From Dreamer to Doer | Breaking Myths of Entrepreneurship in 36 Minutes

Hello and welcome to the Evan Carmichael Show. I believe in entrepreneurs. I want to see you have massive success with your company. I'm tired of seeing entrepreneurs struggle. I'm not talking about the guys who are just trying to rip you off and just trying to take all your money. If that's you, I have no interest in helping you. But if you are trying to do something important, if you're trying to help people, if you're trying to You're trying to build a better life for yourself and your family and you're struggling. You feel like you've tried everything and nothing's working and you need some help. This show is for you. This is my last show of the year. I'm excited. The lineup that I have today, here's what I'm talking about: Decide. How to pay your employees. How to convince a customer to buy from you. And should I leave my job to focus on my business? You know, the real problem is that you haven't decided to become an entrepreneur. If you are sitting on the fence and you're not sure if you're gonna do this or not, then I can't help you yet. You know, I can answer your question, but you're not gonna take any action. All the advice in the world is not gonna help you until you decide that this is for you. When you decide something, when this is now the person that you are gonna be, you've made a big change in your life. That small decision changes who you are because now the problems that you see in front of you You're going to actively seek out solutions. You have to, because you've decided this is the path you're going to take. Whatever your goal is in life, you have to go out and decide that that is the person you're going to be. And this isn't just business, it's personal too. You want to lose 15 pounds? You got to decide that that's the person you're going to be. And until you get there, I can't really help you. You think you got problems now? Wait till you get started. This is a hard thing that you're doing here. And the good news is every problem that you're going to come up against can Everything can be solved. If you decide you want to find a solution, it's going to happen. You have to first decide that you want to be an entrepreneur. Here's a quick example that might help bring it home. When was the last time you bought a car? Okay, think about the last time you bought a car. After you bought it, did you start to see it everywhere? On the streets, on the highways, in your neighborhood, you suddenly start seeing that same car everywhere. Why is that? It's not because everybody went out and bought the same car that week. They were always there, you just didn't see it. Because your brain ignores 99% of the stuff that comes in. There's too much information to handle. Once you decided to buy that car, you started to see it in your environment. You started to pay attention to it and notice it. The same thing happens with your business. Once you decide to be an entrepreneur, you're going to see things in your environment, in your current environment. That will help you solve the problems that are ahead. But you have to decide. This is one thing that I don't have a lot of empathy for. When people call into the show, and if you're talking about struggling, if you're talking about not having enough money, you're talking about how do I find my first customer, you're talking about how do I make my rent payment on time, I went through all that stuff. I can empathize. I was a guy making $300 a month and eating beans for lunch every day. I celebrated a big win with McDonald's French fries. I was there and I busted through. But I don't have empathy for people who are just dreamers. To be an entrepreneur, you can't just be a dreamer. You have to be a doer. You have to take action. I don't have a 20-year vision for myself. I don't know what I'm going to be in 20— I don't know what I'm going to be next year. If I want something, I go after it. I start attacking it. Right now. And it doesn't mean it's going to happen right now. I'm not expecting your goal to be accomplished next week. If it's a goal worth fighting for, you're not going to have it happen in one week. But the fact is you start making progress. You make a decision that this is the person you're going to be and you start attacking it. So if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to make that decision first. I am an entrepreneur. And I'm going to solve these problems ahead of me. And I'm going to build this business. Then the advice will help. I want to get to the call. I have Kate on the line. Kate, where are you from and how can I help?

Hey there, I'm from Texas and I want to tell you that I love the show and I'm real excited to be able to talk to you. I am an artist manager for individuals that want to get noticed by the media, whether they're actors or whether they're guest experts. I help them, you know, build their little bridge to being— from being a regular person to being, uh, noticed in the media. So I'm excited, and I've got probably 6 clients that are paying me an average of about $300 a month. So I'm excited, and I'm working hard on that, and it's not work because I love doing it. My question is, they all signed up at different times during the month, and so I don't know, since it's not a lot of money yet, and I'm and we'll have to call back with my budget question. But I don't know if I should line them all up to come in, all my billing to come in at the first of the month, or should I keep it like it is, kind of sparsed throughout the month so there's always money coming in?

Is this really your biggest problem?

Well, actually my biggest problem is when I'm only making about $2,000 to $2,500 a month, What do I pay myself?

Well, I'm wondering how do you— $300 a month is not a lot of money for a really important service that you're providing.

Well, I agree and I'm good at what I do and I do get results and I get accolades from my clients, but my clients are everything from pageant girls to fitness experts and authors. In the stage they're in, they don't have a lot of income to pay me. I mean, my highest paying client who has most of my time, and essentially what it breaks down to is about $25 an hour for my time. So my main client that pays me $400 a month, um, he's blowing and going and loving my services, and I'm affordable to him on his success level. But for my pageant girls and their parents and sponsors, you know, it's, it's affordable.

And I know, you know, you kind of love working with those people too, right?

Those parents.

Yeah, I do. You really have to figure out how to get the clients who can afford to pay you what you're worth, okay? And it's important to— if you love those pageant girls and you know they're never going to have the budget for you, you can always keep a portion of your business that's— it's not charity, but it's almost charity. Like, you at $25 an hour is almost charity.

Oh yeah.

So what I would encourage you to do is like, how do they pay you at the beginning of the month? That's not your problem. You've got to figure out how to get more of those people who don't just pay $400 a month but like $1,000 a month or more. How do you get there? What types of clients are those guys? They may be people who are more established, who have better budgets than the pageant girls. If the pageant girls are still something you love, keep a portion for them. But you've got to make this thing happen, right? I want your business to succeed.

Thank you, and you're just making my mind percolate. And you're right, I see what you're saying about making the pageant thing like a division, just a division, not as part of my artist management. And then with the success that I've got of the clients that I'm working with as artist manager that are paying $400 a month, You know, once we've hit the— my agreements are 6 months. Once we've hit the milestones, which we're hitting and will be on track for actually 2 months earlier than our goals that we set, and then I think I can go out and confidently say, what, go from $400 to $1,000 a month?

Hey, I love this thinking. This is good. So, okay, here's what I would do to start this out. I have 2 plans for you, okay? You ready?

Yeah.

The first one is have something like that written in advance. So for the first 6 months, it's going to be $400 a month, and then it's going to increase to $1,000 a month. That's written in stone for every new person that comes on board, so they understand that. And they know if they're not getting the value, they're not going to stick around after 6 months, right? You're not locking them into a year contract.

Yeah.

The second thing is, if you really love this pageant thing, find a way to still help them but not make it as time-intensive. So maybe you can do groups. Maybe you can do training with them, or webinars, or group classes, something where you can help lots of people at once. Or if you are representing people to the media, you can give them a bunch of options. So there is a way to still help them, but more at scale for you.

I see. Yes. And webinars, or Skype classes, or Google Hangout, or whatever everybody is doing, is actually more time intensive. You know, no travel costs, no room costs, no nothing, right?

And you can help multiple people at the same time. And maybe that's something that is worth $300 a month. That's worth your $25 an hour because now you're helping 25 people at once.

So then would you say that I can go ahead and raise my prices January 1st and institute that new clause about $1,000 after 6 months? And then tell my pageant girls that we're going to start doing group classes this often for this amount of money?

Yeah, I mean, you got to phase it in. For every new person, this is the contract you have to sign, and then you phase in your clients. You know, it may be a big shock to them at the start, but you can phase it in for them so that, you know, you don't want to lose all their business, but you phase it in and let them know this is what I'm doing. And hopefully they should be okay because they're seeing great value from you.

And then my marketing brings me in better people, so my target market might change as far as where I'm, where I'm doing my little marketing budget.

You got it, Kate, you got it. And you get better referrals, repeat business. You got it.

Thank you, thank you.

No problem. Welcome back to the Evan Carmichael Show. I believe in entrepreneurs. I want to see you have massive success with your company, and part of that is bringing on a team. You gotta build this thing beyond yourself, because if you want to change the world, you can't do it alone. I get a question asked a lot to me: How do I pay my first employees? And you're thinking from the wrong point of view at the start here, okay? Because if you are only trying to compete on how much you're gonna pay and the benefits you're gonna offer, you're gonna lose. You're gonna lose because the big companies are always gonna be able to pay more and offer better benefits. And I don't want you to settle for mediocre talent. The way to bring on employees is to stand for something important. 90% of America, they wake up and they drive to a job that they hate, and they can't wait for quitting time to come so they can go home and relax and be with their family. If your company stands for something, is doing something important, people will want to come and work for you, and they'll accept a lower salary, and they'll accept lower benefits, Because this is what they love to do. You're giving them meaning. People are searching for meaning. That's how you compete. You're never going to be able to pay the highest prices. If you got some rich uncle who's funding you and says, "Yeah, spend whatever you want," then fine. But you know what? For most of us entrepreneurs, we don't have that kind of backing. But you have a leg up on these big companies because those guys, they don't stand for anything. Nobody feels inspired working at a huge company. You have a chance to change the lives of your employees and give them some meaning. That's what you got to put front and center. Now you still have to pay, you know, you still have to pay your employees, obviously, but the most important fact if somebody is going to come work for you is not going to be because of the money. So figure out what that is. What do you stand for? You got to figure it out yourself first because most companies don't stand for anything. What's the change you're trying to make in the world and communicate that so you can start attracting employees who want to be on your team? I have Laura on the line. Laura, where are you from and how can I help?

I'm from St. Louis, Evan Carmichael, and I love what you're talking about. I have a piece of property that has a spring on it and I would love to sell the spring water and have the part of the profits go to, um, the, the energy on the land is very Native American, so I would like to honor the land and have a percentage of the profits go to Native American, uh, little girls. And I am trying to figure out how I can structure the, the business and be able to pay people. But I have people in my life right now that are, uh, one of them is specialty is like water testing. I didn't realize he was in my circle.

Okay.

And so I'm trying to figure out how I can begin the business because right now it's just a raw spring. I have people who can help me, and there's a part of me that is a really big giver, sometimes too much.

Okay.

So how can I bring the people in to assist me on the the front end so that I can pay them as it gets up and running and pay them in a way that I'm still a functioning, profitable business.

Absolutely. Now, are you Native? Are you part Native?

I am not, only just in spirit.

Okay, I like that. That's a good answer. I like that. So you have some of the team already, like you know these people, but what, you haven't approached them? You haven't— line anything up? What's happening?

Well, they're, they're in my circle, and I— one of them, I was saying, well, I really want to— he's been helping me with this property because I'm doing a spiritual retreat here, and I said, you know, I really want to sell the spring water. It's come to me very clearly several times. And he said, oh, well, I used to work in a kidney dialysis place, and I was in charge of making sure the water was pure because it was part of the process, so I know all about that.

Great.

And I went, oh, wonderful. I was excited, but I knew somebody that knew a whole lot more about water testing and checking than I did, um, and he's not working right now, so he has some flexibility and would love to help me. And I would like to be able to say, here's how I can pay you later, because he would just— he's just open to to assist in whatever way possible.

So what I would first do is think about, is this guy, is he a giver too? And it sounds like he is, like he wants to help out, he's already in your circle, but it's important for anybody who you bring on, if you embody give, and that's part of what you're doing with your spring, right? You want to give back to the Native community, even though you're not Native, right? Like this is giving at its best. You need people who also believe in that giving mentality.

Good.

So everybody you bring on has to be give. You want people with the skills. This guy has the water skills, that's great. But they also have to have that giving mentality to work with you.

Right.

Otherwise you're going to clash. It's not going to work.

Right. I also do spiritual coaching, so I've been working with he and his wife. He's just been through a huge transformation. He feels he's not paying me for that, but he's come out and split wood on the land and, and just helps in helping me structure a lot of other things. So he's very much a giver and wants to give back in probably similar ways that I give, or different ways that I give. So, so in being a giver, Evan Carmichael, which is obviously great to play with people who play like you do, How can I also then at some point when it becomes profitable, it becomes a financially viable experience and business, you know, there is part of me that says, okay, he is going to say, well, where is my check?

Right. Okay. So the first thing to understand is those two things are not mutually exclusive. You can be a giver and make a lot of profit. I feel like that's holding you back. You think, "I can't be a giver and make money and be a good business person." Okay. You can be a great business person and a great giver. Some of the best entrepreneurs in the world are huge givers. You still have to have the business sense and that's fine. You're going through that process, but you can still be who you are and it's only going to be a huge asset because your company, just like I was talking about, it stands for something.

Right.

So, right, you, you don't— it's hard to figure out exactly how to compensate him right now because you don't know, right, how much time he's going to put in. You don't know how much money you're going to make out of it, but trust that it will work. I can go through this. This will work, and you will find a way. And you're not being jealous. You're not being greedy, you know. You're going to compensate him fairly. And if you bring on people who are like-minded, who believe the same thing, then that helps build the trust in the relationship, right? So I wouldn't worry about getting all structured and everything yet until you have more information.

Sure. Well, and I guess I want to be— I want to be in integrity, and I want to be mindful about that. So what— what— how this is really helping me, Evan, is it's— it is giving me the opportunity to be able to, to to be straightforward and communicate it so that, so that on the back end there isn't this, oh, well, I thought you were going to—

Yes, tell him honestly what you feel, like, I'm a giver, I want this to work, I think it can work, I don't know how it's going to work yet, but I think we could do something great together, and go along and see how it plays out.

That's wonderful.

Thank you, Evan Carmichael. I'm excited for you.

Thanks a million, I so appreciate your help.

No problem. Welcome back to the Evan Carmichael Show. I believe in entrepreneurs. I want to see you rake in the customers and have an impact. I get asked a lot by businesses who are starting up, "How do I convince customers to buy from me? How do I convince a customer to buy from me?" Again, this is the wrong question because I don't believe you have to convince anybody to do anything. They should want to do it. This comes back to our last segment about getting employees. You shouldn't have to convince people to come and work for you. If you have to convince them to work for you, they're not the right person. I feel the same way about customers. If you have to convince somebody to work for you, convince somebody to buy from you, they're not the right person. What ends up happening is you get desperate. You drop your prices. And you're racing to the bottom. It's not a winning strategy because there's always going to be somebody who will undercut you. There's somebody who will do it for free. There's somebody who will lose money on it. You can't cut your prices. What you need to do is come up with something that makes you different. Laura, in our last segment, she's all about giving. She's going to attract employees who want to give. She's going to attract customers who love her message of give. That's what's going to make her Spring Water different. Different? Because otherwise it's just water. What's so different about water? You need to find the same thing for your business. Why do people buy from companies like Nike? If I'm a basketball player, I buy a Nike shoe. Why do I buy a Nike shoe? It's because I want to be like LeBron James. That's what Nike makes me feel. What does your company make you feel? Probably nothing. But you know what? That's most business. So you're not that far behind. People are buying from the best of the worst. If you can start to stand for something important, customers will want to work with you. You'll be a magnet. You don't have to go out and convince people. This shouldn't be about hard selling people and following up. Do you like when people hard sell you and call you every day, "Hey, you ready to buy? You ready to buy?" It doesn't work. My frustration comes out of a conversation I had with my agent, a little dispute, a tiff. I'm working on this deal. We're working on this deal, big deal, huge potential impact, and I haven't heard back from the other party for a while. My agent says, "Hey Evan, you know what, you should follow up. Follow up with them and see what's going on. Just ask them what's up." I don't follow up with people. I told them, "Hey, you can follow up, but I don't follow up. This is not part of my business." And it's not like, it's not because I'm some big egomaniac and I'm the best in the world. It's because the people who you have to follow up with and follow up with and follow up with, they're never going to be great customers. I don't want to waste my time on it. And you shouldn't either. You should spend your time on something important, not chasing down people and trying to convince them that what you have is great. The people who you have to keep calling on are never going to be your best customers. So how do you convince a customer to buy from you? You don't. You spend your time building something that is going to attract people in, building something important, taking a stance on something. Then you don't have to worry and you're spending your time on something productive. I'm not going to follow up with that person, and I don't follow up with any of the big clients that I work with. And some people get what I do and some people don't, and that's fine. I just don't want to spend my time on somebody who doesn't get what I do. You know, my business is all about belief, believing in entrepreneurs, right? I hope that oozes through everything I do, from the radio show, YouTube videos, everything, the callers, I believe in entrepreneurs. I want to see you be successful. I think entrepreneurs can change the world. You have a powerful message. The world needs what you're doing. I believe that. And some of the companies I work with, they believe that too. And they want to work with me. Because nobody else is talking about this, so they want to work with me. And the companies who don't believe that, that's cool. You know, I'm not going to convince you that this is important. You should feel the same way. If you stand for something important, then you shouldn't have to convince people that it's right. The ones who believe it will be your best customers. They will buy from you. They will spread your message. Those are the ones you want to focus on. I want to get to the calls. I have Amanda on the line. Amanda, where are you from and how can I help?

Hi, I'm from Long Island and I recently just I've considered opening up my own hair salon.

Okay.

And I just graduated from school and I have a degree in marketing. I'm kind of low on money and I have a ton of loans that I still need to pay off. I want to open it as soon as possible so I can start paying off those loans, but I currently work in a marketing firm in Manhattan. I was just wondering what's the quickest way to get my business started?

I'm sorry, where are you working now, at a bar?

Sorry?

You're working at a bar right now?

I'm working at a marketing firm.

A marketing firm?

Okay.

Yeah.

What makes you want to start a hair salon?

Um, I just always had a passion in, in hair, and just, I don't know, I just feel like it's a good way to make my money, and I'll just be happy, and it's not a 9 to 5, and I make my own schedule.

So have you already started doing this on the side? Friends, family, that kind of stuff?

Um, I've been doing a lot on my friends and everything. I had an internship in high school for at a hair salon, so I do have experience, but I just really want to open up my own and be my own boss, and I want to start paying off these loans. I just don't want to be in debt for the rest of my life.

Right. And so, you know, starting a hair salon is going to cost a lot of money too. Uh-huh. So what I would encourage you to do is think about how can you start this thing small so you're not outlaying huge cash.

Right.

Can you start within a current hair salon or within somebody who doesn't even do hair but is related, like a nail salon or something like that, get a chair?

Um, I've considered that. I probably wouldn't mind that just because it is my passion and I have to start from the bottom to obviously get to the top. But the ultimate goal would be to open up my hair salon, but I know that's not practical right now because I do— I I just came out of college and this marketing firm, I'm doing pretty well for myself but still it's still kind of hard. It's just not practical to open up my own hair salon.

Started from the bottom, now we're here. Exactly. Okay, so what's holding you back? Why haven't you gone and done that, get a chair at somebody else's salon?

I know it's not an excuse that I've been busy, it's just that I did just finish finish college. Also, my parents really don't think that it's a practical job for me. They want me to do something— they want me to definitely do something in marketing, but they don't think that opening up a hair salon is the most practical thing for me.

And that's— you think that's the reason that's holding you back?

Pretty much. I mean, that's the ultimate thing for me. It's just, why should I go out and— I want to pursue my dreams and I want to continue to do what I want to do, but if my parents are going to tell me— like, parents are always right, so should I listen to them or should I do what I want to do.

Okay, so let me give you some advice from Michael Dell. Michael Dell is the founder of Dell, Dell Computers. Okay. He was in university and he dropped out and he told his parents, "I want to take the summer off to do this computer business and if it doesn't work I'll go back to school, but if it does work then I'm going to keep doing it." And that gave them confidence to say, you know, gave him his blessing. Because they always thought, "Ah, he's not going to make it and he'll go back to school anyway." But he made it. He became a billionaire.

Right.

So being able to say something like that, like give me a year, I'm exploring. Some people after college they go and they travel for a year. This is a time to do your self-exploration. See what you really want to do before you get locked into a career and it becomes super hard to escape.

Exactly.

So what about that kind of deal with your parents to say, "Listen, I want to try this for 1 year. This is something I really want to do. 1 year.

If it doesn't work, I'll go back to marketing." Yeah, I mean, I think that that's a great compromise.

I just—

I didn't know how to kind of get them— I want them to just meet me halfway kind of thing, but—

Right.

Um, I definitely think that that's a start.

You know, they love you. They're trying to think about the best for you. That's where it's coming from.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yeah, definitely.

You still got to do your thing, especially now. Now is the time. Because when you're 40 and locked into this marketing career and you have kids and all this other stuff around you, it's super hard to break out. Uh-huh.

Definitely. Yeah, sure. I feel like I have the drive and I have the ability to definitely do great things. Cool.

We'll get it going. If I'm in Long Island, let me know where to come for my haircut.

Okay, for sure, definitely.

Alright, thanks Amanda. Good luck.

Thank you so much.

Bye-bye.

No problem. Hey, for everybody listening, there's going to be people who doubt you, who don't believe in you. That's part of the entrepreneurship path you've got to take. If you believe that this is the right thing to do, you've got to have the courage to go after it. We all have fear. We all have worries. We all have doubters. But when you have the courage to fight through, that's what makes the difference between a successful entrepreneur and one who quits. I believe in entrepreneurs. I want to see you turn your dream into reality. I get asked a lot, "Should I leave my job to focus on my business?" Here's the thing, okay? It's a great question. The challenge most people face is you don't know how hard it is to start a business. If you quit too soon, what often happens is you end up running out of cash and having to go back and get that job that you were at. It's demoralizing. However hard you think it's going to be, usually when we prepare, we're very analytical about it. We think about, okay, here's my best case, here's my worst case. Whatever your worst case is, it's way harder than that. You ask any successful entrepreneur And a lot of them will say, "If I knew how hard it was, I wouldn't even start it." It's crazy hard, but it's okay. You can overcome it. It's possible. But I don't want you to be part of that 80% who fail because you run out of cash, right? You only have so much cash. At some point you need to find a way to get some cash. A great way to do it is to keep your job. Keep your job, start your business part-time, and ideally you're in a job that is training you to be a better entrepreneur. You're learning skills that will help you in your business. Get it to the point, your business, where you're at survival. Where you're paying your bills. You can pay your rent. You can pay your mortgage. You're not making it large here. This is not the life of luxury. But you can survive. When you get there, that's when you quit your job and go full time. If you do it too soon, you'll run out of cash and then have to go back and get a job. I don't want that for you. I want to get to the calls. One last caller today. I have Andre on the line. Andre, where are you from and how can I help?

Hey, I'm from, I'm originally from Chicago, but right now I live in Los Angeles, California.

All right, what's going on?

Um, right now, well, I have my business plan, my business portfolio together. I'm working as an administrative assistant, so I get to do a lot of the groundwork involved with, you know, a lot of different businesses. And I'm looking to find out what should be the next step in my, uh, I guess my decision to move forward.

You want to start a business? What do you want? You want to have a career? What are you trying to do?

Yes, to start a business. I want to start my own, um, it's kind of like, it's kind of corporate. It's, it's a combination. It's not really corporate, but it's something that's very commercialized. I want to kind of start my own studio, uh, also it's going to have like a, I guess, a coffee hut, kind of like my own, uh, more active, more physically fit version of Starbucks.

Okay, well, I thought you said studio. You went off a coffee shop or studio?

No, it's going to be a combination of the two. So above the Starbucks, it would be a studio facility that they would host like yoga classes and like certain dance sessions and things like that. Just kind of, or maybe even just one of those CrossFit or post-Pilates type of things. Got it.

So where did you come up with this idea? I want to know. I'm excited.

I came up with this idea just hanging out in Santa Monica with a bunch of friends in between lunch and just seeing the type of people that are running around in the mornings, seeing like the different personalities. Like everyone's coming to get coffee and they're in like their workout attire. You know, like girls are in their their leggings and their little fitness hoodies, and then guys are coming in like they're running shoes and their skirts and stuff, and just like they're coming to get coffee, and they're leaving these, uh, coffee shops, and then they're going down to like the 24 Hour Fitness or the LA Fitness Center, so, you know, to become active, to work out.

And okay, so why is this important for you? Why does this have to happen?

Um, personally, I'm really into fitness. Um, I work out every day. I'm very physically fit. I don't drink coffee though, but I do drink green tea, and I feel like it's a chance to get out of the rat race. You know, I've been in the rat— most people are in the rat race their entire lives, and I've been in my entire life, so I'm ready for a change.

I hear you. So, so the thing you got going here is you're talking big bucks to make this thing happen.

Definitely.

So how do you make this— how do you start? Like, how do you do this on a smaller scale to start building a community and a movement around this?

Well, I, I see it as first, if I can find, uh, well, there's a couple locations that have been looking at, and then I've talked to people about. There's areas where I can do— I can lease, uh, the studio space. Like, I can lease the studio, which is like a 2-story building, and I can do, uh, I can make a coffee shop or turn the kitchen area of— because it's a 2-story studio, I can make the kitchen area into kind of like a Java Hut or a coffee shop, and then the upper level can always be the studio for the yoga classes and all this is the physical—

who's going to pay for all this?

Uh, me and a few of my friends who've come on board with the idea.

Yeah, do you have enough cash to do it?

Uh, right now to rent the space, we have enough cash to rent the space. It's just merchandise and, you know, we're just working up to getting ready for all the merchandise and things like that.

I mean, a studio is one thing because it's an empty space, but a coffee shop, there's a ton of expenses to make that happen. Can you phase it out? Like, can you start studio, have some kind of twist to it, you know, your own flavor to it, something different, and then like phase 2 coffee shop?

Yeah, phase 2, that's what we're really concerned with. The studio, we kind of have it down, but the coffee shop is a little bit more complex. And so we're trying to figure out what would be the best approach or the smartest approach when trying to get into that type of industry.

This is the same with any big vision, any big dream that an entrepreneur has. You have a picture of the future that you want to have, but often there are so many things to make that happen that you get so discouraged and you don't do anything about it.

Yeah.

The best way to start is to start, break it down, smaller chunks. Do something now that you can move forward on that. If the next logical step is the studio and you have the cash to do it, and you know what you're going to teach, you got instructors, you got your friends on board, and you have the business case for it, start with that. And you know like phase 2 is going to be coffee shop or maybe something different. As you get into your studio space, you may discover new things, different ways to grow. The important thing is to get started on it so that you don't just get overwhelmed with all the details of this big project that you end up doing nothing.

Hmm. So you're saying just open up the studio and teach the classes and then later integrate the coffee shop aspect?

Yeah, absolutely. And the studio has to stand on its own. There's something special, unique, different about the studio. Like, how long have you wanted to do this?

Uh, we've developed it over 8 months.

8 months, okay. And like, have you actually gone out and done anything yet?

Yeah, we've gone and looked at a couple of different locations. You know, that's always a big huge factor in this area. Locations, locations that aren't just trying to jack up the price because, oh, we're close to Hollywood Boulevard type of deal.

Yeah, well, I mean, it sounds like you're motivated, you're taking steps. This is great, but I would definitely chunk it down. Start with a small, start with a studio and build up from there. And then, like, you don't have to be limited to one, right? This could go national.

That's true. Yeah, that's what I was hoping for. I was That's something I— that's a big dream.

So phase 1, just get that one studio, okay, Andre?

Yeah, definitely.

Good luck. Everybody listening, thank you so much. I had another great show. Thank you to my producers, Zach and Fernanda. Love you guys, you always deliver. Have a great New Year's. I will see you in January. Believe!