How Miki Agrawal Created MULTIPLE $100M Businesses (Keynote)

People are still talking about the keynote that Miki Agrawal gave on our stage in September of 2021 at the last Capitalism conference. I wanted to bring her on stage to figure out what is it about her mindset or what is it about her approach that creates predictable success because many entrepreneurs struggle to get just to the first million. But she is out there dancing her way to multimillion dollar businesses and nine figure valuations. What is she doing different than all of us? The focus of her time on stage was much more about being lit up as an entrepreneur than it was about any particular strategy. In fact, Mickey talked about how when you're fully lit up, your power as an entrepreneur is kind of able to light things on fire all over the place. The strategy becomes less important when you're fully empowered to go pursue something really hard. That sounds a little bit airy fairy or law of attraction. Y but I think that when you hear her break it down, you're going to realize why this is true and why so many people who are at the event in person found that this talk inspired them to go to a much bigger level, think much bigger as an entrepreneur, and make way more money. The first part of her talk was about disruptive innovation and going after big challenges in the world. You make the most money when you solve a big challenge as an entrepreneur. Now oftentimes we think about how much money we can make or what the strategy is for us to make an extra million bucks a year. But the real way that you do that, the way that you make all the money in the world, is by solving problems. And you've got to think in a specific way to be able to tackle that. And you've got to trust yourself and know yourself enough to be able to know you're going to win. How do you do that? Miki talks about it in the first part of her talk.

Okay, so what is disruptive innovation? We're just going to kind of define it really quickly and talk a little bit about kind of like the disruptive companies that have really inspired me and how that kind of lent itself to building the things that I have. So disruptive innovation is simply an innovation that creates a new market which eventually overtakes an existing market. It creates a new market which eventually overtakes an existing market. Let's go through some examples of that. Model T. The Model T car disrupted the horse and buggy category. You know, back in the day, that was the only sort of affordable way for people to get around. But then, and cars existed for super Rich people. But then the Model T came along and it was really affordable to the masses. And that really disrupted the transportation space. Internet microprocessor disrupted the way we communicate, the way information is being Transmitted. Credit card PayPal disrupted the way money was exchanged. Anesthesia were going to go back and forth in time. Anesthesia disrupted the way operations were head ACL reconstructions from soccer. I had a C section. Without that precious, important, disruptive innovation, I don't know if I'd still be here. Let's talk about disrupting consumer products. Tom Shoes, Warby Parker Toms really disrupted the one for one model and really introduced that buy one, give one model, which now is pervasive around so many different consumer product companies. Dollar Shave Club disrupted the subscription model. And you think about why did Unilever buy dollar Shave Club for a billion dollars? Well, they did because what took Dollar Shave Club three years to do took Gillette 100 years to do when it came to customer acquisition. So let's talk about Uber. Airbnb. Uber. Airbnb disrupted taxi and hotel industry. And when you really think about the taxi and hotel industry, these industries were super trying so hard to maintain status quo. Remember, like, every city was suing Uber and every hotel was trying to prevent Airbnb from coming in. I mean, what's so interesting about that is like when companies are trying to prevent progress from happening, what happens? This stat? 88% of Fortune 500 companies from 1955 are now gone. They did not innovate fast enough. I think about my beloved BlackBerry and I'm like, and it's now gone. I'm like, yeah, you know, it's so upsetting.

This next part of Nikki's talk is about what she calls social entrepreneurship. Now I'm going to say something a little bit controversial here. When most people say social entrepreneurship, it's really left wing capitalism. It's just a way that liberals who feel bad about making money justify creating something that other people give money for. That is my personal opinion, but I don't care, like, as long as an entrepreneur is creating value for somebody else. Think about it, Justify it however you want. Capitalism makes the world a better place. Anytime you provide something that someone else sees value in and they can purchase it. Both parties, when everybody wins is why entrepreneurship and capitalism is the most powerful productive force in the world. And some people are more motivated by the social impact of that. The social impact of the power of capitalism. Well, Mickey sees this as a vital part of her business. And her opinion is that the social aspect of Entrepreneurship is the only way that you're going to be able to win in this era of capitalism. And it motivates her because she knows that she can create good by building a business that solves a problem. All of that is true. However you justify going into business and providing value for someone, go for it. But here's me, one of the things.

I really want to talk about is I think the future of entrepreneurship is social entrepreneurship. Doing good and doing well have to kind of be side by side. I think the next generation will care so much about Planet People doing good in addition to doing well financially. And so the other thing I also really believe in is the idea that.

Tom Shoes create the one for one model. Buy one, give one model, right? People love talking shit about, oh, my God, that model didn't work. It created the welfare model. I really believe that we have to start somewhere. And I hate when people shit on companies when they're trying something new. And let's learn and let's build from that. So when we're seeing new companies doing things and messing up, let's just cheat, cheerlead them, and let's not, let's not talk shit about them, you know? And so I was so inspired by the tomshoes model, and I kind of looked at it and the flaw that they had was that rather than, you know, just giving shoes away, right? Buy a pair of shoes, give a pair of shoes. Somebody needs. So what's your name? Nick. Okay, so Nick has a shoe company in Uganda and he's like a Ugandan person. He's working his ass off in Uganda selling shoes to local people and trying to make a living, honest living, honestly. All of a sudden, an influx of free tomshoes arrives to his neighborhood. What happens to Nick's business? It suffers, it fails, it struggles, it creates a welfare model. So now all of a sudden, instead of supporting Nick's business, it just creates a handout model. People are begging for more shoes, and that doesn't support the business. Even if the intention was beautiful. Even if the intention was there. So what do we do? We learn from that. We grew from that. So what do we create? We create a buy one, fund one model. So we found a company that makes washable, reusable cloth pads like Nyx. Instead of him selling shoes, they sell washable menstrual pads. And we said, we will fund your company to grow your business, hire local people, create local jobs, and create an empowerment model and not create a welfare model. And now when we started working with apropos they had like 25 employees and now they have over 200. And it really kind of changed the way we thought about the buy one, give one into a buy one, fund one model. So we learned. So then the other thing that we kept hearing over and over again was, hey, you know, does this work for women or people with light bladder leakage? Because when you give birth and a gigantic head comes out of the thing, you know, like sometimes when you jump, the little pee comes out. Like, how do I solve for that? And so we were like, okay, we'll create a pair of underwear that supports women on when they have light bladder leakage. And men too have this experience. And we created Icon now rebranded Speaks, which is, you know, a pee proof underwear. Beautiful, sexy, gorgeous underwear that makes you feel like, you know, an icon, actually.

And the give back for that is that we funded. We funded the Fistula foundation, which basically is so what. Anyone here know what obstetric fistula is? Okay, this is, it's a crazy thing. So fistula is when a woman gives birth in developed worlds. My older sister, for example, gave birth and tore a little bit in her urinary canal or bladder canal. And in America or in the first world, you just sew it back up when you're back in business and you're fine in a couple of weeks. In the developing world, if you give birth to a baby and you tear a tear into your bladder canal, you end up peeing yourself forever, uncontrollably, all the time. And these women who just gave birth are put into these fistula camps to die. And it's called the modern day leprosy. That's what it was called. They're just giving birth and they were shunned by their families, disowned by their communities, and put in these Fistula camps to die.

What we've done is we're funding the Fistula Foundation. We've funded now hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of surgeries for these women so they can go back into their lives. We're very, very proud of that.

At the end of Mickey's keynote, we went into Q and A, and it was here that I invited her to go deeper into this idea of being lit up as an entrepreneur. This is the part of the talk that people are still processing and still talking about a year after the fact. And so if I interrupt it too much, I'm afraid it's going to spoil the magic. So I'm just going to let this run and hope it impacts you in the exact same way that it impacted the people who were there in person at the last Capcom. Let's go.

One thing that came to mind as.

You were talking is you both started.

And concluded with this idea of being lit up. And as you were talking, I was.

Trying to piece together, like, I know.

As an entrepreneur, that's actually what we're.

All looking for, right?

Yeah.

Like, the results that happen in the.

Wake of that are what we all measure and see in other people. What we're actually looking for is that experience of being lit up.

And I was hoping you could talk.

A little bit about that, because what I pieced together as you were talking was that your companies, in order for.

You to stay lit up, it has.

To mean something beyond it being just a business. And I saw that as a consistent theme in every story you were telling was there was something that was drawing you bigger and beyond just the business infrastructure that exists. Am I piecing that together correctly and could you comment on that? Yeah.

I mean, I think money, like, it's like moth to a flame, right? It's like you. Like, I don't. I don't see myself chasing someone who's not lit up. Like my friend Colin right here. Most lit up being one of them, literally. I know. And my first friend in Austin, he built, you know, the first drone camera built dji. I'm so proud of him. And now I invested in his newest company called Gel Blasters, which is going to disrupt Nerf and all the epic toy companies in the world. And. And what. What draws me to him is lit up energy that I get from him. And we are attracted to that because it's not just us being lit up, but, yes, that's. That we have to fan our own flames. But then that fanning of our flames attracts other people to, like, okay, why are you so excited? Like, what are you. What's going on? And that. That's what generates. Actually. That's what generates abundance, Actually. An abundance. Everything in business. Because without that, it's just like, yeah, you know, I have this thing, and it's like, I'm too cool for school right now. I'm just gonna tell you about my business. It's very heady, you know, versus, like, when I talk to colleagues, like, you have no idea what happened. Like, I mean, we need, like, 30 minutes to sit down and unpack the shit. And it's just like, the most fun and alive and exciting and just. Ugh. Like, it just. I'm attracted to that. And so. Versus, like. Like I said, like, trying to fit into the box of like, you know, we live in a world where it's unfortunate, but it's like, I have to like, you know, like, it's almost cool to, like, hate your job. It's almost like, cool to like, meh versus, like, ah. I'm so excited about what I'm doing. And I feel like that, to me, is what actually drives 100 million, nine figure, whatever the fuck. That's just ancillary. But it actually drives us. It drives me. Like, I don't, I don't. I mean, the money is great, but it's not why I'm doing it. And I think when people are doing it for the money, it's just never going to last.

Do you think that that excitement or that experience of being lit up can be reverse engineered? Like, can you actually. Can you find that or is it somehow beyond you?

It's not. It's a truth. You're searching for a truth inside. And just like, when you close your eyes, you're like, ugh. Like, we know, we. Everyone here has had the moment where you're just like, I met someone who just like, woke up this energy inside of me. And I can't stop thinking about them. I can't stop, like, you know, I just can't stop, like, just thinking about them or wanting to talk to them or imagining things with them, you know, or if you, like, fall in love with an idea and you're like, oh, my God. Like, I just, you know, my next company that I'm starting is just like, everything's aligned and it's just like, oh, my God. It just all kind of. It's coming together like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it's magic because it's following this, like, flame that's just true. And, like, you can't fake that. Like, you can't fake truth. And I think, like, I think we all try to mask it. Just like, yeah, cool. You know, and it's just. That's not cool.

You.

Can you compare that to a relationship, But a relationship, like, a lot of times happens by accident. Like, you meet somebody.

Yeah.

And you fall for them and not.

Usually the person that you think you're.

Going to fall for.

Does that correlate to business?

Like, I think it's all the same. Attraction is. Attraction is attraction. Fire is fire is fire. Lit is lit is lit. It doesn't matter where it comes from. And actually, when you're lit by a person, by a friend, by a lover, by a husband, by a whoever, that actually translates into everything that I Do, like, the amount of downloads of ideas that I'm having for the company. It's just because it's fueling. Because I'm following the truth of that feeling. And I'm not trying to suppress it. I'm not trying to. I'm trying to just. I'm letting it flow. And when you, like, open the flow, it just unlocks every and every area of our life.

The aha I just had, as you.

Were describing, that is, I was thinking about it just through the lens of business, of. Of wanting to be lit up more in the journey of entrepreneurship. But what I. What I just realized is that it is. It is more the experience of being lit up that then translates over into the business.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. A thousand percent yes. Because if. If we're chasing the money and the fame and the blah, you know, it's just. It's not really true because we're chasing, like, a love. Like, that's because we all are chasing, like, I want to be loved. And like, how do I do that? By, like, having abundance and by, like, taking care of my family, by taking care of my friends, by, you know, by like, showing, look, look, I'm worthy. I'm worthy of love. You know, for me, like, I feel like as a kid I had to, like, prove myself with my Indian father, you know, over and over again, like, I'm worthy of love. I'm worthy of your affection over and over again. I think, like, that's ultimately underlying thing. It's not the money. It's not the. It's love. And so I think if we're. If we're letting that. If we're fanning the flame of love, it'll just.

How do you. You seem to relentlessly either protect that or pursue that.

So.

What is your mindset around that?

It's just a knowing. It's like we just. Right. Like when we love, we know. Like when we. When we feel the alignment, we know. Like, it's not. It's just. We just know it's. It's. And then it's. But it's. It's the. It's the whole. The whole game is the remembering because we're always again, being like, oh, I shouldn't. Oh, I need to. Oh, like, this is the box that I'm in. Oh, like, I, Like, I'm in this system and I have to fulfill and be in this box. And if I'm not, will I be loved? And so I think it's like, you know, that the thing, like your comfort Zone where the magic happens. Like, you know, it's like we get out of our comfort zone. It's just like what you know, and I think we're just, we live in a world where we get sometimes beaten for getting out of our comfort zone. And we're just like, ah, I don't want, I'll just stay here safe and I'm die, you know, like in a safe place place versus like hey, we're all gonna die. Like that is an inevitable thing. And like what are we gonna do with our time? Like, like are we gonna just stay here? Are we gonna just risk it and go for it? And I, I, I'm like it. You know, there's like, there's the, there's the quote by.

What'S his name that he says like I wanna, it's like a. He says I wanna skid to death door sideways. Not in a well pres. But in a flume of smoke. Thoroughly used up. Used up. Explain exclaiming wow, what a ride. Like right? That's the vibe. I don't think it's just like, well I just lived a really nice life, you know. So that's the challenge for all of us. It's like what are we chasing and why? Ultimately it is for love. And like if we chase that, wow, wow, the world will change for the better.

When you are in that zone, what is your relationship with. With money?

If money. In my book Disruptor, I talk about money as literally a flowing energy exchange. It could be anything. It could be a rock. It could be that our hats, like we've. Money is a made up energy exchange that we've agreed to is worth something. Yes, like that's it. So if we just look at money as energy exchange, then it's like, wow, like how am I going to exchange energy with you? How am I going to exchange energy with you? How am I going to exchange energy with you? It's a very different philosophy than like I got to protect my money. I got to, you know, like versus like how am I going to exchange it? Like the Native Americans, like I talk about this in my book Disruptor too. Where Native Americans we.

Used to, they're all about circulating everything. If it's not circulating, it's dead. So like there's the story of this pipe. I talk about the story of this, this, this pipe that you, you share this pipe that like, like the chief, whenever someone visits your, your, the tribe, the, the they give this pipe to the visiting person and that person brings it back to their tribe and then when someone comes to visit them, they circulate that pipe. And that pipe is always alive. That's like money, right? As soon as. Then this, the settler came in, took the pipe and put it on his mantelpiece. And then the chief came in and saw it on his mantelpiece and was like, hey, that's part of the tradition of circulating. It's sitting there. And that's where actually the term Indian giver came from. Which is so fucked up, actually, because they were like, he took the pipe back to circulate it. And then the settler was like, you took your gift back? But no, actually, he took it to recirculate it. And so we shouldn't ever say Indian giver, but that's the same thing around money. Money is just a flow of energy, an exchange of love, an exchange of, hey, like, I'm gonna give you my energy. Give me your energy. Like, what does that feel like? You know? And I feel like that actually unlocks our, like, weirdness around money because we're so. Everyone is so weird around money because the way we're taught, our parents, they were oftentimes our parents. Our parents were bad with money. My parents taught me how to budget from age 11. But there's a lot of weirdness around money. And so the minute we just take the money part off and turn it into energy, it's like, wow. Like, what will it unlock? It'll unlock something completely different.

Well, I think most people perceive that once they have the money, they will give themselves permission to let the energy be unlocked and flow. Yeah, but I think you would agree that it is exactly the opposite, that once you let the energy flow, money flows.

Money flows, everything flows. It's flow. Like, we are in search of flow. It's like the flowing river versus this versus a river that's blocked. You know, when you. When you remove the dam and you're just in flow. Like, I think about Colin all the time when he was just like, I was literally in meditation manifesting my marketing person and literally, like, letting it flow. Just. And guess what? The best person just showed up on his front door literally the next day. Like, that's the kind of shit that works. It's true. Because it's a truth. It's a truth that we're chasing. It's like, I'm in search of flow. I'm not in search of truth. I'm in search of energy. I'm in search of love. But if anytime we're in search of something that's like, kind of like Ego driven. It's just like the flow changes. It's like it becomes weird versus you've.

Now put the power of that thing to allow that to flow. So it just eludes you. Have you ever allowed that to flow and it not worked out how you wanted?

I mean, I think when we're in flow, like, I. You know, like, when we're just in flow with an open palm versus grasping. Like, I've been. I wrote a whole thing on this on Instagram. The other day I went to Hoffman and there's this whole thing about loving with an open palm versus loving grasping. You know, how, like, we. It's so easy to just be, like, want to control and want to grasp and want to hold versus just being like, I trust that whatever. Whatever happens is meant to be. And so even if it doesn't work out. And I went through a crazy shitstorm of craziness in 2017 when I had this major just takedown vibes, you know, like, not cool experience that happened. And I was just like pregnant and holding the truth that, like, this is happening for a reason. Like, I'm just going to hold. And guess what? Like, magic followed, built another company. My baby was born. I got to be with my baby for the first year of her life, of his life. And I got to really change the way I see and view so much in my life. Before, I was very masculine, trying to be in, like, playing in the game. And then after, I just softened and I was just like, like chasing my heart's desire. Very different energy.

When do you know that you're out of flow? And how do you get back in it?

Just know. But. But I. I would say. I would always say, like, just drop into like. So, like at Hoffman, we do this thing called this quad check where you're just like, what is my inner child saying? What is my intellect saying? What is my body saying? And then what is my spiritual self saying? So it's like, okay, so my body's feeling a little like. Like right now I'm feeling like, energized. You know, my intellect is just like, just buzzing my. My emotional child, like, probably wants to be hugged right now, you know, and. And my spiritual self, you know, is just saying, trust, trust, trust, trust, trust, love with an open palm and trust. And that's it. And so it's just a. It's a constant game of checking back in with ourselves because we know all the answers are within us. You know, it's just trusting that again and again and again we come out of Alignment, it's like meditation. It's like bring it back into your breath, bring it back into your body, bring it back, bring it back. It's just we know when we're kind of like chasing the ego thing versus chasing our truth.

If there's a mic runner, we're going to go to Q and A here in a second, so go ahead and get ready. Mickey, what do you see specifically business owners and entrepreneurs doing that takes them out of that place? Or how do you see them thinking a way that's out of alignment of that?

I think it's really like when people are out of alignment, I think it's because they're trying to fit themselves in a box again. They're not following their truth or their passion. They're following I need to be this because this is what the society told me. I need to be this because my mom and dad are watching my Instagram. I need to be this because of xyz and it's just not true. And so when we realize, and this is also what I talk a lot about in my book Disruptors, is that everything's an illusion. Everything is made up. Time is made up, money is made up. Literally. Taxes are made up, our lines that draw our countries or we need this little passport thing that we like that's made up. Everything is made up. And so can we reimagine a world through the lens of love, the lens of fire, through the lens of lit up ness, without making sure everyone joins us too? We're not going to hurt anyone, but we're going to make sure that we're all holding hands in this together and entering a new field together. I think it's so possible.

Even Sam this morning.

Sam was very tactical this morning. But there was a foundation of if it is not based in something that actually has you lit up, it's a waste. There's no amount of tactics that can.

Overcome a lack of that, what he.

Called obsession, that positive obsession, that genuine interest, that genuine curiosity that was driving the foundation of everything they did from that point. And I think we're missing that so much in the entrepreneurial community because it is so obsessed with the tactics. But they're worthless without that underlying obsession. That is the game is discovering that.

Underlying obsession and fanning it. And just like fanning it, fanning the flame, like fanning that obsession, just like letting it live and just exist and grow and that. And it doesn't matter what anyone says, like let that shine and that will. It'll come out and attract and change and alchemize in such a different way.

I think what's so powerful about what Mickey has to share is that this is what we actually want. Yes, we want the money and some of us want the cars or all the eco stuff. Yes, all that is true, but really what we most want is to feel alive. We want to be a lit on fire. We want to feel that passion that we can't get away from, that we have to share with everybody else. That's what we desperately want more than anything else in the world. So Mickey starts with that. And the fact that she has started with that and used it to be so financially successful is very attractive because she started with the end point that all of us want, which is to feel fully lit up and alive and on purpose. That's actually what we're doing here. And it's nice to hear from entrepreneurs who start with that and still get all of the ego stuff too. So I hope this gives you permission to think about what it is that really lights you up and make that the priority. This is the work, in my opinion. This is what I work on, letting that come out of me. Because then I know that everything that I touch is going to work in some way, even if it just means that I feel purposeful in the doing of that project. This was a keynote from the Capitalism Conference, and if you'd like to be at the next one in person, you can get all the details, speakers, dates, all of that stuff. At capitalism.com capcon we keep them small and intimate so that you get interaction time with people who are there and those who are on stage. And I would highly encourage you to come. Open up your network, open up your mind, discover what's working for other people, and to put yourself in the position to be ready for the next stage of your growth.

I'm Ryan.

Daniel Moran with capitalism.com, we frequently release some of the best keynotes from the Capitalism Conference. I hope you'll decide to subscribe to the channel so you can see them and I hope to see you at the next Capitalism Conference.

Thanks.