2006.
A drunk driver put me in a bed for months. The bills kept me in a hole for years.
I grew up in a trailer park. I had a GED, no diploma, and the only thing I was ever good at was skateboarding.
At 18 I took a job at the post office. At 19 a drunk driver hit me on my motorcycle at about 80 miles an hour.
The medical bills went on credit cards. Over the next few years they piled up to over $50,000 in debt.
I was stuck in a job I hated with no plan to get out.
What came next was years of drinking, pills and depression.
My parents thought they'd get a call from the police one day telling them I had ended my life.
I felt so low I couldn't see a way out.
I stayed in that hole for six years. Then one morning I decided I was done.
March 16, 2012 changed everything for me.
I quit the post office with $12,000 to my name and a one-way ticket to the Philippines.
The creditors were calling every day, and they were about to start garnishing my wages.
That meant 60 to 80 hour weeks at the post office while they took most of the money. Over $50,000 in debt, and working just to barely get by.
So I walked into my boss's office and quit. He laughed in my face: "See you back here in six months."
I sold everything I owned, including my car. That left me $12,000.
In May 2012 I landed in the Philippines, where I could live on about $1,000 a month.
No skills, no audience. I tried one business model after another, and most of them failed.
Three or four months in, I was broke again. No job to go back to this time.
So I started a small marketing agency to pay the bills. It kept me alive, barely, for over a year.
Then I did the one thing I'd been too proud to do. I paid someone who had already done it.
December 2013.
I paid $5,000 for my first mentor. It felt like a million dollars at the time.
I handed over $5,000 I didn't really have, and I started from zero.
He taught me the real skills: how to find and create offers, how to write persuasive copy, how to get attention on social media, and how to close sales.
I did exactly what he said. One mentor, one business model, one offer, one traffic source, and lock in and focus for one year.
The clock started in December 2013, from zero.
- 45 days$40,000
- Month 8$227,000cumulative
- Month 12$500,000+
- Month 18$1,000,000
All of it affiliate commissions, paid into my own bank account. I made my first million in 18 months from zero.
The documentary.
Want to see how I got started and made my first million?
I filmed this short documentary right after I made my first $1 million online.
How I started, how I got out of the hole, and some of the first students I ever helped.
2015 to 2021.
The next six years were not a straight line.
After the first million I bought my parents a house and new cars. Then I learned the lesson every entrepreneur learns.
What got you to your first million won't get you to your second, third, fourth or fifth.
I built my own products and ran group coaching. I ran an agency and did the work for clients myself.
My income was up and down. Some years I did $150,000, some years $300,000, some years $200,000.
It was a roller coaster, with all the emotions that come with it.
I spent over $400,000 on mentors, courses and coaching along the way. Every level needed a new teacher.
In June 2021 I came home to America. I shut it all down and reset.
Then I rebuilt from scratch, around one new idea.
November 2021.
I relaunched with one new offer. The first 30 days did $190,000.
Around October I came up with a new business idea. In November 2021 I launched it, one offer, all in.
The first 30 days did $190,000.
About four and a half months after launch, that offer had made its first million.
That's the Two Comma Club award in the photo. The steering wheel is the ClickFunnels Dream Car award.
This time I built a team. It grew to 25 people.
Then I got to do something for my parents.
May 2022.
I bought my dad his dream truck and retired my mom.
My parents made massive sacrifices for me. More than once my dad talked me out of quitting on myself.
In May 2022 I bought him his $100,000 dream truck, a Ford Raptor with all the bells and whistles.
A week later I retired my mom from her job.
That was May. 2022 was just getting started.
2022 to 2024.
2022 did $4.5 million.
I documented every step of it.
Over the next three years I sold $11 million+ of my own digital products and coaching.
$30,000 days. $100,000 in 3 days. $500,000+ months.
I documented the whole journey on my Facebook, every step of the way. The wins and the losses.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I asked the most important question of my life. She said yes.
Here are some of those posts.
The receipts
These are my own results. I'm making no guarantees or any type of promises that you will make any type of money at all. I'm just sharing with you what I've been able to achieve. Tap any post to read it in full.
December 2023.
A ten-year goal with my dad, checked off.
My dad and I set this goal when we started the business together.
Ten years later we checked it off. We bought our Lamborghini.
The part I'm proudest of isn't in this photo.
The students.
I've helped many of my students make five, six and seven figures.
I'm really proud of my own achievements. I'm proud of what a guy who grew up in a trailer park has been able to accomplish.
But the part that drives me the most, and the part that gives me the most fulfillment, is helping my students.
Helping people believe in themselves. Showing them what's possible.
I've helped many of my students make five, six and seven figure incomes with digital marketing, as creators and as coaches.
I'm confident my methods work if you do the work. So I started giving out awards when a student hit $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $1,000,000 using them.
Results are not typical. These people did the work. They stayed consistent, pushed through the hard parts and kept going when it got tough. They didn't sign up and get results overnight, and nobody does. Their results, and mine, are not a guarantee of yours. All of these results are from students who went through my various products and coaching programs.
By 2024 I had 25 people on my team helping me run all of this. Then AI showed up.
2025.
I went from a team of 25 to me and my AI agents.
In 2025 I got obsessed with one question.
Could I build a new business that does seven figures plus a year with just me and AI?
No big team. No overhead. None of the stress of managing 25 people.
That's what I'm building right now.
One by one I rebuilt every system in my business with AI agents. Research, writing, content, products, apps, customer service.
Today it's me and my agents. I get ten times more done than I did with a team of 25, and I still make every important decision myself.
I'm a marketer, not a developer. The skills still do the heavy lifting.
AI lets me move faster and gives me more leverage. I can do more, I can amplify what I'm already good at, and I get my time back.
Anybody who has made seven figures knows the real question.
"How do I make this kind of money and actually enjoy my life? Not how do I become a slave to my own business."
So here's what I'm doing now.
Now.
Now I share everything I learn, as I learn it.
I'm building the next version of my business in public. AI systems for creators, coaches and digital product sellers.
I'm documenting the whole process. From zero to seven figures, and from seven figures to eight.
I share the wins, the losses and everything in between.
I figure it out, I show you how I did it, and you go use it in your business.
If you're an operator and you want AI to buy back your time, you're in the right place.
-ZC
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