343 : Andrew Mavraganis – Being a part of a strong team can satisfy your entrepreneurial calling. Think sport analogies!
What a great story. A successful up and coming Lawyer walks away from a sure path to partner, a sure path to super financial rewards, a likely path to missing your kids growing up, a likely path to complications in your marriage and every other relationship in your life. Hmm… Which path is right, again?
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Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Andrew: [00:00:00] You need and how we have evolved and added people is to look for people with complimentary skills and if you can build a team that has a lot of complimentary skills, it just means that when these crazy things happen, someone knows how to handle it or someone has seen it before.
Cool voice guy: [00:00:18] We’ll give them a focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling today, use your host, Steven Peters in.
Stephen: [00:00:32] He wanted to talk a few moments about some sponsors scope from seller labs. Um, when’s the last time you created a listing? Right? And when you create that listing, you’ve got to come up with the keywords, right? It’s all key word dependent. I don’t care if it’s a private label or wholesale. You’ve got to get it right. Well, what’s the best way to get it right? And if you’re selling a similar product that’s really successful, you go and you take and use their keywords and that’s what scope does for you. So phenomenal tool brought to you again by seller labs. The leaders in technology, when it comes to Amazon right now, they are just crushing it with all their products, but scope allows you to get that listing right, get ranked for those key words as fast as possible. Therefore you get the sales, so go to seller labs.com, forward slash scope.
Stephen: [00:01:21] Use the code word momentum, save a little bit of money, get some free key words to test, try it out and see if you see an improvement. If you don’t adjust, what’s cool about what I love about a seller labs is that you then message and say, Hey, I didn’t get this right tyler. Hey Jeff, this isn’t working right. What am I doing wrong? And Boom, you’re going to get the help you need and that’s what you’re going to get from sellerlabs. And, and it’s a very special group that had been very. I’ve been very fortunate to be connected with them. And again, I look over time they’ve delivered every single time, you know, same thing I can say for Karen from solutions for ecommerce. I mean, she’s been carrying my account for a couple years now and our account, my wife and I, and she really does handle things for us.
Stephen: [00:02:02] Um, I mentioned, uh, just last week we created a new listing with, I forget how many variations, but again, all the flat files uploaded done as I needed. I pop in, so she’ll send me a template, I pop in some information and then boom, it’s handled, await. These pictures weren’t done right, blah, blah, blah. This UPC, Nita poom modified adjusted. And again, the communication’s been phenomenal too. I get an email back saying, hey, this was done or this, you’re missing this, Steve. Hey, you gotta do this. So, you know, we have those challenges too and that’s why I like working with somebody who’s been doing it. I’ve been doing it for a long time to do know Karen also does listings for Ebay. Yep. Lots of them. So if you want to build out that channel, which of course you should, it’s q four. You should be selling everywhere.
Stephen: [00:02:46] You can. Um, Karen can help you with that too. So you gotTa tell her I’ve sent you, so you’re going to go to solutions four ecommerce forward slash momentum. You’re going to save 50 bucks every single month. You’ve got to save that $50. But more importantly, you’re going to an inventory health report. Um, did you just get hit with monthly longterm storage fees? Well guess what? If you haven’t, they’re coming. You want to get that inventory right and she can help you with that. You got to tell her I sent you again, solutions. The number for ecommerce forward slash momentum will get you into that. Saved the 50 bucks. Get that inventory health report though. That’s really, really important. Get that going right away and I don’t want to miss my coach when it comes to retail arb or online or when I have a question and I do.
Stephen: [00:03:26] Not that we don’t, we don’t really do much of it anymore, but when I do have a question, I go to Gaye Lisby because why? Because she’s really. She is a coach. I mean, she’s really phenomenal, but she also puts out a daily list and you’re going to get that list five days a week. You’re gonna get tons of leads, the number of, uh, agreed to amount that you’re supposed to get. She at least she usually gets to those in the four days. And then the fifth day seems to be a bonus most of the time. Phenomenal Group, small amount of buyers where this list is going to end, the best thing is the nuggets that you learn. Hey, why is the red one better than the blue? One? Gaye can help you with those questions. I saw. Hey, I got, um, I got to the dreaded letter about a brand.
Stephen: [00:04:05] Here’s the, here’s the way you approach it. Hey, receipts, um, how do you, what’s the best practice? I saw her leaving instructions, teaching me the accountant how to do a better job with it. And it’s phenomenal. So it’s gay. Lesbian made a million dollars selling. I’ll have the link in here. You’ve got to use the link and it does help me. I don’t want to say it that way, but it’s part of the amazing freedom with Andy Slam Iran, hers corn, and Nate’s layman’s so you know you can trust. Okay, so come back to the website, take a look at it, and you will get a savings and you can get two weeks free right now only through my link. You get two weeks free. Try it. You don’t like it? I get it back off, but right now is the time to make money. Get cash flow going right now and so join you.
Stephen: [00:04:51] Get two weeks free. The only way you’re going to get the two weeks freeze. If you use my link, it’s on this episode. Come on out and give it a try. You will not be disappointed. Again. You’re going to see me in there, so reach out if I can help you too. Let’s get into the podcast. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 343. Andrew may have regardless, I’m very, very cool because I actually know Andrew met him face to face a couple times. Met Up at a meetup group and when you hear his story and you hear how comfortable he is, it should make you pause. Right? And what I hope you do is you take some reflection time after listening to this episode and sit back and say, Huh, am I a failure if I walk away from the business and I go and work for somebody else?
Stephen: [00:05:42] Not in Andrew’s case, am I a failure because I don’t want to be number one, even though I can be number one. Well, not in Andrew’s case, am I a failure if I walk away from a stellar career, which I obviously very good at and I have a gift for, to take a role that allows me to invest in my family’s life at a time that I want to invest in my family’s life. And the planets align. Uh, Andrew would say that’s not a failure. And so I’m using that term failure because I just think that, you know, as a guy, I’m a lot of people measure themselves that way. Again, we still introduce yourself, hey, what do you do for a living? You know, and measure yourself that way. Well, I think this is a very healthy time to look inward and sit back and say, hmm, you know, I can do well by myself and you can do well by yourself, but together we could do incredible things and man, I just hope to see more people partnering up.
Stephen: [00:06:35] I always say this with Andy and our warehouse, you know, having him in the warehouse with us has been phenomenal for a million reasons and a back and forth. He would say the same thing. And so we’re better because of it. Right? And so to me that’s what you got to start doing and you got to start looking at. And Andrew is a perfect example, is somebody who’s done that and he’s very comfortable with that and very mature about it. And I just, I, I welcome it. And uh, I’m very fortunate to get to know him. Let’s get into the podcast. Alright, welcome back to the congresswoman and podcasts. We’re excited about today’s guest. Andrew is someone who I think, uh, I think a lot of companies aspire to find because they’re looking for somebody with trust and that’s got to be number one. They’re smart, they have um, skill sets and that kind of thing, but more importantly they’re independent and they can find a way to make sure they hardly ever have to go into the office. And I think that that’s a science and it meant you got a master’s degree in that. Andrew Maverick. Atis. Welcome, Andrea.
New Speaker: [00:07:38] Thanks a lot for having me. And thanks for the complimentary introduction. Is that fair? Oh, I hope so. I’m working on that all the time to be everything that you explained and I would add that certainly those things you, you’re mentioning, I didn’t show up on the first day and have all these things, but there’s something that I’m working on and continuing to learn.
Stephen: [00:08:00] Well, I think it’s so relevant to my audience because, you know, you know, my audience is mostly Amazon or Ebay sellers and they, they’d love to be location independent, but they’d love to have talent help them. And it’s one of the big challenges because when you have employees and then you have the infrastructure and we can talk about all that, you know, that adds a lot of cost and it adds a lot of responsibility when you can add talent and they don’t have to be close, they don’t have to be in the same state. That can be states away, right? I mean states a literal states away and you can manage operations, which is a huge skillset from states away without physically being there. Very often that’s, that’s a big deal. Um, and so I think in my world, this, this is this, it’s new because I think most of us feel like you got to be lifting boxes.
Stephen: [00:08:53] You got to be Andrew, you should be packing usually packing boards right now. Dude, why aren’t you pack imports were shorter than I am, but yeah, not, not often as you’re mentioning. All right, so, so we’re going to get into this because it’s probably one of the, one of the coolest new old things that I’ve seen, um, you know, work from home in the pre call. Andrew and I were talking about companies, uh, you know, trying to get rid of legacy costs. It’s a big deal, right? So they got this building and they got all this equipment, you know, you have to have a bathroom. I might, my landlord today brought me new fire extinguishers from my building and so somebody’s gotta hang them, which I’m going to end up doing, but then they get inspected and then blah, blah, blah. All these costs that people don’t think about.
Stephen: [00:09:38] These are, these are real costs and your competitor, if they don’t have those costs, have, uh, an advantage over you. And so you start thinking about these legacy costs and companies tried to downsize these things, but not in the ecommerce world. I mean we, we, a lot of US use third party warehouses to do work and stuff like that. But this is a physical location, a physical building that you managed operations from another state that’s phenomenal. That’s our setup right now. Okay. So, so that’s the, that’s the, the lead in to me, I think it’s one of the coolest things and I think this is a technology advances. And, and I, and I assume intellect that really helps get us there. So. Okay, so you weren’t going to be running operations, you are going to be a lawyer,
New Speaker: [00:10:29] you are a lawyer right away. I still am barred in Pennsylvania and inactive in the state of Delaware.
Stephen: [00:10:37] And so why law school? What was it that was going to bring you, what was it for you?
New Speaker: [00:10:44] Yeah, uh, it seemed to be a good decision at the time. It seemed to line up with some of my skills in the academic world, writing, reading, things like that. And it seemed that I was very interested in pursuing that. Um, I was thinking a little bit about that decision and then where I am now and it’s, it’s kind of a funny story that I used to get these interview questions for interviews for law positions and they would say to me, where do you want to be in x number of years? And I would usually say something like, I want to be helping run a business. Meaning I wanted to be a lawyer for a business, but what I think it really meant and what I should have known all along was that I want to be running a business, which is exactly what I was saying and not necessarily in an advisory capacity, but in the actual operational capacity.
Stephen: [00:11:44] When, uh, when you think back to those law school days, was there a part of. Because it’s like I’m an accountant, so, so the accounting, you know, you, you very broad and then you know, a lot of people specialize in one thing or the other. Did you, were you attracted to one more part of the, the law degree than the others?
New Speaker: [00:12:04] Yeah, well I didn’t have a lot of people that go to school. Their parents are lawyers or some other real connection and so I didn’t have that so I didn’t have any type of our probably follow in this track. And so in my head I was always aligning with a business track and I was taking business related classes, tax related classes in one of my professors even said to me, you know, if you take the right classes, a law degree is as good or better as an Mba and I’m not gonna I don’t need to get into that right now. But the point being that there are a lot of things that you can still learn about business in law school. Um, for sure 100 percent. Yeah. And then I think it depends as well that I wouldn’t say that you should go to law school to get a business education. But um, there are certainly tracks that get you very involved in business.
Stephen: [00:12:58] Well, to me, you know, I used to be in the newspaper business and we used to get lawyers who didn’t pass the bar. There is that group, right? I mean, for whatever reason. And it is, and, and most of the time they recognize that wasn’t the piece they love. But the most, the best researchers and writers, they were always so gifted. They just had it. And you know, um, and then they go into journalism, realize they can’t make any money and then they write a book or whatever. And those skill sets are phenomenal even in ecommerce because you copywriting, right? I mean to me, you know, being, having the ability to write. I’m not a, I’m not a gifted writer. Um, my wife got me through Grad school by editing everything. I mean everything. I couldn’t do anything until professor. But it’s funny, that skill set is, is, is really important now.
Stephen: [00:13:47] Yet, you know, you think about it, it went away, right. As you know, everything went online. Steve, nothing’s there anymore. Now it’s online, but it needs to be well written. And so that’s a skillset that really transfers over. And if you studied tax, you know, tax is politics, right? And it’s not logical. And so if you could understand that and you can understand the way they write it cleverly and how they don’t say what they really mean, you know, all that innuendo. Those are really strong skill sets that a law degree would really help with. Right?
New Speaker: [00:14:19] Yeah. And that’s where it can be learning how to read really dense material at a high level or learning how to connect different parts of different writings in ways that aren’t as logical as you might think they wouldn’t be. And then that becomes a skill that you have that you can take with you. And so when I see what my resume has for a law school degree, I know that that’s something that I’m building off of as my foundation for years to come. And I feel good about that.
Stephen: [00:14:47] It does. It almost feel like you’re advancing the degree, like real life in some ways.
New Speaker: [00:14:54] In some ways I’m, I’m, I’m like in a, you know, there’s law school that I’m, excuse me, at law firms, there’s associates and then there’s partners, associates work for the partners in some ways. Now I’m both an associate and a partner because I’m making the decisions and doing the work and I don’t probably have the experience that a partner should have, but it means that, um, you know, I’m doing it on my own and I’m learning about different things all the time. And I’m also getting exposure to all these different areas of business, which also entail some different areas of law and in a lot of cases if you’re in a certain role at a law firm or at a practice, you might not get the range of exposure that I feel like I can get
Stephen: [00:15:38] 100 percent because now a lot of that work gets outsourced, right? Because, you know, it’s cheaper to get it done. Um, because it’s. So. It’s so automated, right? It’s research. I mean, I have a friend who’s a lawyer and he works for a company that does law online junk. I don’t know what it is, but it’s crazy how much of that stuff has just moved to online and it’s just basically copy and paste. And so you don’t learn anything. And so a lawyer, I mean, I would argue in some cases, not all cases, this is a general speak, is that that degree is weaker and weaker because the depth of knowledge you don’t learn, right? You just copy and paste and that’s okay.
New Speaker: [00:16:18] Challenge. Yeah, there’s a lot to that. But yeah, I think the answer is that it’s probably an industry that is resisting or has resisted change and it could be one that as a result is right for some change. So we’ll see what that means.
Stephen: [00:16:34] Yeah, it’s interesting. In, in my interviews, I think I’ve had two or three. You might be the third, maybe fourth, a lawyer that has, you know, went to law school. Some of them were going to fight justice and they were gonna, you know, and then they got there and they’re like, Ooh, I don’t like this. I don’t want to commit the rest of my life. I, I’d like to have a family, Andrew, you know, those kids would like to see their debt. Now you have a family.
New Speaker: [00:16:58] I did a two year old and a two year old son and a five month old daughter. They’re about two years apart. And you get to see them everyday, don’t you? I have a lot of flexibility. I’ve been around. If they get sick, I’m helping out. Um, I picked them up from daycare when they’re there and I can be around in the morning and yeah, it gives me a lot of flexibility and I really enjoy that and value that. You knew
Stephen: [00:17:25] some would argue there’s a cost to that, right? I mean because you know, you could be one of these big, you know, seven figure, uh, lawyers in downtown Philadelphia, right? Or New York City or wherever. Um, but at what cost, right. There’s a cost. There’s a tradeoff. Is it, is it a non negotiable, especially now that you’ve had this freedom, is it non negotiable that you’d never go back? I mean, I know, never say never, let’s say without having to. Is it like a non negotiable now?
New Speaker: [00:17:54] I think so, yeah. I mean I would, there’s probably a chance, like some opportunity came along, but I would have to be comfortable that it’s on a fixed term, you know, that I want to do something really hard, even harder than what I’m doing now for two years, three years, and it works out with what’s going on in everyone else in my family’s life.
Stephen: [00:18:19] But that’s rare that you’re considering your family. I mean, to be honest, I’m a lot older than you. That’s not the way my generation was bought up, brought up your parents then wouldn’t be that way. It was, you know, your dad, uh, earn the income, you know, was the breadwinner, had a responsibility, knew his role and his responsibility. And that was it. And then that meant it. It’s said to say my wife did a lot of that stuff. I mean, that’s the truth, right? Because I had a big career. Um, it’s different today that it’s like the formula has all these outside pieces now that change that formula, you think it’s for the better. I mean, when you talk to your dad about this, what was, what does he say?
New Speaker: [00:19:03] Well, that, that’s how my family was growing up, but my dad was working full time and I’m one of four. So my mom was taking care of four kids, which is definitely not any small task either. Um, but now I always, and I always thought that that would be my life. And that was the vision I had pretty much because that is what I knew. And so now here I am and my wife, um, she works full time too. We met in law school, so she’s doing her thing and I’m doing my thing and it gets us into these situations where, okay, we have to make this part of what she’s doing a priority and maybe it’s for a little while or a longer while and then another situation where it makes part of what I’m doing a priority and we need to get a couple things in order so that I can do this and I think I consider it for the better. I consider it a partnership. And um, you know, you’re just trying to figure out what each of you do well and allow them to do that well and stay out of the other person’s way sometimes. And then if you need to help them and help each other, then you do that too.
Stephen: [00:20:14] You know, as you said that, that’s exactly what I was thinking in my head. It’s like you finally get to use your strengths and she gets to use her strengths, right? Which are always different and it’s not, oh, it’s not her job or his job. I mean, to me that’s, that’s such a healthy place. And I would imagine now I’m gonna make. I’m gonna make a leap here that a marriage that has that in it versus especially in the law field, right? Where there’s probably a lot of pressure, a lot of long hours. I mean male, not a lot of long hours, a long hours period. I mean enormously long hours. Um, I imagine marriages last very long or if they’re very difficult to have a deep relationship, I mean a real meaningful marriage as opposed to what you’re describing.
New Speaker: [00:20:58] Well, I hope there’s a lot of different ways that people do it and there’s a lot of different people and different successes and different value systems. And so I can speak to mine and this is what I’m going for and I’m happy that we’re in this direction.
Stephen: [00:21:11] So when you went to your wife and said, hey honey, I’ve got a big idea, I’m going to go sell beanie babies on Ebay. Um, what do you think? I’m going to leave my law job and I’m going to go do that. Is that, is that the way the conversation went? Well,
New Speaker: [00:21:24] it’s fun and because I was, this is something that I had been. We didn’t really even get to how I started out and how I got connected and how really it’s my friend who is the founder and then I was there listening, advising, helping out as early as the business pretty much started. And then um, so I was still working, but
New Speaker: [00:21:48] over time I was looking toward the future thinking, yeah, this could be something that I’m doing full time. And so I was helping out before my wife and I were even engaged and I was telling her I would let her know before we even engaged at this is something I’m seriously considering and actually very much hoping can happen. And so if you think you’re marrying this person, I’m letting you know that you’re probably marrying this person. And obviously she was fine with that, but the conversation and the road and the path where we’re set out a little bit ahead of time,
Stephen: [00:22:25] when you think, if she was to describe it, uh, it, would she say that you’re in the role you are designed for as opposed to. Especially because she knows I’ll also. Well, right, because she had similar degrees. So would she say this was your path 100 percent? I think so, yes. That’s pretty cool. All right. So I was trying to lead you there with the beanie babies. He didn’t bite you. You went back on the uh, thing. So let’s talk about how you did get into it because I think it is a cool story. Um, and uh, he doesn’t sell beanie babies. Everybody listening is that he didn’t walk away from law school for that. So. So you started advise. A friend of yours came and as he, and I don’t know him, so I’m going to say this, but when I think about the business that you’re in, it sounds like he would be a California beach guy wearing shorts cutoff shorts. They have to be cut off and they can be frayed probably, and sandals never wears shoes, always wearing sandals, serious tan, great sunglasses and probably the brightest white smile. Is that a fair description of your partner?
New Speaker: [00:23:32] No. That’s closer to the opposite than the actual.
Stephen: [00:23:37] That’s funny. Now see, that’s what I would think.
New Speaker: [00:23:40] Yeah, because I think the biggest problem with your story is that he and I were high school friends and we grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, so there’s not a lot of surf there is there definitely weren’t surfing there at least, but it was one of my high school friends and we played on sports teams together growing up and we did a lot of the sports that we sell to the customers and the sports that we sell to and we would do things like skiing, wakeboarding, and we would get to the beach and surf on the east coast together and so we had this very much shared interest in outdoor sports and so him being a engineering mind, not a, hey dude, what’s up? Kind of mine designed a storage rack for his wakeboards thinking that hey, I need to keep these organized and in my house and when he designed it, he wanted to sell it and this was 2009 and there was a lot opportunity online and Amazon wasn’t huge.
New Speaker: [00:24:44] ECOMMERCE hadn’t really bloomed yet. And so he said, well, I’ll start my own website and I’ll start selling this rack I made. And so that website was store your board.com. And he started with one product. And um, rather than hanging out selling only his rack, he started to bring together some of the California bro Dudes who were living in California making a surfer accurate too in their basement. He started reaching out to all these different guys saying, Hey, I have the place to sell your racks. And he gave a lot of these manufacturers, I’m a sales channel that they didn’t otherwise have.
Stephen: [00:25:26] You know, some people listening right now, most of the people listening here are all entrepreneurs. Would you say that you’re an entrepreneur because here’s the deal, because you’re, you’re helping somebody else’s company. Somebody else’s vision. Andrew, this was somebody else’s, I know you have an interest in it, but he, he casts the vision. He created it. He was the, he was the guy. And you’re not. Yeah,
New Speaker: [00:25:55] I don’t. I, uh, I, I, sometimes I’ve looked up the definition of entrepreneur. There’s so many different definitions. Um, I think the word is a little bit honestly overused and I don’t its connotation sometimes. I don’t think I don’t get caught up and all that. I don’t even know if I’m an entrepreneur and I’m not offended or I don’t need to lay claim to that. Um, I think one time I looked it up and it really means someone who starts, like undertakes a venture with risk, which, so you’re walking away from law school or a great law career may get a ton of money that’s not taking walking away and taking the risks. And that was, I was given a presentation to a class and I, my point was that really you can do anything at any time and you can consider yourself an entrepreneur and you should be learning new things and you should be taking risks. And so you don’t have to get caught up in what is an entrepreneur, what is following your passion mean, but it just be thinking about things that you want to do and things that you want to learn and go do them and, and you’re already on the right path.
Stephen: [00:27:04] You’re in the business of Andrew. Maybe that’s the right way to describe it is you’re in the business of Andrew and this is what Andrew wants to do and he can add value and he feels like he’s adding value and he’s getting reward, right? Whatever that reward would be. You do your sated with money or say to just because of accomplishment. That’s not a bad business. The business of Andrew.
New Speaker: [00:27:24] Yeah, I can agree with that. And, and taking all the way back to our business and helping us accomplish things and knowing that there’s risk in our business and me being a part of that now. And so if you want to call that an entrepreneur, I think you tend, and I’m totally fine with it either way
Stephen: [00:27:39] I, it’s, it’s comfortable. Maybe what’s cool to me is that you’re so comfortable with it. To me, I think most people, and this is a guy talk and especially in old dude saying that most people would say, oh man, I couldn’t make it on my own. I’ve got to go run my own business and, and not everybody’s meant to run a business with all the responsibility. When you think about what the owner, your friend, what he does, do you like all the stuff that he has to do
New Speaker: [00:28:11] that’s like, does everyone, does anyone or does everyone like everything they do in their job? Answer. Certainly. No.
Stephen: [00:28:18] So that’s cool. Then. Yeah, I mean to me that’s a mature thing to think about because one of the other things, and especially I’m thinking of Amazon, so you and you’re familiar with Amazon, so thinking about all these people, they see all these people selling millions of dollars, right? You know, and uh, we were just together and we saw people, you know, selling tons of stuff and then you sit back and say, Huh, I’m selling $350,000, Andrew, man, I suck and I feel terrible yet I have the best operations in the world when you come in and things get in and out and boom, boom, boom, boom. But I just can’t sell more because I’m not gifted in PPC or copywriting or whatever. Whatever it is, why can’t I add value to that other person who has those, those other skillsets? And call myself a success. There’s something wrong today because a lot of people would say, I’m going to work for somebody else. I failed. You would say no. Correct.
New Speaker: [00:29:18] I’m definitely a number two and I have no problem with that. And if anyone wants to talk about does not being a number to feel good, I can talk to them about that. I think it’s an easy decision. It was an easy decision for me. It still is an easy decision to be part of this. And I have a background in team sports. I played, you know, I love, I played sports,
Stephen: [00:29:42] I played a college or high school, I still want to be playing sports and outside and doing things and that’s a big part of my life and so when I look at what’s taking place and where I am, I just know that I’m part of a team and I’m trying to be a part of a really great team and I think that’s what we’re building and so if, if you, if you’re not comfortable being the second best player on a team or fourth best player on my team, you know, I don’t even know. We have a lot of good other people too, so I don’t even need to put myself in the second best player, but I think being part of a team and being part of existing successful team for me has always been a goal of mine higher or above. Then just being an individual success. I think that’s so powerful. I think that’s absolutely powerful when you say it that way, right? So most businesses fail, right? Ninety percent of all businesses fail in the first five years or some crazy statistics. So first off, if the business is still there a year six, it’s a win and to be in the top 10 in that company, I don’t care. You don’t have to be in the top. Number two, just top 10 in that successful company, meaning that you have had influenced and helped keep it there and stay there means that yeah,
New Speaker: [00:30:51] you are the outlier of outlier. How’s that? Not a when I’m want to keep it going and I’m trying not to count my chickens before they hatch or I try not to get too like Pi on what we’re doing and not. I just know that that helps you stay motivated and kind of keeps you fresh and I have. I keep some stuff up in my office, reminders of what I used to be doing or some people I used to work with and that’s another thing that keeps me going forward too.
Stephen: [00:31:24] I think this. I don’t want to leave this yet. I’m going to beat this horse a little bit more just because I think it’s so powerful what you just said that you want to be on a winning team and it doesn’t have to be a Andrew’s team. He just want to be part of that. I think the sports, your sports examples, phenomenal because that’s. That’s anybody who’s on the Yankees will use them. Right. I’m just thinking about them. So if you were on the Yankees and they won the world series, that’s a cool place to be right will, regardless of what you did on that team. And so that to me is very powerful. I haven’t heard anybody say it that way using the sports analogy, but I think it’s such a great, a great example of what can be very powerful. Alright, so go ahead. You had something to add. Go ahead.
New Speaker: [00:32:10] Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah, I, I honestly think of a lot of things in my life through the lens of sports and if that makes me sort of a dumb jock, I’m okay with that.
Stephen: [00:32:19] Well, you mentioned about staying motivated. Can you go a little bit deeper on that? Because I think that’s one of the things, you know, it’s funny, we were chatting about my warehouse. I got a ton of people coming in and out today. It’s just a crazy day, but it’s lonely. I mean I’m very lonely sometimes. She’d always sit here and my, my partner Andy comes down and he’s like, Steve, you how many cups of coffee are you on? Because I got like words that just fly for 10 minutes straight and when you take a breath and it’s because I’m sitting here by myself. Right? Yep. How do you stay motivated? Because you are by yourself.
New Speaker: [00:32:51] Yeah. And we didn’t explain that fully. Get there. No warehouse outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. That’s where my, um, my friend, the founder of the business and our team is located. And so that’s where it was and I wasn’t there and he wanted me as we were working together, he wanted me to join full time and this was really the option that we had and we took it. And so it means that I don’t work there. And we’ve taken that opportunity in a couple of different instances knowing that we found people that we know are smart, we trust, we know their backgrounds, we know that they’re going to be helpful to our team. And so we have hired people in a similar mold. Our friends, people we know and they’re not there, but it means that you, if you wake up in your house, you don’t have to walk very far to get to your office.
New Speaker: [00:33:39] And so great, I don’t have traffic and I don’t really have a morning commute, but there are times when you wake up and you’re thinking that maybe I just want to have a morning commute for once and it sounds crazy, but it also means that you gotta, you gotTa sometimes feel things into your schedule, add things into your schedule, add personal interactions into your schedule or add some other things that, um, that you know, can help yourself and keep you ticking and moving forward. And so it gives me a chance to stay. I’m usually trying to add some physical activities because that just keeps my heart going. And that’s something like I already said is very important to me, so I can add that in 45 minutes that I have free and then, you know, I have half my day before that and half my day after that and it gives me a boost to get through that second half of the day and stay focused.
Stephen: [00:34:35] The other thing that you’ve done, and I think it’s so smart, it’s how we met, is you, you wanted to, uh, expand your knowledge. You wanted to. This is the lawyer coming in, the research that I talked about, which all others are very, very good at, at least the successful ones is you wanted to expand your ecommerce network. And so you created a meetup on meetup.com and it’s in Lancaster, PA, and it’s the one I referenced a couple times. I’ve referenced it in my groups just to say, Hey, if you were in that area, uh, reach out and if you are a message me and I’ll connect you. Um, but your goal was, well, I know you tell me what your goal was.
New Speaker: [00:35:13] My goal was to meet people who are doing things that I’m doing or doing things similar and knowing that there’s always more to learn from other people, especially people who have already done what you’re doing. Like there all these different businesses out there in the world that are doing many of the same things. They’re facing many of the same challenges and so why not get a couple of people together and talk about how they went
Andrew: [00:35:38] and solved this challenge or what challenges there might they’re faced with it we might be faced with and six months or a year. So yeah, it’s all everyone knows also that expanding our network, you don’t always know how valuable it is at the time, but it’s always more valuable down the road.
Stephen: [00:35:54] Yeah, and it’s been A. I think we’ve met twice and both times have been really phenomenal for me and it’s like, like you said, you know here you think you know a lot and then all of a sudden you meet somebody else and you’re like, oh wow. I didn’t even think that way. You know, one of the, one of the cool things that I’m seeing and I’m hearing is this comfort you have of managing tasks, um, from afar. How do you, what, what tools do you use ’em again? So make sure everybody hears this, their warehouse, their distribution, their manufacturer there too. I mean it’s light manufacturing maybe is the right term to use what he had to put things together. Okay. So it’s, it’s important, whatever, but it’s distributed out of there. Like I say it that way and so, but it states away and you’re the operations manager, is that correct? Most people would sit there and say, wait, wait. He’s the operations manager and he’s not physically in the operation.
Andrew: [00:36:53] Yeah. So it just, it just is what it is. When, when you’re small and you don’t have that many people and nasty, the role I can be valuable in, that’s where I started. Right. But over time I can tell you that we’re adding more people and it’s getting bigger and so we may have to retitle the operations manager to someone else that’s down there and that can be fine because as you grow a small business or as you grow a business, I’m like there’s, there’s slices of pizza and when each slice of pizza that someone has, as everything gets bigger, it gets too big and you’ve got to basically cut it in half and give some of the responsibilities to someone else. And so it same time that the operations I’m slice is getting bigger. Some of the other things that I’m doing that aren’t as related to operations are getting bigger. So it may just be that we give someone else operations manager and then I’m doing a number of these different things too and that’s fine. And that’s why another reason why it’s important to be growing a valuable team.
Stephen: [00:38:00] It’s like an evolution in essence, right? I mean, it’s, it’s like, I guess as that business gets bigger and they go on more channels and they sell more products, there are new issues, new challenges and more staff, right? Those bring in new challenges and new things. Somebody’s got to handle it. And if you’ve proven yourself over here, and I guess it also helps is when you can talk the talk because you’ve walked the walk, it probably makes it a lot better all around for buyin from both sides.
Andrew: [00:38:28] That’s a part of every story I would say is, um, I mean here, I can go back to sports again. Do you have a coach that can do all these things that he’s telling you to do? Has He, um, does he know from experience that that’s why you should be doing them? Like, can I speak about things that are taking place in our business because I know them and have done them and I’ve worked through them before and over time they’ll look different. And so the way that I did them or the way that I was thinking about them will change. But I will have that foundation. And so we’ll be talking about the new components or I’m working with someone to understand the new components from myself, but still pointing out issues or helping troubleshoot problems.
Stephen: [00:39:11] When you think about when you give advice to somebody to hey, you know, you, you like, you recognize your number too. Just like me, I know I’m a number two. What’s your advice to people to look for in a number one? And if that’s an unfair question because I don’t want you to talk about your guy and air baird bed laundry or you know what I mean. But I mean, just saying it’s like what’s, what, what should people be looking for if they’re saying I’m having some success but it’s not as fulfilling what I’m doing. I love this piece that everybody else says is the worst part of the business. So I’ll give you a good example. I love packing boxes. I’m not me, but I’m just saying there are people that just love it. They just love it. They’re good at it and they just enjoy it. Um, but yet we’re all told there’s no value in packing boxes. Andrew, that’s $10 an hour work or 15 or my, my in my neighborhood in Carlisle, you know that it’s $25 an hour because of all the warehouses, but, but there’s no, that’s not what you should be doing. You should be working on your business, not in your business. Andrew, what’s your advice?
Andrew: [00:40:17] Yeah, I, I will stand by what you said about their need to meet people working on your business while there’s people working in your business too and, and that’s a big challenge is to lend to add more people working in your business or how do I insulate some people to make sure that they have time to work on their business, but setting aside the number one, number two thing, I think I can say it a little more simply is that you need. And how we have evolved and added people is to look for people with complimentary skills and if you can build a team that has a lot of complimentary skills, it just means that when these crazy things happen, someone knows how to handle it or someone has seen it before. And so we built a team with an engineer, a lawyer, a programmer, um, and, and things like that and just build out from there as our base. And so we’ve always been, we’ve always had that in mind that, hey, who’s someone that is going to add additional knowledge or additional value to our team? Like who’s someone that thinks different?
Stephen: [00:41:26] Are you looking at the gaps? I mean, are you saying that you know, for example, he, your partner was the engineer. Um, so, but when, what was the other person you described? I got the lawyer on the engineer programmer. Okay. So when you’re looking at the programmer, it’s saying, you know, uh, it is become such a huge piece of our business because you don’t have a physical retail store. So is that the gap? You said, look, it all, learn this or
Andrew: [00:41:55] we can pay someone a bazillion dollars over the next how many years or what? You can add someone to our team. So yeah, no question. That was something we were talking about and hey, we know anybody that can do this. Do we know anyone that has some flexibility to do something that might otherwise be crazy that some people think we’re doing and yeah, that was part of the conversation and that was someone who identified as one of our friends who we thought could be a part of it. And after what happened.
Stephen: [00:42:23] It’s interesting you say that because that changes. It potentially changes the relationship, right? You, you called him a friend [inaudible], but now he’s an employee and does that. How does that transfer over in the old days I knew what it used to be like, but now is it different today?
Andrew: [00:42:44] Well, for this specific guy, he’s, you know, we consider him part of what we’re doing. So I don’t know if that’s exactly the friend, but we’ve recruited who became an employee, but we have recruited other friends. So yeah, we have other friends working for us and there is a school of thought that you shouldn’t add relatives or friends to your business and that’s fine. And um, we’re looking out for that and we’re keeping that in mind. But as I mentioned earlier, at some point there’s a school of thought that you want to have people that you know, that are smart and people that you can trust working for you. And we could try and find someone we’ve never met before and take their resume at their word and have a short interview process and add them to team or I get, you know, choir, one of my other teammates who I lived with and, you know, practice with and went to school with and know exactly what he’s capable of. You know, the real him. Yeah. Oh yeah. And you know, those are the people were find someone smarter than you find someone who works harder than you. And, and keep trying to do that. And I know we hired one of my friends who I think probably works part of me or I’ve seen him work harder than me, so I’m happy to have that
Stephen: [00:43:59] is that, you know, and maybe that’s part of the skillset of a lawyer is you’re mitigating risk. That risk that we just described about, uh, having a friend or a family member as opposed to, like you said, somebody who’s just has the most polished resume and interviews well, doesn’t mean they’re not crazy or it doesn’t mean they, you know, it’s all fluff, right? Because that’s different thinking, right? Because it’s just like the college degree value, right. It used to be a college degree was how, you know, the HR department would, would separate supposedly the wheat from the chaff, right? The college degree was the barrier and we can get rid of anybody who didn’t meet the truck. You could then take the 400 resumes down to, you know, 30 or 40 that you can manage. Um, that’s ill thinking because some of the smartest people I know do not have college degrees way smarter than me and not putting you down way smarter than you.
Stephen: [00:44:48] Right? I mean, it’s just we’ve seen those people. And so that means that that logic is not perfect. It works, but it doesn’t always work. Is now what you described is that new thinking? Um, but like the risk lower by hiring friends and family, like you said, because it’s calculated, it’s you, you can measure it as opposed to the, I mean I wonder if that’s like this big transition that that’s about to occur for small businesses because small businesses, small ecommerce manufacturing, whatever it is, these small businesses, it’s not corporatized and what you’re describing, you know, do you get what I’m going with?
Andrew: [00:45:28] Yeah. I look at it this way whenever we try and add someone or if we’re adding a net new person. I used to always say to these people or someone, it’s like we have 10 people which were just were under that, but if you have 10 people, one of these employees is 10 percent of your workforce. Right? And so when a small business, if ten one person leaves, if you lose 10 percent of your workforce, that’s a pretty big impact. If you have five people, you would lose 20 percent of your workforce. And so another thing that we look at as a, we don’t have this perfect system we don’t have, we’re not as smooth as this big company. And so things might be a little herky Jerky at sometimes like we don’t have everything completely perfect, but and so for someone from the outside to come in and they might get spooked by something or they might think, oh, this isn’t the right environment for me.
Andrew: [00:46:29] And then they move on and after a short period of time we’re down 10 percent, 20 percent of our workforce. That’s another big consideration for us in hiring these friends. We know some of their situation. We’re very upfront and can be honest about here’s what’s what it looks like now you know, here’s what it could look like, but we definitely can’t guarantee that. And is this a fit for you and your life and can you take some of the value out of the flexibility that we’re offering and apply it to your life so that we can get together for two, three years hopefully at a minimum and know that we’ve got that spot in a good shape for a period of time.
Stephen: [00:47:11] So it’s setting boundaries with expectations. To me, that’s a very healthy on both sides, very healthy.
Andrew: [00:47:17] I hope that’s what we’re doing, but that is certainly our goal.
Stephen: [00:47:21] Can you talk a little bit about managing from afar, how you know, I’m thinking about like what is, what is Andrew’s day looked like or week might be a better example because you know, like you said it’s a smaller company, but you got a lot of moving pieces that you’ve got your hands in. Can you talk us through that because you’re managing from afar. Is Technology the key?
Andrew: [00:47:45] Yeah, for sure. It’s, it’s, it’s like everything is, shouldn’t be around the ability to collaborate on things, you know, or at least the ability to share maybe is a better word because collaborate means to. People are always working on two or more people are always working on something. So I don’t know. That’s probably not actually what takes place, but the ability to share all these things that different people are working on that, that probably is what takes place. And so how do we share documents? How do we share spreadsheets? How do we, um, have conversations, how do we show what some people are doing, how can I look at that? But not having to ask that person. Um, and so yeah, it’s a lot of that. It’s a lot of staying organized, you know, check in with people, go over some things, but then definitely trusting them to have independence to get those things done. And a lot of times that’s like, hey, let’s have our meeting list or have a list of things we’re working on our list of priorities so you can work on those things. I can review them, I can make my comments and then you can keep working and I’m not trying to interrupt people, I’m not trying to,
Stephen: [00:48:57] you’re not going to say, Hey, you know, oh, you should lift your shoulder a little. Oh, that should be to the. Right, right. You’re not in the minutia and you’re looking at it at a higher level.
Andrew: [00:49:05] Yeah. I don’t know what people are wearing or you know, I don’t know. Things like that. And that’s okay. And that’s something that I think comes from the top down with my partner and that’s what we want. I don’t know if we can. I don’t know if any company can be like that forever.
Stephen: [00:49:21] Well, that’s the thing, is that, is that a risk, right? I mean it’s one of the things that you guys got to consider as you’re growing and you guys are growing well, is it, is it like one of those fearful things?
Andrew: [00:49:32] There’s, there’s a number of things as a company matures that are gonna change and I don’t know it from experience. Well I don’t know what those things are going to be in the future, but I’ve seen some of that happening already and it, you know, it makes me realize that things may change over time and try and try and understand what our people are going for and what our teams going forward and do the best we can and that’s all we can do
Stephen: [00:49:57] has, uh, with, with a small team. Do you, do you feel like everybody gets their chance to add to the conversation? I mean, to me, I think there is that optimal size and it sounds like you guys are pretty much, they are at least for now. And then how do you encourage that?
Andrew: [00:50:18] Yeah, yeah. I still think, you know, there still are different conversation. Know not everyone on our team, a part of every conversation. I think that’s any team, right, and it wouldn’t make sense to have 10 people apart or nine people or eight people a part of every conversation, but there are definitely conversations about things that are taking place that are important that somebody, you know, each person on our team as part of an important conversation. And so how do I encourage that? Well, I don’t want to give them as much responsibility as possible. I’m happy to give other people responsibility. I don’t know if you worked in places or heard stories about, well you can’t do the things that your boss does because those are his and he needs to get the credit for those so he can get promoted. Whatever that is. Like, I certainly am not trying to hold onto things, trying to keep things away from the people that are on our team.
Andrew: [00:51:14] First of all, I’m very comfortable that, you know, my, my business partner understands that whether I’m doing it or they’re doing it or I’m managing it, you know, we certainly have a level of trust that I’m totally fine with everyone on our team doing a lot of things and that’s how I try and encourage it. I try and bring them into conversations as soon as possible, not have the whole conversation and then bring them in. Things like that. Like I want them to be. I say, Hey, I’m going to do this first part or I just kind of connected with this person so I’m going to have a conversation and then as soon as I’m done with it the first time it’s yours, so pay attention and then you’re going to be doing it.
Stephen: [00:51:53] That really does matter. Then how, like you said that that person’s 10 percent of the team, it really does matter to have that person having that comfort with themselves, being able to make decisions and knowing that you have their back. I mean, to me that’s very powerful. Alright, so, so I’m sitting here thinking about, you know, how we can add value to the listeners. So what we’re talking about is a pretty successful company and he already said the name story, your board.com. So you go check it out, they’ve got a ton of skews, a majority of your sales are not on Amazon right there on the website. You guys are the experts. You got a broad, a broad reach across a product lines across sports from surfing through fishing and you touched so many of them. Um, it, to me, when I look at your business, you guys are doing so much, right?
Stephen: [00:52:45] I mean it’s phenomenal and again, you’re doing it, um, without that heavy hand. And I think there’s a lesson here that you do have to have that level of trust. Do you have to pay well and you gotta have the right people and all those magical formulas. Um, but I want to make sure we add value to people who are thinking about this right there, there at that place, right? I see two different, two different scenarios where this could be helpful. One is they’re struggling and they realized that they don’t have the capacity and it’s not a failure to be the number one position, right? You have to be able to say, comfortably, I’m part of a team and that’s awesome, you know, and uh, and, and not a corporate America team, this is just, you know, so there’s that person and then there’s the person who is that number one who are going to be number one, but struggles on the details or struggles on the, uh, the skill sets that are part of the business. I see both of those probably looking for help. What do you think you could offer to both scenarios? Do you get what I mean?
Andrew: [00:53:47] Yeah. Well, starting with the person that’s struggling, the one thing I always try to keep in mind is that, um, this is an online, I’ve heard a quote I heard, but success is not, excuse me. Success is not a straight line. And so I can for sure tell you that we’ve struggled through things. And so if you’re struggling through something, it doesn’t mean that your prior accomplishment wasn’t a good accomplishment. And it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to accomplish more in the future, but it could mean that you should be considering, well, you know, where could this be by myself? I mean in both cases. What’s the potential? Yeah, I mean, when I heard your question, I was thinking, well, kind of measure up your potential and say is this better with just me or just me and two virtual assistance? Or is this something I’m thinking about long term and I should start thinking about more people.
Stephen: [00:54:45] But then aren’t you failing? I mean, you know, I’m thinking about Mri, independent businesses here, right? They’re saying, you know, well, you know, Steve, you know, my potential is 300 grand. That’s the best I think I can do when I look at everything. And if everything went right and I made all the right things, I see 300 grand and if I get 20 percent of that man I can go sell, sell. I always say that you can go to a t and t cell cell phones noncommissioned and make that much money. Right? So that’s one thing you want to be really cautious about that, right? If that’s what the most potential you have, but Andrew saying you’re not failing then, right, you’re just recognizing it and that’s okay.
Andrew: [00:55:20] That’s part of it. And so I guess if, if you’re at 60,000 and that’s not good for you, well then you’re having a conversation about what is good for you and then how do you get there. And so I don’t know, as you mentioned, a lot of businesses don’t succeed. So is it that it’s a business you’re in or is it you or do you just need to keep learning things and. Yeah, I don’t have the perfect answer for that. I think I would always default to try and be learning more things.
Stephen: [00:55:52] Well it’s you doing this meetup, right? You have no gain in it, right? There’s no upside for you other than you learn. Right? I mean that’s it. I mean to me that’s putting yourself out there and you’ve got to spend 20 bucks to keep it going. Right? And so your out of pocket and yet the goal is, and you’re investing quite a bit of time, um, because you want to increase your abilities. To me, that’s, that’s a good example of something that you’re sticking your neck out. Um, and it’s almost like faith in weird way, right? Sure. You know him.
Andrew: [00:56:25] Yeah. Well, and it, it worked out. It kinda worked out faster than anyone thought that the first or second one I ever did. We had four people and I was a bit surprised that for people could come together at the same time on a Friday morning out of nowhere, out of not knowing who I was or what the heck this was. But they got together and now we can share different things and we can learn different things. And I think also that there’s more people out there anyway. So I was surprised that for is our base now, but why not then for more,
Stephen: [00:56:58] right? Why not eight? Alright. So there’s the example of. So it’s real. It’s, it’s knowing yourself and admitting, but not calling yourself a failure if this, if you’re struggling and you don’t want to struggle. And I heard somebody say this as somebody interviewed recently said, wouldn’t you rather be a 10 percent owner or part of a, a successful business as opposed to being 100 percent owner of a struggling business? Yeah. Okay, sure. That. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. All right? So that example I think is being honest with yourself, looking inward and saying, all right, what’s the yield? What’s the potential? And at full capacity if everything worked, right? Which it never will, but let’s just say that’s probably won’t be enough for me. Um, and, and maybe not even monetarily, uh, enjoyment wise, right? You, you’re not going to make this, your kids when they start dance, right?
Stephen: [00:57:51] You’re not going to be picking them up for daycare because you’re going to have to work, work, work, work, work, okay. That’s not the life I want. So that inward look and then you can look for an opportunity. That doesn’t mean you can’t add value. And I think if you hear it, what Andrew’s doing to add value and the reward in his voice, just listen to how rewarded he is. That’s cool to me. And I’ve met him face to face and I can see it, you know, it’s real. So then let’s talk to the guy who’s, or Gal who is running their own thing and realizes they can’t do everything. What’s your advice there?
Andrew: [00:58:25] Yeah, that’s, that’s where I think it’s all about well gee, find a complimentary skills. And so if that’s someone else or that’s how do you get them? Like identify what you can’t do and then how do you get it? And so I know plenty of businesses, they just pay like a consultant or someone to do their ad words campaign or whatever it is. I mean there’s Google analytics academy. You could, if you had the time and you want to save that money there, you try and learn it yourself and maybe you know, that doesn’t align with your skills. And that’s where it becomes, okay, this is a complimentary skill I need to seek out. And, and yeah, you’re trying to create a, the right formula, so you need to add a few more ingredients into the pot there.
Stephen: [00:59:13] Well, I think you’re a good example, right? You weren’t doing operations when you started working with them. You were advising on business, whatever it is. Right? And your role kept getting expanded. I’m a, because you probably started showing some interest and passion for it and more than likely the advice you gave was must’ve been good otherwise. Otherwise this guy’s not very bright and a man by the, the, the, the depth of the business I think is. So that’s a pretty cool way. So you let somebody get their foot in, you find out that they’re not crazy, which is a big part of my life. I want to make sure that you’re not crazy. That’s a very cool way. And then you can start expanding the responsibilities. Very, very cool. I knew you’d be a great interview. It’s just so cool to me again that you’re so chill about it, but it’s, it’s a big deal to be in the role you are and be so darn comfortable in your skin. About it, to me, that’s, that’s, I don’t know that Steve is that guy. I don’t think I have that and that’s, I mean it’s the God’s honest truth and I’m just being honest. It’s very cool to me that you are. And hence the reason you guys are doing so well because you’re all rowing, right? I’m looking at their, uh, their fishing stuff. You’re all rowing the same way.
Andrew: [01:00:30] I mean, I try and stay even keel about what is our success really or what is it really, you know, are we really successful and how successful and just knowing and feeling good about accomplishments, but having to turn the next page pretty quickly onto the next task. Otherwise you can’t really sit around and pat yourself on the back about accomplishments. I Dunno, I mean someone else is going to be doing what we’re doing really, really fast or trying to address out in that spot. And so whatever spot that we’re even in, but it just means that, yeah, I’m thinking about trying to think about the next thing and um, being in this position and being part of a smaller business. And in previously that you’re part of a big company. Things come at companies from all different directions and they get, they hit so many different people because there’s so many different people in that department handled that one.
Andrew: [01:01:26] And so it’s just like, cool, I’m hanging out, I’m doing these things. I know exactly what’s coming at me because it has to fall right in between these two lines. And if not I just pressed forward email, please handle someone else. Right? But then when you’re in this position, things come from, they still are coming in from all over the place and they’re ending up at our team and it’s small. So they’re ending up with us. And it just means that a lot of things can go. What’s feels like can go wrong, and they do. And then some things can also go right, hopefully. And they do, but you really can’t react to all the things that go wrong or you can’t react in a way that anything that goes wrong, it’s gonna distract you from doing something right because then you will never do anything right.
Andrew: [01:02:20] And so you have to be able to take, I’ll go back to more and more sports analogies, but over the course of a fight, a boxer, right? How many times does he get punched? I don’t know, 100. A hundred. And what is he trying to do? He’s trying to land more shots, then he gets punched. And so in many ways if you’re landing more shots than you’re getting hit, you can win that fight. And so Oregon taking shots all the time, I can tell you that and we’re trying to, you know, if you, if you go down, if you let a shot take you down or distract you from trying to land your own shots, you can’t win and you can’t succeed. So I’m just trying to let the shots kind. I just take them, just try and move on.
Stephen: [01:03:06] I think the sports, again, being part of a team, I think there’s value. I had not thought of not being a sports guy and so I missed all that and, and I can see it. I mean it’s definitely a weakness. Um, and then I think the law background also, I’m probably fares well for this stuff because you guys, like you said, you’re getting your competitor, you have competitors just like everybody else, right? Um, and most of your business comes from your own website, so you’ve got traffic issues, you’ve got all those myriad of things you’ve got to worry about and do, and yet you still have all the competition. We all have to. And so to me, that law degree, um, that background, the ability to understand that, uh, he was um, uh, the law, what, what was that last politician who said, well, the law is not really the law, or was it something recent?
Stephen: [01:04:00] Right? There was somebody who was saying, well that’s not really the truth isn’t the truth or something crazy blizzard or something like that. Right? It depends on what the definition of is it? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. And so, but it’s the truth though, about your ability to deflect and say, okay, let’s give it its perspective. We’ve got to deal with it, but that doesn’t mean everything’s wrong. So let’s go on that optimism. I think that comes from that, that degree or that training I think is very healthy. Dude, I’m, I’m, I’m absolutely blown away. Again, he mentioned that the site, it’s called story or bored. I’m bored B L A R, d, m.com and go and take a look because this is a company that’s doing it right. Their business is their business. They own their customer’s information. They were very protective. Um, they offer warranties to make sure that things are handled right and so, you know, yeah, you can go to Amazon, which is great and all that kind of stuff, but also you can go here and you can trust us and they built that trust over time because they’re enthusiasts.
Stephen: [01:05:00] So I think this is a very cool example of what can be, um, because in an, also in my world, as you know, a lot of people are like, wait, I don’t want big brother always making the decisions for me because they don’t consult with me. And so, so there’s good and bad, right? So I think it’s phenomenal. I’m so impressed and again, I’m more impressed with how comfortable you are knowing yourself and I think, I think more people can do that. Alright. So if somebody wants to follow up with a question, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?
New Speaker: [01:05:33] I’m happy to take an email directly to me. Andrew at [inaudible] dot com.
Stephen: [01:05:40] Andrew at all right. And I’m going to put that out on um, on this episode because I just think again, there’s a whole bunch of people that are probably like, man, how do I pull the trigger or you know, how do I know when it’s that it person or that marketing person or whatever. Um, and I think that these are the kinds of questions that, you know, we’ve had that marketing question and it was cool with your explanation. So I think those are the kinds of things that you might get some questions on. But man, I really appreciate you taking the time. I mean, I really mean it and I think it’s phenomenal what you’re doing. Love it.
New Speaker: [01:06:13] Absolutely love it. The first time I ever did something like this, so I’m learning something new. It was a good experience and I enjoyed it.
Stephen: [01:06:22] Take care of what she had. Nothing but success. Very cool guy. Very cool. Again, if you’re in Lancaster area, let me know. Message me and I’ll get you linked up because, uh, we meet about once a month and there’s four of us right now and actually I think Andy said he wants to come. So I’ve been to make number five. It’s a very neat group, different thinking, you know, again, go look at their website. That’s the capacity that these people were working at in this group. All different kinds of revenue streams, all different kinds of thought patterns, all different places in their business. Um, and um, you know, uh, I think that, that, finding that being part of that and being, and just sitting there as a fly on the wall and absorbing that is going to make you a better seller. Going to make you a better person and a much richer for getting to know Andrew. So ecommerce, momentum.com, ecommerce momentum.com. Take care.
Cool voice guy: [01:07:16] Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at incomers momentum. Doug, come under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and the like us on itunes.
