Office Hours #893 | Made From Mistakes | 80,000 Hours to Change Your Life: Career Fulfillment, Startup Growth, and Bold Leadership

Speaker A: Welcome to Office Hours, episode 893 or so. How blessed are we, uh, to have that many or more episodes of office hours made from mistakes. And I have the young Superman here, the incredible Nick of Wom, the well oiled machine himself, our fastest growing podcast, by the way, well Oil Machine. We'll be coming out with a big announcement for a playbook and office hours moving to the big time. But before that, Nick, before we bring Big Ben on, let's uh, set the room. What is on the agenda? Give everybody. We know we're going, uh, to Japan, but we got a bunch of stuff going on. What's going on?

Speaker B: Always. We always want to invite but not, uh, obligate everybody in our community to join us as we hit over 200 cities every single year, adding on a car wash in each and every one of those cities, which is the addition of a community meetup, holding court or even one of our VIP dinners for, for charity. So before the Japan edition of the car wash series, come and join us in Los Angeles as we are going to be there, uh, tomorrow with the incredible Marie diamond. Uh, we got Rob, Ellen and many, many others adding on a car wash there and we will be having a community meetup in Los Angeles. Uh, so make sure to come and see us then from there it'll be off to Japan for the Japan edition of the car wash series. Then over, over to Louisville, Kentucky with the incredible Nick Saban, Matt Ebert, the CEO of cr, and of course adding on a car wash in Louisville. Then over to Kalamazoo, Michigan with the Zeigler Auto Group, plus a car wash in Kalamazoo, Then back to Viva Las Vegas for the start of office hours season number 11, lucky number 11. Uh, plus a car wash in Viva Las Vegas and then back to Dunport Beach, California where we will have our June edition of our Mastermind series with the Incredible Tim Story, Dr. Stephano Senecropi and many others adding on a car wash once again. So if you would like these reminders on where we're going to be in over 200 invitations, but not obligations a year, all you need to do is text us at area code 949. Next three digits are, uh, 2, 9 8. Last four digits are 29 05. And of course we will remind you at the end of the show before our jingle plays as well. So, so you can get these invitations and obligation but not obligations for where we're going to be.

Speaker A: You got it my friend. And don't forget to email if you need me. David, the means Beloved AT D. First initial, Meltzer. Servant. Let me be your beloved servant, David Meltzer. Ben from over the Pond is waiting for us to talk about 80,000 hours in his new book, 80,000 Hours. Uh, giving us a toolkit that has already helped thousands of people change their career paths, uh, to make a lot of money for the sake of helping others and having fun. Benjamin Todd, welcome to Office Hours, episode 893.

Speaker C: Hey, great to meet you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker A: Of course. We're coming over your way. On July 27, we have a private members mastermind with, uh, m. People like Kishore Lula, uh, Kim Walsh Phillips, Justin Guarini. I think we're even going to have Brian Rose, uh, a few other people. So it will be. But not obligated as well. Right in your backyard will be over there. July 27th.

Speaker C: Nice. Is that London we love?

Speaker A: You know, we've heard of 10,000 hours. Everybody knows Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours. I teach to be our potential. But, uh, you have this tested, time tested toolkit that has already helped people with their career paths. Tell me about how you came up with this philosophy of 80,000 hours.

Speaker C: Um, 80,000 hours is just the number of hours in a typical working life. And the idea is, why not use it on something meaningful? Um, and also, it's just like such a big decision that we make. Um, if you could make your career just 1% better, then it would be worth spending 800 hours figuring out how to do that. Um, but many of us will spend longer thinking about which holiday to take rather than what to do with our whole lives. Um, and this is even more true if you think about your potential to help others and your impact on the world. It's your biggest opportunity to make the world a better place.

Speaker B: Awesome. And Ben, I look forward to, uh, meeting you in, uh, about a month and a half's time when we come over to London. Uh, one of the things that I want to break down is I love the title of your book. Uh, but something I want to be intentional about is, yes, how to have a fulfilling career. But the intention comes in with the phrase that does good in terms of fulfillment. Now, I know that you've empowered so many people in the course of their career, but I want to focus on the very beginning of such career because I'm sure that you see a lot of, uh, young people either coming out of university or college or whatever schooling that they choose, and they start to make this decision in alignment with the wrong for the sake of what right they may be influenced by what their parents want them to do, or they may be influenced by, uh, the lifestyle that they want to live, just aligning with the paycheck or the payday that they may receive. So talk us through how you help, especially at the beginning of one's career, to empower them not just to have a fulfilling career, but one that's actually in alignment with their skills, their knowledge and their desire.

Speaker C: I mean one, one big picture thing is the, you know, yeah, a lot of people are just aiming to make money. If you survey people, that's what they say, is that often their biggest priority. Um, and then, you know, the main alternative to making money is to follow your passion. And, um, I think being passionate about your work is great and really important, but that's not the best recipe for finding work that you're passionate about. So instead, what we encourage people to do is build valuable skills and then apply them to meaningful problems, use them to help others, and that if you get those valuable skills, that not only, um, you can then use them to make a difference which is meaningful, but you can also, that's also what gets you the bargaining power to get everything else you want from a job. Whereas a lot of people follow their passion and then they, you know, that's no guarantee of success. You can easily end up as an unemployed actor at age 40. And just because you followed your passion doesn't guarantee it's going to work out. Um, so, yeah, we really try to get people to think about which skills are going to be valuable, which ones might be the best fit for you, how can I build them? And yeah, then the approach we take to doing that is to really try and get people out of their heads. And instead of just doing career tests which don't really work, or thinking a lot, like reflecting on, uh, which things you enjoy or what different jobs are like, try and. Yeah, we had this idea of a cheap test. Try and like, actually do something that's close to the work itself. And, uh, that's what gets you the best signal of what's really going to fit you.

Speaker A: And I love that you're utilizing your skills and knowledge that you gained at Oxford with, uh, a master's degree in physics and philosophy. Uh, great combination, by the way. I love it. Two of my favorite topics, uh, and subjects and Oxford, one of my favorite places, uh, ever. Uh, blessed to be there with Myron Roll, who won the Rhodes Scholarship when I was representing him, uh, as well is, uh, just a big fan of Roger Bannister. But more importantly um, to finish up, we talk about the toolkit with the skills, the knowledge and the desires in alignment though today change is so rapid with technology. So how in your toolkit do you help people, uh, align the skills, knowledge and their desires with what's stable, what's doing well today and what they think is doing well in the future?

Speaker C: Well, there's no, there's no guarantee of a stable career. The best we can do is think about in the immediate future which skills are going to be most valuable and try and learn those ones. But that's going to be a moving target as, uh, technology changes and what the kind of like, biggest bottlenecks are change over time. So yeah, I think a lot of it is preparing to take an approach of constantly learning, uh, new skills over time, depending on what, where, where the. Yeah, like which things are most increasing in value at that moment.

Speaker A: So smart. And that alignment though, in a toolkit that allows us to use our 80,000 hours to make a lot of money for the sake of helping others and having fun. It take leaders with great capability, just like our friend Benjamin Todd, who hopefully we'll see out there in London, England. Uh, go to 8000hours.org, check out his book that came out, uh, very recently, last week called, uh, 80,000 hours how to have a Fulfilling Career that does good, uh, aligned in our mission of empowering over a billion people. Benjamin Todd promised us you'll come back and visit us in London. From office hours made from mistakes. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker C: Hey, thanks so much. Great to meet you.

Speaker A: Great job. I love that combo philosophy and physics that's so up my alley. Uh, we got to have Ben back and he's doing such great good work for empowering people, to empower people to be happy by making a lot of money for the sake of others and having fun. I all is in the house. I y' all lift shits. Our New Jersey friend, CEO and founder at Blue Vine. Welcome I al to Office Hours Made from mistakes episode 893 or more. How are you?

Speaker D: I'm great, David. Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: Well, it's great to have you because we want to learn about some very important data, uh, that you've been gathering. And Bluevine has been surveying our neighborhood of small business owners across America for the last year, uh, to get and understand their intuition, which to me, intuition is the sentiment of everything. Uh, this intuition about interest rates, tariffs, business in general. And this data has to be, uh, invaluable when we're analyzing what it is that's Going to move the needle for small business in America in the future. What great lessons have you learned from the treasure trove of data that you've gathered, uh, in 20, uh, 20 in the last year, let's just say.

Speaker D: Yeah. Um, so just to kind of start off, uh, you know, Founder and CEO of Bluevine. Bluevine makes financial services more accessible, affordable, easier to use for small businesses. We offer a broad banking platform and we serve, um, we served, uh, a million small, uh, businesses in our lifetime and serve several hundred thousand of them today across the entire country. And we're really focused, um, on being the champion for small businesses. And to your question, uh, yes, we do look at the data. We do survey small businesses. It's important for us to have the pulse of the small business economy to kind of see, uh, where there's opportunities for us to deliver value. So it's very important for us. I'll separate between what surveys exist and when we ask customers, um, or just generally small businesses about their sentiment versus what we see in the data, that's sometimes different. Um, so a couple of things. Um, I think small business sentiment, um, is somewhat less positive than it was in the previous year. We surveyed small businesses in the beginning of the year. Many were less positive, less optimistic about the year to come. Um, I think the average was around, um, the average was that around, um, expectations of 50% less profit this year, which is considerable. And it's not super surprising.

Speaker A: Um,

Speaker D: um, there is inflation that is sticky and is not going down, um, as expected. Now with everything that's happening, um, geopolitically, energy prices are up. And so it's not, it's not super surprising. That sentiment right now is a little bit, is a little bit more bearish. Um, we are seeing it as well as part of behavior in terms of where the expectation is showing up. So we offer small businesses lines of credit. That's part of our broader offering. And there, uh, we do see that small businesses are more hesitant to draw on their line of credit. And look, we appreciate that that's being responsible. But when we speak to them, they want to make sure that they can make the repayments on, um, their credit obligations. And so some of that is showing up. But I will tell you on the flip side, we do see in terms of payments and spend, that, that continues to be robust and spend continues to grow, um, vendor payments continues to grow, uh, balances continue to grow. So there's a bit of a mismatch right now in like, maybe bracing for times that are. May be more Challenging versus what we see in terms of the behavior in terms of spend.

Speaker B: It's great to meet you, my friend. And, uh, I want to ask you a question. With the amount of companies that you've surveyed, let alone having served over 900,000 customers, I want to understand what you've learned in terms of the spirit of excellence of these incredible high performers and, you know, successful companies. What I've learned through David is that, you know, we defined what is the spirit, uh, of excellence of, of true successful entrepreneurs being the desire that they must be what they can be, which is something that, you know, for the most part has. Isn't really taught.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: It can be developed, but it isn't necessarily taught. And so I want to see what common thread that you found, whether it's through the data or through the customers that you've served as that spirit of excellence or subtlety of success.

Speaker D: That's great question. Uh, and part of it is also my personal experience. My dad was a small, uh, business owner. Uh, he retired. He had a physical therapy clinic in New york for, for 25 years. Uh, you know, around five employees. Um, 25 years, um, grinding it out, you know, loving what he's doing, but managing through the hardship of being a small business owner. My grandfather was a small business owner and my sister is a small business owner. So I have like firsthand information around small business, uh, just general, uh, how they operate, how they think and their sentiment. Uh, so part of that is just my own personal experience and part of that is speaking with customers. I think the data is the data, but you get a lot more color speaking with small businesses. A couple of things I will say that me personally, I've taken away. So one, they're just incredibly resilient. You know, um, the economy will change, the circumstances will change, they will zig, they will zag, they will find a way to make it work. That's just the reality of it.

Speaker B: Never bet against American grit or American energy through innovation. Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.

Speaker D: Um, and we all saw it in the pandemic, uh, where all of a sudden you couldn't, you know, people were not showing up in person and so restaurants were turning online again. My sister is a physical therapist. Just think about what happens during a pandemic and so was doing um, video, um, meeting and instructing people how to do their exercises while interacting with them online. So we see that constantly around, navigating around, finding the path of least resistance, uh, whether it is, um, you know, right now, the macro or hiring employees. Um, and so we always see that second we see them um, being learners, uh, it's connected to the first one, but always looking to learn. And we see that as an example. With AI, we're already seeing the data. The uh, percent of customers or the number of customers that are paying for AI services is rapidly growing. And so you wouldn't necessarily expect. You hear a lot about AI with the large companies, with the Googles, with the open AIs of the world and so on. But with small businesses they are, you know, they're not oblivious to this. They understand that they can get leverage from lose using AI tools. And you're seeing them just adopting more and more. And the second, or maybe the last thing here is around just awareness. Um, you know, with financial services is certainly something that we offer small businesses. And so we know they are um, they are smart. They check their options, they see what's available, they do their research and their homework, their diligence about it. And when they come to us, it's not just because of, you know, the color palette on our website. They've done their research, they understand why we are better than other alternatives, what value they're getting from us. They do their research, they speak with other small business owners and they're smart about their choices. You know, I remember back in the day, uh, my dad, uh, he had a bank account, I'm m not going to say the name of the bank. And they increased his fees and he went in the Upper east side, he was walking in the rain, he was going into bank branches, he was getting information around what services they offer in the pricing and he made his choice. And they're very conscious around the money that they're spending and how much they're earning and the services they're getting. So small businesses are smart. They're really my heroes.

Speaker A: Yeah, mine too. And been uh, a small business owner into large business owner for 35 years in a variety of different ways. And they're the heartbeat and the backbone of the United States and also in Europe and Asia, uh, as well, taking on some great control. Now Blue vine has served over 900,000 customers, facilitated more than 17 billion in loans, and manages over 1.9 billion in customer deposits. So since 2013, uh, they've been serving and walking the walk, uh, in our community, our neighborhood. If you are a small business owner and you're looking for a fair and just platform that allows you to build your business when you need it, Bluevine, uh, is there for you. Go to bluevine.com ayal lift it. Promise us you'll come back. I got a couple introductions there in New Jersey for you. We'll be back for the All Star game in Philly. We'll be back in New York City for Fanatics Fest. We'll have tons of invitations coming your way again, seeing how we can work more closely to elevate the awareness of what Bluevine has been doing for 13 years to help small business owners. Uh, thanks for joining us on Office Hours episode 893.

Speaker D: Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker A: Great job. Thank you so much. Awesome. We are loaded with amazing entrepreneurs today. And why not finish up with another one? Stephanie Corior is here, and she's a neighbor of mine here in Ladera Ranch, California. CEO and founder of Empowered Elixir. Go to empowerelixir.com and support an incredible entrepreneur, business and product. Empower. Uh, its mission. Steph. Welcome to office hours 893 or more. Or more.

Speaker E: Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. David.

Speaker A: The honor is all ours. Well, you know, you're in a crowded space, and I'm always looking when, uh, there's a crowded space for the entrepreneur because the space is proven. And that means there is a huge opportunity there for someone who has the leadership and a desire that they must be what they can be. I'll let Nick get into the product itself. Uh, that's, uh, allowing people to have great, uh, strength, energy and clarity. I'm more interested in you and your story because I find you to be not only an amazing entrepreneur, but a fascinating entrepreneur. Uh, where do you get this drive, this desire that you must be what you can be and growing your business at such an accelerated pace?

Speaker E: Great question. Um, I think one of the things for me is my philosophy on life, that you go through experiences and it just carves you and builds you so you can then give back and be a greater service to others. So anytime I face a challenge, I'm not like, why not? Why me? Why not me not? Um, take the victim mindset and just pour back into the world. Um, so that's one of my big philosophies. And I believe that everything leads with energy as well. For you to create, for you to lead, for you to be able to give back to others. And so that's what kind of aligned me in with Empowered Elixir and started me on this journey.

Speaker B: I love that. And one of my favorite things about getting, uh, to host you at so many of our different VIP dinners and masterminds and everything in between, as we bring the car wash to 200 cities plus every year, is not only how much the rest of our community adores you, not only as a person, but as an entrepreneur, but secondly, it's the fact that we run out of Empowered Elixir so quickly because people cannot get their hands on the product quick enough. And I've learned through the interviews that we've done with, like, you know, Dan Aykroyd and his vodka company, or, you know, Cameron Diaz and her wine company, how difficult the production process can be. So I want to highlight your resilience by understanding your story of being hands on with production and really the key things that you wanted to ensure, um, you know, really were the leading benefits of the product itself.

Speaker E: You got it. Thank you. Another great question. Uh, I'm still buzzing from the last mastermind we did. Tim Story. Act like a champion. Ooh, so good. Um, so, yeah, no, I first started this totally grassroot. I went packaging everything by hand because I couldn't afford a co packer. So literally did about 15,000 cans by hand drying each one, taping each box, palletizing it. And then, of course, Covid hit. I had to go door to door selling these. I went down to the proper lockdown for the six months, ended up getting Covid through the ah, H vac system. And I was like, you know, uh, what? I need to keep the lights on. Let's try to think outside the box. So I got a flatbed cart, Venmo QR code, went door to door in Marina del Rey, Venice area, um, and sold these cans on a flatbed cart, like I said, with the hand sanitizer, hand wipes, did the whole distancing. Few of the homes stole cases. I will always remember those homes. I've jotten them down. But, um, but it's a part of the story. So I built it that way, grassroots. Um, and I finally was able to do it last year. Went to Sri Lanka, um, with one of my investors. We go pack there. Um, there was the whole challenge with the Red Sea wars, everything getting it over here. Um, and this year, I'm so excited to say we've sold out for the sixth time almost now, again, gonna be doing co packing in Michigan. So I'm so Grateful to be keeping it on American soil.

Speaker B: Let's go. That's my home state. We're in Michigan.

Speaker E: Hudsonville.

Speaker B: Oh God. It makes sense.

Speaker A: Uh, so uh, obviously capitalization is always a challenge for any cpg, uh company, uh, no matter what stage they're at. Startup into the growth phase or even into the exit phase, uh, capitalization because of the huge demand is you're finding success can be equally as challenging as failure. You are now in the success is challenging phase. Um, for you. How have you been able to articulate the value, uh, for your investors and future investors of the potential of the company?

Speaker E: Well, um, I'm 100% in this full and if anyone knows me personally, I'm a go getter and if I want to make something happen, I ain't going to stop till it's happened and finished across the finish line. Um, even just starting this, the whole story behind that. I was um, practicing law in Canada. I quit law, got a one way ticket from there to here. I started Empowered not knowing anyone here, not knowing how to start a beverage company or anything. I had to go and find everything out on my own, start off in a new industry, um, and just grow this. It's been growing 74% every year and I have a hard time keeping it in stock. I've sold out six times already. So it's just basically look at the numbers, look at the financials and, and just it's, it's all in there.

Speaker A: Yeah, it rests ipsiloqu Nick the that which speaks for itself. Stephanie uh, is building a uh, community of people that are buying from her and selling for her and needs financial, uh, capability to keep up with the growth and potential of Empowered Elixir. If you're interested in supporting Stephanie like uh, Nick and I, go to empowered elixir.com@empowered and uh, understand the mission to empower people to fill their own cup first. Then use that energy, clarity and strength to pour into causes that give back to the world. Obviously aligned with what we're doing by making a lot of money for the sake of helping others and having fun. Stephanie Core, she is an amazing entrepreneur. Reach out to her at Empowered Elixir. Stephanie, promise us you'll come back and we'll see you at the next Mastermind.

Speaker E: God, uh, bless you. I look forward to it. Thank you.

Speaker A: Great job. Empowered Elixir. All right, Nick of Womb, it's time for the takeaways of the day. I'm gonna let you go first. What do you got for us?

Speaker B: Absolutely, Ben, One heck of a start to the week with this, uh, power crew of office hours made from mistakes. 8, 93 or so or more. Or more. Uh, my takeaway, as I saw a common thread between all three of our guests today, is that entrepreneurs figure it out. They approach things with a solution mindset. That's what they look for. So that's what they find, um, in any of the three entrepreneurs, there was a point where their back was against the wall. And what did they do? They doubled down and figured it out.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And for me, it's, uh, the idea that every problem that an entrepreneur face, the solution's already there. It's just a lapse of time before it becomes a resolution. A resolution. And so each of these entrepreneurs, uh, have had the gratitude, uh, empathy, accountability, and the inspiration to shorten the distance of resistance from the problem to the resolution. And so the takeaway of understanding that we don't understand the evidence being contrary to where we want to be, or no evidence at all, but we know the solution is there. It's great entrepreneurs like our friends Ayal, Ben and Stephanie that understand we just need to shorten that distance of resistance between the problem and the solution. That lapse of time doesn't have to be weeks, months and years. It can be minutes and moments. We're spending minutes and moments with the best entrepreneurs in the world, giving the lessons of what we're doing to be responsible, to attract them, to participate in a perception. It's an incredible show. Office Hours made from mistakes. Episode 893 or more. Nick of Wom, why don't you go ahead and close out the show as we had another amazing, uh, episode of Office hours.

Speaker B: Absolutely. And want to shout out and thank you for, of course, the opportunity to co host this show with you. And I want to remind everybody in our community and invite you, but not obligate you to come and join us. Of course. We are on the road over 200 cities every single year, adding in the car wash, as we say, uh, to each and every one of our locations, which is the addition of a community meetup, holding court, or even one of our VIP dinners for charity. So come and join us as we're going to be in Los Angeles, California tomorrow with the incredible Marie Diamond, Doug Allen and many others. Adding on a car wash. Then it'll be off to Japan for the Japan edition of the car wash series. Then over to Louisville, Kentucky with the incredible Nick Saban, Matt Ebert, the CEO of Crash Champions, and many more. Adding on a car wash once again. Then over to Kalamazoo, Michigan with the Zeigler Auto Group, plus a car wash back to Viva Las Vegas for office hours. Season number 11, the lucky number 11 adding, um on a car wash in Vegas. And then back to Newport Beach, California for a June edition of our mastermind with the world shaker himself, Mr. Tim Storey, as well as Dr. Stefano Senecropi and many, many others. So if you would like these reminders and over 200 invitations, but not obligations a year, just text us. It's that simple. Area code is 949. Next three digits are 29 8. Last four digits are 290 5. And we will remind you once again after we close out the show with our famous jingle. But enjoy, of course, the incredible rest of your Monday ahead and the start to this incredibly abundant week, let alone month. As a final reminder, be more interested than interesting.

Speaker A: Don't forget to email David. That means beloved at D first initial meltzer means servant. Let me be your beloved servant and email me for my books, my guides, my exercises. Wednesday training, Friday training. Ask me anything at 3 o' clock today on Clubhouse. Come and join us davidmeltzer.com but most importantly, be kind. Be kind to your future self and do good deeds. Hit it, Gigi.