Speaker 1: Afro Tech San Francisco, California. Michael Cybel, managing director at
Speaker 1: y Combinator the Darling Silicon Valley Accelerated, is on the
Speaker 1: main stage and has asked a question by a founder
Speaker 1: who said that while she has tons of traction, she's
Speaker 1: on her entrepreneurial journey solo with no technical co founder
Speaker 1: and no co founder at all, and she wants to
Speaker 1: know if that pri hip is her from getting accepted
Speaker 1: into y C. And so the reason why people look
Speaker 1: for a team is because on the process of going
Speaker 1: from being company generates a million dollars of revenue, she
Speaker 1: was a hundred million dollars in revenue. It turns out
Speaker 1: having co founders going through that process is helpful. The
Speaker 1: reason why people like tech founders or technical co founders
Speaker 1: because the process of going from million dollars revenue to
Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars revenue is a lot easier if
Speaker 1: you're leveraging technology. So I don't want to make this
Speaker 1: a statement on someone's business. There are tons of successfulness
Speaker 1: is that do not leverage tech. Thats not new techo founders.
Speaker 1: It's just that there's only a small sliver of businesses
Speaker 1: that can credibly go out and raise millions of dollars
Speaker 1: where someone's willing to make the bet. So what I
Speaker 1: tell founders all the time is that there's no moral judgment.
Speaker 1: Build whatever business you want to build. But if you
Speaker 1: want to build a business that can raise millions of
Speaker 1: dollars to help, you've got to be in this small sliver.
Speaker 1: And if you don't, don't expect to raise money. And
Speaker 1: most businesses that are successful in America never raised the dollar,
Speaker 1: so that's very possible to do so at y c
Speaker 1: our challenges is how do we figure out whether a
Speaker 1: company is in that small sliver or not day one,
Speaker 1: day two, day five, even year one. That's really really hard,
Speaker 1: um And to be honest, sometimes we get it wrong.
Speaker 1: Like we definitely have gotten it wrong. I'm well Lucas
Speaker 1: and this is Black Tech, Green Money. I'm gonna introduce
Speaker 1: you to some of the biggest names, some of the
Speaker 1: brightest minds and brilliant ideas. You're black and building or
Speaker 1: simply using tech to secure your bag. This podcast this
Speaker 1: for you. Damon Brown is the best selling author, two
Speaker 1: time startup founder, and four time TED speaker. He co
Speaker 1: founded the popular Photonic connection APT Cutler and led it
Speaker 1: to acquisition within the year. Today he helps side hustlers,
Speaker 1: solo preneurs, and other non traditional creatives and entrepreneurs find
Speaker 1: their path to success however they define it, and usually
Speaker 1: it's with a big bag of money. This conversation between
Speaker 1: Damon and I happened on the Afro Tech Live event
Speaker 1: featured on lunch table dot com. Let's dive in. We
Speaker 1: are back with another afro Tech Live um featuring us
Speaker 1: on both lunch Table and on Facebook dot com. So
Speaker 1: appreciate everybody for checking in. You know, these are the
Speaker 1: types of conversations I love to have with entrepreneurs, founders
Speaker 1: as business people, people who play along the edges of
Speaker 1: business and technology. And today I get an opportunity to
Speaker 1: talk with a friend of mine, Damon Brown, who's an author, startup, founder,
Speaker 1: counselor advisor, you know all the things. So let me
Speaker 1: give you his bio for his website. So Damon helps
Speaker 1: side hustler, solitpreneurs, and other non traditional creatives bloomen. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk a lot about non traditional creators and non
Speaker 1: traditional entrepreneurs. Even he co founded the popular platonic connection
Speaker 1: app Cuddler, which you might remember from a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and so it's kind of like Tendler for cuddling maybe
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah. Yeah, he's a the Ted speaker.
Speaker 1: So he's been on the test stage, the big stage, UM.
Speaker 1: And he's an author of several books and by including
Speaker 1: our virtual shadow back in the day, Bring Your Worth,
Speaker 1: which I'm a big fan of, Build from Now, which
Speaker 1: actually comes out. This came out this month, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that came out like over the past week or so.
Speaker 1: So yes, yes, yes, so please to please to be
Speaker 1: talking to you Damon today. Thank you for joining me
Speaker 1: always good. Well, I mean, you know, we go back
Speaker 1: a little bit, and uh, I love seeing your growth too.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Yeah, so let's talk about it. So
Speaker 1: you know, when you think about what I think about Damon,
Speaker 1: you've you've created this persona as somebody who helps people
Speaker 1: who UM may not see themselves in the mainstream model
Speaker 1: of an entrepreneur UM find their role in entrepreneurship and
Speaker 1: business development. And so we talk a lot about scale.
Speaker 1: You know, scale is one of my favorite conversations to
Speaker 1: talk about, UM. But scaling a business isn't for everybody.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people just want to do their thing and they
Speaker 1: don't have to. It doesn't have to be a multimillion
Speaker 1: or a multibillion dollar business. Maybe it helps pay the mortgage,
Speaker 1: maybe you know, it helps put a little bit at
Speaker 1: your food on the table. So I guess my question
Speaker 1: to you is that we're talking today about you know,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship for the rest of us. Um, what has to
Speaker 1: happen in our conversation about entrepreneurship and business ownership for
Speaker 1: everybody to feel included if they want to start, you know,
Speaker 1: a project and it you know, could potentially be bigger
Speaker 1: than that. Yeah, for sure. And that's exactly what I
Speaker 1: specialized in. It's the side hutselers, the solepreneurs, people like myself. Um,
Speaker 1: I did my true startups, bootstrapped them and did them
Speaker 1: while I was the primary caretaker and still am of
Speaker 1: our first son, and he was four months old at
Speaker 1: the time when I became an entrepreneur. When you know,
Speaker 1: my first alp so quotable got popular. I did my
Speaker 1: first two ted talks the first year it was alive,
Speaker 1: I started Cuddler the second year he was alive, and
Speaker 1: we end up getting it acquired right after a second birthday.
Speaker 1: So I have a level of sympathy and empathy as
Speaker 1: well as perspective for the non traditional entrepreneur. And so
Speaker 1: it's someone who's trying to make an impact but might
Speaker 1: be overlooked, might not have those resources, might be as
Speaker 1: I say now, I love this term over a mentored
Speaker 1: but underfunded. So it's a lot of people that are
Speaker 1: giving them game advice, whether or not actually giving them
Speaker 1: the resources they need to thrive. That's what Built from
Speaker 1: Now comes from. Like it's it's the new book is
Speaker 1: really talking about how to know your power, see your abundance,
Speaker 1: and nurse the world. That's the subtitle. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the four resources that we all have focus, agility, time,
Speaker 1: and energy. I call them the fates. All of us
Speaker 1: have that as long as we're breathing. And so what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do is create a framework to say
Speaker 1: you can create with whatever you've got. Um. One of
Speaker 1: the conversations I've been having with a lot of my
Speaker 1: coaching clients is that they're not sure how to proceed
Speaker 1: without a particular resource. So it's like, how do I
Speaker 1: build this product, this physical product without money because I
Speaker 1: need VCA capital for that. So but the vcs are
Speaker 1: talking to me right now, how do I do that
Speaker 1: and they feel stuck. One of the things that I
Speaker 1: that I talked about in the book and talk about
Speaker 1: in general with my community is that you can create
Speaker 1: that community before you actually start the product. In fact,
Speaker 1: you should. So that's something that's really simple if you
Speaker 1: I'm forgetting the name of the app. There's a major
Speaker 1: app right now that connects people to barbershops, and they
Speaker 1: just got a really nice, nice round over the past
Speaker 1: month of Squire thank you. I was forgetting have it,
Speaker 1: so props to them. I'm sure they were hanging out
Speaker 1: in the barbershops just like you probably were. And I
Speaker 1: was back when they were kids and all that. Aniberry
Speaker 1: from the East coast of back in Jersey, I remember
Speaker 1: those neighbor barbershops. They probably did that before they got funding, right,
Speaker 1: so they already were building that community. So that's the
Speaker 1: argument we built from now is you can create with
Speaker 1: whatever resources you've got. And luckily I have coached hundreds
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurs. At this point, I'm starting to go worldwide
Speaker 1: with it, and there's people in Africa, there's people in Germany,
Speaker 1: there's people all over the place who have different sets
Speaker 1: of resources and they're all able to go up in
Speaker 1: a certain way. You just seem to be realistic about
Speaker 1: what you got how long it's gonna take, you know.
Speaker 1: So you you started off the whole conversation talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, becoming an entrepreneur, like, are do people come
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs or are they born entrepreneurs and then find their
Speaker 1: way to starting a business. Oh, you're you're asking dangerous questions, sir.
Speaker 1: I think entrepreneurs are created. Um. I talked about that
Speaker 1: you're familiar with with Bring your Worth that was the
Speaker 1: predecessor to Built From Now that came out two years ago.
Speaker 1: I talked about my ancestry and that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the Kendrick and Lamar idea of things being in your DNA.
Speaker 1: So I actually come from a long line of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: I have three families that I come from a step
Speaker 1: family too, all three branches. I didn't realize that until
Speaker 1: I was much older, because I thought it was a
Speaker 1: one of one. I was like, Oh man, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be creating and stuff. I'm gonna break generational curses. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do this startup, that start up, I'll be staying
Speaker 1: home that blah. And I'm like, oh wait, like like
Speaker 1: two three generations, you know, going back to my history
Speaker 1: in New Orleans and an history over and other parts
Speaker 1: of the South, I'm like, oh, yeah, my my great
Speaker 1: grandfather was doing that. And so I think as as
Speaker 1: I'm a parent of two, and so as a parent,
Speaker 1: I think you kind of get into that mindset. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit easier to see where you're creating that water.
Speaker 1: You're creating that water that the fish doesn't realize they're in,
Speaker 1: right to kind of flip that old saying where fish
Speaker 1: doesn't know it's in water, And so you're creating that framework.
Speaker 1: What I'm trying to do with Bill from now and
Speaker 1: the conversation is just like where having now is to
Speaker 1: have you understand your framework. And so I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a matter of entrepreneurs being born per se. I
Speaker 1: think I happen to be born into a framework where
Speaker 1: people doing side husholds people being entrepreneurs before you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a spring chicken. So back when my families
Speaker 1: were doing it and I was a kid, people didn't
Speaker 1: use the word entrepreneur. So that's why I like, I
Speaker 1: have kind of this this complicated feeling when it says,
Speaker 1: you know, entrepreneur was born or are they created? Where
Speaker 1: it's like, well, you're either entrepreneur or you're not. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like being African American or not. It's
Speaker 1: either you're doing and have a certain mindset or you don't.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of people who are leading
Speaker 1: startups who might not have entrepreneurial mindset. They might be like,
Speaker 1: I want to keep the status quo, like I don't
Speaker 1: have to name names, it's just stories. And a lot
Speaker 1: of other cases, those startups or those those independent organizations
Speaker 1: end up going down because they're trying to protect the
Speaker 1: status quo versus progress things to where the world needs
Speaker 1: to be. And you might have somebody, including some of
Speaker 1: my relatives, that might be working at McDonald's and they
Speaker 1: got the whole shift happen because they're looking at things
Speaker 1: in an innovative way. And so I don't think it's
Speaker 1: about the identity of being entrepreneur, born or created. I
Speaker 1: think it's more like having that mindset. And that's why
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's why I get hyped when I talk
Speaker 1: about this, where I'm like, okay, we can we can
Speaker 1: change mindset. You know what I mean. You don't have
Speaker 1: people into a rich family or have a family of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: You don't need to have that to get into that mindset,
Speaker 1: you know, because I think we've you know, maybe some
Speaker 1: of us have disparaged the phrase lifestyle entrepreneurship because you know,
Speaker 1: you're going there, right because because in our intech if
Speaker 1: you're not shooting for the moon to build the next Google, Like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? You're you you're doing an acute
Speaker 1: lifestyle business. What do you say to that? I think
Speaker 1: it really depends on who who you are and what
Speaker 1: you want. Um. There are people that are on the
Speaker 1: cover of I've Become with INC magazine. Um, so you
Speaker 1: can check out Damon Brown dot net. And then you
Speaker 1: know the INC magazines that ink Damon Brown dot com.
Speaker 1: So I don't mind putting them into the mix with this.
Speaker 1: Where you have the cover of INC magazine, you cover
Speaker 1: the Fortune or whatever whatever is hot right now. Even
Speaker 1: the websites and they'll put someone on there where they'll
Speaker 1: say they got a huge investment, but that investment is
Speaker 1: good on paper, and that investment needs to come back
Speaker 1: to those vcs and often to be considered a success.
Speaker 1: Ten x so versus like you know, built from now
Speaker 1: like this is my imprint. I own the ESPN s,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's being printed through my apprentice, you know.
Speaker 1: And so the they call a cottage industries, the cottage
Speaker 1: industry that I created, where like the last seven books
Speaker 1: I've done the last four years, like so On pays
Speaker 1: for it, most of its comments back to my family.
Speaker 1: So it might not be on the scale or say
Speaker 1: a Penguin, no shots at Penguin, like I've done books
Speaker 1: with them, but not it might not be on the
Speaker 1: scalual Penguin or Random House. But I'm building my own
Speaker 1: little fifedom, if you're gonna call it that, And so
Speaker 1: both of them are equal. There's nothing good or bad
Speaker 1: about it. And it was interesting when I worked on Cuddler,
Speaker 1: we had bootstrapped it. We got to a quarter million users,
Speaker 1: and that was big for what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1: But if we got a ton of investment and we
Speaker 1: hit a quarter million users, that might be considered a failure.
Speaker 1: And so I think it really depends on the metrics
Speaker 1: you use on the outside and also the metrics you
Speaker 1: use for the inside. For me, I'm building my own
Speaker 1: imprint and got now it's eight books under my Imprint
Speaker 1: because I left the traditional New York publishing industry. Shots
Speaker 1: at them. I still work with them, but that's not
Speaker 1: that wasn't the place for me. So you don't have
Speaker 1: to shoot for the moon because it really depends on
Speaker 1: where the moon is. I guess I'll put it like that,
Speaker 1: you know, So you just you open this this can
Speaker 1: of worms that ownership, like you can own your stuff.
Speaker 1: And I remember, you know, because I grew up wanting
Speaker 1: to be in the music business, and you know, so
Speaker 1: the tip of the pinnacle was getting a record deal
Speaker 1: in those days. And now it's like, you don't need
Speaker 1: a record like for what other than you gratification maybe,
Speaker 1: but you have all the tools that they have. So
Speaker 1: when you look at authors, you know who like yourself,
Speaker 1: people who are wanting to own their stuff, own their businesses.
Speaker 1: Don't want to get venture capital because we still talk
Speaker 1: to a lot of people who have no need or
Speaker 1: desire to go get venture capital in this ecosystem, how
Speaker 1: do they also, at the same time, um build something
Speaker 1: that's sustainable but also don't get discouraged because may happen
Speaker 1: more slowly. Mm hmm. That's a million dollar question. And
Speaker 1: and every tool that I provide um from I have
Speaker 1: a YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Brown Damon
Speaker 1: just started that up, so I have almost daily shows
Speaker 1: that I do on there. It's kind of like one
Speaker 1: on one coaching um to the in column, to the
Speaker 1: new book, even conversation with you. It's literally trying to
Speaker 1: answer that question, you know, and if we want to
Speaker 1: unpack it a little bit. If you feel as though
Speaker 1: this is where you're supposed to be, then you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about the timeline, you know, like like
Speaker 1: that ownership is there, you know, no one can take
Speaker 1: that from you. And I think the closer you get
Speaker 1: to that unique vision that's yours, the more you secure
Speaker 1: you feel in that. So, for instance, with me saying
Speaker 1: I want to help no traditional entrepreneurs, people are side
Speaker 1: house sold as people are selopreneurs, I'm going to help
Speaker 1: them on every single platform possible. Now that we're sheltering
Speaker 1: in place, I'm gonna start off this YouTube channel like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give them as much game as possible. No
Speaker 1: one can take that away from me. So whether Bill
Speaker 1: from Now came out you know, a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago like it did with its big launch, or if
Speaker 1: it came out three years from now. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And so the more secure you are in what you're
Speaker 1: nourishing the world with, the less you're worried about the timeline.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not worried about what anybody else is doing.
Speaker 1: I want to support other people, and I'll watch other people,
Speaker 1: and I know exactly who's in my space. As far
Speaker 1: as with business, I can tell you exactly the business
Speaker 1: competitors are. Some of them are my friends. I'm proud
Speaker 1: to call my friends. Our books came out the same time.
Speaker 1: But I'm not worried about you know, his or her
Speaker 1: um you know market cap or his or her um
Speaker 1: hits or her space is that he she was taken
Speaker 1: in the market, Like, I'm not worried about that because
Speaker 1: I know what my identity is. And as soon as
Speaker 1: you get into that, then you start worry about how
Speaker 1: long it takes. Like I'm not worried about that. I
Speaker 1: got um um Bring Your Worth, which you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: that came out exactly two years ago. It was actually
Speaker 1: a slow sell are compared to my previous book, The
Speaker 1: Ultimate Bites an Entrepreneur, That one was the best seller
Speaker 1: off the bat. Bring Your Worth was a slow seller,
Speaker 1: and then people are coming back. Now literally two years later,
Speaker 1: I just got a phone call from somebody. They're like,
Speaker 1: I just picked this up and I need some more
Speaker 1: of that game, you know. And it was humbling because
Speaker 1: it's like literally two years later, that's a long time.
Speaker 1: You put a book out and it's like no one
Speaker 1: was talking about it, and suddenly people it's popping, like
Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen, twenty months later. That's not to be a
Speaker 1: flex or anything. It's just if you have that mindset,
Speaker 1: you're not worried about that. Someone I was coaching recently,
Speaker 1: I was I was sharing with them that their job
Speaker 1: isn't to convince people to get on the journey right away.
Speaker 1: That's not their job. Their job is to do the
Speaker 1: work with bring your worth, which is why I bring
Speaker 1: it up, bring your worth, you know. Thankfully, you know,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of support where I did the
Speaker 1: work that I was supposed to do, and it's like,
Speaker 1: whether best seller or not, this is the book of
Speaker 1: this time and that time for somebody like the person
Speaker 1: who just called me the other day, that time I
Speaker 1: be two thousand twenty one after a pandemic, but I
Speaker 1: wrote that joined two thousand and eighteen. It came out
Speaker 1: to the two last nineteen. They are ready for it.
Speaker 1: And so once you start to establish a catalog, then
Speaker 1: that conversation is already established, and as Seth Golden says,
Speaker 1: that begins to create trust. If you create trust, then no,
Speaker 1: no time or nothing can violate that. And in fact,
Speaker 1: that's I think it's the opposite. Where now that I've
Speaker 1: been talking about these discussions, and you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about this off camera, I've been talking about these
Speaker 1: things for like five years, six years, seven years, I
Speaker 1: saw my startup. So there's a level of trust and
Speaker 1: community there that other people can't preach. That's what you
Speaker 1: need to do. But that takes time, so time not
Speaker 1: looking at as I have to rush to get it
Speaker 1: out because competitors by the black, it's like, no, create
Speaker 1: your community and then over time you'll get them. As
Speaker 1: I talked about Bill from now, you almost get like
Speaker 1: a dividend from it. You almost get a um uh
Speaker 1: interest over time. You know, it's like compound interests. But
Speaker 1: it's see your creator world, you know, and you do that,
Speaker 1: the time becomes your friend doesn't come by me. I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about time, you know. So um shout to
Speaker 1: everybody watching on Facebook and on lunch table. If you
Speaker 1: do have questions, we have producers monitoring those chats, so
Speaker 1: feel free to drop your questions and the comments and
Speaker 1: I will do my best to get to them in
Speaker 1: the time that we have left. I want to pull up,
Speaker 1: um one of your old your old giddies UM oh
Speaker 1: by side on hand that happened that. It was like,
Speaker 1: that's like pulling out you know, Kendrick and mar section eighty.
Speaker 1: It's like, whoa, I got the I got the new version.
Speaker 1: Here's this version is clean back when Yes, I have
Speaker 1: that one too. You got the old version though. That
Speaker 1: was my first major best seller on my MPR. Thank
Speaker 1: you so yeah. So. So I want to pull up
Speaker 1: to jog your memory, and I want to have you
Speaker 1: speak to a couple of these things because when I
Speaker 1: think about lifestyle entrepreneurs specifically, and then we're talking about
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship for the re of us. So this is for
Speaker 1: those people who maybe feeling like they're inadequate because they're
Speaker 1: not trying to do the next school, but maybe they're
Speaker 1: trying to do their boutique or they're trying to do
Speaker 1: their you know, their lifestyle company. Um, they don't always
Speaker 1: have the like the infrastructure and the demands put on
Speaker 1: them by external forces, or they have to find it
Speaker 1: from within to be um to come and show up
Speaker 1: all the time. Right. So, and there's a chapter called
Speaker 1: lies We Tell And these are a lot a lot
Speaker 1: of the myths, um, that we might tell ourselves. Um,
Speaker 1: when we're starting a business. I'm gonna just give you
Speaker 1: a couple of the ones, the headers that you wrote
Speaker 1: in here, and I wanted to have you speak to it. Um.
Speaker 1: One of them is I'll start this project or slash
Speaker 1: this business when I have more bandwidth. Man, we hear
Speaker 1: that all the time. I know you hear it too.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and get started on this when
Speaker 1: when I get my money. Right, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: common one. Um, I'm gonna start on this when my
Speaker 1: kids graduate. I'm gonna start on this when I get
Speaker 1: situated my main job. Um, it's not going to get
Speaker 1: easier tomorrow. Again, I became an entrepreneur at the same time.
Speaker 1: You know, my son had just turned four months old
Speaker 1: when I became an entrepreneur. So so I can speak
Speaker 1: from experience, but also from coaching and connecting with other
Speaker 1: people where it's just like it literally doesn't get easier.
Speaker 1: And there's so many people that I've talked with who
Speaker 1: had that same dream, that same idea that they had
Speaker 1: when we connected like ten years ago. Almost spends the
Speaker 1: teener minde where it's just like you know, and not
Speaker 1: shaming them, but more like that that that potential wasn't realized,
Speaker 1: you know, because they're waiting for this perfect moment. I
Speaker 1: talked to him now and they're still waiting for this
Speaker 1: perfect moment um. That's why Built from Now it's called
Speaker 1: Bill from Now. I really struggle with the title. That's
Speaker 1: why it's called Bill from Now, where it's like work
Speaker 1: with what you've got. And there's so many business books
Speaker 1: that come out now that say that you're broken, or
Speaker 1: you need to fix this, or you need to un
Speaker 1: after yourself, try not to curse, you know, all these
Speaker 1: different things, right, and somebody are by my colleagues, so
Speaker 1: it's no shade towards them. But the but the resumption,
Speaker 1: the baseline is saying you need to be better than
Speaker 1: what you are now, you need to be fixed. I'm
Speaker 1: very much the opposite approach where I'm like, no, your
Speaker 1: problem is your framework, and so you actually have a
Speaker 1: lot of resources, you're just not valuing them again, you know,
Speaker 1: understanding your abundance, I say and build from now, building
Speaker 1: on that, and so we keep on delaying until we
Speaker 1: get more resources. Well I'm trying to do a build
Speaker 1: from now and saying no, you've got enough, get started. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, I think I'm gonna do two or three more.
Speaker 1: We can do them sort of rapid fires, so we
Speaker 1: can get through these because they're really good. All right.
Speaker 1: The next one is I'll stay up all night skip
Speaker 1: today's meals, because that's how you crush it. Man. I
Speaker 1: used to live in Silicon Valley and it's a lot
Speaker 1: of brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, like I spelsed
Speaker 1: to brothers and sisters in general that we're just you know,
Speaker 1: in their early twenties burnout and on. The hot thing
Speaker 1: at the time was Mountain Dew and I'm a Red
Speaker 1: Bulls and Evocula. So I'm giving my age now. So
Speaker 1: it's like the lay Odds and it was high life.
Speaker 1: Steve Drives was still alive, like the whole thing, like
Speaker 1: the old thing. You know, you go to the party,
Speaker 1: see Steve drives there, that kind of thing. So it
Speaker 1: was that lifestyle and then they'd be burned out in
Speaker 1: like a month, like Crispy, like never hear from them again.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to do that and left. I didn't
Speaker 1: do that with Cuddler, though I had my moments. Real
Speaker 1: is tough, and so you want to create something again
Speaker 1: that's sustainable if you're in a rush. If your step
Speaker 1: was worthwhile, you don't need to be in a rush.
Speaker 1: And there's a few different things where you might have
Speaker 1: to get in before competitors. But even if competitors get in,
Speaker 1: they might be you might be able to refine it,
Speaker 1: put your spin on it. That's better. And so again
Speaker 1: no focus on the Russian just like be consistent with
Speaker 1: my YouTube channel. I discovered this straight up where it's
Speaker 1: just like I was doing the daily YouTube for like
Speaker 1: two months, already got like sixty episodes up there, and
Speaker 1: then a couple of weeks ago, I was like, wait
Speaker 1: a second, let me calm down. So now it's up
Speaker 1: being every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, much easier pace. The
Speaker 1: world is starting to open back up, so I'm starting
Speaker 1: to get called up to do different things later on
Speaker 1: in the year or next year. It's like, I want
Speaker 1: to ask something that's sustainable. How do I keep showing
Speaker 1: up for my audience forever? As Jay Z said in
Speaker 1: that interview with The New York Times, forever, that's what
Speaker 1: I want. You can't do forever and burn yourself out.
Speaker 1: All right, two more. We can do this quick because
Speaker 1: we are starting to get some questions coming in. Um,
Speaker 1: I will work. I'm gonna I'll give you this acronym
Speaker 1: for the audience in a second, but it'll make sense
Speaker 1: in a minute. The next one is I'll work with
Speaker 1: this Peter client one last time, and Peter stands for
Speaker 1: paining ass. I'll work with this paying as client one
Speaker 1: more time. I fired clients before, so I'm looking for
Speaker 1: you to give us some enlightenment here. Yeah, I fire
Speaker 1: them all the time, and you have to figure out
Speaker 1: what your main way you're serving. Is one of the
Speaker 1: reason why I slow down on the YouTube channel and
Speaker 1: other things is that you some times have to give
Speaker 1: space for whatever you're gonna build next. Because if your
Speaker 1: schedule is like this, you've got a million things going on,
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of PETA clients, and you're just
Speaker 1: trying to pay the bills. There's gonna be a gap
Speaker 1: where you're gonna cut off those clients and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be rough. But if you don't have that gap, then
Speaker 1: there's no room for serious clients to come in. That's
Speaker 1: the best way I can describe it. I've gone through
Speaker 1: that many many times in a couple of decades being independent,
Speaker 1: and you gotta make that choice, all right. Next, the
Speaker 1: last one is out of this series, is I need
Speaker 1: to quit my job, in my relationships, etcetera, so I
Speaker 1: can truly dedicate myself to my big idea. That's what
Speaker 1: that's what hows that admit I thought I had to
Speaker 1: give everything up in order to go do this thing. Man, No, well,
Speaker 1: that that is the well we believe that you said earlier,
Speaker 1: Like we believe that that's that's the bill of goods
Speaker 1: we've been sold. It's like, oh, yeah, you have to
Speaker 1: give up everything. Yeah, if you got to give up everything,
Speaker 1: then you'll be able to you know, sell your components
Speaker 1: coming to whoever and then go buy island off that
Speaker 1: let's out Pacific like and then you can rest. And
Speaker 1: it's like, but that's such a point zero zero zero
Speaker 1: zero zero zero zero one percent chance of that, and
Speaker 1: so they're selling you on that, and then you might
Speaker 1: end up selling your soul for that. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean anything dramatic, just like you're gonna grind yourself to
Speaker 1: a halt that doesn't make any sense. Like I'm in
Speaker 1: my forties. I plan on being in this game until
Speaker 1: until the you know, the wheels follows right to the cascade,
Speaker 1: drafts whatever. So I have no interest in burning out.
Speaker 1: I got another forty years in me. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to kill myself for the next book
Speaker 1: or the next pap. I'm not trying to do that.
Speaker 1: You get that mentality, you think forty fifty years, then
Speaker 1: you'll make other decisions about how you spend your time,
Speaker 1: you know. And there's a question that came in from
Speaker 1: Facebook says I'm interested in writing a series of books.
Speaker 1: How can I get started or just pointed in the
Speaker 1: best direction. I guess start with one book. Maybe that
Speaker 1: could say yeah, to get to to flavor in here,
Speaker 1: but yeah, just start with a sentence, UM, do a
Speaker 1: medium piece, um with UM. I'm not gonna have you
Speaker 1: pick up my old Ashley version of the book. The
Speaker 1: whole tremate bit says Entrepreneur, like the original one that
Speaker 1: that Will showed earlier. It started with a series of
Speaker 1: of columns and a inc magazine to get an ink
Speaker 1: dame around dot com like you can see, like probably
Speaker 1: like the fourth of the of the chapters in there
Speaker 1: actually were inspired by the columns. My columns are short,
Speaker 1: so I was doing three D word columns while I
Speaker 1: would take care of my two year old and his
Speaker 1: little brother at came. So I'm doing these little columns
Speaker 1: while I'm doing double baby duty. And then that grew
Speaker 1: into a mighty yoke and suddenly that became the beginning
Speaker 1: of my publishing game print. So I wouldn't think about
Speaker 1: the series. You can map it out. That's cool, like
Speaker 1: the bit says Entrepreneur in the series. My new one
Speaker 1: built from now is technically the follow up to Bring
Speaker 1: Your Earth. So that's kind of a series. So it's
Speaker 1: okay to have that big picture. But you gotta start
Speaker 1: with first sentence. Let's start with the first sentence. Rest figure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's another one. I'm looking on lunch table. Um. Somebody
Speaker 1: asked Malik asks, how would you go about and mismatch
Speaker 1: and idea versus skill? Is it better to have to
Speaker 1: get started on your idea faster if you have the
Speaker 1: funds um learn to skill yourself, or a combination of
Speaker 1: the two idea versus skill UM I would put the
Speaker 1: meritenti idea yeah, because I'm as you can tell on
Speaker 1: an octopus. So my background is journalism and then I
Speaker 1: do public speaking and I've on coaching practice, I have
Speaker 1: on book and print. So I like getting involved and
Speaker 1: having my hand in different pots for We can get
Speaker 1: into that, but many different reasons for that. But first
Speaker 1: I had to learn the ropes, so that might be
Speaker 1: a good example. When I did my first built from
Speaker 1: now it is my twenty book. My first ten books
Speaker 1: were with traditional publishers in New York, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: like I started printing book especially back in the day.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I was printing books. But first I
Speaker 1: wrote my book proposal. Then I found an agent. Then
Speaker 1: that agent I didn't work out, so I let go
Speaker 1: of that agent. I got another agent, and then each
Speaker 1: person I'm talking with I'm getting game from. So the
Speaker 1: fact that I'm able to have a publishing imprint now
Speaker 1: comes from me getting my idea and learned from all
Speaker 1: these different people. If I was waiting until I had
Speaker 1: the skill set to do all this different stuff. Then
Speaker 1: my books would't have came out. I'd still be waiting.
Speaker 1: So I'd say the idea will be paramount. You can
Speaker 1: figure out the skills later. So I could not end
Speaker 1: this conversation. We do have a couple of minutes left,
Speaker 1: UM without talking about the impacts COVID has on UM,
Speaker 1: the opportunity to start your old thing. A lot of
Speaker 1: people were pushed out of their positions last year. People
Speaker 1: who were making really really good money, UM, had the
Speaker 1: secure jobs and found out they were not so secure. UM.
Speaker 1: How do you what would you say to follow who
Speaker 1: need to get shaken to see, okay, what this moment
Speaker 1: is opportunity wise, this is something that won't be here
Speaker 1: five years from now. Correct? Correct? I think that's the
Speaker 1: case for a lot of things. And you know, I
Speaker 1: mean we can talk about this for like another hour. Yea.
Speaker 1: The biggest insight I've learned over the last year or
Speaker 1: two and trying to share with my people that I support,
Speaker 1: is that you have to own the land versus being
Speaker 1: a renter. So that doesn't mean to start your own business.
Speaker 1: That means if Facebook, no disrespect to them, but it's
Speaker 1: Facebook or whomever wherever you're starting to plant your seeds
Speaker 1: decides to kick you off the platform or change your algorithm.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna lose everything. That tech metaphor fits a
Speaker 1: lot of people who have lost your jobs too. I
Speaker 1: know people who I care about who had a side
Speaker 1: hustle in the back of their mind and they're like,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna make enough money, and I got my
Speaker 1: main job. Suddenly that main job is gone. And then,
Speaker 1: as we say in Silicon Valid, you have to spin up.
Speaker 1: They have to spin up this thing. They're trying to
Speaker 1: hustle and make it work, but they didn't build their
Speaker 1: community yet. You said. It circles back to being into
Speaker 1: our conversation, building your community before you have to Right,
Speaker 1: there's um Um. I think of like um Russ. I
Speaker 1: think of a few other folks who have had conversations
Speaker 1: about about the music industry, and they'll say, my company,
Speaker 1: my business is recession proof, and that means that they
Speaker 1: you know, and you know a music business way more
Speaker 1: than I do. People people are used to get that
Speaker 1: money on the road and suddenly they're like, okay, I
Speaker 1: have to be at home. But if you own your catalog.
Speaker 1: If you're connected with your fans directly, you're not waiting
Speaker 1: for universe or whomever's to give you a cosign to
Speaker 1: give you more money or whatever. Because you're not on
Speaker 1: the road, then you're able to control that path. That's
Speaker 1: not saying that you have to quit your job or
Speaker 1: that if you get laid off, that you know everything's fine.
Speaker 1: It's saying always have these multiple streams going, not just
Speaker 1: in case, but because that's the way to go, because
Speaker 1: you're actually able to own that. My newsletteralists and joined
Speaker 1: Damon dot me. I own that, and so when I
Speaker 1: had my new book coming out, they got the pre orders.
Speaker 1: They were going, we have our conversations that can be
Speaker 1: can be taken away by a pandemic or whatever, and
Speaker 1: so finding ways to create your own community independent of
Speaker 1: some third parties, including your day job. If you do that,
Speaker 1: then I think that creates true security, even though that
Speaker 1: might take a little bit more time than you're used to.
Speaker 1: You know, all right, So we have two more questions
Speaker 1: I'll get to and then we gotta close because I
Speaker 1: want to give you an opportunity to talk about where
Speaker 1: they can get the book and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So two more. I'm gonna give you both of these
Speaker 1: and you can take them however you want. One thing
Speaker 1: came from Facebook says, what would be a good way
Speaker 1: to get into coaching? They want to start coaching? How
Speaker 1: to get in? The other one came from lunch table
Speaker 1: is how do you manage being a parent slash entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you both those. That's the biggest comption
Speaker 1: of the second one. Let's say you know what the
Speaker 1: deal out. I'll do the second one first. Um, you
Speaker 1: don't manage, you go up the flow and so my
Speaker 1: kids could come in here and scream about something in
Speaker 1: the middle of our conversation. You have to adapt to that.
Speaker 1: I talked about that and um and built from now.
Speaker 1: As far as adapting to different things, we can talk
Speaker 1: about that after the questions. Um, but yeah, usually adapt
Speaker 1: to it. There's no there's no golden key. I talked
Speaker 1: about that a lot in the ultimate bites as the entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: So you might want to grab that one. That's one
Speaker 1: over here. So I talked a lot about parenting and
Speaker 1: going what I went through with Cuddler and what's so
Speaker 1: quoted my previous happened. But I don't think there's a
Speaker 1: golden key to that um. As far as getting into coaching,
Speaker 1: coaching actually chose me, like which sounds weird. I think
Speaker 1: I massacred some type of jay Z line um, but
Speaker 1: coaching actually chose me. And so I was actually doing
Speaker 1: keynotes after again the Ultimate Bites of Entrepreneur came out
Speaker 1: became a bestseller, I started doing, like I said, keynotes,
Speaker 1: did ted talks and all that stuff, and people will
Speaker 1: come up afterwards and ask, hey, can I grab you
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee? And I'm like why, I don't understand.
Speaker 1: And it took me like five six times for that
Speaker 1: to happen, where I'm like, oh wait, the game I
Speaker 1: gave on the stage and the game I've given this
Speaker 1: book that's not for them. And that's how became a coach.
Speaker 1: And so it's a very organic process. Everything that I've
Speaker 1: created it's been based on being pulled in that direction.
Speaker 1: I've learned to not force things, and so I didn't
Speaker 1: say I was going to be a coach. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: I created stuff and people wanted me to coach, and
Speaker 1: I think that's a really subtle difference. So not trying
Speaker 1: to scourge you from that. Just figure out what signals
Speaker 1: are saying that you should be a coach now. Based
Speaker 1: on those, the net determined your direction. You might not
Speaker 1: want to be a coach right now. You might be
Speaker 1: better off doing UM online online teaching platforms like I
Speaker 1: want to Teachable. That might be better for you. It
Speaker 1: might be doing a YouTube channel like I had. So
Speaker 1: coaching isn't a narrow thing. You figure out how you
Speaker 1: want to serve people and then they tell you how
Speaker 1: they how you can serve them the best. Hopefully that
Speaker 1: makes sense. So UM build from Now? Where can I
Speaker 1: get it? Yeah? Get it directly from me at Damon
Speaker 1: Brown dot net. I'll say you love that. You said
Speaker 1: get it directly from me? Like I love that because
Speaker 1: I mean the I guess coming directly to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am the manager. That's right for people that get
Speaker 1: get the meme, you'll be laughing right now, but yeah,
Speaker 1: Damon Brown dot net and you get it from there.
Speaker 1: I'm also wearing the build from Now t shirt and
Speaker 1: so I got some merch over there too, So come
Speaker 1: through for that UM, and you get any of my
Speaker 1: books Built from now. UM. The predecessor which which WILL
Speaker 1: has been a big supporter of Bring Your Worth and
Speaker 1: then the best seller y'all made, uh what y'all made
Speaker 1: a best seller also in Bite Sized Entrepreneur UM. So
Speaker 1: you come through to there, I learned about me, learned
Speaker 1: about coaching and all that stuff. UM. Something for free
Speaker 1: that I want to get to everybody is at built
Speaker 1: from now quiz dot com. It's built from now quiz
Speaker 1: dot com. It's a free quiz where you can learn
Speaker 1: what your biggest strength is, again based on the icons
Speaker 1: that are I built from now UM. So you can
Speaker 1: learn about that, and then you can learn more about
Speaker 1: my coaching practice and how how I can pass along
Speaker 1: some game to you over my YouTube channel. And that's
Speaker 1: how YouTube dot com slash Brown Damon. UM. It's probably
Speaker 1: the best things. If you want the audiobook and other stuff,
Speaker 1: you can get it on your favorite platform. Yeah. We're
Speaker 1: your most active Twitter, Instagram, how people people with Yeah,
Speaker 1: so on all the major platforms, I'm Brown Damon and
Speaker 1: social media. It's Twitter and Instagram. I'm on them there
Speaker 1: every single day. Particularly on Instagram. I'll do clips of
Speaker 1: my keynotes and all that stuff, and even have segments
Speaker 1: from my my original YouTube channel. UM and of course
Speaker 1: joined Damon dot me because I can't be doing you
Speaker 1: a sermon about but oh in the land. That's my platform.
Speaker 1: I do a new side of that comes out every
Speaker 1: Wednesday at five am. But doing that for years. I
Speaker 1: love the discipline of it um and being able to
Speaker 1: give you some insight and kind of help you on
Speaker 1: your journey. So built from now. Quiz dot com be
Speaker 1: a good place to start, as well as at Damon
Speaker 1: Brown dot net to learn more about me and get
Speaker 1: a copy of the book, and then go to my
Speaker 1: YouTube channel on YouTube dot com slash Brown Damon and
Speaker 1: I'm dropping gems at this point every Monday, Wednesday and
Speaker 1: Friday at eleven thirty Pacific standards time. Black Tech Green
Speaker 1: Money is a production of Black of the Afro Tech
Speaker 1: on the Black Effect podcast Network and i Heeart Media.
Speaker 1: Was produced by Morgan Davon and me Will Lucas, with
Speaker 1: additional production support by Love Beach and raveneer Board. Special
Speaker 1: thank you to Michael Davis and the car Savon Jan
Speaker 1: you know like the Wine. Yes that's his real name.
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech disruptors and
Speaker 1: innovatives at afro tech dot com. Go get your money,
Speaker 1: Peace and love