Michael Gonzalez - FitTea Founder | He Built America's #1 Detox Tea Into a 9-Figure Exit and Still Wasn't Happy

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.151 --> 00:00:01.051
You made Fit Tea.

2
00:00:01.272 --> 00:00:04.013
You built it for yourself before you turned it into a business.

3
00:00:04.033 --> 00:00:05.073
So walk me through that.

4
00:00:05.273 --> 00:00:10.336
I was really obsessed with like Steve Jobs and branding and high end luxury branding.

5
00:00:10.356 --> 00:00:12.697
I was like, what if I like build like a weight loss product?

6
00:00:12.737 --> 00:00:18.099
But it was like high luxury, high value, but it also tastes amazing and smelled amazing.

7
00:00:18.219 --> 00:00:19.900
And that was what became my obsession.

8
00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:29.722
Today's guest is Michael Gonzalez, the entrepreneur behind Fit T, who built the brand from a personal solution into a business that generated over $100 million in product sales.

9
00:00:29.902 --> 00:00:35.324
In this conversation, he shares what he's learned about branding, entrepreneurship, and building businesses in the age of AI.

10
00:00:35.344 --> 00:00:39.425
Do you feel like you would have been happier if you played a little bit smaller?

11
00:00:39.765 --> 00:00:40.225
I think...

12
00:00:40.465 --> 00:00:43.686
If I could go back in time, I definitely would have said no way more.

13
00:00:43.966 --> 00:00:45.687
Not every opportunity is an opportunity.

14
00:00:45.987 --> 00:00:51.449
I think figuring out what your rich is, define that as a person, like what you want.

15
00:00:51.609 --> 00:00:53.130
What are the opportunities you see now?

16
00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:54.891
I still think people buy from people.

17
00:00:55.111 --> 00:00:56.931
So be 100% yourself.

18
00:00:57.071 --> 00:00:57.712
Don't be fake.

19
00:00:57.872 --> 00:00:58.892
Just be 100%.

20
00:00:58.992 --> 00:01:02.353
As much as I'm obsessed with AI, I still think humans are humans.

21
00:01:02.573 --> 00:01:06.295
And we need to like still gravitate toward the human experience.

22
00:01:09.177 --> 00:01:11.159
My fitness pal is a success story partner.

23
00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:14.962
Now, there's this thing that happens when you start paying attention to what you eat.

24
00:01:15.342 --> 00:01:18.905
And I think we can all agree that we want to care about our health and our wellness and our nutrition.

25
00:01:19.326 --> 00:01:22.228
But more often than not, we just kind of think we eat clean.

26
00:01:22.408 --> 00:01:26.832
We think we eat healthy, but we're not really, really paying attention to every single meal.

27
00:01:27.272 --> 00:01:29.073
and what makes up every single meal.

28
00:01:29.233 --> 00:01:36.815
But just by paying attention and starting to log and track what you eat, you start making better choices without really trying.

29
00:01:37.295 --> 00:01:49.819
And that surprised me because when I first started using the MyFitnessPal app, and I've been using it for a while now, it's a nutrition tracking app, and I started logging what I was eating, it started showing me my macros, which means how much protein, carbs, and fats I was getting.

30
00:01:50.059 --> 00:01:53.662
And then I started to understand why some days I felt good, high energy.

31
00:01:53.782 --> 00:01:59.787
Some days I felt like garbage because those three things, proteins, carbs, fats, that's what your food is made out of.

32
00:02:00.208 --> 00:02:03.590
And the balance between them affects everything.

33
00:02:03.751 --> 00:02:11.197
So my fitness pal app truly changed my life when it came to managing my food, which managed and helped everything else.

34
00:02:11.577 --> 00:02:15.579
Now, on the premium version of the app, it breaks down those numbers by meal.

35
00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:18.641
So I'm not just seeing one calorie number for the day.

36
00:02:18.741 --> 00:02:26.905
I can see what's happening at breakfast versus lunch versus dinner, where my protein actually lands, whether I'm eating enough earlier in the day or piling everything on at night.

37
00:02:27.365 --> 00:02:28.126
And all of a sudden,

38
00:02:28.766 --> 00:02:35.490
When I'm crashing at 3, 4 p.m., well, I can take a look and see, it's not so surprising anymore based on what I ate or what I didn't eat.

39
00:02:35.811 --> 00:02:40.393
So that's what I mean when I say that MyFitnessPal is a great app for awareness.

40
00:02:40.874 --> 00:02:45.537
It's not obsessive, it's not stressful, it's not time-consuming, it's actually the opposite.

41
00:02:45.577 --> 00:02:46.437
Guessing is stressful.

42
00:02:46.637 --> 00:02:50.120
When you have all the information, the food you eat, your nutrition...

43
00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:52.881
becomes way easier to keep up with.

44
00:02:53.261 --> 00:02:56.743
Also, a lot of people stress out that logging food is gonna be very time consuming.

45
00:02:57.303 --> 00:02:57.744
It's not.

46
00:02:58.044 --> 00:02:59.304
And if it was annoying, I'd stop.

47
00:02:59.344 --> 00:03:03.347
But what I love about the app is that they've made it super, super simple.

48
00:03:03.407 --> 00:03:05.968
They've removed all friction in food logging, right?

49
00:03:06.048 --> 00:03:08.089
They have the largest food database out there.

50
00:03:08.449 --> 00:03:10.010
So whatever I'm eating is already in it.

51
00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.192
I can voice log so I can just say what I'm eating.

52
00:03:13.212 --> 00:03:15.553
They have a barcode scanner that handles all the package stuff.

53
00:03:16.013 --> 00:03:23.856
They have a tool called MealScan, which lets me point my camera at my plate and it breaks down all the macros and then logs it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever.

54
00:03:24.256 --> 00:03:25.977
And the app remembers my regular meals.

55
00:03:26.557 --> 00:03:28.718
And I'm really just in and out of the app in seconds.

56
00:03:29.178 --> 00:03:32.659
And on top of that, it connects with over 40 fitness apps and wearables.

57
00:03:32.679 --> 00:03:35.480
So my workouts, my nutrition, they're all in one place.

58
00:03:35.820 --> 00:03:38.201
See, food is the foundation of everything.

59
00:03:38.481 --> 00:03:43.143
your energy, your sleep, your weight, your recovery, your performance at work, at home.

60
00:03:43.323 --> 00:03:47.424
And I really believe that when you start to pay attention to what you eat, every single part of your life improves.

61
00:03:47.824 --> 00:04:01.989
And to be honest, for me, it's the most useful tool because when I see the information, when I see what I'm eating, and I feel the effects of having good nutrition and good food at the right time, the decisions on what to eat become obvious.

62
00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:05.690
Not because someone told me to eat better, it's because I have the data.

63
00:04:06.010 --> 00:04:08.773
And the data makes it super, super easy to stay on track.

64
00:04:08.973 --> 00:04:10.135
So please do yourself a favor.

65
00:04:10.175 --> 00:04:13.238
Go to podcast.myfitnesspal.com and use code Scott.

66
00:04:13.539 --> 00:04:18.364
That's S-C-O-T-T, all uppercase letters, for 15% off MyFitnessPal Premium.

67
00:04:18.724 --> 00:04:24.611
That is podcast.myfitnesspal.com, code Scott, for 15% off MyFitnessPal Premium.

68
00:04:30.671 --> 00:04:33.752
I want people to understand what you've built.

69
00:04:34.293 --> 00:04:37.674
So you made Fit T, that's the company you're known for.

70
00:04:38.955 --> 00:04:42.036
You built it for yourself before you turned it into a business.

71
00:04:42.056 --> 00:04:44.937
So walk me through that, because I think that's a very interesting idea.

72
00:04:44.997 --> 00:04:46.378
You solve a problem that you have.

73
00:04:46.478 --> 00:04:50.460
Yeah, so at the time, and pretty much my whole life, I've struggled with my own weight.

74
00:04:51.220 --> 00:04:55.083
And, like, people were like, oh, why don't you try, like, weight loss teas at the time?

75
00:04:55.624 --> 00:05:00.447
And so I went to the store and I got, like, you know, these cheap, you know, detox teas that they had at the store.

76
00:05:01.208 --> 00:05:03.449
And I had been to Disney prior.

77
00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:06.332
And Disney did these, like, taste tests for, like, teas.

78
00:05:06.452 --> 00:05:14.338
But, like, really high-grade teas that taste amazing, that smelled amazing versus, like, these, you know, grocery store weight loss products, right?

79
00:05:14.358 --> 00:05:14.878
Yeah.

80
00:05:14.998 --> 00:05:20.949
And I was really obsessed with like Steve Jobs and branding and high-end luxury branding.

81
00:05:20.969 --> 00:05:24.416
And I was at school at UCF and I was studying these things.

82
00:05:24.476 --> 00:05:26.059
And I was like, what if I like...

83
00:05:26.785 --> 00:05:33.390
build like a weight loss product, but it was like high luxury, high value, but it also tastes amazing and smelled amazing.

84
00:05:33.831 --> 00:05:40.416
And that was what became my obsession of like making like the ultimate version of this like really low end product.

85
00:05:40.876 --> 00:05:49.764
So many entrepreneurs try and solve problems that are trendy or they feel like there's a gold rush opportunity and they have FOMO.

86
00:05:49.804 --> 00:05:54.828
And this is why you see people that were jumping into crypto projects 10 years ago, which is

87
00:05:55.308 --> 00:06:04.251
It seems like it was just yesterday, but how many horrible crypto projects were propped up overnight, or everybody jumping into AI right now, or CPG at some point.

88
00:06:04.711 --> 00:06:11.134
So I think that the idea of solving a problem for yourself is a great place to start, because you already know there's a gap in the market.

89
00:06:12.214 --> 00:06:18.076
But before Fitty, I think you are the definition of serial entrepreneur.

90
00:06:18.736 --> 00:06:20.677
You can't not be an entrepreneur.

91
00:06:21.377 --> 00:06:22.778
How many things didn't work?

92
00:06:23.318 --> 00:06:32.384
Uh, we had the funniest one was, uh, like, um, they were guinea pigs and we were gonna mate them and then sell them for like snake food.

93
00:06:32.844 --> 00:06:37.267
You're saying actually guinea pigs, not guinea pigs anecdotally as like a test idea.

94
00:06:37.307 --> 00:06:40.369
Like, like I literally, I didn't have a place and my mom had a condo.

95
00:06:40.429 --> 00:06:42.770
So like I had two or three or something like that.

96
00:06:43.171 --> 00:06:43.771
And my buddy's like...

97
00:06:44.031 --> 00:06:47.155
Yeah, we put them in my backyard and we could breed them and then we'll start selling them.

98
00:06:47.635 --> 00:06:49.738
And that was not a good idea.

99
00:06:49.758 --> 00:06:51.159
That was not a good business idea.

100
00:06:51.179 --> 00:06:55.084
I had like lukewarm success too, like in other businesses.

101
00:06:55.124 --> 00:06:59.929
Like my education in e-commerce really was because...

102
00:07:00.909 --> 00:07:05.392
at my school, they would leave all the lost and found books behind.

103
00:07:06.092 --> 00:07:07.373
And, you know, months would go by.

104
00:07:07.393 --> 00:07:10.315
And I finally just told, like, you know, the teachers, like, what happens to these books?

105
00:07:10.335 --> 00:07:11.496
They're like, oh, we throw them away.

106
00:07:11.516 --> 00:07:13.577
And I was like, well, can I have them?

107
00:07:13.597 --> 00:07:15.798
Can I sell them on Amazon, you know?

108
00:07:16.019 --> 00:07:18.820
And I think at the time, I didn't even know about Amazon.

109
00:07:18.840 --> 00:07:20.902
I was saying half.com because it was like eBay.

110
00:07:22.403 --> 00:07:26.145
And so, like, that process was, like, such a free education.

111
00:07:26.165 --> 00:07:27.526
Like, I didn't know back then.

112
00:07:27.566 --> 00:07:29.007
I was just trying to make a little bit of money, you know?

113
00:07:29.827 --> 00:07:33.669
And these books were so expensive, like $200,000, $300,000 for one book, you know.

114
00:07:34.449 --> 00:07:38.971
And then, you know, I would list them and then ship them and handle the customer service.

115
00:07:39.291 --> 00:07:43.112
It was such a free education of what e-commerce would be, right?

116
00:07:43.512 --> 00:07:50.375
And I got it totally anecdotal, you know, just by being like in the right space at the right time and having this like free inventory.

117
00:07:51.355 --> 00:07:54.779
Um, and then of course there's like all these like random businesses.

118
00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:59.643
Like my best friend was really in the comics and he was like, Oh, I don't only buy a bunch of bulk books and then flatten them.

119
00:08:00.344 --> 00:08:02.506
And then we'll send them to a grading company.

120
00:08:02.526 --> 00:08:08.111
And this is way before like this hype now, like CTC and all this, like, you know, grading stuff.

121
00:08:08.431 --> 00:08:08.952
And, uh,

122
00:08:09.472 --> 00:08:12.893
We would press them and make the margin in between and list them on eBay.

123
00:08:13.294 --> 00:08:22.497
So fortunately, I had him, too, to kind of, like, educate me on this idea of, like, you can do this immense value so something that would be, like, $100 can turn into $10,000.

124
00:08:22.517 --> 00:08:27.359
Because, like, my mindset was, like, only still, like, I only had to sell, like, $45, you know what I mean?

125
00:08:27.379 --> 00:08:28.280
Not $10,000.

126
00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:28.600
So...

127
00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:35.182
Um, fortunately for me, I had like a lot of like anecdotal good successes that led to like Fitzy.

128
00:08:35.883 --> 00:08:40.224
Everything that you did, it was, it was marginally successful, not home run though.

129
00:08:41.845 --> 00:08:51.469
I guess the question is somebody who is born entrepreneurial, like somebody who's, you know, finding free textbook inventory and then selling it online.

130
00:08:53.100 --> 00:09:07.368
Every time you have these entrepreneur stories, you always hear the early entrepreneurs selling the lemonade stand or arbitraging Pokemon cards or what Gary Vee does at garage sales.

131
00:09:07.388 --> 00:09:13.030
You always have these first signals that someone's going to be an entrepreneur.

132
00:09:15.172 --> 00:09:18.894
I'm curious if somebody didn't grow up like that.

133
00:09:18.974 --> 00:09:21.876
Do you think they have a chance of building something successful?

134
00:09:22.016 --> 00:09:26.699
Or do you think they have to go through this repeat failure period?

135
00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:28.420
I say failure because it's not a home run.

136
00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:31.321
It's not like $100 million in sales.

137
00:09:31.361 --> 00:09:32.162
It's not a huge...

138
00:09:32.542 --> 00:09:40.284
Do you think like that's the education or can somebody who is coming from a nine to five parents, nine to five, do you think they have a chance?

139
00:09:40.704 --> 00:09:43.565
Everyone has a chance as long as they determine what they want to do.

140
00:09:43.925 --> 00:09:48.206
They take actionable steps to that thing and then they measure what happened.

141
00:09:48.446 --> 00:09:48.726
Right.

142
00:09:49.026 --> 00:09:52.347
And then rinse and repeat because the measure part might not be fair.

143
00:09:52.367 --> 00:09:53.327
You know what I mean?

144
00:09:54.387 --> 00:09:55.848
It might not be the thing that you wanted.

145
00:09:55.868 --> 00:09:57.089
It might actually be a failure.

146
00:09:57.529 --> 00:10:07.315
But if you measure out like, oh, I learned how to do this or I got educated in this and it may be time, you know, a big chunk of time that you're doing that because, I mean, a lot of those things were years that I was doing in the beginning.

147
00:10:07.796 --> 00:10:12.379
And I didn't realize back then that it was like super important that I had done that.

148
00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:14.120
And it wasn't like huge money.

149
00:10:14.680 --> 00:10:19.483
But at least it gave me like a form of education of like what would be an online business.

150
00:10:19.643 --> 00:10:19.803
Right.

151
00:10:19.823 --> 00:10:24.565
Like just fortunately, like, you know, Basil's obviously Amazon becomes the biggest thing in the world.

152
00:10:24.886 --> 00:10:28.027
But if you go back then, it's very early, you know, still in its infancies.

153
00:10:28.948 --> 00:10:31.669
And in definitely infancies in terms of people selling on the platform.

154
00:10:31.789 --> 00:10:34.431
Like I remember it being like really, really early on.

155
00:10:35.497 --> 00:10:44.380
And as far as like, you know, anyone can, I think anyone can do anything as long as they have this spirit to endure that testing phase.

156
00:10:44.540 --> 00:10:45.581
Because you can have an idea.

157
00:10:45.601 --> 00:10:47.942
You can take action steps to do the idea.

158
00:10:48.502 --> 00:10:56.245
But it's really the fundamental of what I think an entrepreneur is, is that last little piece is the, you know, the wounds that you get from people.

159
00:10:56.825 --> 00:10:59.326
from it not being fair because capitalism isn't fair.

160
00:10:59.346 --> 00:11:00.527
It's not for everyone.

161
00:11:01.067 --> 00:11:03.048
It's almost like failure is the prerequisite.

162
00:11:03.128 --> 00:11:10.452
So the sooner you can lean into things that you test them, they don't work, you learn, like the sooner you have a chance of getting something to actually work.

163
00:11:10.852 --> 00:11:14.574
And really be like open-minded to what that data set is.

164
00:11:15.554 --> 00:11:18.896
Because sometimes it's not as clear cut, like a dollar per dollar.

165
00:11:19.096 --> 00:11:19.636
You know what I mean?

166
00:11:19.656 --> 00:11:24.799
It could be fundamental changes in how you think, fundamental changes of how you approach business in the future.

167
00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:28.722
Maybe that business leads to a sour relationship.

168
00:11:29.282 --> 00:11:31.743
Because a lot of times there's people buy from people.

169
00:11:32.104 --> 00:11:33.004
People sell to people.

170
00:11:33.665 --> 00:11:35.105
And people do business with people.

171
00:11:35.265 --> 00:11:38.767
And at the end of the day, that's also like a learning lesson that it's not so...

172
00:11:40.008 --> 00:11:41.630
It's not so easy to define.

173
00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:48.838
Yeah, so the relationship that you built from trying the thing didn't work out so well, but where does that relationship lead to in the future?

174
00:11:49.298 --> 00:11:50.800
And how you interact with people in the future.

175
00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:53.323
Maybe in the future, oh, I see that red flag.

176
00:11:53.343 --> 00:11:55.185
I'm not going to do that again with that type of person.

177
00:11:55.585 --> 00:11:57.105
Or, oh, this guy's a really good guy.

178
00:11:57.125 --> 00:12:01.086
I want to really work with him because that worked out well last time.

179
00:12:01.486 --> 00:12:05.707
Multiple marginal successes and some failures before Fit Tea.

180
00:12:06.968 --> 00:12:08.608
You said you built Fit Tea for yourself.

181
00:12:08.668 --> 00:12:17.530
How did you know when it was going to be more than just something that was another, I don't know, like a semi-successful project, but something that was actually going to work?

182
00:12:17.570 --> 00:12:20.611
What was the point where it started to take off?

183
00:12:21.491 --> 00:12:23.392
So for me, I was just really blessed.

184
00:12:23.612 --> 00:12:24.772
And it was literally day one.

185
00:12:25.452 --> 00:12:29.075
Because I had ran online businesses at this point, maybe like six years.

186
00:12:29.715 --> 00:12:32.357
So I was like building websites for people.

187
00:12:32.377 --> 00:12:33.398
I was doing SEO.

188
00:12:33.418 --> 00:12:36.680
I had an SEO company called PageWell that I sold to a design company.

189
00:12:37.261 --> 00:12:42.104
So the little bit of monies that I had saved from all this stuff was the investment into 50.

190
00:12:42.204 --> 00:12:43.265
It was like 10 grand.

191
00:12:43.843 --> 00:12:45.084
And plus working at a job.

192
00:12:45.945 --> 00:12:48.247
And 50 was just like a spark.

193
00:12:48.807 --> 00:12:52.971
I was just really fortunate because I basically saw the feature in Instagram.

194
00:12:53.511 --> 00:12:58.996
Like right the moment that the link became available on Instagram, I was like, this could be a place to drive traffic.

195
00:12:59.016 --> 00:13:00.637
Because I was always watching analytics.

196
00:13:01.238 --> 00:13:03.099
The moment I knew that my whole life had changed.

197
00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:08.444
Because I took like, I think it was like $600 that I paid people to talk about my product on Instagram.

198
00:13:08.524 --> 00:13:09.465
And nobody was doing this.

199
00:13:09.625 --> 00:13:11.146
So it was like $30 a post.

200
00:13:11.166 --> 00:13:11.907
It was nothing crazy.

201
00:13:13.188 --> 00:13:17.051
was watching the analytics and the sales that were coming in from PayPal.

202
00:13:17.071 --> 00:13:19.072
Because the website was a jerry-rigged website.

203
00:13:19.272 --> 00:13:19.893
There was no Shopify.

204
00:13:19.913 --> 00:13:22.175
Well, there was Shopify, but there wasn't a Shopify that I was using.

205
00:13:22.435 --> 00:13:25.938
Like I was using just a HTML website that I built with hyperlinks to PayPal.

206
00:13:26.719 --> 00:13:28.881
And the PayPal notifications started coming in.

207
00:13:28.921 --> 00:13:31.764
So I'll get one as the ads started going up on Instagram.

208
00:13:32.245 --> 00:13:33.726
But it was really watching analytics.

209
00:13:33.766 --> 00:13:38.651
Like it went from like the most I had ever seen was probably like 16 people live on the site.

210
00:13:39.111 --> 00:13:39.892
And it was like 16,000.

211
00:13:40.273 --> 00:13:42.615
And I was just like, I thought it was a glitch at first.

212
00:13:43.075 --> 00:13:44.317
How much money was this?

213
00:13:44.817 --> 00:13:50.523
I did the first day we did over, I think it was like $16,000 worth of sales on the first night.

214
00:13:50.803 --> 00:13:51.604
I didn't even have the product.

215
00:13:51.624 --> 00:13:53.705
And this was running ads on Instagram really early days.

216
00:13:53.745 --> 00:13:57.568
Yeah, it's just literally paying someone to talk about the product and tagging us.

217
00:13:57.929 --> 00:14:00.511
And then it had just, you know, we didn't even have Fit Tea.

218
00:14:00.531 --> 00:14:02.572
It was called Fat Loss Tea at the time.

219
00:14:02.952 --> 00:14:05.735
Like the domain, the handle.

220
00:14:06.215 --> 00:14:08.237
We didn't have it for the first like two years.

221
00:14:10.056 --> 00:14:14.521
But yeah, watching the traffic just fly in and see and obviously the sales started flying into.

222
00:14:14.541 --> 00:14:16.663
I was like, oh, my God, this is this is going to be humongous.

223
00:14:16.683 --> 00:14:18.065
I literally called my boss the next day.

224
00:14:18.105 --> 00:14:21.809
It's like click and and went right at it.

225
00:14:21.849 --> 00:14:24.491
Like I just put every dollar in time back into the business.

226
00:14:24.872 --> 00:14:30.638
It's so interesting how like when something is working, it really works.

227
00:14:33.007 --> 00:14:41.652
It's I think there's this narrative that entrepreneurship and building a business and just honestly life in general has to be harder than it is sometimes.

228
00:14:42.532 --> 00:14:44.713
I notice this a lot in my space in media.

229
00:14:45.674 --> 00:14:47.835
When media works, it works.

230
00:14:48.415 --> 00:14:51.497
And I see people going for years doing shit that doesn't work.

231
00:14:51.537 --> 00:14:53.058
I see it with entrepreneurs as well.

232
00:14:54.385 --> 00:15:02.091
I don't think they all have success as quick as you, but I still notice like, okay, if it's working, there are clear signs that this is like moving in the right direction.

233
00:15:02.891 --> 00:15:11.057
And a lot of people who are super ambitious and they're good entrepreneurs and they have all the right personality quirks of what an entrepreneur has to have,

234
00:15:12.670 --> 00:15:21.594
Sometimes they fall into the trap of doing the thing for an extended period of time, even when it's not working, but they keep like hammering away at it.

235
00:15:21.674 --> 00:15:26.116
And, you know, to quote Kevin O'Leary, there's a point where you have to take it behind the barn and shoot it.

236
00:15:27.037 --> 00:15:29.238
And I don't think a lot of people know when that point is.

237
00:15:29.958 --> 00:15:33.480
So there's sort of two opposite ends of the spectrum.

238
00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:36.621
There's people that are afraid to even start.

239
00:15:37.142 --> 00:15:39.483
And then there's people that start and they never quit.

240
00:15:40.523 --> 00:15:43.804
And that second group of people, there's way less advice for them.

241
00:15:43.824 --> 00:15:49.287
There's a lot of advice on how to start and how to get your ass off the couch and to go build something or to go take action.

242
00:15:49.567 --> 00:15:53.948
There's not a lot of advice on is it working marginally?

243
00:15:54.569 --> 00:15:56.249
Is it like kind of a lost cause?

244
00:15:56.810 --> 00:16:02.892
Should you be pivoting and iterating and maybe you're too married to your original idea and it's actually hurting you more than helping you?

245
00:16:04.554 --> 00:16:14.505
Fit T is an example of how something can really work when it really is like right time, right place, right marketing, right market, right product.

246
00:16:14.966 --> 00:16:15.747
What's your advice?

247
00:16:15.967 --> 00:16:21.293
Like how does somebody figure out if what they're working on is something they should keep doing or they should pivot it?

248
00:16:21.473 --> 00:16:22.595
I had it both ways, right?

249
00:16:22.615 --> 00:16:23.235
So Fit T...

250
00:16:23.856 --> 00:16:25.677
Crazy success right off the rip.

251
00:16:25.757 --> 00:16:26.277
Blessing.

252
00:16:26.797 --> 00:16:27.838
Growth out of control.

253
00:16:27.858 --> 00:16:32.820
Obviously, I had no infrastructure, so I'm growing as trying to build everything and trying to figure things out.

254
00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:34.781
Are you shipping shit out of your garage at this point?

255
00:16:34.801 --> 00:16:36.922
I started in my parents' condominium.

256
00:16:37.683 --> 00:16:40.444
Literally, we were just cutting it back in and selling it.

257
00:16:40.504 --> 00:16:43.666
Literally doing all the hand labeling, hand sealing.

258
00:16:43.686 --> 00:16:45.767
I was driving it to the post office.

259
00:16:46.147 --> 00:16:48.068
Everything was done very manual.

260
00:16:48.448 --> 00:16:52.430
I didn't even understand how to do really shipping at this time because...

261
00:16:53.050 --> 00:16:56.412
You know, it was stamps.com, but the labels were, like, actually printed.

262
00:16:56.472 --> 00:16:58.733
They weren't – it was a very big challenge.

263
00:17:00.694 --> 00:17:11.399
And as far as, like, the – when to pivot is really have a measurable – just, like, trading, like, actual, like, stop loss of, like, what is the failure rate of your business?

264
00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:15.281
And you have to be, like, kind of truthful, like, honest with yourself.

265
00:17:15.301 --> 00:17:17.863
Because I think as entrepreneurs, we get really, like –

266
00:17:18.543 --> 00:17:35.976
dreamy and like positive thinking and like we can push through and anything is possible so 50 had this huge growth in the beginning but as time got grew instagram changed algorithms came facebook came in competitors galore copiers laws lawsuits uh

267
00:17:36.796 --> 00:17:39.798
infrastructure issues growing too fast.

268
00:17:39.838 --> 00:17:47.061
Like I didn't understand like, you know, the path of like a really successful business doesn't necessarily need to be Coca-Cola, right?

269
00:17:47.081 --> 00:17:49.863
Like we could be a really great business in this lane.

270
00:17:51.073 --> 00:17:58.679
Um, and so like, I also experienced those like questions of like, maybe, maybe we should like stop here.

271
00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:00.600
Like this is crazy up here.

272
00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:01.541
Like we could be here.

273
00:18:02.341 --> 00:18:09.747
Um, I just always remember in terms of like looking back and it's kind of funny that I'm here on my 40th birthday to reflect on these ideas.

274
00:18:09.767 --> 00:18:09.827
Um,

275
00:18:10.667 --> 00:18:13.790
is that you got to be really honest with yourself.

276
00:18:14.450 --> 00:18:23.197
And I think it's really tough for a lot of entrepreneurs to have that vulnerability, especially when if something's not working, because we want to win.

277
00:18:23.217 --> 00:18:26.960
We have this winner mentality and it's such a bravado space, right?

278
00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:32.945
Like, oh, I can push through and I, you know, but in reality, you injure your leg and

279
00:18:33.565 --> 00:18:57.150
in life and maybe you know figuratorily in terms of business um maybe yes let it heal you know what i mean and take that lesson and move on to the next thing and just be crazily brutally honest with those facts you mentioned something interesting too um with scale comes uh you know more money more problems literally so when you were scaling 50 um

280
00:19:01.313 --> 00:19:05.375
This was your first time in your life ever, you know, playing at this level.

281
00:19:06.135 --> 00:19:12.238
So a lot of the shit that comes with scaling a company to the size it fits you was, it comes with a lot of headache and stress.

282
00:19:13.398 --> 00:19:14.158
I lost all my hair.

283
00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:16.179
It's true.

284
00:19:16.199 --> 00:19:18.440
Do you ever feel like...

285
00:19:23.773 --> 00:19:26.315
It's a silly question to ask, but I want people to understand why I'm asking.

286
00:19:26.335 --> 00:19:32.039
I was going to ask, do you feel like you would have been happier if you played a little bit smaller?

287
00:19:32.179 --> 00:19:38.964
And the reason why I'm asking that is because I think some entrepreneurs, they don't even know what they want to build.

288
00:19:39.064 --> 00:19:41.726
They just want to build something, and they don't know why they're building it.

289
00:19:41.766 --> 00:19:42.507
And then sometimes...

290
00:19:42.927 --> 00:19:44.348
they raise more money than they need to.

291
00:19:44.869 --> 00:19:48.431
They take it in, and that means they take it in a direction that they don't even want to take it in.

292
00:19:48.451 --> 00:19:49.732
They lose control of their company.

293
00:19:50.153 --> 00:19:57.698
Sometimes it means that it grows so big, but they don't even get a great payout at the end of it because people have such equity positions in the company, such significant equity positions.

294
00:19:58.699 --> 00:20:03.663
Do you wish that you were a little bit more strategic about how you built it and what it turned into?

295
00:20:04.344 --> 00:20:05.745
Or are you happy with the end result?

296
00:20:06.085 --> 00:20:08.126
I think if I could go back in time,

297
00:20:08.948 --> 00:20:10.849
I definitely would have said no way more.

298
00:20:11.230 --> 00:20:12.951
Not every opportunity is an opportunity.

299
00:20:13.451 --> 00:20:20.197
I think figuring out what your rich is, define that as a person, what you want.

300
00:20:20.257 --> 00:20:27.983
Because I think it's limiting for someone to me on the internet, you're listening to me, going, oh, limit your goals and where you want to be.

301
00:20:28.003 --> 00:20:29.043
There's billionaires out there, right?

302
00:20:29.063 --> 00:20:29.183
Yeah.

303
00:20:30.036 --> 00:20:34.557
But I also think figure out what's rich to you and then try to aim for that goal.

304
00:20:35.197 --> 00:20:40.698
And then I think hyper focus is under like under talked about in our space.

305
00:20:40.978 --> 00:20:41.138
Right.

306
00:20:41.178 --> 00:20:45.839
It's like do more, be greater, run harder, make more, multiple SKUs.

307
00:20:45.879 --> 00:20:46.379
You can do this.

308
00:20:47.040 --> 00:20:53.061
And I look back to 50 and why I was so successful in the beginnings was it literally had two SKUs.

309
00:20:53.701 --> 00:21:03.563
You know, there's only so many bullets that you can shoot at marketing, especially if you're using only like I was I was fortunate enough to like grow my business steadily with my own cash from the business.

310
00:21:04.624 --> 00:21:05.204
You didn't raise?

311
00:21:05.804 --> 00:21:06.404
I raised no money.

312
00:21:06.444 --> 00:21:11.806
I used from I turned 10K to the business that it became like it was all just hyper looped back into the business.

313
00:21:11.846 --> 00:21:19.588
I was just insanely focused in terms of always putting the money back into the business, never taking anything for myself at a big scale within the business.

314
00:21:19.608 --> 00:21:20.668
Yeah.

315
00:21:21.608 --> 00:21:23.990
But it's hard to stay so focused.

316
00:21:24.010 --> 00:21:29.995
So like for me in my past, I think I would have said no a lot more, a lot more.

317
00:21:30.055 --> 00:21:32.316
There would have been things we wouldn't have done.

318
00:21:32.597 --> 00:21:36.740
There was infrastructure things that was unnecessary, but it was more like I want to be the best.

319
00:21:37.140 --> 00:21:37.961
I want to be the biggest.

320
00:21:38.061 --> 00:21:38.721
I'm the baddest.

321
00:21:39.182 --> 00:21:43.165
And this bravado of my own self became into the business, but it was actually a weakness, right?

322
00:21:43.185 --> 00:21:46.167
Like it took away monies from the business.

323
00:21:46.607 --> 00:21:49.209
By being so aggressive about the different things that you were going after.

324
00:21:49.290 --> 00:21:50.691
And sometimes it's just ego.

325
00:21:51.211 --> 00:21:51.431
Right.

326
00:21:51.451 --> 00:21:56.673
Like the business is doing so successful and you start doing more and more and more and more and more.

327
00:21:56.693 --> 00:21:58.574
All of a sudden I'm less focused.

328
00:21:58.714 --> 00:21:59.394
I'm tired.

329
00:21:59.474 --> 00:22:01.715
I can't keep my focus on any of the projects.

330
00:22:01.815 --> 00:22:03.316
I'm saying yes to everything.

331
00:22:03.756 --> 00:22:06.137
And then you start having like cracks in your system.

332
00:22:06.975 --> 00:22:08.236
And you don't even realize it.

333
00:22:08.716 --> 00:22:11.158
And you think you're growing big, big, big, big, big, big, big.

334
00:22:11.438 --> 00:22:13.760
But in reality, you're putting things into the armor.

335
00:22:14.260 --> 00:22:16.002
But your ego is saying, oh, I'm getting bigger.

336
00:22:16.022 --> 00:22:16.522
I'm getting bigger.

337
00:22:16.542 --> 00:22:17.463
I'm putting more money in.

338
00:22:19.044 --> 00:22:23.467
Hyperfocused is an underconversation in the entrepreneur space.

339
00:22:23.647 --> 00:22:26.489
I think also building something that serves your life.

340
00:22:27.310 --> 00:22:29.031
Like you mentioned before, like, what are your riches?

341
00:22:29.832 --> 00:22:32.433
I don't think enough entrepreneurs have that conversation with themselves.

342
00:22:32.874 --> 00:22:35.615
Like when they start, they're just like, I want to be the next Elon Musk.

343
00:22:35.695 --> 00:22:37.216
I want to have a trillion dollar company.

344
00:22:37.717 --> 00:22:43.721
And they realize, hopefully they realize at some point, is that actually what's serving your life goals?

345
00:22:44.221 --> 00:22:53.487
Do you want to be bigger, never be home, always be stressed, always be going after, you know, the next, adding another zero to your top line revenue strategy?

346
00:22:54.563 --> 00:22:55.343
Some people, yes.

347
00:22:55.703 --> 00:22:58.565
Very few people actually need that level of business to be happy.

348
00:22:58.925 --> 00:23:00.625
They're truly, truly happy in life.

349
00:23:00.665 --> 00:23:03.267
I think that most people just want to make a little bit more money than their 9 to 5.

350
00:23:04.447 --> 00:23:05.988
And that would give them a great life.

351
00:23:07.508 --> 00:23:08.749
I'm curious why you sold it.

352
00:23:09.509 --> 00:23:11.430
So $100 million in revenue.

353
00:23:13.030 --> 00:23:15.331
You will still never tell me how much you sold it for, which is fine.

354
00:23:15.772 --> 00:23:17.852
But $100 million in revenue is a great business.

355
00:23:17.892 --> 00:23:19.113
You've worked that, like, you know...

356
00:23:19.653 --> 00:23:26.276
for people who don't know the whole journey, you worked with Kardashians, you had like huge A-list celebrities, influencers.

357
00:23:26.616 --> 00:23:31.699
You kind of invented influencer marketing to a degree, considering how early you were on Instagram.

358
00:23:32.639 --> 00:23:33.440
But why sell it?

359
00:23:34.100 --> 00:23:40.843
So at this point in my life, I had already did a lot of the goals that I wanted for the business, like me personally.

360
00:23:41.303 --> 00:23:47.246
Like my original thesis was, I want to start with a high-end tea product and eventually become like a beverage business.

361
00:23:47.286 --> 00:23:48.527
That was like always my obsession.

362
00:23:48.547 --> 00:23:49.107
Like I was like, oh,

363
00:23:49.367 --> 00:23:51.568
How can we become this beverage business?

364
00:23:51.588 --> 00:23:52.408
I had this obsession.

365
00:23:52.808 --> 00:23:54.169
And I wanted to do it with all my own money.

366
00:23:54.209 --> 00:23:55.209
I didn't want to raise money.

367
00:23:55.229 --> 00:23:56.750
I wanted to do it all myself.

368
00:23:56.770 --> 00:23:58.310
I wanted to build my own infrastructures.

369
00:23:58.750 --> 00:24:02.812
And we had like one of the largest tea manufacturing facilities in Orlando.

370
00:24:02.852 --> 00:24:04.492
We could do 180 bags a minute.

371
00:24:04.512 --> 00:24:04.632
And...

372
00:24:06.593 --> 00:24:08.955
I did all these really high-level achievements.

373
00:24:08.975 --> 00:24:11.356
I was already in almost every retail store.

374
00:24:11.396 --> 00:24:12.677
We were killing it and skew.

375
00:24:13.557 --> 00:24:15.319
But I was exhausted.

376
00:24:15.479 --> 00:24:18.300
Me as a person, my relationships were sacrificed.

377
00:24:18.701 --> 00:24:22.203
Whether that was my close personal buddies, those relationships were sacrificed.

378
00:24:22.743 --> 00:24:25.645
My personal life was sacrificed.

379
00:24:26.405 --> 00:24:27.506
My health was sacrificed.

380
00:24:27.526 --> 00:24:29.547
I went through an anxiety disorder for a year.

381
00:24:29.807 --> 00:24:31.468
That was right before you sold it, correct?

382
00:24:31.549 --> 00:24:33.069
Literally right before I sold the business.

383
00:24:34.270 --> 00:24:40.838
And I just, I was exhausted of traveling to retail giants, you know, facilities or storefronts.

384
00:24:40.858 --> 00:24:47.645
Because once you get into like a big box store and you're doing all these, like, you're constantly going to meet with them.

385
00:24:48.026 --> 00:24:50.649
And I was always on a plane back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

386
00:24:51.129 --> 00:24:56.275
And so I just felt like I was at a point where I was like, I'm just, I think it's going to be a detriment to the business, right?

387
00:24:56.295 --> 00:24:59.819
Like, I think it's going to hurt the business if I continue, you know, holding on to this.

388
00:25:00.220 --> 00:25:02.082
And I could see it in the numbers too.

389
00:25:02.442 --> 00:25:03.604
Trends were changing.

390
00:25:03.664 --> 00:25:04.745
Times were changing.

391
00:25:05.145 --> 00:25:08.209
And I was like, do I want to fight this battle, right?

392
00:25:08.249 --> 00:25:08.469
Like...

393
00:25:09.110 --> 00:25:13.893
in terms of the business, was that my responsibility because I made it doesn't mean I have to stay in it.

394
00:25:14.313 --> 00:25:15.614
And I made all this value too.

395
00:25:15.634 --> 00:25:20.177
I'm like, what if I don't have the will to keep it at this value?

396
00:25:20.417 --> 00:25:22.418
And at this point, it's just you because you never raise money.

397
00:25:22.458 --> 00:25:27.101
So you are – I'm taking all the grenades in the foxhole by myself.

398
00:25:27.602 --> 00:25:32.605
So I made the hard decision because it was my baby to sell it.

399
00:25:32.685 --> 00:25:35.687
In hindsight now, it was the best decision I could have made.

400
00:25:36.407 --> 00:25:42.091
But, yeah, it definitely was definitely because of, like, too many fronts were getting hit.

401
00:25:42.331 --> 00:25:44.993
And I was just like, ooh, I don't think I can do this anymore.

402
00:25:45.613 --> 00:25:46.734
So you don't regret?

403
00:25:46.754 --> 00:25:48.335
No, I don't regret it, no.

404
00:25:48.736 --> 00:25:51.177
It definitely was time.

405
00:25:51.197 --> 00:25:55.901
The only thing I look back now is the person that I, like, gave it to.

406
00:25:57.221 --> 00:25:59.403
probably wasn't the best suitor for my baby.

407
00:25:59.423 --> 00:26:00.784
Bro, that happens so many times.

408
00:26:00.824 --> 00:26:23.961
Like I tell entrepreneurs now, if I could go back in time in terms of like the sale of my business, date the person, date figuratively, the person that's going to buy your business, like spend like an intimate amount of time, like way more than you would think, like to the point that you would like, oh, I'm uncomfortable spending this much time with these people because then you'll get to really know if you're going to sell it to them and you're going to do this transitional period or you're going to be on team, like I stay on team.

409
00:26:25.103 --> 00:26:32.872
Like definitely spend some time with these people because you have no clue once you close the doors and then you're in there for months and you're like, oh, my God, what was I thinking?

410
00:26:32.993 --> 00:26:33.533
You know what I mean?

411
00:26:33.553 --> 00:26:35.055
That that that happened.

412
00:26:35.095 --> 00:26:37.458
So it's like it just is what it is.

413
00:26:37.478 --> 00:26:40.201
50 was how long were you building 50 for?

414
00:26:40.722 --> 00:26:43.906
So 50 was an eight year business, a year business when you sell it.

415
00:26:45.933 --> 00:26:47.794
that first couple months after you sell it.

416
00:26:47.834 --> 00:26:54.037
So I'm curious who you were as a person with Outfit T, because that was your baby.

417
00:26:54.978 --> 00:26:58.540
After the exit, you weren't super happy, it sounds like, with the person who bought it.

418
00:26:59.300 --> 00:27:04.183
So, you know, you as an entrepreneur, as a person, did you have,

419
00:27:05.303 --> 00:27:08.646
And this was also when you were having anxiety issues because of the business.

420
00:27:10.307 --> 00:27:11.368
So it's like really parallel.

421
00:27:11.388 --> 00:27:18.054
Like my recovery was like literally I was almost recovered from my disorder right as it were exiting.

422
00:27:18.614 --> 00:27:20.236
So like I'm getting back to my old self.

423
00:27:20.296 --> 00:27:21.637
I'm feeling like a businessman again.

424
00:27:21.657 --> 00:27:24.159
So the post exit, you were in a good space.

425
00:27:24.339 --> 00:27:24.599
Oh, yeah.

426
00:27:24.619 --> 00:27:25.320
I was in a good space.

427
00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:25.880
Yeah.

428
00:27:26.081 --> 00:27:29.043
But prior to that, there was like a year there where I didn't leave my house.

429
00:27:29.423 --> 00:27:31.945
Like for a full calendar year, I did not leave the house that one time.

430
00:27:32.986 --> 00:27:35.487
Um, so I was like getting better.

431
00:27:35.527 --> 00:27:36.508
I was recovering.

432
00:27:36.528 --> 00:27:41.930
Um, I was in a good headspace in terms of like that, like my, like the disorder.

433
00:27:42.050 --> 00:27:43.871
So I was like totally, totally good again.

434
00:27:44.851 --> 00:27:47.012
Um, but it.

435
00:27:48.890 --> 00:27:54.971
The transition of like being a high level entrepreneur with this very super successful brand that's like worldwide renowned.

436
00:27:55.691 --> 00:28:01.772
And then it you're not the owner anymore and you're not the decision maker anymore.

437
00:28:01.792 --> 00:28:04.093
It gets really quiet really quickly.

438
00:28:04.213 --> 00:28:11.054
Like I don't think people realize how quickly, like literally day and night from like one week to the next.

439
00:28:11.074 --> 00:28:13.174
And then it's like radio silent.

440
00:28:13.194 --> 00:28:14.554
Yeah, I was still part of the team.

441
00:28:15.134 --> 00:28:15.314
Right.

442
00:28:15.334 --> 00:28:17.775
And I was still going to the office because the office still was there.

443
00:28:18.495 --> 00:28:20.816
But it was like it was massively different.

444
00:28:20.857 --> 00:28:21.137
Right.

445
00:28:21.777 --> 00:28:36.166
And but then also at the same time, the transitional period is an odd experience because it's kind of icky because the people like, again, why I say go date the people that are going to buy you is that now you give them this thing and they do it their way.

446
00:28:36.546 --> 00:28:37.087
You know what I mean?

447
00:28:37.367 --> 00:28:39.768
And then you go, oh, I don't know.

448
00:28:39.968 --> 00:28:40.529
You know, I don't.

449
00:28:41.369 --> 00:28:42.109
But you've sold it.

450
00:28:42.149 --> 00:28:42.749
You know what I mean?

451
00:28:42.769 --> 00:28:43.910
You don't have a choice anymore.

452
00:28:44.150 --> 00:28:48.291
And so it took a long time for me to start accepting that role and that position.

453
00:28:48.731 --> 00:28:52.292
But really, it's after the fact that I no longer was on the team.

454
00:28:52.312 --> 00:28:54.992
So once I leave Fit T, like for good, like we're done.

455
00:28:55.052 --> 00:28:57.233
I no longer are part of the core component of the team.

456
00:28:57.493 --> 00:28:59.734
Did you stay on for a couple of months?

457
00:28:59.894 --> 00:29:02.254
I stayed on for like five months or something like that.

458
00:29:02.474 --> 00:29:03.234
And then I was like, yeah.

459
00:29:04.015 --> 00:29:04.735
And yeah.

460
00:29:05.935 --> 00:29:10.677
Once I was off the team, it's really when it was a bizarre time for me because I have the successful exit.

461
00:29:11.777 --> 00:29:12.477
Now I'm done.

462
00:29:12.557 --> 00:29:15.518
And it's just like, what do I do now?

463
00:29:15.638 --> 00:29:17.319
Like, it's like, what's next?

464
00:29:17.459 --> 00:29:18.199
And who am I?

465
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:20.800
And I was always defined by this business.

466
00:29:20.840 --> 00:29:21.920
And that's Michael from 50.

467
00:29:22.020 --> 00:29:23.861
And still to this day, people go, Michael from 50.

468
00:29:23.901 --> 00:29:24.381
And it's like...

469
00:29:25.216 --> 00:29:27.881
it's kind of bizarre because it's 50 so long ago now at this point.

470
00:29:28.723 --> 00:29:35.978
And, uh, it's a hard, like, I don't like even now, you know, reflecting cause it's my 40th birthday.

471
00:29:37.397 --> 00:29:38.478
It's such a hard thing.

472
00:29:38.498 --> 00:29:41.200
Like, no one really talks about that era for business.

473
00:29:41.321 --> 00:29:44.503
Because, you know, number one, not to toot my own horn, not a lot of people get there.

474
00:29:45.084 --> 00:29:47.946
And then the people that do get there, there's not a lot of conversations.

475
00:29:48.026 --> 00:29:49.147
Oh, it's a very lonely space.

476
00:29:49.268 --> 00:29:50.649
And so, oh, poor guy.

477
00:29:50.669 --> 00:29:51.650
He sold your company.

478
00:29:51.690 --> 00:29:52.250
Boo-hoo.

479
00:29:52.350 --> 00:29:52.671
You know?

480
00:29:52.751 --> 00:29:54.853
But there's, like, a psychological aspect.

481
00:29:55.713 --> 00:29:58.574
of, I almost feel like people should be ready for that too.

482
00:29:58.594 --> 00:29:59.054
You know what I mean?

483
00:29:59.074 --> 00:30:03.315
Like have like a define, like who I am and where I'm going and why I'm going to do this and what's next.

484
00:30:03.695 --> 00:30:06.196
Life at the Speed of Play is a success story partner.

485
00:30:06.216 --> 00:30:09.196
Now this is a book by Mark Pincus, the guy who founded Zynga.

486
00:30:09.216 --> 00:30:10.377
I've actually had him on the show.

487
00:30:10.677 --> 00:30:16.458
I met him in person and Reid Hoffman wrote the foreword calling him one of the best idea people in Silicon Valley.

488
00:30:16.638 --> 00:30:21.799
The book is Life at the Speed of Play, Launch Products People Love, about 170 pages.

489
00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:23.580
It's already a national bestseller.

490
00:30:23.860 --> 00:30:24.700
It's his framework.

491
00:30:24.940 --> 00:30:30.044
or figuring out whether an idea is actually worth going after before you put serious time and money into it.

492
00:30:30.264 --> 00:30:31.765
Not theory, the way he actually does it.

493
00:30:31.825 --> 00:30:33.886
And he's repeatedly built successful businesses.

494
00:30:34.167 --> 00:30:35.928
On top of that, you can read it in a weekend.

495
00:30:36.088 --> 00:30:39.170
It can change your entire life and give you the right direction if you're an entrepreneur.

496
00:30:39.190 --> 00:30:43.773
So right now, if you go to getmarksbook.com slash success, you get two copies for $32.

497
00:30:43.833 --> 00:30:44.334
That's $16 each.

498
00:30:46.195 --> 00:30:52.537
Mark is paying for the second copy himself because he wants you to give it to somebody, a friend who's been sitting on an idea, someone who needs to push, whoever.

499
00:30:52.798 --> 00:30:55.419
That's getmarksbook.com slash success.

500
00:30:55.799 --> 00:30:58.300
Mark with a K, buy one, second one's free.

501
00:30:58.520 --> 00:31:00.320
MyFitnessPal is a success story partner.

502
00:31:00.520 --> 00:31:01.201
Now, a quick story.

503
00:31:01.221 --> 00:31:03.802
A few weeks ago, I was in the middle of a very heavy recording week.

504
00:31:04.022 --> 00:31:06.082
So five episodes back to back.

505
00:31:06.403 --> 00:31:07.723
By Wednesday, I could feel it.

506
00:31:07.803 --> 00:31:12.345
I felt tired and I pulled up my food log in the MyFitnessPal app.

507
00:31:12.845 --> 00:31:14.806
and I could see why I felt tired.

508
00:31:15.007 --> 00:31:16.808
I was heavily under eating.

509
00:31:17.348 --> 00:31:18.769
I was not keeping up with my meals.

510
00:31:19.049 --> 00:31:20.510
My macros were all off.

511
00:31:20.851 --> 00:31:28.596
On weeks like that, staying on top of your fuel and your food and what you eat is the difference between being sharp on episode five and being flat.

512
00:31:28.756 --> 00:31:31.598
And that's the kind of thing you only catch when you're paying attention.

513
00:31:31.758 --> 00:31:35.803
And that's why I keep logging every single meal I eat in the MyFitnessPal app.

514
00:31:35.823 --> 00:31:37.585
It's not because I'm obsessing over numbers.

515
00:31:37.905 --> 00:31:39.266
It's not because I'm trying to diet.

516
00:31:39.307 --> 00:31:43.391
It's because I'm trying to have an awareness about what I eat in the day.

517
00:31:43.611 --> 00:31:46.575
And the app makes it so easy to maintain that awareness.

518
00:31:46.635 --> 00:31:49.298
I can point my camera at a plate with MealScan

519
00:31:49.698 --> 00:31:53.841
It'll tell me exactly what I'm eating, all my macronutrients, proteins, fats, carbs.

520
00:31:54.041 --> 00:31:55.662
There's an intermittent fasting tracker.

521
00:31:56.103 --> 00:31:59.145
If I want an intermittent fast, it keeps my eating window honest.

522
00:31:59.465 --> 00:32:02.067
And it all syncs with my watch and all of my fitness apps.

523
00:32:02.327 --> 00:32:03.928
And it just runs in the background.

524
00:32:04.268 --> 00:32:07.771
See, food is a foundation for energy, sleep, recovery, performance.

525
00:32:08.051 --> 00:32:10.833
It is the one input that you cannot skip.

526
00:32:11.053 --> 00:32:13.515
So do yourself a favor, track what you're eating.

527
00:32:13.875 --> 00:32:17.258
It'll make you feel better, perform better in everything that you do.

528
00:32:17.298 --> 00:32:23.843
Go to podcasts.myfitnesspal.com and use code Scott, all uppercase for 50% off MyFitnessPal Premium.

529
00:32:24.144 --> 00:32:27.346
That's podcasts.myfitnesspal.com, code Scott.

530
00:32:27.646 --> 00:32:29.288
HubSpot is a success story partner.

531
00:32:29.948 --> 00:32:34.292
Every entrepreneur, founder, CEOs listening right now needs to pay attention.

532
00:32:34.652 --> 00:32:35.393
I have a question for you.

533
00:32:35.693 --> 00:32:43.340
When a buyer asks AI for a solution or a product that your business sells, does your business come up?

534
00:32:43.620 --> 00:32:46.443
The answer is that most companies have no idea.

535
00:32:46.763 --> 00:32:53.585
They don't know if their name shows up in any of the AI tools, chat, perplexity, Claude.

536
00:32:54.005 --> 00:33:00.587
And by the time they find out, they have lost tons of traffic and tons of deals to someone who did show up.

537
00:33:00.948 --> 00:33:02.488
HubSpot AEO.

538
00:33:02.968 --> 00:33:10.271
It helps you show up in those moments with the right answers that your customers and your buyers are looking for when they go type in a question.

539
00:33:10.491 --> 00:33:14.472
It's before the first click, it's before they fill out some form on your website,

540
00:33:14.992 --> 00:33:18.775
that is the moment that HubSpot AEO is built for.

541
00:33:19.155 --> 00:33:24.859
So if you want your company to show up in AI searches when your customer is looking, check out HubSpot.com.

542
00:33:25.199 --> 00:33:28.902
They are the agentic customer platform for growing businesses.

543
00:33:29.702 --> 00:33:36.547
I believe there should be more conversations about it because I've had so many conversations with founders, a lot of exited founders.

544
00:33:36.567 --> 00:33:37.428
So this comes up quite a

545
00:33:41.958 --> 00:33:46.839
Entrepreneurs in general just don't do enough work on themselves because they're distracted by the business.

546
00:33:47.679 --> 00:33:54.440
So what happens is while they're building, there's stress, there's anxiety, there's depression sometimes.

547
00:33:54.520 --> 00:33:58.421
People feel like the founder feels like they're all alone, kind of like what happened in like your last year.

548
00:33:58.441 --> 00:34:02.182
This is not so uncommon, especially if it's their first big thing.

549
00:34:02.702 --> 00:34:04.662
And then after they lose their sense of identity.

550
00:34:05.443 --> 00:34:07.603
So after sort of going through everything,

551
00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:19.769
In all seriousness, the worst things, I mean, I say worse very loosely because I don't want to sound like exiting a company is not an incredibly great event in somebody's life.

552
00:34:19.829 --> 00:34:22.772
Yes, but this is a podcast that a lot of founders listen to.

553
00:34:22.852 --> 00:34:27.035
So it's important to talk about these subjects, even if there's a huge success.

554
00:34:27.155 --> 00:34:28.917
There's a whole bunch of shit that comes with that success.

555
00:34:29.577 --> 00:34:37.201
What is your advice for founders when they're going through a dark period when they're building their company, but also for the select few that do exit?

556
00:34:37.481 --> 00:34:45.405
Because all of it is like the advice is all about like self-work and making sure that you actually focus on yourself and not just the business.

557
00:34:45.885 --> 00:34:54.590
So I would say those two groups of people, the founder that's in it right now that is depressed, has anxiety, is probably going through something like what you went through.

558
00:34:55.190 --> 00:35:07.823
But then the second piece is, okay, so after they get through that and they sell, what's the playbook so that you don't lose yourself and your identity and you realize that, okay, the business was important, but I'm more than just the business.

559
00:35:07.883 --> 00:35:09.645
I want you to walk through those.

560
00:35:09.705 --> 00:35:10.205
There's two facets.

561
00:35:10.225 --> 00:35:14.890
So, like, I always recommend Dr. Clara Weeks, Hope and Help for Your Nerves.

562
00:35:14.910 --> 00:35:15.110
Yeah.

563
00:35:15.470 --> 00:35:17.511
It's a she was a research scientist.

564
00:35:17.551 --> 00:35:19.632
She was a doctor and she had patients that would come in.

565
00:35:19.652 --> 00:35:21.653
This was like in the 50s, 40s, 50s.

566
00:35:22.213 --> 00:35:25.615
And she realized that they had symptoms that she couldn't explain as a physician.

567
00:35:26.275 --> 00:35:29.777
And there wasn't a lot of like mental health conversations at those times.

568
00:35:30.417 --> 00:35:33.939
And she was fortunately for for for me in the future.

569
00:35:34.199 --> 00:35:35.199
She was a research scientist.

570
00:35:35.219 --> 00:35:45.645
So she started researching her parents patients and realizing that people that experience like high level anxiety, panic attacks, depression, they have this obsession over their symptoms.

571
00:35:45.905 --> 00:35:54.009
Number one, they cannot accept their symptoms and they have a hard time controlling their thought patterns in terms of the symptoms that they're experiencing from anxiety.

572
00:35:54.409 --> 00:35:56.650
anxiety is scary for most people.

573
00:35:56.730 --> 00:36:01.493
Like it's a very, especially at high levels, it can be like a traumatic moment of a person's life.

574
00:36:01.833 --> 00:36:02.874
It's a shock core.

575
00:36:03.394 --> 00:36:05.796
And it's just so random in nature.

576
00:36:05.816 --> 00:36:09.037
Like for me, it was like I had a panic attack one day and I was like, what the hell just happened to me?

577
00:36:09.158 --> 00:36:09.818
I'm going to the hospital.

578
00:36:10.138 --> 00:36:12.980
And then I had another one the next day and then the following week.

579
00:36:13.580 --> 00:36:15.362
And then I was nervous all the time all of a sudden.

580
00:36:15.482 --> 00:36:18.425
And then I became obsessed over my symptoms and my feelings.

581
00:36:18.465 --> 00:36:22.609
And towards those, all of a sudden, I couldn't accept how I was feeling.

582
00:36:23.049 --> 00:36:28.555
Because I was this high-flying businessman, no fear, jump off a plane, let's do it.

583
00:36:28.855 --> 00:36:31.017
And all of a sudden, I couldn't even leave my house.

584
00:36:31.778 --> 00:36:32.919
And it's so human.

585
00:36:33.239 --> 00:36:34.721
It's such a human experience.

586
00:36:34.741 --> 00:36:36.322
And you don't realize it when you're going through it.

587
00:36:37.168 --> 00:36:43.096
And fortunately for me, you know, I find the work of Dr. Claire Weeks after I went to doctor after doctor after doctor, psychologist.

588
00:36:43.477 --> 00:36:44.338
Nobody can make me better.

589
00:36:44.438 --> 00:36:44.718
Pill.

590
00:36:44.758 --> 00:36:46.140
Here's pills, pills, pills, pills, pills.

591
00:36:46.821 --> 00:36:48.744
And it's such a simple, simple logic.

592
00:36:49.204 --> 00:36:51.267
Loosen, allow and accept.

593
00:36:51.347 --> 00:36:53.550
And acceptance is a strength.

594
00:36:54.171 --> 00:36:59.915
It's more powerful than people realize because once you practice it, the beauty is we can practice it every day.

595
00:37:00.335 --> 00:37:08.920
So if you're going through anxiety, if you're going through panic attacks, practice loosening, allow it to happen and totally accept it as if it was your closest friend.

596
00:37:08.940 --> 00:37:12.963
So when you're feeling those feelings or you're feeling the nervousness, let your hands shake.

597
00:37:13.023 --> 00:37:13.283
Let them.

598
00:37:13.303 --> 00:37:14.304
They're still good hands.

599
00:37:14.744 --> 00:37:15.965
She talks about that in her book.

600
00:37:16.605 --> 00:37:17.766
And so I put that as a practice.

601
00:37:17.826 --> 00:37:21.610
I became totally obsessed with her reading and totally put it into practice.

602
00:37:22.090 --> 00:37:23.551
And slowly but surely, she was right.

603
00:37:23.872 --> 00:37:27.855
And her writing is very like journal aspect.

604
00:37:27.915 --> 00:37:30.278
So she would talk to almost like your friend.

605
00:37:30.298 --> 00:37:31.118
She would talk to you.

606
00:37:31.879 --> 00:37:36.663
And you really could relate because you were going through these like really high level moments.

607
00:37:36.683 --> 00:37:39.006
So that's what I tell entrepreneurs all the time about her work.

608
00:37:39.646 --> 00:37:41.667
And how the effect it had on me, I'm totally healed.

609
00:37:41.727 --> 00:37:43.307
It's been such a long period of time.

610
00:37:43.367 --> 00:37:49.608
And anytime I get those feelings now, I have my shield with me at all times of acceptance that I can literally pull out of my pocket.

611
00:37:50.269 --> 00:37:53.569
And the same feelings kind of dissipate and then I feel better.

612
00:37:55.230 --> 00:37:59.971
And then as far as like the ego trip of like success and like...

613
00:38:01.237 --> 00:38:25.353
really for me where it came down to was like what was I focusing on and really like defining who I wanted to be as a man and how I wanted to represent myself going into the future and what was my riches like my family my time with my friends my the little things that I really enjoy like was unapologetically that's what I like and that's what I'm gonna do so like the personal life the same way

614
00:38:26.894 --> 00:38:35.001
And just really finding your passions again, like in terms of like, okay, you have this wonderful business and maybe it doesn't necessarily need to be a business again.

615
00:38:36.202 --> 00:38:39.564
But you can work, you can like, I didn't want to start another big company, right?

616
00:38:39.584 --> 00:38:48.672
Like I was like, oh, I don't think, I think, I don't think I want to like do another big company, but I want to be a part of, I still want to be a part of like entrepreneurship and like consulting is like a perfect way of doing that.

617
00:38:49.232 --> 00:38:58.840
And so like I get to taste the taste, the energy of like early entrepreneurship, because I also think the beauty about me is luckily I get to taste like early infancies of business.

618
00:38:59.540 --> 00:39:01.382
And so I can give my bestow my wisdom.

619
00:39:01.402 --> 00:39:03.764
I can be onk in the in the conversation.

620
00:39:04.525 --> 00:39:07.867
But at the same time, I don't necessarily I'm never going to be able to be that again.

621
00:39:07.887 --> 00:39:08.728
You know what I mean?

622
00:39:08.768 --> 00:39:12.491
The spark of like early entrepreneur and the beginnings of a business.

623
00:39:12.811 --> 00:39:14.333
It's a once in a lifetime experience.

624
00:39:15.198 --> 00:39:18.280
But I can kind of taste it, you know, like, oh, let me get the drug, man.

625
00:39:18.300 --> 00:39:18.920
Let me try it.

626
00:39:20.081 --> 00:39:27.684
And I still can, like, be at least, like, in high-level business conversations without taking on this huge inherent risk of, like, building something, like, massive.

627
00:39:28.425 --> 00:39:32.547
That was, for you, it took you a couple years to get to that point, though.

628
00:39:32.807 --> 00:39:33.588
You took some time.

629
00:39:36.049 --> 00:39:41.291
But you were able to actually take time and chill and relax, not just jump into something right away.

630
00:39:41.311 --> 00:39:42.212
Yeah.

631
00:39:42.412 --> 00:39:48.241
Yeah, that's pretty much, like, if you get to know me, like, I'm, like, the smartest lazy guy you'll ever meet.

632
00:39:48.642 --> 00:39:52.007
Like, it's just, like, I like doing what I do.

633
00:39:52.467 --> 00:39:55.452
I try to figure out ways, like, build systems, and then, like, eh.

634
00:39:56.320 --> 00:39:58.622
Maybe you realize this, but I think you're actually very healed.

635
00:39:58.642 --> 00:40:07.427
And I think some of the work that you've done on yourself has allowed you to have a more relaxed post-exit than a lot of the people that I speak to.

636
00:40:07.907 --> 00:40:14.231
Who have a week and then anxiety creeps in because now their identity is ambiguous.

637
00:40:14.811 --> 00:40:17.312
And then they jump into the next business almost immediately.

638
00:40:17.373 --> 00:40:21.035
I mean, I had those moments, but then I was like, nah.

639
00:40:22.536 --> 00:40:35.026
since now or like like i put those like passions into other things because like it's like uh man starting a business like start like sometimes i would like oh i'd brainstorm like i can make a

640
00:40:35.971 --> 00:40:41.714
And I put it together and then I'll do like the preliminary like steps and I'm like putting this in a file, maybe in the future.

641
00:40:41.734 --> 00:40:42.094
Right.

642
00:40:42.134 --> 00:40:51.499
And I get that feelings of like I'm doing it because it's I mean, it's really hard to like stop doing like the the introspective like puzzle of a business.

643
00:40:51.619 --> 00:40:51.879
Right.

644
00:40:51.919 --> 00:40:56.021
So like you're constantly there's so many core pieces of like what a company is in a business.

645
00:40:56.702 --> 00:40:59.063
But then it's like it's OK just to like.

646
00:40:59.783 --> 00:41:24.649
relax and like enjoy life and play video games and smoke cigars and drive cars and not do mistakes time is sure you're gonna die someday i think that people sometimes i think entrepreneurship well most entrepreneurs are neurodivergent this is like a stat like people that build things obsessively like they don't they're not always that normal and i think that sometimes building

647
00:41:31.252 --> 00:41:33.614
it's like masking something.

648
00:41:33.954 --> 00:41:36.317
Like, why do you throw so much of yourself into your business?

649
00:41:36.337 --> 00:41:40.921
It's because you're running from something in your life that you're not happy with.

650
00:41:41.542 --> 00:41:44.525
I mean, even, you know, look at billionaires.

651
00:41:44.545 --> 00:41:46.487
I have no issue with billionaires.

652
00:41:46.547 --> 00:41:47.868
I'm not Bernie Sanders.

653
00:41:47.928 --> 00:41:48.789
I love billionaires.

654
00:41:48.989 --> 00:41:50.851
Great, but it's not normal.

655
00:41:51.351 --> 00:41:56.537
to keep playing the game to that point when you have more wealth than you can ever spend, really.

656
00:41:56.697 --> 00:42:01.161
I mean, and philanthropy doesn't have to start at a... Like, philanthropy can start way earlier.

657
00:42:01.822 --> 00:42:02.403
So, I don't know.

658
00:42:02.763 --> 00:42:06.847
I think that sometimes, like, these more real conversations about...

659
00:42:08.208 --> 00:42:14.452
entrepreneurship can be and what kind of life you're trying to build and maybe just build a business that supports that.

660
00:42:14.492 --> 00:42:15.852
I'm not saying play small.

661
00:42:16.013 --> 00:42:17.053
Right.

662
00:42:17.133 --> 00:42:18.734
I don't say that to you.

663
00:42:18.814 --> 00:42:24.097
But you also don't need to sell a company and then jump into something the next week.

664
00:42:25.838 --> 00:42:27.099
Like your wife missed you, man.

665
00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:28.800
Like go spend the time with your wife.

666
00:42:30.240 --> 00:42:31.560
Go spend some time with your mom.

667
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:33.881
That's the last time you had dinner with her.

668
00:42:34.181 --> 00:42:38.422
I've thought about this a lot because even with this podcast, there's a lot of different ways that I can make money.

669
00:42:38.442 --> 00:42:39.762
Like I come from a business background.

670
00:42:39.782 --> 00:42:44.463
I've built companies and I think about, okay, so is this, you know, the best way to make money?

671
00:42:44.663 --> 00:42:45.204
Probably not.

672
00:42:45.724 --> 00:42:53.505
To be quite honest, yeah, you always hear about the $100 million Spotify Joe Rogan deals, but these are not the norm in the podcasting space, right?

673
00:42:53.826 --> 00:42:54.746
But this is fun.

674
00:42:55.086 --> 00:42:56.906
This is something that I personally enjoy.

675
00:42:56.926 --> 00:42:58.947
You know, my studio is in my backyard.

676
00:43:00.508 --> 00:43:18.570
optimize the business to be like part of my life and not the other way around i don't think a lot of people do that no systems are important like this is killer this is amazing so you've always been sort of ahead of of the trend right so you were first with ugc with instagram um you're leaning heavily into ai right now uh

677
00:43:19.050 --> 00:43:28.519
You're so ahead of the trend that when you were working with influencers, influencer marketing, you actually, well, Kylie, I guess, got in trouble for posting things.

678
00:43:28.539 --> 00:43:32.362
A lot of influencers, it was not just her in particular, but it was so early.

679
00:43:32.442 --> 00:43:35.024
The disclosure wasn't really integrated within Instagram.

680
00:43:35.044 --> 00:43:36.866
Facebook really didn't integrate it quite yet.

681
00:43:36.906 --> 00:43:38.628
Like, oh, this is a paid sponsored post.

682
00:43:38.888 --> 00:43:43.492
And there was no, like, the actual federal government didn't have, like, a very defined, like, hashtag ad.

683
00:43:43.932 --> 00:43:46.713
You know, how do you define, is it the beginning of the post?

684
00:43:46.773 --> 00:43:47.553
Is it behind the post?

685
00:43:47.793 --> 00:43:52.595
Like, I remember even me, like, I was just like, there'd be, like, times I'd be having this discussion with team.

686
00:43:52.615 --> 00:43:55.136
And, like, is it hashtag sponsored?

687
00:43:55.396 --> 00:43:56.957
I'm like, I don't know.

688
00:43:57.117 --> 00:43:59.878
Like, we didn't, like, we literally was, like, inventing it as it went.

689
00:43:59.958 --> 00:44:01.699
So, you gave her a product.

690
00:44:02.159 --> 00:44:03.499
And then she's, like, 16 years old.

691
00:44:03.519 --> 00:44:04.199
Yeah, she's young.

692
00:44:04.219 --> 00:44:05.500
And she's, like, it's not cool.

693
00:44:05.520 --> 00:44:07.161
Like, she's, like, a cool influencer.

694
00:44:07.181 --> 00:44:08.081
She's killing it.

695
00:44:08.121 --> 00:44:10.662
But it was, like, so much, it was, like, the top of the world.

696
00:44:10.682 --> 00:44:10.782
Yeah.

697
00:44:11.402 --> 00:44:16.445
And, you know, I didn't realize, like, how big of a noise that was going to be.

698
00:44:16.825 --> 00:44:19.767
How did you even get to work with the Kardashians?

699
00:44:20.087 --> 00:44:24.570
I just was fortunate enough to, like, be connected to, like, the Twitter space in the very beginning.

700
00:44:24.970 --> 00:44:26.812
Still, again, like, way ahead of everyone else.

701
00:44:26.832 --> 00:44:28.733
Oh, I was, like, really early of Twitter.

702
00:44:28.753 --> 00:44:31.695
Like, in the beginning, like, literally in the infancies of, like, the website.

703
00:44:31.715 --> 00:44:35.377
So I had grew, like, a few pages on that platform.

704
00:44:35.397 --> 00:44:35.497
Yeah.

705
00:44:35.797 --> 00:44:39.060
And I was like talking to people and they're like, oh, you know, we know Scott Disick.

706
00:44:39.640 --> 00:44:40.661
And so I was like, all right, cool.

707
00:44:40.681 --> 00:44:42.982
So then like Scott Disick was like trying to buy a car.

708
00:44:43.503 --> 00:44:44.704
And so we sponsored him.

709
00:44:45.564 --> 00:44:46.905
And then it became like a relationship.

710
00:44:46.925 --> 00:44:55.632
And it was like there's multiple people for this conversation, like different like characters that like either worked with like high level celebrity or like mid tier celebrity.

711
00:44:56.132 --> 00:44:58.214
And so like the messaging was going back and forth.

712
00:44:58.274 --> 00:45:01.717
But then it became that like the Scott Disick connection was like the real kicker.

713
00:45:02.737 --> 00:45:06.080
Um, and, uh, then it was everybody was getting paid too.

714
00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:08.582
So I was just stroking checks.

715
00:45:08.762 --> 00:45:10.863
And so everyone's like, Hey, we want one too, you know?

716
00:45:10.883 --> 00:45:12.685
So I was sponsoring everybody.

717
00:45:12.745 --> 00:45:14.206
Cause I was trying to catch them like Pokemon.

718
00:45:14.766 --> 00:45:16.548
Like how I like, you know, Kylie.

719
00:45:17.652 --> 00:45:21.215
This was a while ago, so they were probably not as expensive as they are now.

720
00:45:21.435 --> 00:45:25.859
No, I paid her barely anything, like $16,000 or something like that for the first post.

721
00:45:26.159 --> 00:45:27.120
Something like really.

722
00:45:27.380 --> 00:45:30.843
And it was like the biggest post we had in terms of cost at the time.

723
00:45:31.464 --> 00:45:33.326
I was like, oh my God, this is so much money.

724
00:45:33.346 --> 00:45:34.326
This is crazy.

725
00:45:35.327 --> 00:45:41.252
But I did it and it was like insane success, like a million dollars for that $16,000.

726
00:45:42.293 --> 00:45:46.034
And I was like, how many of these can I possibly buy?

727
00:45:46.234 --> 00:45:47.514
What would they let me do?

728
00:45:47.554 --> 00:45:48.075
You know what I mean?

729
00:45:48.815 --> 00:45:49.415
I look back now.

730
00:45:49.435 --> 00:45:52.576
I should have been more of a traditional businessman at that point.

731
00:45:52.676 --> 00:45:55.376
Go meet people and create a contract.

732
00:45:55.396 --> 00:45:57.957
But I was doing something that was never done before.

733
00:45:57.997 --> 00:46:01.098
I was texting people and going back and forth.

734
00:46:01.198 --> 00:46:04.339
And there was no contractual agreements necessary.

735
00:46:04.359 --> 00:46:05.379
There was a handshake agreement.

736
00:46:05.399 --> 00:46:06.319
Send you $16,000.

737
00:46:06.699 --> 00:46:07.079
All right.

738
00:46:07.139 --> 00:46:07.400
Cool.

739
00:46:07.420 --> 00:46:07.680
Send.

740
00:46:07.780 --> 00:46:08.080
You know?

741
00:46:08.160 --> 00:46:08.320
Yeah.

742
00:46:09.460 --> 00:46:11.441
I mean, there was times it didn't work out.

743
00:46:11.481 --> 00:46:12.582
People would steal money or whatever.

744
00:46:13.062 --> 00:46:17.805
But yeah, I probably should have been more traditional at that point.

745
00:46:18.125 --> 00:46:23.689
I'm going to get back to you being ahead of the curve in a second because I wanted to actually ask, where do you see opportunities for people now?

746
00:46:23.749 --> 00:46:27.131
But I'm just showing how ahead of the curve you were for everything else you've done.

747
00:46:28.732 --> 00:46:29.852
So you pay her $16K.

748
00:46:29.892 --> 00:46:31.213
She does a million dollars in sales.

749
00:46:31.694 --> 00:46:33.555
And then what, FTC gets...

750
00:46:34.135 --> 00:46:43.863
Yeah, so like the government basically goes, they want to use me as an example of like, you know, big business not doing disclosure of like an ad, you know.

751
00:46:44.764 --> 00:46:46.805
But at this time, it was like a broad sweep too.

752
00:46:46.825 --> 00:46:47.666
So it was not just me.

753
00:46:47.686 --> 00:46:50.388
There was like multiple companies that were getting these like warnings.

754
00:46:51.749 --> 00:46:54.992
And so we, you know, we totally complied with the government and did everything we were supposed to do.

755
00:46:55.792 --> 00:47:09.100
But it definitely was super challenging and super like education too, because like a lot of entrepreneurs too, like we have like all these ideas and wants and want to do all these opportunities, but some of them are illegal or like semi quasi illegal.

756
00:47:09.500 --> 00:47:13.742
And you probably as a good entrepreneur should recognize and say, no, I can't do this.

757
00:47:14.222 --> 00:47:21.927
Obviously, I didn't know that, you know, this, this disclosure thing was going to be such a significant and it wasn't like we weren't trying.

758
00:47:22.567 --> 00:47:26.948
Like we had in our contracts, like, you know, put hashtag ad, make sure it's like this.

759
00:47:27.088 --> 00:47:30.669
And but there was no like official way of doing it.

760
00:47:30.709 --> 00:47:30.889
No.

761
00:47:30.949 --> 00:47:34.210
So if somebody posts it, nobody's checking it later on and seeing.

762
00:47:34.250 --> 00:47:39.591
And yeah, now it's very now they're like now it's super, you know, easy to do.

763
00:47:40.051 --> 00:47:41.952
And the platform supported the platform.

764
00:47:41.972 --> 00:47:44.832
Has it integrated or back then we were just inventing stuff.

765
00:47:44.852 --> 00:47:48.133
Like I feel like we're like a couple of kids, you know, I mean, just like trying to figure it out.

766
00:47:48.213 --> 00:47:50.074
Like, you know, that's the thing, too.

767
00:47:50.154 --> 00:47:50.354
Right.

768
00:47:50.394 --> 00:47:50.534
Like.

769
00:47:50.554 --> 00:47:50.674
Yeah.

770
00:47:51.555 --> 00:47:55.541
Let's make the assumption that people who are listening to this are not purposefully doing illegal shit.

771
00:47:56.081 --> 00:47:59.867
Outside of that, entrepreneurs do move fast and break stuff a lot.

772
00:48:01.072 --> 00:48:15.865
Like if an entrepreneur, especially early days of Instagram and Twitter, if an entrepreneur had an opportunity to get, I don't even know what kind of the ROI, what's the ROI, you know, return on ad spend for 16 grand to a million dollars in sales.

773
00:48:15.885 --> 00:48:16.766
It's insane.

774
00:48:17.366 --> 00:48:23.291
But if you had that opportunity, fuck yeah, take my check, take my money, go post it, do it again, do it again, do it again, do it again.

775
00:48:23.652 --> 00:48:24.573
People just move fast.

776
00:48:25.622 --> 00:48:28.464
People, but this is like, listen, like you, you learn.

777
00:48:28.904 --> 00:48:29.625
Oh yeah, for sure.

778
00:48:30.045 --> 00:48:33.807
You, my, my attorney used to tell me something, which I, it always stuck with me.

779
00:48:33.827 --> 00:48:37.870
And she goes, you know, law doesn't keep up with tech the same speed.

780
00:48:38.430 --> 00:48:38.690
Right.

781
00:48:39.011 --> 00:48:49.397
So like we would have like these, like, you know, whatever it was like law, like a lawsuit or law, this, or whatever that necessarily needed like attorneys or, and like, you know, they didn't know what the hell we were talking about.

782
00:48:49.437 --> 00:48:49.938
You know what I mean?

783
00:48:49.958 --> 00:48:50.118
Like.

784
00:48:50.838 --> 00:48:52.418
It's a link, you know what I mean?

785
00:48:52.458 --> 00:48:53.839
It's a link or whatever.

786
00:48:53.939 --> 00:48:55.859
And I would get all frustrated, you know what I mean?

787
00:48:56.179 --> 00:48:57.819
Like, what do you mean they don't know what this is?

788
00:48:58.259 --> 00:49:04.881
But in reality, they literally, legitimately, the law is not fast enough to keep up with this emerging technology.

789
00:49:05.241 --> 00:49:05.861
And all of that.

790
00:49:05.901 --> 00:49:08.261
I mean, even just the way that you market and the way, yeah.

791
00:49:08.361 --> 00:49:08.741
Yeah.

792
00:49:08.921 --> 00:49:12.042
And then you don't realize geopolitical aspects.

793
00:49:12.202 --> 00:49:13.522
There's so much to go.

794
00:49:13.562 --> 00:49:17.763
When you get to these really high levels of marketing, I don't know.

795
00:49:18.023 --> 00:49:24.965
Sometimes some marketing is like, if I can go back in time and talk to myself, I'm like, maybe that maybe this one we could pass on.

796
00:49:24.985 --> 00:49:33.727
Because like it's going to have like other aspects of like law and people watching and like things you're not thinking about that's going to hurt you financially.

797
00:49:33.927 --> 00:49:34.447
You know what I mean?

798
00:49:34.527 --> 00:49:36.267
And the opportunity may have made you some money.

799
00:49:37.228 --> 00:49:40.929
Not to say that we wouldn't do like some really great posts with great celebrity.

800
00:49:41.129 --> 00:49:44.609
But there's certain ones that have been like, I don't know, man, like this.

801
00:49:44.729 --> 00:49:45.810
Let's just do Facebook ads.

802
00:49:46.130 --> 00:49:46.370
So.

803
00:49:47.050 --> 00:49:48.291
You were always ahead of the curve.

804
00:49:48.631 --> 00:49:50.153
What are the opportunities you see now?

805
00:49:50.413 --> 00:49:52.295
I know that you invest heavily in AI.

806
00:49:53.115 --> 00:50:01.683
But when you look at all the other ways that entrepreneurs can win, what are like the marketing hacks that like this, this Instagram of 2026?

807
00:50:01.703 --> 00:50:06.427
It's so crazy because there's like some video of me talking on stage like years ago.

808
00:50:06.447 --> 00:50:08.429
I still think people buy from people.

809
00:50:08.930 --> 00:50:09.990
So be 100% yourself.

810
00:50:10.010 --> 00:50:10.111
Yeah.

811
00:50:11.772 --> 00:50:13.373
Don't make any don't be fake.

812
00:50:13.493 --> 00:50:14.574
Just be 100 percent.

813
00:50:14.694 --> 00:50:16.195
And maybe I can say that's hermosy.

814
00:50:16.235 --> 00:50:18.596
Maybe that's, you know, just be an observant of the market.

815
00:50:18.656 --> 00:50:29.483
Just be like I still think as much as I'm obsessed with the eye, I still think humans are humans and we need to like still gravitate toward the human experience.

816
00:50:29.503 --> 00:50:33.766
So whether you're running a business, be totally transparent about your dings in your armor.

817
00:50:34.706 --> 00:50:50.522
And and or just be like 100 percent yourself and sell like I think I think it's more people driven than people realize like your podcast is such a driving force because of the aspects of people falling in love with you.

818
00:50:50.782 --> 00:50:50.962
Right.

819
00:50:50.982 --> 00:50:54.546
Like if it was me doing this all the time, they eventually will gravitate towards my flavor.

820
00:50:55.894 --> 00:50:59.917
And so I think that humans still need to be really, really focused on that part.

821
00:51:00.418 --> 00:51:01.318
Like, AI is amazing.

822
00:51:01.338 --> 00:51:02.359
Like, I'm obsessed with AI.

823
00:51:02.539 --> 00:51:10.265
So, like, the last three years, you know, fortunately, my business partner taught me a lot about, like, the core competencies of, like, AI and now, like, doing really high-level AI work.

824
00:51:11.386 --> 00:51:15.929
I think that's really important that businesses understand what's happening in the market.

825
00:51:15.949 --> 00:51:16.050
Yeah.

826
00:51:16.795 --> 00:51:21.276
In terms of the tools that they can have access to and really educate themselves on it.

827
00:51:22.476 --> 00:51:25.857
But don't let that replace the people doing business with people.

828
00:51:25.877 --> 00:51:27.077
People are always going to buy from people.

829
00:51:27.337 --> 00:51:32.419
At the end of the day, you know, humans are humans.

830
00:51:33.039 --> 00:51:42.201
As much as I love technology, I don't think no matter how advanced we get, no matter how far along the technology line, it's always going to come back to handshakes.

831
00:51:42.661 --> 00:51:46.142
It's always going to come back to people, you know, buying from people.

832
00:51:47.523 --> 00:51:49.304
Unless, you know, we get replaced by Androids.

833
00:51:50.325 --> 00:51:52.227
I don't I don't see how that changes.

834
00:51:53.629 --> 00:52:04.239
And as far as like opportunity, like the future, because I used to think about this even prior to AI, you know, prior to like and I was like very good at defining, OK, this is the sector I think like crypto.

835
00:52:04.359 --> 00:52:05.980
I was very like bullish on.

836
00:52:06.441 --> 00:52:08.463
I thought technology obviously was going to be big.

837
00:52:09.243 --> 00:52:24.714
um cpg is changing the landscape of what cpg could be um it doesn't necessarily need to be the biggest it just needs to be the most personable i think now um but cpg is such a infrastructure aspect part so it's like a synergy between like ai

838
00:52:25.895 --> 00:52:35.425
being a really good, like, human suitor of a brand or a business and some kind of, like, marriage between the two because I think people can catch the bullshit.

839
00:52:35.545 --> 00:52:36.146
You know what I mean?

840
00:52:36.166 --> 00:52:37.087
They can smell it.

841
00:52:37.107 --> 00:52:39.729
They almost can taste the fakeness of it.

842
00:52:39.749 --> 00:52:42.873
Do you feel like people are...

843
00:52:44.374 --> 00:52:48.277
relying too heavily on AI and not enough on... Oh, yeah, for sure.

844
00:52:48.297 --> 00:52:49.698
Like, it's almost like we've...

845
00:52:49.758 --> 00:52:51.019
The slop, Amada.

846
00:52:51.059 --> 00:52:54.262
Like, I think there's a high-level usage of AI.

847
00:52:54.843 --> 00:52:56.364
And then there's, like, lazy.

848
00:52:57.004 --> 00:52:58.105
Like, it's junk.

849
00:52:58.646 --> 00:52:59.286
Junk mail.

850
00:52:59.446 --> 00:53:00.928
It's junk aspect.

851
00:53:01.588 --> 00:53:05.111
But it comes down to the suitor of like any tool, right?

852
00:53:05.572 --> 00:53:09.415
You can say, you know, Michelangelo is great with painting, right?

853
00:53:09.455 --> 00:53:11.437
Because he was the suitor of this set tool.

854
00:53:11.897 --> 00:53:13.779
And it's the same thing with AI, in my opinion.

855
00:53:13.799 --> 00:53:18.242
I think people want a fast way to make money, right?

856
00:53:18.483 --> 00:53:19.584
And they get lazy.

857
00:53:19.624 --> 00:53:20.625
They get lazy with their...

858
00:53:21.305 --> 00:53:26.529
Education, they get lazy because they can spit something up quickly doesn't mean it's something of value.

859
00:53:26.549 --> 00:53:30.572
And I think there's a confusion of like, I am making something.

860
00:53:31.093 --> 00:53:33.335
And since I made something, there's value here.

861
00:53:33.795 --> 00:53:36.697
And unfortunately, with AI, that's an illusion.

862
00:53:37.078 --> 00:53:38.599
It's almost a moose boost.

863
00:53:38.619 --> 00:53:40.801
Like they think it's something great, you know.

864
00:53:41.501 --> 00:53:43.683
And fortunately, I like that analogy.

865
00:53:43.703 --> 00:53:44.843
It's not the real dinner.

866
00:53:44.983 --> 00:53:45.684
It's not.

867
00:53:45.784 --> 00:53:47.585
Yeah, it's just not.

868
00:53:47.785 --> 00:53:52.488
And some great things can emerge, you know, with these technologies.

869
00:53:52.508 --> 00:53:54.650
But people have to be like super focused.

870
00:53:55.150 --> 00:53:56.471
Noom is a success story partner.

871
00:53:56.691 --> 00:53:59.013
Now, here's the thing that nobody tells you about losing weight.

872
00:53:59.453 --> 00:54:00.914
Losing it isn't the hard part.

873
00:54:01.274 --> 00:54:09.600
Keeping it off is almost anyone can white knuckle a few good months of diet and exercise, but then work gets crazy and routines break and it all comes right back.

874
00:54:09.720 --> 00:54:14.784
I have built my entire career and my life around one idea systems beat motivation.

875
00:54:15.104 --> 00:54:16.646
and weight loss is no different.

876
00:54:16.926 --> 00:54:21.811
You need something that holds up when life doesn't cooperate, and that's exactly what Noom is built for.

877
00:54:22.191 --> 00:54:29.299
Noom is a health and wellness app that combines GLP-1 medication, that's the weight loss medication that everyone's talking about, with behavioral support.

878
00:54:29.539 --> 00:54:38.428
So the medication kickstarts the weight loss, and then the psychology side, the daily lessons, the food logging, the real coaching, that builds the habits that make it stick.

879
00:54:38.828 --> 00:54:40.090
even if you stop the medication.

880
00:54:40.430 --> 00:54:40.931
And it works.

881
00:54:41.171 --> 00:54:44.335
People lose 37% more weight with Noom than with GLP-1 alone.

882
00:54:44.695 --> 00:54:47.639
Noom helps you lose weight and keep it off, and that's the difference.

883
00:54:47.819 --> 00:54:50.102
The Noom GLP-1 program starts at $39.

884
00:54:50.262 --> 00:54:52.305
It's delivered to your door in as little as seven days.

885
00:54:52.345 --> 00:54:55.148
So start your GLP-1 journey today at Noom.com.

886
00:54:55.429 --> 00:54:58.132
That's N-O-O-M.com, Noom.

887
00:54:58.552 --> 00:55:23.187
lose for keeps initial one month subscription from $39 plus tax and $99 plus tax per month thereafter cost of medication not included final pricing depends on program selection results based on a January 2026 analysis of 14,203 Noom GLP 1RX program members who logged weight over a 40 week period higher app engagement was associated with greater weight loss at 16 weeks

888
00:55:24.228 --> 00:55:25.629
NetSuite is a success story partner.

889
00:55:25.829 --> 00:55:27.350
Now you probably know NetSuite already.

890
00:55:27.370 --> 00:55:31.091
It's a software that a ton of companies use to basically manage everything.

891
00:55:31.131 --> 00:55:33.572
Their finances, their inventory, their HR.

892
00:55:33.612 --> 00:55:34.813
It's just all in one place.

893
00:55:35.033 --> 00:55:37.034
Now they just came out with NetSuite Next.

894
00:55:37.234 --> 00:55:39.915
This is the AI version of all of that.

895
00:55:39.935 --> 00:55:44.557
So now you can ask it a question the way you'd ask someone on your team who just knows everything about your business.

896
00:55:44.898 --> 00:55:45.778
It gives you the answer.

897
00:55:46.058 --> 00:55:51.781
It keeps you up to date on all the things you need to know about your company and your business without you having to go digging for them.

898
00:55:52.021 --> 00:55:57.644
And it has these AI agents that take care of all the routine work in your business that eats up everybody's day.

899
00:55:57.924 --> 00:56:02.746
Now, the bigger picture here is that AI is starting to change how teams actually work together.

900
00:56:03.046 --> 00:56:06.808
It's happening incredibly fast and most companies don't have a plan for it.

901
00:56:07.068 --> 00:56:07.708
NetSuite does.

902
00:56:08.008 --> 00:56:13.490
They have a free guide called Aligning for the Agentic Era, how AI is changing everyday work.

903
00:56:13.650 --> 00:56:18.651
It breaks down how AI could reshape the way your whole organization works and what your business should be doing to get ahead of it.

904
00:56:18.851 --> 00:56:21.571
If I needed a tool like NetSuite, it's what I'd use and you should too.

905
00:56:21.851 --> 00:56:30.814
So if your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get our free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era, how AI is changing everyday work at netsuite.com slash scottclary.

906
00:56:31.074 --> 00:56:34.774
The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash scottclary.

907
00:56:37.555 --> 00:56:38.876
Monarch is a success story partner.

908
00:56:38.956 --> 00:56:39.677
Now, quick question.

909
00:56:39.817 --> 00:56:41.778
Do you know where your money went last month?

910
00:56:41.878 --> 00:56:43.619
Not roughly, but exactly.

911
00:56:43.719 --> 00:56:44.440
And most people don't.

912
00:56:44.660 --> 00:56:45.581
And I didn't for years.

913
00:56:45.641 --> 00:56:47.762
And that is most of our money stories, right?

914
00:56:47.842 --> 00:56:51.584
When we first start our career, we have one income and one account, and you can kind of wing it.

915
00:56:51.825 --> 00:56:59.710
But once you're running businesses, once you're investing, once you're carrying 50 different subscriptions that you stop paying attention to, winging it gets super expensive.

916
00:56:59.910 --> 00:57:00.931
Monarch fixed that for me.

917
00:57:01.011 --> 00:57:03.012
It is the personal finance app that tracks

918
00:57:03.332 --> 00:57:03.752
everything.

919
00:57:03.812 --> 00:57:07.875
So that means accounts, investments, savings goals, spending all on one screen.

920
00:57:07.995 --> 00:57:11.698
The first week I had it, it flied recurring charges I'd been paying for months without realizing.

921
00:57:11.798 --> 00:57:17.521
And every single week, the AI recap tells me if spending spiked, if my net worth moved, and what bills are coming.

922
00:57:17.541 --> 00:57:18.482
And I can just ask it, hey,

923
00:57:18.642 --> 00:57:20.783
Can I afford this trip without touching my savings?

924
00:57:20.823 --> 00:57:23.944
And I can get a real answer based on my actual numbers.

925
00:57:24.044 --> 00:57:26.205
It is a financial advisor in your pocket.

926
00:57:26.485 --> 00:57:28.346
It costs less than an hour with a real one.

927
00:57:28.486 --> 00:57:30.247
So write your own money story with Monarch.

928
00:57:30.487 --> 00:57:35.069
Use code success at Monarch.com and get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.

929
00:57:35.329 --> 00:57:38.850
That's 50% off your first year at Monarch.com with code success.

930
00:57:39.030 --> 00:57:42.672
It's almost like the barrier to entry for creating anything got super low.

931
00:57:43.272 --> 00:57:49.640
And then people just thought because they prompted something and it gave them an output, all of a sudden they're incredible.

932
00:57:50.881 --> 00:57:51.562
But not at all.

933
00:57:51.582 --> 00:57:52.263
Bullshit.

934
00:57:53.444 --> 00:57:58.710
And I think that, you know, even you saw with big companies that should be knowing how to use AI properly.

935
00:57:59.371 --> 00:58:01.012
they laid off a whole bunch of people.

936
00:58:01.593 --> 00:58:09.158
They started to incorporate AI and they realized that, well, first of all, they never trained the people that were left on AI.

937
00:58:09.219 --> 00:58:13.302
So it wasn't as efficient as the team they just laid off.

938
00:58:13.342 --> 00:58:15.603
It was actually taking more time and money and energy.

939
00:58:15.643 --> 00:58:20.707
The output was shittier and they had to rehire a whole bunch of people because they relied too heavily on AI.

940
00:58:20.727 --> 00:58:21.348
So whether or not it's like a,

941
00:58:21.968 --> 00:58:31.895
a creator at home putting out AI slot posts on LinkedIn or a company that's like, hey, let's just replace a human being with AI completely, even though we have no idea how to do that.

942
00:58:32.555 --> 00:58:40.841
There was like this over-reliance on it that created this really subpar output.

943
00:58:40.881 --> 00:58:43.623
But just, I don't know.

944
00:58:43.643 --> 00:58:47.386
I feel like that's why AI gets so much hate because it wasn't used properly.

945
00:58:47.906 --> 00:58:48.667
People got lazy.

946
00:58:48.707 --> 00:58:49.047
Who won't?

947
00:58:49.488 --> 00:58:57.592
It's just a tool, you know, and I think I think a lot of entrepreneurs get confused on what AI could be for them and what it could be used.

948
00:58:57.612 --> 00:58:59.333
Because, I mean, I've seen this so many times.

949
00:58:59.353 --> 00:59:03.996
They're like, oh, I need to automate this and this and this and this and I need to have an agent for this and this and this and this and this.

950
00:59:04.336 --> 00:59:05.277
And some of that's amazing.

951
00:59:06.117 --> 00:59:06.757
A hundred percent.

952
00:59:06.837 --> 00:59:07.478
You should be doing that.

953
00:59:07.518 --> 00:59:07.758
Right.

954
00:59:08.198 --> 00:59:09.179
But then there's other aspects.

955
00:59:09.200 --> 00:59:10.161
It's like, ooh, I don't know.

956
00:59:10.341 --> 00:59:13.184
Like, I don't think we're there yet in terms of the technology.

957
00:59:13.745 --> 00:59:20.332
And then two, it also takes away from, like, the critical thinking skills of the entrepreneur too, right?

958
00:59:20.353 --> 00:59:22.895
Like, they're just so innate in it that they can't even be, like,

959
00:59:23.436 --> 00:59:28.420
a person anymore and like think about like for themselves without going, Chach PD, what do you think?

960
00:59:28.600 --> 00:59:29.160
You know what I mean?

961
00:59:29.180 --> 00:59:31.662
Like tell me right now, make me a million dollars.

962
00:59:31.682 --> 00:59:32.223
You know what I mean?

963
00:59:32.243 --> 00:59:34.705
Like it, like it gets to that.

964
00:59:34.765 --> 00:59:37.407
There's studies where people outsource all their thinking to AI.

965
00:59:37.607 --> 00:59:40.529
And then I think there's, I don't know, Stanford Harbor.

966
00:59:40.749 --> 00:59:47.695
They're doing studies on show and they show that people's brains shrink and atrophy and there's less brain activity.

967
00:59:47.795 --> 00:59:51.337
If every single email is written by AI, every single search is written by AI.

968
00:59:52.398 --> 00:59:55.339
All you do is just done by, you're not thinking critically at all.

969
00:59:56.219 --> 00:59:56.819
So that's not good.

970
00:59:56.859 --> 01:00:00.100
I mean, that's like the opposite effect of somebody who's trying to be an entrepreneur.

971
01:00:00.120 --> 01:00:10.464
And then, you know, even, okay, so with this podcast, I use AI to prep, but like, I probably have, I don't even know, like 80 questions here.

972
01:00:10.484 --> 01:00:20.387
And I maybe asked like two of them because if I just was a robot and you gave a great answer and then I didn't have a normal conversation with you, like a human about that and that we went in that direction.

973
01:00:21.027 --> 01:00:23.868
And I was just like, okay, so next question, the content would suck.

974
01:00:24.568 --> 01:00:25.669
It would absolutely suck.

975
01:00:26.249 --> 01:00:28.730
So I feel like there's this over-reliance on it.

976
01:00:29.070 --> 01:00:30.551
It's too bad because it's a great tool.

977
01:00:30.651 --> 01:00:36.753
But then I'll ask you, if somebody wants to use it properly, what's your advice to them?

978
01:00:37.233 --> 01:00:47.037
I think it's, number one, first becoming super educated on the tool, what you can do with it, understand the process of what you can do with it and achieve with it,

979
01:00:47.657 --> 01:00:52.698
And then be very efficient on using your imagination to create whatever you're going to create.

980
01:00:53.118 --> 01:00:59.279
Be very good at becoming very targeted prompting and planning and building.

981
01:00:59.799 --> 01:01:01.840
And be very purposeful of where you're going to go with it.

982
01:01:01.860 --> 01:01:08.181
Because even with my own journey with using these tools, you do that same process that I just said.

983
01:01:08.221 --> 01:01:09.921
And, you know, like, oh, yeah.

984
01:01:10.242 --> 01:01:12.162
But you build something that's like you sit there and go.

985
01:01:12.762 --> 01:01:15.484
I didn't need to do this for two, three days of my life.

986
01:01:15.544 --> 01:01:19.566
Like this was the end result didn't really matter.

987
01:01:19.586 --> 01:01:22.827
And it's good to go through those exercises.

988
01:01:23.188 --> 01:01:26.790
But at the same time, it's like really understand the end result of where you want to go.

989
01:01:27.835 --> 01:01:31.700
And then treat this tool like if it was like a human that you were going to train.

990
01:01:31.820 --> 01:01:37.367
Because I think also there's a confusion that AI has all the answers, all the skills and everything ready to go.

991
01:01:37.407 --> 01:01:38.709
And it's going to work right when you do it.

992
01:01:39.570 --> 01:01:45.998
No, like you need to like really check on it, like almost as if you were training like an employee that had came into your business.

993
01:01:46.840 --> 01:01:48.502
And what would you do when you do that?

994
01:01:48.522 --> 01:01:51.285
Like someone comes in onto a company and go, hey, this is how we do our stuff.

995
01:01:51.325 --> 01:01:52.727
And you wouldn't ask them to do everything.

996
01:01:52.807 --> 01:01:53.849
You'd be like, this is a task.

997
01:01:53.909 --> 01:01:55.431
They may have an incredible skill.

998
01:01:55.711 --> 01:01:55.952
Right.

999
01:01:55.972 --> 01:02:03.461
And you just are augmenting that aspect with a very human, directional, imaginary, you know, imagination.

1000
01:02:04.923 --> 01:02:11.368
critical thinking process where I still don't see how AI can do that quite yet.

1001
01:02:11.588 --> 01:02:13.129
But also, you made a good point, though.

1002
01:02:13.149 --> 01:02:15.951
When you hire a human, you're going to give them context.

1003
01:02:16.572 --> 01:02:18.233
You're going to help them succeed at their job.

1004
01:02:19.294 --> 01:02:20.234
What you're not going to do is

1005
01:02:21.095 --> 01:02:23.636
Hey, I have 20 random business ideas.

1006
01:02:24.056 --> 01:02:26.116
Can you please try and figure out all of these?

1007
01:02:26.477 --> 01:02:28.277
Because that's not going to help them.

1008
01:02:28.297 --> 01:02:30.738
That's also not going to help you because that's going to...

1009
01:02:31.138 --> 01:02:38.080
I know people that just take on random new shit and new business ideas and actually get distracted because now they think AI can build everything.

1010
01:02:38.680 --> 01:02:45.562
So they're coding an app on the weekend instead of spending the weekend focusing on five more things that can drive results for the thing they're already building.

1011
01:02:45.822 --> 01:02:46.642
It's not an opportunity.

1012
01:02:46.662 --> 01:02:48.683
It's literally a distraction most of the time.

1013
01:02:48.703 --> 01:02:55.204
Obviously, there would be way more companies that are making a shit ton of money if that was the case.

1014
01:02:55.564 --> 01:02:56.785
Like there's proof in the pudding, right?

1015
01:02:56.805 --> 01:02:57.165
Like there's...

1016
01:02:57.865 --> 01:03:15.985
actionable steps and then there's businesses that actually produce money and don't get me twisted i'm sure there's some that are being produced right now but it's real and far between like it's much less than than people wanna it's funny how um everything that that's bad in life comes down to people gravitating towards extremes um

1017
01:03:16.265 --> 01:03:20.408
So either over-reliance on AI or ignoring it completely to extremes.

1018
01:03:20.728 --> 01:03:21.748
Because I was like that at first.

1019
01:03:21.768 --> 01:03:22.809
I was like, I don't need that shit.

1020
01:03:23.009 --> 01:03:23.549
I'm good.

1021
01:03:23.629 --> 01:03:24.510
Like I have, you know.

1022
01:03:24.950 --> 01:03:33.955
And then like slowly but surely, I'm like, I'm going to be left in the dust if I don't really educate myself and like be open-minded to this emerging technology.

1023
01:03:34.275 --> 01:03:38.938
And then I was like thinking about me in the early days of social, like people were saying about that the same way.

1024
01:03:38.958 --> 01:03:40.559
And I'm like, fuck, I'm going to be the same way.

1025
01:03:40.659 --> 01:03:41.580
I'm like, that's crazy.

1026
01:03:41.600 --> 01:03:42.100
Yeah.

1027
01:03:42.420 --> 01:03:47.181
Um, so anytime I try to keep my ear to the youth, like if they're saying something like, hey, this is a cool thing.

1028
01:03:47.201 --> 01:03:52.142
Cause I remember when like musically became a thing and my cousin's like, oh, you've seen this musically thing.

1029
01:03:52.162 --> 01:03:55.123
And I just sat there and I was like, what is this?

1030
01:03:55.483 --> 01:03:57.304
What is, I think this is going to be huge.

1031
01:03:57.344 --> 01:03:57.964
You know what I mean?

1032
01:03:58.044 --> 01:04:01.205
And sure enough, TechDark becomes this massive platform.

1033
01:04:02.105 --> 01:04:02.285
Um.

1034
01:04:02.845 --> 01:04:10.790
And it's like I try so hard to keep my ear to the ground, like what people are talking about, what they're doing and be open minded to like, OK, is this an opportunity?

1035
01:04:10.830 --> 01:04:11.390
Is it not?

1036
01:04:11.410 --> 01:04:14.812
Because at first with AI, I was like, oh, I don't see it.

1037
01:04:14.932 --> 01:04:15.772
I don't understand.

1038
01:04:15.853 --> 01:04:20.435
But now I understand what the tool set can be and how powerful it is.

1039
01:04:20.675 --> 01:04:24.738
And it's interesting to witness to how it's evolving, too.

1040
01:04:25.558 --> 01:04:26.920
Where's the, where's the mark?

1041
01:04:26.960 --> 01:04:30.664
So you were again, ahead of the curve with marketing as well.

1042
01:04:32.046 --> 01:04:38.574
Getting a 10 trillion X ROAS on Instagram and an influencer marketing is wild.

1043
01:04:39.295 --> 01:04:44.301
So where's that kind of opportunity now for like, if you're going to build another, say you're going to build another CPG brand.

1044
01:04:44.922 --> 01:04:47.403
You're not getting Kylie for $16,000.

1045
01:04:47.943 --> 01:04:53.845
You're not putting $16,000 on Instagram and making, or you're not putting a couple hundred bucks on Instagram and making $16,000 day one.

1046
01:04:54.306 --> 01:04:56.166
So where would you put your money?

1047
01:04:56.206 --> 01:04:58.887
So, like, I just had this conversation, like, a few days ago.

1048
01:04:59.428 --> 01:05:01.969
Like, what would Fitty Michael do today, right?

1049
01:05:01.989 --> 01:05:06.190
Like, I would focus totally on the streamers and the clipping world.

1050
01:05:06.410 --> 01:05:07.411
Like, that clipping world.

1051
01:05:08.231 --> 01:05:34.454
world slash streamers but the streamers are doing amazing but i would hire like really great writers to cultivate the live streams and give it like a narrative and obviously like a story like a story and some of the streamers are already kind of doing it you can see it happening right and they're doing like very shock value very analytical they're looking at their metrics and going okay this video worked we should do some more more more of that stuff but

1052
01:05:34.734 --> 01:05:39.357
It would be a balance between those two things and still like old school stuff.

1053
01:05:39.937 --> 01:05:47.061
Like, I still think there's a whole world of like outdoor advertising and like the traditional landscape of advertising.

1054
01:05:47.081 --> 01:05:49.222
I don't think that's ever going to go away.

1055
01:05:51.412 --> 01:05:56.179
But the live streaming stuff, I think, is going to become more and more loud, more and more loud.

1056
01:05:56.219 --> 01:06:02.027
Like you're seeing celebrities slowly wanting to be streamers and streamers that want to be celebrities.

1057
01:06:02.728 --> 01:06:06.854
And their influence is so much bigger than like a celebrity now.

1058
01:06:07.575 --> 01:06:10.976
Like Drake doing those, you know, live broadcasts with people.

1059
01:06:11.056 --> 01:06:12.436
It's like very telling.

1060
01:06:12.616 --> 01:06:13.296
You know what I mean?

1061
01:06:14.157 --> 01:06:16.037
And I think businesses can do the same.

1062
01:06:16.417 --> 01:06:20.038
Like literally like this could have been this whole entire day, this morning.

1063
01:06:20.058 --> 01:06:21.558
We've been talking about live streaming.

1064
01:06:22.238 --> 01:06:26.679
We could have been like there could have been someone streaming the whole time, the whole interaction.

1065
01:06:27.019 --> 01:06:32.141
Because, yeah, people want to see the curated and we're talking about the hard questions.

1066
01:06:32.181 --> 01:06:33.181
Michael, what do you got to say?

1067
01:06:34.181 --> 01:06:43.028
But they also want to see me just be like completely unfiltered, ridiculous, and, you know, they get to see you unfiltered.

1068
01:06:44.209 --> 01:06:50.994
You'd be surprised how impactful I think like a business showing just what they do inside.

1069
01:06:51.774 --> 01:06:58.097
And it will reveal like if they're totally transparent because I have this like new obsession of like transparency and just being yourself.

1070
01:06:58.177 --> 01:07:02.899
And like my mom, I think it's like an education from my mom because my mom wears like these wacky outfits.

1071
01:07:02.939 --> 01:07:05.341
And at first I was like, it's a fucking wacky.

1072
01:07:05.361 --> 01:07:06.081
What the hell are you doing?

1073
01:07:06.341 --> 01:07:08.302
She's like, I'm going to be undeniably me.

1074
01:07:08.342 --> 01:07:08.902
You know what I mean?

1075
01:07:09.062 --> 01:07:09.543
I love it.

1076
01:07:09.863 --> 01:07:10.963
And I think that's the same.

1077
01:07:10.983 --> 01:07:11.824
Like that's a lesson.

1078
01:07:11.844 --> 01:07:12.904
There's a lesson there.

1079
01:07:12.984 --> 01:07:15.706
You know, like sometimes you got to like listen to what God is telling you.

1080
01:07:16.506 --> 01:07:19.988
And it's like I think entrepreneurs could do that in their businesses, too.

1081
01:07:20.728 --> 01:07:24.230
And that's a core, like a marketing, because like then people see who you are.

1082
01:07:24.311 --> 01:07:25.191
Are you a good man?

1083
01:07:25.231 --> 01:07:26.172
Are you a good woman?

1084
01:07:26.632 --> 01:07:30.115
And it's intimate and it's raw, it's unfiltered.

1085
01:07:30.735 --> 01:07:31.716
I think that's so smart.

1086
01:07:32.236 --> 01:07:34.077
So I just saw a live streamer this morning.

1087
01:07:34.097 --> 01:07:35.698
He's a bodybuilder out of Australia.

1088
01:07:35.738 --> 01:07:36.779
I can't remember his live stream.

1089
01:07:36.799 --> 01:07:40.602
I literally just saw his, it was a clip on Instagram from his stream.

1090
01:07:41.382 --> 01:07:44.585
And he was just walking around the grocery store talking about foods that he buys.

1091
01:07:45.953 --> 01:07:47.794
And he's getting recognized in the grocery store.

1092
01:07:47.814 --> 01:07:49.154
So obviously he's like, we're famous.

1093
01:07:49.834 --> 01:07:52.495
And we were talking about doing a live stream.

1094
01:07:52.535 --> 01:07:54.336
And I'm like, well, I'd love to do it.

1095
01:07:54.416 --> 01:07:55.296
I don't even mind it.

1096
01:07:55.316 --> 01:07:58.117
But I think some people, like some of the guests that I bring on.

1097
01:07:58.677 --> 01:08:00.398
Unfortunately, I think what's going to happen...

1098
01:08:01.478 --> 01:08:05.821
What is about to happen is that they're not going to be able to avoid it.

1099
01:08:06.062 --> 01:08:15.528
It's almost as if Apple's going to put cameras into the headphones and the Neta has them in the glasses, it's going to continue.

1100
01:08:15.548 --> 01:08:19.271
It's going to be in watches and in this, and it's going to be easier, accessible and faster and faster.

1101
01:08:19.291 --> 01:08:23.194
In fact, I just went to an event that was a boxing live streamer event.

1102
01:08:24.134 --> 01:08:29.317
and that was so telling for me just to be in the room because I was like watching all the people do it.

1103
01:08:30.017 --> 01:08:31.418
Make it so normal.

1104
01:08:31.978 --> 01:08:39.122
They're like walking around with a camera, like full production set, but there's like six people doing it at the same time, and they do not care.

1105
01:08:39.822 --> 01:08:40.723
They do not care at all.

1106
01:08:40.743 --> 01:08:43.146
And I'm like, what?

1107
01:08:43.246 --> 01:08:45.329
Why do I have this restriction on myself?

1108
01:08:45.369 --> 01:08:48.593
Because I have the same feelings as, you know, millennials.

1109
01:08:48.813 --> 01:08:53.379
I think we're not quite jumping on the bandwagon of, like, total transparency.

1110
01:08:53.759 --> 01:08:58.265
But most, you know, Gen X and everything after Gen Z, they're like –

1111
01:09:00.160 --> 01:09:02.663
They're very used to the millennial pause.

1112
01:09:02.683 --> 01:09:04.225
They talk about that.

1113
01:09:04.606 --> 01:09:10.753
I pause before the camera starts because it's a habit where the younger generation doesn't do that.

1114
01:09:11.254 --> 01:09:18.402
I think it's the entrepreneurs that embrace this trend, and I think it's still going to evolve too.

1115
01:09:19.252 --> 01:09:23.234
I think there's going to be a spike, just like Instagram, where you can have super famous people.

1116
01:09:23.735 --> 01:09:26.717
And then slowly but surely, there'll be a normality to it.

1117
01:09:26.977 --> 01:09:31.499
So it's always like the people that lean into the hard, uncomfortable shit before everyone else always win.

1118
01:09:31.800 --> 01:09:32.300
Oh, of course.

1119
01:09:32.500 --> 01:09:38.324
I was listening to an interview with Jake Paul, and he was talking about why he was so successful on YouTube.

1120
01:09:38.724 --> 01:09:43.167
Because obviously there's other vloggers, but then he was putting his entire life out there.

1121
01:09:43.187 --> 01:09:44.567
It felt like there was no edits.

1122
01:09:44.607 --> 01:09:45.028
He was like...

1123
01:09:45.768 --> 01:09:48.911
It wasn't live streaming, but he felt like you were just seeing 100% of him.

1124
01:09:49.471 --> 01:09:53.495
And then he included other ideas, like he was telling stories, bringing in recurring characters.

1125
01:09:53.555 --> 01:10:00.201
And so now you have these live streamers that are probably going to pick up some ideas from the best vloggers and the best celebrities.

1126
01:10:00.461 --> 01:10:04.424
And it's just more transparent, so the audience feels like they actually know the person.

1127
01:10:05.205 --> 01:10:06.526
Yeah, I feel like every...

1128
01:10:08.776 --> 01:10:13.759
It's easy to say I feel like more entrepreneurs should stream stuff going on in their business.

1129
01:10:14.640 --> 01:10:18.742
But realistically, we're so far from that.

1130
01:10:18.782 --> 01:10:21.184
There is such a huge opportunity for people that actually do it.

1131
01:10:22.210 --> 01:10:30.053
Because we say it like, oh yeah, if an entrepreneur, somebody building a startup just live streamed around their office, it would be great content.

1132
01:10:30.513 --> 01:10:33.475
Bro, I have a hard time getting people to even post on Instagram.

1133
01:10:34.255 --> 01:10:38.577
So it's like where they should be and where they are is so far.

1134
01:10:39.717 --> 01:10:41.459
So that – it's just opportunity.

1135
01:10:41.919 --> 01:10:42.840
It's just opportunity.

1136
01:10:42.900 --> 01:10:45.463
Why do you think I was running around design district filming stuff?

1137
01:10:45.483 --> 01:10:51.629
Because I'm trying to like – I think there's – like I have this conversation with my team and some of my entrepreneur buddies.

1138
01:10:51.709 --> 01:10:59.577
I think the hard part of all this stuff is like core systems need to be created because it doesn't – it does exist like cameras and stuff, but it's not –

1139
01:11:00.057 --> 01:11:03.139
It's not super like streamlined and super easy.

1140
01:11:03.340 --> 01:11:05.501
I think that's one because some people are not like techies.

1141
01:11:05.521 --> 01:11:10.225
They're not going to be able to use a lot of this equipment and set up and, you know, I got to integrate it and do all this stuff.

1142
01:11:10.645 --> 01:11:14.568
So I think whoever like builds the systems are super straightforward and super easy.

1143
01:11:15.169 --> 01:11:22.394
But I also think like I even I'm having like a renaissance of what I believe the future of the Internet is going to be.

1144
01:11:22.474 --> 01:11:28.419
And I was kind of like in the infancies of creating the thing and in terms of like what a business does with the tool.

1145
01:11:28.439 --> 01:11:28.719
Right.

1146
01:11:28.739 --> 01:11:29.039
Right.

1147
01:11:30.720 --> 01:11:34.562
I think entrepreneurs are going to need to embrace it and get the fuck out of their head.

1148
01:11:34.802 --> 01:11:39.024
And really, if you want to be a part of the future, you're going to have to be a part of it.

1149
01:11:39.044 --> 01:11:46.727
And be brave enough to be open-minded to the idea that there is no longer privacy in the terms of marketing.

1150
01:11:46.907 --> 01:11:50.389
Because I think the ones that are going to be okay with it...

1151
01:11:50.789 --> 01:12:08.985
being totally open with their flaws and their pimples and their whatever they're the ones that are gonna win because again it's human buys from human i think ai is the one of the problems because it masks masks that right like you can use it to create like these like perfect personas um

1152
01:12:09.858 --> 01:12:12.199
And people are going to become more and more aware of that.

1153
01:12:12.259 --> 01:12:16.641
And I don't think you can, in terms of live streaming right now, you can't really AI that.

1154
01:12:16.701 --> 01:12:18.661
At least not like totality.

1155
01:12:20.042 --> 01:12:33.067
And I may be wrong, but I just see this future of marketing where it's this balance of real open truths and people buying from people still and then utilizing the networks that are available to them.

1156
01:12:34.367 --> 01:12:41.349
So you built a company that has sold over $100 million, which is something that not a lot of entrepreneurs get to do and experience.

1157
01:12:41.369 --> 01:12:42.489
So amazing.

1158
01:12:42.509 --> 01:12:42.909
Congrats.

1159
01:12:42.929 --> 01:12:43.629
That's incredible.

1160
01:12:44.210 --> 01:12:48.171
But on that journey, I just want to talk about some of the lessons that you've learned.

1161
01:12:48.231 --> 01:12:56.233
So building a company at that size, what is one thing that it taught you about yourself that nothing else could have?

1162
01:12:57.233 --> 01:12:57.973
I'm not God.

1163
01:13:00.453 --> 01:13:11.203
I'm not God because when you get to like bigger levels of success, you start to think that you're bigger than you are and your ego gets bigger and bigger.

1164
01:13:11.484 --> 01:13:14.787
Like if you would have met me during like the peaks of it, I probably wouldn't like myself.

1165
01:13:15.287 --> 01:13:15.467
Right.

1166
01:13:15.507 --> 01:13:17.990
Like if I met myself, you know, from a time frame.

1167
01:13:18.861 --> 01:13:26.525
Um, and you, you get this ego aspect where then you don't respect people just because of like, of your own success.

1168
01:13:26.545 --> 01:13:27.866
Like it had nothing to do with the person.

1169
01:13:27.906 --> 01:13:30.107
Like you, and then you don't really self-reflect.

1170
01:13:30.127 --> 01:13:33.229
You start to become more and more obsessed with your own self.

1171
01:13:33.329 --> 01:13:37.512
And, um, and then you think that nothing could possibly break you down.

1172
01:13:37.532 --> 01:13:43.115
Nothing can beat you down, but life has a way of humbling you and can throw like one, two punches.

1173
01:13:44.575 --> 01:13:45.155
I'm not God.

1174
01:13:45.275 --> 01:13:46.036
Like I'm not God.

1175
01:13:46.056 --> 01:13:54.138
And I think entrepreneurs, you know, even with social media, we get this like this huge bravado that we're bigger than the universe.

1176
01:13:56.118 --> 01:14:01.720
I think that was the one thing I learned from my experience that I'm just immortal.

1177
01:14:01.760 --> 01:14:03.480
I'm just a man, just like any other man.

1178
01:14:03.500 --> 01:14:04.981
I wake up, I go to sleep, I wake up.

1179
01:14:06.361 --> 01:14:10.182
I have love, I have loss, I have a limited time on this earth.

1180
01:14:10.997 --> 01:14:14.639
And it just really showed me that this is all a gift.

1181
01:14:14.659 --> 01:14:15.780
This is all temporary.

1182
01:14:15.880 --> 01:14:16.500
It can be given.

1183
01:14:16.520 --> 01:14:17.601
It can be taken from you.

1184
01:14:18.981 --> 01:14:20.962
And to really enjoy the ride for what it is.

1185
01:14:21.263 --> 01:14:21.883
You know what I mean?

1186
01:14:22.323 --> 01:14:24.664
But also, like, really respect people.

1187
01:14:24.704 --> 01:14:29.267
Like, I really appreciated your time and your intimacy and, like, who you are as a person.

1188
01:14:30.688 --> 01:14:31.968
And the people that are working with you.

1189
01:14:33.189 --> 01:14:35.030
And before, I wouldn't reflect on those things.

1190
01:14:35.270 --> 01:14:36.331
Like, how special this is.

1191
01:14:36.391 --> 01:14:37.331
Like, one day you're going to die.

1192
01:14:37.511 --> 01:14:38.011
You know what I mean?

1193
01:14:38.032 --> 01:14:39.232
I get to spend this little.

1194
01:14:39.252 --> 01:14:40.293
Maybe I never see you again.

1195
01:14:41.013 --> 01:14:47.883
And before, I wasn't as a toot to like, this little moment of time, I have to really respect this person because it's just...

1196
01:14:48.875 --> 01:14:51.236
It's really, really special, you know.

1197
01:14:52.256 --> 01:14:53.236
And tomorrow I could be gone.

1198
01:14:53.256 --> 01:14:55.537
And this was our only interaction, you know.

1199
01:14:56.117 --> 01:14:58.858
And your reflection of me would be like, man, that guy was pretty cool.

1200
01:14:58.918 --> 01:14:59.478
And maybe not.

1201
01:14:59.498 --> 01:15:02.559
It wouldn't be like this universal moment for you, right.

1202
01:15:03.359 --> 01:15:04.859
But before I didn't think that way.

1203
01:15:05.139 --> 01:15:06.300
I didn't even think of like death.

1204
01:15:06.340 --> 01:15:07.660
I didn't think about like loss.

1205
01:15:08.020 --> 01:15:10.301
I acted like success was going to come to me always.

1206
01:15:10.721 --> 01:15:13.702
And I never thought I was going to have any war, you know, war-torn moments.

1207
01:15:14.382 --> 01:15:14.702
Hits.

1208
01:15:15.062 --> 01:15:19.525
But yeah, definitely became more humble in terms of who I was.

1209
01:15:20.566 --> 01:15:22.327
What humbled you, though?

1210
01:15:22.347 --> 01:15:23.407
A lot of different things.

1211
01:15:23.427 --> 01:15:26.869
The business, relationships, loss, my death of my father.

1212
01:15:28.430 --> 01:15:33.113
Things that you just don't realize are not fucking important.

1213
01:15:33.573 --> 01:15:36.695
And you put all this energy in, like, I'm this guy.

1214
01:15:36.755 --> 01:15:40.477
And those were not the things that were important whatsoever.

1215
01:15:40.737 --> 01:15:42.458
And it really shows you, like...

1216
01:15:43.519 --> 01:15:51.005
your attitude needs to be adjusted, you know, and maybe the universe and life just like goes, okay, listen, man, like you're not, you're not that guy.

1217
01:15:51.045 --> 01:15:52.907
You're not, you're not going to ever be God.

1218
01:15:53.467 --> 01:15:58.231
And, um, and ever since I changed that perspective, I became much more humble.

1219
01:15:58.371 --> 01:15:59.432
I became more personable.

1220
01:15:59.532 --> 01:16:03.996
I became much more pleasurable to be around because I was such a like, almost like static electricity.

1221
01:16:04.496 --> 01:16:08.299
And so like anything would set me, you know, like it could be like, and it could have been just jokative.

1222
01:16:08.460 --> 01:16:08.720
Right.

1223
01:16:08.800 --> 01:16:10.161
But it wasn't respectful.

1224
01:16:10.361 --> 01:16:10.821
You know what I mean?

1225
01:16:12.148 --> 01:16:14.089
And that value of that time too, you know.

1226
01:16:15.290 --> 01:16:18.452
Yeah, that was like one of the big things I learned from like the whole entire experience.

1227
01:16:18.672 --> 01:16:20.473
From what I remember, you didn't come from money, correct?

1228
01:16:20.633 --> 01:16:21.434
Yeah, we came from nothing.

1229
01:16:21.694 --> 01:16:22.374
Came from nothing.

1230
01:16:22.935 --> 01:16:25.896
You made more money than you probably ever thought you would, I'm assuming.

1231
01:16:29.118 --> 01:16:34.301
When you sort of look at that journey, your definition of success has probably changed significantly.

1232
01:16:35.622 --> 01:16:37.983
It's tough because when you start, everybody's going after money.

1233
01:16:38.504 --> 01:16:40.685
Then they realize it sounds like, you know, you had success.

1234
01:16:42.129 --> 01:16:55.077
loss in your, in your family, you had health, mental health scares and issues, and you've gotten over a lot of this stuff now, not the loss, but you've gotten over a lot of the, the mental health and the physical health things that came with building a huge business.

1235
01:16:56.218 --> 01:17:00.000
But what does success and fulfillment and happiness mean to you now?

1236
01:17:00.741 --> 01:17:07.365
So family, family first, being very present of my time and understanding of my mortality.

1237
01:17:08.305 --> 01:17:12.946
Um, you know, the things that I enjoy, I enjoy the things I don't need.

1238
01:17:12.986 --> 01:17:14.646
I don't need saying no more.

1239
01:17:14.666 --> 01:17:19.327
Um, super important saying no, uh, just like the overall peace.

1240
01:17:19.728 --> 01:17:24.809
Like if it doesn't bring me peace, like true, true peace, because happiness is ever winding, right?

1241
01:17:24.829 --> 01:17:35.851
Like you can have happiness one day and you're sad the next day, but peace is like, you can really fight for it and really like make it a priority because some entrepreneurs go, Oh, I want to, you know, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.

1242
01:17:36.131 --> 01:17:37.092
What does that lead to?

1243
01:17:37.352 --> 01:17:38.893
Probably not so much peace, you know?

1244
01:17:39.314 --> 01:17:43.617
And then 10 years go by, you made the money and you're fucking out of whack.

1245
01:17:43.637 --> 01:17:44.277
You know what I mean?

1246
01:17:44.638 --> 01:17:46.639
Is it really truly like when I went through my disorder?

1247
01:17:46.779 --> 01:17:48.200
Was it really truly worth that?

1248
01:17:48.280 --> 01:17:48.761
You know what I mean?

1249
01:17:49.101 --> 01:17:53.524
Where I could have probably made $10 million less, but never went through a disorder.

1250
01:17:53.764 --> 01:17:55.225
Although I don't regret that.

1251
01:17:55.245 --> 01:17:56.366
I learned a very important lesson.

1252
01:17:56.406 --> 01:17:58.608
Now I get to share it on your podcast to other people.

1253
01:17:58.708 --> 01:18:02.071
potentially people because every day somebody's going to go through that.

1254
01:18:02.091 --> 01:18:06.854
So that's a blessing and an honor that I went to those challenges and now I get to bestow that knowledge to other people.

1255
01:18:06.874 --> 01:18:09.456
So yeah.

1256
01:18:10.817 --> 01:18:12.899
One, I had a friend

1257
01:18:14.740 --> 01:18:20.824
It's interesting what you can learn from rock bottom moments and not even rock bottom moments, just like tough moments in life.

1258
01:18:21.824 --> 01:18:23.065
A sad story.

1259
01:18:23.085 --> 01:18:29.248
I had a friend whose wife passed away from cancer and we were actually just speaking yesterday.

1260
01:18:29.268 --> 01:18:31.810
A little bit recent, so it's fresh.

1261
01:18:32.270 --> 01:18:33.991
But he was saying how...

1262
01:18:35.759 --> 01:18:45.711
like this whole horrible experience has just made him realize that he just shouldn't waste time on things that aren't important.

1263
01:18:46.231 --> 01:18:55.783
Like he doesn't, he was giving me an example if he went to this dinner party and after 15 minutes he just like got up and left and I'm like, I'm not, I'm not staying here, I'm not enjoying myself at all.

1264
01:18:56.263 --> 01:19:10.162
And I feel like when you have hard moments, like points in your life, when you lose a father, when you lose a wife, when you sacrifice your own physical mental health for a goal and it really hurts you, you start to realize like,

1265
01:19:13.451 --> 01:19:15.272
what should you spend your time and your energy on?

1266
01:19:16.032 --> 01:19:25.634
And I, and, and it sounds like that's the realization that you came to as well through like giving so much of yourself to your company, some batches happening in your life.

1267
01:19:25.654 --> 01:19:30.755
And you're like, you know what, if it's not worth my time, it doesn't like, you know, if I don't enjoy it, I'm not doing it.

1268
01:19:31.715 --> 01:19:33.876
And I feel like not a lot of people have that clarity.

1269
01:19:34.096 --> 01:19:38.700
A lot of people do business just because they need to do business with people they don't like, right?

1270
01:19:39.140 --> 01:19:41.502
And sometimes that money is not worth it.

1271
01:19:41.782 --> 01:19:42.903
It's not worth it in the end.

1272
01:19:43.443 --> 01:19:44.604
And there's always going to be opportunities.

1273
01:19:44.624 --> 01:19:45.845
There's always going to be businesses.

1274
01:19:45.865 --> 01:19:48.347
There's a level of respect meter, too.

1275
01:19:48.387 --> 01:19:49.928
People will tolerate shit.

1276
01:19:50.529 --> 01:19:55.152
And obviously that comes with success and economic upside.

1277
01:19:55.252 --> 01:19:56.013
Right?

1278
01:19:57.074 --> 01:19:57.214
Right?

1279
01:19:59.195 --> 01:20:04.678
And, but in reality, like you still don't have to, like in the end, your time is going to pass.

1280
01:20:04.718 --> 01:20:05.638
This shall pass too.

1281
01:20:06.138 --> 01:20:07.139
And you tell them to go fuck off.

1282
01:20:07.479 --> 01:20:10.040
And some people don't, don't have that.

1283
01:20:11.061 --> 01:20:22.186
Well, true, but at the same time, some do, even if they think they don't, you know, they can say no and not have to allow this person or thing or whatever it is that they're going to actually be like a thing they can't say no to.

1284
01:20:23.187 --> 01:20:27.649
One of the best metaphors that you taught me yesterday, which I really liked.

1285
01:20:28.389 --> 01:20:36.672
it's also about clarity and spending your energy only on things that matter is the, the, the, I guess metaphor analogy of like only having so many bullets.

1286
01:20:37.612 --> 01:20:47.995
So just explain how you think about it and talk to the young entrepreneur who's trying to do everything and go to every coffee and lunch and dinner and try to build five different companies at once.

1287
01:20:48.015 --> 01:20:49.316
Like what's your advice to that person?

1288
01:20:49.496 --> 01:20:50.476
We, you know, we're human.

1289
01:20:50.696 --> 01:20:51.236
We're morals.

1290
01:20:51.396 --> 01:20:56.138
We only have so much energy, so much time on this earth, so much time within our day that,

1291
01:20:56.658 --> 01:20:59.341
And so many opportunities become distractions.

1292
01:20:59.361 --> 01:21:01.623
If you have 10 going at the same time, you're spinning the plate.

1293
01:21:01.683 --> 01:21:03.285
I used to talk about that as a businessman.

1294
01:21:03.745 --> 01:21:13.255
You know, you ever seen like the circus act, you're spinning the plate and all the plates are going and then they go running down the thing, they're spinning the plates and they keep one starts to wobble and they go back and spin that one.

1295
01:21:13.275 --> 01:21:15.977
That's pretty much an entrepreneur experience and that's really normal.

1296
01:21:17.018 --> 01:21:24.105
But then the problem becomes if you got another line of spinning plates, you know, like if you really think about it, okay, the first line was challenging.

1297
01:21:24.505 --> 01:21:27.148
Oh, no, no, I need to add another line of spinning plates.

1298
01:21:27.829 --> 01:21:33.734
And then all of a sudden you don't have enough hands to do the controlling of the plates.

1299
01:21:34.014 --> 01:21:38.679
And I think about that in terms of like a gun, like you only have so many bullets that you can shoot off.

1300
01:21:39.139 --> 01:21:40.861
And then it's, are you going to hit the target?

1301
01:21:40.901 --> 01:21:41.702
Are you aiming at?

1302
01:21:42.262 --> 01:21:43.683
Are you aiming at the right place?

1303
01:21:43.703 --> 01:21:50.250
Because now you have six bullets in the chamber and you shot one this way and you shot one that way, but the target was over there, you know?

1304
01:21:51.171 --> 01:21:56.916
So I think about, you know, and it might be an analogy, but I think about that in terms of entrepreneur spaces like,

1305
01:21:57.557 --> 01:21:58.338
I see it all the time.

1306
01:21:58.398 --> 01:21:59.158
It's so common.

1307
01:21:59.318 --> 01:22:01.520
Like, not every opportunity is an opportunity.

1308
01:22:02.241 --> 01:22:06.804
Most of the time, they should have said no to it and moved on to the thing that they should be hyper-focused on.

1309
01:22:07.244 --> 01:22:09.526
And it's good to have levity and options, right?

1310
01:22:09.866 --> 01:22:17.372
But you're only going to have – you've got to be super focused in your mind and your decision-making to go, okay, this is where I'm going to go.

1311
01:22:17.612 --> 01:22:18.332
And this one, too.

1312
01:22:18.572 --> 01:22:19.353
But that's it.

1313
01:22:19.513 --> 01:22:24.397
I'm not going to go because I can only work on this for four hours maybe in the day at a high level.

1314
01:22:24.857 --> 01:22:25.217
You know?

1315
01:22:26.057 --> 01:22:28.118
So, yeah.

1316
01:22:28.518 --> 01:22:34.861
I just want you to give that young entrepreneur who's starting out one last piece of advice, like the most important thing that you think will help them.

1317
01:22:34.881 --> 01:22:35.441
What would that be?

1318
01:22:35.781 --> 01:22:37.822
So, again, action steps.

1319
01:22:38.790 --> 01:22:39.830
take massive action.

1320
01:22:40.510 --> 01:22:46.212
I think I'd spend less time doing like this foo-foo stuff where you need to like get your brain right and all of this.

1321
01:22:46.592 --> 01:22:48.333
You don't need another Hermosi video.

1322
01:22:48.373 --> 01:22:51.754
You need to take massive action and measure the action.

1323
01:22:52.074 --> 01:22:52.534
Did it work?

1324
01:22:52.554 --> 01:22:53.234
Did it not work?

1325
01:22:53.754 --> 01:22:54.494
And then do it again.

1326
01:22:54.514 --> 01:23:06.638
And like, as long as you take massive actions towards a goal, I'm not promising you that everything will be a success, but I can promise you there will be a, some type of result and it can be measured and it can be time sensitive.

1327
01:23:06.658 --> 01:23:06.718
Um,

1328
01:23:08.638 --> 01:23:09.859
Just go for it.

1329
01:23:10.039 --> 01:23:13.321
You don't need another self-help book from the library.

1330
01:23:13.341 --> 01:23:14.562
You can do it now.

1331
01:23:14.642 --> 01:23:15.342
Just do it.

1332
01:23:15.362 --> 01:23:21.106
Do you feel like people use preparation as almost like a form of procrastination?

1333
01:23:22.027 --> 01:23:22.367
Of course.

1334
01:23:22.687 --> 01:23:24.128
I've experienced that in my life.

1335
01:23:24.148 --> 01:23:25.829
I'm going to read another book.

1336
01:23:27.950 --> 01:23:29.152
I'm going to write it down.

1337
01:23:29.252 --> 01:23:34.798
And like, I did absolutely nothing like zero in terms of like the actual action steps that needs to be done.

1338
01:23:35.399 --> 01:23:35.839
And it's funny.

1339
01:23:35.859 --> 01:23:44.750
I feel like there's like, like once you start taking the steps of an action, like all of a sudden it becomes like easier, you know, like, yeah.

1340
01:23:44.790 --> 01:23:46.532
Well, I mean like when you take action, like,

1341
01:23:48.890 --> 01:23:52.092
It's, it's like compounded action over time.

1342
01:23:52.172 --> 01:23:52.913
It's energy.

1343
01:23:52.973 --> 01:23:53.813
It's a verb.

1344
01:23:53.893 --> 01:23:54.914
Yeah, I get it.

1345
01:23:55.314 --> 01:24:00.177
And it's like, and it shows you by through taking action, it shows you what's going to work and what's not.

1346
01:24:00.297 --> 01:24:04.700
Like one of my favorite lines is you can never learn how to swim by reading a book about swimming.

1347
01:24:05.220 --> 01:24:06.541
Like you got to get in the water.

1348
01:24:06.781 --> 01:24:07.862
I'm going to steal that one.

1349
01:24:07.882 --> 01:24:08.783
I'm going to start saying that.

1350
01:24:09.943 --> 01:24:11.224
I like it.

1351
01:24:11.244 --> 01:24:13.145
Where can people connect with you and find you?

1352
01:24:13.205 --> 01:24:16.467
So my Instagram's best place, TCEO.

1353
01:24:16.527 --> 01:24:18.668
If you message me, I answer every single DM.

1354
01:24:19.268 --> 01:24:23.230
So no matter who you are, if you're big, small, in between, it doesn't matter.

1355
01:24:23.431 --> 01:24:25.332
Send me a message and I'll reply back to you.

1356
01:24:25.352 --> 01:24:26.232
That's my best place.

1357
01:24:26.592 --> 01:24:27.353
Last question.

1358
01:24:27.853 --> 01:24:34.997
If you could go back and tell 20-year-old Michael just one thing, the most important lesson, it can be business, it can be just life advice.

1359
01:24:35.137 --> 01:24:35.837
Say no more.

1360
01:24:35.857 --> 01:24:39.019
Be honest to yourself.

1361
01:24:39.179 --> 01:24:40.342
Be a little bit more humble.

1362
01:24:40.423 --> 01:24:41.766
It's okay to be confident.

1363
01:24:42.067 --> 01:24:43.030
Feel a little bit more humble.

1364
01:24:43.812 --> 01:24:46.900
And, you know, put family first always.