196. Q&AF： Firing Employees, Merging Businesses & Making Big Purchases
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode of the Realist, DJ and Andy talk about how to hire and fire people, how to grow a business, and how to make sure your employees are doing their best to make the most out of their time.
Transcript
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What is up guys, it's Andy Priscilla and this is the show for the realist.
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Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality.
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A lot of them have to do with business, 75 hard.
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We've been able to build one of the biggest entrepreneur shows, success shows, comedy shows.
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I don't buy my fucking fake magazine covers or fake fucking Forbes lists or fake fucking awards or any of this shit.
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If you like the show, if you don't like the show, tell us to fuck off.
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And guys, as always, you can email your questions into ask Andy at Andy for seller dot com.
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And ask good questions because I don't answer the stupid ones.
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Like, so when you, when you message in and you ask like stupid shit, we need to do an
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episode of that where we just answer, answer stupid shit.
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And has it changed from, you know, the 23 years ago to what it is now?
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Well, look, man, that's probably one of the hardest things about being in business.
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Like, because he was a good dude, like a really good dude.
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And then, you know, he went out and found a way and he became super successful in his own
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You know, first off, I try to give people multiple chances.
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You know, I look at their mistakes and sometimes their inability to perform as an opportunity
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And it really takes a lot for me to fire people.
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Usually for me to fire people, they have to do something unethical.
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Otherwise, I really try hard to find them a role inside of our company because we have
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And I think that as business owners and CEOs and managers, people who have to hire and fire,
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I think the best way to look at your company is to figure out, and people don't do this.
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Like, just because a guy is not good at sales doesn't mean he won't be great at servicing
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a customer or he won't be great at helping logistically with things.
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And your job as a CEO is not to crank out people who are a cookie cutter person.
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Your job is actually to cultivate someone's natural skills and help them figure out a
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So, you know, you have to have there's some nuance there is what I'm saying.
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You have to realize that when people make mistakes, there's two ways to look at it.
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One, you could look at it and say, hey, this person cost me $12,000.
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But the real CEOs are going to look at it and say, OK, that person cost me 12 grand.
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And if the answer is no, then you have to eat that and invest that into a cost of education.
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So the best way to do that is take their mistake, show everybody the mistake.
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But mainly, you know, when you have to actually go fire someone after you try to do all those
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things in good faith, and let's just say it's just not working.
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Or they did something unethical, like they got caught stealing.
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Or they got caught, you know, doing something that was totally against company culture.
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And, you know, the way to fire someone, in my opinion, under scenarios where they didn't
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do something unethical, because that's really easy to fire people.
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You show them the proof and you say, what the fuck?
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And then they say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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And you say, well, you can't work here anymore.
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Uh, but let's just say they're a good person, right?
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Because that's where the really hard firings come in.
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Look, dude, uh, usually those people know they're going to get fired.
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And usually, bro, what you find out is that they're not happy.
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And so usually the conversation goes something like this, like, hey, bro, like, uh, you know,
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And so I like to toss it to them and get what they think.
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And I'll say, well, don't you think like, it might be a good idea for you to find a place
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where you're going to be happy and be, cause it seems like you're not.
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And usually what you find out is they don't want to fucking be there anyway.
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So once you make it okay for them to leave, and it's kind of almost like a mutual thing.
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And that usually happens, uh, you know, and, and, and they go their own way and you
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support them and, and, and whatever they do, you know, as long, that's how I operate.
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You know, like I have a lot of people that have not worked out here that I'm still really
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And it just so happened to be that they wanted to do something else and that that's okay.
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And that's why their performance was suffering here.
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And so, you know, you have to like work with those people, but some people just aren't
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But having a mutual conversation about the reality of the scenario shouldn't be something
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that someone who is in charge of a business, uh, should be afraid of, because here's the
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And this is what got me okay with firing people.
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If you don't fire people, first of all, understand this.
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You're in the entire rest of your team knows who should be fired.
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And if you don't fire people, guess what they think about you?
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They, they invest less than the company, not monetarily, emotionally, and mentally, because
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they don't trust you to make the hard calls when the hard calls come.
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So when you, if you like, don't fire the people that you know should be fired, just understand
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that every day you don't, you're losing respect to your company.
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So that, that's where I got, when I understood that, that's when I started getting real fucking
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Like, Hey, look, bro, you got to go fucking up the team.
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So I have a responsibility as a CEO to make it the best fucking most powerful machine
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If I have someone that's holding the company back, it's not just affecting me.
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And that's where you have to like really understand that this is a responsibility for you to do
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because you're also responsible to these other people.
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And when you start thinking about it like that, it becomes a much easier decision to
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It's easily the worst part about being a business.
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Um, and then after they leave, you know, I, as long as they're a good dude or a good,
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good girl, like, you know, and they're a good person, um, I'll do everything I can to
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fucking help them along and find a place where they fit.
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You know, but if they, if they, if they cheat or if they lie or they try to start a mutiny
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or they try to fucking fuck with you, um, that fucking hammer swings both ways.
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Well, you know, people, you know, I mean, it's reality of life.
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I just put a post up today, man, you know, if you're going to do something that's out
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of a normal, if you're going to build something great, if you're going to try to be great,
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if you're going to try to be more than what everybody else is and where everybody else
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is just waiting to die and rotten, uh, you're going to be the bad character in someone's
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So you have to understand like sometimes, and dude, I've had plenty of people too that,
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uh, you know, we had disagreements and then later on we, we became
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And, and look, to be an effective leader and not fucking truly hate people, you've
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got to have a big heart and be able to forgive people.
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Like I don't hold any animosity towards any of the people that ever came here.
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I actually value them for the time that they, that they came and served and helped.
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And I choose to think about those things, whether they're like more than like if shit went bad.
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Well, and the fact that you're on that fucking resume, you know, the next day,
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the next business, the next company is going to see that.
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But you know, listen to everybody out there that has to go through that scenario.
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You know, you see that shit on Donald Trump show where he's like, you're fired.
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Like that might be, you know, some of you guys out there running companies, you think,
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And not everybody can get in line with the exact same thing that you're trying to do.
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And if you truly believe in that, you shouldn't be trying to fucking fuck with people.
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Question number two, can you talk about mergers and buyouts and what's the pros and cons of
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Well, I actually don't know a whole lot about that because I've never really done it.
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I took over a failing business one time, but it wasn't this big corporate deal.
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There are a lot of guys that know more than me.
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Um, you know, and I don't really look into it because I'm not interested in selling or
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merging, you know, now I could see strategic partnerships with companies.
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I mean, we do have some strategic relationships.
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Obviously you have to have those, but, uh, you know, I'm probably the wrong guy to get
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to, to answer that question, to be completely honest.
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Um, but strategic partnerships is something I can talk about.
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You know, I think it's super important that you, that you create good, positive relationships,
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Um, because do you never know when you're going to need their help and you never know
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And like, to be honest, dude, like most of the people that I'm in competition with in
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business, like I talk a lot of shit about wanting to crush everybody and fucking kill
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And you know, that's true, but I also don't want them to fucking fail because these are
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So it's this weird internal dynamic where it's competitive, but it's also like, all
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Like that's a mature thing that happens once that company is a lot.
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Well, remember, I think, you know, there's that 20, like we talked about with Ed Milet when
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he was on the show, you know, there's that five-year business owner or 10-year business
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You know, I think when you're in the five-year club, you're still in the, in the kill mode
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where you think you got to ruin everybody, you know, and that doesn't really work.
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There's too many, there's enough business for everybody out there to survive.
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I learned because every year that I operated that way, where I felt that way, we never grew.
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And I think that has to do with intent, I think, and now my, my, my viewpoint, because
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I think my viewpoint now, um, has evolved to where like, when I see people do really
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good shit, uh, I still get a twinge of like, fuck you.
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And then I correct myself and I'm like, you know what?
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It's great because this, this, this, this, and guess what?
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If they did that, I can do that or I could do it better.
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And I believe in every single company that I'm a part of in that way.
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So I don't really don't think like, and this is not cockiness.
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I really don't think anybody out there can beat me.
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I could beat myself by not coming to work and not staying aggressive and starting to
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And a lot of people think that what's funny is a lot of our competitors think that they
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Um, I haven't even fucking started yet, by the way.
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But, uh, you know, those, those relationships are good because here's the thing, dude.
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Um, you're going to go through phases in your company.
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You're going to go through phases where you're the underdog.
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Uh, you're probably going to go through phases where you're in the growth period.
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And you're going to go through phases where, uh, you know, if you pay attention and keep
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working where you're going to be near the top, as long as you stick it out, like you guys
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out there who are in year one, year two, year three, you could be at the top.
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If you just stick with it, that's the, that's the thing no one really gets like, cause
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eventually all these other people you're competing with shit happens to them.
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Like their priorities change, or they go through some sort of midlife change, or they, somebody
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buys them or something happens or this or that.
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And so if you're competing, let's say with a hundred people in the first three years,
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by the time you get to level the 20th year, uh, you know, there's only fucking five left.
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And so really it is a game of survival and perseverance and fortitude and grit and toughness,
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which by the way, I talk an awful lot about, all right.
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Um, so, you know, I think having a, uh, you know, good strategic partnerships, I think it's
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Um, I think it's okay to be competitive with people and still, I think you can still root
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Those two things can coexist in my brain, at least for me.
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Like I can look at someone and be like, I'm going to fucking beat you, but I'd still love
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Like, and, uh, I want you to, I'm still going to celebrate when they win.
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And so I think it's, bro, I think it is a maturity thing.
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You know, um, I'm definitely not a mature human.
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Like I'm still 12 years old, but when it comes to those things in business, you know,
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that's just becoming more confident in your own abilities and your team's abilities and
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You know, I see people in business, not just nutrition or apparel or anything like that,
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And you know, they're making mistakes that are honestly just rookie mistakes and him
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and I always say, man, we forget how much we know.
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But like, I'm so thankful that it's been so fucking hard and so competitive because when
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you're gifted like funds or a business, you don't get to learn all these lessons.
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You don't get to like fight in the mud and in the dirt and claw and rip and learn all
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these like little gritty techniques to win in business.
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And so, you know, that's why someone like me, I'm always going to beat someone who's
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a second generation or someone who, um, you know, comes in the game with some financing
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or someone who hit a home run on, on their first day, first at bat.
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And now they're, they're trying to ride that success for all.
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I'm going to eat those motherfuckers for lunch because I never got anything easy.
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And so if things aren't going easy for you right now and things seem like a constant struggle
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and it's like, you're always fucking fighting and you're always clawing, um, that's a really
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good thing because those skills that you develop from that process make you unbeatable as long
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So the longer you get the belt, more skills you have, you know, and what's cool is too,
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once you get to that level where you're like, let's say at that 20, you know, all the other
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And I'll call them up and say, Hey, what do you think about this?
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And they'll say, well, we did this one time and now all of a sudden I got the tools of
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the five other guys who were also not quitters, who are also great.
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Tell, you know, we're all collaborating against the fucking everybody else.
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And so like your goal is to get good enough to get into that level.
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Um, I definitely want to stomp fucking faces everywhere I go, but I also want to lift people
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It's like, no, no, bro, you can, you can run the ways, but you're just going to have second
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If you have podium, if you happen to get first place, you can fucking bet the next time
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And so like, that's, it's kind of like having a brother that's pretty good as shit.
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You want him to be good, but you also want to beat his ass.
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And so that's how it, that's how, but like when you're small, healthy competition, bro.
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But when you're small and there's a thousand competitors, it's fucking ruthless.
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And what you have to understand is that different code is going to put them out of business at
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So I'm looking to get my first big purchase vehicle.
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My people are good, but how do I know if it's the right thing?
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Like, I still don't know if it's the right thing to do.
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Is this, do you think this is just an emotional purchase?
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When I got my first Lamborghini, bro, I was fucking, I was, uh, I didn't drive it for the
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The only person who knew I had it was my brother and my dad.
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And, uh, you know, uh, eventually, um, someone saw a guy that works for us, saw, saw me driving
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Like, you know, it would piss everybody off or whatever.
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One, uh, it inspired the fuck out of people because it showed them that we were winning,
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And secondly, uh, it weeded out a lot of the fucking haters.
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Like I, I, we, we had a, when that phase of my life started where I started making some
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money and I started living a little bit bigger and I started accomplishing some of my personal
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Some people didn't want that in my company and guess what?
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They, they weeded themselves out and those people went a different direction.
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And it, those people were filled back in with people who appreciate that kind of shit and
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And so, you know, I don't want to be surrounded by people who don't want fucking nice shit.
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I don't want people in my company who don't want, have big dreams.
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Now you may not want a fucking Lamborghini or Ferrari or some shit, but maybe a nicer
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house or more money or fucking whatever, more money because you want to give it away.
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I don't care if you don't have fucking big ambitions.
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So once I understood that, which I learned that lesson from one of my friends who was
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an entrepreneur and I said to him, I said, he had a, he drove a McLaren and I said, Hey
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bro, like do your fucking employees like hate that you do that?
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Do you want anybody working for you that hates that I, that you drive a nice car?
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Like if you don't, if you don't want to do that for your life, then fucking go do something
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So like for that person, I would say, um, you know, if you're taking care of your people,
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if you have a big seat where it really gets people in trouble is when they're stale in their
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Like if you're one of these, these business owners who is not aggressively trying to grow
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and create careers and create pathways for people to succeed and you're out, you know,
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Basically, if you're a shitty fucking owner with no responsibility or care for your people
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But if you're actually out there committed, showing up every day, growing the company
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and you're showing people like, Hey, I'm trying to create something fucking huge here.
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So, uh, I think it's important, you know, you, if you're going to drive nice shit and
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be live that big life, you better be sure that you're creating the opportunity for that
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big life with people who are in your organization.
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You know, as far as like affording it and shit, like, how do you know when the time is?
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Um, it should be in a relevant conversation for you.
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Like you, you should be able to pay the money and not give a fuck.
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Like if you could pay for a fucking your, whatever car you want, your first cool car and not give
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But when it, but the problem is when you're trying to get all these tricky ways to cover a fucking
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$1,800 a month payment or some shit, you know, that's where, that's where that, you know,