REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 648. Q&AF: Spreading The Message Without Social Media, Family And Friends Support & Business Partnership Roles

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

In today's episode, Andy answers your questions on the best way to spread your message without using social media, how to navigate your family and friends' lack of support for you publicly, and how roles in a business partnership work over time.

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 questions and we give you the answers you can submit your questions to be answered on q and af a couple different ways the first way is guys email those questions into ask andy at andy forsella.com or you go on youtube on the q and af episode and drop your question in the comments and we'll pick some from there as well. Other times, you're going to have CTI.

That stands for Cruise the Internet. That's our society and culture show. We talk about what's going on in the world. We put topics on the screen. We speculate on what's true and what's not true. And then we talk about how we, the people, have to solve the problems going on in the world. Other times, we have Real Talk. Real Talk is just 5 to 20 minutes of me giving you something that I think needs to be heard. And then we have 75 Hard Verses. And 75 Hard Verses

where someone who has completed the 75 Hard Program comes on and talks about how their life was before, how their life is now, and how 75 Hard has changed the trajectory of their existence. If you're unfamiliar with 75 Hard, it is the first phase of the Live Hard program. And you can get that program for free at episode 208 on the Real AF audio feed. It's not on YouTube. It's only on audio. If you want more information than what's on the audio podcast, there is an entire book written about this called The Book on Mental Toughness, which includes the entire Live Hard program, plus 10 plus chapters and case studies on mental toughness, why it's important, how you can apply it to your life,

and what it'll do for you. So if you want to get that book, you can get it on my website, andyprosella.com. Now, I've stopped mentioning full lengths because we have this new concept for full lengths that we're going to unroll for you guys, hopefully before the end of this month. So I'll let you know when that happens let's see what else the fee oh yeah the fee you're going to notice we don't run ads on the show so we have this fee and the fee is like buy my shit that's what it means like support my companies you know

and spread the word that's the fee okay so So you're not going to hear me stop the show and read a bunch of shit that I don't use. I'm not going to answer to advertisers' thoughts about things I say. I pay for this show out of my pocket, produce it for you guys, and try to bring you guys real stuff. So in exchange for that, I just ask that you share the show out.

And we call that paying the fee. So don't be a hoe. Share the show. All right. What's up? What's going on? It's Monday. Yeah, it is.

Not when we're recording this. No, it's actually Friday. It's actually Friday, but it will be Monday. Yeah, but we'll pretend it's Monday because they're listening on Monday. So Chiefs won. Oh, did they? Yeah. Really?

That's my prediction. You think so? I think so. I think the Chiefs are going to win 27-14. Really? Man, I don't You think so? I think so. I think the Chiefs are going to win 27-14. Really? Man, I don't know what's going to happen. I also think Travis is going to propose.

Well, I don't know. I don't know. We'll see if I win. I mean, if I'm right. We'll see if I win. I could see him doing that if the Chiefs won. But, I mean, dude, San Francisco is no fucking joke, bro. I mean, they're a good team. Fred Warner, bro. Yeah. I mean, dude, that's- Pur. I mean, they're a good team. Fred Warner, bro.

Yeah. I mean, dude, that is. Purdy, like, they're fucking good. That dude's a unit. Yeah. McCaffrey, they're fucking good, bro. Fred Warner is a fucking unit. Bro, people don't know, he's been to first form a few different times.

And I came up here on a Saturday one time. And usually there's nobody here on a Saturday but, like, just a few guys that I know. But occasionally there's people I don't know. don't know we have a lot of people here and um bro i walked in the locker room and fucking the biggest fucking dude i've ever seen it looks like zeus just a massive standing in there and he's got a he's wearing his hair in a pineapple so it makes him look like he's six nine and i look bro and this dude looks like he's just chiseled like a statue dude and i'm just like i'm gonna go over here and hide i'm gonna change the corner like i felt like i was back in high school freshman year yeah dude that is a grown man oh hey listen could you imagine getting hit by that

dude i don't want to imagine. You ever watched him play? He's fucking everywhere. That's the craziest thing. So I taught him how to play blackjack, right? Yeah. Remember at your house. Nicest fucking guy you can ever, like, just nice. Bro.

Dude's a fucking, like, he's awesome. Amazing dude. When he gets on that fucking field, though, bro. He's an animal. I don't know that guy no more. Bro, the guy's so physically dominant that he's, like, having a good time out there. He's smiling. Yeah, he's laughing, having a good time, just killing motherfuckers. I don't know that guy no more. Bro, the guy's so physically dominant that he's like having a good time out there. He's smiling. Yeah, he's laughing, having a good time, just killing motherfuckers. I don't know what game it was.

He laid somebody out. Like he chased him, like hawked him down, laid him out, and then fucking like zoom in on him. He's just fucking smiling. Yeah. Yeah, bro. I just don't. That's a different level of like intensity. Yes.

I think he's so, such a physical, fast, big dude that, like, this is just a fucking game. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, he's, I don't know. That's an impressive dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually, you know, it'd be cool to see him win. Yeah.

No, that'd be awesome, man. I'm tired of seeing the Chiefs in there, man. I'm not. But, I mean, I wouldn't be. Is that bitter of me? No, not really. They're getting annoying a little bit. Like, I like the Chiefs, but, like, the off-field stuff is starting to get on my nerves.

Winners win. You can't deny the winning shit. Winners win. You know, fuck, by this time, everybody's going to know what happened, and this conversation's going to be pointless anyway. Yeah. That's fine. But I like when they, like, they just didn't, they didn't gel this year, man.

No. You know, they were real lucky to be in the Super Bowl. And if they win, you know, fuck, that's a great season for them because it wasn't their best. But, yeah, we'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see, man. I'm not going to make a call, bro, because I really don't know. Like, I really fucking think, I really think it's going to be a pretty good game.

Hmm. Hmm. We'll see. We'll see if, see what Vegas has to say about it. Mahomes is a fucking winner, bro. That's the thing. Yeah. Dude knows how to win.

And I think he's going to end up being one of the greatest players that ever played any sport ever. So. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. We'll see about that. Yeah, we'll see. Well.

You already know the answer. Everybody knows already. Yeah. We're just talking shit. It's all right. Yeah. Let's get into it, man man i got some good ones for you oh you do i do all right pull them out yep guys andy question number one andy i'm 41 years old and i've lived through the boom of social media successfully never giving into the urge to join any platform at any time. In my 20s, it seemed like a burden, but given how much we've seen its negative impact on society and its

terrible effects it has on our younger generations, it seems to be a blessing in hindsight. I was able to be a successful entrepreneur without it, doing business locally the old school way through hard work and personal relationships. I'm now a successful entrepreneur with a great company here in St. Louis. My real question is, how the hell do you get your message out to people these days without it, without social media? I'd like to run for local office at some point in the near future, but I'm normally opposed to these platforms. Also, I'm not a hoe. I show your show through links to friends with coworkers, but I feel like that's incredibly inefficient. As a man who has built a lot, not all of his success as being an early adopter of social marketing, what would you do today to spread your messages if you

didn't have any of these tools? Well, first of all, as much as I don't like the tools of technology and as much as I believe that they have degraded culture and humanity, and I talk about this often, it's still, in my opinion, a requirement if you're going to be successful in business. I think you can do well and do okay without it. There's lots of people that do. I think here's what I mean. You could survive without it and you could do okay, but there's a level that you're going to have a hard time reaching because the ability to reach the amount of people that you can on social media with little to no cost is unprecedented in human history. So it's a huge advantage for business. And when I talk about technology, I have to weigh the benefits of all the good stuff

that is brought into my life and brought into the business world and entrepreneurship and the opportunities it's created with the amount of damage that it's created in interpersonal relationships, culture, humanity as a whole. and the opportunities it's created with the amount of damage that it's created in, you know, interpersonal relationships, culture, humanity as a whole. And when I weigh those things out, it's my opinion that the cost has been more than the benefit. And that's just my personal opinion from observing all of it. Now, with that being said, I want to win. Okay. And this is why I

tell you guys with AI, you know, they're going to put companies in a position where they're forced to adopt it. And even the most hardcore pro-human, pro-job person, they're not going to let their company fail if other companies are kicking their ass and the consumer is adopting the technology. So all of this comes down to what culture and society is going to decide is acceptable. What are they going to support? You know, there was a time in our country where people made truly moral buying decisions based upon the ethics of a company and how it represented itself and what it stood for. And as the culture swings back towards pro-America,

I believe the culture is going to swing back also towards real people being employed, real Americans having jobs. And I think people are going to support that more and more and more. And I also believe that humans can still do things much better than AI in terms of connecting with the customer, which is what people are craving in the marketplace right now. You can almost feel the craving for human interaction because we spend so much time on these devices and so much time dealing with technology and automation and AI that people, consumers are looking for places where they can connect with other people. And so I believe that the companies that will stick this out and continue to employ people and continue to keep jobs and continue to do a good job connecting with their community

are going to beat any of the technology AI companies when it comes to selling consumer goods or even services. So that's my opinion of where we're going. But I can tell you this, bro, like you can't be ignorant to the point where you pretend like this isn't a huge advantage. This is a huge advantage. You're able to reach fucking tens of thousands, if not millions of people for basically free through good social media platforms. And so I would encourage you if you're looking to run for office and looking to, you're going to have to have these platforms, bro. Like there's no option around it. Um, I mean, you could run a campaign against technology and you could get out and you could canvas the neighborhoods and you could do all the old

school things. And I still think those will work. But I mean, dude, you're talking about fighting someone who has the ability to reach, you know, thousands of people with the push of a button or actually going door to door and hoping that you can make up that traction through work and i think you can but i think it's going to be hard and i think the best solution for someone like you would be to find some sort of middle ground where you're using a little bit of technology if not if for nothing else you're letting people know where you're going to be and what you're doing for announcements you know what i'm saying you don't have to live on there um but dude as far as what to do you know

fuck bro people want to get together with people it's a it's a it's in our dna we want to be together with people so you're you know things like going door-to-door i think things like product uh direct mail mailers are highly underrated um i think things like, you know, holding town hall meetings. I think things like doing things, anything, community events, runs, rucks, workouts, barbecues, fish fries, these things people like to do. And so if you can build an in-person community around doing whatever it is you're into, I think you can do very well. But I think you're going to leave a lot on the table if you just completely ignore the technology aspect of it. Yeah.

And I think that's maybe what confuses a lot of people is like, because yes, like technology is great, but you're not saying put the whole business on technology or put the whole business up to social media. There is still a very real... Well, I think we have a problem, dude. I think we have a lot of entrepreneurs and people in general see i grew up in an my first 10 years of business were basically in-person business okay it was retail in-person business the things

i had to do were like guerrilla marketing tactics like i had had to go door to door. I had to go to actual events and network. I had to meet people in person. I had to do things like flyer parking lots and put signs in bathrooms and fucking bro. Like I'm talking about the cheapest shit possible to get the word out. You know, we're like, dude, I spent years walking all over Springfield, Missouri, giving out fucking free samples and, you know, little coupons or T-shirts that we had or a shaker cup for years. OK, to get the word out, because we had to. There wasn't social media. You could there wasn't even an option. So we couldn't afford radio, television and newspaper because we were so small.

So what what would you do if you couldn't afford radio, television, newspaper and there was no small so what what would you do if you couldn't afford radio television newspaper and there was no social media what would you do that's the answer of how you get people so you need to start looking what would you do in those situations and I'm lucky enough to have built a business foundation in that era and then also come along with technology and then flip those techniques into what you know is we know social media and the way things are now so a lot of people when they do business bro they're either one or the other they're they're either like this guy who's completely old school no no social media presence or they're like some of these 20 year old kids that know all the hacks, but they don't know how to talk to anybody and they don't know how to actually connect with

anybody and they don't know anything. So like, dude, a good place to be is to blend the two, blend the old school in person, the ability to connect, the ability to care, the ability to service a customer and make them understand that you actually give a fuck about them with the tools of technology and the ability to reach people at scale. And when you blend those two, you end up with a very unique business that most people can't do because they lack the experience of what it was like to do business before social media and technology. And I personally think that one of the biggest reasons that I've been successful up until this point in time has been because I know both sides of the fucking coin very well. If you put me in an environment, if the internet crumbled today and we had to go

back to doing business the old way, I would beat everybody's fucking ass because I've already done it. And I know those skills. And then, you know, we translate those skills into technology and that's what we do with our company. So I think the answer here, dude, is you've got to understand this isn't always just a cultural hot point to stand on or a point of principle to stand on. There's uses for these tools. Okay. And if we ignore the usefulness of certain tools, we're going to be at a disadvantage. So we have to acknowledge where these things bring value, but we also have to keep our principles in mind of what we stand for. So for you,

if you're a 41 year old man and you're sort of, you believe in old school and you believe in connecting with people, that doesn't mean you can in old school, and you believe in connecting with people. That doesn't mean you can't use technology, but why don't you use technology to connect with people? You see what I'm saying? To show them how you connect. Yes. So, like, dude, there's this polarization of thought where it's total anti-tech or total all-the-way tech. Neither one of those people actually win. It's the people who know how to blend the two.

How do you connect with people? How do you make people understand that you care? How do you serve them? How do you serve them in a way where they say, holy shit, I love doing business with these guys. How do you do that? And then how do you use technology to aggregate more customers into that? That is the way you should be thinking about whatever it is you're doing, whether it be running for political office, whether it be running a business, whether it be starting a charity or whatever it is you're trying to do. People are people and they're always going to be people. They're always going to want to connect with people. They're always going to feel that they're going to feel like they're cared about. They're going to spend money with companies that care about them.

All right. But if we just ignore the technology that's available, we're going to have a hard time filling the funnel of available customers, because guess what? That's where most people are. So we have to learn to blend those two together. And that would be my advice to you. I love it. I love it, guys. Any question number two? Andy, I have friends that know that I do music. They seem to give me positive feedback and encouragement behind closed doors when it's just me and them. But whenever I publish a song, they fail to support. They don't share my content or comment or like my stuff. Now, I know this is a sense of entitlement because I hear your content and you discuss the irrelevance of family and friends supporting you.

However, this is a unique situation for myself is when they speak to me to my face or in private i get the encouragement but when i post my songs or content they see the stuff but fail every single time to share it my question is am i being entitled or selfish or should they support the way they say behind closed doors this feels annoying because when they do their content i always support their stuff help i appreciate all of your advice. And so if I am being entitled, I'll understand. Thanks, Andy. All right.

So there's a couple things that could be going on here, and none of them you're going to like. All right? I got this little coin over here. It says mercy or no mercy. Just put it on a wrist. It says mercy. All right.

So I'm going to be nice. be nice i'll be nice about it but here's because i could very easily be not nice but i'll be nice about this all right most of us think we're better than we are all right most of us think our art is better most of us think we're better at business most of us think we're better in shape most of us when we're creating something we think we're better than we are when our family and friends see us doing these things, because they care about us, they will encourage us. But here's the thing, bro. People will not, the people closest to you will not support you until other people are supporting you. I don't know why it's that way, but it's that way when I was in business coming up, bro

Nobody really ever fucking I mean, yes, my brother my dad close people to me They supported but but like people that I was very good to people that I was friends with people They they would giggle they would laugh. They wouldn't support us publicly. They kind of snickered and It wasn't until it was very clear that I was going to do something that then those people came around. All right. So let's break this down to what this could be. Okay. First of all, you could not be good enough.

Your shit might not be good enough. Your shit might just need more work in order for people to like it. And that's a very real option for you to consider because our friends and family will tell us we're doing great whenever we're really not that good right we're over here painting a picture and like holy shit dude that looks like bob ross picasso i like yeah and it fucking doesn't right you put that shit out and people laugh yeah so we can't take our friends and family's encouragement to heart because it's not real they're biased all right so that's one thing you need you you you may need to get better i bet you do okay because we all need to get better and that's no offense to you secondly you're battling human nature all right nobody wants to be the first person to say that's cool shit and very few people can do that all right so most people wait until something is very obviously going to be successful

very obviously going to be cool to jump on the bandwagon. This is why your friends, your family, the people closest to you will not start to encourage you until they see strangers encouraging you, which is counterintuitive. And it makes us scratch our heads like, shit, why is it this way? It's just that way. These people are reminded every single day that they're not doing anything relevant. They're not trying anything relevant. They're not even attempting to be anything more than what they are.

And because you are, they will pretend to support it, but they won't support it in public. All right. But once you get to a point where you're kicking ass and everybody's starting to think you're awesome, then all of a sudden, bro, it goes from them not supporting and they start showing up at your shit. They show up at your shop. They show up, they buy your products and they start showing up at your shit. They show up at your shop. They show up, they buy your products and they start saying this shit, man, I always believed in you. I'm so proud of you. And you're thinking like, if you always believed in me, how come you never

shared my shit back in the day? How come you never helped me out? How come you never had a conversation with me? How come you never gave me any good advice? Why'd you laugh at me? Why'd you make fun of me? Why'd you make those smart ass remarks? If you always believed in me, because bro, that's what happens. These people fucking come around and they only come around once you're so obviously going to do it. And by that point, you won't care that they're there. That's the thing. So we, we greatly overemphasize the effects of other people's belief on us, falsely thinking that we need their belief to be successful.

The people closest to you will never actually believe in you until you are very clearly going to win. And then they will come back around and support you. And some of them never will. So it's actually irrelevant. So the point here is you've got two things going on. One, your shit's probably not good enough yet. All right. So you need to keep getting better. And two, you're dealing with human nature. People aren't going to support you until it's

very obvious that you're going to win. Are you being entitled? Yes. Okay. You can't expect people to push you out. You've got to make it happen on your own. You can't depend on anybody. Here's the reality of people in your life. Just so we're clear. Most people do not give a fuck about you. Okay? You're going to realize this one way or the other along the way in life. Most people, most people you know right now in your life do not give a flying fuck about you.

They might be your friend. They might be cool to hang out with. They might be cool to go to dinner with. You might go on vacation with them even. At the end of the day, your life falls apart. Those motherfuckers are not going to fucking be there. They are not going to be there for you. All right. You might have two or three people in your life, if you're lucky, that you can count on if shit goes wrong. okay? And most of us spend our entire lives making decisions around what these people who do not give a fuck about us

actually think about what it is we're doing. So reconcile that in your brain. We live our entire lives surrounded by people that don't give a shit about us and we make our decisions based upon what we're gonna do, what we're gonna create and who we're gonna become on the opinions of people that probably won't be in our life in five to 10 years. So we, we get scared. They're going to make fun of us. We get scared.

They're going to laugh. We get scared. They're going to criticize. And so we do nothing. We just hang out with them and do the same shit. And then we waste all this time and all this opportunity and leave all this potential on the table for people's opinions that aren't even relevant to us. And if your life were to take a shit, they wouldn't be there to help you. So you've got to stop making decisions. And I'm talking to this man right here. You've got to stop making decisions based upon the opinions of your friends and family. And you have to start making decisions based upon what's going to be right for you, not just today, but in 10 and 20 years from now. All right. So they're not going

to support you until everybody else supports you. It doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is. You need to get better and you need to get better so that people outside of that network encourage you and say, fuck, yeah, this is, this is cool shit. And then your people will come in and join. That's how it actually works. All right. So keep that in mind. You're not facing anything that anybody else doesn't face that's trying to do anything. I don't know why that is. You would think that your friends and your family and your people, they would all cheer you on the whole way. They don't. They fucking don't. And the reason they don't, in my opinion, is because you're an example of going when they are afraid to go. You're an example of chasing a dream when they are afraid to even dream. You're an example of execution when they are afraid to get off the fucking bench. And so they don't want you to actually succeed. Yes, they will tell you to

your face, you're great, you're talented, you're skilled, you're amazing. But when it comes time to show up and buy your shit, they won't be there, bro, because they're actually afraid that you're going to make it because if you make it, it shows them that they could have made it too. And they've got to live with that regret. So that's what you're fucking dealing with, bro. So stop worrying about what it is people think about you. Stop making decisions based around what your friends and family think you should or shouldn't do and start making decisions about becoming an awesome artist or an awesome musician or an awesome CEO or an awesome entrepreneur or whatever the fuck it is you do and dedicate yourself to that. Get better, keep going. Eventually people from the outside will care and then you'll see how fake the people around you actually are and when you see how

fake they are because they come in and they start saying oh andy i'm so proud of you when you were making fun of me for 15 fucking years you're gonna give a shit bro i yes i'm respectful yes i'm nice hey thank you very much but dude when i walk away i'm like yeah where the fuck were you when i was fucking dying because you know yes i. Everybody remembers because it's traumatic. It's a traumatic thing for your friends and family to fucking think you're a piece of shit and to think you're a failure and to think you're a fuck up when you're struggling your ass off to try to build shit, bro. That's a traumatic thing.

You're like, fuck, nobody's here for me. And it's a very real lesson in life because guess what? Nobody is here for you and that's the biggest mistake a lot of you guys make is assuming that they are there's nobody here for you you have to put this on your back and carry it and if you don't you will not get there that's the bottom line i fucking love this man i want i want to i want to follow up on this because you know you you talk about tapping in to to the the dark side, using negative energy, right. As fuel is the best kind of fuel.

Is this like, should this be the right now? Yes. You should be like, fuck these people. Okay. They don't believe in me. Yeah.

And you know what? And then take all that energy and go do your art and get fucking better and better and better and better and better. Bro. My listen, bro. I am the kind of person that if you doubt me, if you question me, if you fucking challenge me, I will fucking rip your fucking throat out

eventually. Trust me. It might not be tomorrow. It might not be in two weeks. You might not ever see it coming, but eventually I will win. All right. And that's the attitude that you have to have. When someone steps on your toes, you have to fucking stomp on theirs with your results. And you do that through taking their negative energy, their negative words, their disbelief, putting them inside you. And then every single time you don't feel like doing what it is you're supposed to do, you think about that shit and you get up and go do it. That's how you utilize the negative energy. And if you don't learn to operate on that system, because we have all these hippy dippy dumb fucks around, all right, telling everybody it's all peace and harmony and fucking inner

peace and all this bullshit. And they're sitting around with bulls and doing all this stupid ass shit. And notice that none of those people ever get better. None of those people ever become really anything. They're just always sitting in this fucking perpetual state of paralyzation because they think that it's all about inner peace. No, it's not all about inner peace if you want to achieve things because you're going to get good inputs, belief, support, encouragement, and you're going to get bad inputs, negativity, frustration, disbelief, disrespect. And if you don't know how to use both types of that energy to move forward,

you're running at 50% capacity because there's tons of people out there that know how to use both. Every single fucking great champion that you've ever watched, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, fucking any of them. I guarantee you, bro, they take every single bit of disbelief that anybody's ever had in them and they use it as fuel. Do you think Tom Brady would have won seven fucking Super Bowls if he was drafted first? every single bit of disbelief that anybody's ever had in them, and they use it as fuel. Do you think Tom Brady would have won seven fucking Super Bowls if he was drafted first in the first round? Not a fucking chance, bro.

That put a massive chip on your shoulder. And you guys who fucking have this, like you have this situation this person's talking about where people don't believe in them, okay? That's a blessing because it's going to provide you with unlimited amounts of fucking negative energy, dark side energy that you can use to move forward. It's a blessing for people to doubt you. It's a blessing for people not to believe in you. It's a blessing for people to disrespect you. If you know how to use it as fuel, if you sit around and read the fucking internet and think you're

Mr. Fucking Sunshine with your fucking Zuzu bowls or whatever the fuck these things are called, you're going to lose, bro. Because this game is real. This is a real game. There's competition. There are people who take it very seriously, who do everything they can to win. And if you think you're going to only operate on good

vibes, you're going to get fucking crushed. Fuck me. It's the fucking truth. I think we should take a moment, too, to acknowledge our word of the day. I think it was hippie, dippy, dumb fucks. Zuzu balls. And Zuzu balls. That's fucking great.

That's great, man. Bro, I can't stand it. Everybody, look, dude. They're always healing. They never heal. Bro, what the fuck are you going to be healed and go do something? Holy shit. Bro, I'm all about taking care of your mental health.

It's very important. It's important. But the solutions that are provided by the internet are fucking wrong. No. The reason you feel like shit is because you're not proud of yourself. You have to be proud of yourself, bro. And to be proud of yourself, you have to accomplish things. And that starts with little bitty things. That could with making your bed brushing your teeth eating the right food

getting some workout in getting out in the sunshine and moving around these are little wins that start making you believe in yourself over the course of time and if you don't want to feel like bro start doing something that you're proud of yourself for doing it's very simple dude you're not going to sit there and zen your way into success dude i'm sorry it's just not gonna unless you're one of the leaders of it you know what i'm saying drink my kool-aid you know what i'm saying like for real bro speaking of drinking my kool-aid quick message from my sponsor today's show dude it's just dude i love it. Dude, I'm sorry, man. And I know some people are into this shit, but like, be careful.

Because that shit will suck you in and it will paralyze you and you won't do shit. That's real shit, man. That's real. Guys, let's get to our third and final question. Question number three. Let's get some good Kool-Aid. I feel like I'm going to go do some Zuzu. Guys, Andy, question number three.

Andy, I have a business partner, and I started my company with him six years ago. I wanted to ask, after 25 years in business, what sort of key roles do you and Chris play in business now? Like, do you revisit your roles and audit them every so often or did it just stay the same throughout the partnership well in the beginning we just kind of both did everything um we both we didn't have roles and that was probably the first seven or eight years wow yeah and dude just do it listen man we didn't know what we were doing You gotta understand The reason I'm qualified to talk about this shit Is because I started at the literal Fucking bottom bro

Okay And we've built some amazing shit Okay out of We didn't ever get an inheritance There was never a private equity deal Nobody ever came and fast tracked our success I never sold part of my company to fucking Pepsi or fucking Bud Light or any of these fucking...

Coca-Cola. Yeah, I never did that. Like, this is all... We own everything here, right? This is all built off of that first day in business, and it's accumulated. And I've done it the hard way. And that's what makes me qualified to talk about this shit.

So, like, when you hear stories like, yeah, we just kind of did what the fuck we did in the that's because bro we didn't know any better yeah we knew we we knew less than what probably most of the people listening know all right so we just kind of both did whatever we had to do and then um eventually we had to have a conversation where you know when social media started coming around, somebody had to become the face and somebody had to do the backside. And right around that time was when Sal joined in with us and we started First Form. So that's when the roles got a little bit more defined. Sal at that time was doing the sales. I was running the company and being the face.

And Chris was running the back end and and that went for both s2 and first form and then uh you know as we've grown in scale we have executive teams and we have people that help out and do certain roles and run departments and you know now Sal's the CEO at first form. I'm chairman of the board. Chris still runs a lot of the back end stuff. And then he has another business that he runs as well in the cannabis space. Right. So, you know, our roles have been more clearly defined, but it's still whatever the fuck needs to be done. I mean, dude, Sal and I were sweeping the floor in the warehouse two nights ago.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So whatever it's our attitude here is we're all on the same team. This is all we got. We don't have any other options and we got to do what we got to do. And that's how that's how it always is. No matter what the title is, no matter what the responsibilities are, I could be working on something.

I could say, hey, Sal, I need your help. He's going to come out here and help me. He could be working on something vice versa. I sal i need your help he's gonna come out here and help me he could be working on something vice versa i'm gonna help him same with chris and really dude honestly that's kind of the same of how we work here with all levels like the guys over here in media or in our graphic design department they i could be walking by and they could say hey andy will you look at this and we all collaborate and work together like this is not this our environment here is not corporate like what most people are used to that's not my role so i'm not yeah it's not like that it's a collaborative effort wherever the effort is needed you know what i'm saying and i think that's built from our culture and that's built from um leadership with limited ego okay you have to have

some ego people say oh you have to have some ego. People say, oh, you got to eliminate the ego. If you eliminate the ego, bro, you're going to be a bitch. Okay, you have to have some ego. You've got to believe in yourself a little bit. You got to know that you're a bad motherfucker to even play in the fucking game. You can't run out of the tunnel at the fucking national championship football game thinking you're a humble little pussy.

You're going to get your fucking ass beat. Okay, so we got to have a little bit of ego but we got to have enough humility to balance that out to where we know when we need help we know what we don't know we're very aware where we're strong we're aware where we're weak and so you want to have a balance like that and i think that collaborative culture exists through all of our uh employees here at the company you know yeah at the company's I think when people need help they ask when we can offer help we offer it and we all work together and I don't think there's a the titles here I think mean a lot less than what they would mean at a normal company where else yeah

I would agree with that yeah would you in with that. Let me ask you this. Yeah. Would you, in the early days, or I mean, even now, has there ever been a point in time where it's like, okay, a role or responsibility, a job has come up and nobody wants to do it. How does it get done? Like, it's not your forte. It's not Sal's. It's not Chris's. Like, how does that work? We figure it out.

Yeah. Somebody jumps in and says, I'll handle it. And they handle it. Maybe that's me. Maybe that's Sal. Maybe that's somebody else. Maybe that's me maybe that's sal maybe that's somebody else maybe that's one of you guys yeah i mean just like how we operate here on the podcast team there's lots of stuff we don't know and what do we do figure it out figure it the fuck out yeah

and uh you know we got lots of people who want to win i think when you have people who are aligned where they want to create a certain end result um it's not too hard to get people to contribute and taking initiative is one of our core values in our culture and taking responsibility is also another one and those are like if there's a problem i gotta take responsibility for that and take the initiative correct it if we don't know how to do something we got to learn how to do something and i think a lot of people hold them back because they cap off what they know they say well that's not my expertise or that's not what i'm good at and really that's just them saying

i don't want to do that i don't i don't want to do that because we all have the capacity to learn like if you have employees and they answer you with well that's not really what i'm good at or that's not my expertise you got the wrong employees bro because the right to college for this that's right the right employee the right leader the right CEO is gonna say you know what I'll fucking figure it out That and if you want to know how to create value, you know We got a lot of entrepreneurs here listen to the show you want to know how to create massive value, dude Be the kind of person that can fucking take responsibility and figure it the fuck out and see it through to solution Without having to be directed if you can take the initiative and take the take the initiative figure it the fuck out and see it through to solution without having to be directed. If you can take the initiative and take the, take the initiative to solve the problem,

take the responsibility to make the problem yours, own it, find the solution and see it through to the end, bro, you become an invaluable asset to any company you work for. And if your company doesn't value that, like if you have, if you do that and your company doesn't value that, there's lots of companies will pay big money for that. We're one of them, by the way, you know, one of the things that you have to be able to do, bro, if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur is you got to know basically three skills. You got to know how to lead and manage. You got to know how to sell and you got to know how to own problems and find the solutions and do it without direction. If you can do those three things inside of a company,

your payroll can really almost be whatever it has to be because it's a fucking impossible skill to find in the workforce. It's impossible. Most people won't do any of those three things, and they want the big check. Most people can't manage. Most people can't lead. They can't sell.

And most people won't take on problems because they're lazy and they just want to collect a fucking check and those three kinds of people need to get the fuck out of your organization if you want your organization to win yeah and then ask you for a raise on that back end of course yeah listen man this is this is part of the woke culture corporate environment that exists today people believe not here in my companies thank god i fucking love coming here bro because i work with like the baddest motherfuckers on the planet bro not only are these people good what they do they're also great athletes and they're tough as fuck they're out here running 100 miles and all this crazy shit all the time just because yeah dude they're just badass motherfuckers so like when i

talk about this i am definitely not talking about our organizations at all but what i will say is there's a lot of organizations where people just don't give a shit. And a lot of you guys work at them. You know what it's like. You show up there. People are there for a check. They're there for a, uh, to do, do time. And then they go home at the end of the day. Think of how unfulfilling that existence must be. Think of how disgusting you must feel about yourself to go to a work place contribute nothing do nothing expect a check and then expect more money for just skating it out yeah and dude you wonder why you're depressed and you wonder why you don't feel fulfilled it's not the fucking job it's you you're not applying yourself you're not trying to create you're not trying to contribute

you're leaving all your potential untapped on the table. Dude, if you just took some initiative and took some responsibility and learned some fucking skills like managing people and selling some shit, bro, your paycheck could quadruple with the right company. And that shit is not that hard to learn. I mean, dude, you become proficient in those things in two, three, four years, you know, in the two, three, four years in a lifetime, that's a very, you know what I'm saying? It's not much time. So, you know, the reality is, is look, man, most business cultures are fucking terrible because the leadership is terrible. They show up at fucking 11. They go home at fucking three. They show up Tuesday through Thursday, and then they expect their

organization to run awesome. That's not how it works, man It's never gonna work that way You're gonna have to be if you're gonna if you're leading an organization or you're leading a department or you're leading a team You're going to have to be the living breathing example for what the fuck you want your people to be That's what you have to be Otherwise, they'll never become it because they can't even see what it looks like This is what i'm talking about too when i talk about personal excellence being the ultimate rebellion a lot of people laugh at that they're like oh that's some corny okay broke you know what

i'm saying here's the reality uh personal excellence has to exist it is an obligation for us because when people observe it they they start to become it. How could someone become anything that they don't observe? And you take this same idea that we talk about culturally, especially on CTI with, you know, being fit, being intelligent, being someone who's financially successful, being someone who treats people right, being someone who gets engaged in the community, being all these things that we talk about when we talk about personal excellence. Okay. And then take that same idea and put it in the leadership inside of your company. If you're not operating on that standard and they don't observe what it looks like with their own eyes, now what you say, what they see,

they will never become what it is you want them to become. So a lot of you leaders out here that, you know, you say, oh, I got all these problems. My employees suck. No, bro, you fucking suck. Because if you were the shit, they'd all be the shit. Most people want to be good. They just don't know what the fuck it looks like. They can't identify it because it's so rare. This is what, this is the same problem we have in our country.

Our country doesn't give a fuck because nobody gives a fuck. It's going to take certain people stepping up and saying, you know what? I care. And I don't care if anybody else cares. I don't care if anybody else in my neighborhood gets their ass in shape. I don't care if any of my friends give a shit. I'm going to be better. It has to start with one person, And that one person is always you.

And when you change the epicenter of your energy, which is you, your entire environment changes. The people around you change, they get better, their attitude changes. And all of a sudden, you've got a team of people that are working towards a common thing. And if nothing else, you're not surrounded by a bunch of fucking hack losers. Okay? So, like, dude, you are the epicenter of your environment. And when you change, your environment changes. And that comes down to taking responsibility, taking initiative, and becoming the example that you want to see in your environment. And whether you're leading a company or whether you're just trying to be a good parent and a good example or a good dad in your neighborhood, the principles are the exact same. I fucking love it.

Yeah. They're the same. I love it. I love it, man. Well, guys, Andy, that was three. Yep. All right, guys. Appreciate you guys.

Go pay the fee. Go pay the fee. Yeah. Went from sleeping on the floor. Now my jewelry box froze. Fuck a pole. Fuck a stove. Counted millions in the cold.

Bad bitch. Booted swole. Got her on bankroll. Can't fold. Just a no. Headshot. Outro Music