857. Q&AF: Getting A Raise As A Top Performer, How To Be Calm & Developing Entrepreneur Mindset In Kids

On today's episode, Andy answers your questions on what’s the best to way to ask for a raise when you are the top performer in your company, how to develop the ability to stay calm and focused in stressful situations, and how to help your kids to develop the entrepreneurial mindset to set them up for long-term success in life.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:16Andy Frisella?

  What is up guys? It's Andy Frisella and this is the show for the realists. Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality. Guys, today we have Q and A F. Uh, that's where you submit the questions and we give you the answers. Now you can submit your questions a few different ways. The first way is- Guys, email these questions into [email protected]. Or you go on YouTube under the Q and A F episodes, drop your question in the comments and we'll choose some from there as well. Now throughout the week, we have shows within the show. It's not always Q and A. Um, tomorrow we'll have CTI. That stands for Cruise the Internet. That's where we put topics on the screen. We speculate on what's going on. We talk about what's true and what's not true. And then we, uh, talk about how we, the people,

• 1:01Andy Frisella?

  have to solve these problems going on in the world. Other times throughout the week, we might have real talk. Real talk's just five to 20 minutes and be giving you some real talk. And then sometimes we have 75 hard versus. That's where someone who has completed the 75 hard program comes on the show, talks about how their life was before, how their life is after, and how they use the 75 hard program to take control of their life. Now, if you're unfamiliar with 75 hard, it's the initial phase of the live hard program, which can be found for free at episode 208 on the audio feed. Again, that's 208 on the audio feed. There's also a book at andyfrisella.com called the book on mental toughness. You

• 1:45Andy Frisella?

  can get that book. It's not free, but it does go much further in depth than what the podcast does. So, uh, it has the entire live hard program. It has the entire 75 hard book. Inside of that book, it has multiple chapters on mental toughness and a whole lot of extra stuff as well. So that book is available at andyfrisella.com. Uh, with that being said, we are the largest show in the world that does not run ads. Now-

• 2:14Andy Frisella?

  I do have an ask and the ask is very simple. Uh, one, share the show, help us grow the show. If the show makes you think, if it makes you laugh, it gives you new perspective. If you learned some valuable skills, do us a favor and help us grow the show by sharing it. All right, we have a saying, we say around here goes like, don't be a hoe, share the show. All right, and then also, when you see First Form in your convenience stores, in your grocery stores, wherever you buy your stuff, uh, look for these First Form energy drinks and First Form snacks, meat sticks, uh, protein bars, and give us a little support that way. That goes a long way for us. So that's all I ask. Um, so that's that. What's up?

• 2:58Speaker 01

  What's going on, Yolkness?

• 3:00Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, I'm getting there. Yeah, getting back.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, man, no, it's a, it's a great day, man. We got, we got, got some good questions here.

• 3:08Andy Frisella?

  Really?

• 3:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I think so. It's to be determined.

• 3:12Andy Frisella?

  Comment, so what do you got?

• 3:13Speaker 01

  I got three good ones for you.

• 3:14Andy Frisella?

  That's what I thought.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I got three good ones for you, man.

• 3:16Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, alright.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  Everything good with you though?

• 3:19Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, yeah, man, everything's good. Uh, you know, staying focused, feeling real focused, uh, more focused than I felt in quite a long time, feeling good, uh, excited about the future. You know, got a lot of new stuff getting ready to launch, as you know, uh, but you guys don't know really yet. Um, but the biggest thing you do know about, which is the, the MFCEO project's coming back. It's going to be on an app, uh, and we're going to inform you about that when it drops via email. I'm not really going to talk about it on the show. Uh, I'm not going to go out there and talk about it on social. This is for you guys who have supported me for many, many, many years. Um, and you can get that, uh, you know, through the email.

• 4:04Andy Frisella?

  So if you're not on the email list, I know most of you guys are because you get the Andy Grams every day. Go to my site, andypresella.com, register for the Andy Gram, which is a daily email that you're going to get. I'm not going to blow you up with a bunch of bullshit every single day, 15 fucking emails a day. I hate that shit too. We're not going to sell your information to other people. Go on there, sign up, you're going to get valuable information sent to your inbox once a day. And, uh, and then you'll get an email about when we drop the app. So.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:33Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, I'm excited about that, bro. As you know, we've been recording those for quite some time.

• 4:40Andy Frisella?

  And I'm having fun recording them dude like it's it's really my wheelhouse to talk about business and success and winning and mindset and the psychology behind winning how you have to think how you have to act and then obviously the techniques of how to win these are the things I enjoy to talk about the most and it energizes me as opposed to talking about the current events which sometimes leave me frustrated as they do you but you know I think it's important that we need we need to understand both especially as entrepreneurs you know we have to understand the social environment because if we don't have good soil meaning freedom to plant our seeds in they can't sprout and so in addition to that

• 5:24Andy Frisella?

  we need the techniques and you know we have some big problems going on in the world and in this country but the reality is is those problems are solved by each of us individually and like I say to you guys all the time personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion and that includes becoming financially free of the system building things becoming the best possible version of ourselves building creating becoming everything that we were here to be and once we become great our family picks it up when our family picks it up our neighbors pick it up when our neighbors pick it up our community picks it up and the standard of everybody raises and we all have a unique responsibility and an independent responsibility

• 6:07Andy Frisella?

  to do that and so I'm excited to you know sort of merge these two things together that I've done over the last 10 years you know we spent the first five years doing MFCEO project we spent the last five doing real AF and I'm really excited to to really show you guys what we have you know cooked up for you it's it's much different than the old MFCEO where we have a lot of people who have gone on to create eight nine figure businesses that credit that information for them doing so

• 6:40Andy Frisella?

  We're gonna be bringing those people on, you know, not your typical internet quote unquote influencers, but actual people just like you guys to talk about how they did it, what information was the most valuable, uh, the things they've learned through their experiences. So it's gonna be, it's gonna be cool, dude.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  Uh, I'm excited for it.

• 6:57Andy Frisella?

  I'm excited to do it, bro. Every time I do it, and I know you're usually not there when I do it, but these guys are all there and like dude, every time I get up, they'll walk out of there. I'm like, fuck yeah. That was fucking awesome.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Laying down the meat.

• 7:10Andy Frisella?

  Dude, it's just, no, it's just, it's just, I feel like it's tactical, real information that can improve people's lives today and that feels good, right?

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Well, the time is ripe for it too.

• 7:24Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, we have a lot of young people who have been lied to, um, for their entire school career. That's a whole nother thing. Um, that's a whole nother reason for me doing this is I realized that a lot of our young people have been misled and lied to and told things that aren't true and indoctrinated into ways of thinking that, you know, and they're figuring it out and now they're like, oh shit, what do I do now? And, uh, you know, we have parents spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their kids to college where they're not even really learning anything, uh, from people who have never done anything. I, I'm, you know, like, we gotta fix this shit.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:03Andy Frisella?

  And, uh, I'm just excited to do my little part of it. You know what I mean?

• 8:06Speaker 01

  A hundred percent, man. Well, personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion. So that's makes some, some people rebellious today.

• 8:12Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, let's do it.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  Guys, Andy, question number one. Uh, Andy, I'm not even sure where to begin with this question, um, but I'm looking for your opinion on my situation. I recently received my yearly performance review, which I met or exceeded all expectations, um, was a top performer with top quality results. And all year long, my manager told me, quote, "I have no items for improvement. Just keep up the great work." Overall, it was a great review. However, when discussing the merit increase that is supposed to be based on the performance review, he gave me a 0% increase. To say I was, am disappointed in this is an understatement, especially when his reasoning is that he wants to give

• 8:58Speaker 01

  others on the team more in order to raise their salaries, as I currently make more than them supposedly. Truthfully, I don't believe anyone else's salary is my business, nor do I believe I should be penalized for something that has nothing to do with me. I had an incredible year, and I feel I deserved a matching merit increase. It should be noted that this is our only opportunity per year to earn an increase. So, two questions for you, Andy. If you were in my situation, what would you do? And then, as a business owner, what are your thoughts on this? And would you ever do this to your top performer? Thank you in advance for your insight. Entrepreneurs, man.

• 9:35Andy Frisella?

  Well, look, I think that's a fair, I like, I like the way that that question was asked, because clearly, this person understands there's two sides to the equation here, and they're not being bitter about it. That's a, the way that that was presented was very professional, and I appreciate that. So, where do we start here? Okay, first of all, if you really are the best performing person, and they promised you a raise, and they didn't give you one, that's kind of fucked up. Like, that's not, that's not indicative of...

• 10:15Speaker 01

  You have been gaslit.

• 10:16Andy Frisella?

  Maybe, maybe. That's what I'm saying. That's not indicative of normal behavior, in my opinion. I am a big believer that if I ask someone to go do things, and they do them, and exceed those expectations, in rewarding them for that performance. I think most effective businesses feel that way. But there could be a couple other things that are playing into this that you may not be aware of. From the business owner's side, you know, profitability could be down. There, maybe there's not enough money to actually give the raise, and maybe he doesn't want to say that to you because he doesn't want you to fucking quit. Okay? Maybe he's telling you this excuse, which sounds absurd to me.

• 11:00Andy Frisella?

  So that you don't think that like he's just stiffing you or she's just stiffing you. And you know, I don't, I don't know why they would tell you that because that makes no sense. Like I'm going to reward people who are less performers than you. Because they're getting paid not enough. Yeah. Well, then they should perform. Yeah. Okay. Simple. Yeah. Yeah, it's very simple. And also your employees' life decisions aren't the company's responsibility to reward them for. Like a lot of people are poor managers of finance. And then they equate that to being not paid enough. No, you're paid appropriately. You spend too much fucking money. Yeah, right. What are those $300 fucking Jordans doing on your feet? Right.

• 11:45Andy Frisella?

  You know what I'm saying? Uh, so.

• 11:50Andy Frisella?

  There could be a lot of different things going on here. Um, what I would do is I would ask to have another meeting for clarification. And I would say, look.

• 12:03Andy Frisella?

  And I would have no qualms about having this very direct conversation. I would say, look. I did everything you asked me to do. I'd have the proof. I'd have the data. Okay. And it's very important that when you go to ask for a raise, that you always bring the data. All right. Because a lot of people will just bring you arbitrary shit. Emotions. I did this, I did that. I, well, what's the proof? Yeah. Where's the proof? How much did you drive revenue for your job? How much profitability did you have? What other things did you do that were in the scope? What projects did you complete? What projects did you start and complete? All of these things have to be written down and tracked.

• 12:45Andy Frisella?

  Otherwise, your boss or whoever's making this decision is going to be like, well, this sounds like bullshit. Even if they know it's true. So it's important for you to track those things. I would sit down, I'd have the information ready. I'd say, look, I was told this, I did this with the expectation of this. And this isn't happening, and I don't think that's right. And I would see what they say. And maybe they get, you get a little more transparency on what the decision was made around. Because it does sound like the decision or the excuse that they're giving you doesn't, it sounds like bullshit. Um, I just, I can't make, I can't make sense of that. Why would you tell someone?

• 13:25Andy Frisella?

  That you're going to pay the money that you were going to pay them that they earned to other people. To get them more productive. That makes no sense. So that sounds like bullshit. If anything, give them the money. They'll see that and like they get more productive or they fucking quit. Absolutely. That's the correct move. So I would ask for a conversation and I would be prepared to walk out of that meeting into another career if you don't get treated or get at least an expectation. There might be a situation where the guy says, hey, look, what's the guy's name? Does he give his name? Nope, no name. All right, Steve, look, Steve, I love you, bro, but I gotta be honest with you, man. Like this hasn't been the best year. We're in a situation now where we really need to fucking get these other guys to perform

• 14:08Andy Frisella?

  because I don't have the profitability or the margin to pay you this extra money. Uh, you know, how do you know that the owner's even getting paid? We, you know what I'm saying? So there could be a lot of different things happening and I can tell you, there's been times in my career where we didn't have enough money to get raises and there were people that deserved them and I couldn't afford to give them to them. And when those situations happened, I'd have a frank, frank discussion with them and I'd say, look, here's where I'm at, bro. And I would be very transparent and I would say, what do you suggest that I do here? And then that becomes a very productive conversation because usually if that person is really invested, like it sounds like this person is,

• 14:49Andy Frisella?

  they will get on board with, with you, the owner, to help the other people start to perform so that we can get in a position to give the raise. You see? So that's what I would do. I would have a conversation. If it goes well, he's probably going to be transparent. There's probably going to be a better reason as to why they didn't give you that. If it doesn't go well, he's probably going to feed you the same line of bullshit and you're going to have to understand that this might be an indication that no matter how hard you work or how much you perform, you're going to be capped at your earning potential in that organization, which means you have to find a new organization. Okay, so it's a tough position, but you know, most, let me give you the,

• 15:33Andy Frisella?

  the real way to get paid more money while we're talking about it. Here, here's the real way. This is the only way that fucking works. Okay? You have to be so fucking valuable that the company can't afford to let you walk. Okay, that is it because you you have to be so valuable that you can literally leverage the company into giving you more money. No one's going to give you more money. No one's going to bless you with riches. It's not gonna fucking happen.

• 16:04Andy Frisella?

  We are one of the few companies that I think pays people more when we start to see it automatically without having them have to ask. Now, sometimes they do have to ask because we have a lot of employees and not everybody gets the proper recognition. But in most cases, companies are not like that. They will force you to have a conversation to get the money. And how many years you've been there doesn't fucking matter. How many days you showed up doesn't fucking matter. Participation doesn't fucking matter. None of these things that most people think matter actually matter. Here's the truth. If you perform to a level that is undeniable and it's undeniably valuable to the company.

• 16:46Andy Frisella?

  You have the leverage because there's not many people out here that actually operate that way. So your goal should be to outperform expectations in such a way that you could now walk into this person's office and say,

• 17:01Andy Frisella?

  Hey, listen, man, uh, you know, you guys didn't pay me and I was told that we were gonna do this. And I did everything I was supposed to do. And here's the deal. Like, I know I'm the only one in here that can fucking do that. So, and I'm not trying to be a dick, but dude, you gotta pay me what I'm worth or I'm gonna find another place to contribute to. And it's not, I'm not being mean, I'm not being, but I, you know, at the end of the day, dude, I've got responsibilities. You have responsibilities, totally understand that. But I think we can both agree that there's nobody in here doing this. And whatever that is needs to be fucking way better than everybody else.

• 17:39Speaker 01

  I guess that's what you're saying. Like, you gotta be careful. I have the data so it doesn't just come off as ego.

• 17:43Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, right. Like, well, it does come off as ego. If you come in there without the data, it comes off as bullshit.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:48Andy Frisella?

  Look dude, most CEOs are people that man, if your manager is in charge of giving you the raise, he's probably gonna know the data, but he probably thinks you don't know the data, right? So it's very important to track your own progress, track your own performance. And reality is dude, a lot of times when you start tracking your performance, you figure out that you ain't that fucking good. Ain't doing shit. Okay, so it's a good way to audit yourself on your own performance. Um, but yeah dude, the ultimate goal to getting paid more as an entrepreneur is very simply, exceed expectations and track what you've done and then go in there and fucking leverage the shit out of it.

• 18:29Andy Frisella?

  Like, if someone comes to me for a raise and it's not, they're not that good, I'm probably not giving them to it. Like, cause that's the level of, of, of expectation we have, bro. Like, I will pay more money for great, but I'm not paying more money for what you're supposed to do. You know, we have this problem in society where people think that if they do what they're supposed to do and they do it long enough, that eventually they just get raises. And maybe that is the way in, you know, uh, corporate America where you get a cost of living raise of one and a half percent, two percent every year. But I'm talking about career advancement raises. I'm talking 10, 20, 30, $50,000 a year difference, right? We're not talking about 2%. Yeah, right.

• 19:13Andy Frisella?

  Um, for showing up. And I think a lot of people, including possibly this guy, cause I don't know, but a lot of people think that performing status quo and doing the job is deserving of a raise and it's just not, it's not, okay? That's what you are paid to do. You are paid to do the job. You are paid to work hard. You are already paid to do these things. And a lot of people act like these things are extra. They'll, they'll be like, oh, I'm doing this. I'm, yeah, no shit, bro. That's what the fucking job description says. You know what I'm saying? I show up on time, I work hard. Those are not reasons for raise. That's what you're supposed to fucking do, okay?

• 19:58Andy Frisella?

  And by the way, I understand that other people may not do that, but you ain't, you ain't other people. Okay, and regardless of other people do that or not in your company.

• 20:10Andy Frisella?

  You're probably still not going to get the raise for just being at the average level.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  For just doing the minimum. Actually, I want to bring this up too, because you know, they mentioned, you know, you, you, you, you talk a lot about the self-improvement aspect, right? And it's like, you know, I remember a coach used to tell me like, you don't, you know, practice, you don't just show up to game day and like, and not, you know, miss your practices and think you're going to fucking perform. And when they told this person that, uh, oh, you know, just keep doing what you're doing, there's no, you know, you have no items for improvement. I think that's bullshit, but I mean, why do you look at that? Like, I mean, it's like, I, I, I find it hard time believing people are telling their employees like.

• 20:47Andy Frisella?

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you this dude, here, here's what I think from the, the information that was sent to, what I was just told, which by the way, I don't get these questions ahead of time. I don't read off a teleprompter. I don't fucking have diagrams behind the camera over there that I'm fucking drawing.

• 21:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 21:04Andy Frisella?

  Off the other diagram. Like I'm, this is a real answer. I think off the data that you have relayed to me, that you work in a company that is not employee focused or career driven in terms of escalating the intrapreneur slash employee career. A lot of companies will try to hold their top performers by saying shit like this. They will say, oh, you're doing a good job. Just keep it up. And you're obviously wanting more. Um, and so what I would do is start to try to find a company that's looking to aggress. I would bet that if I went to that fucking company right now, I bet that the ownership is not aggressively growing the company.

• 21:45Andy Frisella?

  I bet they are in that fucking coast mode, or they don't care enough to actually grow and get aggressive. If you're with an aggressive company, they will pay people who are top performers over and over and over again to continue to progress and perform. I have guys that started with me at $7 an hour that are now C-level executives doing very, very well. I have guys who own franchises do very, very well.

• 22:11Andy Frisella?

  Those promises that I made them are kept as long as they keep their promise, which is to continue to get better and better and better. And how do you get better as an entrepreneur? One, you do everything you can when you're there. And two, and this is the one people hate, you do everything you can when you're not there. Oh, I don't get paid for that. No shit. You're getting paid in the future for what you're doing now. Okay, so what you're getting paid for now is what you did in the past. So to get more, you're going to have to do more outside of the requirements to improve your skill set to become better, which that pay will cap to if you don't continue to get better. So if I were you, I would just follow what I said.

• 22:55Andy Frisella?

  I would make a report of all the things you did. I would include all the books you read, all the things you did on the side to improve, any programs you went through, any, any courses or seminars you went to. I include the cost and the investment of all of these things that you're doing to get better with the metrics of how you got better. And I would say, pay me or I'm fucking leaving. That's what I would do. I love it. But most people can't do that because they don't have the ability to go fucking say that. They can't back it up either. Right. So people love hearing this. They're like, yeah. Fuck yeah, I'm going tomorrow. But, but remember, if you go in there with garbage, you ain't getting anything.

• 23:31Andy Frisella?

  And so, dude, we have this situation in culture and where people believe that just doing the job and working hard and showing up is some, they get dessert, they get paid a premium for that. Bro, I don't know if you guys understand what's going on in the world, but most people are replaceable right now with a fucking AI bot that will do every single fucking thing that you do perfect. So if you intend on keeping your job, You're going to have to remove this idea of mediocrity from your brain and really step on the gas. Otherwise, eventually, and remember I said this, you will end up on some sort of

• 24:14Andy Frisella?

  subsidized government income that the government pays you to stay the fuck home. And yeah, you get to run around through the fields every day, but you're gonna be broke and you're gonna be eating fuckish shit. Okay, cuz that's where the world's going. The world is going to a place where mediocre performers will not be employed and they will be replaced with technology. And it's, we're not fucking that far away. So I would say we're in it within a year or two of that, really happening. And that might be long. That might be a long shot. So if you decide that you really want to build a career and you really want to earn money and you really want to be successful, you better figure out how to be of massive value and you better do it right now. Otherwise, it's gonna be too late. You're gonna walk into your place of business and they're gonna

• 24:57Andy Frisella?

  say, all of you guys who are, you know, the bottom half of the company, you're all fired.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, sorry.

• 25:03Andy Frisella?

  That's what, that's what's gonna, dude, that is gonna happen at mass scale. It's,

• 25:09Andy Frisella?

  I've been warning people about this for years. Okay, and we are within a 24 month window of that happening. So if you even think for a second that you would like to have more money and build a better career and do all these things that represent what the American dream is, you better fucking get good right now. Like, and I mean, real good.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love it, man. I love it. Guys, let's keep this, uh, let's keep this moving. We got question number two. Uh, you know, we were talking about some, some storms and tornadoes and shit before we started recording. Uh, and then this question, you know, we talked about, you know, before a tornado happens, it gets real, real calm for the fucking storm. So that's what this question centered around. Uh, guys, Andy, question number two. Andy, I've always admired people who stay calm and focused under pressure. But I tend to panic and second guess myself when things go wrong. What can I do to develop more grit, uh, and keep my composure in stressful situations? Are you a calm before the storm guy?

• 26:09Andy Frisella?

  What do you think?

• 26:14Andy Frisella?

  There's no doubt, but Well, hold on. Listen, there's two kinds of people. Okay. There's the people that when shit goes wrong, they panic. Freak the fuck out. And then there's the person when shit goes wrong, they they're calm while everybody else panics. Which one do you think I am? Oh, you're the latter. Yeah. No doubt. When the shit gets real bad, I'm the calmest motherfucker in the room. You know why? Because I know that panicking is not a productive thing. You have to remain focused and you have to understand that no matter what is going on, no matter what circumstance, or what tragedy, or what emergency it is, there is a course of action to get yourself out of that situation. And you cannot identify and execute on that course of action when you're in a panic state. So you have to understand that

• 27:01Andy Frisella?

  while naturally there are two kinds of people, you can become the kind of person that stays calm when bad things happen. If you develop confidence in what you know to do when bad things happen. Okay? And how do you do that? Well, there's a saying in tech that says, only the paranoid survive. Steve Jobs said it, Zuckerberg said it, fucking all the tech entrepreneurs, it's it's a Silicon Valley thing. Only the paranoid survive. Well, what that, what does that mean? What does that mean? What it means is this. Wherever you are in your life, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're an intrapreneur,

• 27:45Andy Frisella?

  whether you're just a regular human being. You, if you are floating through life and you are not anticipating anything in life and you're just free to go through life. When emergencies happen, you are not prepared. You are shocked. You look at, you you say, whoa, what the fuck's going on? And you have no contingency of how to move through it. In business, the reason only paranoid people survive in business is because they are consistently looking for the landmines that you could potentially step on. And they are always looking to avoid those before they happen. So for me, as you know, I'm chairman now, I'm not CEO.

• 28:30Andy Frisella?

  Uh, I'm not an active CEO in any of the companies.

• 28:35Andy Frisella?

  I'm a chairman, but still my job is to visionary, think of where we can go and then also, and more importantly, think about where the fuck we could go wrong and build in fail safes along the way. And because I've been doing that my entire life in business, it translates over to my personal life where in my day to day life, I'm like, okay, this, if this could happen, I would do this. If that could happen, I could do that. And it's just a framework of thinking because there's no way for you to develop a contingency all at once for everything.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 29:13Andy Frisella?

  Like if you're just, if you're just starting today and you're like, fuck, I need to become more aware and I need to become more calm and I need to like, understand, you know, that when things go wrong, I need to keep myself, you know, level. And you try to do that everything today? Yeah, it's going to drive you fucking insane. It's just a framework of thinking that you need to adopt. And if you're a business owner, or you're a CEO, I'll give you an extra thought exercise here. What is going to happen when AI takes over? Have you thought about it? Thought about what you're going to do? Have you thought about where it could be utilized, where it shouldn't be utilized, and how you're going to blend the human element and the AI element together? Have you, have you really thought about it? Because you should, because here's what's going

• 29:57Andy Frisella?

  to happen. All your competitors are going to adopt the fuck out of it and they're going to cut their fucking, uh, their costs and their profit margins are going to go way up. And that means they're going to have expendable capital to fucking fight you with. So are, are you even thinking about it? You see what I'm saying?

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Uh, they're using chainsaws. You're still using that.

• 30:17Andy Frisella?

  Are you, are you thinking about the dynamics of social media and how people, uh, communicate? And what's going on in culture and how they talk to each other and, and all the trends? Like, are you thinking about those things? Or are you just letting those things happen and then reacting to them? And this ultimately, in the entrepreneurship world dictates what people call visionary entrepreneurs from everybody else. Okay. And what I would call very fucking rich entrepreneurs versus moderately successful entrepreneurs.

• 30:50Andy Frisella?

  The moderately successful entrepreneurs, they react. Shit happens, they react. Shit happens, they react. Trends in culture happen, they react. Visionary entrepreneurs are above that and they are looking at it and they are pivoting before the thing happens. That way, when it happens, they're already ready to go. You see what I'm saying? Hundred percent. And those people are perceived by everybody else as trend setters. When in reality, they are just looking down the road further than everybody else, right? One of my gifts, and I think you guys will all, you guys here will all agree with that. You guys out there may not, but I'm great at it and I don't give a fuck what you think.

• 31:35Andy Frisella?

  Proof's in the pudding. I can fucking see down the road, probably as far as anybody else. I can see bumps in the road. I can see corners that other people don't see. I can see pivots that people don't see. And this is why when you guys listen to CTI and you're like, fuck, Andy never misses. Well, that's because I'm utilizing a skill that I have utilized my entire life to analyze what's going on in the world. And yes, sometimes I do miss and sometimes I do miss in business. But because I've been doing it for so long, I'm conditioned to doing it. Okay, so one of the reasons that I can stay calm when shit starts to fucking happen is

• 32:16Andy Frisella?

  I am used to looking at all the contingencies in every decision that I make. And I think that all of you would be much more successful if you would just start to do that in your life. You know, don't be one of the people that reacts. Be one of the people that anticipates and pivots before the reaction is necessary. And it makes you that much more of an effective operator. But like dude, you know, I'm not sure if that's a skill.

• 32:45Andy Frisella?

  That people are born with, quite honestly, um, I think, I think I was gifted with it and I practice it. Yeah. But I think regular, a regular, uh, person who wasn't gifted with that, who's up, they can learn that by just changing their frame of thought from, you know, oh, this happened. So now I'm going to do this, right? Uh, you know, it doesn't matter if you put the umbrella up, once it starts to rain, like you need to have the umbrella with you before it starts to rain. You get what I'm saying? Hundred percent. So we have to always be looking for performance indicators and culture trends and emergencies and shit that could happen. And, you know, believe it or not, I have all that shit in my brain and you will too, if

• 33:30Andy Frisella?

  you start to see the world that way. Yeah. And so I would encourage you guys, if you want to stay calm during things that are not, you know, easy for people to stay calm in, you have to prepare yourself ahead of time, right? Yeah. Like, this is going to sound fucked up, what I'm about to say, but like, when you have your first dog, right? And, and you have this dog and your dog suddenly dies, okay? And it's fucking horrible. It's one of the worst things ever, especially when you don't have kids. Mm-hmm. When you get another dog, you look at it a little bit differently and you start

• 34:13Andy Frisella?

  to think like, okay, well, eventually my time with this dog is going to end. And so you value the time more and you're also more prepared when the time does end. Mm-hmm. You understand? So it's not as traumatic as it was the first time. Does that make sense? Hundred percent. So, so if you think about that in the, the, the bad things that can happen in business, you know, you, you could kind of be ready to stay calm when things happen. And another way this comes about, guys, is experience. Okay? When you're first, like dude, real talk, my first five, six years in business, I was a fucking nervous wreck every single fucking day and, and, and it was because I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.

• 34:56Andy Frisella?

  I was just like, dude, and we were on the edge of going out of business the first 10 years, literally, bro, like for the first 10 years in business.

• 35:08Andy Frisella?

  I mean,

• 35:10Andy Frisella?

  dude, if I had fucking $2,000 in my bank account, I was fucking rich. No, for real, dude, I'm being serious. Like, if I had fucking, like, there was a lot of times where I was, I had like $300, you know, and I, I was just fucking making it work, dude, anything I had to do. And when you're in that position,

• 35:31Andy Frisella?

  you, you are forced to learn very quick and you're forced to deal with stress. You know, the, the way you get good at dealing with stress is by being exposed to a lot of stress. You know, it's not running from it, it's not hiding from it, it's being, it's almost like getting into a cold plunge the first time, right? You get in the cold plunge and you're like hyperventilating and freaking the fuck out. But then after a few minutes, you're, you calm the fuck down, right? And, and someone who's done the cold plunge 100 times, you understand that that first 30 seconds is gonna be hard.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:05Andy Frisella?

  And then it's gonna get calm. But the first time someone does that, you can't explain that to them. So they spend a lot of time, you know, staying in that heightened anxiety, very stressed, like reactive state, instead of having the experience to anticipate what happens, what is going to happen and how to react. And here's the good thing. You know, for those of you guys who are just starting in business,

• 36:31Andy Frisella?

  you gotta understand that like all these mistakes that you make when you're small, it's really good that you make them when you're small. You can't beat yourself up and say, fuck, I, I fucked that up, I suck. No, dude, when you first start, you're supposed to fuck everything up. And you're supposed to not repeat those mistakes. Because once you get from, you know, let's say you do 100 grand a year, 200 grand a year in your very first business. You know, the internet will tell you you do fucking 100 million a year on the first day. But like, dude, let's be real, okay? Let's just say you're not doing a lot. And you're stressed and you're uncomfortable. Well, you're making mistakes, bro. And, and gaining lessons and those lessons like that, that you learn when you're small,

• 37:14Andy Frisella?

  end up saving you tens of millions of dollars when you get big. So like all the shit you're going through, you're going to be able to recognize that at scale. Yeah. So, so like You'll see it again. Yes. And you're like, oh, I fucking know that. Here's what I do. That's a do. Right. Right. And what happens now is, you know, the younger people in the office, when something happens, they get fucking freaked out and they come to me and I'm like, that's it. Yeah, right. Okay, do this, this, this, because I've already seen it before. And this is the value of not quitting, right? Just because you suck in the beginning, just because you're making mistakes in the beginning, does not mean you're terrible, bro. Everybody does that. Fuck. I made them.

• 37:57Andy Frisella?

  I think one of the biggest blessings of me is I made so many mistakes early and I'm smart enough to fucking learn from them. And they happened really early in business, which allowed me to be much more successful in short timeframe. So, you know, we can't look at, I mean, I'm getting off course here, but the point is, is that we can't look at failures and, and, and things that we do wrong as a negative, especially when you're small. And even when you're big and you do have a big mistake, you, you know, you, and maybe it costs you $5 million. Well, when you're in a position where that's going to cost you 50, you won't make that mistake. So they're always valuable. And dude, as an entrepreneur, there's no college you can go to and get a truly entrepreneur degree where you can go out and be an effective entrepreneur.

• 38:42Andy Frisella?

  It doesn't fucking exist. Those are a course you could buy. There, there's just too much that you're going to learn on the fucking job. And you have to understand that that's part of the college of entrepreneurship. The college of entrepreneurship, you don't pay tuition to, you pay it in the cost of the mistakes that you make over the course of your life. So when you look at it like that and you say, oh, well, I made a mistake. It cost me $12,000. Well, that's just $12,000 towards the tuition of your entrepreneurship PhD. That was your first semester. You see what I'm saying? So when you start to look at it differently like that, you don't feel as bad about your mistakes. You're like, oh, well, I just paid fucking to get my PhD again. You know what I'm saying? Payments due because I fucked up.

• 39:26Andy Frisella?

  But ultimately, guys, look, to stay calm during times of crisis, you have to practice staying calm. It's like any other thing. And when stressful things happen, you have to realize that panic doesn't help. Preparation helps, knowing what to do in those situations. And that comes from experience or a framework of thinking about these things naturally. Because you're responsible for them in your life. And so this is how I naturally think. There's a good chance, if we ever meet in person and we sit down and we have dinner, or we're sitting around smoking a cigar, you're gonna see me drift out into fucking space.

• 40:08Andy Frisella?

  My eyes will get fucking glassy and I'm not present in the conversation. And the reason I'm not present in the conversation is because I'm analyzing fucking a million shit, million things all at the same time. And usually what I'm analyzing is whatever idea we're talking about, like let's say you're sitting with me DJ, and you say, "Hey, I have an idea for this and this and this." And then I kinda like, you see me stop listening? What I'm doing usually is I'm playing that idea out over the course of, yes, yes. Yes. So it's a very important skill. Because if you rehearse these things in your head, when they happen, you know what to do. And I don't think enough people do that.

• 40:48Speaker 01

  No, I was gonna tell you this too, because I feel like this also is a piece of it. It's not only do they not do that, but they're not confident in their ability to actually execute. If that shit happens.

• 40:58Andy Frisella?

  Listen dude, it's not just that. It's another big part of it is this. People expect to go down the path and they expect it to be, what they expect it to be in terms of hard is they misjudge the hard, okay? It's a thousand times harder than what you think. And it takes a thousand times longer. And so when I say they perceive it to be easy, they perceive it to be hard, but it's actually easy shit. So. If you have a real expectation that this is gonna be the hardest fucking thing you ever did, and bad things are gonna happen, and this could happen, and that could happen, and this could happen, if you say that to someone, they're gonna think you're fucking paranoid, and you should be,

• 41:43Andy Frisella?

  because those things do happen. And when they happen, what separates a great entrepreneur from an average one, or a poor one, is the great one has already seen this happen and knows what to do ahead of time.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  100%, man. I love it, man. Well, guys, we got one more question. We got our third and final question. Andy, question number three. Andy, um, I have your children's books, uh, and absolutely love it. My daughter is nine, um, and has started making friendship bracelets. Uh, she sells them at school to make money for things that she wants to have, but I refuse to purchase them for her, because I don't want her to be spoiled. Um, and I want her to have that sense of earning it. Do you have any tips for me to continue to foster this mindset with her as she gets older? I remember you, uh, sharing that you sold light bulbs, and lemonade, and baseball cards. What kept that entrepreneur mindset with you as you grew up?

• 42:39Andy Frisella?

  I'm confused on the question. So he's saying he doesn't wanna buy what?

• 42:44Speaker 01

  So he doesn't just wanna buy her shit that she wants?

• 42:47Andy Frisella?

  Wasn't she making them?

• 42:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, but that's why she's doing it. So she has-

• 42:51Andy Frisella?

  Wait, wait, wait. So he's saying he doesn't wanna buy her, like, toys?

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, right, right.

• 42:55Andy Frisella?

  He wants her to earn it?

• 42:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:56Andy Frisella?

  Got it. Not the supplies to make the bracelets?

• 42:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:59Andy Frisella?

  Got it. Um, look, man, that's, that's an escalation of vision and goals, and you, your job as a parent that wants to cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit, and your daughter is to, one, surround her by information, does it say how old she is? Nine. Okay. Surround her by entrepreneurial data and information. Kids' book, entrepreneur books, like the ones that, that I write, um, those are a good place to start. But, you know, continue to do that. Like, one thing that my dad did for me was, he would always, like, point out businesses. So like, we'd be driving down the road, and he'd be like, "Look, there's, you know, uh, Acme Tire,

• 43:40Andy Frisella?

  and the, the guy that owns that, he does this, and this is, he's got 50 locations, and he lives in this house, and he does that." And then we would, like, talk, like, "Well, how, how did he get started?" "Well, he started here," and we would kinda like, talk through the process, and- My dad was always really good about pointing out examples of people who started very small and had become very successful. And what that did was that instilled a belief in me that I could do that too. That's not what most parents do. No, I know. They do the opposite, bro. They say, oh, that guy got lucky. They don't even understand what the fuck they're doing. They don't understand that when you tell your fucking kid,

• 44:22Andy Frisella?

  or you come home because you're in a bad mood for your job and you motherfuck your boss, you are fucking that kid's psychology up for their whole entire life. Okay? I don't care if you got your ass chewed out by the boss at work and you're mad at him today. You shouldn't go home and say that in front of your fucking kids because your kids are then gonna adopt a mentality that, you know, oh, man, everybody who's rich is an asshole. Then they're not gonna even pursue the idea and they're gonna spend their whole life fucking watching cartoons and living off your fucking shit and never actually developing. So, as a parent, now, I don't have kids, but I've raised a lot of other people's kids. And the one thing that I have always been

• 45:03Andy Frisella?

  made sure that they understand is that they are very capable to do anything if they're willing to pay the price to do it. And that was something that I was taught and I don't say lucky very often, but I got real lucky. I was taught that as a kid. And so if you want to teach your daughter that, I would recommend letting her see it, touch it, make it real. This could mean like, what's she into? What does she like? Does she like cars? I liked cars. So you know what we did? We would go to the car dealerships and see the cars. All right? And it wasn't like, you know, like, we would just go look at them. Super important. Yeah, like you have, oh, you want to live in a big house? Let's go look at some houses. You know, to live in that house, you gotta earn this much money. How are you gonna earn that much money?

• 45:48Andy Frisella?

  Right? That's a lot of friendship bracelets. Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. So, but, but dude, so you ask what? You ask how it worked for me. Well, how it worked for me was I was exposed to all these things. And that drove my entrepreneurial curiosity about how could I put myself in a position to live that life? And, you know, dude, I mean, through my high school career, dude, I tried all kinds of different ways to make money. Most of them failed, you know, and we don't talk about that enough. Um, everybody thinks that, you know, starting the supplement business was the first thing I ever did. No, dude, I did a whole bunch of other shit. Didn't

• 46:29Andy Frisella?

  work. So, you know, continuous exposure, the right information, making it real, encouragement in the fact that she can do it, just like other people have done it and showing her examples. Um, and then showing her the result and making her comprehend like, you know, hey, uh, now you're selling 15 friendship bracelets for a dollar each. That's $15. Now that house is, is a million dollars. So how many friendship bracelets do you have to sell to get to that? Well, I gotta sell a million. Well, how are you going to sell a million? How do you do? Can you sell a million to people directly? Well, no. So how will we do that? And then, you know, play a little game of, you know, how would

• 47:14Andy Frisella?

  we scale the business on paper? You know what I'm saying? Sometimes those turn into real businesses. There's time, there's kids, you know, outs, the outliers, you know, people will talk about the, the YouTuber kids that make millions of dollars. But like, dude, there's plenty of kids that came up with really good ideas as very young kids because kids are not bound by the restraints of society yet. They're very creative and there's a lot of kids that, you know, 10, 11, 12 years old, came up with an amazing idea and turned it into a multimillion dollar company. So, uh, you know, it's just the environment, bro. It's exposure, it's connecting the dots for them. It's making them understand it's making them listen to productive information, read productive information, um, you know,

• 47:57Andy Frisella?

  and helping them create that entrepreneurial curiosity that eventually leads to a, a breakthrough. Yeah. And something will, the math will work on something. You know what I mean?

• 48:09Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 48:10Andy Frisella?

  And then, and then it, they work, it works out.

• 48:12Speaker 01

  Do you think that, you know, now, I know, we talk about a lot of this on the CTI episodes, but not to get too deep in it. But I mean, do you think that's what we need right now? Is we need to be fostering more young?

• 48:22Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, of course. Of course. Look, man. America's the greatest country in the world.

• 48:29Andy Frisella?

  But we missed a generation and a half of people telling them the truth. Okay, a lot of people for 15 years were told, everybody gets a trophy. You know, it doesn't matter as long as you try hard. No, it does fucking matter. Are you producing results? Or are you just trying hard? It does matter if you finish first or 18th. Those things matter in real life. So we have been in a number of other things. But we have been, our, our children and generations have been lied to by idealistic, you know, at minimum, idealistic, teachers, at maximum, intentionally handicapped, which is what I believe, to fuck up society over here.

• 49:12Andy Frisella?

  So yes, it's extremely important. I think it's the most important thing we can do. And I think that ties right into that personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion because dude, your kids are fucking watching you, bro. They are paying attention to you. They will become exactly who the fuck you are. You don't understand that yet. I am, for better or worse, pretty much a carbon copy of my fucking dad. Okay, real talk. All right.

• 49:40Andy Frisella?

  You, your kids will become who the fuck you are. And however you want these kids to fucking be, you better be it right now. And that's just the truth. So if you teach them all the shit that you were taught and you look at where you are in life, and you realize that you weren't taught the right shit, you have an opportunity to break that cycle. By improving yourself, by living at a higher standard, by getting your shit together, and showing them what the fuck it actually takes to win. So, yeah, to answer your question, I think it's the fucking most important thing. Which is why I work so hard to try and get through to the young people and why I'm coming back to the MFCEO project.

• 50:20Andy Frisella?

  Because we have to fix how we think and act and behave as citizens. And, and not just citizens of here, but citizens of, of the earth. Like, Everything comes from us, man. Everything comes from the example that we set. And if we're not setting the right example, then your kids will be just like you, dude. Like, whether you set the right example or not, if you set the wrong example, they're gonna end up just fucking like you. They're gonna think like you, they're gonna talk like you, they're gonna have the same biases as you. And if you don't like those things about yourself, you're gonna have to use some discipline to become something different, so that they become something different. And dude, it's a parent's responsibility to put their,

• 51:04Andy Frisella?

  I think, the definition of a great parent is a parent who puts their children intellectually in a position to do much better than they did. And a lot of parents don't do that. A lot of parents let their ego and their own failures and their own ways of thinking cloud the reality that they are a pretty shitty example for their kids. And they say, "Well, that's just what we are." And then they tell their kids that, and then they're disappointed when their kids turn out to be shitbums. Okay, so we have to have honest conversations about what we are, what example are we setting? What do I not like about my situation? And what do I wish was different?

• 51:49Andy Frisella?

  And how do I change it so that they will not be like me? And that's a hard thing, dude. That doesn't feel good. That doesn't feel good to say, "Man, I fucked up my shit." But dude, your ultimate legacy on this earth is gonna be what those fucking kids do. So you haven't even failed yet, bro. You could totally change everything just by taking some responsibility for yourself and the example that you set. And so when you ask me, "Is that important?", there's nothing more important.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  I love it, man. I love it. Well, guys. Andy, that's a hell of a way to start a Monday, man.

• 52:24Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. All right, guys, we'll see you tomorrow. Don't be a hoe.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  Shit, the show.