Small Business Rock Stars, Wish Lists and Making Your Own Reality – SBS 78

Small Business show episode number 78 for Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Greetings, folks, and welcome to the small business show here at businessshow Co. The show by, for and about small business owners. Although I. We definitely have some folks that aren't small business owners who listen and that's okay. Well, it's. It's, you know, it's people that. That A, just want to see how the sausage is made and. But B, maybe want to make sausage someday themselves.

That's right. Or have been making it for so long that they're. They probably would qualify as a much larger business. Maybe they don't fit that small business window anymore.

That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But. But, you know, looking for entrepreneurial stuff, you know, I think that's good.

It's good stuff. Yeah. So here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm.

Dave Hamilton, and in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean.

I. I figured we better get that out before we get rolling too far because it was obvious we were just going to go and that's okay. Yeah, yeah.

That's good. Yeah. Well, you know, we thought we should just keep rolling. We had, you know, Tim Cody from Commonwealth Foreign Exchange on. And I think that he's probably a good example of. I'm not sure you could call his business a small business anymore.

Yeah, but he has that small business mentality.

Exactly.

I mean, you know, he started it by overnighting cash in a FedEx envelope.

Yeah. It's brilliant, dude.

Well, yeah, it takes. I mean, it takes guts to do that.

It does, it does. But, you know, it's the risk reward.

Right. That's it. Yeah. He knew that the risk on that is actually pretty small. I mean, think about how often you FedEx stuff and it actually gets lost, like forever. It never happens. You know, it's tracked. It's like, it's fine. They don't know there's cash in there. No. If they did, they would actually tell you you can't send it. Yeah, I agree. It's illegal. I mean, you know, but I don't know if it's illegal. It's against their policies. I don't want to. There's. Because there's the definition of actually. I was, I was informed. You want to talk about tangents by a former police officer that illegal was never the term they used, that someone was either doing something that was legal or against the law.

Oh, interesting.

Which is interesting. Yeah, yeah. Mostly pedantic, but sure, sure. But. So anyway.

Yeah, but it's kind of interesting to me is that, you know, I often hear even other small business owners or just people in general kind of griping against big companies, right. Maybe complaining about Amazon or Walmart or those kind of things. And I always have to, I always want to remind people, and I do it myself, of course, you know, but I was trying to remind those folks, hey, you know, at one point that was just some guy like you and I starting a business and you know, that they got their things going and it wasn't that everything was easy. I mean, you look at a company like Amazon, you know, and Jeff Bezos, who just, I think went past Warren Buffett as the third richest man in the world. Well, it wasn't easy for him either. He's making those massive risk taking decisions. Back in the day when it was just him and a few other people selling books.

Yeah. People thought he was, was stupid or crazy or both. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was mostly they thought he was stupid. I mean, it wasn't at the time. You know, it's, it's, it's very easy to, to gloss over this, but because, because now we know the answer, right? We know we couldn't live without Amazon. You know, it would create, if it went away, it would create a huge vacuum. But when that started, like most people thought he was just stupid. This is just, you were just, you know, nobody's ever going to make money at this.

That's right. And you know, this is guys that had literally a bell in their office that they would ring every time something sold.

Yeah.

So I mean, you know, now, you know, of course, it's almost fathomable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To think about that and how that they've executed. And you know, with Tim, we talked about that, you know, he started the company with another buddy of his, drinking a few beers and talking about how they could do something better. And it's a great way to get started, those casual conversations. But the real secret is you gotta.

Do the hard work. Yeah.

You gotta execute. You gotta execute. The world is full of people that are sitting on the fence with brilliant ideas. And you know, I would, I mean, maybe it's not the right word, but I would implore you, if you are one of those people that is sitting there going, gosh, you know, I have this great idea. You just have to start, you know, you just have to take the steps to. Okay, how do, oh, I don't have enough time. How do you carve out that time during the day, you know, or during the evening, you know?

Yeah. How many, how many seasons of Whatever. Do you watch on Netflix? Right.

Yeah.

Carve that time out. Or tell yourself, you know what? I'm going to Defer this for 10 years and see what happens. Yeah, see what happens. Forget 10 years. One year at one year, that's all you need. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll know at the end of that one year if you want to do it for another nine. You probably will.

Sure.

Because you've had some success.

Yeah, yeah. And it's a process, like, for me, you know, I do this, all these kind of things on the side that I like to do, and I'm working at night doing stuff, and really it gives me a lot of energy and excitement about what I kind of consider my day job, you know, and I think it's really valuable. And, you know, even if, if it never takes off and you only make a little bit of money, it's extremely valuable experience. And you just have to start. You can't, don't talk to anybody about it. That'll try to tell you it'll never work, you know.

Yeah, that's true.

We've mentioned that before on the show. You know, talk about it after you've done it or once you've had some success or maybe talk about it with whoever is in your group of.

Yeah. Self select. I mean, not self select, but intentionally select the people that you tell about it in order to get good feedback. You know, you want. There, there is a time and a place for, you know, sobering reality. Right. Somebody to say, whoa, wait a minute, this sounds crazy, but that's not necessarily something you want all the time. You, you don't need someone, you don't.

Need a bubble burster, especially in the beginning. No, you have to make. Yeah, you have to make your own reality.

Yeah.

If, if you think about. Nobody would start anything if you thought about it, because there's always a reason that something wouldn't work or that if that. So, you know, like Scott Adams, we.

Could, we could sit here and say that in a year Amazon will be bankrupt and we could talk through a scenario where that's possible. Now, it's probably not going to happen, but it's possible, so. But why would we talk through that? It's the same thing with your business. Don't, don't drive yourself crazy. Yeah.

And you, you know, you have a choice on how you frame, you know, how things are around you. And especially if you're, you know, getting going and starting a company, you want to frame that in the most positive manner you can and surround yourself with extremely positive people, even if they're lying to you.

Doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. You want to just keep pumping and build on that. You know, you're kind of building this foundation. So you want to. Like, Dave and I, we've talked about, you know, your success list. Okay, well, the first thing you should put on your success list is. Success list is I've had this idea, and look at, this is the first thing I've done, and you get it on your list, and okay, you nailed it. And you just keep building on that step by step by step. And, you know, I always come back to, hey, if you can make, you know, 50 bucks, you can make 500 bucks, and you can make 500, you can make 5,000 and honor. And I'm such a firm believer in that because I've done it over and over and over, you know, and maybe 8 out of the 10 things I've tried haven't worked, but the 20% have. What? Giving me the, you know, what we call our charmed life.

I was just going to say it doesn't. Yeah, it's given you a lot, and I'm the same way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a great way to just try things out and adjust as needed because you just don't know. It's like a young kid, my daughter's getting ready to go to college, and you don't have the foresight to see, oh, once you get out, you're definitely going to do this, and this is how it's going to happen. Your business is going to be the same way. You're going to start it one way, and you just have to see how it turns out, but keep, Keep adjusting.

You know, I. I was talking to one of our podcasters this week about, about promoting their show. Really growing their show, really. And. And what we kind of realized was, wow, you know, they're not doing any promotion for, for their show. It's just. And it's actually doing okay. You know, they've got a decent number of listeners, but. But in. This is just one of our publishers. And, And I said, well, okay, here's the thing. And he asked me, he's like, well, should I kill it? And I'm like, well, maybe, but yeah, you know what, what would it take? All you need is more listeners. So what would it take to get there? Like, well, promoting the show. Okay, so try that for three months. Great. And I said, the first thing to do is to go out and be a rock star podcaster. Just act like, just act like.

Yeah, of course.

All you got to do, like, right now, just act like one. And people will either believe it or they won't. And if they don't, well, then it's the same. You're in the same place that you were before you started acting like a rock star podcaster. Because people don't know you as one now.

Yeah, that's right.

There's no risk change.

There's no risk.

Really? Yeah. And, and, and he did. He, like, instantly started doing this. And I mean, it'll be interesting to see what, what happens with it, but, you know, there's that whole concept of fake it till you make it or you just be it, it's okay, you know, and that. That's the thing that gets in certainly my way most of the time is, you know, me telling myself, because I can be. I am that bubble burster guy. Right. I can sit down and show up with all the reasons, which is what makes me a good operations guy. Right. Because. Because I can see, okay, that path is bad because of this, but this path will work. But, you know, I need to remind myself or have a partner to remind me that, no, we'll get there. Just, you know, help me pick the right way. But there is a way and just go, you know.

Yeah, we just don't. We may not know what that way is.

That's right.

But as long as you're marching, you know, towards achieving something, even if it's just an education, you're going to take something from it. You know, we talk about Scott Adams, you know, the guy. Yeah, me too. The book, you know, that he's recently written. And his, you know, comment is, you're going to learn something new. You're going to meet new people, you're going to get some new skills out of whatever it is you try, even, you know, if it. If the whole thing falls apart. Yeah. And you, you know, I can tell you that for sure because you just. The people that you met and how things come together and your network folks that you work with, it totally happens. And that's. That is reason enough, you know.

Well, Scott said it. Well, in his. At one point in his book, he said, you know, life is this game where you just have to keep pulling the handle on the slot machine and eventually it's gonna pay off. But the difference between life and a slot machine is you don't have to put money in. It's free. You just have to be willing to keep pulling the handle. And the only thing that you need to get past is the fear of failing, like pulling the handle and it didn't work. All right, well, you know what? Try again.

That's right.

Try again.

Yeah. And I've always had. I've never had a fear of failure, but always a fear of everyone or other people thinking I was this flake and I was trying too many different things. And so the answer for me was just to shut up and not to talk and just do it. And then nobody knew if it didn't work or not. But eventually, when something did, everybody's like, hey, how'd you do that? And that has been a huge.

I think that's a part. That's a part of it. Yeah. Is figuring out what it takes to be willing to pull the handle again. That's it. If you need to answer a single question, it's that, well, how do I need to set this up so that if I pull this handle and fall flat on my face, I'm going to stand back up and pull the handle again and see what happens.

Yeah. You know, like, Tim last week was talking about how they got scammed by a, you know, a big banking fraud thing when they were only 2.2years old, and it was like 3/4 of a million dollars, where, you know, if that could bury so many people. And, you know, I've had very expensive mistakes that I've made. I've talked about on the show here, and you just have to power through it and tell yourself, yeah, well, that is the key thing. What is the alternative?

I mean, if the alternative is, well, do this other thing and make $5 million, then you should do that. Right. But otherwise, power through the problem.

Power through the problem and tell yourself whatever you have to tell. For me, it kind of came back to, you know, when I had really screwed up and made a very expensive mistake. I just kept telling myself, this is not going to be the defining moment of my life. It's not. It cannot. Because, you know, I internalize things and think about things all the time. And I was like, this will drive me insane if I have to think about this for the next 20, 30 years. Yeah.

If you've got a what if yourself.

On that thing, it would be nuts, and my life would be miserable and everyone around me would be miserable as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, if there was anyone around.

Me, I was just gonna say, they would have left. Yeah, right, right.

So, you know, find out what it is inside of you that, you know, that you can kind of push those buttons and. And it motivates you, you know, and even like for me it was. It hasn't been about money, but I'm a big fan of things. I mean, I would be the first to say I always wanted, you know, when I was younger, oh, I can't wait till I can buy a new car. You know, I wanted this certain thing and yeah. You know, putting that picture in front of me on a daily basis of, oh, I'm going to figure out how to get that. I'm going to figure out how to get that. It has been a great carrot. And along the way, you know, you kind of rise above those, you know, the material things, but they still are kind of nice and help to me, you know, make your life charm.

Creature comforts are exactly that. Yes.

Yeah. And I mean, I always wanted like, okay, how do I get the business to where I could justify buying a couple of brand new cars and having the company pay for it? I was like, if, if that could happen, it could be an unbelievable. It could be, you know, it would be phenomenal.

Yep.

And then when that happens, you're like.

Oh, wait a minute.

Well, that, that's awesome. Now what's the next thing you know, how do I do this and how do I go here and I want to travel?

I. Yeah, well, that. When I was. Even before. Well, I, I had always been running businesses, but like small things and when I was a kid, but when I first started working for Citibank and I, I was working for them sort of part time in a weird way. And then they hired me as an employee and I said, okay, if I'm going to be an employee here, and I mean, this, this is going to sound like the stupidest thing in the world to anyone who knows anything about large companies. I thought. I didn't. I had only been on an airplane like twice in my life before this, you know, and I thought, I'm going to engineer this so that they start putting me on airplanes and they're paying for those trips and that's cool, you know, I mean, so. But thinking about this in retrospect, so big company, huge budgets, and this was, you know, end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s, they hadn't even tightened anything up yet. And here I am, a young single guy, they're gonna happily send me anywhere I wanna go because I'm the only one willing to leave. Everybody else has families and stuff. But for me it was like, I'm gonna get him to do this. And when it worked, it was like, whoa, I can make wishes come true.

That's correct.

Magic. That's the thing is feeling like you have the ability to make your own wishes come true. And all you need to do is experience it once and just don't lose it, and then you're done. You're good to go from there. Yeah.

Yep, yep. You put that on your success list right there. I was able to do this. And then, you know, when you.

As stupid as it is.

Yeah, that's right. But you know, when you're, when you're feeling beat down, when you make some big mistake or somebody scams you out of a, you know, $750,000 and like, it happened to Tim, you need to be able to, either mentally, you've got this thing inside of you that helps you power through that stuff, or even if it's a physical list of things. Okay. You know, I look at all this stuff that I've done and you just keep building that foundation, you know, so when you do get beat down, you can keep, you can keep powering through.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it's, it's, you know, definitely worth it. And you know, this is one of.

The things that, that I have this problem with, with Scott Adams book because he says goals are for losers. Right. But yeah, at the same time, and I, and I understand why he says it, because systems are better than goals. But the thing is, he will then go on to tell you that he, like, firmly believes in affirmations. Right. He, he, many times in his life he has defined what he will do by simply saying he's going to do it. And one of the things he would say to himself five times a day was, I am going to be a world famous cartoonist.

Sounds like a goal.

That sounds like a goal to me. You know, it's like, I get why he downplays. You don't want to only have goals. You want to set up systems to get yourself there. And then of course, beyond. But you know, maybe more in the.

Kind of the pure definition of, you know, if a goal is, you know, if you don't put a date on it or something like that, you know, it's not really considered a goal.

Right.

Because you want to do so maybe his.

Right, I see what you're saying. Yeah.

His take on is like, oh, I'm going to be a world class, you know, cartoonist. And then he developed this system and, you know, let's face it, us old guys and I would count Scott amongst that as well. Yeah, we have the hindsight or we have the benefit of hindsight.

Right.

You can certainly look back now and be able to pick and choose and say, and this is what I did, and this is what I did, and this I did. But to you young, you know, or younger people out there, half the time you're making decisions and you're not really sure is this working towards my system or against it?

Yeah.

So, you know, so don't beat yourself up. One of the problems I have with a lot of, you know, self help or business books like that is just, that is you're just looking back and you're kind of picking out all the great things. So you sound like this very successful, motivated, you know, whatever. But they don't often talk about the screw ups.

Right.

And you know, Scott Adams does that. Not to focus just on his book.

No, but it's a good, it's how to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Succeed I think is the name of the book. Yeah, it's fantastic. I've now read it almost twice. It's just because it's, it's got good stuff in it.

Yeah. It's like a handbook. Right. I mean, it's quick and easy to dip in and out of. And he does.

Have you got your kids to read it yet?

Not yet.

I feel like my kids, like if I could just get them to read the first couple of chapters, I think they'd love it.

Yeah, it's probably. Yeah, that's a good idea. Well, I'm gonna try that with my, with my daughter. Yeah.

Yeah. See what happens.

Yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah, that's right. But what I, I guess I grabbed onto that goals are for losers thing was because I, I was able to look back and go, gosh, you know, I've always had a problem setting these goals. Setting, yes, very rigid goals. But I've always hustled towards things.

Correct.

And I think that, you know, and maybe I like it so much just because I've convinced myself that's what I've been doing, you know?

Right.

I mean, I will recognize that.

Yeah, of course.

You know, those are, those are systems that you put in place to achieve certain things. And if the only time you feel good is when you achieve the goal and then you're done, that's bad.

That's bad. Yeah, that's bad.

I want to achieve something every day. I don't care if it's. I gained extra hundred followers on this new little business venture I'm doing or we made some huge deal with my other company. Whatever it is came on the show I mean, I love doing the show just because I love doing it. Getting to talk to some great people and take a lot away from things they talk about.

Yeah, no, I actually have found that I will very quickly. I don't want to use the word depressed because I don't want people to worry about me, but I will quickly get less happy if I don't feel like I've done one new or successful thing each day. I'm addicted to it.

Yeah, I agree, and that's a good point. And you do become addicted to it. And so that is just one more brick in the wall or whatever it is you're putting, you're building. Yeah. You're developing these systems. You go, okay. I felt good when I did that. Like, you know, last night at 8:00'.

Clock.

Well, I was like, hey, I'm going to go up to the studio and I got some photos I'm going to take and I'm going to do some stuff on social media and everything. Well, I could have just as easy to go, hey, let's sit down, let's just watch a movie and do nothing. But I felt better at 11 o' clock when I went back to the house and I had got some stuff done. Yeah, you know, it's cool and it's great and it's. You know, I always tell I'm a very selfish person. And what I mean by that is I always do things to my benefit and hopefully. And I think it has benefits, it spills over and benefits the people around me, whether they're my employees, my family, my friends, business partners and I. And I am a firm believer and that's the way you should do it.

No, I agree. You have to take care of yourself first. It's absolutely. You can't. Yeah, no, no, no, that, that, that's right. You know, and one thing as a business owner, one of the hardest things is that you have to decide what it is you're doing. Right there. There is a, a beauty. I was heading over to, to the studio here last night to record Matt Geek Gabriel and I thought, wow, this is great. You know, I mean, I'm running a business, but I know what I need to do next. Like, that felt like a luxury to me. Like I've created this system that works and I know what I'm supposed to do next. Like, it's almost like I could be on autopilot. I mean, I'm not sure, but, you know, I didn't have to stop and think, all right, well, I gotta strategize now, you know, which is part of what I also need to do at different times. But, you know, enjoy those. Like that to me was a victory that I just have this system where I get to go and I do this and it's, you know, I. I pull the lever and money comes out. It's like, this is awesome.

It's great.

Yeah. Yeah.

And you. And you get to enjoy doing it.

I love the heck out of it. Yeah, of course.

It's a big deal.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

It is to me, the single most powerful argument that I would say, you know, for starting your own company and doing your own thing is. Is building something that over time is going to give so much back to you. Yeah. It's going to tear you up. And, you know, I still remember when my first employee quit and I was just devastated that someone would leave. Why would they leave, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You take that personally. That doesn't end. I don't ever.

I still, I still take it that way, you know, and. But can makes all the difference in your life on, you know, the things you get to do, the people you get to meet and the opportun opportunities that come your way. And it's just if you have that slightest inkling to do it or you're struggling during a tough time, hopefully you stumble across our podcast and can listen and get some inspiration and. Or share your story. We'd love to hear from you@feedbackusinessshow.co. or there's a great community out there of business owners that would love to help you out.

Why don't we just start the Facebook group, the small business support group.

It's a great idea.

Right? And we'll just do it. And, and if it fails, well, you folks will know.

But yeah, we'll learn about it.

We'll learn. Yeah, I'll start that after we finish the episode.

That sounds great.

Yeah, man. Why not, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. We're not gonna know if it's not. If it's gonna work. If, if we don't. If we don't try.

I like it.

All right. Sweet.

Awesome. All right, man. Take care, everybody.

Thanks, folks. And we'll. We'll see you next week. Or maybe we'll see you in the Facebook small business.

There you go. It's coming.

Yeah, it's coming. It's probably already there by the time. By the time you hear this. That's right.