REAL AF with Andy Frisella - We Talking Business Like It's 1999, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO56

Episode Date: March 29, 2016

If he could travel back through time to 1999 (in a Lambo, not a DeLorean), what advice would millionaire entrepreneur Andy Frisella give to his younger, inexperienced self? It's the same advice he'd give anyone on ground zero of building their empire. 

What's up, guys? This is Vaughn Kohler, and you're listening to the MFCEO Project. Today, Andy Frisella earns millions of dollars and drives a Lamborghini, but back in 1999, he slept in the back of his retail store on a piss-stained mattress. In this episode, we're going to take our metaphorical DeLorean back in time, and the Andy of today is going to drop some knowledge on the Andy of yesteryear. What I'm trying to say is, when this podcast hits 88 miles an hour, you're going to see some knowledge on the Andy of yesteryear. What I'm trying to say is when this podcast hits 88 miles an hour, you're going to see some serious shit. All I do is work, work, work. Never run inside lines, I only hustle. I don't ever take a day off, I only work, work, work.

I don't mess around, kid, I only care. Money never seems to get you. All I do is work, all I do is work. All I do is work, all I do is work. Hey guys, what's up? You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy, I'm your host, and I am the motherfucking CEO. Guys, if it's your first time listening, welcome. Our goal here is to make you a motherfucking CEO.

What is a motherfucking CEO? Why do I gotta use the word fuck so much? You know what? Because I like it. I like it. It's my favorite word, period, okay? You have to realize whether or not you own a business, whether you're the employee of a business, whether you're thinking of starting a business, all of the principles of becoming a CEO and becoming control of your life and in

control of your situation apply to you no matter what you're doing right now. And our goal here is for you to regain control, for you to become aware of the control that you have, and for you to become a motherfucking CEO on your own. With that being said, this probably isn't something you're going to want to play in front of your kids. It's probably not something you're going to want to play in front of your car, in your car, you know, on the way to kindergarten. You know, this is for adults. And if you have a problem with cursing,

it's not going to be for you. Today, I really have no idea what the fuck we're going to talk about because I don't have an agenda. Usually, I have an agenda that Vaughn prepares, and we have notes. Today, I have nothing, so I don't know what we're going to talk about. You don't like DeLoreans, correct? I think that you told me that. Humps of shit.

Right. But what does that car conjure up in your mind? The Libyans! That's right. Back to the future. That's what we're going to do today, guys. What I thought we'd do is, because we've gotten a lot of questions through the website on the basic nuts and bolts of being on ground zero of that journey. And so I thought what we do is we'd, we take our metaphorical DeLorean back in time to 1999, the year, the great year of, uh, I guess

the beginning of your, your, your empire. Yeah. The beginning of what we have now, but it definitely wasn't the beginning of being an entrepreneur. Right. Right. You know what I mean? That's what people forget. You know, when I was eight years old i was out selling baseball cards you know what i mean yeah at 10 years old i was selling light bulbs you know i sold lemonade i sold snow cones i went door to door i've done that shit my whole life yeah people don't realize that even though i wasn't of age 18 years old and i wasn't doing things officially with like a business license and all these other things that people get caught up with. I was learning some fucking lessons, some valuable ones.

Go door to door and try to sell somebody some fucking light bulbs and see how hard that is. You know? Yeah. You learn a lot. And so I was in practice of being an entrepreneur since the time I was eight years old. You know? So yeah. So people say, when I say, oh yeah, we started this at 19, they eight years old. You know, so yeah. So people say, when I say, oh yeah, we started this at 19, they're like, oh, that's so young. I'm like, motherfucker.

I started when I, when, when you were still pooping in your diapers, you know? Right. Right. So. Was 99 though, that was the first year of, of your, what eventually became First Form. That's the first year we started Supplement Superstores, which yes, that's eventually what funded First Form and everything else that we have going on today. Yeah. So I'm going to, we're just going to roll back the clock and try to get you to talk about some of those early struggles. Let me say this too. Just if you're a young guy and you haven't,

you know, been selling things since you were eight years old, that doesn't disqualify you from being an entrepreneur. You know, don't let say, Oh yeah, I started way too late. You know, that was just me. That's what I did. And there's different classes of an entrepreneur. There's, there's, and if you listen to the podcast, we've talked about this plenty of times, you know, there's guys who are type a builder entrepreneurs that build shit from the ground up. There's guys who can run things that are already going. There's guys who prefer to have their hands held a little bit and they open things like franchises. They come into systems that are already built. There's intelligent aspects to all of those. And the key is to finding out and being aware enough to figure out which one you are and finding a plan that suits that,

that skillset. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, you know, just cause you weren't out selling baseball cards at eight years old doesn't mean anything. Right. It's just, that's just what I did. So I want to make that clear. Right. Because people hear shit and they look for excuses why they can't do it. And, you know, if you're seeing that as an obstacle, you're mistaken.

Right. So, anyway. So, yeah, so this is my creative way of getting you to talk about ground zero entrepreneurial issues. And I guess, I mean, we'll start with a light question. What would you have been listening to in 1999? Metallica Black Album. Really? Yeah.

Or the box set Metallica. In 1999? Wow. Oh, yeah. Okay. No R&B? No rap? Oh, yeah.

All rap, too. Oh, yeah. no no rap oh yeah i'll rap too oh yeah listen to um uh a lot of a lot of ice cube a lot of a lot of you know the shit that's coming back now uh nwa yeah um i mean i was real hard into that then yeah um you know notorious big had the double disc set uh tupac had you know his set you know all that stuff was hot then yeah you know yeah um i think uh i think around that time 99 i think it was um i think there was also let's see what else there was uh god there's some shit that, like, one-hit wonder stuff. Yeah. Dude, No Limit Soldier.

Yeah, like Master P, Back That Ass Up. You know, like, dude, there's a lot of things that are still, you hear them. Yeah. And, you know, there was just a one-hit deal, you know? Yeah. So I don't know. I was into all that. After the late 90s, I can't really place a song based on the year, because all the 2000s just flowed together for me.

Dude, the 2000s sucked. Like 2000 to 2010, I feel like it's getting better or I'm adjusting my taste. I went through and listened to all Jay-Z's albums in a row. I signed up for Apple Music, and Apple Music's pretty cool if anybody hasn't done it yet. Have you done it at all? I haven't. Okay, so you basically pay a fee per but have you done it? I haven't. Okay. So like you basically pay a fee per month and you can like listen to whatever.

Wow. And so I've been listening to his albums in chronological order and like, it's pretty weird because, um, they're at beginning, they were awesome. And then during the two thousands, I'm sorry, dude, Jay-Z, I love you, but they were terrible. Really? And then they got at the end of like 2009, 10, 11, they started getting cool again. You know? So I don't know.

It's just interesting. That is interesting. I think that was a transition, dude, in hip hop where people were not sure what to do and they weren't sure where it was going. And the old school shit had all been done and the sampling had all been done and everything had been done. And then you had guys come out and sort of reinvent the way it was done, and that's what you're hearing now,

this hip-hop trap, you know, Drake shit that you hear, which I actually started to like, but when I first heard it, I was like, this is a fucking joke, and it is a joke if you compare it to, like, what was going on in the late 90s, but, you know, it's not bad. I can dig it yeah you know so because

this is going to involve some storytelling i want to i want to situate things in people's minds where were you like literally geographically where were you when you started this out so if i were going to springfield missouri and why don't what happened was yeah we I went on spring break with a bunch of dude with Chris my business partner and then a bunch of his friends from Springfield the year before we started our business and then I made some friends down there and I would go visit and then I liked it down there so much that I just decided to move there and start and then we started business so that's how that that happened I've heard it's called Spring Vegas. Is that true?

It used to be fun, man. I think now it's not quite the destination hotspot for nightlife that it used to be. But it was a good time, man. We had a great time down there. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to go back, and I'm going to just start on a macro level,

1,000-foot view. You run into yourself in 1999, and let's just say you're already neck deep in it. What do you think, looking back, what do you think, if your old self meets your future self, what do you think is his first question to you as he's battling it out in the entrepreneurial journey? Am I doing the right thing, and is this going to ever amount to anything i think that's a question that anybody asks when they're in that struggle phase of you know and i think that's the question that keeps people from doing anything in the first place because everybody wants that guarantee of my idea is going to work. My plan is going to work before

they ever start the plan, which is natural because if you didn't want the plan that was the most sure to work, you're a fucking idiot. Right. But people want that so much that they never get started. You know what I mean? So people who, who get it done or people who face that fear and then they go and do these things regardless of that fear. And they don't sit around and wonder and try to overly plan if this is a good plan or not. You know, people overanalyze the, is this going to work phase? And it keeps a lot of people from ever doing anything. So I think, you know, that would be the first question that I think anybody in that situation would want to know. Like, is this worth sticking out or is it not?

Because when you're not making any money and you're not seeing much progress, you can't see the future. You can't see what's coming down the road. You can't see, you know, what it is. But looking back on that now, you know, it's the same thing as planting, you know, a harvest. You know what I mean? You're going to have to plant some seeds. You're going to have to go out there and water those seeds. And for a long time, you're not going to fucking see anything.

And then eventually something's going to come out of the ground. You know what I mean? And in business, it just takes a while. Right. You know? So I know not everybody who has a business who's listening to us is going to be exactly the same situation that you were. No, but I bet you most of them are in some phase of what I'm talking about right now. Oh, I'm sure.

Yeah, because the reason you would be consuming something like my podcast would be because you're wanting to be successful. You're wanting to learn. You're wanting to pick up something here or there. And some people might be further along in this phase, but I would bet that most people that listen to this are in some phase of uncertainty about their future, which is great. Because to be a great entrepreneur, you've got to be comfortable being close to that fire and letting that fire motivate you to move forward. And that fire being going broke, being a fucking loser, being embarrassed. You know what I mean? Right. And having all the worst fears come true. Right.

That's what sharpens you. That's what forces you to gain skills. That's what forces you to give up things like weekends, trips, or vacations, or fishing, or whatever the fuck people do. You know what I mean? For these goals. So I think having that fear is a great thing. But a lot of people try to do something without that fear.

Number one, you can't. And if you can, you're probably going to get complacent in a small little level, a small level anyway of success. And, you know, that's, I don't know. I don't think anybody listening to this is in that boat. Right. No, I think you're right with that qualification aside.

I think there are people who are listening to us that don't have just by virtue of the kind of business they're in. They don't have necessarily the same kind of overhead that you, that you did when you started. So my question that I, I'm fairly certain that young Andy would ask old Andy is that he'd say, dude, I have a lot of expenses because of my overhead. I've got, because of having to purchase product, keep a retail store, all that sort of thing. So what would Andy now tell Andy

back then about, you have a limited amount of funds. What's the best way to allocate those funds? I would tell him to focus on customer experience. Because the better customer experience that you can provide, the better wow factor that you can provide for your customers, the more word of mouth you create, the more effective you are with those customers, the more they're willing to invite their friends to come be a part of your company, of your culture. And I see way too many businesses investing in these things, billboards, TV, radio, and these campaigns. But when the customers come in,

they don't have their system of how to create those wild experiences internally. They think they do, but they fucking don't, they do what they're supposed to do. I'm not talking about what you're supposed to do. I'm not talking about treating them, right? I'm not talking about shaking their hand. I'm not talking about saying, thank you. That's shit you're supposed to do. I'm talking about creating an experience that makes people say, holy shit, that was the best experience I've ever had. Not in your industry, in any place they've ever shopped. Okay. So I would focus on that. And had I focused on that in the beginning and, and, and, and by the

way, one great way to focus on that is by solving the person's problem. They came in for, okay. Instead of trying to sell them shit, all right. right solve their fucking problem and do it in a way that makes them say wow that was the greatest fucking experience i ever had and if you could do that people will will will trust you enough to go grab their friends say dude you've got to come experience this dude's business you know they are great they're. They're not just great. It's the best I've ever had, you know, and I didn't do that for the first 10 years I was in business. It took me a long time to figure that out, which is why it took me so fucking long to get where I am. Had I, had I figured that out on day one, dude, I would have done what I did in five years, period. You

know what I mean? It was just, I didn't get it. I was a young kid who didn't understand business, who had to learn shit on his own. And I'm glad. I'm thankful. I'm not going to bitch about that. But if you're a young entrepreneur right now and you want to move along the path and you have limited funds to invest in your business, invest that in the customer experience that you have. Because if you only have five customers, you could turn them into ten real easy by making them say, wow, that was awesome. And like I said, I'm not talking about the shit you're supposed to do. A lot of people confuse this wow factor with what you're supposed to do, right?

They confuse it with being nice, answering questions, holding the door, carrying out the product, shaking hands. Dude, you're supposed to do that shit. Right. Right? And everybody's business is different. You know, like, and by the way, don't try to cut fucking corners when you do this shit because it just takes away all the effort. Like, for example, you know, if you're going to do thank you cards to your customers and

then you decide to go have them mass printed and then you send them out, that's worse than doing no thank you cards for your customers. And then you decide to go have the mass printed and then you send them out. That's worse than doing no thank you card. Right. Because it takes zero fucking effort. It says, Hey, you know what? I don't really fucking care about you.

By the way, you know, we do care about you. Yeah. Like it's, it's like, dude, yeah,

you're saying one thing, but you're actually so different. You actually anticipated my question. My next question. I'm a fucking genius. You are, you are. Um, but, but you are, um, but in a humble sort of way. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm humble and hockey. Yeah. Yeah. So no, but I mean, I think people

were probably wondering, well, what, what's a specific way to spend money that invests in the customer experience. And you said it it's, it's like quality, quality. Thank you. Dude, there's a million ways. Okay. And I'm not going to get into the specifics. That's part of the research that you need to fucking do that is going to apply to your specific business. You could do something. Um, you, dude, you could be a lawn, a lawn landscape company, right. And do the people's lawns and then have some special product that you give the person extra to take care of their flower bed. There's so many things you could do, right, that I can't even start down that road. And that's up to you to figure out what you can do in your line of business to help you. And, and this is what's, this is, this is going to help you grow because what you just

asked me to do is like, if I was your personal trainer, you asked me to lift the weights for you, right? I'm not going to fucking lift the weights for you. You need to go lift the fucking weights. You need to go read. You need to go learn because it's going to develop your brain and your creativity and your line of thinking. I'm giving you the fucking direction.

It's up to you to go running it. You know what I mean? Oh, absolutely. So I'm not going to get the specifics out. But, you know, if you listen to the podcast enough, we've talked about these things. You know, but anything that you can do to make somebody say, wow, that was awesome. If you were a customer, what would make you stand out to you? You know what I mean?

And you start trying those things and like trying with your customers and like, you know, let's say you have five customers, try five different things, see what works the best. You know what I mean? And then you, and then, and then the next question is going to be, well, Andy, I've got, I've got 10 employees. How do I get them all to do that? Well, you've got to fucking train them to do that. And by training them to understand the value of each customer individually. You know, today everybody's an influencer.

It's not just, you know, five years ago it was the big influencers. It was like, who do you want to go find? I want to find the people that make the biggest dent, that can impact the most people. Now every fucking person that you talk to and see is an influencer and they have people that they're going to talk to about you. You need to control that conversation. The way you control that conversation is, one, by solving problems, two, creating a wow factor to where they feel like they need to bring the conversation up

because you did such a great job. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely. So the takeaway is obviously investing money in customer experience. So let's stick on the topic of money because you know as well as I do, everybody's always asking this, and I know that young Andy would say to old Andy, well, the first thing he would say is, dude, age has been really good to you. And then he would say, dude, you know that nobody's given us a loan. What are we going to do about that?

You're going to have to come up with a system that generates enough cash to finance your company on its own. And that's what I did. That's what we did internally. You're going to have to come up with – and we're in a different business. We're in a business that cannot – we cannot get financing. That's just what it comes down to. And in the beginning, it sucked because I didn't have any help and I couldn't go to a bank. I couldn't get a fucking SBA loan.

You know, our collateral for our company is not sellable. So if we were to go under, people don't know how to use our inventory and get their money back. So nobody's willing to loan anything. Right. You know, if you're selling lumber or fucking cars or this or that, you can go out and get financing like all day long. People fight over it because there's a product that they know how to sell at the end so we had an extremely difficult situation where nobody would would lend but it in in the scheme of things it was a great thing for

us because what it did was it taught us how to make our company cash flow positive in a way that we didn't need to have outside financing. Now, now everybody wants to fucking give us lines of credit and finance our business and this and that, you know what? We don't need that now.

Right. Because we know how to do that. We know how to make our business actually make money without that. Did you borrow from a tried and true system or did you have to have to just tweak your own customized system? Look, man, you got to understand to just tweak dude your own customized system look man you got to understand when i was when i was younger you know i was not in the mindset of i'm gonna grow this business into a trillion dollar business i was in the mindset of like i want to fucking

drive a lamborghini right you know what i'm So my mindset, it was in a different spot. And I had to figure out ways to make money. You know what I mean? And so I generated new systems and new opportunities and brought in new products and created new strategies and new systems to do that outside of what we used to do, which was basically just, you know, open the store every day and close the store every day.

We didn't have a system of how we did things. You know what I mean? So you're going to have to develop a way to make your company profitable, you know, because a lot of people, like, they hinge their success on getting money. They say, oh, I need money. I can't get financing. I can't get somebody to get me started. I can't get a money. I can't get financing. I can't get somebody to get me started. I can't get a loan. I can't get this and this and this. That is your biggest asset as an entrepreneur. And you don't realize this, but I'm telling you, that is your biggest asset. You

know why the fuck you're listening to me right now on this podcast? Because the lack of money made me get creative enough to where I became intelligent enough to learn what entrepreneurship and business was all about on my own to the point that where I could make money without other people's money. And that's, if I didn't have that sense of urgency and that need to do that and cultivate that creativity and those skills, you wouldn't even be listening to this podcast at this point in time. Right. You see what I mean? So not having funds is not an excuse. It's an asset to your success. You have to learn to get creative and you have to learn to think out, quote unquote, outside the box, whatever the fucking box is, you know, to get yourself in a place to where you can make money. And that's it.

Yeah. It seems to me that I'm going to state the obvious here, but in order to do that, though, you had to really, really understand your business. And you had to look at your business from the inside out and go, okay, how can I arrange all the puzzle pieces or the chess pieces to figure out a system to make money? And what's kind of funny, and I heard, I think it was Gary that said this one time, is he says, he said, it's amazing how many people have great ideas for products or for services, but when all said and done, you ask them about their business plan and they don't know how they're actually going to make money off of it. And I mean, it seems like, how could you go into business and not know what your actual plan for making money is? But that's what you figured out. Well, that's the culture of entrepreneurship right now. Entrepreneurship right now is not buy a product for $5 and sell it for $10.

It's have an idea, raise a trillion dollars from venture capital in Silicon Valley, and write about it in an entrepreneur magazine and have a nice fancy office where Chuck Taylors, you know, play video games at fucking lunchtime, you know, and be in some articles about your entrepreneurship. I raised a trillion fucking dollars and never actually are you an entrepreneur? Right. You know what I mean? That's what entrepreneurship is right now. Like people are getting into it for the wrong fucking reasons. Cause they think that they're going to become this hipster fucking entrepreneur,

weird motherfucker, you know? So I think people, people get into the wrong idea. And what Gary's talking about when he talks about what you're, what you're saying is dude, people aren't figuring out how to sell shit. It's playing.

I call it playing business. It's playing business. I've got an idea. Let's get funding, and then we'll figure it out. Well, first of all, if you're not desperate to figure it out and you have a hard problem, it's pretty hard to figure it out, especially if you're comfortable. You know what I mean? That old saying, if you sleep with silk sheets, it's hard to get out of bed you know what i'm saying yeah it's the same thing when you got 50 million dollars in the bank and you've got this problem

to solve and you say oh well you know what we'll just throw money at it we'll throw money at it we'll throw money at it we'll throw money oh the money's gone oh yeah and then you know no one ever has to bear the responsibility of running that company bankrupt they all talk about how much you know oh i was the fucking co-founder of of kittycat.com. They all talk about how much, oh, I was the fucking co-founder of kittycat.com. And they never talk about how kittycat.com went fucking broke because it didn't sell anything. You see what I mean? Absolutely, yeah.

And that's what's popular right now in entrepreneurship. It's these fucking bullshit stories of I raised all this VC money and I never fucking sold anything. Yeah, yeah. That's it. No, the two things that come to my mind as analogies VC money, and I never fucking sold anything. Yeah. That's it. The two things that come to my mind as analogies are, one, is what you talk about, the $30,000 millionaire, where they're making the world see.

They have enough money to make it look like they're really successful, but they're bankrupt. And then the other thing is the idea this, over the last 10, 20 years is the idea of pumping money into the economy, which for a certain time makes it look like things are good, but it's all artificial. So that's what I feel like you're saying is that there's all these guys that they do succeed in getting investors to throw money at them and so that they had this appearance of success. But really the bottom line when you- I mean, there's guys like that too. I would say it's not all those guys. I think a lot of those guys just want to be, they play business.

They fucking sit at Starbucks with their fucking Apple and their Starbucks and they play business. I'm a fucking entrepreneur. I'm a CEO. You know, we have, we have the perfect company culture and they use all these buzzwords, you know, culture, synergy. You know what I'm saying? All these fucking buzzwords about business. Dude, I could spot them 100 miles away.

They play business. You know what I mean? Yeah. They wear the nicest shit. They wear the fucking trendy shoes and trendy fucking clothes. You're so right about the... What's funny is that I can't think of any off the top of my head. I can't stand them. But synergy so right about the uh i mean what's funny is that i can't think of any off the top of my head i can't stand synergy you said synergy

yeah those motherfuckers look at me and they're like dude that guy wears the same fucking outfit every day and they think i'm some kind of fucking neanderthal right it's like dude i will fucking run circles around you fucking anywhere anytime and you know why the same guys having two hour meeting too yeah let's have seven fucking meetings a day about fucking everything you know why They're the same guys Having a two hour meeting too Yeah Let's have seven fucking meetings a day About fucking everything You know why Because I know how to fucking sell shit

At my core I could fucking outsell Any motherfucker Listening to this podcast Guaranteed Any product Anytime Anywhere

Anyplace I will fucking destroy you And I'm that good And you know what That's why my business is fucking work. But you still lack synergy. Whatever. That's what I'm saying.

You don't have to fucking have it. Right, exactly. Exactly. Okay, so here's another question for young Andy. He's going to ask old Andy. He's going to say, dude, there is so much to do on a regular basis. Like literally.

Seemingly unrelated things that I just constantly putting out fires or doing whatever. How do you determine which things you have to do to move forward? What are the tasks that you kind of over time saw this needed to be done? It's a balance of figuring out what you need to do to pay the bills today and what's going to be good over the long haul. Right. And there's a balance there. And really ideally, ideally,

which I don't use that word very often in an ideal world, which doesn't exist, by the way, you would always plant seeds for the longterm. You know what I mean? Right. But when you're starving and you have $0 in the bank and you've got to pay fucking rent, certain things have to happen. You know what I mean? Right. But when you're starving and you have zero dollars in the bank and you've got to pay fucking rent, certain things have to happen.

You know what I mean? And so it's making the decisions that are going to pay the bills along with the decisions that are the best long term. But but but here's the thing that I learned over time is that those two things are actually the same thing. And when I see a lot of small business guys do is they'll do shit like this. They get 10 days out from the end of the month and they're like, fuck dude, we're short on cash.

Let's run a sale. Right. And then they try to run, they run a sale and then they do that again next month and they do it again the third month. And then you know what happens? The customers figure out what the fuck's going on and what do they do? They wait for the fucking sale. That was all right and then what happens then your margin goes down your fucking profit goes down your ability to pay everything out means you have to sell more your customers devalue the

product and all because you needed to make that short-term decision that first month and you kept doing it every month after that. You see what I mean? Um, so, you know, the, the reality though, the thing that you need to just keep doing over and over and over and over and over again is anticipating and, and, and solving people's problems in a way to where they go out and they solve this short-term and long-term problem for you. Because they go out and they tell their mom, they tell their dad, they tell their friends, they tell their brother, sister, everybody on Facebook and Instagram how great you are. And then you don't have an issue with having customers or selling product at the end of the

month. You see what I mean? But that's only going to work if you're playing long ball with these people. If you're playing, hey, I got to sell this person four tires of the most expensive fucking tires that we have this month, and I got to get them out the door as fast as possible, dude, that person is going to go on the internet and figure out that you oversold them. And what are they going to do? They're going to do the opposite, which is going to make you in a more desperate place next month. It comes down to doing the right thing. I'm sure that's just a learned ability to know how to handle the long game versus the short game, and there's nothing you can do but experience.

I think it is a learning thing, and it's a process that will take time for you to figure out what the balance is. And it's also a process that takes time for you to figure out and believe that and understand that when you take the time to do the right thing and solve a person's bank and somebody comes into their store or their place of business and the best thing for that customer would be to sell them at a medium level of whatever product that is, right? Like if they need an alarm system for their business and you sell them the fucking Mac Daddy alarm system for the pentagon they're gonna fucking get pissed right right so you have to but let's say you can you could do that right but you have to have that discipline to hold back and do what's right so that they understand that you care about them you know and and and that's something that most people just don't have the discipline to do when they're broke. It's by pulling the reins back and just doing the right thing. They have a tendency to oversell, to violate the trust with the customer, which creates problems with word of mouth, and it ultimately short-circuits their business.

I know a fucking hundred businesses that I'm describing right now. They get desperate. They try to raise their prices. And then all of a sudden, sudden dude they don't have any customers left because they pissed everybody off right right you know and no matter and that's a that's another mistake if you're whatever business you're in you if you i don't care if you're in fucking hong kong or the most populated city on earth wherever you're going to run out of customers eventually so you need to work on making them loyal you know this attitude of like oh there'll be another customer or there'll be that. Dude, that's the shit that will bury you.

That's the shit that you need to lose sleep over. If you have a customer that's upset, you should fucking lose sleep over that customer. Dude, I spent two hours on the internet last week talking to – I saw a dude who made a post about a product that was negative i fucking emailed him and i emailed every single person that liked the post you know what i mean to try to solve whatever the issue was and you know what it would be real easy for me to turn over and go to bed and say you know what it doesn't fucking matter because the reality is is it's not going to affect me today but what's it going to do for me in six months or what's it going to do for me in six years right that's it going to do for me in six years? Right. That's the mentality that you have to have. And like, dude, when, when somebody's

upset with your business, you know, you need to think about what they're going to say about you because it fucking matters. And I know so many companies that don't do that. They have the attitude of, Oh, well that customer is just a dick. You know, I, when I go to, you know, when we went down and we spoke at a, we spoke at Tyler and I went to speak at this dealership a while back. And one of the guys goes, what do you do when a customer is just wrong? What do you do when a customer is just an asshole? Well, what's your goal here? Is your goal to be right or is your goal to fucking make money?

You see what I mean? And so many guys try to be right instead of trying to take that negativity and turn it into a positive outlet to spread the great word of mouth about your company. And that's not – the customer is always right if you're smart. So this is just my observation. You tell me if it's legitimate. People always say there's a thin line between love and hate. I think the opposite is true too, that there's a thin line between love and hate. I think the opposite is true, too, that there's a thin line between hate and love. And just to borrow an example from my experience as a pastor,

sometimes my loudest critics, once I address them and talk to them, they become the biggest advocate. 100%. There's no question. You have to learn to see people who criticize you and who are unhappy as an opportunity to grow your company. Those people are going to grow your company more than any other person to the point of it's almost worth pissing them off just to get them back.

You know what I mean? Because they care. Right, exactly. Yeah, they've got passion. Yeah. So a couple more questions. Let me back up just for a second. Let me tell you the other thing I for sure say to my younger self, I would tell him that it's going to take at least five times as long as what you think it's going to take five times as long, at least and that you during that five times as long if you don't come to work every fucking day and give a hundred percent of the effort that you could possibly give and i'm not

talking about well do your best i'm talking about literally a hundred percent of your effort every fucking ounce of effort into your customers and your employees into growing your business if you don't do that during that extra five times of you think it's going to not take to grow your business, I'm telling you it will, you will not fucking make it. You won't. People want it now. They want it in three years. They have that saying, you know,

oh, it takes three years to grow a business. Really? It takes three years to be able to go to dinner and not worry about it. That's what it takes, three years. Okay? Do you think what they mean is it takes three years to be able to go to dinner and not worry about it. That's what it takes three years. Okay? Do you think what they mean is it takes three years to actually get in the black? I don't know what the fuck it means because it's not true in any way.

I don't know what the fuck it means. I don't know who said that. I think it's the dumbest thing I ever fucking heard. Right. Some businesses make it in one year. Right. But the point is that those are the exceptions, not the rule. If you're, if you're in a, if you're in a typical small business and you're going to have to grind it out until you figure out what the fuck you're doing, it's going to take you time and it's going

to take you a lot longer than fucking two years. Oh, I'll be going two years without a paycheck. So that's normal shit. Don't be an entrepreneur. Then go be something else, right? There's plenty of things that'll pay you next fucking week. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. So let me flip this on its head a little bit. You just got finished saying that if you don't pay attention and don't put all your effort into creating customer experience, that's death.

But then the flip side of that is what if your younger self said, man, I'm stressing out all about, you know, all about these different things. What if you said to him, listen, here are the things you're stressing out about that in reality, they're kind of small potatoes. You really shouldn't have to. You're giving them too much attention. Is there anything like that? Yeah, for sure. Personal relationships.

The people you're friends with now in the beginning of your business are not going to be the same fucking people you're friends with 10 years from now. The girlfriend you're with now, the boyfriend you're with now is not going to be the same person you're with 10 years from now, especially if you're an entrepreneur. You don't fucking owe that person anything. Okay? When you come home from fucking work and that person says, oh, Andy, you don't spend any fucking time with me. Well, yeah, because I'm busy building a fucking company and building a future, okay? And if you don't like it, get the fuck out.

Go be a broke fucking motherfucker on the street. I don't give a fuck. And I spent far too much time fucking dealing with people that didn't fucking get what I was trying to do where that sucked the life out of me. You only have so much positive energy in a 24-hour period. And if you spend that positive energy dealing with people that don't understand your mission or don't understand what the fuck you're trying to do, you're going to have a really hard time creating anything worthwhile because you're spending the energy in the wrong places.

And I think a lot of people spend it in fucking relationships. And then they'll do this shit. I'll tell them exactly what I just said. They'll say, oh, dude, that sounds heartless. Well, you know what? I'm fucking being a realist. I'm not here to play snow fucking white and tell you that everything's going to be fucking perfect because it isn't. Your girlfriend or boyfriend or whoever the fuck you're with is probably going to want to go out and drink beer on the fucking weekends and party and do all this shit that costs money.

But they're going to not want you to work to earn that money. And that's the reality. And I see it all the time. And they're like, but I love her. Really? Well, she doesn't fucking love you because if she loved you, she'd be supporting you in what the fuck you're trying to do. And vice versa.

So having these personal relationships, and they're delusional. They're delusional. They're the same people you see in a bar when you're 22 years old trying to start a business, and you're 37. You see them in a bar when you're 22 years old trying to start a business and you're 37. You see them in a bar and they're coming up to you being like, oh, he's believed in you. It's the same person who was giving you shit fucking 15 years earlier. Right. You know, fuck those people, dude.

Right. You don't owe them anything. You certainly don't owe them the potential future of you. And a lot of people will say, oh, dude, that sounds very mean. Well, it's the truth. If you don't have somebody to support you, if you don't have somebody that gets what you're trying to do, they shouldn't be in your life and you shouldn't be wasting your energy on that. You've got to take care of you. You come in this world, you go out this world alone

and anywhere. And you have an obligation to the people that you really care about to take care of you first. And people will and the right people will get that and respect that and love you for that, not give you fucking shit. They not make things hard like when you're working at work and then going out and being a fucking slut at the club all fucking night. Right. You see what I mean? Mm-hmm. So while we're on the issue of relationships,

you do have some people that have been around First Forum for quite a while, and these were people that in the early going were investing blood, sweat, and tears, and they weren't getting paid. So what if your younger self, or let's say just some entrepreneur who's out there in a similar situation says, man, Andy, I've got these people that seem to be really supportive of me. They want to kill it too, but I just can't pay them. First of all, you've got to pay them something. You've got to pay them something.

Yeah. I've never ever had anybody work for me for free. I've had people work for me when I wasn't getting paid and I had to pay them a reasonable salary for their talents, but those are the sacrifices that you make when you're building something. You know what I mean? You pay people first to do jobs that you need to get done before you pay yourself. It's an investment. Is it fair? Well, it's fair whenever you start making millions of fucking dollars and they're still making what they make or a little bit more than that. It's a,

it's a sacrifice. You know what I mean? A lot of people can't look past that. They can't let their egos say, Oh, well I got five or six six, seven, ten employees that are making more money than me. That's normal. That's normal shit. Yeah. You know what I mean? When somebody has a skill that you don't have and that you need, you've got to fucking invest in that skill. Mm-hmm.

You know? So now going back to your question, how do you get people to, let's say, make less money because they believe in what the fuck you're doing and they want to be a part of it? That's just being open with your business plan and your goals and what you're trying to do and understanding what their the first two or three years, five years of your company, you know, it's not going to be this glorious thing that people want to be a part of. So you're going to have to create something on paper or in people's minds and paint the picture for them of what they're actually investing in. What is this field of planting going to look like in five years? You know, what is this company going to look like in five years? You know, what is, what is this company going to look like in 10 years? What part are they going to play? You know, what are we going to do as a team? You know, you have to be able to paint that picture. That's your job as the owner of the company or the CEO. If you can't make people believe in your company or your vision, you're

going to not be very effective at recruiting, you know, good talent to come work for you. You know what I mean? Yeah. So let me get really specific and switch this up. Just a couple of questions about actual, like literal specific topics of, of, uh, entrepreneurship. So we've all seen the picture of the original supplement superstore, uh, what, uh, signage. Yeah. If you're talking to a, either your old or your young self or a modern-day, you know, ground-zero entrepreneur,

and they say to you, Andy, how much value do you place on just getting just the exact right name or the exact right brand colors or the exact right logo? How much of that stuff did you, I mean, how much emphasis did you put on that? How much time did you... The shit all evolves, I mean, how much, how much emphasis did you put on that? How much time did you... The shit all evolves. I mean, the first version is going to suck. You know, if your first version doesn't suck, then you're suffering from paralysis by analysis and you're not taking enough action. You know, you're going to have to evolve. You know,

you're going to have to put something out there and people are going to say, oh, that's weird. I don't like that. And then you're going to change it and then you're gonna have to put something out there and people are gonna say oh that's weird i don't like that and then you're gonna change it and then you're gonna improve it um you know look at some of the big companies now like amazon what the fuck does that mean zappos what does that mean it doesn't matter what the fucking word is it's what it stands for and you do that through creating a culture in your company which i don't expect an entry-level entrepreneur to understand how to do. But as you evolve your company and you learn more, you're going to learn how to instill a culture on purpose.

And when you do that, whatever symbol you have that represents that will become significant. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Because people, when they see logos nowadays i mean the logo could possibly not tell you anything about the but it stands for something when they see it right exactly and that comes by instilling the culture right so if you don't

instill the culture and you don't understand what that means at this point in time but you're in business and you have you and another employee, you know, you could start that right now, you know, but most people don't, most businesses don't even have a culture. If you ask them,

how's their culture? They, they interpret that as morale. What's the morale like, you know, morale and culture are two different things. You know, Oh,

everybody's happy here. Everybody's happy. That's morale. That's not culture. Culture's the fuck you stand for you know what i mean it's core value shit and you have to do it you have to you have to learn how to create that intentionally and a good book on that is delivering happiness by uh tony shea so that's the founder of zappos but yeah you know know, to answer your question, I don't really think it's that.

I don't think it's the end-all, be-all of anything. I think it's what you do that brings significance to those things that matters. You know what I mean? Look at some of the, like, famous logos in business. I mean, they're so simple, they're nothing. You know what I mean? Right. Well, who would have thought that the profile of a fruit would be eventually associated with a...

Or a swoosh, a checkmark. Yeah, or a checkmark, right. You know what I mean? Associated with a computer company. It's not the symbol. It's the value you make it stand for. Right. Well, guys, if you want the show notes for this episode, just check out themfceo.com forward slash p57. And Andy, once

again, anticipated my final question, which is just, you talked about culture. So give your young self a couple practical things you can do every day to advance the core values of your company. Well, first of all, you got to identify what you stand for. You know, most people have these bullshit fucking things written on the wall of their company. We stand for integrity, value, and experience. And, you know, you look at those things, you're like, what the fuck does that mean? So you have to identify what it is you stand for in detail so that people can actually understand that and apply that. And then what you have to do is you have to start speaking to your customers and your employees in that language.

You know what I mean? So when you talk about enthusiasm, are you talking about going the extra mile? Are you talking about believing? Are you talking about, you know, believing? Are you talking about developing discipline? You know, everything that you coach your employees on should fall into those categories, and you should tie that back to that. Hey, you know, you didn't do this, this, and this. You didn't clean the bathroom today, even though it's on the checklist.

That falls under be disciplined. That's one of our core values. We hire and we fire by these core values. You know, you've got to develop that skill. Even though it's a small thing, you've got to do it. You see what I'm saying? And you have to tie your language together with your employees on the core values. And that's going to basically, it'll get the idea in their head of,

okay, this is acceptable here or this is not acceptable here. And guess what? When the new guy or the new girl comes in, guess what they tell them? Hey, dude, that shit ain't going to fly here. They start taking pride in it, right? They're like, hey, you know, you didn't clean the fucking bathroom today, bro. I don't know where the fuck you worked at before, but this shit ain't going to fly here. You cleaned the fucking bathroom.

Right. You see what I'm saying? Right, absolutely. You know, or like you didn't carry out the bag of groceries for that customer or whatever.

You say, hey, I don't know what fucking store you worked at but this is fucking, this is Acme fucking grocery store and we carry this shit out for these motherfuckers

and you better fucking do it or your ass won't be here and they'll regulate employees for you because they believe in the culture. You know, but it's by design. It's not by accident and most most entrepreneurs ironically if you ask them what culture means they can't even fucking tell you what it is you know what i mean they're like oh it's good it's good how's your culture what's what is your

culture that's what they sound like and like dude you know first of all let's learn what culture is yeah it's the lifeblood of your business it's the living breathing soul of your fucking company it's what it stands for it's what customers identify with it's what your employees identify with and you're going to have to develop the communication skills that go along with that and use them consistently and what will happen is your your your employees will start to embody it your customers will start to identify and love it and then you'll have something then you have you've got something that's tangible you can feel it you could you could smell it when you walk into a place i mean

i dude i could smell culture when i walk into an office in one fucking second, dude, could you not, when we went to VaynerMedia, did you not feel it? Oh yeah. Energy. Right. It's their energy. Yeah. It's the soul. Yeah. You know, and you know, people get that when they come in here, when they come in our office, they're like, dude, this is fucking awesome. Right. You know, or if they go into one of our stores, it's the same thing. Right. You know, and the easiest thing to stand for is to do the right fucking thing because everybody gets down with that right you know so i confess that i know about that because i hang out with you and you have learned the whole concept of the culture is it fair to say that another word

you could use is personality it's very similar okay yeah yeah it's a very similar you know it's the personality of your business i would say that's i wouldn't say in substitute i would say in you know in conjunction with like the soul it's the soul it's the personality it's the feeling yeah you know it's all those things yeah you know what i mean yeah the very dna but you have to be around a company that has a culture to understand what culture is okay so we could do a whole podcast on this. I mean, we might have already. I don't know if we did or didn't. We haven't done one on culture.

We absolutely should, yeah. Okay. Harley Davidson motorcycles. Why do people fucking ride Harleys? Why do they ride them? Well, I would say why I would is just a sense of belonging with a group of like-minded people. But it's obviously a quality product, but there's just – I can't answer – I don't know. There's a lot of motorcycles that with a group of like-minded people but but it's obviously a quality product but there's just i i can't answer there's a lot of motorcycles are better harley's well that's true but i guess i can't answer the question without actually using the word

culture there's just a culture it's a whole subculture in america okay that has here's the features you you can ride up to a harley fucking ride and look like you of a clean cut you know and be a clean cut fucking white pastor you know dude right and you can roll up and there'll be a dude on a harley with the fucking beard down to his belt buckle and if you ride a harley and he rides a harley you're fucking brothers right and that's what culture is that's what that's what makes people go get a fucking tattoo of a logo which by the way s2 and first form both have tons of people with those kind of tattoos all right when you when you have people going to get tattoos on their skin of your fucking logo you've got a culture you're getting

it okay um harley davidson you know you can't even walk into a tattoo shop across the earth without a little section of hd tattoos it's very true you know what i'm saying yeah dude if you want to study on culture study that fucking brand yeah you know what i mean there's other brands too this apple apple's got a great culture what's apple's culture the nerdy dude at the fucking starbucks you know with the fucking trendy shit on do i use apple i think they're great products but the point is is all the little fucking apple nerds all get together and fucking celebrate together. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And they all entrepreneur together. And I'm entrepreneuring with my fucking Nixon quotes up. Right. Right. Well, you know. Hey, bro. How many dollars do you think we can raise in BC this year with my fucking app idea? How, I mean, I guess once you get to the point where your customers are saying, you know, if somebody asks them, why do you buy such and such?

If their answer is because it's fill in the name of your business. Let me tell you why people buy. Why do people buy your shit other than good? Every product is a commodity. Every fucking product. It's a commodity. there's not one thing I could think of and product wise in the world that the leader is so much better than the fucking second

competitor that it's that big of a difference people will argue Mac and PC I disagree they're both fucking great people will argue Apple Android they're both great they're fucking one centimeter one way or the other at any given time

people will argue Ford Chevy. It's the same fucking thing. People will argue, you know, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, all the fucking same. Just a little bit differences, right? We're talking about, you know, measurable differences of millimeters or fractions of a second, right? So what makes something choose one over the other? It's people buy from people they identify with and people they like. That's it.

You make a friend, you make a fucking sale. You make people feel belonged, you make a sale. You're really good at making people belong, you create a movement, and you have a culture. But, dude, most people can't do it, and I'm going to tell you why most people can't do it. And this is why I'm not afraid to fucking talk about it because I'm a fucking expert at culture and,

and I'm not afraid to say that we had a thousand fucking people show up at a supplement company for summer smash last year to fucking celebrate vitamins. Are you fucking kidding me? We have a fucking culture. Yeah. Okay. You know why nobody else can do that? Because no one else is genuine.

No one else is real. Everybody else is all about making the dollar, making the margin, making the profit today, and they're not about the long game. They don't understand that if you take care of people first, they'll take care of you. And I believe that.

And I believe it enough to where I put my fucking money where my mouth is in that type of system. And I would suggest that you do the same. But it takes balls. Because when you don't have any money and you don't have momentum and you haven't built anything yet, to basically give more than you take is very hard to do. You know what I mean?

So, I mean, we could do a whole podcast on this whole thing. We should. Yeah. But, you know, at the end of the day, whatever the fuck you're selling out there is not better than the competition. It's probably the same. Okay?

And if you can't get people to identify with your brand, you're going to have a very hard time selling it. Right. Right. Although I would guess that most of your customers would say that first form is way better than anything else. You know what? I was going to put an asterisk there and not,

and I know people are laughing right now. They're like, Oh, of course your fucking company. Right. We've proven that, you know, we're in an industry where the cheaper is the

better well we've taken that whole name me one fucking industry where cheap is the best i can't supplements is the only one people have the mentality where the cheapest is the best we've taken that's because most companies will make things so cheaply and then tell you it's all the same right so that they can make the most amount of margin all right we've taken the opposite approach and made the best products and they are definitively and clearly better than the competition which is why you don't see people ever bash in first form quality right they bash us guess what they bash on the price that's right and that's it and i can deal with that yep i'm not for everybody our products

not for everybody not everybody product's not for everybody. Not everybody can afford our products. I understand that. I'm sorry. But my hope is by listening to this podcast that one day you will get to a point where you can. Okay? But the point is, is we're in sports supplements. Our problem is what?

Solve people's problems. What is most people's problems that come to us? They want to perform better, they want to lose weight, or they want to gain muscle. They're putting things in their body for performance. I owe it to the customer to make the very best products that I can to help them solve that goal. And if they can't afford it or choose not to buy those products, that is not my fault. I'm doing what's right. Period. So we can, you know, we could say whatever. And, you know, there is situations out there where one thing is better than another, but generally speaking, and I'm not comparing a fucking Ferrari to a fucking Yugo or a Saturn.

Clearly, there's major differences. I'm talking about- Products of its kind. Of the same category, the good, better, best. Two products in the best category are not so different that you're going to automate you know what i mean yeah absolutely i mean there are other brands that are pretty fucking good right and not many i could think of two that are pretty good right and people might look at that and say hey you know what i'm not going to use first form this time i'm going to to use this brand this time. And I get that.

But you know why they don't usually do that? Because they like what we stand for. Because we stand for the right shit. And you could do that in your business too. But it takes work and it takes time and it takes trust. And the first time you violate that trust is the last time you violate that trust. Right, right.

Well, it's a principle that stands true in almost every area of life. I mean, it goes without saying, you look at the history of American politics, and when the American people were given a choice between two essentially similar candidates, but one of them just had an ability to connect, was more likable. People buy from people they like. Exactly. That's it.

Exactly. You know, you make a friend, you make a sale. Make a friend, make a sale. Yeah. Make a friend, make a sale. People buy from their fucking friends. Right's really fucking simple right don't worry about the fucking selling what did i tell those motherfuckers when we went down to the motorcycle dealership remember i said hey don't worry and i'm looking at tyler right now don't worry about the fucking

margin or the commission or whatever it is that you're going to make in that bike, worry about making this dude feel like he's part of the fucking family. And if you do that, guess what? Not only will you probably sell that bike, but you'll probably sell him bikes for life and you'll sell his friend's bikes for life. So quit thinking about the money. Focus on the customer. Focus on solving the problem.

Focus on making them happy. And good shit is going to happen to you. Right. Right. Right. So the only thing I would say, wrapping up a little bit here is... Follow us on the fucking internet. Yeah. I would also say, just humor me.

I'm curious. Follow us on Snapchat. On Snapchat, yeah. Andy, real quick. Follow us on fucking Facebook too. Leave us a motherfucking review yeah that's important i think it'd be important for you to discuss uh why you tell everybody that works in your retail side and first form too uh why you think you tell every single employee to look at

every single customer as a hundred thousand dollars yeah you've got to trade okay i trade my i train all my guys to look at the lifetime value the customer always look always look at a lifetime value even if because it prevents them from looking at the sale that's right so if you can envision a customer and i look our lifetime value is around 100 100 grand for a customer so if you look at yourself as in the business of acquiring customers as opposed to selling shit you're going to be very successful because you have to understand the lifetime value that customer is far more valuable than anything you could do today like you could give the person their whole fucking order or whatever it is they bought for free today

to make them happy and create a lifetime customer it would still be worth it and you have to get your people to think that way and be okay with that and empower them to make those kinds of decisions. Because if you can't take care of that person and make them happy and you lose that lifetime customer today, you didn't lose the $75 sale today or the $150 sale there, or even, you know, the $2,000 sale today for some of you guys who sell bigger ticket products. You lost the lifetime value of that customer, and not only the lifetime value of that customer, but all their friends, family, and their network. And there's infinite value to that.

And so you have to train your employees to understand that on every level possible. Tyler's been working here for probably six, what, six years? I think five or six. Five, six years with me on and off. He worked for S2, a retail store, and he's worked for First Form,

both companies. I don't think there's been a meeting that we've had in that amount of time that I haven't brought that up. I think every single fucking meeting, I bring that up.

It totally changes your mindset on how you look at customers. I literally tell them to look at a customer and envision a fucking comic book bubble above their head with $100,000 in it. And if you fucking can do that,

if you could train yourself to do that, you would treat your customers a thousand times better. That's really good. Yeah. And we, I mean, but saying is one thing, doing it's another. You know what I mean? Sometimes you're going to have to give up money today to make that customer right.

Sometimes you're going to have to do things today that cost you money to make that customer right, to keep that $100,000 intact. Or whatever. It could be $10 million for some of you guys listening. We don't know. But the point is, is you don't fucking know who that person's going to tell what they're going to do. You know, you just have no fucking clue. So treat them as if they're the number one person. First of all, the only everybody's treat them as your only customer. Well, not only that, but treat them as if they're not only that you're only customer, but they're the only way you're going to get new customers. You know what

I mean? Absolutely. And I know you would say not just before any sale, but before, during, and after. I think you knew that I recently bought a car. I was pretty happy with the sales process, but shocked when two weeks later, I have a flat tire, which is not a big deal. I picked up a nail. There was nothing they could do about it. But I found out that they had not sold me the special key to take the bolt off. So when I

called the dealer, they're like, oh, yeah. We had no idea. So, yeah, we're a Toyota dealer and that's a Honda, so why don't you call the Honda people, see what they know. I was flabbergasted. These guys don't know that I have probably three more cars that I'm going to buy

in the next four years. Right. There's no that I'm going to buy in the next four years. Right. There's no way I'm going back to them. Right. None. All because of something that they could have solved for like five bucks. Right. Well, I mean, it was more than that.

It's like a $200, you know, the special Honda key and everything. They could have went down. Oh, you mean they could have done it. They could have went to fucking Honda and said, hey, my bro down here broke down. Lean bar your tool. I'm going to take care of it. Cost of five fucking dollars in that front. Literally, I was like, well, that shows

how you value me. You valued me before I bought it. Yeah, but Vaughn, that's the competitive advantage that everybody listening right now has. We talked about your products being commodity, which they are, unless they're in the small percentile of unique innovative products, which yours probably aren't. I'm sorry. Everybody thinks they are, unless they're in the small percentile of unique, innovative products, which yours probably aren't.

I'm sorry. Right. Everybody thinks they are, but they fucking aren't. All right? When you're in that business of selling that sort of product or information or service, how do you differentiate yourself? Through culture and through service. And that's it.

And you can dominate your fucking competition by mastering those two. And I think that's a perfect way to end. Yeah. So, hey, all you motherfuckers listening right now, if you found value in this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you would please follow me on social media. And also, leave us a review on the podcast, please. Where do we leave the reviews? On iTunes? Yeah, just go to iTunes.

And some people are confused by this, and it kind of sucks, but as far as I know, you cannot leave a review on iTunes through your iPhone. See, what you don't understand is that I made a deal with Apple that if you're a regular listener

to the MSCO project and you don't leave a review, you won't be able to listen next time. That's right. Yeah, so if you don't leave a fucking review, I'll see you later. Yeah, the only other thing I want to say is that, you know, be able to listen next time. That's right. Yeah. So if you don't leave a fucking review, I'll see you later. Yeah.

The only other thing I want to say is that, you know, people, I love Canada. So apparently I got some wrong information or I misunderstood about the issue. No, I love Canada. I actually like British Columbia. It's really great. But anyway, some of you were getting on me for misinformation about cooking meat in Canada. So my bad. Dude. Oh, Canada. I love you. So, my bad. Dude.

Oh, Canada, I love you. Hey, look, man, if you're going to get upset that you made a mistake about cooking meat, you're one of those people that probably shouldn't listen to the fucking show. Yeah, yeah. One more worthless question, since we're talking about the Back to the Future thing. Motherfuckers. Yes, exactly. So, I'm just curious.

I didn't get enough of those in today. If you had an opportunity to go back in time, one thing being personal, one thing being historical. Personal, I wouldn't have wasted time with the fucking personal relationships that I had. No, I'm talking about if you went back in time to actually relive like a day or a moment or experience back in time that's personal, what would it be? Oh. Fuck, I don't know. All right. What about historical? i don't think that way yeah like i the past is the past emily said something to me the other day about that too like she i

forgot what the question was and she asked me and i'm like i can't answer that because i don't think that way yeah like i don't think i'm not one of these people that looks at the past and thinks of the good old days like i just don't i look to the future and how great the future is going to be. And I try to enjoy the day. Yeah. And I look at the past good or bad as just what it is. You know what I mean? I don't regret.

I really don't regret things. I don't like I, you know, and I've done some things that I'm not proud of, but I don't regret them because if I hadn't, I hadn't done them, then I wouldn't know to not do them now. Right. When it fucking matters. Right. things that I'm not proud of, but I don't regret them because if I hadn't done them, then I wouldn't know to not do them now when it fucking matters. Right.

See what I'm saying? Yeah, no, that makes total sense. I don't look at the past as, I mean, what do you think, Tyler? I mean, dude, I get that shit all the time, especially when I tell people, oh, I've been divorced, and they're like, oh, sorry. It's like, why are you- Well, you try to throw out the divorce thing

so you can fucking try to pick up some chicks on the podcast. He's pretty smooth. Wow. Oh, you didn't know that huh dude but yeah i get that all the time and it's like dude i don't regret anything because it's got me whatever happened in my past got me where i am now yeah man and like people get like hung up in their past oh dude like it's like when they use it like you said they always use it as an excuse on why they aren't where they want to be. Tyler knows because he travels with me when I go speak.

And I taught you everything you know. Yeah, pretty much. Except for my fashion skills. I taught myself those. Very true. So, dude, I'll get these questions, and it'll be like this laundry list of past shit. And I can't relate to them. I'm looking at them like, so?

Right. They let it paralyze them. Kelsey's not plugged in. Yeah. Well, anyway, Kelsey just said they let it paralyze them, but it's true. And I'm thinking all the bad shit. While they're replaying the things that like, oh, my fucking dad and I don't have a good relationship, and this and that, and I'm like, motherfucker, I got stabbed in the fucking face.

You know what I'm saying? Like in the fucking face. Like I look like the fucking mask. What's that show with Cher and Mask? What's that kid's name? Yeah, I don't know what his name is, but he had like that elephant disease. Yeah, the fucking mask. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what I fucking looked like for like two years. You know, like, dude. And I was a good looking motherfucker before that. Yeah. I saw it. I saw your pictures in the yearbook. Dude, I'm just. No, not then.

After that. That was an awkward phase, dude. Everybody has an awkward phase. You're still in it. Yeah, I know I am. Dude. So the point is, is that, you know, like, I just don't live in that way. Like, I don't. I don't know.

You're moving a million miles a second. Yeah, dude. The thing that tells me someone's living in the past. Even Sal and I have talked about that before. He's like, dude, you're cold. It's not that I'm cold. I'm just focused on other shit. Right.

I don't know. Maybe I am cold. Maybe I'm fucked in the head. I don't fucking know. Well, you are that, but geniuses are often mad. I just don't care about the shit that most people care about. Yeah, no, I get you. But I also think that that is a product of age. I've come to the point where for me, the past, I don't think it's an age thing. Well, but I mean, I'm saying it's a product of

maturity, maybe not experience, maybe experience and maturity. So for me, I've come to the point in my life where I look, I look at the past to understand myself, not to judge myself. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. You know, and I think, you know, I mean, I don't know. Like, I just find myself caring less and less about the shit that people generally care about. Yeah. And I'm more and more interested in progress and teaching and learning and experiences than I am am worried about the fucking Cardinals baseball. I mean, I love the Cardinals and everything,

but I start to get to a point where I look at people who go to the fucking baseball game every week, like, what the fuck are you guys doing? You know what I mean? Or I don't know. Maybe I wish I was a little more ignorant sometimes to where I just didn't think that way and I was oblivious. But I'm just not.

Right. Well, guys, follow at Andy Frisella at V-A-U-G-H-N-K-O-H-L-E-R and at M-A-I. Your thing is so hard to say. What is it? At M-A-I underscore Tyler. How about just at Tyler Hedley? Why not that? Anyway.

All right. Thanks for listening, guys. That's not cute enough. That's true. Tell me, doctor, where are we going this time? Is this the 50s or 1999?

All I wanted to do Was play my guitar and sing So take me away I don't mind But you better promise me I'll be back in time All I do is work, work, work I'll be back in time.