REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 429. Q&AF: Employee Maturity, Recommendation Gone Bad & Attracting Customers In A Digital Age

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

In today's episode, Andy answers your questions on how to raise the maturity level of your employees to allot them more responsibilities, how to handle a recommendation gone wrong with one of your clients, and what's the importance of marketing in a digital age to attract new customers. 

What is up guys, it's Andy Frisella and this is the show for the realest, say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society. Welcome to motherfucking reality. Guys, today we have Q and AF. That's where you submit the Qs and I bring you the AFs. As always, you could submit your questions, which can be about anything. They can be about personal development, how to win, how to kick ass, business, life, what's going on in the world, literally anything. And you could submit those

questions too. Guys, email those questions in to askandyatandyforsella.com. And ask DJ. Hello, children. What's going on, dude? What's going on, brother? Yeah. If this is your first time tuning in, this is not like other podcasts, okay? We have shows within the show and that makes it that much more valuable. So other times when you tune in, you might have CTI that's called cruise the internet. That's where, uh, we cruise the internet. All right. We throw up three topics right up here on this screen. Uh, we make fun of the people that wrote them. We make fun of the people that believe them. And we make fun of the people, uh, who actually read this shit and spread it around.

And then we talk about what truth there may be underlying, what problem there is to solve, and how we as a collective can be a solution to that problem. Other times when you tune in, we have real talk. Real talk is five to 20 minutes of me just basically ranting and talking some shit about what I think you need to hear. All right. That's what real talk is. It's exactly what the fuck it sounds like. And then we have full length. The full length is sort of what you guys are used to with the 40 million other podcasts out there. I am not the best interviewer in the world.

I am a conversationalist. It's above interviewer in the rankings. So I don't want to hear your shit. All right. There is a fee for the show you'll hear us talk about the fee the fee is just hey man if you get real value out of the show we appreciate it shared it that's how the message uh spreads you know i don't take endorsement dollars from companies to uh send messages to you guys and in exchange for not boring you have to show with my stupid

reads about stuff that i probably don't even use and I'm just getting paid to talk about. And you have to question whether or not I'm saying what they want me to say or if I'm saying what I actually believe. In exchange for all of that, I just ask that you share the show. That's it, man. We're trying to get the message out. And we've grown a tremendously strong, powerful podcast over the course of the better part of a decade off of word of mouth. I like word of mouth. Word of mouth is genuine. It's real. And that's how we operate here. So yeah, that's it. That's the rundown. What's going on? No, I could just, I could picture you having to like doing some ads for shit. Preparation H. Nah, it's good. Bro, I wouldn't do that.

I wouldn't do that, man. No. I don't see how people... You know what the worst one I've seen on TV, dude, is the... Do you remember the Dannon probiotic yogurt ads? Yes. Where they have these... The Activia shit? Yeah, bro. They have these women on the ad that they're talking about how they eat this yogurt and

it makes them poop better. Yeah. It's just... it's just a it's just that's a bad thing for you guys to do man because now all i think when i see some of these girls that did these ads is like them pooping yeah like for the rest of their life yeah yeah you know like you got a bad image yeah yeah that image so i wouldn't do preparation h i might do some other stuff i know what i certainly wouldn't do preparation age. I might do some other stuff. I know what I certainly wouldn't do.

I definitely wouldn't talk about this amazing, tasteful, orange sunrise first form energy drink that has me feeling great. It has me feeling like a whole fucking bowl of sunshine, baby. Right. I wouldn't talk about it, but this is not an ad. That's definitely not an ad. It's not an ad. But if you were. I'm just saying, if I were to take money for ads,

I would consider these guys. It's not a bad choice. Yeah. I like the blue drink for sure. I'm still a blue drink guy, man. Yeah? Yeah. You like the blue?

Blue raspberry. Yeah, that blue raspberry. Something different. Anyway. Yeah. Not an ad for sure so what we got today dude well as always brother i got some good ones for you all right hey where where can people follow you at dude i don't know if you guys follow dj oh well oh i appreciate the guys that do they're

not hosts they share the show yeah right uh but i'm on instagram guys uh at officially d johnson yeah go follow them i think we're starting uh at officially d johnson yeah go follow him i think we're starting to post on youtube with these shows now yeah well hello youtube that'd be nice hi guys yeah this is what the fuck we look like yeah well you know it's crazy most people don't know i'm black oh they don't know you only talk about it every fucking show that's what i'm saying like what the fuck do you mean i talk about my credit score all the time yeah like black right like what the fuck i had a black person tell me like damn i didn't know you were black like bro what the fuck all right dude here i am yep you you're definitely black

all the oppression and the blackness all right well let's knock these out man andy i got some good ones for you all right question number one uh andy i have a young employee that has worked for me for the last year and a half. He wants to do more in the company, which is great. And I want him to do more. However, him being 18, he's still very immature for his age. And the next steps for him would involve him driving company vehicles, which I don't feel him feel comfortable with him driving yet as I see how he drives his own. So my question is, how do I help him become more mature and act more like an adult so I can start trusting him to do more?

Well, you've got to just explain to him very clearly that your progress stops right now, unless you change this, this, this, this, you know, about yourself. If he's truly hungry and he's truly ambitious and truly wants to be a part of what you got going on, he'll make those adjustments and he'll understand. And he will, I've had plenty of people over the course of business in my companies who have been young, 17, 18, 19 years old, who also acted like a typical 17, 18, 19-year-old kid where I pulled them in. I said, hey, man, you're good. I like you. I like your enthusiasm. I think you're great for the company, but bro, you got this problem and this problem and this problem and your progress stops right here.

Unless this problem, this problem and this problem are fucking handled. And I think people, you know, can respect that, especially whenever they're young and they're making some progress inside of a company where not everybody's maybe that young. Um, by just giving them that direction, that direct talk where, Hey, if you want to go further, this has to change. It's not a negotiation. Yeah. Uh, you'll see some changes pretty quick, you know, because dude, when you're young

and people are extra ambitious like that, you know, that's some of the most powerful people that you can have inside of your organization because they haven't been beat down by 15 jobs already before they got to. Yeah. So like they haven't been the, the ambition and the drive and the life force and all the great things that, that you need your company to have, haven't been sucked out of them by,

you know, unfulfilled promises or a bad employment in other companies or bad situations or staying in a state in one situation for for 10 years and then developing the belief system that I can never move out of this. You're working with a blank slate and it's very important that you understand that you have an opportunity to maybe bring someone up who's 17, 18 now, but by the time they're 25, they could be running your shit. I've had executives and companies that I'm involved in that are 25, 26, 27 years old, man, because those are the guys that have the drive, the ambition, the hunger, and everything that you really need to build something special. Unfortunately, man, by the time people are 30,

40 years old, especially in their 40s and up, a lot of these people are set in their ways. They're not willing to adapt. They're not willing to change their way of thinking. They think that it's too late for them in life. And because of that, you end up with someone who's basically a drag on your system. Yeah. So I'm a huge fan of giving young people responsibility. And I think it just comes down to you being very direct and a very strong leader and say,

Hey, here's what i need yeah and if you don't do that uh you're not going to get what the it is you're after and and and then making sure that they do those things yeah you know do you think i mean obviously like being around you and i know you take like the responsibility of raising uh mature adults seriously right but do you think that's maybe like that's something that entrepreneurs have maybe missed or not have taken as seriously like that's why we have 30 year olds with the less ambition and you know yeah yeah for sure dude i think that there's a big i think there's a big leadership gap in entrepreneurship uh because just like there's a lot of people who are in their 40s 30s and 40s who think like this is a job and i'm

going to basically show up and do the minimum and go home there's just as many leaders out there that own companies especially second generation leaders people who were born into their business who believe that you know it's good enough to uh show up tuesday wednesday and thursday go to their lake house on friday take monday off and they think that these people and Thursday, go to their lake house on Friday, take Monday off. And they think that these people are going to go to battle for them inside the office. It's not going to fucking happen. Right. Okay. So a lot of times the bad culture that you have in your office comes from your entitlement. And you think that you're somehow, uh, you know, in a position where you get to fuck off while everybody else fucking is working hard. And that's terrible leadership. And it's a recipe for you losing your shit. This is why second,

third generation businesses typically fucking fail because the people who are in charge of them do not possess the same work ethic and they can't possess the same work ethic or understanding that the first generation did when they were trying to grind it out, every nickel, every dime, every customer at a time. Well, when you take someone and you plant them into that situation, they think this shit's just automatic. There's no skin in the game. Yeah. They don't understand what it took to cultivate that. And that's why the longer and more successful your business becomes, the longer it's around and the more successful it becomes, the harder it is to maintain that same mentality of

hunger and growth and aggressiveness that you need to have. But the reality of business is this, you're either moving forward or you're getting passed up because a lot of people think they can get to a certain point and they can just like be there. Cruise control. Yeah, but that doesn't work in life or business because dude, there's enough people that are behind you right now who are hustling as hard as they fucking can, who will pass you that are behind you right now who are hustling as hard as they fucking can, who will pass you by the minute you start to put it in neutral and kind of coast. Okay. So the market is always moving forward. And if you, for some reason, whatever reason, you know, whatever it is, maybe you get comfortable. Maybe you start making good money.

Maybe you start to become, you start thinking you're rich and you don't need to do these things or you're special or you're entitled to a different lifestyle now because you've put in your time, right? That's very common with a lot of people. A lot of people think, they tell me this shit. You've put in your 24 years, bro. Why the fuck are you there all the time? Because I don't want to go backwards.

Right. I want to continue to move forward. I understand that my external life is a result of what I do on all the shit you motherfuckers don't see. Like that's the way the game works. So when you see someone out there hustling and it doesn't make sense to you because they're rich as fuck and they've got everything that you could possibly ever comprehend, maybe it should occur to you that that person understands that the reason they have all those things

is because of the work that they do. Okay. So, you know, we have equal fault here amongst some entitled employees and also some title ownership. And if we want to switch the culture of this country around and make it the culture that we all believe it should be, that's going to have to change. You know, organization. And by the way, it's natural order. You know, organizations that behave the ways that i'm describing will automatically be weeded out right they eventually they eventually die so like you know it's just the natural process of the life cycle of a business for sure sometimes it just takes time now as an employee i if i were an

employee i would want to be because not everybody's going to be an entrepreneur. It's only 7% to 8% of people are entrepreneurs and only 1% of those are actually successful entrepreneurs. So when we consider who you want to work for, if you're an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur, someone who wants to be a part of an aggressive organization you have to be within an organization that is actively and aggressively growing okay that has that mentality of we're going to do this they have a mission they're trying to accomplish you don't want to ever get stuck in a company that's in one of those neutral phases yeah because that'll you're going to waste your time being there

and you only get one life dude you only get one career you only get so many years to build something great. And the more time you spend in an organization that's either stagnant or moving backwards, that's actually fucking you. You can't make that time up. So it's very important that if you're in one of those companies that's neutral or moving backwards, that you start looking for, you know, and you're an aggressive person. You want to win.

You want to build a life. You know, some people don't give a fuck, dude. Some people, you know, they're going to cook fucking French fries their whole fucking life. And that you want to build a life you know some people don't give a dude some people you know they're gonna cook french fries their whole life and that's gonna be their life and honestly i don't care like that's cool but just don't about what the you don't have you know what i'm saying um but if you're someone who's driven ambitious and hungry and wants to be a part of something you have to actively seek out a company that also aligns with those values. Andy, question number two. Andy, I'm two years into my real estate business. I recently recommended a contractor who I've used multiple times in the past for other clients to a new client of mine, and it blew up in my face.

The contractor is showing me a new side of him I've never seen before, and it's going to cost my client an extra $4,000. I'm not working with the contractor anymore, but I want to preserve the relationship with my client for this and for future transactions, referrals, et cetera. I'm planning on eating the 4K for my client since I referred the work. Am I being foolish for doing this or do you consider this doing the right thing um personally that's something i would do yeah like personally but i've also been known to go overboard to make things correct or make things right and a lot of times that's bit me in the ass but the reason i continue to do these things is because i believe in the greater good and i also believe that when you do what you think

is right, that's the most important thing. Because I'm not sitting at home. I don't ever sit at home and think like, fuck, dude. I really, like, I got cheap with that situation and it fucked up that relationship. Like, I don't, that's not a thought I ever have. I don't have, I don't have relationships that way.

And that, I think that probably removes a lot of, you know, emotional burden off of someone when you know that you've given everything you can and when you know that you've helped every way that you can, you've done everything you can. I think that's a good thing. It's more about your piece than it is about the relationship. For sure. So I continue to do those things even though they aren't always reciprocated or appreciated but you know i think most people would look at that and say that's probably overboard for sure but it depends on it depends on how you want to be viewed like do you

want to be like i want to be viewed as someone who always does the right thing and makes shit right like when i fuck up i'm gonna fucking fix it and I want that to be part of the story that's told about me. So, you know, I assume that if you're even thinking, I commend you for even thinking that way because most people just wouldn't. Most people would be like, oh, that sucks, bro. Yeah, here's another one for you. So, you know, I actually, you know, that's,

I think I would do something similar to that if it were me within reason. And, you know, I think that's a good thing to do i think it's always a good thing to do when when you know that you made a mistake if you can make it right i certainly don't think that would be expected right i certainly don't think you're going to be blamed but i certainly think that the story that's told about you from that person from then on out will be holy shit that's a stand-up motherfucker worth a lot more than 4k yeah yeah you could you couldn't you couldn't buy that for 100k or a million right you know so that's the right way to be thinking about it for

sure so because i mean doing the right thing it's a it's a massive thing especially now like right like it's a it's a great opportunity for businesses to become more ethical and do the right thing right the public wants it do would you is it is it how exactly do you look at these situations? Is every single situation different? Or do you look at it, every single situation is different when you're trying to rectify the problem? No, there's no set rules, man. You got to take everything as it comes. Every problem presented to you over the course of your life is going to be slightly different. So they're all technically unique, but the chances are you can fit all of those billions of little issues that you're going to face over the course of your life into probably, you know, five categories of problems, right?

You got a problem with your finances. You got a problem with relationship. You got a problem with your physical appearance or your health. You got a problem with your mental state. You see what I'm saying? You could categorize all these issues, and over the course of your life, you'll be able to recognize that these unique issues

really aren't that unique, and you'll be able to draw upon the previous experiences that you've had to solve the problems that you come up with. This is why in business, it's important for you to not get completely demoralized when you have problems every single fucking day. Because every single day, you may have a problem, but that problem and that solution is going to provide you with a new skill. And the next time a similar problem comes about, you're going to have an easier time solving those problems and so that's why like when people start to look at you know how hard it is to build a company or to build an income or to build a business or whatever it is you're working on they don't appreciate the lessons that are being taught to them by the problems that they get to overcome you know what

i'm saying so a lot of perception of yeah and they and they only focus on the disruption because the expectation is that these people are supposed to have a perfect day right right well listen motherfucker i don't know about you but i haven't had a perfect day in a long fucking time like actually i can't remember a single day that i was able to get through without zero fucking conflict or zero problems i can't't think of even one over the course of the last 24 years. And I bet if I was aware enough to recognize what I'm talking about back then, I probably didn't have one before that. And I probably just had the wrong attitude.

And I was looking at it like, fuck, why is this all this shit happened to me? Well, when you take your perspective and you switch it from, fuck, why is all this shit happening to me? And you switch it to like, damn, dude, I'm grateful. I'm learning these lessons. This is making me better. Now, all of a sudden, instead of it disrupting your whole day or disrupting your whole piece, you actually feel better about moving forward in life and whatever it is you're working on your business. Okay. Because you're learning new skillsets. And then that's what creates the confidence for you to be someone that everybody else comes to

To solve the problem meaning you're the smart motherfucker who gets to solve all the problems and guess what that motherfucker also gets They get the most money Because the people who solve the most problems get the most fucking money because they're the most fucking valuable so Why don't you quit shitting on the fact that your life is presenting you with all these opportunities to improve and start appreciating that it is because that's what's going to make you in the long run. You're just looking at it completely wrong. Yeah. Guys, Andy, our third and final question. Question number three, Andy. Andy, I own a retail store. Think home goods, but with local buys and crafts. Oh, that's cool. What's the best way to attract new customers in a digital age with a physical brand as I hesitate to invest heavily on the social media side?

Do I need to just get over my fears and ride the wave or do I need to do something completely different? Listen, dude, first of all, your best way to get new customers is to do such a great job with the current customers that you have and make the experience so fucking amazing that they cannot fucking help, but tell this story about you. Okay. You want the story to be told about your store to be, this was not only the most incredible home goods store, this was the most incredible fucking shopping experience that I've ever had anywhere in my life. And if you can do that, then those people will spread that message for you. So my first answer is fix your shit. Okay. Make it so that when these people walk out of the door, they actually like are so amazed that,

that they turn around and they walk back and they shake your hand unsolicited and say dude thank you so much for that that was fucking amazing or thank you so much for the great service or they give you a big hug okay yeah that's when you know you're doing it right in a retail setting okay now let's address this that was the first step yeah okay do this first and i'll explain why here in a second was the first step. Okay. Do this first. And I'll explain why here in a second. Now, the second step is, if you're not using the tools available to you, these are inexpensive, highly effective, highly targeted tools that allow you to grow your retail business, your small business exponentially because you have some hangup about technology

and not understanding it. And you're not willing to at least go find some people that do you're a fucking idiot. Yeah. Okay. Because that is cheap. It's effective and it will help you win on a massive scale. Now, do you want to go out and do that automatically? No, you want to have the process that I laid out the first part of the question, because if the experience is bad, okay, let's just say people are coming in, they're getting treated like shit. Right. And you think that going out and creating this online e-com campaign is going to somehow

solve your problem. It's going to actually quicken you going out of business because it will do the exact opposite of spreading the amazing word of mouth. What it will do is you'll go out, you'll get all these new people who've never heard of you before to now give you a chance to earn their business. They will come in and shop at your store and they will fucking go out and they will say, that was the biggest crock of shit I ever went to. They were out of shit. The place was dirty. The people were rude. The experience was terrible.

And you'll go out of business extra fast because word of mouth can be accelerated that quickly with technology. That's what you're afraid of probably, right? Well, that is what they're probably afraid of. Yeah. And honestly, some people, they're a little older, do have hangups on technology because they don't understand the great things they can do um a lot of my day yeah well bro listen i'm fucking that old okay like fuck you all right but the truth of the matter is is like but see i'm

smart enough to go find motherfuckers that understand do it yeah and do it good yeah so have your have your system in place to create this experience. Then think of the e-comm campaign that you're trying to create around this as the gasoline to the fire. So you got to build the fire first. All right. Now, if you go out and you don't have the fire and you go out, you get all the gasoline in the world and it ain't going to fucking blow the fuck up. Okay. And actually what will happen is a quick and you go on our business. You need to understand this. A lot of people make this mistake.

A lot of people. This is why you have so many e-com kids having to go through, you know, this product and this product and this product. And I understand that a lot of these e-com kids when they're young, that's the point. They're like just caring about the income stream. But the real killers, the motherfuckers that are going to be like billionaires when they're fucking 35 years old and 40 years old, those kids will understand what I'm saying right now.

And they will build an amazing concept and then understand that e-com is just an advertising arm of this concept and experience that you've created. That already exists. Yeah. And you may make less cash flow when you're 19, 20, 21, and you won't be able to buy your fucking Huracan at 21 years old. But when you're fucking 40, Bugatti will be knocking on your fucking door asking you to

buy cars from them. Ask me how I know. Right. Okay. So let's think of this long game. Yeah game yeah okay you could still do very well uh but build your fire add the gas that's what you're gonna that's what you're going for here i love it yeah and you guys have to understand you're lucky to have this technology if you don't utilize it you really are fucking stupid yeah okay because if you utilize it the right way, this man or woman, whoever owns the store, you

could scale that store out across the country. And be the next home goods. Yeah, bro. Yeah. You could be the next home goods of locally sourced shit everywhere if you leverage this properly. So I would encourage you to think a little bigger than what you're thinking right now. We got to crawl before we can walk, but you're going to find out real quick if you follow

what I just told you, that things can happen very fast if you're good about doing it. Guys, Andy, that is three. All right. Go pay the fee. Yeah. Went from sleeping on the floor Now my jewelry box froze Fuck a bowl, fuck a stove Counted millions in a cold Bad bitch, booted swole Got her on bankroll Can't fold, that's a no Headshot, case closed