The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi

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Unknown
Average is the enemy of greatness. Comfort is the enemy of growth. Welcome to the Grit Factor podcast,

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Unknown
where we strip away the highlight reel and get into the darkness beneath it. The real stories, the real battles and the battle plans used to conquer them.

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Unknown
I'm your host, Carl Jacoby. Combat that. Entrepreneur, resilience and performance coach, keynote speaker. Husband and father. I built, scaled, and exited multiple companies totaling over 40 million in revenue.

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Unknown
But here's what that highlight reel doesn't show you. Life has been smacking me in the face with a two by four since I was just five years old.

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Unknown
Broken home. Constant chaos. No playbook, no safety net. Just grit. And if you're anything like me, you know you've got another level in you, in your business, your career, your faith, your leadership. You're just not sure how to get there. That's exactly why we're here. Be sure to follow me for more great content and check out my website.

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Unknown
Success with coral.com. Now that's car with a K. Now let's get to work.

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Unknown
My man. So great seeing you today. May I appreciate you coming into the studio today. I'm so happy to be here, man. Thanks for having me this great agreement. It's always a good time

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Unknown
with you, man. Every time we get together in jam, man, we just. We just, lose track of time, and. Yeah, it's always a good time being with you, my dude.

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Unknown
So thank you again. Absolutely. Eric, man. You know, even talking behind the scenes with you, you know, before we hit the record button, I just find new ways to be impressed by how humble you are and the things that you've accomplished in your in your walk of life and in the things you've accomplished. So, you know, share in more detail, because as of right now, you've you've done so phenomenal things.

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Unknown
You started in e-commerce or you've, you've walked the path in e-commerce, built some amazing success there. And also we started a brick and mortar retail operation and recently exited that mid six figure exit. Along with that, some type of royalty. And in this as well, you created a brand for yourself and, you know, love to hear a little more about the success in that brand and, and in so for in, in in this season as well, or as you exit that season, you're getting into TikTok or you've been getting into TikTok, which, you know, looking at us, you know, seasoned individuals, you wouldn't think that you be a TikTok career or in a TikTok

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Unknown
space, right? You know, you would typically associate that with, you know, a youngster. My gosh, I just found an old hahahahahahaha. But man, you've you've been creating a ton of success for yourself. You know, especially in the TikTok space, you you a north of 20,000 a month or in that range and and and and growing that through a variety of ways.

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Unknown
So this is where you stand or this is the achievements. Now I will love to go. And behind the scenes right is share the darkness that went into creating that right. But fill in the gaps if you will. You know, between the highlight scenes and, and in the private reality. Then it came with, you know, displaying those highlight reels if you want.

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Unknown
Absolutely. Yeah. And I love to help fill in any of those gaps. And hopefully whoever's listening to this walks away with me. One, I'm not alone. You know, all the the crazy things that us entrepreneurs go through that we might feel alone with. We're all alone. Crazy things happen. All of us. Adversity happens. So I'll get into a little bit of mine and hopefully, it'll be relatable, to somebody and give somebody some hope.

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Unknown
But also kind of paint the landscape of opportunity that that's always been there. And kind of how to tap into that. So you and I, I know met in a mutual community of Amazon sellers, and it was a great community, a community I'm still a part of. Not because I saw on Amazon, but because, you know, you find people who you know, are building something great and they're, they're good people, and you just want to stay around them and continue to build things with them.

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Unknown
So, I'm still a big part of that community, but, you're right. I started in 2012 selling on Amazon for, you're an OG man, yo. Yeah, yeah, we were selling, like, coat hangers or. So you go to Walmart and to be with hangers. I remember those. It were like that. You could buy these for $2.04 from only five bucks.

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Unknown
This is amazing. And we were written out storage units and all this stuff. And we had, like, all these, coat hangers, like, just stacked full in these storage units. And, and we were doing that for a long time, but then we realized, like, hey, we could also go, like in the clearance aisles of these, like, retail stores and, like, buy the stuff and resell on Amazon and all that stuff.

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Unknown
Yeah, that's probably 2014, 2015. And we ended up growing that part of the business. That's all I did. And I was actually working a full time job at this point also, doing pest control. Wow. I did not know that. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's how I built it. It was from 2012 to 2015. I was doing pest control, stopping off of my my pest control truck at like, clearance sales and stuff.

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Unknown
And, you know, it was this is such a weird life. But eventually we, we got smart. We started hiring people to do this for. So we had friends across the country that would go do all our shopping for us and send it in the Amazon, and they'd get a percentage of the profit once it sold. And at some point in there, I got really into marketing.

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Unknown
I really enjoyed marketing and, helping businesses, you know, get the word out about themselves. And it was in our same Amazon community where someone had kind of created a marketing, strategy, like with Facebook, and it was all about free and authentic stories, like it was. It is it was so ahead of his time when he when he came out with this.

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Unknown
Because now I'm seeing like big companies just now coming around to how important it is. But it was the fact that like our ads are done with the cell phone, nothing else. They're done with the cell phone. You don't need to clean up in the background. You don't need to do anything when you create these ads. It's just very authentic.

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Unknown
It's genuine. People have been oversold to. So I was like, man, that makes so much sense. So I got really into that, so much into that. I started selling that service to businesses in my local area. One of their businesses was a, liquidation store, and they'd sell like liquidated, flooring, vans, tools, furniture, all everything. And I would go in there and we do these videos have like, where do you get all this stuff from?

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Unknown
And they ended up telling me they're like, you should go and pick them up. So we we did. We went got like a pallet of chainsaws. I'm like, I can flip this stuff on Facebook Marketplace. Just. Okay. Yeah. The old reseller kind of got activated. So I came home with this pallet chainsaw, and I put it into the driveway, and I started testing, and like, some of them didn't work.

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Unknown
And the some of them did, I take parts from one and put them on the other, and I put them all on marketplace and end up selling all of them. And then, wow, it did so well that I went back and got more. I got like Milwaukee Tools and I got DeWalt tools, and I started filling the garage with all these pallets of tools.

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Unknown
And I'm like stepping on these pallets, like get the gas can for the like, lawnmower and every wife's nightmare. Oh yeah. But every man's dream now have a great relief. The frickin tools needed to get to the garage fridge. He says. I'm not having this anymore. You know, we, we got this warehouse, and it was like, where it's so terrifying is like, oh, man, we've never been on the hook for any space like this.

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Unknown
But it was like, it was like 1500 bucks a month. Like, it was like nothing for a commercial space. But we started operating out of that. We started getting more liquidated inventory. My bread idea was, you know, sold on Amazon was still on eBay. Let's sell it on our website. But what ended up happening is people found out we were there, and they started showing up locally like they started because we'd have, like, really discounted tools and they'd come see us and they dig through these pallets and they pull something out and be like, how much is this?

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Unknown
I'm like, I don't know, let's test it. And, you know, say whatever price. And they started telling their friends. And then pretty soon I've shown up to this dinky warehouse, like we didn't have any business inviting people into. It was so dirty. But there'd be a line, like, at the dynamic of why? It's like we're not even advertising this.

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Unknown
So at that point, we're doing online and brick and mortar, and we're like, okay, well, we'd better lean into this. The more because the cost of sale was so much cheaper than selling online when you're so I agree, I agree. We opened up a couple retail stores, in Dawsonville, Georgia, and in Fort Mill, South Carolina, just outside of Charlotte simultaneously.

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Unknown
And, we really just leaned into that, I'd quit my full time job somewhere in there in like 2015, 2000. So. Hope so. Yeah. Yeah. My my first daughter was like six months old. Oh, wow. Who at my job probably wouldn't recommend doing that, but it worked to me. And, and went really into the retail store business.

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Unknown
So that's like hopefully catches people up to, to. Yeah, I got there. That's an amazing journey man. And it's often that you go, I say go back. But if we follow the trend, you know you essentially went back to retail, right? You we typically look at the online space and we look beyond online. Right. And for you you saw an amazing need if you will.

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Unknown
I mean interest going back to brick and mortar. You know, we especially in today's times we so so many stores closing you know so it's amazing to hear that's be rekindled, you know, in such a way that you guys rekindle that. When you say Charlotte you definitely have my interest. I or you know, my, my radar on because I spent a good deal my part of my life in Concord, Charlotte area.

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Unknown
Oh, yeah. And a diverse family, you know, that. We also put a store out there. Yeah. Oh. Well, bless your heart, as they would say it. Yeah, but you're right. Everyone craved that, authenticity, that, connection. And that's, you know, so much of what attracted me to those types of ads I was doing is that's how we built the store, is I would do these ads, and it's me.

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Unknown
I'm, you know, saying, you know, how I would normally talk. It's very conversational. And what ended up happening through doing these ads, as people would come in to the store and they felt like they knew me because it was so, and they'd be like, oh, you're that guy for Facebook, and they would treat me like a celebrity.

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Unknown
And then it dawned on me that, like, people are treating social media like TV, like now I am some sort of celebrity. Like they just saw the weatherman, you know, and and I'm like, no, dude, I just press the live button on Facebook. That's all it was. But people are treating it like TV. So yeah, it was a really good way to build that relationship, with these people.

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Unknown
And that's you're right. That's a big reason why we, we did brick and mortar. That's that's really interesting perspective especially, you know, in today's times, I think this is where a lot of companies are missing a mark is hitting that authenticity right. Being real with people, not trying to put all the makeup on and, you know, joking around.

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Unknown
I'm sure there's still makeup being applied in this, right. But just showing up with no masks that are true authentic self and allow people to, you know, to peek into Eric's life, learn, you know, it's almost like they've they developed this relationship with you virtually and they did it in such a way that they they know who you are.

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Unknown
Right? And I think that's paramount for any business, especially if you look back in the last for a while. This is channel 26. So, you know, in the last five and a half, six years, what's happened, you know, you know, there is the you know, the pandemic that occurred, right? And everything shut down and everything went virtual.

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Unknown
And we lost that connection. We lost that human connection with other people. You know, and so you identifying that and leaning all into that and so much so, which we're going to go here in a moment, you know, you're you lovers and TikTok, you know, and with TikTok I think that's why that's gotten so, you know, popular is because you see the person who they are.

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Unknown
Right. There's no well, there is some perfectionist, but for the most part, you're just you're you're you're selling the relationship, the relational aspect of this, you know, now in our in our greenroom discussion, man, you mentioned that this perfect storm created or you created this perfect storm because in the successes that you created. Right. I don't even think I gave context of like the size of the businesses and how big they grew and so forth.

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Unknown
We just talked about the X and, aspect of this, but you talked about this perfect storm that the success brought, like, you know, $1 million in debt, USA debt. I'm talking about debt servicing, which is a, you know, a blend of some good debt and bad debt, you know, so to the average person probably listening right now, they heard the amazing exit.

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Unknown
They heard of the amazing success stories. But, what $1 million in debt service. Hello. So talk to us about this debt service in this perfect storm that, that that created. Yeah, that that kind of spawned, into existence, I don't know, Retail's a cash eating monster like you. I feel very hesitant to get into another retail store situation.

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Unknown
It was really fun. But it takes so much cash. Like it would take a million bucks to open up a new store. And you need to have all the inventory, and you have to buy it first, and then you have to sell it. So it's a lot of upfront costs, which can be a pain and expense. So every time we took on debt, we grew.

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Unknown
We grew to the next level. So we went from that 2000 square foot, warehouse to a 20,000 square foot store in November 2020. And that took a lot of money. And yes, by the way, the worst time in history to open up a retail store. That is the worst time ever, period. Really. Covid didn't happen here in Dawsonville, so we were fine.

00:15:02:18 - 00:15:26:16
Unknown
Home depot is limiting the amount of people they would let in the store. We're like, oh, come on in here. Fine. Like so we grew like crazy. Nice. So that made, that servicing very easy. But every time we took on more debt, we grew to another tier. What happened? My view of what happened and, you know, might get a different answer depending on who you talk to.

00:15:26:18 - 00:15:51:23
Unknown
Is if you're. That's a lot of risk, like any time you grow, you're taking on more risk. And growing can look like only a good thing. But it it's not it's also very, very risky when you're growing, that means more orders. That means more customers. That means more staff. It means more time. It means more inventory. It means a lot of stuff that you are now risking.

00:15:51:23 - 00:16:11:20
Unknown
You're risking all this. It was easy. If, you know, inventory cost us $1,000 once a story, costing us $1 million. Like it's pretty risky. Now. Yeah. So there's a lot of risks you're taking on with with growth. And I think that's important for people to know, because not everybody wants to have, $100 million business. Yeah, people might say that.

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Unknown
But when you look at the amount of risk that it's going to take to get there, you may not want, you know, you might be okay with a $100,000 business. Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You agree. So hopefully that's a little nugget of people are like, I just want to build a business and take over the world.

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Unknown
Like, that's awesome. You may not want to and be okay with not wanting to too, because there's nothing wrong with that. But what happened to us as we started growing, we became riskier and riskier, and eventually that risk caught up, because what happened was the, during the last election, I think in at least an hour, areas, people were afraid to spend money.

00:16:47:10 - 00:17:08:14
Unknown
They didn't know which way to go. We saw as it got closer to the election, sales completely dropped off. The other thing that happened was a lot of our vendors, you know, we got terms, you know, so we'd get like 60, 90 day terms. Our biggest vendor made some changes to their policy where they started calling in all of their, debts, like all.

00:17:08:14 - 00:17:32:04
Unknown
Where was it? Like a couple hundred thousand bucks? That hurt. So you have, you know, that happening and then you have, you know, sales kind of dropping off. It's like, you know, it's kind of a weird spot. But then we had, an eBay account that I started in, like 2012, get suspended. And so that was about $250,000 a month in revenue that it was just completely gone overnight.

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Unknown
We got the account back and they apologized, but they're still like it was gone for several months. It was like, that's scary, man. I don't want to say anything disparaging about them, but it was 0% our fault. So it was very scary how fast that can happen. Yeah. And that hurt. So all those those three things happen at the same time.

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Unknown
And keep in mind we're taking on more debt, trying to grow, and here's the up like that. So what what came from that talking about grit, you know, and things like that, like what came from that is having to come home and tell my wife we're not getting a paycheck anymore. And and that wasn't the first time I've had to do that either.

00:18:13:09 - 00:18:35:21
Unknown
And that's also risk that you take. So that was a scary moment. And it was like imagine like yeah, both sides like not not too far in the past, we had our first million dollars month. Like this is awesome. It's great. We celebrated, you know, million dollars a month. That's crazy. Dude. That's great. And then soon after it was like the exact opposite.

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Unknown
It was like, you know, just such a one's intense experience. That's crazy man, I so for anybody who's listening right now, you know, there are a lot of people when you hear, you know, debt, I mean people. I had a guest earlier, you know, he was talking about. He's, you know, all over $100,000 in debt, you know, and to a lot of people, don't get me wrong, that is a lot of money right?

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Unknown
There is it comes a point where you get desensitized to it and you're like, yeah, that's a yeah, that's a hundred grand of debt. Right. But you know, a lot of people are listening right now. Me $1,000 scares a lot of people. 10,000, 50,000, a quarter million. You're saying $1 million, right? Did you at all in the process of acquiring this level of debt?

00:19:20:21 - 00:19:38:17
Unknown
Was there any phase where you were like, you this, you got you get desensitized to it? Or did each level? Was it scary for you? Did you have that, you know, voice in your mind, like, you know, let's try to talk you out of it. Was there any point where you got desensitized or, you know, walk us through that?

00:19:38:18 - 00:20:00:02
Unknown
Yeah. I think part of that is, having, some partners. So I have two partners. Being one other guy started this whole thing together. He is very. He's okay with risk, like, you just I mean, he's he's brilliant when it comes to, finances and and math and things like that. I'm way more risk averse. And I think over time, we've kind of come closer to the middle with that.

00:20:00:02 - 00:20:18:13
Unknown
So he's, you know, all on board, you know, more debt. Let's grow. You know, whatever. I'm kind of in the background. We trying to minimize risk as best I can. So yeah he was way more okay with it than I was. The reason I did get okay with it is because it's not like that money just vanishes. It's not like you don't, you know, like you get inventory for that money.

00:20:18:13 - 00:20:42:11
Unknown
So very worst case scenario, you liquidate your inventory. Yeah. You need be. So, we had the tools, like sitting there anyway. So it was a good way you were able to kind of justify that. Makes sense. Absolutely. Now, I love that you mentioned partnerships. Because I came from that background where, you know, I've had several actually quite a few businesses with partners.

00:20:42:11 - 00:21:03:13
Unknown
And, and there was a phrase it comes to mind, you know, by a mutual friend, he was the first or one of the phrases that caught my ears when he was talking about partnerships. You know, the quickest ship to sink is a partnership. You know? And unfortunately, I've had some partnerships, actually, quite a few partnerships that didn't end well.

00:21:03:15 - 00:21:29:13
Unknown
Started off amazing, right? As typical, you know, new things. Do you know everybody's got the honeymoon phase, right. But once that honeymoon phase wears off, then, you know, things become real. So talk to us about partnerships because you have a lot of experience. You talking about partners. You know, give us some, you know, some insight into your experiences dealing with partnerships, equal partnerships versus, you know, not equal partnerships.

00:21:29:13 - 00:21:53:08
Unknown
The honeymoon phase. Walk us through some some insights on that. Yeah. So I had a unique, opportunity to partner with existing friends. Like we already kind of knew each other. The partnership lasted 14 years. Now yours is great. So me and, the mutual friend that you were talking about, like, we had conversations and we, you know, disagree on parts of that because I do think everything in me and him at all actually agree on this.

00:21:53:08 - 00:22:13:14
Unknown
Everything comes from a relationship. Agree what me and those other two partners have been able to create is well over what we would have been able to create individually. Like the synergy there is is amazing. There are things that you have to kind of mitigate. It's it's just like a marriage is and that that business is your, your child.

00:22:13:14 - 00:22:40:09
Unknown
And you had a child together. So there were points where I would talk to them or that I talk to my wife. I, you know, we, you know, bringing people up in the retail store had, you know, inventory coming in. It took me away from family and it was like a another marriage, another family. And it has to be because, that level of intimacy you need with, you know, how each other think, you know, kind of where they're at as people.

00:22:40:14 - 00:22:58:22
Unknown
You need to know those things. It's a lot like dating. Like when old me and my wife were, dating, like we talked about. How do we want to raise kids? Like, do you want to, you know, homeschool, public school again? What do you do with this? Like, we had to know all those things, and it's a lot of the same stuff with having a business together.

00:22:58:22 - 00:23:22:04
Unknown
So I think it's very, very similar. Yeah. Great perspective. I love how you you gave the perspective or, you know, compare it to a marriage because it, it essentially is just that it is a marriage through I mean, you know, don't get me wrong, you can certainly get to the forces inside of business. And that could be very like a marriage that can be very, very dangerous.

00:23:22:06 - 00:23:56:01
Unknown
For a variety of reasons, you know? So, yeah, like I said, I, I agree wholeheartedly, and it is just very much like a marriage. And, I'd love to hear your perspective on this, because especially when it comes down to partnerships, where you have to figure out, you know, roles and responsibilities and equity ownership. And so for you, initially, everything, you know, if I get a partner, oh 5050, we'll just do a 5050 is typically the easiest answer, right?

00:23:56:03 - 00:24:24:13
Unknown
5050 or, we'll just wing it right. I would love to hear your insight on this. Right. You know, should a partnership be equal. Right. When I say equal, I'm talking about 5050. Right. And the second part of this is give us some insights of like the first two years of that relationship. Right. Because, I'm of the belief, especially after my experiences.

00:24:24:13 - 00:24:53:10
Unknown
And I'm sure you could probably agree you're there is that that shininess aspect of that relationship. Right. The honeymoon phase is, you know, I kind of like to call it is, you know, everybody, you know, everything's great, everything's new, you know, and because everything new, you know, interest is always there. That the interest there was higher. But once things become boring, once things start to get hard, emotions start to flare.

00:24:53:12 - 00:25:22:04
Unknown
You know, give, give us some insight. Give us, you know, give those that are listening right now to this that's thinking about, you know, getting into a partnership. Is it for them. Right. Is a partnership for everybody because you're talking about, you know, bringing a friends. You're talking about bringing a family. I'm of the belief you gotta be extremely careful that because nothing makes more, you know, Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner more awkward than a bad partnership with family we've had from we've had some awkward ones.

00:25:22:06 - 00:25:43:01
Unknown
Hahahahahahahaha. I can't imagine we really. They were. Yeah, we we've had some awkward ones. But, you know, it's the relationship that comes before any of it like that has to be clear. Like that has to be non-negotiable. And there are two things that I did think of. The first thing is, is, yeah, there is like kind of a pink cloud time period when you first start a business, it's new and it's fun.

00:25:43:01 - 00:26:04:11
Unknown
And I think some of it is it's new and it's fun, but I think more of it is it's exciting because you don't have anything to lose yet. Like there's nothing at stake. Once you start getting things at stake, it's a little bit more difficult. You grip it a little bit tighter. Yeah. Your own. You use your own opinions about what you think needs to happen.

00:26:04:13 - 00:26:24:04
Unknown
Like, I do think that you kind of become more and more right and in your own head, like internally. Yes. Because you're gripping just so much like, I really don't want to lose us now. Like when I was, you know, buying Barbies at Walmart and selling them on Amazon, like, I don't care, I go or whatever, like, yeah, but you have like $1 million moms.

00:26:24:04 - 00:26:51:08
Unknown
You're like, okay, I care. Yeah. Festive succeed. Yeah. So I think everything is is okay and easy until you have something to lose. That doesn't mean don't build something that would suck to lose. Like you should. But the other piece of that that really helped us is me and my business partner. We butted heads because we we think so differently.

00:26:51:10 - 00:27:07:08
Unknown
That's a really good thing, because he pushed me in ways I wasn't going to push myself. And I kind of brought him back down to earth to keep everything from exploding, you know? So we were really, really good counterweights for each other. But because we buried heads, there was no boss. Like, there was no like, were 5050.

00:27:07:08 - 00:27:33:05
Unknown
So one thing I would I don't know if I would do this over. I like to think that I would, but I feel like there almost needs to be a boss. Like having a 5050 partnership is difficult because what if you don't agree? Now, one option is exactly what we did. We brought in a third person, and we got very fortunate that this third person would listen to both sides and just kind of pick the one that made the most sense.

00:27:33:05 - 00:27:53:14
Unknown
Sometimes I got outvoted, sometimes he got outvoted, sometimes the third person got outvoted. We're all okay with that. So, it's either like there needs to be a boss or there needs to be a third person. Once you get to the point where you have something to lose because it could get kind of tricky agreement. Agree. So, you know, somebody is listening right now right there.

00:27:53:14 - 00:28:17:06
Unknown
They're thinking about, oh we have the amazing to have, you know, my best friend who thinks like me and you know, it has everything I have. Right. You think that's a good business partner to have or do you think this person needs to have differing beliefs, differing, skill sets, you know, basically something, a compliment to your strengths and weaknesses, right.

00:28:17:08 - 00:28:40:09
Unknown
Because oftentimes when we think about partners, we want somebody who's always going to agree with us, right? Or somebody who thinks likes us or, you know, somebody who really, I don't know how to say this, but I mean, I guess, you know, oftentimes, you know, conflict, you know, a lot of people become averse, right? So we want our best friends.

00:28:40:15 - 00:29:08:16
Unknown
So maybe we could we always get along with, you know, so in your in your opinion, your experience, do you think having a business partner who thinks like you, behaves, you know, pretty much is another you? Is that is that wise? I wouldn't say so. I think specialization is very real and I think knowing me and I'm a little bit more conservative than my business partner, like I very literally it would have taken me ten years, or it could have taken me ten years to have that million dollars month.

00:29:08:18 - 00:29:30:15
Unknown
Yeah. I, you know, without him kind of, you know, pushing me, but without me, he would have made $1 million tomorrow and lost 1.5 million the next day. Yeah. You know, so it's like, so you need those different personalities, a great journey. But if you're an operator, you need, you know, a visionary help. You know, lay this is the where we're going is the vision.

00:29:30:17 - 00:29:52:06
Unknown
Now carry that out like you need the different skills and the different personalities for sure. I agree. And you know, there are some individuals right now are listening. They have multiple personalities. So if that's you, that's that's what we're talking about. Their primary cover, you're covered. You got them all. You're in good form right. Oh my gosh.

00:29:52:06 - 00:30:14:16
Unknown
But you know I, I agree, man, you know I have the times this is where people go go so wrong and there I've talked to more entrepreneurs that went down the wrong path with a partnership versus the ones that did not take, the right actions, you know, and, you know, especially in my experience, I'm sure you can agree.

00:30:14:18 - 00:30:35:14
Unknown
You know, one of the first things I now recommend is, hey, you know, everybody has high expectations. Everybody has, you know, everything's going to go, you know, go amazingly well. Right? I'm glad you think this way. But go talk to an attorney. Get your operating agreement dialed in, get you know, all of that stuff solidify worst case scenario, what happens when somebody wants to exit?

00:30:35:19 - 00:31:05:06
Unknown
What happens when, to your point, a disagreement occurs, right? All those or, you know, all those things to be fleshed out because what's the role of the attorney to think about the worst case scenarios, right. His job is to think all of those worst case scenarios through. So that's a really good point. I'm really glad that you brought that up, because that is imperative that you do that because not only is that difficult to do, anyway, but you throw it in like any sort of like that never happens.

00:31:05:06 - 00:31:29:23
Unknown
And unless it if the business is like a okay. Yeah. You don't usually you have to pull out those operating agreements if everything's like perfect. So trying to come up with that stuff and agree on the fly when you're likely going through some sort of turmoil in the business. Yeah. Is almost impossible because now you have to fix the business, but you also have to navigate the relationship and what's actually going to happen at the same time.

00:31:29:23 - 00:31:50:06
Unknown
Where do it before it means anything? Yeah. All that stuff in place before you care, you know, before you have something to lose. So yeah, that was a really good point. Yeah. I agree and and you know, the other aspect of this is to make sure you include all roles, responsibilities. Right. Don't leave anything and use the common phrase right.

00:31:50:08 - 00:32:05:08
Unknown
You know, don't assume anything, you know, because guess what? Guess who gets made to be the ass, you know, you know, in the whole assumption phase, I was one of the biggest lessons I learned is, well, if I hear any of that. No. I thought you were right. I thought you're going to make payroll. I hate payroll, bro.

00:32:05:08 - 00:32:23:14
Unknown
They'll ask me to do it in for, you know it. Nobody enjoys do a payroll. Which, if you enjoy that, you know, God bless you. Right? But you know, those those things have to be clearly defined. Oftentimes too many people. Right? Oh, that's too complex. It's going to cost me too much money. I'm sure you could agree, man.

00:32:23:16 - 00:32:46:07
Unknown
Doing it, not doing it. And when things go south it's going to cost you far more, right? Far more money, time, energy. You know, so man, might as well spend a couple thousand. Get it done right. If you don't have a couple thousand, you probably shouldn't in my opinion, should shouldn't do it anyways. Yeah. So that's why one of the first things.

00:32:46:07 - 00:33:13:20
Unknown
So thanks for sharing all that and concern and partnerships because you know, especially in business and so forth, while partnerships could be an amazing vehicle for people, it can also be a very dangerous vehicle if not done correctly. If emotions are, you know, at play, you know. So I appreciate you sharing it, man. Yeah. Yeah. But a big one, it it is man.

00:33:13:22 - 00:33:37:06
Unknown
It is. You know, go back to you, you know, leveraging your retail background right now. You know I would love to pull some some lessons learned from this. You know give me a specific example because you mentioned that retail is is expensive. And you mentioned this, you know, earlier on in I agree. Yeah. Retail is expensive because, you know, of the, you know, costs associated with it.

00:33:37:06 - 00:33:57:04
Unknown
Can you give an example, you know, a specific example of a cost that maybe blindsided you, that you probably didn't think of, or maybe you put enough emphasis on it? Well, I think at some point, yeah, this will this will be helpful. Our even at our best, I still feel like we're three guys that accidentally created a big business.

00:33:57:06 - 00:34:17:18
Unknown
Like we didn't do anything on purpose. Like, if you take, like, what you were in business school, like, none of that existed. Because none of us went to business school. So what resulted in that is we were probably way over staffed at certain points. Like I think at the highest, we had 46 employees and we probably didn't need that.

00:34:17:18 - 00:34:48:14
Unknown
So payroll was an absolute nightmare. What we should have done is create a systems and SOP. If we were able to do that sooner while we were building this stuff, then we probably could have avoided having 46 employees. And now we we enjoyed hiring people and giving people an opportunity. And we're in a very unique business where we were able to hire a lot of people in recovery and be a company that other businesses wouldn't have necessarily given them a shot.

00:34:48:16 - 00:35:09:07
Unknown
So, you know, we wanted to grow a big business mostly because of the mission that we were on. So we kind of got gung ho on hiring people. But you can't do that to the detriment of the business. Yeah, I feel like some SOPs installed earlier would have kind of prevented us from from shooting ourselves in the foot like that.

00:35:09:09 - 00:35:31:01
Unknown
That's a good perspective, man. I appreciate sharing it because systems and SOPs, man, that will make or break your business, right? In this kind of segue into what I was going to ask you next is or prevent you from hitting that burnout stage, or at least as much as it can, you know, hitting that burnout stage. And prevent the ceiling from a current.

00:35:31:01 - 00:35:53:09
Unknown
Right? The ceiling of revenue. Because you can only do so much by yourself, right? The three of you can only do so much for you, you know? So, yeah, I'm glad you mentioned it because too many people are, you know, have the mentality or how the mindset of like, you know, they're going to keep everything themselves because either a they feel like they can't do it as good as them.

00:35:53:10 - 00:36:15:17
Unknown
Or there's the mindset of, well, it's eating into my profit, right? So speak to that person. If you're either one of those or both, you know, I'll let you choose to the person who is the control freak, right? I don't want to let anything go and or to the person who has mentality. Well, it's just going to eat into my profit and you try to do everything myself.

00:36:15:17 - 00:36:35:06
Unknown
Speak to those two individuals, if you may. Why should they change your mind? Yeah. And I think it's so clear, really scary, but so clear when you look at like, how much what percentage of Amazon Bezos owns like single digits. Same was like Zuckerberg. It's like, I don't know. They seem to be in pretty decent financial situations.

00:36:35:09 - 00:36:53:17
Unknown
Yeah I agree I think they're doing okay. But they the levers themselves, I have a very small amount of equity. It depends what sort of business you want to build, because we can also be in a habit of building a business and getting ourselves another full time job. Like you're just better off going to work 40 hours a week.

00:36:53:17 - 00:37:13:02
Unknown
You're going to make the same amount of money. We have your own business. Like you own everything. You might work 80 hours a week for the same 40 hour a week pay. I don't think that's the right way to do it. So the only way out of that is to start hiring people. And and the the thing is, is I get a lot of people get burnt by employees, like, we've been burnt.

00:37:13:02 - 00:37:34:10
Unknown
We was invested all this time and energy in the training somebody and they just left, you know, whatever. That's a risk that you have to take. Because I'm really only looking for someone to do something about 70% as good as me. Like if I can if I can get that, that that's good because I can't build the business I want to build if I'm doing it right.

00:37:34:11 - 00:37:57:12
Unknown
Yes. You know, so it it doesn't have to be an employee, but some sort of contractor. But I do think, hiring is super important. I met people that own hardware stores and they own one store, and they made, you know, 120 grand a year for the last 12 years. And they're tired. They can't do any. They can't sell it because it's only one store has a lot about you didn't grow.

00:37:57:13 - 00:38:17:21
Unknown
They didn't build it. Outside of like that one single store. Whereas if you start bringing people in, like, you can really build something, you can really build a pretty large asset, and you just have to know when to put your foot on the gas, because you might not want a huge business. But I do think you wouldn't have to rely on whether or not you feel well.

00:38:17:21 - 00:38:51:10
Unknown
Yeah, that's a great point. Even. I mean, burn out a safe. Well, I mean, it ties into burnout, right? I mean, think about if you're if you own, you know, a hardware store or any kind of retail store and it's all on you, something happens. What what happens to the business, right? What happens to your family? You know, that revenue stops, you know, the day you stop working, the day revenue stops working, you know, or eventually, I mean, it may take a few days, weeks before your business model, but eventually it will catch up.

00:38:51:12 - 00:39:14:15
Unknown
Right. And to build that momentum right back up. And that's ten times harder to restart momentum versus just keeping it going. All right. So I want to hear more about this pivot you made. I almost said recently because it's not something you've recently done. Like not in the last month or two or even last year. So you've been you know, you've been in this space for a little bit.

00:39:14:20 - 00:39:39:17
Unknown
You know, you're become really respected in this and things you're doing in this space. But, you know, talk to us about this pivot you're making into or that you've made into being a creator in a TikTok and leveraging the TikTok space. Because most people in the situation, you know that you're in, right? You know, you're in that brick and mortar retail business or is in a retail business.

00:39:39:17 - 00:40:01:20
Unknown
You know, a lot of people have a hard time understanding when it's time to pivot. So you you made that pivot. You made a pivot from one business to another. What influence that what influence from you to go from something that was generating money, that was generating, you know, an income for you to do something? I want to say completely different, but a lot of ways it is completely different.

00:40:01:22 - 00:40:19:07
Unknown
Yeah. So there are some similarities there. There is a common thread, one, I was using my phone to create these ads, so I was very comfortable. I was getting very comfortable in front of the camera. So I was I was creating content. In a second, I'll get back to that content piece because this is super important.

00:40:19:07 - 00:40:43:02
Unknown
I feel I feel like for people to grasp. But I was getting decent at creating content. TikTok came out and I was like, I'm I've never been one to post on social media for for engine other than business. I only got on Facebook for work, like that's it. TikTok came out with TikTok shop and that's essentially I mean, it's ridiculous what they're doing.

00:40:43:04 - 00:41:03:21
Unknown
They're they're simultaneously competing with Amazon and Facebook at the same time. And they're winning. So I'm watching this whole thing happen. I'm like, they have the entertainment side. So the Facebook side and they have the marketplace that they're building. So they're competing with Amazon at the same time and they're growing faster. So I'm watching this and like, okay, I want to try this because what's happening is these these creators.

00:41:03:21 - 00:41:24:13
Unknown
This is brilliant how they set this up. If you're starting a brand like gum, if you're starting a gum brand, you're going to launch on Amazon and you're going to pay X amount of dollars for PPC, otherwise you're not going to get found. You know what's good for you? I'm going to dump all this money into advertising, and you have to pay it upfront before you get sales.

00:41:24:15 - 00:41:49:10
Unknown
And whether you get sales or not, or if you're launching on your website, well, now you have to go either leverage somebody else's audience and pay them, or you have to run Google Ads, Facebook ads, whatever. Either way, you're paying upfront to get sales, maybe sales. With TikTok, if you're launching a brand, you launch on TikTok, you get creators to come create videos, content for your brand.

00:41:49:10 - 00:42:10:16
Unknown
They put a link. So if people watch the video and they buy from that link, they get a commission. So these creators are incentivized by if you have a product and you're giving you 30% commission, like people are going to jump all over that, so you're not paying for that sale until you get the sale. So it completely put everything on its head as far as a brand.

00:42:10:16 - 00:42:30:22
Unknown
So that's that's like an aside that's like that's where e-commerce, I think is going. Agree on why influencer marketing. Yeah. So yeah. And and I'll get back to why that's important in a second. But the, what got me into it was I made this dumb little video. I'm like, I'm going to try it. And I made this dumb little video.

00:42:31:01 - 00:42:56:18
Unknown
It was like a seven second video, and it was like a a tool or a battery or something. And I posted it with a link and it just like took off. Like it millions of views, like I made like $7,000, right? That's crazy. Yeah. This is like in like late 2023. I thought it was illegal. I turned the whole thing off, like, there's you made so much money.

00:42:56:18 - 00:43:13:08
Unknown
You got so much volume. It's scary. Turn it off. Yes. Yeah. And I was like, there's no way this is okay. Like no way. So turn it off. And then did more research in like turn. It's like a viable business model. This is how like brands are now launching online is through TikTok. I was like, oh man, this is crazy.

00:43:13:10 - 00:43:39:06
Unknown
So I started creating. I started getting better and better, creating content and ended up doing pretty well. Like as the better I got, I was actually, still with the retail store and, you know, kind of building this, this content, like learning what makes good content, how do you make good videos, all this stuff. And the reason I feel like everybody should at least get okay with content is because it's it's I think it's becoming like the next currency.

00:43:39:06 - 00:44:01:14
Unknown
Like it's a great now how we get our news. It's how we connect with people. It's how we market ourselves. Like everything comes from content somewhere. And I put I brought it back to when I was going, doing the ads for the retail store like that was content and people were treating that content, that social media like they did TV.

00:44:01:16 - 00:44:27:18
Unknown
So it was like you're watching all this stuff happening and you're like of connecting these dots. You're like, it's all about content. Like everything. Like all these platforms are going to pop up whatnot, TikTok, like all these YouTube everything. Whoever can create content is going to have whatever they want. So, I kind of saw that and went all in like, oh, I'm just going to get as good a content as I possibly can.

00:44:27:20 - 00:44:49:14
Unknown
And TikTok was a really good way to get some quick wins to figure this stuff out. Like you get paid to kind of learn and it is getting harder now a little bit, but I'm still like very into creating, and helping companies launch on TikTok because I've seen what happens to these brands. Like I saw a brand launch on TikTok.

00:44:49:16 - 00:45:12:17
Unknown
They went from like 0 to $6 million a month within a year. And a half. That's crazy. Dude. What? I was on TikTok, but they weren't really doing like PPC on Amazon or anything. Like their TikTok was driving traffic to Amazon. So it's like you're seeing this stuff happening. You're like, and now all the big brands are starting to do it, like goalie, micro ingredients, under armor.

00:45:12:17 - 00:45:34:14
Unknown
Now trying to come on and sell on TikTok. So it's like it's becoming a very legitimate marketplace. And I think it's just in the very beginning, man, that's that's fascinating. So talk to to this person right now. It's probably listening to you and you're talking about content creation. Like, okay, that sounds all well and good and all, but they have this limiting belief.

00:45:34:18 - 00:46:00:00
Unknown
I'm not a content creator. I'm sure you probably had the same thought when you first started this, right? Yeah. Imagine yourself as a content creator right? So talk to that person who is probably sounds intrigued, but they're nervous. They're scared, or they've got this voice in their mind is telling them, you're not a content creator. Stop trying to pretend that you are right.

00:46:00:02 - 00:46:24:11
Unknown
Talk to that person. What you know. What were some of the things that you're experiencing in your mind? Were you scared? You know, was there a lot of fear that was going on? Because, dude, you know, doing content creation, putting yourself out there that that's it's one thing to to introduce yourself to one person right now, you're introducing yourself to a platform of millions, hundreds of millions, probably.

00:46:24:13 - 00:46:45:09
Unknown
So talk to that person for what? What would you tell them? Or what do you have to say to that person? Yeah. I said, take it easy on yourself. First of all, like, it it's scary. It is like, you push that post button. No, I'm not in the post button, but the record button, like, yes, I was like, I don't even want to press that button, like, completely by myself.

00:46:45:11 - 00:46:58:22
Unknown
But even like, you have to, you have to walk through the fear and you have to just know it's going to be okay. And it is scary that you're like, okay, everyone's going to see this. And like, one of my neighbors sees that when all these people start running for your head, you're like, oh, I really don't want them to see it.

00:46:58:22 - 00:47:19:12
Unknown
Like, yeah, but you see, it's like you do you want to be successful, you just want to be good at it. And this is how people are communicating. So it's like, like when cell phones came out and like, yeah, I'm, we're both old enough to to remember that, like suddenly it changed how we communicated. And that was uncomfortable.

00:47:19:14 - 00:47:52:16
Unknown
Yeah. This is another way that is changing how we communicate. And it's uncomfortable. The thing is, cell phones aren't going away. Content is not going away. So getting really good at it is very important, especially people our age. Because we're, you know, graying the beard. You get, a little bit more trust with what you say sometimes, some of these, you know, 16 year olds that are making $100,000 a month, you know, I know some of them, like, they're wild, like, yeah, you're right, whatever.

00:47:52:16 - 00:48:17:16
Unknown
But I think getting over that fear is really, really important. And post 100 things before you judge yourself. I just just post 100 videos and it sounds daunting. They don't have to be long videos but just post somewhere 100 times before you judge yourself like it's just it's going to take some time. I like that man. It's all about putting in your reps, right?

00:48:17:16 - 00:48:46:00
Unknown
I mean, you look at every anybody that is wildly successful now, content creation, whether it's Mr. Beast or any of these content creators, you know, you look at Mr. Beast first video, it's sucked. You know, even a first several 100 sucked. But if you look at the progression from the very first video to the 100th video, you know, to your to your point, drastic improvement, right?

00:48:46:02 - 00:49:07:14
Unknown
I agree, it's all about putting it. What's that? You're not embarrassed by your first video like you did it wrong, like you, it was like you're still mine from my 2019. I'm like, oh my, that was so bad that it worked very bad. It was crazy. But you're going to have that. That's what you want. That means you're getting an eye for what content should look like.

00:49:07:16 - 00:49:31:06
Unknown
Yeah, I agree, man. You got to enjoy that journey, right? You got to learn. Because I'm of the belief. I'm sure you can agree that, man, that you can't. You really don't have time to enjoy the journey. It sounds sick, but bear with me for a moment. But you just can't have an overnight success, right? You've got to enjoy the process.

00:49:31:06 - 00:49:57:13
Unknown
Love the process, because there is a growth state to that, right? You overcome certain beliefs, you overcome certain mindsets, you overcome certain types of adversities, you know, and then once you've reached that level of success that you you have this degree of self-confidence, right? The self-confidence in that you can achieve things as long as you as the adage goes right, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.

00:49:57:15 - 00:50:36:07
Unknown
That is 100 flippin percent true. You know that. So, you know, being able to overcome that and do those things, it just gives you a higher degree of confidence in yourself. And I guess what, you know, then you can guide and mentor and do that for so many other, which is what you're doing, right? If I understand correctly, you're, you know, sharing your knowledge and experience and you're helping content creators and, and, and helping them develop their own businesses or helping brands, you know, build their presence on TikTok, which I might be reaching out to you, you know, but give us some perspective here, because you go from a retail business right where it's it's

00:50:36:07 - 00:50:54:21
Unknown
capital heavy. You know, you just give us an example or, you know, $1 million months for your cash, carry $1 million in inventory. Right? You know, so, you know, on the other side of the spectrum, you know, what kind of margins can be expected to be made? I mean, you're I'm thinking you probably just, you know, is just yourself.

00:50:54:21 - 00:51:15:19
Unknown
Right? But me paints a picture. What kind of margins can be made, what kind of money can be made, what's realistically can be done. Yeah. And before I get there, I'll just piggyback on what you just said. One of the biggest problems we have is as people and with business starting businesses and creating content, all that is, we feel like we're not supposed to be scared.

00:51:15:21 - 00:51:35:22
Unknown
Like so. Or have problems like us as humans. Like we're actually supposed to have both of those, like, that's okay. So when we're talking about, like, the fear piece of it, like fear and excitement are the same feeling. They're just opposite ends of the spectrum. So if you can take your fear and find some excitement in it, because this has to be fun.

00:51:36:00 - 00:51:57:12
Unknown
Like, everything we do has to be fun. Agree? We're we're not going to do it or we're going to do it for a really long time and just be miserable. That's not normal. Like we have to be able to find the fun and excitement and everything, even if it's scary. So that would be my challenge to to everybody is if there's something that's scary and it is holding you back, just try to find the excitement.

00:51:57:12 - 00:52:15:13
Unknown
And what's the payoff if you do it. Because I had to really get through that. So yeah. Yeah. Anything with that or you want me to get into the margins. Yeah. No I, I love that perspective. You know a lot of people get wrapped up into what if on a negative side but you know challenge your other beliefs challenge the other side of that.

00:52:15:15 - 00:52:36:12
Unknown
What if this does work, right? When this does work, you know, it's all about change. Perspective I agree man. Yeah, let's get it. Because you know I guess so wrapping this up me so you know, see this person Dorian. You know, no one I could talk forever. I love this stuff. The margins are, exactly what I want them to be.

00:52:36:12 - 00:52:58:19
Unknown
So it's me and a cell phone. Like internet. Cell phone like company. Send me products like. So I don't even buy the products most of the time. The currency that I invest is time and energy. It's not necessarily a monetary thing. So it's something that somebody can get started with like very, very quickly. And those are the types of businesses that I want to start.

00:52:58:19 - 00:53:18:10
Unknown
Like I want to I don't want to do retail, like inventory heavy businesses. Like I don't think they're bad. I'm just coming out of one for, you know, a really long time for 14 years, and I want to do it. So I really like teaching people how to do this. There's a lot of margin in that. And I get to leverage the skill that I've spent.

00:53:18:10 - 00:53:41:01
Unknown
I don't know how many thousands of hours developing, and in the agency, like, there's, there's going to be some, some cost in that, like helping Amazon brands launch on TikTok and kind of managing that whole thing for them because it's such a different animal. There's going to be some cost in that with softwares and employees and things like that, but nothing like having a physical products business.

00:53:41:01 - 00:54:04:14
Unknown
So if you're creating, which I highly recommend everybody learn how to do, just create some sort of content and sell other people's stuff. You don't have to sell your stuff. You don't have to get a fulfillment center in a warehouse and employees to ship this stuff out, like you could or you could just create videos and sell other people's stuff, and then that's the last you ever have to think of it.

00:54:04:16 - 00:54:23:15
Unknown
You don't have to manage anything. I love the affiliate stuff. That could be an amazing because I know and I know there's a pie. A lot of people is listening to this. It's like, man, they need a side income, right? They need some type of income, but they don't have the money to buy them and tour. They don't have the money to do, you know, all these different things.

00:54:23:15 - 00:54:50:14
Unknown
Right? And you coming from a very capital intensive business to now, this man, I think there is a large party. It's like relieved, right? You're able to sleep better knowing that you don't have $1 million in debt service. And knowing that any time point in time that something could go sideways. You know, you gave an example about eBay shut down for several months for, you know, $4 million a month.

00:54:50:14 - 00:55:13:17
Unknown
That's that's not chump change. You know, that's that's livelihood money that gets destroyed, you know, so to the to the individuals listening right now, that's probably really piqued about what you're talking about. You know, what do they do. Right? I mean, give them like a quick rundown. You know, pretend I'm that person. What do I do? How do I take action?

00:55:13:17 - 00:55:33:04
Unknown
What do I do? Finding leverage. So where do you have existing relationships that you can leverage those relationships into something else to sell something digitally? Or get really good at content. And now you can, you can sell anything you want. You can build your own audience, you can sell other people stuff. If it were me, I get good at creating content.

00:55:33:06 - 00:55:51:07
Unknown
I would get it to, you know, and I think you need to have like 1500 followers. I would post every day until I get those 1500 followers. Now, suddenly you're eligible to be a TikTok shop affiliate, which is exactly what I'm talking about. And I would just start doing that because that way you're getting paid to learn how to create good content.

00:55:51:09 - 00:56:14:13
Unknown
So that would be my biggest thing. And I would take those videos, like what I do now and I cross post them to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube everywhere. So now you're building the audiences on those channels, but you only get the work once. So, ultimate leverage, like find multiple uses for doing one thing. And I think if people are looking at things through those lenses, they're going to be great.

00:56:14:16 - 00:56:39:10
Unknown
Makes sense. Thanks for sharing it, man. And I hope everybody is listening right now if if this is of remote interest to take action on this, because, you know, a lot of people are looking at TikTok like Amazon, right? I mean, it's like, oh, it's saturated. I can't make any money on this. What do you say that person is probably thinking, I like it's they're thinking they have the mindset is probably saturated or there's no market share for them because they think like Amazon.

00:56:39:10 - 00:56:54:20
Unknown
I feel like there's so many people on it. There's not enough room for them. Yeah, I think it's it's never a bad time to get into it because what happens is you see all these people get into like, oh, and anyway, $40,000 in a month, like and everybody gets into it. Yeah. And then not many people make $40,000 in a month and they get discouraged and they leave.

00:56:54:20 - 00:57:12:12
Unknown
So it's always like there's always people coming in like the people leaving. So it's like either way you're you're you're perfecting your craft. Yeah. And I think early on. So it's like I'm able to take the ups and the downs, I get what I'm doing now is not like what I was doing in like 2024. That was like insane.

00:57:12:14 - 00:57:38:10
Unknown
But it is something that I'm getting paid to perfect my craft. That's awesome. Never a bad time to get into it. Yeah, sounds good man. Thanks for sharing it. Cool, man. Well, let's let's start to putting this up, man, because you shared a lot of amazing knowledge and experience. You're allowed us to look underneath the hood and you can really get a glimpse of what it took to bring the the treatments that you had.

00:57:38:10 - 00:58:00:06
Unknown
You know, that, you know, the trenches of the of the, you know, million dollar debt service a period of time or you're looking at your wife now like, hey, babe, sorry, but you know, we're not getting pay for a bit, you know, because oftentimes entrepreneurship can it it's put on a pedestal. Right. And, and if one it's not for everybody.

00:58:00:08 - 00:58:25:02
Unknown
But we too many people don't look at the true value of what it takes to be notch or to be a business builder, to be a business owner, because it's and it comes with a heavy, heavy price. And, it could surely lead you down if you allow it. You agree? Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, the definition of grit.

00:58:25:03 - 00:58:40:17
Unknown
You know, I was thinking about that because my, my TikTok handles gear and grit. Grit is always really important for me because, my definition of it would be when you hit a roadblock, just keep going because that's where somebody else has stopped. And if you just keep going, eventually you're just going to be the only one left.

00:58:40:19 - 00:59:03:07
Unknown
Agree. So if you're able to go through these roadblocks, eventually you're just going to be the only one. Everybody's just fading away. Yeah. Thanks for sharing it, man. I, I love that definition that you just gave you. And I pretty much segways into one of the questions I was going to ask you. As we start to wrap this up, I got to kind of go into some rapid fire questions for you.

00:59:03:09 - 00:59:32:20
Unknown
And really, in reflection of your past season, our current season, because we always talk about adding habits, processes, strategies, plans, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? I'm of the belief that it also requires subtraction. Growth requires subtraction. Right. So what is probably or you know, likely one habit or belief or friction point that you're actively trying to quit or unlearn to level up.

00:59:32:20 - 00:59:51:22
Unknown
Yeah, I think the saying yes is what I'm trying to quit. And a lot of that is, since I left, the retail store business, I've had a lot of opportunity. I can I don't know that it's, you know, the universe, you know, kind of picking up on that or whatever or people hearing about it.

00:59:51:22 - 01:00:06:17
Unknown
But I've had a lot of people call them like, hey, let's do this together. Let's do this. Let's do this. And I've had to say no to a lot of them. Good for me was the same thing. It was a lot of people saying, hey, I've got this brand, will you help them on TikTok? I was like, no, no, no, no, no.

01:00:06:19 - 01:00:25:22
Unknown
Until somebody told me that I'm like, you know what? That's like the 15 times someone asked me, I need to start saying yes. Yeah. So praying for clarity on what to say yes to, because when you start getting success, you get all these opportunities. If you say yes to all of them, you're going to be kind of okay at a bunch of stuff.

01:00:26:00 - 01:00:50:07
Unknown
You're not going to make anything super, impactful. So saying yes is is the habit I've had to, to kind of break. I love that man. Thanks for sharing it. Because, I think saying not when not knowing when to say yes and or no often impacts people's ability to grow and to really, you know, just enjoy their lives and so forth.

01:00:50:07 - 01:01:12:20
Unknown
I'm reminded of a book called Boundaries by Doctor Henry Cloud, as you're talking about that. That's a book I'm currently reading. So awesome, man. When the lights go out and you're in the trenches, you're in the thick of it and lights are out. Essentially. What is one quote or directive that you find yourself repeating, you know to yourself to keep you moving forward?

01:01:12:23 - 01:01:34:03
Unknown
Small improvements back to back to back like it was only, you know, it was this little tiny things that add up to success. It's not this one big thing. It's like you get, you show up every day, you do the right thing as best as you can, and success comes from that, not from, sitting and think about what you need to do or, in action because you don't think that, you know, it's going to do anything.

01:01:34:03 - 01:01:54:05
Unknown
But I know doing something. So it was something along those lines. I used to have a written down, but I don't know where that was. Well, I mean, it builds on principle of 1% improvements daily, right? You know, that's a concept that was provided by, James Clear, you know, in his book Atomic Habits. So, yeah, tiny improvements every day.

01:01:54:11 - 01:02:18:04
Unknown
Yeah. Makes sense man. 100%. I'm the belief and I'm sure you can agree, man, that high achievers are the expert critics of themselves. And oftentimes this area right here is often times the hardest one for them. So love this to take 60s or you know, or less of grace. Like what is one mistake or failure that you've had to finally forgive yourself in order to level up?

01:02:18:05 - 01:02:42:20
Unknown
It was the same. Yes. So when you you develop a skill, and you see how important that skill is, you want to help everybody. If you're of that mind where you just want to be helpful. I've always kind of wanted to help, any, any way I can, to my own detriment, usually because it's like, you know, if you help everybody, like, your kids can't eat that, like, they you need money.

01:02:42:22 - 01:03:05:19
Unknown
And it's you need to eat like it doesn't, ends up hurting you. So my downfall has always been. I have the skill, and I want to help everybody. Because I'm excited to do it. And then you say yes, and then suddenly you're spread too thin. And one, you're you're completely depleted. And, you're just kind of useless.

01:03:05:23 - 01:03:28:08
Unknown
Yeah. You know, that's always been my my downfall that I think as a recently, in the past couple of years, I've gotten much better with awesome and love to hear. And I think a lot of people suffer from that because I feel guilty. My say no right and myself. And clearly that's something I've had to work on a lot lately too, is, you know, learning to say no and saying yes to the right opportunities.

01:03:28:08 - 01:03:51:18
Unknown
Not good opportunities, but the right opportunities. You know, you mentioned Jim Cochran is something you hear him talk a lot about is finding to say yes to the right opportunities, because to your point earlier, man, there are no shortage of opportunities in this world. None whatsoever. Now with especially with AI coming into the mix. Right? Yeah, yeah, it's finding the ones where you have the most leverage.

01:03:51:18 - 01:04:17:01
Unknown
Yeah. Like I have a relationship that can, you know, magnify this opportunity. Or do I have to completely learn everything about this opportunity to one day make money in it? Like, very clear distinction. So you have to look at your opportunities like that. Yeah. Maria. Oh, this last question, I do comes in two parts. This is part of, of a, chain forward, type of question.

01:04:17:03 - 01:04:39:18
Unknown
So my last guests or every guest has an opportunity to ask my future guests one specific question. They will loved for them to answer. Now it is anonymous, right. You sound like, you know, my guest lineup versus, you know, like my previous guest, they had no idea who my next guest is. Right? It's so far, ironically, the question has been perfect for every single guest.

01:04:39:18 - 01:05:06:04
Unknown
So, so as you're thinking of this question to ask my next guests, my previous guests had this question for you. He built his life, of scars and emotional scars from a very reckless childhood, to an amazing young man that he is today. Using to what this means. I was talking about 1% for. It's basically on that philosophy.

01:05:06:04 - 01:05:27:18
Unknown
Right. So his question to you is this if you if Marty McFly, I love how you use this movie. If you don't know that movie, shame on you. But if Marty McFly showed up in a Delorean today and allows you to go back in time, what is one thing you would change in Y about my own life?

01:05:27:20 - 01:05:52:02
Unknown
Yep. You're going to hate my answer because there's nothing. No, actually, I, I would have to answer the same way. I would agree. If I change one thing, that my life would not be as cool as it is today, I. Yes, I think that was probably a perfect answer, man, because shortly after I left my mouth, I'm I'm taking inventory of that question.

01:05:52:02 - 01:06:12:10
Unknown
Right. And I'm like, there's not a flip a thing that I would change, right? Have there been painful seasons of my life? 100%. But like you said, I would not have the life that I have today if it were not for those tough seasons, for those tough, even the dumb ones. Right? You know, the dumb mistakes I made.

01:06:12:10 - 01:06:34:15
Unknown
Well, that's, you know, formed the person I am today. Like, you know, the the amazing, you know, man, the sense before me today, you know, gray hair it off, right? Yeah. Yeah. I flipped my car when I was 19, and I, I had a colorful past, and that was the worst night of my life. I am so grateful for that, because that allowed me to completely change how I was living.

01:06:34:16 - 01:06:51:13
Unknown
And if that never happened, I wouldn't have met my wife. I wouldn't have the three kids right over there that I would have. Like, everything would be completely different and my life is awesome, like I love. I don't say that like get an ego that way or anything. I just really love my life. That wouldn't have happened without that car accident, man.

01:06:51:16 - 01:07:20:09
Unknown
I sense a common theme here. It all stems back like for AV, mile for gas. So far, myself included. There has been some type of transition at 19 years old. Every. Yeah every single crazy it is man. It's like what's going on at night because, you know, yeah, I was the same way. If it wasn't for me raising my right hand at 19 years old, joining the military for I'd be dead or in prison.

01:07:20:10 - 01:07:45:02
Unknown
Right. So, yeah, awesome I do. Well, Eric, man, I really appreciate you joining me sharing the last hour with us, man. Dropping some amazing nuggets and wisdom. And thank you for not just sharing and giving the the the the the highlight reel of your story on the exit and the amazing glory days because it's easy to come on here and and talk about revenue and all the amazing things.

01:07:45:02 - 01:08:06:01
Unknown
Right. And given a give us a glimpse and a peek into your TikTok success and whatnot. But I also appreciate you just sharing truth, you know, cash flow issues, the debt, the nightmares. You have to look at your wife and you know, in the eye and telling her the things you had to tell her because of, you know, the perfect storm that occurred.

01:08:06:02 - 01:08:25:01
Unknown
It takes a lot of courage. And to come on here to share that those stories and those nuggets of wisdom. So I, I honor you for doing that. Me, I appreciate you for for sharing it. Loved it. Loved it. And I got to. Before we go, come up with my question real quick, I would want to know. I love asking successful people this.

01:08:25:01 - 01:08:48:05
Unknown
What makes the biggest difference between someone who's successful and someone who's not? And I always like to hear their answer in their own industry. That's awesome. I love that question. That's awesome. And the guest that's coming up, it's a perfect fit and I can't I can't tell you. It is so great, great and awesome. Sorry, but, no, that's a perfect question, man.

01:08:48:07 - 01:09:17:12
Unknown
Well, cool man. So for the person that's listening you right now, you've been dropping a lot of, of amazing nuggets of information. So the for the person who is listening that can resonate, with that pressure, maybe they're drowning in their own brick and mortar disaster that feels too heavy, or they're starting their own pivot. Or maybe they're, you know, they're wanting to explore more about what you do a TikTok and just need some support, encouragement, or they want to work with you, man, where can I find you?

01:09:17:14 - 01:09:39:08
Unknown
Yeah, the best place is probably Facebook. Eric Bussey on, on Facebook. And because I just exited my, my retail store business, I don't have a, an actual email for the new business yet. So, the personal email and I have, Facebook awesome on my two primary ways of getting a hold of me. Awesome.

01:09:39:10 - 01:09:57:08
Unknown
Well, we'll drop the Facebook, you know, inside the show notes, because, you know, if you drop your email in there, Mike Gurspan with a bunch of, you know, amazing offers, right? From but awesome, man. Well, I'll be dropping that all of that stuff in the show notes so they can, you know, get hold of you easily. Yeah.

01:09:57:08 - 01:10:09:15
Unknown
So again, man, I appreciate you so much for coming on here. Stepping into the arena today and, and and just, dropping some bombs on us, man. So honored to have you. Thanks for having me, man. There's a lot of fun, I agree.