How to Come Up With a Business Idea, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO6
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Summary
In this episode of the MFCEO Podcast, we are joined by Teresa DiPasquale, who is an entrepreneur in her own right and has come up with a number of successful businesses. Teresa is also the founder of BossBikiniFitness, which is an online fitness business that started in Tampa, FL and has since grown into a multi-level business.
Transcript
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Hey guys, what's up? You're listening to the MFCEO Project Podcast. I'm Andy Fursella.
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I'm here with my co-host, Von Kohler. And today we are joined by a special guest, Teresa
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DiPasquale from Tampa, Florida, who is also an entrepreneur in her own right and has come
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up with a number of successful businesses. And we're going to talk about a few things.
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What's the MFCEO Podcast about? Well, 16 years ago, me and my partner, we started a business
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with $12,000 that we got from painting the stripes on parking lots. And we rolled that
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into a company 17 years later that does annual revenue over $100 million a year. So basically
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what we want to do is we want to bring a mentorship aspect to people who may not have mentors.
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We want to bring you guys the truth, the no sugar coat, no bullshit reality of business.
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And we want to help you guys realize what can be achieved because in today's society, it
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is very common for everyone to be negative. And we're going to try to get you guys the
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tools you need to be positive and to make results happen. So I'm going to get started
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here on a couple of questions. Before I do, Von, you were just mentioning to me that your
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She grew up in another town, however, that has more Polish people than most Polish towns.
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Chicago actually has almost more poles than like Krakow and some of the...
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Yeah. Well, you know, the problem they run into in sporting events in Poland, you know
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that, don't you? The problem is wherever you sit, you're always sitting behind a pole.
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So like when you guys change your light bulb or your house, you guys got to do it together
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Right. Yeah. What's funny is I told her that I'm old enough that in the 80s,
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And I, you know, I'm probably going to offend everybody in our audience is Polish, but I
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I walked into that one. I love Polish women, I should say, or one in particular.
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When we were just talking about, you're Polish.
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Well, I think we should have a contest on how to spell Teresa's last name.
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All right. Well, see, like I said, I'm used to, my wife's-
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Well, the Polish language is just a bunch of consonants thrown together. It's impossible
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to learn, but yeah. No, she was flown over here. She escaped communism.
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Yeah. Yeah. Back in the 80s, Ronald Reagan said, anybody want to escape communism, we'll help
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She was born in Berlin, because her parents were out of the country when she was born,
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but yeah. Yeah. So, there's a piece of the Berlin Wall in Missouri. You know that, right?
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I saw that. I think I saw that on your Instagram or Facebook or something.
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Yeah. So, but, Teresa, so you're going to join us today, huh?
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Are you going to add pithy, insightful comments?
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So, Teresa, tell us a little bit about what you do and your entrepreneurial history. I know
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Well, currently, I am the founder of Bikini Boss Fitness. So, basically, it's an online fitness
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business, but we've basically branched out now. We have a couple different divisions. So,
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I have a competitive team. I do content delivery programs. I have coaches. I have an online
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store. And we've kind of started steamrolling into, like, almost a little multi-level business
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And before that, you owned some gyms and clubs and things like that, right?
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Yeah. She's evolved, basically, from very similar to how we have started with brick-and-mortar
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type businesses and then evolved into more online type businesses, which is very similar
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to what we do as well. So, Vaughn, what are we talking about today?
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We're talking about something that people have been asking questions. They've been sending
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questions to askandyatthemfco.com. And one of the common questions we get has to do with
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this topic of ideas, various questions that go along with that. You know, what do you do
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when you're really passionate and you're willing to work hard, but you just don't have an idea
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for a product or a business? Or if you have an idea, how do you know if it's a million-dollar
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idea? That sort of thing. So, I just thought we'd talk a little bit about that.
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Yeah, man. I think that's definitely one of the most common questions that I get, even
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through email or in person or whatever. You know, people always ask, how do I know what
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idea or what route I should take? And I feel like, you know, that's a very difficult question
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for somebody to answer because the reality is that that answer can really only come from the
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person that's asking the question. So, it's an introspective type question. You know, you have
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to be able to look at yourself and decide that on your own. It's not something that somebody can
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decide for you because in the reality, if somebody does that, you're going to end up being on a road
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that you're not sure was even the road that you picked. Right. And then when things get tough,
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you're going to say, man, I didn't choose to be here. So-and-so told me to do this. Right.
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You know, so it's important to know that you have to come up with the answer to that question on
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your own. And I guess, you know, what we could do is probably start to walk people through that
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process. Yeah. I think that... Why don't you just, I mean, like, how did you literally come up with
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the idea to have a supplement business? What was the process there? You know, my story's a little,
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you know, it's almost like I don't... The way it worked out for me isn't like what I try to teach
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people to do. It just kind of worked out. You know, I talk a lot about how important it is to
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follow something that you're passionate about and follow something that, you know, that you're
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interested in and figuring out how to monetize that business. And that's not how it worked for us.
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I mean, if I'm being completely honest, you know, we did the same thing a lot of entrepreneurs do in
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the beginning is they focus on the money. Okay. So Chris and I, when we were young, you know,
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we were 18, 19 years old, we're like, hey, let's start a business. And the first business idea that
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we came up with was tanning. And the reason we came up with a tanning bed business is because
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we knew somebody else who was in that business, who ironically, I'm still very good friends with
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today, that was doing really well. And so we said, okay, you know, Todd's doing great at tanning,
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let's do tanning. We didn't, we weren't passionate about fucking having some kind of bronze tan,
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you know what I mean? It's just, we were trying to make money. And so we researched it a little bit
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and then we come to find out that, you know, we couldn't afford, we only had $12,000. We couldn't
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afford a tanning bed, not even one. So that expensive. Oh yeah. Back then they were like 50 grand. I don't
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know what they are now, but anyhow. So that kind of crossed it off the list for us. And then what
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happened was we decided to open a supplement store because that was something that we were into
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personally. We knew about that personally. We were both into working out. We were both athletes.
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we were both interested in that direction in our personal lives. So although like we didn't choose
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that business as our first choice, it ended up being the same thing I teach people, which is to
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follow your passion. And it's because what we knew about, you know? And I make, you know, a lot of times
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when I talk about this with people, I make extreme examples. I remember I made a video the other day
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talking about if you're interested in butterflies, how to make a business out of it. You know,
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it really does come down to following your passion because when you, and excuse me for like clearing
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my throat, but I've been sick for like two weeks, but it comes down to following your passion. You
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know, following your passion is a very abstract thing for most beginning entrepreneurs to put their
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arms around and to wrap their mind around because it's, it's just, it doesn't make sense. You know,
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when you're, when you're 18 years old or 19 years old or you're 30 years old and you've got bills to
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pay and you're like, man, I want to start a business. And someone's like, Oh, let's follow
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your passion. That sounds like some rainbow bright fucking bullshit. Right. You know,
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you're trying to get paid. You've got bills to pay, you know, you've got obligations and that
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just doesn't sound very practical. And you think, Oh, well, you know, I'm going to do what makes
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most money. Fuck what I'm passionate about. I want most money. But here's the thing. You know,
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when you start out on the entrepreneurial journey, you're not going to make money when you first start
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the first two, three, four, five years are going to be very hard. And the reason it's important to
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follow your passion is for two reasons. One, during that process of it being very tough and for it to
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be difficult on, on, in the beginning, you know, you're going to wake up in the morning and you're
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going to say, man, this sucks. I don't have any money in my bank account. You know, my girlfriend
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just left me cause I don't have any money. I, I can't afford my rent. I'm late on my bills,
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but fuck, I love what I do. Right. Okay. And that, and that passion and that caring for what you do
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and the excitement for what you do is going to carry you through those difficult times
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to where, you know, you're going to be able to withstand all the other negative aspects of being
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an entrepreneur in the beginning to get to the point, you know, five, six, seven, eight years
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down the road where you're actually making great money and you're enjoying your job. You see what
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I'm saying? Yeah. So, you know, and then the other aspect to that is this, is that to become an expert
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in something, it's very hard to become an expert in something you're not interested or passionate
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about. You know, if you're not interested in fitness, don't get into the fitness business.
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If you're not interested in butterflies, don't start a fucking butterfly website. Right. I mean,
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right. It, it just, it's one of those things for you to become the expert you need to become
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to monetize that idea. You know, you have to be interested in it. You have to be passionate about
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it. Right. Exactly. It's obsession. I mean, you've done this. Tell, tell people what you think about it.
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No, I agree a hundred percent. And it's funny because I was just thinking as you're talking
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about like my journey. Right. And like, I used to remember the days that, I mean, there was a point
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where, um, I was a bartender, I sold new homes and I used to like think, and I'm like, what is my
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purpose? I have no idea what I want to do in life. You know, I always knew I wanted something, but I
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didn't know what. And it's funny because I ended up taking a human biology course in college and like
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became obsessed with health, started working out, like become obsessed with fitness. Um, it really
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changed my life. So I decided, okay, well, you know, I want to have a career in fitness, but
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instead of just being a personal trainer, I decided to just open my own gym, knowing nothing
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about business or fitness or anything. Right. And, um, just became absolutely obsessed with
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it. And so that's the thing is like, you have to have the constant desire to keep bettering
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yourself and like learning more and more. And then I think there's a, there's two parts of
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that equation. That's the first most important part. Right. I think the second part is, is like
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having passion is great, but you have to see opportunities as well. So it's like having passion and
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taking that and turning it into an opportunity, which is, and I think that's where most people
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struggle. Like we get these questions that, that, that you have here about, you know, how
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do I know what's right? How do I make my passion into an income? I think that's the connection
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that most people can't make is how to monetize their passion. It's just like, I was listening
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to the ebook by Seth Godin and he calls it a rift. Right. It's like seeing that rift and jumping
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on it. It's like, he talks about Walt Disney did it with like the animation and the theme parks
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and he saw a need and he took his passion and made it into that need. So it's kind
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of like morphing what you're doing and jumping in an opportunity.
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Well, and also you got to realize that you're not going to hit a home run every time. So
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let's say, you know, you're, you're Walt Disney, right? And you're going to jump in and do the
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theme parks. He saw the opportunity, but he was already into that business before that ever
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that opportunity presented itself. So, you know, recognizing the opportunity, like if you
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wait until you think the perfect opportunity is there to jump into something and get into
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something, you're, you're too late. Cause there's already people who are in that industry that are
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knowledgeable and become experts. Three steps ahead. They've already seen that opportunity
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So one thing that I noticed about you, Andy, and also you, Teresa, is that I think a lot of
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people, when they think of entrepreneurial endeavors, they think, you know, they think of innovation,
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they think of starting something new, but I think what you guys have kind of learned is that you
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don't have to overcomplicate it. You don't have to come up with some brand new product that nobody's
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created. You just have to do something you like and something that you're passionate about and then
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make it exceptional and make it exceptional. Right. Right. Make it better. Right. Make it better.
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There's two ways to innovate. I mean, there's coming up with something brand new and then there's
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taking something that already exists and making it exponentially better. Right. You know, and, and that's,
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I think a lot of people, when they think of innovation, they think of the first way, you know,
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coming up with something brand new. There's very few things out there that are brand new.
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There is a fuckload of things out there that need to be improved. Right. So, you know, you need to
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start thinking about, Hey, that's good. They're doing this pretty good, but I can do it that much
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better. Absolutely. And I think both of us, I mean, you and I, Teresa and I have built our companies
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off of that. Yeah. I mean, I didn't invent nutrition. Right. You know, well, look at fitness is,
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I mean, it's the same thing. It's saturated. Right. Right. Right. So Teresa, my job in the,
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in the podcast is to restate the obvious for those who were dropped on their heads as kids.
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But basically what you guys are saying is, is, you know, if you want an idea, start with,
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what do you like? Yeah. What do you like to do? That's where you got to start. I mean,
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where are your interests? That's, that is the place to start. And so like,
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I recently watched a video online of a quote unquote, you know, mentor of the internet. I don't know,
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but it's like, make your passion money, make your passion money, make your passion money.
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Look, everybody's fucking passion is money. If you're an entrepreneur and you say you don't like
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money and you're not passionate about making money, you're full of shit, but you have to,
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you have to distance yourself from the idea of focusing on the money. Because when you focus
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on the money, you make bad decisions. That's right. And the other thing is, is you don't,
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you only have so much focus and energy in a day. So if you focus on the money all the time,
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that's focused that you are wasting where you could be focusing on creating something awesome
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or doing a better job or creating better service or better product that will make you the money.
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So you have to understand money is a by-product of the quality of the work that you do.
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Absolutely. You know, so, so, so making your passion the money is probably the dumbest fucking
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thing I've ever heard. It's coming from somebody that I, it's clear through my observation. I just
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don't think that it was good information to tell somebody, you know, and you have all these guys
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online selling these online, how to make money fucking quick and this and that and all this
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shit. And the reality is that there is no quick way. You know, if somebody tells you I went from
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zero to a millionaire in 12 months, dude, they either inherited that shit or they're lying or they
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made it by selling you a story about that. Yeah. You know, it's just, it's, it's not realistic,
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you know, and, and most people jump from idea to idea, to idea, to idea their whole entire lives
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instead of just sticking into one, becoming a true expert at it. One of the best in the world and,
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and, and putting in the work and then letting the rewards come to them, you know, after the,
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they've invested that time, you know, and I'm going to tell you and any legit entrepreneur
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will tell you, you have to put in the fucking work. You've got to be consistent and you have to
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be willing to pay your dues. And if you do that, you'll build a viable business. I mean,
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I was just watched a really cool episode of ask Gary V and you guys, you know, Vaughn,
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I love Gary, Gary Vaynerchuk. I think he's one of my favorite authors. I think he's awesome.
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But he would talk, some guy wrote him a question about like, Hey, you know, how do I monetize
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being on the internet and, and, and just, uh, hang out on the beach all day and like smoke
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weed. He literally asked this question. Is he from Colorado? Dude, I don't know. But like the
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point is, it's like, that's the fucking mentality. That mentality is that there's these secret
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ways to make money. When, and, and his answer was perfect. He's like, man, you know, like
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there's like out of a thousand people, there might be one guy who did that. And, and that
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guy probably put five or six years of hard ass work to figure out how to do that passive
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income. Right. You know what I mean? Right. And then on top of that, he's probably selling
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you the program and make it a lot more money. Right. You know, it's just, it's not a realistic
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thing, man. So you're better off just saying, Hey, all right, you know, what am I, what am I
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interested in? I'm interested in X. I'm going to become an expert X. I'm going to figure
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out how to monetize X. Right. You know, and you know, that term passive incomes even, well,
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that, I mean, it doesn't, I understand the use of it, but it doesn't, it doesn't account
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for how much work went into getting to that point or, or even, no, that was the point of
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what Gary said on his thing. Yeah. It's like, it's not, it didn't account for, you know, the
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years of expertise, studying work that went into figuring that out. And like in, in these
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guys, they get online and they, they sell these kids, these kits like, Hey, buy my kit
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for $200 and I'll show you how to fucking, you know, make this much money. It's like,
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dude, you're making all your money. I'll sell in the fucking kit. Right. You know, I don't
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know. I would just hope that people listening to the show will listen to me, listen to the
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people that we bring on the show. And then the fact, and we're getting a little off track,
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but the point is, is like, dude, invest yourself now in this passion, you know, learn about
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what it is you're interested in, become an expert. Right. You know, and by the time,
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you know, five, six years from now, you know, it took me a long time, but you got to remember,
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I built my business before the internet was really some like a huge thing. Right. You know,
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so it took me longer. Now you have more opportunity to go quicker because there is
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other tools. There's, there's instant access to everything now. So where it took me 10 years to,
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you know, buy my first Lamborghini, it might take you five. Right. Because technology is
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different now. Right. But fuck five years. That sounds like a good deal to me. Right.
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Five years and then do whatever the fuck you want. We talked a little bit about passion,
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right? You've got to be interested in it. Teresa, you even said, you know, that's what you became
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obsessed with. I know you're obsessed. You still yell at me. I want to add something to
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when you're every time you see me drink a diet Coke, she yells at me. Oh yeah. Cause there's so
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many chemicals in there. I'm like, fuck, I'd be dead anyway. I think there's a third point that we
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didn't talk about with that too. What's that? I kind of want to touch on. I think like when you're
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backtracking, huh? Just for like a nanosecond. Cause I think it's super important. Okay. As you
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know, like whenever you're starting any kind of a startup, unless you're like massively funded,
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a big part of it is getting people to believe in you and selling your X, whatever it is,
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your product, your service, your business, whatever. And the way that you can successfully
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sell that is by believing in a hundred percent and you don't, you're not going to believe in it and
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be able to communicate that passion or that, you know, belief unless you are passionate about it.
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Yeah. And it's like, they say basically sales is the, you know, I guess transference of emotion
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and passion. And that's exactly why people who are like Uber passionate and obsessed with something
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can sell it so great and you can get people to believe in you. And that's how you can really
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build a great company. At least that's how I agree. That's how I've been super successful
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because I'll tell you, nobody gave me a big check to start businesses. It's about getting a team of
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people that really believe in you and it starts with you. And a lot of times, a lot of times those
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people work for you for free. Absolutely. That's what I'm saying. But you
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believe in yourself and what you're doing. You love it so much. It, the energy.
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Dude, I've got guys here. I have guys here in this office, in this building. That's such a great
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point. But I have people in this building, including my brother who left his job at Johnson and Johnson,
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a fortune 500 company. He was the number one salesperson on earth in their company for three
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years straight, left his job, took a 50% pay cut to come work at first form because he believed in it.
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Absolutely. Because you believed in it. Right. And there's people in this building,
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there's other people in this building who have worked here for 10 years and now they're getting
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paid what they should get paid. But they worked for a long time for less than that because of what
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you're talking about. Absolutely. And I'm not saying that because you want to take advantage of people.
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No. I'm saying that because it's fucking necessary for everybody to sacrifice to build something great.
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That, that, that was my point is I just think that's such a huge component because people could
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have a great idea and be passionate, but if you can't get a team of people to help you,
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unless you have somebody literally writing checks to you, it's going to be hard to make it on your
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own. I mean, you have got to rally these people. You have to inspire them. They have to believe in
00:21:08.220
you and they have to know you have an unrelenting passion and desire to make work. And if they
00:21:12.660
believe in you, exactly. And they can read it if it's fake too. If it's not genuine, no one's going to do
00:21:17.860
anything that, no one's going to buy in. So it's just to me, like when we were talking to him like that.
00:21:21.360
Six months from now, you'll see that dude at dinner and be like, what happened to that idea?
00:21:26.280
Because the passion was probably because they thought they can make a buck.
00:21:30.540
I mean, I wrote an article about you and here I am.
00:21:37.480
I mean, the thing is, is that, you know, anybody who says the passion is not a big aspect or a
00:21:45.340
starting place for an idea, they're not getting the concept of true entrepreneurship.
00:21:50.900
I mean, you have to take what it is that you love and you have to figure out how to become
00:21:56.480
an expert at that, which if you love it, that's going to be easy because you're probably already
00:22:01.020
And a lot of people get hung up, I think, because they know so much about something, but then,
00:22:06.060
and there's two kinds of people, you know, there's, there's people who, you know, they
00:22:09.880
know so much about something, but refuse to accept the idea that they're an expert.
00:22:14.920
Um, and then there's people who don't know very much and think they're an expert.
00:22:21.880
And, you know, so you have to be able to differentiate yourself and, and, and step outside of your
00:22:27.580
own body and become self-aware of like, where do I really fall and how much do I have to
00:22:34.300
You know, so, I mean, that's an important aspect, but I think, you know, most people
00:22:40.620
in this position, okay, like, let's say, all right, they've been listening to podcasts.
00:22:44.160
I'm passionate about, you know, X, how am I going to turn that into a business?
00:22:49.660
Because some things that people are passionate about are, they're difficult to turn into
00:22:54.040
Um, for example, you know, I, I, I take guitar lessons.
00:23:00.880
Um, my friend who, who has become a really good friend of mine, he's a guitar teacher.
00:23:05.440
Uh, you know, let's, he, he makes his money teaching guitar lessons.
00:23:09.780
Uh, you know, over the course of time, we become good friends and we talk and, you know, a lot
00:23:16.140
Um, and we ended up talking about business cause he's interested in, in, in becoming, you know,
00:23:22.080
uh, a real business, not just him teaching somebody.
00:23:26.200
And so we talked and over the course of the last two years, we've come up with different
00:23:32.320
Now he's got a website that he, you know, he, he subscribed, people subscribe to that
00:23:36.780
he teaches people from all over the world, um, in groups.
00:23:43.940
And he's able to do that even though he can't do that, you know, in person with the tactile
00:23:49.620
And then he's got courses that he sells now and he's got.
00:23:52.080
He's all these, uh, all these different things, these products that he's created
00:23:58.140
And that's when I think of like, cause the reason I bring that example up and the reason
00:24:02.260
I liked that example is because like when he first said, man, I don't know how to make,
00:24:05.560
you know, this into a business, like a real business.
00:24:11.960
You know, and we just kind of worked it out over time.
00:24:14.040
But it's great because when you hear a guitar player, you don't think entrepreneur.
00:24:19.320
And, and so, you know, the example I use, I made a YouTube video the other day and I
00:24:24.300
talked about, I use butterflies as an example because like, how do you turn up your passion
00:24:31.020
I mean, I can't think of anything that would be like tougher than that.
00:24:33.000
Like I'm going to fucking make a business out of butterflies, but here's the, here's the
00:24:41.820
You know, everything about butterflies, you know, the weight, you know, their origin, you
00:24:45.920
know, where they live, you know, the colors, you know, the patterns, you know, every different
00:24:50.080
You're probably a top 1% of people that know butterfly stuff.
00:24:59.900
I have the best example for this because every time I watch, it just astounds me.
00:25:03.840
Do you ever watch like, what are those, the TV shows like the reality, the Pawn Stars or
00:25:08.780
whatever, when the people come in to like value the stuff, it's like the expert of weaponry
00:25:20.420
It's like the most random insignificant that you would never even know.
00:25:24.440
And so you'll pay them tons of money to come in and like appraise these things.
00:25:30.100
So that comes from that, that comes from the idea of the masses.
00:25:35.840
So like people think that they have to have the attention of the mass majority of people
00:25:48.080
But, you know, with the butterfly thing, I mean, you know, like I said in the video the
00:25:53.040
other day, I was like, okay, you start a website, you start a blog about butterflies.
00:25:57.420
Other people who are not as knowledgeable about butterflies, but want to learn about butterflies
00:26:01.980
All of a sudden, you've got enough traffic to where you can start selling some ads on your
00:26:06.240
Now, you decide you want to make butterfly can koozies and you can make the can koozies because
00:26:11.640
everybody who loves butterflies wants butterfly can koozie.
00:26:17.720
Then you can make, you know, car covers for your garage.
00:26:21.340
So when you open up your garage, you've got like two butterflies in your garage.
00:26:24.440
You know, then you can, you know, make butterfly snuggies.
00:26:29.280
You know, so that when you lay on the couch, you can sell all this shit on your website.
00:26:35.660
So like when people think like they come and they say, Andy, I don't know where to start.
00:26:39.940
And I say, well, what are you passionate about?
00:26:43.260
You can literally turn almost anything into a business.
00:26:48.580
And that's what I hope that you guys can take away from what we're talking about now.
00:26:53.040
It's not necessarily that, you know, you don't have to have something that every single person you know is going to buy.
00:26:58.540
If you're interested in it and you love it, there's other people just like you that love that same shit.
00:27:06.760
You could build a hell of a business like that.
00:27:08.920
And you just, you know, will you ever be Microsoft?
00:27:11.400
But you might be able to, you know, you could easily earn six figures a year doing a niche business like that.
00:27:20.660
I would be very interested to hear about method.
00:27:36.880
Well, Teresa, like when you started the Keating Boss Fitness, I mean, how did that come from, you know, passion to idea to business?
00:27:48.760
Well, and when you were just talking, I was actually thinking about it because it's funny.
00:27:51.580
I think another trait of a successful entrepreneur is even if you have an idea and you try it and it doesn't work really well, you adapt right away.
00:27:57.680
And you figure out what works to turn your passion into a business.
00:28:05.400
And so this is kind of like, I ended up, you know, having my gyms and to be just perfectly honest with you, it was way too much work.
00:28:11.520
I had two babies in between and I was, you know, had the baby on the gym.
00:28:14.100
It didn't work out the way that you wanted to, but how much did you learn?
00:28:17.560
And honestly, well, that's a whole other podcast about failing and how much you learn from it.
00:28:21.620
Because I could never be where I am today without that.
00:28:24.120
But end of the short is I ended up learning a ton.
00:28:27.740
And, you know, taking about a year off, I wanted to start another business.
00:28:30.020
And I kind of fell into this because it's so funny, like, when you're talking about back when I used to, like, not know what I was going to do.
00:28:38.880
Well, all of a sudden, I started becoming popular on social media.
00:28:41.880
And I became this, like, fitness person that everybody came to for advice.
00:28:45.680
And so I started, I'm like, okay, well, I should really start turning this into a business now.
00:28:53.300
And then what I found is it's kind of, like, where I'm at the process now is, like, even that's evolving.
00:28:57.920
So, you know, people are getting tired of the online training.
00:29:02.240
Taking a look at, you know, how can you make it better?
00:29:08.780
And you start at one place, and you could end up at a completely different place.
00:29:13.080
You think most people think of the process as almost like it's being on a train, and you just have two tracks that you have to follow, whereas it's really more like a dune buggy.
00:29:25.820
Instead of just starting, they overanalyze, and they think they have this perfect recipe.
00:29:29.860
The best thing you can do in entrepreneurship is fucking just do it.
00:29:34.940
Look, nobody knows what the fuck they're doing when they start.
00:29:37.480
When I started supplement super stores in 1999, I can remember, I can remember, like, this is weird, but I can remember, like, actually, customers, like, legit transactions that I had.
00:29:48.580
And I remember one of the first two or three days, you know, we didn't have much people, many people coming in.
00:29:54.780
And I had a guy come in and ask for a product, you know, it was called Celltech, and it's made by a company called Muscletech.
00:30:01.340
And this guy comes in, and he's like, well, what's this for?
00:30:06.880
Like, so I, like, took the product, I started, like, reading it.
00:30:10.420
I'm like, well, here it says, you know, it says this is this is this is this.
00:30:16.620
The next time somebody came in, I knew what the fucking shit was for.
00:30:22.180
And now, you know, depending on who you ask, I suppose, I'm probably one of the biggest experts in the world on this industry.
00:30:30.760
I mean, I'm not tooting my own horn, but it speaks for itself.
00:30:33.700
I think people think they need the plan when they just need a plan.
00:30:43.320
And realize every time you make a mistake, that that's a part of your education.
00:30:49.000
You know, instead of, like, going and getting a fucking PhD in entrepreneurship, no, make a lot of mistakes.
00:30:54.180
Because that'll get you your PhD in entrepreneurship.
00:30:56.740
And that's where people don't, they don't get it.
00:31:00.620
They think, like, oh, I made a mistake today that cost me $100.
00:31:05.160
That same mistake in 10 years cost you a million.
00:31:09.160
So be glad that you learned and don't do it again.
00:31:12.180
And once you make enough of those mistakes and you do enough shit wrong, eventually all that stuff compiles together.
00:31:20.840
So, Teresa, going back to you, though, in terms of just real nuts and bolts, I'm curious.
00:31:24.460
Like, did you, were there times where you literally sat down in a Starbucks or wherever and, you know, you had a notebook and you just wrote out all your ideas?
00:31:35.460
I mean, I definitely, how do you work out your thought process?
00:31:38.300
Yeah, I actually think this is good because I think her and I do it different.
00:31:45.000
For me personally, like, ideas come from, I read a lot.
00:31:50.540
I've read a book a week since I started in business.
00:31:56.460
So, like, for me to get my idea, you know, juices flowing, I read, okay?
00:32:02.620
Do you usually have a pen in your hand or are you just mentally interacting?
00:32:04.900
I actually put my notes in my notepad on iPhone.
00:32:09.760
But I get, you know, I get my juices going, I read, I take things that people have done in other industries and I figure out how they can apply to our industry.
00:32:20.820
You know, I look for problems that need solutions.
00:32:25.440
And I look for opportunities to do things better constantly.
00:32:28.860
You know, like, when I go to dinner, you know, if we go out to dinner and a restaurant does something that I don't think is right, I take note of it.
00:32:41.860
It's kind of annoying to go to dinner with me, you know?
00:32:44.440
Like, because I'm always pointing out, like, hey, they should be doing it like this.
00:32:48.940
And I make that, that's a part of who I am now.
00:32:54.200
So, like, anytime I see something that can be done better, I automatically, like, look at that solution, even if it's not in our business.
00:33:01.340
So, I think, you know, as far as, like, idea generation, you know, I'm just constantly filling my mind with thoughts.
00:33:13.580
Well, but what's funny is that there's this, I brought this in today, it's a technique for producing ideas.
00:33:23.020
You just actually articulated his first point, which is just constantly be gathering data.
00:33:27.780
Constantly be, like, gathering material in your mind.
00:33:35.180
Like, I'm going to come up with this idea, and I'm going to execute this idea, and I'm going to start this business.
00:33:43.720
I'm going to do this, and everything's going to work out.
00:33:47.180
And then the rest of the time, they're going to go play video games.
00:33:52.180
I mean, if you're not going to immerse yourself in the process of being a business, of being an entrepreneur, you're not an entrepreneur.
00:34:02.620
And if you think that this is going to be, like, a quick little journey down the fucking railroad tracks, and then you're going to find the pot of gold.
00:34:20.700
Even when you're, like, on the ride, and everything's going great, then it's like, doosh.
00:34:33.320
He had a great post on social media on his Instagram the other day.
00:34:36.280
It was, if you want to be wealthy, you have to have a wealth of knowledge, you know, and just the importance of reading.
00:34:41.520
Although, Kim Kardashian's an exception to that, and there are some.
00:34:49.660
So, Andy was saying that you do things differently, Teresa.
00:34:55.020
To be quite honest with you, I'm actually very similar to him in nature, is what you're talking.
00:34:57.980
I thought you were talking about more the second step, which is after you have an idea, like, how to actually bring that into fruition.
00:35:04.080
No, I'm actually talking about, you used the example, or the, excuse me, the phrase, idea generation.
00:35:10.900
In fact, it's funny, because sometimes I get, I almost have to stop reading books, because I get so many ideas.
00:35:24.160
It could be for something completely different.
00:35:26.080
But literally, I just get so many ideas, and I keep track of them.
00:35:28.500
And then, if it's something amazing, I jump on it.
00:35:30.940
If it's something that I think for my business, obviously, I start working to implement that.
00:35:39.000
So, you don't write things down, because I find that extremely helpful.
00:35:41.840
No, if I have an idea that I want to implement, then, as far as, like, strategizing, then I absolutely have to go and do, like, an outline, an agenda, how I'm going to itemize it, a task list.
00:35:55.460
It's called free writing, where you literally just take, you know, a notebook, and you write down literally anything that comes to your mind, and you don't censor yourself.
00:36:04.980
And there's a great book called Accidental Genius by Mark Levy that talks about how that's really helpful in idea generation.
00:36:13.360
I don't know that everybody has to use a pen and paper or whatever, but getting ideas down on some form of, you know, whether it's a computer or whatever, I just think it's really helpful.
00:36:22.260
See, I mean, for, I know for Andy and I, because we've talked about this before, it's just like when we went to dinner that one time, it's like there's no shortage of amazing ideas.
00:36:28.340
It's like we could come up with 10 ideas right now at this table in five seconds that we could turn to a business.
00:36:33.460
But it's having the time and to be able to realistically do something successful.
00:36:38.140
We all know that we only have so much time in the day.
00:36:40.140
Yeah, but that is a product of constantly being in that state for years and years and years.
00:36:45.700
So, where a beginning entrepreneur, they might not see any ideas, and they might not see any, you know, opportunities, because they're so blinded by the money thing.
00:36:58.060
Stop thinking about the money and start thinking about solving people's problems or how things can be done better.
00:37:04.720
I mean, I know you've talked a lot about that in your podcast, but I think that paralyzes people, too.
00:37:08.260
It's like they have an idea, and if they could just get rid of the fear and just jump on it and do it, then.
00:37:13.760
Well, and that's the fear is, right, what's the fear?
00:37:26.820
Are you more afraid of getting, you know, failing a couple times?
00:37:30.040
Are you more afraid of staying exactly where you are for the rest of your life?
00:37:35.380
And I think that's something that people need to think about.
00:37:38.640
I also think that people need to also think about, you know, the fear thing.
00:37:45.440
I'm a big believer that you can make anything work, anything work, as long as you're willing to pay the price to make it.
00:37:51.760
If you believe in it and you work hard, absolutely.
00:37:53.720
That's interesting because something that crossed into my brain when the people ask, you know, is this a million dollar idea?
00:38:02.040
I think anything could be a million dollar idea.
00:38:08.100
When people ask that question, I understand what they're asking because I remember what it's like to think that way.
00:38:12.740
You know, my whole life I grew up wanting to be in business.
00:38:15.600
You know, from the time I was eight years old, I was selling, you know, baseball cards and light bulbs and popsicles and shit like that.
00:38:23.900
You know, I've always been interested in business.
00:38:25.900
But the thing is, is that I remember what it's like to look for that, like, I used to always look for that quick, not quick money, but like, this is for sure a million.
00:38:39.560
Like, like, I don't know, like fucking light bulb.
00:38:49.380
And I think a lot of entrepreneurs get in that mindset of we're going to think of the world's greatest idea.
00:38:56.100
But the problem is, is that those ideas, while they do come around and people do have them, they're very uncommon.
00:39:05.620
So if you sit around and try to think of that kind of idea before you ever jump into business, you're never going to get into business.
00:39:13.020
The inventors of the Snuggie did not say, this is a million dollar idea.
00:39:23.440
I mean, there's so many things that could be made into successful ventures.
00:39:31.820
It's following what it is you're passionate about.
00:39:34.940
It's deciding that we're going to make this a business and we're going to make it work and not deviating from that fucking plan.
00:39:42.340
Well, so with that being said, though, obviously, you want an idea that has some viability.
00:39:48.340
So how did you guys go about deciding, okay, my idea is viable.
00:39:58.960
Is there a need is part of the equation, but it's also, if there is a need that's being fulfilled, how could you do it differently or better?
00:40:05.500
To make yourself more exceptional or remarkable.
00:40:09.780
I actually am ashamed to say that I just learned this principle a couple years ago, which was, I used to think, well, if I write this book, but there's so many books on this until somebody said, yeah, that means there's a market for it.
00:40:20.080
You know, and I think people think that sometimes they think, well, if I do this, there's all these other people that are doing the same thing.
00:40:27.320
Well, how are you going to write a better book?
00:40:33.000
What are these books lacking that I could provide?
00:40:39.160
That's, I think all good entrepreneurs are very, very good and skilled at seeing the problems in the products.
00:40:47.620
You know, they see the problems in the service.
00:40:51.860
You know, and that's, I mean, that's how I live.
00:40:59.160
I see the problems with, you know, the protein products that are manufactured for human consumption.
00:41:05.400
You know, people just don't, they don't, they're looking in the wrong places.
00:41:12.200
You know, when you start out, you're always looking, like I said, for that light bulb idea.
00:41:18.040
You know, what are you, what do you love and how can you monetize that?
00:41:22.780
Not, not looking to like, you know, invent Facebook.
00:41:26.500
You know, I mean, and there's people that do that, but they've also been in that industry or in that sector doing other things for a long, long time.
00:41:36.500
You know, to become the expert to do things like that.
00:41:39.860
So I'm going to take this moment and we're going to break from this compelling and captivating conversation to tell you a few things.
00:41:46.560
Number one, we're like, like I said, we're, we're still fairly new to this podcast thing, but we are, we are available on iTunes.
00:41:53.240
Obviously, we're, most of you are probably listening to us, but we're also available on Stitcher and SoundCloud.
00:41:58.140
And of course, you can always go to the MFCEO.com and there you'll find, you know, back episodes.
00:42:05.540
You'll find some, some of Andy's blog posts as well as some other material that can really help you succeed in business and life.
00:42:12.160
We're here to serve you guys, you know, the purpose of this podcast is to give you guys information that you can use to build your own business, to give you information to help you stay motivated and just give you the truth.
00:42:24.460
So if you guys have real questions, you send them over and we'll hit them.
00:42:27.300
You know, we're, we're, we're constantly looking to answer these questions.
00:42:32.280
So send me the questions, you know, and I'll get back to you or I'll cover, cover the information on the show.
00:42:48.580
Um, Teresa, where's your, uh, where people can find you at?
00:43:00.880
I am not on Snapchat, but I am on Instagram at Vaughn Kohler.
00:43:13.280
Uh, so anyway, guys, um, Teresa, thanks for being on the show.
00:43:30.540
Uh, hit me up on Instagram and, uh, we'll catch you next time.