WTR understands that successful entrepreneurs often have great stories to tell. Not to mention, there’s great wisdom and knowledge to be gained by listening to their stories. The model to success has already been achieved by successful entrepreneurs like Mike Watts. And now he’s made it his mission to give back to people in the hopes he can make a difference in their lives by helping them to get out of the rat race and into being a successful entrepreneur as well.Mike Watts is an experienced entrepreneur who has 6 startup companies under his belt, including founding three consecutive multi-million dollar companies in the last 10 years. Mike has successful exits from three companies, including one for over $6 million. He’s even struck a deal with Daymond John from Shark Tank. Mike currently serves as CEO of LoveHandle, a fast-growing, American manufacturer of patented custom smartphone grips and accessories, where he leads a team of 30 full-time employees. Mike is currently launching his own business podcast – The Mike Watts Show – focused on sharing the detailed stories of failures and successes throughout his start-up journeys, culminating in actionable and practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.Mike Watts[email protected]The Mike Watts ShowLoveHandleLoveHandle FacebookMike’s FacebookMike’s InstagramMike’s Twitter Read Full Transcript Transcript[ingenious tactics to accumulate wealth, for people who see things different.[I'm your host Kevin Dumont and I've been thinking differently over 10 years and today I am joined by Mike Watts.[I'm doing fantastic Kevin how are you? I'm doing awesome. I'm glad to have you here today thanks so much for joining us.[he's a very successful entrepreneur has done over six different Ventures and seems to be going up with each one.[where you started how you got to where you are today yeah great Kevin well yeah I've always been the type of guy that that has some sort of side hustle goingearly days in middle school I was the guy with the candy in the backpack and no working punch rooms and and the hallway between classes try to put a little extrajingle in my pocket I need some people like you right,you know I started cutting grass and started washing cars anything I can do to make money all the way through High School,At 15 I went and got my first,real job getting a paycheck as I worked in a baseball card shop in that house because I love baseball cards super in the baseball cardsthe stock market in the next week it would go up in value or go down and you can buy them in a whole sale and trade it was a dream job for me and plus it was so then I can trade baseball cards and[we worked out great from there you know how to load a variety of different jobs and the traditional path,you know I was told the story right you do good in school so that you can go to college and that you going to do go to college and get a good job,your job so you can make me have a good paycheck and eventually retire when you're 65 and then you can do what you want exactly.8 years into my professional career as.[that was their solution volunteering for speakers Bureau and I just like doing that kind of stuffultimately if you do the were looking for really great job with fun with low expectations and high energy rapprobably would have been at 7 for some people that's great.Just waiting for me you're part for me was that you know you get that typical corporate compensation schedule and it's very little based on performance and a whole lot based on how long you been there right rightand so I decided that I was going to start a side hustle my wife and I together had made a goal only had her first child that we would,we go from a two-income both working to a one-income family and that way we can invest more heavily into the.I'm raising an education of our children and so we started doing craft fairs and things on the side trying to make a.[just south of Houston and driving business now yeah.As well and worked his way up in the chemical plants down there and became an engineer on the ground floor but after 25 years decided to leave and except one of their ATM.Play packages out and then took that risk and took that money and invest it into tables chairs Linens and those sorts of things and then has built a thriving Party Rental business out of that over 20 years now,as far as for me and I went and met with them and said look I need to come up with some side hustle you guys are obviously being successful maybe you'll have some ideas for me.[amazing product and was trying to sell it to them or their centerpieces to be used in wedding hit a lot of wedding decoration,and so we it was a polyacrylamide which is just a crystal and you can mix it with water and it would soak up gallons of water,and you could grow plants out of it or you get out of church oil or you can make centerpieces out of it and it's still sold today at Home Depot.Almost there math looking at next time I'm there for myself,my mother to shouldn't she was have a degree to stop by think I inherited hers,victims and survivors which one you have more out of the question,back to the story we started telling you I'm selling this little bags of crystals a lot like you know,Jack In the Beanstalk selling little bags of magic beans and was working pretty well the problem was it and I was traveling no do the Houston Home and Garden Show and then go to the travel to Austin to Austin or Dallas San Antonio.[I'm catching it yeah I couldn't teach anybody else to sell this stuff the way I was there with the elevated table in the microphone,yeah Billy Mays Anthony Sullivan asking on TV because all I mean I was pitching hard and I would do this to my wife and Take the Money and Run,you know one or two year old would be under the table watching that VeggieTales and that was our life,we travelled around and tried to make extra money on the side on every,no but vacation day I had never took vacation we invested all that time and sick days even.Holiday weekend into the shows I'm trying to supplement that second piece of income.That's where I started my journey as an entrepreneur on the side and I started learning more and more about the types of products that I wanted to sell and what the challenges were with E O then I went through.[I think that's a line of products we called Yardworks yard art and they were there's a little metal and plastic.Decorations for your yard and they're on a stick you stick them in the yard and the wind blows and the wings flap in the air before they might have Center,Wings on them and we were buying those by the container load out of China.And we would turn around and sell them at the shows and I was buying for about $0.67 a piece and I would sell him for three for $10 or 7 for $20.And you can easily shows with go bananas or the stuff really really excited and you know pushing and grabbing and throwing money and so it was.[and then I would advertise in that in that City like you know like the Philadelphia Flower Show we would have advertised in Philadelphiaa couple to take on an entrepreneur gave him the side bottom with the product and the booth and then they would just buy wholesale from us.Univision Intelius back in or send back anything they didn't sell,until that point I was finally able to learn how to scale where I could be making money cities all over the country because spring is when it happens and that's when the Home and Garden shows are going on the same weekend limited by geography that way.That's important if you're limited by geography and in any way then you're just limited you can't do any more than what's right there and also like you were mentioning before now you have something that,you can teach other people to do so now you don't have to be there for that to be bringing you,money principal did you learn from Rich Dad Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki and talked about you need to be an employee.Self-employed but either way in either of those scenarios you're trading your time for money and there's no way to scale.So this next step allow me to move back and over into the business on it would be.[And so all of a sudden we saw a revenues are profits,the brand even I wasn't even really after trying to build a brand but I build the brand and website back when in a website for new and and we really built up a solid solid little company they're on the side.Yard decoration and it also though have one big flaw,that law was that I did not control the supply the product and what happened is that.[Take notice right on Sprinter see that kind of stuff and try to copy what's being successful and so I just kept the next weekend Dallas and Air,lights on the same stuff right across to me an hour and price for and very frustrating me,I have the same problem with additional products that are brought on I brought on these wooden carved airplanes and cars and motorcycles from Vietnam,really cool pieces, buttJane and I didn't control the supply next thing you know they'll start showing up because I'm doing other shows and also do them at the mall kiosk,at one point I had a full-time job I done 40 trade shows that year and not just me personally right but my companyand then I had six different retail locations around the city of Houston but I was managing with employees all I had a full-time job,that was sort of it that the Crux of it all and it was a fateful day I was at a trade show in Houston.[A product that we would later call the pivotrim which was my first big startup and name is Orlando and he it invented an aftermarket trimmer head for gasoline powered trimmers.And problem that he was solving if you ever cut your grass on your own,doesn't like a beat out well and often breaks off when you're cutting especially around concrete and chain link fenceso he developed his trimmer head that performed amazingly well by the design of it and he is and so.[I had two different other boots with yard art and I'm outstanding in the ranks or Booth which is those crystals are still selling me and I have another Booth with these wooden airplanes in it,guy was very exposed to showed my local shell here in Houston and it's on a Friday I'm tapped out on vacation day.And tell until I have my work in from the field today.I'm very my boot it right when the show up and down under the table I stand up I'll look over and there's my boss walking in with a camera I've seen everything I need to see.I turned around and you walked out I guess I was one of your deciding moment's right and it's like I think I think I just got fired.He looked back at me and he goes well I guess we better make a deal.That day in Earnest we really started working out in a licensed exercise.I figure I'll learn as I go.[More comfortably leave my security my job this point I just we just had our third child.Go ahead an infant I had a two-year-old and I had a four year old.[Right here making around the house making around 55,000 a year but health insurance at for 1K matching at all that.Golden Coast Security there but they were giving me 3% raise it no matter the fact I was blowing it out of the water,I was still out out performing at work I really was so that Monday comes around I just don't go to work.And my vice-president called me around noon.[yeah why don't you hear who told you that you didn't hear right now in there and waiting her big corner office for their big couches and sat down in there with her,he said lunch now you're doing a great job here and you haven't been recognized for it and I understand you're trying to make some extra money on the side how much money do you make from your shopping.[[[And so I listen to make real decisions decisions make that point and we stick with the security of the nine.Even though we kind of got a taste for this doing our own thing and doing our way and feel like we got a pretty decent passwords a product that nobody else can copy something that we can control and then we can take the market and be all alright.[[And yeah I was the open door behind me they come back come back anytime I want it but I left that day and luckily security there and had to go out and buy health insurance on the open market.Mounting we took that little idea and actually license it from the inventor and we grew that product into the number one selling,aftermarket trimmer head in the category we were an infomercial sensation we were killing it on TV late night TV.Had a really cool demo I wrote the script and shot the commercial and it was doing well.And we did that for years and we grew the company to about 7 million dollars in Revenue our final year.[And,distribution partner and with our largest customer one single customer that point and we're in a strategic strategic position to acquire companies and they met us an offer we couldn't refuse.[And based on our profitability and the fact that I felt like we had sort of Tapped Out popped out categories and.We accepted the offer it changed lives we brought on investors that were family like my grandparents and uncles and Friends.Anti everybody loses really amazing moment in life when I was able to add benefit back all these people that have believed in me.And it was my grandma got a quarter million dollars and she was able to have a nest egg on my grandfather just passed away so she had a.Resources there take care of herself for the rest of her life and so that was big my brother's able to build a big portion of his home that he was building a minivan.L&M real tangible things like that that were awesome Jimmy and course I went in and took mine,Ambassador all in real estate time on all the rent houses or the property that crashed back in the early to 2000-2011,what's happening so it was still depressed and I bought a bunch of rent houses remodeling putting off for rent.[so that I can bend but while still working on my neck startups after that some people love real estate investing for the passive stable income at 10 bring them.Janet mailbox money is beautiful beautiful thing,in addition to that the appreciation has been great as I've gone through and and needed cash which has been more regular than I hope but that's the way startups go,I would tell a property here in cash and I felt like I was playing Monopoly Uno cards over you know having a cash and cash and cash in but the money to invest in a...