October 31, 2023 • 38 mins
With my Black Entrepreneurs Day 4th annual event streaming this week, I want to shed some light on a fellow Black entertainer who cultivated his own unique online experiences. No matter what industry you’re in, an online presence is vital to building your customer base, and Emmy Award winning talk show host and digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong outlined exactly how he developed his personal and business brand online. This discussion is so key for breaking down his own success case study while providing actionable strategies for all listeners.
Mario broke down:
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How to balance your day job with your entrepreneurial passions
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The methods to scaling across social media
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What it really means to invest in yourself
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The process of creating an experience, not just a brand
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How to monetize your ideas
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And more!
So let’s get into this exclusive, never-before-released interview - and don’t be afraid to take some notes!
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It goes back to do you know what your purpose is?
You have to uncover this. You have to really uncover
and question it. Too many people are at it at
the surface level.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You have to get.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Below and really dig deep to understand what am I
great at? Write this stuff down? What do I like
to do? Write that stuff down? What can be monetized
out of these things that I'm great at and like
to do? How do I see where those things can
be monetized? Those are the things you should be doing.
When you have the vision and when you have clarity
(00:31):
of purpose in your life, it is so much easier
to remind yourself what the goal is.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Goal is?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events? Get ready for my new podcast,
That Moment with Damon John will jump into the personal
stories of some of the most influential people on the planet,
from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and parties. With
(01:01):
my Black Entrepreneur's Day, fourth annually Bent Streaming. This week,
I wanted to shed some light on a fellow black
entertainer who cultivated his own unique online experience and no
matter what industry you're in, an online presence is vital
to building your customer base and Emmy Award winning talk
show hosts and digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong outlined exactly
(01:25):
how he developed his personal and business brand online. This
discussion is so key for breaking down his own success
case studies while providing actionable strategies for all of the listeners.
So let's get into it with this exclusive, never before
released interview, and don't be afraid to take some notes.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Take some notes, Take some notes. Mario. Thanks for being
a man.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's a pleasure, Shamon.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Now you know we've known each other quite some time,
and you know I was.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I was honored for you to you know, interview me
and have me on Never Settle shown Season one.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
You brought You brought the house down, You closed it out.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I didn't bring the house down. Man.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
You have great questions and really informative to people, whether
it's a corporation, whether it's an everyday individual who want
to understand how to be a digital any anybody.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Whatever, you know, sell themselves the company. What are the
cases in this new world and genre where people are are,
you know, absorbing things in so many different ways. And
you know, listen, as I said to you, personally, it
took us four or five years to get an Emmy
on Shark, and.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
We knew it season one of your own show.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Congratulations to that either because you gotta emmy personally as
a as a as a television personality, a host contador.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Right, So I want to just jump into it for
all the people out there.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Even though I was a fan of your work from Afar,
you you started, you know, allowing us to help rep
you speaking, and then we would start to hear about
like how you rock the house at Penn State.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
How you know, all these.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Corporations started to just come back to us to say, Wow,
this guy is.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
The real deal and he knows where the world is going.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
So I became even a bigger fan of you.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
But but tell me a little bit about your past
and how you saw it in the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I think yeah, And I think you know.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So I'm a boy from Baltimore, that's hometown, born and raised,
and I think, you know, my story is a little
bit different in that, but I think it appeals to
many people because it was a non traditional path. I
didn't really I was able to do a lot of
things and do some things very well and be able
to be mediocre and a lot of stuff, and so
being able to understand how to focus that energy and
then really have direction and have more clarity at an
(03:44):
early age was being taught to me by my dad,
like too many ideas, start to really try to focus
in on something you can be great at. And what
I realized early on was that I was really interested
in technology and the things that would blink and would
make things work, but not enough to be an engineer.
It's just curious enough to like take apart from my parents'
receiver and maybe get it back together. I was more
(04:05):
interested in how to communicate to people about the thing.
I was passionate about how to teach people how to
use technology. And when I realized, wait, I don't have
to do one track.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I could actually merge.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I could create my own lane by doing a hybrid
of being in media but talking about technology. Let's bring
these two together and see if it can create something different.
And that's really what started the trajectory.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
All along.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
While doing that, I was working full time jobs while
building my personal brand, so I would work for free
and go into TV stations in my local market in Baltimore,
go onto radio stations. I would pitch hosting my own
shows and try to get my own sponsor to fund
it so that the station would say wouldn't have a
reason to say no to it because I'm coming with money.
So I would try to do all these pilots and
all these programs while I was working the day job
(04:50):
to really go after the dream, which was to get
our own talk show and build our own company and
go to a big level.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
What was your first break though?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know, because you know they say every overnight success
it takes fifteen years, right, and you're a kid who
just you're fascinated with technology.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
That's that's great, right, That's that's something tangible. But you
know you want to go out and educate.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
People and become your whatever, a contributor or your own show.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
But why would somebody give you that opportunity?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, just because I think it comes down to three things.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Pure hustle.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Number one, like absolutely always being pushing forward on your
dream making something.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Happen, so that but not quitting your day job, but
not quitting the day job.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So I call it, you know, it's from free from
free to fee is what I call. It's like a
philosophy of like find those things that you want to
be able to do, because so many people are hampered.
They got their responsibilities, they have their jobs, they have
their kids, they have their elderly parents, and they feel stuck,
so they don't And I could have been in that
same situation. I had a son, and I'm married to
my wife, and so we could have been stuck and
just kind of like followed the regular path. But I
(05:52):
knew if I kept doing that too long, it would
make it harder later. So what I decided was, how
can I keep the day job and work for free
elsewhere gaining this skills that I didn't fully have, so
that later it would seem like an overnight success. But
it's all the small stuff that you do behind the
scenes that people don't see in the aggregate. So when
you show up consistently doing small things well over time,
(06:14):
you get the big break. There was no one moment.
There was a series of so many small moments. I
mean every time I thought I was on TV, I
thought that was the big moment. Right every time I
thought I was doing something with someone like you, I
thought that was like the big moment. It's like, it's
all of these things are big moments. We just don't
regard them as such because we're looking for that lightning
bolt to happen.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Well, what about the people who out there who would say,
you know what, I do have a child, I do
have a wife, I have to pay the bills.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I worked so hard to get to this place in
my life. I'm not gonna do anything for free.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
I did the pre stuff when I went to school,
I did the free stuff back then.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
I'm not going to do other things for I'm too
good for that. Well, what happens there to that?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
If it's in your wheelhouse of expertise, if you required
skill over time working that day job, and that's the
same thing you're going out to deliver to the market place.
I get that sensibility because you're at a consultancy level
where you want to get some money for that if.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You have not done it yet.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You being an expert and you being able to actually
get your product in the marketplace are two completely different things.
The ability to get your thing out there and get
hired and to do it and do it well is
completely different than showing up at your day job and
doing it. So there's a bit of an s curve
even though you have a level of expertise, you're starting
your expert your S curve a little bit higher than
other people because you already have a level of expertise.
(07:29):
It's like a chef. Chef told me, I want to
now open my own restaurant. Okay, have you ever done
that before?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Answers no. Okay, well, where you.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Sitting in the meetings when management was talking about P
and L statements and marketing and how to change the menu,
pricing and all that.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
You weren't in those meetings.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
So, okay, you're a great chef, but now you're on
a different S curve if you want to now be
a restaurant tour So you have to understand that you
may need to do some things for free so that
you can get that other bit of experience so that
you get the trajectory that you're looking for.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I also think maybe ego and pride gets in the way.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I think sometimes I think that's an important lesson for
people to learn.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Let's think about, you know, all the people that are
being affected by the change in technology, and they are saying,
well they can't say it's a fad, but they're not
saying the power of it, and they've been working a
very you know, a job that may end up being
altered through the technology.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
However, they're not trying to learn anything new. They're going,
you know what, I've had this for it.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
The cheese has moved right, They've had this career for
thirty forty years, and they just say, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
What the thing's going to happen. Right, They're going, you
know what do you think? I don't know.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
They go somehow, I'm going to be okay, But yet
they're not going and investing that time.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No, you just posted about this on Instagram. I mean
your posts have always been inspiring. You're always bringing the
truth and transparency, which is the only way to scale
on social by the way, for those that are thinking
you can be fake and scale, you can't run out.
But you just posted just about this topic about in
yourself and why that's so important. And I think what
happens maybe to certain people we either get at a
(09:05):
certain age or a certain moment where we don't feel
like we have to do those things that we once
had to do before. But to me really is you're
losing your curiosity. The bottom line is, if you haven't
decided that you need to reinvest in yourself. Then I
think your curiosity is off, and it may be off
because you haven't reassessed what your why is. If you
(09:25):
take a reassessment, because at the end of the road
is complacency is what breeds regret.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So are you going to look at the.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
End of this thing and say, Wow, I should have
made some more decisions, I should have took some more risk.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I kind of got complacent. I kind of got comfortable.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And I think when we lose curiosity, we lose that
energy that makes us a kid again to go and
seek and find. I had someone that was fifty some
years old follow me on Instagram saying, but I feel
like I'm out of my lead with the younger people.
I said, no, you bring experience to the table that
they don't have yet. So stop telling the inner critic
(09:58):
that you can't survive and right, you got to get
your curiosity out. What are they reading, what are they
learning about, who are they following, who are they learning from?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Switch it up and get your curiosity up.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That'll get your comprehension of comprehension. That'll get your comprehension.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
That's a brilliant way to play to put it because
you know, look, you'll you'll have you'll have certain people
who were saying, you know, I'm in trouble and I
need to switch up now, right right. I find the
people that are successful, they don't wait till they're in trouble.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
They were just always curious, you.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Know, they were like they were just they just found
it fascinating to figure things out. Before they know it,
you know, ten years past and they have a whole
nother life, a whole nother life cycle of a whole
nother career because they started with curiosity.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
So stay curious, stay thirsty.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Right, Yes, it's serious, it really is. At the end
of the day what drives you. And I think what
happens is the reason your curiosity may fall off is
because either you've gotten too comfortable or you just don't
know how.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
To seek it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You may have lost like it's I tell people often,
relevancy creates urgency. I don't care if you're pitching something
or if you're trying to create something or get a
new job. If you can show why I'm relevant to
this company, that can make the company see you as
more of a priority or more urgent. And I think
the same is true with our life and what we
want to do next. If you can identify what is
(11:36):
relevant to you, what excites you, what's your passion? Oh well,
I never thought I can monetize that. Well, that's the problem,
Like get curious about how can I monetize this thing
that I don't think can be monetized that I love
to do.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Well, okay, but let's let's let's look at the other
side of it. When does curiosity kill the cat? Right?
That means that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
When does the damon John who sold a couple of
hats in eighty nine on a corner when he takes
out a mortgage on his house and he turns around
and has only five hundred dollars left in the bank,
is about to lose the house when and he goes,
wait a minute, maybe I went too far.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
When does Mario Armstrong who now has a successful career as
a contributor and a host, and he decides to open
up to never settle, you know, or the He decides
to try to push his brand up to becoming a
really popular Emmy awarding, Emmy Award winning live stream company.
But he almost goes bankrupting it. So when does curiosity
(12:33):
kill the cat?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You know, here's what I often say to that if
you are getting and I'm sure you probably felt this
as why you kept going. If you're getting any small
bits of progress, you keep going. Oftentimes we're looking for
the big leaps. So if you sold ten hats today,
but you sell twelve tomorrow, you keep going. If you
sell ten today, you sell eight tomorrow, you sell five
(12:56):
the next day, something's either wrong with you.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, right, you got to change something up.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You can't do what you've just been doing because you're
going to get the same types of results or worse.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So that's number one.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Number one is if you're getting small progress, keep going.
We do a reflection practice in our family where every
Sunday we go around the table reflecting on the small
wins that we had that week. The reason why is
because that helps to build up resiliency to really because
you know, you know, focus on what you what you
have accomplished. You always focus on what you haven't gotten.
So when we were down and out and when we
(13:27):
were flat broken, when my mother in law was paying
for our groceries and my mom was watching our kid
and keep in mind, my wife and I, Nicole and
I are in the business together. There's no other income
coming into this household except for what we can generate
for this business, trying to raise our kids.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yes, she is a CEO, she runs a company.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, that's a whole nother challenge, right, think about you know,
I mean I don't need to tell you, but you know,
you know, financial strain on you know, in a marriage
and a relationship when your mother in law is paying
for the groceries, right and your wife is the CEO,
and you guys.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Cannot escape the business. You're facing it every day together collectively,
That's right. You know that could be very straining withus
to a family, right, How do you How did you
manage that through those times?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Damn?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
It was tough, man, I mean, you know, pure transparency, dude.
There were times when I would just leave the house
and I told her I was going to Starbucks, and
I'd sit in the parking lot. She knew I didn't
have money to go to Starbucks. I don't know what
she thought I was going to go do because we
didn't have the money.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
You didn't have money to go to star wars. I
mean you didn't have five dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I didn't have five dollars. I mean I was literally
grabbing coin.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I took a picture of selfie of me at the
coinstar machine because I was literally taking change and putting
it into the coinstar machine at the grocery store to
get any money out to put in gas into the car,
because I was just trying to make it to another meeting,
to another pitch to another possibly give me five hundred,
give me a thousand, give me two fifty, give me
you know anything, right, And so I was just like
really begging and hand in this desperate mode.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And I remember going to the parking.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Lot and just crying, just sitting in the car, just
just straight like I get shaky now thinking about it,
because it was that I couldn't let her see that,
you know. But at the same time, I couldn't be
mister macho man. We're going to save the day. So
we had these meetings where we came together and we said, look,
this thing is trying our marriage, This thing is trying
(15:15):
us as a marriage. Do we let this thing go?
Do we continue to go after this? Are we really
entrepreneurs or not? And what we came up with was
a game plan that when one was down, the other
had to be up. No matter if both of you
were down, somebody's got to pick to be the one
that's going to be up. So you got to either
get over your problems or yours are heavier than mine,
or what have you. So I think that really helped
(15:37):
us too. We decided no more technology in the bedroom.
There's the boardroom and then there's the bedroom. No more tech,
no more stuff goes on, meetings, discussions, none of that.
You spending quality family time. You know, that's the place
zen you transition when you go into the bedroom. I
think having a clear vision, both of us being on
the same page with what the ultimate goal was and
(15:59):
what we were sacrificing to get there was very important.
So having that vision board and having clarity on what
you're going after helps you understand the sacrifices that you're making,
and I think those principles probably really helped to and
the support system. I mean we had, you know, the
mother in law was buying our groceries. I was calling
myself my brother to try to get some money from
him to help us out.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
With your goal setting or your vision board was there? Uh?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Defined date and time to say, if it doesn't work
by this, then we are going to do something else.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
This is a classic principle of yours that I wish
I would have implemented back then.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I did not. We did not. We continue to just say,
as long as we can stay.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Above water, even if we dip down, if we can
get back up and get some are we just keep going?
So our litmus test was are we making progress even
in the in the smallest sense, then just keep going.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
That's that's that end of the week.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Give thanks to the small way accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
You forget them when you actually sit there and do that.
You're like, oh my gosh, I did have a great
phone call.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I don't know where that phone call is gonna go,
but I had a great call. I had a great interview,
I had a great pitch. You forget all of that
stuff because it's like, it's not happening. I don't have
enough for dying for Robin Peter to pay Paul. The
creditors are coming at us left and right and can
be used.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
In so many ways. You know, in my book where
I I you know.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I was talking to Kyle Maynard, who you know, climb
out killiman Jarro with no arms and no legs, And
he said he never looked at the peak.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
He just turned around and looked at how far he Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
That's it. I mean, goosebumps on that. That's it. That's powerful.
We don't we don't.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
We don't take in consideration a lot of us the
small accomplishments that end up killing through something big.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We're amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Human beings are absolutely amazing. We have so much potential.
It's what we're gonna do with that gift is becomes
the question. And I do think reflection of the small
things that you've done well.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Help you look. I even reflected when I was down
and out.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I'll reflect to a little recreation basketball game where my
last shot ended up winning the game. I will channel
that when I'm at my lowest. I mean, I was
like fourteen, dude, like I'm reaching. I'm reaching for great
moments in my life, right, but I'm reaching to that
moment because I'm trying to channel like, dude, you are
you can get this. You're a go getter. You've done
(18:19):
things before, you can do it again, you know. Just
remember those moments, channel that energy and then try to
pick yourself back up. People don't build their resiliency enough
because in life, we teach people to win, we don't
teach them to fail. I want more kids to lose,
because they'll learn if you have more kids losing. Failure
is the best way to learn, but people are afraid
of it. Failure for me makes me focused, and I
(18:42):
think the biggest problem that people have that can't get
back up is that they haven't trained how to get
back up. So if you fail more early, fail fast,
fail forward, if you try things quicker and learn they
don't work, you start to.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Get back up. So if you get knocked down six,
you get up seven.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Every time you're doing that, you're building them so of
resiliency that will sustain you over time. And I think
that's been a thing that's been really powerful for Nicole
and I is that when we get knocked down, we
take the minute to acknowledge that we've been knocked down,
but then we also summons that energy to get back up.
And I think over time our resiliency has gotten so
much stronger.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
So well, obviously the proof is in the putting, because
then all of a sudden you become a contribute on
today's show, HLN, CNN Inside Edition, Doctor Oz, Steve Harvey
and Rachel Ray and many more, and you decide to
come out with a Never Settle Show, right, So for
those who don't know, and I love the fact that.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
You control your you know, you don't depend on any
other carrier anybody else. You come out and you use
your content, which is extremely empowering to corporations and everyday individuals.
Would tell tell me more about the Never Settle Show
for those who don't know about it.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, I mean, in a nutshell, the Never Settle Show
is an opportunity. We just clarified our vision and mission statement.
So our vision is to motivate people around the world
to never settle, big, ambitious, scary idea.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
How are you going to do that?
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And so our vision on how we are the mission
rather and how we try to accomplish that is by
inspiring the human spirit, teaching lessons that matter, and helping
people uncover new perspectives. So what we're trying to do
with this show is really uncover the process the recipes.
People want to know, how did dam and John make it? Like,
we know you did food, but we know you did this.
We know you're here but what is the What are
(20:24):
the things that we didn't see, that we didn't hear
about the process in those moments, the formulas that you
used or even didn't know that you created because you
just did it out of necessity, But peeling back those
layers so that people can understand what success really looks like.
We live in this instagram highly highlight real culture, and
it's painting hope for a lot of people, and it's
(20:46):
not giving people what the ethics are and what the
work has to be and how resilient and the roadmap
and the recipe, and so the better we can have
access to great people like you that are transparent and
are willing to share. We get secrets that most people
don't get hold of. And so we're very focused and
deliberate about having you on the show and talking about
(21:07):
success tips.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
What are they? Why how do we get them to people?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So I think that's the differentiator in our show is
a motivational show that's a talk show that has a
live studio audience that is live streams. The other thing
is it's interactive in real time, so we take social
media in real time questions.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
We even do live voting polls, We.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Even did it in season two where people could say
what they wanted to see next on the show, and
in real time, we would switch our show to that
particular topic, which is different and difficult to kind of do,
but we've been doing that.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Obviously it's powerful enough to be acknowledged and win an Emmy,
and then you would go out and what I find
even more fascinating is you would use that knowledge because
you combine that with understanding technology and where things are
going to speak to corporations because you know, this.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Is the vide now I see, I see that.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
The people a lot of people like my fellow Garmentos
and a lot of people see here. And the ones
that are in power manufacturers financing a lot of those,
A lot of those individuals their experience, but they're forty
year older, right, Corporate exacts a lot of people A yeah,
the ones changing the world and communicating on different levels
are fifteen to twenty five, right, So now you have
(22:19):
the people who are changing the world and absorbing information
and doing things a whole different different way, they're fifteen
to twenty five.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
And the people who.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Have the resources and or the history are forty and over.
So you're one of those rare people that can combine
both of them.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
What are the questions you find that are keeping the
corporations up at night?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Agility being able to pivot quickly, not having enough opportunity
for smaller projects to be tested to see if they
can become new products or new revenue streams, that they
get a little too stuck. And the ones that hurt
(23:05):
the most are the ones that know they're kind of
stuck and they know they need to shift, and now
they're trying to grasp and.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Do they get stuck by analysis paralysis or it's the
fact that they all, you know, they all say they're
going to do something and then they just don't. Is
it top management who just refuses to change? You know,
they had that, They have that Tommy Mottolay, you know
they you know he.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Said, oh Texas coming is going to change music. And
he's like, do you see a computer on my desk?
You know it's not gonna happen. What is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's uh, you know, uh. I think of like when
I think of Denzel and he's like King Kong, ain't
guys not knowing me?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And it's like, you know, that's how you start feeling
like I built this, I did this, we got it
to this level.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
We know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, we know we need to change, but we're we're
doing that and it's like, no, it's it's not actually happening.
So the biggest area that I've seen, the most that's
been consistent in terms of any trend, has been one
of two. Either the top of the management, the head
person in charge, their their ethos, their personality, their characteristics
have funneled down into the organization, and that person is
(24:11):
not the go getter, is not what they were before,
they're not the new go getter, or they're not instituting
that and they have too much ego and pride, so
they're either afraid to make a big move because of
embarrassment or how it may look in the marketplace and
they or they're just happy with incremental success because why
rock the boat, And they're going to talk a big game,
but you're gonna find out later that it didn't end
(24:31):
up happening. They may hope that some people down in
(24:53):
management or lower management get some things done that may pop,
but it's not strategically done. The other trend that I
have seen is where the the like Google does is great.
The eighty twenty rule where they give twenty percent of
their work time to their employees to work on projects
that could benefit Google. I recently talked to a person
that was trying to He was a graphic design expert
(25:13):
working for another company, and he said, I'm frustrated the
management doesn't do this.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They don't do that.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I said, well, have you ever gone to them? How
much money do you have to have everything from that salary?
Do you have to have all that money? He's like, no,
I don't have to have the money. Wife, she's got
something in the household income. I could why why are
you asking? I said, well, what if you told him
you would take a pay cut, you still get your check.
But what if you told him to take a pay cut,
but that you want them to be able to invest
twenty percent of your time to go out and do
(25:37):
other projects. And he was like, I never thought about that.
A week later he called me up and said, Mario,
they bid at it. And I was like, well, they
either bit at it because they needed to save money,
but that doesn't matter if you can handle it financially.
And because he was getting he was getting concerned that
the company wasn't making moves, wasn't shifting, and he wasn't
giving the leeway to have that room.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
So he said, let me do a deal for you.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I'll break down my salary a little bit if you
allow me to go after some of these side projects,
and I'll give you first righte a refusal company to
go after these side projects if I build it into something.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Small little things that may turn big.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Small little things that could end up becoming a big thing.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
You know, I think you know who does this on
a really they do it really well. Nike gonna do
probably about twenty billion dollars annually. However they will make
and you are a sneakerhead, yes, I know they will make.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I got your shoes in my bag, good because I
want you to sign them, because I bought more than
one pair.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Absolutely, Oh thank you. We should have said, I thought
we send them to you.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
But Nike, you will make one pair of custom a
one custom piece for somebody. Right, you can design your
own one player, right, So you know.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I think most most people corporation and await, we're making
We're doing twenty billion dollars right where you're making one
sneaker for one person.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You know, the logistics change that we have to create
to be able to customize all these ones.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
However, in a year, if you see these ones that
are made from one person in Australia, ten people here
in whatever, you start to see the same color paletta,
You start to see the same kind of design coming around.
You may start to say at Nike, okay, now we've
just gotten a free or even paid to get our
(27:25):
new line for next year.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's brilliant, right, It's true.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
But other corporations will say, no, why would we do that? Right,
But we'll look at the Blackberries, the Blockbusters, Kodaks and
or the Toys r us so we didn't do that.
I think that what you're you're saying it applies to
you personally at home, or applies to running a corporation.
It is stay curious because the corporations you know who
(27:51):
are failing are not curious.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
That's rightmore they lost it.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
And appreciate the small wins, the one sneaker.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Right because it builds.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And personally, what you're also getting at is a bigger
trend personalization. We want that I want to feel that
that car that's picking me up is the car for
me and it's taking me to my destination that knows
who I am. Preferences, specs, they matter, and as you mentioned,
free market research for people that are buying your product
basically telling you. Because you're tracking the clicks, you're seeing
(28:22):
what people are making, you're getting a sensis to what's hot,
what's not. Oh well, people want more mesh material, then
they do leather. Okay, well we're going to do some
more lines with mesh. They want it in magenta, not
really this purple. All right, we can do that too.
So it's very pointed what you're saying, But it's the
long tail.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
People don't want to ride that long wave anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
David.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
That's the problem, and that's why I feel like too
many people see that success and they want to get
to it too quick. So either they're exit entrepreneurs and
they really don't care about the impact, really don't care
about the impact and the service that they're delivering. It's
more about how can I flip this business and make
some money from it, or they really are struggling to
try to figure it out and haven't gotten the right
set of things to unlock to help them move forward.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Makes a proof sense to me. So now I want
to get into what are you excited about what's coming up?
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Excited about it? Obviously a third season, yes, third season?
What else? What else are you excited about out there today?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
You know, I'm excited about the fact that our team
has been out pitching this show and we were getting
some some some questionable responses. And this is after winning
an Emmy for the show and having success, that some
agencies were coming at us with questions that we thought
we were prepared, We thought we had all the objections covered.
(29:37):
So we're doing some litmus testing in the market, talking
to mostly friends before we risk ourselves to the you know,
the larger agencies that we can't get back in the
door with again because we had that one shot and
now we blew it and we're hearing some things that
just weren't kind of like jiving with what we thought
were some of our unique differentiators. And so what has
we pumped is the fact that after.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We were just like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
We've been working this hard, we've been successful, and now
we got to maybe think about reshaping this pitch all
over again. The fact that the team got together to
do that and to recognize, let's be open, let's be aware,
let's be flexible.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Let's not be ego or pride driven or force it.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I'm excited on the opportunity because now it's not just
a show. What we've now created is an event. So
it's a whole experience. So now the show is going
to become the Never Settle experience because when you step
into Nasdaq in the lobby, we have you come there
an hour before the show.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
There's drinks, there's a reception.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
There's opportunities to do demo stations with brands, to do activations,
to have product be tested, tried out, signed up for
give discounts for.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
We have an event that's happening.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Then we take that audience and put them into the show,
into the studio audience, and then we have our guests
and all of that come by. We weren't looking at
the event piece as something that was of extreme value
that could also help the show piece. And so now
it's like this is great because we had events on
our vision board, we had product line for the show,
product line for Never Settle Films, Never Settle Network. That's
(31:04):
the big plan, like the OTT Network of having multiple shows,
Never settle merchandise and products. So we had these things
on the vision plan and roadmap and I'm just glad
to see that we were able to adjust to the market,
which what felt negative to us has now turned into
a complete positive. And it's also putting us into another
line of business that we wanted to start, but we
thought we were going to have to start that later.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
But where's that fine line of listening to the market
and then following your gut Because you know, some of
the biggest problems about corporations or sponsors is they come
up with the lowest common denominator, right, so they'll you'll
have this groundbreaking thing that got you here, Yeah, but
they want you to by the time they give you
(31:45):
all the comments on this great launch, it ends up
being a kiosk in the mall. We're handing out flyers, right,
because everybody wants to be too safe, And the whole
reason that you got here was not being safe, that's right.
So where is that fine line? Because they knew so
so much, they be doing it themselves. Yeah, where's that
findline where you make the adjustment?
Speaker 5 (32:04):
However, you stay true to where you think you should
be going and not being complacent angle compliance to what
has been in the past.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It goes back down, I don't care if you're going
after a job, a relationship, marriage, parenting, entrepreneurship, startups. It
goes back to do you know what your purpose is?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Why you have to uncover this?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You have to really uncover and question it. Too many
people are at it at the surface level. You have
to get the low and really dig deep to understand
what am I great at? Write this stuff down? What
do I like to do? Write that stuff down? Where
what can be monetized? Out of these things that I'm
great at and like to do, How do I see
(32:50):
where those things can be monetized? Those are the things
you should be doing. When you have the vision and
when you have clarity of purpose in your life, it
is so much easier to remind yourself what the goal is.
When the goal for us is to motivate people around
the world to never settle.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
That doesn't say just through the show.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That doesn't say just through the clothing line, That doesn't
say just through a tech app. It says to motivate
people around the world to never settle. Inherently, we need
to be open to all the inputs being thrown at
us to all the criticism or all the positivity.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Not drink too much of our kool aid.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Make sure people are throwing it out and telling us
why and really saying to ourselves, Okay, be willing to shift.
Maybe this isn't the best platform to motivate people around
the world to never settle. Maybe it's a podcast, you know,
Maybe it's a cruise, you know. Maybe it's going to
Richard Branson's island on Necker with only twenty people and
it's super intimate.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Think going back to the same thing.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Take the small little steps, see how it works, how
you feel about us, how it affects other people, and
if you like it well for you, you don't.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
You didn't lose a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
No, And there's a thing that you made me think
of this. There's a thing that I uncovered. I do
an Instagram live series every day for about thirty minutes
free mastermind series where I'm trying to get people advice
and tips, and you make me think of the particular
activating system, the RAS. The reticular activating system is a
part of our brain. It's about the size of the
fingertip of our like a pencil or eraser, in the
(34:16):
back of our brain has a bunch of neurons there.
What its job is to do is to filter out
all the noise for the stuff that you actually need
to know. So imagine yourself in a noisy environment. You're
walking outside, everything honking horns, a lot of people talking,
there's music playing, your birds chirping, whatever you're hearing, and
then all of a sudden, someone yells out the word damon.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
First thing you do is you look around to see
who's looking for you.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, maybe not you, because you might be trying to
like You're like no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
No more pitches, no more pitches, right right, So you
might just like bolt down.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
But the point is, out of all of that noise,
your subconscious heard your name, and that's something that registers
to you. It's the same way that you say, I'm
going to buy a new car. I want that red
Toyota camera. Every time you now look around, you see
nothing but a red Toyota camera. It's your brain and
the subconscious is filtering that. So this raz system, I
think to me, has really helped us figure out how
(35:05):
to hack all of this. You take your purpose, your
why you take that with this subconscious of knowing what
your why is. It's in my phone as alarms, It's
on my mirror, it's in my closet, hanging up on
eight and a half by eleven sheets of paper. It's
everywhere reminding me. So my subconscious is wired to motivate
(35:25):
people to never settle, not wired to one way of
doing that. So when opportunities or challenges arise, my raz
comes up and says, wait, let that filter in.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
But it sounds like bad news. No, let that come in.
Filter that understand that? Is that a way for you
to pivot?
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Is that something you need to filter, use and utilize
to help you be better? So I think really getting
to know one's self is really, ultimately what we might
be really saying here, which is the hardest test to
be a true human being is to look yourself in
the mirror and accept your flaws and try to figure
out how you're going to work on your strengths.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
And with all that, is that or maybe there's another way?
What do you how do you find power in your
life today? Business and personal?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
You know, where do you get that energy and that
power to keep moving forward and never sep Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I think it's the feedback that I get from customers
and clients that feels us clearly, because it feels good
to know that you're serving the people that you're trying
to serve well.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Even negative feedback, negative feedback I.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Love even more because that pushes me. And I think
if we wire ourselves, it's hard to take. I used
to have thin skin, and my wife really has worked
on me, like developing. She's like, look, if you're going
to be in this business, you got to thicking up
your skin. You're trying to please too many people all
the time, and it's just the nature of who you are,
but you got to thicken it up.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
And she was absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
So and that's why she's a CEO, that's why she
runs this company. But it's to that point of being
able to get that feedback positive and negative, that reminds you,
this is why I'm doing it. When someone writes you
a let or it takes a note to say what
you did has impacted them in a new way and
has changed their life for them in their way, that's
a big deal to us.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
So that helps.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
When it doesn't work, I want to know even more
why it didn't work.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
A lot of people don't realize the negative feedback, it's
still a contribution, right, It is somebody taking time because
that's true.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
They just never said anything.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
That'd be the worst, that would be the worst. I
need to know.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
I need to know, and so I market research our
audience often.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
We do surveys often.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And I think if you program a survey, if you
can afford to do survey Monkey on the cheap end,
or if you can go and hire like a Left
Line who we hired to actually program a survey, or
do Google surveys in between.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
The point is.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Find out, get the market research, and be open to
the negative as well as the positive that you get.
Don't create questions that's going to make you feel good
when the answers come back. You're looking for answers that
are going to push you to the next level.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Make you feel uncomfortable. That's the only way you can
get growth.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Thanks man, sound good. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Appreciate it, man, It's been great being on with you
and man.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Look to speaking opportunities that have been happening through the
Shark Group and this and the and the Speakers Bureau
has been amazing. We have been lightening up on Hey,
get me to your get me to your campus, get
me to your company.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
It's happening. It's fire man. We're doing some good stuff.
We're making it work.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
It's doing really great. So thanks for having me here.
I really appreciate the time at.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
That moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to and rate the show. And of course
you didn't all connect with me on any of my
(38:41):
social media platforms. At the Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond,
But what a d
It goes back to do you know what your purpose is?
You have to uncover this. You have to really uncover
and question it. Too many people are at it at
the surface level.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You have to get.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Below and really dig deep to understand what am I
great at? Write this stuff down? What do I like
to do? Write that stuff down? What can be monetized
out of these things that I'm great at and like
to do? How do I see where those things can
be monetized? Those are the things you should be doing.
When you have the vision and when you have clarity
(00:31):
of purpose in your life, it is so much easier
to remind yourself what the goal is.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Goal is?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events? Get ready for my new podcast,
That Moment with Damon John will jump into the personal
stories of some of the most influential people on the planet,
from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and parties. With
(01:01):
my Black Entrepreneur's Day, fourth annually Bent Streaming. This week,
I wanted to shed some light on a fellow black
entertainer who cultivated his own unique online experience and no
matter what industry you're in, an online presence is vital
to building your customer base and Emmy Award winning talk
show hosts and digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong outlined exactly
(01:25):
how he developed his personal and business brand online. This
discussion is so key for breaking down his own success
case studies while providing actionable strategies for all of the listeners.
So let's get into it with this exclusive, never before
released interview, and don't be afraid to take some notes.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Take some notes, Take some notes. Mario. Thanks for being
a man.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's a pleasure, Shamon.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Now you know we've known each other quite some time,
and you know I was.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I was honored for you to you know, interview me
and have me on Never Settle shown Season one.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
You brought You brought the house down, You closed it out.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I didn't bring the house down. Man.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
You have great questions and really informative to people, whether
it's a corporation, whether it's an everyday individual who want
to understand how to be a digital any anybody.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Whatever, you know, sell themselves the company. What are the
cases in this new world and genre where people are are,
you know, absorbing things in so many different ways. And
you know, listen, as I said to you, personally, it
took us four or five years to get an Emmy
on Shark, and.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
We knew it season one of your own show.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Congratulations to that either because you gotta emmy personally as
a as a as a television personality, a host contador.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Right, So I want to just jump into it for
all the people out there.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Even though I was a fan of your work from Afar,
you you started, you know, allowing us to help rep
you speaking, and then we would start to hear about
like how you rock the house at Penn State.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
How you know, all these.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Corporations started to just come back to us to say, Wow,
this guy is.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
The real deal and he knows where the world is going.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
So I became even a bigger fan of you.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
But but tell me a little bit about your past
and how you saw it in the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I think yeah, And I think you know.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So I'm a boy from Baltimore, that's hometown, born and raised,
and I think, you know, my story is a little
bit different in that, but I think it appeals to
many people because it was a non traditional path. I
didn't really I was able to do a lot of
things and do some things very well and be able
to be mediocre and a lot of stuff, and so
being able to understand how to focus that energy and
then really have direction and have more clarity at an
(03:44):
early age was being taught to me by my dad,
like too many ideas, start to really try to focus
in on something you can be great at. And what
I realized early on was that I was really interested
in technology and the things that would blink and would
make things work, but not enough to be an engineer.
It's just curious enough to like take apart from my parents'
receiver and maybe get it back together. I was more
(04:05):
interested in how to communicate to people about the thing.
I was passionate about how to teach people how to
use technology. And when I realized, wait, I don't have
to do one track.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I could actually merge.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I could create my own lane by doing a hybrid
of being in media but talking about technology. Let's bring
these two together and see if it can create something different.
And that's really what started the trajectory.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
All along.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
While doing that, I was working full time jobs while
building my personal brand, so I would work for free
and go into TV stations in my local market in Baltimore,
go onto radio stations. I would pitch hosting my own
shows and try to get my own sponsor to fund
it so that the station would say wouldn't have a
reason to say no to it because I'm coming with money.
So I would try to do all these pilots and
all these programs while I was working the day job
(04:50):
to really go after the dream, which was to get
our own talk show and build our own company and
go to a big level.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
What was your first break though?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know, because you know they say every overnight success
it takes fifteen years, right, and you're a kid who
just you're fascinated with technology.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
That's that's great, right, That's that's something tangible. But you
know you want to go out and educate.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
People and become your whatever, a contributor or your own show.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
But why would somebody give you that opportunity?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, just because I think it comes down to three things.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Pure hustle.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Number one, like absolutely always being pushing forward on your
dream making something.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Happen, so that but not quitting your day job, but
not quitting the day job.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So I call it, you know, it's from free from
free to fee is what I call. It's like a
philosophy of like find those things that you want to
be able to do, because so many people are hampered.
They got their responsibilities, they have their jobs, they have
their kids, they have their elderly parents, and they feel stuck,
so they don't And I could have been in that
same situation. I had a son, and I'm married to
my wife, and so we could have been stuck and
just kind of like followed the regular path. But I
(05:52):
knew if I kept doing that too long, it would
make it harder later. So what I decided was, how
can I keep the day job and work for free
elsewhere gaining this skills that I didn't fully have, so
that later it would seem like an overnight success. But
it's all the small stuff that you do behind the
scenes that people don't see in the aggregate. So when
you show up consistently doing small things well over time,
(06:14):
you get the big break. There was no one moment.
There was a series of so many small moments. I
mean every time I thought I was on TV, I
thought that was the big moment. Right every time I
thought I was doing something with someone like you, I
thought that was like the big moment. It's like, it's
all of these things are big moments. We just don't
regard them as such because we're looking for that lightning
bolt to happen.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Well, what about the people who out there who would say,
you know what, I do have a child, I do
have a wife, I have to pay the bills.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I worked so hard to get to this place in
my life. I'm not gonna do anything for free.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
I did the pre stuff when I went to school,
I did the free stuff back then.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
I'm not going to do other things for I'm too
good for that. Well, what happens there to that?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
If it's in your wheelhouse of expertise, if you required
skill over time working that day job, and that's the
same thing you're going out to deliver to the market place.
I get that sensibility because you're at a consultancy level
where you want to get some money for that if.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You have not done it yet.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You being an expert and you being able to actually
get your product in the marketplace are two completely different things.
The ability to get your thing out there and get
hired and to do it and do it well is
completely different than showing up at your day job and
doing it. So there's a bit of an s curve
even though you have a level of expertise, you're starting
your expert your S curve a little bit higher than
other people because you already have a level of expertise.
(07:29):
It's like a chef. Chef told me, I want to
now open my own restaurant. Okay, have you ever done
that before?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Answers no. Okay, well, where you.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Sitting in the meetings when management was talking about P
and L statements and marketing and how to change the menu,
pricing and all that.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
You weren't in those meetings.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
So, okay, you're a great chef, but now you're on
a different S curve if you want to now be
a restaurant tour So you have to understand that you
may need to do some things for free so that
you can get that other bit of experience so that
you get the trajectory that you're looking for.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I also think maybe ego and pride gets in the way.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I think sometimes I think that's an important lesson for
people to learn.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Let's think about, you know, all the people that are
being affected by the change in technology, and they are saying,
well they can't say it's a fad, but they're not
saying the power of it, and they've been working a
very you know, a job that may end up being
altered through the technology.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
However, they're not trying to learn anything new. They're going,
you know what, I've had this for it.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
The cheese has moved right, They've had this career for
thirty forty years, and they just say, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
What the thing's going to happen. Right, They're going, you
know what do you think? I don't know.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
They go somehow, I'm going to be okay, But yet
they're not going and investing that time.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No, you just posted about this on Instagram. I mean
your posts have always been inspiring. You're always bringing the
truth and transparency, which is the only way to scale
on social by the way, for those that are thinking
you can be fake and scale, you can't run out.
But you just posted just about this topic about in
yourself and why that's so important. And I think what
happens maybe to certain people we either get at a
(09:05):
certain age or a certain moment where we don't feel
like we have to do those things that we once
had to do before. But to me really is you're
losing your curiosity. The bottom line is, if you haven't
decided that you need to reinvest in yourself. Then I
think your curiosity is off, and it may be off
because you haven't reassessed what your why is. If you
(09:25):
take a reassessment, because at the end of the road
is complacency is what breeds regret.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So are you going to look at the.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
End of this thing and say, Wow, I should have
made some more decisions, I should have took some more risk.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I kind of got complacent. I kind of got comfortable.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And I think when we lose curiosity, we lose that
energy that makes us a kid again to go and
seek and find. I had someone that was fifty some
years old follow me on Instagram saying, but I feel
like I'm out of my lead with the younger people.
I said, no, you bring experience to the table that
they don't have yet. So stop telling the inner critic
(09:58):
that you can't survive and right, you got to get
your curiosity out. What are they reading, what are they
learning about, who are they following, who are they learning from?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Switch it up and get your curiosity up.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That'll get your comprehension of comprehension. That'll get your comprehension.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
That's a brilliant way to play to put it because
you know, look, you'll you'll have you'll have certain people
who were saying, you know, I'm in trouble and I
need to switch up now, right right. I find the
people that are successful, they don't wait till they're in trouble.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
They were just always curious, you.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Know, they were like they were just they just found
it fascinating to figure things out. Before they know it,
you know, ten years past and they have a whole
nother life, a whole nother life cycle of a whole
nother career because they started with curiosity.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
So stay curious, stay thirsty.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Right, Yes, it's serious, it really is. At the end
of the day what drives you. And I think what
happens is the reason your curiosity may fall off is
because either you've gotten too comfortable or you just don't
know how.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
To seek it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You may have lost like it's I tell people often,
relevancy creates urgency. I don't care if you're pitching something
or if you're trying to create something or get a
new job. If you can show why I'm relevant to
this company, that can make the company see you as
more of a priority or more urgent. And I think
the same is true with our life and what we
want to do next. If you can identify what is
(11:36):
relevant to you, what excites you, what's your passion? Oh well,
I never thought I can monetize that. Well, that's the problem,
Like get curious about how can I monetize this thing
that I don't think can be monetized that I love
to do.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Well, okay, but let's let's let's look at the other
side of it. When does curiosity kill the cat? Right?
That means that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
When does the damon John who sold a couple of
hats in eighty nine on a corner when he takes
out a mortgage on his house and he turns around
and has only five hundred dollars left in the bank,
is about to lose the house when and he goes,
wait a minute, maybe I went too far.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
When does Mario Armstrong who now has a successful career as
a contributor and a host, and he decides to open
up to never settle, you know, or the He decides
to try to push his brand up to becoming a
really popular Emmy awarding, Emmy Award winning live stream company.
But he almost goes bankrupting it. So when does curiosity
(12:33):
kill the cat?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You know, here's what I often say to that if
you are getting and I'm sure you probably felt this
as why you kept going. If you're getting any small
bits of progress, you keep going. Oftentimes we're looking for
the big leaps. So if you sold ten hats today,
but you sell twelve tomorrow, you keep going. If you
sell ten today, you sell eight tomorrow, you sell five
(12:56):
the next day, something's either wrong with you.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, right, you got to change something up.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You can't do what you've just been doing because you're
going to get the same types of results or worse.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So that's number one.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Number one is if you're getting small progress, keep going.
We do a reflection practice in our family where every
Sunday we go around the table reflecting on the small
wins that we had that week. The reason why is
because that helps to build up resiliency to really because
you know, you know, focus on what you what you
have accomplished. You always focus on what you haven't gotten.
So when we were down and out and when we
(13:27):
were flat broken, when my mother in law was paying
for our groceries and my mom was watching our kid
and keep in mind, my wife and I, Nicole and
I are in the business together. There's no other income
coming into this household except for what we can generate
for this business, trying to raise our kids.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yes, she is a CEO, she runs a company.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, that's a whole nother challenge, right, think about you know,
I mean I don't need to tell you, but you know,
you know, financial strain on you know, in a marriage
and a relationship when your mother in law is paying
for the groceries, right and your wife is the CEO,
and you guys.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Cannot escape the business. You're facing it every day together collectively,
That's right. You know that could be very straining withus
to a family, right, How do you How did you
manage that through those times?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Damn?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
It was tough, man, I mean, you know, pure transparency, dude.
There were times when I would just leave the house
and I told her I was going to Starbucks, and
I'd sit in the parking lot. She knew I didn't
have money to go to Starbucks. I don't know what
she thought I was going to go do because we
didn't have the money.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
You didn't have money to go to star wars. I
mean you didn't have five dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I didn't have five dollars. I mean I was literally
grabbing coin.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I took a picture of selfie of me at the
coinstar machine because I was literally taking change and putting
it into the coinstar machine at the grocery store to
get any money out to put in gas into the car,
because I was just trying to make it to another meeting,
to another pitch to another possibly give me five hundred,
give me a thousand, give me two fifty, give me
you know anything, right, And so I was just like
really begging and hand in this desperate mode.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And I remember going to the parking.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Lot and just crying, just sitting in the car, just
just straight like I get shaky now thinking about it,
because it was that I couldn't let her see that,
you know. But at the same time, I couldn't be
mister macho man. We're going to save the day. So
we had these meetings where we came together and we said, look,
this thing is trying our marriage, This thing is trying
(15:15):
us as a marriage. Do we let this thing go?
Do we continue to go after this? Are we really
entrepreneurs or not? And what we came up with was
a game plan that when one was down, the other
had to be up. No matter if both of you
were down, somebody's got to pick to be the one
that's going to be up. So you got to either
get over your problems or yours are heavier than mine,
or what have you. So I think that really helped
(15:37):
us too. We decided no more technology in the bedroom.
There's the boardroom and then there's the bedroom. No more tech,
no more stuff goes on, meetings, discussions, none of that.
You spending quality family time. You know, that's the place
zen you transition when you go into the bedroom. I
think having a clear vision, both of us being on
the same page with what the ultimate goal was and
(15:59):
what we were sacrificing to get there was very important.
So having that vision board and having clarity on what
you're going after helps you understand the sacrifices that you're making,
and I think those principles probably really helped to and
the support system. I mean we had, you know, the
mother in law was buying our groceries. I was calling
myself my brother to try to get some money from
him to help us out.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
With your goal setting or your vision board was there? Uh?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Defined date and time to say, if it doesn't work
by this, then we are going to do something else.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
This is a classic principle of yours that I wish
I would have implemented back then.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I did not. We did not. We continue to just say,
as long as we can stay.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Above water, even if we dip down, if we can
get back up and get some are we just keep going?
So our litmus test was are we making progress even
in the in the smallest sense, then just keep going.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
That's that's that end of the week.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Give thanks to the small way accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
You forget them when you actually sit there and do that.
You're like, oh my gosh, I did have a great
phone call.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I don't know where that phone call is gonna go,
but I had a great call. I had a great interview,
I had a great pitch. You forget all of that
stuff because it's like, it's not happening. I don't have
enough for dying for Robin Peter to pay Paul. The
creditors are coming at us left and right and can
be used.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
In so many ways. You know, in my book where
I I you know.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I was talking to Kyle Maynard, who you know, climb
out killiman Jarro with no arms and no legs, And
he said he never looked at the peak.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
He just turned around and looked at how far he Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
That's it. I mean, goosebumps on that. That's it. That's powerful.
We don't we don't.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
We don't take in consideration a lot of us the
small accomplishments that end up killing through something big.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We're amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Human beings are absolutely amazing. We have so much potential.
It's what we're gonna do with that gift is becomes
the question. And I do think reflection of the small
things that you've done well.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Help you look. I even reflected when I was down
and out.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I'll reflect to a little recreation basketball game where my
last shot ended up winning the game. I will channel
that when I'm at my lowest. I mean, I was
like fourteen, dude, like I'm reaching. I'm reaching for great
moments in my life, right, but I'm reaching to that
moment because I'm trying to channel like, dude, you are
you can get this. You're a go getter. You've done
(18:19):
things before, you can do it again, you know. Just
remember those moments, channel that energy and then try to
pick yourself back up. People don't build their resiliency enough
because in life, we teach people to win, we don't
teach them to fail. I want more kids to lose,
because they'll learn if you have more kids losing. Failure
is the best way to learn, but people are afraid
of it. Failure for me makes me focused, and I
(18:42):
think the biggest problem that people have that can't get
back up is that they haven't trained how to get
back up. So if you fail more early, fail fast,
fail forward, if you try things quicker and learn they
don't work, you start to.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Get back up. So if you get knocked down six,
you get up seven.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Every time you're doing that, you're building them so of
resiliency that will sustain you over time. And I think
that's been a thing that's been really powerful for Nicole
and I is that when we get knocked down, we
take the minute to acknowledge that we've been knocked down,
but then we also summons that energy to get back up.
And I think over time our resiliency has gotten so
much stronger.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
So well, obviously the proof is in the putting, because
then all of a sudden you become a contribute on
today's show, HLN, CNN Inside Edition, Doctor Oz, Steve Harvey
and Rachel Ray and many more, and you decide to
come out with a Never Settle Show, right, So for
those who don't know, and I love the fact that.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
You control your you know, you don't depend on any
other carrier anybody else. You come out and you use
your content, which is extremely empowering to corporations and everyday individuals.
Would tell tell me more about the Never Settle Show
for those who don't know about it.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, I mean, in a nutshell, the Never Settle Show
is an opportunity. We just clarified our vision and mission statement.
So our vision is to motivate people around the world
to never settle, big, ambitious, scary idea.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
How are you going to do that?
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And so our vision on how we are the mission
rather and how we try to accomplish that is by
inspiring the human spirit, teaching lessons that matter, and helping
people uncover new perspectives. So what we're trying to do
with this show is really uncover the process the recipes.
People want to know, how did dam and John make it? Like,
we know you did food, but we know you did this.
We know you're here but what is the What are
(20:24):
the things that we didn't see, that we didn't hear
about the process in those moments, the formulas that you
used or even didn't know that you created because you
just did it out of necessity, But peeling back those
layers so that people can understand what success really looks like.
We live in this instagram highly highlight real culture, and
it's painting hope for a lot of people, and it's
(20:46):
not giving people what the ethics are and what the
work has to be and how resilient and the roadmap
and the recipe, and so the better we can have
access to great people like you that are transparent and
are willing to share. We get secrets that most people
don't get hold of. And so we're very focused and
deliberate about having you on the show and talking about
(21:07):
success tips.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
What are they? Why how do we get them to people?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So I think that's the differentiator in our show is
a motivational show that's a talk show that has a
live studio audience that is live streams. The other thing
is it's interactive in real time, so we take social
media in real time questions.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
We even do live voting polls, We.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Even did it in season two where people could say
what they wanted to see next on the show, and
in real time, we would switch our show to that
particular topic, which is different and difficult to kind of do,
but we've been doing that.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Obviously it's powerful enough to be acknowledged and win an Emmy,
and then you would go out and what I find
even more fascinating is you would use that knowledge because
you combine that with understanding technology and where things are
going to speak to corporations because you know, this.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Is the vide now I see, I see that.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
The people a lot of people like my fellow Garmentos
and a lot of people see here. And the ones
that are in power manufacturers financing a lot of those,
A lot of those individuals their experience, but they're forty
year older, right, Corporate exacts a lot of people A yeah,
the ones changing the world and communicating on different levels
are fifteen to twenty five, right, So now you have
(22:19):
the people who are changing the world and absorbing information
and doing things a whole different different way, they're fifteen
to twenty five.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
And the people who.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Have the resources and or the history are forty and over.
So you're one of those rare people that can combine
both of them.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
What are the questions you find that are keeping the
corporations up at night?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Agility being able to pivot quickly, not having enough opportunity
for smaller projects to be tested to see if they
can become new products or new revenue streams, that they
get a little too stuck. And the ones that hurt
(23:05):
the most are the ones that know they're kind of
stuck and they know they need to shift, and now
they're trying to grasp and.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Do they get stuck by analysis paralysis or it's the
fact that they all, you know, they all say they're
going to do something and then they just don't. Is
it top management who just refuses to change? You know,
they had that, They have that Tommy Mottolay, you know
they you know he.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Said, oh Texas coming is going to change music. And
he's like, do you see a computer on my desk?
You know it's not gonna happen. What is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's uh, you know, uh. I think of like when
I think of Denzel and he's like King Kong, ain't
guys not knowing me?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And it's like, you know, that's how you start feeling
like I built this, I did this, we got it
to this level.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
We know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, we know we need to change, but we're we're
doing that and it's like, no, it's it's not actually happening.
So the biggest area that I've seen, the most that's
been consistent in terms of any trend, has been one
of two. Either the top of the management, the head
person in charge, their their ethos, their personality, their characteristics
have funneled down into the organization, and that person is
(24:11):
not the go getter, is not what they were before,
they're not the new go getter, or they're not instituting
that and they have too much ego and pride, so
they're either afraid to make a big move because of
embarrassment or how it may look in the marketplace and
they or they're just happy with incremental success because why
rock the boat, And they're going to talk a big game,
but you're gonna find out later that it didn't end
(24:31):
up happening. They may hope that some people down in
(24:53):
management or lower management get some things done that may pop,
but it's not strategically done. The other trend that I
have seen is where the the like Google does is great.
The eighty twenty rule where they give twenty percent of
their work time to their employees to work on projects
that could benefit Google. I recently talked to a person
that was trying to He was a graphic design expert
(25:13):
working for another company, and he said, I'm frustrated the
management doesn't do this.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They don't do that.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I said, well, have you ever gone to them? How
much money do you have to have everything from that salary?
Do you have to have all that money? He's like, no,
I don't have to have the money. Wife, she's got
something in the household income. I could why why are
you asking? I said, well, what if you told him
you would take a pay cut, you still get your check.
But what if you told him to take a pay cut,
but that you want them to be able to invest
twenty percent of your time to go out and do
(25:37):
other projects. And he was like, I never thought about that.
A week later he called me up and said, Mario,
they bid at it. And I was like, well, they
either bit at it because they needed to save money,
but that doesn't matter if you can handle it financially.
And because he was getting he was getting concerned that
the company wasn't making moves, wasn't shifting, and he wasn't
giving the leeway to have that room.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
So he said, let me do a deal for you.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I'll break down my salary a little bit if you
allow me to go after some of these side projects,
and I'll give you first righte a refusal company to
go after these side projects if I build it into something.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Small little things that may turn big.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Small little things that could end up becoming a big thing.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
You know, I think you know who does this on
a really they do it really well. Nike gonna do
probably about twenty billion dollars annually. However they will make
and you are a sneakerhead, yes, I know they will make.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I got your shoes in my bag, good because I
want you to sign them, because I bought more than
one pair.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Absolutely, Oh thank you. We should have said, I thought
we send them to you.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
But Nike, you will make one pair of custom a
one custom piece for somebody. Right, you can design your
own one player, right, So you know.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I think most most people corporation and await, we're making
We're doing twenty billion dollars right where you're making one
sneaker for one person.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You know, the logistics change that we have to create
to be able to customize all these ones.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
However, in a year, if you see these ones that
are made from one person in Australia, ten people here
in whatever, you start to see the same color paletta,
You start to see the same kind of design coming around.
You may start to say at Nike, okay, now we've
just gotten a free or even paid to get our
(27:25):
new line for next year.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's brilliant, right, It's true.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
But other corporations will say, no, why would we do that? Right,
But we'll look at the Blackberries, the Blockbusters, Kodaks and
or the Toys r us so we didn't do that.
I think that what you're you're saying it applies to
you personally at home, or applies to running a corporation.
It is stay curious because the corporations you know who
(27:51):
are failing are not curious.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
That's rightmore they lost it.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
And appreciate the small wins, the one sneaker.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Right because it builds.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And personally, what you're also getting at is a bigger
trend personalization. We want that I want to feel that
that car that's picking me up is the car for
me and it's taking me to my destination that knows
who I am. Preferences, specs, they matter, and as you mentioned,
free market research for people that are buying your product
basically telling you. Because you're tracking the clicks, you're seeing
(28:22):
what people are making, you're getting a sensis to what's hot,
what's not. Oh well, people want more mesh material, then
they do leather. Okay, well we're going to do some
more lines with mesh. They want it in magenta, not
really this purple. All right, we can do that too.
So it's very pointed what you're saying, But it's the
long tail.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
People don't want to ride that long wave anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
David.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
That's the problem, and that's why I feel like too
many people see that success and they want to get
to it too quick. So either they're exit entrepreneurs and
they really don't care about the impact, really don't care
about the impact and the service that they're delivering. It's
more about how can I flip this business and make
some money from it, or they really are struggling to
try to figure it out and haven't gotten the right
set of things to unlock to help them move forward.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Makes a proof sense to me. So now I want
to get into what are you excited about what's coming up?
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Excited about it? Obviously a third season, yes, third season?
What else? What else are you excited about out there today?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
You know, I'm excited about the fact that our team
has been out pitching this show and we were getting
some some some questionable responses. And this is after winning
an Emmy for the show and having success, that some
agencies were coming at us with questions that we thought
we were prepared, We thought we had all the objections covered.
(29:37):
So we're doing some litmus testing in the market, talking
to mostly friends before we risk ourselves to the you know,
the larger agencies that we can't get back in the
door with again because we had that one shot and
now we blew it and we're hearing some things that
just weren't kind of like jiving with what we thought
were some of our unique differentiators. And so what has
we pumped is the fact that after.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We were just like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
We've been working this hard, we've been successful, and now
we got to maybe think about reshaping this pitch all
over again. The fact that the team got together to
do that and to recognize, let's be open, let's be aware,
let's be flexible.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Let's not be ego or pride driven or force it.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I'm excited on the opportunity because now it's not just
a show. What we've now created is an event. So
it's a whole experience. So now the show is going
to become the Never Settle experience because when you step
into Nasdaq in the lobby, we have you come there
an hour before the show.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
There's drinks, there's a reception.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
There's opportunities to do demo stations with brands, to do activations,
to have product be tested, tried out, signed up for
give discounts for.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
We have an event that's happening.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Then we take that audience and put them into the show,
into the studio audience, and then we have our guests
and all of that come by. We weren't looking at
the event piece as something that was of extreme value
that could also help the show piece. And so now
it's like this is great because we had events on
our vision board, we had product line for the show,
product line for Never Settle Films, Never Settle Network. That's
(31:04):
the big plan, like the OTT Network of having multiple shows,
Never settle merchandise and products. So we had these things
on the vision plan and roadmap and I'm just glad
to see that we were able to adjust to the market,
which what felt negative to us has now turned into
a complete positive. And it's also putting us into another
line of business that we wanted to start, but we
thought we were going to have to start that later.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
But where's that fine line of listening to the market
and then following your gut Because you know, some of
the biggest problems about corporations or sponsors is they come
up with the lowest common denominator, right, so they'll you'll
have this groundbreaking thing that got you here, Yeah, but
they want you to by the time they give you
(31:45):
all the comments on this great launch, it ends up
being a kiosk in the mall. We're handing out flyers, right,
because everybody wants to be too safe, And the whole
reason that you got here was not being safe, that's right.
So where is that fine line? Because they knew so
so much, they be doing it themselves. Yeah, where's that
findline where you make the adjustment?
Speaker 5 (32:04):
However, you stay true to where you think you should
be going and not being complacent angle compliance to what
has been in the past.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It goes back down, I don't care if you're going
after a job, a relationship, marriage, parenting, entrepreneurship, startups. It
goes back to do you know what your purpose is?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Why you have to uncover this?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You have to really uncover and question it. Too many
people are at it at the surface level. You have
to get the low and really dig deep to understand
what am I great at? Write this stuff down? What
do I like to do? Write that stuff down? Where
what can be monetized? Out of these things that I'm
great at and like to do, How do I see
(32:50):
where those things can be monetized? Those are the things
you should be doing. When you have the vision and
when you have clarity of purpose in your life, it
is so much easier to remind yourself what the goal is.
When the goal for us is to motivate people around
the world to never settle.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
That doesn't say just through the show.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That doesn't say just through the clothing line, That doesn't
say just through a tech app. It says to motivate
people around the world to never settle. Inherently, we need
to be open to all the inputs being thrown at
us to all the criticism or all the positivity.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Not drink too much of our kool aid.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Make sure people are throwing it out and telling us
why and really saying to ourselves, Okay, be willing to shift.
Maybe this isn't the best platform to motivate people around
the world to never settle. Maybe it's a podcast, you know,
Maybe it's a cruise, you know. Maybe it's going to
Richard Branson's island on Necker with only twenty people and
it's super intimate.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Think going back to the same thing.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Take the small little steps, see how it works, how
you feel about us, how it affects other people, and
if you like it well for you, you don't.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
You didn't lose a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
No, And there's a thing that you made me think
of this. There's a thing that I uncovered. I do
an Instagram live series every day for about thirty minutes
free mastermind series where I'm trying to get people advice
and tips, and you make me think of the particular
activating system, the RAS. The reticular activating system is a
part of our brain. It's about the size of the
fingertip of our like a pencil or eraser, in the
(34:16):
back of our brain has a bunch of neurons there.
What its job is to do is to filter out
all the noise for the stuff that you actually need
to know. So imagine yourself in a noisy environment. You're
walking outside, everything honking horns, a lot of people talking,
there's music playing, your birds chirping, whatever you're hearing, and
then all of a sudden, someone yells out the word damon.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
First thing you do is you look around to see
who's looking for you.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, maybe not you, because you might be trying to
like You're like no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
No more pitches, no more pitches, right right, So you
might just like bolt down.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
But the point is, out of all of that noise,
your subconscious heard your name, and that's something that registers
to you. It's the same way that you say, I'm
going to buy a new car. I want that red
Toyota camera. Every time you now look around, you see
nothing but a red Toyota camera. It's your brain and
the subconscious is filtering that. So this raz system, I
think to me, has really helped us figure out how
(35:05):
to hack all of this. You take your purpose, your
why you take that with this subconscious of knowing what
your why is. It's in my phone as alarms, It's
on my mirror, it's in my closet, hanging up on
eight and a half by eleven sheets of paper. It's
everywhere reminding me. So my subconscious is wired to motivate
(35:25):
people to never settle, not wired to one way of
doing that. So when opportunities or challenges arise, my raz
comes up and says, wait, let that filter in.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
But it sounds like bad news. No, let that come in.
Filter that understand that? Is that a way for you
to pivot?
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Is that something you need to filter, use and utilize
to help you be better? So I think really getting
to know one's self is really, ultimately what we might
be really saying here, which is the hardest test to
be a true human being is to look yourself in
the mirror and accept your flaws and try to figure
out how you're going to work on your strengths.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
And with all that, is that or maybe there's another way?
What do you how do you find power in your
life today? Business and personal?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
You know, where do you get that energy and that
power to keep moving forward and never sep Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I think it's the feedback that I get from customers
and clients that feels us clearly, because it feels good
to know that you're serving the people that you're trying
to serve well.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Even negative feedback, negative feedback I.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Love even more because that pushes me. And I think
if we wire ourselves, it's hard to take. I used
to have thin skin, and my wife really has worked
on me, like developing. She's like, look, if you're going
to be in this business, you got to thicking up
your skin. You're trying to please too many people all
the time, and it's just the nature of who you are,
but you got to thicken it up.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
And she was absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
So and that's why she's a CEO, that's why she
runs this company. But it's to that point of being
able to get that feedback positive and negative, that reminds you,
this is why I'm doing it. When someone writes you
a let or it takes a note to say what
you did has impacted them in a new way and
has changed their life for them in their way, that's
a big deal to us.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
So that helps.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
When it doesn't work, I want to know even more
why it didn't work.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
A lot of people don't realize the negative feedback, it's
still a contribution, right, It is somebody taking time because
that's true.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
They just never said anything.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
That'd be the worst, that would be the worst. I
need to know.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
I need to know, and so I market research our
audience often.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
We do surveys often.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And I think if you program a survey, if you
can afford to do survey Monkey on the cheap end,
or if you can go and hire like a Left
Line who we hired to actually program a survey, or
do Google surveys in between.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
The point is.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Find out, get the market research, and be open to
the negative as well as the positive that you get.
Don't create questions that's going to make you feel good
when the answers come back. You're looking for answers that
are going to push you to the next level.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Make you feel uncomfortable. That's the only way you can
get growth.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Thanks man, sound good. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Appreciate it, man, It's been great being on with you
and man.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Look to speaking opportunities that have been happening through the
Shark Group and this and the and the Speakers Bureau
has been amazing. We have been lightening up on Hey,
get me to your get me to your campus, get
me to your company.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
It's happening. It's fire man. We're doing some good stuff.
We're making it work.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
It's doing really great. So thanks for having me here.
I really appreciate the time at.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
That moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to and rate the show. And of course
you didn't all connect with me on any of my
(38:41):
social media platforms. At the Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond,
But what a d
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