Your Biggest Business Strategy - Build A Brand With Purpose

There was a constant theme that happened at the capitalism conference. And I think it really hit me when I was speaking with AJ Vaynerchuk on the morning of the second day, which is that AJ literally does what he wants. Like he builds the company that he wants. He, he hired some people. It's like all about what he wants. So he really likes sports and was fascinated by the business side of the sports world. So I'm going to build a business in that world. And that was kind of the first time I really started to get the idea of what Gary would say of eating shit for 10 years or whatever. Because if you're building the thing that you want to be doing anyway, it's just fun. And now you're just detached from the result. And I've been guilty of this, and I think that especially the Internet entrepreneur world is particularly guilty of.

Here'S the money, I'm gonna reverse engineer the money. And I mean, the marketplace is a great place to indicate where there's value. But if you want to be happy once you have like your basic needs met and your basic needs being, like, you eat and you have a place to live, I mean, it doesn't really make any sense to.

Reverse engineer the goal unless it's baked in enjoyment along the way. It's kind of like, you know, when I, I have tried for years and years to like get myself to consistently do cardio, but I hate it, right? And I hate waking up and going like running on the treadmill, like doing the elliptical, like, it's just, it's just boring. I don't want to do it. So am I likely to keep doing it? Not unless I have unbelievably great discipline, which is like, you hear from the jocko willinks of the world, like, there's more discipline, more discipline. I think that's probably unhealthy for a lot of people. So that idea of.

Going into the energy reserves and finding new willpower to make yourself do something is a lot harder than when I play racquetball. I have a great frickin time. Yeah, like, yeah, if somebody says to me, like, hey, let's go to racquetball, I'm like, done, let's go. I'm in. So if you build your life around what's enjoyable on the path to the result, it's a much different energy flow. Do you know I said this in my talk See money.

For years, in like my early 20s, I woke up every day feeling like a loser. Cause I didn't own the Cleveland Indians. Cause it was like, here's the goal. Here's what I need to accomplish in order to feel like I matter. And so I'm trying to reverse engineer the process to get me there. And.

The truth was, I set that goal. Cause I can't imagine anything more fun than being the owner of the Cleveland Indians. And I'll be in the dugout with eye black on my eyes and a number on my back. And I'll be doing annoying chants in the dugout. I'll be the annoying guy they kick out. And I'll be like, you can't kick me out. I own this place.

But what I did then was like, all right, here's the goal. What goal is going to get me there without ever factoring in, what am I going to really enjoy? And now that my life is all about, you know, what am I going to enjoy? Now you have. I think that gives high achievers like us the energy to be able to build that really big thing. And AJ was a model of that. He was just a model of. I just do. I just do what feels good, I do what I want, and I work really, really hard, which gets me closer to that result. So that was the conversation I enjoyed the most. And that was a really consistent theme throughout the event of our community, this world, this Internet entrepreneur world. The fancy ass Internet marketers who think they're hot shit.

Really are just reverse engineering for the money, which is not a way to reverse engineer a life. My buddy Justin Brook, who is at the event, has this quote where he says, build a life, not a business. And I get what he's going for when he says that. So ultimately, we're all in this because we want to enjoy our lives. So let's make that the priority. And what's funny is money becomes a byproduct of the value create in that zone, in that zone of genius. And so how do you answer the question of how do you stay in that zone to be doing what you do best that creates the most value, that ultimately makes you the most money?

So, I mean, the thing you want to do is like talk with interesting people and light entrepreneur's fire.

Yeah. And.

Like have great conversations and connect.

Yeah. I mean, the thing I enjoy most is connecting, being a part of community, cultivating community and lighting other fires, of taking the resources and the network that you have and taking that flame and lighting the next fire. And the way that if I'm really good at that, then it means that I can go all in on my audience, building all in on my community building. And then when there's someone who comes on our radar or a business that we're really excited about and we share that with the community, that fire now lights that. So.

It'S kind of like here. This is run by one of our community members, Nick company. I really like the keto brownie Delicious. You should buy them. I'm doing it right now, by the way. I have no stake in this business, but I would like to. Nick, this is a really good example of when our community continues to grow and blossom. And we've got 10,000 continuity members getting a monthly subscription in the mail from capitalism.com with case studies of cool businesses and tips and tricks from our community on what's working and what we're investing in and what we're excited about. And we include one keto brownie in here to 10,000 people who have access to capital, who buy this kind of stuff, who are hard charters, who have retail connections. 10,000 people have their own little mini empire, right? Whether that empire is a family or it's a retail distribution chain. I've now lit this fire. I've now lit Nick's fire. And he already had a little bit going, but I was able to take that flame and.

And now this. This becomes all over the place. And that just makes me excited. And it'll. And by me being really good at that and for us to be all dialed into that, being the target, it'll take one keto brownie, one bulletproof coffee, one RX bar, one big idea that we're invested in that we have a stake in to bring me closer to the Cleveland Indians. I don't know. That'll get me there, but it'll bring us a lot closer to that. And if we can do that through a system, man, that's just. Just fun. And then we all just get to hang out. That's great. What could be more fun?

I met Nick, too, at Capcom.

He's good people. I like Nick. Nick, give me equity in your company or join the back room. Like, seriously, we can so help. No, that's the other thing. When you're really dialed into what you want, it makes it a lot easier to identify where your value is. So, for example, now that I know I'm looking for these types of businesses, businesses with brand staying power, businesses that.

Have some sort of an audience or could build an audience. Brands that have differentiation, brands with big potential. Now, if someone like, now, I have no problem selling the pants out of the ways that we can help them. Whereas before, when you're like, I think Amazon companies are particularly guilty of this, where it's like, I sell, you know, I sell scissors. Who needs more scissors? But when you know exactly who you can help, you have no problem selling more. It's like, you know, I have no problem getting on the phone with Nick or someone like Nick and being like, dude, you need to give me $50,000 and join the backroom that you need to, because we'll make that back, like, tomorrow. Because I know, I know how to help those businesses. So it makes you just more confident in who you can help. When you know exactly who you're serving, how you serve them, and what the end game is. Because now we're all going in the same direction. It comes less about the, yeah, here. Here it is.

When you know exactly where you're going and who you're serving, it stops being about, I'm here, there's the money, and you're in between me and my money, and I gotta get you to give me my money. It stops being about that. It then becomes, this is where I am. Here's the goal of who I am and where we're going as a company and how I want to operate. You are, in the wake of that, we're all going to get there together. And that sometimes requires the transaction of dollars. It becomes about getting somewhere and bringing everybody with you, bringing your customers and your clients and your partners with you. It becomes less about, that's the goal. And you're in my way, so give me my money. And that's a completely different energy exchange. And customers see that. And that's when businesses really grow. Sa.