Scott Duffy's A Little Inspiration To Help You Close The Week Strong, Episode 46

Good morning, everybody. This is Scott Duffy. And welcome back to what Now. What now with Scott Duffy. It is Thursday, and I'm so glad to be with you today. Today's going to be a shortened program. I have got a big announcement next week and we are. We have a lot on our plate right now and a lot of things that we need to get done over the next 24 hours in order to make that happen for you and bring that to you. And so this show is going to be short. We're going to be about 10 to 15 minutes. But there are a few things that I want to share. And by the way, as we let this propagate, if you're just dropping in for the first time, please go ahead and in the comments, write down your name, the industry that you're in, and the biggest challenge or the biggest question that you're having today so that I can do my best to shape this show around it. Want to say good morning to Michael. I want to say good morning to Patrick. Good morning, Rob. I hope you guys are doing amazing. It is a great day. We have been powering away on our end all day, getting ready to make a big announcement on Monday with an event that we're throwing May 21st. Make sure to mark it down May 21st from 8am to midnight. We've got like 40 of the most amazing speakers out there, folks. Founders, CEOs, from some of the biggest brands in the world, some of the biggest celebrity entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes, artists that will all be a part of this incredible event that I can't wait to share with you next week. We have about 30 seconds before we go on radio and so we're gonna let this propagate for just a minute more. But look, if you're just joining for the first time, I wanna welcome you. If you're joining us on Facebook, on YouTube, if you're on Instagram, you if you're on LinkedIn, if you're on Periscope. I want to say good morning and thank you so much for joining. And please again drop your name into the comments, the industry that you're in and any challenges that you might be having so I can address those today. And here we go.

Good morning. My name is Scott Duffy and this is what now was Scott Duffy, presented by SAP Concurrent. I want to welcome you from wherever you're listening. You can tune in each day at 10am Pacific Time to watch the live broadcast on YouTube and Facebook or listen nationwide on Dash Radio or download the podcast. This show is for entrepreneurs Small businesses and those thinking about starting their own companies. It's for people affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their business, their job, they were furloughed or they saw all their consulting contracts disappear there. It's for people who are asking the question, what do I do now and how do I come out of this period even stronger now as we mentioned earlier today, we're going to have a shortened program and I'm going to have to drop off early to get ready for a big announcement that we have next week. And next week we have five amazing guests that are going to be joining us. So we have five special guests leading up to that event. And, and I cannot wait to bring those people to you in the news today. It's been eight weeks today. It's crazy to think about that eight weeks ago today is when the market crashed. And to me, and maybe to most of us, it feels more like eight years than eight weeks. And since then, in such a short period of time, our whole world has been completely turned upside down. In eight weeks, when you think about it, we have gone from the strongest economy and the biggest economic expansion in human history. Literally eight weeks and a day ago we were in the strongest economy and the biggest economic expansion in human history to a market looking more like the Great Depression, which is just still has our heads spinning. Real unemployment. When you add in all the stuff that the government takes out to make the numbers look better, when you add it all back in, it's well over 26%. And based on today's jobs report, that could get closer to 30%. Many businesses are struggling or they're being forced to close down. Yesterday we Learned that over 50% of small businesses, I think it was 54% of small businesses in the United States say that they anticipate shutting down, completely closing their companies by mid summer. It's amazing. We're expecting more bankruptcies this summer than any time in history. And what's just, I mean the more I, the more I think about what I'm sharing with you, the crazier it all sounds that this has happened in only eight weeks. Now many of us hoped that we'd see relief from the government in the form of stimulus, loans, grants or unemployment. But who gets access to these funds has really just proven to be pretty doggone random. I've applied for everything. I've got nothing. I have some of the most amazing people who are so connected and lead big organizations who are guiding me. I haven't seen anything on programs like Eidl or pp any of that stuff. Meanwhile, I know people that I've coached, that I've advised, I've actually helped to create their packages. I have friends that have received not only approvals, but they've gotten money in the bank. And so, you know, many of us, again as small businesses, we have been hoping that we would see relief from the government in the form of loans, stimulus grants or unemployment. But who gets access to this seems to be totally random. There's really no rhyme or reason to it. And despite all the government rhetoric, we're seeing that the real real is that most people aren't receiving the aid that they thought they were going to get or were told they were going to get. Meanwhile, the number of COVID cases worldwide continues to grow. Here in the United States, we still haven't flattened the curve. In fact, the number of cases in several states keeps rising and rising more rapidly. But we got to get back to work. We have got to get back to work. Our country is based on a consumer driven economy. So the government's beginning to ease restrictions. I am in Newport beach today and what is super awesome is yesterday Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, announced that he was going to be reducing restrictions across across the state. Late in the afternoon, our LA mayor, Eric Garcetti, announced that he was going to be reducing restrictions with regard to stay at home. And so that is all amazing. That is all awesome stuff. Now I can't get too excited because, for example, this morning I was getting a ton of email from local vendors or we're going to be back open tomorrow. We're going to be open up, back open on Saturday. The problem is it's all pickup service. So there's a lot of stuff I want to get at the sporting goods store, but I still can't go in. My favorite restaurant is opening back up on Saturday in Los Angeles. I still have to order out, but they're open and that's good news. It's progress.

I'm curious where you guys are. I'm curious where you guys are at in terms of.

If you're at work, if you're planning to go back to work. I'm curious how you're doing in your small business. Are you continuing to thrive? Have you struggled? Have you pivoted? Have you adapted? These are stories I love to learn and I love to share. So again, anything.

Whenever a user says, yes, but you can go to the liquor store, I think that the liquor store was deemed an essential service or something like that. Because, yes, every liquor store I've Seen has been open. That's, that's pretty funny. So what is this process going to look like of opening up? You know, we've been told a whole bunch of different things. The President laid out a plan, our governor's laying out a plan. Different counties here in California have lain laid out different plans. But I think at a high level, at the end of the day, this is what it's going to look like. The first phase of opening back up is going to be we're going to, we're going to stabilize our essential sectors. I think that's number one. So during this phase we expand our testing, our tracing and supported isolation when people need it. I think the second stage is going to be where we expand our essential workers. So this would include both short, medium and long term needs that we all have and we would ease social distancing. I think that the third step is that they're going to end the collective stay at home, which we all can't wait for, so you can mobilize non essential workers for the relaxed restrictions. And then step four is going to be the full pandemic resilience response, which means that we open schools back up, we return more people to work and we get more back to more of a new normal. That is what I see happening. So there is good news. And the good news is that we are, yes, we are getting back to work. And I just want to like congratulate you and I want to send you love and I want to send you just amazing light and energy for getting through the past eight weeks because it has not been easy for anyone. And again, I just want to applaud you for that.

Because we have a shortened show today and we have just a few more minutes. What I wanted to do is I wanted to focus on some stories today and just share some inspiration. Some things that make me feel good and hopefully they'll make you feel good as well. I think that this is a great time to inject our days with a little bit of levity. I think it's time to have a little bit of fun. And so there are three stories that I was thinking about this morning that I thought would be, that would be fun to share and for people who've seen me speak, you may have heard some of these stories, but why not? Let's have fun. So the first story is this.

A few years ago I was invited to a venture capital conference. It was on the big island of Hawaii and I was so excited to go. The market was booming and all I knew is it was being put on by this iconic venture capital firm. And the people who would go would be amazing. The founders, the CEOs of some of the hottest, the biggest, the baddest tech brands at that time. And so I was excited to go, but I didn't know for sure who would be there. And the reason is they wanted to keep it all secret. They wanted to keep it secret. They wanted it to be a surprise. So we had to sign this stuff saying we wouldn't say if we were going, we wouldn't tell people what happened while we were there for a certain amount of time. So anyway, so I go to Hawaii and I go to check in. I remember on the first day of the event, here's what happened. What happened was I go up to this desk and say my name and they gave me a shirt and it was a certain color. And my job was to find everybody else that was there that had the same color shirt because we were going to make up a team. And the team was going to compete in an eight hour scavenger hunt around the big island of Hawaii. Like, really fun, really cool. So I start looking around for the people who might be there and be on my team. I see the first person and the first person is Dick Costello, who was the CEO of Twitter. I look over here at Sarah Lacey, iconic.

Reporter up in the Bay Area on tech. I look over here, there's Bill Ty. Bill Ty, the famous venture capitalist. But we couldn't find the last person. Looking around, looking around, looking around, I literally bumped into him. MC Hammer. You guys know MC Hammer can't touch this, the Hammer dance, all that kind of stuff. MC Hammer. So anyway, we go on, we go to the, we go to the first clue, we pile this fan, we go to the first clue and we get there and these things were really tough, really tough. And there was this page, and we read the page and we read the clue. And me and Bill and Dick and Sarah, by the way, I'm thinking with their brain power, there's no way we can't win. Me and Dick and Bill and Sarah, we're looking at this thing, we're trying to figure it out. We can't do it now. Hammer, he's over there. Hammer's over there, he's on the phone, he's talking to his friends, whatever. So I walk over, say, hammer, would you come over here? Could you help us out? He said, no problem. So he walks over, he says, let me see the clue. He takes it, he reads the thing. I think one Time he looked and he goes, do this, this, this, and this. And he walked away. Like, dropped the paper. Like, literally dropped the mic. And guess what? He was right. So we'll go to the second clue. It was in the tree. Hammer, could you come over and help? Sure, no problem. He does the same thing. Guess what? He was right. We had, like, eight clues to solve that day, and I think MC Hammer solved every single one of them. It was incredible. And I remember that night, I was in the hotel lobby and I saw Hammer and I walked up to him. I go, dude. I said, that was amazing. I said, how did you do that? And he started to laugh. And he said, scott, you entrepreneurs are all the same. He said, you start over here, okay? And then you have a goal. You want to get over here. And he said, here's the thing about all of you. You figure out a way to make things so damn complicated in between. He said, I live my life by a very simple rule, and it's this. I always find a way to the simplest path first. I always find a way to the simplest path first. And today, that idea has never been more important because I look out at the landscape and I see small businesses that are struggling or being forced to close. I see people that have been unemployed or furloughed. I see people that have lost all of their consulting contracts and they're asking themselves, what do I do? They complicate the answer. They complicate the answer. They try and come up with a big idea. They spin their wheels, doing a lot of things. I'm going to tell you what to do. And it's simple. Ask two questions. Go to people. Go to your. Your clients or former clients, your prospects or former prospects, your family, your friends, the people you love and you live with. And ask them two questions. What do you need? What do you need today? And what has to happen? How do you know you're getting what you want? Let your customer, let people tell you what they need. Get that information, then. Then go out and develop the most basic version of what it is. That's it. The minimum viable product. Get it out fast, get it out early, get it in those people's hands, see if they like it, see if there's something they change, go back, iterate and adapt. And then relaunch. And then when you find the right product market fit, that's something you can take to the market. Now, I've read on the show so many different great opportunities that are out there today. So, like, if you want to make it even simpler, because we're talking about simple right now. So simple as asking those two questions. Simple is also if you just want to go find something to drop into, taking a look at what some of the biggest needs are today and go do business in that space. For example, you know what's hot right now? Notaries. Gosh damn. Everyone's got so much legal work they have to do. They're refinancing their house, they're redoing their loans, they're this, they're that, they're applying for stuff, they're certifying stuff. Become a mobile notary. It ain't that hard. Become a mobile notary. Market that service. There you go. There's something you can do right away. Become an appraiser. Really hot right now. Real estate agents are getting hotter, my friends. Their real estate agents are telling me less stuff on the market right now, so prices are higher. However, they expect a ton of stuff to come on the market this summer. There's going to be opportunities there. So next time we're on the show, I'm going to. I'm going to go through that list of opportunities. But what I'm saying is this. Don't overthink it right now. Do not overthink it. Find a way to the simplest. Find a way to the simplest path first. That's what I recommend. The second story is this. When you find the opportunity, I want you to jump on it. I mean, like, like, don't tiptoe to it. Don't be cute with it. Don't come at it slowly. Don't look at it. I want you to jump right on that and tell your story. Got a good friend. His name is Gary Goldstein. Gary Goldstein is a. He's kind of a film icon. He's a producer. And when he was a young guy, he always loved filmmaking. And he dreamed of being a filmmaker, being a producer. Now he was an attorney by trade and he lived up in San Francisco. And one day he decided that it was time, it was time to head back, head down to Southern California and basically to drop into his dream as a producer. So he did. He came down, he used his legal skills to become an agent. And as an agent, he represented. He was a lit agent. He represented writers. He felt if he represented writers, one day he'd find a script, a script that he loved, that he could go and sell and then produce. That's he did. So anyway, one day Gary gets called, and again, he's been doing this for a long time. He's been hustling he's been trying to find that opportunity. He gets a call and back then back in the day when video. So before Netflix and before all that stuff, back in the days, like before even Blockbuster, when you get a vhs, get a video, when the small local mom and pop video store started to spring up, they had a problem. The problem was there just was not a lot of video out there. There wasn't a lot of stuff on video. And so what. What they would do is you would go and you would create a poster, like a movie poster, and a totally outrageous movie poster with a totally outrageous title. And think about this. If you're an entrepreneur, instead of writing a script or like a business plan for it, you would go and you would sell the poster in the title and that idea. And then you could get financing, and it would be small. It could be anywhere from 25,000 to $50,000, if that. To go in to make this stuff, they just needed content in these stores. So anyway, something happened on the film. Gary gets a call. Guy says, you want to do this? And Gary said, well, tell me. And he said, here's the thing I need. I can give you this thing. And he said, but you got 30 days, and that's it. You have 30 days to write it, to cast it, to shoot it, to edit it, and get it to me. If you get it to me one day late, you don't get paid. If you do it right, here's what you get. Now, the amount of money that he was given wasn't enough. Most people would say, that is not. That is not enough. And they would walk in the other. They'd say, no way. Right? Because they need more. Because again, more to most people is they think it's better. But more is more risk, more time, more bullshit, more. All that kind of stuff. I don't like more. I like simple, okay? Less is more. Less is what most people think is more. So here's the day he looked at this and he said. He said yes. He said, I'll do it. And he jumped on it because he believes when you run into opportunity, you. He says, you got to chase this thing down like it's the last bus of the night. You got to hop on it. So guess what? He had a plan. He said yes. The first two weeks, what he was going to do is he was going to write it, cast it. In the second two weeks, he was going to film it, edit it, and deliver it. Two weeks go by. Nobody, nothing gets done. So again, at that point, most people quit. What did Gary do. What Gary did is he got on the phone and he started to call people and he said, look, he got scrappy, like we do as entrepreneurs. He said, look, if you've got a camera, I'll make you the head of cinematography. If you got some clothes in your closet, you're the head of wardrobe. If you can talk, you can act. And that's he did. The next day, people showed up, they made the film, they edited the film, they deliver the film in 30 days. That movie. Gary's first movie was called Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. Gary's second movie was Pretty Woman. The number one box office hit for Disney of all time to that point and for years to come, played on cable every single week for over 20 years.

You see, you just got to get in the game. You got to get in the game. You got to keep it simple. You got to get in the game. And so that's the second thing that I wanted to share. And then the third thing that I wanted to share is this. Once you have simplified it and you jump on the opportunity when you find it, what I really want to recommend you do is you stay committed to sticking to one thing and really nailing that thing before you try 20 others. Because what a lot of entrepreneurs do is, is they take as many things as they can, as many ideas, and they throw them against the wall. And they say, I'm gonna throw it against the wall like spaghetti. I hope something sticks. They think that's a great idea. It's the worst idea on the planet. And the reason is, we don't need your divided energy. We need you really focused on solving one problem for one customer. I have a good friend. I worked with him when I worked with Tony Robbins. Known him for 30, 35 years. And I ran into him in San Diego. I said, how you doing? This is a few years ago. And he said, I'm doing awesome. He said, I'm doing really great. I said, why? He said, because I just closed a deal. I just got somebody to invest $2 million in my company. Two million bucks. And it was like a startup. That's amazing. I high five them. I said, what are you gonna do? He said, we're gonna solve this one problem for this one person. We're gonna get this thing out quickly. We're gonna start making money.

A year later, I run into the same person in San Diego. So ironic. It's a crazy story. I'm running the same guy in San Diego. I said, how you doing? He said, you're not going to believe this. He said, the last time I saw you was the day I got the yes on financing. And today I just. Just come from my attorney's office. I'm filing for bankruptcy. I'm like, what? How's that possible? He said, well, it's actually pretty simple. He said, when I first got started, I was solving one problem for one person and everybody was on board. But as soon as we got the money in, the money came in, things changed. Every single day, somebody came to work and they had another big idea, another shiny object. There was another shiny ball. And so instead of solving one problem for one person, we decided to solve everything for everybody. And we kept building and building and building until we ran out of cash. When we finally pushed the market out, the product out to the market in total desperation, he said, something happened. What happened was 95 of the people who came to our site used 5% of it. They used 5% of it. And he said the 5% they used was the original product, the original thing that we were going to build. That was it. So if you reverse engineer that, he said, I spent 95% of my time and money. Basically, I wasted it on the wrong stuff. And so again, what I want you to do is this. Keep it simple. When you find opportunity, jump on it and stay focused on one thing. Really nail that one thing or explore through that one thing, test that one thing and then move on to the next. I have got a jump for today. This is Scott Duffy show is what now with Scott duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. I'll be back with you tomorrow at 10am Pacific time next week. We have some really big announcements. Make sure to pencil in May 21, 2020from 8aM to midnight. We have a big event that we're going to be announced on Monday. Incredible Partners and I can't wait to share it with you. You guys have an amazing day and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Bye. Bye.