Segment:- Why scaling breaks more businesses than starting :How custom approach and sharp marketing keeps you alive.

Stop chasing the perfect idea and start building the engine that funds it. We dig into the simple mechanics of getting cash in the door through affiliate marketing and other survival-business moves, then pull back the curtain on why scaling—not starting—breaks more founders. From hiring headaches and sudden staffing gaps to the uncomfortable art of letting go, we share the systems and habits that keep a business running when you step away.

You’ll hear a candid debate on mindset versus money. One side argues that money is the effect—an outcome of the beliefs, skills, and standards you bring to the table. The other shares the sting of capital constraints in a retail context, where lack of funds slows execution even when ideas are strong. Together, we map a practical middle path: cultivate a durable “money mindset” that creates opportunities, while building the cash flow and capital stack to seize them without stalling.

We then zoom into strategy: why a custom approach beats one-size-fits-all when you’re new. Narrow your audience, tailor your offer to a specific job to be done, and simplify your marketing by speaking directly to one buyer. If you’re considering digital products or partnerships, learn how to approach creators for affiliate deals, stand up simple funnels on social, and test messages that convert. Finally, we outline the survival-to-scale sequence—get cash, prove value, document processes, hire well, and design redundancy so your shop runs without you.

If this conversation sparks ideas, subscribe, share with a friend who’s building, and leave a quick review telling us your biggest scaling hurdle—we might feature it in a future episode.

Chapters

• 0:00 Affiliate Marketing Made Simple
• 0:59 Survival Business vs Dream Business
• 2:05 Subscribe and Stay with Us
• 2:11 Starting vs Scaling: The Hard Part
• 4:16 The Psychology of Starting
• 4:55 Mindset or Money: What Matters
• 7:36 Custom Beats One-Size-Fits-All

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

I just literally done the time I did I put up a three hour training online for people who want to make money with affiliate marketing. It's so easy. What you need to do is that I mean now you look at creators, modern day creators, almost every creator has an information product, literally. And I've sold products behind the scenes for a lot of people. And so I look at somebody, this is this Nigerian guy called Salem King. Or this these other people. So you look at them and say, okay, now if you're a creator, most creators and most digital creators have digital products. And so digital products have no inventory. You don't have to stock up anything. It's on limited sales. And so what I need to do is that I find a way to reach out to those people, sell their products. I don't need to create a product. I don't need to spend my time, my energy. I just need to find a way to get them to make me an affiliate. I sell the products for them. So what you need to do is that you just need to learn how to learn, you just need to learn marketing. And so for me, for people who are outside, I'll tell you that you need to learn marketing, learn how to use social media, learn how to be able to market, whether it's on the ground or everything. But for me, start something and get cash. That's the first thing I'll tell you. You need to get cash. Because as young people, you need to get cash. And so for me, I'll say be exposed to different types of business models. Don't just be stuck and say, Oh, I since I can't start my dream business, most people want to start off with their dream business. But first of all, you don't need to necessarily start with your dream business. You need to start with a survival business, something that will make you survive. Then you move on to your dream business. And so when a survival business is for immediate cash, your dream business is for whatever you want to do. For example, I have some businesses that I want I'm going to start in the future, but those dream businesses, I'm going to get a lot of money from whatever I'm doing now and put into those businesses in the next three years. And so that's exactly what I'll tell anybody. First of all, figure out your survival business.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42

Fantastic. Let me stop you here for a minute. We are on a journey of changing the minds and the lives of people. So if you haven't subscribed and become part of the family, please hit the subscribe button and turn on the notification. Thank you. Now let's carry on with the conversation. At this point, we are no longer going to agree on one thing. I want to really get deep into your understanding of these questions that I'm going to ask you. And the first question I have is starting or scaling, which one is harder?

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

Okay. So I would say scaling is harder. Starting basically, you need an idea and you just need to execute. I don't I don't really understand why people struggle to start a business. It's the easiest thing to do. Just get it started. Reach out to people, test the market, get the idea, start selling. But scaling is really hard because it's very difficult to replicate yourself. Hiring is really hard. Having people to run your business the way you do it is really hard. If you're a micromanager, I know I am, and I know you are as well, Derek. Being able to take a step back from your baby and let people run it without you is really hard. Wanting to do your own thing, traveling abroad, wanting to be away from the business is really hard because people keep dragging you back. For example, last week I have my the one in charge of my business. She's on maternity leave. Okay. And then all of a sudden, the other second person who has to be in charge had a family crisis. So I found myself scrambling around just to get somebody to be there so that the shop can run. That is really difficult. Okay. Yeah. So I feel like scaling is really hard. It's that's what takes, that's what makes or breaks a business. Scaling.

SPEAKER_02: 3:44

In your term. Fortunately, I agree. Though this is what I say, starting is also very hard as well. Most people don't think about hard, of course, starting yes. Starting is also very hard. And so I don't want us to trivialize starting at all. Because Leslie said starting is just easy, but it's not that. Because number one, there are psychological barriers. In terms of some people, it's not everybody that's wired to be an entrepreneur. Some people just want to be just to just to be working, just to get paid. Because why will you take that risk and all of that sweat and all of that those mental burnings of paying somebody else? That's what it means to be an entrepreneur, to be able to do that. Because sometimes there are times where I've gone in my business without paying myself. I go man sometimes without paying myself, I have to pay other people. And that's what being an entrepreneur is. But I mean, when you're starting a business, you need to first of all, you need to evaluate yourself. Am I fit for this? Can I do this? Can I am I going to win at this? And I don't think starting starting can be easy sometimes. But the thing the thing is that if you want to start well, because some people can start, but if you want to start well, it can be difficult sometimes. And so that's that's what I'll say. You need to deal with those psychological barriers and so many different things. Mindset or money, which one is the biggest barrier to businesses? I'll say mindset. Okay. Why? Because you know, anybody can get money. Anyone can get money. But mindset is what maintains it, mindset is what's going to get it. So people like there's a book that I read, uh, The Secrets of a Millionaire Mind by T. H. Ecker, and you're speaking about how there are some billionaires who lose it. I'm sure that if you lost all your money today, you'll be able to get it back. Because it's it's a money mindset. You can take all of the money away from you, but the skill is still there. And so the mindset, and you see, the thing about mindset is this it's a mindset. Mindset. Set means a collection of things. I think when people think about mindset, they think about one way of thinking. It's not just one, there's a collection of different things. Because there's a set, like when in school we used to have this they call it a math set. A math set with the set square, the compass, and everything. Because so it's a different set of things. So there are different things in our minds that contribute to our success or our failure. And so most people they haven't dealt with all the different types of sets of mindset they've received from their father, their mother, their school teacher who is who is broke. Your teacher is broke and he's he's teaching you something. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with school, but sometimes they teach you certain mindsets or they teach certain mentalities because a mindset is basically a set of mentalities. They teach you a particular mentality that can contribute to the reason why you are where you are right now. And so mindset is hard because you need to need to unwind all of those things, you need to find a way to unscrew all of those things before you can you can succeed. And once you have that, even if you lose your money, you're going to get it back. If you are back to rock bottom, you're going to get it back. And so, mindset has always been important. Mindset precedes money.

SPEAKER_00: 6:45

So, this is contradictory. Seeing as earlier, I said you can start a business without money. I mean, earlier, that's what I said. But as somebody who runs a retail shop or a retail business, money has been one of my biggest challenges in business. Because you have the ideas, you have the mindset ready, but you don't have the money to execute. That is really painful as a business owner. So I found money to be a huge stumbling block in my business growth. Yes, even though mindset is important, because the mindset of money is also important. Understanding money, understanding how to utilize money when you have it. Because there's some people who can have$1 million now and nothing changes in their lives because they don't know how to use that one million dollars, right? But there's some of us, if we get that one million dollars, we will make it work. But yes, so I would say money has been a biggest, one of the biggest challenges for me in business.

SPEAKER_02: 7:47

Yeah. So the thing about mindset is that, for example, if I put a random person in charge of a real estate business and I put maybe Kennedy in Japan, no money, like he has all his experience, he's gonna win. And it's not because he's probably richer or he's it's just because he has built a different type of mentality. And so you need first of all, in order to be a millionaire, you need to have a millionaire's mindset. If you want to be a billionaire, you have to have a billionaire's mindset. And so, what you need to do is that you need to first of all attack the mindset before because money is a result. I don't I don't think people understand, but money is a result of something, so it's money is not money is the outcome, money is not the cause, it's like it's an effect, not the cause. And so the the cause of everything is it begins with the mindset. Mindset is not the only thing, but mindset is it's it's always going to precede the effect. So since mindset is the cause and money is the outcome, the word cause or the law of cause and effect, that's what we have. So cause comes from the Latin when known as causa, causa means a reason, effect comes from the Latin one as effects, that means an outcome. So when you're talking about a reason, I'm saying money. So I'm basically saying that a cause is a reason. So mindset is the reason for the outcome, which is money. And so the moment your mindset is wrong, so most people get into many businesses and they fail, feel, feel, feel, feel. And they're wondering why am I failing? Because it's not just about the money. You could have 500,000 CDs and lose it all one day and you're done. But once you have the mindset of multiplying and maintaining, everything changes.

SPEAKER_01: 9:27

Fantastic. So now, the next point I have is one size fit all or a custom approach in business. Which one do you think is better when people are starting now?

SPEAKER_02: 9:37

For me, I'm saying a custom approach. Why? Because when you're starting, you're starting a business, most people are just thinking of everybody all at once. But I believe that you need to start with somebody that you are dealing with. So if you're you're running a you're running a hair business, you're thinking about maybe the modern young lady who wants the hair, or you want something like that. And so for me, I believe that you need to have a custom approach working with a streamlined group of people, somebody in who you are, who you're trying to you're trying to really work with. Tailoring your product for a particular group of people, I feel that's how you need to start.