Hi Max. Thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview with us. At such a young age you have achieved so much and some would say you’re an ecommerce guru.

1. How did this all begin for you?
I wasn’t always ambitious – I was like everyone else. I did well enough in school, spent breaks scrolling through social media, only to go home and okay video games.

However, I eventually realized I needed more. My family are immigrants in the US and were just happy to learn the language and get 9-5 jobs- so I had no one to guide me on my journey to success. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that if I read & studied ⅘ hours a day, scored a 1600 on my SAT, got a 4.0 GPA, and got accepted into the best college in the world- one day I would become successful. I kept this mindset until I finally realized that if I put the same vigor into online business- I could attain the same success I do in school, online. (I was at the top of my class and studied literature, philosophy, and psychology daily).

I had no clue where to startand after a number of failed and half-successful businesses – like my modeling management, clothing brand, and party business – I eventually chose to master Ecommerce & marketing because of the potential I saw in it.

2. We understand you have been teaching for many years now, what made you want to go down the teaching route?
When you launch a successful Ecom business, it only takes 20/30 min a day to continue scaling it- and if you outsource the marketing, the income is completely passive.

Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I at first decided to help out a couple of friends launch their business, and then their friends, and then their friend’s friends, until everyone in my city and neighborhood wanted my help with Ecom. It became my passion to generate student results- I spent months and months building the best product possible which would direct people on how to start this low barrier entry, but scalable, business model.

It’s an incredible feeling seeing someone change their lifeI am proud to have helped many many individuals master the business model from
scratch and become my partners, bringing their creativity and intelligence into my own Ecommerce businesses- shifting my results.

3. Did you find success when you first started? Or was it a slow burn to get where you are now?
It was definitely a slow start. After my first businesses, I had only about $500 saved to try my luck at Ecommerce, and I burned through it in my first month. I had to get a job as a lifeguard to get some consistent cash flow to put into my dying businesses.

The problem was that I was guessing with everything- with the products I chose to sell, the marketing, and so on. It took me a long time to finally see my first actually profitable store- as there were countless optimizations and split tests I had to go through to see what actually works online.

4. With being as young as you were when you started, did you have the full  support of your family?
I was extremely lucky to have such an emotionally supportive family. When I was putting in time, focused on my goals every working hour of the day, I had sacrificed my health, my well being, my social life, and even my studies. However, despite the challenges I saw, my family never failed to support me. My brother, parents, and grandparents encouraged me to keep working and not to give up; they were alongside me every step of the way. To this day, they still motivate me to continue shooting for the stars.

Whenever I asked for any advice, or an extra hand in anything I was trying, my family was never reluctant to help in any way they could.
5. What advice would you give others trying to pursue the same path?

My biggest piece of advice: lose your ego & pride. I see so many aspiring entrepreneurs try this business model and think they know it all. However, success is taught. I attribute a lot of my success to gathering the most knowledge I could from observing already successful entrepreneurs. I watched countless amounts of courses, I read hundreds of books.

People who don’t learn will never succeed. Every piece of material you absorb will help you in the future, it will give you ideas, it will
motivate you to continue working, it will optimize your business, even if only by 1%.

6. How has Covid – 19 affected business for you?
Covid-19 has allowed me to scale my business even further. Although I truly feel for the business owners who are struggling, my business model has seen an increase in revenue, as it takes place entirely online. This isn’t an outlier – e-commerce sales have exponentially grown due to the amount of online spending consumers are doing. As physical stores remain closed, the market has shifted to online means.

It is astounding – Shopify & Amazon are seeing similar daily revenue that they see on Black Friday. Before quarantine, only about 10-15% of all retail sales took place online; but now, more than half of all retail sales are online. I have always beloved online sales would be the future- and I was always prepared when the opportunity arose to continue growing.

7. Where can we keep up to date with your life?
To see updates, lessons, and messages in real time, follow me on Instagram @max.trub.