentially the same process, which we just surpassed, I believe $14 million in client sales, in total. So in like three, you know, three years, I went from zero to having $2 million agencies for myself. And then being able to build over $14 million in sales for other people. So you know, clients.

Omar  

I get that. And that's incredibly impressive. I mean, you don't see anybody that does that every single day. Hence why you're known so well in the space to be able to bring your clients such great results. But I wanted to bring something back here for a minute, right. So I'm seeing a pretty common theme with you as a person. 

You started off with clickfunnels. You saw that you could build funnels, you had a pretty good grasp on the psychology behind what to take someone from point A to point B to point C. And that was able to translate quite easily when it came to Facebook ads as well. You got a hold of the concept really easily so... 

And that's not everybody can do that by any means, you know, I mean, I've even given Facebook ads a crack I can barely tell left from right there. But what do you think there -  is there on your part that has become so intuitive for you to be able to grasp this deeper level strategies on both and something that translates between Clickfunnels and Facebook ads?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, well, I think it was everything leading up to that point. You know, just appreciating the opportunity was like number one. Because I was, I went from... I learned how to sell first. And then transitioning from door to door to actually selling an e-commerce course. 

So now, I was kind of like, on the outside looking into e-commerce as a salesperson. So I got to learn about the e-commerce business model. You know, the kind of results people are doing different strategies without even doing it right. Like I was just selling this guy's course. 

So you know, learning about sales, selling ClickFunnels, which I think ClickFunnels didn't really help me that much in terms of e-commerce, because the systems that I was doing for the click funnel marketing was completely different than what I was told to do with e-commerce. 

But I think it was just like the things that led up to it. Number one allowed me to take advantage of the opportunity because I really appreciated it, because compared to door to door, that shit was amazing.

Omar  

I get it. What? Why do you think there's such a difference when it comes to ClickFunnels and e-commerce? Do you think it's because once B to C low ticket versus usually higher ticket B2B?

Noah Brewer  

Well, with e-commerce, we're sending traffic directly to a product page.

Omar

Right.

Noah Brewer

And with ClickFunnels, essentially, what my strategy is, is you send them to an ebook or, or webinars or something, and you just have them opt in. So a completely different dynamic, and you're optimizing for leads as opposed to optimizing for purchases. And I think the algorithm is a lot more sensitive. 

So when I got my e-commerce mentor who was, you know, instructing me on how to do it, he essentially told me to forget everything I knew up to that point. And he cracked the code. And I basically just had to trust him. 

And that's another, like, huge factor of why I was able to grasp everything so fast is because I had a mentor. Like I had somebody telling me what to do. And I was literally like anybody else would be, I had no idea what retargeting was. I had no idea, you know, what interest targeting was. How to create a campaign, how to scale what a winning product look like? 

You know, like, I was literally starting from nothing. I was, you know, 17 years old, and hungry. That's it. So I made the mistakes, right? Like, I know, one thing that my mentor always told me was make one new asset per day, no matter what, like, when you have a winning product, some people will understand that some people won't, but you'll get the concept. 

And one day, I was just, you know, I was just messing around, and I made five ad sets instead of one. And he, you know, my mentor yelled at me. Like, he got so pissed off. He's like, Look, dude, if you keep fucking up, I'm not gonna work with you anymore. And I was like, “Oh, like, I better straighten out!”

Omar  

In my head, I don't see what that's a negative, I thought that would have been a positive.

Noah Brewer  

Right, right. Like, you know, why does it matter? But like, that's, that's the way that I was taught. And that's the way that works. Like, you have to stay very strict with one method if you want something to work over and over. So I like to say it like he beat me with a star. And it kind of formed me into a star. You know what I mean?

Omar  

Right? I get it. So it sounds like you you nailed the system down. And then I mean, because there are different methods to do, or have good results on Facebook ads, but you found yours. And then you practiced it, and you practiced, and practiced it until you got so good at it, that you delivered your clients exponential results, anything like they've never seen before.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, exactly. Like, I figured out a working strategy, I would say within like four to five months of knowing absolutely anything. And then, since then, yes, the strategy has changed. But it's all been adaptations, like three and a half years is a long time in the online marketing world. So a lot changes. 

So I've revamped the method multiple times. But yeah, it really is dialed into like the absolute best that it can be. Like, you know, a funny example is recently, I had one client purchase two packages with our agency. Which if you don't know, we, it's like a done for you product testing system where we implement our proven methods for them. 

So it's kind of like management style, and he just got his store builds back. So it's two separate stores. And he sent me a text and he's like, dude, these stores look exactly the same. And I was like, I was like, “Look, you know, have, you know how much money that we spent testing and split testing and optimizing this store design? Like to get the, you know, everything placed in the right spot?”

And that's the reason it's the same is because it works. Like there's no reason to do two different designs because that would be considered testing, right? Like, I don't need to test designs at this point. I already know what works. So that was like a good example of like somebody being like, “Hey, like, why are both stores the same?” They were trying to like, put pulling up on me. And I was just like, “Dude, this is like, what works? Why would I change it? Why would I do anything different?”

Omar  

Yeah, I totally get it. You battle tested all your different strategies. And you know what works. Why waste time doing different things just to kind of appease your client, right? 

Noah Brewer

Yeah. 

Omar

Makes sense. Where did the YouTube channel start in all this then?

Noah Brewer  

So like around June of 2018. 

Omar  

By then you already had King Midas’ hand, like you were touching everything.

Noah Brewer  

So like, I'll set the timeline. So September of 2017, is when I started messing around with Facebook ads for dropshippers. 

Omar

Right. 

Noah Brewer

And June of 2018 is when I started my YouTube channel. And I wanted to wait until I had at least a million dollars under my belt to start a YouTube channel and start teaching. That was just an ethical dilemma of mine. 

Like I didn't want to, like pretend to really know about something that I, you know, don't know about. And, you know, we can get into whether or not that was a good decision, but it definitely costed me money waiting that long. But that's beside the point.

Omar  

Yeah, cuz there's a lot of like bills while you go on YouTube and then build in public, right? I think Ari, I was in a mastermind, that -  I spoke to him a few weeks back, he was mentioning how he built his YouTube channel. He's in the e-commerce space as well. 

And he's just like, Yeah, man, it just built in public and it kept going. Got successful that way. I think that's what you believe, as well, right? With your YouTube channel.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, that was kind of the belief that I - Oh, I mean, I did it a little bit different. I didn't want to try to be a guru if I wasn't 100% confident that what I was saying was facts. So whether or not it costed me money, whether or not it was stupid, it was just what morally felt right.

So I started the YouTube channel, terrible in the beginning. But in terms of like a success story, I made my first YouTube video, it got like 30 views. I think I shared it on my Facebook page. And then people came from my Facebook to the YouTube.

Omar

Right. 

Noah Brewer

And I actually closed a client from that first video. And we went off and scaled that client to $100,000. And he ended up paying us $10,000 for doing that. So you know, off of my very first video, we landed like a pretty damn good client. 

And, you know, I was hooked. Like it was, it's such a great thing for any business to be able to give value for free, and attract new people into your brand. And I've gotten pretty much all my clients from my YouTube channel at this point.

Omar  

Really? So you kind of sit back and clients are coming to you as your lead gen source from YouTube. It's predictable though.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, it's pretty predictable. It's been pretty consistent. We scaled the agency pretty fast. But you know, the YouTube channel, I would say, like, if you go back on my YouTube, I think I've uploaded about 150 videos. And only one of them has ever gone like, viral. 

Which I think it has like 25,000 views but like, I'm not really that popping. Like, I get a couple thousand views on each video that I put up and nothing really explodes. And I think part of the reason is because I keep it real. I’m boring. My voice is monotone. 

You know a lot of guys blow up in the space. They're just like super overhyped, like, “24 hour drop in challenge!” Like I can't do cringy like that. So I'm okay with like a little bit less followers, but more quality content.

Omar  

I get it. I remember when I first searched. When I first searched how to make money online the first thing that came up during that year because it was trending: drop shipping. And when I found drop shipping and I researched it a little bit more naturally your face came in as one of the first few videos at that point. 

And then from there, you just haven't left my YouTube screen. I mean like this retargeting ad after retargeting ads. So you've definitely built a presence. Even if it's not directly on your channel, you've built it through paid media, paid advertisement. Because I've seen you in multiple locations outside of YouTube. 

Whatever strategy you're doing there, you're building it well, and it gives you an edge on top of other YouTubers who maybe have tons of more subscribers, but just aren't getting the kind of visibility that you’re getting, you know what I mean?

Noah Brewer  

Well, I mean, there's been a couple of really big things that I've used to grow my brand. Like, one was, I actually filmed every single phone call that I had with a client. And I took that client from nothing to 10k a day in sales and we recorded everything. So it was really dope like, literally no other ecom guy can offer something like that. And I don't blame them. 

I don't, I'm not saying that they're bullshit, because they don't. We were just so lucky to be able to not only take this client from nothing to 10k a day, and at the same time record it, like, it seems like anytime you try to record something cool like that it just never works out. And we kind of, I would say, we got pretty lucky with being able to succeed at two different things at once, scaling it to 10k a day and recording it. 

But that's like a super crazy valuable video, then I believe over 5000 people downloaded it and watched it. It’s like an hour and a half. And then the next thing was my percept finger strategy ebook, which is out my entire strategy, like doesn't hold anything back. And over 15,000 people have downloaded that. And I've had people like, print it out and hang it on their wall, and, you know, send me pictures, and then you know, reading it like in a physical copy. So...

Omar  

You think that's what keeps you going, seeing that positive feedback loop in your head and seeing other people actually benefit from what you're putting out there value-wise?

Noah Brewer  

Well, yeah, the value is always number one. Because you know, you can get 10,000 people to download a book. But if the book is just all fluff, the leads are just going to be all fluff to you. So, that's like, you know, every now and then, you know, we'll get these very, very passionate guys that just have consumed every piece of my content. And, you know, frankly, sometimes I'm convinced they know my strategy better than I do. 

And, yeah, usually they come into the agency or my coaching or something, and they see success really fast, because they just got really obsessed with one method. And obviously, our methods work. So they just stick with it. And they end up seeing it.

Omar  

I get it man, that -  that's...you've seen so much success, like you're 19 now is that right? 2020. Like, right, hitting your teens, or your 20s. Now you just past your teens, and you've seen so much success already. I mean, you've got a great YouTube channel, you've got your strategy down, you know what you're doing, you're putting value out in the marketplace. But how, how is it being so young and being wealthy? 

I mean, how, how has your life changed in that way, like, what I want to dive into more, and there are people that will go out there now after listening to this, and they'll go to your YouTube channel. And they'll watch that. And I'm guessing if I had to at least point it out, I would say at least like 25% of my audience probably already knows who you are, because we attract a lot of agency owners in my as my audience. But, so, they will go and search you up. 

But now, I'm guessing and what I like to bring these agency owners on and get behind the curtains here a little bit like I want to know how it's like being 20 and being as wealthy as you are and how it's changed your life. How systems are things day to day, like how is that?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, well, I mean, first of all, I wouldn't consider myself wealthy by any means. Like, Yeah, I've had a couple successful businesses, and I've had a lot, but it doesn't matter what level you're at, you're never going to feel like you've made it. And your life doesn't really change. 

I mean, yeah, I just wanted to get that out of the way that, like, I'm not like, super rich or super wealthy. But you know, I have kind of been through the phase of like, spending every dollar that I made. That was like the first year that I started making, you know, 10 grand a month or more. I spent every dollar and at the end of it, I looked back and I was like what the hell man. Like I made like 120 grand of taxable income. And I had zero, like, I think I had like 4 or 5K in my bank account?

Omar  

Right, by tax season?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah. So I was like, I need to start saving money. So I learned my lesson. And you know, I come from a family that is very bad with money. Like middle class dad, super lower class mom. So you know, just humble beginnings. And I didn't have somebody to teach me those lessons. 

But I started saving money. And then you know, I started buying real estate. So that was kind of like my reason for saving money. And I have three properties now, which I bought my first property, I believe, a year and a half ago, somewhere around there. And then I bought two the next year. And this year, I'm trying to buy three or four. But that's obviously I'm driving a pretty nice car are actually two pretty nice cars. I have a really nice house, day to day is really, really relaxed right now. 

And it has been for like the last year because I like I said, like I built this really great team. Like just for my main agency, we have two managers, I believe 10 other employees like a copywriter, app buyers, we have. And then with Viral Ecom Adz, I have a partner and the partner kind of runs that whole business and me and him talk a couple times a week. 

So I don't really do that much. I just try to focus on growth, like coming up with new ideas. Every now and then I'll implement new ideas. And obviously with my YouTube channel, I'm trying to think of like, new video ideas to make and… making them.

Omar  

Right. Well, there's something that's keeping you going right? What's driving you every single day, these days?

Noah Brewer  

Honestly, like, the main thing is just being able to make more money so that I can invest more. Because ultimately, my goal is complete freedom. You know, it's not really my goal is not really to be a billionaire one day or get as rich as I possibly can. 

My goal is just to get to a point where I can safely make, you know, 10 to 20K a month, which I would consider, you know, a low debt lifestyle. Most of the money coming from, you know, real estate rental income.

Omar  

So passively, you mean?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, nothing's really passive, but....

Omar  

As passive as it gets, I mean.

Noah Brewer  

It's safe, right? Like, if somebody is paying you rent. Yes, people can stop paying rent, but like you budget into that. So that's kind of my goal is just to build up a pretty good real estate portfolio. So I don't have to worry ever again. I never want to be in a position where somebody has control over me. And that's honestly my biggest driver.

Omar  

To be completely free of authority of people of life and just do whatever the hell you want, when you want to. 

Noah Brewer

Yeah. 

Omar

I get it. I think it's such a common theme too, that other entrepreneurs feel the same way. I know, certainly, the reason that I became an entrepreneur was because of that. Because I like being free and enjoying and doing my own thing. 

And it's a common theme. It's, you see a lot of these different things. When you speak to a lot of entrepreneurs, especially even through this podcast alone. Everyone has a problem with authority. It's hilarious. 

Noah Brewer

Yeah. 

Omar 

But it's a driver, too, you know? And I think it's a really, really good thing. Going back here a second, what did your parents think when he first started just bringing in a bunch of dough?

Noah Brewer  

They didn't really know. They didn't really didn't really know too much for the first like, few months. Because I didn't want to, I didn't want to set that expectation, and then have everything come crashing down. But I remember, you know, my first time making three grand in a month, which by the way, where I come from, that's it. That's good money.

Omar  

Where is that? Exactly?

Noah Brewer  

Like Danielson, Connecticut. It's like, top right, like, middle of nowhere.

Omar  

I have no idea where that is. Yeah. Only goes to show.

Noah Brewer  

And you know, that's actually you know, 3K in a month is more money than my mom makes. So we were actually on a vacation to Europe, because that's where half my family is from. And, you know, I made my first 3K a month, I think I sold like three websites. And I had like $1,000 in commissions come in from the selling the ecom course. 

And I was pumped. I was like, wow, I'm finally making, you know, a decent living income. And I believe I told my mom and she's like, “Wow, you've made 3K a month?” I mean, you made it 3K this month, that's great. Like, but it was really, really nuts in the beginning, because I don't know if you knew this, but I left high school, halfway through 10th grade.

Omar  

I didn't know that.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, so I dropped out of high school. And that was like, really difficult for my parents to accept, which my mom actually had to co-sign on it. Because unless you're 18, you're not allowed to drop out on your own. 

So my, I had to, you know, batter my mom every single day for about a month, essentially convinced her to let me drop out so that she would sign on the paperwork. And so she had faith in me kind of, sort of. And my dad, you know, he completely disagreed with every everything that -

Omar  

It’s a bad move. I mean, that's usually how it goes.

Noah Brewer  

He called me a loser every time he saw me for like, the next year, really, even after I started making money, not like, say like, in a mean way. But because he's not like, abusive or anything like that. But he would just kind of say like, “Oh hey, by the way, you left school, you're a loser.” Because like where he comes from, that's what it is.

Omar  

That's how the old generation was right? Yeah, you can begin to understand the way things are now. And when, now like when I told my parents, I became an entrepreneur, and they saw money started to come in. They were like, I understand it now. But I don't know how you're doing it, but I understand it. 

And I'm guessing you like it may may have strained the relationship a little bit with your parents at first, especially when you first dropped out of high school because that is not a common thing, even in this day and age. But as you started bringing in money, and your dad actually saw like, “Damn, Noah is killing it right now.” What.... How did the -  How did the atmosphere change there?

Noah Brewer  

I mean, they were surprised. Which, by the way, that first $3,000 month that I had was about eight months after I dropped out.

Omar  

Oh, you saw that first bit of success after you dropped out? Why did you drop out then in the first place if you didn't have it?

Noah Brewer  

Well, I just had this thought that, you know, school was holding me back emotionally, motivationally, physically. Like, I didn't have a lot of time, which you know, you can use as an excuse, whatever. But I was just like, I knew that. Okay, if I'm going to turn 18 that was like the turning point for me, was once you turn 18 if you're not either, you know, if you don't either have a job or making money on your own, you're screwed. 

Like what are you going to do? Most people go to college, but I knew I wasn't going to do that. So I basically had this ticking time bomb. I was 16 years old. And I had two years to make something work. And I knew that if I wanted to have the highest possible chance of success, I had to leave school. And that's how I, that's how I convinced my mom to let me leave. 

Because I said, if I turned 18, and I'm not successful yet, I'm going to be fucking devastated. Because I'm gonna have to go get a job, I'm gonna have to go to college, I'm gonna have to do all this shit that I don't want to do. And basically, what I did was I bought myself a two year window of time, where my parents would still allow me to live with them rent-free, they would still feed me. So I had this two year opportunity…

Omar

Calculated risk. 

Noah Brewer

Of like, a free -  a free life. Because once you turn 18, you know, now you have rent, you got to pay for your own food. Like there's so many things that come up that hold you back from making the most out of a business. 

So it was,  it was a dash, right? And I left school, not making any money at all. And that's about the time when I started the door to door and then eight months later, you know, September 2017, that's when I started ecommerce and started making some real money.

Omar  

That's amazing, man, that's a hell of a story. I'll tell you, you built -  you let the pressure build on yourself. And then you're like, you did it. There's this quote that I absolutely love. It's like, I forget how it goes exactly, but it’s “Burn the ships behind you so that you have no choice but to go all the way.” And that's essentially -

Noah Brewer

Burn the bridges.

Omar

Burn the bridges... burned the ships, some sort of Greek quote. But that's exactly what you did, man. And he put all that pressure on yourself. And you and he made the dash and you made it. 

And to give my audience some value here. There's a lot of people that like my demographics are crazy, right? There's like 18, to like 68 to seven year olds listening to this podcast, but people in your shoes, like if you had to give them some a piece of advice, maybe they're aspiring entrepreneurs at 16. Maybe they're contemplating on going to college at 20... 

What would it -  but they really want to be an entrepreneur - what... what would you recommend to them? What would you suggest?

Noah Brewer  

Well, I mean, I can't ethically suggest somebody go and do what I did. Because it was a little bit extreme. And at the time, I you know, I was like, fuck it, I'll figure it out, whatever. But I think honestly, like, what Gary Vee talks about, like, the main thing that sold me on dropping out of school and actually being comfortable with that is, you know, Gary pushes this. And it's also just common sense that you can always go back. 

If you're, if you know, like, let's say you leave school at 16. And you go until you're 18. And you messed up, you're not making any money, you suck, you're a loser that your parents called you, you can always go back to high school. 

There's online high schools that accept you, you can be 50 years old, you can be 20, they don't care. And you still get a real diploma. It's not a GED. So this is also part of the way I was able to convince my parents because I said, “Look, if I if I screw this up, I'll just go into an online high school and we'll be good.” 

And then I can take that online diploma. And you can either bring it to an online college, or you can bring it to a real college like it's looked at as a real diploma.

Omar  

Right.

Noah Brewer  

Oh, which I obviously didn't have to do that. I figured it out. But Gary Vee comes at it from that perspective. And when you realize that you're not really losing anything, when you leave school, you can always go back and do it. 

The thing that really messed with my head was, you can always go back to school, but you can't always go back to being 16 years old with nothing to lose. Like, that's, that's the opportunity that I was trying to take advantage of was being 16 years old, and having nothing to lose. I literally had nothing to lose.

Omar  

What differentiated your mindset that at that age? Because I know, many kids at 16, 17, 18... I know certainly, me. And I'm a bit older than you, but it was it might have been a little bit of a different time. But we were sitting there thinking about girls and how the hell do we get  - how do we play sports and kick ass? 

You know, that's what we're thinking about. We were thinking about, like, how do I stand up on my two feet as soon as possible? But what differentiated your mindset around that time, like what made you even because you say you came from a middle class family and all that. 

But you didn't necessarily have a chip on your shoulder that some of these entrepreneurs do that really drives them to hustle and get to the next level. So like what differentiated your mindset there and instill that drive in you in the first place to say  - this. I'm just gonna try and go all in?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, well, I really hated the idea of… well, I saw what my parents were doing just working a job, paycheck to paycheck. I didn't like it. And I didn't know that there was any other way nobody in my family owns a business. You know, no, grandpa's no uncles. Everybody was working. Men and women. And... 

But in freshman year of high school, I found this book on the stock market. And that was my vision. Like, I wasn't into business at this point. I didn't even know business was a thing. You know, this is freshman high school. I'm literally just a punk ass kid, you know, like, you know, with no goals or anything. 

I wanted to be an architect, you know, that was my plan. And once I started reading about the stock market, I found out that people were actually making money on their own without a job, you know, without a boss. And I was like, that's it. Like, that's the way! And the stock market kind of rolled into business and business rolled into selling and selling rolled into ecomm. And you know, it all kind of came on and so forth.

Omar  

Looking back, did you expect to be where you are right now, when you were 1716? There's a side of you, that's gonna be like, yes, I'm sure. Like, I had this unwavering belief. But then another side of you might be like, No, I didn't expect it to go this far. What side do you...

Noah Brewer  

I told you, I was cocky, right? 

Omar

Yeah. 

Noah Brewer

So I definitely was cocky. Like, if you ask anybody that knew me at the time, I had zero doubt in my mind that I was gonna figure something out. But, you know, it's faith. You know, like, you can call it like, you can call it whatever it's really faith in yourself. And faith in the system. Faith in the hustle that I had. And I had a lot of it. Like, that's why I was able to, you know, leave school and still feel comfortable. 

And I had, you know, Gary Vee, Grant Cardone, just like listening to these people, constant motivation, you know, showing different strategies on how to make money. And I don't know, it was, it was really faith, like, I knew that I could do it. 

I didn't know what timeframe that I would do it in. But I figured, you know, if it takes me five years of busting my ass, then it's worth it, it'll be worth it. And it took about, you know, maybe a year or two of busting my ass to actually start making one to 3k a month.

Omar  

So that's awesome, man. And I'm happy for you that you got this far. And I really hope it inspires a lot of my audience who that have been listening to this for as long as they have. 

And I know there's a few people that always reach out to me, and I'm telling you, this is one of the episodes you definitely want to pay attention to be sure to check out Noah on YouTube. Now, going forward now to actually the president here, you saw the new offer that you carved out, which looks incredibly interesting. 

By the way, you actually pretty much start somebody from scratch, and you put that story in place. And everything's optimized already. And you're doing all the testing and all that, which is a freaking amazing offer. And I don't think I've seen anything like that on the market. 

What are your plans now? Like you have your agency you have that offer? You have a couple different things going on? You're 20 years old, and you're working towards freedom? Where are you heading this way? Are you going to create more content on YouTube? Are you going to double down on just the things that you're doing now? Or are you going to move to somewhere, Eastern Europe? Like what - what are your plans?

Noah Brewer  

Well, I mean, I'm still focused on the financial freedom goal. And to me, that's, you know, a real estate portfolio with a 50-50 debt ratio, which just means I have 50% equity, with a net profit monthly of 10K a month. Like, to me, that's what I'm focused on right now. And my net profit right now is I think, like 3K a month, like around that range. 

And so I'm a third of the way there. So I'm trying to make more money, so I can invest more money into real estate and hit that long term goal. And then once that happens, like, you know how real estate compounds like I'm pretty much guaranteed to be, you know, worth 10 million and up within 30 years if I hit that goal. 

So, but other than that, you know, short term goals, I'm doing a lot of restructuring, a lot of, you know, innovation inside of both of my companies. We're trying to work with more brands, we're trying to create brands, which is something that we've never looked into in the past. We've just been focused on drop shipping, you know, pump and dump stores. And we're focused more on backend stuff like customer support, fulfillment, branding, the products, you know, marketing on different platforms, like we've been 100% Facebook ads up until this point. 

And now I'm starting to look into other platforms, because it's good to diversify, especially if you're trying to build a real asset. So that's kind of the direction that we're going into, I'm not starting any new crazy businesses, I'm essentially just going deeper and more strategical and better with what I already have.

Omar  

So in terms of strategy, then, I mean, you have this battle-tested merit when it comes to business already, you got four or five years compounding experience, knowing what to do and what not to do to sock like specific, specific strategy in business. 

I want to cover a few things here, right? Number one, what do you think are some of the most important things to pay attention to and structure in a way that will pay in dividends later on when it comes to business?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, well, you have three three parts of a business. You have short term income, medium income and long term income, and not even business just life in general. Like the best example: a short term income would be selling web design. You know, you get paid up front, you make money right now. 

Medium income would be, you know, ecommerce, I would consider that my YouTube channel, it's essentially things that you're investing time and money into right now with the potential to make more money within three to six months. 

And then long term income, which is things like real estate stocks, you know? Just different investments that you don't really make any money from right now. But they, they set you up for the future. 

So I mean, that's important to understand, because I see a lot of people jumping from, you know, zero straight into long term income. Like they tried to get into real estate investing with no money, which is very difficult to do. So in real estate, you know, short term income would be becoming an agent or doing wholesaling. 

So in every single business out there, their short term, medium term and income, and I mean, in long term. So you want to make sure that you follow them kind of like in order, focus on short term money, get your money up, get your cash flow, and then invest in medium term stuff, and then invest in long term.

Omar  

Makes sense. I see what you're saying about the jumping from point A to point C before. I know, I've definitely been, or I've done that before, without realizing so and then it bites you in the ass later. 

So I know what you're talking about there. I haven't ever thought of it that way, though, which is interesting. How about in terms of like, starting a team and managing a team? Like you said, You've been growing your team quite a bit, and you're really enjoying that dynamic?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I think the the thing that has been most valuable to me as as you know, building my teams, for both of the agencies, because we have a team of I think 30 video editors for Viral Ecom Adz, we're starting to build a production team right now, because we actually have a real studio for product shoots. 

So... and then with the marketing agency, you know, we have ad buyers, and we have managers. And I would say like, the most valuable thing is having like, a really cheap job that people can do. To sort of prove themselves. And then you know, like, for us, that would be copywriting. That would be ad buying, it's something that you know, we only pay them if we get paid from a client. 

And you know, we can start them off very, very slow test them out. And then the second we see talent, we promote. So you know, we either give them more clients, we make them a manager, like some, some some way to like, get them more embedded. 

Omar

Right.

Noah Brewer

So, you know, we can hire 20 ad buyers tomorrow, give each of them one client and micromanage them, and then pick the two best ones. And, you know, we'll be able to give the rest of the clients to the greatest ad buyers. So...

Omar

Merit-based.

Noah Brewer

Hm?

Omar

I said it’s very merit-based. I understand.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, so like what you know, where most people mess up, and where I've messed up in the past, is paying somebody a lot of money, or committing a lot of time and effort into one person. And when you do that, you cannot test people out. And I think that's super important is testing people out. And being able to find talent for people that are already working for you. 

Because if you're offering like a $5,000 per month salary, it would be very difficult to hire 10 people and then fire nine of them to get one really good one. But if I needed to hire somebody on a five camera salary, I already have a group of like, you know, 20 to 30 people where I can take the best one and make them a manager.

Omar  

I get it. It's funny, like you always talk… People always talk about promote within the business or people to higher positions within the business instead of being from an external place. And you just put a really good reason behind why you should do that, right? 

Noah Brewer

Yeah.

Omar

And it will save you time, it also save you money from... it lets you experiment a little bit with who's worth it and who's not. How about.... do you have any sort of company culture in place? I know you've got some remote teams and some not?

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, it's it's all remote. Like our production team obviously is in person. But not really like I don't think our team is really big enough to really need community or culture, stuff like that. Like I think the best part about it right now is, you know, in terms of my agency, we're all guys with the same goal: make money in our PJs, and do really good work and provide value. 

I think we all do that really well. And there's been times when I've had to, you know, step in and remind everybody why we're here. But, you know, usually after I do something like that, everybody gets right back on their shit. And I've only had to do that a couple times.

Omar  

How do you go about doing that?

Noah Brewer  

Well, I mean, one time, you know, a lot of the ad buyers were slacking off. And I just called them just out of the blue and I was like, “Wow, you guys are really, you know, letting it go right now.” 

And they have a really good job. They're making a full time income from their home. Doing a business that they love. Like e-commerce is something that they personally do as well. So they're making a full time income from home, in an industry that they love. And we pay them very well. And we treat them very well. And I was like, you guys are - up. And, you know, if you don't want to be here, then don't be here. 

But if you do, then be the best that you can. And, you know, we had a couple of Yeah, I think had one person leave after that. And we had five people get really, really good. And those have been our main like five to six people since then. 

You know, which one of those people really. It was a real wake up call for him. And he was, you know, he sent everybody on the team, like a paragraph just apologizing for flunking, man. He ended up  - he ended up absolutely crushing his job for like, the next couple months. And we promoted him to being a manager because he was just that good.

Omar  

Awesome. That's really good to hear. So the heavy handed tactics do work.

Noah Brewer  

I'd say like, at my level, it does. But you know, if you have like 100 employees, not all of them, you know, maybe not all of them will respect you enough to like, see eye to eye like that. But I mean, it definitely worked for me.

Omar  

Do you think your brand has a little bit to play with that, too? I'm always curious if like, bigger YouTubers that start businesses have that brand aspect that helps them get their employees more in line than not.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, having the personal brand is literally endlessly valuable. I think it's the most valuable thing that I've ever attempted to do from, you know, from a business sense, is starting the personal brand. Because it just makes you a more valuable person. And business is all about people. 

You know, one of the biggest things about having a YouTube following or, you know, people that know you and respect you is people want to meet you. They want to talk to you, they want to do these things. And that just puts you in a position where you can take advantage of more opportunities. 

Omar  

You're the buyer...no, you're the chooser.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, I mean, in a way, it's like have you ever seen the show Billions, the TV show?

Omar  

No. I haven’t.

Noah Brewer  

It's like a show of like this, you know, multi billionaire stock trader. And, you know, one of the quotes from that TV show is he, you know, his name is Bobby Axelrod, the actor in the show. And, you know, they say that Bobby Axelrod doesn't go to meetings, he walks into a room and meetings form around him.

Omar  

That's Chuck Norris type - right there. 

Noah Brewer  

Yeah. So you know, on a small scale of like, you know why a personal brand is valuable. Yeah, it gets you with people like, especially, you know, just going to an event, you don't even need a personal brand. 

Just go to an event and shake people's hands and say, what's up like, I met you, Michael, plenty of other great people could co a bunch of really cool people that I'm going to make money with. And that's at the end of the day. That's I think that's what it's all about.

Omar  

That's what it is, man. Networking, social relationships and social proof. And I think we live in a day and age where conversations are really the biggest benefactor. But the biggest factor between a business failing or succeeding, honestly. 

And maybe not so much, 20 years ago when the internet first started, but definitely no 100%. Yeah, I like to wrap this podcast up with one final question here, right? And this is a question that I asked every single person that comes on this podcast. I've asked from Dan Lok and Pat Flynn all the way down to the dirty backpacker in Australia, right? 

The same exact question. So I'm curious to see what you have to say about it. And it's interesting, and I've really enjoyed the conversation too. You seem like you've got a great head for your shoulders. You're definitely more mature than the average person your age. And it's still boggles my mind that you are the way that you are and you still dressed in shorts, yet you're a fucking genius. It's still blows our minds. I'll tell you.

Noah Brewer

Yeah, my pants. 

Omar

Yeah, sweat pants. Sweat pant living man. That's what it's all about. 

So the question is, if you had a billboard in space, and on that billboard, you could write whatever the hell you wanted. And everyone on planet Earth could see it and read it in a universal language. 

Every time the sun rose, the billboard was there, everybody could see it. And every time the sunset, the billboard went away, it was there for the rest of eternity. What would you write? 

Noah Brewer

Bro, you're going to have to give me some time to think.

Omar

By all means think.

Noah Brewer  

There's this whole time that we've been talking there's been one quote, one big lesson that I learned that really took me from being a nobody to being a somebody. And I was gonna say it earlier, but we ended up talking about something else. So I just let it go. 

But it's one of the things that changed my life. It's something so obvious that you wouldn't think about it and it's applicable towards life. It's applicable towards business. It's applicable towards relationships. 

So I think it would be good for everybody to know and appreciate and think about, you know, because everybody on earth is going to see it. So this can't just be a business thing,

Omar  

Right.

Noah Brewer  

It's really simple, it's: do more of what works. And I think if more people did that, the world we live in would be such a better place.

Omar  

Do more of what works. 

Noah Brewer

Yeah.

Omar

Explain that a little bit. 

Noah Brewer  

I know it sounds like, super obvious, like, obviously, if something's working, you want to do more of it. But believe it or not, you know, I'll use ecommerce as an example. Most people when they see success, the first thing that they want to do is change it and try to make it better. And more times than not, you actually make it worse. 

So instead of taking advantage of what you have, and it's not really settling, like, of course, you always want to try to get better. But it's more about appreciating what you have, and making the most of it. If something is working, do more of it, scale it up. 

And this is applicable towards... you know, relationships, like making, making your wife happier, girlfriend happy. If you made her happy once, you can do it again. And if you took her to the beach, and she wasn't happy, don't take her to the beach. You can take her to steak, you know.

Omar  

It's a very testing way of approaching life.

Noah Brewer  

But it's very simple. It allows like, very clear thinking. But it keeps your thinking very clear. And I think like, if everybody saw that every single day, the world would definitely be a better place. 

Now, I'm not saying that's the greatest thing that you could put in the sky for everybody to see. Because I would probably debate, you know, 100 different quotes. But you asked me on a whim. And that's what I've been thinking about. And I think that's the thing.

Omar  

And I liked it a lot because the first thing that I thought at the moment that you said that quote was how much I've stuck and self-sabotaged myself by trying different things. 

Just purely out of boredom. Sometimes you're just because I was curious, you know? But you're right if you just double down on the things that work no matter what it is, there's no way to go wrong. 

Noah Brewer  

Yeah. Roundabouts, and stoplights are a perfect example. Like why does Europe do roundabouts and USA does stoplights?

Omar  

Good point.

Noah Brewer  

Well it works, right? Like, why not just do more of the one that works? Why do we got to switch it?

Omar  

Good point man. 

Noah Brewer

Anyways -

Omar

Thanks for coming on so much, man. It was really awesome. I really enjoyed that conversation, Noah. As always, man.

Noah Brewer  

Yeah, it was good. It was really nice meeting you and having this chat.

Omar  

Absolutely. 

That was an awesome episode with Noah, great guy both in person and over interview. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel if you want any more ecommerce tips.

And this actually wraps up as three out of three of our mini ecom series here at the Nomadic Executive. So if you enjoyed this whole mini series format, and there are other types of mini series you'd like me to do. Doesn't matter if it's about business or not. Feel free to shoot me an email at O-M-A-R-M-O digital@gmail.com. Let me know what you want to hear.