July 16, 2024 • 54 mins
Change is inevitable in business, but understanding how each decision impacts your entire operation is crucial. In this LIVE bonus episode, Jannese and Austin sit down with Will Lucas. Will is the founder and CEO of Creadio, a marketing and production agency, and CEO and founder of the private social club TolHouse. He also hosts the podcast “Black Tech Green Money.”
Learn invaluable lessons on attracting and retaining great employees with competitive pay, keeping prices attractive, and ensuring customer satisfaction—all while fostering business growth. Plus, Will, Jannese, and Austin answer audience questions about starting a business and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.
Learn more about how QuickBooks can help you grow your business:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views, information, or opinions express during this podcast are
solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent
those of Into It QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone
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and the information presented is for general information purposes only.
(00:25):
Hey everyone, I'm Jennie Torres.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And I'm Austin Hankwitz. Welcome to Mind the Business Small
Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Into
It QuickBooks and Iheartradios Ruby Studio. In every episode, we
talk with small business owners as they share their stories
about the ups and downs of owning a small business.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And this is a very special episode because not only
is this a summer bonus episode, but we recorded this
interview with our guests in front of a live audience
at the iHeart Theater in Burbank, California.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Janise, this is the second time we've recorded an episode
live in front of a real audience in person, and
the experience is always so so special. Now, in this episode,
we sat down with Will Lucas, who's the host of
the podcast Black Tech, Green Money. Will is also the
founder and CEO of Creatio.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Will really is doing it all, and we're going to
ask him how he maintains a balanced ecosystem within all
the companies he's built and runs. And by business ecosystem,
I'm talking about how everything works together within the company,
everything from employees to customers, to quality of products and services,
to the growth of the business itself. We're going to ask, well,
(01:40):
how do you consider the impact of your choices in
your company? How do you define your business ecosystem? What
are all the things in that ecosystem? And what info
do you need before you make changes in your company? Austin,
I want to ask you about this. When did you
realize that every decision you make for your business has
a huge ripple effect, no pressure, and how did you
(02:01):
approach changes in your business plans or strategy knowing this.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's a really good question, Jenis, and I think for
a lot of entrepreneurs listening right now, they might be
going through this where they're kind of like, wait a second,
did that decision over here just impact you know, an
outcome with this project? And I think for me, you know,
as a content creator and someone who's offering all of
these different consulting services regarding marketing and things of that nature.
(02:27):
Whenever I started to diversify my business away from just
a singular business segment, I realized that they all kind
of talk to each other, right, And so now when
I think about taking on new projects, I'm always thinking
about where the synergies, where are they going to overlap?
Where two plus two equals five? Right, So I'm always
trying to figure out how going to be most efficient
with my time and how is you know, spending time
(02:49):
or energy on something going to positively impact something else
I'm working on?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Denis, what about you?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Where have you seen sort of experience as it relates
to making sure that ripple effects are doing good things
and making sure they're not doing bad things to your
larger business?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know, I have a very lean team, so anytime
I make a decision to take on a new project
or launch something new, there is a huge ripple effect
just because of the number of people who are working
on the team. So for me, I always have to
think about is this a good return on investment activity
for all of us? Because the last thing that I
want is for everyone to get so bogged down in
(03:24):
administrative and behind the scenes stuff that we're not actually
seeing the end result of what that original goal was.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Now, when you kind of do that return on investment calculation,
are you looking at it from a time perspective of
money perspective, opportunity cost perspective?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, I'm looking at it from sort of a trifecta,
if you will. I want to make sure that we're
having impact right, that our clients are satisfied. I obviously
want to make sure that we are making income, because
that's why we're all in business. And I also want
to make sure that my team is excited about the
work that we're doing and we're not just finding busy
work for folks.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Couldn't have set it better myself, Gennis, I am so
dang excited for everyone to hear this interview. So what
do you say we jump into the meat potatoes of
this episode.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Oh my, hey, everyone, we're coming to you live from
the iHeartRadio Theater here in Burbank, California. Thank you so
much for being here.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
We could not be more excited that all you guys
are here right now.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I'm just so pumped up Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Absolutely, I can't believe we're in two seasons of the.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Show, seasons of the show already.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Today we're going to be talking about building and maintaining
a balanced business ecosystem.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Ecosystem? This is in science class.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So we're actually talking about how you keep everything in
your company working together and in harmony, because just like
a real ecosystem, when you make a change in your
business ecosystem, that can have an impact on everything.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Absolutely and too help us talk about that. We're joined
by Will Lucas. Will is an entrepreneur many times over.
He's the CEO and founder of Creatio, a marketing and
production agency, and the founder and CEO of Tollhouse, a
private member's only social club in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So not only that, but Will also hosts the podcast
Black Tech, Greed Money, and in twenty twelve, Will was
appointed co chair of the Ohio Small Business Owners for
Obama Committee, part of the Obama for America campaign. Okay,
so we got an expert. Everyone, welcome our special guests
to the stage, Will Lucas, how you doing, what's up?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
What's up?
Speaker 5 (06:17):
What's up? Hey, it's good to be here. It's good
to be here.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Thank you so much for joining us. Man, we're super excited.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Absolutely. Hey, how y'all doing.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, we have a lot to talk about, So I
want to get right into your story. Tell us about
your entrepreneurship origin story. What made you want to take
the leap and being your own boss and start your
own business.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah. I always knew that I was going to be
running my own business one day. I thought it was
going to be in the music business, though, and so
I was, you know, one of those kids who wanted
to be a songwriter and music producer. So I started
radio before I got into actual business because it was
the closest thing in my hometown to the music business.
And so I met a program director for radio station
(07:00):
at a teen summit and I said, Hey, my name's
well Lucas. I want to be in the music business.
And he's like, it's just like that, and he's like,
you know, the best thing I can tell you do
is find an internship somewhere. And so there was a
line of young people waiting to talk to him. So
he said, come out to the radio station and we'll
talk some more. So I went out to the radio
station the next day and he's like, again, next best
thing I take you to do is find an internship somewhere.
(07:22):
Matter of fact, we need to intern here. And so
my internship in radio started that day, and so fast forward.
I just happened to be good at radio. So I
did it for two years. And I was in a
clothing store and they were playing FM radio over their
sound system, and inevitably the commercials come on and one
of their competitors came on over the air inside their store,
(07:43):
and I'm like, this doesn't make a lot of sense,
you know, like they need their own radio station that
just talks about them. Slight bulb goes off, and I'm like,
I just did all these years of radio. I can
build that. And so that was my entre.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, it's always that kind of like for most of me.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Yeah, So that business is creative, the one that you
created custom radio station for brands. And so what happened
was I had the idea for it was just a concept.
You know, what if I created these custom radio stations
for brands. And I told a mentor of mine and
he owns six restaurants at the time, and I said, hey,
I got this idea for this business, this this project,
(08:23):
and I said, what if I created like custom radio
stations for brands? And he said, he guys, he was
not a brief you know guy, he was you know,
can it will be a little long with it sometimes,
but you know when I told him the idea, his
eyes got big and he just said do it and
that was all he said. So I knew I had something.
And so that's the inception of creating out there.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Tell me about one of the proudest moments you've had
in that journey.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Oh man, how many guys in the room are business
owners or you want to be a business owner? You know? Okay,
most of the room shout out to y'all because this
road is not for the faint of heart. And so
I think for me and maybe if you have a
product out there or a service out there, the most
joy you can get is when somebody you don't know
(09:10):
asks to purchase your product because they owe you nothing.
And so it's different than when like your cousin nuanced it,
or your neighbor wants to support you, or like your
mom is like, hey, let me pull out my change
out in my bra you know. But it's like, you know,
but when somebody who doesn't know you sees value and
what you built, it's the most incredible feeling, and I
(09:32):
wish that for everybody.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, it becomes addictive. I would.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You know you founded the members only social club in
your hometown of Toledo, Ohio. So what sparked that idea?
Where do you how do you go from radio to
hold on, let's all listen to jazz music.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Absolutely, And so I'm not from LA or New York,
and so I'm over what do they call the flyover States.
I'm from Ohio, and broadly, when people don't know Ohio
or don't know the Midwest, they think it's a going
to cornfields and they think it is so much agriculture,
and it's some of that, but it's not just that.
And so what we wanted to do with Toll House
was to organize Toledo's doers and so the people who
(10:12):
were doing the work to help our community be what
it could be if we got out of our own way.
And so toll House is a private social club and
it's five bars, five lounges, a coffee house, there's a
jazz club in there's coworking space twenty five thousand square feet.
And so we've got all these amenities to be a
playground for adult professionals, because where we're trying to do
(10:33):
is organize the people's the doers. And so I wanted
a place, you know, that I could go as a
member or as a consumer, where I knew if I
walked in, I was going to see somebody who could
change my life or I could change theirs. And so
it's different than walking into just a regular coffee house
where I probably don't need to know who you are.
But if I'm walking into a place where the people
here were vetted to be here, that's a room I
(10:54):
want to be in.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
You know, before the centerview, we're talking a little bit
on the lobby and I asked you. I was like, yes,
like where do you live? And You're like, oh, I'm
actually from Toledo, Ohio, Like I live there, And I'm
just like someone on your level, you'd think you would
move to LA or New York or Chicago or something,
but you didn't.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You stayed in Toledo. So walk me through.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The mindset shift that somebody at your little had to
make of Like, wait, I really want to build for
where I'm from.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I want to get people where I'm from. The opportunity is.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Part of that, but it's also it's about finding the
white space, like where is the opportunity? Yeah? Yeah, And
so if I wanted to build a social club, not
that it's impossible, but if I wanted to build a
social club in Chicago or in New York or in LA.
There's a ton of social clubs in Chicago or New
York or LA. But the whole goal of business is
to find where the opportunity is. And so I'm not
(11:44):
going to try to start a business that everybody else
is starting in that same vertical or the same category.
I want to find where's the opportunity? Where are the
people who want this but don't have access to it?
Those are the lanes I'm trying to feel.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And kind of staying on this topic of toll House,
I saw you guys just launched an app. You guys
have a wine club, and I saw on your website
something about like cigars, and so this seems to have
evolved a lot over you know, several years now. So
how has the business evolved from when you started to
where it is today.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, I mean so toll House. You know, I say
this twenty five thousand square feet. It was just a big, empty,
no walls building when I bought it, and you know,
I kind of just let the buildings speak to me,
and I say, what should be here? What would I
want if I was a member? And so as we
started to build out spaces, I knew there had to
be a bar, I knew there was going to be
a coffee house. But we just started to listen to
(12:36):
our members and like, what are the things that we're
missing in our community that we used to have where
we always wanted but we never had an opportunity to,
you know, participate in those things. And we hadn't had
a jazz club in Toledo in over ten years because
they had all closed. And so I just let the
buildings speak to me. And then as we started to
hang out and just enjoy the spaces, You're like, it
would be really cool if we had a coworking space here,
(13:00):
because what we found was members didn't just want to eat,
and they didn't just want to hang out and listen
to music, but they also wanted to work and they
wanted to be able to collaborate together. And so six
thousand square feet of the building is pure coworking space.
So there's five conference rooms slash boardrooms, and there's you know,
phone booths that you can just take you know, private
phone calls in. There's a theater in there, so you
(13:22):
can just relax and just enjoy yourself because you want
to take that break from being on conference calls all day.
And so what we tried to do was fill the
gap for what you missed when you were locked down
over those that year in COVID, and you want to
be back around people, but you also want the hybrid
you know, to where you can socialize and work.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, that's really interesting. So you know, obviously you have
a lot on your plate. You're running a lot of
different businesses.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
You get a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Can you describe the ecosystems for both Creatio and for
Toll House, Like how do you structure these businesses for success?
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yeah? So the great part currently is the Creative Office
is inside TOEH House. So I get to work and
you know, I get to have both of my teams
in the building and I'm creating vertical integration, I should say.
So my marketing company video production, website development, communication, strategy design,
app development, built and does the videos and does the
(14:18):
strategy for a toe house synergy, and so my creatio
team can work in the spaces that we can have
our board meetings and there our conference calls in there,
and they can enjoy, you know, the coffeehouse. So all
these things are completely vertically integrated.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Do you think that the way that you envision building
business is kind of separate from the type of business
that it is or do you think you have to
build them differently just based on what type of business
you're creating.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, I do think it's different because the and I
sort of think about that the way of how you
deal with people is what you need is not what
she needs to perform well. And so if I can
pay attention to what motivates you, then I can get
the best out of you and you feel best about
the work that you're performing. But what motivates you doesn't
(15:06):
motivate him necessarily, and so the same thing for the
businesses that you build. So just because you do one
thing well and you perform well, and this makes you
have to pay attention to what your business is asking
for because your business is like a child, honestly. And
so the one thing one things I love. I've been
doing Creatio since two thousand and seven, and I made
(15:26):
a lot of mistakes along the way. So I'm not
here to say, like, you know, everything's great and rosy.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You're going to get into those, yeah, So like this stuff.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Is painful, you know, and it's lonely. And so one
of the early mistakes that I know we're talking more
about this, but I'll give you one because you mentioned
this is I was the only employee of Creative for
so many years, and nobody taught me reinvesting the profits.
And so I didn't grow up in a wealthy family
or all these things. And I didn't have a lot
(15:54):
of business mentors. I had mentors in different respects, but
nobody said, when you start making money, put it back
in the business. So when I made, you know, a
little bit of money, I'm like, oh, and we can
go put cheese on it now, we can go supersize,
you know, all these things like we make god money
now if we can put the squad extraguad, you know,
so we can do that. And so all those things
(16:17):
robbed the business of the oxygen it needed because nobody
taught me.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That kind of goes into the question I had for you, right,
which is, if you would ask me the first big
decision I'd to make as a business owner now of
four and a half five years, is hiring someone, right,
Hiring help is Oh, it's overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
It is so overwhelming, So it can be.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
It can be. And I think we have this confusion
about it's overwhelming or I don't want to let somebody down,
or I don't want to fire somebody, or I don't
want to want a mispayroll and all these things. It's
because we don't do it properly. And what I've learned
is a lot of that anxiety could be reduced. It
won't go away, but it can be reduced if I
(16:57):
know what I'm hiring for and it's not just in
my head, but it's on paper, and I can define
what success looks like. Because when you hire as an entrepreneur,
you want somebody who's running around like a chicken with
their head cut off like you are. And that's the
wrong way to hire people. Is if you're hiring somebody
and you're expecting them to move as fast as you're
moving and do as much as you're doing, they are
(17:19):
going to fail. I guarantee that because they are not you.
They were not the person with this idea, They were
not the person with this vision. They at the people
with this energy. They here to help you and be
a lone this and they may not even be here
to help you, but they here to get something. And
so if I can set you up for success, the
only way to do that is to specify and designate
what success looks like. And not just in my head,
(17:41):
but it's got to be on paper. How are you
measuring my performance? Because if you are saying I need
you to be as crazy and frenetic as I am,
I'm not crazy and I'm not phanetic, you know frenetic,
So how am I going to be successful in that environment?
But if I say I'm hiring you because I need
five social media posts a day, I need them to
have these particular sort of pass taxs, I need them
(18:03):
to have these sorts of images, I can actually look
and see if you did five those media post a day,
they have these specific hashacts that you gave me, and
they have these sort of corresponding images. But if you
just say go out there and you know you see
what I'm doing, pick up the slacken, etc. I'm set
up to fail because I don't know what I'm supposed
to be doing. And therefore you're looking at me like
(18:23):
I made the wrong hire. And you might have, but
you might not have, but you didn't set that person
up to be successful.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I want you to double click on that a little
bit more because I think maybe a lot of people
listening right now they want to make those hires for
the very specific tasks and deliverables. Like I totally get
that that exists, right. You can go check on the
social media. You can see how many code emails they send, whatever.
But what about the hires that need to help with strategy,
They need to help with you know, maybe sales decks
(18:48):
and pitching and like things of that nature. How have
you navigated that over the years.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Yeah, So if it's me, I would start with a consultant.
And so that's somebody that you don't necessarily need to
bring on immediately. But I need to make sure I
know what I'm looking for because the thing about entrepreneurship,
and you know, we talk about business, business and entrepreneurship
are corresponding but not the same, and so if you're
an entrepreneur like I am, I don't always know what
(19:13):
I need, and so I'm assuming I know what I need,
and so I would rather bring you on as a
contractor or as or maybe get an advisor to help
me accomplish this thing so I can better define what
I need. And so the worst thing you can do
is bring somebody on and not know how to define
success for them. And so if you're not sure, don't
(19:35):
bring that person on, but contract them out for a
period of time. And then so when you when you
need to break part ways, it's a lot easier and
you know there's no bridges burned and nobody's feelings are hurt.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Well, I think something else that you breezed over that
I really want to emphasize is sort of in that
vulnerability of saying I don't know how to do this.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Can you help me? Right?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Because I think a small business owners and entrepreneurs like
there's always a task or you know, a that we
have to get over that I don't know how to
do it. And I've texted Genie before, I'm like, hey,
what do you do for this? I don't know how
you've been doing this longing to mean, what's going on, right,
And I think that's what's so powerful, not just about
this podcast, but about the conversations we're having. Is like
giving people the confidence to ask for help, right, it's just.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Really I mean, the thing about entrepreneurship, you typically, again
another broad generalization, but entrepreneurs are typically good at something
and then they want to go make a business out
of it. But when you're good at something, that doesn't
mean it's a business. Shit, it's a business when you
start putting together business practices, when you start operationalizing it.
(20:36):
And so there's a difference between owning a business and
owning a job. You're two different things. And so if
you want to be a business owner, then the job
is to get out of the machinations of running the business.
My business is running right now, I'm not there. That's
the goal. To get to a place to where you're
not having to be there making the donuts in order
(20:57):
for the donuts chapter run. Now, if you want to
do that, if you want to be the artisan, that's fantastic.
I told my barber this, you know, about six years ago,
because he was asking me business advice, and I said,
if you're cutting hair in two years because you have
to cut hair, you're doing something wrong. But if you're
cutting hair because you want to cut hair, and he
(21:19):
owned the barbershop by the way, But if you're cutting
here because you want to cut hair in two years,
that's the place that you want to be in, not
because you have to do it, because you love to
do it. And so if you're making donuts in your
donut shop because you have to. The goal is to
get out of the place where you have to where
you got to be the one to open the doors
and turn the lights on and turn the lights off
(21:40):
at the end of the day and turn the oven
to and all these things. The goal is to get
out of that system. You want to put people in
place that can scale past you, because you, as one person,
can only do so much.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Something I learned I think it was last year and
you really emphasize it here, which was, you know, working
in the business versus working on the business. This absolutely
and being able to go from end to on. I've
not yet done that, but I mean that's the goal.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
One hundred that's one hundred percent goal. The goal for
business is to build something that's bigger than you. And
so again I don't want to own a job. I
used to own a job when the first ten years
of Creatio, I was the one installing sound systems and restaurants.
And I don't look poorly on those days because I
learned so much. But you want to get out of
(22:27):
You don't want to be stuck there, and so I
momish you as fast as you can, hire somebody defining
what you need. It's the best thing you can do
for your business.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So kind of thinking back to those days, can you
recall maybe a misstep or disruption that happened that kind
of threw off the ecosystem.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Not documenting those were big missteps. I highly encourage anybody
who's starting off, even if it's just you, you having
a board meeting of one. You know it's just you.
You've got to document. And as tech savvy as we are,
as technological as we become, as innovative as we become,
there are certain business practices that you've got to learn.
(23:07):
And you've got to learn how to pull out a
pen and write something down. You've got to learn how
to pull out a iPad and take a note. You've
got to learn how to get your receipt and scan it.
You've got. There are certain things you have to do
as a business person or you end up getting in trouble.
And so if the business and how to turn on
the lights is not written down, then you're at risk.
(23:30):
If what happens when you turning your receipts to your
account and your bookkeeper and your stuff is all over
the place, you got a problem. And if you are
not setting yourself up in an organized fashion, because I understand,
I'm an entrepreneur. I got four businesses and four buildings
all over the place. Organization is the work. That is
(23:50):
the work. Knowing my numbers is the work. And if
I'm not documenting, and if I'm not keeping records, and
if I'm not making sure I'm putting operational you know
SOPs written on paper, we got a problem.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We'll tell you what keeps me organized into a quick books.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Absolutely listen, I've been using quick books for twenty years.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, So we've been talking about hiring the
importance of you know, vetting your employees and making sure
that they know kind of what is at stake, what
their mission statement is. Can you talk about how you
create a work environment where your employees actually feel seen
and heard.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Yeah. So number one, I try to be as conscious
in the interview as I can be, because you can
see the flags in an interview and if you get
a little hint like some ain't something like about that answer,
that's the flag. Listen to the voice in your head
that says something may write about that one. And so
(24:45):
I say that to say it's paying attention to the
little things, paying attention to how your staff or your
potential staff is responding to things, and not glossing over
it because you're so busy and you're so you know again,
running all over the place. Because this is the thing
about entrepreneurship is when you're building, everything needs you. And
so then you get into this place to where you
(25:06):
overlook things that you shouldn't overlook just because you need help.
And that is the worst thing you can do for
your business. I would rather grow slower with the right
people or with just me, then grow fast with the
wrong people, because if you grow fast with the wrong people,
the wheels are going to fall off. So you think
you on a spring and you think you're doing well,
but you're not really doing well because you're building with
(25:28):
you know, things that are broken. And so I would
hire quickly if you can, if you can find the
right people, but make sure that they know what their
success looks like, how you're measuring them, and pay attention
to the small things. Pay attention if something didn't sound right,
and that response you gave me in this interview, I'm
gonna pay attention to that because I can tell that
you actually didn't do what you said you did, or
(25:50):
something's on your resume is not adding up the dayta
you're adding up or whatever it is. You got to
pay attention to those things.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So we should not hire based on vibes, is what
I hear say.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
I think vibes matter, but I also think like it's
understanding truth. And actually I'm going to pick up the
phone and call previous employer. I need to find out
are you really who you say you are. I need
to know if you just didn't go back because you
didn't want to go back to the job, or but
did they not want you back at that other job?
(26:20):
And sometimes that's the case. It's worth it to you
to do the hard work. You know, my father said
something when I was growing up. I'll never forget it,
and he said, everybody in life pays everybody pays. Some
people pay now, some people pay later. I'd rather pay
now so that I don't have to pay later. And
what I mean by that in this context is I
would rather do the hard work now to make sure
(26:42):
you're the right person, then pay for it in six
months when I find out you couldn't do all you
said you could do.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Okay, So we obviously, as entrepreneurs and employers, we want
to kind of strike that balance between building a place
that's a great place to work at but also be
able to server clients effectively.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
So how do you balance them listening?
Speaker 5 (27:04):
That's the game, is listening to them, and they don't
always know what they're asking for either. We don't always
know what we're looking for as consumers. I mean, we
don't always know what the solution is. We just know
we have a need and it is your job as
the business owner, as the entrepreneur to figure out the
best and most efficient, cost effective way to solve the problem.
(27:26):
But the consumer doesn't always know how to define the problem.
But if you're paying attention to what they say, the
words they use, how they use the products that they
have today, you can find solutions. If you're paying attention.
So the job is to be ears all day long,
eyes paying attention. The job is not to talk. Your
(27:46):
job is to figure out what people need and to
be able to sayciate that need somehow.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That I need to listen more. That's what's good advice.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Coming up after the break.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
There are people who live and have never asked themselves
what they want to be doing. And so if I
know and I'm clear on what I want, I know
what doesn't help get me there.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
We'll be right back with Mine the Business. Welcome back
to Mind the Business, small business success stories from iHeartMedia's
Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
You know, as we think back to when you began
building out your ecosystem, was the priority on the customers?
Was it on growing the business or was it on employees?
If you had to pick one as the most important
part of your success, if this ecosystem customers, business growth, right, reinvesting,
(28:49):
or was it the employees.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
I mean, nothing matters if you don't have somebody who
wants to buy your product.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I was hoping you're gonna say that.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yeah, I mean I can have ten employees, but if
ain't nobody buying nothing, I got no employee, include me
real quick. You want to find a need or a
desire in the marketplace that people are willing to pay
for at a level that can sustain and grow. That's
the definition of business. Find a need or a desire
(29:17):
that people will pay for at a level that allows
you to be able to consistently produce the outcome for them.
And so that does not mean employees, That does not
mean building, That does not mean product. That means fulfilling something,
satiating it because what you think is the product could
actually not be the product. It could be something else.
(29:38):
It could be a service instead of a product. It
could be a product instead of a service. And so
the job is to figure out, can I find a
need in the marketplace or desire in the marketplace that
I actually am interested in fulfilling. If you can find
that match and marriage, you will go through the hard
times when they get hard, because they're inevitably going to
be hard, but you'll get the energy to continue on.
(29:59):
I just don't I want people to get caught up
on Hey, I got the best idea, and everybody in
here got a great idea. Everybody in here knows somebody
with a great idea. And some of the people you
know what a great idea will never do anything with it.
That's just how it works, because it ain't about having
a great idea alone. It's about having a good enough
idea that people are wild going to pay for and
then a whole bunch of work. That's it.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It reminds me of I'm going to butcher the quote here,
but Alex Tramosi a guy watch on YouTube, you had
a quote that was like, success happens as an entrepreneur
when you do the mundane things for longer than anyone
imagines wanting to do that. Right, So it's like doing
those things that you know you're good at and everyone
(30:43):
else is like, I don't know, I don't want to
do that, but you do it for so long you
become so good at it, and then and then people
start buying products and services from you that I have
no idea who you are because it's all word of mouth.
I mean, it's it's just it's it's compounding, it really is.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
And we live in a day and it's just for
people and the building, specifically with products, but it may
also work for services too, Like the day we live
in the best thing you can do is build a brand.
In building a brand, that means you become and you
present yourself as somebody that I will follow you wherever
you go. If you put out a book, I'm buying it.
(31:18):
If you put out a T shirt, I'm buying it.
If you put out a class, I'm buying because I
dig what you're talking about and I'm into how you
present yourself to the world. And so it is cool
to have a product and you will do a lot
of work trying to sell that product, but if you
spend the time on the brand, people will buy whatever
you put out.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I couldn't have set it better myself. So, well, what's
next for you and your business ecosystem? Here of as
call it eighteen twenty four months old, gro.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
I'm doing what I'm living my dream, and the goal
now is just to continue growing. I don't imagine I'll
be doing anything different in five years that I'm doing out.
It'll just be bigger. I like that.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I love that, And I love what you said
about building a brand. You know that you want to
kind of be associated with being the lead expert in
your industry, and I think QuickBooks is actually really good
at doing that because when you think about it's.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Like, duh, why not?
Speaker 5 (32:11):
And I would say, like this last thing on brand
and I'm happy to talk about whatever, like, but last
thing I'll say on brand is stay on brand. Also
because it is so easy to get compelled, like I
tell you, Like when I told you, I did radio
for a period of time, and then I kept getting
asked to do more radio stuff, and I didn't want
to be seen as the radio guy, and so I
(32:32):
had to stop accepting radio stuff, and so I had
to stop im seeing for a period of time. I
had to stop, you know, djaying for a period of time.
I loved the DJ, but there was a I was
trying to change how my perception was in the world,
and so I had to divorce myself from certain things
because they would continue to perpetuate what people saw me
as I want them to see me and respect me
(32:53):
as a business person and a technologist. And so you
have to protect and if you're clear on what you
want to do. So I talked about being clear on
how you judge your employees and etc. Are you clear
on you are you clear on what you want your
life to be? Like? It astonishes me that there are
people who live and have never asked themselves what they
want to be doing. What do I actually want in life?
(33:17):
So so many of us just do stuff, and we
take opportunities, and we take things that may be opportunities
but are not, and we just do stuff. But actually,
what do you want? And so if I know and
I'm clear on what I want, I know what doesn't
help get me there?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That's powerful.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
That's a great setup for my next question, which is,
let's talk to the small business owners who are considering
making a change in their business structure, the ecosystem they
know maybe they're reaching a point where it's hard to
scale the way things are right now, or they just
they're evolving. So what advice would you give to them?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
I think at the end of the day, everything is
about designing in your mind and on paper what do
I want the future to look like? And I'm a
big like AI guy, so so and so like. We
use chat GPT for a lot of these things. I
type this in chat GPT the other day. I won't
tell you what the answer was, but I'll tell you.
So I checked the answer. I say, if I want
told house to be at X number, in five years,
(34:12):
what are the things I should be doing now to
prepare me for that? And I got remarkable answers. I
think it's just still that problem. That's a good problem.
So if you ask chat GPT or friends and say,
you know, if I want to be successful in five years,
I want to be at this level in five years,
what are the things I should be doing now? And
(34:33):
so I think we live in a day where not
just information is regularly available, but ideas are readily available.
And so surround yourself with people who helped to push
you further than you could imagine you could have gone.
And if you continue to position yourself around people in
rooms like this, and it said like y'all should get
to know each other. If you position yourself in rooms
(34:55):
like this, you will constantly be challenged and you will
constantly grow and get better. But to specifically answer your question,
business is about fundamentals always, all the time. It is
always about how we're delivering the best product to the consumer.
At the end of the day, quick book thinks about that.
The biggest companies in the world think about that. The
smallest companies in the world think about that is how
do we do that? And so it's always having that hand.
(35:19):
The can combat to use that phrase with the consumer
listening to them, they will tell you what they want.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, it kind of comes back to that quote by
I think it's Jeff Bezos with Amazon, right, relentlessly obsessing
that's over your customer. Absolutely, So Janie alluded to it earlier.
In twenty twelve, you were the co chair of the
Ohio Small Business Owners for the Obama Committee, part of
the Obama for America campaign.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
What did that roll and tail? That's the real So.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
It's advocating around the state for some of the business
policies that were alive around the time. And so we
had a chance to go around the state of Ohio
talking to small business owners and making sure that the
campaign at the time was designing policy around what Ohioans
actually need. So that's what we were doing.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So what did you I mean, you were surrounding yourself,
I'm sure with a lot of people that were, you know,
boots on the ground small business owners.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
What did you learn from them?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I mean people that you might not have surrounded yourself
with in the first place, Right, what lessons did you
take and then apply to your own businesses?
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (36:19):
And I was one of them myself too, So I
was with my peers people I just didn't know before.
And so one of the things that you know, I
found interesting about Ohio entrepreneurs is that we are not
afraid to get our hands dirty. We are not afraid
to do the mundane stuff that you talked about. So
you may not see our businesses, you know, on TV
(36:39):
and then bright lights, but these are businesses that you
can't live without. And so a lot of the things
that get put in to support businesses that get the
bright lights. I wouldn't much rather, you know, somebody is
a mentor of mine from a distance, you know, because
I believe people that I follow are also mentors. They
just don't know it. You can laugh at that. That was funny,
(37:05):
he said. You know, like one of the greatest things
about like the gold Rush is the actual money was
made by the people who sold the picks and shovels.
The gold rush wasn't necessarily the people who got rich
was not the people who found the gold, because everybody
was looking for gold, But the people who sold the
picks and shovels were the ones that actually made the money.
And so I am so when I say like Ohio
(37:26):
small businesses. To answer your question, we're the people who
make picks and shovels, and so we make life work
in places that often get overlooked.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I love that. I love that answer so much.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
All right, So we're actually going to hop into some
audience questions, maybe a little rapid fire style.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah, we got.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Some really great questions lined up for you. The first
one is starting from business questions.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
What can get dating advice?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 4 (38:04):
All right?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
This first question is for Renee when starting a new business,
what is the best option, in your opinion, LLC or corp?
And do you think you need to do this immediately
or should you wait until money starts coming in.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Yeah, I'm not a tax advisor. I'm not a lawyer.
I'm not so I'm gonna say that disclaimer. So it
really just depends on the kind of business. So I
will say that, and that's probably all I will say
about the structure, because I'm not gonna get myself in trouble.
There's people with quick books who can answer that. Sure,
But which is the one to do first? So there's
(38:37):
different schools of thought of what you should do first.
I am of the school of thought that says, do
enough to make sure you're protected, and no more until
you've got a customer waiting for it. I'm of that
school of thought. But it also depends on which industry
you're in. So obviously you're going to be in healthcare,
and you got to start up in healthcare. You need
to do certain things. Regulated industries you need to do
certain things. But if you're you know, creating a new
(38:59):
shape utter or you doing you know, creating a new
product or this new service that isn't in the regulated industry,
the most time you should be spent doing is finding
somebody who will pay you. Period.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, I mean it comes back to what you said before,
which was, you know, if you don't have customers, you
don't have employees, you know, everything else oxygen.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
You can't breathe if you don't have a customer one
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
So this question is from Kristen.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
What is your favorite mistake that you've made early on
in your career that had the biggest positive impact on
your success today.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
So, as I mentioned, one of my mentors owned a
bunch of McDonald's restaurants. I didn't say what they were.
They were McDonald's restaurants, and when I had the idea
for Creatio, he let me test this live custom radio
station in his restaurant. What he didn't tell me is
this restaurant that he let me do it and didn't
have a sound system. And so this is my first
(39:52):
restaurant that I've ever put anything in, and so I
had to figure out how to install the sound system.
But also the kicker is the there was no drop
ceiling between the where the office was in the lobby.
It was just drywall, and so I didn't know how
to get the wire above the ceiling to get to
the lobby. And so I'm legit stapling speaker wire to
(40:14):
the ceiling through the kitchen of a McDonald's restaurant. And
it wasn't even commercial great speaker wire. It was like
car grade speaker Best Buy. So it was like, it's
such a bad faux pod to be doing, you know,
in the commercial environment. If the fire marshall would have
come in, we would have all been bad. But I
look back at that like, you know, this is I
was trying to figure it out. And so if you
(40:35):
see a McDonald's with staple holes through the ceiling, that
was probably my McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh god, that reminds me of my very first like
zoom training where I was using like a laptop that
was probably older than me, and the thing just froze
for like thirty minute it and the internet went out
and then the battery died and I was like, it's
got to be better than this, got to be better
than this next time.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
So this question is actually gonna for all of us.
I'll let you lead, will So this question is from
VICKI what was the hardest part of getting your business
up and running?
Speaker 5 (41:08):
Getting over fear? And so I would say, number one,
it wasn't hard. But there are so many mental roadblocks
you've got to get over too, because so often we
tell ourselves no, We'll say, oh, all that wouldn't work
because all that, But did you try it? And so
they're particularly coming from, you know, a family where not
(41:30):
a bunch of people were entrepreneurs, but they had entrepreneurial
dreams and just didn't go after them or didn't succeed
or whatever it was. We ended up getting in these
cycles of self doubt. And I'm not going to sit
up here and say I was the most confident person.
I just knew what I wanted and I was just
gonna go. And it was out of ignorance, like I
didn't know what to add. So I'm just I'm a goer,
(41:52):
and so I just go, not knowing which direction, but
I know I want something and I'm going for it.
But when you go on that your head at night,
I did even mention this. I should I'll say it
because it's important. Two weeks before I closed on the building,
which is now toll House, I haven't once had a
nervous breakdown because I'm like, nobody in my family ever
(42:13):
bought anything outside of their home, and here I'm in
about to close in a couple of days on a
twenty five thousand square foot building, and I'm like, I
remember sleeping on the couch that night, like because I
couldn't move, and I'm like, can I cancel the closing day?
Like I'm like, I'm legit, I'm I freaked out. And
(42:35):
so there are moments of self doubt, there are moments
of fear that will keep you stuck. And so there's
this analogy I like to use in these moments of
you know, anybody or in room ever played football, and
I'm not gonna give you a football thing. But if
you'll appreciate this, So in American football, and you've got
(42:55):
the ball and you're running with the ball, and you've
got people trying to bring you down, to trying to
tackle you, and et cetera, the most important thing to do,
the most important thing to do when they're trying to
bring you down is keep moving your feet. It is
not jukum, it is not spin. It does not run faster,
it is not none of the most important thing they do.
And no matter how many people are on you, even
if you're not moving forward, the most important thing to
(43:19):
do is keep moving your feet. In the face of fear,
in the face of failure, in the face of the depression,
in the face of running out of money, the face
of divorce, the most important thing to do is keep
moving your feet.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
That is a mic drop.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I think for me, the hardest part of getting things
up and running is definitely learning how to let go
so that you can grow right. Because when you're thinking
about that first hire, you're still in very much solopreneur
mindset where you feel like you have to have your
hands in everything, and usually your first hire is also
going to be micromanaged about you because you just don't
(43:59):
know how to let things go right. And you're like
hiring somebody to do something, but you're also doing it
for them, and you know that level of trust that
I think is required. You're giving a part of your
baby to be taken care of by your business, by
the employee. And I think that was definitely the hardest
part for me, just learning that I hired so that
I don't have to continue burning out, and just learning
(44:21):
that I don't need to be stirring the pod all
the time.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yes, I'm happy for you, man, I think for me,
what was you know, the hardest part was getting over
the fear of failure and failing publicly, right. I feel like,
back to what you're talking about, building a brand the
only way that you're going to be a true successful
(44:47):
big you know, entrepreneur, small business owners like, oh, yeah,
you're the guy with the T shirt company. You're the
guy that's got there whatever, right, and people are going
to know you from that, and if your business fails,
everyone now knows you the guy with the failed business.
And for me that was so hard because I didn't
want to let down my friends. I didn't want to
let down my parents. I didn't want to let down
(45:08):
random people on the internet that I guess found me. Right,
But it's like getting over that hump of like, no,
this is me. I really enjoy the process and I'm
not doing this for them. I'm not doing this for
anyone but myself. I'm doing this for the journey, and
I'm in it for the long.
Speaker 5 (45:20):
Hundred percent success is the journey, man, Oh, one hundred
percentcesses the journey.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Okay, So our next question comes from Kaylee. Kaylee says,
how do you define success and what kind of mindset
shifts did you make that helped you develop your dreams
to become a reality. So, like, what kind of mindset
shifts did you make to help those dreams become a reality?
Speaker 3 (45:40):
As you were sort of defining success.
Speaker 5 (45:42):
Yeah, so I'll start my saying, so the defining success part.
I used to think defining success wasn't like a dollar mode.
But there's an endless doll like dollar, monds always grow
no matter what scale you at, there was always another
dollar a mode. And so I like to think of
success now is do I get to wake up and
do what I want to do? What did I get
(46:02):
to choose the direction. I don't always get to choose
the tasks, because you know, you just have to you know,
whack a mole. You know, I have to do a
little bit of that when you run the business. But
are these problems that I chose because I chose this path?
And that's how I define success now is do I
get to work on things that I find interesting, hire
(46:23):
out the things that I don't want to do, and
build them for a business that I'm building. That's how
I define success today. I forgot the second part of the.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
Question, the mindset shift that you had to make.
Speaker 5 (46:34):
Oh so, yeah, I am a I'm a vision boarder.
And so I before I bought toll House, I had
buildings like toll House on my vision board because I
knew one day I was going to have buildings. And
so I believe that you should keep a vision in
front of you of what your ideal life looks like.
And because again, we get caught up in the day
(46:54):
to day mundane stuff, the stuff that keeps us busy
and et cetera, and so you can end up being
so far away from what your vision is for yourself
if you're not paying attention to what the vision looks like.
The purpose of the vision board is to keep your
brain focused on this is the direction I'm going in.
And if you write it down, you're more likely to
just put it in the journal, close it up, put
it in the drawer or whatever. It's on the table.
(47:16):
You don't even open a thing. But when you have
a visual of it right by my mirror when I
get dressed in the morning, it's right there I can see,
and then I get to audit unconsciously all day long.
Am I doing the things that helped me get to
that place I was looking at on my vision board
this morning?
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Well, I know this is obviously we're interviewing year, but
this maybe think about something that I do every year
at the end of the year, which is I write
down on a piece of paper ten things that I
accomplished that year, because I think as entrepreneurs, we're living
so fast, right, Oh, I got to go do this,
I have to go do this, and you're always thinking
about the next thing, the next thing.
Speaker 3 (47:44):
When actuality, it's like, no, we.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Actually accomplished a lot over the last twelve months, right,
we should reflect and get excited about that.
Speaker 5 (47:50):
Absolutely, agree?
Speaker 1 (47:52):
All right, So this next question is from Vanessa. We
all know that first year of entrepreneurship is make or
break for a lot of people. So how do you
serve the adversity in that first year?
Speaker 5 (48:03):
Realize you're not gonna make it in the first year,
that's really it. And so if you are expecting to
be a year in and you struck gold, it just
doesn't happen like that for most people. And so brace
yourself for impact. That's what it is. And so I
was writing on the plane here, I was writing just
kind of like some thoughts I was having because again
(48:25):
I told y'all, like I go through these moments of
like these big leaps, and everyone causes like a different
sort of reaction. And I was thinking about, like how
business is war in so many respects, and it's war
against going broke, it's war against self doubt, it's war
against most of all of us in your mind. One
hundred percent. I agree with that. And finding success, especially
(48:49):
when you're starting to get something going, is a legit,
like scratching and clawing your way to it. It is
survival in so many ways until it's not. And then
once it's not, there's another level because somebody else is
coming for it. And so there I was telling my
wife the other day, like, there is no stasis in business,
(49:10):
like either you're growing or you're dying. That's it. Now.
You may think, Okay, we're flat, we're revenue neutral three
years in a row. You think everything's solid, it's legit.
You just don't see it. And so it's like dying
slow in real life. It's like I can, you know,
eat poorly every day and I may not see it
for the first six months or the first year. You
(49:31):
just don't see it yet, but it's coming. And so
we have to put ourselves in the position to be
thinking about growth at every stage because that's the only
way business thrives is if it's growing.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
No, I totally get that right, the idea of business
cycles and secular growth trends, and if you're operating within one,
you want to be growing within that secular growth trend
for sure. So our next question comes from Francis, And
speaking of Francis that what's up, Francis, when did you
feel like you were fine able to take a breath?
Speaker 3 (50:01):
I enjoy the fruits without.
Speaker 5 (50:04):
I don't do that. Yeah, yeah, I mean I sleep,
but this is my thing like I love to do
what I do. I love it, and some people will golf.
I am mad at you if you golf. Some people
play video games. I only play video games if I'm
playing with my son. I love to work and that's
(50:25):
what I do. And so if I'm chilling with my family,
then I get moments of breathing. And you know, to
use that kind of analogy. And so I don't see
rest how most people see rest. I enjoy, I love,
I thrive, I find joy all these things off of
(50:47):
doing the work. And so yeah, I don't know no
other way to answer that than be honest. I just
don't do like the you finally can rest on my
laurels and that the business run itself. Like the minute
you do that, it is a rap man, I just
believe it.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
That's just when they say, do what you love and
you'll never work like that, all right. So last season,
we asked all of our guests to share their why,
you know, so that spark that keeps them going when
times are tough, and even the thing that inspired them
to open the business in the first place.
Speaker 4 (51:18):
So what is your why?
Speaker 5 (51:21):
Every piece of potential I have I want it expressed
in the real world. I don't want to miss nothing.
When my day comes, I want to be like so
exhausted and so tired because I gave everything to reaching
my fullest potential. That is my why. I want to
give every piece of creativity, every idea that is worthy
(51:43):
to chase, every gift, every word of encouragement, every blessing
to somebody, every piece of advice, every investment I can give.
I want to give it all. I want to be
empty when my day comes.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
We'll lucas everybody.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
We just hopped off this stage. Literally they're breaking down
the set right now. And Wow, what an incredible episode, Austin.
I mean, I know there were so many amazing parts,
but what was your favorite?
Speaker 3 (52:21):
A favorite?
Speaker 2 (52:21):
You can't ask me a favorite from that interview, I'm
my gosh. I feel like there were countless nuggets of
information that just blew my mind. But if I could
pick one, I think the biggest takeaway from that was
when Will was describing all these entrepreneurs out there that
he meets and mentors. They find themselves drifting, going from
one opportunity to the next, not knowing what they want
(52:42):
to turn into and not knowing who they want to
be over time and having that time to self reflect
and then build your own vision board can be very powerful.
It's something I'm excited to do now after chatting up
with Will here.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
But man, what an interview. What about you? What was
your favorite part?
Speaker 1 (52:57):
You know, I love the fact that Will gave us
permission to be obsessed with our businesses because I think
there's sort of this like anti hustle culture that's sort
of popping up in a weird way where we're almost
being shamed for being like workaholics in a way where
I'm just like, I don't feel like a workaholic in
my business because I love it and every day that
I get to create, it's just such a blessing and
(53:18):
an opportunity. So I'm glad he gave us kind of
permission to just be obsessed.
Speaker 3 (53:22):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
And actually I want to double click on that because
I think a lot of people listening right now, you know,
if it's their partner, if it's their parents, if it's
their siblings, you know, they might be getting some negative
pressure saying, hey, you work too hard.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (53:35):
You know, there's a lot of time and energy and
focus going into this business, what's coming from it, and
you know it comes back to that self reflection of
if this was what makes you happy, then spend all
the time in the world. Right, this is your baby
you were talking about too. When you hire someone, you're
kind of like giving your baby to someone else. I mean,
that's exactly what's going on. And you are building this
business from scratching. You should enjoy every moment of it.
Speaker 4 (53:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (53:57):
I enjoy being on this podcast with you, Austin, and
I hope that you guys enjoy listening to it. And
that's it for today's episode. You can find me on
social media at jocierrodnetto.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Podcast and you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You
can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
To get the tools you need to start, run and
grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to podcasts,
so you can stay up to date on future episodes, and.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
We want to hear from you, so be sure to
leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
See you next time.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
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(00:25):
Hey everyone, I'm Jennie Torres.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And I'm Austin Hankwitz. Welcome to Mind the Business Small
Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Into
It QuickBooks and Iheartradios Ruby Studio. In every episode, we
talk with small business owners as they share their stories
about the ups and downs of owning a small business.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And this is a very special episode because not only
is this a summer bonus episode, but we recorded this
interview with our guests in front of a live audience
at the iHeart Theater in Burbank, California.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Janise, this is the second time we've recorded an episode
live in front of a real audience in person, and
the experience is always so so special. Now, in this episode,
we sat down with Will Lucas, who's the host of
the podcast Black Tech, Green Money. Will is also the
founder and CEO of Creatio.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Will really is doing it all, and we're going to
ask him how he maintains a balanced ecosystem within all
the companies he's built and runs. And by business ecosystem,
I'm talking about how everything works together within the company,
everything from employees to customers, to quality of products and services,
to the growth of the business itself. We're going to ask, well,
(01:40):
how do you consider the impact of your choices in
your company? How do you define your business ecosystem? What
are all the things in that ecosystem? And what info
do you need before you make changes in your company? Austin,
I want to ask you about this. When did you
realize that every decision you make for your business has
a huge ripple effect, no pressure, and how did you
(02:01):
approach changes in your business plans or strategy knowing this.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's a really good question, Jenis, and I think for
a lot of entrepreneurs listening right now, they might be
going through this where they're kind of like, wait a second,
did that decision over here just impact you know, an
outcome with this project? And I think for me, you know,
as a content creator and someone who's offering all of
these different consulting services regarding marketing and things of that nature.
(02:27):
Whenever I started to diversify my business away from just
a singular business segment, I realized that they all kind
of talk to each other, right, And so now when
I think about taking on new projects, I'm always thinking
about where the synergies, where are they going to overlap?
Where two plus two equals five? Right, So I'm always
trying to figure out how going to be most efficient
with my time and how is you know, spending time
(02:49):
or energy on something going to positively impact something else
I'm working on?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Denis, what about you?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Where have you seen sort of experience as it relates
to making sure that ripple effects are doing good things
and making sure they're not doing bad things to your
larger business?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know, I have a very lean team, so anytime
I make a decision to take on a new project
or launch something new, there is a huge ripple effect
just because of the number of people who are working
on the team. So for me, I always have to
think about is this a good return on investment activity
for all of us? Because the last thing that I
want is for everyone to get so bogged down in
(03:24):
administrative and behind the scenes stuff that we're not actually
seeing the end result of what that original goal was.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Now, when you kind of do that return on investment calculation,
are you looking at it from a time perspective of
money perspective, opportunity cost perspective?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, I'm looking at it from sort of a trifecta,
if you will. I want to make sure that we're
having impact right, that our clients are satisfied. I obviously
want to make sure that we are making income, because
that's why we're all in business. And I also want
to make sure that my team is excited about the
work that we're doing and we're not just finding busy
work for folks.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Couldn't have set it better myself, Gennis, I am so
dang excited for everyone to hear this interview. So what
do you say we jump into the meat potatoes of
this episode.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Oh my, hey, everyone, we're coming to you live from
the iHeartRadio Theater here in Burbank, California. Thank you so
much for being here.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
We could not be more excited that all you guys
are here right now.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I'm just so pumped up Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Absolutely, I can't believe we're in two seasons of the.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Show, seasons of the show already.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Today we're going to be talking about building and maintaining
a balanced business ecosystem.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Ecosystem? This is in science class.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So we're actually talking about how you keep everything in
your company working together and in harmony, because just like
a real ecosystem, when you make a change in your
business ecosystem, that can have an impact on everything.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Absolutely and too help us talk about that. We're joined
by Will Lucas. Will is an entrepreneur many times over.
He's the CEO and founder of Creatio, a marketing and
production agency, and the founder and CEO of Tollhouse, a
private member's only social club in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So not only that, but Will also hosts the podcast
Black Tech, Greed Money, and in twenty twelve, Will was
appointed co chair of the Ohio Small Business Owners for
Obama Committee, part of the Obama for America campaign. Okay,
so we got an expert. Everyone, welcome our special guests
to the stage, Will Lucas, how you doing, what's up?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
What's up?
Speaker 5 (06:17):
What's up? Hey, it's good to be here. It's good
to be here.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Thank you so much for joining us. Man, we're super excited.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Absolutely. Hey, how y'all doing.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, we have a lot to talk about, So I
want to get right into your story. Tell us about
your entrepreneurship origin story. What made you want to take
the leap and being your own boss and start your
own business.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah. I always knew that I was going to be
running my own business one day. I thought it was
going to be in the music business, though, and so
I was, you know, one of those kids who wanted
to be a songwriter and music producer. So I started
radio before I got into actual business because it was
the closest thing in my hometown to the music business.
And so I met a program director for radio station
(07:00):
at a teen summit and I said, Hey, my name's
well Lucas. I want to be in the music business.
And he's like, it's just like that, and he's like,
you know, the best thing I can tell you do
is find an internship somewhere. And so there was a
line of young people waiting to talk to him. So
he said, come out to the radio station and we'll
talk some more. So I went out to the radio
station the next day and he's like, again, next best
thing I take you to do is find an internship somewhere.
(07:22):
Matter of fact, we need to intern here. And so
my internship in radio started that day, and so fast forward.
I just happened to be good at radio. So I
did it for two years. And I was in a
clothing store and they were playing FM radio over their
sound system, and inevitably the commercials come on and one
of their competitors came on over the air inside their store,
(07:43):
and I'm like, this doesn't make a lot of sense,
you know, like they need their own radio station that
just talks about them. Slight bulb goes off, and I'm like,
I just did all these years of radio. I can
build that. And so that was my entre.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, it's always that kind of like for most of me.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Yeah, So that business is creative, the one that you
created custom radio station for brands. And so what happened
was I had the idea for it was just a concept.
You know, what if I created these custom radio stations
for brands. And I told a mentor of mine and
he owns six restaurants at the time, and I said, hey,
I got this idea for this business, this this project,
(08:23):
and I said, what if I created like custom radio
stations for brands? And he said, he guys, he was
not a brief you know guy, he was you know,
can it will be a little long with it sometimes,
but you know when I told him the idea, his
eyes got big and he just said do it and
that was all he said. So I knew I had something.
And so that's the inception of creating out there.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Tell me about one of the proudest moments you've had
in that journey.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Oh man, how many guys in the room are business
owners or you want to be a business owner? You know? Okay,
most of the room shout out to y'all because this
road is not for the faint of heart. And so
I think for me and maybe if you have a
product out there or a service out there, the most
joy you can get is when somebody you don't know
(09:10):
asks to purchase your product because they owe you nothing.
And so it's different than when like your cousin nuanced it,
or your neighbor wants to support you, or like your
mom is like, hey, let me pull out my change
out in my bra you know. But it's like, you know,
but when somebody who doesn't know you sees value and
what you built, it's the most incredible feeling, and I
(09:32):
wish that for everybody.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, it becomes addictive. I would.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You know you founded the members only social club in
your hometown of Toledo, Ohio. So what sparked that idea?
Where do you how do you go from radio to
hold on, let's all listen to jazz music.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Absolutely, And so I'm not from LA or New York,
and so I'm over what do they call the flyover States.
I'm from Ohio, and broadly, when people don't know Ohio
or don't know the Midwest, they think it's a going
to cornfields and they think it is so much agriculture,
and it's some of that, but it's not just that.
And so what we wanted to do with Toll House
was to organize Toledo's doers and so the people who
(10:12):
were doing the work to help our community be what
it could be if we got out of our own way.
And so toll House is a private social club and
it's five bars, five lounges, a coffee house, there's a
jazz club in there's coworking space twenty five thousand square feet.
And so we've got all these amenities to be a
playground for adult professionals, because where we're trying to do
(10:33):
is organize the people's the doers. And so I wanted
a place, you know, that I could go as a
member or as a consumer, where I knew if I
walked in, I was going to see somebody who could
change my life or I could change theirs. And so
it's different than walking into just a regular coffee house
where I probably don't need to know who you are.
But if I'm walking into a place where the people
here were vetted to be here, that's a room I
(10:54):
want to be in.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
You know, before the centerview, we're talking a little bit
on the lobby and I asked you. I was like, yes,
like where do you live? And You're like, oh, I'm
actually from Toledo, Ohio, Like I live there, And I'm
just like someone on your level, you'd think you would
move to LA or New York or Chicago or something,
but you didn't.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You stayed in Toledo. So walk me through.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The mindset shift that somebody at your little had to
make of Like, wait, I really want to build for
where I'm from.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I want to get people where I'm from. The opportunity is.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Part of that, but it's also it's about finding the
white space, like where is the opportunity? Yeah? Yeah, And
so if I wanted to build a social club, not
that it's impossible, but if I wanted to build a
social club in Chicago or in New York or in LA.
There's a ton of social clubs in Chicago or New
York or LA. But the whole goal of business is
to find where the opportunity is. And so I'm not
(11:44):
going to try to start a business that everybody else
is starting in that same vertical or the same category.
I want to find where's the opportunity? Where are the
people who want this but don't have access to it?
Those are the lanes I'm trying to feel.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And kind of staying on this topic of toll House,
I saw you guys just launched an app. You guys
have a wine club, and I saw on your website
something about like cigars, and so this seems to have
evolved a lot over you know, several years now. So
how has the business evolved from when you started to
where it is today.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, I mean so toll House. You know, I say
this twenty five thousand square feet. It was just a big, empty,
no walls building when I bought it, and you know,
I kind of just let the buildings speak to me,
and I say, what should be here? What would I
want if I was a member? And so as we
started to build out spaces, I knew there had to
be a bar, I knew there was going to be
a coffee house. But we just started to listen to
(12:36):
our members and like, what are the things that we're
missing in our community that we used to have where
we always wanted but we never had an opportunity to,
you know, participate in those things. And we hadn't had
a jazz club in Toledo in over ten years because
they had all closed. And so I just let the
buildings speak to me. And then as we started to
hang out and just enjoy the spaces, You're like, it
would be really cool if we had a coworking space here,
(13:00):
because what we found was members didn't just want to eat,
and they didn't just want to hang out and listen
to music, but they also wanted to work and they
wanted to be able to collaborate together. And so six
thousand square feet of the building is pure coworking space.
So there's five conference rooms slash boardrooms, and there's you know,
phone booths that you can just take you know, private
phone calls in. There's a theater in there, so you
(13:22):
can just relax and just enjoy yourself because you want
to take that break from being on conference calls all day.
And so what we tried to do was fill the
gap for what you missed when you were locked down
over those that year in COVID, and you want to
be back around people, but you also want the hybrid
you know, to where you can socialize and work.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, that's really interesting. So you know, obviously you have
a lot on your plate. You're running a lot of
different businesses.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
You get a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Can you describe the ecosystems for both Creatio and for
Toll House, Like how do you structure these businesses for success?
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yeah? So the great part currently is the Creative Office
is inside TOEH House. So I get to work and
you know, I get to have both of my teams
in the building and I'm creating vertical integration, I should say.
So my marketing company video production, website development, communication, strategy design,
app development, built and does the videos and does the
(14:18):
strategy for a toe house synergy, and so my creatio
team can work in the spaces that we can have
our board meetings and there our conference calls in there,
and they can enjoy, you know, the coffeehouse. So all
these things are completely vertically integrated.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Do you think that the way that you envision building
business is kind of separate from the type of business
that it is or do you think you have to
build them differently just based on what type of business
you're creating.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, I do think it's different because the and I
sort of think about that the way of how you
deal with people is what you need is not what
she needs to perform well. And so if I can
pay attention to what motivates you, then I can get
the best out of you and you feel best about
the work that you're performing. But what motivates you doesn't
(15:06):
motivate him necessarily, and so the same thing for the
businesses that you build. So just because you do one
thing well and you perform well, and this makes you
have to pay attention to what your business is asking
for because your business is like a child, honestly. And
so the one thing one things I love. I've been
doing Creatio since two thousand and seven, and I made
(15:26):
a lot of mistakes along the way. So I'm not
here to say, like, you know, everything's great and rosy.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You're going to get into those, yeah, So like this stuff.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Is painful, you know, and it's lonely. And so one
of the early mistakes that I know we're talking more
about this, but I'll give you one because you mentioned
this is I was the only employee of Creative for
so many years, and nobody taught me reinvesting the profits.
And so I didn't grow up in a wealthy family
or all these things. And I didn't have a lot
(15:54):
of business mentors. I had mentors in different respects, but
nobody said, when you start making money, put it back
in the business. So when I made, you know, a
little bit of money, I'm like, oh, and we can
go put cheese on it now, we can go supersize,
you know, all these things like we make god money
now if we can put the squad extraguad, you know,
so we can do that. And so all those things
(16:17):
robbed the business of the oxygen it needed because nobody
taught me.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That kind of goes into the question I had for you, right,
which is, if you would ask me the first big
decision I'd to make as a business owner now of
four and a half five years, is hiring someone, right,
Hiring help is Oh, it's overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
It is so overwhelming, So it can be.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
It can be. And I think we have this confusion
about it's overwhelming or I don't want to let somebody down,
or I don't want to fire somebody, or I don't
want to want a mispayroll and all these things. It's
because we don't do it properly. And what I've learned
is a lot of that anxiety could be reduced. It
won't go away, but it can be reduced if I
(16:57):
know what I'm hiring for and it's not just in
my head, but it's on paper, and I can define
what success looks like. Because when you hire as an entrepreneur,
you want somebody who's running around like a chicken with
their head cut off like you are. And that's the
wrong way to hire people. Is if you're hiring somebody
and you're expecting them to move as fast as you're
moving and do as much as you're doing, they are
(17:19):
going to fail. I guarantee that because they are not you.
They were not the person with this idea, They were
not the person with this vision. They at the people
with this energy. They here to help you and be
a lone this and they may not even be here
to help you, but they here to get something. And
so if I can set you up for success, the
only way to do that is to specify and designate
what success looks like. And not just in my head,
(17:41):
but it's got to be on paper. How are you
measuring my performance? Because if you are saying I need
you to be as crazy and frenetic as I am,
I'm not crazy and I'm not phanetic, you know frenetic,
So how am I going to be successful in that environment?
But if I say I'm hiring you because I need
five social media posts a day, I need them to
have these particular sort of pass taxs, I need them
(18:03):
to have these sorts of images, I can actually look
and see if you did five those media post a day,
they have these specific hashacts that you gave me, and
they have these sort of corresponding images. But if you
just say go out there and you know you see
what I'm doing, pick up the slacken, etc. I'm set
up to fail because I don't know what I'm supposed
to be doing. And therefore you're looking at me like
(18:23):
I made the wrong hire. And you might have, but
you might not have, but you didn't set that person
up to be successful.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I want you to double click on that a little
bit more because I think maybe a lot of people
listening right now they want to make those hires for
the very specific tasks and deliverables. Like I totally get
that that exists, right. You can go check on the
social media. You can see how many code emails they send, whatever.
But what about the hires that need to help with strategy,
They need to help with you know, maybe sales decks
(18:48):
and pitching and like things of that nature. How have
you navigated that over the years.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Yeah, So if it's me, I would start with a consultant.
And so that's somebody that you don't necessarily need to
bring on immediately. But I need to make sure I
know what I'm looking for because the thing about entrepreneurship,
and you know, we talk about business, business and entrepreneurship
are corresponding but not the same, and so if you're
an entrepreneur like I am, I don't always know what
(19:13):
I need, and so I'm assuming I know what I need,
and so I would rather bring you on as a
contractor or as or maybe get an advisor to help
me accomplish this thing so I can better define what
I need. And so the worst thing you can do
is bring somebody on and not know how to define
success for them. And so if you're not sure, don't
(19:35):
bring that person on, but contract them out for a
period of time. And then so when you when you
need to break part ways, it's a lot easier and
you know there's no bridges burned and nobody's feelings are hurt.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Well, I think something else that you breezed over that
I really want to emphasize is sort of in that
vulnerability of saying I don't know how to do this.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Can you help me? Right?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Because I think a small business owners and entrepreneurs like
there's always a task or you know, a that we
have to get over that I don't know how to
do it. And I've texted Genie before, I'm like, hey,
what do you do for this? I don't know how
you've been doing this longing to mean, what's going on, right,
And I think that's what's so powerful, not just about
this podcast, but about the conversations we're having. Is like
giving people the confidence to ask for help, right, it's just.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Really I mean, the thing about entrepreneurship, you typically, again
another broad generalization, but entrepreneurs are typically good at something
and then they want to go make a business out
of it. But when you're good at something, that doesn't
mean it's a business. Shit, it's a business when you
start putting together business practices, when you start operationalizing it.
(20:36):
And so there's a difference between owning a business and
owning a job. You're two different things. And so if
you want to be a business owner, then the job
is to get out of the machinations of running the business.
My business is running right now, I'm not there. That's
the goal. To get to a place to where you're
not having to be there making the donuts in order
(20:57):
for the donuts chapter run. Now, if you want to
do that, if you want to be the artisan, that's fantastic.
I told my barber this, you know, about six years ago,
because he was asking me business advice, and I said,
if you're cutting hair in two years because you have
to cut hair, you're doing something wrong. But if you're
cutting hair because you want to cut hair, and he
(21:19):
owned the barbershop by the way, But if you're cutting
here because you want to cut hair in two years,
that's the place that you want to be in, not
because you have to do it, because you love to
do it. And so if you're making donuts in your
donut shop because you have to. The goal is to
get out of the place where you have to where
you got to be the one to open the doors
and turn the lights on and turn the lights off
(21:40):
at the end of the day and turn the oven
to and all these things. The goal is to get
out of that system. You want to put people in
place that can scale past you, because you, as one person,
can only do so much.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Something I learned I think it was last year and
you really emphasize it here, which was, you know, working
in the business versus working on the business. This absolutely
and being able to go from end to on. I've
not yet done that, but I mean that's the goal.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
One hundred that's one hundred percent goal. The goal for
business is to build something that's bigger than you. And
so again I don't want to own a job. I
used to own a job when the first ten years
of Creatio, I was the one installing sound systems and restaurants.
And I don't look poorly on those days because I
learned so much. But you want to get out of
(22:27):
You don't want to be stuck there, and so I
momish you as fast as you can, hire somebody defining
what you need. It's the best thing you can do
for your business.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So kind of thinking back to those days, can you
recall maybe a misstep or disruption that happened that kind
of threw off the ecosystem.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Not documenting those were big missteps. I highly encourage anybody
who's starting off, even if it's just you, you having
a board meeting of one. You know it's just you.
You've got to document. And as tech savvy as we are,
as technological as we become, as innovative as we become,
there are certain business practices that you've got to learn.
(23:07):
And you've got to learn how to pull out a
pen and write something down. You've got to learn how
to pull out a iPad and take a note. You've
got to learn how to get your receipt and scan it.
You've got. There are certain things you have to do
as a business person or you end up getting in trouble.
And so if the business and how to turn on
the lights is not written down, then you're at risk.
(23:30):
If what happens when you turning your receipts to your
account and your bookkeeper and your stuff is all over
the place, you got a problem. And if you are
not setting yourself up in an organized fashion, because I understand,
I'm an entrepreneur. I got four businesses and four buildings
all over the place. Organization is the work. That is
(23:50):
the work. Knowing my numbers is the work. And if
I'm not documenting, and if I'm not keeping records, and
if I'm not making sure I'm putting operational you know
SOPs written on paper, we got a problem.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We'll tell you what keeps me organized into a quick books.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Absolutely listen, I've been using quick books for twenty years.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, So we've been talking about hiring the
importance of you know, vetting your employees and making sure
that they know kind of what is at stake, what
their mission statement is. Can you talk about how you
create a work environment where your employees actually feel seen
and heard.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Yeah. So number one, I try to be as conscious
in the interview as I can be, because you can
see the flags in an interview and if you get
a little hint like some ain't something like about that answer,
that's the flag. Listen to the voice in your head
that says something may write about that one. And so
(24:45):
I say that to say it's paying attention to the
little things, paying attention to how your staff or your
potential staff is responding to things, and not glossing over
it because you're so busy and you're so you know again,
running all over the place. Because this is the thing
about entrepreneurship is when you're building, everything needs you. And
so then you get into this place to where you
(25:06):
overlook things that you shouldn't overlook just because you need help.
And that is the worst thing you can do for
your business. I would rather grow slower with the right
people or with just me, then grow fast with the
wrong people, because if you grow fast with the wrong people,
the wheels are going to fall off. So you think
you on a spring and you think you're doing well,
but you're not really doing well because you're building with
(25:28):
you know, things that are broken. And so I would
hire quickly if you can, if you can find the
right people, but make sure that they know what their
success looks like, how you're measuring them, and pay attention
to the small things. Pay attention if something didn't sound right,
and that response you gave me in this interview, I'm
gonna pay attention to that because I can tell that
you actually didn't do what you said you did, or
(25:50):
something's on your resume is not adding up the dayta
you're adding up or whatever it is. You got to
pay attention to those things.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So we should not hire based on vibes, is what
I hear say.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
I think vibes matter, but I also think like it's
understanding truth. And actually I'm going to pick up the
phone and call previous employer. I need to find out
are you really who you say you are. I need
to know if you just didn't go back because you
didn't want to go back to the job, or but
did they not want you back at that other job?
(26:20):
And sometimes that's the case. It's worth it to you
to do the hard work. You know, my father said
something when I was growing up. I'll never forget it,
and he said, everybody in life pays everybody pays. Some
people pay now, some people pay later. I'd rather pay
now so that I don't have to pay later. And
what I mean by that in this context is I
would rather do the hard work now to make sure
(26:42):
you're the right person, then pay for it in six
months when I find out you couldn't do all you
said you could do.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Okay, So we obviously, as entrepreneurs and employers, we want
to kind of strike that balance between building a place
that's a great place to work at but also be
able to server clients effectively.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
So how do you balance them listening?
Speaker 5 (27:04):
That's the game, is listening to them, and they don't
always know what they're asking for either. We don't always
know what we're looking for as consumers. I mean, we
don't always know what the solution is. We just know
we have a need and it is your job as
the business owner, as the entrepreneur to figure out the
best and most efficient, cost effective way to solve the problem.
(27:26):
But the consumer doesn't always know how to define the problem.
But if you're paying attention to what they say, the
words they use, how they use the products that they
have today, you can find solutions. If you're paying attention.
So the job is to be ears all day long,
eyes paying attention. The job is not to talk. Your
(27:46):
job is to figure out what people need and to
be able to sayciate that need somehow.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That I need to listen more. That's what's good advice.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Coming up after the break.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
There are people who live and have never asked themselves
what they want to be doing. And so if I
know and I'm clear on what I want, I know
what doesn't help get me there.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
We'll be right back with Mine the Business. Welcome back
to Mind the Business, small business success stories from iHeartMedia's
Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
You know, as we think back to when you began
building out your ecosystem, was the priority on the customers?
Was it on growing the business or was it on employees?
If you had to pick one as the most important
part of your success, if this ecosystem customers, business growth, right, reinvesting,
(28:49):
or was it the employees.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
I mean, nothing matters if you don't have somebody who
wants to buy your product.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I was hoping you're gonna say that.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yeah, I mean I can have ten employees, but if
ain't nobody buying nothing, I got no employee, include me
real quick. You want to find a need or a
desire in the marketplace that people are willing to pay
for at a level that can sustain and grow. That's
the definition of business. Find a need or a desire
(29:17):
that people will pay for at a level that allows
you to be able to consistently produce the outcome for them.
And so that does not mean employees, That does not
mean building, That does not mean product. That means fulfilling something,
satiating it because what you think is the product could
actually not be the product. It could be something else.
(29:38):
It could be a service instead of a product. It
could be a product instead of a service. And so
the job is to figure out, can I find a
need in the marketplace or desire in the marketplace that
I actually am interested in fulfilling. If you can find
that match and marriage, you will go through the hard
times when they get hard, because they're inevitably going to
be hard, but you'll get the energy to continue on.
(29:59):
I just don't I want people to get caught up
on Hey, I got the best idea, and everybody in
here got a great idea. Everybody in here knows somebody
with a great idea. And some of the people you
know what a great idea will never do anything with it.
That's just how it works, because it ain't about having
a great idea alone. It's about having a good enough
idea that people are wild going to pay for and
then a whole bunch of work. That's it.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It reminds me of I'm going to butcher the quote here,
but Alex Tramosi a guy watch on YouTube, you had
a quote that was like, success happens as an entrepreneur
when you do the mundane things for longer than anyone
imagines wanting to do that. Right, So it's like doing
those things that you know you're good at and everyone
(30:43):
else is like, I don't know, I don't want to
do that, but you do it for so long you
become so good at it, and then and then people
start buying products and services from you that I have
no idea who you are because it's all word of mouth.
I mean, it's it's just it's it's compounding, it really is.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
And we live in a day and it's just for
people and the building, specifically with products, but it may
also work for services too, Like the day we live
in the best thing you can do is build a brand.
In building a brand, that means you become and you
present yourself as somebody that I will follow you wherever
you go. If you put out a book, I'm buying it.
(31:18):
If you put out a T shirt, I'm buying it.
If you put out a class, I'm buying because I
dig what you're talking about and I'm into how you
present yourself to the world. And so it is cool
to have a product and you will do a lot
of work trying to sell that product, but if you
spend the time on the brand, people will buy whatever
you put out.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I couldn't have set it better myself. So, well, what's
next for you and your business ecosystem? Here of as
call it eighteen twenty four months old, gro.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
I'm doing what I'm living my dream, and the goal
now is just to continue growing. I don't imagine I'll
be doing anything different in five years that I'm doing out.
It'll just be bigger. I like that.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I love that, And I love what you said
about building a brand. You know that you want to
kind of be associated with being the lead expert in
your industry, and I think QuickBooks is actually really good
at doing that because when you think about it's.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Like, duh, why not?
Speaker 5 (32:11):
And I would say, like this last thing on brand
and I'm happy to talk about whatever, like, but last
thing I'll say on brand is stay on brand. Also
because it is so easy to get compelled, like I
tell you, Like when I told you, I did radio
for a period of time, and then I kept getting
asked to do more radio stuff, and I didn't want
to be seen as the radio guy, and so I
(32:32):
had to stop accepting radio stuff, and so I had
to stop im seeing for a period of time. I
had to stop, you know, djaying for a period of time.
I loved the DJ, but there was a I was
trying to change how my perception was in the world,
and so I had to divorce myself from certain things
because they would continue to perpetuate what people saw me
as I want them to see me and respect me
(32:53):
as a business person and a technologist. And so you
have to protect and if you're clear on what you
want to do. So I talked about being clear on
how you judge your employees and etc. Are you clear
on you are you clear on what you want your
life to be? Like? It astonishes me that there are
people who live and have never asked themselves what they
want to be doing. What do I actually want in life?
(33:17):
So so many of us just do stuff, and we
take opportunities, and we take things that may be opportunities
but are not, and we just do stuff. But actually,
what do you want? And so if I know and
I'm clear on what I want, I know what doesn't
help get me there?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That's powerful.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
That's a great setup for my next question, which is,
let's talk to the small business owners who are considering
making a change in their business structure, the ecosystem they
know maybe they're reaching a point where it's hard to
scale the way things are right now, or they just
they're evolving. So what advice would you give to them?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
I think at the end of the day, everything is
about designing in your mind and on paper what do
I want the future to look like? And I'm a
big like AI guy, so so and so like. We
use chat GPT for a lot of these things. I
type this in chat GPT the other day. I won't
tell you what the answer was, but I'll tell you.
So I checked the answer. I say, if I want
told house to be at X number, in five years,
(34:12):
what are the things I should be doing now to
prepare me for that? And I got remarkable answers. I
think it's just still that problem. That's a good problem.
So if you ask chat GPT or friends and say,
you know, if I want to be successful in five years,
I want to be at this level in five years,
what are the things I should be doing now? And
(34:33):
so I think we live in a day where not
just information is regularly available, but ideas are readily available.
And so surround yourself with people who helped to push
you further than you could imagine you could have gone.
And if you continue to position yourself around people in
rooms like this, and it said like y'all should get
to know each other. If you position yourself in rooms
(34:55):
like this, you will constantly be challenged and you will
constantly grow and get better. But to specifically answer your question,
business is about fundamentals always, all the time. It is
always about how we're delivering the best product to the consumer.
At the end of the day, quick book thinks about that.
The biggest companies in the world think about that. The
smallest companies in the world think about that is how
do we do that? And so it's always having that hand.
(35:19):
The can combat to use that phrase with the consumer
listening to them, they will tell you what they want.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, it kind of comes back to that quote by
I think it's Jeff Bezos with Amazon, right, relentlessly obsessing
that's over your customer. Absolutely, So Janie alluded to it earlier.
In twenty twelve, you were the co chair of the
Ohio Small Business Owners for the Obama Committee, part of
the Obama for America campaign.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
What did that roll and tail? That's the real So.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
It's advocating around the state for some of the business
policies that were alive around the time. And so we
had a chance to go around the state of Ohio
talking to small business owners and making sure that the
campaign at the time was designing policy around what Ohioans
actually need. So that's what we were doing.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So what did you I mean, you were surrounding yourself,
I'm sure with a lot of people that were, you know,
boots on the ground small business owners.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
What did you learn from them?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I mean people that you might not have surrounded yourself
with in the first place, Right, what lessons did you
take and then apply to your own businesses?
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (36:19):
And I was one of them myself too, So I
was with my peers people I just didn't know before.
And so one of the things that you know, I
found interesting about Ohio entrepreneurs is that we are not
afraid to get our hands dirty. We are not afraid
to do the mundane stuff that you talked about. So
you may not see our businesses, you know, on TV
(36:39):
and then bright lights, but these are businesses that you
can't live without. And so a lot of the things
that get put in to support businesses that get the
bright lights. I wouldn't much rather, you know, somebody is
a mentor of mine from a distance, you know, because
I believe people that I follow are also mentors. They
just don't know it. You can laugh at that. That was funny,
(37:05):
he said. You know, like one of the greatest things
about like the gold Rush is the actual money was
made by the people who sold the picks and shovels.
The gold rush wasn't necessarily the people who got rich
was not the people who found the gold, because everybody
was looking for gold, But the people who sold the
picks and shovels were the ones that actually made the money.
And so I am so when I say like Ohio
(37:26):
small businesses. To answer your question, we're the people who
make picks and shovels, and so we make life work
in places that often get overlooked.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I love that. I love that answer so much.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
All right, So we're actually going to hop into some
audience questions, maybe a little rapid fire style.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah, we got.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Some really great questions lined up for you. The first
one is starting from business questions.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
What can get dating advice?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 4 (38:04):
All right?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
This first question is for Renee when starting a new business,
what is the best option, in your opinion, LLC or corp?
And do you think you need to do this immediately
or should you wait until money starts coming in.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Yeah, I'm not a tax advisor. I'm not a lawyer.
I'm not so I'm gonna say that disclaimer. So it
really just depends on the kind of business. So I
will say that, and that's probably all I will say
about the structure, because I'm not gonna get myself in trouble.
There's people with quick books who can answer that. Sure,
But which is the one to do first? So there's
(38:37):
different schools of thought of what you should do first.
I am of the school of thought that says, do
enough to make sure you're protected, and no more until
you've got a customer waiting for it. I'm of that
school of thought. But it also depends on which industry
you're in. So obviously you're going to be in healthcare,
and you got to start up in healthcare. You need
to do certain things. Regulated industries you need to do
certain things. But if you're you know, creating a new
(38:59):
shape utter or you doing you know, creating a new
product or this new service that isn't in the regulated industry,
the most time you should be spent doing is finding
somebody who will pay you. Period.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, I mean it comes back to what you said before,
which was, you know, if you don't have customers, you
don't have employees, you know, everything else oxygen.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
You can't breathe if you don't have a customer one
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
So this question is from Kristen.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
What is your favorite mistake that you've made early on
in your career that had the biggest positive impact on
your success today.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
So, as I mentioned, one of my mentors owned a
bunch of McDonald's restaurants. I didn't say what they were.
They were McDonald's restaurants, and when I had the idea
for Creatio, he let me test this live custom radio
station in his restaurant. What he didn't tell me is
this restaurant that he let me do it and didn't
have a sound system. And so this is my first
(39:52):
restaurant that I've ever put anything in, and so I
had to figure out how to install the sound system.
But also the kicker is the there was no drop
ceiling between the where the office was in the lobby.
It was just drywall, and so I didn't know how
to get the wire above the ceiling to get to
the lobby. And so I'm legit stapling speaker wire to
(40:14):
the ceiling through the kitchen of a McDonald's restaurant. And
it wasn't even commercial great speaker wire. It was like
car grade speaker Best Buy. So it was like, it's
such a bad faux pod to be doing, you know,
in the commercial environment. If the fire marshall would have
come in, we would have all been bad. But I
look back at that like, you know, this is I
was trying to figure it out. And so if you
(40:35):
see a McDonald's with staple holes through the ceiling, that
was probably my McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh god, that reminds me of my very first like
zoom training where I was using like a laptop that
was probably older than me, and the thing just froze
for like thirty minute it and the internet went out
and then the battery died and I was like, it's
got to be better than this, got to be better
than this next time.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
So this question is actually gonna for all of us.
I'll let you lead, will So this question is from
VICKI what was the hardest part of getting your business
up and running?
Speaker 5 (41:08):
Getting over fear? And so I would say, number one,
it wasn't hard. But there are so many mental roadblocks
you've got to get over too, because so often we
tell ourselves no, We'll say, oh, all that wouldn't work
because all that, But did you try it? And so
they're particularly coming from, you know, a family where not
(41:30):
a bunch of people were entrepreneurs, but they had entrepreneurial
dreams and just didn't go after them or didn't succeed
or whatever it was. We ended up getting in these
cycles of self doubt. And I'm not going to sit
up here and say I was the most confident person.
I just knew what I wanted and I was just
gonna go. And it was out of ignorance, like I
didn't know what to add. So I'm just I'm a goer,
(41:52):
and so I just go, not knowing which direction, but
I know I want something and I'm going for it.
But when you go on that your head at night,
I did even mention this. I should I'll say it
because it's important. Two weeks before I closed on the building,
which is now toll House, I haven't once had a
nervous breakdown because I'm like, nobody in my family ever
(42:13):
bought anything outside of their home, and here I'm in
about to close in a couple of days on a
twenty five thousand square foot building, and I'm like, I
remember sleeping on the couch that night, like because I
couldn't move, and I'm like, can I cancel the closing day?
Like I'm like, I'm legit, I'm I freaked out. And
(42:35):
so there are moments of self doubt, there are moments
of fear that will keep you stuck. And so there's
this analogy I like to use in these moments of
you know, anybody or in room ever played football, and
I'm not gonna give you a football thing. But if
you'll appreciate this, So in American football, and you've got
(42:55):
the ball and you're running with the ball, and you've
got people trying to bring you down, to trying to
tackle you, and et cetera, the most important thing to do,
the most important thing to do when they're trying to
bring you down is keep moving your feet. It is
not jukum, it is not spin. It does not run faster,
it is not none of the most important thing they do.
And no matter how many people are on you, even
if you're not moving forward, the most important thing to
(43:19):
do is keep moving your feet. In the face of fear,
in the face of failure, in the face of the depression,
in the face of running out of money, the face
of divorce, the most important thing to do is keep
moving your feet.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
That is a mic drop.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I think for me, the hardest part of getting things
up and running is definitely learning how to let go
so that you can grow right. Because when you're thinking
about that first hire, you're still in very much solopreneur
mindset where you feel like you have to have your
hands in everything, and usually your first hire is also
going to be micromanaged about you because you just don't
(43:59):
know how to let things go right. And you're like
hiring somebody to do something, but you're also doing it
for them, and you know that level of trust that
I think is required. You're giving a part of your
baby to be taken care of by your business, by
the employee. And I think that was definitely the hardest
part for me, just learning that I hired so that
I don't have to continue burning out, and just learning
(44:21):
that I don't need to be stirring the pod all
the time.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yes, I'm happy for you, man, I think for me,
what was you know, the hardest part was getting over
the fear of failure and failing publicly, right. I feel like,
back to what you're talking about, building a brand the
only way that you're going to be a true successful
(44:47):
big you know, entrepreneur, small business owners like, oh, yeah,
you're the guy with the T shirt company. You're the
guy that's got there whatever, right, and people are going
to know you from that, and if your business fails,
everyone now knows you the guy with the failed business.
And for me that was so hard because I didn't
want to let down my friends. I didn't want to
let down my parents. I didn't want to let down
(45:08):
random people on the internet that I guess found me. Right,
But it's like getting over that hump of like, no,
this is me. I really enjoy the process and I'm
not doing this for them. I'm not doing this for
anyone but myself. I'm doing this for the journey, and
I'm in it for the long.
Speaker 5 (45:20):
Hundred percent success is the journey, man, Oh, one hundred
percentcesses the journey.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Okay, So our next question comes from Kaylee. Kaylee says,
how do you define success and what kind of mindset
shifts did you make that helped you develop your dreams
to become a reality. So, like, what kind of mindset
shifts did you make to help those dreams become a reality?
Speaker 3 (45:40):
As you were sort of defining success.
Speaker 5 (45:42):
Yeah, so I'll start my saying, so the defining success part.
I used to think defining success wasn't like a dollar mode.
But there's an endless doll like dollar, monds always grow
no matter what scale you at, there was always another
dollar a mode. And so I like to think of
success now is do I get to wake up and
do what I want to do? What did I get
(46:02):
to choose the direction. I don't always get to choose
the tasks, because you know, you just have to you know,
whack a mole. You know, I have to do a
little bit of that when you run the business. But
are these problems that I chose because I chose this path?
And that's how I define success now is do I
get to work on things that I find interesting, hire
(46:23):
out the things that I don't want to do, and
build them for a business that I'm building. That's how
I define success today. I forgot the second part of the.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
Question, the mindset shift that you had to make.
Speaker 5 (46:34):
Oh so, yeah, I am a I'm a vision boarder.
And so I before I bought toll House, I had
buildings like toll House on my vision board because I
knew one day I was going to have buildings. And
so I believe that you should keep a vision in
front of you of what your ideal life looks like.
And because again, we get caught up in the day
(46:54):
to day mundane stuff, the stuff that keeps us busy
and et cetera, and so you can end up being
so far away from what your vision is for yourself
if you're not paying attention to what the vision looks like.
The purpose of the vision board is to keep your
brain focused on this is the direction I'm going in.
And if you write it down, you're more likely to
just put it in the journal, close it up, put
it in the drawer or whatever. It's on the table.
(47:16):
You don't even open a thing. But when you have
a visual of it right by my mirror when I
get dressed in the morning, it's right there I can see,
and then I get to audit unconsciously all day long.
Am I doing the things that helped me get to
that place I was looking at on my vision board
this morning?
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Well, I know this is obviously we're interviewing year, but
this maybe think about something that I do every year
at the end of the year, which is I write
down on a piece of paper ten things that I
accomplished that year, because I think as entrepreneurs, we're living
so fast, right, Oh, I got to go do this,
I have to go do this, and you're always thinking
about the next thing, the next thing.
Speaker 3 (47:44):
When actuality, it's like, no, we.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Actually accomplished a lot over the last twelve months, right,
we should reflect and get excited about that.
Speaker 5 (47:50):
Absolutely, agree?
Speaker 1 (47:52):
All right, So this next question is from Vanessa. We
all know that first year of entrepreneurship is make or
break for a lot of people. So how do you
serve the adversity in that first year?
Speaker 5 (48:03):
Realize you're not gonna make it in the first year,
that's really it. And so if you are expecting to
be a year in and you struck gold, it just
doesn't happen like that for most people. And so brace
yourself for impact. That's what it is. And so I
was writing on the plane here, I was writing just
kind of like some thoughts I was having because again
(48:25):
I told y'all, like I go through these moments of
like these big leaps, and everyone causes like a different
sort of reaction. And I was thinking about, like how
business is war in so many respects, and it's war
against going broke, it's war against self doubt, it's war
against most of all of us in your mind. One
hundred percent. I agree with that. And finding success, especially
(48:49):
when you're starting to get something going, is a legit,
like scratching and clawing your way to it. It is
survival in so many ways until it's not. And then
once it's not, there's another level because somebody else is
coming for it. And so there I was telling my
wife the other day, like, there is no stasis in business,
(49:10):
like either you're growing or you're dying. That's it. Now.
You may think, Okay, we're flat, we're revenue neutral three
years in a row. You think everything's solid, it's legit.
You just don't see it. And so it's like dying
slow in real life. It's like I can, you know,
eat poorly every day and I may not see it
for the first six months or the first year. You
(49:31):
just don't see it yet, but it's coming. And so
we have to put ourselves in the position to be
thinking about growth at every stage because that's the only
way business thrives is if it's growing.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
No, I totally get that right, the idea of business
cycles and secular growth trends, and if you're operating within one,
you want to be growing within that secular growth trend
for sure. So our next question comes from Francis, And
speaking of Francis that what's up, Francis, when did you
feel like you were fine able to take a breath?
Speaker 3 (50:01):
I enjoy the fruits without.
Speaker 5 (50:04):
I don't do that. Yeah, yeah, I mean I sleep,
but this is my thing like I love to do
what I do. I love it, and some people will golf.
I am mad at you if you golf. Some people
play video games. I only play video games if I'm
playing with my son. I love to work and that's
(50:25):
what I do. And so if I'm chilling with my family,
then I get moments of breathing. And you know, to
use that kind of analogy. And so I don't see
rest how most people see rest. I enjoy, I love,
I thrive, I find joy all these things off of
(50:47):
doing the work. And so yeah, I don't know no
other way to answer that than be honest. I just
don't do like the you finally can rest on my
laurels and that the business run itself. Like the minute
you do that, it is a rap man, I just
believe it.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
That's just when they say, do what you love and
you'll never work like that, all right. So last season,
we asked all of our guests to share their why,
you know, so that spark that keeps them going when
times are tough, and even the thing that inspired them
to open the business in the first place.
Speaker 4 (51:18):
So what is your why?
Speaker 5 (51:21):
Every piece of potential I have I want it expressed
in the real world. I don't want to miss nothing.
When my day comes, I want to be like so
exhausted and so tired because I gave everything to reaching
my fullest potential. That is my why. I want to
give every piece of creativity, every idea that is worthy
(51:43):
to chase, every gift, every word of encouragement, every blessing
to somebody, every piece of advice, every investment I can give.
I want to give it all. I want to be
empty when my day comes.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
We'll lucas everybody.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
We just hopped off this stage. Literally they're breaking down
the set right now. And Wow, what an incredible episode, Austin.
I mean, I know there were so many amazing parts,
but what was your favorite?
Speaker 3 (52:21):
A favorite?
Speaker 2 (52:21):
You can't ask me a favorite from that interview, I'm
my gosh. I feel like there were countless nuggets of
information that just blew my mind. But if I could
pick one, I think the biggest takeaway from that was
when Will was describing all these entrepreneurs out there that
he meets and mentors. They find themselves drifting, going from
one opportunity to the next, not knowing what they want
(52:42):
to turn into and not knowing who they want to
be over time and having that time to self reflect
and then build your own vision board can be very powerful.
It's something I'm excited to do now after chatting up
with Will here.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
But man, what an interview. What about you? What was
your favorite part?
Speaker 1 (52:57):
You know, I love the fact that Will gave us
permission to be obsessed with our businesses because I think
there's sort of this like anti hustle culture that's sort
of popping up in a weird way where we're almost
being shamed for being like workaholics in a way where
I'm just like, I don't feel like a workaholic in
my business because I love it and every day that
I get to create, it's just such a blessing and
(53:18):
an opportunity. So I'm glad he gave us kind of
permission to just be obsessed.
Speaker 3 (53:22):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
And actually I want to double click on that because
I think a lot of people listening right now, you know,
if it's their partner, if it's their parents, if it's
their siblings, you know, they might be getting some negative
pressure saying, hey, you work too hard.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (53:35):
You know, there's a lot of time and energy and
focus going into this business, what's coming from it, and
you know it comes back to that self reflection of
if this was what makes you happy, then spend all
the time in the world. Right, this is your baby
you were talking about too. When you hire someone, you're
kind of like giving your baby to someone else. I mean,
that's exactly what's going on. And you are building this
business from scratching. You should enjoy every moment of it.
Speaker 4 (53:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (53:57):
I enjoy being on this podcast with you, Austin, and
I hope that you guys enjoy listening to it. And
that's it for today's episode. You can find me on
social media at jocierrodnetto.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Podcast and you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You
can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
To get the tools you need to start, run and
grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to podcasts,
so you can stay up to date on future episodes, and.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
We want to hear from you, so be sure to
leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
See you next time.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
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