EverydaySpy Podcast - Integrity of Purpose

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

There will always be people who laugh at your ambition, talk-down your talent, and try to convince you to give up. And its easy to feel like the easiest way to end the pain is to join them in their constant criticism of others. In this episode, Andrew explain the secret that holds those people back and why you have the opportunity to win bigger, greater, richer wealth than then can even imagine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante and this is everyday espionage. I recently got invited to a professional entrepreneur networking event in my hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. Now the group has been around for almost 20 years and I still remember the first time I was invited to sit with them back in 2014. Not long after I had launched my own little LLC that has since grown into everyday spy as you know it today. day. That first visit, it's absolutely seared into my memory and not for good reasons, but the reasons are so relevant and important for what I have planned for you in season six of everyday espionage that I am actually really excited to tell you the story now. In February of 2014, as Ji and I were finalizing our resignations from CIA, I opened an LLC in Florida to start laying roots in our new

post-agency home state. I knew exactly nothing about business, well, at least not legitimate business, but I had a supportive wife, I had a one-year-old son, and I was absolutely dedicated to building the best life I could for both of them. Now, when you register a new business, you have to pick an industry like manufacturing or retail or some sort of skilled service provider, but coming from CIA, I didn't really have any marketable skills I could talk about. Technically, Ghi and I were still undercover until the agency gave us approval to disclose our employment there. But I knew that when secret agencies create shell companies or cutouts, they register them as consultants. So that's exactly what I did. I ordered my first business cards from VistaPrint. I paid a little extra to use two colors in my logo

instead of one and I said yes to the discounted second box, of course. Then I sat back and waited for business to roll in. Now, about three days later, my business cards arrived, and I'll never forget the way my gut dropped when I opened the first box and saw 500 copies of my totally amateur business cards staring me in the face. Now, if you've ever ordered business cards in bulk, you know the feeling I'm talking about. It's this mix of intimidation and shock and fear and embarrassment. How was I ever going to use 500 business cards?

I mean, this box had 500 neatly lined up in a row, but how was I ever going to meet 500 people? And then I realized there was a whole second box with another 500 cards. The sheer volume of cards made me feel almost instantly. ashamed. But now I had them. And outside of throwing them in the trash, which many business owners actually end up doing, I had to start handing them out. And that's how I ended up sitting at this table of St. Petersburg entrepreneurs that promised support, encouragement, and friendship for new business owners starting out. Now, the meeting was innocent enough at first. Everyone

introduced themselves and shared a pithy one-liner about their business. When the the intros got to me, mine was an awkward blunder and a total jumble of half-baked business ideas. Instantly, I was identified as the FNG in the group. That's a military term that stands for the effing new guy. And that's also when the group decided to offer their patented help and support to me. So first, they asked me to hand out my business card. Next, they blasted everything about my card from the font size to the colors. One guy even said, this looks like some crappy vista print template. Um, that's because it was. And after telling me how horrible my business cards were, all 1,000 of them, remember? The group started asking me about my professional skills

and abilities, which were illegal and still undercover. So I couldn't even talk about those. I had to keep everything very admin and superficial. So I told them, I was a good planner. I was a leader. I could organize and execute complex tasks without supervision, and their faces went blank. It was clear to me that they had about as much faith in my new business venture as I did. So after about 15 minutes of trashing my business cards, my business skills, and my business plan, they moved on to the next FNG at the table and did the same thing all over again. I remember being so shocked by how critical and destructive the whole night seemed to be, I convinced myself it was a fluke, and I decided I had to go back the next week and check it out again.

But it turns out it wasn't a fluke at all. The roundtable public shaming was just as painful the second time around as it was the first. Now, fast forward seven years to last week when I got invited by a young, optimistic, new, St. Petersburg entrepreneur to join him at the same networking event. While I felt my skin crawl at first, I decided to accept his offer. After all, a lot can change in seven years, right? But I'm sure you've already guessed what I'm about to tell you. Aside from a snazzy new big screen, allowing members to join via Zoom, the entire night went exactly as it did when I was first getting started. I watched as a new yoga instructor, a new nutritionist, and a new freelance journalist,

all got roasted by a panel of their so-called peers. And then I noticed something that totally changed my perspective. At least half of the folks sitting around the table that night, from the host, all the way around to this Gandalf-looking, chain vaping IT grump, who actually had Mordor as his Zoom background? These were the same people that had roasted me more than seven years ago. The core group hadn't changed. They were the same people, not just the same faces, but the same business owners, with the same businesses making the same annual business revenue,

happy to spend an entire night once a week at this shay. of a networking meeting. No growth was happening, certainly not for the new people, and clearly not for the old people either. This was the proverbial self-licking ice cream cone. It was a group that met just to pat itself on the back for being a group. What had changed that night was me. I wasn't the same whelp from seven years ago that they got to kick around. Instead, my business had scaled to international size with massive growth on the horizon without realizing it this little networking group full of big egos had trapped itself in a small cage.

They would never grow big enough to realize that the hours they spent together were actually a detriment to their combined potential. It was not a benefit. Now, on your path to where you want to go, there will always be people who tear you down. Yes, they will be more successful than you. Yes, they will be wealthier. They will be more connected. They will be more experienced than you, but only for a while. Recognize that they are also trapped, trapped in their own limited. thinking and forced by habit to surround themselves with other people like them. Small minds that make themselves feel tall by putting you down. So let them sneer and let them chide, but never let them suck you in.

Instead, surround yourself with people on the path to growth. Find the people who try and keep trying, no matter what obstacles they face, because in that group, you will find inspiration and innovation and integrity of purpose. You will find the change that lifts you up instead of the cycle that chains you down. And that is everyday espionage. Everyday espionage is dedicated to one thing, educating everyday people. I know that not everyone will listen, but those who listen will learn. If you learned something new today, click subscribe, review, and share the podcast with a friend.

Find me on social media at EverydaySpy or on my website, Everydayspy.com. If you are up for a special challenge, visit Everydayspy.com forward slash operations and join me for an authentic spy training mission. And above all else, remember that knowledge is freedom.