ASK ANDY： Product Development and a Primer on Core Values
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Summary
On this episode of the MFCEO Project Podcast, we answer a bunch of questions and talk about a variety of different topics. We also talk about the heat in St. Louis and some of the crazy things that have been going on in our lives.
Transcript
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Hey guys, what's up? It's Andy. You're listening to the MFCEO Project Podcast. Thanks for tuning
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in. We're here, going to hit some Q&As on our Thursday episode. I'm here as always with
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my host, Von Kohler. What's up, dude? This is a great day. It is. It is a great day. It's
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just beautiful out. It's been ridiculously hot in St. Louis the last couple of days.
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Yeah, man. It's 90 today. It feels like it's 75. Yeah, it feels really good. People don't
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realize how fucking hot it gets here. I tell people, I've got my friends in California and
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my friends in Florida, and they're like, oh, it's hot. You don't know how hot it is. First
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of all, my mom lived in South Florida for a long time. I know how hot it gets. It does
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get hot, but it does not get like here. Here is different. There's no ocean breeze. It's
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fucking 1,000% humidity. There's really nothing cool to look at. It makes it worse. There's
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asphalt everywhere. It's like you walk outside. I mean, for me, man, I'm a big dude. I walk
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outside and I'm like, I've got to change my underwear after walking outside for 30 seconds.
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It is really. It fucking sucks. Yeah. Yeah. And dude, today it's, I did cardio outside
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today, 90 degrees. I seriously, it felt like it was like 75. Yeah. I mean, it felt really
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nice. Yeah. Of course I'm flying out tomorrow, so I'm excited. Well, I'm going to tell you
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where I'm going and then I'm going to try to think if I know you well enough to anticipate
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the question that's going to follow. All right. I'm flying to Colorado.
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Oh, you're going to go out there and smoke some weed?
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I'm flying to Denver. I was going to go out there and get his little sticky green on.
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You know what? I was in Deerbrook's for people who are not.
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They don't sell weed at Deerbrook's. No, they don't. They don't. I was at Deerbrook's for
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people who don't know what that is. That's a local supermarket. And I was ordering some
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salmon from, you know, the deli area and there was this high school kid and I have to stay
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away from gluten. So I asked him, as I said, I said, Hey man, how much for a dime?
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So there's this, so there's this, the salmon and it comes with a glaze and he says, do you
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want extra glaze? And I said, is there wheat in it? And I think he heard me wrong. He's like,
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dude, that'd be awesome. And I go, I go, what? And he goes, what'd you say? I go, I said,
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is there wheat in it? Like wheat, like gluten? He goes, Oh, Oh, uh, no, I don't think so.
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That's funny. I think he damn kids these days. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Anyway,
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smoking all that weed. Um, did you do the intro? I don't know. I think so. Okay. If I didn't,
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if you're new, um, we're going to say bad words and we're going to talk about things,
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answer questions in regards to business. This is the MF CEO project. If you didn't already know
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that. Yeah. If you're, if you're continuing, you know, that we're, um, or unorganized and we're
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going to get off track and we're also going to say bad words. Andy is. Yeah. I'm going to. All right.
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So, well, if anybody's still with us, we should probably answer a more serious question, but those
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are fun. Okay. And you know what? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm hesitant to ask this question simply
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because I'd like to spend a whole podcast on a bit. This is a good question. This is a question
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from James from OKC home of the thunder. All right. Hey, Andy, I'm a huge fan and big believer
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of your thoughts and beliefs in business. I thought I was one of the only ones that thought this way.
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Uh, I was listening to the podcast the other day and you were talking about your core values in your
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company that you hire and fire by. Could you run down your list of core values again? Um, and come
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up with, uh, let's see here, so that I can review them and come up, come up with a couple new or
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borrow a couple of ones. And can you also tell me how you came up with those core values? Um,
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I kind of butchered your question, James. Yeah. I think he got it. Dude, that's like a,
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that's like a 40 minute answer to be honest. Um, you know, so maybe, maybe how about we do this?
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How about I narrow the question and say, why do you think it's important to have core values?
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And because, okay. So the idea behind what you want to do is you want to create a culture in
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your business. All right. You want to give your business a living, breathing culture that is your
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company. Okay. And if you want an example of a living, breathing culture of a company,
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look at a company like Harley Davidson. Okay. These guys, they don't care if you're black. They don't
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care if you're white. They don't care if you're gay. They don't care if you're straight. It doesn't
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matter if you're a man or a woman. It doesn't fucking matter as long as you live by the core
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values of live to ride, which is I'm passionate about Harley Davidson motorcycles. And even some
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guys stretch it out to, I'm just passionate about riding motorcycles because so you show up at Harley
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Davidson on a Sunday or a Saturday for these group rides that they do. And there's dudes that are six
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foot five, 280 pounds with beards down to their belly button, you know, and then there's, you know,
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the regular doctor dude, you know, um, they're dressed, you know, in his Harley shit, you know,
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you know, he's going to some fancy dinner at that night, but for that three hours, he's a fucking
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Harley guy. You know what I'm saying? And those two guys find connection in that culture. And you,
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the way you really want to get your business going is by developing a culture amongst your employees
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and your customers so that not only do they use your products, but they're proud to use your
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products and they stand for what your company stands for. And if your company is going to stand
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for something, you have to identify what those points are going to be that your company is going
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to stand for. And that's what your core values are. So developing the things that you stand for
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and making it something that you hire and fire by, if you think about it the way I just explained,
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it becomes very natural thing to do because if you don't hire and fire by those core values,
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the core, the core values and the culture will die eventually. And you'll lose that cool
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quote unquote X factor that you created. That is really your most valuable asset as a company,
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you know? So in terms of like listing them out and all that, you know, I've told a couple of people
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on Periscope and here that we'll put them, we'll put them up on the website. So, and then like
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our description of them, but by no means do those have to be your core values.
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But I will say they're very good core values, not only for, for business, but for life. And I think
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that's why people relate to our personal culture here at first form so well, um, and at supplement
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superstore so well, and they want to be a part of the team because the core values don't represent
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just making money in business and growing a business. It represents how to actually live
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and be a good person and do the right thing. And people dig that, you know? Um, and it's true.
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It's how we operate here. So, you know, I'm not going to get into them because you're right. That
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could be a whole episode, but I hope that I explained why that's important. Yeah. So that's
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your teaser, James. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, most people don't get what core values are. Like you can ask
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companies, like if you, if I ask people what their core values are when I'm in my consulting situation
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and they can't answer, I mean, I know I'm in for a fucking, a battle. Yeah. You know what I mean?
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Yeah. There should be strong identifiable values that your company stands for that you live, breathe
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and enforce in your day-to-day operations. I mean, and that, and they're, and they're important.
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You know, a lot of companies don't think they are, you know, they are right. They're everything.
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Right. Okay. So you want to do one more? Yeah, we'll do another one. Okay. This is, uh,
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question from Danny and Danny actually works for a technology company. And by the way, it's D-A-N-I.
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She says, um, let's see here. You have said multiple times to listen to your customers,
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respect your customer and deliver what your customer needs. Basically happy customers equals
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happy returns. So wait, wait, wait, let me stop right there. Yeah. Because I haven't said that.
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Oh, you haven't said that. I haven't said, listen to your customers, make what they want
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because a lot of times customers don't know what the fuck they want. What I said was make
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what you think is the best and customers will relate to that. So I don't go out and try to
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take customers feedback, dude. Okay. You know what? I think I miss misread just, just in fairness
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to her. I said, I think I wrote deliver what your customer wants. No, you, she wrote respect your
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customers and deliver what they need. Yeah. Solve their problem. Right. Right. So that was my
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fault. I'm like, for example, I'll just finish what I was saying. You know, we flavor products,
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right? Not everybody's going to fucking like the way you flavor a product. People, if you ask a hundred
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people, they're going to say it should be sweeter. It should be less sweet. Um, it should be thicker.
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It should be thinner. It should be this. It should be that. I can't make a product for everyone.
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I've got to make the product that I think is the best and put it out there. Right. You know what I mean?
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And people will like it. Right. You know, and I might ask four or five people, but I'm not asking
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everybody. Right. You just can't do it that way. Right. So. So here's her question. Yeah. So how do
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you turn a product from what appears on the bottom line to be a great product into a product that is
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truly a great product that people continue to rave about? So I guess she's just talking about how you
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improve a product. Read that again. Okay. This is what she said. So how do you turn a product
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from what appears on the bottom line to be a great product into a product that is truly great
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that people start to really rave about? If I understand her correctly, I think she's just
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talking about how, how do you take sort of an objectively good product and turn it into
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something people, I mean, what? Well, I mean, the reality is, is great product development
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and great products cure everything. You know, the better they solve the problem and the better
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they solve the problem with like a certain wow factor, like, wow, did that not only solve my
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problem, but it was fucking awesome. The more people are going to talk about it. So, um,
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you know, for example, I mean, if you take a fucking bandaid and it's, you know, I mean,
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look at band-aids, it's the most boring fucking thing on earth. All right. But band-aids used
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to be like that ugly Brown. Right. Right. And then all of a sudden somebody came out and they
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made fucking Snoopy band-aids, right? Or Superman. Right. Or Superman or whatever. And guess
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which ones sell the ones with the shit on them, the logos and shit on them. You know
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why? Cause it gets people like some sort of little extra thing, you know? Um, so if your
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product can't for your first focus should be on getting your product to solve the problem
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that it's supposed to solve the best possible way. If you're solving a problem at 80% because
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the cost of manufacture is too expensive to get it to solve at a hundred percent, you're likely
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going to miss a big opportunity for word of mouth to be wow because you're trying to cut
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that corner of that 20%. You get what I'm saying? So if you were just to spend a hundred percent
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and do it fucking perfect, you're going to get that extra wow factor and probably make
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up that mark, that production costs on the backside. You know, people always short, short
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circuit themselves with that kind of thinking. Let me make, especially here in the supplement
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world. I mean, I can tell you, everybody's trying to make the cheapest, the cheapest, the
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cheapest, the cheapest, the cheapest. Well, why does it make any fucking sense to put
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the cheapest thing into your fucking body? It doesn't make sense. Right. If you want,
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if you're putting something into your body, you want the best, you know, and that's what
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we built our whole company off of. So, and I think that's, I think that's encompassing
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to almost all products. You know, people want within their budget, the product that's going
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to solve their problem the fucking best. And you have to realize as a manufacturer of a
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product or producer of a product that your product may not be for the guy who's going
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to drive a $10,000 car. And you may not get those guys. Your product may be too expensive
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for that. And I think people get caught up and they may end up with these products because
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they try to include everybody in the price point and everybody in the, you know, in the
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funnel. But the reality is, is most products that everybody can fit into the funnel on. And by
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the funnel, I mean like a potential customer, most products that fit potentially everybody
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are fucking so vanilla that people will never fucking talk about it. So you, you squeeze
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your funnel a little tighter, exclude some people and make your product better. And then
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all of a sudden it's good enough to where people say, Holy fuck, that's awesome. Right.
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You know, and you have to understand something too. I don't know what product, but there's,
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there's an aspect of something potentially costing more that people actually appreciate. You
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know, when things are more expensive, sometimes the mentality can be look at Apple computers.
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Apple's a great product, but they're fucking three times as expensive as PC. Right. So there's
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our timer to get done, but you know, somebody who's making, you know, barely enough money to
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get by and they work their ass off to afford that Apple and they buy it. They're fucking proud
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of that. They say, fuck, I'm an app and that won't work with every product. Cause there's
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commodity products, you know? Um, but it works a lot of times, you know, it says, man, I'm
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proud of this product. And there you get word of mouth. Right. Cause it create pride because
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they had to earn it. You see what I'm saying? And I don't think Apple's three times as expensive
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better than PC. I mean, I prefer Apple, but you know, and I still buy Apple because I'm in
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the position to do that. Right. But, uh, you know, I mean, there's definitely a premium
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in there and they're smart. They get it. They get the people brag about, they want that little
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light up Apple at fucking Starbucks with their latte. You know, they'd want that. They want
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to sit there and they want to put their fucking black frame glasses on. Look man, they want
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to put their fucking black Harry Potters on and they want to sit in Starbucks with their
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fucking coffee with the little Apple lit up and pretend like they're fucking, you know,
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getting shit done. Yeah. I mean, dude, and Apple sells that to them. Yeah. Yeah. You
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know? So it makes people feel important. It makes people feel good. It makes people be
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productive. And I'm not saying that's even a fucking bad thing. I'm just saying they understand
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what they're selling. Right. So understand what you're fucking selling. What are you selling?
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You know, I don't know what she's selling. She didn't say what she's selling. I don't know.
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I can only answer the question. Um, you know, I didn't read the whole thing. Guys, if you ask
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questions, include everything that you're include the details, because that helps me
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answer the question better. If I don't know the product or I don't, these generalized questions
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are very hard to answer. Right. You know, because. Well, your co-host didn't read the
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whole email. Well, I'm just saying. Yeah. You know, I, it would help if I knew the product
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because then I could fucking say, you know, Hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. No,
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that's good. Okay. So we are past our time, but I do want you, if you can answer really
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succinctly, here's a question. I mean, this is, this is anecdotal. This isn't based on any
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hard, hard research, but I don't know if you've ever heard, you know, a lot of people
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say early iterations of Microsoft word were great. So then they tried to improve the product
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and people kind of got the feeling of like, dude, this is so bloated. So what was the
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mistake that they made? You know what I'm saying? Cause a lot of people thought here's the difference.
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The new improved version was just too much. Look, here's the difference. And again, that's
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just anecdotal. Here's the difference. Don't come out with a new version of your product
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unless it's a legit improvement because a lot of companies will come out with a new version
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because they need to generate the cashflow. Apple's starting to do this every, and they've
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been doing it every fucking year. There's a new iPhone. It's no different. You know, I mean,
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a couple of years ago they got fucking, you know, Oh, I'm going to take the phone Jack from the top
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and I'm going to put it on the bottom. I'm going to create a new charger. That's not a superior
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charger. That's just to get us to go buy the fucking new one. You know, and companies,
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people get like for me, I get pissed at that. You know what I mean? Cause you're not genuinely
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improving your product. So new features do not mean improvement. No, do not release or promote
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a new version of your product unless it's genuinely better than the old version. Don't think that you're
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going to trick the consumer just to generate cashflow. That's what these people think, you know,
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and it works, but it's not going to work for very much longer in the way things are. People are
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getting smarter, right? You lose integrity. Yes. Yeah. And, and, and, and it, they lose that by
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Apple doing that. They're losing that super little by little, they're losing that super culture.
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They created, you know what I mean? Every year they come up with the iPhone. It's the same fucking
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thing with, you know, and it's $700 and you've got to, you know, it might have one or two little
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features on it that are different, but is it an improvement? That's debatable unless it's a non
00:16:53.520
debatable. Yes, this is a fucking improved product. You shouldn't come out with it if you want to
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maintain the integrity of your following. Right. You know? So, um, I think there, yeah, I mean,
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there are a lot of people who for a long time have just been like, Oh, if Apple release releases it,
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I'll buy it. But that's only going to go so far over time. People are going to start thinking,
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okay, why am I doing this? Well, not only that, their sales are going to continue to decline,
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decline, decline, decline. And they're going to get on a slippery slope to where once they do that
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for so long and their sales start to slow and slow and slow and other companies are truly innovating
00:17:28.760
and bringing out better improvement products, they're going to, what they're going to lose is
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that fucking passionate Apple, you know, coolness that they, which is what I said a minute ago is
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what they're selling. And when they lose that and, and then they, and then they try to start
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innovating again, it's like starting from scratch. Right. You know what I mean? They've
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tainted their name. The company's not going to come back the way that it did. So, um, you know,
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I, I see a lot of companies that do that shit just to generate sales and I get that, but it's,
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I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, man. Maybe it fucking works. I don't know. It seems to work.
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They're the richest company in the world, but you know, I also know that on the ground floor,
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which they can't fucking see from their tower that they've built, people get tired of that
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shit. You know what I mean? And eventually people get enough tired that they give somebody else a
00:18:22.460
shot. Right. So it might be a good strategy for now, but where's it going to be in 20 years? Right.
00:18:28.480
Right. You know what I mean? And with that question, we're going to wrap up. Ask Andy
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at the MFC. I mean, that's a good question, man. That's, that's a debatable question. I'm sure
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if you had somebody like Seth Godin in here or Gary Vee or any of these guys, I'll have to get
00:18:41.480
those guys in there. Dude, it would be awesome. They'd have other opinions that might not,
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you know, or other points that might, you know, prove me wrong on that. I, that's just what I see.
00:18:50.220
No, it's good. You know, and I'm a small business guy. I'm not a fucking multi-billion dollar. I mean,
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yes, we do a lot of business, but we're still small business, you know? So I, I could, that answer,
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you know, that's how I see things. I don't necessarily, I don't fucking know everything. It's
00:19:07.400
just how I see things from my, my perspective and experience. When you're, when you're up here in
00:19:11.920
this, you know, trillion dollar building that they fucking built or whatever, and you're looking down
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on the ground floor, you can't always see what's actually going on from that perspective. You know,
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I see people producing products all the time that are not necessarily any better, uh, just to generate
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sales. And eventually people are like, dude, fuck that. They're just trying to get my shit.
00:19:34.740
Right. And that's not, that's not how, you know, you build a long-term passionate following.
00:19:41.220
Right. You know, Harley Davidson has a long-term passionate following. They don't fuck,
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they've had some of the same models for 20, 30 years because there is no improving it.
00:19:50.040
Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, that's true. Um, so I don't know. Good stuff. Yeah. Maybe.
00:19:57.900
Could be good. No, it is good stuff. Like I said, ask Andy at the MFC. Well, I can't talk today.
00:20:04.240
Ask Andy at the MFCEO.com. Thanks for tuning in guys, or I guess you didn't really tune in. You
00:20:10.280
kind of downloaded or I don't know, linked guys. Thanks for the reviews too. Um, we're getting
00:20:15.240
more and more reviews still, still some of you guys are slacking. You know, we don't ask for much.
00:20:20.760
We don't charge. I asked that you leave a review. Um, I would appreciate it if you guys did that for us.
00:20:26.880
Uh, and I'll say it the other way, leave a fucking review because people seem to get a kick out of
00:20:34.740
that. But yeah, you know, I mean, what the fuck, man, we're in here putting in this time, trying to
00:20:38.660
answer questions and give some good info for free. It's there's some great reviews though. Some of
00:20:42.880
you people have really taken it to a next level by your reviews. They're, they're amazing. It seems
00:20:48.920
like we have either people that are just willing to pour their heart out and be awesome. And then we
00:20:53.200
just have people that are like, fuck it. I'm not doing a review. Yeah, definitely. All right.
00:20:57.040
Well, that's it. All right, guys, we will see you on Tuesday. Bye.
00:21:13.200
All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work.
00:21:19.640
All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work.
00:21:23.200
All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work. All I do is work.