February 12, 2025 • 35 mins
Welcome to another empowering episode of the "Entitled to Nothing" podcast, where we dive deep into the intricacies of personal and financial growth, navigating failures, and the undeniable power of authenticity. Join Myself and my producer Mike as we explore how money amplifies your true self, the importance of authenticity in differentiation, and how to cultivate resilience and discipline beyond mere motivation. Today's discussion is packed with real-life insights and actionable advice aimed at helping you craft a life by your design. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned business owner, or anyone in between, this episode will equip you with the tools to enhance your journey towards success.
Hashtags:
#PersonalGrowth #FinancialWisdom #Entrepreneurship #AuthenticityInBusiness #EntitledToNothingPodcast
Chapter Markers:
0:00 - Introduction: The Power of Money as an Amplifier
0:49 - Speaker 2's Reflection on Personal Missions and Goals
1:09 - Why Authenticity Matters in Personal and Business Growth
1:45 - Interactive Q&A Session: Real Questions from Listeners
2:10 - Discussion on Authentic Engagement and Listener Involvement
2:34 - The Importance of Being Genuine in Public and Private Arenas
3:15 - Returning to the Studio: Reflections on Work-Life Integration
3:38 - Deep Dive into Personal Failures and Building Confidence
4:17 - Strategies for Rebuilding Self-Confidence Post-Failure
5:17 - The Role of Commitment and Strong 'Why' in Overcoming Challenges
5:57 - Understanding and Building True Confidence
7:04 - Self-Education and the Pursuit of Competence
8:05 - Establishing Authority Through Knowledge and Expertise
9:20 - Differentiating Yourself in a Competitive Market
10:01 - The Significance of Authenticity in Business Success
10:30 - Taking Responsibility and Learning from Failures
12:25 - Strategies for Standing Out in a Competitive Industry
13:05 - Creating Emotional Connections Through Business
14:00 - Leveraging Personal Values for Business Differentiation
15:04 - Focusing on Community and Brotherhood in Business
16:43 - Balancing Business Sense with Personal Authenticity
18:02 - Maintaining Authenticity Throughout Business Practices
21:30 - Dealing with Motivation and the Myth Behind It
23:23 - Embracing Discipline Over Motivation for Long-Term Success
25:15 - Aligning Personal Values with Business Goals
27:17 - Skills and Character Development for Achieving Business Success
28:06 - Prioritizing Skill Acquisition and Personal Growth in Business
30:31 - Handling Burnout and Recharging Creatively
32:27 - Utilizing Personal Passions to Fuel Business Endeavors
34:19 - Closing Remarks: Engaging with the Audience on Personal Motivations
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Money is an amplifier .
It makes you more of who youare.
If you're an asshole, you'remore of an asshole when you have
money.
If you're generous and kind,you're more generous and more
kind when you have money.
If you're truly a fucking dogthat works his ass off.
The more money you make, themore motivated you are to
fucking work harder and get moreshit.
The easiest way todifferentiate yourself as a
(00:21):
business owner, as anentrepreneur or a freelancer is
through being your unique selfand authentically doing business
and handling yourself in theway that you would authentically
do it.
I analyzed who they were, whothey were.
We positioned ourselves in themiddle and then we got really
clear on, like what needs wewanted to meet and how we wanted
to sell the brand, butultimately, it was the
(00:43):
authenticity of us and the branditself that built the
relationship with the customers.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I won't waste another minute.
No, I won't.
I'm a man on a mission.
I'm a man on a mission.
I don't need no permission.
I'm a man on a mission.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Welcome to Entitled to Nothing, where we believe our
life is our fault.
My name is Mink and I startedthis show for two primary
reasons.
The first one is I want toshare everything I've learned on
my journey to help inspire youon yours.
I want to share the failures,the lessons and also the
victories along the way.
And the second reason is I wantto build a community and
(01:30):
connect with like-minded men whoare ruthlessly committed to
creating life on their terms,and I think one of the best ways
that I can do that is byconnecting with you guys and
answering some of the questionsthat you guys ask me on a
day-to-day basis.
So today, what I've done is I'vebrought my producer, mike, into
the studio with me and he'sgoing to be the voice of the
(01:50):
people.
He's going to read off some ofthe questions that you guys have
submitted and we're just goingto have a candid conversation
and talk about how we cancontinue to improve, to learn
and grow and inspire each otherthrough our own actions and
ultimately help everyone learnand grow together.
So, with that said, mike,thanks for jumping on, bro,
you're always behind the camera,I am.
(02:10):
And I'm excited to do this.
This is like a new littlewrinkle in the podcast.
I know we've talked aboutbringing in some questions and
really trying to find more andcreative ways to connect with
the audience, and I think thisis going to be a good way to do
that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
You guys have been awesomereaching out giving us a lot of
questions, so we really wantedto get your guys' voice in here
and I decided I'll ask thequestions and put you on the
spot.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
We got Mike on the mic as the voice of the people.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, and then we get your authentic reactions.
No scripting here.
I know you guys see that a lotin other places, but we're going
to give you the real it's been.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You know what's crazy is?
It feels like it's been foreversince we've been in the studio.
I woke up this morning and Iwas like, okay, I got to get in
the mindset of creating contentagain with.
You know, I've been going backand forth to Hawaii for the last
six months.
I had an opportunity to rentkind of a dream place down there
and give it a test drive ofhalf my time in Arizona, half my
time in Hawaii, and then thelast couple times we've kind of
(03:06):
had opposing schedules.
So this is the first time we'verecorded in maybe 45 days,
which feels really awkwardbecause, we were recording every
day for like six months.
So I'm excited to get back inhere and really excited to
answer some of these questions.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah and yeah, we got the new content out the vlog.
People really liked that.
You guys have been awesome invoicing that as well, so some of
these questions are going tocome from that.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And yeah, stay tuned because you'll get to see the
cool place in one of the vlogscoming up.
Awesome man, you want to diveinto the first question?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, let's go All right.
So the first one is from JasonP.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
He says you've talked openly about your bankruptcy
and personal failures.
How did you build yourconfidence after experiencing
personal and financial failuresand what was your first step?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, man, that's such a great question and I feel
like confidence is a funnything.
You know, it's so difficult tobuild and so easy to lose.
At times it's a little bit likemomentum, you know, when
everything feels like it's goingyour way, you're like man, like
I'm kicking ass, I'm takingnames, all these things are
happening, and then it's areally difficult thing to build.
It takes time and energy andeffort, and then you know, one
(04:12):
failure, one setback, one bigthing can really cause you to
doubt yourself.
I've spent a lot of timethinking about this because the
truth is, most of my life Ididn't have a lot of confidence
and I didn't really believe inmyself.
(04:33):
You know, the first thing thatI did to develop confidence was
make a commitment to neverfucking quit, no matter how hard
it got or no matter how unsureI was in what I was doing.
You know, I vividly remember apoint in time when I was first
getting my first businessstarted and nothing was working
and months were going by and Iwas putting all my energy into
it and there was a moment whereI was just like I don't know if
I'm ever going to figure thisout, but I will never fucking
(04:53):
quit, I will figure it out or Iwill die fucking trying.
And so I think the first stepto building confidence is just
making the commitment that, nomatter how little or low you
feel about what you're doing,how improbable it seems, that
you commit to never giving upand in order.
I think the only way you canhave that level of commitment is
if you have a really strong why, like why do you want to do
(05:16):
this?
And in the beginning, for me, Ihad a very, very clear vision of
how I wanted to live my life,and it was that vision and the
contrast between where I was andhow shitty my current
environment was and how, likepassionate I was about creating
that new vision, that new idealcircumstance that I just said.
You know what I'm unwilling tolive like I am today.
(05:37):
The only outcome is for me toget where I want to go.
I want to be able to own my ownbusiness and travel and
experience that life, and Idon't care how much confidence I
have, like I'll just never quituntil I figure it out.
So I think that's the firstplace to start is just a massive
commitment to never quitting.
The never quitting comes from astrong why.
And then from there.
What also has really helped meis understanding what confidence
(06:01):
actually is.
Confidence comes from the rootword fidere, which in Latin
means with trust or to trust,and I never realized it until I
read that and heard that.
So confidence is really likehaving trust in something,
because we all have differentlevels of confidence.
Right, like you were military,you were SWAT.
(06:22):
Right, one of the things youtalked about all the time is how
proficient you were withtraining, with gun skills,
whether it's pistols, rifles,whatever and I remember we were
bantering in the office one daywith a couple of the guys and
you were like I will fuckingsmoke you in a shooting
competition.
And that confidence comes fromtrusting the fact that you've
put in all the time, energy,effort to be really fucking good
(06:43):
.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, made the mistakes and grew from them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, so there's two elements to confidence that I've
experienced.
The first one is trust.
But where does trust come from?
It comes from competence, whichis what you did.
You developed your competenceby thousands and thousands and
thousands of you know bullets atthe range or whatever you know.
And so for me, when I didn'thave any confidence in myself, I
(07:08):
had commitment.
But the reason why I didn'thave confidence is I didn't have
competence and so, like by luckand also by modeling other
people, I just threw myself intoself-education.
And you know, I've talked aboutit on the podcast but I've
spent, you know, almost halfabout it on the podcast, but
I've spent, you know, almosthalf, over half a million
dollars on books, trainingcourses, mentorships, programs,
(07:34):
blah blah.
In the beginning, obviously, Ihad no money, so it was like
mentors audio books.
I listened to Tony RobbinsUnleash, the Ultimate Giant,
within or something like that,his audio book on CD, over and
over and over for years to justtry to reprogram my mind.
So to sum all this up in asimple answer, it's like in the
beginning you probably don'thave a reason to have confidence
because you don't have anycompetence and the first thing
(07:56):
you do is go develop some skills, develop competence.
The more you trust in yourskill set, the more confidence
you have in that particular area.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Did you find, when you were speaking to things and
you started to really be theauthority in that space, did
that help build the confidence?
Like you know, a lot of peoplesit there and they don't really.
They do this competition thing.
They compare themselves toother people.
But then you start to see likepeople start asking you a lot of
questions and you start torealize, like but then you start
to see like people start askingyou a lot of questions and you
(08:26):
start to realize like, oh, I amthe authority in this.
Like I do know what I'm talkingabout.
Did that help build theconfidence as well?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, you know, I don't know that it was so much
about me talking about it andlike being an authority, it was.
So actually it's an interestingquestion.
So you put in the work rightand talking about business right
.
So actually it's an interestingquestion.
So you put in the work rightand talking about business right
.
So I spent years and years andyears developing my skillsets in
sales, marketing, branding, um,and then built a couple of
businesses, sold a couple ofbusinesses, and then people come
(08:54):
to me like, hey, can you helpme with this?
Can you help me with that?
Can you consult with me?
And so I guess the answer isyes.
Like other people, recognizingyou have some value that you
could add to them definitelyhelps me be like, oh damn, I
could.
Yeah, maybe I'm undersellingmyself and I think you know it's
interesting.
We usually, as men, we usuallyfall into one of two categories
(09:15):
Either we oversell ourselvesarrogance or we undersell
ourselves.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, humility yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know, and the truth is having a healthy ego,
like trusting and believing inourselves and knowing that we're
badasses in the area that weare actually, but then being
honest with ourselves.
And I think if you have too muchoverconfidence, a lot of times
you're lacking substance.
So I don't know if that answersthat question particularly, but
(09:43):
I think anytime you develop abody of work and you generate
results, when people start totake notice of those results, it
definitely helps you seeyourself in a different
perspective because our personalbiases of how we view ourselves
and how the world views ustypically are very different and
you're a humble guy.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So when you're sitting there and you're being
humble, sometimes you don't giveyourself the credit that you
deserve, and then when you seeit from other people, it really
helps hype that up a little bit.
And then the second part tothat question is you've said
this that you failed over andover again.
Right, that first step that youtook the first time, the second
time it happened and you wereworking through that again.
Was it the same first step, Didyou, or did you change it up,
(10:26):
or were you more nervous to takethat first step again?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah.
So it's interesting, I think,um, the first step on the other
side of any failure is takingresponsibility for your part in
that failure, and so for me, theway that I have come to
approach this is okay.
Started a business, it failed.
I must have done somethingwrong, I fucked up.
What can I learn from this?
(10:51):
And so I think oftentimes infailures, the easy thing to do
is to blame situations andcircumstances or external
factors.
Oh, the market was bad, theeconomy collapsed.
Oh, this person fucked me, orthat thing happened, and those,
all those.
All might be true, but you'rethe only one that's in charge of
(11:12):
the actions and the decisionsthat you make.
So I think the first step istaking responsibility for it.
And then, you know, one of theone of the biggest lessons I
learned from Tony is he's like Ibelieve everything in life is
happening for me, not to me, andif that's the case, every
experience I have has a lessonfor me.
And so I just applied thatthinking to my life and said,
okay, I fucked up, I wentbankrupt.
(11:33):
What did I do wrong here?
Like, this is my fault, Only Idid this.
Now, what can I learn from itso I never have to experience
this pain again.
Where's the gift, where's thelesson?
And then you dig through thatand sometimes it takes days,
months, years to really figureout what that lesson was.
But then, once you get thelesson, you know growth is not
making the same mistakes again.
But the first step for me afterany big failure is saying, okay
(11:57):
, what can I learn from this andhow can I avoid making the same
mistake in the future?
And then you start to develop,hopefully, some learnings that
you apply, moving forward.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, awesome.
All right, thanks, jason, allright.
Next is going to be Mike D LiveBearded has grown into a really
successful company in a reallycompetitive space.
How did you differentiateyourself and what advice would
you have for others trying tostand out?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
yourself and what advice would you have for others
trying to stand out?
Yeah, it's a great question,the idea of differentiation.
You know, one of my fundamentalbeliefs is everything is
commoditized today, especiallyin the world that we live in.
You know, and maybe noteverything, but that's kind of
the frame that I take, becauseI'm not someone who's going to
develop a new patent, a newinnovative technology, a new
piece of software Like that'snot my skillset.
So I look at the world and Isay you know, in the consumer
(12:48):
product business, everything iscommoditized.
There's new iterations of stuff, there's new, you know,
developments of stuff, but soeverything is going to be very
competitive and that key word ofdifferentiation is critical.
So how do you differentiateyourself?
What I did with Live Bearded inthe beginning, when we were
first getting started in 2016,.
(13:09):
The beard market was a lot lesscompetitive than it is today,
but there was some very specificcompetitors.
There was one competitor thatwas kind of on the low end, that
was selling high volume, lowprice stuff, and then there was
another competitor that was onthe high end, that was like the
luxury, premium brand.
So you kind of had like theNordstrom's and the Walmart, if
you will, and I sat down and, atthis point in time, using some
(13:33):
frameworks that I'd learned fromTony Robbins and other business
experts, I understood thatpeople buy products emotionally
and justify them logically,right.
And what people are purchasingwhen they buy anything typically
is a story, a state or anemotion, right?
So I drive a BMW.
I drive a BMW because I likethe car, I think it drives well,
(13:54):
but there's also a story behindit.
It also makes me feel a certainway when I get in it.
Right, I upgraded, I got theturbo.
I got the leather, I got thethings you know, and so that
gives me an emotion, that givesme a story and that gives me an
experience.
And the person that buys thefucking Hyundai, or like Nathan
in our office, right, he drivesa what's the little hatchback
(14:15):
thing?
He has A Prius.
He drives a Prius.
You know it's like that tellssome people buy that and they
tell themselves a differentstory.
It creates a different state ora different emotion.
Oh, I'm a hybrid guy.
I care about the environment, Ido this, I do that.
So, understanding that peopledon't necessarily buy products
as much as they buy stories,states and emotions, I sat down
and I said what emotion issomeone trying to buy when a man
(14:39):
buys grooming products?
What needs are they trying tomeet and what emotions are they
trying to buy?
And I just had a conversationwith my business partner, spence
and I said okay, you know whyis someone going to buy this
product?
What emotions are they buying?
Well, they want to buyconfidence.
They want to buy feeling good,they want to buy looking good,
they want to feel better aboutthemselves.
Okay, cool, like that's a goodstarting point.
(14:59):
And then, what needs are theytrying to meet?
And for us, we looked at beardsand and the company that we
wanted to build, really aroundlike brotherhood, and well, they
want to meet the need ofsignificance, because they want
the compliments, they want tolook good, they want to feel
good and then also, like they,they're probably buying a
product that allows them to be apart of a conversation, right,
(15:24):
the beard, growing a beard,having a beard, is a particular
experience about being a man,and so what we did was we said
what emotions are they buyingand what needs are they meeting?
And we got really clear on whatour competitor was doing.
The low-end guy what need arethey meeting?
Fast, easy, cheap okay.
The high-end guys what need arethey meeting?
Fast, easy, cheap okay.
The high-end guys what needsare they meeting?
(15:47):
And then, by understanding themarketplace and understanding
how other companies werepositioning themselves, we
started to develop a thesis onhow we wanted to position
ourselves, and then we put ourbrand and our culture and kind
of our personality and ourvalues into that.
But if you're a business ownerand you want to differentiate
yourself in the market, thefirst thing you have to do is
(16:09):
understand what is the market.
And then I love usingframeworks that I've learned
through my experiences, like thesix human needs framework from
Tony, the emotional sellingframework from some certain
people, and once you understandthe way that the market is
positioning themselves, then youcan come up with creative ways
to innovate on the market andposition yourself in a new way.
(16:31):
And so what that turned intowith Live Bearded was my
business partner and I had beenfriends for 10 years and we
thought what if we extended ourfriendship to a community of men
?
Both of the brands that wereexisting weren't focusing on the
market segment that we were, or, in building the brand the way
that we were, you know, one wasgoing after the low-end guy, one
(16:54):
was going after the high-endguy.
So we're like we're going to goafter the everyman, the
everyday blue-collar,hardworking American that wants
to look good but doesn't want tospend a lot of money but also
has some standards and doesn'twant the cheapest shit out there
.
So we positioned ourselves inthe middle of where the market
was at that point in time andthen we figured out a story that
was authentic to us and tookour personal values and aligned
(17:17):
those with the brand and thenhit the market with we're here
to help encourage, uplift andsupport our community to look,
feel and be their best.
And then everything we didrevolved around that and we
talked to the market segmentthat was being underserved.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, to that point and you said it just briefly,
but I think it's a bigger pointbeing behind the camera,
following you all over, beingaround you and your business
partner.
You said authenticity, but thatis like a major part of your
brand.
You guys like ruthlessly, sitthere and make sure that
everything you're doing, everysale you put out, every product
(17:53):
you're putting out, everythingis about the community and about
the authenticity of the brand,which I find very rare in other
brands.
So could you speak on that alittle bit?
You?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
know, mike, it's a phenomenal point of
differentiation.
One of my favorite quotes thatI've heard is competition
becomes irrelevant throughauthenticity.
Right?
No one can be a better Mike, noone can be a better Mink than
us, right?
And I think I intuitively kindof understood that from day one
(18:23):
with Live Bearded.
And so Spencer and I, veryearly on, just were the voices
of the brand.
We are the faces of the brand.
We went live every single weekand we understood that if we
built relationships withcustomers through authenticity
and just being who we were, thatthat would also differentiate
us in the market.
And I think oftentimes we tryto focus on strategies or
(18:44):
techniques or hacks, tactics,but at the end of the day, the
easiest way to differentiateyourself as a business owner, as
an entrepreneur or a freelancer, is through being your unique
self and authentically doingbusiness and handling yourself
in the way that you wouldauthentically do it.
(19:05):
And that is probably the singlegreatest differentiator of Live
Bearded.
I'm glad you brought it upbecause I'm sitting here
thinking about like.
Well, what did I do in thebeginning?
Well, I looked at themarketplace, I analyzed who they
were, who they were, wepositioned ourselves in the
middle and then we got reallyclear on, like what needs we
wanted to meet and how we wantedto sell the brand.
But ultimately it was theauthenticity of us and the brand
(19:27):
itself that built therelationship with the customers.
And in the beginning, you know,we started out and we are like.
There's a really great articleby Kevin Kelly.
He is the founder of wiredmagazine.
I highly recommend everybodyread it.
It's called your first 1000fans, or 1000 true fans,
something like that.
Just Google it and he basicallytalks about how anyone that
(19:48):
wants to build a business canbuild a business with a thousand
true fans.
And these are fans that buyevery product you sell, listen
to everything you put out,consume every piece of content,
like they love everything you do.
They're true fans.
And then he says the way thatyou get a thousand is you get
one and then two and then fourand you just continue to keep
(20:09):
building that tribe of people.
And that is what we did, and wedid it through just being our
authentic selves and sharingthat with with the world through
live bearded.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, like I don't want to sum your words up, but
it's like you know, you got tohave business sense, you got to
think logically in the business,but also you can be a person,
you can be yourself.
You don't have to follow everyTik TOK meme, you see, and
everything like that.
Right?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, no, it's spot on, and especially in the world
we live in today.
Um again, if everything iscommoditized and there's no
authenticity or personalitybehind it, then everything is
the fucking same.
But if there's all thiscommoditized beard product or
hats or apparel or whatever, butthere's an a personality or an
(20:53):
authenticity to that brand, thatresonates, that is going to
resonate with a particularpeople and those people are
going to become true fans.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, absolutely All right.
Thanks, Mike, all right.
Last question Put you in thehot seat for quite a while now,
so we got the last one.
All right, jake M, I struggleto stay motivated at times and I
often feel like I don't knowwhat to do.
How do you stay motivated andenergized when you're feeling
frustrated and when you'vealready achieved a lot of
(21:22):
success?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, motivation is such an interesting topic of
discussion and I feel likethere's so much time, energy and
money spent on this idea ofstaying motivated and I just
think motivation is completebullshit.
Motivation is an emotion.
You feel, a particular way in amoment, and that is always
going to be fleeting.
There will be moments where wefeel motivated and there will be
moments when we don't.
And in the early days of mycareer, I acted on motivation
(21:53):
and I reacted when I didn't feelthat way, and so my work ethic
was high and then low, and thenhigh and then low, and I rode
the waves of motivation.
And I think what I've learnedfrom studying the most
successful entrepreneurs,athletes and having really
incredible mentors is amateursrely on motivation.
True professionals developdiscipline, and if you can act
(22:19):
in spite of how you feel, if youcan do what you know you need
to do regardless of how you'refeeling, if you can be that
disciplined motherfucker that isrelentless, then the motivation
actually doesn't matter,because you do what you know you
need to do regardless of howyou feel.
And for me, that's when all ofmy life, my success, my work
ethic, like when everything tooka corner is when I stopped
(22:40):
focusing on staying motivatedand said I'm just going to do
what I said I was going to do,and that comes purely through
discipline.
So the question, then, is nothow do you stay motivated, but
it's how do you developdiscipline?
I believe that discipline isthe bridge that takes us from
where we are to where we want togo, you know, and so the first
thing I would do is stop evenworrying or thinking about
(23:03):
motivation, understanding thatthere will be times when you
have it and there will be timeswhen you don't.
And that is the same witheverything.
There's going to be times whenwe feel great, there's going to
be times when we feel like shit.
Okay, that's part of the humanexperience.
If you want to truly becomegreat at anything, it is only
going to come throughconsistency and discipline.
Um, what was the second part ofthe question?
(23:24):
So it was like how do youmanage it when you're feeling
frustrated?
Okay, so, again, like if you'refucking sad, sick, frustrated,
upset, you just rely on yourdiscipline.
Your discipline becomes thebridge, it becomes the crutch
and success.
You know, one of the thingsthat's super interesting about
success is you find out whopeople really are when they've
(23:44):
experienced a lot of successMeaning.
I think money is an amplifier.
It makes you more of who youare.
If you're an asshole, you'remore of an asshole when you have
money.
If you're generous and kind,you're more generous and more
kind when you have money.
If you're truly a fucking dogthat works his ass off.
(24:04):
The more money you make, themore motivated you are to
fucking work harder and get moreshit done.
And then there's a lot ofpeople that when they hit a
particular level of success,they take their foot off the gas
and they coast.
And the greater level ofsuccess that you have reveals
kind of who those are, or whatcharacter traits you possess,
based on resource.
And so for me, again, it goesback to discipline, because if
(24:28):
you've, if you're the type ofperson that's developed the
discipline, you are actuallyfocused more on the action than
the result.
One of my favorite quotes saysthe man that loves to run will
run farther than the man thatloves the destination.
And so I think you know ifyou're only working to get to a
(24:50):
certain destination, yourpotential will always be capped
at that destination.
But if you just fall in lovewith the process, then the goal
is to work on the process andnot get to the destination.
And so and this is where, asmen you know we have to decide
what journey we want to run.
(25:10):
And there's no, I don't thinkthere's a right or wrong journey
.
I'm not here to tell anybodywhat journey to live.
You know some people.
They want to get to a certainpoint.
They want to make you know ahundred grand, 200 grand,
whatever it is, and then theyjust want to coast and they want
to be a little league coach andhang out their kids and be home
for every dinner at five.
That's fucking amazing ifthat's what you want.
But the key is like gettingclear on what you want so that
(25:34):
you don't have regret of notdoing the things that you felt
you could have done.
So understanding what you'reoptimizing for, I think, is
really critical, but all of thatcomes from understanding.
Motivation is an emotion, and Ithink emotions are the last
thing you should focus ondiscipline, habits, consistency,
rituals, routines that's whereI put all of my energy now and
(25:55):
those habits and routines aregoing to determine the results
that we get.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
So do you look at it more like when you look at
what's next or staying motivated, for lack of better term?
Are you looking at the moneyaspect of it, like I want to
make more money?
Are you looking at the, the,the growth, like I want to grow
this 10 X business and the moneydoesn't really factor into it?
Like everybody and I know thisis going to be a hot topic and
(26:21):
probably a hot take is like somepeople don't worry about money.
Like you know, speaking to mylittle thing is like I don't
worry about money.
I worry about the, the, thejobs we do, and like making the
best possible product andgrowing that business.
You know growing the business,so like, do you focus on that?
Or goals, like the goal to hitthis amount or the goal to?
(26:42):
you know, get to this next thing.
You know which, which do youkind of prioritize, or?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
which would you think is better?
It's interesting.
So, um, I think the only reasonwhy we don't have something
that we want is we're not thetype of person capable of
creating that result yet.
Um, so what that means is we'vegot a skill gap, a knowledge
gap or an execution gap, and soI think, early on, like the
(27:09):
answer is not binary, it's likeall and so what that means is
like yes, of course I focus onthe monetary results.
At times in business, money isthe scoreboard of business right
, being in great physical shapeis the scoreboard of working out
, of eating healthy.
In business, we talk about thisidea of lead measures and lag
(27:31):
measures, and this is from thebook the Four Disciplines of
Execution.
It's a great book, greatmethodology.
A lead measure is somethingthat's influenceable.
How many pushups you do, howmany sales calls you make, a lag
measure is the result of thataction.
How many pushups you do, howmany sales calls you make, a lag
measure is the result of thataction.
How many pushups you can do inthe future is a result of how
many you do today.
How many sales you close is alag measure of the number of
(27:54):
calls that you make, theinfluenceable action.
And then you have the result ofthat.
And so I think all of us attime are going to focus on the
result, because that is kind ofthe fire starter, that's the
motivation.
And, of course, I have very bigfinancial goals and I want to
live a particular life and Ineed a particular financial
capacity to do that.
But I've also learned that theonly way I'm going to get to the
(28:18):
financial goal is byunderstanding who I need to be
to get there.
And so, for me, the skillsetacquisition, the character
development, the skills, thetraits and the beliefs that we
have those are the buildingblocks for the results that we
get.
The way I approach it is verysimple Okay, what result do I
want to create and what skillsdo I need to create that result?
(28:42):
And am I committed to either?
And now, like when I startedLive Bearded, I started it
because I wanted to make money,I wanted to create a certain
level of financial capacity, andultimately I was like one day
I'm going to build an asset thatI'm going to sell.
And then, as I got into thisjourney and I'm eight years into
Live Bearded I'm like, damn, Idon't want to sell Live Bearded,
(29:04):
I want the skills.
I want to acquire the skillsthat are going to come from
taking it from an eight figurebrand to a nine figure brand,
and so part of it isunderstanding that the journey
changes along the way.
In the beginning it was about memaking money and living a
certain life, and that's stillcritical and that's still an
indestination.
(29:25):
Right, if you're charting acourse on a map, you have to
have an idea of where you'regoing or at least what stops you
want to make along the way.
But for me now, I think a lotof the decisions I make are
based on who do I have to becometo get that?
Am I committed to doing thatand becoming that type of person
, and what skills do I want toacquire?
(29:47):
Because, again, if the resultsthat we get are based on who we
are and what we become, then weshould focus more on who we're
going to become and what skillswe want to create, and so a lot
of my decisions are now made bywould I like doing those things
and developing that skillset,and what else can I apply that
(30:08):
skillset to in the future?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, and then like so for motivation and I don't
want to speak for Jake, but he'ssaying how do you stay
motivated?
But also another thing is likehow do you, how do you forego
burnout?
Like is it just you alwaysinnovate something new, like you
started this content creation?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
You're still running your business.
You have this content creation.
You're growing that now too.
Is that to forego like hittingthose?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, I mean, the truth is like we all get burnt
out at times, you know, and weall have different thresholds
and different circumstanceshappen that require us to get
burned out more often.
I just look at, well,circumstances happen that
require us to get burned outmore often.
I just look at, well, what thefuck does burnout mean?
It means I'm low on energy, I'mlow on creativity, I'm low on
(30:53):
drive.
Okay, that would be maybe how Idefine that.
So then I just go through aprocess, like we all need to
know what we like to do.
That recharges us, you know.
And so I think all of us willget burned out and all of us
will deal with shit and all ofus will be unmotivated Burnouts
and emotion.
You're low energy, you're lowcreativity, you're low drive.
Okay, well, what do you do toincrease your creativity,
increase your motivation,increase your drive?
(31:13):
Well, a, you have disciplinethat carries you through those
moments, because those momentsare temporary.
And then, b, I like to have alittle bit of grace myself.
We went to Fiji together.
Right, I got this place in Mauibecause my favorite place in
the world is the beach.
That's where I feel the mostrecharged, the most creative,
some people it's spending timewith their kids, it's playing
basketball, it's like.
Ultimately, I think, when wehit that point of lack of
(31:36):
motivation or lack of burnout,we need to remind ourselves why
we're doing what we're doing,and then maybe we need to take
some time to do the things thatwe enjoy doing, and by
understanding ourselves, we canthen figure out how to always
bring our best selves to themoment.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, and to speak to that, I just want to clarify
because I've seen this firsthandis like, just because you're
going to Fiji and just becauseyou're working out of Maui, your
level of dedication and workinghard doesn't change.
You just enjoy the ability tobe in a place that you truly
love.
While you're doing it, younever stop working.
(32:11):
I mean, I've watched you on abeach in Maui texting about
analytics and about how thingsare operating and stuff like
that.
So it's doing the things youlove, but also you're still
always driven.
You're always recharging.
You're using those things torecharge you to do the business.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I guess maybe I feel very fortunate because I've been
playing this game of businessfor 15 years and I've done it
long enough now to figure outwhat are the things that help me
push through that kind ofenergetic lull or that drive,
the lack of drive or the lack ofmotivation.
And for me again, I started myfirst business because I wanted
(32:48):
to travel and I wanted toexperience different
environments, and so I know,oftentimes when I'm just really
fucking drained, the best thingI can do is just have a change
of environment, and just bydoing that it reignites my
inspiration and my creativityand my passion.
And so the most important thingthat I can communicate is like
motivation is going to come inwaves, burnout is going to come
(33:10):
in waves, drive is going to comein waves, and that is part of
the human experience.
Don't make yourself wrong forthat.
Just understand that you needto tap into a new part of
yourself or you need to giveyourself something different.
You know, if you have a plantand the fucking plant starts to
wilt, it maybe it needs moresunlight, maybe it needs more
water, maybe it needs less water, you know.
(33:31):
And so I kind of think ofmyself in a metaphorical way
like I'm a fucking plant, andthere's going to be some
environments I thrive in,there's going to be some
situations where I needsomething, and if I understand
what I need in those moments andI give myself more sunlight or
more water, or maybe I reducethe amount of water that I'm
giving myself, ultimately that'sgoing to help me stop wilting
(33:51):
and start thriving again, andall of us have that, that kind
of code for ourselves.
We have to figure out, as men,what is that blueprint for us to
feel inspired, motivated,driven, passionate.
All of those, though, will comeand go, and what stays
consistent is the discipline todo whatever you need to do, no
(34:11):
matter what, and oftentimes,just the discipline and the
self-satisfaction from thediscipline carries you from lull
to lull.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah.
So everybody out there, goahead and comment in this video
or, if you're listening, go onInstagram.
Tell us what motivates you orwhat is your, what's your plant,
what is what gets you fired up?
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, do the work, sit down and figure it out and
learn and grow.
Um, I love to do this episode,bro.
This is the first questionsthat we've done from the
audience.
It's a lot of fun and actuallywe cover a broad range of topic
and I definitely want to do moreof them.
If you guys like this style ofcontent just kind of this free
flow form between Mike and I youcan go to Instagram, follow me,
shoot me a DM, shoot me aquestion, drop your question
(34:57):
below this.
I'd love to hear from you andI'd love to answer your
questions so we can connect andengage and get to know each
other more.
I started this podcast againbecause I wanted to share the
lessons I've learned on myjourney, to help inspire you,
and, if you've listened throughthis entire episode, I just want
to say thank you for spendingyour time with us today.
I know there's a lot of placesand a lot of things that you
could be doing, and I trulybelieve that by having an
(35:19):
entitled to nothing mindset andtaking radical responsibility
for our results, we have thecapacity to create the life that
we want and to build life onour terms.
That is my primary goal in lifeand that is the reason why I
wanted to share this informationwith you.
So if you got value from thisepisode, please share it with
someone that you think needs tohear it.
Give us a follow, give us arating on the podcast platforms
(35:43):
and drop a question to us Untilnext time.
See you guys on the next one.
Money is an amplifier .
It makes you more of who youare.
If you're an asshole, you'remore of an asshole when you have
money.
If you're generous and kind,you're more generous and more
kind when you have money.
If you're truly a fucking dogthat works his ass off.
The more money you make, themore motivated you are to
fucking work harder and get moreshit.
The easiest way todifferentiate yourself as a
(00:21):
business owner, as anentrepreneur or a freelancer is
through being your unique selfand authentically doing business
and handling yourself in theway that you would authentically
do it.
I analyzed who they were, whothey were.
We positioned ourselves in themiddle and then we got really
clear on, like what needs wewanted to meet and how we wanted
to sell the brand, butultimately, it was the
(00:43):
authenticity of us and the branditself that built the
relationship with the customers.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I won't waste another minute.
No, I won't.
I'm a man on a mission.
I'm a man on a mission.
I don't need no permission.
I'm a man on a mission.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Welcome to Entitled to Nothing, where we believe our
life is our fault.
My name is Mink and I startedthis show for two primary
reasons.
The first one is I want toshare everything I've learned on
my journey to help inspire youon yours.
I want to share the failures,the lessons and also the
victories along the way.
And the second reason is I wantto build a community and
(01:30):
connect with like-minded men whoare ruthlessly committed to
creating life on their terms,and I think one of the best ways
that I can do that is byconnecting with you guys and
answering some of the questionsthat you guys ask me on a
day-to-day basis.
So today, what I've done is I'vebrought my producer, mike, into
the studio with me and he'sgoing to be the voice of the
(01:50):
people.
He's going to read off some ofthe questions that you guys have
submitted and we're just goingto have a candid conversation
and talk about how we cancontinue to improve, to learn
and grow and inspire each otherthrough our own actions and
ultimately help everyone learnand grow together.
So, with that said, mike,thanks for jumping on, bro,
you're always behind the camera,I am.
(02:10):
And I'm excited to do this.
This is like a new littlewrinkle in the podcast.
I know we've talked aboutbringing in some questions and
really trying to find more andcreative ways to connect with
the audience, and I think thisis going to be a good way to do
that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
You guys have been awesomereaching out giving us a lot of
questions, so we really wantedto get your guys' voice in here
and I decided I'll ask thequestions and put you on the
spot.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
We got Mike on the mic as the voice of the people.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, and then we get your authentic reactions.
No scripting here.
I know you guys see that a lotin other places, but we're going
to give you the real it's been.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You know what's crazy is?
It feels like it's been foreversince we've been in the studio.
I woke up this morning and Iwas like, okay, I got to get in
the mindset of creating contentagain with.
You know, I've been going backand forth to Hawaii for the last
six months.
I had an opportunity to rentkind of a dream place down there
and give it a test drive ofhalf my time in Arizona, half my
time in Hawaii, and then thelast couple times we've kind of
(03:06):
had opposing schedules.
So this is the first time we'verecorded in maybe 45 days,
which feels really awkwardbecause, we were recording every
day for like six months.
So I'm excited to get back inhere and really excited to
answer some of these questions.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah and yeah, we got the new content out the vlog.
People really liked that.
You guys have been awesome invoicing that as well, so some of
these questions are going tocome from that.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And yeah, stay tuned because you'll get to see the
cool place in one of the vlogscoming up.
Awesome man, you want to diveinto the first question?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, let's go All right.
So the first one is from JasonP.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
He says you've talked openly about your bankruptcy
and personal failures.
How did you build yourconfidence after experiencing
personal and financial failuresand what was your first step?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, man, that's such a great question and I feel
like confidence is a funnything.
You know, it's so difficult tobuild and so easy to lose.
At times it's a little bit likemomentum, you know, when
everything feels like it's goingyour way, you're like man, like
I'm kicking ass, I'm takingnames, all these things are
happening, and then it's areally difficult thing to build.
It takes time and energy andeffort, and then you know, one
(04:12):
failure, one setback, one bigthing can really cause you to
doubt yourself.
I've spent a lot of timethinking about this because the
truth is, most of my life Ididn't have a lot of confidence
and I didn't really believe inmyself.
(04:33):
You know, the first thing thatI did to develop confidence was
make a commitment to neverfucking quit, no matter how hard
it got or no matter how unsureI was in what I was doing.
You know, I vividly remember apoint in time when I was first
getting my first businessstarted and nothing was working
and months were going by and Iwas putting all my energy into
it and there was a moment whereI was just like I don't know if
I'm ever going to figure thisout, but I will never fucking
(04:53):
quit, I will figure it out or Iwill die fucking trying.
And so I think the first stepto building confidence is just
making the commitment that, nomatter how little or low you
feel about what you're doing,how improbable it seems, that
you commit to never giving upand in order.
I think the only way you canhave that level of commitment is
if you have a really strong why, like why do you want to do
(05:16):
this?
And in the beginning, for me, Ihad a very, very clear vision of
how I wanted to live my life,and it was that vision and the
contrast between where I was andhow shitty my current
environment was and how, likepassionate I was about creating
that new vision, that new idealcircumstance that I just said.
You know what I'm unwilling tolive like I am today.
(05:37):
The only outcome is for me toget where I want to go.
I want to be able to own my ownbusiness and travel and
experience that life, and Idon't care how much confidence I
have, like I'll just never quituntil I figure it out.
So I think that's the firstplace to start is just a massive
commitment to never quitting.
The never quitting comes from astrong why.
And then from there.
What also has really helped meis understanding what confidence
(06:01):
actually is.
Confidence comes from the rootword fidere, which in Latin
means with trust or to trust,and I never realized it until I
read that and heard that.
So confidence is really likehaving trust in something,
because we all have differentlevels of confidence.
Right, like you were military,you were SWAT.
(06:22):
Right, one of the things youtalked about all the time is how
proficient you were withtraining, with gun skills,
whether it's pistols, rifles,whatever and I remember we were
bantering in the office one daywith a couple of the guys and
you were like I will fuckingsmoke you in a shooting
competition.
And that confidence comes fromtrusting the fact that you've
put in all the time, energy,effort to be really fucking good
(06:43):
.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, made the mistakes and grew from them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, so there's two elements to confidence that I've
experienced.
The first one is trust.
But where does trust come from?
It comes from competence, whichis what you did.
You developed your competenceby thousands and thousands and
thousands of you know bullets atthe range or whatever you know.
And so for me, when I didn'thave any confidence in myself, I
(07:08):
had commitment.
But the reason why I didn'thave confidence is I didn't have
competence and so, like by luckand also by modeling other
people, I just threw myself intoself-education.
And you know, I've talked aboutit on the podcast but I've
spent, you know, almost halfabout it on the podcast, but
I've spent, you know, almosthalf, over half a million
dollars on books, trainingcourses, mentorships, programs,
(07:34):
blah blah.
In the beginning, obviously, Ihad no money, so it was like
mentors audio books.
I listened to Tony RobbinsUnleash, the Ultimate Giant,
within or something like that,his audio book on CD, over and
over and over for years to justtry to reprogram my mind.
So to sum all this up in asimple answer, it's like in the
beginning you probably don'thave a reason to have confidence
because you don't have anycompetence and the first thing
(07:56):
you do is go develop some skills, develop competence.
The more you trust in yourskill set, the more confidence
you have in that particular area.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Did you find, when you were speaking to things and
you started to really be theauthority in that space, did
that help build the confidence?
Like you know, a lot of peoplesit there and they don't really.
They do this competition thing.
They compare themselves toother people.
But then you start to see likepeople start asking you a lot of
questions and you start torealize, like but then you start
to see like people start askingyou a lot of questions and you
(08:26):
start to realize like, oh, I amthe authority in this.
Like I do know what I'm talkingabout.
Did that help build theconfidence as well?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, you know, I don't know that it was so much
about me talking about it andlike being an authority, it was.
So actually it's an interestingquestion.
So you put in the work rightand talking about business right
.
So actually it's an interestingquestion.
So you put in the work rightand talking about business right
.
So I spent years and years andyears developing my skillsets in
sales, marketing, branding, um,and then built a couple of
businesses, sold a couple ofbusinesses, and then people come
(08:54):
to me like, hey, can you helpme with this?
Can you help me with that?
Can you consult with me?
And so I guess the answer isyes.
Like other people, recognizingyou have some value that you
could add to them definitelyhelps me be like, oh damn, I
could.
Yeah, maybe I'm undersellingmyself and I think you know it's
interesting.
We usually, as men, we usuallyfall into one of two categories
(09:15):
Either we oversell ourselvesarrogance or we undersell
ourselves.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, humility yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know, and the truth is having a healthy ego,
like trusting and believing inourselves and knowing that we're
badasses in the area that weare actually, but then being
honest with ourselves.
And I think if you have too muchoverconfidence, a lot of times
you're lacking substance.
So I don't know if that answersthat question particularly, but
(09:43):
I think anytime you develop abody of work and you generate
results, when people start totake notice of those results, it
definitely helps you seeyourself in a different
perspective because our personalbiases of how we view ourselves
and how the world views ustypically are very different and
you're a humble guy.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So when you're sitting there and you're being
humble, sometimes you don't giveyourself the credit that you
deserve, and then when you seeit from other people, it really
helps hype that up a little bit.
And then the second part tothat question is you've said
this that you failed over andover again.
Right, that first step that youtook the first time, the second
time it happened and you wereworking through that again.
Was it the same first step, Didyou, or did you change it up,
(10:26):
or were you more nervous to takethat first step again?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah.
So it's interesting, I think,um, the first step on the other
side of any failure is takingresponsibility for your part in
that failure, and so for me, theway that I have come to
approach this is okay.
Started a business, it failed.
I must have done somethingwrong, I fucked up.
What can I learn from this?
(10:51):
And so I think oftentimes infailures, the easy thing to do
is to blame situations andcircumstances or external
factors.
Oh, the market was bad, theeconomy collapsed.
Oh, this person fucked me, orthat thing happened, and those,
all those.
All might be true, but you'rethe only one that's in charge of
(11:12):
the actions and the decisionsthat you make.
So I think the first step istaking responsibility for it.
And then, you know, one of theone of the biggest lessons I
learned from Tony is he's like Ibelieve everything in life is
happening for me, not to me, andif that's the case, every
experience I have has a lessonfor me.
And so I just applied thatthinking to my life and said,
okay, I fucked up, I wentbankrupt.
(11:33):
What did I do wrong here?
Like, this is my fault, Only Idid this.
Now, what can I learn from itso I never have to experience
this pain again.
Where's the gift, where's thelesson?
And then you dig through thatand sometimes it takes days,
months, years to really figureout what that lesson was.
But then, once you get thelesson, you know growth is not
making the same mistakes again.
But the first step for me afterany big failure is saying, okay
(11:57):
, what can I learn from this andhow can I avoid making the same
mistake in the future?
And then you start to develop,hopefully, some learnings that
you apply, moving forward.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, awesome.
All right, thanks, jason, allright.
Next is going to be Mike D LiveBearded has grown into a really
successful company in a reallycompetitive space.
How did you differentiateyourself and what advice would
you have for others trying tostand out?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
yourself and what advice would you have for others
trying to stand out?
Yeah, it's a great question,the idea of differentiation.
You know, one of my fundamentalbeliefs is everything is
commoditized today, especiallyin the world that we live in.
You know, and maybe noteverything, but that's kind of
the frame that I take, becauseI'm not someone who's going to
develop a new patent, a newinnovative technology, a new
piece of software Like that'snot my skillset.
So I look at the world and Isay you know, in the consumer
(12:48):
product business, everything iscommoditized.
There's new iterations of stuff, there's new, you know,
developments of stuff, but soeverything is going to be very
competitive and that key word ofdifferentiation is critical.
So how do you differentiateyourself?
What I did with Live Bearded inthe beginning, when we were
first getting started in 2016,.
(13:09):
The beard market was a lot lesscompetitive than it is today,
but there was some very specificcompetitors.
There was one competitor thatwas kind of on the low end, that
was selling high volume, lowprice stuff, and then there was
another competitor that was onthe high end, that was like the
luxury, premium brand.
So you kind of had like theNordstrom's and the Walmart, if
you will, and I sat down and, atthis point in time, using some
(13:33):
frameworks that I'd learned fromTony Robbins and other business
experts, I understood thatpeople buy products emotionally
and justify them logically,right.
And what people are purchasingwhen they buy anything typically
is a story, a state or anemotion, right?
So I drive a BMW.
I drive a BMW because I likethe car, I think it drives well,
(13:54):
but there's also a story behindit.
It also makes me feel a certainway when I get in it.
Right, I upgraded, I got theturbo.
I got the leather, I got thethings you know, and so that
gives me an emotion, that givesme a story and that gives me an
experience.
And the person that buys thefucking Hyundai, or like Nathan
in our office, right, he drivesa what's the little hatchback
(14:15):
thing?
He has A Prius.
He drives a Prius.
You know it's like that tellssome people buy that and they
tell themselves a differentstory.
It creates a different state ora different emotion.
Oh, I'm a hybrid guy.
I care about the environment, Ido this, I do that.
So, understanding that peopledon't necessarily buy products
as much as they buy stories,states and emotions, I sat down
and I said what emotion issomeone trying to buy when a man
(14:39):
buys grooming products?
What needs are they trying tomeet and what emotions are they
trying to buy?
And I just had a conversationwith my business partner, spence
and I said okay, you know whyis someone going to buy this
product?
What emotions are they buying?
Well, they want to buyconfidence.
They want to buy feeling good,they want to buy looking good,
they want to feel better aboutthemselves.
Okay, cool, like that's a goodstarting point.
(14:59):
And then, what needs are theytrying to meet?
And for us, we looked at beardsand and the company that we
wanted to build, really aroundlike brotherhood, and well, they
want to meet the need ofsignificance, because they want
the compliments, they want tolook good, they want to feel
good and then also, like they,they're probably buying a
product that allows them to be apart of a conversation, right,
(15:24):
the beard, growing a beard,having a beard, is a particular
experience about being a man,and so what we did was we said
what emotions are they buyingand what needs are they meeting?
And we got really clear on whatour competitor was doing.
The low-end guy what need arethey meeting?
Fast, easy, cheap okay.
The high-end guys what need arethey meeting?
Fast, easy, cheap okay.
The high-end guys what needsare they meeting?
(15:47):
And then, by understanding themarketplace and understanding
how other companies werepositioning themselves, we
started to develop a thesis onhow we wanted to position
ourselves, and then we put ourbrand and our culture and kind
of our personality and ourvalues into that.
But if you're a business ownerand you want to differentiate
yourself in the market, thefirst thing you have to do is
(16:09):
understand what is the market.
And then I love usingframeworks that I've learned
through my experiences, like thesix human needs framework from
Tony, the emotional sellingframework from some certain
people, and once you understandthe way that the market is
positioning themselves, then youcan come up with creative ways
to innovate on the market andposition yourself in a new way.
(16:31):
And so what that turned intowith Live Bearded was my
business partner and I had beenfriends for 10 years and we
thought what if we extended ourfriendship to a community of men
?
Both of the brands that wereexisting weren't focusing on the
market segment that we were, or, in building the brand the way
that we were, you know, one wasgoing after the low-end guy, one
(16:54):
was going after the high-endguy.
So we're like we're going to goafter the everyman, the
everyday blue-collar,hardworking American that wants
to look good but doesn't want tospend a lot of money but also
has some standards and doesn'twant the cheapest shit out there
.
So we positioned ourselves inthe middle of where the market
was at that point in time andthen we figured out a story that
was authentic to us and tookour personal values and aligned
(17:17):
those with the brand and thenhit the market with we're here
to help encourage, uplift andsupport our community to look,
feel and be their best.
And then everything we didrevolved around that and we
talked to the market segmentthat was being underserved.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, to that point and you said it just briefly,
but I think it's a bigger pointbeing behind the camera,
following you all over, beingaround you and your business
partner.
You said authenticity, but thatis like a major part of your
brand.
You guys like ruthlessly, sitthere and make sure that
everything you're doing, everysale you put out, every product
(17:53):
you're putting out, everythingis about the community and about
the authenticity of the brand,which I find very rare in other
brands.
So could you speak on that alittle bit?
You?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
know, mike, it's a phenomenal point of
differentiation.
One of my favorite quotes thatI've heard is competition
becomes irrelevant throughauthenticity.
Right?
No one can be a better Mike, noone can be a better Mink than
us, right?
And I think I intuitively kindof understood that from day one
(18:23):
with Live Bearded.
And so Spencer and I, veryearly on, just were the voices
of the brand.
We are the faces of the brand.
We went live every single weekand we understood that if we
built relationships withcustomers through authenticity
and just being who we were, thatthat would also differentiate
us in the market.
And I think oftentimes we tryto focus on strategies or
(18:44):
techniques or hacks, tactics,but at the end of the day, the
easiest way to differentiateyourself as a business owner, as
an entrepreneur or a freelancer, is through being your unique
self and authentically doingbusiness and handling yourself
in the way that you wouldauthentically do it.
(19:05):
And that is probably the singlegreatest differentiator of Live
Bearded.
I'm glad you brought it upbecause I'm sitting here
thinking about like.
Well, what did I do in thebeginning?
Well, I looked at themarketplace, I analyzed who they
were, who they were, wepositioned ourselves in the
middle and then we got reallyclear on, like what needs we
wanted to meet and how we wantedto sell the brand.
But ultimately it was theauthenticity of us and the brand
(19:27):
itself that built therelationship with the customers.
And in the beginning, you know,we started out and we are like.
There's a really great articleby Kevin Kelly.
He is the founder of wiredmagazine.
I highly recommend everybodyread it.
It's called your first 1000fans, or 1000 true fans,
something like that.
Just Google it and he basicallytalks about how anyone that
(19:48):
wants to build a business canbuild a business with a thousand
true fans.
And these are fans that buyevery product you sell, listen
to everything you put out,consume every piece of content,
like they love everything you do.
They're true fans.
And then he says the way thatyou get a thousand is you get
one and then two and then fourand you just continue to keep
(20:09):
building that tribe of people.
And that is what we did, and wedid it through just being our
authentic selves and sharingthat with with the world through
live bearded.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, like I don't want to sum your words up, but
it's like you know, you got tohave business sense, you got to
think logically in the business,but also you can be a person,
you can be yourself.
You don't have to follow everyTik TOK meme, you see, and
everything like that.
Right?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, no, it's spot on, and especially in the world
we live in today.
Um again, if everything iscommoditized and there's no
authenticity or personalitybehind it, then everything is
the fucking same.
But if there's all thiscommoditized beard product or
hats or apparel or whatever, butthere's an a personality or an
(20:53):
authenticity to that brand, thatresonates, that is going to
resonate with a particularpeople and those people are
going to become true fans.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, absolutely All right.
Thanks, Mike, all right.
Last question Put you in thehot seat for quite a while now,
so we got the last one.
All right, jake M, I struggleto stay motivated at times and I
often feel like I don't knowwhat to do.
How do you stay motivated andenergized when you're feeling
frustrated and when you'vealready achieved a lot of
(21:22):
success?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, motivation is such an interesting topic of
discussion and I feel likethere's so much time, energy and
money spent on this idea ofstaying motivated and I just
think motivation is completebullshit.
Motivation is an emotion.
You feel, a particular way in amoment, and that is always
going to be fleeting.
There will be moments where wefeel motivated and there will be
moments when we don't.
And in the early days of mycareer, I acted on motivation
(21:53):
and I reacted when I didn't feelthat way, and so my work ethic
was high and then low, and thenhigh and then low, and I rode
the waves of motivation.
And I think what I've learnedfrom studying the most
successful entrepreneurs,athletes and having really
incredible mentors is amateursrely on motivation.
True professionals developdiscipline, and if you can act
(22:19):
in spite of how you feel, if youcan do what you know you need
to do regardless of how you'refeeling, if you can be that
disciplined motherfucker that isrelentless, then the motivation
actually doesn't matter,because you do what you know you
need to do regardless of howyou feel.
And for me, that's when all ofmy life, my success, my work
ethic, like when everything tooka corner is when I stopped
(22:40):
focusing on staying motivatedand said I'm just going to do
what I said I was going to do,and that comes purely through
discipline.
So the question, then, is nothow do you stay motivated, but
it's how do you developdiscipline?
I believe that discipline isthe bridge that takes us from
where we are to where we want togo, you know, and so the first
thing I would do is stop evenworrying or thinking about
(23:03):
motivation, understanding thatthere will be times when you
have it and there will be timeswhen you don't.
And that is the same witheverything.
There's going to be times whenwe feel great, there's going to
be times when we feel like shit.
Okay, that's part of the humanexperience.
If you want to truly becomegreat at anything, it is only
going to come throughconsistency and discipline.
Um, what was the second part ofthe question?
(23:24):
So it was like how do youmanage it when you're feeling
frustrated?
Okay, so, again, like if you'refucking sad, sick, frustrated,
upset, you just rely on yourdiscipline.
Your discipline becomes thebridge, it becomes the crutch
and success.
You know, one of the thingsthat's super interesting about
success is you find out whopeople really are when they've
(23:44):
experienced a lot of successMeaning.
I think money is an amplifier.
It makes you more of who youare.
If you're an asshole, you'remore of an asshole when you have
money.
If you're generous and kind,you're more generous and more
kind when you have money.
If you're truly a fucking dogthat works his ass off.
(24:04):
The more money you make, themore motivated you are to
fucking work harder and get moreshit done.
And then there's a lot ofpeople that when they hit a
particular level of success,they take their foot off the gas
and they coast.
And the greater level ofsuccess that you have reveals
kind of who those are, or whatcharacter traits you possess,
based on resource.
And so for me, again, it goesback to discipline, because if
(24:28):
you've, if you're the type ofperson that's developed the
discipline, you are actuallyfocused more on the action than
the result.
One of my favorite quotes saysthe man that loves to run will
run farther than the man thatloves the destination.
And so I think you know ifyou're only working to get to a
(24:50):
certain destination, yourpotential will always be capped
at that destination.
But if you just fall in lovewith the process, then the goal
is to work on the process andnot get to the destination.
And so and this is where, asmen you know we have to decide
what journey we want to run.
(25:10):
And there's no, I don't thinkthere's a right or wrong journey
.
I'm not here to tell anybodywhat journey to live.
You know some people.
They want to get to a certainpoint.
They want to make you know ahundred grand, 200 grand,
whatever it is, and then theyjust want to coast and they want
to be a little league coach andhang out their kids and be home
for every dinner at five.
That's fucking amazing ifthat's what you want.
But the key is like gettingclear on what you want so that
(25:34):
you don't have regret of notdoing the things that you felt
you could have done.
So understanding what you'reoptimizing for, I think, is
really critical, but all of thatcomes from understanding.
Motivation is an emotion, and Ithink emotions are the last
thing you should focus ondiscipline, habits, consistency,
rituals, routines that's whereI put all of my energy now and
(25:55):
those habits and routines aregoing to determine the results
that we get.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
So do you look at it more like when you look at
what's next or staying motivated, for lack of better term?
Are you looking at the moneyaspect of it, like I want to
make more money?
Are you looking at the, the,the growth, like I want to grow
this 10 X business and the moneydoesn't really factor into it?
Like everybody and I know thisis going to be a hot topic and
(26:21):
probably a hot take is like somepeople don't worry about money.
Like you know, speaking to mylittle thing is like I don't
worry about money.
I worry about the, the, thejobs we do, and like making the
best possible product andgrowing that business.
You know growing the business,so like, do you focus on that?
Or goals, like the goal to hitthis amount or the goal to?
(26:42):
you know, get to this next thing.
You know which, which do youkind of prioritize, or?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
which would you think is better?
It's interesting.
So, um, I think the only reasonwhy we don't have something
that we want is we're not thetype of person capable of
creating that result yet.
Um, so what that means is we'vegot a skill gap, a knowledge
gap or an execution gap, and soI think, early on, like the
(27:09):
answer is not binary, it's likeall and so what that means is
like yes, of course I focus onthe monetary results.
At times in business, money isthe scoreboard of business right
, being in great physical shapeis the scoreboard of working out
, of eating healthy.
In business, we talk about thisidea of lead measures and lag
(27:31):
measures, and this is from thebook the Four Disciplines of
Execution.
It's a great book, greatmethodology.
A lead measure is somethingthat's influenceable.
How many pushups you do, howmany sales calls you make, a lag
measure is the result of thataction.
How many pushups you do, howmany sales calls you make, a lag
measure is the result of thataction.
How many pushups you can do inthe future is a result of how
many you do today.
How many sales you close is alag measure of the number of
(27:54):
calls that you make, theinfluenceable action.
And then you have the result ofthat.
And so I think all of us attime are going to focus on the
result, because that is kind ofthe fire starter, that's the
motivation.
And, of course, I have very bigfinancial goals and I want to
live a particular life and Ineed a particular financial
capacity to do that.
But I've also learned that theonly way I'm going to get to the
(28:18):
financial goal is byunderstanding who I need to be
to get there.
And so, for me, the skillsetacquisition, the character
development, the skills, thetraits and the beliefs that we
have those are the buildingblocks for the results that we
get.
The way I approach it is verysimple Okay, what result do I
want to create and what skillsdo I need to create that result?
(28:42):
And am I committed to either?
And now, like when I startedLive Bearded, I started it
because I wanted to make money,I wanted to create a certain
level of financial capacity, andultimately I was like one day
I'm going to build an asset thatI'm going to sell.
And then, as I got into thisjourney and I'm eight years into
Live Bearded I'm like, damn, Idon't want to sell Live Bearded,
(29:04):
I want the skills.
I want to acquire the skillsthat are going to come from
taking it from an eight figurebrand to a nine figure brand,
and so part of it isunderstanding that the journey
changes along the way.
In the beginning it was about memaking money and living a
certain life, and that's stillcritical and that's still an
indestination.
(29:25):
Right, if you're charting acourse on a map, you have to
have an idea of where you'regoing or at least what stops you
want to make along the way.
But for me now, I think a lotof the decisions I make are
based on who do I have to becometo get that?
Am I committed to doing thatand becoming that type of person
, and what skills do I want toacquire?
(29:47):
Because, again, if the resultsthat we get are based on who we
are and what we become, then weshould focus more on who we're
going to become and what skillswe want to create, and so a lot
of my decisions are now made bywould I like doing those things
and developing that skillset,and what else can I apply that
(30:08):
skillset to in the future?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, and then like so for motivation and I don't
want to speak for Jake, but he'ssaying how do you stay
motivated?
But also another thing is likehow do you, how do you forego
burnout?
Like is it just you alwaysinnovate something new, like you
started this content creation?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
You're still running your business.
You have this content creation.
You're growing that now too.
Is that to forego like hittingthose?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, I mean, the truth is like we all get burnt
out at times, you know, and weall have different thresholds
and different circumstanceshappen that require us to get
burned out more often.
I just look at, well,circumstances happen that
require us to get burned outmore often.
I just look at, well, what thefuck does burnout mean?
It means I'm low on energy, I'mlow on creativity, I'm low on
(30:53):
drive.
Okay, that would be maybe how Idefine that.
So then I just go through aprocess, like we all need to
know what we like to do.
That recharges us, you know.
And so I think all of us willget burned out and all of us
will deal with shit and all ofus will be unmotivated Burnouts
and emotion.
You're low energy, you're lowcreativity, you're low drive.
Okay, well, what do you do toincrease your creativity,
increase your motivation,increase your drive?
(31:13):
Well, a, you have disciplinethat carries you through those
moments, because those momentsare temporary.
And then, b, I like to have alittle bit of grace myself.
We went to Fiji together.
Right, I got this place in Mauibecause my favorite place in
the world is the beach.
That's where I feel the mostrecharged, the most creative,
some people it's spending timewith their kids, it's playing
basketball, it's like.
Ultimately, I think, when wehit that point of lack of
(31:36):
motivation or lack of burnout,we need to remind ourselves why
we're doing what we're doing,and then maybe we need to take
some time to do the things thatwe enjoy doing, and by
understanding ourselves, we canthen figure out how to always
bring our best selves to themoment.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, and to speak to that, I just want to clarify
because I've seen this firsthandis like, just because you're
going to Fiji and just becauseyou're working out of Maui, your
level of dedication and workinghard doesn't change.
You just enjoy the ability tobe in a place that you truly
love.
While you're doing it, younever stop working.
(32:11):
I mean, I've watched you on abeach in Maui texting about
analytics and about how thingsare operating and stuff like
that.
So it's doing the things youlove, but also you're still
always driven.
You're always recharging.
You're using those things torecharge you to do the business.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I guess maybe I feel very fortunate because I've been
playing this game of businessfor 15 years and I've done it
long enough now to figure outwhat are the things that help me
push through that kind ofenergetic lull or that drive,
the lack of drive or the lack ofmotivation.
And for me again, I started myfirst business because I wanted
(32:48):
to travel and I wanted toexperience different
environments, and so I know,oftentimes when I'm just really
fucking drained, the best thingI can do is just have a change
of environment, and just bydoing that it reignites my
inspiration and my creativityand my passion.
And so the most important thingthat I can communicate is like
motivation is going to come inwaves, burnout is going to come
(33:10):
in waves, drive is going to comein waves, and that is part of
the human experience.
Don't make yourself wrong forthat.
Just understand that you needto tap into a new part of
yourself or you need to giveyourself something different.
You know, if you have a plantand the fucking plant starts to
wilt, it maybe it needs moresunlight, maybe it needs more
water, maybe it needs less water, you know.
(33:31):
And so I kind of think ofmyself in a metaphorical way
like I'm a fucking plant, andthere's going to be some
environments I thrive in,there's going to be some
situations where I needsomething, and if I understand
what I need in those moments andI give myself more sunlight or
more water, or maybe I reducethe amount of water that I'm
giving myself, ultimately that'sgoing to help me stop wilting
(33:51):
and start thriving again, andall of us have that, that kind
of code for ourselves.
We have to figure out, as men,what is that blueprint for us to
feel inspired, motivated,driven, passionate.
All of those, though, will comeand go, and what stays
consistent is the discipline todo whatever you need to do, no
(34:11):
matter what, and oftentimes,just the discipline and the
self-satisfaction from thediscipline carries you from lull
to lull.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah.
So everybody out there, goahead and comment in this video
or, if you're listening, go onInstagram.
Tell us what motivates you orwhat is your, what's your plant,
what is what gets you fired up?
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, do the work, sit down and figure it out and
learn and grow.
Um, I love to do this episode,bro.
This is the first questionsthat we've done from the
audience.
It's a lot of fun and actuallywe cover a broad range of topic
and I definitely want to do moreof them.
If you guys like this style ofcontent just kind of this free
flow form between Mike and I youcan go to Instagram, follow me,
shoot me a DM, shoot me aquestion, drop your question
(34:57):
below this.
I'd love to hear from you andI'd love to answer your
questions so we can connect andengage and get to know each
other more.
I started this podcast againbecause I wanted to share the
lessons I've learned on myjourney, to help inspire you,
and, if you've listened throughthis entire episode, I just want
to say thank you for spendingyour time with us today.
I know there's a lot of placesand a lot of things that you
could be doing, and I trulybelieve that by having an
(35:19):
entitled to nothing mindset andtaking radical responsibility
for our results, we have thecapacity to create the life that
we want and to build life onour terms.
That is my primary goal in lifeand that is the reason why I
wanted to share this informationwith you.
So if you got value from thisepisode, please share it with
someone that you think needs tohear it.
Give us a follow, give us arating on the podcast platforms
(35:43):
and drop a question to us Untilnext time.
See you guys on the next one.
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