The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - How to Build your Own Digital Call Center in 2025 ft. Jonci Hopson

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

🎙️ What if you could build a 1500+ person remote team without renting an office or having any experience in telecom? In this game-changing episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex sits down with Jonci Hopson (@im.jonci), a powerhouse entrepreneur who scaled a digital call center empire during the pandemic—and never looked back.💼 From starting with just 121 agents to onboarding over 693 reps in just 30 days, Jonci breaks down the real blueprint behind building a scalable, recession-proof business in 2025. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned hustler, this episode reveals how to leverage middleman platforms, automation, and remote culture to your advantage.🔑 Key Takeaways:How Jonci onboarded 693+ agents in 30 daysWhy digital call centers are the future of remote incomeThe overlooked power of bi-weekly commission structuresTools, platforms, and mindset shifts you need to scale fastHow to grow without managing a single physical office🎧 Tap in now and learn how to build your own team from scratch—no excuses.👉 Follow Jonci on IG: @im.jonci 🔔 Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re ready to LEVEL UP!“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.

Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey guys, welcome back to Level Up Podcast. This is Paul Alex. Guys, we have another phenomenal interview. Okay, look, this is going to be proof that you can literally scale any type of business out there from just having a laptop, having some brains and just wit. Okay.

I want you guys to meet John C. Hobson. Okay. John C. She is one of the biggest entrepreneurs that comes to the space with telecom Now if you don't know what telecom is imagine call centers, imagine generating leads for any company out there. That's what she does Johnson, how you doing today? I'm doing great. I'm feeling blessed. I'm thankful to be here I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to share people a stream that really changed it all for me. Well I'm excited. I mean I've been using call centers for the past five years for a couple of my businesses and I know it's huge. I just never met another entrepreneur that actually

builds the call centers. So that's fire. I'm excited for this. I'm excited too because the way it even just started. Yeah, you're gonna wanna lead this podcast ready to start a call center today. Let's do it. Let's do it. We have a lot of good listeners and a lot of people watching this that are gonna get inspired and they're gonna be hitting you up. So get ready. Let's go. I love it. I love it. I love the game people. I love the confidence guys. Okay. So John C Right before you got into entrepreneurship. Okay, lead us through that path. What's what's your background? Right before you were just like aha moment. Hey, you know, I gotta work for myself You won't filter or unfiltered. I mean, it's it's it's your show. Go ahead. So I mean before entrepreneurship it was

entrepreneur, but the street way and entrepreneurship it was entrepreneur but the streetway and shortly after giving my life to Christ I ended up trying to go legit and I went to this platform called Arise. A lot of people know about Arise like it's a middleman platform where people go they connect with different Fortune 500 companies and they provide the agents or whatnot. So I was on that platform working under a woman, Caucasian woman, and I'll make sure I make it make sense why I say Caucasian woman. No, you're good. I don't like to call people old. She was seasoned, okay? She was like in her late 40s early 50s and long story short she just really liked my drive. Like I was a very hard worker under her company.

Like, I picked up all the hours. I wanted extra hours, because again, I'm trying to go legit. I'm trying to make it make sense to not have to go back to what I was doing. How old were you at this time? I was 17 or either 18. Either 17 or 18 years old. OK, all right.

So I ended up working for this one for Carnival Cruise Lines. Carnival Cruise Lines is a very fun company. Like people were calling in, booking cruises, canceling cruises, because it was kind of like about two years before the pandemic. So that like they were booking cruises, canceling cruises, upgrading cabins, and it was just really fun. All right. But I was working under her and I started seeing that she had like a hundred plus people part of her like call center, like basically like me agents and I was like okay she takes 50 bucks out of my check every two weeks which is cool because we were 1099 independent contractors but you got like

a hundred some people you know what I'm saying working for you. So the dots started connecting and I was like you know I need to figure know what I'm saying, working for you. So the dots started connecting and I was like, I need to figure out how I'm gonna get this. But before I even said I wanna figure out how I'll be able to do this, she was already like, you know what, I wanna take you under my wing and I wanna show you how you can get your own call center set up.

Cause I had a little social media presence already back then for other reasons or whatnot, but I knew I had people that would wanna work from home. So that's how I got started in, well, before working at a call center, before owning a call center. So this was right before COVID? Right before, like two years, literally.

Wow. Yeah. And then, okay, so you get into the business of actually starting to learn to build your call center from your mentor. And then do you automatically go and launch right away or like do you like do what I did for like a decade where you know at the age of 18 I was a nightclub promoter from 18 to 24. And I was just like I'm going to be an entrepreneur the rest of my life you know I'm making $30,000 and on a Saturday from a nightclub right. And then all of a sudden it hits me and I'm like, okay, I gotta get a real job.

And I go and I work for like a decade for sales, for law enforcement and all that, and then I come back into the whole entrepreneurship game. So for you, once you learned the telecom game from your mentor, did you jump right in? Or did you hesitate, what was your actual process? It was pretty simple because arise has like its own infrastructure So really all I had to do was just bring the agents to the platform

they had access once they were on the platform to Basically work for any company that was available like you had Barnes & Noble Home Depot Dick's Sporting Goods like it was many different companies that you could work for. But I didn't, I would say probably like 30 days, within 30 days I just went out and tested the waters. I made a post on Facebook and I was like who would like to work from home, make your own schedule, be your own boss, to try like jazz it up, make it sound good. Different Fortune 500 companies.

And then the flexibility with the schedules really got people. logged off Facebook came back on Facebook had like over 500 comments so people saying oh my email um um here's my email or me interested and that's when I was like okay like I know all 500 people aren't going to sign up but that's a start like at least probably about even if I just get 50 out of that 500 and then I'm taking out my fee bi-weekly It's gonna make sense for me. So okay. Let's get back to this like I love this I love this so okay now we're getting into organic marketing so You do the post do you do post like on a Facebook group or do you do a post like on your Facebook?

Personal profile that was just on my personal page. So you just had a lot of friends you had like a huge connection Yeah, you know like how Facebook used to cap you at like 5k. Yes friends So like I was past that and then they started doing like the followers to you like if you couldn't be a friend Yep, so y'all was past that like Facebook So you see so you started leveraging Facebook and that was actually the first online platform that I capitalized in because I was using Facebook groups. So very simple, very similar concept you could say,

like what you did, but with me I had zero following. I had zero following and I was just like, okay I had to leverage Facebook groups. And I'm pretty sure there's a lot of telecom Facebook groups. Work from home, stay at home, mom. Absolutely. Yeah, all that. No, that makes sense. That's good.

It's thousands of work from home groups. Have you started your own community? Yes, well, my own club, yeah. Okay, we'll talk about that. Yeah, for sure. No, for sure. No, I got to, I had to. No, no, no, you do.

So, all right, so let's talk about this. No, no, no, you don't know you do. So all right. So let's talk about this. So you get the telecom, you know, your your telecom. It was like a no brainer for them. Empire, you're starting to build it out. COVID happens. So COVID starts happening in 2019. Yeah. 2020. Yeah. What happens to your business? Skyrocketed. Really? You got to think about it. Okay. Okay. The way you did it, you just bamboozled me because I thought she was about to say, Amelia, I thought she was about to say like, yeah, just went on the drink. Like, you know, usually that's what everybody's story is. It's just like, Oh, business went down and then I discovered

this and, you know, push it to the limit. So you're skyrocketed. My skyrocketed. Wow. I like break that down. So you gotta think about it. During the pandemic, what was happening? Businesses were closing down. Establishments were shutting down. People were getting laid off work. People refuse to get the they didn't even have the vaccine at the time but people just were scared to go in. Yep. Jobs for making you work remotely. Okay? And then people were just getting fired because the businesses could not uphold the pandemic,

so they had to let people go. So who was still open for business? Where you don't gotta be around people, where you can work at the comfort of your own environment? Me. So that's when my business skyrocketed. Everybody was looking for work from home. And they came to me. So before the pandemic, I had 121 agents

under me. Wow. During the pandemic, I think I gained about 693 people in 30 days under my call center. That's insane. Yeah, under my call center. And this is still we talk in middleman right now. We ain't even talking about the other stuff. But this is on a middleman platform.

So, okay, for the people listening right now, how does it usually work in the middleman platform? Okay, so obviously you got like a platform like Amazon, I would assume, right? And it's similar to like selling products, but you're essentially providing the agents for the call center. Yeah so basically like staffing them for the company. You're staffing them for the company okay and then they give you a percentage. I take out a fee. The fee. So because they're independent contractors well this is

used to because I'm not on their minimum platform anymore but I would take out a fee bi-weekly so I did the same thing $49.99. You had some people that did $1.99, like literally $200. You had some people that would do like $20. So it was at your discretion what do you want to take out of people paychecks. And it really made sense to people because they're like, okay, if I work at a company, they're already taking out all kind of taxes and fees. So your check may be at your job $2,000. By the time they deduct all the fees and taxes and stuff it's like $1,200 or something.

So like when they were like okay, only 50 bucks you're taking out, $49.99, it was like a no brainer for them. You as the person who brings the agents, what is basically your cut of the pie? $49.99. $49.99 per agent. And it's just a flat fee flat fee every single every

single month single agent every two weeks every two weeks so you were getting $100 per agent and you were bringing hundreds of agents man that's pretty good residual by the time oh for sure but I like that I like that concept yeah yeah got me that's something like this woman literally has a hundred something people under her company And she was like seasoned, you know I'm saying like she was working there for a while Yeah, so it's like she wasn't even marketing She wasn't doing like she was the top premier IBO which is basically, you know independent business owners

So she was like one of the top premier IBOs on the rise platform So once you become a top premier IBO they start like just putting people under you like I never That makes a sign up under her. It's just they put me under her So I was like this one we got a hundred like at least a hundred something people working for her She's taking out 50 bucks by weekly. Yeah, I was like and she's not even Savvy like I am when it comes to social media and marketing and I was like it's a no-brainer I know people I got family members that I know want to work from home. Millio how come we never heard of this? I mean we need to step up our game dude.

A lot of people have heard of it but probably not so much because I'm pretty sure we'll get into that why I ended up leaving a platform but during like that era I want to say like 2017 through 2022, all Arise was hot. Okay. So you were with them till 2022? Yes. The end of 2022. Hold on. We're in 2025. Yep. The end of 2022. Okay. So you were with them at 2022. So let's paint the picture here.

Yeah. Okay. I'm a big storyteller myself. Visionary guy. So 2022 happens. it's after COVID, your business is booming, push it to the limit. You're like, yes, this is awesome. Okay, so business is thriving. How's your personal life at that time?

I was wilding. You were wilding. I was spending like. Yeah, you're a boss, babe. Yeah, just reckless. Got it. Like, ain't never seen that much money and there's nothing wrong with that yeah well you have to experience it sometimes you got to yeah so you know what not to do of course of course so I was definitely like I was traveling everywhere which is actually good yeah I tell people

they need to travel yeah when you make money that's the first thing you should do oh yeah I was everywhere yeah I was all over the country. I was all over, just, I took many solo trips by myself. So during that time in my life, I was like, honestly, just feeling very blessed. Because I sat on the edge of my bed, and I told God, please give me a way, okay, to figure out how to do this on my own, legally. Like, I love making money,

but I don't like the way that I'm making it. Of course. So it's like, and I say that I'm from Orlando Florida so you know that whole culture and everything like just really been in the streets hanging with the wrong people just but it was never nothing crazy. I just want to say that for the camera. You're putting everybody in suspense right now. They're like what's she doing? Never saw my body anything like that. OK, I just want to make that very clear. But I was just honestly, I was a hot girl, just hot head, just kind of just, again, reckless.

So when I started making money legally, I was still reckless, but not like that. In a different way. In a different way. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. So yeah. OK. I got you. Yeah. OK.

So from there, OK? You're doing that. You're living the life. How old were you then, at 20? 2022. 2022. I'm 26 now. So 2022.

So around 22, 23. Yeah. In fact, I think 21. Yeah. Yeah. 21 years old. In fact, I think 21. Yeah. Yeah, 21 years old. So you were that, man, I mean, to make that much money, to be honest,

if that was me at the age of 21, I'd be like, wow. Like, I wouldn't know what to do. By the time I closed out, like before I even left the platform, I waited till everybody contracts, like kind of expired. Like I gave everybody a heads up and I told them what I was about to be working on like

If you still want to work like you know, I'll talk about that because I'm sure we'll get into that But I closed out I had probably at least 1700 agents under me before I left. That's amazing their rise platform. That's amazing And when when these people would sign up would you? With that rice platform because I know it's basically like a broker platform, did they allow you to keep any of the data? No. They did allow me to keep my relationships

with these companies. How so? So, for example, you got Dick's Sporting Goods, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, you had all kind of different companies that were available on the platform. So, the route that I'm doing now, when we talk about that, I put available on the platform. So the route that I'm doing now, when we talk about that,

I put that on my portfolio. That's on my LinkedIn, that's on my resume, and that's how I was able to get contracts on my own, and that's what gave me the confidence to lead the Arise platform alone. So essentially, because of that platform, and let's talk about this, basically of the beginner listening and viewing you right now

because it's very inspiring. I'm very inspired right now. That you used a broker platform and you were able to get the authority of these massive companies to go under your resume because you have the social proof. And I always tell people that. I was just like, you need social proof, right? You know, it's one thing, me and Emilio, and guys, if you guys don't know who Emilio is,

Emilio is running the entire podcast. He's the reason why we are top five in business in the US. Okay, cheers to Emilio. So, with that being said, guys, one thing I always tell all my mentees, and I'm pretty sure you tell them the same thing, you need massive social proof, especially to build your authority.

Yes. And you need experience. That's why I like, when I start with anything, I never say I'm the smartest person in the world. At the end of the day, I'm good at one thing, which is visionary. I'm a startup guy. And then I hire smarter people than me. Exactly. And the one thing I always tell everybody is just like,

dude, you have to provide massive value. So in your situation, that platform gave you massive value. So in your situation, that platform gave you massive value because you were able to connect with these big companies. So you leverage the big company, the authority, and then you started your own. Yes. Okay. Well, let me ask you this. How long since you left that broker platform till starting your own?

Was it right away? No. So basically, I was able to really just see some kind of profit on my own. Yep. That was in December. And April was when I got my first contract on my own. So it took four months.

Four months. So I knew it wasn't going to be instantaneous, because it's a process of like you got to bid on a contract, you got to wait out on a contract, like to see if you're even going to get picked, like you don't know. So like that process is about, I want to say 90 days then itself. So it wasn't right away, no. So let's break down a master class, a mini master class, okay?

So right now imagine you have a classroom of beginners and they just came back from a broker platform And now you are going to explain to them in a very simplified process on how to get their first deal How would you do it? Um? Cliche make sure you have your LLC because no company especially fortune 500 company It's gonna do any kind of business with you if you do not have that. Make sure you have your LLC, make sure you have your EIN as well. I will go on, should I name drop the platforms? Yeah, of course, go ahead.

My favorite platform, very user friendly is BitBanana. I also like BitPrime. BitPrime actually gives you 45 days, they say, free trial. And all of these platforms that I'm mentioning, they all have the same contracts on them. So it's really just pick whichever one works for you. But they have a free trial. And it says 45 days, but I had students that say five months they were able to use the BitPrime platform. And you'll be able to see all the different contracts. Once you get your contract, once you find a contract, we do not want to look for anything such

as any on-site, any physical labor. We want everything to be cloud-based, everything virtual, everything remote. Okay, those are like green flags when it comes to finding a solid contract. Once you find your solid contract, you want to go over to ChatGPT, okay? You want to read through that contract because people don't like to read through the contracts. You may see some contracts, they're 10 pages. You may see some that's like 80 pages. You got to read every single page for yourself so you know exactly what this company is asking of you to do.

Once you read it for yourself, put it into ChatGPT. Let ChatGPT break it down. Say Chat, just break this down in the simplest of forms. What are they asking my call center business to do? How many agencies do you think that they will need? And just gather that data. Then you want to go over to the contract, and it's going to have something that says,

request for proposal. It's going to tell you everything that you need to submit. You want to go over to Google Docs, and you want to have ChatGPT help you out with breaking down that proposal. And then you want to bid on that contract. That's the simplest of forms I can say.

So OK, just based on the steps that you gave us right now. Yes. OK. What can somebody expect on average if they were to land a deal like you landed your first deal? You're going to have to train your own agents. That's something that Arise did for me, but I had to build my own team to train my own people.

You're gonna have to do your own payroll. That's something that Arise would do for me, but now I have to obviously do on my own, because again, now I'm the source. You're the platform. I'm the platform Because again, now I'm the source. You're the platform. I'm the platform now. So now I gotta do everything. And mainly, that's it.

Because great news for you guys, the companies have their own software. So like some people think that you need to have like a CRM built out or, you know, spend 50 grand, 60 grand, even though that's what I did now because I wanted to have my own software or whatnot. But most of these companies do have their own software and what I do is I now integrate my software with theirs. But some companies, they just

have everything for you as far as the infrastructure. So that's really like the meat and potatoes because a lot of people be thinking that, okay, how am I going to basically have a platform or something for them to actually come onto? And no, the contract is going to have the software already. You just need to make sure you can find the agents. Make sure you can provide the services. Okay, before you bid on a contract, just make sure you can provide the services. As long as you can do the job, you're confident in doing the job, you got the best prices,

you got the people that are going to be able to work in excellence They're gonna do business with you. I love that. I love that because I'm a big believer in three pillars Yeah, client acquisition sales and the most important fulfillment. Yes Majority of companies they end up failing going bankrupt because they cannot fulfill. Yeah, and then boom reviews Good business. Yeah, And then boom reviews, good business. Yeah. Right. So that's great. I'm happy that you actually mentioned that because a lot of people need to realize like hey people are paying you money. It is time to execute right. You gotta execute. Alright cool. So let me ask you this. How many people have you

helped actually launch their own virtual call center? Oh, um, let me just think of a range. Let me think of a starting number. Yeah, I know you've been doing this for a while. Exactly. So I've helped, I would just say a minimum of 150 people. Let's just start there 150 people. That's between students like that are part of a mentorship. That's also 101 mentorship so I would say at the minimum 150 okay so 150 business owners you started call centers and is this in the United States or over the world this is well now all over the world so it started off the

United States but now I'm in Jamaica I'm in the Philippines I'm in Belize I'm in South Africa I'm in Guatemala and Dominican I'm in Belize, I'm in South Africa, I'm in Guatemala and Dominican Republic. I love that, I love that. Good for you. Any chance with Spanish call centers? Oh yeah, absolutely. Spanish speaking call centers? For sure, so one of the contracts that actually

I'm pretty sure me and my mentee is gonna get, they were looking for bilingual agents. So that's like common, like Honestly, I like bilingual agents. I want to make sure that they can speak both English and Spanish, especially for my internet providers, type contracts that people are calling in. And yeah, they don't speak the best English, but they do speak Spanish.

I mean, even being out here in Miami, everybody speaks Spanish. Everybody speaks Spanish. I want to learn how to speak Spanish, because I just feel like it's something that, you know, everybody just needs to know. You have to, especially as an entrepreneur, you're now in Miami.

Exactly, I'm everywhere now, so. Exactly. Yeah, the lessons, you know, I learned a little thing or two, so. So let me ask you. Let me ask you, John C. Okay, what would you say is the most common mistake that beginners make when they go ahead and launch their own virtual call center?

What's the most common? Just based on your experience now. They don't trust the process. Mm-hmm. They don't trust the process. So are you saying it's lack of conviction within the process or or they don't or they don't yeah I was gonna say lack of commitment or like discipline to like follow it through discipline Yes, okay, because the way I look at it is like it's a contract Yes, you may have some that's five pages ten pages, but you may have some that's like 60 80 100 pages And it's little tiny words. Yes, it may be a little tedious. Yes. He may be a little antsy okay after the first ten pages you ready to like, you

know, but you have to do that part. Because again, you want to be able to, if that company was standing right in front of your face, you're able to say, okay, you're able to tell that company about whatever that contract was asking of your company to do. You don't want to be up there like, oh, well, like, no, you want to be confident like no, okay, I believe that we will need 50 agents to fulfill this particular Department of Customer Service, nine to five, Monday through Friday, know how like you need to be able to speak the way that like you don't read, it should just really just soak it up

like a sponge. So I would say that people do not trust the process that they're not disciplined. And when I say trust the process, I'm bidding on at least five contracts a week, because I know one is gonna stick. But those one contract for me to actually do probably takes a couple of hours, it does. So if you're doing that couple of hours, five contracts, what's that, like 10 hours,

some people, they don't wanna do that. After the first two contracts, if that, they're like, okay. And then if they don't win the contract, it's like, but see, I trust the process and I let my faith carry me. So like I really think that's why I am very successful in this industry because for one it took a lot of faith for me to even leverize and for me to believe in myself that you know what if they're getting contracts you can do this too you can get contracts as well I didn't know how I was gonna do it didn't have no mentor didn't have no kind of guidance nobody in my industry is doing what I'm doing at the level that I'm

doing it I just had to put two and two together and here we are well so well gotta be disciplined you gotta trust the process no absolutely inconsistency that's what it that's the word I was looking for you got to be So, gotta be disciplined. You gotta trust the process. No, absolutely. And consistency, that's the word I was looking for. You gotta be consistent. No, absolutely. It seems like a lot of the work that you're talking about is the boring work that most people don't wanna do.

It is, it is. Awesome, I love that. Okay, so what would you say is a typical day like for you, now that you're here in Miami? I know you're doing multiple things now. I know you're coming out with a clothing brand, you're talking about streaming now, but your bread and butter is telecom.

Telecom. So what is your average day look like right now in Miami? I wake up in the morning about, I wanna say 5.36 a.m. And first thing I do, my my Bible be right next to me I read yeah I read either a chapter of a certain book or about ten pages I always make sure that's my number in my head at least ten pages right now I'm reading the whole book of Psalm so before I go to bed at night I'm reading about ten pages

when I wake up in the morning I'm reading ten pages so that's first things first and then I go meditate. So right downstairs is water. So I go downstairs, I go look at the yachts. Like it's right in my face because that's next for your girl. Okay, I got to get the yacht. So I'm there and I'm meditating and I'm just really showing God Thanksgiving. Like that is key, I think, to really just allowing God to open doors

for you like I I don't want to start for each but I just love me some Christ okay Christ but anywho after that I go upstairs and I get ready to either go to Pilates or I go to the gym I kind of switch it up so it just depends which mood I'm kind of in. Once I finish my workout then I'm in my office, okay? I'm in my office and I'm having meetings. Every single day I have meetings with my mentees. I check in with them. They'd be excited to send contracts. They'd be excited to have me look over them. So I'm looking over contracts. Even when I'm on a trip most of the time I'm just reading through the contracts, making sure everything

is good. And then I'll probably go catch me a little happy hour at Moxie's, go get me a sangria sometimes, okay? And something healthy off the menu. And then the rest of the evening, I'm doing the same thing, looking at contracts, reading contracts, like in my bed, on the couch. That's it. That's my day. Would you say as an entrepreneur, and you're pretty young, okay, you're how old?

26. You're 26. I mean, at the age of 26, I was barely becoming a cop. I mean, I just didn't know. I was like, I guess I'll be a cop, you know? But no. So kudos to you. Thank you.

Okay, you're doing it. You're doing it. You're doing it. So do you think having a routine is a make it or break it for entrepreneurs? Oh, absolutely. Really? Where people, what is the word says? People perish for the lack of knowledge. And I feel like the same thing.

People perish for the lack of vision. And if you don't have a routine, you're just out here winging it. Facts. You know you can't really think that you're going to achieve let's just say your highest potential by out here just winging it and you ain't got no plan. Absolutely. So like no you need to have a routine like whatever that looks like I tell people take care of the mind body spirit okay you hit those three points you're good to go. Yeah. Alright I don't care what else you do throughout your day. Like I start the day

with prayer, but I'm listening to podcasts about business, about finances, about like just really feeding my mind. I'm meditating. I'm going to the gym. So I'm taking care of my body already took care of my spirit. And then I'm actually doing the work. I'm actually doing the action, you know, especially I know a lot of believers, they just, Oh God, I'm actually doing the work. I'm actually doing the action, you know, especially I know a lot of believers they just, oh God I'm just waiting for a miracle. Like no, God is waiting on you to meet him halfway. You gotta do some work, you know what I'm saying? You gotta put in some work and I used to think like that though, like God I'm doing everything right, I'm praying, and then God is like, but you're not really taking no action. So I'm like'm like, okay, let me take some action then so like once action meets

God halfway everything else is just gonna make sense. So having a routine for me just really put things in perspective I love that like um, it kept me actually looking forward to waking up the next day and Doing it all over again. Yeah, you Yeah. So it's something to look forward to. I love that. And it keeps you disciplined. No, yeah, it does. It does. What would you say?

OK, and this is based off personal experience, right? So not everybody may relate to this. Me, myself, I've gone through my trials and errors of entrepreneurship. I've gone through roadblocks. I've gone through depression. I've gone through, you know, roadblocks, I've gone through depression, I've gone through having family doubt me, I had exes like literally talk shit to my face about like starting business. What has been the hardest part of entrepreneurship for you? Where you were

about to like give up? I'll give you an example, all right? And you guys probably heard this, if you guys have been listening up to the level of podcasts here for the past 15 months. With me, it was actually last year. Last year, it was, you know, ever since I left law enforcement in early 2021, I've been on the go, on the go, on the go. Same similar mindset, you were like,

I'm spending money, I'm spending money. I'm making money. I'm spending money. So for me, it was more of, I have a big heart. So for people, even like their friends and family, if they're like, hey, give me an opportunity, I will find a way to get them in my organization, some way, somehow. Yeah.

Right? And I gave quite a few people opportunities. Well, it sort of bit me in that, but in 2024, I had one COO steal over $200,000 for me. I had another COO who just almost bankrupt one of my businesses. I had three businesses last year, and luckily I was able to keep the businesses afloat but that's after a lot of stress that I did not need and I gained like 40 pounds

last year which I lost it but I'm just saying like that was that was a very stressful time that I didn't realize it because I was so busy yeah I was so busy and on top of that I got married I I was happy, I was sad, it was crazy. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was chaos. But see the thing is, because as entrepreneurs, we get so in tune and focused with our daily routine and we're just knocking it out,

but we're not thinking like, hey, are we good? Like mentally, health-wise, like, are you good? Right? And I remember, Emilio, you remember like, there was a couple episodes I was sitting here, I was just like, don't become an entrepreneur, do do sales instead and I was probably one of like the podcast that went viral People are like what's wrong with this guy? Yeah, but yeah, what would you say? So for me? I would say Same thing. I'm gonna use your example. I have a big heart. Okay. Yeah, I have had people that you know

I have a big heart. I have had people that have called me, close friends, and they want an opportunity as well. Show them the ropes, okay? Basically show them how to start their call center. And also, if you want to partner with me in my mentorship, I'll give you a referral. Whoever you bring to me, I'll give you like 800 bucks. I'll hook them up, all right? I've had people literally, and then not even just close friends and families,

I came out with an ebook as well. I had an ebook basically, The Arise Route, okay? I had an ebook, The Arise Route, A to Z. Like that ebook did crazy numbers, okay? I had an ebook, the Arise route, A to Z. That ebook did crazy numbers, okay? Because it had everything up in there. Just go take it and do what you do with it. But I had people scamming my stuff, stealing my content.

In my previous membership, I had people that were not there for the right reasons. They were taking my content sending it to people Duplicating it and acting like it's theirs especially the rise thing and That really kind of discouraged me because I'm like I'm helping y'all out and y'all really trying to like scam people and Bamboozle people saying I can help you build your call center And then y'all your call center and then

y'all take their money and then y'all ditch and leave. Like I had an encounter at Cumberland Mall in Atlanta and I was there and I'm just shopping out of my business and a girl walks up to me and she's like, oh my God, you are so pretty. And I'm like, thank you, because I'm just thinking it's just a compliment from another woman. She's like, oh, you're that girl that does the call centers. I'm like, yeah, yeah. She's like, oh you're that girl that does the call centers. I'm like, yeah Yeah, she's like I'll be watching her YouTube video. She's like that's so crazy like three months ago

I got scammed by somebody pretending to be you And that kind of was scary to me cuz I'm like I'm out and about that's what I'm saying What if she did not figure out that that was not me? Yeah, it happens and she comes up running up on me You know I'm saying? And now I'm catching a charge for, you know, hitting you and all that. And like, that's crazy to me. So I would say that really discouraged me when I would see people like post my content, steal my content, act like it's theirs.

But that was all a rise too. Now they all back on me. They all back on me. Because they're like, if you don't get into it, I'll tell about why Arise is just not it anymore, but it's not. So now they're like, she's still in the game? What is she doing? So yeah, y'all stole the sauce when it came to the Arise. And look at me, I don't pivot it's something even better something completely different but during that time it was

just kind of discouraging and honestly it just made me angry yeah yeah it made me angry I'm not gonna act like it hurt me it just made me angry cuz I'm like how dare y'all like telecom you heard when we had our meeting I'm passionate about I don't play about like my knowledge, my experience. You know your stuff. It's not something that can be just duplicated or no like you gotta really have some skin in this game. So well I mean you're the first consultant I actually have seen in the online space talk about telecom and call centers and all that and I've worked with call centers you know I Telecom and call centers and all that and I've worked with call centers, you know, I short story back in 2022 when I launched a My second a figure company. I was looking for call centers and and at that time I didn't know anyone else and I didn't want to use the same call center that I had for my first company

So then I'm looking we're getting referrals, you know friends of that no friends. Yeah, I end up spending over four hundred thousand dollars trying to vet three different call centers. And I had no way of telling myself I was getting scammed. Because you don't know if they're actually calling. Can I ask you what was it that they weren't doing? They weren't getting leads. Like at all. Got you.

It was horrible. Like it took one call center literally a month and a half to get one lead yeah I'm like this is insane like I was like where is the money going you know and and it was it was these guys online that obviously they're like in different countries but they're they're American yeah but they're like hey dude you know I live in in Cancun right now I'll build you you know your virtual call center you know oh yeah all this stuff right and you don't know where the money the money is going but

essentially you know I guess that's what sort of scared me from going ahead and looking for different call centers because there's not really like a well represented platform out there for regular people like me to actually go and be like, okay, I could get them from this call center. Right. So let me ask you from, you said the platform, Arise. Yes. Okay. Right now, are they still in business? They are. Yeah. Okay. I check in sometimes.

Okay, okay. You check in sometimes. You got to, you know, it's market research. Right. It's market research. It definitely is, because I have people, like every single day, I can pull up my phone and show some DMs right now,

oh, are you still doing the Arise? You still got the Arise ebook? No, I haven't done that for over two years now. Right. Like, no, we're on the bigger and better things. Why do you guys still want to continue to use Arise, a middleman platform where it's so inconsistent now? They switched over CEOs.

So the CEO that we had previously, I don't know what happened, but he wasn't there anymore. We got the new CEO. He promised to basically remove the restrictions on what states you could hire. Because some, what the thing about Arise also is that it's restricted certain states you couldn't even hire in but I would have my agency use a virtual address and then they would do business like so I finessed

it a little bit but what was the excuse me to interrupt you but what was the reason for that why wouldn't they allow some states to not be able to pick up agents from? I believe that it was just simply, I think it has something to do with like maybe taxes. Oh got it. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. It's always about taxes. Yeah. I think it has something to do with taxes is why they like Washington wasn't one. What's another one? Of course it wouldn't be on the top of my head right now. But it was like about six states. Connecticut wasn't one. Really like your up north type states were just not part of the rise. Like you couldn't hire

people in that area. Okay. Was California one of them? Yep, California was another one. I knew it. California was another one. I knew it. Yep, California. Of course. Yep, California was another one. Sure was. So the thing about Arise is it was just very limited. So that's what got me off the platform anyway. I kind of felt like I was boxed in. Certain states you couldn't hire in. And then what happened was the jobs started becoming limited.

They started losing contracts. So no more Home Depot was on there. No more Barnes and Depot was on there. No more Barnes & Noble was on there. Like and they had like these like little starter up companies. Got it. So like and they have I think I went on there before and they had like maybe Neiman Marcus on there like you know but it was like really like companies I just really never heard of like energy companies and stuff like that and Then the hours, you know hours started getting like cut short. So it just became an inconsistent platform

So I'm like not only do I know I'm called to this industry because I had a woman prophesied to me and she told me she was like you're gonna be a woman to provide many jobs And you're gonna be a woman of many resources and that was before I even thought to even do a call center So now that I'm doing I'm doing I'm like yes, I have gave jobs to thousands of people You know, but um, I say that to say with the rise. I had to learn how okay This platform is no longer it we got a new CEO He changes stuff up now people still coming to me trying to start a call center business, this is all I know, Arise. This is how I built my success off this platform

that's no longer doing anything. So now I have to figure out a way, okay, I gotta figure out how to get these contracts on my own. So like, when I tell you, honestly, God really connected the pieces. I still don't know how I even like, honestly know what I know.'t know how I even like honestly know what I know. Because really all I knew was Arise. Like I never thought to even get

off the platform. But now, when it comes to getting contracts on my own and like securing clients on my own, it's like I'm a beast when it comes to that. So what is the next step that ended up happening where you were like, okay arises no longer, I'm going to go ahead do my own thing. And now what what are you currently doing? And then also what's the future hold? Getting more contracts, getting more contracts, getting more contracts. I just released my club, telecom, linear. Let's let's dive into yeah, so If you guys did it didn't know I had actually a meeting with John C and it was regarding Trying to get a call center and we were like, hey, we got to meet right?

Yeah, you just moved to Miami at the time I believe and I was like awesome, right? Yeah, so then Start talking and then I see you post on social media, telecom millionaires. So tell us what telecom millionaires is. So telecom millionaires club is a community, a club, full of millionaires. When I think of club, I think of wealth. I think of money.

And I tell people before they get in this industry, this is not a little girl, little boy industry. This is not a little girl little boy industry This is a shark industry if you a little fish you not going to survive in telecom I I literally just had a call yesterday with my VIPs inside the telecom Millionaire club and I was telling one of the girls she was a little bit like Because she has a hearing today at 2 o'clock with one of the companies that she's trying to get a contract with she was a little bit of like shy shy and timid, and I was telling her, I said,

no, these companies, they're gonna talk to you, and you need to know what you're talking about, so you need to have some confidence with some base in your voice. That's not gonna fly over here. So, Telecom Millionaires Club, wealth, mindsets only. I'm pretty sure you see me say that all the time. I only want the wealthiest of mindsets because I want people to understand that this is an

industry that will change your life generations after you generations your parents you leave a legacy telecom all right so telecom in there's club is just a club full of millionaires and we all do telecom and we talk about all things call centers we're building call centers, we're getting contracts, we're obtaining clients because that's something else that I'm teaching as well. Outside of just like the local, state, and federal way, so local is like your city, state is like, you know, the state of Miami, and then federal is like your government type contracts.

So outside of those little three, I'm also teaching how to secure contracts and clients through LinkedIn. Wow. that's like that's powerful So that's that's new that's new inside of Telecom Millionaire's Club, so that's like Yeah, that's gonna be a game changer because those are like the little Small contracts like you're probably making like five to ten K a month Could be more who knows you know for a lot of people five to ten k is good well listen you get Like three or four like you know now you making at least 15 20k a month That's good money, so and then a local state federal those are the ones that take like 90 days

And there's a little bit more tedious work and stuff, but those are the ones that's paying like millions So the contract that we're about to bid on is on 55 million for one year to bid on is 55 million for one year. Listen, I've come across contracts, 55 million, 44 million, 22 million, but for four years. Typically it's for four years, but this particular contract is for one year, but you're dealing with Medicaid and insurance. So I think that's why it's 55 million,

but that was like, my mentee found that contract for me. So I was like, oh yeah, that's the one that she had a hearing for So that's awesome. Y'all keep me in your prayers like I that's that's very that's very No, no, yeah, I'm like $55 million deal. I love that. I love that here is insane. That's like a hundred and forty five Yeah, I'm on and by the time you're done paying your people and paying your team or whatnot You're probably still gonna take away. let's just say a hundred K minimum.

It's good money. Her mom. I love that. Have to get a good tax person. Yes. Oh, for sure. Get you a CPA. I got one if y'all need one.

Love it. Love it. So my question to you is telecom millionaires. So is it meant for like beginners or is it meant for like everyone? Beginners, intermediate, professional, people that have call centers already. Like who's it meant for? So I have people that's already inside of the group. They don't have a call center.

Some of them do have a call center. Some of them want to scale more within their call center. So it's for everybody. So if let's say, example me. Yes. If I was just like, okay, I want to learn humble beginnings. I want to know how I could go about learning the structure, then going and building up to building the call center. Would that club be for me? Oh yeah, absolutely. Okay. So literally our first day was yesterday, like our first meeting, but they already have homework that they got Friday and the homework was basically the foundation setting up the foundation of your call center

So somebody joined telecom Millionaires Club You may be a little bit behind because we're past that now But you can go watch those modules and I'm very thorough step by step showing you everything and you'll be able to set up your call center business, like the foundation of it. And then I have a whole other sector where I'm talking about what contracts do we even look for, like red flags, green flags. Do we want to bid on this one? Do we not want to bid on this one and why?

And then I get into the actual fulfillment of the contract. So now we're doing the proposals. Now we're doing the cost proposal, the technical proposal, the business summaries and everything. So now we're doing the proposals now we're doing a cost proposal the technical proposal the Business summaries and everything so now we're doing that then I'm showing you how to actually place your bid on the contract and then after That is to rinse and repeat so it's not it's like the tedious the most work. You're gonna have to do is read No that works I love that bad, just read. No, that works. Yeah. I love that. OK, so then with Telecom Millionaires, what's your plan to scale it? Like, what do you want to do?

Are you going to host events? Like, I saw that you announced that you're going to be doing a yacht mastermind in July. So I love it. I love those type of ideas. We're doing it in person ourselves in June in LA, which is going gonna be very good But but I feel like what you have going on. It's brand new

Especially in the online space. Yeah people people don't tell people how to build traditional businesses Yeah, I believe call centers are traditional businesses. Oh, you know, you're still talking to people using exactly right exactly So no, it's good. So what's what's your future plans for telecom millionaires? telecom millionaires club I Would say my future plans honestly is To just birth millionaires and telecom like I want to be able to Just see people Drive and like honestly just take off with this new way that I'm teaching.

That's the future, just get contracts. Just get contracts. That's it, and do what you need to do with it. Invest into some real estate, start that, whatever business that you got on your heart that you needed the finances to do, go buy the yacht. That's my future, that's my near future, I gotta get the yacht. So it's know, that's my future. That's my near future. I gotta get the yacht.

So it's like, the future I just see is like, people saying Telecom Millionaires Club was the best thing that ever happened to them as far as like not knowing how to navigate or maneuver in the call center industry or, you know, they didn't have the guidance. They didn't know which direction to go. And then they came across Telecom Millionaires Club and now their call center has skyrocketed

10x like that's that's the future for me. That's awesome. That's awesome. And then okay so telecom Millionaires but then also your telecom call centers and then your telecom infrastructure was your starter company and I love that. Now you're working on a few other things. What else are you working on? So I have right now, I just took my exam for here out here in Miami. So I took the class exam pass that I take the state exam at the end of this month. I know I'm going to pass that as well. So that's one thing I wanted to do.

I said when I come out here I still want to continue real estate Atlanta was getting a little too dried up for me so I was like Miami first first time I came Miami my professor took me to the development of the new st. Regis building and He was already like I will assign condos to you Just get your license cuz again when they hear the passion to drive cuz I love real estate too Like that's a whole not sure That's your passion. I that's a passion real estate. I feel like everybody needs to have a stream of income in real estate

I don't know that you're doing the Airbnb. Yeah fix-and-flips whatever you get your license Or you don't investor like make sure that you have a stream of income in real estate So yes, so that's what I'm working on right now getting my state exam take it at the end of this month So that's what I'm working on right now, getting my state exam, take it at the end of this month. And what else? Neck and Aura, which is my fitness line. That is on Friday on the 23rd. I think that's going to be the 23rd of May this month.

So neck and aura, honestly, you know, Miami, everybody wears active wear. Everybody wears fitness clothes during the day. Like when I walk out my apartment that's all I see. The tennis skirts, the two piece sets and that's all I like to wear too. Like it's comfortable. So Naked Aura, I decided, I used to have a company so I used to do e-commerce like Amazon drop shipping and eBay. So yeah, so I used to sell lingerie. So Naked Aura, birth from Naked J lingerie. That's what it used to be called back then.

But Naked, I remember I was inside of Walmart at the time, and you know the Naked Juice? I was thinking of the name, I was already asking God, like, you know, I need the name, and I seen Naked Juices everywhere, like everywhere I went, I kept seeing Naked. So I'm like, hmm, Naked, okay, and then I was in an uber one day and a guy was like how about naked Jay? And I said oh, I like that naked Jay so naked just really the meaning of naked for me is when you're naked you're yourself

raw unfiltered Everything is just laid out and it's nothing to hide So and then aura now because that's what my fitness line is called, naked aura. Your aura is this, your confidence, how you speak, how you walk in a room, how you captivate the room. Like, you know? It's a vibe, exactly. So naked aura, just in the simplest of terms,

unapologetically being yourself. So unapologetically doing whatever it is that you know you should be doing in this lifetime and being bold a badass while doing it as well. So Naked Oral Lunch is on Friday. I want every single woman that touches my naked or inequality is crazy. Okay my first vendor is the vendor I stuck with. Fast shipping and I had a feeling again when you just let go let God he gave me the vision already for the fitness line I literally just have been meeting him

halfway and everything else has just been aligning the vendor was great communication was great the quality is great everything is great okay so naked aura when the girls like when y'all put on my pieces y'all are gonna feel that that aura y'all are gonna want to go to the gym y'all not gonna want to sit on the couch wearing my clothes y'all gonna want to get up and out y'all are gonna feel that aura. Y'all are gonna wanna go to the gym. Y'all are not gonna wanna sit on the couch wearing my clothes. Y'all gonna wanna get up and out. Y'all gonna wanna show it off. In fact, the company that I'm partnering with,

Miami Pilates Company, the owner, she had to go take her kids to the school dance. She literally wore one of my pieces and put a skirt on top. So it's like, whether you're working out, whether you're gonna go get a drink or something with your friends your homegirls like Naked or it's gonna be the vibe taking over this summer. So I love that I gotta I gotta get a few pieces for the wife for sure. Yeah. No, I already got our total

I love that. I love that. So John C. Let's do this Tell the audience If if you could do three, okay, three of the best business books you've ever read. Okay. What would you recommend? Sorry to put you on the spot. You're definitely putting me on the spot.

It's okay, it's okay. I don't want to say, okay, everybody says this one. Rich Dad for Dad, okay? That's a good one, solid. That's like mandatory. Okay Another one I would say is it has to be financed. Okay, the energy bus okay, that taught me about communication and dealing with people like in business that could have like different kind of Energies and stuff when to get on the bus when to get off the bus. Um, and then the third one I'll just say the Bible. That's the blueprint. Love that. I love that. I love that. I'm like, God, I got to say the Bible. Okay. That's

the ultimate blueprint. And when you really read your Bible, you'll see how many different entrepreneurs were in the Bible. Oh, no, absolutely. Yeah. There's so many groups here in Miami that are entrepreneurs that do Bible study. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. So I would say rich that poor dad. That's like but I have if you guys follow me on social media, I'll post like some photos something because I'm like a I don't remember the title of the books, but I do remember what the covers and stuff look like. Okay. Top three energy buzz rich dad poor dad and the Bible. Okay. And for the last question. All right. So this is the level of podcast, I always go ahead and I mean, we basically we made this podcast to help people with self help,

motivation, mindset, which is the biggest driver and you know, you being successful in life, right? So right now, somebody that just listened to your badass story, okay, about being a telecom millionaire, what would you tell them. What would you tell them? What would you tell them if you need to give them a few words of motivation, self help and they're looking to start their own telecom business or any business and they're looking at you as motivation? Okay, be consistent and stay on top of your game. Make sure that you're able to not allow the voice of other people, when they see what you're doing, allow that to throw you off of your game.

Because when people think call centers, like yes, the people when you call into AT&T, Verizon, the people that you're talking to on the phone, they just think it's like just kind of unachievable where it takes so much to get started. But for me, all it took was patience, consistency, and devotion. And if you can truly just be a student of this game, you're gonna go places. It's just that a lot of people, they do,

they back out of it because it's not a overnight success, but no business is. So don't ever think, in fact, don't ever think that any business is an overnight success anyways because it's gonna take work. Anytime you're building something great, it's not gonna be easy to get there. So you have to just make sure that you know the end goal of why you're doing what you're doing,

and that's gonna give you the drive to do what you need to do, the steps you need to take, so that you can meet that end goal of why you're doing what you're doing and that's going to give you the drive to do what you need To do the steps you need to take so that you can meet that angle, but just be consistent Telecom just be consistent and that's it. I love that. Yeah simplicity equals success guys You just got to execute and I gotta say delusion feed success be delusional million-dollar contracts like you're gonna be like success be delusional. When you see these million dollar contracts like you're gonna be like uh that's no yeah you could do it I did it so you can do it as well. You gotta be delusional to be a visionary yeah because no one else is gonna see your vision. Nobody's gonna nobody's

seen mine not even my parents. I love that. They're like what are you doing? They're usually common I mean my parents are same thing you know they they weren't over here cheering for me until, you know, they actually saw major proof. I'm talking about major proof. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Even when I hit my first mill, they were like, maybe you got lucky. You know?

Yeah. So I don't know. But anyways, that is the level of podcast, guys. This is our guest, John C. She is running currently Telecom Millionaires Club. Check it out. You got your clothing line and then where can the audience or listeners and our viewers actually find you? I'm on YouTube as my name John C. Hobson and I'm on tick-tock for I'm at I'm dot John C.

as well as Instagram at I'm dot John C. I am dot J o n C I only John C in the world a lot of motivational post on a daily basis. Yes. Good stuff. I love it. I love it. I love it.

With that being said guys, make sure to share this with someone who you know can help. Okay guys is the level of podcast we are currently ranked top three in business in the United States guys. Keep going ahead and seeing those five star reviews on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you might be listening to this, guys. And also, make sure to add us on YouTube, guys. My name is Paul Alex. This is the Level Up Podcast.

This is Jaunty. We'll catch you on the next one. See ya. Thanks for listening up to the Level Up Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend, and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you

tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.