[Transcript starts at 0:40]
Hello, hello, hello. My podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my, one of my favorite podcast. I'm still gotta work on that. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I haven't thought about it since the last time I recorded, and clearly that was a mistake. If you're listening, tuning in, watching on the day that this drops, it is Monday, August 18th, and today we are talking about the fact, the reality that success is.
Simple. Obviously success is subjective. Uh, and my biggest hope is that you always, uh, or rather, is always that you define success for yourself and that's a huge thing that's missed out on, um, and not done. Right. Define it for yourself while in the context and considering your. Enough. But this episode is inspired by a conversation that I had with Jill in the lounge on the way back from Cabo this, this past weekend, yesterday actually.
Um, and also a conversation that I had with my sister. So that's a good segue for life updates. Uh, this past weekend was Jill's bachelorette party and it was fucking amazing. Last episode. I put it into the ether that it would be, and then we went on the trip and it was amazing. Uh, we went to Cabo. If you don't know or didn't listen to last week, we went to Cabo for, uh, Jill's bachelorette party.
There was seven of us in total. We left on Friday, came back Sunday, which was the perfect amount of time. Uh, Danny Jay. She fucking killed it. She was the one that planned everything and it was just so fucking good. We had a chef come in on Friday. We got in on Friday. Uh, we went to the grocery store. Then we had a chef come in that night.
Saturday, we went to the spa in the morning, then we went to the beach club, then we went to a rooftop dinner, uh, at night. And then we went back to the house and played games and talked and hung out and listened to to music. Music. Um. Nothing but nineties basically, just, it was great. I, I would say, I shouldn't say nothing but nineties, a lot of nineties, all females.
Uh, we had, you know, Lil Kim in there, but then also present day, bringing in Cardi B, bringing in knees like Megan. Uh, it was great. Um, but I will definitely be thinking about the steak tacos that we had at the Beach Club likely for the rest of my life. Um, but it was just a great time celebrating a great person with it all planned out by another great person and just.
So good overall. Uh, so Jill and I, uh, we flew there together. We flew home together. Same flight. Sitting next to each other. And so we went into the lounge both times. Like I'm a big fan, big proponent of lounge access. Again, shout out to Chase Sapphire Reserve. Talked about them maybe last time, I don't remember.
Um, but got lounge access on the way home this time because of priority Pass. We were in Cabo. Um, there is no Delta Lounge there. So Jet, you were flying Delta. I don't have status with Delta. Jill does. We get, we had lounge access going there from LAX because of Jill. And then on the way back we had lounge access because of Chase Sapphire Reserve and their priority pass.
And there's a lounge in Cabo. Um, of note, if you haven't been in a lounge. It's not always like some super glamorous thing. Like sometimes it is very nice, especially internationally here, not always as much. Um, sometimes it's just less people, right? And there's still a lot of people, but there's like a place to sit and the chairs are nicer and you can get food.
Um, and you don't have to pay for the food. You've already paid for the food, right? That's really the best way to say it. You don't have to pay for it in that moment, but like it costs four $50 a year to get into the lounge, so you've already fucking paid for that food. Um. But I think that they're, in thinking about the lounge and lounges, there's a bigger discussion opportunity here about, you know, to talk about prioritizing what you value.
And I think there's also a bigger discussion. To be had, which I'm gonna tie into this, this episode, about being complicit in systems and who to actually point a finger at and what would actually move the needle with things. Um, and so, you know, we could choose to be overwhelmed by all of that, or we could lean into the opportunity to, you know, have some critical thinking and have a discussion.
And this, the discussion here, talking about lounges and things like that is kind of centered on paying for convenience. Which I'm all for, but there's also a very slippery slope into paying to not have things impact you or affect you, which very quickly becomes being punished for being poor. Right?
They're all intermingled and intertwined and it, and it's, it is a spectrum and there is nuance and it's worth discussing, and I know these are heavy topics and you're like, fuck, I just came to a podcast to relax. Well, here we are. Right? That is the both end of being alive right now. I also know that you, my people, my audience, you're feeling the same things, which is why I bring them up.
And also we're in this shit together, right? The only way out is through and the only way fucking through is together. So in a slight pivot into today's topic, success, let's talk about success being simple. Not to be confused with success being easy 'cause it's not, or the fact that any of this success is fair 'cause there's also not many unfair parts about this.
I believe that what I'm saying applies to any type of business, be it a personal brand or a corporation, but we are gonna focus on personal brands because obviously that is my son of genius. Um, but to me, success is based on two things. Number one, do good work for a long time. Number two, do right by people.
That's it. Right now, there are market parameters that need to be in place. For traditional financial success to ensue, namely that there needs to be demand for this exact thing. And when I say this exact thing, I mean not just the exact problem that you solve, but demand for it being solved in the way that you solve it by someone like you solving it, right?
There's another piece I spoke about earlier, right? Success is simple. But it's not easy. This is why it's not easy. 'cause these market parameters need to be there, nor is it always fair. And this fairness piece is out of your control. You talk about fairness, there's a timing element to things. There's a luck component to things and, and within this, like underneath this luck umbrella, to me largely is unearned privilege.
Do you look a certain way? Does society value the thing that you do? Does society value the thing that you like doing that you are good at? Are you able-bodied? I am not putting myself outside of these categories, right. I look a certain way. Society values things that I do. I am very able-bodied. There's a lot of privilege with that, right?
As the empire, you know, both earned and un and unearned, as the empire continues to crumble around us, I think it's worth thinking about the kind of world that we want to build and the kind of businesses that we want to build. Instead of trying to just save the best of the bullshit that is crumbling around.
I was like, fuck it. Let it go. I have a tattoo on my side, maybe you don't know. Uh, it's by Buckminster Fuller and the quote. It's a, it is a quote that is by Buckminster Fuller, and the quote says, you never change things by fighting the existing reality to change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
I fucking love that quote. I, it is wild right now that we still gotta work and like post shit as everything is crumbling around us. Like I, I know I said this in past episodes, and I'll say it again. There's a meme that, that I saw. That was like, you know, the dystopian movies got it right. But the part they left out is that we'd have to fucking keep working.
And you're like, yeah, like we just kind of see like the before and like the after. But like there's this period that we're in right now where it's like, shit is the worst. Right. Objectively fucking terrible. More and more terrible each day. And we still gotta like show up and like do shit and like sell.
You're like, what the fuck? So I tell myself perhaps. Since we're in this and we be able to fucking show up to work, perhaps we can use this time to, to build instead of preserve, build something fucking new. And as it relates to what I view to be the building blocks of a successful business, it's the two things that I said before.
Do good work for a long time and do right by people. I'm gonna come out and say it. Because one of the discussions that, you know, this is largely the discussion I was having with Jill as it relates to the online space. Doing good, part of doing what I mean when I say doing good work, it means doing shit yourself.
Particularly to start out with I am all about ai. You know, I have a whole fucking post about it. I'm not focused whole fucking podcast about it. Look, I actually got excited 'cause I, I'm wearing the shirt lux at me the shirt. And this is the new podcast, Chatt, bt Curious, you got me a shirt with it, right? I got a whole fucking podcast about chatt, bt, and about ai.
I think it's great. I'm all about it. But you cannot outsource your shit from the chump. Like you gotta do it yourself and find your voice and figure out your style and what your beliefs are and what you're good at, and have a fucking opinion about things. Because at the end of the day, it's like you can put something into, into ai, you can put something into chat GBT, but what is it basing it off of?
Right? You're like, back something good for me, what? What is good? Right? You can't outsource taste, and I do not think AI will ever be able to replace taste. But that's for another podcast episode on my other podcast. Do I think that AI can help you? For sure, and I'm so excited about it and the possibility of a more, you know, ethical solution to growing a business and the, you know, we'll call it the democratization of the opportunity to succeed.
'cause you don't need as much money, you don't need as much capital and, and people and things like that. You can do a lot of stuff yourself. Right, but you gotta like do stuff. I just see these people wanna like outsource things immediately. They don't wanna fucking, obviously they don't wanna fucking work.
I feel like a boomer here, but I'm just like, do shit yourself. Right? Which is, ties into the second part here. Do right by people, and this is twofold here. Number one, do right by your customers. Duh, of course, right? Fair pricing, quality product, great service. Non predatory means around things. Of course.
That's a of course. But tying into the last part that I was ranting about and about not outsourcing. If and when you are gonna outsource, pay your fucking people, my, I should say fucking pay your people if you can't afford to pay them. Well, you can't afford to outsource, you can't afford to do the thing that you want.
Stop fucking outsourcing your shit to the Philippines for one penny and trying to convince yourself that it's okay. 'cause their cost of living is less like, no. Don't tell me that you are against what you're seeing going on in this country, and then the next breath tell me, you have VAs in the Philippines.
Like, no, no. Are we being in Complic? Are we being complicit in the systems that we say we're trying to dismantle? Let me calm down. Yeah. This podcast is for folks. In the online space, the online business world. I have many thoughts around corporate America, but my main thought is that it is a perfect representation of what we should not do, and this is where the conversation with my sister ties in because those motherfuckers don't do right by anyone except for their fucking shareholders.
They want year after year, year over year profits. They want endless profit, infinite profit, profit with finite resources. All they care about is more profit, getting more profit for their shareholders, not for their, not the quality of the service for their customers, not the quality of life for their employees and people that are generating the income for them, right?
I think that corporate America is a perfect example of what not to do, how not to run a company. 'cause they don't do right by their people. They're missing the second fucking thing. They're half of them missing the first one as well. Or you just do good work doing fucking mediocre work, doing great marketing, mediocre work, and then not doing right by people.
Um, as it relates to the online space and me dispensing advice, particularly for folks who are perhaps trying to enter it now, right? The folks who are maybe thinking about like, you know, this, the society is crumbling and like things are crumbling. I want something, do something else. I'm trying to make extra money.
I wanna create more time for myself. I wanna leave shitty corporate America, right? This is largely like who this message, this episode is for and why I'm sharing this message in the first place. Right? What's in, what's inspiring this message right at the heart of success are the two things I said earlier.
Do good work for a long time and do right by people, right at the heart of making success. You know, not easy or making it more difficult to succeed. Are those other factors? The market luck privilege that's earned both unearned and earned? Right? Which if we take a step back then and we look for action items, because that's what I'm all about, right?
I'm all about solutions. To me it is do good work for a long time, do right by people. And then examine and lean into your own privilege in a way that allows you to do good work for a long time and to do right by people. Okay, stop fucking outsourcing your shit to the Philippines. I'm going to leave you folks with an assignment.
Maybe it's a helpful distraction, you know, helpful distraction item that's also related to business that actually is like doing something, not just a distraction, uh, which is to read the Go-Giver if you haven't already. I assign that book as reading loosely, assign that it's a soft suggestion for homework, uh, for my Instagram intensive.
And I believe that the lessons in it are at the heart of success in the online business space and business in general. But the, the, you know, my intensive is about online business. So. And in the book, they list out the, and it is a made up, it's parable, right? It's made up. And so, like I said in the beginning of of this episode, you can define success as you want.
In the book, they, they talk about financial success because money does matter. We live in society that money is a, is a, is a resource, and money does, can contribute to happys. Because it brings options, right? But you can use anything in terms of success when you're thinking about, and you're, you're applying the lessons from the story, right?
But in the book, they list out the five laws of stratosphere, stratospheric success, which I'm gonna list for you and then I'll wrap it up here. But the five laws of stratosphere success number one, the law of value. Your worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
Number two, the law of compensation. Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. Number three, the law of influence. Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests. First. Number four, the law of authenticity. The more valuable gift.
Wow. The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. Number five, the law of re, the law of receptivity. The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving, right? I do firmly believe that these tenants, these laws are at the heart of success. I boil it down into two things, right? Do good work, do right by people.
You are people yourself as people as well. And the title of this episode is. Success is simple. It's not that success is easy. It's not that success is guaranteed. Things can be simple, right? And still difficult. Seeing things can be simple and still allude you. Things can be simple and have other, you know, factors that make them difficult to achieve.
So this, the reason that I put this episode out was largely because in the midst of all of this stuff falling and crumbling and, and breaking, it's like, all right. What can we do? And if we're gonna think about building, not just trying to preserve, it's like what do we wanna build and how do we wanna build it?
And I think that, you know, my, and I think my message to those you that are like, yeah, I wanna build and I wanna do something, I wanna create something, is that to, to consider what you're building, how you're building it, and the simplicity behind it in terms of. What contributes, what can contribute to success and what you can control, I should say, that contributes to success.
So that is all that I got for you. I know this is a Feistier episode, but it's my podcast and I very much, very much appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you reaching out. Some of you hit me up and you're like, I feel like you're talking to me. And I'm like, you know how I know that I'm not?
And in this case, I am talking to you. There's one person right now who messaged me about this. I am talking to you, or I'm relating that story, I should say. It does involve you. Uh, the way that you know I'm talking to you is 'cause I never remember. What even was said, right? I have an episode and then like by next day I'm like, I forgot it.
It's this general things that I have that I'm like, I get gotta get it off my chest. I love having a podcast for that reason. It helps me process things, but I'm never specifically like, oh, this is just for this one person. Uh, but if you want to take it that way in a good way, then yes, if you take it that way in a bad way, then no, it wasn't for you, just specifically for you.
Largely just getting ideas out there. And as always, I want you to just take what serves you. And leave the rest. Alright, I'm gonna wrap it up there. As always, truly, I really am endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends maestro out.
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