I had no idea what I was doing...

I'll never forget the smell. The dirty sidewalks are covered in old food wrappers, plastic bottles, and who knows what else. Alongside each of those sidewalks, miles of individual vendors slammed against each other. You can find it there whether you were there to buy kids' toys, apparel, food, jewelry, or anything else you can think of.

That was my welcome to the jungle of the Los Angeles fashion district. People yelling, cars zooming by, people standing by their small shops trying to sell you things… it was all happening. For a second, I forgot why I came there.

Oh yeah… I was on a hunt for socks. More importantly, high-quality, colorful dress socks.

At this point, 4 months passed, and I didn't have the product. I had the website, branding, etc, all dialed in. I built a 500-person waitlist. With the self-enforced 6-month deadline coming up to launch the business, I started to panic. No socks to sell.

I googled a few "sock vendors" and Alibaba, but it was too expensive. Every company I talked to overseas gave me 90-day turnaround times and wanted me to commit to thousands of socks upfront. That wasn't in the cards for me; I was on a shoestring budget to get this out the door.

With zero experience sourcing products or dealing with vendors, the only advantage I had was that I was living in LA. That's what brought me to the fashion district. Sheer urgency and (hopefully) convenience in the future if I strike some gold here. So I hit the streets, and anything that resembled a pair of socks, I went in and asked someone if they sold them at wholesale. For one, I felt a sense of relief because there were vendors selling socks, but at the same time, the panic was still brewing because the quality of the socks was terrible.

After about 20 vendors, I realized they were all pulling the same style of socks from the same vendor somewhere. Still, nothing that satisfied me quality-wise.

The Fashion District is enormous. There were hundreds of vendors on every street. It was impossible to cover in a week. I went home depleted. "What was I thinking when I decided to wait this long to start looking for a product?"

So, I came back for four consecutive days. I walked down every nook and cranny until I found a men's warehouse selling high-quality socks. I ran over to the manager and asked him if he had any of the same socks for wholesale. I gave him a brief rundown of what I was doing and what I needed.

He looked at me and said, "That's a really good idea. I can give you the direct phone number to my vendor that I get this from; he is close by." My jaw dropped. I gave him a big ol' bear hug and said thank you about 100x. I added, "You don't understand… you just saved my ass and possibly my business." He shrugged it off and said, "Don't worry, I love helping people."

That guy doesn't know the impact he had on me and on my new business. A business I was learning about day by day as I was bringing it to life.

These are the moments I will never forget. They inspire me to help others through their journey in any way I can.

Every week, I get on a call with someone who is looking to start a business or has random questions for me regarding how to do something. My goal isn't to give them the step-by-step but to share my journey and highlight how things turned out. Share the pitfalls. The wins. The obstacles.

So, if you're looking to start your first online business or you're looking for simple and practical guidance, here is how I can help you:

1. My course: https://startingyourfirstonlinebusiness.com

2. Coaching and consulting

There is no single formula that works for everyone. My process is just one of the many out there.

My goal is to help you start.

? No $10k/month promises.

? No salesy BS.

? No false hope.

It's a starting point to get you going so that you can start your journey.