Danny Carlson Bio

Danny Carlson is an Amazon E-com Expert specializing in PPC Management & Listing Optimization. He founded the Agency “Kenji ROI” in 2016 & has grown it to more than 10 team members.

Kenji ROI has served 638+ brands in all categories with product photography, video, copywriting, Amazon SEO, & Amazon PPC Management services, and has produced 1355+ Amazon product listings.

Danny is also host of the Actualize Freedom Podcast (Amazon FBA) & the Danny Carlson Podcast (building agencies, mindset, & lifestyle) completing more than 100 interviews with names like Mike Michalowicz, Daniel DiPiazza, Steve Sims, Manny Coats, & Kevin King.

Residing in Bali, his off time is spent training hand to hand acrobatics, ripping sport motorcycles, & speaking at business events.

MEDIA APPEARANCES

Young Danny

Yep, young Danny boy was a party-happy, adrenaline seeking machine hell bent on killing brain cells like it was a video game.

Boy have things changed in just a handful of years. Below is me now, living in Bali playing acro & managing a remote team of 6 full time employees.

Current Danny

For 6 years I was a carpenter with more A-hole bosses than I could count.

I hated leaving for work at 6am in the pouring rain, showing up to the same job site every day with people I didn’t like, making less money than my peers even though I worked smarter & harder.

Many times I asked for a raise & got a NO, even though I was the best carpenter on the “team.” I’d ask for time off to compete in longboard races but was refused.

There were times I was so sick I wanted to puke but showed up anyway because I couldn’t afford to miss a day of work.

To escape my 9-5 I’ve tried:

Pinching every penny
Starting a media production company
Blowing up an ecommerce business.

I’ve failed at a lot of things… but I’ve always refused to let failure get the final word.

My first businesses did NOT go well, but on my 3rd attempt I stumbled upon what I think is the best, safest, & easiest first business anyone can make profitable within just a few months of hard work.

My name is Danny Carlson & 3 years ago I quit my construction job forever. Today I’ve built 2 six figure businesses, including one that earns more than $40k per month, I live in Bali surrounded by inspiring entrepreneurs.

I have an incredible community of other online entrepreneurs as friends & enjoy acroyoga, dance, & gymnastics strength training in my time away from the computer.

I am so incredibly grateful for the life I have today, but it definitely did NOT start out like this…

Working construction was killing my soul...

3 years ago I was waking up every day at 5:30am to commute 45 minutes & stand in the Vancouver rain building mansions for rich guys…. hardly fulfilling.

Some days I felt so dead in my job I would pretend to work, then tuck away scrolling Instagram photos of anything that was NOT this.

You couldn’t force me to care if you paid me $200,000 a year. I absolutely hated it. The only thing that dragged me out day after day was saving up money to travel & compete in downhill skateboard races. I was totally hooked on that.

The cycle of save > travel > save > travel was emotionally taxing.

The highs of exploring Norweigian Fjords quickly followed by the drudgery of rolling out power cords in the rain.

Every time I returned from an incredible trip I became depressed, knowing it would be months until I could afford to leave again.

I needed another way to make income so after breaking my collarbone longboard racing in Puerto Rico, I used my time off to start a media production company to make cash on the side while travelling.

I made videos of myself & friends then sold them to our sponsors. After a few years of side hustling, I landed a contract for $6k to create a 6 part video series in Japan.

My dream had come true! Or so I thought.

I was getting paid to travel & longboard & was PUMPED. There were so many incredible experience from that period of my life.

I came back from a 2.5 month skate trip to the Philippines & Japan with more money than when I left … but I felt kind of depressed.

The second I’d reached my goal I realized it wasn’t what I’d imagined. It still felt like just another job, & not a good paying one at that.

But the worst thing about it was I had diminished my passion for longboarding. It started to feel like a job & I was doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Riding with friends was “training,” meeting new people was “networking,” & exploring new roads was “planning my next video.” It drained the fun straight out of it & without that… why was I doing it?

I realized in that moment making my passion my income was not the answer. I needed something that would allow me the freedom to spend time on my passions but also the financial freedom.

At that point I’d been listening to podcasts about online business for a few years already so I knew it was an option, but I didn’t know where to start. It was a mystical world that I was called to explore but seemed so foreign to how I “knew” the world worked.

I knew that one day I would have to just choose a path and go for it… but when?

I may never have had to courage if it weren’t for a near death experience while racing longboards in the Philippines, 2 inches from death…

The Moment That Changed My Life Forever...

Yep, that’s a real picture of me…

This was supposed to be a closed race, but somehow there was a motorcycle coming up the road. Faced by a wall of 6 longboarders, he has not option but to swerve off the road, cutting me off (luckily figuratively and not literally)!

Every day is a bonus to me now. I’m truly grateful to be alive.

I walked back to the top of the course, too shaken to finish my run.

Sitting there, all I could think was “I almost never got the chance to start the next phase of my life, to start that online business.” Clarity struck me across the face like a 20lb sack of rice. My old excuses now felt weak and empty… the time was now.

Before I even landed back in Canada I was putting the wheels in motion.

I was going all in on Amazon FBA, my first online business. I wasn’t going to take a single day for granted.

I was possessed, within 3 months I had invested all my money & then some in education & inventory to sell.

Virtually every minute of spare time went into building a business that would free me from trading time for money.

My first 2 product launched on Amazon at the same time.

One Failed, and one sold $10k USD in it’s first month. A month later I was flying to China to source 4 new products!

By this time, I’d developed the skill set of writing highly optimized Amazon listings for myself, so I started doing it for some friends for side cash.

It started as just me freelancing, then I could afford to hire a virtual assistant, then a keyword assistant!

Society had lied to me my whole life...

I never had examples of entrepreneurs in my life, so I always thought starting a business took more time & money than I was willing to give.

You had to have no life, directly trade happiness for money.

The school system doesn’t even breathe the word “entrepreneur” let alone prepare you to become one. As someone whose personality naturally fits entrepreneurship, I felt betrayed by the system.

I was deeply depressed in high school…

I saw my only options for future career path as either…

A: Go to University on a student loan to get some job I don’t like
B: Work in the trades & get some job I don’t like

Then work for 50 years until I could one day afford to retire and sit around.

No wonder I was depressed!

I never thought starting a business was an option. That was for kids with rich parents or people who had no life!

Well lucky for us today the internet, software, & easy access to cheap overseas talent makes starting a business today the easiest & cheapest it’s ever been.

We can’t blame the previous generation for not steering us towards entrepreneurship because for them, it was much more difficult!

Software tools that make work faster, easy access to cheap overseas contractors, YouTube videos & podcasts that teach business skills for FREE.

Entrepreneurs of the past could not dream this up, it’s truly incredible.

Regular jobs have always felt suffocating to me…

No matter how hard I worked, I made the same amount of money each day.

I’d create ways of doing my job more effectively… too bad, stick to protocol! My bosses never rewarded creativity, I was just a pawn building their empire for THEM.

Some days I’d get my work done early so I had to find ways to look busy & waste a few hours.

In the construction industry the normal markup for labor is 100%, meaning if I was making $30 an hour, my boss was charging the client $60!

Half of every dollar I made was going to my boss!

Fact is… working a 9-5 job will never make you rich or allow the freedom working for yourself can.

Quitting my 9-5 Job Forever!

After 3 months of hard work growing my agency, I quit carpentry forever, what a beautiful day that was!

I hung my carpentry college diploma above my desk in the office as a reminder of what I had overcome and what awaited me if I failed.

Kenji ROI’s copywriting services were selling consistently over $10k per month, so I expanded to start offering product photography to my clients and exploded our average customer value, doubling within 2 months.

My podcast was picking up steam and the connections I was making were turning into profitable, growing my credibility, reach, & revenue.

I then expanded to offer graphics & video, rounding off the team for building complete Amazon listings, the only agency of it’s kind specifically targeting Amazon Sellers.

We now bring in $40k per month with a team of 6 full time staff + part timers. Our killer operations manager Jay keep the ship running smooth, and sales wizard Phil keeps the money rolling in!

One of the best things about growing an agency is how lean & profitable it is compared to most business models.

We require very little physical equipment to get our work done using our laptops, internet, basic software, but most importantly procedures & people to create value for our clients.

I was able to keep the business profitable all the way through the journey without having to get loans for equipment, special certifications, or product inventory.

It kept the risk level very low & made growth predictable.

How I Built my Freedom Through a Digital Services Agency

I’ve created a program teaching how to start & grow a location independent agency to $20k per month.

It’s the exact blueprint that worked for me without all the expensive, time wasting mistakes I’ve made.

It took me 3 years to grow to $40k per month, but if you avoid the mistakes I made it’s likely you can achieve it in far less.

Realistically I think I would be about a year ahead if I had figured out 1 or 2 key things sooner. Plus, I was a carpenter for 6 years with zero online business experience so I had a large learning curve to overcome.

Program Overview

1. I cover how to grow a business that will earn you more financial freedom so you can afford to live how you want without compromise.

2. How to design your business for freedom so you can live anywhere, travel, & work on your own schedule, following your body’s natural energy.

3. How to design processes, systems, & delegate the work so your business generates money whether you show up to work or not on any given day.

4. Overcoming mental obstacles, uncertainty, doubt, laziness so you can have the energy to work towards your goals every single day.

5. Guidance, clarity, & direction on what to do in what order to build a successful location independent agency from someone who has done it, so you can be confident your efforts are moving you forward, not backward.

This is all in the format of video modules, weekly Q&A calls with direct access to ask me questions and get direct feedback, and a private student community.

Who is this opportunity for?

People with an existing skill they can monetize
Ambitious people willing to work hard for their freedom
Tried other online business models like dropshipping or Amazon FBA without success
Hardworking freelancers struggling to find consistent clients
Baby boomers ready to finally break out & work for themselves

Who is this opportunity NOT for?

People who blame others for their own failures
People looking to “get rich quick” without hard work
People not willing to invest in their future success
People who constantly opportunity hop and never commit to making one thing work
Non action takers

I only accept students that I’m confident will be a win-win and are the right fit for the program so enrollment is by application.

To apply, fill out a brief survey and schedule a call to see if you’re a good fit to smash it with your own service based digital agency in 2020.