283. Q&AF： Workplace Parties, Transition From S2 To 1st Phorm & Creating Momentum During Complacency
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Summary
In this episode of the Realist s sake podcast, DJ answers your questions and talks about how to be a better entrepreneur. DJ also talks about why he does what he does and what it takes to be successful in the real world.
Transcript
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What is up guys, it's Andy Priscilla and this is the show for the realist sake about the
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lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality.
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Guys, today we have Q and AF, this is where you bring the Qs and give you the AFs and as
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always, DJ is going to read your Qs and you can submit your Qs, email them in to askandy
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I've had my head in my fucking own business for the whole day, so has the world exploded
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Yeah, actual business ownership, not pretending to be a business owner on the internet.
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If you like the show, if it makes you think, if it makes you laugh, if it teaches you something,
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I'm actually a real entrepreneur in real life, so I don't need the ad revenue.
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I do pretty good on my own and I like to give back.
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I like to give information to you and you probably wonder, like, why the fuck do I
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Well, here's the reason I do this, because I realize that if I don't teach this information
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Because we have 80% of the motherfuckers out there trying to teach you shit, aren't doing
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Can't go online and buy their products unless it's coaching, okay?
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And unfortunately for you, I wasn't born to be a teacher.
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I was born to kick ass, and so you got to deal with a little bit different way of
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And if this is your first time listening, we do divide the show up into different shows,
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When you come here and subscribe to Real AF, you're going to get, well, you never know
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You're going to get, most of the time you're going to get CTI, which is cruise the internet.
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That's where we look at what's going on in the world and we make fun of it and make fun
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And then we have Q&AF, which is here, which is where I teach my entrepreneur content.
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If you want to learn more in-depth entrepreneur content, there's a lot for free in the MFCEO
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catalog, which is the number one entrepreneur podcast of all time.
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If you scroll on back to numero uno and start there, there's 330 episodes of pure entrepreneurial
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If you want to learn more in-depth, you can join Arte Syndicate, which is a club that Ed
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and my Latin I run that teaches people how to fucking win.
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Then we have Real Talk, which is where I get on and I yell and basically tell you all the
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shit none of your friends will tell you and force you to look in the mirror and figure
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And then we have full-length episodes where I get my famous friends to come on and we
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I don't really give a fuck if you don't like the show, so don't worry about emailing me
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in because I don't care and I don't answer to you and I don't answer to fucking anybody.
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Like these people, you know, people fucking email into my various companies.
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So fucking look away, go away, go buy someone else's shit.
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Question number one, Andy, what are your thoughts on workplace parties?
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Not the, you know, I got coffee and donuts in the fucking break room for Susan's birthday.
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But this person says, my boss told me that I shouldn't go to parties that my employees host
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because I am their manager and need to maintain a level of professionalism.
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So how do you balance professionalism and being a regular dude when it comes to your employees?
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Now, listen, I've been doing this since I was 19.
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So, like, I've gone through the phase where I've partied balls with all my employees.
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And a lot of good things came from that, right?
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Like, everybody got to see everybody make ass of themselves at one point or another.
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Because that's what happens when you go out partying with your friends.
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Everybody's got to be the dumbass every night, right?
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You know, as you get a little bit bigger and, you know, you start bringing in people that
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don't really, you don't really get to know as closely, you know, things do change.
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And that's unfortunate because I do think that the time when you're a smaller company, you
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get to know your people a little bit better just because there's everybody, everybody
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knows that you're a bunch of fuck-ups trying to do something.
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Whereas when you start to actually do something, people start to look at you a different way,
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And unfortunately, the atmosphere that we live in today, you know, people like to hold things
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against people and judge people and act like, you know, people don't make the same
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And, you know, for that reason, it's probably a better idea in most places to do what your
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boss said there and to really stay away from those things.
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But man, you know, I think it all comes down to just knowing your limits and knowing where,
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you know, maybe you don't want to be the guy that's dancing on the fucking bar and putting
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There was a time when I was that guy for our company, bro.
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But, you know, nowadays it's it's it's a little bit different.
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I don't fucking I don't really get too wild anymore.
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And I think, you know, approaching it with the understanding of, you know, OK, these guys
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are my friends, but also, you know, I have to manage them and we have to get shit done.
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And I think the best way to handle that situation is to compartmentalize it.
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You know, I think a lot of people that are in leadership roles try to carry those leadership
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Like they get to the social event and they keep they try to they try to keep their work
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Like, bro, when you go to that social event, it's just it's just you and the fellas and
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And letting that guard down to show everybody that you're just one of them is helpful and
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So navigating that just takes some self-awareness.
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I like to operate where, you know, when we're at my house or we're out somewhere, we're
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And when business time to get business time, we're still all equals.
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But it's just my role to call the shots at the end of the day.
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And I think, you know, leaving your ego out of leadership is a good way to approach those
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It allows you to have a healthy balance of friendship and get shit done.
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I think most of my team here understands that, like, when we're out, we're out.
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And when we're here, we're here and we don't hold things against people.
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Like, there's been plenty of employees here that have, like, gotten too drunk or, you know,
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We don't hold that against people when they come back to work.
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And when we're as long as you don't come into work acting like that, there's not going
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Well, I mean, would you say there's definitely ways to have those fun atmosphere parties?
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Like, yeah, I think that would be like, I mean, I'm not saying everybody can can do that.
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But like, there's definitely ways to fucking make those positive interactions.
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I think, you know, one of our core values here is building fun and positive relationships
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and having fun and partying and letting off steam.
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So like, I don't to me, you know, I feel like this whole this whole can't hang out, can't
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I think that's all to make up for a gap in your weak leadership abilities.
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I think you should be able to lead your team and still be socially friends with them.
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You know, if we were all out on a combat mission and there was life or death situations,
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you know, you guys and I was leader and you guys, we would be I would make the fucking
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If we're out at the bar and, you know, you guys say, I want to go to this other bar.
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I'm going to be and you guys all there's four of you.
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Like, it's just knowing when to assert and when not to assert.
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And I think a lot of people try to I think it's kind of a cheesy way to maintain a power
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structure over someone by by limiting interaction.
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I think the better opportunity is to is to, you know, participate in the interaction, be in
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Like there's a million different kinds that work.
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For me, you know, I just I do what I said I just did.
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And when we come in here, we got to do something.
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And if somebody treats I've never had a problem with that.
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I've never had one of my guys who I consider some of my best friends in the fucking world,
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if not my very best friends, you know, when we're out, you know, and then they come
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here and they treat me like like we all understand the dynamic.
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I think it just depends on your fucking leadership ability.
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You know, I think if you want to have a good culture, a fun culture, a culture that, you
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You have to be willing to spend fun time with your team and enjoy it and have it be genuine.
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I think a big problem is, too, a lot of these managers and CEOs think they're like in a
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different class than the people that work for them.
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I'm going to go around hanging out with the fucking pinky up crowd here.
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Like, dude, I don't fuck around with those people.
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Like when I hang out, I hang out with my people right here.
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I think that sends a better message than seeing me all over town with the who's who of our
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I don't think it's I think there's pluses and minuses.
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The one thing that I would say is a no, no for sure is like, you know, don't over consume
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And I've made my I've made those mistakes before where I've made an ass out of myself
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I was like, those are things that you have to learn as a business owner.
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And I would if you're after 23 years of doing this now, I don't regret any of the times,
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any of the good times, any of the trips, any of the partying or any of the fun shit that
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I it's probably the best times I ever had my whole life.
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So, you know, I think just ignoring that because you want to maintain a power structure.
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You know, I think you should be a strong enough leader where you're a leader at work and out
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It's a chance to show the guys that you're just one of the guys and we got a job to do.
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I think it builds respect with your team, not takes away.
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I think that's just something that people got to kind of find on their own.
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It's just a style of where you're comfortable and what's productive and how it works.
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But if all your employees are into some weird shit, probably probably don't go to those
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Well, if they are, they're probably taking their cues from you.
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And let's talk about the transition from S2 to One Piece.
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So you were 10 years in business, how exactly did the opportunity come around or the idea
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or when did you see that next move to transition from S2 to One Piece?
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Because you went from selling people's products, right?
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You know, when we started the company, a lot of people don't realize like how little
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We had to, for us to get a space because we didn't have any credit, we had to pay a
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year's rent up front, which was a thousand bucks a month.
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So we had to finance all of our inventory, all of our shelving, everything else in the
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So for us to like go from that to having our own company was a, it was a massive, like
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it was almost, it was almost an unbelievable goal, if that makes sense.
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Because like, dude, you got to remember, I was having this discussion with my brother
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a couple of weeks ago and, you know, I got, my dad found our first tax return from 1999
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and he brought it into work and it was like negative $3,500 for the year.
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And, uh, it said supplies and we built out that whole entire store for $500 and it was
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And I had forgot that it was only 500 bucks for us to build for all the shelves, all the
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Um, cost us $500 and like that fucking table right there is eight grand that I'm pointing
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And we got like, what, 40 of those around the fucking building?
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Like, it's just, it's, it's, it's very bizarre when you really think about how much ground
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Um, so getting that, getting to that next level at the beginning was an unthinkable goal for
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It was something we never really thought we could do.
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And, um, but, but what, but what happened, what really happened was over the, over the
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first nine years of us having retail stores, um, you know, we learned the business very
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Um, we got to examine which companies did things right, which companies did things not
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And so most of the conversations that Chris and I had in that store, cause remember 10 years
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in, we were still having days where we wouldn't see anybody.
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Like the first three years I made a $0 the next seven years I made $695 for a total over
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For 10 years of fucking work, I made 58 fucking grand.
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So how the idea came about was from us basically case studying all the other companies.
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Day after day, after day, after day, you know, somebody would come out with new packaging.
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We'd be like, yeah, I don't like this packaging.
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And we could tell it was bad packaging because the customer, it confused the customer.
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Um, cause you had that on the ground grassroots.
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We knew what it was like to sell those products.
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So like we got to learn a lot about the industry from being the person who actually had to sell
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it to the customer because, you know, most of these companies didn't, didn't do that.
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And the distribution network was a completely different thing.
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They had no perspective on what actually the customers wanted, how they wanted it, what confused them,
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They were making products and then hoping that they did well.
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When in reality, it would make sense to fill the need that the customers want, which they
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didn't know because they had to rely on people like us to sell their products.
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You got to remember e-commerce and shit wasn't like what it is now.
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And by the way, you can't even tell on the internet what customers true feedback is
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because you're not having a genuine conversation with them.
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So really the only feedback that you have is the customers that choose to make, make reviews.
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And then, um, what sells, but you don't know like why other shit isn't selling.
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And so we got to see all of this shit firsthand for 10 years.
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And our conversation always came up, came to like this.
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Um, yeah, man, if we, and first it was, if we ever had a company, we'd do it like this.
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And then after about three or four years, it was like, well, when we have our company,
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And, um, and then we got an opportunity to consult on a product, uh, and build a relationship
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And we were able to start manufacturing a very small amount and we took it from there.
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But, uh, you know, one of the best things that we had that we utilized was our knowledge
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So we could understand what they actually wanted, um, what they liked, what they didn't
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And over 10 years, bro, you start to learn a lot of shit.
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Like if you pay attention to it, dude, like I could look at anybody else's brand right
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now and fucking point at every single product without even knowing how it sells and tell
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you that's selling, that's not selling and why.
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And so, um, you know, it was just a natural progression of, of thoughts and conversations.
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And as our retail company grew and gained respect in the community and opportunity presented
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itself to consult, um, on a pretty big project.
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And then we worked with that company, uh, that project didn't pan out for that company.
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And then we, we created a manufacturing partnership, um, based off of that.
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And I mean, when we started first form, you know, people were making fun of us, you know,
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they were saying, Oh, what are you making that in your fucking basement?
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Oh, you mean you're going to make a supplement brand made here in St.
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Louis and it's going to compete on the national level.
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And so when I tell you, uh, we'll be the number one brand globally, uh, just wait.
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So like, you know, when you're, I guess the takeaway here.
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For people who are in the beginning is like, you may not be able to see the exact path of
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how you're going to get where you want to go, but you know, maybe pretend a little bit
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as if you're going to, as if it's going to work out and observe the knowledge from that
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perspective, as you're going through what you're doing now, because it's going to give
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you a more comprehensive understanding of what you want your future brand or your future
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growth or your future company to actually be in serve.
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You know, one of the things that first form is based upon, um, is highest quality product
00:19:55.560
You know, we would have customers come in the store day after day, after day, after
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day, and be like, why are all these companies just competing for the cheapest possible product?
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I want the absolute best, not the fucking cheapest.
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And that was, that was something that we committed to from the beginning.
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Like we were going to make a product that was the absolute best at whatever price point
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that ended up being versus trying to create a product for a price point that everybody
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And when we first did that, everybody said, well, it's never going to work.
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It's never, well, we're pretty much the number one fucking brand in this, in our whole fucking
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Um, but all of that came from, from just listening and talking and imagining and what
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could be and how we would do it and this and that and this, and most of first form
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And of course now it's evolved from, you know, the 2009 version into this massive operation
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that now includes apparel, includes all kinds of other ancillary products, um, and helps
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millions of people get, get their fucking shit together.
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Do you think that brick and mortar or the grassroots on the ground in your face way of business,
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do you think that like, do you, do you see that making a massive comeback with all the
00:21:10.800
e-com and technology stuff that we have right now?
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I think it's the only, I think it's the most valuable understanding of how to do business
00:21:19.640
you could possibly grasp is talking to people face to face.
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And I think that the biggest opportunity that exists right now in business is actually face
00:21:28.700
to face type businesses because people are really starting to reject technology.
00:21:33.440
Um, there's, there's always going to be people that want face to face.
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There was always going to be people that want to support small business.
00:21:39.020
There's always going to be people that want to get in their car and go and have a Saturday
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It's an event for people, especially if you make your brick and mortar and experience.
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Um, yeah, there's, I think there's a massive opportunity in brick and mortar and anybody
00:21:54.380
who says they're not, um, I'll argue with you till the day you die.
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And I could probably bet that I'm more successful brick and mortar than you'll ever fucking be.
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So I'm just giving you my professional opinion.
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Uh, we're doing, we're setting record after record after record in our brick and mortar
00:22:18.840
Andy, uh, guys, our last and final question for you, Andy, question number three, Andy,
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what is the best way to create momentum in a period of complacency?
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Um, you have to force yourself through the first couple of days.
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Momentum is understood to be something that people catch on accident.
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Um, you know, Oh dude, I was doing really good.
00:22:48.760
Um, well, what would have happened to had you force yourself through instead of saying
00:22:53.640
then I bought and instead say, well, then I had this happen, but I forced myself through
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anyway, you would have maintained the momentum.
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So giving up the momentum is, is usually a choice because someone had a day that was abnormally
00:23:06.340
difficult and they weren't able to push through.
00:23:10.840
If they do it correctly, um, you are actually in 100% control of your momentum at all times.
00:23:18.620
Now, well, if you were unaware of this, will you naturally catch momentum sometimes?
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But if you pay attention, the reason that person caught momentum was because for three
00:23:31.240
or four or 10 days in a row, they did the exact same thing.
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And what it did was force them into a feeling of, uh, of it being natural, which felt like
00:23:41.260
So you're in control of your momentum at any given time.
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And it's just that when unexpected things pop up and your conditions don't serve you
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to naturally flow through with that momentum, that's when you have to push and grind yourself
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Most people will see that as the end of their momentum.
00:24:00.580
And then they wait, um, hopelessly out of their control for the next cycle of momentum
00:24:10.800
If you're a fucking fat ass, like I was, it was all the Mondays, right?
00:24:14.360
Every Monday I was telling myself the same shit and I felt powerless.
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I felt like I fucking had no strength and no discipline because I didn't.
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But then when I figured out, oh shit, I can actually force myself through these things
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and I can actually catch the momentum and manufacturing momentum.
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I became infinitely more powerful in every single area of my life because now I know what
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And this is what live hard and 75 hard does is it teaches you how to manufacture high
00:24:43.340
level fucking momentum over the course of your motherfucking life.
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It teaches you how much of your life you're actually in control of, which by the way,
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and I hate to tell you, this is way fucking more than you think.
00:24:55.620
A lot of you motherfuckers are out there playing victim just because you don't understand the
00:25:00.520
And you're living like the plastic bag floating through the sky in that movie, American, what's
00:25:08.640
American Beauty, where the fucking plastic bags just blowing through the whole fucking
00:25:16.840
And yeah, eventually you'll catch some fucking wind, but like it's, where's it going to take
00:25:21.780
Your momentum should be focused and it should be manufactured and it should be intentional.
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And once you realize that you have this power, nothing can actually fucking fuck with you
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And that's something that most people will live their entire lives from now until the
00:25:35.860
day they die, not understanding and thinking that their whole life is the result of circumstances
00:25:39.980
when in reality, it's the result of you not understanding that you are actually in control
00:25:44.280
of your own fucking progress day in and day out.
00:25:47.380
You're just not executing and you'll live your whole life as a fucking victim thinking,
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It's because when it got hard or when it rained or when you fucking got hungry or when you
00:25:59.980
whatever your boys wanted to go out to the club or whatever the fuck it was, you did
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Hey dude, our life success comes down to little bitty tiny decisions that we make consistently
00:26:14.480
And if you're making consistent decisions to break your momentum over and over and over
00:26:22.780
It's a, it's, it's something that you, every single human is in control of.
00:26:26.040
And if they don't, if they aren't in control of it, it's because they're not aware of it.
00:26:30.560
That's why every single fucking human in the world should do live hard 75 or every fucking
00:26:37.260
If you did it the right way, it would teach you so much about what I'm talking about now
00:26:45.240
You would have the belief and the discipline to execute on anything that you wanted to
00:26:55.080
What's more powerful than being able to do anything you want to do as a human being at
00:26:58.700
any given time and not having to wait around to catch the momentum.
00:27:09.360
And if you want to know more about live hard and how it works and what it does, go listen
00:27:17.980
If you want to buy the book, it's on the website.
00:27:20.280
It'll give you an in-depth play-by-play description of how the fuck to do what I'm talking about
00:27:25.520
But I would recommend that no matter what, and no matter what you think of me, and no matter
00:27:29.080
what you think of my opinions or whatever, you fucking do this because it'll change your