In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Chris Kubbernus (aka Kubby), an entrepreneur and social media marketer. Kubby shares a pivotal personal story about leaving a six‑figure corporate job after realizing he was unhappy, illustrating the importance of self‑assessment and bold pivots. He outlines his core industry insight: “buy low, sell high” – entering new platforms and technologies early to capitalize on low competition and later leveraging their growth. Kubby advises aspiring entrepreneurs to expect and embrace failure, emphasizing resilience and learning from mistakes. He stresses listening to one’s instincts over external opinions, and describes his philosophy of seeking happiness through calculated risks that push personal boundaries. The conversation highlights his favorite book, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and the negotiation techniques it taught him. Kubby also shares a favorite quote from his father—“build the plane and fly the plane at the same time”—as a metaphor for taking action while iterating. The episode concludes with Kubby’s social media handles, especially Instagram, for listeners to connect with him.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by WagsMedia. WagsMedia provides you with everything you need to generate more customers and grow your brand. Head on over to wagsmedia.com, W-A-G-S-M-E-D-I-A dot com, to enter a contest where you can win a free, done-for-you custom website valued at $2,500 for a limited time only. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Chris Kubbernus with us, aka Kubby. He is an entrepreneur and social media marketer. He's originally from Canada but is now based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kubby is a family man, advocate for hard work, and a wearer of many hats. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, thanks a lot for having me.
Of course, grateful to have you here. We'll dive into the first one, Chris. The first question I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, this is a good one. You know, I think the most valuable story that I have and most valuable to me, maybe also to other people, is I was very happy, or I guess I thought I was very happy. I was in a prominent career. I was making a six-figure salary. I was climbing the corporate ladder, doing what I thought was the right thing for me. But when I look back, I realized that I was incredibly unhappy in my life and in my job. And it was about when I was 40— 34 years old, sorry, that I decided that that wasn't right for me. I was actually in my boss's office. He was tearing me a new one over some silly thing. And I had it. I'd had it. I was just like, this is it. I don't want to do this anymore. I walked out. I took a 2-week vacation. I came back. I quit. I started my own company. And I haven't looked back. So, I think the message there, maybe a lot of people feel this way, is that you You know, you think you're on the right path, you think you're doing the things that are good for you or the things that you want, but you really have to examine your life and things change and you can reexamine and see where you're at and you can make a pivot.
Dude, thanks for sharing that with us and congratulations on doing that.
Thanks.
The next one is, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I mean, I'm in marketing and in entrepreneurship and I have an agency, right? So we deal with mostly marketing campaigns, social media campaigns. So I would say, and this applies to, you know, it might sound like this applies to stock market or to real estate or something like that, but I believe in buy low, sell high. And what I mean by that is that getting in early on social media platforms or new ways of marketing, for example, like using VR technology, using artificial intelligence AR, using Snapchat, whatever those things are, if you get in early enough, it's very cheap, and it's easier to do, and it's not as saturated. If you get in later, it's more expensive, it's harder to do, and there's too much competition. So really buy low, meaning get in early when it's low, when there's not a lot of barriers to entry, and sell high, meaning that that get the most out of it when the market is the highest, right? So, you'll get the most impressions, the most reach, the most engagement because more people have jumped on the platform. So, that's kind of the most valuable piece of information I have for people in my industry.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice for like somebody that's like just getting into like entrepreneurship, let's say, like what would you tell them like first thing you would tell them?
The first thing that I'm going to tell them is that they're gonna fail, meaning that they're gonna fall on their face, they're gonna do things wrong, they're gonna make mistakes, uh, they might even make giant ones that close their business. But you have to push through. Nobody makes it— nobody learns how to ride a bike the first try. Nobody goes to the home plate and hits a home run. It's very difficult. You have to develop your entrepreneurial, let's say, skills or talent or experience. And if you recognize that, if you recognize that, you know what, you're going to fall flat on your face, then you'll do things differently and you'll pick yourself up and realize that it's part of the process. So I really recommend— that's my biggest piece of advice to new business owners, even old business owners. Like, you're going to screw up. It's just the way it is. Get over it. Get going, get moving, and get to the next step.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would give myself this advice today, actually. But I would give my younger self this advice, and also I continue to give my current self this advice, but it's basically listen to your instincts. So I, and this might not be the truth, or this might be not the same for everybody, but I find that when I listen to my instincts, that little voice inside that says, oh, you shouldn't do that, or this is probably not the best way to do that, or you should, you know, you shouldn't take this risk, or you should do this. When I listen to my instincts, I do way, way better. When I ignore my instincts and maybe let my ego take over or let me, you know, let somebody else influence my decisions, it's not that I'm not taking in impressions from everybody else. It's not that I'm not listening to my colleagues or my employees. But when I, when I over-index on that, when I listen to them too much and not listen to my own instincts, that's when I've lost the most. So I believe that listening to your instincts is probably key for me now and would be back in the day as well.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness, in my opinion, this might be— maybe this is a little controversial, but The key to happiness for me is do stuff that scares you, meaning that reward or maybe the good things in life, whether that's family or love or money, whatever it is you're after, like a Porsche, a Ferrari, whatever the things are you want, those rewards aren't created without risk. And I say that for every reward. It doesn't have to be material things. Basically, even the most emotional rewards come from those risks. Asking that girl out on a date or, or going up to that guy or telling him you love him or whatever those things are. So do the stuff that scares you. And after, like, after you've had that fear, after you've crossed those chasms, that's where you find the best stuff. So if you're afraid to ride a bike, afraid to ride, start a company, afraid to get married, afraid to buy a house, all the best stuff in life comes after you're afraid and you've actually taken the calculated risk and done it and mastered it.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
The best book, I mean, I have a lot that I think are really amazing books, so it's really hard to narrow it down to one. But this one is sort of sticking in my mind and maybe it's because I've read it recently again for like the fifth time, but The book Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss is probably one of my favorite books of all time. It's about negotiation. It's about— it's about— it's written by Chris Voss, who's an ex-FBI negotiator, hostage negotiator. And he talks about— he uses sort of his experiences in life and through his job about negotiating for people's lives, negotiating for money for people's lives, or whatever those things are. And he talks about how negotiation is a major part of everybody's life. We have to negotiate many things in our relationships with our kids, with our fam— family, excuse me, with, you know, with business. And he walks through the sort of tools to better negotiate and negotiate with yourself even. So it's a really good book. It really opened my eyes to how to get things that I want and how to get things done the way that I want to get them done. So I think it's probably my favorite.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote actually comes from my dad. He says, I don't know if it's his actually, he probably ripped it off somebody. I'm sure he did actually, but I haven't even bothered to Google it. But his, he always said to me, you have to build the plane and fly the plane at the same time. And that really stuck with me because it basically means that you can't build the perfect plane and then try to fly it. If you wait for the perfect moment, if you wait for the perfect time, if you wait for all the stars to align, you'll be waiting forever. You have to build the plane, as in get started doing what you want to do or moving towards your goal. And at the same time fly the plane or like do it, actually do it. So that's sort of really stuck with me and is sort of how I approach life and business and everything in my life is that you just have to get started. You'll figure out how to build the plane as you go.
Yes, man. Dude, that's an awesome quote. I love that quote.
He's probably stolen it from somebody, but I love it as well. It's going up on my wall. I'm going to get a I'm getting a graffiti artist to come to my office and write it in big letters.
Dude, that's awesome. I'm going to post it on social media, but I might do the wall thing in the future as well.
Yeah, it's a good one, right?
It is incredible, dude. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. Amazing interview. Lots of value.
Thank you.
Last question I have for you before we do let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
I'm basically everywhere on social. I mean, I'm loving Instagram right now. LinkedIn is also great, but I mean, hit me up on my Instagram. It's probably the best way to find me, instagram.com/chris_kubby. Chris, C-H-R-I-S-K-U-B-B-Y. That's Chris Kubby. Hit me up there, DM me, let me know you heard this podcast. I'd love to know your thoughts on what I've said and see if it resonates with you. So Yeah, looking forward to that.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Thank you.
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