Chris Guillebeau: Self-Reliance in Entrepreneurship

Have you ever worried about not having enough cash on hand? You know, I'm talking about a line of credit from Financing Solutions is the ultimate cash backup plan because it costs nothing when not being used, and it's easy. Get in place. As a loyal listener to my podcast, if you visit fscreditline.com today and put Mike in the referral section, Financing Solutions will give you a $250 credit on file. You never know when you might have an emergency, you know, I'm talking about again, so don't wait. Get your line of credit in place today. You have to do profit first, right? You know, the most common question I get is, am I doing it right? People have read the book, but they don't know. Well, until now, I've Profit First Live. It's a live event with me and my colleagues. They're sitting around the table that no one can see. But we do this together. We teach you Profit First Live over two days in our workshop. We have them on the East coast, west coast, and who knows where else. I think we're doing one in Canada, maybe somewhere else. Yeah, yeah, we're working on that. So go to profferslive.com right now and sign up. Okay. I'm on a mission here, Jeremy. I'm on a mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. You'll learn how to do that in today's episode and every episode of Entrepreneurship Elevator. There's the sound. I love this music. I can see Chris Galabou getting, like, totally Getting a guitar going. Jamming out. Yeah, he just. He just looked like this, like the pity. The pity rock symbol. You were a big rocker, weren't you, Amy? Yep. Okay, you fade out a little bit.

Cause it's blowing my ears. Oh, it's too loud for you?

Yeah. This is how I fade when I start doing the banter. This is how I. Oh, geez.

Now you're just gonna be directing me the whole time.

I know, I know. But you were a big rocker, weren't you? What was your favorite band? And what was when you were getting together with your high school buddies? I saw something on Facebook you said. Oh, I. You know, I was reminiscing about Brian Shannon, Eric Homan.

Yeah, it was all they were.

What song triggered that?

It was Iron Maiden.

That's right. Wasted Years.

Right?

That's a good one. Right, Chris?

Yeah.

Wasted Years. I can play that on guitar, you.

Know, I should play it later.

Yeah, I can play the intro. I can't play anything else that I just, you know.

Yeah.

His name is Chris Galo. He is the New York Times bestselling author of the Hundred Dollar Startup, side Hustle, the the Happiness of Pursuit, Badass Name, and other books. His daily podcast, side Hustle School, is downloaded more than 2 million times a month. He's also the founder of the World Domination Summit, travels the globe and an event of an event for cultural creatives that attracts thousands of attendees to Portland, Oregon every summer. And he's, he's famous for his book tours where he travels throughout and he's got a brand new book that we're going to talk about today called the Money Tree. So with no further ado, please join me in welcoming Chris Gallebo.

Welcome, Chris.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Mike. It's a big honor.

Oh, it's. Dude, it's so awesome to connect and I've been following your work for years. We, we've had a little. Thank you. We've had a little dialogue via email, but this is the first time we're seeing each other. And next month we're going to Nashville together to spend time for that. Yeah. And you're going to be sharing some details about your book with our contemporaries that are going to be there. So just give us a sense because Money Tree, as of this recording is not out yet. It comes out April 7th. Give us some details of what the concept's about. I know you're breaking from your norm, so go.

I am breaking from the norm. Yeah. For better or worse, we'll see how that goes. The Money Tree is a story about finding the fortune in your own backyard. So, you know, all of my books essentially are about self reliance one way or another. Right. Like, I love your tagline there about what was it breaking? Entrepreneurial poverty. Yes, Something to that effect. Yeah, that's beautiful. I mean, all of my work is essentially trying to help people live a life that's important to them, whatever that looks like to them. For 10 years now, I've been writing this blog, the Art of Nonconformity, with the whole mission statement of you don't have to live your life the way others expect, essentially. So everything I do is under that umbrella. But this is my first time to ever write fiction. So the Money Tree is a story. It's a story about a guy who has a decent job and he's a hard worker. He's pretty young, he's about 27. But even though he has a good job and he's a hard work, also in a lot of debt, like so many people are these days, millennials in particular, but all kinds of people, of course. And he kind of realizes that he's not going to be able to get out of that situation through the traditional means. He's not just going to be able to work harder, he can't just get a second job, he can't drive for Uber. None of that stuff is going to actually solve the problem. So he sets out on this quest to essentially learn to make money without quitting his job, which is again a big part of what I try to do. So my hope is to reach a lot of readers who might not otherwise encounter this kind of kind of work, or your work, or my work, because there's so many people out there who need to find more than one way to make an income, but they don't know how to do it.

Yeah, we've hit this gig economy, right?

Yeah. Which is absurd, I think, actually.

Well then tell me why it's absurd.

I think the gig economy is a lie, basically. I think it is juicy. It's a corporate lie perpetuated on this belief that somehow by signing up for these platform companies, you're actually going to get ahead in your life and you're really not. At best, they are glorified part time jobs. And so when I say it's a lie, it's a lie to the people they're trying to attract to work for them. Obviously Uber and Lyft, they make our lives better in lots of ways. We've all had part time jobs when we're young or just trying to make a change or whatever. But I think the lie is that somehow by signing up to drive for Lyft or being a TaskRabbit or whatever, you're going to create an entrepreneurial future, because you're absolutely not. There's been a lot of studies that show most Uber drivers make minimum wage or maybe a bit more than that. So the benefit is like you own your own schedule and that's fair, but they own everything else. They control the competition, they effectively control compensation. If they don't like you, they kick you off program. So, you know, the only thing you need to do, the only path forward, is to create something for yourself. I know you believe that as well.

Of course I do believe it. But I'm wondering if there's a shortcut to it. You know, Amazon came out with like this delivery system, like you can, you can be a local last mile driver, I think. But I dare say if I recall correctly, Amazon said you'll be most successful if you get multiple trucks and Employees. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I do. Yep. There's a. Yeah, that's a whole other kind of thing. And then you can also just sign up to drive directly for them. You know, it's like go to their warehouse, pick up a bunch of packages and go out and do a shift.

So that's not side hustle, that's a glorified part time job, right?

I think it's a glorified part time job, yeah. Which I'm not saying it's terrible, it's not the worst thing in the world. But if you're trying to get out of debt, if you're trying to really create a future for yourself or give yourself options if your job is going to disappear or if you can't get a job in the field in which you were trained for, I don't think it's going to help you. I mean, it might help you pay for groceries tomorrow, which is good and important. But if you're trying to solve the problem for three months from now and six months from now and on for that, you know, I don't know about that.

Do you feel when people read Money Tree that the majority of people have a real shot at this or is it, is it a fantasy? Should some people not pursue that?

I think there's something that everybody can do, you know, and I try to be really careful. I don't never say that the entrepreneurial life is easy. Right. Like, I don't use words like that, but I do think it's accessible. I think, you know, the guy in the book, he ends up like, or he starts by selling textbooks on ebay and he discovers he has these old college textbooks and he can actually resell them and he can buy some, you buy some that are selling for a certain price and resell it. And he's learning this basic retail arbitrage essentially. And he's not going to get rich doing that, but he's learning. Actually if I get better at this, I can make $20 an hour, $30 an hour, $40 an hour, and that's going to lead to something else. So I do think it's accessible. I think there's something that everybody can do and they can do that without going into debt. Of course they can do that with a skill they already have. I don't think they need to go back to college and get a four year degree or an MBA or anything like that. So it's not easy. But I think it's, you have to ask yourself like, what matters to you in life, like what is important to you? If it's. If it's important to you to create a new future for yourself and have options and security, then I do think it's accessible.

So you're with a traditional publisher. We share the same one as Penguin, same imprint. And you've written nonfiction books. There is a standard expectation. And now you're the guy who says, no, we're going fiction. Like that is risky, I think. What was the perception of the publisher?

Well, I mean, you know, risk as. As I'm sure you know as well. I'm sure you probably say this in some places, but you have to ask yourself what really is risky in life? You know, like for me, like it would be very risky to go and compete on the job market like that. That's like pretty crazy thing, you know, for me, like the working for myself and for a lot of people I think is actually a pretty conservative choice.

Yeah, yeah.

It's actually pretty safe thing to do. But as for this book, I don't really approach writing books in terms of this lens of what's the trend right now or what is the most palatable thing. I'm trying to think long term of what is the message that I want to share? How can I reach not just the most people. I want to reach a lot of people, of course, but how can I reach people in a deep way that truly creates changes and, you know, my hope is that people who read this book, you know, and apply it, will be able to create change in their lives.

How was the experience for you different in writing a fiction book versus a nonfiction?

Yeah, some things were the same. Were the same and some things were quite different. I think the biggest difference was I wrote the whole book before selling it, which I've never done before. You know, like I've always done like a proposal.

Right.

Process. Right. That's how you do non fiction usually, right? Yeah, but with fiction, I didn't know I could do it. First of all, I didn't want to just promise, hey, I'm going to write this book that's a story, but I'm also teaching. It's kind of weird. It's like a little bit of everything. I wanted to just prove to myself, first of all that I could do it and felt good about it. I think I wrote three or four drafts of it, of the whole manuscript before we even took it out to try to pitch it or anything. So that was different. I think the other thing was I spent a lot of time outlining I probably spent maybe three months, just like an hour or so a day, just kind of thinking through the characters and who are they, what really motivates them, what troubles them, and how is this all going to kind of work together to build toward the story that I'm trying to tell. Overall, I spent a lot more time thinking about the front end. And then when I actually went to write it again, I don't want to say anything's easy, but it kind of flowed because I knew what I wanted to do. I think if I didn't know what I wanted to do at certain points, that's where it got difficult.

Any chance one of these characters you're developing was named Kelsey and she knows everything.

That's not funny.

That's very funny.

But you have to get to the, of the book.

Right, Right, right, right. And she ruins everything. You, you came up with this, you coined this concept the third way. What is that?

Yeah, so I think when you know, the average person, you know, who's not, you know, following your books, your work and such, the average person out there who thinks about starting a business, they think of a couple different models. They think of like, first of all, like, you know, the old school traditional retail. I'm going to open a corner shop, you know, I'm going to whatever it is. I'm going to go to the bank and present an 80 page business plan that has no relevance to my actual business. That's how you have to do it. And I'm going to go into, or I'm going to charge a lot of money on my credit cards or borrow money from my parents and going to go into this business and maybe it'll work. But there's also a lot of risk associated with that. The second model that people think of is the Silicon Valley model. They think about Shark Tank or Dragonston, or they think about, oh, I need to get investors, I need to create this, you know, minimum viable product and then try to scale it as soon as possible, that whole kind of thing. So, you know, nothing wrong with either of those approaches. But that's not, that's not me. I've never done any of that kind of stuff. I've always worked for myself, you know, 20 years in county. And like a long time ago, I wrote a book called the $100 Startup. Just trying to tell the story of these accidental entrepreneurs all across America, middle America in particular, but, you know, everywhere who were just kind of doing something that they were particularly excited about and skilled in, and they found some overlap between a topic they were interested in and what had value to other people. And so they kind of built a business out of that. And I felt that nobody was really telling those people stories for the most part. And so I essentially call this the third way. The third way is like, there is something that you're good at that can bring value to other people, that can be monetized, and you might need to learn some basic business skills, but these things are not that hard to learn. The real skill, like, the real talent is in your life experience. Stuff that you have been studying and experiencing and doing, you know, since childhood, adolescence, you know, early adulthood, and wherever you are now. I think that's the real value. And so it's about, you know, transforming that or adapting it in some way to. To create a product.

Is there any common traits that I need to have that. That the community has to be a third way entrepreneur?

Curiosity, okay, I think is good. You know, I'm curious about that.

Yeah, I was just demonstrating curiosity. I was.

Right. Well, I mean, I think a lot of the stories, like with the podcast, every day I'm telling a different story, essentially. And a lot of people who start these kind of businesses, they notice things. Perhaps they pay attention and they notice problems that other people might not notice, or they think, oh, what could be a solution to this? Or what's a different way of doing this? So curiosity, which is a trait, it's not something you don't study, curiosity, but I think you can develop it. And then the second thing, if there are two things, the second one is like a willingness to take action, you know, on that idea. Because how many times have you seen somebody who comes out with something and you're like, man, I had that idea. I thought about something like that. Right, but you didn't do it. You know, it happens to me all the time. It's like, yeah, I could have done that, but I didn't. You know, it's not enough to be curious. You have to be willing to take action. I think those two things together, I think that's. And those are, again, things that anybody can aspire to.

How do you inspire action with someone that's hesitant or afraid?

Well, I have to want it, first of all. I honestly think that's the first part. And I'm not an evangelist. I'm a recruiter. And so I feel like I'm just kind of putting this out in the world, and it's like, there's enough people out there that are raising their hands and saying, I want this. So that's the first thing is let's just make a distinction. Because if somebody doesn't believe in this value of self reliance or it's not worth it to them at this time in their life for whatever reason, you know, then that's fine. You know, don't, don't do this. But for the big market of people that, you know are like, yes, I know I need this, but as you said, I'm hesitant or I have some, you know, hang up or I have imposter syndrome or whatever, I think for me, I'm just trying to maybe take the spotlight off of me. That's part of what I'm doing with the book is like, here's a relatable, you know, character and there's other characters around him. But also with the podcast and my other books, I'm trying to just show stories, highlight stories of just, you know, average people out there that nobody's ever heard of. They're not on tv, they don't, they're not an Instagram celebrity, but they've been able to do this. And so it's like you might not connect with this person, but then here's another person right behind them. And sooner or later you're going to find somebody that you're like, I'm actually like that person. So if they can do it, you know, why can't I? That's my goal.

Could, could someone also feel, though, intimidated and in unable to achieve what they want because someone's been successful? And I'll give you an example. You came up with the title. I think it's, it's actually one of my favorite book titles ever, which is, you know, the Pursuit of Happiness. Just the Happiness of Pursuit. I was like, oh my God, that is genius. And I'm like, I can never come up with a title that good. For some people, that becomes very intimidating and then they, they cut bait and they abandon it. How is there a way to manage that? Do some people get intimidated by looking at others? As opposed to inspired?

You have to go back to whoever you are inspired or intimidated by. I think it's very helpful to go back and study where they, where they came from because, you know, inevitably that person wasn't born a Kardashian or what. Like that person actually probably struggled a bit and in the beginning their work wasn't that good.

Interesting.

And that's normal, right? That's how, that's how it is, you know, So I think like, especially back when I was blogging a lot more frequently, people are always like, oh, what about the blog? How'd you do this? I'm like, so I went back, and the people that inspired me, like Gretchen Rubin, you know, J.D. roth.

She collaborated with you, I dare say.

Yeah, yeah, she's good. Yeah, she's a good friend. They're all good friends now, which is cool because they're the people that inspired me. And I. I didn't just start reading, like, where they were then. I went back to, like, what. What's the first post? You know, what's the first. What's the first podcast? If somebody's got hundreds of podcasts, what was the first one? Rather than just picking up? Because usually you can see, like, oh, what they're doing now is a lot better than where they were when they started. There's a progression. Right. You know, so don't. You can't compare yourself to somebody who has whatever the metric is, you know, however many dollars, however many employees, however many, you know, books, followers, etc. Because they have that experience of going through it. So at some point, they just started, right? At some point, they were like, damn, I feel like I'm late. I feel like that's how I felt when I started the podcast. That's how I felt when I started the blog. Like, I should have done this five years ago. Right, Right. You know, here we. Here we are.

So you're constantly writing new books, you're working on projects. The Money Tree is just coming out now. But I strongly suspect you're working on other things, too. Anything else you got going on?

Yeah, I mean, I'm really motivated to work on different stuff, just like you. And I feel very fortunate that I can work on things that I care about and believe in. So let's see, what am I doing? Well, we've got this annual event that you mentioned briefly in the introduction, World Domination Summit, coming up on year 10 in Portland, Oregon.

Nice.

Looking forward to that. I do the podcast every day. I've been doing that for 1200 days now. I'm going to write a new book at some point, so we'll see.

And I. And I. I've watched from afar the World Domination Summit. And just. It's amazing. It is an event. It's not like. It's not. The traditional speakers come up. Like, you have entertainment. I saw people on the stilts walking around. It's like, this looks like. So inspiring and engaging.

It's a lot of fun.

Yeah. Well, congratulations on that success. Where can our listeners get information and pick up a copy of the Money Tree?

Awesome. So they can go to moneytree book.com they can also ask for it at any bookstore. I always love to support local bookstores. Or of course, online retailers. Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, wherever you get your books.

My friends, get a copy of the Money Tree right now. Get a copy, you'll be grateful. And then buy all of Chris's other books. They are powerful reads. I've read everyone. I haven't read the Mind Tree yet, but I do have the galley sitting there for me to read. Chris, thank you for joining us today.

Thank you so much.

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Yeah.

Okay. Yelling I bought acoustic boards for us, just so you know.

Oh, did you?

Yeah, A couple for the wall. A really cool look.

Oh, cool.

So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna recap what we learned. We have a fun game that Jeremy's gonna start leading. We're changing the show around. I don't know if you can feel the exciting energy and vibe.

There's a whole new segment that you missed.

And there's a whole new segment. Well, because I couldn't read the script that you didn't give me. You wrote it down because you didn't have a scripting. Oh, I got it all.

Read your own handwriting.

And I'm like. And then Kelsey's like, oh, should we do the. What you learned today? Oh, yeah, throw that in, Mike. Throw that in. Like that's your script. What's the new thing? Oh, the live call. Yeah, the live call. We have a live call today. All right, so first let's thank our sponsor. Do we have a punch for that used to guy?

We do have a punch.

Punch me. He punched me hard, bro.

Do you want a quick punch or a lone punch?

There we go. So thank you for nextiva for sponsoring the show.

Thank you. Next.

Can you talk into the microphone?

He said I just had to be in the vicinity.

The vicinity means you have to be right next to it. Sorry, sorry. Oh, my God. So yesterday I'm doing a webinar.

Oh, my God. You don't have to tell the story.

I told you.

I love how he just skips the sponsor.

Yeah. So I'm doing a webinar yesterday and there's, you know, 70, 80 people on the webinar. A lot of people watching. They're paid to be there. This is professional stuff. For the first time ever, we, we brought. It was they paid to be there. Right, Right.

But it wasn't professional stuff.

Well, it's intended to be professional. We have two guests on. But at a certain point, the guests go on hold so I can display graphics and stuff. Hold the screen. I have to go to full visual. I don't know how to do it. So Kelsey knows, watching from her office, like, hey, Kelsey, can you fix this thing? Her office. All of a sudden my door cuts.

Goes.

That's like. Like you don't want to be loud. And then you push it slower so it gets louder.

And then all of a sudden, guys.

Just like, like a Navy seal, she starts doing this mud crawl.

Her leg on her belly, across on.

Her belly, on her. I swear to God, because you want to be in the camera's way. And she's going in with her arms, her legs. She won't even move her legs. She doesn't want the scratching. So she's just pulling with her arms. And this hand reaches up and grabs the mouse and she can't see it, so she's just listening.

And it's a left handed mouse, guy.

Oh, it's left handed.

Mike, I really think you need to write fiction. You have these brill, brilliantly illustrated mental things happening here.

It's kind of weird.

I like how you noted that it's fiction.

Oh, not fiction. It was. It's on video. Because I grabbed the camera.

I said it was an army crawling. It wasn't that cool. It was actual, like, baby crawling.

And I took the camera and I pointed it down.

No, he didn't.

Yeah, he did.

It's a live audience, Mike. You have to get some parameters for.

You just see Kelsey sitting there in a compromise position.

And I said, this is the president of our company. Yeah, this is the president.

Well, I couldn't even work them out.

Yeah. It's actually. I filmed. It's like, I shouldn't have filmed that because it was not. It was so. It was so funny. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, no. The. The optics weren't right afterwards. Like, oh, I thought it was funny.

I'm confused. I thought all your books were fiction. Where's the running shot when I need one?

And that. That Pure entertainment was brought to you by nextiva.com. check them out. Voice over IP phone system. All right, that was our sponsor highlight. It was a story about Kelsey Kelsey's mud crawl. Now, I wanted to hear what you all learned, I think. Now, are you taking notes and managing board or.

I'm doing it all.

Wow, he's good. Amy, why don't you go first?

Sure. I loved your life experience is the value and the. Well, I thought, that's so good. That's so hopeful.

And I feel, like, so integral and gives that actual authenticity. I feel like a lot of people want a viable product and they're going about it the wrong way rather than create something that's innate to them that makes it special.

Right. They just popping around outside of themselves, where there's no connection. There's no meaning to it. And without that meaning, I just. I don't feel the energy push behind it.

Yeah. Good counsel would you take?

I really loved how he said, whoever inspires you go back to where they started.

Oh, yeah.

Like.

And realize that we're all humans. I don't know. Have you guys read Maya Angelou?

Yes.

I love her. And in one of her books, she talks about when she first started to get into a writer's guild, and she was, like, slammed, totally criticized. And at the time, she was like, oh, I can't do this. I'm not writing. And it was, like, really mad about it, too. And then, you know, her life story comes full arc, and she's one of the most prolific poets. For sure.

For sure.

And it's always like, every time I have doubt about myself, I always think about that moment because I feel like that's the difference between Creating something into perpetuity.

Can you imagine if she just gave up in that moment?

Exactly, exactly. And we all fail and we all criticize, right?

Yeah. And I think we all want to continually give up. I saw a post from Robin Robbins, a friend of mine. Very successful business. I think it's a 15 or 20 million dollars operation. And she says, if you don't want to give up on a regular basis, you're not pushing hard enough. Yeah, that's interesting. That's interesting. Yeah. What'd you learn, Jacob? Blown.

So I keep a little notebook and I write ideas in it, and then periodically, I'll go through and reread the ideas. And it really pisses me off because so many ideas in there, I'm now seen implemented.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, why?

Yeah. Chris's point.

Yeah, yeah. So. And he said, so willingness to take action. So I think that's super important. Which is another way of saying, do it.

Just do it. Nice. J. Blown. So my takeaway was the curiosity factor, and it was what he used the preamble to, the willingness to take action. He said curiosity is paying attention and identifying the problems that exist around us. You know, they're there constantly. He said he's got to pay attention to it. So. All right, we want to know what you learned, too, our dear listening friends. So post it in the reviews we love. And actually, Amy was talked about in one of our most recent mentioned.

Mentioned.

Well, how are you mentioned?

It was Mike, Kelsey, J. Bone, and Amy.

Oh, not Biggie Snacks. I'm surprised.

No, it was not.

I'm not surprised.

Billy Ray. S. All right, we want to learn. Learn what you learned. So go and post a review. We'd be honored. And rate us as you feel is appropriate. All right, jbone, we have a live caller.

We do. This is the first time ever that we're doing this.

I'm nervous.

Are you nervous you actually know this guy or apparently he knows you?

Is it my father? Like someone you know?

Don't ever set up Mike that way.

Do you want to know his name?

Yes, I do, because I'll be embarrassed.

Aaron Sylvan.

Oh, you know Aaron Sylvan?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I haven't talked to him in a while. He hosted some events.

Well, there you go. So now you're gonna talk to him.

Lemonade man, I call him.

All right, so let's. Let's. Let's do this.

All right, so you're gonna edit this part out, I assume.

Wait, what part out? Oh, it's literally calling right Now.

Wow, look at Jerry. Jeremy. Do I, do I say hello?

I'll say hello.

Don't jinx it. In case he doesn't answer.

Hey, Aaron, it's Jeremy from Entrepreneurship Elevated. How are you?

Hey, doing great. How are you?

Awesome. Cool. So I got Mike here.

Aaron, how you doing, brother?

Hey Mike, how are you?

Long time no talk. How's the business?

Has been, has been excellent, thank you very much.

Last time I saw you, we spent time together. We're on a yacht if I recall correctly.

That's right, that's right.

Long. That's a throwback outside New York.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. That's right. That was the casting call for the TV series that I was developing which ended up being sold.

Oh, congratulations.

So, yeah, thanks.

Hey, thank you.

That was good.

It's a joy to reconnect. You are our first guest that we're trying to do this with. We're doing live questions and then I had, I am challenged to answer the question. So what's your question?

Okay, so my question is this. I am launching a new series of executive conferences and this is a for profit venture and I'm thinking to implement profit first mentality and methodology.

Nice.

And thank you. And one of my execution question is that I'm considering taking, declaring off the top that 20% of all revenue is going to be my profit. And what I'm thinking about is whether to, is how to address transparency. I'm feeling like it may be, I'm feeling like maybe making it publicly known that that is the use of proceeds. Because if I tell people that I'm taking 20, 20% off the top is what I'm taking for this. That therefore the other 80% of their ticket price is all going into the quality of the experience that they're having.

Oh, I see yourself.

You see what I mean? And so right. Or. Well, in fact really it's more likely that 10% of ticket revenue since our primary revenue is coming from ticket sales and secondary revenue is from sponsorship deals. In the case of ticket sales, in many cases there's 10% commission paid to whomever it is that sourced the transaction. So that means that 30% is coming off of the other 70% is going into the experience. So I feel like this is the sort of thing that people normally keep secret. And I wanted to know what are your thoughts on how to frame how public one might go with this sort of information.

Thank you. Great question. And from my experience, very atypical. Sounds like your experience too that someone discloses that kind of detail, except public companies are mandated to do it, and look how successful public companies are. So if it. If there's other shareholders in your business, then that's one way to play this, that, you know, it's serving multiple investors. I presume you're the only one. So that reminds me of a guy named John Lee Dumas. John Lee Dumas is a podcaster who makes millions every year through his podcast and publishes every financial detail of his organization every month, the end of the close of the month posts it. And as a result, he's attracted more listeners because of the absolute integrity. The last thought is that I think clients want us to be profitable. They'll never use those words like, no one's like, hey, rip me off, charge me more. But they want to know that this is going to be a great conference that's operated effectively, that. That you're going to put your all into it and that you're going to be sustainable. So I think positioned well. If the right spin is put to it, I think it can be a very powerful thing. My last thought is we. We disclose our profit here internally. And not many companies even do that. Like, you know, it's usually the owner's the only person that knows the profitability, but we talk about it and we share in it, and it's become a motivator for our employees to think frugally. Lisa puts me in nice, cheap hotels when I travel, and because everyone's benefiting so that they. There's this greater awareness. So I think it's a good idea. My last thought, Aaron, is that you. You give it a test, you give it a try, but also give yourself a way to cut bait. Sometimes plans like this fail, and if it doesn't work out, how can you continue on with not disclosing those numbers? Yeah, that's my thoughts. I hope it helps. All right, so here's what we do, guys. Aaron, thank you for joining us. And we are going to continue on. I lost my darn script again here.

It's the game.

Oh, the game.

And I'm in charge of the game.

Okay.

All right, so, Amy, so you get to pick.

Okay.

Do you want a traditional game or do you want a little twist on a. On a old game?

Little twist on an old game.

Okay, I got a. Here's our little jingle here.

Oh, nice, bro.

Like this.

Listen for it.

Wait for it.

All right, nice. So this is. This is.

Are we legally licensed for that?

Yeah, I made it.

Okay. Oh, you made it.

It's you saying. Which is the fake one.

Oh, okay.

I thought you were joking.

No, I thought the music. The music. Are we licensed for the music?

Okay, so in this game there is one real company.

Okay.

And three fake companies.

Okay.

But they're all tech companies. Okay, so the first one in tech industries, leaders of CRM based software in attack has been leading.

In attack.

In attack, Intech has been leading the industry in new solutions for the past decade and providing solutions for businesses large and small. Now the funny part about the businesses that are fake, they all came from television or movies.

Oh, so might be why it sounds twist.

They came from movies. So the real ones are simply just movies and they're still fake businesses.

No, there's one actual legit real business and the other two are referenced in movies.

Oh, so we have the real one. There's two fakes.

Yeah, I got you.

I wrote the copy for him.

But excellent work. I am slow.

I'm just too good for you.

Excellent.

Next company, Hypertech Incorporated. Producers of the world's best computer modules for vehicles and power chips. HyperTech outperforms traditional ECMs by up to 50 horsepower with fuel efficiency and safety savings.

Yeah.

Third one, Massive Dynamic LLC engineering some of the biggest breakthroughs in genetics and biomechanics. Massive dynamic holds seven J.D. power awards for outstanding achievements in the science field.

Movies. Are you watching?

Yeah, it's called boring.

Finally, there's another one.

Didn't we just do three? There's four.

There's four. Globex Corp. The big brother company to Solar X, provides power solutions for our planet, primarily in the form of nuclear and solar energy. Last year, Globex produced 60% of the world's solar panels.

Okay, all right.

Which one is real?

I'm gonna say Massive Dynamic LLC, J.D. power winner.

Let's go around the table. What do you think, Amy?

I think in a tech. But it's very possible. I heard that on tv.

Now here's why I wouldn't go with in a tech. These. These companies use the. Those. What's the. What's the. When you use a few letters in the beginning, like micro. Oh, sorry, no, like micro computer. Microtech, like tech's another one. So there's like, you know, intercom tech, Micro, like they. They always a little short. So I call that fake. Here's what I think. You think it's in tech? I think it's hyper tech computers. Because ECMs, like, who would be that specific in a movie?

Do you know what an ECM is?

Yeah, for a car, isn't it?

Well, yeah. Well, I just read it in the description. But anyway, you got it right.

Hey, Mother Effers. Yes.

What movies are shot with the other one?

So in Attack is from Alpha Space, Massive Dynamic is from. I think it's called Fringe. It's a television show. And Globex is from the Simpsons.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Good. Okay.

There you go.

I'm very proud of us.

Well done, Mike.

Yeah. Good game.

Thank you.

Very proud of us.

I'm very proud of us.

Very proud of me.

I didn't want to say that. All right, my friends, I think we gotta start wrapping things up here. A couple things we'd love for you to call in. So who did they email? Jeremy.

Email me.

Jeremy. Jeremy. To come on the show. And then, hey, one other thing we love. We'd be honored for you to come to our website and check it out. Be a subscriber so you can get all this cool stuff we're doing here for free. Go to mikemotorbike.com that's a shortcut. Mikemotorbike.com scroll up top to where it says, get the tools. Click on that and we'll hook you up with tons of stuff. Right. We good? We're out of here.

Cool.

All right. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast, too. Later.

Bye.

Nice, ladies. Nice.