Overnight Success + Patience is a Currency

Business brain episode 660 for Wednesday, June 25th global Beatles day 2025. Greetings folks and welcome to Business Brain. The show where we digest and analyze and tweak and go through ideas so that we can all keep on living charmed lives together and individually. We go through the ideas together. We leave our charmed lives individually and together. Our sponsors for this episode include eversight.com BB where you can get your gorgeous pro managed website without the stress and openphone.com businessbrain where you can go to get 20% off your first six months of the number one business business phone system that'll streamline and scale your customer communications. We'll talk more about both of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And back in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you, man?

I'm good, I'm good. I love Global Beatles Day. Beatles are one of my favorite bands.

Insects.

No, no, no, the bands. The bands. Yeah, the band, not the bands. Yeah, there was just the one one.

Both are important. Yeah, both are important. And the bug. Very, very important. We'd be in big trouble without. Oh yeah. Without either one of them. So, hey, I want to talk a little bit about. We had some sad news over the weekend. Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx and really the. Arguably the inventor of overnight shipping freight overnight, you know, documents this kind of thing and at least into a feasible business with FedEx. FedEx and, and you know, very interesting guy. I, I got to meet him a couple of times at FedEx events. Super humble, normal dude. You know, there's a famous story that he. They were out of money and he took all the cash they had left and went to Vegas.

Well, yeah, he was right. Yeah. A friend of mine works for FedEx and, and the. The has shared a lot of stories about FedEx. But it was. Freddie Smith was on his way back to Memphis, connecting through Chicago, Memphis, where their headquarters were and the company was out of money. He was heading back to Memphis to let everybody go and shut it down. And he's like, I don't want to go to Memphis and do that. And so he looked at the board and he's like, where can I go instead? And he saw Vegas and so he went and put it on the Blackjack, I guess was how the story went and won like 27 grand and went back and made payroll and kept it going. And here they are now.

Yeah, yeah. And that's it. It's a gamble. And yeah, literally it's a gamble, you know, and, and so many of my businesses relied. We rode the overnight services wave, if you will, Y and started with laptops. And I, when I read about it this weekend, I, I thought back and I can remember sitting in our conference room and having a conversation with FedEx reps that we had. And I said, hey, why can't we put one of our laptop repair pickup boxes? These were like, you know, well, I don't know, 12 by 16 box with foam inside.

Sure.

So why can't we put one of those in every FedEx truck in the country? And they looked at me like, you're, you're nuts. You're nuts. And so I just kept, I just kept making that statement every time I talked with them. Yeah. And FedEx didn't we.

I was gonna say it never happened with FedEx, did it?

No, no, no, it did not. But it did happen with DHL, right. And it was timing because DHL, they had purchased Airborne Express to be their U.S. because DHL is owned by the German post office. Right. Deutsche Post. And so they wanted to break in domestically Airborne Express, which is also I think courier or something like that up in Canada. Okay. And so they, they bought, bought Airborne Airborne Express. Thank you. Keep me on track. And they had this plan and as I. We were meeting with them because they wanted some of our business. They were doing our international business. Hey, you know, we're going to have this domestic stuff. And they said, look, we're going to do this rollout where we're going to bring all the express vehicles, vans into a painting facility over the weekend. And we're going to paint. They're all white. We're going to paint them all the DHL yellow over, over two day period. So on Friday they're going in on Monday going to, we're going to make this big splash. And so I made this comment, I said, hey, why can't I have our laptop repair box in every van, every DHL van? They were like, well, that's a lot of boxes. I was like, well, how many boxes is it? Well, it really surprised me. It wasn't me. It was thousands of boxes. But they're not that crazy expensive. And I was like, wouldn't that be a great time to roll out something like that that you can get a lot of press with and publicity that, you know, you can do same day pickup for any laptop. You know, we were in the Apple space. So at the time I think it was Power Books. Maybe it wasn't, it wasn't MacBook no.

It was definitely powerbooks. I remember when you did this. Yeah.

And so we were Mac rescue. We started PowerBook Rescue. We were already in business, but we wanted to do this overnight, you know, business. And so we worked with dhl and it was, you know, if you called us by 2pm your time, we could pick up your laptop overnight and bring it into our repair facility, fix it and send it back out overnight back to you. And you know, it was before the Apple Store. It was not as there was not as many.

The infrastructure you were. You were part of building that infrastructure just didn't exist yet.

Yeah, yeah. And that question and the after I decided that, look, okay, it's not a question anymore. It's like we are going to put a laptop box in an overnight freight company's vehicles. I don't know which one it's going to be.

Yeah.

But we're gonna. We're gonna do it. And you know, I just kept bringing it up, bringing it up, meeting with these guys and going out events at dhl. To their credit, they stepped up. They were a disaster in many other ways.

Yes. But. Well, it makes sense that like a dhl, they were hungry. They were hungry. Exactly.

They were hungry.

Exactly.

Yeah. FedEx and UPS looked at me like I was crazy. Y. I tried to get into FedEx because they bought Kinko's at the time, which became FedEx office.

Yeah.

And that was my. Okay, hey, I want a box in every, you know, FedEx office location in the country. So anybody go. And we did get that worked out because I didn't have to buy the box. They were already there. So that worked out. Worked out pretty well. Because as. So it's, you know, when you get told no, you just got to keep asking if you think it's going to work and going to try it. And it changed my life. It changed my entire business. And it made us national on a repair level. Excuse me. It instantly moved us to a nationwide company. And then we took that same model and we did it for a bunch of other products, some of which worked out great, others not so much.

Sure, sure.

But we just kept adjusting the model, changing the boxes, how we would do it, picking up and, you know, whether eventually it was iPads. And we did some phones, but phones turned out to be just too personal. You couldn't be without them. Forget it. So it's a very different experience. But we learned, you know, real quick that that was still a local business. But anyway, keep asking questions, don't take no for an answer. And Decide that it's going to happen and things change.

I think, I think even though you didn't do that particular deal with Fred Smith, I think he would have agreed with everything you just said about, you know, keep asking questions, don't take no for an answer. Especially don't take no for an answer. Based on what I know about Fred Smith, he was, he was always very. He remained the same guy that. That was the scrappy, you know, business startup guy. He just was that all the way through, even. Yeah, even when he grew to a point where, you know, oh, he remembered, like, we.

I went to. They invited us to FedEx Orange bowl, and at their event, he came up, met me and he knew about our business and I was like, wow. You know, obviously they prepped him. Hey, of course, of course. But I totally respected it. Made me look very, very important in front of my wife, which is always a plus.

That's great.

And he was like, how's the laptop business and what's going on and what's the next thing for you? And, I mean, I talked to him for like 30 seconds.

Yeah, of course.

But. But it was amazing and it was great and it made me feel unique and special and that's a great thing for a leader to be able to do.

There's a lot of lessons there. I bet we could dissect a lot of things Fred Smith did and, and laugh at some and learn from all of them. So.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man.

All right, well, we'll do that at some point. The next thing that I want to do is talk about our sponsors because, well, have you ever tried juggling flaming batons while answering client calls and typing emails with your feet? Yeah, me neither. But running a business without our sponsor, Open Phone might feel just about that chaotic. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that keeps you connected without turning you into a 24. 7 call Z zombie. It runs through an app on your phone or computer, so you don't need to carry two phones. Or worse, share your personal number with that client who sends 2am texts about font choices. And the real magic, your whole team can share one number and collaborate. Like it's a group chat with call and text history so nobody drops the ball. Plus, their AI agent answers after hours, handles questions, and captures leads while you sip tea and lead your charmed life. Whether you're solo or scaling up, Openphone is the business line built for builders. And Openphone is offering our listeners of Business Brain 20% off your first six months at openphone.com businessbrain that's O P E N P-H-O-N-E.com businessbrain. And if you have existing numbers with another service, Openphone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone. No missed calls, no missed customers. Keep living that charmed life. And Our thanks to OpenPhone for sponsoring this episode. And now let's talk websites. Because if your business website is still rocking that 2012 vibe with spinning gifs and comic sans, it's time for an intervention. And Eversight, our sponsor, is your always on call web team. For just 3.99amonth, that's it. No 10k setup fee, no long term contract. Just reliable humans who pick up the phone, reply to your texts and yes, will rescue you when your ancient WordPress site gets hacked by a 14 year old with a hoodie and a Red Bull. These folks build your news site and proactively manage it so you can spend your brain power where it matters, on growth, not glitchy plugins. Think of Eversight as the secret weapon in your back pocket right next to your emergency chocolate. Of course, they're already managing hundreds of business sites and they'll treat yours like it's the homepage of the moon landing. In fact, Shannon, your site is one of those that they are managing now, right?

Yeah. After it was hacked by a 14 year old in the hoodie. It was a disaster on a weekend. And I reached out to them and it was like so super fast splash, temporary splash pages, because they're like, well, we can't build the site for you, obviously overnight splash pages put redirects in place because that was a big part because I had a bunch of redirects going to like my newsletter, my mastermind. And so all those got corrupted and didn't work. And I had all the social stuff posts with thousands of those out there with links and everything. And they just came through for me, man. And I love those guys. They're tremendous.

Amazing. Well, you can do it too. You can get your own site managed. Just go to sign up@eversight.com bb e v e R-S-I t e.com bb and yeah, that's awesome. Our thanks to Eversight for sponsoring this episode. I was thinking, we talked about patience last week and I said, you know, you act like you need patience more than you need money. Even when that's not true, it's a good attitude to have. And I was thinking more about that and I started to think about this concept that patience is a currency you can use this to get ahead. You know, we talk about, you take money and you invest it, and that allows you to grow your business. You take time and you invest that time as a currency. Right. Patience. Patience. You know, I think similar to time, but, but differently, because I can wait for somebody for a long time and be impatient about it, or I can wait for somebody for a long time and be patient with them and kind and like, help them through. And those are the kinds of relationships, when you build those, and they're based on patience, they start to be based on trust. Those are the things that last a really long time. And as impatient a person as I am, and yes, I am extremely impatient.

Not me, Dave. Not me at all.

No, it's just, I'm the only one. I, I understand. And I've been able to carve out a career for myself in a lot of ways that's based on patience. And it's just like, okay, I, I, you know, as, as frustrating as this would be if I, if I wasn't wanting to, you know, earn this group of business or whatever, it's like, I'll wait. I'll wait it out, man. I, you know, it. There's so many things where, you know, you ask somebody and it's like, oh, they're not ready yet. Okay, I'll just wait until you're ready. And that alone is the key. And it's. And then be following up and doing all the things. But just when somebody says no, it's like you were saying before, in fact, very much related to what you were saying before about, you know, finally getting your boxes on DHL trucks. You were, you were patient about that.

Yeah, sure.

And, and that currency got you a ton. That investment got like, it paid off. Even though it took years. It was that patience, you know.

Yeah, yeah. And I think the, the term, the another way or a different way to look at this too is I, I was reading today and somebody was asking like, you know, how long does it really take to get a business off the ground? And, And I was like, well, it's definitely years. I mean, you know, if you think it's going to happen in months, you're. You're going to be sorely disappointed. And it's a similar thing. It's that pat, you know, it pays off. And understanding that, oh, okay, the first year or two are going to be a grind. Yes, it's going to be difficult, but I'm going to be patient and I'm going to track things. And as you move in a certain direction, you're going to look at the data and make adjustments, but you're still going to be patient. You're not going to quit because things didn't happen quite as fast as you thought they were. You know, I'm all for speed and I love, we talk about it all the time. Let's move quick, let's take action, you know, let's get this stuff done. But you also need to, you know, be patient for the outcome.

Yes.

Otherwise you'll never achieve anything. Great. Yeah. If, if you don't focus and, and I, I mean, I think it was like two years before we did during, you know, this podcast, before we got our first sponsor. Yeah. That we were like worthy of. Hey, you got enough traffic. You guys know what you're doing? Yeah. We'll, we'll invest and, and do some tests and see if it's worked. So, you know, and I think you told me one time the average podcast doesn't make it past 10 episodes.

No.

Right.

Double digits is, is, is, is rare. Rare company.

Yeah. Yeah. So that, that patience and you know, it's also kind of giving yourself that built in outlook that it's true. Oh, I'm going to be. Okay. This is going to be the next couple of years. Don't, don't think that. Okay. All I have to do is for three months, six months, and then I'll have enough money and I can live.

No, no, no, no, no.

What is your. Not a plan B? Because I'm not a huge fan of those. But what is the. How will you live? How will you manage your life? You know, basically, you know, while you're building this thing and let's face it, while you're suffering through.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And, and when I came tough times.

When I was thinking of this, I was thinking of it more in terms of customer service or sales. Right. Dealing with not, not just patience with yourself. Because I'm very impatient with myself.

Yeah.

And that's.

But yeah, that's why I said this is a different way of looking at it. But it's still, it has the thing. It's the same. It is a currency that you are building it. Okay. I know it's going to do this. I'm committing. Doesn't mean you can't do other things along the way.

Of course not.

But understand that you really have to commit and you have to be patient while you build these little things to see if it's going to work for sure and to, to, to master it.

Right.

You know, there's that 10,000 hours concept. Right. Where if you do something 10,000 hours, that's. That's the only way you're going to master it. But the same kind of thing. Yeah.

Doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't change.

Yeah, no, no, but it's, It's. It's true.

But don't forget about it with your customers, because it, you know, in especially, like. Like I said, sales or anything like that, where you're just waiting for the right time for someone to match what to. For their needs, to match your offerings. Right. And in those moments, that's where the magic is. And if you've been the one that's just there, not pushy, but you're just there and, yep, we'll make this happen. It's fine. It's fine. You know, I had. I had somebody that was a sponsor that we've been. I met with them in May of 2024 and kept up on them, and, you know, it was fine. And they were like, oh, yeah, we're going to do something right away. No, nothing has happened yet. Finally, this past May, they're like, we really need to talk. And I'm like, yes, I, I don't disagree. Like, yeah, but I, you know, I didn't tell them. Yeah, I've been waiting on you a year. No, it's like, yeah, okay, great. Your timing, like, I've kept you up to date, I've kept you informed, and now it turns out you're ready to work with us. Amazing. I'm not upset about this. I mean, do I sometimes make a snarky comment, maybe to my wife after hours or something? Like, it took them long enough?

Of course.

Of course. But, you know, I don't say it to the staff. I don't. Like, it's always.

Yeah, that's important.

Yeah.

Yep.

It's just like, yeah, of course. This is how. This is how success is built.

Yeah.

It's one of your best currencies. Yeah.

Isn't there, like, some advertising saying people need to see your name and this kind of thing, like, 12 times? Yeah, you know, all that. All that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I mean, I do think there's a lot to it. And that comment you made about not talking in a negative manner about your clients with your team. We need to do a whole episode on that because there's a lot. There's a lot to dig in there, so.

Well, the, The. The sad part, though, is that this episode is almost over.

Shannon. Time flies, man.

I guess we got to do one on Friday. I guess.

Let's do it.

Let's do it. I guess so.

Yeah. I guess our favorite. Come back for Friday I oh, yeah.

Good stuff. Coming up on Friday I this week. Thanks for hanging out with us, folks. Thanks for everything. We've got some of your reviews to read. Make sure you review us. BusinessBrain show review. We would love, love, love to hear from you. That is part of the fuel that keeps us going. And we are patient for it. But we're getting impatient. Thanks for hanging out. We'll see you on Friday.

See ya.