Chase Your Dreams And Build Abundance with Nate Ginsburg.mp4
Interview with Nate Ginsburg
Tomer [00:00:04] Let’s welcome our guest for today someone really amazing that I look at as someone I want to be like, one and they only need Ginsburg. Welcome, Nate.
Nate [00:01:16] Thank you.
Tomer [00:00:17] If you follow him on Instagram, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. It’s really, it was hard for me to bring him in because he’s a very busy person. But I listened to one of the interviews recently that you did with Gary on the seven figure summit and saw a slide about how you can for yourself up in your business and build a business like a machine. So hopefully we can go over those things.
If you’ll follow him on Instagram is like a very into like health and big with high energy level. This is something that I feel is very important to every entrepreneur and everyone in life. You can get much more out of yourself if you are in high energy. Welcome, Nate. Again, thank you for being here in the channel. And if you can just share a little about yourself, where are you at this point?
Nate [00:01:13] Yeah. Well, thank you for the very kind introduction. Glad to be here. And yeah, I’m currently in Thailand. I mean, I’ve been living mostly abroad, I guess for the last, like, it’s almost 10 years. And, you know, running different businesses and like you, you know, like you talked about, I mean, I love business, but it’s also like business is a part of what I think is a complete and full life.
And there’s other areas that are also important and, you know, health and family and fun and growth. And yeah, and so I mean, over the years of really like, it’s very important to me and I’ve learned for myself to build the business in a way that supports me and my goals and my objectives professionally, financially, but also, you know, the other areas of my life to, you know, give me the time and finances to be able to afford to do the things that I want, whether it’s my body or experiences or travel. And then, yeah. And so this is like, yeah, Its been really important for me to do for myself.
And as I’ve been on this journey for myself, I see how… I mean, I know how important it is to me and how impactful and how much better it makes my life. And then you now want to help others and share more about that. And as well as helping others to do the same with their businesses and building their businesses in a way that that support them and enable them in whatever it is that they want and is important to them. And yeah, you know, just to achieve their goals, whatever their goals are. And so, so yeah, that’s stuff that I mean, I love it. Know super into it. You know, I’ve been on that path personally and love helping others with the same stuff now.
Tomer [00:03:18] You have that Amazon FBA business that you sold, right? Like maybe you can give some details about it.
Nate [00:03:24] So yeah. So I got into FBA when I was living in Vietnam in 2014 and yeah, like launched and things took off pretty well. And a couple years later, in 2017, we had the opportunity to exit there was a private buyer. That all happened very quickly. I was on the phone with my business partner in Vietnam, and he just, you know, casually mentioned that he might know somebody who’s interested in buying the business. And this was like before, this is before buying Amazon businesses was cool, like, yeah, yeah.
Related Reading: What is Amazon FBA: Complete Amazon FBA Guide in 2023
But yeah, but this guy was, he had a or it was a Chinese company that had like a really a super big Amazon, you know, hundreds of employees and they were looking to buy up some brands and so yeah. You know, I was on the call of my business partner, and then yes, if I was interested, I was interested and then like three days later, I’m on a plane to meet this guy in China to come to an agreement and, fast forward a long story short, we did we came to an agreement.
I sold the business for just under a million dollars and yeah, you know, after that got into a lot of this like what’s important, what I want to do, whether I want to go, who am I? You know, all this introspection as I was transitioning into whatever I was doing next, and yeah, it’s through that that a lot of these ideas that I was talking about before of just like. You know, for me, you know, for all of us that we should do more of what we enjoy and, you know, the stuff that we don’t enjoy, get that off your plate. You don’t need to be doing that or shouldn’t be doing that.
And yeah, so, so like, you know, that just kind of was a catalyst for you know, a lot of my introspection and thinking and shaping of my understanding of what’s important and yeah, and stuff that I think you are aware of or has noticed, like in the last year or so is like a lot more. I’ve just been into creating content and sharing about, you know what I’m learning in my journey and whether it’s with my podcast or, you know, sharing on social media and, you know, writing and storytelling and yeah, and that stuff like intentionally for me in my career that like, I enjoy, I love, I love creating content.
I love talking about business and helping people with business and so, you know, doing things like this is like you know, very intentionally, some of the activities that are part of my business and my weeks and on my plate, and it’s because, yeah, I enjoy it and so yeah, I’ve been really leaning into the content creation in the last year or so, as well as, yeah, just trying to, you know, share more to connect with more people that any of this stuff resonates with. And hopefully, my experiences and stories can help inspire or motivate or unlock something for someone else on their journey. And so that’s.
Tomer [00:06:54] Yeah. I actually follow you. I mean, we are friends on Facebook and I see some of your posts. And, you know, sometimes people, not sometimes, people that I know entrepreneurs pay a lot of money to mastermind sometimes and getting knowledge. And you’re constantly looking for these one tip and sometimes it’s just there, you know, and when you share things, a lot of times I just need to save so I can watch later on Facebook.
I get a lot of things, especially like thinking, how you think. I really love the way that you think and your writing is really amazing. It’s fun and you see improvements, so you see that you invest time on that. So that’s really cool to you. I have a question when you sold, you mentioned that you sold the business just under a million dollar, at that point you were; It’s a big amount of money, but it was not really, it’s not enough for you to really retire or something how you looked at your future from that point. Maybe the short term, you didn’t have to work really quick, but how you looked at, you know, what you’re going to do?
Nate [00:08:11] Yeah, yeah, good question. And yeah, and it’s true. Like this was it was definitely like a nice it was a nice win, but obviously not done making money in my life or career. And so it was like, OK, well, I’ve got I got some some extra buffer now. And yeah, so some of the the things that I kind of got me thinking in was how it impacted my thinking now is a few things is, is this one like like, yes, thinking long term and so because I had then more of a buffer and I didn’t have to make money today, tomorrow, next year it yeah, it allowed me to be more patient and just kind of focus more on the longer term vision and not having to short change things in the short term because, you know, it was, yeah, I was more concerned about long term thinking and another thing that also cemented.
I mentioned a little bit earlier, but this whole like self-concept of I want to do the work that I enjoy and that can add value and, you know, that excites me and not do the stuff that is frustrating, irritating and like having more of a cash buffer, it just, my tolerance for doing activities that I didn’t want to be doing or what I thought were lower value activities; the tolerance also just became so much lower because, you know, I had this money so if I’m doing something and I’m not enjoying it, it’s like alright, you know, I value my time way more than 20 dollars an hour, 30 dollars an hour, 40 dollars an hour and if I could just pay someone to do like, I’d rather pay them than me figure this out. It’s going to cost me.
You know, yeah, I had more of a budget and buffer to like, you know, delegated to other people. So, yeah, so that’s really been, you know, the focus the last few years has, yeah, I mean, those are both been like themes, and I’m really proud of the progress that I guess where my career has gone since selling the business. You know, it’s been, I guess, 3 years or going on 4 years. Wow. And like, yeah, 4 years later, I mean, you know, things have grown, I don’t know, the long term picture is looking positive, and the way I spend my days in my time is like overwhelmingly doing things that I enjoy and want to be doing.
And so yeah, like the vision, I mean, it’s hard and we can talk about some of this too of like, you know, transitioning from this successful business and then, you know, basically like starting over and you know, and for me, I started over it. Well, you know, in a totally different now, I’m mostly involved in services and agencies and their services for e-commerce businesses. And so like Sellerplex, you know the one I don’t have partners with like I’m very familiar with, you know, the businesses that we work with, but like the business model of running and growing an agency was, it’s quite different from selling on Amazon and like, you know, and so yeah, it’s been.
Tomer [00:11:43] the concepts are the same, right? Like it’s business, you know?
Nate [00:11:46] Yeah, I mean, yes and no. But like, you know, marketing agency or growing an agency is very different than the process of, but yeah, but I mean, all these things, I mean, it’s been, yeah, you know, efinitely a transition from, you know, selling and exiting and then figuring out what to do and what’s the vision, and yea, that stuff also takes time and again like you fast forward, I guess it’s been, yeah, like 4 years since I since I sold the business and yeah, I mean, things are going well.
Tomer [00:12:28] that that’s really a nice story. I was actually, through actually one of your three or one of the ventures that you created almost sold my business on February, but really last minute I backed up and I’m still waiting but that’s going to happen probably the beginning of next year.
But like you said, you should do what you like and my plan is to keep doing Amazon FBA because I really love the model and I really enjoy it. I also enjoy the YouTube, so that’s something I’m going to continue doing, helping others. But that’s great that you know you had the opportunity, you got the money and you followed, like what you really enjoy. And that lead me to the next question, right at the beginning, you mentioned that you. Yeah, business is important, but it’s not everything in life. I want to hear your take about like how you working like crazy hours like this image of the entrepreneur that’s working and hustling all day? Or you prefer to work maybe smarter and maybe more productively; how you look at this topic?
Nate [00:13:39] Yeah, so good question. And yeah, and with that, I mean all, so one thing that I’ve realized is, like, just very important. I think to live a good life is like structure and routine and this was something that like, I think a lot of people, they think they want freedom and they chase freedom and like, that was me, you know, all like, Oh, I just want to have freedom and no responsibilities in this. And you know, and then like, you know, to be honest, like got that, you know, oh, all of a sudden, you know, have the money, have the time, have the freedom.
And it’s like, well, you know, like, yeah, like there’s more to life than that. And so I’ve learned and realized how important it is for me. Just like, you know, objective happiness is, yeah, having routine having structure. And you know, and like when I say routine and structure in all, it’s kind of a roundabout way of getting to your question but I will get there. But but you know, but like, it’s not just having any routine and structure, it’s having your ideal routine, your ideal structure.
And so for me, I’ve thought of, yeah, a lot of this of how I spend my days, how I spend my weeks and a lot of it is, I mean, I have a fairly consistent weekly routine. I mean, in a lot of ways like my weeks look very similar, but it’s like intentional and it’s structured in a way that, you know, for example, like so Mondays are just like creative days. So whether it’s writing, I’ve been working on doing some different courses and programs and so like Mondays are just like creative, you know? Yeah, output day. So like, I don’t do calls, I don’t do meetings. And yeah, and the rest of the week, I mean, a lot of my time I have, you know, I have some calls with business partners with exploring some things, but like I like having calls and those. Yeah.
You know, the calls overwhelmingly are with people that I enjoy or exploring something that’s interesting or exciting, like they’re phone calls like, I think they’re fun, but this is stuff also again, like, I like calls. I’m a people person. I like talking to people. I like catching up with people. I like exploring new things. And so like, you know, calls is a thing that I do in my weeks and, you know, or podcast interviews. And yeah, I’ve got like, I mean all have some kind of like high level projects within my businesses that I’m working on, and so for example, now we’re building, we’re building our well, I guess like two things our HR department, which I’m a little bit in, like overseeing and also our sales team and sales process and sales of like lead gen and appointment setting.
And anyway, so like these are projects that I’m also working at, like, you know, they’re not like the business is all still running and you know, it runs very much without my like day to day overseeing. But then I have additional projects that I think are interesting. And, you know, I’m learning new things and I also, you know, basically the projects that I work on, it’s like getting the right people to help us with the things. So I’m not like writing the H.R. manuals. It’s I hired this girl who is great and you know so like working with her on this or on the sales stuff. Again, it’s finding the right person. And so yeah, that’s like so like work wise, that’s what a lot of my, you know, the kinds of things that I’m doing. And then, yeah, I exercise a lot. I mean, I like to wake up early and work early, and so I’m almost always done by, you know, five o’clock, four thirty for something. And yeah, I mean, I go biking like four days a week. I go to the gym a couple of days a week. I do yoga
Tomer [00:17:55] You do these insane yoga moves?
Nate [00:17:58] Yeah, yeah. I’ve been doing yoga for a long time, do yoga every day. I love other activities. I mean, on the island that I am going wakeboarding, which has been a blast. There’s hiking. And so yeah, I mean, I like I love activities. I love being active. And so my days, I mean, I also really enjoy, like a lot of the work and projects. It’s fun. I like riding.
I like creating the projects and calls I’m involved with are generally like, I look forward to them. It’s, you know, yeah, there can be work and challenges, but that’s also, you know, it’s fulfilling and growth. And so yeah, that’s kind of what my schedule looks like. And it’s been pretty consistent like that for a while. And I think it’s just, you know, I’ve been very intentional about what do I what do I want my days to look like? What kinds of projects do I enjoy doing? And fortunately, it’s at a place where the businesses are built in a way and, you know, it supports me playing the role that I want to play and businesses growing and I don’t have to do things that I don’t want to do.
And yeah, and I mean, and also I share this and I say it’s like that is available to everyone and that’s like one of the things again, that I’m really passionate about helping people with is that like, you know, when people are like, stuck in their business, a lot of times they don’t, they just don’t know that there’s another way I’m like, Oh, like, this is, you know, you just do things because that’s how they’ve been done snd that’s what that’s what you’ve been exposed to or whatever. And yeah, for you or anyone listening or watching like. You can build your business however you want in a way that serves you however you want, and I would encourage you, you know, anyone with their business that’s watching that, yeah, like If they’re not able to have their ideal schedule and routine with their business being a part of it, then I mean, why not? And you know, maybe you should prioritize that more or explore that more because I definitely know it is possible. And so for sure. Yeah.
Tomer [00:20:14] So. On average, like how many hours you work in there, like 8, 10 hours? Like, I’m very curious and second question is about the right things. I agree with you. It’s really a must that you have a routine and you have a structure. What I feel that I have a structure and routines that after a while, usually a couple of months, you get to a plateau with it. And then I have to change like environment or a routine or something to get this maybe excitement, you call it, or change. That’s what I feel on myself. Do you see that thing as well?
Nate [00:20:56] Depends with what I mean. So when it comes to routines and like, I’m very, like, I really care about effectiveness and and like value effectiveness and so like, I’ve been I do most of the time I do like 90 percent the same yoga routine. It’s, I mean, it’s a style of yoga ashtanga that it’s a set series and so I, you know, when I’m doing yoga every day, it’s, I usually do like 90 percent of the same, you know, the same routine, the same flow and I’ll change some things up here or there. And you know, like my, I guess it depends on what the goals are for the activity in terms of how much changing it up or not.
For example, with yoga, it’s like, I’m doing it, you know, like my objectives are, you know, I want to continue working on certain areas of my body. And, you know, I mean, yeah, being agile and my mobility. And this is like, it’s also it’s good meditation and, you know, kind of good for your good to your head. And like, I know that this 30 minute routine, whatever it’s like, it checks a lot of boxes that I need and like, I know it’s good for me and so like variety is less important for me in something like that or like my diet also is like, I’m pretty cool with a boring diet, actually. Like I have a meal prep delivery kind of thing here and it’s like, you know, yeah, like, I eat a lot of my meals at home because it’s just, it’s healthy, you know, it’s quality ingredients. It’s healthy and like, I don’t care if it’s like, you know, variety, even in in a lot of my meals, sometimes is good to change things up, I don’t eat every meal at home or meal prep, but like a lot of times especially, it’s like I work from home a lot at my villa and like when I’m doing yoga or my meals like the objective, it’s more like just efficiencies like all right, I want to, you know, whatever else we’re working on that day, if I do my yoga for 30 minutes or 40 minutes and then get that in and get that benefit and eating obviously have to eat it like it’s healthy, it’s there, it’s fast. I eat it and boom, and then it’s continuing with my day.
And so for for things like that, I guess variety is in as I don’t know, like less of a priority. But to your point, I also I’m really big on every quarter I’ll take like a proper vacation for yeah, it’s been lately, like 2 weeks and I’ll travel and I won’t work at all or hardly at all. I won’t check my email. I won’t schedule anything. And so, so yeah, like, I like having my routine but also, very importantly, is changing it up and just doing something totally different. And yeah, like, you know, in Thailand, I mean, I’ve been traveling around and go stay at some nice resorts and go to new places and so, yeah, so and there are some times, you know, before I’ll feel myself and maybe what you’re what you’re what you kind of were alluding to of you’ll need to change things up.
Like I remember before my vacation, my last vacation was, is that the beginning? It was, yeah, the beginning of April and I remember like coming into that the last week or two weeks, I was working pretty hard on some new projects and this or that. And like, I felt like I, you know, I really wanted to change things up and I was really looking forward to the vacation and having time off and. And then, you know, I had it, it was great. And, you know, after I came back and I was, you know, I was ready to work again and I was excited and had new ideas and new projects and new motivation. And so yeah, I think like, I like having the routine, but also in order to keep with the consistent routine, you also have to change things up and have a break from the routine. So. So yeah.
Tomer [00:25:21] that’s great to hear. You know, I recently saw one of your pals that he was fasting for, I think, like 48 hours. Then I saw the next day it was 72 hours, and I’m like, Wow, this is crazy. I was listening to a podcast of this mixed martial artist. His name is George. St. Pierre is from Canada. I don’t know if you heard about him, but he’s a true inspiration for me. And he like after hearing him dealing with some issues with his digestive system through fasting and the benefits that they hear.
I started to fast as well, like 16 hours of fasting and 9 hours with those of like eating and I was scared in the beginning that I would be weak and not as strong, but I was like shocked that I’m actually very, very, very sharp and my clarity, like I have really high clarity and performance even when working out. I, you know, try to train every day. I do like mixed martial arts, jujitsu, and I was actually stronger. I was having better performance. And I’m curious to hear about like your experience with fasting and how you like how high energy levels can really make a big difference in your performance and productivity and efficiency, like you said.
Nate [00:26:47] Yeah. So I mean, I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for, yeah, many years and yeah, it’s great and it’s interesting of how, you know, when you start even intermittent fasting and basically, I mean, now I just like I skip breakfast, so I’ll have lunch, you know, maybe it’s 1:00 p.m or whatever. And I’m not super strict about my like eating window, but I don’t eat or I have like some bulletproof coffee usually in the morning and tea.
But yeah, but I remember like when I first went from eating breakfast to not eating breakfast, you know, I had the same thoughts like, Oh, like, I’m going to be weak, how can I exercise without eating? How can I concentrate? And like then you realize, you know, you stop eating and you know, maybe you’re hungry for like a little bit hungry for a couple of days, but all of a sudden, you know your body adapts.
Now I’m just straight up, not hungry in the morning. And yeah, like, have that energy and clarity and this is just, you know, my previous assumptions were just totally wrong in that in that case and I think, you know, when you when you take that and then apply that to then say, a seventy two hour fast, it’s yeah, like a lot of the same. I remember before I did my first fast I, yeah, I thought I was going to be weak and, you know, just waiting for the right time, I had to, you know, oh, like, I want to be the right time, and I was worried about my work and I wanted to work out and this and that.
And yea, in a similar way that, you know, when you start intermittent fasting, you just kind of like bursts, those beliefs, those false beliefs that you had about yourself. And you know what eating schedule you need to be on. The same happens when you do the 72 hour fast, and one thing I’ll say is that it’s, like it’s not difficult. Like honestly, out of a scale of one to 10, 10 being the hardest and 1 being the easiest like, it’s like a 2 and a half. Like maybe a three. Like, it’s not, you know, before I did it, I had this idea like, imagine that it’d be it’d be so painful, so challenging and it’s not, like especially once you do it, because part of it, it’s like, you know, I can just see from your reaction, I think other people that haven’t done it like, I get it where it’s like, you know, it sounds crazy.
But then, you know, it’s just these you have these ideas about yourself and what you need. And when you do this 72 hour fast, you realize you know how much energy you have, how good you can feel. The yeah, like you, you probabl, you generally you feel great when you’re fasting. I mean, you get into ketosis, which I know if you’ve done much keto or ketosis but like, that’s an energy boost and you feel good.
And yeah, like there’s a little bit of hunger. Or maybe you’re a little bit weak, but it’s super manageable and it also like, it’s not difficult because, you know, you just commit to it and especially once you know you’ve done it. So I’ve done it, I’ve done a 72 hour fast now like four times, I think. And it’s just like, I know how doable it is and so it’s like going into another fast, like, I certainly will do another one. I mean, I think I want to do them every three months, every six months. That’s kind of been the the cadence. And in the end, it’s just like, OK, like, I know so, you know, you don’t eat and then the next day
Tomer [00:30:18] but you drink right water.
Nate [00:30:21] Yeah, I mean, you can, you know, you can do whatever protocol you want, the protocol that I follow. Yes. Have water, actually I drink salt water for like some electrolytes and taking supplements.
Tomer [00:30:32] yeah, you need that.
Nate [00:30:33] Yeah, I mean, there’s a million and one different varieties or things that you can follow for fasting and the one that yeah, the one that I do, you know, can, yeah, drink and salt water and yeah, you know, It’s harder not to eat when you’re like sitting at a restaurant and you’re waiting for your food and it’s late and you know, you have this like hunger like pain and you’re like, Oh, I’m starving.
And that’s way more challenging than, you know, not eating for three days because mentally, like when you’re when you’re fasting, it’s not a decision. You’re just OK. Like, I’m not eating today and the next day, OK, like I’m not eating this day and there’s no decision you’re not like, Oh, should I eat it? You know, I’m so hungry if I don’t eat in five minutes, if I don’t eat this. You just know, like you’re not eating for the day and maybe you’ll feel a little bit hungry, but it’s, you know, you’re not deciding anything. And so it’s like it’s easy. I mean, yeah, I would encourage you to try it. You know, I keep repeating them because I think there’s benefit.
Tomer [00:31:44] What is the main benefit of this like long fasting, like 72 hours? And did you start like from 69 to just full straight 72 hours or you do 24? And then you do 48? And then gradually,
Nate [00:32:02] yeah, I just started from I mean, I was doing intermittent fasting and then I just, yeah, I did a 72 hour. But I think that the biggest benefits and I mean, I’m not a doctor. I mean, you know, I’ve read some stuff about it, but some stuff about like cell rejuvenation and so it’s like starving your cells and then they it’s like, it’s like stresses them and so then forces them to like, create new ones and healthy ones or a kind of like attacks the broken ones or yeah, like stresses, the broken ones and kind of just like, yeah, like a detox reset in some different things in your body. So I think it’s you know like an anti, you resets like your insulin levels and inflammation and, you know, kind of things when your body is like kind of goes in against some of these.
Yeah, you know, things that, you know, you want to clean up or detox from and yet there’s some like, you know, anti-cancer or just like, you know, potentially, you know, eats away at the same kind of like detox regenerative, you know, kind of things with your cells. So yeah, that’s I mean, that’s the like detox is the main reason why, the main benefit, I think that that I do it. But yeah, but it’s also it’s just like it’s a I don’t know, it’s like a good experience. And yeah, I mean, the one that I did last week, like it was like it was great, like it was great, like I was super productive. I felt great. Yeah, I felt great coming into it. I felt great coming out of it. And it was just like an overall positive experience.
Tomer [00:33:46] You know, we started the interview. I have so many more questions and I really enjoy talking to you. But we have to wrap it up. But one last question we wanted actually to do this topic about how you can build your business like a machine, but we kind of talked about other things. Maybe you can be here again in the future. But one last question we’re jumping between topics. You mentioned that, you know, 2014, that’s what you have your Amazon FBA business.
In 2018, you sold it. Before doing Amazon FBA or you know what? I get this a lot. I see a lot of people that, you know, success stories and you realize that their success, that’s what you see. But before the success, they had either experience or something that built them up for that success. And a lot of people that look at Amazon or any other making money online opportunities like things that they just can come into it and see the success but I feel that you need to have some background in fundamentals before you do that. I’m curious what you did before doing Amazon FBA in 2014.
Nate [00:35:00] Yeah. So I mean, my story or at least the beginning of it, I basically like I was traveling in Thailand and this was in 2011 and met a digital nomad who was running his business and I was just like, you know, after meeting this guy, I was just like, All right, that’s what I want to do. It was so clear to me and like, you know, he had some VAs and introduced me to oDesk, now Upwork.
And yeah, just kind of like introduced me to like SEO and internet marketing and all this kind of stuff that I had no idea was like saying and and so, yeah, so from there I was like, I was like just out of college, I was actually just finishing up or I just finished up teaching English in Korea for a year and was backpacking all the way back when I met this guy and so, like I was fresh out of college, didn’t really have experience. But yeah, like I was like when I met him, I was just so inspired and I just like was so committed to doing that and so I got home and I kind of, he kind of gave me this business idea or these buildings legion websites that anyway, long story short, it didn’t work.
You know spent all my money and moved back home with my parents to try to, you know, keep working and so, I did. It was when I moved back home, I started like freelancing on Upwork and it was there that like I started to meet new people and learn more skills and then, you know, I started making up, you know, it wasn’t that hard actually to find some like internet marketing consulting opportunities and like, you know, I didn’t know much, but I knew some and, you know, I was always learning and reading and like, pretty quickly, I was at least able to get some, you know, get some clients to just, like, make a couple grand a month to move back out of my mom’s house.
And yeah I mean, and then I joined this community called the DC. Maybe you’re familiar, the tropical MBA podcast and from them, I attended their event in Bangkok, and a lot of that community was living in Ho Chi Minh City, which is where I went. So the event was in Bangkok, and then I kind of made my way to Ho Chi Minh City. And so that was in 2013 and, you know, I had a little bit going on for myself. I had some consulting I was involved in, you know, it’s kind of like a random mix of some thing but you know, I mean, making, you know, not getting rich but supporting myself and traveling and you know, yeah, like, you know, had income and but yeah, but the thing is like, I wanted, you know, I was doing OK, but I wanted something bigger. I wanted a business.
I wanted something that was scalable and so, yeah, during that time I was trying a lot of things and was so fortunate. I mean, any of any accomplishments, success in my career has just been a direct proportion of the quality of the people that I got to spend time with. And so, you know, the community in Vietnam is where it’s like, you know, that community is what got me into Amazon FBA and I was trying things and some other people were starting to have success with it, and they were incredibly generous with their time and, you know, sharing what’s working and so then that got me interested in starting on Amazon.
And yeah, that like took off more than any of the other things that I was doing. And so then that became the focus. And I think we all touched on the later part of the story from there. But yeah, I mean, I, you know, I tried a bunch of things. And if there’s anything to take from my story of what the, you know, the lesson is just like you’re the average of the people that you surround yourself with. And so for me, when I moved to Vietnam, that was a huge catalyst for my life. And like, I arrived and I was you know, making a little bit of money, trying to figure my stuff out and, you know, the community that I was spending time with, it was like they were up here. They were all these successful.
And you know, in my mind is like, you know, successful entrepreneurs and I was this kid trying to get something started and figure my shit out. And you know, and then fast forward a couple of years and all of a sudden, like, I’m, you know, now I’m not at the bottom. Like, I’m very much in the middle of this kind of the average of the people that are around there. And then, you know, then I want to go to, OK, well, that’s great but there’s another level. And so joining other groups and communities to surround myself with other people that are whatever that next level is and all of a sudden, fast forward a couple of years and then you become more like them. And yeah, I mean, just that like. That rule has been so powerful for me in my life, and yeah, it’s just, I mean, I think it works, so be really intentional about who you’re surrounding yourself with. And if you want to make a change in your life or want to improve something, you know, finding the people that are already doing that and spend time with them and get to know them and be around them, it’s just like, yeah, how you become and achieve whatever it is you want to become in and achieve.
Tomer [00:40:28] It was really, you know, fun this interview, and it was really a pleasure. I wanted to do it for a long time and when you mentioned that, you know, spend time with people that you, you know, with, you know, reach the goals that you want to have. For me doing those interviews, it’s one way of doing it, spending time with people like you. So thank you for the opportunity. I’m sure many of the people watching this will be inspired as well, and I encourage them to follow you on Instagram or Facebook. What do you, sellerplex is your agency company, but what are your podcast again?
Nate [00:41:09] Yeah, it’s a e-comm exits podcast. I mean, if anyone, if yeah, anything resonates, or people are interested in what they hear. Yeah, I mean, I generally I publish quite a bit whether it’s podcasting or social media or, yeah, getting something ready medium. And so, yeah, I mean, I’m Nate Ginsburg everywhere. Facebook, Instagram, ecom exits podcast.
Tomer [00:41:35] Yeah. Ginsburg, just search for it. You’ll find it.
Nate [00:41:38] Yeah, I think it’s a good yeah, for anyone that’s interested. So. Well, yeah, thanks for having me on. Appreciate the chance to share and a super fun to connect more and hope we can meet up in Florida. Potentially. Yeah. When I’m when I’m back in America.
Tomer [00:41:55] Yeah, for sure. I would love to do that. Thank you again. Enjoy your day and hopefully we can have you again in the future here as a guest.
Nate [00:42:06] Be my pleasure, thank you.
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