You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
The Resilient Entrepreneur's Guide to Overcoming Adversity
Navigating the turbulent waters of entrepreneurship, Sam Anderson joins us to reveal the gritty realities behind his socially-conscious vending machine venture. Embarking on a raw journey, Sam opens up about a recent strategic pivot that spiraled into a maelstrom of social media backlash and the tough lessons learned about communication and stakeholder management. His story isn't just about the obstacles; it's a testament to the resilience required to stay afloat in a sea of change, all while holding steadfast to a company's core mission.
www.themrpreneur.com
Dream of launching a business that combines innovation with social impact. Legacy vending machines entrepreneur program is a gateway to make it happen. I'm Sam Anderson, co-founder, inviting you to join a movement reshaping the future of vending. With personalized coaching, access to prime locations and a unique model that supports nonprofits, we empower you to start a profitable vending operation that truly gives back. Whether you're new to entrepreneurship or looking to expand, we're here to guide you every step of the way. Be more than an entrepreneur Be a legacy builder with legacy vending machines. Apply today to take the first steps towards a business that makes a difference. Visit our website now at wwwlegacyvendingco. Your legacy starts here.
Speaker 1:I dealt with something about a week ago in one of my companies and I felt this was a great teaching moment. They're gonna be times in business you feel like you're doing everything that you can and you're still not gonna be able to make people happy. Now I want to go into this story, but I want to make sure that I'm not going too much in detail. I don't want to reveal any names or allow anybody to realize who it is specifically I'm talking about. There are gonna be times in your business where things aren't always gonna go as smooth as you plan on. They're just not. And in this particular situation this is with my vending machine business In this particular situation we had to change the model. So some of the locations that we were dealing with weren't producing the amount of income that we needed In long term. We knew we had a model where we were ultimately gonna get in a space where we could teach other people how to get their vending machine business started. So there's one particular sponsor of a machine I knew the nonprofit that they were supporting were very near and dear to their heart. So with that model, basically we have a for-profit company sponsor a vending machine and then 10% of that revenue goes to a nonprofit the amount of income based off that location we had that machine. I mean we were sending very little to that nonprofit on a month of basis, to the point where me and my business partner felt it was a little bit embarrassing to send that amount of money to a nonprofit each month. So big thing with vending is location, location, location. If one location isn't working, then you move it to the next one. That's a great thing about the business is you don't have to stay where you're at. If it's not producing the income you want. Then you just move on to the next thing. That's ultimately the decision we chose to make. We moved it to a different location.
Speaker 1:Now this individual had reached out to me just checking in, I would say, prior to this situation. They probably checked in with me three, four weeks prior to that. This is no excuse. Traditionally, when I read my emails, if I see an email pop up and I don't have time to respond to it at that exact moment, typically what I'll do is I'll leave it on red so I can come back to it later.
Speaker 1:This was a very trying time at my media firm because we were doing some personnel shift. I just recently let someone from my executive team go, so there are a lot of responsibilities and things like that that I need to shift. So for a couple of weeks my inbox was a little bit more stacked up than it usually is. Individual emailed me again probably another week and have, two weeks later, saw the email pop up same thing. I was like I got to get back in touch with them, but I was like I just need a few more days to catch up on some other stuff. Then he sent me a third email expressing his frustration.
Speaker 1:At this moment things had kind of cleared up. I immediately emailed them back and said hey, you know, I apologize for the lack of communication. Here's what I've been dealing with. I'm available to jump on a phone call today when you're available. Didn't get back to me that day, I think. We ended up connecting. That was a Friday. We ended up connecting on Monday.
Speaker 1:When we spoke on Monday, I explained to him the entire shift with the model, how that location that was suggested by the nonprofit wasn't working out. We moved to another location that ultimately didn't work out well either, and then we went ahead and transitioned into this new model. So with that, what we figured was we calculated the amount that this for profit would be receiving on a monthly basis in terms of what they were spending on a monthly basis in terms of advertising and sponsoring with our machine. So we looked at those numbers and said, hey, you know, we switched the model. I want to transfer this money back so ultimately refund you for the remaining time that you're not getting because we're selling this machine. Well, to say the very least, he was not happy with this Express, that it wasn't about the money that he felt he was taking for a ride quote-unquote and I did everything in my power to explain that, because what I'm not going to do is sit here with the model that's unsuccessful and just watch this thing crash and burn. As a business owner, me and my business partner had to make a decision that it was time to switch the model, and immediately we saw an increase in revenue switching to this new model More money in two weeks than we had seen in months in terms of transactions for this business. So I knew it was the right thing and we wanted to do right by the nonprofit and the for-profit.
Speaker 1:I get on Facebook I think it's literally the next day and someone who has a mutual acquaintance of both of ours is ultimately bad mouthing me on social media, saying you're out here swindling well-known business owners and non-profits. Shame on you. And this really got under my skin because one this person got a portion of a story and made a conclusion. Now let me be clear. I've been in business for myself for 10 years. If I was doing people dirty, if I was robbing people of the money that they're spending with my companies, there's no way in the world I've lasted a decade in business. It's just not how I do business. But it really got under my skin and my business partner could tell. And he told me like, hey, man, just let it go, don't even respond to the email again. But I just couldn't, because the fact that somebody thought that I was trying to rob them or do them dirty I can deal with a discriminal customer client. What I can't deal with is somebody defacing my name. It just doesn't sit right with me and I'm not going to allow it.
Speaker 1:I ended up reaching out to this person who made this Facebook post. I actually commented on it just to see what the reaction was, to see if he was specifically talking about me. And after I made a comment, I saw somebody else that was in a very tight knit group with them laugh at that comment. So for me that was confirmation. Like yeah, he's talking about me. I attempted to call this person and of course they didn't answer the phone. But it really got under my skin to the point where I want you guys to understand what level I was on after this.
Speaker 1:So after I was leaving the office this was middle of the day towards the end of the day, I'm leaving the office, headed home and I get in my car. I'm driving actually, no, I wasn't going home, I was going to another appointment. It was a late day. I'm driving to another location and we're stuck in traffic, like it's this on-ramp where you have to like merge in the traffic and you really have like 200 yards before the lane cuts off. So traffic is flying and I'm just waiting on the light so I can go.
Speaker 1:This 20 year old and his mom's forerunner is behind me, just laying in on the horn, and I did something that I've never done in my life. First time he honked, got a little bit perturbed, but I let it go. Then he lays in on the horn again and I'm looking in the rearview mirror and I can see him throwing up and saying it's telling me to go. So I proceeded to jump out of my vehicle. I didn't go towards his vehicle, but I got out of my vehicle and I started yelling at him. May have said a few choice words letting him know like, ultimately, hey, you idiot, like there's only 200 yards. So it's either we wait right here or we wait down there. We're still not moving either way.
Speaker 1:And that was dumb because that person could have had a gun on them. They could have came out and did something to me, could have had a bat, came after me, caused damage to my vehicle. It was a very dumb decision. But at that moment I realized, man, my stress level, my anger, is on a whole another level right now and I need to figure out a way to calm down because this isn't good and I'm ashamed. I went back and told my wife the story as soon as I got home. Of course, she felt the same way, like, man, you shouldn't have done that, something could have happened. But at that moment it was like I felt like I was being attacked by the universe, like everybody was coming after me at that moment. So there's a teaching point in that One you never know what someone's going through. You never know what someone's going through and a lot of times like if somebody snaps at you, if you're getting poor customer service at a restaurant, you have no idea what that person's going through. So generally, I like to stop and realize the fact that if somebody's snapping on me, they probably have something personal going on in their life. And this could very well be the situation with this person who was sponsored the machine.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, the conclusion I came to we refunded this person. I think I want to say like 60% of their money, based on the amount of time that we were advertising on the machine form. I reached out to my business partner the other day because we're about to pay ourselves out from that business. I reached out to him I said hey, man, you don't have to be on board with this. I know you don't know this individual and you're not as affected by this as I am. But if you're not wanting to do this through the business, when we pay ourselves out, I'm gonna take a portion of what I'm being paid and refund this person fully, like I want absolute. I don't want them being able to come back and say same did this and same did that. If I gave you all your money back, it was like we never even did deal and I just need. I just need that all for my spirit, because there's no amount of money that is worth your reputation. It's just not.
Speaker 1:And I have a feeling that even after I refund this person their remaining balance, it's still not gonna sit right with them, like we're probably never gonna talk again. But what it does for me, it lets me know that I did everything possible in my power to rectify this situation and then, after it's done, you gotta be able to walk away and have peace with that and understand that you did everything that you could, as long as you can wake up every day and look at yourself in the mirror and realize, hey, I did my best, I tried to do right by people. And if someone doesn't like it, oh well, you gotta learn to move on At the end of the day, like that person who wrote that Facebook post, they didn't get the whole story. They're taking a portion of something and drawing their own conclusions. At the end of the day, I know what the truth is and that's where I have to find my peace. I did the best I could to fix the situation and I learned from it. There's no excuse for me not responding to a customer or client for multiple weeks. There's no excuse. There was stuff going on, but I should have taken the five minutes to respond to that email and I didn't. And this leads me to the last thing to wrap this up Stop putting so much value in other people's opinions about you that aren't part of your day-to-day life.
Speaker 1:10 years from now, this brother probably won't even remember me he won't. 10 years from now, he could be retired 10 years from now. He's not gonna be in the business community anymore, so why should his opinion of me and how I conduct business have that type of control on me? It shouldn't. A lot of us are doing things today to impress people that we won't even see tomorrow. I read this in a study one time when you see a nice sports car driving down the street, you're not looking at the person that's driving the vehicle. You're immediately imagining yourself being the driver of that vehicle. So we're spending all this money doing all these things to impress people. We don't know when we have these things to show off or flaunt, they're taking us out of the equation and imagining themselves in our position. What's most important to me is what my closest friends and my family think. That's whose opinion matters to me and, to be quite honest, everybody else can kick rocks, because I know there are situations in business where I've gone above and beyond for someone and it still wasn't enough and you just have to make peace with the fact that you just cannot make everyone happy. I hope you guys got something from this that if you're going through something similar in business where you have that discretal client, you have a troublesome customer, that you understand that once you've done everything you can do, it's now in God's hands. Let it go. Appreciate you guys and we will see you on the next episode.
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