Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the money adjustment. I'm your host, Doctor Mark Kramer, DC. I am a chiropractor who loves investing and trading. Are you interested in what's moving markets and your money? Great. Part two.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Let's get started.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Today I have a returning guest and I'm very excited to talk to him again. The last time we spoke, we discussed trading, which is something that we both do, actually. We both do a lot of different things, but another shared interest is AI. And so I am an AI enthusiast. I'm more of a hobbyist, I would say at this point, but a pretty relatively knowledgeable hobbyist. I've definitely been playing around with it for a couple of years in terms of some of the imaging, AI generated images and the word prompting and things of that nature. But I'm very interested to speak with Andrew Bondica today about what his new venture is, which is AI consulting for businesses. And without further ado, I'm going to let Andrew kind of jump in, give me a little bit of a pitch to what he's doing now.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So good to be back, man. Good to see you. Yeah. I'm Bondika. In the States, they call me Ando. In Hungary, they call me Bondika, so that's my hungarian nickname. Yeah. So I'm the founder of Para and we are an AI agency for sales, development and product utilizing AI. And so I have to make a clear distinction upfront on that because right now any business owner is trying to find AI tools that can generate leads for them. And there's a ton of scamming going on in that side of, of the AI world where people are over promising. Oh, yeah, AI will get you a ton of leads. It'll harvest your old leads from your database. All these things reengage your customers and you don't have to do anything.
And I think those are like, those are the magic words for somebody that's starving for leads. And those are like the big red flag words for people that aren't where it's like nothing can be that easy. Like there definitely has to be some level of competency and understanding and that leads into actually what I do, which is more focused on sales asset development. So you think of like LMS learning management system, video production, and like all of the training manuals and all the marketing assets and stuff like that, where it has to be on brand and it has to match. And then the other side of it is like manager development in the company and senior manager development, where a lot of assets are created on the fly by managers and big companies, and it's not on brand, it hasn't been checked for compliance. And so now with software and AI, we've positioned ourselves, we work specifically in the solar industry for like residential direct sales legion. It's a very specific marketing like marketing practice. I've been in the industry for 15 years and I was able to scale with Trinity and I've been with some really awesome companies and learned from insane leaders and in my own right became one as the executive director of Trinity at that time. And so anyways, the pitch for what we do is really simple. It's like, hey, if you're a company that's doing 10 million in annual revenue or more in the solar industry with a direct sales team, you're probably in a position where you're starting to invest in your sales development. So lms, videos, training, all that stuff, we can shorten your time from say three years to full development down to about three to six months depending on the competency of your team. And the thing that makes us unique at Para is we do agency work like where you can just give us all of the assets and we can create everything for you really fast.
But what I'm seeing in the marketplace as I work with CEO's of these companies that are doing ten to 50 million in annual revenue is they want to do it themselves and that's normal, right? Like in a business you want to grow internally. Bringing in outside talent can be a challenge and you don't know if you're going to get the return on your money. So it's kind of a gamble. So we've positioned ourselves not to just do fulfillment, but we have an entry level product that's a diy where I go in and I do a discovery with their company and then I tailor the blueprints for them and then I teach them the tools themselves and they do all of the fulfillment for themselves on their own timeline. And I'm just, I'm there on the sideline like telling them the technicals or we can do agency, which is where I do the fulfillment. And they have view only and comment only access to all the assets that are created and I'm in charge. And so I say, hey, you don't get to change anything, you don't get to design anything, you don't get to prompt anything. I'm going to drive this from start to finish. So you have your whole asset base created on brand for your company and, and this is, and you have, and you always have to think, you know, what, what is the desired outcome for an owner. What is the desired outcome? Well, one, it's. I wish I had more time to work on the things that, that I see where there's opportunity, you have to pass on certain opportunities, because I'm so maxed out in the day to day. And so if you can alleviate some of that pain and say, hey, if I could win you back 45 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes a day, would that be a value to you? Absolutely. That would be. That'd be insane. Okay, cool. How does that translate monetarily if you make $150 to $300 an hour or more? You know, some CEO's making $1,500 an hour, you say, okay, cool. Well, if you could gain, you know, an extra 120 hours a year, does that get you an extra $150,000 to $180,000 back in your pocket? Okay, cool. So this upfront investment, you're just creating the assets in the blueprint, and you can apply that to any product, any brand, any part of your business that you want to once you're competent in the tools. So it's been really interesting. Like, I spent a year after being in the industry for ten years in solar and direct sales and growing as an executive, recruiting, training, all that. I spent a year exclusively in AI, generative AI.
And we can jump back more into that, but I just wanted to give you, yo, this is what I do.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Very specific, very niche down. Yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: And it's well thought out, too, because I know who your demographic is. Like, broadly speaking, it's companies making over 10 million in revenue. Annual. Is that annualized revenue?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Revenue, yep.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: So 10 million annualized revenue. And it's even more niche than that in terms of the solar, because that's where your background is from. And so that's been, that's enlightening for me because I'm more at the small business owner aspect. So I'm learning from entrepreneurs and larger scale leaders. So I'm just kind of venturing into the whole space of entrepreneurship again, after kind of being burned as a. Or feeling burned, I shouldn't say I'm burned. I take full responsibility for the results of my past businesses. But in terms of just kind of venturing back out into entrepreneurship, what I find interesting about what you're doing is you're on an entrepreneurial endeavor. It sounds like you were you employed by Trinity before you were, like, doing sales for them?
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I started as a manager, grew to director of sales, then to senior director of business development, and then executive director. So it was a rocket. Yeah, they were doing 20 million in annual revenue when we started, and in four years we went to like 350 million in annual revenue. So it was, I mean, yeah, it was the largest privately held solar company in the nation. It was unbelievable. Yeah.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Oh, that's amazing. And then, so where's the pivot? Like, when did you pivot?
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question.
When you think of executive management or like climbing the corporate ladder, a lot of that's intrapreneurial. So you have to learn how to build teams, you have to learn how to build out comms, and ultimately you have to create a dynamic system that the business can scale in. Like, how do you communicate? What's the system for communicating? So I read hundreds of books, literally, I mean, I would read 100 books a year or listen to audio. And so I created the system. What I would do is I would take these little pieces from other companies that would do something unique and like Goliath's revenge, or like just random books that their stories of business journalism, and they would have one system, it was like, or you rescaling up, or by Verne harnish or all these things, and then you start to formulate this, like, what is it that works here in this environment? But what could translate to other rooms? Like, if I ever leave here, what's the system that I could copy paste and it could work at a startup, it could work at a mid sized company, it could work at an enterprise company. And because I was in at such an early stage, you technically feel it as you grow. Like this works, like this works. So I created a proprietary system called Gecko. I'm writing the book on it now for executives and owners, but it stands for governance, cadence, compensation, objectives, and key results.
And it's a system that allows a company to isolate their problems in the proper place. And it gives me a starting point to work when I'm trying to fix a company's broken system. So, like, if I go in as a consultant, especially with AI, like a lot of people right now, they think it's magic wand. You just kind of throw fairy dust everywhere and everything's AI driven. And I'm floating around and my car is paid off, and it's like, no, AI will maybe set you back a few years if you're an idiot. It's not a foolproof system. So you need an operating system that you can identify where your starting point is. And how do you scale with AI? Because it's a growth. There's a learning curve with AI as well, especially if you don't already have systems in place. And that's why I have that threshold of 10 million. Because if you're still a small company, you don't even have the team to work with yet. It's just you and a handful of people.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Right. And so you're just fighting for every dollar. It's like, we're doing great, we're making 10 million. Once you get to ten to 50 million and usually like that sweet spot of like 15 to 30 is this like beautiful time where you've got mid level talent, you've got like middle level management, some directors in place, and you're starting to formulate like, what kind of company are we? We've made it this far. We have excess capital. We've got operating capital in the bank.
Now, what do we want to look like? This is what we kind of ended up by default, just hustling. But what if we were intentional about growth and got to the hundred million mark, whatever. And what does that look like? And so at different stages of your company, you're dealing with different issues. So, like the sub 10 million, there's not a lot that you're going to do except for talk to the CEO and encourage them, right? Like they're kind of doing a lot of different jobs, right?
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Once you get to this mid sized company, you've got leadership that you can now work with and see and test them to see if they're capable. And then at the, you know, at the corporate level, when you get to an enterprise company, they've got so much talent and a deep bench and they've got systems and processes. At that point, you're really working towards efficiencies. And it doesn't matter to them because they've created a moat around their business where they're pretty sound in what they do. So every stage is different, but the system was gecko, you know, governance, cadence, compensation, objectives and key results. And governance is like, where does your governance end? You have to establish that with leadership because they don't by nature, they want to solve every problem. And so you have to establish lines of governance, like, what's your role in the company and where do you stop making decisions? That's really important, especially for entrepreneurs. Like, as we're growing, everything can appear as an opportunity, but not everything that shines is made of gold. So how do you, how do you, how do you disregard things that look good? And this goes back to our guys, you know, Buffett and Munger is they pass. I'm literally reading, going back through the share the letters to shareholders by Buffett. I learned so much as I read the annual letters from the eighties. I'm like, this guy was so good. But their whole philosophy was, we say no to so many good opportunities and pass waiting for the great ones. And he said, and it actually costs us a lot of money to say no to the good opportunities. Like, it reflects on our balance sheet. But the great ones also reflect well because we're thinking in decades, like, we're thinking so far down the road. And so you really have to get good if you want your company to grow, you have to get the blinders on and say no to so many other things and just say, no. I'm going to be really good at this one thing. So anyways, created the system. One of the coolest parts of this, this whole, like, the whole, I guess you would say, framework is, is the creating media and content in a company. You can apply this framework to your systematic approach to your brand presence and all that. So anyways, I built out some really fun stuff in the company for sales and events and all this stuff. And this pivot came where I was like, I'm done. I'm the executive director.
I make phenomenal money. I have a blank check to go, travel anywhere I want to go, talk to the people, encourage sales. Guys, it was awesome. It was the coolest thing. But I was like, I'm done. I've achieved exactly what I set out to do at this company. And so I resigned. And just overnight I was like, I had a three year exit plan, hit it on the nose and resigned. Sent an email. I was like, to HR and to my VP and my EVP and was like, hey, guys, it's been awesome. And so I started this vertical video media company using an iPhone. And what I realized, and this is really important, like, as far as what we're talking about with AI, this all plays into it.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: When did you start that company? Not to.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: This was three and a half years ago. Okay. I had this idea start a media company called Art of Knocking, which was super niche down, focused on this industry specific, how do you. And the goal was to go into companies and teach them how to create media for their company using an iPhone. Because there was this transition from high end glass and production teams, and it was like, we could do this with an iPhone, you know, because I worked with the media teams on production. And so the company got acquired in a merger. Like, I got acquired in an equity swap deal before I launched. So I had two suitors. One was like, we want to buy this, we want to buy this. So I took the equity deal and took a, you know, quarterly distribution for two years and chief product officer role in this company. And during that time, I spent time mapping out what I call recognition, which is what is the experience that people have when they come into your company to work for you as a sales rep, as a lead gen rep, as, you know, admin and mapping out all the touchpoint and the milestone touch points and milestones that they're going to achieve while they're with you. And then how could you predetermine celebrating those successes? That's what I would say. Like, rep and recognition is repognition. So how could you create a wonderful experience by design where people are just so happy? You know, you're a chiropractor, so you think of like literal touch points, but what are the touch points of? Like, when do they need an adjustment and then when have they been with you for a certain amount of time? And like, what if you could celebrate, like, hey, you know, six months ago you couldn't walk properly and now you're standing up straight. Like, let's, how would you celebrate that milestone of somebody trusting you with their body and you putting it back together? Like, I want to celebrate your success. I want to celebrate your journey. And so I mapped this out and anyways, I put these two together, I was like, okay, rep, experience, repognition, vertical video, and then AI hit and I was like, wait a second, I know how to tell stories with video. I know how to map out a company's user journey with assets, like all their training. So if you wanted to go get more business, like, how would you do that visually? How do you train your sales guys? And I was like, what does AI do? So AI started doing face swap id, did threaded, built this, you know, this following 6000 people.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: And yeah, it's amazing.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: And have this wonderful experience where I would face swap id and put people into these environments. And that was when, you know, that was mid journey. I think we're at like 6.1 or something right now.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Real quick, real quick. When you say the face, no, I love it. But when you say the face swap, is that what I was seeing when I saw those magazine covers and people just look like, it looked like a Vogue photo cover, they were just like, you made people look amazing and the imagery was so cool. And so I'm really, I'm learning so much about you from doing these calls that just from my impression on the surface, because I'm visualizing you as just, like, a creative editor guy, and I didn't see you with this whole corporate background and just talk about the layers that people have behind them, but not a digression. But when you said the face swap, that was something that I recall from actually starting to recognize your work on threads.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Yeah, and thank you. I've been accused of this by a really good buddy. He said, a lot of people are business, are businessmen that want to act like they're creatives. He said, you're actually a creative that learned how to do business, and you're really good at both. Like, it's you. You can't tell the difference when you're talking, what you actually do until a deliverable is on the table, and it's like, holy crap, I didn't know that you could do this.
And so, yeah, like, face swap id, that was an interesting time with mid journey as well. I mean, it was still in discovery. There's a lot of amateurs out there that were playing with it, and I just went hard. I would do a magazine cover twice a day and drop it and then do an interview with that person and did it all through Instagram. And face swap id was just a plug in real quick.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: On that day, you said you got. Did you get those out? Were you able to do those in, like, a day from production?
[00:18:10] Speaker B: I literally, literally on my phone, all on my iPhone, so I use keynote on my iPhone for the design, and then I would do the design and mid journey. So I would spend, like, two to 3 hours a day just, like, jamming through these early morning and then late at night so I could get through it, because I was. I was doing other stuff during the day.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Like, people don't know, like, it was a hustle. It was. It was a real absolute hustle to build thread aid. Yeah, 100%. So. So then I was like, okay, this works. How could this apply to my, to solar, to this industry? And so I put a product together. I was like, okay, I'm gonna map out, like, all the sales training assets, and I'm gonna do it on brand. So I'm gonna do the color palette a certain way, I'm gonna do the style a certain way. So I tested it, and then I sold it for six figures to one company. I was like, hey, I want to show you, like, I can create your sales assets. And they're like, let's pull the trigger. Let's go. They needed it. They're a midsize company. Right. And so there was like, what's the.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Number on the midsize company?
[00:19:10] Speaker B: 40 million in annual revenue.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: 40 million. What would be considered a midsize company between ten and 40?
[00:19:16] Speaker B: Or, I mean, like ten and 50 is kind of like a, and there's different variables. Like you would look at headcount, like once you get to, you know, once you're past like a certain head count as well, like you're, you know, from 50 to like 175 employees, you're considered mid size. And then once you tip over, like, you know, anywhere up to 1000 and you're kind of enterprise or. So there's different.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: So it's employee. There's different.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Metric. There's different ways to measure it. One is a financial metric and another one is employee metric.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And market share too. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, there's so many different metrics, but it's the same thing as, like VC's. Like when they put a valuation on a company, they all use their own formula of how they got there in the end. It's like you're a good company, you do good business, and you're at a ceiling where you need some systems and processes to get to the next phase.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: I think this is all fascinating right here. Now can I, can I real quick, just because I'm none of these things. Like, I'm, I'm what you're, what you're stirring up in me because I have relationships with entrepreneurs and I never really, even though I had a, I had my own chiropractic practice, I have always get, I saw myself more as a practitioner of chiropractic than a, than a business owner, even though you have to be a business owner if you're going to go independently into practice and chiropractors are uniquely positioned where a lot of them have to do that because the mainstream system doesn't know quite yet how to fully integrate chiropractors into hospitals and things of that nature. And so that's like a whole different story, but where I always felt capped with chiropractic and this is like just like a personal issue with me. It's not a professional thing is like, this is going to sound so weird to say, and I've said this before a lot of times in different environments, but like, I never really wanted to be a doctor. Like, I'm one of those tragic stories where it's like I grew up in a, in a household where it's like you either became a doctor or a garbage man. Like there was no middle. Like maybe lawyer. But even that wasn't the doctor. Like, you had to become a doctor. And then I became a chiropractor. It was, like, questionable if I even became the right kind of doctor. So, like, I have this whole kind of, like, my own personal issue background with. With this history. Like, I was working in a practice in Beverly Hills. Like, I, you know, this is already now going on. Ten years ago, the doctor that I worked where I would have go to lunch with him and tell him, like, man, I really don't even really want to do this. I'm, like, in the middle of something, kind of finding myself in a place where I'm, like, not even doing something that I really want to do. So I hope that doesn't. If any patients listen to this in the past or anything, I know they. I hope everyone had a good experience with me. It wasn't on the surface that I was like, this personality still came out, but in the inside, I was like, ah, this is driving me nuts. And then it kind of deterred me from even wanting to go into business anymore in general. And that's when I started doing the utilization reviews actually on the side while I was practicing. And then when I moved the utilization review, I just. That could go with me because it's remote. But, like, my practice that I had at the time, which I liked, it was a smaller practice, and I had my patients, and I liked that boutique feel, but at the time, like, that couldn't take that with me from where I was. That wasn't remote. That wasn't a remote kind of opportunity. So I'm giving you all of this background for contacts in terms of. I don't know what happened to me this year because I never even really saw myself going down the entrepreneurial route, but I kind of wound up in some funnels, and I had this in the back of my head, and I saw it. Like, there was a podcast. It was Alex Ramozzi said, oh, most podcasts don't make it to 21 episodes. Then I was like, oh, that's a challenge. I like challenges. Let's do it. So almost like, I mean, it's still.
It started out as a hobby and what I tell people, an expensive vanity project.
But where I'm at now, because of the conversations that I'm having with people like you and I have other entrepreneurial friends, and they're scaling and they're growing businesses, and it's just like, all I'm ever hearing. So now it's kind of like when you're immersed in something, then you start to learn the language and it's like, oh, wow, I never even really thought of my, it's shameful on me to say that's why I'm like, I'm not saying this proudly, but like, I never thought about the scalability of my practice. I physically felt capped at like 150 patients a week or something like that. I just physically didn't want any more of that physical demand on my body. And so to scale up would be introducing a new associate and those kind of things. So a lot of chiropractors scale. It's not actually a hard business to scale. It just my mindset wasn't right. But with the podcast and like, what I'm doing now, the branding and having guests like you, and then creating this entrepreneurial small business owner founder network of Problem Solvers, which I won't get into too much more detail because each episode kind of has its own problem, like suiting a particular niche. So you're presenting a unique opportunity for mid sized businesses making over 10 million in revenue to start incorporating the AI. And you said it very well. Early on, you kind of met all the, one of the things I'd be thinking about, which is like, how much time is it going to save me and how much money am I going to have at the end just for that? That was a lot of context for actually where I'm going with this, which is like, I am, I actually have another episode scheduled with another friend of mine to get me from zero to a million.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: And that was again, kind of Hermosi driven, where it was like, I will get you from zero to a million to build trust with you. And whether he can do it or not, I don't know. I didn't like, I've read some of his books, but I haven't gone fully down his, his funnel, but just the idea itself, when you just start to shift your mind and start thinking, because a lot of my friends, like, some of them are retired, I'm older, I'm Gen X, so some of them are retired, some of them are still working, and they just have that mindset of like, I'm just going to work until I, you know, till I can't work anymore and then I'll retire and I have whatever my little nest egg is, and I have something inside of me that's like, oh, crap. Now that I know, now that I feel the scalability, I was like, oh, it just feels like another challenge. Like, I wanted to go from like zero to a million so this is kind of my first time even really saying that out loud or publicly even. But I'm telling that to you because what I'm experiencing at this level, and you mentioned it early on, is I'm doing everything. Like, this podcast started as a hobby, and now it's taking up twelve to 15 hours a week because there's the recording and the editing and the promoting and getting familiar with different software. So I'm starting to use, like, canva and capcut, and I'm, like, doing everything myself. Like, I'm just, I'm a one man show, and I, and it's not even a business yet. There's no back end to, like, okay, this is coming back to consulting, for example. And I'm weirdly positioned, too, because I'm a chiropractor that's interested in finance. So it's like, I'm sure as I say that out loud, I'm like, I know I could just reach out to chiropractors and say, do you need help with financial situations? Because this is the mindset you need to adopt to get to the next level. So maybe that's an opportunity, maybe it's not. So now I know what you're talking about is on a larger scale, but if you're someone, like, who's going from zero to a million and not someone who's going from 40 to, you know, 60 or 80 or 100, where's that, where's, like, where's the, where's the tidbit for someone like me? Where's the little nugget for, like, a small guy like me?
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's a great, that's a great question.
I think that you have to ask the question of, does your market support to get to a million? Not every market is a million dollar industry.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: I remember, you know, like, as an angel investor, I would meet with certain founders, and they're like, this is going to be a billion dollar product. And I was like, it's not like, it's. That's not a billion dollar market. You haven't done your research.
And also, there's a lot of emphasis on reaching monetary milestones and not customer acquisition, where actually, like, your clients are your most valuable asset, not the money that you make from them.
And so there should be a different focus of, like, how many clients do you want to have? And so I'll go back. This was early day sales when I started in door to door. I read the book. I mean, it was right when Grant Cardone wrote the ten x rule. And if you've read it, it's. It's like this. The entrepreneur journey is, it's not, it's not cruising in a convertible with your hair blowing in the wind. It's like walking up a mountain barefoot. It's raining, and you've got a hundred pound sack on your back, and you can't see. Like, that's what, that's really what it's like. And, and he said, you don't get to the top of the mountain by being dropped off by a helicopter. There's. You have to actually climb the mountainous. And this has stayed with me in my entrepreneur journey. Even right now. You know, like, I'm. I laugh, but when I talk to other sales guys or founders, I'm like, I'm just so trash right now. Like, I just drove 6 hours to this appointment and got no showed by the founders. And then they're like, yeah, we'll get back in touch with you. And it's like, when you're in sales and in build mode, you're not immune to the, to the market conditions. You're not immune. Like, nobody knows you until you've built your brand. You know? And at that point, people are paying for the name.
But, like, when you're in this early stage, it's customer acquisition all the time, because if you don't get yourself in front of clients, you're gonna think that you're gonna, like, refine your product and try and make your product something that people may not even want. So you have to get people and pitch all the time, and then you're, like, making adjustments, you know? So, like, I'll go pitch, and I'll be like, that was so bad. Like, I'm so trash. I'm such an amateur, you know? But I know sales, so I can identify and I know my process. Like, I can build these processes. So, anyways, that book, the ten x role, he says something, he's like, how would you ten x your performance? So think in terms of ten x and instead of terms of milestones, like, I'm gonna make a million dollars. That's. That's finite. Like, you're gonna hit that. It's arbitrary, right? But as soon as you get close to it, you'll push the goal post back, right? Say, okay, absolutely. Well, like, maybe we'll go, you know, this or this. So it's like, why not just ten x everything you do once you hit certain milestones? So, like, for me, ten xing was, I need to sell 150 alarms door to door in a summer, right? Or 100. I did it, so I sold it. Then it was like, okay, ten x. That is a thousand. How would I. How would I get to a thousand accounts, right? I say, well, I need to recruit and train 20 other people. So I did, and we did just under a thousand accounts. But it was like, right on, right there in the. In the ballpark.
I said, okay, how would I do 10,000 accounts? Well, I got to get into some senior leader position where I can be effective in building out multiple offices. And so I did that. And we did, you know, our. I think our best year was 13,000 accounts. Like, we totally did it. And so I was like, dude, how would I do 100,000 accounts? And that's when I hung it up and said, I'm resigning because I got to get into. I got to get into a play where I can work with multiple midsize companies and touch their revenue. Because that way I can say, hey, we can take you guys from here, you guys, to hear you guys to here, where internally in a company, you kind of hit a ceiling, right? Like, you grow into yourself and you sort of fill that. It's hard to, you know, it's hard to. It's hard to double every year once you get to a certain size. So. But if you work with multiple midsize companies, for them, doubling still possible. So you can go regionally with these players and take this guy from 30 to 60 million and this guy from 50 to 100 or 50 to 80. And at that point, I'll have been responsible throughout all of these companies over the next five to ten years. It'll be like, I want to hit 100,000 installs in a year in solar with all the companies that I touch, and they will look to me and say, you built out our understanding of AI and enabled us to achieve ten x results in our business. We doubled the size of our company with the foundation that you gave us in going from here to here.
I don't look at it in terms of size of business or that's all relative to what you're doing. You know, not every industry is a scalable industry, especially if it's, I don't know, like, there's just certain things that aren't that scalable or there's no market. There's no opportunity for market penetration. Like it's, you know, it's owned. You're not going to compete against Coca Cola. You're just not, like, they own that market, they own that brand. Don't even try. Like, you're just going to sink money. Virgin Cola, RC Cola, like, how many of them tried? You're not going to compete, so. So you have to know. But, like, I always encourage people to focus more on customer acquisition and getting in front of clients. Clients and go for a target. So, like, my target's really simple. It's like, hey, I want to get to seven clients that are. That are doing x in revenue with a number tied to it. And that's what I look at. Literally every morning I look at my goal, and every night I look at my goal, and that is all I think about, because everything else is. It doesn't matter. Like, it's not to get to a million dollars for me, it's to get to a certain book size. And then I say, that's where my capacity is. Then I'll decide, do I expand my book or do I sell the company or whatever? Like, you know what I'm saying?
[00:32:39] Speaker A: So it's fascinating. No? And this is, like, such a. Like, it's funny that you brought up Grant cardone, because he really kind of, like, I. I think there's a reason that I wound up connecting with you and with our. With our mutual friend Tanya. And in terms of there, we were drawn to the message there with the ten x. I actually have a ten x call tonight, which is like a whole separate thing. So I'm, like, deep into funnel currently. But I was thinking, like, when I. And you're absolutely right in terms of, like, getting in front of a lot of people, I think, like, cardone has this whole system in terms of sales, and. And it's like, this one program that he has is a seven, seven figure sales program, and it has a process where it starts out with, even if it's proprietary, it's like, if I tell you it, it's not going to you, you have to implement, and there's a lot more to it. And I've already seen this structure so many times, and every time I see it, I'm like, oh, it sinks in a little bit deeper. But he's like, first you have to have an idea, and then you need attention. So those are the first two pillars. You gotta have an idea, and then you need to attract people to that idea. So which of those two things comes first? It's like, well, number one is that you have to. You have to have some kind of thought in your head. And like you said, for you, you have a goal that you put on top of. Like, you want to reach x number or be in front of x number of customers or potential clients or reach a certain number of clients and you're watching that every day. So are you like one of the things I'm learning is you're like calling incessantly. That's one of the things that I'm realizing with all of this broader perspective in terms of scaling is whatever number you think it is. Like, oh, I'm going to post a piece of content per day. It's like, like you got a ten x and in some cases 20 x that you need to be posting incessantly what your message is and then you need to be, that was just the first thing that came to my mind in terms of scaling something up, like the amount of work you put out. So when I hear your goal, when I hear you talk and say, I need to be in, I need to get, are you making those calls? Are you taking the time? Every day and like, I'm hitting the books, I'm calling the people, I have my, listen, go ahead, just riff off.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: That's what it is. You just, it. Sales, you're constantly reaching out to prospects, you're trying to engage, get on their calendar and then follow up with an in person appointment or. I don't like to do Zoom calls. I like to shake hands and see their business and meet the owners. And so, yeah, it's like, it's a grind.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: And I see you traveling so much.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: Like, no, no, no, no. That's all personal.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: Like, I just thought, I'm like, this guy's having a good time. He's not. This is not work.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I go back to Japan on October 4. I'm going to go for five weeks and just, just like travel, do language school. That's awesome. But it's a hustle. And I think the people that survive are the ones that go out there and put the work in. There is no substitute for hard work. There's software that can help, you can build funnels. And then the other question that I would highly encourage anybody to ask, especially in the age of social media where it will take over your life, you'll doom scroll, you'll be looking at other people's content and challenging your own mindset, challenging your philosophy, wondering if you should pivot in your product. Like, oh, maybe this market's already taken, but it's all algorithm based, so whatever you look at, it's going to show you all of that. But a lot of times it's a blue ocean still. There's, you know, it's just pulling all of those people into one place right in front of your eyeballs. And so you can kind of get FoMo. You can get. So a great. A great question to ask is, am I willing to die for this? Whatever I'm about to do, am I willing to die for this? And it doesn't always have to be clear why we live in an entrepreneur, you know, entrepreneur driven society. I think we're past the hustle culture. Like, that kind of died out, but now it's like. But it's still cool to be a founder. It's America. You know, we're built on entrepreneurship, and I think that there's. There's still this, like, any idea I have, how can I turn that into a business?
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: And that's a bad question. It is not like a business. You could go and get an LLC right now. A business is an exchange of value. So you have to ask yourself, is what I'm doing of value to other people? And am I willing to die for this? Right? So, like, I. So these chore coats, I have seven of them that I sew on every week, and it's because I want to learn how to sew. It's. I don't. It's not.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: How do you find the type? Do you have kids?
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. I have two boys. Yeah. Really?
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Oh, my. 15 and 17 get. And you're learning to sew, and you're doing, like, growing this business. You're not trading right now? No.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: Not actively trading?
[00:37:28] Speaker A: No, I have all of these. You're. You're. You're somewhat of a renaissance man in my eyes.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm, like, doing construction, remodel.
Yeah, I do. I really do. Like, I think. And I. And one of my good buddies, he's a huge entrepreneur in Hungary, and I would speak at his event. He's got, like, a thousand. You know, he'll get a thousand entrepreneurs together in marketing. Really fascinating. Really fascinating guy. But he summed up America, probably the best that I've ever heard it. He said, you know, Americans, they live life, that things could be better. So they're. It's not that they're bad. Like, things are good, but they could be better. And so they live in this space of. It's never good enough, and. And the rest of the world is okay with good. Like, this is good. Like, we have a good life. You know, like, we go on. We go on holiday and. And we have, you know, like, we have a nice car, and we have a nice. And. And so it's almost like the american dream got transferred to the rest of the world. And now America is just, like, spiraling out of control. Like, we need to build more business. Like, we need to generate more revenue, reach bigger targets, and it's like, but for what? Like, at what cost is it? Like, what's the value prop? And so I decided a long time ago I'm gonna have a fucking good life. Like, a really good life. And good for me has nothing to do with the value system of society. It has nothing to do with the decimals and digits in my bank account. It has nothing to do with the car I drive. I drive a work van that I converted to a camper that's paid cash so I could drive for six months out of the year and get lost and listen to audiobooks.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: I'm in heaven. Like, nobody knows where I'm at. And I just plow through tons of books and go and meet random people and make videos for them. And I'm like, see you later. I'm on the road, and it's to have a ramen bar, and it's like, to cook for my clients. Like, come over. I want to make you ramen from Japan. And I just really want to talk to you. Like, I want to understand what's going on in your business. And so, like, this is my best life that you're literally looking at my absolute. This is the top for me. You say, then why do you keep going? And I say, because my mission is to find future leaders.
I don't need to prove anything for that, right? I need to go and give them a space where they can come and be mentored and invested in.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: When you say it like that, it's about giving back. You've reached the stage in life where you are giving back. And you do hear this from people. And I, oddly enough, for different reasons, kind of found in that same place where I could have. I was in a position where I could have comfortably not been doing any of this. Like, I could have just let the money sit in an account and get my interest and the dividends and just go about my business, but I can't. There's something about my nature that I just won't. I'm like, I want to do a podcast. I want to do something. My friend's like, why do you want to do it? But, like, we're retiring. We're, like, getting ready to exit. Why are you going to want to start something new? And I'm like, I don't know. I wish I didn't feel this way, but I do have that drive inside of me, and it's calls like this. And like my other friend, he's an entrepreneur for over two decades, and he successfully exited companies for millions of dollars. And he's currently in the process of growing another company right now. And that I'm an investor in that one. So I've taken on an investor position because it's an easier one for me to understand than the entrepreneurial journey. But being around so many entrepreneurs, I can't help but get that little bit of itch. I'm like, oh, I need something. I need an offer and, like, a product to sell.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: I can't say that I'm not there yet, but kind of, like, kind of bringing it back into even. I started giving you a lot of backstory.
It takes me.
I've gotten it to where I think if I really concentrated, just tighten up my systems a little bit more, I could do two or three of these podcast interviews a day.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: And then editing mine is like, it's a time management issue for me right.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Now in terms of, it's a time management, but it's also not. It's not a ten x thing. Like, not everything is going to yield a return. Right. Like, just learning. But. But one of the things, like, I don't know if you ever read the Gary Halpert letter, but I used to. I used to be in a mastermind with, with Brian Kurtz. It's titans of direct response. So these, these are all, like, solopreneurs or whatever, doing 10 million to 100 million in annual revenue through funnels. Like, brilliant people, like, the best copywriters, alias copywriters, Paris lymph. Like, some really epic, epic people that, like. So when I think of what you're doing, I think if you want to start a business and you love talking with people and you love the connection.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the connection for me.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. So why don't you do like most of the successful people in that space do, is they start a newsletter, and it's a subscribe only, and it's a. It's a physically mailed newsletter or a digital newsletter, and you build your base and you build your list. And in his book, over deliver, he talks about that. He's like, nobody spends enough time on building their list. Nobody. And he was a list broker. So for Border Mink, which is massive. Like, they're like Agora, like, one of the biggest copywriting companies in the world. You know, they're doing millions and millions in direct mail. Like, just sending out with copy but a lot of these people have newsletters that have a subscriber base of ten to 20,000 people that they've built over five to ten years? That's, that's bringing in six figures in recurring revenue. But I was just thinking of, I was just thinking of you and I was like, what would a newsletter from, from Doctor Kramer be? It be like in investments that won't break your back? Funny stories.
[00:43:15] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Chiropractor by, by a bum. Chiropractor from, from Beverly Hills. Whatever.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah, but.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: Right, right. Something that is like, I would, I would subscribe to that. Like, it's super nice, it's fun. But when we think of building a business, generally, it's, oh, I need a brick and mortar. I need employees, I need to generate revenue. Like, I need to get to this million dollar mark. And it's like, what if you just did like a month in recurring revenue and did that over and over and built that steadily for five to ten years? You've got like mass reach. And it's not because you put a bunch of content out, it's because you connected with people deeper in a way that was unique to who you are and. Right. You'll see the world a certain way. So anyways, it's just my mind. I can't stop my mind.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: I totally agree. No, and I love it. That's why, that's why I have you here, because I know once you get going, a lot of good stuff is going to come out. So two things. One, Grant cardone himself actually called me out. I accidentally had my hand raised on one of these things and I didn't really have a question. But then he's like, oh, you're on. Go ahead, ask a question. And I was like, well, I'm here, but I don't really have a product or something that I'm selling. And somehow it got onto the podcast. And he's like, podcasts don't make any money. And then everyone's like, and I was like, I know that I'm not doing this because I think this is going to be the money thing.
That's one point. The second point is, is related in the sense that what my wife does, she's also in healthcare and she does hormone replacement therapy, which is a hot, pretty hot topic right now. She's pretty good at like, I usually hear things that have become mainstream from her first, like as ozempic. She was telling me about ozempic years ago. She's like, oh, everyone's doing this drug. I didn't even remember the name till I started hearing CNBc talk about. And I was like, oh, Ozempic, weren't you telling me something about that Ozempic? But so she's into the hormone replacement therapy and she's gotten us started on this. She's currently working for a doctor and she's gaining experience. But eventually we're looking at like, that could be a potential thing for us down the road in terms of starting a business and getting out in front of people and just focusing on. Cause she's got the mindset. She just loves talking about it and thinking about it and she's always been that way. And I trust her judgment and she's good with patience. And then I see myself like, I don't know how this podcast itself is going to evolve, but I'm just, I'm going for my 21 episodes.
I'm learning every time I go through and seeing like, oh, something else new opens up for me and something creatively and the connections that are happening because I'm, because I'm, because I'm dealing with entrepreneurs and talking with business owners. The relationships are like, oh, put me in contact with that person. I can solve this person's problem. I can solve this person's problem. And then I was like, oh, and there's that. Your net worth is your network. So when you say building your list, building your list. And it's like, this podcast is my first venture for a long time of actually putting myself out there again and kind of seeing what happens, you know, and I've talked about this before. I do that good morning posts every morning. It's the one thing that I've consistently managed to put out that actually anybody likes to look at. And it's just like a nice thing. It's like a nice sunrise in the morning. And you know, it's just the simple message and it's not controversial. People can like it and comment it. And then I have my regulars that show up every day and it's like I look forward to them and I'm hoping, like, they look forward to seeing the good Morning post. What I was thinking even beyond that is having the good morning post underneath. Like, I forgot there was a term for it. Like when you post underneath your own post, like it's not, not sabotaging, but there's like some kind of, of quirky name for it.
But I was thinking about doing like a good morning post underneath that. That's doesn't, honestly, that doesn't matter because that's like just the attention getting, and like you even said, I'm getting lost sometimes in the nonsense of the social media aspect of it. It's like forgetting, like, none of that has anything to do with anything. You have to have an offer to give somebody, and then you, once you know what that offer is, and you know, you can deliver at it at a high level and scale that, or not, it's necessarily at scale, but you can deliver the promise to a pool of people, and then you build your base.
That's what matters is the value.
[00:47:53] Speaker B: That's what threaded was, right? Like, I built it, like, I added value to people's lives, right? Hosted it for everybody to do, pull the community together. And then I did the threaded awards where it was like, hey, everybody, vote. Well, when I did the voting for the threaded awards, I gathered 200 email addresses so I could, I could email a product to these guys, which was a cohort that I built teaching vertical video storytelling for threaded tv. So every season I would have five new creators and I would teach them the vertical video process. They would use that and learn how to do storytelling. And they were like, this is insane. And it was a private group, so other people were trying to get into threaded unplugged and I wouldn't let them in. I was like, oh, it's already filled. We already have five creators for this course. And so I could have monetized it. Like, I have the whole formula. Like it's a buy in and I have the. But like, when you start to think about product, you have to build a system that makes it easy for people to find your product and buy your product. But it's not a social media post, it's an entire ecosystem. So I built the brand first and foremost, let it take root. There was no productization at all. Like nothing was sold. I was totally just promoting people in the community. Everybody loved it. And then they all wanted to vote and I was like, cool, I've got a list now. I could send a product and be like, hey guys, I'm launching a cohort. It's going to be $99 for anybody that wants to jump in. We're eliminating at ten people, right? I can make a $1,000. Like, it's just a lever. And, and then you teach those people, you get social media content from them, and then you promote that, you remash it and you're like, we've got all these testimonials, you know, and so, like, as I did those videos, then I would keep that at the end. I had everybody say, stay threaded. And so in the holiday, in the holiday.
So, like, everybody's like, stay threaded. Like, let's go. So that was you create a brand, create a product, create something that has, it owns a space in their mind and a time in their mind where when you think of, like, GM, GM is just like, I don't know, it's kind of, it's kind of part, it's like the entry fee. Like, if you don't jam, you're not gonna be part of the crew. But it's. There's nobody putting a product out. There's no way.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: GM.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: Good morning, GMO.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Oh, GM. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: GM's just like, yeah, it's like your poker chips, like, yeah, cool, put your chips in. But there's no product. And. But where people will fail is if they don't add value upfront and then transition to an outside product, you're not going to be able to monetize a product in threads. It's not that environment.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Okay, so here's now it's really, the neurons are firing because I'm thinking you and I are having this conversation. I'm like, man, I was actually really inspired by you because I saw what you were doing in terms of the community building. And I'm like, I'm not creative in that way. I'm not doing some magazine outline and structure because that's not where my mind is at. But I'm like, I like talking to people. I'm very, a very intellectually curious person and I want to have conversations where I'm drawing information out for people, people that could be a value to a larger group of people. So even me doing this podcast, this is my starting to think about the branding for the money adjustment. The money adjustment. The money adjustment is some my version of a threaded or something like that, but I don't have. Threaded was already great because threads was new and you already had the community build around it. So as long as you had the skillset to do what you actually did, you already kind of were able to build off some momentum that was already organically growing in a community. Whereas I don't really, I don't have that with what I'm doing now. But in terms of just giving people a lot of value upfront and building a community, that's kind of what I'm trying to do here with the money adjustment is like I'm going through transitions, like I'm an investor and a trader, and I think about money in certain ways in that regard, but that's not how my entrepreneurs think about money. Like, I have a few different investment relationships going on, and it's like, I don't understand why you're doing this, but it's like, it's meeting my needs as an investor. But I don't get why you, as the business owner, are doing this. And then they explain to me why they need to do what they're doing. And so I'm formulating this community, which you, I'm proud to say, are part of, whether you recognize it or not.
And I feel mutually like it's an additional network of, like, there's already crossover happening and commingling and. But I keep getting stuck. I almost, like, feels like it's some kind of pathology. And I don't know if it's because of my experience in the past or just like, working through all of my psychological trauma from growing up or something. I'm trying. That's, to me, too, the money adjustment is like that psychological. I have so many people say to me, even my uncle, successful ophthalmologist, retired early, had done very financially well throughout his whole life, still is in a financially good position. And he's like, I could have done better with money. I think I could have done better with money. And I have all people, different people telling me of all different dollar amounts saying, oh, I could have done better with money. And I keep thinking, like, yeah, there's something like, with money that it's not like chiropractic adjustment, where you take the vertebrae and you align them or create movement in the spine to get some function back at that type of an adjustment. But it's like a psychological adjustment. And it's almost more like, when I say the money adjustment, it's almost as much for me. I think when you do anything, there has to be some value in it for you. Like, you're not just motivated by money. You said earlier you want to find leaders and help build leaders and help create, like, this other, like a larger, you have larger thinking than just like, the numbers at the end of the day.
[00:53:41] Speaker B: Yeah. But that comes from having a philosophy on life and a philosophy on money. And, you know, if you read the psychology of money.
[00:53:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Morgan Hazel.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And it. When you think of, when you think of money, you have to build out your philosophy on money. Like, yeah, you actually have to have a. A belief system around it. And I didn't grow up with one. I grew up, you know, my dad was a drug dealer, drowned in a river when I was eleven. That my mom, you know, like, when she left when I was two, so didn't meet her. Like, I went through a lot and we were really poor, you know, like, staying with people from the church on their floor, and, like, it was wild. Like, it. We were. We were really poor in. In south Texas after my dad died and I moved in with my mom, so I didn't have, you know, the. In the hood where I was, that when you have a poverty mindset, your belief is like, if you get money, you have to spend it because you don't know if you're ever going to have money again. And so it's like, where somebody that has money is like, oh, if you just saved your money. But they don't understand there's a different psychological pressure on not having money then how you think when you have money. And that's why poverty is cyclical, because it's like, oh, my gosh, I just got a $1,000. I'm gonna go buy shirts, hot shoes, every color I can get, because I don't know when I'm gonna have this much money again.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: Like, right, right.
[00:54:56] Speaker B: This only happens twelve times a year, you know, where like, somebody that has expendable cash. Cash, they're like, oh, dude, like, I can get whatever shoes I want. I just. I don't, like, there's no need for it, right? But the book that I read that was so impactful for me, obviously think and grow rich was really good. But I read the richest man in Babylon and started to understand, you know, George Clason, seven laws of gold, or five laws of gold, and then the seven cures for a lean purse.
And then I ended up reading rich dad. Poor dad was really influential for me as well. Like, just understanding, like, the difference between an asset and a liability.
And then the book that really impacted me, like, totally, like, reached me is called the billionaire who wasn't. And it's the story of Chuck Feeney, the founder of DF's, the duty free shopping stores, became a billionaire, set up atlantic philanthropies in Bermuda, and did it all in secrecy and gave away his wealth, like, while he was alive. And in his book, he talks about giving while living, which was from the Gospel of wealth, which is a book by Andrew Carnegie, which details, like, the seven ways you can distribute wealth before you die. And so I really went down this road of understanding, and then Chuck Feeney had already given his wealth away. Forbes still had him as one of the richest people in the world, but he only had, like, 2 million left to his name and an apartment in Manhattan. But Bill Gates and Warren Buffett reached out to him, and they said, hey, we're starting this thing called the giving pledge, and we want you to be our first. We want you to sign it, like, as an honorary, you know, donor. And. And the commitment was, give your at least half of your wealth away. Commit to giving at least half of your wealth away or while you're alive. Right. Like, give it away before you're dead. And. And they said, you're the greatest example that we've seen that's done this. And he's like, why are to gave my wealth away? And they said, but that's why we want you to sign it, is to. As a statement to people that generate massive amounts of wealth. Yeah. So I was just reading a book. I just listened to a book the other day. It's called never enough. I think it's Mike Wilkinson. I have to have to check his name. But founded this thing called tiny and metal labs and ended up becoming a billionaire. And he almost did business with Munger, but, like, he was talking to Ackman and one of the major investors and, like, VC's. Yeah. And so he.
Bill Ackman was like, yo, you need to have a purpose. You need to join the giving pledge. And so he sent it over, and then Warren Buffett called him, and he's like, how am I talking to Warren Buffett right now? Like, one of the wealthiest people in the world? And Warren's like, tell me about your business. So, super cool story. And so he ended up joining and committing to give it. Giving half his wealth away. But. But I would say this. Like, I'm not in a certain weight class financially than other people. Like, you know, when you're playing that game, there are different weight classes that definitely, definitely. When I was at charity water as a well member, it was $60,000 a year. So that, like, I was honored to be in the room with guys like Jony Ive and, you know, Gary V and, like, some really, really cool players that had done tremendous things and sold their businesses for 800 million or whatever.
And. But I wasn't on their level. I was in a different weight class. But I could afford the ticket to get, you know, I could afford $60,000 a year to get into.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: But during that time, the reason that I joined was because of charity water. You know, I read pencils of promise. I read start something that matters by Blake Mikoski. I, you know, I read these books on entrepreneurs that went, like, b class certificate, you know, like, certified, you know, as a B Corp. And then I read about people that start, like, the, the radical entrepreneurs were starting charities. And I was like, these guys are, like, gnarly, and they're solving global problems. And Scott Harrison was like, the chief, you know, chief change officer for charity for our generation. He's like, I want to build the charity, you know, that competes with, like, Nike and is branded like Apple. And he did. And they have, I mean, these guys are insane what they've accomplished at charity water. But I joined, right? And, like, being a part, being around other philanthropists and what I was, you know, I'm still a philanthropist, and I still get, I call myself a junior philanthropist. So I'll give, like, 20,000 a year. But I'll, I'm partnered with many hopes, and now we've, like, through my mastermind, I have a mass mastermind of, like, 50 entrepreneurs that we get together in Palm Springs, and I have speakers and many hopes has partnered with me along the way. Thomas Keown is the founder, super good buddy, but they've launched this thing because of this idea. I was like, yo, why are you guys not partnering with companies and doing revenue share? You can get major donors, that's fine, but you need to have a different product offering. And so I took one of the solar companies, and we started to do a revenue share model based off of all the incoming revenue, like a percentage. And it's adding up. And so now I've got two companies in, and they're. And it's like, holy crap, you know, so we've raised over $200,000 just from my small little entrepreneur community. And not all of them have joined yet, like, as donors with their business. And so people don't understand. You get, you slice off a dollar to month. You don't even feel that. But enough drops in the ocean makes the ocean. And so, like, I don't ever walk, you know? But so, like, when I say I want to find the future leaders, it goes much deeper than, like, just leaders of business. It's also leaders in the, in solving real world problems. It's. It's leaders that are going to end child slavery on Lake Volta in Ghana. Like, that's. There's 25,000 kids in slavery literally right now. And it's like, how the fuck do we end that? Like, I don't know, but I'm going to get every business owner on the block to get in the room and help me solve that problem. And so, like, that's where, when you start to have exponential problems, you need exponential thinkers in the room to solve it. It takes a mastermind. It takes really good people. And so I think, like, reading the billionaire who wasn't, and, like, reading all these books, entrepreneurs and being around founders that were, you know, like, charity founders, and. And it's really. It's given me a philosophy on life of, like, I have such a beautiful life.
The only way this gets worse is if I do more than I should with. With trying, like, overextending beyond. Where do you have a good life? Like, okay, so, like, do I need another house? Do I need two cars? Do I need a motorcycle? Do I need, you know, like, I don't need any of that shit. Why would I go down that road? I'm already all set. So you can be all set. Super young, super late, doesn't matter. But once you're set, stop trying to solve that problem.
Right. Entrepreneurs, solve for X. This is the problem. This is what I'm solving for. I'm only doing this to solve for X. Fill in the blank. If I cannot solve for X, I don't do it. So once you solve the money problem, I say this. Every director I have, every leader, every manager, I say, you have a responsibility to solve the money problem first.
[01:02:19] Speaker A: Right?
[01:02:19] Speaker B: Stop trying to solve global hunger. Solve the money problem. You don't have rent.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: That's the money adjustment, man. To solve the money problem, I come in contact. I'm like, at this stage, I kind of feel like a bridge builder. And the extent that I have, like, just a lot of regular friends. I have a.
I'm married, three kids. I have a busy schedule. So it's like, when I say friends, it's like, I consider you a friend. But it's not like we're hanging out, having beers or doing a lot. Like, I'm lucky if I get the. I'm actually very privileged and grateful to have you speak with me for an hour, because that was just like, let's go, you know? Yeah, absolutely.
[01:02:56] Speaker B: I literally only take 20 minutes calls. So, like, this is a really, like, I love talking.
[01:03:01] Speaker A: I know. I love talking to you, too. And I really appreciate that, because I'm thinking I blacked out, like, 30 minutes. I'm actually gonna get onto another call, right? Like, you know, right after this. But it's like, we went the whole hour. I'm thinking maybe 45 minutes, tops. I'm sure you and I will have conversations that will continue, but I kind of want to tie it up, because you really landed on just a sweet spot. Because every time I'm listening to people, I'm like, what am I actually trying to do here? And it's when I started seeing that bridge building, because you said you got to get the money problem right. You got to solve that money problem. Because it's always like, I don't have enough time, or you're either you're either time poor or you're money poor. But there's some, there's, there's always whatever's keeping us from, like, that next venture.
Underlying that is, usually, is usually what is the expense to me as an individual, either in time or money. So, like, you just gave me incredible value by sharing your time with me for an hour.
[01:03:58] Speaker B: Awesome.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: And so, like, that was amazing. And I hope other people, like, I'm, what I'm trying to grow first here is the, is the audience, like, I don't have a product to sell. And maybe in some ways that'll be a less threatening way for people. Like, when I started to say, I'm kind of in the middle. I do what you do, I go to these events, but I'm still kind of in, and I wouldn't say I'm in circles like my friends that I grew up with, my childhood friends, they're not, they're not, I don't, they don't have that. It's kind of like, why are you spending money on those things? There's still a large group of people that are like, why spending money on those things or why go to masterminds or why do these kind of events? And it's exactly what you're talking about. You have to get in the room with people that are, you use the term, and it was a great one. Exponential thinkers. The problem with any number, whether it's a million dollars or a billion dollars or a trillion dollars, is that there's always another number after it. So if you're just going for one single number, that's going to be a stagnant, you're going to hit a road arbitrarily because like you said early on, you can't just be about the numbers because there's always, never going to be enough and there's always going to be another number to hit. Hit. Thank you so much, Andrew, for being on the call. And I'm excited to kind of see what I always like to get excited about what the highlights are and what we'll be able to share with other people. And I am definitely building a network and I'm thrilled that you're a part of it. And I hope that I scale within the network of areas of interest in the things that you're doing. I've read a lot of the books that you read. I have not read all of them, and it's been a little bit of time, but I'm going to say goodbye to everyone. Thank you for Andy. You know what? I'm trying to get out of the habit of just saying goodbye without letting my guests have any final thoughts that they want to share with a larger audience based on the conversation that we had.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's a book called the trillionaire coach Bill McDermott, and he was an advisor to Larry Page and Sergey Brin and a handful of other players in the game. Game. He died, but he said, when things are hard in business, get back to the mission, like, not to the company. And, like, why are you doing this? What is the purpose behind this? And we talk about money, we talk about philanthropy. We talk about AI, we talk about a number of different things. But the ultimate question that we all should be asking is, what am I truly after in life? What do I want to create and contribute? And if you can solve that question, like, what's your purpose? What do you, you know, I want to find the future leaders of humanity that drives me, and it's a mission that's bigger than me. I can't do it by myself. So get into a place where you're around people that make you think bigger, think differently, solve different problems. And if you're feeling lost and, like, a little bit burned out or tired or questioning, like, go back to purpose. Don't try and find it in your company. Don't try and find it in your product. Don't try and find it in your audience. Just go back to your mission. Okay. I'm going to serve people in a certain way, and that will carry you into unbelievable territory.
[01:07:13] Speaker A: Oh, man. That was fantastic. I'm glad I gave you the final word on that. Everybody else, stay tuned for the next episode of the Money adjustment. I hope you follow along on this journey where this journey is just getting started. And I have great people like Andrew and other business leaders coming up. So we're going to build a good community here, and I hope that people, you listeners, are part of that community.
Andrew, stay on. I'll just do a little quick thing with you. All right. Bye, everybody. Thank you for watching this episode of the Money adjustment. If you want more, like comment and subscribe, you can follow me on X Arcramer. Until the next episode, stay healthy and wealthy.
