Ep. #1100 - Unleashing Your Mindset Potential

Andrew Morgans 00:00
Hey, what’s up, Hustlers? Welcome back. This is Andrew Morgans, founder of Marknology, here as today’s host of Startup Hustle. We’re going to be getting into all things Amazon, e-comm, and startups. This is a podcast by founders, for founders, and today’s episode of Startup Hustle is brought to you by FullScale.io. Hiring software developers is difficult. Full Scale can help you build a software team quickly and affordably and has the platform to help you manage that team. Visit FullScale.io to learn more. Today’s guest and I are going to be talking about unleashing your mindset potential. And before we jump into, you know, some of what that means because that is a broader title, I think we’re gonna have some fun with it. Today’s guest is formerly from Ukraine, today operating in Portugal. I went last year, and it was just an absolutely gorgeous country. So maybe we can chat a little bit about that, but Anatoliy Labinskiy, welcome to the show.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 00:57
Thank you, Andrew. I really appreciate having me here. For giving this chance to share and inspire the Hustlers, the people like us out there, who are really looking for not even that piece of the gold, golden nuggets, but maybe a mindset on how to move forward. Because this is definitely what I hope for: we’re going to be valuable today for them.

Andrew Morgans 01:19
I think so too. And specifically around that mindset piece. Like that’s definitely been my secret weapon and my greatest obstacle to overcome as well, in my journey. I’ve been an entrepreneur full-time for nine years. And for me, the leap, there’s been just so many different, you know, levels to your mindset that needs to grow. You’ve got enough mindset to get you here. You’ve got enough positivity to get you here. You got enough perspective to get you here. And sometimes you need more, you need to level up, you need to grow. So it’s going to be fun chatting that up with you today. And he is the founder of a company called Golden Stream Media Growth. Did I get that right? And yes, I’m gross. Yeah. GSM Growth, okay, rebranded as GSM Growth. A marketing company out of Europe that has been doing amazing work. For anyone that’s tuning in on the video, you can see behind them. He’s got a bunch of plaques and seven-figure click funnel awards. And he said he’s got more than he can put on the wall. So he has a lot of experience. Talk to me. Let’s talk about, like, kind of, where you got your start. How did you know you were going to be in EECOM? Before EECOM, entrepreneurship, like, you know, just started as a kid for me. My parents were missionaries, so I never really thought about business. But I always was trying to save my dollar. Make $1 bunch of hustles. If I got $100 for doing something, like, you know, something for my grandpa over a couple months. Like mowing the yards or something, then I would save it till the next year when I got the next 100. Before I spent the first 100, I was always just trying to pile my money and try things. When did you, you know, first start hustling, or when did you first think you were gonna be a businessman?

Anatoliy Labinskiy 03:09
Awesome. Yeah, I will try to make it as short as possible because it’s so prolonged. I like it. But seriously, I never had such a kind of understanding of this. What does this kind of mindset you describe, I mean, which you describe you have in your childhood? I had, like, leadership skills in my childhood, but I didn’t understand that. Like, I had a lot, a lot of friends. And a lot of people like the organization process. I was trying to organize and organize all the people around me. I mean, this was something that I now understand. I was, like, kind of taking the leadership position in the group of people who I was, you know, being friends with, but so the story begins, like, in general, I’m not. I cannot say that I was super poor. I mean, my parents were really poor, but my father was a business owner who wasn’t successful in business. He lost his house, he became a diabetic because of the stress at work, he lost all the business, and he’s barely now having a lot of problems with his heart. He lost his leg. So when I was looking at his journey, I was saying to myself, no way, I will never be a business owner because it’s awful. Now I understand that he was looking at the wrong example, but the best example it’s my father. You know, I was taking an example from him, and plus, so we didn’t have him because he was already divorced. He’s my mom. And my mom really barely survived being broken as a salesperson in the shop or grocery shop in our town. And like she barely tried to feed us and at the same time, like give us the best possible education in our city in Ukraine are completely different benchmarks in terms of pricing, but I mean, for you, it could be for us people for Australian people Canadian could be quite funny, but average salary in Ukraine, it’s like two to $400 especially back there, you know, it’s really small. And I have never been abroad. I didn’t know English, and I was really living in a place where I was always hearing, we don’t have money, we don’t have money, you have to stop. You have to stop thinking about something bigger because you’re trying to live a life out of your budget. I hate those words. Yeah, I hate those words. My mom always was telling me that we could have our mom, my book made by Pepsi, no, we don’t have money and all this kind of thing. Because it’s not the most necessary thing. And so I was growing in that way. And at 13, I made the decision because I became a teenager. I really need to. I want a mobile phone. I want to go on a date with my girlfriend or whatever. So obviously, I was embarrassed that all my friends had at least some kind of pocket cash. And I never had anything enough just to survive. My father was trying to help. But he wasn’t able to do that a lot. When I went to university, I finished a master’s degree in finance. But I was paying by myself, and my mom was helping. I took the loan myself at 16 years old, I went with my mum to the loan, and I helped her pay that. After 18 B, I became 18, I took the loan on myself to continue education, and all of those things, you know, as I became in this kind of race where I have to, I am paying for the bills, and I don’t have money to live, you know. So I started working at 13 years old on the construction site, just a laborer working, like, bring some heavy brakes or whatever, like help the builders, build the buildings and like, do whatever it is because I was like a sports guy like doing all the side all the time gym, you know, and like strong body. So I was using that money to, like, do the physical work and make pennies.

Andrew Morgans 06:55
But I was happy that I’m able to make some pocket money, you know, so let’s stop there for a second just for a second, like because I think that’s really relatable like I, you know, arguably am a thought leader in the Amazon space. You know, I know that I have a smart brain, I guess in that regard, you know, but the way I was just raised like money was not important. You know, we were missionaries. Even in the US, we were not. We did not have money when we came back. And for me, it was like just kind of watching my mom not get what she wanted. It was less about me. I’m like a people pleaser. Just be like, oh, you know, I want to get that from my mother, you know, or it was before way before I knew I had a brain, I guess is what I’m getting at is I was a laborer, as I have I know what hard work is like, you know, through college, I worked three years as a landscaper in Hawaii. And it’s hard work like hard work. And, you know, I’ve been a painter. I’ve worked in warehouses. I’ve done all the jobs, you know, like, and I was just a hard worker, and it can. So many people, I think, probably feel this way where before I ever got a chance to like to show my creativity or like, you know, my process or like how I can think and do different things. Like I was just my hands busy. I was tired. Like, you know, working two or three jobs, you don’t really really have time to dream. Like not really dreaming, you know, you’re just like, plugging away working hard. And that’s all I had, you know, I had never even seen a business owner. I know that sounds crazy, but not really like in the church. There were not a lot of business owners. There were more just like, you know, blue-collar workers and I think that there were some people that owned a couple like construction companies as they would do. Foundations, laborers, skilled laborers, right. And a couple people I knew that had real estate like they own properties, what that meant, I didn’t really know, but it was like I wasn’t a glorious thing like glamorous, I mean to have a skilled business, you know, and but I did want real estate I was like if I get real estate, I’ll be great. Or, like, that’s what money looks like. And just for me, I think there was no vision of life, being a thought leader or being an entrepreneur or doing things other people hadn’t done. I wasn’t that like Kid dreaming. I was just that kid trying to get a Pepsi, if that makes sense. Like, I really was a kid just like if my mom wants to shake a $7 shake or something, I want to get her a shake. You know, it was we should be able to get a shake kind of thing, and then my dad being like very thrifty because he knew our bills he’s you know surviving with a family of five you cross town to save three cents on gas and I just instantly you know, like this mindset we talked about mindset potential, right is the point of the episode. And for me, it was like, it was not even like an inkling of a thought, you know, and so just relating to you, I didn’t start working till I was 16. So Oh, three years later, but I was still at least in how it works here, we had two more years of regular school, like before college. So for two years of high school, I was working, and then I went into college, and I was working myself and taking out loans to go to school. So I very much, you know, relate to that, even here in the US. It’s not the same as Ukraine. But for me, that path was very, very similar. So you’re working, you’re just working on job sites, picking up whatever you can, saving pocket money, was the goal just to, like, you know, pay the loans back to get through school? Or was the thinking since 13.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 10:39
I started it for, like, being able to have some care, at least cash for even use for the bus, you know, for just for the bus if out of the school schedule, just to go somewhere. So like, it was like, it’s the thing where, like, Keith has cash for, like, eat at school, or like something that’s necessary, it’s what it has to be counted and demand me give it to you. But this, like, at that time, I like to understand I need. I need to understand how to make money because this is not the way how I can go. My parents cannot give it to me. And they tell me I have to live a poor lifestyle. Lifestyle, and this was not for me. My mom was always repeating to me, I totally know you live. You try to live on the road of life. You cannot afford it. And I hated those words. I hated it. And like when I buy something for her that is more expensive than usual, she could buy shoes. Oh my God, why did you do it? For me. It was like, come on, like I want to make it happen, you know to show you exactly like I actually know I wasn’t buying until maybe eating that much to my mom, but what I was doing since her team I was bringing part of my cash every single week to my mom on the table. I was pulling like, Mom, it’s for you she said, no, I said yes for you. So I was leaving just a bit for her and rest for me just and was saving for mobile phones for some simple stuff. But I was already hostile in that mode. But I didn’t understand what hustle meant. I was just surviving. It was a surviving mood, I would say. And I was in this Robinwood home my life. I used to work at the car wash on several constructions I built from scratch from Ground Zero,, and my friend. We built the house in three weeks. It was a small house. But within three weeks of our like notification of holidays in the university, it was maintained. We built the house, like me, he and his father, his father is a construction laborer. So the three of us were like rain all the time. We were just building the blocks one by one. It was insane. And we’d done it like the two of us. We just make the base house without obvious internals. But like we’ve done it by our hands. By timing, I’ve been in like I was making the front windows for cars in the factory for three weeks just to be able to pay for university for the second year. For the second semester of the second year, I used to work at nighttime, on night shifts in the supermarket as a laborer who was bringing in heavy boxes to just fill up the shelves. I was a merchandise salesperson selling knives, so knocking on the doors in the villages where hey, we have nice knives. I’ve been in such different crazy works in my past that like I cannot even count it, I may not make the most probably him home my life. I remember some of them. By the end of my life, Oh my god, I was doing it. There were too many of them.

Andrew Morgans 13:44
And it totally my first job was a carwash for two years, because in the US if you when you’re a junior senior, the last two years of grade school, you can leave school early to go work. And I would stay all day then go to work because I just moved from Africa and I need to get a bunch of credits and in order to graduate on time and not be old, from my grade. And so and I worked a night shift, the warehouse job was 330 in the morning till 9am In the morning, and then I would go to my my day job at 1030. And then I would go to school and then I would do it again. And another one was I worked as a security guard in a casino. And people don’t understand, like, really what it means to be on your own surviving, like, especially in this country, like people have a lot of privilege. And it’s always why I’ve related I think so much to my international counterparts. I can, you know, people from other countries because sometimes they just have more in common with me than a lot of people here. But I was a security guard in a casino working from midnight to 6am. But if I could get two meals I could get a dinner meal Like 1130, come in, get a meal at the casino and then get a meal in the morning. And before I left for my other job, and I was doing this kind of work to eat, you know what I mean? Like it was two days, it was a great two meals a day, when you’re trying to get by, that’s a big deal. So I was even taking jobs just because there was a perk of maybe eating or something, you know. So I understand I resonate with that a lot. And I hope I don’t ever forget them, I need to write them down so that I can, you know, remember, down the road, like kind of, you know, what we’ve built, you know, you will be feeling my story, then if I like, we’re going to be speaking today about motivation more, and I will try to give as much details as I can about my journey to become who I am today, like the beginning, especially like, five years during the before I became an intrapreneur in e-commerce, it was 2017.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 15:35
But my journey really started back in 2013. So like, and you will feel exactly like because you have something similar from your story. So basically, my whole life, I was trying to do something, and I was always broke all the time. Whatever I’m doing, I really have not enough because of all these loans. Plus, I want to go with my girlfriend, I want to buy something I want to get like I have to work more and more and more. And so I was working during university, I was working at nights somewhere in the supermarkets. And plus, after I went to the master’s degree last year, I went there completely, my evenings, like lessons, completely decided to go out and I got the job after an internship. internship, I went to the bank, they invited me like, hey, because whatever, if I work somewhere, I show my best, I really show my best. That’s given me an advantage from all the people who aren’t staying next to me. And I’m not saying that I’m the best, but I know that I’m doing my best. And people are seeing that. So I got only me from all the people who were in the internship, they were like only me was invited for in the bank because I was showing potential. So I went there as on 17 year old like model working in the bank, 17 year old boy, like, it’s something weird to speak to the guy to people about finances, and we say well, 17 year old boy, you know, but I was dealing with treating myself as like 20 Plus, I was speaking confident. So basically, I used to work in the bank for almost three years, maybe two and a half. And I grew up there. So from simple things like, oh, like loans for the electronics, I went to the overdraft credits for the business owners. And that was a really awesome experience. Because the first time in my life, I found out what is called goals means I sit down in the office, they give me like 1000s of the list of internal customers of the bank, who I have to call to and offer them overdraft loans it’s like a 30 days short loans for for you for to fill out the cash flow for of the cash for the business owners. So the my work was to find out the people who are going to be take that kind of loan, go under business and analyze their business from inside their financial position where they’re staying, or if they’re qualified, what kind of assets they have to put as a security which is car house, whatever, and make all the evaluation and the standard amount we can give it send it to the top management and they will approve or disapprove the loan for such kind of business owner. It was an amazing experience for me because I found out what is the business from inside local businesses. So I was wow, it seemed really interesting, but I became in three months being in this position, that number one salesperson in the region. I was like, whoa, whoa, why kids instead? I was like, just because I was excited. People are always worried girls crying, oh my God. They say no, they say no, when they call in on the phone. And I was taking the know, I didn’t know the rule. The rule of no have no taken no, it’s experience is great. You took no dumb, you move forward to the next one. And until you get yours. It’s the rule like until you will find out the years until if you’re gonna be doing the really hard work good enough, you will find out your years and I was looking exactly that way but I didn’t know the experience of that, you know before I mean, this the sales tactics itself. And I was hustling, like Hey, call him according to everyone calling like let’s say 20 times 40 times a day I’m calling 70 100 times a day. And I was really doing five things to compare to others. And I was hearing Yes, yes. So like, like from the several notes I start hearing yours. And I went to the businesses of those people and I’m young like you know how they would relate to like this person would approve or disapprove of my loan, you know, it was clear for me. But they were respectively speaking to me because I was really fighting for the meeting with them. And they respect what they’re like, even there were words like just because you’re always on me. Let’s meet, I want to see what you want to offer. So it was cool. But I understand that I want to have a ceiling of income. And whatever I will be doing. I’m dying to do this work. I mean, since I’m working a lot, but I’m not able to make more and not even more like enough, good enough. And I decided, because I started becoming Luffy sales. In the private sector, there were liquors like alcohol products, and bakery products for some kinds of supermarkets or suppliers, like suppliers, the distributors, companies, and one of my friends was working there, he said, You’re great in Salesforce right here, like, Okay, let’s do that. And I went to the cookies section where there were a lot of different cookies. And then I became, in the three months, maybe four months, the source person in the company in the region, again, in our original, which we were responsible for. And it was like, Wow, it’s so easy. It’s so cool. After the bank, it was so easy. Can you imagine I was selling like a $30,000 loan, or I’m selling $3 cookies. Here, then plus, I know that I need to take a five week course here, I need to visit Firefox shops to compare to other people to be the best. It was really easy and cool. And they start making like $1,000 approximately a month for Ukraine. It’s insane. I mean, it’s really good, especially in 2020 You want to eat I was 2022, something like that. So, and I was enjoined, but my dream was all my life is like. First of all, I understand that I’m starting with an even better life, quite painful, all the things, but still, and it’s not going that well as it should because of loans. Because I’m paying to continue paying loans. I decided to buy a car, which is also on loan. And that car was a $300 car, I had to take a credit card to pay, because I didn’t have those three kinds of dollars in my pocket. And that car was a disaster. It was embarrassing and I was not proud to have the car before because I know where I came from, you know what I remember? And I give this example to my Son or Son all the time. Like Listen, this is my car. It was my first car she liked no way I said Yeah, but mine was much more disaster than this. So I am giving him this example that I wasn’t at why you were both in such a bad car. I said because I wasn’t even able to buy even this car. And I took the low credit card money to buy it. Like and it’s a great experience as well to remember that. So basically, like my dream was always to see the world. I really want to see the world and understand how I didn’t know English. Never, never can speak to any people out of my country, even out of my city, go to the sea, which is 200 kilometers away. It’s like 105-150 miles away from me. It was a big deal. It was a huge journey like wow, once in a year to go there for me right now like 4000 miles across the ocean. It’s like okay, what’s next? It’s normal. But at that time it was insane. Because it was the mindset from my mom, like, this year, we won’t go to the sea, because anything you can do for Yandex. Next year, next year, it’s sorry, this year, we cannot so it was like that. It was like at least once in a year to see the sea. It will be awesome.

Andrew Morgans 23:40
So basically, I found, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re living you’re living like 10 minutes from the ocean right now. Yeah.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 23:46
Right now to walk maybe 12 minutes by car, three minutes, even less. I love to run next to the ocean in the morning. It’s Wow, it’s given such a lot of energy. It’s like people take it for granted.

Andrew Morgans 23:57
You know, I think a lot of people love the ocean. But like, some of us like I’m wearing a hat even though this is landlocked. Because I live in Kansas City, like in a state that’s surrounded by land. Something as simple as running on the beach. It can be life giving, you know, so something that you maybe once a year is now could be part of your everyday that’s crazy.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 24:22
As well as important, you know, whether when I’m really running or even walking on the beach here, I like smiling, because I understand how important that is for me. And I’m trying to understand my son, but he doesn’t have anything to compare with. So I just tried to bring him this education from my experience, to atom him understand that it’s not normal. It’s not normal. I mean, it is normal now, but it’s not normal for most of the people. So that’s why I want to give this kind of life education to him so that he should not be overpriced where he is. He needs to understand that, so this is as well for me as kind. In a mission to share with him my past to give him understanding of his future. So they need to fight all the time. So basically, I was with this girlfriend for many years, and we broke up and I was 22 I guess like it was back in 2013. Spring. And I promised myself now I don’t have the question to use, it was eight years revision tool was really low yet, like, and like I like now I must leave the country, I must leave it. And like whatever I What can I get? And I am what is the thing, I had such a big limitation in my head that it’s not possible that the world does not exist, that I didn’t believe that it’s possible. But I just bring to myself the hue, strong, promise, I will make it happen. And I didn’t know how but I will. And here is my friend. He went to Dubai as a waiter a year before and he said, Listen, I’m now going to a new restaurant and they need more people and asking for friends. Would you like to arrange an interview for you? I said, please. Yes. So here’s an interview, visit Italian restaurant Cipriani in Abu Dhabi next to the formal one circle. It’s an amazing place. And it’s like a super luxury place. And the guy CEO of that company just called me and I didn’t understand anything, I could not speak English. My friend was sitting next to me next to a web camera and trying to translate but I was so stressed. I was like, really do it on the call. Because like I almost dancing next to the camera just to show him that I’m cool, but I couldn’t speak. So and he loved my energy. Like what what I was trying and he like, I will send you a contract, like you get the job. And the job was I’m the master degree in finance, right and good in sales. The job was cleaning the plates, dirty plates from the tables and bring to the Washington area. I was so excited. It was like it was one of the biggest excitements in my in my life. I wasn’t care what I’m going to be doing cleaning the floors. I wasn’t really sure give a shit about that. So basically, I got the job first three weeks, my friend was not there zero Russian speakers. They’re Ukrainian speakers. Nobody’s there. And like only Italian, Spain’s Filipinos and then the tau and all speaking English. So I had to learn English in those three weeks. In three weeks of my hassling row, knowing this nothing pre-opening time I became hours, I was like, this kind of food runner. And in three weeks before Formula One we open the first week, I saw such a huge improvement, that they improve me to the Gmail, improve. Promotion promote ASR Hill moving is the word to give a promotion to the assistant waiter. I like wow, my friend arrived to that moment. Like, what? Like how you become assistant waiter. So I don’t know. I was I was just really working 12 to 17 hours a day. I was in the storage, helping the guys. I was in the kitchen helping the guys. I was everywhere, just helping pre opening. And they were seeing this kind of like, push your energy to do that. Like they said to one Serbian guy, listen to him in this place. And he was great as a teacher. And he was helping me all the time was writing down all the words like sentences and was always trying to use this with the clients. So Assistant waiter is not speaking to the clients, he just like assist him to the waiter. So by I was trying to practice practice. So I started practicing more, too. And the thing is before I left the country, Ukraine, I found out the girlfriend I met the girlfriend I became in love with. She’s an amazing person, she was one of the, wow, when I met her, like I understand that I’m in trouble. I promised myself to leave. But I am becoming lost with her. She really is me. And when I decided when I have to go read you said please do not go but I said listen, it’s what I needed. What my mum needed, because we had a low mortgage for our house as well because we didn’t have money for renovation of the house. We took the mortgage. I mean, we just like finally making the refinance of our house to take the Raymarine renovation and so I need to help my mom to pay for the house. I promised her and other stuff. So I have to leave. So I left in October, and I was sure that we would break our relationship by December because it’s not normal. I am 4000 kilometers from shore. I’m in Abu Dhabi. She’s in Ukraine. But she was so strongly in love with me that she was having a really great job in the pharmaceutical sector in Ukraine that she decided to issue her paid search bonus, like searching salary as a bonus in the New Year. And she said I’m coming to you. I said recently I don’t have money to pay to get you here. You know, I’m sending all the money back to Ukraine. She said no, I got the bonus. I’m gonna be spending money to come to you. I was like, wow, you know, the girl.

Andrew Morgans 29:56
The girl is like, yeah, you’re right, but just also like she’s crazy. If someone likes me that much, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 30:01
And like when she came, I understand that this is the girl, I have to ask her to marry me. Like, I understand that this is the girl I mean, if we are still together and if you’ll go through like next year on like on the distance that will allow me to get married. So I said listen, I want you to be my wife. So after one year, like it was 2014 I came in September, we got married, and I live back to Abu Dhabi and I was pushing myself forward and I understood that Okay, here I want to get any more any kind of financial advantages and plus not about financial I was thinking about i here I’m here not for these. Like I start looking around my heart, Emirates cabin crew, like in other places better restaurants from better income, better growth like a hero, I’m a waiter, system waiter, I want to be a waiter head waiter. Hello. So I understood that hospitality is just a part of improving my English and then bam, I’m gonna be out. I want to find some kind of filter that doesn’t get stuck. Exactly my friends I had during these years, from 2013 to 2017 We brought nine friends from childhood they’re so all broke, you know, all broke or everyone will finally want to do something in life. And there were nine amazing people from childhood next to us and all of them wanted to sit down and save, save money because it’s important they never get this kind of money in their life. And they want to say to me, I want to move, I want to move, I want to change, I want to grow and they don’t do that, don’t be stupid because there is a contract if you don’t stay in enough time you’re gonna be paid fine. And every single time when I was changing jobs, I was paying fine and staying broke again and again and again and again. But for that moment, it was necessary that I got married. I promised my wife that I will take her to Dubai. She resigned because her amazing job is a great payout in Ukraine. And she went to Dubai when I moved to Dubai after our marriage. I found out to work as a head waiter in another luxury place, and she brought her there and they didn’t have money for their apartments because usually it was just given to me.

Andrew Morgans 32:22
Usually, they were just given to me as accommodation but now they will give you a place to work like a place to stay because you’re working there.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 32:26
Exactly. In Dubai it’s normal stuff but if you bring in someone like your relatives or wife or husband, you have to go out and I didn’t know I didn’t have money to go out. I didn’t really have any savings because I was always broke. And I just like to borrow like a lot of 1000s. Like it’s 11,000 deals. For me it was unreal money I took from different hallways was saving from my flood shelter from a childhood friend. So and and what so when I brought her I already owe money to my friends I have not found and again I’m fighting so what I started doing, I just took printed out like 100 CVS and went to the like my work starting at 3pm everyone’s sleeping till one or two because we were working till three am you know until six we are invoking at home and going to sleep and like they want to employ them they woke up only and am from 9am already awake and walking through the highest croppers and delivering CDs and commercial buildings everywhere.

Andrew Morgans 33:38
So delivering resumes and CV resumes. Okay, sorry, sorry, Europeans, the baby boomers, I was just giving that everywhere.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 33:43
It wasn’t the smartest idea. But I was finding out the hustle work. I mean, what I can do else, what else what else, I found out people who are trying to make the imports from Ukraine, olive oil to Dubai, I found out people for making your imports from chicken to Dubai as well I became a salesperson for them. So a lot of a lot of hustle before that. And again, I didn’t know that it’s hustle. I was thinking in survival mode. I was thinking that I have to do something if I want to survive or if I want to succeed. My dream was still to be a manager in some big company and this big salary. This is where we’re going to be protected because of my father. And here it is 2017 February, I left already hospitality and went to the construction sector because I took the driving license I got the final work with the car it was like wow, I will have a car like they will give me a car because I took the driver accessory to buy and like it was shitty work construction site dirty like your shoes always dirty. You have to go out and try to sell them some light and stuff.

Andrew Morgans 34:51
And you just went from like even though it was a restaurant like so I was in a restaurant for six years. So I understand and I’m The but you went from like luxury dining to like a dirty construction site.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 35:04
Exactly. And speaking completely to different people completely. I mean there are different people in construction like laborers, but I’ve been in construction as well. So again, for me, it’s globally close. But even if you put on the suit, like you clean and you go to these dusty places, it’s completely different. And what’s the thing I got the job and I said to my wife, please believe on me, I have to take this risk because the job have payout two times less than luxury places where I used to work so we will not be able to pay when for the room we were renting the small master bedroom in Filipino family apartments. And like if I would not have enough income, we have to take all her salary to pay for the apartments plus my salary. So we gotta survive. I said to her, I will find a second job. I found out about the job in the villas. I was a supervisor waiter at the event agency where we will serve in parties in the villas for some rich credit.

Andrew Morgans 36:05
You were doing events, even service?

Anatoliy Labinskiy 36:10
Exactly, yeah, and then grow there as well from the waiter to supervisor later on. But the thing is that I got the second job. I promise to her that we will be able to survive. Believe in me. I want to get out of hospitality. So I went out with not enough income. We are quite broke even more than before. Disaster after five years in Dubai four years at that moment. Well, my friends are like, wow, you’re out of hospitality. But they have watches. They have nice clothes because they’re saving they’re living their life in accommodation, enjoying not paying for the apartments and I’m completely broke. And look, they look at me and admire me. I’m like wow, compared to them. And I’m looking at them like five guys you don’t know what I’m going through. And I really want to go to Abu Dhabi. I almost borrowed the money to buy the ticket for you. But I’m staying quiet and like yeah, guys, like I’m doing my best. But then I was really broke financially and my mind was destroyed. But I was seeing how they admired me. I understand that I am too proud of what I’m doing. So February 2017. I changed jobs in September, and now we are barely surviving and my wife is saying to me, baby, I’m pregnant. And this is the moment so I like wow. Like I’m starting to smile. I started like, saying it’s amazing. I almost cried and she started crying, not because of happiness. She’ll look around the small room. And like where we live, how we live and she understands the situation. She had a bright life before she was a well-spoken girl in my town. And here you go, you know, she came to the guy and to like, anyway, I was always feeling embarrassed because of that. So basically, I said no worries, like we will manage. Let me go to buy one more time. One more test to double check. Maybe it’s wrong, but I want to be pregnant but let’s double check. So I went to the pharmacy it was plus 35 degrees, sunny day in Dubai. I went to the parking outside and the pharmacy next to me and I just got stuck. And my knees just shook like that. Like I’m staying shaken and like this kind of skin. Everything is like it’s going crazy with the beholder, but they cannot move and stain and analyze, and all the stations are almost crying, almost screaming because it’s a disaster. It’s scary because if my wife delivers a baby in Dubai, she needs to leave the job. If she does not have insurance and delivers the baby’s health insurance is 25,000 dirhams. It’s like $7,000. I never had this money in my hands before. You know, I like fuck, like what I’m going to be doing. Like, I just stay like I will not allow my baby to come to this world and be in a financial situation like I am now. I will make the difference.

Andrew Morgans 39:03
Anxiety attack, you think, like, we’re just overwhelmed. Already attack is where you’re just like thinking about the future and your body just kind of shuts down like Yeah, yeah, just, you can’t move. You’re like maybe you need to, like, sit down in a corner.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 39:18
I was just in between the universe. You know, I wasn’t even on the earth. I was like, I was so scared and I couldn’t feel my body. And at that point, I just like made the brief and I said to myself really, it was the clear sentence which I have made to myself one of them before it was I will move whatever it takes from Ukraine somewhere and they’ve done it. And the same here I was feeling this I had the same feeling but more with more like inspiration that I will make it happen I will make the difference. And I went both tests I bring back I said my baby will manage we’ll find out the way so next five months while we were like trying to understand how we will deliver baby and we made a decision so to say that she’s supposed to go back to Ukraine and deliver baby there, which is she become a med on me. And she understands this logic logically fine. But mentally it was a disaster. I mean, leave her pregnant alone with parents she likes I’m feeling embarrassed to go to my parents house and 25 Like what the fuck, as a result, we’ll go through it, believe me, trust me, I will find out the way and I started getting second job in hospital in the nightclubs. It was nightclubs or as a waiter, plus this kind of villa now it’s not only Friday, Saturday, now it’s Friday, Saturday, Wednesday, so I started getting more evening work. So I’m working here and when my wife will live here I got introduced to the work in the gas company. I like Yes, baby, I will make money in a gas company. It was like a dream job. It sounds like a gas company in Dubai, I will make a lot of money, become a great manager and you will come when I touch you trust me. I went to this company. I left the lighting company. I went to the gas company. And I understand that there is nothing that bright as they promised. You know, like, I gave I hustled I made that one of the best sales like I was third one in the company in terms of sales by the end of the year, because they promised commission, they said sign the low salary. And we will give you a commission at the end of the week. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, because I understand that I understand how it works. So and I signed the contract the salary less than even I had. So now my wife has to go to Ukraine. And I have to move to the apartments, two bedroom apartments with seven people. I was renting the bed space. So I said to my wife, I’m going to be renting bed space, saving money, or trying to find a hustler, some hustle work, and they’ll come back to you too in Ukraine or we’ll bring you here where they will be able. So it was really like she left in June, I believe June Yes. 2017. And I started searching online, what I can make what else is there, friends of the friends like hospitality staff, like a lot of us when I became an actor, I’ve been an actor in Dubai Bollywood movies in the commercials because I’m like, white skinny guy. Like European looking for Dubai. It’s really important. So I started start acting. It’s so funny, like a couple of really roles I had in movies in, in the commercial of the Nbd bank, I guess, or Islamic Bank? I don’t remember exactly. So it was cool. It was so fun. And it was the biggest income ever, which I could even imagine four hours 400 bucks. It was What’s going on 40 minutes, 40 minutes. 400 bucks. It was the biggest equal income ever for me. But it was rare. But still, I was doing that. And I got a lot of this kind of hustling, hospitality stuff. So and August 2000, July 2017, I started reading books about business. And here you go. I read for that reach that and then understand that I have to be a business owner and then investor. I have to like my father was doing everything wrong. It’s nothing bad to be uniprint intrapreneur. It just was the wrong example. And for me, it was like boom, like, Oh, shit. It was like, fuck the gas company. I’m done. I’m gonna be hustling. I need the money. I’m gonna be working. But now I have to think, what’s the hustle out there to interpret? I want to be an intrapreneur. I couldn’t even pronounce that word I remember. Yeah, into inter, intra. Inter inter, I wasn’t able to say they couldn’t see it.

Andrew Morgans 43:35
Yeah, I never even heard it said and I have to jump in here because any of my listeners tune in and listen to this. I took a job with a lower salary, because they promised me bonuses and to train me as an E commerce manager. I didn’t get the bonus. I didn’t get the training.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 43:56
You know, I have a lot of similarity in the past, insecurities to get over in my own head.

Andrew Morgans 43:59
And so someone submitted me to do a modeling shoot. And I have like, ginger and a bunch of things, you know, and I was like, that’s cool. If it Okay, let’s go. She submitted to me and I showed up. I made $4,600 for two photos with Hershey’s candy bars. And I did one other one which was like an acting one for Twitter as the social media company Twitter and they didn’t know anything that I was doing. They even told me your smile is fucked up. And I’m like that they wanted you to know, and it was like good money. As you know, I never had money like that. So just some funny things about oh promising you the bonus promising you this. I told you I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was when we started the show. I was like I didn’t even know what that was. And I was not reading this for me. So I’m nine years old and I’m 23. This was like 2014. Okay, so not that far off, right? And I read a blog that said, Don’t go get a night job, or a second job that you’re comfortable doing, like serving for me, it was always like, Okay, I was going through a breakup. And my promise to myself was, she had had a kid when we met, okay, and so when she left, it was like, five years, I was like, if I have a kid in our family, again, I’m going to like, change everything, you know, I’m going to change everything, I’m going to build something that can be a legacy, you know, I want to be able to take care of my family. And I always thought this, like, even before I could take care of myself, it was like, I’m gonna take care of my family. And the blog said, double down on what you’re doing already, which I was doing ecom I just started an E commerce, and double down and find ways to make more money, doing what you’re doing already that can add to your skills than just going and trading your time at a bar or something you’re comfortable with. And for me, that’s when I started reading. Gary Vee, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, Rich Dad Poor Dad. And for me, it was like, my dad had always been a church builder, like a community builder, like, hustled to support us there. But like, none of them really worked out, mainly because he trusted people too much. You know, that’s mainly it wasn’t that he wasn’t that smart or whatever, he just trusted the wrong people. But for me, it was like, like, it just was, it was clarity, you know. And then whenever I started doing what it told me to do, which was freelance on upwork.com, I started getting jobs on upwork.com. And then the rest is history. People know my story, but that’s five, six things. 810 things I think anecdotally that we have in common, kind of, you know, a little bit different evolution, you know, Americans on blast and a lot of ways but same evolution of like the mindset, right? The mindset, just being this next thing being like, where did I learn that next thing that really just, it was all about the focus, like, you know, what is the goal, though, the goal was to be the best server I’ve ever been, the goal is to be the best warehouse worker I could ever be the the goal was to be the best e-commerce manager I could ever be. And when it was just e-commerce, like a business manager at a good company, like you said, right? For me, that was like, Okay, I want to be the best e-commerce manager in the world. What do they make? Oh, it wasn’t great at the time. It wasn’t great at the time for me. And I, you know, but it was even on building trying to build the best agency in the Amazon space, like it’s always been. I set my ceiling too low for myself. And then it comes to a point where you’re just like, Okay, what’s the new mindset that I need to keep going to the next level to push myself? Because I’ve always known I had potential, like, like, for whatever reason, I grew up different ways. Like whatever. In my own mind, I was like, I have the potential. Like, I can do it. Do you know what I mean? Like a chip on my shoulder, kind of like, small, I’m skinny. I’m not getting picked on the team. I’m not this. I’m not that. But like, no one can outwork me, no one could outwork me. If I was anywhere, like you, a matter of time before I’m getting that promotion, or I’m getting the opportunity. And I knew that about myself. Like, if you just get me in the door, you know, I am going to I’m going to take over like right now I’ve got a Airbnbs not that long ago, maybe like six years ago, I was I had one in a basement of a shitty apartment that I just like, rented out. And I was doing shit like this, running home cleaning the toilets. Because I had a goal, like, no one can work harder than me. If I have to clean toilets, I don’t care. I’m gonna get the job done. You know, so I took a few minutes. But just to relate to that, like, you know, we’re on opposite sides of the world, with opposite families, different languages. And it’s crazy to me how much similarity you can have with someone that you’ve never met. We’re, you know, and you’re seeing war in Ukraine, you’re seeing like things on the TV, right? You’re seeing things in the news, and you’re like, Wow, that’s so far away, or that’s so just different from my upbringing. You know, being able to buy a Pepsi very few kids here cannot buy a Pepsi if they want one, you know, and, and then really, like you’re hearing the story over the last 50 minutes, and I’m just like, wow, like, this is so very close to my own journey, you know, and I actually have a friend in Dubai. His name is Mina. We’re very close friends. He’s Egyptian, moved to Dubai to start his business and has a story similar to ours as far as coming from the bottom and just it just blows my mind a little bit. I get very inspired listening to these things. So bringing it back home. Have you learned how to pronounce the word entrepreneur? Right? entrepreneur, entrepreneur? I don’t know. And you’re reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and it clicks, you’re like, I need to be the owner of a business or build a business.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 50:14
Yeah, yeah, this is, this is insane. I believe first, the first thing first, like, we have similarly similar paths. And it’s like, it shows who you are, I mean, because this means you’re going to be successful. And whatever you go through, you know that you will be that sheet. And you’re going to be on the next level tomorrow. Because this is the mindset that you have. And that’s why we have the similar paths. Everyone has their own story, but the similar ways of building it because like, if you may, if you self made, I would say, so basically, at that moment, I remember like, I was so excited, or my cat or my cat, what can I do? What can I do? I was like, I couldn’t understand online like because online it’s come that moment, I’m Ukrainian, anything online. It’s come for Ukrainians. And my wife. I’m obviously even more than like, I started to Google it. what else what else? So August, middle of August, I believe 15 or something like that before we already lose that date from my mind, unfortunately. But it was Friday. It was always Friday. It’s like the weekend Friday, Saturday on there. Used to be in Dubai before now. It’s no, but I was wake up in the morning before going to the part times. I found out in Facebook sponsored ad. I didn’t know what is mean sponsored. I know it’s some big companies. This is I was like major, huge Coca Cola. Making some sponsor together with Mark Zuckerberg is super important, super hard. This is like, I wasn’t understanding or anything and sponsor that like, start from zero, Fred lamb. Like, what is that? I click on it. And there was a nice animation movie about the boy who all started as a food runner. You know, it started as a food rather blah, blah, blah, like, Oh my God. Oh, my I have to read it. I mean, it’s all similar to me. So this was a great magnet, obviously. But uh, you know, I didn’t know that it’s a lead magnet. So I just like go through the buy press. I don’t know the book. They got my email, obviously. So I started reading the book. It’s a 180 Pages book. And I read it. Like, in a couple hours, right nonstop. I was like, the whole way. So far away. Oh my god. I was on the phone like that, like scrolling scrolling. No, it cannot be so easy. It cannot be that it sounds too good to be true. You know, I was like, it was like a God moment. I was like, I want to do the tail end of my life. I don’t know how but I want to figure it out and be the 1% of those kinds of people who didn’t quit and when so I decided to go in 29 of September after one and a half months I’m opening my first Shopify store like it was hard to make decision to buy the domain to name this store all the newbies think about hard simple stuff making super hard you know like what niche it would be I asked the wrong people about the niche like people are waiters why I’m asking them about the niche in E commerce you know, it’s taking advantage from the wrong people. So we decided that cats are the most famous strength on the internet in YouTube so cats niche nephelometric functions are supposed to work. So I became the owner of the Mikey ticket zone store my key ticket zone.com I was so proud of. And like I created and so 29 September for like I already saved some money and started investing into the heads. I said to my wife, baby, there’s going to be something amazing happening so what are we talking about? No, no, no worries. Go don’t do any crazy things. I’m nine months pregnant. Don’t don’t spend money. I said Yeah, yeah, I’ve just started investing in that salary field that I have. I mean, I didn’t know how to do that. I was watching 1000s of YouTube channels. And at that moment there were no actual YouTube channels. There were several videos but now people are opening more subjects in YouTube before they give me just small pieces of advice as before, back in 2017 I was taking this piece here piece there a piece there and made the mess and made them as because nobody said that you have to let ads optimize. I just like making the changes in two hours. Nothing happened. I made the changes again, indoors. Again changes again. So obviously money or spending ads or not optimizing. Like the no results. Nothing is happening. I like spending 100,000 But for what’s happening it’s 1000 bucks like and the heaven savings around six places I’m fully not. I didn’t have 6k Yet I had maybe 3.5 So I feel like that. But I was working on the part times keep trying to sit and send something to my wife and why I start losing all the money which I have and I start finding that this kind of active work more and more and more and more so one year when I’ve been last year in Dubai alone, I was working on five different jobs one is day job and five in the different days of the weeks different events agency to different ABL events agency, nightclubs, waiter, actor, was something else. I don’t want to lie. Actually. Yeah, there was one more restaurant Yeah, it was one more restaurant. So the restaurant nightclub acted in two different events and my so 616 ico Ico it was just a hustle. And the thing is, I didn’t have any single day or from that moment when I dived into e-commerce. I was learning about Bitcoin. I’m going to sleep and wake up. It was like 1am. I’m coming from part time. I’m destroyed, I’m exhausted. But I have such a huge excitement that next two hours on the laptop, watching the videos trying to build my first store and so on and sleeping three, four hours a day sometimes I don’t want to lie it was really exactly two nights two nights where I was sleeping 40 minutes 40 minutes and after that I woke up and go to the office job it was disaster I do not recommend to anyone it’s a three four hours it’s not good but 40 minutes it’s like I was I remember whether it was destroyed in healthier or something like that. I was really like good saying to my managers like I’m going to the meeting with someone and the I’m leaving in one hour before to sleep in the car to sleep in the car wake up from the like 20 minutes 30 minutes to sleep wake up and drive to the meeting or come to the meeting in the parking sleep wake up just so I could refresh myself and go meet the guys this is how I was living my life without my wife and like to save the money on ads. This is what I was saying: it will be super close to you. When I was going to my gas company 730 We starting to work 7am Down Down to the office it was the grocery shop Indian small Indian grocery shopped for cheap products and like there was cookies small cookie sweet one this kind of like non German site like this kind of cookies together. It’s so sweet there is just sugar there is nothing else it’s SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR, it’s not healthy it’s really bad. But this kind of thing if I eat whole pack it will be will be enough up to one 2pm not eat any food because I don’t feel warm eating it’s too sweet to bed but it’s enough to break this kind of hungry you know in the morning so and to save the money it’s cost on the one DRAM which is 33 cents you know I was like by the fact that sheet I have coffee in the office and I have the sweets so I take this coffee we visit the milk the sweets drinking eating and like my people in the office like what Why eat in that in the morning you have to eat normal food so I’m fine I’m fine. But I was saving. I was not saving. I was spending on ads. I was trying to not spend on food. Food is not important. It was like food is not important. Sleep is not important, nothing is important. Important is ads to make it work so basically November I lost 1000s 1000s of dollars I started really becoming scared but have no even single thought about quitting I move forward my wife like what is the money why don’t why would happen and I was like already on the delivery of my baby I said to her everything’s fine baby no worries and i was i She doesn’t know I came to borrow to came to her I borrow the money from the friends because I already invest a lot of in debt. I have some savings, but those savings are already in the car to make sure this period of time of traveling as you’ll be paid off. So I borrow money from friends she doesn’t know I give it her $300 I said leave listen this is not a lot a lot but I just want to give it to you and she didn’t know that it’s not mine and and plus I borrow like eyebrow like around 1000 or something so 300 300 300 tickets a little 400 tickets and so on. And plus I found out the guy in the UK who said I don’t run ads for you and make millions for you I like oh wow I found out Oh yeah $100 A month let’s do it like oh it’s awesome. So I obviously from this boring morning I remember my wife is delivered the baby and instead of being in the hospital I ran like crazy in Ukraine to the bank to send those money to that guy like please make it whatever you can I’m not busy with the babies here is the access to an account do whatever needed his camera. I mean, obviously so I was so destroyed. I remember looking at my son like I’m in deep deep deep down. I like the situation, it’s even worse than ever before. But like I’m calm, fine. I don’t manage to find out so my babies here are the most inspiring thing ever. I’m here now. I lived back in Dubai to hustle. So I’m going back part time so the things and nothing is working and to many seminars on 27th of November 27 of November one of my old friends from hospitality saying to me crypto staff this is awesome mining you just invest money in the company and they will make you one person every single day. Like ooh it makes sense. It’s nice to see you. I trust you. Let’s do it. And he’s just an affiliate guy. He doesn’t lie. He’s really not. His attitude is so bad that I didn’t know at the time that there is a good attitude towards people and better to people in terms of online business. And I promised him because we used to work together you know, and I took the credit card, I never had credit cards in Dubai in my life. So I go and open $3,000 Credit cards based on my salaries, history, and I use those $3,000 and put into the crypto all of them and invested where he said I’m not saying the crypto is bad the bad is using the money for mining which you don’t know what is that? So, I already have one friend from the UK. We will lie in the metric chat online. Now we are best friends with him because he was beginning his business in the UK. I was beginning of a business two of us we invest in the same company, crypto mining, and we had a lot of similar things so like and February and Algeria like I still didn’t make any results I’m destroyed my wife sent me started saying I will divorcing you if you want stop by my eyes are black. My skin is green. Like my yellow friend who is a neighbor, he said many are sick. Please wait, take a nap. Stop doing what you’re doing. You really lose bed. I was several times almost crashing the car. Because after the event I fell asleep while driving. This is how exhausted I was a few times. I was almost crushed next to my building. So I was really a disaster. But I kept going. And at the end of January when I have almost no chance of what’s going to be happening next. My friend is saying to me in middle Algeria, my friend is calling me from the UK. And not only have you heard the news, I said what kind of news and I’m saying the 14th level office, a nice gas company office in the meeting room in the sea, looks cool. And I’m staying there and she sent it to me. The mining company scammers, we don’t have money anymore. They shut down the website and everything. And that moment my legs just you know, like, nice just went on the different sites and I almost fell down. I almost fell down. I was destroyed like, oh my god, I have no money for it anymore. I borrow money from my friends. I’m working everywhere. I have not enough income even with making like really I don’t start making 3000 hours a month for me it was huge. But I was invested in everything. And now I have a long $3,000 credit card. I cannot go back to Ukraine, because I’m embarrassed to be in front of my wife’s parents in front of my son. And most importantly I was thinking how embarrassed I am in front of my friends. If I leave him I will say that I’m broke after five years in Dubai. All of them saved money, all of them convenient coupes like traveling around the world start traveling, and I’m broke. And I said to my wife, no, I won’t come back until I get results. So that moment, my friend is telling me I’m destroyed. And like done. I mean that I mean, I understand that it’s the end of the game. But I’m staying looking to know where you remember this window. 14th floor I’m looking at Tobias city. And I’m like looking to nowhere, like he finally started crying right now and fell down on the bed. And you’ll be like lay down and cry and my life won’t be changed. I will be in this position. And plus I do need to pay out for all the mistakes which I made. That’s not the way to quit, quit is not the solution. But how I won’t quit if there is no other solution. I mean, I have to quit, there is no way to succeed. And this is I believe every single successful person has in their life, like or you have to stop and quit. Or you have to like don’t give a fuck about what is happening and move forward. And I said to myself, I need to take a rest. So I took my brain. I came home to put my phone on the table and left the apartment for union. I didn’t get the job. I like no part time staff and I was just working till 9:30pm from six to nine sorry I would just be walking in the city in my block. Walking walking without the phone. I was just just walking. Now even no thoughts. I was just walking. I came back and went to sleep. Nothing, no study, no store management. That’s nothing. I just went to sleep. I woke up and said to myself, let’s go. We’ll manage how I don’t know. And Nope. Nothing happened in the next few days. I’m not saying that overnight, something changed but in approximately one week one was my friend in Dubai who was also a beginner of e-commerce. We met each other at one event, he said to me, have you seen Mark Harger. He like the drop down his pricing for the mentorship I said, like no he’s expensive $97 A month group coaching for Facebook ads it was expensive for me I was having this kind of limitation my brain and plus I lost already money with another guy crypto and $97 It’s like 350 dirhams it’s expensive for me I cannot spend a month such kind of big amount. And he said no, no, no, no, like he reduced it to $47 It’s like 150 DRAM so Huh $47 Is 150 D rams, I cannot afford it. But I can give it a shot. Like I can lose that money. I mean, it’s not too big for me to lose it. I like I’m gonna be taken, he said to me too. And this has helped me out that he made the decision and I understand that I cannot be behind. I want to do the same. So this has helped me to make a decision. We paid $47 for group coaching it was 29 of January beginning of February 1 of the year was 2018 is 2018 so first call he would think he is getting access to your ad account and going through the call not showing up to the product to anyone because he’s dropshipping not do not show the product but he already know the product in advance and he goes through that account the tenant in front of everyone what’s the mistakes and what steps need to be done to get the result like no way like I have to rearrange the columns in my ad account seriously in six months in a row e-commerce I didn’t know that I have to arrange the columns for to track the KPIs Add to Cart Checkout purchase I didn’t know that so I like you have to give optimized so on so this is what you have to do if you will get sales you will do this this and that 15 days in the training $1,000 In profitable sales. I was looking at the screen. I remember I’m a waiter staying in some kind of Villa all the people serve with other people and I’m just taking my phone and every few seconds what is the sale no sale no sale and I’m smiling I’m the happiest guy ever like I’m staying I’m just updating this dashboard again and again in the event I cannot use my phone and even but I don’t give you either don’t just don’t don’t care because I want to see more from obviously this couple of sales a day but still like I was so excited and I said to my wife sent to my wife and I made 3000 A week or something like that. And I said to her, “Look, look this is what I was saying. She said what is that? I said it’s like results show how much you’re gonna bring home. I said no I won’t bring home like he just like this is the thing I have to reinvest to grow business. I already started this kind of self learning mindset about reinvesting before I would never never invest in anything. So I have to invest. I have to like to move forward. She said what are you doing like she started becoming crazy and she said I will divorce on you Stop it Stop it. I said come on, here are the results like she said you won’t bring anything home like why are you saying to me something showing me something which is Who asked you to give you more money it’s a scam they want to take more money from you since she doesn’t understand what it’s all about. So when I like okay Damn, I’m doing that for you stop it and just to close this on the call and my first 8000 hours profitable sales in 15 days I’m excited after that I failed because Facebook was updating Mark was explaining exactly what exactly was wrong that it was fine but I didn’t have enough money. So I built another store and so on and so on. So I started generating here and there is some income plus part time span so on April June I start already like sevens in seven days 1000 Something like that. So it was just women between you know surviving in E commerce but it was already I know that results are there. And exactly the machine in all this may fail. And sleepless nights, five works, six works and all the stuff I was sharing on Facebook that moment, I was sharing my story. And people were engaging a lot and I wasn’t selling anything. I was just sharing and when I started getting first results, people started reaching out to me. Hey man, how can you do that for me? I said come on, like well how I can do it for you. I can do it for me. And then October September. I’m coming back to Ukraine. Because I understand now I can make Ico I got already in Dubai a couple of people fully local Legion Jeem like beauty salon restaurant for them. Yeah, yeah. So I started hustling if my wife and I said to you we have to go Google for men. If you want to go home. I will not show your baby anymore to you on the camera. So she starts really beating me. And she has the right because I was over promising and she used to be in Dubai. She was crying every single night because we were always broke. I know her feelings. I know how painful for her it is that I’m losing all the savings again. Again, I’m sick. So I said I’m coming back. I actually brought them to Dubai, I don’t want to go into the whole story because it’s another it’s I brought them in April to Dubai, I lost everything that I saved. That’s why it was so bad. The gas company promised to me to pay for Parliament’s tickets and so on, just print them and show us the ticket. The recipients so I just rent the apartment, borrow the money around the commerce business, borrow the money for the tickets brought them here. And I came to my boss and to the GM of the company, he said, who said to you know, like, No, we won’t be in the future. 20,000 dear, I’m sorry. How come I Oh, sorry, man. Like no, like, we will discuss maybe I said not you said to me bring the bed be like baby, your wife here. So this day, one month, and they are supposed to live because we have no money to survive. I was like, I remember I was like sitting in the car crying screaming before going to the event to serve the human. I was like dying on the wheel. Like screaming and crying. My wife asked him Did you ask your boss? Did you ask your boss when his money’s come in, she was with our partners that moment. And understand that I have to give her bad news that she has to go back. It was a disaster. So I brought her back to Ukraine. And she said you have to come back to Ukraine. I’m done. And that was the reason why I decided on summer. I’m going back to Ukraine. So September, I’m already in Ukraine. And I met on the train before and now I’m not even trying to squeeze my cargo anymore because I cannot pay him enough. And nothing you will not, I cannot heal that I didn’t have already. That kind of mentorship program anymore. And in this case, we are working one on one, which is more expensive for me. And I wasn’t taking that yet. And in September, I just met one of the ex students from Mark who was having $300,000 in the results for the year. And it failed because the agency was running ads for him, they quit on him. And he’ll stay in no no skills in Facebook, but no skills in management of Shopify stores, etc. Let me see it. I saw it and I was already in the Jacksonville program at that moment. And I said listen, like let me introduce, let me do a couple of things for you. If it’s worked out, let’s be partners. He said, Okay. $50,000 in October 150, in November, over that amount in December, March 2019 250,000, a lot of failures in the middle of that I don’t want to speak about. I mean, we cannot speak about it but it will take another hour. But I mean, fails, fails, fails, but profitability and growth. So March 2000 2019 250. And we went so on and so on. And at the same time I start mentoring people because I know what’s working. People are asking me more and more because of me posting and sharing the results. They know how hard my past was. And I became a mentor for a couple of years. And I became a bit exhausted from this mentorship and my man came back to Mark and is still working with Mark as a mentor, not about the ads but about the business, the mindset about the lifestyle. Now he’s in real estate, I’m moving to our state as well. So like he’s teaching me he was teaching me all the understanding about the business and life in general tells him a lot. And like he said to me, You have to quit the mentorship and open your agency. He said yes, you have to, it was Carl. COVID 2020. I opened the agency from one employer to 12 employers in a matter of three and a half months. The biggest months are the biggest growth in a really short time. It was amazing by the end of the year we had finished like the end of the year. There were 12 employers next year. Next year it was 19 employees and next year 44 employers. This year we started with 31 employers but now we have started hiring again. It depends, I mean.

Andrew Morgans 1:13:52
Do you mean employees or clients?

Anatoliy Labinskiy 1:13:54
No, no employee like team members, team members, client clients or clients but team members we grow the company because we will start having more and more clients like better results we need to have like I’m gonna build my brand, all the like personal brand, all the things and we build a huge team on remote. So that’s a long story short, I was trying to be as short as possible to where I am right now, but there happened in February 2022 when I was having the dream life in Ukraine Kyiv. I enjoyed it’s quite cheap, it’s an amazing lifestyle we just bought amazing huge apartments next to the main park like it’s amazing apartments which were bolted and February 24. I got a call from my father from my sister-in-law. Oh my god, worry started at 6am, and that was the day when all they’re sick says, which I was building for myself for well, so life in Ukraine, I mean, better school for the kid investments I was about to invest in the second apartment. I was like, really, a few days before that, I negotiated one price for the construction side building. I was about to invest 60,000 there. And I, like my wife, was in Spain before the war and during the war, and I was with my son alone. And I said, Listen, when you come back, we have apartments, which we need to like, negotiate. It’s an awesome deal. Thank God we haven’t done that. So I lost my apartment. My son and I woke up to this disastrous news. I mean, it’s a completely separate story. If someone wants to watch it. It’s like one, what, almost two hours of podcast call. If you don’t mind saying, like uncared for media, it’s my great friends from Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve been in their studio and shared the whole story about the war and how I got out of the bush across the board during the war when everything started only because of my intrapreneurial skills and my business skills if I want to look forward to listening to that. It’s an insane story, not because, like for me, it’s okay. So I mean, not okay. I know that it’s insane. But I always understood who I was and what I was doing. But the thing is when they went next time in August to a mastermind, powerhouse mastermind people who are listening that they said, oh my god and told it to you. This is from your story. I said here, oh my god, man, I even sent it to my father. It’s insane. It’s so inspiring. Because I’ve made such an incredible journey to save my son. And close the border when I was next to my friends, and my friend’s pregnant wife was smoking and just quit and went back to the freakin war. He quit because they didn’t allow him to cross the border. And I was fighting. As it was, it was really definitely hard at this moment in my life. But my son took a great lesson from it, a great example of how he grew up in those four days of being in that position. He grew up a lot. And now we have this kind of incredible story to share with each other from his opinion, in my opinion, like, how that was, and that’s a really inspirational story. And I will tell you, really, if someone wants to be inspired to learn more, listen, it’s a long one, but worth it, I did it, and I am proud that I was able to make it.

Andrew Morgans 1:17:37
So beautiful. It’s beautiful. And I look forward to listening to it. I went through a coup d’etat in the Civil War with my dad in Congo, Congo, Africa, and 2019 99 to 2001. And no, I’m sure it’s not exactly the same story, you know, different times and different things. But the President was killed. And you know, there was a lot of chaos, absolute chaos there in Congo. DRC. And, you know, that’s been something that my family is very tight about. We’re a very tight unit. And a lot of that comes from just the stuff we went through together, you know, as a team, and from different perspectives. I was 15. And my dad was, you know, 42 or something. So, you know, just different perspectives on everything, but we talk about it a lot. Now. He’s in his 60s, and I’m in my 30s, you know, processing things and talking about them and what they were like, and how they affected us. And I really look back at my time in Africa, even though it was tumultuous as being like an entrepreneurial superpower like I have the ability of perspective and gratitude and the ability to problem solve and overcome almost anything. Because, at that time, it was just survival. It was fight or flight. It was what you do. I’m a fighter. I’m not a runner. And I don’t play that. So, you know, I fight to, like, get the victory, you know, and, you know, it was to me to fight till you get the victory was sometimes 100 110 hours a week on Amazon, like trying to fix problems trying to just figure out what was going on. I would undersell a project. Well, I gave him my word, I would do it for 400. So I’m gonna do it for 400 if it costs me, you know, sleep. So I look forward to it. I look forward to hearing that. And this episode is a bit longer than our normal episodes here on Startup Hustle, but I think including the title just being, you know, unleashing your mindset potential. It really does come down to the belief in almost like, almost like an obsession in that like, you know, I’m not sure that I can do everything because I haven’t done everything. What I do know is that if you knock me down, unless you kill me, I’m getting back up. Exactly. So you better kill me. or else I’m gonna get back up. Even if I knock myself down. That’s, it’s not that I know that I can do the thing. It’s that I know that I won’t quit. And that if I mess up, the only one that’s really beating me up is myself, you know, and I have a story I won’t, I won’t take the time to share, but it was 2019, took a solo trip to New York because I was very stressed with finances, and just, I had achieved some goals, but also like, Why was I dealing with these problems, they weren’t my problems, and they were just like, I had never had a $20,000 problem before, like having to pay my people and me and I went to a show music show, like last night there that trying to get some kind of answer. And people were not being kind and kinda like, I tried having some conversations, and no one was, like, engaging with me. And I just remember I was like, fuck it. Like, I’m just going to enjoy this music and party my ass off, like dancing. Basically, it was like a metal show, like just sort of controlled chaos. And I had been there for business, like, what I just needed something for me, you know, and I went to the show, no one’s liking me. And like, I don’t care what any of these people think, you know, they are not going to have to go home to my family or go home and sleep. I don’t care what any of these people think. I don’t care if I have to go back and do the ads myself because this guy quit or go back and start grinding again. Because, you know, there are people who see me as having this posture. This, like, you know, oh my God, you’re building a business, you’ve hired these people, like you’ve got your friends in the business, you’re doing so great. And I was proud of that. Because I was always nothing. And so you know, to have to swallow your pride may be and because of this cashflow thing and figure out ask somebody for help or figure something out, or it was pride, you know, not not the worst pride, but pride. And I just remember having this moment where like, it was like a just, I’m not, I’m not going to just sit here and be a victim and complain, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get it done. And that’s exactly what I did. And there were these like, that wasn’t the first low or the second low, the third low. But that was a big one, where I just remember being like, I’m not going to quit. Quitting is not an option. And I don’t care what anyone thinks. I don’t care what anyone thinks. And that’s why I am sharing my story. If you go to my website, marknology.com. You can go to Andrew’s story and read about it. And its cliff notes what it’s like I put it out there because I’m like, Look if I put all my shit out here. It’s almost like Eminem and eight miles if you’ve seen him have a rap battle. And he’s like, look, if I say all this shit about me, you can’t say anything about me. Because it’s all out, what are you going to say? You know, and that’s kind of for me, instead of trying to appear as like this guy has made it or like comes from this or like blah, blah, blah. It’s like, Nah, I’m just, I’m just Andrew. And here’s my crazy story. And watch me work. I’m going to show you just by watching my story. Watch me work. I’m going to do it. So I gotta run this out here just because we’re, we’re past the hour. But this has been absolutely amazing. If you send me the link, I will include that link in our show notes, your friend’s podcast, and Atlanta. So anyone listening can tune in and find that story inspirational. I look, I’m obviously going to listen to it tonight probably while I’m at the gym or doing something like that, and get a listen but just as we wrap up, you know this is honestly a great story, at least for me, just for even remembering my own. And being on the show. Obviously, you own an agency that helps brands and e-commerce. You know, the point of the story is to be able to promote your business GSM Growth and you know, I know there’s probably a lot more we could cover about what all that does and but if people are looking for help in DDC where can people find you Where can people get in contact with you and learn more about what you have to offer?

Anatoliy Labinskiy 1:24:00
Yeah, sure. First of all, I would like to say really it was amazing to hear your part of the story because I’m like shocked how similar cases could not case similar lifestyle stories could be on the backend or self-made people and how one secret soul, if people want to hear one secret sauce here it’s never quit no matter what so that’s why this is really amazing and just guys highlight that this is the thing which you have to take off from this email from this podcast as a really extensive golden knowledge I know people are speaking about that but try to exactly do that not just speaking or listening about it. So regarding me, if you want to find me out online, I combine a totally econ by Natale Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube channel Allah Tala beans capturing a lot of free stuff there about e-commerce about the mindset about motivation about my story, and the backend blah So, in my combinatorial Instagram, you can find out the link where we have free books where you can get the understanding of the best structure of the ad copies, which you can use on your ads implemented. And that will help you out increase your CTR and increase your conversions for clicking on the website. So yeah, like whatever you need to, just DM me there on Instagram, like I’m always replying. And if you have some particular case, I’m able to help you out and see if that is something suitable for both of us to work together, or at least I will help you out with a piece of advice. Really appreciate it. Andrew, for this amazing podcast, and hope that people will be inspired by both stories because that’s something close to everyone.

Andrew Morgans 1:25:49
Thank you, and totally thank you to our listeners for tuning in. And thanks again to our sponsor, Full Scale.io. Last time, do you need to hire software engineers, testers, and leaders? Let Full Scale help. They are the people and the platform to help you build and manage a team of experts when you visit FullScale.io. All you need to do is answer a few questions and then let the platform match you up with a fully vetted, highly experienced team of software engineers, testers, and leaders at Full Scale. They specialize in building long-term teams that work only for you. Learn more when you visit FullScale.io. Anatoliy, great episode number one for us. I think we’re going to have a few more, you know, in our time. And I look forward to getting you back on the show. We’ll see you next time.

Anatoliy Labinskiy 1:26:34
I appreciate it. Man. Thank you so much for having me here.