William Wang Discusses Bettering Yourself 1% a Day

Dustin Steffey: 0:00

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Jaden Norvell: 0:54

Welcome to your top rated business entrepreneurship, self development and smart investment podcast. This podcast is hosted by creator and founder Dr. Dustin Steffey and also hosted by coach, music producer and influencer yours truly Jaden rush Norville, we are blessed for many accolades such as being nominated for the People's Choice Award for Best Business Podcast, as well as raising over $5,000 last year for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as well as for the Boys and Girls Club, spending a global reach or podcasts in the top four downloads in four countries. Without further ado, welcome to chopping wood fire ladies and gentlemen, let's chop it up

Dustin Steffey: 1:35

Hello, and welcome to another episode of chopping with fire. You're joined with your host today Dustin Steffey I have a wonderful, wonderful lineup planned for today. But first and foremost, let's dive into a couple things. Please, if you haven't done so already, I know I sound like a broken record. But this is how we get better. Join us on our social media platforms. We have a Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, tik, Tok Snapchat, and well, everything in between including a website, where I would start first is at our website, www dot choppin. With feiyr.com That's ch ro e p i n with feiyr.com. That house has everything in it kind of gives you a benchmark on where you can go. We definitely have tons of updates we are in season two, we're going to be killing it this year. We killed it in year one. Let's continue to make that difference in year two. But without you guys commenting and giving us some information. We can't really make that difference. So please join us on socials today. Lastly, we still do support our home and local charity please, as we go into the new year, let's hit our goals. We have big audacious goals this year, we want to raise about $50,000 for CF this year. So if you guys haven't done so already, please head on over to C F F dot o RG. Remember CF is a rare lung disease that is like breathing through a straw. So if you can imagine breathing through that little hole to try to get through your day. It's not fun at all. And we want to do our part to make sure we're supporting so we can find a cure for CF. So please, if you haven't done so, let's head on over there. And let's donate today. I think that's all the housekeeping that we have. I want to dive right into our episode and have some fun. I have on with me, William Wang. He's an amazing, awesome person. I got to talk to him in pre roll but I want you guys to kind of hear from him some accolades he has in that support his credibility or he was a part of corporate it. It wasn't working out for him. As we all know, with our nine to fives, they never normally work out. They're just a job. He moved on to build his own seven figure business and he's currently running that today within his marketing agency. He is a Judit jujitsu, badass, so don't mess with him. He has a brown belt and he's about to get his black. So if you guys need some techniques on how to defend yourself, reach out to him. He loves to surf. From what he told me. He is not a professional at it. So let's let's not, let's not get lessons from him quite yet within the surfing world. And then of course, most importantly, he is a father of two. So, William, how are you today?

William Wang: 4:31

Your house. Thanks, Dustin. Thank you for that amazing intro did really appreciate it.

Dustin Steffey: 4:35

I got you, buddy. That's what we're about here. We're about we're about having the cool people on you know.

William Wang: 4:41

That's awesome. Great to be on. And yeah, like happy to share any new parts of my story that hopefully inspires and helps. You know, somebody out there listening who's looking to get nine to five or even figuring out what they want to do fly for example, not saying I've got to figure it out. I absolutely don't, but having to share any part of my History or anything that can help? Yeah,

Dustin Steffey: 5:01

I think the most important thing and my listeners are really good about this is just really connecting with people really understanding what it takes to be an entrepreneur. We are not one of those podcasts where it's like, hey, today's topic is this, we're more or less like, just everyday people just trying to kind of give information. And hopefully, maybe one or two people out of the 1000s upon 1000s of listeners resonate, and then they like this episode, and they kind of jump ship and do what they wanted to do or what they were destined to do.

William Wang: 5:35

Yeah, that's awesome. Love it.

Dustin Steffey: 5:38

So let's let's dive into you. Like, I mean, obviously, I brought up you, you were within it before let's let's get a little bit of your story, buddy.

William Wang: 5:46

Yes. So I guess where do you start from I kind of looking back at life and you know, the journey and all that kind of stuff started you know, since son, son of immigrants came over from from China to Australia grew up in in a pretty rough neighborhood, but getting taught, you know, about everything, essentially, that you don't want as an entrepreneur, it was kind of beaten into me, you know, the whole idea of don't talk about money, don't get attention flying on the radar, play everything safe. That was essentially upbringing, our head, and not saying it's wrong, but you know, it just it was what it was, right. It's like the whole immigrant story about survival and things like that. So went through all of that developed an extremely introverted personality, and the kind of struggle but kind of struggled, I think, to me upbringing and how I am naturally just wasn't really aligned. And it created a lot of issues and challenges, let's just call it as I was going through, including phobia of the phone not being able to communicate properly. And it kind of meant that by default, I went through university and went into path of this IT career. And, you know, it was a good career. It was a six figure career, but I absolutely hated it. But for what I thought my personality was, I thought it was a perfect career for me. But as I started going through that, no one can dive into this and what they'd have to share again, any and all parts of it just turned out that it just wasn't what I wanted to do wasn't what I was put here to do. And really, really just didn't like what I was doing on a day to day basis. So that's kind of the story you know, how are kind of going yeah, just philosophy in Korea that I just absolutely hated even though on the outside, it was perfect. And people were like, Dude, what are you doing for your career way? It's kind of it just felt like every single day was just an exercise of boredom and exercising just, you know, not not doing anything right. I just felt like I was wasting my potential here. So that kind of led me to thinking about business and that in and of itself is kind of like a like a whole journey. It's been I think six or seven years now so quit my job and started my business full time. And it's only the past three years where it's been quite a good journey. The first three are a massive struggle as well so lost some Paki

Dustin Steffey: 8:09

so I'm extremely extroverted person. So in school call it college was awesome, right? Because that's where I made a lot of different diverse friends. So the introverted extroverted battle came into play and it was it was funny because I don't know why but I had a lot of introverted friends and so I was the one that like kind of got them out of their shell almost.

William Wang: 8:33

Yeah, that's awesome. I think for me anyway, I actually really like hanging around people who are extroverted because it means that I have to talk like they can just go and talk to people and you know be loud and I just chill like I'm just in the background hanging out and having fun

Dustin Steffey: 8:48

shit you got a good point there I'm about to call some of these friends and be like you guys use me because I'm an extrovert wrecks it dude, it is a big field right? And like if I could do my schooling all over again, that's probably the field that I'd want to go in. However with the knowledge that I have now, I don't want to work for the man you know what I mean? And I don't I just don't think it's advantageous and and honestly, these days it's getting worse and worse right? Because these companies are taking advantage of people by giving them 1015 different job roles for the same Hey, you know what I mean?

William Wang: 9:29

Yeah, it's it's an interesting idea like looking back knowing what on and I still think it's a good industry but like all industries, you know, if you have a passion for it, that's when it becomes really good. I didn't have a passion for the only reason that I got into it was because my dad is for you know, he worked in it. He absolutely love what he did computers and programming, all that kind of stuff. I hated it. But I did it because it was easy for me having to help at home at that when I was going through through university I was essentially, I help people sell websites on the side. So I had started to dabble in outsourcing. And I figured out that people that I was outsourcing to, can help me do my IP assignments. So that's kind of why I went for it. I actually started with several different degrees. I started with, I started my university path in Environmental Engineering, as a wanting to save the environment or that kind of stuff. Engineering that required a lot of mathematics. And the first maths class that I sat into, the professor found was like, oh, let's talk about imaginary numbers in number i. And I was like, shit, did I don't even understand real numbers. What is this imaginary numbers bullshit. Marxist. So very quickly figured out. engineering wasn't for me. And then I went into a whole bunch of different things. And, you know, science, and then I tried to become a teacher. But then I realized, I don't want to deal with 30 screaming kids every day, like, what am I doing here. And so finally settled on it, just because it was the easiest path. Looking back at what I, what I with the current knowledge I've got, I would even say, if you don't know what your path is, maybe don't even go to university, maybe just have different jobs, talk to different people just, you know, figure out what it is that you're actually passionate that and you're going to pursue that.

Dustin Steffey: 11:16

So a lot of things that we've brought up in the past is the old school way of thinking where you go to high school, and then after high school, you get your degree and all of that. It's kind of different now, right? Because we have this powerful thing called networking. And furthermore, we have this powerful thing called people who talk and help others to be successful, kind of like what we do with this podcast, kind of like what you did. I know your buddies, Luke, we had Luke on a little bit ago. And it's, it's, it's an awesome thing. I mean, you're in Australia, right now, I'm in the States. And you and I are chatting it up, right? So we have so much technology to be able to upscale ourselves, ourselves, you know, where is it boats? The question, is education, still the important pathway? Or is it a different pathway? I mean, if I could do things over again, buddy, honestly, like, truly, I probably go to a trade school. I mean, there's a lot of trades right now that need help. And a trade school is a lot shorter, a lot less money, and you make a lot more. But I mean, here I am today, I have a doctorate in organizational leadership, right. And so I need to use the resources that I have doing it all over would be great. I could look at the past, but I can move forward. And I can do things such as what you did. I mean, you went to school to get an IT degree, you're not 90. So

William Wang: 12:46

yeah, I mean, you bring up such a good point, like, I think I'll do something similar. So my wife's family are actually in in a trade set to the build stone, beautiful stone, kitchen, benchtops. And kitchens, and they've got a very successful business. So me looking at that, right, knowing what I know. Now, if I had to go back in through the journey with the current knowledge, I definitely would go through and do something my hands as well. That being said, I'm terrible at my hand products, because I haven't had the training, but I break everything I touch. So I when it comes to you know doing how many, how many people stuff around the house, that's just not me. But if I could go back to or, you know, if I had to choose my career again, I definitely would actually start that because I think it's such good utility around knowing how things are put together, knowing how to fix your own house, knowing if the lights turn off. Or if the world goes to shit. Hey, I've got the skill set that can actually mean something. I think that's a really good thing to have in back pocket.

Dustin Steffey: 13:48

So I just learned something about you fun figure. You are not going to be working on my bike or truck anytime soon, because it'll be broken. So good. Good call there. No, but you're right brother, right. Like everybody has their own niches right? For me. I kind of grew up around my dad in construction. So he's very much so hands on which therefore extrapolated to vehicle work and kind of doing my own things. I some hobbies for me, right? I like working on my bike. I like working on the truck. I like building some things, refinishing things, so I'm very much so hands on. Obviously, it's made me $0 But hey, whatever, it's a hobby, it's fun.

William Wang: 14:35

Especially then if the world goes to shit, that's such a good skill set. Like if if society comes tomorrow, I'm gonna be sitting around going, what the heck day like I said, I want coffee. Want me to write coffee for you? Like do you want marketing? No one wants marketing like if it only gives you shade, but you can fix a truck for a bike. That's such a cool, cool skill set. It's actually probably something that I'll start developing So learning about as well because I do want to have that and yeah, just In case anything happens, right?

Dustin Steffey: 15:02

Shit brother the world's already going to share. So we, we need we need backup plans now

William Wang: 15:10

under present,

Dustin Steffey: 15:11

so let's let's transition a little bit then we all know that you're in it it badass but you're not in it anymore. So how the heck did you burn the boat to go from an IT job that was stable to building a seven figure job and I don't know being able to surf and do jujitsu and have fun? Yeah,

William Wang: 15:33

I mean, that's a whole journey in and of itself, I wouldn't say I was great at it. I think one of the things that I realized pretty early on, and I think it's very lucky that I did was that it just wasn't my calling, I was working with these guys who were just super passionate about what they were doing, that would just self educate about writing code or doing all this kind of stuff. And I hated it. I honestly, it was Monday mornings, was such a miserable time. For me, I just hated the idea that I've got to wake up, get on the bus with everyone else looking miserable, get to this cubicle and just sit there for eight hours looking at a spreadsheet. It just wasn't my idea of how I wanted life to go. And for me, I looked at people who were 30 or 40 years down the career path. And looking at where they were in where I was. And I saw that a lot of them were very unhappy. A lot of them, you know, felt that they were on top of the game or on top of their career. But if you looked at pay discrepancy, there was a certain capital, but it wasn't like, you can spend 40, isn't it three or nowadays, if you're in startups, you can but in traditional IT, there's a cap into the salary, because you can never get paid more than the CEO, you can never get paid more than business owner. So there was a real cap on what you could do in terms of income. The second side of it was, it took such a long time to get there. So I made a pretty quick jump early in my career because I got good at interviewing, looking for new jobs and things like that. So every six months, I'd get a pay rise essentially, myself in position to get a 20 or 30% pay rise. So by the time I was 2425, I actually had $150,000 a year salary. But for me, it was like, it just I just couldn't do another fair use of it. Like it just the idea of it just terrified me. And so I decided very quickly, hey, I'm gonna go into my own thing, I'm going to be my own boss, I'm going to have complete freedom. But it didn't quite work that way. Because there were so many limitations to it. I tried things like affiliate marketing, I tried things like selling websites, I tried things, you know, everything under the sun. But when you have $150,000 salary you have to replace, it becomes pretty hard in terms of what you can actually do, or how you can do it quickly, in a way that that works. Yeah, and we can go into it a bit more. But I also felt like I left my job a little bit too early as well. And the transition between having a set salary, being able to pay the bills to having to put food on the table with my own skills was actually pretty difficult one, and I think that's what a lot of people might struggle against. If they don't know how to actually do it properly.

Dustin Steffey: 18:05

Yeah, let's dive into it a little more. I mean, a lot of people that listen, right, they listen because they're sick of their job. I mean, I, I think when I was with Luke, right, we brought up the job happiness statistics, and it was blaring, 60% of people are unhappy with their jobs. So they need, they need to kind of hear these stories to kind of understand, like, how do I get out? Is it possible? Or am I am I screwed, right? Am I screwed? Am I working at a ceiling? Where some of these people, buddy, I mean, they they're hard workers, and they're making 40 grand a year? That's poverty?

William Wang: 18:44

Yeah, it is pretty tough. So I think looking back, if I was telling myself, sitting across time for myself, when I first went into it, I would actually say that it absolutely sucks bid in the job. But do it until the business is ready to support you. So one of the biggest mistakes I made was I actually, and so let me just just go ahead and give you the full story. I was I figured that to replace my job with the high salary I had, I had to become some kind of consultant or do some kind of service, because it wasn't going to sell a $20 widget and sell my way. $250,000 a year. So I decided very early on. One of the things I love and I'm passionate about is actually reading and writing. And I was actually quite good at writing. So I decided, let me become a copywriter. And so I started freelancing a little bit to bring in some income on the side. And it got to the point where I saw my clients were like, Hey, can you do some social media writing for us? I'm like, Yeah, sure, of course I can. And I figured out the social media side. And what happened was, as I was building up my portfolio as I was getting good at the social media stuff, there's a local magazine to where I live, and I so I just happen to bump into them during a networking meeting. I was going to every single networking event I could more so just so I could speak to people right Get over my, my, my introversion, but I met this guy who runs a local magazine and he was like, Oh, dude, I've got 100 clients, they absolutely love me. Why don't you come in, we'll partner up, you can sell your social media services to them. Rural asked me for anyway, when we're gonna replace your job in like a week. It's like sweet, awesome, he convinced me to leave my job. So I did that. But the first meeting, I walked into the sky, to sell sell on social media to his clients, they were just like, Dude, get the fuck out of my office, or I'm going to call the cops. Because what he actually did was he was such a hardline salesperson, he would go into the offices and sit there and go, I'm not leaving until you pay me to be in the magazine that next quarter. He'll be like, I don't want to be in a you know, have you got a result that I didn't care Africa plan for you to be my magazine? Joe, you're in it. Right? So his customers actually hated him. And I walked into his business thinking, oh, man, we're gonna make so much money. He discovered his love him. I'm just gonna sell a bunch of social media packages. And it didn't quite work out that way. So I would say that looking back on it, yes, the job might suck. But if I had stayed in my job for another six months and just built things up on my own, I would have been two or three years ahead of the curve in terms of app growth.

Dustin Steffey: 21:10

Sounds sounds pretty similar to like my story. I mean, I'm still in my nine to five right now. But I have this podcast, I consult on the side, my buddy and I just opened up a pressure washing business. The biggest, the biggest thing I tell everyone is, it isn't about going all in in one thing. It's about diversifying. And then as things start hitting traction, you start finding what your niche is.

William Wang: 21:35

Yeah, exactly. I think that's such a I think that's such a underplayed part, right? You see it all the time with these rates of return stories, oh, he just did this one thing and that he or she now makes millions of dollars and does all this. But if it's if you switch to anyone who's actually legit, the journey is never like that. There's always hat on to the struggles and there's always you know, things that you try and it doesn't work. And you just get to the point, we've been trying hard enough times where there's not that much more that you can do to fail, and you start winning from that point onwards. So I think what you're doing is actually amazing. I build it on the side, and only jump when you have the parachute ready.

Dustin Steffey: 22:11

Yeah, I had I had someone on that said, burn the boats early, which, you know, it works for some people, but not everyone, right? I mean, this podcast is a good example. So we're in year two right now. Right? And yeah, we're coming out the gates firing, we're coming out the gates firing, because we had a year one. So there were many, many, many nights that I had with my partner, right? Where I bang my head up against the wall, like, what do we do? How do we do this? How do we monetize? And the answer is, is it isn't about thinking about and chasing the money, it's about creating the content, upscaling yourself as much as possible. And then eventually, it's going to, there's going to be a gas pedal where the rocks are automatically on it.

William Wang: 22:53

Exactly. I'm not a huge fan in the hope in the boats type play. Just because everyone's context is different, right? Like if I had started business, my 20s, before I had kids and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, maybe maybe that would have been the right approach. It's also, it's also the approach I kind of accidentally took. I'm not saying that I went and burn all the boats before I was. But I left my job before I was ready. But I had skills, developing the background, and I had a side hustle that I've been working on for a couple of years before I did that. But you gotta look at your own context, right? Because for me, I was when I left my job, my son was just born. So my wife wasn't working, because she's obviously taking care of both my kids. And we needed to pay the bills, right, we had a mortgage, we could either put food on the table, it wasn't feasible, just burn the boats, I'm gonna drop my entire entire salary on, we're not making any money, who cares? We're just gonna go making sure that like it just not feasible. So that's why I'm not a big fan of that advice. In every context, I think you've got to look at the context of the person you're giving the advice to. Because for a 40 year old family, man or mom or whatever it is, there's certain responsibilities that you can't just burn when you burn the boat. Whereas if you're younger, and you're 18 you're trying different things and living at home anyway, you've got zero expenses. Fuck yeah, burn the boats, like you don't have any boats burn, who cares? So the context is very important.

Dustin Steffey: 24:15

Yeah, I agree. The biggest thing that we bring up in this podcast, honestly, between you and I is do your own research, right? Obviously, the advice that we give on the many episodes that we have, some of it will click others won't. That's why we have a diverse amount of guests so we can reach everyone in some way shape or form. But the biggest thing that I enjoy about doing this the most in in you and I can agree on this is we have such a diverse amount of people that come on that we talk to you that we have fun with that we learn from where you can at least take one key golden nugget from everyone and kind of apply it

William Wang: 24:52

Yeah, that's the script was fun. I think that's the way I approach life and coaching as well. So I've got I probably I spend about six figures a year in terms of coaching and education for myself. But not everything that my coach has told me is always applicable to my situation. So it really is about you and taking what's like the Bruce Lee quote, right, like, you know, learn from everyone take what's useful, is making your own discard everything else. And I'm quoting that pretty badly. But

Dustin Steffey: 25:18

so what do you do right now? Is it something that can be duplicated with others where you think that they would find success? Or is it kind of one off and you got lucky?

William Wang: 25:26

I think it's a bit of both. So I think I got lucky in terms of I found something I was really passionate about. And I love doing, I got good at which is writing. And the luck element was finding that, but I've always been a big believer in tuning your skill set and becoming better every single day. So I had to work hard at becoming a better writer, I then had to get a lot better at selling and marketing myself my services, which is really a difficult struggle. And then I had to get better at being able to build a business because I was freelancing for a long while. And freelancing is great, right? If you're just planning escape nine to five, hey, maybe your first step is actually to become a freelancer. Because then you've got these things that you're learning, like marketing, like sales, or client communications, which you might not have the skill set, right now, you're going to have to take the time to learn that skill set. And once you learn that skill set, like what I'm working on now is I've just gone for a period where I'd really have to learn about leadership, hiring operations, and those were my weak areas. And for us to grow, I had to learn that so I spent a ton of my last 12 months really focusing on that versus focusing on growth. And the next 12 months I'm going to be spending is really around empowering my team members looking at operations, so I don't have to work in the business every single day. But it don't just get to, you know where I am or where someone else's or dependent business overnight, it is literally a grind every single day. So the more so so the motto I have is 1% a day, right? Just learn or improve, or one person a day, and by the end of the year, you're 37 times better off. So if someone's in a job right now, don't think about when do I leave this job, like the job might absolutely suck balls, and it probably does. But just think I'm paying the bills, I'm paying for myself to have the flexibility and freedom to learn and develop a passion or skill set is very useful that I can build on and just know that it takes time to build a skill set, right? Well, there's people out there promising you can start a marketing company and make 10k a month in like 90 days and bullshit. You absolutely cannot. But if you're willing to dedicate a year, two years, three years to it, you absolutely can build a good business around what you really like.

Dustin Steffey: 27:39

It's kind of where I'm at with the podcasting, right. I mean, there's a lot of a lot of forks in the coal right now I am going to be releasing a podcast school because I think social media, digital marketing, podcasting, it's an important thing to learn. And for some of these companies that want to get their branding out a little more, they don't do it right. And so I can definitely teach on that I have my book. I like you like to write as well. We'll see if the books good though. But you know, there there are many avenues like I, like I said earlier, diversify in business, and then at some point, it's gonna take off.

William Wang: 28:23

But you also brought up a really important point as well, Dustin, because it's not like you just turn around and decided I've never done a podcast, I'm going to create a podcast and school podcast. And course, you've done it for a year and you know the ins and outs of how to do a podcast how to grow a podcast. So therefore you can go and comfortably teach it to someone else. Whereas a lot of the people out there, just think, Oh, I'm just gonna buy clothes from someone, learn all this stuff, copy what they do, and I'm going to be free, doesn't quite work that way. You have to be at the coalface you have to be waking up in grinding every single day. So like when I before I became a full time Freelancer with this copywriting stuff, I did everything I could under the sun and I hustled for two years, outside of my nine to five, it was actually a six. Because you know, when you're getting paid a pretty big salary, they expect more than nine to five, but so I would get home at about seven. So I left the office at six, have dinner play with my kids, and about 930 10pm I'd start four hours of work on my own business on my side hustle. And it took two years of that before I could comfortably go go full time and just be willing to jump ship and try to do this whole whole business thing. But who have got to understand like, it is a personal journey. You don't get there overnight, and you just you don't buy course and 90 days later make 10 grand a month like it just doesn't happen. No.

Dustin Steffey: 29:45

So like for me if I'm looking at my business plan with the podcast school, people are going to need support, right? So they're going to learn the basic skills so I'm going to give them what I didn't have because I failed a few times. I spent way too much money on some things, right? And then from there, they're going to need the support, right? And that's where I come in to support them. Like, because they're gonna have questions, right, they're gonna fall on their face, and they're gonna need help. So I think when I look at it, it's it's a positive, I'm giving back, I'm not only enjoying what I do, because I do enjoy doing the podcast, I do enjoy, even though it takes a long time making the videos and the social media aspect and the ads and all of that. But I want others to be able to do it as well, you know what I mean? And do it successfully?

William Wang: 30:33

Yeah, exactly. I think the the biggest thing, you know, people have asked me in the past, do you have a course in the Java program? I actually don't. Because I think, you know, the way that I'd approach it is, I can't give someone information. And they and have them internalize to the point where they can do it, right. If I was to create a course or program, the way I approach it, is I can shortcut the learning process. And for example, if someone wanted to, if someone turned around and said, Hey, how do you build a seven figure marketing company, I'd say, Okay, what's going to take you years and years and years, but rather than doing it over a period of five years, which, that's how long it took me to get to the point of, you know, six years or whatever, to the point of seven figures, I can help someone do that within three years. And so that's the value that we have this value that you've got, right, you can go and help someone shortcut their podcasting journey, so that they can achieve what you've achieved and half the time. But you can't just give someone the skills or just if they don't take the action and do something, you can't help them shortcut that there's still work involved.

Dustin Steffey: 31:33

I think that's the hardest part was society today. And maybe you all agree or disagree, but we're in a society now, where everybody wants instant gratification, right? So what I mean is, they want to make that money now. And they don't want to put in the work to make that money. Whereas if you take a step back and look at everyone in life, right, including myself, and you, let's go back to our six figure or our six figure jobs, our slave jobs, right, we didn't make that six figures immediately. And furthermore, we had to put in lots of work for that. So I want everybody to understand that when you go down the journey of chasing something that you enjoy doing, it comes at a cost of you're going to live it and breathe it for a long time before it starts automating itself.

William Wang: 32:23

Exactly. Like I only saw, quote, unquote, like aI success, right. And I use that word very sparingly, because I by no mean to think that, you know, we're that successful, or my company is that great, we've got so much room to grow, right, we've got so much potential we haven't been up to yet. But in terms of where it started to be able to complete pay my bills, and afford the lifestyle that we lead. Now. It took me about three years, three and a half years to get to the point where it's like, oh, cool, I've replaced my my salary. Right. And so what people kind of do nowadays is, every 90 days, they try and do something new, I'm going to sell stuff on Amazon, I'm going to do this, you know, I'm going to try crypto, I'm not saying any of this wrong. All of those things that you see out there actually works. But you just need to dedicate yourself and give yourself the time to get the mastery to make those things work for you. So if you're changing every 90 days, you're beginning at the lowest level again, every 90 days, versus just knowing Hey, I've got a five year horizon, not saying five years is you know what it takes for someone to leave a job. But at the same time, it might be like, are you willing to dedicate yourself to a skill set, you can build over five years to leave your job? Right? Can you think in terms of a longer time horizon, because if you can think of a time horizon of five years, you're guaranteed to be so good at it by the end of the first year or second year, that you've got more potential to wear the job versus changing every 90 days and then starting from scratch again. So people I completely agree with you, man, people want results too quickly without having to put in the work. But it's appear where they can thinking longer timeframes, who are willing to get their hands dirty, who are willing to wake up in each and every single day, they're going to be the winners.

Dustin Steffey: 34:04

Exactly. The ones that are successful are the ones that are able to put in the work and the time and the blood and sweat and tears to find that success. Right. So with your with your business that you built, you do copywriting Correct.

William Wang: 34:21

We've evolved a little bit from that time, we do pretty much end to end marketing now. So how we work is clients will come to us and those like, we just want to grow the business, what do we do? And so we'll go in and set up the entire marketing piece. We'll help them with the sales thing as well. You know, train salespeople up, give them scripts, and pretty much just grow people's businesses for them. So that's kind of what stage we've actually evolved into.

Dustin Steffey: 34:49

Do you have employees that work under you or is it kind of everybody has their separate business?

William Wang: 34:55

Yes, so I've got about 20 employees at the moment. So we've grown to a fairly big size. And yeah, we've got a fair bit more grown to do. But at the moment about 20, a mix of, you know, onshore, offshore, outsourced assistants as well, virtual assistants, but about 20 people in the

Dustin Steffey: 35:14

company at the moment. That's awesome, buddy, congratulations on that. Thanks, man, it's, uh,

William Wang: 35:19

you know, as we sit here and record this is very early into into the new year, it's, it's always a good time to reflect. And if I had looked at where we are now, three or four years ago, I wouldn't have believed that myself. So I think it goes back to the idea of, you know, just take one day at a time, one step at a time. And just have a clear intention of where you want to go. But just know that if you think of a long enough time horizon, you're probably thinking too small. So if you're hitting that revenue with now, I think, you know, we're actually at the beginning of the journey, whereas if you'd spoke to me three years ago, I'd be like, that's absolutely bloody amazing. And so now I'm thinking in terms of bigger multiples, but I know that when I get there, my mindset might be different again,

Dustin Steffey: 36:02

Eric, I'm in the same boat. As you, buddy. I'm looking at the new year looking at all we achieved in the podcast, especially someone like me, who dove into it, like, well, I don't know what I'm doing. But let's do it. And now, here I am today. And it's it's a night and day difference. I mean, a year ago today, right? I started this journey and it, I go back, and I look at the episodes we recorded when we first started versus now and it's, it's just so insane.

William Wang: 36:32

It's always it's always for me anyway, it's always cringy looking back on videos and podcasts I've been on in the past. And it's like, oh, man, I can't believe how bad I was back then. You just have to do it. Like if you don't do it, you don't get good. So it's always a good time to reflect.

Dustin Steffey: 36:48

I wanted to delete them all, buddy. And then and then my buddy was like, No, don't do that. Because it shows the journey it shows. It shows how much better it's gotten and the people that have stuck around. See that? The scary part is though is you get new subscribers writer, a new person that listens, they go back and listen to episode one. What if you lose them? You know what I mean?

William Wang: 37:10

Yeah, I think though, I had a lot of similar fears. Because I've been podcasting a lot. And guesting on podcasts. I had my own podcast for a little bit, which I'll probably revive pretty soon. And one of the things you know, I had some issues. I was like, Man, I sound terrible. I'm stuttering I say a lot of arms and ahhs and little phrases that really ticked me off, and I hear it now. But it's also real, like, it's also the real you. And one of the things I've never wanted to do, I don't want to present another version of myself, right? Where if someone bumps into me on the street, they're like, Oh, you're completely different urine absolutely ticket compared to how you said on the podcast, I never wanted to be like that. So it's always good to have the real meat out there. And I think it's you know, speaks to growth in your mission as well, what you're trying to do to have the real you unfiltered.

Dustin Steffey: 37:59

That's what makes us so different. Like I listened to a bunch of different podcasts. And I can tell that it's robotic, it's edited. It's very, like, crisp scripted, right? Whereas our podcast is raw. And I like that raw version of it, because it's people sitting around talking, trying to help others to be successful and provide some value added activity.

William Wang: 38:26

Yeah, exactly. I think that's how people relate, you know? Well, for me, anyway, I relate to the real stuff rather than Super edited stuff. Because severity stuff, it just makes me feel like it just it's not reality. Reality is messy. Life is messy and chaotic. And you know, and I think you can learn from experiences, you know, that there's never black or white, it's always the gray in between where we live. And so they're super edited Polish versions are just like, this is exactly what this is. This is exactly how it should be done. There's no bullshit, dude. Like, there's so many gray areas, you can't just come through and say like, this is the truth of it. Because, you know, most things in life aren't binary. So why are you presenting like it is on a podcast where this format here, someone might listen to what I'm saying, going that that dude's an absolute idiot. And I can their context, it could be right, because my context is different to their context. So you know, I don't want to present a context that's not my own, because then I can't defend myself and go, No, I'm right, because it's just too complicated. That Ra is awesome. This is my point. I'm going to in a bit of a circle, but this format is awesome. And keep it like this.

Dustin Steffey: 39:32

Yeah, definitely, buddy. I mean, I have I have people that I look up to you right. So Tony Robbins is a badass. I like him. He has his own podcast. His is way different from mine, right? Because it's very structured, very oriented, right? And I get bored listening to it even though he's like an idol to me because it's not raw right. And then you have Joe Rogan, which you and I both know Joe Rogan has zero ox to give like, ever. And it's, it's just fun and it's fun to listen to his because it is super raw like super super raw. Right? And then you have Brandon Bouchard, which is another person I look up to I like him a lot. He's a very motivational person. You have DERM dude, which you've probably not listened to a ton of my stuff. But once you do, like, Drew, Drew's a badass, he has his own podcast. And like he said, When you own your own business, you have the freedom to do whatever the hell you want.

William Wang: 40:34

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I think. I think the main takeaway is just find something that works for you. And just you used to you, if it's a raw form, podcast, awesome. Because polished, awesome, just find whatever works, what works best for you. I think everyone listening he is, it's good to model what others have done in terms of if you think, you know, they're successful, or you know, if you think that they've achieved something you want to achieve, it's good to model them. But don't be them don't do exactly what they're doing. Because there's context. And there's things that are going on in their minds in their life that you don't know about. So just find some that works for you, and just double down on it.

Dustin Steffey: 41:12

And that's what the New Year is for us. We're gonna double down on everything that we've done lessons learned and continue moving forward to something good. I know our listeners are probably confused. Are we talking about a podcast? Are we talking about seven figure business? What are we talking about? So let's rewind a little bit, all of what we just talked about, extrapolate into people being able to chase their own dreams. So what we just talked about was kind of identifying and finding yourself and it's okay to fail sometimes. As long as you keep getting back up. It's okay to ask for help. I'm, I mean, God knows that I'm, I'm fortunate and lucky, right? Yes, I may be interviewing you guys. But at the end of the day, if I needed something, I can reach out to any one of you guys, because we've developed that relationship. And I have help I have support. So networking, probably in my mind for this episode is probably the number one thing that is most important is network, start doing education on on things that you want to do, ask questions, and then start building what you want to build.

William Wang: 42:23

Yeah, it's such a good thing, I think the people around you can make a break in life. And I've been extremely lucky. So it's just I so I work extremely hard at networking. When I first started my business, and I had no money, I go to every free networking event, I could shake every hand, I could just talk to people. And that's, you know, that in and of itself has led to the growth of the business and the way it has, if it wasn't for the people with my network, I wouldn't be where I am today. But you get lucky with it. The harder you work, the more networking events you turn up to the more people you meet, the luckier you're going to get to me that one person that turns everything around for you potentially. And then you know, there are different stages. There's other things you can do. For example, for me, now, I paid to go into different networks just to meet people there. But it all comes back to what you said like network is ever.

Dustin Steffey: 43:14

And then that leads to the next thing. So networking is important. And then learning from other people's mistakes, I think is another important thing. So do your research on what other people's failures were so you don't fall into the same pitfalls.

William Wang: 43:27

Yeah, and I'd actually add to that, because even though I got a lot of really great coaches and support around me, some mistakes, you do still have to make yourself to truly internalize and feel it. So don't beat yourself up too much. Like, don't go and ignore everything. Because until you say, Oh, I've got to make my own mistakes. Now, there's some stupid mistakes you can really avoid. You don't need to learn it like that. But some mistakes you only internalize and becomes real to you, after you actually make them and feel the pain from it. So yeah, there's lots lots of gray areas, man, but networking, definitely learning from others learning from mistakes, you know, and just doing doing what comes naturally to you and being yourself. I think it's gonna get you a long way. And I know that you know, there was wasn't anything solid from my side in terms of, here's what you do if you want to leave your job. But then there's so many different ways of doing that. Like I've just seen people create insane businesses out of like some weird crap, right? There's people on online selling bathwater, and they become an auto multimillionaires. There's people who do consulting in create great businesses. There are people who sell stupid little gadgets and they become multimillionaires. There's just so many different ways of doing it. You just got to find the thing that or the way that you resonate with most and just given enough time and enough elbow grease to to make it work for you.

Dustin Steffey: 44:49

Share buddy I remember like five years ago you remember those stupid little fidget spinners that made that person millions upon millions of dollars.

William Wang: 44:58

Yeah, I mean You know, bouncing, create some shitty little gadget, sell millions of it and then bounce out. That's, that's awesome.

Dustin Steffey: 45:07

That's a frickin dream come true right there. If I can make a couple million dollars on that, then I can do whatever the hell I want.

William Wang: 45:14

Exactly. And in terms of, you know, the freedom and things like that, I think it goes back to my I'm a big fan of, it's not up behind me, I'm actually in the process of moving. So in my current house, so I normally have a bookshelf behind me that we've built in all the books in there. And one of the top books I always read every single quarter, so read it four times a year, is The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss read the first section where it's like, Dream lining and fee setting, because to live your dream life, it probably doesn't cost as much as you think it will. And then, you know, knowing what that number is, in terms of monthly, you know, what you need to hit to live the way you want to live. It must be like it's, well we've enrich, but you've just got to give yourself a time and space and and invest in yourself to do that.

Dustin Steffey: 46:00

Agreed? You ready for the fun part?

William Wang: 46:03

Yeah, let's do it.

Dustin Steffey: 46:05

Let's do it rather. So I, I like to end every episode where my guests get to kind of leave one key nugget out of their kind of repertoire. So it's your turn, right? If you could give one super important piece of information that helps others, what would that be?

William Wang: 46:26

In what context as in,

Dustin Steffey: 46:29

it can be business, it could be personal life, it can be whatever you want. So like a lot of the past ones have been. Networking have been easier relationships together have been baby, save something, whatever the case may be one important piece of information.

William Wang: 46:48

I'll say, I'm gonna check entropy, a few things in here, I would say, don't take life too seriously. Isn't the number one thing. Because if you don't, it's meant to be fun, right? Don't take life too seriously. I think the other thing is expect to each ship for a long time before you get results. Just know that there's work right work is always there. And maybe the first thing would be it's never as great as you think it will be or or as bad as you think it will be. So your worst nightmares probably will never come to pass. But your biggest dreams probably won't either. So when you're going to be in some kind of medium, write some kind of scale putting that in besides from that, just life's fucking short. And just pick something that you really like doing get good at it. The best or the top 1% at anything in the world, always makes money. But don't find something that you can dedicate yourself to being the top one percenter in, and the money will follow. So for me that was in copywriting, right in lead generation I wanted to be I still want to be the best in the world at it. And that means I'm going to grow my company, my clients company, but I've got a passion for it. Like I love reading. I love writing. That's what I want to do. But if you hate writing, don't pick that because you're never going to be a top one percenter. Like, in my spare time. I read in research and writing and how to use AI to write how to do this. Like that's my my geek out stuff that I do my spare time. So if you can't compete me from that level, find somebody when no one else can compete with you on

Dustin Steffey: 48:20

some good advice right there, buddy. Now for the listeners that resonate with you, how do they get a hold of you? Yes, the

William Wang: 48:27

probably the easiest way is to hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm on that platform quite a bit. I'm either will wing or William Wang. But finally, I've got a profile picture up there. Find me on that. Drop me a message when you connect me. Let me know that you found me for this podcast. I know who you are. And then yeah, that's probably the best platform. I put up some stuff on there. You know, post personal stuff, business stuff. Probably the best way to contact me.

Dustin Steffey: 48:51

Awesome, buddy. I want to just thank you for coming on. Thank you for your time, obviously, I know. Well, I don't know what time it is there because you're in Australia and I'm in the States but I'm sure it's polar different time than here. So

William Wang: 49:05

it's perfect, man. There's been so much fun. Thank you so much. Dustin. You got some awesome questions, man. And yeah, if your audience or yourself need any help in the future, please feel free to reach out and yeah, it's been it's been fun. It's been awesome.

Dustin Steffey: 49:17

Thanks, brother.