Scott Duffy interviews Noah Elias of Noah Fine Art, Business & Burgers: Season 1 Ep. 1

I'm Alan Taylor. My buddy Scott Duffy and I are in search of the best burger in America. Each month we visit a new city to try some of the top restaurants, pubs and brewhouses while sitting down for a candid conversation with some of the top entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers and celebrities. I don't know about you, but I love talking business over a burger. Welcome to business and burgers.

Newport Beach, California. Where the weather is perfect all year round for surfing, skating and anything in between. There's a local restaurant favorite here in Newport beach that's been highly praised for its authentic Irish cuisine for over 42 years. Muldoon's Dublin Pub. Not only is it one of Scott's favorite burger joints, it's also won countless awards, like number one pub in all of Southern California. And it's even called legendary by the Orange County Register. However, it's the Zagat guide statement calling it the best hamburger in the OC at this Celtic bar that has something for everyone that made us choose Muldoon's for a good burger and a great conversation. Over 25 years ago, Noah Elias rode his bicycle door to door selling his artwork. Today he runs his own creative studio, creating paintings and limited edition art that is applied to fine art, prints, apparel, skate decks and vinylmation. Noah has created art for numerous Fortune 500 companies as well as his worldwide collector base. Whether he's creating for Disney, Star wars or painting those incredible cars on the Fast and Furious, Noah has turned creativity into a thriving business and a global brand.

I'm curious, when did you know that you wanted to be an artist?

Well, here's what's really interesting about the place that we sit right now. We're sitting in Newport Beach. I would walk from Corona del Mar in Newport beach up to my high school and I walked right through here. I walked by this actual restaurant. And so this was where it all began for me. Starting my business in high school at 16, going door to door and I went on a bike and I hustled. I made some Xerox copies, called my company Noah's Art was a jack of all trades and could anything that I could letter, custom make and build by hand, whether it was a sign, whether it was a mural painting, a car painting, shirts, pretty much anything that could be custom painted. I was that guy. Because back then we didn't have technology, we didn't have amazing, right?

So this is like pre Internet.

This was pre pager, pre pager, we didn't have pagers.

So you realize like half the audience doesn't Even know what a pager is?

Well, totally zero tech, right? So as an entrepreneur, as a business person, even in my teens, to get my product to market required actually getting in front of somebody. And it was the art of relationships and the art of people. That was the art. And so as technology came into my life, that just allowed it to be exponential and allowed me to do it quicker and reach more people.

You've got some ink and it tells a little bit of a story about you. But there's more going on here, and I'm just curious about the foundation of Noah.

Okay. Everybody has a different approach to how they see themselves. But bottom line, I realized that I was put here on purpose and for an assignment. Your job is to find out why in the world that you were put here. And here's the great news. At the end of your life, we're not going to be compared against each other. Your calling is so unique to you that no one else on earth will replicate your calling before you or after you.

We have some burgers that just walked in the door.

Here's our burgers. Nice, man.

One of the first burgers we try here at Muldoons is in honor of our non carnivore friend, Noah. It's the Wicklow Veg veggie burger. It comes with smoked gouda, grilled ortega chili peppers, sauteed mushrooms, and some delicious avocado, tomato, onion.

Oh, I see. You get the salad.

He gave it to the guy that looked like he needed the salad.

That's like going to in n out and say, I'm gonna get the diet Coke.

Now I've never eaten a veggie burger before because guess what, I like beef. But it had a nice consistency and it tasted just like a delicious flame broiled hamburger. When Muldoon's opened 42 years ago, they had just one bar in the original pub. Then 11 years ago, they added the Celtic pub and opened up even more space for their clientele. Muldoon's ivy covered brick building has won architectural awards and houses two distinct pubs, a proper dining room and a beautiful open air center courtyard, all under one roof from brick and finely crafted oak, detailed brass fireplaces, and art collection from all over Ireland. This space transports you across the pond with no passport required.

So Noah, let me ask you something here. You're an artist. Typically, artists are one man marching band. How did you scale and how did you get to that point where you converted to technology and growth from where you were?

I was doing life in analog. It was taking it To a person, talking to them about selling them in person. It wasn't like even over a phone call. I had to realize that my format of life was about being an entrepreneur that happened to do art, not being an artist. In one dimension, things change really, really quick. And most entrepreneurs, they're undervaluing themselves and they're thinking in one dimension. One of the things that I teach whenever I'm doing brand strategy, even with a company, is that there's typically going to be a lot of hidden value, but then a lot of potential blind spots. And that's pretty much in your approach to how you see your brand, your company, can it be leveraged, can it be scaled? Or are you looking at yourself as that one product in that one way and always going to do life that way? And so I'll come into companies where they've been in business for 30 some odd years and I'm going, you guys are sitting on an absolute gold mine of ways that you're not leveraging your brand. And they look at you kind of cross eyed. And then you start bringing how technology can be leveraged to take you across the world and get your message heard with 7 billion people and how that can be leveraged through technology and devices. That happened for me going from a bike, then growing with corporate clients and working with Universal Pictures and MTV and Costco and Disney. All technology allowed me to do was get a bigger fan to put into the sails of my ship that had already been built.

You mentioned the brand of you and building the brand of you. I think that today it's probably more important than ever to start early developing your brand and leveraging technology to distribute your brand worldwide. And the question is, how do you do it?

There's a few components. Awesome. One is instead of starting with income, start with impact.

Meaning If I put $50 million in your bank, I highly doubt that you'd be doing what you're doing right now today.

If you'd like to try that, I'd be willing to.

But that's a great place to start. And most of the time that's a real clear indicator fires you up. What makes you cry? What are you passionate about? And not just what you're passionate about. Like, oh man, I love music. But yeah, let's talk about how much you love music. When you're on your 15th day of doing an 18 hour day, is your heart still in it? Are you in lust with something? Are you in love with something? Yeah, you know, and there's a lot of people that are in Lust over a business that they want to start. One of the pillars is I start with. You have to start with impact first. Start with impact and income becomes the byproduct. Most people go through this life. I'm a fisherman. This is my career, and I'm going to provide for this family in this boat. And I believe the true heart of every entrepreneur is I want to do the least amount of work possible, doing what I love most, while making the most revenue I've ever made. That's the sweet spot. Because we're not here to work, we're here to live. And if we're just on that hamster world, we're a human existing, not a human being. So I had to look at my life and go, man, I can't just be. When I watch. When I started, remember, I was painting anything and everything. Problem that I had was I had two hands. I had to be present to make income. I had to figure out a way to make revenue while I was not present.

So how do you do that?

So here's how I did it. I basically took technology and realized that I can create intellectual properties. I started with paintings, so I started taking digital captures of the products, then publishing limited edition prints. Every single person's website is a bank. Every single person's brand. You both have a brand. I have a brand. How am I leveraging my time, talent and treasure to build a brand online that can go to work for me while I'm not present, that could be a mom at home raising kids, blogging and selling products and speaking and writing books and ebooks. There are so many dimensions and on ramps to you as a brand leveraging technology that I finally said, you know what? I love painting, but it's not all of who I am. I started mapping out my entire year, which is another thing that I teach, and then started saying, okay, this year I'm going to produce 52 originals. Of those 52 originals, how much money can I make from those originals? From those originals, how many scans can I make and make limited edition prints and posters? Every single show that we do online business and selling. And that was one year. So when you start batching assets every single year that go to work for you, you've created this hopper that is moving all the time while you sleep. Every entrepreneur has to ask themselves this question, what are you doing with your time and your talent and your treasure, which is your money? I hate wasting time. So when I was on planes, I started writing my life story on hoping to help teach folks this story so the book's called Speed Bumps. You can download it on my site for free. It's an on ramp for folks to be able to realize that there is a way to hack life, to leverage your time, talent and treasure for impact while making incredible money doing what it is you love in the least amount of time. Because at the end of the day, our goal is to be able to underwrite as many memories as we possibly can with our loved ones, leave a legacy, and continually blaze that trail to make it easier for the next generation. I spent 25 years trying to be successful.

25 years. Success sucks. You want to see a miserable person, a person that has so called made it. I ask people what's needed right now for your year to be done and for you to be made. And it was $70,000 a year that they would feel like a millionaire done. Now if I give that to them, you want to know what happens? They're miserable because they have zero purpose. They wake up and they realize that their entire life was spent chasing a dollar. Here's what culture teaches. Get a job, get as much as you can, get as comfortable as you can, then coast your way to death. That sucks. That's prison. That's not why we're put on this earth. So take a couple of steps back and pause. And the first thing you need to do is get somebody that's going to take a big old flashlight and illuminate your identity and when you can, just take a few minutes. And most don't want to look in the mirror of who they are, who they're called to be, and how they're supposed to do it. Because three areas that I teach building your foundation of your why and your story. Then build your brand. Then gain your audience. Is it good for me to be giving you all these devices and helping you leverage your creativity when you don't know who the heck you are and why you're here, who are you, what are you supposed to do and how you're supposed to do it? The how's the easiest part. But when you can't answer and tell me why you're here and why you're doing what you're doing, I'll give you all the devices in the world. That's not going to cure your problem. Can you answer with 100% conviction? I know who I am, what I'm supposed to do, exactly how I'm supposed to do it, and furthermore, who I'm supposed to do it with. Game over, dude. Because if you get that right, you are Fearless. You are unstoppable. You have no comparison trap and there is zero ceiling to the potential that you have on impacting this world.

So let's say somebody's watching this and they're stuck. And let's say they're a small business and they have the opportunity to work with a big brand. Is there any advice you give them?

This is probably one of the biggest pieces of advice I could leave the world. The ripple effect of every single thing you say, every single thing you post. What goes online stays online and what goes online is an investment in your brand. The second thing would be this.

Create content that's shareable and create everything from your story. Your story is your number one asset and people put their story aside and think, no, no, no, I can't share about what I truly believe in and what I care about because you know what I'm gonna lose sales, I'm gonna lose. I'm gonna lose eyes, I'm gonna lose likes. We are looking for anything that disrupts us or gets our attention. So imagine going on Instagram, going on any sort of platform and what are you doing? You're looking for anything. That's what anomaly different stands out. So give me some content that's actually going to be life giving. I want to create assets and tell stories, share content that will literally go to work for me for a long, long, long, long time. So that would be my advice. They're buying you. You are the brand. Your products are mementos that they share. And this day and age, people love seeing causes, not companies.

Next time on Business and Burgers. We're back in Newport beach at Muldoons again trying out some more amazing burgers with Mark Moses, author, ironman, triathlete, co founder, coaching international coaching the world's top entrepreneurs and CEOs to help increase profitability and accelerate growth. Mark started his career as a student painter and has taken his business from a Napkin to over $1 billion in sales. There's a lot you can learn about business when you sit down and have a great burger. So join us next time and take a bite out of business right here on Business and burgers.

Check out more episodes Business and Burgers and our BNB blog at our website, businessandburgers. Com. Also, don't forget to visit our business and burgers Facebook page and give us a big thumbs up until next time. We'll see you right here for some more business and burger.