WEBVTT - When Shark Tank Meets Gilmore Girls 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:04.360 This is How Men Think with brooks Like and Gavin 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.479 de Grab and I Hear Radio podcast. Welcome to another 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:10.720 episode of How Men Think. My name is brooks Like, 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:13.560 and I'm so excited about this episode. We have some 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:19.400 amazing guests and I've been researching this gentleman since i 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.600 found out he has been coming on the show. This 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.480 episode is about entrepreneurship. We are looking to serve our 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.320 community of entrepreneurs. So many people in the world right 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:30.200 now and so many people in How Men Think community 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:35.159 are entrepreneurs, including myself having just launched World Playground two 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:39.680 days ago. So we brought on the absolute best mind 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.680 in the entrepreneurs space. He is an original shark on 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.479 the hit TV show The Shark Tank. He's a creator 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.720 of the infomercial and pioneer of as seen on TV industry, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.280 co founding board member of the Entrepreneurs Organization founded in 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.920 this man is a legend in the entrepreneur space. He's 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.280 launched over five hundred products five billion dollars in global sales, 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.319 worked with all kinds of celebrities, the entrepreneurs entrepreneur Mr 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.600 Kevin Harrington, my man. Welcome to that great introduction. I 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:16.000 love that gonna hang out with you more often, right, Okay, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.200 I still feel like I didn't even do you justice, 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.120 my friend, because like what you've done in the entrepreneurs space, 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:27.440 Like you've launched five products, uh five billion dollars in sales, 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.160 Like we can't even wrap our brain around, like the 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.640 impact that you've had and how you've pioneered the space, 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:35.840 and you're coming out with a brand new book to 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.600 share all of your knowledge with us. Can you tell 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.880 us a little bit about your book? Sure? So um, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.000 and thank you for for having me today. I've I 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:49.000 am an entrepreneur and and I go back to my 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.600 I've been an entrepreneur for forty forty years, okay, And 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:57.600 so I tell people that they say, well, why, why 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:02.120 and how did you become successful? And there's one single 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.880 thing that I can always track to my success, and 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.840 it was having some of the best mentors in the world. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:14.960 And my first my book is called Mentor to Millions, 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.239 And it's not about millions of dollars. It's about the 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.280 impact that having a good mentor can can bring to you. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:28.240 It can bring such an exponential uh power to the 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.359 table for an entrepreneur. So I had my first mentor 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.760 when I was eleven years old, and guess what his 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.360 name was, Charlie. It was my father. Okay, so I 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.160 joke a little bit about that. But my dad was 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.880 a I'm one of six kids, on the fourth of six. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.359 My dad was a bartender. And one day he said, Kevin, 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:48.959 he said, I'm not going to be a bartender in 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.480 my whole life. I've saved up enough money. I'm opening 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.240 Harrington's Irish pub and you're you're eleven. I want you 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:57.880 to come on in. And I was bar backing and 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.560 bus boy and serving and cleaning aables. And but he 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.000 did more than that. He taught me the books, the records, 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.560 the inner workings, the hiring, the the cheating, and like 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.480 one day I'm in the back washing dishes and he's like, hey, 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.959 the beer truck guys here, he's delivering caves of beer. 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.360 I gotta go out front, count how many caves we 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.120 get today? And he bring two CAGs in to put 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.680 him in the walk in. Take two empties, two more. 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.320 I'm counting two, four or six. My dad comes walking 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.520 through the kitchen and the guy's going back to the 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.280 truck and he says, where are you going with those? 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.280 And he says, I'm taking two empties to the truck, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.160 and he said, well, let me see. He lifts the 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.360 top one. It's empty, the bottom one is full. He's 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.040 bringing two full ones in, taking a full one and 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.520 an empty back to the to his truck, stealing, Like, Dad, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.839 why is he stealing from us? And he's like, this 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.840 is life, son, this is the business. You gotta be 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:53.320 on your toes. So I learned this stuff when I 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.920 was eleven years old. And then I said to my dad, 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:57.840 but when do I get to make some money? And 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.160 he said, you gotta start your own business. He coached me, 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.640 mentored me. I started a driveway sealing business in Cincinnati, 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.720 Ohio when I was fifteen years old. And that was 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.200 I mean, okay, that was in nine, in the early seventies. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.320 I'm gonna be sixty four in October. So I'm an 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:20.360 old entrepreneur now, okay, So I kind of dating myself. Yeah, 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:24.760 why is entrepreneurs so? Um? So I was ceiling driveways 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.599 and then I realized what was he mentoring me? When 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.960 I got to college? He said, you want a six 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.800 or the fourth? He said, the kid, the sisters that 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.920 are older, they got their college paid for. But you 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.360 are an entrepreneur, you can pay for your own college. 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.080 So yeah, I started. I have a full time business though. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.640 So my senior year going into college, I started heating 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.760 and air conditioning company, and I bought leads from the 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:54.400 courthouse with new homeowner transactions, and we'd call the new homeowners, 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.719 go give him a free furnace cleaning. And now we 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.520 had new customers, and we built a five million dollar 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.440 business in in in a couple of years back in 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.640 the seventies and in the heating and air business. But 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:11.640 one day I'm watching television and UM and and and 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.720 I just ordered cable TV. This was early eighties now, 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.440 and so I got I remember the first days of cable. 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:24.159 I got HBO, movie, CNN News, ESPN, twenty four hours 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.279 of sports. I get to the thirtieth channel and it 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.200 was the Discovery Channel and there was nothing on. So 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.480 I called the cable company. I said, well, I love 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.120 the twenty nine channels i'm getting, but I'm paying for 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.560 thirty channels. And they said, you're getting thirty. It's just 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.160 it's only an eighteen hour a day channel. That channel thirty. 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.320 They don't have enough money for twenty four hours. It's 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.400 a new channel. So I said, well, wait, you mean 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.440 six hours a day is nothing and they said, yeah, 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.080 pretty much. We're just gonna put bars on the screen. 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.640 So I said, but what if I have something that 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.520 I can put on there that would make you some money? 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.560 And they said, come on in and talk to us. 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:07.840 So I started finding products and and and one thing 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.280 led to the next. I was doing knife sets that 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.520 I was doing UM Jack Lane, Juicer's and Tony Little 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.640 Fitness and George Forman and all these kind of crazy 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.400 things that you see on late night television in the 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.600 old days. I was the creator of the infomercial and 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.760 then UM I owned As Seen on TV inc as 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:33.080 CNA TV dot Com, had thousands of products, and the 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.760 next evolution of that was taking it into the global marketplace. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.799 So we took everything we did here. We went to Europe, 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.640 dubbed it into the foreign languages, went to Asia, went 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.760 to Latin America, went to the Middle East, and so 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.680 we were running hundreds of products in over a hundred countries, 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.360 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. And I 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.200 had mentors along the way to help me build that business. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.240 That's amazing. Just like hearing that story, how you saw 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.719 an opportunity and created something. You're like, Oh, this is 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.000 a little window where I can actually be proactive with something. 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.240 I see an opportunity, I'm gonna make it happen. I 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.960 hope that inspires our community to keep their eyes out 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.080 to just observe and see where opportunities, especially now with 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:20.240 the world changed so much, where opportunities are falling. Um, 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.480 you said you had mentors in the book is called 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:28.200 literally mentors in millions? Right? Yeah? Can you explain why 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.120 that is so important? Why that was so paramount to 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.200 you in your success, Because the more I talked to 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.600 successful business people, the more I hear the word mentor. 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.280 So here, so one thing that I missed during the 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.440 growth of the company. We when we we didn't just 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.920 go straight to five million. We were fifty five zero 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.800 million in sales. We flatlined. And the reason being, so 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.400 I I sitting there with the successful business. I had 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:01.200 forty thousand orders from customers, but I had no inventory. 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:06.920 And so to get the inventory, they the factory said, Okay, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.720 you send me the money for the forty thousand. Today, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.520 we'll go by the row materials, make it, put it 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.440 on a boat. Take six weeks to get to you, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.800 it'll be ninety days you'll have the inventory. I'm like, no, 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.840 I've got the orders right now. I can't wait ninety days. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.520 I'm gonna lose them all. So the guy said, we'll 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.200 go to a bank and get some letters of credit, 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.640 gets some financing. Well I did, and every bank laughed 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:31.440 at me. They said, you know, you know you don't 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.920 have any assets. We're I said, well, we'll put up 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:38.480 the inventory as for security. They said, what are we 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.920 gonna do with the inventory if you close the business? 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:46.040 So I went seeking for a financial mentor. And so 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:48.480 I can talk about how do you get a mentor 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.800 after this? But because I reached out to some people 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.720 and I'll talk about it in a second, to get 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.679 the right mentor. And I got a former bank president 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.000 that was retired who was still looking to keep a 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.480 little juice going into this day to day life. Right. 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.640 So I met with him and I showed him my business, 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.319 my orders. He was he was just blown away. It's 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.800 like Kevin. He said, how much money are you raising? 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.280 I said, I need three million dollars. He said, I'll 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:19.840 tell you what. This is the deal. I'm gonna mentor 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.720 you to raise three million I'm gonna get to three million, 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.880 probably from one of the five banks that turns you down, 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.760 he said. But I'm not gonna charge you a dime. 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.280 It's gonna take me ninety days because i've gotta get 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.440 your company cleaned up, your agreements in place. I gotta 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:39.080 walk in with a big file of documentation, and and 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.640 in ninety days, I'm gonna get you that money, and 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.000 then you're gonna want to sit down with me and 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.320 see if there's something you can do with me long term. 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.800 Because there's no charge for the three million. I promise 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.400 you it's gonna happen. And little did I know, but 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.880 it was a little short of ninety days. This guy 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.960 got me the money. We went from fifty million million 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.480 with that capital. We we ended up getting some other 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.680 lines of credit along the way. We got a ten 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.000 million dollar line at Chemical Bank. But once I learned 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.600 how to do it, it's it's how do you communicate 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.560 with the banks? Right? It's you know, I was a 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.640 marketing guy. I knew how to sell Tony Little Gazelles 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.679 and jack Elaine Juicer's, but I didn't know how to 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.520 walk into a bank and get a three million dollar 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.120 line of credit. But now I did, and now I 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:33.199 had a dream team to help me do that. Wow. Amazing. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.160 So let's talk about how people can go about finding 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.760 that mentor because what I received a lot and you 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:41.839 probably receive a lot of this is people reach outing, 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.000 reaching out to you, wanting from you, wanting from you, 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.000 Hey can I They always say they can I pick 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.000 your brain? Can I pick your brain? I'm like, picking 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.199 my brain doesn't sound like fun, Like, like, my time 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.360 is valuable. I can't give to everybody. Um, But then 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.559 when people reach out and be like, hey, I love 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:00.880 what you're doing. I'd love to like to shadow you 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.000 for a day, you know that way? They they're like, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.360 I don't want anything from you. It's it's not like 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.680 costing me anything. My my ears totally like and my 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.960 eyes go to that person and I feel invested in 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.360 that person. So whenever I reach out to somebody in 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.120 a mentor position, I always reach out and how can 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.199 I give to this person knowing I'm going to benefit 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.400 just being in the same room as then, But um, 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.600 how would you encourage people to reach out to a mentor, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.040 to find a mentor to help grow there? So I'll 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.960 tell you the formula that I used um and and 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.760 this was way back and this is the exact thing 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.760 that I did when I got the finance mentor. So, 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.120 so think about this, You're I was in business, and 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:44.920 I was in the scene a TV business. I've got 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.640 accountants I'm writing checks to every every month. I've got 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.400 lawyers that are helping me. I've got phone centers, I've 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.480 got media centers, I've got i'm buying media I'm having 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.400 I've got the film and centers. Now I'm writing checks 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:03.000 all of these people. So think about you know, do 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.760 you trust those folks? Well, hey, you're in business with 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.120 those people. So I read, I say, who do you? Right? 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.400 Chext to is the first place to go to to think, hey, 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.760 mr accountant, you've been helping do my taxes and my 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.520 accounting for the last five years. I need a mentor 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.400 in this area. I need this or I need that. 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.320 Oh wow, let me look around. I mean just the 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.440 other day I called my accountant asking for some help 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:32.520 on a particular matter, and within within an hour, we 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.120 had three alternatives for me. Right, and so, I mean, 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.600 it's what what what what happened here? Was I told 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.560 folks were flatlined. We want to pan x our business 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.000 and if I get the right mentor your your business 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.120 with us is gonna be a lot better. I'm gonna 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.960 be buying more media, I'm gonna be fulfilling more products, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.400 more accounting, more legal. So they had a vested interest 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.960 in helping me get to the right people. So every 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.040 everybody was willing to help me find some people they 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.640 weren't all I mean I find I did get the 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.080 right one from one of my connections. Sometimes you know, 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.720 things don't happen, but this is that's step one. Who 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.800 do you write checks too? And who is in your 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:20.560 inner circle of friends and people and influence that you 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.719 can rely on to give you some good advice? Right, 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.600 And let's put it this way, a lawyer and account 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.360 they have a professional fiduciary responsibility to help you also, right. 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:35.840 So so that's step one. But secondly, I've been very 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.360 powerful you mentioned earlier. I was one of the co 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:44.559 founders of e O now entrepreneurs Organization. When you join EO, 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.520 we give you a mentor group that that is going 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:50.800 to be your mentor group that you meet with every 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.199 single month. And so that's part of joining EO. So 0:13:55.600 --> 0:14:00.200 that because I knew how powerful mentors could be in business. 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:02.720 We wanted that to be part of the structure of 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.320 e O that when you join you get mentored also. 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.680 So you know, what what organizations do you belong to? 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.000 Do you belong to the Chamber of Commerce? Do you 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.600 belong to the Entrepreneurs Organization? Do you belong Have you 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.320 heard of Joe Joe Polish's Genius Network or any of 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.160 those kind of groups. You know, there's a there's another 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.880 one called board of Advisors. You know, I belonged to 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:30.920 some professional associations that allow me also network with some 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.960 amazing people and get some some great advice. Because I 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.760 will tell you this, I was seeking a very high 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.800 level mentor about ten years ago and I and I 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.200 got to Richard Branson and um, and I was like, 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:49.320 your kid, me, you really can connect me into Richard 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:55.120 Branson one of my one of my association people peers, 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.720 and they said absolutely, And he's not even going to 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.760 charge anything. You're gonna go down to neck Care Island. 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.800 He's gonna sit with you and you're gonna you'll have 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:06.920 some fun while you're there too, because you're gonna get 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.560 some one on one mentoring from Richard Branson. And so 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.680 I said, Wow. I said, I'm gonna make a donation 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.360 to charity because I want to be all in right 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.080 and make a long story short. I spent three days 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.840 a neck ryla with Richard Branson, so um and boy 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.600 he I don't think we have time to day to 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.760 get into it right. It's I've had zig Ziggler was 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.400 a mentor to me. Richard Branson. Go for the gusto, man, 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.920 go get the biggest and the best that you can get. 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.320 Don't be afraid. I mean, I'll tell you the toughest 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.160 mentors to get our sharks because they're getting so inundated 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.160 because they're on TV, right. I mean. I reached out 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.320 to Robert Hurchevik the other day. Robert, I know, you know, 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.440 do you know Robert, he's a super guy. I went 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.960 to his wedding and he's got twins now, and I 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.640 reached out to him and he said, Kevin said said, man, 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.520 he said, it's so tough for me to invest in product. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.160 I wasn't asking him to invest anything, but we're just 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.360 catching up and he's like, I'm I'm really focused. He's 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.760 in the security, high tech security business, and so he's like, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.120 I just don't get time for the for products as 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.240 much as I used to when I first when he 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.960 first started shark tags. These guys get so. I mean, 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:25.479 do you think Mark Cuban's got a full inbox? You know? 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.920 You know, like Mark gets back to me, but he's like, Kevin, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.320 I'm so busy. I know you're busy, Go do it man. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.560 I love that show Man. That show is so valuable. 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.440 The amount of that show has provided and just also 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.600 inspiration and it can do attitude and that. Uh it's 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.400 the American dream, right, It's the American you can create 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:45.800 the life that you want. It's literally that show. So 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:48.640 that show is amazing. Um, we're gonna bring another guest 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.920 on here shortly, but I want to get like three 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.000 top tips that you have for today's entrepreneurs and for 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.720 myself included, who just launched a new business two days ago. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.880 What do you see with the current climate right now that, um, 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:05.680 that are opportunities for entrepreneurs were things to look out for? Great? Okay, 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.919 So first of all, um, when COVID first hit, a 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:10.800 lot of people put their head in the sand. I 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.920 mean for two days. I was shocked when I first 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.119 realized what was happening to the world and um, but 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.320 so thirty million people got unemployed. And what are these 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.399 people doing. They're they're at home, So what are they 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.040 doing at home? They're going on their TVs, They're going 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.399 on their computers. The usage levels of television and the 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:35.360 Internet was spiking tremendously during the last six months. At 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.679 the same time, the advertiser levels was plummeting, because you 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.320 didn't If you're a restaurant and you're closed, you're not advertising. 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.359 If you're a concert promoter and you're not doing concerts, 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:51.880 you're not advertising. So this window of opportunity is still here, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.240 but it's called customer acquisition focus. And what I did 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:01.040 when this was happening, that viewerships are spiking the advertisers 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.760 are dropping. I was able to take campaigns that we 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.200 were paying eighteen bucks to acquire a customer, drop it 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:13.560 to five bucks off because the media was so cheap. 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:18.280 And my buddy Karl Dickler that did a beach body. 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.840 He was pounding the airwaves eight thousand dollars worth of 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:30.400 free program all of it for free. Why, customer acquisition 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.000 is what everybody that was smartness focusing on. So anybody 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.760 that's an entrepreneur tune up your your direct to the 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:44.080 consumer business, your e commerce business, your customer acquisition cost activities, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:49.120 whether it's Facebook, Instagram, wherever you're getting your customers, television, 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.760 focus on getting lower customer acquisition costs. That's number one. 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.000 Um number two, it goes back to mentoring. I say, 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.399 surround yourself with a good team of mentors of people, 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.800 and you don't have to pay all these people either. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.160 I mean sometimes a mentor might have to get paid, 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.600 or you might have to make a little donation or something. 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:16.000 But like I'm a marketing guy, I'm I'm a sales guy. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.680 I'm not at I knew nothing about digital and Facebook. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.520 I was as seen on TV. What did I do 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.360 when you know? I went, I don't have you ever 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.960 heard of Russell Brunson, the click funnel guy ten years 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.280 ago before he ever created click funnels? Who did I 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.880 reach out to Russell Brunson? He was the digital guru? 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.520 I said, Russell, I need some mentoring. And we sat 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.200 down and he mentored me and he said, you're doing 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.639 it all wrong. You're doing this wrong, you're doing that wrong. 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:46.680 So what did I do? I've wrought on a team 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.680 of young digital experts. We sold as seen a TV Inc. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.560 I sold as seen a TV dot com and I 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.840 focused on digital. And I did this years ago because 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.480 I knew this was what was coming. So the dream 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.360 team of experts is gonna make it happen for you. 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.080 And the third thing that I'm gonna tell you that 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.800 you should do is when when COVID hit, so many 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.800 people said, oh geez, I'm out of I don't have 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.520 any money, and now I'm out of business and I'm 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:20.000 really in trouble. So you know, I say, get you know, 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.359 now is the time to go put some money in 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.080 the coffers to build your business, Go raise some capital. 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.520 And there's all time better than right now if you've 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.879 got a good business and a good presentation, because you 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.640 can have the greatest you know, I can have forty 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.960 tho orders, but if I don't have cash to fulfill them, 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.160 about a business, right, So get that cash, Go get 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:47.560 some money. I invested in a crowd of equity crowdfunding 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.639 company for example, company called Republic. We've done a hundred 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:56.560 and seventy five equity crowd fundings and we're raising half 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.280 a million. A million. Now we're able to raise even more. 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.200 But I'm raising money like crazy for dozens and dozens 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.439 and dozens of companies that needed it. I mean, I 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:11.040 don't need capital myself. I've been successful in weather the 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.760 storms over the years and taking chips off the table 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.400 from the deals that I've been involved with. But if 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:21.520 you're an entrepreneur, you got you know, focus on customer acquisition, 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.600 get the dream team, and raise some capital with that 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:29.440 dream with the dream team's resumes amazing. Howful for our 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.520 community to listen to UM and we have we're joining 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:36.199 us right now, Kevin. We have an entrepreneur joining us 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.360 right now. He's an accomplished actor, he's a former professional 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:44.719 baseball pitcher, and he's an aspiring coffee entrepreneur. Actually is 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:49.080 a coffee entrepreneur. We have Mr Scott Patterson with a Scott, 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.760 what's up? Brother? How you doing Brooks? Nice to meet 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:54.480 you and thanks for having me on. Hi Kevin, Thank Scott, 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:59.960 how are you doing? Nice to meet you? Uh uh? 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.240 The brave sign me traded me of the Yankees, and 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:04.159 then it was all over after that, A little bit, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.120 a little look, a little bit, uh, a little bit 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:09.240 with the Rangers, and then a little bit with the Dodgers, 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.720 and it was kind of all over. I got, I 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:15.119 got a lot of I got a lot of bus 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:20.080 rides in the South. My mom wanted me to be 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:22.199 a professional baseball player because she wanted to sit in 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.480 the sun to watch me play, not sit inside a 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:30.760 cold drink. So wow, uh yeah, just anyway, my mom 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.840 always advocated for me to be a baseball player. But Scott, 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.080 welcome to the show. Brother Peter taking time. Uh, we're 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:41.119 speaking with Kevin who has just a vast and ungngodly 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.800 amount of entrepreneurship insight as an entrepreneur yourself with Scotty 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.119