Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Neil Patel - Entrepreneur & Digital Marketing Expert | Building A $100,000,000 Marketing Agency
Transcript
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- 1:38Scott for $1,000 off. I used to pick up trash and clean restaurants for a living. I did that when
- 1:42I was 15 for a while. People laughed at me when I was doing it. She just never judge a book by
- 1:46his cover because never assume the worst case from people. What does it take to dominate the
- 1:51digital marketing world? Today's guest knows firsthand. From hustling as a teen entrepreneur to
- 1:55building multi-million dollar companies like Crazy Egg, Kissmetrix and Neil Patel Digital,
- 2:00he's shaped how businesses approach SEO and content marketing. What's the right strategy at the
- 2:05right point for the entrepreneur from zero to a hundred million? The person is usually great at
- 2:08building from zero to ten million revenue is usually not the person from 10 to a hundred and beyond.
- 2:13You've got to find the right person for the right job. Forbes calls him a top 10 online
- 2:17marketer. Millions read his blog. His tools like Uber Suggest are industry staples. But beyond the
- 2:22accolades, he's a relentless innovator, navigating the future of marketing in an AI-driven world.
- 2:28In life in general, if you focus on what you're doing and you enjoy it, you're great. Whatever time
- 2:33you live, you can put in 110% into whatever you're doing and what you love. You're better off
- 2:38than living a miserable 70 years and not doing what you love. Do what makes you happy because I
- 2:44spent my life going after money and business just makes me happy. How do you build a brand that
- 2:49lasts and what's next for digital marketing? Let's find out.
- 2:55Welcome to success story. I'm your host, Scott Clary. The success story podcast is part of the
- 2:59HubSpot podcast network. HubSpot not only supports this show, but they support entrepreneurs. That's
- 3:04why it's such a huge fan of HubSpot. And I'm very grateful for HubSpot for supporting the show
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- 3:53Neil, you've been in this game for almost 20 years, over 20 years now. So I think the most
- 3:59obvious question, because people have seen your content, they know your origin story. What's
- 4:04keeping you in the game 20 years later? Love, I truly enjoy what I'm doing. You know, if I've had
- 4:11a pick one thing, if you love what you're doing and you enjoy it, you'll keep doing it. If you don't,
- 4:16then you're going to move on to something else. When I look at most people who have been doing
- 4:22something for a long time, it's never in the money. It's usually their passionate, almost
- 4:29always the number one answer is that they're passionate, and they just are on this mission,
- 4:32and they're just trying to do it because they don't know anything else. They rather spend their
- 4:37time on it. I mean, you've gone through so many different iterations of types of businesses.
- 4:42What's one thing that you look for in like a signal or a barometer of whether or not you love
- 4:49something because you've gone through software, you've gone through agency, you've done multiple
- 4:53acquisitions. What's the thing that is like, yes, I want to spend my time on this. I think you
- 4:59also spend at least in your past life a lot of your time on sort of one project at a time.
- 5:06Yeah, I tend to just do one project at a time. I tend not to do multiple projects, and the reason
- 5:12for that is if you don't have the focus, you're never going to do well. There's not enough time in
- 5:19the day for one project. I don't know how people do two or three or four, and the common response
- 5:24always get back as well. Look at Elon Musk, and I hate to say this, and I'm not trying to talk
- 5:29trash on other people, but they're not Elon Musk nor am I. That's very rare. He's a richest person,
- 5:35probably worth $400 plus billion. I think the last time I checked, that's not pretty much
- 5:41almost anyone else in the world. So don't look at him as the gold standard on what you should try to
- 5:48achieve. Look at him as he's anomaly, and people who tend to do well have just focused all their
- 5:55efforts on one business. I think that's probably, I completely agree. I think one of some of the worst
- 6:00advice for people starting out is to diversify, diversify income streams, diversify, like if you
- 6:06look at the people that, you know, the thought leaders, the people look up to yourself included,
- 6:10you made your money on one thing, and then once you have that asset built, then you can move on
- 6:14to the next thing, but then you can, but I think it's like the laser focus that is required to be
- 6:18successful, because if you don't have that, I mean entrepreneurship is hard enough without laser
- 6:23focus. Here's a kicker for you, right? Who do you think the richest person in the world
- 6:28should have been right now in today's world? Who the richest person should have been? Uh-huh.
- 6:36I don't know. I'm thinking of like a Warren Buffett, or what's what's the name you're going to
- 6:41drop? Bill Gates. He should have been the world's first trainer. And why is he not? He met Warren Buffett
- 6:46and decided to diversify, so he sold off a lot of his Microsoft holdings. Microsoft has what?
- 6:51A $3 trillion market cap. He owned a little bit less than half, right? He would have easily been,
- 6:57and then you get dilution when you give people shares and all this kind of stuff, but like,
- 7:01he would have been easily the world's first trainer. That's wild. So I mean, I don't think he's
- 7:05even after the divorce, even after the divorce, he still would have been the world's first trainer.
- 7:10Did you know Steve Balmer was a CEO of Microsoft and Steve Balmer has a higher network than Bill Gates
- 7:16owning a fraction of what he had. I didn't know he had a higher network. I didn't know,
- 7:19yeah, that's insane. So it's just because he didn't. And people ask Steve Balmer, he's like,
- 7:26I bleed Microsoft. He's like, he didn't really try to diversify by tons of businesses. I know he
- 7:31owns a clippers and stuff like that, but like he didn't really try diversifying or anything like
- 7:35that. He's just like, I just blooded Microsoft and believed in it. So I just kept my shares and
- 7:39didn't do a ton of other stuff. So he has a higher network for living a simpler life than Bill Gates
- 7:45who sold a lot of shares, created this crazy family office, did tons of other things.
- 7:51You know, most people also don't know this. Goldman Sachsman just Steve Balmer's money is easier
- 7:56for him to do that than Bill Gates building all these family offices and finding all these
- 8:01ventures to invest in and I can go on and on, you know, four seasons is owned by him.
- 8:06Like the amount of businesses he owns is ridiculous. He took the Warren Buffett playbook. And I'm not
- 8:11saying, you know, it's a shitty playbook. Look, I'm not rich like they are, right? Or a better way
- 8:17to put it is, I'm rich because it depends depends what you define rich as, but I define them as
- 8:21a whole differently. I call that wealthy. I'm not wealthy. I'm rich. Yeah. By a nice house,
- 8:26nice car, but what the league therein is, oh, I bought a sports team. It didn't work out. Let
- 8:32me just go buy another sports team. I'm still have so much money. It doesn't matter. I can buy five
- 8:36of these ten of these, you know? Yeah. No, it's interesting because even through, okay, so that's
- 8:41an interesting point that you made because I agree completely, but you've also made very conscious
- 8:46decisions throughout your life to pivot from like at one point software. So you went from software
- 8:51into services. Now you do acquisitions. So you do focus on different things over the course of
- 8:56your career. Do you not? I've only focused on the marketing industry. If you look at all my
- 9:02businesses, they're around marketing. If you look at even my current business, software makes it
- 9:06a large chunk of our revenue and profitability. Software is probably the most profitable division.
- 9:12We do M&A to grow the one thing. You know, yes, we have three software pieces. Two of them were
- 9:18acquired. Okay. So one wheelie found. And then if you look at services, a lot of the revenue was
- 9:26generated organically, but we're acquiring regions with other offerings and other region,
- 9:33we're offering or acquiring other marketing businesses and other regions with different service
- 9:38offerings to expand, right? You'd risk cross selling. So yeah, we're doing more, but we're doing
- 9:45the same stuff. It's just we found it cheaper to acquire than to build from scratch. That's
- 9:50really lowly different, but you still got. Okay. So you still got your, you know, you still got
- 9:54your blinders on. You're only focused on this one thing, but you're just growing it through all
- 9:58these different ways. I got it. So
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- 11:50If you think about some of the smartest lessons about even right now, how many people do you have?
- 11:55I think I was watching my first million you have over 900, probably over a thousand employees
- 12:00at this point. I think that was two years ago. That business does over $100 million a year
- 12:07with NP digital. What would be some of the advice that you would give an entrepreneur that's starting
- 12:14out at all the different stages of growth? So say zero to 10 and then 10 to 100. Obviously you
- 12:21grow through acquisition. You grow through different product service offerings, but you didn't do
- 12:24that all at the beginning. So what's the right strategy at the right point for the entrepreneur on
- 12:29this journey from zero to 100 million? I think it's going to vary for entrepreneur to entrepreneur,
- 12:34but this is what I've learned. The person who's usually great at building from zero to 10 million
- 12:38revenues, usually not the person from 10 to 100, and then usually have a different person from 100
- 12:43and beyond. If you look at our organization, my co-founder was a CEO from zero to 18, I think,
- 12:54I think our second year was 18 million in revenue or something like that.
- 12:59And he was a CEO till then. I think it was year three. He put in a president who has helped us take
- 13:05us to 100. I don't know if the president helped us get us all the way to 100 or not. He helped us
- 13:12grow in more than double and double. But I know we put in a CEO who replaced my co-founder a few years
- 13:21after that, right? So my co-founder is a CEO that a president and then the CEO. The CEO that we
- 13:27have in place, he worked one of our competitors called I Prospect. He was a president there. He
- 13:35was originally the CEO climbed up to be the president. And then if he stayed, I'm pretty certain he
- 13:41would have been the CEO. They've hit him up multiple times to try to get him back as well.
- 13:46And when you look at him, I think I prospect at that time, they had four or seven thousand
- 13:53employees. Now I'm thinking they're like 13,000 plus because we've merged in a few other companies
- 13:59into the fold. But he's the right person to try to take us to a billion. The question is,
- 14:04is will we get to a billion in my lifespan? I have no idea. And what I would say is it's very
- 14:12different skill sets. If I ask my CEO, like talk about entrepreneurship and starting company,
- 14:18he'll tell me he can do it all. I love the guy did that. He's amazing. He's way better than I
- 14:23am at managing companies. I would not hire him though to start a company from scratch. Even though
- 14:29he says he can do it, in my opinion, and I could be wrong on this, I don't think he has a
- 14:36personality in the fit to start something from scratch. I would bet on him all day long to scale
- 14:42a company in the marketing services space. Amazing at that, right? You got to find the right person
- 14:47for the right job. And I think that's what people really mess up on. And that's why they struggle
- 14:53to scale. If I had to pick the biggest lesson I've learned over my career other than picking and
- 15:01going after a big market, it would actually be how to hire. And hiring can solve your problem
- 15:09and really create growth that no matter what stage you're at. And it's really universal on what
- 15:14you're looking for. And that's really finding someone who's worked for multiple competitors of yours,
- 15:23who's continually gone promoted at both those places and been there for a while because that means
- 15:27those corporations find that person valuable, not that they claim they did everything, but more so
- 15:32the company is giving them promotions with means they're actually doing a good job. Yeah. Those
- 15:37are the people you tend to want to hire because they're the ones who had just come with the 10x
- 15:40experience to figure out how to scale you faster. I think that that's smart advice. So you know,
- 15:44I did ask, I asked the tactics on different stages of growth, different revenue numbers for your
- 15:50company. Well, how do you grow it? How do you, what's the strategy? But at the end of the day,
- 15:54the strategy is the people, the people figure out what you've got to do. It's the people and a lot
- 15:59of the people that we use this model for worked out our competitors who are doing 10, 20 million in
- 16:05revenue when we were smaller and they help bring a lot of that to the organization. Now,
- 16:09some of those people aren't with us today because they're one at the right fit in my opinion,
- 16:13right? They could have, they could disagree with me to scale to 100, right? So then you go and find
- 16:19the people who are great at scaling to 100, then you find the people who are great at scaling to
- 16:22doing and so forth so long. The biggest issue that people, so I love the strategy, look for people
- 16:29that have had promotions because then there's proof that they've actually done the job. They're not
- 16:32just giving you lip service and they're not just telling you that they've done it because
- 16:35and multiple promotions, not one promotion. There's a big difference. A lot of people get promoted
- 16:40once. Very few people get promoted three, four, five times, right? If they're continuing to get
- 16:45even promoted that many times at an organization, it means they really get out what they did.
- 16:48I've had a conversation with several friends, I'm sure some of them are mutual friends about
- 16:54people that are very good at interviewing, even at the executive levels. See, sweet levels are
- 16:59very good at interviewing and not much else. They bounce around between see, sweet position,
- 17:03a see, sweet position, which is, that's a very scary thing for a founder to understand that some
- 17:08people are just great at interviewing and they look good and the resume looks great. Other big
- 17:13companies, well-known named companies have hired this person for a period of time, but they're
- 17:19actually useless at their job. I think that this hiring strategy of finding some with multiple
- 17:26promotions, it kind of de-risks the hire a little bit. It does. You really have to find the
- 17:33right person for the right job and I'll give you a great example of this. I've been offered to be
- 17:37a CMO for publicly traded companies more times than I can recall or even count on one hand, right?
- 17:44I would be a terrible CMO. Just quite frankly, I'm an amazing individual contributor. I'm amazing
- 17:53growing organization, even if it's extremely large, with a small team. But to be a CMO of
- 18:00an organization that has 100 plus thousand employees or 50,000 employees, I'm not a great fit.
- 18:06How many people would be a marketing? I'm a terrible manager and yeah, I can put someone
- 18:11else underneath me. I'm just really good at just being an individual contributor and I can work
- 18:18with small teams of three, four, but I'm terrible just working with teams of like 300, 400,
- 18:25especially being in charge of them. And this is why I'm never a manager.
- 18:29I know that you scaled NP digital. I think it was something like to 30 or 40 million in revenue
- 18:36just with your own personal brand. So you actually like taking this idea of being an individual
- 18:41contributor to an extreme because you built your business just on your name. But is that,
- 18:46do you think that the comment rate in entrepreneurship with entrepreneurs, they're very good at,
- 18:51they're very good at getting things off the ground, but they're really bad at managing people.
- 18:54If you look at like the psychological profile of a great entrepreneur,
- 18:59no, I wouldn't say that's common. I wouldn't also say that's uncommon. I would say what's more
- 19:04common is the entrepreneurs usually get out one or two things and they just usually excel at one or
- 19:09two things. And they're just exceptionally good at that. The ones that are successful and they
- 19:13just double down on it. I just want to take a quick break and thank the HubSpot podcast network
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- 22:06When you look back at some of the early successes, so you had you had crazy, you had kiss metrics,
- 22:14obviously some success, some things didn't work there. What would be some of those early lessons
- 22:18that really helped you build MP Digital from the ground up? The recruiting was one.
- 22:25The second was was understanding the type of people I get along with in organization.
- 22:30So I'll give you a great example of this. I took over marketing later last year in 2024,
- 22:35all right? We're recording this in 2025. I took it over for the whole organization. When I'm saying
- 22:40I took over marketing, I took over marketing for the company, not our customers, our company.
- 22:45And we're running paid ads for our own business. So I was running paid ads and we have a big
- 22:53internal team and we also use contractors when we need to use contractors. And you know, one of my
- 23:02partners, Nick Roshan, was this like, dude, you would be the type of customer that would just
- 23:08have a lot of red flags and we would not want. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like,
- 23:13so Solo who works on the marketing, worked for the contractor in Brazil who just whips something
- 23:18up in the same day. And he tested out some Facebook ads for me. He's just like, he got him up on
- 23:26Friday. You fired him by Saturday because I knew it wasn't going to work based on the early
- 23:34results. And then he's like, you already hired another contractor by Saturday morning. And you
- 23:40had new campaigns up and running by Saturday afternoon. He's just like, you just have unrealistic
- 23:46expectations, right? And by Sunday, I recorded new ads like in a studio, like professional ads,
- 23:55film crew, scripts, teleprompters, lighting the whole Shabang. They already started getting edited
- 24:02by Sunday night. By Monday, the campaigns were up. And I didn't just record one or two ads. I think
- 24:08I recorded like, I don't know, 13, 14 different ads. And they were up pretty much within 24 hours
- 24:16of me recording them. And I go in and I get involved in the campaigns and I adjust them myself
- 24:22if I need to. But I just expect the world and I expect people to move on my timetable, which is
- 24:28seven days a week. And I don't care if it's a holiday. If I don't have the people working directly
- 24:35underneath me that just gel with me culturally and are willing to do whatever I want when I want,
- 24:43it just doesn't work. I think I don't have this Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. or 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- 24:52like, this is not how I operate. You know, like I will message team members on the weekends. And
- 24:57I probably message them at the same frequency on the weekends, sometimes more than the weekdays
- 25:01because I have more time myself. And I expect my changes and the requests to be fulfilled right
- 25:07than in there, even if it's unrealistic. I know that a lot of people, a lot of great entrepreneurs
- 25:12move fast. Like speed is everything. I think a lot of entrepreneurs I work with think the same
- 25:16way as you, but it's not easy to find people that are on board with that in terms of like hiring.
- 25:21And so we're talking about hiring executives and people at the C-suite. How do you find people
- 25:28that are disinvolved in your mission that they actually want to respond on the weekend and they
- 25:33don't just turn and move on to another company that doesn't ask them to do that? It's really easy.
- 25:39When you interview them, you tell them they have to be a player coach. So if they're not the ones
- 25:42who can manage people's greatest requirement, but two, you got to get in the trenches and get dirty
- 25:48yourself and actually do the work. And the third thing is I tell them I expect people to work 24-7.
- 25:54And I'm very realistic in the interview. And I'm like, if you're not going to work 24-7,
- 25:57this is going to work out. The fourth thing is is I tell them I'm going to compensate you really well
- 26:02and I'll give you a percentage of the profits. So we have a profit sharing pool. And if you're
- 26:06amazing and you can crank and kill it for us, you'll get hooked up. If not, this isn't going to work
- 26:11out. I'm just super direct because that way you don't waste time. Yeah. I think a lot of people like
- 26:18I think both sides bullshit a lot of a lot of the time in the interview. They both bullshit. So
- 26:24the employees bullshitting about what they can do and what they want and how they want to work.
- 26:27And then the hiring person's bullshitting about what the job actually requires. And then you create
- 26:32this resentment and then you imitate it. And it doesn't work. And I tell people like if this
- 26:39isn't work, I'm going to lay you off right away. Like you only last a week or two before I just
- 26:42fire you. Yeah. Right? Like I'm just super direct and it rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
- 26:49And so be it. Yeah. But then you find the right people. You find the right people.
- 26:54Some of the other things that I've learned too from my previous ventures that helped me with this one
- 26:58is I didn't understand the concept of a tam early on in my career. And I remember when I used to
- 27:05raise venture capital, everyone would be like, what's the market opportunity? So you just paint
- 27:08this picture. There's an amazing big opportunity to try to do research and you find the stats and
- 27:13data that back up your viewpoint. So that way you can raise money. And I never understood the
- 27:19concept of just going after a really, really massive market because when you go after a really
- 27:25massive market, if you take a fraction of it, you know, a fraction of a percent, you're still making
- 27:30crop load of money. And I remember I was meeting up with this private equity guy named Michael Delaney
- 27:36who was trying to buy our company. And you know, I wasn't really interested in selling and I was
- 27:42pretty direct with him. He flew to Vegas anyways. And he pretty much told me during the meeting.
- 27:49He's like, you know, the marketing space is like a really big punch bowl. You go to the party.
- 27:56It's big enough where it doesn't matter how many people show up, everyone's going to get
- 27:58drunk because it's just big enough. And over time, you know, I really understood the concept of
- 28:05going after a big market because you're putting a lot of effort whether you're going after a niche
- 28:09or a big market, might as well go after a big market because it just makes more money.
- 28:13And I would say the last big learning that's helped me with this organization versus my previous
- 28:19ones is churn as a killer in businesses. The more you churn, the worse you're going to be,
- 28:24I'm a B2B entrepreneur. I learned that in this space, if you go after RFPs, which is a request for
- 28:31proposals and you go after the enterprise, it takes a lot longer to get the business, but they stick
- 28:35around a much longer. So I focus on that because it's what I understand and what I'm good at,
- 28:40right? Like B2B sales and marketing, going after enterprise, don't sell the consumers.
- 28:46And it's okay to take longer to get revenue, especially if you can keep it for a very long time.
- 28:52When you, a couple of thoughts, those are all great lessons, a couple of thoughts. So for RFPs,
- 28:57that's a really important point. One thing that I've experienced with my background is also in B2B.
- 29:01If you win an RFP, you actually become the incumbent and you can actually help the company write RFPs
- 29:06going forward. And that can actually really play to your favor. Some companies are so big
- 29:11that they're required to get like two, three responses. But if you can write the RFP yourself,
- 29:17I mean, you're already like 70, 80% of the way they're to winning it. And that's something I've
- 29:23seen. Yeah. We've never been able to write RFP. And most of companies we work with when they
- 29:29issue out of RFP, they send it out to like 10, 12 corporations. And it's in their mandate that
- 29:35they have to pitch, you know, like more than five or six. So it's a longer shop to close the deals,
- 29:42but we're okay with it. Yeah. I think I've seen it in tech before, where it's not explicitly
- 29:47like writing the RFP, but the person that you sold to a year ago was like, hey, what would be,
- 29:52what would be your solution if you were going to do this? And then sometimes your solution is so
- 29:56unique. In marketing, it's probably a little bit, it's a little bit more of a commodity than some
- 30:01very, very unique tech solutions to a degree. But if the solution's so unique and no one else can
- 30:07really do it, then the RFP is asking for something only one company or two companies in the world
- 30:11can do. Then you have a pretty damn good shot of winning that, winning that RFP. You mentioned
- 30:16something else though that I think is really interesting. So you go after large tabs. I know you
- 30:19spoke with us before about how tam is probably one of the more important things that you value
- 30:23when thinking about a new business opportunity. But obviously, then the question is, okay,
- 30:28so blue ocean, everything's, there's so much competition. What's the strategy to stand out when
- 30:35you're going after large tam blue ocean opportunity? You don't have to stand out. That's the big
- 30:40lesson I learned over the years. You just have to go out for big enough tam and if you don't stand
- 30:44out, you may not win the majority of the market base, still make a crap load of money if you
- 30:49execute well. How do you and I think we don't stand out our biggest pitches. We're independent.
- 30:57We're not publicly traded. We don't have investors. We do whatever we want when we want. No one
- 31:01tells us what to do and we, this allows us to over service the client and over deliver in.
- 31:06We're winning a lot more awards than most our competitors. We're pushing harder on the
- 31:11marketing front. We're much more hand holding and personalized and we try to go above and beyond
- 31:16because we don't have the bureaucracy. A lot of my competitors got gobbled up by private equity
- 31:21and when the market turns sour a few years ago and they go, we got to cut a ton of staff. Well,
- 31:26we got to do this and we got to do that in the next thing, you know, they're just not doing as well
- 31:30because they're optimizing for debt payments. Well, I don't have those issues. How do you decide
- 31:36if a market's too small? We usually just go and look at other organizations within that market to
- 31:44see what their revenue is or industry and see if it's worth it for us. And what is smaller,
- 31:49big, it's all relative based on what the goal of entrepreneur is, but we're looking for a market
- 31:54where people spend more than a hundred billion a year because then you have a shot of making
- 31:58some decent money. Thank you. That's sweet for supporting today's episode. Now what does the
- 32:02future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers, bull market, bear
- 32:07market, inflation up, inflation down. Honestly, I just need a crystal ball. But until we get one
- 32:13over 41,000 businesses have found the next best thing. They future-proofed their operations with
- 32:19NetSuite Biorecle, which is the number one cloud ERP. Imagine having your accounting, your financial
- 32:25management, your inventory, your HR, all flowing together in one fluid platform. Here's what makes NetSuite
- 32:32different. It gives you one source of truth for your business. You get the visibility and control
- 32:37to make quick, confident decisions while others are guessing you're working with real-time data
- 32:42insights, forecasting. You're basically looking into the future of your business with actionable
- 32:48data. Whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you
- 32:53respond to immediate challenges and helps you grab your biggest opportunities. And speaking of
- 32:58opportunities, they put together the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at NetSuite.com slash
- 33:04Scott Clary. This is the playbook for understanding how to use AI for your business. The guide is free.
- 33:10Go to NetSuite.com slash Scott Clary. That is NetSuite.com slash Scott Clary.
- 33:18If you think about sort of what your focus is on right now, I know you said that you're never
- 33:22going to sell NP digital. Why wouldn't say never, but I'm not planning on it.
- 33:28And the question is, why would you want to build something that you don't want to sell? What's the
- 33:32rationale? I enjoy it. I know. I get it. A lot of entrepreneurs from the get go. They just
- 33:38want to move speed run entrepreneurship, sell the thing, move on to the next. Yeah. And I'll be
- 33:43clear. There's probably a day where I'm going to end up selling it. And the reason I say that is
- 33:46when I'm old and my bones are broken, you know, they're breaking in a brittle and I can barely walk.
- 33:52There's going to be a point where like my kids or someone else isn't going to want this, right?
- 33:56Or the team isn't going to want to take it over or whatever it may be. It's very, it's more
- 34:02realistic that there's a transaction than not a transaction. When I say don't want to sell it,
- 34:07I'm 39. You know, I can go at least another 15, 20 years. That's what I mean when I'm not really
- 34:14going to sell it. Like when I'm 60, 70 years old, I don't think I'm going to care, you know,
- 34:20for work as much. Although my wife really disagrees with me, but I personally don't think so because
- 34:27you know, we've had so many offers before. And my wife says like, you think you can just retire?
- 34:32I'm like, yeah, I give a tire. And I remember during one of the holiday periods, you know,
- 34:39people are working. And I don't want to disturb them during Christmas and stuff. You know, I'm not
- 34:45the grinch. And we have house staff, the house staff within here either. They're sort of like
- 34:51mopping the floor and vacuuming and cleaning because I'm like, I don't know what else to do.
- 34:55My wife's like, so you think you really can retire and not work? She's like, you're going to work
- 34:58until you're dead. And I'm like, I don't know if that's the case, but she's probably more
- 35:02right than I am. One thing, one thing that I've heard is like somebody who is always looking for
- 35:08progress, probably very similar in terms of we always want to accomplish the next thing,
- 35:11as do many people that listen to this show. But one helpful strategy is to try and find progress
- 35:17in other parts of your life. That's the other thing too that you can do now. Sometimes the only
- 35:21part of your life that you're looking for progress in is your business. Yeah. I was like, I don't
- 35:26really have any hobbies other than business. But then that's the thing. So like when you have
- 35:32when you have no help around the house, we have nothing else to do, like you're just a kind of
- 35:36person that just needs to go do something, needs to go fix something, needs to go make something
- 35:41better than it was yesterday. It's a good quality, but it can also drive you crazy.
- 35:45If you're not careful, you got to have an outlet for that shit. Yeah. So someone asked me a
- 35:49question. I forgot one of this was, but it was less than a month ago. Okay. They're like,
- 35:54would you rather be a billionaire like with a cone head like oddly shaped head
- 36:02or not make as much money and have a six pack? And I don't know why they asked me this question.
- 36:06I'm like, is this even a serious question? And they're like, like, yeah, but we already know
- 36:14you're going to pick the six pack. I'm like, what are you talking about? Give me the cone head,
- 36:17give me billions of dollars. I'm like, what are you talking about? You know, and it's just like,
- 36:23like a health. I have a personal trainer. I work out five days a week. All right.
- 36:29And when I work out five days a week, like, I don't have a six pack or anything like that.
- 36:34You know, the other day, I was eating Girl Scout cookies and mixing it in with vanilla ice
- 36:38green, you know, to help maintain my well, it was delicious and nominal,
- 36:42the ice cream, you know, I was like, crushing in the them in there. And, uh, you know,
- 36:50I was doing that to help maintain my weight. No, I don't eat unhealthy like that every day.
- 36:54I actually really clean for call it, you know, 90% of my meals, 10% of meeting like trash,
- 36:59but it doesn't matter. I work out quite a bit five days a week for at least 45 minutes to hour each
- 37:06each of those sessions. I walk 10,000 steps a day. I eat clean majority of the time.
- 37:13Don't care for a six pack, but I work out and eat healthy and take supplements on all this kind
- 37:17of stuff because I want to live law, right? Because I love life. Um, but yeah, it just goes to show
- 37:25at the end of the day, you know, like you have goals and you don't have goals or you have
- 37:32goals and passions and mine is just business. And I'll give you a random tangent. You know,
- 37:39I have a lump on the back of my head. At first, couldn't figure out what it was, went to so many
- 37:43specialists, uh, did MRI CT scans and they were trying to figure out if it was cancer or not, right?
- 37:54Um, and I thought it was just a cis at first and went to a few people like, no, this isn't a cis,
- 37:59this is something else. So I remember when I was getting my MRIs back, uh, you know, the guy
- 38:05was supposed to tell me like, yeah, it's a cis or no, and you just cut it out and move on, right?
- 38:09But they're just like, the other doctors were like, no, this doesn't look like it. And one was
- 38:13doing like, I think it's called a sonogram, like what they put on a belly to see if they're pregnant,
- 38:16like, oh, this isn't look normal. So I remember the guy got me on the phone. He's like, hey,
- 38:22can we actually go and zoom want to show you something? Well, this isn't a quick yes or no, right?
- 38:27When it's not a quick yes or no, then like, oh, maybe you're something wrong. And I remember when
- 38:31I was going through the MRI, I was like, oh, maybe something is wrong. So I remember at that point,
- 38:37when it's been to MRI, I was actually, I wasn't sad or depressed or anything. I was actually kind
- 38:41of happy as crazy as sounds. And you know, you start thinking, is that actually something wrong
- 38:48or not? Because you have to, I keep in mind at this point, I've been going through for a month
- 38:53meeting people to try to figure out what's wrong, right? And I have a headache every single day,
- 38:57literally 24 seven. And I still do right now because it's not solved. And I have a problem sleeping,
- 39:02like I'm only sleeping a few hours a day because of it. And just putting tons of pressure on my
- 39:07headache and time I lay down or anything. And sort of making me think I'm like, you know, no matter
- 39:12what happens, I've lived a pretty good life. Good family. Don't really have tons of regrets.
- 39:18Did decent in business, family will be okay if I'm not around. And I'm content. Like,
- 39:25I literally can tap and hit me at that point that if I was going to die, it would suck. But I was
- 39:31like, I'm actually okay with my life. And I have to accomplish everything that I wanted to,
- 39:36but I gave it 100 to 10% and I'm actually okay with things. And for me, it made me realize that
- 39:43in life in general, that if you focus on what you're doing and you enjoy it, great. Whatever time
- 39:50you live, you know, you can put it in 110% into whatever you're doing and what you love. I think
- 39:57you're better off than living a miserable 70 years and not doing what you love.
- 40:02I agree with that completely. I fully agree with that. You know, Jeff Bezos is like regret
- 40:07minimization framework and I'm sure you've heard of that before. But it's really just that
- 40:11not having regrets on your deathbed. That's really what it is. I haven't heard of it,
- 40:15but now I have. Oh, it's a very, it's, it's really that. It's like at the end of your life or
- 40:20it for right now, what you're doing is you are thinking through all the things that you want to do
- 40:26and you're thinking about what you would regret not having have done at the end of your life.
- 40:30And you're just doing those things now. And he, he says that this is the reason why you started
- 40:35Amazon. This is the reason why he left Wall Street and he left is a very comfortable finance job
- 40:40because he didn't want to have regret. And I think that it's beautiful. You've already achieved
- 40:43that. I don't think many people achieve that. I think people are always chasing, chasing, chasing.
- 40:47And even if you're entrepreneurial and you build your own thing,
- 40:52that's what I'm talking about. You like try and speedrun and you try and build and you try and exit
- 40:56and then you realize that you're not fulfilled and then you're onto the next thing. And I think that
- 40:59you have to find what actually fulfills you. I think that you have. That's what that's why you're
- 41:03so content, which is a beautiful place to be. I don't think many people are there though.
- 41:07Yeah. And my dad asked me literally yesterday, he was over in my house and he was saying,
- 41:13you know, you've switched a lot of homes. I'm 39. My average whole time for a home is,
- 41:18I calculated the other day is roughly a year and a half. A year and a half is not a long time.
- 41:22And these are purchases, not rentals, right? That's a very short time. When I was like, you kept
- 41:27all your homes, you would have made a killing. And some of the homes were beautiful and I loved them
- 41:32and I wish I still had them. And he's just like, why'd you sell most of them? I told my dad. I was like,
- 41:38well, dad, I needed the money, especially earlier in my career. And so I had to sell the homes to
- 41:43use the money to do whatever I wanted in business. And I told him like, I'm very happy. I did it
- 41:48not because of the business grow, but I got to do what I was truly passionate about and I would do
- 41:52it all over again. And some of the instances I sold a home and put some of the money into my business
- 41:57ventures because I needed the cash at that moment. And I took losses on the home and the business
- 42:03venture didn't work out as well. I never were truly lost on the business side. I did lose on the
- 42:08home side one too many times because I just need sometimes quick transactions just to liquidate cash
- 42:13and dump it into the business that was gaining momentum. And it paid off for me. And even the
- 42:20instance where it didn't pay off the way I thought it was, I don't regret it. You know, never really
- 42:25cared for the home. I can have the most comfortable home or then sick as home. Don't give a crap.
- 42:29I rather just put it into what I love. I think a lot of people have a hard time
- 42:35even figuring out what that thing is that they do love. And that's why they don't take risks
- 42:38like that. I think risks like that. It's those are like the best entrepreneur stories where you
- 42:42lost on a home, put money into the business. It worked. It didn't. It doesn't matter. It's the
- 42:47mindset of being able to do that. I was talking to a guy. He had a massive liquor company in his
- 42:52startup store. I was like, I just didn't pay tax for like five or six years because I needed the
- 42:55cash for the business. And he just kept putting the money in. He's like, finally, yeah. Like they
- 43:00all got the IRS got their money. But for years, I didn't give a shit. It was like everything,
- 43:05every risk I could possibly take is just into the business. And I think that when you go in with
- 43:09that attitude, I think that it may not be the first thing that works out. But eventually,
- 43:13something's going to work out eventually. It's life is long. And if you have unlimited shots,
- 43:19it also. Yes. I think that. Yeah. Yeah. My daughter was asking me the other day. She's like,
- 43:25daddy, one's if something doesn't work out. And she was talking about something for her
- 43:30school, you know, project. She's like, one's if I do this and it doesn't work out. I'm like,
- 43:33well, if it doesn't work out, you're going to be in the same spot you are right now. So what do
- 43:36you have to lose? And I was like, keep taking your shots. And whatever works great, whatever
- 43:43doesn't work as a scenario, you're in the same position that you are right now. What do you really
- 43:46have to worry about, right? And I was trying to get her to understand the concept that you don't
- 43:53have much to lose. And people are afraid of like these failures. And I was like, well, if you failed
- 43:58on some project, where's case to go back to what you were doing, whoop, they do. And like,
- 44:02they're worried about perception and what people think. So I'm like, if you're worried about that,
- 44:06you got a bigger problem in your life than, you know, starting a business like there's something wrong
- 44:11with what you're doing. If you're trying to live up to other people. Yeah. And like, you know,
- 44:16what is the worst? You start a business. It doesn't work out. You go get a job. Yeah. And then
- 44:20you start a new one. Really. I mean, how entrepreneurs are so employable. And I wish that somebody
- 44:27understood that if they took time to start a business to figure out product sales, marketing,
- 44:32hiring, finance, HR, all these different skill sets. And then they're like, you know what?
- 44:38Didn't work out. I'm going to go work for a job. You know how many people would hire you?
- 44:42Probably in like a position, you know, two or three degrees higher than what you left. Because
- 44:46now you have the full scope of shit that you've done with your own business. And now you can help
- 44:52another business with, I don't know. Risk is so interesting to me. Why people don't take it.
- 44:56Because I think it's also very risky to stay in a job as we saw with COVID and massive layoffs.
- 45:00And people just having their entire lives basically pull the way from them underneath their feet
- 45:05after 30 years of loyalty to a company. It's wild. I totally agree with that.
- 45:10Is this crazy? I think we're in a world we're going to go into a whirlwind in the next year or two.
- 45:15What I mean by that is you're just going to see a lot of change. I'm curious to see what happens
- 45:19with the economy. But you're going to see a lot of change in business entrepreneurship. Mainly because
- 45:24of two reasons. Politically, I think the political climate is changing globally at a very rapid pace.
- 45:30And AI, I think those two things are going to really change our lives within the next four or
- 45:36five years in a drastic way. And I'm not saying for good or bad, that's for people to decide on
- 45:41their own. I'm just saying that's the reality, right? A big thank you to indeed for supporting
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- 45:59like most entrepreneurs, you have a thousand things going on and there's a good chance that you
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- 47:03more visibility at indeed.com slash clary terms of conditions do apply. Just go to indeed.com slash
- 47:10clary. A huge thank you to net suite for supporting today's episode. Now what does the future hold
- 47:15for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers bull market bear market
- 47:20inflation up inflation down. Honestly, at this point, you just need a crystal ball. But until we
- 47:24get one over 41,000 businesses have found the next best thing. They future proof their businesses,
- 47:31their operations with net suite by Oracle, which is the number one cloud ERP. Imagine having your
- 47:37accounting, your financial management, your inventory, your HR all flowing together in one fluid
- 47:43platform. And here's what makes net suite different. It gives you one source of truth for your
- 47:47business. You get the visibility and control to make quick, confident decisions while others are
- 47:51guessing. You're working with real time data insights forecasting. You're basically looking
- 47:56into the future of your business with actionable data, whether your company earns a couple million
- 48:01or even hundreds of millions. Net suite helps you respond to immediate challenges and helps you grab
- 48:06your biggest opportunities. And speaking of opportunities, they put together the CFO's guide to AI
- 48:11and machine learning at net suite.com slash Scott clary. This is the playbook for understanding how to
- 48:17use AI for your business. The guide is free. That is net suite.com slash Scott clary. A shadow to
- 48:23Nord VPN for supporting today's episode. I have to tell you a story. So I was actually in Toronto
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- 49:36travel or stream content regularly. That's nordvpn.com slash success. What's the advice that you give
- 49:43to your kids, but how to navigate their life and their career? Because I know that you've made
- 49:48that you spoken a lot about like your success, how much money you make now, all the expenses that
- 49:53you, like all your expenses in your life, I find a fast thing. It's awesome that you're so candid
- 49:57about it. But the focus for your kids, is it about making a lot of money? Is it about happiness?
- 50:04Is it about fulfillment? Is it about progression? Is it about entrepreneurship? Like what do you want
- 50:08them to focus on? And I changed my mind on this probably multiple times a year. But if you ask me
- 50:16on today's world, and I change my mind on a lot of different parts of it, but I think I'm pretty
- 50:21certain at this point on what I want. What I want is do what makes you happy because I sent my life
- 50:31going after money and business just makes me happy, right? I know this sounds bad, but it really
- 50:36does make me happy not to spend the money. Like I drive all on to Odyssey. It's just like, you know,
- 50:42my watch is more expensive than damn car. I just love the damn Honda Odyssey. I think it's one of
- 50:46the best cars in the world. But for me, you know, if you're not doing what's happy, what's the point?
- 50:54And I got to do what made me happy and passionate. But on the flip side, I don't want to spoil them.
- 51:00And I think they need to figure out their own way in life. But here's a kicker. Okay, this is going
- 51:06to sound bad, but I'll just say it. If my kids are willing to live next door to me in Beverly Hills,
- 51:12I will buy in the house. If they want to live in New York City, and I'm living in Beverly Hills,
- 51:16they can app off and they can figure out how to do it on their own if they're doing whatever they
- 51:20love. But if they want to do what they love, and they can't afford a home in whatever city,
- 51:25they're screwed unless they want to live next door to me. And I know that sounds really bad,
- 51:29but I don't care what's a point of working so hard. If you can't see your kids get older,
- 51:35and then them have kids and then play with them, because at that point, you know, what's left in my
- 51:39life, other than family, right? At the tail end of it, you want to spend the time with them.
- 51:44I'm not going to work this hard and let them do whatever they want and pay for it, you know,
- 51:50and I don't want to pay for their lives. They should figure out on their own. But if they're
- 51:53willing to live next to me, because home prices are through the roof, and I don't know how the
- 51:57government is going to fix it, but I hope they do fix it somehow. I really don't know.
- 52:02I would pay for them to live in a home next to me. That's what I look as happiness, you know,
- 52:06drug-free, good people, trying to help others. Like those are the kind of things that we're trying to
- 52:11teach them. We don't give our kids toys anymore. You want a toy. Work, do chores in the house,
- 52:18and stuff. We give them quarters, save up enough quarters. You can buy whatever you want,
- 52:22assuming it's approved by the wife. But like trying to teach them responsibilities,
- 52:27I can't wait to tax them. My wife will not let me tax my kids on their savings, because I told
- 52:32them there's taxes, you know, but I'm not a lot of taxing yet. She said you can do that when they're
- 52:36older. But yeah, that to me would be the ideal scenario, them doing what makes them happy,
- 52:46and then living next door. I love that. I don't think that's bad at all. I think that, listen,
- 52:52I think kids try and find themselves, and they go off on their own, and then they find that they
- 52:56sadly have not spent enough time with their parents, and they regret it later as well,
- 53:00when they really should have been spending more time with their parents and their family.
- 53:03You know, you know, you know, it's a hill bloom. I don't know those content. I've seen these
- 53:07content here and there. I saw, yeah, literally this morning on Instagram with Cody Sanchez.
- 53:13He speaks a lot about how many times you're going to see your parents before you die.
- 53:18And if you actually do the math, it's like 15 times for most people in their 30s or 40s.
- 53:2315 times? Yeah, because they see them once a year. They see that, and their parents say,
- 53:28their parents are say 70, 75, 80. You see them once a year for a holiday. But this is, this is not
- 53:35good, but this is the average. I know in my parents, and my wife sees her parents
- 53:42more than once a week. And I love it. I'm not like, oh, we should really do more. But yeah,
- 53:47generally speaking, what's the purpose of life, right? And I do feel bad for some of the people
- 53:52they can do once a year, because they can't afford to do every week or whatever it may be,
- 53:58right? Whatever time would be enough or not enough for them. And some people don't want to see
- 54:03their parents as often. But yeah, you know, I was telling a buddy of mine. I'm like, you know,
- 54:08what I wish they did. I had this idea for taxes. And I'm not an economist. I'm like, they should
- 54:14charge people like me a luxury tax for like buying nice cars. Like we have some fancy cars, right?
- 54:21Even if even if I don't drive them, we still own some of them. Like, you know, charge me like
- 54:26double for the car charge a tax for purchasing the house that we own. And then make it where like
- 54:35if someone makes under a hundred grand, they just pay no federal taxes or something like that.
- 54:38I know that's like a crazy philosophy. But I'm like, oh, then hopefully some of those people
- 54:42can see their parents more often or live a little bit better of a life. I like that. I like that a lot.
- 54:49Out of you, you obviously have a beautiful home, I think, multiple. You have beautiful cars. You
- 54:54do have a lot of help around the house. Just in terms of one last thought on parenting, how do you
- 54:59plan to keep your kids grounded so that they don't expect this and assume that this is just
- 55:06a handout to them. One, we don't tell them they're going to get money. Two, we live a very
- 55:11it's actually not normal in my role. It's normal. I keep my name in Beverly Hills. So for Beverly Hills,
- 55:17I live probably a normal-ish life. But when I say we live like somewhat of a normal life,
- 55:23my wife has a one-carat wedding ring. You know,
- 55:28my clothes, some of them are expensive, but like I wear like jewelry, I think it's called joggers,
- 55:34even to businessmen because I don't like give a crap. But like we still cook. My kids help cook.
- 55:41They help clean. We have family dinners all the time. We go to the library at least once a week
- 55:46to get new books. We read to our children multiple times a day. They do homework.
- 55:53We show them what it's like to give back and help other people. Whether it's driving and seeing
- 55:59someone on the side, asking you on a sign and letting our kid give them money to understand that
- 56:04people are suffering, right? And some people believe you should give them money or you shouldn't
- 56:08because they'll spend an alcohol. But we're trying to teach our kids it's good to give and help
- 56:12others. We're trying to live somewhat normal. We try to teach them, hey, you saved up money.
- 56:17Here's what you can get from it. What you can't. Should you save? And if you save, can you get
- 56:22something bigger? You know, you have too many toys. Look, other people don't have toys. You
- 56:27should start donating stuff like that. We're trying to teach them how a lot of people struggle.
- 56:33You know, one of my kids, their teachers house burned down. It's like how can we help them?
- 56:38What can you do? Yeah, giving money is one thing and, you know, we helped on that and but it's
- 56:44what else can you do? Because even if you give them money, it doesn't mean it solves their problem
- 56:47the next day. The money's not enough for them to go buy another house in California, especially when
- 56:52it costs millions of dollars now when they purchased it 56 years ago, right? Or it was given to them.
- 56:58So you got to figure out how to help people and you got to realize that helping people doesn't
- 57:03mean it's always solved and there still could be sad and what can you do to, you know, go above
- 57:09and beyond and dealing with the reality that helping people doesn't always solve it and you made
- 57:16it somewhat better from, but you didn't really solve their problem and sometimes people don't have
- 57:21everything solved for them and they're still in a crappy situation, but it's also life, right?
- 57:26And even if you can't solve it, you got to try your best to help them out even if it's not the ideal
- 57:31situation for them still. I love it. I think that I appreciate you going into this because listen,
- 57:37everybody asks you about marketing strategy. I can go on YouTube and find two million videos about
- 57:42you teaching about marketing strategy, which is always fun, but I think that one thing I see a lot
- 57:46of high-performing people struggle with is, okay, so do you use an example? You pull in over a
- 57:52hundred million dollars, you're with your agency, multiple investments, great life, you love work,
- 57:58but at the same time, you also prioritize family. And I think that a lot of other people that are in
- 58:04your position sometimes, sadly, family doesn't become a priority when they love work as much or when
- 58:10they're operating at the level that you're at. And I think, obviously, that's a huge mistake and I
- 58:14want people to learn from somebody who not only loves work and is built a successful business,
- 58:20but also understands, like, you invest in family because that's really all you have at the end of
- 58:25the day, it doesn't matter how much money you make or how good your business is. And the fact that
- 58:29you put this much thought into it is, I think, very important for people that are just starting out.
- 58:35Here's something that I learned over the last five months and I changed my life from it.
- 58:40So my podcast, one of my buddies, Eric Sue, we also podcast together, but sent me this quote from
- 58:46Twitter or X and it goes on where how a lot of people spend their, you know, when they have a family,
- 58:55they spend the early years of the children's lives working hard and making all this money so they
- 59:00can live a better life, right, provide for their family. And then when they get older, they're planning
- 59:04to spend the time with them and their children in theory would be appreciative, right? So there
- 59:12were some months last year where I was on the road so often that I was only home like three days
- 59:17a month, okay? And I could see it taking a toll on my children from everything from, hey, why don't
- 59:24you love us as some of the other kids or deadies or home or and all this kind of stuff? Oh, I'm trying
- 59:28to make money so you can live a better life. I don't want my toys. Here's, they take my kids,
- 59:32took their toys from the room and they said, let's go to the store and return them. It doesn't
- 59:35really work like that as you know, but they're willing to return their toys for me to spend more time.
- 59:40And my buddy Eric sent that quote and ended up breaking down the ideal time where you should spend
- 59:45the time with the children is when they're younger because they actually want to spend time with you.
- 59:49When they're older, they are friends, their own life and they don't want to spend as much time
- 59:52with you and that's when you should work more. So in 2025, I've turned down pretty much all my
- 59:58speaking gigs other than the ones that already agreed upon. I think I've actually accepted one
- 1:00:04and I need to go visit my team in Australia. I've never met them in Australia. I've seen some of
- 1:00:08them when we go to other countries for work because we have offices all over Asia, but I remember
- 1:00:13my Australia team and they're just and someone wanted me to speaking gig there and we condense it
- 1:00:18totally a few days. And I was just like, you know what? I'll take this on, but I'm trying to travel
- 1:00:23less than 10 times this year and I'm just turning everything down and it will cause a business not to
- 1:00:28grow as much, but I'm okay with it because I can spend more time with my family and I'm happier
- 1:00:32and will I make less money? Sure, but who cares? Yeah, very, very important lesson. You have to know
- 1:00:38your priorities. If people want to just right now you have that marketing school, is that with
- 1:00:46Eric Sue? That's your main podcast. Do you have another podcast as well? Or is that the main one
- 1:00:50that people can go listen to more content from? We have another one that we've been recording
- 1:00:55that interviews CMOs. We haven't published the first episode, but I forgot what the name
- 1:00:59already is of the podcast just to make us find it. And I'll put it in the show notes.
- 1:01:03I think it was called like CMO verse, but like I don't even think we released our first episode of
- 1:01:07a room in recording videos. We did an interview with the CMO of Klarna, which went well.
- 1:01:13I think we did another interview with or it's coming up actually with the Google
- 1:01:18Google Brazil CEO or president or something like that. And then we have a few more that we're
- 1:01:24recording. But yeah, no, and you know, just having fun, but what I've, you know, we pretty much covered
- 1:01:31a lot of my learnings. And I think it's going to be different for every person. You just got to
- 1:01:35figure out what makes you content in life and optimize for that. And there's no right or wrong,
- 1:01:40right? Some people could tell me, Hey, you should work more and give back more. Hey, you're able to do
- 1:01:44this because you already have money. And like, yeah, because I started when I was younger and I've
- 1:01:47been lucky and blessed. And I feel for the people that aren't in the same position. Hence, we try
- 1:01:52to give back. And well, you know, one of my big regrets was giving too much money and a trust to
- 1:01:57my children. I wish I didn't do that. If I would go, if I could go back in time, I would undo it,
- 1:02:02but it's irrevocable. So I can't. But, you know, if I would rewind the clock a little again,
- 1:02:09I would have given less and donated more. When you, are you, are you pretty set on donating the
- 1:02:16majority of your wealth at the end of the day? Is that what you do want to do?
- 1:02:20Makes my wife happy. I like making it. She likes donating it. And I believe just giving it
- 1:02:24all to my kids will make them lazy people. So I don't want to do that. And I had to earn it.
- 1:02:30They can go earn it. Well, I provide them basic necessity. So they don't have to start from scratch.
- 1:02:35Yeah, I get, you know, they're born in privilege. And not everyone was. But I want them to live next
- 1:02:42to me. So, you know, by the house next to me, I know this sounds bad, but
- 1:02:47so it does do. I don't want to move to wherever they are.
- 1:02:52Okay, where can people connect with you? I mean, obviously, you still put out tons of marketing
- 1:02:57content. I'm glad I saw a slightly different side of you than what you put on the internet
- 1:03:02all the time. So I appreciate you. Thank you so much. But where can people connect with you
- 1:03:07listening to all the podcasts? Obviously, I'm assuming NPdigital.com. Yeah. And people,
- 1:03:14NPdigital is my ad agency. Neil Patel is my social handle for most of social profiles out there.
- 1:03:20Neil Patel.com is where I blog. If you out of all the different things that you've learned over
- 1:03:26your life, say you could only pass on one lesson to your kids. I know that we spoken about a few,
- 1:03:31but pick something new, something that really really means a lot to you. What would that lesson be
- 1:03:36in why? It was a quote from someone else and I'm paraphrasing it. And it goes something like
- 1:03:45what was it called? It's an entering not to say the quote, but never be rude to someone, no
- 1:03:53matter who they are, what their stature's life or how very little or how much money they make,
- 1:03:57never treat anyone differently or judge them differently. Because even if that person's picking
- 1:04:02up trash, you know, 10 years from now, they could be the feet that you're kissing, right? And it's
- 1:04:10not because they may be in charge of you that you should respect them. It's you should just never
- 1:04:14judge a book by its cover because never assume the worst case from people. You know, and I remember
- 1:04:20when I was younger in American Idol first came out and there was this guy and he was singing like
- 1:04:26she bang, she bang and he went viral on the internet and I was laughing and my mom told me at the
- 1:04:31time, why are you laughing at him? And I'm like, it's so terrible. She's like, who cares if it's
- 1:04:36terrible? He has a curse to go on TV and try hard and hear people, you know, have people hear
- 1:04:42him sing and that was his goal. Who are you to make fun of them? Do you have the courage to go
- 1:04:46to do this? And it hit me that you shouldn't make fun of people or treat them differently no matter
- 1:04:51how much money they have or how they grew up or how they look treat everyone the same and equally.
- 1:04:56You never know who you can learn from. You never know where people are going and even if someone
- 1:05:02is a plumber, people may laugh. That's a very respectable job. Someone could be a teacher. I used to
- 1:05:06pick up trash and clean restaurants for a living. I did that when I was 15 for a while and I know
- 1:05:12people laughed at me when I was doing it and sometimes I would smell because the trash bags would
- 1:05:15fall on me at the theme park I was working on. But like it is what it is and you should always
- 1:05:20respect people and never judge them and try to learn from everyone. I learned from my kids. The other
- 1:05:25day my daughter tells me, Daddy, I can see you're really getting frustrated with me and she's fine.
- 1:05:31And I'm like, I am Emma because you're not listening. And I don't hit my kids or anything but she's
- 1:05:36just like, you know, we would have a better relationship if you didn't get as frustrated with
- 1:05:42me and you had better patients. And I'm like, I agree. But I would also have a better relationship
- 1:05:46if you tried harder to listen. And I don't want to repeat the same thing like don't jump off
- 1:05:51of the couch 10 times that you got hurt and then you do it again. And she's like, well, you need
- 1:05:55to realize I'm a kid. And sometimes I just do stuff I shouldn't be doing and I can't help it.
- 1:06:01So you need to be more patient with me and understand that. And I'll say, yeah, you got a good
- 1:06:05point. And I need to learn patients more and understand that sometimes people can't control things
- 1:06:12even when they shouldn't be doing it. And I need to understand that and try to figure out better
- 1:06:16solutions to help them realize that they shouldn't be doing things or they shouldn't listen or
- 1:06:22I should have better patients and understand that sometimes kids are just going to be a kids and
- 1:06:26you got to accept it for what it is, right? So I'm still learning at my age even from little kids.