Order of Man - NOAH KAGAN - How to Build a Million-Dollar Business

00:00:00.000 So many men aspire to build a thriving, rewarding business. They're dissatisfied with their work

00:00:04.320 and know there's something more to both their personal and professional lives,

00:00:07.980 but very few men know how to do it. My guest today, Noah Kagan is a man who does as he has

00:00:13.360 a track record of creating multiple million dollar organizations. And he's here to peel back the

00:00:18.540 curtain and show us how in his newest book, the million dollar weekend, the surprisingly simple

00:00:23.280 way to launch a seven figure business in 48 hours. Today, we talk about the need to believe

00:00:29.420 you can create a great life and doing the work to have it. Why your future results start with

00:00:34.420 today's actions. The often overlooked reason, the slow and steady pace is best for building

00:00:39.800 businesses. The power of rejection, why offering your product or service is so much more than a

00:00:46.000 sale. It's a duty and much more. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your

00:00:52.240 fears and boldly charge your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time.

00:00:57.880 Every time you are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life.

00:01:05.300 This is who you are. This is who you will become at the end of the day. And after all is said and

00:01:10.780 done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Brian Mickler.

00:01:15.960 I'm your host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here today and

00:01:20.500 welcome back. If you're brand new to the podcast, I want to let you know you're in the right place.

00:01:24.780 If you're trying to improve as a man, if you're trying to develop the skillset and tools you need

00:01:29.440 to thrive as a husband, father, business owner, community leader, we've got all the tools,

00:01:34.220 all the resources, and of course, some really powerful conversations with incredible men who

00:01:39.180 are successful in a lot of different areas, including my guest today, Noah Kagan. Now,

00:01:44.560 before I get into our conversation about building a million dollar business, I just want to mention

00:01:49.000 my good friends and the show sponsors for this podcast over at Montana knife company.com.

00:01:54.920 These guys are building and making incredible knives, all 100% made in America. I just got their

00:02:01.860 new lightweight speed goat 2.0. And I'm very, very excited to be using that on a pig hunt that I have

00:02:08.940 coming up in about a month and a half or two months. And I use their knives exclusively for all of

00:02:15.260 my hunts. And I also use their culinary set in the kitchen. So if you're looking for a great high

00:02:21.500 quality knife and you want to support good people and you want to support this podcast, and you want

00:02:26.400 to support American made products, go check out Montana knife company. And then when you head over

00:02:32.640 there, make sure that you use the code order of man, order of man, all one word at checkout, because

00:02:37.820 you're going to save some money on your knives. When you do again, Montana knife company.com use the

00:02:43.260 code order of man at checkout. Now guys, let me introduce you to my guest today. His name is Noah

00:02:48.280 Kagan. He's been on before he's a serial entrepreneur. And I think one of the most creative

00:02:53.780 people I know, uh, he was the 30th employee to work at Facebook, the fourth to work at mint.com.

00:03:00.860 And he's since gone on to create multiple seven figure businesses in the tech and web space,

00:03:05.780 including app sumo, which offers e-commerce and, uh, even marketing tools that I've personally used to

00:03:11.740 build this business. He is now the author of the million dollar weekend, the surprisingly simple

00:03:17.240 way to launch a seven figure business in 48 hours. Enjoy this one guys.

00:03:24.180 Noah, what's up, man? Great to see you again. Glad to have you back on the podcast.

00:03:28.080 Good to see you, man. It's a fresh morning.

00:03:30.700 Yeah. I don't, I don't know how I'm going to follow up a conversation with you, uh, after Tim

00:03:34.880 Ferris this, uh, this week though, I gotta be honest.

00:03:38.080 That, you know, it's interesting. I went on the show. I've known Tim 20 years. Uh,

00:03:43.300 the dude's a legend. I mean, he's been at it for a very long time, which I don't think people talk

00:03:46.940 about enough, like staking or sticking with things for a long time. And the show I went on,

00:03:51.680 which is also, I spent like a month preparing this show. I spent two months, but Tim show on

00:03:56.280 list, but I spent them. I thought you were going to say five minutes. I didn't think you're going to

00:04:00.040 say two months, two months, two, two months. But this morning, this morning I was getting some nuts

00:04:05.280 and I was like, damn, you know, the things in life that we prepare for, you know, tend to sometimes 0.97

00:04:11.220 work out better. Yeah. Sometimes. And sometimes it's good to wing it and just fly by the seat of 0.99

00:04:16.820 your pants. And like, I even think about that with your book. One of the chapters is I think it's like

00:04:21.060 just effing start. And it's like, I think that's one of the things a lot of guys do is they,

00:04:27.020 well, I was thinking about it actually yesterday. I'll say it this way. I think there's this rise of

00:04:30.780 like, like phony or, or unnecessarily. I think it's unnecessary intellect. I'll say it that way.

00:04:38.580 You know, you see these guys and I won't name names, but you see these guys and, you know,

00:04:42.880 they spend four hours pouring over what kind of food you should eat. I'm like, man, we all know,

00:04:48.520 right. Do I need to, do I need the research behind it? Do I need research to tell me I should sleep and

00:04:54.200 I shouldn't eat processed food. And, uh, it might be good to, you know, go outside and get some sun,

00:04:59.820 but I think we do that because we're trying to come up with an excuse for our lack of performance.

00:05:07.020 I met Peter Thiel at a dinner. I paid $3,500. Cause I was like, oh my God, this guy is like a

00:05:11.720 legend. You know, it'd be cool to have dinner with them. The dude had 10 year old, like new balances,

00:05:17.460 like Mervyn's, if you guys know Mervyn's, but like, let's say Kmart socks.

00:05:21.700 I'm from Sears, man. Yeah. Yeah. Sears, Sears, you know, I used to work at Macy's. So I know

00:05:26.560 about the stuff and then, you know, an old phone, old phone, disheveled. And he's talking about,

00:05:33.540 he has his assistant call hotels and throw away the food in the mini bars so that he won't eat it.

00:05:43.660 And you kind of realize, wow, you know, there's all these articles, perfect morning routine. It's

00:05:50.240 like, this guy's a billionaire, like, I don't know, probably worth 10, 20 billion. And he's human

00:05:55.480 and his morning routine is probably like him, you know, scrolling on, I don't know the truth or

00:06:00.060 some, I don't know. And it's, there's no right way to do it. But I think people want to avoid the

00:06:06.600 hard thing, which a lot of times also the easy thing. And there's no necessarily only one way

00:06:10.980 that it can happen, but it's a lot of avoidance is what goes down with people.

00:06:15.180 Well, I think it's avoidance, but then I think it's this, we fool ourselves into thinking we're

00:06:20.120 moving the needle by acquiring all this unnecessary information. Yeah. Your YouTube intro video is

00:06:26.960 funny. I didn't get through the entire thing, but it's like, I wake up at 2.59 AM, one minute before

00:06:32.440 Goggins. And then I have this like Himalayan, you know, tea or whatever. And that's the thing we focus

00:06:38.680 on. It's like, why don't you, instead of waking up at 3 AM, like, why don't you wake up

00:06:45.120 half an hour earlier and read the scriptures or go for a walk or, you know, but again, it's,

00:06:52.380 it's this, this unnecessary intellectualism that we're chasing because we just don't want to do

00:06:56.860 the work. Yeah. I noticed that. I think I would, I guess I've been labeling it extremism.

00:07:03.180 There's like a few things I'm just observing. There's like extremism where it's like, you have

00:07:06.520 to run a hundred miles and you have to like, if you're not making a billion, you're failing. I'm like,

00:07:10.640 really, you know, even a million is pretty good. Right. And, uh, you know, so there's like this

00:07:16.400 extremism mentality, which really all it's doing. And I think your show is a great example. It's

00:07:20.380 like, okay, want to be a man, right? If I do an extreme thing, I'm a man. It's like, are you?

00:07:27.660 I've definitely done some extreme things that I didn't feel manly.

00:07:30.640 And then it's realizing like, okay, well, what can we believe that our lives can actually become?

00:07:35.220 I think there's some, there's some disconnect to that. And I think a lot of these people that

00:07:38.020 mean you probably are, I don't know, I get a little frustrated with and maybe jealous and also just

00:07:42.420 like, I don't know why people listen to it, but they, they, they create this gap of belief where

00:07:48.160 it's like, you're here and you know, I'm up here and you're never going to get here. And guess what?

00:07:53.000 If you'd listen to me, you will. Right. And I'm like, well, what has this person done?

00:07:57.760 I don't even, what? Really? What? No, I don't know. No one knows why we listen to this person.

00:08:03.520 And then what I've realized for myself, and this is, you know, it's taken 20 years. It's taken life

00:08:08.560 is more people can realize, and this is for myself too, believing that there can be a great life for

00:08:15.160 us. And there's no, there's no guru there. There's no extremism. It's believing that there's a life for

00:08:21.320 us that we can actually, that's crazy. Like my life today is, I can't believe it. But if you asked me

00:08:25.700 even a few years ago, I would have never, I didn't think I deserved it. I don't think I could

00:08:29.180 have it. I don't think it was going to really exist. It was like a unicorn. And then putting

00:08:33.980 in the work. And when people say that shit, I'm always like, what work? What is the work? 1.00

00:08:41.060 But the work is like, maybe for me, not partying as much. Maybe for me, if I want to have eventually

00:08:46.620 maybe some kind of crazy, amazing family, not hooking up. Maybe for me, it's, well, hey,

00:08:52.340 what work professionally do you want to do, but you're really avoiding. That's work because it's

00:08:56.860 not the, it's not always fun, but it's also, it's also the most rewarding. And that will,

00:09:00.900 what I've found for myself and everyone else is like, we can leave them, live these amazing lives.

00:09:05.280 And it's not some crazy gap that a guru is trying to implement for a lot of us.

00:09:10.840 Yeah. I think what ends up happening is, and I felt this, I felt this really early on when I did

00:09:15.140 start of the podcast is I saw like that gap that you're talking about and it didn't empower me.

00:09:20.420 It disempowered me. It helped me to not help. It made me feel inferior.

00:09:25.640 Yes. That's what they do. That's what they do. Yeah. And that's, you know,

00:09:29.280 I think it's a lot like a drug. Now we become addicted to the thing. And then I realized I was

00:09:33.220 pursuing all of these interests and activities and waking up early and burning myself out and

00:09:38.760 burning myself up. And I realized, man, I'm just, I'm not happy. And then I, you know,

00:09:43.260 I turned to substance abuse and, you know, my marriage eroded because not, I'm not, I'm,

00:09:49.920 I'm trying not to shift responsibility here, but like part of the reason, part of the reasoning was

00:09:55.280 because I wasn't satisfied and happy. And I felt like there was always something else I needed to

00:09:59.540 be pursuing. We got an awkward pause here. It's, it's, I don't know if you're just listening or

00:10:04.660 just let me go or what.

00:10:05.840 Like, no, I'm just listening. I think a lot of people can, can relate to that.

00:10:11.120 Yeah. Yeah. I've noticed that to be true. A lot of people have resonated with the reality of,

00:10:16.260 of our own inadequacies, you know, and as, as people like you and I share that,

00:10:21.000 I think it's more powerful for the people who are listening.

00:10:24.000 Yeah. I think what I've noticed, you know, through this book million dollar weekend,

00:10:27.240 I'm doing a book tour. I've been working on my own shit for a long time. I think most people 0.99

00:10:30.760 meet me and they're like, yeah, you're really not that much better than me.

00:10:33.400 Yeah. And I'm always like, yeah, no shit, dude. I, but I'm doing it right. That's the only 1.00

00:10:39.840 difference. You know, I've done it and I've done it and I've done it. And I'm willing to kind of

00:10:43.220 go do the work, really put myself into the places where I kind of want to have money one day. All

00:10:48.200 right. Well, what are you doing about it? What are you doing today about it? What are you doing

00:10:50.800 right now about it? And I was willing, and I think everyone can and is able to be willing to do

00:10:55.380 that. I never wanted to get fired. I never wanted to have anyone control my livelihood. And

00:10:59.780 I think the reality, all these situations is every person can do their own hero's journey.

00:11:05.340 That's what's great. I know we're here. I'm talking, I came on like, Hey, let me talk about

00:11:07.960 my book, make money about, but it's really a hero's journey that each of us has available to us.

00:11:12.480 And I think there's definitely, there's men's support groups and therapy and all these things

00:11:15.820 that are great. But what I've noticed for myself, it's what's the hard, hard thing or hardest

00:11:20.160 things that I'm avoiding. Yeah. And it's like, fuck, I don't want to do those. Let's just do the

00:11:27.060 fun stuff. And it's like, okay, well, fine. Just, it's not going to get better. And it might

00:11:30.400 get better momentarily. But I do feel lately where, you know, my girlfriend's pregnant,

00:11:34.340 which has been a blessing. It's unreal. And I was like, God, I can't believe I can get

00:11:39.200 someone pregnant. Someone will let me impregnate them. And, but it, you know, the belief that like, 0.74

00:11:47.620 wow, that could happen. And then how am I being the best person or version of myself, a perversion

00:11:52.260 I'm proud of for myself, regardless of, you know, views or subs or whatever it is,

00:11:57.980 and then be able to show up in that relationship, man. It's definitely something that everyone else

00:12:02.720 can do. And that, that's part of, you know, what's these hard things that we're avoiding

00:12:06.040 and then maybe leaning into them and seeing what happens with our lives.

00:12:09.720 What do you think some of the hangups are? Cause I don't know that I'd meet too many men. And

00:12:13.020 obviously this might be a little bit of a biased group of people I'm referring to because they're

00:12:18.160 listening to the podcast and tuning into self-development, right? So clearly they're

00:12:22.480 interested in self-development, but I don't, I don't meet too many people who aren't interested

00:12:26.740 in something, some better version of their life, better relationship, better business,

00:12:31.940 more money in the bank account, better body. What do you think are some of the biggest hangups?

00:12:36.700 You know, even if you want to talk specifically from, from a, uh, either an entrepreneurial standpoint

00:12:41.100 or a career standpoint, or doing something that guys are passionate about versus their dead end job,

00:12:46.220 they feel miserable in. Yeah. You know, yeah. The book million dollar weekend. I think what I'm

00:12:52.260 noticing from people is about confidence. And this is probably the biggest, besides having to believe

00:12:56.900 it, you have to believe that maybe there could be some optimism in this world. And another great

00:13:01.140 book is called learned optimism. And I love that where it's like, yeah, it can get better. I think

00:13:05.280 what they don't realize is that they can actually make that change a lot easier and they can make

00:13:08.900 that change today. Hmm. They can actually do it right. Fucking now. I don't know if I can swear

00:13:14.560 right. Freaking now the PG, I think I already swore. I mean, yeah, you know, my mom, my girlfriend was

00:13:21.260 like, just really, it doesn't, it's not a good look. And I was like, thank you. You're right.

00:13:27.740 Um, but realizing that, you know, future results start with today's actions. And so what's the thing

00:13:34.840 you can do today? And I think what happens though, is people set these like crazy things like,

00:13:38.700 all right, I want to be healthy. I'm going to go do 10 miles. It's like, okay, that's going to be hard

00:13:42.680 to like, why don't you just go for a walk around the block today? Or if you want to start a business

00:13:46.520 right now, could you just ask a friend to do something for them for free? What do you mean?

00:13:50.500 No, that's, that's too easy. Yeah, I know. I know. That's the thing. That is the thing. It doesn't

00:13:55.800 have to be some big, scary thing, but it could be some small micro action. Hey, you want to go on a

00:14:02.820 date with someone today? Maybe I want a nicer outfit. Go to Goodwill. If you don't have any money,

00:14:08.120 maybe get a haircut, maybe stop hooking up with girls. If you really want to actually get a

00:14:13.900 family. And I think you really, you start really like maybe update your online dating profile or

00:14:17.880 your app profile. One, like change some words, change your photo, ask a girl for her opinion

00:14:21.680 on that. And I think when people realize the power of now, like, holy shit, what can I actually do 0.85

00:14:25.720 right now? Like the power now where the book where it doesn't tell you what to do, you know,

00:14:30.700 the actual now, this moment where you're listening to the show, realizing on your phone while

00:14:34.180 you're driving, well, not while you're driving, but while you're walking, commuting,

00:14:38.120 thinking, you don't have to think about it anymore. You can actually do it. And I think

00:14:41.040 that that power brings confidence. That power brings self-worth. And, you know, I have this,

00:14:46.860 I had this therapist and I will say, I've been quoting him a lot and he's like, the only way

00:14:50.560 in is through. And I just remember always avoiding that. I think all of us can resonate. Like the thing

00:14:58.260 we gave up on too soon, you know, real, like you with your marriage. Like I'm curious to hear more

00:15:03.160 about that story. And the only one in is through where it's like, dude, we're working on it,

00:15:05.720 but this is, this is not it. Maybe the way through is, is to move on. That's a fucking

00:15:10.180 hard decision, but that's facing the hard thing and really facing it. And so I think people 0.99

00:15:14.960 recognizing they can actually do smaller, more actionable things right now is really how they

00:15:19.240 can start building that confidence. It's avoiding maybe some of the fear that is not as scary when

00:15:23.800 you face it. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. It doesn't take a whole lot. I'm, I'm, I'm part of

00:15:28.560 this Facebook group in Southern Utah, which is where I live. And you know, a lot of people jump

00:15:33.440 on there and complain about how horrible drivers are in the area and what restaurants are good and

00:15:37.760 what restaurants are bad and all this kind of nonsense where they're gossiping about businesses

00:15:41.380 and people. But there occasionally I see somebody who will jump on there and say, Hey, I just started a,

00:15:46.880 like a home cleaning business and I've got room for five people this week. And they get tons of

00:15:53.180 responses like, cool. I'll do it. Or somebody's like, Hey, I'm a amateur photographer. Like if

00:15:58.260 your kid's looking for senior pictures or looking for sports pictures, here's a little bit of my work,

00:16:03.780 like hit me up. Like, dang, that finally, like somebody's actually using this, taking just a

00:16:09.140 little bit initiative. And then you never know what something like that is going to turn into,

00:16:13.060 but it just takes that initiative and put yourself out there in a very small way. Like you're talking

00:16:16.920 about. That was such a great, those are great examples. I think people don't realize that

00:16:20.960 big businesses start with one customers and they start as just kind of like, well, no, that's not,

00:16:27.060 I can't start that way. It's like, yes, I can. It could be a text. It could be a social media post.

00:16:31.180 And you know, what I've, I've learned from myself is that I've, I found that business has been the

00:16:37.080 best way I've learned about who I can become. And I've definitely been some shitty versions.

00:16:42.700 I said, we all, you know, yelling at people, bullying. I was called a bully. And I was like me. 0.94

00:16:48.820 Yeah, you're bullying. Really? Wow. That's interesting. And doing these small things can

00:16:54.280 lead up to creating lives. It's not just, I think the money is really cool. It's very nice to have

00:16:58.460 a lot of money, but it's also very nice to like yourself. And I think business is a good way to

00:17:02.360 feel really good about yourself, whether you have a day job or not. And I love that these people

00:17:06.340 kind of in silly ways, like, yeah, I'm posting on social media, get a few people.

00:17:09.800 And that's how it can start. And I'm always, I always admire anyone who's at least willing to try.

00:17:15.140 Who knows how it's going to work, but at least you're going to learn. You might fail. And I

00:17:19.440 think that's something I've noticed in my book and in my own business journey, which is like,

00:17:23.140 how many people are willing to fail and then go again? Right? Like, you know, you with marriage,

00:17:27.100 right? Like it's scary to, you know, have a breakup and then go back at it. Like that's,

00:17:30.980 that's what you have to do. Like I'm a pilot. And the first thing they teach you is when you have

00:17:34.400 an emergency landing, which I've had two, which is fucking terrifying. Right. And a little, 0.95

00:17:37.740 yeah, for sure. Oh, very terrifying. I had some, that was traumatic. Uh, first thing to tell you

00:17:43.200 is once you have a, a light, an emergency landing, you have to get back, right, right back up.

00:17:47.040 Hmm. Right. And there's something about it, which is like, oh, okay. I can, I can do it. I can face

00:17:51.740 it. Well, let me learn from it and get better. Maybe I need to get someone with me. I had my buddy

00:17:55.180 Joe the next time. So it was a little, a little, uh, felt more comfortable.

00:17:59.360 Yeah, man. I, I, you know, what's interesting is you're saying that I, I, I see that. And I feel

00:18:04.020 that when I see people at the gym who are out of shape and overweight and, you know, three years

00:18:09.060 ago, two, three years ago, I might've been very judgmental and harshly criticized those people.

00:18:14.460 Not, not vocally, but you know, in my mind and, and I go to the gym now and I see people who are

00:18:19.460 overweight and out of shape. I'm like, damn, good for you. Yeah. That's awesome. Cause how many people 0.99

00:18:24.840 do I not see who are still in bed, who are eating on the couch, who are hung over from last night

00:18:30.620 and they're not here, but you are, I hope they sustain it. That's what I want for those people.

00:18:34.980 But I, there's some admiration there where there wasn't before. And I think part of that comes from

00:18:39.300 realizing that we all have to start somewhere. And I know I've started somewhere and I had to start

00:18:45.540 over a lot of times in my life too. Yeah. Good for you to write. I was thinking about that. Someone

00:18:50.280 rated my book four stars. It's not even out yet. So I don't know how they rated it, how they got it.

00:18:54.920 And I was like, fuck you, dude. What do you mean? They had a cat picture as their profile. And I was like, 1.00

00:18:59.700 yeah. Okay. I get it. I know. And, um, I was like, it's not even out. I don't know how you

00:19:06.920 could rate four stars that like, I've spent four years and like 20 years doing business to put this

00:19:10.700 all together for people. But what was interesting was that it made me appreciate anyone creating.

00:19:16.120 Yeah. I was like, wow. How many times have I criticized someone at least trying,

00:19:20.060 but at least they're putting something out there. At least maybe it's a restaurant. Maybe it's

00:19:24.580 house cleaning. Like you're saying, maybe it's photography and you know, for all of ourselves,

00:19:29.340 like, Oh shit. Okay. Let me do something. And then how do I, and I think your other comment, 0.99

00:19:33.240 which is really interesting that I don't think is recognized enough in success, especially for

00:19:37.720 myself and is how do you find things that you can sustain with? And we all can't, everyone has

00:19:42.000 discipline. Everyone has sustainability in them. Like they, everyone's still breathing. Like if you're

00:19:45.860 still breathing, you've sustained something. Yeah. Right. But I think people think like, I'm not a

00:19:50.740 disciplined person. It's like, well, you've had discipline to eat every day. That's pretty good.

00:19:54.900 You know, you haven't given up on that. And so it's like, how do you, how do you recognize it

00:19:59.420 maybe in business specifically, but also in life? Like you start walking each day and like,

00:20:03.640 let me just try to walk once a week for this year, 52 times. Let me try 30 minutes a weekend just to

00:20:09.140 see if I can help one person, which is what businesses are. And over 52 weeks after a year,

00:20:13.280 you'll actually be like, Holy shit, maybe this is working. But sustaining these things, I think is, 0.79

00:20:17.880 besides just starting, you know, the sticking with it, but how to not give up too soon,

00:20:22.000 which we all have done, uh, is I definitely think the underlying kind of key to success in many

00:20:27.420 things. How do you know when to give up though? Cause I think there does come a point in time

00:20:32.220 where it's like, I'm banging my head against the wall unnecessarily here. Maybe I ought to give up

00:20:37.160 or maybe I ought to pivot and reevaluate the course of action. I think a lot of times we know when the

00:20:44.820 voice in our head is talking to us, right? When we're asking ourselves that question I use for

00:20:50.740 content and business, I use the law of 100 is what I found to be like just a really simple framework,

00:20:55.280 which is do it a hundred times and then quit. Most, I think someone was telling me this recently,

00:21:01.060 you know, you're one of the few people that have stuck with the podcast. Most people never do three

00:21:05.040 episodes. No one gets to 20 and anyone who's over 20, you're in the top 1% of podcasts. So do a

00:21:11.400 hundred and then quit things. And so that helps you at least decide at that point, whether I want to

00:21:15.580 quit or not. You know, I think another thing that people can understand better and I'll do another

00:21:20.060 business example afterwards, but it's, it's relationships. Like, how did you know it was

00:21:24.880 time to maybe end it? And you, you made me think about, I was engaged and I don't know if I felt,

00:21:32.200 I, you know, one of the things that I teach in the book is about how do you get what you want,

00:21:35.120 not get what you get. But you have to feel that you deserve some of these things. And I think I was

00:21:39.800 just, I got this girl and I was like, all right, well, I guess I'm getting what I'm getting.

00:21:42.500 And if I felt better about myself through, you know, thinking about what I want and how I want

00:21:47.220 to feel, then what do I really want? I have to, I have to ask for it and I have to get it. And it

00:21:51.740 wasn't her, but I spent fuck five years, man, three years in a, just like, I'm sure both ways toxic. 0.99

00:21:57.360 And then two years where I was like back and forth bullshit until one day I was like, 0.98

00:22:02.100 is this what you want to do for the next 40 years? Like, no, I was like, I don't want 40 more years 0.89

00:22:07.600 of this. And so I made the hard decision, which is the thing I'm kind of talking about throughout this,

00:22:12.040 this chat, which is like, what's the hard thing we're avoiding, maybe leaning into that.

00:22:16.020 And then now, you know, two took, you know, another two years. I found someone where I'm

00:22:19.740 like, oh my God, thank God. I had some optimism and I did the work, which was hard. Now in business,

00:22:25.900 I think the other thing that people can consider, how many kids do I got? Two, three,

00:22:30.840 me, four.

00:22:32.280 Jeez, bro. How do you have time for anything? How do you even have time for the show?

00:22:36.460 Oh, they're out in the, they're out in the living room right now, hanging out. So we'll,

00:22:40.560 we'll spend, they know, uh, we, we've got the boundaries and things in place. And then when

00:22:44.440 I'm done, I'll play and spend a little time with them and then, uh, we'll, we'll get on with our

00:22:47.780 day. So it's, it takes some more effort. That's for sure.

00:22:51.800 Respect. I mean, I'm out of time my first and I'm, you know, I'm just excited to be an entrepreneur

00:22:56.240 because one, I can have a lot more time to feel like to be around how I want to be around to

00:23:00.500 potentially, if we need to spend money on things, it's a lot easier. But I would say when business,

00:23:04.300 you're a great example where one, don't quit your day job. I always found having day jobs sucked. 0.89

00:23:10.160 It's like, I hate you people. I didn't hate all the people, but I hate a lot of them. I hated what 0.99

00:23:13.420 I worked on. I hated how much money I made. I hated that. Like I felt risky. Like my risk is staying

00:23:18.140 here, not actually doing something I could really want to do. And you don't have to quit your day

00:23:21.340 job. Use them as your investors. Right. And so coming back to you though, and now me as a father,

00:23:26.920 if I was getting started, you have weekends. That's why the book's million dollar weekend. You don't got a

00:23:30.920 lot of time. Like you probably have an hour or two each weekend to do something. And so

00:23:34.200 what I recommend for people is see in your business, say you're doing photography, like

00:23:38.220 your person, house cleaning, podcast, whatever you're excited about. See if you can get three

00:23:42.460 people to buy from you in a weekend. And you're like, just three? Yeah, just three. And guess

00:23:48.200 what? If they don't buy, whether you're doing lawn care, maybe you're building software, you can,

00:23:52.560 and you can pre-sell it. You can pre-sell the item. Hey, I'm doing lawn care. I'm doing photos.

00:23:57.900 I'm doing, what were the other ones you said? House cleaning.

00:24:01.860 House cleaning, cooking, shooting, jujitsu. I mean, you name it.

00:24:05.360 Anything. And it can be software. Everything in life is pre-sold. We just don't realize it.

00:24:09.860 Tesla. All these cars are pre-sold. Our plane tickets are pre-sold. Hotels are pre-sold. Events

00:24:14.740 are pre-sold. Concerts are pre-sold. Everything is pre-sold. So pre-sell it to see if there's people

00:24:20.000 that want it. And guess what? If no one wants it, holy shit, you didn't spend tons of time.

00:24:24.420 You're not out of anything. You're not out of anything, but you got a lot of learning 0.98

00:24:27.800 and you could find out then fine. They didn't like this. What else is going on in their lives?

00:24:33.180 Like I was looking through and then people say, well, no, I got no, I got no ideas.

00:24:36.920 I've got no business ideas. Okay. Let's just do everything for them, Ryan.

00:24:43.360 Here's a fun one. I did it yesterday because I was curious. I looked through my credit card bill

00:24:46.880 and I just saw what I spent money on. And it was really interesting. Actually,

00:24:51.280 I bought baby mama clothes. And again, your original question was, how do you know not

00:24:54.940 to quit too soon? If you don't get three customers in 48 hours, it's only going to get harder.

00:24:59.280 That period. It doesn't get easier. So, and we can talk about businesses later if you care for it. But

00:25:06.260 in terms of that specific thing, I have found that people know the idea of like make something people

00:25:12.940 want. I don't think you actually have to make something people want. You have to find what people

00:25:17.140 actually want. And how do you know is that they're excited to give you their money.

00:25:20.360 Right.

00:25:20.800 Like I did a lawn care business. I knocked door to door two weeks ago to see if I could actually

00:25:25.000 sell it. I could not get one person in my neighborhood to buy my lawn care. Not one.

00:25:30.220 You know, I dressed up, I printed a flyer. I don't even have a lawnmower to be clear.

00:25:34.140 But if I pre-sold it, I'd go rent a lawnmower or I'd ask a friend for a lawnmower.

00:25:38.080 Guess what? I couldn't do it. So I was like, great. I can't do that business or someone else can,

00:25:42.240 or maybe there's another way, but I only have 48 hours to make some shit happen. And so let me find 0.98

00:25:45.440 something else. And then I found something different that worked.

00:25:47.980 It's interesting because one thing I've, I've ran across, I've got a couple of different

00:25:51.420 scenarios. One is people will tell you they're excited, but until they pay you, they're not

00:25:55.560 really excited. Like you have to realize that. Like when I, early on in this business, I would,

00:26:00.660 I would come up with like a new hat design or a new shirt design. I'm like, Hey guys,

00:26:03.820 what if I came up with this? Would you buy it? And I had like a thousand people like, yeah,

00:26:07.200 yeah, yeah. I'm like, sweet. People love this. So I'd make, you know, 500 shirts and I'd have,

00:26:13.480 I'd sell three of them. I'm like, damn, what, what happened? So people go with their dollars, 0.96

00:26:18.780 not with their words. But the other thing that I thought was really interesting was,

00:26:24.560 and this goes to your point about pre-selling the very first event I ever promoted,

00:26:29.560 I had zero people sign up, not a single person. I'd put in a few thousand dollars for a deposit on a

00:26:35.980 place and not a single soul signed up. And I called the guy up and I'm like, Hey, look, I gotta,

00:26:41.540 I gotta cancel this event. Like nobody signed up. He's like, no one. I'm like, yeah, thank you.

00:26:45.960 Yes. No one. And, and, uh, he's like, Oh man, that sucks. Well, you're going to lose your deposit.

00:26:54.640 And I said, well, hold on, hold on, hold on. Like work with me here. What, what if,

00:26:58.780 what if I still did the event? I just bumped it out three or four months. And he's like,

00:27:03.480 yeah, I'll do that. I'll do that for you. He's like, it's a little more expensive because

00:27:06.340 that's peak season, but I'll take your deposit. I'll apply it towards your time then. And I went

00:27:11.440 back to the drawing board to your point to really learn what people want. And it wasn't that they

00:27:16.660 didn't want an event. It's that they didn't, I didn't do a good job marketing the event,

00:27:21.140 clearly articulating what the value proposition was. So I learned what that was. I did a little

00:27:26.040 research and we had 20 people, which is our max capacity at that time, 20 people sign up for the,

00:27:31.100 for the event. We call ourselves the terrible 20 still to this day. And I talked to a lot of these guys.

00:27:34.800 This was seven years ago. The point is, is just, I don't think just because people don't

00:27:40.320 necessarily sign up that you should take it as, Oh, it's not a good idea. Maybe you just did a bad

00:27:45.220 job communicating or delivering the idea. That what did you read million dollar weekend

00:27:50.640 seven years ago before I even wrote it? I did. Like you had it in your head.

00:27:54.440 In fact, most of the ideas you got from me, I think even subconsciously. So come on,

00:27:58.860 give some credit there. I, the book is dedicated to Ryan. Well, I think, you know,

00:28:04.340 most ideas are iterations on others and, and most businesses have been done in the past.

00:28:10.340 And so I love, you know, and I think one of the things that you, you said implicitly,

00:28:14.200 which is the important part was when someone says no to you, okay, tell me more. Like we have

00:28:19.300 at AppSumo.com, the software deal site, it's been around 15 years for entrepreneurs done. It's done

00:28:24.120 really well. I still run it to this day. We, we created a course. This book is came,

00:28:29.800 came from the course. And I'm like, look, we've got a million people on our audience a month.

00:28:35.460 Like I worked at Facebook. I worked at mint and I've started enough businesses. I'm going to put

00:28:40.200 out this course. People are just going to buy it like crazy. They're just going to like, just eat

00:28:43.820 it up. So we sent this email a hundred thousand people. No one buys it. Like, what do you mean?

00:28:48.920 No one buys it. Like this is, I thought it's a guaranteed. And then I just asked them, Hey,

00:28:54.440 how come, well, how come you're not by it? Well, the, the course was called how to make your first

00:28:57.780 dollar. And people are like, I don't want to make a buck. I want to get rich.

00:29:00.540 I don't care about a dollar. Yeah.

00:29:03.780 And then there's like all these other pieces like, Hey, I'm busy. How long is it going to take?

00:29:08.300 Is there going to be accountability? Oh, really? That's it. And then we updated the copy.

00:29:13.520 I had more people will go through the course with me personally. And then we sold it. And then

00:29:17.620 after a year of, you know, it did have a little sale. So it got some validation. But then after

00:29:22.320 a year, it was like, Holy shit, we sold a million dollars worth of it. But that was then going back 0.98

00:29:26.540 and understanding why it wasn't selling super well. And I've seen this again. Like I got to

00:29:30.320 give another example, which is this woman, Mackenzie. She had a job, you know, day job, 1.00

00:29:36.040 like most people here. She didn't, she doesn't have a family. I don't know if she has kids yet.

00:29:39.740 I'm not sure, but she's always dreamed of doing something herself. And if you've been fired,

00:29:43.600 I don't know if you've even fired. Uh, yes, I have been twice actually early,

00:29:48.360 early jobs. Most of my quit, but I have been fired from, from a couple Burger King. I was fired from

00:29:53.220 Burger King of all places. How'd you get fired from the King? Why the King fire you? Uh, it was, 1.00

00:29:58.980 it's a long story, but essentially, uh, I just didn't show up. I just didn't cover my, my shift

00:30:03.400 and say, it was like, you're out, you're out of here. I, that was kind of like me quitting at the

00:30:07.380 same time as them firing me. So it was kind of those things like you can't fire me. I quit. And,

00:30:12.380 you know, or, or I quit and they're like, you can't quit. Cause you're fired. It was one of

00:30:16.500 those situations. And what was the other job you got fired from? Uh, let's see what, um,

00:30:22.280 maybe it was just the one. Now that I say that it was from the King. All right,

00:30:25.540 dude, you got me inspired. I'm going to go work at McDonald's and try to get fired just to be like,

00:30:28.980 yeah, I've been fired by Donald's and now I'm a millionaire just for the story.

00:30:34.140 I mean, look to be, to be real, like on this is yours. You're very creative. Like just the fact

00:30:41.200 that you would think of that. And I don't, I don't doubt that's something you would actually do.

00:30:45.320 Cause I saw, I saw a video where you're, you're, you're interviewing all kinds of people. You

00:30:49.620 interviewed people on the plane first class, like asking them how they got rich. Like it's,

00:30:54.040 it's very creative. And I really admire that side of things. Cause you see it a little differently

00:30:59.320 than I do. And a lot of other people do. Yeah. I can talk about McKinsey. I was going to share.

00:31:05.000 I love this. No, no, no. My favorite restaurant in all probably the world, but really Austin,

00:31:09.520 Texas, where I live is a, this place called taco deli. And I have been trying to invest in there

00:31:15.500 or be a part of it since my first taco there was in 2000. What was my first taco there? Maybe it was

00:31:20.960 2006. And I'm like, his name is Roberto. I've had him on my show. I'm like, Roberto, I just want,

00:31:26.500 let me be a part of it. Something. And I even like, so one day I just went and like,

00:31:30.080 I picked up trash for a day. This is a few years ago. Nice. Like I'm already pretty rich at that

00:31:35.640 point, but I was like, I just love what they're doing. And it got me close to, I think what I

00:31:39.900 admired about him is his slow and steady pace. You know, he was like, I just make a great fucking 0.98

00:31:44.200 taco. It's a reasonable price. It's a little high now with some of the prices, but it's a really 1.00

00:31:48.660 great taco. And like, I'm not, and there's other companies, like there's a competitor, which I

00:31:52.380 wouldn't call him out. That's like, there's like hundreds of stores everywhere. And he's like,

00:31:55.660 no, I don't, I don't need to do that. That was like always impressive to me about who he was.

00:32:00.300 Like he made a great product and he went at his pace. And, uh, you know, another story just to

00:32:05.220 kind of add, we were talking earlier, this is Mackenzie who read million dollar weekend.

00:32:08.540 She had this day job, was okay with it, but always dreamed of never like wanting to be an

00:32:12.660 entrepreneur. And for me, I've gotten fired twice. I guess, you know, a lot of guys that start

00:32:15.800 throwing things are like, no one wants to hire us. And I also just didn't want someone deciding my

00:32:19.720 livelihood. I didn't want someone that like today, it's like, Hey, you're the, which is what

00:32:24.060 happened. They're like today, you're not going to have more money. And I think that plus how my parents

00:32:28.040 were, you know, treated me with money and such was like, I need to be responsible for myself.

00:32:32.600 So Mackenzie did the same thing you were talking about. I just got to share it as an example.

00:32:35.580 She wanted to start her own business, loves greeting cards, send an email out to her friends

00:32:38.920 and family. Hey, I'm going to do greeting cards. Here's a few examples. Anyone want to buy some?

00:32:43.700 And that business last year in 2023, her first year did $50,000. 0.62

00:32:47.860 Nice. Nice.

00:32:50.080 Reading cards. I'm like creating cards. What a cool there. So, and you know, my, my, you know,

00:32:55.580 YouTube channel, I, one of the biggest takeaways I've had this whole, you know, I guess the past

00:32:59.520 three years of really doing it. There's so many ways of getting rich, so many ways of getting rich,

00:33:04.860 but the important parts is you have to start right today, right now in anything, but really in

00:33:09.920 business, you start today and then you have to ask. That's something that you see in my videos.

00:33:13.020 I ask people how they got rich and that's what business is. You ask someone to listen to your

00:33:16.580 show. You ask someone to come to your conference. You ask someone to be an employee. You ask someone

00:33:20.080 to be your wife. And that's a skill that we can all get better at. So why do you, why do you think

00:33:25.480 people are so afraid of that though? I mean, the way I look at it is, and maybe this has just been

00:33:30.780 ingrained into me. I've been in sales for a long time where it's, you know, if you don't ask,

00:33:33.900 you don't have to get the sale. If, if they say, no, you're not any worse off than you were before.

00:33:38.120 Like, I just, I guess I know what I want. And I realized that unless I'm willing to tell people

00:33:43.120 what I want, I'm, I'm never going to get it. I don't know if that's just ingrained into who I

00:33:48.000 am, if that was taught earlier, if that's something I learned along the way, but man,

00:33:50.800 so many people are so hesitant about it because they think they're going to die or something.

00:33:54.500 If they ask a woman on a date and she says, no. Yeah. And the fear is bigger in our mind than in

00:34:01.560 reality. The fear is bigger in our mind than reality that if I go up and ask her and she says,

00:34:06.460 no, like there's going to be some music that plays and the cameras come out and

00:34:09.780 everybody's looking at you, you got punked and they're all laughing at you.

00:34:13.740 It's like, no, I mean, so I go, I'm doing a bike trip across America and I'm doing in sections. So

00:34:19.720 when I'm traveling, I flew to Phoenix a few months ago to do Phoenix to Albuquerque and I

00:34:25.260 used a trash bag as my carry on luggage. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, and in my head,

00:34:31.760 I'm like, everyone in the airport is going to stare at me. Everyone's going to look at me and no one

00:34:36.060 gave two fucks. I'm like here in the trash bag, like trash, man, I'm going to try to ask you about 0.99

00:34:43.240 this. It's not like, no one, anyone. And people are like, dude, I'm having problems with my wife.

00:34:49.200 I'm trying to get to my flight. Who gives a fuck? That guy's a weirdo. Okay. I want to get food. 0.99

00:34:53.780 I need to go to Starbucks line. No one cares. And I think that's a great, valuable lesson. And

00:34:57.840 I think with asking Ryan, what I've noticed is that people don't realize it's a skill that you can

00:35:02.840 get better at. It's a skill. It's like anything, right? I grew up with professional, you know,

00:35:08.760 Jewish parents. They're professional askers or complainers, depending who you're talking to. 1.00

00:35:13.140 And they, they, they're still asking for everything. My mom got a hot chocolate.

00:35:17.760 She visited last weekend. Oh, the hot chocolate didn't taste good. Can I have a refund?

00:35:22.960 You know how many people would just take the coffee, the hot chocolate and be like,

00:35:25.460 I don't just taste good. I would never, I would never ask for a refund.

00:35:28.760 So, and you know, the famous thing that I'm known for is this coffee challenge,

00:35:33.020 which is you ask for 10% off when you buy coffee at Starbucks or wherever you buy coffee

00:35:36.840 or anything really. And people are like, why are you hurting the businesses? Why are you trying to

00:35:41.160 get discounts from people? And I'm like, I'm not, I don't care about the discount. I care about

00:35:45.480 rejection. Yes. I care about the failure. I care about you facing a fear of discomfort,

00:35:51.360 which is momentarily, very momentarily getting the rejection. Cause you say I want 10% off.

00:35:57.120 They're like, why? You're like, just cause you get rejected. And then you realize like,

00:36:01.020 holy shit, that's not so bad. And then you realize even more importantly, 0.99

00:36:04.040 wow, I can do more things. What else do I want? And again, you will get what you want

00:36:09.740 if you ask for it. No ask, no get. And you know, I, I, it's still scary for me to ask for things.

00:36:15.320 Like when I do these videos, I'm like, Oh man, do I want to ask someone? Or I, I read the book

00:36:21.720 myself, the one I wrote and I did it myself. And it's the video is coming out next week.

00:36:26.960 And I went to two coffee places in a taco place. I got rejected every time.

00:36:30.940 And you, as you get rejected, you realize it's like over time, it gets easier and easier and you

00:36:35.300 get better and better. And it's, you do it in a silly way. So when I went and knocked on doors in 0.94

00:36:39.680 my neighborhood, asking them to, if I can mow their lawn, when they said no, I was like, okay,

00:36:45.620 that's cool. It's not me. They're rejecting. They just don't need lawn care. They have

00:36:48.980 some guys that they like already. And then that'll lead you then to say like, what else

00:36:53.260 can I do that I want? Maybe it's a raise, maybe it's a job, maybe it's a wife, or maybe

00:36:57.540 it's your first customer. And I think it's a skill that is very undervalued in our society.

00:37:03.820 Man, let me just step away from the conversation very briefly after a six year hiatus, we're

00:37:09.340 finally bringing back the order of man uprising experience. Now this is a three and a half

00:37:14.120 day immersive experience in Southern Utah for just 20 men. And when you enroll, you're

00:37:19.820 going to meet me here in Southern Utah with 19 other men to be tested, pushed, and learn

00:37:25.800 the skillset required to take your life to the next level. We're going to spend that time

00:37:31.120 in the mountains, learning the battle planning system and introducing you to ideas and concepts

00:37:35.840 that have literally helped hundreds of thousands of men start and grow businesses, secure promotions,

00:37:41.380 rekindle relationships, and get in the best shape of their lives. And of course, much more

00:37:46.480 than that. And you're also going to be connecting with and working closely with me and our team

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00:38:17.880 order of man.com slash uprising. That's order of man.com slash uprising. Do that right after the

00:38:25.440 show. Cause I want you to secure one of those spots for now. Let's get back to it with Noah.

00:38:30.500 Well, I think it's the same concept in psychology and I don't know the exact term, but, but the idea is

00:38:35.220 that if you're afraid of something, you expose yourself more frequently to it in controlled

00:38:39.280 environments. Right. And so that's the discount thing is, you know, the risk of rejection is so

00:38:43.760 low, but you'll probably get rejected in some of these places, but the, the, the consequence of

00:38:49.740 it is so low that it's almost insignificant. Uh, if they say no, it's like, okay, you buy the $6 coffee

00:38:55.200 and you know, that's it. But, um, that's the whole concept is that you just expose yourself to

00:39:01.560 whatever you fear the most enough. And then it becomes something that it's not this big, bad wolf

00:39:05.620 that you've made it out to be in your mind. Yeah. I mean, I did this video where I stood

00:39:09.680 outside a private airport for two days asking people if I can go on their private jets like

00:39:14.840 that, that, that's extreme. Yeah. I didn't encourage anyone to do that. But what's crazy

00:39:20.800 is that literally on the first day, within five minutes, someone said, sure, you can come on my

00:39:25.660 jet. And then when I went on his jet, I didn't know this guy. His name is, his name is James.

00:39:30.640 Then I went on his jet and I was like, where are you going? He's like, I'm going to Boston. I was

00:39:33.600 like, you can come with you. I said, sure. And then I got to interview him. That video got,

00:39:38.840 you know, I think 5 million views. And what's more interesting for everyone is I didn't have

00:39:43.060 some secret. I don't, you don't have to be tall to be successful in business. You don't have to

00:39:46.640 be good looking to be successful in business. You don't have to be anywhere in the world to be

00:39:49.680 successful in business. It's universal, which is really the only sport that's equal.

00:39:54.920 And the only difference that I did is I went out and started it, right? I went out to an airport

00:39:58.600 and I just asked someone. And because of that, I got to go to a private jet, which is,

00:40:01.700 if you ever looked at private jet flights, they're like that. I think that flight alone

00:40:05.020 was about a hundred thousand dollars. Really?

00:40:07.120 That's just because I asked. Yeah. I've looked at, I wanted to go to Florida last,

00:40:10.340 was it in December to see my girlfriend's family. It's like $20,000 each way. I was like,

00:40:15.940 shit, I need to find someone, go to Florida and ask them. 0.99

00:40:19.460 There's a lot more stuff to paper it yourself. But all I, the only thing I did was I started, 0.99

00:40:23.600 which people can do today. And I asked, and then, yes, there are other steps that people need

00:40:28.060 to be mindful of. And I think you did a great job with your events. But the fear-

00:40:32.340 You learn along the way, right?

00:40:33.940 A hundred percent. You keep getting better and better. And the fear is never as scary as it

00:40:37.360 seems. And I like, I think you've said it really well. Like, if you do it in silly ways,

00:40:42.580 like, you know, the coffee challenge, people think about it and they're like, I don't know,

00:40:45.960 just commit before you commit right now. Next time I buy anything, I'm going to ask. And then you do it

00:40:51.260 and then text me. Well, no, no text. I don't want to give up my number. But at Noah Kagan,

00:40:54.480 like DM me, slide my DMs, Twitter, whatever. I'd love to hear how people respond. And I always ask

00:40:59.100 the same question. What'd you learn about yourself? What'd you learn about yourself? And they always

00:41:03.580 learn, wow, it was never as scary as I thought. And I'm so much better than I realized every single

00:41:07.860 time. Just for a stupid, silly coffee. That's cool. We do that occasionally in our group too. 1.00

00:41:13.180 Same concept is you can't ask for anything or buy anything without asking for a discount.

00:41:18.240 I love it. And it's what I found outside of learning about myself and these guys learn

00:41:23.180 about themselves is how often you'll just save money just by asking. Like, it's amazing. It's

00:41:28.540 like, oh, I didn't really think you'd say yes, but thank you. Like, it's pretty wild if you just go

00:41:34.280 ahead and assert yourself what you can get. I mean, I think the same can be true about business. The

00:41:38.120 same can be true about dating. You know, you see that beautiful woman, you ask her on a date and she's 0.98

00:41:41.620 like, yes. You're like, oh, wait, I didn't expect you to say that, but it happens. It's wild.

00:41:48.240 Yeah. You got me thinking the same exact thing. Right. Just like I remember there's definitely

00:41:51.920 been a few people where I was like, really? You said yes. Like I wasn't expecting. I wasn't

00:41:57.080 expecting. Yes. And, you know, I think people might, I don't know if they zone out, but you

00:42:02.620 really have to think about this is literally everything in life. You want to raise like a

00:42:06.520 woman at work. I don't want to say her name, but she sent me this message like, hey, we need 0.97

00:42:10.260 to talk. And I was like, oh, no, what do you want to talk about? And she's like, I want to

00:42:14.680 raise. And I was like, oh, yeah, tell me more. And she's like, and she put together

00:42:18.700 a three page document showing market rates, showing everything she's done, showing the

00:42:22.900 amount of money she's helped create for AppSumo.com and the business. And she's like, I think

00:42:27.400 this is what I'm worth. And I've created a lot of money for the business. I think, you

00:42:30.260 know, I deserve an increase around it. And I was like, hell yeah, you do. That was a great

00:42:34.280 ask. And this applies for a raise. This applies for applying for jobs. This applies for getting

00:42:38.580 a relationship. And it applies for starting a business, too.

00:42:41.380 I think one thing I've noticed as well is that, and I'm very sensitive to the way I'm

00:42:45.900 saying this. So I need to think this through a little bit and maybe we can discuss is most

00:42:50.580 people are afraid of confrontation. So if you're not going to ask for a raise, it's because you

00:42:54.820 don't want to be a raise or a discount or the woman on a date. It's because it's confronting,

00:42:59.660 right? It's not negative. It's just a confrontation. Well, if you're afraid, I can assure you the other

00:43:04.360 person's afraid as well. So if you go in and ask your boss, like, hey, I'd like a raise,

00:43:09.320 they don't want to confront either. And so a lot of the times they're just willing to say, yes,

00:43:13.200 just, hey, like, fine, whatever. Is that what it takes? Good. Because they want out of the

00:43:17.920 situation as well. And I'm not saying that we necessarily take advantage of, like exploit that

00:43:22.780 necessarily. But what I do want people to understand is that the person who takes initiative wins

00:43:29.580 because most people play the passive game of life. So if you're the one who takes initiative,

00:43:34.800 nine times out of 10, you get what you want because other people aren't willing to stand up

00:43:39.380 or say or even ask for what they want. I think the other thing I got to highlight with what you said

00:43:46.380 is that we assume that it's bad for the other person. Like I, Million Dollar Weekend, I know it

00:43:54.140 fucking works. I did it for 48 hours. I had this other guy, I flew him in. He lived in my guest house. 0.99

00:43:58.560 He did it for 48 hours. That was awkward. My girlfriend's like, who's this guy in our backyard

00:44:02.500 living with us? And when this woman came to me and asked for a raise, we think, oh,

00:44:11.860 am I bothering this person? Am I bugging? I was excited. Right. And then you start realizing,

00:44:17.200 like, we create the story of this other person. When I did this video as another example of asking

00:44:21.720 first class passengers what they do for a living, do you realize like how uncomfortable it is because

00:44:25.860 I'm going to sit next to you for eight hours after you said no to me? And I create a story.

00:44:30.640 This person's dressed super well. Oh, they're going to be so rude to me. They don't want me to

00:44:35.380 bother them. They're going to be annoyed. And I go up to him and say, hey, you know, I'm doing this

00:44:40.180 documentary for YouTube. I really like the way you're dressed. Like, I'm just curious, like,

00:44:44.480 how's first class passenger? How's it to sit up here? Do you mind if I film? Because I'm going to,

00:44:48.120 I want other people to learn about it. And then, yeah, what do you do for a living? And they're like,

00:44:51.300 oh, my God. Yeah, I'd love to inspire other people. What do you mean? In my head, you hate me.

00:44:58.900 You're annoyed by me. And that is the thing that we do when we're selling,

00:45:03.280 right, or asking. But really, it's just learning. And this rejection is not, and I think if you,

00:45:10.000 if the rejection is not such a scary thing, and the rejection might actually be a good thing,

00:45:13.760 like, oh, well, if I'm going to ask him, because I think it's not a bad thing,

00:45:16.720 maybe I'll learn something and maybe something good will happen. Or if anything,

00:45:19.740 it's a very brief moment of discomfort. Very, very brief. That fades. But the opportunity and

00:45:24.960 the upside of what you can get is really, really unlimited.

00:45:29.020 I think that plays in nicely to what you're saying about having some confidence. I thought

00:45:32.940 that about business. Because every once in a while, I'm sure you get this too. Guys are like,

00:45:36.180 oh, I can't believe you charge for this. Don't you care about people? Yeah. I don't understand how

00:45:43.340 those things are separate. I can care for people and for what I'm doing and believe my message is

00:45:49.260 powerful and get paid for it. Like, that doesn't compute for me. But I think that the important

00:45:56.100 thing to realize is have some confidence in yourself and know that if you're offering a

00:46:00.340 service, for example, that it's worth something. You know, it's valuable. If I didn't think it was

00:46:05.460 valuable, I wouldn't ask. But I ask for the sale. I ask for people to join our iron council. I ask for

00:46:10.540 people to come to our events. Yes.

00:46:11.800 Yes. Because I know that if they do it, it will serve them. And so their life will be better in

00:46:17.420 some measurable way. Yes.

00:46:19.820 Yeah. If you're lacking confidence, help someone else. And so when I started this book, I'll even

00:46:25.600 say, you know, like I've worked, I helped with Facebook. I helped build mint.com. I've done so

00:46:30.880 many different businesses. A lot of them have failed, but a few like AppSumo.com. We did $76 million

00:46:34.460 in sales last year. Did you really?

00:46:36.620 Yeah. That's one of the early apps. I don't know if you knew that. That's one of the very

00:46:40.340 early apps I used when I started this in 2015. AppSumo? Oh, no. Sumo. I think Sumo Me. That was

00:46:46.420 another thing. That was a $6 million business. Sumo Me. That's what it was.

00:46:49.300 Yeah. We just sold that one for about $2 million last year. So it's a new owner. So that, which,

00:46:54.400 well, it was at $6 million at peak. So I've done that. TidyCal.com is our Calendly alternative.

00:47:00.360 That does about last year that did, I think, $1.1 million. Brand new product. So like,

00:47:05.180 I'm pretty good at this, but I was like, I don't know if I can put together a book to help others.

00:47:11.700 I'm, I'm insecure. I don't know if I can really do it. Right. And that's everyone. There's no,

00:47:17.700 anyone who's fucking full of shit, trying to pretend like they know everything. Like they 1.00

00:47:21.720 wake up and they take shits just like all of us. Like I have a nice, at least, you know, 0.99

00:47:25.360 I'm taking a shit on a nice toilet at home. I would say that I really love my toilet. 0.97

00:47:28.200 And, um, he did, you know, it's bidet style. Oh dude. It like hugs me in the morning. It's

00:47:34.300 like, I see, I see some of those toilets. I walk in, I'm like, ah, what do I do with it? I don't,

00:47:39.140 I don't know how to use that thing. If you ever visit Austin, I'd be honored for you to sit on my

00:47:44.320 throne. I'd love for it. I'll take you up on that. It's so, it's such a weird thing, but I'm like,

00:47:48.600 dude, no, no, use this other toilet. I'm going to check this out. Enjoy yourself.

00:47:51.580 I see some of these, it looked like R2D2 or something. I'm like, I don't know what to do

00:47:57.420 with that thing. I just need to use the bathroom. You just buckle in, dude, buckle and let it do its

00:48:02.040 job, dude. It's there for you. And then I will say being rich is cool. It's got a lot of perks

00:48:06.140 and it's, and again, I've got to say being rich is not exclusive. Like I grew up middle-class,

00:48:10.820 good two parents. I was lucky there. Grew up in Bay Area, lucky there. Had a lot of advantages for

00:48:15.000 sure. But I thought I was stuck in the middle-class lane and that's just not true. I think we keep 1.00

00:48:19.980 ourselves in the middle-class lane. So coming back on this, the million dollar weekend book,

00:48:23.960 yeah, I felt insecure, even though it's like, bro, you've done, and I'm, I'm running the business.

00:48:27.680 I'm not some guy that's like selling books to get rich. I don't get rich off this book. I'm already

00:48:30.880 rich. Like it doesn't do anything for me, but I felt insecure. Right. And you're like, well, if you're

00:48:35.400 not, if you don't know how to do it, then I don't know who would feel secure about it. And so what did

00:48:40.020 I do? I just helped the person. So for six months as I, after we had a beta team of, I think there's

00:48:45.640 1300 people on our beta team have gone from the book. And for six months, every weekend,

00:48:49.700 five people in me did the book and I saw them change their fucking lives. And I had a guy live 0.99

00:48:55.220 with me, which is, you know, he's got three kids, he's got a day job. And I was like, and we put out

00:49:00.460 a thing, say, Hey, someone who doesn't have a big social media following at all. I just found out

00:49:04.500 that he has a Twitter now. I was like, come live with me and let's do the book together. And I was

00:49:07.780 like, damn dude, this is really going to work. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure you got five paying customers for 0.99

00:49:12.980 his golf trips business. His name is Jake. That's how it starts. And that's what built confidence

00:49:17.800 for myself. So I don't need, if it sells a lot, if it sells a little, I'm like, no, it works though.

00:49:21.840 And I think what your point is, is that when you find a problem, importantly, that people actually

00:49:26.780 want solved, it's not a sell. It's a duty. It's not a sell. And look, again, when you're selling

00:49:33.060 from no one wants, that's a sell because you have to convince them. But if it's like, Hey man, I know

00:49:37.840 you want more podcast listeners or Hey man, I know you're trying to get a relationship or Hey man,

00:49:41.160 you're trying to get a business started or whatever it is that you believe that there's a problem

00:49:44.500 someone has. And you think you can genuinely solve it. Like I might, my best friend, Adam

00:49:48.340 Gilbert, he's coming over tomorrow. He's flying in for a book party. He does health coaching,

00:49:54.220 mybodytutor.com. This guy dies for his belief. He'll die for it. And that, that always has been

00:50:01.280 impressive to me. He's like, I know what I do works. And he's done it for 16 years. And these,

00:50:06.200 these things, you find the thing that actually makes a difference for people and you just stick with it.

00:50:09.480 The thing that I'm, I'm hearing you say when it comes to confidence, because a lot of people will say,

00:50:14.040 Hey, I just, I need confidence in order to be, you know, in order to ask that one out,

00:50:18.020 I need to be confident in order to start that business. I need to be confident, but

00:50:20.760 you don't really have anything to be confident in. Sometimes, you know, if you've never started

00:50:24.960 a business, it's hard to be confident that you can start a business. And I, and I think what

00:50:29.400 you're suggesting, especially with writing this book is maybe it's not the confidence. Maybe it's

00:50:35.140 just some courage. It's just, you don't confidence is earned. Like you don't get to decide I'm

00:50:40.220 to be confident today. Like you have to earn that through trial and error and success, but courage,

00:50:44.400 you can just decide, right? Like I'm, I'm scared to ask for a discount, but I'm going to do it

00:50:49.820 anyways. I'm scared to ask that woman out, but I'm going to do it anyways. I'm scared to write 0.99

00:50:53.080 this book, but I'm going to do it anyways. And so it's not confidence. It's just courage. And

00:50:56.860 through that, the confidence is built. Did you read chapter seven? Did you write one?

00:51:01.480 You wrote chapter seven, a million dollar weekend.

00:51:03.040 I didn't read it. That was my idea. You stole my idea. I told you, dude, I got to give you the

00:51:09.620 royalties, but damn, that was so perfectly put. And I, you know, I did, you know, people have heard 0.96

00:51:14.440 of ayahuasca. I don't know if you've talked about on your show. I did years ago. I did a little bit.

00:51:18.200 And that's all these like, you know, puking, whiny, I don't know, hipster people. And it's also good

00:51:22.100 people too. And all this stuff, but I did it. And I think two things that really stuck out for me,

00:51:26.080 that whole experience, I've done it a few times and I was at a low point in life and I was trying

00:51:28.920 anything to avoid doing the hard things. And the two things that really stuck out for me is I ran

00:51:34.580 away from it. Actually, I did all the drugs and I started running away. I literally ran away. I ran

00:51:38.160 away from the retreat on the, in the road. It was a whole story. You can go to noakagan.com and see

00:51:43.720 my ayahuasca. I'm going to check this out for sure. Yeah. Read that article. It was the worst night

00:51:47.340 of my life. And, um, I ran away from it and blah, blah, blah. Anyways, I end up hours later coming back

00:51:54.580 into the ceremony room and I was really afraid that everyone was going to be mad at me because

00:51:59.860 I ran away. No one runs away, by the way. That's not, you stay and no one leaves even the room,

00:52:04.320 let alone I ran away. And he said that to me. He said, you know, you ran away is normal, right?

00:52:10.140 We're all afraid, but courage is being afraid and doing it anyways. And that was like such a powerful

00:52:14.680 moment to realize that I can do it too. We all can do it. And the second part with ayahuasca, yeah,

00:52:19.400 you do drugs and you, it's like a form of therapy. But my buddy, again, coming back to Adam Gilbert,

00:52:23.100 who I love, he's like, I don't know if you really like learn anything from this ayahuasca thing.

00:52:27.660 Adam doesn't do drugs. He doesn't even drink. All I eat, he just eats chicken and broccoli. That's

00:52:31.220 all he does. He probably looks great though. He does look great. Fit dads are impressive people.

00:52:38.560 That's what I do. Fit dads are impressive. Learn from fit dads. Easy to be fit when you're, when

00:52:43.480 you're single. And he said, you know, this whole ayahuasca thing, you know, I think what it really is

00:52:48.140 showing you, and I think he's right, was that it was a challenge that you could overcome.

00:52:51.260 And I think that's there for all of us, whether it's starting a business, maybe changing your

00:52:56.460 career, which we can all do if we don't like it, changing our health, changing our looks,

00:53:00.780 changing the relationships. And I definitely have, I've resonated with that message. Doesn't mean it's

00:53:05.700 easy, but it definitely the most rewarding and realizing that we also all can do it. And I loved

00:53:10.200 your point that confidence. Yeah. I think sometimes we see these people on YouTubes and so, oh, they're so

00:53:16.620 confident. I think they're also probably the most unhappy is what I think in a lot of ways I've been

00:53:21.880 there personally. So I can attest to it. Yeah, of course. Put on a front though. Tell me more.

00:53:28.960 It's, it's rough, man. You put on a front because you think people need you to show up a certain way

00:53:34.400 or, or even you said it earlier, a duty, I think is what you said. You have a duty or responsibility,

00:53:39.120 obligation to talk about Adam dying for his message and believing in it that much, you know,

00:53:42.800 you believe in it that much, you might be struggling and yet you still want to show up because you

00:53:46.380 believe in it that much, even though you're not personally in the best place you show up anyway.

00:53:53.820 So it's a challenge, man. It can be a challenge. Yeah. You got me reflecting where people are like,

00:53:59.740 no, you're so successful. And I'd only say in really for my own measurement and maybe in the past

00:54:05.380 year have I felt really successful for who I am. And that's, that's the best part of life is like

00:54:11.220 when we can reduce. And I don't think it's impossible to reduce all external validation,

00:54:14.980 but to really build up that internal validation, right? Build up that self-confidence and self-worth

00:54:20.380 from doing action that helps us recognize like, and doesn't mean we're always not having problems

00:54:24.940 or doesn't mean that we're not making mistakes, but not beating ourselves up over it and realizing

00:54:29.760 like, well, I'm doing it and I'm doing it and I'm doing it and I'm doing it and I'm doing it and I'm

00:54:33.700 doing it. So that's something that lately I'm like, even now, as I say it a lot, I'm like,

00:54:38.840 yeah, dude, you're doing pretty good, man. Not bad. Not bad. Dude. All right.

00:54:42.860 We all are. I mean, I think that's true for all of us. We're all doing better than we think too.

00:54:46.680 So don't, don't be too hard on yourselves out there. No, I know you have another meeting. I

00:54:50.500 want to be respectful of your time. Tell the guys where to connect with you. And then of course,

00:54:54.600 to pick up a copy of a million dollar weekend. We'd love to hear how to connect with that.

00:54:59.300 Yeah. Milliondollarweekend.com. We've got a bunch of tutorials and step-by-steps if you want to change

00:55:03.780 your life in a weekend. And then Noah Kagan everywhere. If people want to send me DMs,

00:55:07.900 I respond. We'll, we'll sync it all up, brother. I appreciate you. I, the thing I admire most about

00:55:13.400 you and I talked about this earlier is your creativity. I don't, I don't, I don't have

00:55:17.880 that muscle. I need to develop that a little bit more. And so I see things you're doing. I'm like,

00:55:21.380 man, he's got some balls. I need to do that. So I appreciate your work, especially early on with 0.99

00:55:26.280 me using your programs, businesses, apps that helped me in ways that you may not be aware of.

00:55:31.940 I appreciate you. I appreciate our friendship. Thanks, brother.

00:55:34.040 Thank you, man. All right, guys, there you go. My conversation with the one and only Noah

00:55:39.820 Kagan. I hope you enjoyed that one. I always love talking with Noah. He's been a friend. We always

00:55:44.160 have good conversations. It's like two guys getting together who've known each other for a long time

00:55:48.240 and just kind of shooting and brainstorming ideas to each other. And like I said, he's one of the most

00:55:54.760 creative, interesting people that I personally know. And I think you can probably attest to that

00:56:00.060 by just listening. And I would definitely encourage you to pick up a copy of his book,

00:56:04.780 the million dollar weekend, the surprisingly simple way to launch a seven figure business

00:56:08.640 in 48 hours. And I think if you apply what he's teaching, you're going to find yourself in a

00:56:14.440 much better spot. If you apply and implement everything that he teaches and you'll be able

00:56:19.360 to start your own businesses and the idea with the idea being to have a fulfilling, rewarding career,

00:56:25.240 career, which I know is what many of you want. So make sure you check out a copy of his book,

00:56:30.300 connect with him on Instagram and me as well. Check out Montana knife company. And then also

00:56:35.200 check out the uprising experience, which is May 2nd through the 5th, 2024. Again, we have seven spots

00:56:41.220 remaining. So I'd love to see you there. You can do that at order of man.com slash uprising

00:56:46.220 outside of that guys, just take a screenshot right now, real quick before this one ends and post it up

00:56:51.980 on Instagram, post it on Facebook, post it on Twitter, tag Noah, tag myself, let other people

00:56:57.320 know what you're listening to. Cause if you have information to share, they're going to be lifted

00:57:01.860 up. They're going to be helped. They're going to be served by having access to that information as

00:57:05.520 well. So please do that guys. You have your marching orders. We will be back tomorrow for our

00:57:10.340 ask me anything until then go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.

00:57:15.780 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life

00:57:20.400 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - January 30, 2024

NOAH KAGAN - How to Build a Million-Dollar Business

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