#437: How To Just Ask Her Out Already w/ Jake Hurwitz of Thursday Labs
Jake Hurwitz is a true visionary and serial entrepreneur passionate about innovation and connecting with people. Jake’s entrepreneurial journey began at the age of eight when he set up his first business, fixing skateboards in his suburban New York neighborhood. This early start laid the foundation for an extraordinary career.Jake is the Founder and Creative Director at Thursday Labs. Thursday Labs is a strategic content agency that helps clients connect with their target audience on an emotional level, improve revenue growth, and build a scalable distribution strategy. They handle end-to-end content creation, including video production, social media, website design, and more. Their focus is on measurable results, not content for content’s sake.
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, podcast, place, talk, advice, years, contrarian, skateboard, life, founders, call, pretty, shit, great, sell, lived, street, neighborhood, content, love
SPEAKERS
Speaker 2 (46%), Law (45%), Speaker 1 (7%)
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
0:01
sweat sweat, sweat, sweat sweat sweat sweat sweat equity podcast in streaming show the number one comedy business podcast in on this girth earth
1
Speaker 1
0:14
not one that I don't know if I like or not.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
0:18
I'm the mirth of curse. That's what I want my like, find her intro to be, you know him as a murderer.
0:27
Last run and they were the chair
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
0:29
for realsies we just want another award right? Yeah, what is it? I don't know it was do you okay? Do you just gave me so much as I did the whole episode too? What was that that's that was a chick says a bit sassy all day your hands might as well been on your hips they were I already sent it to you. You know you can listen to this pragmatic entrepreneurial advice with a real round doc on iTunes, Apple podcast, Spotify, I Heart Radio, anywhere podcasts are served in your eardrums. This. This episode is sponsored by zapdat ZUPY 8k. The first search optimized AI writer. I've been using it. I'm a member man. But I love it. I don't like all these very complicated AI content writing things. I just need to write a landing page. I just need to write a blog post. Bing Bang Boom. Four steps. Here's all the keywords I need. Oh, get that SEO if you'd like that. Yeah. Yeah, go to zip yakezie up Why ak.com and put in the promo code sweat. Sweat.
1
Speaker 1
1:41
We work. We win here. Well, you won. Best SME advice podcast 2023 in the USA from North America. something or other SME
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
1:54
means small, medium enterprise. Let's do this. It's called sweat equity.
2:25
Listening to the sweat mine the right place.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
2:28
Yeah, you're fine. I was running. I was running stand up bids by Aaron. Gray is always a bad idea.
2
Speaker 2
2:36
For you guys. Are we recording on Zoom? Or do you guys use a different platform instead? I was just following what we use in the county, right?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
2:43
Oh, yeah, we're gonna go live. We're live on tape.
1
Speaker 1
2:47
Well, yeah, we use live stream studio. So like, this isn't the we plug you in? But we've got our own cameras on our side.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
2:54
Yeah, but we try to keep it efficient for both sides. You know, the less production the better. I just was asked to do a podcast and they wanted me to do a pre interview and I was like, nope, I'll do your podcast, but I'm not doing each fucking open. I'm
1
Speaker 1
3:08
not listening to the show beforehand, either. Right? Then it was like, well,
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
3:11
all my biggest guests do that. And I go, I don't care. You asked me. I don't do this. Like I don't want to do this period. Why would ya anyway? That aside, Jake, why don't you tell the people where to find you who you are? Where to find what you're about? What kind of guy are you?
2
Speaker 2
3:27
Yeah, I get started. They're trying this new thing when people are like, tell us about yourself. I don't just say like, founder and CEO, Thursday labs and lots more like who am I and it seemed when I asked other people. I'm a very outdoorsy guy. And I love action sports. And I think that says a lot about me versus just like, be saying that about myself. So I love it damn good adventure. And I think that the way I build companies, the way I engage with people around me, pretty much all the decisions I make are just like there's going to be a damn good adventure or what. So that's like, I think the root of all of it. I just moved three days ago from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. So I'm in a half empty house right now, which is probably why you hear a little bit of echo and there's nothing on the wall behind me. And that was largely in pursuit of better surfing. So like, there you go. That's pretty cool. And by day, I run a company called Thursday lapse, which basically I helped b2b startup founders, build their companies through thought leadership content, and we've got a whole system and process that helps us basically take new founders who just raised their first bit of money and turn them into a thought leadership machine.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
4:42
We that we liked that we liked people that helped people in the business world entrepreneurial world where what neighborhood in Brooklyn in what neighborhood
4:51
guide you're gonna do the geography thing did
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
4:53
you call me ran down the river vote down
4:56
this street before Okay, go ahead. Sorry.
2
Speaker 2
4:58
I need to I was in Greenpoint in Brooklyn, and now
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
5:04
I've lived in Marina Del Rey. I live in us. Is it? Is it crazy cities to know? Well, here's what's interesting County. It's crazy because there's campers everywhere. When I lived there 13 years ago, there's cameras around Gold's Gym. Like every every place in Venice has all these like kind of squatters, but they have to move for the street sweeper. Like once a week, so. So they're kind of mobile ish. You know? Yeah, they gotta roll it down on the other side
5:35
of the street, not homeless. Well,
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
5:37
I mean, the homeless problem in LA is like wild like it was bad when I was there. And it's, it's exponentially worse. Now. Is that still pretty bad down there?
2
Speaker 2
5:50
I don't think it's the worst. I've seen it. Wow. It's what it's kind of what I was expecting. I've lived I've lived in New York for a long time. So that I grew up around homeless people in some capacity. I lived in Denver for a while both like the 20 teens and then also during the pandemic, so I've seen some pretty bad homeless populations there. I spent all my time in the Bay Area, which is the worst I've ever seen. This is always on so bad. What I'm noticing in Venice is they Yeah, look, you see people like cruising around with big shopping carts and stuff. But campers. They're like all in one street. I'm like, great. That's not my street. So whatever. Yeah,
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
6:30
I'm talking to you. That's American History X basketball courts. All that shit. Yeah. What'd you think of like, this is a very place this got skateboarding bowls, and, you know, sidewalk hustlers and all that stuff. But if you if you go inland, you're gonna see a lot more. I'm pretty sure that I went
1
Speaker 1
6:48
to San Francisco and within two seconds, I'm not exaggerating at all of getting out of the cab. guy smoking crack on the street, just right there too tight within like twos. I was like, okay, cool. Let's get to the hotel.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
7:01
I mean, but San Francisco is mind boggling because it's like the richest and the poorest Yeah, at the same area. Yeah. There's a weird kind
1
Speaker 1
7:09
of nice like the like, I was like, smoking crack but like the environment. It's all about that Pat. Even with him doing that. You know? Why? No, it's windy. The smoke blows away.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
7:19
All the turn smell goes away. It's not like hot like that the
1
Speaker 1
7:23
air is flowing. Do that homeless errors float away all the time.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
7:26
Jake, why not? Texas? Get that income tax.
2
Speaker 2
7:31
crap because I because I snowboard and surf. didn't really do much of either. Those things they're wanting animals have never been to Texas.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
7:38
Why don't we pitch Florida do cowboy hat. Yeah, your hat says cowboy hat. Yeah,
2
Speaker 2
7:44
that's my that's my Colorado era. big big big fan of Colorado's Florida also not really for me again was like not too many places with a lot of waves. And yeah, I taxing it sounds nice. In general, kind of like, I don't get enough value out of the rest of my life for me to make that worth it. I think picking those places just based off what I'm going to do for
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
8:08
you. Hey, man, I just love Florida. I just want to pitch it to good people, you know?
8:13
Yeah. Where are you guys right now?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
8:15
We're in Tampa.
8:16
Got it.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
8:17
Now, we got to ask we ask everybody that comes on for the first time. A couple of questions. First one. Did you listen to this podcast before coming on? Nope. Yep. Excellent. That's that's, I think that's the majority of the answers. Common answer. Now it's kind of loaded because everybody we have on as a guest is with through Booker especially is pretty busy. So I but you know, you get thrown at us a little. Well,
1
Speaker 1
8:49
I mean, we just got done talking about how we're not going to do the pre interview. I'm gonna listen to the podcast beforehand. Oh, this is
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
8:55
it. This is it. But yeah, but that's us. We're the batter Bryce of weaves this podcast. We're special. Yeah, we're different. Eek. Okay. My mom thinks I'm cool. Yeah. Other moments. So the other question we asked, and this is we're gonna go deep like mushrooms deep here. What advice would you give your 13 year old self?
2
Speaker 2
9:18
Well, let's start by thinking, what was life like at 13? So I was in seventh grade. My advice would be ask her out. And that's literal and also metaphoric. actually heard that in a Theo von quote recently, which is kind of ridiculous, but I really really liked him and he spent
1
Speaker 1
9:37
some weird knowledge sometimes he's my buddy Theo. Really weird, the racking.
2
Speaker 2
9:41
Yeah, but you know, he's, he's hilarious. But every now and then he'll spit something. It's like, well, it kind of got me to think this was one of them. Ask her out. And I love this because it sure it certainly means like you see a gorgeous woman that you're attracted to like go up and say hello, but also means like, think about moving to a new city. Ask her out or you want to try Do food. Ask her out? Take a new hobby. Take the chance I might
1
Speaker 1
10:04
be my favorite new answer. Yeah. might be my favorite one.
10:07
I wouldn't just go for it.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
10:09
I bucket it under like, that's kind of the same issue. Don't be a pussy. Yeah. Well, it's like Don't. Don't overthink it. Just go do it. Right. Yeah. But I like that. That feels melodic almost the way you play totally. Yeah,
2
Speaker 2
10:23
the reason that's my answer for 13 is because I got some version of that advice. And I actually took it when I was probably 19. Or, yeah, 19 or 20. And then my life completely changed. So many great, we
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
10:39
got the advice at 13. Or you got it at 19 and followed it. Got it? Yeah,
2
Speaker 2
10:43
phone and it did. Um, so I constantly asked myself, like, Where would I be if I had an extra six, seven years of following that advice? Interesting.
1
Speaker 1
10:52
Where did you need that six, seven years to really appreciate, you know, that when it came?
2
Speaker 2
10:57
Good point to Yeah, maybe couldn't have actually heard that profound, wise advice. Eight years old, I
1
Speaker 1
11:03
deal with a lot of girls, and they don't take advice very well. Well, if
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
11:06
you if Yeah, if you look at that as time squandered? Do you now look at things in your life, analyze things in your life going on and go, I'm not making that mistake? Again? Like if someone gives you good advice, that you know, you need to take in?
2
Speaker 2
11:21
The good question. I think there's a lot of, I believe in essentially what you're saying, which is, am I even able to receive that advice at that time? Like, were you even able to notice it, or understand it or internalize it or conceptualize it? So I'm probably receiving advice, or hearing advice or being told advice all the time right now that I'm not even able to fully wrap my head around or realize that like, this is probably something to pay attention to? And maybe in five years, or in another 10 years, that I'll understand it? So I know that's a bit of a loaded answer. And I hope it I hope it gives a little bit. I
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
11:55
was more or less saying, you know, do you look at things in your life? Now, when you do have, let's say, a real interesting conversation that someone gives you advice that you did ask them for? Do you? Are you more actionable now? Or do you find yourself doing the same kind of loop of like sitting on it for a little bit, and then being mad that you sat on it?
2
Speaker 2
12:20
I'm more actionable. It's always been in my personality to be pretty actual. But there are I think, like anybody my you know, for three or four things that I just like, suck at and need to work on and probably should go to therapy for or address in therapy tendencies I've had, since I was a kid that come out in different ways and in various aspects of my life. And so those ones I keep sitting on them, I think, because I'm a human being. And it'd be nice to, for whatever reason, figure out ways to not sit on those things so much. I think like, is there anybody out there who doesn't have a couple things that they like, consistently keep showing up that they need to work on? Because just part of it?
1
Speaker 1
13:00
Yeah, we were just talking about how I needed therapy. And I didn't want to go
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
13:05
Yeah, well, episodes ago, and you actually pushed me into it when I needed to go, like you nudge me into it a little bit. And I did the BetterHelp thing and kind of got my my toe in the water. And then I did you know, in person sessions with, like, that felt like Goodwill Hunting. But it was like, Why? Because he was a hard ass.
1
Speaker 1
13:24
And he was doing math and shit. Oh, yeah. No, I
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
13:27
was doing some calculus on the wall. Yeah. And he's like, why would you do that to my whiteboard? I'm like, oh, we'll do the whole thing.
2
Speaker 2
13:37
But yeah, we're not Robin Williams. And I'm Matt Damon here.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
13:42
And as you said, you were talking at the top of the show how you describe yourself. My new dad joke is to say I'm a former D one mathlete. So, you know, we can get some puns in there. Nothing from the soundboard on that one.
13:55
I'm doing a face.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
13:56
Yeah. Okay. Good. We've got a soundboard that the
1
Speaker 1
14:00
soundboard I mean, I know why No. Would you even care about the setup of this show at all? You know, you show up and it's magic to happen. You're
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
14:10
doing great. You're doing great.
14:12
Finally, I
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
14:13
know I know. All I need I see you a CEO. Okay. Oh, hey Jake. I'm so
1
Speaker 1
14:19
what? We used to go to therapy you would meet couples therapy
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
14:23
you want to do that? We should we probably should actually be like, we're doing trust falls right now dude. So you're in Venice now big life changes. And you know what I liked that you said you you're a three dimensional character. I think a lot of people in your space, right? Because you're, you're kind of in this position. Let's call it brand position of, you know, you you you are an advisor right to those that need help. Right. And I feel like a lot of that. A lot of it's so squeaky clean and unhelpful. On a content that you see out of probably your peers in your segment, you know, the business coaches just go. Anybody
1
Speaker 1
15:07
trying to get you to talk shit about your competitive? No, no, but if
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
15:11
you do, that'd be great. But like go and LinkedIn, look at your InMails. And it's not like overseas outsourcing. Like promotion help, it's gonna be these business coaches that are flawless. I think it's important that you have flaws, and you're talking about them. So I don't really have a question. I was just saying Good on you.
2
Speaker 2
15:32
Yeah, thanks, I appreciate that. I will not call myself a coach. I'm not a coach. Number one agency. Those are two kind of two of the few buzzwords that I I've just always been contrarian about things. It's probably the easiest way to put it. And so when everyone's calling himself acts, I'm like, Well, what what what can I call myself that people haven't figured out yet? Or haven't started call themselves yet? What's why when everyone's going for x, and so, you know, with Thursday labs, like it has elements of an agency but like, it's not it's a company, this is more of a startup fading out?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
16:08
No, I didn't. I didn't mean to down around
16:11
to be called a coach, dude.
2
Speaker 2
16:15
I know, I think it's actually it's a good discussion of like, more of where where things are at right now with this type of this industry in this business. It's almost like you don't need to have credentials to call yourself a coach or or an advisor or consultant or an agency and leader you kind of see to like, start that's pretty much it, the bar is so freakin low. And that for those who have been in it for a while, and I started this company, a different version of this company we pivoted into this started 10 years ago, and I was 18 years old. So it and for other folks who have been in it for a while. I think it
1
Speaker 1
16:53
it bothers me. 28 is the answer law if you're doing the math, yeah.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
16:58
Former D one mathlete. Yeah,
1
Speaker 1
17:01
sorry. I'm sorry. I knew it was just bothering him. You know that math?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
17:05
No, I You're wise beyond your years. And I think it shows that you aren't trying to do this flashy kind of way of going about it, right? I mean, the fact that you made it to our show is kind of, you know, you might want to fire your Booker, but but like, you know, it's one of those things. Where
17:22
does that logic work?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
17:24
Well, I'm saying we're not we're we're entrepreneur talk with dick jokes are our logos a dick? That's a necktie. You know, we're kind of
1
Speaker 1
17:34
not for everybody. My greatest design work ever. GREAT
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
17:38
logo, nothing against it. I'm not saying any your designs bad.
17:43
I'm sorry. I just have a bad day.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
17:44
We're doing we're doing couples counseling for sure. After this better help. But it's one of those things we're How do you differentiate yourself from these snake oil salesmen? I have a big bug up my ass about, especially in marketing, like just these people are like, here's how you do 123 binge eating. And yeah, you're sitting on a sports car looking cool on a Miata?
2
Speaker 2
18:09
Yeah, yeah. I think that there's a decent analogy, there's like, do you want to sell on the sports cars or sell Lamborghinis. And really obvious, if you just think about walking into a Honda dealer versus a Lamborghini dealer, like, what type of salesperson is walking up to you on the floor, it's very different people, and they have a whole different ball and a whole different approaches to how they're going to potentially sell you that car. And by the way, that Lamborghini salesperson, they might not sell you that car,
1
Speaker 1
18:37
I was just gonna say they might play hard to get the old time they might play hard to get, they
2
Speaker 2
18:42
might act they actually aren't gonna get they might kick you out of the store, if you're not the right fit there. And we're sort of us over anybody. So that's part of it. It's kind of like, instead of don't talk to talk, I'd rather just keep my mouth shut and do great work. We turn down clients that we don't think we can be successful with or that can that we want to work with. We, I will put out, I try to put out as little content about ourselves as I possibly can. Some of it is strategic, but everything's about others. And it was a pure opposite of what I think all the snake oil people do. That's really, really that simple.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
19:21
That's well, that's interesting, because, you know, on my bullet point cheat sheet here, you know, it says why are so many startups struggling brand building, but I would say in the beginning you are the brand and you your Thursday Labs has a more personal touch that I mean, that's kind of the bespoke brand positioning, right. That's, you actually give a shit. That's your thing. Some I find that interesting to basically take yourself out of a lot of content. When that is your that's your that's your like advantage, right?
2
Speaker 2
19:55
Yeah, I think I can still be in the content. I think any thought leader should still be leading the thought, but I don't think they should get on and talk about themselves. I think they should ask really damn good questions to others. I think they should provide thought provoking topics that get people to think. Or they entertain, or they inspire, educate, but the this the opening of like, I've done X, Y, and Z, so you should listen to me or Hey, can I tell you all about myself? It's just like, No, I'm interested in you interested in me? Why would I? Why would I want that?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
20:29
Yeah, it's almost a short money introduction. When people do that, right. It's like, it will work on the people that don't think about it. Because they just go I want to see results from previous that that is fact and nothing could go wrong data driven. So I am faultless, I make data driven decisions. You know, what are some tips for building a marketing team? The growth engine? loves my engine noise.
2
Speaker 2
20:58
Yeah, I think that the best place to start if you're a startup founder or you are somebody who's building a company where you want to be the forefront of it, the face of it, which I think first of all, way more b2b business people should be doing that not just consumer brands. Best place to start is by producing your own podcast. But don't care about people listening to the to the show, check. Yep, pull out the short form clips and edit them. Write a blog every week, write a newsletter every week, I believe those are, that's the best place to start foundationally. And that's reflected in my company's product and our offering, right? Like I believe in, it's so much that we sell that. And I believe heavily in the volume game and the repurposing game. So you can take an hour a week to record an episode. And that can very easily yield over 100 or 200 Plus pieces of content across the internet, all pointing back to the same place, which is damn good SEO. And to take a few hours a week to do that. Between one or two people is pretty damn good investment in my opinion. So that's, that's a good place to start. I
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
22:06
thought you said you didn't check out this podcast before. Just getting read. The whole time said we're horrible about doing our own shit. I'm trying to get better, man. You're way better than me. Guys. Gotta get over there. I'm over the EQ, I've gone to the park. I've gone through all the stages of grief of having to promote myself as a part of this podcast or my stand up career. And now I don't give a shit. Because I'm closing in on 40 And I got a couple of gray pubes, I gotta make some shit happen and be actionable.
22:39
Sorry, I shouldn't care that much about your great Pewds
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
22:42
that well. Looks like an adjunct professor. Stick to the views. But I mean, like you know repurposing time time is your commodity. That's kind of what you were circling around in my head. Now, how do you get the most out of the thing you did? The hard part's the opinion. I feel like the angle to make the content to go on to go on your podcast and go, you know, what's one of ours?
23:10
I'll mark this right now and you can use it.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
23:13
How I just do this to shock you cuz you get uncomfortable. The the swastika is one of the greatest rebrands in history branding. Oh, I mean, it. Contrary logic kind of took it flipped it on its head. I don't agree with it. The message it is now but it was a Hindu sign of peace.
23:33
I'm not uncomfortable. You
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
23:35
used to get uncomfortable when Ba ba ba ba ba you would also
1
Speaker 1
23:39
you know, turn me into a you know, far right.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
23:43
When you when you slipped when you shaved your head a lot. It was like that was a miracle. Now I know you're cute.
23:53
You're just trying to make me feel better.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
23:54
Jake, before we could do we can go back and forth and pretend like you're not here like we're q&a. You gotta keep us wrangled. So, and part of that organic content for for driving startup growth. Like, again, not putting yourself in the story in the narrative. Personally, I find this interesting because everything comes from you down. Correct. You're the founder. And you chose there like is it an ick factor?
2
Speaker 2
24:25
It's a saturated factor. It's just everyone's out there, kind of looks the same went to the same colleges raise money from the same VCs saying the same shit. And that gets pretty tired and old people today and I think everyone that looks like a salesperson trying to sell their product, sell their company sell themselves. And we hate that as a consumer base now just doesn't resonate. So I think instead for founders and this will be focused on like b2b startup founders. Right? The the the strategy and the approach is build a table. virtual team Table, and you're going to be the head of the table. And you're going to invite 1215 2050 103, influential, thought provoking, smart, awesome people to join you at that table. And you're going to be the one to leave the conversation to ask really good questions to connect each other, to kind of sum up the points people are making. But no one heard of you, but they've heard of everyone else. But the fact that you're the leader of that table, now they start to associate you with all the other people at that table. And if you don't have an ad budget, but you have a little bit of time, and you've got money to, you know, six grand a month, eight grand a month, not a lot of money for an early stage startup. That's a really strategic place to start, which is like build these relationships with the influential people in your industry. Provide them value by having them on your show and giving them free content, asking them really good questions just being known. That's the first place to start. Become No, I
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Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
25:55
think I go backwards a little bit do that resource on it. What do you got? What do you got right now? Right? Most people don't have the budget. So you got time. And I always think about how you're going to fill your cup. Right? Like, what's the best use of your time building relationships? Right? That's the long game. What can I do short term, I can knock out these little things to set me up for the future kind of, you know, this week, this month, that kind of thing. Short term long term at the same time. jetsam. Your looks like you're gonna say some what? Why what? You've been entrepreneurial since you didn't I don't dare you. Why would you winking at me and gun? I always do that. Oh, okay. Well, you've been entrepreneur proneural. Since you were eight years old. With skateboards. Yeah. Can you tell us about that? And like, what other, you know, kind of businesses along the way? Are action sports? Yeah. Yeah, there
2
Speaker 2
26:52
were a ton. It's, it's just always been a tendency I've had since I was a little kid. I don't know where it came from. But I do know that my dad especially saw me pretty early on and always inspired me and pushed me motivated me to do the entrepreneurial thing versus the non logical thing. So eight years old. I remember I started the first little project, which was I'm going to start a skateboard repair service, which is akin to like a lemonade stand. So I made flyers on Microsoft Word with clipart. That were like, if you need your skateboard repaired, call me. And I put them in about 250 mailboxes in my neighborhood. And I got comics, I got a phone call. Lot of Comic Sans. Clif Bar with like, you know, a skateboard with a smiley face and arms and on funny fun.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
27:39
Right? Well, comic. Oh, that's awesome.
2
Speaker 2
27:45
Never thought of that. Yeah, that was good. But um, yeah, my parents kind of got phone call and said, Hey, if your son continues to put fliers on solicited people's mailboxes, you're gonna have to find you. So I stopped that
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
27:57
was this. This was in New York, New York was in New York.
2
Speaker 2
28:03
So naturally, but you know what it was, it was me realizing. I know, I know, customers why I didn't do any market research on how many people in my neighborhood one skateboarding? Well, I needed their skateboard repairs zero. So that was a good little learning lesson early on, like, you're gonna break the rules, you're gonna you're gonna get in trouble. But like, this is how shit happens. And then, as I got a bit older, so I got a car. That's when things changed me. And I was like, 16 years old. And I started a actually, I missed one. There was a business best best margin business I ever did was around the age of like, 1314. I bought one of those VHS to DVD converters. Yeah, this is a classic one. So I'd been just go to like all the moms in the neighborhood and be like, give me a box of all your home videos. For 50 bucks a video, I'll convert it to a hard drive. So I would just like come home from school, pop in a video, put it out, go to my homework, and then come back and it was like on a DVD. And then I put that in a nother machine that would go DVD to hard drive and I'd send them a Google Drive folder. With all their videos. Women would bring me like 50 videos, I was making 1000s of dollars for just like pressing play and pressing pause while I was doing my homework after school. So that was that was a good business. Then I got a car and I started an after school tutoring business where first I would tutor about five or six kids a day five days a week at 25 bucks an hour. This was like first grade math like third grade science because my school needed are by our town like to have the high school kids tutor the elementary school kids. I was like I don't need to be an AP math to teach them one simple addition. And then I started to hire some other tutors under me to go around and tutor so the business
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
29:48
tutor pyramid scheme to you and you
2
Speaker 2
29:55
and you get three two years minimum wage at the time was like $7 or something like that. And I did the math, I was like hurricane Sandy just rip through. So gas prices are really expensive. And I need a car. So I don't have to sit in my parents house all day. I can't afford the car or gas at a minimum wage job with the amount of time I have after school and on the weekends. And all you really want to do is buy gas and weed and booze because I'm a high school kid. And math didn't work out. I couldn't make enough money by working at the movie theater or pizza shop. So I was like, but if I made three times that four times that I'll have that and much more and I can pay for college. So that I go to other kids and be like, you can make seven bucks an hour at a pizza shop. Or you can make 12 bucks an hour working with me, you know, pocket the other 12 they didn't know that.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
30:37
Were you born this way? Or is this a learned behavior? You think?
2
Speaker 2
30:42
I don't know. It's a good question. Part of me is like I was born this way, because I was doing since I was eight. But if my dad wasn't there to shut up, yeah. Yeah, if he wasn't there to show me that there's, at least just say to me, he could go get a job at a movie theater. Or you could also do this, like, let's just think about it for five minutes and talk through like, could you get creative here? If he wasn't there to give? start that conversation? I probably would have just gone for a pizza shop job and who knows where I'd be now probably still work at a pizza shop.
1
Speaker 1
31:15
That's huge from your dad. Like it's, you know, yeah. So many levels beyond business. Like just, you know, hey, think about it from a different angle for two seconds. Yeah, anything I want
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
31:27
my kids to see me work in as much physical work is I can show you know, it's mostly on a laptop. But it's like, you know, when I'm out and about and I run into someone I go that was former client, here's what I helped them do. This is why I've this satisfies me as having this job, you know, growing their business. It's very satisfying. I'm very lucky in that way and kind of have a talk with them. You said some about earlier that you're kind of a contrarian, I can I throw this pitch a different put a little different light on it because my family's my family's company a contrarian as a pejorative my whole life. And I think I'm curious, and I want to see both sides of an argument. So I asked questions, like, why wouldn't they do it that way? And then I could call it a contrarian and it was like, just shut up. Just play right and Gameboy.
1
Speaker 1
32:18
But AI plays into the Hey, just think about it from a different angle for two seconds. idea, right? Same thing,
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
32:23
I think lawyers have this kind of way of of logic and breaking down a case or a situation. I think, a
1
Speaker 1
32:33
lot of debate team, you know, it's like you're you don't get to pick which side you are. They're telling you what side and figure it out. Right?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
32:39
Or Newton's third law, right? I just want to interstellar again. Newton's Newton's third law, you know, whatever, you know, whatever force has an equal force to that. Exactly the way he said I tell you said to do that, fuck it. He stole it from someone else probably. But. But it's it's one of those things that do you think you're just insatiably curious? And not? I think you said it as a contrarian as kind of slamming yourself a bit. And I was like, I think it's a curiosity.
1
Speaker 1
33:15
I was gonna say, we you and I are both we consider ourselves contrarian. Just you know, I'm just I don't like to do those the way other people do it. But I also
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
33:24
want to be funny a lot of the time, right? Well, comedies, contrast and conflict. It's like, you know, yeah,
2
Speaker 2
33:31
I actually take pride in calling myself contrarian. I'm definitely curious. But I kind of sum it up and like to be almost a little bit aggressive and but but real about it. It's this like crippling fear of being average and normal. Yeah, sure. Because you look around, I look around and it's like, look at the averages, like look at the data. And I don't want to not going to try to argue with data and statistics. The average people are broke in Mega debt. Freakin miserable, divorced, pissed, like suffering from lots of emotional and physical and mental illnesses. And that's that's the norm I'm like, That's not how I want to have my short little stint on this planet at all. So if I do different things that I'll probably get different results.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
34:20
Yeah, I'm with you. Figure cosines on that as well. I can't be the guy in a scratch off line or a lotto ticket line. I can't it's
1
Speaker 1
34:30
not it's Nothing's worse to be stuck behind somebody. Can I get number 12 Oh, and they have one of the guys who have
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
34:37
their numbers and I'm like, Man, why is it there to scan Tron over here just to fill it out? Why is this our thing man like can we do it online, but the status line is when it gets really long and there's people in a lotto line they have to make a whole other like line and a line of perfect dreams. You know, they need to go to my my Latin, my Hispanic Publix and go get a Jesus candle and the Jesus can't allow we got I have some
35:00
more resection but,
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
35:02
ya know, it's it's denial. I'm in a very Spanish neighborhood, let's just say a lot of Cuban grandmas tricked me into taking groceries up. And they're like, oh my, my ego is like I'm a hero. But I don't want to be I also don't want to just be average. And, and that doesn't mean I need to be so unique I need to I have to be the most unique or anything I just you grew up kind of vanilla you don't really want to be that
1
Speaker 1
35:32
and like have a lot of interests be able to talk about a lot of different things
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
35:35
and it goes back to curiosity. That's the driver and you
1
Speaker 1
35:40
know what be the person's like I don't talk about space. You know what
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
35:43
Jacob was just Thursday labs get a you know, they get to think of their clients about their target audiences emotional level, I think we got Jake on an email level sweet
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
35:59
was just gonna let that boss take care of saints. I'm
1
Speaker 1
36:03
sorry. That's not something we do every time either take sorry. No, that was great.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
36:07
I think we all were in a game of chicken.
2
Speaker 2
36:11
I think the bears there's been a lot of scenarios in my life, starting from pretty young, which is where I think a lot of us developed this mindset developed, which is like all the excitement in life, all the good shit, the the things that people feel like you might need to have get lucky for, like, so lucky, I met that person or like made that amount of money or a raise, I don't think luck has really nothing to do with it. I think it's all those results are just on the other side of that curiosity and that uncomfort like it's on the other side of it. And that curiosity uncomfort it's typically really frickin hard. And in some way, whether it's physically challenging or mentally emotionally challenging, like, it's just the goodness of life is just right on the other side of it being really challenging. And so I just been constantly curious about like, well, what could that goodness look and feel like, I just want? Why would I not want more goodness? It's safe and legal, typically. So why would I not go for that? I just got to push through this, like uncomfortable peace in the meantime, to get to it like Fuck, yeah, I don't care about your comfortable peace, because that's temporary. So that's just kind of been the driver here is like realizing each time you do it, it's really not that bad. And then life just keeps getting better. But so the curiosity is typically less about like, what can I say? It's sure what can I learn from this? Or what's it gonna be right, but it's more just like damn, How good could this get on the other side?
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
37:31
of it? Yeah, yeah. Really positive. Yeah, we love some. Yeah, we'd like some intense optimism. We we just I think we just scratched the surface with you. We'll have to have you back on the show. At some point. Worse, guys. Yeah, man, and
37:45
get the furniture and stuff on that wall back there. Yeah.
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
37:48
Wow. Once it doesn't look like we got
2
Speaker 2
37:50
I just got a frame TV this morning like this. I'm pointing to it. But it's cool though. The cameras are those Samsung TVs that you can load up your photography onto and I'm photographer so it's fun to do it but I'm hungry yet. I'm gonna hang up tonight. Sweet. I'm gonna have some free to. Yeah,
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
38:04
that was yeah, in the background. That whole thing of like getting a new place. You're like, yeah, I just want to but you know, keep it curious and just ask the girl out, man.
2
Speaker 2
38:15
Yes. 100%. All right, buddy. Appreciate
LS
Law Smith | Tocobaga | Swea...
38:19
you coming on. And we'll have to have you back on pretty soon. Thank
38:23
you guys really appreciate it. This was fun. And we will talk soon.
