How To Build A Team Of Talented Millennials - I Love Marketing Episode #214

I'm dean jackson, he's joe polish and this is the I love marketing podcast. Hey everybody, it's Dean Jackson and Joe Polish.

I want to welcome everyone to I Love Marketing. This is going to be, it's going to be kind of a cool episode because we have our youngest I Love Marketing guest I think we've ever had on I love marketing over 200 and something episodes. Dean, in you know, many years of doing this, we've got a record. It is. His name is Jared Kleinert and he is, let me just, I'll go through his bio so everyone knows who he is and then we'll start chatting with him. So he's currently the co author of the newly released book 2 Billion Under 20 How Millennials are Breaking Down Age Barriers and Changing the World which is currently a number one new release in business leadership on Amazon. He's also the co founder of Start With Group and previously ran Kleinert Ventures, a marketing consulting firm whose clients include the number one New York Times best selling authors, Olympians, startups and Fortune 500s. Jared is also a globally in demand speaker on youth entrepreneurship, Millennials in the workplace building. And he shared the stage with various thought leaders including our buddy Kevin Harrington from ABC Shark Tank, Les Brown, who's also a dear friend and awesome guy, and international recording artist Pitbull. So Jared, you're on fire right now. Lots of cool stuff going on. So first off, welcome to I Love Marketing. We met last year. You're up to some really cool stuff and for what I didn't say in this bio. Give us an update on how old you are, what you're doing, all that sort of stuff and we'll get into some questions about all the really cool things you're working on.

Sure. So thanks for having me on the show and for throwing me into the fire. I'm 19 and as we record this I'm in New York, but by the time the episode comes out, I'll probably be in another city. I don't tend to pay rent anywhere, I just live in planes and wi fi, just not at the same time normally. So you know, the book is out and it's really exciting. It's been over two years in the works and then growing the larger starts with group behind it and starting to turn that book into a business has been the main focus and then the secondary focus is I'm pitching a second book to publishers in August. So really excited to take all the research I've been using for the past year on another book and share that with the world. So that's what I'm up to. That's where I am as we record this. And yeah, right now I'm 19. I turned 20 in October.

Wow. Yeah. And what you. You're going to be speaking at Ted, IBM on the last day before you turn. It'd be last day of being a teenager, you were saying, before we started recording here, which I think is kind of funny.

Yeah, they. They hooked me up and they said that, you know, you need to go and you need to go out of your teenager dom with a bang. So, you know, last day, we'll do a tedded IBM talk, which is gonna be pretty fun. And I'm gonna be talking about how Millennials are the end of corporate America as we know it.

Wow. You know, let's start with that. Why are Millennials the end of corporate America as we know it?

Yeah, sure. I just think with every new generation, you have different ways of working and different ways of thinking. And not that corporate America is going to die. It's just the way that it operates is going to change. And it's going to change largely because of technology increases over the last or every year. Obviously, there's Moore's Law that states that technology power doubles every two years. And because technology has grown exponentially, especially with Millennials, and then even Generation Z, which is probably people that are 16 and under, you will definitely see different ways of communicating and different ways of people operating in the workplace, which is just going to fundamentally shift how companies market to Millennials, how they hire and recruit top millennial talent, and then how they engage and retain their current millennial employees. So from a marketing standpoint, Millennials are some of the most savviest consumers yet because of the access to communication and to social pressures and information that they have in terms of hiring or recruiting top millennial talent, I think that the relationship between employer and employee is going to fundamentally shift. And then in terms of retaining your current millennial employees, Obviously the whole 40 year notion of working at the same company is thrown out the window for five or ten years now. But I think more and more people are going to go to the Beng Casnoca and Reid Hoffman model of building strategic alliances and having kind of three to five or three to seven year work agreements where you're supposed to perform a certain metric, and there's a mutual agreement on bettering both sides of the table in that time together. So I just think a lot's going to shift.

Yeah, well, you know, let me ask you a couple Questions about that. First off, like the term millennials and gen zers. Who comes up with these terms? I mean, is there like one person that says, we're going to call this generation this?

How do these.

Naming. The committee for generational naming. Yeah, yeah.

Like what? I mean, maybe there's a simple answer for it. I'm too dumb to go to Google and find this out, but it's like, I mean, it may seem like a weird question for a millennial, but a lot of people don't even know what that means. They don't know, like, what age range are millennials? Who are they? What are they, how do they think about them? I'd love to, before we get into this, kind of ask you about that, get your perspective.

So to my knowledge, the only generation that is defined in age by the government would be baby boomers. And so when it comes to millennials, there are multiple viewpoints. And some people are like, is it age? Some people, is it mindsets? I think it's, if you're going to look at age, it's probably 16, 35. That's kind of how I play ball. Some people say 18 to 34. I like to stretch it. So that's, that's millennial to me in terms of age would be 16 to 35. And then, you know, someone who's younger than 16 is Generation Z, which no one's talking about yet. But they're, they're going to be really scary and really interesting because they're, you know, they're questioning the amount of likes they're getting on Facebook at 2 or 3 when their mom takes a cute picture of them and posts it online.

Yeah, their whole life. I mean, that's really, that'll be the first generation that their whole life is documented and online and they don't have a, they don't have a sense. I have a friend that has a seven year old and he doesn't, couldn't comprehend that there was no iPads and no YouTube and you know, when, when his mom was a kid, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm glad we're off to laughs because I have another Google/ millennials little anecdote I can share with you. And you could try this at home. And if you go onto Google and you type in the words millennials are and you know how you get your auto suggestion dropdown, you will find words in there like screwed and narcissistic and lazy and entitled. And if you had 10 dropdowns, which sometimes you get 10, you normally get four, but if you got 10, one of them would be positive. So actually, the first three words of our book after the forward are millennials are screwed. Because that was the number one hit from the auto suggestion when we started this project. And we're out to kind of debunk that millennials are not in fact screwed and that we're actually kind of breaking down barriers, changing the world, redefining what it means to be successful. And really, companies and individuals that think millennials are screwed and aren't really doing anything to instead work with them or help them are probably the ones who are screwed. At the end of the day, when millennials dominate the workforce and dominate the.

Consumer market, wow, there's so many places I could jump off of. So for people who may not have heard of you, this may be the first time. So let's go deeper into what your mission is. You said an interesting thing, very briefly, which is now you're living in hotels and you're traveling all over the place. I mean, how. When I was your age, I was a degenerate, basically. I won't go into my whole story, but I literally was a drug addict when I was 18 years old and I moved to live in a trailer for six months to remove myself from my environment and just literally get clean. And then I started working out in a gym and ended up getting a job at a mental hospital and driving patients to AA meetings and NA meetings and getting a firsthand perspective on addiction, which is part of my other part of my life is creating a platform to help people with addictions today, which is one of the many things that I work on. But here you are right out of the gate. You are full blown into entrepreneurship and wanting to. A lot of people run around talking about changing the world, but here you are trying to literally build a giant community of people that are very mission focused. So what is your mission? Like, how the. Where did this all start for you? I mean, were you an entrepreneur when you were 10? I mean, you know, how does one become what you're doing right now?

I don't know if I have the full answer, but I did start my first business at 15, and I like to say that the businesses I started at 15, 16 were successfully started and then spectacularly failed. So then at 16 and 16, I started working for two VC backed tech startups in Silicon Valley as an intern for each. I stayed with one of them for three months, and then I stayed with the other for two years under David Hassell, who I'm sure you know, he was Called the most connecting man you don't know in Silicon Valley by Forbes. And when I was 16, I was coming off of an experience where I had a really terrible mentor for my first company who had actually served time in prison for a security firm on Wall Street a few years before I met him. That's a whole nother crazy story. But, you know, ended up seeking really good mentors and, you know, after being burned, you know, seek really good mentors. And that's really done more for me than anything is I've really looked to surround myself, you know, as you guys do, with really high level mentors, high level peer mentors, and, you know, my success, or whatever you want to call it. I don't. I don't think I'm successful yet. But I think that is a direct result of who I'm associating with on a daily basis and kind of the conversations I'm having with people. And what drives me on the flip side is to get everyone to act on their passions in life. That sounds fluffy, but really get people conscious about why they're here and what their skills are, and then start getting people to work together to solve really big and pressing problems. Because I don't think a lot of the problems that millennials and Generation Z and even, you know, you guys are, all of us together face are going to be easily solved. I mean, the hot story right now is the. The whole pact between Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Stephen Hawking and about a thousand other researchers who are all signing a ban or signing a petition against artificial intelligence in the army or in military, because they, they just see that being a really scary and accelerated trap towards our doom and towards singularity, which I know you know all about through Peter, but, yeah, so I don't think a lot of those problems. And that's just one problem. There's a lot of really, really big problems that we're going to face, you know, ahead. And it's not going to be easy. It's kind of. Kind of going to be like going to the gym for the first time after not working out for three to six months. And you're just going to be really sore after the first week, but then things might get better after that. But, yeah, I think we're going to go through some slightly tough times or maybe even some really painful times. But in order to solve these problems, we need to get people out of their silos and working together to solve these problems. So my two moon missions are to get people to act on their passions in life and then get them all working together to solve these really big and pressing problems.

Yeah, well, that's a good mission. And even if it may seem ridiculous, some people that the mere fact that.

It'S called a moon mission for a reason.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like Peter says, you know, the day before breakthrough, it was a crazy idea. And so what is the 2 billion under 20 project? You got a new book on this. And why. Why did you create it beyond wanting people to link to their passions and what you just said, I mean, what. What, like, where's this drive come from for you to do this? I mean, did you always have it? Is this something that you just developed in the last year? Like, what is the. You know, what. What is the. The fire that has, you know, been lit underneath you that's going to cause you to do all the things that you're doing?

Sure. So I was at the Teal Fellowship, or Teal Foundation Summit in November of 2012, ran by Peter Thiel, you know, PayPal and Facebook and a bunch of other things to his fame.

Smart dude.

Really radical. Yeah, very smart dude. He's. He's almost a robot himself. I don't know if he's actually a dude or a robot, but we can debate about that. No, super, super genius. And he has this radical education program called Teal Fellowship. They have larger events behind that fellowship. And I was at one of these events. I heard this talk about how there were 20 people selected for the Thiel Fellowship each year. About 200 people in the room that day, but there was 2 billion people in the world, 20 years old or younger. And the speaker then challenged us to spread the virus and get more young people to do amazing things with their lives. Because everyone in the room was a young entrepreneur or a young scientist and already ambitious at some level. So that idea kind of sat in my mind for a few months, and then, like, where all good ideas come from. I was in the shower one day thinking about crowdsourcing for some reason and thought that a good way to spread the virus of the 2 billion under 20 would be to bring together a book that shared some of the stories of these young entrepreneurs that I had been associating with for the last few years. I started businesses. And as I got into this new community and I posted that idea into the Facebook group we had for the Teal Fellowship and their group, and within half an hour, there was like 50 likes on that thread and 60 comments. 2. Three people had messaged me about being a co author 2, three people had sent in stories for the book, which they were ready to get their repurposed college essays published in a major book. Which is really funny, but that's lazy millennials for you who don't want to do too much work and too much writing. But anyways, no, it's great. And there was even a few haters who thought that that was a really narcissistic idea. And who are we to share our stories at such a young age? But, you know, luckily we didn't really listen to them. I had an amazing co author and co founder come on board. Her name is Stacy Ferreira, and her claim to fame is that she and her brother raised a million dollars, a little more than a million dollars from Richard Branson, Jerry Murdock, and Alex Welch when she was 18 and he was 20. And they mostly did that off of a tweet. So that's a crazy story, but she's amazing. They sold our first company at 20, and so we just partnered together, started bringing stories together, edited the hell out of them, did the deal with the publishing house, and have now really pushed it out there.

Yeah. So here you are, a new author, and you've got this quote. Sorry, I've got a slight cold here. But you've got this quote from Tony Hsieh, who I've also interviewed, and we have an episode with him on I love marketing. 2 billion under 20 poses a challenge to all young people across the globe to be learners and leaders from a young age, to follow their passions with unwinding devotion and to create a better world. And you've got a lot of people that are backing what it is you are doing, and you're very success focused. How do you think people under 20 look at success compared to people who are older or, I guess compared to you, like old dudes like me and Dean.

So I think, you know, I think like your friend Tim Ferriss, I mean, most people are redefining what success means to them. In the millennial generation and in Generation Z, it's not just strictly financial, it's how many lives are we saving through a various, you know, social movement. For example, there's a girl in the book, her name is Brittany McMillan, and she's just a regular college kid getting ready to become a teacher one day. But when she was younger, she was faced with suicidal thoughts and had just crazy depression. But when she went online to Tumblr, she started reading all these stories of kids who unfortunately committed suicide because they were bullied due to being gay and so she did something about that and had this, like, entrepreneurial spirit to get dozens and dozens of people to start a whole, like, social media day in support of LGBT youth and against bullying. GLAAD picked it up. And now, you know, every year, tens of millions of people get behind this movement called Spirit Day. And you get celebrities involved with big businesses involved, and she's, you know, they've probably saved thousands of lives. So that's. That's very successful, in my opinion, even though she's still struggling to pay her student debt. And, you know, she's working a regular job and trying to become a teacher, which isn't the biggest, you know, monetary success there is, but I would say she's pretty successful. And then you have other people who love traveling around the world or who love living kind of a digital, nomadic lifestyle that I'm living right now, where I don't pay rent anywhere, I don't own a car, and I have my backpack and suitcase, and that's about it. You know, the rest of my stuff is at my mom's house, but she's moving, so I'm gonna sell most of it. To some people, that's success. To some people, there's all these different definitions of success. And I think when Tony Robinson was writing his book. Sorry, I was just gonna say, I remember listening to something you recorded with Tony when he came out with his book. But I think he recites the example of someone who was a billionaire who went to some show, and he was also, like, £400, and everyone was saying.

Oh, that guy's so successful.

And Tony's like, he's not successful. He's, you know, almost dead. So health is a huge thing that comes with being successful. And are you successful if you're fat and unhealthy, or do you need to be in shape and live a decent life to then be successful? So there's all these different definitions. I think millennials are just going away from strictly financial means of success and are looking at bigger.

Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree. I wonder. And Dean, you were getting with. Because I'm gonna talk and so Dean can't say anything, but. No, I was gonna ask you about, you know, your whole thing about how you look at success. Because we've had so many conversations about this, you know, beyond the monetary thing. But, yeah, let's. Let's go in.

I think it's interesting because this generation, you know, if you're talking about people under 20 right now, there's a lot of talk of people in our Generation. I'll call us old guys now because it's hard to think of us like that because we were the young guys, you know, we still really are the young guys.

But I'm very immature, so I act like a jacket in spite of the fact that I'm older, I guess chronologically, I mean, mentally I don't develop much beyond, you know, 18.

I wear. Yeah.

And I wear shorts every day. We still were.

So we're like young guys.

But the whole. There's a lot of talk about this generation and everybody's kind of got their eye on them. And I'll just share kind of. You've probably heard all of these things too, Jared, but I want to get your sense of as the. We're going to take you as the representative of these 2 billion under 20 here. And a lot of people entrepreneurially are concerned about this generation because they're really a generation that grew up without. They didn't grow up the same way we grew up.

Right.

We grew up in a world where, you know, that was very competitive and there was, you know, winners and losers and in, in, you know, playing sports and stuff. There was, you know, you go to the championship and in this generation has grown up where what counts is participation, not winners and losers so much that everybody gets a ribbon and everybody participates and everybody's applauded just for showing up kind of thing. And is that, have you heard people talk like that? And what kind of impact do you think that has in shaping how this generation is going to approach the entrepreneurial world or the business world or making their way in life kind of thing?

Sure. Millennials are definitely seem like a more collaborative generation. So there would, by definition, if you're more collaborative, be less competition. However, I guess going back to what I had said earlier, I do unfortunately think there are going to be some tough times ahead for all of us, or millennials specifically, or millennials in Gen Z specifically. And I am optimistic that we will get out of it because of collaborating. But I think that that struggle and that hardship will certainly mold us into the entrepreneurial thinkers that we need to be, because we have to be. We won't have any other choice. There's institutions that either are failing us or seem to be failing us. Look at Social Security, you can look at kind of higher education, you can look at the government, and there's all these long standing institutions that don't seem like they may or may not be long standing when we're, you know, when we're your age. So how do you operate in that kind of world. I think that we're going to be forced to think pretty entrepreneurially and whether that means, you know, actually starting businesses of our own, whether that means being intrapreneurs within other companies in order to boost our own career path, whether that means doing other things like Brittany did, to kind of advance their own thoughts and movements, I think you'll see a lot of that. And Millennials are pretty good marketers, actually. Social media. A lot of people would claim that Millennials and Gen Z are narcissistic, but I just think they're amazing marketers. If they have something that they really care about or some experience they really care about, they're sharing it and share pretty crazy. And they care about how much how many people are looking at it, and they have tricks to back it up. So it's a new world of marketing.

Yeah. Being connected from as far as you can remember to everybody online, basically really being that fluent. I mean, we were. We've talked a lot about, you know, looking back when Even, you know, 25 years ago, you look back that far and, you know, going. Leaving your house and going somewhere else. You were basically as soon as you got in your car, you're off the grid kind of thing, you know, and now just everything, everywhere you go, you're instantly, instantly connected to everybody. So it's a whole different. You grow up in kind of a more connected world. Yep.

Except when you're on planes.

Yeah, right. Well, in.

Even with planes, you can, you know, here's.

Here's the funny thing I was telling. I can't remember who I was telling this to. The other day. I was explaining, when I was a little kid, I lived. One of the towns I lived in was Alpine, Texas, which was not a very fun period of my life. But I was 8, 10 years old, and I lived in a small town, Alpine, Texas, and we lived in this. Not a very nice house, but we were on four acres. And around the four acres were just miles of open land. And I would just go out all day, leave the house, like on a weekend by myself sometimes with like a BB gun or something. You know, I'm going to protect myself from, you know, what, zombies or something. And I would literally just wander around for hours. No cell phone, no pager, no connection. Those things didn't, you know, I mean, we were turning dials on TVs. I remember there weren't even remote controls as far as I can remember.

And.

Yeah, parents now, Joe, are getting arrested for letting kids live the way we lived when we were growing up, like that was the same thing. You know, at 8, 10 years old, you're out all day, completely gone and you come home when the street lights come on and. And now, you know, you hear about parents being visited by child services because they let their 10 year old kid walk home half a mile from the park unaccompanied.

So what do you think like the equal is going to be for when I have kids? You know, what, what am I going to be scrutinized for that might seem normal to me now to do?

It's very weird world. And so anyway, this is all going to lead up to. I want to say a couple more things. But you know, you understand the mindset of your generation and a lot of the entrepreneurs that are listening to this would probably be very well served to understand how they think, how they behave, what they're interested, how to, you know, how to attract them. So I'll ask you a question about that, just a second. I just want to mention a couple of other things just for more. So comic relief. I remember when MTV first started. Like the first week that MTV started I was watching with Martha Quinn and I remember, you know, video killed the video star. And it really kind of did. It's just it happened on YouTube and various other things. But I remember watching MTV when it was simply music. I mean MTV was like a music television. It's not that anymore. Loosely the attention span now where you would watch MTV or VH1 or something, if you watch any videos whatsoever, they would even play half a video and then they would move on to another one. But I remember sitting there for hours hoping a video would come on. I mean literally hoping a video so I could hear this. Or going to record stores and literally going through records just looking for particular album, trying to find something. And today everything is instantaneous. I mean stuff that we were just.

Yeah, we were just talking about that. I was in Colorado with Jeff Walker and he had Spotify and Sonos at his world headquarters there. And we were passing the ipod back and forth with the controller and basically we were just had this infinite playlist where now just like you're saying we were having that exact conversation, Joe, you have to wait for that song to come on mtv. But now you basically every song ever written is available instantly right now on any device.

Yeah, and see that seems like a big deal now, but you even take 10 years from now, people have no idea that's gonna look like archaic. I mean like one of the things that impresses the shit out everyone. Like, I have a Tesla, and I'll say, when someone's in the car for the first time, what's your favorite song? And I'll press the button and say, play so and so. And everyone's like, oh, my God, I can't. But, you know, I mean, it's a computer that has wheels on it, is what a Tesla is. And, you know, and of course, I scare the shit out of everyone with it because I have like, the, you know, the most powerful engine, but if you want to call it that, battery, whatever. But, you know, but just pushing that button and saying it right now freaks everyone out. Now, every car is going to have that probably two or three years from now, right? That's how quickly these sort of things change. And part of my thing of looking at getting my content, you know, I'm looking through the stuff on, you know, my Tesla about what podcasts are in there. Like, how do I get my content in cars versus how do I get it on this platform or that platform or things like that? So it's. The world just is changing now. And it has and it always will be. And I really believe what you're saying, Jared, is there's going to be a lot of good and there's going to be shit that is going to freak people out. So my question for you is, when entrepreneurs are starting a business or already have one, what are some of the ways they can make their business more attractive or helpful or useful for young people who want to be part of it? Since you are one of those people, there's a lot of people out there that have businesses. And frankly, businesses and entrepreneurship are the ones that I think solve and move the world forward. So how do we talk?

I think it starts right there. I said this at the National Speakers Association's main event in front of a room full of very old people, and I dropped the B word, which is bullshit, and said, don't sell bullshit, and everyone laughed. And I think some people on the committee cringe that, you know, it's really, you know, you have to have high quality stuff, whether it's high quality content, whether it's a high quality product, like a Tesla that just completely blows away the competition because it's so unique and so different. You know, millennials. Again, we have access to all the information, we have access to all the reviews and all of the different comments from our peers and from strangers, even. So our decisions are, in a way, being crowdsourced. And if you are not selling things that are of High quality or of high value, whatever metric you're using, then you're probably going to get ignored. So you can even see this with the YouTubers, the people that really focus on developing really high quality content. I'm a huge fan of Casey Neistat right now, and he's making a high quality movie every single day. And he spends three or four hours, day, you know, putting together this eight or nine minute video clip. And he's practiced his skills for 10 or 15 or 20 years. And that's why he has hundreds of thousands of people that watch his stuff every single day. And now he's able to use that to, like, launch another company and whatever. But I think the first thing is that you have to understand that Millennials are very savvy. So how can you deliver meaningful solutions to their problems? Especially as we enter what may be a more problematic world? Although I think every generation faces their own challenges. And I don't know if millennials will have the same amount of challenges or different challenges, or maybe there'll be exponential challenges, we'll come to find out. But that's number one is don't sell bullshit. Number two is really work with Millennials. And I think the word with is a very important one. We got to think about, you know, whether it's marketing, whether it's hiring and recruiting, or whether it's employee engagement and retention. You know, think about the collaborative process and can you bring people into your fold when you're making content or when you're making a new product? And can you kind of crowdsource their feedback or their ideas? I know this is very big in Silicon Valley in terms of being lean, but how can you take it a step further? And how can you not only have your product development or customer development processes be lean or be collaborative, but then how can you create products that convince people to be stargraving fans or that convince people to spread word on your behalf? And I think if you're collaborative and I think if you're delivering a high quality product or solution, you will have dozens and dozens of free salesmen and free marketers for you, or thousands even. So those are two big things, I would say.

Yeah, you know, I mean, I guess in a lot of ways that's even how we have grown the following of. I love marketing because it's not like we are running ads for this. We just try to put out really good content and it just grows and grows and grows. And, you know, hundreds of thousands of people listen to it. So what are a few of your, you know, favorite. You wrote the book. I mean, so you've got all these people that you've interviewed, you've got all this content. So I think we should just kind of go into some of what you've discovered. What are a few of your favorite stories or a few of your favorite people that you've learned about since you, you know, started 2 billion under 20.

Yeah. So we have someone like Sam McCullock who went to the 2012 London Olympics because he was in gymnastics. And he's also a seven time NCAA champion. And he shares his story about shattering both of his ankles about a year before having to make the Olympic and how he come back through those struggles and go to the Olympics. And since he's come back, he's started a tea company with some of his old teammates called Mate Bros. And they raised over $40,000 on Kickstarter, mostly through having his teammates and having some YouTube celebrities and whatnot share about the campaign. And I was on one of his email listservs with all those people. So it's just very interesting to see how he leveraged those really close connections from one world and had them pay off in another and how he's using his Olympic and athletic skill sets to translate to entrepreneurship. So he's a really good story. Another that would really relate to millennials is Paige McKenzie, who is a YouTuber. She has a work called the Haunting of Sunshine Girl where she makes all these ghost like stories and has, I think she's, you know, done like dozens and dozens of seasons of her show and she's making enough money that she's, you know, supporting herself. She hired her mom and she's then spun off this YouTube channel into like a multi part movie deal and a multi part book deal. And I think a television show is in the works. So she's like doing all these other things from YouTube and very impressive and very interesting and she just has her own flavor. I think she calls herself adorkable, like adorable dork. So those two are really good. Another one that is, we have a couple stories that are very transparent and very authentic. Kristin Powers is a girl who lost her mom to Huntington's disease at a pretty young age. And Huntington's disease is one of those hereditary diseases where if your parent has it, you have 50% chance of having it yourself. So rather than kind of coward at that statistic, she ended up making a documentary about getting tested for Huntington's disease and raised a ton of money for that and really used entrepreneurial skill sets. To help other people cope with, you know, certain type of illnesses, bring more awareness and fundraising to Huntington's disease, and, you know, really share her story. So she's another, you know, person has a really touching story. And, you know, then you. Then you have, like, various, you know, techies who are raising, you know, multimillion dollar seed rounds and who are hiring dozens and dozens of people in Silicon Valley or who hacked together this certain idea at a tech startup or at a hackathon and then ended up meeting Steve Wozniak and going into techstars. We have the two youngest people to ever go through techstars in the book. So that's pretty interesting as well. So we just have a really diverse group of people from all walks of life or pretty much all walks of Life and over 20 different countries. So not that 75 people can easily represent 2 billion people, but we tried to make it as diverse as possible, and I think it shows.

Yeah, well, and of course, I'm speaking out ignorance here, too, because the book literally just came out at the time that we're recording this episode. So I have not read it yet. So I'm looking forward to that. What will people get out of the book? I mean, I know this is way beyond a book. The book just kind of is the launching pad for the whole project. But what will be their takeaways when they read 2 billion under 20?

Yeah. From the text itself, we have two groups that we're targeting. One is the young people, people 25 and under. And we really want to inspire them to start a business or start a nonprofit or do something to their own flavor and to push society forward. And instead of being one of those millennials that is moving back into their parents basement and all the other stereotypes that our generation will get. So we're trying to push them forward, and then we're also trying to help older generation learn how millennials tick. And by reading these stories, I think you will be able to have more of a mindset of these consumers and just how savvy they are. If you're looking to market to them, I think you'll learn how you can better hire people. Or these are. This is how fast someone's career can grow if you treat them and you train them correctly. So what kind of mentorship opportunities can you give these young people? And how can you even find these young talents so you can kind of bring them into your world and help have them help you build their mission? So I think you'll learn a lot from those. And it Reminds me of like Chicken Soup for the Soul mixed with like a business book. So there, there is personal anecdotes from everyone, yet it's all the personal anecdotes and the stories are littered with practical takeaways. So you get this cool mix of like easily digestible story with very, very practical takeaways.

Gotcha. Well, you know, let's talk about the one thing you just mentioned. Like how do you find really talented millennials? So you take a older person who is like, well, yeah, you know, I mean, they know stuff that I don't know. And I think it's really important for businesses to stay very cutting edge and effective and powerful in many cases, not important. It's necessary. I mean, you want a mix of talents and you know, generations that just bring wisdom and knowledge and know how and drive and enthusiasm and skills at all different levels. What are some recommendations you would have?

Sure, it's probably just, it's probably pretty similar to how you build your own network, the genius network. And in terms of really specific in the corporate world or in the world of a large company looking to source talent, like I said at the very beginning of the chat, I think the dynamic between employer and employees becoming more flexible or changing. So you can go out and hire someone, but know that you are bringing someone more of a strategic alliance than someone who's going to be around for a decade. And how can you help mentor that person and really push their career forward? Also, how can you take into account the life that they want to design for themselves and all factors outside the workplace? Because if we're going to, you know, continue spending more and more time at work, it's going to become more important to have that, that place match how we want lives. So, you know, more than ever we can work remotely if we want and we have the tools to collaborate no matter where we are. So do you really need someone 9 to 5 or can you let them go without hours and clock in and out and have it very results based? And again, like none of this is like super, super cutting edge. I think the more cutting edge thinking is when you think about finding talent that isn't necessarily 100% yours. So looking at more of like an accelerator model within a corporate place, I know techstars has started playing with like Nike and Disney and Kaplan to do different accelerators within their walls. So you have these entrepreneurs who are starting companies and they're under the larger umbrella of Disney per se, but they're still running their own company. And is Disney their employer? Not really, but they are giving some support in various capacities and different resources. So I just think there will be a lot more of that. I think as we go into more of a remote world and more of a world where, again, you can work from anywhere and you can move around so quickly in your career, we'll probably have more freelancers and more solopreneurs that might just be, you know, working and doing contract work for one or two companies rather than being underneath one specific company. So more flexibility in lifestyle and on the company side, you have more flexibility in terms of minimizing overhead. So I think you'll see a lot more of that. And I don't think that that's a trend that's going to go away in terms of freelancing.

Tapping into kind of on demand type of stuff even.

Absolutely.

Working where it's. You can specialize in having a special skill. And the marketplace is there now to, through Elance or Odesk or any of the other things to kind of tap in and find work and for you to find people who are doing those things too. Interesting.

Yeah, yeah. I never really worked like this, but I think, yeah, being employed is gonna go the same route of owning a home or owning a car or, you know, any of those things where, you know, less people are running homes because you can have access via Airbnb unless people are owning cards because you have access to Uber. So let people opt out of a corporate world, but they have access to, you know, those type of perks to those type of work opportunities if they want it.

Yep.

Yeah. I mean, definitely. I mean, I, it's. It's become so much more of a project economy than an employee sort of, you know, and people are.

It's a good way to put it.

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, even in my own work that I do in my own company, I mean, just look, I, you know, I run the highest level, you know, discussion group in the world for marketers and things like that. I'm around very successful people, most of them running multi, multimillion dollar businesses. And I just see how much it has shifted even in the last five years. I mean, something like the introduction of TaskRabbit is a game changer for people. I mean, you would typically have to employ people just to keep them around in order to get certain skills done. And now with an app, you can find people that will do something and have them over to your location, sometimes on the same day or within a couple of hours. And even my buddy Chip Franks, with volunteer, he started joevolunteer.com so that any average Joe can become a volunteer. And right now they're creating an Uber type app for anyone that wants to volunteer. And it'll pop up and say, oh, where's the volunteer opportunities? And not only is that great for people that do want to volunteer, it's great for many organizations, nonprofits, causes that don't even know how to tell other people that they exist, but linking it all together. So this is happening from the employer realm to the nonprofit realm, to the volunteer realm, to everything. And it's just a way that stuff is getting done in the world. So, Jared, when it comes to your own business, Synergist, what are some of the failures, successes and lessons that you've learned at such a young age?

Yeah, so actually Synergist itself was a failure. That was the second company I had. I started when I was 16, and while I got some really good press out of it, like being called the definition of a social entrepreneur by Forbes and Think Fast company compared me to self replicating nanobots because I was trying to make more social entrepreneurs like myself. It was a crowd sourcing and crowdfunding platform for social entrepreneurs that I think I was trying to take on two different markets at the same time that were becoming saturated on their own. And yet at the same time, we're really niche together because social entrepreneurship is becoming pretty saturated and then crowdsourcing is very saturated. But most people aren't doing platforms for social entrepreneurs. And I think it was just too niche when you put those two bubbles together. So that itself was a failure. And I actually left that project and let it die because 2 billion under 20 was picking up steam and really started focusing on the book itself and on the larger companies and really different business ideas that can come out of bringing together a world class talent pool of millennials.

Yeah. What's interesting about it though is if you had not had that failure, do you really think you'd be doing what you're doing right now at such a young age? I mean, you kind of just got into the game. I mean, it was a, it was a strategic byproduct of doing it.

Yeah, I don't advocate failure. I don't think it's a very great thing to strive for. But, and it's, it's not necessarily the easiest thing to learn from either. You know, if your business fails, there might be a thousand different variables that caused it to fail. But definitely some failures have really led me in the right direction. You know, for, you know, for example, with my first business Now I get it.com@15 and you know, working with the mentor who had spent time in prison for a security file on Wall Street, I realized that that's not the type of person I want to associate with and instead reached out and got people like David Hassell to mentor me who's, you know, called the most connected man you don't know in Silicon Valley. And then, you know, surrounded my myself with people like you guys and people like Eben Pagan and Keith Ferrazi and, you know, other, other folks like that who really had better intentions and who also, you know, you guys are subject experts at what you do. So obviously that's, it's forced myself to step my game up around you guys. I've learned a lot from folks like you and all the mentors I have in my life. And then you take it to a peer level. And I've really surrounded myself in the last three, four years with just world class talents my age or, you know, five years older. And that's really done more for me than anything else. So without having been burned from a mentor figure, I wouldn't have had the real hunger to surround myself with top notch talent. And then without synergist failure, I wouldn't have learned that press doesn't mean anything unless it's applied to a good product. Or I wouldn't have learned that you have to do a little bit more research, you have to do a little bit more testing before you go ahead and launch something.

Right, Right. Well, you know, you're definitely doing what I would consider a very intelligent approach on how you're viewing the importance of wisdom and knowledge and mentorship from other people. I mean, standing on the shoulders of giants, learning from the experiences of others is the most leverageable way to educate yourself and prevent horrific, you know, screw ups that many people. Yeah, you know, people are willing to learn.

One of my mentors is the founder of Uggs. And you would think that that's a, that's a multibillion dollar brand. Although when he sold it, it was, he sold in 1995 to Decker Outdoors and he sold it for 15 or 20 million dollars, something like that. So not, not the multibillion dollar brand it is now. But if you spoke to this guy, and I don't know if he'd absolutely love me telling it, but he shares it in a book that I helped him come out with called the Birth of a Brand. He's lost his business like three or four times and somehow was able to get it back each and every time. But I learned more from him about his failures and about kind of what not to do and how not to get fucked over than some successes and some tactics which I can learn from other people or virtual mentors. And that, you know, that alone might save me like 10 or 20 years and millions of dollars.

Yeah, totally. And I mean, I think the approach you're taking, you know, because a lot of people are like, well, you know, why do you do, you know, why do you do your podcast? You know, because me and Dean, you know, frankly, there's a million things we don't do to monetize it. Like, because it's not our core business. You know, a lot of people are getting sponsorships for their podcasts. They're doing, you know, they're clever sets up for doing pitches and webinars and building all kinds of things. And we really haven't done a lot of that up to this point. Maybe next week we'll start. But we've been doing this now for four years and stuff. Part of it is it just keeps us sharp. I mean, we're constantly meeting new people and I really get a kick out of just sharing a lot of things with the world when it comes to a financial model of knowledge. I mean, I just attract a players into my genius network group and, and we're looking for people that want it, not the people that need it. From that perspective, I like giving stuff away for free. That's just really great, valuable content just to inspire people and know that it's going to be really helpful. And then I have my very high level stuff that's for really exclusive access, is not cheap, but it's absolutely worth the investment if people want the very best. But the way I look at it is you can learn through the school of hard knocks. That's one way to learn. It's the most inefficient and most painful way to learn, but that's how most people actually approach life. The second way to learn is you learn through the experience of others. You read their books, you go to their seminars, you get mentored by them, you learn from them. And then the most effective way to learn is you teach it to other people while also doing number two, which is the third way is you teach other people. So here you are putting yourself in a role of a connector and a collaborator and a teacher and a writer and a speaker. And, and that just takes all of these things that you're learning from your mentors and it causes you to listen to people at a much deeper level. Because you're going to take what you learned and you're going to, you know, help other people with what you're learning, which is much different than plagiarizing, which is much different than learning from someone and then, you know, taking it as your own and trying to act like you're so damn smart. And a lot of people I've seen done that when they're starting early on and they end up doing the worst thing, which is having a shitty reputation. And, you know, one of the things that I learned very early on, which I always like saying to young people or in an environment where I think young people may listen to it, which is certainly the case of this episode with you, is, you know, I learned early on the cliche, you know, be nice to the people you meet on the way up, they're the same people you meet on the way down. And I really think over the next few decades, it's going to be a fricking roller coaster. And I think we're going to see things that are amazing happen in the world. And I think there's going to be a shit storm in some areas that people are completely unaware that is about to happen. And I don't know either. So, you know, part of me is just, you know, just try to, you know, try to stay on top of things, try to be smart and just try to be useful in cutting edge and all of that. All of that. So that's. That's sort of my little rant there.

Yeah.

Let me, let me ask you, if you had to boil it down, what are the three most important things entrepreneurs need to know about Millennials and Gen Zers?

Hmm, that's interesting. Work with them, you know, kind of meet them at the point of collaboration if that's a big trend of theirs, and they will highly respect you for it. They'll help you create better products to then market to them, and then they'll be your fans for free and your free marketing and salesforce. So definitely collaborate with millennials mostly at a marketing level, and then you can do it at other levels and find a way to plug into the entrepreneurial nature of millennials. I think for savvy business owners, they do see an opportunity where you have this generation of, I guess, brilliant marketers via social media, or you have really entrepreneurial thinkers, yet some of them are getting screwed over by, you know, the craziest student that's. And just kind of seeing their parents struggle a little bit is making them hesitant to do it on their own. So instead they're going to companies and they're doing the same entrepreneurial things underneath someone's roof. So if you give them kind of intrapreneurial access and ownership of certain metrics or certain projects, as we were saying before, I think you'll get a lot out of Millennials in your business and just really around you in different projects. So collaborate with millennials at all levels. Really tap into their entrepreneurial and entrepreneurial spirit and then, you know, just stop back because it's not going to get you anywhere. Realize and figure out the ways that you can communicate with them best. Because every generation is kind of hazed from the previous ones. Sure happened with millennials in Generation Z and the generation after that. If there is one, that singularity hasn't killed off. So if there is one matter of finding. Finding the best ways of communicating. So all this goes back to, like, really soft skills. You know, if, if technology is growing so fast, then soft skills are some of the ones that are going to be more timeless.

Yeah.

Yep.

Great, great.

Anything else?

No, I think that's pretty good. I think I've really enjoyed this conversation.

No, no, no. I want to ask you one more about just on that particular subject. So I'm going to ask you a couple more things.

Oh, go for it.

Now, what advice would you give to a Millennial or a Gen Zer that happens to be listening to this now? Who they want to succeed, they want to lead fulfilling lives. I mean, obviously read your book, get involved in 2 billion under 20, but what's specifics would you advice would you say to any young person listening to this right now?

Yeah, I guess the two main things. David Hassell from 155 had me do this zone of genius process where I looked at what I was passionate about, what I was good at, and then I've added kind of a third element, which is what is the market value? And think about those three things, whether it's as simple as making lists on a sheet of paper, or whether you take more advanced kind of metrics and data, like A Strength Finders 2.0 test or A, the A index or a unique ability assessment where you're asking other people to tell you what they think of you. And just try and figure out your zone of genius, which is where your passions, your skills, and where you're, you know, or where the market values all intersects. And the quicker you can do that, the more you'll be able to apply it to different places in your life, whether personally or professionally. So your mind is bringing people or Bringing people and ideas together to accomplish bigger things for society. And, you know, so I know that I'm a connector very much like yourselves, and that serves me really well in business. It served me really well in finding mentors and multiple places. And I also, you know, then we go back to finding great mentors and not just, you know, definitely older mentors, and then also really find great peer mentors and even mentees. I'm not really at the point yet of mentees, although I'm starting to get there. But you can learn a lot from intergenerational conversation and making sure that you have multiple bases, multiple viewpoints covered. So while you are keeping your own ideas and your own passions and your own zone of genius, you are getting and taking objective feedback from others who really care about you.

You know what's so funny? You just rattled off something very quickly that a lot of, like, I picked up on something on you that, like, I already knew you were a driven guy because you're a hustler. I mean, you just. And I say that not in a critical way. It's a very, very positive way. I mean, you're out there, you know, hustling. You're doing stuff. You're making it happen. But you said that, you know, do a strength finder, you know, 2.0. Do a cold. Oh, yeah, yeah. Or do unique ability, where you send out a letter to someone. I mean, that just shows the depth of his research.

No, this is. This is all from a mentor, though. You know, I didn't know to do this at 16. Someone said, do all this. And I said, okay, I trust you. And you've. You've obviously really had a lot of success, so why would I not do it? I'd be silly.

Yeah. And I'll tell you, like, you know, me and Dean have both taken strength finder. Kathy, friend of mine, it is. We're doing a Colby on every single person coming to my Genius Network annual event. I talked to her yesterday, and I'm interviewing her. Her on video, which I've interviewed Kathy several times, but I'm doing a new interview on her with her doing this interpretation and unique ability, sending out, you know, a letter to people saying, hey, what do you see as my unique ability? I mean, that's something that has been absolutely instrumental in. You just said, oh, go ahead and do it. And you advise that to young people because you heard it from someone, you learned it somewhere, you did it yourself. And that's actually really good advice because a lot of young people will. They won't you know, that's not like enjoyable like watching a video enjoyable on YouTube or, you know, how the hell.

Is someone going to know to do that? I mean, they're not teaching that in school. They're not teaching.

No, you know, there's a lot of wisdom in that and that's something. It was really funny, Joe, because I, you know, we've been talking about just, you know, you and I have kind of made this shift now where we've been in business for 25 years basically, right. And I was thinking back to my, you know, what, what advice would I give to my 22 year old self, you know, which is that's how old I was when I started in business. And you know, knowing now what you know about ourselves, like knowing just what you were talking about, the Colby and your strengths finder and your Myers Briggs and all of your unique ability is to really know those things and embrace them early. And I think that that can make a difference because as I've matured and as I've kind of grown as an entrepreneur, the real strides have come from setting up systems around fully embracing my unique ability and my am I Colby and supporting myself in that, in that world rather than trying to build and be more well rounded, you know, or trying to shore up your weaknesses or amazing. Yeah, yeah. And a difficult thing, the other thing. Oh, were you.

Go ahead, go ahead. I'll just let you go. You just go for it.

Okay. Well, what I see now is that I've noticed now that it's much easier to imagine a 25 year vista from this side than it was 25 years ago to imagine 25 years ahead. But you and I both know, Jill, how fast that goes, because I remember 25 years ago like it was yesterday, you know, and I think that I read, I was rereading Peter Diamandis book Bold the other day and the part where he was talking with Jeff Bezos and he shared, people always ask what's going to change in the next 10 years? What are the things that are going to change? And Jeff Bezos said that nobody asks me what are the things that are not going to change in the next 10 years? That's what I focus on. And he says, what's not going to change in the next 10 years is that from a customer centric point of view, people are always going to want lower prices and people are always going to want a broad selection and people are always going to want fast delivery. And so we drive the progress on supporting those things which are not going to change and only adopt technologies that help us drive those three things. And I thought that's pretty profound when you really think about it, right? Like, what are the things that are not going to change and how can you align around and being prepared for how technology is going to affect those core things? I think that would be really wise advice for somebody in their 20s right now.

No, very much so. Very much so. And, you know, I'm going to ask you in a minute, so I'll give you some prep to kind of put this in your head or what are the, you know, before we wrap up, Jared, is what are one or two or a few of the most important or impactful lessons you've learned on this journey so far that we have not discussed so far. I want to get your perspective on that. I just want to throw out something related to what I did early in my 20s and have always held this as a habit, going back to reading the book that people hear all the time, but many people never read it, is the Richest man in Babylon, about saving 10% of your money and that sort of stuff. But I always, when it came to money saving and instilling the habit of not figuring out. Some people live within their means, other people figure out what their means are going to be, and then they figure out how to make enough money to live that way, which is what I always strive to do. And that doesn't mean racking up a lot of debt. And a lot of young people are just mired in debt. One of the giant failings of educational institutions, I think in a lot of way, many of them have just become prisons that embroil young people in debt that they can never get out of. And by painting a picture and selling a promise that they don't give them the education that many can do something with. So much of the prerequisites and things that they suggest that they learn are completely useless and have nothing to do with their careers. And I think the whole system is in many cases fraudulent. And that being said, you know, money is how you pay for things. And until another system exists, which I don't think anyone will, you know, I'm, as much as there are people that attack capitalism, I'm a big believer in capitalism and believe it's an amazing system when it comes to money. I was buying life insurance before, you know, I didn't have anyone to leave it to. I would. I would do things to put money to the side. And I learned that habit early on. And I've had people that have had much higher grossing bigger businesses and bigger companies than me that would go broke because they just never kept any of it. They would just spend it as quickly as it would come in. And I always did my best to try to just keep myself protected there. And it has served me very well, especially where there have been years in my company over the last 25 years. Because you're right, Dean, I've, you know, we've been in business over 25 years where I literally had to finance the company to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars in the negative, you know, where shit just hit the fan and had I not prepared myself to weather those storms, you know, my company would have gone out of business. And so I think learning all of those things is very, very important. And, you know, I would, I just have to, you know, really give you a lot of admiration, Jared, for how driven you are and what you're doing and how quickly you're learning. And I'm so curious to see where you're going to be in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 25 years from now. Hopefully you'll just set up a trust fund for me or something because you should be pretty successful by the time you get RH is.

Hopefully you'll be part of your genius network. That's the next goal.

Yeah, well, I hope that's just like in the next couple months or something. But with. Yeah, but I mean, seriously, at the rate that you're on, you know, I just hope that your success just continues to accelerate. Knowing that you're going to have a roller coaster, knowing you're going to go through your own versions of shit storms and what everyone does. But the point is if you surround yourself with great people, you really learn stuff, you develop skills, you know, because I do like the book, what is it called by Cal Newport. So good they can't ignore you. It's not just about your passion. It's about developing a skill that is rare and valuable that you can apply to the world that gives you career capital. I mean, there's a lot of wisdom behind that versus just blindly following a passion just because you like it. So you have to attach a skill and a desire that the market wants with whatever you're passionate about. And, and those are really important. So. All right, so that was my long rambling again. Any final important lessons that you've. Impactful lessons that you've learned on what you've been doing so far that we haven't talked about?

I think it'd be interesting to touch on self education. Because you are saying that schools are kind of failing us and where are you going to learn this thing? So it does go, you know, similar to leadership. But in the last year, year and a half, I've really, really honed in on self education. And that's, you know, a huge topic of my next book. And it's self education. It's kind of Tim Ferriss as committed learning, you know, learning how to learn. And those are, I think those are really important skills to prepare yourself for the future. Because if we have no idea what to prepare for and we don't know what technologies are going to be around and what kind of jobs are going to be around and whether or not there's going to be shit storms or where they're going to happen and what parts of our lives. Having adaptability and knowing how to level up your skills and level up your life is probably going to be a more valuable skill than others. So those who are ultimate meta learners, I mean, my friend Connor is a great example. He used to have a blog called the One Month Master, but he ended up shutting it down after three or four months. But he still taking on the similar idea of really focusing in on a certain skill set, whether it's like learning how to DJ or web design or he recently taught himself like Spanish in a month. Not, not full Spanish, but, you know, the same as like four to six months of, you know, what someone else would learn. And, you know, so I think Connor's gonna be pretty fine in the future because he's gonna be able to learn anything and he's gonna be able to learn it faster than most people and he's really diligent about it, you know, so I think self education is huge. And you couple it with meta learning and learning how to learn is self education. And then I think just, you know, having higher levels of consciousness on a daily basis, you know, I know I'm not as conscious about everything as I want to be, even though I am at a pretty high level of consciousness for my age. Although I don't like to, you know, use my age as a cane and that's. I only bash myself or I only know that I'm not where I want to be because I have friends who are insanely conscious and who are really, really on the ball with their zones of genius or their ways and systems of thinking about things. So by surrounding myself with them, I know that I have so much farther to go. But you know, that that has also been a part of my last year, year and a Half has been trying to raise my levels of consciousness and really, really thinking about what I value and where my skills are and what projects are gonna hopefully have some sort of return. And even, even at like a micro level, you know, did I have this proper conversation with someone or, you know, if I piss someone off, like, how and why did I do that? So I can either, you know, do it in a different way or I cannot do it. Yeah. I mean, self education and increased levels of consciousness are things we have not talked about in the last hour and 15 minutes. But if we were to have a part two, I'd love to discuss those.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's put it out there and do that. How can people get involved with 2 billion under 20? And if they want to get involved with you personally, is that even doable? Give us any sort of information on anyone working with you. And of course, if it's not obvious, go to Amazon right now and get a copy of Jared's book, Two Billion Under 20 and read it or definitely give it to. If you have children or any young people in your life or young people that work for you, that you want to inspire and help guide them on a path through the inspirational stories and successes and, you know, kind of blueprint of other people that have done it, that's what Jared's book is about. So what's the best way for people to get involved with you and your project?

Yeah, for younger people, read the book and then there's call to actions within it to kind of reach out to us and apply to be a part of our community and consume other content that we're going to be rolling out. And then at an older level or if you're running a company and you want to learn how to better market to millennials, hire and recruit top young talent and engage your current millennial employees. That's what the new venture that we're working on does and services. So that is something we can get in touch with. More than happy to give out my contact info. And it's actually one of my email addresses is in the book, but my personal one is jared kleinermail.com so it's, you know, J A R E D K L E I N e r t gmail.com and then I'm just Jared Kleinert everything online. So Jared Kleinert.com at facebook.com Jared Kleinert at Jared Kleiner.com in Jared Kleinert and definitely get in touch. I would love to hear from any and all people on any and all subjects. And if I'm not. If the subject you're asking me about is not my zone of genius, I'll direct you to someone else and. And would still love to connect and help you guys out and. And probably be helped. I'm sure. You know, you have a high caliber of listener, so.

Yeah, totally, totally.

Really looking forward to getting to know anyone in your world.

Perfect. Well, you might. You didn't mind. Just opened up. Say that again.

Everyone you've introduced me to is amazing. I'm sure your, Your listenership is the same. And Dean, I can't wait to know you even more as well, so.

Well, don't be so sure on that one. Dean can be a real. Like, on the exterior, everyone thinks he's a really nice person, but behind closed doors, he's kind of moody. He's not very. Not much of a giver like me, of course. Well, Dean, as I'm sitting here busting on you, is there any final thoughts, perspectives, anything about this episode you'd like to share before we. We. We call it a wrap?

No, I think it's. I think it's great. I mean, the thing is, you know, it's really is timely now to, you know, be thinking about the. The new generation coming up and, and seeing what a different world it is. Imagine. You know, I often think, like, what would it have been like if you and I were. Were our. The age we started with the world as it is right now? How would things have been different? You know, we often talk about the, the fundamentals, you know, that we were grounded in because there was no Internet. You know, we. That forced us to learn, you know, real marketing fundamentals because you had to pay for all of the, all the tests that we learned from. But it's exciting. It's all exciting times and.

Yeah, yeah, so funny. Here I am, you know, I was like infusionsoft's second customer when they started. I mean, all kinds of weird little things like that. Yeah, it's just. The world is fascinating. I will say. When I was right around 30 years old, I had a personal thing happen in a relationship that was the most traumatic, traumatizing, horrible time of my life. Just an absolute blow up of a very toxic relationship. And it just derailed me for. I mean, I still experience some of the shrapnel from that episode. And it not only cost me millions of future revenue because it took the wind out of my sails. And I was such a hotshot during that time. I was making a lot of money. I was on the COVID of magazines I was just all kinds of crazy shit. And my life became a Jerry Springer show for a period of time and, and you know, it was painful. I mean, it was enormously painful. And looking back, I mean, it is so important to have real, true friendships. It's really important to esteem yourself. It's important to learn about, you know, forgiveness. It's important to stay in really good physical shape and to eat clean and to adopt as many healthy lifestyle habits and to get proper sleep and to not get mirrored into addictive behaviors and activities which I spent a lot of my adult life mired in addictive thinking and addictive behaviors. Not because I was a bad person, just it was a maladaptive coping mechanism of stress. And in spite of being successful financially, I just wasn't aware of it. And looking back on my life, pay attention to what the hell you're doing and who you're associating with and, and develop a real life. I mean, your whole thing about success is, it's not just about money. Money is important though. Money's, you know, you can do a lot of things with money, including survive and help other people. And, you know, so I'm a big fan of money. I'm also a big fan of, you know, having peace of mind and having serenity and being a good human being and, you know, being able to sleep at night and, and having a reputation that, you know, great people say great things about you and, you know, and even if you don't, and be careful of fame. You know, a lot of people, they pursue fame and, you know, fame's not what it's wrapped up to be. I mean, you know, you end up attracting a lot of people that think that, you know, you're someone that you're not or that you're going to take care of them or whatever. And so it's learn like what? My biggest takeaway from this is just the whole self education and learning from other people, but it is education. And education in many cases is painfully slow. Even if you do do meta learning and learn how to hack stuff that it's still, you got to invest the time. But if you do it, oh my God, I mean, you will have a life that is just so much more incredible and the amount of effort you'll put into it will make your life just so much more exciting and awesome. So thank you, Jared. I'm really, really happy to see your success. And we will do a follow up. So to all of our listeners, share this interview this episode with any young people. I think it'd be really helpful and take it seriously. Read Jared's book and get a copy of it and post your comments@ilovemarketing.com subscribe to I love marketing and we'll see you on the next episode. So thanks everyone.

Yeah, thank you guys. I really appreciate it. It.