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EP 104- Sam Smith: Small Business Surgeon: A Climb Up From the Bottom
Right before hitting rock bottom, Samuel Smith was on top. Or at least, it felt like he was.
When the oil field crashed in 2009, Samuel needed a new way of making money. So, he googled “how to make money online” — and discovered what he calls the “wonderful rabbit hole of affiliate marketing and pay-per-click marketing.” Before long, it felt like his earnings had no cap.
“I remember my first $100 day and my first $1,000 day,” he says. “By 2011, I was spending like $5,000 a day on Facebook, which was the most you could spend on an ad account back then, and it was nothing because I would make $7,000 a day in return. I thought I’d made it. I remember telling my buddy that I found a cheat code to life.”
But, as Samuel says, all good things have “an equal and opposite reaction.” He was making more money than he’d thought possible, but he was a bad steward of it. He wasn’t taking care of his finances, and he wasn’t taking care of himself, his diet, or his relationships. What Samuel was doing a lot of us was drinking. And when the time came that his business faced a challenge, he wasn’t prepared.
In this episode of the Working For a Dream Podcast, Samuel tells Patrick about the “complete collapse and absolute disaster” of that first business, what it was like to hit rock bottom after believing himself already retired at age 36, and how Samuel is doing business differently — and sustainably — today.
What You’ll Learn:
- How drinking helped fuel his life’s rock bottom moment and lost him hundreds of thousands of dollars — and how he’s recovered with two seven-figure-earning businesses today
- How his life has changed for the better since he ditched the toxic masculinity instilled in him in his youth
- Why shifting his business attitude from making money to guiding people has been so impactful
- And much more!
Favorite Quote:
“What I've discovered is that most entrepreneurs have all been through the same stuff. You have a point in your story where you're sitting in the truck crying. I have a point in my story where my mom hugged me and whispered into my ear to ‘sort your f***ing life out.’ Every entrepreneur seems to have hit bottom.”
— Samuel Smith
How to Get Involved:
Connect with Samuel:
The Small Business Surgeon
Connect with Patrick:
How to Get Involved:
Patrick Bolanos is a serial entrepreneur, business owner, and CEO of Trailer King Builders in Houston, Texas.
He was raised in Nicaragua, exposed to extreme poverty, and also had the fortune of being exposed to life in the United States traveling back and forth to both countries.
After college, Patrick’s career took him into the corporate world of banking where he learned the important lessons of understanding what you’re selling and why it’s important to believe in it.
Back in December of 2017, Patrick was fired from his job as a CFO for a Restaurant Group. With only $500 to his name, rent due, his wife, 3 children at home, and one on the way, he was forced to figure out how to pull his family out of this financial abyss that was strangling his life.
With no knowledge of how to build a trailer, Patrick simply figured all of it out and has now built it into the thriving empire of what’s now become Trailer King Builders.
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By Patrick Bolanos
4.9
6464 ratings
Right before hitting rock bottom, Samuel Smith was on top. Or at least, it felt like he was.
When the oil field crashed in 2009, Samuel needed a new way of making money. So, he googled “how to make money online” — and discovered what he calls the “wonderful rabbit hole of affiliate marketing and pay-per-click marketing.” Before long, it felt like his earnings had no cap.
“I remember my first $100 day and my first $1,000 day,” he says. “By 2011, I was spending like $5,000 a day on Facebook, which was the most you could spend on an ad account back then, and it was nothing because I would make $7,000 a day in return. I thought I’d made it. I remember telling my buddy that I found a cheat code to life.”
But, as Samuel says, all good things have “an equal and opposite reaction.” He was making more money than he’d thought possible, but he was a bad steward of it. He wasn’t taking care of his finances, and he wasn’t taking care of himself, his diet, or his relationships. What Samuel was doing a lot of us was drinking. And when the time came that his business faced a challenge, he wasn’t prepared.
In this episode of the Working For a Dream Podcast, Samuel tells Patrick about the “complete collapse and absolute disaster” of that first business, what it was like to hit rock bottom after believing himself already retired at age 36, and how Samuel is doing business differently — and sustainably — today.
What You’ll Learn:
- How drinking helped fuel his life’s rock bottom moment and lost him hundreds of thousands of dollars — and how he’s recovered with two seven-figure-earning businesses today
- How his life has changed for the better since he ditched the toxic masculinity instilled in him in his youth
- Why shifting his business attitude from making money to guiding people has been so impactful
- And much more!
Favorite Quote:
“What I've discovered is that most entrepreneurs have all been through the same stuff. You have a point in your story where you're sitting in the truck crying. I have a point in my story where my mom hugged me and whispered into my ear to ‘sort your f***ing life out.’ Every entrepreneur seems to have hit bottom.”
— Samuel Smith
How to Get Involved:
Connect with Samuel:
The Small Business Surgeon
Connect with Patrick:
How to Get Involved:
Patrick Bolanos is a serial entrepreneur, business owner, and CEO of Trailer King Builders in Houston, Texas.
He was raised in Nicaragua, exposed to extreme poverty, and also had the fortune of being exposed to life in the United States traveling back and forth to both countries.
After college, Patrick’s career took him into the corporate world of banking where he learned the important lessons of understanding what you’re selling and why it’s important to believe in it.
Back in December of 2017, Patrick was fired from his job as a CFO for a Restaurant Group. With only $500 to his name, rent due, his wife, 3 children at home, and one on the way, he was forced to figure out how to pull his family out of this financial abyss that was strangling his life.
With no knowledge of how to build a trailer, Patrick simply figured all of it out and has now built it into the thriving empire of what’s now become Trailer King Builders.