Evolving from Introvert to Entrepreneur w/ Michael Chu

focus on what you do want, not what you don't want, because when you're making a hundred phone calls or whatever, it's very easy to start to focus on the people that hang up on you, reject you, say no to you. Quantity is important. The person who does more appointments is more times than not, gonna sell more. But if I can have quantity and quality, that's the way I wanna go right. Sales happen when you establish a need, you establish value, because people don't buy just because of the price. They buy because of the value.

The journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, john Mendez.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Walk to Wealth podcast. If you're tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories, make sure to do yourself a favor and give us a follow. I don't want you to miss any of the amazing guests that we're bringing on this year, and I would hate for you to have FOMO. So do yourself a favor, give us a follow and let's get right into this episode. We'll get right to it. Michael, for anyone who hasn't got the opportunity to get to know you, tell us your elevator pitch. Who are you and what do you do? What's going?

on John, so I'm excited to be here. I mean, there's a lot I could cover Specifically. I'm on a mission right now to help people with a passion or an expertise of some sort oftentimes in the world of health, nutrition, fitness or personal growth turn that passion into a profitable and impactful six-figure online side gig for some people, seven-figure full-time business for many, but do it in a way that leads to time freedom, location freedom and personal freedom as well, and so I have a little background I could go into, but that's where I spend a lot of my time, right now, Amazing Michael.

Let's take a quick trip in a time machine. Take us back to little Michael when he was a kid. What was that like? What was it like growing up? Where did this entrepreneur start to originate?

Yeah, well, I know you said a lot of your listeners are maybe just getting into entrepreneurship or maybe want to start a business or things like that. So I think what might be relevant is that as a kid I was super serious and super shy. My parents jokingly said, even as like six, seven, eight years old, I would have like worry lines and I was always so serious, even as a little kid I asked to start karate at three years old. At the time of the school that I trained at they didn't let kids normally start karate till five, six, seven years old at the time, but I was pretty serious about what I wanted to do, so start karate when I was three. But I mean in general, in lines with like entrepreneurship, I was pretty shy, pretty serious and at the same time a little, with that shyness part, a little insecure as well. When I started getting into middle school and the early years of high school, at times I felt really insecure and really lack confidence when it came to being around a lot of people.

Yeah, I think that's something that a lot of people say, especially around that age group, because it's something where you're probably at the height of, like peer pressure. At that time, let me ask you did the insecurity fuel and, in the lack of confidence, fuel what you have going on today in the business, in the industry that you decided to jump into?

I think at one stage it did, whether or not it was healthy fuel or it was continuous fuel. I do think it fueled me in one way because, like I said, I started karate when I was three. I then competed for the next 20-something years. I won 10 national karate championships. I took 10 plus championships, and so I share that more for context, in the sense that I was really competitive and so the insecure part of me and I grew up in a above average income area, but my mom's a teacher and so we were basically for the most part in that town because it's where my mom taught. So I often was felt out of place when it came to like socioeconomics. It was a heavily Caucasian area. I was one of the few Asian kids in the class, right. So there are a lot of reasons why I felt like I didn't fit it, or I felt like I was an outsider, or I felt insecure, and so I think two things really drove me one. I think, like you said, it's a heavy set of years of peer pressure and peer influence and I really wanted to sit in. I really wanted to be loved, liked and accepted, which I think most of us desire that. But then you pair that with competitiveness and I thought that the best way for me to be liked and loved is to win, is to be really good at things, and so I think that drove me, whether it was academically, whether it was getting nominated for school president or things like that, or whether it was finding ways to start working hard and making money or something. Yeah, I think that drove me at that stage for sure.

No, definitely, and I love what you mentioned too, because a lot of times even the people that try to convince themselves that they don't need anyone, that they're cold-hearted and they have that you know the typical high school alpha bravado of like I'm too cool for everybody, I don't care about anyone is that even those people. The only reason I act like that is because they weren't, you know, accepted, because they didn't fit in, because they weren't loved properly, and so now they're going to go out of their way to prove it to themselves that they don't need anyone. But it's all stems back from that internal desire, that innate desire that we all have and us to be accepted, to be felt, to feel like we are part of the community, we're social creatures and it's not a bad thing. A lot of people try to knock it down. So let's segue into today's conversation a little bit. Talk to us about around 19,. Right, it's when you first got started into the sales world, the business world, kind of. What was that like? Take us back to that experience. What were you at mentally? What was the world like at that time?

Did you have your money? When's the next party? Hanging out with my friends sleeping till noon? Shoot, I would. Sometimes my mom's an high school teacher and I was home for freshman year or college break and my mom would come home from a whole work day already. So high school ends at what? Two, three o'clock. She would get home at three or four o'clock and I'd still be sleeping. So you want to tell me where my mindset was at the time. I was definitely not this like overly mature. I'm going to be an entrepreneur, super focused I was. Let's join a fraternity on the competitive side of me was like I'm going to beat everybody, a beer pong type of thing. So that's where my mentality was at 19,. And I was working at Pizza Hut and for me Pizza Hut was a source for free breadsticks, easy work and, to me, beer and gas money. But how it ties into entrepreneurship, john, is that Pizza Hut wasn't paying the beer and gas money. It wasn't paying the bills, so to speak, and so I needed something that I was going to pay more. And I found my first sales job, which, admittedly, I kind of stumped at it initially. Again, shy. My mom's a teacher. My grandparents on both sides of the family are farmers, so they're very laborers and hard work, which I'm grateful that was instilled with me. But I didn't have any role models per se close to me that were in sales or business or finance or entrepreneurship, and so sales was this new thing. In fact. I remember my brother and sister kind of laughed at me. A lot of my friends and aunts and uncles kind of like jabbed at me a bit, laughed a bit when I got into it, and so I didn't have a ton of support, I didn't have a ton of natural skill and I admittedly kind of stunk at it because I was still a bit of a shy kid. So that's what was going on at 19.

Let me ask you what kind of sales was it? Were you selling the product services? Were you on the phone? Were you knocking the doors, Going neighborhood to neighborhood? What was it? What was it like that?

experience. It was in-home sales. It wasn't quite door-to-door but it was in-home. We would go to customer's homes but we would set up those appointments via phone calls. We'd randomly call people, get them to agree to an appointment for us to come into their home. Then, john, we'd go into their home with a bag of knives. I was selling knives and kitchen products at the time. It was in-home product sales, specifically kitchen products and knives. Kind of crazy, because when you're 19 or at least when I was 19, I didn't know how to cook. I knew how to make ramen noodles. Here I am with no sales experience, no experience with kitchen products, going to other people's homes, super shy, trying to sell stuff to make money.

Let me ask you a super quick question how long did you spend in that sales position?

The average person in that type of role probably lasts for a couple weeks. A couple weeks, maybe a couple months, is a long time. This might shock you, but I ended up staying at that company for 11 years.

Really, Let me ask you the next question I really wanted to ask you Tell us what were some of the most valuable lessons you learned from. First one is your first 100 sales of calls. Then the second one is your first 100 actual sales appointments.

Man. There's so many lessons in junk that 11 years ended up being some of the most for like the most positively forming years of my life. I looked back at those years and say I got more education from those years selling products than I did spending $250,000 on a college education. I loved where I went to college. It was a top school in the country. I think a lot of my success today is much, largely in part, to getting out there and doing sales. To answer your actual question, what were the top lessons from the first 100 calls? Let's start with that, first and foremost. Number one focus on what you do want, not what you don't want, because when you're making 100 phone calls or whatever, it's very easy to start to focus on the people that hang up on you, reject you, say no to you. Number two if you're going to get into business, focus on how you can serve and how you can help people, because the second you have what I call sales breath. People's guard goes up. If you don't learn how to disarm people where they don't go oh, just another sales guy you're likely going to be even getting a foot in the dope. Literally, it is pretty low. Focus on what you do want versus what you don't want. Focus on service, not just being salesy, or you'll get rejected and resisted right away. Sales takes persistence. A lot of the most successful people at that role are two lessons this one and the next one. A lot of people at that role the only reason they were more successful is because they were willing to make a thousand phone calls when the other person made 50, they got hung up on or rejected or cursed at and so gave up. There's a level of persistence that that takes and then, like anything, it takes skill. It's a skill that you want to actually develop. I think people miss out on that in business. They just think it's all work ethic and I'm going to work hard. But if you think of the top athletes in the world right, kobe Bryant or Steph Curry, some of the greatest shooters of all time they talk about how a lot of their practices they'll take a thousand shots and if they miss one shot they'll start back over until they make a hundred or 500 or a thousand shot straight. And my point in sharing that is that they're honing and crafting their skill. Most people just don't get great at entrepreneurship because they just run their head at the wall one time and don't continue to craft or hone that skill. So I can answer some lessons about the hundred sales. But I figured I'd answer first the lessons from the hundred calls. If there's anything you want to speak to around that first.

No, 100% man. It's a part of putting the reps in, and if you want to fast track your growth, fast track your progress, it's how could you get more reps in within a shorter time frame? Right, and more quality reps in. If you want to take it even step further and just keep on putting yourself in the oven and keep on baking and keep on just working on that crap, that's one of those things where it's hard, because when it comes to sale, I still remember my first sales call experience. I was working at K Jewelers and I remember I think it was like for some like holiday event or something like that. I just thought it was so kind of cringy. But it's like they gave me this like the, they printed out the script for me to read and then after like call like 20 or 30, I was like, okay, I got to memorize the script a little bit, so I added my own flavor to it and then I was like, yeah, I kept still getting hung up on, but like I started to improve a little bit, I started to make a little bit of progress and my biggest sale that I made over the phone at there in that time okay, which is, I think like eight months or so, I ended up selling two gold chains for like 4,000 bucks. It came up to like 3800 or something like that. That was like my biggest sale. It was a complete stranger. But someone that I code called and it was like oh shoot. And I still remember. I have a photo Actually I have a photo wall up here. I still have a photo from that day. When I saw that necklace as soon as he walked out, I was super excited because I almost lost that call. He wanted to. He wanted to get like a custom Cuban link chain like a thick one, and that was probably going to run in close to like eight, maybe like six, seven, eight thousand or something like that. And then I forgot what I said. I used the script or that sort of word. I was like oh, you can get 25% off bridal, 20% off this, 30% off gold. He was like oh wait, most of the last part. I was like 30% off gold. And the conversation started from there. Then we hit it off. Well, I followed it up with him like twice because they didn't show up the day he said he was going to show up and then we ended up finally making it work. So I'd probably like my best like over the phone, like sales experience during my time there and it's something like I still hold near and dear to my heart. So I mean I love that you mentioned funding the reps in, because it's not something that we're like normally taught to do right, it's sales calls or calls in general to strangers is in a skill that is taught anywhere besides dialing and putting in the actual, you know, the calls in. So I love that. Let's change over. So now, from your 100 sales appointment because now you mean you were going indoor to people, as you mentioned, so now you're face to face with people. A lot of people can go hop on, zoom now for sales appointments, but you're literally going up to people. As you said, you were shy, you had the curfnality traits stacked against you, not in your favor. So it's like what kind of shifts did you have to make there to start improving, to start closing better, to start even doing anything like? Tell us about that process.

Yeah, well, I think I had to focus on what establishes a sale. Right, because someone knows you, likes you and trusts you. And for a while there, when I first got started, I thought being really successful as sales was about being charismatic and outgoing and funny. Right, because we see those guys on like infomercials that are high energy and I have a lot of energy. But I'm not naturally like outgoing, I'm not naturally charismatic, I'm definitely not naturally like funny. That's not, I think. I don't think those are the natural words that people would first describe me as, but I did learn that I had to just be myself. I know that sounds cliche, but that's going to establish trust. In fact, I found that a lot of times the overly charismatic person sometimes creates sales resistance because the person comes across as so salesy. So the fact that I was a little shy, I think, just actually naturally created a little bit of trust, so that was number one. The second thing, though, is while we talked about sales calls as all about putting in the reps, the actual sales appointments was now about forced multipliers or forced leverage, right, and so quantities import. The person who does more appointments is, more times than not, going to sell more, more times than not. But if I can have quantity and quality, that's the way I want to go, right, because if someone just says one quality appointment, but that's the only appointment they have, they're probably still going to get beat by the person that does a hundred appointments. But if I have a hundred quality appointments, I'm now going to beat the person that has a hundred low quality appointments. And so the second thing I learned was I mean a pretty typical phrase some people may be aferred, but like is not how to just work hard, but how to work smart, how to get referrals, how to get in front of the most qualified customers, how to get in front of, like, top notch leads. So the person's not buying an average of $500. Maybe they're spending $1,000 now, right, and so we're increasing average order here. And then the third thing that those appointments taught me was how to build value right Sales. Really sales happen when you create value, when you establish a need. You establish value because people don't buy just because of the price, they buy because of the value. And that's something that I definitely learned from doing hundreds and hundreds of sales appointments.

Let me actually one quick question before we segue to the next topic. One of the things that I feel at least for me personally, that took me a while to get over, so I know probably someone listening that might be struggling with this now is that I didn't feel comfortable with high numbers. Like, once I started talking about a couple of hundreds, it's like okay, I can sell that. And then like 500 is like oh, and then over a thousand is like oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on here? This is like so. It's like how do you get comfortable starting to sell some of these higher ticket items, higher price items? A lot of times it's like most people treat these sales as commodities and they try to beat everyone on price. How do you get comfortable in your own skin, especially, as you said, at that age where you were younger? You're starting to sales pretty early. You don't have much sales experience or any sales experience coming into it. I just want to get comfortable selling.

Yeah. So there's not one right way per se, depending on the person or the situation, but I think the first thing is is to put yourself in their shoes, and a lot of times when I was 19, selling 49 year old knives yeah, the back of my head I was like they're gonna buy a set of knives for $1,000. Remember I was the kid who was just working a pizza hut just 30 days ago trying to make enough money to just get a 30 pack and a tank of gas. Right, so $1,000, like shoot, I could go all month, I could maybe go all summer on $1,000. You're gonna spend it on just a set of knives. So it was really important that I put myself in their shoes, not my shoes, especially when someone's first getting started in sales, when they're 18, 19, 20, 22 years old. We're thinking about things from our perspective of the world, when we need to see it from the perspective of the person that we're selling to. The second way that somebody could do that is to normalize just how much money our specific ideal client actually spent, and so, whether that's paying attention to a typical 39 or 62 or however old the person, is that we're selling something, to pay attention how much money they actually spend and then how little the thing we're selling to them actually pales in comparison to how much money they spend throughout a year. I could pay attention to how much shoes are right, or how much a private school tuition is, or how much a car is right, or how much somebody just spends on going out to dinner. I mean, shoot, when I was that age, if I could get a free meal, that was the best meal out there. But then the more I started to make money myself or see other people spending money. John, I've seen people spend $1,000 at dinner with four people you know, for one night of food and then it's gone the next day. So the second thing is I really had to normalize just how much money people really are or we're spending, not from my perspective, but from the perspective of the person that I'm going to see. And then, lastly, something that really helped me out because I'm a numbers person is to break down the big number into little chunks, especially when there's financing, especially when there's payment plans, because if someone were to say to you, is a million dollars a lot of money? Most people would say yes, but if I said I was going to give you a million dollars over the next 100 years. Is that really a lot of money, especially if that's what you're going to get paid? The answer would be no, because now you're getting what? $10,000 a year. $10,000 a year is below poverty, right? That's $833 a month in pay, right? Most people can't live on $833 a month in pay, and so to break down big numbers into smaller, bite-sized chunks really helped me out as well. So, even if I'm selling something for $1,000, but I'm able to break it up into a five-month payment plan, that's $200 a month. That's $50 a week right, that's actually not that big of a deal at $50 a week. So those are some of the ways I started to normalize bigger ticket prices.

Now I love that. I mean, all the bikes are solid, but that last one really hits home, because that's exactly what I did. I had to break down these numbers into numbers that I could comprehend, into numbers that I could grasp, and then, casually not casually gradually it started to become more and more normalized, as I started to master money more, as I started to connect with more and more people. Now let me ask you, because you mentioned, too, in your beginning of your story, that both your grandparents on both your parents' side, both were farmers, if I'm not mistaken, correct. Yeah, You've been able to cross a seven-figure threshold already multiple times. What was it like that first time, though, knowing that you made it to a milestone where not a lot of entrepreneurs ever make it past?

Yeah, yeah, it was weird. You know what I mean by that is it's more normal. I'm glad you asked because it's more normal. Today I'm now running my fifth seven-figure company. The company I run today was one of Inc 5,000's fastest-growing companies in America last year. So it is a little more normal to me today. But when you bring me back to that very, very first time, it was weird. And what I mean by weird it was a really big deal in my own heart and my own mind, and weird in a way that it was such a big deal I subconsciously, john questioned like if my family would still be proud of me or if they would think I was. Like there was this inside part of me that's like, oh man, people are going to think I now think I'm too good for them, or they're going to now think I'm like the arrogant rich guy. And so it was really weird, wanting to be proud of what I accomplished but also feeling scared and nervous that people that I love were actually going to judge me for my success. So it's a really weird dichotomy or a weird type of situation to be in sometimes, which might sound easier said than done, until somebody actually achieves their first seven figures and they didn't grow up around a pot of mud and people start making comments or people start thinking oh, people used to call me at that age. I remember friends from high school would start calling me. Oh, they would call me CEO. Then I'd go look at you, ceo. They would call me big shot, but it was at least how I felt, like it always felt like they were saying it with a little bit of sarcasm, a little bit of resentment, a little bit of judgment, and that was really art. No, man.

I love that because I mean not that you have to experience it, but like you have to share that. You know, because I feel like a lot of times, even with me when I got into entrepreneurship. Now I'm still figuring out this role, I'm on the other opposite side of the spectrum right now where I'm still getting the ball rolling. But even just jumping into entrepreneurship, like my grandparents used to say, oh, meet in the Santiago, which in Spanish translates to oh, look at the licensed guy, because I got licensed as a realtor and so it's like, but there was always that hate of sarcasm you could tell behind it. And there was because I dropped out of college. I decided to go to an traditional track and my family, I was like the golden child, I never got in trouble, had the best grades out of all my cousins and stuff like that. Like everyone knew in the family, like John is gonna be the one to graduate college, he's gonna be the one. And it's just like I didn't end up going to track that they ever. I mean I'm still gonna be one, just not the college graduate. Someone else can have that hat. I'm going to entrepreneurship route. But when I decided to go to entrepreneurship route and was like man. They were like everyone was asking why they didn't understand, and I kind of experienced a similar thing where they would like have that little bit of sarcasm in that undertone and it was just like wow. So I'm gonna ask, because this is a topic I've been seeing on Instagram a lot recently in reels and videos, and it's called the weight of gold. Right, everyone talks about the fear of failure. A lot of people have a fear of success for this exact reason, and there's a documentary that I still yet to watch, but I need to watch called the fear of success I mean the weight of gold, and it pretty much talks about all the stuff that comes with success. So I mean, if you don't mind going a little bit deeper, what else was it like, you know, crossing that threshold and not, you know, when they're engaging with people that were from your past world, your past life prior to you finding that success? What was that like? What are some of the things that the dark side, I guess you could say that came with the seven figure title or that came with success.

Yeah, man, I mean this by itself could be the whole podcast, because I think if people understood the stories and the emotions that come with success, they could either be more prepared for it. But I think the first thing to understand from my understanding, from my perspective, is that we're not wired as human beings to be successful, like biologically, like at our core right. We are wired as human beings to be loved and accepted because we're pack animals by nature. And so yet here we are in the Western civilization where success is such a big part of what everybody wants, whether that's fame or finances or materialism or whatever, and yet it goes directly against sometimes how we're naturally wired and that's to be liked, loved and accepted. And so when we can understand that, we can understand the number one hack to actually becoming successful more easily. Again, when we can understand that we're wired to be like, loved and accepted, we can actually hack our ability to become successful easier and faster. And, john, what do you think that is?

And my guess is masterminds. That's my guess.

Masterminds fall under the banner of the answer I was gonna give, and that's leveling up your circle of influence. Masterminds are one of the ways to get there right, Because here's the deal All of my friends and family members have never made six figures, let's just say, and I make seven figures, I'm gonna feel like I don't fit in anymore. So I'm either gonna A end up abandoning them or B I'm gonna self-sabotage my own success financially. But what if all of my friends and the majority of the people that I spend time with the most, what if they all make seven figures and I only make six figures? If I wanna be liked and accepted by them, I'm gonna find a way to level things up. If they all have a six pack and are in good shape and prioritize their health and I'm over here drinking too much I'm gonna find a way to be more like them. Because I wanna be accepted, I wanna fit in, I wanna be liked, and so I think the sooner we can understand that. I don't wanna say it never becomes easy, because sometimes that means making hard decisions, but the more simple we can turn success in our brain when we can understand, it starts there.

Yeah, and some of those things where the different between someone that's super smart and super wise is by how simply they can explain a concept or a idea and still get the same overall message across. And I love how you put it, because it's one of those things where it's back to that old quote of you're the fifth person at the table of millionaires, you'll become a millionaire, you're the fifth hit person and people really don't understand how important it is that they audit the people they spend time with, that. They audit the people and what they're doing and where they're headed. And it is okay to take a step back, to unwind a little bit, to unwire a little bit, because not everyone's on the same mission, and not to say that your mission is better than anyone else's, but just to say that it's not the same and finding, as you said, that's why I love conferences so much, man, and I've been spending a lot more money investing in myself, partly just because I just wanna be around people that understand, and it's something, as you said, we all wanna sit in when no one wants to be alone, no matter, as I said earlier, even that bravado of hey, I don't need anybody, it's all a cover up, and I love this advice, so let me ask you now. So you found your time.

Before you ask the next question, can I touch on one other last thing real quick? Yeah, of course. Yeah, you're asking about those things. So I talked about how we're wired to be loved and accepted, but it's not always easy. I wanna make sure any listener is clear on that, right Cause I can understand that concept, but there are certain people's judgment and approval that are harder to overcome, and one set of people that are harder to overcome, for most people are the approval of our parents, and I remember when I was trying to make $100,000 in a month and I just could not do it but it's not like I was far off. I made 98K in a month, I made 92K in a month, I made 95K in a month, but I could not break $100,000 in a month, and so naturally I was like I just gotta work harder, I just gotta figure out a better strategy. But there came a point where I was like it can't be work ethic. I'm literally doing 98K in a month, why can't I break through 100? And sometimes success and only creative life is really just all about what's going on up here, and I wanted to share the story because what I ended up discovering for myself is that I was almost self-sabotaging my own ability to break 100K and my definition, john, of self-sabotages really wanting something externally, whether it's a car or relationship, money, whatever but having a conflicting belief internally to the thing that you say you want. For example, if somebody keeps saying I want a relationship so badly, I wanna find a girl, I wanna whatever, right, but if internally they believe that relationships are gonna equal loss of freedom, pain, someone cheating on you, whatever you might keep repelling away a good relationship, well, that's what I did with $100,000 in earnings for the month. Because here's why I remember as a kid I used to hear my dad kind of like resentfully make jabs at people that made six figures in a year. So in my brain I was like, if my dad resents people who make six figures in a year, what is he gonna think about me if I make six figures in a month? And I remember what I had to work through, john is I basically had to ask myself and emotionally believe will my dad still love me? And I know that sounds kind of crazy to some people. Some people are like my dad would, freaking, give me a high five and take me out for a drink. I was scared that he wouldn't actually be proud and that he wouldn't accept me and that he wouldn't like. It's probably the same reason I don't have a tattoo today, because my dad used to, growing up, all the time just be like don't get a tattoo, don't get a tattoo. So here I am, not with a tattoo because my dad used to say that, but it also started to get in the way of me achieving certain things I wanted, because I cared about his approval more than I actually cared about getting the thing that I thought I wanted Once I healed that. The crazy part is, john, we've done over $100,000 in a month, every single month since that month, since I figured that out for the last three and a half years.

That is amazing, and I've been looking a lot into storytelling recently, and one of the parts of the hero's journey that it talks about is the atonement of the father. And you can't, the hero can't progress in their journey until their father dies, and not their actual father, but, metaphorically, the person who has the most control over their life, whether that is a parent, a grandparent, someone with a custody over you, a godparent, a friend, a girlfriend, a spouse, whatever it may be. Until that person dies not literally, metaphorically, right you cannot at least the hero cannot proceed on the journey, you cannot make it to the end. And so that's kind of the exact moment that you kind of just had and you had to have that die-off so that you couldn't get into that place. And so let me ask you now because 100,000 in a month is something that's so hard to grasp, and a lot of times in the gym because a lot of people probably resonate with this more, let's say, they try to break 200 on the bench right For me. I'll use me. I couldn't pass 400 of the deadlifts. I never ended up doing it because I ended up switching to chastinics, but I was stuck at 400, and I'm about like 175. So this is more than double my body weight. So I was pretty high, but I couldn't break 400 for whatever reason, and my friend would do it easily. He was pushing close to 500, and he was about like 15 pounds heavier than I, was Close to like 15, 20, which in weightlifting is a lot, but still I'm like man. He's over there pushing it, but it got me fired up to the point where I was willing to attempt it. Was there someone like that in your life that was just like man? They just inspired you, not in a way like, oh, I got to hit it because I got to keep up with them, but in a way like man, they're just thriving, they're just keeping it going. Was there someone like that in your life that kind of just helped to push shoots at these further heights? Yeah, there's tons.

I credit so much of my success to others around me. I don't think I am naturally talented at almost anything that I choose to get into. I was oftentimes really bad at a lot of things I started at, but the inspiration of the example of other people ahead of me, there's one thing that I am great at, and that is that I will figure it out and I won't give up, and so then I will end up getting good at it. But to answer your question, tons man, the inspiration and the example of other role models, whether directly as role models and mentors, or indirectly watching someone else as an example, has been a huge part of how I succeed. I believe not everyone's like. Some people are the I'm going to go be the revolutionary and do it for the first time. I'm the like. Show me that it's possible and then I will find a way to do it as good as that person, if not better. So to answer your question, absolutely.

Yeah. So now let me ask you right. So now you made it to the other side of the spectrum. I guess you're doing 100k months for the past three plus years straight, and what it looks like you keep on going. What does life like? What's that driver in you, what's that thing that keeps you going, that keeps you striving after because a lot of people they feel to realize that the summit isn't the end. All be all is to trek up the summit. That is the more important. So what is it for you, man, that just keeps you going, that keeps you motivated, that keeps you working so hard when you've already reached things that some people can only imagine and dream of?

Yeah, I think that answer probably changes over time and I probably reserve the right, if I would ever come back on your show one or three or five years from now, to maybe say something different. I think, fundamentally, the answer that will probably almost always be the case is that growth, like continuous growth, is the only true safe space, right? Or John Maxwell would put it as like like growth is a lifetime journey, not a destination journey. And I have just found that I am happiest on the pursuit of something or on the progression of something, not at the actual arrival of it. When I think back at winning karate championships, as an example, I remember more long nights, late nights, practices, hard days, training camps, like. I remember more of that, admittedly that I remember the actual competition itself that I actually remember, like winning a trophy or something like that, and I think that just points to the fact that most of us, as human beings, are thriving and more fulfilled during the actual progression or process of something, not the actual outcome. And so I just choose to want to be happy, and I know that for me to be happy, I need to constantly be evolving and growing.

Yeah, Now, that is such an amazing point and this is something when I look back on to like. I remember so many days like walking and football practice and for me, my high school was almost like two miles away and football season in the Northeast, it gets pretty chilly towards the Thanksgiving months. So, yeah, I remember like walking with pads, walking with the guys, and we would sometimes walk back after practice and sometimes for summer workouts we would have to go on inside 95 degrees and we're doing bear crawls and full pads on the freaking hot turf and it's like those are the times and the memories that you know. Honestly, I would go back and live twice and I don't know man, it's just like being in the gutter of it, being in the thick of it. I mean it doesn't seem like fun kind of when you're going through, but like looking back at it, man, it's like you know it is. It's super amazing to just look back at and just reflect on sometimes and just like we made it through, but probably at that time it's like I hate these coaches, like I don't want to be here, right, it is one of those things. Let me ask you now when, where are you from? I'm in Connecticut. So it's not like a rigid cold like Maine, but like it gets pretty chilly. I'm from Jersey. That's why I asked oh really, man, it's one of those things where I got a lot of family from out in Patterson, this big Dominican hub over in Patterson. There's so many Dominican people over there. Let me ask you right, where could people connect with you at? You dropped a ton of amazing nuggets and you made it. I love how just down on earth a lot of it was and stuff like you're just another guy like most of us, that hey, you know you're out, you know you're partying, you're having fun, you're living life and you got an opportunity and you made the most of it and you've been catching your strides since and you're now you're dropping back a lot of gems on these shows. So where could we connect with you at? Where could we find you If anyone wanted to connect with you, work with you or just even just keep up with more of what you got going on?

Instagram or Facebook are probably like the easiest ways just to connect. On Instagram, my handles Mike to underscores chew, so that's where I'm on an Instagram, michael chew on Facebook. If you're specifically an online coach or wanting to be an online coach of any sort whether it's a fitness trainer, nutritionist you know all different types of coaches like that, we have a. We have one of the one of the most valuable free Facebook communities for people like that, called seven figure fit pro. And then, if you already have an established business, I also have a gift that I give anybody who's already running some sort of small business, and they could just go to wwwchampdevcom backslash free, and on that is a three part training of how we help our students unlock anywhere from $100,000 to a million dollars in back end profit with our LTV method, and so there's a full in depth training on there of how somebody can go implement that into their own lives. Just go to wwwchampdevcom backslash free. But Instagram or Facebook is the easiest way just to connect.

Follow and stay in touch. Amazing. And that's time for our famous five questions. The question you asked everything will get on the show. Question number one what is the most impactful lesson you've learned in life?

Now the feelings are meant to be felt. You know, growing up as a A-type personality in an Asian family and I only say Asian in the sense that I think there are a lot of races who are like this, but Asian specifically it's like grow up, be a big boy, like stop crying right, be tough, and stuff like that. So I wasn't trained to feel a lot of feelings. You know, life wasn't always just sunshine and rainbows from me. I grew up in a family of alcoholics and feeling feelings was not something that came natural to me, and why this has ended up being one of the biggest lessons is by not learning how to feel my feelings. I could get by for a while, but at some point what we resist persists and then sometimes it explodes. And for me, when I would bottle up emotions, explosions especially when you pair alcohol with it would sometimes lead to like saying stupid shit to people I love or trying to start a fight or punching a wall or things like that Probably the huge reason why I gave up alcohol forever, almost four years ago now. But in line with that journey, I also learned how to process and feel and attend to what I'm actually feeling and how to summarize the lesson John, true masculinity or true strength is knowing how to feel your feelings, and I used to think strength was like no, I'm good. No, true strength is knowing how to feel deeply whatever you're feeling, whether it's sadness, whether it's jealousy, whether it's scared, whether it's anger, whether it's stress, and knowing how to feel that and process that in a really healthy way.

And that's amazing man. What is the most admirable trait a person can have?

Integrity. Integrity in a lot of ways, because you follow through in what you're actually saying you're going to do. But integrity is one of those things, in my opinion, that it's easy for most people to be like yeah, I'm going to be an honest person, but the truth is, the more I've been around people human beings will violate their values. They might value truth, but they'll violate their values to me and me. And if we don't feel safe, like, oh my gosh, I'm going to get in trouble, we'll lie, we'll omit, and so to truly be able to embody the characteristic of integrity is a truly admirable trait that most of us will compromise integrity to make a little money, to not have someone mad at us, to get someone to like us, you know, or break our own integrity with ourselves, because it's easier to go watch TV right now, it's easier to do whatever. By no means am I perfect at it, but for the last half a decade, a commitment of mine is to be a man of integrity, even when it's hard. If you want to get into my phone, my password is integrity and yeah, for that reason, I think that is one of the most admirable characteristics.

If you had to change someone's life with one book, which book would you recommend?

I guess it would depend on really what they're looking for. But I know when people are on shows like I'm not going to answer the actual question you answered because instead of one I'm going to give you two, but two that come to mind. If I had to give the answer of one, it would be Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon. I think it's a classic, an oldie and a goodie, but a more modern day version that I think honors more the Western civilization and the Western culture today would be the happiness of it. And that book by Sean Aker goes deeply into is achieving and becoming successful actually going to make us happy or does learning how to become a happy person? Is that actually what's going to lead to success? And I think it's really a foundational book for people who want to feel fulfilled, not just successful.

What is the legacy that you're trying to leave behind, sure?

That's a beautiful question and one that I'm still trying to get clear on. As a dad of two young girls, I've been asking myself a lot like what's the legacy that I'm going to leave behind for them. But one of the legacies that I believe I do want to leave behind is that I inspire others to champion the greatest love, abundance and glory that their life is meant for, and I think so many of us don't believe we're actually meant to be loved or we're never in a space where it feels safe that we're fully accepted. We live in a world that's so easy to focus on scarcity, not abundance, and we'll start to settle for our limitations instead of fighting for our possibilities, and then we end up living a life lesser than one that we feel proud of. So if I can help others champion a life of love, abundance and glory, that feels like the mission and the purpose.

On the legacy that I want to leave behind for others and for anyone that wants to embark on their walk to wealth today. What is the first step you recommend they take?

Develop If it's specifically the walk to wealth, develop high income skills. You know, we grew up in a world, we're in a society where there's still a push for education, like formal education. But I think it's Jim Rowan or Brian Tracy that says we're going to make a living from formal education, but we're going to build wealth because of self-education. And if one doesn't develop high income skills how to sell something, how to build something, how to lead people the chances of them building wealth are pretty low, unless it's maybe just handed to them. So develop high income producing skills.

You've now finished taking the first step. Now let us help you take the next one. Subscribe to our newsletter at walktowealthcom. That's walk, the number two, wealthcom, so we can keep you moving on your journey. We'll see you on the next episode of Walk to Wealth with John Mendes.