In this exclusive e-commerce success story interview, we dive deep with Josh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur from Melbourne, Australia, who transformed his traditional pool renovation business into a million-dollar enterprise in just over a year. After joining The Real World training program, Josh leveraged e-commerce marketing skills to revolutionize his approach, generating over $1 million in revenue with 50% profit margins while creating time freedom for his family.
E-commerce Success Story Q&A
Let’s start off with your name and age. How old are you and what’s your name?
My name is Josh. I’m 32 years old.
Where are you from?
From Melbourne, Australia.
You’ve joined The Real World, correct? How long have you been in The Real World? And what brought you to it?
I’ve been in The Real World for almost two years now. What brought me to The Real World was I actually heard about Andrew when he got cancelled. And after I had my first child, I was walking my dog. This was about almost two years ago, and I read one of his emails saying, “It’s $50. What are you doing? Join.” So I joined and I remember that so distinctly and that was the day honestly my life changed.
What were some of the things that you were introduced to in The Real World? How did that change your life and what made the difference?
Okay. So numerous, but I’ll start. I’ll tell you a little bit of my story. Something clicked in my brain when my missus gave birth. Up until 2 days until she gave birth, she had to work. And it’s something that haunts me to this day because I felt responsible for that. At the time I had a pool renovation company which I was partners in and I needed to find some more income because she wasn’t working. So I joined the ecom campus after I joined The Real World. When I joined the ecom campus I started selling dog collars. Custom name collars was my little store that I was helped create. They did good, they did okay, but I wasn’t pulling in the real money that I needed. I learned a lot during that. I learned Facebook ads, Instagram ads, target audiences, ads manager, so on. After doing this for a few months, I needed more money. So I joined the business campus. Once I learned how to run and operate a business correctly, I broke away from my business partner and I started my own thing. I started March last year since learning sales, marketing, clientele, body language, straighten up the way I spoke and so on. Many, many things. Since last year, my business has generated over a million dollars in revenue with about 50% profit.
How did you first end up at the e-commerce campus and did you take any of the skills from there to apply to the business campus?
100%. It was the ecom that I learned so quickly how to jump on Facebook and run ads. Once I learned how to run ads, I was running ads for my business. When I was running ads for my business, I was getting calls every day for swimming pools. “Come and renovate my swimming pool.” Obviously, not everybody in Melbourne, Australia has a pool. It’s quite a niche market. So to be able to get a call a day for a swimming pool was unheard of in our business, in our line of work. It’s quite a competitive business. It’s very competitive, but pools are scarce down here. There’s not many pools. To get a call a day was unheard of where I am. Yes. And this was able to happen because I was just all over Facebook. I was all over Instagram, you know, I just knew how to target people. Once I learned that in ecom, Anie Arnold just literally fine-tuned it a little bit and it just became easy.
How long after joining The Real World did you start seeing money come in?
Pretty instantaneously once I started The Real World I joined that ecom campus. I made $10k of sales in the first month which was pretty good selling dog collars. I spent a bit of money on ads, but I made a bit of a profit. The next month was like $15k, which was pretty good. For someone that’s never ever sat in front of a computer. I was sitting in front of a computer, bro. Like, I’m a hands-on guy. I’m a tradesman. Also, my line of work was on and off, seasonal. It’s very seasonal pool. From about halfway through the year in June till December, it’s very busy because everybody wants to get the pool ready for summer in December. Whereas the first half of the year, you have to find a bit of work with someone else or not work or do this. I didn’t know what to do in those times. But after joining The Real World, that’s when I was able to fill those spots, learning, studying, and yeah, I could never, if I broke both my legs tomorrow, I would still be making the same amount of money.
What were some of the lessons like how did you figure out your first ad and how to target your audience? Did you have someone guide you?
Yes. So the professor in the ecom campus helped me. With dog collars, okay, who likes dogs? Women love dogs. They see little puppy. They love dogs. So bang straight away, my target audience was women. Then it was most people love dogs and I said buy your friends a gift, buy your loved one a gift, something that they can remember even if the dog has passed away, it’s got their name on it, you know, hang it up. I was taught all these little tricks where you touch the emotional sales. And then when I learned with Anie he said you know the pass… what do you call it… agitate… yeah. That was good. From knowing these things and learning these things, you obviously start understanding people a bit better. So when you speak to people, you can touch on emotional sides of people in order to get them to make the decision to spend money on their pool. Yeah. Little things like that and when I joined the business campus that just really was the turning point for me where just sales, you know, touched up on all the marketing, body language, learning how to speak to people, learning how to build a rapport. Getting them to trust you because these people, the biggest job I did was $170,000, and the people are paying you that kind of money. I’m 32 years old. That money should be going to someone that’s been in the industry for 50 years, but they’re giving me that money. They’ve got to trust you. That’s a lot of money. So you got to earn that trust. All these little tricks that I learn.
What was it exactly you were doing in the business campus? How did that make you more money?
Okay. So the biggest thing was probably sales. The biggest thing with sales, I would say understanding people. Once you learn how to sell, your business sort of sells itself once it’s established. You don’t even really need to sell, but the starting bit was hard. I remember becoming so sharp speaking to people. I used to be able to answer any question straight off the bat. I still can, but everything I learned was just on the tip of my tongue and I could just bang bang bang bang bang. Every person I dealt with was just different. I would have to adapt to their personality. So I’m fluent in it almost. Yes. Something big that Anie said is you step into their position and you’re looking at you. You’ve got to ask yourself: would you trust you? Exactly. So all these little things I learned. Now I’ll be honest with you, I don’t prospect people on the phone. I pretty much sus out if they’ve got money or not. If they don’t, I say, “Sorry, I’m not your guy. I’m too busy.” But at the moment, I’m booked out till December. I have $600,000 worth of work ahead of me, completely booked in, deposits paid, everything ready to go, which I’ve lined up myself. And that’s all because my business has been established in just over a year.
During your journey, what were some of the barriers or failures you faced where you learned lessons or figured out how to overcome them?
One thing that I love and really admire Andrew for is the saying “built different.” That just makes me when you do something hard and you go, I’m built different. You know, I’ll give you an example. Yesterday I was in what we call Bunnings in Australia, it’s like a big homemaker center where you buy timber and hardware. I had my big trailer on the back, a 6m trailer, and I couldn’t make the turn to go through and I was stuck in the warehouse. I pull the car over, get out, take the trailer off, pull my car out. These guys were looking at me like, “What’s he going to do?” I started to pull my trailer. I’m a 100 kilo guy, a decent sized guy. I pulled my trailer about 20 meters around the corner. These guys are just looking at me like, “Do you need a hand?” No, I’m good. I get in the car, hook up the car and trailer, and I’m like, “Build different, bro.” You got to attack everything like that. Everything that you see that you feel like is going to be hard. Like, I’m built different. I’m ready for this. You have to always be ready. If you stay ready, you don’t have to prepare to be ready. You stay ready all the time. He says, “Walk like you’re ready to fight.” In one of his top G tutorials, walk just walk ready.
If you could go back and speak to your younger self who hasn’t joined The Real World yet, would you advise him to start at a younger age with what you know now?
I would have started, you know, I stopped school at 16 and I wasted years doing stupid things. You know what it’s like? I was always working with my old man, so I had a trade. I could work. I had a skill under my belt. I’m a tradesman. So that was good. But I would have joined when I was 16, done that after work, and right now I’d probably be sitting with you guys. You’ve still, even in the time that you’ve been in two years, what’s that? $1,200 and the think about the return on investment is ridiculous amounts of money. It’s almost free. I say to people, it’s free. The reason why they have to charge is because we need people to take it serious. When you apply yourself and you pay for this, it forces you to actually try. It’s amazing, man. I’m glad you’ve been here to tell your story today.
Josh’s Business Stats
Josh’s pool renovation business has achieved remarkable growth in just over a year, transforming from a seasonal trade into a thriving enterprise with consistent high-ticket clients and booked-out schedules.
- Generated over $1 million in revenue in just over 12 months
- Maintains approximately 50% profit margins on all projects
- Currently booked out until December with $600,000 in pending work
- Secured individual contracts up to $170,000
- Built a reliable team employing family members including two brothers and sister
| Business Metric | Performance |
|---|---|
| Annual Revenue | $1,000,000+ |
| Profit Margin | 50% |
| Business Age | Just over 1 year |
| Location | Melbourne, Australia |
| Current Pipeline | $600,000 |
| Largest Single Job | $170,000 |
Josh’s Method
Josh’s approach combines digital marketing precision with traditional sales psychology, creating a powerful system for attracting and converting high-value clients in a niche market.
- Applied Facebook and Instagram ad targeting from e-commerce training directly to pool renovation business
- Used emotional selling techniques learned from dog collar business to connect with pool owners
- Mastered rapport building and trust establishment to secure high-ticket contracts up to $170k
- Adapted communication style to different client personalities using business campus sales training
- Implemented seasonal gap planning to maintain year-round income instead of struggling during off-season
- Developed a qualification system to focus only on high-value prospects with available budget
Josh’s Tools
Josh leverages a simple but effective tech stack focused on advertising and customer relationship management to dominate his local market.
- Facebook Ads Manager: Primary platform for generating daily qualified leads
- Instagram Advertising: Visual platform to showcase before/after pool transformations
- The Real World E-com Campus: Learned fundamental targeting and ad creation skills
- The Real World Business Campus: Mastered sales, marketing, and client communication
- Custom Website: Built with guidance to establish professional online presence
Key Notes
Josh’s journey reveals powerful lessons about skill transferability and mindset that any entrepreneur can apply.
- E-commerce skills transfer directly to physical service businesses, especially digital advertising and targeting
- Emotional selling works across industries whether selling $20 dog collars or $170,000 pool renovations
- Trust is the currency for high-ticket sales; clients must believe you’re worth the investment
- Seasonal businesses can become year-round income streams with proper digital marketing systems
- Investing in structured education creates compounding returns compared to random YouTube videos
- The “built different” mindset means attacking every challenge as if you’re already prepared for it
Get Started in Just 5 Steps
Follow Josh’s proven path to replicate his success by combining digital marketing with traditional business fundamentals.
- Step 1: Master Digital Advertising Basics – Join a structured program like e-com campus to learn Facebook/Instagram ads and audience targeting
- Step 2: Apply Skills to Your Existing Business – Don’t wait for perfect conditions; run ads for your current service or product immediately
- Step 3: Learn Advanced Sales Psychology – Study body language, rapport building, and trust establishment to convert high-value clients
- Step 4: Build Emotional Connections – Identify what your target audience truly values and craft messaging that touches those emotional points
- Step 5: Adopt the “Built Different” Mentality – Attack every obstacle with confidence, stay ready for opportunities, and maintain consistent daily effort
Conclusion
Josh’s e-commerce success story demonstrates that digital marketing skills aren’t just for online stores—they’re powerful tools that can revolutionize any traditional business. By investing in structured training and applying e-commerce principles to his pool renovation company, he achieved what many thought impossible: $1M+ revenue in just over a year with 50% profits, a fully booked calendar, and the freedom to support his entire family. The key takeaway is that transferable skills combined with the right mindset create unlimited opportunities, regardless of your industry.