Creating Something Completely Different That Adds Value to the World with A/J Jackson

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I'm here with A.J. jackson, musician, bandleader of the band Saint Motel, filmmaker, songwriter, record producer, and two platinum records, one go. But also the inventor of a view eyewear. So, A.J. talk about. I got a lot of things I want to ask you about. Let's go straight to the eyewear. What kind of problems were you having? You know, because, you know, and in life, it's all this, you got a problem and then you got to fix it. But so your approach, the thing about winning is how you solve one area of your life and turn it around and work your way through it, come out the way you want, you know, the best possible solution for yourself. That's how you wind up. That's your method, you know, that's how you. And successful methods can apply in one area, they can work in other areas, like even solving your own vision problem, you know, so talk about that.

Sure. I mean, exactly. You're saying, I kind of feel like writing a song is solving a mystery in a way. Like, you don't know why, kind of gravitates that. So, I mean, certain, certain things translate for sure. So with the eyewear and I kind of love, I mean, this is an audio podcast, but you haven't seen these glasses, right? So this is a kind of a good example. So I bought round glasses like this, you know, a couple years ago. I love the kind of Andy Warhol style round frame, but I love colored lenses, you know, especially while I'm performing and going around the world. So I bought the same glasses three times. I put one, I put rose lenses in, one I put blue lenses in, and one I had from normal glasses. And then I looked at the bill and I realized that that was insane. I was like, well, why? I had the same prescription lenses. Why can't I just, like, slide in the colors I want? And it didn't exist. And it drove me crazy. And I was like, man, someday someone needs to make these glasses because it's just silly. And the pandemic happened. And I was like, well, you know what? I'm gonna do this. I need these. So, like, if you can see right here, you can pull out the colors, you can slide in any, you know, Polarized, UV resistant colors. You could put blue in, you could put yellow in, you could put green in, brown in. And so then you never are limited again. So you never have to carry around separate prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses for those that don't have prescription. You never need to Pay, you know, $300 for Green Ray Bans. Again, you can pay the same amount and have endless amount of color sunglasses. So it's really about freedom, convenience and saving money. And just this is just silly. That didn't exist. So that's why.

And people who want to see that can go to a view. Is it a view dot com?

It is. Okay, a view dot com.

Yep, a view. A V E I W. A V.

I E W. Okay, I spelled it wrong.

A V, I.

No worries.

Okay.

Like a new point of view.

A new point of view. And so how long was that? So you obviously had to get acquainted with a whole different industry context, learn different languages, find the best people, find what's possible and go and then pay for your, mock your models to be done and stuff like that. So what kind of, how did you work your way through that experience? You know, you're on the road, you're riding, you're running a band, you're doing the make, you know, filming how did you. Because people wonder like, you know, I can only do certain things, you know, and I do believe you can't. It's multitasking is really, you can do it, but it's dangerous, you know, especially if you're convinced you can multitask. You're probably going to have a big car crash on the road sometime. But the, the deal is you can do have a lot of different projects going at one time. You know, in a day you could put energy into a lot of different projects. And no matter what you're working on, usually there's stall times or wait times, you know, like, it's like playing ping pong. You hit the ball and then you got to wait till it comes back over the net before you can do something else. And so what are you going to do in the meantime? And people that are interested in a lot of different things, they use those empty spaces to do other things. And so how did you go about doing getting these, you know, figuring out what you needed to figure out to get the glasses you're wearing today and start the company?

Yeah, no, I mean the spaces you're mentioning. I mean it's almost kind of, I'm not sure without the pandemic that these glasses would be here because you know, when we stopped, the Tour was stopped March 7. That was our last show in 2020. But we were had a whole year full of touring and festivals and, you know, you know, press and promo and stuff that was shut down because, yeah, definitely needed the space to put some attention into some new worlds. So, you know, the first thing I did was these sketches that I had for these classes. I reached out to some friends of mine, I'm from Minneapolis, and have some friends that work at 3M in the kind of ideal lab. And I talked to my friend Nick Pauli and Matt Cameron and you know, we got some 3D designs going. And then I was lucky enough to near me in Glendale, California. Had a 3D printer in the library here. So could take 3D models, take it down to the library, literally print out some glasses, assemble a loose idea, modify it, do that for months. You know, by the time the library knew me as that glasses guy, you know, they were very sweet about it. You know, they never said, can you like stop using our printers for this? So kept on refining it. You know, they started very big and bulky and kind of worked it down and got it to a place where I actually, you know, and I went to my optometrist and she was super cool and showing me through like, you know, how it all works. Like, you need the grooves here so the machines can trace it for your lens. Like all kind of the mechanics of it, the types of plastics, all this kind of stuff. We got to a point where the 3D model was good enough, where I was putting prescription lenses in there and I was getting stopped on the street and people were asking about my glasses and stuff like that. And I was like, okay, well maybe this is something to sell. And the price point just wasn't. It didn't make any sense for these 3D printed ones. So at some point along the line I was like, well, what, what can we do as far as actually doing a production run? So, you know, I kind of knew a little bit at the time. Luxottica is this kind of behemoth in the eyewear industry that's a bit of a monopoly. And, you know, they kind of own almost the entire thing from top to bottom as far as the manufacturing, the distribution, you know, everything. Most brands, most famous brands from Ray Ban to Oliver Peoples, they own them all. So the idea of being a boutique, independent, direct to customer eyewear company would have been pretty daunting, I think if this wasn't something that didn't exist. If I was just trying to put out a Cool design or some sort of line of hey, A.J. jackson branded Wayfair style frames. I just, I don't think it would have been worth the pain and suffering to do it. Even if I'm like, you know, trying to sell to my friends and family and stuff like that. And, you know, I don't think the ban's that big, but if we have any kind of following in that regard, it just wouldn't be worth needed. Something that was completely different, that didn't exist, that could add value to people, you know, if that wasn't there, I don't think it would have been worth pursuing. But the fact that, you know, this is a novel, completely different concept that, you know, people, once you get it, you get it. And it's like, why would you ever want to go back to one color sunglasses ever again after this? You know, I mean, I get why Luxotic would want you to because they want you to buy more sunglasses, but you don't need to. You can experience all these different colors with one frame. And if you have glasses, you don't need to have separate sunglasses and glasses. These, these are things that can be remedied. And you know, we're, we're the, the, the little kid in the room that's just kind of starting and making this thing. We're a couple months old, but it's cool to hear feedback from people that are like, ah, this is something I've wanted for a really long time. You know, like, it's, it's different, it's different, but it's like, it's kind of like one of those things. Like, yeah, of course I want this. Like, why, why would I not have this?

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

And how much of a challenge has it been for you to switch gears and get into a more detail type, product type, experience, rather than the experience of creating and performing? And is it, is it, are there similarities there? Or is it, do you find that.

You.

Have to, you know, have bigger blocks of Time to concentrate on that or, you know, because you're, you're making a whole different world of context, people you got to keep up with, you know, so you're tired. Even though with a pandemic, I'm sure you're staying in touch with the band. You're lining things up. You got this, you got that. You know, these worlds never said. It's like when the, the big dumb idea I had when we had our first child was like, okay, this is an 18 year commitment.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, no, it's lifetime.

Yeah, it's lifetime, exactly.

Yeah, I know it's that way with a band.

So in some ways the band kind of like trained me for this. You know, I was making a lot of our art and designing websites and making our music videos and making like a lot of content for the band in as resourceful of a way as possible for like a decade. So in that regard it kind of helped. I love the creative aspects of it. I love the idea of figuring out the next color. Is it violet, is it orange, like the next frame style? All the kind of creative aspects of it. The more mundane, you know, bean counting aspects of it are, you know, it's, it's a new world for me that side of it. But, you know, it's. It's been interesting. It's been a learning experience for sure. It's been a lot. And I've been trying to do as much as possible and slowly kind of building a team around it so I can really get to know it and what goes into it and what it takes. But through that process, I think it's pretty clear to me what I gravitate more towards. And that's, you know, the fun creative aspects of these glasses and just in general, like the fun creative aspects of music. Like, you know, we, we now have a business manager and management and people to label that kind of take care of. The more, you know, there's plenty of bean counting and not fun aspects of the music industry as well. My brain just doesn't wrap its head as. Around, around that as well for some reason. So, you know, I think it's been good to kind of show me, you know, what my real strong suits are and what I'm not so keen on. In that sense.

It's.

It's been a good experience.

Well, if it's any consolation, I've never read it in a book or I've never had anybody supposedly an expert tell me, but it's, it's my observation that all entrepreneurs hate doing the Books.

Yeah.

But in the beginning, before you can afford to offload that off. It's good that you have to do it in the beginning because you learn it and you learn what has to be done because you always are going to be responsible for. For it. And I've gone through the thing where I just. I just ran so busy, I offloaded it off on other people and, you know, they're experts, you know, you're paying them 6. I was paying them, you know, $100,000 a year back in the mid-80s. And if it's CPA, good Lord, you know, why should I. I don't need to check on that. Yeah. And then, and then I got embezzled by a million dollars. And then I had, you know, I had several things happen and I'm not, I'm not special. It seems to happen to all of us along the way if we don't learn that, if you don't make sure it won't happen, it will happen. And I just thought, well, I can trust those people, you know, they're experts, you know, but as I've interviewed a lot of people off the Shark Tank thing, and a lot of them will tell me just because they're experts and they know a lot of people, they're not experts on every opinion they have. And so ultimately you've got to be. Keep up with all the numbers. So it's really good that we're forced to keep up with the numbers early in our career, even though we hate it, because it gives you an insight for knowing, you know, having a sense for if something's on track or it's in the ballpark figure, taking them out, you know, amount of time it should take, the amount of money it should take, or if people are just. There's monkey business going on, you know, and you need to also.

People also just make mistakes, you know, like there you go all the time. It's. It's inevitable. We're human. So. Yeah, exactly. Like you're saying, to have that kind of insight into the process is very important, no matter how painful it is.

Yeah. Because now you're being a. Can you look forward and get a sense for what it is to run a company where you're going to have so many units made? You know, now you're like a carmaker. We have a new models every year and this. Then we got to fix the old ones, you know, and so are you getting a sense for what that's going to be like? Getting into where you're thinking about number of Units shipped every month when we're going to bring a new model online and you know, the, you know, the product fulfillment end of it, where you're shipping those things out and making sure people get them. And then you got to do the whole thing with social media, build a community around where people are taking the pictures and send it in. We love our glasses and you know, the free advertising, but can you get a sense for being a CEO type thing, running that type job as different from what you're used to?

So far, yeah, there's a lot of similarities. I mean, that I've noticed so far as far as you just have to super serve your fans and you have to constantly be thinking of ways to grow that base. You know, it's, it's similar in that regard. You have to, you have to figure out ways to, to constantly grow it and you know, my experience, the way I've kind of always worked, it's been slow, steady growth of. That's the way the band kind of's been going. That's the way my life seems to be going. I, I don't know, it's not intentional. Like I'm sure, you know, I would have loved to be where I am at 18, but that's just not the way my journey or maybe my mentality is set. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of, a lot of parallels there. A lot of like general key points that are same between them and then there's a lot of things that are, are different and you know, on the, on the music side, we have a pretty big team of people around it and you know, we also have stock and merchandise and albums and tickets and hard sales and all these kind of numbers that are, you know, parallels. But it's, it's a much more spread out and much bigger as far as manpower ordeal. So there's differences there for sure.

Yeah. And you got more people already in place to help you with that, whereas this one, you're starting, starting it up right from the bottom and. But then again you got the fun of setting it up the way you want.

You know, it's true, it's true. I mean, I wanted to, I was talked out of, but I wanted to store them all in my, you know, garage and ship them out individually, you know, one, one on one, just ship everything out myself. And luckily I was talked out of that because, you know, we're on the road a lot and it wasn't really practical. But I love the idea of touching literally every aspect of it. Like I want the customer experience to be so positive. And I know it, you know, with these glasses, it's. It's a new. A new product in a way. I mean, it's their glasses. These have been around for, you know, millennia, but the concept of it is new. We. And, you know, a lot of optometrists that reach out to have people come and bring them in that, you know, it's like answering these questions. And once you get it, you get it, but it is new. It's a new kind of idea. So, yeah, it's a lot of outreach.

And the thing is that it's. This was a natural, organic, you know, we talk about this quite a bit. Outgrowth of things you were already interested in. Used yourself part of your life, and you were able to pursue it, you know, because you'd done. Done well with the thing. You're the first thing of the band. The other opportunities that kind of creates space in your life, you know, a little discretionary time, discretionary income. Where another thing comes along is like, oh, I don't have to hand that off someone else.

I can do that.

I can launch that. You know, that would be basically. That would be fun. What I found, AJ is that what you learn in one arena, you learn whenever you do something new, you learn new stuff, meet new people. There's conversations, you have problems, you figure out, but then that is transferable. Often you got new insights or angles or viewpoints, like taking a picture, like in painting. They just sent me one of my paintings, a five by seven big monster thing there, finishing, putting the final gloss on down in Palm beach. And I'm out in Aspen now, but they sent a picture and they sent it to me upside down. And I was talking to Doug on the phone and said, you know, it looks pretty good upside down too. But when you look at these projects, it's like some of the principles and everything you use, you look at them from a different angle. It's like, oh, I didn't know I could. I could. You know, I really knew how to do that, but I hadn't really thought about applying that idea in this situation. And to me, it makes the leader who's in charge fresh. And you. You've already seen that because I guess you're getting back, you know, back moving to the performing side of things now. Right. And you feel like you're coming back more. More energized.

Yeah, I think, you know, we. We just did this kind of live stream with a full orchestra, and it was great. You know, first time we played together with other people in the room, but the other people in the room were the orchestra. So, you know, it's gonna be nice to be playing for crowds again. I think we're all, you know, very excited, really hoping it's gonna happen. But yeah, like you're saying, there's, there's a lot of benefit to, I mean, having the eyewear company has, you know, helped in certain ways with, with the band side of things too. Just kind of things you learn, you know, like we weren't, I mean, we weren't most savvy on the Interweb. The, the band like never even really had an online store for our social media channels. Like things like this that just seem like kind of no brainers. But you know, you learn from these other areas and kind of pull whatever you need into the other, other side.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as as possible. I'm Larry Widell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go.