S4 - Ep24 - Overcoming Adversity: Brian Will's Unconventional Path to Serial Entrepreneurship and Business Success

Speaker 2: Welcome to Side Hustle City And thanks for joining us. Our goal is to help you connect to real people who found success turning their side hustle into a main hustle, and we hope you can too. I'm Adam Kaler. I'm joined by Kyle Stevy, my co-host. Let's get started, all right. Welcome back everybody to the Side Hustle City podcast. Kyle Stevy is either working or doing family stuff right now, but he's going to miss out because today we got a special guest, brian Will Brian, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Adam. I appreciate it. This will be fun.

Speaker 2: Oh, i love it. Another serial entrepreneur who does multiple things And we were just discussing before we went live here that I don't know who I am half the time. It's like, how do I sell myself, how do I present myself? You know, i do a million different things And you said that the one thing you really need to know is who you are not. So talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 3: Yeah. So we find this a lot in particularly young companies or first-times entrepreneurs, and they start a business and they have this ego thing that makes them want to be the CEO right, and they want to be the person that knows everything. And there are many, many instances where you've started a business, you are not a good CEO, right, you know who you are. You're the entrepreneur, you might be the specialist, you might be the person that knows the technicalities of what you do, but you might not know how to actually run a business, and that's a CEO's job, that's a manager's job. So many times we find failure is a result of people not knowing who they are and not knowing who they are not, and they try to run companies and they don't know how to do it and it causes them to fail.

Speaker 2: Well, i mean you've built seven successful companies, four different industries. You know you've written a book. You know your prior book, the Dropout Multi-Millionaire. So I'm sure after all that experience you know a little bit about what you're good at, what you're not good at, what you need to hire people for, And I'm sure you've had some failures along the way.

Speaker 3: Lots, lots and lots of failures. And here I can tell you what I'm not good at. I'm a terrible manager. I'm not good at managing details. I'm not good at managing people. I'm not good at managing anything. Quite frankly, what I'm good at is starting things, building things and fixing things, but when it comes to managing things, that's just not me. I'm not the detail oriented person. I think in bullet points, i think too fast, i talk too short. You know I'm not that good, feel good manager that needs to keep all the employees in line. I have 150 employees right now and please don't make me manage them. Right.

Speaker 3: We have people that do that. So I know my limitations. I know what I'm good at. I stay at 30,000 feet and I hire good people to do all the things that I'm not good at, and that's the key to success.

Speaker 2: I love it. Talk a little bit about some of those. Well, actually talk about not. All of us started out as entrepreneurs. Some of us worked in corporate and hated and refused to go back. What was your background prior to all this entrepreneurship?

Speaker 3: Yeah. So and that's an interesting question because my background goes back to an abusive childhood failing out of high school, didn't go to college, no education of any kind, went into the military because I got kicked out of the house, came out of the military with a giant ship on my shoulder. I was a terrible employee. I couldn't hold a job and really I jokingly said it when I was 20 years old I decided I had to be a business owner because I had no other choice. Nobody else wanted me to work for them. Yes, i didn't even want to work for myself sometimes, and I didn't have any education, didn't have any skills.

Speaker 3: So I started a landscaping business. I figured anybody could mow grass and dig holes, and so that's what I did, and I did that for eight years. But because I have this internal drive and I have this, you know this this ability apparently to to build and progress and go I turned that little landscaping company into seven different franchises over the next eight years before I sold it and then moved over to the insurance industry and built another company that we sold to Venture Capital. So while I'm I call myself unconventionally educated, right, it's through trial and error and failure that I've learned everything. I've learned over the past 35 years.

Speaker 2: It doesn't sound like you reinvented the wheel. I mean you. We've had multiple people on here that have started landscaping business, that have done insurance. These are these are things that I think VCs or hedge funds or whoever's targeting your company for purchase. They understand those businesses, like everybody thinks. They have to do something novel. They have to reinvent the wheel. They have to create some new technology and change the world. With whatever business. You just started a landscaping company. You did insurance.

Speaker 3: They jokingly will tell you. I have a chain of restaurants today and people always ask me well, how'd you come up with a menu? I said, oh, that's easy. I went to every restaurant in city city of Atlanta and I found their best dish and I stole it.

Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great idea.

Speaker 3: I didn't come up with anything original. I just literally found what I liked that everybody else was making, and then we'd buy it, bring it back, dissect it, put it back together and we have a new menu item. I literally just did that recently with this smash burger. It's now our number one selling item. It was two weeks after we put it on the menu and I literally stole it from a restaurant up street.

Speaker 2: It sounds like the way I write blog posts. I just copy and paste it all into chat. You can see like other ones I'll find like four or five recent blog posts, because you know chat You can only goes to 2021. So I copy it, copy it, paste it say chat, you can read this. Chat, you can read this. And then I said I write me a blog post for this. And then I had perplexity and burstiness and change the temperature of the language so it doesn't look like it was written by AI, but but yeah, i mean essentially the same thing. That's so smart. It sounds like your restaurant would be the place to go then. If I just want to like a one stop shop and I don't want to have to bounce between five different restaurants, just go to your place.

Speaker 3: You get the best of the best there?

Speaker 2: Oh my God, I'd get so fat. What are your restaurants called?

Speaker 3: We have a couple brands. Our main brand is called Central City Tavern, and then we have a Mexican concept called Cantina Loka, and then I have a hole in the wall smoking bar called the Derby.

Speaker 2: Interesting. Well, cincinnati has become very much a foodie city recently and people from all around the area just love to go and explore new stuff. We always got new things popping up and everything. It's kind of getting a little too fancy for me But we like Skyline Chili here and that's kind of like my go-to. But the wife wants to drag me out to all these fancy places all the time and I mean it's a thing, people will hunt down places that have specific menus or specific types of things that they can't get everywhere. I mean, and you've just aggregated all those things into one place. It's almost unfair.

Speaker 3: I mean, why try to reinvent the wheel? as you said before? Why not take something that's already successful and figure out a way to put a little different spin on it and then make money? It's just easier.

Speaker 2: Why not? Yeah, what are you guys out here doing? I mean, you got a landscaping company. You got people. People got it. Grass, it gets long, it needs cut. A lot of times these contractors just they don't want to work or they don't show up or whatever. You've always got somebody who's upset about it or, and I'm sure you had your own strategy over time of how you would sell those services. I don't know if you put people on subscriptions or whatever, but you can apply smart business techniques to some of these boring businesses, these things that people might think are you know, i don't want to do a landscape. There's too many people doing a landscape business. Well, yeah, there's a lot of them out there, but are they doing it right?

Speaker 3: Hey, i somebody said this to me once and it's stuck with me forever. Facebook was not the first social media platform, and yet they're the biggest one today. My space was right, that's right. You don't have to be the first. You can come in after the fact, copy what's going on, still achieve all the success you want in life. And, by the way, you don't have to be Facebook to have almost anything you want.

Speaker 2: You don't have to be that big. Yeah, I mean, I'm in a business owners group and there's a. There's a certain level you have to be at in business in order to get into this group and almost everyone in the group's like a financial advisor or they own an insurance agency or whatever. It's not. You know, I may be the only technology startup type person in the whole, in the whole room.

Speaker 3: It's just mundane businesses with a twist or something that attracts you personally to the client. That's all you need, and I people out there running businesses who don't know what they're doing, so it's just really not that hard.

Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and I mean now you're from, it looks like Alfreda, georgia. My dad lived in Alfreda for a little while there, maybe 10 years. It's a beautiful part of Georgia, but now did you come up as kind of Atlanta The Atlanta Metro was was on the rise And I know after the Olympics Atlanta just went to the moon. It was crazy back then.

Speaker 3: It was crazy. Yeah, i came nuts Traffic, i came here and let's see, i came here in 96, I think 95. No, i'm sure I came here in 88, right after I got married.

Speaker 2: Oh, wow.

Speaker 3: And back in 1988, i transferred here. I was in the Army National Guard, i was flying for them And Atlanta was just a boomtown back then. I mean, opportunities were just everywhere. Construction was going crazy. There was. You could do anything you wanted, particularly in the construction industry, which I was in landscaping at the time. You could write your own ticket.

Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, my dad was in construction too. He was like just kind of like a freelance construction guy, very similar to you, you know, didn't do well in high school, didn't know what he's going to do. He done really had the personality for an employee. I mean, i remember he told us one time we were picking up nails for him at a construction site when he lived up here in Cincinnati. He said, kids, you never want to work for somebody else. And I'm like five or six years old picking up nails. You know I'm thinking that just stuck with me. You know it's like why would I want to? And then I started working in the agency world, I started working in corporate And I'm like I can't be here, like this is not my thing. And I'm sure a lot of other people think like that. And I'm sure you've worked with people or you've had people reach out to you because of the book and of the things that you're doing that have had the same problem.

Speaker 3: It's been interesting on my third book now of all the different people from different industries and different walks of life. And the first book was more personal And I felt like a grief counselor after a while from all the people from reading that book. And then I got into the business book and then you get all the people that you know hey, can you help me with this, can you help me with that? I got into the third book right, and this is kind of why I started my latest venture, which is the force multiplier mastermind.

Speaker 3: Like we talk, well, it's taken well-funded startups through 10 million in revenue and I'm taking 35 years of experience and building and selling companies. I've sold two in the venture capital, one into private equity. Taking all that experience, i've trained thousands of salespeople, sold billions of dollars and bringing it down to this level to say, hey, if you're an entrepreneur and you really want to accelerate your business and you really want to figure out how to make this thing go, there's certain things you need to know And these are the things we teach. Right? This is what my mastermind is all about.

Speaker 2: Oh, I love it. Okay, so I'm new to business, say I've never started a business before. You know, I don't want to fail. Obviously, everybody's taking a risk. I had a buddy of mine text me yesterday once I quit his job and day trade stocks, right. He's like Adam, what do you think You know, should I do it? So I've got people that are constantly reaching out to me Adam, what do I need to do? I don't want to fail. I can't afford to fail. What lessons would you tell somebody that's just starting out, that may have that fear, right, And that self-doubt? What would you say to them?

Speaker 3: So we call this the five keys to success and we teach this in the mastermind. I do speeches on this, and if you were going to start a new business, the first thing I would tell you is you. And if you were consulting with me, the first thing I would ask you is why? Why do you want to start this business? What is your driving motivation? Because I will tell you that launching a new business is very difficult. The world is going to come after you, things are going to go wrong, the crap's going to hit the fan. Your why needs to be strong enough that, when all that happens, you don't quit, because anybody can be successful as long as you learn the lessons you need to learn and don't quit along the way. And that requires a very strong why. The second thing we need to know is who are you? We talked about this earlier. Who are you in the business? I know you're starting it, but are you really a CEO or are you a technician? Are you a salesperson? What's your background? What is your business going to do? And are you willing to check your ego, figure out who you are and who you're not, and then bringing other people to support you? The next one is you need to figure out whatever product that is you're buying. Does the market want it? Is there a market for your product? And if there is a market for it, why are they going to buy it from you? And this is key. So if you're just another landscaper or just another store that sells clothing or just another restaurant, they can go anywhere and get that service. You need to figure out why they should buy your product and why they should buy it from you. That's key to driving customers in the door long term.

Speaker 3: The next one we want to talk about in your business is you need to know your numbers. Your numbers are critical And if you're not a CPA or an accountant, that's fine, get one. But you need to have enough accounting knowledge that you can understand what we call the core metrics in your business. As your business grows, we track what we call our core metrics, we build historical P&L analysis I know that's a technical term And then we can predict where your business is going to go in the future.

Speaker 3: So who are you? Why are you not? Why are your product? Why are you doing this And do you understand the numbers? And I get into a lot more detail with that, but those are the big five that are either going to cause your success or you will fail to do them, and I promise they will cause your failure. Wow, i tell people all the time if Joe, who's a plumber working for XYZ Plumbing Company, works his own business which is what a lot of people do If Joe's business fails, it won't be because Joe doesn't know how to plum. It will be because Joe doesn't know how to run a business. That's why Joe will fail. It's the soft skills tying the seams, it's the business skills that are going to make you succeed or fail 100% all day, every day. That's why people fail, so you got to learn those.

Speaker 2: Because even if Joe didn't know how to plum, he could hire somebody that knows how to plum.

Speaker 3: Exactly. I could start a plumbing company today. If you won't see me out, you blew in pipes together. I'm going to be in the back running the P&L. I'm going to be out selling services and I'm going to hire plumbers to do that. If I'm the plumber, I'm going to hire somebody to manage my office and somebody else to go sell the plumbing jobs. It's building an organization. That's what you've got to do.

Speaker 2: Well, and you said something. One of the things that really struck me about your five keys there was why are people going to buy from you? So you've got a crazy, crazy environment out here, especially nowadays when everybody's got a side hustle, everybody's, you know, trying to not work for the man. It's become a thing now. You've got less and less people that want to be a company man. You know they want—they want to do something different. They want to do a side hustle. It's the whole reason this podcast exists. But I've probably run into five or six people just doing this podcast the last couple of years that have landscaping businesses and some of them are in the same area, the same market. So how do you stand out? How do you find your niche? Is there research involved, like what do you recommend people do?

Speaker 3: It's very specific to your industry. I mean, i can give you the example of when we opened our latest restaurant here in downtown Alpharetta and we looked in the area and we've got this little mixed use development area down here. I looked at all the restaurants and there wasn't a single restaurant that had TVs that would play sports over the loudspeaker system so you could sit at the bar and drink a beer and watch a game. Didn't have it. Oh, i was trying to be so fancy. They're all serving craft beer. There was nobody serving domestic beer and I said, well, and by the way, the other people that thought they were bar had uncomfortable bar stools And that seems like a very trivial thing. But we've got these giant cushy seats You can sit in for four hours. So if I provide a seat that you can sit in for four hours and in 60 inch TVs in front of you with multiple games on over the speakers, and you've got domestic beer which is cheap, that's where they all sit. They all sit at my bar, that's right. They're not going to the fancy place next door. I've provided something that's different than the competition And that's what you need to figure out in your industry.

Speaker 3: I had a guy in the insurance business. He used to work for me when I was an interim CEO in Portland and he started his own side hustle and he called me one day. He said Brian, i need a line to get in the door past the gatekeeper. And I said well, tell me why you're different. And he goes well, because I have great customer service. And I said so what? Everybody says they have great customer service. What else you got?

Speaker 3: He said well, i care about your employees. I said so what? Everybody cares about your employees. He goes well, what should I say? I said I don't know, it's your business. You tell me Go away, figure out why people should buy from you, come back to me and I'll help you. And here's the key When he figured it out, he didn't have to come back to me Because he already knew how to get in the door. He knew what his unique offering was, what is special about what he brought to the table And whatever your business is. That's what you've got to figure out And I can't tell you what it is. We'd have to break down a thousand different types of businesses to figure that out.

Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd have to brainstorm with them and sit there and look at what they got going on. You'd probably have to go to whatever city they're in if this is a business where you know, like a restaurant, where it's a brick and mortar type of location. But the thing is, as an entrepreneur, you have to have that insight. You have to be able to look at problems and come up with solutions. That's like part of being I mean, that's like the base probably, of being an entrepreneur. I mean your whole thing is fitting a need in the market that doesn't already exist. And if it does exist, how can you make it better? Make it your chairs, i mean.

Speaker 3: that's a perfect example And make sure there is a market. I'll give you another great example. We have a little Saturday morning fair here, What's it called A farmer's market, And there was a lady down here and she has the most amazing little pies, like just little pies. People would buy little pies for $5 on Saturday morning. Anyway, they were so popular. Her friends convinced her to open her own store Quarter million dollars to build out $6,000 a month in rent. You know how many $5 pies you've got to sell just to cover $6,000 in rent. A whole lot, A lot of pies. And guess what? Guess what she's not doing. She's not succeeding Because she jumped into something without thinking is the market big enough for me to sell literally 5,000 pies a month? Because even at a 30% food cost and overhead there's no way you can make money selling $5 pies.

Speaker 3: But she didn't think through that. She just jumped into it because it sounded like a good deal, and I see that all day, every day, people fail because they make bad decisions.

Speaker 2: She needs a line extension. She's making some more. add some other things, Colin, you are a pies.

Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, can you sell these pies at my restaurants? Yeah, she needs some partners. It sounds like That's awesome, that's awesome. So you mentioned ego a couple of times in here And you always run into people with ego. I mean it doesn't matter, it could be in a company You've got some guy who's always got to be right And he's best friends with the boss and all that stuff. But those kind of people are out here and they're entrepreneurs as well. So how does that affect people's success? I'm sure it just bleeds out into the customer experience at some point.

Speaker 3: Yeah, so one of the biggest failure points with entrepreneurs is their ego. Because entrepreneurs because by nature we are hard charging drivers red personality We want to make decisions. Everything's got to be done our way, particularly if we're under the stress of having to pay the bills and make money. So it's that ego that becomes the problem. Right, when you think that you A have to do everything and you can't delegate, you're going to burn yourself out. If you think you have every answer and you're not willing to listen to people who have been there and done that to tell you what you're doing wrong, your mistakes are just going to pile up on top of each other until you go out of business. You got to check that ego. I tell people all the time the very first thing you should do if you're thinking of starting a business, or if you have one, is you need to get a business coach Somebody who has been there, done that that can help you avoid the mistakes they've already made, so that you don't have to make them, so you can accelerate your growth curve. Right, ego is huge And I'll give you an example.

Speaker 3: I'm working with a little startup studio up in Ohio. They've done $2 billion in capital raises. They've got 40 companies under management right now. These are all startup companies And what a unique proposition that they make. You come in if you want to be part of their startup studio and go through like six weeks of training, and you have to go through it or they're not even going to talk to you And this six weeks of training is designed for them to be able to evaluate you and your business model on whether they feel like it'll succeed before they put money in right. And at the end of the six weeks they vote that, all the partners and all the mentors they all vote and say yes, no, based on what they've learned.

Speaker 3: Even after that, i ask them what is your success rate? He said about 50%. I said so, 50% of the time these companies fail And he said yes. And I said what percentage fail because the owner, entrepreneur, ceo, has an ego problem? And he said half of them. Wow, we get them in here after all that And somehow their ego outgrows the people that are trying to help them. They won't listen anymore and they fail. These are people that are getting venture capital or angel funding, that have mentors that are big time in industries, that have done huge things And you get these little entrepreneur CEOs who just have an ego problem and it causes their companies to fail. It's like a cliche.

Speaker 2: Well, there's a check that ego? Yeah, there's a. There's one in Kentucky, here in Northern Kentucky, right across from Ohio, that was on the podcast, and they actually have a system called Wendell and you don't even call them. Like, if you want funding from them, you have to go on their website. You have to fill out, essentially a Myers-Briggs profile, yeah, and you know there's certain ones that they prioritize over other ones, like INTJs. Right, intjs are more sociopathic than probably any other Myers-Briggs type, right, sorry, intjs One of my co-founders was an INTJ And they but they perform. They're one of the most successful types And my type we talk about in the show all the time. I'm an ENTP, i'm a starter, not a finisher, so I got ideas all day. If you need ideas, you come to me. I will give you 18 million different ways you could move your business around, but I'm not going to stick around to do it for you.

Speaker 3: You know, like it's just not my thing.

Speaker 2: Now you can learn to be other things, but it's funny that some of these companies out here they will filter people out like that. They will filter you out just based on science, based on data, based on information that they have And this you know. If they want to succeed, they have to be successful, so they need bumpers like this in place to prevent people that just like the idea of being an entrepreneur versus actually running a business.

Speaker 3: Right, and even at that much like these guys in Columbus. I'd be surprised if they have a better than a 50% success rate, because people can fool you into thinking that they're going to listen and then eventually they decide they don't want to because they think they have all the answers and they want to do it right. Hey, you got to get a coach. Check your ego. Let somebody help you get the mistakes. Why do you want to take five times as long to do something when somebody can help you shrink that time down? The amount of money loss and stress in you and your family for not listening is 100% preventable.

Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, 100%. So I have an idea. I think it's pretty unique. I start a business, I check my ego at the door, I try to. At least I get a business coach. Now, how do I grow this business? So I've got the business. The next step is scale right. You know, may not be for a couple of years and you may be working in the business not on the business for a while. But what's that next step? There's a hump that most businesses never get over. It's like, you know, it's easy to get to 2 million. It's hard to get to 1 million right. Once you're at 1 million, you can get to 2 million. But that's the thing people say sometimes. But the idea is, it's like it's easy to run the business when you're the one doing the work and you're the one doing the house, But now you got to hire people, Now you got to scale this thing. How do you get over that hump?

Speaker 3: Well, see, i'm going to go back to the first thing you said, and it's not just about hiring the business coach, it is vetting the person that you are going to hire as the business coach. There are a lot of people that are running around out here. I can go online right now and download a coaching certificate for $49. I can be a certified coach for $49. Yeah, i don't know anything about what I'm talking about And I'm going to hurt you and your business more than you can possibly know. So if I'm going to start my business, i'm going to find somebody that has started businesses and knows how to do it. If I'm at a million in revenue and I need to get to two or four or 10, i'm going to find somebody who has just done two, four or 10 that can come in and say okay, here's where you are Now. Let me help you get to this level.

Speaker 3: Different coaches are for different things. There are coaches that will help you in a marriage. There are coaches that will help you in sports. There are coaches that will help you launch a business. There are coaches that will help you scale a business. I myself belong to a mastermind group. It teaches people how to exit their business. It has nothing to do with growing it. It's about how to get out of it, whether you get out of it by a sale or you get out of it by delegating all of your responsibilities down to about 10 hours a week. So find the right coach, not anybody, not somebody who claims to be a master coach. I hate people that do that because they have no idea what they're doing. Find somebody who's been there, done that, has the proven success record that they can show you. Bring them in and they will help you get over that pump, because they've already done it.

Speaker 2: I love it. So making money is a business owner. That's one topic that I wanted to talk to you about, because there are ups and downs. You start hiring employees. It's one of the scariest things that you could do, because now their livelihood is dependent on you. It's not just you looking out for you. It's kind of like you have kids. Next thing you know you're whoa freaking out, like, oh, i can't take these risks because I got to take care of this family. Well, this business is your family. These people that work for you are your family and you feel a responsibility to them, and sometimes that means you work in 80 hours a week, you not paying yourself at times. So talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 3: If you're in the business startup mode and I like to say much I think I said this earlier if you're going to launch a business, figure out who you are and who you're not and backfill your week where you're weak. Well, the reality is, if you're brand new, you might not have the money to do that, so you do have to wear every single hat in the business. That's going to be required of you, but one of the things you need to remember well, let's back up. You need to tell me what your goal is in business. Do you want to be a solopreneur or do you want to build an organization that has intrinsic value, that one day you can sell and get a big exit and walk out the door? Those are two different things. They're two different types of organizations and they have two different business plans. If you want to be a solo entrepreneur, you're going to wear all the hats, you're never going to grow and you're never going to have the opportunity to sell. It's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. If you want to build a business, an organization that has value, that you can sell down the road, then you need to maybe start wearing all the hats, but every time you have an opportunity and a little extra cash.

Speaker 3: Replace yourself in whatever it is that you're doing that you're weak at. The first thing you might want to do is replace yourself as the office manager. Yes, it's going to take cash out of your pocket. Yes, that's money you could be spending on yourself or your family, but you need to spend it on replacing yourself in that role so that your business can grow. And then you build a little bigger allow business. You free up your time there. You can go do more sales or you can go do more development and then eventually you replace yourself in the technical spot and eventually you replace yourself in the sales spot.

Speaker 3: And if you will keep that pattern moving, yes, you will make less money in the short run, but you will eventually get to a point where your organization is self-sufficient. It's got human assets that can run that without you. And now you've got something with big value. Nobody's going to buy a business where you are the main technical person. You have all the knowledge and all the customers want to see you and talk to you. That's not worth anything because when you leave, so do the customers. Everything's gone. So take the short term hits, lose the revenue for now, and eventually you'll have an organization, so it's worth money.

Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have to have systems in place. You have to have things that processes and you have to have those documented and they have to be working. You have to have a sales process and all this Talk a little bit about if I'm starting a new business. I don't want to. I want to know early what I'm not good at. Is there any way talk about, like, the different components of the business? you've got accounting, you've got sales, you've got marketing, you've got all these different pieces of what we did Your business is made up of. How do I find out early what I'm not good at?

Speaker 3: So there are I call this four personalities in the business. I talk about this in my book, the dropout multi millionaire. I got the original idea from the emith revisited, which is a phenomenal business book, one of my top three and Basically the personalities are the entrepreneur This is a person that sits at 30,000 feet, makes critical decisions, strategic oversight But entrepreneurs are generally terrible managers because they entrepreneurs thinking bullet points right. Everything's about how fast they can move. Manager that's the second personality. This is a person that knows all the details. This is a person that knows where the, the posters are. You have to hang on the wall for your employees. They know what the insurance has to be paid. They know the. You know how to get the accounting stuff going. They know all the details of the business. If you're an entrepreneur, you're probably terrible at that. I'm terrible.

Speaker 3: Third, personality is sales. You need to have someone who's really good at sales right, somebody that can get out there and live on the bleeding edge and eat what they kill. Is that you? That's a question you need to ask yourself. So you need to have a great sales team or a great salesperson. And the last one is the technician. Back to Joe the plumber. Are you the plumber, are you the electrician? Are you the person is doing the architect or the CPA? What's the technical skill in your business and who's performing that?

Speaker 3: Most businesses start by a technician, but the technician thinks, because they're the technician, they're also the entrepreneur, the salesperson, the manager, and usually they're not. So you got to be dead honest with yourself Who you are. Are you a salesperson? Are you good at it? And they'll be like I don't really like sales that much. We find a better salesperson right, read the technician. Yes, i am. well then, maybe you're not the manager If you're the one out doing the work day-to-day. Who's back in the office handling the paperwork? Who's out in the field doing the sales right? who's making those critical decisions of 30,000 feet on how the business is going to progress? So you guys, just be dead honest with yourself and, by the way, check your ego, because maybe you're not the CEO.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's, that's 100%. That's 100% and I love that breakdown. That's like one of my fit. That's probably my favorite breakdown I've ever heard. Honest, i'm being honest with you right now, like it has to be. I mean, that's just so simple for people, like it's perfect. So you know, one funny thing is about you is is you actually sit on City Council in Alpharetta? I love that.

Speaker 2: I actually run for state rep I was trying to get signatures together and run for mayor of Cincinnati, but I've always wanted to serve my community as an entrepreneur, because I feel like a lot of the people that are On City Council and in government have never really been entrepreneurs, and they're Correct. Honestly, i don't know how they can make these decisions on business and stuff without having any experience in business. So it's great. Yeah, your city has, has you there. I mean, this is awesome. What's your experience with that?

Speaker 3: Hey, most people in politics are not critical thinkers, which is a skill you have to have as a good entrepreneur. They're not good, they're not savvy at numbers and business and finance because they've never been involved at that level. Like our city has 450 employees and 128 million dollar budget. Nobody on City Council has ever dealt with those size and numbers, except for me. Yeah right, so if you've never had the experience dealing with it, then you honestly don't really understand how it works, right? So, look, i've always wanted to be in politics. I've always thought it was fascinating, but you're aware of what goes on at the state and federal level and in the political atmosphere that's out there. You put your name in the hat and somebody's gonna try and destroy your life, your family, your children Oh, whatever they can do to get up to get votes right And I never wanted to put my family through that.

Speaker 3: And, honestly, i was at one of my restaurants hosting an event for the Rotary Club and the and the Chamber of Commerce, and there are a couple city councilmen there and I just mentioned that I thought it'd be interesting to do, but politics scared me And one of our councilmen, who's my friend, he said hey, brian, let me tell you something The city council level is the only level of politics, bar none, that you can talk to your neighbors. You can talk to your fellow business owners. They can identify a problem. You can get it on the agenda within two weeks, a week later, vote on it and you can make a positive impact in your city, in your neighborhood, with your neighbors. There's no other level of politics. You can do that, and if you can make your city better, and the next city can make their city better and next city can make their city better, eventually we have a better place to live for everybody and I was like that is awesome, so I ran when I won well, i can't.

Speaker 2: I can't run here because it's completely controlled by the opposite party. They do not like capitalism, so I will just leave that there. But that's that's one problem I have here, and it's you just watch these decisions that they make and and you're spot-on with that. I mean, if you know, wanting to be able to change your community, being able to talk to your neighbors about the things that are going on, plus, you're not really dealing with these big, big issues that most people are familiar with, that They're gonna just completely attack you, for If you stand one way on this or you stand another way on that, you're gonna have 50% of the population That absolutely wants to destroy your life, and it's just the way it is. For whatever reason, people have nothing better to do. I think then just go after politicians. I think it's just they can only work.

Speaker 3: We're nonpartisan, So technically we're not partisan. I think that helps a little bit.

Speaker 2: Oh, that's great So yeah, and we represented the entire city too. You can actually use logic, is what you're saying? Yeah?

Speaker 3: for the most part, yeah, until illogic comes in and people don't want to listen. You'd be surprised how ugly it even gets at our level. I mean even at our level. It gets a little ugly out there.

Speaker 2: And little alfaretta, little alfaretta, yeah, oh, my goodness. Well, so there's a question that was funny that you had sent over prior to this, that I should ask you. But what is the difference between you and Elon Musk?

Speaker 3: Okay, so this is an in-depth question. So there's a simple answer, but I want to give you the backdrop Right. So I tell people in business, if you are starting a company, or even if you're in a company and it's not growing, the problem is you, okay, if you've never successfully done what you're trying to do, then the reality of the matter is you need to check your ego and understand that you don't know what you're doing. Okay, you don't know what you're doing, and that's not a bad thing, it's just a matter of your brain. Your filter inside your brain has never had successful experience in business to allow it to process information in a business manner. Right, we just talked about this on city council, right? So if you don't know how to process business information at a successful level, then the best you can do is guess. You're making guesses every day on whether what you're doing is right or wrong. Yes, is your marketing right?

Speaker 3: Is your marketing wrong? Is this decision right? It's a guess, because you have no experience. By the way, this is why we bring coaches in, because they have the experience to help you make those decisions Right. And so the other example I use is let's say that you and I, adam, have a trucking company based out of LA. Okay, we're shipping product up to San Francisco, and every day we got a lot of our trucks run back and forth to get this product up there.

Speaker 3: Now, me and you, we would be like hey, we got to figure out when the routes run, they have the least amount of traffic so we can move the fastest we can move. What's our average mile per hour? How do we do this with the most gas mileage? Right, we got to figure out the best way to move across these highways twice a day with our vehicles. That's the way me and you think. Yeah, elon Musk got stuck in traffic And you know what he said Screw this, i'm building a tunnel And the boring company was started. There it is. That's because he thinks at a different level. The only difference between me and you and Elon Musk is the way we think, and the only difference between a success and failure in business is the way you think, and if you don't have successful, a successful history of business thinking, then you don't know what you're doing, and that's why you need to get a coach or a mentor.

Speaker 2: Bottom line. That's 100%. Yeah, i thought maybe just go get a $30,000 helicopter and fly over everybody. But he's trying to change the world. That's only going to help me. He's building a tunnel. that's going to help everybody, right?

Speaker 3: So I use this example on podcasts for a long time And I always say you know Apple like I have an Apple phone. If anybody's on video, i got an Apple phone. Apple's run by a guy named Tim Cook And Apple's one of the biggest companies in the world. They're one of the most profitable companies in the world. Tim Cook has a board of directors that come in once a quarter. It's sit down in the Apple headquarters And Tim tells them all his problems and he tells them all the things that are going on in Apple And collectively from 12 different industries, they all give Tim advice on the decisions he needs to make to move Apple forward.

Speaker 3: And I've always said if you are an entrepreneur starting out or in a business that's not growing as fast as you want it to grow, tim Cook needs 12 people to come in and help him make decisions. What in the world makes you think you don't even need one? Okay, i've always used that example. Now I was on Dave Meltzer's podcast not too long ago. I don't know if you know who he is, but he is a big time CEO, consultant and business advisor. He is an executive coach to three of the Fortune 50 companies And I told this story on his podcast and he was Brian. Tim Cook has an executive coach. The board of directors that give him advice also personally pay for him to have an executive coach, which I did not know. So if these guys at these levels of business need a coach again, what makes you think you don't?

Speaker 2: Wow, that's a really, that's a really really good point. Yeah, that's smart, that is really smart. Well, we haven't even talked about your books. You got a book coming up, yeah, i mean you were talking about. You know everybody's interested in hearing what you got to say here. I mean we've got a, you know, professional coach, business coach on here. Everybody wants to hear this. But let's talk a little bit about these books you got coming out and how these books can actually help people. Maybe they can't get your time, maybe you know you're a busy guy, i'm sure, but let's start out with the books.

Speaker 3: Yeah. So the second book I wrote, it's a business book. It's called The Dropout Multimillionaire. It's 37 lessons in business and how to succeed with no money, no education and no clue And, by the way, this fits right into your side hustle podcast and audience right, yeah, when I started I had no money, no education, i had no idea what I was doing, but we figured it out right. So this book is 37 lessons and how to build a business from scratch, how to make it grow and scale and, eventually, how to build it. That book has done really well. It's a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Speaker 3: And then we took this. We launched this mastermind we call the force multiplier mastermind, and we have four tenants in this mastermind. Right, it's strategic business direction, it's high performance sales teams, it's profitably growing your company And then it's historical P&L analysis to predict the future of your company based on the decisions you're making today. So these are the four tenants. Well, the second tenant, which is building high performance sales teams.

Speaker 3: I'd always had this book half written, so I decided to finish it. So the book that is being released I think it's next week is called No N-O and it's the psychology of sales and negotiations And it's 41 lessons in negotiation And it's essentially a written breakdown of a sales training program that I've implemented all over the country. It's trained thousands of agents, salespeople and agents. My teams have sold billions of dollars in sales And it's all about the psychology of the way people think and react, based on what you do and what you say in a sales situation, and it teaches you how to overcome objections, not at the end, but before the person ever has them.

Speaker 3: If you know what the objections are in the sales process and you can overcome those objections before they have them, then at the end of the day they have no idea. They have no other option but to either buy from you or walk away with their tail tucked between their legs, because they should have nothing left to object to if you did your job right. So that's what the book is about. That's what the training course is about. In fact, i just shot a video. I finished it today, a training course on the book. It's about an hour long. I teach on a white board, so it's good stuff for sales, tanner.

Speaker 2: Iskra. Well, I am getting your book right now, The Dropout Multimillionaire on Audible. So there you go. I have to read that one That's gonna be great, tanner.

Speaker 3: Iskra. No, we'll be out. I think it's the 15th and I gotta shoot, I gotta record the Audible after that. So Audible probably won't be out until May 1st or so. Tanner Iskra.

Speaker 2: How are you doing that with the Audible? Are you? are you recording it yourself in a studio or are you like? how's that working? Tanner Iskra.

Speaker 3: Yeah, well, actually I have no idea how to do it. The second book, The Dropout Multimillionaire a friend of mine who has a podcast file offered to do it because he loved the book so much, So he did it in his podcast studio. And so I was talking to my assistant, who's also my audio engineer, and I said we could do this here in the studio. And she goes why not? I guarantee you there's an app somewhere online that'll teach us how to do this. We have all the equipment. I mean, I got a killer studio here, right. So, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna attempt to get this done ourselves. And let me do it in my voice this time, Tanner.

Speaker 2: Iskra, i read a book, or I was listening to a book and I can't remember which one it was. I just recently finished it and the guy was doing it himself and he was actually elaborating on stuff because he wrote the book as it was even better than if he hired somebody to read it. because he's like, oh yeah, so you know, add into this, like yeah, i wrote this book like a year ago, but things have changed. So let me tell you what's changed And I'm like, oh, this is great. Like he wasn't. he didn't have the best voice, it wasn't even recorded the best, but the content was actually better. Tanner.

Speaker 3: Iskra. After my second one came out on Audible, literally everybody kept telling me why did you not do this in your own voice? I said I don't know what I'm doing. They're like don't do that again. Do it in your own voice, like, okay, done So we're gonna do it. Tanner.

Speaker 2: Iskra. Oh, you totally learned Tanner. Iskra, yeah, 100%. I mean you have a great voice. I mean you know the content better than anybody Like. I wish more authors would just do it themselves, tanner.

Speaker 3: Iskra. Yeah, it's gonna be good And I'm, i'm, i'm excited to do this And plus, it's something new, i'm gonna learn how to do Tanner Iskra.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Well, brian, you know, thanks for being on the show. I love, i love all the stuff you guys got going on, that you've got going on here. The books sound great. I'm gonna I'm gonna read this and enjoy it, i'm sure, and share this with the audience, but tell people how they can reach out to you. How can they, you know, give us the names of the books again so they can find them? Brian.

Speaker 3: Willemedia Sure. So the easiest way is to just go to my website. It's wwwbrionwellmediacom BrianWillemediacom. My books, my podcasts are on there. My blogs are on there Literally everything you need to know about what we do. The force multiplier mastermind is on there. One-on-one coaching programs are on there. So if you go there it'll link you back to Amazon. You can get the books you know from Amazon. But that's an easy way to get everything you want to know. Tanner.

Speaker 2: Iskra Guys, check out Brian's website, read his books and enjoy his content. Brian.

Speaker 3: Willemedia. Adam, this was awesome. Thanks for having me, tanner Iskra.

Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Brian. Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of Side Huzzle City. Well, you've heard from our guests. Now let's hear from you. Join our community on Facebook, Side Huzzle City. It's a group where people share ideas, share their inspirational stories and motivate each other to be successful and turn their side hustle into their main hustle. We'll see you there and we'll see you next week on the show. Thank you.