Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
man come on we got to do better than
that I want to know how many born
entrepreneurs do we have in the crowd
all right nice
well I'm very much not a born
entrepreneur and that's very important
to know about me I know a lot of you out
there were selling flowers that you
plucked out of somebody's yard selling
them right back to them or you were
trading baseball cards or selling candy
lemonade stands all of that I was not I
was raised to be a good employee which
meant keep your head down do as little
work as possible and avoid punishment at
all costs and that literally is what my
parents taught me to do and that's what
I thought that a good employee did and
that was really how I started and so
really a bad track for somebody that
wants to ultimately become an
entrepreneur but to be honest I didn't
start out wanting to be an entrepreneur
I wanted to be a filmmaker I went to
film school that was my background I was
obsessed with human psychology that was
really the big driver for me and I
learned a lesson along the way which was
if you really want to control the art
you have to control the resources and so
that began my entrepreneurial journey of
really wanting to be able to make the
things that I wanted to make but to do
that you have to really be in control so
I met these two guys incredible human
beings because there were two things
about myself that I said so I grew up in
a morbidly obese family in Tacoma
Washington and a family that teetered
between blue collar and white collar and
I said to myself there are two things
about me that I know somehow in the
future I'm gonna make come true one
someday I'm gonna have six-pack abs and
someday I'm gonna be rich give it up I
had absolutely no idea how it's gonna
make either of those two things come
true but I really did believe to the
core of my being that I would someday
figure it out so when these two buff
bodybuilder guys who were very
successful entrepreneurs came across my
path and they said Tom you're coming to
the world with your handout and if you
want to control the resources you've got
to learn business you've got to get rich
so come with us we're building this
technology company we need somebody to
be a copywriter and this was back when I
was a good employee keeping my head down
doing as little work as possible and
avoiding punishment at all costs
they brought me into their world and
they said now don't think of yourself as
a copywriter you need to understand that
this is a startup so you can have any
job that you want in the company you
just have to become the right person for
the job and that was the first time I
really started to think about skill
acquisition and the notion of do you
need to be born with a certain set of
skills or are skills something that you
can acquire and that question has come
to really dominate my life because so
much of my journey has really been
predicated on my ability to actually
acquire skills and so I believe as a
very foundational belief that the reason
that any of us are here is for one
simple reason to find out how many
skills you can acquire that have utility
and then put that utility to the test
now if you're getting good at something
building something that exists in
service of other people you're gonna
have the energy and the passion and the
conviction that you're gonna need to
actually see it through but it all comes
down to whether or not you actually get
really good at that thing and if you
guys take nothing else away from what I
say today that is the core thesis
assists at the absolute center of my
universe I believe humans can get good
at whatever they set their mind to and
if you're willing to break yourself in
half you can become extraordinary so my
thing is if you really want to be an
entrepreneur you need to be prepared to
become capable of the extraordinary so
quest nutrition was a reaction so I knew
that I was gonna have six-pack abs and
that I was going to get rich I got into
this technology company as a copywriter
and I worked my way up very rapidly I
began to believe and see the truth of
the fact that a human can learn anything
that they set their mind to as long as
you're willing to completely pour
yourself into that and that's something
I cannot stress enough so many people
fact somebody just today in this room
came up to me and said I feel like I'm
doing too much Tom I want to enjoy my
20s what's your advice to me my advice
is sell your 20s I literally lost my 20s
they were completely gone I didn't do
anything with them other than work all I
did
understand growing up I did not view
myself as very smart and in fact from a
pure IQ standpoint I'm not that smart
and I'll say that IQ is really the
ability to process data rapidly and I
know that we all want to push it off and
say well EQ is equally important and all
that and it is it's great but having the
raw horsepower if you have it leverage
it and if you don't address it and so I
had to accept that I wasn't one of those
people that learn sings really fast so I
had to go head down and do a lot of work
and that was how I moved through the
company so very rapidly I took myself
from being hired as a copywriter to
becoming an owner in the company through
pure sweat equity I never put a dime
into the company but my performance was
so dominant and my desire to succeed so
freakish that the level of value that I
was delivering to the company was
extreme enough that they were willing to
give me a piece of the company so that
they wouldn't lose me okay we'll call
that being a lynchpin employee I don't
think everybody needs to want to run
their own company running your own
company takes a certain thing inside
Derrick talked about it in his talk I
think you've got to be driven by
something there's got to be something
that's propelling you forward some
sickness and if you know Batman and if
you know me you know my obsession with
Batman Batman is driven by a sickness
there's this dark thing inside him that
propels him forward if you have that
there's something that you need to build
and bring to the world that you just
can't shake you can't get rid of whether
you're a born entrepreneur or not just
to me they are very separate whether
you're a born entrepreneur or not is
irrelevant and I put that to the test
and I worked my way up through the
company I got ownership in the company I
became the chief marketing officer I was
making more money than I'd ever made in
my life and I had six-pack abs and it
was horrific and I [ __ ] hated my life
and I thought there's no way it's not
possible that I'm living the cliche of
money can't buy happiness like this is a
joke it's something that you see coming
10,000 miles off so how is it humanly
possible when I understand the power of
money
you guys know people are gonna chase
money forever right you get that so when
people tell you [ __ ] stuff
money not mattering let me tell you
right now it matters and it matters a
lot money is I promise more powerful
than you think
not less but it isn't at all what you've
been told and once you understand the
difference between what you're expecting
it to be and what it actually is then it
can become a useful driver in your life
but when you're just chasing money
unaware of the fact that money is inert
it does nothing money is a facilitator
money allows you to make your dream into
a reality
but that's it if you don't know what
you're trying to build if you don't know
what you're willing to die for money has
nothing to offer you so it really became
figuring out why I felt the way that I
did and the reason was I did not know
what my why was so yes we end up
building quest 57,000 percent growth in
the first three years but to understand
that you need to understand why we did
it
so I was miserable making the money that
I was making I thought this there's just
got to be a better way I actually went
to my partners and I quit I gave them
their equity back I said thank you very
much but I'm not willing to live this
life I'm not willing to feel miserable
inside that holds absolutely no interest
for me so I was gonna go do what made me
feel most alive and as I was driving
home I called my wife I did it I quit
that's it we're never gonna be in that
situation again I'm never gonna be
depressed this is we're gonna do
something beautiful
I'm literally pulling into the driveway
at my house and my phone rings and it's
my two business partners and they say
the now-famous words we could do this
without you
but we don't want to that allowed me to
reconnect to something other than the
money and for the first time I felt so
at rock-bottom that I wasn't afraid to
tell them the truth
I said here's the truth money isn't my
highest value camaraderie is my highest
value in business what I actually care
about is that feeling of brotherhood
what I actually care about is feeling
connected
the customer what I actually care about
is tapping into my passion and building
something that makes me feel alive
that's a real reflection of my actual
personality those things I care about I
don't actually care about money that
much and that was sacrilege at that
point in our relationship because we had
all taken a pact that we would always do
whatever was most profitable so if that
meant giving up a family vacation if
that meant going out to meet as a
business trio at 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday
these are all real things that we did
then we did it because we had taken that
pact so saying that was such a shift and
in that moment they said we actually
feel exactly the same way and we felt
that way for a while and in that moment
we all realized that you can get so
myopically focused on the money that you
lose sight of what you're actually
trying to do so you have to answer that
question
who knows simon Sinek all right
incredible human being he has this whole
concept to start with why absolutely
critical understanding why you're doing
what you're doing and I'm gonna tell you
in the rest of this talk you're gonna
see it throughout everything that I talk
about the world is changing and I cannot
say that emphatically enough I'm sure
there are goggles of Millennials here
Millennials are just the first wave of a
shift that is coming the world is moving
to a commerce style that is driven
entirely by impact what are you trying
to do where the consumer is going to
make a demand that you tell them what
you stand for that you tell them how you
spending your profits they want to know
and they're not gonna support your brand
unless you do that and we're gonna get
into that more and how it should affect
your business and how for those of you
that are in this for the right reasons
that really want to build something that
matters and you're willing to break
yourself the [ __ ] half to pull it off
this is the best news ever but make sure
you know your why what's driving you now
we live in a highly social technological
age but one thing I want you guys to get
very very comfortable with is the idea
from Elon Musk that once you break a
problem down to its physics you will
actually know what is and isn't possible
and I'm here to tell you as a marketer
your physics is the human mind and if
you don't take the time to study neuro
Anatomy to learn the brain to understand
emotion to read about how people make
just crazy weird decisions that are
totally irrational you'll never be able
to speak the language of your customer
so figuring out social media which I'm
sure is way overplayed in terms of how
we talk about it but way underutilized
in terms of its potential effect if you
can find the humanity in it
the idea behind technology isn't to form
fake relationships it's to communicate
and add value it's to show people who
you really are
it's to get to a world where you're able
to build authentic connection with your
consumer really think about those words
for a second because neither of them are
an accident authentic connection so you
as somebody building a brand you don't
get a hide anymore in your lonely office
with the whatever 8x8 inch window that
we saw earlier you've now got a step
forward and as somebody who I literally
lied about my birthday on my facebook
page because I was so convinced someone
was gonna use it to steal my identity
okay I had no desire to step out front I
had no desire to be the face of the
company or anything like that they
hounded me literally my chief marketing
officer a wonderful millennial hounded
me to finally go out front because what
he made clear was that there are two new
kingmakers which are authenticity and
transparency now why does that matter
because Millennials and Gen Z want to
have impact and they want to know how by
engaging with your company they can have
that impact and so that's one of the
things you're gonna need to make clear
in your marketing you'll notice I'm not
yet even talking about your product I'm
talking about the relationship that you
need to build with your community so how
did we get to 57,000 percent I got so
angry at myself for chasing money and
pretending like I didn't just want to
connect with people that I didn't want
to add value that I didn't want somebody
to write in and say your product has
changed my life I was so furious that
I'd wasted so many years of my
life doing that was eight and a half
years by the time we finally sold that
company that's almost a decade in my
life chasing money and at the end of
that decade I said never again and so
when we went into quest we said this is
going to be predicated around delivering
value and that's what we're gonna focus
on so showing people how not only your
product is gonna deliver value but how
your marketing efforts are gonna deliver
value now here's the thing if you're
gonna build a business at the end of the
day there is one thing for all the like
every wonderful beautiful stuff I'm
talking about building relationships
really connecting putting yourself out
there being authentic you have to know
how to build a business the rubber has
to meet the road at some point
understanding this pyramid of influence
in today's social world is exactly what
you guys need to understand and this
pyramid is exactly how we built quest
into a billion dollar brand from nothing
by the way we bootstrapped it we started
with like ten thousand dollars we were
making the bars by hand in the kitchen
that we rented by the hour it took like
eight or nine people seven or eight
hours to make twelve hundred protein
bars we now make 1.5 million a day okay
scale but how did we get there and how
do we get there so fast the pyramid of
influence at the top or the thought
leaders it's the people most people
don't understand okay they're very
bright and they literally they're the
ones winning the Nobel prizes but
they're not easy to understand for the
average person influencers are the band
of people that pay attention to the
thought leaders but make it accessible
to the masses
now the influencers in a highly social
age is the boon to your business and if
you can find them it's how becoming an
entrepreneur has been so radically
democratized your job is to find you in
thousand screaming fans find the most
influential thousand screaming fans that
you can people that really resonate with
your product they love it they use it so
for us at Quest we literally gave the
product away and we would write you want
to talk about unscalable we would want
write well-researched letters
each of these people showing them that
we knew who they were that we knew what
they were trying to bring to the world
and we thought that our product would
give them the unique ability to offer
something wonderful to their community
and that we didn't want to control their
message if you hate it tell people you
hate it if you love it tell them you
love it all we ask is that you talk and
because we didn't try to control the
message people felt way better about it
now when people think about getting
influential people they normally think
of these guys but in the way that things
have changed you should be thinking of
people like this now I'm guessing most
of you don't know any of the faces there
but I'll give you an example of a social
influencer anybody know jenna Marbles
all right crazy that will say that was
about 10% of you she reaches over 20
million people a day 20 million people a
day how did we get her to post with our
product a huge stack of product by the
way so somebody with a reach of 20
million
that's like primetime TV how did we get
her to post a photo for free with all of
our products we knitted sweaters for her
dogs because she's huge into her dogs
okay
so you want to identify your influencers
you want to add value to them in their
community engage with their content
figure out what it is it's meaningful to
them and make sure that you do it go
above and beyond sending huge stacks of
products for her along with the sweaters
for her dogs for her was just over above
and beyond nobody had done it and then
your goal is to build those
relationships into real partnerships
where it starts with getting to know
each other having something in common
and it becomes building a business all
right
don't mark it build a community there
are a lot of ways that you can engage
with your fans but the goal for you guys
is to really get in there give content
that delivers value to them engage with
them reply to them look at their page
give contextual responses it is a lot of
work but when you do that people feel
really known and understood and you can
get them talking to each other which is
incredible I could do a whole
long talk just about how to do that and
then make amazing impactful content that
is really I think the thing that's most
overlooked your content has to crush and
there's just no shortcuts to that and
when people ask me what the shortcut is
to making amazing content I know they're
gonna fail let that sink in if what
you're looking for is the shortcut I
know you're gonna fail
stop asking yourself how little you can
get away with and start asking yourself
how much you can bear at the end of
every talk that I give I will stand out
in the lobby today included and I will
answer your questions for as long as
there are questions to answer
I've done it for eight hours in the past
until the last question is answered I
will stand there that's how you add
value to your community all right what
if I told you guys your customers hate
your content don't sell you need to find
a way in today's world the marketing in
and of itself needs to be awesome it
needs to be something that I want to
watch I want to consume that adds value
to my life so if you look at the show
that we do it's called impact Theory
impact theory we don't charge for it's
not a revenue generator but the number
of people every day that write me and
say you've changed my life with the
people that you've interviewed on that
show you've changed my life I'm gonna
start a business that I wouldn't have
started without that I'm getting out of
a depression that I was worried was
gonna consume me now imagine I can build
a hundred thousand people that believe
I've changed their life a million people
that believe I've changed their life ten
million people that believe I've changed
their life what can I do with that when
you switch your mind from I want to sell
something to they're gonna want to buy
something just to be deeper in this
community that's when it gets
interesting and when your product is
real when your product delivers real
value whether it's a suitcase whether
it's a protein bar whether it's a
t-shirt it doesn't matter if you're
delivering real value and they feel like
you have materially improved their lives
they're gonna be with you and then I'll
leave you with this
do cool [ __ ] there's literally no
substitute for it and I hope that you
will leave today understanding that
you're not yet the person you need to be
to succeed and once you can embrace the
beauty of the journey of becoming that
person the person that is capable of
executing at the highest level the
person who is no longer worried about
getting a championship ring and instead
they are focused solely on becoming
capable of the championship performance
then you'll win and that brings us back
the reason you are here is to find out
how many skills you can acquire and put
them to service for something greater
than yourself
you do that you'll build a big business
thank you
you