WEBVTT - Morgan DeBaun, Founder and CEO at Blavity and AfroTech is Rewriting Your Rules 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.400 Will Lucas here in Black Tech, Green Money. I am 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:04.880 in New York right now and away from the studio, 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.160 so this one's gonna sound a little bit different. I'm 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:08.880 here for the Afro Tech meet up. We've been going 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.280 all across the country. We've hear Chicago already, We've here 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.920 Atlanta today, We're in New York and Miami, coming up Seattle. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:17.919 We're gonna be all over the place this year. But 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:19.959 I'm so excited to bring you this episode. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.240 I'm talking to Morgan Debonn who's a founder and CEO 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.200 of Blavity and afro Tech, and she's an author. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.040 Now Rewrite Your Rules, which is out today, is April first. 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.160 The book is out today, Rewrite Your Rules. 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.080 The Journey of the success in less time, with More Freedom, 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.400 And the book asked this question and it provides an answer. 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.000 What if the path to fulfillment isn't about doing more 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.200 but redefining what matters most? 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:46.720 Check out the episode. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.879 So on a recent episode you dropped, you started off saying, 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:52.960 you know, if you're going to ask for a million dollars, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.880 are you willing to invest a million dollars into yourself? 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:58.880 And I think that's kind of like revealing to some 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:00.560 people when they think about, oh, hey, I need to 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.720 go raise money for this, Like if you have the money, 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.080 would you put your own money in? Like when you 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.240 thought about that? And that to that conversation, what is that, 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:10.240 you know, trying to get people to think about when 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:11.399 they think about raising money. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.880 Most people want to raise money because they don't want 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.480 to be uncomfortable. They want to pay for them, set 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.320 their salary, they want to quit their job, they want 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:27.960 to have some sort of comfort. Entrepreneurship is not comfortable. 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.319 There's nothing you can do. There's no amount of money 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.880 that's going to make you comfortable when you decide to 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.840 be an entrepreneur. And I think that a lot of 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.320 people have glamorized it because of social media. When you're 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.680 thinking about raising money or you're thinking about growing your business, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.360 the real question is how much does it cost to 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:52.280 beating this solution, to bring this solution to the world, 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.840 And not cost because you need to pay yourself, but 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.320 actually the cost of building the product, the cost of 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.720 building a team, the cost of growing this thing for 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:06.400 a solution to solve a problem. And notice I didn't 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.600 say to bring this product to life or to build 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.080 your brand or do all this soft stuff. You know, 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.280 so many people run around the world with these beautiful 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.480 decks and these beautiful websites, and then you ask them, well, 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.079 how many people are using your product? And the answer 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.840 is zero? Yeah, we got it about that. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:24.839 Yeah, yeah, I mean speaking to that, Like, what does 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.720 momentum look like in the early stages, because I think 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:29.560 so often we get caught up just doing a bunch 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.520 of stuff and you have you know, it encouraged us 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:35.440 to have a bias toward action, But like, how do 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.240 we know that we are focusing on the right things. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:39.360 What does momentum look like? 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.760 Yeah, momentum has the game has changed. You know, Momentum 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:45.960 when I was first starting the company is completely different 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.560 than now. You know, people expect if you're going out 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.160 to raise money, people expect your business to be break 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:55.120 even or profitable. They expect that your product already has traction, 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.880 and traction means you already have users and customers, that 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.440 people are already trends out with you. So gone are 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.160 the days where you could just have a napkin and 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.359 an idea and raise half a million dollars. Yeah that's over, okay, 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.639 And the reason is over is because the cost of 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.920 creating a company is so cheap. Now anybody can make 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.920 a company. Anybody can file for a Delaware ce corp. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.680 Anybody can use AI to help build an MVP of 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.280 a product. Or you don't even have to be able 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.079 to code anymore to be able to build an app 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.200 or bring a bring a website to life. So the 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.519 barrier to entry is so much lower. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.120 Was it ever real for us? The napkin idea and 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.920 raise a half a million dollars? A million dollars? 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:37.280 You know? 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.200 I know one black guy who had a whiteboard and 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.480 was very storytelling with the vibes and raise money. I 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.320 know maybe two people that were able to do that. 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:47.280 Wow. 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:49.119 Yeah, so it is possible. 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:51.080 Yeah yeah. 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.000 And so I think about because I watch a lot 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:54.920 of your content and if you are not following Morgan 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.360 on Instagram, if you're not a part of her, you 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:59.400 know channels you need to get in there, especially if 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.280 you are trying to a scale a small business. But 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.280 I think about because I'm asking for a friend here. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.080 This is one of those asking for a friend questions. 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.040 You know, you talk about as quickly as possible moving 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.920 from operating tasks to CEO task, and you know, I 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.760 get that. It's like working on your business and in 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.320 your business. Is how I translate that. You know, if 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.280 I want to be a crafts person, you know, then 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.400 you're not talking to me. That's that person's they want 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.080 to own a job. But I'm not talking about You're 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.400 not talking about people who want to own a job. 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.880 You want to own a business. But I think my 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.320 question is like, what is the mindset shift that has 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.920 to happen when you start something because maybe you're passionate 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.719 about it, maybe saw a market opportunity, but you find 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.280 yourself doing a lot of the work and you would 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.880 love to delegate tasks off, but there's a myriad of 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:47.320 reasons why you feel like you can't. 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:48.160 Yeah. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.240 You know, when I talk to most people, and when 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.679 you look at small businesses in this country in general, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:58.160 the average small business has an employee of one. Yeah, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.400 so most people are operating like solopreneurs. They don't have 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:09.080 secondary contractors. They are self employed and they're a solo entrepreneur. 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.599 And the challenge was this is that your income, your 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.520 revenue is completely capped by only what you can do. 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.880 Right if you're in the services industry, it's only how 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.279 much time do you have to deliver that service. If 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.760 you are building a product, it's how much time do 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.160 you have to go and fulfill that product? And that 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.400 at some point can no longer scale. You only have 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.159 twenty four hours in a day. And for people to 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.280 be able to get to the next level in their 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.760 career and also to actually fulfill the dream of entrepreneurship, 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:46.240 which is freedom, freedom of time, freedom of not having 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.279 to limit the amount of income you can make because 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.440 of what your bosses. The salary band is. If your 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:56.800 real goal is freedom, then you can't operate and not 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.360 spend time being strategic on how you're going to grow 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.599 your business. So CEO tasks versus operating task is this 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:08.240 framework that's really important. It basically helps you outline how 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.720 do I identify every single thing that i'm doing that 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.919 technically somebody else could be doing. That's your operating task. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.719 So you're operating right now. You're filing the invoices, you're 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.560 posting on social media, you're calling all the clients, You're 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.520 doing every single little thing, filing the taxes in your 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.680 work life or your personal life. You're picking up the kids, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.120 you're making dinner, You're doing all the things you're doing 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.320 your laundry, and then you have your CEO task. What's 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.479 your task that only you can do? Tasks that either 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:41.680 bring you joy but you never want to give up, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:46.839 or tasks that are uniquely your responsibility as the CEO 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.640 of your life or the CEO of your business. And 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.799 so for someone like you, will that might be setting 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.920 up the locations for your new events. That might be 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.000 setting the menu for your business, your rest that might 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.640 be deciding what guests come on this podcast. You're setting 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.560 the strategy. Once you set the strategy, somebody else can 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.080 execute the work. So the real question for small business owners, 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:12.720 and the real question for people who are listening to 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.160 this is, well, I'm broke. How can I pay for 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.360 somebody else to do the thing? Well, AI, there's so 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.400 many tools, there's so many apps, there's so many systems 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:23.640 that exist to be able to take away some of 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.800 that automation that you're doing manually and start to make 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.600 it more efficient for you. So what tools can you 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:31.400 use in order to be able to get that done? 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.000 And then the next thing is, Okay, where's your tribe? 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.640 What are the people around you that you can start 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:39.480 to delegate to. This might be your partner. This might 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.280 be your husband, this might be your neighbor, this might 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.440 be your mama. I don't really care, but somebody that 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.800 gets somebody else to do it if you can't. 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.600 Afford some else do or you just drop the ball 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.040 and you say we're just not going to do these 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:55.160 things because here's the thing, You'll never ever be able 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.320 to grow your income and grow your revenue if you 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.280 are the only person doing operating tass just won't happen. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:03.720 Yeah, I mean you've picked up one of them. There's 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.280 three reasons I can think of is why people don't 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.640 do it either you picked up either is I can 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.120 do it cheaper, but there's also I can do it 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.720 better or I can do it faster. Those are like 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.320 three reasons why people don't delegate off those tasks. And 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.560 from your perspective, why doesn't that message seem to resonate 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.720 far enough with our community. 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:26.440 I mean, I think there's a lot of fear with 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.760 what if they get it wrong, then I've lost money, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.880 I've lost time because I got to do the work anyways, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.360 or I lose money because I paid somebody else to 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.920 do something it didn't get done. Now I got to 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.120 do it and have the resources anymore. I messed up 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.160 my cash flow. And I think that fear is what 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.400 holds most people back because they don't want to be uncomfortable. 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:46.800 They don't want to be in a situation where they're 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:48.400 doing somebody else's work when they're like, I should have 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:49.800 designed myself in the first place. 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:51.240 You know. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.000 The challenge with that is that if you always have 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.920 that mentality, if you're not ever willing to be in 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:59.559 that uncomfortable zone where you are relying on somebody else 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.920 to get something done, then you're never going to get 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.719 to the next level. You're never going to get to 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:08.760 the next level. So, yeah, you might need to learn 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.360 how to hire better. You might be really bad at hiring. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:13.320 I was bad at hiring when I first started this company. 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.160 It was not good at writing job descriptions and setting 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.080 up the right interview structure or setting up the right onboarding. 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.160 You're going to be bad at stuff. So I think 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.480 more people need to get comfortable being bad at things. 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.160 Yeah, yeah, you make me think about a comment. 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.520 I was talking to a friend of mine who's who 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:36.640 owns several businesses wildly successful, and you make me think about, like, 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.160 what if you are the secret sauce though in your business, 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.800 like what if people buy partially at least largely because 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.000 of you? And I think about, you know, bringing into 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.480 you know, a home for me, like with toll house. 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.200 You know my vision for a toll House, which is 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:52.839 a private social club. We have five bars, five lounges, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.160 the coffee house, cigar lounges, jazz club, the whole coworking space, 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.040 all that. And my vision was to build like the 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.760 Soho House for communities that will never get a Sohol house, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.200 like there was maysent Midwestern communities who had the people 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:08.880 and probably had the money, but would not be on 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.200 Soho House as radar. And he said, part of the 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.440 reason why this works in Toledo is because it's you 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:20.600 doing it and you don't necessarily scale to Indianapolis or 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.840 Cincinnati perhaps. And so I think about listening to you 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.480 talk like what if you are the secret sauce, how 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:29.360 do you then scale? 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.800 Well, if you're the secret sauce, then the question becomes 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.160 how do you save more time so that you're only 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.520 doing the thing that is your secret sauce? So you know, 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.840 what are the other things that will Lucas is doing 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.760 that you ain't got to do. That are your operating tasks, 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:46.960 but you don't have somebody else doing them. So if 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.480 you were only spending forty hours a week doing your 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.640 secret sauce, you could be traveling to Cincinnati, you could 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.920 be traveling to Chicago, you could be doing all these 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.640 other things, but you can't because you're sitting tied to 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:02.679 a desk doing all these operating task So I'm just 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:07.600 saying my perspective is that, like anything that people want 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.920 to do, like you can do whatever you want to do, 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.480 but you have to be willing to delegate. You have 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.719 to be willing to bring other people along in your 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.319 journey because that is what is required to live an 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.000 extraordinary life. Now, you want to be boring, You want 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:26.400 to not grow, You want to do the same thing 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.640 every single day. You want to be you know, ted 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.760 on cash flow, you want to be trying to ask 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.520 somebody for a two percent raise every six months. Then 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.520 stay where you are. But you're probably aren't going to 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:38.840 like me. 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:44.040 Yeah, I guess. 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:45.880 I guess that's a fundamental question, Like who is the 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.200 book for? You know, rewrite your old rules, re write 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:48.680 your rules. 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.439 Yeah, when I wrote this book, rewrite your rules. Took 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.640 me about five years to write it. And I wrote 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.200 this book because I felt like I was meeting so 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.000 many people who are at a crossroad, so many people 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.959 who are doing really good, like they've got a lot 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.160 going for themselves. They followed all the steps, they went 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.839 to good schools, they got a great first job out 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.880 of college, and now they're in their mid thirties or 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.480 early thirties, and they're kind of like, how did I 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.040 get here? And I can see the path forward and 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:21.920 I don't like it, Like I don't want to keep 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.040 going down this path that I was set out on, 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.560 whether because I just followed the momentum of what society 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:30.600 was telling me I was supposed to be doing. But 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.360 they feel like there's more for them, and they're not 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:38.080 sure how to make decisions to make sure that they 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.760 don't keep going down that path. They're not sure to 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.800 what should happen first. Should I take slow down a 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.000 second and start dating seriously so that I can eventually 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.880 find my match and have a kid. Should I quit 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.000 my job and become a full time entrepreneur, but then 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:02.880 I take a big income, hit out responsibilities. Or should 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.280 I get rid of my not be a full time 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.679 content creator because it was booming, and now I actually 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.840 have no time. I'm working all the time just to 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:13.880 make ends meet, and it was easier when I got 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.080 a direct deposit every two weeks. Maybe I should go 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.000 back to work, right, Like, there's just so many decisions 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.400 that we're constantly making, and we don't we're not using 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:27.880 a system to help ourselves make the best decisions with 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.199 the data and the infrastructure to feel confident with the 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.800 decision that we're making. So this book is a tool 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.000 to help you do that. This book is a tool 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.120 to help you feel confident with the decisions that you're 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.120 making so that you can literally have more joy and 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.360 more freedom and enjoy the process that you're going through 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.800 instead of all this anxiety around am I making the 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.520 right decision? All that's indecision that happens because there are 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.120 a lot of choices in this world today. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.160 What did you learn differently when you were started building 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.959 your mancha more mancha versus when you're doing the journal 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.240 like that. I imagine there's things that you learned, like, 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:08.960 I don't want to do that again, so I'm gonna 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:09.640 do that differently. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.000 Yeah, So I have so many field businesses, you know, 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.280 The thing about field businesses is that nobody ever sees 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.720 them except for like the five customers that you had. Okay, yeah, 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.600 if you if you go to this warehouse. Oh my, 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:27.280 I've wasted so much money shipping things from warehouse to 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.920 warehouse in this country, just trying to reduce my rent. 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:36.240 But I've had so many field businesses I can't even 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:38.280 mention them. So I had one journal company, so we 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.840 were we were. I thought that the world must have 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.520 my journal, which was a mix of like a mole 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.280 skin but a slightly more structure, okay, And I felt 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.800 like you had to have this, so I built it. 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.480 It was printed in India. We've paid all this money 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.880 for this beautiful leather and all this stuff. Then my 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.880 second field business was a skincare company called it Rose Essentials, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.960 and I felt like, again, this was like seven years ago. 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.280 I felt like skincare was the new frontier. That like, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:08.600 in the same way that black girls were spending so 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:09.960 much time in injury on our hair, that we were 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:11.640 going to spend so much time and injury on our skin. 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.960 And I wasn't wrong. That trend is true and that 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.320 has definitely come to fruition. I underestimated them out of 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.320 marketing that was attached to me as a person for 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.800 the skincare business, and same thing for the journal. These 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.480 weren't things that I was willing to constantly be on 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.000 social media about. I wasn't gonna wake up every morning 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.360 and be like, look at my skincare routine. And I 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.160 was like, I'm the freaking CEO of a multimillion dollar company, 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:36.560 Like I don't have time to be on Instagram in 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:38.240 the morning showing you my skincare routine. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:40.120 That makes sense, you know. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:44.640 What I'm saying. So so that was the market wasn't 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:49.280 aligned with how that what works with my life love, right, 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.000 So that was the biggest thing. And then for a 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.640 more macha. Now it's nothing for me to wake up 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.000 in the morning and make a macha, like that's actually 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.360 within my workflow, right, Like it's easy to be like, hey, 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:05.080 have a morning macha with me and like let's talk 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:10.000 about whatever, right or like literally, you know, like it's 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:11.600 just part of my flow in a way that I 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:13.920 don't mind having a camera on it. And you know, 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.760 one thing when you're building a brand is you want 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.320 it to be you gotta set the company culture and 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:24.360 the brand equity, but I very quickly put a bunch 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.640 of non black people on the more Macha Instagram page. 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:33.240 I think back in the day, I was just so black, militant, righteous, 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:35.400 like black black, black black, It's gonna be a black 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.960 skincare company. It's gonna be a black you know, notebook company. 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.760 Well moremcha. I'm like, I don't care if you're green, blue, tall, short, 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.000 I do not care. We hired a cute little blonde 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:50.240 girl to be in our videos tutorials, like we're shipping 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.200 it out to influencers all over the country, moms, everybody, 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.080 you know. So I think that was the other thing 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.840 is I changed my go to market and really said 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.800 like let me, let me get out of the way 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:03.440 because I know myself and I don't want to be 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:04.520 in front of a camera every day. 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:07.520 Yeah, that makes that makes total sense. You know. 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.679 I'm like, again, I've been waiting for this episode for 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.320 so long. I've been building up these questions because I 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.800 feel like, there, I'm gonna tell you the problem that 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.520 I have, and I imagine a lot of people have 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.720 this issue. It's like you hear people like you talk 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.280 and solutions and things that you should stop doing. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:24.399 Things you should start doing. 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.080 And then what your my brain says is like, but 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.639 there's nuance to my situation that her answer doesn't solve 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.920 for like, there's always like, you know, but they don't 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.720 understand because this thing over here, you know, And so 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.800 I wonder, like, what do you what do you hear 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:42.520 when I say. 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.520 That, I just hear excuses. I mean, there's always going 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.600 to be something that's special about somebody's scenario. But the 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.800 fundamentals of business are always true, and the fundamentals of 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.600 self development are always true. You're You're your biggest limitation 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.800 for growth. The difference between will looks today and will 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:01.879 look this, who's got ten million dollars in cash in 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:07.240 the bank. It's the same with Lucas, so that it's 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.240 your brain. Yeah, it's your ability to think through problem 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.800 solvings at a strategic level. It's your ability to bring 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.680 other people with you so that they become problem solvers 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.000 for it, right, Like that is the limitation. But it 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.919 all starts with you. And that's why I'm in my 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.199 work smart framework. The first module, the first thing that 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.879 we talk about is you. It's like, before we can 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.040 go delegate to everybody else, what are you doing, Like, 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.800 what does your calendar look like? If I looked at 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.600 your calendar today, Will, And I said, you. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:41.480 Don't want to look at that, No, I do. 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:46.159 I said, Will, what do you want to do? How 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:47.880 much money do you want to make next year? 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:48.439 This year? 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:49.960 How much money do you want to make this year? 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.080 And what are your like deliverables for yourself? What are 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.440 the things that you want to get done this year 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.440 to put out into the world. And then I looked 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.480 at your calend under and said, well, how are you 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.440 spending your time? I can guarantee you they do not match. 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.840 Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. You're probably right, they don't match. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:13.359 What's the biggest rule you had to be write for 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.920 yourself young life? 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.520 I think the biggest rule I had to rewrite for 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:23.879 myself was when I realized that nobody is grading me. 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:30.920 Nobody is Like, nobody is waking up in the morning 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.480 and saying you did a good job today. Nobody's waking 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.760 up in the morning and say you did a bad 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.639 job at that today. Like once you move out of college, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:48.160 there's no more like scaling grade scale where everybody has 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.399 the same metrics of success. Yeah, And it took me 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:58.880 a while to stop looking for external metrics of success. 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.160 What do I mean by that? Like, when you enter 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.920 Silicon Valley, the metric of success is how much money 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:08.119 do you raise? Right when you enter into the workplace, 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.560 Especially in the time that I was there, it was 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.520