Nate Kennedy - Building and Selling Seven Different Online Businesses

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Welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. We are here at the Blue Wire studios in Las Vegas, and today I am joined by the one and only Nate Kennedy. Thanks so much for coming on, Nate.

Yeah, I'm excited to be here, man. Thanks for having me.

Of course. Thanks for coming out. I've been looking forward to this interview for quite some time. I know we've, you know, we've scheduled it a couple months back. So, you know, for everyone that's listening, I'd love to just start off by saying for those that may not know who you are or follow you on social, what it, what is it that you do for a living and what drives you?

Oh, man. For a living, business side is, you know, I basically drive a lot of leads. So we generate about up to 10,000 leads a day right now. And we build brands and what. I mean, brands, we're building a audiences. Right. Right. So our biggest thing is we want to own the audiences that we build that buy different products and services and other niches. So that's what we really focus on. And, you know, we. So right now we've got about 30 different brands we've built. And now that we've got this massive audience we've created, we're starting to build our own physical product stuff too. Right. So that's really what we focus on.

Love that.

So as for me, it's, I guess the one thing is I used to, in the past, I had an agency for a long time.

Yeah.

In that agency I kind of got in 2020, I was like, man, I got to do something different. I was like, I'm getting called all the time.

Yeah.

On the weekends and they do something different. So I decided, all right, I'm going to take all this and build these brands and Built these brands up. Because the reason being is I made that pivot was I wanted to go from, you know, having my business built around like my life, working around my business. I had to switch it up and I had to go, all right, here's the lifestyle I envisioned for myself and my family and my kids and my wife. And so I built that business around it and, you know, it's been very cool. We do.

Yeah. No, that's incredible. When did you get into the digital marketing space?

I got introduced in 2006.

Okay.

Digital marketing. So I got a shaved head, so can't see the grays, but yeah. So 2006 was my first foray into Internet marketing. I didn't even. I did my first marketing piece, traditional marketing piece in 2002 for a security company that we created back in the day. And, and then I got into the Internet side in 2006, kind of introduced to it. A buddy of mine asked me to, he's like, hey, I'm headed out to a Dan Kennedy info summit. Do you want to go? And that's. I was like, sure, let's go. We flew to LA of all places for it and hung out there. And he sat me down. He's like, you're going to want to buy everything from everyone on this stage. He was like, just buy one thing.

Just be ready.

Yeah, buy one thing and execute that. And that's what I did. I bought, I bought a product from Dan Kennedy, how to create personality within your copy, ironically, of all things, which is still valuable to this day.

Yeah. So that's incredible. I'd love to kind of take a step back as well. I believe you're from Midwest, is that correct?

Ohio.

Ohio, yes. What like, you know, growing up, what, what were some of your aspirations and you know, what were you doing in your teenage years when it comes to the foundation of know your career, moving into where you are today?

Yeah, so I was always, I, I grew up in a, a family where I watched my dad actually had a corporate job, got laid off when I was younger, and then he decided to go build his own business. And so I watched him build a couple, failed a couple, and then he finally built one that took off. So that's, that's what I saw was like the up and down success and roller coaster of entrepreneurship growing up. And you know, he used to make me work in his warehouse that he had back in the day. And he'd always tell me, you know, why you're doing this, you know, all the dirty work. So I don't know, dad, why? Right? Because you want to own the company someday and I'm teaching you to own it. And I'm like, nigger, you're just getting cheap labor. Cheap labor with a lesson. Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I grew up in that environment, but I was always the kid. Like, I was, you know, I have an older brother, super, really, really book smart, very, very smart guy. Me, I think I was born with the, you know, the street smarts. And I was, I was always just trying to do something. So, you know, I, you know, I was always the kid that, you know, like, you hear a lot of entrepreneurs say, I was always cutting the neighbor's yard or shoveling snow up in Ohio, doing all that stuff. I was trying to make a buck. And I would say, and seeing that with my dad, that's kind of really when I, I never really anticipated getting. I guess I thought I was gonna get job because society told me, right? Hey, yeah, the common thing is to go to college, you know, so you can get a degree, so you can get a job. And then I get to college in that time, right? And I go and I sit down and I'm like, man, I was going to be a physical therapist because I love sports and I played sports all the time. I was always working real hard, you know, working out all the time. When my friends were hanging out and I ended up going to college, I was like, well, I wasn't gonna be a college athlete. Apparently, you know, 5, 7 doesn't cut it back then.

I can relate. I, I grew up playing hockey, lacrosse, football, the whole nine.

Yeah, so. And so I ended up going there and I 8am Biology class. And I was like, forget this, man. I was like, I'm just going to own the physical therapy place. So I went and applied for the college of business instead.

Got it. Hey, I love that. I'd love to ask you because as I said, I played sports growing up in Virginia. Hockey for 10 years, lacrosse for like four or five. And then sophomore year of high school, that's really what got me into this whole business world was I was almost paralyzed playing football. I was in a neck brace for like six months. And for me, like, that was the biggest form of adversity in terms of a six month period of depression. Not sure what I want to do with my time where I just found this avenue of business, social media, entrepreneurship. And from that time I've never looked back. And it's what led me into what I do today. So I'd Love to ask you, like, was there a moment in your journey that, you know, was just filled with adversity that really made you pivot and think differently about the world?

Oh, man. Later on in life, I would say, yeah. So first off, I'd like to say that cross is one of the best sports played in high school too. I love that. Trying to get my son to play it now, but he's okay. But it's a great sport. But yeah, I would say, you know, I was, you know, I remember going to college. I'll start there. I don't know, kind of an easy one, right? And I get there because a lot of people tell you got to go to college. But I think it's like, I almost feel like I was held back because. Because I spent those four years doing that. Although I had a good time and, yeah, met some great people, I still talk to today and hang out with, but, you know, there's, you know, I get in and my first semester I was like, you know, I didn't do much of anything because I didn't really enjoy it. And so I came home, my dad was like, hey, I got your grades. He's like, you know, you gotta change your major. I was like, what? What now? I was like, what? I'm gonna change it to. He's gonna change it to basket weaving. Thanks, dad. But so I had to, I had to overcome that, right? Because I wanted to get into the college of business. I had to go fix all that stuff. But when I got out of college, I started my first business. Didn't quite take off. And then I got into the mortgage industry and I started a mortgage company in 2005. We got into the mortgage space, started building high end homes because real estate was cranking back then. I was like, man, I was like, I'm gonna build the one stop shop. So I had the agency, the construction company, the mortgage company, and we're doing all this stuff and you know, 2008, right around 2007, 2008, things started going south. And, you know, I thought I had this diversified multiple streams and all this stuff, and really it was all egg. One basket. Market tanked. I lost everything.

Wow.

On paper, I was worth millions. You know, in my mid-20s, thought that was awesome. And then I realized that, you know, it disappeared overnight. So I lost everything. And I was too busy grinding, right. And working 24 7, working hard, playing hard, that I just didn't have my head up, picked up looking at what the, you know, where to pivot.

Yeah.

So that was one adversity. And then that kind of changed. I was, hey, I got to do something different.

Yeah, no, I mean, I, I'd love to dive into that. I mean, you know, for me, I'm 21 right now, and I think that over these last couple of years with COVID and everything happening with tech stocks, like, there's, there's so much uncertainty of, like, what the future has. I was listening to a podcast today by David Sachs and all these big VCs, talking about just, like, inflated market caps for all these private companies and how things are, like, pre Covid levels and just, like, seeing, you know, what can happen and reflecting on, like, 2008. I was 8 years old at the time, so I didn't get to live through that from a business perspective. But I'd love to just hear, like, you know, not that how it unraveled in terms of, like, your thought process, but, like, when did you know things were changing and, like, you had to make that pivot and things were going south. Like, I know you said overnight, but, like, what was your plan of action and how were you able to navigate through those times to come out, you know, a bigger and better person overall?

Yeah. I would say, number one is I, I, I didn't pivot fast enough. Right. Like, my ego got ahead of me.

Okay.

So. Because the ego was there. And, And I, I like to say it as I was the. At the time, I was the king of the dipshits, you know, So I was hanging out and everybody was partying, you know, and a lot of things going on, all this stuff, but I just wasn't paying attention to where things were going. I thought I got there because of me.

Yep.

Not because the market was good. Right. And made it easy. You know, good markets make bad business people look good. And at the time, I thought I was a good business guy, but I had a lot to learn. Right. So my ego got ahead of me. And. And then when I lost everything, I've never been one to really kind of, you know, sit and just do nothing. I had started diving in, as I said in 2006, into the Internet marketing. Never really took it serious. We started messing around and learning with it. So it was kind of a culmination. I was like, man, I've got an opportunity to reinvent myself and reinvent what I do and completely change the directory of where I'm going to go.

Yeah.

But I spent about two weeks being depressed. Yeah. You know, and remembered sitting in my bankruptcy attorney's office and made a Statement along the lines, he's like, you know, there's no growth and comfort. And when I had no money, he was asking me for money.

Oh, my God, attorneys.

So. But, you know, so I went through that, and I would say that it was. I had that opportunity to pivot. I really enjoyed the online marketing space, and I just dove in and started figuring it out. And, you know, and from there, the big lesson for me was that one, as an entrepreneur, you're going to have to be resilient because you're going to get smacked across the face a few times and sometimes punched, right?

Yep.

Just the way it is. And if you're an entrepreneur, haven't been punched in the face yet, you know, through business, then you need to try a little harder.

Yeah.

So, you know, and so with that, I would say, you know, the big lesson I learned was that pivot quickly. I always understand where the market's going. A lot of times it's our best guess. From the knowledge that we got, it could go different, but you just got to be ready to pivot. And that's what a lot of entrepreneurs are able to do.

Totally. So when you got into the Internet marketing space back then versus today, I'd love to ask you, when did social media come into picture in your life in terms of social marketing? Obviously, I know you have a large personal brand online. When did you start taking social seriously from a personal perspective, and how has that played a role in your digital marketing career?

Yeah. So the social side for organic and kind of posting and building my brand, I didn't really take seriously until a couple years ago. But I've always leveraged those networks for paid ads.

Yep.

So I always used it different. To me, everyone, there's all different angles you can go with marketing. And for me, I always wanted to know, hey, if I'm going to build something and I want to be able to know how much I can pay for a customer, Right?

Yeah.

And how much I can make per customer. That's for what I've kind of the world I came from.

Yeah.

And so that's all I focused on, was paid ads. I leveraged Facebook ads, Google display ads for a long time. Matter of fact, another challenge. The day before I got married, or I was getting married in 2010, got a call from a guy I was working with on the ad side. He goes, hey, man, Google shut you down. It's like, what do you mean? I was like, so the, the money train, the money, the money flow just stopped. He's like, yep, he's like. And you're not going to get back online unless you do these, like, five things. You know, like your.

Your ad account was disabled in a sense or.

Yeah, basically. And at that time, Google was going through a process where they were just cutting everyone off.

Yeah.

And he was like, you know, he goes, I can't handle your account anymore. He goes, you're going to have to go make all these changes. So really I just figured out how to play the game at that point.

Yeah.

What was their game they wanted me to play? I played it while everyone else was trying to. Everyone else got kicked off. I finally got back on, but I was like, man, that'll. That'll change your.

Yeah.

Wedding day a little bit. A little bit more stress added in.

You know, hey, pressure is a privilege, right?

That's true.

Love that. No, that's. I mean, just hearing that too. It's like, I want to ask you this too. This kind of goes back to a different point, but being at the mercy of platforms, I think is a real thing for so many businesses. Even for us at media kits, we are integrated with all these APIs. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, we have all these integrations to create a beautiful media kit for creators. And it's challenging to get these APIs, but at the same token, as easy as it can be perceived, it can be taken away. So it's like seeing how big tech is moving and what's happening in that space, I think we're so ripe for disruption. And you see Elon thinking about launching a social platform and all these people just thinking about that. And I think in the year 2022, it's never been more ripe. You see TikTok really blowing up and taking the number one spot in terms of usage. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. As someone that's been in the space for a while from a social and digital standpoint, like how you think about culture in the social world and, you know, what are you paying attention to?

Yeah, it's great question. I would say for me, focus on the social world is people. There's different ways to use it. You either have consumers or you have producers. And a lot of times what happens is people get in. If you're an entrepreneur or a business owner, you should be in the producer role and there's massive opportunity. And this is why a couple of years ago I was like, I need to. Actually, I was behind the scenes for so long and to finally start getting in front of it. And I missed a lot of Opportunity. But hey, no better time to start than now was yesterday or now. Right. So with that is, you know, I think what people really need to do is look at as an opportunity to build eyeballs. Right. Because eyeballs are currency with the social world and that's why you see a lot of companies and entrepreneurs doing that. So for me, it's, I'm trying to produce, put out valuable content that will attract the right people that I can help and impact, you know, positively going forward. So I would say there's that and there's always, there's always going to be the mainstays. Right. People are like, ah, Facebook's gonna die, won't be around in 10 years. I don't know.

Yeah, like it'll definitely be here to stay. Yeah.

They said that about the Google Ads. They said that about, you know, like, email's dead and, you know, we send 70 million emails a month now. Up to 100 million emails sometimes. You know what I mean? So, like, email's not dead, but people have been saying it's dead for years.

Yeah.

So mediums are created and they're there. Right.

So it's.

How are you going to leverage them? And then new mediums are going to pop up. But think about how many things have come online. TikTok took off, but how many came online that did not take off?

Yeah.

Right. So there's a lot. So also be very like one thing I leverage with. So Clubhouse popped on and it was like the craze for a long time. And so I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to use this. I don't know if it's going to stick around long term. I didn't know if I really believed in it. I was like, but I am going to go, I am going to go snag my handle.

Yeah, yeah, 100.

Just in case it does.

I got it right. Yeah.

Control that space. But you know, I think there's, there's massive opportunity with social if you use it right. But it's be the producer, not the consumer.

Yeah, you know, totally. I love that. I'd love to dive into just, I know we were talking before the show, like you lived in California for a while now you're in North Carolina. You know, come from the east coast myself. I think it's just such a difference in terms of like lifestyle and how you think about the world. Would love to know, like your experience in California, you know, what made you move to North Carolina and just experience there and really just like the Other side of, you know, your life outside of the business, the personal side, like, how do you manage your family as an entrepreneur and what does that look like in your life? Because I think so many entrepreneurs out there can learn from this, whether they have a family or not. Because it's a skill set that I think, you know, everyone will, you know, learn the either easy way or hard way one day.

Oh, yeah, sure. You know, I think so. I lived in North Carolina for a long time. I moved there the first time in 2002. And I love North Carolina. It's kind of where I always say I grew up. That's where I became a man, you know, even though I was 22 when I moved there. Yeah, 21 when I moved there, I'm like, ah, that's where I grew up. But at the same time, it was, you know, a city where I learned how to support myself, you know, when I moved there, I had nothing. I had a truck, a. A mattress. Didn't even. Actually, I had a. I had a frame, not a Mattress, and a 50 CD disc changer, Sony stereo in a suitcase. Right. With clothes. And so I get there and I had nothing. So I had to walk up and down the street to find a job and started waiting tables and figure it out. And I think, you know, so for me, I grew up in Charlotte in that aspect. Loved it. Met my wife there, girlfriend at the time, she went through. She was. She was with me when we were riding high. My ego was big. She was with me when I was in the dumps after lost everything. And we've been together ever since.

Wow.

So I think, you know, having a, you know, if you're not married, having a good woman that supports you is a good one. Right. Keep them. And then, you know, I. I just always loved North Carolina because it wasn't Ohio.

Yeah.

Freezing up there. Like, I remember moving down there and I was taking the trolley, living uptown. It was pretty cool. First time living in a city and even though it was smaller back then, but this lady was like, man, this is going to be. This is like the worst winter we've ever had. And it's like a little flurry, you know, nothing's even sticking. So, like, all right, I can handle this totally. But, you know, my wife and I lived in the city and then we started moving north as we had kids. So I have a son that's 10, daughter that's eight now. And. And for me, on the entrepreneurship side there, I've always been one of those people that's like, I'm building. I don't. I'm not going to be the dad that says, no, I can't go. I'm gonna be at the games. I'm gonna be at the dance recitals. I'm gonna be at the horseback riding lessons. You know, like, that's just always what I wanted. That's. That's the. That's the precedent, actually, my parents set for me, you know, So I just wanted. I thought it was a great one. They were always there.

Totally.

And I wanted to be plugged in. It's a family. Because I think, you know, you got one opportunity to raise those kids.

Yeah.

So hopefully the best job I can.

Totally.

But I'm sure I'll screw up here and there. I already have, but, you know, that's life. So with that, when we moved to California, we just want something different. Like, I. I was in an environment that we weren't being pushed. Yeah, right. We got comfortable, and. Which is a very easy thing to do, is get comfortable. Once you've reached a certain level of success, what's the drive to keep going? And I got in there, and I'm like, man, I need to do. I need to get out of my comfort zone. So I kept saying to my wife, let's. I go out to California for business. And I was like, every time I call, and then finally I call, she said, what are you calling to tell me we need to move there?

I was like, ye.

And then we take a trip out there. One of my clients was out there. We take a trip, I bring the kids out and the wife out and for spring break kind of thing. And he goes, my son, we're sitting at George's overlooking in La Jolla, overlooking the ocean and all this stuff. And my son, 5 years old, time goes, mom, we should move here, man. We went home, she packed the bags, and we were gone. I was like, I've been saying that.

For three years, but wow, that's so great.

And so we move out, you know, and it was the. It was the best decision we could have made because it took us all about our comfort zone.

Ye.

We became closer as a family went through. You know, we grew, company grew, things grew, relationships grew, we met amazing people. The kids got new experiences. And then, as I was mentioned earlier, we kept taking all our vacations back east to see family. So, you know, my kids are like, hey, what do you want to do for your birthday? I kind of want to go back and see, you know, I want to go back and see, you know, Aunt Wendy and Uncle Mike or I want to see Johnny. And so we go back to the farm. And so we kept taking all our vacations back home. And so we're like, well, we need this vacation. So we started, we moved back east, you know.

Yeah.

And we love it there. It's, it's home base. I think we finally accepted its home base because my wife got in this, this mode where like every three years we'd move.

Yeah.

You know, we're like, we gotta do something different. And we finally, like, all right, this is home base. We'll just start buying the stuff we want across the country.

Love that. I appreciate this, the perspective there. I think it's super insightful. We'd love to pivot and just talk about. And you mentioned earlier, like the 30 brands that you've built over time. I'd love to like, dive into the ones that you'd like to talk about in terms of, like, you know, what the brands are, how you think about them. And really, like, is there a certain area of focus that you focus when it comes to the brands that you're building or are they all kind of different in their own right?

So they, when we go to build a brand, the first thing we're looking for is a larger audience. Right. We like to start from a top level audience audience. We don't, we don't get super niche.

Yeah.

So for us, one of our, one of our brands is AmericanConservatives.com and then another one is ModernPatriots.com so they have that conservative kind of feel to them because it's a large audience. But then we provide them with opportunities in the health space, financial space.

Got it.

Right. So we bring them in on kind of the top level interest and then we have the opportunity to put these other opportunity, you know, things in front of them that are going to help them as well. Right. And so those are for us, we're trying to build brands in a larger audience that we can break down to sub segments. Right. So we know that when the audience comes in, we can go and say, all right, are you interested in this, this or this? And they pick what they do and then we can choose the path for them to go.

Right, got it.

Now you can also build your audience for like, very niche too. It's just gonna be a smaller audience. Yeah. So, you know, I think totally. Even in the. For coaches and influences. And another thing, but most importantly, I would say the way that we go about it is we build the audience and we leverage email. Right. So Our biggest thing is a lot of. I shocked at how many people don't use email today or even just put a lead capture on their page to say, subscribe here and I'll get you updates. Because what happens when Facebook shuts your ad account down or Google shut your ad account down? And I guess I Learned that in 2010. Right. So it was like, you know, maybe it's my, you know, always that safety net I got is building.

You own it.

Yeah. If you own your audience, you own the brand and you own the audience. I guess, you know, we build these brands, but our goal is really to own the audience.

Yeah.

At the end of the day. So that's what we're looking for as audiences that we can grow.

Got it.

Another one we're working on is. I don't know, man. I keep. I'm putting it out there because we haven't launched yet. So I'm hoping it takes off.

There you go.

It's. But it's our first physical product brand that we're going to do with this audience called Liberty Call Coffee. So we're trying to make making coffee great again.

Very cool.

So leveraging all that stuff. Right. And that, you know, that demographic that listens to that kind of thing and.

Yeah.

And coffee. That's so. Right. Nothing's left.

Yeah.

So we'll see what happens with it. Right. Like, it hasn't taken off yet. It's. I. We actually. I just figured out it's gonna be another eight weeks just to get our bags in. I'm like, come on.

It's so funny. I. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, talking about, like, physical products, and he's in the chocolate business and I'm over here, like, building a tech company. We're worried about, you know, software not working, bugs happening, and he's worried about, like, chocolate not melting on the truck. And they're just like. The level of different problems in a business is so funny sometimes if you think about someone else's problems versus what yours are. So, I mean, just hearing that, it reminded me of the conversation I had yesterday, because it's like, I could never relate because I don't have a coffee company. But that's great.

I've got a partner in that that knows coffee inside now. So that's the only way we're able to do that. But even thinking of tech, we just bought a software company called Rival. So Big Ad Server allows you to rotate impressions of all the impressions you've got and everything else. So, like, I got to switch that mind. Yeah, consistently. But we'll be able to do it. I guess, you know, a tip or what not for people listening is when you, a lot of people try and grow brands and businesses and then move to the next one before the first one's taken a foothold.

Yeah.

And the only way you can do that is if you get the right people. So, you know, number one is like, get the right people in place, be a great leader, become a better leader so you can put the right people in place so they can run them. Because if you don't have that.

Yeah.

I've seen so many entrepreneurs just fizzle out and die off because they're too spaced out doing too many things, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. On that note, I'd love to talk about like where you spend your time and when it comes to, you know, building great leadership in your organization, building with the right people and just like overall, like your day to day schedule.

Like where you spend your time hanging out here. You know, for me, the, a few years back, I, I had this realization that I was an awful leader because my company was built around everyone calling me and I, I had built myself as the conduit. So I was the fire starter.

Got it.

So I could put the fires out.

Yeah.

You know, and I created this environment that I just didn't enjoy. And I wasn't building people up. They were very task driven. And then a buddy of mine that owns a pretty large software company, him and I are having a conversation one day and he goes, I was like, asked him, I was like, you know, where did you make your big pivot at? And he goes, I went from transactional leadership to transformational leadership. And so I started reading about transformational leadership. I started trying to figure out how can I be a better leader, how can I help people grow? And so instead of focusing solely on the business revenue and growth, I focused on the growth of the people within the business. Because all that other stuff for me, I figured, all right, if I can go focus on these people being great and helping them be amazing at what they do and help them take ownership in what they do as opposed to guy, I can guide them instead of saying, hey, here's your task, do this, here's your task, do this, then we would be able to grow, but they would take ownership of their job and their opportunity that they had, but we would grow as a company because they became. My goal was to be able to have conversations with them and learn from them as opposed to me telling them what do to to do and learn from me.

Right. Yeah.

And when I made that switch is when things opened up for us.

Very cool and transformational leadership. Yeah, love that.

And it's. As for your other question, like my day to day, you know, I really, I, I don't, I, I keep it boring, so I do.

Yeah.

You know, people, it's funny because people are always like, oh, you know, the nine to five. And you know, I was railing against that. Sometimes you see people doing that. I'm like, I live a nine to five.

Yeah.

You know, my, my kids are doing the school thing. My wife homeschools. So they do that during the day and that's my opportunity. I knock all my stuff out there and then when I'm done, I, you know, usually around two or three, I hit the gym and then I go home, you know, so it's, I get my work done in the morning, I do my meetings. I make sure that teens got what they need and they're, you know, they got no roadblocks in their way. If they do, you know, I help them solve that and then we move forward. And it's, I would say from there it's bigger, bigger level thinking. Right. Like, yeah, how can we go from this to this? Or who do I need to become to go from here to here? Who do we need to. Who do I need to connect with? Right. Like, I'm thinking of those things and bigger visions. Actually, when I get back on this week, we got a meeting. Like, we're one of our industries that we're in. It's like, it's just, it's stagnant. It's, it's old school mindset, man. And like, guys, this has to change. I was like, if no one's innovating, we're going to innovate.

Yeah.

So we got a big meeting on how we're going to create innovation in this space that's been around for a long time. So, you know, that's the type of stuff I love doing. Yeah.

That's super cool to hear. And do you have any like co founders for the organization or just partners or what does that look like? Because I'd love to talk about that dynamic in terms of just like working alongside a co founder.

Yeah. So I've got partners in one of my company. I would say partners, not co founders.

Okay.

And the reason being, I used to be, I used to have partners back in the day and I was awful. I was an awful partner.

Okay.

So. And I just get into it and we don't we both had the same skill set, and next thing you know, we're button heads.

Yeah.

Trying to get it done. And. And I think my partnerships that I've developed over the last couple of years have been amazing, you know, like. But we all know. Very clear on our rules going in.

Yeah.

Very defined. This is what I do is what you do. This is. Or I'm in charge of running it. Or you're in charge of running. I'm here to support. And so I think, you know, it's. That's a big piece. Right. Where people just. We have an. A lot of times people have an idea, they're hanging out with a buddy, they're talking about something, or we should do this. And you're running on that high to go get it done. And you're executing so fast. And then you realize, like, you. You start wanting to grow in different directions. Yeah. Or you have different visions and there's no real leadership or there's an issue with leadership. But for me, once I realized that, like, hey, let's. Let's define what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. Where's our vision? By. Am I the one that's leading this charge or are you the one that's leading this charge?

Right.

And I'm in both positions on different relationships that I've gotten, businesses that I have. And. And then we go, you know, we go from there. So I think that's, you know, that's a big piece is. It can get very clouded really, really quick.

Totally.

If you don't define it.

Yeah, that's very well said. A couple more questions before we wrap up here, Nate, I'd love to just hear from you. Like, overall, if you were to go back in time and give yourself some piece of advice when it comes to business entrepreneurship, what would that advice be and why?

Oh, man. Lots of it. You know, I would say, oh, man. You know, probably I'll go with this one right now. Grace. Give yourself grace. Because entrepreneurs were hard chargers. We're driving. We're always our worst, our own worst critic. So as you grow and build your business, you're gonna make mistakes. Don't beat yourself up about it, because there's a massive, massive emotional roller coaster as an entrepreneur. So you have to be. You can't be too high, you can't be too low. You got to be re. Really even keel. Mistakes are going to happen. So give yourself grace so you can be resilient, to push past it, move forward. Right. Yeah. Learn and Move, learn and move. You gotta learn and move as fast as possible.

Love that. It reminds me of something that one of my mentors once told me, Trevor Moad. He, he unfortunately passed away recently, but he talked about this idea of neutral thinking where it's like you're not too positive, you're not negative. It's just if you remain neutral, you can focus on what's you in of front, front of you. And he was like the, the brain coach to Russell Wilson. And just hearing what you said reminded me of that. And I'd love to just get your thoughts on that in terms of like, is it like that neutral thinking mindset, like focusing on the task at hand rather than trying to, you know, be in the emotional roller coaster that is so easy to just kind of fall into. You have to really control that mindset so that you can, you know, continue to focus on what's important.

Yeah. Neutral mindset 100. You have to be. I, I agree with that. Tell a story. One of my old clients, great guy, runs a great company. He was super. He's a very high emotional guy.

Yeah.

And, but you know, he's high emotional, excited. Never really got too low, just high emotional excited kind of thing. But we were sitting in his office one day talking. We just had a huge win. And he's like. And I was like, yeah, man, it's good. He was like, that's it. And he was shocked. Right? He was like, do you ever show emotion? What is wrong with you? He was like, we just did this. Like you, like you're killing me. And he's getting all frustrated with me. I'm like, so. Yeah, but that's why we work together, man, because I'm like this. And so I think, you know, I was excited, but me being excited, I. This is me being excited. This is me being upset.

Yeah.

Right. So I think you got it 100%. You know, I'm no brain coach by any means, but I think that's one thing that's served me well over the years is to stay neutral. That's probably, I've never heard it put that way, but I think that's a phenomenal way of putting it. Just staying neutral.

Yeah.

And, and, and level headed because otherwise you're gonna drive yourself nuts. You're gonna lose sleep, you're gonna, you know, and then when you lose sleep, you're gonna have a bad day the next day. Operate in a full, full impact, you know.

Totally. I love that. Well, Nate, last question for. Last question before we wrap up. When it comes to just everyone listening, where they can follow you, stay connected with you. Where's the best place they can go to learn more about your story and overall?

Yep. So Nate Kennedy.com, that's number one. You can get me over there. And then from there, my handles on Instagram, Facebook, all around as I go. Grab them when I can. Nate Kennedy, MD. So Nate Kennedy MD is a marketing doctor, Right. I took that because it was cooler than Nate Kennedy two. I didn't want to be number two.

Yeah. And so I. I had at Casey Adams one for a while and I finally got a new domain name on Instagram. So I feel you.

Yeah. So yeah, Nate Kennedy, md on social. Nate Kennedy.com is my main site.

Love that. Well, Nate, I just want to say thank you so much for coming the show today and for everyone watching or listening, thank you so much for tuning in. If you don't already follow Nate, make sure you do that now. I'll make sure to link it down below. And of course, thank you so much to Blue Wire Studios for having us here today. And I will see you guys soon.

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