Aware & Aggravated - 56. Everything I Wish I Knew Before Starting A Business

Episode Date: December 25, 2022

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Hi friends, today we're talking all things business. This is gonna be everything that I wish someone fucking told me before I started my business and lost a lot of money. Because I started a few now, and I've probably lost close to like, $35,000, and I'm gonna go through everything mentally, how to set up and prepare for shit,

and then just some tips about how to like navigate things and save yourself some money, because if someone's gonna learn something from it, let it be you. Don't make the same mistakes I did and don't lay your mind to get in the way of shit, okay? And then I'm gonna leave you off with a message at the end of how to know if you're cut out for it and I'm gonna tell you if you have what it takes or not and how to tell. Or go work your ass, I'm gonna fucking job.

So we have a lot to cover. I have a giant list in front of me, blesses, jump into it. So the first thing with mindset and my biggest heartbreak with business that I wanna prevent you from, because it crippled my ass. Is you need to disconnect the thought of being a good person and having a good heart

for being successful? It doesn't fucking matter if you have a good heart. It doesn't fucking matter how helpful you wanna be and how good your intentions are and how pure you are. It doesn't fucking matter. Business is strategy. That's rule fucking number one to get, okay? Don't go through the heartbreak that I did.

The universe is not going to back you. God himself is not going to back you. Business is strategy. It is not heart. Take your fucking heart out of it. It's good to have good intentions. It's good to have a not heart. Take your fucking heart out of it. It's good to have good intentions It's good to have a pure heart. You have to have something that's gonna like burn inside you to keep you going With the business because it's a lot

But what I'm saying is having a good heart and having a good intentions does not lead to success It does not lead to you making money. It does not lead to you doing right and doing well or else the world would look a lot Fucking different business is about your skills not your heart, okay? It does not lead to you doing right and doing well. Or else the world would look a lot fucking different. Business is about your skills, not your heart, okay? Remember me yelling at you because I needed someone to hit me upside the fucking head with it. Everything is about your skills and business is a skill. Becoming business-minded is a skill and you need to learn it and you need to invest all

your time and energy into your skills, not your heart, and day dreaming and thinking about all these good things that make you feel good. You gotta get down in the fucking square reality of life, not this spiritual shit that people talk about. I'm also gonna talk about not following your fucking purpose. Oh, that's a crock of shit in a few minutes, but my biggest point with this is do not expect having a good heart to get you far or

guarantee you anything. Having a good heart and being successful, don't go together. They don't coincide. One does not stack on the other. Sure, it's good to have a good heart. It's good to have good intentions. But if you go into a business and creating anything with just focusing on your soul intention of like, I want to help help people I want to do this thing

I want to whatever because I have good intentions. You're going to be heartbroken Life is gonna knock you upside the fucking head and knock you on your ass And you're gonna be left with that pit of hopelessness that I was in so go ahead and disconnect that out of your brain right now Having a good heart does not mean you're gonna be successful Sorry There's so many more things that play into it. But with that, let's jump into the next thing. Well, I'm going to talk about self doubt for a second because a lot of people deal with not feeling good

enough. That's one of the number one things I see come across my coaching applications is like every single person. I don't care if they're a millionaire or someone that's struggling financially. Every single one of these people that apply to work with me, all right in their fucking application, they deal with not feeling good enough and they want help with it. That's something that's always gonna come up. But the biggest thing that helped me

with not feeling good enough is you have to understand what you're doing when you have a business if you're offering a service or a product, it's not about you. It's not about you not feeling good enough. Business is about what you can do for others, what value is being given. It's not about the person usually.

I'm speaking real vague and real big, but the thing that's gonna help you with self-doubt is it's not in you and what's going on with you, it's in your skills and your abilities. Your business is your ability or your product or whatever it is. But an example from my life with my coaching business, I have been in periods where like my life is a fucking wreck and I'm having to coach myself on the side and also coach other

people and a lot of people would get insecure and be like, oh my god, no, if my life isn't perfect, I'm not qualified to help. And that's where I'm going to say it does not matter what your life is like while you're helping other people. If you can still provide the service, if you can still provide the value, and if I can properly coach other people, even while I'm dealing with my own shit,

that's perfectly fine. You're not a fuck up, you're not backwards, you're not an imposter, you're not a fake. Like life is gonna throw shit at you. And with that example, it's kind of specific, but a lot of people deal with insecurities. So that's one way to mix it. It's not about you and your life

and what's going on with you and how you feel and all of this and that. You could be breaking down, crying yourself to sleep and then wake up in the morning and go coach someone and be on your fucking A game. Like that's just how things go. It's not about yourself. So remove yourself from that and you'll be a lot less

insecure. Focus on your abilities and what you're providing through your business. That's what people care about. And honestly, it takes a really fucking strong and capable person to do the shit that I do. Like to position as a mentor or any kind of coach, that's a big role to step into.

And even when my life is falling apart, I was very good at this one, I was a nurse too, is like, it doesn't matter what's going on in my life. When I step in that patient's room, when I get on the call with one of my clients, I'm in their world. I get out of mine and help them navigate theirs. My abilities don't go away because I'm dealing with,

and like certain circumstances in my life. Like that doesn't take away from your abilities. You can still exercise them It doesn't make you any less qualified or capable. So just focus on that. It's about your ability or whatever your product is So the next thing that's thunted me a lot and held me back a lot is not moving fast Bitch move as fast as fucking possible. Do not wait, do not sit on ideas. If you have an idea, put your fucking ass behind it quickly. And there's a spiritual explanation, and then an not spiritual one, the spiritual explanation is ideas visit you.

They're not here to hang around all the time. Ideas are energy that wants to be manifested and actualized. So this energy has its own consciousness and it will visit people and it's just taking chance visiting different people that it thinks could help manifest it. So if you have an idea for something

and you don't act on it, the idea is gonna leave you. So you need to act on shit when you have the idea. It's a piece of consciousness that wants to be actualized through you. So you don't have long and you need to fucking act on shit while you have it. Like I said, it's a visitor. Ideas visit you. They'll fucking leave too. So you and they'll jump to the next

person who will actualize them and then it's too late for you. You lost your shot. So if you have an idea and you have something that's like burning inside of you, fucking act on it. And if there's something that you've had an idea about for a long time, and you just never acted on it, and it hasn't left you, get to it. That idea wants to be actualized through you in specific, okay? But it's not gonna hang around for long. So if you got something that you've always wanted to do,

fucking do it, trust me, just do it. So also with moving fast, here's like the real life shit, cause that was like a little spiritual example. But with real life, move fucking quick bitch, get on it. Stop waiting for things to be perfect and do not paralyze yourself by trying to think of all the things that can go wrong. Like you're gonna think of things that can go wrong

cause that's how your brain is wired. It's like you're wired to spot unsafety and things that could hurt you. And if you're considering starting a business and you have to get to step one to start it, if you're just sitting here behind the start line, looking at everything that could go wrong in the future and not stepping forward, you're never gonna fucking go anywhere. So that's something that paralyzed me for a long time was trying to think 10 steps in advance about things that could possibly go wrong.

Don't fucking waste your time, just do it. You're not gonna know how to handle shit until you face it, until it's an actual reality. So don't spend time thinking about things that are potentials. Do things to prepare. Sure, be smart, be calculated, be very strategic. But do not get paralyzed by the thought of things that haven't happened yet. Face them as they happen. Stop catastrophizing about shit and just jump into it.

And it's like with my dad when I was little, I didn't know how to swim. Okay? So he took me and threw me in the deep end of the pool. And he said, sink or swim. Learn to swim, fucker. And what did I do? Learn to swim. Now if I sat on the side of the pool and was just sitting there like, okay, I'm gonna learn how to swim and then I'm gonna jump in when I feel ready.

You're gonna waste so much fucking time sitting on the side of that pool. You would learn to swim in about 15 seconds if you just jumped in that bitch. But sitting on the side line, you could sit there for a full fucking day and watch YouTube videos and read things and practice stroking before you're ever in the water. Motherfucker, just jump in. You'll learn so much faster, like everything speed. Remember, everything's fast, everything is fast, fast, fast. Like get up and fucking do it. Stop waiting on the sidelines, stop trying to prepare, stop catastrophizing.

Jump in that shit. If there's a shark in the water, we'll deal with it. But you do it once you're in, bitch, that's the thing. Stop trying to deal with it. But you do it once you're in, bitch, that's the thing. Stop trying to deal with shit and worry and waste time thinking about it before it happens. I'm not saying with everything, but with most things, you're just holding yourself back when you're fucking brain.

Okay, so now I wanna talk about choosing what to do because there's so many fucking things that you can start or like choose to try. And I want you to walk through the thought process of choose whatever thing that you can live with the worst case scenario. Make that be your first goal or like jump. Make that your first risk.

So any of your options, if there's a lot of options where the worst case scenario would be like devastating and you couldn't handle it, don't do it. For your first thing you're gonna try, do the thing that you can actually live with the worst case scenario. You're like, all right, it would fucking suck ass, but like, I would make it, or I could figure it out

and I'd be okay. Try that first. And the first thing that you pick is not what you have to stick with. I'm always talking about pick and stick, but with business, you have to be very, very open and ready to change and shift on like the drop of a hat. Like, everything can shift shift like in one hour.

Okay, from personal experience, be on your fucking toes and be ready. Be on your egg game. But don't go overwhelmed thinking, oh, if I pick this one thing, it's like, oh, I have to do only that. You can literally switch at any minute. So just literally pick a pool to jump in,

jump, learn to swim, and then when you're swimming in that pool, think, okay, is there another pool I wanna go try out? Learn the skills from the first thing first that you feel is manageable. It's like if you're thinking of jumping into kitty pool versus jumping in the ocean, jump into fucking kitty pool first,

learn the skills, learn what you need to know, and then you can handle the fucking ocean way easier. But if you do try to just jump straight for the ocean, a lot of people like you'll learn how to fucking swim and you'll grow so much faster but a lot of people get so stuck facing that big ocean, that big scary thing that they're not fucking prepared for, they'll never jump in. So if you're at a place where you have this giant vision and this huge thing you want to do, but you're too scared to do it, you can't figure out a way, it's like whatever it is, just jump in the kitty pool first,

jump at the smaller option, the smaller opportunity, get your fucking feet wet until you feel confident, and you can jump in the ocean, or just jump in the fucking ocean, literally, that's what I fucking did. I sunk and I fucking got beat the fuck up, and it was rough, rough time, but like I'm so much further ahead

than so many people at 24 years old. Like the amount I know about life itself, please. And then the amount that I now know about business is because I took the huge risks. I jumped into the big shit first. But I'm saying something's better than nothing. So jump in your kiddie pool if you need to or jump in the fucking ocean and figure it out.

I kinda got a track with that. But with choosing what to do, look at the advantages you already have. Like if you have something, what is something that you already have a lot of skills in? You already have a lot of knowledge about or you've already spent a lot of time doing that you don't fucking hate. Like when I chose to make the switch from nursing to all the things that I'm doing, I'm about to make a clothing line. I was thinking about making merch, but I have too many. I'm about to make a clothing line. I was thinking about making merch, but I have too many designs and I've always wanted a clothing line. And I can't wait to make like everything that I'm gonna wear.

Like I just wanna replace my wardrobe, you know? But I'm in the middle of making a clothing line, but when I made the switch from nursing into trying to start businesses, like that was a whole different fucking world. So I understand if you absolutely hate the thing that you're doing and you want no part of it, like the medical field can eat my ass. I don't want nothing to do with it.

But just know, if you choose to do something that you already have experience in, it will be a lot easier, it will go a lot faster, it will be a lot smoother. Versus if you try something new like I did and you completely have no fucking clue what you're doing, that's going to take a lot smoother. Versus if you try something new like I did and you completely have no fucking clue what you're doing, that's gonna take a lot longer. It's gonna drag the fuck out because you're starting from like ground zero versus like ground 50.

If I would have done something in the medical field, like if I got into like medical sales or created a product or like done something medical-wise, I would have been able to execute a lot faster, but I chose a different route because the medical field makes me wanna get myself. So I understand that and I relate to that. A lot of people that preach like business shit, they completely discard the fact that you have feelings and you have to enjoy your life. And that's a good

way to navigate that. Do something you're already like good at and you already have experience with and you already have like an upper hand. Like think of the areas or the things where you already have the upper hand. at and you already have experience with and you already have like an upper hand like think of the areas or the things where you already have the upper hand. How do you already have more than most? How are you already 10 steps ahead with something? You can choose to go down that route or you can choose to try something completely different. But I'm just saying if your main concern is money, go down the one that you already know first and then like I said you can switch later.

Now I want to talk about following your fucking purpose because all these spiritual shitheads get on here talking about if you follow your purpose the abundance will follow. Fuck you personally and individually. Fuck every single one of you who's preaching that horse shit because no, no. There's so much more to it. I believe I am in my purpose But the absolute shit show that's come with it They need to give you a heads up if you follow your purpose abundance will follow But it is literally going to fucking ruin you like it's going to be so difficult because if you follow something

That is like your purpose and something that you are very emotionally invested in, your 10 times more attached to an outcome. So when things don't work, they're 10 times more devastating. You're going to question yourself so much more. You're going to question your purpose. You're going to quit. Oh my god. Don't even fucking bother. If you're not absolutely 100% clear on your purpose, don't even fucking bother trying to start something and find it because you're gonna sit there and be like, I wanna start this business, I wanna start these things, but I have to know my purpose first. And you're gonna spend all this fucking time wasting trying to figure out what your

purpose is so you can make the right business. Fuck that. If you are like driven about business and you wanna create your own thing, or you just have any interest in it and you wanna start your own business, fucking start something first. Make money, get your fucking shit together, learn some skills, and then take everything that you learn, and invest that and switch, like I said, and pivot, and choose the thing that makes you feel good, it makes you happy, and feels like your purpose.

Like you can fully shift, and you shouldn't be worrying about finding your fucking purpose until you got a little money under your belt and you got some skills to apply to following your purpose because if you just blindly follow your fucking purpose, you're fucked. You literally have to take so much more into consideration. It sounds so nice to be all spiritual.

Oh my god, I'm gonna follow my purpose. The abundance is just gonna follow. No bitch, you gotta set that up. You have to teach it how to flow in. It's not a just magically or like universally orchestrated thing that happens. I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't want you to go through the heartbreak

that I fucking went through with all of this. So literally, don't fucking worry about your purpose for now. It will find you. You can't not actualize it. You know, like it's gonna come up. It's gonna show if you have something that you think is your purpose and you're not clear about it, start anything and it will become more and more clear. Because even if you go down the wrong road or an opposite direction of your purpose,

if you have an experience where you realize, okay, this is not where I want go. What are you gonna do? Turn around off that road and go back in the direction of something else, which could be your purpose. You might go down 12 different fucking roads and have to keep turning around. But if you just stood still and never followed anything,

you would be all those 10 roads, those are all steps back. You wouldn't be closer to your purpose. Your purpose is not gonna be like a pretty direct thing. You wouldn't be closer to your purpose. Your purpose is not going to be like a pretty direct thing. You're going to be like mind fucked and like bounced over all these different things. Literally do not worry about following your purpose until you've made fucking money and you can follow it. Don't worry about enjoying business until you've made money and you have the luxury to choose to follow what you enjoy. That's one thing a lot of people fuck up and misguided

me on. I don't like that shit and I will never stir you guys in the wrong direction. Shit's got to get rough for a minute. You got some things to learn. It's easier to learn those things when you're not following the thing that you're just so like, oh my god, emotionally invested in. Because like I said, every single setback is going to feel like a dagger to the fucking heart and I don't want you to deal with that. I could teach you how to go through it. But I really, really think if you don't know anything about business, do not follow how you feel first. You have a lot of skills to learn.

And I'm talking to young people now. If you're older than me and you're a lot more in touch with yourself and you have more experience to draw from, go for it. You fucking know yourself. And if you're young and you're like 100% like like yes, I just need to do this one thing. I have no interest in anything else. Fucking do it. Just take this as a precaution.

Prepare for everything and all of your emotions to be wrapped up in that fucking bitch. And when things seem very devastating, I promise they're not that bad. Get back organized and focus like factual, strategic and analytical. Get analytical with your purpose if you're going to try and make it into a business so it doesn't get so messy. Also one more thing with deciding what to do. Stick to your fucking values because I have

so many opportunities at money and I'm not taking them. Like I have a lot of brand deals and people reach out to me and offer me like 10 grand, 12 grand, like I'm working on a deal right now for like 15. But that's what the brand actually like. But there are a lot of brands that reach out to me and I don't like their products. I don't genuinely like their products. So I'm not going to take their money to fuck and talk about it. I have to turn down money all the time. Try your best to stick to your values. It's gonna be hard. It's gonna be difficult, but your self-respect is all you have. Your character is all you have. If you lose that to some money, you're fucking worthless. That was rough. That was real rough. Don't let money sway you. And I'm not saying in situations where you like have a choice. Because a lot of people don't have a choice.

Like there are, I'm friends with some strippers and they don't have a choice. Like they have to take care of their entire family. None of them have fucking money, so they have to go work. Do they want to be stripping? Fuck no. Do I want to make it only fans? That is my plan Z. Okay, not even my plan B, C, D. That's my plan Z. If everything goes to shit and I have to take care of my family or if I have a

Situation where I'm like my livelihoods that steak. I'm gonna exhaust every option and then I'll go to that if I have to but Let me not be so fucking harsh about that because I understand there's so many things like when I was used to like Can I say this online like when I used to like serve, not as a waiter. How do I say this? Like how do I make it clear? Like when I used to deal cards, did I want to be doing that? No. Did I have bills to pay?

Did I have a life to fucking maintain? Yes, there are things you have to do and I understand that fully. I've been through a lot of experiences with that, but hold yourself and your self-respect as high as you can if the situation and the circumstances allow it. Okay, don't just sacrifice your fucking values and shit because things got difficult. Like if it's a dire situation, do it. Okay, I'm gonna just shut up there because I'm getting heated. Okay, so now I want to talk about do not get legal before you start making money in your business.

I don't give a fuck if that's bad business advice. I wasted so much fucking money and time trying to get legal. So like with my app, I hired an attorney to trademark it. And then I hired that attorney again to make contracts for me to go hire a developer and NDA and a work for hire agreement so NDA is a non disclosure So any ideas I share anything that we talk about can't be disclosed with anyone and then I had the work for hire Agreement that anything that they make for me is legally mine. They can't hold shit once I pay them and they make me something I own it. I own every part of it. I had these contracts made and

It was a fucking waste because if these businesses like I'm up against the big digital like marketing agency and Software development company. So if I were to try and like act on any of those contracts Let's say they did make something for me. They stole my idea and they took that shit and my money Contracts, let's say they did make something for me. They stole my idea and they took that shit and my money What the fuck am I supposed to do you have to go higher in attorney to sue them for your contract to even matter You can't just walk in with a contract and be like you didn't do what you said No, bitch, you had to take them to court That's gonna be years and probably a hundred thousand dollars of fucking lawsuit shit You can only act on a contract if you have the money to fight in court

They don't fucking worry about a contract people you have the money to fight in court. Don't fucking worry about a contract. People are gonna fuck you. People are gonna try and play with you and everyone in business is looking out for their own ass. So I want you to remember that number one. And it is not wrong for you to look out for your own ass in business.

If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will. Remember me saying this, and again, trust no one till the fucking day I die It's tattooed on me forever. Unless I lose my hand But opening all these companies like an LLC like a super proprietorship anything you want to open Don't get fucking legal until you make money. You need a way to process payment and accept money That's it. You don't fucking need all this legal bullshit. You can get that as you start making money But that's where I'm also gonna say don't spin stupid fucking money. You don't fucking need all this legal bullshit. You can get that as you start making money.

But that's what I'm also gonna say. Don't spin stupid fucking money you don't need to. Literally, don't buy shit that is not necessary. You don't need all this fancy flashy fucking shit. What your focus needs to be if you're starting a business is a way to accept money. That's it. That's number one. That's your first thing.

Not a LLC, not a fucking contract, not a fucking trademark. Don't waste your time. Do not get legal. Do not invest money into that shit until you are making money. Trust me. That would have saved me $20,000. Okay, so here's some tips for once you do get legal and you start working with a team, you hire a company or you start getting legal with anything like you start meeting up with lawyers, attorneys, anything like that. These are some tips for that. So number one is you want to do zoom meetings or in-person meetings. You want them to see your fucking face because it is a lot easier to deceive someone, lie to someone, cheat someone and fuck someone over that you cannot humanify.

Humanify, personify? That's the word. You can't personify them. You don't look at them as a real human being a voice on a phone Who the fuck is that could be anything could be anyone when they can see you and experience you and like you make yourself a real person to them That's kind of a manipulation tactic to solidify a lot of businessmen are corrupt this fuck and they'll fuck you anyway Like they'll literally watch your whole family dying in front of you and they'll just stand there like, well, a lot of business people are cold,

it's very cut throat. But my point with that is just like a little psychology trick. People can't lie as easy when you're face to face and if they do lie, you can pick up on it. It's very hard to tell in just someone's voice, but if you can watch them, their mannerisms, if you can get a baseline read of like how they usually are and then you see a change in that behavior that's usually a lie or some kind of deceit. So literally

read some fucking books on body language and learn how to read people. But the biggest thing is like talk to them face to fucking face. If possible, if not zoom meetings, fucking see your god damn face. And read back literally read back every single thing you guys agree on or talk about. That's a nursing skill that I use and implement all the time with the shit. It will clear up so many miscommunications. So when someone says something to you and they agree to something or you're talking about ideas, okay, let me read this back to you. Make sure I got it right. You read back what you just perceived from them saying something. So you are on the same page at all times. And if you are at step one and there's already a miscommunication,

you clear it up before you go to step two. Trust me, read back will save your fucking ass. Next thing, if you're concerned about something, say it. Voice it, communicate it. I don't give a fuck how stupid it seems, how insecure, how childish, voice that shit. Voice anything you are concerned about. To anyone that you're paying or anyone that you're working with, 100%. Next, if you have any questions, ask. Do not get off a call or leave an interaction with someone that you are fucking paying without absolute clarity. And that's around anything you have questions on, what they're expected to do, what you're expected to do, what the agreement is, what the timeframe is, everything needs to be crystal fucking clear.

And I want you to record all fucking phone calls and write shit down. Get everything sent in words via their email. Everything needs to be agreed upon and writing and have auditory recordings of shit. Because a lot of people try and go back on like things that they've said to me like with my development team. It's like there was a lot of miscommunication and they said one thing and then when it went out like I thought it was one way and I clarified that. They said no we didn't say that. Record that fucking shit. Record every fucking call you have. Because people like to go back on their word, especially if they get in a pinch. Like I said, everyone's out for their own fucking ass. Clock him. Prevent that shit.

And with that, I want to say, do not hire a fucking company to do shit. Like when I created positive focus, my app, I hired a really big company because that's what I wanted because it made me feel like more stable and more like secure with having my app created and developed. I felt more official and I felt like it was more organized. No bitch. It's cost ten times fucking more and they're just as unorganized as other people. Find a student. Find a student for anything that you're wanting to start, whether it's creating websites, designing apps, making brochures, photography, anything. Go find fucking students at a university. Go find people on Fiverr. Go find people anywhere you fucking can before you go to a big business. Trust me, because they're going to be a lot fucking cheaper.

And they're going to be a little bit more invested in the result because they're still trying to learn and prove themselves and They need the money most of the time versus a big business. They're just gonna Take your money and then they don't give a fuck They want the invoice paid and then once they give you something they don't care if it fails or fucking does good They're literally only concern is the invoice and they don't give a fuck They're concerned is making more money And if they can charge you again and fuck you, they will. So that's what you're dealing with with the bigger companies. So find students, find people you can hire, find people that are

cheaper. Okay, like they're gonna care a lot more and just trust me on that. I had someone give me that advice of hire a student to develop my app. And I considered it, but I just didn't feel like, I was good, I didn't feel confident in it. Like I didn't think it was like a good idea until I saw how fucking poor of a job, this giant company like did, it's not that they were bad, but like the experience of it, phew, shit,

literally what the fuck? Like it's basic as my app is? Oh my god, I had one of my friends that I was like one of my party friends who was an app developer. I had two, but each of them said they could do it for me or from like three to five thousand dollars and it should take like a month max with all the other work that they're doing. But I did not feel confident when I saw these people behave, they didn't take shit serious, they were not business oriented,

they did not keep their word, they would talk a lot of shit and not follow through with it. And I was also in a smaller town in Pensacola, Florida when I was starting my app. And I wanted someone that I could see face to face. And that's where I'm gonna get into where my trust issues kinda fucked me.

Okay, I just realized I've had this fucking laptop stand sitting here this whole time. Oh my god, ugly! And I just had to plug my laptop in, so now we got a cord. We're a mess today, but who gives a shit? So I wanted someone that I could see face to face. Because if anything went wrong, if they tried to fuck me, I wanted to be able to get my hands on them. And I made that very clear.

But my biggest like thing was trying to find people in my area. Don't fucking waste your time. Literally you can work with fucking anybody. Okay, don't be like me. Don't be too paranoid because I would probably bite you in the ass like it did me. But when I started working with this big company, they were like in this bougie ass bank. They were at the top floor. And when I went to our first meeting with the owner, I was like meeting with the whole team. And I I went to our first meeting with the owner, I was like meeting with the whole team and I was like, okay, just to be clear,

you know who you're dealing with, I have these contracts, everything's in place, cool fun. We all know about contracts, but if you guys try and fuck me, I'll light this fucking building on fire. And I just want y'all to know, like I'm very prepared for shit to go south and I am nothing to fucking lose So like I was already suicidal at the point like I was like this app is the last little bit of fucking anything

Like I'm here to like make this app and kill myself. What was my fucking plan? I was gonna like make it a bit like blew up and did something cool and then kill myself so I could leave behind like something You know, but I literally was like I have nothing to fucking lose and I will like all shit on fire Like you can play with me in business But you I know I want you to be aware of who you're gonna play with so you think smart you think twice And I instilled a little fear into them and I was dead as fucking serious and all them were scared and That was the relationship we had and I was taking very serious. I don't recommend doing this I

Would not do that again like just let them find out. Don't warn someone if they're gonna attack them or fuck them up. Just fucking do it. Okay, don't talk about it. That's how you don't let them be prepared. Catch them off guard if you're gonna do that. Anyway, my whole thing with that was trying to hire a company. Let that be your last option.

Let that be your last fucking option because it will save you probably like five times the amount versus hiring a student. Maybe even ten times, honestly. And you're gonna get a lot better results and a lot better work ethic from the student. Trust, trust. Okay, so now I want to talk about advertising. Bitch, learn advertising before you put money into it. Literally read as many books as you can, take some courses, do everything that you can to learn about advertising, ads, sales, everything about that before you start dumping money into it. Cause I wasted a few thousand dollars on Facebook ads. I thought it's easy. I thought you just log in and fucking put some money and then you just put some keywords and boom, it's done and you make a million dollars. No. There's

a reason people charge so much fucking money to run their Facebook ads. Huh, just learn as much as you can first. Hire someone if you have to, but you're capable of a lot more than you think and you can learn a lot more than you fucking think before you hire someone. But just remember me saying before you pay to advertise, learn everything you fucking can because that's money you can't get back. You will learn a lot of lessons, you'll learn a lot of what not to advertise, learn everything you fucking can. Cause that's money you can't get back.

You will learn a lot of lessons, you'll learn a lot of what not to do. But if you're starting a business and you're tight on funds, don't dump money into something that you don't fucking know about, just trust me. Oh my God.

I got about a few bags with the amount that I fucking lost Facebook. And the next thing with that is get clear on your target audience. Like, okay, I wanna help people people a lot of people say that who Get clear on who get clear on your target audience your target person that you're trying to sell something to or the person You're trying to help who would benefit from what you have to offer get very clear on your target audience and one of the Best books because I'm talking about learning as much as you can I've read a lot of books on this shit and I've taken a few courses.

I don't want to talk about people's courses that have been shitty, but a lot of them are fucking shitty. But one of the best books that I've ever fucking found is a hundred million dollar offers by Alex Hermozzi. I have two physical copies of the book. I have a hardback, a paperback, and they're each like 223 bucks. They should be a thousand fucking dollars each, as good as they are.

But they also have a digital download version of the finite night sense. None of us is sponsored. I'm just telling you straight to fuck up. That's one of the books that shifted everything like in my brain, got me comfortable with sales and like wrapped it all up in one pretty nice little fucking book.

Okay, the next thing I wanna warn you for is get prepared for your life and everything in it to come second. Your business is its own thing, it's its own entity, it's its own like everything, and prepare for your life to come second. And my example with this, and a couple of tips I have that are gonna come out in this story,

my mom was like, deathly fucking ill and I had the rusher to the emergency room one day and I had a call scheduled with my app development team and I was in the middle of the ER and I made sure my mom was okay. Made sure she was all good, stable, she was fine. I told her I was gonna go outside and I went and I sat in the car

and I had my fucking business conference in the car While my mom was in the hospital sick as fuck throwing up about the die not really, but it was bad Like it I was so emotional and like Worried and concerned, but I had to switch it off Get into business mode and do my fucking conference I could have easily rescheduled, but I don't like to fuck around with a whole team like that. Like, waste everybody's time. I don't like that shit.

It's not one of my values, my character traits. Like, I respect everyone's time. I expect mine to be respected. So I'm gonna give you the same courtesy. I went my ass outside, got in the car and had my conference call on Zoom in the fucking car. I told the team what was happening, but I showed I was committed to my business

and having the fucking call and we had it. And the other thing I'm gonna say with that is be prepared to speak, present, talk, recall things with nothing. I didn't have a notebook, I didn't have my laptop, I didn't have anything and I still had to navigate that entire fucking meeting and You need to be able to do this if you're gonna have a business. You can't rely on your fucking little notebook and your computer and your fucking little presentation. And like you have to be able to speak, be efficient, be strategic, and be organized with no resources. You have your brain in your mouth, figure it the fuck out. Like it's gonna take time, it's gonna take practice, but there's so many skills and it's like character development things that need to happen for

you to be able to run a business. So it's very serious and that's a huge thing that will help you. You have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to control your emotions to a point you can switch them off. Like when I was walking out of the hospital, I had to switch them off. Like I had to go from panicked and upset and worried to get your fucking ass in business mode, stand the fuck up and lead this fucking conference. Like so I did.

But that's something that a lot of people struggle with. If you can't separate your emotions and what needs to be done, you're not gonna make it. All right, I've got a couple of other tidbits of like information on a throw at you. So the biggest thing with productivity is setting limits on yourself and constraints to get shit done.

And when you set a limit for yourself, it's not up for discussion. It's to be taken serious and you get your ass on it. You do it. Anytime I've started something new or created something, switched my business around, anything like that, I gave myself a time frame. I'm like, oh, I could do this probably like two weeks. Nah, I want it done by the weekend. I give myself such tight constraints. I will be so fucking stressed out. So worried. I don't know how I'm gonna do it.

Ah, like I'm gonna have to neglect other areas of my life. But, you know what happens when you set a time constraint? You squirm and you get it the fuck done. And even if you don't get it all done, you get so much more done than you thought. I do have a whole podcast episode about motivation, discipline, productivity. That's a three different episodes. You can go listen to them.

But you can accomplish a lot more than you think in a short amount of time. You just have to put that cap on yourself and make yourself squirm. You need to give yourself that stress of a time cap and the time cap is to be respected. Like I said, your business is your own separate thing. It's not you you're letting down. You need to look at it like it's its own separate entity because it is. And when you make a promise to that,

you fucking fulfill it. You hold up to it. It's not you that suffering. It's your business that's gonna suffer. So, get your shit together. Okay, the next piece of advice I have is take responsibility for everything. I don't care what the situation is,

what the circumstance is, everything is your fault. If you're starting a business or you have a business, every single thing is your fault. I don't care who, what, when, where, why, fucked up? It's your fault. You have to go in it with that mindset because you own the business. If something goes wrong in the business,

who deals with the consequences? You, there's no one else to deal with it. No one is gonna help you, especially if you run something on your own like I do, there's no one to blame. And even if there is someone to blame, cool, you blame them, but who's dealing with the consequences? You bitch, you have to take responsibility for everything because you're the one that has the consequences who gives a fuck who's dealing with the consequences? You bitch, you have to take responsibility for everything because you're the one that has the consequences.

Who gives a fuck whose fault it is? It's yours. Now, there's a couple of questions that I ask myself when things go wrong. If I like hire a team or like I'm working with someone on something, there's a couple of questions I ask myself when things go wrong or I have situations like fuck up with my businesses.

So the first one is what do I know now? Because it'll pull you out of like focusing on what's happened and pull you into the moment. Okay, what do I know now? At this given point in time, it puts you back in reality like right here right now in the present. You reflect on what you've learned

and then get clear on how this situation can be prevented in the future. What can I do to prevent this in the future? Not what can so and so do that lets you down. Fuck them, what can I do to prevent this in the future? Like I said, everything is your fault, everything is your responsibility. Take that shit, if you can't handle that responsibility,

if you can't handle that pressure, don't start a business. But getting clear on what you know now and how you're gonna prevent this in the future will make you feel a lot better about the situation and you'll feel a lot more prepared and less scared because you have a way to solve this through happening again. You won't have to worry about it anymore. It'll just be something that happened. You got through it. You learned and it's not happening again. And these are the moments where you learn so much. Success is a lousy fucking teacher. When you fail and when things fuck up is when you learn the skills, the ideas,

the perspectives, the thought processes, and resources. Like these are the times where you can connect to different resources you didn't know that you had to help you handle shit. Like oh my god, it's the best thing. Like when things fuck up and go wrong, like they suck, sure, but like that's where the growth is, that's where everything that you need

that's gonna propel you forward is gonna come from. So get clear on those moments, what you learned, what do I know now? Okay, so the next thing I wanna talk about is something that a lot of people post and it's that your new life will cost you your old one. And that's very true. When you have a desire for something or do you wanna change something about your life or start something new, whatever it is, your new life and your new thing that you want, your new reality is gonna cost you your current one. And what people don't tell you about that

is the next version of you who can handle the reality you want and the next version of you who is experiencing what it is that you want, is gonna cost you who you are now. And that is where you're gonna get fucked up. Like building a business, you're building yourself too. Because when you start a business, every single insecurity you have will flare up.

Everything you're worried about, every fear, every quirk, everything wrong with you will come up and you have to face it. Like it's gonna break you the fuck down because you're meant to rebuild yourself. And you have to rebuild yourself into the person who can build a business. You're not just building a business,

you're building yourself with it. And when you lose your current life, you lose your current self too. Because everything you face, every challenge you go through, it's breaking down who you are. This is a very painful thing to go through and it's very disorienting and confusing

and scary as fuck. And I can do a whole podcast episode about it But just remember me saying your entire reality is going to break Who you are now has to break to get to where you want to get to that's just the way it fucking goes so Give a pair for a lot of uncomfortable shit and like I've said before in other episodes Commit to figuring it out and you will don't look look for a way out, look for a way through. You got it.

Okay, so our last talking point for this video is about how to know if you should start a business or not. And I'm gonna tell you a couple things. I'm not meaning to hurt your feelings. I'm just telling you from someone who sees what it takes and does what it takes. It's like if you can't even just do these couple of things, you ain't ready for the big shit of actually owning a business.

So if you can't make yourself do the small shit, don't start a business. You don't have what it takes. If you need motivation to do basic little bullshit and daily tasks, don't even fucking bother. Literally, it's gonna be too much into overwhelming. If you constantly rely on motivation and you can't just be disciplined and fucking do what needs to be done, give it up. Go get a normal job. That's what they're there for. And the other thing is uncertainty. You have to get very, very comfortable with living an uncertainty. Nothing is guaranteed when you start your own business. The way the society is set up is school, get a job. Okay, you go to college, you get a degree, you go get a job and it, go into college, guarantees you,

you're gonna get that job because you can just a little piece of paper, you get your little degree, that's the safe route. That's the route with stability. That's the route with certainty. There is no certainty. There is no stability in creating your own business or starting anything on your fucking own.

You don't know if it's gonna fucking work. So if you're not willing to choose into a life that is shaky for a while until you can create that stability for yourself, don't even bother. That's enough to break a lot of people and entrepreneurship and starting businesses is not for everyone.

Not everyone's cut out for it. So that's what I'm saying. Like if you have to go work a normal job, that's totally fine. People have to do it. Like that's what makes the world go around. And even if you have to go work a normal job, that's totally fine. People have to do it. Like, that's what makes the world go around. And even if you have to go work a job while you're starting your business, so you still feel a sense of stability and like, you're okay.

You're not like fully in fight or flight mode every day. Like, I fucking was. That's understandable, too. And I'm not talking down on you for any of that. I'm just saying, if you can't make yourself just do the small shit. If you aren't okay with uncertainty, if you can't manage your emotions, if you're not okay with doing bitch work, go experience more. Don't even entertain the idea of starting a business, you need to go experience more things until you develop these skills

to start the business, if that's something that you want to do. You're not ready for it yet. And like I said before, you can just jump into it like the ocean. Like I was talking about with the kitty pool in the ocean, you can just go jump in the fucking ocean and figure it out. It's gonna be a lot harder if you're not disciplined. So go do some shit to learn some discipline, but you can figure it out.

You absolutely can. I'm not doubting you, but you got to make sure you are one stubborn motherfucker and you're going to make it work because it's going to get bad. And you're heading going to come up out of water for a long time. You're going to think you're fucking around it work because it's gonna get bad and you're heading gonna come up out of water for a long time. You're gonna think you're fucking drowning. One thing people don't talk about when they start their own businesses is how they constantly are daydreaming about going back to a 9-5 because that's something I did for a while. I would always do when things got

harder, I stressed out or things just got really difficult. I would just think back to going to a certain like job like you get structure, you get stability, you get routine, you get all of that, you get a clear definite work, this amount of hours and you clock out when you have your own business ain't no clock out babe. Sorry, put your seatbelt on because you're gonna fucking eat, read, and sleep your business or good luck. A lot of people think 9 to 5s are more work. Absolutely the fuck not at oh my god, but my whole thing with saying you're gonna entertain the idea and you're gonna consider going back to a nine to five When you're thinking about going back to a nine to five and it feels like relief pay attention to what you're feeling You're feeling unstable you're feeling uncertain you're feeling overwhelmed you feel hopeless

There's a lot of things that you're feeling if you're dealing with your own business that are going to cause you to entertain that thought. It's like my episode about missing people. You're not missing the job. You don't actually want that job. You miss the way you feel inside it. So your brain is just going to remember the last time you felt stable, consistent, secure, all of that. It's gonna make you think you missed that job. It's gonna make you think you want a normal job again, but it's not a normal job that you want.

It's to feel safe. It's to feel secure. It's to feel stable. It's to want to sense a routine. It's to feel like your actions are for something because in a business for a long time, you're gonna be doing a lot of shit and a lot of bitch work. When you see no results, you see nothing, there's no ROI on it for a long time.

And when you are constantly exhausted by that, your brain's automatically gonna start thinking back to it. So I just wanna give you this reassurance, you don't actually wanna nine to five. You want the feeling states that are in that. So once you know the way that you wanna feel, figure out a way to set that up in your business. Even if it takes time,

you can start doing things now that will make you feel more stable, secure, consistent, all these things less fearful. You can set things up, but you just have to get clear on what it is you feel and what you need to set up in your own life. That's also set up in a nine to five that gives you those feelings. You know, so I am officially done yelling at you. This, like I said, was everything I wished someone would have slapped me upside the head with before I started a business I didn't mean to offend anybody if I did but if you're too weak and you're like triggered by this video another sign

You should have started fucking business. It's harsh bitch But I have a lot more tricks up my sleeves Bad time to use that but I hope this video was helpful leave me a comment down below what you thought and if you're watching this on YouTube Leave me a thumbs up and if you're listening to the audio version of where I aggravated Spotify and at the podcast if you didn't know I have episode one through 40 That's just audio version so episode 40 and on is video, but if you're listening to it leave me a five thoughts All of my links to everything that you can keep up with me on everything I've got is all in the description If you want to download my app positive focus I just want to say thanks if you made it this far

Hope you enjoyed the video even though I yelled at you the whole time Everybody stay safe take care of yourself and I will talk to you next Sunday