REAL AF with Andy Frisella - AT THE WINNERS' TABLE: An MFCEO Q&A Show, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO271

Episode Date: November 7, 2018

We got the four winners of the MFCEO iTunes Review Contest - Carly Damuth, Chris De Brock, Dr. Tom Recher, and Carmella Goslar - & they asked some incredibly practical & thoughtful questions about business & success that are relevant to anybody, at any stage in their journey. From "how service businesses can get their clients to pay them on time" to "how to leverage Amazon without being dependent on it," this is a high quality, high content conversation with a lot of fun, wisdom, & even some vulnerability.

I can stack them hundreds to the roof. I ain't stopping till they stack to the moon. Without me, my family wouldn't have food. Anybody go against me, gotta lose. What is up, guys? You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy. I'm your host, and I am the motherfucking CEO. Guys, if this is your first time listening, welcome. Understand that this podcast is not your typical podcast. You're not going to find a bunch of ads. You're not going to find a bunch of feel good nonsense bullshit where we talk about holding hands and singing Kumbaya and somehow your life is going to be perfect because that's just not reality. Social media and society has filled the world with idealistic

sayings, idealistic concepts, idealistic memes that basically make people think that they could stick their head in the sand like an ostrich and everything's just going to work itself out. And I could tell you and anybody else that has actually built real success financially in their life will tell you that that is not going to happen. This is called a project because our goal is to correct mentalities like that. Our goal is to help people figure out what it actually takes to be successful. Not what Oprah says or not what these feel good motherfuckers say on the internet. I'm talking about real practical shit, concepts that you can use to build success in any area of your life, whether that be your business, whether that be

your relationship, whether it be your friendships, whether it be your fitness, whether it be any of the areas that you're looking to improve, the concepts are generally the same. All right. So you don't have to be an entrepreneur. Now, are we the number one ranked business podcast in the world? Yes, we are. The reason for that is this. One, we say shit that you can actually use. Two, we have an amazing group of people that listen to this podcast that always pay the fee. What's the fee? The fee is not money. I don't do this for the money. I already have a lot of fucking money. The reason I do this is because I want to help you be successful and I do charge a fee, but the fee is you. If you got value out of this podcast, if you learn something, if you got something,

one thing that will help you, I ask that you talk about and share the podcast. And you guys are very good about that. That's why we kick everybody's ass. That's why we are at the top of the charts, literally every single week. So thank you guys for being loyal to that. Thank you guys for honoring that because it is on the honor system. I appreciate it. And speaking of that, we have a really cool show today of people who have been very good about paying that fee. We've got a bunch of winners in-house that we're going to get to in a second that won our review contest that we had a while back. They're here live in studio with us, and we're going to do a Q&A show today. So today's show should be pretty cool because we don't do Q&A that often. As always, I'm joined by my co-host, Vaughn, the pastor

of disaster, DJ DJ God. What's up, dude? I got a new one for you. What's that? Well, first of all, I'm so excited to tell you this story. So my wife the other day says something to me. It's a Friday night. She says something to me that I'm just thrilled about. She said, honey, there's a show that I've never seen before, and I'd like to watch the first episode of that show. And it was the original Magnum P.I., right? Yeah.

Okay, so we're watching it, and she's like, you know, Tom Selleck's kind of a hot guy. And I go, yeah, I'm a little surprised that he got away with the stash, you know? That was a thing back in the 80s, dude. I know, but so I say to her, I say, you know, he just looks like Ron Jeremy. And so she says, who's Ron Jeremy? Oh, yeah? So then you had to get out to Google, right?

Watch some of his videos? Well, I said Google him and that led into a brilliant idea for a new nickname. What's that? Vaughn Jeremy. Yeah, no, we're not giving you that name. First of all, you don't give yourself a nickname like that. Why not? Second of all, how long did it take you to go cry

after your wife started watching videos of Vaughn Jeremy in the fucking fetal position in the shower? I kind of explained who he was, and she Googled a photo of him from like today. Yeah. And she's like, ew. And I go, well, I don't think he always looked like he does now. You know, I think maybe at some point. I think it's irrelevant.

Yeah. Second of all. It's not who he is. It's what he has. Yeah. And not only that. So how long did it take you to go cry in the shower? Oh, not at all.

About 13 inches. I mean, seconds. Yeah, and not only that, so how long did it take you to go cry in the shower? Oh, not at all. About 13 inches, I mean seconds. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's my story. First of all, let me tell you the number one rule of being married.

You never talk about someone who's got a bigger dick than you and then tell someone to Google it. I mean, the fact is, I have to explain. Well, the family filter was on. The fact that I have

to explain that to you is beyond my own comprehension. His name should be blacklisted from your mind. If you're going to fucking tell somebody to Google someone who is famous, nude, make sure they have a smaller dick than you. Start with someone Asian. I didn't say she was Googling him nude. Well, I guarantee you she did right after you fucked. Whether you think so or not, she did.

Maybe. Yeah, I don't know. Guaranteed. That's funny. And now you're like, now you just ruined your own image. Well, how do you know? I mean, how do you know? Because he's Ron Jeremy and you're not.

That's fucking fact. Well, on that note. Yeah. Pretty good story. So we had these four winners in the room who, as Andy said, won because of the iTunes review contest. We got so many reviews. Thank you guys for all of you who sent in reviews. We're really thankful about that.

But we're just going to introduce them one by one. The first contestant, the first winner is Carly Damoth. And Carly is 24 from Washington, D.C., and you're a government contractor who apparently, I was joking earlier, works for the CIA. But apparently it's not a joke, but we can't really talk about that. But you just talked about it anyway. I just talked about it anyway. So yeah, so Carly's going to, we're just going to jump right into it. And Carly is going to ask Andy the first question, which actually has to do with your other, like your main sort of career goal. Yeah. So go ahead. So I currently am, I don't like government

contracting. I'm just doing it for the income. I graduated college two years ago, but I'm really interested in real estate. So I know that you spoke at Gary V's 2020 agent conference, right? Yeah, 2021. 2021. Oh, my bad. I told her 2020. No, agent 2021. He does it every year.

He's doing it this year. 2021. It's actually a great conference. Right. So I wasn't able to hear it, but my understanding was that it was fire. So my question to you is, as an early young business professional going into real estate, what would be your advice in branding myself in the real estate industry? And how do I make myself stand out in this overcrowded market?

Okay. So that's a really good question because there's, I think, I don't think, I know this. A lot of people who are in the real estate business have no clue how to brand. They're just doing what they see everybody else doing. And this is the same thing I talked about at Agent 2021, where I basically made everybody raise their hand and say, how many of you guys put your face on your business card? And they all raised their hand. And then I told them they were all fucking stupid, which is the truth, because not one of them knows why they do it.

The only reason that they do it is because everybody else has done it forever. And dude, I'm sorry, but if you hand me a business card with your fucking face on it and try to pretend like you know what you're doing, I already know you don't know because I know you don't even know why you did that.

So my advice to you, um, as someone who, uh, obviously you wouldn't be in this room if you weren't, uh, at least somewhat proficient with your social media, because that's how you found out about this and us and this movement and everything. Um, I would first of all, realize that most of the people that you look up to or that you're going to see have been successful in real estate, they were doing things 20 years ago that if they did them now, wouldn't produce the same kind of impact that they've done. So what you have right now is a lot of young people coming in to real estate, seeing what people did 20 years ago as successful and then trying to implement their techniques. Well, their techniques aren't relevant right now. Okay. So you have to decide, first of all,

A, what kind of real estate do you want to be in? And I'm assuming you're talking about starting out as an agent and a broker. And eventually I want to own my own company. Right, that's smart. Yeah, and you also should have tons of real estate that you own and own a management company and let that management company run your real estate and have a cash flow. It should all be about vertical integration. But to start, I think the biggest thing that you can do is figure out

how to convey to potential, because dude, in real estate, having listings is a big deal because the listings are what are going to make you money and you don't have to work them all the time. All right. So, uh, the game in real estate right now is not, you know, anything other than how many listings can I accumulate. So your job and your advantage over these older people, because they're going to come in and they're going to say, well, we've got, you know, 25 years experience and we've got this and this and this. And that might be true, but you have a big advantage because you can walk in and say, well, I'm young and I understand how to leverage social media. I understand how to leverage the internet. I know how to create video content and tours and things

that are going to get your property noticed so that it sells more quickly than these other guys who are just going to throw it up on the MLS system and try to sell it. Okay. So I would, I would 100% use your age to your advantage. Um, which a lot of times when you're young, it feels like age is a disadvantage, but in the, in the age that we live in now, being young and being proficient with technology is a huge advantage over older people. And even older people are recognizing that because they're not proficient with technology. So any way that you can create compelling content, tell a story too, okay? So when you write a listing or whenever you're presenting a potential listing, you have to understand that the story that you tell the potential client, whether you're

trying to get the listing or whether you're trying to sell the property is what's going to matter. Okay. For example, I just bought a house. Everybody listened to the podcast. They know I bought a house. The only reason they remember that I buy the house or that I bought a new house is because of what I said about the house, which was there was a very famous person that used to own the property. Okay. And they remember that. All right. So you need to figure out what it is about each particular property that you, so like, let's say you're coming to me and you say, Hey Andy, I want to sell your house. All right. You're, you're going to have to pitch me on why you can sell the house. Okay. I'm proficient in technology. I understand what people

are looking for. I understand how to get eyeballs on it. And here's the story we're going to tell about the house. Okay. And so like, for example, like this is just cause I hadn't heard this question before you asked it for a reason. Vaughn wants to prep me with the questions. I would rather answer it live because I think it's better. Action? Yeah. Well, here's what I would do.

This is what I would do. I would figure out a way to do a video tour of the house where you actually tell a story about each room. And this is what I would do. And so you're showing the kitchen and you can say, oh, this is a beautiful kitchen. I could just imagine your family sitting right here, doing this and this and this. And you tell a story so that people start to visualize their life in that situation. Because until there's context to the information, it's meaningless, right? The whole thing is vision. That's right. So your job is to paint the V and if you were in our accelerator, like the other three people, we've already talked about this. We talked about this

in the accelerator about painting a vision. Okay. Your job is we're only, there's only a couple things that are ever truly sold in the world, okay? Now, there's millions of things, right? But there's only two things. We're either selling hope or we're selling convenience. And that's it, okay? Because here's the thing. And the example would be like this.

In St. Louis, the Cardinals are consistently at the very highest attendance, even though they're one of the smallest markets in Major League Baseball. The reason that we sell out and the reason that any game you go to, the Cardinals are selling out isn't because we have such rabid baseball fans. That's what people think. But the real reason why we sell out every game is because there's every single year we're in contention of winning. Okay. We might not win every year. We might not win the world series or be in a playoffs every year, but we're always in the race. Okay. Now, when the Rams were here,

nobody went to any of the games and you know what? They were the worst team in the race. Okay. Now, when the Rams were here, nobody went to any of the games. And you know what? They were the worst team in the NFL for 10 fucking years here. So they weren't even making an effort. There was no hope. Had they been even competitive, they don't have to win. Had they been even competitive, we would have sold out the games. Okay. And the lesson here is this, people don't have to win. They just have to have the hope of winning. Okay. And the lesson here is this. People don't have to win. They just have to have the hope of winning. Okay. And whenever you're selling a product like real estate, you're not selling them the real estate. You're selling them the hope of what their life will be like when they buy this real estate. You understand what I'm saying?

Yeah, that's good. So you've got to be able to figure out how to tell that story, not just to the end consumer, but first you've got to tell it to the people who you're listing the house. You understand what I'm saying? Or the property or the office or whatever you're going to sell. I would also add that if you're the kind of real estate agent who takes the time to really learn stories about the family whose house that you're trying to sell, then anybody who's looking to buy a house is going to say, wow, that agent clearly cares about people that she's willing to spend the extra amount of time.

And guess what those people have? What's that? They have houses to sell. Right. That's how it works. Right. You know, so yeah. I would add too, like, you know, because video, like he's saying, is so important.

Your mind's probably racing like, oh, I don't know anything about video. I don't know your expertise level on that. Let's just say you don't even have money to hire somebody. Offer them a part of your commission. You know, I know I've talked to a lot of real estate professionals into doing this and they're able to take on more work because they're not doing the video or anything like that. And they're making more money. Dude, you can learn how to do it yourself. It's not that fucking hard, you know? So everybody's always wanting to hire people to do shit. You know what you do when you're starting out? You

fucking do it yourself. That's right. Right. Good stuff. Um, I don't know if you wanted to speak to the fact that, you know, I know that you took on the establishment of the real estate industry and, and, and kind of castigated their use of like everybody using the car wrap. The bait, the bait, the bait, the main thing that, that I have an issue with, with real estate professionals is that none of them become students of actually doing anything innovative. They all just do what the oldest motherfucker in the office is doing, who's made the most money. Well, that guy's been doing it for 30 fucking years. He's established. The things that established him, established him in an era that was different than the one that we live in now. Now the principles are the same, but very few people are learning

how to use the technology available to actually implement those principles. You see what I'm saying? So my main thing with these people is that, dude, if you're doing, if you can't answer, why am I doing this to yourself? You shouldn't be fucking doing it.

And that goes for anything in business. Why am I doing this? Why am I putting my fucking face on the business card? Why am I putting my face on the park bench? Do people care about my fucking face or do they care about me selling them their shit? You see i'm saying so there's why it just reminds me of the movie i love you man where the real estate agent puts his face on the fucking the pucks in the urinal he's like i don't fucking care about your face yeah well dude what what happens is is these people get their dude they get in their own little town wherever the fuck they're from you know they they try to make themselves a little bit of a celebrity which i understand okay but what happens is is their ego gets a hold of it

and then all that matters to them is their face everywhere and not actually what they're doing for the consumer not the purpose right right right exactlyly, thanks for your question. I appreciate it. So the next person is going to be Chris DeBrock. And Chris is from New Jersey. And Chris runs a company. It's called CD Equipment Services. And basically, he's online as that laundry guy. Correct. So you gave me like a quick sentence summary of your business. Go ahead and give it to me. So we specialize in sales, maintenance, service on commercial laundry equipment. So hotels, hospitals, jails, laundromats, apartment complexes, you name it.

If there's a laundry in it, we will come and fix it. Awesome. So I'm actually letting Chris do two questions because one is extremely practical. And then the second one is a little bit more philosophical. So you want to shoot the first one? All right. So my extremely practical question is, how do you get paid on time as a service company? I think most service companies struggle with that.

Yes. Explain to me a scenario how it usually happens right now so typically what will happen is you go in and we do a repair for a customer and they're you know you'll agree on net terms so say net 30 terms you have 30 days to pay right fast forward to typical in your industry typical is net 30 health care it's usually net 60 with you're saying when you go fix a healthcare's laundry, it's net 60? Net 60. Why is that? It's just the standard. I don't know why. They dictate the standard? Correct.

Yeah. And how many of your customers expect net terms that you deal with? Almost all of them. Really? Typically, the small mom and pop shops, like laundromats, stuff like that, they're definitely more accommodating to COD terms. So did you, when you started your business, are your competitors, they do net terms? Correct, yeah. Okay, so they're dealing with the same things that you're dealing with. Yes.

You know, I'll be real honest, dude. I don't really know the answer to that question because I don't do terms for that reason. Yeah. I don't, to my wholesale accounts, it's pay. It's pay on delivery. It's either pay up front with a credit card or it's, and you know what? That's not typical in our industry. Most of our competitors do terms.

But the truth is, is I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to chase around people for money. We did terms for about a week until the first motherfucker didn't pay. And when that guy didn't pay, I made my brother because my brother argued with me about us doing terms. And he said that if we don't if we do terms or if we don't do terms, it's going to cost us a lot of business. And I said, well, if we do terms, it's going to cost us the same business because people aren't going to fucking pay. So I decided to let him do his, do it his way and offer the terms. Well, it took about four days for someone to not fucking pay. And after about 10 days of that, that guy not paying, uh, he was in Alabama. I made my brother get in a car from St. Louis and drive to Alabama and get the money yep so and and then after that he decided that terms were a bad idea as well yeah so um

so I guess if I were you um I if it were me and it was my business I would just I would make a decision about all right how much time do I want to dedicate to trying to chase money? How much time do I want to hire someone to make their full-time job process of collecting bills? And if it were me, I probably wouldn't. And so I would change the way I collect the money. And you might have an issue with losing customers, some customers. Yeah. And going into 2019, I mean, I have future plans right now of essentially, you know, top tier clients that pay on time and they're good clients.

We're not going to rock the boat, but these, you know, mid-level to low-level clients that, you know. Well, how is there, so do you get like on a service contract with these people? No, typically not. Typically it's kind of like a, we break down, we're going to call you. Okay. That kind of a deal. And it's, it, it, it's the industry is a very small industry. There's very few people that do this. I think honestly, nationwide, I'm probably the youngest guy right now doing it. So no bullshit. Yes. Do you do it better than your competitors? Absolutely. Are you faster than your competitors?

Absolutely. So are you on the scene quicker than they are? Absolutely. All right. So this is what I would do. I would continue to let your good clients be where they are. Like you said, I think that's a good idea. There's no reason to fuck with them if they're not fucking with you. Yep.

With new clients that you take on, I would say, hey, look, the first three times we do business, it's pay. You got to pay up front after we have a good history. Then we moved in at 30. Okay. And that's what I would do. And that way you're filtering yourself out and, you know, um, and creating, I think people will respond. I would respect that if you came to me and you had to fix something here and you say, Hey, the first three times we do business, it's pay up front. And then after that we work on net 30 i would be like fuck that's that's cool you know we both got skin in the game yeah and i know like you said at a grand scale i mean i think close to probably every single service company out there struggles with that on a regular basis for sure you know it's whether it's debute customers or just getting stretched out real long

the truth of it is i don't think it dude, are there people out there that just don't like to pay their bills? Absolutely. But I really think the reason that most people don't pay their bills isn't because, um, they're, they're like shitty people. It's because they're not organized. They don't understand how to run a business. They don't have a book, dude, hiring a bookkeeper for your business is people don't realize it's very inexpensive and it's probably the best thing you could do as a small business because I didn't learn the backend of my business before we hired a full-time CPA. Okay. And once I got a full-time CPA to help me manage, I started learning all the shit, right?

Cause these documents would come through and I'd call them on the phone and I'd say, Hey, what the fuck does this mean? And now I'm very financially literate, but I wasn't when we hired them, you know? So like that was my education in that investment. And, uh, dude, that's, it's cheap. It's so cheap. People are like, Oh, I can't afford it. Dude. Look, you're talking a couple hundred bucks a month to have someone fucking literally give you a college education and how a business works. You know what I mean? It's worth it.

And they do it all for you. Yeah. That's awesome. So your second question is a little bit more philosophical? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know. By the way. Yeah.

Sorry, I was drinking water. If someone out there listening can figure out how to solve that problem that you're talking about, that's a fucking billion dollar problem. Absolutely. Yeah. 110%. I mean, like, so, you know, where the big problems are, that's where the big opportunities are. And I personally, I don't have the time to sit down and examine that problem for myself, but for some of you young people out there, if you, if you could figure out how to get service people paid, just like PayPal, you know, where people are guaranteed payment, um, you're gonna make a lot of fucking money. Absolutely. So, and by the way, if you do that, just let me know,

cut me a little bit. I got you. So, uh, my second question is more of a philosophical question. And at the nitty-gritty right now where I'm at, three years in, service company, very, very small on the spectrum. Utilizing my business to get to that bigger picture that I have for myself. So, long story short, using laundry to help people. So, what I want to do with my connections within my industry, I want to put vans on the road with washers and dryers in the back. Now I'm from New Jersey, the tri-state area, the homeless, it's the magnitude, and I know Tom can attest to being from New York, the magnitude of it is incredible. And my worst fear, my personal worst fear is being homeless out on the street. And my thought is,

you put vans on the road, washers and dryers, you drive them into the inner cities, you do these people's laundry for free. To me, that would be a better fresh start than anything you could ever provide those people. So, using my business, what I do as a mechanic, as a vehicle to get to that path, how would you check yourself to keep yourself on that path so you don't end up in the ditch when you're driving down that long windy road to hit that final end goal? I don't think that that's, that shouldn't be too hard. I mean, if that's really something you believe in

and you're not just saying that shit because you think it sounds cool or you think it sounds nice, if that's really what you believe in, it should be easy to stay on track. I know. Because that's a noble thing to do. I feel like the more convicted you are in your beliefs,

I think that's how you can really tell people are convicted in their beliefs because a lot of people will say shit. Like I said at the beginning of the show show it's popular just to fucking say shit these days like everybody's out there trying to say things that they think other people are going to resonate with and they try to be this holier-than-thou nice person on the internet because they think it's going to get people to give them their fucking money. And you know what? A lot of times it does. And you know what?

I just said this on my story the other day. I'm not going to be speaking with the same old motherfuckers because, dude, I tell you what. I don't like going to an event where people pay thousands of dollars to come per ticket and then for 10 speakers in a row, they're pitched a new program. All that does is confuse people and you're not serving anybody you're not educating anybody and i feel like that's not you know a lot of people think oh well you're just talking about this one event or that event no i'm talking about every fucking event that i've done yeah you know and i'm just fucking tired of it i don't think it's right. And I believe in that.

And I'm willing to take money out of my pocket, a lot of money, to fucking stand by that and deliver that. I think very few people are willing to really truly take money out of their pocket and stand by their convictions. You know what I'm saying? We had this discussion last night and I told them, when I say that's my worst fear, like I seriously, like I get emotional thinking about

that. God, I, I can't imagine being in that position. And when I tell you that CD equipment services could be a hundred thousand dollar company, it could be a $10 million company. What I want to do is utilize my connect, my utilize my connections in this industry to put that in effect. Right. That's what I want to do. I get it, dude. Look, man, believe it or not, I understand this because, dude, I've struggled my fucking weight my whole life. I'm struggling right now. I'm up like 25, 30 pounds from my low and I got to get my shit together. Okay. Dude, there's a reason first form gives away more money than fucking any other company ever in the history of fucking this industry. There's a reason we donate more money to charity than any other company every year.

Then all the other companies combined for the last 30 fucking years. Okay. There's a reason we do those things. And it's not because we don't believe in what we do. You know what I mean? Um, the reason I'm convicted in those beliefs. And so the more success we have, the more money we give back, you know what I mean? And, uh, so I don't think that's a, I think that'll take care of itself for you. Cause I do, I do sense that, that, um, you, you feel genuine about what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. So I get that feeling. And I do, I do sense that, that, um, you, you feel genuine about what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. So I get that feeling. And I think, I think what you're going to find, which I think will be cool is that, um, the more success you have, you'll find other ways to, to help those people as well. You know what I mean? Um, so I think that's a, I think that's a good, I think that's a good thing, uh, to

keep in mind. And you know, your, your vision might not work out exactly the way you want it to. Like you might not have vans with washers and dryers. You might have, you might have locations with washers and dryers and then a kitchen and then meals and then cots. You might have this whole other vision that comes and takes its place you see what i'm saying that results from the success i am a firm believer that when people's convictions are good and they have good belief that the universe fucking helps them figure it out yeah um but right now you know and the reason i

was saying that is i just it disgusts me how fucking disingenuine people are when they try to say this charitable good fucking shit but the truth is all they care about is themselves. You know what I mean? We got a lot of that going on right now and I can tell you from experience because I've for the last three years I've gotten to really fucking see

what's going on. You know what I mean? I don't like it. Thanks Chris. Appreciate it okay so next up is carmella gossler uh not to be confused with mark paul gossler the actor who played zach zach morris yeah i fucking know that yes on uh saved by the bell anyway carmella runs a salon in prescott arizona and uh i'm going to let you jump right into, if there's anything else you want to say about yourself and then jump right into your question. I'm also about to launch clothing line. I'm also a surrogate. So I'm pregnant with somebody else's baby, which is

pretty exciting. I have four children. I'm a busy lady. What's going on? Yeah, it's awesome. It's great. And I have to tell you, it's an honor to sit at this table right now. Thank you. It's an honor to have you. Thank you.

This, what you guys have done has changed my life. That's awesome. It really has. Tell us about the surrogate. I want to hear about that. I have a client. Yeah. She's my client. Did it involve Ron Jeremy? Fucking did not involve Ron Jeremy. Do you wish you had? No, no, I don't. Um, no, I have a client. She's been a client for three years and, um, I watched her struggle. I watched her, she tried to have a baby for 10 years and she couldn't get pregnant. And I have no problem getting pregnant. And so I had offered

to be the egg donor and doctors told her the chances of her being able to carry that baby was going to be, it was, there really wasn't a chance. So it was, I saw it as a really big opportunity to do something for somebody that would change your life. And for me, I have this desire to, whether it's a small scale or a really big scale, help as many people as I can. And I stay in good shape. I eat well. Pregnancy is pretty easy for me. So it was this. That's a big commitment, man. It is big.

So forgive me because I don't really know anything about this. So and everybody out there is probably like, dude, Andy, you're such a moron. Look, I'm fucking focused on what I know. Like I know what the fuck I know. And I also know the shit I don't know. So like is the is the egg yours yes okay so biologically i will be connected to the child okay and so what we're gonna do the other way too where they take people's eggs and then somebody else carries yes right okay

and and so in this case because we live in the same town, we're going to tell the baby, like, I'm the aunt. My husband's the uncle. Our kids are cousins because we don't want my son 10 years later to be like, man, she's a really pretty girl. And be like, you can't like that girl. That's your cousin. So it's a really cool thing. It happened really fast, which. Here in Missouri, that'd be normal.

Yeah, that's why I don't live in Missouri. I'll stay in Arizona. Here in Missouri. It's, it's, it's totally perfect to marry your cousin. Our family trees go right straight up. Is that what's wrong with everybody around here?

I think the Missouri state motto is one big happy family. That's when you go to the fuck. That's why when you go to the grocery store, everybody fucking looks alike. Everybody looks familiar yeah i think i know you i i think the second place finished for the for the state motto was at least we're not west virginia oh man well so you have a you have a really interesting question for Andy. I do. And I'll tell you, everybody made me really nervous about my question.

That means I probably like it the most. So I racked my brain with a good question to ask. And I've listened. And I couldn't think of a question that you haven't already answered when it comes to business. You've given me, if you guys ended the podcast tomorrow, I have what I need. It's up to me to do the rest of the fucking work. Um, but you as a person, Andy, I mean, like I respect you so much because so much of your struggles I can relate to. I, you know, I struggle with depression. I have for a really long time. And, um, listening to you over the

last couple of years, I have, I've noticed this level of vulnerability that you have opened up to. Um, your level of humility has just gotten even deeper and i have always liked you um but the way you even speak to people is a little different and it i mean you went from being somebody i really was inspired by by being somebody i'm really fucking inspired by and thank you i mean i have this i want to help as many people as I can ultimately I want to get into speaking I want to I mean Arte has already changed my life in so many ways and I feel like that's another way to help that but I guess my question is was there a shift that happened was there something specific that opened up that deeper level or was it just she basically told us that she thinks in the last year you took it to a whole nother level

and wants to know what happened you know what what's weird and i'll this is actually a good time for this question because i've been actually thinking about this myself. Because yesterday and the day before, we were number one podcast on iTunes. Not in business, but on iTunes over everybody. Which is, I mean, I was thinking about it because, dude, people don't realize how many podcasts there are. There's millions of podcasts, okay?

And they also don't realize how many big fucking names have podcasts. Oprah. I mean, dude, to be number one above Rogan, above Oprah, above everybody, and that's basically saying, dude, you're the best in the world at what the fuck you do do and i've never been the best in the world at what i do at anything and the funny thing is is like i had all these people texting me being like dude that's fucking other peers like guys with podcasts like lewis texts me he's like dude that's so fucking awesome you know uh a bunch of the guys text me and i'm like like the funny thing is dude i was sick yesterday and and uh dude i was in bed all fucking day like and i was thinking about like

how big of a deal it is but how little of a deal is to me um i you know and that's why i hadn't posted it yet you know i'm gonna post it but like that's why I hadn't posted it yet. You know, I'm going to post it, but like, that's why, like, I don't, I think like maybe a year ago, two years ago, I, it was more of a big deal to me, uh, to like be the best. Uh, and I think over the last year, what I've really truly realized is that uh it's not about being the best it's about people like you who uh have gotten real benefit from what we've done and uh are truly doing things in their life that matter um good things like what you're doing for your friend, like that is not necessarily business, but you don't know the ripple effect that that's going to create 2030. That person might end up being the president. You know what I mean?

You never know. And I think that I dude, and this is going to sound, this sounds fucked up because I think, I don't know if a lot of people can relate um but I don't feel like I have anything to prove anymore if that makes sense uh like when I used to go like that's why like I don't care about doing the speaking and shit anymore um because I used to go to those events just to prove like dude I'm better than fucking you you know what I mean and like I'm better than these guys and over the last two years i don't think there's been a question

where i've gone to an event and not just made it and this is gonna sound cocky but it's the truth i've just made every other speaker look like fucking garbage and uh and the reason i've been able to do that is because i'm not there to sell you shit. I'm there to fucking help you. Right. And, um, I don't know, you know, I think the truth of it is, is I just don't feel like I have anything to prove anymore. And I feel like the things I thought were as important a year ago are now not the important things. And the important things are the connections and the contact and the impression and the lessons that I can give to other people where they can truly go out and change the way that they do things like for example and this this is this you know I don't want to I'm not trying to take credit for anything but like

I've stepped back from first form and I've let my brother start to like really put his spin on all the shit that I've talked about for the last 10 years. And dude, to see someone who was sort of in the shadows of what we're doing now, come out and take the lead and be able to develop as a speaker, as a leader, and as someone that other people look up to, that's more rewarding to me than me getting it myself. You know what I mean? And, um, I guess the, I guess the main thing really is that I've just, it's just, I've just become less selfish. Um, I, I don't know, like, I don't know if that makes sense. I've never felt like I've been selfish in the past, but I think I've just become less selfish and it's more of a, it's more of like self actualization. Like I'm starting to realize what my true reason for doing all this shit is.

Uh, and having guys like you come here and sit here and say the things that you say, um, where you could actually, cause like, dude, people say shit, right? Like when you, when you come off a stage and you just crush the whole fucking room, you know, there, people are emotional and they say like, dude, you changed my life and this and that. And this is sad, but after a while you just get used to hearing it and you're like, yeah, whatever. You know, that guy's just saying that because that's what they think they're supposed to say in that context. But when I get to sit down with people like you guys and really hear stories and really hear like the things that you've been through, that's what

makes it real. And that's what reminds me that we need to keep doing it. Um, I don't know. I mean, what do you think? I mean, you're around me every day. Yeah. So I'll give you my take. So there's an Old Testament proverb that says, the righteous are bold as a lion. And basically the idea is that when someone really is morally aligned, when they have become totally detached to the, or at least to a very, very, very great level, detached to the things that are really bad motivations and bad desires, that there becomes a strength in their life that is just kind of unparalleled. And I think that's what has happened, partly just Andy applying his own principles of excellence and developing as a person. But there's also, I mean, he's seen the really shady side of this whole space. And I think just in part, just that revulsion against that to kind of double down and say, okay, you know, I've always been kind of wanting to be impactful more than famous.

But now more than ever, I know that these other motives that people bring to the table, they're totally worthless. They don't help. They corrode you inwardly as a person. So I'm going to let that go. And I think that as a result, that sort of purity of heart, that integrity has provided the scaling, I think, of the excellence. Does that make sense? You probably wouldn't say that about yourself, but as an observer, that's what I've seen. There's so many people out there that say shit like, I just want to impact people and I just want to help people and I just want to do this but yet their actions don't align you know um absolutely it's and you could tell it's it's not about that it's still about them it's about the likes it's

about the comments it's about the views it's about the recognition and um I don't know, like, I guess to a certain point, and Ed's been very influential in this for me, too. Like Ed's been a really good partner for me and my let in business. He's been like a brother to me and he's been good for me to kind of grow through this. Because I think a lot of it was i didn't believe that i was as good as some of these other guys so i had to like go out of my way to try and like fucking make sure that they knew that uh and i think ed's been real good at being like bro nobody wants to fucking speak with you. Like, you know what I mean? Like he's made me believe in myself, um, more than I, I mean more than, cause I don't, I don't have that person in my life. Like I don't have like, like, like the big brother figure, you know what I'm saying? Right. Yeah. And so like, he's, you know, he's further further down the road he's made a lot more money than i have um he's fucking a more recognized speaker than i am i mean uh he wouldn't say that but i'll say

that right um but i mean dude just having somebody like that validate you it calms you down to a point where you're just like all right i know what i am and i don't have to fucking prove it and so that allows you to sort of like detach in terms of like, and really think about why you do things. Um, so it's very apparent you, I, Oh, I do. I like, I have gone back and listened just to make sure I was, you know, that I wasn't just creating it or like, it's so apparent. I mean, in the way you speak and the way you carry yourself. And like I said, the level of vulnerability and the level of humility is. Well, dude, the truth is, is fuck. I'm, I'm still trying to figure this shit out.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't, I don't have this shit. Like, dude, the reason I was an hour late sitting in here with you guys today was because I'm trying to figure out some shit in the back on the phone and with Chris, my business partner, and Sal. And we're trying to figure some shit out. You know, and like, my personal take is that, dude, you don't help anybody when you're not vulnerable. And you don't, and you let, when you don't let people know that you struggle, that makes them feel like it's, they're weird. They're not good enough. Right. Right. And there's, there's already enough people out there that make them that, that seem to know it all and seem to have it all and seem to, um, you know, have everything figured out and have an answer for everything. We don't need any more of that. There's already enough of those motherfuckers.

And the truth is, is it doesn't, I know when I was like working to, to, and I still am working every day, but when I was working to just, you know, become successful. And I say this in context because most people look at me and they're like, all right, that dude has all the shit I want, but they don't, but like my goals are much bigger than what I have. So I say that with like an asterisk, but when I was working to get to where I am now, quote unquote, successful, what people think, um, I remember like looking at other

people who had done it and been like, fuck, that dude's got this, he's got that, he's got this. I don't have any of that shit. And that always held me back because it made me feel like, dude, I don't have what these other people have. And then when I got to, you know, a certain point within the last couple of years, I think I've really started to realize like, dude, fuck, all these motherfuckers are normal. Like all these dudes that you guys see online, all of them, every single one of them, they're all fucking scared. They all, and they might not say it because they're not okay enough, like letting people see the vulnerable side. But like, dude, these guys are all they're all have have that they just don't

show it and i think that that's a shame because i think that a lot of the people out there would be far and i'm not talking about this fake fucking vulnerability i'm talking about the real shit absolutely you know what i'm saying like a lot of these motherfuckers post this fake shit no the dark shit that nobody really wants to talk about exactly Exactly. Yeah. And like, I feel like that helps people. Like, dude, like, okay, here's a fucking dude who seems to have it all. And guess what? He's still struggling with this and this and this. He's still learning every day.

He's still getting better every day. And, you know, I think that's important. I mean, dude, like who fucking, dude dude there's these 25 year old motherfuckers online right now who you know they might not they might have made a million bucks or a couple million bucks by selling some click funnel shit whatever you know good for them but now they're preaching like they fucking got the world figured out it's like motherfucking you don't know shit you don't know shit like you made a little bit of money. You bought a nice car. Good for you. I'm happy for you, but realize the reason that you're not going to be able to do more than that is

because you think you got it figured out. And my biggest fear, like you said, your biggest fear was being homeless. That my biggest fear is not far off from that. So like, I'm trying to learn every fucking day. And like, you know, Vaughn, this, dude. A lot of people accuse me of being falsely humble. Like they'll say like, you know, oh, you don't like, like, dude, Ed does this shit. Like, I'll be like Ed. I'll be like, fuck, dude, I ain't shit, man. I'm trying. And Ed will be like, come on, dude.

Like, you know, that's not true. And I'm, but Vaughn, you know, I really believe it. Yeah. Like, I'm like, fuck, I'm just some idiot from fucking St. Louis that knows a couple things. I don't think people understand just how complex that whole- Dude, I'm afraid of starting to believe my own shit. Right.

Like, I'm afraid of starting to believe, like I said on the Jocko podcast, like there is a time to be cocky as fuck, okay? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Yeah, there's a time. Like, dude, when I'm going on stage that's what I was going to say. Yeah, there's a time. Like, dude, when I'm going on stage in front of 20,000 people, if I'm going up there and I'm not cocky, dude, I'm going to suck. You know what I mean?

Like, it's going to be bad. Because you better, just like, dude, if you're going to play an NFL game and you don't think that you're going to whoop their ass, you already lost. Well, it's like what you said in the recent podcast with the P-51 pilots. You go in there, you go flying into a dogfight,

and you don't think you're the best, you're going to lose. You're going to die. Yeah. You know, and so, but there's, that's a small amount of time. Like, you walk around like that every day, people are going to fucking hate you. So we had things that we've always,

we've got these people we've always talked about in the podcast for the last couple years, they're asterisk holes, you know? So when Andy talks about cockiness, they're like, oh, I thought you said to be humble. And when he talks about humility, uh, they say, Oh, I thought you were supposed to be cocky. They don't realize that really the most successful people in life are people that there's always this tension. There's this paradox in their, in their lives. And there's these things that don't normally go together.

That dichotomy. Yeah. That's what i was just gonna say dichotomy right exactly it's it's it's it's somehow you are cocky and humble at the same time you just know how you are appropriate you are a badass and you are compassionate at the same time and people want to say there's no way you could be one or you have to be one or the other and all the time all the time right and it's not that's not human no it's like human beings are complex people it's a true dichotomy yeah it is a dichotomy yeah so uh no i mean i i love what he's saying mine is you know and i appreciate i take that as a as a compliment but you know the bottom line is is like dude i'm i'm really no different than anybody else i'm just trying to figure this shit out. And that for somebody like me who struggles,

you know, like I'm a lot better than I used to be, but the self doubt and like the feeling like, you know, you have to, your podcast on worth is like when you decide what you're worthy of, you become that. Right.

I decided that, but there's still those moments. There's still like those pits where you go into dude I have that same shit like am I really good enough like am I really like qualified to be helping other people other women who have gone through the same things that I have and to see that you still are and that you know like I'll go like weeks without recording a podcast you know what's really going through my mind at that time? Man, nobody wants to hear what I had to say.

I'm the number one fucking podcast in the world. And I'm telling myself in my head, nobody really wants to hear what I had to say. You know what I'm saying? I do. Or somehow this is a fluke. I do. This is like a fluke.

Yeah. And so I'm like, fuck it. I'm not going to record anything. Right. And like, dude, that's, you know, I get it. Yeah. And I I'm like, fuck it. I'm not going to record anything. Right. And like, dude, that's, you know, I, I get it. Yeah. And I do that same thing. So knowing and seeing that and you being more open about that in this last year, I feel like for myself, it's absolutely, it helps me in the best way because like, I am still, I am like the things I have to share are valuable and they are helping people it's you know what I would say to like help you with that and I think what's helped

me with with that um a lot is that and this is going to go along with you learning how to become a speaker as well um no matter what mindset you're in when people come to consume your con your content there's a context to it so like for example i may not want to feel like speaking to a bunch of people or like i might feel like my like i don't want to say something that i you know this or that but there's fucking people that have paid to come hear this and they're ready to fucking hear it okay and same thing whenever you go to speak to 10 people because that's what you're going to start with that's what i started with i just got asked yesterday yeah like small like small town thing which is really cool and i'm super stoked yeah that's where i started too

i started giving uh sales talks when we had six or seven people in our company. And that was 15 years ago, you know? So that's where everybody starts. And believe it or not, that's where you're going to develop your best skills. And you're going to make your biggest mistakes. And guess what? There's only six people there to see it instead of 6,000, you know? But I think the biggest thing that really helped me and um, and it helped continues to help me is like when I don't feel like recording a podcast, cause I feel like nobody wants to fucking hear it. Um, I remember that they're specifically going on and clicking on because they're in the

context of wanting to hear some shit, you know? And, uh, and that helps me get over that, you know, like nobody wants to hear me shit. You know? And that helps me get over that, you know, like nobody wants to hear me shit. You know what I mean? Yes. So when you're speaking and you're like, oh, I'm developing this talk and, you know, fuck, this is stupid.

Nobody wants to hear this shit. You just got to remember like, dude, these people are there to hear that. Yeah. You know? They're wanting to be informed. Yeah, like Vaughn, when you were a pastor, people showed up on Sunday and what'd they expect? They expected to be informed. Yeah, like Vaughn, when you were a pastor, people showed up on Sunday and what'd they expect?

They expected to be fed. Yeah. They wanted to learn something. They wanted to be motivated. They wanted to be inspired. They wanted to be helped. And I mean, it's amazing to me because it's amazing to me what we think is so everyday garden variety. Like we think, well, why would I post about this? Because this is like

normal human experience. Exactly. Post about it. Talk about it. Because if it's normal human experience, you're going to motivate somebody. You're going to help somebody. It's kind of humbling. But in 10 years of being a pastor, there were sermons I worked on for hours. But there was one Sunday where I could literally, like the whole week, I could not put two sentences together. I had no idea what I was going to preach on. So what did I do? I got up Sunday morning, and my sermon was basically, yeah, guys, years ago I got dumped by this girl, and it sent me into a deep depression, and it sucks, and this is what I learned from it. And to that point, I never had a more requested

sermon, just because people identified with it. So the more you speak transparently about your own pains and your own self-doubt, and I think that's what Andy's really good at. He's really good at it, and I would add this, because Andy's really good at it without communicating the idea that to be vulnerable, you have to start crying

and get in touch with your feminine side it is it is it really is and and so there's this all there's all this there's all this movement about the new masculinity 10 years dude to be vulnerable you're gonna have to like put on women's fucking underwear sit around and fucking put lipstick on and talk about it it is i mean out of here man it is crazy i mean there's all these people there's all these people that talk about the new masculinity. Dude, it's not even cool to be straight anymore. Like, it's not even fucking cool.

Or a single gender. Dude, you have to be unisex. Oh, you gotta be confused. Like, fuck, I don't know what I am. You could be a dick. I don't know. I don't know. Today, I think I'm a dude. I'm gonna tuck it today. I definitely... The new masculinity sure seems a whole lot like the old femininity.

No, but now. Yeah, no shit. And the new masculinity is like, if you have a fucking beard, you're insecure. Right, right. Bro, I've had a beard since 2011. Like, what the fuck? Right. Or you have a sports car because you have deep seated daddy issues or something.

It's because I'm not Ron Jeremy. Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. That's why. Yeah. You can't just like cars. No yeah you can't just like cars no you can't you gotta have a little dick too everybody knows that like everything's pathologized yeah like you're not just yeah i don't like i just i don't like a chevelle it's something my dad did to me in 1973 or something it reminds me of the year that my cousin decided that he was not a man anymore and he was a woman yeah his penis cut off yeah like you have to have some fucking crazy like it's like dude how can you just not like shit anymore like i just can't you can't just like chicks now you know what i'm saying like it's like

it's just fucking over the top bro that's crazy yeah so thank you, Carmilla. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. So our last winner of the group is Dr. Tom Rutcher. And, uh, all of these people were, were picked for specific reasons, but I have to tell you that, uh, about a year, year and a half ago, uh, Tom actually applied for the, uh, for the video testimonial one. And you were And I think you were late or I missed it or something, but he put together an incredible video testimonial for Andy, basically talking about your practice, your doctor, your doctor of audiology, and basically about how the principles of the MFCO helped you to build to build your practice and, and to, to establish yourself. But I don't want to steal all your thunder because you had, you have another,

uh, with another, uh, thing that you're involved in that you want to, uh, draw to Andy's attention. So go ahead. And you're from, you're from, uh, uh, Long Island. Long Island. Right. Born and raised Long Island. What's up, Andy? Thank you so much. I want to tell a quick story. So I mentioned in that video, from all the different lessons that, you know, and like you say a lot on the podcast, like it's nothing new. It's putting in the work.

It's doing the hard work. The thing that, just to kind of truncate, Yvonne mentioned the video, truncate everything. The one word that I implemented in my practice was customer service was no matter the person coming in off the street, had a question to about their hearing, whether they were paying me a dollar, whether they were buying a pair of $5,000 hearing aids, like it didn't matter. I made it my goal in the last couple of years from, from, you know, from learning from you that when they walk out of that office that they're

like, who is this guy? Like, who did I just meet? And it's allowed me to, to scale the practice, uh, to produce an income for me to,

to start building a life with my wife. And, and, and the thing I'm going to mention about this, this entrepreneurial venture that I built with my brother and a close friend of mine. And that's all it was. And I put a little post-it note on the side of my office that says, ask. And it's just always asking that customer after I really make sure I go above and beyond if they can just tell a friend and ask as I've learned from you from the podcast. They're doing their fee. How's that work for you?

It's been great. I grew the practice 400% in one year, which for me, that's a lot for me. No, that's fucking awesome. But my point asking you how that worked was people think that doesn't work. They think it's like, oh, dude, you're being overly simple. All the guys in my industry,

from what I learned from when I was a resident, it was, you know, you're gonna go out, you're gonna do all these big marketing ads, you what I learned from when I was a resident, it was, you know, you're going to go out, you're going to do all these big marketing ads, you're going to spend $5,000 a month on direct mail, you're going to sell turkey legs to get them into the office,

you're going to offer free tea. That shit doesn't do any good unless you've got something on the inside that's going to get them to talk about you. In Queens, New York, I am the Guyanese audiologist.

Everybody that comes, everybody that's a big Guyanese community, they all know me, everybody that's a big Guyanese community, they all know me, and it's all just word of mouth, and it's just been awesome to see it grow. I wanted to share a quick story about the Arte Accelerator. About 10 years ago, my brother moved to another town near where we grew up, and him and his wife moved in, and they had to get a new hot water heater.

And I didn't know it at the time, but he's like, you know, he showed me the system. I was still in high school. I'm like, that's cool. You know, I didn't really, I don't know. That's cool. I'm playing video games. I didn't really know what that meant. And about two years ago, my wife and I also moved to the same town and we needed to get a hot water heater system and he recommended this company. And we had them come right in off of my brother's recommendation and I was just from the whole, the way they came, sat down at home, we went through the whole process, how they were going to make my home more efficient, make it a better process for home.

And I remember just like when they finally had the guys come and install everything, I remember just, I took off from work that day just to watch the whole process. And I was just so impressed with the craftsmanship and everything. And I was really blown away. So fast forward, that was about two years ago, joining the RTA Accelerator. Awesome group. Been able to connect with some, not only everybody in this room today, but some people locally right in Long Island.

And we had our quick first little meetup a couple of months ago at a Starbucks and we're all just hanging out and talking. And I'm across from this woman and she's like telling us about what she does. And her and her husband own this hot water heater company. I'm like, what company? And sure enough, it was the same company.

And, you know, and now she's going to be, she's also going to be the, it's crazy, the president of the Chamber of Commerce in the town that I live in. And like all of these things have come full circle.

And it's just- So she, I think you told me that she's in the accelerator and he's in the syndicate. Her husband's in the syndicate. Yeah. Bill Powell. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. And it's just, it's amazing what you guys have put together. So thank you. Yeah, that's cool, man. So just, uh, I mean, what do you think of the, just give me a little, give me a little honest thoughts about what you think of the accelerator so far. I mean, I'd like to sell you like about the, I'm going to mention, uh, the little, the, the business with my brother that we built, but it's allowed us to connect with some really awesome people locally to, and this is going to lead me to my question, to help me to start building the brand locally. And so with the question is, what advice would

you offer to a brand that has built itself initially through leveraging Amazon's platform but is trying to transition away from the dependence from Amazon? My brother and I and a close friend of ours, without really putting any money in, just a little bit of our money, and we just kept building it. And Amazon's great. It's an awesome platform. You can get traffic. But at the end of the day, they own your business. That's it. They can turn off with the switch of a button so my so my exact words i was going to say was they own you

and people don't realize that so uh you have to understand and you do but i'm going to paint this picture of people listening that amazon is an amazing fucking company. Amazing. Uh, for certain companies, they are amazing. Um, if you're going to be a small company that let's say you sell cell phone cases or something cool like that, um, and you want people to see them, you want to sell Amazon's fucking great. Okay. But if you're going to build a real brand that you hope to sell one day or exit this that the problem with amazon is dude they will make you think that you still own your company but the truth is is they own everything because who owns the relationship with the end consumer that's where the value is all right uh like if you were going to, like if somebody was going to come, that's why first form isn't on Amazon. Okay. Um, people ask all the time, why is first form not on Amazon?

Why is, why do, uh, why do you guys not sell here, here and here and here? Because owning the relationship with your end consumer, uh, is the most valuable aspect of your business. All right. And it's going to be really hard, uh, in the future for company, for brands to become the kind of company that, um, that people are used to seeing if they only sell on Amazon and don't own their relationship. It's a great opportunity and we're starting to feel that now. It's a great way to start. Yes. Right. And so what you're trying to do is transition to where you own those relationships, correct? Yes. All right. So you're going to have to take a hit, right? So you're going to have to take a hit. You're going to have to realize, A, when I pull off Amazon,

I'm going to lose some sales. All right. That's the first thing you're going to have to understand. That's going to happen. A lot of companies, what they try to do is they will try to begin to market and build the direct relationships before they withdraw from Amazon, which you can do. The problem is whenever you start to do that and Amazon finds out, they turn you the fuck off. Okay. So the first thing you got to do is you're going to have to accept that you're probably going to lose some dollars. But when you lose some dollars today, remember that that's an investment in your future, right? So the first thing you're going to have to do is cultivate a situation with your technology,

whatever it is you use, that's going to allow you to service your customers directly. Do you have that? Yes. Okay. What is the product again that you're selling on Amazon? We sell men's accessory products. It's called Dapper FX. Okay, cool. Yes. Okay. Sorry. So explain what that is. So Dapper FX was formed, my brother, a close friend, we formed this brand that we wanted to be able to take, it's bridging the gap or the the balance between what we see a lot today and when we think of products for men men's accessories and products um modern design but we wanted to balance it with some of these more timeless and classic elements that we see uh because as as we keep getting into the future and everything's becoming more modern looking we want to have

more of that classic feel and that's what we've been imbuing into all the products that we've been selling, but not making it so classic where you think of the dapper effects and it's like the guy with the top hat and we're still, we want to feel. What exactly do you sell? So we sell these products called valet trays. They're valet trays. So something you would put on your nightstand. You could put all your rings, your watches, your, it's the place that's like kind of the flagship product it was the product where

for men at the end of the day we we come home you don't want your shit laying all over the place all over the place right that's a different one

that's our cigar humidor okay that's cool though that's really nice and we want it to be a place for exactly you come home you put all your crap

in one place right and you feel organized but you also also feel dapper about it. Let me give you some advice. You need to get better at explaining what the fuck you do. All right? Seriously. You should be able to explain it in 30 seconds.

What do I do? All right. Imagine you come home, and you're probably like me. You have your keys, you got your watch, you got your wallet, and you throw your shit all over the counter, and it there well we make something that keeps your house from looking like a bachelor pad disaster all right something like that you got to come up with a story all right so you need to get better at that because for the last five minutes you've stumbled through that maybe you're just nervous i don't know but i need when you're when i meet you in elevator sometime or you meet some dude on Shark Tank in the elevator,

you got to be able to explain that shit instantly because you might not have another shot. Paint the picture just like you were saying with the real estate. Yeah. So figure out the story you're going to tell to paint that picture. Work on that. That's going to be a big help for you. Now, you said that you are already being able to service your end consumers, right? You built that in. Are you doing that already? And you're selling on Amazon. Yes. Okay. But your goal is to pull off of Amazon

as much as possible. Okay. And the goal is to pull off of Amazon because you want to, you want to build the brand yourself because you're, you're thinking ahead. Yes. Okay. So this is how I would do it. I would, I would start, um, by utilizing influencer marketing on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube. And I would have, I would find people. Yeah. To start making posts for you to start establishing the brand. Um, then what I would do is when I got sales to a certain point direct, I would pull off of Amazon, go direct, work on all your, you know, your, uh, your influencer marketing, uh, possibly affiliates possibly, or for sure.

Um, you know, your Facebook advertising and things like that. Are you doing Facebook ads at all? A little bit. You need to be doing a lot of Facebook ads. We're doing, we're doing our first local event in December, where I mentioned before, it's going to be great. It's kind of, you know, we're going to have a tent and we're going to be selling locally and we're just running Facebook ads to that local five mile radius. Learning how to direct market your product via the tools that we have, Facebook ads,

YouTube ads, dude, it's really, I mean, it's fucking huge. It's a huge opportunity. Um, and with what you sell, I mean, dude, this is cool shit. It's not, it's not boring shit. You know what I mean? Like every dude wants to look, you know, like if I'm telling a story, like I'm, here's the video I'm making about your product. Um, I'm making a video where a single dude is bringing home some chick for the first time to his house. Madman lighting. Listen, I'm be serious. And she comes home, you're bringing her in your house and you know, you just throw your shit on the counter and you see her like, like you, you're kind of unorganized like the rest of your place is kind of sloppy and she's like not you know like she might pick something up off your counter

like your dirty underwear and hold them up and be like oh this is gross right like seriously like you got to make it like over the top satire um where like your place is fucking disgusting all right and then i would make the statement like no chicks like if your place is fucking disgusting. All right. And then I would make the statement like no chicks. Like if your place is this disgusting, what's she think of your balls and your dick? Like she thinks it stinks too. Yeah.

You come to a scene where he makes a move and she's like, no. Yeah. Right. Where she, you know, she's like, no thanks.

All right. And then the next time you could be like, don't let this fucking happen to you. Right. Cause it happens to every dude every dude and then and then you show like you come to your house and you've got like uh you know like you've got this cool humidor with some cigars you know and you look sophisticated you've got this nice little tray where you put like dude it just sends a totally different

impression we've been trying uh my other partner mike he's kind of been trying to get more into the social media and he's kind of been trying to get more into the social media and he's been dropping these little videos with the other product that I haven't showed you yet. He did one post the other day

where he like, it's just like his hands comes in. He's got the valet all set up with all his products and he put the caption. It was like, time waits for no man except the valet.

Here's the deal. What do guys care about? That's it. That's it. All right, that's it. If you didn't hear her, she said getting laid. And that was from one of the's it. That's it. All right, that's it. If you didn't hear her, she said getting laid. And that was from one of the girls here. That's it.

She said getting laid. That's fucking it. Everything that a guy does comes back to him getting fucking laid. Looking good, feeling good. Whatever the fuck you wear, whatever you drive, whatever your job, everything. Every fucking decision that a guy makes comes down to that shit. And so I would tie that into your product however you can. Everything, every fucking decision that a guy makes comes down to that shit. And so I would tie that into your product however you can.

And I'm not saying put like, you know, I'm not saying put like fucking tits and ass in your photos and shit like that. That shit's overplayed. People are immune to it. I'm talking about being creatively. Swagger. Yes, exactly. Like dollar beer club. I'm a classy man.

Like, dude, if you want to get the fucking pussy, you've got to be a classy motherfucker. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's the truth. The world's most interesting man, the Dos Equis guy. That's right. Exactly, the Dos Equis guy. Some of the best marketing ever created. Right?

Yeah. And who doesn't want to be that motherfucker? Everyone wants to be him. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Everybody's wanted him. Who's the guy that sits in front of that video on YouTube and is just sitting in front of a fireplace?

It's just crackling, and he's got the whiskey? I don't know, but you probably want to sit down and have a conversation and drink with him, right? Well, dude, and guys are always, dude, I can see a huge brand out of this, by the way. There's tons of things that could fall under this label besides a tray and a humidor. Dudes are working so hard to figure out how to be that sophisticated dude. Like if there was one place where they could go and find all this shit, that'd be amazing. Do you think it would be too much for him to put on his plate to make a alternate brand that he could replace on Amazon once he pulls that off? Yeah. I mean, that's a whole nother thing that you could do. Like the like Coca-Cola effect.

Huh? No, I mean, Coca-Cola do two different brands. I mean, if you're smart, that's what everybody should do. Like we have brands that we sell on Amazon that nobody even knows are

fucking ours, but you already know the hard part of like sourcing all the material, making it. So it'd be very easy for you to plug all that information into a, a totally different brand and keep it on Amazon. Have your own competition and watch the data and split test and own the market yeah i have tons of products that we sell on amazon that nobody even knows that we that are our products you know what i mean so

just to be in the game understand yeah dude it's just integrating and understanding understanding where you can monetize on every single spot that you can dude i i i think it would be fairly easy to come up with some shit on youtube that would fucking people would remember with with what you're doing on your brand yeah like i can see being big thank you yeah but um but understanding how to how to you, you know, control that, that end relationship and why it's valuable. Because like, dude, if you only sold this shit and this is, you understand this cause you're already doing it, but I'm, I'm explaining to you guys who were listening. If he were just to sell on Amazon and say, you know what? We got our brand to 10 million bucks through Amazon, Amazon. Here's what Amazon does. They fucking recognize that you're doing

$10 million with this brand. And you know what they do? They go out and fucking create a fucking brand that competes with you that people don't realize is even theirs. And they push that shit on your customers. And then what happens? Then you're doing 2 million. And you don't get all the ad spend anymore. You don't get the impressions. No, you get nothing. And like, dude, people are so, people, I give you a lot of credit because a lot of, especially in my industry, people are so short-sighted to make some money today that they don't think about what I'm talking about for the next 10 years. Fuck the next 30 years, you're going to have to have something to do.

You know, it's not just about today. You know, we could have sold a ton of product on Amazon and bodybuilding.com in the beginning. But if we had, we'd be out of business right now. Instead, we work to cultivate that end relationship with our consumer. We wouldn't be able to have the relationships that First Form has with its audience and its family that we have if we hadn't controlled that in that end consumer, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. So it's, it's a very, very smart long-term play, um, that most people are too short sighted to see. So I would give you a lot of credit for noticing that, um, and, and following through on it. Cause it's going to cost you a little money in the short

term. I mean, you know that definitely. Yeah. But it's okay. Right. That's okay. Because how old are you? 30. Yeah. So you're gonna be doing this for another 30 fucking years. Absolutely. Yeah. And hopefully if this goes good, maybe you do this for another 10 and then you do whatever the fuck you want for the next 20 years after that. You know what I mean? Uh, but it's still going to come down to you controlling the end, the end relationship. Awesome. Awesome. Carly, Chris, Tom, Carmela, thank you so much. Uh, and thank, once again, thank you to all of you guys who submitted, um, iTunes reviews. Well, I'm sure we'll do another contest in the, in the future, but, um, pushing on 300 here. Yeah. We're getting close to 300. That's kind of significant. Yeah. Yeah. I got nothing else to say

other than guys guys don't tell your wives to Google porn stars with bigger dicks than you Von Jeremy.

Yeah. Yeah. Ever. Like that's just a fucking terrible idea. That's the lesson of this entire She's already probably looking at ones

you don't have to give her more. Yeah. Yeah. Just don't what the fuck are you thinking't have to give her more. Yeah. Yeah, just don't. What the fuck are you thinking? She mentally took away your man card. Or he's like, I'm so secure, I don't care. That's pretty much it.

Yeah. I mean, whatever. That's fine, but I'm just saying it's just never a good idea to throw in extra meat out there. Well, maybe so, but you know, I heard you say one time you were Sicilian, so what are you worried about? I'm not worried, but I'm also not fucking finding dudes on the internet

with big old dicks and telling my wife to look at them. I'm fairly confident that my wife only saw his face. Dude, you're fucking delusional. She definitely saw a head. you spent too much time and you

you've been spending too much time in sunday school bro uh guys if you haven't checked it out uh check out andy's power list i know that we have a lot of um new people who are listening to the podcast hence the number one rating in the world but um that's just something that if you haven't listened to episode 107, take a listen to that episode and then get on andyfrisella.com and check out the power list. It's the number one productivity tool that you can find kind of as part of Andy's brand. So we're going to try to start reminding people of that more just because it's so fundamental to crushing it. Well, we get a lot of people who listen and they're like, fuck, there's so many episodes. Where do I start?

Right. You know, and I think it's good to remind them where to start. Yep. You bet. Once again, guys, thank you so much. Outro Music