Do You Love Your Business, Or Do You Love Making Money?

All right. If you are just watching this on replay, we are going to kick it off very soon. Uh, I know that it’s going to be an interesting episode as we talk about, you know, passion and love for your business. Michael welcome. I was just letting the replay guests know before the other guests jump on that, take this be patient with us, and here we go, Michael, I’m going to pass it to you to, to lead us through this.

Hey, they’re calling Jeff and Michelle is good to be here. I must admit I was wondering whether I can actually make it in the end, but, um, uh, I got my COVID boosted the other day and had some side effects with it, which has not been good, also fevers and stuff, but you know what, nothing keeps me away from the complete entrepreneur.

And it’s one of those special times at 5:00 PM. Every Thursday, Eastern time for one hour where we begin to engage. And what does it mean to be, to lead the life of an entrepreneur? Not just looking at the business side, but looking at the life of an entrepreneur. And I must admit the today’s topic is one that, um, you suggested Colin and it’s one which I find is incredibly incredibly engaging, but also, uh, it’s one day behave to think back to my own life as an entrepreneur.

And what does it actually mean to, to launch a business you love to launch a business you love. And I began to think about my different journey and I’ll share with them shortly. But before we go along onto that, you know what, there’s another business. I know Colin, Jeff, Michelle, you all love. And that is start up club.

So tell us what’s going on with startup.club. Go ahead, Michelle. Wow.

Oh, somehow, I, I don’t know if I clicked her off by the audience and pushed her down on the stage. Jeff, can you bring her back up? Uh, I will. I will. Uh, it has been incredible, uh, two weeks ago we had Procter and gamble last week. Uh, and if you haven’t, by the way, if you haven’t seen this, you can see this on replay in two locations.

Last week we had Jeffrey Moore crossing the chasm inside the tornado. He was phenomenal. His messaging was phenomenal. He talked about clubhouse and his clubhouse in a chasm. And, uh, tomorrow we have at two o’clock Eastern, a serial entrepreneur show continues with two guest speakers on coaching and the importance of coaching.

And I want to let you know, we have another author coming on next week. If you aren’t already on the mailing list, go to start-up dot club, get on the mailing list because we come out with authors. Billionaires venture capitalists. They come on every week. And if you’re just, if you’re not on the mailing list, you’re just not going to know what’s happening.

So if you get a chance to go to www.startup.club and get on that mailing list, but John Mullins and burn Harnish are coming on next Friday, two, o’clock Eastern. And they’re talking about customer funded businesses. So using cash from your customers to fund your businesses. And I think, you know, that’s like the lean startup and I think that’s a pretty cool topic.

I’m very excited about today because I think that one of the most important things that every startup does is to launch a business that can get them through the tough times, as well as those, you know, the great times as well. But you know, when you’re making money, it’s always great. But when you’re not making money, it’s sometimes very tough.

And to get through those tough times, you really need to focus on something you enjoy. And so I’m really looking forward to today’s. Yeah, that sounds great. Calling I’m estimate. Like, um, I got up, it was a Jeffery Jeffery Moore’s, um, talk, um, last week, uh, I got up, it was at quarter to six on a Saturday morning here in Melbourne Australia, and I got to be able to hear what he had to say.

And I was thinking, oh, what’s it going to be like, I’ll come and support, you know? And, um, and I came away, I thought, oh my gosh, that one hour went so far. Because I felt like he was depositing like pools of wisdom along the journey. And it was just, it was, it was great. I love to be able to get him back again and call if you guys can get him back again and really even go beyond the hour and really begin to tease out some of the concepts he talked about last time.

And I found there was so inspirational as an entrepreneur and I immediately went in bulk and he bought his book and all that sort of stuff to have a rate. But anyway, so if you’re in the audience, you’re thinking, Hey, how do I hear about this stuff? As Colin said, go startup.club. Aside from the main list I know I have.

Um, and, uh, and, and really take a look at, particularly look at the replay of last week’s discussion. It was just phenomenal. It was great. So congratulations on you guys for getting someone on that. Or under the short and congratulations, Michael, I just saw you got a thousand followers, someone in the audience, just like you, you’re at 9 99 when you started the show.

And, uh, so you’re starting to get a little bit of love. Oh, this is nice. Some people love us. And, uh, cause you know, what is one thing for sure is that we do this because there’s a passion inside and a passion for all other entrepreneurs. And I think one of the things that does come across from a particularly youth read about startup.club, this is not a great, big, massive money-making enterprise.

It may one day, but it’s a passion which comes across from Jeff, Michelle, and you and yourself. And it leads into the topic we’re talking about, which is looking at launching a business that you love. And I’d like to share. My theory first business, um, it was called frontier publications and launched it with a friend of mine.

And we, uh, developed a board game. Um, and we went and had borrowed $4,000 from a local credit union at absolutely exorbitant interest rates. Um, it was guaranteed toured by my father and, uh, it was the best $4,000 training course I’ve ever been on. And, uh, I learned all about marketing stock management, manufacturing, all sorts of stuff.

I had a crash course. I was 16 years. At a crash course and what it means to run a business. And boy was, I got the bag of what does it mean to actually be in control of your own destiny, that the more work you put into it and everything like that, the more reward you ended up getting and so forth. In the end, we paid the loan off in a lecture stuff, and we didn’t make a huge summer body, but it was, it was just a great experience to be able to do that.

And so here’s the question, Michael, did you love that business or did you love making money? And there is a difference once going to the casino and the other’s actually enjoying the game of blackjack. Yeah. I enjoyed the game and to me, when I look at a business, uh, I look at the profit as the score in the game, but I enjoy the.

It’s the game of business. It’s not, it’s not to me anyway. It’s not about making great sums of money. Like it’s great to have a business making millions of dollars, profit, all that sort of stuff. And that’s important to me, profit as a measure of sustainability to keep in the game. As soon as you don’t have profit at some stage, unless you can keep on funding elsewhere, you’re no longer going to be in the game that sad.

So to me, it’s profit is all about, you can stay in the game. Um, and how well are you, uh, are you playing the game? Is that measure and there’s yeah, the thing I find with, with, um, with profit, it’s not something that I pursue. It’s me. Profit is an outcome. Of how you play the game. It’s not the destination, not the reason why, if the reason why you play the game as for profit, then, um, I find that it’s quite sad and this is where I fall in love with my businesses I I’ve had over the years.

And, um, I also happy to fall out of love with them too and sell them, but it is a passion for the game. Uh, they really have, and it’s something that I get, uh, tremendously excited about. The reason why I get in the morning is not to say I’m going to make it, make a whole lot of money today. The reason why I get up in the morning is because I’m having so much.

Um, and I’ve really enjoying what I do. That’s the reason why I get up in the morning, um, and sit at my desk each day. Like, do I have to go sit at my desk each day? No, I don’t. I can actually take the whole week off and that’s not a problem at all. And I don’t have to turn up each day and everything and, and all that sort of stuff.

Um, but I do it because I I’m so passionate about it. I, I love what I do. And that’s, um, I hope that answers your question calling, but it’s something that, um, it’s not about the money for me. It’s about the journey and, um, and I love solving problems. I always have. And to me, being an entrepreneur is all about solving problems for people.

Um, and I find that incredibly challenging, creatively inspirational. Even, even as a kid, I used to, um, uh, I used to solve puzzles. I love puzzles. Like whether it be wooden puzzles and everything like that, I’m a one time my grandfather used to, he used to make puzzles and there’s this a box of wooden bits from about 30 different puzzles.

And I sorted them all out and I actually built each puzzle. Um, and I found that was really exciting. The challenge of it, other people look the box at us impossible, but to me it was okay. I was going to stick it at an aisle and I’ll see some relationships between the types and the colors of the wood and all that sort of stuff and not built the puzzles that, um, and that to me was, um, really, really excited, really interesting, and it’s business as the same for me.

Um, and it’s all about solving the puzzles and bringing, bringing those solutions to our market. And the market goes along and judges, whether you’ve done a good job or not by whether they’re willing to put the hand in pocket and pay. Yeah. And how much they really to pay for. It will completely determine whether you’ve done a really, really good job or a really bad job.

Yeah. And the longer you can make profit, the more you can improve, whatever it is of how you’re solving the problem for your clients. And, uh, I just, I love that. Um, are you the, you’re the same with that call it? Um, no, absolutely. But I was just thinking about, you know, the difference between love and a purpose.

Like for instance, with startup club, um, we have really a clear purpose and it’s really to help facilitate and support startups and those in the startup community, people working for startups or people who invest in startups, et cetera, et cetera. And our mission is really. To me, it really makes a difference and we get a kick.

I think Michelle and Jeff, I mean, agree with me or DOE, but I feel like we are, our drive is to really get a kick out of that purpose and that mission. And because we, you know, we’re making a difference that motivates us more to even keep working at it and bringing in more speakers and doing more things and, and whatnot.

So I actually think there’s a difference between loving something, having a purpose, and then having fun with it because I actually do have businesses like my vacation rental business, which we have about 10, 10 buildings. And I, and I enjoy that business. I have fun with that business , which is a dog products business.

I enjoy that business, you know, I’m, I think we are making a difference with pod.com, but the fact of the matter is I’m motivated by the, by the products that we produce, that my dogs enjoy. And it’s really interesting. To, you know, see how that company can make a difference with dogs and dog owners. But at the same time, I enjoy that with startup club.

It’s a different mission. I feel like it’s more about changing the world, making a difference and we get a kick out of that. What do you think Michelle or Jeff? Jeff? Yeah, I think that purpose is very important, of course. Um, and, um, having a purpose can make you enjoy what you’re doing if you’re behind the purpose more.

But I think what’s interesting here. And Michael, you know, you said it and Colin, you sorta said it too. It’s not that you have to love the business. You have to love what you’re doing. And I think, you know, there’s a misnomer that a lot of people say, oh, you have to start a business, you know, to pursue your passion, you know, pursue your passion, turn your passion into a business.

Not every passion someone has, would make a viable business. So I don’t think that’s always a great advice to, to pursue your passion. You know, maybe it’s certain stages of your career you’re able to do so, but there are many times when you can’t really earn a living from your passion. Right. Um, and I think in those circumstances, it’s more important that you love what you’re doing.

That even if you’re. Passionate about the business. You can be passionate about what you’re doing. You can be fine. You can always find something to believe in. And I actually have a chapter about this in my book. Um, qualifying something to believe in because, you know, I spent many years working on trauma movies, low budget action, horror films, and the truth is.

They were not my passion, right. That type of movie was not my passion. Um, if I was sitting home on a Friday night with a bowl of popcorn, those weren’t the movies I was going to turn on, but I was passionate about the job. I loved what I did because I was passionate about the movie making process. I was passionate about the fact that we were making a certain type of movie that appealed to a certain type of fan.

So even if those movies weren’t my cup of tea, I knew there were a lot of fans out there who love the tea. We were brewing. And I was passionate about serving those fans. So sometimes it’s not about finding your passion and turning it into a business. It’s more about finding something about your business that you can be passionate about.

Um, that’s what I think.

Yeah, I agree with you, Jeff. I think that, um, getting passionate to me, it’s, it’s, um, uh, not, I agree with you in the fact that not every, um, passion that you have in your life needs to become a business. Uh, I have a quotation mark, bad habit of doing that. Um, everything from, uh, I remember I was wanting to learn how to fly and get my private pilot’s license.

So I turned it into a business and suddenly I could then claim all of my flying lessons on tax and all that sort of stuff. That was just awesome. But, um, yeah, so, but not every single passion has to become a business, but at the same time is I think every business has to be a pass. Um, if you’re an entrepreneur, you need to be passionate about great wake you up in the morning.

If you wake up in the morning. Um, no, I just can’t. I can’t do this. I can’t, I really can’t do this. Then you got to look at it and say, okay, what is, what is it? That’s suck the life out of you. And is it, how do you reenergize yourself? And so you get passionate about it again and again, you wake up in the morning, you go, oh my gosh, I cannot wait.

I gotta deal with this problem Klein. And it’s going to be awesome. Cause you don’t want to turn this negative situation into an even bigger. Or whatever it is, or I’m going to go along and develop this new product yet. I’m interested what you were saying, calling them that you’ve got these different business businesses and there’s some you dislike having fun with.

And I look at something like, um, startup.club or pour.com or park logic in my case, or, or any of these businesses. I’ve never yet seen one business that says we are going to make $10 million this year. That’s our mission statement. I’ve never seen any business site. It’s a dollar value. We are going to make this much money as a mission statement.

That may be a goal, but it’s never. The mission will be like bringing, bringing great products to, to dog owners like myself. Yeah. It’ll be something like that. And in spent the love of what you do. It’s not, and that’s why I said before that I find many cases that the money is the outcome from your love, not the other way around Michelle.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. And, uh, just on, what does it mean to what’s a business that you love? Well, for me, I actually look at it, I think differently than you guys for me, you know, I don’t look for a business, some product that I’m in love with. I, you know, I look for something obviously, you know, that has good economics behind it, but what’s really important to me.

Is that I can work with people that I truly enjoy working with because I feel like it could be the best product ever or the funniest thing ever. But if I’m not working with the right people and I’m in customers, investors, and employees, then I would bowl. So I CA I start with the people first and that’s, you know, absolutely critical for me, especially, um, phase in my career and I’ve quit jobs over people that were good jobs.

Like I prefer to really think about the environment and that would, can really work as a team and we can flourish. Oh my gosh, that’s so important. We can, you know, just surrounding yourself with people you enjoy. I remember that the night, the two thousands, when I had a business partner and we were running a small public traded company.

And we got in a big fight and it was just horrible. Everyday going to work was horrible. So just what Michelle said there about really surrounding yourself with good people and having fun. Like you said, talk about waking up in the morning, Michael, wake up in the morning and I wake up in the morning cause I love to come to the incubator here and I love seeing Jeff and I love seeing Michelle and David gimmick, the CEO of product comm and all the other businesses that we have here.

So I’d love. I just really enjoy coming to work in the, if it wasn’t for the people, it’d be a nightmare. Yeah. That’s so true. Isn’t it like, it’s all about the people. Sorry, Michelle. You wanted to add something.

Nope. Okay. Right. Yeah. And it’s so true. Like one of the things I noticed about you use three anyway, that you’re really@theforefrontof.club, uh, the domain name, extension, which you have recently sold to GoDaddy, but I noticed that the three of you are still together and doing different aspects of other businesses.

It’s like this team is this dynamic team and there’s obviously other people involved as well has stayed together because they just enjoy working together. And, and that’s a part of the getting excited and coming to, coming to work or something like that. As you mentioned, Colin. Yeah. How, how much, how important really is that con we’re like Seinfeld?

You know, Jeff is Seinfeld’s uh, Michelle is, um, the lady, there was a little bit, a few years. Um, Elaine. Elaine, thank you. She’s the one who pushed. Yeah. I remember playing her though. I’m George I’m George, the Larry David of the group. So I want to know who Kramer is or Newman, in fact, Hughes Newman and the group.

We do have an audience today. So if you are in the audience and you started a business, it was a passion. Just come on stage. Let’s talk about it today. It’s all about like connecting and talking and just supporting each other and figuring out, you know, if you’re thinking about an idea, come on stage. If you have an idea, if you started with.

This is this, this come on stage. It’s a lot of fun. Get up here. Let’s talk about it. What is your passion? You know, what makes a difference? I actually, one of the things that we do in our businesses, Michael, is come up with Jim Collins. Beehag big, hairy, audacious goal. And more often than not, that goal can sometimes set the mission for your company.

Uh it’s at least it will help get your thinking about what would be my purpose. So sometimes you can do it a little bit in reverse. Sometimes people think, oh, right away out of the gate, this is my purpose. Other times it’s like, I don’t really know what my purpose is yet, but if you can set a Beehag and a Beehag with Jim Collins laid out, it was a 10 year goal.

And in 10 years, where will I be? Uh, and at.club, when we launched doc club, we said in 10 years we wanted 50% of the internet population. To have gone to a.club website or used a.club or seen a.club in public. And that became our mission. That became our goal. And the reason we wanted that, because ultimately we want alternative domain extensions other than.com for those who want to start businesses or clubs or organizations, or, you know, look at clubhouse.

Right. But the fact of the matter is we sought out a Beehag that would make a difference in the world. And then financial metrics, like you said earlier, you know, no one wants to have a mission of $10 million in profit here. Of course, we all want as entrepreneurs, $10 million in profit, but you can’t motivate your staff to help you build a bigger home or get a faster car.

What you can do is motivate your staff and the people around you with a mission or something that helps you change the world. And I don’t mean do it just for the sake of that, do it for, you know, it has to be. It has to be authentic. And today in the, in the, in the world of millennials, I’ll throw that out there.

I’m not one of them. Uh, I think that they’re more particular when it comes to who they work for, where they work, uh, what company they work for. They want to know that that company is changing the world. And, uh, that’s the. I agree with you. I think people do want to have a, um, uh, joining an organization, which has a bigger goal.

Um, it’s not all about the money and things like that. It’s going to be broader than that. Like I said before, the money is the outcome, but anyway, you want to say to the complete entrepreneur, we’re talking about launching a business that you love. And if you’re in the audience there, you’re saying, Hey, I just want to share what I’m doing and why I’m so passionate about it.

Then please stick your hand up. We’d love to be able to invite you to the stage and the meantime, Olivia, it’s great to have you on the stage. I know that you got your party Papa. There are new to club has, so it’s wonderful to have you here. So Olivia, welcome to the stage, the complete entrepreneur,

Olivia, if you’re there in the bottom right-hand corner, you need to take the microphone button.

Okay. We might just move on to Anthony, Anthony. It’s great to go along and have you on the complete entrepreneur. What’s your thoughts on this topic on launching a business that you love? Are you doing really good? You’re gonna have to speak up there, Anthony. I think we can barely hear you. Yeah, it’s probably my Bluetooth.

Um, can you just give me for a few minutes,

not a problematic assay where you skip across to Michael. So, Michael, what’s your thoughts on, what does it mean to launch a business that you love?

We’re not having much lucky and Michael, are you there?

Okay. So anyway, we’ll come back to Anthony in a second, but just as we do. So if it looks like Ms. Stuck or struck it out with it with Livia Michael there, but if you’re in the audience and you’re saying, you know what, I I’m so passionate about my business. I want to know why you are, what isn’t, that it really drives you, um, to get up each day and to really launch yourself into your business.

What is it that, what is that motivating factor like Colin said before? Is that big head? What does that big, hairy, audacious goal. Yeah. They get you up and get you going into your business. And just as we wait for others who may stick up their hands, Um, call it in terms of finding that bet, that goal. How do you go about finding that, um, that new business or something I do you brainstorm or give a grippy list of ideas that, what is it that dragged you into say pour.com or it, or vacation rentals or something like that?

What is it that got you excited about that? Yeah. Well, let me, let me just take you back to 2000 Michael. Uh, we had a company and it was a publicly traded company. We sold the company to a, another company that was private, complicated, little transaction there, but the fact of the matter is the company did very poorly after we sold it and ended up filing for bankruptcy protection in 2001.

And it was a emotional process because we had locked up. All our shares was a.com crash scenario. All the employees, myself, everybody pretty much lost her. And I look back at that time and, and we launched a new company called Hostopia and that company was launched out of the concept of, uh, building a it’s back then they didn’t call it cloud, but it was, you know, it was basically a cloud computing company that provided email and hosting services to telecoms, like at and T and Vodafone.

And it did very well. We took it public six, seven years later. Um, but what I remember back then, after going through this wrenching and I’m being wrenching loss, uh, again, I was no longer CEO. I was no longer in control, but the company, um, that was worth well over a billion dollars went to almost nothing.

We’re talking less than a million dollars or 2 million or whatever. So really nothing. And it was painful, but I look back at that time and I said, okay, what this is before. And this was just as the.com crash. What did I really like about my prior company, internet direct two cows, two cows didn’t go bankrupt, but internet directed.

But what did I really like about that company? And I realized I liked the intersection between human behavior and technology. And I knew at that moment that the, for the rest of my life, I will dedicate my businesses to that because technology can change lives. It can really make a difference in people’s lives.

And I really enjoy that. And so ultimately coming to that conclusion early on in my career helped me and guided me going forward. And, uh, obviously it helped me financially, but also I enjoyed those companies and I continue to, to launch companies that are what I call our in the paradigm shift that are changing the world.

E-commerce companies, you know, rise of the micro brands we’re coming, Amazon get ready, we’re coming. So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s happening. And, uh, we continue to do that and we get excited about that, but it was all about that concept of the intersection between human behavior, human behavior and technology.

Okay. Yeah. I agree with you with that. I must admit, um, that’s one of the things I get excited about is that my current company, we have several billion requests hit our servers every day for traffic that we manage, um, uh, for a lot of domain names. And some people look at our events, traffic I’ll look at our res human behavior, and I get really excited about that.

I’m saying to myself, I’m getting a snapshot of real humans doing real things during their daily lives. And you sort of say to yourself, well, what depends upon. Um, well, basically everything depends upon that. And I, that’s why I just look at it. I go, wow, this is phenomenal. Be able to see what people like requests coming through direct service and stuff like that.

And it really is. It really is very exciting. Like we don’t know what individuals do, but we know as a macro perspective of what’s going on. But anyway, it’s wonderful to be here. You’re listening to the complete entrepreneur and we’re talking about launching a business and hopefully as you’ve got your headset on this time, so welcome to the state density.

Yes. Is this better? Oh, that’s so much better you. That’s great. Um, so what’s the question. Uh, you’re going to be sharing about launching a business that you love, but why is it that you really love what you do? Okay. So recently, probably about two, three weeks ago, I just started launching my rug custom business.

I make customers. And the reason why I don’t honestly, I love it because I like art. I am, I like I’m into art. It’s there. It’s like therapeutic for me. And there’s like, I do commercial roofing for a living. I’m a foreman for commercial roofing from 7:00 AM to like five, 6:00 PM. I don’t, I nonstop working and the minute I get home, I just shower and I get straight to work.

Like, it doesn’t feel like I’m working when I’m doing that. And I love it. It’s like I wake up at 5:00 AM just to start working on rugs. I have commission orders all the time. People like I just started two, three weeks ago and I already have 12 rugs to work on. And it really blew my mind how fast and rapid I grew in just those two, three weeks, you know, like I, I mean one free rug and it blew up.

I got so many orders. I can’t keep up with demand right now because it’s, it’s not easy. It’s just, I just like it because it’s, it’s it’s I just love it’s easy for me. Yeah. Like, it feels like I’m not working at all one bit. Yeah. So, so when you work on your rugs, Anthony, you’re not actually, you don’t feel like you’re actually at work, you’re more just having fun playing and you get paid for it.

Yeah, exactly. Like, I don’t feel like I’m working on, like, I love waking up in the morning and think about what I got to do. I know, I love drawing. I love sketching out. I love painting. I love art. I’m listening into our, in general, you know, I have our own room. I paint my room and was I changed my room. I was every three months to a new art theme.

So I just like posters. Like I like how people think of that. Doesn’t it? Does it feel like I’m, we’re roofing? You know, roofing’s work to me is that that’s tiring. But when I go work on my rugs or my canvases or my paintings or anything like that, it doesn’t feel like that. You know, I, it just feels normal to me.

I don’t feel like I’m working, draining myself, killing myself, doing that. I get Blair to stay up for days just painting and doing art. No. Let me tell you sound like a, I hate to say it. You sound like a typical entrepreneur. Who’s found their passion and why you love doing art and everything like that. So, Jeff, would you agree that Anthony is a clearly expressing his passion, but changing his room every few months and beyond that and talking about his rugs and stuff?

Um, it’s great. It comes out into here in the way. He’s just sharing them. Didn’t that? I think it’s great. And the passionate is very clear, um, in, in your voice. And also what you’re doing is smart too, because you’re, you’re, you’re pursuing. As a side hustle for now, if I understood correctly in between roofing, I liked the fact that you’re working on the roof by day and on what’s under your feet, the floor by night with the rugs.

Um, but you know, as that grows and gets to a point where it can support you, then you’ll be able to make that your full-time job. So that’s an instance where something you’re passionate about might be able to be turned into a business. So good on you.

Thank you. So, Anthony, do you have, uh, like a website or something like that as yet? No, not at the moment. I’m actually, that’s funny. I’m actually going to work on the website tonight. I actually have, my friend has a graphic designer and he’s going to help me change up my logo cause I want to change it.

And we’re going to change the website. He’s going to come here around like nine or 10:00 PM tonight. And I, I honestly, as he said, it might take us two, three hours to do it. So my parents had to make it tonight or at least by the end of the weekend. Oh, that sounds great, Anthony, and I wish you all the best in following your passion.

It just sounds fantastic. So, Christian, Brian, welcome to the stage of the complete entrepreneur. We’re talking about launching a business that you love. So thank you for being so patient and Brian, welcome to the stage. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, I’m uh, although I downloaded the app, uh, for, uh, uh, club room, the, um, um, you know, the first weekend that they came out, um, I’m just brand new.

So, uh, and I got the, uh, I got the, a helpful tip last weekend from a friend of, you know, some very good groups. And obviously this was one of them. Um, my, uh, my experience was a lot like Collins. Um, you know, I, I lucked out early on. I. You know, had five years, five or six years under my belt when the.com boom started and, you know, got into a company that was up in Virginia called value America.

And it exploded. And, you know, I got notched up probably two or three times more than I deserve to be. And, um, and it was, you know, it was one of those situations where I became a minority owner over time, uh, in a situation that in instinctively, even in my mid thirties or early thirties, knew that it was a mistake.

You know, it was following a pathological founder and it was just, you know, it just turned into one of those horrible experiences of, you know, greed and, and dishonesty that, um, Probably taught me more about what I didn’t want to do, um, for the rest of my professional career. Um, I think we need to do a sh I’m sorry, Brian.

I think we need to show on that, Michael, because, you know, looking at, into my partnership, looking up under Brian’s partnership, I mean, here you are, you’re in a business and then you’re in a minority position and I’m keeping it. I want to hear the story I want to, I want you to finish the story. Well, there, there really wasn’t much more than that because, um, it was, um, you know, we were, um, value america.com was, uh, was a Superstore.

It was a four 4runner to Amazon. Uh, it was, uh, it was founded by a couple of guys from Costco, uh, and they, what they wanted to do was mimic that, you know, that big box, um, deliver anything you sell, you know, everything from computers to Pampers. Uh, and delivered as quickly as possible, but the technology just wasn’t there at the time.

And, um, but we did, we found one thing that we did well and that was put computer packages together and sell them over infomercial. And I was, I was the head of marketing and I mean, I was, I had millions to spend and was trying everything. And that was the only thing that would was moving. And, uh, at the time, uh, most of your audience won’t remember this company, but, um, we were really good at selling, um, computers that didn’t have a direct channel and compact came up and looked at us and made a $38 a share bed.

And the guy running the place, uh, wouldn’t have been a millionaire and he turned them down. You know, it was within probably 18 months where we were, you know, selling fixtures. So

he had raised, he’d raise so much money that, I mean, we were on the, listed on the NASDAQ, went public and still didn’t, it didn’t make it. Um, so it was, um, you know, I went from there to, um, Samsung and learned a lot about, um, I was on the mobile side, learned a lot about business, literally a lot about the, uh, technology, which is just becoming mass market.

And, um, you know, that was probably, I lucked out really. I mean, I went from one disaster to one pretty interesting place and rolled out and did my first, um, entrepreneurial startup called mango mobile. And, um, the only reason I did it was. At the time, the only thing that could be downloaded to handsets were screen savers and ringtones.

And w I saw a, you know, a product map from Samsung, from Asia and from Europe where the phones were internet enabled. And I thought, well, this is it. This is where, you know, we begin, um, interfacing with the consumer directly. And, you know, we lucked out, had, uh, had a couple, a little bit of good timing and got bought by Omnicom.

And, um, you know, that was a relatively enjoyable experience until we were bought. We just became a vendor within a holding company. And, um, and then, um, the last one I did was, um, you know, kind of when we rolled over to a web 2.0, so I just have cleared my plate to. Do my last one night. It was funny because when, um, was it Anthony that was talking, he was saying about someone coming over at 10 and then they were going to work for three or four hours on a logo.

I thought, well, I would have to, I would have to sleep for eight hours before I actually did that. So, um, you know, time is everything, but, uh, it just, uh, um, you know, it’s, it’s one of those wonderful things. The good news about, um, for me anyway in the past week is, is, uh, reconnecting with a network of people and, um, and really find some wonderful, um, authentic people in, um, in some of the rooms here.

So that’s it. Yeah, Brian’s great to hear from me. And let me tell you, so, so the question I have for you, you you’ve obviously you’ve launched your shed, uh, then, or being part of a number of different businesses. Um, so what did it feel like for the ones you actually being the instigator on the side? What did it feel like to really launch it and to do something you really love th that, that gripped you and you sort of, um, and being so passionate about it working eight hour days, it’s like, okay, that’s, uh, almost like for wimps or like, it should be working like at 12 plus hours a day or something.

What is it about it that you got really excited about or you really fell in love with those different businesses? Yeah, it, um, you know, it’s, I’ve had the more enjoyable, uh, experiences even here recently. Um, because, uh, after my second startup, I, you know, I worked, um, with startup. Um, you know, mostly through their capital partners and, uh, you know, that was interesting meeting, you know, some really smart people doing some really smart things.

Um, but kind of doing my own thing, even if the money was not there, you know, it kind of it’s like release me from the bondage of money. It’s that opportunity to, you know, to kind of, you know, implement, uh, a passion or an interest or, um, you know, connect with people and empowering them to do what they do.

Right. And, um, it, um, you know, I certainly have noticed a, uh, uh, less anxiety in my life and probably more pleasure. Um, when, you know, I’m involved in something like that, then, uh, You know, watching the, um, the rumblings and trappings of people who have different motives.

Yeah. I agree with you with that. Like being, I think you, you said there’d be released for the poundage of money. So just calling on that, um, does it make a difference for you? Obviously you’ve been very successful in the different businesses you’ve had over the years. And does it make a difference for you?

The fact that you may be less concerned personally about the money and more looking for upside growth, the money, and that caused you to be a bit more relaxed about what you’re passionate, what you’re loving, where you direct your love as such. Yes and no. I mean, I will say every entity is different, right?

And every entity needs to be sustainable. Michael, earlier, you talked about profit. If you don’t make profit, you’re not sustainable. And so whether it’s the school that my wife and I own, it has to be sustainable or the startup club, the one that we’re running right now on clubhouse, this business has to be sustainable.

Now, am I okay with losing money for periods of time? Because I believe in a vision, I believe in a concept, I believe in startup club. Yes. And, and be quite Frank. I mean, I’m being, you know, we’re pretty authentic and transparent here. No startup club loses money, lose a lot of money, but we think it’s, it’s something that can make a difference in the world and, and, and, and have a big impact.

So we’re, we’re going, we’re like, you know, we’re going down that path. We are continuing to support it. We’re going to hit a million members this year. We could be the largest startup club in the world. Uh, I know it’s audio chat, but we had.

On startup club only two weeks ago, talking with myself and Jeff and others about, um, with Procter and gamble, you know, and just recognizing that startup club is making a big difference in clubhouse because we’re a group that we’re, we’re not the get rich quick group. We’re really all about.

Yeah. Colin, I think you’re breaking up there. Um, but you may have to go to a different wifi spot or something like that, but just it’s called colon, uh, location. Um, I think that’s so true is, is, um, it’s one thing to have a passionate, never think another thing to be so into it, into that passion, but the question is, what time do you need to go along?

What time where yes, you’re passionate still, but you also need to read because we don’t read, but it’s not going to be sustainable. Um, Michelle or, or justice has Colin sort of repositioned himself. What time do you think it is that our business, even like a startup.club. Yeah. It needs to go low and say, all right, we’ve, uh, we’ve sown in.

Um, and now we need to begin to reap to make it sustainable. I always liked that term sustainable, which is, which is all about profit. So what’s your thoughts on that?

I think timing wise is going to really depend on each individual business, Michael cause there’s a lot of, lot of moving parts. It depends a lot on what your burn is. It depends a lot on, on what, what the kind of trajectory trajectory of the business is intended to be once that that revenue machine starts growing.

Uh, I mean, it’s really hard to make some sort of a blanket statement without looking at the individual business, I think. Yeah. I agree with you on that. It’s more a case of, um, it’s almost like what, uh, what point of time does the love run out in order to be able to, um, make it sustainable? Is there a point in time?

Is that you go, well, you know what? I’ve put up, put a million bucks into this particular adventure. And I can’t see it coming around. Uh, do I put another million dollars into it or another 50,011, whatever some funny years, or do I pull the plug on it? What’s your thoughts on that? Let me try that. Let me try to clarify here a little bit about start up clubs.

So we’re not going to pull the plug on startup club, just so you know, uh, however, we have set a very clear stage gate and that stage gate is that we need to hit a certain level of profitability by fourth quarter of 2022 on startup club. And we have about six employees now at the company that supports this particular club.

And we’re going to hit a certain level of when I say certain level of profitability is actually negative profitability. Uh, but we’ll actually hit a, um, we’ll hit, uh, I’ll just say it directly. I’m going to hit 50% of our total expenses will be covered by fourth quarter to sponsorship and other ads. And I’m okay with that.

I’m okay with, if we can hear that stage gate, that gives me the comfort to know that I’ve got that room to get to that level. And Michelle who’s, uh, runs start-up club. Uh, she’s got that room to deliver those results, to get us to that stage, that stage gates critical. If we fail, this is what you’re going at.

Michael was startup club, and I don’t want to get into trouble here, but if we fail, then we pivot. Uh, does it mean reducing expenses potentially? Yes. Does it mean switching to a 5 0 1 C a charity? Yes, potentially. And we’ve talked about that, Michelle and I have worked with trolling transparent. Like I’m being maybe a little too transparent here, and haven’t really talked this through with Michelle and, and some other people here, but the fact of the matter is we are, um, gonna we’ll we’ll make the adjustments, but we believe in sustainability in the long run, no matter what, even if you’re a 5.1 seat, you still need to get funding to keep your operations.

Wow. Yeah, you’ll be very transparent about for profit charity registration in the United States. Yeah. Thanks for clarifying that. Yeah, you’ll be very transparent with that. And there’s, there’s one thing I’ve noticed about shadow club in that is that it is dramatically moving forward. I’m talking about the thing I’ve noticed that from the very beginning was it it’s really accelerating forward.

Um, and when you’ve got a smart team working on working on the challenge of how do you make something which is so new, profitable, so sustainable, um, then you can get a sense of momentum. And that’s the thing I always try to gauge at in a business. And it may be a business I invest in maybe a business I’m starting or something like that.

Is, is there a sense of a man. And is the momentum in the right direction is as my strategic management lecturer in my MBA used to say, if the graph going up or is it going down? And if it’s going, if it’s going up, that means it’s most likely to be good ever going down. You’ve got to make some decisions along that way.

But yeah, it’s, um, I think that when you look at say something that started in the club as a microcosm of a litmus test of it, and an example business world, obviously very familiar with, um, it definitely has momentum and you can feel. Um, I know I, as a, as a host of one of the shows are part of up that club.

I can get a sense for that momentum. That’s what I was trying to get at before. Some of my questions get since that momentum and it’s a momentum, which is not static, it’s a momentum, which is accelerating. Um, and I think that Def definitely will get to a million, a million users. And I think the, the goal of stopping a club of wanting to help, um, entrepreneurs is something is desperately needed desperately needed in this industry.

But yeah. Thank you for sharing that and being so open and transparent. Michelle, do you have anything to add about startup.club and then we’ll jump across to Tuneday as well? Yes. So we’ve been super busy, like just trying to capture all this amazing content. From the members and the speakers. So we strongly encourage you to go to www.startup.club, join the email list and please, you know, peruse the blog posts.

Um, you can listen to recordings and if you prefer to read, you can read the transcripts. I mean, really, you know, like we’ve been saying our goal is just to get this information out to people to consume. However they like so that they can use it to, you know, improve their life. So I greatly hope that you do that.

Be sure to check out the calendar. There’s some amazing speakers coming up. And if you’re on the email list, she’ll be sure to be notified, obviously is also shows on the calendar, but maybe email is, you know, kind of nice to have. Be able to save it to your calendar. So thank you for joining everybody. We really appreciate it.

I think Michelle, Michael was talking a little bit about what I said about, you know, delivering X amount of results by fourth quarter and you know, what do you think about that? Like, is it like, you’re the one running the show here? Oh, what do I do I think about that? You know, for me, it’s, it’s funny. Like people get very nervous.

Um, instead of new team, we’re trying to build, you know, a big team to help support the club. How many people, we have four full-time people and they they’ve never done this before they got extra. They got really, really nervous. You know, it’s hard, right? If you don’t have a goal and you don’t put it down, like, what are you doing every day?

Like people need to know. And it’s interesting because like I said, we have some junior people primarily, and then one more senior person at the end of the meeting or planning session for 20, 22 or strategic planning session. So let’s just go around the room, which is something we often do Jeff and call it an eye and say, okay, what is your word?

Like, how do you feel? Cause it’s important to, um, you know, let people speak up and to your people, they, they actually said to me, they really appreciated having the clarity. They were very nervous about it, which just natural, but they appreciated the clarity. At least now they know what we are hoping for and they will, you know, do their best to work towards it.

So. I dunno if that answers the question, but you can see Michael extreme transparency here. We’re sorta like we’re telling you about our strategic planning session. We’re telling you this for, uh, goals and, and, you know, and hopefully people in the audience can recognize that, you know what, we’re laying out here as a foundation.

This is what we’ve done with all of my companies. And the fact is when you do these kinds of things, this is not the session we’re going off topic here, and I’m going to get in trouble again for that. But the cut back to the matter is when you put in, uh, these types of, uh, stage gates and bulls, and, you know, you set these things in place, uh, it ups I feel a lot more comfortable to that I can sleep at night.

We know that we’re doing everything we possibly can to deliver the results. And that helps me love the company a lot more. Yeah. Sorry. I can’t stress enough. Like, you know, people just want to know what’s expected of them and, and that’s a fair question. It really is because they want to do well too. And they want to know that, um, you know, most people want to keep their job, I would say, and they need to know how they can gauge themselves and more importantly, manage their time.

So it’s critically important, Michael. Yeah. That’s so true. Um, I like, I know you may feel that it’s gone off topic of launch a business that you love, but really actually isn’t because I’m only use myself as a case in point, um, for the past, I don’t know, nine months or whatever it’s been, uh, I I’ve turned up each day, um, each week doing the complete entrepreneur.

Um, I don’t get paid. Um, I do it because I love it and I do it because, uh, I actually love the vision for startup.club and the passion. Um, the comes through from, um, that comes through from that vision. Um, it’s palpable and the team that’s in place around that vision is palpable and it’s not, because one day I’m going to make a whole lot of money and all that sort of stuff.

To me, that is completely secondary, not, I know I’ve expressed that to color Michelle and Jeff, uh, like to me, it’s, the money is very secondary to the vision. And, uh, one day it needs to be profitable in the lesser stuff, but it’s, it’s when you, when you have a passion and a vision that is out there and then people can buy into it, it becomes very powerful.

So the question that many entrepreneurs needs to ask themselves is I use providing a service, which is, um, that people can buy a product or something like that. Or you all, are you putting something out there that people can actually fall in love with? Cause when people fall in love with it, that means they become advocates and they can support you, that, all that sort of stuff.

And now you suddenly have a whole lot of people to carrying the load, um, versus it just, just a tiny group of people that are running the business as such. So it’s a bad, it’s not just about launching something you love. It’s about how do you pull in and communicate that to a community of people that can also then buy into that love.

And I’ve always been passionate about entrepreneurs, um, and supporting them in whatever way I possibly can. And I must admit when calling you, you, uh, I think it was calling her. Michelle is suggesting that, uh, uh, do something. What do you guys want for start-up book club? I left hand in fist, like straightaway.

Yes, I’ll do that. And I didn’t say, well, how much am I going to get paid? I think care about that. To me, it was the passion to me. It’s the love to me. It’s the, it’s the, the overarching goal. And that’s something that I get really excited about and I will continue to be excited about. Um, and that’s the challenge.

I think of every, uh, we call it the, the, the micro businesses nowadays. Um, how do they compete against the big guys? Like the Amazons and everything like that? That to me is the key is how do you actually inspire customers to be as passionate as you are about what you actually do? And that’s, that’s what, that’s what it’s about because now you’ve got something where the lots of people that fall in love with what you’re doing.

So today I just want to come across to you today. You’ll be so casing just there. I love you little, your picture. There looked like an NFT. I must admit. Um, so what are you passionate about and what do you love in your. Well, thank you for the compliment. You know, I, uh, my avatar, there is a, uh, chain runner.

So does it, I’ve seen, um, and recommend folks that come to the project. It’s one that I’m really excited about. Uh, so my passion, um, how do I describe this in a succinct manner? I think for me, I’m passionate about all things, creative expression and art. Um, and I am fully, I fully recently made the transition to, from unemployed to art.

Preneur is the term that I’m using it. So I’m an artist who makes a living based off of their artwork. Um, and I have a bunch of different businesses that I run or particularly three different businesses that I run. Um, and without diving or delving too deep into my full life story, the sparks notes is basically that I’ve worked at a variety of, uh, Different firms and institutions, um, from high finance on wall street at Goldman Sachs to, uh, angel investing at Republic, um, which is, you know, in developing a lot more of a brand name and presence within the venture capital space.

Um, and most recently than he was at company ventures, uh, earlier this year. Um, and for me, what I’ve found is that, um, basically I’ve been fired from every job I’ve ever had for one reason or another. Um, and I kept trying to figure out what the corollary was across all of my different experiences, because I know myself and I know my thought patterns and my thoughtfulness and my intellect.

And I know that I’m not a dumb or lazy or incompetent individually. So I had to ask myself, why do you keep getting fired from every space that you enter into, even though you were able to, you know, do the work and pass through all of the safeguards to get into the space, to begin with. And I think for me, it came down to, you know, as kind of like cliche as it might sound is not following my passion and not following my purpose.

Um, and not really listening to that little voice inside of my head or that little fear that feeling inside of my gut stomach, that kind of has always known and understood, um, what I was destined to do. Um, but that, you know, I was kind of like afraid to embrace. So for me, I’m very much right. Brain and left.

I’m creative, but I’m also logical and analytical. Um, and for a variety of different reasons, you know, societal pressures conditioning, my family I’ve pursued a lot of like, I can’t remember. I think it’s right left brain. That is logical. Maybe I’m getting that wrong, but whatever. I I’ve been pursuing my more logical side for the better part of 27 years of my life.

Um, and I found ways to engrave in my creative side, whether it’s, you know, deejaying here or there or music, my AirPods in 24 7, um, most of my day is spent listening to music, uh, but effectively when it comes to my career and what I was kind of like putting on a pedestal or devoting most of my energy to is really towards kind of pursuing the passions and interests of, um, what I was either told to do, or I thought was the most practical thing for me to do.

And what I found was that, you know, I might be passionate for. You know, a month, six months, year, two years, three years, whatever. But eventually that flame, uh, fizzles out, uh, and you know, when, when you, when you want to talk about becoming great at something, becoming the best at something, uh, you can’t really afford to have that happen.

Right? Kobe Bryant didn’t become great because he only kind of liked the basketball. Um, you know, people like great speakers orders, like anyone who’s great at something that they do, it’ll become great at it because they kind of like it, or they’re kind of good at it. They become great at it because they’re so deeply in love with an entrenched in the work that they’re doing, that it doesn’t feel like work, that they kind of feel like they get into that flow state and they can just be there for hours.

And the only things that I’ve ever kind of felt that feeling with. Sorry, I’ll wrap it up here. Um, is, is art. So my businesses, sorry to continue to bring us back home. Uh, I have. Um, I own a home decor company. That is, re-imagining what it is like for millennials and gen Zs to interact with space, understanding that the next generation and cohort of livers, um, is aren’t really going to they’re they’re, they’re anti commitment and they’re anti not anti commitment.

They’re just, they’re just more receptive to the idea that the only constant is change. So maybe, you know, I’m a millennial or gen Z or living to a big city for the first time. I don’t want to commit to buying a bunch of expensive heavy furniture because I know that, you know, six months from now, my feeling might change.

I think Anthony talked, I don’t know if it was Anthony, but the guy before the last guy talked about how each changes his space every couple of months. So, uh, I have a home decor company that’s focused on, um, thinking about how the next generation is going to interact with space. And then more recently I joined, uh, an NFT production studio.

It was just called Darth studio. Um, and the idea and purpose and mission of dart studio is to find a way. Um, to create a platform that helps artists create a more sustainable living off of their artwork. So we’re a production studio that helps artists generate on chain, NFT, uh, projects and collections.

Um, we’re going to eventually productize it and then eventually kind of dissension media ourselves and our turn ourselves into a Dow. Um, but the point is that at our studio, we believe that artists do not need to start to, uh, to have it living. So, uh, really appreciate you sharing about that. Having a three businesses there.

And one of the things that really struck me with what you said was that, um, when you, when you working in the corporate world is like, you’re like a square peg in a round. But now you’re a square peg in a square hall because you’ve got these different passions and different businesses. And that’s just so common, you know, like with entrepreneurs is that, um, is that they go along, they work in work in a corporate life and they may be doing the work and doing a great job of that at that work and everything.

But there’s something about the rubs about peop other people up the wrong way, because they don’t play the corporate game. They don’t play the politics and that sort of stuff. They’d like, let’s get to the end point. Let’s, let’s get to that end goal. And it’s a very common thing that don’t preneurs. And then they find that passion, as we talked about in today’s conversation of, um, uh, really looking at launching a business that you.

And it’s a great topic and it’s one we could probably explore time and time and time again, but there’s nothing like work becoming play. And that’s really, to me what it means that it’d be running something where I’m passionate about it, where you earn money from something you’re passionate about is just a blessing.

I wouldn’t believe so. Colin, you’re the one who suggest this topic. Do you want to close it off? Your thoughts on this topic here as we round up? Today’s today’s complete entrepreneur. Yeah. Well really inspired by 10 day there. Um, yeah. You know, entrepreneurs, you know, we all, and maybe we can do a show on this one and 10, the hope I’m pronouncing your name correctly.

Tendy Tendy uh, today, today. Okay. Uh, I think that, oh, I don’t know. I know that entrepreneurs are more artists than operators and we all.

Uh, you’re breaking up again. They’re calling.

Yeah. I’m not sure what’s happening there. It looks like we’ve lost Colin, but, um, I think there’s one thing for sure about, um, about the complete entrepreneur is it’s a pad on startup dot clubs. So Jeff or, uh, what’s going on with startup.club in the coming week. We have tomorrow. So go ahead. No, it really is artists like an entrepreneur is really an artists versus an operator.

And, uh, I think we don’t understand that. And today we have, we saw that example with the rugs with today. We’ve seen that over and over again, that these visionaries, they come up with these ideas. And I really, I really liked what you just ended with today about, you know, we want artists to succeed and there’s so many artists out there who have these ideas and these passions, but they can’t, they’re not good operators and they can’t get it to the market and they can’t make money from that.

And I really believe that, you know, people like yourself who helped those artists are doing.

Thank you. Yeah. I’d agree with you on that. That’s for sure. It’s um, it’s definitely the case, um, is that art, I reflect on Steve jobs, Steve jobs. He did a degree in calligraphy and, um, he was not honest. And, and you look, look where he went in his life and life’s experience. And let me tell you, he, he was very happy to go along and apply his calligraphic skills with the very first one.

Um, it’s amazing. Now art is so, so important. Uh, I, I sometimes think the measure of a society is how much we support the. And that’s really a measure of a society, but anyway, so next week, what are we actually looking at next week? We’re going to look at a very, a challenging topic. And that is how to fire a friend, building a high-performing team for your business is absolutely critical for success and will require a lot of your focus.

Likewise, you have a team at home who is even more important. So how do you successfully grow the relationships in both your business and your personal life and be in a position where you may have to sometimes fight. So, how do you best do that is something which I think would be an interesting one to explore and to hear from people like yourself and the audience of what it means to far fire, fire, afraid to those of you.

Who’ve had to do it. And I just want to say thank you very much to all those attendings to put their hand up and came on the stage, Anthony and today, um, Brian and so forth, uh, who shared from their heart on today’s topic. Thank you very much for that. For those of you in the audience, it’s the re your, the reason why we do we do, and you inspire us just by your presence.

So thank you also for being here and for my fellow moderators, Jeff Colon and Michelle. Uh, once again, thank you very much for your incredible support and the support you’re giving startup.club. It really is inspirational and something that, um, I know I appreciate personally, just so much. Thank you very much, and I wish everyone a great week.

Thank you. Absolutely. And congratulations on your thousand followers, Michael, you made it.

Thank you very much.