Transcript of HOW TO START AND RUN A SUCCESSFUL VENDING MACHINE BUSINESS || DONALD LUXAMA || EPISODE 087

So I was a college student and I was doing so many different side hustles. So I was doing couch flipping, water bottle selling, furniture flipping. And then somebody told me along the ways, one of my business partners at the time, she was like, oh, there's a business that you could do that if you have for 24 hours, you can make $1 million. And that was vending machines. And this was a time where nobody was really doing it. There was only like one person on YouTube. His name is Jaime Ibanez. He was the only person doing like vending machines. And I'm the type of person, if you gimme an idea, I just jump right to it. I don't need like a lot of time to think. I'm just like, let's go forward. And that's when like vending machines like started. I was like, okay, we can start a vending machine business. And I jumped right forward.

If somebody were to stop you to start right now, what's the expected amount per week and per month they're gonna make from that vending machine? Obviously location plays a big factor.

Yeah.

But on average, what would you say is the amount?

So the average vending machine makes $200 a month. $200 a month, right? That's the average vending machine location. So I know some people be like, oh my goodness, you're not gonna get rich with one vending machine. But the location that you get mad for— I'm doing like a vending machine world tour. So since January of last year, I've been traveling around the world to meet vending machine business owners. I met a guy, he had 8 vending machines. He made $1 million his first year. The location was a microchip plant. His name is Cozy Vending. You guys can see it on my channel. His name is Cozy Vending. He made $1 million his first year. It was a construction site, 10,000 employees, 8 vending machines. They were clearing out the vending machines twice every single day. So they're filling up the vending machines twice a day and they're setting up like tables and chairs and they're selling out.

And then do you do it yourself or do you end up outsourcing other people to try and help and put the snacks in the vending machines? How does that work?

So right now I do it myself, but the only reason I do it myself is just because of— I make videos. That's the only reason I do it myself. If I didn't make the videos, then I probably, I probably would have outsourced it. I probably— but the videos are— every time I turn on the camera, I make way more more money from just, just putting the snacks in, if that makes sense. But the thing is—

The Code to Winning: Insights You Need Today to Seize the World Tomorrow. If you are curious in learning a bit more about the side hustle and business of vending machines, you know, I've been looking forward to this episode for a while, and this topic has been very, very interesting and very curious to learn about that as well. This is the episode for you. have a gentleman right now in the studio that's going to be teaching and breaking down the fundamentals and the business side of owning your own vending machine and accumulating passive income through that as well. So without further ado, the man, the myth, the very legend himself, we've got Donald Loksama. How you doing, brother?

How are you doing today? How you doing? I'm doing amazing.

Awesome stuff. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate the time that you took to, um, come in the studio. And like I said, I I literally— I think I reached out to you 3 years ago, right?

Yeah, I think I saw. Yeah, I'll be getting bombarded with messages sometimes. Sometimes like, how did I miss this? And I missed the opportunity.

So no, so we reached out 3 years ago, but then I was, yes, temporarily short time in New York. And then, you know, I reached out again. I'm like, because I typed in vending and I'm like, I— it's so curious because I've had so many conversations with people, um, about— I think yesterday or 2 days ago I was on the phone with you, we spoke about like ATMs and multiple different stuff, but Vending machines. Like, I think this is not only gonna be the first time I'm gonna talk about this, I wanna talk about something else I wanna do with you regarding that as well. But let's just talk about, like, you know, your very first vending machine. When did that actually start for you?

So for me, I started a vending machine in college. So I was a college student and I was doing so many different side hustles. So I was doing couch flipping, water bottle selling, furniture flippings. And then somebody told me along the ways, um, one of my business partners at the time, she was like, oh, there's a business that you could do that if you have for 24 hours, I can make $1 million. And that was vending machines. And this was a time where nobody was really doing it. There was only like one person on YouTube. His name is Jaime Ibanez. He was the only person doing like vending machines. And I'm the type of person, if you give me an idea, I just jump right to it. I don't need like a lot of time to think. I'm just like, let's go for it. And that's when like vending machines like started. I was like, okay, we can start a vending machine business. And I jumped right forward. And at the time, right now, before I used to tell people, I used to buy vending machines for like $500. But now, like, prices are going up, right?

The easiest way to get your foot into vending right now, like, let's say you wanted to start like today, right now, is buying a vending machine route. A route is just basically a bunch of vending machines in a certain area on location. That's how I got like started, right? I bought that first vending machine for $3,000. And then the next deal, I bought 8 vending machines for $3,500.

8?

8 vending machines, $3,500. There was a guy, he was selling like 50 vending machines, 48 locations. And I asked him, hey, can I buy a piece of your company? It was like $50,000 at the time. I'm a college student. I don't, I don't, I'm broke. I don't have that much money. And I said, hey, can I break a piece of the route? So he ended up selling me 8 vending machines, 3 locations, $3,500. And, and then a couple months later, I ended up selling one of those locations. It was an office with a factory building. I sold it for $4,000 and I got all my money back.

Mm-hmm.

Mind you, these deals kind of exist today still. Like, you just have to basically like work the numbers. But let's say I was brand new starting out my vending machine business today and I was going to go buy a route. That would be like the easiest way. But let's say that wasn't an option. I probably— you probably would need to spend about, I would say, $2,500 to start your vending machine business today. That would include buying the vending machine. That would include finding the route. Because most people, like, if you're not going to buy the route, the best way I think is word of mouth. Word of mouth, or you just buy the leads.

Mm-hmm.

Word of mouth is just telling all your family and friends, hey, I have a vending machine business. If your job or your workplace needs a vending machine, I could, um, I had vending machines and I could put them in. If you could find the location, it's easy to buy the vending machines. People are always selling vending machines for $1,000, $800, $1,500. You can always find a vending machine. That's the easy part. But the location is always going to be the hard part.

And so with $2,500, how much would you say on average, if somebody were to start right now, what's the expected amount per weekend, per month they're going to make from that vending machine? Obviously location plays a big factor. Yeah. But on average, what would you say is the amount?

So the average vending machine makes $200 $200 a month.

Okay.

$200 a month, right? That's the average vending machine location. So I know some people be like, oh my goodness, you're not gonna get rich with one vending machine. But the location that you get matters. I, I remember I was telling you before, I'm doing like a vending machine world tour. So since January of last year, I've been traveling around the world to meet vending machine business owners. I met a guy, he had 8 vending machines. He made $1 million his first year. The location was a, um, uh, it was a microchip plant. His name is, uh, Cozy Vending. You guys can see it on my channel. His name is Cozy Vending. He made $1 million his first year. It was a construction site, 10,000 employees, 8 vending machines. They were clearing out the vending machines twice every single day. So they're filling up the vending machines twice a day and they're setting up like tables and chairs and they're selling outside the vending machines. So location is going to play a big role in like the types of like, uh, the types of money that you're going to make. And I always tell people, more vending machines don't equal more money, it's better locations.

So I'd rather have one location that makes me $1,000 a month than have 15 locations that could barely scrape up like $1,000. Does that make sense?

Okay. So obviously the average one makes $200. How much is that? How many vending machines do you have currently right now?

I have 10 vending machines, 11 vending machines right now.

And what would you say is the average of each collectively? What's the average of the amount for each?

So right now I'm making about like $30 to $50 every single, every single day from those 11 vending machines. I just got a Pokémon one that was kind of like brand new. Like I placed it like a couple of days ago. So that's going to be a little bit more because I'm selling the Pokémon cards a little bit higher than like my normal snacking, drink, or AI vending machines.

So, okay, no, that's, that's fascinating. But now I think people are very curious into finding out like location-wise, because I think that's a very big— that's a big important part, whether it's like a school or a factory or a work site or barbershops, you know.

Like, I, I mean, you got a nice fade right now, but I mean, I got it, I got it for this, I got it for this, I got it for this.

So I would assume all these locations are of utmost importance. How do you go about selecting a specific location for like Placing a vending machine?

Okay. So there's 3 things that make up a good vending machine location: seclusion, long hours, foot traffic. You want the place to be secluded, meaning that there's not a lot of stores around the building. You want it to be open for long hours, 24 hours. Amazing, right?

9 to—

You don't want it to be seasonal. Those places that are seasonal, terrible, right? Depending on the location, because, you know, schools, 9 months out the year, they're closed for 3 months. So you have to account for those 3 months. And you want it to have a lot of foot traffic, a minimum, I tell people, of 40 people inside the building for you to place your vending machine there. You want people to be able to see the vending machine as well. A lot of people, they have good locations, but their vending machines is tucked away in a basement that nobody has access to. That's why online I'm always telling people, if you put your vending machines in like a teacher's lounge, I think it's a terrible location.

Hmm.

You want, you want the students and the teachers to have access to the vending machine. So if you have those 3 things, it doesn't matter what the location is. It just has to fall into those 3 criteria: foot traffic, seclusion, and long hours. And you want a minimum of 40 People in the building, not people that work from home, people that are in the building that are able to walk past and see the vending machine.

Okay. And then with that though, um, is there— do you give them a specific cut or a rental fee for them having your vending machine at their store? How does that work?

I don't pay— I don't pay any commission at any of my locations besides the Pokémon one I got. The Pokémon vending machine was the only place I paid commission at that vending machine location.

Okay.

The guy wanted 20% commission. But mind you, what I tell people, if you ever have to pay commission, you just adjust it back into the cost of the goods. So for example, let's say I don't— for snacks and drinks, I don't pay any commission anywhere else. But let's say the guy wants 10% commission and I'm selling chips for $1. Now my chips become $1.10 to count the cost of commission, or maybe it'll be $1.25 for—

yeah.

So you just put the commission back into the cost of the goods.

Oh, all right.

So basically offset the commission.

Okay.

If that makes sense. But I don't pay commission anywhere else besides that Pokémon vending machine location. And for people wondering like, Donald, why don't you pay any commission? Remember, this is a service. This is like a win-win situation for you and the business owner. It's not like something where I'm only winning. These locations, they don't want their people to leave the building. They don't want their employees or their customers to have to go outside. If you go build like a store for them, and this is when you're pitching or when you're doing like your cold calling, this is how you're going to pitch to the people. You're going to say, hey, I'm providing a store inside this building. I'm providing, um, um, luxury for your, for your people, right? I have a vending machine at a church. Church has late services, 1 in the morning. They're sometimes leaving the church, all stores are closed. I'm gonna bring a vending machine that people don't have to leave. Like, these are the things that you're gonna bring up to, to places.

Mm-hmm.

And I think most people, they shoot themselves in the leg because they're like, oh, I'm gonna give you guys commission. Don't even bring up commission. The guy that I was going back and forth at the Pokémon vending machine location He was like, oh, 50%, 35%, and I had to just keep reeling him in. Also too, I have social media. I, I'm playing a different game from most vending machine business owners.

Hmm.

With— because I have social media, I'm able to make money from the social media on top of make money from the vending machines. Because every vending machine business owner— I think the best vending machine business owners, they make money in multiple different ways. They don't only have their vending machines, they sell vending machines as well. They sell snacks. They sell routes. They sell— like, there's so many different ways you can make money inside of vending than just placing vending machines at locations. There's some people, all they do is just find people locations. There's some people, all they do is they buy routes and then flip it for double the cost.

Interesting.

So there's so many different ways to make vending, and the best vending machine business owners that I know, they play multiple games at the same time.

And is that where you're at at the moment right now? Do you sell vending machines?

I— right now, like, I have— like, I work with, like, distributors.

Okay.

So I, I let the distributors do that.

Okay, sorry, continue.

Yeah, I'll just let the distributors do that. And then let's say I have some extra vending machines, I may sell on the side too. So that's what I do.

Now the interesting part is, um, location obviously is important. Do you have to be— what's the close proximity, um, miles you have to be close to your location? Because I mean, you're putting the stuff in for each vending machine that you're doing, right?

Yeah, so it depends what you sell in your vending machines, because remember, vending machines are not only snacks and drinks. I've seen ammo vending machines. You guys talked about the Pokémon vending machines. In Ohio, I met a guy that had vape vending machines. He had it in 2 different states. I met a girl, she had lash vending machines across the country.

Hmm.

So the stuff that you put in is going to matter, right? I'm going to do a series soon where I want to put a vending machine in every state. That's going to be kind of like a crazy little idea I had. But like, when you're starting out, I think it should be an hour proximity from every location. I met a guy when I was first starting out my vending machine business. He said that he gets vending machine locations all over because they might connect in an area. So let's say you get a vending machine very far out and then you get another vending machine that's pretty close to it. So now, like over time, like your vending machine route is going to start to grow. But I think you should just focus on having the best locations in a 1-hour proximity to each other.

And then do you do it yourself or do you end up outsourcing other people to try and help and put the snacks and the vending machines? How does that work?

So right now I do it myself, but the only reason I do it myself is just because of— I make videos. That's the only reason I do it myself. If I didn't make the videos, Then I probably, I probably would have outsourced it. I probably— but the videos are— every time I turn on the camera, I make way more money from just, just putting the snacks in, if that makes sense.

Okay.

But the thing is, the biggest problem that people have when it comes to like outsourcing is they're scared people are going to take their money. And this is why AI vending machines come into place. AI vending machines are really cool because there's no money involved. It's cashless. So all you have to make sure is that the product gets inside the vending machine. This is why I like I'm thinking I could do it across the country because all I have to do is make sure that the snacks get into the vending machine. I don't have to handle maintenance. I don't have to handle money getting taken. It's less— it's less— it's more safer with the AI machines.

Yeah, but then how would the AI work in terms of the merchandise and getting the snacks continually like available for people? Because sometimes you see a whole screen and you do an Apple Pay. I use cardless for everything. That's why I can't stand when Walmart's like their own like—

I know Walmart doesn't have Apple Pay. I know. I just went there. I was like, where's Apple Pay?

Walmart. So sometimes I'll be seeing an Aldi and I see Walmart, I'm like, I need it at Walmart. But you know, Aldi's got like Apple Pay, but like, um, because that's where the future is heading. So how do you end up like making sure you have enough stock all the time with an AI?

Uh, okay, so there's inventory management. So it tells you exactly what's inside your vending machine. And shout out to Vendera because they sent me an AI machine. They have this feature called the snapshot that every 5 transactions it shows you the vending machine. So I could be here in New Jersey and I could be seeing my vending machine in Georgia. I could be seeing the snapshot to see Did this person really fill up my vending machine right? Are all the things turned around? Are there anything backwards? Is there anything like folded? Like you could literally see that inside the machine. And then also too, it just becomes a logistic game at that point.

Hmm.

If you decide to like put it in different states. Most people don't end up doing that. They usually kind of like stick into like their one little location. But you know, God is too big for my goals to be too small. So I'm always thinking big. Like, why not go bigger? That's really like, why not go bigger? But that was how I would handle like the management. When you get to like you're placing in different states, it all becomes a management game. I just have to become a better manager. I have to make sure the logistics are okay. I have to make sure the route— people know what they do, people know what they order and stuff like that. So.

Awesome. You know, it's crazy, man. Looking back 2 years and now when you— I mean, 3 years when I reached out, like, I think it was the beginning stages. I could be wrong. You started during COVID but it's— you've been popping up on my Explore page because of the consistency in the video content you've been pushing out as well, which has been super great. Um, I often feel the threshold of comfortability, um, for, um, you know, somebody potentially if they want to try and get income passive, a very comfortable threshold is about maybe $25,000 a month. How many vending machines would you say somebody would need if they want to try and do that in like a year's time? Not like— yeah.

Wait, to make $25,000 a month?

Yeah.

From vending? Ooh, if you have members, it's all going to depend on the location that you have because you have one location that makes you $25,000 a month.

Like when you've said, right?

Like the gentleman, yeah, like he was making like probably $150,000 a month, like doing crazy amounts of numbers, right? But I would think you would need at least, if you wanted to do $25,000, I think if you had at least 10 good vending machine locations, 10 good vending machine locations, AI machines, multiple vending machines inside of each. I think it would be— I think it— that would be easy to do with 10 great locations. But most people, they have like— they— most, most people, they have like 5 good locations and then they have like 10 bad ones that they keep around just for storage. Because some people— I always tell people, you could— I've been changing like my views over the years. Bad locations, you could do a lot with bad locations.

In what way?

Like for me, like I use my bad locations now with storage. I just store my vending machines there because I don't want them— I don't— if I, if I, if I move them somewhere else, now I'm not making any money. So you don't fill those vending machines up to the max, you just keep them there in those areas. So when you get better locations, you just pull those vending machines out and you put them on, on location.

Interesting. And then right now, what would you say is your highest performing, um, vending machine and what location is it around, or where location— where is it located?

So my best vending machines, I have them at rehabilitation centers.

Interesting.

Rehabilitation centers are some of the best vending machine locations I've come across because number one, the people get driven to this location. So that means they can't leave and there's no other stores around. Like they're literally, this is called trap traffic. That's what I call it. They can't leave. So my vending machines is the only thing that they could use and they clear out these vending machines. They clear out these vending machines. I'm mad I can't put AI machines there if I could have. Oh my goodness. But they clear out these vending machines.

Why can't you put AI machines there?

I, um, I spoke to the people that they don't, they don't think— some people are scared that, uh, of the AI technology. For people that don't know how AI vending machines work, like your regular vending machines, you just put your dollar bills in. But the AI machines, you tap your card, open the door, and you grab whatever you want. There's cameras to see what you get.

It's crazy. Um, dude, speaking about that, I went to, uh, I was in a Wynn Hotel, um, down there because I was doing interviews. I had an event down there that we're They asked us to participate in backstage and do some interviews. But we're now— they covered like the Wynn. Wynn, you just take it out and you pull and it gets charged on your card. So like, it's because it's in every single hotel by Vegas. So you just take it out and then all of a sudden, like, even if you just touch something for, I think, more than 3 seconds and it's pulled out, it just automatically registers something's been taken. So you can actually see a bill of everything that's been taken.

That's really cool.

So I think, is AI similar to that?

AI similar to that.

Okay.

So now you grab whatever you want. So I've seen people in my machine spend like $20 in like 60 seconds because you feel like you're God when you open the door because like, oh, I could grab a snack, a drink, a pastry. And then people add a bunch of other stuff. You add some contraceptives, some Advils, you add a bunch of other stuff to these vending machines, some high-ticket items. Some people might grab a Caesar salad. You might have some sandwiches inside the machine. So there's so much stuff that you could put. And at times people just, it's just less friction. Less friction makes you spend more money. If you have to keep putting dollar bills in the machine, that's more friction. So I might spend less, but more friction makes me be able to grab more stuff. And I've seen people literally clear out the vending machines just like that. I recently put an AI vending machine at a manufacturing facility.

Ah.

And they clear it out. They're taking 4 or 5 drinks at a time. They're like, oh, might as well just get all my stuff for the day. Let me grab some ramen noodles. Let me grab some drinks. Let me grab the sparkling water. Let me grab a Gatorade. Oh, my friend wants a Red Bull. Cool. And now they charge them. And the cool thing about the AI machine too, I just learned this trick. I met this girl, her name was Logan, and she taught me, uh, this, uh, a pricing hack. So instead of pricing things at like, let's say $3, why not charge $3.12? Or let's say a chip, why not charge like, if you're doing, do a regular $1.50, why not charge $1.62?

Hmm.

So I could literally increase the revenue of my AI machines by just adding a couple cents on all the products. Now imagine you do this across multiple vending machines. So now you don't have to do anything, but just— and you could just start just making more money on like the product that you're selling. Does that make sense?

Makes perfect sense. Makes perfect sense. And, um, I was just thinking about it like, because you see nothing as nice as a vending machine that, you know, is constantly— especially if you're like staying at a long place and like you, let's say you get some one specific product but you know, by the time it's done, the next day it's already like packed. It just shows efficiency and good management, you know what I'm saying? Because traveling here, when I was driving past Ohio, I used to get those 25 cents like little candies because you don't want— I believe in like the, you know, diminishing law of marginal utility. The more you consume something, the less you want it. But then at this point, like, I just want just a certain amount of like just candy. So you put in 25 cents there. This thing was not operating each time I go. It never operates. So it's just like, I feel like they just left like that little like machine there for like years because I'll put 25, 25, I put like keep putting—

Oh, the gumball machine?

Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, they just never work anymore, I think. So I feel like it makes a big difference seeing a lot of good management because then it makes you want to continue to get the product because we're naturally very impulsive creatures. The more you like something, the more you want to consume it, you know. So I couldn't agree more, which kind of goes ahead to Uh, what I'm saying, isn't it more of an inconvenience than to constantly go and get more stock? Or how does that like work for you? Like, do you have a scheduled time when you do these kind of things?

Or— Okay, so if I wasn't— okay, I want to preface this by saying if I wasn't making content, I could do my— I could operate my vending machine business a lot faster because I want to record myself going into Sam's Club. Usually I, I met this girl named Bethany, she told me she never walked into Sam's Club, and I was like, that's so smart, I could just pick up everything. I could literally just pick up or have everything delivered to my house so I don't have to drive all the way to Sam's Club or Sam's Club, Costco, BJ's, whichever wholesale club that you use. And I just have it delivered to me so it doesn't take that much time. But you know me, I want to record the content and build rapport with the people, make some videos and, and stuff like that.

So there are easier ways than that way of what—

Yeah, what I do, like I could literally have everything delivered to my house, sort everything up, and then just go straight to the location.

And then it'll just be super quick because you just end up like opening the key, you put the stuff in and you leave.

And then I leave. Yeah.

Okay.

Most vending machine stuff happened the day before. So like most of the work happens not at the vending machine. It happens the day before because there's something called pre-kitting. Pre-kitting is when you put everything in crates of what your vending machine needs. So like I'll put all my vending machines, this vending machine needs 6 Cokes, this vending machine needs 5 Rice Krispies, 5 things. You put all— that's the crate that you make before. That's like the real work. And then going to fill up the vending machines, that's the whole— that's like the easy part.

And then with Do you think people like chips or drink more, or have you ever— do you have any other products that you sell besides chips and drinks?

I, I, I've been trying out a bunch of products like Uncrustables, Hot Pockets. Um, I got sandwiches the other day. I'm gonna test some things out to see what they like, because remember, most people, the reasons why they fail their vending machine business is they buy the stuff that they like. They walk into the store, I like peanut M&M's, so I'm gonna buy peanut M&M's. I like Skittles, I like candy. Then you go into like your location And then you realize like they don't like this stuff. I have the location that the manufacturing facility that I use, they literally put sticky notes on my vending machines to tell me what I need. Hey, we want Bloom energy drinks, we want orange Gatorade, we want party mix chips. I literally have all these Post-it notes and I just go and I just, okay, cool, I'll put these in for you guys.

And then obviously, I mean, you mentioned it earlier on, you've done specialties like Pokémon, which I saw the excitement you had regarding that as well. What kind of made you branch into Is it the fact that you genuinely like Pokémon or what made you kind of like go into that?

No, usually because— okay, so one of my major rules in vending or the golden rule in vending is don't buy the vending machine unless you have the location. That's like the golden rule because most people, they buy the vending machine and then it sits and then they never have a location and they get mad. Oh, vending machine business sucks. All these guys on the internet, they're lying and stuff like that. So the golden rule, always buy your— always find the location and then you buy the machine. But now because I have a platform, like I almost have like a million followers combined across all platforms, get a lot of views. I have companies that reach out and they're like, hey, we want to send you a machine. So now it's like, oh, you guys want— they sent me a Pokémon machine. So now it's like, okay, you guys sent me the Pokémon machine. Now I want to make videos to show people like this is possible and stuff.

Okay.

So I wouldn't have done it like this. Wouldn't— I probably wouldn't have done it if they weren't like looking to send it, but now they're sending them like, oh, this is better content. I want to, I want to show my audience like you can make money with Pokémon cards.

So you've utilized, because of obviously your social media brand, you've utilized the opportunity to for sponsorships and stuff like that, right? Yeah, because the brand has been building itself organically at the same time. Okay, no, that's, that's pretty awesome. Then obviously, what's the big misconception people often have about owning a vending machine?

I think most people think it's passive. I think vending machines is semi-passive income because right now I'm making money from my vending machines and I'm here, right? So it is some type of passive income, but it's only passive if you buy like the right equipment. If you have the wrong equipment inside your buildings, machines, if you buy like Sega vending machines, you feel me? Sega vending— for people that are looking to buy vending machines, they'll buy Sega machines. But if you buy like bad equipment, it's going to cost you to constantly be checking your vending machine. Stuff constantly break. I have a machine right now that literally every couple of days, like I get called, hey, this vending machine's broken, this vending machine's broken. But, you know, people just— I just think that like people don't treat your equipment how you treat it.

Mm-hmm.

Like they're not going to put the coins in peacefully. They're going to be shoving dollar bills in, banging it, banging it, putting foreign coins in it. Then everything gets jammed. Now you have to come out. This is why I like the AI machines, because I rarely have any problems with AI machines. It's usually on the software side where like, oh, they didn't send me my money in time. Like, that's usually the problems I have to deal with. But my normal machine stuff is getting stuck. People are not getting their coins back, their change back. Someone put the dollar bill in and it ate the money. Like, it's just little stuff like that that I deal with. with the traditional vending machines.

Obviously, you— I mean, you did mention that it's semi-passive, and, and in your situation can be passive. Is there a way that somebody can just 100%— I mean, we spoke about a lady, um, yesterday when you and I were on the phone who would do this thing as well, and I think she did it on a full-time basis. Is there a way people can actually quit, um, and actually like just primarily make income from this?

Yeah, I think you— with, with the, with the right locations and the amount that— yeah, you could definitely like quit and make your full-time income from this. You call these people like pro vendors and stuff like that. But like I said, most people, they make money in multiple ways in vending. So like, that's why I remember one of my mentors said, Donald, nobody makes money in vending. Like, and I was, I was always like, but I'm starting to see it now. Like, people use multiple different ways to make money inside their vending machine business. So they're not only relying on the income that the vending machines make.

You know what's crazy? Um, looking at different fields, there's so much more behind the scenes that actually like occur. Like with what you're saying as well, um, when I, when I speak about, uh, just podcasting as well, people think like YouTube AdSense only pays you so much, even Spotify and Apple barely does that much. But it's leveraging the sponsorship kits and the sponsorship stuff with people that end up reaching out. It's like the studio, like multiple different things with studio, like all these different things that go into making the investment in the podcast. But like itself and within the views, you can't live off like AdSense, like, you know, YouTube stuff. But there's a lot of people that do the booking as well. When I'm like in Utah, there's a lot of, you know, people that do like the sponsorship kit, all these different things. So like when I heard about the vending machine of like finding locations, I would assume like people behind the scenes make so much money in helping you get locations, people that are actually selling vending machines, referral base, all these different stuff, right? And is that like the trajectory you're gonna slightly gonna be heading with as well, besides just like having vending machines?

Is that what you're looking at?

Now, right now I spend a lot of time literally like building up my brand. Like, in 2025, I spent probably $45,000 on the world tour. So me, because with the world tour, I didn't like charge any of the people that I went to go see.

Mhm.

I went all over the world. I let my followers text me. I didn't do it on the basis where you have a lot of vending machines, I'm coming to you. I let all my followers text me and I made like these crazy videos. Like, there's some people I went to go visit that one vending machine, and I— and sometimes when I was going to these places I was like, God, why would I even come here? This person has one machine. And those videos go— those videos do the best. Millions of views, hundreds of millions of views. There's some people that's like, whoa, like this person, I wouldn't expect this, but their personality was amazing on camera and stuff like that.

So, and where did you go? Which countries did you go to?

I've been to— I went to Canada. I went to the UK a couple of times, and I've been to a lot of places in the States. Okay. So I went to Texas, California, Ohio. North Carolina, um, Tennessee. Like, I've been to a lot of places. Okay, a lot of places. And I just let my followers text me. Like, I was at one point, I was going every single week. I was just going to a different location.

Interesting, interesting. And what content were you guys doing around there?

We were just, we're just talking about this stuff. I was just documenting their story. I literally just spent a day with them. And it's cool now, like, seeing like a bunch of those people, like, they're blowing up now. I'm like, yo, this is crazy for me. This is crazy.

From that, what was the most fascinating story that you came across regarding that The tour.

What was the most fascinating story? The, the $1 million guy was crazy. There was a guy in Ohio I met, his name was Micah. He was a janitor and he made, um, he's making, I think, I think right now he's doing over $150,000 a month, but he has vape vending machines. Even though I kind of like a little bit against the vape vending machines, I, I kind of don't like it, but like, I do respect, I do respect hustle from— I do respect grind and grit and, and stuff like that because it, it takes a lot of work to make to make that type of money, to make those type of sacrifices and stuff. I think his story was really cool. I think one of like the most, uh, amazing things— there was this guy in Texas, his name was Jaime Ibanez. I used to watch him in my dorm room when I was first starting out my vending machine business. And now we're pretty cool now, right now. So like now we're like really, really cool and we talk. I could call him up now. And it was crazy because it was like a full circle moment when I got to meet him.

And now every vending machine event I go to, I'm now seeing him and stuff. And now we built a relationship. Also, there's a girl in the UK. Her name is Megan. Shout out to Megan. I got to see her a couple times. Her story is really, really cool as well. She's a college dropout, built a massive vending machine business, and now she's living off it and helping other people start their vending machine businesses. There's so many stories. There's a guy, he was 21 at the time. He had 100 vending machines at the age of 21 in Canada and stuff. And one of the cool things about his business was everything is free in his vending machines. And then like, They— and then he just sends the invoice to the company at the end of the, at the end of the month. His name is Frederick.

Wow.

That's a— that's— I think those are called like pantry systems, if I'm not mistaken. That's like a pantry service or something like that. So the— he— the business, the business pays for the vending machines for their employees. The vending machine is going to be free. Just send us the invoice at the end of the month. He had a bunch of coffee machines and some snack and drink ones as well.

Man, like obviously with the utilization of of AI. I mean, I've been using— I used to use ChatGPT with just stuff, but like, um, the lady I'm going to be speaking to on Monday, she has incorporated how Claude can become like your personal assistant.

Yeah, I use Claude.

You know, Claude is amazing. I only use Claude right now.

Do you use the browser extension?

No, not yet.

The browser extension has probably been like my best friend. I have it. I got the Max program for like a month, and I've been telling it, go through my entire story, hang out all the kinks, work through all my emails. That's how I got my Pokémon vending machine location, by the way. I used Claude. Hey, look for all the places in my area and send emails and send them, send the emails at 8 AM and then send all the emails and I got my location.

Yeah. It's so wild. It's the same thing. Like people don't fully understand the power AI usually has and stuff like that. And it's ever evolving. So like by just utilizing it, you become more efficient in your work. It builds a good lead flow and stuff like that. So that's why I was kind of leading with that. Do you feel like the future of vending machines is going to be the AI ones?

I do think the future is going to be the AI. You know what's crazy? I literally went to Washington, D.C. There's this organization called NAMA. I literally went to Washington, D.C. to go speak to some politicians because they're thinking about making the AI machines accept cash. But the thing is, AI machines can't accept cash. That's like the whole point of them being AI. So they want to prevent the AI machines from They wanted to make the AI vending machines take cash because it's called unattended retail, right? You see when you go to like a ShopRite?

Yeah.

And you have to put— and there's a— you have the self-checkouts and they accept cash. They wanted to make AI machines like that and they wanted to make somebody stand next to the AI machine. Just all these like weird stuff. And I went to go speak to like the politicians about like not having that happen. So that was like a really cool experience. But I do think that there in the future, The vending machines are probably going to be more sophisticated. Like in Japan, that's, that's the trip I want to go to. I would definitely go to Japan. They have vending machines for everything. Every type of thing you can imagine. Food, breakfast, lunch, dinner, all your type of accessories and stuff. They have vending machines for everything. I think we might live in a world where there might be vending machines for houses. Build your house in this vending machine, boop boop boop, put it by buttons, put the house together, sends it. It's like, I think we might— I think vending machines are going to become more sophisticated in the future.

You just gave an episode for Black Mirror right now when you said vending machines for houses.

Like, there's like episode for Black Mirror about that?

No, that's not— no, no, but you're giving them an idea for season 8. Like, they heard it here first, right?

They heard it first. They heard it first. You feel me?

No, it's, it's fascinating because I was just thinking, um, just about that, like, just, um, the power of vending machines. I would just— this is my next question right now in terms of, of permits. I was at Baltimore, like, you know, you spoke about DC because I was just thinking about Baltimore and when I was at a gas station there, actually preparing for an interview, I saw a vending machine, but it was selling scratch-off lottery tickets. And people were paying as high as like $50, $20 to get all these, 'cause the higher the scratch-off, the higher the payout. Like I think for like maybe $2 or $3 million, whatever it may be. I would assume stuff like that is only entirely with the state of Baltimore, 'cause it's like, it's lottery tickets.

I think lottery tickets are, yeah, mostly like the state that handles that. But in terms of like permits and stuff like that, It depends on like your county.

Okay.

And the state that you're in. Like, there's gonna be some places that are gonna be lenient. They're gonna say, hey, you need this, this, and this. You need a food handling permit if you're doing these types of foods. But some places are like— I have locations where they're not really strict. If you're like a small vendor, less than like 20, 30 machines, they're not— you're not at the point where they're like, oh, you need to do all these things. But just make sure that you, you go to your, your, your town, your town hall, your city hall to ask, hey, this is what this is what do we— what do I need for my vending machine business? Because it's going to be different from every state. Because I don't want to say something here and then in Nevada they're like, oh, not that— we don't need all this stuff.

So, okay. No, because that's what I was trying to think. Because I was like, oh my gosh, this— like I said, when we went— when I was in Vegas, that was my first experience of the one where you just open up the cabinet, you take something and it gets like— and it's like, it's interesting. It's very fascinating because it'll have like your like your, your snacks, your late-night munchies and stuff. But then there's another vending machine that is selling different products like, um, contraceptives and like, um, like alcohol, all these different stuff. Same thing, shows the price there, you take it out and you already bought it as well. So I feel like, uh, location matters, but also your target market. Because if you go into like, uh, Vegas and stuff like that, sometimes when people are there Usually they're there for like the tables or business trip or whatever it may be as well. Um, do you feel— what do you feel is going to be like the, a big product in the near future that nobody's like picked up on right now?

Well, that's a good question. Oh, that's a good question. That is a good question because I, I do think that where you see like— I've seen vending machines that they have like women products, so they have like pads, they have different types of things next to the women bathrooms. And like they sell a lot and stuff like that. You might see like Tide Pods and like the lawn, but in terms of like, I do think that who knows, like, uh, who knows if they might start, uh, having vending machines for like your own like personal robots or something like that. You could buy vending machines for your own like robots and stuff. I feel like, I don't know, the world might go into like a weird way. Like you could buy your own robots. Oh, that— inside, I, I think I'm trying to think. I do think we might be, be in an era where like you could literally— like a WALL-E era where you just— everything you could just order will be from a machine. I think we're going into like a time where people don't talk to each other. People don't talk to each other that much in general.

Mm.

Everything is like self-checkout. Don't talk to people. I think we're going into like that type of world where you could just put— everything's going to be like at the push of a button. You might walk into a store, it might just be a vending machine store. You ever seen like the Amazon Go stores where it's like you, you just put everything in your cart and then you just— it just charges your card as you go? I think it might be in a society like that where people are gonna talk to each other. I think it's gonna be crazy, you know, social media and everything now, like people are like going away from like talking to each other. So we might live in a world where you do everything— everyone's like independent, no one talks to each other, you just do everything with buttons, clicks, and stuff like that.

That's scary to think about it. Because communication is so important, especially what people experience during COVID But like, you, you know, you could have a valid point there. Um, and with the amount of self-checkouts, because self-checkout was not really a big thing 20 years ago, and now everywhere you go there's like a self-checkout like thing, you know. Um, even Smith's like actually encouraged people when I was, uh, at Jersey somewhere— actually, no, not Jersey, I can't remember where it was— but like they just encouraged us and we're not just go to a self-checkout at this point. Um, yeah, no, it's just fascinating as well. Uh, just quick question, this one as well. What's the difference in profitability between vending machines in high-traffic public spots versus private businesses like offices or gyms?

Oh, okay, good question. I would probably prevent— because I don't have any public vending machines, like all my, all my locations are like kind of like private in a sense, like they're not open to like the public, it's like the people inside those buildings. So I do think, I always tell people that ask me, like, what do you think about vending machines in malls? I think those are like terrible places to put vending machines if you're like a, say, newer person. I feel like a well-established vending machine owner is kind of different for you because like you never want to compete on price. That is the worst place to compete. That's why I always say seclusion is very, very big because if you compete on price, I could just keep bringing my price down and it brings your value down as well.

Hmm.

So now, like, if your drink is $3 and my drink is $2, I might just go buy the $2 drink. But I know these people that have it at these public places, they're— the sheer amount of foot traffic that are in these locations, it makes sense. Because there's somebody that's gonna be like, okay, I'm just— I'm gonna spend $3. Who cares? I'm good. But I always tell people, you never want to compete on price. Because when you're the monopoly and you don't compete with price, you could charge whatever you want. People will pay $5 for a Sprite bottle.

Mm.

I saw a girl like when I met in North Carolina like a couple weeks ago, Logan, like she was literally selling $4 of Sprites and people were just buying out the machine. When you're the monopoly, people like, I pay for convenience, doesn't really matter. And remember, every, every— you go to like a, a professional sports game, whatever, and they might sell a hot dog or water bottle for like $7, $8 and you buy it. That's the same thing with the vending machine. Like the location you put it is going to matter the most.

So, and competition, like what, what are the biggest competitions people face with vending machines?

No, I just think it's like other stores around the— other stores around the place. Like, if there's like, uh, you have a vending machine in like, uh, let's say like a hotel, for example, and there's like a dollar store right there, some— and someone sees that you're selling like a crazy— that your prices are crazy, they might just be like, hey, we're just gonna go to the dollar store over here. I'm just gonna go down the road to just go buy the thing.

You know what's crazy? People are literally willing to drive somewhere like 5, 10 minutes just for them to save an extra dollar, you know?

An extra dollar. Yeah. And that's—

yeah.

I, I think, I think, I think rich people care about their time so much that they're like, I just, I'll just buy it, you know.

So again, goes back to target market, because if you had a Motel 8, man, or like a Motel 6, fam, just bring the prices down, fam, because the guys are willing to go all the way to freaking to get a Wingstop and then get some stuff on the way there rather than just spending an extra $2 there as well.

So, you know, the thing is, it's just the commission, because I remember I went to a hotel like to pitch, the guy was already starting at 25% commission. I'm like, hey, I'm selling like $2 drinks, like how much commission do you want from me? Like, this is like a service. This is why people go, um, put their prices like so, so, so high.

You did mention that at the beginning when you were talking about like that whole thing of the 20% guy that's charging you, right? You said you, you kind of just put a few extra cents there to try and balance out to make sure you can pay for it as well. Okay, that makes sense. Because, because I mean, you are reasonable when you own a vending machine, but you don't want to be in a negative. You have to at least make something. The entire purpose is for you to make profit. That's the entire purpose why you create a business.

So, and I think some business owners are like, oh, all they think about is, oh, how much can I make? How much can I make? But that makes sense though. Like they're asking, you're taking up their space, using the electricity on their Wi-Fi. So I could see why they would want an incentive, especially like the Pokémon vending machine. It's like a niche. It's like you don't really need it. It's kind of like a want. in, in that case. But like a vending machine, I don't pay any commission anywhere else because it's kind of like a want thing. It's not like a— I mean, it's more of a need thing, not like a want thing, if that makes sense.

Okay. And then right now, what's your lowest, um, like your least performing one? How much does that bring a month, your vending machine?

I think my lowest performing one's probably like— I have one like for $500 a month. That's at a, um— I got like a fat— I got a part of a deal. I bought, uh, 11 vending machines Um, 11 vending machines, 6 locations for $12,000. And of course you're gonna have some bad locations. What I like to do is I like to like sell like 1 or 2 of those locations to get all my money back. So like when I bought the deal I told you, I bought 8 vending machines, $3,500. I sold 1 location for $4,000. So now I have 2 locations and I, I kept the, um, and I'm, I'm back in the money. Okay, I got all my money back.

And would you say it's reasonable for some— somebody to think, obviously I know location is important, And I've been very appreciative of how authentic and honest and genuine you are in telling us the averages of the— in the industry and stuff like that. But is it realistic for somebody thinking right now, if they get a vending machine with the right location and building rapport and relationship with the right, uh, businesses, they can make $1,000 a month?

Yeah, definitely.

Okay, let's— let me do my own personal calculation over here.

Definitely, definitely.

I'm trying to make $10,000 a month, or like just Um, okay, figuratively speaking, right? So let's say on average it's $1,000 per location.

$1,000 per location. Let's say there's 2 vending machines inside the location.

Okay.

Or let's just say it's an AI machine because AI machines make— tend to make more.

How much is an AI machine?

The cost of the AI machine, they go from $3,000 to about like $14,000.

So let's say— but you're gonna buy a good one because you don't want—

No, no, no, you— for a good one, I— you— I tell people you could get like a I'm gonna say the names: Haha machines, Vendera machines, Micro Mart machines, and Kingo machines. You could get them for around like $3,200, $4,400. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, those are good. Those are good. I have, I, I have the, I have the, the Vendera machine.

Okay, let's do this. Look, so it's $3,200. Let's talk about just getting the actual vending machine. So it's $3,200, right?

Yeah, let's say about $3,200 to $3,400.

Yeah, let's just say $3,500.

$3,500.

Yeah, let's say $3,500. Okay. That's one machine. Okay.

That's one machine and it's not limited to snacks and drinks. There's no coils inside the machine. So you can put whatever you want. Think about it like that. You put anything you want because there's a camera.

Okay. So with your current one, you put snacks and drinks, right?

Yeah.

I put snacks and drinks.

The ones that are, even the ones that are AI, I do snacks and drinks in them as well, but I have them on one machine.

But this, you could put anything in it.

But that you can put anything.

What other expenses do we need to cover? So we got the $3,500 there. What other things do you have to to cover for that?

Um, okay. So because it comes with a card reader, so you're not, you probably have to cover just moving. So you have to, that's probably like $150 to move the vending machine. Not really that much. The product that you're going to put inside the machine is probably going to be, let's say, to fill up an AI machine. I'm guessing depending on the type of product you're going to get, let's just say about like $500, $500 to fill it up.

So we're looking at with that and moving and stuff, we're looking at $4,000.

$4,000. Yeah.

It's very reasonable.

It's very reasonable to start. And also you could finance the machines too. There's— you could do 12 months zero down. So you put $1,000, then you could finance the machine as well if you don't want to put all the money down and let the location kind of like pay itself.

Okay, so now, uh, now that I've hypothetically bought one, $4,000, now I'm in Salt Lake City, I'm trying to look for a place, and I'm gonna start because I, I, I, I'm very good at building relationships and rapport with people, but now I have to find something that's going to be more convenient that can actually Have customers? You said 40 minimum, right?

40 minimum for me.

Do you want me to start off the hotel or a gym or a barbershop? What's your preference?

So what I would do first, if I were you, I'll go over to Facebook Marketplace. I'll type in vending machine location for sale. I'll scour all the different vending machine locations. You're looking for people that are selling, let's say, $150,000, $100,000, $70,000, selling my entire vending machine company. You're going to text that person, hey, are you willing to break up the route? Somebody that's selling a whole entire company, they're not going to care if you buy a couple from them at like a cheaper price. Someone that's selling one location, they're like, oh, it's $15,000 and it's making $100 a month. Like people will literally sell something like that.

So what's a good location? What's an average for a good location? How much you have to pay for that?

Okay. So what I tell people, what I like to do is I like to take the sales price divided by 10 and however much that's making, that's how much I want to be making every single month. So if the location is $10,000, I want it to be making at least $1,000 a month for me to even buy it.

All right, okay, so now we have, we have $4,000 and we have an extra $10,000, so it's looking at potentially $14,000 before everything is set up. But we, under the expectation we're going to make $1,000 a month, so in order for us to actually make break even, we need 14 months to break even.

But what I, I want to— but the thing is, if I buy a machine, the— mind you, you could buy traditional machines as well. You could, you could probably spend $2,000, buy the traditional machines And it could be making the same amount because I want to make my money back in 6 months. The AI machines, it's just so you can make more revenue, right?

I'm trying to see, because like 14 months to make break even, that doesn't sound—

That doesn't sound— I want to make it— I want to make— I want to make my money back in 6 months minimum. That's why I like to buy the routes. Buy the routes and then you sell— do you sell off the bad ones? Sell off the bad locations, regroup your money, and then, and then you, you're making money already.

So it's better for you to go look for a location that's being sold from somebody through Facebook Marketplace than for you to actually look for a clicker.

Yeah, yeah, I don't think— uh, yeah, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Craigslist. Also, you could buy leads. So I went to this place called, um, Vending Exchange. Vending Exchange is a website that you use. It has a bunch of leads that pop up all over the country. So definitely it's gonna be in Utah and Salt Lake City. Okay, you buy leads from that place. Leads can vary. I've seen some for $300 go all the way up to like $3,500 for the lead. Vending Exchange, the leads are not guaranteed though. So you could buy the lead, call up, and they could be like, no, and then you just won't get your money back.

Mm-hmm.

So that's always— that's, that's the drawback. There's also this place called Vending Village. I used Vending Village once, but the location— but that's more like guaranteed, guaranteed leads. That's the one thing I like about Vending Village. They don't charge you every single month because Vending Exchange, they charge you like $49 or $39 every single month. But Vending Village, you get guaranteed kind of like leads. There's other places. There's another thing called Venlist. There's like a bunch of different places that you can look that sell you leads. Like I was telling you before, people make money in vending in all different types of ways.

Wow.

So I bought a lead. I bought a lead from Vending Exchange. It was the manufacturing facility. I spent $780 on the lead.

Okay. Now, man, do you have a community?

I do have a community like on Instagram and like also—

Man, go start school. Start a school.

You guys start school? I've been getting a bunch of people that text me about starting a school.

I'm telling you, because the reason is, same thing with my thing. I, I'm connected with so many people that are in the podcasting space, and the same thing I keep getting, people like, just start a school. So I literally did the setup right now. With what you're doing, you're traveling so much, so if you do a school thing, first of all, I'm curious in what you're saying. So naturally I'll end up just joining a school, whether you have a free community there or whether you have a community for like where people pay a subscription per month. Like, I will join Because naturally, like, it's, it's very, um, educational stuff that's been given, whether you're sharing the stuff you're doing or you have person, like, you know, a Zoom call with people as well. Because if you start a school, I mean, I think that's a trajectory that's going to just bring so much in, not just business revenue, but also people are going to be curious who want to learn from you. So that's my suggestion to you.

Definitely, 100%.

But yeah, no, I think, I think the way moving forward, I think it's, uh, especially the AI ones, from what I have seen, the AI ones, uh Uh, just fascinating. And the fact that, you know, it just opened up because people, like I said, you take one thing, like, I think I might want a chocolate as well. Hang on, I'm a bit thirsty because, you know, the card's already been swiped, right?

So yeah, so yeah, so yeah, you're not thinking though. That's the thing though, like most people, I'm not thinking when I'm grabbing, I'm just grabbing. And you don't feel the money getting taken out your bank account like, like you're like a, like a regular beneficiary because you're just grabbing like whatever. So I think it's like super cool.

All right, where was I? So yeah, we spoke a lot about that. So, and I feel like, um, obviously your social media is growing. I think the next time we'll do an episode, you'll be the MrBeast of vending machines.

So hopefully, hopefully.

Okay, so, um, how does— how do you decide what products go in a machine, and how often do you change the lineup based on what you're actually selling? I know I asked that thing, but I want To be very specific with it, like how often do you change your products?

So when you first get a vending machine location, right, that's probably like the hardest. And now you're just basically like, oh, let me take a guess what people like. So I like to buy like multi-pack items. So you go to Sam's Club, like you have like multi-pack items. So it has like Doritos, Lay's, sour cream. You have all those things, you put them in the vending machine and then you, that first month, okay, this sold, this sold, this sold, this sold, this didn't sell, take this out. And we, I keep switching it out. And then also too, I'm very, I talk to all the people inside my locations. I think most people, like they walk into the location, they're so scared. I walk in, I talk to everybody. Hey, what do you guys want in the vending machines? Hey, what do you guys, what do you guys are looking for? What don't you like? And then they'll talk to you. They'll tell you exactly what they want. They'll tell you exactly what they don't want. There's going to be some cases like my rehabilitation center. They told me, hey, you can't put reg— you can't put regular soda in there.

I got in trouble one time for doing that. They're like, oh, you can't put regular soda, you have to put healthier stuff, even though the people that are buying the stuff, they want unhealthy stuff. But that's the time where like the, the management or the staff, they overrule what the customers want. Usually I tell people, only get the stuff that your customers like.

Love that. I love that so much.

Also QR codes. You put QR code on your machine, they can scan it, send you suggestions, send you like Google Form, send you what they want, and then boom.

Oh man, that's interesting. And, and how have the sandwiches been performing right now? You just started?

I just got the same, like, I literally got the sandwiches like 2 days ago.

How would that work in terms of like temperature and all that?

The, the AI machine is, um, is refrigerated. So all the stuff are cold inside the AI machine.

Okay. And that I would assume you change and regulate because it's sandwiches, right?

Yeah. With the sandwiches, it's not like a bag of Skittles that's like, it's 2 years. Like a sandwich is probably like 10, 12 days. So, and also too, the thing I like about the AI machine, you could change prices on the go. I think most people, that's, so like, let's say like the sandwiches, like they're, they're coming up to expiration dates. You can make them cheaper, even though most people are probably not looking at how much they spend, but you could do that.

Hmm.

Nah, man.

That's, that's, that's legit. That's legit. As we about to wrap up right now. What, um, okay, we obviously spoke about technology like, um, cashless payment system, um, and do you feel that will eventually— I know we spoke about the, the, the takeover AI, we spoke about Claude and all that. Do you still think there is a future in non-AI vending machines?

Yeah, I know, I think there's some places that you have to put traditional vending machines in. It doesn't make sense for you to put like an AI machine because even though with all the safeguards that AI has, you could still steal from the vending machine. There's still ways that you could like take from your AI vending machine, right? They're getting better obviously, but like there's still ways that people, you know, kids and stuff like that would like break into your machine. So there's some places that traditional vending machines is a must. I had a girl, her name was Brianna, shout out to her. She was in, uh, Michigan and she had an AI vending machine at a, at a hotel. Mind you, they, they messed up her machine. They were trying to break— like they were just doing a bunch of stuff. So she took out her vending machine there. So, and then she just put a traditional machine.

Oh no, no, I love that. I love that. Have you ever made a loss on any of your vending machines, like in a month?

A loss?

Like, in other words, not make any like money or anything?

Yeah, I have some locations where I make like— I had some in the past where like I made like, like I said, like I remember the first location we got, I made like $14. But the cat— the thing was we got all the snacks for free because I was at my college and we had like unlimited meal swipes because of COVID So I was getting all my products for free at that location. But over time it started doing better. So I'm doing $14, then $200 a month, $300 a month. It started getting better as like as we got better at putting like snacks and drinks inside the machine.

And when you spoke about the $500 and the $1,000, is that commission after the expenses have already been bought in terms of the products and stuff like that?

Oh, when I paid the commission, the 20%?

No, no. Like when you said $500 a month, was that straight commission or is that just the revenue that is generated?

Oh, to pay for the product? Yeah, that's, that's probably your initial cost. So you pay like your $500. You want to sell your snacks for double the cost of what you buy them for. You want 100% markup.

Okay.

So if the snack costs 50 cents, you want to sell it for a dollar. Some people are going to do $1.50 depending on like, uh, depending on how you want your margins. But I— the, the general rule is you want 100% markup. There's going to be some products where it's going to be very hard to go do 100%. Some sort— some sorts of candies. It all depends how much you buy the product for. That's why I go to like stores like Walmart, ShopRites, all these Littles for people down south, Publix. There's stores like that that they have like specialty items if you buy in bulk. Because usually I go to wholesale stores like your Sam's Club, your, your, your Sam's Club, BJ's, Costco. Um, there's also distributors as well. In New Jersey, there's a store called AAA Warehouse that, that they, they, they have a lot of products for cheap, but the expiration dates are a little closer. So you just— so there's always trade-offs with these things.

No, I love that. Second, second to last question right now. If somebody right now is out there and, you know, was inspired, loved this episode, just wants to start, doesn't want to leave anything entirely, like their business, whatever they may be, they want to just get something on the roll. What's the advice you'd give them right now? How would they start?

In vending?

First thing. Yeah, first, just the one advice.

Okay, the one advice I would say is I would always tell people, don't do the things you're passionate in. When I started vending machines, it wasn't because I'm so passionate in doing vending machines. It was the thing that just came to me. It was a thing that had an unfair advantage. And I think most people should do things you have an unfair advantage in. I was getting free products from my school, so vending machine business was the way to start. So if you have an unfair advantage right now, and let's say it's not vending machines, do that, right? Someone might see this and be excited, but if you have something that you have an unfair advantage in, I think most of you guys should go on. If you have like a studio at your college that you could utilize, if you have— your mom has like a— been doing like what— has a furniture store, like, I just do your unfair advantages. And if that includes having a vending machine, Go, go for it.

Yeah, I love it.

I know we didn't get a chance to talk about social media. I had some good advice, but—

Hey, go, go for it. Let's, uh, let's go, um, let's talk about that real quickly.

Really quickly?

Yeah.

Okay, so social media. I think most people— I just want to give you guys just all the gems and stuff that went really, really quickly. So for social media, the reason social media has opened so many doors for me, like I said, makes me tens of thousands of dollars a month, brand deals. I get free vending machines now and all that stuff. And it's all because with social media When I was— I worked at a preschool and I listened to a teacher explain stuff to students, to little preschool kids. And I said, I'm going to do the same thing with my content. I'm going to make my content so simple that a first grader or kindergartner can understand the content.

Hmm.

And that's when I started making content, throwing boxes in the air, telling people like how much I buy and I sell snacks for and stuff like that. And the way to win with social media, if you don't take anything just on the social media front, is you do these things called formats. And formats are just types of videos. So day in the life is a format. Get ready with me is a format. You— I've been doing the same format since I started. I bought this many vending machines and it makes me this amount of money a month. I buy this snack, it makes me this amount a month. And I— day in the life of a future millionaire, best place to put your vending machine, worst places to put your vending machine, 5 things I wish I knew before I bought a vending machine business, 5 things I wish I knew— like, I've been doing the same formats over and over and over and over again, and they get millions of views.

Hmm.

There's a couple other little stuff that I do, but that's probably the main thing. Make a couple formats, stick to the winners and stuff like that. Storytelling. I think when you make videos that are— when I have— I posted probably almost 2,500 videos and 12 videos make up almost my, my 328,000 followers on Instagram. Only 12. I posted 2,500 videos and only 12 make up the majority of the thing. I forgot what, what rule this is, the 20/80/20 rule, whatever it is. But like, I had videos, like one video got me 25,000 followers. One video got me 16,000. That video got me— and I posted 2,500 videos.

Mm-hmm.

I think volume beats luck in any, any case. I would've never got to those 12s if I didn't do the 2,500 bad shots. I think most people will be better at content if they post more times a day. Every time, every person that asks me about like how to become successful with content, I always tell them post 32 videos a day. And they're like, oh my gosh, I can't do 32. That's so much. I can't do that. It's impossible to do that. But once you get into the mindset, like I could do 32 videos a day, you're gonna— your brain is gonna unlock to find different systems. Okay. Because I spend one day to batch content for the entire month. It doesn't take me that long. One day I have content for the entire month. I templatize all the content. I could take content from, from, from 2 years ago, put it with the content now and make a crazy story with it. So.

And that's powerful nuggets right there. And I appreciate that, man. Um, obviously the code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. For Donald, what is your definition to winning? Oof.

I think winning, winning, winning for me is, uh, oh, that's a good question. I think if you, if your goal is only to win for yourself, I feel like you're gonna feel like you didn't win in life. I think winning for me is the ability to help other people win. I think that's when you feel the most fulfilled. If you win only for you, you feel me, I feel like you're not gonna be as fulfilled if you're winning. If you're winning, you put other people on. Like when I see other people like, hey Donald, like I watched your video and I started a vending machine. That's winning to me. That's success to me. That's like, that's, that's, that's more impactful than if, oh, I just, I just got $100,000. When I know, like, when people walk up to me, I watch your videos, I was inspired, I started my business, or I started this because of you. I started that. To me, that's winning.

I love that so much. If you could let the viewers and guests know where they could get a hold of you, um, social media, if they want to try and reach out to you, if they want to learn about, um, you know, uh, vending machines, can you let our viewers know as well?

So, um, on Instagram it's @dnald14. So D-N-A-L-D-14. Um, um, YouTube is Everything DSK, and I think Instagram, you can probably find all the links there. So yeah, but I really appreciate you. Thank you for this episode, uh, and thank you guys.

Awesome stuff. The code-winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Donald Lukesama, thank you so much, my brother.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.