Joe Calloway has no time for BS real estate gurus standing in front of Ferraris.
Instead, he’d prefer to offer his perspective. He’s built a $40,000,000 real estate portfolio through hard work, persistence, and patience. Being raised by a single parent in a two bedroom, low income apartment in Mt. Oliver doesn’t usually breed success, but Joe Calloway’s story is anything but usual. Joe went from those unfortunate circumstances to being the largest single family home buyer in Pittsburgh. With little direction in life and few marketable skills, Joe enlisted in the US Navy in 1997. Using his military reenlistment bonus, Joe bought his first property in 2004. For his early projects he served as investor, contractor, designer, and property manager, giving him first-hand experience which proved to be invaluable. Joe formed RE360 in 2009 and has grown the company’s rental portfolio to 270 units with a monthly gross rental income of $229,000. 2014 alone saw the rags-to-riches Calloway invest $5 million and purchase 72 homes, making him the largest housing buyer in Pittsburgh for the second year in a row. Not bad for the poor kid from Mt. Oliver. Attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh. Learn more here. Joe’s Challenge; Don’t rely on traditional sources if you are unhappy with your current position. If you want something great, you have to make it yourself and get creative. Connect with Joe Website If you liked this interview, check out my other interviews with people making moves in the city of Pittsburgh, like Bill Peduto and Grant Oliphant. Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies. Our clients become better storytellers. How? Click here and Learn more. We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs. Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe. Follow Piper as we grow YouTube Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
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Darrin Grove, Truefit’s Founder and CEO, is a native Pittsburgher with a passion for innovation, technology, and values-based leadership.
Since its bootstrap beginnings in 1997, Truefit’s experience with new, disruptive technologies has positioned the company as a leader in helping entrepreneurs and organizations bring new software products to market quickly. Using their proprietary Idea Launch™ process, Darrin and the Truefit team guide clients through a proven path to create new and next generation software products. By involving a broad cross-section of company stakeholders, end users, and subject matter experts, Truefit helps product teams reduce risk and build confidence. Their principled approach and “start-up” mentality have proven to be an invaluable asset to companies looking for an entrepreneurial approach to software product development. In addition to his work at Truefit, Darrin is dedicated to sharing his insight in innovation and entrepreneurship with the Pittsburgh community. He leads the Deal Flow Team for Software and Technology at BlueTree Allied Angels and advises start-up companies at the AlphaLab tech accelerator. He is also active on several non-profit boards to promote leadership, education, and urban renewal, and is a regular panelist and judge at events related to innovation. Darrin’s Challenge; Think small. Focus on the small executions, pivots, and iterations that will move your work forward. Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter.
Resources Mentioned
Lean Startup by Eric Reis Prospect The Sandler Way by John Rosso Good to Great by Jim Collins Agile Manifesto Connect with Darrin Website If you liked this interview, check out my other interviews with Pittsburgh entrepreneurs.
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies. Our clients become better storytellers. How? Click here and Learn more. We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs. Sign up for one of Piper’s weekly newsletters. We curate links to Expand your Mind, Fill your Heart, and Grow your Tribe. Follow Piper as we grow YouTube Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
In this episode, I discuss the education system, digital business building, and how Ka Sundance has amassed 100000's of followers across YouTube and Facebook.
Ka Sundance is a location independent father of 6, YouTuber, and CEO of a $1 million heart-centered online business. Together with his wife Katie, he works to show aspiring business owners, coaches, and artists how to transform their lives and manifest more purpose, abundance, and freedom. Today, Ka and Katie have impacted millions of people on social media, and have helped and inspired thousands of people to go from $0 to six figures in revenue by using principles they teach in their flagship program, Online Business School. Ka’s Challenge; Don’t wait. Take action right now. Do something that makes you happy. Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter. Connect with Ka YouTube Website If you liked this interview, check out my top interviews from over 230 episodes. Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
Christian Simmons is a hustler and a visionary.
His company, Pennsylvania Libations, connects distillers, small businesses, and individuals, to one another with the intent of growing, experiencing, and preserving Pennsylvania spirits. He operates a one-of-a-kind retail store located in the heart of Pittsburgh. In this discussion, we cover Christian’s long background in alcohol retail, how he has navigated regulatory hurdles, and his vision for the future. Learn more about the realities of living in an alcoholic beverage control state. Christian’s Challenge; Wake up at 5am. Stop watching tv. Stop drinking so much. Get to work building something meaningful. Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter. Connect with Christian Website 2103 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 If you liked this interview, check out our other interviews with Voodoo Brewery’s Jake Voelker and all the people shaping the future of Pittsburgh. Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay Watson: So we need to start off by providing some context for people, not everyone in the audience is from Pittsburgh or even from Pennsylvania, kind of all over the place. So when a lot of, I went to Pitt, and a lot of my friends moved here for school and they were actually kind of baffled when they came from out of state at some of the liquor and alcohol laws in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is an alcoholic beverage control state. That means that spirits are sold in a state store, not just anywhere. And there's also wineries and beer distributors, but the hours that they're open is much more restrictive. There's just all sorts of laws in place. And now with Penn Libations, we're sitting here in the store, you've opened it down in the strip in Pittsburgh. You found a way, I don't know if you want to say circumvent the laws, or find your own space to distribute libations that are distilled here in the state of Pennsylvania. Can you just talk a little bit about how that works just at a kind of 101 level, what you're working with? Simmons: Right. Well, the 101 I guess on talking about the state, cause that's where everything starts. So Pennsylvania is a controlled state. There's only, I think one or two other ones in the entire country that are run like this, where there's about 650 of these stores statewide. Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is that it has about 70, 75 state stores. Some of them are some of the biggest actually we have two top five of the top five, possibly the top three. We have state stores in the state with numbers, the one at East Liberty/ Shadyside area, they do about $20 million in sales, a year, 400,000 transactions at about $50 a piece. And then there's a one just five blocks down the street from my location in the Strip District. That's actually a distribution center now, public, technically, you can't go in there, but they don't have a showroom. They're not your typical liquor store, state store, anything like that. It's trade up. Bulk. So for that location, they do about 20,000 transactions. But at about average, like $1,100 a transaction. So, they're doing about 20 million. So those two locations, which I'm kind of in the middle of, I looked at those numbers and if we could pull 1% of that, that's pretty good numbers. So going into why the controlled state is that they're the revenue they do about $3 billion a year in sales. But there's union jobs involved. I think there's like three to 4,000 union jobs. And they're, I think tied in with a little bit with the teacher's union as well. I think that they're pretty well secured as far as making sure that there's a big reason why the it's still privatized. I mean, there's a lot of pensions out there. There's a lot of families, a lot of people that do deserve the right to be protected. You know, the state started this way for a long time. And just because you've been here for 30 years and the times are changing, doesn't mean you should have to lose the right of being able to have a good retirement or be able to provide for your family. So trying to evolve into it less archaic ways of the Pennsylvania state store system is. Not an easy move. And a lot of people are like, think it's ridiculous and that people need to get away from it. But there's maybe in time, a lot of people think it's going to happen like overnight. And it's not going to, Harrisburg needs to probably develop an entire new platform, a new group of people to be able to get that transition going. And when we talk about that, I guess that transition is that were privately owned liquor stores could be evolved, which is most of the country. Where you go to any 7/11 and a gas station and any corner store and they've talked about these things. I've worked with some Republicans, the young Republican committee here in Pittsburgh, which I'm not a part of. It's just that they saw this as a huge step towards privatization. And it's really not. It's more about supporting local businesses, but I guess with the laws. I guess getting back into the laws with Pennsylvania is that if you're own a distillery in Ohio and you want to sell your products in Pennsylvania, you couldn't just directly ship it to a bar restaurant, or even to a person. You would have to go through the state stores. And you'd have to go through that taxation. And you're looking, I believe anywhere between like, 10 and 20% just across the border, pretty much the state line. And then going through the actual being put on the shelf, being all those things. I have one distillery that is in Pennsylvania, CJ Spirits out of Cane, PA. It's 32.99 retail in the state store by the end of the day, they, and without any representation, they get about $17 and 80 cents a bottle. Watson: Wow. Simmons: So you're looking at almost 50% decrease, after everything's said and done. And I'm completely different. I have a whole nother system set up. And so that kind of gives you an idea what these small manufacturers, cause back in 2006, with Pennsylvania distilleries as one, they allowed PA distilleries to be able to produce product at all, but you could only sell your product through the PA state store system. So you had that major capital, major volume to be able to take that 40 to 50% hit possibly, and still be able to be productively, like, you know, make money. Right? So, but that all changed at the very end of 2011. Huge part to do with wiggle. They lobbied to be able to let distilleries to be able to sell onsite, to the public and to direct sell to bars and restaurants without going through the state store system. And that's when we went from seven distilleries in Pennsylvania to over 75, within three and a half years. So if people want to see a bubble, this is a bigger bubble than the Pennsylvania craft beer bubble. My brewery and Latrobe Four Seasons Brewing Company was number 100. And that was about September of 2013 when we opened. We got licensed approved that spring. Prior to that, we were number 100. Now I believe was over 180, 190 breweries in Pennsylvania. And it's growing and growing. I mean, surprised that there's already licensed over 200, we just haven't heard of them yet. And, so that's growing fast, but I mean, from going from seven to 75, within three, three and a half year benchmark, it's a growing trend. It's making money. But going into what this store is, is that we direct sell. So we stay out of the state sources from 100%. We do provide these products. The manufacturers do provide some of these products in state stores. It depends on how much volume they can produce because they have to be able to supply to the demand. And a lot of these guys are pretty small, compared to like Jack Daniels or Tito's, or, you know, Hendrix or Grey Goose. So we have to work with that parameter as well. So the concept with the store that differences you from the state store is that we direct sell for the distillery. This is a satellite location that is pretty much a mirror image of the distillery because of that, we technically can be open from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM, seven days a week for bottle sales, and that we can be open for onsite consumption glass by the glass, which we don't do. We just do retail here. You can see the space. It's like 650 square feet and it's not going to be very tolerable. And it's just more liability that we don't really want to deal with. This is kind of in the sense for us, the face of the next step was, is hopefully distribution, on a bigger scale, where brand equity is built here. Watson: How, how many Pennsylvania based spirits do you have here in the store? Simmons: Right now we have Big Spring Spirits is the first. So going through all the paperwork and all the lobbying and all the different stuff, we couldn't dump 10, 20 applications from 10 or 20 different distilleries be like, Hey, all these guys want to be in here. Here's one huge, massive amount of paperwork. Good luck with that because they would have said, screw you, you know, they'd be like, we're not dealing with all this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So we had to do one management company agreement and we had to do one distillery, Big Spring Spirits out of bellefonte just North of State College. I've worked with them for a long time. They had the same liquor attorneys as me, and he's the kind of guy, Kevin Lloyd, he's the kind of guy that if I ask them to do something, he'll do it. You know, if it's in the betterment of his company and he's a very smart guy and he understands that he doesn't want to do what I do. And so if he wants to continue to not have to do what I do, he needs to work with me and understand that, like, I have the vision I'm in Pittsburgh every day. I know what people want, what people need in a sense of this kind of industry. At least I think I do anyway. So I guess the next brands would be, we have 10 more coming in a number of different products altogether. We'll have about 75 to 85 different spirits in here. I mean, we'll have 15 different vodkas at least. We'll have 12 different gins will have 30 different whiskeys and bourbons, and a lot of other different things. So, and we will grow, but I'm the main mentality heres to build the perfect portfolio of spirits that we can start brokering to bars and restaurants all over the state. And it starts here with a brand equity, where people can taste anything they want before they buy it or consider buying it. Whether they buy it here or in a state store, down the road or see at a bar and buy it in a drink. They'll know they like it because they've had it here. And it helps everybody, the distillery, the state stores, the bars, everybody. So this isn't to defy the state or to do anything. We're an incubator for everybody. And people just need to realize that, especially Harrisburg and they are, and they've been working with me really, really well. And they're open-minded as to this, I think a lot of them understand that we're not going to hurt anybody, not a $3 billion machine. Watson: Yeah. One of the things I love exploring on the show is the small seedlings that eventually blossom into something really big. And, and you're almost kind of in between something that's going to be really big in the future, but even getting to this point, opening up your own storefront in Pittsburgh. Having you talked about the relationship, you talked about having a brewery in the past, I want to cover a little bit of your past that got you to this point. Before this, you were representing, that's why you have these relationships, representing a lot of these brands. I'm in more of a sales capacity, in a different type of sales capacity. Can you outline what you were doing before and how that either planted the seed for this idea or how that started to build the momentum to eventually be able to open that? Simmons: So I guess in my late twenties, I worked construction heavy highway road construction. I was union like built roads to destroy bridges. I did it all. And then as I slowly wanted to be home more often, cause I had a son that's now eight, he got me to realize that I can still be local and do things. So I fell in love with craft beer probably before I was 21. I was one of those kids, that field parties that was drinking, like Killian's red or Yingling or harp or Guinness and everyone else drinking, Keystone light, you know, so nobody would ever drink. And I was like, nobody ever wants to drink my beer. So I don't have to like give it away. Nobody's trying to steal it. Right? So that was one of my thought processes, but yeah. I worked for Deschutes Brewery, their pub in downtown bend, Oregon when I lived out there when I was 19. I fell in love with that industry. When I got to go to the brewery, I went there like once a week to pick up a free case of beer that I got as being an employee. And I just fell in love with the whole, the idea of like the blood, sweat, and tears going into making something like beer. 10 years later almost brought into one of my old school buddies. We started brewery that's kind of, I was able to really take what I, who I really am in a sales capacity and the creative capacity, to be able to jump into selling beer. And that's what I did for my brewery. I was the cells. I was the creative, I was the marketing, the social media, the distribution the communications PR. I was it all. I brewed with him, my business partner, as well. And so I was doing that, doing really good. I mean, everything that we put in a cake, as soon as it went out of the Brite tank into those keg, it was sold. It was sold before that, everything was pre-sold. Our own mill stout that won a silver and a GABF out in Denver for a, that was pretty much pre-sold for six months in advance. Like we didn't even have to sell it. People wanted it. So created a kind of that that niche, but it was a good problem. And the word problem in anything, it's usually a problem. So good problems are okay. But I still think it's a problem. But so evolving from that point into the spirits world was forced on me by my business partner at the brewery. When we got incorporated, I made the mistake of being impulsive and signing paperwork through legal zoom that he convinced me that it shouldn't be 50 50, that it should be 51 49, him 51, me 49. And at the time I trusted him. I did all that, you know, the classic trust your best friend type of thing. And it came back to haunt me because about after my family and I put in half the money, at least, and then, you know, two and a half, three years of my time, if not more, 22 months from the day we decided to open the brewery to the day we opened, and then I was there for another year and like six months. And then I get a letter from the mail from a lawyer saying I'm no longer allowed to be a part of the brewery. I'm not allowed to represent the brewery as an owner anymore. Right. And that came from my business partner. So because we had no employee handbook, we had no shareholder agreements, we had nothing like that in place. Because when you have a partner business partner, you shouldn't be going through legal zoom. You should be going through a real lawyer. If you're a single entity, yeah, you can use legal zoom until you get bigger and something takes off. But, I made the mistake and I have a very business savvy family background. We're in a very successful family in the insurance brokerage game. So of course, you know, we get a lawyer, we do all that stuff and there's nothing I can do. So I'm kind of like meltdown mode, you know? Everything I've ever built to be able to be my own boss and to have something and have my five-year-old son at the time, be able to watch this brew and just do all this stuff. And the kid knew how to brew beer practically when he was five years old. And I was just thinking to myself, I even have a post on my Instagram page saying in 25 years,when he's my age, he's going to 25 years of brewing beer. Experience, you know, and he's just, and if he falls in love with it and he wants to take that on and he's going to have something that he's just embedded into his DNA, you know? And it's going to be really fun to see him grow, to see if that's something that he wants to be a part of, or maybe replace my mentality of a position, you know, being charged to sell it so forth and so on. So that was one of the hardest parts was that when he did that, but he made his decision and he's still living with it. So that wasn't like October, November of 2014, that next, that winter I was up in Allegheny forest. A friend, family friend is like, Oh dude, he's like, if you're coming up this way, he's like, you need to check out distillery up in Kane, PA, CJ spirits. And I was like, he's like they need some help with sales. And I was like, All right. So I go talk to them. We talk shop four months later, we have contracts all lined up. Everything's rocking and rolling. These guys are old school, like their handshake deal kind of guys. You know what I mean? They're mountain men, in my mentality when I say mountain men, that means they're on mountain time, which sometimes means they like, you know, sometimes it takes a while to get some emails back, but you know what? They have some of the best products in the state of Pennsylvania and if not the country. And, I started with two vodkas and a gin. No whiskey, no bourbon, nothing. Aged. And I quickly realized that it wasn't like selling craft beer. It was next to impossible. But I was able to use a lot of my relationships through the brewing game, and get me off the ground and see if this would develop. And so- Watson: Can we hit pause real quick. Where were you selling to? Were you selling to restaurants, bars, all the above? Simmons: Yeah, I was selling I was representing their product to bars, restaurant liquor license holders. And at that time, breweries could not sell PA spirits for onsite consumption or PA wines. They now can. So. I only really was able to sell the bars and restaurants with liquor licenses. And the problem was there was no brand equity for these guys. So it was all relationships. But eventually those were all ran out because I only had so many relationships built through the beer game. And I only had like two or three relationships in Pittsburgh at all. So going into this. And, you know, thinking that the Pittsburgh scenes wearing a three-piece suit and selling spirits, I was completely wrong. You know, I didn't wear that stuff whenever I was sold beer, but I felt like that was the Pittsburgh vibe. And then I realized I needed to bring it home and like, kinda like, be like, just be yourself, just go. Do you. And, eventually I signed my Pittsburgh winery and then calling out sellers, winery and distillery. And then, I started asking questions because everybody was like, we can't buy this stuff cause there's no brand equity and nobody knows about it. It's great products, great price line, but no brand equity. And so I started being super defiant, being kicked out of high school in 11th grade, for defiance. Literally, they filed on me for deficiency. I never got in trouble for, it was no drugs or guns or fighting or anything like that. It was just, I always went to school. I got pretty good grades, but I just would never, could never be told what to do. Watson: Did he run away? Simmons: Yeah. And so that human nature of who I am is that I'm always trying to think like, why can't we do this and tell me why we can't do it. And yeah. I weaved and dived and jumped and hooped and looped and all that stuff and asked the right question in the right sense with the LCB, and Christmas Eve of 2015 I got a response from the LTB saying that this store concept is plausible. It could be done. They never actually put it in detail how to do it, but I had to figure it out on my own and spend a lot of money with lawyers, lobbying and everything and had to commit. But so as we went through 2016, I knew I needed to build portfolios up and work with a lot more manufacturers to be able to fill a store. So that's kinda in a sense, like, I guess in a sense where I came from in a sense, so I've been through it all. I've been, I learned the most valuable lesson ever, is that when you're an asset, you don't need anybody else. Eventually you'll need help, but when you're the asset you are moving forward. And I was the asset for Four Seasons Brewing Company. We quadrupled our capacity in the first year and a half that I was there. Since I've left, they have not grown at all. Since I've come on to doing this, we now do sales that are phenomenal, like where this brand equity for these guys. And that's what it's about. I've realized that I'm not, I don't want to be a manufacturer and I don't want to own a bar. I want to be the middleman and help guide these guys to become something bigger than they thought they were ever were going to. And that in that amount of time. Watson: Well, there's two kind of terms that we've touched on through that answer. Middlemen and lobbying, which depending on what camp you're in can have a negative connotation for some. So a lot of people see someone in the middleman role with someone who's just kind of taken their cut and, you know, rubbing their hands together with a snarling smile. And then from a lobbying standpoint, that's also often attributed with someone who doesn't have the interests of the people or something that they're trying to move forward. And that really by my interpretation is not the case. You are supporting local business. You know, people talk about eat local, grow local. They don't necessarily think about that when they're having their drink at the end of the day. And then similarly with the middleman, you are bringing these brands to market in a new way that gives them a fighting chance against these massive international brands that we do see in the state store and everyone would know if we named them. So can you talk a little bit from a lobbying standpoint, you talked about hiring lawyers. That's something that I guess that a lot of our audience isn't really even familiar with how that works or what that entails. Can you talk about who did that, how it worked, what challenges you faced along the way, and just getting the ball moved forward from a legislative standpoint? Simmons: So I worked with Flaherty iand O'Hara liquor law firm in Pittsburgh here. Mark Flaherty, he has written a lot of legislation in times with a lot of the laws, new regulations with the PLCB and he still continues to see his whole firm does. And, they've been quite an asset to me. So when it comes to working with those guys was that it's never cheap, but if you want something done, And not to take years, you need to use lawyers. It's as simple as that, especially those guys and at the it's the same thing in boat is relationships. So as far as relationships with these guys is that they have the relationships in Harrisburg and with the PLCB, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, and then with legislators and with, you know, senators and all those people. So we worked with a state representative, Adam Harris, who is the. PLCB is majority shareholde, for the board. And we worked with him and he's a Republican and he saw this as a huge moving forward towards privatization in that, in that realm. And,I believe he did. He definitely supported me. He reached out to me multiple occasions and said after he saw some publications in the newspapers and stuff like that, all the way you're trying to market the idea that we are Pennsylvania's first privately owned state store. Well, we were told we're not really allowed to use the word state store in any of our marketing material because everybody associates state stores with Pennsylvania run stores. So we had to pretty much become a craft liquor store. And so, it had a lot to do with those guys. Cause there's people that didn't want me to succeed. A lot of people didn't want me to succeed because people are like, we've been trying to break the code forever and we haven't been able to figure it out. And it all comes to relationships. Just like with my liquor attorneys, just with my business attorney, Eric Mongi who just actually is one of the investors that acquired Blue Knob Ski Resort. So he's my contract guy. I've been working with him. He was the first point, man. When I went through all the crap with Four Seasons at my brewery, he was the guy that worked with me. So he built all my contracts with this entire business. And he's been doing really, really great for me. He's also a cystic fibrosis 50 finest from about like 10 years ago or so. And so it's all full circle here in Pittsburgh, small, small world. But what we ended up having to do was me call be very persistent and call my lawyer like once a week and be like, what's new? What's going on? Who did you talk to? And that conversation would cost me 150 bucks. You know what I mean? But I do it every week and I didn't care. Cause they knew if I was persistent that they would feel kind of like that push because they knew I had at least signed here. They knew I wasn't bringing any money from this location. And they're the ones who told me, they gave me the green light, go find a location. And I'm like, okay. You know, and six months later I signed a lease. So I took a lot of guidance from them, took a lot of guidance from my family, which was a huge part of the support system on everything. And they still are a part of it. And my sister is the director of operations, Faith. And so her input her, you know, talking to people, her and her husband being able to have contacts throughout the state talking to the right people. But at me, I mean, I had meetings with the state representative here in Westmoreland County, talking about different things. And I just kinda feel like one of my biggest things, I've never had a problem ever reaching out to anybody and talking to anybody about anything. And if you don't ask, you know, you won't know. So as far as like the legislation part in the laws was that like, Getting into how we did what we did. I don't know if that's something that you want to get into right here, but like we had to become a management company. Originally we became a set. We are going to be a sales manager. PA wineries are allowed to have already had management companies set up. There's a place called Castle Wines up North of Pittsburgh that has, I believe five different Pennsylvania wineries in one location. They have those zero spirits though. But when they made the PA distilleries, the PA limited distilleries rules and regulations, they're supposed to transport everything, imitate everything from the Pennsylvania wineries into the Pennsylvania distilleries game. They didn't do that. They didn't transfer the management company ability. They didn't transfer a lot of other things like how Pennsylvania limited wineries are allowed representatives, brokers, like who I am. They didn't really imitate that to the PA distilleries. And we were only really working off of the PA winery laws and that mentality. So we were like, well, we don't want to become a management company because there are no management companies for distilleries. We're going to be able to become a sales manager for them. For just PA facilities. And that was where the forms that we use when we originally submitted everything to open this store. And that came back to haunts. So that was four and a half months of waiting for nothing. but we didn't know. So once we realized, okay, we, you guys are telling us we can't be a sales manager, but there's no management company. There's no regulations for it. Why don't we create those? And that's pretty much what my lawyer, Greg Salazar, that works as the associate of Mark Flaherty, worked on probably for a good six to eight weeks. By saying, Hey, you guys need to understand, like he's not breaking the law, he's this is something that should be legal that you guys didn't necessarily adapt into the PA distilleries. And I'm not pointing fingers at anybody because they worked with us. They understood that, like, this is actually not bad. This is great, they get to support small businesses and that's the whole embodiment of local. It's like, take the word local out of there and just be like small business owners. You know what I mean? Local farmers, local water sources that when they're used more and more people enjoy those products and they enjoy that town and they enjoy that fresh water. They want to take care of that. You know what I mean? So if the water to the farmer, to the distiller, And my book, everybody that we get, then we get to support all those people. Just the distilleries alone that will be in the store will be over 200 plus jobs that we're supporting in that sense. So when you think local, you got to think about those local jobs, and that also the good spirits that they produce. So,the idea with the management company is that we had to do that. I had 29 manufacturers signed up, ready to go with sign and sales manager agreements and lease agreements under this space. And we came back, they said in April that we couldn't have any wineries in here because of the public thoroughfare wasn't from outside directly into the section for the wine. And then they said the sales manager agreements are not going to work. So you need to redo everything. So I adhered 100%. I was like, okay. They expect, I think, I think most people expected me to fight, and I was just like, no, I just want to get the store open. I don't care if we just have one distillery in here at one winery, we need to get open. And we knew that 80% of our sales were most likely going to be spirits. We felt that they were. So moving forward, we said, okay, well we need them. We were able to take the management company agreement from the wineries and just pretty much imitate it to distilleries, which literally the only difference between ourselves manager's agreement and our actual management company agreement was one paragraph, number 16. And pretty much the original sales manager said that we weren't a management company and that we were allowed to do everything that a management company could do, but we weren't actually a licensed management company. So we had to change that back and keep moving forward. So I lost 11 manufacturers, wineries, cider houses, Meads, and wine. I had to call a level of them, which I was going to be a future their number one asset as more income. And I had to tell every one of them that they were no longer able to come into this location at this time, which sucked because we charge management fees. Right? We have a shelving fee. And that was close to three to $4,000 a month in management fees that we were going to lose. Yep. And so, I mean, to me, that's an extra full-time employee that I could hire that puts food on the table for their family. I'm like that's, to me, that's what it's about. So we had to move forward with the distilleries and we had close to about, I don't know, 18 to 20 distilleries signed up. We had multiple of ones opt out because it was taking too long and, maybe they just got cold feet. I don't know. But we got 12 going on 15 brands that are going to be coming in here. And then at that point we'll be maxed out on space. We're already maxed out. We only have one brand in here. But Big Spring Spirits is in here now, but we'll downsize them to a five foot section. I think we have, technically, if we gave everybody five feet, each we'd have like 14, 13/ 14 spaces available. But, some of these brands only have like three products. There is no reason for them to get, if somebody is paying this much for management fee for say eight products, if somebody is only paying a third of that, they don't get five feet as well. You know what I mean? It's kinda, it's like Walmart. Exept not like Walmart. Watson: You're exactly like Walmart. Haha. Simmons: Haha- I like to think I'm more like Bezos or whatever his name is, the Amazon dude, you know? But, I mean, the idea with being a middleman broker, you were not just that the sticky finger guy in the middle. You know, we are like, we actually. Work. We are the face of those distilleries here in Pittsburgh and hopefully eventually the whole state of Pennsylvania. Watson: Absolutely. And that's the big dream for the future is getting the distribution across the state, finding spots, Erie, Philadelphia, all across this area. Can you talk a little bit before we wrap up just about where this is going? Because once again, we talked about the seeds that got you to here, but this is still just a small seed that's going to blossom down the road to something even bigger. Simmons: So we're in talks with the Pittsburgh airport. We would be after security, it would be a place where you could try before you consider buying, just like this location here in the Strip. And then, but you'd be able to buy a bottle of putting your carry on or the mini bottles. And we plan to, hopefully it'd be able to have a nice enough space that we can do a full on cocktail bar there as well. Moving forward, we love, we've been doing talk with people up in Lake Erie, up in the city of Erie. Voodoo Brewing Company has a beautiful location up there. It's their third location. And, they're doing really, really well. And I do a lot of business with those guys and they got really great beer. Watson: So we've interviewed Paul. So we'll link the show notes for that episode because they're doing a great job. Simmons: Absolutely.. I think they've possibly opened up another location in Ohio. Maybe. I don't know if that's, I don't know. That's a rumor. Yeah so moving forward, the idea would be is that these stores are distribution hubs, like in a sense, we're not a distributor. We don't have a distributor license. We are building brand equity at these different places. So if we had one Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh airport is strictly retail, Erie, then say we did one in like Harrisburg or Scranton or say college, and then one or two in Philly, we can only do five of these. Watson: Oh. Simmons: And that's, if the facility has give me all five of their site locations, cause eventually they might be like, Hey Christian, like we want to have our own space in this one town. And I'm going to be like, okay, well, Go ahead. Good luck with that. But what we are is not just a retail space. We are straight up soon to be one of the, hopefully one of the large distribution companies in the state. And so for me is that we put these different centers of hubs for the Salesforce, hubs for the distribution, hubs for the transportation, all those things. And then hubs for the marketing aspect too, where we get major publications in different parts of the state running pretty much the same story all the time. And so as a marketing standpoint, that's what we want to do there as well. And then we'll have a different director of operations at each different location. They will all be part owners. They'll all be very invested. And they'll all have a team like we do here in Pittsburgh, and then they'll have a Salesforce team and a sales manager. And then just like the big guys we'll hopefully have over a hundred employees just selling out there and we'll saturate Pennsylvania. There's 11,000 liquor licenses out there and there's 200 breweries almost now that we can sell to. And they can only buy PA spirits. So 11,000 liquor licenses, I know some of them are not your typical bar, some of our mom and pops real like, you know, diabe or some of them are, you know, VFWs and stuff like that. But we have something that we can sell to anybody in any of those 11,000. And we're actually in the process of teaming up with a local brewery that does major, major, major canning and is already all over the state. Not gonna say any names, but the concept is that we are going to start sharing reps possibly. Where I pay half the rent. He pays it rent. We get representation. We both get representation. And, we utilize each other's accounts. He has his counts. I have my accounts. If they already have their beer that will lead them. Like, Hey, we represent this brewery. You already carry their beer. Why not some local spirits as well. So that's the big goal here is to sole representation, 10 years from now. I like to think that you won't see, Hey, the big brands on bars anywhere in the state of Pennsylvania, because the local brands will just completely squash them out. Watson: It's awesome. Well, it's definitely inspiring the story of reinvention, the story of, you know, dusting yourself off and getting off the ground after you got knocked down. I think a lot of people are going to appreciate that and take a lot away from that and want to support and just follow along in all the great stuff you're doing. So if people want to learn more or check you out, what physical and digital coordinates can we point people towards? Simmons: Well, our physical location is in the heart of the Strip District 21st and Penn address. It's actually 2103 Penn Avenue, we're really close to some of the more famous places like Wooly's Alaskin grill. We got Smallman Galley right around the corner, which is like the incubator kitchen place and bar, which has great drinks. But then like Penn max right down the street, you know, we, so we're right here, right in the middle. And we've got ice cream next door. Watson: And then a website, social media, where else can people follow along? Yeah, so Instagram and Facebook is Pennsylvania Libations. Twitter is Penn Libations. And then our website is PennsylvaniaLibations.com and yeah, and that's good. I mean, you get a pretty good story on our website. What we're doing, we're trying to, we're also on our website, we have calendar blocks that you can pretty much dedicate 20 minutes to you and your friends to get a tasting, which you can come in here and taste anyway. But if you want to make sure that somebody is here, it will only be working with you and educating you on what we're doing here. We have that availability too. That's awesome. Well, we'll link that in the show notes, going deepwithaaron.com/podcast is the place to find that and the show notes for every episode of the show. But as we do at the end of each episode, Christian, I want to give you the mic one final time to issue a personal challenge to the audience. Simmons: Wake up at five in the morning and be up for 18/19 hours. And if you find yourself in front of the TV, get rid of your cable. If you find yourself in front of a book that you're not enjoying, write a book. You know, for me, it's persistence in life, not just in sales, but persistence in being motivated, drink a lot less. Party a lot less, text a lot less, you know, Snapchat a lot less. Like, I mean, for me, it's, I don't have cable TV at my house. I don't have, I have a DVD player and a TV and my eight year old, son's only allowed to watch a movie once a day at the most. And so for me is that we're outside, we're active. We're always moving. We're always being creative. We're always thinking. And that's a part of who I am. My brain runs, but persistence and what you do and sacrificing and keeping really good health with your body and your mind. And don't be afraid to put yourself out there and really, really let people know that like you mean business and that it might take you a while, but that's how I got to where I was. I put myself out there, like I couldn't be beat. And I felt like if, if I would've got beaten that I would have been nothing but a big lie. So just if you're not afraid to put the time in, definitely put yourself out there like you are the best because if you don't, somebody else is. Watson: Yeah, I love it. And the results are obvious, early to bed, early to rise, you know, that's what it's all about. We just went deep with Christian Simmons. Hope everyone out there has a fantastic day.
Andy’s Challenge; Stop sitting on the sidelines and start investing in a diversified portfolio of index funds. Get an emergency fund.
Andy Rachleff is Wealthfront's co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. He serves as a member of the board of trustees and vice chairman of the endowment investment committee for University of Pennsylvania and as a member of the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on technology entrepreneurship.
Prior to Wealthfront, Andy co-founded and was general partner of Benchmark Capital, where he was responsible for investing in a number of successful companies including Equinix, Juniper Networks, and Opsware. He also spent ten years as a general partner with Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre (MPAE). Andy earned his BS from University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Further Reading Innovator’s Dilemna by Clayton Christensen Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen A Random Walk down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel Howard Marks, OakTree Capital Letters Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter. Connect with Andy Rachleff
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Molly Keyser has created two successful businesses, overcoming a common problem for entrepreneurs along the way. Beginning her entrepreneurial journey at 19 with just $0.81 to her name, Molly Marie first grew her boudoir photography business to six figures and became the envy of startup photographers everywhere.
Not long after you get over the hurdle of bringing in enough business to survive as an entrepreneur, she ran into a new roadblock—how do you scale your business in a way that allows you to work less, not more? Requests started rolling in from other photographers wanting to know how she’d done it, presenting opportunities for additional revenue streams through digital products where she packaged her knowledge and saw her revenue explode. Molly’s Challenge; Take a 14 day Email List building challenge. Set a goal and a plan out a method for accomplishing it. Equipment Canon Rebel Ti Nikon D50 50mm 1.8 lens Gift Email List Building Guide Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter. Connect with Molly YouTube Venture Shorts Boudoir Marketing Camp If you liked this interview, check out our most popular episodes of all time. Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
Thomas Mulliez is the visionary entrepreneur behind iTREKKERS. Tom founded the company in 2014 after realizing that bringing together vetted professional captains and guides on one platform would help guarantee everyone a better experience in the outdoors.
iTREKKERS is a combination of Tom’s desires to share his love of nature and to simplify the process of booking guided outdoor activities. His mission is threefold: to get people to experience the outdoors through iTREKKERS; to help people get outdoors, period, by providing useful tips and referrals; and to educate people about the outdoors and ways to be mindful. Tom’s Challenge; Take 6 friends or family members and spend 4 hours outdoors. Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter. Connect with Tom Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 97 with Adam Haritan where we discuss mushroom foraging, nutrition, and the great outdoors. Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
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Going Deep with Aaron Watson is brought to you by Audible - get a FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at http://www.audibletrial.com/Aaron. With over 180,000 titles to choose from, you can enjoy from any mobile device. --- Elaine Heney grew her Merch by Amazon business to 6 figures, selling over $128,295 with profit of $53,000 in her first 10 months . Elaine is the CEO of Merch Entrepreneur and host of the Merch Entrepreneur podcast. Over the last 3 years, Elaine is also triple #1 best selling author, international keynote speaker, movie producer and Amazon FBA and Merch consultant. She has also published over 300 mobile apps across Amazon, Apple & Google, and enjoyed over 20 million app downloads and over 50 #1s worldwide. Elaine’s Challenges 1. Apply for the Amazon Merch Program 2. Walk 10,000 steps ever day for a week and listen to business podcasts while you do it. http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Elaine Facebook group Podcast Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 123 with Tucker Max where we discuss best-selling books, entrepreneurship, and self-awareness.
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Tom Corson-Knowles is an entrepreneur, blogger and international bestselling author. Today, he teaches new and established authors and writers how to achieve incredible success by writing and selling ebooks on Amazon Kindle. Tom is the founder of TCK Publishing, an international trade book publisher that is leading the industry in providing advanced marketing support for authors. TCK Publishing specializes in marketing for both fiction and nonfiction authors to help get their messages and stories out to millions of readers all over the world. Tom’s Challenge; Spend 15 minutes without any distractions (no phone or people) to think about the primary problems in your life and work on solutions. http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Tom Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 127 with Jim Miller where we discuss writing a 700 page oral history.
Kaelon started working in the public school sector when he was 19. He pursued business management in IT in college, but, like some well-known entrepreneurs, always found himself too entrenched in my work to focus on school. Kaelon held almost every position there was to hold in IT, eventually broadening his reach by working with school districts around the world for a Student Information System technology company.
Having the opportunity to work with thousands of schools, Kaelon gained a deep appreciation for and understanding of the data collection needs school districts have. He used that experience to build partnerships with school districts who utilize his paperless platform - with a goal to fundamentally improve data collection processes through an integrated ecosystem and reduce paper, providing schools with more time to focus on student learning. While I'm not a native Pittsburgher, Kaelon has lived here most of his life and is proud to contribute to the city’s entrepreneurial spirit. Much like the shift Pittsburgh made from coal and steel to environmentally friendly and sustainable energy, school districts around the world are making that shift as well. Kaelon’s Challenge; Take one day and spend it thinking of time as an investment, paying attention to what gives you the greatest return. Things that last longer than the time invested will typically be a good example. http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Kaelon Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 8 with our friend Jason Miller where we discuss starting a website as a side hustle.
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Calvin Wayman is an author, speaker, sales expert and social media entrepreneur. In his early twenties, being awkward and shy, he held a company record for the WORST performance a sales agent ever had. After almost being fired, he found a mentor and went on from having the worst performance to the best. He attributes his tenacity of “never giving up” to lessons he learned going out and knocking on random households, selling door-to-door. In 2016 alone, Calvin Wayman started a social media management business, wrote his first book, and was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Social Media Examiner, The Huffington Post. He was also named one of “The Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under The Age of 30” by Influencive.com. Calvin’s 4 C’s of Social Media Content - Show you Exist Context - Know the Platform Consistency - Build Trust & Brand Connection - Create Real Relationships Calvin’s Book Fish Out of Water: The Guide to Achieving Breakthrough and Permanently Transforming into the New You Calvin’s Challenge; Take a legit cold shower. It toughens your psyche and helps you focus on success. Calvin’s Gift Free Social Media Makeover Connect with Calvin Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 144 with Clinton Senkow where we discuss global entrepreneurship, influence, and developing your writing skills.
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Ras Asan is the cofounder and CMO of Breaux Capital, a fintech startup dedicated to serving black male millennials. Ras Asan is an early-stage business strategist and entrepreneur with a social conscience. Black Enterprise, CentricTV, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times have all covered Ras' work to increase higher education access and raise financial literacy awareness in traditionally underserved communities. Ras is also editor and head writer at The Crazy Rational, as well as a contributor to several other online publications. Ras’s Challenge; Embrace doing nothing and being still. http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Ras The Crazy Rational Breaux Capital If you liked this interview, check out episode 126 with Derrius Quarles where we discuss scholarship, growing up on the southside of Chicago, and the current social climate.
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A hacker, professor, and consulted expert, Dr. Tim Summers is a cyber and risk strategist specializing in identifying cyber risks and sensitivities within public and private organizations. He is a specialist in understanding the relationship between human cognitive psychology and socio-technical systems. He has served as an Executive Advisor for one of the world’s oldest multinational strategic management firms. He has also been a consultant for Fortune 500 companies worldwide and is a regularly invited speaker. He’s the CEO of Summers & Company, Founder of WikiBreach, and the Director of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Engagement in the iSchool at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Summers is one of the world’s leading experts in understanding How Hackers Think. Tim’s Challenge; Identify seven people and seek a unique way to inspire and empower them. Ways to empower include; Smile, be positive, encourage creativity, challenge others, and connect. Connect with Tim Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 95 with Dennis Mortensen where we discuss artificial intelligence, smart assistants, and entrepreneurship. 157 Andrew Yang, Cultivating the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs with Venture for America11/16/2016
Andrew Yang is the Founder and CEO of Venture for America, and has worked in startups and early-stage growth companies as a founder or executive for more than twelve years. He was the CEO and President of Manhattan GMAT, a test prep company that was acquired by the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2009. He has also served as the co-founder of an Internet company and an executive at a healthcare software startup.
Andrew has been selected by the White House as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship and a Champion of Change for his work with Venture for America. He is the author of “Smart People Should Build Things,” published by Harper Business, and he was named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business”. He is a graduate of Columbia Law and Brown University and lives in New York City with his wife and son. Andrew’s Book = Smart People Should Build Things
Andrew’s Challenge; Find one company or store that you like and do one concrete thing that will help them.
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Connect with Andrew Website Connect with Jenny jennifer.e.sharpe@gmail.com If you liked this interview, check out episode 134 with Gisele Fetterman where we discuss building communities, food rescue and civic duty.
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Watson: Andrew thank you so much for coming podcast really excited to have you today
Andrew Yang: I'm glad to be here congrats on this. Watson: Thank you. I want to start off with your book Smart People Should Build Things which I devoured upon receiving from you back in 2015. One of the really big ideas that you support in your writing is that entrepreneurial endeavors, as a kind of lifestyle, are often misunderstood and people see someone going off doing a venture and it failing in this vacuum and you kind of flipped that around and explained that someone who goes down such a route in the process of trying to make their their venture work builds this really robust diverse network that can support them, maybe give them a job if they fail, and also give them a skill set that they wouldn't necessarily have if they took some other routes that people traditionally do as they leave school. So, I wanted to just kind of start things off, and basically the idea that you have positives that make this kind of move less risky than many people perceive it to be. So, I would love it if you could just talk a little bit about how your experiences informed this opinion and how you developed it before you put it into writing. Andrew Yang: Well, like you, I started a business in my 20s and in my case the business didn't work out but during that time I developed a ton of both capacities and relationships that ended up really changing my approach to work changing my outlook changing my sense of risk and and those changes really are still with me today. You know, today I'm 41 so starting that company when I was 25 shaped me for the next 16 years so I know from experience that if you start a business, the facile thing is to think you're going to meet a ton of people which you completely will but the more important thing and the more profound thing is will actually change you we will change your wiring it will make you capable of very different things and put you in position to take on very different responsibilities. Watson: Absolutely. That's been my experience in starting this and I'm sure many people have similar experiences. We're gonna get caught up to the actual founding of Venture for America but you, before that, went on and served as the CEO and president of Manhattan GMAT a test prep company. Can you talk a little bit about your experience there and what you learned helping grow a young company into a substantial enterprise with a successful acquisition? Andrew Yang: Well after my company flopped I needed a job and I wanted to try and get better at building a company. So, I worked for a healthcare software company for a CEO named Manu Kapoor. It was a very small company, there were four of us when I joined. The company raised several million dollars and grew significantly from when I joined. During that time, I was moonlighting as a GMAT instructor for a friend's company called Manhattan GMAT that later became Manhattan Prep and so I was the first instructor I would teach on weekends. I did it in part because it was a great source of supplementary income and having gone down the startup road I thought to myself well, “you know like the more source of income I have the better and my startup day job wasn't paying me that well. So, teaching the GMAT over those years I became friends with Zeke and then when he decided to start a charter school and leave Manhattan prep he asked me to take over. So, that was a phenomenal opportunity. When I joined Manhattan GMAT as a as an executive it was still a pretty small company and I spent five and a half years building it location my location and teacher by teacher to try and make it into the best and strongest company i could. Watson: And the company was successfully acquired in 2009 by the Washington Post and Kaplan but moving on, you've clearly defined this path and had a number of these entrepreneurial endeavors yourself. What sparked, or what was the catalyst for wanting to create a program that would give this opportunity or entice more people to go in a similar direction to which you've gone down? Andrew Yang: Well, you know, it's funny how everything builds on past experience and you'll experience this too. I'm sure many people listening to this podcast even have glimmers of it even if they're quite young. So, i went from being an unhappy lawyer to a failed entrepreneur and then start up executive and to your earlier question about building Manhattan Prep you know at that point I run a company I'll be it unsuccessfully and then helped a healthcare software company grow and so I felt like I had some of the tools necessary to help Manhattan GMAT grow and i learned really by apprenticeship. One of the things someone told me a long time ago was that you end up with your bosses voice voices inside your head. Over time and by the time you're in your 30s you have a few voices if you worked for a few people so a lot of your early professional development is about trying to get both those voices to be you know informative and also to develop your own judgment and instincts and so by the time my company was acquired in 2009, I knew that there were a ton of like me directionless yet ambitious college graduates who wanted to learn to build businesses. I knew that early-stage companies had a really hard time recruiting them because when I was at Manhattan GMAT, we had a hard time recruiting and We were in New York so then if you extrapolate that to early-stage companies in Pittsburgh, Providence, Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans you know the difficulties even more present. So, I thought well if we could provide a runway to get some of the same experiences I got where as a young person I worked for an entrepreneur and then got seasoning and then that prepared me to successfully run a company, I thought that we could really provide a training ground for young people that would lead them to become business builders, founders, managers, and leaders. Watson: In creating this, was it something where you already had the network of potential investors or just kind of getting this off the ground? Because, it's such a big idea. I think that a lot of times people out there can be um I don't say hesitant but, maybe almost intimidated, by the size of their idea and how big of a change that they want to make. I would love to learn more just about the obstacles and getting it off the ground or how the kind of initial stages of vfa worked because now we're not gonna say that it's you know a complete success i'm sure you have much more work and much more progress that you'd like to make. But those initial steps are often the most opaque and hard to see from the outside but can be the most enlightening for a lot of people. Andrew Yang: Yeah, and this really goes back to your first question, Aaron where let's say that you try to build a company over a couple of years in your 20s and it doesn't work out which is what happened to me. But, you remember all of those steps you remember going to people and saying “hey here's what I'm working on here's what I need from you” dealing with that ambiguity of hiring your first person, your second person. So, I remembered all of those steps you know when I was starting Venture for America I thought “okay I'm going to do this again but this time I've got like you know experience running a company under my belt.” So, one of the giant mistakes that people make is they think, let's say in my case I want to start a Venture for America and now there are all of these great institutions and individuals that support Venture for America. You might think “Oh, that guy must have known those people and institutions before getting going,” but it's really the reverse where the reason why I know those people is because I started Venture for America. I did not know eighty to ninety percent of the people that currently support Venture for America prior to starting Venture for America. If I started a pizza shop, you know, and you were to come back five years later I would know all these people that supply pizza shops and you know like come into the pizza shop. But starting out you probably don't know a lot of those people. It's one of the great and invigorating aspects of trying to build a business and going down this path is that at the beginning you're not going to know a lot of the people you need to know, you're not going to know a lot of the things you need to know. You just need to take that first step and then the second step and then over time you'll build both the relationships and skills that you need to give it an honest chance. Not to say you'll necessarily be successful, but at a minimum, you'll build all these muscles that you would not have a chance to build otherwise. Watson: And you give the opportunity to these Venture for America fellows to build similar muscles over the course of their two-year period with the startups that they're embedded with. I would love it if you could unpack for listeners a little bit about how you find these fellows, how you vet them, and how you choose which ones will end up being a part of the program. Andrew Yang: Yeah. So, in that first year it was just me going to campuses making the case like “hey if you want to learn to build a business you're better off spending time with someone who's building a business rather than going to a consulting firm or a big company,” it's like a very different look. Today, we had like this past year we had almost 1400 applicants for 170 spots from campuses around the country. So today, I'm happy to say there's like a real following on campuses where folks know that if they want to learn how to build a business and do some good Venture of America is a good route. So today uh you know we have a harder time really trying to figure out who we want to take, finding people, we always do need more of the right people. So if you know anyone while you're listening to this podcast, or you Yourself are someone who wants to learn how to build a business then please do apply to Venture for America. But, we're in the fortunate position now where we can be very, I mean we've always been very selective. It's just that now we've got a pretty strong base and a following. Watson: And you've always got to balance the supply and demand you can have a number of applicants but you also have to find the business partners to host these fellows. Has that been challenging? How would you compare the two challenges of finding applicants and potential fellows versus finding potential startups to partner with? Andrew Yang: You know, every year at Venture for America we've just been guided by the talent piece. I'll give you an example. This past year, we have 170 of some of the brightest, most idealistic, most enterprising, most high character young people in the country, including a number in Pittsburgh, that you've met. So, let's say that you know this past year there 170 let's say that instead of 170 there'd been 180 or 190 or 200. If you get the right people, companies will fall all over themselves trying to hire them. That's been our outlook. So, we just try and find the best people we can above like an absolute bar and that bar being like “hey, this person can help just about any company grow and succeed.” So, if we get those people, then the companies will take care of themselves has been our attitude whereas if you take the reverse it's impossible. Like if you had companies that were like hey we need people, then you end up making compromises. So as it is right now, being frank, we disappoint a lot of companies because we have twice as much demanded for town as we do fellows and that's the way we like it you know we don't have any it's not like the companies aren’t partners, we love them, but it's not like we rely upon them for our funding or existence. So, a lot of businesses end up in tough spots because they feel like they have to do something, whereas we don't feel that pressure at all we just try and find awesome people and then if you find awesome people the rest will take care of itself. Watson: I totally agree, and I think that's also enlightening for folks who are in that space of maybe being in the job hunt and can't figure out where they want to go or where the opportunities are and the truth that if you continue to work on yourself and build your skills and you know make yourself an asset and a resource something will come to you people will find you. It's really being focused on that personal development that will lead to the opportunities that you're looking for. Andrew Yang: Yeah, that's what seems like very much a theme of Going Deep, and you know I appreciate that advice a great deal because I've lived it. I agree with it. Watson: Absolutely. Another thing that I want to make sure we mention is Generation Startup. It's a movie that follows some members of the Venture for America community and really takes people to the front line front lines of entrepreneurship in America. I watched the trailer for it at the rival 2016 and got really fired up can't wait to see the whole thing. But, I wanted to just break down a little bit behind the motivation of creating that and what you hope to accomplish with the film and your support or partnership with it. Andrew Yang: Yeah, so, we were very lucky we're a producer approached us about making this film in 2014 and we had very little to do with it in many respects where you know they had full creative control there’s an oscar-winning director who co-directed the film and the other directors an Oscar-nominated producer so there's very very high-level creatives. My hope was just that they tell the stories of our young people and entrepreneurship generally because there's just so much misleading stuff out there and I'm happy to say I really think they knocked it out of the park where Generations Startup captures what it's actually like to be an entrepreneur better than anything else i've seen. So, can't wait for you to see it in Pittsburgh and full. It’s screening around the country and in various venues and I'm you know I'm having a blast with it. I'm actually heading out to the west coast for like screening at LinkedIn later this week which is going to be a lot of fun. So, the film, do check out the trailer if you haven't seen it and you're listening to this. Generation Startup is the best movie about entrepreneurship I've ever seen and I'm just glad that we're a part of it you know. We didn't have much to do with it aside from happily being the subject of i . Watson: Yeah we'll be sure to link to the trailer in the show notes. I'm really curious if you can expand a little bit on some of the misleading things or maybe myths about entrepreneurship that you think the movie dispels. Andrew Yang: Well, we know one myth is that entrepreneurship is about creativity, that like people have some great idea and then you know that's the bulk of the value. Most entrepreneurship is about just grinding it out and the movie does to pick that though it's a really like funny you know human-like it's a good movie I mean I guess if you describe it like that but it just cuts to the truth of it much more so and also cuts to the fact that there's a lot of internal conflicts. I think that's another thing that the depiction is that there's like a certitude to entrepreneurship or that these people are like visionaries and they know exactly what's going to happen but there's like a lot of personal stuff that goes on with just about any entrepreneurship story and so much of entrepreneurship is about knowing yourself and coming to grips with those challenges. You know, being able to balance both the struggle and the possibility. So, another thing that the movie touches on is is how gender and race play into entrepreneurship settings and startups generally. So, I think that that there's a myth that you know entrepreneurship is just about like like personal qualities or grit determination but you know a lot of times there are really many relationships and opportunities that that only come with you know a certain degree of exposure or access or you know education. So there are different things that the movie touches on, that I think, really make it a much more honest treatment than most of anything else out there. Watson: Yeah, I think that one thing that can surround entrepreneurship or maybe I even see it sometimes in like the sales world is that it's a purely merit-based system. If you know create something great or have a great pitch or whatever it may be then the rest will work itself out and while there is you know a fundamental kind of meritocracy baked into it there's also the reality that different people from different backgrounds different genders different races have different privileges that can make that path easier harder and I think it's really good that acknowledgments being made. Andrew Yang: Yeah, well, one of the stories in the documentaries about this guy from an immigrant family who's up you know parents are giving him a hard time all the time about the choices he's making and you know I could relate to that so that there are things like that that people don't really think about. His parents essentially are like it's not for you to be an entrepreneur, you should just go get a good job and you know the guy disagrees. So, there are a lot of really interesting insights in the movie that I think people will appreciate. Watson: I like it. We don't have too much more time Andrew, but I want to unpack a little bit more for folks out there who may be too old to sign up for VFA or I just tend to be more of a do-it-yourselfer as opposed to applying. What principles or what lessons are you actively teaching the fellows or would you hope that other young entrepreneurly interested or minded folks learn or be aware of or go pursue learning to maybe increase their odds of success? I think that one thing that I also notice just with the model for VFA is that, hopefully, there is a lot less debt being taken on if people aren't going to graduate school law school business whatever maybe and going directly into this real-world education. They're not maybe grabbing as much student debt not that they aren't doing it for undergrad. Are there any other principles or pieces of advice that you find yourself giving other young entrepreneurly-minded folks when you're speaking with them? Andrew Yang: Well, i love what you said about the fact that you know we have an education system right now that loads people up with debt, takes place in the classroom to a very high degree, and is serving really institutional purposes quite often, as opposed to personal purposes, you know. With Venture for America, there's no cost to the people in the program thanks to our incredible funders, but that was always very important to me. Right now is a society, we’re emphasizing degrees in classroom learning to the exclusion of apprenticeship and other things that really have been proven to work in other contexts. The thing that we try and impart with Venture for America which, happens very naturally I’m happy to say, is a high degree of action orientation and a real sense of what it takes to build something of value, you know, commercially because most people, particularly when you're coming out of school, you can write reports you can do things that you know use your brain but most things that happen out there in the world require a combination of brains and muscle or action and that one of the big lessons I’m sure you've learned, Aaron, and that i learned what started my company was just what it takes to make something happen. That's what our fellows get because they're working for these companies that demand that of them pretty consistently day in and day out. Watson: Yeah absolutely. I mentor here in Pittsburgh and when i first started i think it was like three or four weeks in the first question someone asked me was “how long do you think this is going to take?” When I was starting, I was like “oh, it's going to be like it's gonna be completely up and running and perfect in three months or six months” and slowly but surely as the week's went by in the launch phase you realize oh this is going to take a lot longer but the other realization that comes with that is particularly with these VIP fellows if you're starting out young, you have a long runway with which to grow, with which to build and to get to wherever it is that you're eventually targeting. So, I just want to say and recommend you for this program and the inspiration that it is and just the message even if people just see that the cover of your book Smart People Should Build Things, I think that that's a powerful message. So thank you so much for the work that you're doing, and for coming on the show. Andrew Yang: Well, thanks for having me, Aaron. Please do send anyone awesome to ventureforamerica.org, we'd love to have them and I think people are going to love the movie. Anyone who's interested in entrepreneurship will enjoy the heck out of it. Watson: Fantastic. We'll be sure to link to the website your social media and the trailer all that good stuff in the show notes at going deep with Aaron.com/podcast but Andrew as we do at the end of every episode before I let you go, I'd love to give you the mic one last time so that you can issue a personal challenge for the audience. Andrew Yang: Yeah. So, I think that there's a lot of hype around starting your own company. There are so many things that happen that really don't involve starting a company. So, the challenge I would lay out for whoever's listening to this is just fine one company or a story even that's doing something you're excited about and commit to doing one concrete thing that will help them and if everyone does that then the world's going to be a much much better, happier, stronger place. Too often you see something you like oh that's great and then you just don't do anything about it. Just commit to doing one concrete thing that's going to help some organization that you value and care about. Watson: I absolutely love it in one of the networking groups that I'm in we always start off by shouting out great local businesses they're doing cool work and recognizing your influence and your ability to maybe put five hundred a thousand more dollars in an entrepreneurs pocket that really moves the needle for a lot of small businesses so I fully support that hope a lot of people take the challenge and hope they'll check out Venture for America as well. Andrew Yang: Thanks so much, Aaron! 151 Dr. Matt Keener, Exploring Telemedicine, Starting a Health Network, and Improving Brain Health10/31/2016
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Dr. Keener is a board-certified psychiatrist passionate about applying neuroscience in non-traditional settings to help families and adolescents. He set out to work with "kids and brains" 20 years ago and never looked back. Matt completed his medical training and residency in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, where he served as Chief Resident of Research. He subsequently undertook a postdoctoral research fellowship in Pediatric Neuroimaging Research under an NIH grant fellowship, studying brain systems/circuits that form our sense of self in bipolar disorder, depression. Fascinated by big waves however–and believing that applying neuroscience outside traditional routes could have a broader impact for good–in 2012, he jumped into the wave of healthcare innovation. He co-founded Emodt, a company quantifying emotion through language. LIke 99% (yes, that's the actual number) of digital health startups, Emodt didn't make it as a stand-alone business, but the team did have a win in helping one of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms create their first non-drug digital health tool to be launched in 2016, presently in pilot testing. In 2015, wishing to put all this experience into serving adolescents and their supporters, Dr. Keener began assembling Blackbird Health as a way of delivering a supportive health framework for those in greatest need. Book Recommendation Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Matt’s Challenge; Notice and pay attention to friends who are letting you know that they are struggling http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Matt Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 140 with Richard Citrin where we discuss resilience and how to deal with stress.
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Dinesh is a self-professed technophile, in addition to a speaker, mentor, and entrepreneur. He has taken part in three separate companies getting acquired, the third for over $200 million dollars. These days he stays busy investing, mentoring, and sharing wisdom. He initially went to university for sciences, which lead him to a career in software. It wasn’t long before he realized that his pay would hit a ceiling. He saw the sales guys driving Porsches and Jaguars—and wanted in. Little did he know that his passions were in unlocking a business' potential, which goes far beyond the sale. Dinesh’s Challenge; Count your “I can’ts over the course of one week, then work to change one to “I can”. http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Dinesh Website Clarity.fm If you liked this interview, check out episode 118 with Kevin Kelly where we discuss the technological trends that will shape our future. 147 Steve Shelton, Offers 2nd Chances through Masonry @ the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh10/19/2016
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Steve Shelton was born and raised in Pittsburgh. In his early teens he began working in the masonry field as a laborer during summers and weekends. After enlisting in the Navy at 19, he became a naval aircraft electrician and finished his four-year enlistment working on the TA-4J aircraft. He has worked professionally as an electrician, a plumber, as masonry laborer, a bricklayer, and as a specialist in stone and brick restoration. In 2002, with one other employee and a wheelbarrow, Steve started Shelton Masonry, Inc.; a firm that was renowned for some of the finest restoration work done in the city, on many of its most beautiful historic homes. In 2009, realizing the need in the masonry trade for a new generation of masonry professionals, Steve started the Shelton Trade Center, which is now a non profit named The Trade Institute of Pittsburgh. The Trade Institute of Pittsburgh (TIP) was founded to train and place young adults in the skilled manual trades. TIP is especially committed to training young people with great needs and few resources. Most of our students have troubled backgrounds, coming from broken families in poor neighborhoods, and many have been in prison and/or drug and alcohol recovery. Our goal is to move them from being chronically unemployed to productively employed, in living-wage jobs with a future. Our hope is that through the resources and training provided by our organization, cycles of poverty and crime will be broken, and a brighter future will be realized for some of Pittsburgh’s most blighted communities. Steve’s Challenge; Don’t judge a book by the cover. Give people a chance. http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast Connect with Steve Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 114 with Dan Bull where we discuss getting ex-cons to work and episode 60 with Mike Gable where we talk Construction Junction and creative reuse.
Mike was most recently the CEO at Green Building Alliance, and was previously the founder of Confluence, Venture Outdoors, and Kayak Pittsburgh.
For the past decade, the Room Leopard team has been searching for places to hold classes, meetings, networking events and lectures. We found this process frustrating and we often depended on our personal network of colleagues and friends. We also noticed the surplus of spaces around the city that owners could utilize more actively. RoomLeopard strives to make it easier to match these unused spaces with the people who need them. As a guest, be it an hour or a day, RoomLeopard is the spot to connect you with affordable spaces for your next meeting or event. As a host, be it a conference room, a lobby or an auditorium, RoomLeopard is the spot to put surplus spaces to work for you. Mike’s Challenge; Invite some people into your home that you normally wouldn’t have over. Quote from our Interview “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back — concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.“ ~ Goethe Connect with Mike Website mjschiller@roomleopard.com If you liked this interview, check out episode 3 with Larry Gioia, another outdoorsman and entrepreneur.
Hershey Hilado is not your typical 24 year old. Her difficult upbringing enabled her to develop the resilience and natural drive to find success. Her father was murdered by her own uncle when she was 12. Her own mother traded her for money when she was only 15 and forced her to marry a man 3 times her age when she was 16.
After escaping that terrible ordeal she became homeless for 2 years and eventually moved to Australia. She started her own business 2 years later and now runs a Women's Fashion Label called Ohmagosh, currently sold in over 15 countries across the globe. Her passion and purpose stretch beyond overcoming adversity and Entrepreneurship. As a philanthropist she is one of the Ambassadors for The Freedom Hub, a non for profit organization that helps rebuild the lives of survivors of Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery in Australia. She speaks for those who needed a voice. She is a spiritual and passionate human being who chose to live LIFE with so much gratitude, positive intentions and a purpose to change people's lives through SERVICE, SURRENDERING herself to total selflessness and IMPACTING millions of lives. Hershey’s Challenge; Identity one negative behavior or habit and focus exclusively on getting rid of it. Connect with Hershey Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 134 with Gisele Fetterman where we discuss helping those who are less fortunate or in need. At age 20, Justin is an experienced entrepreneur, consultant, speaker, and best-selling author. Justin began his adventure with the creation of Students4Students College Advisory, a full-service higher education consulting agency. Enjoying his experience helping youth maximize their potential, Justin wanted to further leverage the power of young people. Millennial Marketing Strategy has evolved into a boutique, digital media strategy consulting agency, assisting Fortune 500 firms, as well as select medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, leverage powerful marketing tools to grow online. Justin proceeded to launch Next Gen Summit, the premier community for millennial entrepreneurs. Since its inception over two years ago, Next Gen Summit was more than just a conference. NGS is a mission to bring together the world’s most talented young entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, and inspire each other, and give them the resources they need to be successful. In December of 2015, Justin published his best-selling book - What Wakes You Up?: Designing Kick-Ass Lives Through Entrepreneurship - choosing to donate 100% of launch profits to the Next Gen Foundation, a scholarship granting nonprofit organization. Justin’s Challenge; Find someone in your network who’s done something cool and email them to set up a 30 minute interview to learn how they did it. Connect with Justin Lafazan
LinkedIn
Website Next Gen If you liked this interview, check out episode 46 with Taylor Pearson where we discuss the end of jobs and the need to develop entrepreneurial skills.
Babs Carryer teaches entrepreneurship, provides mentorship and coaching to early-stage companies, and writes about entrepreneurship. At the University of Pittsburgh, Babs works for the Innovation Institute, as Director of Education and Outreach. She teaches the Benchtop to Bedside technology commercialization course to clinicians, researchers.
Babs is a co-founder and past chapter chair of Women in Bio. She also teaches at Thrill Mill, educating their teams about entrepreneurship and how to build better businesses. She is also President of Carryer Consulting which provides strategic business planning services to technology companies. Babs co-founded LaunchCyte, which currently has five life sciences portfolio companies, including Crystalplex, Immunetrics, Knopp Biosciences, and Reaction Biology. Bab’s Challenge; Find 3 women in your life (one younger, one the same age, one older) and give them a hug. Connect with Babs Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 67 with Kit Mueller where we discuss Pittsburgh entrepreneurship.
Derrius Quarles makes things happen. Having grown up in a financially humble background and as an alumnus of foster care, his journey to becoming an award-winning entrepreneur and globally recognized social changemaker has been complex. His turning point came when as a high school student and he made the decision that he wanted to become the first in my family to go to college. Living in poverty at the time, scholarships were an invaluable resource to his pursuit of higher education. Before entering Morehouse College, he gained over one million dollars in scholarship awards.
He graduated disenchanted with the state of higher education access for low-income youth and those who have experienced foster care. The led him to become the Founder & CEO of Million Dollar Scholar, an ed-tech social venture that provides a high-impact low-cost scholarship and financial aid curriculum to decrease financial barriers to higher-ed. He is now a sought-after speaker in the areas of scholarship education, youth/foster youth empowerment, and entrepreneurship. He is also the author of the education bestseller MillionDollarScholar: Winning The Scholarship Race. Derrius’s Challenge; Try meditation. Even if it’s just 3 minutes. Connect with Derrius Personal Website MDS Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 114 with Dan Bull where we discuss giving inmates a second chance through entrepreneurship.
Baron Batch is a cultural icon, community builder, dot connector, conceptual multimedia artist, and entrepreneur based out of Homestead, PA. He rose to fame through his street art and currently serves as Creative Director of Studio AM.
Studio AM is a multi-faceted creative collective that specializes in guerilla marketing, unique private events, and is a production facility for his “Angry Man Salsa”. He has an extensive background in public speaking is a graduate of Texas Tech.
Baron’s Challenge; Practice Stoicism. (Aaron's note; you can read this to learn more)
Connect with Baron Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 114 with Dan Bull where we discuss giving inmates a second chance through entrepreneurship.
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John Thornton is the CEO of Astrobotic, a company aspiring to be the logistics company for Space.
Astrobotic delivers lunar payload and services to government and commercial customers. The company’s first Moon mission will carry customer payloads, win the $20M Google Lunar XPRIZE, and explore a possible cave entrance on the surface of the Moon. Astrobotic has 17 prior and ongoing NASA contracts, strong partnerships, and world-leading staff and technology for the development of robotic landers. John’s Challenge; Find the darkest place you can and look up at the stars.
Connect with John
Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 27 with Henry Thorne where we discuss building a technology company and building businesses.
Isaac Morehouse is an entrepreneur, thinker, and communicator dedicated to the relentless pursuit of freedom, and an advocate of self-directed learning and living. He is the founder and CEO of Praxis, an intensive nine-month program combining a paid apprenticeship at a startup with personal coaching, professional development projects, and interdisciplinary education leading directly to a full time job offer for those who want more than college.
Isaac previously worked at the Institute for Humane Studies where he raised support, mentored students, and directed educational programs. Prior to IHS, Isaac was at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy where he created and directed Students for a Free Economy. He’s been involved in a number of business and nonprofit start-ups, and loves connecting people and helping them discover and realize their dreams. Isaac writes, speaks, and teaches on entrepreneurship, economics, education, philosophy, freedom, communication skills, how to change the world and an assortment of other topics. He is the author/co-author of six books; Better Off Free, The Future of School, Freedom Without Permission, Why Haven’t You Read This Book?, How to Get Any Job You Want, and Don’t Do Stuff You Hate. Isaac’s Challenge; Try to write down a list of things you hate and find a way to remove one from your life. Connect with Isaac Website If you liked this interview, check out episode 66 with Zak Slayback where we discuss Praxis, education, and entrepreneurship. |
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August 2023
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