what's up guys today is a special day it
is february 4th which may not mean
anything to most people to me though i'm
always going to remember it because it's
the anniversary of me quitting my day
job it is the two-year anniversary of me
leaving my day job to be specific
uh that means i left back in 2020
february 4th 2020 i quit my job and man
the quality of my life has improved by
quite a bit ever since i'm not trying to
hate on my day job but i don't know
about you guys even if i had the best
day job in the world the one thing that
i could not get over was traffic driving
to and from work it's time you'll never
get back in your life i at least try to
find ways to like make it not suck as
much i even bought a house close to
where i where i worked like it's absurd
but like that's how my brain works i'm
like yes if i buy this house here get
there okay commute can be as short as 10
minutes as long as an hour because it's
unpredictable in northern virginia
traffic is awful people don't know how
to drive sorry they just don't um you
know i would do things like call my
grandma on the way back while i sat in
traffic just you know whatever i could
do to pass that time and also like make
it valuable double down you know anyways
the point of this video is to talk about
how i got out of working that day job
all right i want to tell you and be
transparent and if any of this resonates
with you hopefully you can try to
replicate my process and implement it
and work yourself out of your day job so
i'm going to show you exactly how i did
it let's get started
[Music]
so i want to kind of tell you my story
and also share what i think maybe like
valuable tidbits along the way so i
started out as a web developer not a
youtuber i know it must be hard to
believe but uh you know i've always kind
of had a love for computers i knew that
back since i was like 13 i really took a
liking to computer games the competitive
aspect of playing online against other
real people and was really just addicted
ever since then ever since i first
played them for the first time
led me to studying i.t led me to take in
a web development course that i really
liked i even read the whole like 300
page book which is probably the most
boring book on you know in history but
for some reason it resonated with me
like i also knew that if you could build
websites that you could do a lot you
know i it wasn't lost on me that that
was a valuable skill set to have one
thing that i would say and i always tell
my in-person
classes that i teach at a local
university that
one thing i didn't do was i didn't wait
for
the classes to challenge me to level up
my game as soon as i realized i liked
web development i just went for it you
know it's 2022 you can learn whatever it
is you want to learn typically for free
you know on the internet you know on
youtube what a great resource youtube is
so i just went for it i didn't wait till
the class told me to learn something new
i just i just went for it and learned it
okay so that's one thing i would
challenge you guys if you find something
that you really like you're passionate
about just go for it you know life is
short enough just just just go for it if
you're if you're still liking it and you
still like challenging yourself by the
way it's a great way to feel fulfilled
challenge yourself overcome that
challenge learn something new apply it
down the line in a way that's practical
that makes you money i mean that's a
great way to feel fulfilled like you
accomplish something um you know at
least for me it is so i worked as a web
developer straight out of school uh at
the same time decided to go get a
master's degree in it and after i
finished up the master's degree i also
then jumped to a new job and went and
was working actually at age 25 was
working as a senior web developer
and was teaching web development so i
you know i was doing things at a young
age that you typically don't do at a
young age but and i never had any plans
at all whatsoever to do that um i'll
tell you my story about teaching uh when
we get to that slide but i did just want
to share with you guys that you know in
my i think eight years as a web
developer
i actually had the pleasure of working
for like some really good causes um i i
might have like the biggest portfolio
for a non-profit like a single
non-profit web developer out there i
don't know if that's like a title that
anybody actually cares about but you
know most notably i worked for like the
wounded warrior projects i didn't work
for them but i worked on their
donation forms so i built like the one
that they currently have right now it's
still up i also worked on a bunch of
other non-profits that you can see a
bunch of logos here behind me
and more and this is not even all of
them so a lot of big ones that you may
recognize like md anderson toys for tots
um
no kid hungry
uh just some really big ones guys yeah
so anyways
it was it was good work like in the
sense that you know it was rewarding in
that sense plus it paid well um but i
realized that like
you know that's my life unless i change
something
and like i shared with you earlier i
don't know what it is about sitting in
traffic even if it only took me 10 10
minutes each way like i'm the type of
person that will take 10 minutes each
way which is 20 minutes a day times five
days a week times uh 52 weeks in a year
you know that's 5 200 minutes a year
and if you sub or divide that by
60 to get hours that's 86
hours a year and 86 um divided by 24.
you know that's still 3.6 days of your
life each year spent in a car and that's
type of thing that just eats away at my
mind when i think about it that way and
you guys already know that i'm a crazy
person that thinks about things in terms
like that same way when i'm starting a
business and i'm like oh i made one
dollar today well what's one dollar
times 365 365 a year okay that's how i
see it i don't think of it as a dollar a
day all right so i knew i needed to
monetize my skills
at a minimum um before i even thought
about working my way out of a day job
like this was just kind of like came
naturally to me as something that wasn't
even a choice it was like i must do this
you know i didn't just like teach myself
how to be good at web development by the
way i didn't waste my time do being a
web developer if i wasn't going to be
good at it like that's just another way
of just making sense of things um so you
know like if you're not liking your job
or you're not great at your job like you
know there's got to be something else
out there that you're good at so that's
something that i would definitely
um think about but yeah like i was good
at web development i enjoyed it so i
realized like yeah i already know how to
do something that's pretty valuable
skill set uh ultimately led me to
teaching web development at a local
university something i never ever
thought i would do and at age 25 walking
into the first day of classes was
incredibly uh nerve-wracking extremely
nervous but ultimately you know i'm much
better off for it and it was fine it
went over well
i also was a freelance web developer
like why learn how to do web development
and not make your own money i can't make
sense of that but a lot of people never
even try so that means like i make money
hosting websites that i typically built
you know not not in every case but
uh in most cases so i would build you
know and for local businesses a lot of
it was word of mouth you know people
knew i i was the tech guy so people
would just like send me clients i'm like
all right i'll do that
and you know the money was good but the
one thing i couldn't get over even
though i like
as a good developer like i was fast
right and time is money but
going back and forth with people
about what they needed done there was
just no way around that not you know
being an inefficiency so that kind of
killed me it killed my love for doing
freelance web development long term but
anyways you know web hosting web
development et cetera that worked out
well and i was my own webmaster i built
my own websites uh ran some google ads
did some amazon associates which is the
amazon affiliate program and had some
you know direct partnerships you know
because people if you if you have good
seo in a valuable space people will find
you and uh
you know they'll they'll offer you money
in exchange for backlinks and things
like that so you know monetized being a
web developer in a couple different ways
i even did random things like online
arbitrage you know i like shoes and i
realized that like i could buy shoe from
website a and sell it on website b and
keep the middle price
and i did that for you know things like
you know reebok pumps was a great story
you know you can't even find these shoes
anymore i should have honestly if i just
bought out the remaining stock
from the website that was selling them i
could be flipping them for like 600 a
pair today instead of like 150 back then
but i was getting them at like 55 a pair
you know so it was uh and doing an
online arbitrage so i never had to touch
the product you know pretty good and i
did a youtube video on that i'll drop
links to everything in the description
that i talk about in this video
all right so ultimately guys i was
making sense of my strengths
and i challenge you to do the same now
what am i saying when i say make sense
of your strengths i feel like a
motivational speaker that's saying
something that sounds good but you're
not really saying anything what i mean
when i say this in my case
is i was just sitting at a computer all
day you know what i mean like it's what
it is um other than teaching obviously i
had to be in front of a classroom
but yeah so i was sitting in front of a
computer all day but i was doing this
either way like if i'm gonna have to
work that day job well hey i'm in front
of a computer if my i'm getting paid to
do things well i'm gonna get them done
but what about after that you know
should i go walk to starbucks and kill
an hour you know i mean i'm not gonna
lie i also used to work out in the
middle of the day but like
anyways i i monetized my time if i'm
going to be in front of a computer
anyways and i'm there because i want to
make money well i'm going to keep making
money you know i'm not going to
not make money when i'm sitting at that
office job anyways right uh so in 2016 i
was i realized i need to add passive
income like there's no way around it
at that point i'd probably been working
for i don't know uh four or five years
something something in that range and i
realized that like it's just not for me
you know like a very comfortable living
and you know i was already monetizing
the skill set in multiple different ways
but without passive income like
that was the rest of my life which is a
scary thought to me i like the
unpredictability i like to challenge
myself and i like to work towards
a more desirable future if i can define
it you know quantify what it means and
then also come up with a path of getting
there because if it's something like
far-fetched like yeah i just want to be
a famous singer it's like okay
like where do i start and by definition
to be famous like there's just a small
percentage of people that are ever going
to achieve that which means you know
it's just a lot less likely than just
being able to make passive income online
to work for yourself that's a much more
reasonable goal
so 2016 challenge myself make passive
income
this led me i'm not going to give you
the full drawn out story because i don't
want the video to go on forever but uh
this led me to amazon fba to start back
then amazon fba was like on fire
everybody was talking about it everybody
wanted to start their fba business me
included i ended up crossing paths with
somebody that was already coaching
people learning to learn how to sell on
fba
uh just like it was like the stars
aligned honestly um i i was there
supporting i was at like a business
i don't know it doesn't matter i was at
like a mini conference thing my friend
was the keynote speaker he invited me to
be there it was super early in the
morning and i crossed past with somebody
that was already you know an amazon guru
and i paid him two thousand five hundred
dollars to teach me
right just just for his knowledge to
teach me because then i knew you know
what i'm gonna get this business up and
running and what what is twenty five
hundred dollars like today i've done
multiple seven figures on amazon so what
is 2500 right in retrospect it's like 2
500 a lot i'm scared but like i always
had that long-term perspective plus i
don't doubt myself so it's like to me
there was never a shred of doubt that it
wasn't wasn't gonna work it was just hey
i'm gonna make this investment yeah it
sucks to have to pay you know but i
wasn't getting it done prior so i did
what it took and like i said much better
off for it than you know than i would
have been having not done it so got my
fba business off the ground with the
help of a coach
at the same time also found out about
merch by amazon ultimately made my first
fba sale and my first merch sale in the
same month and you can actually go to my
website ryanhook.com look at my income
reports
go all the way back to early 2017
and you can see
you know all the statistics about my
first sale
also i realized hey the work i'm doing
on merch by amazon i can upload the same
designs to various products on
additional marketplaces
including you know amazon seller central
i've already got an account from from
fba why don't i monetize that account
and sell print on demand products as
well
so i did that i posted products to
redbubble to etsy to ebay obviously to
additional markets as well but those are
the ones i would you know the notable
ones that i would prioritize
and i you know made additional income
streams i eventually learned that i
could also take a lot of those existing
designs convert them into book covers
and sell low content books on amazon kdp
kindle direct publishing i also randomly
started in the fourth quarter maybe not
so randomly i don't know uh ultimately
one day one weekend i just buckled down
and just went all out boot camp style
amazon kdp start to finish got my
business started and in my first 10
weeks from starting had made 3 500
profit but of course it was in the
fourth quarter so it was like november
december but still one heck of a start
to a business
i started a youtube channel now i mean i
don't know starting a youtube channel
may have been more uncomfortable than no
i can't lie teaching in front of a room
of your peers is definitely
uncomfortable especially with no
experience but
starting youtube i think i started i
waited an extra year to actually start
because man it's just like doing this
for the first time it sucks everybody i
mean imagine it right it sucks like in
addition to getting the right hardware
and software setup you then have to
actually like sit down and like
look into a webcam and talk into a
microphone it's not natural it's weird
uh but i said one night i said you know
what this is it today's the day i'm not
going to sleep until my first youtube
video is posted
and it took i don't even remember how
long but it was ultimately like after 2
a.m when i finally went to sleep of
course i had work the next day
yeah but you know what i felt
accomplished i got it done huge learning
curve but the rest is history right and
i knew it would only get easier like i
it's just how i live i don't know man
i'm assuming most people are like that
though right like you do something the
repetition and it just gets easier and
easier and easier and easier and easier
as you go right so anyways got the
youtube channel started from youtube i
can do things like be a subject matter
expert to the people that you know want
to believe in me as an expert and offer
things like one-on-one consultations and
you know i just set up a one-page thing
on paypal but you can pay me and we book
a call together
another way of monetizing right youtube
also pays ads by the way when you get
eligible for monetization
on youtube if i say hey i use this
graphic design service called all
sunsets and it helps me immensely sell
t-shirts because i'm not a good graphic
designer by the way link in the
description and you use my link to sign
up i get a little kickback
affiliate marketing right whether i
meant to set out to do it or not like
it's just one of those things where
if i use the service and i want to tell
you guys about the service because it's
actually useful to me and you might find
it useful and they have an affiliate
program well it's like a great little um
synergistic relationship there so
affiliate marketing generates some extra
income i started an online school i've
already got the teaching experience and
you know i've got some subject matter
expertise and i've got the actual
numbers to support that i may be a
subject matter expert in the things i
talk about
so why not
start an online school and support you
know the students that choose to enroll
in their passive income journey so i've
got you know a teachable hosted online
school if you guys want to start your
own online school i'll put a link to
teachable in the description as well
because they do actually have an
affiliate program although they've never
paid me so i don't know if it's that i
don't know i don't know but i'll put the
link in the description maybe you'll get
something for free for using the link
investing guys i've really challenged
myself to learn as much as possible
about this since i left my job really in
2020 so it's been a two year journey at
this point i've grown to love it i mean
it's super dry and boring and incredibly
hard to understand at first but
repetition you know what i mean i have a
tv right here above my webcam and i just
you know it's connected to my computer
watch youtube all day listen to youtube
all day listen to people way smarter
than me soak up as much knowledge as
possible and uh it's exciting now you
know and what's funny is like if you're
just a logical person and you want to
just do it the right way and not
overthink things and get crazy uh
passive investing if you're like ryan
how do you do this many things like
honestly you can be a passive investor
and you're gonna outperform most people
who try to day trade by a larger margin
right which just means like buying the
broad indices
in like the form of etfs
and uh doing nothing you know what i
mean like you know who outperforms most
living people dead people because their
money just sits in those index tracking
etfs
and never leaves and uh yeah and they do
really well so
i have one tip for you before i leave
and i meant to plug this earlier in the
video and i forgot but anybody that's
still with me you get this tip for free
this is something that i actually did
while i was at work
that you can do starting today starting
right now and for me it made a big
difference i don't know that it will for
you because i worked at a computer all
day so i had the ability to do this
and i called it my secret tip the secret
tip guys is i used chrome remote desktop
okay it's just a chrome extension or
it's an application you can use one of
the other but you can just use the
chrome extensions easy
and you install it on your home computer
and you leave your home computer on and
then you can put it on like your phone
you can put it on
i have a funny story for you guys but i
don't know if i want to make this video
long um you can put on your like work
computer put on your home computer right
and you can literally remote into your
home computer from work or i was doing
it while i was on vacation last week
from the beach because i wanted to do
some sports betting and i couldn't do it
from the caribbean from where i was so i
remoted into my home computer and did it
through the web browser there from my
phone on a beach literally uh it sounds
ridiculous but it actually happened so
you can run your business
from work without putting like any
applications you need to on your work
computer like i put the merch titans
upload automation logo here because
that's basically what i would do i would
just remote into my home computer
and be running the
merch titans automated uploads to my kdp
business
to my merch business my print-on-demand
business etc so i will put links to
everything that i mentioned in this
video in the description below obviously
it's a lot of stuff to cover i hope it
provided somewhat of a road map to you
if you want to kind of just try to
replicate my success because it worked
in the past and it still works today and
i anticipate it will remain uh
successful successfully working in the
future at least the near future so um
guys thank you for hanging out with me
in this video before i leave i wanted to
remind you i've got the weekly print on
demand giveaway links at the top of the
description i got an eight day print on
demand mini course to get you started
for free so there's no excuse it'll get
you started with the etsy printful
integration that's in the description
completely free again got a great print
on demand facebook community got a full
print on demand course everything you
need resource wise it's here check out
the description thank you guys for
watching please like and subscribe if
you made it this far and i will see you
tomorrow with a new video
you