LEARN the STRATEGIES I Used to Build a BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY

How do you make it stick? Your biggest enemy is you. Everybody, today's episode is brought to you by Impact Theory University's own business decision-making workshop. If you're a business owner looking to scale your company, I can help. I've created a four-week intensive workshop that's going to give you the decision-making strategies that you need to scale your company. It's the exact things that I used to take Quest to a billion-dollar exit, and it's exactly what I'm using today on Impact Theory that's allowed us to grow by 400% in just the last 2 years. If this sounds like something that would be beneficial to you and your business, I want you to go right now to decision.impacttheory.com to apply. Once again, that's decision.impacttheory.com. You can apply today. All right, I'll see you on the inside. Probably the first 2 years of being in business, the only contributions I would make to a conference call were to say goodbye. I am not a born entrepreneur. How do you take your 10-year plan and make it happen in 6 months? Don't expect a spark of passion. Doesn't happen like that. Only in the process of gaining mastery will you find passion. You're standing in a room with a thousand doors. Your job is to close 999 of them and walk through one. Make a decision, even if it's terrible. Mistakes are the most information-rich data stream there is. Once you understand that in your life, you're either going to be chasing money or you're going to be chasing fulfillment. When you chase fulfillment, you may also build a massive company. People do not judge you by their by your intentions. They judge you by your results. The only thing that you have is today. So, if you're worried about today and you take care of today, 10 years from now is going to take care of itself. If Disney can create the most magical place on Earth, could we create the most empowering place on Earth? So, when someone comes to you and says, "Oh my god, look what you built. It's so inspiring, but I don't know what my purpose is. I don't know what makes me passionate. I'm not sure which direction to take." Like, what is the counsel? I'm sure you feel this question all the time. Like, what is your counsel to that individual? So, first and foremost, go play. Go discover. Like, wander around. Go to a different country. Like, encounter enough stuff that you see what actually gives you that spark of interest. Don't expect a spark of passion. Doesn't happen like that. You're going to be interested by something, and that something will be maybe a little more interesting than the next thing. That thing, now go down the process of really engaging with it. Like, go full in. So, if you were traveling around India and you went and um taught a, you know, a week-long math class and you were like, "I've never been this fulfilled in my life." Move to India and teach in the slums for a year. And if in that Or, how about just when you go back home, maybe, you know, start tutoring kid Like, you don't have to revolutionize your life overnight, but if you start bringing greater expression to that impulse, it will lead you in a trajectory that you can't foresee in that moment. Super powerful answer. So, I'm a thousand percent with that. Engaging with it, whatever face that takes, but really spending time with it, really doing it. Then if it turns into a full-blown fascination where you're like, "I really dig this." Then we're going to go down the process of gaining mastery. Only in the process of gaining mastery will you find passion. So, to me passion comes out of It's kind of like love. I don't believe that love It needs a different word. Unrequited love is a very different neurological state than reciprocal love. So, if you have unrequited love, to me that's something you really Like, I love singing, but I'm at it. So, I have unrequited love. I love singing, but singing does not love me back. Now, I could go down the process of gaining mastery, and then I I find that I have a real passion for it because part of it's going to become, oh, I'm gaining this skill and this skill of singing allows me to have an emotional impact not only on myself but on other people. I can make them feel good. I can change their mood. I can tell a story. Whatever it is that you want to do with the music. But when you're able to do that and you're truly good at it and it has the outcome that you desire, then it can become a passion. But to get a passion you've got to fight through just ridiculous amounts of boredom, fatigue, everything to truly become good enough at it that it's a skill that has utility. I mean people also terrified they're going to miss out on something and it's The only thing that you have is today. So if you're worried about today and you take care of today, 10 years from now is going to take care of itself. What do you love doing right now? What do you want to get great at right now? You're so right because you're not going to know the alternative. There's no weird video game where you pick a path but then you get to rewind it and watch what would have happened. Like if you go start go to move to the company's headquarters in Afghanistan or go to work to a different friend in Cincinnati or move to the big city of New York. Royce, you're not going to know how it would have worked out. And if it sucks, switch it up. Like that's the thing that drives me nuts. Here's how I think entrepreneurs need to think of themselves. You're standing in a room with a thousand doors. Your job is to close 999 of them and walk through one. People are so paralyzed by all the opportunity cost of actually having to shut a door that they never make a decision. Make a decision even if it's terrible. Mistakes are the most information rich data stream there is. Standing still is the only problem. So I want to get people on obsessive thinking. So one of the things people always ask me, okay, what's your secret to your success? I normally say reading but I'll say that there's actually something else I do that people it's hard to articulate but here it goes. There's a great question that Peter Thiel asks. How do you take your 10-year plan and make it happen in 6 months? So if you obsessively think about how do I accelerate this? Like how do I What's that quantum leap forward? And for him to be thinking about that, like the collapsing down to very little expense so that he can get into a place that's actually winning, win with that, build like a package up that he can go pitch to people and say like look, I only want whatever I I want to flip more scooters, whatever. So he's getting in it, you know, a thousand or ten thousand instead of, you know, four hundred thousand. Then he can build that momentum and he just keep going upstream, upstream, upstream. Lack of patience, man. Lack of What's interesting, you and I disagree on the use of the word patience like so violently. Please. So my thing is patience, literally. And but the thing is I always tell people I know what Gary means and Gary means play the long game. micro speed. A thousand percent. The problem is when people hear patience, they get in a passive mode. Yes. So I'm psychotic about that. used the word passive though. Yeah, exactly. You can't let people get into a passive situation. it's patience, not passive. Yeah, but what I'm saying is when people hear that word out of anyone's mouth, they go in the wrong direction. life of everybody semantically articulating the manipulation of words to their non-meaning. It's interesting. So here's how I love when people like I love like like the amount of judgement that is being thrown at me right now in circles around people manipulating the words that I'm like it's absurd. Like patience is not passive. So my thing is how do people react to it? I I couldn't agree more but the reality is is if we are now in a place where we can't allow the words to actually mean what they mean, we have to challenge that conversation as well. Because now you're getting into how people filter everything and now we're talking about the most important P which is perspective. If their filter is taking it, then you're that's what gets so interesting about having to do this one-on-one versus through content. Content is vulnerable in its macro. It's super interesting Very interesting and I that on this particular thing like I'll say forget the words because you and I are saying the same thing and so the last thing I want to do is argue that when we get to the point 1000% My thing is how do you get people to realize that momentum is the thing that I think matters. So if you have you ever been in like an above ground swimming pool you can start walking in a circle and it creates the the vortex and then you can pick your feet up and it just carries The whole thing I was talking to you about that I got to walk you through of like what you need to do for your studio to like win the world literally what internally for a few minutes was called momentum marketing. Nice. You can't we can't be believing more yeah. Whenever you're doing something ask who's living my idealized life. I have one belief and that is a the 25 point belief system. That's it like that encompasses my whole ethos. So I want to tell stories that empower people period simple as. So my thing is if Disney can create the most magical place on earth could we create the most empowering place on earth. It's not a mistake that Walt Disney at one point was considered the most famous man in the world and the US government literally would send him on goodwill missions to other countries. So there's just something about when you have an ethos that people can believe in when there's a face to the company and it's not just a corporation there's someone to believe in there's someone to get value from even if you're not consuming their product. Like there's just people gravitate towards that now in the era of social media. Our whole thing was now I don't want to be tied down by one product. It's like we want to do this massive multiple companies and you know what I mean like you just start going like Disney They could be doing better like let's beat them at their own game. So you really start just thinking at an absurdly grand level and that's the fun of it right like somebody has to like somebody one day out there looked at an orange grove and said this could be Disneyland. Right but it took somebody to look at an orange grove and say I don't see an orange grove I see just a future that nobody can imagine and that's vision right vision is hitting a target that other people doesn't even know exist. Before it's called social media, all that stuff, I you know, we're doing it and we're doing it better than anybody else. I I was about community when no one was talking about that. I was about authenticity and transparency before those became buzzwords. Like just going ham because that's where I was, right? I'm not chasing money anymore, I'm doing something I care about. I'm saving my mom and my sister. Like this is real for me. So, because of that and it was coming from somewhere so real, we were doing social before anybody else, creating all of our own content, everything and it was so like for real I wanted to touch people's lives. And so we blew up. And I felt like I'm king Like I get it. I get something nobody else gets. That the number one most powerful marketing vehicle is being a good person. Like this is crazy. Like we're living in this weird time where just because I actually give a and if I did something like my product didn't work for you, what the it all. Not only will I take it back, refund you, I'll give you more for free. Like whatever, right? And it just right time. Then my team starts going Tom, you've got to step out front, dude. You've got to step out front. We want to start filming you. And I was like, absolutely not. That is so weird. Like I want to be in the background. Definitely not my personality to want to step out front. And then you started popping off. Yeah. And they kept rubbing you in my face. And they're like, look at this Look what he's doing, dude. Like he's popping off. People are really listen to his message. And I was listening and I'm like, this guy's real. Every word out of his mouth is real. And if people take his advice, and that's the thing I used to laugh about. I was like, guaranteed most people are not actually taking his advice, but I'm going to start taking his advice because it's real and I can see and I saw that you saw from a personal branding perspective what I missed. And so this is probably about four years ago. I was like, all right, this dude figured it out and now I'm in second place. I do not like second place. So I need to start hustling and I need to get a show and I need to do the And so we would literally just like, how do we bring all this stuff that I've been doing behind the scenes and how do we translate it in front of the camera? From 2010 to 2013, you become one of the fastest growing companies in North America, right? Crazy. I mean, you must have had to staff up like crazy. Oh, dude, this is I wish people could see this now because people think of growth like that as being like a digital product or something where it's like uh what did um um Instagram got to a billion-dollar valuation with like eight employees or something. That is not how things went for us. So, we were a manufacturing business. So, we had to buy equipment which has like six, eight, 12 monthly times. We had So, imagine you're growing, you're doubling month over month and you've got to project out 12 months. Think about how terrifying that is from a capital perspective. Cuz you're only making the money you're making today, but you've got to spend the money that you're going to need to be spending for 12 months from now. It's absolutely bananas. You do a crazy capital raise? No. We did literally we had one mezzanine debt round. Very small, but it gave us enough that we were able to get to the point where we could borrow against accounts receivable. So, we could get the line of credit. And again, mad love to my partner who managed all of that stuff which is absolutely a genius with building those relationships. We had a a belief make friends before you need them. So, it was like we were very proactive in that stuff. But even just getting the um the square footage that we needed to be manufacturing out of was pure insanity. And you would move into a space and think that we're good here for the next three years. And I'm not joking, you'd be out in six months. It was so crazy. It was just happening so fast and we had to staff up the way that we had to staff up was crazy. It led to one of the most beautiful periods of my life though, which was we put we needed people. So, we put out on the street that we would hire people even if they had felony convictions. So, we had people lined up around the building just to get an interview. Oh, wow. And that was extraordinary and introduced me to just some beautiful, beautiful humans that completely shaped my belief system. Is why I launched Impact Theory. Because when you see enough lives where it's like these are extraordinary people who will do nothing with their life because they don't believe they can. Elon Musk has an awesome quote. And if what you're trying to do is important enough, even if the probable outcome is failure, you still need to do it. And so, even if the probable outcome of Impact Theory is failure, and we don't build, you know, the next 10 billion-dollar businesses, and we don't create the most potent library of amazing intellectual property, you know, think Star Wars, think the Marvel Universe. If we fail at that, knowing what we're trying to accomplish from impacting culture perspective of telling stories that will resonate with um you know, the the kids in the inner cities right now. Cuz the next Einstein, he's in the inner cities. The next Elon Musk, he's in the inner cities. It just statistically it they're there. Just waiting to be reached. Yeah, but their frame of reference is so destructive that they'll never do it. I am not a born entrepreneur. Yeah. Not in the slightest. And I part of the reason that my philosophies are what they are is because I have lived them. So, when I talk about the you know, having a negative voice, it's because I have one, and it is aggressive. When I talk about anxiety, it's because I had anxiety. When I talk about being able to become an entrepreneur, it's because I had to. So, I didn't have the instincts. In fact, from an instinct perspective, I didn't have any. And I had to learn all of that. Now, I would say I do have good business instincts because I've trained them over time, but I certainly didn't have them in the beginning. And in the beginning of my business career, the this is real, and I really want people to feel what I feel when I say this. The only contributions that I would make for probably the first 2 years of being in business, the only contributions I would make to a conference call were to say goodbye. And I remember looking forward to that, cuz I was finally going to get to say something. But because at least I knew enough to keep my mouth shut when I didn't know, and I didn't understand, and I didn't want to look stupid. So, I would just be quiet, I would listen and learn, and I'm very grateful to the guys that gave me that opportunity. They would let me on the call. So, I was often in rooms that I probably would never been allowed to be in if I'd been in a traditional company, but because it was a startup, they just kept letting me listen in on phone calls and stuff. So, that ended up being really, really extraordinary for me, but yeah, I had to learn to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, I think of entrepreneurs as athletes that don't have a limit to their body. So, it's like, it's one thing if you know you're only going to be in the NFL for 4 years cuz your body can't take the tax. Right. When you're going to be in it forever, it's like, yeah, if you this play up, you make a mistake, what's the matter? You're going to get more powerful. science than people realize. Like, you're learning from the nose, it's a data point, you build on top of it. You get a lot of criticism for it. I get a lot of criticism for how many hours I work. And I'm like, are you not listening? Like, here's the punchline. I worked that hard because I'm having fun. I hope you guys are enjoying this episode, which is brought to you by Impact Theory University's business decision-making workshop. With nine full-length classes and weekly live case studies with me, the business decision-making workshop is a hands-on approach to honing your abilities to scale your business. I'm going to be in there with you working through your hardest problems so that you'll be able to master how to overcome any impediment by getting the most foundational way to think through novel problems. And that, my friends, is exactly what you need to do if you want to scale your company and have the kind of crazy success you've always dreamed. I promise it is possible. This is teachable. This is something that you can learn. It is a process that you can deploy against your business and be able to move confidently forward. Just go right now to decision.impacttheory.com to apply. Do not delay, my friends. Spots are limited. Again, go to decision.impacttheory.com and apply today. I'll see you guys on the inside. I want to talk about your marriage a little bit. Yes. You have a an amazing relationship with your wife. Thank you. And I'm curious as to how you make it work as life partners and as business partners. Cuz this is something that's personally, you know, interesting to me as somebody who does the same. So, part of it is that we're building the same company cuz it did not work like that when I hated my job, she wasn't working at all. She was a stay-at-home wife at the time and I'm working, I hate my job, I don't want to come home and talk about it. I'm working around the clock, around the clock. And so, I just wasn't spending time with her. So, it was a nightmare. And so, finally at 6 and 1/2 years she pulls me aside and says, "This is now damaging our marriage." Now, going back to like your rules and all of that, it my highest value is my marriage. That's the thing I value over the wealth, over ambition, everything. So, if ever I was doing something that's damaging my marriage, I'm going to correct course. And so, that was part of why I went in and quit and I started taking time off. Um so, You got married young, right? I did. I did. Yeah, I got married at 26. Um and so, realizing that, okay, I'm now damaging the marriage and that the marriage is my highest priority, then it's very clear I need to change something. So, um one, that I have that in the right order in my life so that um when my wife says, "Hey, you need to make a change." I actually make it. And I'm not conflicted about it, it's very easy. Then, um my wife is very good at giving me all the rope in the world to be ambitious, to pursue those things that matter to me so much, but that she speaks up when it gets to the point where she is actually having a hard time now. And she is very good at that on two levels. One, not saying it too soon and two, actually protecting the marriage because I'm bad at that. So, I get so focused on what I'm doing and I'm so in love with trying to solve that puzzle and push it forward and all that that I would push things too far, for sure. And so, it's an area where I always tell people the the one group that I think there is um a tool that is underutilized by this community, and that is anorexics. And I totally get it. It is truly a battle. You're fighting for your life. I'm not making light of this at all. I just know about myself that that's the intoxication of the willpower to not eat is something I feel very strongly. It's how I ended up losing where I ended up losing 60 lb and getting really lean. And the way that I did it was essentially by starving myself over extraordinarily long periods of time. And I felt so good about myself for being able to do it. I thought, "Ah, this is how people get themselves in trouble. There's actually a positive side to this." And the the sense of control and power and all that is very self-affirming. And I thought, "Okay, well, if I know that about myself and I know that I have um anorexic tendencies, then I'm just going to tell my wife, 'You're in complete control of this. The second you tell me that I'm acting in any way, shape, or form in a way that's edging up towards illness, I will stop. Not because I want to, but because I trust you and I'm empowering you with something I don't think I can trust myself on.'" And so, she did. And so, when it got to that point, she said, "Okay, it's now you're starting to worry me. I think that we're edging up on it." And I changed instantly. Not because I had reached my goals or because I thought she was right, because in a moment of emotional sobriety, I empowered her to know that I can't trust myself. So, getting into that space where you go, "I know this is an area that I have a blind spot. I'm I'm not the right person to make this decision, even though it's actually about myself. I'm going to empower somebody that I love and trust, and then I'm actually going to follow through with that." And so, that that's a tool that's served our marriage very well. I know I can trust her to be the guardian of the relationship in terms of that, are we spending enough time on it? And then, it's, you know, just constantly looking for ways to better communicate, defining terms. Um there's a whole host of very specific tools that we use. And then, we both have growth mindsets, so we want to get better. Do you see a benefit more in three than two because no matter when there's a two one unites or do you see benefit in two over three or solo? Ooh, I don't I don't think there's any way to answer that question in the generic, so let me walk through the advantages and disadvantages of each. So, as a solopreneur, you will have the most fun, but I think your likelihood of going out of business is the highest because you don't have anybody checking you. So, because it is very hard, I know because I try every single day, it is very hard to get your employees to challenge you especially openly. So, that means that you're not getting all the good ideas and there's no universe in which you have all the good ideas. I don't care how smart you are. So, when there's no one who's your equal, it it gets really hard to make sure that you have total clarity and that when you're acting in a way that does not behoove the company, that somebody feels completely comfortable saying, "That's not working." And when you don't have that, that's dangerous. But, like having a vision and just being able to execute and not have to convince people is fun. So, and if you're right, then hey, it's great. Um, I think that's probably also where the it's lonely at the top phrase comes from. Now, because I've never been alone at the top, for me, like that there's no ring of truth to that. So, I've always had partners. Now, when I had three partners, it was really complicated. And trying to make sure that you're both doing what's right for the company and doing something that makes everybody feel good. And then, if you have different, um, like parents that are of different religions. On those areas where you have a a collision of values, that's problematic because your likelihood of convincing somebody to change their mind is good. Your likelihood of convincing to change someone's values is virtually zero. Like, it is so deeply ingrained in who they are, they mistake it for the truth of the world. Right. So, it's like if I don't mean it in a religious context, but when you start thinking about religious values, you get how entrenched people become. So, take two parents that have different religions and they want to raise their kid. To them the stakes are high. The stakes may be this child will go to hell if they're not raised in the way that I want. You have two people thinking the same thing. So, you could definitely run into that in business where you get the like, if we do what you're saying we're going to lose the business. And they're thinking if we do what you say we're going to lose the business. Now you have a collision of values. That's hard. And so navigating your way through that is is very, very difficult. But when you have three people that hold each other in very high esteem, that have an insane degree of trust, that have been in the trenches for a long time, you've seen them at their most vulnerable and they still show up but you show up for you. Like when you have that kind of history, then it's really extraordinary. But if you don't have that history, so finding a partner that you're going to make an equal partner right from the jump is is tough. Now, a partnership of two, you can get into a deadlock. And so at least when there's three, there's a third person to be like, "Yo, I'm with this person on this." And so there's always somebody to break the tie. It's there's never like, well, how about this? We were never in a situation where we were in a three-way deadlock. So, it was just far too easy. One person knew, this one's either close enough to what I want anyway, whatever, I'm just going to go with that and vote. So, somebody was always getting outvoted. You just knew from time to time you're going to get outvoted. And this may be the key. As long as everybody actually wants their other two partners to win, it works. So, if I always want my way to be right and I don't give a about you or your feelings, then it's going to be bad and you and I are going to have animosity. But if I actually want you to win and so I'm like, I think I'm right this time but I know what it's like to always have someone else's idea win and I never get to see if my idea works. So, even though I think I'm right, I'm going to disagree but I'm going to commit to your idea. And that whole disagree but commit was a big thing. So, Disagree but commit. I disagree but commit. Like if when we walk out this door, no one will be able to tell which one of us disagreed because we will be so die hard about it. So, that was a real thing. that. So, now my partnership is with my wife. And when we created the company Impact Theory. just Just the two of you guys? two of No one else? Nothing. Any plans of bringing anybody in? All of our employees have basically phantom shares. So, they have ownership. If we sold, they'd get a piece, but they don't vote or anything like that. Okay. Um so, no. I would be shocked if we did that. Well, never say never, but I'd be surprised. Um and when we created it, I told the lawyer, "Create the ultimate divorce nightmare." And my wife was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You take 51, I'll take 49. Like, there's no need to do that." The lawyers were like, "Listen to her. You take 51, she takes 49. It just makes things clear, Tom." And I said, "No. 50/50 because A, my marriage is my highest priority. The business comes a distant second. And two, if I say to her, "We're equals in every way, but I don't trust you quite enough to give you equal percentage." Even though she agrees, it sends a signal to her that there's I'm hedging my bets. And the reality is I know what that does to people psychologically. So, and that's the exact reason at Quest that we were 33 and a third each. Just there's you don't get any benefit by making it different and you get massive dissent when it's off. So, when you guys having a conflict and you trying to make a decision, was it Tom's the final decision maker or Uh no, no, no. It was it was two out of three. Yeah, yeah. So, majority. Yeah, yeah. Oh, very simple. So, it's easy. So, hey, two out of three, let's go with it. I I disagree, but we got two out of three. And it was it was a lot more interpersonal than that. That was sort of the truth of it, but we really did like there was such a deep brotherhood that that was a real presence in all of this. It was like you're really talking through it. You're being sensitive to how the other person feels. So, you're being strategic. There's no question like you have to think of the business, but we were always trying to walk that line of like I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to like piss you off. Like, it's not about that. I'll push you if I have to, no question. And if you get upset, even though that's not my intent, that's going to happen from time to time. We all have to be big boys and deal with it. And also you have to learn to let go and recenter yourself and not be emotional. And so we weren't spiteful. So it's like it's really complicated. And that's why it wouldn't work for everyone, but we did it for a very long time. Now in culture man is is literally everything. Everything. My thing is my new like absolute obsession is emotional safety. And it's one of those things people don't talk about in business. Feels super weird to say words like emotional safety. But I'm telling you right now like if whatever you do, whether you're starting your own business or you're in a business, look for somewhere where you can have emotional safety because coming into work and feeling good about it is a big deal. And I think there are two metrics and this is really going to get people in a weird place. Metric number one, laughter. How often do people laugh? You have to pay attention to that. And then number two, and dude, the first time this really occurred to me was I was in your office and I was looking out and I saw two people put their arms around each other. I thought, "Wow, that's interesting." But what I said was, "I want the company to reflect our real personalities, who we are, what we want to do in life, the things that we're passionate about. I want it to just pour through in everything that we do." And so we moved away from really boring security software to something that we were going to be passionate about. And the phrase that I used was, "We need to ask ourselves, what would we do and love every day even if we're failing?" Because the struggle is guaranteed, the success is not. So for three very different reasons we end up launching Quest Nutrition. But it was born out of that misery. It was born out of I'm never going to be this unhappy again. I want to feel alive. I know about myself I like community. I like connection. I like seeing people, being able to help them. Um I want to add value. I don't want to be steered by money. Look, money's important and don't get me wrong. I want to make even more money in my life. But there's a certain way that I want to make it. I want to make it by creating things that people value tremendously and they would rather have than money. I don't do hard sales tactics. It just doesn't make me feel good. So there are ways to generate tremendous wealth in your life that are all value add humanity plus. And so, that was the driver. Now, part of the reason that we ended up being so successful is while that's now en vogue, at the time everyone thought we were crazy. We come out talking about authenticity, about passion, about community, that there wasn't social media as a phrase didn't exist, but using today's language, we're going to do all of this socially, all of our marketing is going to be social media. We I'm going to use storytelling. I'm going to go back to stories. I'm going to tell people what it means to support this company, to buy this product. What does it say about them? Who are they? Who are we? And then we're going to step forward as people, as individuals. We want people to know who we are. And we're going to put employees first. So, it's employees first, then customer. And when you do that and you're building this like tight ecosystem of people that you believe in and believe in you, it's just man, it's really extraordinary. And now it's a movement, but we were early just early enough using social media just early enough that we just broke and it just went crazy. When you've got winners on your team, the last thing you want to do is let like uh any sort of pettiness get in the way. So, we would actually have conversations about our emotions like, "Hey, when you did that it made me feel this way." Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All all of you? Yeah. Yeah, the three of us. did you guys have a code together? Like did you guys have something like a code of honor? Did you have any kind of a not stated or anything like that, but yeah. It was like, "Look, we're going to be die hard. We're going to do anything within our code of ethics to make this company successful. We're going to also support each other. We're going to look for ways to help each other shine. We're not going to like backstab. Like we were so cognizant that inner nesting battles are ultimately the thing that bring you down. We were very cognizant that pairing up is a problem. So, if two of us are really close, cuz I mean we were together for 14 years. So, over that time it's like inevitably, oh, one time you're feeling close to one person, the other you're feeling closer to the other person. So, it's like you you have to talk openly and say things like, "Hey, remember, coupling is one of the most dangerous things that we could face in a triumvirate. We have to be very careful not to let that happen. Making sure that we're talking about emotions, that if something upset you, that you put it out on the table, that you talk about it, and that we make sure that we're very open and honest and direct. Um and I'll say that it became hard for other people because we were so direct with each other and so comfortable in that directness that if you then were direct like that with somebody else in a way that you loved because it was so clear, people felt like you were being like cold or whatever. Like just to to give you an idea, if we wanted one of the other people to come to us, efficiency was one of our highest values. So, you would just get a text that would say, "Come." And it wasn't, "Hey, can you please come to the office?" Whatever. It was You would just get a text, "Come." And so, whoever sent it, that meant go to their office. But you would send the same text. Like you didn't think about it. But we had that kind of just ultra direct, everything is efficient. Once you understand that in your life, you're either going to be chasing money or you're going to be chasing fulfillment, and never the twain shall meet. And when you when you chase fulfillment, you may also build a massive company. I'm going to do both. I I always say, and I'm making up the rules, that I'm going to be the best entrepreneur because I'm going to make the most money and have the most impact on other entrepreneurs. Yeah. No, I love that. And I I think there's a third part to that that I clearly see in your company and is literally the the cornerstone of Impact Theory. And that is people over everything. It's the connection that each person feels, the trust. From that, we'll be able to do something extraordinary because when you believe in people, your guard is down. You're emotionally invested. Yeah. Where does entitlement fall into it? Because I will tell you one of the flaws in me running Vayner over the last 7 years, and we've gotten a lot better in the last 2 years, and we're well on our way, but I definitely created a macro culture of entitlement because I had people over everything, and I took everything on my head. Yeah. So, it's two things. One, it is absolute high standards. So, you have to have standards, explain what they are, and know what people have to do in order to be in that sort of safety circle. And then the other is your boy Ray Dalio. Mhm. Looking at you girl Lindsey down there. So Ray and his whole notion of say truth hear truth, that that is the one time I will say when I read that book it changed me forever as an entrepreneur because it was a failure of my imagination to believe that you could hold a thousands of people in an organization to and this is how he says it and this is so true. Even if you have a criticism that you're prepared to take to the grave that you don't even say to your significant other, you still have an obligation to voice that. fascinating cuz that is absolutely not a strength of mine. Radical candor is something I continue to evolve into. It just doesn't come you know, I'm really great when comes natural to me. Like I I just don't like money and I will use money and I will and I'm really emotionally strong. I will help the other people much like it's really funny. Radical candor and that even to that level is absurd. No question is a strength of his and others that I haven't had and now I've gotten dramatic my brother had AJ's was about much better at it naturally. I've gotten a lot lot better and it's been a strength of mine. Look, today we fired somebody that it I've been thinking about it for 9 days. Super not pumped. I feel like right now. But if I don't do it, the whole thing crumbles. Yeah, it gets toxic for other people. over everything doesn't mean keeping people around even though you've manipulated your own self in believing they're better off with you than not with you. True, but here's part of why I say people over everything and it doesn't mean that I'm just going to let you get away with murder. It's like you've got the collective and for the collective to have trust and all of that then they have to know that if somebody isn't living up to it, they're not carrying their end of the bargain that they're going to be let go. Like simple as. But that it's going to be done openly and respectfully and that you're going to help them transition out gracefully. Is it really possible? Is it really possible to go from being a broke kid to sitting in your beautiful home and here in Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills? For most people who make it happen. For most people it's not. And that's not the answer you're expecting. And I hope each and every person out there is like, "Fuck you." Oh, they will be. After all that, you're going to tell me like I can't do it? Yeah. You god damn right. And why am I telling you that? What did I say was the greatest gift anyone could give you? Doubt. Now I want you to put that on your shoulder, let that chip piss you off, let it focus your energies so that you'll go out and do something. And here's the reason. Here's why this is the safest bet in the world. Because I know most people are not prepared to suffer. They're not prepared to grind it out. They're not prepared to be bored. And that's the thing that a lot of people don't realize that is coming for you. You see that wall right there? I painted that. You see that wall right there? I painted that. You see the wall there? I painted that. Did it suck? Yes. And did I paint it in the middle of the night after getting no sleep? Yes. But do you have to grind that out and do boring stuff? Could I have said, "What am I doing? I'm rich. Why am I painting this? This is retarded." Because I had a guest showing up. And if I didn't paint it, it wasn't going to get painted. Even though it should have been painted with a spray painter and been done in 5 minutes, my wife and I went in with little brushes and painted that stick by stick. We didn't complain about it. We just did it. Because that's what it means to have a goal and say it's all my fault and I'm going to make this happen. Now for those of you that that resonates with, for those of you that right now just had a moment of awakening and realize, "Holy I'm going to kick myself in the ass. I'm going to go do something. Things are either I'm getting the result that I want or I'm not getting the result that I want." Go do it, man. Blow me away. Show me that you're the one. Show me that you're the one that cuts through the clutter that really puts in the effort and makes it happen and hold yourself to a result. People do not judge you by their by your intentions. They judge you by your results. Get it done. Prove me wrong. Thank you for watching this episode, which again was brought to you by Impact Theory's very own business decision-making workshop. If you guys are ready to take your business to the next level by investing in yourself and learning the first principles of business, then I want you to take action right now and go to decision.impacttheory.com to apply. I promise you I am giving you every piece of information that you will need to overcome any obstacle that your company is facing, to stare down problems that will arise a year, 5 years after you take the course. This is the strategies of business decision-making that every successful entrepreneur has to learn to deploy against their company if they want to grow. All right, guys, I promise it will deliver 10x the value of what you pay for it. And if it doesn't, I'll give you your money back, no questions asked. You know me, I live in the public eye, there's nowhere for me to hide. This is me trying to give as much value as humanly possible. I really think this class would be transformative, and I hope you will sign up. And I will see you in the next live class. All right, guys, take care and be legendary.