How Long Does It Take To Hit Pay Dirt?

Good morning, everybody. Today is Thursday, August 13, 2020.

I'm gonna need this sip here in a moment.

Children. Kept me awake last night. I did not get my T point, as we call it, on my tribe, five of seven hours of sleep. So I'm dragging a little bit today. Hope you will forgive me. If you are watching live, please say hello in the comments. I would love to see you. Oh, One Percenters, I need to give you the link to get in here. Forgive me while I zip this over to you, maybe.

I promise I'll be back in a moment. We'll kick this thing off.

Speak amongst yourselves while I shoot this link out to members of the 1%.

There we go. All right, 1 percenters, you have a link now in your. In the Facebook group where you can come hang out with me live and group. Oh, there you all are. Oh, good to see some friendly faces on this morning. What's up, Abdullah? Good to see you. Good morning, Rebecca. Good morning, Chantal. Hello, Alexandra. Hello. Those of you who are not logged in but are still here watching live, I so appreciate you. You know, Ryan should probably do something to get his energy up. Oh, I know. I know exactly what it is. It's something called the simultaneous sip. So let's kick this thing off. Hey, Todd. Hey, Chantal. Todd, the link couldn't be clearer in your mem in the Facebook group today, so please come join me live. I want to talk about your RV business. Good morning, Herb. Good morning, Amanda. Chantal, I think I already said hello. Good morning, Melanie Ginsberg. Good to see you. Good morning, Damien. All right, let's do this thing. Good morning, ladies and germs. Today is Thursday, I think, and it's capitalism and it's coffee. It's two things that make everything better. Except for Joe Biden's vice presidential pick.

Because nothing can fix that. Nothing. Nothing. Oh, he should work for the Browns because there were a bunch of great picks available, and he chose the worst one. But there's one thing that starts every day the right way. As an homage to Scott Adams, who called the vice presidential pick way before anybody else. It's something called the simultaneous sip. Please join me with a cup or a mug or a glass or chalice, a stallion, a tankard, a thermos, a vessel of any kind. I've got blue mug and fill it with your favorite liquid. I've got. I've got. Not decaf coffee today. Let's do this. Go.

Oh, there it is. Good morning, Zoltan. Good morning, Zach. Good morning, Brian. Episcopal. Good to See you, my old friend. Good morning, Rhino. Hello, Phoenix. Hello, Susan Anderson. Good to see you. All right, so first of all, if you're a member of the 1%, then there's a link inside of the Facebook group. You come join me in the green room and we can chat about your business. I really enjoyed Tuesday's live where we just rapped about your business ideas. I think that's gonna end up being a theme in here. I wanna tell all of you a story. After I mute myself, I wanna tell all you guys something that has come up a couple times this week in the last 24 hours. Let me tell you something that happened in the last 24 hours. Three opportunities have come my way that I did not expect in the last 24 hours. A business that I really like, that is a new business that is just starting, run by an entrepreneur who I've wanted to work with for a long time, came to me with his launch plan and I love the launch plan and he definitely needs my help and I definitely can help this person. And.

It'D be a nice double, right? This probably isn't going to be a billion dollar company, but it could be a 15 million dollar company. It could be a, it could be a nice solid eight figure exit and I'd be really excited to help this person. And there were some talks of me investing or maybe just being an advisor to that company. Really exciting stuff. I'll tell you why that matters in a second. And then later in the day I was contacted by a company like if I had nothing else going on, if I had nothing else going on, I would pack my things, go work with this company and absolutely blow them up. They're the most exciting company in my network. They have all kinds of great resources that perfectly complement my skillset just absolutely perfectly. And they don't know what they're doing in the area that I'm best. And so it'd be a really fun relationship and they're just a really exciting company. And we had a great conversation about potentially working together and what that might look like. Just like a first date, but it was really fun. And then late last night, this is all within 24 hours. Then late last night I get a text at like 11:30 at night, might have even been after midnight from someone who is well known in our space that I haven't talked to in several years, who just reached out because they're launching a physical products brand, asked if I had any recommendations. And so that has opened up a conversation of do you need investors or Advisors or anything like this. Now, the reason I tell you all of this is because earlier in the day, same day, I was sitting there going, what the hell am I doing with my time? Like, is anything working? Nothing's working.

I'm never gonna hit pay dirt. It's never gonna pay off. And it was one of those days where I was hard on myself. The same day, three great opportunities came my way. And just so you know, there's a chance that none of them go anywhere. What most people don't see, especially in the media, when people are hating on the rich or hating on the successful or hating on capitalism, they don't see 10 years of swinging and missing, 10 years of striking out, 10 years of doing things to meet the right people and build up your skill set in order for three opportunities to set themselves up, one of which might hit, other two might make you bankrupt. So that's what most people don't see below the surface of all the results is 10 years of grinding it out. Now, I've said in order to hit pay dirt, it takes about two years of consistent effort. Two years of just putting it out there and allowing the chips to fall wherever they're gonna fall. And that's why doing something that you find enjoyable and meaningful matters so much. I was having a conversation earlier this week with an entrepreneur who was wrestling between that dance of doing what makes money and doing what they wanted to do, and trying to strike the right fit between putting my attention into what I think is going to make money versus the thing that I really enjoy doing. But the thing about it was, it was the same thing in the same business, just with a different emphasis. Am I going to run this as a cash flow business to pay for my life, or am I going to build the business that I really like in hopes that two years from now it pays off? And the truth of the matter is, there's such a higher percentage in success rate when you just do the thing that you like doing, because you will consistently do it for two years and then it will pay off. The entrepreneurs that fail, please understand this. The entrepreneurs that fail, by and large, are starting a business that meets the right numbers but doesn't meet their skill set or their interests. And the entrepreneurs that start off and do pretty well, but then plateau are exactly the same. They got in at the right time, they got in with the right people, they got in with the right strategy, but they never surrounded that opportunity with what it is that they really wanted. And so they burn out, they plateau, or the worst thing of them all is they hit a wall, and then they start looking at what other people are doing in order to.

Copy them or follow their strategy or work that strategy into their existing business. All strategies, all money, all opportunities are made to amplify what's already working for you or what's already meaningful for the people who are involved. The purpose of money is to fund and sustain good work. And good work is defined as service to one another, what other people find valuable. And so when you are just reverse engineering the numbers or the algorithms, you're not properly setting yourself up to win because you're not putting yourself in the position to scale good work.

So it was a reminder to me this week how important it is to prioritize what is meaningful. Because the day is going to come when the opportunities that I am pursuing start to pay off or the way that I'm positioning myself starts to get more momentum. And I better put that on something that matters, or else I'm going to get opportunities that don't excite me, opportunities that I don't want, opportunities that keep me distracted from what it is that I want. And by the way, I don't know what I want. Very few people do. I don't intellectually know what my passion is. I don't intellectually have a thing that I could do all day long. I don't intellectually, like, logically know this is what I want my day to look like. I don't know that stuff. Most people don't. I know. Bye, sweetie. Have fun. Okay? I love you.

I don't logically know what I want my day to look like. I don't logically know what my purpose is. I don't logically know what I'm doing with my life. I don't logically know what I'm gonna be when I grow up. I don't know any of that stuff. Very few of us do. We buy into this idea that.

There'S like a purpose outside of just being involved in the process, and there's not. And so.

One of the. One of, like, the thing I love most about this journey is that entrepreneurship is the fastest and most painful route into self. Like personal development, into self discovery, into finding meaning, into discovering yourself, into revealing yourself. It's the biggest risk you can take. It's the. It's the most direct reflection of what's going on with you out in the marketplace. It's. There's. There's no safety net. There's. It exposes all of your cracks and gives you the opportunity to work on them. This is. This is. That's the game. That is the game. And I know that when you're starting out, you believe that once you get to a certain level or a certain amount of money, that then you will figure out what it is that you want. But all that does is give you the space to guess a bunch. And so I wish that at the beginning of my journey, I had known that 10 years in. It's actually been 15 years. Can you believe that I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years, since I was 18 years old?

I wish that somebody had told me that 15 years later, I would be just as uncertain.

And the reason is because if you know that 10 years after you've made millions of dollars, after you've had the exit, after you have the admiration of some people, after people, people want you on their board of their company, you will still be wondering, am I on the right path?

And the reason that is freeing is because if you know you're going to question it 10 years from now.

You might as well question it doing something that lights you up.

Because if you could take this scenario, you're given two opportunities. One is a billion dollar opportunity that requires 10 years of your life.

And then on the other side is a opportunity that you would joyously do for 10 years even if you didn't get paid. If you know that at the end of those 10 years, you're still gonna feel uncertain. You're gonna. You're either gonna. You could make a billion dollars and still feel uncertain about, like, what am I gonna do? What is my purpose? Where am I going here? And then on the other side, you're gonna have 10 years of enjoyable unfolding and still be like, what am I gonna do? What's my purpose? Which experience do you want for the next 10 years?

Because at the end, you're kind of in the same spot.

We all end up dying.

And we think that if we leave our kids a legacy and all that life's gonna be better. It's like, no, we all end up in the same spot. So forgive me if this is bumming you out. I don't mean to be a bummer. This is more tiredness than you see. I'm actually really pumped about this idea at the fact that if it all ends up in the same spot, then we're all free to just enjoy the process. Hi, Chrissa. Good to see you. Chris, you are the bright spot in my week. It's been a week. I just want you know that you are the bright spot. I am Krista Benson. I am so ridiculously thankful for you this week. So thank you for being on my team. I'm always on your team.

So all that to say it takes two years to hit pay dirt. And even when you do hit pay dirt, life is going to be mostly the same. And 10 years from now it's probably going to be mostly the same. So the best thing you can possibly do is do the thing that really lights you up. We're doing this thing right now called the capitalism incubator. We have I think eight spots filled of 25 and it's an experience for entrepreneurs to build the foundation of a profitable business that they can scale and sell. And I can tell the people who are gonna hit it really quick and I can tell the people who need some.

Unveiling of what's going on and I just can't wait. I just can't wait.

There's a couple of you here in the green room. If you've got a business idea you want to run by me or if there's something that you want to chat about, just if you're a member of the 1%, there's a link inside of your of the Facebook group. You can click and join me here in the green room. Zoltan, I'm gonna come to you here in a second as soon as you put your hoodie on and give me a thumbs up. So just let me know when you are ready. Are you good to go my friend? Alright, let's do this.

Good morning Zoltan, how are you?

I'm great, thank you.

Where are you based, Zoltan?

Right now I'm in Lawton, Oklahoma but I'm from la. I'm just visiting my mom.

Okay, great, great. Well what can we do you for, Zoltan?

Okay, so basically I'm starting my business. It's, it's a brand focused around men who kind of want to build their confidence and self esteem to be more niche specific, it's for bearded men. So my first product is going to be a beard oil with sandalwood essential oil scents basically to kind of have self esteem boosting properties throughout the day. And so I've already ordered three from the manufacturer. My question is I'm not a good content creator so I'm looking to partner with influencers. What should my steps be after that?

So when you say after that what is the that in launching the product.

And should I, should I get them onto an email list or manychat?

Right. So before we go to the mechanism of which we have the audience. Are you saying that you want to partner with the audience as part of your launch strategy? Yes.

Yes.

Okay, perfect. That would be my recommendation. And by the way, I'm totally familiar with the science of wooden essential oils and its effect on men and it is fascinating. So I like what you're doing and what you're up to, Zoltan. So this would be my recommendation that you have some either deck of what the company is doing or a piece of content that highlights the problem and what the solution is. It doesn't need to be a sales piece of content. It doesn't need to be. Could you turn your volume down just a hairzoltan? Yeah, yeah, thanks. So it doesn't need to be a sales pitch or even a sales deck. It just needs to show the mission and the purpose of the company that it is that you're building and the problem that you're wanting to solve. And then I would use that as an outreach to the influencers and audiences that you want to connect with and go for the simplest. Yes. Possible. Simplest, yes. Possible is something like, I'm in development right now. Is it okay if I send you some free product when this is done? Or I really like your stuff and there are some people who are reaching out to me who are influencers, who are that want to be a part of this. Would it be okay if I put the two of you together? Because I think you might be able to collaborate on some stuff. I like both of your message. So the more that you can go mission focused and the more that you can just build a relationship like you would build a relationship with anybody, then the more you stack the deck to be in the position to ask for what it is that you want to ask for later down the road.

Okay. Okay.

And then who is like the, the type of influencer that you would be going for?

So I've been looking at kind of like lifestyle influencers. People will talk about, you know, fitness, grooming, things like that. But I've been kind of curious as to kind of broaden my search because there's only so many out there and a lot of them already have their own products. So.

So.

I think. And Chrissa, this is for you. We've learned this one together.

I think that the how to part of content is overvalued and that the mission generated, problem focused, message driven content is horribly underrated by myself included. Right. So I teach a lot of business content and I hold myself back by not just going all in capitalism. And that's where I am in my journey and like practicing that and being capitalism rather than teaching business. My audience will be much bigger when I really get that. I tell you that because going to the people who are talking about lifestyle from a how to content perspective, I don't think are your play. Your play is guys like Ryan Mickler. Do you know Ryan?

No, I don't think so.

Okay. So Ryan's business is his content is around the umbrella order of man and it is about empowering men to be leaders. And he gets so much flack and so much hate from people who disagree with him. And he just keeps to his message. He's never in there talking about, here's how I put sandalwood essential oil in my. He would never do that ever. But he will go all in on empowering the young man who does not have confidence and bringing out the badass who is behind the insecurity. If you create a partnership with someone like that, even if the content doesn't feel like it's direct on, you will in the long run, you will way outperform because those are the types of influencers who build audiences over a long time who have connections from other people who match your avatar and who have real influence who can actually impact people's decisions of what products and services they buy. So I think that type of a positioning is your play. Go get people like that. Go get. Go get. Who is the one guy, his audience, he has like 10 million followers. But David.

There'S a guy, of course, I can't think of his name. There's a guy who, David Michigan, I think.

Does like a bunch of this type of content and it'd be another really good example of that. So that would be my recommendation for you.

Thank you so much.

Yeah. Anything else we can do for you, Zoltan.

Cool question for you. Besides the beard oil, do you have two to three other products that you have outlined for this brand?

I do. I have a facial mask idea.

One.

That doesn't get stuck.

Okay.

And I have kind of like after cream for people who try to shave their neck. And you know, there's always irritated red cuts to kind of relieve the pain.

So these are all great, but they're also very shaving specific. And you didn't say that you wanted to have a shaving company. You said that you wanted to have a company that addressed lack of confidence among young men. So you can do both. And you can also have the mission that just is like the umbrella for the products. But I'm curious to Hear if you have clarity over which is more important to you and where you want to go with it.

Okay, so I'll definitely look into different ideas of what I can do for that certain pain point of.

Which. Pain point.

Boosting confidence.

Yeah. I mean, is that the purpose of the company?

Yes.

All right, so you said that super emphatically, super confidently. So if that's the case, what other products boost confidence? And you would look at things like workouts, workout gear, clothing, certain supplements, weight loss, weight loss supplements, food, fashion.

These are all things that could be rolled under the same brand. Now, you can absolutely make it a beard centered brand that has a message about confidence. But I'm hearing you say that you really want to have the company that exists to empower young men. And if that's the case, lean into that really hard.

Okay.

Okay.

So it's not. Everybody has a good idea.

Well, it can be. So it can't. It's not a bad idea as long as it's something you like. Like, here's something that's going on in my brain right now is I'm a little bit biased because I do know some of the research behind what you talked about regarding essential oils, specifically wooden essential oils. So for me, my brain goes to. Okay, where can I work that message in to match this overall umbrella of empowering, Empowering confidence in men? And if that's the case, I'm looking at different essential oil blends.

I'm looking at really masculine diffusers. I'm looking at, can I make a cologne out of wooden essential oils? I'm looking at beard oils. I'm looking at. I'm looking at how I can weave that differentiating factor into a product suite that matches that overall umbrella of confidence among young men.

Okay. Okay, perfect. I appreciate it.

All right, man, great to see. I'm rooting for you. Keep me posted. All right. Thanks, Sultan. I have always. Zoltan, if you're still watching. I've always really loved that, that positioning for a brand and have been waiting for somebody to do it well. So you have my full endorsement of doing that. There is.

Such a missing piece of our society talking about that. And if you can create a brand that is the Yoda to those Luke Skywalkers on their journey.

You'Re doing a really good thing. Hey, Chantal, you are next in the queue. Give me a thumbs up if you are good to. Come on. All right. Good morning, Chantal. How are you?

Good morning.

I'm feeling good today.

Good. Glad to hear it.

Better.

So if you Remember, I have the page, the Facebook audience for sensory. And now reading your book and listening to the auto book. I get what you're saying when you were telling me when I came on the Live last time was that I'm already not halfway through your book, but I could portion because I have the audience, I have the email list, I have products. And listening to what you said earlier, I think is very crucial for anyone is that I need to love what I do and not just give my audience what they want because then I won't sustain the long run.

So let's, let's go one step further in this. You have to love the people in the audience.

Right. Which I do that.

And that, that's, that's because it's so easy to get caught up in the what I'm doing.

It's like if you're, if you're married and you love your spouse, sometimes you go to dinner at the place that you don't want to go to because it makes them happy.

Yes.

You don't love going to that restaurant, but you do love your spouse. I love my kids. I don't love 80% of taking care of my kids.

But I love my kids. And so that.

Man, I don't know that I should say this while we're recording, but like, I don't love the day to day of being a dad, but I love my kids and there's a big difference there. And so you can, you can love your people and your followers, but not love writing emails or going live. And that's all okay, because as long as you are focused on the people rather than what it is that you're doing, you'll find your way there. Like, you'll find your way to the activities that cross that bridge. But I just wanted to highlight. It's okay if you haven't found the part that you love yet, as long as you love the people who are in your audience.

Yeah. And I think the parents like what you just said about being a parent. Like, I think a lot of us are not going to say that out loud, but we can relate to it because some days I don't want to be a parent, but I love my daughter. And I think it's this same thing. So it's just, it's an awesome way to put things in perspective for the business as well.

Yeah, that's right. Most people wouldn't admit that it sucks sometimes. There's like most people won't admit that I'm being an entrepreneur sucks sometimes. There's days I don't want to be an entrepreneur either. So, like, there has to be something that you love that carries you through that. There has to be some something or some person that is rewarding enough to bring you through that. Otherwise. Otherwise, you will quit.

Right?

Right.

So when you asked me to come on on Tuesdays, because I was saying, you know, because of my sensory niche, everyone tells me, like, wow, you have an insane niche. Like, the possibility are endless for you. Because there's a lot of things that you could do with this niche and this audience. And I agree. I, um. But I always get stopped. Like, I have ideas to create products, and then I was listening to your audiobook just before this, and it's basically telling us to, like, not reinvent the wheel. You're telling us this, and I'm just like, oh, okay, hold on, let me rethink this. And part of me doesn't want to just order something and just have, like, a wiggle seat that other brands are selling. Selling, sure. So it's like, how do I. Where I get stuff stuck? Because I did, like, there's this one product that I'm pretty sure that would do awesome on Kickstarter, and I thought, okay, I. There's a company that I can deal with that does 3D printing, and I'm like, I could get a. Somewhat of a prototype that could be, you know, and then I get stuck. It's like, I. Because it is expensive, and I just feel like to get that mold, to get that prototype, and I see where you're coming from on your audiobook. When I'm listening to it, you're just like, go easy at first. Right. Don't. But then at the same time, it's like, I don't want to be this other company that's just selling.

Then it's not easy.

Yeah.

Yeah, right. So.

You'Re confusing me saying easy with.

You doing the thing that you don't want to do just because it would be easier to get it done for you. It's not easier to do that because you have this big mental block around it. Yeah. So my workaround to this is, what is the thing that Chantal does want to do or will do and be excited about enough to carry through.

See, that's my problem as a person. I'm the type of person that would start a business, sell it, start another one. Sell it, sell it. Because I love change. So I have so many ideas that it's like, okay, so where do I go? Where do I go first?

Okay.

And that's My problem as a person.

So let's talk about. First of all, that's not a problem, that is an opportunity. So let me help you align that opportunity. Talk out where you feel a little bit distracted or chaotic and I'll help you clean it up.

I guess I've talked about this on the Loveline with the guys and it's like I know that my audience would love a sensory box. So that's, you know, a type of subscription box. I could make it as a, just a standalone box where they would get like the issues that my audience is saying is that they don't have the time to put all the stuff together to create activities for their kids. So I would create a box where you get like 10 items and then you, you can make like 10 activities with them by mixing and matching them. And then they have enough for like a month of activities. They don't need to run to the store. It's convenient. That's what they're looking for. So I know I could do that. But there's a part of me that, and I don't know if it's because this is just not a one time deal. It's not me making a product and then moving on to something else. This is a product I'll have to make over and over again. Create new activities, source new stuff. It's, it's going to be, it's something that I need to be excited about for the long haul. And it excites me. I see the potential and maybe the potential is bigger than what I can actually create because I mean, I know there's, I have that feeling that there's going to be a lot of demand for it. More so with people, you know, keeping their kids at home for the school year that's coming up. So it's like overwhelming to me. But there's an opportunity and I have, have a hard time letting that idea go because I know it would be a popular thing.

So you, this is, this is my answer. And I think you're gonna like this, that you don't have to let the idea go, but the more that you are focused on putting pressure on yourself, the more that there will be tension between the idea and what you are actually doing. You have to trust that an idea that you don't feel ready for will either relax in your mind or you will become ready for it. And you don't feel ready for that. And you're caught in the beating yourself up over not being ready for the idea that you think is best, which you don't really know. That's an assumption. That's a guess. And so the hack is to ask if there is something in between that you can do to create momentum, which could be as simple as recommending somebody else's sensory kits, finding out, if you become the number one affiliate for them, it could be doing content on one of the sensory kits that you put together for your daughter and seeing if people actually like it.

Okay, that's a good idea.

Right. So.

It is about creating for the audience something that will serve them without you putting this burden on yourself to figure out the entire journey right now.

Now, yeah. And that's what I'm trying to do.

That's right. That's what I'm trying to do right now.

Yeah. Because this idea is the idea that I could. I could start selling this next week. I have the suppliers. I have everything. Because I have a ton of suppliers already lined up. I have, like, for that specific, you know, idea. That's easy. But then when I go to, like, my other ideas where I have to create stuff and then I have to get it manufactured, it's like, I see that it's. I don't know. I see a lot of, like, roadblocks.

And so this is. This is your assignment, Chantal. You talk about this. Where does your audience follow you? Where do you interact with your audience?

Facebook. So I have 20,000 followers on Facebook, and I have a Facebook group of close to 6,000 members, and I have an email list of close to 4,000.

And what about a blog? Like, how are you? Okay, so most people finding you on your blog and then getting plugged into.

The Facebook group, and usually they find me through Facebook. The organic is starting on the blog slowly, but it's pretty new. It's only been a few months.

Okay, cool. So. So my recommendation to you would be to create content or to make recommendations for the sensory kits that you like. And if there's a lot of buzz around it, you can make one.

Yeah.

Not a month, not a monthly box, but you can do it one time, see what the feedback is like.

You're right.

If it goes bananas, which it may or may not, if it goes bananas, you have a list of 20,000 people, one of which will work for you to make the box every month. So you don't have to do this every month for the rest of your life. You can go have somebody run the business and go start something else.

You have your rights.

So you're just putting too much pressure on yourself. Is basically yours and everybody else's problem is that you are seeing the idea and then taking it upon yourself. Todd just waved. Yep, me too. So this is you trying to do the entire thing, rather than you just focusing on serving the audience today. Serving the audience today. Serving the audience today. Serving the audience today.

Could you imagine for a minute, like, how frustrated and tense I would be if I was in the back of my mind thinking about selling you on a one on one consult with me right now?

I would have a completely different energy.

I would be showing up with you with, like this. I'd be hiding something, and I'd be trying to convince you to do something.

And nobody wants that. And that makes you feel not free to serve the people that you love.

So one last question. What do you do? I get what you're saying, and you're totally right. I could actually outsource this. I could, you know, if it does kick off, I could find ways, you know, to not have to pack boxes every month. But my question is, how do you go be like, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I have a hard time letting go of things and, you know, giving this to someone else and, you know, it's. It's hard. How do you get there? You just do it, I guess.

Well, two things. First of all, I just gave you the idea to hire someone later, and you're already freaking out about it.

I'm not freaking out, but I know how I am.

And number two, I do it one step at a time.

So there are four people besides myself on my team full time. Ask me how many people are no longer with me.

I've had to learn to hire and fire and manage and make mistakes and trust and shouldn't have trusted them. And, like, I learned by running into that wall and saying, that hurt. Let me run into that wall. That hurt. Let me run into that wall. And nine years later, I'm like, there's a door here. Sweet. I'm gonna go through the door. And somebody's like, if you had just read this book, you would have known that there was a door there. And I'm like, sorry, I don't learn that way. See that hole in the wall? I did that. Do you know how to patch walls? Read a book on that. So that's me.

You don't do it now. That's the answer. You don't have to worry about it now. You don't have to think about it now. Because when you think about, like, I can observe this in you, Chantal. When you think about three steps from now you get stressed and overwhelmed.

Oh yeah.

This is also why you like, change. Because the more that you go down a path, the further ahead you think, then you feel trapped. So you want to get out of it and start something else, which allows you to focus on the step that is right in front of you. But the truth is, if you were to just focus on the step that was right in front of you right now, you would carry that excitement through the business all the time. And you can't do that when you are trying to think of how do I scale this thing that doesn't exist yet. It happens by reading the book one page at a time.

And you know what? I just had an aha moment. You shared something at the book which was amazing to me that most entrepreneurs have, you know, a childhood that may have, you know, you, you've learned somewhere along the way to rely on yourself and to, you know, and this is what it is. It's me trying to plan three steps ahead so that I can foresee my future. Because I've always done this as a child, whenever I've always tried to. And when this is something too, well, you know, working with you, listening to your lives, the book mindset is huge. And this, I think it's causing me some roadblocks. So thank you.

But it's also caused you some opportunities.

Very true.

Right. You planning ahead like you do and you having the past that you do has also given you strengths. And there's always an opposite to that strength. Like that strength exposes a weakness too, but it doesn't make it better or worse than somebody else's strength or weakness.

I believe Elon Musk is the loneliest person on the planet. He has to be. He's literally carrying the problems of the world.

Right, right.

And, and he'll, he'll admit this. Like, he'll admit, like some days I don't want to be me. He has a double edged sword that makes him amazing at what he does and also has a lot of inner wounds. And we've all got him. We've all got him. What's beautiful about entrepreneurship is that it is literally that we project our strength while working on our weaknesses. Our weaknesses are what hold us back in entrepreneurship puts a big old megaphone on all of those. And so you have some of yours exposed and they would not get exposed if you weren't also sharpening the sword of the strength that had got you to this point.

So this is so good.

Be nice to yourself. You're doing just fine.

Thank You.

You bet.

You're amazing.

See ya.

I need a cigarette before we go to Todd. Hold on.

That was good. That was good. Hi, Don. Good to see you. Hi, Audrey. Hi, Dennis. Hey, Alicia.

Two quick house cleaning items before we go over to Todd. Number one, 12 months to 1 million is one of the best selling audible books in business right now. Thank all of you. Thank you for supporting the book, for talking about it, for actually listening to.

Was a weird experience writing a book and then publishing it and seeing the sales and then realizing I got like nine books sitting around me that I haven't read yet and we've all got it. And so seeing people actually consuming it in an audible format.

Is just a wonderful experience for me because it's one of those things that I know that if somebody reads it, it'll change their life. Drew's on chapter seven. Thank you. And number two, I've brought up the capitalism incubator a couple of times. A couple of you in the comments are asking about it. It's capitalism.com Inc. Scarcity, scarcity, blah blah, blah. There's 25 spots. We've already got eight of them filled. So this isn't a pressure thing. It's just there actually is real limited capacity on that. Todd, I've been wanting to chat with you for weeks, my friend. Give me a thumbs up if you are ready to. Come on, let's do this. Hello, my friend. Great to see you.

It has been a long time. I'm glad you found your way back here.

Me too. It took a while. I do things on my own time, but you know, and it's a good.

Time to be here. And you've been traveling the country in an rv? If I, if I, if Facebook is accurate.

Yeah, we did that. We've actually been off the road for about two years now. We did that from like early 2017 to late 2018. We were on the road in the RV and started the blog. That's the foundation for this business that we're going to talk about. And yeah, right now we're in Austin.

Great.

Living life.

Great. Well, tell me about the business and how can I help?

Well, so you know, trucking company, we started it about a little over two years ago.

Built it to a full time income in about a year. And that's really been our, our main thing for the past year. Plus we, we from the beginning we envisioned Trekken as a brand for physical products. You know, kind of building it out from there.

However, when I came back around to this in the summer, I Couldn't make the brand that we had built really work in my mind on the physical products side of things. So we went with. So we've put built a brand clever camper company underneath the umbrella of trekking. And that's the brand we're launching. Our first products should be shipping out to us next.

I love the name, by the way.

Thank you.

I love the name.

Thank you.

Great work.

So, yeah, first product is. Should be ready next week, shipping out, which I'll have at early September. And really.

I hope here's what I'm. Here's my struggle point. I hope I have not made a mistake and unnecessarily complicated things by doing this brand underneath a brand. Because it is a, you know, it's a process, it's a flow to try and take our audience and our list from one platform, one brand to another.

And I'm kind of struggling with what that, what that looks like to streamline that process and make it work for our customers. You know.

I'm having three thoughts at once. The analogy I like to use sometimes is I feel like a mosquito at a nudist colony. I have so many places I want to go and I don't know where to start.

So, Todd, the way that you fix this is by making more mistakes.

So the.

You are trying to fix things that aren't broken. And so the only way that you actually fix this is breaking more shit. So you've got more stuff to play with. It's like, well, let's go with the campfire example. It's like questioning. I shouldn't have put that log on that early. And now I've suffocated the whole thing. And it's like, we need to go get some kindling and some sticks and throw some matches in there and throw some paper in there. And it's not going to be perfect, but we're going to have a fire at the end. And we could sit there and plan the perfect structure of the fire, or we could just throw some things in there and let it keep burning. And you have a little bit of a perfectionist streak in you of, like, wanting to know that it's all done right, but there is no right. So the way that I would say you made the right decision, depending on what you do next.

Because depending on what Todd's decision is next will determine if creating the umbrella company was the right move or not. If you do something that contradicts your previous decision, then it was the wrong decision. If you do something that matches the decision you already made. It was the right decision.

So the decision is justified by what you do afterwards, not what you do before. And so that's my long way of saying, nothing's wrong, nothing has been broken. The only thing that could break is if you stop because you're overthinking and judging the decision that you made with the best information that you had at the time, which at the time was the right decision and still is the right decision unless you contradict it with further decisions.

Does that make sense? That was. That was a bit of a wonky wonk way of getting there. But did it make sense?

Well, I'm a wonky wonk kind of guy, so it worked for me. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. And I mean, honestly, I'm in love with the brand, with the clever Camper brand. I mean, it just like, it's a perfect fit. I mean, I enjoy it. I. I want to represent this brand. And so I've got, you know, I've got my passion behind. Behind it.

I guess.

I just had a question go through my head to follow up and I lost it.

Well, then let me ask you one.

Yeah.

Do you know what your next steps are?

Well.

My next step is to launch the product on Amazon. I mean, that's. That's all there is to it. So far, I've got 200 people from our list, from our trucking list, I've got 200 people that have either raised their hands as beta testers or hot listers. So, you know, and this is, this is early. You know, we're still a month plus from. From launch, so we've got a good foundation there. So there has been some transition over to the new brand already and good feedback on the new brand. But it's just kind of like, like you're talking about.

I just.

Maybe it's the perfectionism side of things. Maybe it's just the need, the need for a roadmap. Just like, okay, what. What are my next steps?

How can I make it pretty? How can I make it flow? How can I make it, you know, do all this stuff instead of just taking the next. The next step.

Yeah. Well, you can always make those decisions later as long as you don't worry about the judgment of other people.

So for you, your next step, to put yourself in the position to make more mistakes as fast as possible. You have a, you have a military background, right, Todd?

Yeah.

What happens if you make a mistake in the military?

Correct.

And how do they correct? It.

Depends on which service you're in.

Okay. So what's, what's your reference point for if you make a mistake in the military?

Reference point is you're counseled. You're told, okay, this is what you did. This is what you should have done. This is how you correct yourself and get back on track.

And so does more of your attention go to not making mistakes and following orders, or does it go to guessing and correcting along the way?

Definitely. Well, I would say not making mistakes from a self preservation standpoint.

Right? Yeah, yeah. So like, you've got a background that would suggest that you be very calculated. You measure twice and cut once. And the good news for you is you've done that. You've built the audience. You have the following. You have 200 people have raised their hand. You've created a product that you're really excited about. You have measured twice. Now, entrepreneurs are the opposite of military people in the sense of the way that we learn is we guess we get kicked around or like that hurt, let's do it again. It's the opposite.

I'm always so conflicted because I'm half and half.

That's right. That's exactly right. But what it actually, the opposite of conflicted is balanced or well rounded or calculated or complete. You have multiple perspectives. You have the ability to see it in a different way than somebody who is a crazy entrepreneur who has no military background like me has. Right. So like my, my brother is a lot like you, and I am crazy entrepreneur. Right. And like, personality wise, we're exactly the same. Our lives couldn't be more different. So when the two of us come together and make a decision, it's beautiful. And so you have a complete person, more complete perspective than somebody who comes from two worlds. What's this? Interesting. Forgive me for psychoanalyzing you, but this is, this is what I love. This is what I love about you, Todd. You have this like, structured, militant background with this deep desire to be free of that.

Like, you have this deep desire for freedom and expansion and travel and mistakes and creativity. And it's like it's bubbling up against all of your patterns and you have the opportunity now to let it. And man, does it get scary and fun on the other side of that. So all this to say, since you have that calculated, more complete perspective, you're gonna be able to navigate that with more ease once you let that part of you come out. And so that looks a lot like launching the damn product, letting it be ugly, letting it be messy, getting feedback, improving it, and continuing to go and go.

And you're at a million within a year.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that.

That just reminded me of the question I was going to ask before we can finish up with this. So the product that I'm launching is actually new to market. Like, I could not find this product anywhere. It was scratching our own itch. It was something that we had that was a pain point, a literal pain point from our RVing and camping experiences. And we were like, there's got to be something out there to fix this problem, to take care of this. There wasn't. So we're essentially, from what I can tell, first to market for this thing. And I'm just curious what.

How you would advise us to maybe approach this differently as opposed to what I'm reading in 12 months.

Yeah, I mean, the only thing that is different is you have to fight the urge to compare yourself to other people who are selling on Amazon. And so when you launch something that's new to market, you're immediately a brand. You don't have to create the Persona of a brand. You become a brand because you're first to market with a unique idea. And so it's a mistake to compare yourself on pricing or color schemes or copy to anyone else in the space. You are forced to go all in on the personal person that you're serving. And the. The benefit of that is you grow a lot faster. As long as you don't question it, you grow a lot faster. More investment dollars are available. There's. There's a wider variety of products you can sell. You get more word of mouth, you get better reviews. That momentum happens faster, but it's riskier on paper because you can't look at what other people are doing and run the numbers. So if you're able to ignore that and put all of your attention into the people who are following you and the journey they're on, then you'll be way ahead of everybody else who is trying to get into the same space.

Okay, good stuff.

This is. This is an opportunity. This is a carrot, not an offer. But I have been wanting to invest in an RV brand for a long time. So as this gathers momentum, if you need capital, please keep me in mind.

Absolutely.

All right, man. Good to see you, Todd. Thanks for hanging out with us.

I am so pumped to have Todd in the 1%.

Because Todd and I have known of each other, and I know he has followed my work for a long time, and it means a lot to me. For those of you who have followed me for a long time and are now getting really plugged into what we're doing here@capitalism.com means a lot to me. This turned my day around, so I was having a bumpy morning. Thanks for hanging out with me everybody.

I feel like I should pitch something. Go download the audiobook since it came up a lot today. It's great to see all of you. If you're watching on YouTube, please make sure you're subscribed because we go live about twice a week and I'd love to see you on the next one. Thanks for watching guys. I'll see you next time. Take care.