SPEAKER_00 0:11

Whether you need help with operations, accountability, maybe just getting your mindset right. We are here and it's the right spot with no block competition. So grab your favorite cup of Joe.

Welcome And Meet JJ

Dave 0:23

Let's jump into the show. As that good guy said there, grab your favorite cup of Joe. Let's jump into the show. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Business Unscripted Podcast. We are here for episode 55. Pretty crazy, that we are here for 55 episodes already. Looking forward to hitting 100. But if you're a business owner, or maybe you're even an aspiring business owner, like this young fine gentleman to my left, you're in the right spot. You know, we talk about things that we've learned through our experiences, things that we've talked with our clients about, and we share them with you so that you maybe don't make the same mistakes that we do sometimes. But with that, welcome to another episode. Duarn, thank you for joining me again as always. Thank you, Dave. And for those, this fine gentleman to my left who is joining us this week, and he'll also be joining us next week. He is actually, he's my son, my uh my only son. So, you know, I can I can call him my favorite son because I don't have any other ones.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

But we all know I'm your favorite child.

Dave 1:29

Yeah, you know, I can't admit that on camera. I can't admit anything on camera. But so he's here on spring break, so he wanted to join me. He's been learning some of the ropes about being a business owner. He takes a lot of business classes in high school, so we'll uh we'll talk through some of that as well with us. But uh, thanks for joining us, buddy. Thank you. Have you ever been on live camera or anything?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

I don't think I've ever been on a live camera, but we've done a podcast for school.

Dave 1:56

Oh, have you? Nice, cool. So, how many of those have you done?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I think we did two in the eighth grade and then one freshman year.

Dave 2:04

Okay, nice. On on business, or what was the topic?

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Two were on English and then the other one was on history.

Building Local AI Hardware

Dave 2:12

Wow, I I could never do any podcasts about either any of those. English, you know, it definitely if autocorrect was was not there, I'd be in trouble. But um definitely history. But so well, thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. We'll uh we'll have some good topics today. So but Warren, how about you? What's uh I know you were unable to join us last week, so what's been new in your world the last couple weeks?

Duarne 2:36

Mate, I've been head down bum up with planning for a new project coming up and doing some internal project as well around building out my AMA cluster. So I'm excited about that. So more details will come once it's actually a little bit further along, but lots of procurement of hardware at this point. Yeah. So this weekend will be a lot of assembly of hardware. So that'll be a bit of fun. I like projects, so love it.

Dave 3:05

And and I think it's one of those things where it's kind of the future, you know, where you where you figure out these different you know, ways to add value, add support versus you know, the old way of just doing it yourself. And plus it also frees up a lot of your time too while continuing to add that value. So how much time have you been putting into it?

Duarne 3:28

Look, probably at least four hours a day, five hours a day being going into it on top of my regular workload. So yeah, this weekend it's holy week here in the Philippines, so pretty much everything's closed. So I'm taking advantage of that. So I'll be doing a little bit of a building spree. So probably gonna drop a few 10-hour days in there doing some building setting up. I've got 10 machines to set up, so it's gonna be a little bit busy.

Leasing Models Beat One-Time Sales

Dave 4:00

Yeah, yeah, that sounds like it could be, you know. It's funny because you say like the localized environments, right? And I actually just had a conversation with one of the guys from the local area for lunch the other day, and he kind of mentioned that same thing about potentially set helping people set up you know these localized environments for specific reasons. And it was funny because he was saying, Well, I'll just set up the machine, I'll just sell them the machine. That question, I said, Well, why don't you why wouldn't you maintain like ownership of the of the computer and just let them lease it from you? Right? And then that way you get this longevity, you get this continuity payment from them, where you know it's it's all everything on the computer, right, except for maybe the the software is his, but then everything else that they create with it is the individuals. And he was like, Oh, I never even thought about that. I never even thought about like a leasing subscription model, which so many people don't. They're just like, How do I get this into the hands, sell it for the most that I can, and then they're gone. And then if you think about it, you know, at$2,000 one-time, you know, if you just charge somebody$300 a month, you already made your money back you know by month eight, nine, and then you get all that extra money in years two, three, four, depending on however long they they lease it, as long as you keep the software subscription.

Duarne 5:18

So well, the other thing is too, you got the maintenance plan on there and subscription model based, where if anything goes wrong, they can call you, get assistance, get some maintenance, get you know, things might change, things might break, and that keeps you in the mix as well. So I totally agree with that. I think that's a much better choice. And if you look at what's happening right now, so Singapore, Australia, US is seeing a shortage since the Open Claw announcement that they work really well on Mac minis, that the Mac Mini is pretty much out of stock everywhere. Everyone rushed out as much stock as they could, and now if you look at them, used market is very skint, there's very small amounts on a used market, and when they are, the prices are very, very exaggerated. In some cases, more than what they were selling brand new. One of my clients in Australia decided he wanted to get one, so we were doing he was doing a live screen share with me last weekend, I think it was Saturday, and he's like, Oh, I'm gonna grab one, and oh, there's a four-week waiting period. And I'm like, Oh, really? And he hit a button by mistake and added one setting of 500 gig storage, and suddenly he said one of the stores 25 kilometers away had stock.

Dave 6:39

Well, because nobody nobody wants to pay that extra, you know, storage. They they want the basic, right? Because you don't really need the storage for it to run like your AI models or your AI automations, you just need it.

Duarne 6:49

Not if you're doing stuff. Well, well, he got lucky. Turns out it was one model, it was a special order that that store had put in. He got the unit, he drove all the way down there the next day, picked it up, and was told, yep, that's the only unit we've got. Most people don't go changing the settings, so they don't see the difference. Yep. Pop up. And that was pretty interesting to note that because every platform that he went on, every online story went on, it's just the stock levels are out. And when we start talking about localized models, you you start looking at GPU usage. If you start collecting the correct GPUs to run these systems, you're now competing against gamers, you're now competing against thankfully, no more competing against miners because the miners are no longer involved. Ryan.

AI In School And Real Access

Dave 7:35

That's one way to look at it. I mean, I guess that's one way to look at the AI, you know, right. I don't know if you could read that, but Ryan said we're all fucked. You know, pardon our French, but I mean, here's the thing I is it ever gonna turn turn into Terminator. I no, no, I don't think it's ever gonna turn into Terminator, right? I don't know, JD. What do what do you what do you feel? Do you think we're gonna AI in your age? Because you're the one that's gonna have to deal with it. We're gonna be old and and and decrepit by the time all that comes up, but you know, do they tell you anything and teach you anything about any of this stuff in school?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

I mean, at the school I go to, we don't know anything. No, we it's all blocked on our Chromebooks. We have access to nothing.

Dave 8:17

Nothing.

unknown 8:18

Wow.

Dave 8:19

What about like are you do you guys talk at like a do you like your friend? But I know you play a lot of sports and stuff like that, but does anybody like in your in your friend space talk about like AI and anything? Is there any interest in it right now?

SPEAKER_02 8:31

I mean, there is like a slight interest in the like using it to like help you learn your homework if like because like obviously there's some teachers that feel that they should just let you learn it yourself. Right. So then you have to like teach it to yourself, and AI does a good job of doing that.

AI Tutors And Doing The Work

Dave 9:23

I mean, that's it, it does do that when you set it up correctly and you ask it correctly. It's funny because I actually Dr. What was that two weeks? I think two weeks ago, I had mentioned yeah, we we we were having the conversation that I would say within the next five to ten years, so when Jamie is in school, which is our youngest daughter, so I have we have like five, five his age, and then we have a baby. But by the time she's in school, I would say maybe third to fourth grade, I think that there's gonna have just AI tutors, right? Where that yeah, right, because then the tutor is customized to that specific child versus having you know one tutor for five to six children, and so now you can actually you know teach them specifically how they need to be taught, and then learns from them as they continue to communicate with them.

Duarne 10:13

So I think it would be an interesting interesting, I think that's an interesting point, and I think when we talked about it last time, one thing that we agreed on was you could really tailor a AI agent to really be a great tutor or teacher on a specific topic or subject to the individual, and that's where it gets really, really nuanced. And when you start dealing with a lot of teachers, like JJ, you probably have some teachers that are really great on teaching you subjects, and then others that are probably not so great on teaching the subject, right? You've got some that'll sit there and get really interactive with you, and others that'll just lecture at you. We all have different ways of learning, and in your class, you probably find people have different ways of absorbing that information. Some are fine with it, others just go, I can't learn from this. It's just not an environment that works for me. So I think tailored educational solutions is just it's impractical in a mass society that you in the current education system across the world, it doesn't not just the US around anywhere. So when you start incorporating AI as a learning tool, I think it's a really valuable asset, but it's got to be at the point where fundamentals are taught first before they start introducing all the other bits and pieces to it. And it's got to be in a way that it doesn't force the individual learning to be able to cut corners just to get the answers without showing the working. I think because the working is what helps us understand why we got to where we are.

Dave 11:41

Yeah, I definitely agree with that for sure. You know there's no benefit in just getting the answer right. You can't change the case.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

No, because then you're not learning it.

Dave 11:49

Right. You're just like, oh I feel I you feel smart in the moment, but then when you come and it actually comes to practical, you know, implications.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

You or if there's like a test, yeah. Then you have no way to get to the answer, right?

Leadership When It Is Not Your Turn

Dave 12:01

You can't use AI on the test. So that's true. So then you end up just you fail. Failing. You know, even though you felt good on the homework, right? You know, and so I guess this this is a good lesson too, because it becomes, you know, do you give up that temporary you know, satisfaction in the moment of making yourself feel good because you got to the right answer by you know using assistance? And then when the test comes around, or is it game time coming around, right? At that moment, now that's when you really fail because you gave up the actual work to feel that temporary happiness or proudness, whatever it is that you feel in that moment of just getting the answer. And you know, I think that relates to to practice too. Like, you know, you sometimes you have to give up, you know, you know, practice is gonna be hard, the work's gonna be hard. And it's like Gary, you know, Vanderchuck. I saw a video from him, you know, just temporarily, and it was the only part of the video I because I happened to just be you know scrolling off of it, and the only thing he said was, everything in life that is worth it is hard. You know, nothing that's worth it is truly easy. You know, life is hard, love is hard, right? Being a successful you know, business owner is hard, you know, getting good grades is still hard. It doesn't, it's not like easy, you know, being successful in sports, right? Hitting a baseball or whatever it is that you want to do, right? It's all gonna be hard. And so do you give up the the hard part because you want to feel good and not do practice versus game time, you know, and that's where that's where talk it, that's where it really comes out, right? You know, we've we've had the we on the podcast, we've talked about the mirror moment, we've had the mirror moment conversation, you know, over dinner about how you know ultimately I'm always gonna be proud of you, so it doesn't matter about me being proud of you, right? By you telling me something. And it comes down to you know, you have to feel proud of yourself, you have to feel proud of yourself as a business owner with the efforts that you did during the day. And that comes down to that mirror moment of looking yourself in the mirror and saying, Am I proud with what I did today? Did I do the work I needed to do today? Did I practice as hard as I needed to practice today? You know, and so that's the that's where it all becomes uh worth it. That's where the outcomes are gonna match the effort, you know what I mean? So yeah, and then same thing in business, you know, what two dorns?

Duarne 14:23

So yeah, I mean, like I heard something I was just today or yesterday, I can't recall now, but it was it went along the lines of people are gonna judge you and people are going to you know be jealous of the things that you have and the things that you've achieved, yeah, but they'll never be jealous of the journey that it took you to get them. Oh yeah. And it's like when you sit back and just take a moment and think about that. I mean, you're in sports, JJ, right? How many early mornings, late practices, you know, muscle pains that you can't describe, and still you had to go to school and go to and then go to practice afterwards, and then still turn up on the weekend to play. But it was all worth it because it got you to the end point. All those people who are watching from the stadium, all they're seeing is they're seeing from the grandstand that you've just you know had a great game, that you won that game. They're not looking at the fact of all that work that went in there, and I think one of the great examples of that was you know, one of I think was it Kobe or one of the ballers was out there saying he shoots, you know, thousand shots a day, every day, just to get as good as he ever could. So he would stay back and he would do more than the anyone else than you know when he was playing. And this is what it takes to be great, whether it's in business, whether it's in life, whether it's in you know, uh sport. I mean, you can go on.

Dave 15:45

You read you read well, you you were reading, right? Kobe's book, because I got it for you the one Christmas, remember? Or was that Derek Jeter? That might have been Derek James. There was a Derek Jeter one yeah. Yeah. But the same method, I mean, I'm sure in his book he said the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah, he said he goes out because he lived in Michigan and there was a baseball field right behind his house. He said he would actually done a hole at the bottom of the fence to sneak on the field to get practice in every day.

Dave 16:10

Really?

unknown 16:11

Yeah.

Dave 16:11

And I remember hearing, like, you know, you mentioned Kobe, right, Juan, like hearing these stories from the other professional athletes of him when they were on the Olympic team together. And these other professional athletes that are thinking they're going there and it's gonna be, you know, kind of this, you know, we're gonna run over the world or whatever, and then practice comes around, and Kobe's the first one in there, even though he's probably one of the best on the team, and then he's the last one to leave. And then everybody's like, Well, man, what are you doing? Like, why are you up so early? Why are you getting in here so easier? He's like, Because it's it's it's the game, right? I got we gotta work. And then by the end of it, like it completely changed the work ethic of every person that was on that team because they saw the one of the greatest doing it and they wanted to emulate it, right? And so it's so easy to fall into like, oh, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. But are you like really it's like emulate the people that you want to be like and then do those same things, and eventually, if you put in all that work and you do all that, you know, it'll happen as long as you're you know consistent with the effort, right? Yeah, yeah.

Duarne 17:15

So and that happens in business a lot too, man. Good leadership, those guys don't rock in 10-15 minutes late, right? They're there, they do it, you know. They they turn up on time or they turn up early, they get the work done, they make sure everyone else is getting their work done before they leave. You know, they don't go leaving early with everyone else in the trenches.

Dave 17:36

Yeah, there's definitely the good and bad leadership, right? Like there's the good leaders and bad leaders that will show up early, stay late. But it's all that what are they doing with their time when they're doing it? You know, the bad leaders are the ones that are like micromanaging. They're staying late because they want to know who was the last one to leave and who left early, right? And they get in early because they want to see who's the last one to get here. That's that's the bad leader. Like, you're not a good leader just because you show up early and leave late, right? But there's also great leaders because they're busy, they're out at meetings, they're all doing where they're not in the office all the time, but they're good leaders because when they are there, they're paying attention, right? They're engaging, they're supporting their staff. That's the biggest thing that good leaders do, even if they're not there all the time. You know, and so that's like the same thing, like you know, with you, right? And teams, if you show up, you're not in the starting lineup all the time, right? So what are you doing when when when you're not?

SPEAKER_02 18:30

When I'm not in a starting lineup, yeah, just making sure everybody's ready for the game, everybody's got what they need. Yep, they all got filled water bottles.

Dave 18:37

And during the game, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Pipe everybody up, right?

Dave 18:41

You know, he's got a distinct voice, so when he's on the sideline, you can totally you know kind of hear him over everybody else sometimes. Uh and so that's I think one good sign of a good leader is that even when it's not your turn, even when it's not your time, you're still there to support and cheer everybody on, you know, yeah, because it's it's you know, like Dwarren, it's not always gonna be your time, it's not always gonna be my time, it's not gonna be you know, you guys watching this time. But how do you react to other people? And I'm saying this from experience because this was I would say maybe 10-15 years ago, me. If I would see somebody else succeed, it pissed me off, right? And I'm not proud of that because ultimately, like these were people that were either friends or these were people that were acquaintances from high school, but it pissed me off because I'm like, why not me? You know what I mean? And at that moment, I was still 27, so I was definitely still young. And I just didn't know what I didn't know. Like, I didn't know the effort that needed to be put in. I just thought that you know, you did good things, good things will happen. No, you have to show up.

Duarne 19:49

That's what you have to do, right? Show up together. Everything else is just awesome. Right.

Dave 19:55

And so, but now like that mindset shift for me has been like I revel in all of their successes too, because I know that by supporting, by growing together in the end, it's all gonna come around, you know. And so now I'm starting to see some of that, you know, in our right, what we're doing here, you know, things are growing, things are doing well. But so I mean, that's one of the lessons that hopefully you don't get from me. Hopefully you don't you don't sit out when you are on the bench and you're looking at the you know the starting catcher or or whatever, you're not there like you know, why is he getting to play, right? Versus me, right? You're there because you're you're cheering him on, you know it's gonna come to you, right? And then you work your ass off in practice. I I tell you that all the time, right? I tell you, you know, you're gonna you're gonna earn your spot in practice or earn the playing time in practice by being the first one there, being the last one there, you know, off the field, and not in a bad way, in a good way, like we're just talking about like as a leadership, you know, you're cheering people on, you're helping out. But I think the biggest thing, you know, that I think, and maybe this is I think this is one of your like out of your comfort zone moments, right? Would be asking for the extra help.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Like after practices, before practices, right?

Dave 21:09

Like, am I wrong in that assumption, or is that something?

SPEAKER_02 21:13

I mean, a little bit for like the before practices, but I've started asking Coach Mudd to throw me pitches for practices and stuff.

Dave 21:20

But for the longest time you were shy, he was a shy guy. Oh yeah, so anybody. Was it was it that way because you felt like you were being an inconvenience, or why would it why do you feel like you didn't want to ask when you were a little bit younger?

Asking For Help Without Shame

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Uh it was probably because I didn't want like to take time out of somebody else's day to help me get better.

Dave 21:43

So you felt you you felt like you're kind of being an inconvenience to them because they would have to take time out of their day.

unknown 21:50

Yeah.

Dave 21:50

I mean that's that's normal.

Duarne 21:52

You know, yeah. It's very normal in the workplace that as well. Like, you know, feeling like your time is not as valuable as somebody else's, and if you ask for help, or then you're gonna be a hindrance to them, which is not the case in a lot of cases. A lot of good leaders and even other people in your team actually like being mentors and trainers and help people, they like it when they get to teach new skills and help people be better, and the same thing with support, right? I mean, unless you've got a huge ego, I mean, then obviously it's something different. But you know, the majority of people are good people. Help other people succeed, they want to help bring everything.

Dave 22:34

One of the things I've I heard the most is as rich, successful people get older, they want to teach, they want to leave that legacy, and I think it's so many people have that feeling like, well, they're rich, they don't have time for me, you know. I don't want to ask, I don't want to. And for me, as I'm getting older, right? You make fun of me all the time for this. Right, I'm an old man. But as I'm getting older, and you know, that's what I want to do, try and share, educate, especially your your age, especially, because you guys have the opportunity right now to not maybe do what I did in my life. And don't get me wrong, what I did led to you. So I'm happy that you're here. But but again, I didn't know like my in my 20s, I I didn't I didn't grind, you know. I I knew I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I I was looking for the quick fix, as we just kind of talked about. So I didn't put in that effort in my 20s to set up the rest of my life. And now it's here, me, it's right, it's me grinding in in my 40s to make that happen. But I am happy because you know, I was able to still there, there's moments, right? It's kind of your trade-off to be around for the kid, to be around for you, right? Even though you know your mom and I are not together, but I was always there. At least I hope you felt that I was always there, that kind of thing. But for you, I think you can decide how you want, like, do you want to like really put in the effort when you're in your 20s, and then when you're in your 30s and 40s and your 50s, and when you're on your own, because I'm not longer here. But you know, then then you have all those those fruits of your efforts, you know what I mean? And so I love teaching, I love sharing. You know, I'm never gonna turn anybody down to share some experiences and give some insights, and I think that's the biggest thing. So if like for you, never be like, if there's when you get into the workplace, right, and there's like a boss or a leader or you know, a coach when you go to college and you're playing baseball, like they're in that role because they want to help people grow. Right? The coaches at college, they want you to grow. They don't they they have you on the team, they accepted you on the team. So they want you to be the best version of yourself on that team. And so asking for you know, some time after or extra practice like it early in the morning or wherever it is, that's their whole goal of being in that in that role with that team, is to help you be a better man, grow it, you know, in your skills, but you know, especially in college, hopefully, right? Grow as a human, you know, because I'm not gonna be there. I can't be there. They're the one you're gonna have more interaction with them probably than me when you're at college. So don't be afraid to to pick their brain, to ask for the time, all that, you know. So do you feel like you've gotten over that? Or is it still something more, yeah? Yeah, you just but you still feel like you're it's a little something that is holding you back for sometimes?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

A little bit, yeah. It also depends on what time the practice is.

Dave 25:45

True. So you mean like if it's a later practice, you don't want to do it?

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Probably I probably wouldn't just because you never know if that person's saying that after.

Dave 25:54

Yeah. Well, that's why you do it ahead of time too.

Duarne 25:58

So sometimes you just throw it out there too, right? And just you know, rejection is something you need to get used to in life as well. So throwing it out there and then someone actually saying no is not a bad thing either. Because that'll help you get used to question, you know, because it's you should be able to say no as well as anyone else if you've got other things going on, and that's fine, but you never know unless you ask. And I think that's a big thing that I've learned in business and life is that sometimes you just gotta ask the question. It's not always gonna be what you want to hear, it's not always gonna be a yes, but in a lot of cases you'll surprise yourself because for every person that does ask, there's gonna be nine others that don't ask.

Pricing Confidence And Proving Value

Dave 26:42

Yeah, yep. And and you said and you said something too earlier, and I want to come back to because it does relate to business and you know, owners and and your value, and it's because you value their time more than your own. And maybe not you, well, and you were young, so I'm not even talking about you, but business owners specifically, you know, when you're afraid to like raise your prices or you're afraid to ask for the sale, it's because you feel in that moment that their money is more valuable to them than the benefit that you can provide them. And so it's really important for you to truly believe in your worth, your value, and your price. That once you do that and you have that confidence when you're having those conversations, it's gonna shine through and people are gonna know exactly what they're getting and they're gonna feel confident investing in you to help them grow. And so it's really important for you to learn that and believe it. Because if you try to tell somebody, yeah, it's gonna be 10,000, you know, I don't know, you know, maybe I can give you a discount or something. Like immediately, what is that? Like, if I you know, how do you feel if somebody were to say that, right? If somebody were to come up to you and they tell you, oh, this lesson's gonna be two grand, but I don't know, maybe I'll charge you 1500. Like, do you feel it's worth more, or do you feel it's worth less because they're immediately discounted?

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Immediately it's worth less. Right. You gotta stick with your high price and make them feel that that's the lowest price that they can go because that's the like the value of what they're giving.

Dave 28:17

Right. Exactly. And and one of the other things that I've been recently starting to kind of incorporate more as well is when people ask for pricing, you know, well, one, if it's early in the conversation, I'll be like, here's right here, it's expensive. And it's probably more than you've been paying already because I know it probably is. But if you still want to have the conversation, I'm more than happy to have a conversation with you, see if it's the right solution for you. Otherwise, I can respect your decision to, you know, kind of want to move forward. And here, because expensive to you and I, Dwarne, is different than expensive to JJ or expensive to anybody else. And so when you say that, you're setting the expectation. And then when you finally do get to the price and you finally have had that conversation and you finally added the value to their, you know, to their day by giving them some sort of insights. By the time you get to that pricing discussion and then you tell them the price, more often than not, your price is way under what they were thinking is expensive.

Duarne 29:22

And so you set an expectation what the value proposition is. So by the time you get to the price, it's not the price that's in question at that point, it's whether or not it's the right fit for them at that time. It's the old adage of if you got someone who comes in and just wants to get a price right from the beginning, wants a quote, wants a quote, wants a quote, but doesn't wants to know how much it's gonna cost, but doesn't want to know or share enough information to be able to understand what they want to achieve to quote them correctly, they're probably not the right customer. So they're probably better off jogging on and finding someone else who's willing to do it because they may come back in six months and say that didn't work out. And that's when your opportunity to say, Well, look, can I ask you some questions this time? Let's work out what you need. And we see this a lot in the marketing industry, in the branding, where we get a lot of people come over, take the cheapest quote, come back and say it didn't work. I was like, What'd you do? Well, we did this. I was like, Well, why would you do that? That's not even right on target for what you're gonna be for the market you're trying to go after. Well, that's what I was that's what I thought I needed. Okay. Were you advised to do that, or is that what you told them you wanted? Well, that's what I told them. Okay. Well, if you were asked, I would have advised you to do this instead. Did you ask them to advise you, or did you tell them what you wanted done and they quote you? Well, they just quoted me. So it becomes a very different conversation. And you those businesses that just do that quick quote, get the business out, they're not qualifying, they're not finding out if it's the right up, if it's the right customer, they're not making sure it's the right solution or the service, and you are gonna get high turnover, you are gonna have problems because they don't see a value and you can't charge for the value that you offer at that point either.

Time Is Finite Money Is Not

Dave 31:51

Well, and it does come down to if you're just doing exactly what the client wants, there is not a lot of value there, right? Because all those types of agencies are a diamond dozen. But when you add in the advisory, you add in that extra layer, now that's where you begin to kind of set yourself apart from others in the arena, and that's where you can begin to kind of charge those higher pricing when you do that. But so many people, you know, as a business owner, you want to make sure that you have you have two things, and you know, I kind of said this in a short the other day, and I told you about this, right? Where it's like you and I spilled the coffee in the morning, could have let it ruin my day, but I didn't. But it turned into you know a good situation because I was able to then you know record a video, record it in a impact on it. And then Darren, I shared the the analogy, right, that you did that you shared the other week or I don't know, a few episodes ago, about the$1,400.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah.

Dave 32:53

Where you know, if you if you lose a dollar or you know, something, you know, somebody steals a dollar from you or whatever it is, are you gonna burn and and you know ruin the other thirteen hundred and ninety-nine dollars in your pocket? No, like nobody's gonna, you know, I asked JJ that the question, you know, what was your answer?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

There's no reason you're you're like, why would why would you do that? You know, it's$1,300. Yeah.

Dave 33:15

And so, and then I said, and then you know, that's the number of minutes that you have in the day. And you didn't even realize that at first. You're like, that really? And I'm like, yeah. And I said, What we talked about, Dwarren, why if you lose a minute, or if a minute doesn't go your way, or you got rejected, or you struck out, right, or you made an error, why would you ruin the other 1,399 minutes that you have in the next 20, you know, that 24 hours leading up from that, right? You know, and I know you've done it.

unknown 33:46

Oh, yeah.

Triumph Intelligence Beta Offer

First Day In Go High Level

Dave 33:48

Right? I think we've all done it. Yes, I think we just done it. You know, and so for you, like you can now remember that, right? The next time you're up at bat, like you strike out, who cares, man? Like, I'm gonna have the rest of this game to make up for it, you know. And I remember when you were younger, you would you would just store like if something didn't go your way, you guys lost the game, you would walk by, but just not even say hello or anything to me and his mom and his stepdad, and you would just walk right to the car and you'd be pissed off, right? And so now that's a good analogy. But the thing is, what I've added to that, what I added to that after that was you know, those are your two most valuable resources as a human and as a business owner, right? Money and time. One of those is infinite right now, right? You can always make more of, and the other one is not. You know, you once it's gone, it's gone. But yet everybody's so protective of the one that's infinite and is nilly-willy with the one that is limited, and that's their time. You know, because they're so easy to just throw away time, they're so easy to just get angry and let and let everything go by when in reality it should be the opposite, right? You should be so protective of your time and how you're acting and how you're feeling and everything every day, versus always knowing that I'll get money back. Like it's gonna come. It may be a little you know, peak or a valley right now, but I know I'm gonna there's gonna be there's always gonna be peaks and valleys. You know, if you look at a chart of success, it's not straight up. No, you know, it's like twisting, turning up and down, and then you know, sometimes it goes in the door, then but then it goes straight back up. So money's the infinite resource, essentially, it may be limited right now, but there's infinite of it out there for you to gain and gather as long as you're gonna be providing something of value. Whereas your time, that's the one that you can never make more of. You can't get it back once you spend it. And so, how are you gonna spend it? You know, you're gonna spend it mad, you're gonna spend it angry, you're gonna spend it wishing something happened differently than it did, because you can't change that either. So, and that's ultimately what it comes down to is time is your finite resource. Respect that. Remind yourself of that. So hopefully that's something good that came out of spring break is that you can use that lesson moving forward. But I wanted to kind of share that, you know, kind of with us. But uh, so I'd take a pause real quick. So, for those of you, if you're watching, you're joining us. My son JJ's here. Uh, he's on spring break, so he's here with me. He'll be here next week as well. So we'll have him joining us one more episode. Uh, but if you have questions too, anything that we're talking about, whether it's business, life, anything, feel free to drop it in the comments. It looks like this guy, not brawler stars, has what y'all doing? We are we're chatting business, we're chatting life. What about you? What are you doing? What's up, brother? Looks like so. Drop a question, anything. If you're a business owner, aspiring business owner, drop a question. Uh Juan had mentioned as well that you know he's working on um some interesting stuff that hopefully he'll share with us soon. I mentioned last week that there is the Triumph Intelligence platform that I am working on. I'm gonna drop, there's a link right here. It's open right now for beta. And so for beta tests, there's only 10 spots open. And it's you get there's I think now what over 20 some tools in there as a business owner, from you know, generating a you know, cash flow assessment to developing policies and procedures in your business to creating offers to pricing, agreement, proposals, HR document, you know, there's tons of stuff, tools. Go check out this website there, TriAtbusiness Solutions.pro backslash tip slash beta. It's only open to the first 10 people. Um, and the idea is that we want to get some feedback how things are going, and then you get to lock in that that beta pricing for six months after we go live as well. So if you're interested in it, go check that out. It'll also be down below in the comments after the show, or you can send us a message if you're interested. But JJ here to kind of jump back in. I was kind of teaching him yesterday in Go High Level some automation, you know, and it's one of those things where it's funny because you know you need the support, but then when somebody kind of comes in, it's like, all right, where do you want to start? And I'm like, I don't know. I was like, there's so much stuff to do. Let's see what's easy that I can train them on. And so how did I what did you think of that experience in terms of like getting into Go High Level the first time and going through the setup and the email automation and all of that? How did you feel about that? Like, was it like like to me, like was it like easy or hard or yeah, was it easy to you kind of see the I guess the benefit of it because you know you know that it's gonna be going out to people to help on board? But what was your like initial first experience, first thoughts of your first day working kind of in in business?

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Well, before we started, I thought it was gonna be a lot harder than it was to set all that up. Because you said automation, and I was thinking there's gonna have to be like coding into it, and it's all you had to do was fill out this workflow and then put the emails in there, and then it's pretty so it was pretty easy on that part, right? And then I feel like overall it was pretty like self-centered and easy, like it was straight to the point onto it, right?

Dave 39:27

And and I think the the other piece to you know kind of pay attention to is that the you know, he's in high school, he's not even a business, and this is something that could potentially help anybody, right? A business owner. I had him working on it because it's something I knew I had to do in terms of setup for some of these platforms we're about to launch, but it's a long-term benefit because once you set it up, obviously you're going to you know kind of update maybe the copy or things like that, but that that workflow's there, right? And then I was impressed because I thought it was gonna take you a lot longer than it than the first one did. I was like, oh crap, now what do I gotta do? And so then I set you up with another one or two other ones actually, and then you were kind of working on that in the afternoon. But Dwarren is actually, you know, him and his company, they're the ones that have that white label of go high level, but there's just so much out there, you know what I mean? To learn, right, Dwarren? Like there's so much.

Duarne 40:22

Oh, there is. I mean, like, and then there's always feature drops. Like today, there was a drop of a feature. There's now a live chat function, so you can do live chat widget embedded into a website. There's the AI Studio that just got released, so you can build out a full website using the AI Studio now by prompting, which is kind of clever. Mixed results on that, most of them positive. So, I mean, we're talking about it, it changes all the time, and that's the industry in general at the moment when it comes to software automation, AI, it's really, really flexing and changing a lot. So, when you can get a piece of software like you put together here with business and triumph intelligence, where you can do a lot of these little things that you normally have to do across multiple platforms, and then train it up on how to do that in your business, and then train team members up on how to do it, it makes for yeah, good business sense to have a tool that you can do that sort of thing with. So, I think these sort of tools are clever. Go high level, it's another clever tool for marketing. There's a lot of these different all-in-one tools out there at the moment, and whichever one you choose, you're gonna be in for a world of hurt trying to get your head around it. But like JJ just said, it's not about learning how to code, it's just learning how the system flows. Once you understand the basics, it actually is a lot easier than you might have thought in the first place.

Dave 42:33

What was your what was like your first impression, I guess, like walking away from the day, besides that it was it wasn't as hard as you thought it was going to be. But what was something maybe that you you picked up during the day that you didn't think about, let's say that I did, when I tell you that I own a business? What did anything stand out where you're like, oh I didn't I didn't realize that?

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Probably like the uh amount of like I'm not good with words.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

No, you're fine.

Duarne 43:08

Thank you, Tom.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Probably that like I wouldn't have thought like that it's as simple to I don't know what word I'm trying to look for.

Dave 43:29

Like simple to the processes, you mean? Yeah, like actually just lining them up, but yeah, having a good understanding of what all those processes need to be, yeah, is probably you didn't realize there are so many different processes, even though they're simple.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

I definitely thought it was like one process that lifts went all the way through. Yeah. Yeah. Not like to set up all these different things to do certain things. Never would have thought that.

Dave 43:54

Yeah. So it because it was right. There, there's there's it's and it's funny because I've learned even more of this too, right? Darn, like working with you and then going through some of these campaigns for some of our clients. Uh, when you set up even a simple survey page, what the workflows are that go into that. You would just think, oh, I'm gonna create a survey and then I'm gonna create an email automation. That's it. But it's not that, right? You got to create survey, then you got to create a scoring logic with a routing you know campaign. And then from there, it goes, yes. And then from there, it's like, okay, then if they you know go here and then you do your your emails based on their score, and then once they click this the calendar to maybe book a call for a next step, now you have a calendar invitation automation that once they book the calendar meeting, it takes them out of the invitation meeting, you know, campaign. And so you have all these different flows from one survey. And I think that's the part that can feel overwhelming, right? Because a lot of business owners they don't realize that. They just think, okay, I'm just gonna build one campaign and they go from there.

Duarne 45:02

Oh, that's here, right? I mean, you know how many times I've been on a call and it's like, just set me up a funnel. And it's like, well, what do you consider a funnel? Right. Because what I consider a funnel is like a web funnel with a very specific set of steps that we want to take people through to get them through the other end. But there's this consistent understanding in the business world that a funnel in marketing is that front end plus all the emails that go in the back end, plus the pipeline generation build out, plus getting the people in and booking those meetings, and so on and so on, and then putting them into a nurture sequence which sends them out an email or an SMS at regular intervals, and then automatically have a a task go in and chase somebody up internally to call them and Check in with them occasionally, and it's like, well, okay, that's a huge process, and that's a lot of logic to go through and think through. Somebody's got to come up with that plan. And this is where being the strategist can sometimes outweigh the importance of actually doing the physical setup initially. So it's an interesting point that JJ makes there that there's a lot more went into it than he considered. Like JJ, one of the things that I think probably a lot of people don't realize when they're setting up an automation is you can put things like a wait time, like wait one day, wait two days before the next step. Making sure that you know you only send out messages between certain times of Monday to Friday, for example. All these considerations, you're going, whoa, well, I would never have considered that as being something that would be considered. But then when you start to take those little steps into consideration, a simple process becomes a very complex logical process that makes a lot of sense, but there's a lot of steps. And when Dave and I talk about it, it's just common for us, it's normal for us. So it's not until we get, you know, fresh young minds like yourself come in and look at it from a different perspective and we go, oh yeah, yeah. We were like that once. Yeah, that we had to figure this out too.

Dave 47:13

Well, and with that too, like there's still even for me, when I get into it, there's still some like, oh wait, we should build that into another campaign, you know, where it didn't come up in the thought process initially. And that's where it's, and I make the suggestion to everybody, whether it's your customer journey or you're building out like automations like this, is you always want to start with the plan. Map it out, talk it through, write it out into like a mind map or a flow, because that's gonna help you identify where the breakdowns may occur, you know. And then additionally, you want to limit the potential fall-off points for any prospect as well. So it's it's just it's this balance of, and it kind of goes into like a platform or a program software too, right? It's a balance of how much do you build into it that you think it needs versus what's the minimum viable product that your prospect wants at this moment, and then you can add on to that after that and test it. And and and the steps, you know, the one thing everybody needs to think, you know, walk through is how many button clicks does it take for somebody to get in touch with you? Yeah, and if it's if it's uh more than three, it's too many, you know. And so that's something to also be considered, you know, through all of this. So there's a lot that there's to learn, you know what I mean? And so it's funny.

ROI Explained With Clear Math

Duarne 48:38

It's about the when you create these systems, it's very easy to be selfish and think about it from a company perspective or your own business perspective. But it doesn't matter what you want or like necessarily. What matters is the customer journey and how the person you're actually targeting this for is gonna feel about it. If they're gonna sit there and have a terrible time, then it ain't gonna work. And like if we put this into a sports analogy, the banana ball, you know, like these guys took a game which was already successful and turned it into something even more successful for a different crowd, for a crowd that you know now loves. They've got followers and it's an amazing, you know, it's an amazing event. They're booked out tours all over the place, right? So you can build something really, really amazing, or you can build something that is just functional and works. It really comes down to who are you trying to target and what sort of experience you want to give them at the end of the day. And it's so much more than just sending an email, which is like when you started, you're probably automate, oh yeah, well, we're just gonna automate a couple of emails. Cool. Yeah, that sounds all right. Then you start getting into it and you're going, oh, there's a lot more to do here, like setting a tag and telling you that this email was sent, so that anyone checking that person in the CRM can actually see that it actually where they're up to. There's a lot more to this sort of stuff. And from a business owner perspective, you don't need to know all the details, but it's good to know that it was set up properly with all the details if you ever need to check it. Right. For sure.

Dave 50:23

So what JJ, for you, I know there's a lot of things you're you're in marketing right now, right? Marketing classes, sports entertainment, marketing, sports entertainment. What I guess what business questions do you have, right? That you're like, man, I I the either the teacher didn't go over it well, or something that like piqued your interest that you want to kind of talk to Dwarne and I about, or is that something you've brought up a lot that comes with like business is the ROI, return on your investment.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

And I know we've kind of briefed over it in class, but we didn't really talk about it.

Dave 51:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

I want to learn like really more like what that means.

Dave 51:03

Right, what does return on investment mean?

SPEAKER_02 51:06

Yeah, like what does that actually like mean?

Dave 51:08

Yeah. Darren, do you want to hit that or you want me to touch that one?

Duarne 51:11

Yeah, I can hit it. I can start with that. So if we look look at it from the simplest point of view, whatever you spend, how much of a return are you gonna get on it? So if you start looking at, let's say for me with outsourcing staffing from the Philippines to companies in the US and Australia, if I pay a thousand dollars salary to the staff member and I'm out there marketing that service and I'm selling that to my clients for$1,500 a month, then how many of those services do I have to sell in order to get my return on investment if I'm gonna go out and do marketing, for example? So if I'm gonna spend$2,000 on marketing, I have to sell four just to be able to cover the cost of that marketing. So my return on investment would be very, very low. I'd need to sell five, you know, 10 or more to make it worthwhile because you've got a cost of doing business, and whatever you're going to be spending to get more business, you've got to make sure that it's actually of a profit. And we've been in I've been in companies before where they've taken on a new client thinking it's going to be really good return on investment for them, and only to find they've had to hire more staff, which means they had higher costs, which meant they weren't able to get as much of a return as they were initially expecting. And that comes down to not working out what your real cost is, and that's something that your dad's really good at. That's something Dave's awesome at, helping businesses work out what their real cost of things are. Like we had that conversation 12 months ago, and then I went away and did a little bit of spreadsheet work, and I came back going, well, that's a little scary. My margins aren't as high as I thought they were. And that's the realization as a business owner, when you say I need to get a better return on investment for what for every dollar I spend, I need to make sure I'm making more money to cover all the expense of the business, all my marketing in the business, everything. And I'm sure, Dave, you've got an even better explanation than that, but that's how I look at it from my layman point of view.

Dave 53:23

Yeah, I mean, you you definitely hit on the main points, right? And I think the biggest thing is it really depends on what you're looking to invest in and what that target ROI is. You know, so if you're a real estate person and you're trying to invest a good real estate project, your ROI may be looking at something around 15 to 25% as your min. You know, where if you put in a you know 100,000, you're looking to get back like 115 to 125, right? And so you basically take whatever you're expected to get back minus the cost of making that happen, and then you divide that gain by the cost, and then that gives you your return on investment. Whereas in marketing, in your advertising spend, as Dwarne was saying, you typically want to have somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five times ROI. And when business owners do this calculation, a lot of them do it wrong because as Dwarne was just saying, they focus on the the top line number and then they try to figure it out based on the top line, not factoring in what are all my direct costs related to make that new money happen. And really what should happen is when you look at your return on investment, you should look at gross profit return on investment, because that's the money that the agency gets to keep. And if they're already profitable, that's the money that's going to go directly to their bottom line because they're already paying for all their operating expenses through the other business that they already have. So, for example, if you spend$1,000 on marketing and you have a let's just say a 50% gross profit margin, right? If you sell$5,000 and you're targeting a 500% or 400 to 500% ROI, you would think I have that, right? 5,000 of new revenue minus$1,000 in marketing. I just made$4,000. There's my four times. But in reality, they only made$2,500 because they have a 50% gross margin. So you take the money that they had coming in, the$5,000 times 50%. Now they only have$2,500 of gross profit, divide that by the thousand, right? And now it's only two and a half, two, two hundred and fifty percent. So they're still lower than their goal. It's still not bad, right? It's not, you know, I would pretty much all the time spend a thousand to make 2500. But if their target is 400, they're not reaching their target. So their pricing needs to either be adjusted or they need to reduce their advertising spend if they need to be at a 400% ROI. And so that's where a lot of people they just think, oh, I need an ROI. They think they, you know, if I get a 5% or a 10% ROI, I'm fine. But in reality, it doesn't happen that way. And I think the thing that they're not going to teach is that with ROI, it's long term, right? You have to think at least 12 months. Because if you're if you're looking at a short-term ROI, a lot of times there's going to be a dip in productivity, a dip in expectations. So your immediate ROI, maybe in the first 60 days, is not going to be as high as it will be after you've kind of flushed out all the issues. So, like when you first start running ads or you first start doing anything like that, you're going to have a lower ROI than if you let it run for you know three or four or six months or even 12 months. So hopefully that did that answer your question on ROI.

Duarne 56:45

So I got one more uh example there too, Dave. What right at the beginning of this podcast, we talked about the localized AI system and the option of putting that up front and/or putting it on a monthly recurring. I mean, that's a great example of an increased ROI right there. So if you were to sell that product at$2,000 as opposed to charging$200 or$250 a month on a 24-month contract, you've got a much higher return on investment on that particular product, even though you'd be putting out a little bit more initially because you'd be covering the cost of your labor, the setup, the implementation, and possibly the hardware. But over that contracted period, it's worth a lot more. And this is where a lot of people tend to look at the quick win, the quick gain, the quick return on investment versus the long term. And from a lot of business perspectives, you've got to look at it from how much do I need in the bank right now to keep the business running, versus if I build up this portfolio of monthly recurring or annual recurring revenue, what will that look like for me in 12 months? And normally you'll find that the short wins are going to be look good on paper initially, but you eventually want to get to that monthly recurring to get a higher return on investment for the time and effort you're spending.

Dave 58:10

Any other any follow up chat? Any anything that like any other questions? And like ROI, do or do we feel like we answered it?

SPEAKER_02 58:19

I think you guys answered it again. Yeah.

Dave 58:20

How about any other business questions?

SPEAKER_02 58:22

I know you're going into what accounting and what next year I'll take in either accounting or entrepreneurship.

Dave 58:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

The two that I picked.

Dave 58:32

You need to basically just they choose which one they're gonna give you.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

I'll give them my two highest, like my two electives that I kind of want to have. They're both a year, so they said if one class is full, they'll probably other one. Yes. The one isn't that going at all.

Dave 58:46

Okay. Any other kind of business questions that have been brought up or that you've thought about at going through these classes in high school?

SPEAKER_02 58:56

Not that I can think of at this time.

Dave 58:59

No.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Yeah.

Dave 59:00

Well, we're about an hour, which is where we kind of like to be. So I think we've kind of chatted a lot. I think we've dropped a lot of golden nuggets in this episode, you know. So hopefully something stood out to you. Dwarne, is there anything else that you wanted to kind of cover or otherwise, what's one thing that you want somebody to take away from today?

Duarne 59:20

Yeah, look, uh, I have a question for JJ before we finish up. Yeah, go ahead. From a business perspective, is there any like ideas that you've been thinking about? Like this would be a nice little business opportunity or a business model that you'd like to look into in the future?

SPEAKER_02 59:38

Like if I were to start a business?

Duarne 59:41

Yeah, like is that something you've considered? Like, you know, what sort of business you'd like to set yourself up for in the future, or if that's something you've looked into already?

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Probably something to do with sports in some sort of way. Whether that's equipment or some sort of like sports like agent agency or something like that.

Duarne 1:00:05

Nice. Yeah, I like I like the I like that series Ballers with Dwayne Johnson. Have you guys seen that? Yeah, that's pretty intense. That's all that that's that sport agents seem to have the lifestyle by the looks of it. Definitely a lot of uh Yeah.

Dave 1:00:21

Seriously, there's a lot of schmoozing going on there, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

You know, that's right.

Dave 1:00:26

Um but uh did you ever watch that episode? Did you ever watch that show, Ballers on HBO Max or whatever? I think I've watched a little bit of like a little bit of it, maybe we'll have to watch it. It's pretty intense. I think I got I think I got through like the first couple seasons and then it went on pause and I never picked it back up. But yeah, I definitely wanna it was a good show. I liked it. So it was it was interesting.

Duarne 1:00:48

It kind of reminded me of the first time I watched Wall Street, and I was like, Oh, I'd love to be like a a broker, yeah, that'd be so cool. And then I had that same sort of feeling. I was like, this would be a really cool career, I think it'd be fun. And the real reality is like, no, it wouldn't be.

Dave 1:01:06

No, it's definitely harder than than than you would think, right?

Duarne 1:01:09

But that that's really cool. So sports related, I like it. I think one of the things that's important when you go into business, and that's interesting to hear you say that, is you've got to have a passion, a grounding passion for the what you're in business about, right? And if you don't have that, if you're just going into business because you think it's a good idea and you don't have that level of passion, those days that you don't want to get out of bed, they're gonna really, really, really hurt. So, and there's gonna be a lot of those days. There's gonna be a lot of those moments during business where you go, why am I doing this? Why don't I just go and get a real job and just get paid and not have all this stress? Right. But when you've got that passion, that gives you that extra drive just to keep pushing forward and reminding yourself, I'm doing this because this is what I want to do, this is what I love to do.

Dave 1:01:59

I agree.

Duarne 1:02:00

I agree.

Dave 1:02:01

That's a good that's a that's a good uh good point, good way to end it. Is there anything else you hope that uh that somebody walks away with it anymore?

Duarne 1:02:11

Yeah, you're never too young to start a conversation in business. It's never too you're never too young to realize that a lot of conversations and things you learn in business are gonna translate into real life events. So if you've got teenage children, you know, feel f you maybe start the conversation and just let them know a little bit about what you're actually doing. Because you may be surprised, maybe they're a little bit more engaged and interested than you thought they might be. For sure. I thought that.

Dave 1:02:43

JJ, how about you? We like to end all of the episodes with like a takeaway from from the show that we hope they listen to. So how about how about you? What's one thing that you you hope somebody walked away with today?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:58

Come back to me.

Get Off The Wrong Train

Teen Business Ideas And Parent Doubt

Dave 1:02:59

Come back to me. Oh yeah, I just like to you know throw it out there. So it's the first thing that comes to mind. Whatever's first thing is. Dad, you put me on the spot. Yeah, right. You put me on the spot, buddy. I I would say for me, you know, one, you have to believe in yourself as we talked about. And I when I and I saw this and I wanted to bring it up and I forgot about it, but I could bring it up now. You know, it's um it was I think it was on LinkedIn, but it was about an old Chinese proverb. And it states that as soon as you know you got on the wrong train, get off at the next station. Because if you keep going, the return trip's gonna be more expensive. And that speaks to life, to everything, right? If you know you're on the wrong path, you know, you're not doing what you enjoy, you're at the wrong company, right? Anything, you're in the wrong relationship. Get off as soon as you can. Otherwise, the longer you stay on that train, the more expensive it is gonna be to get back to where you know you need to be. And so that's how I think I want to end for me and the lesson for you all, is you may not be in the right job. You might not be in the right business, you know, you may be feeling like you're tugged in another direction. Don't wait. Like, don't wait. You got you you gotta make that leap. And now's the time to make that leap. So hopefully this is something that'll push somebody towards that, but now it's on you, buddy. Okay, no more time, it's it's you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:34

It's gonna sound like I'm copying what the warren said, okay, but from like the teenager perspective, I feel like there's a lot of us that really like want to go into business and think that like their parents like aren't gonna support them because they don't think that their parents are gonna agree with what they're thinking about. Yeah, I know like a lot of people at my school even just talk about like starting small businesses, and then they're like, Oh, I'm not gonna do it because my parents don't think I should, or they aren't gonna support me through it. Like, you have to be able to talk with your parents about it, and then they have to be able to support their kids through starting it.

Dave 1:05:20

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna add the extra layer to that, and this is gonna be a really hard for some of you listening, and it it's real advice that you should probably share, right? And sorry, but fuck what other people think, right? And here's why, right? You are always in your life going to have people that aren't gonna believe in what you want, or think that you're doing the right decision. Who cares? Because ultimately it's your life, it's not theirs. Now, granted, if they're lose life savings, all this kind of stuff, I get it, but parents aren't there to try to force their feelings and their life choices onto their kids, they're there to guide them and point them and talk to them, and and but ultimately, in your your it's your decision. I'm not, and Darren, we've talked about this on other episodes. I am not going to force you one way or another. I may give you an insight on, hey, I think maybe you should consider this, and if you don't do it, that's your choice. But the biggest thing that I think you can, and I'm and tell if you're a teenager and you're listening to this, I'm sure this will be a clip. You know, JJ, you can share it with your friends. Fuck it. Because if you have a passion for it right now, and if you know that you could do it and you could be successful at it, and it's something that is Dwarne said earlier that you're passionate about because you know it's going to drive, don't let your parents stop you. Right? Again, as long as it's legal, like we're talking legal. Okay, okay. Yeah, don't get singing on the corner. Yeah, we're not we're not talking like drug dealing on the corner, right? We're talking like getting into a legal business, right?

Duarne 1:07:07

Legitimate business. And we're also talking about not taking all your parents' savings to start your business. It's about being a still starter and doing it.

Dave 1:07:15

Yeah, exactly, exactly. But you can one feel comfortable to talk to them, but two, don't let their lack of motivation and drive to grow and be a better version to do something for themselves stop you from wanting to do that. Right? I early on had to learn that lesson because I did it. You know, I learned I listened to other people way too much, and I let it, and that's where I think it came where you know when. talk about like my early 20s. I think that's where it impacted my kind of road forward from that point. Was I just like I I let so many people other kind of drive me and say, oh, we don't like that decision for you, don't do it. And I we talked about this the other day. My biggest one was I wanted to move away. I wanted to be out of Ohio. And I let everybody else's decision or you know feelings about it lead to my decision to still be here. Right. Now granted you're here so I'm happy with that. But still it's one of so to your friends, the biggest thing I think support that you could give to them in this moment, right? Would just be like, who cares? What do we do? Let's just start let's do it. Right. Or or tell them, you know, if you're passionate about it, just do it. Just get started. And and prove prove your parents wrong. Because and we'll leave we'll end it with this. Everybody is so quick. It's so easy to have doubt when somebody is trying to do something and trying to build something. It's so easy to say oh that's not going to work. That's not going to work. Because what happens right they're right 99% of the time because people are going to fail. 82% of businesses fail because of cash flow. And what all the people do they say I they're going to come in here I told you you shouldn't do that. You should have just took a job because they're safe they they don't they don't have that same mindset that same motivation right and but the moment you become a success what do they tell you I knew you were going to do it. No and and this is the biggest thing is this this is what I'm holding true in my life if you did not support me when I was going through everything or when I was having my struggles and I was in the valley and and now I'm at my and now I'm on a peak not the peak but a peak on the way up I don't want your support right thank you for saying it but I guarantee you probably said something 10 times more about how you thought it was going to fail or when you saw that there was a struggle you probably said oh see I told you so you know everybody's so quick to say I told you so because they just it's their default they don't know any better. They're in an employee mindset. You know so I guess the question I would have before we jump off is you know do you know anything about their parents are they do are they are the parents business owners themselves or are the parents like just working in a regular job that are saying this to them do you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:21

I'm very sure my one friend I know is parents are just regular jobs.

Dave 1:10:25

Yeah. And that's so they don't need they don't have that mindset. You know they're they're worker bees they're hey give me my paycheck and and I'll just make everything work paycheck to paycheck almost you know playing the safe game and that's fine.

Duarne 1:10:38

You know some people do that. Not everyone understands an entrepreneurial mindset. Not everyone has that level of risk you know a lot of people have risk aversion when it comes to business. And one thing you're going to find yourself whether it's your parents or your friends who you surround yourself with is going to mirror a lot of what you do. So start surrounding yourself with people who are of a like-minded nature who are going to want to who want to do a business setup themselves find a startup community and get involved in that start turning up and you'll find yourself surrounding yourself with enough people to help with that lift you up as well and that's really important find your community find your people that you can be lifted up by to help you because yeah look if your parents are not supportive well find someone who is supportive somebody who is going to help you and and we're not saying yeah we're not we're not saying like cut your parents off you know I mean no but the idea is like don't let their negative negativity about it drive you right so I love what Doran's saying you want to you want to eventually be in business so these friends that you're talking to right now and you're probably going to run into more of them in college like those are going to be the people that you want to consistently talk to about business because if you take that and you go to your family that is not business minded they're not entrepreneurial and you try to tell them about struggles in business they're going to be like well you can just go get a job and they're not going to understand that.

Dave 1:12:18

And so you have to have that group that's why like you know Dwarne and I these conversations we were having them for years before we actually started the podcast because we are the we are kind of like our I would call ourselves our support people right is that we have these conversations on a regular basis. And there's people around me that I know are not entrepreneurial and and they don't understand it. And so you have to have that group and you know you just realize you're not going to bring up business with the people that don't understand it.

Duarne 1:12:43

Because when they do say something it's just going to be well you could just go do this or you know and we just dump into that long refer that I thought we were going to right yeah it's not even like if it's the same thing when with sport you go to someone who doesn't understand sports or is not interested in sport they're going to be the same. You know you start talking sport and they're just going to glaze over and go wouldn't you rather sleep in those days no no I I like what I do. I want it because I want to achieve what I want to achieve in life. It's the same sort of mentality. I mean and this is going to happen in life throughout everything there's going to be doubters there's going to be people who will have a difference of opinion and not always share the same opinion of you and you should listen to to some of the things that people say but don't let it affect you and your outcome or use it as fuel to drive yourself. Yeah prove them right yeah prove them wrong prove them wrong and prove that you were on the right path and then don't look back. It's not a case of telling them that you were right it's just a case of going well you know what they were just part of my journey to get where I want to be this is where I am now and they were part of that journey even if it wasn't a positive part of the journey.

Dave 1:13:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

Well so that there's a good one but go ahead it's kind of like like you're talking about like playing it safe like you play like the board game life like there's like the safe path and there's the risky path if you take the safe path by the time you get to the end you get to like that regular little like retirement home. You take the risky path you're guaranteed to get that tiny one but if you actually do good in that harder path you get the higher up one when in the smaller one all you can get is that small safe retirement home.

Dave 1:14:32

Right. No exact and that's a good point. And and and on the risky path just like in life right there's a lot of moments where there's could potentially be failure. But what about that game of life pertains to real life right is that you may hit a spot where you fail but then what's after a bankruptcy thing that you can land on in that risky path.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

Right. Which then obviously is all your money and you're going to earn it back up.

Dave 1:14:58

But then you it keeps going right the path keeps going because then you have a chance to earn it back and as you said you have a chance to even earn even more even though you hit that risky you know piece where you went bankrupt. But on the safe path maybe there isn't any bankruptcy but you still lose or you don't gain nearly as much.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

You just stay the same level but even with like the ups and downs like a roller coaster of the risky path you're guaranteed that lower level one but then you also have the chance of getting that higher level one.

Dave 1:15:30

And and and this is where we'll end it because we're we're we're already at an hour and 15 but great conversation is that as a business owner or as an entrepreneur you always have the fallback of well I'll just go get a job. So it's always there which gets you to the the safe home at the end. Like if you so if you do fail and you decide like you know you tried it 10 times and maybe nothing worked out all right maybe I'll use some of my skills and I'll go work in a in a job and then I'll get to the regular retirement home. Maybe it's yeah but yeah you never know until you go down that path. And that's the biggest thing that we'll leave you with today. So with that Duarn thanks for joining me JJ thanks for jumping on. I look forward to having you back on next week hopefully we didn't uh embarrass you too much or put you on the spot too much and you learned a couple things or two. And you too if you're here we love you. Thank you for joining us again at Triumph Business Solutions we're on a mission to impact a thousand business owners by the end of 2028. Duarn I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more about you maybe next week or whatever after you do your 10 hour working sessions over Easter break. We'll hear more about what you got going on. And then for those of you who missed it earlier are interested in taking care, you know, part of the beta in our Triumph Intelligence platform it's got over 20 tools we're adding to it on a regular basis for you to train it on yourself, your business and then have all the support all the documents creation the the information that you need in order to help grow your business. So interested in that go to that link and we'll drop it in the comments down below as well. But with that we love you. Thank you for watching if there's one or two things that you found from today's episode please share it. Do all that fun algorithm stuff liking subscribing you know commenting down below if you have any questions and with that we hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and uh for those of you that that celebrate have a great have a great Easter this weekend. We'll talk to you guys in the next one. Take care everyone thanks