Ep.454 ~ 8-Figure Founder of AppSumo Noah Kagan - Q&A w/ Freddy Lansky & Itamar Marani

Transcription:

 

Noah:

How do I sell people I'm like, you find that people who have the money and you do something valuable for them, and then they will give you that money. I think what's even more powerful as you say, you can be a millionaire in 10 years. And so pick some fucking idea. Most importantly, pick an idea that you'll work on for 10 years, and just commit 10 years and finding the thing to commit to is almost the more hard part about it. Especially right now I think the one thing to think about in business is what are you certain of not what are you uncertain of, and make a list of all the certainties and then execute against that?

 

 

Chris:

Hey guys, we get the fortunate opportunity to hop on the mic and do a Q and A session with Noah Kagan. Noah is the founder of AppSumo, a $30 million a year business. also the founder and owner of Noah Kagan Presents, a very popular podcast on entrepreneurship as well as the founder of Ok Dork, KingSumo and Send Fox. Noah was the 30th employee at Facebook and number four at Mint.com. He has quite an amazing resume. And just a genius when it comes to spouting out business ideas. You guys will notice this on the podcast. Noah is very creative, but he's also very thoughtful on not only how he can be a better entrepreneur, but how he can engage with other people and be a better person himself. So what we do on this show you guys we have two other friends Freddy Lansky, who organized this podcast and Itamar Marini, my partner and friend as well. And we go through some chat back and forth about asking Noah different types of questions around entrepreneurship, what's going on in the world today with the crisis that we're going through, and then we bring in one guest entrepreneur to ask some questions and then we have a q&a going. And Noah answered some q&a from the Facebook Live that we did with this podcast as well. So it's a fun session, more informal, a lot of back and forth banter, a lot of rabbit holes and tangents we go often but really enjoyable and I think it's an episode you guys will get a lot out of. First before we hop into the episode we want to tell you about our sponsors NomadX. NomadX is shaping the way remote workers live, work and learn online at nomadic calm remote workers can find apartments, bedrooms or co living spaces to rent on a monthly basis. 50% more affordable than Airbnb. True story you guys. Plus that's not all. No is a comprehensive educational platform providing easy to learn courses to start or to skill, your successful location independent online business. They have built An incredible community with more than 7000 remote workers and online entrepreneurs and they have over 21,000 followers on Instagram to show you how to position yourself as an authority and how to combine different social media channels to gain maximum visibility during these remote working times, NomadX is the trusted community for location independent entrepreneurs to live work and learn online. Check them out at NomadX.com, that's nomadx.com and now let's hop in to today's podcast.

 

Noah:

Give them what they want, Chris give what they want.

 

Chris:

Going live Is this thing on?

 

Noah:

Oh, there it is. All right. We're about to get it on. Yeah, man. I'm stoked. All right. I'm grabbing my brisket. Once I get my brisket, it's Game on.

 

Chris:

Are you eating pork again? Noah shame on you

 

Noah:

No. Well there's two things. I was just gonna say one you got to eat otherwise you can be hungry but two, we don't in our lives include enough recharge time. Yeah. And so I've been really working on not this moment, but I was gonna have more things after this and I'm like, Fuck that. Yeah, I think we think our phones need to recharge, but we don't need to recharge.

 

Chris:

I hear you man. I always like to make it equivalent to a bow and an arrow. You know, like you've got to have that recharge that pullback time in order to shoot the arrow so it can go fast. And we don't do that. We don't pull our bows back enough.

 

Noah:

Dude, I've literally one thing that happened to me recently with this whole Coronavirus thing which I love. It's my favorite holiday. I really do. Yeah, well  regarding the recharging. I fucking forgot where the fuck I was going with it. But it was a really good point. You know, come back to me about this reach. Oh, I the number one thing I've noticed. This is one thing, the number one thing I notice about everyone who fucking hates Corona There's two things. Number one, though, they're not getting enough sleep. Seriously, every day that I wake up and I'm like, fuck today, like that happened to me on Friday and Saturday, I was just just lonely and angry. And then I was like, Did you sleep a lot? I was like, No. Okay, that's probably why

 

Freddy:

Do you have an aura ring? Or like a sleep tracker?

 

Noah:

So there's two other things I was going to say though. Number one is, it's interesting to think about our morning routines. And I think everyone's got weird as shit, but I was just really zoning in and like honing in on a fucking badass morning where like, today, I did it perfectly. And I was like, okay, when I do it this way, my day starts great. And when I do it other ways, My days are a little more fucked. Yeah. And then the last thing that is interesting is that when you're rich, it's really hard to know what it's like to be poor. And I know that that's a fucking that's a dick thing to say. But I really had this universe of rich bullshit. I hired a guy to come over and massage me last night. And so he came over to my house, and it was really sad. Okay, it was just sad. Because he was like Yeah, I've lost my job and no one wants to have me come over the house. And you know, it was good to understand and try to see where I can help that kind of person right like and so I talked to him I was like well you're a masseuse. Have you thought about teaching people how to give themselves massages or couples massages and maybe putting that online or helping people locally? And you know, it's just interesting to kind of learn from that versus just I think as you get as you rise levels you just forget so I think it's good to go back to the frontline.

 

Chris:

Do you ever do anything to like, keep you humble? You know, they talk about like, I like to do things that make me survive on very little like this past weekend, we just went out in the woods, and we took a knife and took a pot to boil on a fishing hook. And then you really kind of get in touch with you know, you don't need a lot like it doesn't matter how much money you have. You know, you can understand, like humility or living on bear means or interacting with people that don't have a lot on a regular basis.

 

Noah:

Yeah, like, yesterday I had to call my assistant to go do something and I was pretty low for me. Like, you know, I was like, this thing to call her. No, I like that. I like that approach. I think we've done that is I like doing that in the small things like the dishes is the stupidest one, right what is just something small that you know, doing the bitch work and eating it. There's something great Oh, shoot me.

 

Chris:

No, no, sorry. Sorry. I was just gonna say like Mike Tyson used to go big on streets further for money, even after he was rich and famous. And he would go and he put a hoodie on and he would go out just just to kind of, I mean, it may not be the best example because Mike, you know, had his own word for No.

 

 

Noah:

Well, I think what I've been doing recently, especially with the YouTube channel, and some of these other things is starting businesses again from scratch. Yeah. And really doing it live like we did with Freddie a few days ago and I did it myself. The past I've done like I started a gym business two weeks ago. started selling Oculus a few weeks ago and so really experimenting with like, Alright, can I actually do this stuff? And I don't know I guess it does keep me humble. It also reminds me sometimes how hard or and also how easy some of this stuff is.

 

Chris:

Yeah, that's a good point. So before we get started we wanted to reconnect you with Itamar here. I know you both, I don't know you know very well, but I know Itamar pretty well. And we thought you guys would kind of hash it out and have good chats and good fun together. He's really special forces for 10 years and counterterrorism, good friend of mine and partner of mine now. And and so if you ever want to learn Hebrew, this is the guy to learn from.

 

Itamar:

You need to try Jiu Jitsu, man. There's no better equalizer in the world. Nobody cares how much money you have. What's your background on the mats? Kelly?

 

Noah:

yeah, I love watching two dudes grow like groping each other on the ground. That's like I'm really into that. I did watch it. Yeah. Boxing I think one thing I've been thinking about in life is like ratios. And so I do boxing and I found that like the calorie to time ratio for me was more effective. And also enjoyment plus skill, but I felt that I got more out of that with boxing than I did with jujitsu and I've done it, it's not just me. Yeah, it's interesting to stay humble, man. I like that. I think you know a lot of it about Chris checking your ego. 

 

Yeah, no matter what size you get, and you know, happened to me two weeks ago, like I put out this YouTube video youtube.com slash Okay, dork, by the way, but I put out this video and I didn't get a lot of views. And then I was like, Am I not worthy? I was like, Am I not smart? Are my ideas sucky? And it was interesting. I was like, Well, what am I doing this for? And what, what's, what's the treadmill that I'm on? Right? And is there ever enough? So we were talking even when we could in that moment, I talked to a friend. He's like, Well, why did you do it? And I was like, I really have so much confidence in the world and people these days that I want to go help. I want to help these underdogs. I want to help the people willing to work. And he's like, Well, did you do it? I was like, yeah. And I was like, Alright, well then don't fucking care if you get one person's help or 1000. 

 

And it's a kind of shifted how I'm even goal setting lately. Because it's like, people have these goals. And once you get to a million dollars I want you just get a million bucks and then set whatever fucking cool goal you want. And then you know, you can do but I think frankly, you'll get a million dollars if you do the thing that you're not trying to make the million dollars on. Yeah. You know, and that's bullshit advice if you're not rich, because you're like, Well, I'm not rich yet. So that advice doesn't work for me. But I've generally made the most money, not trying to make the money just doing the thing that I'm most interested in. But with the goal thing, we were talking about our YouTube goal, and we're actually looking at the goal that's interesting for the dork brand, my stuff that I share basically the voice of our company. For app Sumo and Sumo group. We said we want to get our active audience number up. And I don't think this is a metric that anyone talks about if you're in content. So your active audience is not just your email list, but it's the active audience on your email list and the active audience on your YouTube. That active audience on the platforms that matter to you, and what is that actual reach? And so my reach is like penis size, micro, okay? But it was like 173,000. And then we're like, Alright, this month in May, we're gonna get to 200,000. And I was like, I don't give a fuck if I get to 200,000 people, I really don't. I really care more than like, I get to hang out with you guys and do a talk like this to 10,15, 500 I don't care. And so I'm more interested in sharing the things I'm learning and also getting learned and meeting people that I'm learning a lot from. And so it's maybe setting my goals a little bit more differently that are aligned to things that really fulfill me. I love that man.

 

Chris:

I love that. Okay, so let's do a quick introduction. I think most people know who knows Noah Kagan is but I'm going to introduce him anyway. Noah Kagan was number 30 on Facebook. Number four is the founder of AppSumo. Ok Dork, KingSumo and Send Fox and probably a bunch of others. AppSumo is an eight figure business and the number one site online For software deals, Noah is the founder and a host of one of the top podcasts on entrepreneurship. Noah Kagan Presents.

 

Noah:

Dude, that guy sounds awesome. He sounds cool. Yeah, I was like, Is that me? I think sometimes I'm just surprised. I'm like, wow. But you know, I think some of it is. I was talking with my therapist. He calls himself a coach, but I say you're a therapist. I guess it just depends how much they charge.

 

And who's cheaper? Well, tell us first. I know well. I think a coach can charge more. A therapist charges 120, a coach can have a program. That's what he wants to talk to me about next week, which I'm interested in. But I think what's really interesting about successes, how we label it to each other, but not ourselves. Because I never think of the word success. I don't, it's not that I don't believe in it. I guess I don't believe it. I just don't give a fuck about success. I've really explored and I think where I've explored my interests and my explore things I really want. I thrive and when I explore money making opportunities, I fucking flame out and That's been interesting in my own journey, and I hope for everyone's journey is just really, you know, Facebook. I didn't know anyone there. I didn't have any advantages I just built, I looked it up recently. I built probably like four to five different online college businesses. So when I applied I said, hey, I've just been doing this stuff because it sucked for me, and I wanted to build it. And then I got the job there. And I think a lot of the most of the stuff I started or worked at, I was just really like, I was excited to work at MIT. So I did whatever it took to work there. And AppSumo I was like, I want deals on these products. These products are fucking dope. There's this whole Groupon make it thing. That's a cool way to do it. And let me just go get deals on the software I don't want to pay full price for and I'm like, now I get fucking paid for that. Like, how cool is that? Like, everyone should do that.

 

Chris:

You're right, you're right. What do you think gets in the way of people from doing that?

 

Noah:

Well, tell you there's two separate things that I've observed for myself. So I think there's two separate places, there's the starting place and then there's the success place. People are afraid of getting success as much as they're afraid of starting. Yeah, that's been really fascinating for me, and So on both sides of that, I would say for myself, what I can only speak for myself in my recipes. So in myself, I noticed that my superpower is starting and experimenting, and I'm not as strong. It's consistency. Just don't get really bored. I'm like, Alright, next. Next, I was telling the coach this morning I said, My motto is kill comma, next. Kill next, what's next, kill it. Next thing. And so I'm actually thinking my and I've been learning this one of my books that I've really enjoyed is the powerful engagement by Tony Schwartz. And I got to chat with him recently. And he said that life doesn't have to be zero and one, there's a spectrum and you go back and forth on it. And so I think the spectrum I'm working on is how I slow down a bit more and enjoy the kill, and slow down more and recharge more. And so in terms of the the, the thing I hope you will back into success for me what I've observed is embracing your strength. So I'm a starter so I should be fucking starting and amens a closer so he's running AppSumo The other side of that the other part of that that I'm really working through right now is of what's working for you or what's fulfilling you really fulfilling like fucking calling like, Hello, it's Jesus. It's your turn. How do you remove the distractions from that? So I'll give you an example of what that means. I love this. This with you, not just hearing my fucking voice, like I can listen to you guys talk if I have questions for you. I do this all fucking day. But when I'm spending the day doing meetings, I've been setting the date like I spent like two hours trying to figure out some tech shit earlier. And when spending my day like a planet doing other stuff, it honestly discourages me from it. And so it's like, Alright, well how do I hire the people or figure out you know how to reduce it. So I'm not spending my day in that and I color code my calendar, and I call it my purple productivity priority. And my purple productivity party is that how much fucking purple is on my calendar and you can color code your calendar is really cool. And so I'm like, Well, if my color isn't fucking purple, something's wrong. And so I've just noticed for myself in terms of once you've gotten some level of Your own measurement of success? How do you remove the things that are hindering you from sustaining? So that's it once you've gotten inside and honestly, the purple productivity priority, I'm still working on the branding is what's working for me? Because then I look at my calendar right now. And I can say like, do I have something everyday that fulfills me? Do I have something that's towards my main priority every day? On the starter site for the beginners out there? The number one thing for starters is fear. They're all fucking afraid. They're so fucking afraid, and I'm afraid of relationships. And I'm afraid of sustaining. But I'm not afraid of fucking starting. And so that's why I've done so well, business wise around the start. These people, it's been amazing. We had that monthly one k.com we reopened this course. About 10,000 people have gone through it, maybe 1000 have gotten businesses like really good businesses, and maybe like 100 have made like six figure businesses. And that's probably true for how like the statistics work publicly, but it's been amazing to observe how they avoid that part's been so fucking wild. Like the psychology You have people who put this out, and they're afraid of it so I do a lot of things to get them out of their fucking fear. Like we know, we do a push up challenge, try to do 100 push ups. That's it. You can do it at home. You don't need anyone. Okay? You fucking failed. Alright, good your life next coffee challenge, which you guys probably have heard of, or maybe if not coffee challenges go for 10% off your next purchase, preferably in person and get rejected. And then you're like, well, that's fucking fine. And then the last one I like is like the stranger challenge. Now it's even scarier because no one wants to talk to fucking anyone. But next time you go out, talk to a stranger. It's fucking scary. I'm scared of that. It's just a little scary. But I pushed myself. I still do that to this day one because I love deals. So I'd like to do a 10% Coffee challenge, but I like the idea of practicing and making strength in my fear muscle. I think the fear muscle is something that you can actually work on. And with starting a business ideas are fucking a joke. I talked to the masseuse last night. He's like, Man, I'm struggling. I got no money. I was like, Well, I didn't want to be a business coach. But I said, I was like, Did you try to teach people how to do couples' massages?'' Have you you post it anywhere Have you applied for an Amazon delivery job, like I applied for an Amazon delivery job took me like five fucking minutes. It's actually shockingly easy. And not everyone should be an employee. But I think in terms of starting a side hustle. Number one, if you have no fucking money, go get a day job and get just get your foundation set up. But in terms of the fear, it's just practicing the fear, noticing the traps, like there's traps. So I actually made a list of the traps yesterday, things that were entrepreneurs say 10 ways to know your entrepreneur, or 10 things that they say they say, Ah, it's the economy, the economy's bad. I'm like, the economy is always gonna be fucking weird. So it's just that you're not valuable, and you're doing things that are not valuable. It's a good point.

 

They spent over $1,000 but they haven't actually made any revenue for it. They sell to every these are other these are other shops that people do that I love. They sell to everyone. Someone did this today. So one of the things we do in the monthly one k.com course. The first thing you have to do is get $1 from a friend. That's it. That's it what one shekel for shekels See tomorrow, or $1? One pound that's it. These people so there's, it's really interesting, these people will ask everyone but their friends and family or husbands or wives, they'll try to be like, well, I wanted to give them value.

And they'll write the stories about why they don't do it. And I'm like, it's because you're afraid. Of course, you're I would be afraid if I read to you, that's probably why you haven't started the business, because you're afraid of the rejection. And if you can work on the rejection is not about you. It really is not. It might be unless you're a piece of shit, maybe it is about you. But if it's not about you, and you can get overcome that, then when you start in business, at the end of day, all you're doing is asking, you're saying, hey, I want to ask for your money in exchange for the software, or for this product, or for this consulting or for this digital course, whatever it is, and so it's getting comfortable with that. And for me, at some point, eventually, you get excited because you've created something or you believe you're truly helping them and so paying them is a great exchange. And so just practicing the Ask muscle in overcoming fear, though, so I'd say on the beginner side, it's, you know, getting $1 from a friend Once you realize that I call it velocity to $1 I remember my first sales. Those are the sweetest. Yeah, it's like it's like dating. It's always fun to get them and once you get them you're like, Huh, right. But once you like that hunt is fun. And once you get it, it's pretty, pretty sweet. But then afterwards Yeah, so I think what I'm trying to encourage people is that in the business world specifically, get that $1 so you can get that momentum so you can feel that success so you can feel that belief and confidence in yourself especially right now when people don't have it. Do right now are fucking like, I'm not worthy. This Gizmo Seuss guy was like, man, I don't got shit. I just got fired. This lady said, I touched her. I didn't touch her. And I was like, Alright, well, we got it, your confidence up. And so helping out people for free. That's always great when it comes up practicing some of these things where you can get rejected, feel alive. Also teaching people one person putting out a video and getting one view. Going to someone like you, Chris that has money as tons of my buddy days, like how do I sell people I'm like you find the people who have the money and you do something about it. For them, and then they will give you that money. And it's so fucking simple. No, it's more complicated that I'm like, they have the money. You want the money, they will spend that money. If you do something worth in, it was interesting because then the next entrepreneur line, especially these days, which I love is, oh, yeah, man, crows spendings down. spendings down. I'm like, and so here's the easiest way to I fucking counter that shit. Every one of you listening, every one of you watching has spent money in the past week. Spending is different. Yeah, it's reduced. But it's just different. It's that people aren't important enough. They're not valuable enough. And this the friend was talking to this morning runs a co working space. And he's like, Yeah, man, no one wants to pay for the CO working space. I was like, of course they fucking don't. They're not using it like I have. I have an office. I own a little condo that I rent out for an office. And I told him not to pay me like don't pay you're not using it just don't pay pay when you're coming back. And I said, Well, you know the people are those companies are all still spending money. How can you become value To them now, because you have access to a customer base, you have people that have spent money. So that is a very awesome prospect list. What can you do for them that would be valued. He's like, Oh, we put on four zoom webinars a week. And so the Epiphany I had for myself today was that there's a very big difference between effort and value. And effort is worth value is getting paid. And so I tell them, I was like, Well, if you went to those companies and call them don't send a fucking bullshit email or Google's form column, and find out two questions, these are the two questions that how you can start any business one, what did you work on today? And what they worked on today is their priority, hopefully, if they're not totally stupid. And secondly, what are you spending money on this week? Like in your business, what are you spending money on? And either focus on one of those two things and you have a business?

 

Freddy:
Didn't you that you put out a video today talking about life coaches?

 

Noah:

Oh, yeah, I'm life. I'm life coaching life coaches. Life coaches suck. But then it's like those barbers that are bald, they're supposed to be good barbers. So it's hard to say. But I yeah, so I put out a video basically, I think what's interesting is that I was talking about it with my partners at the company Ayman and Chad today. I think I feel so fucking called to help people these days. And I don't think of myself as a nice guy. But don't think I'm a bad guy. I'm just I'm fucking called. And so, you know, I was called a week ago. We're playing poker Wednesday, Wednesday night, pokers at the company, and I'm on YouTube, googling some shit and this person's like, how I made $10,000 here's how I have a Ferrari. Here's what I'm like. And so I started going in this rant about why they're so fucking poor. I'm like, these people are poor. Their videos are fucking really well done. Their montage is really well done, but they're poor. And they're teaching all these fucking people how to be poor.

You know what it was interesting that I'm really thinking about, it's interesting to notice the patterns in our mind are the themes that are mind that keep coming out. And so one of the things that I am admiring about other people is success that comes over a long period of time. That is so fascinating to me lately, in that I love companies and I love meeting people like it took me 10 years to get rich. So it took me 10 years to become a millionaire. And it's like, Damn, I have to remind myself and have to observe that that we still expect it quickly. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I think with the youtubers and stuff like that, I think I was frustrated and I felt responsible to share a message that the ones you actually want to learn from aren't on YouTube. The fucking billionaires and the badass is there. Not making a fucking video You know why? Because they're busy making money. They're not you know, I was someone put out today they're like who are great marketers and I was like the ones that are not tweeting about their fucking marketing. I'm the only dumb ass it's making a lot of money and still wanting to tweet about it because I love sharing the things that we're learning so others can copy it.

It's funny bring that up one time, one time a podcast I did for lead pages dotnet about our funnel for the last business. It went viral, and our competitors like completely sold every single bit of it. I think that's great. Because by the time the competitors copy, I've already moved on to the next thing. Like copy my shit in the rear view. That's what they do. And I think that helps us evolve to better positions. I want competitors to fucking die. But if they don't die copy my old shit while I'm on my new shit. There's all these people I love Mike and I'm like fucking betters. After you got a business we can be friends, which is what I try to do with them.

One thing is interesting about the internet is that it is a small fucking place. And I will be around here for another 20-30 years. And all of you guys I hope will and all the listeners and so it is interesting about people in terms of relationships and on both sides of that. So on one side if you try to be a dick and you fuck someone over and you screw them over internet small place on the other side of that what's actually really fascinating and I just was reflecting on this recently is how many people I've interacted with from like this kind of conversation are seeing, you know, Greg or Ronnie are already in the chat. How many of them I've worked with in the future. And so it's been interesting to kind of like keep planting seeds and keep connecting because the Internet has been such an amazing thing to like, connect with, like the most amazing minds across the world like how like, think about this 200 years ago, it'd be like, Oh, I saw in stone that there was a piece of information, right? Then they got a book press and then now it's like, literally you can learn and follow Connect with anyone and learn from anyone instantly unlimitedly Yeah, it blows my fucking mind I love it for you got a question life coaches for you need a life coach.

I gotta get one.

I know and which is Chris, I don't know your style, so I can't I can't vouch for you necessarily. But one thing I would say that I've really gotten big on probably in the past five years is coaches in general. Just to kind of highlight if Chris's coaching for Freddie and I don't know if others. coaches are honestly one of the most game changing short cutters. And I don't believe in shortcuts. I think that's it's, I want shortcuts all the time. I called it I called to say I want to microwave business. I want my business where like you just fucking put in the microwave, beep, beep, beep beep hit it. And there's beauty in the cooking. There's understanding in the cooking, there's a craft to the cooking that I'm getting more into. And we want all these fucking shortcuts in this stuff.

Coaches open for life coaches, cooking for life. I love you niches niches bring riches, by the way, and bitches. But the other thing with the coaches is that I've gotten coaches in all these different aspects of my life. So I have kind of a business coach. I'm going to probably get a book coach. I have a chess coach. I have a Hebrew coach. I have a boxing coach, even though we're not really meeting right now because of the Coronavirus. But it's interesting to really be a parent, like you can go watch YouTube, and you can read books, which you shouldn't sometimes I think I try to do that before I go get the coach. But it really elevates the game like my chess coach on Friday, Andrew, I blame him when I lose. And I and I give him a little credit when I win, but it's definitely like he notices things I'm doing. And not every coach is great for every person, but it definitely isn't is a shortcut to success.
I think it's exactly what you said that it's noticing things that you're doing. It's an interesting thing we don't we can't see ourselves and even if you just have someone external who's not even that much better than you, but can just see you. It makes such a difference. It's interesting and I don't understand this, but, not not all coaches are great players. Right?

 

We want them to be the like when I go to the gym and I've had a trainer before I want the fucking most jacked looking person there. I want I want the most mean looking like my boxing coach is mean looking. I mean, like I would not want to see him on the street. But I think what's what's interesting for all of us to take away with at least what I've experienced is that I tried to read a lot of coaching books. So read about saving, there's a bunch of documentaries on belcheck I think Bellatrix book is called Belichick. There's gridiron by Michael Lombardi that's a fucking dope ass book. And so I think just like the more you like john wooden because like if you're running a business, then day you're coaching to be really successful.

 

Chris:
Okay, so I think no, we want to get some people in and do some q&a with you. Yeah.
So our theme for today is gonna be pivot shut it down or double down.

 

Noah:

Oh, just like Shark Tank?

 

Let me ask you guys something first. Do you think that most people know the answers, and they're afraid of the reality or that they don't know the right strategy?

 

Itamar:
They need validation. A lot of times, and it's like that external thing. It's It's so challenging to think while you're saying about coaching, I think it's so challenging to say this is my idea. I'm gonna go forward with it. Because we have all our internal biases all these emotions, these fears, whatever it may be, so when we hear somebody with authority, like you, who's been there, done that, so you know, that's a good idea to like, Fuck yeah, I can do that.

 

Noah:.
So what and like someone emailed me this guy sent me a $50 taco deli gift card, which is how you can pay me to talk to you like, I don't do consulting, but you send me $50 gift card, I pretty much do anything. And I literally have thousands of dollars that shit. I love it. It's honestly I love it. I really get paid that way or in other ways than the cash because I don't need that. But he sent me a question. He's like, hey, I've got a SaaS company. We make 5000 a month. How would you get to 50,000 a month. I was like, Watch what I'll do here. I was like, Alright, yeah, I'm happy to talk about that you sent me a few dollar gift card. Why don't you send me your plan for it first, and then I'll review their plan sends me this plan. I don't really review much of it, I skimmed it, but it looked fine. And I said, That's fucking great. Because it was, I mean, I didn't ignore it. I looked through the fucking numbers, and I was like, looks fucking great. Go for it. He's like, awesome. He's like, he and he's like, I saw what you did there. So it's, it's interesting. I I'm trying to live and I like to we're trying I'm doing my best to live without permission. And without apologizing, and I'm working on it. And I call it big dicking that's my motto. It's my fucking like what I'm living these days. And it's not easy because we're conditioned to get approval. We're conditioned to have permission and raise our hands and fall in line. And it's kind of living a life without apologies. It's really it's really fucking hard. Like, I'm newly single. And it's really interesting to not compromise. have now with dating, I'm like, I don't want to know To live that way, in all aspects is where I'm exploring from the business aspect to like, the personal aspect of my life aspect, and I'm loving it. So I wish I want everyone to live without permission and without apologies.

So I'm always curious about that, because I understand that concept. But there's always got to be a line where you draw because sometimes you do need apologies, right? It's kind of like putting the ego in check, and keeping yourself humble. So So where is that line? Like? How do you how do you define that? Exactly, what, what is?
Well, two weeks ago, I was in a text group, with a bunch of people in Austin, where I live, and there's this guy who's a commercial broker. And I basically called him a bum in front of everyone. And I said that, you know, he sucks. In front of everyone. And I call him, I call him a liar. I throw it there. I'm just throwing it all in. I go all in sometimes, man. I'm not a great poker player. I'll tell you that. I like knowing where my money is. And I had a lot of respect for him. Because of that. Like, uh, two days later, he's like, hey, let's get on the phone. And I was like, Well, I'm not gonna be a coward. I'm gonna face it. And that's responsible. And I should.

And I apologized.

And I think you know, when you should apologize. I think if you're thinking if you're thinking about it, you apologize. And it was interesting, especially during these times, it was a good lesson for me. You don't know what anyone else is going through. He has he's going through he had a fire people and he's had his own personal stuff and you know, he put out something in confidence and it just more as a support thing and I'm I'm looking at through my I already don't like you lens, so whatever you fucking put out, I'm going to talk shit on and it just was it was a good it was a good ego check a good life check.
Yeah, I think that happens a lot in life when you know, we're going through our own share. We're like, well, we're just having a bad day or a bad week, but when it's when it's somebody else, it's just like I fuck that guy. You know, just immediately, just just just jumped to it. But yeah, I think it's a great point you bring up about, you know, apologies and knowing once a month To fold them and maybe this isn't about me because like I feel like just people just kind of mess with me and just like kind of like pick on me so much thought like life that now I'm just kind of an open book and I don't I don't have like problems having hard conversations where I've noticed I mean I've had plenty of flaws is not well a lot of people are just they can be just very hesitant to backtrack or to say the hard thing and I think that's one of the most important things as well and success in life and in entrepreneurship is you know, knowing when to you know when to I want to pivot not just in business but and in life.

Maybe let me put it up for you all you guys cuz I think the listeners and myself are curious like if you guys could live without apologies. Like what would you be doing differently? Like complete apologize? Like No, fuck you big dick everybody. And big thinking is not a big deal because I don't have a big dick. It just means like you're living. It's basically like the way the phrase that I that I just wrote down when I thought about big dicking is like For those willing to risk at all, everything this I don't live without apology. I live without guilt, which are similar words, but they're very different.

 

Itamar:
So what's an example if you live without guilt completely? What would you be doing differently now? And Jewish people it's impossible for you to live without guilt that's literally impossible for you. I think. I was gonna say that it was interesting that you brought up the Jewish point because of the financials, if we do not have anything about guilt in our religion, we are not like when you look at the Catholicism and Christianity, there's a lot of guilt there. And we don't have that. That's why it's so liberating to be able to go after businesses. But thing is that the guilt stuff like I don't feel bad about trying to do something. I don't feel bad about living in Vietnam, and I've been close to my parents right now feel guilty about you feel guilty?

 

Noah:

Okay, so let me give you another example. And then maybe you guys will share one. I'm living in a mansion right now. Even though it's pretty lonely, which is actually I don't feel lonely at all just too big and it's like, I feel guilty saying that. Right, um, but I got it on sale. So I think Little bit better by the way, normally it's 1000. But it's only 409 because everything's empty. But I have a lot of it's not shame. But I don't think I should tell people I have money. And I don't think I should say that I have millions of dollars that I'm spending $7,000 for two weeks because we're not supposed to. And I'm supposed to hide that. And that's the example of what I'm talking about living without apology. And so I'm exploring what that means in general. I don't know where it's gonna end. I know it feels right to me now to say I'm a multimillionaire. Why Because who fucking cares? Right I still live like I'm goddamn poor shit. That's, that's part of my own problems. So I go to therapy to talk about how to spend money I pay the therapist, to tell me how to spend my own money more, which is kind of strange. But the point being is that like we're trained to not even say this stuff because it's, oh, this person's rude. This person is vegan. I don't find myself feeling that way. But I find myself feeling guilty like same thing in Omar another example. I'm going to take an RV this weekend because my dream I do bucket list for the year. I do yearly bucket list because Life I don't know how long I'm gonna be around. So one year is enough for me. And on my bucket list is to have van life. I want to do this fucking thing in a van that everyone you know, about. Everyone knows it seems interesting. So I was I'm gonna go live in a van for three weeks. I feel really guilty for the people I work with. I feel really fucking embarrassed and I don't want to post about it. And I don't want to talk about that I have money because guess what they're working and no was the big boss owner guy gets all the fucking money while I'm stuck at the office in the background. Hey, Colin. It's calling right there. Hello, Khan. I feel really bad. And I'm and I I'm like, well, are they mad at me? Are they disappointed? Are they like, well, I'm stuck in the office. Well, this sucks out. And I struggle with that. And at the end of the day, I'm doing my best to live my best life. I'm doing my best to for everyone that works at my company. Not mine, I guess I would say I would say literally our company to have their best life. And I can't control how they feel about that. And I'll do whatever. They don't have to stay there. But and i think that's that's good. I think the literal perfect example. That's what is van life we're like, Alright, I'm in a van for three weeks. They've been working with me on not and I've worked to be able to have that freedom and that luxury, that luxury. And it's interesting to not apologize for it and explore that because it is it's so easy to feel like oh, I shouldn't talk about it. I don't want to post about it.

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