REAL AF with Andy Frisella - ASK ANDY： Product Development and a Primer on Core Values

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, what's up? It's Andy. You're listening to the MFCEO Project Podcast. Thanks for tuning

00:00:23.660 in. We're here, going to hit some Q&As on our Thursday episode. I'm here as always with

00:00:29.420 my host, Von Kohler. What's up, dude? This is a great day. It is. It is a great day. It's

00:00:35.200 just beautiful out. It's been ridiculously hot in St. Louis the last couple of days.

00:00:39.380 Yeah, man. It's 90 today. It feels like it's 75. Yeah, it feels really good. People don't

00:00:44.180 realize how fucking hot it gets here. I tell people, I've got my friends in California and 0.96

00:00:48.620 my friends in Florida, and they're like, oh, it's hot. You don't know how hot it is. First

00:00:53.380 of all, my mom lived in South Florida for a long time. I know how hot it gets. It does

00:00:56.620 get hot, but it does not get like here. Here is different. There's no ocean breeze. It's

00:01:01.980 fucking 1,000% humidity. There's really nothing cool to look at. It makes it worse. There's 0.98

00:01:11.840 asphalt everywhere. It's like you walk outside. I mean, for me, man, I'm a big dude. I walk

00:01:17.680 outside and I'm like, I've got to change my underwear after walking outside for 30 seconds.

00:01:21.620 It is really. It fucking sucks. Yeah. Yeah. And dude, today it's, I did cardio outside 1.00

00:01:25.600 today, 90 degrees. I seriously, it felt like it was like 75. Yeah. I mean, it felt really

00:01:30.360 nice. Yeah. Of course I'm flying out tomorrow, so I'm excited. Well, I'm going to tell you

00:01:35.880 where I'm going and then I'm going to try to think if I know you well enough to anticipate

00:01:41.220 the question that's going to follow. All right. I'm flying to Colorado.

00:01:46.920 Oh, you're going to go out there and smoke some weed?

00:01:51.940 I'm flying to Denver. I was going to go out there and get his little sticky green on.

00:01:57.320 You know what? I was in Deerbrook's for people who are not.

00:01:59.960 They don't sell weed at Deerbrook's. No, they don't. They don't. I was at Deerbrook's for

00:02:03.160 people who don't know what that is. That's a local supermarket. And I was ordering some

00:02:09.780 salmon from, you know, the deli area and there was this high school kid and I have to stay

00:02:15.900 away from gluten. So I asked him, as I said, I said, Hey man, how much for a dime?

00:02:20.640 So there's this, so there's this, the salmon and it comes with a glaze and he says, do you

00:02:25.600 want extra glaze? And I said, is there wheat in it? And I think he heard me wrong. He's like,

00:02:32.280 dude, that'd be awesome. And I go, I go, what? And he goes, what'd you say? I go, I said,

00:02:38.800 is there wheat in it? Like wheat, like gluten? He goes, Oh, Oh, uh, no, I don't think so.

00:02:44.540 That's funny. I think he damn kids these days. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Anyway, 1.00

00:02:48.880 smoking all that weed. Um, did you do the intro? I don't know. I think so. Okay. If I didn't,

00:02:54.940 if you're new, um, we're going to say bad words and we're going to talk about things,

00:02:59.380 answer questions in regards to business. This is the MF CEO project. If you didn't already know

00:03:04.020 that. Yeah. If you're, if you're continuing, you know, that we're, um, or unorganized and we're

00:03:08.620 going to get off track and we're also going to say bad words. Andy is. Yeah. I'm going to. All right.

00:03:14.200 So, well, if anybody's still with us, we should probably answer a more serious question, but those

00:03:18.780 are fun. Okay. And you know what? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm hesitant to ask this question simply

00:03:25.760 because I'd like to spend a whole podcast on a bit. This is a good question. This is a question

00:03:31.660 from James from OKC home of the thunder. All right. Hey, Andy, I'm a huge fan and big believer

00:03:38.540 of your thoughts and beliefs in business. I thought I was one of the only ones that thought this way.

00:03:42.880 Uh, I was listening to the podcast the other day and you were talking about your core values in your

00:03:46.600 company that you hire and fire by. Could you run down your list of core values again? Um, and come

00:03:53.620 up with, uh, let's see here, so that I can review them and come up, come up with a couple new or

00:03:58.120 borrow a couple of ones. And can you also tell me how you came up with those core values? Um,

00:04:05.160 I kind of butchered your question, James. Yeah. I think he got it. Dude, that's like a,

00:04:09.200 that's like a 40 minute answer to be honest. Um, you know, so maybe, maybe how about we do this?

00:04:13.960 How about I narrow the question and say, why do you think it's important to have core values?

00:04:19.000 And because, okay. So the idea behind what you want to do is you want to create a culture in

00:04:24.620 your business. All right. You want to give your business a living, breathing culture that is your

00:04:32.700 company. Okay. And if you want an example of a living, breathing culture of a company,

00:04:36.920 look at a company like Harley Davidson. Okay. These guys, they don't care if you're black. They don't

00:04:42.840 care if you're white. They don't care if you're gay. They don't care if you're straight. It doesn't 0.99

00:04:45.740 matter if you're a man or a woman. It doesn't fucking matter as long as you live by the core 0.95

00:04:51.560 values of live to ride, which is I'm passionate about Harley Davidson motorcycles. And even some 0.95

00:04:57.840 guys stretch it out to, I'm just passionate about riding motorcycles because so you show up at Harley

00:05:02.720 Davidson on a Sunday or a Saturday for these group rides that they do. And there's dudes that are six

00:05:09.380 foot five, 280 pounds with beards down to their belly button, you know, and then there's, you know, 0.98

00:05:16.360 the regular doctor dude, you know, um, they're dressed, you know, in his Harley shit, you know, 0.99

00:05:22.180 you know, he's going to some fancy dinner at that night, but for that three hours, he's a fucking 0.99

00:05:27.540 Harley guy. You know what I'm saying? And those two guys find connection in that culture. And you, 0.99

00:05:32.660 the way you really want to get your business going is by developing a culture amongst your employees

00:05:36.880 and your customers so that not only do they use your products, but they're proud to use your

00:05:41.640 products and they stand for what your company stands for. And if your company is going to stand

00:05:46.560 for something, you have to identify what those points are going to be that your company is going

00:05:53.140 to stand for. And that's what your core values are. So developing the things that you stand for

00:05:58.420 and making it something that you hire and fire by, if you think about it the way I just explained,

00:06:03.820 it becomes very natural thing to do because if you don't hire and fire by those core values,

00:06:09.280 the core, the core values and the culture will die eventually. And you'll lose that cool

00:06:13.900 quote unquote X factor that you created. That is really your most valuable asset as a company,

00:06:20.160 you know? So in terms of like listing them out and all that, you know, I've told a couple of people

00:06:25.300 on Periscope and here that we'll put them, we'll put them up on the website. So, and then like

00:06:29.940 our description of them, but by no means do those have to be your core values.

00:06:36.300 But I will say they're very good core values, not only for, for business, but for life. And I think

00:06:40.660 that's why people relate to our personal culture here at first form so well, um, and at supplement

00:06:45.860 superstore so well, and they want to be a part of the team because the core values don't represent

00:06:50.700 just making money in business and growing a business. It represents how to actually live

00:06:55.440 and be a good person and do the right thing. And people dig that, you know? Um, and it's true.

00:07:01.040 It's how we operate here. So, you know, I'm not going to get into them because you're right. That

00:07:06.920 could be a whole episode, but I hope that I explained why that's important. Yeah. So that's

00:07:13.000 your teaser, James. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, most people don't get what core values are. Like you can ask

00:07:19.440 companies, like if you, if I ask people what their core values are when I'm in my consulting situation 0.98

00:07:24.400 and they can't answer, I mean, I know I'm in for a fucking, a battle. Yeah. You know what I mean? 0.98

00:07:30.720 Yeah. There should be strong identifiable values that your company stands for that you live, breathe

00:07:36.540 and enforce in your day-to-day operations. I mean, and that, and they're, and they're important.

00:07:42.700 You know, a lot of companies don't think they are, you know, they are right. They're everything.

00:07:46.920 Right. Okay. So you want to do one more? Yeah, we'll do another one. Okay. This is, uh,

00:07:54.140 question from Danny and Danny actually works for a technology company. And by the way, it's D-A-N-I. 0.74

00:08:01.580 She says, um, let's see here. You have said multiple times to listen to your customers,

00:08:09.460 respect your customer and deliver what your customer needs. Basically happy customers equals

00:08:13.480 happy returns. So wait, wait, wait, let me stop right there. Yeah. Because I haven't said that.

00:08:19.940 Oh, you haven't said that. I haven't said, listen to your customers, make what they want

00:08:24.740 because a lot of times customers don't know what the fuck they want. What I said was make 0.98

00:08:29.540 what you think is the best and customers will relate to that. So I don't go out and try to

00:08:35.560 take customers feedback, dude. Okay. You know what? I think I miss misread just, just in fairness

00:08:41.720 to her. I said, I think I wrote deliver what your customer wants. No, you, she wrote respect your

00:08:47.140 customers and deliver what they need. Yeah. Solve their problem. Right. Right. So that was my

00:08:51.940 fault. I'm like, for example, I'll just finish what I was saying. You know, we flavor products,

00:08:56.400 right? Not everybody's going to fucking like the way you flavor a product. People, if you ask a hundred 0.98

00:09:01.680 people, they're going to say it should be sweeter. It should be less sweet. Um, it should be thicker.

00:09:05.500 It should be thinner. It should be this. It should be that. I can't make a product for everyone.

00:09:10.460 I've got to make the product that I think is the best and put it out there. Right. You know what I mean?

00:09:15.660 And people will like it. Right. You know, and I might ask four or five people, but I'm not asking

00:09:21.100 everybody. Right. You just can't do it that way. Right. So. So here's her question. Yeah. So how do

00:09:27.520 you turn a product from what appears on the bottom line to be a great product into a product that is

00:09:33.540 truly a great product that people continue to rave about? So I guess she's just talking about how you

00:09:38.320 improve a product. Read that again. Okay. This is what she said. So how do you turn a product

00:09:44.240 from what appears on the bottom line to be a great product into a product that is truly great

00:09:49.600 that people start to really rave about? If I understand her correctly, I think she's just

00:09:55.040 talking about how, how do you take sort of an objectively good product and turn it into

00:09:59.460 something people, I mean, what? Well, I mean, the reality is, is great product development

00:10:03.400 and great products cure everything. You know, the better they solve the problem and the better

00:10:08.700 they solve the problem with like a certain wow factor, like, wow, did that not only solve my 0.92

00:10:13.000 problem, but it was fucking awesome. The more people are going to talk about it. So, um,

00:10:18.140 you know, for example, I mean, if you take a fucking bandaid and it's, you know, I mean, 0.99

00:10:24.180 look at band-aids, it's the most boring fucking thing on earth. All right. But band-aids used 0.99

00:10:29.000 to be like that ugly Brown. Right. Right. And then all of a sudden somebody came out and they 1.00

00:10:33.000 made fucking Snoopy band-aids, right? Or Superman. Right. Or Superman or whatever. And guess 0.99

00:10:37.960 which ones sell the ones with the shit on them, the logos and shit on them. You know 1.00

00:10:41.840 why? Cause it gets people like some sort of little extra thing, you know? Um, so if your

00:10:47.980 product can't for your first focus should be on getting your product to solve the problem

00:10:53.600 that it's supposed to solve the best possible way. If you're solving a problem at 80% because

00:10:59.260 the cost of manufacture is too expensive to get it to solve at a hundred percent, you're likely

00:11:04.540 going to miss a big opportunity for word of mouth to be wow because you're trying to cut

00:11:09.400 that corner of that 20%. You get what I'm saying? So if you were just to spend a hundred percent

00:11:14.180 and do it fucking perfect, you're going to get that extra wow factor and probably make 0.95

00:11:18.120 up that mark, that production costs on the backside. You know, people always short, short 0.93

00:11:23.060 circuit themselves with that kind of thinking. Let me make, especially here in the supplement

00:11:27.180 world. I mean, I can tell you, everybody's trying to make the cheapest, the cheapest, the

00:11:30.580 cheapest, the cheapest, the cheapest. Well, why does it make any fucking sense to put 0.87

00:11:34.220 the cheapest thing into your fucking body? It doesn't make sense. Right. If you want, 1.00

00:11:39.120 if you're putting something into your body, you want the best, you know, and that's what

00:11:42.520 we built our whole company off of. So, and I think that's, I think that's encompassing

00:11:48.420 to almost all products. You know, people want within their budget, the product that's going

00:11:54.920 to solve their problem the fucking best. And you have to realize as a manufacturer of a 0.91

00:11:59.560 product or producer of a product that your product may not be for the guy who's going

00:12:05.060 to drive a $10,000 car. And you may not get those guys. Your product may be too expensive

00:12:09.860 for that. And I think people get caught up and they may end up with these products because

00:12:14.440 they try to include everybody in the price point and everybody in the, you know, in the

00:12:20.880 funnel. But the reality is, is most products that everybody can fit into the funnel on. And by

00:12:26.480 the funnel, I mean like a potential customer, most products that fit potentially everybody 0.98

00:12:31.120 are fucking so vanilla that people will never fucking talk about it. So you, you squeeze 0.97

00:12:36.120 your funnel a little tighter, exclude some people and make your product better. And then

00:12:39.800 all of a sudden it's good enough to where people say, Holy fuck, that's awesome. Right. 0.99

00:12:43.260 You know, and you have to understand something too. I don't know what product, but there's,

00:12:47.520 there's an aspect of something potentially costing more that people actually appreciate. You

00:12:53.800 know, when things are more expensive, sometimes the mentality can be look at Apple computers. 0.98

00:13:00.440 Apple's a great product, but they're fucking three times as expensive as PC. Right. So there's 0.97

00:13:09.340 our timer to get done, but you know, somebody who's making, you know, barely enough money to

00:13:15.620 get by and they work their ass off to afford that Apple and they buy it. They're fucking proud 0.98

00:13:20.180 of that. They say, fuck, I'm an app and that won't work with every product. Cause there's 1.00

00:13:24.360 commodity products, you know? Um, but it works a lot of times, you know, it says, man, I'm

00:13:30.600 proud of this product. And there you get word of mouth. Right. Cause it create pride because

00:13:34.340 they had to earn it. You see what I'm saying? And I don't think Apple's three times as expensive

00:13:39.860 better than PC. I mean, I prefer Apple, but you know, and I still buy Apple because I'm in

00:13:44.920 the position to do that. Right. But, uh, you know, I mean, there's definitely a premium

00:13:50.380 in there and they're smart. They get it. They get the people brag about, they want that little

00:13:53.420 light up Apple at fucking Starbucks with their latte. You know, they'd want that. They want 0.99

00:13:58.020 to sit there and they want to put their fucking black frame glasses on. Look man, they want 1.00

00:14:02.040 to put their fucking black Harry Potters on and they want to sit in Starbucks with their 1.00

00:14:06.000 fucking coffee with the little Apple lit up and pretend like they're fucking, you know, 1.00

00:14:10.780 getting shit done. Yeah. I mean, dude, and Apple sells that to them. Yeah. Yeah. You 1.00

00:14:16.340 know? So it makes people feel important. It makes people feel good. It makes people be

00:14:21.000 productive. And I'm not saying that's even a fucking bad thing. I'm just saying they understand 0.98

00:14:25.340 what they're selling. Right. So understand what you're fucking selling. What are you selling?

00:14:29.900 You know, I don't know what she's selling. She didn't say what she's selling. I don't know.

00:14:33.240 I can only answer the question. Um, you know, I didn't read the whole thing. Guys, if you ask

00:14:37.940 questions, include everything that you're include the details, because that helps me

00:14:42.660 answer the question better. If I don't know the product or I don't, these generalized questions

00:14:46.960 are very hard to answer. Right. You know, because. Well, your co-host didn't read the

00:14:51.200 whole email. Well, I'm just saying. Yeah. You know, I, it would help if I knew the product

00:14:56.140 because then I could fucking say, you know, Hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. No, 0.98

00:14:59.620 that's good. Okay. So we are past our time, but I do want you, if you can answer really

00:15:03.340 succinctly, here's a question. I mean, this is, this is anecdotal. This isn't based on any

00:15:07.400 hard, hard research, but I don't know if you've ever heard, you know, a lot of people

00:15:11.860 say early iterations of Microsoft word were great. So then they tried to improve the product

00:15:16.800 and people kind of got the feeling of like, dude, this is so bloated. So what was the

00:15:21.120 mistake that they made? You know what I'm saying? Cause a lot of people thought here's the difference.

00:15:25.920 The new improved version was just too much. Look, here's the difference. And again, that's

00:15:30.160 just anecdotal. Here's the difference. Don't come out with a new version of your product

00:15:33.720 unless it's a legit improvement because a lot of companies will come out with a new version

00:15:37.800 because they need to generate the cashflow. Apple's starting to do this every, and they've

00:15:42.440 been doing it every fucking year. There's a new iPhone. It's no different. You know, I mean, 0.98

00:15:46.820 a couple of years ago they got fucking, you know, Oh, I'm going to take the phone Jack from the top 0.68

00:15:51.360 and I'm going to put it on the bottom. I'm going to create a new charger. That's not a superior 0.90

00:15:55.400 charger. That's just to get us to go buy the fucking new one. You know, and companies, 0.99

00:16:00.300 people get like for me, I get pissed at that. You know what I mean? Cause you're not genuinely

00:16:04.620 improving your product. So new features do not mean improvement. No, do not release or promote

00:16:13.220 a new version of your product unless it's genuinely better than the old version. Don't think that you're

00:16:19.740 going to trick the consumer just to generate cashflow. That's what these people think, you know,

00:16:24.700 and it works, but it's not going to work for very much longer in the way things are. People are

00:16:28.500 getting smarter, right? You lose integrity. Yes. Yeah. And, and, and, and it, they lose that by

00:16:33.760 Apple doing that. They're losing that super little by little, they're losing that super culture.

00:16:38.920 They created, you know what I mean? Every year they come up with the iPhone. It's the same fucking

00:16:42.560 thing with, you know, and it's $700 and you've got to, you know, it might have one or two little 0.98

00:16:48.160 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 0.99

00:16:58.260 maintain the integrity of your following. Right. You know? So, um, I think there, yeah, I mean,

00:17:05.580 there are a lot of people who for a long time have just been like, Oh, if Apple release releases it,

00:17:10.620 I'll buy it. But that's only going to go so far over time. People are going to start thinking,

00:17:14.460 okay, why am I doing this? Well, not only that, their sales are going to continue to decline,

00:17:17.960 decline, decline, decline. And they're going to get on a slippery slope to where once they do that

00:17:23.440 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 0.94

00:17:33.800 that fucking passionate Apple, you know, coolness that they, which is what I said a minute ago is 0.97

00:17:42.120 what they're selling. And when they lose that and, and then they, and then they try to start 0.98

00:17:46.860 innovating again, it's like starting from scratch. Right. You know what I mean? They've

00:17:52.140 tainted their name. The company's not going to come back the way that it did. So, um, you know,

00:17:58.220 I, I see a lot of companies that do that shit just to generate sales and I get that, but it's, 0.99

00:18:03.240 I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, man. Maybe it fucking works. I don't know. It seems to work. 1.00

00:18:07.780 They're the richest company in the world, but you know, I also know that on the ground floor, 0.85

00:18:13.500 which they can't fucking see from their tower that they've built, people get tired of that 1.00

00:18:17.920 shit. You know what I mean? And eventually people get enough tired that they give somebody else a 1.00

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

00:18:33.380 at the MFC. I mean, that's a good question, man. That's, that's a debatable question. I'm sure

00:18:37.400 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,

00:18:45.360 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,

00:18:55.220 yes, we do a lot of business, but we're still small business, you know? So I, I could, that answer,

00:19:01.520 you know, that's how I see things. I don't necessarily, I don't fucking know everything. It's 0.90

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

00:19:16.680 on the ground floor, you can't always see what's actually going on from that perspective. You know, 0.95

00:19:22.460 I see people producing products all the time that are not necessarily any better, uh, just to generate

00:19:31.160 sales. And eventually people are like, dude, fuck that. They're just trying to get my shit. 0.99

00:19:34.740 Right. And that's not, that's not how, you know, you build a long-term passionate following. 0.99

00:19:41.220 Right. You know, Harley Davidson has a long-term passionate following. They don't fuck,

00:19:45.680 they've had some of the same models for 20, 30 years because there is no improving it. 1.00

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 0.98

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 0.99

00:20:38.660 answer questions and give some good info for free. It's there's some great reviews though. Some of 0.98

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. 1.00

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.

REAL AF with Andy Frisella - August 13, 2015

ASK ANDY： Product Development and a Primer on Core Values

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