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From Dry Cleaning to Private Jets: Embracing the Unexpected with Jay Sapovits · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:00
  In today's episode, we're chatting with the dynamic Jay Sapovitz.
• 0:06
  Jay is a seasoned entrepreneur with a fascinating trajectory that spans across various industries.
• 0:12
  From his adventurous leap to Las Vegas for college to working as a radio personality, entering the private jet industry, creating a successful PGA Tour event with Jim Furyk, and even shaking up the real estate market in St.
• 0:26
  Barts, Jay's journey is nothing short of inspiring.
• 0:30
  In this episode, we dive into the pivotal moments that shaped Jay's career, his knack for connecting people, and the life lessons he's learned while navigating a range of diverse industries.
• 0:43
  Plus, you'll hear his thoughts on what it takes to succeed in today's entrepreneurial landscape.
• 0:49
  If you're looking for insights on leveraging relationships and embracing change in your career, this episode is a must.
• 0:56
  Listen, get ready to be motivated by Jay Sapavitz incredible journey.
• 1:01
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:06
  All right, Jay Sapovitz, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 1:11
  I appreciate it, Dave.
• 1:12
  Thanks so much for having me.
• 1:14
  You got my name right.
• 1:15
  Congrats.
• 1:15
  That's a good.
• 1:16
  That's a good start to the conversation.
• 1:19
  Usually I go with either J SAP, right?
• 1:23
  So, you know, a lot of people call me jsap, and if we get really close, which could happen over time, then you'll call me Sappy.
• 1:31
  And that's my real, real good friends call me Sappy.
• 1:34
  That's where we give hugs each every time we see each other.
• 1:37
  So.
• 1:37
  But SAP a bitch.
• 1:38
  You got it.
• 1:39
  I love it.
• 1:40
  Okay.
• 1:41
  All right, so let's get into it.
• 1:44
  How did that initial cross country move at 18 years old shape your perspective on taking big leaps in life and in business?
• 1:53
  I mean, you know, look, that move started by watching my sister, who was six years older than me, go to college seven miles from home, and coming home on the weekends and doing laundry.
• 2:07
  So I saw that and it wasn't what I wanted for my life.
• 2:12
  And I remember my best friend's brother was three years older than he was, went out to unlv and my, my best friend said to me, do you want to go visit my brother with me at 16 years old?
• 2:25
  And at 16 years old, I mean, you could really tell it was a different time.
• 2:29
  My parents were hands on.
• 2:30
  They were hands off.
• 2:32
  It's different than we would do it today.
• 2:35
  I got on a plane, told my parents I was going on my quote unquote senior trip.
• 2:40
  In my junior year, I traveled to Las Vegas with my best friend alone on a plane, and in 10 days, I never stepped foot on the campus of the college unlv and came home and told them that Las
• 2:54
  Vegas was the place that I was going to go to college, and it was the only school that I applied to.
• 2:59
  So how did it shape me as an entrepreneur?
• 3:02
  I think everything we do shapes us as an entrepreneur.
• 3:06
  For me, it was less about how much distance I put in between myself and, and.
• 3:14
  And more about kind of a fresh start to just something different.
• 3:20
  Right.
• 3:20
  Like it was a big city and I grew up in.
• 3:23
  I, you know, I grew up in outside of Philadelphia, but it was a suburb and I wanted a big city.
• 3:30
  And I, you know, New York is the East Coast.
• 3:34
  I just.
• 3:35
  So I wanted something different.
• 3:36
  And, you know, think about it.
• 3:38
  16, 17 and 18 years old.
• 3:39
  The glitz and glamour and lights of Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 3:43
  The bells and whistles.
• 3:45
  So, you know, how did that move shape me?
• 3:48
  It expanded my thinking.
• 3:50
  I mean, greatly.
• 3:52
  You know, we drove cross country.
• 3:54
  I drove cross country.
• 3:56
  When I moved out there, I didn't realize I could be in Tennessee in a day.
• 4:00
  I mean, literally, I lived my entire life and realized outside of Philadelphia that I didn't know that I could get in my car and be in Tennessee in a day.
• 4:09
  Think about that.
• 4:10
  Then I knew it.
• 4:11
  Then I knew you could.
• 4:12
  And then once you know you can do things that you never thought about doing or thought you could do, that's just kind of how you get shaped.
• 4:21
  So that's, you know, that's how I think of it.
• 4:27
  In my world, a personal brand is invaluable.
• 4:31
  A year ago, EasyDC was brand new with just a couple of customers and no online presence.
• 4:37
  Then I found Hicks Marketing.
• 4:38
  They helped me amplify my personal brand, build a solid content strategy, publish my podcast, and 10x the number of customers we serve, all in less than one year.
• 4:49
  Do you need a marketing partner who gets you and cares about your success?
• 4:53
  Reach out to aliciaxmarketing.com for more info.
• 4:56
  And tell her Dave Gula sent you.
• 5:00
  And what was the pivotal moment that you realized your knack for connecting with people could be such a powerful entrepreneurial tool?
• 5:08
  I.
• 5:09
  I just watched my dad do it my whole life.
• 5:12
  He was the garbage man, CEO, you know, business owner, treated everybody the same.
• 5:21
  I didn't really equate that skill with being an entrepreneur.
• 5:26
  I didn't understand it.
• 5:28
  I didn't.
• 5:29
  But then I was very fortunate.
• 5:33
  I got a job when I was in Las Vegas with a guy by the name of Vic Plassman who owned Steiner Cleaners.
• 5:38
  It was right across from the university.
• 5:41
  I could walk to work.
• 5:43
  And he was the dry cleaner to the stars.
• 5:45
  And Vic was the greatest people person I ever met in my life.
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  He did Liberace clothes.
• 5:51
  We did J.J.
• 5:52
  walker.
• 5:53
  J.J.
• 5:53
  walker, Dynamite did our commercials.
• 5:57
  And we did seven of the top 10 Las Vegas Strip.
• 6:03
  We did their clothing right the go.
• 6:05
  And you see the bags that are hanging, the people actually use those bags that hang in the hotel rooms.
• 6:10
  And we dry cleaned their clothes.
• 6:13
  And I would just watch him connect with people and then connect people that he connected with.
• 6:20
  So it was just for observation and you know, it's the old Maya.
• 6:26
  I'm actually coming to you today.
• 6:27
  I'm in Augusta, Georgia.
• 6:28
  I'm at the Masters.
• 6:29
  I know this is going to air later, but I'm at the Masters this week and right now I'm in a library in Augusta called the Wallace Library, which is an old former segregated library that's now dedicated to all
• 6:50
  black culture.
• 6:51
  And it's fascinating, this place, right?
• 6:54
  It's just a great piece of history in Augusta, Georgia, outside of the Masters.
• 6:59
  And it's the old Maya Angelou quote of, you know, it's how you make people.
• 7:05
  It's.
• 7:05
  It's about how you make people feel.
• 7:07
  So I watched other people make people feel great and realize that that's the key to success is like putting people together in the right room, whether they do business or not.
• 7:19
  Put two people that have great commonalities or thoughts, or they push one another or expand one another's worlds, you're always going to end up the winner whether you get anything out of it or not.
• 7:34
  It's just a principle that I've seen and I'm a visual learner and learned and now do often.
• 7:43
  Okay, and why did you decide to take the unexpected leap from.
• 7:49
  From the dry cleaning job to becoming a radio personality?
• 7:54
  Well, so it's funny because I got my first opportunity in radio because of the dry cleaning job.
• 7:59
  So one of the guy by the name of Mark Ratner was a customer.
• 8:03
  Mark was the head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
• 8:06
  He was a customer.
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  I helped him.
• 8:08
  He liked me.
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  He owned the UNLV radio broadcast.
• 8:14
  This is 899090 91.
• 8:16
  The years.
• 8:16
  They were great with Larry Johnson and Stacy Ogman and Greg Anthony.
• 8:20
  I'm a fre and sophomore in college, freshman at the time.
• 8:24
  Because he liked me, he had an opportunity for someone to be the radio producer, engineer.
• 8:30
  I was on the campus radio station.
• 8:33
  He.
• 8:34
  He spoke with Vic at the dry cleaners, shared that he wouldn't take any of My hours from him and I would do this separately but I traveled with the UNOB basketball team, those great teams in 89, 909091 as
• 8:50
  the radio producer engineer again because of a connection.
• 8:54
  So it wasn't a jump from dry cleaning into radio.
• 8:58
  It was, I was radio was what I was going to college for broadcasting and I worked part time at a dry cleaners and the part time job filled my full time ex, you know, job dreeps because it was
• 9:15
  a great resume builder and it ended up leading to me being on air in Philadelphia Top 5 radio station.
• 9:22
  At 23 years old, I was literally youngest talk show host in the history of Philadelphia's all guy, all not all guy but all sports, all guide talk.
• 9:34
  The first format like that talk radio station in 1995.
• 9:39
  So you know, this is a connected world where people want to be connected, Dave.
• 9:44
  They want to be part of something bigger than themselves and they want to be part of groups.
• 9:50
  We're not isolated creatures, human beings.
• 9:53
  So I've just always kind of tried to be that connective glue and you know, my story is very relate.
• 10:00
  I, I tell people I can relate.
• 10:02
  I can, I can tell you where I'm sitting today.
• 10:04
  I could draw a straight line back connecting dots to the dry cleaners in Vic Plasman in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 10:10
  It's crazy.
• 10:13
  Wow.
• 10:14
  All right.
• 10:15
  And how did your experience with the PGA Tour event alongside Jim Furyk solidify your belief in your ability to create something from the ground up?
• 10:27
  Very simple.
• 10:30
  I had identified an opportunity because there was a gap in Philadelphia.
• 10:37
  I recognized as a talk show host that Philly was a, in its mind, a first class town that only accepts major league sports.
• 10:47
  And there was not a PGA Tour event in the city or anywhere around it.
• 10:52
  There was a Senior PGA Tour event before they called it the Champions Tour.
• 10:57
  And I knew Jim was from the area.
• 10:59
  Born in Westchester, Pennsylvania, grew up in Lancaster, Pittsburgh Steeler fan.
• 11:04
  But we'll deal with that.
• 11:05
  We deal with that separately.
• 11:06
  I still deal with that separately.
• 11:09
  And what I recogn, what I recognized Dave, was that if I could figure out a way to bring a title sponsor to a major event and I could get Jim Fury to say yes to doing it, we could
• 11:22
  put a one day Skins game together because the Skins was a very hot format.
• 11:27
  You know, it was every Friday, Black Friday, Thanksgiving weekend, Saturday, you know, type event that people loved because it was exciting and gambling and the whole bit.
• 11:38
  And I, I was able to get the sponsor because I had a relationship that I had coveted through some golf events.
• 11:46
  That we had built for the, the energy company in Philadelphia.
• 11:50
  I asked a very simple question.
• 11:51
  If I could get the best golfers in the world, Tiger woods aside, to do a one day skids event, would you be supportive of it?
• 11:59
  And they said yeah.
• 12:00
  And then we put a number of what that support meant.
• 12:03
  I had no golfers.
• 12:04
  And then I cold called half a dozen different folks just to give me some options.
• 12:10
  Agents, sports agents.
• 12:12
  I got the list of the PGA Tour sports agents.
• 12:15
  Cold called a guy by the name of Andrew Whitley, who was Jim's agent to this day my best friend in the world.
• 12:23
  And I went up and met him in his office with a dinky little PowerPoint presentation that I put together and I told them how I was going to build a million dollar event for Jim Furyk.
• 12:33
  They believed me and I did.
• 12:36
  And the event ended up lasting 11 years.
• 12:39
  I divested my, my, my share.
• 12:42
  My.
• 12:42
  I owned it after four and remained.
• 12:46
  In fact, I just played in Jim's the Champions Tour events.
• 12:49
  The constellation I just played.
• 12:50
  That's the, that's the born of the Exelon Invitational.
• 12:55
  And I just played in Jim's event.
• 12:56
  And I remain really good friends with, with him and Tab and it's.
• 13:02
  It's been fun to kind of grow up together.
• 13:05
  Wow.
• 13:06
  Incredible story.
• 13:08
  All right, and moving on, what were the initial challenges and the unexpected lessons that you learned when launching the startup private jet company, Especially without prior experience in that industry?
• 13:21
  Yeah, so it was weird, right, because I started selling private jets before I even knew what one was really.
• 13:28
  I mean, my dad was a school teacher, my mom was a bookkeeper.
• 13:31
  We were as far from private jets as you could ever imagine.
• 13:34
  I did know a gentleman who was a corporate pilot, but I didn't really know what that meant as far as launching the company.
• 13:41
  You know, that's really that.
• 13:43
  The founder of the company is Ken Dichter.
• 13:46
  You know, I was a sport player but on the startup team.
• 13:51
  So, you know, all the credit to Ken.
• 13:55
  I mean he's the guy who got it off the ground.
• 13:58
  He's the one who sold Richard Santoli of NetJets.
• 14:02
  I was in the execution phase of the startup team to make that reality come to life by finding high net worth individuals who would believe in our mission statement and value proposition.
• 14:18
  And we were able to do that fast.
• 14:25
  I mean we went from zero to 900 plus million in four and a half years.
• 14:29
  We were the fastest growing marquee jet was the fastest growing company known to Matt.
• 14:34
  I mean we had an amazingly deep level of Talent with the company.
• 14:39
  You know, Ken Austin, our business development guy, went on to found Tequila Avion, which was a massive success.
• 14:47
  And you know, listen, Ken Dichter's the most talented entrepreneur I've ever, ever known.
• 14:53
  So yeah, to me, you know, again, I, I call myself, I put one of, you know, one of the founders because I was, I was part of the early stage team, you know, top 15 employee who sold.
• 15:08
  So I haven't added the numbers up, but I could tell you I only got beat by one guy ever in sales in a month.
• 15:15
  So those records, those records still stand after 20 some years.
• 15:21
  But look, you got to have salespeople.
• 15:23
  I mean, you got to have people ring the bell.
• 15:25
  And I think what it taught me is that everybody plays a role inside of a company.
• 15:30
  And for Marquee Jet, my role was to ring the bell, create the revenue.
• 15:34
  I did.
• 15:35
  And it's why after 24 years, I'm still partners with, with Ken Victor.
• 15:40
  And it's why I've created deep and meaningful relationships with the people who I worked with at that company.
• 15:46
  You know, that's what happens, right?
• 15:47
  You're with the company, then you're with a new company.
• 15:49
  When you win, you have deep relationships with the people that you win with.
• 15:53
  When you lose, you tend not to have deep relationships with those same people.
• 15:57
  So winning's just better.
• 15:59
  Everyone loses.
• 16:00
  I mean, if you're in the game long enough, you're going to have some hits.
• 16:04
  But yeah, I mean, for sure, it's, you know, playing a role is exceptionally important in any entrepreneur's life because you can't always be this, you can't always be the boss.
• 16:13
  I mean, somebody, somebody's going to come along and want your skill set.
• 16:16
  And if you're willing to rent it to them, you got to do what their, their needs are.
• 16:21
  And yeah, the best ones compensate you.
• 16:23
  For which I always felt well compensated and valued.
• 16:28
  So that's what said.
• 16:29
  That's what I'd say I'd learned the most.
• 16:31
  Okay.
• 16:33
  And you also had a real estate opportunity in St.
• 16:39
  Barts that you, you capitalized on.
• 16:42
  What was it about that elite market that drew you in?
• 16:48
  Wow.
• 16:48
  You know, I had never been to Sam Bart's.
• 16:51
  Right.
• 16:52
  I'm really good at creating nothing from.
• 16:54
  Or something from nothing.
• 16:56
  Although I have created nothing something from nothing before too.
• 17:00
  Or nothing from something.
• 17:03
  So the Sam Bart's opportunity.
• 17:05
  I had a relationship that I had formed in the villa rental space and a longtime owner of a very successful business was in a family dispute that threatened to Eliminate his business and he didn't have either the courage
• 17:27
  or the know how to fight the fight that he was in.
• 17:34
  So because he didn't have that, he needed an outside entrepreneur to help him.
• 17:41
  And I was that outside entrepreneur.
• 17:44
  So essentially St.
• 17:46
  Bart's was always a closed shop in the villa rental world.
• 17:50
  80% of the rentals were dominated by one company on the island.
• 17:55
  They partnered with a US based marketing company.
• 17:59
  The on island company told the US based marketing company to go screw themselves.
• 18:04
  These are brother in laws.
• 18:07
  The US marketing company said no, you go screw yourself.
• 18:12
  We own the customers and essentially we didn't have any.
• 18:18
  As, as the representative of the US marketing company.
• 18:21
  We didn't have any stake on the island because we didn't have any assets and it's a French province and you needed to.
• 18:28
  So I was deployed down there to essentially get people who owned villas in St Barnes to give us the opportunity to rent their villas.
• 18:39
  Breaking the 30 plus year exclusive villa rental market of St Barnes.
• 18:46
  And from that we opened up a real estate agency to sell real estate and completely dominated the, the, the market that, you know, they're not my numbers to disclose, but let's just say we went 4x in three years
• 19:02
  because of what, what, you know, the efforts that, that we, that we deployed and let's.
• 19:09
  Just dive deeper on that.
• 19:11
  So being that it was a closed market for so long, how did you pull that off?
• 19:16
  I sat with people and talked to them as human beings and told them what I thought was going to happen in the future.
• 19:22
  You know, if you want to set Bart's property, chances are that you're successful and that you're smart.
• 19:27
  So my sales tactic has always been not to sell.
• 19:31
  And what I mean by that is I give smart people information and let them draw the conclusions themselves.
• 19:38
  So we were going to be in the market, we had the relationships with the customers.
• 19:44
  They want their villa rental, they want their villas filled with customers.
• 19:49
  We weren't just going to go away so you can stay with the company that's been servicing your villa.
• 19:55
  Right.
• 19:55
  They could have it nice and clean for you.
• 19:57
  But we're going to guide the customers that we have to the villas that we rent.
• 20:02
  And if it's not your villa, it's going to be some villas.
• 20:05
  So it's not a threat.
• 20:07
  But that's the reality and they got that, they understood that.
• 20:13
  So it was a very easy conversation for many because they just what do people want if they own a villa rental?
• 20:21
  They buy a villa on St.
• 20:22
  Bart's they're there three weeks a year, they rent it.
• 20:25
  The other 51 weeks, they want it filled.
• 20:28
  So we've been filling it.
• 20:31
  So do you want us to go to your guests and say, hey, we have another villa.
• 20:35
  You should try.
• 20:35
  It's awesome.
• 20:36
  And there's guests who are receptive to that.
• 20:38
  There's guests who aren't.
• 20:39
  They didn't want to take that chance, and we didn't want them to take that chance.
• 20:43
  Listen, we got something good here.
• 20:45
  Let's just keep it rolling.
• 20:47
  It's a very easy pitch.
• 20:49
  You just have to.
• 20:50
  You just have to help them understand that we're not going away.
• 20:54
  And this stupid fight that we didn't initiate is a threat to them for no reason.
• 21:02
  And people don't want drama.
• 21:04
  And I was there to assure them that we don't either.
• 21:09
  But, you know, we had a fight picked with us.
• 21:11
  And, yeah, if you have a fight pick with you.
• 21:14
  I mean, you've got to.
• 21:15
  You got to stand up for yourself.
• 21:19
  Okay, and what was the turning point that led you to transition into the merchandise and swag enterprise that you have within stores?
• 21:29
  Easy.
• 21:30
  I had a agreement if we fix the villa rental company to buy it.
• 21:35
  The owner gave me a number.
• 21:38
  I came back to him in 30 days with the money.
• 21:41
  He told me he didn't want to sell it anymore because I fixed his problem and fixed his angst, and it was fun again.
• 21:47
  And I left the company.
• 21:49
  And when I left the company, I re.
• 21:52
  And I'd always been in touch with, but then re hooked up with.
• 21:56
  With Ken Dichter, who was starting.
• 21:59
  Starting a few different companies and wanted me kind of in the think tank.
• 22:04
  And I got in the think tank with them and picked one of the companies that he was ideating, and we became.
• 22:12
  We became partners on that company.
• 22:14
  Now, the first iteration of it wasn't a massive success, and we had to pivot, but we've pivoted, and now Ink Stores is a pretty good success story.
• 22:24
  So, you know, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
• 22:29
  Yeah, love that.
• 22:32
  And you know, Jay, you've been able to repeatedly reinvent yourself and find success in such a diverse range of industries.
• 22:42
  What's the underlying driver there?
• 22:44
  Yeah, I.
• 22:45
  Look, am I really reinventing myself, or am I just the same guy that happens to be in different industries?
• 22:53
  Right.
• 22:53
  I mean, aren't I.
• 22:55
  Aren't I who I am?
• 22:59
  I behave the same way in the luxury villa rental world that I did in the jet business.
• 23:03
  In the.
• 23:04
  In the swag world.
• 23:05
  I connect people.
• 23:06
  I try to do the right thing when nobody's looking.
• 23:11
  I give people dignity and respect and treat them with, treat them in a way that they want to be.
• 23:18
  They want to be treated.
• 23:19
  You know, rock stars like celebrity or rock stars like regular people and regular people like rock stars.
• 23:27
  As far as the industry itself, I'm curious.
• 23:29
  I think every entrepreneur that's great is curious and keeps pushing and asking questions and finding out the answers and really listening.
• 23:39
  I'm able to adapt and adjust easily because I'm not ego filled to think I know the answers.
• 23:45
  So I'm not always right, I'm often wrong and I allow myself to be.
• 23:50
  And I'm not embarrassed.
• 23:52
  You know, I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm a highly egoless person.
• 24:00
  And that's.
• 24:01
  As an entrepreneur.
• 24:03
  Listen, there's two ways to do it, right.
• 24:04
  You could be a super narcissist, know everything and dominate.
• 24:09
  It's not me.
• 24:09
  I'm, I'm the opposite.
• 24:11
  I try to surround myself with great people and get out of the way.
• 24:15
  Yeah.
• 24:16
  And you know, following up on that, you've always had the, the mindset of give before you receive and, and helping others is your, your primary driver.
• 24:29
  I mean, where does that come from?
• 24:32
  Yeah, I mean, look, on a personal level, I've, I've had to battle some demons.
• 24:37
  I've got 28 years of sobriety myself.
• 24:42
  So I think that, you know, 28 is a long time.
• 24:45
  28 years is a long, long time.
• 24:47
  And you know, it's, it's just getting out of self and you know, the best way to get out of self is to think of other people and do by other people.
• 24:57
  And you know, I think you get caught in the thinking stage too much.
• 25:01
  So I try to just get into the doing stage and you know, I don't talk about it publicly much, but the people who know me know and yeah, I just try to do the right thing.
• 25:11
  So I think that they give before you receive or give with no expectations.
• 25:16
  To receive is a great principle to, to live by.
• 25:19
  And in my life, whenever I've been the most giving and the most generous without expectation of getting back is when somehow, some way I've been able to get back the most.
• 25:32
  You know, expectations are a.
• 25:36
  Expectations erode and kill your soul.
• 25:40
  So I think that if you could just live a life free of those expectations, give without expectation of receiving.
• 25:48
  Doesn't have to be money.
• 25:49
  It can be your time.
• 25:50
  I mean, I volunteer two different, two different homeless shelters a month.
• 25:57
  You know, I reach out to guys All I can to, to, you know, try to put them and help them on the right path and, you know, yeah, it's.
• 26:05
  Something happened today.
• 26:06
  I almost went over the moon.
• 26:08
  I had to stop and get a.
• 26:09
  You know, I knew you and I were going to be in a little bit of.
• 26:12
  I was going to be in a different location because I'm on the road in August.
• 26:15
  I didn't bring my earphones like a, Like a, Like a dummy.
• 26:18
  It happens, right?
• 26:19
  So I stopped at a.
• 26:20
  Stopped at a Dollar General.
• 26:22
  Amazing.
• 26:23
  Me stopped at a Dollar General.
• 26:25
  The woman behind the counter was amazing.
• 26:27
  I said, do you know where the earphones are?
• 26:29
  Couldn't have gone better.
• 26:30
  She was so helpful and so nice and so sweet.
• 26:33
  So I go get the headphones, I get back in line and the, the guy in front of me is complaining about the prices.
• 26:41
  Very grumpy guy.
• 26:43
  And you know, it's not the woman with the counter's fault that the prices are what they are.
• 26:47
  Like, what's the world we live in?
• 26:49
  And I feel his pain, but at the same time, it's not the woman behind the counter's fault that the prices are what they are.
• 26:56
  And she said, if you were satisfied with the service, please take this survey.
• 27:01
  And I see him hit the highly dissatisfied button on the prop.
• 27:06
  And I just say to myself, I'm like, I used some expletives to myself, but I said like, this woman is.
• 27:14
  Goes out.
• 27:15
  She's nice, she's quick, she's helpful, and she's working at a Dollar General to pay her bills, right?
• 27:24
  It's not.
• 27:24
  No handouts.
• 27:25
  It's working at Dollar General payer bills.
• 27:27
  And her bonus is tied, I'm guessing, to that performance rating.
• 27:38
  Otherwise why would she ask, right?
• 27:40
  Dollar General's not stupid.
• 27:42
  They have a compensation package that's tied into what that is.
• 27:45
  And I said to her, I said, is your bonus tied into this?
• 27:49
  And she said, I have a.
• 27:52
  She said, you wouldn't believe it.
• 27:54
  I have a 17 ratio of highly dissatisfied.
• 28:02
  And it's all because people are just angry.
• 28:06
  And I said, well, it's not because of you.
• 28:07
  I didn't.
• 28:08
  You treat people with great respect, right?
• 28:12
  So I give her, you know, the highest rating you could give her.
• 28:15
  I'm not going to tell you what I did, but you know, how much.
• 28:18
  But I ended up.
• 28:20
  I said, listen, I said, hopefully this takes care of your bonus, right?
• 28:25
  I don't want anything.
• 28:26
  I don't want anything from Dollar General from her, you know, but like, I just felt so bad.
• 28:33
  Like this woman was great.
• 28:35
  Like the type of person that you pull out of that store and hire, like, that's how helpful and kind, you know, I don't know our whole situation, but that's like.
• 28:45
  So, you know, I just look for like those, I look for those opportunities.
• 28:50
  I don't want anything from you.
• 28:51
  I don't need anything from you, but I just want to do right by you.
• 28:55
  And that's because she did right by me.
• 28:58
  She didn't, you know, she didn't have to go out of her way.
• 29:00
  How many people put their head down, you know, don't look at, don't make eye contact, don't look at you or, or curse under your breath when you ask them a question.
• 29:08
  When they help you in retail more than should.
• 29:11
  You just have no idea who you're dealing with.
• 29:14
  So just treat everybody well.
• 29:16
  And that is a great equal.
• 29:18
  It makes it easy.
• 29:19
  If I treat everybody well, it makes it easy.
• 29:22
  So that's.
• 29:22
  I try to live by it.
• 29:23
  I do it all the time.
• 29:24
  No, no one does.
• 29:25
  I'm not perfect, make mistakes.
• 29:28
  I try my best to do it most of the time.
• 29:33
  All right, And Jay, what's one piece of, of advice that you'd give to someone that's just starting their entrepreneurial journey, you know, based on your non traditional path?
• 29:43
  Yeah, easy.
• 29:44
  Just show up, do, go, move, start, be messy.
• 29:48
  Like, you gotta go.
• 29:49
  Like, stop talking about it.
• 29:51
  No one cares.
• 29:53
  Go do it.
• 29:55
  You know, it's, it's not for people who.
• 29:57
  Entrepreneurial success is not for people who need it.
• 30:02
  It's not for people who want it.
• 30:04
  It's for people who do it.
• 30:07
  So you're going to fail.
• 30:08
  You're going to feel humiliate.
• 30:10
  Look, do I want to be on podcasts?
• 30:11
  Do I want to be post on LinkedIn every day?
• 30:14
  Do I want to do videos?
• 30:15
  Do I.
• 30:16
  I don't want to do anything with social media.
• 30:18
  I want to live on a lake and, you know, but I've got a staff that depends on me and I, I put myself out there, and I, I put myself out there in a real way where, where I'm
• 30:33
  literally typing my LinkedIn posts.
• 30:35
  No AI.
• 30:37
  Some AI, but not AI finished product.
• 30:39
  But it's me.
• 30:40
  You know, I told a story the other day of a, an encounter I had with a possum at 10:30 at night.
• 30:45
  You can't write that from AI.
• 30:47
  So put yourself out there.
• 30:50
  Go do it.
• 30:52
  Stop thinking.
• 30:53
  Nothing you think about is going to be more important than something you do.
• 30:58
  So your actions will always trump your words.
• 31:01
  There is zero reason to wait.
• 31:03
  We are in an economy and a way that is easier than ever to get started with the tools that are out there.
• 31:10
  This is not 30 years ago.
• 31:13
  If you think money's holding you back, if you think knowledge is holding you back, those are all things that are attainable.
• 31:21
  Go do get it.
• 31:23
  Let's go.
• 31:24
  It's time to move.
• 31:25
  Take action.
• 31:26
  The world is for doers.
• 31:28
  Be action oriented.
• 31:30
  Is that advice clear enough?
• 31:33
  Yeah, very clear.
• 31:34
  Very clear.
• 31:35
  And some, some great wisdom in there.
• 31:37
  Yeah.
• 31:37
  I mean, nobody asked me, Nobody asked my, my wife when we, when I, when I closed and when I went up and met with Jim Ferret's agent, Andrew.
• 31:46
  When I met with them, my wife, we were on the way to Cape Cod.
• 31:48
  You want to go to Cape Cod?
• 31:49
  Her family was up there.
• 31:50
  You want to go to Cape Cod for the weekend?
• 31:51
  She said, yes.
• 31:52
  I said, great, I got one stop to make before we do it.
• 31:56
  She said, how long you going to be?
• 31:57
  I said, I'm either going to be an hour, I'm going to be two hours, or I'm never coming down from the top of the building.
• 32:04
  I was two hours.
• 32:06
  She waited in the car.
• 32:07
  This is the before cell phones.
• 32:09
  I wasn't going to get text my wife on a, on a, on a flip phone.
• 32:15
  Two hours by my fiance at the time waited in the car while I had this meeting for me because she, she said she wanted to go to Cape Cod.
• 32:25
  The Metromedia building in the Meadowlands is on the way from Philly up to Cape Cod.
• 32:30
  She waited for two hours.
• 32:33
  Like, do you have the courage to put your girlfriend in the car for two hours while you go pitch to try to change your life?
• 32:44
  Yeah.
• 32:45
  Yeah.
• 32:45
  Like you said, the world is for doers.
• 32:47
  So excellent advice.
• 32:49
  Thanks, Dave.
• 32:50
  All right, well, Jay, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and share all this, all this wisdom from your incredible journey with our audience.
• 32:57
  We greatly appreciate it, Dave.
• 32:59
  It was a pleasure to speak with you today.
• 33:01
  Thanks for the opportunity.
• 33:02
  All right, and that's all the time we have for now.
• 33:04
  We will see you next time.
• 33:09
  Sat.