REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 266. Q&AF: Right Path In Business, Providing Value To Great Companies & Customer Attention

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

In today's episode, Andy answers your questions about identifying if your company is heading in the right direction, ways an employee can add value to an already established company, and how much attention you should give to new customers versus current customers.

What is up guys, it's Andy Purcella and this is the show for the realest, say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality guys today we have q and af this is where uh you ask questions and i answer them and the reason it's called af is because sometimes you won't like the answer because it's the fucking truth all right now we have a fee for the show the fee is share the show if you learned some shit if it made you laugh it gave you a new perspective it gave you a new understanding if it helped you uh share the show, okay? Where can they submit their cues? Oh, guys, as always, email those questions in to askandyandandyfussella.com.

All right. Hey. So we got that out of the way. We also have other kinds of shows. We do. We have Cruise the Internet Show, which we're going to make fun of everything. Uh, we have real talk,

which is, uh, I'm going to tell you the fucking truth. And then we have full length episode where myself and a guest and some other guests are going to make fun of everything. Um, and in the midst of this, making fun of everything and laughing,

you probably learn, learn some shit. Uh, we don't run ads. I don't run ads to you. I don't run ads on the show. I don't waste your fucking time. So please share the show. Well, let's get started. Andy, question number one, when a company, when one of your companies are going through a significant growth patch, right? That's all the time. What are some signs that you're on the right

path that you're doing? Like you made the right fucking decisions. What are the signs? I would say the fact that you're growing is probably a really good sign. You know, I spent 10 years, uh, not growing and scavenging for every single fucking transaction I could get. And I'm very lucky that that happened because what that created was a situation where I value each and every single transaction. Um, and that culture has now replicated itself, uh, over the, over the size of our company, which is thousands of people deep. Um, so that's a good sign. Okay. A good sign is that things are going well. A good sign is that your company understands to value every single customer, even when things are going well. And especially when things are going well, because here's the thing.

Most people buy a word of mouth. All right. You can advertise, you can run billboards, you can run Super Bowl ads. You can do this, that, this, this, this, this, this. At the end of the day, how humans buy is through word of mouth. You buy a pair of shoes. I've seen the ad 17 times. I look at you and I say, oh, I saw their ad on TV.

I saw you got some what do you think right okay how was it right and that's how we buy okay very few people buy off of an ad an ad is created to uh create awareness around a product now a lot of you guys out there do e-com and you direct response style advertising that's a different thing. Um, but in both ways, it's important to have excellent follow-up, have excellent service, have excellent customer service. Um, these things have to be valued even when you scale. So, so my advice isn't what's some signs that I'm doing it right. The signs that you're doing it right is that you're lucky enough to have some fucking growth. Okay. Um, but what, what really fucks people is, is that when they start getting that growth,

they start valuing that each transaction less. Right. And this is, this is what kills most businesses over the course of time, right? They're, they're, they're nobody. They value the transaction because they need it. They get really good. So they stop valuing the transaction as much as they did in the beginning. Then they get bad again, right? No, no transactions. So you have to look at that period of hyper growth as a period to extend as long as possible, um, by creating the best experience possible at scale. And that takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of understanding inside your office. Um, and it's going to take time for you to, to understand that I could sit down with you and I do this in RTA. I sit down with people. Uh, I, I show them exactly how to

design a culture, uh, that will do exactly what we're talking about. Yeah. And it takes, it usually takes these, these people in RTA who are already experienced entrepreneurs, two, three years for this to start playing out. So, um, that that's basically the answer. I would not look for things as a sign of, Oh, we're doing it right. I would always look and always choose to look as to how you could do things better. I think that's a much more powerful way to look at your business. You know, um, one of the things that we've been able to do because I've been in all phases of business, I've been the nobody I've been the competitor and I've been at the top of industries. Um, and I can tell you one thing that has kept us moving, whether it be in any of the areas of business is always to look for where, where you're weak, always look for the things

you're doing wrong. I don't typically look for the things I'm doing right. I look for the things that we're doing wrong or could be done better. I'm very diligent about those things because I know if there's no holes in the boat, the boat fucking is going to float. I'm always looking for ways to not just plug holes in the boat, but also make the boat go faster.

I don't look at like... I rarely, and anybody who works with me or works around me will vouch for this. I rarely don't look at like i never i rarely and anybody who works with me or works around me um will will vouch for this i rarely uh i rarely look around and say oh man we're doing it so good like i don't back i don't think i've ever done that you know what i mean i love that no holes in the boat boat's gonna float like that and the question number two. Okay. We talk about adding value, right? As an employee, adding value. The question is, what are some ways you can think of adding value to a company that appears to have it all? Example, how can you possibly make Nike better? How do you add value

to a Nike, right? What's your response on that? Well, first of all, in a company like Nike, that's been around for a long time. The opportunity is in the complacency of the upper level people that work there who have been there a long time. All right. So while you may not innovate the next sneaker, you can easily move up because the people who have been there for a long time are very complacent now you're going to run into things like oh you know tony who my boss is his friends with his boss and they've been doing it a long time but um you know there's tons of opportunity and mature companies right now because a lot of the people who have been there for a long time just don't give a

fuck anymore right not as such yeah sure. So that's one position. Another position would be, um, uh, actually I think that's the main position. I think that's the main, the main way to contribute to a mature company is to, uh, do the job that people have been there longer than you, uh, and do it better. And, and that's, what's going to help you move forward inside of that organization. As far as adding value, value adding to a company is a 24-hour-a-day job. It doesn't count just when you're in the walls of that company. It counts when you're outside the walls. It counts when you're on the internet. It counts when you're out in public. It counts

when you're in a restaurant. I would encourage everybody out there who's part of any organization, no matter what it be to really consider that with the essential, uh, and obligated communications that we have with social media now, that it's important to be a strong representative of your company, no matter where you go. Um, and how you represent yourself, whether it be in private or in public is still a representation of that. And, you know, sometimes people forget that sometimes people make mistakes, sometimes people get sloppy and, you know, that's not a good thing in today's society because everybody wants to see, uh, how the fucking steak is made in the back.

Right. And sometimes they don't like it. So it's important to keep that in mind. You know, we have full transparency nowadays. Uh, everybody's watching. So the better of an example that you can be inside it, uh, for a company, I think the more value you bring, right. Like for in our company, you know, we're not a mature company like a Nike. Um, by those terms, we're just a baby, but, um, you know, I can tell you for sure, like I value the people who live that way all the time, the most. And not when they're just in here. That's right.

Yeah. See, I feel like going out there now, you see this big giant, but dude, they got problems. Oh, fuck. You know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, they got major problems. You know what I'm saying? Like, look, man. Don't pick me to be on their board yeah well they wouldn't right and that's the

problem that's the problem okay when you start picking everybody that agrees with everything you fucking say you create a company like nike that only stands for certain things that excludes a huge potential of their population the minute there's a real competitor of nike they're fucking blasted okay yeah and there's a lot of people out there going after them it ain't just it ain't just me right you know i'm saying like they're the next group of young hungry people are they're already in business you know these guys are doing 20 30 40 100 million dollars a year you know what i mean 200 million dollars a year 500 million dollars a year And they're these people, Nike's not even, those people aren't even on Nike's radar because like I said in the previous question, or maybe it was earlier this question, you know, a lot of the people in that company don't give a fuck. Right. So they don't even

pay attention. So you have all these companies run by all these young people who are hungry. Starving. Yeah. We're just one of those companies right like we're not the only company there's a whole bunch and i know all the owners of all of them and and bro these guys aren't gonna stop i'm not stopping they're not gonna stop the next generation of iconic companies has already been born it just hasn't grown up yet you know so if i were someone instead of trying to go fucking work at nike i would try to get in with somebody like that that's that's me personally because the opportunity is that much, uh, greater to contribute. I think the companies of the old days, even though they're, they're massive giant corporations, um, and,

you know, they have the money and all these things, like, it's not going to be easy to remove those guys from where they are, but it'll happen organically because uh you know they've chosen to take a side uh that isn't in line with the majority of of what's going on and people are catching on to this corporate um fascism type shit where big corporations are all linking together to put an agenda down and dude the average american doesn't believe in that right and so like they can recognize like oh adidas oh nike oh under armor oh uh fucking they're all messaging the same shit that is like bro it's anti-american for the most part it's divisive and and this is a this is this is all tied together with the world economic forum and their alliance all those All those companies are part of that.

As far as I know, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they are. The World Economic Forum gets their financing from fucking a thousand different companies that are all huge. And they all band together with the same bullshit message to try to change the narrative in society. And at the end of the day, you can't change the laws of nature here in America. In America, we're always going to be founded on hard work. We're always going to be believe in merit-based, uh, rewarding. If you work hard, you're going to get rewarded. If you fucking lay around and be a piece of shit, you're not. And everybody believes that whether the only people that don't believe it are the far left people that they have chose to align with. And that's alienating a huge part of their audience. So the the the opportunity

to take their fucking lunch is right there in front of us i mean we do it every day bro it's just going to take time because they're so big right you know so if i was a young person i would get in line with someone who one of these companies who is not so far positioned that way and is more positioned for freedom and the american values because that's going to become the next hot thing. And when that trend fucking starts to hit in business, which it already has, business owners just haven't figured it out yet. Once business owners figure out that you can make 10 times more money by being a pro-America freedom brand, everybody will do it. And I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that's what the actual trend will be. And so, because people will do anything to make money,

right? Right. That's also why it's going to be important for you to identify the brands who have been about that from the beginning and not just people who are doing it for marketing. Yeah. But regardless, we need it.

And so like, I don't really care why the fuck people do it because we're going to lose the country if we don't. So, but that's, that's something I would talk about on CTI. But the point is, if I'm a young person who wants to get in and wants to add value, get with one of these younger

companies because for the next 10, 20, 30 years, you're going to be able to fucking have unlimited upward mobility because they're going to be working to catch these big behemoths. I would not go work at Nike. I would not go work at Adidas. I would not go work at Under Armour. I wouldn't go work at these companies because I feel like there's the opportunities greater in the smaller brands.

No, that's real. That's real. Andy, our third and final question for you, and this actually kind of ties into a little bit what you were saying on question one, but about that individual transaction, right? So the question is who gets more attention, your current customers or your future ones that that's a loser question they should all get attention it's equal yeah it's not fucking it's not listen this is the biggest thing that people have to understand as entrepreneurs it's not this or that it's all of it like like people want to think like they have this natural propensity to think like, okay, I've got this machine and it has parts one, two, three, four, five, six. And my parts three, four, and five are shitty, but my parts one, two, and six are good.

And I'm just going to fucking go with those three good parts and not worry about these three shitty parts. And there's entrepreneur gurus out there who really haven't ever operated a business in real life who say this shit all the time. You know, oh, go on your strengths and don't fuck your weaknesses. Well, the weaknesses is an area for someone else to come in and attack you. Okay? So if I'm another strategic business owner and I look and I say, okay,

that company's doing one and two and six, very strong. But those, the two, three, and five, or whatever in the middle, I don't remember what I said. The point is, that's where I attack them, right? And if you want to build a real company, you have to be strong across all facets. It has to be a united front. Your offense has to be strong.

Your defense has to be strong. Your products have to be great. Your service has to be great, right? Like, it's not this or that or what's more important. It's all important all the time. And that's something that business owner, amateur business owners that don't understand what it really takes to win,

think that they can slack on certain areas and be good at other areas. And bro, you just can't do that anymore. It's just not reality. There's better options out there and people aren't going to shop with you just because you're you. Your friends aren't going to shop with you just because you're you. So what does that mean? That means you have to be fucking great. That means part one has to be strong. Two has to be strong. Three has to be strong. Four, five, six, They got to be strong too. And your days and life will become consumed with literally going from part to part to

part to part. Like the one through six could be departments, right? For me. Right. And addressing issues there. Like one day I come in here, me and Sal might be working on something with the warehouse. The next day it might be customer service. The next day it might be products.

And then on the fourth day, it might be back to the warehouse right like this is it's it's like whack-a-mole you know that game whack-a-mole yeah it's like that except you got to be really good at it like real good and whack the shit out of it yeah and and dude that's what people people think that it's not like that that's just how it is like dude everybody like people from the outside believe you know and i've heard this oh andy just shows up to work and fucking fucks off all day like like i'm like dude i get my little cardio yesterday i get this from my friends who are who are even in the same business as me that aren't even that aren't on the same level right and they'll be talking to me and

i'll say well hey this is what you got to do well it's different for me because i didn't i don't have this and this and this hey motherfucker i didn't have this this this either right i built this shit from fucking nothing okay so i didn't have a team i didn't have people i didn't have this i built all that shit and you could build it too and like dude it's funny because when i see people like try to take little passive aggressive knocks at me like i'm just like dude you're you sound like a moron right like i saw i heard one time someone say oh yeah andy has people to do that stuff what the fuck are you talking about people to do what stuff right like this is a huge operation it's massive i see it every day bro the exact the exact example that i remember was oh you, if I have to go out in the parking lot and move a truck, I will go do that myself.

And Andy won't do that himself. Well, no shit, motherfucker, because I value my time and I understand what it's fucking worth. Right. Okay. And I did do that 15 years ago whenever it was fucking my period of time to do that. But guys will say shit like that trying to devalue me and value them. Right. time to do that but guys will say shit like that trying to devalue me and value them right well all that shows is that you don't know how to organize a team or organize your own time or value your own

time or know what the fuck it's worth because if you're still doing that it means it means you don't know how to lead properly you don't know how to team build properly right okay so before you come knocking on my shit and think i just got it made understand like all this shit was created right so that's my answer man that's fucking fine yeah guys andy that is three so go pay the fee yeah do that we're from sleeping on the floor now my jewelry box froze fuck a bowl fuck a stove counted millions in the cold bad bitch booted swole got her on bankroll Can't fold, that's a no Headshot, case closed