How to Hire, Build, & Manage a Team To Grow Your Business and Set You Free | Ryan Daniel Moran

Today we are talking about building teams and managing people. Before we bring Inez on, I want to teach you guys a couple of points that I have learned. In case you did not know. The way that I learn best is I basically see a wall and I run 90 miles an hour into the wall and yell, ow, that hurt. And then I recover. I, like, bounce back a little bit, and then I run 60 miles an hour into the wall and I yell, ow. At hurt a little bit less. I bounce a little bit less, and then I run into the wall at 30 miles an hour. This is basically my way of learning until finally I don't run into the wall anymore, and I go, oh, there's a door here. So I just make enough mistakes in order to realize how not to do things. And then I go, oh, there's a door here. I didn't know. I don't call anyone and ask, where's the door? I would save myself a lot of time and stress if I did that. I just make mistakes, and I improve along the way. Drive a lot of people crazy in the process. So I'm going to teach you a couple of mistakes that I have made and what I have learned about running into walls over and over and over again on this topic. And I just wanted to ask for those of you who are watching live, how many of you are kind of freaked out by this topic? How many of you are kind of in that mode of like, I either don't want to build a team. Building a team sounds expensive. I don't have enough revenue to build a team. I don't really want to talk about building teams. How many of you are kind of, like, freaked out by this topic because it seems meaty and hard? And leading people is a completely different skill than launching a product or selling something or even building a business. So building of a team is a completely different skillset then it is to build the business. So Mayra says that she struggles with this. John is on that boat. Alexandra is. Shella is. Okay. Okay. So Rebecca is. So that's. I want you guys to know something. Most entrepreneurs get into the game and then they fizzle out because they don't know anything about this topic. And so they get completely overwhelmed with very long to do lists. And then they. If they ever try to hire somebody, they can't really afford it because they haven't hit pay dirt yet. And so there's this hamster wheel that they are stuck on. And so what we're gonna do in this. In this call together is a We're gonna talk about some things that you can do in order to make this process easier. And then, Inez, my right hand, the one I got right, ladies and gentlemen, we'll talk about that in a second.

Is going to bring on some processes that we use at capitalism in order to make this process easier once you are up and running. Now, before we go into the actual managing part, I want to talk a little about the hiring part and the when you should build a team and how to think about it. So listen, listen to this, okay? Most people bring on others who are going to start new things that they don't want to do. The purpose of a team and the purpose of an organization in the first, first place is to amplify and automate. Good work. Good work. So the starting point for you on hiring someone or getting help is what makes it easier for what's already working to work even better. This is step one. Now, when you run a $10 million business and you want to hire the director of Shopify, who is going to build out a whole new department for you, then we can talk. But from zero to about 7 or 8 million, the purpose of your organization is to automate what's already working, make it bigger, make it faster, make it better. So the easiest place to start is not what do I want to not do? What do I want somebody else to take off my plate? That's not the right question. The right question for building a team at the beginning is what's already working, what's working really well? And how can I make that process faster, easier, bigger? How can I amplify this? How can I automate this? How can I create more ease into this? Let me give you an example. So something that is not working for us right now is that we just aren't doing a good job of acquiring leads and sales via cold traffic at capitalism. We're just not doing a good job of that. And it's never been my own skill set personally, is going out and getting leads and sales from cold traffic. I know how to do it, but I'm really an audience builder more than anything. So I can use cold traffic to build an audience, and then I'm good at selling to the audience over time. But that direct response model is just something I've never nailed. I know a lot about it, but I've never just nailed it. Well, it has made sense to me in the past to prioritize hiring sales directors or marketing directors so that they can lead that as a department. And I've actually churned through three or four different marketing people because we didn't have any base in order to automate or scale it. Really looking back on it was kind of unfair to the people going into those roles because it's just not what the company was focused on at the time. I was trying to fix a problem, not amplify what was working. So you might have if you were here. Last week, our friend Sean McCool was on the call and I said, sean, why does it take me so long to realize that you're right about some things? And what I was referencing was Sean has always encouraged me to focus more on organic, to focus more on audience building, to do more stuff like this. And if you can't tell, I kind of like doing this stuff and I'm pretty good at it. And when I do this stuff, people show up and a community builds and our YouTube channel grows and our sales grow. That's working for us internally or when I'm in physical products, Amazon is working and working with other audiences is working and building an email list for my physical products is working for me. That's the kind of stuff that I do really well. That's the kind of stuff that the organizations that I start tend to do really well. So with all of that in mind, if you look at the capitalism.com team, it's a very content focused group. So about two months ago, we started making this kind of stuff available, right? And moving forward, what you're gonna see is we've developed a new process, we've kind of restructured a few things, we're developing a new structure to go live more often, and we're restructuring a couple things for us to be able to make and distribute higher quality content. We're putting resources now into what's working rather than what is not working. And so for a lot of you, you look at your business and you say, okay, I'm selling on Amazon and I'm doing okay, but I'm just terrible at Shopify. I'm going to hire somebody for that. But what you're doing when you decide to go down that route is you take resources away from what's working really well and you start putting them into the thing that is making zero. And I can't tell you how many times somebody who is at like the $1 million level goes out and they starve the million dollar resource of resources and then they go and they start something that is starting from zero and they try to build a Shopify store and they spend six months and 100 grand trying to make that work. And then they shut it down, free up the resources, put it back into Amazon and it's doing great. I'm not telling you that you should only focus on Amazon. I'm talking to those of you who are doing well on Amazon and are trying to starve that of resources to put into things that are not working. That's not where you should be until you're at like at least seven or eight million dollars. Until then you've got stuff that's working. Even if what is working right now is you going live to your audience, or what's working right now is you're getting a lot of great ideas.

Those are the areas that you should be putting more energy into. I heard somebody that, I like his name, Eben Pagan, we see each other at Burning man sometimes. That's really the only time I ever see him in person. Other than that, Eben is just somebody I followed online for a long time and I heard him say in an interview once that if you are an entrepreneur with no help, like you have no outsourcers, you have no assistance, you have nobody who helps you. If all you did was hire someone to do your laundry and to clean your house so that you could free up five hours a week for you to read, think and grow rich, that would be a really good use of your time. So if you could free up, if you could pay someone a hundred dollars a week or pay somebody $500 a week to free up a few hours to put into here, you've done something really, really good for yourself. So we focus on what's working, not what is not working. When we're looking at our first couple hires and our first couple hires of risk, especially at the beginning stages, alright, the next thing that I want to go through here is I want to talk about the difference between a team member and an outsourcer. I don't mean to insult your intelligence here, but we hire internal people to be generalists to hire. We hire for a wide idea of a wide range of knowledge and a wide understanding of the department and the goal that we're going for. We hire internally for the people that we want to do business with for a long time. And by long time I mean two years or more. I don't really ever expect that someone is going to be with me longer than three years because now when I, when I know they really buy in, then it changes. But when I hire somebody, I'm like, ah, this person's probably going to be with us for like two or three years.

So that's somebody that I want to do business for a really long time.

Specialty things outsource. If you need design work, if you need video editing, if you need website development, if you need Facebook ads, these are things you outsource. You go to specialists on this, hire them part time. That's called outsourcing. You work with them to go after the specialty. And you work with generalists. You work with people who have a wide understanding of something so that they can work with the outsources, they can work with the visionary, they can work with implementing the vision for your business. Which leads me to number three, the third thing that I want to go through with you. You cannot do any managing, leading, training, hiring, nothing if you do not have a clear direction for what it is that you want out of your business. So many entrepreneurs get into this game, start making sales and they're in it because they want to make money. Awesome. I like money too. But if you never have a vision for where the organization and the company is going, you will not be able to recruit good talent and and you will not be able to evaluate if they are doing an adequate job. So anybody can sell a product, anybody can start an agency, anyone can become a coach and take on clients. But if you don't have a vision for where the organization is going, then you never build up any momentum to take you to a specific direction. Otherwise you're just going after whatever looks the most profitable and in the short term, which is fun sometimes, but it's no way to build a long term business. Shella, I'm glad that you are enjoying this. And when I So a question came up, this perfect segue of how do you find somebody to implement your ideas? Three criteria they are that they have done this before. Not they can grow into this role, but they've done it before.

Two, that they have a Rolodex of people that they can call if they run into a challenge. So you are not micromanaging them. They come from a background in this and they have people that they can call. And number three, that they are particularly motivated and excited about the vision that you have for where the organization is going to. You do not want to motivate people. No one likes doing. No one likes motivating, unmotivated people. You want people who are internally motivated about what it is that you are doing as an organization. So much so that they motivate themselves to tap into their Rolodex and their skill set from previous experience to bring into the Organization. Because when everyone comes together, we do more than we could do solo. That's the goal of an organization. Otherwise we would all be solopreneurs and nothing would get done. Especially with me.

So I have a rule that whenever I start a new project, and I give this to all visionaries, for all people who are starting something new, I say you can start your new project whenever you want with one rule, that you have a partner whose job it is to think about integrating your idea and making it real. So I no longer start any project until I have a clear point person that is not me. Otherwise I just build empty, like half built bridges that we have to set fire to three years later and it loses a bunch of money. Great idea, terrible execution. So I need an executor, I need a builder. If you've read 12 months to 1 million, my book, you know that I talk about there being a visionary and there being a builder and the business that I actually both businesses that I built and sold. I was a visionary and I was partnered with a builder and the company that sold for eight figures. My builder's name was Matt. And we used to joke that had I not been a part of it, the business would have only been like, you know, it would have made like $2,000 a month. It would have been Matt's side hustle and he would have used it to fund his vacations. Great. But if it hadn't been for Matt, the business would have never started.

It would have been an idea in my head that floated around for years. So if we didn't need each other, if the world did not conspire for us to work with one another, then we'd all be solopreneurs, figuring this out for ourselves. So the idea of building teams is absolutely necessary if you are going to build something that is bigger than yourself, which most visionaries do. And it's certainly what I want to do. Inez, give me a thumbs up if you are ready to come join me. Cool. So let's bring Inez on and then I'm going to tell you a story.

Good morning, my friend.

Good morning.

So story time here.

I met Inez. Well, I met Inez a couple years before, but I interviewed Inez when I was in a major transition. If you've been following me for a long time, you might remember about two and a half years ago where I went through a period where I hired a bunch of people and it was completely overwhelming and nothing was moving at the appropriate speed. So I had to let a bunch of People go, I basically cut a department. We came way simplified. And that's when I met Inez. And I basically was like, I got a lot of chaos going on in the aftermath of all this. I need some help figuring all this out. And I had one interview and was sold. But I like everybody, so I made Inez interview with everybody that I knew.

And I like to joke with Inez. One of the first things she says was, I don't like to be friends with the people that I work with. And now we're homies. So that didn't work out. So that part didn't work out so well. But it worked out even better than I think she hoped. So, Nez, do you have a different version of the story?

I think when we first interviewed, you were a little like, I'm not sure what her specialty is. And then when you spoke to my old boss, he's like, she can do everything. And you're like, okay, like you. You were in which. Because I know I sold myself that way, I was like, ryan, I'm here to help you. Like, you. I mean, like, here's all the things I can do. Here's my resume. But that's, you know, basic and generic. But here's what I'm really looking after. And I don't know if you ever had someone say that to you, that I'm here to help you. And you were just like, how do I what? And I was like, well, we'll figure it out. Like, you know what I mean? Let's, let's. Let's try this. And then, you know, now, two, two plus years later, here we are.

It does feel like in the last, like six months or so, we finally crossed that bridge of I can ask for help, we know what the company needs, and we're starting to move a lot faster. And I can kind of turn to the. The turning point was when you and I met and we. And we started to actually do this well. So, Inez, I mean, you come with a background of turning chaos into somewhat order, managing a lot of chaos, managing crazy entrepreneurs. What do you think are the tools or resources that most entrepreneurs should be using to manage all that chaos?

Find someone to do it for them, because they can't. Most entrepreneurs have a thousand and one ideas, and they want to do them all, and you just can't. It's just not possible. So you need someone who's going to kind of rein you in to be like, okay, let's vet all the things you want to do and figure out what is really going to drive the point home, or you know what the goal, the whole. The bigger goal. Like, you don't want to look at what's going to happen in the next six months. You want to look at what you want to do in the next five years and get there and figure out how to get in five years, not six months or this year. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs just look at tomorrow. They're not looking farther. And you want to look farther because that's really the goal.

And what would you describe as, like, I'm asking genuinely, because I don't know.

Like, I got lucky. And by lucky, I mean, like, I tried a bunch of things that didn't work and finally figured it out. But in the meantime, you've got a lot of experience helping chaotic entrepreneurs figure this out. When they hire somebody to turn the chaos into order, what should they be looking for or having that person do?

A lot of people think that multitasking isn't good, but I think it's needed, or at least in order to manage a lot of people, because you have to constantly switch gears on the humans. Everyone is different, and everyone gets managed differently. And I think a lot of people manage the way they manage, rather than manage the way their employees need them to manage. So, like with our team, like, when I first started, I wanted to get to know everyone first so that I knew their management style. Like, what are they like? And how do I know they're gonna produce the best way they can? Because they're not gonna cater to me. I needed to kind of cater to them of like, okay, this person prefers it this way, this person prefers it that way. And I think that a lot of people just manage the way they know how to manage. And that's hard for being managed. Cause they don't necessarily understand. Like, there have been plenty of times you and I talk and I'm looking at you, I'm like, I don't know what you've gotta mean. And I have, like, ask you questions or we have to go deeper into it. So I truly understand what it is you're looking for. Because your explanation, I understand it first. But after looking at the larger picture, which is why I always say, look at the larger picture, then it's like, easier for me to dissect it and be like, okay, this is where we want to go, or this route, or, this is what we need to do in order to get here.

Someone posted a question. How do you figure that out? And the way I answer this question is, I Give myself a year of working with somebody before I expect that I figured them out. So everyone on the team right now has been with us at least a year. And everyone on the team, there was a. It was about a year before I was like, I get this person. I know how to. I know how to work with them, I know how to speak with them, I know how to manage them. And most people are looking for, like, the person who can come on board and start generating results right away. And they can, but you know nothing about that person unless you've worked with them in the past. Which is why we either hire people that we do test projects with before bringing them full time, or when we hire somebody that we don't know and let them take the reins, it usually doesn't work out. And so the hack is to give yourself a full year is to let yourself develop a real relationship with that person before expecting that you know exactly how that person thinks. Now, Inez, you've got some tools that you kind of bring with you wherever you go in terms of what organization you're in, that you have kind of have served you well. And I think you wanted to go through those today. Is that right?

Yeah, yeah, it helps in general. So what, you know, when we, as a business, as an entrepreneur, you know, you know where you want to go in the future. I think the easiest way and I think for us specifically how we've really done really well in the past year is we figured out our long term goals, which. So I'm like going back to that because it is important, like, we know where we want to be in two to three years from now. So we're like, okay, great. That's where if we need to get to X numbers in the 1% or whatever products we're working on, let's back into it. How do we get there? So if we want to get there by 2022, in 2020, what do we need to get done in order to get there? So we just divide it by two, you know what I mean? You figure it out and then you kind of go that way. Rather than going all crazy in on, let's go, go, go. It's more like, okay, what do we need to get done this year? Because now it's, we're in June, we're in July. Sorry. So we're halfway through the year. Ready? We're like, all right, have we met that goal? Are we halfway to the end of the year goal? We're not. So we need to double down and really kind of Make a difference, which is where this whole changes coming that were like we've been doing it wrong for the first quarter. Like quarter one, we looked at it like we tested some stuff out. But Q2 we really nailed it in Q3 we're going to nail it that I already know and we just started five days ago. But it's more about breaking it down. And so once you have your long term goals, you shorten them for the year and then you shorten them again by the quarter and then you shorten them again by the month so that it's really easy and obvious whether or not you're going to make that goal. And, and you can really dial in if you haven't. So if in month one, if in by August we haven't hit the number, we think that we need to change things and fix it and go a different route because we're like a month is enough time to figure out whether we're going to get there by the end of the quarter. And so I think people like, they keep trying and trying and trying and not real not breaking the goals down enough to see how they're going to get there. They just want to get there. So it's really, you got to get specific in the things that you're working on and how to focus on where you're trying to be in five years from now and then breaking it down to a month from now.

So question for you. We work well together in this regard where like one of the tabs I have open right now is Teresa sent me the quarter three breakdown. Like the timeline of here's what's going to get done week one, here's going to get done by the first month. And it's all three months are pretty much well projected for what we're going to get done done. And one of the things that makes me really confident that we're going to get it is.

There'S no like number tracking. Like this video got this many views. But that's usually my default as the leader is like we want to have this many members, let's figure out how we're going to get there. And that creates like a lack of clarity around what it is that we're going to do. So something about the way that you and Teresa work with me has a way of bringing that into reality. Like let's add a thousand members. I can say that, but I'm not so good at coming up with the. I could tell you how we're gonna get there, but not what we're gonna do this month versus next month. And so you and Teresa do that. Would you kind of talk out the process of how you take the crazy ideas that are in my brain or somebody else's brain and. And then work them into those quarterly chunks and monthly chunks.

Wow.

Okay. So it's a little hard to break down your brain.

But I think we look at it, I think you focus a lot on the numbers and what we got to do to get there. Whereas we're like, okay, here's other things that will bring us there. And in terms of what we're trying to do, how to make everyone. We're going all into content. I'm going. So I'm going to try to stop. We're going into content full force lately, which is great because, you know, everyone that we serve is loving it and loving what we're doing and it's helping them share it as well. So I think it's. It's hard to.

Like explain this more. It's like we just. We just kind of know what needs to get done. It's like we're systemized. You're not. So for. It's system, like the system type, people just kind of know where we need to be at certain points in the quarter and in the month in order to get there. And I know it's a bad explanation.

Well, let's go do like a specific example here. So something we haven't talked about publicly much is. Spoiler alert, everybody. We are coming out with an incubator style curriculum to take people from idea to the foundation of a seven figure business. So right now we have a small group that's called the tribe. And the tribe is kind of the coaching side of people who are going through that process. We're now developing a curriculum with a graduation, with support and resources that are gonna make it like the kind of thing. Like, we very much believe that anybody who wants a seven figure business and doesn't go through this is an idiot. Like, we're just completely stacking the deck for this. And so that was the intent. Like I came in and was like, all right, I know that I want to have a high end program that is basically guaranteed to get people from point A to point B. And I know that I want to have the confidence of somebody being an idiot if they don't go through this. These are the three things that I want. Here are the big idea vision pieces that I think need to be in it. Then Inez and Theresa have come in and been like, all right, okay, here's what we got. Here's what we have to work with. Let's take a first pass at this. And then they bring me iteration one, and I'm like, I think we should do this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this. And one of the benefits of us working together for a long time is the team knows that half of my ideas are going to be forgotten next week. And so they're good at catching them and working them back into the plan, massaging it again, bringing V2. And we just finalized the plan, and then it went into timeline mode. So, Inez, you had a hand in, like, all of us were working on the overall vision, but then I got it handed over to you into the quarterly plan of the things that need to get done. So talk about that kind of integration of it.

Sure. So specifically with what we're working on. We actually outlined it using your book, which is so. You know what I mean? Like, I read it, and I was like, guys, this is insane Sick. If you haven't already read it, everyone read it. Were like, you're not wrong. And then we kind of broke it out and how to do it with the book, and we gave it to you. You were like, okay, massage here. And then even, like, people I've known in past relationships I've spoken to like, look, here's what we're looking to do. What are your thoughts? And they're like, you know, kind of giving their feedback. I think a lot of times we. We all use our resources to figure out the best way we can produce a product. And then we dial it in. You know, we're like, okay, here's what our main focus is, but here's the trainings. Here's what we need. Here's what we need to do. And we broke it into months at first, and then we broke it into weeks. Okay, so then we really dialed it, like, week one, here's what they need to learn Week two. Here's. In order to learn week two, they need week one first. Like, we kind of just, like, went through it, like, as a person would normally go through it and see, like, okay, wait a minute. Let's go back. No, you need to learn that first in week three before you can learn that in week six. Like, let's like to bring it back in. Like, we kind of just kept flushing it out as a team. Like, so between Teresa, sue, and I, we all just, like, kept going through it as, like, just as if we were the person going through it, like, no, we're two of. We're five steps ahead. And then we brought you in, like, okay, we think this is okay. Like, we kept. We kept, like, kind of like using that word. Like, this is good. Like, it was okay. It was good. And now we're like, oh, this is amazing. Like, now we're like, we're gonna blow this up, and this is gonna be so outstanding, and everyone is gonna absolutely love it.

So you said. You said something really interesting very quickly there, which was that we had your book to go off of. Now, what's important there is, even though it was in book format, it was really my thoughts of the entire process well laid out. Now, from a product development standpoint, it would have been the same had I detailed out, all right, this is actually how somebody builds a million dollar business. And so can we build a product out of this? And the answer would have been Yes, I took 18 months to write it out in book format. But we probably could have also gotten there had I taken one month to create an outline for a product. And now the vision is on paper, and it can be handed off into implementation mode. So I'm watching all of your questions, and some of your questions are like, how do I find this? How do I find somebody as an integrator? How do I find my builder? Or how do I get them to understand my vision? Or there's a couple about. I can't afford them, so I want to hit these rapid fire. Number one, how do you find your person? You don't. You don't just go out and find them. You start with who you know and who you've worked with and who you like working with. And if you've never worked with anyone in the past, where do you live and how old are you? We all have a network. If still you're like, I don't want to work with any of those people, then you start with test projects with people who show promise. And you, for those. For those who do well, you give them more, and then you give them more and more and more. Number two, how do I get someone to understand what's in my head? You don't. You put it on paper. You put it as detailed as possible on paper. There's a great video, I think it's on our channel, of Cameron Harold going through the vivid vision, and he tells this great story about Inez. Have you ever seen Anchorman?

Damn it. Okay.

I was hoping you hadn't, because there's a great, like, imagery that Cameron used where he brings a famous scene from a movie. And he asks somebody who's never seen it, where does it take place? Who are the characters and what are they doing? And then he berates them for not knowing. Because this is what most entrepreneurs do is we. I'm so guilty of this. I'm so guilty of this. I just think everybody can read my mind. It's just so obvious. I'm a visionary. It's like, it's very obvious. Don't we all know? But of course not Everybody has a different skill set. I can't do anything Inez is good at. It's why we work together. It's why we make cool things together. So if you sit down and put it on paper as clearly as you know and come back to it once a week for about a month, you'll probably be 50% of the way there to be able to communicate what's in your head to someone else. That's how you get them to read your mind. And number three, what if I can't afford this person? That's where partnerships have a place. There are a lot of ways, a lot of ways to compensate someone. Only one of them is money. And check this out. So I have a controversial opinion on this, ladies and gentlemen. I think money is actually becoming less and less valuable because cost of livings are actually going down. And with the changes the world is about to go through, with like inflation and Covid and quarantine and.

Increased mobility and less travel, that's gonna get more and more people are going to prioritize what is exciting to them, what is meaningful to them, where they have a sense of community and connection, and they're going to prioritize less compensation. And I mean this when it comes to entrepreneurs, I mean this when it comes to employees, I mean, this comes to outsourcers. We are in full on the era of lifestyle design versus creating as much money as possible. Money is the byproduct. It is not the primary driver. So all that said, if your vision is clear enough and you know where you want to focus, then you can go out and create partnerships with those people. As Gary Vee would say, now is the time when you're broke, is the time to live in a house with your homies and eat ramen for two years. That's a partnership. That's how a lot of great startups are made. Okay, Inez, you talked about taking the vision and bringing it into quarterly and then going to monthly and then organizing from there. We've even gone to weekly. Here's our weekly Checkboxes of what needs to get done in order for to be on track. What other tools do you prioritize in the creating order out of chaos.

So whenever we hire anyone new, or even our current employees, we grind in them. Like, here's your most important tasks. We all have a thousand things to do. One thousand and one probably. And so I try to make everyone focus on two to three things for the week that they need to get done. And those things might take them two days, but it's okay that it takes them two days. I don't expect it done in the first two days. I expect it to be blocked out though. So for me personally, I love early morning work. I wake up at about 5, 6 in the morning, I get right on the computer with my big cup of Joe and I jam. I'm like jamming until 9 o' clock and then I'm like, okay, I need a mental break because I've been working for two to three hours and now I need to go to the gym. So then I go to the gym, I make get rid of my mental break. I come back, I again, I'm jamming for like two to three hours. And I don't let busy stuff get in the way. I do let busy stuff get in the way. Like by about one o' clock I'm like, okay, now I'm going to do all the tasky things. Like all like, you know, checking email, checking your email, checking random things that need to get done. Like, oh, it's stuff with the 1% box. Like I need to make sure this is happening. Like all the little things get kind of, for me personally pushed to the afternoon because that's when I'm least productive. That's when my brain is tired and I'm like, okay, I'm going to. Because I'm up since 5, 6. I'm a little tapped out by that point. And that's easy stuff that I can do blindfolded. So I always make sure everyone has that in their head. Block out a couple hours a day and it's hard to do at first. So we say start with 30 minutes. Just block out 30 minutes. Shut off all notifications, shut off your phone, your slack, anything messaging, kill it. Just focus on what needs, what that main goal is for the week that needs to get done. And then gradually you start doing it longer and longer. So then you could, like, I know for you specifically you can block out five hours of just video recording and that you didn't do that right off the bat until you Trained yourself. Like, after, like, two hours. Like, you know what? I can keep going another hour. I'm going to go another hour. And it just. So it's like magic to you. So now I know. Like, okay, Ryan needs to record. I'm going to shut him down Wednesday. He gets no meetings. Like, he has to record all day on Wednesday. So then he looks at his calendar. He's like, I have nothing to do. Yes, I can record videos. It's what you love to do. It's what you're phenomenal at. So we know you need to get that done. So it's more about, like. So it's like block out time. People don't really do that. They don't turn off notifications. And it's harder now that everyone is working from home. Like, they might have children or pets or something that's in the way. You kind of got to put a note on your door, close the door, say, do not disturb. And not allow those things to come into your world, because that's when you mess things up, and that's when you make the most mistakes. Especially when there's someone saying, hey, I need your. Hey, I need this. Like, they don't need you right that second. You know what I mean? They can wait half hour. They can wait an hour. They just need you at that second because it's easy for them to ask you than it is for them to do it themselves. And you need to teach people that, like, they don't. Like, there's plenty of times where I'll immediately go, teresa, I need. Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you know what? And I type it out, and I'm like, no, I don't. She's busy. Let me stop. I delete. I Google search it. I figured out myself, and I'm like, okay, done. So the amount of time it took, maybe an extra five seconds. I figured it out on my own, and. And I never have to bug Theresa about it again or sue or whomever. And I think we've come into a really nice process with that where we don't bug each other for mundane things. It's usually like, you know what? I really need your help in this. I don't need it today, but I need it by Thursday, Friday, insert day here. And they'll respect you a lot more that way. Like, you know what? Cool. And typically, I get it within the hour because they're just like, oh, we. Ned needs it. She needs it. You know, I'm like, no, I really didn't need it. This Fast. You didn't have to do it that quick, but I love that you did because it helps me get my to do list off, off. And I think a lot of people also focus on their emails way, way too much. An email is an easy way for people to again, shoot it your way because they don't want to deal with it. So if you get like, for example, Ryan, if you email me at 10 o' clock at night, I know you don't expect an answer at 10:30, you'll expect it probably the next day at some point. And a lot of times I don't even respond to you because it's just taken care of and I don't even tell you and you just know it's taken care of. But that's a relationship you and I have that we've built over the past two years. Like, if you tell me to do something, I get it done, you know, and you know that it's done. And there are times like you do. I'm like, yeah, Ryan, I did it. On the day you told me to do it, I did it. It's done. You know, like, you don't have to ask me, I got, I got you. But I think a lot of people use the emails of excuse. And a lot of times, like, I don't stare at my email waiting for someone to respond to me unless I put like, asap, please, or if it's that important, though, honestly for me, I text them or I say, hey, I really kind of need this now because of X, Y and Z. I'm caught up with whatever. But people, we can all wait. We can all wait a day. We can all wait five minutes. So it's really important. If you're in your zone of genius, stay in that zone until you've exhausted it, because that's when magic literally happens and you get so much stuff done. Like, there have been so many times where I could be done with work, with real work by Wednesday. So now Thursday and Friday to kind of do all the fun stuff that I want to work on and all the fun projects that we're working on. I'm like, this is awesome. Now I can do all these other cool things because my most important work is, is done. And I, oh, I personally always angle my weeks that way because I like getting everything done at the front end so that I can kind of enjoy and do all the cool stuff at the back end because then I would go into my weekend, relax. I'm like, this is awesome.

Now I can do whatever the model That I like for time management and like organizing. That process.

Comes from Dan Sullivan, and he does this specifically for entrepreneurs. So entrepreneurs has three types of days. He has focus days, buffer days, and free days. Free days are when you do not open your email, you do not think about work, you recharge. Focus days are when you're doing the things that give you more energy that you are better than most people at. So for me, my focus days are creating content, and my focus days are running workshops. My focuses are being up in front of people in some sort of audience building. It's when I record podcasts. It's why I can block out five hours of doing videos. I have more energy when I do it. And then buffer days. This is interesting. It took me a while to get this. A buffer day is doing all the things that make focus days possible. For me, that is like, my next buffer day is planning out all the content that I'm going to record. It's setting up the new studio that we bought that I've got to play with a little bit so that when I can show up at my best and record, I am ready to go. So a buffer day is preparing and making it easier for you to be in that focus zone. And hiring and teams are about preventing you from. From getting out of focus zone. So what Inez just said about milk that focus zone as much as possible, that's when magic happens. I could not agree more. And the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make is that they prioritize things that take them out of that rather than things that they do within that. And by the way, I struggle with this. I only can comment on this because I have struggled with this so much in the past. Do you have any idea how much I like creating content and being on stage? And it's like, I want to be in that zone all the time, but I prioritize a bunch of other things that keep me off stage and keep me out of the zone of making content. But one video, one event, one great podcast can completely change our company. So it makes sense that I should prioritize staying in the zone of genius that allow me to do those things in a more effortless zone. And your job as a leader is to put other people in the zone for their role. And so one of the things that I spend a year doing is really understanding what motivates and feels effortless and fun for Inez. And something happened to us maybe four months ago where Inez came to me and she's. And she's like, I need More like I need. And I didn't understand what that meant a year ago. Now I know that to Inez, I need more does not mean I need to be told what to do more. It means she needs more ownership. It means she needs more of the permission to have control and to do things her way. And so giving her the full ability to say, okay, take this project, and I'll say, out of your way. Call me when you you need me is different than cool. I need this, and I need this, and I need this, and I need this, and I need this. And that's unique to Inez. Just like I have things that are very unique to me. We've all got them. We've all got a zone that feels effortless, that feels creative, that feels easy, that feels fun. Prioritize that. And your job as the leader is can you be humble enough to listen and be curious about that other person. Person so that you can ensure that they stay in that zone rather than trying to motivate them through resistance. I can't tell you how many times we've had team members not work out because we thought they'd be good at something. There was resistance there. We try to motivate them through it, give them upside, put raises on the table, give them a piece of the profits. But there's. You cannot motivate someone through their own resistance. You have to understand where they're naturally motivated. Put them there. I'm gonna do videos on the Internet, whether I get paid to do it or not. I love to hear myself talk, so I'm gonna do it no matter what. If there's a stage, put me on it. Oh, it's not a business conference. Can I play guitar? Can I tell a joke? It is my natural state. And so we've all got it. And your job is to prioritize that. Alright, so, Inez, that's how you organize your day and your tasks. What other tools do you do? You want to talk about today?

We do do quarterly goals, too, which is important in helping get to those. It makes life easier. So we kind of talked about that a little bit before. What we do as a team is we make everyone make their own goals and then we top grade them. Because I think a lot of people don't realize what they're capable of either, so. And they sometimes want to make their life a little easy. So they do these goals and we're like, you know, what are we aiming for? How many YouTube subscribers or how many. It's like, you can go a little More than that. Like, you want. You say 100 grand, let's do 150. And, you know, when we make 125, we're like, look. Look at how undervalued you made yourself, because you can achieve more than what the actual goal is. So when we break it down into quarterly. And this makes it really easy for the. For the employees, too. When you have a quarterly goal, it makes their lives easier and figuring out what they need to do each month. So then again, it breaks it down to each week, and it makes it easier for them to figure out, what do I need to do now? No one's ever. No one on our team is ever, like, I don't know what to do. I've never had anyone on our team because they already know. They're already ahead of the curve of knowing what we need to work on and what's going to make it easier for them. And I've definitely, over the past couple of years, we've definitely made things a lot easier, and it's because we have. It's made people really happy and it's made us grow farther. Because you're happy, it's easier. This is awesome. And I'm kind of. Kind of touch on a point you made before, too, with, like, monetarily, like, and. And getting, like, employees and everything. Like, money's not everything. I came from a very crazy background. I worked in startups, I worked in banking. I've worked in private equity. I'm originally from the New York area, so I've done all the crazy, grinding work. And I came to Austin. So I was like, I want to be happy. I don't care about anything else. And living in New York, you know, it was a much different world. Coming to Austin, I'm like, you know, and I first got here, I was working with someone else. I enjoyed it. Ever since I started working with you, I'm like, I love this, and I love everything we're doing. I love what we're working on. I love everything. And that, to me, is more important than anything else I've ever, ever done. And I've been professionally working for over 22 years. Yikes. I'm saying my age now. But it's so true. Like, I absolutely. I wake up passionate, like, yes, let's, like, let's do this. Let's work on what we're working on now. And it's because I. I love. I see what we're doing. I see how everyone loves it, and I love it more. So I'm like, we're creating this. We're helping everyone build their own business or build their own life. Because you're not, you know, like, waiting for someone else to do it for you. You're like, no, I'm going to do this. And it's that attitude that makes people, like, way happier because you can control it. So it's way easier to, like, have your team. And when you're like that, your team is like that. They're like, see it. They. They want that passion, too. They're like, I want to do that too. Yeah, this is amazing. I want to be happy here too. So they start kind of. It's an effect that just works with everyone. And I can honestly say everyone on our team, including a lot of our contractors, love it. Like, love working with us because we're always like, this is amazing. This is great. But we're always constructive, too. Like, you know what? This wasn't as awesome. If we did this and this and this, it would be better. Like, you know what? Thank you. Like, we've never had anyone say to us, why would you insult me? Like, no, like this. That's great. Great feedback. Thank you. And it kept because it makes them better at what they're working on too. And in my opinion, if you don't want to be better, you're not really growing. Like, I'm all about, let's read more books, let's do this. Let's, like, I want to, like, get better and easier faster. I want to do things, and I want life easier. And it's pretty easy right now. I'm not gonna lie, because I love what I'm doing. So it's easy for me. Even when it's the stuff I don't like doing, I'm like this. But I'm like, you know what? It's hour of my week, two hours a week. It'll be no big deal. The other 40, 50 are fine. Like, I love it. But also, I'll settle in and get to these, whatever it is I'm doing.

Inez, I have some rapid fire questions for you before we do that. Sue, if you're on the call, which I think you are, would you post. Would you post the invite link for anybody who wants to come hang out in the room? For some reason, I'm not able to post it to Facebook. I can post it to YouTube, but for whatever reason, I am not able to comment to just to just Facebook. I think because we're in a group and I'm in streamyard, and streamyard is A public broadcast. So it is if you sue. If you don't have it, shoot me a Slack.

I think Theresa's on, too, so she might be able to do it.

Okay, cool. I'm just gonna. I'll post it. I'll zip it to you guys in Slack, too, while we're talking, in case you don't have it. So what. What we're gonna do now is we're move over to Q and A. And in Q and A if you want to. Actually more than just Q and A. If you've got a question, you can come on live. If you've got a give for the community, if you've got a question, if you have something that you want to pitch about your business, if you're new to the 1% and you want to just introduce yourself.

To the community.

Please just click the link that Teresa just posted in Stripe. In Stripe.

In Facebook.

You can tell I have Slack open over here.

So just click that link. You'll come into the meeting room here, and we will chat with you here, one on one. Now, Inez, for the last couple minutes, when it's just you and me, I want to give you four full permission to be brutally, publicly honest about me.

Okay? Okay.

Okay. I trust you. You can say whatever you want.

Oh, you want to say it now?

What's the hardest part of working with me?

It was you not understanding. I can't read your mind. But now you think you figured that out, that I can't read your mind. So I don't readily know.

Lately, I think it's. You haven't been as vocal with everything you want to do, so I can't narrow down what's really important.

What do you mean by that? That. That I haven't been as vocal.

And maybe it's just because we haven't had a lot of alone time together, just because I think that's a lot when. When I get it more. You're like Idealand. I'm like, shoot. And we haven't had an Idealand in a long time, you and I. So I don't know. So, like, I know what our goals are, but I don't know what other things you have percolating necessarily, that we're not working on that I think we should be, because your ideas are pretty stellar. So whenever you, like, have a good idea, I'm like, yeah, let's do that. We got to do that. And so we're doing it, like, right now, we're doing two different things that you've been wanting to work on for years. And we just started it like two months ago, I think.

And I'm like, brands and the fund.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, to be fair, you're kind of involved in everything now. Well, yeah, there's, there's not a whole lot of like, new stuff floating around. Except for like what we talked about at the quarterly a few days ago when sue said, stop everything. We're doing that instead.

Yeah.

But we're, I mean, I. It's, there's, there's nothing honestly negative working with you, I think when you know, you know what it is. Here's the weird thing. And all entrepreneurs out there, listen to me when I say this. Take a day off. Take two days off. Because that's when Ryan comes back and he's more clear and he's more vocal and it makes more sense as to what he wants to do. And I think you guys, you, as entrepreneurs, you work and work and work your bones off and you just do it just because you feel like you're supposed to. Whereas if you just take a step back and just go to the wilderness and just live off the land for a few days and kind of figure out what's really important, it's when you come back, you're like, you know what? All that random crap we were doing isn't really that important. Here's what we should really be focusing on. And it makes sense to everyone. We're all like, yes, that's what we should be focusing on. Thank you for having that realization. But you have to get away from the noise and the crazy in order to figure that out along the line.

So this is an honest question to the community.

I just had an idea. Whole new business, everybody. So here's my idea. If capitalism.com did entrepreneur rejuvenation retreats where we did it was not a mastermind. Maybe we did like a four hour workshop or four hour mastermind, but we weren't teaching anything. We weren't focusing on anything. You were just getting away. And we did things to recharge together with other entrepreneurs so that when you were in the same room, you could talk about business and it free flow, but it being with the priority of relaxing and prioritizing, taking day offs, day off, day offs, days off, days off. You could prioritize that. If we did that, would you want it? Just let me know. Or if you're watching this on a recording, shoot me a DM on Instagram. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran and just if anything comes to mind, like, I would love to See a camping trip. I would love to see Swedish spa retreats. I would like anything that got me out of the house, just let me know, because I think we would have fun doing something like that. And it would make me actually take days off, too, with people that I like hanging out with. So just if that comes to mind, if that sounds interesting to you, let me know in the comments. And there's actually a lot of comments coming on Facebook. Okay, that's good to see.

All right.

Now, Inez, I'm not trying to toot my own horn. This is curiosity, and I want you to say whatever comes to mind for those who are watching. You have said that I'm your favorite boss you've ever had.

You could be blowing smoke up my rear, but I believe you're being genuine when you say that. Right. So you've worked with a lot of people, and I know that you're totally bought into what we're doing together, you and me, and what we're doing as a team and as an organization. So you said what the hardest thing was. What is the reason why you feel so excited about. Excited about and committed to working together?

So the first thing is. Was always your vision. It always made sense to me. Like, when we first talked, I was like, what is capitalism? What does it mean to you? Like, what are. What do you. What's your goal? Like, you know me. Like, what's this company? What's this startup about? And when you explained it, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. That's. That's good. I'm like, I'm in. Like, that's cool. And then the more I worked with you, like, I think one of the. One of the most important things I always said to you, like, for me, trust is a big deal to me. Like, and that's just me personally. Like, everyone has their thing, me, trust. It's like, you have to trust me. I'm here for your best interest only. I will defend you before I'll defend myself. Like, you mean. That's always how I worked with my bosses. And if I have that relationship with you, I will do anything you need me to do. Um, and I think for us, we built that early on, which is why one of the things is, like, I'm not going to be your friend because it, like, scared me. I was just like, I will trust you in business, every level, but we can't be friends because, like, there's that. It's a line that you don't want to cross necessarily. And the more we work Together. I was like, oh, this guy's awesome. I want to be his friends. You know what I mean? And then we obviously built into that relationship, too, but we were first, like, employee, employer, and then built on that trust, and then we became friends, and now it's like, I'm your pit bull. You mean, like, now I'm here for you, no matter what you need at any point. And that's where our relationship, I think, is the best at. And that's where other people we worked with. And I think one of the other things you said to me one time when we were, like, on. We were in San Diego, actually. We're in an Uber on our way to. I don't remember where. Like, for an event that you were doing. And we were talking to the driver about what. I was like, oh, what do you guys do? We're like, oh, I work for him. And you're like, no, we work for.

Together.

And I'm like, yeah, we work together. And that just showed me. I'm like, yeah, this is our. This is ours. You know, it's yours, but it's ours. Like, we're all do. We're all at the same goal. And I'm like, he's right. We are. And I love that you said that to a complete stranger and meant it. Like, you didn't just say it. You're like, it's. No, we're doing this together. And I've always felt that with you. And I'm like. And so it's like, I have to almost buy my own. So I'm like, nope. Our business. Our business. You know, it's. You know, it's. We're doing this. We all have our hands in it, and we're all doing it. And I've always appreciated that about you. You're always great about that, too. So it's just, you know, it's a pleasure working with you.

Tell me. Tell me if I'm wrong at all, but I think that you really started to buy into me, us. When you could see that I was genuine, that I was willing to go all in on you first.

Yeah, absolutely.

That I was willing to. Even though we didn't have the history.

That you would expect in order to go all in on somebody. As soon as you were on the team, I was willing to do whatever it took to make your life easier, to make sure you were happy here, to make sure you felt well compensated, to ensure that you felt like you had a plan for growth. Because it's important to me that you feel that way. And I feel that way for everybody, but I think you weren't used to that and that. And so as a result, you felt appreciated and it became reciprocal. Is that fair to say?

Absolutely. Because you trusted me pretty quickly. Like, mo. Any. Any business I've worked for in the past. And I've, you know, I've always been in finance or startups of some level of finance. They. It was. I always had to prove myself, prove myself. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm exhausted proving myself. Like, I've been. I've been doing this for so long. I'm like, I know what I'm doing. And even with you, like I said to you, one of the first things I said to you is like, if I can't do it, I will find someone who will, because if you know what I mean, like, I know what I'm really good at and I will try it. But if I don't know what I'm doing, I'm going to find someone. But I'm not going to come to you with like, I don't know what to do. Sorry. It's never going to be my response. I'm like, you know what? I don't know what to do. But I think Joe over here might be able to help us out with this, or Betty or whomever. I will never be the one to say I know everything. I don't. I know a little bit. I know a lot about a little bit. But I know how to find people that can help us build what we're building.

So I tell all of you who are watching that story about Inez and me, because.

I take it as a rule that when somebody joins our team, I'm working for them as much as they're working for me. It's different in our day to day. I work for them in the sense that it's my job to ensure that they have a path to be happy here for the long term. Because if I don't have that, then they're not happy here for the long term. And I also know that if that ever changes, that they're going to do what's best for them. They're going to go pursue other opportunities, just like I'm going to pursue other opportunities that come my way. I'm going to do it in an entrepreneurial and business setting, but they're going to do it on a career path. And so the best thing I could do for myself is and for them is a very honest communication about how is your happiness?

Do you feel like you are challenged enough. Do you feel like you have a path for growth? I have a team member who about.

A year and a half ago I sat her down and I was like, hey, I don't think you're happy here. And it's really important to me that you are happy here. And I can tell you're not. And she's like, I'm not. I was like, all right, cool. I mean, what do you want to do about this? Do you want to go part time while you find other opportunities? Do you want to transition out? How do you want to do this? And so there was never like, you're fired because you suck. It was, I don't think you're happy. We work in this together and so what do you want to do? And so what we agreed to do together was I think we put eight weeks on the table of that person would just help out wherever they could help out. It was like, all right, let's give up your job responsibilities because you're not doing a very good job at them and you don't like them. So let's just remove all those, just help everybody on the team out. And then in eight weeks, I think that's enough time for you to find your next opportunity. Well, about six, like four to six weeks in at that, that person found a new role that was lighting them, lighting her up and was making my life way easier. And, and that was a year and a half ago. And now she is killing. She's doing great job. Right. So that would have never happened. We would have just gone our own merry way. Or I would have, I would have been, I would have said, you're fired. Or she would have just quit because I was a douche. Had I not been willing to say like, look, we're in this together. I can tell you're not happy. What do you want to do? Because we're a team. This isn't like. So that that is how I run things as a leader. It's a much less top down approach than some which means it's slower. Just so you know, I probably move faster if I was willing to be a little more cutthroat. But it's just not how I am wired as a leader. I am a community minded leader which means that I might not move as fast in the short term, but in the medium to long term we're gonna have an organization that does some incredible things. Alright Inez, are you cool to move over to some community stuff?

Let's do it.

Alright. So Thomas Lancer, has been waiting patiently this whole call. Give me a thumbs up if you're ready, Tom. All right, let's do it. What's up, dude?

Hey, Ryan.

How you doing, man?

Doing good, man. Good to see you again.

You too.

What can we do for you?

I had the question that dropped in the Facebook comments yesterday, but as we were talking about, like, taking time off, I got tools of Titans, like last week, and I've been going through it, and in there, there's an essay. It's called Lazy A Manifesto by Tim Kreder. And I read it, and it's just like, it captures that whole idea of, like, taking time away, like going into the wilderness, like, going outside and just like taking time to reflect. And, like, all that noise and fluff goes away and you're left, like what you really want to do. And so that's kind of a mini give the community. I think anybody feeling overwhelmed or unclear should go and seek out the essay and read it. So my question. Oh, are you gonna say something about that?

I just wanted it. Was it Lazy? A Manifesto by Tim. What was the last name?

Tim Kreder. K R E I D E R. Cool.

Thank you for sharing. Hold it up. Just so people can see it.

Cool. Very cool. Thank you for sharing. Yeah.

All right, so a question for you, though, more inside of, like, network building rather than team building. When you first decided to move to Austin.

What was like, the thought process and your mindset around building up your network of mentors and, like, people you call on to help you?

This is a great question. So for me specifically, I moved to Austin because I had a network here, not the other way around. So I wanted to move out of Cleveland. I had seen all the trees, I dated all the girls, I had eaten at all the restaurants, and I needed to see some new trees, some new girls, and some new restaurants.

Right?

The way that I. I mean, I was literally living in my best friend's basement. I told somebody that I needed to get uncomfortable enough for me to grow. And so I put everything that I own in my Kia Sportage, which I still own. This is eight years ago. And I drove to Austin, Texas, and I rented an apartment sight unseen on a month to month basis. And it literally hit up everybody that I knew in the town. So I also did the traditional stuff, like I joined meetup groups and I went to those meetup groups, but I didn't find that. I didn't find a network that way. I think today it would be more likely to be Facebook groups and it would Be just going to local events. Like there's a group here in Austin called Internet Marketing Party. I went and spoke on their stage and met as many people as I could. And just going into give mode, what can I give to this group? What can I give to this organization? Can I speak at this event? Can I go support that person's podcast? Can I use my audience to help help this person in town? And then there was a time where I made, I did the lesson that I teach in the training in your members area called the Other half, where I made a list of 10 people that I wanted to get to know on a better basis, wrote them a handwritten card, send them a thank you note of saying how they have inspired my life or how they have given me an insight and then tried to book a one on one meeting with them just in order order to make connections and open up opportunities. I did have some people that I knew, but I went full on into give mode and then I was strategic about the other people that I met along the way.

Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I've just been thinking about starting from scratch and I see the people in Tools of Titan, the tribe of mentors, and they know they have phenomenal networks. But everyone starts at some point as like that the guy in the room doesn't have the network, doesn't know people. So just like diving into the process.

But they do have something to give. And if you've got something to give and you focus on that, then your network grows really, really quickly. So if you're starting from scratch, you start by making a post on Facebook and saying, I'm moving to this place. If there's anyone you think I should meet, I would really love an intro. And then you go full on into give mode with your skill set with no ask. Because your only ask is that you're trying to meet people and you're trying to build up a network. You're playing a five year game at that point. So when you go full on into give mode, I mean life happens real fast for you when you are willing to punt what you get out of it and focus only on what you're giving to other people. Like life gets real good when you go into that mode.

Make sense? Yeah.

Thank you. And one final question.

Go ahead.

Growing the 1%. Have you ever considered doing an affiliate type program of like having people go out there and like pitch it for you and like to their friends and their audiences?

100%. It's something we would consider if I wanted to put effort into Managing a new profit center of an affiliate network.

We might go. I would rather just prioritize it, going to the community and having the community bring other people in. And that would. My intent is just make a community that is so good that people naturally want to bring other people into it.

All right, thank you.

Was there a question behind that question?

Yeah.

Just, like, relating to what you just said right there, like, finding this community in this group, it's changed my life and changed my path of going from an Amazon seller to a brand builder, and now building my company, like my nutrition company, building, actually really big. And so I've shared with my friends and my family and actually have people join. And I think it would be phenomenal to have a system of rewarding community members for doing what they're already doing. I know people in the community are already reaching out to their friends and giving them this content and giving them this opportunity to get into the community. So having a reward system for that.

So here's what I would put on the table. I think it feels icky to build a business on just affiliate profile promotions, because I don't like if somebody is only gonna recommend the 1% because they're gonna get 40 bucks for doing so. That just feels. It just feels weird to me. But if there was. If there was another way to incentivize them to do so, I'd love to do something like that. So to both you and to the community, if. If you have ideas of what would incentivize you to tell everybody, you know, that this is the best group of entrepreneurs that you've ever been a part of. I'm listening. But I would rather avoid it being like, you get $50 a sale, because that just. It just feels. It just feels weird to me.

Something. Something I haven't told Inez.

I am very seriously considering dramatically raising the price on the 1% and having, like, a last day to join at the existing price before we dramatically raise it. And so in the event that we end up raising it in the future and there's a lot more meat on the bone, there'd be a lot more to play with.

So, like, right now, I think it's so underpriced that the idea of giving affiliate commission just feels like. I mean, it's already, like, the best.

It's already. It's like. I don't know. So there's another way to incentivize it. I'm. I'm. I'm listening. All right, well, thanks for the idea, Thomas. I said thank you. For the idea.

Yeah, you're welcome, man.

All right, man, we'll talk to you soon. All right, see ya.

All right, Nicole, I can't see your face because your video is off. But if you want to come on, give me a thumb, bring your video on and give me a thumbs up. There you are. All right, I'm bringing you on. Hello, Nicole.

Hi, guys.

Good. How are you?

I'm exhausted.

This is my third day of my summit that I've been doing. Can you guys hear me?

Yeah, we can hear you now.

Okay. Okay.

And this is. It's funny because I got the notification that you guys were going live, and I was like, waiting for these videos to upload in video hell. And so it's just been a beautiful shift in my morning to be part of this today and really eye opening because I'm realizing, like, things are going good and then there's also things that aren't going good. And I'm realizing that the fact that my offer is converting at a good rate, like that might be the thing that I focus on that's working for the next time. And so I just feel like this gave me some.

Inspiration and hope for just making it better and focusing on what's really going well.

That's great.

I think this is more of a soft lunch and I'm going to do it again.

What is the summit that you're doing?

It's called a sovereign source series. So the first series is about financial wellness and economic awakening. So I pivoted A few months ago, I was doing a summit about, like, clean food and organic products and Covid hit and then I really reached out to people and they were most worried about the economy, immunity, and, you know, things that are. That are affecting all of us. So I shifted and decided to do it as a series. So I'm doing the first and I thought I could do one a month. That was insane to think that was possible. So it's looking like maybe one every two or three months is what I'm doing.

Yeah, that makes sense. And how have you built a list as a result of. Of building up the summit? Was that the goal?

Yeah, it was part of the goal for sure. And also just really wanting people to have access to the information that will free them and liberate them around. Around all these areas.

Are you doing all the content or did you bring on a group of people to. To be able to help you with the content?

No, I'm doing interviews with. You know, I have 12 people on this series that's Great.

Good for you. That's a great way to build up authority and build a list. Nicole, what can we do for you?

I guess I've had a lot of challenges finding my ride or die to work with through this process, and I can see where I'm falling short as a leader as well.

I think I really resonate with what you were saying about being a visionary and. Or kind of wanting people to just get the download in your mind. So I'm wondering, Inez.

What has worked to initiate a powerful relationship with somebody that you're trying to work with? I'm just curious because, yeah, I'm in that place where I've worked with several people on this project, and.

I see the value in all of them, but I don't. I don't know how to continue and, like, debrief the situation and do a really good job of honoring them and this process so well.

Have you been talking to them personally? Like, on a personal level? Like, separate business from it and figuring out who they are and what they're. They want and their needs and their desires and their goals? Like, for. For me and Ryan, we work really. Like, I think one of the first things is, like, I need you to trust me, and if you trust me, we'll do great. So everyone has their thing. Like, everyone needs something, whether it's they want to continue in education or they want to learn what it is you're doing with the business, or they want a specific project to own. Like, you know, Ryan and I have talked about that too. Like, I love owning something, and it's not the business. It's something in the business that I want to know that he's handing me. And it's like, I'm walking away from this. This is all you. This is for you to either make out awesome or completely fail at. And having that responsibility for me was like, I'm in. And there have been times where I'm like, I'm not doing a good job. And I'll say to him, like, hey, I know this is my baby, but it's being a real brat. I need your help. You know what I mean? So it's where it's. Our communication is really, really well. Like, I can come to him for absolutely anything and know he will never judge me. He will never question it. He will just be there to listen or help, depending on what it is that I need as a human. And that has made our business relationship really well, because he knows I'll come to him if there's a problem. And Vice versa. Like, if there's something I'm doing, he knows I'm listening. I'm not there. Like, oh, I can't believe he said that. Like, yeah, I get it. You're right. Yeah, I'll do better. I'll fix it, or I'll adjust to whatever, or here's why I did that. And we have a great understanding and respect and relationship, which we did build on pretty early, but that's something you can always build on with the person. Like, so I think he kind of. He said it before. Like, if you're all in on the person, they'll be all in on you. So I guess it depends too on you. Have you said you have three people that you're working with that you're trying to figure out or.

Well, it's interesting. I don't know if you guys have found this also, but I noticed that some of my own faults or some of my own mirrors are showing up in the people that I'm calling in to. Like, just opportunity to grow. Like, one woman who has been. She's a really good connector, and I'd say, like, we share that. But she's connected me to a couple of great speakers. She's a good, like, high level person, but she kind of dropped the ball on showing up when I needed her most. So I'm like, okay, yeah, sounds like.

A great person to be an outsourcer.

Yeah. And don't look for someone like you. I'm nothing like Ryan at all. Like, we are complete opposites in that sense. Like, he's a massive creator. He's all about. Like, he has all these visions. I just get things done, you know, I mean, I don't judge, but I mean, you know, I mean, like, we have very different mindsets on how we work. And so that, I think, is what makes us really good. Like, we're like the yin and yang, you know what I mean? Like, he's always like, here's all the things why I want to do, but I don't know how to get there. And I'm like, I know how to get there. Like, stop overthinking that. That's my job. Literally. Like, there have been plenty of times, like, stop doing my job. You're not good at it. Like, let me do that. So it's. You can't find another you to do something else, you know, I mean, to do what you need, you need to find the opposite or another level, you know, I mean, like, you can have another one of you in our team. Like, we like sue, who we work with, is like, Ryan. The creators, they just, like. They just, like, can churn out this amazing stuff, whereas. And Theresa and I are the same where we're just, like, getting it done. We're like, here's how we get it done. This. These are all the things we got to do to get done. Their vision. So we work. We all work really well together because of that. So stop looking for you. Look for someone else.

Yeah. So, Nicole, I can. I can already tell that the person that would compliment you. Well, is a quiet, almost reserved, calculated person who loves what it is that you are doing and wants to be told the way. And that person, by told the way, I mean, like, see the vision. I want to. I want to see the vision. Because you are not the person that puts together all the pieces. You are like me. And so you need a puzzle builder. And a puzzle builder tends to wait until they can. Until someone gives them the full vision before they build it out. And if they don't have that clear roadmap that they're building, that's when they get stressed. Kind of like it's the opposite of you. When you go into the details, you get stress.

So knowing somebody who comes from a. They're probably going to be a background very differently. Different than yours. They might even be in a different industry. And you give them a test project. A test project. Looks like I'm planning an event. Here's what I want it to look like. Here are the software I use. Here are the people that I want go.

And you do it in a way that doesn't. You don't have to micromanage them, but it also doesn't crumble the business if they don't perform like it's. It's the next summit that you want to do. Yeah. And they come in and book the dates, they contact the people, they set up the software, and you walk away from it and keep doing what you're doing. Why do you have. Why. Why do you feel scared to do that? Your face is like, oh, my goodness. I could never give that up.

I don't know. Yeah, I think that's my. The control freak coming out. Like, oh, how could I trust that? Yeah. I mean, it feels good on one hand, and then the other hand, it's.

Like.

I feel like I'm the person that people say yes to also. But. But I'm not good at, like, the organization. I'm like, oh, did I send that email? You know, the emailing.

All right, so, Nicole, I'm gonna Rock your world here for a second. All right, so you do. You are. You do not have control issues.

You have trust issues.

And those. And those are different.

And this is the hack. The hack is exactly what Inez and I have gone through over the last hour and a half, which is I just choose and chose to trust Inez and go all in on her and building her up.

So if. If I wanted to trust somebody with an important part of my business, I first had to just trust the person and give her reason to trust me.

And that's your hack.

Thank you.

You got it, Nicole.

Really bad.

Thank you.

All right, we'll see you soon.

Okay. Thank you.

That's so true for so many of you. By the way, we are gonna go over to the very handsome Mark Cuda. Mark, give me a thumbs up if you are ready.

There he is. All right, we'll go to Mark, and then we'll go to Ginger, and then we'll wrap. What's up, buddy?

What is up, man? How you doing, brother? How you doing, brother?

Doing good, man. It's good to see you.

You too, man. Inez, always a pleasure. How you doing?

You too. Good, good.

So this is the first time I'm joining live with you guys.

Welcome.

Actually in the 1%. I've been watching for a couple of weeks on YouTube and been meaning to join the 1%, but just haven't gotten around to actually signing up. So finally did this morning so I could join you guys. And I thought it was kind of funny that the topic that you were talking about today is an experience that you and I and Inez had last year. And so what I wanted to share today is actually just, I guess you could call it like a cautionary tale, if you will, of sort of why I think it's important to do what it is you're talking about. We met.

I can't wait to see where this is going, by the way.

So we met. We met, obviously, for those that don't know, through a mutual friend. I worked at RV Share. I saw Mark was actually in the 1% newsletter last month. So I worked for Mark for a number of years. And so Ryan and I, we connected through Mark. And after a couple of calls and meeting up a few times, we decided that there was an opportunity to maybe do some work together. And so we did exactly what you talked about on this call. We decided to do a bit of a test and to not get too into it, but there was a couple of problems that existed at the time. I was a sales director At a startup in Austin. I was very stressed, overworked. I wasn't very emotionally invested in the work that I was doing. I was also dealing with some, like, major personal health struggles that I wasn't even really super honest with myself about how deep they were. My father was getting ill. It was kind of a mess, and I wasn't really in the right mind to be honest with myself about where. Where I was and what my plate looked like. And after only a couple of weeks, it became very clear that I just couldn't put all the pieces together. My heart was just aching. I wasn't in it. And so I came to you and said, hey, listen, this is not working. I can't do this right now. And as much as I wanted to, it just wasn't the right fit for me at the time. And that sucked because I wanted to do business together, but it just didn't make sense for anybody. And so I just wanted to share that with the community because I think on paper, everything made sense, but in the real world, things just didn't line up, and that was mostly on me. But regardless, for those that are building teams, if you commit too quickly to people without sort of going through that process, it's not even just, can they do the job or will they do the job or do they want to do the job? It's all of those, right? And there's so much nuance that comes with that. And I. And I think that for the time, it saved everyone, like, a lot of headache, and especially you guys just wanted to share that because I think you hit the nail on the head.

Well, Mark, I mean, Mark, also keep in mind, like, when we met, it was like, oh, this is like, this is gonna be amazing. Like, this is perfect. And.

All three of us were like, this is this. Like, this is perfect. So perfect. Like, there was, like, there's honeymoon to it, right? And then. And then we did a test project, and it. We just decided it wasn't a fit for that time, right? And you and I are still homies.

So, like, that's. If we had gone. If we had done a cannonball into the pool together, you know, we might not be homies, but because we're like, all right, cool. This all looks good on paper, and let's test this out, and let's see how it goes. You know, even though it doesn't go that way, we can still party with Gary Vee together, which we did. You know, we can. And we can still collaborate and hang out, which we do. You know, so that's the beauty of being like, alright, cool, we think this is a fit, let's do a test, let's see how this goes. And then, and then we get to decide rather than just like getting married on the first date.

Yeah. And so I just thought it was kind of funny that you talked about that today. And this is the first time that I was joining from within the community. Community. Now it's like, oh man. As embarrassing as this story is, I feel like I should say something and tell the story because it's just a perfect fit to give an example of what you're talking about.

Well, Mark, I'm going to flip it on you since you're new in the community, give a two minute introduction of what you're great at, where you're going next and what you're wanting to accomplish.

Good question. So my background is kind of varied. I've been in and out of the marketing agency space for a number of years. I've run blogs, I've worked at startups, I've run sales teams and marketing teams. Sort of just done everything to help a startup go from 0 to 1. My most recent sort of bigger success or win was at RV share with Mark. Jenny was there for about three years, from when we were like five people to when we were over 100 is when I left. And that was just an amazing experience. Mark is like one of the most incredible entrepreneurs I've ever known. His story is in the 1% June newsletter for those who maybe haven't seen it yet. I saw that this morning. I thought that was really cool and just one of the best guys I've ever known as well. And he's really the one that sort of became my first mentor and showed me what it could be like to be an entrepreneur and what it could be like to be a capitalist. And it sort of changed what I thought about wealthy people. I had this vision growing up that money was like toxic, the root of all evil. Right. And he was the first one to really reset that for me and show me, wow, you can be wealthy and you can do a lot of good in the world. And so that sort of became my vision was I wanted to build and help other startups go from zero to one and sort of that's what I've been doing. Most recently I was the sales director for a startup in Austin. A great bunch of people, but just the vision for the company wasn't really aligning with my vision for myself or my career and it just didn't make sense. For me to stay there. And so I'd actually just left two weeks ago. As far as what I'm doing Next, I'm not 100% sure. I know that I want to keep leveraging those skills that I have been building in the sales and marketing space and help startups grow. I guess that could be a gift for the community too. Since I'm new, maybe I'll make a post in the Facebook group and if there's anything relating to just sales or marketing operations that I could help with, be more than happy to answer whatever questions I can and sort of lean on the bits of experience that I've got.

That's exactly what's going to be my recommendation. Make a post in the Facebook group about.

That experience and what you've done and let the community grill you. I think you'll find that what you are, what you are good at is going to be very helpful to the community. I'm pumped to have you, dude.

Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully. And. And I have had a lot of ideas for products and brands over the years, but it's always been a business that I wasn't really familiar with. Again, I've been in like the tech startup space and so brand building and physical products is something I've always had like a fascination for, but never felt like I had the skill set or the community to ever even consider doing something like that. So I'm particularly excited for what I hope to get from the community and watching everyone else on their journey building brands because it is something that I hope in some time that I'll be able to work on for myself.

Well, I'm pumped to have you, dude. Welcome to the group.

Yeah, yeah, thanks, man. It's good to see you guys.

All right, man, we'll talk to you soon.

All right, Ginger, we're going to give you the final word. Give me a thumbs up if you're ready.

Hello, Ginger. You are muted, so please unmute yourself. There we go. Hey, great to meet you. What's up?

I am new to the 1%, but I am not new to selling online and so I pretty much do. Did like the hamster wheel for many years and ran across maybe a podcast or something or someone mentioned your name. And so that's how I learned more about the 1% and totally can see just the. With the different stages how what I was doing previously is very different than building a brand and a business. But my question is I. For my first product, I was thinking about like curating multiple products and selling it on Amazon. The Problem is that I feel a little leery. If I spend all of this time on launching like a box. If, you know, and it's not the right fit, should I be trying to focus my time on like a private label product instead? But the mark, it's a very, you know, like the niche market, like, fits it, but I just don't know how, you know, like successful it would be. It's a need for it.

But I got you, Ginger. So do you have a business that's up and running right now or are you starting something brand new?

Right, so I have a business that's up and running right now, but we are not. I'm changing directions. So we would do the new product that would be our new brand.

Okay, great. So here's what I. This is what I would recommend for you, Ginger. Have you seen the trainings from last month called just one site? Were you on those or have you watched those?

I haven't. I don't think I have access to those.

You do because they're also living on YouTube. So this is what I want you to do.

The pivot for you is before you launch a box or curate a bunch of products, I'm going to encourage you to make content on a website. We call it an authority site and there's training for you in your members area and on YouTube. And it's called just one site. And it's about building an authority site that has the positioning of you giving your opinion on products and building an audience around that specifically. So I made my first hundred grand a year by reviewing other people's products and doing videos about them and writing posts about them. And that gave me authority in the space and a list in the space. So then when I launched a business in that space, I had all the eyeballs to be able to go and get customers on that. Now if I had tried to launch my own product, I would not have known enough and it would have been harder for me to get customers out of the gate. But if you start writing blog pieces and doing reviews of the products that already exist, while also giving your opinion on what else is going on in the space, over the next six months, you'll build up an audience and authority in that. And then you can launch either a box or your own private label product, or just keep blogging, whatever your interest discovers. But I would recommend you go through those trainings, they're pretty detailed. And then start to be thinking about how you can apply those into the existing business.

Okay. And then even if it's Even if there are products that, you know, they wouldn't be private label products, Would you say do that same even if it's, you know, products that already exist is just bringing them all together?

Yeah, absolutely. So, and it's also like if you're in the parenting space, if you do five pieces, five written pieces on reviewing the best strollers. Right. There are so many parents who are now frequenting your blog every day, looking at what's the best stroller and comparing them to one another, that now you're becoming an authority in the parenting space. And then when you decide to launch the parenting box and it's this teether and this toy and this whatever, you've got the momentum of people who have already seen you as an authority on what the best products in the space are. So build that authority first. Build the authority that you are the type of person who has a strong opinion about what the best products are, and then you can start creating the relationships with the other suppliers to do something like a box or launching your own product.

Okay, that sounds great. Thank you.

All right, thanks, Ginger. Great to meet you.

All right, Ines, why don't we conclude with a joke? No.

Just give us your best dad joke then.

I've got a lot of them.

Inez, do you have anything that I should have asked you that I didn't ask you?

No, but I will include this.

We've had a lot of questions on how do you find someone like me? And you had said, go in your network first. And I think that's really important that people don't realize they can do. And do you, more importantly, do you know what you're looking for is what you really need to ask yourself. Because I think that as entrepreneurs, you always feel like you just need someone to take on the busy work. You don't need to hire for that. That's a. That's a va. That's not a person that's going to be by you. You need to truly figure out what you need the most help in and then narrow that down and then go into just talk to your friends, talk to your network, talk to whomever, and you never know who's in your wheelhouse, network, whatever, because you could easily find those people. And once you find them, if you trust them and give them, give them the longest rope possible, because they're going to show you pretty quickly if they're going to hang themselves or they're going to jump with you. And that's very important that everyone needs to realize, like, let them like it's. Hard to let go of the control. It's hard to trust someone. But that's the fastest way. You're gonna find out whether or not that's someone you want to work with long term, because they're going to show you really quickly what they're capable of. And so you kind of have to have just let them exist on their own. Like, even when you and I first started working, you didn't train me to do anything. You just said, here's what I need help in. And then I. I mirrored you. Like, I just sat with you for a week and just watched what you did every day. Like, okay, he's doing this, he's doing this. I see him jump here, jump here.

Let's go.

Let's. We're always like, let's go, let's go. And so it kind of gave me an idea as to what it is that you needed and that, I mean, that would. But that's my, you know, super thing. Like, I can figure that out in people. Like, where do we. Where do they need the most help?

Not.

Not everyone, but they should be able to say, I can help you with X, Y and Z, and let's do this.

And I want to add to this that you can only hire to the level that you can lead.

So there are a few people that commented, can we clone Inez? I needed Inez. So two years, four years ago, Four years ago, if I would have met Inez and brought her on, she would have crushed me. And I mean, like, look, I did not have the vision clear enough for her to be able to come in and build. She would have been super unhappy here.

And sometimes you can find the right person for the role later, but you and you as an organization are not ready for it because you're not the leader that can empower them yet. So if you want change, it starts with you. So if you want to hire better people, you need to become a better person. That means your opening move is the ability to cast a three year vision of where you want to go. Because most of you are expecting to meet the person who makes you feel free enough to cast the vision. But it don't work like that. It's the opposite. You have to cast the vision so that other people have the Runway to be able to come in. Look, most of us as entrepreneurs are unhirable. But if Elon Musk calls you, you pick up the phone, and if he wants you to come work for him.

I'm going to consider it. Why? Because he's a visionary. And we all want to operate in big visions. So if Elon Musk was running X.com like he was when he was 21, none of us want to work for him. But because he's got this vision, we would all give up what we were doing and go work for Elon. So you can only hire to the ability that you can lead. So if you want change, it starts with you. Inez. Thanks for hanging out with me.

Thank you.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Bye, guys.

Bye, everybody. See ya.