Bonus Episode with Steve Anderson

Strap on anything today, my friends. We don't have anything for you to strap on. Oh, you know what, Kels?

What?

Profit First Live. I forgot to mention it. I go right into the introduction. I forgot I mentioned it. Profit First Live. Listen, my friends, if you are struggling to be profitable in your business, you're not alone. But it's not acceptable either. We've set up a workshop. It's called Profit First Live, where I will walk you personally through the concepts of the book along with my team here. So a two day event at our offices here in Boonton, New Jersey, and there's multiple dates available. Go to profitfirstlive.com right now. If you're serious about becoming permanently profitable, it's very achievable and we'll help you do it. All right, guys, strap on your anything you desire today because we didn't write down anything. And get ready to talk about the Bezos letters. Yeah, Jeff Bezos writes these regular letters and it's a great insight into how you can grow your own business. You're about to hear that and so much more on today's episode of Entrepreneurship Elevated. Oh, you're jacked, Kelsey. You are jacked today. You're not saying a single word. Hi, everyone. I'm Mike Michalowicz. I'm an author on a mission. Mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. That's the gap between what we perceive entrepreneurship to be like and what it really is. You know, people say you're wildly successful, you make all the money in the world, you sit on the beach and just drink your mai tais while the business rolls along. But for the vast, vast majority of us, we're not making enough money. We don't have any time. And it's this workaholism mentality. We fix that through my books. We fix on this show. So welcome, and I'm Jordan Studio with Kelsey Ayers.

Hello, friend. You can find us on itunes, Stitcher, Tunein Radio, Spotify, iheartradio.com or any podcaster anywhere. And you can find us on mikemcalowitz.com.

I've been thinking, I think we gotta change that up because, like, why do we have announce all the podcasts?

Yeah, that's how I feel.

All right, so why do you keep doing it? Is it me?

Yeah.

Such a dictator. Let's change that. I was listening to another podcast and they just simply say, hey, we hope you're loving the show and we'd love for you to spread the word and make sure you subscribe and that's it.

Yeah.

They don't announce all the different things.

Yeah.

It's weird. I can barely see you because there's these, like, bars in front of us.

I know.

Yeah.

I feel like I'm always like this.

If we were jail cell, like roommates, because then we. There'll be no bars between us neighbors. Neighbors. If we were jail neighbors, how would we communicate with each other?

Exactly like we're doing right now.

No, I think through tapping. I think we figured out a tapping system. Because you can't speak in jails, you're not allowed to talk to each other.

Who says what kind of jail?

Well, my wife went to a jail. Oh, no. Who was it who went to this jail? Oh, my. My son's girlfriend, Cora. They went to a jail in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Out your way. So there was a jail that was operating from early 1900s all the way till 1995. And they said this place was decrepit and horrible. What they did with the prisoners is incomprehensible. There was a solitary.

Inconceivable.

Inconceivable. Well, I sounded like him, didn't I? Inconceivable. Oh, there it goes. So they had like this solitary confinement next to the boiler. They had one window that was blacked out and you'd be chained to the wall. Like that is not rehabilitative.

No.

So horrible. Horrible. But you hear about these circumstances and people find a way to still communicate. Because I think the. The ultimate way to defeat someone's spirit. Well, there's two ways. One is to remove any form of communication that solitary confinement. And some, I hear people, like, figure out tapping systems and ways to communicate. The second way to tear away someone's spirit is. Is have them fly spirit airlines. If you've ever flown that, their tagline should be, we take the spirit right out of you. It is the worst airline ever, Kelsey.

Yeah, I know. I went to the jail here in Morris county and it was nice.

What were you doing? What'd you get? What'd you get busted for?

Why do you assume I did something?

Before we kick things off today, I just want to know how the new colleague we have, Lisa, she's awesome.

She's like super awesome. I love her spirit. I love her kind heartedness. But she is so, like, sharp and.

With it, she's driven. Yeah. So brand new person, Lisa Palazzi just joined us yesterday. As you elevate up to a role, you're gonna be operating this entire business. You basically are in that position. But I think the final Step is Lisa to take over all of the day to day tasks. When that's done, then we're gonna have a big party and Kelsey will be ordained president. We'll tap a sword on your shoulders and stuff like that.

Oh, that's awesome. A real.

Not a real sword service.

Yeah, yeah, you'll be knighted.

Do you want me president or do you want to be knighted?

Knighted.

Okay, that's great. I mean, who wouldn't want to be. So I got a new game we're gonna play today. I invented it last night. Wise not sleeping. And you know, there's a lot of musicians that become entrepreneurs. So I have a list of four famous musicians. I think you'll recognize every single name. I'd be surprised if you don't. Three of them have invented, have started an entrepreneurial career of pretty significant success. One of them's a total fake and you got to figure it out.

Very interesting.

Okay, so we'll play that later on. I do want to thank our corporate partner. Thanks, Steven, for supporting us. They have not invited me back for another board session yet. It's too early. I guess it's too premature. They did want. They did ask to make an introduction to Don Miller. I did that for them.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, they're like, hey, man, now that you're a board member, could you make some key introductions? So I did. I did. All right. Do we have anything else to talk about? Shout outs or anything? I do.

We have a shout out from Rosemary Watson. She writes, hi there. Thanks so much for everything you're sharing. I finished the book in two days. Got my accounts all set up, ran my instant assessment. Operating expenses are at 57%. Big surprise. And have already slashed my expenses by 24% in two days. I've read a ton of business books that have helped me along the way, but none have had such an immediate impact as Profit first.

Rosemary. That was my attempt to roll an R. That's awesome. Congratulations. No, I'm seriously super stoked for you. Yeah, keep it going. I wonder why no one sends me. There's a lot. There's over 150,000 businesses that have implemented Profit First. We, we estimate by the end of this year will be over 200,000, we believe just based upon readership. And we have 400 plus active members globally, you know, working with clients. Yeah, working with clients. So that's our best estimate. We believe it's. It's pretty darn accurate. Not a single person has sent me part of their profit distribution. I thought some. I thought someone Say, wow, this has been so impactful, Mike. Here's a million dollars.

And now we know the real reason you wrote Profit First.

Just one person needs to do that, Kelsey. His name is Steve Anderson, and he's the author of the Bezos Letters. He's a certified insurance counselor as a professional speaker, writer, and futurist, as a trusted authority on risk, technology, productivity, and innovation. He's over 35 years of experience in the insurance industry. Steve is the author of a book that is exploding, and we're the first, well, one of the first to get him on a show like this to interview him about this. The book is called The Bezos the 14 principles to grow youw Business. Like Amazon, it's a Morgan James publication and. And it came out this September of 2019. With no further ado, I want to welcome Steve to our show. Welcome, Steve.

Welcome, Steve.

Hello. And thanks for having me.

Oh, it's a joy. Yeah, thanks for thanking us. For thanking us. So let's get right into it. What inspired you to write a book about the Bezos letters?

Well, actually, about three years ago, I started thinking a lot about how risk was changing, right? So risk is a big deal, certainly in the insurance industry, where I've been working for many, many years, and the connection between taking risk and growing. And I came up with this kind of weird idea that with technology changing as rapidly as it is, is the biggest risk a business faces, not taking enough risk? And so I started researching that idea. Right. Is there a correlation there? And if so, what is it? And came across Amazon as a company that's well known for invention, inn, staying on the leading edge and growing. And through that research, came across the letters to shareholders that Jeff Bezos has written, 21 of them now, starting in 1997, the first year they were a public company. And as I started reading a few letters and then more letters, and then literally sat down over several days and read through every single letter, almost 50,000 words total, I discovered that Jeff Bezos had given in his letters his plan for growing Amazon. And so that's what led me to the principles, to the ideas that the way I call it, hidden in plain sight, right. They're public, they've been out for years. But no one that I know of has taken the time to really analyze not just individual letters. A lot of people have done that, but the flow of the entire narrative. And that's what really captured my attention and what I discovered, what I believe very strongly, is that Bezos is a master of risk.

It's Funny, when I heard about the success, I mean, your book is exploding in popularity and in hindsight, everything's 20 20. It's so obvious there's great content there and that you digest it. And we're going to dig into that. I decided to take this inspiration and start my own book series. I wrote the Harvey Weinstein.

There you go.

Surprisingly, not a single one.

Nobody's interested, right?

No one's interested. So tell me, let's talk about the discoveries. What did you find about taking risk, calculated risk?

Well, and again, I always go back to the letters because he talks a lot about failure in the letters that he writes. In fact, in one letter he says, I believe Amazon is the best place for an employee to fail. And right there is counterintuitive. What do you mean? And so the first principle I wrote about or came up with was encouraging successful failure. Again, a dichotomy, right? How can you have a successful failure? But the whole idea is if you're not experimenting as a business, if you're not testing as a business, you're not growing and moving forward. And by its very nature, an experiment means it could fail. If you know it's not going to fail, it's not an experiment. And I think too many businesses, especially when they're thinking about growing, actually don't take enough risk. Now, I always have to pause here because I'm not talking about stupid risk. In fact, at Amazon, there is a intolerance for incompetence. So you are always expected to bring your very best. And when you do that and it doesn't work out the way you think it should, that's not a career ending move. At Amazon at least, and at too many companies it is.

Over my 12 years of being an author devoted to the small business entrepreneur, I've discovered the biggest challenge. And you know what it is? It's profitability. That's why I wrote Profit first and that's why I'm now hosting a two day workshop here at my offices in Boonton, New Jersey, where I will teach you and my team will teach you how to become permanently profitable. Go to profitfirstlive.com right now to get details. Again, profitfirstlive.com, find the dates that work for you and I'll see you here at, at my office. So let's talk about a stupid risk versus the alternative, which maybe is a calculated risk. How does Bezos differentiate the two? How do you know that you're actually doing something that's very calculated and within your Competency potentially, as opposed to just something that's a flagrant attempt.

Yeah, well, there's a couple of tools that Bezos is instituted, installed that are part of the culture at Amazon. One of them that I think is really interesting is called the six page memo or the six page narrative, and couple things around that. So when a decision is needed on a new product, let's say, let's say Amazon's going to roll out something new, new service for a prime member, they actually have a meeting where they talk about that. But it's a meeting unlike any others that I am aware of. One PowerPoint or keynote presentations are banned everywhere at Amazon. And what they do instead is the person who needs the decision to move forward writes a maximum of six page memo. So the memo, typically there's variation here, but typically it includes the press release the day the new product is released to the public, a examination of frequently asked questions, a description of what the manual may look like or how this actually will work, and maybe most importantly, how will the customer benefit. Now, that memo is not sent out before the meeting. So you show up for the meeting, there may be, you know, five people, there may be 10 or 15 people at the meeting. That memo is passed out and in the first 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes, everybody sits quietly and reads the memo. Because Bezos says in his letters, sort of like high school, people say they'll read it beforehand and they don't. So, yeah, so they have study hall kind of his word around the topic and then what do you know? Well, everybody's on the same page. Yeah, Literally. Right. And so now you're not discussing and questions coming up that are already answered. Now the questions are, okay, we have a question about this data or this point or that point. It gives a much better and more productive result to the meeting. But here's what I think is sort of the hidden benefit, that memo. And let's just say, yes, we approve the product, move forward with it, let's roll this out as soon as possible. If something doesn't work the way they thought, let's say it failed, and I'll give you an example in a second, they can now go back to the memo and say, what did we get wrong? What didn't we understand correctly? Why did this fail when we thought it was going to work? And so they have a process automatically in place to debrief the problems. So one of Amazon's biggest failures is their phone. Now, did you. That is absolutely the response. I hear almost 100% of the time Amazon had released what they called the Fire phone and it was a absolute abysmal flop. In fact, at one point it was priced at 99 cents and they still couldn't sell it. And this was Bezos pet project. And the problem was the phone basically was a tool to buy on Amazon and, and nobody wanted it and phones were already out there. It wasn't distinctive enough. A lot of reasons why it didn't work. The Amazon wrote off $178 million inventory of those phones. So pretty, pretty big failure. Right, but where the phone. So here's the failure. Now what's the success? The group, it's called Lab126. It's Amazon Skunk, works for hardware. So Kindle came out of lab 126. The phone came out of lab 126. The failure of the phone, however, they were able to take what they learned in creating the phone and create the echo and Alexa.

Right. And the echo. I know. You can actually do phone calls over it.

Yes, yep, exactly. So again, it's okay. Yeah. And let's move forward, right? Let's not dwell on the failure. Let's figure out what to do next. But that's the idea behind a successful failure is yes, it failed, but what can we learn from it and take forward and do something different?

Now, I'm curious, you know, our listeners, I presume, don't have 100x million dollars to write off. Is there a way, does Bezos reference, a way for us to kind of test the waters and see if something's a failure instead of having such an epic fail?

Yes, and let me make a couple of points here. One is, I'm not suggesting that you're going to be the next Amazon, but I am suggesting that you can learn from what Bezos has done that can apply to your business. In fact, you may hate Amazon and I ask you to suspend that because I think there's still things to learn from what they've done. The other thing to remember is that Amazon started with Bezos on his hands and knees packaging books and taking them to the post office. Now he scaled, right. He grew. And so, yeah, a little bit. And you know, but again, how. So back to your question. I think one of the other aspects of this, and it is a principle that I call generate high velocity decisions. Now what I mean by that, at Amazon, they have two types of decisions and Bezos describes them as type one and type two. Type one decisions are kind of bet the farm decisions. They are big decisions typically, and they are Typically not Easily reversible, type 2 decisions are decisions that, as he describes it, if you walk through that door and it's not what you thought, you can easily turn around and come back, meaning you just make another decision. He says most decisions at a business are type 2, easily reversible and changeable. But when a business grows, they have a tendency to treat type 2 decisions as type 1 decisions. In fact, one of the phrases I use is one of the biggest risks a successful business faces is being successful because their mindset starts changing to protecting what got them there instead of risking and finding what else they need to do to continue to move them forward.

That reminds me of sports. You know, risk is playing not to lose. And these teams sometimes, again, they revert.

To defense only, right? Let's not let them score as opposed to continuing to push forward.

Right? And the thing is, it may be a smart strategy when there's a few seconds left in the game, but they do it early on. But what I found interesting is they get entrenched in this. Like they continue to defend solely, and as, as the opponent starts creeping up, creeping up, they continue that mentality and then it's too late. You know, opponent takes the lead and they're still in this defense mode. The whole mindset shifts. How do we as small businesses differentiate between Type one and Type two when we're facing a challenge?

Well, I think the first is understand that 90%, maybe 95% of the decisions you make are reversible. And so even thinking through as a business owner, what decisions am I holding off on that I should actually default to action, Meaning if you're moving forward, you can adjust what you do and where you go. Very few decisions are type one irreversible. And actually, for me, an interesting kind of look at this is Amazon's new headquarters, right? HQ2 had this big year and a half competition between cities of where Amazon was going to put their new headquarters. They ended up announcing New York City and outside Washington D.C. as their two and lots of protests in New York City. What did you notice about Amazon when those protests, they. They shifted, didn't they? So even choosing what was going to be their next headquarters and them deciding to split it into two, even that was reversible. And they did it quickly. I think that's the point.

Yeah, those protests happened. We live right outside New York City. At least our offices are outside New York City. Kelsey's basically in the middle of the country, but the protests happen. And then all of a sudden you hear Amazon say, okay, we reverse it, and the deflated. I don't even know if some of those protesters started celebrating. They're like, holy cow. The financial consequence now of losing Amazon. Yeah.

And actually, just a little side note, I thought one, it was really hard to kind of get a true picture of what was going on. It was certainly hard to get it from newspaper accounts. But the state official in charge of business development for New York actually wrote an open letter that's on the state website. And he laid out, he said, here's, you know, Amazon wasn't given anything. They had to earn everything. And there were programs already in place. So, anyway, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but to me, it's a demonstration of, you know what, we walked through that door, but, boy, we didn't like what we saw on the other side. So we're going to. We're going to go back. And I think that reinforces my point that there are very few Type 1 decisions. So don't treat decisions as if they can't be changed.

Did you see any incongruencies as you read through those 21 letters? Did you see anything where it's like where you see Bezos morphing in his opinions or changing his perspective?

There are actually two aspects. That's a really good question. On one, he's been remarkably consistent. So one of the things that he has done is that original 1997 letter. He has appended to every single letter since. And he basically ends, let's say, 2018 letter. He basically ends the letter with something along the lines of, as is my practice, I've attached our original 1997 letter. And then he says, it's always day one, which is one of the principles, is actually principle 14. But my point here is part of what was remarkable to me is he laid out in his 97 letter the vision for what he saw. Now, did he change along the way? Absolutely. In fact, he has said in several interviews that he believes the smartest person is the one who's willing and able to change their mind. So if you give him facts, information, show him where he's wrong, he'll change his mind. So I think that's, again, a really interesting perspective.

Anything that you notice in there that you disagree with, you said, you know what, because I know you're observant of other businesses. You know, the entrepreneurial space, interestingly, doesn't.

Land probably not very much. And I think part of that is the fact that he has changed over the last, well, Amazon's 25 years old now, so 21 letters since they've been a public company. I would say some of it now that I'm watching, reaction is a lot of the labor issues, meaning are they being paid enough? What are the conditions primarily in fulfillment centers. And I think one of the things that's hard for people to understand is that he has extremely high standards and Amazon has extremely high standards. And that is a bit more unusual and that's often hard for people to work under. So there's this turnover issue that I think Amazon has. And at the same time, those high standards tend to attract high quality people because they want to work in a place that they know they can maximize. So, quick story. So when Amazon announced the two headquarters, New York and Washington D.C. area, they also announced that Nashville, where I live, was getting a center of excellence for transportation. And they are building now a office building in downtown Nashville that will house over the next few years up to 5,000 people. So they had a party, recruiting party basically here in Nashville earlier this year and they bussed in students and, you know, business leaders. And I was invited. So I went down to the Ryman Auditorium and they had their dog and pony show, senior VPs and top people talking about Amazon and the opportunities they had open Q and A at the end. And one of the questions that came was Amazon has a reputation for being a hard place to work. David Clark, Senior vp, been with Amazon almost from the beginning, said it is. And he paused. But we're doing something important and so we want the best people. And one of the things that caught my eyes early in the 97 letter was that Bezos reinforces that idea that we are doing something important. And his quoting his phrase, something we can tell our grandchildren about. And so that is another principle which is long term thinking. And you know, Bezos thinks actually multi generational. This was his kids were very young, he didn't have any grandkids, yet he was already thinking about what he was going to be able to tell his grandchildren about.

Well, that's so fascinating, the long term thinking, because I've heard stories, I want to know from you if this is mythology or fact that he never intended to be a bookstore. That was simply the starting point. He always intended to build this business, to be delivering everything. Is that true?

That is true from the very beginning. And this comes out from a couple of early like 1998 speeches that I was able to track down and find where he talks about how he started and why he started. And he actually made a list of about 20 different products that he thought would fit in an Internet delivery model because he felt like the Internet was absolutely brand new and would be able to do things differently. Books he chose first, not because he loves books, but because one book is exactly the same as another book and.

Oh, you mean sizing like the physical size?

No, the. If I. If you go to Barnes and Noble in Nashville and you go to a Barnes and Noble in New York City and you see my book, I hope. Yeah, they're exactly the same book. There is no differentiation there. And so he chose those because 1. And the reason he moved to Seattle from he actually was in New York City and he moved to Seattle because two of the largest book distributors had a distribution center within less than a day's drive. So at the time, Ingram and another big book distributor, it was actually Baker and Taylor. Thank you. I couldn't remember it. Who unfortunately has pulled out of the book distribution business now. But that's why he went to Seattle and Microsoft was there. So he needed programming talent.

Wow. So, gosh, this is so calculated. So just I came over this book concept with the books he saw. Because the product was identical regardless of where you purchased it, the differentiator couldn't be on the product itself. He could differentiate now on convenience, speed.

Of delivery, convenience being able to. And as he said, I could have a bookstore with a million titles and the largest bookstore at the time had about 150, 175,000. So he could have unlimited selection. And then delivery, obviously was part of that. And that's grown over time. He knew from the very beginning that he was going to go into music and some other categories or what they call stores that had similar characteristics and then they just grew from there. But yes, he did know. I absolutely. And convinced from the very beginning. Now, did he know it was going to be what it is today? Maybe that's probably stretching it. But he knew there was opportunity and he kept taking and testing. In fact, some of those early days, they tried a lot of stuff and it didn't work. I mean, yeah, lots of problems there, but they kept testing and experimenting and testing and experimenting and trying to figure out, okay, how do we do this?

Steve, as people read the Bezos letters, your book, what are you hoping readers will extract from it?

So what I'm already getting from early readers of the book is, So I have 14 principles. I don't expect every business to embrace all 14 principles. But what I'm starting to hear is that, oh, this principle really spoke to me, or this principle is Already changing how I think about my business. And that's what I hope. Like I said before, it's unlikely you're going to be another Amazon, but that doesn't mean you can't learn from what they have done. And I believe the principles, which is why I called them, that can apply to any business, certainly I believe any organization, nonprofits. Not everything. Not everything's perfectly translatable. And I hope through the book you discover other principles that I didn't even look at or see.

I love it. Steve, this has been fascinating. Where can our listeners learn more about what you're doing with the Bezos letters and pick up the book?

So the primary website is thebezosletters.com and the book is available at any bookstore, physical or online that you can take a look at the book. And we have a few. Go to the website. If you buy the book, we have some additional material that you can download just to help you think about and apply what the principles talk about in the book.

And if our listeners are traveling through Korea, it will be 50 million copies. The Korean community is slapping this book up. So, hey, Steve, congratulations on your success. I mean, they have such international exposure with this book so fast, it's unheard of. So I'm just proud of you.

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Mike and Kelsey, I certainly enjoyed the conversation.

Yes. Loved it.

All right, my friends, here's what we're do. We're going to recap what we learned from Steve. We are going to play a brand new game. It's probably horrible. And I think. Yeah, I think it'll be good. I think I'll be good. And then we'll answer a question that came in from the email thing, right?

Listener, mail.

Listen. That's the word. But first. Oh, this is weird. We got. Maybe we gotta get Brian back in for these. Like, that's loud. But like other things, like the cheer, that's maxed. Hear how quiet it is. I bet you our listeners can't even hear the cheer. So let's make a note to get Brian in to fix that. Now, we fixed one thing. Other thing is awry. All right, Kels, you know who our corporate partner is?

Yeah. Nextiva.

Nextiva. Voice over IP phone system. Here's what they're doing that's cutting edge and so funny. It parlays exactly into what Steve was teaching us today. They are taking on risk. So you're smiling because you're thinking jokes coming. They're making the system called Next os, which is a CRM, that is using artificial intelligence to measure the contentment, I guess, of your clientele online and so forth. And it gives you a rating. It is integrated with your phone. You pick up the phone, the dashboard comes up on the screen, and you have this summary of what your client is talking about on the web, along with your conversations. It is extraordinarily advanced. This is their second iteration. The first iteration was like the Amazon phone, I guess it just. And what did Thomas Gorney, the owner, the founder of nextiva, do? He said, well, that was no good. Threw it out. We're starting from scratch and started this whole rebuild.

Oh, that's awesome. I didn't realize that. I mean, I knew they had one before. I just thought that they added more features.

No, just trashed it.

It. Wow.

Yeah. So similar idea. He. You know, it plays very much into what Steve is sharing. So check out nicksteva.com when will it.

Be available, do you know?

I think by end of the year. Like. Like, they just started development, rapid development, the mid 2019. I think by 2020, first quarter, it's out. Yeah. And. And I'm trying to score us a little.

That's what I say. You get like a beta version.

I'm trying to. I'm trying to. I'm on the board. I'm on the board. I'm the most whiny board member, I think, ever. I'm a board member. I don't know that about me. All right, so what do we got there? What'd you learn today? There you go back into scene. What'd you learn today?

So my favorite thing. Well, I really love all this. I feel like that's so interesting.

Right.

But I love that he adds the original leverage letter appended to every new letter that comes out. I feel like that's so great for any kind of corporate communication, any kind of communication you have, because it's sort of like, it keeps you grounded to your start. Right. It keeps you integral.

Yes, that's the word.

I was thinking, like, you don't lose sight of your mindset then. And it's a comparative to where you are now. Like, it's that great sort of journey.

That's why you're becoming president at night, stuff like that. The Kelsey letters, you know, that's the next book he's gonna write.

Yeah. Huh. Super interesting.

Will we call you Kelsey ruins everything. That'll be the first letter. The Kre Kelsey ruins everything. So I loved. He said this as an aside. He goes, if you hate Amazon, I just ask that you suspend that for a moment.

Yes.

And I think I know that wasn't the intent of this conversation. We weren't focusing on that. But that little thought triggered this new understanding I have. Is that when I dislike something, I discount it.

Yes.

And that's a fatal mistake.

Yes.

So there's something to be learned, even if you don't like it. I love the type one type. Two decision types, Right?

Yeah.

You're a type.

So true.

You're a type 2er. I hope I'm a type 2er. I loved the. The six memo. Six page memo.

Yeah, me too.

And my favorite. My second favorite. The favorite was what I shared, but my second favorite is that the smartest people change their mind.

Mind. Yes.

You know, there was a thing on Malcolm, my boy. Malcolm Gladwell, my buddy. I've never met him. He has it. Was it called revisionist history.

Yeah.

And there was this. Who was the newscaster? Brian someone.

Oh, that.

Who said that he was took missiles were shoot shot at his helicopter when he was over a war zone. And it didn't really happen. Brian. He'll hit us. He'll hit us.

It's a simple name.

Great newscaster. And what Malcolm Gladwell argues is our perception of the past actually changes. So he may not be Brian Johnson. He goes. Our perception of the past actually may change. You know, our minds are fluid. And I think the greatest mistake is to be rigid.

Williams. Brian wanted to say Wilson.

I knew Brian Williams. And it's a whole different angle than what Steve was arguing here. But it was just interesting that Brian Williams was recounting this story and it wasn't factual according to other people. But what they explained about memory is when you hear or repeat something that it actually can start changing in your mind what you actually experienced. So the facts kind of morph. Not out of lying. It's just. It's the human mind.

Yeah.

And I see the other extremes have a morphing mind. Is this. This rigid belief that even when it's failing to serve us, we're so stuck in the belief just out of this ego.

Yes.

That we stick with it. Kelsey, are you ready to play a game?

I'm ready.

Okay. I gotta get a good sound effect for playing a game. When that will play. Oh, it's too loud for me. Brand new game. Kelsey, it's the. It's just me and you. We got no Jay Sloan today. This is four musicians. You're gonna recognize every name. They all are entrepreneurs. I take it back. All of them except for one. So you the Guess which one's not? And I'm not gonna tell you the product because I know, actually one of these. I know you're gonna know the product name and you can blurt it out because you're that type of person. I gotta tell our listeners yesterday.

You don't have to tell them. No, you don't.

So we have our huddle, and there's probably somewhere between seven to ten of us there because some remote people connecting. And we go around, we always ask for personal updates so people share what they achieved, what they're doing, and a personal update. And Diana says, I have a funny story. I can't wait to share it. She goes, it's so good. She saved it to the very end, right? So everyone's listening intently, everyone is hanging on her words. And she goes, I was literally up a river or creek without a paddle. And she starts explaining. Then Kelsey goes, I've been up agreement on paddle, and jumps in and starts telling her story. And then didn't she share, like, what kind of boat she was or something? Like, you started answering questions for her.

Somebody asked where it was, and I was like, it's Berryville. Literally the same thing. He exaggerates.

Guys, you owned the whole story. All right, I forget. Here it is. Elton John, he's the entrepreneur between a men's tie line. You know, like ties?

Yeah.

Okay. Sammy Hagar, he's the entrepreneur behind a tequila line. Booze. Yeah. See, I think you know that one for sure. Or not. 50 Cent, he's a entrepreneur behind a bottled water line. And Billy Joel, he's the entrepreneur behind a motorcycle line. So Elton John ties, Sammy Hagar, tequila, 50 Cent, bottled water, Billy Joel motorcycles. Now, now, interestingly, three of these are true. Three of these entrepreneurs, Musicians gone, entrepreneurs are actually doing these exact products. One of them is a total fabricated lie. Which one is it, Kelsey?

I want to say Billy Joel Motorcycles.

Okay, so Billy Joel Motorcycles, your guest, you are 100% wrong. He is. The Piano Man's passion for motorcycles is well documented. Even bragged that he rides a motorcycle in the rain. His company is called 20th century cycles, so you can check it out. Joel's custom built motorcycles aren't for sale, though you can buy the swag. T shirts and so forth. So he collects.

Oh, they're not for sale.

I didn't read that part. He, you can't buy his motorcycles, but you can buy all these swag and materials, you know, T shirts and all the different killer things. So that was.

I want swag for something that I Can't even have.

Yeah. So you know what you get? You get 50 credit. I didn't. Because I didn't read all that. I pasted it in. 50 Cent is the.

I love that you showed that you can change.

Yeah, Okay, I gave you 50. I'll give you 75 for saying that.

Thank you.

50 Cent is one of the early investors in the Vitamin Water line. You know Vitamin Water? Yeah. So he endorsed the product as a minority share and. Etc. Etc. Sammy Hagar. What's the product line? You know it?

No, I don't know it.

What? Yeah, Cabo Wabo.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Have you ever had Cabo Wabo Tequila?

Yes, but I didn't know that was him.

Oh, it's so funny. I was like, oh, this. That was like a gimme. So the Red Rock.

I figured since you said that, that it was not him.

The Red Rocker is the embodiment of the American dream. If that dream is to spend a decade of. Of your life stinging with Van Halen and then relocating to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and turning a boutique tequila brand into a hundred million dollar paycheck. He sold his 80% stake for over $80 million.

Have you had George Clooney's tequila?

No, no, I just bought Casa Amigos. No, no, I just bought Cabo Abo. I don't think I've ever had it, but I bought it, took a try. I'm into Espalone right now. Have you heard of that?

Yes.

Okay. I like Milagro, but I feel like I can't drink it because I guess a copycat from your favorite, you have.

To have your own.

Yeah, I have my own, so I'm trying to find it. But yeah, I like espalon. 1800, ironically, is probably my favorite. Even though it's this kind of. So Elton John, not an entrepreneur whatsoever, at least. I mean, besides being wildly.

That was my second guess.

Yeah. My wife.

I was like, I feel like that makes sense for him to make ties.

Yeah, I know. That's why I try. I try to trick you. It's called trickeration.

Yes.

And my wife was very effective. My wife just watched the movie of Elton John. There's like a biography in the Bohemian Rhapsody.

Call that. I know the name.

It's the name of the movie. Rocket Man.

Rocket man, that's it.

Oh, okay. I actually didn't know that. Yeah, she loved it. So we're flying on a plane and she's crying, so. Because he had a tough upbringing. Yeah, I didn't know. But she's crying and she looks over, I'm like, what's wrong? I thought one of our kids texted while we're flying. No, no. I'm watching this movie and I'm like, okay. And then she's like laughing and the very end, tears, snot coming down like, she came, she's crying, she's sobbing. She came and look at people. And then you're sitting next to your wife sobbing like that and people start looking at you like, I did something. I'm like, ah.

She's watching a movie that happened to me with. I watched the Hate U Give on a plane. And it was. It was like every five minutes I felt like I was crying.

Oh, gosh, those movies. All right, Kel, so that's it for our new game. Do you like it?

Yeah, I really love that one.

All right, maybe we'll do that again in the future. All right. Tell me, Kels, do we have a question?

We do. This one comes from Rabbi Daniel Sanoff. He writes, I've just started your book and love the idea. Seven years ago, my wife and I started a non profit serving Jewish college students. Being that we are a non profit organization, should we still have a profit account or should the money go straight to income?

Rabbi, thank you for the question. And the answer is yes. Now, even not for profits need sustainability. So they need profitability. But we're going to do one little tweak here, Rabbi, what we're going to do is change it from profit account to a purpose account. So I presume your temple, just like my church, when money accumulates, it's used for an intended purpose, to serve the community in some way, for outreach in some way. And so set up an account called the purpose account. As you have inbound revenue income, you divide it up for the operating expenses of the temple. Actually, Rabbi, I don't know if you get paid or not, but I presume you do get some kind of stipend. So you actually have owner's pay, or you're not an owner, employee pay. And then you'd also have this purpose account. And the remainder goes there, there. And as the purpose account accumulates, then your congregation, not the right word, but the. The community can elect what to do with the money. So that's how you do it. A purpose account. Great freaking question. You know, a lot of not for profits are using profit first. Now they just call it purpose first.

Yeah.

Did I answer that adequately?

Perfectly.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Do you know that song? I can't remember it now. So forget.

It's a good story.

It's a good story. It's a good story. I'll remember it next week, but I probably won't. Gosh. What is it? There's a very famous song. My gosh, I can't remember it all. I'll look it up and tell you later. I just ruined everything there. All right, Kelsey, are we good?

Yeah. Just don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening.

Yeah, don't. Don't forget to subscribe. Spread the word. Share it. And give us your feedback too. We want to hear what you're thinking. Email us a question.

Yeah.

Kelseykemicalitz.com spelled K E L s e y. I wonder if you could mail it to k r e Kelly ruins everything. Ykemacalitz.com I don't know if we have that account, but you can. You can. We'll see what happens if it gets rejected.

It's a common nickname for me.

Rejected you? Yeah. So send us your questions. We love to answer them on the air. And one more thing. Make sure you go to mikemcalowicz.com actually, the shortcuts. Mike motorbike tom. Mikemotorbike.com tons of free info right there. See you guys.

Sam.