Big Talk About Small Business
Hosted by Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Our Mission is to inspire, empower, and equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and insights they need to succeed in their ventures. Through engaging conversations with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, we aim to provide valuable strategies, actionable advice, and real-world experiences that will enable our listeners to navigate the challenges, seize the opportunities, and build thriving businesses.
Big Talk About Small Business
Ep. 103 - Do the Work. Be Responsive. Win in Business.
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Big Talk About Small Business begins with a powerful statement that sets the tone for our entire conversation: "We don't deserve anything, we earn everything." This fundamental truth about entrepreneurship frames our reflections on what it takes to succeed in business today, especially in a world increasingly obsessed with comfort and instant gratification.
Mark and I dive deep into how modern work culture has shifted over our careers, from the days when a personal phone call at work was practically taboo to today's hybrid environments with frequent breaks and distractions. We explore how this shift affects not just businesses but the individuals themselves, potentially robbing them of growth opportunities. As Mark poignantly observes, "Getting comfortable, feeling like you've achieved—it's a disaster. It's the beginning of death."
Between colorful stories about Dr. Buck's fake teeth (a hilarious consultant test), my disastrous carrot cake celebration after selling my business, and Mark's unconventional dietary habits, we extract valuable business lessons. We discuss how nothing on Earth remains in a steady state, you're either growing or declining, and how this applies to entrepreneurship. Simple principles like being responsive, following through on promises, and continuous improvement remain the bedrock of business success despite technological advances.
Our conversation takes meaningful turns through family histories spanning generations, providing perspective on resilience and the evolution of expectations. We reflect on what we call "business karma", how genuine effort, honesty, and ethical behavior tend to yield positive results over time, creating the support network that helps weather inevitable storms.
Whether you're just starting your entrepreneurial journey or looking to reignite your passion, this conversation will remind you why the challenges of business ownership are worth embracing.
Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business!
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We Don't Deserve Anything
Speaker 1We don't deserve anything, we earn everything. Yeah, and that's still my mentality, and I've had to fight through my own passivity, so I'm only speaking from my own experience. Yeah, you know getting comfortable.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 1Feeling like you've achieved.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, you're really right. It's a disaster. It's the beginning of it is. Today is the 100th episode of Big Talk about Small Business.
Speaker 1Dude, share that story that you were talking about earlier. Which one? The one about when you went to that conference.
Speaker 3Oh no, that wasn't a conference, that was a consulting gig. Consulting gig, Okay yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so this is years ago, okay, and myself and one of my partners are flying down to this company. It's based in Oklahoma and I won't mention their name but uh, but anyway, um to you know, be um helping them with their strategic planning retreat. So it was in the winter we fly in. I can't remember if it was tulsa or oklahoma city. I think it was oklahoma city, but maybe it was tulsa again.
Speaker 3This is like 30 years ago yeah so we get in the car, we we drive out there. Maybe 25 years ago, maybe 30 is too far, but let's say 25. So we we fly in from boston to the airport.
Speaker 3We drive like an hour, so you're coming from Boston now, yeah, we're coming from Boston, I lived up there. Then we drive out to this resort in the middle of freaking Oklahoma. There is no one there. This place could probably have 2,000 people at it. There's nobody at all. And we go to where the building is, where they've got this conference room, and we go in there and there's like 12 people from this company. We get there before lunch. There's like 12 people at this company all sitting around a table, all their top managers and one of the guys there who was one of the partners had you know, is this the client? This is the client.
Speaker 3yeah, this guy talked incessantly, okay, and he had the worst teeth you've ever seen. They just came right straight out. They just thought well, mark, it's really good to see you. Mark, we've been really looking forward to this meeting, you know, it just really looked like a total hillbilly, yeah. And so we went out to lunch, you know, and he's talking to the server Well, what's y'all got for me? You know, like that, it's embarrassing, yeah, it's embarrassing. We go through the whole day like that.
Speaker 1What was your response when you met him?
Speaker 3I'm going to be nice. I mean, I'm gonna be nice, I'm gonna be appropriate, what do you think I'm gonna do? Like all this, or you know so anyway. So at the end of the day, this guy pulls his teeth out and they were dr bucks fake teeth he goes. I just wanted to see how you guys would react. I thought it'd be really funny you know, pulled it off for eight hours.
Speaker 1Yeah, because you did good though you know, it's probably actually a good strategy as a client to to see how your consultants yeah, handle that.
Speaker 3Yeah, you know they get real freaked out and start getting judgmental. Yeah, exactly, but they're fine, you did a good job. Yeah, or they get real freaked out and start getting Judgmental?
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly, but they're like you did a good job. You said you did a good job.
Speaker 4I'm from.
Speaker 1Missouri originally I am used to that that's fair.
Speaker 3My ex-wife said they moved out of Missouri to get away from the rednecks to Arkansas.
Speaker 1You know what I want to have happen on this show, Mark. What's that? You just talked about Dr Buck's fake teeth. I want Dr Buck's to be our first sponsor of this show. We should get Dr Buck's.
Speaker 3We should.
Speaker 1So, folks, that story is a great example of the value of this product and what it can do to help your business out. Right, Go to Dr Buck's. I mean, I was looking it up earlier.
Speaker 3B-U-K-K-S yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's D-R-B-U-K-K dot com, Dr Buck.
Speaker 3Dr Buck.
Speaker 1And they got like 50 different types of teeth. You know, one of my favorite teeth that they had was the incest teeth.
Speaker 3Oh Straight there. Oh Lord, Our poor listeners.
Speaker 1They have shagadelic teeth. Did they have meth teeth in there? It's called speed teeth. Okay, speed teeth, speed teeth, yeah yeah, I mean there's some good ones, man. Oh, it's fantastic Interview teeth. They have really good teeth. They're like super white.
Speaker 3Some people need teeth. They have really good teeth, they're like super white. Some people need those.
Speaker 1They sent me this guy's. I didn't get me a pair of those. They're like 40 bucks a pop, though, I mean, but here's the thing, they're quality yeah.
Speaker 3I mean, they're real looking. That guy sent me a set of Dr Bucks after that movie.
Speaker 1Did he really? I still have them more like you have to there's ways you have to fit them. Yep, you have to steam something yeah yeah, and you have to trim them up a little bit to fit your gums, just right it's a quality product it is it really is fooling around here, I wonder how big doctor box is I don't know. I mean they have 27 products on here, but they got fitting videos, yeah, ways that you can use them. Faqs.
Speaker 3It's quality stuff, dude. I'm telling you, man, I mean, it's a great business. Who would ever think?
Speaker 1So, Dr Buck, we would invite you to be our big talk about Swamp. Could you see our logo sponsored by Dr Buck?
Speaker 3In a little ad roll, people would wonder what's wrong with us. Have you seen those travago commercials on tv by chance? No, it's this guy and they're talking about, like he goes to check into a hotel, okay, and you know, and there's another guy next to him and and this guy's got a much lower rate because he got his reservation on trav. Well, his teeth are so white and so fake, and then the other guy has teeth like that. Now there's another Tribago commercial where there's like three of them sitting around a table. They all have teeth like that.
Speaker 1Really Just super white, they're just like super white Like that just looks freakish. You know, it does.
Speaker 3I can't whenever I see the commercial, all I can focus on is the teeth.
Speaker 1Yeah, have you ever? Met somebody that has had professional teeth work like that.
Speaker 4Oh yeah.
Speaker 3Absolutely Like I've met a couple people, I mean it's just too good.
Speaker 1They look like movie stars. They do, yeah, I mean I kind of want them, yeah, but I'm also like should I get those?
Speaker 3You don't need it. You look like Aiden Quinn right now.
Speaker 4Young Aiden Quinn. Thanks, mark, I appreciate it, so you could be a movie star with your teeth.
Speaker 1But if I had teeth like, that it would just take me over the top man, you know it's. So are those veneers? Is that all what that is? Yeah, well, they do veneers.
Speaker 3yeah, what is that? They put like a very thin layer glued onto your teeth to make them look like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, so it's not very invasive. No, it's not invasive, so I can go down the road and get me some veneers right now. You probably could.
Speaker 3Yeah, I don't know what it does to your teeth under there, or like when they try to take them off. Does that matter?
Speaker 1I really don't know, because if I was here right now and I had some pearly essence whites yeah, dude, you look good man I would look so much better.
Speaker 3You get a tan with those pearly whites. Yeah, dude, yeah.
Speaker 1That's what I'm talking about, right there. Yeah, Because it you know it is all about like appearance, right Looks are important.
Speaker 3Listen, I worked for a company for a number of years and they became a very large client of mine and became a very large client of mine and the CEO of that company would not hire people if they had bad teeth.
Speaker 3I'm not kidding. Oh really, there were several things he looked at. Okay, first off, if there was any errors in your cover letter or your resume, you're out. I'm with you on that, okay done. If your shoes were scuffed up this is back in the day when we wore like like polished shoes or your heels were too worn down he'd be like did you see that guy's shoes? They're out. That guy's a loser. We're not hiring him, he's out. And then teeth and then teeth.
Speaker 3He'd be like did you see that guy's teeth? He goes. Can you imagine we're sticking him out there in front of a client? You know we had all these really big time, big time clients that were very, you know, concerned about like looks and stuff yeah, you gotta show up man, yeah, but I mean I was a big stickler like one of my big things.
Speaker 3I've had this happen a few times, but if I have an interview with you number one, if you're late, you won't get the job I always had that rule myself I violated it once, and it was the best decision I ever made because I got a really outstanding person okay but normally I'm just blowing up.
Speaker 3I had somebody that was late for the first two interviews oh, that's, it was a two interview and I still hired her and she was awesome. She was a freaking and you know the only reason I gave her some slack. Her car was a Fiat Spyder from the 70s One of the most unreliable cars.
Speaker 4Oh really, yeah, she had problems with it all the time Fiat stands for.
Speaker 3Fix it again, tony. Oh, okay, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1Fix it again, Tony.
Speaker 3It's the only reason I cut her slack. Nancy Ursery was her name and she's great. She's still out there. She lives in Texas.
Speaker 1Nancy was a fantastic person to work with If you had to reschedule your interview or you couldn't make it. I'll never talk to them again.
Speaker 3Like not only do they not get the job, what if they stand you up? That's one. You've got a lunch meeting and they don't come I just won't ever respond to you ever again. I had that recently. Yeah, they're out Not long ago.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's it. That's it, done, done. It's like the ultimate demonstration of disrespect, absolutely, because I mean honestly, like, like, if you like, look, if you're trying to get a job, like you put your best foot forward and and that's your best foot forward, like I mean, if I'm. If I, it means, you know, I haven't interviewed for a job a long time, probably since I interviewed with you. We're unemployable.
Speaker 1Well, I know that but, I mean like when I interview with you, I think that's my literally my last interview like how old were you, though? Like 32 yeah 32, yeah 32. Yeah, exactly yeah. But when you go to client meetings, it's the same, like that's an interview to me. Sure, you know, and I take it with the same amount of respect, I don't. I'm not late for client meetings.
Speaker 3No, you had. I think you had a tie on. You had good slacks and good looking shoes.
Speaker 1Yeah, man, yeah, you're not class Right, yeah, my best foot forward.
Speaker 3Yes, and so I take extra time to shave, extra time to get ready, you know that's what we used to do.
Speaker 1You mean Well, so I will still do that if it's a, you know, if it's a client, Did I?
Speaker 3did I ever tell you about? Um you remember the show, this old house, of course.
Speaker 1Bob.
Speaker 3Bulave thomas was a successor. You know, steve's a friend of mine I didn't know that.
Speaker 1Yeah, how did that happen?
Speaker 3oh, it happened because long ago, like 30 years ago, we got steve to be a speaker at our conference. Okay, we're based in boston and we always like to get these speakers that were sort of tangential to the design industry, and he was on this old house. So we called him up, we got him. That's how he and I became friends, but anyway. So I don't know, if you heard it, you wouldn't have heard this story. But when Steve got the job to be the host of this old house, it all happened.
Speaker 3He didn't know really much about doing that stuff. Yeah, okay, his thing was navigation, ocean navigation. He wrote several books on it. All right, he's like, sailed across the freaking. Really, yeah, he's a sailor, he's a big time sailor, knows a lot about navigating from the stars. All right, well, that's pretty cool. So, anyway, he, he wrote this book on that and everything. I think he's done more than one since. But, but his agent called him up one day and said hey, what are you doing? He goes, well, actually, I'm finishing off the attic in my house and she goes. You know how to do that? He goes. Well, I'm doing it now, right, and and the and the agent's like well, hey, they're having auditions for the host of this old house. You should go over there and try it. He goes. I don't know if I want to do that. Was he an actor? No, he wasn't an actor. How did he have?
Speaker 3an agent.
Speaker 1What's the agent from the book?
Speaker 3agent. Are you serious?
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I actually had one myself at one time, you had a book agent. Yeah, that's how I got my first book at Wiley. Really yeah, but anyway, so he goes, I don't know about that. So when his wife came home he told her you know, hey, I got a call from so-and-so and they said I should try out for the host of this old house. She goes. What did you tell him he goes? I told him I have to think about it. He goes. You're crazy, you need to do that.
Speaker 1Because it was already a popular show.
Speaker 3Yeah, but Bob Vila, okay, and I'm going to come back to that in a minute. So he goes there, he interviews with it and you know he says, look, he goes. I just want you guys to know I'm not anything like Bob Vila. They said good, perfect. But he had a beard and he looked like Norm the lead carpenter. And they said, well, look, if we hired you for this gig, would you be willing to shave your beard? He goes. I don't know, I'd have to think about that. So Kenny goes home, tells his wife what happened, she goes what You're out of your mind. Of course you'd shave your beard for this job.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay. So he got called back for a second interview or whatever the audition. He goes back in there and when he went back he put a bick razor in his front pocket hang out there that's how he answered the question and they heard that's great.
Speaker 1So he just he didn't was he no he didn't, oh, he just had it like I'm ready. Yeah, I'll do it.
Speaker 4That's awesome man. I love that.
Speaker 1So you're saying you can go back to Bob Vila. What was the thing?
Speaker 3Well, no the point was, he said I'm nothing like Bob Vila, and they're like good, ok, bob Vila. People would say like I think I want to make this den here with a vaulted ceiling. No, you don't want to do that, yeah right.
Speaker 4No, bad idea. No, you don't want to do that yeah right.
Speaker 3No bad idea, I'm Bobby Lewis he did that all the time.
Speaker 4And he got sued too. That's right.
Speaker 3Yeah, like blowing the budget on some house where they just spent way too much money and the people couldn't afford it.
Teeth, Appearances and Business
Speaker 1So we were talking earlier about we have somebody new that started at Podcast Videos and I introduced myself to her as as the intern.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, but I used to. It didn't really work out this well, very well this time, but I did used to do that at white spider all the time and as we were growing, you know, like towards the tail end, we were growing rapidly and they had like I mean literally like new people every week, yeah, every week, sure, and I'd be like I didn't even know we were hiring anybody or whatever not introduce myself as an intern. Well, most of the times the rest of the team that were already there would be like he's not the intern, he's one of the founders. You know, blah, blah, blah. You know he's just messing with you, and we'd all laugh. But there was one point towards the tail end, I told this one kid, this kid younger, you know younger guy that just started. I was like I'm an intern, he's like, really, he's like, yeah, I was like I interned for sales and he started asking me a bunch of questions, you know, and all this kind of stuff and I was like so what's it like around here?
Speaker 1He asked me that I'm like man, it's all right you know, I mean, it used to be a lot more fun, you know. I mean, you know, now that we got the, you know one of the previous founders. He's gone, you know, he's not really around much, so the culture's getting better. He's like, talk to Mike yourself. Yeah, I was, and he's like man, it's really cool man. Thanks for the insight. It's really good. I'm excited, you know, and so I was expecting, like, respected me, like we actually were having a conversation in the bathroom of all places, and then we go back inside and I'm just kind of waiting for the rest of team to you know, to say something About me being being, and they never did, they never did. They just sat there and let the joke go on and it got more and more uncomfortable. Lunch came around and he's still trying to chat with me like I'm an intern. He's looking down on me, you know a little bit.
Speaker 3It's like this dude's too old to be doing this, that's right.
Speaker 1Yeah, I started feeling like something.
Speaker 3So you know, I used to work at Radio Shack and you know my brother-in-law got me the job over here. Yeah, that would have been hysterical, it would have been good, hysterical, it would have been good. And I'm getting ready to move out of my mom's basement. Yeah, yeah, I should have done that. I'm really excited. Really played it off a little bit better. I'm gonna have enough money now. I can hopefully get a trailer out there, so I do have a story mark.
Speaker 1I do want to tell that day. That I think is related. It's very important for business. So what's that? And like, I've been wanting to kind of talk about this on the show because it's a pretty significant time period for me. But you know, we built White Spider, we sold it. We had like a two-year earn-out agreement and all that kind of stuff. But when we first sold it, you know, I mean it was a pretty big moment for me and for my business partner, right, I mean we worked really hard to get there. Yeah, it's the exit, it's the entrepreneurial dream. It is hard to get there 00.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01.
Speaker 3whatever, did you ever have that thought?
Speaker 1well, I did, I didn't, I never had, I didn't have, I mean, I didn't have enough to worry about that, so what?
Speaker 3do you mean you didn't have enough, so you're so?
Speaker 1full of crap. So whenever I got that right and I was like, so you know, celebratory, well, my partner, you know, of course you go out, have nice dinners, you know you have some cocktails, you know he's a big bourbon connoisseur and big beer connoisseur. Well, I don't really drink that much and I'm getting, at that time either, like very little. So my celebratory method was I'm gonna go find out. I love carrot cake, okay, and I was gonna go in northwest arkansas. I'm like what is the best carrot cake in northwest arkansas? So dude, for like the next literally seven days, I'm on a rampage.
Speaker 1I'm like what is the best carrot cake in northwest Arkansas? So dude, for like the next literally seven days, I'm on a rampage. I'm like man, I just closed the deal in the company. I'm going to go test out the carrot cakes. I didn't worry about anything, right, I was just like eating it here. I go to Saltgrass, I go to Theo's Wherever anybody had carrot cake. I'd order me a carrot cake. In about seven days. I had probably 10 to 15 carrot cake sizes.
Speaker 3That's a lot for you. Yeah, I mean for a guy who's like into health and oh yeah, Everything.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's the kind of thing you know. It's like if you're going to celebrate with drinking.
Speaker 3I mean, like I could do that, okay, right.
Speaker 4That'd be nothing for me for me.
Speaker 3I mean, like every night I sit down and eat two Hostess cupcakes or something. No you don't Listen. What are you talking about, dude? You should have seen the cereal I bought the other day. What'd you get? Did you get some pretty things? No, it was like Captain Crunch with berries in it. Yeah, crunch Berry, yeah, berry Crunch, something like that. Yeah, man, that stuff, it's so good, isn't it it?
Speaker 1is I love that stuff. Half and half on it, anyway, go on. Yeah, so I'm literally having all these carrot cakes and I found and I was like man, you know neighbor's mill that they're not here anymore. But they had number one position, okay, and Saltgrass, actually down the road, had the number two position, right, but both of them, everywhere you go, the carrot cakes would be about that tall you know about probably four to six inches tall.
Speaker 3Yeah, you could feed four people off them.
Speaker 1I remember my last like towards about my 12th carrot cake. I just finally asked the waitress because I hadn't carried it. At this point I was like how many calories are in this? And she gave me the menu and it was literally like that slice was like 4 000 calories and I just kind of don them and like, oh, that ain't good. You know, I mean I've been kind of, you know, my celebrating rampage and what happened, man, is I ended up gaining in 30 days over 30. I mean, I literally gained about probably 40 pounds.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1Like it really hurt me. So what my point is is, if you do get to a celebratory scenario with your business, be careful what you do, because you're right that put a Dunlap on me. You know where my belly Dunlapped over my belt and I'm dude. This has been three years, so this is 21. So it's been four years.
Speaker 4And.
Speaker 1I'm still trying to kind of get that gut off. Oh, come on.
Speaker 3No, no, I'm not playing with you. Original carrot cake.
Speaker 1Bro, I'm not playing with you Like it was. I think it was the speed at which I consume those calories and gain that weight. But it's also the type of weight right, it's carrot cake weight.
Speaker 3The problem with you is you're not used to eating like that. Now I am, on the other hand, okay.
Speaker 2Now listen, I'm going to tell you what I ate yesterday?
Speaker 3You won't. This is the God's truth. Okay, talk to me.
Speaker 1Are you going to?
Speaker 3start from ground zero. Yeah, I'll start from, and I have gained no weight. Okay, in fact, I used to weigh even 30 pounds more than I do, probably 20 years ago.
Speaker 1All right, wait a minute. You weigh 30 more pounds than you did 20 years ago.
Speaker 3I weighed 30 more pounds 20 years ago than I weigh now.
Speaker 1Oh, really, so you're thinner now.
Speaker 3Yeah, but I've been about the same for probably 20 years. Okay, so this is what I had yesterday.
Speaker 1Okay, so what time did you wake up? Let's start there.
Speaker 3Oh, I got up, really, in fact yesterday I got up at like 3 or 4 am. All right, Did you eat? No, I didn't eat anything. I had probably five or six Lucky Strikes.
Speaker 1I was going to say did you smoke?
Speaker 3Yeah, I did, I had— Five or six Yep At 3 am, between 3 am and, let's say, 7 am, okay.
Speaker 1Okay, so like one and a half an hour.
Speaker 3Yeah, then I had two cups of coffee. All right, okay.
Speaker 1So you had caffeine and nicotine.
Speaker 3Right, and then I had nothing. You had no food, though, no food at all. I had no food until about 1230 in the day, and I went.
Speaker 1Are you wait a minute? Hold on. No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3Yeah, you woke up at three o'clock, your stomach till noon, nothing absolutely nothing other than like the seven pills I have to take every morning. That's the only thing, that's the only thing I had in my stomach.
Speaker 3Okay, this is a regular occurrence, though. Okay, then I I just I was at home and I wanted to, didn't want to go anywhere because I had all these calls and stuff all day. So so I went in the refrigerator and I got this fried chicken patty that my wife makes. It's fantastic. It's an Italian recipe where she pounds it out really thin, the chicken breast. It's beautifully fried with green onions and tomatoes. It's fantastic. I just took the chicken patty. I put a couple pieces of the bread in the toaster, toasted them up, put some mayo on it, put some lettuce on there, plopped that enormous chicken patty on there, hung over the sides. Oh, that's beautiful, it was delectable. Okay, had that with some chips. Okay. Okay, you got any chips, just regular potato chips ruffles.
Speaker 1Okay, let's stop right there. What. Are you telling me that you buy ruffles?
Speaker 3Oh, by the bag. Yeah, I don't like the toxic powders.
Speaker 1Are you freaking? Nobody should ever buy plain potato chips, I get the Walmart ones.
Speaker 3They're cheap too.
Speaker 1They're the cheaper red bag. So they're not called ruffles. That's the brand name. Yeah, but that's what they are.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's what they are, I guess. Whatever the great value wave plane.
Speaker 1Yes, that is the worst thing I've ever heard anybody say to me that's the best.
The 100th Episode Celebration
Speaker 3Okay, that is so bad. No, they're great, there's no flavor, why would you eat? Something. It's got salt and potatoes what does anybody else? And it's fried. You want cheese? You want ranch? No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't need any of that. So that's what I had for lunch. Okay, then I had to teach my class last night, first night of the second night of the semester, but first night for the class. What time was that?
Speaker 1Six o'clock. So did you have anything between lunch and Well, I did.
Speaker 3I got to school about five and I went to the vending machines there in my classroom building and I went over there and I bought some Jack Links in the vending machine. You know what those are.
Speaker 1Yeah, they're like beef jerky.
Speaker 3Yeah, like little pieces of beef jerky nuggets. And. I bought a giant cookie chocolate chip cookie, Okay and I ate that All right Before class. Before class, and I got some work done before class. I've there's a nice little place to sit, so then I had my class. Then I went home last night and you know what I had when I got home? Two of these little cinnamon whirl roll up things that come in cellophane packages in a box.
Speaker 3have you ever ever had those? They're like little cinnamon bun things. Yeah, everybody sells them. That's what I had yesterday. That was my entire food intake yesterday.
Speaker 1That is the worst thing I've ever.
Speaker 3Oh, I forgot. One other thing I ate was an entire container at lunch of cut-up watermelon. That was fantastic that's.
Speaker 1That's pretty good for you.
Speaker 3Yeah, it was good, now, this morning I ate nothing. I got up, had my like. Probably had like four cups of coffee and maybe four or five cigarettes. Okay, I got up at five today then I had to meet one of my students at Waffle House for breakfast what'd you get at Waffle House? I got a T-bone. It's not even on the menu. All right, I said you guys serve steak in the morning. Yeah, we got that one there, but she goes.
Speaker 1We also got some T-bones, oh wow, the Waffle House got a little sod something.
Speaker 3Yeah, I go I don't see it on here, she goes no, they're back there though. They're back there. Give me a tea. I got a T-bone and some Texas toast and some hash browns with onions in them, and that's what I. You didn't have any eggs, no. Just steak, just steak. See, the problem is you've got yourself conditioned where you eat all this stuff.
Speaker 1that's good for you. Yeah, and that's not what I should be doing for you.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's not what I should be doing. No See, if you lived on a steady diet of the kind of stuff I do, then you wouldn't gain weight if you ate 15 pieces of carrot cake in a week.
Speaker 1That was my problem. It's not the carrot cake, it's the pre-diet.
Speaker 3Right, you didn't get yourself conditioned to where it's like oh, it's another piece of carrot cake, okay.
Speaker 1No big deal, Body's just like. Hey, we know what to do with this.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly this is good.
Speaker 1So how do I? Get in on this diet. I like this because there's a few things in this world that I love. I love ice cream.
Speaker 3Yeah, I know you do.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, you've said it before. Okay, okay, I love pizza, I do too, and I love, obviously, carrot cake.
Speaker 3But if I had my choice, brownie sundaes for me is the dessert or the chocolate see, I'm more, I'm just a straight.
Speaker 1I like just vanilla yeah, like I can.
Speaker 3oh, I like vanilla ice cream, but brownies, it's, it's brownie, it's on a brownie. Oh, and you put the ice cream on the brownie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1My favorite thing to eat, if it was packaged, would be an iced honey bun.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, a honey bun with icing on it. Yeah, do you not eat?
Speaker 1those all the time.
Speaker 3I like those.
Speaker 4The only problem with them.
Speaker 3Messy for me, you know, because I mean, even though you wouldn't think I have the standards I I do. You know, I send all my shirts out to the cleaner, so you'll never see me wearing a shirt like this, even my flannel shirts. Everything goes to the cleaner what did that come from?
Speaker 1what are you talking about?
Speaker 3you're talking about like to press, yeah yeah, you know, I get, know, I get them, I get them done there, so they're nice and they're iron no, I don't mess with that at all. Starch dry cleaned.
Speaker 1Yeah, I like it like that yeah.
Speaker 3So I mean, I do have some standards.
Speaker 1I guess that's the point. It's just what you put in your body, not on your body.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, mine's what I put on my body, as opposed to what I put in.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's it, because, as far as what you put in it, cigarettes, coffee the cigarettes are terrible, I wish. I'd never gotten started on that. Do you really feel like that? You don't think cigarettes are good for you? I mean, how do you feel about cigarettes?
Speaker 3No, I mean the truth. My oldest brother is a doctor, or? My second oldest brother. He was the dean of the University of Missouri Medical School. He told me years ago, you could have three non-filtered cigarettes a day with no serious health risk.
Speaker 2Now that's long ago, that was according to the Surgeon General's report.
Speaker 3All right, now obviously I've blown past that. All right and it's completely socially unacceptable. But I can sit there on my porch and I can puff away all day. Nobody sees me, you know. Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing sometimes, you know, is it?
Speaker 1embarrassing that you smoke sometimes. Yeah, of course it is. When does that happen? Why would you be?
Speaker 3embarrassed. Well, you're like a pariah, you know. It's like you're at a group gathering of 250 people and you're the only one that goes out, like on the edge of the property, to have a cigarette or whatever. You know where. It's like you and the guy who does the janitorial service work Right right, just a couple people left.
Speaker 1Yeah, there's just nobody.
Speaker 3Uh, it's totally unacceptable.
Speaker 1Today, man, they actually I would. I would commend, as far as like from a pr standpoint, how well they did, because I remember that it's like the early 2000s when the whole not you- know smoking.
Speaker 3when I first moved here, it was exactly 2004. Yeah, you know, I've been coming here a lot because my then wife was from the area, but that's when they enacted the no smoking and I remember restaurants being super ticked off. Yes, People are like they're going to go out of business.
Speaker 1That's right and they had some that just chose to go out of business. I remember that because they couldn't smoke in there anymore. Yeah, which was pretty cool.
Speaker 3I don't know how. Do you know where Arts Place is in Fayetteville? Oh yeah, they still smoke in there and they serve a lot. I don't know how they get away with that.
Speaker 1Because it's like a ratio of how much alcohol you serve versus food, I guess they must drink more than they smoke in there, correct, I think that place is crazy man.
Speaker 3Yeah, it is, it is, it's absolutely. I was in there one night about four or five years ago Uh-huh Okay, and I can't remember who I was there with, but in any case, this is the God's truth. The bartender jumps out from behind the bar, runs to the front door and locks it, then he runs to the back door and locks it. You're in there? Yeah, I'm in there Playing ball. No, I'm just. I was sitting there having some beers and eating a burger.
Speaker 3Smoking. They have really good burgers. They mix them up with bacon it's like they call it a hog burger or something like that. So those are really good and so I'm eating that and having my Bud Light or whatever, and this happens. And then the guy's like saying to somebody else behind the he's back, they're like this guy's crazy. So the next thing is he goes and grabs an axe. The bartender opens up the front door and goes outside. Wow, they're like call the cops, that's Art's place okay, yeah, there was just some crazy guy.
Speaker 3The police came. I don't think they want to call the police, because they don't really bars don't like police hanging around the bar, because then that's a threat to their customers.
Mark's Diet and Lifestyle Philosophy
Speaker 1Sure yeah, because nobody wants to just go have a beer at a place that has cops around Right, get a DUI afterward. You know, I really like your advice on dieting and I also like your advice on the amount of cigarettes that you can smoke, so I think it's been a really good episode. Oh, this is really you were setting a wonderful example.
Speaker 3Truthfully, do not do as I do. When I do not smoke, I feel a million times better.
Speaker 1Do you?
Speaker 3Oh, absolutely. Well, why do you still smoke? Though it's terrible, it's one of the few things that I am just. I mean, I'm addicted to it.
Speaker 4It's all there is to it.
Speaker 3I don't have that personality either, but I've started at a very young age. I gave them up for 30 years.
Speaker 1Yeah, I remember when we met you didn't smoke. Yeah, no.
Speaker 3It's a terrible habit and you know I don't, I don't want anybody to do it.
Speaker 1It's disgusting and you'll give yourself lung cancer and heart disease and everything else, yeah, and you feel bad along the way you feel bad.
Speaker 3That's the thing about it.
Speaker 1So yeah, I've got you think that you feel like that has anything to do with your diet at all I don't know you I mean I would throw in there that I that could be a contributor.
Speaker 3No, listen, I say I feel bad. Okay, I don't really feel bad, I just feel feel better when I don't do that.
Speaker 1Okay, so it's not the diet, it's just literally the cigarettes? Yeah, exactly, stop you from feeling as good as you would.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly, I don't feel bad. I mean, I feel pretty good.
Speaker 1No, you got plenty of spunk man. Yeah, Plenty of energy.
Speaker 3Bro, you're a freaking machine dude, but I mean, you know everybody's different and we all have.
Speaker 1You have the best genes of anybody I've ever met. Yeah, I was lucky. You are dude Like you could. Probably you might be able to live to 150 now that AI is coming in the equation. I got to get off the cigarettes, but other than that, maybe I could, you never know, I mean because what you're, tell us a little bit about your family lineage, oh yeah, Well, my dad lived to be 96, and he didn't always have the best habits, although he did work out a lot, did he really?
Speaker 3Yeah, he was a big—my mom and dad had a little gym in their basement and they both worked out. And you've got one in yours now. Oh, I've got a huge gym. I never go in there, but it's like a commercial gym. I have everything, everything marlin blackwell edition. It's got the first green roof in the state of arkansas and I have all cybex, everything. Why don't you use it, bro? I, I just don't. I, I, you know, I, I could say I'm too busy. I could give you a million reasons why I don't, but I need to so your dad's working out, but my dad's six?
Speaker 1yes, he worked out, he lived in 96.
Speaker 3Yes, he worked out, he lived in 96. He would smoke. If you went over there with your cigarettes, he'd smoke them all. Chain, smoke them on you.
Speaker 1Would he really?
Speaker 3Yeah, and he would drink occasionally, but anyway, and he liked his candy bars and stuff, did he?
Speaker 1Yeah, loved it. What kind of candy bars was he? Like Hershey bars, you know, just straight Hers.
Speaker 3My mom lived to be 103. Gosh, my great-grandma lived to be 104. No, she didn't. Are you serious, yep? No, she lived to be 103. My great-aunt lived to be 104. That was her daughter and my mom's aunt. So my mom's grandma was 103. Her daughter was my great-aunt. She was 104.
Speaker 1And she was my mom's, so on that side of the family. So when your grandmother passed away, what year was that? Do you have any idea?
Speaker 3My great grandma. Yeah, yeah it was 1970.
Speaker 1She passed away in 1970. Born in 1870.
Speaker 3Born in 1867. Yes, it was great, I used to sit there with her. She'd come over my great aunt. She lived with my great aunt who's the one that lived to be 104. Yeah, okay, and they would drive over and you had to see, I mean, the first car I remember they had was a 49 Plymouth. All right, and it was black, but it was so tarnished and faded that it looked sort of bluish and purpley and sort of rainbowy and sort of light.
Speaker 4You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3Yeah, Natural, yeah, and they'd have these like blankets over their laps and stuff when they drove, because it had no heater.
Speaker 1Got you there saying warm.
Speaker 3Yeah. Then she got a 62 Nova, which is the first year Novas came out. Uh-huh, no heater, really no heater, really no heater. Heaters were optional.
Speaker 1How does a vehicle not have a heater?
Speaker 3Because it's really stripped down. Okay, wow, in 1962, a heater was an option on a Chevy Nova. It's not standard equipment. Wow.
Speaker 1Because, I mean, it doesn't really require anything like the engine to generate the heat, it just comes off. They can come off the engine, basically.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's the water it comes out of the radiator. It goes into a coil. Yeah. And then goes back to the radiator and it's got a little blower and it blows that stuff on you. It's not a big deal. It costs something yeah, that's true, like 20 bucks or something.
Speaker 1So she chose the option without a heat. She chose not to Like. We can just use a blanket. Yeah, that's so awesome.
Speaker 3And then they'd come over and then I'd sit there with Graham was what we called her and I had these postcards of cars that were old. Yeah, and I would have her sit down and look at them with me and talk to her how old were you then?
Speaker 1I was a little kid dude.
Speaker 3I mean I could have been like four, five, six years old whatever. I knew my cars when I was really young, yeah, but anyway, her husband, who was my great-grandfather, he had the first Cadillac in St Louis, oh, really yeah, he had it shipped in the body. He bought the chassis separate from the body 1905, 1904, somewhere in there, really yeah. And they went down to the rail yard, she told me, and picked it up and they had to put the body on the chassis. How in the heck did they do that?
Speaker 3What kind of equipment would you use? I have no idea. They probably like put it on a wagon and drag it by horses to their house. I don't know.
Speaker 1For real, real, like. Think about that for a second, because I mean, if that came in like that with me today, I'd be like what am I going to use? How is that going to happen?
Speaker 3oh, I know it's heavy yeah be horrible. So anyway, I do remember that with with graham, though I'd always make her tell me about the old days I mean when you think about that. She's born two days after the civil war.
Speaker 1That's insane, isn't it? She's 30. No, she'll be almost 40 by the time World War I comes along.
Speaker 3Oh, world War I. Yeah, she was probably close to 50. Well, 1917, that would be the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah about 47.
Speaker 1Yeah, and then World War II comes around. She's in her 60s. Yeah. She around. She's right in her 60s. Yeah, so she saw it. Went through the depression. Yep, that's a real life right there. Bro went through this, went through the uh, the spanish flu yep, that's true I didn't think about that.
Speaker 3Killed a lot of people, dude. It did man like people don't. They don't really know about that. Yeah, man, that's a serious deal, man man With the polio all those things, my mom and dad I mean they were born in 1920. And you know, you think about like my mom's first husband was killed in World War II.
Speaker 3He was really a famous guy Like a war hero. Yeah, he was a pilot in the 101st Airborne, which is the one that they did the show Masters of the Sky. Yeah, that's based on her first husband's airborne bomber group based in England.
Speaker 3Yeah, they were called like. I think it was either the 100th or 101st, but they were called the bloody 100th or bloody 101st, but they were called the Bloody 100th or Bloody 101st. And you can find this guy. His name is Sumner Reeder and you can even see pictures of my mom with him outside, yeah, outside his bomber. But anyway, he did get killed at the end of the war. He was a famous pilot. He made a lot of missions and survived as a major at the end of the war. He was a famous pilot. He made a lot of missions and survived as a major at the end of the war.
Speaker 1How old were they when they got married? Oh, like 21 or something you know, and this is World War I when he goes.
Speaker 3No, world War II, world War II. There he is right there with my mom. Wow, that's crazy, isn't it? None of us even knew that my mother was married Before your dad, before my dad, because they knew each other from supposedly like kindergarten on up. Really, she told me one night it was during the Vietnam War. My oldest brother was over there and he was on a PT boat crew. It was very dangerous. He replaced the guy who got killed. You know, they would go up the river and just get shot at from the shore, yeah, and they would take like seals up for missions and stuff.
Speaker 3And she started. It was stormy and she started crying, which she rarely ever did.
Speaker 1Your mom. It was storming and your mom started crying.
Speaker 3Right and we were in Virginia Beach on family vacation and she told me about her first husband, that's when she's like I guess because I was the first one to know of all my siblings, so you were with your mom on a family vacation in Virginia.
Speaker 1it's storming and your brother her other son is in Vietnam. That's right At that moment, and so she started reminiscing. Yes. Wow and that's the first time you found out.
Speaker 3And I told my siblings and they're like we wondered why she always got a check from the government for like $27 a month. You know that's what they pay. It was really low. It was his death benefit, wow. So, anyway, isn't that crazy? It is crazy, but you think about. Like you know, we've all had such different life experiences right, yeah, I mean like. What did your mom and your, your parents did?
Speaker 1both of them come from carbondale or just your dad, both born and raised in carbondale, illinois now what did their families do?
Speaker 3because carbondale's not a real writ uh area.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3Farmers and coal miners is basically what they have.
Speaker 1So my mom's dad was a coal miner and a mechanic and he ended up becoming the general manager at one of the mechanic shops and then he broke his back on the job Like a car, like something. A lift fell and it literally broke his back, Took him out of commission from working and then he scraped by, had all kinds of health problems from after that.
Speaker 3That's crazy. You say that Not to get sidetracked. 1976, when I was a freshman, I worked at a shell station and the boss had a pickup truck fall off the lift onto him In Carbondale. In Carbondale, carbondale, illinois. Yeah, shell Station. We need to probably look into that 1976, that was so.
Speaker 1I wasn't even born then. Yep, I have no idea if that's around the right time.
Speaker 3Well, he wasn't. He was in the hospital. I went to see him in the hospital, but he was not. You remember his name. He didn't bring his back John. No, okay, it was not John, not John. He lived in a trailer. He was a crazy guy. Okay, yeah, it wasn't him.
Speaker 1But anyway, I can't remember his name. So he also. He served in World War II in the Navy and was this is your. And then my understanding is he's a POW. Oh, wow. Where For the Japanese?
Speaker 3Oh my God, that's the worst. Yeah, they were horribly abused. Being a POW in Japan was far worse than Europe, germany.
Speaker 1He didn't really say much about it. Oh my God.
Speaker 3Don't even read about it. The horror stories are just unimaginable. So my dad's dad dad wow, and he survived that though he did, he did.
Speaker 1And then my dad's dad served in the military as well, uh, but he was more of an, an officer, he, because he had a. Uh, he ended up getting a college education, you know, prior to joining there which was kind of rare yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I think. And then he was a teacher before he was enlisted and he ended up becoming like the postmaster in Carbondale, that's great. Yeah, so, and then you know, of course, both their grandmothers, you know, were homemakers working at home and stuff like that.
Speaker 3Now, how did your mom and dad break free of that, though? I mean that life there in Carbondale.
Speaker 1So my dad ended up, he graduated at SIU and so did my mom. So my mom both of them went to SIU graduated.
Speaker 3You know I'm on the advisory board once again of the College of Business. At SIU.
Speaker 1Yeah, siu Carbondale. So my dad was an all-state basketball player for SIU. Oh wow.
Speaker 3They were pretty good too.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, he was—. When did he graduate Shoot man, I don't know. They're older than me, though right, I don't know how old are you 67. Yes, I don't know how old are you 67.
Speaker 3yes, they are, yeah, they're about 10 years older than I. Okay, because when I was there we had Gail Sayers who was our athletic director.
Speaker 1Okay that was really cool, so he he ended up. He had to make a choice of whether to continue playing basketball or continue his studies, because he's going into psychology and he was in chemistry and other stuff and he actually chose to quit playing basketball he could have kept going on well, but he, he chose and, and uh and became a professor, professor, doctor, yeah, like I got his doctorate degree in psychology.
Speaker 1That's wild, and mom got her master's in education okay, so then they dad got the job at arkansas state university. Yeah, as a as a professor.
Speaker 3And that's what brought him here, that's what brought him to.
Speaker 1Jonesboro.
Speaker 3Yeah, well, that's a lot closer to Carbondale than here. Yeah, it's a four-hour drive.
Speaker 1And then Mom ended up. She started as a resource teacher at South School in Jonesboro and then she became the principal of the kindergarten center there in Jonesboro. Jonesboro Kindergarten Center.
Speaker 3That's cool.
Speaker 1Dad ended up teaching teaching psychology, and then he became the chair of the psychology department there and then he retired.
Speaker 3Both of them retired in those positions did you ever drive with him to Carbondale? Oh, all the time. Did you go across the bridge at Chester? Oh yeah, that little bridge isn't that wild yeah, it is wild. Chester is such a weird little town.
Speaker 1Oh, it is, yeah, yeah, that's the way you go from Arkansas.
Speaker 3That's funny.
Speaker 1Yeah, and you go through Haytai Missouri. Uh-huh. You've been through Haytai. No.
Speaker 3Man that's a Never have.
Family History and Generational Stories
Speaker 1That's an impoverished area man yeah Wow. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, it was. I mean, that's all coal mining.
Speaker 3Yeah Well, the coal mining is dead there now. Oh yeah, when I was in school there were giant strip mining equipment, drag links that would pick up like mobile home five mobile homes worth of dirt in one scoop. It was crazy, and they worked 24 hours a day.
Speaker 1It's crazy man, I mean like that.
Speaker 3Fascinating.
Speaker 1And then Boomland. You ever been to Boomland in Sykeston Missouri?
Speaker 3Sykeston yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, they have Lamberts.
Speaker 3We go to Lamberts all the time Home of Throad Rolls Throad Rolls baby Throad Rolls Throad.
Speaker 1Not thrown. It's the best place in the world to eat. They have one up in Springfield, but I mean, that's like the OG. Yeah that's the. But, I remember being in Sykeston and seeing Lambert himself. Really, yeah, I was a kid, wow, and he'd come out and throw the rolls.
Speaker 1Was he like a pitcher Dude he would chunk them, bro, and he was loud, he's just a typical entrepreneur character. But you catch those rolls. They're hot, they're just soft, and then you open them up and they come by with that sorghum molasses and they just dip it in there and they throw it at you. A Lambert would act like he's throwing it in your face when you're a kid and of course that sorghum's just so sticky. You know it wouldn't go anywhere and they'd drop it in there and it rolls. There's a cover of a sorghum, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3It's like if you ever go get one of those whatever they call them at Dairy Queen, where they turn it upside down before they serve it to you every time I'm like dude, one of these days that thing's going to fall out. And they've said to me before it's happened.
Speaker 1Did you know that that little swirl on the top is trademarked? Registered trademark no like literally no one else on the planet can make that little thing.
Speaker 3That's crazy. A little swirl A little curl, or whatever.
Speaker 1Wow. So in this episode we've discovered who our sponsors are. I just want to point this out, Yep.
Speaker 3Dr Bucks, dr Bucks.
Speaker 1Okay, hostess us out. Yep, dr, dr bucks, okay, hostess. Uh, honey, buns icing um. Uh, lamberts, yeah, it's a big one.
Speaker 3And then there was one other one, I can't remember now, lucky strike, but yeah, they can't advertise, that's true, okay, that's true.
Speaker 1So those days I mean, that's unfortunate because they would be. I bet you they'd have a big budget to advertise with us.
Speaker 3They used to have ads like doctors recommend or whatever. They stopped for cigarette, yeah, like this is horrible for you. What are you talking about? We keep growing as a species I mean our culture has changed so much though during our lifetime of species, I mean our culture has changed so much though during our lifetime. Do you think that impacts our ability to be successful today in business as entrepreneurs?
Speaker 3I think, I think it… that we're like set from such a different age that you know I mean me maybe more than you. I mean. Do you think that?
Speaker 1I mean, I think the only thing that I really get concerned about is work ethic. You know, that's the difference that I've been seeing, like in my time period of when I started working, what was normal work ethic to what is happening today is intolerable on a lot of levels, like just the I mean the amount of time off that you can take the amount of, like you know, hybrid and distractions that you can have in a day, like I mean, it's so true you you you.
Speaker 1I remember when I first started working at like Go Kart World, the Kart World place.
Speaker 4Go Kart.
Speaker 1Trek. Yeah, if anybody ever called Kart World for me, oh yeah, I'd be out. Yeah, I mean, I remember it happening a couple of times and getting freaking ringed for taking a phone call or for somebody calling me.
Speaker 3The second company I worked for post-MBA, I was in a cubicle, okay, with a bunch of other people and there was one phone out on a pole and if your wife called you they would page you and you had to go over there and pick it up and dial a certain number. And if you stood out there talking for more than 10 seconds your peers were like okay, it was. I mean you're right, I mean it's so different.
Speaker 1I mean it's it's, it's not as I mean, and what's the worst part that I see going on is that it's yes, I'm affected as a business owner, yes, the company's affected, but it really hurts that individual because you quit. Basically, all these things are just negative excuses for you not to continue to be better and better and better. Champions and winners are always working on themselves, am I?
Speaker 3right? No, I mean, I hear what you're saying. I hate to generalize about generations. Maybe it's just people today?
Speaker 1No, I don't think so. Yes, that's my point. It's just people today, Because I'm going to tell you, I've met some folks that are my age and older, that have their work, and it's because they've become passive and they drift away and they tolerate and they drift away, and they tolerate and they relax. This whole desire for comfort is the biggest killer.
Speaker 3Well, just everybody's expectations are so high about sort of what the minimum is. Like you know the minimum is I got two really nice cars and I live in a 2,700-square-foot house with a three-car garage or whatever. You know, for a lot of the people that we know who are white-collar workers, and that just was never the standard in the past. I mean, my grandpa was the CFO for Tober Safer Shoe Company. He had one car and my grandma drove him to the bus station and then he'd take the bus in and we'd go get in the car and pick them up. At the end of the day, I mean you know, and people look down, it's just normal.
Speaker 4Yeah, it's just normal. I mean like you just don't like.
Speaker 1You don't have to be comforted with everything all the time you know, and things shouldn't have to always be so convenient. But that's what like. I've driven around in some, you know, lower to middle class type of neighborhoods. Yeah. And you will see really freaking nice cars oh sure. In every one of those driveways.
Speaker 3Yeah, and 35% of the car owners are upside down on their payments right now. They owe more on their car than it's worth.
Speaker 1But it's what we want. Yeah. You know, and we don't have you know, I mean it's so true Like we don't deserve anything, we earn everything. Yeah. And that's still my mentality, and I've had to fight through my own passivity. So I'm only speaking from my own experience. Yeah, you know getting comfortable.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 1Feeling like you've achieved.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, you're really right.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, you're really right, it's a disaster.
Speaker 3It's the beginning of death.
Speaker 1It 100% is You're declining, then you are. That's a good place to end. I think that statement the beginning of death.
Speaker 3Well, before we end, I just want to say one thing. Thank you to our sponsors. Our sponsors are predominantly podcastvideoscom, which is you Right. So, we thank you for that. You're welcome, but we collectively thank you podcastvideoscom and Eric. But now we were talking about this last night in my class with my students I said, look, you know, none of this stuff is that hard. All right, Nothing we do is beyond their capability. Sure no, they're, all you know, all above average intellect, all capable.
Speaker 1They're all smarter than we were for sure.
Speaker 3Absolutely, they can do any of this. They can. Business is not that hard, okay, but so much of it is just do the work, okay. It's like I tell them every time you guys, be the fastest responder, be the one that always follows through on what you say you're going to do. You do those things you're going to. People are going to like you, opportunities are going to come your way. You're going to be able to sell stuff, right, yeah, and you're going to be fine.
Speaker 1I'm here to say, like I was not good in school, in high school, I was not anything good in college really. I did find interest in what I was doing so I explored it, like I really got into photography and journalism. It was just intriguing to me.
Speaker 3Right, but the rest of it was not.
Speaker 1I cheated. I did all kinds of things, that's terrible.
Speaker 3I never cheated in school, did you not? Never, never.
Speaker 1In high school. I'm not talking about college, oh no, I never did.
Speaker 3I was in the AP classes. I was. I was in the AP classes, I was not. I was not calculus. I had physics. I had chemistry. I had, uh uh, european history. I had uh all in in high school. No, bro, not this guy I got. I had 20 hours of credit when I went to school every word to every Led Zeppelin and door song is what. I knew, bro I I did not know. That I do remember, though always wondering what some of those words were you remember?
Speaker 3like we couldn't just go on the internet and look up the lyrics. You'd have to, like go to the record store, hope that they didn't have the cellophane on one that you could open up and maybe you could read it and unfold the tape cassette to take a set and read the lyrics.
Speaker 1And you didn't have a picture to take a picture of? Oh gosh, no, you had to literally study and roll it back up.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 1But yeah so. But to the point is but you weren't that motivated in the academic way? Well, no, I mean I didn't really like academic-wise, like I just didn't find until I did discover what I actually was intrigued about doing. What I actually was intrigued about doing. Then I went really deep, like I was the dude that was hanging out in the freaking color labs, like for hours upon hours just hanging out in the dark room trying to print the perfect print.
Speaker 3Now I've been a geek on that, but that's you know, that was, I know, a lot of successful people, I have to say, though, who were similar. Yeah. Okay, I mean so many.
Speaker 1And then after that just work, man. I just could see something and I wanted to do it, and by all hell and high water, it was going to come true. That's been my—so work, work, work.
Speaker 3So much of it is just do the work Late nights, on the weekends, sacrificing Right, but you're not sacrificing. Right, you're building. You're just building. Yes, you're building and that has other advantages then for you and your family later, 100% you give them opportunities that you could not have maybe yourself.
Speaker 1You know, that was never for me. It was not a motivating thing. There were times where I always knew that what I was building was going to help and secure the family. Yeah, but I was never motivated by that. Like I got to do this too, I need to get to this level. So my family is well supported. You know, I just knew as a byproduct of it, and I mean like everything that I would do was just about fixing it, doing it for yourself.
Speaker 3So no, I mean, that's a, I mean I would take.
Speaker 1I totally take that kind of perspective, yeah, but it really wasn't.
Speaker 3I mean to be honest with you. It was about doing it for the market Like for whatever reason, I know you, and I know that's how committed you are yeah, like even today.
Speaker 1Like, I do all this stuff not for me, right, I do it for this area. I do it for the folks that are working here. Right. And I do it so that you like, with all your experience, you can sit here and have conversations and tell stories, so that other people can grow and for doing business. Event bills same thing. We've got to rise up, Addfuryai, got to rise up. We've got to do some shit, man or? Else it's not going to progress and we're going to get gobbled up.
Speaker 3Well, teaching is one way to give back and it's also a way to continue to refine your thought process 100%, which I think is always critical, because it makes you think about the subject matter and it makes you continue to learn right, because if you're going to teach, you better be open to building on your discipline, knowledge.
Speaker 1I wonder when you say that, do you agree? I've always wanted to be a teacher.
Speaker 3Well, this is teaching. Other than when we sit there and talk about my horrible diet, but other than that it's teaching. Well, no, I think that is still teaching.
Speaker 1It's teaching us all. There's another way.
Speaker 3Like I just found out, today I can eat honey, buns and pizza. Well, maybe you can't. No, I think.
Business Success Through Hard Work
Speaker 1I can get myself back to it, bro. I don't think I need to listen to this, this negative talk about no, it was the carrot cake, it wasn't. It's like. No, the truth is is my diet was wrong before the carrot yeah, you were too healthy, and then you throw that in there. It's like what you know, yeah, it's like all this is bad. This is all fat.
Speaker 3It's like one of my friends, one of my friends I used to work with, it's wide group. I mean, the guy is like in unbelievable condition. He's a triathlete Now. He's maybe 10 or 15 years younger than me. Okay, he's got horrible cholesterol and horrible blood pressure. He's not at all overweight. He's in fantastic physical condition. It's just genetics. It's just genetics. It is no, no, it's just the luck of the draw. He, yeah, he, he is his genetic type, has these problems in spite of he is doing every single thing right, but anyway, no, we, what have we learned um today?
Speaker 1I, I'm not sure we've learned well, but I would say like you're talking about the teaching, like giving back that way yeah, so and I think that maybe with my parents both being education like that is kind of part of it. But I just pointed it in a different direction, sure, because I know that there's growth. We need to grow. Right, there is no stagnation on anything on the planet Earth. Have you thought about that for a second?
Speaker 3You've said this before I totally agree. You're either growing or declining Nothing on planet Earth.
Speaker 1I can't think of one thing no, steady state there's not, just like your grandmother's car. Yeah. It started tarnishing.
Speaker 3Yeah, it did that. 49 Plymouth that was. You know, it was never going to be new again.
Speaker 1This table's not as new, you know. Like nothing is. It stays the same and actually nothing gets better.
Speaker 3Naturally, no, it takes effort, takes outside forces applied to it right fighting.
Speaker 1Yeah, the little tree has to fight. I mean, it's like fighting daily to get the sunlight yep.
Speaker 3Well, that's why we're here we want to try to improve things we do. I think both of us agree that, being in business for yourself, the benefits outweigh being an employee, at least in most environments, not necessarily saying financial right now they can be or they may not be, but other aspects of it, the control that you have um, the, the uh, satisfaction maybe that you get the drive, the motive, the, the, the honor.
Speaker 3So integrity everybody can do this stuff. Yep, do the work, be responsive, keep improving yourself, everything's gonna work out fine that's it, man.
Speaker 1That's it. You taught me that a long time. I mean, I know we got you going, but you taught me that a long time ago when you said it gets easier. The older you get, things aren't such a big deal. You know, really everything does work out, so long as you're you have a good. You know, you, you, you push for good karma, right, which I think there is a such thing as business karma? Oh, of course there is, you know.
Speaker 1But if you're really working hard, you're genuine, you're not cheating, you're genuine, you're not cheating, you're not stealing, you're not hurting other people, you're not playing that nasty game, I think everything tends to work out well for you you can still get hammered, but yeah yeah, no, I mean you'll get, you'll get slapped around but hopefully you can recover but in the long run, yeah, you know, I mean I think that proved it through because in my experiences, when bad things happen, there is always a core group of people around me that were there for me. Yeah, you know, and that was a big deal.
Speaker 3Well, we've got to end it, we've got to go on with our day.
Speaker 1We do. We've been in this show for a long time.
Speaker 3We have been. It's been great, yeah, great being here with you once again. This is the 100th episode of Big Talk.
Speaker 4About Small Business. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk About Small Business. If you have any questions or ideas for upcoming shows, be sure to head over to our website, wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscom and click on the ask the host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show. Stay connected with us on LinkedIn at Big Talk About Small Business and be sure to head over to our website to read articles, browse episodes and ask questions about upcoming shows.