KC Tool Business Interview – Finding your niche and being number one.

Greetings folks and welcome to small business show@businessshow.co episode number 34. Here as always in Durham, New Hampshire. I'm Dave Hamilton.

And I'm Shannon Jean coming to you from Lafayette, California. How goes it, Dave?

It goes. Shannon. How's it going with you? Good.

Doing very well. Doing very well. And I'm happy to welcome Kyle Bacchus.

Hey guys.

How goes it, Kyle?

It's going great. I really appreciate you having me on.

Yeah, thanks for coming on. Shannon, you want to tell us a little bit about what. What Kyle has. What Kyle has done and what he's going to tell us about today?

Yeah, Kyle and I have a lot of history and you know, done some business together over the years and, and been friends and so I thought I'd have him on. He's got a new company, relatively new that we thought we'd talk about. It's KC Tool. So Kyle, tell us, tell us what you guys do. Obviously you know that with. In the name you're something involves something in. With. With tools but give us a little.

More background on what you there semi descriptive. Hey, I. I will do that real quick though before we get started is okay. I wanted to tell you guys that I really love what you guys are doing. I love the show. I've listened to all of the episodes and especially like the fact that it's focused specifically towards small business because looking for resources and things about small business and getting advice, it's easy to get information that's broad. But you know, I'm a big fan of small business. I don't ever plan on doing anything else. And so to have a show dedicated to that is really fantastic. That's cool.

Anytime you want to come on and tell us how good we're doing, just let me know.

You can continue to say that. Send us audio comments to feedbackusinessshow. Com. We'll just play them all the time and actually everybody listening is welcome to do that, please.

Yeah, sounds good. That's awesome.

Well, we appreciate the. Appreciate the feedback.

Yeah, sure. The other thing that just before we get started is that I wanted to acknowledge how fantastic it is to have the opportunity to live somewhere where we can just start these businesses and kind of have the freedom to. To work for ourselves. It's just a fantastic thing to be able to do.

Yeah. Time and a place.

Yeah, we.

I.

Not to segue too far but I hosted a group from China last week and you know, as we were traveling around and meeting over and over, you know, I just kept hearing that wow. You know, how do we get. You know, you guys are so lucky to be able to do these things and all this stuff and, you know, have the freedom to do it.

So you're.

You're absolutely right.

Yeah, we're really lucky. Fortunate. So KC Tool is America's number one German tool distributor. And basically, we sell all the. All the different kind of normal hand tools. Screwdrivers, wrenches, ratchets. We also sell some specialty tools. We have a really wide selection of insulated tools which have a handle that will protect you against shock if you're having to work in a live circuit. And we have stainless steel tools, which aren't very common. And we also have a really great selection of specialty bits that basically, if you see a fastener that looks like they're trying to keep you out of something or stop you from removing something, we will typically have that tool in stock to handle any kind of odd fastener that you might find very cool.

Why German tools? What drew you to, you know, that niche?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, one of the. One of my rules for business is to be in a niche, because I want the opportunity to be the absolute best in whatever given niche that I'm going to do business in. And so. Well, one reason I chose tools is because I love tools. I'm kind of a car guy. I've been. I used to do a lot of work on computers, and tools have been kind of a big part of my life. I see them as a. As a great solution. And so I wanted to sell tools and I wanted to narrow my focus because I thought, man, is it really feasible for me to be the absolute best at selling tools? I didn't. I didn't think I was ready for that challenge. So I wanted to narrow the space down to an area where I could be number one. And I had used German tools in the past. In fact, when I was a computer technician, we used to turn so many screws that we would wear these little screwdrivers out. And I know you're familiar with this as well, Shannon. Yeah, that is.

Yeah, it was.

It was absurd. I mean, you would. You would buy a screwdriver, and in a couple of weeks, it was so worn down that it would start to ruin the fasteners or you run the risk of stripping out a screw. And so we found these tools. The brand is called wiha. They're made in Germany. Well, not all of their tools are made in Germany, but the screwdrivers that we use were made in Germany. And it was amazing. The difference I mean, we went from being able to use a screwdriver for two weeks to being able to use it for two years, and the experience was so much better. So when I decided I wanted to start another business, I was just looking at things that, you know, what can I do? What. What business could I start? And looking at the things that I liked. And I knew I wanted to probably sell a product and I wanted it to be something that I really believed in. And so, yeah, those particular screwdrivers came to mind because of the way, the huge difference that I saw in qual. And so I started to just research that a little bit, and it turned out that that market was a really good fit for me because German tools aren't. They're not widely available. And I knew I wanted my business to be e commerce. And so since you can't just run down to a big box store and buy the brands that we sell, most of the transactions take place online. So that was a good fit. And the fact that they're really high quality means that we don't have to deal with unhappy customers or a bunch of returns or warranty claims. And so it just seemed like this would be a really good fit for me, and it's kind of how we got started.

Yeah, I think that that's impressive.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I like the thoughtfulness that you put into this. Right. You. You didn't just say, I love this stuff, I want to sell it. And there's nothing wrong with that either. By right, you know, I'm. I'm so passionate about it. I can't possibly not do this as my business. That's okay too. But. Yeah, but Right, but, you know, sitting and thinking, all right, I want a niche so that I have less competitors. I want high quality products so that I have not only the best, but low customer service. You know, I mean, that thoughtfulness, it makes, it makes your job easier.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Success, more likely. I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You mentioned one other thing there, and that's the competition. That was the other factor. 1 When I was trying to decide what kind of business to start, you know, one of the factors is you always got to go and look at the competition. You don't want to jump into an industry that somebody else is already dominating and then have to compete with them. And so that was one of the other big factors, was it seemed like the people in that niche were maybe just not quite as technologically advanced. Their websites seemed a little bit dated. They didn't seem like, you know, they're tool guys. They weren't E commerce guys or website guys. So I felt like, oh, I really have an advantage here. I can make something out of this. And there's a little bit more to the story, Dave, because you brought up the fact, the way that I was thinking about the business and in the past, the businesses that I've started have all come about like you talked about. Oh, it's a hobby. It's something I'm really into. Let me see if I can turn this into a business or I'm already in an industry, working in a job, and I'm just going to go out on my own and start a business doing the same thing that I've. I've basically been doing. But this starting this business was totally different for me. It was really just an experiment because I, after reading the book Rich Dad, Poor dad, there's a part in that book, that book by Robert Kiyosaki, where he talks about his rich dad. He remembers when he was a kid, he would see his rich dad in the morning, get up and he would have all these people come over that were running his businesses and they would have a morning meeting and he would talk to all the people that were running these multiple businesses that he owned and have meetings with them and then send them out to run the business. And when I read that, I thought, oh, yeah, this is me. You know, that sounds like a great goal. So I, I had this grand vision that I was going to do that and I was going to have five businesses. And so the other businesses that I'd start, when I started them, I had an advantage already and I was already involved. And I thought, man, if I'm going to have five businesses, I'm going to need to be able to just start a business from scratch. And so that was sort of the, the purpose of starting KC Tool was am I qualified? Am I capable of actually just picking a product that I like, that I don't have any experience selling and building a business around it? Yeah.

And let me tell you, the last, you know, seven or eight minutes have had so many important lessons in it. Your, all your comments about, you know, the niche and competition and how do I find something that I can be number one at? And then, you know, the experimenting to see, you know, how you can get something up and running. Those are just, you know, awesome lessons that all of us.

Uh oh, uh oh. Did we lose you, Shannon?

Oh, he was saying so many good things.

He had, he had so many good things. Are you back, Shannon?

I did.

Am I back? Am I back?

You're back.

Yep, back, man.

Okay, great. Excellent. Okay, so I, I don't know where I cut off there, but, you know, we'll, we'll keep moving along.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Basically just commenting on the comments you're making about the, you know, the niche and how do I find something that I can number one at without, you know, competing against, you know, somebody that's been doing it for 50 years. And those are all such valuable lessons, you know, that, that you share. I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about the transition from employee to employer, which I think is such an important thing. And there's so many people at that kind of precipice of do I. You know, we talked to Doug Sman a few weeks ago about that. You know, making that transition from getting a paycheck to going out and doing things on your own. How was, what, what did you find the most challenging when you went out on your own?

I think we've got Shannon's question, Kyle, so you can, you can take that.

Great. To me, the biggest challenge was waiting. I'm not a super patient person and I'm also really conservative by nature. And so I knew from the earliest possible age that I was going to have my own business. But I had to wait until I got to the point where I thought my probability for success was really high. And so I didn't do nothing. I spent a lot of time attempting to start businesses or developing ideas. I started my first business when I was 17 that, you know, I did a little bit of and just, you know, I tried multi level marketing and flipping cars and I basically did everything I could to, to try to gain knowledge. And looking back, the businesses that I started that, you know, never really came to fruition or ones, you know, that I started that had a little bit of success but stayed as a part time business taught me an awful lot about business in general. And then in my jobs, I paid a lot of attention to what was going on around me and how the people that I worked for ran their businesses and, and tried to emulate all of the good things that they did and kind of hone my craft in managing people and just waiting until the right moment where I thought, okay, I'm ready, I have all the skills I need and I feel confident enough that I can actually just quit my job and then go out and start a business and, you know, depend on myself to make a living. Got it. So I guess the challenging part was waiting for me.

Yeah. Okay. So do you feel like you waited too long in retrospect or, or, or was it. Did you wait exactly the right amount of time?

Yeah, I'm not sure if I, if there's any way to know that. I.

Of course that's true.

Shoot, man, I wish. Oh my gosh, I wish I wouldn't have waited, you know, I wish I could have done it sooner, but I feel great in the fact that I was successful, you know, So I guess I would rather have waited a little bit longer and learned more about running businesses and be successful. I think tried early.

Yeah.

And I think things happen for a reason. You know, that the experiences that you gained, you know, along the way and then the timing, all that stuff, you know, kind of comes about. So you, you might, you may not have been able to roll out sooner. It may just, you know, hey, when even though you don't, you're not maybe aware of it, the timing, you know, just happens.

Right, right.

Yeah. Interesting, interesting. So you, you've created this business, you know that you're in the right niche, you know that you've got high quality products. But of course, no business is going to be successful without customers. At least I haven't found one yet. So.

Yeah.

So how do you find customers? How do you market your business?

Well, I think I have a little bit of a different take on that as well. I mean, of course we do the basics. We do Google AdWords, we spend some time on SEO a little bit, we use social media, we've got a blog, we do a little bit of YouTube. We put some flyers in the box, we sell some stuff on ebay and Amazon. We do kind of the basics. But I think what's a little bit different about my approach to business is that I focus almost all of my energy on our current customers. One of my other really big rules for business is keeping your current customers. I think that your current customers are significantly more valuable than obtaining a new customer. Excuse me. Yeah, so we, we basically focus on that. And I. It's. Maybe it's not really considered marketing. I sort of, I feel like it is because, you know, we, our whole goal is to make sure that once a customer buys from us that they think through the experience, the shopping experience that we give them and the product that we provide. We want them to think, wow, you know, why would I ever shop anywhere else and hopefully be so blown away that they're going to go and tell somebody else. They know that this is Casey Tools, the place you should go if you need any high Quality tools. Well, that one of the things. Sorry, go ahead.

No, keep going. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, one of the things that we do that's kind of interesting that I know Shannon does, I heard on a previous show was when Shannon talks about including the ninjas in each box, we do something similar. And uh, it's a really great way to make sure that your customers remember you. I'm always just trying to think of something different. What can we do that's different? How can we be different than, than the other company? So we include a number two Phillips bit, which was, is probably arguably the, the most common screwdriver bit, Phillips being the most common, and the size number two being the most common as well. So we bought 25,000 high quality German Phillips bits and we had them engraved with our company logo and name. And then we put a little card in there that explains how grateful we are to have that customer's business because we truly are grateful for every customer. And then I got to give my right hand man, Derek Tran some props here for coming up with the slogan. So on the front of the card it says a small bit of thanks and then on.

I love it.

Yeah, it's great. And then on the back of the card it just has our little thank you message. So with every website order we put one of those bits in there just to, you know, it's one of those things where you just don't know. You can't tell if buying 25,000 bits and giving them away for free is going to be at the end of it all. Is it going to affect our bottom line positively? But one of the ways I like to make my decisions these days when I'm not sure, you know, because as a business owner it's just a whole series of decisions, right? I mean, all you're doing all day is making a decision. And of course, as far as decision making goes, having the most information is the, you know, the way to make a good decision. But sometimes you come to those decisions where you just are like, I don't know, is buying these bits going to pay off or not? And there's really no way to tell. And so lately I'm always leaning towards if I can't, if there's no definitive answer to whether it's going to be good or bad, I'm going to lean towards the way that just makes us a better business. And so we'd have no idea if it's going to pay off or not. But I think it's really cool to do and I think it makes us better and different. And so we try to do as much stuff like that as possible.

You know, I was meeting with the folks from Sonos last week for my. My. My other job here, what I do with MacGeek, Gab, and Mac observer, and I was sitting with Tom Cullen, one of the founders of the company, and. And he says they constantly have people telling them, you know, you don't have to do this. People don't care about that. Or, you know, the lion's share of people don't care about that. And his answer to all of that stuff is, we do it because it makes us happy. You know, some of these things, not everything, and some of this stuff, like you said, they're making decisions because it's. It. You know, they look at the. Whatever data they have and they say, yep, this is what we want to do. And this makes the speaker sound better or whatever. But some of this stuff they do just because it makes them happy, and it sounds like you're, you know, putting the bits in that would make me happy every time as a. As a business owner, let alone as a customer, to receive it. Right. So, yeah, not a bad call, man. Yep.

Yeah, I think it's good. And as well, it's also a lot of that things you're talking about, you know, customer loyalty and marketing to existing customers and coming up with these ideas. You're also kind of marketing to your employees, and you want them to kind of jump in your concept and your culture. So those are also very good things. Our guys love the fact that we put those ninjas out and everybody has them stacked all over their desk and their computers and all that stuff. And I'm sure it's the same with your guy. Everybody gets kicked out of the tagline and throwing that stuff in there. And that's important because as a business owner, everybody needs to be on board. You're trying to pitch to your customers.

Yeah, yeah. That's a huge point, too. I mean, you definitely cannot underestimate the power of employee morale. Yeah.

Yeah.

Not good.

It's really, really not good.

Yeah.

So you want them on board like that?

Yeah, sure.

Yep.

So one of. One of the questions we love to ask people when. When we have folks on the show here, Kyle, is what is the best mistake you've ever made? Like, what mistake taught you the most?

Yeah, I struggle a little bit with this question I have. There's definitely a mistake that I would like to talk about. I'm not sure if it's the best or taught me the most. But it's something that nags at me. You know, it's one of those mistakes that I. That I just can't forget. And basically what happened was I had a. In the. In the early stages of a previous business that I had one of my early hires. I think he was maybe my. My third or fourth employee. And he was a really great employee, really professional. He had a lot of knowledge about things that I didn't know about. He was really good with websites, and I. I was just steadily giving him more responsibility and. And he was taking over the. Which in that current business was probably the most important part of the business. So I completely handed off purchasing to him, and he was just all around a great employee. The mistake that I made was I promoted him into a general manager position. And I don't know if I did it without thinking enough about it, but when I look back, I remember asking him, hey, man, you know, I'm thinking about moving you up and making you the gm, and how do you feel about that? And he seemed hesitant. And I even asked him like, hey, it doesn't seem like he. I mean, this is huge. You're going to get a huge pay jump. You know, this is a big jump in responsibility. I mean, you know, I expected him to be really excited. He didn't seem that excited. So I asked him directly, you know, hey, maybe this isn't good for you. Maybe this isn't something you want. I wish I would have thought about that beforehand because at the time he said, oh, no, you know, I do. But now thinking back, I think he probably in his mind was thinking, oh, no, like, I can't do this, you know. So I promoted him to general manager and it wasn't right for him. And, you know, I think I jumped the gun a little bit because I wanted to start another business and I needed to, you know, to. To get rid of some of my responsibilities. So I sort of rushed into it and then he didn't do well. And the really sad thing was, is that I couldn't go back. I had guy that was really good at purchasing and really good at the website, and then I made him the gm and you know, he made a lot more money and he had created these different relationships with the employees, and there was no. I was like, oh my gosh, I wish I could just turn back time and have this guy back on my team doing the things that he was good at. But instead I didn't have any other option but to let him go, because that's tough. How much different things had. Had become, you know, so that was a regret, a mistake that I definitely made was probably just not being careful enough about doling out too much responsibility and power to someone that may not want it, you know?

Yeah, well, you know, there's a. There's a. There's a theory in business that we tend to promote people until they get to a position that they're no good at. And because, yeah, I've been there where you're thinking, oh, this guy's great, and you can do this and he can do that. So you give him more, you give him more, you get more, and you do that until they start to fail, you know, because then you're. Oh, that. That's enough. And it is of, I think, a business owner's dilemma of how you to try to keep people in. In a position very good at and still keep it.

Oh, man. We keep Shannon. Yep, Yep.

That's terrible. I'm back now. Okay. Okay. My effectiveness, these stories is way down.

Today we have. Peter principled your Skype connection. Today we. We've used it all the way up until the point where it fails. That's right.

Yeah. Right when I'm ready.

Right when I'm ready to make some very important, important point.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What we have. What we.

We don't have you. We got nothing.

Oh, man. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's too bad.

Are you there? I feel like we might have just cleaned up, because I know you have a.

One of the.

One of the things we like to ask folks, Kyle, is. Is what's your favorite work or business related story? But, And, And. And I know that in. In kind of going through the prep, Shannon actually has an excellent story that includes you that we'd love to have Shannon tell.

So we're gonna. Oh, my gosh.

We're gonna try and have Shannon tell the story now. But Skype. You may be saved by Skype. Kyle. Go ahead.

Yeah. Before he starts, I want to acknowledge that the story will not escape my head. As I'm going through this process and looking at, thinking about, talking to you guys and looking at the questions, I believe the story that Shannon's gonna tell is just. It's haunting me, and I don't know.

No, you never know. You never know. Well, we'll see if we can get through this if the Skype gods agree. But the thing I will tell you, like I mentioned at the beginning of the show, I've known Kyle for a long time. Kyle actually was a former employee of mine when I was A very young business owner making even more mistakes than I make today, if you can believe it. And so one of the things that I was always impressed with Kyle, he got it. You know, I tell my employees now here all day and I always make comments. What are you doing tonight? Are you doing something to better yourself? Are you starting a business on your own? Are you doing something for our business? You know, are you just sitting on the couch? And Kyle always got it that you weren't going to make it between 8 and 5 and he was always at work and I loved it. You know, it was great at one time. And I don't know if this is a story you're thinking of Kyle. It was about 11 o' clock at night and I got a call. I got a call from Kyle and Kyle and he's like, I'm in the warehouse and I was loading pallets. Kyle was running the inventory and managing product.

Hey, I'm saved.

I think you were saved. That's right. You're back, Shannon. So Kyle was in the warehouse loading pallets and.

Maybe I should just tell the story.

Yeah, you know what? You tell the story.

This is funny.

Come up, guys.

Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, Kyle.

So it was, it was late, it was 11 o' clock at night. We had just made a big shift. I just, for some reason I decided, or Shannon decided, hey, we're going to rearrange this warehouse. So there's just pallets were everywhere. There was so much that needed to be done. I thought, you know, I'm just going to stay and get it done. I'm going to impress Shannon. He's going to come in in the morning, he's going to see how hard I worked and everything's in place and everything was going smooth. I mean, I was buzzing around on the forklift. I'm just, you know, music was playing and, and I'm getting things done when all of a sudden the cage of the forklift caught the sprinkler head of the fire sprinkler system and ripped it clean off. Oh. And so when that happens, water comes rushing out of the hole.

Yeah.

As you might not just a little.

Not just a little bit of water.

We're talking hose worth of water or two hoses worth of water. I mean, you're about all the water. Yeah, 15. All the water. Water. Insane amount of pressure. And I'm in somebody else's business with all of their valuable stuff and water is just spraying out everywhere. It has to be the worst thing that has ever happened to me. As an employee or business owner or anything. So, yeah, I definitely called Shannon at 11 in a panic, saying, man, I just, you know, there's water everywhere. I ripped a sprinkler head off. I can't even imagine what it was like for you, Shannon, to get that call as a business owner now, like, thinking back to then in your position, what that would have possibly felt like. But I had the foresight to climb up on the. The forklift and wrap a. A tarp that luckily we had laying around. Around the sprinkler. So instead of it, like, spewing everywhere, it was kind of just pouring straight down onto the forklift.

Well, that's the key point, and hopefully Skype will let me make it. Is that when I got down there? And how could you be mad at the guy? It's 11 o' clock at night, he's working, trying to make your business better. And he had the foresight to not just stand there in a panic, but climb up there in a flood and wrap a giant piece of plastic around this thing, all our inventory. And when I saw that.

Oh, man.

I still tell this story all the time.

Yeah, well. Yeah, well, I think the sentiment was there. I think. I think we got most of what you said there, Shannon. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, that's. That's right. That's the kind of employee you want. I totally get it. I mean, you're not happy about the temporary scenario, but I mean, you know, you. You stayed late, you worked, you were dedicated, and you didn't panic. That's the key. Right? That's probably the day Shannon knew. That's right. That, that. That you weren't long for his business because you were gonna go start your own.

You know what? One thing that Shannon mentioned a minute ago about asking his employees what they're doing or are you starting, you know, working on something after hours? That stuck with me too, because I was doing my own businesses on the side. And it was. It felt really awesome when Shannon supported that. You know, he wasn't like, oh, you know, I need you to be focused on my business. I was focused on his business when I was there during the day. But he was also really supportive of. Yeah, man, you should do it. You know, you gotta hustle. You gotta do something for yourself. So if you're gonna spend your. Your evenings and your lunch hour working on something else, he was really supportive of that. And I was. I look back fondly on that memory.

That's awesome.

That's good stuff that you got to do it.

Yeah, yeah. You got to do it.

Makes it more durable for everybody.

It does. Yeah. Yeah.

And you know, the other thing that you had said about you're not going to make it happen during the 8 to 5, you know, I think about that a lot. And when people ask me for advice, you know, my, my number one, my go to advice is there's no substitute for hard work. But I think some people's perception of hard work is like, oh, I go into my job, I work eight to five, and the whole time I'm there, I'm working. I'm not looking around on Facebook like my friends are. But to me, the real hard work is in your mind. It's thinking hard and learning hard and spending more of your free time thinking about business or thinking about an idea or learning what you need to learn in order to get to that next step. I think that's a really important lesson for anybody that wants to start a business. And I wanted to ask you guys this as well, but one thing that I noticed was my capacity to work hard. From the time that I started trying to start businesses until recently, you really surprised yourself at what your true capacity is for hard work. You know, if that's something that you really focus on and how, how many other things in your life can you stop doing so that you can replace that time or that effort with something that is related to starting a business or growing a business? I think that's the key in my mind, the key to success.

Yeah, and it's a good litmus test, too. I mean, I don't, I don't want to. I don't intend to talk in the negative all the time, but if you, you need to think about that when you're, when you're about to start a business. You know what? It's not going to happen in eight to five. Not, not five days a week and probably not seven days a week. You know, it certainly at times, right. You. And you've got to. You've got to ask yourself, honestly, am I okay giving up, you know, sitting on the couch and watching, you know, whatever my favorite show is on Tuesday nights every week? Like, that's, that's no longer a part of my life. Now I've got this other thing that's important to me, and it's more important than that. And it is hard. And I mean, it's a. It's. I find myself kind of dealing with that from time to time, too. And the biggest thing for me was when I had kids, because suddenly Difficult. Right. It's like I always wanted to spend time on my business, and then without even realizing it, it was like, my kids come first, of course, and. And I. And I probably had my businesses grow slower than they could have. But I don't regret it. But it is something you just need to be aware of. Right. Like, okay, what is it? What are my priorities? And I mean, I was fortunate. I had the flexibility to spend time and go to my kids soccer games and this, that, and the other thing. And like I said, it's great, but you've got to look at all that stuff and say, what am I willing? I don't like to say sacrifice, but I say trade. You know, what's the trade? Yeah.

Well, if you think about it, if you think about it fundamentally, you know, starting a business is really just like any other competition. And on the fundamental level, it really comes down to who's willing to put more effort into it. You know, if you want to be the most successful in your area in your industry, you know, the. If you want to guarantee it, just work harder than your competition. And it, you know, fundamentally, you can't. You know that if you're. If you're working an average day, that somebody else out there is willing to work more than that.

That's right.

And. And I don't mean being at the office. I'm, you know, always. I mean, just having your mind focused on work and, And. And trying to develop a new idea or, you know, think about ways to motivate your employees or anything like that. I mean, I. I could do that stuff every waking minute.

Yep.

And it makes a huge difference.

Yeah. Another good litmus test directly related to that is what do you think about when you're, like, in the shower or driving? Right. Those. Those sort of h times where you don't really have to pay attention. You know, where does your mind go? And if it's, you know, I wonder what's happening on Facebook. Well, you might want to make some, you know, mindful decisions to change that.

Right.

Yeah.

When you guys had Abby. I forget his last name. You had Abby on. And he was talking about how he makes all of his, like, important business ideas in the shower. I was. I could totally relate to that. My wife is like, why do you take such a long shower? I'm like, that's where I do all my best thinking. I have to stay in there a long time. I got to get this stuff done.

Yep. Absolutely.

Well, it's constantly. Yeah, it's constantly working, right?

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. But just. Just being aware, you know, just let it. Let it flow. Yep. Yeah, it's good. All right. So this has been great, Kyle. I really appreciate you coming on, and sorry for. To all of our listeners about the. The skypiness with. With Shannon here. It's.

Yeah, about that.

I figured with 34 shows, we get one. So this is it. Yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully, that'll be the end of it. I do have one last question for you, Kyle.

Okay. And I'd like to ask you guys a question, if that's okay.

Go ahead, man. Yeah, sure.

I wanted to ask a couple of guys that have multiple successful businesses each and surely have plenty of things to do during the day, what was it that inspired you guys to start this podcast?

That's a good question.

Yeah. So I'll tell the story. This is fascinating. Right. So Shannon and I had worked together on a previous business that was called Deals on the Web at the time. Then it changed to Deal Brothers. It was a website that focused on deals, and we had a good run at it. We made some money together and had some fun and really enjoyed working together and always kind of kept in touch. But when you're not working on a project together, you're not in touch as often as you normally would be, especially when it comes to, you know, we're on opposite coasts and all of that stuff. So earlier this year, Shannon called me and said, you know, Shannon, you had done some speaking at a couple of conferences, and you really enjoyed, you know, getting out and telling people your ideas. We all do. Right? And. Sure. Yep. And so Shannon said, I want to do a podcast. I want some advice from you, or do you want to do it together? And I jumped at the chance. It was a great idea. You know, I mean, I. I liked the concept of the show. I like teaching people. I do a bunch of podcasts. It's, you know, it's in my. My DNA. I love all the. I love the geeky audio side of it, but I also just love coming and doing this. And so. And I. And I was very eager to, you know, even just chat with Shannon once a week about business. I get value out of this show, too. Right. I mean, we do it for our listeners, but it's definitely. There's a selfish motivation as well. I. You hear it during the show.

I ask.

I'm constantly asking questions of, like, folks like you and Shannon and everybody. So I. I love it. It's great. Yeah, it's. It's our. It's our weekly pow wow that. That we get to have. And now it, it's scheduled. So we, we are sure we have it, and we have a, A responsibility to our listeners. So it's, it's like, it's. It's a, it's a double bonus. So I think I can characterize that, right, Shannon? Right.

Yep, I, I think so. And if, and if I can keep online long enough, I would add for me the, when I look back on successes, it's the stuff, man.

We're gonna have to save that for another episode, Shannon.

Yeah, yeah, we'll do that.

Okay.

No problem.

We will answer that. We, we will give Shannon a chance to answer this one part of the question because it is important. I like it. Yeah, it's good.

Hey, so what other question did you have?

So if you, we ask everybody this. If you could go good, could go back in time to when you were just getting started, what critical piece of information or advice would you tell yourself based on your experience now.

You know, as a listener of the show, this is going to be kind of boring because I have to give. There is just no other answer than accounting there. It's unbelievable how much of a difference it makes to have some sort of accounting knowledge. And even to this day, I still sometimes am baffled at how, how could I, you know, end the year with no money in the bank and still owe taxes? You know, if, if you, if you've ever owned a business that has assets or inventory, which is. Is obviously an asset, there's a really good chance that you're going to come to the end of the year and owe money on taxes and not have it. Not have the money to pay it. So it's really. I would have told myself, get on that early. You need, you know, you could save yourself a lot of heartache by really figuring out how to use QuickBooks and really having a good grasp on your accounting. And because you can't see the health of your business by looking at your bank account, you know, you really have to look at the reports, and that would definitely be it. Even though I know many of your other guests have said the same thing. I have to say the same thing. I will say one more thing, though, that I didn't realize that I think it would have been good to know is that successful business people want to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. When I was, you know, kind of in my early stages, it seemed I was always scared to, oh, I know this guy that has a business and. But I was always too nervous to ask him for advice. But what I noticed is that I put my head down. And I built these businesses and time flew by so fast. And, you know, when you get to the point where, where you feel like, oh, I'm, you know, I've reached my goal, I've kind of reached the success that I was after, and you look back and you think about all the people that have helped you or, you know, the experiences that you went through and, and, and how other people along the way sort of shaped your opportunity to do that. You get this really overwhelming feeling that I need to do that for someone else, you know, So I would say if. If you're starting a business or thinking about it and, you know, somebody else that's in business, don't be afraid to ask them for help. The chances are that they're really going to enjoy helping you and, and it'll. It'll be good for them to feel like they're giving back.

Thanks, man. Yeah, that's.

Well said, man.

Excellent advice on both counts. The accounting thing and, yeah, ask for help. It's, It's. It does not come naturally to most of us, especially those of us that are crazy and bullheaded enough to start our own businesses. But. Yeah, yeah, but no, that's good advice. Thank you so much for joining us, Kyle. It's been a pleasure, man. This is. This has been a real blast this week, and I appreciate it. Shannon, thanks. Thanks for, for doing everything you could to keep your Skype connection, you know, alive by a thread. Thanks to our listeners for dealing with it, and we will see you next week.

Thanks, guys.

Folks.