938. Q&AF: Ownership Without Guilt, Tough Leadership Decisions & Balancing Team Commitment

Yeah, we're sleeping on the floor.

Now my jury box froze.

Fuck up bold, fuck up stove.

Counted millions in a cold.

Bad bitch booted swole.

Got her own bank rope.

Can't fold.

That's a no.

Headshot case close.

What is up, guys?

It's Andy Prisela, and this is the show for the realists.

Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness, and delusions of modern society.

And welcome.

Another fucking reality.

Guys, today we have Q ⁇ A F.

That's where you submit the questions and we give you the answers.

You can submit your questions a couple different ways.

The first way is...

Guys, email your questions into askandy atandiforsella.com.

And what's the second way?

You can also drop your questions in the Q ⁇ A of episodes on YouTube.

And what's the big way?

Big way, guys, is you can click that link in the description and submit your questions for live call-ins.

Yeah.

I think we're going to start doing the live chat on the Q ⁇ A and just pick you right out of the chat.

No, that'd be sick.

Yeah, let's do that.

That'd be sick.

We're doing that from now on, executive decision.

Executive decision?

Yeah, so look out for that.

Let's see.

Throughout the week, we're going to have shows within the show.

It's not always going to be QAF.

Sometimes we're going to have real talk.

Real talk is just five, 20 minutes of me giving you some real talk.

Tomorrow, we're going to have CTI.

That stands for Cruise the Internet.

We talk about what's going on in the world.

We speculate on what's true, what's not true.

And then we talk about how we, the people, have to solve these problems going on in the world.

And there are a lot of them.

Then we have 75 Hard versus.

We just had an awesome 75 Hard versus.

If you didn't get to check that out, it was 75 Hard versus Lexi Johnson.

But that's where someone who has completed the 75 Hard program comes on the show.

They talk about how they were before, how they are now, and how they use the 75 Hard program to fix.

their shit.

If you're unfamiliar with 75 Hard is the initial phase of the Live Hard program, which is the world's most popular mental toughness program ever created.

And it is available for free at episode 208.

Get the whole program for free, episode 208 on the audio feed only.

There's also a book on my website, andyforsellid.com, called the Book on Mental Toughness.

Go fucking buy it.

It has the entire program in there, plus a whole bunch of other chapters on mental toughness,

how to use it, how to build your life the way you want, and why it's important.

All right.

So for you nerds out there that like to dig deep,

get the book.

Yeah.

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All right.

What's up?

What's going on, man?

Nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Beautiful day.

It is.

Yeah, it's a beautiful day.

Dude, it's been fucking hot.

It's been hot.

Yeah, how long is it supposed to stay hot like this?

I don't know, but I don't like it.

Dude, so, you know, it was nice for like a week.

Yeah, it was beautiful.

70 degrees.

Now it's hot again.

Yeah, it's back hot.

You know, it is crazy.

So, you know, one of my passions, for those that don't know, is I like I love football.

You love food?

Foodball?

Do you say foodball?

I said football.

Oh, football.

Oh, got it.

I thought you said foodball.

What's up?

It's supposed to be better at like Thursday.

Oh, is it?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's nice.

Yeah.

Anyway, so.

Yeah, no, I love football.

It's a big passion of mine uh i played it for years coached it for years and so recently i'm like i want to i want to ref right i want to be a referee and so i went through the whole process i'm doing like little league junior high games and now and yesterday uh i caught two cramps in my quads on the first play

trying to trying to scoot across the field bro listen first of all did they have to call the fucking uh the trainers out bro i started running like fucking like i had something up my ass bro like it was so bad

crazy thing is, though, like, uh, one of the uh coaches recognized me and uh once he saw you running.

Yeah, which is all right.

He's like, He's like, Wait, you said your name was DJ.

You're DJ, right?

I'm like, Yep, that's me.

Flag, flag off, you know what I'm saying?

It was great, though, man.

It's, it's been great.

Where's the games at?

They're all over.

I've been doing, uh, like I said, I'm doing junior high right now because do the J, they want me to do some JV games, but like, those are on Mondays at like five o'clock.

I can't do those.

Yeah.

Um, now I can do like some of the varsity stuff.

I just haven't got a sign.

It's my first year.

So, yeah.

But I'll do the uh junior high game so sixth seventh and eighth grade uh yesterday was at marquette yeah and uh they got they got swept who they play rittner oh really they

swept bro those kids are good you ref uh you're gonna ref mi cds probably yeah yeah we played them in junior high they've always

am i they've we we played them in high school too they they're good yeah they've always had a program there yeah it's been cool man Yep.

It's been fun, but yeah, I caught two fucking cramps on the first play, man.

I was fucking dying dying the whole game, man.

I'm like, y'all niggas got some diabetes water here for me or something.

Dude, I just wanted something, man.

The diabetes?

Diabetes water.

The diabetes water?

Pickle juice.

Fuck.

Dude, I would have drank anything.

Yeah.

Speaking of drinking anything.

That's right.

How about that fucking plug?

Now,

we may not run ads on the show, but if I were.

Yeah.

It would be for this amazing form energy.

Fuck, man.

That was good.

Energy drink.

That's right.

The greatest energy drink in the history of earth and just so you know there's more because we also have

look at you the form

first form snack stack that's right i just picked this up on my way over here oh yeah at wally's yeah not really okay but if i did i actually got this out of my office but i could have bought it at wally's or 7-eleven or pretty much anywhere else yeah and you should too

i needed those yesterday yeah that's right

so this is definitely not an ad because I'm not getting paid, but this is a personal recommendation.

I like it.

Damn, that is fucking good, bro.

The orange is good.

Bro, they're all good.

I can't wait for the new flavors, bro.

Because that's some.

I know which one you're waiting for.

You know which one I'm waiting for.

Yeah.

Can you guys guess?

Can you guys guess which flavor is coming that DJ is really going to like?

Yep.

I'll send you guys a case if you guess it right.

Yeah.

All right.

Case will be stolen, too.

I was waiting for that.

Yep.

Let's, yeah, dude.

Hey, listen, it's our Monday morning, so let's make some people better today.

I got some good ones for you.

I've got some callers ready, too.

So let's get this first one going.

We got, let's give Cody a call.

Cody.

Cody with the C.

Cool.

Is there other ways?

Yeah.

The K.

Cody?

Yeah.

You guys do that shit all the time.

No, we do not.

Yeah.

We do not.

Yeah.

Now,

that's Clara.

You know, 28-year-old,

25, 28-year-old new moms.

Yeah.

And they're trying to be unique.

Yep, that's right.

Yeah, they'll do that shit.

Yeah.

We, we, normal people, do not.

People don't realize like how bad that like fucks up their kids life like every class you're in you got to spell your name out you know what i'm saying like people that have like a regular name don't know that but like i know that you know that i know that yeah i had to spell my last name and everybody always says it so many fucking different ways frasilly frizzilla yeah frizzella yeah it's how hard is it to fucking pronounce bro it's frisella like fry sella fry sella See, and that's that's my calling is self-fries.

Is that what it is?

Yeah.

I got this whole plan, bro.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna transition into a fry, no, barbecue, bro, tycoon.

No, we gotta do smoked meats,

both.

Okay, we'll do both there.

Yeah, we'll put smoked meats on the fries.

Fuck, talk about fucking diabetes,

and then we'll sell the weight loss self-called vertical integration.

That's right, we'll put a gym right next door, yeah.

All right, let's give uh, let's get a call-in going.

We got uh, We got Jake.

Let's give Jake a call.

Jake, what's up, dude?

What's up, big dog?

How'd you know I was a big dog?

I'm the little dog.

I'm the little dog, bro.

You know, you're the big dog.

Jake, what's up, dude?

What's up, Andy?

How are you?

I'm doing great, brother.

How are you?

I can't complain.

Another day, another quarter.

Yeah, where are you calling in from?

Long Island, New York.

Nice.

So what do you do up there, bro?

So I run a gourmet seafood market.

Okay.

So you sell all to all the, do you sell to individuals or also restaurants?

Individuals, mostly individuals.

Okay.

A lot of hedge fund guys and housewives.

All right.

So they want in between, you know?

I get everything from hedge fund guys to, you know, people who clean houses.

So it's a really, really good job.

That's awesome, dude.

So how'd you get into that?

I was a pretty troubled teen, always fighting and getting into problems, you know, running the streets and doing stuff like that.

And I turned 18 and I said, well, it was either I'm going to go to work or I'm going to go to war.

And there really wasn't much of a war at the time.

So I walked into this little seafood market in my town.

And I actually had a black eye at the time.

I didn't think I was going to get hired.

I got stung by a bee a couple days before, and the woman at the time she really needed help.

Um, so I just walked in and asked for a job, and that was 10 years ago.

And I've been here five, six days a week, blood, sweat, tears.

Um, I've my first year here, I boosted sales 30 percent, um, really just knuckled down and did my best.

And it's taken me taken me pretty far.

That's awesome, bro.

So, so do you own this place now?

No, I I don't.

And that's part of my question.

So I, like I said, I've been here 10 years and it was always a plan to either buy into this one or me and the owner now were going to open a new market together.

In the past couple of years, she's taken

like a 180.

She got divorced.

bought a house and then got remarried and she's in nursing school right now but she kind of she wants out of the business um but me i have have my foot on the gas.

I want to grow the business.

I have a lot of things.

I want to do with the business, do things with the community.

I have a whole lot of ideas.

So I'm looking to buy the business within the next six to nine months.

Okay.

And my question is:

I'm going to be getting a loan from my father-in-law for the business.

And like I said, I've done everything by myself my entire life, phone bill, core bill, everything.

I've never, you know, gotten a hand out.

And getting the money from my father-in-law, to me, it feels like almost like a hand out, not a hand up.

So I'm kind of just like struggling with that a little bit, how I can feel like I'm getting a hand up and not a hand out.

Okay.

This is very easy.

The one way, dude, the real.

The real way that you make what you're trying to do happen is to make it successful and make it worth his while.

Um, beautiful.

Yeah, I mean, that's it, dude.

You know, like, yeah, take the loan, understand that, you know, this is something that you're not really comfortable with, but

have the intention, which I could tell you already do, of not just paying the loan back, but also making it a strong financial investment for him.

You know, it sounds to me like you're trying to scale this bitch out.

And, you know, who knows?

This could be one of the greatest investments that he's ever made.

And I would make it my personal goal to make it that way.

And it sounds like you understand the business.

You've been doing it a long time.

You sound confident.

Like, dude,

I think you're thinking about it exactly how you should.

You know, anytime you take money, you should feel a little hesitant about it.

I think that awareness is like, yeah, that's a healthy thing, dude.

Yeah.

And then figuring out how to make it worth his while.

What are the terms that you guys figured out, or did you do that yet?

So right now I have, we're getting contracts and everything written out.

I know I do everything here.

So taking over really wouldn't be that much of a problem.

I write the checks.

I do the ordering.

You know, it's not really like a job to me.

I love it so much.

I talk to all different people and stuff like that.

The terms would be basically

We haven't really talked about like a payback situation.

Yeah.

Because he's one of those guys that I just got the contract from the lawyer and everything.

He's one of those guys that's nothing happens until that contract is written and signed and then we move forward.

But it would probably be kind of like a traditional SBA loan

where I have a 10-year period to pay it back.

It would be my mission to pay that back in four years.

And I believe that I can do that with the revenue of the business.

Because for the first couple of years, I really,

I'm going to take the salary I take now, which isn't great,

and then I'm going to take whatever else from the business, reinvest back into the business and pay back my loan.

Like I tell all my customers all the time, like, I'm prepared to open a cooler, put a blanket in there and a pillow and sleep in that thing if I have to.

So I really, you know, I really think I could pay back the loan.

The loan isn't

in terms of like, you know, it's a couple hundred thousand dollars.

So I really think that just grinding it out for a couple of years, i can pay back that loan in full um and it would probably be my mission to do it with under four years yeah do you do you uh do you ship your product or is it water ship we don't ship so that's um that's one of the next steps um that i i want to look into um once i get everything situated and and start growing the business and doing things my way is um we make a couple of niche products here um that i look at the seafood the frozen seafood selection in you know supermarkets and things like that are pretty trash.

It's fish sticks.

It's

a fish mix.

It's trash.

So I really want to look into, we make swordfish and meatballs.

I make swordfish meatballs.

I make these really nice Standler burgers that I think in the long run,

I would try to get into a frozen space in supermarkets, Walmart, BJ's, Costco, things like that.

I know a Walmart customer is not going to be the same as a Target customer.

So you have branch out and have different things that I could put

in these

shelves and stuff like that that I could do different products.

And that would be the ultimate goal.

I have another idea that I want to do is I want to take like a 10 to 13 foot crisscraft, a wood brain crisscraft boat.

Yep.

And I want to hollow it out with a metal fabricator.

And I'm going to cut the engine, gut it out, and have a metal fabricator come and we're going to install a metal bin inside the boat that I can bring to beaches, parties, people's mansions over here.

People have funny money.

The average house over here is like a million dollars

that I can bring to these people's houses.

And it could be a shucking boat.

Put clams on it, oysters, king crab, lobster, and things like that.

And they're really, they have canoes and things like that, but a...

real wood grain actual boat has not been done.

And I look at that as like a business inside of the business.

Yes.

That I can grow and I can even get one boat, two boats, three boats, have a separate Instagram for it, post things, you know, run it as a business inside of the business, not taking my attention away from my bread and butter, which is retail seafood.

For sure.

But something like that could easily bring me an extra 20 to 30 grand of summertime season just renting it out on the daily.

Yeah, brother.

Look, can I tell you what I do?

Yeah.

All right.

Because it sounds like you got it all figured out.

And I'm going to play Big Brother here.

How old are you?

I'm 27.

All right.

I'm Big Brother.

All right.

I'm not dad yet.

All right.

Here's the deal, bro.

You got a fucking great thing going.

Okay.

And

it's niche too.

It's gourmet seafood.

Here's what I would do if I was your partner.

All right.

I would

take the loan.

I would, well, first of all, before I take the loan, I would sit down today and I would make a concrete plan of how we're going to scale this motherfucker out.

And how I would do it, if I were you, is

I like the Chris Kraft idea a lot, by the way.

I

would,

are you on social media yet with your fish market?

So there is a social media for it.

I tried to take it over about a year and a half ago.

The owner, the woman, she was like, no, I'm I'm doing it.

The social media is trash.

So that's the number one thing.

When I take over, I'm going to delete everything and revamp the entire social media.

That's

my number one goal when I take over.

Okay.

Here's what I would do, dude.

I

would make a plan,

and it would look something like this.

We're going to go out and get the loan.

We're going to pay this thing back within five years.

Here's how we're going to do it.

We're going to take over the ownership of the retail location.

We're going to continue to run that.

We're going to continue to make it better.

The product is going to continue to get better, not worse.

We are never going to compromise the product.

We are only going to move it in the direction of better.

Because you're playing in a premium market space.

So the price of what you sell is less relevant than any of the other spaces.

It's about quality.

Then what I'm going to do and what, well, what we're going to do is we're going to get that fucking Chris Craft boat, but we're not going to get five of them.

We're going to get one.

And what we're going to do is we're going to shoot content

around the brand story.

All right.

This is how Jake makes the meatballs.

This is where we get the fish.

This is what I do.

It follows you around.

It shows that you're a...

blue collar small fishing expert who loves his product and by the way you do fucking love it i can hear it.

Who loves what he does and loves this

whole thing.

And the content that we make is going to be very

Cape Coddish feeling.

All right.

Premium.

Yep.

You know, the Northeastern feel.

And then what we're going to do is we're going to create an amazing

social strategy that's going to tell this amazing story.

What's the name of the business?

It's Marty's Gourmet Seafood.

What is it?

Marty's

Gourmet Seafood.

All right.

That's fucking great, dude.

That's highly merchandisable, too.

Sounds like a place I want to get.

That sounds like a place I want to get my fucking fish from.

Real talk.

Yeah.

So

then we're going to create this.

We're going to create a direct-to-consumer model.

Okay.

That's the first thing we're going to do.

So we're going to have the walk-in.

We're going to create the content.

Then we're going to create a direct consumer model

fueled by advertising, you know, on digital spaces.

And we can, we'll start to create an operation where you can sell to individuals, wealthy, high-class,

high-demand, high-standard individuals at a high price point

throughout the country.

All right.

And that's going to create, that's going to create a high margin that you're going to be able to scale the business off of.

You know, most of the problem that

most of the reason that most people can't scale their business is because they don't make enough margin and they race to the bottom and the the reason i like the premium category is because when you're dealing with a customer that just wants the best it allows room for margins to be fair and yep and uh

so this this is basically what i would do with you know with what marty's gourmet

Marty's gourmet seafood.

Is that it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then I would create some cool, old-school feeling shirts.

I would have those available and I would go with branding war

on the product, dude.

And great product, great branding, digital ads, direct-to-consumer model.

Keep the retail to where it is.

And then what happens is, dude, is the retail will eventually become this like

this landmark where people who come to Long Island, they got to go to Marty's because

this is where I get all my fish for my program or for my parties and my events and i and i gotta meet jake dude you see what i'm saying like this is

yeah so this is how i would scale that business out in a very general way uh but here's the thing bro and i'm like i'm getting excited about it you have a you have a highly scalable situation here and a lot of people don't a lot of people have things that can't be scaled properly this could be a massive brand dude and And

that's the goal.

Yeah.

And, dude,

you originally asked,

how do I not feel guilty?

Make the brand so fucking big that you can afford to give your father-in-law an equity position of 5%, 10%

that pays out for the rest of his fucking life.

And then when he says,

Yeah, right.

Then when he says, Well, you already paid the loan, you say, Yeah, but now I'm doing the right thing because you believed

me.

That's right.

And that's how we fucking do things here, bro.

that's that's that's how i've always done shit and while it's cost me money and you know it's not really it's an investment in the right thing and when you do good things good things come back and uh exactly you know i believe that i i've seen it a hundred percent a hundred percent you know i always tell people i'm like yo give the homeless guy five dollars kick the guy at the gas station pumping your gas a couple bucks buy somebody coffee and lion dunking donuts those things compound yeah even if you not might not see them like originally a day, a day or two later, it's just, it's karmic, it's good karmic relief.

There's karmic debt and there's karmic relief.

And you put good out there, you will get good back.

Dude, a thousand percent.

And people with bad karma will look at that guy on the fucking corner and they'll say, you just gave that guy a hundred bucks and he's just going to go drink with it.

Look, motherfucker, this ain't about what he does.

It's about what I did.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And if he wants to go party, let him.

He's happy.

You know, that's right.

Bro, I'm with you, bro.

In fact, man, like, this is an exciting.

If we were a few years down the road, bro, I'd be like, say, I'd be calling you back on and be like, hey, let's do this together.

Like, this, this is awesome.

I'm with it, man.

I'm with it.

You know, it's crazy.

I found you in like 2020 and you were talking about like chopping heads off and putting them on the White House lawn.

And I was like, yo, this is my guy.

Yeah.

And then you started talking about business and everything.

And I was like, holy shit, this is really my guy.

Hey, we can make a business out of that, too.

Yeah, by the way, man,

we could make some thrones with the skulls on the corner, you know?

Hey, look, dude, you're in a good spot.

And I like the whole idea.

I love.

Thank you.

I really do, bro.

And

I'm excited for you.

And you're young enough to do it.

And I fucking hope one day.

Oh, and by the way, after you've built the direct-to-consumer business, then

you have an opportunity to fill in that retail play that you're talking about.

All right.

So then you can go to the, you know, the, you could start with the high-end groceries, and then you can go to the,

you know, you can go to the big chains, and then, and then the box, and

you can scale this out.

But here's the thing I want you to remember.

Because a few years from now, when this is a real conversation, this is what the fuck they're going to tell you.

They're going to say, Jake, your product's too expensive.

Jake, you need to make the product cheaper.

Never fucking do that.

Because the whole magic of your brand is the quality of your product.

That's right.

And

if you're going to play in a premium space, you cannot ever, ever, ever cut corners on quality, no matter what it does to the price.

Definitely.

Beautiful.

So hopefully that's helpful, bro.

Oh, it's 100% helpful, Andy.

And, you know, if you're ever in Long Island, hit me up.

I'd love to take care of you.

Give you some, you know, whatever, lobsters, whatever you need.

You know, if you're ever over here, you know, I'll take care of you, man.

I really appreciate everything you guys do.

And, you know, you just get free game.

You get free game, free game, free game.

And that's really appreciated to, you know, a younger generation of entrepreneurs like myself.

I really appreciate it.

I listen to your podcast every morning.

It just gets me fired up to just go out and conquer.

Brother, there's nothing that I have that you don't fucking have.

All you got to do is

all you got to do is show the fuck up and keep doing it, dude.

That's it.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, Jake.

Appreciate you, bro.

Appreciate you, guys.

Thank you for everything.

All right.

See you, dude.

See you, brother.

Now, see, that's a fucking entrepreneur.

Yeah.

That's a young, dude.

That's why the fuck I do this.

That right there.

You got a young dude who sees an opportunity.

You can hear the hunger in the face,

bro.

Bro, it reminds me of how I feel, dude.

I feel that way every day.

I still feel that way.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, a lot of people are like, why do you still do this and this and that?

Because I fucking love the game dude you're still jake yes yeah still because my goals are so big you know what i mean like

and it's not greed it's just the game it's the game i love the game and he loves the game yeah you can fucking hear it we gotta we gotta i feel like we gotta stay in touch with him bro i want to i i want to see marty's gourmet seafood fucking everywhere bro bro I want to see Marty's gourmet seafood restaurants.

Fuck.

Bro, I'm about to call him back and give him that money myself.

I love it, man.

I absolutely love it.

I love it.

Well, let's keep going.

Let's keep doing it.

All right, guys.

Andy, here's another question for you.

Hey, Andy and DJ.

Hey.

That's right.

That's right.

Andy, how do I move forward when I caught a co-worker stealing time, clocking in at 4 a.m.

when she wasn't there?

which also manipulates our tip pool, gave my boss proof.

My boss staked out the place place to gather her proof for herself.

My boss confronted her, but instead of firing her, my boss let her apologize and is keeping her on because she's deemed irreplaceable.

Mind you, this has been going on for months and months, and I had suspicion and have known.

It's not just one-time thing, and my boss knew that and

can see the proof in the POS system.

It feels like this sets a bad precedent for the rest of us and honestly just shows we don't align on the same rules.

Theft is theft.

What should I do?

Oh man.

Doing the right thing.

Listen, here's the lesson here for anybody who is a manager, a leader, an operator who's in charge of hiring, firing, and running a team.

When you have someone who is doing something that is outside the realm of what is supposed to be allowed to do,

And you allow them to continue doing that, you demoralize the rest of the team.

The rest of the team loses belief.

They don't believe in you.

They don't believe in the mission.

They don't believe in the company.

And eventually, all your good people leave because they recognize that all the standards and all the things that you say you stand for

don't mean shit.

And they also recognize that

There is no accountability for doing good or bad.

So

you as a leader and a manager need to understand that when your team understands that someone's fucking off and you don't handle it, it ruins the team.

It tells the team you don't need to try that hard.

It tells the team that even if you break the rules, there's no repercussion.

It literally makes it impossible for you to grow and build the company.

So I'm going to say that first.

That's terrible leadership.

I don't know why he would do that.

Maybe he has a friendship or a history or he's known this girl's family.

I don't fucking know.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.

I agree with you.

That is a

character flaw that will end up biting him again and again and again until he does it.

Because that same person is just going to find another way to cheat.

And by the way,

what are you training that person to believe about their job there and also their job anywhere.

You see, this isn't just about holding someone accountable for the behavior on the job.

It's about teaching them a lesson that they will carry with them for life.

And what this leader just did was

teach this person

that it's okay to do these things and there won't be any repercussions.

And because they now have witnessed this, they are much more likely to continue that pattern through their life everywhere they go.

And this guy thinks he's cutting her a break when in reality he's probably handicapping her for life and so you know that's something that no one talks about or believes uh

that's a real thing fuck yeah it'll ruin dude that guy just ruined that girl's life she's gonna go to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing and eventually the thing will get her arrested and it'll fuck her whole life up yeah um

so what should you do uh you know i'd probably have one more conversation with the fucking boss and i'd probably say something like I'm saying and I'd say hey man I know you think you're doing the right thing but here's the problem the rest of the team fucking hate you for it and the rest of the team doesn't want to work here because that you're allowing her to fucking get away with special shit.

What's that tell us?

That tells us that it doesn't matter what we do or not do and by the way if I do the same thing and you fire me I could just sue you for discrimination.

So he's creating all sorts of holes and liabilities for himself that I'm sure he's not aware of.

And I would have a conversation with him about it.

And I would be okay walking out of the room, not working there.

You know, like I would, I would already decide personally when I walk in the room that I might walk out of the room and not work here anymore.

But I'm going to say what I think.

I'm going to say the truth.

And hopefully they respect it.

And if they don't, then I'm going to move on to something different that,

you know, is more representative of a place that I believe in and want to work at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dude, it's hard to have the courage.

It's easy to have morals and values.

It's, it's hard to, to be able to stand on them.

That's a tough thing for a lot of people.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

But I mean, that's also called being an adult.

You know, like,

I understand that that's tough for people, but if they never learn the skill of confrontation or standing up for themselves, then you're going to get walked on your whole life.

Yeah.

So, you know, if this is making you nervous to handle, instead of letting it make you nervous, maybe you should look at it as an opportunity to grow and say, all right, this is something that's holding me back.

My inability to have a direct conversation about things that are wrong is something that's holding me back.

And I need to conquer that.

And I'm going to invest in that right now by handling this situation the best way.

And regardless of what happens, whether you...

he gets rid of her or whether he says, well, hey, maybe this isn't the place for you.

You're going to be proud of yourself.

And that's going to build integrity and confidence in yourself to where actually what will happen is you'll become less afraid to have those conversations.

And then you'll get into a place where that direct feedback is very valuable.

Because I'm going to be real with you, dude.

Direct feedback that is not biased to either way is some of the most valuable shit that you can have inside of a company.

There are people who will tell you you're wrong because they think like, well, nobody stands up to him.

And they, you know, I got to, it's my role to tell them the truth.

Those motherfuckers are annoying as fuck.

Everybody sees through them.

They're not valuable because they take contrarian viewpoints no matter what.

And then you have the other extreme, which is, oh, that's a great idea.

It's great.

We should fucking do that.

That's not valuable either.

So when we think about like who's the most valuable, it's the people who can objectively tell you the facts of the matter without exaggerating them one way or the other so that you can make the proper decision.

And the most valuable people in my organizations are those people, the people who come to me and they say, Hey, here's what's going on.

And it's the truth and the facts.

And then if they want to be even more valuable, you know what, you know what happens?

They come to me and they say, Here's what's going on.

Here's how I handled it.

And I don't even have to fucking touch it.

Those are the most valuable things that you can do.

And you're in a position now to invest into that skill set by having that sort of conversation, not a conversation that is extra contrarian or abrasive and not a conversation that sucks balls, right?

Like the truth.

Here's what it is.

Here's what's going on.

I want you to know because this is real.

And this guy doesn't sound like he might value that.

So, but dude, I'm going to tell you, most competent operators, that's like some of the most valuable shit that you can look for.

And I would further this discussion to say that the reason that most people don't succeed and get capped out in their careers is not effort or hard work or even skill set, but it's their inability to communicate honestly and directly.

They're afraid.

And if you're in the right place, what would you be afraid

of

in regards to telling the leader something that's going to benefit the overall mission.

Yeah, they might get upset.

They might fucking bark and make some noise, but that's not at you.

Yeah.

That's at the situation.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah, I was just, he may not value it because he's may have never had it.

Maybe never had anybody come tell him.

Yeah, because it is rare.

It is rare.

You know what I'm saying?

Does this say where he works?

No.

No.

So, yeah, I mean, it's rare, dude.

In my career of 26 years, I have probably

10 people that I would say have developed that skill set.

Yeah.

All 10 of those people are either making a lot of money or they've gone somewhere else and made a lot of money.

So it's a hell of a skill to have, man.

It's one of the best skills.

And

I truly think that

from my experience, when I look back, There's not much difference between skill set.

You know, there's people that have high performing skill sets that put up numbers.

And then there's people that have high-performing skill sets that put up numbers that tell you how to make shit better.

Who's more valuable?

Yeah.

The second guy's way more valuable.

So

yeah, and it can't, it's got to be real, though.

It can't be bitching.

It can't be complaining.

It can't be, you know, some false information either.

It can't be bullshit.

It's got to be real shit.

All right.

The bullshit is your job to handle.

The real shit has to be communicated honestly, directly, without bias, in a factual manner, so that your leadership can make correct decisions.

And when you develop that skill set and you don't put emphasis on one way or the other way, and you're just telling the way it is, that's fucking valuable, bro.

I love it, man.

I love it.

We got another call.

Let's get a call in.

This is

Bailey.

Who?

Bailey.

Bailey.

I don't know which way.

I don't know which way.

So let's check it out.

Let's give Bailey a call.

Hello.

Bailey, what's up, dude?

What's up, DJ?

How are you, brother?

I'm good, man.

I'm doing much better.

Now I'm talking to you.

How are you doing?

I'm just living the dream, man.

You know.

Bailey, what's up, bro?

What's going on, Andy?

How are you, man?

I'm doing real good.

Real good.

Where are you calling from?

Charlotte, North Carolina.

All right.

All right.

Good spot.

What are you doing out there, man?

What do you do?

I do sales for a flooring company, and we sell exclusively to

the apartment business.

Okay.

All right.

So how'd you get into this?

I kind of fell into it, man.

After the Air Force, I left active duty to do the Air National Guard.

And

one of the guys in my squadron was working here and referred me and here we are coming up on four years man and it's been an absolute blessing for sure that's awesome dude that's awesome so uh what are you struggling with bro how can i help you today

yeah man so um

it seems like i'm about to take my first uh jump into leadership here um i've got an interview thursday um and that's kind of the last step and it looks like it's you know kind of a formality, but you know, I don't want to count my chickens before my eggs hatch.

But

in preparation for that, you know, just doing some thinking.

And my question is, you know,

like I'm struggling with

like not everybody's going to be committed to excellence the way I am.

And like, how do I reconcile that?

You know,

well,

if I knew that answer to get 100% compliance, I'd be worth a trillion dollars.

Yeah.

Look, you know, here's the reality of being successful in life.

If you are going to be successful, leadership is a required skill.

There are basically two avenues, and you're in both of them, of getting paid real money.

One is the ability to sell.

Two is the ability to lead and manage a team.

And if you have those two skills, you're extremely valuable anywhere in any industry.

And the fact that you are

aware that this is a different skill and it's one that you need to pay attention to is a huge deal because a lot of people think that leadership is just like a promotion or you get a title and you just show up and continue to do the same thing.

When in reality, it's a completely different thing.

So

obviously,

the biggest thing that you need to do as a leader is to operate at the standard that you expect from your team.

And

you are going to have some falloff.

Okay.

If you operate at 100%,

your team's going to operate at 85%.

They're not going to ever truly hit the standard that the leadership is operating at.

They might.

Now, you will have some people that do, and you'll have some people that exceed that standard even, even, but you shouldn't allow them to exceed it because your shit should be so high.

So the first thing is, you know, you got to live the standard, which the fact that you asked, I'm worried that they don't have the same level of commitment to personal excellence that I do, you know, that shows me that you're probably already living a pretty high standard.

The second thing that you have to do is you have to realize that Leadership is not just about the job at hand.

It's about the character development of of the people underneath.

And I think the difference between a leader who struggles and a leader who thrives is the amount of interest that they take in developing the individual.

A lot of people

who do

claim to lead people

will

basically set a standard inside the workplace.

and then

let that standard be and then never really

teach them or coach them or make them understand.

And Bailey, the truth is, man, a lot of people do not understand.

They just don't.

You know, they've never read a personal development book.

They've never listened to a podcast on success.

They've never tried

because they've never had anybody that has been successful within their realm of observation.

And if people have never seen or touched success,

it's very hard for them to understand that they can also have those things.

And so your job as a leader is to make sure that one, you're holding the standard, two, you know, you're setting the standard for the job.

Three, you are becoming their personal mentor in terms of how you're going to help them improve in all of their areas.

And the fourth one is, is that you have to get them to care about improving.

And that's the tricky part.

So what you should be doing

on a consistent basis when you get your team is to sit down and paint out the big mission.

Okay.

This is what we're trying to achieve.

This is what we're going to do.

And this is what it means to you.

All right.

And then always tie the mission back to what it means to them, their development, their career, and their family.

And then you have to make good on

those situations when they earn them.

So, doing those things, bro, you'd be surprised at who will step up and

want to be led and want to be coached.

A lot of people have never had anybody take an interest in them at all.

Not at home, not in school, not at their job, never.

And so,

when we have people who

sort of, you know, I have this saying

that you got to be brave enough to go after what you really want and you got to be strong enough to pull people with you.

And pulling people with you is draining, dude.

It's a hard thing because you're basically trying to unfuck their brains from a lifetime of bad information and discouragement and bad experiences and bad belief systems.

But the truth of the matter is, man, is that we're all human, we're all capable, and what one man can do, another can do.

And so to be an effective leader, you have to embody these things that we just laid out.

And at the end of the day, man, you know, you're going to have people that are going to step up.

You're going to have people that are that are not.

And the people that are not,

you're going to have to move on from and replace with people who, you know, are going to fit the culture that you're developing.

And here's the cool thing.

When you start to develop this culture of winning, when you get rid of the people who won't buy in and you bring new people in, the culture will vet those people.

Your team,

your winners, your ass kickers, they get this new guy in and within two weeks,

they're going to know if this guy is going to fit or not.

So it weeds them out real quick.

And yeah, man, I mean, that's, I mean, that's pretty much it, dude.

Like, leadership is its own skill set.

And I think the reason that most people fail at it is they don't think that it is.

they think that it's just something they earn by putting up numbers on the board.

You know, I scored a bunch of touchdowns, so I'm a leader.

That's not that's not it, it has nothing to do with it, actually.

It's more about like how'd you train, how'd you eat, what's your work ethic like, what's your, what's your influence on your other teammates?

Is it good?

Is it bad?

Do you bitch?

Do you moan?

Are you positive and empowering?

You know, these are the things that make up leadership.

Do you make the people around you better?

And

it's far less to do with the title and far more to do with your behavior.

So

I think you're going to be fine, though, bro.

The fact that you're aware of it already,

you know, most people aren't like that.

Most people will get a promotion into a leadership position and they'll just say, well, I'm the leader now.

And like continue to do the same shit they were doing.

And then you'll say, well, why isn't this person or that person getting any better?

Well, fuck, I don't know.

They just, they're not any good.

Well, your job is to make them fucking good.

You know, and, and

it's a skill, bro.

And I'm going to tell you this too.

The other thing is, is it's a skill you never master.

You'll go your whole life continuing to learn, continuing to develop, continuing to be better.

And it's a full-time commitment, man.

It's,

you know,

I've been doing this for a long time in business and there's still things that I mess up and there's still things that I need to improve on.

And it never never ends so and i like that i like skill sets that we can continue to get better at over and over and over again through the course of our life so i think you're going to be fine bro

gotcha yeah and i'm fortunate enough too it's like i'm stepping into a good situation there you go culture here it's great and everything it's just we want to expand capture more market share and all the good stuff and i i guess i'm very wary of trying to like not hire myself I guess, because success comes in different forms.

You know, like some, some people, a lot of people out there in the world, you know, don't have to wake up at 4 a.m., hit the gym and do all this stuff to be successful.

But I do.

And I just, I don't know, I'm very conscious of that, you know?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, look, man,

you're holding a high standard.

And that's a great thing to be a leader.

You know, I have to do those things too, bro.

Like, I have to do all the extra shit.

Like, I'm not gifted.

I'm not fucking, nothing was given to me.

Like, I have to fucking do these things.

Like,

yeah.

And, and, you know,

it's funny, bro, because

I know I'm a lot better than most people.

Like, I'm a lot more skilled and a lot better and a lot harder worker and fucking way more intense and care way more than most people.

And I still have to do those things to fucking win, bro.

And then some of these people are like, oh, oh, I have to do those things.

I'm like, what the fuck you talking about, dude?

You're special.

Yeah, right.

That's right.

Yeah.

I forgot.

You're super special.

You're going to have to be able to get yourself up an inch.

I will take a mile.

Yeah, dude.

Me too, bro.

And you got to know yourself for that.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, I have to stay focused because the minute I start sliding, I fucking slide fast.

Yeah.

So that's, you know, I make this joke, bro.

I've never done cocaine in my whole life because I know what'll happen.

Yeah, right.

I'll spend all my money and end up in a ditch in about 48 hours.

Zero over 100 with me.

Yeah, I watch these motherfuckers, like how they behave when they start doing drugs.

I'm like, that's why you never start

the fuck, man.

Just don't do it.

So, yeah, brother, I get it, dude.

And

I think if people are being honest with themselves, you know, real talk, they all have to operate at that standard if they want to win.

But, you know, some people haven't figured themselves out yet.

So.

love it.

Yeah.

Love it.

I think you're in a good spot, though, bro.

What are you most concerned about?

Just the added pressure, right?

So

I fully understand all these awesome sales numbers I've put up and all this, you know, cool shit I've done over the past four years.

All that goes to zero.

Yep.

Right.

This next chapter, it's another mountain.

It's another climb.

And like, I'm ready for that.

I'm excited for it.

But at the same time, you know, it's a bigger deal, you know

um and i'm still relatively young like i just turned 33 like a a week ago at this point um

so yeah it's just the next big jump you know i mean it's what you want to see right that's what we're all after i'm just trying to be you know prepared for it yeah for the sake of my you know the the team because they deserve that hey remember this bro

The people that founded this country were fucking 20 years old.

Fair enough.

You know, you can lead these motherfuckers.

I promise you that.

Yes, sir.

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

I could tell from talking to you, bro.

I mean, you're going to be fine.

You're going to fucking do great.

I appreciate it, man.

I'm excited.

Yeah.

I'm excited for you, brother.

Do work, man.

Bailey, appreciate you calling in, brother.

I appreciate y'all, man.

Keep up the good work.

Yeah, man.

You guys are killing it.

Keep going.

Yeah, you too, bro.

I appreciate all the support.

And

go out there and do it, bro.

You're going to be fine.

Lots and lots lots and lots of people that don't have your mental acuity have become great leaders.

I can tell you that.

So you'll be good.

Coffee.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that's the other thing, too.

It's like when it comes to leadership specifically, when people get those positions, it's like, well, I was a great, you know, absolutely salesman.

I know I'll be a great leader.

He understands it.

You heard what he said.

I'm starting at zero.

Yeah.

It's a different scoreboard.

Totally different.

Your score is not the numbers you put up.

Your score is the numbers they put up.

And a a lot of leaders don't understand that, right?

It doesn't matter how good you were at selling.

It doesn't matter how good you are at selling.

What matters is, are you good at transferring that skill into your people and helping them develop?

And a lot of people can't connect those dots.

It's very hard to adjust from being someone who's

only responsible for themselves and their performance to then putting your life and your performance in other motherfuckers' hands.

Like, dude, that's a hard thing.

And,

you know, as an entrepreneur, you got to do it every day.

You know, not

everything depends on how well everybody else performs.

And you have to care about those people.

You got to care about their lives.

You got to care about their families.

You got to care about, you know, their development.

You got to care about them.

And the best leaders care the most.

That's the truth.

And the best leaders have the ability to understand the difference between

nuance, you know, cutting someone's slack versus teaching them a lesson that they need to fucking learn or it's going to cost them later.

You know, I used to be someone who protected my people, meaning like

I would, they would make a mistake and I would say I would kind of stand in the way of.

of the of them.

And what I realized is, dude, I was costing them time later down the road.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I was doing them a disservice.

And if I really cared about those people, I would let the

results of their actions affect them so that they felt that pain and didn't allow it to happen again.

They got to touch the stove.

Absolutely, bro.

And you got to allow that to happen.

It's probably, it's kind of, it's probably kind of like being a parent.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

You got to let them learn.

Otherwise, you're

hurt.

Yeah.

Otherwise, you're creating a situation where they get really hurt later.

And

when you really care about people, bro,

you know,

it's hard because,

you know 90 of the time

people value

very heavily that you care about them but then there's 10 of the people who see that as an opportunity to take advantage of you

and so you're always when you really truly lead the right way you are always going to have people that take advantage um

and you've just got to deal with that it's heartbreaking it fucking really hurts but you know you got to you cut those people out and you take the good with the bad and the good far outweighs the bad.

So that's my take on it, man.

I think leading people is the hardest fucking job.

Managing people is the hardest fucking job you will ever fucking have.

And if you can master it, it's worth big money.

Big, big money.

If you can run a fucking team effectively, dude.

you become invaluable, not just to your organization, but any, because it's so fucking rare.

So

to all the guys out there and girls out there you know moving into a leadership position i would take the responsibility seriously i would take the opportunity seriously i would understand that it's no longer about you it's about them and if you help them win you win um

and it's not just about them dude it's about their kids about their family about their bills like there's a responsibility that we have as leaders in the workplace to help people win if you actually care, man.

Yeah, full circle.

Yeah, that's it, dude.

We're just in the office.

Yeah.

And a lot of people, a lot of people will say things like, well, how do you build a great culture?

Well, you can't build a great culture when you don't give a fuck about the people that work for you, bro.

And like, that's most places.

Yeah.

You know, they're like, how do you get all these people to care?

And dude, well, I mean, bro, listen, let's be real.

You, you, you don't give a fuck about them.

You don't, you don't teach them.

You don't sit with them.

You don't help coach them.

You don't, You don't give a fuck.

And they're not going to give a fuck.

People, you give what you get, you know, and that's reality.

It's in life and business.

And I think it's a universal biblical truth.

Yeah.

So that's real, bro.

That's real.

Well, guys, Andy, that was three, man.

All right, guys.

Well,

yeah.

Let's get out there.

Let's make some shit happen.

And we'll see you on.

her own bank rope.

Can't fold, that's a no, headshot, case clothes, close.