Episode 228: Mark Cuban Is Scrappy! with Entrepreneur Samy Kobrosly

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 am here with Sammy Cabrosley and Sammy is in the snack business big time, folks, and getting bigger. Thanks so much, Sammy, for joining me again.

No, absolutely, thank you.

I had a chance. I'll be able to brag that I knew you when you were in your early 30s and before you had your first trillion dollars in sales and everything. And we're in 500 countries.

But you can't really brag because I was still bald now anyway, so it doesn't matter. You can't say I knew him when he had ha, but you can say I knew him after year five.

I've got good news for me and you. Genomics, they're going to be able to fix all that stuff. Okay?

I already told people that I'm working so hard today just so that I can go overseas and get myself a hair transplant surgery. That's the end goal.

Talk about Sammy. You got started, you did your own manufacturing, but you know, like all manufacturing, when you're making things, a lot of money involved and then a lot of commitments. When you get these big box, big brand stores, you know, they say, unbelievable, I'm in 100, 200, 300, 500 stores. Well, that's a lot of inventory, a lot of product in cardboard boxes to be shipped and the logistics and all of this stuff, anything can go wrong at any time. And so it takes money at that point. You got to spend money to gear up to be able to do that. And like you said, you're sitting right now in a 10,000 square foot facility that didn't exist, you know, at the time you were in your apartment, you know, so you decide, hey, we need to get some money, we need to get some funding. And somehow you got on Shark Tank. Talk about that. Was that a little daunting or was that a challenge? Is that an exciting thing or, oh.

My God, I was scared crapless. I'm not gonna lie to you, man. It is scary, scary, scary, because it's one of those things that it's almost surreal, you know what I mean? I guess if any entrepreneur, especially, you know, if you've been around for the past 10 years, you've watched an episode of Shark Tank, right?

Right.

And I definitely watched my fair share of Shark Tank episodes. And so, you know, when we got that call, like, hey, we're actually gonna fly you out to Los Angeles and you're actually gonna pitch in front of the Sharks. I mean, it was scary. I practiced a lot, and I still choked, even though I practiced so much. Like, I still, like, choked a little bit at the beginning. And that's just how it is, because, you know, you're walking in there and you're seeing, you know, four to five, right? Five of, you know, America's probably most prominent or prolific, you know, probably prolific, well known investors.

Right?

And that's intimidating, you know, and you don't have the. They don't really know much about you. You know what I mean? They don't know anything about you, to be honest. And so have that time to tell them about your story. Tell them the details. Try to remember all those numbers that you crammed in your head, you know, like, before you got there.

Right?

You know, and, yeah, and you get done. And when all is said and done, that's it. You just. You walk out and you go, whoa, I just made a deal with Mark Cuban. Like, that is crazy. You know, But I think what people also forget is, like, there's still a lot that goes on afterwards, right? You know, his team still does the due diligence. I still have to send a lot of documentation, a lot of paperwork back and forth. We had a lot of calls. But, yeah, you know, that moment for us was big, you know, and it happened where we taped it in the summertime but didn't air until the fall. And so it was like the hardest kept secret. It was like the hardest secret to keep. Sorry. It was like, we kept it very well.

Right.

So hard to keep. Because, you know, we couldn't tell our marketing people, we couldn't tell people that we worked with. We couldn't tell the production people. We couldn't tell anybody because we want to make sure the deal was finalized before we told anyone what happened, you know, during my taping. And then, you know, we're waiting. We're like, well, it's actually gonna air. And then we don't want to tell anyone because we don't want it to leak because they'll pull the show if they think it leaked. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, it was daunting. It was fun. But I will say, we did have some pretty good sleuths on our team that just started going like, you know, while they were shipping stuff on the Fedex account, looked at, you know, the past people I ship stuff to on the FedEx account. And when they saw Mark Cuban's name on it, they go, ah, I think I know who the deal happened with.

So when you go through that thing, how do you focus on. You had to be pretty confident because you'd worked like a dog, you'd had success, you knew you had a good product, you didn't need them to agree, you knew what you had. And part of that, that's interesting to me is you got a lot of money for a little bit of interest in the company, so you weren't selling your soul to get them involved. How much of, I'm sure you know, you had places for the money to go. But what did it. What has been the impact of being able to plug into in with someone who's so far up the ladder? Because basically, these guys are dream team of American business. You know, if there's going to be a hall of fame, if there was a award ceremony for American business every year, you know, they would have already been inducted and gotten their business, Oscar, whatever it is. But dealing with people like that, what did you notice? Other than he knew how to do things or they knew how to do things, what did you notice, Learn from how they went about their business, how they engaged in conversations, what they locked in on, and especially, particularly Mark.

Yeah, I think look at Mark. Even like all of our investors, for that matter. Like, the one thing I've noticed about all them is they're all scrappy. You know, they don't just say, like, it's like, someone like Mark who could literally just write a check for anything, like, oh, I got to do that here, check, solve it. Check, solve it. You know, here's a check, here's some more money. Solve it. Like, no, he's scrappy. He's like, wait, well, what can we do internally? How can we figure this out? What can we already. What can we use that we already have and how to help solve this problem? You know what I mean? And that scrappiness is really what, you know, it harkens back to back when, you know, when we were starting off, we were just scrappy, making everything from hand, trying our best. Like, yeah, building this facility. Like, we did this all of ourselves. Like, you know, it was us painting the walls, us doing the floors. You know, like Pedro and I, like, we installed machines. Like, Pedro builds machines now himself. Just because they show up and, like, I don't get here for a couple hours, he's like, already finished it, boss, you know what I mean? Like, that's the kind of stuff that you know that, that, that someone like Mark Cuban, like that they, that they actually believe in, that they instill in you as well. You know, it's that grinding, it's that working hard. Like, dude, the dopest thing about Mark and the thing that you know is he's inspiring to us is if I send him an email, he'll write me back in 15 minutes max. You know what I mean? It's not one of those, you send an email, okay, you'll get back in a couple days. Like, this guy has better stuff to do, but you can tell that he also, the better things that he does. He's getting it done now and he gets stuff done immediately. Like he's all like just crushing. I could send him an email, boom. Here's his response, here's his ideas, here's his thoughts, back and forth. Next. Now he's onto his next problem, he's on his next solution. You know what I mean?

One thing that just, it's great to hear you say that because I've always told people that the easiest people to work with are the million dollar earners, the super successful. And it could be people who are ahead of charities or built, you know, they built something great or done something great and not just making money, but it's the super successful people that are the easiest to work with because number one, they answer your mail, text, phone call and you get an answer and they're not dilly tallying around with it. And the other thing is if they say they're going to do something, they do it. It's not like, oh, we had a meeting then that was for me was that this week I was supposed to bring this. Those are the dumbasses that, you know, the people that are just, they've just got mashed potatoes for brains. And it could be that a year, two or three or four, they're gonna be polished up and solid as a rock. But they're at that mashed potato brain stage of their life. And there's, there's a phrase that helped me lock into this early in my career. I don't know what book or person I got it from. But the thing is you gotta be specific to be dynamic. And these guys are, you know, you know, you don't want to be a butter knife. You want to be razor sharp. You know, where you can cut through, you can, you know, you can understand what you're hearing. You can give the answer back and it's like I listen. This could drive you nuts too. I listened to who was it?

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.

Kramer. I was driving back, I was driving, I had a four hour drive yesterday. I was listening to Kramer and he was interviewing God bless her, our secretary of treasury or something.

Yellow, that's my girl.

It wasn't yellow. It was somebody else, but it was one of those cabinet members. And he asked her three questions and three for three she answered totally off the subject. You know, it's just like, what do you think of trees? Well, I think elephants are interesting animals. You know, it was kind of like that. And he had to be treat the office with respect. He couldn't call her butt out on it, say, well that's a great answer but you know, I wasn't talking about elephants. There was no elephant in that sentence I gave you. It was trees, you know, and three for three. And it was like at the end he had to be gracious, thanks so much. It's so great to have you on yada yada and pretend that she, even if we were playing darts, she didn't even hit the wall, much less the bullseye, you know. And so successful people are precise though. I mean if they shoot it, they're used to going for bullseyes and they train themselves to go for the bullseye and when they let expect to hit the dirt bullseye or they're going to fix something so they can hit it the next time. So talk about that.

Yeah, no, I think it's, it's about that hyper focus. A lot of people like to brag and talk about how they're multitaskers, right? But multitasking is probably the worst thing you can effing do for yourself. Where in all realities if you have like the multitasking where I have 10 emails open, five paper or five, you know, five worksheets, plus I'm trying to do something over here. No, I hyper focus on the one thing, you know, I give it my razor Sharp like, you know, focus. I get there, Boom, done. Next thing, boom, done. Next thing, boom, done. And I feel like, you know, that's a lot of people feel like they need to wear a bunch of hats and hold a bunch of plates at once. When in all realities, like the best cooks in the world can just make one plate much faster than anyone else can do ten at a time. You know what I mean? They can do one plate 10 times faster than you can do 10 plates one time.

Yeah.

You know, and that's what I focus on. And I think I kind of look at it like I remember just someone telling me, they're like, sammy, if you're driving down the highway, you're trying to go as fast as possible, right? You're trying to drive as fast as possible. You're not changing lanes every 20ft, right? Because that's going to slow you down, right? What you got to do is stick in your lane, drive as fast as possible, and then when you're ready to get to another lane, get over there and then drive as fast as possible. Because if your goal is speed, you need to have as little lane change as possible. You know what I mean?

Right.

That's like, I think about that with my mental, like with mentally how I do work on a day to day basis. Like, I show up and I know I have X, Y and Z to do and I'm doing X first. Boom. Hit to the point of X. X, can't do anything more. Go to Y. Got it to the point that I can't do anything more. Go to Z. Got it to the point I can't do anything more. And yeah, clearly I'm gonna go back and work on those again. But you know, it's just breaking it down and not trying to hold 10 plates at once, but just trying to get one plate there as fast as possible, then coming back as quickly as possible.

Well, the advantage of that, and you see this with super successful people, their organization stays with them. They're key people. One of the things, you know, like in your business, my business, we're only as good past a certain point as your team. And if your team is in constant turnover because you're changing direction, you're changing your philosophy, you're emotionally up, emotionally down, you're changing the priority of the business here and priority there. And you know, they're trying to learn how to play basketball, but the rules are changing all the time, you know, and the stable people, the focused people, the consistent people, it's easier for people to follow in Line and get really, really good at what they're doing. And that causes to be worth more, to get paid more, but also for them. I know you get a lot of satisfaction out of your job and your accomplishment, but the people inside your organization, I know they get tons of satisfaction from their progress and their role they play at what they get done on a daily basis. But that comes from the consistency and focus of the leader. Don't you believe?

I think.

Yeah, I think it's. You know, it's. I would never tell anyone to do something that I wouldn't do myself. You know what I mean? And so even the people that are mopping the floors know that if they don't show up tomorrow, I'm gonna be the one mopping the floors because it still has to get done.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's all important.

Yeah, yeah, it's all important. Like, every little bit there is important. And knowing that I would never ask anyone to do something that I would not ask of myself, you know, which means, like, hey, I'm not gonna ask you to put in more hours if I'm not in here. Also putting more hours in, you know, and I think that we. There's almost like this trust. Like, I think it's funny that we're all adults, but yet some jobs try and micromanage people to this extent that, you know, they might as well be children again.

Right.

You know, we need you here at this time every day of the week at da da da da. Like, no, no. You know, here's what we do. We tell them we need to make this many snacks this week.

Yeah.

Every day we will make this much, you know, this many pounds of snacks.

Yeah.

You know, if they decide to work from six to whatever or seven to whatever, they decide to work, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and they want to take Thursday, Friday off. I don't care as long as the numbers, as long as everything matches up. Like, if they tell me that, hey, we're going to take Friday off because our kids have, you know, a school assignment, you know, that we want to be at. Like, okay, cool. You want to pick up on Saturday instead? That's fine with us. Like, we all work together, I think, being flexible and then them knowing. I go, yeah, just tell me what you guys want. What do you guys need? They go, hey, so we want to do this on Sunday. I was like, great. What do you guys need for me? How can I help you? What can I offer to make your life easier so that you can run in that lane as fast as possible and not have to worry about changing lanes because batteries went dead or I need screws for this machine or something like that. And so I sit here in the factory, you know, and I, this is my place to be. And when I'm not developing new snack ones, flavors, I'm like, how can I help? What can I do? What you know to be doing. I'm thinking about ways to help them make their lives easier, their jobs easier. And you know, Kevin, our CEO, he's in the same mindset and he does that, you know, but on the executive level, right, where he's, you know, how can I help? How can I help everyone execute their job easier? No one that's gonna be just as effective because they're gonna want to now they're gonna like it more, they're gonna want to put in more. Right?

Like you've just given the best explanation of what leadership is. You know, superior leadership is you're, you're doing things for people they can't do for themselves to create an environment where they can excel. And things that are coming up down the road that's going to, they're going to trip over. It's your job to go in front of them, fix that, make sure that's not there so they never have to run into that thing that, to cause them to not be able to stay in their lane and go and perform as good as they are. Thanks so much Sammy for this and if you don't, you know, I'm going to, I would love to take have a short follow up session and next time ask you particularly this. What do you think has caused you not to just get the deal but to excel after you got the deal on Shark Tank and some of the things, principles related to that is principles that have been huge difference makers for you that you probably figured out yourself. Maybe you heard from other people, but then things that people have told you that were absolutely horribly wrong and if you paid attention you'd got off, off track. So really get into your mind about your operating instincts and how that mind works and make decisions. Maybe we can spend a few minutes on that. Thanks so much, Sammy. This has been great.

It has been awesome. Can't wait to chat again.

Larry, 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 possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.