REAL AF with Andy Frisella - ASK ANDY: Laser Focus vs. Serial Entrepreneurialism (and questions from Periscope), with Andy Frisella - MFQA6

Episode Date: September 3, 2015

Should you stay focused on one business--or start many of them? In this ASK ANDY episode of The MFCEO Project, Andy Frisella tackles that question, as well as questions from a live Periscope broadcast.  Joining him in the studio is his co-host Vaughn Kohler.

All I do is work, work, work. Never run inside lines, I only hustle. I'll never take a day off, I only work, work, work. I don't mess around, kid, I only care. Nobody ever sees me. All I do is work. I'm Tandy Priscilla. This is the MFCEO Project Podcast.

I am here with my host, Vaughn Kohler. What's up, Vaughn? Not a lot. How you doing, brother? I'm doing pretty well, yeah. We're at the, like, well, I was going to say the peak of our popularity, but the peak. No, it's not really shit, man. It's like our first two steps. Dude, I can't. I like I'm beside myself. I have fifteen hundred Instagram followers. I mean, it's crazy. Fifteen hundred. Like I'm

famous. I mean, watch out, Dan Belzerian, you know? Yeah, Dan better watch his ass. Seriously. Here's the deal, guys. If you're not following Vaughn on Instagram, go follow him. It's at Vaughn Kohler. Spell that for him. V-A-U-G-H-N-K-O-H-L-E-R. And go follow him.

Post some rude comments and some, like, finger emojis and eggplants. I appreciate that. Because that's the kind of stuff that he likes uh and eggplants i appreciate that stuff that you like i appreciate that hey bad presses any press is good press right yeah so so here we are thursday q a yeah so i so i you confused me a little earlier are we taking are we taking questions off of the uh oh we're doing periscope live oh Oh, okay. I just, you know, I'm all into Periscope right now. Right. We talk about it. If you guys aren't on Periscope, go to Periscope.

Follow me, at Andy Frisella on Periscope. I do daily broadcasts. Basically, like little mini podcasts. That's kind of how it works. You can ask questions live, and I actually have it going right here. What's up, guys? How are you? And these guys are checking out the taping of the MSCEO project right now.

But no, we are going to do our regular podcast. I'm just kind of letting these guys check it out. Okay. Sounds good. Well, are you ready for the first question? I'm ready. Let's do this. All right.

Andy, you and Gary Vee both, look at that. You're being associated with Gary Vee. So that's great. You and Gary Vee both have talked about the power of focus, but you're also serial entrepreneurs. You've said that you have multiple companies. And of course, Gary has founded multiple companies over time. Could you share with me real quick, the pros and cons of just having one company and sticking to it through the long haul and having multiple companies? Yeah, look, I just did. This brings up Periscope again, dude.

I am in love with this app, but I just did a Periscope last night on this concept titled Opportunity Quicksand. It's one of the biggest things that kills entrepreneurs besides, I would say, the lack of action where people get stuck in the planning zone and then move to action zone. People have trouble making that leap. Besides that aspect of killing entrepreneurs, the second best thing that kills entrepreneurs out there is opportunity quicksand. And what that is, is that's somebody who is what they call a serial entrepreneur.

And they look at all these different businesses out there and they decide they're going to open everything and do everything and be everything and focus all their energy across all these different concepts. And when you do that, what happens is you're not able to focus energy in on your one bread-and-butter concept or two bread-and-butter concepts that you need for those to work. And so your energy, just like you would do if you had a wall or an amp breaker, and you had 15 plugs pulled in. They all get less power than if you have one plug. All right. So you have to think about the amount of energy that's being applied to those concepts. And what happens is people get, you know, two or three years into something and then they look at something else and you're like, shit, that looks

like it's easier. And they hop over here and then they get two or three years more in and they hop over here and they go from one thing to another thing, to another thing, to another thing. And they never really get anywhere. So that is like the con that's like the ultimate con I call opportunity quicksand. It's a very, um, very, very bad disease that infects many, many entrepreneurs. Okay. But you know, obviously the pros of having other things in the fire are that you're diversified. Okay. So we own many companies, but all my companies are vertically integrated and they all relate to one another. So the focus can be applied and put into the right context. All right. Gary Vee is the same way. You know, all his companies are somewhat related and they're at least related to his passions.

OK, where he's interested and he can focus those. You know, he's got the wine library and then he's got a he's got a VaynerMedia and all that. So I would say that the pros are, you know, hey, well, the pros to sticking with one business is that it gets all your focus. Okay. The cons are you're not diversified and vice versa. You know, the pros are if you're diversified, that you're diversified, which makes you, you know, if you're one business over here crashes, you still have these other ones to rely on. But the problem with that is, is that most people are not capable of doing that. So I would say maybe two out of every 100 can do that. You know, guys like Richard Branson.

Most people have to stay focused. So I would say that if you want to diversify your business and open multiple companies, make them vertically integrated somehow. Make them all related. Is that what you mean by vertically integrated? That they're somehow connected? You're owning the process of all the aspects from top to bottom. Like for us, we do everything from cultivate raw ingredients

to manufacturing products to wholesaling products to distributing products to selling products to end users to our own retail stores. So everything, even though we own multiple companies, they all are related. That's one way to keep your focus strong and still be diversified. Okay. So if our retail business takes a dump, I've still got these other companies that can work with other companies. You see what I mean? So that's what, you know, that's one way people could keep the focus. But generally speaking, most people cannot focus the way it needs to be focused on multiple

businesses and be successful. So I would say stick with what you know. And when you're ready to grow and you're ready to diversify, diversify within your knowledge realm. Awesome. Yeah. Great answer. I'm going to actually tack on another question just because, you know, I know we've talked about just focusing on one question. But I'm going to add another question because this one, I don't think it's going to take you very long to answer. Plus, it refers to one of my favorite

movies of all time. Which is what? Well, you're going to find out. Days of Thunder? Days of Thunder is the greatest movie ever made. You've got to be kidding me. Days of Thunder? The racing one with Dick Trickle or whatever his name is? Greatest fucking movie. Dude, Cole Trickle, man.

Cole Trickle. You're fired. Okay. Better than 50 Shades? Come on. You're fired. Okay. Days of Thunder. Better than Fifty Shades? Come on. Better than Fifty Shades. That's Tyler's favorite movie. Yeah.

Seriously. Where's your pink shorts at today, buddy? I ran out of them. All right. Here's the question. Andy, you know that old movie, Karate Kid? Dude, come on. No, it's like the greatest movie of all time.

Karate Kid is not better than Days of Thunder. We're not talking about the stupid. We're going to ask Periscope. Periscope. Days of Thunder or Karate Kid? Of course they're going to side with you. And I'm not talking about Karate Kid with Will Smith's son. That movie didn't happen as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, dude, it's unanimous. Days of Thunder. Oh, my gosh. Ninja Turtles. You got a bunch of NASCAR fans following you I think oh we got one Karate Kid nice karate thunder all right we'll let that win okay sorry here's the question you know that old movie Karate Kid I'm quoting here by the way where Daniel learns karate from doing other shit like waxing the floor. Yeah, I do.

I love your fan mail. Oh, they're the best. All right. Are there any specific areas of life like science, politics, entertainment? This is actually a pretty good question. Where you find lessons that you can apply to business, like strategies? I hear what they're saying. Do you have to get the question?

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing about being- By the way, that's Eugene from Grand Forks, South Dakota. Eugene, what's up, brother? Yes. Here's the deal. Yes, absolutely, you can learn lessons about business in lots of different things. One of the biggest things that I found helpful through my journey was that I played sports.

I learned a lot of lessons that are very relatable to business through playing sports my whole life. You know, things about leadership, about getting a team to work together, about, you know, I always talk about the Viking ship and getting everybody rowing the same direction. And if one side's rowing quicker than the other side, what happens? You go in circles, you know. So, yes, you can learn lessons. And I mean, even if you're not an athlete, you could learn them through different things like competing. You could even learn how to compete.

You know, a lot of these dudes play fucking video games their whole life now. It's like, you know, they sit there with their headset and they fucking, you know, shoot people across the world through their TV screen. Dude, you can learn a lot about winning and losing just through that. I mean, any, any, there's so many lessons to learn that are applicable to business. I couldn't even begin to narrow them down. I mean, it's just, it's just so, so many, you know what I mean? Um, so yes, they answered. Yes. You can learn many different places, even school. Cause a lot of these guys hate school, you know, and they look for reasons to get out of it without having a plan okay by the way that's key don't fucking quit school unless you have a plan right you know all these guys look oh i quit school i'm like fuck yeah because of what i did

yeah right you're gonna have the nea after you know all those teachers are gonna be really ticked off that's not what i'm trying to do you can learn a lot in school it's just you know i quit because i had a business that was four or five years old that needed my attention right you know unless you're in that you know do something don't just sit around right right so we were talking about how great your fans are and i gotta say that there's this one fan in particular he's kind of psychotic he very very very much wants to win this, you know, come be with Andy for a day. Oh, to come visit him? Yeah, yeah.

And I got to admit, he's been persistent enough. Like, he tweets out to me literally every day. Yeah? And Instagram, and he's emailed like a billion times. So I am going to condescend to mention him on the radio. Or I guess we're not on the radio, but you know what I mean. So his name is at Vinny Logs, L-O-G-S. So he's from the Bronx, I think, or some part of New York.

So why don't you give him a shout out and say hi, Vinny. Vinny Logs? Yeah. I like that name. Yeah, I think so. But I think he's a personal trainer or something. Vinny Logs. But I'll just say.

Vinny Logs either sounds like real gangster or like I ate like chili last night. Part of the reason that I'm actually, you know, giving him a shout out is that I'm not entirely sure he's not going to like show up on my house with an axe and, you know, he might hunt me down. But in any case, but he's here. There he is. There he is. There he is on Periscope. I see him. Vinny. No fucking way. I swear he's right there. Yeah, he did. That's how I know. He said he was. I'm here. He said he's on periscope i see him vinny no fucking way i swear he's right yeah he yeah he did he that's how i know he said he was i'm here he said he's on periscope we're talking about you live on the msco project yeah vinny vinny logs now tell him so that everybody hears basically the selection process for this whole thing about you know you bringing people out here yeah i mean what do people got to do they just gotta go they gotta email they're gonna okay first of all i think i'm gonna bring a second

person out yeah um i like that idea so i'm thinking about you know maybe doing another scope later on today about that i haven't decided for sure yet but um what we're doing is we're bringing somebody out okay uh one of my periscope followers and this is why it's cool to follow me on on social media because i'll do shit like this sometimes. Yeah. They've got to click 500 hearts, okay, on Periscope that qualify. That's kind of low. You know, it's pretty easy to hit those hearts.

It is easy. But, I mean, you know, you'd be surprised. It's all my friends that don't give me any hearts. They're all haters. So, anyway. I'll have to get on and do it. Yeah, no shit. Yeah.

And all the guys that work for me they really like give me fingers instead of hearts but the point is is that so um i came up with the idea of hey we're going to bring somebody in uh to come sit in on the mfco project um to be a part of the show go to lunch go to dinner hang out and then basically spend some hours mentoring them on how to, you know, improve where they are in life, whether they're an employee of a company or a manager or a CEO or just thinking about getting in business. You know, we want to spend some time with them getting their plan cleared up. So basically, you know, it would just be a situation where we help somebody in person.

It's something I've been wanting to do. So I announced it through Periscope kind of off the top of my head and we're going to do it. Right. So nice. So we're going to pick and it might be a regular thing. So Vinny, if we don't pick you this time, you know, we're going to keep doing it. I think. Yeah. I like the idea of having somebody. We had Sam in here the other day. That was cool. Yeah. You know what I mean? Very cool. He dropped off the whiskey. Yeah. I like the idea of having somebody. We had Sam in here the other day. That was cool. Yeah. You know what I mean? Very cool. He dropped off the whiskey. Yeah.

He got me the Pappy Van Winkle 10 year baby. Yeah. I'm not drinking right now because I'm in my diet zone. Yeah. Dude, that's how I'm going to celebrate my diet zone. Yeah. So evidently somebody sent you granola that I was supposed to get some of. Oh, dude.

Chris ate that shit. Yeah. Sorry, dude. That's all right. They're actually sending some directly to me. Gluten-free. So one more question, and then we'll wrap up this one. Do you have another question?

Well, I don't have a question. All right. Hey, let's take a question off a Periscope. Guys on Periscope, ask me a question for the MFCEO project. This is technology at its finest. Right. Okay? We're going to do a question right now.

Yeah. While you're looking or waiting for the question, I will mention to other people, I've been saying that we're going to announce these review winners the first week of September. So if this broadcast comes out, we might have already announced them. I think you'll announce them on your Instagram. If not, it's going to be very shortly after this broadcast. So if you haven't sent in a review to iTunes, do so. Take a screenshot of it and email it to askandyatthemfceo.com. All right. So here's the question. What's the biggest key to hiring quality people? Good question. Really good question. In-depth question. If you're a business owner and you're paying attention to this, you need to pay really, really close attention to how you hire good people.

Because here, let's face it. Anybody could come in here and put on a fucking horse and dog and pony show or what the fuck it's called and act like there's something they're not. You know, try to act like, hey, I'm a great guy. And a week later, you find out the guy's full of shit. You know, it's of shit. You know, it's like dating, you know, you don't know that person until they're six months in just the reality. Everybody's good at pretending up until that point. So the way that you consistently hire good people and do it in foolproof manner is by making sure that you instill a set of core values

into your business. Okay. So it's, it's like one of these things things. You've gotta do a lot of work to get the process into play, but once the process is into play, you don't have to worry about hiring because it weeds itself out, all right? So what I mean by this is you wanna instill a certain culture, and so you have to establish the core values of your business upfront,

and you have to start working, speaking, firing, hiring, communicating in the terms of those core values, promoting, you know, everything in the terms of those core values all the time with your company. And eventually after, you know, after some time, it could take a year, could take, you know, 18 months, but you will instill a tremendous culture in your business and then what happens is when people come in and they fool you then your boys and your girls that work for you they will see right through that shit and fucking weed that person out so they're not there that long they don't come in and can do damage they can't steal they can't fuck up your culture they can't do all the shit that these people do so how you hire great people all the time is not go read an interview book, not go read the right interview questions, all this shit. You could prepare yourself from here to Mars.

But the reality is if you instill a tremendous culture in your business through establishing core values that your company lives by, the hiring and firing will take care of itself because the people that live and breathe, eat, sleep, and love your company and love you will take care of those people. Okay? So that's how it's done. I like it. I like it. Well, that's it for, right? Yeah, that's it, guys.

Look, hey, Vaughn, go through all the boring shit that you've got to go through. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, yes, everyone, for every one of these podcast episodes, including the Ask Andy podcast episodes, we have a dedicated page on the website. The website is themfceo.com, and the dedicated page for this website is themfceo.com slash qa4, I think. Or it could be five. I really need to double check on these things. Go to themfceo.com and see the latest one.

Actually, I think it's QA 5. Guys, we love it when you go to our website. We love it when you post comments under the podcast entries. So it's just good for you to go there, sign up, subscribe to the podcast. And yeah, that's all i need to say other than i think you know all of our social media stuff we're doing this for free we're not selling you shit go in there leave a fucking review all right i see all these people talking about the the you know we get 10 000 downloads 12 000 downloads a day now we got like fucking five reviews come on yeah let's put a little more fucking work into this. Can I say something else too about something that people sometimes ask? Those of you who have Android phones, you guys have lamented the fact that it's tough to listen to the MFCEO on that. Guys,

there is an incredible app called Stitcher. In some ways, I think it's better than the iTunes app. The user experience is really good. The interface is really easy. Just download it. It's free. And you can listen to the MFCEO on Stitcher. And as far as those of you who don't have an iPhone, who want to leave a review for us, but you say you can't, well, it's quite easy. You just get on your computer, go to iTunes.com, create an Apple ID, which is free, is free and leave a review but really those are gold for us yeah guys that's how we get our podcast ranked i mean if we don't get reviews we don't get ranked we've done a hell of a job you guys are killing it you know we're trying to offer practical advice that you could take away and go improve your your business right now your life right now we don't charge just just give us some love man that's all we're asking for yeah i'll close i'll close with this great story early on in the podcast uh i texted andy and i

said oh we're doing real real good with our rankings and he texted back well how are we how are we doing compared to like the big dogs like the really the people who were established and i said oh you know we're doing pretty well and And his response was, I want to destroy everyone. Dude, it's the truth. I don't do shit that I don't want to fucking win. Yeah. I love it, though. So you guys can help us destroy everyone.

Look, man. Look, I'm humbled to even be included in some of these dudes, okay? I see my podcast next to guys like Seth Godin and Gary Vee and these other dudes that I look up to and think, holy shit, these guys have taught me so much. Very responsible for the where I am today because of the information that they have passed on to me. OK. Even Tim Ferriss, you know, I've met Tim Ferriss a couple of times. Cool, dude. You know. I'm grateful for that information. So I'm humbled to be included with them. But I mean, at the same time, man, I want to fucking win. Absolutely. And they want to destroy everybody too. It's the nature of wanting to be the best. So, so it's not, it's not,

it's not anything towards them. It's just, I just want to be, I just want to be number one. Absolutely. Well, this has been a great Q and a, so why don't you wrap us up? Yeah, guys, listen. Send us your questions. If you're not following Vaughn, like I said, follow him. He's at Vaughn Kohler. Follow Ben Newman. He's not here. At Continue Fight. Tyler Hagley is, what is yours anyway?

You can always change it. It's like coral pants or skinny pink. Pink shorts. Pink shorts. At pink shorts. M-A-I underscore Tyler. Yeah. Tyler's our producer.

He's a good part of the show. He doesn't have much to say, and when he does, it's stupid. I mean, it's great. You know, I would like to add, though, you know, when you went back to the question where, you know, about core values and instilling your core values first. Yeah. values first. Dude, I was setting up for the podcast one day and Andy had some of his retail managers here, uh, conducting interviews for, you know, uh, to work at his retail stores. And as soon as the guys left that were getting interviewed, like I saw the managers group together, they literally went down the fucking core values, said no to all fucking four of them.

Yeah. I mean, that's, that's just, I mean, you've been here long enough. I mean, Tyler started with us in a retail store, um, and has moved on to first form and now moved on to help me with the MSCO project. I mean, you've been here long enough to see us instill the core values, instill the culture, and then see how it works now. Yeah. But it's, it's just, you know, people might think that, you know, you're lying that you hire and fire by that shit, but dude, it's still instilled to this day. it's cool and there's a couple good books about that too guys if you want to check it out um go check out delivering happiness uh it's a story about zappos written by tony shea ceo of zappos um there's another book called all in um i'm not sure who wrote it i can't remember but it's a good book and it has like little plastic monkeys on the front like those

little toy monkeys nice um so you could check that out too that sounds like seth remember, but it's a good book and it has like little plastic monkeys on the front, like those little toy monkeys. Nice. Um, so you could check that out too. That sounds like Seth Godin. No, it's not. It's not. Yeah, it's not. I know all his books. Okay. But you agree with the toy monkeys. There's only two people on the face of the earth that I would stand in line to meet too. I would not stand in line to meet anybody else other than these two men one of them is seth godin and the other one is the fucking rock oh yeah all right yeah so uh speaking of which guys tweet out to the rock yeah get us on get him on our show we want him dude we gotta we gotta get to number one first i know it's true yeah so the all-in book is called adrian uh the guy who wrote is adrian gostic that's that's the name of who wrote it.

It's a good book. Good book on culture. Nice. All right, look, guys. We're babbling. We're talking. Get out there. Go kill some shit, and let's make some shit happen, all right?

Love you guys. Outro Music