Sharpening Your Entrepreneurial Identity

The Complete Entrepreneur – ep39

[00:00:00] 

You’re listening to the complete entrepreneur. And today we’re talking about your why, your purpose? Why is it that we do what we do as entrepreneurs? We’re going to be expanding and looking, digging into who you are and what makes you tick. That’s going to be interesting topic for entrepreneurs today.

Cause let me tell you it’s something which actually forms the bedrock of why you do what you do is really understanding who you are. So we’re going to try to unpack this within the next hour and it’s going to be a great time together. But most importantly, once again, I always say this. What we’d like to do is hear from you.

Understanding who you are, is the key to becoming a successful entrepreneur. It’s not what the, what [00:01:00] or the how that is transformative, but the why you do what you do that gets you out of your bed each day. And I know that’s so true for myself and there’s a, there’s a great, there’s a great passage.

I must’ve been, I think it’s in Corinthians in the bottle where Paul said, I, I do the, why is it that I do the things that I don’t want to do? And I don’t do the things that I do want to do. And that’s what this topic is all about. It’s and that was Vermont apostle Paul, who was pattern changing in the history in many respects.

So I look at someone like that and I reflect to myself, why is it that I get out of bed each day? I must admit when my eyes open in the morning, I don’t know about you. If you’re an entrepreneur like this, you’ll relate to it with my eyes up in the morning, my brain just kicks into gear and is firing. And I’m so excited to get up each day.

And [00:02:00] I like, if you speak to my life, my wife, she’ll say, you know what? You’re just so annoying. Like, like I’m looking for my cup of tea, bleary eyed as my that. And, oh, I’d much rather be back in bed. I can’t wait to get up. I really can’t wake up. Some people sleep in on the weekend. I get up early. Why?

Because life to me is so exciting. And, and you, you, you sit at your desk and you think what fresh challenges am I going to be facing today? But more than that, what am I going to learn about myself today in how I interact with those challenge? Let me, let me start with a story as well. One of the things that as I began to research this topic it was a lot of it is all about where do you get your self esteem from?

And I was reading this article in, I think it was psychology today about this. And the person said are really, it’s a lot of [00:03:00] things from your childhood. And I began to reflect on my childhood and some of the early memories of my childhood and what are the things I’m so grateful to my parents for is they instilled into me a sense of you can do anything.

You literally can do anything. Just Michael, the world is your oyster. You could do anything. All you’ve got to do is focus on it and go after it, but you could do anything and don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t. Yeah. And it’s funny when you remember as a kid, various key points where that was really inculcated into me, that I could do anything.

So there was seating in front of the television watching Apollo 17 lift off back. It was in 1972. And was it 74 for policy 17, but I’m looking at it and seeing it lift off as a kid, young, young kid, [00:04:00] and I would have been, yeah, it would’ve been about six years old then. And I said to myself, I can be an astronaut if I really want to.

And, you know, I held onto that the whole of my life and entrepreneurial life. And I said to friends of mine I said, you know last, I think it may actually happen that I’m going to get. ’cause I’m looking at people like Virgin and Virgin galactic, and I’m looking at space X and I’m looking at what’s happening with blue origin.

Yet Jeff bay is off with what he’s doing with tourists and the war, but I’m thinking all it now is there’s no longer, like you gotta be born in the right country or, or anything like that. All I’ve got to do is make sure I generate enough cash in my business so I can pay the ticket and I can go to space and I’m going to be a national.

And it was like, and I remember that six year old where I said to my parents, I’m going to be an astronaut one day. They didn’t say, oh, I’ll look focused on something more realistic going. You need to really just focus on [00:05:00] something we’re listing. I said, no, I’m going to be an Astro one day. Yeah. And I’m going to do.

So the question I have for you is this, what is your childhood done for you? What are your parents? What are those grandparents, those, those important people in your life? What have they said to you and how has that began to form who you are and, and as an entrepreneur, and how has that changed who you are because you’ll find it quite often.

When you speak to entrepreneurs, there’ll be various instances or their life, or there’ll be various people in their life. Like I had with my parents that have done something transformative in the early stages of your childhood. And didn’t go along and say, no, be more realistic, come on, be sensible. But they said, no, you can do it.

And now you find yourself running a business and you have that attitude [00:06:00] born deep inside of you. I can do. I can sit at my desk and tackling another problem. I can deal with another irate client. I can go along and deal with that problem with a supplier. Oh. And I need to raise a whole lot of cash for the next four weeks or I’ve got the back door.

I can do that. Yeah. And it’s an incredible trait that entrepreneurs quite often have. So I just want to flip across to you Colin for a second. What word was there? There’s some instances in your life, even when you look at your childhood where you sort of said, yeah, that that is something, when you reflect on it, that was something that really changed me as a young kid, which I’ve now carried and about adulthood.

Was there a person or some incident in your life? Yeah. And there’s a lot of thoughts I have about this, you know, I didn’t know we were going to go back into our childhood here, but I will, and I’ll do some digging here and share some thoughts, you know? Because there’s really three reasons why I get up every day and go to [00:07:00] work.

And I’m trying to think of that with respect to my childhood as well, but one is to make money. One is to take another hit from the entrepreneur drug. And I’ll talk about that in a minute. And the third is, you know, to follow the purpose of our business because we believe in it and it’s, it’s doing something more than just trying to create a livelihood for everyone in our company.

So I mean, I go back to my childhood and I think about, you know, the different paper routes and whatnot, the things that I had, I also grew up with farms in the family and we spent the summers on the farm. It was hard work. We were always doing something like there was always some little, and it was, you know, things we were doing.

Like for instance, we, we would have puppy dogs and we would breed them and then we would sell them at the flea market. Or we would set up a vegetable stand and we’d be selling strawberries and we go, you know, there’s just so many little business enterprises that we did when we were young. And I think, I think that does have an impact on you in more ways than one.

Because [00:08:00] when I mentioned earlier about this idea of, you know, taking a hit from the entrepreneurial life, you know, like when, I mean a head I’m talking like a drug here, it is an addiction. When you, you know, when I go to work and you know, I tap in another domain name or registered great domain name, or, you know, this morning I was doing, and I was looking at the new my new vacation rental property.

I was looking at all the reservations that were coming in for that, you know, there’s some dopamine or something going off in your brain as this entrepreneur is triggering you to, you get very excited about that. It’s maybe it’s a gambler’s addiction. I don’t know, but I think there’s something here. That a lot of entrepreneurs get.

And I know I get is that you really you’re really attracted to that, that, that risk environments. And you really have a lot of fun when it comes down to it making, you know, launching a new business or, or making or making money. You know, beyond that, it’s all about purpose. You know, we started really because we had aging dogs and we knew that our dogs want it to [00:09:00] be comfortable.

And the CEO of that company was also big on design. So he he created designs that would work really well for the home. And he created these, these beautiful memory foam pet rugs that became. Leading in, you know, we, we actually pioneered the entire space of pet rugs. Now there’s many companies developing them, but we are the ones who pioneered that.

And we pipe, we pioneered a number of other innovative products as well@pod.com you know, with.club, Michael, which is an alternative to.com.net.org. That was a company we just sold to GoDaddy. And with that one, it was really a global microblog brand micro global brand. And our thought there was, we wanted to make it easy and simple for small businesses or entrepreneurs all over the world to set up a brandable domain name, because quite frankly, there were 120 million.is already registered.

So I think the importance of a purpose, and I really am jumping around a lot here, but the importance of a [00:10:00] purpose in your businesses that gets you through the hard times, it gets you through those times. You know what, I don’t even know what I’m doing here today. I’m not making any money. And this is really, I’m working 12 hours a day.

Oh, I’m doing that because I’m actually changing the world. I’m actually making a difference in the world. And you know, I think that’s important for any entrepreneur in any business because it gets you through the hard time. Yeah. I think, I think it’s really interesting hearing. If you call them there, you talk about your childhood and having like the the cell selling puppy dogs and all that sort of stuff at the flea Mac and selling vegetables or something like that.

And then you, you, you went from there and I was interested in the way you sort of traveled in urine thinking, just name, it went from there into talking, talking about what was it talking about? The drug of entrepreneurship? Well, it’s because when you asked me the question, what childhood I was thinking about, talking about.

How I, I feel it every day. And then I began to [00:11:00] think about realizing that, Hey, wait a minute. I think when I was a child, I caught the drug and it never went away. It was an addiction. I know it sounds crazy. Maybe it does. I don’t know, but oh no, I don’t think it’s crazy at all. Actually, I actually think it is an addiction.

And I find when I speak to other entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs that come on the stage here at the complete entrepreneur, and by the way, if you want to join the conversation, we would love to hear from you. Please stick up your hand and we’ll invite you to the stage and let’s dissipate together, the learning session together.

And I think it should be, it’s a really exciting time doing that. But I think that in when you, when you discussed that entrepreneurship is a drug and for many of us is exactly that I, I know for myself, I just love the thrill of the kill and the chasing down of a client. The then fulfilling them a service to that client and [00:12:00] then seeing that client happy.

They’re just, there’s just something about that. I remember there was a guy who offered me a a job many, many years ago now and little bit 20 something years ago and offered me this fantastic job. It really was, it was an amazing job and great pay and all that extra stuff. And I sit, look, I could turn you down.

I’m sorry. I I’m really, really grateful and all that sort of stuff for the opportunity and really appreciate you considering me. And he said, why isn’t it enough money? And I said, you don’t understand. I’ve never had a salary model. Yeah. I’ve never had a solid in my life other than like a vacation job as a kid or something like that, but I’ve never had a star in my life.

And the thought that I could be working like for an eight hour day and get paid the same matter, why to maybe a bonus or something like that. And it’s just, it’s different from my mindset [00:13:00] and it’s not who I am. And I, and I said to her, I said to him, I’m an entrepreneur. And I think very differently.

And I’m not saying you can’t have internal entrepreneurs that do like eight hours a day. And it had bonuses. I was just talking about me and I began to understand something that instance about me and what I really want and what was making me tick. And the thing I loved was just, I hate to say, I love the.

Of entrepreneurship. I love the challenges of entrepreneurship. There’s nothing like it. And it’s, that’s why I’m just reflecting also on that you talked about the drug of entrepreneurship and I’m definitely when I think about I’m addicted to that drug, I definitely think to that drug there, there’s something about running an enterprise and seeing somebody created from nothing and suddenly it’s there [00:14:00] and it just, it just lights me up.

It really does. Like, I look at it, I go, oh my gosh, it wasn’t there before. Now. It is. And, and other people are verified that my excitement cause they’re buying. It’s just like, like you talked about paul.com. I’d love to flip across to Jeff and then we’ll come to Roy because Roy, it’s great to have you on the stage with us.

So, but, but Jeff, I just want to come to you first and you’re doing the you’re the CMI from from correct or paul.com. And you can have that sort of same sort of excitement that we’re talking about. There’s like that adrenaline hit almost like when you’ve, you’ve made these incredible products and you see someone buying the products and it’s like an endorsement almost.

Do you get that? Well, I think, you know, yes. I mean the short answer is yes, Michael, but, but in thinking about the overall theme of what makes you tick and hearing Collin, and you talk about things from your past, you [00:15:00] know, what gets me excited because yes, today I’m COO of pod.com, but over my career I’ve been involved in many different industries, you know, w when you’re pursuing an entrepreneurial path, sometimes it steers you in lots of different directions.

So I’ve been in many different industries, different verticals over the years, but what makes me tick, I guess, has always been the same and that that’s sort of what you got me thinking about with this topic. So if I really go back, even to my, my very young childhood, I was always. A performer. In other words, I always enjoy getting up in front of a crowd.

I always enjoy writing and doing creative activities. Even from a young age of 7, 8, 9 years old. I was in a children’s theater group when I was 10. You know, so I’ve always liked that that’s always been what makes me tick. And as a professional in my career, I’ve always managed to find ways to work that into my job.

And that’s [00:16:00] probably why I’ve always leaned more towards marketing roles. Even though as an entrepreneur, I’ve been a co-founder, I’ve been a CEO, I’ve been a COO, I’ve been a CFO. In all of those roles, I’ve always managed to work in performing and writing and creative activities. Whether that’s writing press releases or marketing mumbo-jumbo, whether that’s performing by being the person in the company who gives all the presentations and gets up on stage and speaks at events in my entrepreneurial journey, the things that made me tick as a child, continue to be the things that I enjoy doing the most.

And that gives me that dopamine hit and that I’ve fortunately managed to work into virtually every role I’ve ever had professionally. So, so that’s what I was thinking of when you, when, when I saw your topic about what makes you tick. So I’m not sure if I exactly answered your question, but, but that’s sort of how I looked at.

You triggered something else then Michael, I don’t know if you’ve thought about this one, but you know, it’s also about the [00:17:00] people, your work with make you. Like Michelle and Jeff and I had so much fun with doc club and we lasted if it helps you get through the years too. But I mean, we went to so many events and we went to, you know, we were always there at the bar at the end of the night and we’ve always, you know, had so much fun doing the meetings and doing the strategy sessions.

It’s who you work with as well, gets you up in the, in the morning too. And you’re like, oh, I’m so excited. I’m working with Jeff and Michelle today. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. I actually think when I reflect upon my own life I I’m agreeing with everything you guys are saying, but also reflect on the fact that it, for me, there’s that internal dynamo and then outwardly there’s the people I work with and that sort of stuff as well.

And it’s just something about working with, with people who are really focused. [00:18:00] And I remember watching that show many years ago, the west wing and have watched a number of times and the thing I loved about that show and the thing I’ve always hungered for my business law is you can have a absolutely great big argument with someone.

And the characters in the show would look at each other and say, they’re like trashed at some big issue. And they’d look at each other and say, are we good? Yeah, we’re good. And they’d move on. And there’s that, that interaction. And I agree with you call it there’s that interaction with the team and it gives a sense of drive and it’s a multiple stative in terms of effectiveness of moving forward.

Like for those of you who don’t know. Colin, Jeff Michelle. I’ve known them for many, many years now. I’ve had the privilege of knowing them and and to see them in action, like Colin just did a throw away line there about developing a global brand called doc club. And [00:19:00] to see them in action was, was nothing short of remarkable.

What they did like to develop a global brand. Typically speaking, you need half a billion to a billion dollars. They didn’t have anything like that, but they did it. They developed a global brand to go to a session and see Jeff at, they talked about presentations and things like that. And being creative to see one of his presentations was like mode.

It was phenomenal to sit down with Michelle and in a meeting and hear her wisdom in the meeting was one of the things that I, I, I hunted for. I’ll never forget being at the top of the Shirley in tower, Tokyo at a dinner, and Michelle was there and a bunch of other people, and you you’d hear her. It’s having great times and fun and everything, but then you’d hear some things she would say [00:20:00] and full of wisdom.

And to me, that’s what I live for. My entrepreneurship journey is not just even my team, but it’s the people that I can interact with. And as entrepreneurs, it’s such a privilege when you go along and counter people and I’m singing, my co-moderator is praises right here. And each one of them are, are phenomenal.

And if you’re in the audience right now and you were sort of saying, oh God, this is a bit sucky because Hey, this guy is talking about his own moderator. You done well, rhino. I am because you know what? They’re amazing people. And I know that in this, in this show, the complete entrepreneur, I learned so much from them.

And it’s great. I really appreciate it. But I also learned from other people, other people like Roy, Roy, interesting topic, I hope it’s. I hope you find he is interested in [00:21:00] engaging. I’d love to hear your thoughts on who are you and what makes you tick Roy, welcome to the stage of the complete.

Appreciate it, Michael, thank you so much, Colin. Nice to meet you, Michelle. Nice to meet you, Jeff and everybody else loved the title of the room. I already had rang the bell and put it on my calendar and I was alerted to it and I said, I’m stopping right now. And I’m jumping in to see what the guys have to say.

So I love the, what makes you tick because what I like to ask people is. That exact question. And I add another one what makes you tick and what ticks you off? And then I tell them, okay, you can answer that question in either order, any order you want. And a lot of times people will start with what ticks them off.

And so me being a, a body language person, and now a digital body language person, I I can read that person and kind of understand where they’re coming from a lot better if I just had asked them, [00:22:00] so how you doing? How are you, what do you do? You know? So it’s a little bit maybe a lot of bit deep right away.

I just love meeting people. I have a one-liner for that. It goes like this guys, if you don’t enjoy meeting people, guess what? People won’t enjoy meeting you. And I learned this along the way and another great one-liner. I love John Maxwell said. Some of my best thinking has been done by other people.

I like to modify that a little bit and say most of my best thinking has been done by other people, starting with somebody who poured into me about 25 years ago after she said, you know, that shy thing you’re doing. I said, yeah, she said, that’s the most selfish thing you could possibly do. Stop it. And I said, well, she sat me down.

And about an hour later, she was right. I couldn’t argue with her. I was literally the shyest person on the planet. I would not say anything. I would not talk. People could not. Like primary open, not even with a can opener. And so my, what makes me tick these days [00:23:00] is to share just that, to share my story and to say, if you are even a little bit on the shy side of opening up, or you have been hurt and you’ve got those walls up, stop, let me pour something into you that was poured into me.

And hopefully you will make the same decision I did. And just go out and start sharing your story with other people after they share theirs with you first, because I believe what my Angelou says is best. And she says, Roy people will forget what you said, Roy people will forget what you did, but Roy people will never forget how you made them feel.

And I’ll stop right there, guys. Thank you so much for the opportunity. That’s awesome. That is awesome. But you never told us the opposite, which what ticks you off and you started it? Well, what ticks me off is when people believe a lie a little longer than they should, and don’t make that new decision because, you know, we’re all programmed by age seven or eight, something like that and everything [00:24:00] we’ve ever ingested from screens to parents, to teachers, to peers, it’s all in there.

Right. And if you’ve been hanging around people or you were brought into a family who didn’t know the truth and they’ve been pouring some lies into you, or, you know, the status quo of the, the undertow as I like to stay of the status quo. Yeah. You know, I I just believe so many people would do so much better if they stop believing the lies that they think are true.

So I’m against that. And I want to help people, you know, cause I asked him, I, I challenged him. Why do you believe that? And they’re like I don’t know. Well, where did you pick up that belief? I don’t know. I just believe it. I believed it all my life. I go, okay, well maybe it’s not serving you anymore because blah, blah, blah.

Just like I was poured into. So thank you for asking Roy fantastical. I loved it. Yeah. Most of my best thinking is done by other people. How true is that? You look at the entrepreneurs through the years. Yeah. And this [00:25:00] like really prominent ones. They’re bill gates and Steve jobs and so forth like that.

And that’s, that’s for sure. Like those guys walked into Xerox packs and they basically pillaged the place because for ideas and most of my best thinking is done by other people and the shiny things. It’s that is so true. I, I think that one of the things that, and I know it’s a challenge for people who have.

And they said, well, that’s just the way I am, I’m shy. But you know, in that process, you’re actually denying other people a great blessing of who you are, but being shy. And that, that’s an, it’s a challenge to get over that. And I actually say to people I’m my own team. So if you’re invited into a team meeting, it’s because we expect you to contribute.

If you don’t contribute, then why the heck are you there? Yeah. It’s comes down to like, how do you [00:26:00] manage your team? And I paraphrase that, but you obviously can say it much nicer than I just said then, but it’s like, who are you? And what makes you tick is so, so important though. And what drives you? And it seems to me, Roy, that what’s really driving you is it is this whole sense of, I want to help people.

I want to help people really believe the line, Michael, I believe the lie. That’s, that’s what, that’s my Y you know Simon Sinek says, start with why and the question I like to ask people so I asked them is your why bigger than your button? And I pause and I say, but in other words is your reason for what you’re about to do bigger than your excuse your butt, but Roy your excuse for not doing it.

Like I don’t have any time. There’s not enough time. It’s like, no, there’s plenty of time. You have the same amount of time I do. And look at there’s people that are billionaires on the planet they had the same time you did. So don’t give me that. And it’s just on [00:27:00] believing the lies that you believe were true.

And I’ll say shyness. It’s a decision. It’s a choice, right? Michael, because a lot of people believe it’s like, that’s just, that’s how I was born. I’m shy. I’m a wallflower, right? This is my lot in life, blah, blah, blah. And then the equate shyness with introversion, which is so silly because there’s introvert, extrovert and ambivert, and most of us are ambiverts.

We can go, you know, either way. Sometimes I want to be around people sometimes that don’t. So there’s that. And you know, I’ve been able to read people really fast and quick, these last 25 years because of what was poured into me. So I love body language and now digital body Lang. Yeah. How, how true, what you’re saying?

Yeah, it really is. Roy, please don’t leave the stage. Love to go on, come back to you with some different thoughts. As we, as we go on this journey, unpacking, what is it? What makes you tick and why do you do what you do? It’s such an [00:28:00] interesting topic I find is that everyone is different. Everyone has different things that have impacted them, either in their childhood, as you stand up to age seven or whatever it is, there’ll be significant moments in each of our lives that make us different.

That make us unique, that make us who we are as entrepreneurs. And it’s understanding that becomes the foundation in many respects to all of our businesses and all the things that we do. Like when I look at my own businesses, I look at profit as a school, not as nothing, basically, nothing more than that.

It’s. And the reason why you want to become more profitable, more profit, more profitable, because it’s as a nice score. And it’s very measurable. And I love that. There’s this that’s something to me and I think, wow, what can I do with that profit? And can I invest in something else can invest in other people can invest in new ventures.

There’s all those things. And [00:29:00] that, once again, it gets me really excited, but we have George here. Number four, too, George, I always love hearing from you. So what have you got to say on this topic of who are you and what makes George tick welcome to the stage, George? Hi guys. Are you yeah. You know, this is a great, interesting topic here.

I don’t know. I think I think what makes me tick is of course. You know, I want to take care of my family. Of course. That’s the priority for me, but also too, I think, you know, I have a different outlook now after I had my massive heart attack after the surgery, you know, my outlook totally changed on, on life.

And, and you know, also I know that me and my brother, you know, as this law cannabis labs gets up and running now, you know, a lot of those profits that we’re gonna, we’re going to put enough. We, we we [00:30:00] just created a foundation to build synagogues around that in America where there’s no synagogue.

And we’re going to give back, you know, we want to do a lot of cool things, you know, scholarships, especially in east LA where I grew up from, you know, it was you know, it’s not a really, I’m not a really, what do you call it? Rich cherry, you could say. But you know, there’s a lot of kids that are going to school and going to college.

And a lot of the people at east LA, they hardly ever get scholarships. So I want to do a lot of cool stuff with scholarships, just to give back help people. Like people have helped me, you know, I want to give it back, pay it forward, you know? Cause I want to leave a legacy. You know, when I, if I ever pass, you know, want to leave something, I want to be in other words, Dispense my life.

Like I want my life to beat this dispense, like totally like sucked out of me in a sense where I did everything I needed to do and make an impact before I leave this earth. So I think that’s what makes me [00:31:00] tick, you know, as, as more or less, you know, doing something for other people and helping other people get to that next level, wherever they need to go.

But this is a very cool topic. I really liked this topic. Yeah. Appreciate your comments there, George. But the question I have for you, George is still ultimately, why do you want to help the people in east LA? I know it’s where you grew up, but what is this driving you to say? You know what? I’m going to take.

Some of my families I’m here turns out of my pocket and I’m going to invest it in some people in east LA. And I may not even know them, but that’s why I want to do, what is it that is driving you down that path? Is it making you feel. Well, I, I think, I think what’s driving me to do that is, is there’s a lot of successful people that have coming out that have come out of east LA.

I don’t, you know, there’s, you know, we have actors and, you know, there’s some baseball players or whatever people came out, [00:32:00] but I never see them go back and say, look, man, we’re giving you scholarships for helping people. You know, I think, you know, I see all these successful, like, you know, artists, you know, like, like say Nipsey hustle and, and, and some of these other guys that made impacts in all Sanders where they give back to their communities, to the black community.

And, and, but I want to be the same way, but I don’t want to just leave it for the Hispanic community, but there’s, you know, east LA is like a melting pot. So you have Asians, you have Hispanics have blacks, not, you know, it’s really changed a lot, but I think, you know, it’s more. Just seeing people, you know, just helping people.

Cause I know I’ve been in positions where I needed help and people have helped me and, and really crucial times where it took me to that little level, that little bit of help kind of push me another place. I think I that’s, what I want do Michael was really, is really want to see people succeed banning and.

Maybe me be a mentor and I [00:33:00] don’t want to be one of those guys that say, oh, look, I’m giving this. No, I want to stay low profile and let the foundation be the face of it. And I don’t want people to know that I did that. I just want to help people in a sense to get to their destination somehow. Because there’s some people in east LA, very creative people out there, very creative kids, you know, they’re just looking for that avenue or that, or looking for the purpose of their purpose.

Right. And, you know, domains have really opened my eyes to, you know, to kind of, you know, put behind a company. A lot of these people don’t know about domain. So I want to be doing something around that to help some of these kids understand that they could be business owners, they can start their own online business, or they could do whatever they want online.

You know, it just Having that, that right vision in that right domain to help them be successful. But I think that’s what makes me tick. Michael, is, is I just want to leave an impact. I want to, I want to be an impact before I get [00:34:00] outta here. I think that’s amazing. I think that’s amazing what you’re doing and your thinking, your thought process.

I want to go back a few years here cause I’ve known you for years now and you have been working on a project with your brother, like the cannabis space, us laboratory, us cannabis laboratories. I’m not certain if I got the name. Right. But the fact that you, how you know, you’ve been working on that for both five years.

And when you get into these very long projects, this, this timeframe where it takes a long time to get across the finish line, what motivates you? Like what, what makes you tick along the way? Like how did, can you keep your enthusiasm up and your belief of. You know, I know it’s tenacity. I know you’ve got this.

Just sort of like, you’re like a pit bull and you don’t let go. And I’m just curious, like, you know, that, that, that, that to take, to take that long, to get to the finish line, what made you tick along the way? [00:35:00] Yeah. Calling great, great question. I think calling is, is, you know, I’m, I’m a really, really big believer in domain names.

And I think I got the right domain names around our company. I think also too is, is you have, you gotta have a vision and you’ve got to have a long-term vision the way I see. Even though we ran into so many obstacles, it was unbelievable. The stuff I went through. I mean, it literally, like, it’s unbelievable.

It’s almost to the point, like we’re right there, but you know, it’s kind of, you know, my struggles are coming in financially because now it’s like really crunch time. It’s really been hard for me. And there’s been many times calling. We wanted to quit me and my brothers say, you know what, they’re just throwing the towel.

You know what? Let’s just, you know, sell the domain names and sell the little building that we got there and just get rid of it and just let’s just live our lives. But I think Colin is me and my brother have a bigger purpose is [00:36:00] really touching communities in Latin America. That don’t have access, you know, to, to to religious freedom, you could say, you know, and, you know, I know there’s several countries that we’ve been to me and my brother and they don’t have, you know, there’s, there don’t have no synagogues there to worship.

They worship in houses and they don’t have buildings or nothing like that. And, and in America, right now, you could build a synagogue for probably a couple million dollars, a million dollars maybe at the most. And I think that’s when me and my brother started doing is we were actually, my brother technically got commissioned and I, I’m not really supposed to say this.

So he’s been commissioned. By the chief rabbi Israel to start, they give us permission to do the synagogues. You could say they’re going to be backed by them. And so that’s why we’re doing it is because we want to really help people. And not only, not only for the, for the supportive community that we’re involved in, but you know, also, like I said, you know, is just [00:37:00] helping people, man, because that’s where it’s at.

Even, you know, the little I have I’ve had through the years, I’ve always tried to help people the best I can, you know, don’t question, just help them and just, you know, give them the advice they need to get to the next level. Kind of, you know, mentor them, just like what you do to me calling you, Metro me, you helped me.

You’ll pick up my phone calls, you know, and I do the same thing to other people, you know, that are, that are, that are just up and coming that have visions and want to do something. And I think that’s the tenacity that I have that I want to finish this. I want to get it done. And I want to prove to myself.

And my family that we could get something done like this. And like I said, it’s been a crazy road. I mean, it’s been long overdue. You know, that the pandemic set us back and like I said, it, it was really hard, man, but we, we ended up doing it. Now we’re now open, we’re open now. So now we’re submitting the data to the state of California on June 1st.

And hopefully by July, we’re open. [00:38:00] So we’re there. And like I said, we set the foundation, Jason shapers, our attorney on the phone. He’s, he’s the one that’s going to be running our foundation, Jason Schaffer. And we’re actually gonna do. You know, getting stuff, going to for projects. And not only that fall in, but you know, in east LA it’s very poverty, very poor.

It’s like a unincorporated area. And, you know, you know, there’s people in there that can’t even afford funerals and we want to do stuff where we help people, help bury people. I mean, but you know, they’re going to have to go through a process of course, but I mean, we want to give people want to give back, want to help people as best we can.

And it just, I think what you’re doing here with your, you know, you have a business, it’s a, it’s a laboratory that, that monitors marijuana, THC. But what you’ve done is you, you brought in this, if you know, diaper you’re, you’re taking the profits and you’re putting that into do good. And I think that a lot of [00:39:00] businesses that we have, they may not be sexy, but what we can do with the profits and how we can share those things can make a big impact in the world.

Yeah, I kind of just come here, George. And just, just ask that question is, and Roy touched on it a few minutes ago and why you do the thing. And I actually asked that question before, so why are you here talking to people east LA and you went through and you explained to me once again, what you’re doing and how you’re gonna do it, and with you’re going to do it, all that sort of stuff.

But the question answer is I’d love you to answer if you, if you can, that is why do you do it? It’s not because it, and what is the motivation deep down inside? And I think I know what that is, but I’d like to see whether, whether you can actually articulate that or why it is you’re doing what you’re doing, because that comes down to the topic of [00:40:00] who are you.

So why is it you’re actually doing it? I think, I think cause I’m like, I feel like I’m a generous person and also my heart’s in east LA man. I mean out mean my, the best memories I’ve ever had. Okay. You described it, but you described an interesting way. My heart’s in east LA, so really you do United have a foundation of love.

That’s what you’re doing it at. Yeah. And I think sometimes it’s entrepreneurs. Yeah. It’s almost like love is seen as a weak thing. Now you’re going to be hard. Yeah. You’re going to be force your way through and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. There’s times for that, but there’s also times for the love, love is unbelievably strong.

Put this way more wars are being curated out of love than hate. Just look at the Trojans, but that love. [00:41:00] And the love of the people east LA, it would that encapsulate really what you’re on at that is you want to express your love to other people. Absolutely. Yeah. I want to really, you know, my heart’s there, man.

That’s, that’s where, if it wasn’t for the lessons I’ve learned growing up there, which I grew up in a really rough area. If I grew up, you know, street smart, you could say, I kind of grew up. I kind of see a lot of things and I never got involved. Unbelievable. Me and my brother never got involved in the gangs, which all our friends are crazy gang members, you know?

We never got involved in the gang. That’s what was, what’s wild about the whole situation. And I, and I give credit to my mom. My mom was always on her ass, man. You better not do this. You bring on, you know, so we respected our mother, you know, and, and we, even though we grew up in a heart of hardcore area, you know, I always had.

That thought in my head that if I ever make it outta here and I make it, I want to give back and [00:42:00] help, you know, my friend’s kids, right. That are maybe, or their grandkids, my friend’s grandkids that maybe want to go to college and we set up a college fund for him and album. You know, I just want to just want to, just to give back.

And I said, because, you know, because I love my culture, the culture out of there, it’s very, very unique culture at east LA. It’s a, I love that place, man, even though it’s rough, I still love him. My heart’s there. And you know, I don’t know. Sometimes I kind of freak out a little bit because like I said, it’s coming kind of weird.

These last couple months, I’ve had people, Michael, trying to reach out to me, want to interview me, want to do a document or me and my brother. I don’t want to be out there like that. I want to be behind the scenes, low profile. Let’s help people. Let’s bring some smiles. It brings some tears. Let’s see these people make, let’s see one of those guys.

What if I help, you know, give scholarships in one that one person became like really, really, really big. And now they could come back [00:43:00] and continue the, the legacy right. To help, you know, ’cause like I said, I think he still is always been overseen by a lot of people, even like Oscar de LA Hoya, for example, which a lot of people don’t know a lot of people know, but I used to box with Oscar de LA Hoya.

When I was a kid, we wait, we balked at the same gym when we were kids and he was younger than me, but I remember him going every day, me going every day. And we’re learning boxing because boxing is a real big sport out east LA. And you know, and I remember his father his father was pretty hardcore guy, but, but you know, when Oscar made it really, really big he didn’t give to that part where I grew up at, he went to another.

Valet, which is a little bit on the outskirts of east LA and started the gym with you, still doing good. He’s kind of giving back. He did a gym for the community and their kids going in there and they’re boxing and they’re learning skills. And, and, but, you know, my mind is different. I I’m, you know, I have nothing against boxing, but my thing is more internet [00:44:00] that if I could create like a startup, like I would love to talk to Colin when that time comes, they call it.

I want to get started clubbing, put one in east LA and totally bring people in there and help them. Because like I said, if people believed in me, Michael, you, Michelle, Jeff calling, you guys always believed in you and I’ve always believed in you guys. You guys always believed in me, even though I was still a small little guy running around these conferences, trying to figure things out.

Right. You know, but the example ships of you guys have been so. In my life. That is unbelievable. I mean, if I ever, ever write a book, man, you guys will be on that book because your example shifts were, were just epic to me and the friendships too where I could call and you guys pick up the phone and like I say, I, look, I look up to all you guys up on this stage.

Believe it or not. I mean, you guys are like my heroes in a sense and weather, weather, weather, weather, [00:45:00] you guys don’t, we don’t talk all the time, but your example shapes are so powerful. And that’s what I’m trying to mimic. I want my life to be a powerful example, ship for the kids and the people. That’s what I want to do.

Yeah, George, I kind of say you’re a larger than life, character. And one of the most geared aspects of who you are is your genuine human. And I it’s a blessing for my life to actually know you. So thank you very much. I want to jump across there to, to Roy Roy right now, right? You talk to people a lot about their why, and you mentioned Simon Sinek’s book, by the way, if you haven’t read Simon Sinek’s book, start with your why.

I think it’s cool to call it that it’s fabulous. It really is a great book. And, and not only for an individual, but for an organization is discovering your why why you do things. But Roy, you talk about the why, and we sort of drill down [00:46:00] even in, in George’s conversation there. And it was his love for east LA.

Do you find it quite often that love is a strong motivator for entrepreneurs or is it some other emotion?

Roy, I can’t hear you so. Maybe you’re still muted or something.

It looks like something went wrong with Roy he’ll hopefully he’ll be back. Oh, there he is. He’s coming. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Right? Love is not a feeling. Love is a, doing love is a good doing for the other person all the time. Even if you don’t feel like it, I’m going to kill my kids.

No, you don’t love your kids. Right. So love is an action. Love is a verb. I love that. And I’m where your heart is. That’s where your treasure is. So whatever it is that you are [00:47:00] seeking or moving towards, focusing on, you know, what is it that gets you up in the morning and what is it that keeps you from going to bed at night?

And that’s me. And that is, you know, building something on the internet that. I couldn’t have done if I were alive in any other time during history. So with what the internet at full force, I mean, I was on the internet, the information super highway, remember guys. So I like to say when it was still a dirt road back with the orange screens in the early nineties you know, with bowed all of that stuff.

So I seen the internet when it was in its infancy and what it is today. So it’s amazing. And then with the metaverse coming up, it’s just incredible. Your imagination is not even limited to what can happen here. So that’s where my treasure is, is to globally impact people that are supposed to be impacted by me.

Right. Because there’s a lot of people that [00:48:00] believe in scarcity. Oh, my goodness. There’s not enough of the pie to go around. All these people have been here before me and all their excuses, their butts, but Roy right, is your why bigger than your butt. And sounds like a four 20, your why is way bigger than your butt.

And so is mine. So I want a great, great thing to say. Just there. That’s for sure. I want to flip across to Michelle in a second. Yeah. Just get your general comments about what’s being shared today, Michelle. Once again, I think you’re a wonderful person with great insights into things, but yeah, one of the things we’re looking at is who are you and what makes you tick is foundational.

I said to you, as an entrepreneur is building to understand that one of the things I do periodically is I go away just myself and I go away with my, with my notebook because I find it’s faster than anything else, but I, I go away and write. And I sit there and I might stare at the ocean or something like [00:49:00] that, or, or not view or whatever it is.

And, and I will just think, and I, I spend that time re getting back to my wife, because quite often in amongst all the chaos of what it means to be an entrepreneur, we can lose our focus on really why we’re doing what we’re doing. And it’s something that’s so critical for me, understanding more about me and what is making me take and what is making me do.

The things that I do is just so, so important. So, Michelle, I’d love to get your thoughts on this topic. And just to hear from you on, what’s been said so far, is there where you can encapsulate things. Well, no, I just think it’s been an amazing conversation. And one thing that I really take away from it is, you know, it’s different for everybody, right?

And I think that’s an amazing thing and people want to contribute in the way they feel is best [00:50:00] suited for them, how they best think that they can help. And that’s the beauty, you know, kind of, for me at the crux of being an entrepreneur is you have freedom. You have freedom to do it your way, which for me personally, is, is a huge thing.

Thank you. How true having freedom to do it. Yeah. Yeah. We’ve had spent a long time, like this past hour discussing who you are and what makes you tick. And I feel like we’ve really just scratched the surface of this topic. I don’t know about you calling, but do you feel like this is like that? Or? We barely touched it well, I mean, it’s, it’s just interesting.

Cause you know, everyone, when other people talk about it, it begins to trigger things like Roy talking about the information super highway and you know, the beeps of the modems back in the nineties. For sure. Yeah. And so right. You don’t know this, but Michael and I were there and you know, we were so [00:51:00] excited about what we were creating.

This thing called the internet. I was doing it in Toronto and Michael Olson in Australia. But but just this idea of human behavior and technology and how they intersect and how technology can change people’s lives, hopefully for the positive, you know, we’ve often seen technology. To the opposite with social media and other things, other innovations, but for the most part, you know, that’s been something that’s driven me is to see how technology can help people and make their lives better.

And that’s motivated me. It motivated me when I lost almost everything in the.com crash and had to rebuild. And that was the one thing I looked at and said, you know, this is what I really like to do, and I’m going to stick with it. I can stick with this internet stuff. And I did and was successful from doing that.

But I’m going to leave it off with this last quote, from a famous philosopher written by talking said by Gandalf, all we [00:52:00] have to decide is what to do with the time that is left to us. And George, you inspired me to think, remember that quote today, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is left to us.

What a great, great quote from a real icon pop icon in the world. That’s for sure. But I’d love to come to you, Jeff, just to finish off in the last couple of minutes. I know we’ve got a couple of minutes left, but do you have any more thoughts on this topic? Do you, would you like to share just wanted to give you that opportunity?

Well, I know it’s just a great topic and hearing from George and George, you’ve been such a good friend and such an inspiration, you know, and your story. And, and I think, you know, what makes you tick is so important and that’s authenticity like, like you are, you, you know, from the tip of your toes, to the top of your head.

And so many people are, are trying to put a mask on and appear to be something other than [00:53:00] what they are. And I think in today’s world with all the craziness, you know, Authenticity being pure is so valuable and you embody that. So it was great to see you in here that, and Roy, it was a pleasure hearing, your point of view of things and what makes you tick and what ticks you off.

This was a great great discussion, Michael, probably one that can be continued in another session one day. I think so. Definitely. That’s for sure, Jeff, that we’re definitely gonna come back and revisit this because it is the foundation of what it means to be an entrepreneur that’s for sure is understanding.

Who you are and what makes you tick? Yep. I personally view it. I’d like to finish up this session with this. This thought is the adventure of life is discovering who you are. And I find the mechanism of entrepreneurship is one of the best ways for doing that. And that’s why we’re all here is where entrepreneurs and discovering who you are is in an adventure.

It’s amazing to discover all the things you can [00:54:00] be an and discover all that you can encompass. And that’s one of the reasons why I love entrepreneurship so much, but speaking of entrepreneurship maybe I can ask Colin this time, call it what’s going on with startup club this week. And how’s it going?

We’re over 600,000 members, correct? No, 800,000. We had over 800,000 members it’s taken off and you’re not already falling start up club. It’s time. It’s time to follow us. I was just mentioning to a friend of mine that we had Joe Foster or the founder of Reebok in about three or four days. And we found out that he was going to come on to start a club about 24 hours before it happened.

And then we sent an email out to our email list. So if you’re not on that email list, you got to sign up because otherwise you’re just not going to know when we bring the celebrities on and, or the big speakers, the billionaires, the, you know, the authors, et cetera. So go to www.startup.club and sign up to that email list tomorrow.

We’re talking about at two o’clock Eastern, the impact of inflation. And we do that at the serial launch per hour. [00:55:00] Every Friday at two o’clock Eastern, we take on a different topic is inflation your friend or foe as an entrepreneur. And that’s going to be an interesting one. That’s something that more of a political one.

We don’t typically take those conversations on, but we’re doing open mic. So if you want to get on stage, talk about that, how it’s impacting your business, please, please do that. This has been the complete entrepreneur. Thank you very much, Michael. And we’ll see you next week. Yeah, absolutely. Look forward to it.

So next week on the complete entrepreneur, we’re dealing with the topic. Dealing with failure, all entrepreneurs. Let me tell you experienced failure from time to time. How do you handle it? It could even be things like substance abuse or a fight or flight, or, oh, you type things out on the family. When, you know, you shouldn’t be, what are your failures you’re actually wrestling with as an entrepreneur, they could be business related, but they could be personal related.

And we’re going to begin to unpack that, how do we deal with failure? We know we failed. So how do we deal with it? Yeah. So it’s going to be a great topic. So [00:56:00] 5:00 PM Eastern time next week on the complete entrepreneur where the topic of dealing with failure, I’d like to say a great big thank you to my current moderators are always here and it’s fabulous to have them on, on the show.

And in particular, I’d like to also think Roy and also George, who were on here as well. And it’s been great hearing some of your wisdom and your stories and for you and the. This is your, the reason why we do this. Want one? Thank you for attending. I’ll see you next week, Thursday at 5:00 PM. Eastern time on the complete entrepreneur.

God bless. Have a great week.[00:57:00] [00:58:00] [00:59:00] [01:00:00] [01:01:00] [01:02:00] [01:03:00] 

Michael are you there? It’s Roy you’re there. I just left and came back and the room is still open. So you will need to end the room in order to preserve the replay. And we had such a great show. I’d hate to lose the replay to this room. If you’re there, Michael I might back channel you

one for a second. Thanks for much for that. I think I need to close the room somehow. There are three dots up at the top. Right? I got it. I got it here.