REAL AF with Andy Frisella - The Business of Being Yourself, with Andy Frisella

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, what's up? This is Andy Fursella, the MFCEO. You're listening to the MFCEO Project.

00:00:23.040 I am here with my co-host Vaughn Kohler and my other co-host Ben Newman. Wait, Ben's looking

00:00:31.700 kind of invisible. Ben's looking a little invisible today. Yeah. Where is he? Well, he was here

00:00:39.600 last time we recorded, but something happened. Oh yeah, I forgot. It sucked. Yeah, yeah. You

00:00:45.500 want to tell that story? You can tell it. Okay. Well, we recorded, we normally record

00:00:51.280 on Tuesdays. Today is Friday and I actually thought it was a pretty decent recording, a

00:00:59.980 decent podcasting session, but we have pretty high standards around here. So I was driving

00:01:06.760 home in my 2003 Avalon and all of a sudden got a text from Andy and I'm quoting, guys,

00:01:15.560 that podcast was shit. We're re-recording it. Yeah. I believe, I believe there was a follow-up

00:01:24.760 text that said our listeners deserve better. Yeah, they do. Yeah. Um, you know, guys being

00:01:35.060 self-aware of your product. I mean, this isn't the, this isn't the topic of discussion for

00:01:39.760 today, but being self-aware of your product, understanding if you're putting out a good

00:01:43.520 product or not and holding yourself to the highest possible standard is extremely important

00:01:49.860 to success. You can't talk yourself into thinking your product's good. Um, it has to

00:01:57.720 be good. And I know for sure that we could have done a lot better job and that's it. You

00:02:04.220 know, I'm not going to put things out there that I think we could do better and neither should

00:02:07.740 you. Right? No, you're right. And, uh, and if that means breaking it down and doing it

00:02:13.360 over again, no matter what it is that you're doing, that's what you do, you know, cause

00:02:17.520 that's what it fucking takes. You can't put out a mediocre product, especially under a

00:02:23.020 premium label, you know, and I consider the name of this podcast, a premium label. I do.

00:02:28.940 And that's how you should look at your brand, no matter what the quality has to be there.

00:02:32.160 So if you put something out that shit, don't be afraid to call it shit and fix it, you know,

00:02:38.500 and we're no different than this podcast is no different than any company or any other

00:02:42.420 brand. If you don't do a good job, you fucking do it over again and do it right.

00:02:46.160 Ben Newman, who is normally with us is, uh, I believe in Cleveland at a speaking engagement.

00:02:51.420 But, uh, so for those of you, um, we, we pretty much decided that we're going to dispense with

00:02:56.560 a big elaborate explanation of what the MFCEO project is, but basically it's Andy Frisella's

00:03:03.140 straight up truth on business and life. Yeah, guys, just listen along. You'll pick it up and

00:03:06.980 you'll figure it out and you'll figure out real quick if it's for you or if it's not. Um,

00:03:12.240 if you haven't listened, you know, most of the people listening have listened to previous episodes,

00:03:15.600 so they know what it is. They don't need to hear the story all over again. Um, every time,

00:03:19.820 you know, if you don't know what it is, go back and listen from the beginning.

00:03:22.120 Right. I will say that the, the, the content sort of compounds on each other anyway. So if

00:03:26.940 you're not going back and listening from the beginning and you're listening, just pick it up

00:03:30.500 now. Um, it would be a good idea to go back and listen again. You can find all the podcast at

00:03:35.900 the MFCEO.com. You can find all the, uh, the past podcasts. Um, there's cool outlines of the podcast,

00:03:43.900 what the subject matter is. Uh, and it's worth it to start from, from the first one. Right. So

00:03:49.360 the MFCEO.com is where you can check that out. And, uh, while we're on that guys, uh, for each

00:03:54.820 podcast that we have, we have a dedicated page with show notes and links to things that Andy

00:04:00.140 suggests, whether it's books or other products or, or actually even companies, uh, that, that he really,

00:04:05.960 um, commends. And you can find all those things if you go for this particular episode, if you go to

00:04:12.500 the MFCEO.com slash P11. And, uh, of course connect with us on social media. Andy is at

00:04:21.200 Andy Frisella on IG and Periscope and MFCEO dash one on Snapchat. I'm at Vaughn Kohler, V-A-U-G-H-N-K-O-H-L-E-R

00:04:29.540 for pretty much everything. And our dearly departed, uh, third host is, uh, at continued fight. Ben is at

00:04:37.880 continued fight on pretty much everything. So what are we talking about today? Well, first of all,

00:04:42.820 I want the question of the day. Um, I don't know if you guys saw my, my Facebook today.

00:04:48.400 Did you see it Tyler? About the pants? Yeah. What the fuck? Long, long crotch. What is going on with

00:04:54.520 the youth of America wearing these fucking sweatpants that look like you took a big fat steaming shit

00:05:00.560 in your pants. They have like the elongated crotch area and it like hangs down to your fucking knees.

00:05:07.260 Who thinks that looks good? Well, I laughed when I, when I read that, you know what I'm talking

00:05:12.260 about, right? Absolutely. They're like sweatpants things. It looks like somebody put on a fucking

00:05:16.460 hoodie as a pair of pants and it's like hanging down in the middle. And the image you used is

00:05:20.520 perfect because I have a daughter who's almost two years old and that is literally what it looks like

00:05:25.760 when she has a diaper on and she crapped her pants. Dude, I don't get it, man. And like, and then

00:05:31.320 people are wearing like tucking the shit into their high tops. Like it's dude. Yeah. What

00:05:37.360 is it? That's the question of the day. Tyler, you're, you're fashion forward. What is it?

00:05:41.100 What are those things even called? Shitters? Dude, I think it's people running shit pants

00:05:46.240 instead of sweatpants. People running out of ideas. That's for sure. Not getting creative. You're

00:05:50.380 not going to show up with a pair of these. Are you? No, I do have standards contrary to what

00:05:54.000 you actually believe. I know your fashion is a little bit out there, but here's an interesting

00:05:57.400 point. I mean, obviously the marketing has been successful on that. And that, I mean,

00:06:03.000 on some level, we've gotten people to buy this. Dude, you know what I think? I think if you wear

00:06:07.180 those pants, you're a fucking moron. They're like $150 for a pair of sweatpants. It looks

00:06:12.040 like you took a dump. Why don't you just take a dump? It's free. So we're not going to have

00:06:15.640 any MF CEO brand shitters. Whatever they do dress like a fucking normal human. People look

00:06:23.220 ridiculous. Anyway, this kind of goes into what we're talking about actually, because

00:06:28.860 we're talking that the subject for today is going to be being yourself and being authentic

00:06:33.260 and why it's important in business and in life to becoming successful. And you see these

00:06:39.420 people walking around with this ridiculous, stupid shit on because they're trying to fit

00:06:44.740 in and they've lost their identity to who the fuck they really are. Right? So they're out

00:06:50.060 there trying to be like, no one puts on a pair of shitters and thinks, Oh, this looks

00:06:54.340 great on me. They wear them because they see somebody else wearing them. All right. And

00:06:59.280 they wear them because they perceive that other person to have qualities that they want to have

00:07:04.520 themselves. I get that a hundred percent, but here's the problem. The problem is, is that

00:07:10.980 when that stuff is really not who you are and it's not what you represent and it's not who

00:07:15.600 you are, it shows. And when you're not who you are, you're not authentic. You in business,

00:07:20.760 you lose the ability for people to trust you, which is extremely important in building a

00:07:25.920 relationship with a customer. And in short term and social in life, you look ridiculous.

00:07:31.360 You end up looking like a freaking idiot. So we're going to talk about being authentic,

00:07:36.300 why it's important, why it's important to find out who you are, what you stand for and why

00:07:41.860 it's important to roll with that a hundred percent moving forward, not just in life,

00:07:46.440 but in business. Cause it is something that makes a difference in how people are going to perceive

00:07:52.400 trust and ultimately become loyal to the way that you sell products.

00:07:56.620 Yeah. There's another, there's another aspect of this. And you and I have talked about how

00:08:00.200 there are haters out there. There are people who are against you and want, don't want to see you

00:08:04.740 succeed. You've also said that in a lot of cases, people make up, you know, haters in their mind,

00:08:10.160 but I think you would agree that there's so much opposition from the outside. Why would you not

00:08:15.360 want to be at peace with yourself, with who you are? And I know you've talked about that with me

00:08:19.440 before. Well, and that's, that's part of being authentic is becoming comfortable with who you

00:08:24.920 are. You know, you're no longer trying to meet somebody else's standards. You, you're no longer

00:08:29.640 trying to live up to somebody else's dreams. You're in a situation where you could create your own.

00:08:33.900 And that's a powerful feeling to have. But the reality is, is most people go through life trying to be

00:08:39.640 a different version of somebody else. And that affects their ability to, to do a lot of things

00:08:47.600 want in business. It would be to be trusted because you're not coming across as genuine. People pick up

00:08:52.700 on that. Um, intuitively, you know, they know when you're trying to be something you're not,

00:08:58.420 uh, and in life, it's just, it's going to create kind of the kind of relationships that aren't

00:09:05.640 as fulfilling as they would be because you're always putting on a show as opposed to being who

00:09:09.880 you truly are. So, um, we can dive down deep into this a hundred, uh, you know, a hundred percent and

00:09:16.280 we're going to, but being authentic is, is like the, the foundation you have to get to before you

00:09:21.840 could truly create what it is that you're meant to create. I would like, you know, either now or

00:09:27.720 later for you to address this whole issue of invariably run into those people who are basically

00:09:32.940 idiots. And when you, whenever you try to explain to them the need for self-improvement or, or,

00:09:38.620 or changing themselves, their, their answer is, Hey man, I'm just being who I am.

00:09:44.660 Certain people find every possible area they could possibly find to hide in. Okay. Um, at work,

00:09:53.160 they say, that's not my job at work. They say, I don't get paid enough to do that. Um, you know,

00:09:58.480 they hide in the corner and try to do the least amount of work or, you know, when the rest of the

00:10:02.400 crew is shoveling that rock pile, they try to figure out how to, you know, Oh, my shoes untied and

00:10:07.140 I'm going to go over here and tie it. They try to figure out how to do everything. Okay. That's the

00:10:11.660 same mentality here. Somebody says, Oh man, you know, I'm just being myself. And then they're,

00:10:17.160 they're out smoking a fucking pound of weed a day, you know, living in their parents' basement and then

00:10:22.600 crying about why they haven't been able to accomplish anything. You know, people use it as

00:10:26.340 an excuse. So you have to be self aware and honest with yourself to the point where you being yourself

00:10:34.520 means the best version of yourself, not, Oh, I'm being myself and using that as an excuse to be a

00:10:39.940 total fucking idiot. Okay. I think that's where you're getting at, right? Yeah, absolutely. So, uh,

00:10:45.980 you, you're how old you just had a birthday, right? Yeah. 36, 36. Okay. So you're 36. You've gone

00:10:51.580 through quite a bit in life, including the stabbing. Right. Um, and you've said that there

00:10:56.200 are times in life where you, you know, especially, you know, when your face was, was swollen, that you

00:11:00.660 were insecure about some things that beat you up a little bit. So, you know, I think there are people

00:11:05.860 out there who say, Oh, Andy, you're so authentic. Like it just comes naturally to you. But I know that

00:11:10.380 you would say that this was not something that happened overnight. You learned, you learned how to do

00:11:14.600 this over time. Right. And then you picked up some principles along the way. So you're going to

00:11:18.960 talk about those principles. Well, a lot of it's trial and error, right? You know, and some people

00:11:23.040 just never figure it out. Um, you know, a lot of people try to go through and be what society tells

00:11:28.420 them to be. Um, they try to follow the rules. Donald Trump's an excellent example of this right

00:11:33.320 now. Hey, love him or hate him or whatever. The guy is authentic. He fucking doesn't apologize for

00:11:39.280 what he is. He says what he thinks. He stands for what he stands for. And even though everybody in

00:11:45.280 the media and everybody in, in, in, uh, pop, the political experts are saying that he's totally

00:11:51.180 fucking himself up. Guess what? Guess what's happening. His numbers keep going up. Yeah.

00:11:55.240 You know why? Cause he's authentic and people trust authentic. And you know, when you're hiring

00:11:59.700 somebody to run the fucking company or, or elected somebody to run the fucking country,

00:12:04.580 you want somebody that you trust. Yeah. So love it or hate it. Authenticity always wins.

00:12:11.280 I think of a CEO that I know that says I would rather be a real ass than a fake nice guy.

00:12:16.480 It's true. Yeah, it's true. And you know, I could give you plenty of examples. Oprah Winfrey has

00:12:23.200 a famous quote and her quote is, if I knew I was going to get this rich by just being myself,

00:12:28.400 I would have became myself a long time ago. You know what I mean? It's a great quote. It is. Yeah.

00:12:33.260 And you know, it's something that people don't realize how important it truly is to become yourself.

00:12:39.940 You know, authenticity is a hard journey for some people because they're brought up their entire

00:12:44.700 life to think a certain way. You know, their parents tell them they have to be this way.

00:12:48.620 Their teachers tell them they have to be this way. Uh, school tells them they have to be this way.

00:12:52.540 Their job tells them they have to be this way. And I'm not talking about, you know, covering your

00:12:56.900 fucking face and tattoos and piercings and shit being yourself. I'm talking about having,

00:13:02.120 when we're talking about authenticity, we're talking about having your own style, developing your own

00:13:06.460 brand, being yourself in life, you know, having your own confidence, authenticity and confidence

00:13:12.480 go hand in hand, you know, and a lot of people I get, um, especially the, one of the questions

00:13:17.440 on Periscope, I get a lot. If you haven't checked out Periscope, follow me at Andy for Sela. Um,

00:13:22.420 I'm on their daily Q and a, it's very, very cool app, but a lot of questions I get is, how did you get

00:13:26.940 to this point of confidence or how did you get to, to be so real? Or how did you get to be so

00:13:31.520 authentic? You know, I spent a lot of time doing what I was supposed to do. You know,

00:13:36.740 I spent a lot of time trying to be what I was expected to be and it didn't fucking work.

00:13:45.380 It just didn't, you know? And when I started saying, you know what, this isn't working,

00:13:50.300 fucking I'm going to do things the way I want to do it. And my first inkling to like finding my

00:13:55.240 authenticity, my authentic voice was when I started posting on Facebook for our company,

00:14:01.100 um, supplement super stores back in like 2008 or nine, I started writing posts and I would get

00:14:08.440 like, you know, I'd write these posts that were like, Oh, you know, have a positive attitude today.

00:14:15.800 When in reality, I wanted to say, Hey, quit being a fucking pussy and get your ass to gear and go to

00:14:20.280 fucking work. All right. So I used to write these posts that were like real nice and like, Hey,

00:14:25.960 fucking let the rainbow shine on your head today. And you'll be blessed with gold coins or some

00:14:30.680 stupid shit like that. Right. And, and then one day I just said, fuck it. And I wrote what I wanted

00:14:35.800 and dude, that post was like a thousand times more popular. Like I used to get like three likes on the

00:14:41.800 other one. I got like 3000 likes. It went viral because I just said what I wanted to say. And

00:14:47.420 here's the reality. When you say what you want to say, chances are there's other people thinking the

00:14:51.960 same thing. Okay. And those people will identify with you. All right. And so many people try to tone

00:14:59.520 their shit down so that they can get everybody to agree that it ends up being vanilla. And that's

00:15:04.940 what happens with authenticity. It gets watered down, becomes boring. It becomes vanilla. It becomes

00:15:10.140 ineffective and it doesn't work. All right. So I kind of figured it out on my own through trial and

00:15:15.600 error, but that doesn't mean you have to be like me. Obviously I have a certain style. All right.

00:15:22.100 You could be anything you want in the world. We talk about this all the time. And I always say

00:15:25.960 that I hate saying that I hate saying, Oh, you could be anything you want because I feel like

00:15:30.460 it sounds corny, but here's the, here's the one thing you can't be. You can't be me. Can't be you

00:15:35.740 Vaughn. Right. Can't be Tyler. All, everybody can only be who they are. Right. And, and, and I see a lot

00:15:41.800 of people now, you know, now that we're getting a little momentum with the show, you know, they're out

00:15:45.720 there trying to like have that same persona I have like, Oh, I'm, I'm fucking, I say, fuck. And I say

00:15:51.820 this and I do this and they think like, like by throwing in some F bombs that they're getting the

00:15:56.800 point across. Dude, no. First of all, cursing is a fucking art. Okay. It takes a lot of practice. You

00:16:02.060 do it well. Yeah. It's cause I, it's cause it's real. Yeah. It's how I really speak. I mean, all

00:16:06.140 kidding aside, that's how I tell explain or that's how I describe you to people. I said he makes an art

00:16:11.200 form out of using the F word. Well, I mean, the point is, is that it, that's who I am though. I mean,

00:16:16.000 Tyler, Tyler, we've been out drinking a number of times, hanging out a number of times. Do I sound any

00:16:20.140 different when we're out than I do in here? No different. And that's why it was funny when

00:16:23.380 Vaughn, you know, when we first started the show and Vaughn was questioning using the F bomb and

00:16:27.660 you're like, fuck no. Yeah. Like don't, don't do it. I can't do it. You know what I mean? And it does

00:16:32.240 cut me out of a lot of speaking engagements because I won't take them or won't even ask to do them

00:16:37.520 because I don't want to water down my brand, who I am. Right. You know what I mean? And if your

00:16:43.720 little delicate flower ears can't handle a couple of fucks, then I'm sorry. I'm not the right product for

00:16:49.300 you. There's other people that can fulfill whatever need you're looking for. I am not for

00:16:53.560 everybody. I understand that. And I'm okay with that. And that's what you need to understand.

00:16:57.960 You're not going to be for everybody, but the worst thing you can do is try to be for everybody

00:17:02.620 and water down whatever gift you have so much that it's, it's not even a gift anymore. It's just

00:17:09.560 normal shit. Right. Right. You know, you, um, you have mentioned, and I think people know by now

00:17:14.980 that I used to be a pastor. Well, when I was in college studying to be a pastor, I had these

00:17:20.580 grandiose ideas that I was going to be this great preacher, you know, just huge stadiums of people

00:17:25.560 that were going to follow me. And for one of my classes, I had an independent study where I met a

00:17:30.240 guy who was the like close confidant of a very famous preacher. His name was A.W. Tozer. And so

00:17:35.460 the confidant's name was Harry. So I met with Harry and I was asking him. Harry Potter?

00:17:39.600 Harry, Harry Verplu, but you know, similar. Yeah. Um, I met with him and I, I, I started asking him

00:17:45.680 all these questions about A.W. Tozer. And it was so cool. Cause this guy was really old and wise.

00:17:51.660 And I think he could tell that I was sort of idolizing Tozer and, and, and basically treating

00:17:58.180 him like, you know, I wanted to be exactly like him. And he, he just kind of put his hand on my back

00:18:03.040 and he said, Hey Vaughn, Tozer was a great preacher. Billy Graham's a great preacher, but there's no way

00:18:09.020 you can be them. And if you try, it's not going to have the ring of authenticity. People are going

00:18:14.240 to know that you're basically being, trying to be a carbon copy of somebody else and not authentically

00:18:19.040 yourself. And it does, I mean, that does come dangerously close to what we've been saying about

00:18:23.720 the, you know, rainbows and unicorns and you're so unique, but it is true. We have to be ourselves

00:18:29.580 because it's only by being ourselves that we're going to have that ring of truth and that ring of

00:18:33.380 authenticity that's going to draw people. Yeah. Okay. So that's the aspect of drawing people and being

00:18:37.540 effective. Right. But the other aspect of being authentic is that that's the only way you're ever

00:18:41.660 going to fucking be happy too. Right. Because if you don't become your authentic self and you go

00:18:46.260 out there and let's say by chance, the one out of a million chance that you were able to create success

00:18:51.360 by being a character as opposed to being authentic, you're going to always feel like a fraud. Right.

00:18:56.860 Which feels terrible. Right. You know what I'm saying? How would you like to go through life

00:19:00.460 worried every day that somebody is going to expose you for being something that you're not?

00:19:04.400 Right. It can't be a good feeling. So being authentic is something that's not only necessary

00:19:10.740 to draw people in and get an engaged audience for your brand, your business, your company,

00:19:14.880 and honestly, your life. It's also the important part of being happy because you come to terms with

00:19:19.980 yourself and accept yourself for who you are, just like you would accept your friends for who they

00:19:24.960 are. You know, everybody has that friend that they've got to explain before they introduce

00:19:29.740 other friends. That might be me. No, that's for sure. Yeah. I mean, I know I'm that friend,

00:19:35.960 but I own it like I'm cool. You know, like it is what it is. You know, I'm going to tell jokes

00:19:42.740 that are off color. That's just who I am. I'm going to make fun of you. You know what I mean?

00:19:46.540 I'm going to do shit that most people won't do, but we're all going to have a good fucking time

00:19:50.480 doing it. Right. You know, and that's it. Uh, you know, Tyler, you are one of those guys. That's

00:19:55.140 why you and I get along. You're one of those guys that I have to explain. I said, look, I have to

00:19:59.780 tell people, I said, look, you guys are going to think this guy is gay, but he's where he's not.

00:20:04.820 I'm just kidding. But I've heard it enough. But, but dude, you know, Tyler, Tyler likes his fashion.

00:20:11.480 He's a good shape. He's a good looking guy. You know, he rocks the coral. Yeah, man. He rocks the

00:20:16.020 coral. I've got to explain to my friends, like, look, he's not hitting on you. He's just being friendly.

00:20:20.480 You know, but, but, you know, but, but the point is, is that everybody has those friends

00:20:25.840 that you have to explain and there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. You know what I mean?

00:20:30.380 Yeah. Speaking of Tyler and friends, you have to explain. He expressed his desire to have

00:20:35.860 sex with a woman in very graphic terms in front of my very conservative wife. Uh, so that

00:20:40.760 was really fun. He did. Yes, he did. I think at summer smash. I actually, I actually know it

00:20:47.740 was that, uh, Jillian's, um, uh, her, her beach, not beach party, but her fourth of

00:20:54.040 July party. Dude, I think you, Oh, I think actually, you know, I, what I told my wife

00:20:58.380 is I said, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I actually,

00:21:02.760 uh, I said, I think he's had a couple. So there's no question about that. But anyway,

00:21:07.740 point. I do that shit when I'm sober anyway. The point being, man is like, look, life is too

00:21:11.580 short to go through it. Not being who the fuck you are. Right. That's the point. Right.

00:21:15.440 You know, like I bust his balls so hard and people that don't know, like when him and I

00:21:20.300 around each other or even like my brother or whoever, like, dude, they think that we

00:21:24.500 like are being serious, like how hard we bust on him. But the reality is if somebody else

00:21:29.520 that came with fuck with them, we would kill him. You know what I mean? It's, it's dude,

00:21:33.540 we love this dude because of who he is. Right. And that's the key to becoming, you know,

00:21:38.960 successful in business or in life as being yourself, no matter what it is, because people

00:21:43.400 will love you for it regardless. Right. You know, I had a great art teacher in seventh

00:21:47.060 grade named Mr. John. He is dearly departed now, but he used to say, if I don't make fun

00:21:51.720 of you, be worried. If I don't clown on you, if I don't, if I don't rip on you, one of Andy's

00:21:57.200 favorite quotes. Yeah, man. I'm not making fun of you. I don't like you. Yeah. Yeah. That's

00:22:01.960 the truth. Yeah. Well, you don't make fun of me very much. Um, where, yeah,

00:22:08.960 I just do when you're not around. Okay. No. All right. Hey, listen, let's wrap up this

00:22:14.600 segment. Where's Asian Dave? Is Asian Dave in today? No, I saw him leave earlier. I don't

00:22:18.860 know where he's going. Yeah. You were so going to get us in trouble. Why? Identifying people

00:22:23.220 by their ethnic groups. Is he Asian? I don't know. Is he? I don't know. It wasn't that sunny

00:22:28.620 in here. Yeah. He's Asian, dude. Okay. Okay. What's wrong with that? All right. Anyway, what I'd

00:22:35.520 liked it, I know it's, you know, I'm, I'm, I am sensitive. I'm more sensitive

00:22:39.060 than you. Oh, that's the problem with society, man. No, I'm not like, I'm not

00:22:42.680 that. You're not that bad, but like, dude, that's the problem is you can't

00:22:45.760 even fucking joke anymore. Like if you said, like I saw, um, you know, just all

00:22:51.600 this, I'm going to go off on a little tangent here and I want you to leave it in

00:22:54.680 and not edit it, but all this fucking race shit and all this shit that everybody's

00:22:59.180 doing in society right now, fighting each other and arguing over this or that or

00:23:04.160 whatever are statistics of black on white or white on black crime or whatever. I

00:23:09.220 was thinking about this yesterday, how fucking stupid all of this is. Go to a

00:23:15.760 fucking St. Louis Cardinals world series game and look in the fucking crowd. You're

00:23:20.480 going to see half fucking black people and half white people all cheering for the

00:23:24.060 same fucking team. Everybody's loving each other. Everybody's giving hugs to each

00:23:28.080 other. Everybody's slapping high fives and it doesn't fucking matter. Why can't our

00:23:32.040 day to day life be that way? Why do we have to have all this fucking bullshit every fucking

00:23:38.040 day? That's not what this is supposed to be. We are fucking Americans. We are the same

00:23:43.040 motherfucking people, you know, but yet everybody decides to focus on all the negative shit

00:23:49.200 and fighting each other. And they can't make a fucking joke about, you know, black, you

00:23:54.280 can't make a black joke. Can't make an Asian joke. Can't make a this joke. When in

00:23:57.880 fact, Dave Chappelle used to make jokes about white people all the time. I thought it was

00:24:02.360 the funniest fucking shit I've ever seen. But today you can't do that shit. You can't

00:24:06.500 even say black person or Asian person or white person because it's offensive. It's fucking

00:24:10.980 ridiculous. Dude, people need to get the fuck over it. We're all the same. We're all

00:24:15.300 Americans. We're all fucking funny. We all do dumb shit. That's funny. Why can't we just

00:24:19.540 laugh at it? You would have loved the other day. I was going into Chipotle and I held the

00:24:23.280 door for this black gentleman and he, awesome guy, just pat me on the back real hard and

00:24:28.980 he goes, we got no race problems here. Dude. And I go, you're right. And he goes, man, it's

00:24:34.660 all about us all being better human beings. Dude, it is. And that's the point. And the thing

00:24:39.260 is, is like, it's, see, we're in St. Louis guys, if you don't know. And we've got all

00:24:43.340 this deal going on with Ferguson and there's been a lot of racial tensions here. And we should

00:24:48.060 point out there have, there are people who are authentically racist and that's a

00:24:52.020 problem. Oh, exactly. But it goes on both sides and that's also the problem. Absolutely.

00:24:55.900 You know, and those people, those people that you're talking about who are authentically

00:25:00.080 racist, the white people and the black people are making everybody have this fucking tension

00:25:04.680 that's ridiculous. You know what I mean? All this bullshit needs to stop. You know, that's

00:25:08.820 why I love Dave Chappelle because he could make fun. He could make fun of black people.

00:25:13.340 He could make fun of white people. He could make fun of Asians. And you know what? All the

00:25:17.220 jokes were true and fucking funny. And that's why they were funny because they were

00:25:20.620 true. Why can't we do Dave Chappelle? Come out of retirement, dude. Is he retired? Dude.

00:25:26.920 Yeah. Oh man. Dave Chappelle. We need you, dude. We need you to come back and fix this

00:25:32.240 shit. I'm going to get on that. Yeah, dude. We need you to come back and get us all to

00:25:36.380 laugh at each other again. You know what I'm saying? I don't know, man. I know we're all

00:25:41.440 on. You're right. Well, we aren't really in essence because what we're saying basically

00:25:45.580 is all of us. Let's be real. All of us. Yeah. Yes. All of us need to be real and down

00:25:49.920 to earth with one another. Yeah, dude. I mean, the politically correctness of society

00:25:53.920 has just gotten out of fucking control. Out of control. And if you don't like it, don't

00:25:59.360 listen to the fucking show. No question. No. Yeah. So I love. Yes. We're talking about

00:26:06.640 being real. Okay. And I've been really wanting you to quote one of your best quotes ever about

00:26:11.940 authenticity. So I want you to say it and then we can go on and you can tell us about

00:26:16.900 these, these great principles you've learned. And that is, what do you like to say about

00:26:20.860 now? It's not, I never shared it with you earlier, but it's, it's, what do you like to

00:26:24.620 say about the people to get in the hall of fame? Excuse me, not the hall of fame. There's

00:26:27.780 no, there's no fucking cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame, right? That's it.

00:26:32.020 If you want to be fucking great, you cannot be some watered down version playing somebody

00:26:37.000 else's fucking tune. It isn't going to happen. Never, never, ever, ever, ever. Will you become

00:26:43.360 great or fulfill your success potential by emulating somebody else? It'll never happen.

00:26:49.520 Right now. Can you take principles of this guy or principles of this woman and say, I

00:26:54.660 like this about this person. I like this about this person and make your own fucking peanut

00:26:58.620 butter and jelly sandwich out of it and throw it out there. Fuck. Yeah. You could do that.

00:27:02.580 Everybody has influences, but when you go out and try to emulate somebody to the point

00:27:07.160 where they could say, you're trying to be a mini version of this, that's when you're

00:27:11.620 going to get in trouble. And, and especially if you're running a company, if you are a company

00:27:17.180 and your first line is this, what do you do? Well, we're like X, but we're better dude.

00:27:22.740 You are fucking done. We're just like X, but we're better. Or we're just like X, but we're

00:27:28.460 cheaper. You know what I'm saying? Right. We're just like, we're, we're just like, that'd

00:27:33.580 be like me saying, Oh, we're just like GNC, but cheaper. Or we're just like, um, you know,

00:27:40.620 herbal life, but we're better. Like, dude, that's not a fucking advantage that that doesn't

00:27:46.240 mean anything, you know? And that's why I like when that's why authenticity is so important

00:27:51.120 because people who are inauthentic tend to do that in their business. They tend to try to

00:27:57.300 emulate another person's business and just becomes a, I mean, how many businesses out

00:28:03.020 there do you see this? You know, there's a leader who innovates, they find something

00:28:06.840 and then there's 15 other companies that try to do exactly what they're doing. You

00:28:11.980 know what I mean? I mean, in our industry, it's fucking notorious. It's notorious. That's

00:28:17.860 what everybody does. There's one or two or three companies that go out there and be

00:28:21.620 original, create a nice culture for their, for their company. I could name probably maybe

00:28:26.640 three companies in our industry that, that I feel like do a good job and the rest are

00:28:31.280 fucking, the rest are just follow, follow leaders. You know, I'm not going to name

00:28:36.420 them, but my point is, is that that's in any industry. Authenticity starts with being

00:28:40.980 real and down to earth and not taking yourself so seriously, which is essentially what you

00:28:45.540 were saying in, in that, uh, in that last monologue, which was, which is important. It's

00:28:50.140 important to the conversation. It's important to say, you know, let's just start with

00:28:54.500 the basic principle of everybody's way too offended. Everybody's way too sensitive.

00:29:01.280 Authenticity starts with not taking yourself so seriously. No. Being real and down to earth

00:29:06.100 with others. Right. And with yourself. Right. So build, build it out. Tell me, tell me more,

00:29:11.640 feed me. There is a definitive steps to becoming more authentic and I'm going to go through those,

00:29:17.660 but you have to realize before you even start with these points, people are not always going

00:29:24.320 to like what they hear from you when you become authentic and you have to be okay with that.

00:29:29.340 You know, that's the biggest thing people, you know, have a problem overcoming is, Hey, um, is

00:29:35.160 this cause, cause they fall into this idea that I'm trying to create something for everybody.

00:29:39.980 You know what I mean? So you have to get this point drilled into your brain a hundred percent.

00:29:47.100 You're not going to be for fucking everybody. You're not going to please everybody. You're not

00:29:51.140 going to make everybody happy. You're not going to create a product for everybody. It's just not

00:29:55.940 going to happen. You know, people come to me with a business ideas. They say, Hey, I've got this

00:30:00.040 product. It's going to fucking, everybody needs it. Well, if everybody needs it, it's not going to be

00:30:05.280 very valuable. It's not going to catch on. It's not going to be remarkable in terms of word of

00:30:11.180 mouth. It's going to be boring. All right. That's the kind of shit you want to stay away from.

00:30:15.620 You want to think about 50% of the people. It's just like politics. 50% of the people are going to

00:30:20.740 love you or at least like you naturally. And the other 50 are never going to like you no matter what

00:30:25.520 you do. So make your product, make your brand for the 50% of the people that like you and make them

00:30:31.820 love you. Okay. That's what being authentic is going to do for you. It's going to give you a

00:30:35.840 dedicated audience of at least half the people. And you're going to be able to get more of a

00:30:42.280 passionate following and more word of mouth generated because you're not worried about

00:30:47.760 watering it down for those 50 that never going to care about you no matter what. All right. So

00:30:52.160 with that being said, how do you, how do you build your own authentic voice? How do you come

00:30:59.060 to be authentic? How do you know how to develop this in yourself? Point number one is live with

00:31:06.580 a clear conscience. And what I mean by that is like, do the right fucking thing. Okay. Don't,

00:31:10.860 don't screw people over. Don't intentionally do things that you know are wrong. Of course,

00:31:16.760 we're going to make mistakes, but own those mistakes. Okay. If you make a mistake, apologize for

00:31:22.440 it, take responsibility for it, fix it. All right. Living with a clear conscience is a very,

00:31:28.220 very important thing to developing your authentic self. Um, you'd like to say something that Rick

00:31:33.840 Patino talks about. Yeah. Yeah. I know when we talk about, you know, you've said before and boy,

00:31:39.280 I'm cussing a lot for this, uh, for this episode, but you've said before, uh, if, if you're an asshole,

00:31:44.180 you shouldn't feel good about yourself, you know, and there, and there are a lot of people that

00:31:47.200 are so focused on having self-esteem. Well, that's cause that's the, that's the popular thing for the last

00:31:52.800 20 years. Right. And they're so focused on that. And so you have all these people out there that are not

00:31:56.960 good people and they, and they feel good about themselves. Right. But Rick Patino, the championship,

00:32:02.080 uh, coach at, uh, well, he was at UK now he's at U of L university of Louisville, but he always used

00:32:08.100 to tell his players, you have to earn the right to feel good about yourself. Self-esteem is something

00:32:13.620 you earn. Right. And, and so I think that's, that, that is earned through living with a clear

00:32:18.780 conscience through, through having a, doing the right thing. It's also earned by like in his example,

00:32:24.800 what he, I think what he's getting at too is if you're in a, if you, if you were an employee,

00:32:30.380 okay, or you're a basketball player or you were the CEO, if you're coming to work every day and

00:32:36.280 doing everything you possibly fucking can to improve, you should feel good. But if you're

00:32:41.600 going to work every day, hiding in the corner, trying to avoid, do the hard work that everybody

00:32:45.300 else has to do, pass your shit off onto the other people, you shouldn't feel good. Right. You know,

00:32:49.780 and you should go home and feel bad about what you did, you know? But the reality is,

00:32:54.120 is that most people can't figure out how to do that. And they just say, you know what?

00:32:59.900 Fuck those guys. They didn't have, I, they got to do the work. I didn't have to do it. And then

00:33:03.720 they go celebrate that. Well, if that's your attitude, you're going to be fucking a piece of

00:33:09.080 shit your whole life. Right. I like what you're saying. Basically you're saying it's, it's a whole lot

00:33:13.600 easier to be proud of who you are when you've got nothing to hide. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And so earning it is a

00:33:19.160 big deal, but you know, living with a good conscience, feeling good about your authentic

00:33:22.660 self, being a good person, doing the right thing, not dicking people over, treating people good.

00:33:27.940 All those things come into living a clear conscience. Okay. So that's point number one,

00:33:32.500 live a clear conscience. Okay. Point number two, make mistakes right and move on. Understand

00:33:40.140 that you are going to make mistakes. Know that you are not going to be perfect. Okay. That doesn't

00:33:47.180 mean that you make mistakes on purpose. It doesn't mean you do immoral things. It means that sometimes

00:33:52.940 you are going to screw up. And when you screw up, own those screw ups, fix them, improve them,

00:34:00.820 apologize, whatever it takes and move forward. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to make

00:34:05.500 a lot of fucking mistakes. You're going to screw things up. I've done it lots of times, but you know

00:34:10.420 what, you know what happens when you make it even worse, or you know how you can make it even worse.

00:34:16.140 You don't take responsibility. You don't admit when you're wrong. You don't say you're sorry,

00:34:21.040 you know, and you don't try to make things right. And that's, that's what we see most people doing

00:34:24.940 today. So realize you're going to make mistakes, make the mistakes quickly, own the mistakes, learn

00:34:33.620 your lesson and move the fuck on. All right. Can I say something real quick about that? Um,

00:34:38.260 there, there's a way to use language that even when you apologize, you're not taking responsibility.

00:34:45.720 You're basically making excuses. Politicians do this all the time. So let's say they're caught

00:34:49.980 stealing money from the public. Well, when they come out and admit everything, they usually say stuff

00:34:55.560 like, well, I regret that bad decisions were made or bad choices were, you know, happened. Right. And

00:35:01.200 that's passive language. That's still phrasing it. Like they're the victims, bad, bad choices happen to

00:35:05.740 them. Right. And what I would say is when you apologize, use active language, own it, own it.

00:35:11.160 Say I, and I would say, don't even say I made a mistake or I made a bad decision. Say I screwed up.

00:35:17.660 I did something wrong. It wasn't a bad choice. It was a stupid move on my part. You agree.

00:35:22.520 Oh, I agree. A hundred percent. How much respect is gained in every situation by doing that? You know,

00:35:28.240 I can't tell you how annoying it is. And in fact, one of our core values is accept responsibility.

00:35:35.920 If I have someone that can't accept responsibility in our company, I will fire them. Okay. That's like

00:35:41.000 if they make a mistake and they come to me and they say, Oh, well, you know, so-and-so would have

00:35:46.780 done this and this wouldn't have happened. Dude, I will fucking fire that person because they do not

00:35:51.340 understand. Usually I'll correct them once. And then if they still fight me on it, I'll move them on.

00:35:57.620 But here's something that comes with that too. To your point about the language they use. A lot of

00:36:03.780 people will say this all the time too. I made a mistake. There's no excuses or I didn't perform

00:36:08.920 good. No excuses. I'll do better. That's not fucking owning it either. That's it. That's that's

00:36:13.780 bullshit talk. You know, like, dude, I have guys in my company right now, you know, who aren't

00:36:18.920 performing and they'll text me and be like, no excuses. I'll get it fixed. But yet every week the same

00:36:25.620 fucking problem happens over and over again. You know what I mean? If you say you're going to

00:36:29.320 fucking get a fix, be a fucking man, go out and fix the fucking problem. That's owning shit. That's

00:36:35.040 taking responsibility. I mean, here's the reality. You want to, you want to be different society. You

00:36:39.840 want to be cool who you are. You want to be comfortable being authentic. When you make a

00:36:43.520 mistake, you fucking own it. If you hurt someone, apologize. You do everything you can to fix every

00:36:49.220 mistake you make and make it right over the course of your entire life. And if you do that,

00:36:53.800 you'll have 10,000 people at your fucking funeral because they have so much respect for you.

00:36:59.440 You know, don't be one of these pussies that go through life being like, Oh, well, you know,

00:37:05.220 my parents raised me wrong and I made this mistake and you know, I can't help it because they raised

00:37:10.540 me wrong. I mean, dude, we're over that shit. You know, we're talking about being productive.

00:37:16.880 You're listening to this. You're, you're, you're wanting to be successful. You're wanting you,

00:37:20.720 if you, if you want to be successful, you got to be authentic. If you want to be authentic,

00:37:24.560 you got to own your shit. So guys, listen, here's the review, right? So far we've covered

00:37:29.680 live with the clear conscious. Number two, make mistakes and move on. Number three,

00:37:37.000 identify core values that you stand for and live by them. You know, when Chris and I started our

00:37:42.240 first company supplement super stores, we came up with a set of core values. We wanted to guide our

00:37:46.560 business. There are 10 core values. I keep them in my wallet all the time. I'm going to pull them

00:37:53.960 out just to show you guys, even though you can't see, I've got these rat, this ratty card was the

00:37:58.500 first core values card. Every employee in our company carries this card with them all the time.

00:38:03.640 These are not just some bullshit thing we put on the wall that people look at and say, Oh,

00:38:08.560 rah, rah, rah. This is what our company stands for. No, we live by this shit. You're you,

00:38:13.500 you personally and your company, your core values should be the same.

00:38:17.820 Your core values are so important to you. In fact, and I'd like to tell this story is that

00:38:22.500 that's actually what we were recording on Tuesday. And because they're so important to you because

00:38:27.580 they're at the very lifeblood of your business. I think that's one of the reasons you said we

00:38:31.960 didn't do them justice, right? We did it. We're going to do them again, right? And we're going to

00:38:35.020 actually like make multiple episodes. They're each one is worthy of its own. Yeah. So,

00:38:40.040 so that's coming up. So the 10 core values we use guys just real quick, and they're not going to be

00:38:46.200 the same ones that you use. Okay. But you may use some of these, but don't just copy them. We're

00:38:52.240 talking about being authentic, right? Identify the core values that you stand for. Here's ours.

00:38:58.820 Go the extra mile, stay humble, be disciplined, accept responsibility, take initiative, build positive

00:39:06.740 and fun relationships. Always be learning, be selfless, be enthusiastic and believe. Okay. And

00:39:14.680 I could give an entire lesson, an entire one hour podcast on every single one of these, how they all

00:39:19.780 tie together, how they all improve your life and the quality of business that you're running and how

00:39:25.180 they can all tie into monetizing your business as well. Okay. Identifying core values, live and die

00:39:32.020 by these core values, make your decisions by the core values, hire and fire by your core values,

00:39:36.520 and you're going to stand for something. And what happens when you stand for something is

00:39:40.640 other people identify with what you stand for and they become believers in you. All right. So

00:39:46.560 identifying core values and living them, breathing them, talking about them, talking in terms with your

00:39:53.800 customers about them, talking to your employees. Every conversation that we have as a company

00:39:58.060 is in terms one way or another about the core values and how they affect certain things.

00:40:03.180 And you're saying, I mean, connect the dots for me. You're saying that actually having those will,

00:40:07.820 will help you be more authentic. There'll be the, somehow it'll help you be okay with who you are.

00:40:12.600 It helps you. It helps guide you when you get off track. Okay. Okay. So there's going to be times

00:40:17.880 whenever you come to a business decision and there's a or B though, these core values will help you

00:40:23.580 decide which one of those passes the right for you. Okay. Um, and, and impersonally that's, that's,

00:40:30.120 that's what they do too. You know, you're going to come to a situation where you have choice A and

00:40:34.700 choice B and your core values are going to help you pick the right path that keeps you going the

00:40:40.880 right direction that you want to go. They're going to remind you to go that direction. They're going to

00:40:44.500 give you something to stand for, which gives your customer something to relate to, which gives them

00:40:49.720 something to stand for and to brag about to their friends about why they stand for it.

00:40:54.400 Makes sense. All right. So it's very, very important.

00:40:58.640 So I guess I would, I would guess that they're also helpful in dealing with your haters, you know,

00:41:05.280 cause if you are, or criticism, cause if you know what you stand for, if you have clearly articulated

00:41:10.800 core values, then, then that, well, here's the thing about haters. Okay. I just did a periscope on

00:41:16.260 this like two days ago. First of all, most of you listening, 99.9% of you, you don't have fucking

00:41:23.080 haters. Okay. What you have is you have critics, right? Critics will point out your weaknesses

00:41:29.800 and say, Hey, I don't like this. Hey, I don't like that. And you lose a lot of the ability to improve

00:41:38.580 by labeling people haters. Okay. So I don't even like the term haters, but we'll, we'll talk about it

00:41:44.600 for a second. Your critics who you probably call haters will give you insight to how to improve

00:41:53.960 your business. If you listen now, when you label them, Oh, I just, my fucking haters, I'm not going

00:41:58.960 to listen to them. Then you lose the ability to improve your product service or your business

00:42:03.780 because a self-aware grounded, intelligent leader would look at their criticisms and then either be

00:42:12.480 able to, I admit like, Hey, yeah, we're kind of weak in that area. We can improve or know that like,

00:42:18.440 no, we do this shit, right. And it's, it's, it's a not justified criticism. You know what I mean?

00:42:24.820 So being self-aware, understanding what's criticism and how you can use it as a very important part.

00:42:31.860 Now you will have people who are just obnoxious troll haters, which if you're an intelligent

00:42:37.840 person, why the fuck would you give a shit what they have to say? Right. You know what

00:42:41.220 I mean? So, um, but to, to your point, let's say you do have a critic who is attacking your

00:42:48.180 company for standing for something. Okay. That's whenever being okay with some people, not being

00:42:57.100 okay with you comes into play. We talked about a little bit ago, realize that not everybody is

00:43:02.240 going to like what you stand for, but that 50% of people are going to, you know, possibly get behind

00:43:07.840 you. And if you can get engaged, passionate following from, let's say 30% of that 50% versus

00:43:14.340 1% of the a hundred percent, because you make a boring product, you're doing a lot better.

00:43:18.960 You know what I mean? So core values, what they do is they're going to piss some people off.

00:43:22.640 They're going to say, why do you do this? And they're going to remind you to stay on track

00:43:26.360 and why, why to do that. So, um, yeah, you know, dealing with haters or critics or whatever,

00:43:32.380 um, it can help with that. But really what it serves is just a reminder of what path to

00:43:37.640 stay on. You know what I mean? That makes sense. It's a, it's an objective

00:43:40.600 standard that you've articulated. Exactly. And when you emotionally get away from that standard

00:43:44.920 because somebody emotionally rattles you with a comment, which they shouldn't, but they

00:43:49.780 do because we are all passionate about what we do. Right. It allows you to look back at what you

00:43:55.940 do and say, no, this is what I fucking stand for. This is the direction I'm going. And that guy just

00:44:00.280 happens to be somebody who is not going to fit in with what we're doing. And that's okay. Right.

00:44:05.880 It makes total sense because in theory, somebody could come to you and say, Andy,

00:44:10.840 you're gosh, you're, your business or your podcast is, is, is, and I'm just throwing this out

00:44:16.520 there. I'm not picking on these people. I've already heard this, but I mean, your business

00:44:19.380 or your podcast is not going to make much inroads with the Mormon church. I mean, you could say,

00:44:24.100 well, that's not the point. And that's not consistent. I didn't make this for the Mormon

00:44:28.640 church. Right. And nothing against Mormons, by the way. I just, I just threw that out there

00:44:31.720 to be absurd. Right. But yeah, I mean, the point is, is that if you don't have these articulated

00:44:35.580 why I exist and who I'm trying to serve and how I'm trying to serve them, well, you wrote,

00:44:41.440 you are open to criticism. You don't know what you're about. Here's, here's the good part.

00:44:44.980 This is the good part. Cause the next point of being authentic is listening to your base.

00:44:50.400 So listening and identifying and being loyal and in tune with who that 50 potential percent is,

00:44:57.940 is extremely important in being authentic. Okay. So when you think, when I get a criticism from

00:45:08.280 somebody who says, Hey, um, I wanted my 10 year old daughter to listen to this. My automatic response

00:45:14.620 at this point in time is, well, I didn't fucking make this for your 10 year old daughter. Right.

00:45:18.420 You know, I mean, let's be real. She should be watching like fucking national geographic or

00:45:22.760 something. Right. You know what I mean? Not listening to the motherfucking CEO, you know,

00:45:26.640 are you going to put on like Eddie Murphy raw for her? You wouldn't do that. Right. It's very,

00:45:31.220 you know, so I'm not making this for them. Yeah. So, um, you have to be aware of your base. Like,

00:45:38.320 like, like, here's an example I like to use. Okay. Let's take Harley Davidson.

00:45:41.820 Listen, if you listen to the show, you know, this is a company I admire, not because I own

00:45:46.380 any of their products because I don't, I do not own a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Um, I have owned

00:45:51.400 a Harley before, but I don't currently own one. Um, but if you want to talk about somebody who's

00:45:57.180 in tune with their base, who understands culture, who understands how to appeal to a certain crowd

00:46:04.720 and, and dismiss the rest, look at Harley. Okay. Um, let's imagine you're an executive at Harley

00:46:12.300 Davidson and some young engineer comes up to you and says, Hey guys, I got this great idea. You

00:46:17.580 know, being, being environmentally friendly is such a perfect, it's, it's the hot thing right now.

00:46:22.420 Let's make a battery operated scooter called a Harley Davidson scooter. It won't make any noise.

00:46:27.000 Um, and we battery operated, we could put a green leaf on there with like a flame. It'll be really

00:46:31.880 cool. You know, I mean, dude, the people are hardly going to laugh that motherfucker right out of the

00:46:39.680 room. All right. Cause they understand what their base is. All right. Knowing your base,

00:46:44.940 would they sell some scooters? Sure. Some people will come by them, but what would you really be doing

00:46:50.860 at that point? You'd be alienating the people who built your brand, the people who go out and get

00:46:56.960 Harley Davidson tattooed on their skin are going to be fucking pissed. And guess what those people

00:47:03.940 are? Those are the people that are spreading your idea and bringing people in and bringing people to

00:47:09.520 your brand. They are your fucking brand. So you're going to go out and try to appeal to this 50% that's

00:47:15.500 not for you by making a battery operated fucking hippie mobile under the Harley Davidson logo.

00:47:23.360 No, you're not going to do that. So you don't do it. Don't do it with your business. Don't do it

00:47:28.920 with yourself. You know, Harley's one of the most authentic companies. Now, do they get out there?

00:47:34.460 Yeah, exactly. Do they, do they do some things to try to reach out to the, uh, you know, the 20%

00:47:41.380 who are maybe the outliers of the 50% that would love? Sure they do, but that there's, that's not

00:47:46.280 enough to alienate the core audience, right? That's not, that's not where their main attempts

00:47:51.000 are. Don't alienate your core by trying to appeal to everybody. If you want a passionate following,

00:47:55.500 if you want people to fucking go out and get tattoos of, of their, of their, uh, logo on, on, uh,

00:48:01.040 of your logo on their skin, that's what I want to do. That's my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal is to

00:48:06.540 create enough passion behind my brands that people go out and get fucking tattoos, right? That's

00:48:11.020 passion. Right. You know what happens when you, when you have that kind of passion for a brand,

00:48:15.620 it insulates yourself, it insulates you from the competition. Nobody that has a Harley Davidson

00:48:21.120 tattoo is going and buying a victory motorcycle. Right. Nobody that, that, that even thought about

00:48:27.740 having a, nobody that has a whole wardrobe of Harley Davidson gear is going and buying a victory

00:48:32.820 motorcycle, even though victory might be a superior motorcycle. Right. You see what I'm saying?

00:48:39.660 Yeah. It insulates you. Yeah. I mean, so being authentic and, and being who you are and being

00:48:45.620 okay with who you are and appealing to your base a hundred percent of the way, instead of, you know,

00:48:51.660 a watered down percentage creates trust because they love you. They'll become loyal. They spread

00:48:58.300 your word. It creates marketing. It creates a culture. Okay. Yeah. So I think of a, about it this

00:49:04.860 way. So you're, you're Italian, you know, and the, the, I guess the traditional thought is that

00:49:11.780 Italian families are very tight knit, very close, very loyal to one another. And so I can just imagine

00:49:18.020 if you had this, you know, large Italian family and they were, you know, they always had your back and

00:49:23.540 they were always there for you. And you had some really important decisions to make about how you

00:49:27.400 were going to live your life. And you went down to like the bus stop and asked some guy that didn't

00:49:32.860 have any investment in your life. Hey, what do you think I should do? And you put all the, the,

00:49:37.400 the weight on that guy's opinion, rather than the people who were there to support you, who were there,

00:49:41.980 who are passionate about you. That would be insane. It would be stupid. Right. And yet businesses do that

00:49:47.480 on a, on a, on a business level, on an entrepreneurial level, they do that. They go out and they ask people

00:49:52.700 who, who don't have any investment, you know, and you're saying, don't do it. Don't even consider

00:49:58.820 doing it. It's, it's a, it's a, it's just a, a mindless, that's a mindless corporate thing to do.

00:50:05.740 Like, Oh, let's go survey all these people who aren't our customers and see what they want. No.

00:50:09.960 How about you survey the motherfuckers that are buying your shit and see how you could improve.

00:50:13.980 Right. You know what I mean? Right. That there's people don't get that. They think, Oh man, why,

00:50:20.300 why? I mean, I could go on and on and on about this because this is something that just gets on my

00:50:26.100 nerves. Um, you know, a company that I really like right now, uh, and I'm going to plug them

00:50:31.480 real quick. Uh, these guys contacted me when they first started up and now they are fucking

00:50:37.860 blowing up and I love what their, their angle on marketing. Um, it's just, it's genius. And if

00:50:44.920 you haven't checked them out there, they're doing exactly what we're talking about here. They're

00:50:48.040 being authentic to their base. All right. Um, they're called the dollar beard club. Um, have you seen

00:50:54.240 them? No. Oh my God. It's awesome. They got not the dollar, uh, it's not the dollar

00:50:58.540 shade club. It's the dollar beard, dollar beard. So they're catering to people who are

00:51:02.920 like lifetime beard wearers. Like myself, I've had a beard for at least five or six years

00:51:07.720 straight. Um, it's their marketing is hilarious and it's awesome and it's genius because here's

00:51:14.840 the reality. People who wear a big ass fucking beard honestly don't take themselves too

00:51:20.240 fucking serious. So they go out and they make these creative commercials that, that, I mean,

00:51:25.720 you have to just go check them out. The dollar beer club, check it out on Instagram. Their ads

00:51:30.000 are fucking hilarious. But the point is, is that they're way out there. Right. Yeah. And

00:51:34.820 they're out there because every dude with a beard has a kind of a not serious side to

00:51:39.800 him. I, you know, right. Like it's hard to explain if you don't have a beard, but like

00:51:44.580 you're like kind of in like a little brotherhood and you make these like little dude, I'm serious.

00:51:48.520 It's a beard thing. You wouldn't understand. I'm serious. Like it's hard to explain unless

00:51:53.340 you have a beard, but like, like dude, when you're in a bar, okay. And this is going to

00:51:58.380 sound real weird. All right. But when you're at a bar, as opposed to like the last 45 minutes,

00:52:04.580 dude, listen, listen, listen, listen, I swear this is true. And everybody out there who rocks

00:52:08.920 a beard is going to know what I'm talking about. If you're at a bar and there's another dude

00:52:12.240 with a killer beard and you've got a killer beard, you give each other the nod. Everybody

00:52:16.240 knows what I'm talking about. It's a real thing. It's not a beard scratch. No, it's like a nod

00:52:20.540 like, dude, like it's like a, you know, like a tilt on your head. Like, Hey man, nice fucking

00:52:24.640 beard. Like it's respect. I like it. So you get like beard respect. I'm serious. I'm it's a real

00:52:29.900 thing. You know, I, you know, I actually, that I'm kind of disappointed and I'm going to throw this

00:52:34.180 challenge out there for any of the fans out there who are graphic designers, but I, I have,

00:52:40.380 I've, I've, I've never seen a logo that's incorporated, you know, your face with your

00:52:45.700 beard and the scar. That's just this really awesome logo. I would love to see somebody try

00:52:50.280 dude. I like our logo, that picture that you put on our, uh, iTunes swatch for a logo for

00:52:55.860 the podcast. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's a great, but that's

00:52:59.120 an actual, uh, that's an actual picture. That's a photo. I'm talking about like a graphic image

00:53:03.700 that's sort of broken down. Oh, dude, I have a, I have, you have one like that. I have

00:53:07.080 a drawing, uh, no, not a logo, but I have a drawing somebody did. It's really cool.

00:53:10.680 But anyway, that's cool. My point is check out the dollar beer club. They've got, they've

00:53:14.780 got awesome products. They sent me some to try. Um, and I'm not just saying that I wouldn't,

00:53:19.080 I wouldn't wrap a company I don't believe in, but check them out more so because they're

00:53:23.660 in tune with what we're talking about, about knowing their base, identifying their base,

00:53:28.040 staying true to their base in the way that they market in the way that they do everything.

00:53:31.960 So the dollar beer club, check those guys out. Uh, you mind if I share a quote?

00:53:35.500 Yeah. This is a great quote. This is from Margaret Thatcher. Do you remember who she was?

00:53:40.240 I do. Yeah. Prime minister of England, former prime minister of England. They called her

00:53:44.320 the iron lady. So I love this quote. I'm not going to say it. It doesn't sound too comfortable.

00:53:51.500 It doesn't sound too fun in the bed either. That's what I meant. You guys are terrible.

00:53:57.860 Only this show could come up with that. All right. Anyway, this is what she says. Ah, consensus,

00:54:03.800 the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in

00:54:09.600 which no one believes, but to which no one objects. Consensus is the process of avoiding

00:54:15.560 the very issues that have to be solved merely because you cannot get agreement on the way

00:54:20.120 ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner? I stand for consensus.

00:54:26.620 Hey, or we could use that as the definition of fucking American politics.

00:54:32.920 That's exactly. Which is why at, to your point earlier, why Trump is, I mean, exactly, you

00:54:38.100 know, at least you know what he stands for. So you want evidence, authenticity, but you

00:54:42.140 like that quote. It's fucking great. Yeah. I love Margaret Thatcher. Even if she's made of

00:54:46.940 iron. Yeah. No, that's a good quote, man. She's dead now. You're not going to please

00:54:51.760 everyone. I mean, that's, that's the, that's what she's saying. Yeah. It, it, it, it goes

00:54:57.440 for every aspect of your life. Right. And most people are just not comfortable when people

00:55:01.440 don't like what they stand for or don't like what they have to say. And some of that is

00:55:05.200 age. At some point you realize I'm going to go insane. Look man, there's times, there's

00:55:09.280 times, look, you go overboard, right? Like there's times whenever I have a couple of whiskeys

00:55:13.200 and I'm out at the bar and I say something that is out of line. Yeah. You know, and then

00:55:17.420 I wake up the next day and I'm like, fuck, did I really say that? You know, and then

00:55:20.920 I got to make a phone call. I got to say, Hey dude, that was the whiskey talking. You

00:55:24.640 know what I mean? Yeah. Speaking of whiskey, you know, Sam, Sam was a guy that came in last

00:55:29.160 week. Sam has told me he's going to get you a 10 year old bottle of whiskey next week,

00:55:33.660 but that it's going to be a couple more weeks. I guess there's a whiskey shortage. Did

00:55:37.160 you know that? Uh, what was it? The Pappy Van Winkle? Pappy Van Winkle. But he's going

00:55:40.780 to get you a 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle. But I guess they're only, he's only got access

00:55:46.380 to two of them, but he says, one of them's got your name on that. If you're a whiskey

00:55:49.980 connoisseur, everybody that I know that loves whiskey loves Pappy Van Winkle.

00:55:53.700 Yeah. What he did say, and I thought I'd communicate to this to you is that 23 year

00:55:58.500 old aged whiskey actually has a little bit of a different taste to it. So it's, you know,

00:56:03.140 for those who are real connoisseurs, you may find that it's a different, different taste

00:56:07.180 for you. But anyway, anyway, back to it. So, so wrapping up this point, obviously people

00:56:12.500 aren't your fans. Don't let them call your plays. You know, basically that's what you're

00:56:15.760 saying. Right. Right. Yeah. If they're not, if they're not people that are passionate

00:56:20.060 about you, don't worry about them. Right. And you will create passion by having that

00:56:26.960 attitude in any area. Right. You know, it's being authentic. So running through the last

00:56:31.920 four, uh, points, well actually including the first point, which we tacked on, which

00:56:36.580 was just basically be down to earth, you know, don't take yourself too seriously and, and

00:56:41.620 don't take other people too seriously, be able to laugh at yourself. That's the first

00:56:44.620 point of, of learning to be authentic. And then the other four were what you want to

00:56:48.780 run, run through them again, run through them all again, just so that everybody, everybody

00:56:52.460 is, is in tune. You know, you know, when you get really passionate, you start speaking

00:56:56.980 away from the mic. Drives me insane. Sorry. Yeah, it's okay. Um, I don't wear headphones.

00:57:02.340 We do the podcast. I can't hear it. I know. Um, live with a clear conscious, make mistakes

00:57:07.660 and move on. Okay. Um, identify your core values and live by them. Listen to your

00:57:13.140 base. And, uh, I think that was it, right? That's it. And basically you're saying if

00:57:18.640 you do this, if you become totally cool with who you are, totally okay with your

00:57:22.940 identity, both personally and professionally, you're saying it's going to have

00:57:26.420 benefits. Absolutely. Guys, like, listen, I have reaped the benefits to the, to the

00:57:31.800 millionth degree of what I'm talking about. And I didn't always have this ability

00:57:36.820 to do what I do. Um, we have in our industry, we have the strongest culture of

00:57:42.700 any brand, um, in both our companies that are, that are publicly, um, not, not our

00:57:48.260 business to business companies, but I'm talking about our business to consumer

00:57:51.440 companies. We have the strongest culture in our industry in both areas, retail and

00:57:56.020 finished goods. Um, people are proud of what we stand for when they wear one of our

00:58:00.500 shirts, whether it be for supplement super stores or whether it be for first

00:58:03.800 form. It's with passion. It's not a passive shirt. It's not a shirt that they

00:58:07.720 get and they go put it in the bottom of their dog cage. It's a shirt they put on

00:58:11.660 and they say, this is what I fucking stand for. Okay. Um, we've been able to

00:58:15.560 generate tons of social media presence. I mean, even this whole podcast MS CEO

00:58:20.400 project is based off of being authentic. You know, like I said a minute ago, if I

00:58:24.960 was somebody who, who came in here and, and said, Hey guys, you know, this is Andy.

00:58:30.140 And today we're going to let the sun shine down on your shoulders and, uh, you're

00:58:34.760 going to go out and, and, and you're going to be great. And, uh, and today I

00:58:39.720 want you to think about how awesome you really are. Like, dude, if I came in and

00:58:42.800 talk like that, we'd have zero fucking people listening. All right. If I was, and

00:58:47.360 I don't want it to be lost. Your earlier point was the flip side of that is that

00:58:51.040 there are motivational podcasts out there right now that are very popular that

00:58:55.320 are the, hello, I want you to think about a flower today. Yeah. But those,

00:58:59.940 you know, and that's fine. Right. And that's what I'm saying. You are saying

00:59:03.260 that's okay. You're telling people you don't have to be the MS CEO. No, no, no,

00:59:06.820 no. Yeah. Right. Dude. And I don't, I think it's important that that, that is not

00:59:11.040 lost on people. Yeah. That's what you're saying. Let's not stop here. Let, or let's

00:59:14.340 stop here and, and, and identify that you are never going to be somebody else's

00:59:19.500 style. The whole thing here is, is identifying your own style. I am not

00:59:25.320 saying that my style is right. I am saying that my style is me and people

00:59:30.940 identify with that. Okay. Do I, do sometimes I regret the way that I curse

00:59:35.860 so much? Yes, I do. Do, do, you know, do I wish that my high school would invite

00:59:40.620 me to come speak at their school? Yes, I do wish they would. I'm a big contributor

00:59:44.620 to the school. I know I can help kids, but the reality is I went to a Jesuit high

00:59:48.120 school and if I go in and say, Hey, all you motherfuckers get up and start

00:59:50.480 fucking working, it's not going to go over real well. Right. So I've missed out

00:59:53.980 on opportunities by being authentic, but it creates other opportunities for me

00:59:59.240 where I can fit in and I can do well. Yeah. And it's going to be the same for

01:00:03.520 you. I would just add, and I, you know, because I'm watching out for you. The

01:00:08.520 reality is, is if you were invited to a place like that, you could definitely

01:00:12.440 communicate a powerful message and, and tone down, down your language. I mean,

01:00:17.060 yeah, I could, but the reality is, is I don't want to. Yeah. So I don't, there

01:00:21.320 would definitely be some f-bombs dropped by accident. There would be some, there

01:00:24.100 would be, there would be. Yeah. And the thing is, is like, I don't want to accept

01:00:29.780 those kinds of engagements because I don't want people walking out of there

01:00:34.540 without the full fucking experience of Andy for seller. Right. You know what I'm

01:00:38.860 saying? Right. That's why I don't do those things. Right. You know, I get a lot of

01:00:42.160 people say, Hey, come speak to my kids. And look, man, I'm not a fucking kid

01:00:45.120 speaker. Right. You know what I mean? I don't mean that as an insult, but you're

01:00:49.840 right. Yeah. You're not. Can I teach them things? Yes, I can, but, or I'm not

01:00:55.000 appropriate for that. Right. There's other guys that are better for that. Like

01:00:58.180 honestly, like Ben would be somebody you bring in for that. Right. Ben is, Ben

01:01:01.700 is great. He barely ever says anything. Right. He's just a little less, you know,

01:01:07.060 right. He's passionate, but he's not, no, he's not raw by any stretch of the

01:01:10.640 imagination. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But he is who he is. No, he's great. Yeah. So

01:01:14.760 did, did you run through all four of them? No, no, no. And then guys, like

01:01:18.060 the thing is, is that, you know, you have to realize I want you to walk away

01:01:24.880 with, with something that you, that you can use. The point of this podcast is

01:01:28.420 this. After the last hour of us rambling, I could have summed it up very,

01:01:34.100 very shortly. Be authentic, be who you are, be okay with people not being okay with

01:01:43.240 you. If you could figure out what you stand for and stand for it consistently

01:01:48.420 over the course of your life, not only are you going to be happy, you're going to be

01:01:53.460 successful because people are going to be naturally drawn to you because being

01:01:56.780 authentic is so fucking rare that it's just not found. So it's like being, it's

01:02:03.000 like being a P it's like being a French fry on a fucking sidewalk and the ants

01:02:10.320 just come out of everywhere and they come get it because it's so rare. It's so

01:02:14.180 hard to find. It's such in, in, in demand that if you can figure out how to do this,

01:02:22.640 you're creating a product, which is yourself. And when you can put yourself

01:02:27.800 into a business, now you've got something, you know, we're talking about being

01:02:33.040 entrepreneurs here. We're talking about business. Let's talk about being employees

01:02:37.320 with this, being an authentic employee. What's more valuable? Somebody who comes

01:02:42.600 to you and says, Andy, I know I get what you were thinking with this idea, but it's

01:02:48.300 not going to fucking work. And here's why. Or if somebody who says, Andy, that's a

01:02:52.640 great idea, man, let's go do it. And then I go waste a million bucks. Who's more

01:02:55.760 valuable for real? Yeah. Being authentic, be the guy who has enough balls to go in your

01:03:04.740 company and, and respectfully voice the things you disagree with. And I'm not

01:03:11.180 talking about, you know, your fucking work environment. I'm talking about ideas to

01:03:16.240 move the company forward, be the guy who can, who can be authentic and expressing

01:03:21.480 his concerns and his ways to improve, you know, cause here's the thing, you know,

01:03:28.620 that's why these companies put these, uh, these, what do they call them? Anonymous

01:03:32.640 surveys in play because the people that work for them are too fucking scared or

01:03:37.520 too, you know, pussy. I mean, let's be real to express what it is they think can be

01:03:46.740 improved. And if you're in that position, why that's an opportunity to create value.

01:03:52.280 If you're an employee in yourself, why couldn't you, how much respect would a, would

01:03:56.760 a CEO have or a manager have somebody says, Hey man, I get what you're thinking about

01:04:01.760 this or I get what the company's thinking about this, but have they ever thought about

01:04:04.260 it like this? You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. You create value by being

01:04:09.180 authentic, right? You know? And, and a lot of people are scared to do that. And here's

01:04:13.120 what people will say to this. When I say this, like if I say this ever in front of

01:04:17.040 anybody, they'll say, well, what if my boss isn't receptive to my feedback? Well, you're

01:04:21.580 probably at the wrong fucking job. So guys, I don't know what more I could say about this.

01:04:32.940 I mean, I can ramble on and on and on and on, but being authentic is effective. Being

01:04:36.520 authentic creates trust. Being authentic creates value. Being authentic leads to loyalty. It

01:04:40.840 creates repeat customer. It creates the ability for your customers to spread word of mouth.

01:04:45.040 If you're not authentic and you, and you don't know who the fuck you are, you need to put some

01:04:50.000 time into figuring it out. That's the wrap up on the show. All right. Well, that's a great place

01:04:55.000 to stop. Like I said, guys, if you want show notes, links galore, et cetera, et cetera, go

01:05:00.880 to themfceo.com slash P11. And you'll find the page for this specific episode. We really want to

01:05:09.060 thank you for your questions and reviews. As I've said in other podcasts, we're going to announce

01:05:13.880 winners for the review contest the first week of September. So there's still time. Take a screenshot

01:05:18.420 of your, of your review and email it to ask Andy at the mfceo.com. Final word. Guys, the

01:05:26.300 final word is this. Go be fucking great and do it by being yourself and you'll find the

01:05:32.580 true purpose of your life. All right. Podcast, obviously the mfceo.com social media at, at

01:05:40.460 Andy for sell on Instagram at Andy for sell on Periscope. If you want to see some behind the

01:05:44.700 scene shit, um, MSEO dash one on Snapchat Vaughn, what's yours at Vaughn Kohler for pretty

01:05:51.060 much everything. V a U G H N K O H L E R. And guys, if you're listening to the podcast right

01:05:55.680 now, leave us a fucking review. All right. See you later.

01:06:07.680 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.

01:06:17.620 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 18, 2015

The Business of Being Yourself, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO11

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