REAL AF with Andy Frisella - Humility Is Huge, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO12

Episode Date: August 25, 2015

Humility is huge. Not just for living a good life. For running a successful business, too. According to Andy Frisella, humble leaders inspire employees and customers, and humble businesses improve and dominate.

All I do is work, work, work. Never run your sidelines, I only hustle. I'll never take your day off, I only work, work, work. I don't mess around, kid, I only care. Nobody ever sees you. All I do is work. All I do is work. Hey, guys, what's up?

It's Andy Purcell of the MFCEO. This is the MFCEO Project. You are listening to I have my co-host here, Vaughn Kohler and Ben Newman. What's up guys? What's going on? Today is a huge day in the podcast, in the history of the MFCEO podcast. You want to know why? Why? We got our first sponsor. We did. We got our first sponsor. Matchbox Cars? No, it's not Hot Wheels. It wheels it's not matchbox cars it is i should say matchbox cars it is an awesome company that approached me about six seven months ago regarding possibly investing in their company um and it's kind of weird how it happened because

they sent me a proposal that i never actually got to read because I don't get all my Facebook messages. But then I started to notice them and I started seeing them grow. And I'm like, man, these guys are, this is a fucking cool deal. These guys are really doing something cool. And I became a fan of them. And then I met Kyle, one of the guys in the group. And I went back and checked my mail and saw that they asked me to be an investor in it before it even got going. So it was really weird how it came about. I became a fan of these guys on my own,

not even knowing that they had asked me to invest because I never saw the message. So the company is really, if you guys are on Instagram, you've probably seen me talk about them. The name of the company is the Dollar Be, if you guys are on Instagram, you've probably seen me talk about them. Um, the name of the company is the dollar beard club. All right. Yeah.

The dollar beer club, dude, they're, it's an awesome company. They have some of the best products out. I've tried them all. They're phenomenal. As you guys know,

I'm a lifetime beard wear. Um, I'm not one of these trendy, uh, hipster dudes who grew a beard because it was cool. Um, could you grow a beard because it was cool. Could you grow a beard in high school?

We couldn't have beards in high school. Oh, okay. But I've had a beard on and off ever since really I got stabbed. That's kind of how it started, and then it's just stuck. Now I do it because I love it, and I can't imagine not having it. But they sell all the different beard products, and they just come to your house on a regular subscription basis. It's really cool how they do things.

These guys are – I admire them not only for their products, though, but the way they market their products. They've really been an innovator in terms of using social media to market things that we've talked about, principles that we've talked about, and how to be authentic, be real and market in today's in today's new new economy. It's been really fun watching them. So to have them come on as a sponsor of the MSCO project is not only really cool because, you know, we have a sponsor, but it's cool because I believe in what they're doing. Right. And I've seen them grow and become a fan organically

You know from the get-go so so welcome guys. I appreciate the support you guys know a big support of you guys So if you guys haven't checked them out, they are at the dollar beard club calm if you're a beard guy Or girl check out all their awesome beard products. We know we got some bearded ladies out there Check out their awesome beard maintenance products. They've got some really cool things. Their beard oil is awesome. All right, so that's my – Mine's coming in pretty good here today.

I like it. Yeah, that's right. Newman's starting to get one. I can grow one in my neck. Yeah. Vaughn's getting neck beard. That counts. Neck beard counts.

Like an Amish. All right, guys. So, welcome Dollar Beard Club. Go check them out follow them on Instagram um even if you don't have a beard they're a good follow because they're they just post some really good entertaining stuff um question of the day though all right here's the question of the day I was thinking about this as I as I came in um because it relates to the topic of what we're going to talk about today. What is your favorite upset in the history of sports?

I'll go ahead and start with you, Vaughn. Well, it's not my favorite sport by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm going to have to say February 22, 1980. A group of American college kids defeat the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. America, a miracle on ice. 1980 Olympics. And why do you think that they were able to win that game? Because we're American.

Good answer. Ben, what's your favorite? So, you know, being St. Louisans here, I'm going to take a gander and I'm going to leave the one that I'd probably pick first for last because I guarantee it would come up. I'm going to go with another St. Louis story because I think for those of you that are St. Louisans, you know what the number one would be.

But I think the St. Louis Rams. I think back to that football game, that Super Bowl against the Tennessee Titans and, you know, that never-give-up attitude. And I always like to say it's hard to beat a team that refuses to quit. And you think about, you know, now the late Steve McNair, and you think about that game, and you think about the turnaround of that team, which is really a lesson for all of us. It doesn't matter what you did last year.

It matters what you believe you can do this year. And that team went from 3-13 to going 13-3 and winning a Super Bowl, the greatest show on turf. Torrey Holt, Marshall Falk, Isaac Bruce, Kurt Warner. Don't forget my homeboy, DeMarco Farr. DeMarco Farr, the big daddy. DeMarco Farr is a good man. And I just think it came down to that final yard

and Mike Jones chasing down the receiver for the Titans and making what is now in St. Louis. It is the tackle. It was that tackle that really preserved that whole story. Yeah. And they never gave up. So I would say that's a pretty amazing story when you look at it in its entirety.

No question. Not just a game, but the mentality of, of, of being an underdog. You know, mine for sure would be, and I know what you're referring to because when you

said everybody knows the biggest upset in st louis um that would be game six of the 2011 world series uh cardinals versus texas rangers um probably the greatest sporting event in the history of baseball maybe even definitely the greatest game in the history of baseball. Probably the greatest game ever in any sport. If you watch that game. We were what down? What was the score? It was, I don't remember the exact score, but we were down.

I think three runs came back in the bottom of the ninth inning come back and win the game come back win game seven um total swing of momentum i mean there's no way the ranger i was at both games i was at six and seven um there's no way the rangers could have could have won after losing that game six and it was two outs two strikes too yeah right yeah i mean it was over um and i think you know what we're talking about here. And the reason I wanted to ask that question is because today we're going to talk about humility. We're going to talk about the power of being humble, why humility is important. And not in not in every single case, but in most cases in sports, one team is cocky, they're arrogant,

they think they've got the win in their pocket, and they stop executing on the basics, and they allow teams to come in and win. I think in that Rams season that we're talking about, you could point at that for sure. Nobody thought the Rams were serious. They won the first six or seven games without losing um and you know people thought it was luck and it wasn't they were just executing consistently you talk about the 1980 championship hockey game you know nobody thought those kids were going to win nobody believed they were going to win except them right you know that's why they were able to win yeah you know the other team

didn't come out and take them serious they weren weren't humble. They didn't execute, and they lost the game. You know, and that's the same thing we're talking about with the Cardinals thing. You know, it's pretty easy to think that you're going to win when you're up a number of runs and there's two outs, two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning. You know, you think you've got it in the bag, and look what happens. You know, and the lesson to all these things is that if you can remain humble in competitive situations, especially in business,

and stay hungry on top of that, that's when you're going to win. But the minute you lose your humility, the minute you think you're at the top of the mountain, the minute you think you have it made is the minute somebody comes and kicks your ass. And that's the power of humility. I've shared the stage with two of the members from that Super Bowl team. Had the opportunity to speak with them multiple times.

And they used to talk about the special teams coach from that season. It was a guy named Frank Gans, a legendary special teams coach. And you're going to love this, Andy. He used to tell them before all the games, to the special teams, go out and get the fight started. And I think that's such an important message for everybody. Nobody's going to do it for you. And when you remain humble and you remain hungry and you stay focused on the things that have gotten you ahead, right?

They were 6, 7, and 0, and he's still saying, go get the fight started. He didn't say, this is great, let's protect ourselves. Right, right. And I think that's really a mentality you've lived by. Yeah. Oh, dude, and if you stay humble, it keeps you aggressive. There's so many points we're going to get into.

And before we do, you know, I want to toss it over to Vaughn. Let him take care of technical business real quick. And then we'll get into the we'll get into the meat and potatoes of why this is such an important concept. I'm kind of the Vanna White of MFCEO.

Yeah, go turn those letters, bitch. You do look pretty over there, Vaughn. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. So guys, we can't stress this enough. Check out themfceo.com. And for each episode, we have a dedicated page. And on that page, you'll find show notes and links galore for this episode.

As you know, throughout the episode, there's always some recommendations, either books or products or what have you, that Andy is advancing or Ben's advancing. It's also a place to learn more about upcoming events and special products that we're going to be coming out with. So to go to the page for this particular episode, go to themfceo.com slash p12. And then guys, you want to run through your social media contacts. Ben, why don't you start us out? Yeah, so handles for me are at Continued Fight, Periscope, Instagram, Twitter, and then my name, Ben Newman, for everything else. Yeah, mine's at Andy Fursella on Instagram, at Andy for Sella on Periscope. Um, guys, I do many little mini Periscope episodes of the podcast almost every day. If you're not on Periscope yet, get on it.

Um, and, and check it out. Uh, Snapchat, I'm MFCO dash one. And then, uh, Facebook, I'm just Andrew for Sella. So sounds good. And I'm at Vaughn Kohler, V-A-U-G-H-N-K-O-H-L-E-R for everything. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and eventually Periscope. I guess I'm on Snapchat too. I don't do a lot on that. V-K-O-M-F-C-E-O. Mind if I insert a question real quick? We're talking about humility and maybe you're going to get to this, but you know, there's a lot of mistaken notions about what humility even is. So I'm curious, you know, maybe it's just for me and those who were dropped in their heads as children, but how would you, how would you describe that? I think humility is a very misunderstood term. Everybody likes to talk about being humble and everybody uses it

as some sort of like moral high horse to stand on these days. It's very popular to talk about how humble you are. And you know, I don't know, it makes people feel special or something. I don't fucking get it, but, but let's, let's, let's talk about what it's not. Let's talk about what humble isn't. Um, you know, when I, when I talk about being humble, humble doesn't mean, you know, that you're a little church mouse and let people walk all over you and don't say anything. Um, that's just not humility. A lot of people think that's humility, like shutting the fuck up and sitting in the corner, mind your own business. That's, that is not what humble means. Um, it also doesn't mean false modesty. We see a lot of that nowadays. Oh, I'm not very good at this. And when in reality,

it's like they're fishing for compliments, you know, it's, it's almost anti humility. Um, it's a, it's a false, false modesty to me is like the most annoying thing ever. Just, you know, if you're good at something, just say, yeah, you know what? I'm good at that. Okay. And say, thank you. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. Um, um, you know, some basic beliefs about, you know, humility that people have is, you know, people realize, you know, that are humble. They realize, Hey, the world doesn't revolve around me. You know, I'm not a perfect person. And that's where, you know, admitting that you're good at certain things and knowing that you have to improve at other things. Um, that's a humility trait. Um, other realizing that other people are better than you at a lot of shit that you're good at. That's being humble. Um, and also, and the most important thing that I feel

humility is, is realizing that you can always improve and you can always learn. The problem with humility and not being humble is that when you start to think you're good and you're not humble, you lose the ability to learn, you lose the ability to progress and you allow your competition, whatever that may be, whether it be sports, whether it be business, whether it be you own a business or you're working in a business, a competitive atmosphere, it allows people to catch you and beat you ultimately. That's what we talked about with the sports examples in the beginning. I mean all those situations were situations where people thought they had it won and they fucking lost.

And that's what humility can do to you if you don't have it. It can bite you right in the ass. But I'm going to tell you another thing humility is not. A lot of people say shit like, oh, that guy drives this kind of car. So he's not fucking humble. Humble has nothing to do with material things, guys. Nothing. Now that might be modesty is somebody not living a modest life. If they drive a Rolls Royce like I do, of course, I'm not a modest person. That's just not my style you know what i mean that's not there's nothing wrong with that i'm not i'm not modest you know but i am very humble and there's

a difference and you guys have to realize the differences between humility and modesty because they are not the same thing and most people confuse the two or lump the two into the same thing okay so today we're going to talk about why being humble is good for you, why it could benefit you, how to stay humble and how to basically check yourself when you do get good at whatever it is you're doing. You know, we're going to go through all those things. The bottom line is this guys, if you're not humble, you're fucking screwed. And that's the end of this. That's the end of the story. You can't learn, you can't progress, can't get better. You're only going to get so far. Yeah, I totally agree with this. That's the end of the story. You can't learn, you can't progress, can't get better. You're only going to get so far.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. And I think one of the main reasons why people are screwed if they, if they aren't humble is that what's the opposite of humble. It's being arrogant. It's being a prick and who wants, who wants to be a friend with someone like that? Who wants to help somebody out like that in business or life? And so if you, if you aren't humble, if you are the exact opposite, you're going to find yourself on your own. I think so. I think you end up on an Island, you know, and the reality is, is there's not one person I know of. And Ben, you know, a lot of successful people as well that has been able to achieve success on their own. I mean, are these, there's these internet people that do this randomly. And, you know, of course we hear hear about these stories but the reality is it takes a lot of people to fucking get a task accomplished

especially a large-scale task like running a company or being successful or launching a product and and when you when you aren't humble and you're like what you're saying you're the kind of dude that like not only do people not want to work for they're the kind of people that that like come in and purposely sabotage your shit. You know, I think it's important to highlight what you mentioned, which is it's OK to say that you're good at something. It's you don't have to apologize for being successful. If you're running a company, if you if you want to run a company, wherever you are in your career, it's actually an attraction power to actually be really good at something. But then to also recognize I can get better every single day. But to apologize or to not help somebody by sharing what's made you successful, I think actually does a disservice to their ability to actually grow.

Well, not only that, man. You know, that's something society has fucking beat into your head. You know what I mean? Like, dude, it's like, you know, people these days are just so quick to like point at somebody and label them. And like, you know, I get a lot because of the cars I drive. Well, dude, they don't realize that cars are a fucking passion for me. You know what I mean? I don't drive those cars to impress other people. I drive those cars because I fucking like it.

You know what I mean? And people point and they say, oh, that guy's not humble or that guy's not this or that guy's not that. When in reality, dude, I'm one of these people who sits here and feel, and Tyler can attest to this, I come in work every fucking day thinking about how I'm going to get better because I feel like I'm getting my ass kicked. Even though if you look at the bank statements and you look at the numbers, we're doing well. I feel like I'm always losing. A point you just made, which I hope people capitalize on and they recognize was the difference. I want to go back to this modest versus humility. And if any, if anybody, you know, is thinking about humility or saying, oh, he drives this car. He's not humble. I would encourage anybody to go find video from Summer Smash this year

when there were 1,000 people who were in the audience that had traveled from all over the world, part of the culture, the brand that First Form is building, and the emotion that you showed, I mean, that is exactly what humble is all about. So anybody that, because of a car, would say that you're not humble, go get the video footage. I just want to capitalize it. Modesty different. You don't have to be modest. Who says

you have to be modest and you can't drive a nice car, humble and modest, completely different things. I've never thought of it that way. And I hope everybody listened to that point because that is a huge point. If you want to drive a nice car, go drive one. It doesn't mean you're not humble. Not only that, how many little kids or how many people are you inspiring to go out and be successful by doing that? You know, like what I was, my point I was trying to get at, and I don't think I was making a very good point there, but, um, so thanks for stopping me from rambling on a terrible point. But the point that I was trying to make there was this is a society has the social pressure of everybody around,

because let's face it. Most people that we all deal with on a daily basis are moderate income type people. It's an average, right? Nothing wrong with that. And a lot of people are very happy at that. And if that's what you want, that's cool with me. I have no issue. I'm not judging.

This podcast is for people that want to grow and become successful. And that's an arbitrary term. It's different for everybody, right? So the principles are all the same. But the point I'm trying to get at here, guys, is this. You have to think outside the mental beating that society hands on you in terms of what's acceptable and what's not. Because the reality is, you know, people are going to try to tell you what to think, what to do, how to live. And at the end of the day,

you're going to be fucking dead and it's not going to matter anyway. So I encourage everyone to do what they want to do. If that's driving a nice car, it's driving a nice car. If that's living a fucking trailer, live in a fucking trailer. Everybody likes different shit.

I know plenty of dudes. I have a lot of friends who their idea and, you know, because we have this farm out in the country and I've got a lot of friends out there. Their idea of paradise is to have a house on the river where they can get on a flat bottom boat and go frog gigging. And you know what? I fucking go with them. And it's awesome. They have a great quality of life. So it's not about it's what makes you happy and you can't allow society to dictate

what is right or wrong for you. Because if you do that, you know, you're going to end up with, you know, the same shit everybody else has. You've actually chosen humility for one of your core values of your business, because obviously you think it has value for business. And it dawned on me as you know, we did a podcast on on sales a couple of weeks ago. And you said, you know, people don't buy your product as much as they buy you. And here's a perfect example. If you're an arrogant prick, nobody's going to want to buy your product. Right. That's right.

I mean, it's there's really nothing to add to that. You're going to be fucking broke. And as this is an entrepreneurial business podcast, being humble is an asset that you have to have. Right. And if you fucking aren't humble, you better get damn good at fucking faking it. Because the reality is most of your customers are going to be average people. And they're not going to respect you if you think you're fucking better than everybody. Right. Right. And I guess, I guess for me, I just wanted to hurt your sales. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So

let's tie it back to, you know, cause let's stay on focus. How does that, I mean, it's all good. We're all good people in this room. You know, everybody in this room is a good hearted person. I know every I'm friends with everybody in this room. I all know we all would be humble, whether whatever, in any situation, because we're good people. Some people need to understand that humility is necessary for them to get what they want in business. Right. You know what I mean? So at the bare bones, you need to understand that. Right. It's, it's not just the right thing to do. It's good for business. Great for business. Yes. You know? Yeah. So you're screwed if you're not humble. Yeah. End of the podcast or what? Hey man, you know, it's real simple shit. We could end it right here, but the reality is there's more points you can make and pile on and do all this

stuff. Um, you know, a big, a big obstacle that I see in in business a lot of times i see a lot of especially small business owners and there's there's no this is not a coincidence okay the bigger the company that i that i've dealt with the more humble the owner the smaller the company i've dealt with the more arrogant the owner it-hmm it's not a coincidence I think that goes back to a book that I had mentioned before mindset by Carol Dweck right it's the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset you know that's one of the things I love about first form it is constant when you look at the culture when you walk through these doors it's

what can we do to improve to get better? Better products, better people, better service. That keeps you humble in and of itself. You're constantly asking yourself, what can I do to grow? You're going to stay humble. It's like as a speaker for me, I've come a long way since 2006, since my first $500 speaking fee.

It's much more significant now, but the reality is I go to mentors and coaches that are still getting paid two times what I'm getting paid because it helps me better understand what can I improve? What can I learn from them? What can I do to mentors and coaches that are still getting paid two times what I'm getting paid because it helps me better understand what can I improve? What can I learn from them? What can I do to continue to grow? You naturally, if you want to keep growing, you'll be humbled. Right. What? And if you're humble, you'll naturally want to keep growing. So those, those two points,

you know, it's like what came first, the chicken or the egg? You know, we could argue about that all day. I prefer, I think that when you remain humble, that's for me at least. Okay. For me, when I remind myself how little of a fucking player I am in a business world and I look around and I don't compare myself to other people in my industry, I compare myself to fucking Steve jobs or bill Gates or dudes that own, you know, Jimmy John's, you know, I don't compare myself to other people in the industry. I compare myself to just business. And when you do that, okay, it's very easy to stay humble because you look around and you say, fuck, those guys have really done something. Right. You know, we're still little babies

in the big scheme of things. And I think that's, you know, it's all perspective how you want to keep yourself in check. You know, but getting back to my point about the guys that own the biggest companies are usually the most humble. And the guys that own the smallest companies in our industry, without naming names on the smaller guys, I'll name some names on the bigger companies. A company that we have worked with and use on a daily basis for the last 16 years. They're the biggest sports distributor in the world. Their name is Europa Sports. The guys that own that company are the most humble people I've ever met in my entire life. They're great people. They're always there to help. Jeff Compton, Eric Hillman, two of the greatest human beings that I've ever met. And these guys are the most successful guys, two of the most successful guys in our industry, two of the most powerful guys in our industry for the last 25 years.

You know, and these dudes, you would meet them and you would have, they are just, I mean, salt of the earth, people ever and then you meet some of these guys who own a little brand that does five hundred thousand dollars a year in sales and they act like they're the fucking king shit or whatever of the whole entire industry it's just like dude it's very apparent from where i'm sitting that that mentality of not being humble is what keeps them you know a small a small company. You know what I mean? And there's no coincidence as to why, when you see people like Richard Branson, who owns set, what is it? I don't know. 4 billion companies who fucking knows the guy owns everything,

you know, and you see him, he's a regular dude. Like I'd like to drink a beer with that guy and hang out with them. And he seems like a humble, I mean, I'm sure he's confident. And I did a periscope on this yesterday. I'm sure he knows what he knows. And I'm sure he is not afraid to admit what he doesn't know, which is what ultimately has made him successful. You know what I mean? I would say too, that humility is, is not a static thing. Like you either have it or you don't because let's face it a guy that's making that much money he's going to have his moments where he maybe lets his ego gets the get the best of him but it's the people who consistently put their ego aside and consistently put others first and

serve others who who i think are are going to be the most successful but let's face it i mean guys who have guys who have accomplished a, you're going to periodically struggle with some ego issues. I don't know. Maybe. I mean, you don't think. I don't know, man. Like I said, the most the most the most successful guys I know are the most humble in all areas. Like I've never one time heard those two guys I just mentioned ever step out of line with ego. That's impressive. Super impressive. You know, and I and I know guys out of line with ego. That's impressive. That's super impressive. And I know guys more successful than them financially. And if they built it themselves, I think,

as opposed to inheriting a family business, I'm talking about self-made dudes. Self-made dudes, the bigger they are, the more humble they are. That's what I've always found. I've never found it the other way around, ever. And I've never seen, you know, people – I've never seen them step out of line. You know? I don't know, man.

I don't know if I agree with that or not. I'm sure that's the case sometimes. But, you know, I've never seen it from those two guys, ever. Ever, ever, ever. I call those dudes. I call them dudes at 12 o'clock at night and they're like, Andy, what do you need, man? How are you doing? You know, they're not like, what the fuck are you calling me for? You know, they're just, I don't know. I think it's a core value that people, the more people have, the more growth you're able to, to, uh, achieve because the reality is, is if you think you're perfect,

you think, you know, everything. And if you, if you are somebody who battles with ego, you're not able to learn, you're not able to approve, you're not able to progress. And, uh, it's, it's just the reality of, of, of the core value, you know, you know, from a, from a coaching and psychology based standpoint, which is obviously the work that I'm doing on a, on a daily basis, I think in those situations where you have the company, they've done $500,000 in annual sales and they have this ego, there's some insecurity about the truth of where they are and the fear of where they want to go. And the reality is you just have to be truthful with yourself. It's self-awareness. It's okay that I can grow. It's okay that I don't know everything. Self-awareness is exactly right. So I always talk about attain belief in yourself.

When you say that, it doesn't mean that I'm saying to somebody, you don't believe in yourself. It's where you are. What is that next level of belief? And that's what we're talking about. It's the ability to remain humble and say, it's okay to grow. Richard Branson, I guarantee you, is looking for ways he can continue to grow, buy other companies. The guy can still grow.

No matter what he owns, he can still grow every day. Whether it's growing in nutrition and serving other people or business, you can always continue to grow. Yeah, you know, I mean, Vaughn, you might be right. I don't know. I mean, I'm just saying I've never seen that. The only thing I really meant with that point was simply to say that people are human and we, and sometimes our, our lesser, well, our greater angels don't get the better of us.

Our demons get the better of us. And that's, that's, that's the only point that I was making is that nobody's, nobody's perfect. I've never witnessed that from those guys. Yeah. No, that makes sense. I think what Vaughn, you're probably talking about a Floyd Mayweather, you know, Floyd Mayweather is nor modest nor humble, right? I mean, if you're looking at the extreme example like that, but how many Floyd, You know, Floyd Mayweather is nor modest nor humble, right? Yeah, right. Exactly. I mean, if you're looking at the extreme example like that, but how many Floyd, an unbelievably successful guy, but I think you're talking about the actual example. Okay, so let's talk about that for a second because Floyd is one of those super talents that he's arrogant.

You know, I mean, there's no question. The guy's fucking arrogant. You know, he talks shit. He talks about his money all the time. He brags about it. I carry a million dollars in cash around with me. You know, that's not humble. You know what I'm saying?

In any way. So how, okay, so how does he stay hungry? How does he stay moving forward without being humble? You know what I mean? It's a good example to think about you know there is examples in history where people are just that fucking good that they don't they don't need to get hungry you know um but let's look at it from the other side of the coin you know those are definitely the exceptions and not the rule. No question. But here, let me put it to you a different way nobody talks about.

Because this is what always happens. I always tell people, you've got to be humble in order to succeed and grow. And people always fucking point to that guy. I can't fucking stand him as a personality. But I respect him because he knows he's a fucking entertainer okay and i think a lot i think if you sat down with him behind closed doors a lot of what he does is an act and it's not who he really is he understands he's a character okay so like that character to me is not appealing but i think he's a genius for creating the character because it's getting him

paid. Right. All right. So, but let's anybody in the history of sports, that's what I'm saying. I mean, you think 300 million for fucking 30 minutes,

do you come on that? You, you, there's nothing you could say, no matter what you think about it. It's just, it's ridiculous. Right?

So anyway, I bet if you got him behind closed doors, I bet he's a different dude. Could be wrong, but I'm betting that he is. And let's also think of, cause dude, I, I bet if you got him behind closed doors, I bet he's a different dude. Could be wrong, but I'm betting that he is. And let's also think, because dude, I bet you, because there is no fucking way that somebody would put in that much work to be that fucking good if they didn't know that they could be better and be the best.

There's no way. It's not possible. So my personal take on him is that he's a character on purpose, and I think he's exploiting that character for the reason of being a good businessman. But let's take it. This is something that I always want to say to people, but I never say because my dad taught me something when I was real young, and he beat it in my head.

You can't argue with stupid, all right? So I never fucking argue people on this point because I don't have the time, but I do have all the fucking time in the world right now. So we're gonna argue this point Floyd Mayweather's Filthy rich and he's not humble. All right That's right. It's all relative though, right? There's a lot of people in the world a lot more wealthy than he is a lot more financial successful than he is What if he was humble enough to learn business?

What if he was humble enough to learn how to take that money and turn it into something else? What if he was humble enough to be better in those aspects? The dude would be a multi-billionaire. Okay. So let's talk about humility because it's all relative. Yeah. $300 million, a lot of fucking money, especially to anybody in this room or anybody listening to this. But what if it could have been been what if it could be 30 billion or 40 billion or 70 billion and he could have been the greatest paid work net worth person in the history of sports you see what i'm saying absolutely so how much better could he be it's a good question but i think you really nailed it on the head when you said that he he is a character right and that's part of what he's doing. What's that question?

You know, I've heard similar things about Rodman. You know, Dennis Rodman back in the day was, you know, this clown off the court, and yet did he get to be one of the greatest rebounders in the history of basketball by being a clown? No. I'm sure he was hardworking. No, but you wouldn't know who he was if he wasn't that character. Right, exactly.

Exactly. It was all part of his persona. Right. Yeah. But where it counted, he put in the work. That's what I'm saying. He was a team player. So for you to say, oh, for somebody to say, oh, he's not fucking humble.

Well, clearly he's humble enough to know that he's got to put in the fucking work because he does it. No matter how he acts or what he says in a microphone. I mean, dude, it's like Floyd thinks and understands that the more he gets people talking about him, the more money he makes. I think he's fucking genius from that aspect. You know, but a lot of people are like, oh, dude, he's not humble. Well, there's aspects of him that are humble. There has to be or he wouldn't put in that kind of work. You know, I think we spent a lot of time on on what it's not or how it's going to hurt you.

But how can it help you? How can being humble help you? Let's talk about that for a second. All right. Here's the thing that you have to realize. And we talked about this a little bit. But you cannot succeed on your own. It is impossible.

Okay. So for you to get maximum production out of your team, what do you have to do? They have got – you can't force them to. I mean, sure, you can yell and scream and throw a fit and all that stuff, and they're still going to do the bare minimum. But how do you inspire a team? How do you get them excited to go to battle for you? How do you get them excited to come to work and accomplish this mission?

And being humble, whether you realize it or not, as a leader, is a necessary quality to have because it helps people feel valued. It helps you appreciate them. No one likes the kind of leader that stands up on a podium and accepts an award and says, oh, this is all me. You know, I've been at this my whole life. Fucking earned this shit. Nobody likes that. You know what they like?

Hey, look. fucking earn this shit nobody likes that you know what they like hey look and you know what not only do they like do people like but what is the truth hey look i get a lot of credit i don't deserve and the reality is is i've got a hundred guys behind me that work their fucking asses off every single day and i get the credit i shouldn shouldn't be getting this credit. The credit should go to them. And that's the fucking truth. You know, I get a lot of credit personally for being successful and this and that. And you know, we talk, we have the podcast and we got Instagram, this Periscope and all this shit. But dude, I wouldn't even be able to do that shit if I didn't have the guys I have. The team I have comes in and kicks ass every fucking day. If they didn't do that, I wouldn't have had a time to do that, nor would I have the experience I have comes in and kicks ass every fucking day. If they didn't do that, I wouldn't have had a time to do that,

nor would I have the experience of managing them or working with them or going to battle with them. Would I have the house I live in the cars I drive or any of this other shit that, that, that I have. And that's the truth. And P and it,

there's a huge pet peeve of mine when leaders take all the fucking credit from their team, because here's the thing that you don't have you don't get they're not going to get paid the way you get paid if you're a leader if you're a ceo if you're a boss right now your fucking reward is your fucking paycheck it's not the credit and the paycheck you better give the fucking credit to your team because they are the ones that got you that fucking paycheck. And what allows your paychecks to grow you as the MF CEO of first form is that your humbleness,

as I've seen creates gratitude and appreciation. And that that's a choice because it's contagious. It's contagious because you give that first. Correct. Yes. So it's the gratitude and appreciation that comes from being humble, which allows people to say, we're going to let this spark be lit so that we're going to work hard to get to the next level altogether because you do

appreciate them and have gratitude for their hard work. It's genuinely genuine. Right. But see, here's the thing. You, you deal with a lot of small business owners. So do I, I go in consulting for these other guys and I'm like, all right, they're like, well, how do you get your guys to work so hard? How do you get your guys to be passionate about the brand? And here, and here's the fucking cool thing guys is when your team's passionate about your product, guess who else becomes passionate about your product, your customers. Okay. This is the core value that drives your culture is being humble. You have to understand this. I see all these guys, they come to me for advice. They come to me for, for, uh, small business consulting. I want, I want the kind of culture you have. I want

my people to come to work passionate yet. They go out in their Bay or their warehouse or wherever it is they're working and they yell and scream and point and this and that. And then when shit goes good, they talk about how great they are. They don't give any credit to their team and they have, they hold the mentality of, well, I pay them to do a fucking job. And that's it. And, you know, that is like the opposite of what you need to do. It disgusts me, honestly. So this conversation is reminding me of a conversation we had probably more than a year ago

where you surprised some of your friends because you actually agreed with something that Obama said, president said, yeah, you want to explain kind of what you saw. People got wrong about that. And it's, it's irritating.

Like, dude, so Obama said, I don't know, a year ago or a year and a half ago, you didn't build that. You own a business. You didn't fucking build that.

And everybody, all the right wing people. And I don't identify myself with right or left. I, I identify myself with what is fucking right. Okay. And all my right wing business owner, friends all sending texts to each other saying, what a fucking moron. Look what he'd said, dude, I fucking built this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you know what I'm thinking? I'm like, dude, you arrogant motherfuckers. You didn't build shit. You know what I'm saying? You might've started shit, but you, but like this building that I'm in where I see, I'm looking out the window and I see

hundreds of pallets of product and all that stuff. I didn't put those on the fucking shelf. I didn't clean that warehouse. I didn't send the orders out. I didn't write the handwritten. Thank you notes, dude, for you to sit there and take the credit of the company that you built, you may have started it. You may have designed the framework, which is the job of an entrepreneur. You may have employed these people and you may have done all these things. And basically your job as a CEO is to steer the fucking boat. You might've steered the boat down the right path. But dude, to think that you got this way

without a hundred motherfuckers paddling in the background. You know, I always talk about it like a Viking ship. Like I'm standing up on the front and I got a hundred dudes behind me paddling their balls off. We don't go anywhere without them. So all these people like yelling about it. And, dude, I'm not a big fan of, you know, our current situation in the White House.

And I'm being nice about how I say that. But the reality is, dude, he made a good point. And I think what he was trying to say is like, look, it takes everybody, the effort of everybody. And it does. And for somebody to say it doesn't or I'm the boss or they walk around like they've got a fucking 10 foot long dick, you know, when they're a CEO. Dude, those people, they don't make it very long in business. That's a character. We talked a minute ago about characters like Floyd.

Okay. that that's a character we talked a minute ago about characters uh like floyd okay that's a character that you see in the movies and that you see um on tv and you see in the newspapers as a character you know it's like uh um you know you every movie you see you see like the ceo sitting at the end of a long table and he fucking yells at his employees and shit like i always think of the scene in christmasation when Clark Griswold Takes the president the present into his boss and his boss is like, you know Set it down there with the others and then like kicks him out of the office You know what I'm saying? Right like that's what I think of and that's what people think of when they think CEO You know what I mean? But what they don't realize is the most successful CEOs are not those kind of guys

They're just not they not those kind of guys. They're just not. They're the kind of guys that wear the same shit that their employee wears. They're not wearing $10,000 fucking suits. They wear a fucking polo and fucking khakis or jeans or T-shirt, walk through the warehouse and know the motherfuckers that work for them names, no matter how big they are. Right. I think what you told me originally when we talked about this is something I want to to repeat now which is that you said that the problem wasn't that obama said what

he said he didn't say it right instead of saying you didn't build that he should have said you didn't build that by yourself i think that is what he said but i don't did he i don't remember the exact quote but i think that was the context of what he said was it yeah and people just jumping on him yeah man and like you know i'm not for in politics like jumping on somebody just because i don't like them right let's look at the fucking truth i think the point he made was valid and anybody who disagrees your leadership skills are poorly uh developed right so let's just be real here you know you're you're not if you want to walk through your building and act like you're the fucking king of the walk and

all that shit and treat people like dirt enjoy enjoy their fucking ride. Cause it's about to be over. Right. Period. Right. You know, people will not go to fucking battle for you if they don't fucking love you and care about you. And the way that they love you and care about you is by you showing them that you love and care about them. And that takes fucking humility. You know, one thing I can't stand, like, dude, I don't even like people carrying my fucking bags like when i travel to a hotel and like the bellhops trying to get my bags i don't even like i'm doing that because it's like i feel like that's like a fucking servant job i don't like that like dude let me carry my own fucking bags you know what i mean yeah absolutely like dude

it's just a mentality like i mean i don't know if i'm making sense does it make sense it's making it's making perfect sense you know it makes me uncomfortable like like like people shine in your shoes and shit or like carrying your bags it's just not for me man you know i don't even like people waiting on me in a restaurant i'd rather get up and get my own fucking beer it's the truth you like buffets no i don't like buffets man i think they're disgusting dude i'll tell you a story man one time we went to this buffet we used to go to this chinese buffet me and scott who runs a warehouse out here um he's one of my best friends we uh when i say run the warehouse he's in charge of distribution international national it's a it's not running the warehouse

it's just he runs distribution anyway we dude we went to this fucking buffet we used to always go this one buffet up the street and like it got progressively like it was good at first you know when you're like 22 years old 23 you're like fuck yeah buffet and then we like kept going there and we were like 27 28 and it's like starting to get kind of we're like man this place really isn't that good. So, dude, we're fucking eating there one day. And, dude, I don't even know how to say this without pissing people off, so I'm just going to fucking say it. If you get pissed, I don't care.

But, like, dude, I look over, and there's, like, this really big woman, okay, with shit all over her, like, covered in, like like sweet and sour sauce. I don't know what the fuck it was. Like, like, I don't like when you go to eat and you see people eat ribs and they got fucking barbecue sauce above their eyes. Like how the fuck does that even happen? So dude, we look over at the same time and this chick is just going to town. And like, I'm talking, when I talk about like covered in sauce, I'm talking about like, she looked like she dunked her fucking head in a fucking barrel of sweet and sour, dude, and rubbed it all over. That was it, dude. No more buffets.

They ruined it for me forever. I will never. Any buffet. No. No buffet. I won't fucking do it no matter what. You have that image burned in your head. Dude, we got to get Scott.

Go get Scott right now. We're going to scott in here and we're gonna we're gonna fucking ask him about the truth of the story okay so dude i'm telling you man it was like such a bad deal that it like you've been permanently scarred dude i listen man it can it can fucking i can't get the image out of my head. Like, it's always, it haunts me. Like, how do people get, like, you guys all know somebody eats like that, right? No. Yeah, you do. You lie.

Like, I'm talking about, like, ribs. Like, dude, they're eating ribs. They just got shit all over them. Like, dude, I don't. They just call up on their ears. You're like, how? How? How did the sauce get under your earlobe?

Dude, how? Like, I don't get it, man. And, like. This may be the most interesting tangent we've ever gotten. I'm just saying, like, you motherfuckers out there eating ribs, getting shit above your eyes. How does that even happen? Yeah, here he comes. Here he comes.

Here he comes. Only on the MFCEO project, ladies and gentlemen. So, Scott, sit down in the chair here real quick. Just real quick. And when you talk, you got to, like, get your face up to the microphone. So, if you don't think this is live and we have fun, this is as real as it gets so we do our we do our podcast in my office in the conference room it's on yeah so so to help people visualize i just got done telling the story why we don't eat at buffets anymore do you remember why emperor's walk and what what did we see

ole had gravy dripping off her face all right right. Amen. I said nothing to him. What the fuck was going on there? Was it gravy? Dude, it was sweet and sour gravy. It looked like some sort of chewed up mashed dribble just running down. It was like in her fucking hair, dude. It was everywhere. So just so you know that I wasn't making that up, I had to call him in here and not say shit.

We believe you. And have him validate that story. Have you eaten at a buffet since then? I certainly haven't eaten there. No. All right. So he might be getting over it. I'm traumatized.

Yeah. Do you not remember that perfectly? Yeah, that was bad. Yeah, we got up and left, dude. We left. We looked over. He looks over and he goes, dude, look over there. And I'm like, what the fuck, man? was over we had to leave we had to leave because scott fucking poured it out the fucking

the sweet and sour sauce monster that's pretty bad all right well scott all right scott for appearing i've got other good stories too just let me know yeah scott for appearing on the mfceo podcast you get to keep your job yeah so dude So, dude, we fucking left that place. And do you know what? Now it's out of business. You know? Anyway. So what were we talking about?

So are other buffets because they've been traumatized like you to never go to a buffet again. I won't go, man. I won't do it. I've never been to a buffet since then. I won't go. Nice. So, benefits of humility yeah all right don't don't fucking eat with shit all over your face it's just rude it offends my eyeballs dude i wish i could find

some way to tie this do you know people that eat that get shit all over their face when they eat actually my brother does is it not disgusting it still baffles me to this day because the kid's like 15, and like you said, it'll be above his eyebrows. It's like, what the fuck are you doing? Dude, it's like people get totally wild about eating fucking shit like that, man. And it'll get that way with macaroni and cheese, where he's eating with a fucking utensil, not like ribs. He's got it up here on his forehead.

It's like, what? Dude, what is that do you ben you're dying dude what's going through my mind if i ever go to another fucking buffet for the rest of my life oh man fuck all right that's the show we'll see you guys later fuck man all right Where were we anyway? Well, I'm not sure, just to be honest with you. Okay.

So we were talking about the ways that the humility can benefit you. You have to be humble if you want people to go to battle with you. Right. You know what I'm saying? And you've got to give that love and humility and appreciation and value first, and they will bring it back. And for you to be able to do that, you have to be humble. Right. I remember there was a time I went, it's a my versus our mentality of a leader.

And I was at a very large accounting firm preparing for an opportunity to speak. And I said, what is it that makes your company different? And he said, it's a my versus our mentality. He said, these are our clients. He says, if somebody brings in a client, that's not my client. It's not my assistant. It's our team. It's our clients.

We do everything jointly. And he said if people aren't communicating that way, we have a problem because it hurts our culture. And I actually went back and I remembered. And I wasn't doing it, and I don't think anybody listening, you do it intentionally. I hope you don't do it intentionally. But I remembered I would say things like my assistant, oh, my assistant is going to reach out to you. And now I look back on it. It's like, what the hell was I communicating? I don't own that person. And I started changing the communication to say a member of our team

is going to be reaching out to you. That's a great point, dude. I felt better, but I was empowered going. That was my belief right i didn't believe that i possessed ownership over my assistant but she's part of our team dude she started hearing me communicate that way we've adapted that on our team and it like it fires me up when i talk about it dude you're the point you're making there is a point that it's so powerful but it's it's so hard to put into practice. And for you guys listening that manage people, if you could start to curb your communication, to reflect everybody being on the same team, you're going to see a huge improvement in culture immediately.

I have struggled with this, especially because I get up when I get upset, you know, I have a tendency to point at guys and say, what the fuck are you guys doing? Blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. And to this day, I still do that sometimes, but I try. And when I, when I do say, look guys, instead of saying,

what the fuck are you guys doing? I say, look, we are fucking failing at this. We are not doing a good job at this. And just by changing that thing from pointing right to somebody to saying, look, we are not doing this. We are not executing. Dude, the amount of information they're able to receive and turn around and go fix, it's a difference between an ice cube and an iceberg.

It's just totally fucking different. So I want to capture this. So you just heard Andy. That's being humble saying i recognize i didn't oh dude i still struggle with that so because i get so pissed off and i'm like what the fuck because i'm not the one out there making the mistake but the reality is i have to take responsibility for their performance because i'm the leader that i am if they're not performing it's because i didn't fucking coach them well enough and i have to accept that so if you're one of those leaders out there where, as we referenced it earlier, Andy say in the company that's at X and the ego's big and I'm not interested in growing,

this is your opportunity. If you're listening to this while working out, you're at home, there's nobody around, nobody seeing you shake your head. This is an opportunity for you to grow. Andy and I are saying, if that's the way you're running your business, this is an opportunity. I used to say that in my word. Now it's our. Now it's we. You can change it if you want to. Your employees that are on your team, they're not listening or they're not watching you listen to this podcast.

You can choose to change, but it has to be your choice, and I guarantee you you'll grow. Oh, dude, you'll see a huge switch in the way that people communicate with each other and the performance because what you're doing is you're, you're inspiring them to go out and work. Cause you know what they say when they hear you say that when they hear you say, cause I have this saying that I use, it's when things go right, it's,

it's, it's we, when things go wrong, it's I. All right. And when you fuck up and you stand there and you say, look, guys, sales are not – they're down because I haven't fucking taught you guys well enough. It's my fault. I take responsibility.

You know what your team is thinking whenever you sit there and say that? They're saying – you know what they're saying? They're saying, fuck, dude, look at this guy sitting here blaming himself when I didn't go out and execute. And you know what they do? They go out and fucking execute. What I really love about what you guys are talking about is that this is a very concrete, actionable thing that you can do, adjusting your language. So what are, what are some other ways that you, you know, we, we didn't necessarily include this in the original

outline of, of, of the podcast as we, as we conceived it, but I love the direction that this is going. So what are some other actionable things you can do to show humility, to express humility with your team? I think asking your team, don't be the guy that has all the fucking answers. Okay? Be the guy who goes in and says, look, man, when you don't know, come into your team, show your vulnerability, say, look, I don't know the answer to this question.

What do you guys think? Okay? That's another actionable item. Be humble enough to know what you don't know. Go in and admit it and then say, hey, what do you guys think? Okay? That's another way to show humility and create loyalty amongst your employees. Exactly the concept you're making, I always refer to it as questions over statements.

Right. I think our naturalness as a human being, I want to come in, Andy, do this. Right. Hey, what do you think is working right now, Andy? What's effective? What's driving the process for you? What's making you feel good about your work right now? Even though Andy already knows what to say, it's asking the questions.

Dude, I'm just- Questions over statements. I'm just picturing you with barbecue sauce all over your face. I thought it was sweet and sour sauce. Whatever, man. It's some kind of fucking sauce. Well, you actually mentioned one earlier. We didn't actually codify it with a point,

which is celebrate the people around you. Give them the credit. Hold them up. No question. That's what I'm saying. Dude, if you're the business owner, your credit is your fucking paycheck. You know, these guys, they're coming to work.

They're making less money than you most likely. You know, sometimes in the beginning they're making more money than you. But as you mature, you're probably going to make more money than them. And you have to get good at giving them the credit. You know, a lot of people don't work necessarily for money. They work for different motivations. And one of the things is they want to contribute and they want to be recognized for that contribution. And so if you're a guy that takes all the credit, every time you get some award or get some,

you know, you know, like, dude, I got that entrepreneur of the year award from secret entourage. And like, as much as I was like honored to get it, I also felt like kind of embarrassed to get it because it's like, I feel like I'm getting the credit that I don't even deserve. I'm just getting the credit of these guys doing work. And that's, you know, I don't know. I don't feel right about it sometimes, you know,

and some, you've turned around and given the credit back. Yeah. But I'm saying it's like some, some owners of companies will take that shit and run with it. Like they're the champion. And like, dude,

you know what their employees say when they go to happy hour together? So God, what a fucking cocksucker that guy is. You know what I mean? They're not inspired to come to battle for you. You know? And that's what I say, man. It's not, it's not work, dude. We're going to fucking battle. Another thing that you've told me before that I think is definitely an expression of humility is you've said that, that you invest in the people that come work for you in such a way that you improve them as people so that if they end up leaving,

that's okay. I mean, you're, you're, you're, you're a man. You know what I'm saying? Like that, that's definitely the unfortunate reality of putting the other person first. Yeah. Here's the unfortunate reality of business. Business grows at a slower pace at what people's career, where people want to be in their careers usually. So like what I mean by that is it takes 20 years to get where you want to go in business and that same guy who's 20 years old, he's going to

be 40 years old at the end of that, at the end of that time. And he's going to be wanting to progress a lot further than what he might've been able to during that time, if that makes sense. So, you know, usually that guy wants to do what the business does in 10 years. So he wants his career to grow as much as the business would grow in 20 years in 10. Does that make sense? Absolutely. So, so you have to understand that people are going to come into your organization. They're going to be there for a while and then they're going to move on to other things. It's just a natural progression, especially if you're in a place like we are, where we have a retail company, you know, uh, typically that's a younger person's type of job that, you know, that's just the nature of the beast.

Um, and so what we make our goal is this is, you know, no matter how long you're here, no matter how long you commit to our cause or become a part of our team or become a part of our culture. I want these guys and these girls that come and work for us to be better prepared for the real world when they leave here, if they leave here, than when they came in. And you know what? When you invest in people like that, when you help these guys learn the habits of reading and progressing and moving forward and success habits and all this shit, dude, they become, even when they leave and move on, they're your best

advocate because they respect what you've done for them. So you're putting another advocate on the street for your company. You know what I mean? It's not, oh man, they bailed on me or they blah, blah, blah. You have to understand that people are going to progress and they're going to want to move on. I, my, one of my most proud things is that I have a number of people who have been employees of mine at this point in my career that have gone on to become successful lawyers. You know, one of our, one of. You know, a guy who's one of my best friends used to work here, went to law school, graduated. He's now one of the top ten attorneys in Missouri. Okay?

Now, and on the other hand, we have this other guy who left the company, went to law school, graduated, decided it wasn't for him. Now he owns two supplement superstore franchises. You know what I mean? So seeing guys come through, and we have a number of other stories of successful guys, but seeing guys, I just use those two examples because they're both lawyers,

but seeing those guys come through, progress, learn, and then go on to do their own thing is one of the most rewarding things that you could ever have happen. It's like a success school. Like S what, that's what it stands for. It's success school. It's not just something with superstore. You know what I mean? And that's, that's what we do here. And, and, and people appreciate that and they become home, they become loyal, um, for life because of it, you know? that's awesome. Um, but you know, it takes effort to do that.

And a lot of companies won't put the effort nor the care. They look at employees like they're just pieces of a machine. And we're to a point now where there's so many companies that are working to develop good culture that if you continue to look at your employees, like they're just cogs in a machine, you're going to have a really hard time being productive. You're going to have a really hard time attracting good people and you're going to have a really hard time keeping people. Cause the reality is, is people just want more than that.

They want a purpose and you have to figure out how to give that to them. Hmm. So actionable items, change the language from I to we. Focus on team. Listen. Get feedback. Celebrate people's successes. Invest in their future.

Invest in their future. These are all. I mean, you know, you've said this before, Andy, and I'm not trying to knock anything that we've been saying. A lot of this is not rocket science. You just literally have to think, okay, it's not about me. But how many people do you see out there own companies doing it? Yeah. You know, it's not about me but how many people do you see out there own companies doing it yeah you know it's not rocket science it's very simple shit but you don't see a lot of companies doing it especially it's popular now with like the big companies like

it's very popular with like the googles and the and the the apples you know and the facebooks but you don't see small companies which is what we are essentially doing these kind of things they're they're which is why they aren't big these kinds of things. They're there, which is why they aren't big companies because the owners come in, they put their fucking feet on the desk. They think they're the boss hog and you know, they treat their employees like they're fucking, they're just poor green on their desk and it's not the way it is, man. Right. Well, this conversation has had a lot of, uh, different topics and been far ranging, including sweet and sour sauce. But, um, if you don't mind, I think one of the best ways that we could wrap this all up is to return to one of your original points, which was humility is so important because without it, you can't improve. items. I want practicality. So can we just all close up by basically saying what are some sources of learning? What are some sources of information and self-improvement that you guys

use to get better to both not just for success in life, but specifically to improve, you know, your business knowledge, your skills, what have you? What do you think? I mean, everybody knows I'm a voracious reader. I make no secret about that. I'm a heavy advocate of reading. I still read a book a week. It's one of the things I've done for years and years and years. Books are a great way to learn.

It's a great way to remind yourself what you don't know, which will help keep you humble. I like personally also also besides just reading, I like to I like to pick the brains of people that are further down the road than I am. You know, older guys and older women who have just not necessarily built business, but just live more life. You know, people who have more life experience. You know, a lot of a lot of people look at older people and, oh, man, you know, a lot of, a lot of people look at older people and they go, oh man, you know, they're just in the way and blah, blah, blah, dude, you have no idea what that person's life has been like.

And you need to recognize the knowledge that person holds just by simply being alive the amount of time they've been alive. And, you know, one of my favorite things to do is talk to Emily's grandma. Emily has an 85-year-old, 86-year-old grandma who's, like, totally with it. She's the biggest Cardinals fan ever. She knows more about baseball than anybody I know. She knows every stat, every player, everything that's going on. She could name batting averages to the day of every single Cardinal player.

Like, it freaked me out when I first met her, too, because I thought she was going to be like a typical older person and kind of like not, you know, not just not as witty as she is and sharp. So I started talking to her and she's like, why are you talking to me? Like I'm three,

you know, why are you talking so loud? I'm like, I'm like, well, she starts talking to me about baseball and I'm like, Holy shit. You know?

So, but anyway, dude, talking to her for an hour, you just learn so much about, you know, the way things have been, how they progressed. And, you know, people don't, I don't know. That's one of my favorite things to do. I mean, what do you think?

For me, it's, you had mentioned it earlier, humble and hungry, you know, stay humble and hungry and continually ask yourself, what can I do to get better today? So whether it's reading, surrounding yourself with great people, being exposed to coaches, to mentors, what can you do to improve every single day? And like Andy's power list prize fighter day for me, focus on the things that make you better every single day. And that's typically the work. You know, you feel the most, you feel the most gratified in a day when you know that you've given that day your all, and then you can look and say, okay, what can I do to continue to improve?

And I think that keeps you humble. Hard work keeps you humble rather than saying, look at me. This is so great. Here's what I did yesterday or the week before. Quit worrying about all the things that you did. Just try to get better today. Yeah, and that goes along to another point that I wanted to close up with too is learning. The most valuable skill that you can learn is to be self-aware in terms of where you

are. And when I say self-aware, I don't mean, what I mean is when most people look in the mirror, whether physically or mentally, they don't see what is really there. You know, they either see a totally inflated better version of themselves that's not there. We, we usually call those people what, what do we call them? You know, arrogant, you know, uh, we call them fucking egotistical, you know, self-centered. Um, and then you see people who, who look in the mirror

and they see much less than what is actually there, you know, and those are people that suffer from low self esteem. You know, what are some other things that we would say? You know, I think that's the big one, right? No confidence, no confidence.

You know, they just see, couldn't it also mean high expectations for themselves? What do you mean? Like if you look in the mirror and you see something less than what you, where you should be. Yeah. But see what I'm trying to the point.

Yes, you can. But the point I'm trying the point yes you can but the point i'm trying to make here is that being self-aware is seeing what's really there okay you're you have a good measure on exactly where you're strong okay and exactly where you're weak in what area because everybody's got good points and everybody's got bad points right and and i think developing that ability to look in the mirror and think about where you're strong, what you're good at, and being honest with yourself about it. Hey, I'm out of a scale of 100, I'm an 85 here.

On a scale of 100 of this other skill, I'm a 70 here. And I'm a 20 here. And being able to kind of gauge yourself from a realistic fashion is a really good way to stay humble because, you know, you know exactly where you are. As I listen to you talk, Andy, I think of the Mental Toughness Playbook, Ben, and the early module about breathing through the truth and being very honest with yourself about who you are and just having a sober assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Yeah, that's the first mental training tool. It's attaining belief in yourself, which I alluded to earlier. It doesn't mean, you know, Andy and I are saying, you don't believe in yourself. It's where you are right now.

Be self-aware. What is the truth? Because that's how you grow. Right. How do you grow? The truth of where I am right now is a reflection of X, Y, and Z. I'm going to grow on X, Y, and Z. And the truth doesn't mean that you're a piece of shit.

No. That you might be really good in some areas. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And you have to take inventory and say, all right, look, I've like, here's for me, for example, like I always beat the shit out of myself for being way far behind where I should be. Contrary to what people might think, you know, I do not feel like a successful person in business. You know, I think we've done okay. I don't think we've done great. There's far many people have done much better than myself. So, you know, I beat the shit out

of myself about that. So I have to look in the mirror and remind myself and say, you know what, man, think about where you started, what you started with and where you are now and look around at the shit that you've built. And I have to remind myself that, you know, hey, we've done some cool shit. You know what I mean? And we've done some areas that are – I've done well in certain areas. And, you know, that's why it annoys me when people start throwing humility around because, like, the reality is I look in the mirror and I see somebody who's fucking 10 years behind where they should be.

And that's what keeps me hungry. You know, that's what keeps me coming to work with intensity and with fire and wanting to kick ass. You know, people who sit around and talk about life at the top or life at the top of the mountain, or I'm, you know, it's lonely on top, blah, blah, blah, dude. The context of what you're even saying is ridiculous. Like you're not at the fucking top. Bill Gates at the fucking top. You know what I'm saying? Warren Buffett's at the top. Steve Jobs was at the top. None of you fucking listening are at the top. None of my competitors that I compete with in my industry are at the top.

I don't care if you're the best. I don't care if you're Herbalife who does multi billions of dollars. You're not at the fucking top. You might be at the top of our industry. You're not at the top. See what I'm saying? Absolutely. i love that we've kind of landed on this because it's so foundational and you know everything that we're

saying literally literally goes back centuries to ancient rome where the where the the words printed on the temple are know yourself and this whole concept of self-knowledge and self-awareness is so foundational to getting better to understanding you know to understanding how you can be the best and to realize your own full potential and how you're going to succeed in everything you do. And I think that's the definition of success. I mean, for me, I don't know, and we've never even talked about this. This could be a whole different conversation. But the way I define success is fulfillment of your true potential. And so if you think about success in that aspect and not financially, not materialistic wise,

not physically, you just think about fulfillment of your true potential. It's impossible to fulfill your potential unless you know who you really are and where you are at this current time. It's impossible. So in humility is a key aspect of realizing that. Well, real quick, let me share the information that people need to know about this episode. Once again, show notes and links galore for this episode can be found at themfceo.com slash p12. Also, remember, first week of September, we're going to be announcing the review contest winners. If you haven't sent us a review from iTunes, just take a screenshot of it, email it to us, and you will be eligible for some sort of amazing prize.

We're not sure what it is quite yet, but we'll know by the first week of September, and we'll announce it on our social media sites and probably not on the podcast because it's pre-recorded, but we will make it clear if you've won it. And then finally, just our primary social media connections at Andy Frisella at Continued Fight and at Vaughn Kohler. So I guess I'll wrap it up. Basic shit. All right, guys, if you're full of pride, people aren't going to like you. That's the bottom line. You won't have friends. You'll never get better. you're full of pride, people aren't going to like you. That's the bottom line. You won't have friends. You'll never get better.

You're never going to create a cult following for yourself. You're never going to create loyalty amongst your employees or your customers. If you're humble, people will be drawn to you. They're going to be fiercely loyal. They're going to do whatever they can to help you succeed because you're helping them get better first. So it's really a no-brainer. Be fucking humble. Go out and do work.

Catch you next time. All I do is work, all I do is work, all I do is work, hustling. All I do is work, all I do is work, all I do is work, all I do is work.