From Professional Bodybuilder to E-commerce Multi-millionaire in 3 Years with Michael Walding Jr.: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like I Digress. Today, we're pulling a timeless EO Fire episode from the archives, so the giveaway may not be active, and we'll be breaking down the process of going from professional bodybuilder to e-commerce multimillionaire in three years. To drop these value bombs, I brought Michael Walding into EO Fire Studios. Once Michael broke away from people who thought small and negative and surrounded himself with people willing to think big and take massive action, it helped him get closer to living up to his potential.

0:37And we'll talk about not being discouraged when you're not selling right away. It takes time about how there's always someone that can teach you something. Remember that and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Michael and our sponsors. The Hustle Daily Show hosted by Juliet Bennett Ryla, Rob Litters, Ben Berkeley, and Mark Dent is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Hustle Daily Show brings you a healthy dose of irreverent, offbeat, informative takes on business and tech news, like a recent episode on Hackers vs.

1:10Casinos, where the hosts talk about MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment and the devastating potential of cyber attacks. Listen to The Hustle Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Don't be the bottleneck to your organization's growth. Accomplish more with Belay. To get started, schedule a free delegation consultation with Belay in just 30 minutes. See how their flexible staffing solutions can grow your business and free you up to lead. Text FIRE to 55123 to schedule your delegation consultation today. Michael, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know.

1:49Hey, everyone. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Let me see. It's something good about something people don't know. So, you know, I come from a bodybuilding background, actually, before e-commerce. And before that, I was actually a sponsored skateboarder in middle school. I had long blonde hair. I had the skinny jeans and a shoestring belt on. And I actually started a clothing company called Focus when I was maybe 13. And I came up with that with my best friend because we agreed, you know, what's the one thing you need to be great at anything? And we both agree the word was Focus. and it's funny because Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were both asked one time, they had a piece of paper in front of him and the interviewer said, what's one word you need to be successful?

2:37And they wrote it down and they held it up at the same time and they both had the same word, focus. So yeah, it's something that stayed with me into bodybuilding obviously and then into e-commerce. So it's something I believe strongly in since I was a kid. I love it. It's a word actually I say on Entrepreneurs on Fire a lot because for me, it's an acronym, which is follow one course until success. Focus. So I'm obsessed with it for the same reasons. And quick question, be honest with us. Do you still have an APAC? I would say it's about six now. Still jealous. Still jealous. And Fire Nation, as I shared, we're talking about how Michael has gone from a professional bodybuilder to e-commerce multimillionaire in three years.

3:20So let's start by talking about your past career in bodybuilding. Talk to us about that. Kind of a random story. When I was skateboarding, I was the skinniest kid in my entire school and everyone called me the runt, right? So I was super small. I think I was about 115, 119 pounds. So pretty little guy. And I remember crying to my mom one day. Middle school was pretty torturous. And I said, hey, I'm done being this small. I'm gonna be big. And of course, my mom's looking at me. I look like a twig and pats me on the head. And of course, honey, you're going to be great. Right. But that's that really helped.

3:57Right. I don't know if my mom actually believed it, but it doesn't matter because then I did. Right. So what I ended up doing is I stopped skateboarding altogether that day, bought weights with whatever money I had saved up. And also it was I believe it was Christmas at that same time. So I got some weights in the garage. I started going to, you know, I'm dating myself here, but this was what, 17 years ago and we didn't have Instagram and to read all this stuff. So I went to the store and got magazines, you know, muscle and fitness and all these other bodybuilding magazines. And I, uh, I started clipping out the diets and I started clipping out pictures of people I wanted to look like.

4:34I wanted to know what's my goal. I always had to have a goal. I'm just a goal oriented person. If I don't, I kind of wander around all day, literally wander around. And so I took pictures of these guys, put them on my wall, started following this diet. I started bringing to school sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, just turkey and bread. And I didn't know any better at the time, right? It wasn't horrible, but I ate seven of those every day, one between every single class, whether I was hungry or not, and having weight gainer shakes in the morning and at night. And by the time I was 25 years old, I was a professional bodybuilder and I weighed 240 pounds.

5:13So yeah, it stayed with me and I had a relentless work ethic. And even though I didn't know how I was going to reach this goal when I was 14, I had no idea how I was going to get there. I just decided it was fact. I believed it. That goes into my subconscious and it's something that was unwavering faith in myself, no matter what happened. Of course, there were ups and downs. It wasn't a straight shot to 240 pounds, let me tell you. But I actually got hurt one of the times and you lose about 30, 35 pounds. It's quite the emotional rollercoaster. Although most people are like, Michael, you're complaining about losing 35 pounds.

5:49I would die to lose 35 pounds. So we get what you're saying. We're dying trying to gain the 30. Totally, totally get it. I love that word relentless, by the way you used it. And I think it's such an underused word. I mean, relentless Fire Nation. You just set that goal. You have that focus and you are relentless in the achievement of that. And you will get there. You're going to have the ups and the downs. You're going to get hurt. You're going to lose 35 pounds. You're going to gain 35 pounds. You can do this, you can do that. Relentless. That's the word. And Michael, you've won at a high level in bodybuilding and now you've won at a high level in e-commerce.

6:21So beyond goals and focus, which we've talked about a little bit already, what does it take to win at a high level? Winning at a high level, I think, requires sacrifice and discipline. And the reason, and obviously you have to have a work ethic, and there's other things I think that just come standard. But I don't think a lot of people realize that sacrifice is involved. So, and that could be anything as much, especially with bodybuilding. The name of the game is sacrifice. People think it's the gym. I only spend an hour and a half in the gym at the most, right? I mean, maybe when I'm competing, maybe when I'm getting ready for a show.

6:51But most of it is, hey, Friday night, let's all go out. Well, not me, right? I didn't go out. Bodybuilding wasn't a sport. It was a lifestyle. So you can't wake up and go bodybuild for a little bit and come home and go do whatever it is that you want. I ate seven meals a day and trained once or twice a day, depending on the time of the year. So it was a sacrifice of giving up a lot. When I turned pro when I was 25, the four months leading up to that, that was called your contest prep, about 16 weeks. So for 16 weeks, I didn't hang out with anyone. I didn't see my friends. I didn't talk to them.

7:26I went and just became a recluse and nothing in my life, I didn't allow anything in my life that didn't have anything to do with bodybuilding, right? So if it was, if I watched TV, it was mostly just YouTube bodybuilding motivational videos. If I read a book, it was probably Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography. And that was it. I would cook, clean, go to the gym, come home and just become obsessed with it. I think Conor McGregor said it best is he said, I don't believe in talent. I'm just obsessed. And I think when you can get tunnel vision, right? And we're coming back here to focus and relentless, all these words kind of tie in together.

7:58When you have all of these things going, that's when you become successful is you block out everything else. You have laser focus and you sacrifice everything else to have that. That's when you'll become great. I love that we keep coming back to relentless. It's just, it's going to be a word that I actually work into my vocabulary more Fire Nation because it is just such a powerful visual and verbal thoughts and just talk. I just love it. Now you were able to transition into e-commerce from being, you know, a very successful bodybuilder. Talk about that transition. I want to know like why and then of course the how.

8:34Originally was sponsored by vitamin shop. And so they had me busy. I also couldn't find a job that would allow me to eat seven meals a day and also train twice a day when I felt that it was time to train. Right. I also went to, I went to a few job interviews with the cooler of food. And they loved it. But I realized that it wasn't for me. I realized that I needed to find something that would allow me to continue on with my passion. And so the only thing I had was my computer. So originally, it started with eBay, and then Shopify. You know, there's ups and downs, I learned I had some great businesses, and I had some that failed miserably, right?

9:10But you don't lose, you just learn. And eventually, I found my way to Amazon. And when that happened, I hung up the posing trunks. I was done with bodybuilding. I canceled my contract with vitamin shop. I stopped completely in one day and realized what I wanted to do. And so if it wasn't for bodybuilding, I don't think I would have ever found e-commerce would have never crossed my mind to find something on a computer as I'm a very social person. And yeah, I ended up with Amazon. And of course, just like bodybuilding, I went 110 % and I cut out all the other hobbies I had and just went, what I say, head first, right?

9:43Not feet first, head first into this 110 % above and beyond and just became obsessed. And that's one of the very powerful things, Fire Nation, I don't think a lot of people realize is so many people just spend all their lives just piling more things on their plates. And they don't realize that, hey, if you are gonna be great at something, you've gotta limit your focus. You've gotta be really drilled in, disciplined, and of course, that word that we're gonna be using multiple times again, relentless. And I get people all the time, I'm like, John, you should really try kiteboarding. John, you should be doing this.

10:12John, you should try this. And I'm like, no, because right now my life is full of a couple things that are very important to me. I'm obsessed with running my business. I'm obsessed with pickleball. I'm obsessed with staying as healthy and working out on a very consistent basis. And there's only so many things I can do and be great at those core things that are important to me. Now, if I ever want to add something to that, I'm going to be taking something away that's currently in my life. And when I want to make that trade, I will. But until I do, I'm not just going to keep adding things to my plate.

10:43And that's why you hear so many people, I'm just so busy. I can never start X, Y, or Z. Well, of course you can because you have so many things piling on your plate. And Fire Nation, we're going to be talking about what it takes to build a successful e-commerce business in 2021 and how you can actually reach your potential when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Can you believe we're already in Q4? This year has flown by, but Q4 is an exciting time and not just because the holidays are right around the corner. Something magical happens when the third quarter ends and the fourth quarter begins.

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13:49See how their flexible staffing solutions can grow your business and free you up to lead. Text FIRE to 55123. That's F-I-R-E to 55123 to schedule your delegation consultation today. So Michael, we are back and let's go a little bit more into your story about e-commerce. Like what was really the first major traction you got? How do you turn that traction into a multi-million dollar per year business? And then, of course, we're going to wrap up this portion of the interview with how Fire Nation could become successful in e-commerce in 2021 based off of what you've learned and seen. To mention what you said a minute ago about, you know, you have a few things that you do.

14:34And after that, you know, it starts to get crowded. My business coach calls that channel capacity. right it's actually statistically proven that your brain can only handle about three things right and i don't mean three tasks in one time in one sitting i mean three things that you do right right and that's literally the number it is so and preferably one two or you know even better but yeah i completely agree and i limit mine to three as well um you know and now as far as where were my first wins my first wins was you know when i opened up my own store and realized that I could do it without spending any of my money, right?

15:08So we didn't have to spend any money. I didn't have to go buy a bunch of inventory. And so when I saw that started working, my parents had lost their business, right? And so I was supporting them financially and it was pretty hard on me as well. And once I realized I could run this, I started running one for my parents as well. Now they're both happily retired. And I think when I saw that win, it gave me a huge boost of confidence. And also your friends see that win and they went in. Right. And then everyone, so then I started building a team and now we have a team here in Miami of 30 people and in software and all this stuff now that help us run all of this, where originally it was by hand.

15:47And so I think that that my parents store really was the turning point of knowing that I could do this for someone else and help others. Do you know who Marcus Limonis is by the way? Yes. The prophet. Yes, yes, yes. The prophet. Yes. So Marcus is worth about a billion dollars. And so he doesn't need the show. He doesn't need these other companies. But what he does is, in order to get him to the next level, which is the name of my company, is to bring other people up with him and to win. So he buys, give everyone a background if they're not familiar, he buys about 50 % of failing businesses and he takes them up with him.

16:24So he wins and they win together. So I believe John Maxwell said it best, if you help other people get what they want, they'll help you get what you want. So that's something I've tried to live by. And then eventually, you know, I brought my friends and family in first, and then we brought it to the public. And now, you know, we've grown this pretty massively. And, you know, a few short years, you know, this is a eight figure business. Now, of course, you know, everybody's going to be running a different business in e commerce with different products or services or fill in the blank. But what do you think are some keys, you know, as we're in 2021, when it comes to actually being successful in e-commerce, if somebody was going to be starting from scratch, what would your recommendations be?

17:04One, I would go to YouTube, right? You want to use as mostly free resources as you can. So there's tons of people that have been there before you and that post all of it on YouTube. When I first started, I still watch YouTube videos. I still watch them. I actually, I was watching some yesterday. You can always learn. You never know more than everyone else. There's always someone that can teach you something. So, and also in the beginning, if you're not cash flow positive, you want to try to get as much free information as you can. Other than that, you want to make sure that you vet your suppliers and you want to make sure that you're also testing, right?

17:35You're not going to get it right the first time. So don't be discouraged if whatever you have isn't selling right away. It's okay. It takes time. And the three rules of marketing are test, test, test. So it's going to work the same. We're going to have to test. You're going to have to throw a few things at the wall. You want to just do your research ahead of time. And I believe in the saying, a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from others. So if you can go and watch these videos and talk to these people and also reach out to some of them, ask them to help you as a mentor, right?

18:08That's something I want to get involved in is helping other people who are like me, who didn't know where to go. They just knew what they wanted, right? So I always had a big goal, but I didn't know how to get there. So I think with e-commerce, it's the same as any other business. Do your research, take advantage of free information and try to go find someone that's been where you want to be and model after that person and then just add your creative touch to it. And Fire Nation, what's your unique advantage? Do you have a unique advantage? Do you have unique knowledge, expertise, passion that you can bring to what you're starting or doing?

18:37How can you build a moat around that? Because I'm sure what Michael's found is he's been able to be successful because he's not easily replicated. It can't just be popping up a million competitors right away because he's doing something so simple. I like that phrase so much that the higher the barrier, the lower the competition. So go after something that is challenging in a way because your competition will be so much less if you do that. Build a high barrier, lower your competition, have that moat around your business, your e-commerce, so it just can't be snap of the fingers replicated by everybody around the world.

19:10And let's talk now about how Fire Nation can reach their potential. I mean, we've been talking about being relentless and sacrificing and goals and discipline, all critical things. How can Fire Nation reach their potential in 2021 and beyond? Things that have worked for me in reaching your potential and what I think are, like I said, one is really try to find somebody, and this could be in books. It doesn't have to be in person. And I mean, I would love to have Elon Musk as my mentor, But what are the chances of that, right? So, but what you can do is, I read a lot of biographies, right? Or autobiographies, whatever, is to study after people that you want to be like and see what they've done to get there.

19:52And also really look for their pitfalls. Look what they've done wrong. And so you don't make those same mistakes. So I found a mentor. His name's Bob Proctor. I'm sure some of you guys might know him. And something that he helped me, that I realized I was doing and just wasn't conscious of it, is you need to have a big goal, right? And a lot of times people, if you go to any person, right, that said they want to be successful and ask them what's their goal, right? They don't have a clear, concise goal. They say, or let's say, for example, someone says, oh, I want to be rich. That's not a goal.

20:23That is not an attainable number because that's perspective, right? Rich to you is probably different than rich to me. But I think when you set a big goal, it's basically the destination of your life. When you go to get an Uber or you go to get in your car, do you just drive? Probably not. You should know where you're going. There might be some people that do that, but it's not a great strategy, right? You go and you get in an Uber and tell him, yeah, I want to go. I want to go to the mall. And you say, well, which one? The mall. I don't know. Just take me wherever I need to go. He's going to tell you to get out, right?

20:54Because it makes no sense. It makes no logical sense. Get out of my car. Right. It makes no logical sense to drive around in circles to get to your destination that you don't even know where you're going. So I think a lot of people do that in life. They have no clue where they're going. They go around in circles. They waste all their gas. Then they're out of gas on the side of the road, and they're miserable and depressed and sad. And now they can't figure out why, though. And so what I would do is set a goal, a clear, concise goal, and then you have to have the actions to back it up. You're not going to be a multimillionaire sitting on the couch watching Netflix.

21:25So have the goal, have the faith that you're going to get there and the relentless attitude, and then have the actions to back it up. so your thoughts do become things but you have to go out and work for it and never say give up. Michael Walding Jr. That was a mic drop rant. I loved it. I know Fire Nation loved it. So how can we find out more about you? How can we follow you, connect with you? Any call to action you have for us? Share that now, brother. I think the best way for people to get a hold of me so they can also interact with me would be through my Instagram. It's whereiswalding. It's W-H-E-R-E-I-S and then Walding is my last name, W-A-L-D-I-N-G.

22:06Where is Walding? And if you guys go on there, you'll see a link to my website and how we help people open up their own Amazon and Walmart stores. And if you guys go on there and wanna book a call, just mention the podcast that you saw me on here and we'll give you 25 % off of our services. Fire Nation, you know this, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with MWJ and JLD. so keep up that heat and head over to eofire.com type Michael in the search bar and his show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about today best show notes in the biz timestamps links galore and of course make sure you follow Michael over at where is Walding on Instagram that's where is Walding and click through check out his site book a call mention entrepreneurs on fire 25 % off all the greatness Michael, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

23:04For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Thanks, guys. Hope to hear from you soon. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Michael and successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big goals, huge goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. So visit thefreedomjournal.com. Use promo code podcast for a$15 discount. And thank you for listening to my podcast. And I will catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. The Hustle Daily Show, hosted by Juliet Bennett-Ryla, Rob Litturse, Ben Berkeley, and Mark Dent, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

23:48The Hustle Daily Show brings you a healthy dose of irreverent, offbeat, informative takes on business and tech news, like a recent episode on hackers versus casinos where the hosts talk about MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment and the devastating potential of cyber attacks. Listen to The Hustle Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Don't be the bottleneck to your organization's growth. Accomplish more with Belay. To get started, schedule a free delegation consultation with Belay in just 30 minutes. See how their flexible staffing solutions can grow your business and free you up to lead. Text FIRE to 55123 to schedule your delegation consultation today.