February 25, 2025 • 33 mins
Today, Dr. Alexa D’Agostino is coming on the show to share insights on how to build a company from six to seven figures or seven to eight.
Alexa founded her first official company at 18 and went on to build and then exit multiple businesses achieving over nine figures in exits by the age of 30.
As a part of her journey, she has raised over $100m for charities worldwide.
As the CEO of Thynk Consulting Group, Alexa specializes in scaling businesses through strategic marketing, sales, and leadership development. Her expertise has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.
I'm Anne McGinty, your host,and today Dr Alexa D'Agostino is
coming on the show to shareinsights on how to build a
company from six to sevenfigures, or seven to eight.
Alexa founded her firstofficial company at 18 and went
on to build and then exitmultiple businesses, achieving
(00:31):
over nine figures in exits bythe age of 30.
As a part of her journey, shehas raised over $100 million for
charities worldwide.
As the CEO of Think ConsultingGroup, alexa specializes in
scaling businesses throughstrategic marketing, sales and
(00:51):
leadership development.
Her expertise has been featuredin Forbes, entrepreneur, usa
Today and the Wall StreetJournal.
You can find a link through toher business in the episode's
description Journal.
You can find a link through toher business in the episode's
description.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm so excited to be here and have a great
conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So starting your first company at 18 is pretty
impressive, and I was wonderingif you could share a little bit
of your backstory.
What shaped you into being anentrepreneur at such a young age
?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, so my family's from Cuba.
So when they came to Americathey had no choice but really to
be entrepreneurs, because theydidn't come from a family that
allowed them the opportunity intheir country to, you know,
build a life for themselves.
So when they came to Americathey couldn't speak English,
they didn't know anybody, theycouldn't get a job and they had
(01:48):
no choice really but to becomeentrepreneurs.
And so I grew up.
Everybody in my household, frommy mother, my father, my
sisters, my cousins, my aunts,my grandparents, everybody was
entrepreneurs.
So I kind of automatically knewI was going to be an
entrepreneur and I loved it.
At a young age I was startingbusinesses at five and seven and
I have a lot of content on thiswhere I tell stories of these
(02:09):
businesses I started and howmuch trouble I used to get into
because I used to sell likethings to like second graders
and when I was in second gradeand my teachers would get mad at
me, like, what are you doing,like, but everything to me was a
business and I just realized ata young age that if you have
something people want, you couldsell it and make money off it.
And so I had a business.
(02:30):
Well before that it's just.
I didn't make it an officialbusiness until 18.
But part of why I made anofficial business is because I
kind of got off the ground.
But when I was starting to go tocollege, I was like I need to
make some extra money and I saidI'm just going to throw an ad
on Craigslist and see whathappens.
This was before Craigslist waslike creepy.
I literally put an ad up andwas like I'll build your website
(02:52):
for 300 bucks, like I didn'tcare how much money I made.
I believe you have to chargesomething.
You don't want to do anythingfor free.
But when you're first gettingstarted, like you shouldn't
worry so much about pricing.
You've got to build yourreputation, build your portfolio
, and that's exactly what I did.
I just threw in your bucks andthat one client ended up
becoming one of my biggestclients in my first company and
(03:13):
helped me intro to so many otherpeople to help me build my
business.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Amazing.
It sounds serendipitous in someways.
So what exactly was that firstbusiness that you started?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, it's interesting because where it
started and where it ended isactually a pretty cool story and
this is a good lesson foreverybody.
That's starting a business tobe open-minded to where you can
go and it might not be where youenvision and it might not be
where you thought in thebeginning.
So I started as an appdeveloper.
I was nerdy, I love developingand I love building apps, and
(03:46):
that was originally.
My first business was websitesand apps.
It wasn't marketing at all, itwas just straight web and app,
and I was a computer sciencemajor and that was kind of where
I thought I was heading.
And what ended up happening isI started doing some projects
for some pretty big names so CIO, Morgan Stanley, a CIO at a
major college, a CEO at one ofthe leading tech companies in
(04:06):
the world and while I wasworking on those projects
building apps all three of themwere like hey, I have this idea
for a side project, I don't havetime to do it, I'll go 50-50
with you, you build it, I'llfund it and you do everything
else.
And I was like huh.
So the good thing was is I wasopen-minded about it and I was
like huh, so the good thing wasis I was open-minded about it
and I was like, yeah, give methe challenge.
(04:27):
So what ended up happening is Iended up building these apps
and the CIO at Morgan Stanleywas like, hey, now how do we
market this?
I go, I don't know.
At that time I was like I havethree technical degrees.
I have two masters incybersecurity and internet
technology.
I was like I have no idea howto market he goes.
Well, we got to figure it out.
And that's when I was like,okay, and I ended up learning
(04:48):
marketing and realizing what avalue there is to having
somebody who's technical and onthe data side as a CMO rather
than the creative side, which is80 to 90% of CMOs out there and
I really became more of like achief revenue officer, really
driving through data and techintegration, and I had to learn
the creative side.
(05:09):
And now I have a creativeperspective and now I do have an
MBA in marketing and a PhD, butat that time I had no training
in marketing at all and I prettymuch had to teach myself.
And that's how my companytransitioned into a digital
marketing agency that then wassold in 2014.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You were absolutely putting yourself out there.
I mean contacting people onCraigslist and taking any jobs
that you could take.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, what's interesting is Sarah Blakely,
who came up with Spanx.
Somebody asked her how the heckdid you get into Neiman Marcus?
And you want to know what herresponse was.
I called them Marcus and youwant to know what her response
was.
I called them and a lot oftimes we forget that it's as
simple as just picking up thephone and calling somebody and
saying, hey, here's what I do,how can I help you, and that's
essentially what I've done.
(05:53):
My whole career is I'm notafraid to speak up at networking
events and saying, hey, here'show I think I can help you and
it's how I've gotten into a lotof the circles that I am and I'm
actually not a huge networker,I don't go to you know all these
events and this and that what Ido is I do a really good job
for my partners and I havepeople that sell me because they
(06:15):
believe in me.
And that's the most importantthing is you get your inner
circle of people that are goingto sell for you and you can't be
afraid to ask people that arein your circle how can I help
you or people in your network.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And again, I feel like one of the lessons I'm
hearing from what you're sayingis that you're offering to help.
Which is what is attractingpeople to come to you.
Is that you're in it for them,not necessarily 100% for
yourself.
So that is attractive.
I'm wondering, across all ofthe businesses that you have
scaled and sold, what are thepatterns that are part of your
(06:50):
formula?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
At this point.
I've had nine figures worth ofexits and I've had a ton of
failures.
I've had companies that Ithought were billing dollar
companies.
I've had companies that we dida hundred million in two years
and we still failed and ended upbankrupting.
And what's interesting isthere's principles that I've
seen of why things weresuccessful and there's
(07:12):
principles why I thought thingsweren't successful.
And so principle number onethat I found is when you go into
business, you have to be all in.
If you have a business yourselfor if you have business with
partners, every single personthat's on that cap table has to
be 100% invested.
If they are in 10 other things,it doesn't matter how great the
(07:33):
idea is, it will fail becauseeveryone's not fully 100%
invested in that business.
Thing is persistence.
You have to have moneysometimes to persist, but you
have to personally have theattitude to want to persist.
Entrepreneurship is hard.
It's like a wave that crashesdown on you.
Do you get up or do you leavethe ocean?
(07:54):
I never leave.
I always get smacked with awave and I get right back up, no
matter how big it is.
And that's entrepreneurship.
If you can't persist, if youdon't have that kind of
personality to be able to justget up and go as hard as it is.
That's something else that I'veseen as well, when we either
don't have the money to persistor we don't have the right team
(08:15):
with the right attitude topersist.
The third thing I would say isproduct market fit.
Do you actually have a productthat makes sense, that people
want?
You can have the best idea inthe world, but if you don't have
people that will actually buyit, it doesn't matter.
So this is where I say topeople don't go all the way to
the end building something.
Build an MVP, get somethingthat people can test and feel,
(08:38):
even if it's at 20%, where youcan give them the vision and see
if people are actuallyinterested in it.
I've seen people spend yearsbuilding something that nobody
wants rather than building anMVP or an idea of something to
see if people even want it.
I have seen great ideas thatother people beat them to market
because they took too long, andso it's kind of a dual lesson
(09:01):
there.
It's one, get something outquickly, make sure it's a
product market fit, and then,two, don't try to make it
perfect.
Perfection is not going to winthe game.
Speed is gonna win the game.
The last thing, which is veryimportant, is building the right
team.
You can have a great, greatproduct, but if you don't have
the right tech team, you don'thave the right marketing team.
(09:22):
You don't have the right techteam, you don't have the right
marketing team, you don't havethe right people leading it.
You're never going to get tothe finish line.
It's going to be very, verychallenging.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And that will circle back to someone that is in an
episode a few before yours whois Jeff Smart.
He's like the world's numberone expert on hiring and he also
says yeah, the team is really,it's everything, everything.
So a lot of our listeners areeither entrepreneurs or aspiring
entrepreneurs.
There are a lot of curiouslisteners who just love these
(09:51):
stories, but anyone that iscurrently owner operating a
business, what advice do youhave for them to scale from, say
, six figures to seven figures,or maybe seven figures to eight
figures?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
say six figures to seven figures, or maybe seven
figures to eight figures.
Yeah, I actually think it'seasier to scale from seven to
eight than it is six to seven,because when you're scaling to
six figures, it's mostly you andit's you yourself and you right
when, when you start to hitseven figures, what matters is
(10:24):
people marketing, which are thetwo hardest part of building a
company.
And a lot of people are scaredto invest in marketing because
unless they have a direct ROI,they can't see it.
They're scared to put moneyinto it.
But marketing takes time.
You have to test things out.
You have to put things out.
You have to see what's working.
You have to be willing to put10% minimum of your budget into
(10:45):
marketing, knowing you might notget it back immediately because
nobody knows.
I don't care how good amarketer is, nobody really knows
what's going to work until youactually try it.
I've seen campaigns for the sameexact type of company fail
because just because company Adid it successfully doesn't mean
company B will, why they'redifferent brands, different
reputation, sometimes differentofferings, right.
(11:07):
And so you've got to start tobuild your marketing and what I
call it's a trademark that wehave called marketing by
modification.
You've got to start testingwhat is and isn't working.
You could do $10 a day.
You could do a couple hundreddollars a month, it doesn't
matter but you've got to earmarka little bit for marketing and
then people we just talked about.
It's the most important pieceand the hardest piece of
(11:27):
building a business is makingsure you have the right people
in place, and I could even addprocesses in there making sure
you put the time and energy andmoney aside to set the right
processes.
There's a lot of inefficientbusinesses out there because
they're not taking the time tobuild the correct processes, and
so my advice is focus on thosethings as you're growing.
(11:48):
Don't be afraid to invest inyourself and in your business.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
When you start a new business and it's the very
beginning.
What are the strategies andtactics that you're looking at
to gain traction quickly?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
You know, don't be afraid to leverage your personal
social.
You don't have to have 20,000followers.
I made my first million dollarshaving 5,000 followers, that's
it.
I would say half of them werelike family and friends.
You can't be afraid to putyourself out there.
Sometimes people are like, oh,I don't want to put myself out
there.
You have to.
You have to let people knowwhat you're doing and not
(12:20):
necessarily ask for help.
But you never know who in yourcircle will refer you.
So my first business I wasputting myself out there to
family, friends, anybody thatwould basically listen, and
that's how I built my name, myportfolio, and it kind of weaved
out from there.
So first is putting yourself outthere.
Second is seeking advice,getting a coach.
(12:43):
It doesn't mean go spend ahundred thousand dollars on a
coach.
By the way, it could be amentor, it could be somebody
close to you.
You want to have a soundingboard of people, whether it's
like a little advisory boardthat you put together of people
that you can ask advice for andwhatnot.
You want to make sure thatyou're doing that.
The third thing I would say withthat piece is putting yourself
in rooms with people that aredoing what you're doing.
(13:04):
There's very few of us that arecreating companies that don't
exist, right?
So if you're a marketing agencyowner, get in a room with
people that have built agencies,and there's plenty of meetup
groups and things like that ofpeople that have done it.
So don't recreate the wheel,and that might mean hiring a
coach that has done it, but youwant to make sure they've
(13:24):
actually done it and they'vedone what you were looking to do
, cause there's a lot of coachesout there or what I call
coaches that coach coaches, andyou want to just make sure you
get the right mentor or coach.
And again, it doesn't mean youhave to go spending crazy
amounts of money to hiresomebody, and sometimes you
don't have to hire anybody atall, and don't be afraid to pick
up the phone.
(13:45):
It's going to require you toroll up your sleeves to build
this thing, and part of that isfiguring out where are your
people.
Facebook groups is a fantasticplace to start.
For instance, if you're sellinga pet product, how many pet
lover Facebook groups are there,right?
So figure out where your peoplehang out.
Maybe they're sitting on Reddit, right?
(14:06):
So I have a company that wehave a $500 million sports
venture fund.
It's a private equity companythat I'm part equity in and it's
like where are the sports fans?
They're on Reddit, they're onTwitter.
So that's where I'm going to beright.
So figure out where thesepeople are and build
relationships.
Put yourself out there.
Don't be afraid to share whatyou're working on.
(14:26):
So there's so many free ways tobuild a company and then, with
funding, you know, on that side,if you do have funding, start
putting stuff out there.
See what messaging's working,see what design's working.
Don't be afraid to test thingsout.
You can take a thousand bucks amonth and that will tell you a
lot about what is and isn'tworking, what people do and do
not want.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And let's say that there's a small business owner
who's listening in.
They've never really spent anymoney on marketing before and
they are a little nervous.
They don't really have apre-assigned budget set aside
for it and they've got, okay, athousand bucks that they're
saying, fine, I'll give it a try.
Where are you going torecommend that they first try?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So Facebook is still the number one app for marketing
.
It is more expensive than itwas in the past, but it still is
the number one advertising tool.
Tiktok is good, but the problemwith TikTok is that it's very
content driven.
If you don't have the rightcontent, it's not going to work,
it's going to bomb.
Where Facebook, you don'tnecessarily have to have the
(15:27):
exact right content to get leads.
Where TikTok is very, verycreative driven and you know,
depending on what you're doinglike if you have a fitness brand
or a food brand, Pinterest isgreat and it's cheap, right.
So I think it really dependswhat kind of business that you
have.
But there's a lot of platformsout there and you've got to kind
of test, but Facebook is stillthe number one.
(15:48):
Google's great but it'sexpensive and Google, to me, is
great if you want the lowhanging fruit, aka people that
are searching.
But once you start to go into,like video, and you need a lot
of assets for that, and then youknow you don't really use the
display network.
That's more of retargeting andwhatnot.
So to me that's not the top ofthe funnel, that's kind of more
(16:09):
mid funnel, unless you're doingsearch.
But again, that's not going totell you much, because people
are already searching for you.
What you want to know in thebeginning is people that are not
searching for you.
Can you capture their attention?
And that's where you would uselike Facebook ads.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
So have you ever taken a major risk in order to
take a big leap for one of yourcompanies and not have it pan
out?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Oh yeah, I've had more failures than successes.
Now, in saying that I've hadincome rise and revenue wise, or
wins in dollar amounts, isbigger than my losses, but the
sheer number of losses are waymore than my failures.
And it's kind of like youinvest in a hundred things and
five pan out, but the five thatpan out are more than the losses
(16:55):
.
Right, and I think that'sreally important.
It's you.
You want to diversify in whatyou're doing and try different
things, and that's what I'vedone in my career and it's why
I've been successful is becauseI'm willing to try anything I
believe in.
I won't waste my time onsomething I don't believe in and
that I don't believe will workor I'm not passionate about.
(17:16):
That's part of my criteria totake on projects.
But I've had companies Imentioned this earlier that I've
built up to nine figures andthen they went bankrupt.
And I've had companies thatbuilt to nine figures and we
sold successfully went bankrupt.
And I've had companies thatbuilt to nine figures and we
sold successfully.
You have failures that youlearn from and you have wins
(17:36):
that you learn from.
But the most important thing asan entrepreneur and a human is
to make sure you learn fromeverything the good, the bad,
the ugly, and learn how youcould be better.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I think if we could figure out how to teach people
to be okay with that piece, thenthat would be phenomenal.
It's a repeated advice that wehear, but some people are so
scared of what others mightthink of them, so if you have
anything that you'd like tooffer on that, please, yeah, I
mean, I guess it's start by notthinking of it as a failure.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Think of it as a stepping stone.
I've had failures in hiring.
I've had failures in companies.
One of my biggest failures inthe last five years was a
company.
It was a new industry I'venever been in.
It was a CPG brand and we hadvery quick traction.
We were getting into major boxstores very quickly.
People loved the brand, what wewere building, and we failed
(18:27):
because of the operational sideof the house.
It's a very complicated storybut it kind of is a bunch of
lessons in one.
And one was what I was tellingyou about is if you don't have
all partners involved and allpartners concentrating on this.
That was part of it.
And two, we almost had so muchsuccess in the want for this
very quickly.
We weren't set up to do itproperly and we had major issues
(18:52):
with our factory andmanufacturing the product and
then we pissed people off andthen you're sending out product
that wasn't good, and so wealmost did too good of a job on
marketing in the beginningbecause we tried to scale too
quickly, because everybody wasimpatient, right, and so it was
I thought was going to be mybillion dollar exit.
(19:13):
I mean, I was in the first 12months.
I was like holy crap, like wehave everybody interested from
Target and Costco and everyonewanted us.
And I literally saw my tens ofmillions of dollars in my head
already before we even had itand it is still to date like my
biggest failure, because therewere so many things that were
(19:34):
missed on the way.
And so you know, for me it waslooking back and saying, okay,
now when I evaluateopportunities, it's not just the
marketing of it, but it's alsothe partners, it's the plan to
market.
There's so many other thingsbesides marketing that I need to
look at when I'm evaluatingthese opportunities.
(19:55):
So the good thing is is I walkedaway with a whole new industry.
I knew nothing about CBG, Iknew nothing about going to
trade shows and this, andthere's so many things that I
learned from the failure.
But also there were so manythings that I learned from doing
the project and now I can say Iknow how to onboard a target.
I know how to get products intoCostco and what they're looking
(20:17):
for.
I know exactly the criteria.
Whole Foods is looking versusCostco, who cares more about the
design than the ingredients,and Sprouts is very crazy about
ingredients.
I wouldn't have known all ofthis if I didn't do the project
Right.
So as much as it was a failureand we ended up bankrupting that
company, I walked away with somuch knowledge.
That's something you can't buy.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
It costs money to get an education, and learning by
doing is worth the money, evenif you lose it, because there's
your education right there.
So how?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
do you determine when it is the right time to exit a
business?
Actually, one of my failureswas exiting a business too early
.
That's a hard question, becauseone of my exits I exited a
company I was 20 and it's now amulti-billion dollar company and
I sold it for a sheer couplemillion, but I was 20.
(21:20):
And back then that was a lot ofmoney, but I sold it to one of
the largest financial companiesin the world and they obviously
saw where it was heading.
And now the patent that I hadis now the patent at every
casino.
Now, granted, I wouldn't havehad that connection to even get
this in casinos to begin with,but they are large investors in
some of the largest casinos inthe world.
(21:42):
But what I should have done isnegotiated to keep one to 2% of
that company, to keep 1% to 2%of that company.
So I think it's a couple ofthings.
It's one do you have thecurrent team?
Because sometimes the team toget it to seven figures isn't
the same team to get it to eightor nine or 10.
So do you have the right teamin place currently, or the right
advisory board to get you infront of the right people?
(22:02):
So the answer.
I'll use that company as anexample.
I did not.
I had the right product, Ididn't have the right
connections, I didn't have theright team to take this to a
billion, so it would have neverhappened.
The second question is would yourather be a hundred percent of
a million dollar company or 2%of a billion dollar company?
And that's what you have to askyourself.
(22:22):
And is that even something thatyou want to do?
And so if I own 2%, I couldwalk away with, you know, $20
million it's going to take me.
If you even have a 20%, youknow return on your million
dollar company, that's going totake you 40 years to get that 20
million.
So is it better to sell it tohave the chance at 20 million
(22:43):
than taking the risk of waiting40 years?
Yeah, it is Right.
So I think I'm at the pointwhere I most likely will never a
hundred percent sell a companyoutright Cause if you're selling
it, you're selling it eitherbecause you want the money
upfront, um, or because you'reselling it to a team that can
take it to the next level andthat determines whether or not
you would a hundred percent sellor not.
(23:04):
And uh, so it's kind of acomplicated answer but I hope
that kind of gives someframework of kind of the
thinking.
You've got to think about whatyou want, right?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
And thinking about what youwant, what drives you to keep on
creating and scaling andexiting businesses, especially
since it sounds like you likelydon't need the money anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, yeah, it's a really great question.
So my wife and I, I mean I wearlike, look what I'm wearing.
Like I wear like Amazon basics.
Like I'm not, we're not veryshowy people.
I believe that real wealthpeople don't show.
I think people that show it arenot wealthy.
People that brag about donatingaren't really wealthy or they
(23:50):
have something to hide or theyare insecure.
They have something to hide orthey are insecure.
So for us, like I walk aroundin, you know, a t-shirt and
shorts all day, we drive a Ford.
Like I live in a humble house.
Like we're not we're not crazypeople.
For me, it's more about thefinancial freedom, right.
So if I don't work for the next20 years, it doesn't matter.
I could still live the samelife that I live right now.
(24:11):
So that was the most importantthing for me to get to where we
are now.
Now, the next phase of that isimpact, and everything I'm
involved in is something thatcan make major impact and that's
the most important thing for me.
So if you look at my portfolio,I'm part of really amazing
projects that I love to do.
One I don't think I can evernot work.
(24:31):
That would be really boring.
Two, I think it's important formy kids to see us working hard.
I work just as hard now as Idid when I was broke, and it's
important for them to see thatright.
And we live a great life, wetake great vacations and we do
things, but I'm constantlytalking to my kids about how
important it is to work hard,how important it is to be your
(24:53):
own boss.
I think it's important to showthem that they will be working
as soon as they can.
They're not going to be trustfund babies.
So to me now, this next part isimpact.
My wife, you know, lovesdonating and being a part of
something, but not just donatingwith money, but donating with
time and really investing inorganizations that we care about
(25:13):
.
So first it was financialfreedom, now it's impact.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
And is there a specific legacy that you're
hoping to leave behind?
Is there a certain industry orcause that, to you, is just the
most meaningful?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What I think everybody should do is think
about when and this is morbidbut when you die, what do you
want on your tombstone?
Do you want on your tombstoneAlexa made a lot of money?
Or do you want on yourtombstone Alexa impacted a lot
of lives?
And that's what I think aboutevery day.
I don't want on my tombstoneshe made millions.
What I want to be on, that is,she helped millions.
(25:51):
So for me, my legacy is moreabout how can we make an impact
in this world and how can wechange lives.
And that might be for myemployees, it might be for our
customers, it might be in thesake of a nonprofit.
It could mean many differentthings, and that's the legacy
that I want to leave.
(26:11):
Honestly, I would say thebiggest part of my legacy will
be my kids.
I want to raise good humans.
That is my number one priorityand I want them to change the
world.
I don't want to change theworld, I want them to change the
world.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
That's amazing.
That's an amazing way to live.
So if you could give one lessonyou wish someone had taught you
earlier in your entrepreneurialjourney, what would that lesson
be?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What I would say is there was a point in my career
where I did get burnt out, and apart of it was that I thought I
had to be everything toeveryone and everywhere, and you
can't.
You have to have help.
You have to not be afraid tohire people.
As good as you are better.
(27:03):
That should be your aim as aleader, and sometimes, when
you're building something, youthink you have to be in every
part of your business and youdon't, and that's how I burnt
out.
I mean, it's why I sold myfirst agency in 2014, because I
was burnt out.
And writing those big paychecksevery single month for salaries
, you know, was scary.
(27:25):
The truth is, I was young.
I had no idea what I was doing.
I had an ego.
I thought I knew everything.
I didn't seek help, I just didit.
I figured it out, which ispretty cool I did.
But, at the same time, if I hadsomebody, a mentor, somebody
that would just sit me down andsay, hey, you're forgetting this
piece or that piece, I think Iwouldn't have been so stressed
(27:47):
out being somebody that didn'tknow.
So if you're somebody that'sjust starting a venture, seek
somebody to mentor you.
You should always have somebodyin your corner, and the other
thing that I would I would addto that is keep your circle
tight.
I have a lot of people in mynetwork, but my circle, my inner
circle, is very, very small,and you know, sometimes we have
(28:10):
too many people giving us adviceand we have people like family
and people that really deep downfamily and friends.
They don't always like to seeyou happy and successful, and
I've had to cut people out in myinner circle that really deep
down, wasn't happy for mysuccess.
You know making comments likeoh well, you could afford it,
(28:33):
but I can't Things like thatRight, and so you want to pay
attention to those thingsbecause you don't want people in
your inner circle that aremaybe not to your face, not
voting for you or helping you,and so that's really important.
Your inner circle needs to betight and you want to make sure
that you're very careful who youlet in.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
That's so true.
Make sure that you're verycareful who you let in.
That's so true.
And I also know that theburnout that you're talking
about I think I read the otherday that something like 75% of
business owners fear that theyare on the brink of burnout.
So it's hard to see thesymptoms because they can really
go unnoticed for quite a while.
So just for a final questionhere if you could go back and
(29:16):
speak with yourself when youwere in your early twenties,
what life wisdom would you giveyourself?
That has nothing to do withbusiness.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's easy.
Remember to appreciate thejourney.
Don't forget that you can havesuccess, but if you don't
actually live your life andenjoy the people around you
family and friends then what'sthe purpose right?
Tomorrow is not guaranteed, somake sure you live today while
also building for tomorrow, andhaving that balance is is
(29:49):
incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Alexa, thank you so much.
You've really shared someincredible insights.
Thank you.
Today's key takeaways If youhave something that people want,
you can sell it.
If you have a skill or abilityand want to make extra money,
focus less on pricing at first.
(30:13):
Instead, build your reputation,expand your network and grow
your portfolio.
Stay open-minded.
Where you start and where youend may look very different from
what you initially imagined.
To establish a connection andget your foot in the door,
sometimes all it takes ispicking up the phone and saying,
(30:35):
hey, this is what I do.
How can I help you get yourfoot in the door?
Sometimes, all it takes ispicking up the phone and saying,
hey, this is what I do.
How can I help you?
One of the most effective formsof networking is simply doing
excellent work.
Your clients, collaborators andpartners will become your best
advocates.
When you go into business, youhave to be all in.
Everyone involved must be 100%invested.
(30:58):
You have to approach businesswith persistence.
It's an essential ingredientfor success.
Build an MVP minimum viableproduct.
Have speed to market and launchquickly to test for product
market fit.
Don't aim for perfection.
Speed and adaptability.
(31:19):
Win the game when scaling fromseven to eight figures.
Focus on, first, testing yourmarketing strategies and figure
out what works.
And second, build the rightteam.
This is the most importantpiece.
Build the right team.
This is the most importantpiece.
The team that gets yourbusiness to seven figures may
(31:40):
not be the same team you need toget to eight figures and beyond
.
Take time to establish strongprocesses and address
inefficiencies in your business.
When starting a business, putyourself out there.
Let everyone in your circleknow what you're doing.
You never know who might refer.
You have a sounding board, apersonal advisory board of
(32:04):
mentors you can turn to foradvice and perspective.
Put yourself in the room,whether digital or in person,
with others who are doing whatyou aspire to do.
Every step, whether a win or aso-called failure, is a stepping
stone.
Treat it as such.
Don't let one departmentoutgrow or outpace the rest of
(32:29):
your company.
Evaluating whether to sell yourbusiness can be complicated.
Ask yourself are you selling tocash out and pursue something
else, or are you selling tobring in someone who can take it
to the next level?
When you die, what do you wanton your tombstone?
What will your obituary say?
Don't be afraid to hire peoplewho are as good as or better
(32:53):
than you.
That should be your goal as aleader.
Keep your inner circle tight.
You can have an expansivenetwork, but be selective with
the people you trust for adviceand support and, lastly,
appreciate the journey.
Success means little if youdon't enjoy life, family and
(33:14):
friends along the way.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.
I'm Anne McGinty, your host,and today Dr Alexa D'Agostino is
coming on the show to shareinsights on how to build a
company from six to sevenfigures, or seven to eight.
Alexa founded her firstofficial company at 18 and went
on to build and then exitmultiple businesses, achieving
(00:31):
over nine figures in exits bythe age of 30.
As a part of her journey, shehas raised over $100 million for
charities worldwide.
As the CEO of Think ConsultingGroup, alexa specializes in
scaling businesses throughstrategic marketing, sales and
(00:51):
leadership development.
Her expertise has been featuredin Forbes, entrepreneur, usa
Today and the Wall StreetJournal.
You can find a link through toher business in the episode's
description Journal.
You can find a link through toher business in the episode's
description.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm so excited to be here and have a great
conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So starting your first company at 18 is pretty
impressive, and I was wonderingif you could share a little bit
of your backstory.
What shaped you into being anentrepreneur at such a young age
?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, so my family's from Cuba.
So when they came to Americathey had no choice but really to
be entrepreneurs, because theydidn't come from a family that
allowed them the opportunity intheir country to, you know,
build a life for themselves.
So when they came to Americathey couldn't speak English,
they didn't know anybody, theycouldn't get a job and they had
(01:48):
no choice really but to becomeentrepreneurs.
And so I grew up.
Everybody in my household, frommy mother, my father, my
sisters, my cousins, my aunts,my grandparents, everybody was
entrepreneurs.
So I kind of automatically knewI was going to be an
entrepreneur and I loved it.
At a young age I was startingbusinesses at five and seven and
I have a lot of content on thiswhere I tell stories of these
(02:09):
businesses I started and howmuch trouble I used to get into
because I used to sell likethings to like second graders
and when I was in second gradeand my teachers would get mad at
me, like, what are you doing,like, but everything to me was a
business and I just realized ata young age that if you have
something people want, you couldsell it and make money off it.
And so I had a business.
(02:30):
Well before that it's just.
I didn't make it an officialbusiness until 18.
But part of why I made anofficial business is because I
kind of got off the ground.
But when I was starting to go tocollege, I was like I need to
make some extra money and I saidI'm just going to throw an ad
on Craigslist and see whathappens.
This was before Craigslist waslike creepy.
I literally put an ad up andwas like I'll build your website
(02:52):
for 300 bucks, like I didn'tcare how much money I made.
I believe you have to chargesomething.
You don't want to do anythingfor free.
But when you're first gettingstarted, like you shouldn't
worry so much about pricing.
You've got to build yourreputation, build your portfolio
, and that's exactly what I did.
I just threw in your bucks andthat one client ended up
becoming one of my biggestclients in my first company and
(03:13):
helped me intro to so many otherpeople to help me build my
business.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Amazing.
It sounds serendipitous in someways.
So what exactly was that firstbusiness that you started?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, it's interesting because where it
started and where it ended isactually a pretty cool story and
this is a good lesson foreverybody.
That's starting a business tobe open-minded to where you can
go and it might not be where youenvision and it might not be
where you thought in thebeginning.
So I started as an appdeveloper.
I was nerdy, I love developingand I love building apps, and
(03:46):
that was originally.
My first business was websitesand apps.
It wasn't marketing at all, itwas just straight web and app,
and I was a computer sciencemajor and that was kind of where
I thought I was heading.
And what ended up happening isI started doing some projects
for some pretty big names so CIO, Morgan Stanley, a CIO at a
major college, a CEO at one ofthe leading tech companies in
(04:06):
the world and while I wasworking on those projects
building apps all three of themwere like hey, I have this idea
for a side project, I don't havetime to do it, I'll go 50-50
with you, you build it, I'llfund it and you do everything
else.
And I was like huh.
So the good thing was is I wasopen-minded about it and I was
like huh, so the good thing wasis I was open-minded about it
and I was like, yeah, give methe challenge.
(04:27):
So what ended up happening is Iended up building these apps
and the CIO at Morgan Stanleywas like, hey, now how do we
market this?
I go, I don't know.
At that time I was like I havethree technical degrees.
I have two masters incybersecurity and internet
technology.
I was like I have no idea howto market he goes.
Well, we got to figure it out.
And that's when I was like,okay, and I ended up learning
(04:48):
marketing and realizing what avalue there is to having
somebody who's technical and onthe data side as a CMO rather
than the creative side, which is80 to 90% of CMOs out there and
I really became more of like achief revenue officer, really
driving through data and techintegration, and I had to learn
the creative side.
(05:09):
And now I have a creativeperspective and now I do have an
MBA in marketing and a PhD, butat that time I had no training
in marketing at all and I prettymuch had to teach myself.
And that's how my companytransitioned into a digital
marketing agency that then wassold in 2014.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You were absolutely putting yourself out there.
I mean contacting people onCraigslist and taking any jobs
that you could take.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, what's interesting is Sarah Blakely,
who came up with Spanx.
Somebody asked her how the heckdid you get into Neiman Marcus?
And you want to know what herresponse was.
I called them Marcus and youwant to know what her response
was.
I called them and a lot oftimes we forget that it's as
simple as just picking up thephone and calling somebody and
saying, hey, here's what I do,how can I help you, and that's
essentially what I've done.
(05:53):
My whole career is I'm notafraid to speak up at networking
events and saying, hey, here'show I think I can help you and
it's how I've gotten into a lotof the circles that I am and I'm
actually not a huge networker,I don't go to you know all these
events and this and that what Ido is I do a really good job
for my partners and I havepeople that sell me because they
(06:15):
believe in me.
And that's the most importantthing is you get your inner
circle of people that are goingto sell for you and you can't be
afraid to ask people that arein your circle how can I help
you or people in your network.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And again, I feel like one of the lessons I'm
hearing from what you're sayingis that you're offering to help.
Which is what is attractingpeople to come to you.
Is that you're in it for them,not necessarily 100% for
yourself.
So that is attractive.
I'm wondering, across all ofthe businesses that you have
scaled and sold, what are thepatterns that are part of your
(06:50):
formula?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
At this point.
I've had nine figures worth ofexits and I've had a ton of
failures.
I've had companies that Ithought were billing dollar
companies.
I've had companies that we dida hundred million in two years
and we still failed and ended upbankrupting.
And what's interesting isthere's principles that I've
seen of why things weresuccessful and there's
(07:12):
principles why I thought thingsweren't successful.
And so principle number onethat I found is when you go into
business, you have to be all in.
If you have a business yourselfor if you have business with
partners, every single personthat's on that cap table has to
be 100% invested.
If they are in 10 other things,it doesn't matter how great the
(07:33):
idea is, it will fail becauseeveryone's not fully 100%
invested in that business.
Thing is persistence.
You have to have moneysometimes to persist, but you
have to personally have theattitude to want to persist.
Entrepreneurship is hard.
It's like a wave that crashesdown on you.
Do you get up or do you leavethe ocean?
(07:54):
I never leave.
I always get smacked with awave and I get right back up, no
matter how big it is.
And that's entrepreneurship.
If you can't persist, if youdon't have that kind of
personality to be able to justget up and go as hard as it is.
That's something else that I'veseen as well, when we either
don't have the money to persistor we don't have the right team
(08:15):
with the right attitude topersist.
The third thing I would say isproduct market fit.
Do you actually have a productthat makes sense, that people
want?
You can have the best idea inthe world, but if you don't have
people that will actually buyit, it doesn't matter.
So this is where I say topeople don't go all the way to
the end building something.
Build an MVP, get somethingthat people can test and feel,
(08:38):
even if it's at 20%, where youcan give them the vision and see
if people are actuallyinterested in it.
I've seen people spend yearsbuilding something that nobody
wants rather than building anMVP or an idea of something to
see if people even want it.
I have seen great ideas thatother people beat them to market
because they took too long, andso it's kind of a dual lesson
(09:01):
there.
It's one, get something outquickly, make sure it's a
product market fit, and then,two, don't try to make it
perfect.
Perfection is not going to winthe game.
Speed is gonna win the game.
The last thing, which is veryimportant, is building the right
team.
You can have a great, greatproduct, but if you don't have
the right tech team, you don'thave the right marketing team.
(09:22):
You don't have the right techteam, you don't have the right
marketing team, you don't havethe right people leading it.
You're never going to get tothe finish line.
It's going to be very, verychallenging.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And that will circle back to someone that is in an
episode a few before yours whois Jeff Smart.
He's like the world's numberone expert on hiring and he also
says yeah, the team is really,it's everything, everything.
So a lot of our listeners areeither entrepreneurs or aspiring
entrepreneurs.
There are a lot of curiouslisteners who just love these
(09:51):
stories, but anyone that iscurrently owner operating a
business, what advice do youhave for them to scale from, say
, six figures to seven figures,or maybe seven figures to eight
figures?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
say six figures to seven figures, or maybe seven
figures to eight figures.
Yeah, I actually think it'seasier to scale from seven to
eight than it is six to seven,because when you're scaling to
six figures, it's mostly you andit's you yourself and you right
when, when you start to hitseven figures, what matters is
(10:24):
people marketing, which are thetwo hardest part of building a
company.
And a lot of people are scaredto invest in marketing because
unless they have a direct ROI,they can't see it.
They're scared to put moneyinto it.
But marketing takes time.
You have to test things out.
You have to put things out.
You have to see what's working.
You have to be willing to put10% minimum of your budget into
(10:45):
marketing, knowing you might notget it back immediately because
nobody knows.
I don't care how good amarketer is, nobody really knows
what's going to work until youactually try it.
I've seen campaigns for the sameexact type of company fail
because just because company Adid it successfully doesn't mean
company B will, why they'redifferent brands, different
reputation, sometimes differentofferings, right.
(11:07):
And so you've got to start tobuild your marketing and what I
call it's a trademark that wehave called marketing by
modification.
You've got to start testingwhat is and isn't working.
You could do $10 a day.
You could do a couple hundreddollars a month, it doesn't
matter but you've got to earmarka little bit for marketing and
then people we just talked about.
It's the most important pieceand the hardest piece of
(11:27):
building a business is makingsure you have the right people
in place, and I could even addprocesses in there making sure
you put the time and energy andmoney aside to set the right
processes.
There's a lot of inefficientbusinesses out there because
they're not taking the time tobuild the correct processes, and
so my advice is focus on thosethings as you're growing.
(11:48):
Don't be afraid to invest inyourself and in your business.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
When you start a new business and it's the very
beginning.
What are the strategies andtactics that you're looking at
to gain traction quickly?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
You know, don't be afraid to leverage your personal
social.
You don't have to have 20,000followers.
I made my first million dollarshaving 5,000 followers, that's
it.
I would say half of them werelike family and friends.
You can't be afraid to putyourself out there.
Sometimes people are like, oh,I don't want to put myself out
there.
You have to.
You have to let people knowwhat you're doing and not
(12:20):
necessarily ask for help.
But you never know who in yourcircle will refer you.
So my first business I wasputting myself out there to
family, friends, anybody thatwould basically listen, and
that's how I built my name, myportfolio, and it kind of weaved
out from there.
So first is putting yourself outthere.
Second is seeking advice,getting a coach.
(12:43):
It doesn't mean go spend ahundred thousand dollars on a
coach.
By the way, it could be amentor, it could be somebody
close to you.
You want to have a soundingboard of people, whether it's
like a little advisory boardthat you put together of people
that you can ask advice for andwhatnot.
You want to make sure thatyou're doing that.
The third thing I would say withthat piece is putting yourself
in rooms with people that aredoing what you're doing.
(13:04):
There's very few of us that arecreating companies that don't
exist, right?
So if you're a marketing agencyowner, get in a room with
people that have built agencies,and there's plenty of meetup
groups and things like that ofpeople that have done it.
So don't recreate the wheel,and that might mean hiring a
coach that has done it, but youwant to make sure they've
(13:24):
actually done it and they'vedone what you were looking to do
, cause there's a lot of coachesout there or what I call
coaches that coach coaches, andyou want to just make sure you
get the right mentor or coach.
And again, it doesn't mean youhave to go spending crazy
amounts of money to hiresomebody, and sometimes you
don't have to hire anybody atall, and don't be afraid to pick
up the phone.
(13:45):
It's going to require you toroll up your sleeves to build
this thing, and part of that isfiguring out where are your
people.
Facebook groups is a fantasticplace to start.
For instance, if you're sellinga pet product, how many pet
lover Facebook groups are there,right?
So figure out where your peoplehang out.
Maybe they're sitting on Reddit, right?
(14:06):
So I have a company that wehave a $500 million sports
venture fund.
It's a private equity companythat I'm part equity in and it's
like where are the sports fans?
They're on Reddit, they're onTwitter.
So that's where I'm going to beright.
So figure out where thesepeople are and build
relationships.
Put yourself out there.
Don't be afraid to share whatyou're working on.
(14:26):
So there's so many free ways tobuild a company and then, with
funding, you know, on that side,if you do have funding, start
putting stuff out there.
See what messaging's working,see what design's working.
Don't be afraid to test thingsout.
You can take a thousand bucks amonth and that will tell you a
lot about what is and isn'tworking, what people do and do
not want.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And let's say that there's a small business owner
who's listening in.
They've never really spent anymoney on marketing before and
they are a little nervous.
They don't really have apre-assigned budget set aside
for it and they've got, okay, athousand bucks that they're
saying, fine, I'll give it a try.
Where are you going torecommend that they first try?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So Facebook is still the number one app for marketing
.
It is more expensive than itwas in the past, but it still is
the number one advertising tool.
Tiktok is good, but the problemwith TikTok is that it's very
content driven.
If you don't have the rightcontent, it's not going to work,
it's going to bomb.
Where Facebook, you don'tnecessarily have to have the
(15:27):
exact right content to get leads.
Where TikTok is very, verycreative driven and you know,
depending on what you're doinglike if you have a fitness brand
or a food brand, Pinterest isgreat and it's cheap, right.
So I think it really dependswhat kind of business that you
have.
But there's a lot of platformsout there and you've got to kind
of test, but Facebook is stillthe number one.
(15:48):
Google's great but it'sexpensive and Google, to me, is
great if you want the lowhanging fruit, aka people that
are searching.
But once you start to go into,like video, and you need a lot
of assets for that, and then youknow you don't really use the
display network.
That's more of retargeting andwhatnot.
So to me that's not the top ofthe funnel, that's kind of more
(16:09):
mid funnel, unless you're doingsearch.
But again, that's not going totell you much, because people
are already searching for you.
What you want to know in thebeginning is people that are not
searching for you.
Can you capture their attention?
And that's where you would uselike Facebook ads.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
So have you ever taken a major risk in order to
take a big leap for one of yourcompanies and not have it pan
out?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Oh yeah, I've had more failures than successes.
Now, in saying that I've hadincome rise and revenue wise, or
wins in dollar amounts, isbigger than my losses, but the
sheer number of losses are waymore than my failures.
And it's kind of like youinvest in a hundred things and
five pan out, but the five thatpan out are more than the losses
(16:55):
.
Right, and I think that'sreally important.
It's you.
You want to diversify in whatyou're doing and try different
things, and that's what I'vedone in my career and it's why
I've been successful is becauseI'm willing to try anything I
believe in.
I won't waste my time onsomething I don't believe in and
that I don't believe will workor I'm not passionate about.
(17:16):
That's part of my criteria totake on projects.
But I've had companies Imentioned this earlier that I've
built up to nine figures andthen they went bankrupt.
And I've had companies thatbuilt to nine figures and we
sold successfully went bankrupt.
And I've had companies thatbuilt to nine figures and we
sold successfully.
You have failures that youlearn from and you have wins
(17:36):
that you learn from.
But the most important thing asan entrepreneur and a human is
to make sure you learn fromeverything the good, the bad,
the ugly, and learn how youcould be better.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I think if we could figure out how to teach people
to be okay with that piece, thenthat would be phenomenal.
It's a repeated advice that wehear, but some people are so
scared of what others mightthink of them, so if you have
anything that you'd like tooffer on that, please, yeah, I
mean, I guess it's start by notthinking of it as a failure.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Think of it as a stepping stone.
I've had failures in hiring.
I've had failures in companies.
One of my biggest failures inthe last five years was a
company.
It was a new industry I'venever been in.
It was a CPG brand and we hadvery quick traction.
We were getting into major boxstores very quickly.
People loved the brand, what wewere building, and we failed
(18:27):
because of the operational sideof the house.
It's a very complicated storybut it kind of is a bunch of
lessons in one.
And one was what I was tellingyou about is if you don't have
all partners involved and allpartners concentrating on this.
That was part of it.
And two, we almost had so muchsuccess in the want for this
very quickly.
We weren't set up to do itproperly and we had major issues
(18:52):
with our factory andmanufacturing the product and
then we pissed people off andthen you're sending out product
that wasn't good, and so wealmost did too good of a job on
marketing in the beginningbecause we tried to scale too
quickly, because everybody wasimpatient, right, and so it was
I thought was going to be mybillion dollar exit.
(19:13):
I mean, I was in the first 12months.
I was like holy crap, like wehave everybody interested from
Target and Costco and everyonewanted us.
And I literally saw my tens ofmillions of dollars in my head
already before we even had itand it is still to date like my
biggest failure, because therewere so many things that were
(19:34):
missed on the way.
And so you know, for me it waslooking back and saying, okay,
now when I evaluateopportunities, it's not just the
marketing of it, but it's alsothe partners, it's the plan to
market.
There's so many other thingsbesides marketing that I need to
look at when I'm evaluatingthese opportunities.
(19:55):
So the good thing is is I walkedaway with a whole new industry.
I knew nothing about CBG, Iknew nothing about going to
trade shows and this, andthere's so many things that I
learned from the failure.
But also there were so manythings that I learned from doing
the project and now I can say Iknow how to onboard a target.
I know how to get products intoCostco and what they're looking
(20:17):
for.
I know exactly the criteria.
Whole Foods is looking versusCostco, who cares more about the
design than the ingredients,and Sprouts is very crazy about
ingredients.
I wouldn't have known all ofthis if I didn't do the project
Right.
So as much as it was a failureand we ended up bankrupting that
company, I walked away with somuch knowledge.
That's something you can't buy.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
It costs money to get an education, and learning by
doing is worth the money, evenif you lose it, because there's
your education right there.
So how?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
do you determine when it is the right time to exit a
business?
Actually, one of my failureswas exiting a business too early
.
That's a hard question, becauseone of my exits I exited a
company I was 20 and it's now amulti-billion dollar company and
I sold it for a sheer couplemillion, but I was 20.
(21:20):
And back then that was a lot ofmoney, but I sold it to one of
the largest financial companiesin the world and they obviously
saw where it was heading.
And now the patent that I hadis now the patent at every
casino.
Now, granted, I wouldn't havehad that connection to even get
this in casinos to begin with,but they are large investors in
some of the largest casinos inthe world.
(21:42):
But what I should have done isnegotiated to keep one to 2% of
that company, to keep 1% to 2%of that company.
So I think it's a couple ofthings.
It's one do you have thecurrent team?
Because sometimes the team toget it to seven figures isn't
the same team to get it to eightor nine or 10.
So do you have the right teamin place currently, or the right
advisory board to get you infront of the right people?
(22:02):
So the answer.
I'll use that company as anexample.
I did not.
I had the right product, Ididn't have the right
connections, I didn't have theright team to take this to a
billion, so it would have neverhappened.
The second question is would yourather be a hundred percent of
a million dollar company or 2%of a billion dollar company?
And that's what you have to askyourself.
(22:22):
And is that even something thatyou want to do?
And so if I own 2%, I couldwalk away with, you know, $20
million it's going to take me.
If you even have a 20%, youknow return on your million
dollar company, that's going totake you 40 years to get that 20
million.
So is it better to sell it tohave the chance at 20 million
(22:43):
than taking the risk of waiting40 years?
Yeah, it is Right.
So I think I'm at the pointwhere I most likely will never a
hundred percent sell a companyoutright Cause if you're selling
it, you're selling it eitherbecause you want the money
upfront, um, or because you'reselling it to a team that can
take it to the next level andthat determines whether or not
you would a hundred percent sellor not.
(23:04):
And uh, so it's kind of acomplicated answer but I hope
that kind of gives someframework of kind of the
thinking.
You've got to think about whatyou want, right?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
And thinking about what youwant, what drives you to keep on
creating and scaling andexiting businesses, especially
since it sounds like you likelydon't need the money anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, yeah, it's a really great question.
So my wife and I, I mean I wearlike, look what I'm wearing.
Like I wear like Amazon basics.
Like I'm not, we're not veryshowy people.
I believe that real wealthpeople don't show.
I think people that show it arenot wealthy.
People that brag about donatingaren't really wealthy or they
(23:50):
have something to hide or theyare insecure.
They have something to hide orthey are insecure.
So for us, like I walk aroundin, you know, a t-shirt and
shorts all day, we drive a Ford.
Like I live in a humble house.
Like we're not we're not crazypeople.
For me, it's more about thefinancial freedom, right.
So if I don't work for the next20 years, it doesn't matter.
I could still live the samelife that I live right now.
(24:11):
So that was the most importantthing for me to get to where we
are now.
Now, the next phase of that isimpact, and everything I'm
involved in is something thatcan make major impact and that's
the most important thing for me.
So if you look at my portfolio,I'm part of really amazing
projects that I love to do.
One I don't think I can evernot work.
(24:31):
That would be really boring.
Two, I think it's important formy kids to see us working hard.
I work just as hard now as Idid when I was broke, and it's
important for them to see thatright.
And we live a great life, wetake great vacations and we do
things, but I'm constantlytalking to my kids about how
important it is to work hard,how important it is to be your
(24:53):
own boss.
I think it's important to showthem that they will be working
as soon as they can.
They're not going to be trustfund babies.
So to me now, this next part isimpact.
My wife, you know, lovesdonating and being a part of
something, but not just donatingwith money, but donating with
time and really investing inorganizations that we care about
(25:13):
.
So first it was financialfreedom, now it's impact.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
And is there a specific legacy that you're
hoping to leave behind?
Is there a certain industry orcause that, to you, is just the
most meaningful?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What I think everybody should do is think
about when and this is morbidbut when you die, what do you
want on your tombstone?
Do you want on your tombstoneAlexa made a lot of money?
Or do you want on yourtombstone Alexa impacted a lot
of lives?
And that's what I think aboutevery day.
I don't want on my tombstoneshe made millions.
What I want to be on, that is,she helped millions.
(25:51):
So for me, my legacy is moreabout how can we make an impact
in this world and how can wechange lives.
And that might be for myemployees, it might be for our
customers, it might be in thesake of a nonprofit.
It could mean many differentthings, and that's the legacy
that I want to leave.
(26:11):
Honestly, I would say thebiggest part of my legacy will
be my kids.
I want to raise good humans.
That is my number one priorityand I want them to change the
world.
I don't want to change theworld, I want them to change the
world.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
That's amazing.
That's an amazing way to live.
So if you could give one lessonyou wish someone had taught you
earlier in your entrepreneurialjourney, what would that lesson
be?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What I would say is there was a point in my career
where I did get burnt out, and apart of it was that I thought I
had to be everything toeveryone and everywhere, and you
can't.
You have to have help.
You have to not be afraid tohire people.
As good as you are better.
(27:03):
That should be your aim as aleader, and sometimes, when
you're building something, youthink you have to be in every
part of your business and youdon't, and that's how I burnt
out.
I mean, it's why I sold myfirst agency in 2014, because I
was burnt out.
And writing those big paychecksevery single month for salaries
, you know, was scary.
(27:25):
The truth is, I was young.
I had no idea what I was doing.
I had an ego.
I thought I knew everything.
I didn't seek help, I just didit.
I figured it out, which ispretty cool I did.
But, at the same time, if I hadsomebody, a mentor, somebody
that would just sit me down andsay, hey, you're forgetting this
piece or that piece, I think Iwouldn't have been so stressed
(27:47):
out being somebody that didn'tknow.
So if you're somebody that'sjust starting a venture, seek
somebody to mentor you.
You should always have somebodyin your corner, and the other
thing that I would I would addto that is keep your circle
tight.
I have a lot of people in mynetwork, but my circle, my inner
circle, is very, very small,and you know, sometimes we have
(28:10):
too many people giving us adviceand we have people like family
and people that really deep downfamily and friends.
They don't always like to seeyou happy and successful, and
I've had to cut people out in myinner circle that really deep
down, wasn't happy for mysuccess.
You know making comments likeoh well, you could afford it,
(28:33):
but I can't Things like thatRight, and so you want to pay
attention to those thingsbecause you don't want people in
your inner circle that aremaybe not to your face, not
voting for you or helping you,and so that's really important.
Your inner circle needs to betight and you want to make sure
that you're very careful who youlet in.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
That's so true.
Make sure that you're verycareful who you let in.
That's so true.
And I also know that theburnout that you're talking
about I think I read the otherday that something like 75% of
business owners fear that theyare on the brink of burnout.
So it's hard to see thesymptoms because they can really
go unnoticed for quite a while.
So just for a final questionhere if you could go back and
(29:16):
speak with yourself when youwere in your early twenties,
what life wisdom would you giveyourself?
That has nothing to do withbusiness.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's easy.
Remember to appreciate thejourney.
Don't forget that you can havesuccess, but if you don't
actually live your life andenjoy the people around you
family and friends then what'sthe purpose right?
Tomorrow is not guaranteed, somake sure you live today while
also building for tomorrow, andhaving that balance is is
(29:49):
incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Alexa, thank you so much.
You've really shared someincredible insights.
Thank you.
Today's key takeaways If youhave something that people want,
you can sell it.
If you have a skill or abilityand want to make extra money,
focus less on pricing at first.
(30:13):
Instead, build your reputation,expand your network and grow
your portfolio.
Stay open-minded.
Where you start and where youend may look very different from
what you initially imagined.
To establish a connection andget your foot in the door,
sometimes all it takes ispicking up the phone and saying,
(30:35):
hey, this is what I do.
How can I help you get yourfoot in the door?
Sometimes, all it takes ispicking up the phone and saying,
hey, this is what I do.
How can I help you?
One of the most effective formsof networking is simply doing
excellent work.
Your clients, collaborators andpartners will become your best
advocates.
When you go into business, youhave to be all in.
Everyone involved must be 100%invested.
(30:58):
You have to approach businesswith persistence.
It's an essential ingredientfor success.
Build an MVP minimum viableproduct.
Have speed to market and launchquickly to test for product
market fit.
Don't aim for perfection.
Speed and adaptability.
(31:19):
Win the game when scaling fromseven to eight figures.
Focus on, first, testing yourmarketing strategies and figure
out what works.
And second, build the rightteam.
This is the most importantpiece.
Build the right team.
This is the most importantpiece.
The team that gets yourbusiness to seven figures may
(31:40):
not be the same team you need toget to eight figures and beyond
.
Take time to establish strongprocesses and address
inefficiencies in your business.
When starting a business, putyourself out there.
Let everyone in your circleknow what you're doing.
You never know who might refer.
You have a sounding board, apersonal advisory board of
(32:04):
mentors you can turn to foradvice and perspective.
Put yourself in the room,whether digital or in person,
with others who are doing whatyou aspire to do.
Every step, whether a win or aso-called failure, is a stepping
stone.
Treat it as such.
Don't let one departmentoutgrow or outpace the rest of
(32:29):
your company.
Evaluating whether to sell yourbusiness can be complicated.
Ask yourself are you selling tocash out and pursue something
else, or are you selling tobring in someone who can take it
to the next level?
When you die, what do you wanton your tombstone?
What will your obituary say?
Don't be afraid to hire peoplewho are as good as or better
(32:53):
than you.
That should be your goal as aleader.
Keep your inner circle tight.
You can have an expansivenetwork, but be selective with
the people you trust for adviceand support and, lastly,
appreciate the journey.
Success means little if youdon't enjoy life, family and
(33:14):
friends along the way.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
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