🥷How an anime “nerd” started a $5 million business

How Japanese cartoons helped him slice his way to millions.

“Being able to own your own time and being able to place a value on your time, I don’t think you can trade that for anything in the world.”

- Isaac Medeiros, founder of Mini Katana

Now, if you’re not a huge anime fan then you might not know just how crazy Isaac is as a businessman. Here are some quick stats:

My boy Isaac is living the anime dream!

What is so fascinating about this business is that the product is so unique.

I would have never thought that someone was making 7 figures just selling replica swords to a bunch of otakus! (Otaku means someone who loves anime and Japanese culture)

But Isaac’s business proves that if there is passion in a specific niche, then there is money to be made.

1. He didn’t choose the anime life. The anime life chose him.

The best way to make sure you stay in business is to sell things that people need.

Businesses like real estate, health care, and the food industry are here to stay because they are in our everyday life.

And you guys know how annoying it is when someone forces a product you don’t need down your throat.

But there is one thing that is just as lucrative as selling things people need.

And that is having an insanely passionate audience.

I like to call these types of customers “ride or dies”.

These customers will buy anything you sell them because they identify with your brand and product.

That is why companies like Nike, Adidas, and Columbia Sportswear make billions selling jerseys to passionate fans.

They are selling the opportunity for people to identify with their passions.

Isaac knew this, and after 8 failed businesses, he decided to throw his hat in the ring one more time.

Now, when I say that Isaac was someone who loves anime, I mean he REALLY LOVES anime.

To give you some context, there is an anime series called “One Piece”, and it has over 1,300 episodes.

Each episode is 30 minutes long at least.

And he watched the entire series.

THREE TIMES!!

That’s over 30,000 minutes of anime action goodness!

So, he loved anime and knew that plenty of people loved it too.

What he also noticed was that so many anime fans loved to do something called “cosplay”.

That is when anime fans create crazy costumes to dress up like their favorite anime characters.

And some of these costumes are absolutely insane and cost tens of thousands of dollars!

This cosplay costume of this video game character Rhinehart cost this guy $30,000! click here to see how he made it!

So Isaac knew that there was a market for anime products, so he decided to make a small prototype product just to see if people would be interested in his business.

It was a Samurai Pen, and it became a huge hit.

He sold over $20,000 worth of Samurai Pens in around 6 months, so he knew that this product had potential.

He then started developing full-sized katanas and started to cut away his competition!

The three keys to Isaac’s business being successful are:

1. He started a business based on his passions.

2. He made a small MVP or minimum viable product so that he could test the market and see if his business would even work.

3. He made sure his customer base had a lot of money, so he wouldn't have to worry about his product being seen as too expensive.

2. He started to slice up your YouTube feed.

You gotta spend money to make money.

….Right?

Well, if you ask anybody on Wall street dripped in Gucci and driving their new Mercedes S class, they would say yes.

But if you ask the chamber of commerce, over %50 of small businesses start at home with no startup capital. Click here for more!

So we can see that there are many companies that start with no money, no employees, and no clout that become very successful.

This method is usually called “Bootstrapping.”

And Isaac is the perfect definition of someone who completely bootstrapped his company from the ground up.

When Isaac first launched his katana company, he tried to figure out a way to market his business.

Since he sells a physical product, a lot of people would think that he spends money on ads.

But Isaac didn’t have much money to start.

So he marketed using a method that I f***ing love.

He did Content Marketing.

Now this may sound like some new crazy genius idea that no one has heard of.

But its really simple.

All Isaac did was create really fun and engaging content, and uploaded that to YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

That’s literally it.

He used short TikToks that were super fun to watch, and he used that to send people to his longer videos which he posted on YouTube.

And then once he had them on YouTube he would send people to his website to buy his katanas!

He basically created a “Content Funnel” that took people to his website.

And his videos were SOOOOO entertaining!

He would basically show the strength of his katanas by slicing different objects.

With his amazing content, Isaac was able to grow to over 2 million subscribers in just a year and a half!

Once his social media blew up, he started to hire workers to create the content for him.

This then led to him having a completely automated content machine that would build his business for almost no money.

To this day, Isaac has spent $0 on advertising.

3. He turned his lifelong struggle into a superpower.

When it comes to business, you shouldn’t be too emotional.

Now don’t get me wrong, were all human.

Its not good to be a completely emotionless person with no regard for anything or anyone.

But its also not good to start breaking down and crying when bad things happen in your business.

You have to find balance in your mindset as a business owner.

If you are too emotional, it could:

1. Cause you to make poor business decisions, because you will follow your feelings instead of doing what is best for the company.

2. Cause you to give up because going through the emotional roller coaster of business can be exhausting.

Now emotions are something that Isaac has always struggled with understanding.

That is because Isaac has autism, and he states that it was always hard to gauge how someone else was feeling.

Isaac explains his experience like this:

He even remembers a time when he was in an Uber with his girlfriend, and he got super mad because his Uber said he wanted to stop by Starbucks to get a drink.

The thing is, his driver was joking.

But he didn’t understand that, so he got extremely mad.

His girlfriend told him it was a joke and that he should chill out.

Even though it was and still is a huge struggle, Isaac says that it helps him with his business.

This is because Isaac can look at a problem and completely take away all emotion to find the solution.

He says that he thinks critically about his business 12 hours a day, with almost no emotion.

When he thinks about his business, my boy Isaac is the definition of LOCKED IN.

If anyone else would just sit and think about their business, it would probably make them exhausted or give them anxiety.

That’s why I think that the way that Isaac’s brain works is literally a superpower.

Another person who is wildly successful and is on the spectrum is Elon Musk.

On Saturday Night Live, he stated that he was the first guest to speak with aspergers.

Its just so amazing that so many people may think that having something like autism would be a disadvantage, but people like Isaac are proof that if you have something that seems like a weakness, it could be your biggest strength.

🎮You just leveled up your mindset today!

What did you think of this week’s newsletter? Did you like it? Was it entertaining and informative? How can I do better? Hit reply to let me know!

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Thank you for reading like always!

- Zach

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