Podcasts about hey alex

Alex B. Sheridan is an entrepreneur.He's also one of the most talented people I've ever met. What makes him special is his gutsy decision to turn his talent into a career and grind it out.Alex ran amok as a kid. I've seen it before...too much talent bottled up inside to care about school or to respect authority. He needed to express that talent and he did. Then the real world came knocking: "Hey Alex, time to get a job, blah, blah, blah..."Alex went down the traditional path but always felt he had a different calling. He was meant to be a creator. His passions were music and video. So, he dabbled. It didn't work, so he put his passions back on the shelf. After realizing he had more to offer, he dusted off his hoodies and tank tops and started producing hilarious but yet content rich videos on LinkedIn. They sucked (according to Alex) but the LinkedIn community felt otherwise. They were unique, people were learning the power of content, and they wanted to LEARN MORE. Alex had a business. He just needed to make the leap from worker bee to entrepreneur. He did, and the rest is history.Alex's Eating Crow Moments:When he was 19 he realized he had to get his shit together.Recognizing his talent was being wasted in the "real world"Key Takeaways for Leaders and Entrepreneurs:Talent comes in many shapes and sizes. Every employee (especially you) has a talent. Find it, nurture it, let it run.When you FEEL it in your gut, you need to act. Being an entrepreneur is really hard. Be ready to grind, and miss a lot of the mundane. However, if you LOVE what you do, you won't care.Leadership can be external. Alex is a leader, for his clients. They rely on him and he owns it 100%Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/eating-crow. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey Alex, you like watching TED talks, right? What does TED stand for? 嘿，Alex, 你喜欢看TED演讲，对吧？TED代表什么呢? It stands for technology, entertainment and design. It's had the same name since 1984, when it started as a conference. 它代表技术、娱乐和设计。它从1984年起就一直沿用同一个名字，创立之初是个会议。 Wasn't it bought out by Chris Anderson in 2001? 它不是在2001年被Chris Anderson收购了吗? Yes. That's when it really took off and turned into a non-profit. 是的。就是那个时候它才真正火起来，成为了一个非盈利组织。 That's also around the time they started posting free content online. Since then, tons of their videos have gone viral. 也是大约在那个时候他们开始在网上发布免费的内容。自那时起，他们的海量视频迅速走红。 It's no surprise. They totally nailed the compelling speech thing. 这不足为奇...

On this bonus EP we talk about keychain boyfriends, 90s cartoons and the dark truth about the Rugrats, Fogatas and we give Hey Alex a guitar for his Burfday! (also he’s cancelled.)Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @HeyPlebesemail us at HeyPlebesPod@gmail.comRate our show! We’re on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, Spreaker and everywhere else. #HeyPlebes

Star Wars week is in full motion, as #TheRiseOfSkywalker premiered last night and we’ll be checking out some of those first reactions! (Yes we are all surprised that Jar Jar returns, but what are people saying about the rest of the movie?) Otherwise, get ready for the usual crazy banter from hosts Roxy Striar, Dorina Arellano, Mark Reilly, John Rocha, Cody Hall, and Alex Marzoña today on Collider Live my duders! SUBSCRIBE ? ? https://bit.ly/1qU5ENT Thanks to our friends at Heroes & Villains - Use code LIVE10 to save 10% off your next order at HEROESVILLAINS.COM! For LA folks, get tickets to Yuletide Cinemaland - Christmas movies at Heritage Square Museum: https://streetfoodcinema.com Use code ‘COLLIDERLIVE’ for 50% off your order and say “Hey Alex” to Alex at door to get a free Victorian Dance Lesson! (Yeah, weird right?) 00:00 Reilly texted Ken last night, Roxy loves Eminem and calls Reilly a bitch 09:30 stereotypes and don’t tweet stupid things please 29:30 we love Rocha 33:02 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reactions 56:05 is Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek dead? 1:03:38 plus ones and where we love to sit in theaters; Trader Joe’s and dealing with anxiety 1:21:00 David Ayer to direct a new Dirty Dozen movie and “manly” movies 1:33:07 Roxy has Cody’s number now and Rocha brought pretzels 1:35:20 calls - thank you for opening up about anxiety, who will say “I have a bad feeling about this?” first?; more manly movie discussion; best rappers in the game; are rap/dance battles silly?; non-Christmas movies you watch during the holidays

Lights up on Collider Live at the break of day, I wake up and I got a little Rocha I gotta chase away. Pop the YouTube at the crack of dawn, stream, while I wipe down the mic guards, hey y’all good morning! (Okay, I tried my best to make it all fit but you know what, whatever, man! I’m super pumped to talk about #InTheHeights for the next two hours so get ready for that. Not really, since Collider Marzoña Live is gonna start next year anyway. Host Dorina Arellano, Mark Reilly, John Rocha, Cody Hall, and Alex Marzoña are gonna chill today as per usual and talk #TheFlash and Keanu Reeves, and Ken Napzok is gonna hang with us later on in the show too! It’s great!) SUBSCRIBE ? ? https://bit.ly/1qU5ENT For LA folks, get tickets to Yuletide Cinemaland - Christmas movies at Heritage Square Museum: https://streetfoodcinema.com Use code ‘COLLIDERLIVE’ for 50% off your order and say “Hey Alex” to Alex at door to get a free Victorian Dance Lesson! (Yeah, weird right?) 00:00 Dorina had a strange encounter last night, nudity talk, karaoke 12:22 In the Heights trailer thoughts! 19:51 more Snyder cut talk and the New York Times article about Star Wars 33:26 The Flash movie gets a release date 38:18 The Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 have the same release date? 40:57 actors you’d love to interview / would be intimidated to talk to 47:15 Mortal Kombat release date moved up 51:15 Shazam 2 gets a release date - oh my god how many release dates are we gonna talk about 59:52 Ken Napzok in studio to apologize to everyone and also everyone complains about being old 1:11:05 Christmas movies… and musicals? 1:18:45 calls - musicals you would love to see adapted; favorite holiday food; favorite horror movies 1:33:30 Movie score game! 1:46:54 calls - video games you’d want to see as a movie; favorite musics; is it okay to approach us in public places?

Burnout has become more prevalent than ever and, for many, the consequences of which can be severe — especially during busy seasons (like the holidays). In this episode, Chalene will share signs that may indicate you could be suffering from burnout and, also, give suggestions on how to recover from it. Links from today’s episode: 11 Must Watch Documentaries  Top 20 Must Watch Documentaries  Leave Chalene a Voicemail review HERE if yours is played on air Chalene will send you a gift!! Hey Alex!!! Congrats on your wedding!!! Email me at kristin@chalenejohnson.com Get your free 7 day plan to lose Weight Fast     Stop dieting & start living: www.131Method.com Get the 131 Book!!!   Here’s The System I Use Every Day to be More Organized & Crazy Productive: www.pushjournal.com   Sign Up For MY WEEKLY NEWSLETTER and you'll get FREE tips on how to live a ridiculously amazing fun-filled life!   Be sure you are subscribed to this podcast to automatically receive your episodes!!!    Subscribe to Build Your Tribe!!!      Join our NEW, awesome PodSquad on Facebook here!   Get episode show notes here: www.chalenejohnson.com/podcast    Connect with me on your fav social platform: SnapChat: ChaleneOfficial    Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Chalene      Instagram: www.Instagram.com/ChaleneJohnson    Twitter: www.Twitter.com/ChaleneJohnson TikTok: @chaleneOfficial    Hey! Send me a tweet & tell me what you think about the show! (Use the Hashtag) #TheChaleneShow so I know you’re a homie! XOXO Chalene

On this week’s Pod we talk a little too much about how we want to die (in a good way). Also an update on Hey Alex’s love life and Zea crashed the Pod. Then he ended the Pod. Oh and Swayze was there too. Pero ni al caso con ese vato. Like and Subscribe everywhere we are available! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker, whatever. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @HeyPlebes. Email us to heyplebespod@gmail.com

On this one we get Hey Alex to spill the frijoles on his rocky relationship. We also talk about eating 10000 calories!Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @HeyPlebesEmail at heyplebespod@gmail.comPLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW 5 Stars are nice but if you wanna leave 2 I won’t get sad

It's Tuesday and we're talking about Star Wars. Again. It was a big night with The Mandalorian trailer dropping and Benioff & Weiss dropping out of their trilogy. We'll talk about those stories and a bunch of other nonsense. SUBSCRIBE ? ? https://bit.ly/1qU5ENT 00:00 Catching up with Roxy 15:00 Bunny humps dead bunny 23:30 Benioff and Weiss leave Star Wars 41:15 Obi-Wan show used to be a movie 1:00:40 Mandalorian trailer 1:17:00 Next big Endgame level event will be 10 years out 1:20:15 Roxy saw Knives Out 1:28:00 Phone calls For LA folks, get tickets to Cinema Phantasmagoria - horror movies in a historic downtown LA theater: https://streetfoodcinema.com Use code ‘COLLIDERLIVE’ for 50% off General Admission tickets and say “Hey Alex” to Alex at door to get a free Backstage Ghost Tour! #ColliderLive: You have no idea what might happen in this off the wall show that is a mix of the old Schmoes Know show with a dash of Collider, mixed with nonsense, shaken with comedy and served every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday live from Collider Studios. Make sure you like and share the show so we can build it TOGETHER. Make sure you give it a like as well and subscribe to the Collider Podcast feed! Watch the new short film from The Wangers/Amateur Hour Films, “Reel Talk with the Reel Robbie”: https://youtu.be/Pkj4z7uHo9o Listen to (Alex) Marzoña’s music: https://www.youtube.com/user/alexmarz... Follow Kristian: https://twitter.com/KristianHarloff Follow Roxy: https://twitter.com/RoxyStriar Follow Reilly: https://twitter.com/ReillyAround Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/JoshMacuga Follow Cody: https://twitter.com/TheRealCodyHall Follow Alex: https://twitter.com/AlexMarzona More Great Collider Content ??Movie News & Analysis: https://bit.ly/2n1MZb7 ??Celebrity Interviews: https://bit.ly/2OyLjSU ??Video Games: https://bit.ly/2vszg0Z ??Sports: https://bit.ly/2Au5rmv ?????Pro Wrestling: https://bit.ly/2LKhWzy ??Breaking News: http://collider.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColliderVideo Instagram: https://instagram.com/ColliderVideo Facebook: https://facebook.com/colliderdotcom Want to listen to Collider on the go? Search "COLLIDER" wherever you get your podcasts for original shows plus audio versions of your favorite video content.

Let's see what the title is for today's show and OH MY GOD NO! WHY? WHY ARE WE GOING BACK TO GAME OF THRONES? THIS IS NOT GOING TO GO WELL. OH NO. Okay, Cody. Deep breath. It's gonna be okay. SO, on today's show we're talking about.....the recent comments made by Benioff and Weiss regarding their inexperience running Game of Thrones. Are we still good? Nobody's sharpening their pitchforks? Okay. Let's have a good show, everyone. Be nice out there. SUBSCRIBE ? ? https://bit.ly/1qU5ENT 00:00 Kristian’s last week, kids are mean 6:30 Best sequels 22:00 Kristian saw The Irishman 31:20 Dolemite is My Name review 36:00 Reilly has a ghost 43:00 Dorina went to Knott’s Scary Farm 46:35 Rise of Skywalker box office tracking 1:05:00 Joker is still making money 1:07:40 Benioff and Weiss comments 1:19:00 Scorsese still talking about Marvel 1:31:00 Walter the Dog 1:34:00 Phone calls For LA folks, get tickets to Cinema Phantasmagoria - horror movies in a historic downtown LA theater: https://streetfoodcinema.com Use code ‘COLLIDERLIVE’ for 50% off General Admission tickets and say “Hey Alex” to Alex at door to get a free Backstage Ghost Tour! #ColliderLive: You have no idea what might happen in this off the wall show that is a mix of the old Schmoes Know show with a dash of Collider, mixed with nonsense, shaken with comedy and served every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday live from Collider Studios. Make sure you like and share the show so we can build it TOGETHER. Make sure you give it a like as well and subscribe to the Collider Podcast feed! Watch the new short film from The Wangers/Amateur Hour Films, “Reel Talk with the Reel Robbie”: https://youtu.be/Pkj4z7uHo9o Listen to (Alex) Marzoña’s music: https://www.youtube.com/user/alexmarzonamusic Follow Kristian: https://twitter.com/KristianHarloff Follow Dorina: https://twitter.com/EvilDorina Follow Reilly: https://twitter.com/ReillyAround Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/JoshMacuga Follow Cody: https://twitter.com/TheRealCodyHall Follow Alex: https://twitter.com/AlexMarzona More Great Collider Content ??Movie News & Analysis: https://bit.ly/2n1MZb7 ??Celebrity Interviews: https://bit.ly/2OyLjSU ??Video Games: https://bit.ly/2vszg0Z ??Sports: https://bit.ly/2Au5rmv ?????Pro Wrestling: https://bit.ly/2LKhWzy ??Breaking News: http://collider.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColliderVideo Instagram: https://instagram.com/ColliderVideo Facebook: https://facebook.com/colliderdotcom Want to listen to Collider on the go? Search "COLLIDER" wherever you get your podcasts for original shows plus audio versions of your favorite video content.

Oh, we’re talking about the #Joker again? Mister J?! The Clown Prince of Crime?! OSCAR WINNER JOKER?! *checks notes* Looks like we are. It’s *checks notes again* Friday so let’s party and talk about more things! What will we slap today? Who knows?! SUBSCRIBE ? ? https://bit.ly/1qU5ENT For LA folks, get tickets to Cinema Phantasmagoria - horror movies in a historic downtown LA theater: https://streetfoodcinema.com Use code ‘COLLIDERLIVE’ for 50% off General Admission tickets and say “Hey Alex” to Alex at door to get a free Backstage Ghost Tour! 00:00 Dorina made it back from Bermuda; musical and theater talk; glamour shots 07:15 go outside, people! 12:14 George Lucas and we’re still talking about Scorsese/Coppola?! 23:27 Joker may profit more than Avengers: Infinity War? oh, no we’re talking about this bulldog again 31:01 karaoke bops 36:55 okay finally getting to Joker profit talk now 43:21 top of the year 50:00 Stranger Things 4 to be eight episodes 52:20 calls - more top of the year, where in the world would you go?, what do you hope will happen at the end of Episode IX? #ColliderLive: You have no idea what might happen in this off the wall show that is a mix of the old Schmoes Know show with a dash of Collider, mixed with nonsense, shaken with comedy and served every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday live from Collider Studios. Make sure you like and share the show so we can build it TOGETHER. Make sure you give it a like as well and subscribe to the Collider Podcast feed! Watch the new short film from The Wangers/Amateur Hour Films, “Reel Talk with the Reel Robbie”: https://youtu.be/Pkj4z7uHo9o Listen to (Alex) Marzoña’s music: https://www.youtube.com/user/alexmarzonamusic Follow Dorina: https://twitter.com/EvilDorina Follow Reilly: https://twitter.com/ReillyAround Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/JoshMacuga Follow Cody: https://twitter.com/TheRealCodyHall Follow Alex: https://twitter.com/AlexMarzona More Great Collider Content ??Movie News & Analysis: https://bit.ly/2n1MZb7 ??Celebrity Interviews: https://bit.ly/2OyLjSU ??Video Games: https://bit.ly/2vszg0Z ??Sports: https://bit.ly/2Au5rmv ?????Pro Wrestling: https://bit.ly/2LKhWzy ??Breaking News: http://collider.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColliderVideo Instagram: https://instagram.com/ColliderVideo Facebook: https://facebook.com/colliderdotcom Want to listen to Collider on the go? Search "COLLIDER" wherever you get your podcasts for original shows plus audio versions of your favorite video content.

Better for September ends with the loosely related hit single from Rihanna, "Bitch Better Have My Money"! Special guest Greta James (@gbol22 on Instagram) returns to discuss her feelings about the song, as well as what makes a good techno remix. Jake mashes two of the covers together, and we all talk about what we've been listening to recently in the classic bonus segment, "Hey Alex (and Greta) What Have You Been Listening To These Days?". Covers by: Karmin, Kelaska, Prol'e, Rewind, Rain Paris ft. Arcaeus, The Maine, The Puppini Sisters, Rob Arthur, Ras Bao ft. Nerea Lopez, Todd Beasley Spotify playlist here Official music video here Hit us up on Twitter with the hashtag #CoverMePod or @JakeTheCressy or @SomeAlexWiseGuy Email us at CoverMePod@Gmail.com

Alex Charfen is one of the very select few coaches I continually plug into...    I have wanted to get this individual on here for quite some time, and Alex Charfen has been one of the reasons why my stuff is blowing up so much.    I have learned that I need to listen to less people, and I'm very, very picky on those that I choose to dive deeply with…   So for marketing and sales, I've really dove deep with Russell, (obviously) and you all know that.    For systems and business systems, I've dove very deeply with Alex Charfen... he's the other coach that I pay a lot to and listen to as well.    ...and I have other various ones that are very carefully selected... and I don't listen to ANYBODY else!    I'm extremely careful about the content that I consume - so that I can spend most of my time just moving, rather than gathering MORE information…   ... which I don't think many of us need more of.    So anyway, I'm excited for you guys to understand more of why Alex Charfen, for me, has been so key…   So I asked him to come on the show and to teach a little bit more about the systems that all businesses need, regardless of whatever you're in.    A lot of these are the systems that a brand new entrepreneur needs when they finally get that revenue coming in.    ...and then there are systems that he creates for those who have an existing business and are ready to scale.    Alex answers the questions…     How do you know if you should be scaling or not?        What are the five reasons why most companies fail to scale?     If you guys like this interview, please reach out to him, (he did not need to do this) and say “Thank You!”    At the very end, we have a special little thing for you, and so we're excited!    Boom, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen, welcome back to Sales Funnel Radio - we're really excited to have you guys here.    I'm with one of my good friends, who's become an amazing friend and definitely a mentor... I would call and consider him a brother as well.    I want to introduce everybody to Alex Charfen.   Before I really bring Alex on, I just want you all to understand, Alex Charfen was one of the guys that helped me understand why I am who I am... and that, it’s okay… and helped me lean into that.    I talk to you a lot about leaning into your obstacles, leaning into those things that have been crappy in your life…    … because they end up becoming your superpower.    You all know my story of going to the first Funnel Hacking Live, Alex Charfen was one of the first speakers, and I took so many notes…    I ran back home, I showed my wife and she goes "That's why you act the way you do?" And I was like "YES, it's because of this guy!”    He had a crazy deep gravelly voice and I loved it. He was the man!" ...and I'm so excited to bring him on the show here:   Guys, please welcome Alex Charfen, “How you doing, man?”   ALEX: Steve, it is so good to be here with you, man. Thank you, and I echo your sentiments completely, and I consider you a brother as well, man.   STEVE: Oh thank you so much, thank you so much.    You know it was like two weeks ago;  me and my wife were chatting about your material and going on through it, and she goes "Oh yeah, I have to remember this is how your brain kind of works."    I was like, "Really naturally, yeah! You should really know that" so we'll go back through your stuff.   You know, I've got that Capitalist Pig shirt that I wear all the time, but I really want one that just says, "Charfen will explain," or something like that, you know what I mean?    That should be the next shirt…   So much of what I do in this world just is NOT explainable without you.   ALEX: Yeah, it's unique, you know, Stephen…    I think when you characterize it that way, so much of what you do is different than what anybody in the world would ever expect... and that's what I've found from the day I met you.    I think I walked up to you and said something like:    "Hey man, I think we should talk. You're a really unique entrepreneur and I don't think you understand just how unique."   STEVE: I remember you said that.   ALEX: Or something like that.   STEVE: Yeah I remember, and I felt like, you know in the Matrix when he's talking to that lady with the spoon bend... I felt like I was talking to her, and I was like:    "What does he see in me? What are you looking at?" You know, and "Please dissect me!"    So anyway, I really am pumped for you to be here and just massive incredible love.    You have to understand, your name; it's NOT just a noun, it’s a verb in my vocabulary.    People are like "How did you do that?” "I just Charfenized it, baby!"    I say ‘Charfenation’ all the time.    I was hanging out with the other ‘Charfenites.’    I'm going over the ‘Charfenation.’    "How did you do that?" “Oh, I ‘Charfenized’ it, baby!”   Anyways, you're very much a verb in my vocabulary, and with my family... so it's really quite an honor to have you on, it really is.   ALEX: Thank you Stephen, it's an honor to be here man, this is awesome.   STEVE: This is really cool. Well hey, I wanna just start right out and just, I wanted to ask…    My audience has heard a lot about you. I've talked about you a lot because there’s so much that ‘veI learned.   Just recently, I was going through some of my old notes, from two years ago, from one of your events, and I was like "Gosh, you're so right, this is so cool!"    It really has created additional leverage for what I'm trying to do.   It works, it's real, and I want everyone to listen to this and listen to what Alex has to say here.   Understand that *this* is how I've been doing what I’m doing.   I learned marketing and a lot of sales from Russell... but how to have a life, systemize, and make my business an asset from Alex Charfen.    So, anyway, could you just tell us how you got into this? 'Cause I know you weren't always…   I mean I call  it entrepreneurial optimization, I mean it's really what you do - it's not just the systems, but like:    I'm wearing glasses now   I'm drinking more water than I ever have in my life    I'm doing all sorts of stuff I never would do, because of you    How did you get into this?   ALEX: - You know Stephen, I think if the question is, "How did I become an entrepreneur?”    I didn't find entrepreneurship, it found me.    This was really the only thing I ever felt comfortable doing in my life.    Ever since I was a little kid, I was always the kid that was different than everybody else, crazy socially awkward, like what you see today…    I don't try to be socially awkward, it's just natural.    I was always different than the other kids   I didn't really get along   I had trouble in school   All the systems in the world told me I was broken.    … and then, when I was eight years old, my family went through kind of a financial downturn; my father lost a company.    He didn't go bankrupt, but he went really close, and to make money for the family we were selling stuff in a swap meet on the weekends.    I remember going to the swap meet for the first time and standing behind a folding card table, and a woman walked up, and I sold her a pen that had an LCD clock in it…    (Like that was big time for 1981 or whatever or '78 or '79, or whatever it was).   Stephen I can remember thinking at that moment, "Holy crap, I'm good at this. This is something I'm NOT terrible at."    … because up until that point, I really hadn't found anything where it was like, "Hey, that was good."  It was always’ "Almost got it, kid. You don't suck as bad as you did yesterday."    I was the kid who consistently got *MOST IMPROVED* all the time, 'cause it's the award you give to ‘the kid who sucked the worst!’   And when that woman walked up, it was like "Hey, this is something I can do over and over again."    And the more that I worked with my Dad, and the more that I experienced business, I loved it.   The world is so random, but when you get into the world of business there are rules.   …. there's an outcome.    People are in it together, and you actually have to work together to accomplish and achieve.   …  if everybody cares about the outcome, it'll happen.    And so *this* is where I feel comfortable.    You know, it's funny, when I was a kid I used to create businesses, create business plans,  write out time cards and all this other stuff, and as an adult, I thought that was like ‘the weirdest thing.’    I would reflect back and think like, "Man, I was such a weird kid."    Now, that's exactly what my daughters do.    My daughter this morning was at the kitchen table for three hours writing out a schematic for a water park she wants to build one day.   STEVE: Wow!   ALEX: And you are who you are, and I think, from the very beginning, this is who I've been.   STEVE: That's amazing, and when did you decide to make a business around this and go actually help other entrepreneurs, like myself, who need these systems?   ALEX: Well, the business that I have today, we started…    So let me give you a little brief history.   So in my twenties, I was a consultant, and you know, a lot of people ask about that.    I did some consulting at a very high level at the Fortune 500 level...    I built a very large business that almost killed me.    And so I can tell the story really good...    I can give you all the highlights and make it sound great:   $250,000,000 company   I've worked with Fuji and TDK and Memorex and Logitech, and all international business.    Or I can tell you the other side of that coin…    I had a $250,000,000 company   I made less than $2,000,000 a year    my margins were razor thin   I had a bleeding ulcer   I was probably over 300 pounds    STEVE: Wow.   ALEX: And so when I got out of that business, I wanted to do something completely different.    So in my early thirties, I got into real estate, and we were taken out by the real estate market in 2007.    Cadey and I introduced our first information product, and that's how we got into this world.   We created a product called the Certified Distressed Property Expert Designation.    In 2007 we were bankrupt, we introduced our product at the end of the year:  In 2008 we did $500,000 in sales   The next year we did $7,000,000   The next year we did $10,000,000   Over the course of the life of that product, we did about $70,000,000    We went from bankruptcy to liquid millionaires in a year.    In 2013, the US Treasury came to our office and did a broadcast with us, where they said that, according to their research…    Our company had pulled forward the foreclosure crisis five to seven years   ….so it was intense.   STEVE: Oh, yeah...   ALEX: Really intense!   And what happened was, right around 2011…    A lot of our clients who were buying our product wanted help growing their business; so I took all of the stuff that I used to use as a consultant; the systems and structure Cadey and I used to run our business, and we started training it.    And so since 2011, we've been training it in classes/ courses.   In 2017, we started the products that we have today. So now we have :   An entry-level coaching program called Billionaire Code Accelerator - for people who are doing over 300k a year   A high-level coaching program called The Billionaire Code Grow and Scale - for people doing over 3,000,000 a year.    STEVE: That's awesome! That's so cool.   ALEX: Yeah it is the most fun I've ever had, Stephen…   It's like every day, I wake up and here's what I get to do:    I get to play in this playground with game-changing entrepreneurs that are starting businesses that are doing things that are just unreal.    ...and our systems, our structures are kind of the backbone for how they're doing things.    So on a daily basis, me and everyone on my team, wake up knowing that we are helping the game-changers change the world, and we recruit people who want to do that…    We recruit for people who are passionate about our mission…   Everyone on my team feels like their life's mission is being fulfilled through being in this business right now.    It's the greatest thing I've ever done.   STEVE: That's incredible, and I can tell everyone else who's listening and watching this now, it's exactly as he says it.    I think I've been to three of your events now, and they have just been life-changing.    I go through and it gives structure to the idea, but then, also, how I behave against the idea. So I can actually go in and breathe; I can live.    I watched my Dad create this awesome company when I was a young boy, but it took him too.   But everyone does that, it's super natural - so you to go in and…    Remove the entrepreneur   Create systems    Create processes and procedures, and people that actually push forward their vision even further.   ... it's incredible.    I know it's not magical, but it feels magical, to me! I'm like "Oh my gosh!"    I've actually had a tab open with your course open for like the last month and I'll just dive into another video, and I'm like "Oh my gosh! Back to the drawing board, that was so good!"    And I go back to it again and again and again... it's just always up, everybody who's listening to me, it's always up.    That's really what's teaching me how to run a company, rather than ‘me’ being the company, and I've loved that.    *Just so powerful*    I wanted to ask you kind of a key question here, and it's a question that I get asked a lot...    People come through my programs, I'll help them make money. They go and make a lot of cash, and it's awesome... but then after that, like what do you do?   What are the first systems that you find that new entrepreneurs with a sizeable amount of cash should actually go create first?    What are those first few moves?   ALEX: You know I think I definitely want to share a couple of systems Stephen, but first, I want to just share a thought process. ..and this is a tough thought process for most entrepreneurs to take on, and it's interesting 'cause I've watched you go through this shift too, right? '   Cause at the beginning, (and I just want everyone to know)...    When I met Stephen Larsen, he was ready to take on the entire world solo!   STEVE: Yeah.   ALEX: Like all alone, right?    And here's the thought process…    After you start making money, the next thing to ask yourself is:    How do I sustain this?    How do I make it real?    How do I make it last a long time?   How do I make it so that I'm not the only driver here?   when you get to the point where the momentum you're creating on your own isn't enough, and believe me, we all get there...    Like I know that if you're watching me, watching Stephen, you're one of those entrepreneurs... and in the back of your mind, you have this crazy voice that has always told you:    You're meant for more   You're gonna do more   You're gonna change the world   You're gonna make a massive impact   ... and if you've always felt that, then there's a shift you have to make in your thinking.    Because here's the issue for people like us; I call it the Entrepreneurs Dilemma.    For people like us…    We need far more help than the average person to reach our full destination, but any request for help or support that we have to make, leaves us feeling vulnerable and exposed.    Stephen, you with me?   STEVE: Yes, yes, yes, yes, 100%!   ALEX: And so here's the shift…   We have to realize that if we're gonna change the world, that is a group activity, and leadership's a contact sport.    So we have to wake up to the fact that when we start to:    Build a team   Create a structure   Pour into the people around us    Invest in those people   Make them important   Build relationships with them   …. we will build the company that we have always wanted.    That's the only way it's ever been done.  The myth of the solopreneur who's changed the world is a myth - it's a joke.   STEVE: So true   ALEX: It's one of the most damaging things out there in the entrepreneurial world today.    Because the fact is…    Show me anyone that looks like they changed the world on their own, and I will show you a massive team behind them.   STEVE: So true!    There's this idea that gets pushed around now, and it's like, “I'm gonna go and be this person that does all this stuff. I'm the gift to the world...”   ...and it's like “Okay….” but you can't do that on your own.    In the last six months, I have begun to experience and feel burn-out.   ALEX: Yeah.   STEVE: I have never in my life experienced that, and it's been hard.  The only way I've been able to create leverage is by listening to what you say and create those teams.   ALEX: Yeah. Well then, Stephen, that's the thing…    Here's the deal I want everybody to understand this:   If you're an entrepreneur, you have a job, and that job is to…    Stay out of burn-out   Lower pressure and noise in your life   Increase the protection and support that you have around you.    Because if you don't work with that equation to constantly lower the noise and increase the support, lower the noise, increase the support…    Here's what ends up happening…     You are in an equation that doesn't work.    … and it's not like anyone can come and argue against me here because this is like gravity.    This is like you know the facts of life, this is like taxes. We're all gonna pay 'em. There's no way to argue against this, you're going to lose.    And so in that situation, as an entrepreneur, you have to be really cautious about doing too much yourself, and about loading yourself up, because here's our instinct…    (You know you have this, I have this, we all have it.)    If there's something to be done, the first thought we have is, “How do I just get it done without telling anyone else,” right? Oh yeah!   STEVE: Yeah   ALEX: And it's like "I'm gonna conquer!"   STEVE: Freedom baby!   ALEX: We forget that humans are tribal animals, man.    We are all terrible at most things. Let's get real…    If you're good at a lot of things then you have a liability because you're not gonna be able to choose what you shouldn't do.    I'm very fortunate, I suck at most everything, and that's like an honest reality.    Anyone on my team will tell you like "Oh man, don't let Alex fill out a form, use the calendar, "send emails. We keep him out of all of our systems."    Seriously my team actually knows when I have a password for a system and they monitor me using it, 'cause I'm so bad at that stuff.    But on that same token, I know what I'm good at.    I'm good at vision    I'm good at where we're gonna go   I'm good at putting the frameworks together    I'm good at assembling a team   … and by doing those things, we can grow a massive organization and have a massive impact.   So for every entrepreneur, the key is to figure out what you're good at and do that to the exception of everything else   ... and it's the hardest thing you'll ever do as an entrepreneur.    Here's why…   The second you start doing that you feel like you're being egotistical. You feel like you're being self-serving.    But here's the fact:    When you drive your business to get easier for you it will grow like crazy.   But driving your business to get easier for you will feel like you're doing the wrong thing.    It happens all the time.   There's a discussion right now on our Facebook group, one of the CEOs in our group made a post, and I'm paraphrasing, but she said something like :   "As I offload and reduce discomfort and get a team around me, I'm feeling less and less significant, am I doing this right?"   And my answer was "Yes! You're absolutely doing this right. That's exactly how it's gonna feel!"    Because we need to attach significance to the total contribution, NOT to your day-to-day activities.   STEVE: Mmmm, that's powerful.    You know it's funny I was It reminds me of …   You know when I first got to ClickFunnels, it was just he and I. There wasn't like a copywriter, a videographer... it was just he and I!    So we did every single role in getting these funnels out, occasionally there was an exception where he'd go "Oh someone's really good at X, Y, and Z,"  but then, by the time I left...   ALEX: - Probably design or something… but everything else was you guys?   STEVE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right! I knew enough Indesign and Photoshop, I was the one doing it most of the time... and doing first copy rounds, and it like, it was nuts!    But by the time I left, it was funny because he had started implementing these types of things.    I remember watching him during these funnel launches just laying on the floor, bored out of his mind.    I've never seen him like that in my life, and he was almost going to a state of depression. He was like "I'm not needed in my own thing now. Ah no-one needs me anymore."    It's a funny thing to realize, we're just the orchestrators. We don't play all the instruments.   ALEX: We shouldn't, we shouldn't.    And so, you know, back to your question about what systems should an entrepreneur start looking at?   Now, I'm gonna talk high level, and I wanna share...    You and I are really close friends, and I wanna share the most critical content we have for entrepreneurs with your group.   STEVE: I appreciate that.   ALEX: This is what we normally share internally once somebody joins our program…    We share the five things that keep companies from scaling.    The reality is, there are really five things that keep companies that should scale, from scaling.    And here's what I mean ‘companies that should scale…’    You know, if you go talk to most consultants, venture capitalists, investment bankers, accountants, lawyers, whatever, they'll give you this laundry list of why companies don't scale:    They didn't have enough money   They didn't have the right people   They didn't do all of these things   The reality is, if you look at most companies that should scale, there are five clear reasons why they don't…    So let me share them with you, but let me give you this caveat…    Here's what I mean by "should scale..."    If you've got a market    If you're capable of selling   If you could do more    If you know you're leaving money on the table   …. you should be scaling.   If those things aren't there for you right now, go resolve that and then start scaling.  Far too many people try and scale before they actually have all the steps in place.    Then you just build infrastructure that does nothing.   So let me tell you what the five things are...    #1: So number one, first and foremost, absolutely most crucial, is…      Most businesses don't have any type of strategic plan.     So as a result, there's no go-forward strategy, and here's what happens in a business when you don't have a go-forward strategy.    If you don't know where you're going, neither does your team   ... neither does anybody around you   And so you will, by virtue of math, become the biggest bottleneck in the company.    Here's why…    If there's no forward plan where all of us can point at and go get it and help you chase it down, every time we want to know what to do we have to ask you, and we have to go to you... and it's a death of a thousand paper cuts.    You're literally in a place where you're:    Telling people what to do   Checking that it got done   Telling them what to do again.    And if you've ever been in that situation as an entrepreneur, you know that somebody only has to ask you twice before you're ready to flip out and lose it.    Am I right Stephen?   STEVE: Yeah, yeah, usually once.   ALEX: Once, right, right, but by the second time you're like "Are you kidding me?"    And so the way we get past that is we create a clear strategic plan, we share it with our entire team…   ... and if the team knows where they're going, here's what happens.    I want you to understand something about the people coming to work for you.  If you're in a small business, you're hiring entrepreneurs.   I know that there's this saying in the market, "You're either an entrepreneur or you work for one."    I call complete and total BS - don't even bring that crap around me.   STEVE: Yeah!   ALEX:    Every person on my team is an incredibly talented, hyper-motivated, world-changing entrepreneur, they just choose to be part of a team.   And so you're gonna hire entrepreneurs, and the way you keep entrepreneurs absolutely and totally focused and excited, is you show them what they're hunting, you give them the kill.    You say:    Here's our plan   This is what we're doing   This is how you win.    And if you hire the right people, they will walk over hot glass to get to that destination for you.   STEVE: Yeah.   ALEX: But if they don't know where it is, you're gonna demotivate them and completely de-leverage them.    So number one, you have to have a strategic plan.    In my experience, less than 1% of businesses do. Also, less than 1% of businesses ever hit $100,000,000. In fact only 3% ever hit 1,000,000.   STEVE: Jesus. ALEX: So when you look at that, it's not 1% of businesses that hit 100,000,000, 0.01% of businesses ever hit 100,000,000,  and the reason is...    Most businesses don't know where they're going.    And Stephen, by you having the tools to build a strategic plan in your business, hasn't it changed how you approach things?   STEVE: Oh gosh, you guys remember when I tell you those stories of I left my job...    I created 200 grand of revenue really quick but there were no systems   I was the…    Support guy    Fulfillment guy   Sales guy.    I did every role, and I voluntarily, very painfully, had to turn down revenue to go build these structures.    And I want you all to know, it was Alex Charfen's stuff that helped me go in and actually set those systems in place... and so, please understand my affinity for this man and what he does.   About halfway through the year, I was only at like 300 - 400 grand, which is pretty good, but that last huge sprint came in because of the things that Alex Charfen and his team were teaching me.    All those planning things that I use, and all the things that I've just lightly mentioned, they've all come from Alex Charfen, and it helped scale me.   ALEX: That's awesome Stephen... Man, that makes me so proud.   This is so cool! Like there's only one Stephen Larsen in the world, and I told you that the first day I met you…    I'm like, "Dude you are completely and totally unique and I think I can help you build the company you really want."   STEVE: Yeah, you said   ALEX: And for us to be sitting here, and for you to say that, I got chills Stephen, that's so awesome. Thank you, man!   STEVE: Oh man, I'm so jazzed about what we do, but it's because of what you teach I'm like "I can do it... "    The first time I ever saw Stephen at an event, I did not leave the event until I'd cornered him and told him what I needed to tell him... because I knew you were gonna be exactly that type of person.    ...and here's why it's so important to me, Stephen.    I could tell the first time I saw you,  that you were gonna have a massive effect on the world.    But here's what I know about entrepreneurs; you're gonna have the biggest effect on the people closest to you - the people who are most proximal, your team.   And when I see an entrepreneur like you Stephen, I'm like:    "Man, if that guy builds a team he's gonna change hundreds of lives internally in his company. They're gonna change millions of lives externally, and I know those hundreds of people will build your legacy."    And when I see somebody like you, I'm like, “Man! That is the path, let me show you how to do this.”    The fact that it's working, is like, “Ah, it makes me so excited every day.”    This is why I get up out of bed every morning and do what I do.     STEVE: Ah, it's so fun man, feeling's mutual. You walked up, it was from that FHAT event that you were at.   ALEX: Ah ha.   STEVE: And you walked up and said, "There's a huge company in you and I don't think you know it, and I'm gonna help you pull it out of you."    I remember when you said that, I was so scared. I was like, "There's no way that this is real! I know who you are, are you kidding me?"    It freaked me out, and I had to own my own vision for a while. It actually took me a while to practice that.    Anyway, so much has gone on in mental clarity and development from what you've taught, not just these systems and things around, it's really cool.   ALEX: - So let's give the second one, Stephen   STEVE: Yeah, sorry, sorry.    ALEX: oh don't apologize, shit I love this part.    So first you have a strategic plan…    #2: Second, the thing that you need to have is      A system to communicate that plan.        Let me tell you something about us as entrepreneurs…    We think we're good communicators, but we're lying to ourselves.    The fact is, we are haphazard and emotional, and we're pumped one second and we're not the next, and we're all over the place…    Here's what happens…    When we have a team that has to deal with a personality like ours, and there's NOT a system for communication, it's random and haphazard and overwhelming... and it comes from all angles, and they're waiting for word from on high. Here's the fact, if you're the entrepreneur in charge, you're the MOST important person in the building all the time.    You're the most important person on the team, in the tribe, in the group, and they're all waiting to see what you say.    And if they're waiting for days and nothing's happened, they start thinking:    Is something wrong?    Did something go bad?    Did we do something wrong?    So you need a system.   As an example:    My team knows every Monday at 4:00, we're all gonna be on a weekly meeting together.  They also know every day at 9:27 a.m. we're gonna be on a daily huddle, and I'll be there.    They know that once a month we're gonna have a meeting where we show our strategic plan.    They know once a month we're gonna have a meeting where they all get the results.    So they all know when they're gonna communicate with me and how.    From the first day you're on our team there's a system that  controls how you hear from me.    Not just me pumping stuff out there haphazardly.    As a result, my team knows they're gonna hear from me, they trust it and here's what happens.    I set the expectations, I meet the expectations, we create trust. I create trust with my team every time I do that.    And here's the fact:   If your team trusts you, you get way more out of them.   If your team trusts you, they will do more for you.    If your team trusts you, you'll get discretionary effort   ... which means when they're driving, when they're showering, when they're doing something else, they're gonna be thinking about your business.  Why?    ...because it gives them momentum.    So if you have a strategic plan and a system to communicate it, you're ahead of 99% of companies out there.   And Stephen, same thing for you with the system, the structure?    Like…    We all fight structure, but once you put it in place, isn't it incredible?   STEVE: Oh, it's amazing! Stuff's getting done right now, that we set in place once. and then, I'll be like "Oh, podcast episode just launched,!Oh, what day is it? Oh, that's sweet! Everyone just put it out, all right, cool!"   ALEX: Right, I remember when I started getting messages like, "Hey, I love the new podcast!" And I'm like "Oh, we put a podcast out? Nice!"       STEVE: I didn't do that, what are you talking about?   ALEX: So you have  #1: a strategic plan, then #2: a system to communicate.    #3: Here's the third one, now this is BIG, really big, and most business owners just, they don't look at this ever and it's the biggest struggle is, or one of the biggest struggles is;      You have to have a system to consistently document the right processes in your business.     And by documentation, I mean having:    A flowchart   A process document   A checklist   Something that shows you how the important things in your business are done over and over again.    For example:    If you walk into a McDonald's, and you look above the fry cooker, there is a process to cook fries above that fry cooker.    Anything that happens in that McDonald's, there's a process for literally every single thing, including:    Unlocking the door   Turning off the alarm   Sweeping the floor   That's why there's a consistent experience at McDonald's; I'm not saying it's a good experience, I'm saying it's consistent.   In most businesses, in most entrepreneurial businesses, there's no process.    In fact, it's even scarier than that...    The process lives either in the owner's head or in an individual's head - so you lose a person, you lose the company.    You lose a person, you lose a big chunk of what you're doing.   STEVE: Hmm.   ALEX: So you have to have a system in a business to consistently evaluate what processes are in the company, and then on a monthly and weekly basis document the right ones.    The way that I would suggest you start, is you look at your customer experience:    What is the customer experience in your company?   What process documentation do you have to back it up to make sure that is completely consistent?    If you do that, you're gonna beat most people out there...   99% of entrepreneurial companies have little to nothing documented in any type of process.   STEVE: They're just shooting in random spots 24/7.   ALEX: Or they're doing stuff like, "Here's how we do our customer on-boarding…”    I trained Suzy   Suzy trained Annie   Annie trained Bob     John does it now   ...and you're like "Oh, cool! Let's go and see what John's doing?"    Well, John's doing nothing close to what Suzy and Bob and everybody else was originally doing, and so you have these degrading processes in your business.    And here's what happens…    When you look at entrepreneurial businesses, they tend to…    Go up in revenue   Come back down in revenue   Go up in revenue   Come back down.    If you're inside those companies, hundreds of times like I have been, here's what I can tell you…    Revenue goes up as the process is working, and then when it breaks, it comes back down.    *PERIOD*    That's why businesses don't continue to go forward - there are processes breaking in the business.    Whether it's marketing, sales, delivery, whatever it is there's a process breaking.    When you document your proceses, you make them bulletproof.    So in our business, we actually use:    Lucidchart Flowcharts   Sheets in Google Sheets    A new product called Process Street  -  a distributed, automated process document system, which is incredible.    So we have all of our processes in Process Street, and we have a distributed team around the world.   We have somebody in Ireland who can do their part of the process, as soon as they hit the last button it transfers to somebody here in the US who can do their part of the process.   STEVE: That's awesome.   ALEX:    Documenting your processes + Putting them in place = Game-changing   STEVE: Holy cow, okay I wrote that down.    I'm taking tons of notes so everyone knows, I hope they are as well…. And I'm not sharing! ;-) Process.st is the company, and we are so happy with it because... Stephen, here's what I want everyone to know,...   Cadey and I have had five businesses get over $10,000,000 a year, and all five of them ran them with paper checklists.   This is the first time we have automated checklists in Process Street.    The last information products business that we had, we literally had three-ring binders that we would carry around the office and check stuff off.    Having a three-ring binder with a process was so much better than having somebody trying to do it from memory.    Now with Process Street, we can distribute that three-ring binder, and I can get reporting on who's doing what.   STEVE: That's amazing.    Yeah, I've actually seen the three-ring binder and I've thought, "Holy crap, that really is how he's doing it.”    You would teach it and then I watched you actually do it.. 'cause you would record your stand up meeting calls in the morning   ALEX: Yeah.   STEVE: And I was, "Oh my gosh, that's so cool! I'm NOT doing that, interesting."    Then I’d go back and take notes and start it.   ALEX: And then implement.    Well, and you know, there's this phrase in the entrepreneurial world. Ah... I kind of get a little triggered, right!   STEVE: Let it out, baby!   ALEX: You know the thing that people say from stage:   "Here's what I want all of you to know. All you have to do is stop working in your business and start working on your business."    And I'm always like:    "Oh, good, thanks. Thanks for solving it all for us dude, that was awesome. You just solved all my problems with that really cliched BS thing that everybody tells entrepreneurs."     When I was in my twenties, my instant thought was like, "How do I get on stage to punch that guy in the face?"    And my then my second thought was like, "What a load of crap!  If I don't work in the business nobody's answering the phones, sucker."    Like, what's going on here? I don't know how to make that change.    And so the way you make that change is…    Working on the business means documenting processes.    By making it:    Clear   Repeatable   Real   And so you have…    A strategic plan that everyone understands   A communication system everyone knows is gonna happen    A system for documenting processes so everyone can repeat what's going on with your clients   #4: The next step,(and this is BIG), is..    A consistent system for identifying, documenting, and then prioritizing the right project in the business.   STEVE: Ah, this changed my life. *HARDCORE*   ALEX: Whoa, Stephen, you know how game-changing this is because, here's the problem in most businesses…    Projects are selected emotionally.    Period, I can't tell you that they're done any other way - they're emotional.    You go to an event and somebody says "I'm doing this thing," and then, the next day, you're doing that thing.    You listen to a podcast or you hear a webinar, and the person says "Hey, I added this thing to my business," and the next day, you're trying to do that thing.    In our business, if I have a really great idea that I want to implement today…    If I'm like, "Man, this is a really high sense of urgency, we should get this implemented."    It'll probably be somewhere around 45 days, and I'm totally okay with that.    That's the timing it should be in my business.    Now if there's an emergency we're gonna fix it that day, but if I'm like, "Hey, I see an opportunity here with something," it's probably a 45-day event…    Why?    I have a team and a structure, and a plan, and we have a system that's moving forward. We're already hitting our numbers, why would I mess with anything?    I actually protect what's going on in the business   I add things gently   I add things carefully   I make sure my team's into it too    I make sure we have consensus    In just in the last 60 days, we've gone from two million recurring to two point three million recurring,   STEVE: That's awesome!   ALEX: So why would I mess with what we're doing?   STEVE: Yeah.   ALEX: Yeah, so when somebody's like "Hey Alex, I got this "great idea for your business." I'm like "Awesome, get in line."    And we'll put it into our system to see if we want to actually do this…   Because the fact is…    If you're getting sold as an entrepreneur on what your next project should be, you're probably in the wrong place.    STEVE: Yeah, that's fascinating. I really agree with that.    It was your planning system for figuring out which projects, I still do it.    Top of every three months and it has guided everything we do.    And while I do follow a few rabbits and I'm practicing bringing it back in, we still largely follow the plan as to what the business needs, and that's ‘grow and scale’ rather than this impulse of like:    "Yeah, oh shiny object, shiny object, "that looks good, that looks good!"    And it's been that discipline, that's the other thing that's always up is my waterfall...   ALEX: Yeah, yeah, always! I mean mine's up right now. I mean I could share it right now.   And the reason is I always have my strategic plan pulled up in front of me, I'm looking at it every single day.    I'm asking myself:   Is the team doing what we need to do here?   How do I support people more?    How do I help them do this more?   Because when you look at our strategic plan, here's what it's made up of.    Our one-year outcomes   Our client-centric mission - which is our Superbowl, our hall of fame, the long term   The 90-day projects we're focusing on right now    What we're doing this month to hit those targets . So that waterfall of long term, to one year, to 90 days, to 30 days, I can see it all on one document and it tells me EXACTLY where I should be supporting the team and what we're getting done.    And so here's what happens…   I went to an event a couple of weeks ago, and I had an idea that was like "Oh man, we have to do this."    Then I come back to the office, I look at the waterfall and I'm like "What do I want to kill in order to do this thing over here?"    And you know what the evaluation was? *NOTHING* I'm not going to take anything off this, that would be crazy.   There's no way I'm gonna go to my team and say, "Hey guys, in addition to all the other stuff you're committed to, here's a hot potato."    I just backed down and I waited till the next time we had a planning meeting and I said, "Hey, there's this thing I think we should do."    We evaluated it   It went into the system   It went into the plan    There is very little knee-jerk reaction in our company because we are going so fast in a forward direction, that for me to challenge that in any way it has to be game-changing at a different level - so it rarely even happens.   STEVE: Yeah, black-ops right? Call them black-ops?   ALEX: Black-ops.   STEVE: No black-ops!   ALEX: No black-ops, baby!  If it's NOT on the plan, you don't do it... or it's black-ops.    And usually, the biggest creators of black-ops are guys like Stephen and I.    So my team has an open license to tell me if I'm doing black-ops.    They will actually call me out in a huddle, in a meeting, they'll be like "Ah, this sounds like black-ops," and then we'll make a note, we'll put it in a parking lot and do it later.    STEVE: Oh, that's so cool, okay.   ALEX: Yeah,  that's one of the most important things you can do when you have a team Stephen…    You train your team to criticize you and then you congratulate them when they do.   STEVE: That's really cool, then they have a license to actually flex their brain instead of feeling like they're in a box.   ALEX: Absolutely. You know I heard a story once about Larry Page, who runs Google,   He was in a meeting and he really strongly stated a point. and one of the team members got emotional about it and started yelling at him.    She was like, "I think you're wrong and this is why you're wrong," and Page was smiling…   Afterward, she asked somebody "Hey why was he smiling?"    ‘Cause she backed him down, and he actually said "You know what, I think this deserves more investigation. Let's do this."    She walked out and she was shaking and all adrenalized up, she had just yelled at the CEO of Google, like, “What the heck's gonna happen to me?”   She turned to somebody next to her, and was like "He was smiling, is that because he's gonna come down hard on me?"    And the person was like, "No, he was smiling because you confronted him, he loves it, he wants it.”    He knows that if people aren't confronting him, he's in a bad place.   So I look at it in my team and I'm like, "Hey, if my team's not challenging me a little bit, then we're all just marching behind a duck."    You know, I don't wanna have ducklings behind me. I want people who are saying:    Hey, this might work   This might not work   We might have a better idea   So you give your team license to criticize and license to call you on stuff.   STEVE:  Gosh, I love that.   #5: So here's the fifth one...    So we have:    Strategic plan   Communication system   Selecting and documenting the right processes   Selecting and achieving the right projects,   ….and then, this is *BIG*   Finding the right people     It's NOT just finding the right people, its…    Evaluating the company   Understanding what the company needs right now    What can you offload that is going to create the most momentum, not just for you, but for the team, for everything that you're doing together?    What is the position that you need to put in place next - so that the company moves forward the fastest?    And unfortunately, just like everything else I've named, planning, projects, process, all of those... people also become emotional.    An entrepreneur wakes up one morning and says, "I'm doing too much, I'm gonna hire an assistant."    Then they have the assistant sit next to them for three weeks, and they wonder why this doesn't work out?    It's because you had the thought to get help, (which by the way I congratulate you on), but there was no process there to actually make it work.    And so here's the process you need…   Evaluate what's going on in the company   Understand what the company needs   Turn it into a job description    Then you use it to recruit   You do tons of interviewing   You drive it until you have three people that you can select from    You hire one of them and then you do at least a 90-day onboarding, high-intensity onboarding.    When I'm onboarding an executive team member, I meet with them every day for the first month, three times a week for the second month, and two times a week for the third month.    People tell me, "Hey man, doesn't that "feel like overkill?"    I'm like:    You don't understand what it means to have an executive team. Your job is to build relationships with those people.    You want to know how you build relationships?    There's one commodity that builds relationships. One!    *TIME* - that's it.    And so when I'm onboarding, when I'm bringing somebody on, (whether it's on my executive team or anywhere in the business), somebody is doing that high-intensity onboarding with them…    Up close and personal every single day for the first 30 days making sure we have no drift.    And so, when you have a system to select the right people, bring them on and then onboard them the right way…    Here's what you avoid, (and Stephen this is like, Ah, this statistic drives me crazy)...    In corporate America, I know because I used to be a consultant there.    In corporate America, they would say things like, "Well we just hired so-and-so in that position so they'll probably be productive in four to six months."   The first time I heard that I was like "Did he just say four to six months? Does he mean four to six days, or does he really mean four to six months?"    Because in my business, even way back then), if I had to wait four months for somebody to be productive I would have been, “They're gone”!   STEVE: Yeah, yeah, they're gone!   ALEX: And so in our business, we actually have this experience right now.    We recently brought on somebody else, a new person to help us in marketing, and with our onboarding process, he was actually achieving products within the first five days of his first week.   STEVE: That's so cool!   ALEX: And that's how it should be.    You want somebody to come in, be effective and start contributing and creating momentum.    Because here's what will happen…    As an entrepreneur, if you're wired anything like I am, (and I know Stephen is), if you have somebody on your team that starts to feel like they're not carrying their own weight, you won't sleep.    You won't sleep, it will rip you apart, Stephen am I right?   STEVE: Yeah! ALEX: It will destroy you…    And so here's the question though…   Are they not carrying their own weight because:   They're lazy? They don't want to?   They aren't the right person?    Or is it because it's not clear what they’re doing?   STEVE: They have no idea what they're doing. They don't have confidence...I didn't help them!    ALEX: Right, 'cause here's the thing.    Your team needs three things in order to ultimately be effective and to be the type of team you want.    And here's what I mean by that…    As an entrepreneur here's what you want, you want a team that just does stuff and asks permission later.    You want a team that achieves and lets you know how things worked out.    That's it!  I just know this is how entrepreneurs work.    You want people who make really good decisions.    You want people who move things forward.    You want people who don't stand around waiting for stuff.    And if you want to have a team that actually moves things forward as an entrepreneur…    You gotta spend the time with them and let 'em know what your ethos is, and let 'em know how you make decisions…   That's how you duplicate decision making.   STEVE: Hm, gosh I love that. Okay, so…   Strategic plan   System to communicate   System to document processes that can be shared inside the whole biz    Documenting projects and the ones you're gonna work on   Finding the right people   ...and I actually personally just went through your onboarding training and it's so awesome!    'Cause it goes through and it's like this, you basically create a runway for 'em, right?   And if they don't land, don't worry you've got parachutes and there are jumpy cords all over the place...   - you're doing everything you can to help 'em win fast and lots of small tiny wins that build that confidence, and I was like:    "That is brilliant. 'Cause that is not the way you're taught anywhere else.”   ALEX: So Stephen, check this out, man.    We recently fell out of the lucky tree on recruiting and we hired this guy named Greg Duby and he is, ah, amazing.    He's like, he's just one of the most exciting guys I've ever worked with because he's so solid and so centered, and just so good at what he does.    Greg is a former nuclear propulsion tech in the Navy, so you know what that is, that's the guy who rides the bomb around in the submarine, okay?   STEVE: Yeah, that's amazing!   ALEX: Yeah, you have to have advanced degrees in Physics, advanced degrees in Math.   He's literally a rocket scientist.    So he worked in the Navy, then he worked at NASA, then he worked for some of the larger consulting firms out there…    I mean, he's done incredible stuff in his career.    He's just one of the most solid people I've ever worked with, and within about two or three weeks into our company, in one of our daily huddles, we said, "Who got caught being awesome?"    It's where we call each other out, and he said:    You know, I just wanna call this company out for being awesome.   “ I've been here for three weeks, I've never had an experience like this getting on-boarded anywhere...    I'm up and running, I'm excited. I feel like I'm really part of the team. I feel like I've worked here forever and I'm three weeks in."    And this is somebody who worked at some of the best consulting firms in the world, NASA and the Navy!    And our little tiny company has impressed him so much because we did onboarding because he knew what he was supposed to do.    And as a result, Greg, I think we're about three months in with him, and dude, there are projects that I thought were gonna take a year or two that are getting done this week.   STEVE: That's so cool!   ALEX: It's crazy.   STEVE: It's just a completely different way to do it. One thing I hated in the military, I love the military, but you know, some things that are rough and that is that there are no clear guidelines on how to win ahead of time.   The way you're instructed is by hitting barriers and then you get punished for it, and you're like:    "Just tell me ahead of time and I wouldn't do it! But all right, let's do more push-ups."    Anyway...   ALEX: Something tells me you did a lot of push-ups, Steve!   STEVE: I just want to say thank you so much for being on here.    I asked for 30 minutes and you just completely over-delivered, and I just really want to say thank you to you.    My audience already knows very well of you.    Where can people go to learn more about you but specifically also get your help inside the business?   ALEX: So the best place to learn more about us is to go to our podcast.    I publish a podcast four days a week, which is essentially a one-on-one conversation with an entrepreneur growing a business.    And the way that I create each one of those episodes is when a question or issue comes up in our coaching groups, I create an episode around it, we distribute it to the group.    But then also we distribute it to anybody who's listening, so you can get the same coaching that I'm giving my high-level clients right on our podcast…    It's called Momentum for the Entrepreneurial Personality Type, and you can check it out at momentumpodcast.com.    And then, if you want to understand more about our products, about our coaching groups you can go to our website charfen.com, but better is to just reach out to me or to one of my team members through Facebook.    The easiest thing, is just reach out to me, and I'll connect you with the right person in our company, and we'll go through a process with you to help you understand if we can help you.    You know Stephen, we're pretty neat, we don't sell everybody. We actually get on the phone with a lot of people who we sell later, but we won't sell you unless it's time.    We know exactly what solutions we provide, and if you have those issues and they link up, then we'll work together... but we go through a personal inventory in order to help you do that.    So if anybody's interested in getting on a call with a member of my team, you can also shortcut the entire process by going to billionairecode.com…    Answer a few questions and you can just set up a call link and you'll be on a call with one of my team members and they'll help you qualify and understand where you are.    And just so you know, we don't do sales calls, they are all consulting calls.    When you get on a call with my team, you won't ever feel like you're being sold, you'll feel like you're being helped.   STEVE: Which is exactly what I have felt when I started doing that as well.    Just so you all know he's very serious about that - that's very real.    I always feel like I'm being helped by anyone on his team.    ...and come to find out later, "Oh that was the sales guy!"    ...You know what I mean?    They dare to go in and actually they want to change the world and they're very serious about it.    So thank you so much, appreciate it.    Check out Billionaire Code.    The Momentum podcast is a goldmine, it is one of those gems on the internet that is actually worth all of your time and attention.    Thanks so much for being on here, Alex, I really appreciate you and love you, and thank you for being on here.   ALEX: Stephen, dude, this has been an honor.    I hope to be able to get invited back again, and as a Sales Funnel Radio listener, this is really cool. I appreciate you, man!   STEVE: Thanks, I appreciate it!    Hey, awesome episode right?    Hey, once I figured out the simple patterns and formulas that make this game work, I had a new problem…    Back when I eventually left my job and launched my personal business, I sold about $200,000 of product in around three months-ish…    And while I thought I was King Kong, a new problem started.    I was the business, there weren't any systems...   I was support   I was fulfillment    I was the one in charge of getting the ads around   I was the sales department    I was the marketing department    And I knew I wouldn't survive it alone…    Better yet, I knew I'd never seen a rich solopreneur.    This game takes a team.    Contrast that to now, and my company does tons of stuff that I don't know how to do...    What changed?    His name is Alex Charfen, check him out at charfenrocks.com.     So I usually don't bring tons of people on Sales Funnel Radio, but you should know that his programs, combined with my marketing skills, are why my business is killing it in revenue today, and NOT killing me personally.    Alex Charfen's programs and training have been life-changing for me and my family... and taught me who I really am and what I'm meant to be.    So when you're ready to build an actual business, an actual asset and NOT just make this another job…    When you're ready to keep the role of entrepreneur but learn the role of CEO, go get started with Alex Charfen at charfenrocks.com. That's C-H-A-R-F-E-N rocks.com.

House Flips are the Next Logical Step (LA 989) Transcript: Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit:                            Happy Memorial Day. Steven Butala:                   Welcome to the Land Academy show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit:                            And I'm Jill DeWitt broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how house flips are the next logical step. Jill DeWit:                            They are. Some people are just ... they took our concepts, started to apply it to other property types, which is great and figure it out and that is the way it should be, right? Steven Butala:                   Do you think house flips are easier or harder? Jill DeWit:                            Over all, completing the transaction, easier. Steven Butala:                   That's what I think. Jill DeWit:                            When agents get involved, harder. Steven Butala:                   I don't know I'm trying to make a good analogy and a good example. It's like when you do a bunch of land deals, land deals are great. House deals are just a such of wealth ... Well that's the title. A logical stop. I think they're so much easier for a lot of reasons, but you've got to do them right. Just like everything else. Jill DeWit:                            Exactly. Steven Butala:                   Before we get into though. Let's take a question posted by one of our members. On a landinvestors.com online community. It's free and I should say this. We also have a House Academy by the time this airs. A House Academy forum. Jill DeWit:                            We do. Steven Butala:                   And we're about to launch a new House Academy show. Jill DeWit:                            We do. True. All right. Alex says, "Morning everyone. Mailed three different counties in my first mailer and it did not go so well. Hudspeth county, Texas is probably the worst county to deal with. They don't even have the properties recorded on a map. I've had a ton of people call and mail back purchase agreements for less than $100 per acre, but I can't find any info on any of them. Jill DeWit:                            One guy texted me pictures of his deed and plot information, but the coordinates are in relation to the other plots in the same subdivision. No one knows where the subdivisions are. I asked county how they figured out what the taxes for the parcels are if they don't know where they are? And they said, "We have no idea. LOL." If they could get those properties all recorded, some on there could make a killing. Jill DeWit:                            I got nothing but hate calls from another county, but I think it was my fault on the pricing. The third county, I've gotten calls back, but people want way too much. I'm four grand in the whole, but I think of it as a pricey education. I know I'll make something happen on the next mailer and hope I do. Anyone else get whacked on their first time out?" Jill DeWit:                            I watched you and there were like several responses. Steven Butala:                   There are probably at least ten responses to this in the forum from some more senior members. Jill DeWit:                            Yeah. Steven Butala:                   I'm about to give my response too. Jill DeWit:                            It's kind of funny. Steven Butala:                   Go ahead, Jill. Jill DeWit:                            One of our members in particular wrote this. He said ... and it was Kevin. Kevin said, "Hey Alex, it's too early to shut the door on these counties." Steven Butala:                   Exactly. Jill DeWit:                            "You're getting their early responders, the most motivated and desperate sellers. Just wait." Steven Butala:                   Exactly.

We all need more of The Tick and Arthur in our lives, and we have special guest Yara Martinez joining us to talk about season 2! Also today, YA BOI ALEX IS BACK TO WRITE SOME DESCRIPTIONS AND HELP CODY. Come hang with the whole crew finally back from Chicago, Reilly will probably rant at some point, and catch up with everyone! Oooooh wa ah ah ah! Follow Yara Martinez: https://twitter.com/yaritafrita #TheTick season 2 on Amazon Prime Video now! 00:00 we’re finally all back from Chicago!!!  some airlines suck…; Alex was fine though, thanks for asking 14:29 Schmoedown Live recap; Roxy and Reilly aren’t getting along 17:05 Ellis’ show recap; the venue didn’t treat us very well, but we made it work! 28:47 rude staff at Star Wars Celebration, Josh got a bad Yelp review, and how does Kristian know Yara Martinez? 38:55 After Hours and other drinking stories 42:06 we finally met the After Thoughts boys! 48:00 being clueless is okay 52:14 Hey Alex and other bits this week; everybody loves chips 1:08:03 what’s Alex’s new nickname? 1:10:11 BREAKING: John Cena to join Suicide Squad 2 1:14:14 new trailer for X-Men Dark Phoenix released 1:20:00 JJ Abrams comments on Rey’s parentage 1:32:42 Yara Martinez (True Detective, Jane The Virgin) joins to talk about The Tick, her life, reminisce with Kristian, and her career!

Intro Banter: Alex and Larry Catch up with current goings on, and discuss Kickstarter, and cold starts to the podcast!   Spoken Tokens: Our interactions with you, ‘The Spoken’ our wonderful listeners! This episode we received both an answer to Alex’s query AND and wonderful topic of discussion:   Hey Alex and Larry!   First off, want to thank you guys for making the podcast. The board game world is not always the easiest to get up to date info on and getting insight into game design/industry workings itself is always super interesting.   Listened to the latest episode and wanted to email in to say the name of the game is Crocodile Dentist...I also remember playing this as a kid and I believe my childhood would have been after both of yours' (I'm 26). Nothing like a game about removing teeth from a crocodile to span generations of children. Not sure if I'll be the first or not, but figured I'd write in.   Heard about your podcast from GamePoint (which is amazing) and have been listening since. Not sure if this has been covered in an episode yet, but I'd love to hear about different methods for testing a game/mechanic that's still in design. I suppose the answer could be as simple as 'Just play it over and over', but I feel like almost everything has more depth than people would expect. Anyways, keep up the good work and thanks for all you do!   Design Lab - We speak about the mechanics of game design and tackle some common issues at a really deep level. Usually speaking with an established publisher/Designer! We cover the question Sam asked us in depth! “I'd love to hear about different methods for testing a game/mechanic that's still in design.”   On the table - We examine what the game is like when played, we cover components, setting, rules and the overall atmosphere. Points:         Components         Set-up         Table presence         Smoothness of play         Rules learning         Atmosphere         Use of setting in implementation Game: Chimera Station   Conventional wisdom - convention going ons. I know it's not been long since we had the monumental segment, but there are a LOT of cons going on right now, so we want to keep you up to date on these as much as possible. If you know of or are hosting/attending a Con let us know and we will cover it! Conversely if you go to one of the ones we list drop us a line to let us know about your experience!   Mar. 28-31: PAX East – Boston, MA Location: Boston Convention & Exhibitor Center   Mar. 28-31: GameStorm 21 – Portland, OR Location: Red Lion Jantzen Beach Hotel, 909 N Hayden Island Dr, Portland, OR 97217   Apr. 6-7: FnordCon – Austin, TX Location: TCEA, 3100 Alvin Devane Blvd., Austin, TX We're excited to pull back the curtains on FnordCon, our celebration of all things Steve Jackson Games. What sort of things do you do at a FnordCon? • You hang out with Steve Jackson. Not in a "he passed me in a hallway" way, but "I played against him in a game of Ogre " kind of way. Plus, signings! • You'll be one of the first people to play Car Wars 6th Edition – our faster, easier, and no less deadly version of classic autoduelling! • Munchkin Warhammer 40, 000(with pre-release expansions)! Munchkin Steampunk: Girl Genius(pre-release)! The chance for Munchkin Line Editor Andrew Hackard to deface your cards! • More pre-release games that we can't even tell you about here! Because They Are Watching. • Lots of Ogre and a chance to meet Ogre Line Editor Drew Metzger! • A chance to see and buy our full line of games, including many of our Warehouse 23 exclusive products! • Your opportunity to catch up on recent releases!   Links: Podstudio1 BGG Steve Jackson Games Tasty Minstrel Games Music: As always from the amazing community of gifted musicians, arrangers, and composers over at ocremix.org go visit them for the full project and so much more amazing music!   Intro / Bump / Outro: Chillopolis / By bLiNd From the album Chronopolis Music Inspired by Chrono Cross Original Song Chronopolis Original Composer - Yasunori Mitsuda Project Site: http://chronopolis.ocremix.org/

Hey Alex... the world's first lactating contortionist stripper called - she wants her name back.  That's right, this week Ste and Natalie are talking about sloppy emomen, Alexisonfire and their debut album, also called Alexisonfire.

Hey Alex, would you like to try some soup rice balls? 嘿 Alex，你想尝点汤圆吗? Soup rice balls? What are those? 汤圆？那是什么东西啊？ They’re made of sticky rice. The filling is usually black sesame, red bean paste or pork. 它们是用糯米做的。内馅儿一般是黑芝麻、红豆沙或者猪肉。 Oh, I’d love to try some. Thank you! 噢，我想尝尝。谢谢你！ In fact, today is the Lantern Festival. We eat these rice balls to celebrate it. 事实上，今天是元宵节。我们吃汤圆来庆祝元宵。 Since you call it the Lantern Festival, do you also buy a special lantern? 你称元宵节为“Lantern Festival”，你会买一个特别的灯笼吗？ Yes, lanterns are a big part of it. We've got lantern riddles. 是的，灯笼是非常重要的一部分。我们有灯谜哟。 Wow, that sounds so cool! 哇，听起来好棒！ ...

Hey Alex hier! In der heutigen Folge geht es darum wie du JEDE Situation meistern kannst und ganz schnell aus negativen Impulsen positive Gedanken machst. Das ganze will ich dir an einer kleinen Geschichte von mir erzählen, in der ich damals meinen Flug in Miami verpasst habe. Viel Spaß! Cheers, Alex --- Alexander Wahler findest Du außerdem auf folgenden Plattformen: Website: www.alexanderwahler.com Coachingbewerbung: www.alexanderwahler.com/coaching Fragen an: fragen@alexanderwahler.com Feedback an: alex@alexanderwahler.com --- Social Media: Snapchat: Alexander Wahler Instagram: alexanderwahler Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderWahlerLifeCoaching/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/alexanderwahler  --- Business Kontakt: support@alexanderwahler.com   *Dies sind affiliate Links. Das heißt Ich bekomme einen Teil der Einnahmen ab. Du unterstützt dadurch ohne Mehrkosten für dich den Channel. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexanderwahler/message

Alex Lofton, co-founder of San Francisco startup Landed, discusses why he started the company and how he thinks they can use the power of crowdsourcing and community to help teachers own homes in the upscale urban core's where they teach.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Hello, this is KLX Berkeley 90.7 FM and you're listening to Metta to the madness public affairs show here at Calex that celebrates the innovative spirit of the bay area. I'm your host Tallinn Huizar and today we have Alex Lofton [00:00:30] with us. He's a cofounder of landed. Hey Alex. How's it going? It's great. How are you doing? I'm good. Alex joins us by phone today. He's traveling on the road, so thanks so much for joining us today, Alex. Of course. And uh, we have a, a kind of a standard question we always start this show with and it is, um, you know, you're an entrepreneur, you're on a journey to change the world or solve a problem that you see. Can you tell us kind of about your problem statement of what, what are you trying to solve? [00:01:00] We're trying to make home ownership more affordable and accessible and really expensive cities, which is pretty relevant in a place like the bay area. Speaker 1:Um, there's just a lot of, there's kind of two problems when people think about affordability in homes. One is how much it costs to pay on a monthly basis, which is a whole bunch of problems there. Um, and another one is just how expensive it is to actually access home ownership in the first place. To have enough money to get a down payment to get that [00:01:30] first house. And that is what we are trying to address. And we think that if we match people who want to invest in real estate on one side with people who want to buy a home, my other, we can solve that problem. Okay, great. Thanks for letting us know about that. And can you give us a little bit of a background about how you came to see this problem? Well part of it was a personal and another was just hearing reflections of how difficult essential people like teachers were having to, [00:02:00] uh, you know, were, were having when they thought about trying to live in a place like the bay area. Speaker 1:Personally, the problem came to be when I thought about moving to be up from a renter in San Francisco to eventually being a homeowner one day. I'm wanting to settle down just like everybody else and not coming from a family that could afford to give me a bunch of money for a down payment. I just didn't see a way forward to save enough money, fast enough to buy my own house in the bay area. So a big question mark for me was, what am I going to do? And in talking [00:02:30] with people, especially friends of mine who were teachers, uh, in the area, they were experiencing the exact same problem. They were paying all their money in rent, nothing left over to save. So, uh, you know, for, for, for people like us of my generation, the millennial generation that we're thinking about transitioning from, uh, the shoe box in the city to try to find something to live in more permanently. Speaker 1:Uh, there just were a lot of options out there between renting and owning. So I just got myself and my co founder, Jonathan, I met [00:03:00] at graduate school thinking about how it is different out there, what could we create that's different out there that would bridge that gap. Okay. And we can mention it even though this is cow's radio station, we can mention to graduate school you went to unfortunately. But I think I'll stay in school and um, tell us a little bit, you know, I think it's really interesting about how entrepreneurs come to see problems and the problem that you just described for us as something that everybody knows about pretty well. You [00:03:30] know, this, um, difficulty fortunately lead from, yeah. Affordability and it's certainly in the bay area. Utu but tell us a little bit about your background and like where did you grow up? Speaker 1:How did you, um, get to Stanford Business School? Sure. Well, I grew up in the Great Pacific northwest, uh, just outside of Seattle and, uh, from college, uh, onward in my early career, I worked in politics, uh, specifically on national campaigns, [00:04:00] uh, traveling around the country, um, focusing on setting up organizations that could, that could win elections. And through that process also learned a lot about how incredible, uh, American cities are, how exciting they are, but also how many problems they have. And just kinda real big passion and curiosity around solving issues in urban spaces. Um, and, uh, you know, a big part of that for, for, for me was thinking about, uh, [00:04:30] the way that we use space, who, who gets to decide how we use space, where we live. And a lot of that comes down to who gets to be a part of the ownership community in cities. Speaker 1:Um, and that is becoming, I noticed increasingly harder in places like San Francisco, New York, Seattle, a lot of, um, major urban centers in the u s and so to me, there was a tie between, uh, experiencing all of the beauty that is, that exists in [00:05:00] urban spaces, but also all of the challenges that could, you know, committed me to doing something, uh, like we're doing now with, with, with landed. Um, I, you know, I also, I grew up in a household with a school teacher as a mom and a social worker as a dad. And I really appreciate it. How, um, valuable, um, people how valuable the lots of different, um, professionals are for [00:05:30] thriving cities. And when you think about those people not being able to stay in those, in those thriving cities, there's a big question mark what the future looks like for where we all live. Speaker 1:And so that's kind of what really motivated me to kind of work in this space and find a way to build a business that was going to be sustainable and successful that also, um, was meeting real a real need. So when you applied to a business school, this was the kind of, you already kind of thinking about urban [00:06:00] housing issues. You got it. Yup. Yup. And a lot of it was with, was accelerated by work. Um, I had been exposed to, uh, with organizations like, um, therapy and B, Lyft, um, a lot of these sharing economy companies that were thinking differently about how we use space and how we, um, rent stuff, but they're, but the conversation around ownership, um, and how do we think differently about ownership [00:06:30] was, um, would missing there in my mind. And to me that's where the question of, you know, shared ownership or co-investment if that was to be applied to problems like housing and a more efficient way. Speaker 1:Um, now that we have technology that can connect people more quickly, connect to people with capital more quickly, um, can, can, can help us set and, um, make, you know, make decisions more quickly, uh, that there could be a possibility to rather [00:07:00] than offering people more debt to borrow from banks. And otherwise, if you pair people up as a coinvestment, maybe there's a solution there. And that's where we, where we started headed. Yeah, we're talking to Alex lofty, the Co founder of land. It's a San San Francisco based startup that's looking to solve the problem of affordability of home ownership and urban areas. And this submitted to the Madison KLX Berkeley 90.7 FM. Um, Alex, I can't agree with you more. I think that the sharing economy has been so revolutionary in so many [00:07:30] ways, but it kind of passes on this idea of ownership and wealth building. And I think that's a problem longterm for the people who really embrace that sharing economy. Um, so I think what you're doing is really interesting to find a fill this hole of rethinking and what ownership means. Um, so when you were, um, in a year in business school and you kind of have this thought of you want to attack this problem, can you take us from there to how you kind of formulated the idea for landed? Speaker 1:[00:08:00] Sure. Um, so sorry, sorry, could you, could you repeat that question one more time? Yeah, I'm just asking, once you're, uh, you're in business school and you already have kind of an own a concept of you want to figure out how to solve this problem of, um, ownership in urban centers. How did you go from there to constructing the company and the actual, um, method through which you want to solve that problem? [00:08:30] Great question. So one of the first thing that we, you learn about when you start a company, it's just you got to go out there and find out what's out there already. And, um, as much as you can start prototyping and start creating some sort of example of what you want to do and see how people respond to it. One of the first things that we thought about as a team was, hey, if we're going to be thinking, asking people to think differently about home ownership, that's a pretty big leap to the, to ask [00:09:00] of consumers. Speaker 1:So what if we, you know, what if we focused on creating a brand, uh, that people trusted in the realm of homeownership and eventually get to asking them about, uh, changing their mind about home ownership. So I thought about that was, well, let's go and create a business that focuses on helping renters who are having bad experiences as renters, have a good experience as a renter and really be a po. The best property manager that's out there for the best property manager that's out there that people will trust us and they'll, [00:09:30] they'll, they'll want to do what we, we, we suggest they do like co-invest with other people. Well you can tell that, you know, that was a pretty long leap or pretty long chain of things that would have to happen for, for us to be able to directly influence how people are buying homes today. Speaker 1:And so, uh, you know, we, we, we found that out by throwing this idea out there, starting to build a property, a property management company, but quickly realized that if you wanted to get to people thinking differently about ownership, we've got to start. We actually got to start [00:10:00] there. And so, um, what does the first thing that we did was go and just match investors that were interested in our concept with home buyers. We actually did that first with the home in Berkeley, so right down the street where you are, um, uh, with, uh, some homeowners that were there trying, trying to preserve, uh, the house they were living in as renters with an investor who really wanted to be invested in property in the area, just to get experience of what that's like can match to match people. Um, and, and, and [00:10:30] that kind of has ballooned and blossomed into, uh, us working more generally with communities that care a lot about, um, both, uh, the people that are living and want to live in their community, but also that their own opportunity and making money, investing in real estate and matching those with people actually who are going to be the homeowners. Speaker 1:Okay. So that first deal that you guys did in Berkeley, it was, you weren't necessarily looking for a, a, [00:11:00] a match between renters in a potential investors, just those who are in your network and you guys are trying different things. And that's what kind of came out, is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. Yeah. You got it. I mean, we, we, we, we knew that in the future we'd have to, you know, um, do more marketing, do more outreach to find new, um, new potential home buyers to match with, uh, new investors. But to start, we just used our own, you know, our own network and, uh, the people who were interested in what we're doing, um, and wanted to be a part of it themselves [00:11:30] and made the ask to them to be a part of this with us early on. And I think that's one of the things you learn really early on. Speaker 1:We were starting something is you can't be afraid to ask and asking can be not just something that is, um, a one way street where, where you're asking somebody to do something for you and they get nothing out of it. You know, you, you ask an investor to be a part of this set up, they're going to get a out of it. You ask a home buyer to trust us to help them figure out a way to stay in their house and a and B [00:12:00] be a homer homeowner that, you know, they get the benefit of home ownership at the end of that. So, um, being an aster in that way is, is a, is a good thing. Yeah. I mean, I can't agree with you more. As someone who I've done startups and interviewed a lot of founders, um, you know, there's that kind of a little bit of bravado that everybody has to have to not be afraid to go and ask. Speaker 1:And what's great about, um, the bay area is that people are used to being asked. It's a, it's a very collaborative place and it's one of the special things [00:12:30] about why our region has done so well over the years is because people are willing to help. If someone has a new idea that sounds a little bit maybe crazy or whatever you want to call it, people are open to it as long as it makes sense. So I'm glad to hear that Berkeley Berkeley was a first deal you guys take, they represented. That's great. Berkeley is treating us well and we're talking to Alex Loft and he's a cofounder of landed to San Francisco based startup. It's kind of rethinking how we can make home ownership affordable for urban [00:13:00] centers like the bay area. So let's talk about, let's fast forward to where you guys are today. So well, how long ago did you start the company? Speaker 1:We started just over a year ago. Okay. So in that year, a lot has happened and I was reading through your website and I wanted to, um, have you take us through your model a little bit. You have, um, and the website is landed.com if anybody wants to check it out. Um, great. Great URL by the way. And thanks if you got a, so it starts, you asked the [00:13:30] question, how do we help? And the first step it says is create community funds. So what's a community fund for landed? Community Fund is basically a pot of money that, um, individuals who have money to invest in real estate have capitalized. They put the money into the pot. Um, and their expectation is that money is going to be going to be, it's going to be invested in several [00:14:00] different homes, um, in and around, uh, a community that they care about. Speaker 1:That community can be defined geographically, but also more, um, more relevantly today is, is, is defined as, um, say a school where their kids go to school or maybe, um, they graduated from in the past. Uh, and they will really want to see a quality education to continue at that school. Um, that money is going [00:14:30] to be invested in people who are making that community great. So in the case of the school, but the people who make the community great oftentimes have great teachers and preserving those teachers, making sure those teachers stay in their own community requires people feeling like they had some hope to settle down. They have hope to, in this case, buy a, and so in turn, uh, the money that these individual investors that put into a fund that's offered up as down payment help to these teachers [00:15:00] who can go ahead and cover half of their down payment with landeds support with this fund support and in the future they pay back, uh, some of the appreciation of the, some of the growth of the value of the home to that fund when they sell. Speaker 1:So, if I'm a, um, I'm a resident of Berkeley and I have a little bit of extra money to invest and I am not necessarily have enough to go buy a bunch of apartments to rent out to people, [00:15:30] but I really want to be invested in real estate. And I also, uh, really want to help my community, cause my kids go to Berkeley Unified School district. And I could potentially give that the chunk of change that I have to invest into a fund that would be specifically for Berkeley unified schools versus waivers. You got it? Yup. You got it. Okay. And you know, and, and we, we like to emphasize this gives people more choice in ways that they can invest [00:16:00] their money. So people may already be investing elsewhere with rental properties. This is a, a is another option for them to do that. It could be the first time somebody decides to invest in real estate period. Speaker 1:Um, but, you know, it gives people a more diversified way to, uh, have their money, uh, w grow their wealth basically. Yeah. And how do I, um, uh, do you, is there like a annual kind of dividend [00:16:30] type payment that comes or how does, if I'm the investor, how do I get that money back? You get that money back when the home buyer, uh, sells or refinances in the future so that they sell the home and they get, you know, paid for that transaction. Then, um, for every dollar that the house grows in, in value, um, used an investor would get 25 cents, uh, back. The same thing would happen if the dollar, if the house goes down in value can don't look so good. [00:17:00] Um, you would, uh, as an investor sharing that loss with that home buyer buyer and that's why why this is very much not, um, debt is not loaning out money. Speaker 1:This is a co-investing in the equity and the value of the home because it depends if the value goes up and goes down. There's not a dividend. It's not that the home buyer is not paying you rent on a regular basis. Um, that they, you know, cause the home buyer has responsibility, the mortgage already, if they've gotten with the bank, they already have payments, they're servicing that whole time that they're in the house. The time that you get paid [00:17:30] as an investor is in the future when the home is sold or refinanced. Okay. So it's um, I'm, if I'm the investor, I'm completely betting on the appreciation of the home. That's how I get my money. That's correct. Okay. And um, the, um, the assisting of the home purchase. So when landed, so when I asked you guys have on this, on your website, this question, how do we help? Speaker 1:So the first step it says create community funds. [00:18:00] I think I understand that. Then number two is assist home purchases. So, um, that's when you were talking about half of a down payment would come from a, like a school teacher and half from the landed fund. Is that right? Yeah, exactly. So, and for those who are familiar with the home buying process, this will be old happen. I know a lot of people, including myself, when I started to really dig into what the process of home ownership entails, are buying home entails, don't always realize this, but [00:18:30] you know, there's a process of getting all the money that you need in order to buy a home. That's kind of what you need to figure out first. And that's where we sit in getting the money that you need to buy a home usually involves getting big loans or bank a mortgage. Speaker 1:Um, in places like the bay area where home prices are so expensive, but even just generally to get the best rates for mortgage, to, um, make sure that, um, you're not having to pay for extra things like private insurance, etc. You want to try to get to 20 or 20% [00:19:00] down payment, which means a, just to make math really simple on a $1 million house, you need $200,000 up front. And that's just, that's just a, a hill, that's too steep decline for most people. So in this case, even though it's still a lot of money, if you're going to buy a million dollar house, you're, you're expecting a home buyer to save half of that down payments, $100,000 and Landon puts in the other a hundred thousand dollars that comes from one of those funds that's been capitalized or been filled [00:19:30] up by, um, a bunch of, uh, investors from the community who care about that community. Speaker 1:And then once that money is, oh, sorry, then once that money is actually provided to the home buyer, so the home buyer can go to a real estate agent that we work with. They find a home that they really are excited about buying. They turn around, get the mortgage from the bank, buy the home and Bam, they're off to the races. Okay. Well, um, I have to ask then, cause I, for someone [00:20:00] who has bought a home before, I know that the biggest stumbling block is sometimes that other, the $800,000 that's coming from the bank and they have to feel comfortable about the, um, homeowners potential ability to pay that mortgage. And many times, you know, that 20% they're asking for is really just, uh, that, that they have the right kind of person. So how do they feel about this whole pro program or how do you get around them knowing that the, [00:20:30] this school teacher in this example we're kind of using is only giving 10% if we don't get around it. Speaker 1:We, one of the most important players at the table for us is our banks who are willing to work with us. And that's a large part of also when we talked about trading this company in the early days, we started off just doing one off transaction between investors and home buyers was to prove out what this actual model looks like. So that, so that we could find banking partners and get banks comfortable with what we're working with. [00:21:00] Um, you are absolutely right. And one of the things that we want it, we always emphasize is we are not interested in putting people into home ownership that shouldn't afford home ownership. And we, we saw what happened, uh, around that, uh, most dramatically, uh, in 2008, 2009. And what's really important is making sure that people can afford, you can afford the home ownership. And so a big part of that is what you can afford on a monthly basis. Speaker 1:What does your income look like compared to all of that standing debt that you have? And that's what [00:21:30] our banking partners look at. Um, when they first, the first one, the first thing they look at is to make sure someone can actually afford, I'm on a ship. And then they want to make sure that the person who's getting in the house has skin in the game, has, um, you know, enough invested in the home that they won't walk away if the market starts to change. And that's where at home prices, as expensive as they are in places like the bay area, um, banks are comfortable with, um, you know, looking at a home buyer that's putting in 10% of their own equity and saying that looks, you [00:22:00] know, that, that that's basically enough to to make that person feel committed to that property. And then by having another 10% put in by another entity like landed, that's great because that just means there's more equity, there's more money in the beginning in the home rather than it being a, a, a mortgage for 90% a mortgage that is covering the entire rest of the value of the home and no home buyer only puts in 10%. Speaker 1:Instead. There's actually a whole lot more money as 10% [00:22:30] more in the house already. That's, that's um, that's equity and that for the bank makes them very comfortable to loan money because in the long run, um, that arrangement can withstand the ups and downs of the housing market more than if somebody took out a, a jumbo loan where they're putting down only 5% or 3% a to buy a home. Yeah. And I guess you guys are, you're almost underwriting it in some ways where you're, you, you're a very interested [00:23:00] and motivated to make sure that this home doesn't go into foreclosure or anything because you guys only get paid or the where the advisors only get paid if home a gets three into this are sold. So you got anchors. Yep. And so I guess you're providing more than just a 10% down payment. Sounds like you're providing an agent in banks that are unfamiliar with this. Speaker 1:You kind of have an ecosystem around the transaction. Is that right? Can we got, yeah, we've got to create an ecosystem, make it work. Um, and that's the challenge of building a company in this space [00:23:30] is that it's not, um, just one player or, uh, one dimension plug and play. Um, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people who, uh, do have skin in the game in this transaction and we see ourselves as a coordinator that as an organizer of this, um, ecosystem so that it just works better for everyone, especially the home buyer. Okay. Yeah, we're talking to Alex Loft and he's the cofounder of landed in the San Francisco [00:24:00] based startup that's attacking the problem of an affordable home ownership in the bay area and urban centers beyond. Um, and so in this kind of central question you have on your website, how do we help? Speaker 1:We talked about you first create community funds, then you assist the home purchases, and then this number three is make sure things go right. So, so it sounds like you stay kind of involved for a while. What does that mean? Where there, you know, we really see ourselves as a partner to the home buyer. So whether it [00:24:30] be questions around, uh, you know, after they've entered this arrangement and moved into house, they have questions about, well, what happens if I renovate the home or what happens if, uh, you know, some things changes, um, with my circumstances and I now have a lot more money than I thought I did. And I wanna I want to buy you out. I want to just be the sole owner or what do I do? Um, all those kinds of questions, whether it be related to this physical house and it changing or the arrangement that, [00:25:00] uh, the financial arrangement with us where, you know, we're there for, for the home buyer to, um, kind of be a concierge service to them to answer those questions. Speaker 1:Um, but kind of come up with the best path forward are, you know, we, we ultimately will thrive as a company if we are a really good partner. So we don't, um, you know, cheat any of our, any of, uh, any of any either side of this transaction, whether it be the investor or the home buyer. And so, and, and that we've actually provided a really good [00:25:30] service to that home buyers in the house. So they feel confident in the process of, of being the kind of Stuart of the home. Well that's great. I can see so many different angles for you guys to help them with making decisions and renovations and what will help the value of the home more than other places. And I'm sure over time you guys will get lots of great data to be able to help people make really good decisions. Speaker 1:So that's very exciting. Can you give us this, um, a little bit of sense of, uh, what's happened in this first year? [00:26:00] How many transactions have you done or investors interested in this? It's a little bit of a different type of model for investors. So how are you Howard? What kind of reception are you getting out there? Great question. So today, um, we've only done a handful of transactions that, uh, are anywhere from people who are in the process of putting out bids right now for homes to actually purchasing homes to get that experience, uh, of what, what the actual product is when you bring two people together around the house and an investor on a home buyer. [00:26:30] And it's only been about six months now that we're really been focused on partnering and Building Partnerships with Public School districts, independent schools, charter networks in the bay area, um, to, uh, just to help them, help their teachers stay in the area and recruit new ones, uh, by offering this benefit for their employees, for these teachers who in staff, members of these schools who want to stay here. Speaker 1:And so right now we're, uh, about to launch with our first, um, five pilot, [00:27:00] um, pilot schools and those schools each have their own fund. So we have been, um, working with their communities to capitalize those funds. Those funds are ready to go to offer to teachers. Um, so this fall is a big one for us. And going from the process of starting a fund to providing the benefit to, to, uh, to our first home buying teachers. I needed those funds in Berkeley. Um, well one of the, one of the school, [00:27:30] uh, school networks we're working with has schools in Berkeley. So, uh, it's not with the Berkeley School district yet. Uh, but, but hopefully soon. Okay, great. And, um, how do people, if people listening want to understand what funds there are, aren't if they want to invest or are getting involved, how would they get involved? Speaker 1:They'd check out, check out our website, landed.com, and that's where we're, we're, we're updating it on a regular basis. That's where, um, all the information will be, uh, about how to get ahold of [00:28:00] us. If you're interested, either as someone who is looking for a house and thinking about creative ways to, to afford it. If you're interested in supporting your community and you, um, you know, our accredited investor, that money to invest in, in your, in your neighborhood, that's great. And especially if you're a school or school district, um, employee or, or administrator who wants to help out your community, get a hold of us. Okay, great. And Alex, I always ask this last question of entrepreneurs like, [00:28:30] and we're speaking with Alex Lofton co-found over landed San Francisco based startup. Uh, this is the last question and it is, everything went totally right on your entrepreneurial journey, uh, over the next five years, where would you see landed be? What would, what would, what would it be doing five years from now? Speaker 1:I really want to get to the point where this is just the default way people think about buying their first home. So if the millennial generation especially, but anybody who is a new home buyer is thinking [00:29:00] about how do I make that leap that I've been thinking about making myself in San Francisco but feel very little hope to do so, had landed to have that hope to move from a, from a renter today to an owner in the future and landed helps me get there. Uh, I'd be really proud. Okay, great. Well, a great vision from a great young entrepreneur. Really appreciate your time today, Alex. Um, and as I mentioned, we've been speaking to Alex last and he's the cofounder of landed. It's a San Francisco based startup trying to [00:29:30] solve the problem of the home ownership affordability issue in the bay area. Uh, you can check them out@alanded.com. My name is Eileen is our, I'm the host of method to the madness yarn, k, Alex Berkeley, Speaker 2:90.7 FM. Thanks everybody for joining and have a great Friday. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.