Mark Jenney Q&A From F2L2: Building Tech Companies, Creating Value, and Walking Away From Millions

Foreign.

What's up, fast Laners? This is Ryan Daniel Moran. Welcome to Freedom Fastlane. Hey. Today we're going to be listening to a Q and A that I recorded at Freedom Fast Lane Live with my dear friend, my best friend in the world, Mr. Mark Jenny. Mark has been on the show before and he spoke at Freedom Fastlane Live this past year to talk about his pivot from running cash flow businesses to building more disruptor and tech companies.

And he talked a lot about his.

Transition, going from operating in a mindset in where he was trying to take and take as much as possible to one where he was focused on giving and providing value and solving problems. I have had the privilege of being friends with Mark and watching this transition and had a major impact on my thinking. In this crazy Internet world, we hear a lot from the people who are just trying to trying to make a dollar, who are just trying to extract money from the economy. And I fell kind of victim to that by my own accord. I hung out with those people. And in that world, it was all about what are your earnings per click? What is your dollars per lead? What, how much money can you pull out of something? And Mark, to his credit several years ago, being in that same world that I was in about taking as much money as possible to his credit a couple years ago, realized that A, it wasn't making him happier and B, it wasn't providing any good in the world. So at Freedom Fast Lane Live, he talked about that transition, about how he made a bunch of money doing things the way that everybody else says is the way, but it did not make him happy, it did not make him feel fulfilled, and it did not provide a lot of value to the economy. So we made a change and he started RV Share. He started companies with value added purpose and his career and his life has gone to a new level as a result. So this is our recording of our Q and A session. It's not his entire talk, but it is the, the couch session after his chat at Freedom Fast Lane. And we are going to be doing it again here this December of 2016. We'll be announcing the speaker lineup over at freedomfastlane.com Stay tuned for all the announcements and the speaker releases coming soon. You are definitely not going to want to miss Freedom fast lane live 2016. In the meantime, enjoy this Q and A with Mark Jenny.

Thank you.

Mark Jenny, thank you. So I want to start by asking you kind of a bold question and that you went through a transition of working to get and now focusing completely on really focusing on giving as much as possible. And you're happier than I've ever seen you. You're on a much bigger path. But not everybody has made millions of dollars in multiple different industries. And so there's the thought in the brain that says, nice for you, Mark. You can duplicate that in a bunch of different businesses, bunch of different industries. I haven't. So it's nice for you to talk about giving and stuff. I gotta go make my couple million bucks so that I'm set. How would you address that? Thought process?

That's what I thought for years. You know, for years I thought, I always thought, I need more money, I need more money, I need more money before I do something else.

I wish I could tell the 13 year old version of myself to focus on contribution. Because what I found that I've done is I've built a lot of companies and a lot of them have gone from zero to millions and then they've fallen apart and because they weren't focused on contribution. And at the end of the day.

Money is not really what makes you happy. You know, I mean, most people think, well, I just need more money and then I'm going to be happier, I get more stuff and more stuff will make me happier, but it's just not the case.

I wish I was in that position and I wish I had that knowledge that someone told me, hey Mark, you need to stop focusing on money because as long as you keep focusing on money, you're never going to get what you want. You need to focus on contribution. And I wish I could tell the broke version of myself that.

I mean, you always justify things in your head and you know, if you're out there and you don't have the millions of dollars and you're thinking, well, I'll wait, I'll make my millions of dollars first and then I'll go do something that matters. You're always going to keep justifying to yourself and it's always going to be, well, I'll do that later, I'll do that later. Because you know, it's, it's if you're poor and then you start making some money, it's like, okay, then you go from, you know, flying coach to flying, to flying first class. And then when you start flying first class, well you're like, well, I need to fly private. And then when you fly private you're like, well, I need to buy a jet. And when you buy a jet you're like, well, I need to buy a bigger jet. And then when you See a bigger jet. Well, fuck, I need even a bigger jet. So it never ends. It never ends. And focusing on money is just never going to bring happiness and fulfillment at the end of the day. I mean, so, you know, if you're out there and you don't have, you know, if you're focused right now on, well, I'm going to go make my money first, and then I'm going to do something that matters. You know, happiness and fulfillment is literally. It's so important. And like I was talking about, you know, you spend more time on your business than anything else. And I just know so many people who are focused on money, focused on, you know, making that, Let me go make that couple million dollars or whatever it may be, and then I'll do something else that contributes to the world, and they're just not happy. And even when you get the money, it still doesn't lead to happiness. A lot of times the thought process is, well, I just need to get the money, but it doesn't lead to happiness.

Yeah, I like to say that money is like an amplifier. It's like alcohol. If you're an unhappy person and you make a lot of money, it's like an unhappy person who gets drunk, they just become more unhappy. Is this an amplifier of who you already are?

Absolutely. And it wasn't, you know, when I was saying, you know, finding happiness and fulfillment, it wasn't as if I was unhappy with my life. You know, I had great friends, I had great family, you know, great health. I had a great life. And I was happy. It was. I was not happy with my business life. That is where I was not happy. And even though I was making all this money, I just wasn't happy. And when a third of your life is business.

It overflows into everything else. So the fact that I was making a shitload of money but not being happy there, it actually affected my happiness with everything else.

Where was the diminishing returns? Because there's plenty of people, I think everybody on their way up to their first million really like making the money for you. I'm guessing that was probably the case. And then there was diminishing returns or all of a sudden every dollar has.

Less value. So where was the switch for you of all of a sudden? This isn't like, this doesn't bring me fulfillment.

Yeah. It wasn't really a specific dollar amount. It was more just like having everything I ever wanted. And, like, you know, it's like I look at my life and look back to when I was you know, homeless. And just like everything I ever wanted, you know, back then, I have. And there were times where it's like I had it all and I still wanted more, and I still was like, well, I need more. You know, I know other people who. Who have ex Y and s who have private islands. I don't have a private island. Well, I need to go get a private island, you know, so, like, it was more of just like a realization of coming to the realization, like, when you have this stuff and it doesn't really matter. Like, I always thought, you know, that the cars and all that crap made you happy when I was young and I went through that phase and got cars. And it's like, it makes you happy. It's like a drug. It makes you happy for, you know, an hour, and then it fades away.

If you could have pivoted earlier, how would your life be different? Or how early would you have pivoted?

I mean, you know, I think everything happens for a purpose, and I. I wouldn't. I wouldn't change anything and do anything over again because I think that there's. There's a reason everything has played out the way it's played out, and it's allowed me to have the education and the learning experiences that I've learned, you know, both good and bad over the years. But, I mean, I think that if I. If someone had told me when I was younger, because I had no mentors, I had no. I had no connections. I had nothing. I had. My mentors were literally the business books I was buying at the bookstore and reading in class. Those were my mentors. I didn't have anybody to talk to at all. And if someone had told me, mark, the key to success for wealth, health, happiness for everything is.

To provide value and to focus on contribution. And you focus on giving other people what they want, and you'll get everything you want in return. I mean, I think if I would have known that a lot, you know, when I was younger, I would have been able to contribute a lot more value to society and really help a lot more people. You know, I feel fortunate that now I'm at the. The point where I can do that. I'm still young, 32, and, you know, it's like, now I can spend the rest of my life focusing on helping people and focusing on value and contribution. And, you know, so although, you know, part of me says, well, yeah, I wish I would have known that earlier, I still have a long way and, you know, a lot of years in front of me to go ahead and focus on contribution.

So do you think that business and entrepreneurship is the best way to contribute, or is that just the best way that you can contribute?

You know, I think it's the best for me personally. You know, there's a lot of different ways you can contribute. Some people, they end up, you know, making billions of dollars, and then they, you know, start charitable foundations like Bill Gates and, you know, go and, you know, he does a boatload of good through his charitable foundation with the world. There's some people who don't go into business, and they just go straight into starting some sort of charitable foundation. I mean, I don't think that there's a wrong or right. I really don't think that there's a wrong or right, you know, with this specifically, I think it's what's right for you. And as a person.

If you feel like you're meant to contribute more and you feel like you're meant to do something greater than what you're doing, I think that you just need to take that leap of faith. And that's really the biggest thing is jumping over that hurdle of where you're at now. If you feel like you're doing what you're doing just for money, and then to jumping and making that leap of faith of saying, you know what? I know I'm meant to do something greater. I know I'm meant to do something greater, and I'm not doing it. And if I keep doing what I'm doing, I'm going to find myself in the same position. And I feel like, you know, I'm someone who knows that because I found myself in that same position year after year after year, where I always felt like I was meant to do something greater. I was meant to add more value, to help more people, to contribute more, and I just wasn't doing it, so.

So you just recently became a father?

Yes.

We had a race there. I think I got there just a little bit ahead. How has becoming a dad shifted your view on your contribution to society and the way that you run your businesses?

Well, I mean, everyone out there who has kids, they know now it's not just about you. It's about your children. And you want to make sure that the world is a better place for your kids. And I feel like that's very cliche, but until you actually have a child, you can't understand it.

Do you think you could have made the same pivot had you not become a dad?

Yeah. Yeah. Why? I mean, I actually made the pivot Prior, prior to Ella being here.

But I would say that had I not done that, this would probably have accelerated had I not made that pivot.

Has there been any shift? I mean, there's obviously a shift that happens when you become a parent in both. For me, it was just viewing much longer term than I had previously been thinking. And all of a sudden you have to, you have to think about 15 and 20 year goals or plans because your kid's gonna be 15 or 20. At that point, you're just forced to think that way. But business wise, has there been a correlation or any additional shift that's happened as a result of becoming a dad?

The biggest thing for me has been focused on.

Team and building the right team so that I can actually extract myself from the business and spend more quality family time. So for me personally, I think that that's probably been the biggest shift is because I've always said to myself, you know, when I was younger, well, when I have a kid, I want to be there for my child and, you know, spend time with my child as they grow up. And knowing that, you know, the way I approach business and have approached business for years is, you know, I'll work seven days a week and I'll work 14 hours a day, seven days a week for nine months straight and just not, you know, not come up for air until the missions accomplished. And I'm trying to, I guess you'd say.

Moderate that so that I can have more family time.

That's interesting because for the majority of the time that I've known you, you've been the primary driver of revenue and growth for the companies that you've been involved in. You had to step in and make something happen in order for the company to grow. And now that's not the case so much. Now you are almost kind of an outside advisor and you have a team in place that is building and managing a lot of what's going on and even growing it. Would you talk about that shift? That's a huge shift that entrepreneurs at the million dollar point haven't always figured out. That big shift of it runs better when you're not there. So would you speak to that shift?

Well, I think one of the reasons why that's the case with this company that I have with RV Share is because we actually have a product that people fucking want. Like, I mean, honestly, we have a product that people want. A lot of the stuff I did before was stuff I was selling people. So I think that there was a big difference because I had something of value that was contributing value to the world as opposed to before. I was just trying to figure out how can I sell someone something so I can put money in my bank account so I can buy more shit that I don't need. And I think that that has allowed me because like you said, I've always been the driving force for revenue for all the companies I've started. And it's because I've been the marketing person, I've been the person who like comes up with the idea of what we're going to sell and how we're going to sell it and how we're going to optimize it and how we're going to split test and how we're gonna, you know, all that stuff. And when you, you know, that's important when you have something that people don't need. No one needs another weight loss pill. You know, no one. They, if they need wanna lose weight, they can go to the gym and do some push ups and sit ups. They don't need another weight loss pill. But I was trying to sell them another weight loss pill and if it wasn't me for trying to sell them that, they never would have bought it. So I think that that's one of the reasons why I was actually needed in the company and to be that revenue driver is because we were selling stuff to people who didn't actually need the stuff that they were buying. Whereas now we're providing a value and we're giving people something that they need and we're solving a problem that they actually have.

I remember the day at your house when I forgive me if I botched the numbers, but you told, you told me, hey, we have this product that's profiting like $80,000 a day. And I was like, you have my attention. Tell me more about this product that profits $80,000 a day. And you started talking through it and you were talking about it in the past. Yeah, it was making like $80,000 a day. And I was like, well, what's it doing now? He said, oh, I pulled it.

What?

I pulled it down. Why? That didn't make me comfortable. I wasn't comfortable selling that product. I didn't feel like it was, I didn't feel like I was doing the right thing by selling that product. And I had never, I had never heard those words before. So would you just talk about that thought process?

Yeah, that was actually the product that I was talking about earlier today was the Forskolin product, which was a product that Dr. Oz talked about on his show. And we just happened to be the first ones on the bandwagon to start selling it. And it was, you know, the next greatest, next greatest miracle diet pill. And, you know, it went from zero sales to literally north of, I don't know, 200 to $250,000 a day in sales somewhere around there in a week. Within a week, you know, we went from like nothing to, you know, and it was making about $80,000 a day, I think, when, you know, the margins on it were pretty solid. So, I mean, it doesn't take too many $80,000 a day, you know, for the money to keep adding up.

But really, Mark, is that we actually.

Well, yes, yes, but no, it was a really hard decision because we pulled the. We only let that, you know, one thing I said, you know, hey, we put this product out and it went from zero to, you know, more than 200,000 a day in sales in less than a week. Well, what I didn't say was that we only sold it for maybe two weeks.

I just didn't feel comfortable. I just didn't feel comfortable with it. And so I pulled my team together and we talked about it and we all agreed we were just going to pull it down. So we pulled it down.

So.

Did we leave a lot of money on the table? Yes. If we were focused 100%, I'd say if my heart was focused 100% on money, I would have kept selling and kept cashing $80,000 a day checks that was going straight to the bottom line. It would have been great. But I just, you know, I knew something was. Was wrong with it and just, I don't know, couldn't live with it.

I have noticed kind of a trend in. We've been friends for quite a few years now, and I've noticed kind of a trend in the people we used to hang out with who came from that world of doing something for. To get doing something so that I benefit. And what's interesting is almost none of those guys are around anymore. Almost none of those businesses have survived more than like a two to three year window. They're gone. I don't even know what they're doing anymore. And those who have switched over into something much longer lasting are still around and have had careers and businesses grow far bigger than anyone imagined. And then everyone in that circle is like, you came out of nowhere. I can't believe you broke out. Have you seen the same thing?

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, really, it's just like being on the rat race, you know, And Honestly, I was that way for many, many years. I kept building one business after the next business after the next business. It was only focused on extraction, it wasn't focused on contribution. And they all kept falling apart. And I'd make money and it'd fall apart and make money and fall apart and make money fall apart. And after a while it gets tiresome because. But when you don't build something on a solid foundation, when you're just focused on yourself, it's just not gonna last long.

Thanks, Mark, for being here. Let's give it up one more time for Mark. Jenny. Thank you.

I have been fortunate to be surrounded by people like Mark. Jenny and Mark and I met at a conference similar to Freedom Fastlane Live back in like 2009 or 2010. And I benefited from being around him for the last six years or so. And I have benefited from being around people who have made me think at a higher level. Most of you know I'm, I'm a dork from Cleveland, Ohio. I have no business in my natural state talking about multi million dollar empires buying the Cleveland Indians. But I have become that person much because of two things, who I have hung out with and the books I have read. And that is what determines who you will become in the next year. You will be the product of the people that you hang out with and the books that you read. Now we can address the books you read part. We have a new book club over@freedomfastlane.com just head over there, click the link that says book club and I'll send you the four books that I think every entrepreneur should read right away as well as the things I'm reading and my thoughts on them. Because we all can point to at least one book that had, oh, I don't know, a million percent ROI on both our brain, happiness and wallet. So I share the ones that are having an impact on me over at the book club@freedomfastlane.com and the other piece, who you hang out with is twofold. One, go to where the people where you want to be like where they already hanging out. Go to those conferences, come to Freedom Fast Lane Live this December and join groups where the people where you want to emulate, the people who are five years ahead of you already are. We try to do that to some extent here on the podcast, but we also do it inside of our mastermind which is called the back room. If you have a million dollar net worth or a business that's pacing a million dollars or more per year, you can apply to be accepted into the back room at freedomfastlane.com mastermind or by clicking on the backroom tab on freedomfastlane.com I have benefited from I benefited immensely from being around people who made me think bigger, who challenged my assumptions, who stayed ahead of the curve faster than the people I was hanging out with regularly. And that has been maybe the biggest impact on my success, who I have surrounded myself with and being willing to act courageously by taking steps that weren't normal to my existing peer group based on the inspiration of those that I had around me in the groups that were stretching me to a new level. So that's why we have started doing that inside of the back room over@freedomfastlane.com hey, thanks so much for listening to the show. If you got benefit out of this one, please share it with someone who would find value with it. And as always, thank you for listening to Freedom Fastlane and I'll see you on the next show.