The Serial Success Builder, Young Han - COO of Forever Young Agency - The Dave Crenshaw Success Show

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
I'd love to be a pool boy, and then I'd love to clean
like 10 pools a week. That'd beso really,

Dave Crenshaw (00:08):
how fun would that be? Man, in this episode,
you'll get to know young Han,the serial success builder, and
you'll hear the story of how hisbackground of working with large
companies such as Starbucks andApple is helping small emerging
businesses be highly profitable.
I'm Dave Crenshaw, and this ismy success Show. Welcome back,
friends, to the Dave CrenshawSuccess Show. This is where I

(00:34):
speak to some of the mostsuccessful people I've met in my
life's journey, and I'm on thehunt for universal principles of
success that can help both youand my family succeed. If you're
not familiar with me, I'm a bestselling author. I speak around
the world of Fortune 500companies, and I've taught
millions of people how to besuccessful through my online

(00:56):
courses, in particular mycourses on LinkedIn. Learning
with this show, I wanted tocreate something lasting that
could help my family succeed,but I also thought you'd enjoy
learning along with them, Iinterview people who have multi
faceted success in many areas oftheir lives, and I'm looking for
actions that anyone, includingyou, can take right now to be

(01:18):
more successful. So as youlisten to today's episode, look
for something you can do. Don'tjust listen to the story, which
he has a great story, but lookfor actions you can take, and
then that way you'll make myguest success story a part of
your success story, and you'regoing to want to do that today
with my guest Young. Han Youngis the COO of Forever Young

(01:40):
agency, and is a growthcatalyst. With over 20 years of
experience in helping companiesscale, he's been instrumental in
developing companies like Phil'scoffee and Limelight health, and
has also contributed to majorbrands like Starbucks and Apple,
as the founder, co owner andinvestor in multiple businesses.
Young has helped dozens ofemerging businesses grow. He

(02:04):
also hosts the girl dad show, asuccess podcast. Young has fun
creating music, traveling andplaying with his kids. Young,
I'm excited to talk to youtoday. Thanks for being here.

Unknown (02:18):
Hey. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited
to be here. Yeah, and

where are you located today?

Unknown (02:23):
I'm in Austin, Texas. I moved here about five years ago
from California.

That's a real exciting place. Lots of stuff
always happening in Austin.

Unknown (02:32):
Yeah, there's a lot of interesting things happening
here right now. It's a greattime to be here, for sure. And

I just want to point out most people are just
going to be listening to this,but I like how you've got your
nice backdrop and you've got ahashtag, girl dad, light up.
I've got two girls myself. So Ilove that you do that and that
you have a podcast about that.
That's a lot. I

Unknown (02:51):
didn't know you were a fellow girl dad. That's
fantastic. No wonder I like you.
Yeah, kindred spirits.

I've got three kids, one, one boy, right now,
he's 19, and then a daughter 15and 11. So, oh,

Unknown (03:04):
wow, that's amazing. I love it. So you're in the latter
half of the raising part. I'm inthe front part of it,

yeah, well, it's each stage is fantastic. Yeah,
you're quickly going to get tothe stage of having to be the
taxi and or the Uber everywhere.
So yeah,

Unknown (03:24):
it's I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, it's a fun
time, for sure. Already, I'menjoying it. I have a five and
seven year old, and they'restarting to develop, like, their
identity and starting toquestion everything. And so I'm
excited about this next phasewhere they start to kind of
really dig into who they are andwhat they want to be. So should
be fun.

Yeah, they keep you on your toes, and you always
have to watch out, because yourown behaviors get reflected back
at you. So you you go, Oh mygosh, they learned that from me
doing that it's for good or forbad. So okay, so with the show,
what I like to do is I startevery guest with the same
question, which is, when youwere young, I'm talking more in

(04:04):
your teenage years, what did youwant to be when you grew up?
What did you think your careerwould become? Young man,

Unknown (04:10):
I was known for always wanting to be something
different. Every week. I alwayswanted to be something
different. I was so infatuatedwith just the newest and
shiniest thing. And and I'm notreally sure how that you know,
correlates with me now, becauseI also still have shiny object
syndrome pretty badly, and Ithink I equate it to being an
entrepreneur. But I remembergrowing up just getting excited

(04:33):
about every new thing that Ilearned about, and really
wanting to be that thing. But Iwill say the core thing that I
really wanted to be growing upwas a musician. I really wanted
to be a rock star, a super badand I committed a huge portion
of my day in life to it, andbegged my parents to give me
lessons pay for lessons for allthese different instruments that

(04:53):
I learned and stuff. And theninevitably, I remember my mom
sitting me down when I was ajunior in high school or
something, and I. Saying, Hey,I'm probably the only person
that loves you enough to tellyou this, but you're not that
good. And you really shouldconsider something, oh my
goodness, because she sawserious I was taking it, and
she's like, Hey, you know, Idon't really know anybody else

(05:13):
in the world that will tell youthis, that you know, that you
actually need to hear this. Andso you really should consider at
least a secondary thing, to makemoney and afford a lifestyle.
So,

so first comment, here's another connection we
had, because that was part of mybackstory. In fact, I talk about
it, yeah, when I speak onstages, I talk about how I was
off the charts, ADHD, I am I offthe charts? ADHD, and how I had
a band. I tried to be a rockstar. Now for me, it was keys
and I wrote songs and I sang. Sowhat was, what was your, uh,

(05:44):
instrument? Of my favorite

Unknown (05:45):
one was guitar, singing, and guitar and singing,
okay? And I also used to try towrite songs as well, too. I
mean, that's not try. I didwrite songs, yes.

So your mom saying that to you, that's
pretty blunt. Was that what yourparents regularly did with you
is give you tough love likethat, or was that just happened
to be that situation with youtrying to be a musician? Yeah,
they're

Unknown (06:06):
very they're fairly pragmatic people. And so I think
just culturally, most Asians areright. We're really about like,
you know, building, you know, agood lifestyle through chances
and hedging our bets. And sothey were pretty realistic. My
mom was not, though. So my dadwas very binary and very
literal. My mom was very softand emotional. And she actually

(06:27):
comes from a family of artists,right? So all of her siblings
draw, and they're incredibleartists, and my mom is an
incredible artist, like she cansketch and draw things
beautifully. She paints, stillto this day, interesting. Yeah,
yeah. So it was kind of a toughthing to hear from her, because
as the one artist in my life, Ijust assumed she would be very
supportive of me doing that, andshe is, by the way, I shouldn't

(06:49):
say that she wasn't supportive.
She was just having a realisticconversation about making money
and living in a decent standardof living, you know. And

you took that to heart. And what did you start
pursuing after that, then I

Unknown (07:01):
started pursuing business so I started to explore
what it looked like to get abusiness degree. And, you know,
follow more in my dad'sfootsteps, which was, he's also
a great musician. Oh, wow,that's actually funny. He's
actually a guitar player andsinger, and he can sing really
well, interesting, yeah. So he'sa musician as well, too. And I
grew up listening to the Eaglesand, you know, and just, just

(07:21):
like listening to my dad sing,and, you know, good old, good
old classic rock, but he neverdid it professionally. He just
did it as a hobby. And he would,in rare occasions, play, I
almost forgot, because he playedso little, but when he did, he
was incredible. He was, he wasbeautiful voice and great
guitarist, yeah, but he pursuedbusiness, and so I kind of grew
up watching him buildbusinesses, and so I kind of

(07:43):
followed in that footstep. Hewas an entrepreneur. Yeah, very
much. So very, very cool story.
He started with the littleliquor store in Oakland, built
that and was successful with it,and took it to another larger
business, and started sellingjet skis and motorcycles as a
Kawasaki dealership. And thendid really well with that, then
bought a Yamaha, and then so andso forth. And just kept growing

(08:05):
and growing and growing. And Iwatched this man build a very,
very successful business career,you know, in one lifetime. And
being able to see that wasincredibly influential in my
life.

That's really interesting so early on in my
life. Now, now in my family, Ihave some successful
entrepreneurs, but early on, Ihad lots of entrepreneurs around
me who were all failing at it.
So I learned, originally, toavoid it, and also learned
lessons about the mistakes thatsomeone might make, but in your

(08:38):
case, you were actually seeingsuccess. So what were some of
the early lessons that you sawthat still influenced the work
that you do today? Well,

Unknown (08:51):
I think that you have to compliment the story of
success with all the pain thathe went through. So just just to
be very clear, like, you know,when I talk about it in a short
way, you say that, yes, he wentfrom this to this, to this, to
this, to this. But the actualjourney of watching this man do
this was not staggered andsequential like that. I mean, we

(09:12):
had to move 13 times. There wasa lot of money issues, there's a
lot of strife, there's a lot ofhard work, a lot of long hours.
There were years where I wouldsee him very little because he
was working in the business andtrying to build equity and
assets and brand notoriety, orwhatever that may be. You You
quickly learn how hard it is toachieve what he's achieved. And

(09:34):
I learned that at a very youngage that you can achieve amazing
things in this country, and youcan achieve amazing things
through business, but it doesrequire quite a bit of
sacrifice.

And what were some of the sacrifices that you
saw? You mentioned moving arounda bunch of times, yep. What were
other sacrifices?

Unknown (09:52):
So there's two core things that I learned from my
dad just watching him work, isthat you have to be smart enough
to know when. There's a goodopportunity, and understand the
risk, right? And then you haveto be dumb enough to do it
anyways. And so that's the onething I learned from my dad, is
that you cannot exponentiallygrow your business without risk,

(10:14):
and risk comes with failure, andthat's part of the process. And
more often than not, you willfail more than you win. It's
just that you have to keep doingit over and over again, which
leads me to my second lesson.
You have to want it bad enough.
He says this to me all the time.
You know it's like, it's notabout how good looking you are,
it's not about how smart youare, it's not even about how
knowledgeable you are. It'squite literally, how bad do you

(10:36):
want it more than the otherperson you're competing with?
Because anytime you hit somelevel of success, there's going
to be a million copy cats thattry to take it from you. So then
it just comes down to the fightin the dog and how bad do you
want it?

The word I like to use is passion. You need to
have a passion, and this is notjust with starting a business,
but your career. You need toreally deeply love what you do,
because every job, everybusiness, has terrible things
that you hate. That's right,that's inevitable. But if you
love what you're doing enough,and you're passionate about it,

(11:09):
you're willing to work longer,you're willing to do the things
that other people are notwilling to do. Is that, is that
what you're saying, or is thewant driven from a different
place?

Unknown (11:19):
I think it's really accurate. I think that, yeah,
you're absolutely right. There'sso many pros and cons, and I
often think that the consactually are quantitatively more
than the pros, but the pros areso deep qualitatively that they
overcome the cons, right? And soI absolutely think you're you're
barking up the right tree there,and passion is a good way to
articulate it. But I also thinkthat it comes down to what is

(11:41):
the end state, right? So, whatis your end goal, and what are
you trying to do? And for mydad, it was provide a better
life for his family and hiskids, right? Than than he had
for himself. And so that wasworth more to him than, you
know, sleep, physical health,mental health. You know,
sometimes even time with hisfamily that he was building this
for. You know, he sacrificed histime with his family to build

(12:02):
this thing, and this, thisecosystem where we could have a
better life than he did. And soI obviously, you know, didn't
understand it growing up. Sojust I sound very sage saying
this now in my mid 40s, but Ididn't truly understand or love
my father until I started havingkids, and then I started
realizing the sacrifices that hemade, and my obvious empathy for

(12:24):
him shot off the roof, but notonly empathy, but understanding,
started to come into play overthe last few years. I want to
come back

to that later, how you've juggled the
responsibility with your familyand your business. For now,
let's talk about what youstudied in college. You studied
marketing, correct? Yeah,

Unknown (12:41):
so I studied marketing in college, and it ended up
being marketing because I hadstarted a business in college,
and by the time I was getting tothe point of dropping out
because my business was allconsuming my time, I had quickly
realized that I needed to finishcollege, and I chose marketing
because there was the leastamount of credits and scoring

(13:03):
that you needed to graduate.
Okay, and so I actually wantedto go into business management
or information systems, so misbut I chose marketing because
you can get C's and D's and takea lot less classes, and you can
get that marketing degree. So Ichose that one at the at the
very tail end of my college,college career, that's

interesting, that in in and of itself, is a
entrepreneurial approach to it,right? It's very pragmatic. I
know I need to get this done. Ikind of did that late on. Now, I
studied entrepreneurship, butyeah, during the back end of my
senior year, I was alreadyrunning my business, and I'm
like, no one's going to look atthis resume. That's right. I'm
going to accept C's on these notbecause I'm not capable of

(13:48):
getting an A, but I just, I'vegot better things to do right
now, but I still learned a lotduring that time. Did you did
you find that you learned a lotabout marketing that's still
useful to the work that you dotoday?

Unknown (13:58):
Absolutely, I learned a lot about business in general,
and I feel like I was probablyone of the most productive
students in my classes. And Idon't say that lightly, because
I feel like I aced all my tests,I participated, I attended every
class, and I learned I justdidn't have time to do the
homework because I was busyrunning a business, and so I
ended up getting C's and D'sbecause, you know, most of the

(14:19):
classes are weighted to beinstructional in that sense, but
I aced my testes and failed myhomework and got C's, and it was
a good rub out, and I still gotmy degree.

And what did you do so you were running the
business? Did you continue torun your business after you got
your degree? Or did you startworking for another company at
that point? Or both?

Unknown (14:39):
I did start working for another company, the business
was all consuming. I didn'trealize it was going to be so
successful, and I just didn'thave the hard skills. I was
young and dumb and nice. Whatwas the business? It was a
Korean restaurant food businessof all things. Yeah, me and my
business partner had no businessbeing in the restaurant. A

(15:00):
business. Let's just say it thatway. I

was going to ask about that, because isn't the
restaurant business perhaps thehardest business you can try to
run as an entrepreneur? I know Iwould never recommend to an
emerging entrepreneur to start arestaurant. That's right.

Unknown (15:13):
I do the same thing now too. So when people ask me what
business they should start, Ialways tell them not to do food
business.

For those who are unfamiliar, why? Why is that a
bad choice? There's

Unknown (15:24):
too many variables. You just have your bet stacked
against you. You can make greatmoney doing it, but it's just
there's a lot more variables. Sothere's not just cogs, there's
also labor, and then the laboris also finicky, because there's
part time labor and full timelabor, and then there's all the
rules and regulations that goaround that two, there's also
perishables. So within the cogs,there's many variables. So it's

(15:45):
not like you just have cogs ofgoods. They're perishable cogs
because they're food items. Andthen lastly, you're you're
dealing with a mass amount ofdirect to consumer so you're
talking about food safety,you're talking about a customer
interactions, customer service,regulations that go along with
those things. All of this eatsinto your margins. So even at
the best case scenario, let'ssay you knock this out of the
park and you have a wonderfulfood business. You're talking

(16:07):
about an average food businesshaving 10% margins. There are
way easier ways to make money.
And so I don't recommend itbeing the first business that
people start. I recommend itbeing like the sixth or seventh,
because then it doesn't matterif they make money or not. They
could just have it for fun, andthen if it does, well, great,

yeah. And for those who are familiar, you kind
of mentioned it, but COGS isshort for cost of goods sold,
which is just basically, whenyou sell something, it costs you
a lot to sell it, and that's whyyour margins are so low and and
honestly, that's why startingany kind of business that is
product based, it just takeslonger it. There's a lot more

(16:42):
stuff that you have to put intoit. So okay, so you had that
restaurant. How did you exitthat? Or is it still going?

Unknown (16:51):
Yeah, we it's not going anymore, but we did exit it to
another restaurant tour. So meand my business partner were
just overwhelmed, and we werenot running it well. We were
just inexperienced young kids,and we did our best to hire more
senior staff that knew theindustry better. And even with

(17:12):
that, though, I was justinvolved in the business too
much, because I was compensatinga skill with time, and so I was
just investing a lot of time,and I was starting to get D's
and instead of C's, so that'sinevitably why I got a marketing
degree, because I realized thatif I didn't finish college, then
I would have never finished so Iwas about to drop out or get

(17:32):
kicked out, and I just said, Ineed to finish this, because I
know for fact, I'm never goingto go back to school if I don't
do this. And I told my businesspartner that, and she looked at
me, she said, well, let's justdrop out, because we have a
successful business, we shoulddouble down on this. And I just
said, I just need to finishthis. And so she's like, Oh, I'm
not doing this, if you're notdoing this. And so we decided to
sell, and I went to college andfinished out my degree, and then

(17:56):
what we were going to do nextwas do another business
together, but be a little moreeducated this time. And so we
were thinking about doing eithera Japanese restaurant or a
coffee shop. And so I worked atStarbucks part time while I
finished school to learn aboutthe coffee industry, and she
worked as a waitress at aJapanese restaurant that was
kind of the next stage. Yeah.
Wow. So

you were using your time at Starbucks with the
mindset of, I'm going to createa coffee business someday.

Unknown (18:23):
That's right, the thesis was, this time, instead
of just jumping into arestaurant, like not expecting
it to be successful, let'sexpect it to be successful and
actually learn about what theheck we're getting into. And so
the next business was going toeither be a cafe or a sushi
shop. And so we're like, Let'sgo work there and learn it, and
then we'll reconvene in sixmonths. We'll finish school, and

(18:44):
then we'll figure out which onewe're gonna do next.

I've said this quote a few times on this show,
but there was a mentor of minethat said, What's the secret of
success in entrepreneurship?
Make sure it's your second time.
See, see an entrepreneurappreciates that, right? That's
awesome, but that's really whathappened, right? Like, you gave

(19:06):
a shot and you're like, oh, thatdidn't work out so well. Now I
know what I need to do, becauseI I had that experience. Okay,
so, did you end up creating thatcoffee business? Or did that
that experience, start to shiftyour attention elsewhere,
because I, when we were doingresearch, I didn't see a coffee
business pop up there, unless Imisunderstood. Yeah,

Unknown (19:28):
I fell in love with working at Starbucks. And so six
months later, we reconvened, andwe talked about, you know, how
they ordered their fish, and howthey structure their business.
And it was really cool. So wedid the analysis on the sushi
restaurant, and then I gave herthe analysis on a coffee shop.
I'm like, I feel very confident.
I know how they make theirdrinks, how they manage their
cogs and like their labor, andfeel good. And she's like, okay,

(19:50):
great. So which one are wedoing? And I said, there's a
problem. And she's like, whatI'm like, I love working here.
And she's like, What do youmean? You love working here?
And. I was like, I love workinghere, and I don't want to do
this anymore. I want to stayhere for a few more

years. Okay, and and then you also work for
another coffee company. Is thatcorrect? Yeah, I

Unknown (20:09):
work for three coffee companies in my career. Lot of
coffee. Okay? I definitely lovecoffee a lot. I love everything
about it. And I've doneStarbucks and helped them open a
bunch of new stores when theiranti competition with Pete's
ended, they could expand intothe West Coast. And so there was
a big land grab for Starbucksback then. And so the second

(20:30):
coffee experience was a startup.
We were a venture backed coffeecompany called Phil's coffee,
and we raised quite a bit ofmoney in a short amount of time,
and I helped them open up 60locations across the country.

So was that you had equity in that company when
you were working with them? I

Unknown (20:47):
did, yeah, I was an early stage employee, so I have,
I still have equity, yeah, inthat company, it's still

around. Okay, so I want to pause on this for a
second, because you definitelyhave an entrepreneurial spirit
and background, yet you'veworked for large companies. So
sometimes I think peopleconsider those options, they're
very different from each other.
So could you just shine a lighton what the difference is
between working in a largecompany versus being

(21:12):
entrepreneurial and startingyour own company?

Unknown (21:16):
For me, I lacked a lot of hard skills, and I think you
can learn a lot by doing, whichis really important, and a lot
of people don't ever do, whichis the problem, right? But the
other problem with just being anentrepreneur or not having
workplace experience is there'ssome common business practices
that you'll never learn unlessyou go through it and you learn

(21:36):
it all over again, the hard way,which is kind of insane to think
about, because most businessconcepts and processes have
already been researched anddiscovered in Harvard, Harvard
Business reviewed. They're allon YouTube. It's about stitching
it together and synthesizingthat information right? You can,
like, find all the informationyou need. There's not that much
innovation in how business isdone, but it's about

(21:57):
synthesizing it and making itusable and practical. And some
of these corporations havefigured it out. That's why
they're big corporations. Andso, you know, for me, it was a
way of getting university right,getting those hard skills taught
to me in a packaged format. Sohow do these companies structure
their internal operations? Howdo they do recruiting? How do
they do employee engagement? Howdo they scale this into multi

(22:19):
units? How do they build thisbeyond 20 employees. Like, all
of those things are packaged upin a really unique and neat way.
And for me, my experience atStarbucks and Apple were polar
opposite, two incrediblysuccessful companies, but run
completely differently. And itwas a really good, hard knock
life lesson for me as anentrepreneur to see how those
two companies did that. Okay,

so let's say that I already have a business. I'm
already an entrepreneur, and I'mhearing this going, Wow, those
are really great lessons, butthere's no way that I'm going to
go work for an apple or aStarbucks. How would someone in
that situation go about learningthose lessons without having to,
you know, get a second job.

Unknown (23:01):
My recommendation would just hire someone that's a
consultant that has those bigbox experiences that they can
pick their brain on or bringthem in. There's a lot of ways
to structure mindshare andsynthesis of like these kind of
like frameworks and processes,and that's my recommendation. So
you can do an advisory board,and have start building that

(23:23):
some sort of advisory councilfor that specifically, and we're
just flat out hire mercenaries,right? There's a ton of
consultants out there that havethat big box knowledge that can
come in and give you advice inany kind of structured scope.
Way.

Is that what you're doing right now is acting
as a consultant? Yeah, that's

Unknown (23:39):
right. So that's what I do currently. So over the last
five years, I've just beenconsulting. And so I just help
companies take my knowledge,building companies at early
stage, startups, building my ownbusinesses, and then working at
these large corporations, andthen synthesizing all of that to
help them figure out what worksbest for them. How

receptive are entrepreneurs to that kind of
training? And I'm this is aloaded question, because having
having been someone who iscoached small businesses, I know
what the answer is. So what sortof obstacles do you run into
when you're trying to lend bigbox knowledge to a small
business?

Unknown (24:13):
It's hard, it's very, very hard for especially small
business owners to adoptsomething that they're not used
to or uncomfortable with,because they're used to being in
a position of power and almostunilateral control. And then
having someone tell them thatthey may be wrong is hard for
most people to hear, especiallyif they have a successful

(24:33):
business, right? So if peoplelike, Hey, I have a $5 million a
year business, or even a $30million a year business, you
that's, that's fairlysuccessful. I mean, that's,
you're already in the top 10% ofbusinesses, you know, in that
sense. And so it's hard forthose kind of owners to hear
that there's a skill gap thatthat may be there. But I will
say that the biggest hurdle is,my biggest hurdle is owners that

(24:57):
are not willing to try to fail.
So. So I'm not as concerned withpeople that are insecure, or I
don't mind that as much, and Ithink that that's fine, and
that's absolutely normal humanreaction. The problems that I
have when I work with clients isthe clients that can't fail,
they have too much ego, orthey're scared of the failure or
the perception value of it. Thatis something that I have a hard

(25:20):
time working with. And I'llusually exit myself out and say
where I'm not a good fit,because it's just not worth my
time

without naming names. Could you give me an
example of what that's likesomeone not being willing to try
to fail? Yeah.

Unknown (25:34):
So my operating system in the way that I have found
success, in all the things thatI've learned is having a very
low ego about your business andletting the data tell you what
it wants to be. So let it win,let it make money. Let it do its
thing, right? It naturally wantsto make money, and typically
it's the owner blocking it fromdoing that. And so I basically
try to tell them, like, let's dothis and figure out what is the

(25:56):
actual data and what thebusiness wants to do to make
more money without you beingemotionally object. I'm sorry,
emotionally, subjectivelyaltering that trajectory. And
then once we have that data,then we can recourse and say,
Hey, what about this? Do youlike and don't like? But at
least we have some quantitativenumbers to say that you're doing
this, eyes wide open, instead ofjust blaming the market or

(26:17):
blaming the customers or blamingthis and that whatever. Because
the reality is, I can get thisto make more money, I can get
this to grow more I can get thisto not use you or your time to
operate this. The reality is,it's just a matter of you being
okay with it at what layer. Butwe need to first figure out how
that's going to work, and thatrequires a lot of testing, a lot
of testing, and probably 70 80%of failing and testing to figure

(26:39):
out what that right thing is fortop of funnel. What that right
thing is for bottom of funnel,what that right thing is for
employee engagement andrecruiting, what that right
thing is for financial analysisand product margin fit, right?
There's a lot of testing thatgoes into figuring every
component of your business andgetting it into a quantitative
measure. And then from there,once I know that how I can make
it money, you decide, do youwant the money, or do you want

(27:00):
your ego and how much between?

I think this applies to anything. But I like
to say that in marketing, thetwo most important words are
test it. You do not know whetheror not something works just
because you you're picturing itin your head, or because you
asked your friends or family,what do you think about this?
Like? You actually have to doit. And it applies to all of the
the numbers of the business,right? We got to test it. We got
to get the data. It sounds likethat's what you're saying.

(27:24):
That's

Unknown (27:24):
it. Yeah, I love that.
You just simplified what I justsaid in a very obtuse way.
That's exactly right. And Ithink for me, it's just a matter
of, like, finding those peoplethat are okay failing a lot,
because it's not easy conceptfor most established business
owners to adopt, because they'vebuilt this infrastructure, this
ecosystem, this this thing, andtypically it's like eight or

(27:45):
nine years, you know, ofbuilding this thing before they
hire someone like me becausethey want to scale it. And so
now I'm dealing with legacy,right? I'm dealing with years of
structure that they built. NowI'm saying, Hey, we're going to
test all of it. We're going to,like, break everything and see
if we can't do it better, youknow? And it's unnerving, yeah,
yeah.

It's so funny that you just said that number,
because I actually say this onon stage, like I'm going to an
EO event. Are you familiar withEntrepreneurs Organization? Oh,
yeah, yeah. So I'm speaking tothem, and in this presentation,
in my book The Focus business, Italk about how entrepreneurs are
typically unwilling to get helpuntil five to seven years into
their business. You just saideight to nine, but it's so true,

(28:25):
right? Like you've got to getpast that ego and have beat
yourself up over and over to go,Wait a minute. You know, maybe I
should bring someone in and helpme out with this. That's right,
speaking the same languagethere, yeah. Where'd you get
your five to seven from I lovethat school of hard knocks, just
working with entrepreneurs,yeah, just anecdotal. Because,
you know, someone comes in, theywould say, Hey, I think I'm

(28:48):
interested in coaching. And Istart talking to him, I'd say,
How long you been in business?
Oh, a couple of years. And thenwhat is the person who's been in
business a couple of years? Dothey start telling me about
everything that's great in theirbusiness, everything that's
going well, because they feellike they have to justify that.
I'm a good business owner, andthey'll do that. And I'd say,
Well, it sounds likeeverything's going well. Sounds
like you don't, sounds like youdon't need a guy like me. And

(29:11):
half the time, maybe more thanhalf the time, they go, Yeah,
you know what? Everything'sgoing great. I'm like, it's a
pleasure to meet you, if you ifyou ever need me in the future,
come back, and that is a patternof behavior that is so
consistent. In fact, I would, Iwould qualify customers if they
hadn't been in business at leastfive years. I wouldn't even talk

(29:31):
to them because I knew that thechance of them hiring me was
almost zero. Yeah,

Unknown (29:39):
it makes a lot of sense. I mean, I guess
anecdotally, I think I feel likeit's the same thing for me too,
like I've noticed the trendsover the last, you know, four or
five years of doing consultingand coaching is that they need
to be tired enough to understandthat they're they're the
problem, and they have to beokay with it, right? Because
it's an emotional journey beinga business owner. And then I.

(30:00):
Also, I'm a business owner too,right? I've started a bunch of
businesses, so I'm also startingto understand their psyche,
because I'm also going throughadvice, and I have these like
little defensive moments aswell, too, you know? And so I
totally empathize with it. Let's

use that as an opportunity to return to your
your career timeline. So youleave Starbucks, you work for
Apple, you work for Phil'scoffee. So talk to me about how
you made the transition fromthat into again, once again,
starting your own business.

Unknown (30:28):
Yeah. So I was very curious about using some of
these new skills and buildingthings out. And I met my co
founder at Apple, actually, andwe started to incubate these
ideas for a social goodplatform, and so I started a
company called Go volunteer inbetween that and Phil's coffee,

(30:48):
which inevitably failed, but ina lot of ways, it succeeded, but
it was our way of trying tobridge the gap between our
desire to do social good and Becivil stewards of our community
while being tech innovators andbusiness people, it was a very
cool platform and product that Iwas very, very passionate about,
because I was trying to figureout ways to mirror, you know,

(31:12):
doing good in the world andmaking money. And it was a
really cool idea. And we, webecame the largest volunteering
network in Northern California.
So that's one, our one claim tofame. We had 55,000 active
volunteers giving back to thelocal community through our
system. But inevitably, Icouldn't raise enough money and
couldn't sell enough enterpriseclients to make it work, and so
I had to stop it and shut itdown and then go get a job.

Okay, so that, I think you just answered my
question, which was, you know,you said it failed. So on a
practical level, you just didn'thave enough money, you just
didn't have enough funding forit because you were spread too
thin, like, what? What was thecatalyst for it not working out?

Unknown (31:52):
Yeah, that's a great question. So practically, yes, I
ran out of money. Butfundamentally, the issue was
that I didn't know how to doenterprise sales, and I had no
skills in doing large scalesales efforts, and it's it's a
completely different processthan normal sales. The executive
sponsor, the stakeholder dealingwith constantly changes. The
sales cycles are over a yearlong. There's a lot of politics

(32:15):
that go into enterprise sales.
You have to understand thenuance of the various
stakeholders, the executivesponsors, the people actually
using the platform. There's aseparate person that approves
finances and the decisions. Itwas much more complicated than I
ever could have realized. And inhindsight, I feel like I have a
better understanding, and if Ihad to go at it now, I feel like
I could, I could tackle itbetter. But in that moment when
I was in building that businessand doing it for the first time

(32:39):
and learning it as I go, as Idid it. It just was a massive,
massive undertaking that I justfell flat on my face on and I
just kept hitting walls andgetting frustrated and emotional
and mentally blocked. Yeah,

well, and the the sales time is slow in
enterprise, right? Like we'retalking about a restaurant, your
sales lead time is a day. Ifyou're just trying to get an
investment, or if they're in therestaurant, it's two minutes,
right? That's right. But if it'senterprise sales, it could be a
year. It could be two years tomove someone through that, and

(33:15):
it gets to something else too. Imean, we've talked about test
it, but I also think the phraseI like is prove it. This is so
true for new ventures. If you'vegot a good product, prove it by
selling it. And sometimes I'llbe presented with opportunities
to invest in a company, and Isay, Well, where are the sales?

(33:35):
Show me that you've got sales.
If you've got something valid,you should have been able to
sell it at this point. And, man,it's amazing how many businesses
get started and just aren't ableto demonstrate that they have a
valid model just by selling theproduct themselves.

Unknown (33:51):
That's right, yeah, it's a really good thesis, and I
completely agree with it. Andnow that I'm on the other side
as an investor, you know, I usedto be fundraising, I'm still
fundraising, but I also doinvesting, and it is interesting
because I lean more towards thatnow as well, too. Whereas
before, I used to be a lot moreidealistic when I was younger,
and now it's like you have to beable to sell it. You have to

(34:11):
find someone that finds enoughvalue to give you money for it,
and you got to keep proving it.
It's a really good thesis. Ilike it. So

it sounds like you're still doing a lot of
different things. So kind ofpaint a picture for us about
what a day in your life is likewhen it comes to your career.
Yeah,

Unknown (34:30):
so I've been kind of on a weird trajectory ever since I
turned 40. Had a prettyinteresting midlife crisis, and
instead of just buying amotorcycle or a convertible like
everyone else does, I moved myfamily to small town Texas, and
I live, you know, in a smalltown here, and I just started to
optimize for time. And I startedconsulting and using my skills

(34:51):
to be a consultant, becausethat's the after doing a bunch
of research, I found that that'sthe thing that I could do for
high rates. So I could work 20to 30 hours a week and spend.
More time with my kids, youknow, and I wanted to be there
for more quantitative time,literally, just more time. I
wanted to be there for the firststeps. I wanted to be there for
their first day at school. Iwanted to be there for those

(35:11):
things, and I wanted that timeoptimization. And so I started
researching how I could do that.
And one of the things that Ifelt like was applicable, given
my strengths and weaknesses, wasusing the experiences that I had
to consult and sell my time foran hourly basis that I can
control. And so I embarked onthis journey of doing this, but
I've never been a consultantbefore, and I didn't know how
hard and how long it would take,so I moved my family to a lower

(35:35):
cost area so that I could buymyself more time to figure out
how to be a consultant, and I'mglad I did, because it took me
nine months to figure it out Icould not sell myself for nine
months. Dave, it was one of theworst experience, most
humiliating and ego droppingexperiences of my life. Because
I feel like I was so successfulwith my career and moving up the
ladder and getting to thispoint, and then all of a sudden,

(35:57):
I just like, it's a differentthing, selling yourself as a
consultant versus selling arestaurant like packaged good.
You know, it's very different.
Yeah, the

product is you, yeah, it's

Unknown (36:07):
you're selling yourself. You're like, that's
literally what it is. Yeah,would

you mind talking to us a little bit about what
that conversation was like withyour wife to make that kind of
move? Yeah,

Unknown (36:19):
and I'll be very transparent here. So because of
our experience in living inSilicon Valley, because of the
venture backed companyexperiences that I've had, and
the different corporateexperiences I've had, I feel
very confident that my rockbottom is I become a tech
executive at at a really wellestablished startup. So our
worst case scenario is still

very comfortable, the risk was mitigated a little.
Yeah, the

Unknown (36:43):
risk to ruin was very, very low. It's very, very low.
And so when I look at our life,I, you know, told my wife, I'm
like, I just feel like we owe itto the people that don't have
this luxury to go try and dosomething that feeds us more.
And I don't know if if it'sjustified or not, but it worked,
and she she believed it, and shesaid, Yeah, I think that makes a

(37:05):
lot of sense, that we should tryit at least. And I said, worst
case scenario, we moved back toSilicon Valley, and I go get a
job, and we make great money andgreat benefits, and I work nine
to five, and we have a verycomfortable life, and that's
literally the worst that's goingto happen to us, and so let's go
try to do this thing. And wepacked up our bags, and sight

(37:25):
unseen moved to Austin, Texas.

Yeah, I think that's really smart. I think a
lot of people will if they havea midlife crisis in quotes, or
whatever it is, where they feellike I need to make a change,
sometimes they're notconsidering the risk. They're
not considering the practicalityof such a thing, and then later
have to deal with theconsequences. So I think it's
educational that you made thatchoice conscious of what the

(37:53):
risks were.

Unknown (37:55):
Yeah, thanks for saying that. I mean, I try to do as
much research as I can on anydecision that I make, and then I
always try to remind myselfagain what I talked to you about
earlier, just be dumb enough todo it anyways, a lesson I
learned from my dad. Yeah,

yeah. Well, there. There is a lot to be said
for just, you know, just jumpinginto something, not knowing what
you're getting yourself into.
Okay, so what has beensuccessful so far? I know that
we've, you've tried lots ofdifferent things, and you've had
a very diverse story as anentrepreneur, lots of different
experiences, but it sounds likeyou've gotten into a groove,

(38:27):
that you found your niche, so tospeak. So

Unknown (38:31):
I finally figured out how to be a consultant, and it
took me a while, and that wasvery eye opening and good for
me, you know, it brought me downto, you know, brass tax hard
skills, which was really good.
And then once I started closingdeals, and I started doing it, I
started to realize I was verygood at structuring things and
helping these businesses scale.

(38:53):
And what I used to do at onecompany, I was able to do at six
or seven at a time, and itdidn't require me working 50 or
60 hours a week, because 70 80%of the stuff that I was doing
was the same. And so one of thebiggest epiphanies I realized
was that there's not that muchuniqueness in each business. I'd
say 30% or less is unique. 70%it's all the same. And so if I

(39:17):
could fundamentally figure outwhat the 70% is and build it
into a process, I should be ableto help more businesses. And so
going back to optimizing fortime, I can now work less and
charge more. And so that was mysingular focus for about a year
and a half, is just figuring outways to optimize for time to
spend with my kids. Then Istarted realizing that that time

(39:37):
spent was even optimizable. Sohow can I build assets that were
not in exchange for hours? Andso I started investing. So I
started taking this excesscapital with my cost savings and
moving to Texas, and then theincome that I was making, you
know, with this optimization ofconsulting to invest. And so I
started doing the typical stuff,like stocks. And then I started

(39:59):
trying, um. Real Estate. Andthen finally, I landed on small
businesses, and the same thingsthat helped me make money in
operating and being a consultantallowed me to operate businesses
really well. And so three yearsago, I started building a small
business, and it's something I'mreally good at. I'm naturally

(40:19):
good at, and so I've beendoubling down on that, building
an operating system that I canreplicate over and over again,
and now I'm testing it onmultiple businesses. So

the small business is different than the
consulting business, yeah. Sothrough

Unknown (40:31):
this process of consulting, I started
documenting the 70% that's thesame, and then putting it into a
system, and then I've beenapplying that system for small
businesses as a coachingservice. The actual reality of
it is, is that one of my friendsreached out to me from a video
production company Flipperedfilms, and she said, Hey, I need
you to I heard you're aconsultant. Now I need you to
consult for me and help me fixmy video production company. I'm

(40:54):
like, no offense, but like, youcan't afford me because I have
to work with tech companies,venture back tech companies,
because you probably can'tafford me. She's like, listen,
we're either gonna shut thisthing down or you're gonna help
me, because we make enough to,like, make a living, but not
enough to make a living. Do youunderstand? And I'm like, I
think I do. And she's like, I'vebeen at this for seven years. I
need something to change. Oh,there's the seven years again.

(41:15):
Dave, yeah, I've been at thisfor seven years. I need
something to change. And I said,Okay, let me just do it for
free. Let's just do a pro bonoand so I just started meeting
with her and her team for acouple of hours a week. And
eventually that became a paidcontract, because they started
scaling so fast, they startedoptimizing and operationalizing
and making a lot of money, andthey were very pliable and open

(41:36):
to trying things and failingforward, which was amazing. That
led to a bunch of referrals. AndI said, Hey, I'm not a small
business coach. Stop referringme. And she's like, I'm not
trying to refer you, but we'remaking more money. We're getting
more successful. All my smallbusiness owner friends want to
know what I'm doing. And so Istarted helping them, and lo and
behold, we helped. I want to saysix before I hired someone. I

(41:56):
said, Oh my gosh, this, this,this system really works. And so
I really doubled down on thesystem. I hired someone and
really formalized the operatingsystem, and then I trained
someone on it, and I startedhaving her do it to see if it's
something that was applicable.
She was also able to help fourclients achieve a million
dollars. It's not necessarilythe end goal for me, but we've
helped. Now, at this point,we've helped 13 companies make a

(42:18):
million dollars in less than ayear. So that's kind of our
operating systems successcriteria. And so then I'm
sitting here going, Wait, why amI making all these other people
rich? I should do this formyself. So I started a pool
cleaning company. I was reallyfrustrated with my pool service.
I was on my fourth pool service,and I just could not wrap my
brain around why it was so hardfor these guys to do their job,

(42:39):
right? So I started researchingthe industry, researching the
mechanics of the business, and Ifound a business partner in GM.
He's my pool builder. He builtmy pool. I convinced him into
doing it. Showed him all myfinancial models, showed him the
business, whatever, and I showedhim my business system. I said,
this is going to sound reallyweird, but I'm going to give you
equity and a small salary, andI'm just going to run you

(43:02):
through my system, and we'regoing to test to see if this
works. And it's been a hugesuccess. It's my most successful
small business to date, and thatkind of inspired me to start
multiple businesses. So now I'vebeen opening four businesses on
average a year for the lastthree years. The

phrase that I like in what you shared here, or
the word is system. And that ismy background. That's where I
came from. Was learning thevalue of systems, processes,
procedures that you put intoplace with a business. If you
look at all the big businessesthat you've worked with, young
Starbucks has systems, Apple hassystems. All of these companies

(43:42):
use them, and yet, so often,entrepreneurs just run things by
the seat of their pants, andonce you get that good system in
place, everything starts to takeoff. So I like that you're
highlighting that for us. Hey,thank

Unknown (43:54):
you. And I love that you're a fan of systems, and
obviously that's probably whyyou're so successful yourself,
because I think peopleunderestimate how the boring
stuff, the kind of mundanesystems building, actually
stacks up to you being morecreative and visionary. If you
just sacrifice a year of yourlife to build proper systems in
your business, it'll literallyfree you from your business. And

(44:15):
it's the biggest jump that I'verealized is that like I felt
hostage to my consultingbusiness because I had to sell,
I had to do finance, I do allthis other stuff, but then I
also had to be the product. Andso it was always inevitably time
in and time out. Even if I wascontrolling it by optimizing for
time, I was still hostage to thebusiness. It could not run
without me. And what I realizedwas the only way to scale this

(44:38):
so that the business worked forme, and I was the owner of the
business, where I could, youknow, own the business, and it
could grow and operate with orwithout me, was by building
systems. And so I love that yousaid that, because it sounds
like you realize this muchyounger than I did. I started to
put this together only a coupleof years ago.

Well, yeah, I first learned about systems.
When I was in college and I wasstudying entrepreneurship, and
they were talking about it, andthat's when it clicked in my
head. I was like, oh, that's whymy family that I had seen
struggle over and over. Theyweren't using systems, and
that's why all that happened.
So, yeah, that was it from thebeginning. Okay, so before we
wrap up, I want to talk just alittle bit about how you are

(45:17):
spending your time. You You madethat move, you changed your
strategy to optimize time. Sohow do you spend time with your
family and with your kids tomake sure that that's a
priority?

Unknown (45:30):
Yeah, so I struggle with it a lot right now, because
I'm super busy with a lot ofcommitments that I've made, and
somewhat intentionally too. Imean, this is a little more
personal, and again, going backto being transparent and
vulnerable here, but up untilabout, I want to say, two years
ago, I optimized for time so Icould be at everything that my
kids did, and my kids werestarting to grow up, and there

(45:55):
were obviously signs that wewere too abundant. And I don't
necessarily know if theyunderstood how hard it is to
live in this world and how hardit is to make money. And so I'll
just tell you the story. So myoldest daughter just out of
nowhere, just looks at me andsays, Dad, are we rich? And I
have to look at her, and I juststare at her for like I could
have been. I want to say it'slike 30 seconds of pure silence

(46:18):
just trying to process whatshe's saying. Meantime, my wife
is freaking out, right? She'slike, who's asking you this? Why
do you want to know that? Who'ssaying this? Like, where did you
get that idea from? And shedoesn't pay attention my wife.
She just stares at me, you know?
And just kind of staresintently. And I look at her, and
I remember this video that I sawon on some tick tock or
something, where shack said it,and so I repeated it, and it was
awesome, but I basically said,Mommy and Daddy are rich, you're

(46:39):
poor. That was the line Iquickly was able to pull out
after like this, we say the samething, dead silence. But what I
realized was, after like weeksof processing, why she would say
that is because, you know, we'reat everything her, her mom's at
everything she. Mom volunteersat PTO. She picks her up, drops
her off, she's, she's, she'sinvolved in the school. There's

(47:02):
like, meet the teachers. I'm ateverything, like, I'm accessible
for every single possible thing.
And there's sometimes whereother kids don't even have one
parent, let alone both parents,are there for everything, right?
And so I'm realizing that I maybe sharing a different point of
view of what kind of person Iwant them to be and I want them
to grow up knowing that you knowyou have to sacrifice things.

(47:24):
Things aren't easy, andsometimes things are hard. And
so I've made a consciousdecision two years ago to start,
you know, showing them how hardI can sacrifice and how hard I
work to build something that'smore meaningful. And so as it
relates to spending time with mykids, I try to spend as much
time as I can with them. And soI try to make sure that I spend
roughly minimum 25 hours a weekwith them, qualitatively,

(47:47):
whether that's through dinner oractivities or reading or some
sort of fun activity and stuff,right? And then, obviously
qualitatively, I try to, like,make it really qualitative as
well. So whether that's likedoing something innocuous, like
just hanging out watching a showtogether, or whether it's really
intensive, like we're gonna godo some sort of activity, like
an escape room together, right?
Some something experiential, butvery intentional about that

(48:10):
time, both quantitatively andqualitatively.

And what patterns have you seen from that?
Tracking the patterns

Unknown (48:17):
that I've seen from that is me being able to manage
things on a monthly basis. Soevery month I look back at it
and I say, How do I feel abouthow things are progressing
versus how much time I put intoit? And then I make those micro
adjustments on time spent onthings for the following month.
So if I'm feeling like mybusinesses are failing or these
businesses are not succeeding, Ilook at how much time I'm
putting into it, and I adjustit. And I'll try to say, let's

(48:38):
give this eight hours instead ofthree, right? Whatever that may
be this month, and then I'lladjust that and sacrifice sleep
or health or whatever to adjustfor those hours. And then I'll
see how that performs thefollowing month. And then I'll
assess how I'm feeling versusthe hours that I put in. And
I'll keep just making monthlymicro adjustments on it, but I
don't mess with my family timethat one's kind of stabilized.
Oh,

that's good. I'm glad to hear hear that I'm going
to send you a copy of my book,young the focus business. Oh, my
God, thank you. I'll beinterested to see what your take
is on it, because you've usedthe word sacrifice a bunch of
times. I actually talk aboutthat in the book, how
entrepreneurs don't need tosacrifice quite as much as they
think they do. So I'll beinterested to get your take on
that when you read that, what doyou see ahead for the next five

(49:21):
years. For you,

Unknown (49:23):
I'd love to continue to meet other business owners and
help them understand how theycan operationalize their
business. I'd love to continueto consult and coach. I feel
like I finally know what I wantto be when I grow up. I love I
love this. And even if I had allthe money in the world, I don't
know if I'd ever stop. It's it'ssuper fun. I've never felt more
alive in my life. And it's weirdsaying that in my mid 40s,

(49:46):
right? Because I think a lot ofa lot of my peers are starting
to, like, think about legacy andwinding down, and I feel like
I'm just starting all overagain, because I feel like I
actually am doing my my thing.
So I feel like I'll do that, butprobably. Probably a lot more
controlled and tempered. And Ithink based on the trajectory of
my pool cleaning business, Ishould be able to do a lot less
consulting and just pick theones that are going to be really

(50:07):
fun for me, emotionally andmentally. And then I'd love to
clean, like, 10 pools a week.
I'd love to be a pool boy.
That'd be so really, yeah,

how fun would that be? Man, would that be
awesome. So you like, enjoy justthat action of cleaning out the
pool.

Unknown (50:25):
I do it for my own pool. I mean, I just do it
periodically. It's just therapy,right? It's just kind of fun to,
like, go in there and clean itand brush it and and stuff. But
I think that there'd besomething really fun about, you
know, being a part of thebusiness in a very micro sense,
one, communicating that standardto the staff. And then two, also
for me, just to kind of levelset, you know, what the point of

(50:46):
all this is? The point of allthis is not money. It's what
makes you happy. And what makesme happy is, you know, downtime
and things that I could do withmy kids. I can imagine a world
where my kid comes and cleans apool with me, right? And
especially if I'm only cleaning10 pools, it's like, it'll take
me a day and a half, two days todo that, you know. And I mean,
that's not fair, because mystaff does that in one day, but

(51:09):
I would take two days to dothat. Those would be the 10
cleanest pools in our in ourportfolio, for sure. But you
know, how enjoyable would thatbe to like, listen to a podcast,
clean a pool, you know, be inthe water, be near water, be
able to take my girls with me,clean pools together, like it
just checks so many boxes,right? Getting their hands
dirty, teaching them how to makemoney, teaching them, you know,

(51:30):
the arbitrage of value, likejust all these different lessons
that go into cleaning a pool.

That's a fantastic place for us to end.
This is, and I completely agree,the purpose of owning a business
is for that business to give youmore happiness, to give you more
joy. Yes, money is important,but you want to feel that it's
giving back to you. And I thinkthat that's true for a career as
well. I think that you want tobe in a place doing the thing

(51:58):
that is helping you feelfulfilled. And for you young,
apparently, that's that'scleaning the pool. I love it.
That's great. All right, so whatI what I do at the end of every
one of these interviews young,is I want to help my audience
find actions that they can take,because I'm a big believer that

(52:18):
it's about the actions that youtake more than just the
knowledge you gain, that'swhat's going to push you
forward. So what I'm going to dois I'm going to suggest three
things that someone can do todayor this week based on your
story, and then what I'd likeyou is to add a fourth one in
there, a specific action that alistener can do. Okay, great. So

(52:40):
I'm going to go right back tothe beginning, and I think the
beginning was full circle withyour story, where your mom sat
you down and said, Young you'renot going to be a musician. She
had an honest conversation withyou, and that's also what your
career is about, right? Sittingdown with entrepreneurs and
having honest conversationsabout objective information. So

(53:02):
my suggested action is to findsomeone who can have that
conversation with you, someonewho you trust, and have them
tell you the things that no oneelse will say bring a low ego to
it, and that is always eyeopening. It's not fun. It can be
a little bit painful, but havingsomeone you trust have an honest

(53:24):
conversation with you is alwaysvaluable. The second I'm going
to go back to that phrase thatyou used. You were talking about
data and reviewing things, testit if you have an idea for a
business, or you have an ideathat can help the business
you're working in Grow test it.
Create an AB test where you doone thing one way, and the other

(53:47):
thing the other way, and comparethe data and see what happens.
Try to move a little bit awayfrom just relying on intuition
and gut feel. And then last one,I'm going to go back to that
final concept, which is, askyourself, is the business that
I'm in, is the job that I have?

(54:09):
Is it giving me more happiness?
Is it giving me more joy? And ifnot, ask yourself, What's
something I can do to move alittle bit closer to the thing
that actually is going to makeme happy? That might be a
difficult decision. It mighttake some time. And maybe you
can't uproot yourself and moveto Austin to make that decision,
but you can do one thing today,to move yourself a little bit

(54:30):
closer to a job, a role, abusiness that gives you
happiness and joy Young. What'sa an action you would suggest
for someone?

Unknown (54:40):
Yeah, yeah, so. And just to add to that, a fourth
one that might be helpful forthe listeners is articulate the
end in mind. So what is the endgoal? And if you can, and I know
this is weird for some people,but just repeat that end in mind
every morning. Just make surethat you articulate that to
yourself every single day. And.
Yeah, just kind of give yourselfthe daily affirmation, because

(55:01):
all of it is all of it shouldnest into an end goal. And you
have to be very, very clearabout that end goal for
yourself, both personally andprofessionally, or no one's
going to be able to help you,and you can't help yourself.

I love it. That's fantastic advice. One way that I
do that is I create a weeklyemail that repeats and it sends
myself a reminder of all thosethings that are most important.
So nice. Yeah, that's a greatadvice. Young, it's been a real
pleasure to talk to you and getto know you. If someone wants to
follow you and they want tolearn more about you, where
should they go? Obviously, ifthey've got kids, girl, Dad

(55:38):
would be a great podcast. Butwhat's a place where they can
get in contact with youpersonally and learn more about
how you might be able to helpthem? So

Unknown (55:46):
the central place that leads out to everything is
always han.com so it's kind ofmy play on my last name, H, A,
N, so always Han is always alsoon, because I'm always on. Oh,
so yeah, always Han is kind ofmy main website that leads to
all my businesses and how youcan work with me. And there's a
little widget that you can sayand you fill out a it kind of

(56:07):
leads you through logic tree totell you what best way to work
with me is. I love

it. Always han.com. Young, thanks so much
for sharing your time generouslywith us. I know that your story
will inspire a lot of people.

Unknown (56:17):
Thank you so much for having me. I had a really great
time, and thank you

everyone for listening. Remember, it's not
just about the knowledge thatyou gained or the inspiration
you received. It's about theaction that you take. So do
something. Do one thing todaybased on what you heard, and
you'll make young Han successstory a part of your success
story. Thanks for listening.

Darci Crenshaw (56:41):
You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw
Success Show, hosted by my dad,Dave Crenshaw, and produced by
invaluable incorporated researchand assistant production by
Victoria Bidez, Sound Editing byNikic Wright, voiceover by me
Darci Crenshaw, and the music isby Ryan Brady via Pon five

(57:02):
licensing, please subscribe tothe Dave Crenshaw success show
on Apple podcasts Spotify,wherever you like to get your
podcasts. If you have asuggestion for someone my dad
might like to interview, pleasesend it to guests at Dave
crenshaw.com and please don'tforget to leave us a five star
review. See you next time you.

All Episodes

The Serial Success Builder, Young Han - COO of Forever Young Agency

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

24/7 News: The Latest

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Serial Success Builder, Young Han - COO of Forever Young Agency