Ep470: Jeff Bullas – Don’t Force Things, Learn to Go With Your Flow

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community we know that to win in investing you must take risks but to win big you've got to reduce it. Join our community to claim your podcast listener discount on my valuation masterclass Boot Camp, where students learn how to value companies like a pro and advance their career. Go to my worst investment ever.com to join our community for free fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hosts Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest, Jeff Bullis. Jeff, are you ready to rock?

Jeff Bullas 00:42
Absolutely. Let's rock and roll.

Andrew Stotz 00:46
We already we just had a really nice conversation. I've enjoyed learning more about you. And I want to introduce you to the audience. So Jeff Bezos is the owner of just bullets.com. And you can go there right now, ladies and gentlemen. There's a lot of cool stuff. Forbes calls him a top influencer of chief marketing officers, and the world's top social media, talent, entrepreneur, lists him among 50, online marketing influencers to watch inc.com has him on the list of 20 digital marketing experts to follow on Twitter, Jeff, take a minute and fill in further tidbits about your

Jeff Bullas 01:30
everyone I've had, I was registered as a teacher, and I hated it. I was also brought up in a very fundamentalist Christian family. And left that that's another story we might touch on that later. I leapt into the tech industry and been riding the different waves of tech and trims ever since. And leaving teaching was the best thing I ever did. And we've had a lot of fun along the way met a lot of fabulous people. And we started shift boss.com in 2009. It was just a passion project. It had no business plan. But I was just so curious about what I was watching unfold with social media in 2008 2009. So what was the driver? Curiosity?

Andrew Stotz 02:28
And so how do you satisfy curiosity? You do that through writing you do that through interviews, you do that through reading, what's your method.

Jeff Bullas 02:38
I now have multiple methods. The original method was when I started the blog, it was very much a written blog still is today. I write to learn, I write to Discover. And that satisfies my curiosity. So what I started was I wrote my blog. myself for quite a few years. It was essentially a side hustle. I was unemployed at the time, when I started within a week or two, I got a job in a digital agency, building the online stores for E commerce. And I did it in my spare time after working before work so that for four years, I discovered that the best time for me was to write early morning. So for four years, I got up at 4:30am and wrote to 9am. And then I'd put on my business development hat for the digital agency and up before then I'd written and published hit the publish button on WordPress blog, and I had them send out an email and share it on social media. At 9am. I started my day job. So yeah, I was driven. And I'm now very curious about what creates that fire in the belly? And that's another big question as well. So

Andrew Stotz 04:09
it's interesting. Let me ask you when you did that writing early in the morning, was each day, another topic or were you building something that you were then going to, let's say four days different, and you would publish that something that you worked on for a week,

Jeff Bullas 04:25
no different topic every day. So I sometimes set up draft topic headlines and intro maybe a link to a site and then I would be wrestling and wrangling the research and writing into something that would be coherent and makes sense to my readers. Occasionally, I didn't hit publish because I wasn't happy, but I'm not a perfectionist. But what that revealed to me one is that I loved word wrangling. I've fallen in love with words and fallen in love with reading when I was six but What I've discovered is that the gift of writing and creating is that when you actually have to take this noise that's all around us. And we live in a very, very noisy world, and you've got to distill it into something that makes sense. You learn a lot. It's almost like an accelerated boot care for learning. And I became known as an expert on social media. I wouldn't call myself an expert in social media today, because it's such a big topic. And I've sort of evolved on move on to my next, you know, a different topics that intrigued me and I want to learn about so. But today launched a podcast called The Jeff Bullas show, again, I couldn't come up with a better name. So I did a daily workshop, I don't came up with Jeff Bullas Show podcast. Well, how about using my name was it creates a personal brand. Number two, if I'm slightly bored with a topic in my journey, I can actually evolve it to something else. So the podcast is where I interview these fabulous people around the world about how they started their businesses. Typically, we focus on digital businesses, because we're in one of the most, I suppose disruptive times in the transforming of business we've ever seen. We move from the industrial age, we moved into the knowledge age now into the technology age. And it's we've now the range of tools, we have the platforms, to run a business from anywhere in the world and reach a global audience is mind boggling. And that was one of the things I loved when I discovered social media back in 2008, was I went, this is going to be a game changer. And I was so curious about it, I decided to write about it. And so that's how it all started.

Andrew Stotz 06:53
And one I'm curious, you know, thing that I have is that when I write and I try to write one big piece per week, and mine is usually about investing, it can be about other things. But you know, last week I wrote about, how do you position a portfolio for potential fall in, let's say, the US market. And I showed, you know, I went through and I have lots of charts and graphs. And I have to kind of analyze a lot of numbers and think about that, because I want to prove what I'm saying, you know, I don't want to just say it. And I've always kind of envied some people that I know who have written, they just write kind of flow of consciousness. And then they say, put in a chart of this here, a chart of that there, I have to work those numbers until I see the chart and it makes sense to me, then I start to write. But my question to you is, how do you prevent yourself from getting sidetracked or going too deep into something when you were doing that early morning writing? You know, you have to at some point, go okay, that's all I can look at Wikipedia on that now I've got, you know, how do you keep yourself focused, so you do end up every day. With that result, this is going to be valuable, you know, feedback here, for the audience, and for myself.

Jeff Bullas 08:09
Okay, so firstly, you've got a time block. You've got to set a time where it you are uninterrupted. What I loved about 4:30am was no one else is up. Even the dogs asleep. I didn't have a dog by the way. My partner was asleep. I sometimes even drove to the office and worked in an empty office till everyone started showing up. So I set myself a deadline I needed to publish by 9am. So when you have a time block, and you've got a publishing deadline, that gets you focused, yeah, yeah.

Andrew Stotz 08:51
Okay. I like that. In fact, you inspire me. And I'm going to be thinking about that, as I go through my life because I really the other thing I love is video. So I do a lot of charts and graphs, I put it together into a PowerPoint format, rather than a blog format. And then I record a video, and then I, you know, post that video, and I certainly have a lot more content in my head that I want to get out and the deadline and all that I think is, is a good, good reminder.

Jeff Bullas 09:20
Yeah, well, I think the other part of you are in a different industry, which is a bit more facts and figures driven. And you are advising people. Whereas I'm, I'm essentially a bit more of a in the creative side. Okay. advertising, marketing, entrepreneurship, and these are a little bit more creative. They're my ideas. I, yes, I'll try and validate them with data sometimes. But reality is that I think you've got to work at your own way. I think when I grew up, I want to be Steve Jobs. I think that What you really got to sell yourself is when I grow up, I want to be me.

Andrew Stotz 10:05
It's so funny how it's so hard to be me, you know, in society, you were talking about growing up, and you know, the names that people call us and that type of stuff. And you just think that it's like the all the pressures in society, it's just like, to not be yourself. And when I think back to school, and I think about some friends of mine that just didn't give a shit about what other people thought. And I just think now, wow, how brave, you know, like, I don't know what drove them to be that way. But you know, they just didn't care so much. And maybe inside they did, but you know, they didn't show it and, but as we get older, it is more and more about just being ourselves.

Jeff Bullas 10:50
Yeah, well, the older I've got more, I don't give a shit.

Andrew Stotz 10:55
Amen, brother, well, here's something we got to care about. And that is the mistakes that we make and what we can learn from it. So now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking will be take, tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to and then tell us your story.

Jeff Bullas 11:13
So I had just bought some property, an hour or so at a Sydney for the family. And I was doing remote. I was doing traveling to Sydney consulting. And it was a big round the.com crash in 2007 Consulting, and I was consulting to in the IT, business built around round, you know, internet service providers, which and all because I've worked for one of the first ISPs in Australia, in fact, a couple of them. And I had expertise and experience in that space. So I was doing business development and consulting for bigger firms that wanted to create virtualized piece of by ISPs. So that dried up and I said, okay, and I was traveling backwards and forwards, I hate commuting. So, I still need to find a business that I can, you know, generate revenue from. And so I ended up buying a retail business, it was a mattress and bedding furniture store. And I bought the business. I didn't do enough due diligence, I didn't get enough advice. And within a day or two of moving in buying it, I realized I made the wrong decision. But it started chewing up cash, it wasn't making any money or some months it was and my bank balance getting lower and lower, I pivoted to another location to get a long term lease. I just literally hated it. I was in the store seven days a week, I feel trapped. I bought it for all the wrong reasons. I bought it to make money. I didn't do it because I was uniquely qualified to do this. So what happened was, I got to a point where I realized that I needed to pull the pin. And I literally I closed the doors one day, locked them and walked away. And then as we know, with anything with that, that creditors show up the bank show up. So what were the consequences? Well, number one, my marriage broke up, because I had a couple of mistakes before in the past and she didn't want to stay around. So she walked away. I was left alone in the family home on my own for the next six months waiting for the sheriff to show up to take the property. So I realized that that was imminent. So my brother said to me, come and stay with me, Jeff. So I went and moved out, literally again, shut the door walked away. And within three or four weeks the bank taken property, possession. So here it was hundreds of 1000s of dollars in debt, lost the family lost the home not knowing what to do. So that was the worst decision ever. So I went to my brother and I was I decided that I needed to go back to what I was enjoyed doing love doing rather than just chase the money and I've been in digital long time so I started doing research on digital businesses. And I, as a lover of reading it growing up at primary school where I was basically Librarians best friend, because I showed up every lunchtime and read. I used to read at night. Parents of say turn off the lights, Jeff, I would dutifully it was 830 bed, go to bed and wait for the house to go quiet. And then my bedside lamp was pulled under the covers that are read till I fell asleep with no glow of lamp being shown because it was under the covers. So I started reading, I was read a lot of blogs or read books. And so I had a safe haven, which is my brother's place and he didn't charge much rent. And so he was an accountant and an accountant have unique qualities. And as I the pantry just shortly after I moved in and set up my room and set up a desk in the corner of the living room. And the pantry and I realized he had it so well organized that he had an item lined up and a spare behind it. And I realized that living my brother was going to be very well organized. And I needed to be on my best behavior. Otherwise I would be homeless again. So we got a very well in fact, the gift of that was I spent a year with my brother comes pretty special. Yeah. And so I what happened was in the meantime, I'd taken a spare spare job a part time job do working in real estate, which again, I discovered I hated, but it was putting food on the table to get me from A to B. So what happened was I read Tim Ferriss Four Hour Workweek, which open my eyes to the possibility of digital businesses. Rather than just being a consultant trading time for money. And I also read David Meerman, Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR, which opened my eyes to the possibility of if you create content online attracts an audience. In other words, it's the term he used back then was Inbound Marketing. Today, we use the term content marketing. And when, as an ex sales when working in the technology industry, I was used to knocking on doors making cold calls. So the idea of customers showing up rather than chasing them was very attractive. And then I read a, I discovered social media. And I was fascinated by the obsession, people showed at the technology, the intersection of humanity and technology. That's what social media is. So Facebook or Twitter, it's it's tech enabling humanity. And in the early days in a very beautiful way. But I observe people's behavior when Wow, there's something going on. I went, Okay, so I could build distribution on social media, I can correct content. So I read my last thing that pushed me out of the line was a blog post by HubSpot, which said, if you want to start a business, just start a blog. And so what I write about, I said, Well, social media is fascinating. I was curious as heck about that. So in March 2009, I started a blog, just to put my insights in a very amateur way into a blog about social media, and how it can be used to grow your business, even though I knew nothing about it, except a curiosity. And that was the basically the Wild West days of social media, and it was fascinating. And that's how it all started.

Andrew Stotz 19:04
Wow. So tell me what lessons did you learn from this experience?

Jeff Bullas 19:11
Don't do it just for the money? Yep. You've got to come from a few other areas. It's got to be a uniquely qualified do this. In other words, are you? Are you curious about this? Have you expertise and experience in this or in an associated area? And also, the other part of it is do you have a passion for it? And I don't mean passionate, loose sense. I mean, is this your purpose, but you don't know. But what I didn't discover what was really important here was just start, step over the lawn and share your gift or creation with the world but let's create and share and then the world will show up. And what happened was, as I shared my very amateur writing initially with the world, what happened is I realized I was making a little difference in the world, but I was changing the world, in my own small way. And the world was changing me as I got feedback in real time from the planet, as people come in to share what they liked and didn't like about what I wrote. So I think it's really important to not just chase the money, but to really try and tap into why, why are you here? And that's a big question. That is a really big question. But the only way discover while you're here is actually starting and creating and sharing, and the world will tell you, and it will show up.

Andrew Stotz 20:46
Maybe I'll share a few things that I took away from your story. I mean, the first thing you mentioned about is that I should have done more due diligence. And one of the number one mistake that I see people make is that they fail to do their research. And it's very often the case that we see an opportunity, we get so kind of seduced by that we end up step, putting aside what we normally would do, because we're, you know, excited about it. The second thing that I wrote down while you were talking is that I wrote down money as a result. In other words, money is like an outcome of your passion. Exactly. And, and if you're getting it right, in business, it means okay, that's this goes through the p&l of a company. On a p&l, we have revenue, if your revenue is growing, it means people want to buy your product. That's validation, and they're paying for it. If we go to the next level, and we say, what's your gross profit margin? That next question is can you produce this product profitably? So it can you sell the product? Can you produce it product product profitably, and then below the gross margin, we go down to an operating margin? And the question is, can you operate this business profitably, that means the cost related to the management team, the cost related to marketing and distribution, all of those things. And then finally, you know, when you get down to profit, profit is the end result of not just an idea, but all the steps, you know, there. And, and so I like to think of money as a result. And also, I wrote down business failure, and confidence. And one thing I can say is that, for all of us, you know, all the listeners out there, myself included, failure can be so destructive to our confidence. And there's, you know, there's a failure that can happen, when you're in the middle of something where people lose confidence in your ability to make this dream come true. And then there's also a failure in confidence, where people just say, I'm not going on along for your ride. And there are whether that's in your company or in your relationships, you know, sometimes we have to accept the fact that we are sometimes willing to bring on a lot more risks than the people around us. And they may see that risk very differently. And so I know how it feels about failure, because it can shake not only your personal confidence, but the confidence of the people around you. And the last thing I want to say is, it's not illegal in most countries, to fail in business. Now, if you create if you defraud people in that process, now you're crossing the line into illegal activities. So for the listeners out there, you know, it's sometimes you're going to fail, and you got to just walk away. That is not illegal in almost every country in the world, and therefore, just make sure you don't defraud people. And then, you know, sometimes businesses have to be closed. Anything you would add to that.

Jeff Bullas 24:08
Yeah, it's interesting hearing about that attitude, I think it's really interesting is one of the things I love about the American business culture, is that failure is quite often seen as a badge of honor. And whereas Australia, it's not quite that way. I think it's changing, but the entrepreneurial spirit in America has got this one where you had to go, you failed, whereas Australia is not quite there in terms of that attitude. But yes, you got to like and that's why you started proprietary company. In other words, it is a separate entity that can fail without affecting you personally, if you set up the structures correctly, so but it's tough. Business isn't easy, and that's so my podcast, Jeb Bush, I work interviewing entrepreneurs, especially in digital business. Space software as a service companies and so on. I'm fascinated by their attitudes, their story. And what they've got to share with the world because everyone's I just get blown away with the creativity, the human spirit to come up with ideas. And you know, being an entrepreneur is incredibly creative process. I come I hear business ideas that have just come out of the ether going, where did that come from? You know, what a lot of the time it comes out of what they uniquely qualified for. And I interviewed a guest recently and asked him, Okay, what's your he was an expert in business plans. I said, Okay. Can you tell us what the core elements of a successful business plan? He said, just to just to number one, can you write in one sentence what your product is? It's called the elevator pitch. Number two, write down why you uniquely qualified to provide this product of service. Now, when you do that, I did that actually, after that podcast, I sat down, I wrote, because I have a new product I'm launching. And I've been wrestling with my team a little bit on how that product looks. And we're launching this year. And we've just registered a new media company called Big Bulldog media, that's not the name of the brand. Because it was called Big bootleg school, just in the side. So when I wrote down, as I started writing down why I and the team and uniquely qualified to do this, I write 10 different reasons why we're uniquely qualified. And I went, haha. I think this is the right direction. But guess what, you still don't know until we hit the start button. But I'm curious about will this idea work. But I believe, you know, I'm uniquely qualified to deliver and create this product. But I think that exercise for me was a incredible aha moment. And I think we're going to start a business, just doing those two things. That's just a one page business plan. Yeah, the rest is just the data.

Andrew Stotz 27:31
It's a great story. And I'm gonna have to go listen to that episode. It's why you were speaking, I typed in the word unique, and look for the definition. And this is a challenging word in the world of market is world of business because it's unique means having no like, or equal, unmatched soul, on equaled single in its kind, or excellent, often use relatively and then signifying, rare and unusual. So for the listeners out there, what is your uniqueness in this in the space where you are? And if anybody else can have that uniqueness, then it may not be as unique as you think. And I remember a marketing manager at one of the companies that I advise, got up and said, ``Here's our unique, you know, USP, our unique selling proposition. And I said, Can the competitor do that? Yes. not unique. Can the competitor do that? Yes. not unique. And but I want to put I want to put it to the test here, Jeff, so let me tell you about my valuation masterclass boot camp. Here it is in one statement, it's a complete, proven step by step course to guide you from novice to valuation expert. So that's my one line of what makes me uniquely qualified. I started at ground zero in the financial world. And I was voted the number one analyst in Thailand, many years after starting. So I've done the journey of learning how to value and value successfully and that's the reason why I'm uniquely qualified to teach that. Would that pass the test?

Jeff Bullas 29:26
Absolutely. I think you bring your own flavor to it. Now I would add something else to uniqueness. You've heard of the other secret sauces and spices that make up Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? Yep. Okay. Your business and what you bring to the world is a recipe. So I think at the center analyze you and then it's your businesses, your curation of an idea, and I think that on its own makes things unique.

Andrew Stotz 30:01
So bring out your, your own style, bringing your own style into something brings that uniqueness,

Jeff Bullas 30:09
your own story, your own recipe to, to the world. And so that's that's what, that's what I believe in.

Andrew Stotz 30:19
So I have a course that I teach called finance made ridiculously simple. And in the beginning, I, I was started, I've my video aspect. And so I introduced myself that, you know, I'm a financial analyst, but I also own this coffee factory. And, you know, here's a little bit about it. And then I got on to teaching. And I got feedback from students when I asked them to give testimonials or other things. And they said, I like the fact that Andrew is not just an analyst, that he's also a business owner. So he taught in that way. And I thought, Ah, there's a uniqueness. And so I started redesigning the course around my coffee business. What is wrong material? Oh, that's a Green Coffee Bean. What is work in process? Well, that's this enzyme. I took a picture in the factory. Here's this piece of equipment that's processing that inventory. And that equipment is a fixed asset. Oh, and here's the finish good, which is a bag of coffee, you know. And so I started incorporating my story into the way that I taught. And then I tried to build my uniqueness around that. So I think I'm trying to do what you're saying.

Jeff Bullas 31:28
Well, I would say that that is your uniqueness. How many financial analysts actually run a real hands on business? I could almost say close to zero. So you bring a hands on to being an analyst that not many people can do. And that's your story. No one. No one can take your story, because it's yours. Yep. That's unique.

Andrew Stotz 31:52
So listeners, take this to heart. This is great, great advice. And, you know, sit down and think about what is that and ask people around you? What is your uniqueness? And it doesn't have to be that you invented something that nobody else invented. What just telling us here is that uniqueness is first, it starts with ourselves, our journey, what we've experienced, and that's a great starting point. So based upon what you learn from the story that you just told us, and what you continue to learn, what one action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Jeff Bullas 32:31
What action, don't force it. I think we live in a perfect world, but it doesn't unfold in the way we wanted. And when you try and force it, generally bad things happen. You wait,

Andrew Stotz 32:48
let me talk early. You mentioned when it was before we turn on the recorder, you talked about flow, or maybe it was after I can't

Jeff Bullas 32:55
flow? In other words, I think when you meet resistance, and I don't mean not doing the work, I mean that you're trying to make things happen. And we're told to hustle, right? Especially, you know, the business world says you gotta hustle. And sure, but I think that the universe will tell you when it's not working. And then I think you need to be able to reflect in the silence and going, am I being taught a lesson here is so and I reflect on what's happened May when I bought that business, I was forcing the issue. I was rushing into it. And I reflect on a few other times in my life. And I looked at when I started Jeff bullas.com There was no resistance, except from maybe learn and doing a bit of work, but it was it and just flowed. And what I'm now really curious about is I was like, a nuclear engine, nuclear reactor I just showed up every day and did the work. And I reflected on that, and I'm why, why did I do that? Number one, curiosity. What also fueled that was I got a sense of fulfillment as I completed something every day and accomplishment. The world gave me positive feedback. I got affirmed, and that's what's great about social media was it affirms what's working, what doesn't. I also discovered the joy of learning. And learning is a lifetime journey. And the other thing that I think is your mission or purpose, which is to make a difference, and part of what we're wanting launching this year is essentially, it's a bit like Joseph Campbell story where he had the call. He went and got initiated I learned for the mentors and people around him. And then this is Star Wars, by the way, Star Wars story, Luke Skywalker had the call was initiated and then brought back to the world his gifts and insights. So the product we're launching is going to be around that core philosophy of life of making a difference. But I think is the more wise you have? Why am I doing this? It might be to buy a beautiful home for the family. It might be. You know, you just curious, it's just want to learn. I think the more wise you have, the more the engine is more powerful the engine is the motivation and the drive. And look, I don't have the perfect answer to that. But I, I look at other people and just going wow, you, you just like a force of nature. And, but sometimes it takes 10 years to actually get to where you want to be. So play the long game. This is what we're also talked about as well. And I think it's really important that we play the long game. But if you enjoy the journey, doing the work isn't hard. And you've got enough why's that I think you're going to get up every day and do the work.

Andrew Stotz 36:23
Ladies and gentlemen, What's your why? And that's a core motivator. Let me ask you one last question about this. And that is, how many days or weeks or months or years did you get up at force four in the morning and start, you know, writing?

Jeff Bullas 36:39
I did that for four years.

Andrew Stotz 36:41
These gentlemen, play the long game. That's a great evidence of that. And I appreciate that. All right, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months

Jeff Bullas 36:52
is to launch the new product. And have some fun doing it. Exciting. Now, I think the other part that I'm playing with as well at the moment, like extends even into investing also extends into your exercise also extends into your reading also extends into your business is a question I'm trying to ask now is, and it's comes a little bit from my exercise habit I've had since I was 12, when I had asthma. If you can make what you do fun and playful, and try and work out a way to do that, then you continue to do it. I love running, discovered all set loves cycling. And guess what? 50 years later, I'm still doing it. And I'm trying to make the world of investing fun because I'm in a bit of a journey of investing as well. And I've created shared document a mate of mine who loves to invest in shares as well. And we're making it fun. So I think if you can weave fun into everything you do with relationships, whether it's exercise, what's missing, or whether it's business. I think it's an area I'm playing with, but it's waving fun and play into everything I do.

Andrew Stotz 38:12
Exciting. That's not what

Jeff Bullas 38:15
that doodle, but not without due diligence.

Andrew Stotz 38:18
We learn that now. And it's funny because I never really exercise most of my life. And at roughly 3035 I started exercising. And I can say I never really developed that I like exercise gene. And most people that see me exercise think that I really like exercise. But you know, what I've done is I've come up with a mental tricks and games and stuff like that, to try to make it fun. So basically, when I was in university, I used to promise myself that I would be the first person in the library, when they opened the door to the library on Saturday and Sunday. And they open the door at 9am. And, you know, lady would come out with a key she had already been inside and she'd come in unlock the door. And then we don't go inside. Not like there was a rush of people there. But you know, but I just always made it a goal that I would be there when they open the doors. And so that was like my motivating thing that kind of kept me focused, like okay, get out, get out of house. Now I got to get going. And now I my security guard at our place kind of opens up the gate at about five. So I think, okay, I want to be there five when he opens up the gate. And then I'd say okay, I want to be outside before anybody else is out there, you know, I just just want to do it on my own. Then I found an app that is an interval app that just says work for 30 seconds. And then I you know I run a little faster and then I then says you know, rest for three minutes and I just have it set like that. So I do a little bit of interval stuff. And then and I found myself you know seven kilometers is around the block around the neighborhood here. So I think just do that. And now, I'm on day 16 of doing that, you know, and before that I was riding my bike where I was walking, but now I'm trying to kind of pick up the pace with this. And this morning, I had my first interview, you know, appointment basically at 6am, which basically meant, I had to get up about four to get out the door for to get that in. But I don't even want to miss one day because I'm on a streak 16 days. So a lot of it's just like these mental games, and I'm playing with myself, but it gets me doing it. So sometimes, you know, sometimes we really just love what we're doing. And sometimes we just got to figure out ways to make it fun.

Jeff Bullas 40:35
Exactly. Either love what you're doing, or figure out ways to make it fun. And that's And that, again, is a creative exercise in its own way. And because I Natalie really believe that, as humans, we're innately creative. And the world of business is just as creative as an artist or a photographer. It's a game of creating and sharing with the world. And, and like I said, Money is just the result. It's the indicator of whether it's working or not. Is it resistance? Or is it flow?

Andrew Stotz 41:10
Yep. And remember, on that p&l, the revenue is evidence that you got a good idea. The gross profit is a measure of whether you can produce it profitably. And then the operating profit or the net profit, we could also say, is a measure of whether you can operate that business profitably, you may be good at creating, but you may not be good at operating, ultimately, to get that profit at the bottom line. You need all of those skills together and that's why the job of entrepreneurs is a multi dimensional, you know,

Jeff Bullas 41:45
yeah, it's very fascinating that area, and we have a look at some of the best partnerships in the world like Steve Jobs and Wozniak, Steve was a visionary but not the X. Who want to execute that wasn't yet so I think those intersections over the years have been just fabulous to observe. And yes, you need both you need you need the dream and the vision and then you need to execute. And if you if it's not a partner, read them. Okay. Buy them you can buy time is called an employee or a freelancer.

Andrew Stotz 42:24
Exactly. Exactly. Good advice, ladies and gentlemen. Well listeners there you have it another story of laws to keep you winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listener, reduce risk and increase return in your life. To do this, I've created our community at my worst investment ever.com When you join also, you're going to get that special discount to the valuation masterclass boot camp. As we conclude, Jeff, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Jeff Bullas 43:09
Just start and learn and don't try and be perfectionist.

Andrew Stotz 43:14
Beautiful. Well, that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.