Ep. 03 Phil Naylor

[00:00:24.790] - Nick

Why not? We'll just try out the new intro and just go with that so everybody how's it going its Nick with the show Zero to Infinity. And, you know, science says 92 percent of people fail to achieve their goals. And the biggest reason is because people fail to take their first step, whatever that first step is. That's what you need to take to actually get started to reach that success. So welcome to the show. And today, we have a man, a mentor of mine named Phil Naylor.

[00:00:50.210] - Nick

He's worked in some of Hollywood's biggest films and he's actually gone to create multiple successful businesses. And today he's going to help us understand what it takes to drive growth, start your business, and really dove into the mystery of finding out why people aren't achieving their goals the way they should be. But 92 percent is pretty scary. So, Phil, welcome. This is Phil Naylor. Look at that. Yeah, how's it going?

[00:01:14.330] - Nick

So please shed a little background, a little bit about where you came from when you and I first met. I want to back up and say, yeah, Phil is one of my mentors. He's guiding me through the ups and downs of running my own business. And he's really brought to the table a lot of experience, insight, knowledge, particularly marketing. The business side is locked down with him and it's great. I've seen massive changes in my business and I'm super happy you found the time to come on here with us.

[00:01:38.500] - Nick

And the first I just off the gate, love to know a little bit about your background and sort of how you became an entrepreneur. And we'll start there because you have a great you have a great background story there with with working on Hollywood and avid and stuff like that. So maybe we can dove into that.

[00:01:52.450] - Phil

Yeah, it's crazy, man. I mean, seven years ago, if you would have said that, I would have one business, never mind multiple businesses like it's it's kind of mind blowing to me because I, I don't I don't have friends that are business owners.

[00:02:07.540] - Phil

I don't I don't come from a family of business owners. I you know, I was always taught to you do well in school. And then you go to college and you get a degree and then you work your ass off and until you're sixty five and then after that, that's when you kind of start enjoying life. And I was like, yeah that's, that's awful. But yeah, I mean, you know, God, where do I start.

[00:02:34.510] - Phil

Like I've, I've always had this mentality from a very early age that I just kind of always believed that I could do whatever the hell I want to. And not only me, I just I felt like I just got from a very early age that I just saw things in people like I just I just saw that, you know, no matter who you are or where you came from, you could literally do whatever you wanted to do. It just it just took learning how to do it.

[00:02:59.830] - Phil

And it was like I was never you know, some people want to be doctors. Some people wanted to do this and do that. And it was like, all right. So, yeah, absolutely right. Why couldn't you just you just got to learn how to do it, that's all. Any of us. We all have the same brain. You know, obviously some some things come easier to people than others. But at the same time, it's like if you want something bad enough and you want it.

[00:03:27.730] - Phil

Yeah. I mean, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to at least put the work in and and learn how to do it and just do the damn thing. So, so yeah. From an early age I was had that mentality like I was, I was just going to do whatever the hell I wanted to. So as far back as I can remember, anybody that's ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always would say rock star.

[00:03:51.370] - Phil

And then they would laugh. And then I would be like, What do you mean, no, somebody's going to do it right? So that's what I want to do. I've always loved playing music. I've been a musician my entire life. My parents got me a guitar at a very early age. So, yeah, that's what I wanted to do. And then, lo and behold, right after high school, the band got signed to a, you know, local record label.

[00:04:15.280] - Phil

But we we played with some of the biggest bands of the world, played at some of the biggest stadiums and stole sold out shows. I mean, the tweeter center here, I don't even know. Is it still called the Tweeter center? It's like that's our stadium in Massachusetts. So. So, yeah. I mean, I just kind of always had that mentality. Like, if I wanted to do something, I'm just going to work really hard and and do it find a way to do it.

[00:04:42.670] - Phil

So when the band ended, I was kind of left with, you know, we were together for, what, fifteen years or so. And then when the band ended, like I did put me on a lie detector test, like I thought that I was here to play music. That's what I was put on earth to do. That's what I believed. And like, I was just, you know, I'd go to to my deathbed believing that.

[00:05:07.030] - Phil

So when all that ended, I was like. Man, well, it kind of put things in perspective, too, it's like you you hear well, yeah, I got signed, we got a record label right out of high school and we toured and we played some of the biggest bands in the world. It sounds really cool, but once once you're in it, it's like we didn't make any money. We didn't like we didn't really do anything.

[00:05:31.570] - Phil

So I was kind of left unfulfilled a little bit thinking, well, is that what I really wanted? Is that what I was really put here to do? So I was kind of forced to kind of go back to the drawing board here. I was 20 something years old, went to school. I went to, back to college at twenty something. This was, what, ten years out of high school, decided to go back to college for audio, know it was what I knew.

[00:06:00.980] - Phil

So I went back to school for audio production with a concentrating, for sound, for film. I always thought that if I could do folie, if I could make music for four films, that would be really cool. So that's what I kind of concentrated on in college. Long story short, my last semester there was we had an internship class and on that list of internships there was a company called Avid and Avid makes basically the industry standard for video editing and audio production for Hollywood for for a little bit more consumer base for audio.

[00:06:34.970] - Phil

But as far as video editing, like Hollywood films, still to this day, it's like 70 percent of all Hollywood films are have something to do with Avid. They make the editing software. They make shared storage for where you store all the files. They you know, it's in a sharing environment when you have so sometimes some of these movies going to have like 80 editors at a time. So when you have that many people working on a project, it's a nightmare and in other pieces of software.

[00:07:03.560] - Phil

So so, you know, that's it kind of just made sense. Like I was like, oh, my dad was always an engineer. He was. And he was into electronics. He fixed things my entire life. So I had that kind of a background. So I was like, well, if I could get into the software field and if I could put a button inside Pro Tools, that would be the greatest thing ever. So that's what I wanted to do.

[00:07:26.490] - Phil

That's what we really kind of once I found out that Avid was here in Massachusetts, I'm like, oh my God, this is like the major leagues of the industry, of my industry, that the industry that I love and kind of have grown up in. And it's just my way of staying and sticking to it and being able to be creative and and all that. So, yeah, so I interned I interned at AVID. And mind you, this is this is really kind of this kind of ties into the whole story of of business ownership as well.

[00:07:57.620] - Phil

Because when I when I got that that sheet in that internship class, I told my teacher, my my professor, I'm like, I'm going to go and I'm going to apply to AVID and he's like, no, they don't do it. They don't hire anybody. No one ever leaves. You're never going to get an internship there. And I'm like, OK, I left the room. I was in the hallway. I call them. They they picked up.

[00:08:23.540] - Phil

I thought I'd like to apply for an internship. And she was like, nope we don't have any, oh crap. Which is like we hung up and I'm like, oh crap. Like, OK, I guess they're right. And then like an hour later she called me back. Out of the blue, and she was like, you know what, I think I might have something for you. You're an audio guy. You're on the pro-choice side.

[00:08:46.310] - Phil

So video Avid's video, I don't know, department or the video section is in Massachusetts. Audio is all in California. So it was very rare that an audio student and I think that's probably why they told me not to bother because audio was California. So but she was like, you know, it's kind of crazy that you called us because we do have a project and we need some some audio expertise. So why don't you come in? I'm like, oh, my God, this is great.

[00:09:17.990] - Phil

So I went in there, I applied for the internship. The guy that ended up being my supervisor during was a 12 week internship. He was like, well, I can't give you twenty five dollars an hour like everybody else. But I can give you fifteen. And I'm like, wait a second, you're going to pay me for this internship? So it's like not only am I landing an internship at this crazy, you know, one of the biggest media companies in the world, but I was going to be there for 12 weeks during the summer and they were going to pay me for it.

[00:09:49.370] - Phil

And then I started showing up to work and it was like the great it was. It's a tech company. And so it was like people running scooters down the hallway. And I'm like, what is this like? This is the greatest thing ever then we would have ice cream socials on Fridays and yoga and the cafeteria to like. This is the craziest thing ever. So but and then I would show up I showed up one day for work and there were there were stages set up outside with like these big barrels of beer.

[00:10:18.350] - Phil

And I walked in and it's like, oh, we're not working today. Let's go have fun outside. And they had bands playing and I'm like, sold. I drank the Kool-Aid. Like, I'm really into this place, whatever I need to do to get into this place. And and basically what my job was, is they they were working on their shared storage at that time. They hadn't been it was it was someone available for video, but they they hadn't used it for Pro Tools at all.

[00:10:43.250] - Phil

So basically my job was to sit in a studio and play music and try to get pro tools to break on shared storage. I would just add hundreds and hundreds of tracks just to kind of see when it breaks and then document it. And I'm like, this is the craziest job ever. So I you know, towards the end of my internship, you know, I started to have that conversation like, all right, what is it going to take for me to get in here?

[00:11:09.470] - Phil

And my supervisor is like, well, this is really kind of once in a lifetime thing where, you know, audio is obviously in California. There's really nothing that I can offer you. So it's like, why don't you talk to somebody on the video side in support? And I ended up I emailed them to say, hey, would you meet with me, you know, over coffee? You know, I really I intern down here in audio and like, I, I really like to chat with you.

[00:11:38.300] - Phil

So he ended up meeting me for coffee. He he he loved me. He's like, you know, you're exactly what we need here, but I don't really have anything but you can apply. So I applied for customer support on the video side and so I applied. And then, you know, I had the the the interview and he's like, well, he's like, we just don't have anything. Like nobody really ever leaves here. Everybody's happy.

[00:12:06.260] - Phil

But what I'll do is I'll take your application and I'll put it on the list. And, you know, if anything opens up, I'll give you a call. He's like, but don't wait for us. It could be could be two weeks. It could be two years. So every month, Nick, for three years I emailed my supervisor and I emailed that guy and I said, how about now? How about now? How about now?

[00:12:32.300] - Phil

at the time I was working and there was that.

[00:12:35.390] - Nick

I'm starting to see a trend here.

[00:12:38.330] - Phil

Like at the time I was I was working for Bose, which is surround sound company. That speakers, I was working support for them because right out of college I went there. We had a partnership with the school. So I was there. I was there for three years and every single month I would email them. How about now? How about now?

[00:12:55.220] - Phil

How about now? And every month would be like, nope, nothing. And then finally one month I emailed them and he was like, you know what is like you're going, this is crazy. But we actually might have something. It's not on audio, but it's on the video side. Would you be willing to come in? I'm like, yes. And Nick, just to kind of inject this, I so Bose was down four ninety five was about how I was in Franingham.

[00:13:23.210] - Phil

So it was a forty five minute drive for me on the way home from Bose, Avid was on the way home off of four ninety five. I would stop, I would not get gas anywhere else. I would get right across the street from Avid. There was a gas station and. Roxbury, Massachusetts, I would not get gas anywhere else, I would stop in Tewkesbury just so that I could get gas and look at the Avid sign and every time I get gas, I'm like, I'm getting in there like some way I'm going to I'm going to get in there.

[00:13:52.580] - Phil

And, like, it was just all these, like, just stories. And they would send people into the internship and they're like, yeah, we start people sixty thousand dollars a year. So I was like I was, you know, at the time, you know, out of college, really didn't have any money, didn't have a lot. I was a single dad at the time and I was like, I got to I can't I just can't afford to go to a studio and work my way up and grab coffees for people.

[00:14:18.710] - Phil

And like I needed to I needed to get in there. So, yeah, I would get gas just to look at the sign and just like just look at and be like, I'm going to get in there someday. Long story short man. They they finally, after three years of drilling every single month, they were like, come in. They hired me. I started off in support for the video editor. And it was the it sounds I mean, it's entry level, but at the same time, it's like I remember like one of my first days on the phone, like I got a call.

[00:14:50.210] - Phil

It was like, this is blah, blah, blah from MTV. And I'm like, I'm talking to MTV. I'm talking to MTV. Then it was Disney. Then I was like, Spider-Man. I'm like, oh my God. Like all these people working on all these movies would start to call in. And then I kind of just worked my way up. I went from support to I became workflow development. So basically right before I left support, I was I was I was workflow developer.

[00:15:14.060] - Phil

So my first real big project was The Hobbit trilogy. So I was team lead on that. Basically what they would do is they would tell me, tell me what cameras they were using, all the equipment that they were using there in New Zealand at the time they were filming in New Zealand. So like the time difference was crazy. But but they would tell me what equipment they had and I would develop their workflow to get from camera to the editor.

[00:15:36.500] - Phil

So. So, yeah, I was just it was crazy. I mean, having, you know, seven hundred million dollar movies on your shoulders sometimes I was on call a lot and no Thanksgivings and Christmases and getting calls from like, oh my God. But it was, it was cool. And I, I got to learn a lot about video and that's really kind of where my love for video came in. The more and more that I, I got into it and the more that I learned, I was like, oh my God, I kind of I kind of like video too, because when I went in there, I was like, I'm an audio guy.

[00:16:07.280] - Phil

I'm just here for a short period of time. This video stuff..blah. But then the more I learned of it and then I started buying equipment and then I had another really expensive hobby. But yeah, It was it was it was a crazy, crazy experience.

[00:16:24.360] - Nick

So you got to a point at AVID, which you were probably going to dove into that right now. But you go to a point. What was the turning point where you said to yourself, there's something more here I want to somehow segueway into you launching?

[00:16:37.480] - Phil

Yeah, absolutely. And it's it's I don't know. It was on, you know, looking back, you know, thirty thousand foot view. I had my dream. It was a dream job, especially towards the end the last three years there at Avid. I was I was the manager of training. So I was I was training. So I, I was certified every avid product. I would travel to the Philippines a few times a year.

[00:17:04.520] - Phil

I would travel to California, I would teach. So basically the way that avid works is they have they're called ACR's, they're avid certified representatives or service representatives or whatever you want to call them. But in order to have avid stuff. So, I mean, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Some companies like CBS, NBC, they would pay us millions a year just to call for support. So I would train those guys so I would train our our customers.

[00:17:33.800] - Phil

I would train internal. So all the support reps. So I was making training videos. I was managing the YouTube channel. I had my own series on the YouTube channel. So I was kind of like the voice of Avid for for a good few years. So looking back, I mean, was just like I worked from home. Ninety five percent of the time I built a studio in my house. I didn't have to go to work. I was working people, creating the craziest things, you know, movies, television.

[00:18:04.070] - Phil

My team won an Emmy for for Broadcasting Olympics. It was like it it couldn't get any better. And I was doing six figures. I was doing really well. But at the same time, it was like that that that rock star mentality started creeping in a little bit. And it was like, all right, I love what I'm doing. I'm making decent money. But it's like I feel like I was put here for something else like that.

[00:18:30.950] - Phil

That whole rock star thing was like I was put here for something. And that's really I always thought it was. Music and I was going to change the world in some way and I thought it was music at the time, but it was like it started creeping in. It's like, all right. So I remember I started talking like, well, the two things that I'm great at. Or the three things, audio, video and now social media, because I've been managing the YouTube channel for years, grew that channel to, what, 60 at the time it was like sixty six thousand subscribers.

[00:19:08.190] - Phil

We had 10 million plus views. My my videos were getting tens of thousands of views every week. So it was like so that's what I was really good at or what I was best at was killing it in the market for local businesses and marketing. And this whole this world with Facebook and MySpace was really kind of just growing into this crazy world. And I was like, well, why don't I start a business? Like, why don't I do that and bring the the my original goal was to bring feature film and that quality and the cinematic storytelling to local businesses that really hadn't been you were kind of seeing it here and there.

[00:19:49.980] - Phil

But I knew that commercials and regular ads weren't working very well on social. It took a different style of video and of creative to have success there. And that was something that I was good at. So I was like, it just makes sense to start a business. And really then I won't be capped because at the time at avid I was like I was a manager. I was like, where, where, where's my next? Where am I going next?

[00:20:15.390] - Phil

Am I going to become a director or I'm going to wear suit? Im not a wearing a suit like that's just not my my mission, so, you know, starting the business was was the thing that made the most sense except for my wife. My wife was like, hell, no, you're not starting a business. Here we are. We have three kids

[00:20:37.140] - Nick

Tough.

[00:20:37.600] - Phil

We're both making good money. I'm making six figures. She's making close to six figures.

[00:20:41.980] - Phil

You get a custom of living a certain way. And she was like, you're going to leave this everything that you worked for three years of emailing every single month. This is what you dreamed about. And you're going to leave that to start a business you don't know anything about starting a business. And I didn't I had no idea what it even took. I didn't I didn't know the first thing about starting a business. I just knew here's what I was good at.

[00:21:05.650] - Phil

And there's got to be a way. Right. So I had set a goal. This was January. I don't even know 2013 or whatever, six or seven years ago and. In January, I wrote on a piece of paper, I said, I am going to leave Avid and start a business within the next year, and I laughed like, ha ha, there's no way in hell that this was ever remotely going to become true.

[00:21:32.990] - Phil

So I took that piece of paper. I put it on.. Thumbtacked it on the wall. And then basically I just started waking up early every single day, two hours early, three hours early. And I would write down five things, five goals. So I basically wrote down my I knew my big scary goal was to start a business and leave Avid, but I didn't have any idea how to get there. So basically what I do is I tried to just write out this massive list of every single like minded step that it would take.

[00:22:01.090] - Phil

What do I need to learn? Who do I need to call? Who do I need to talk to? Who do I need to meet? What do I need to do in order to keep edging me up there? I have a year, so if I can just wake up early every month, every every day and just kind of scratch things off, scratch some goals off. And I have never been a morning person. So it was like a disaster to kind of force myself to get up.

[00:22:25.390] - Phil

But it was something that it that it was important to me and that I wanted to do. So long story short, six months later, I left avid.

[00:22:33.730] 

Six months.

[00:22:34.870] - Phil

Six months. So I gave myself a year. It happened in six months. And it was just by it's it's just crazy. And the whole premise of this, this whole thing is just taking the first step and being OK with not. And I think this is the big thing with setting goals is that people I think that they don't set the right goals or, you know, if I always say if you know how to reach your goal, it's not really a goal that's just like that's that's it's so like you need to set a goal if you want to set goals, set goals.

[00:23:09.100] - Phil

We have no idea how the hell you're going to, you know, reach them. And just by doing that, it just forces you to kind of think outside the box and just staying positive and just working and just kind of which was very hard for me because I am this is so far from my personality of like I want everything now. I'm such a baby when it comes to some things, like if I want something, I want it now.

[00:23:35.380] - Phil

I don't want to wait for it. So this whole thing of like writing baby steps, crossing little things off was like so unusual for me. But I was like, I'm just going to it made sense. It just made sense to, you know, just kind of take baby steps

[00:23:52.590] - Nick

to manifest itself when you start writing things down.

[00:23:55.210] - Phil

Exactly. And it is and I've always kind of I've always this is another way that I've always kind of lived my life as I've always been a pretty, pretty positive guy.

[00:24:06.490] - Phil

And it kind of it kind of tied in with you can be whatever you wanted to be or you can be whatever you want to be. You can do whatever you want to do as long as you learn how to do it. And a caveat to that is as long as you stay positive and you and you just kind of just you just keep working towards it and you take baby steps. And I think that being positive allows you to see things differently.

[00:24:32.830] - Phil

And then it's like the more and more as I'm doing this, I start getting into self-help. Right? So I start reading books, never read books before in my life. Like up until six or seven years ago, I had never written, like, read a book before in my life other than the school books, the stuff that you had to. I just never was a reader. I never could sit down long enough. So I started reading and then I started doing self-help stuff.

[00:24:58.090] - Phil

And the more and more I started reading the stuff, I was like, oh my God, this is literally how I live my life anyway, I just naturally got I just naturally had that mindset. So when I started to hear that it was an actual real thing and the more and more started seeing, like all these successful people, I've always I've always had a thing for biographies. And I always loved to see how people, you know, made their dreams come true.

[00:25:25.090] - Phil

And and it was really from a very early age. I just I noticed that every successful person always said the exact same thing is in this they said, I just didn't give up. I mean, it's so simple, right? I just didn't give up. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, duh.

[00:25:43.470] - Nick

Just real quick your sort of your story is sort of touching the touch points of what a lot of mentors and people that we learn from speak about writing things down for certain that it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[00:25:57.220] - Nick

When you write things down, the next thing is stating your goals. The next thing is sort of to look and understand the people that you want to reach, to be like mentors and people that are above you and you're reading biographies. Right. And yeah, that's really fascinating. Just hearing I was just been involved with the Tony Robbins seminar recently. It's going on actually right now for four days. Same thing you're talking about writing things down, find mentors.

[00:26:22.720] - Nick

And the last thing you said, which is super important, is perseverance, sticking with it and going through it like that point where you are leaving a job which was uber successful. You have a family, scary times, but you knew something bigger and better was on the other side.

[00:26:38.440] - Phil

Yeah. And it wasn't wasn't always pretty. In fact, it was far from it. There was definitely, you know, we the first six months or so we're crazy busy.

[00:26:49.750] - Phil

When I left, avid, avid hired me and hired my company to do basically some of the work that I was doing before. So I got lucky there. I had a lot of word, word of mouth. I had it just a lot of, I guess, new business mojo, I guess you could call it, where I was guns blazing, you know, walking into businesses, going door to door, doing everything that I had to that for six months.

[00:27:15.550] - Phil

And I just remember thinking to myself, like, owning a business is super easy. I don't know what people are talking about, like. And obviously you have the negative mindset of of all the people that think that you this is the worst idea possible, all the broke mentality, if you will, if you will, of just people saying that it's just the same thing with being a rock star. Everybody, what I would say it's a once in a million chance.

[00:27:41.440] - Phil

Like, you're never going to get a record deal, you're never going to do this and blah, blah, blah. And it's like. OK, whatever. I'm going to prove you wrong, though, so it was the first six months of super busy and then it friggin took a dive and it became very apparent to me in real that, oh, my God, I have no client acquisition strategy whatsoever. Everything is just come to me.

[00:28:09.660] - Nick

The first six months you kind of work, you got hooked up with Avid, but then you're also kind of hitting the street and just basically trying to find.

[00:28:17.670] - Phil

Yeah, was just getting the word out and a lot of like word of mouth, a lot of friends, you know, that low hanging fruit. And that's what I tell everybody when they're starting a business. You everybody has that low hanging fruit. And I think that a lot of people, they kind of shy away from that because they don't want to be that person that I think that we've all been then hit up on the know the we all have that friend that was doing that pyramid scheme and they just buy in.

[00:28:44.730] - Phil

And so we've all been there and we and we don't want to feel like that with our friends. But at the same time, it's like I believed in what I was doing. I, I felt like I was good at what I what I do. I felt like I had real value to bring. So why wouldn't I try to help my friend or why wouldn't I try to help my family member out? I'm not I mean, I was doing it for cheap, but at the same time it was like it was just kind of getting getting your foot in the door and having something to to show, which is always kind of and this is something that really after that six months really plagued me, was, you know, I'm a creative guy.

[00:29:24.630] - Phil

I can rarely ever create something for myself. Like if I'm creating a logo for for something that I'm working on or a video or whatever the case may be, website. I can't do it. Like, I can't like I'm never happy with it. It's always never good enough. And this is something that plagued me for a while as well. I don't have a logo. I don't have a website. I don't have a Facebook page. I don't have this.

[00:29:50.100] - Phil

I don't have that. I don't like I know video and I know YouTube, but I don't know Facebook or MySpace was kind of still around at the time. It was kind of falling off. But it was like all these thing was MySpace. I don't know. I'm off all the time, but but it was like all these things that I felt like I needed to do before I could take another step of like, well, I'm not getting business because I don't have a logo or I'm not getting business because I don't have business cards.

[00:30:20.430] - Phil

I'm not getting business. I can't go door to door because I don't have flyers to hand out. So there's like all these these things that just get in the way, not like at the at the height of of my of my agency making fifty thousand dollars in a month, I had eighty people on my Facebook page. My website was like one page, it was crap, my logo..I just, I wasn't happy with it and I wasn't really it was like it's, it's comical to me because when I hear people, because we all do it and especially when we first start a business, we all have like these robots of, well, I need to learn this before I can do this or I need to do this before I do this, when in all actuality you just need to take that first step and to do the damn thing, you know, let things fall into place, because the more and more you're just you're just wasting time.

[00:31:15.960] - Phil

And I forget who told me, but it was like the best advice that I have ever had in a business. And there were like, phil. You need to concentrate on revenue generating activities, making a logo, creating a website, creating a Facebook page that's not going to generate revenue for you or it's important at some point, yes, you should have those things. But right now, all you need to focus on is going and getting the next job is just bring money in, bring generate revenue.

[00:31:47.670] - Phil

And I was like, crap, you're right.

[00:31:49.860] - Nick

I'm sorry to interrupt, but you bring up a great point. A lot of us I've done this and before I realized, I think..Soon enough where you're like, man, I need a website, I need the right logo, like you just said. And it gets to a point where it becomes like it painful and a chore and wears you down. You're like, now I have to go out and find business, but many, many people get stuck in that or they have these expectations, but they're sort of the wrong expectations, their priorities, but they're sort of not on the hierarchy high enough.

[00:32:17.750] - Nick

And what's going to make or break your business?

[00:32:20.220] - Phil

Yeah, to be honest with you, like a lot of the clients that I've worked with, like they've they've spent so much money on a logo. And then they they put their logo on their Facebook page and their profile picture or whatever, and then I come in and I'm like, dude, you got to get rid of that damn logo for the picture of somebody. I put a picture of somebody in your business.

[00:32:41.420] - Phil

I put a human there and they're like, what? We just spent thousands of dollars on this logo. Like, sorry, like nobody cares about your logo. In fact, it's probably detrimental to to your success right now on social media because you're look, you're being looked at as a business. And we don't want to be looked at as a business. We want to be looked at as human beings that want to help other people. So it's like so is that conversation of like.

[00:33:04.990] - Phil

Me being a creative guy in us as creatives, yes, we're going to look at logos, we're going to look at a website, we're going to we're going to look at other businesses and kind of examine them. But in all actuality, when it comes down to it, your clients and the people that you're helping, they don't care about the tools that you're using or how you're going to do it or what you look like doing it. As long as you understand what their problem is and you have a solution to fix it, that's all they care about.

[00:33:31.990] - Phil

So it's like so it was just once I start kind of getting that and really seeing that from other people of like giving my business card spend, spending months on a business card and handing the business card in, like waiting for their faces to light up at how often the business cards and then they'll never see it again. So it really doesn't matter. I mean, it really just comes down to do you understand what the problem is and do you have a solution?

[00:34:02.080] - Phil

And that's really what business is building relationships from there. So

[00:34:06.910] - Nick

and then when you got to those 30, 50 thousand dollars a month, month over month, what was sort of the workflow and the process you realized was working for you? What was that turning point? Was there a turning point that you can remember where you like this is how it works?

[00:34:20.080] - Phil

It was it was the fact that once I understood what I just said, that really what it came down to was that I understood what their problem was and I had a solution for it once.

[00:34:32.380] - Phil

I once I really got that. Then the way that I spoke to business owners, the way that I, I kind of went through discovery meetings and spoke to them or. Should I say the more that I let them talk, because basically how I was how I was approaching it and really when I was having a really hard time, mind you, I was you know, this was a time when I was getting zero business and I was working working my ass off.

[00:35:00.220] - Phil

Pardon my French. I'm getting zero business. I was charging five hundred dollars for video, right? I was sometimes offering the video for free and I still wouldn't get any business like they wouldn't they still or they would say, yeah, that would be awesome if you do it for free and then they would drag their feet. And I would never get the project done because it was like they didn't have any skin in the game. And that was what it all came down to, was I was just choosing the wrong people.

[00:35:28.260] - Phil

But here I was. I was trying to. Five hundred dollars free videos, but what I was doing as I was walking into these businesses and I was walking with a flyer or walking with a PowerPoint, and I would do this whole presentation in the presentation was, hey, did you know that there's two point five billion active users on Facebook? Did you know that by using video you are 80 percent? I was like all these numbers and this is how great video is.

[00:35:55.160] - Phil

And these are my tools, tools, tools, tools. And did you know that Facebook is the most powerful thing known to man and. Oh my God. And sounds great. And I got a lot of yeah cool, but what I wasn't doing was I wasn't letting them tell me what their pain was. I wasn't speaking to them. I wasn't you know, I was basically. I was leaving, and this is really kind of what drove me to Facebook was I was leaving these these meetings and I just wasn't doing a good enough job of showing the value.

[00:36:27.610] - Phil

Like everybody, they knew that they needed a video. They wanted a video that's like really kind of when you start a business like that's one of the things that you, I think, check off when you're when you're when you're starting a business and you have the list of here's here's the things that I think that I need to do. I need a logo. I need a website. I need this this in a commercial or radio ad or billboard or mailers are always on that list.

[00:36:53.770] - Phil

But they're typically far down the list because while one, they're really expensive and I can't really justify spending that money right now. And those were I was always the nice to have on the list. And when I moved from nice to have to, I, I have to I, I'm not going to make it. My business is not going to survive. If I don't have it then that's really kind of when things took a turn in a really kind of I just changed the whole way that I was speaking like I was letting people talk, I was listening to what their pain points and every business is different.

[00:37:31.150] - Phil

They all have their own, their own pain, their own issues, their own stuff that they're dealing with. So it's listening to them and figuring out, all right, how can I how how can what I do help them achieve their goals and help them get over all the pain that all the stuff that's keeping them up at night? How can I how can I you know, the tools that I use, how can I help them? And you can sign up and then really kind of digesting what they're saying and saying, all right, well, you told me this.

[00:38:03.190] - Phil

And just getting them to agree and having just having a real conversation and being somebody, you know, I and I tell you guys all the time, it's like I don't I try to keep my pitch in my pocket as long as I possibly can, because I know the more times I talk to somebody, the more the more times we have meetings and they talk the whole time and just tell me their problems. The more and more I'm becoming a real person that actually cares about what they have going on.

[00:38:31.190] - Phil

I'm not a salesman because it's like. It's like, it's just, oh, God, I hate sales so much. It's just one of those things where it's just. Yeah, I mean, it's so important to the business, but at the same time, it's like I hate it. I hate like that whole because I sold vacuum cleaners for a while literally with a phone book calling people in the phone book. Oh my God. But it's like, you know, you just put yourself in that situation where you've had a crappy salesman come over the house for whatever reason.

[00:39:02.230] - Phil

And then they they kind of they walk in with their with their suit and tie and then they have their little their little briefcase and they open up the briefcase and they they start their pitch. Right. And it's like the whole time they're talking, they're like, oh God, can you just get to the price just like I, I didn't want to be that. So the more and more I just kind of like I'm just going to I'm me, obviously.

[00:39:26.840] - Phil

I'm like, I'm not going to I don't generally like I, I dress how I dress. I try to be, you know, I try to present myself in a genuine way, like this is who you're going to get. I understand that a lot of people will look and be like, oh my God, he's got tattoos on his fingers, like he must have been in jail. I get it. But at the same time, it's like I think when I when I walk in and I let them talk and I think the first few minutes they kind of get like, all right, well, this dude's actually pretty cool and he actually cares about what the hell we have going on.

[00:40:00.160] - Phil

And it's not a sales call and it's not doesn't have anything to do with sales. It goes a long way. Thank you. I got a delivery. Wow. Great service over there. Holy smokes. So, yeah, it was just keeping the salesy-ness away as long as I possibly can. And then when I when I pitch something, it's really not it's not a sales pitch. It's literally like, hey, listen, I have a really good idea on how we can achieve this.

[00:40:29.590] - Phil

You told me this is your problem. Like, how about we do this and I get them to agree and I get them excited the entire time. It's like it's an obvious hole in their business that it's very difficult to say no to. It's so obvious that if you say no, it's a bad decision. Right. And then it's just I just add so much. I try to figure out how I could add so much value and how I can make it a no brainer.

[00:40:56.080] - Phil

And by by knowing by being good at what you do, that always helps to kind of know what your limitations are and what you can actually do for somebody. But, you know, as a as a videographer or somebody or a filmmaker, somebody that can really create something for business that allows them to connect with their customers and and really get to the lifeblood of of any businesses, and that's building relationships and connecting with people, especially if you're if they're going to be on social media.

[00:41:26.420] - Phil

That's what it's all about. That's why people go. They like to obviously they like to see the negative things. But I think that more so people love to see a good story and they love to see people going after their dreams. And if we can take a business and I think that every business has the story, no matter what they do, it could be the most boring thing ever. But I think that if you take the most boring thing, there's always a story behind it.

[00:41:52.670] - Phil

What do you do differently? Is this a family owned business? Has this been passed down? Like how did you get into the like, what is the story behind it? Why? What's your why? Where's your passion? So it's it's really getting into that story and then using the tools that I have. I mean, not only can we create this epic content for them that connects and hits all those points, but I can guarantee that it's seen by people.

[00:42:16.730] - Phil

And it's and I think that this is another missing link that a lot of video companies and me that I kind of ran into with, you know, the video was a nice to have, but they couldn't really see they couldn't really justify the cost even at five hundred dollars. Right. It was like, well, that's a red flag that I'm talking to the wrong person. But but it was like, how can I take how can I give them what they really want and just kind of just add value to to to make sure.

[00:42:44.160] - Phil

And and that's why I like when I leave, I'm like, not only are we going to create this content for you and this is and this is not only am I going to give you exactly what you want, right. Because everybody they want to, we all have a certain mindset about commercials. Right. Every business owner. But I'd like to have a commercial. I'd like to be on TV. That would be awesome, because we all we all look at TV commercials and put them on such a high pedestal because it's like TV commercials.

[00:43:12.350] - Phil

We're like the shit for forever. I mean, look at you. Watch the Super Bowl. Some people watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials. So it's like we we we we hold it at such high regard that everybody kind of they want that. So how do you make it from how do you get it from nice to have to Must have. Well, I mean, all right. So this is going to solve your pain points and I'm going to guarantee that I'm not I'm not just going to be a guy that sort of give you a video and be like, all right, now you have a video because and I'm honest with them, like I could create the best looking, most cinematic video that just connects with your customers and makes people cry.

[00:43:54.380] - Speaker 1

Right. But just having it is not magic, it's not going to do anything for your business, just putting it on your website, nobody's going to see it right. So it's in being honest with them, like, yeah, I'm going to make this thing for you. But there's a whole another element that we need to make sure that it's seen and we need to make sure that it's distributed to your customers. And and that's where I come in.

[00:44:15.190] - Phil

That's another offering that I have is just, you know, just making a no brainer that not only are you going to get what you want, but it's going to be seen and it's going to it's going to work wonders for your business and solve the problems that you're currently facing with those those problems.

[00:44:30.000] - Nick

I just have a question for you. I want to go back a moment. You said something significant and really resonate with people that are thinking about starting their own business or at the beginning stages.

[00:44:37.830] - Nick

And it's that that I've experienced to this..the Feeling like you need to undervalue yourself at first in order to get to the stage where you need to be. And what that breeds is actually finding the wrong customers for what you have to offer. And it's a struggle, right to the customer is a bad thing because

[00:44:56.250] - Phil

and pricing I mean, pricing is something that plagues a lot of people. And it's I can only say that because it plagued me as well.

[00:45:04.170] - Phil

So it's like, you know, here I am coming from the feature film industry with somewhat of an Emmy in my pocket. Right. So it was like I really didn't want to do if I wanted all of the deals, I felt like I was worth more than that. But at the same time, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get people to see that and or what it became. What it came down to is no one really cares.. emmy-schmmemy.

[00:45:29.790] - Phil

So it was like, what are you going to do for my business, though? So it was like so it was you know, pricing has always been one of those things that that plagued me in. But you're exactly right. I mean, by offering five hundred dollar videos, there is. Not to say that they're they're they're ungrateful, but at the same time, it's like if you're if you're talking to somebody in there kind of like, well, five hundred dollars, a lot of money Phil, then generally speaking, I would say run, because if a business owner, if if they're having a hard time with five hundred dollars, it's just it's not they're not at the right stage of the game.

[00:46:10.610] - Phil

They don't have the right mindset. They don't quite understand what it takes to run a business. And it sounds like I'm being negative. I'm really not trying to be. It's just that it's just we all kind of have these cycles, right? We I started I had good six months and then I had almost a year or so with, like, just pulling my hair out, like literally crying at some point, like, what the hell, what do I need to do?

[00:46:39.260] - Phil

What am I doing wrong? Like, why am I not like I'm good at what I do. I'm seeing other videos that other businesses are buying and they're crap. They're like, what am I doing wrong? Like, where's the disconnect? And then of course, having three kids being a custom of living a certain way, having brand new cars, having brand new expensive cars, having just the weight of of here I am I am the I'm the man I should be providing for my family.

[00:47:10.220] - Phil

My wife shouldn't have to to work her butt off just to to pay the bills for me. So it was like all that weight. And then the more and more that negativity in the more that weight comes on, it's just the harder it is to kind of break through sometimes. So so just it got to the point where I was like, all right, give me anybody that would talk to me. Right. So in all entrepreneurs, no, I mean, we we hear no way more than we hear the word, yes

[00:47:36.110] - Phil

so it's like especially when you first start and you're really kind of trying to figure out your pitch and how you're what makes you different, what makes you genuine. So you're trying to figure things out and you're asking a million people and everybody saying no. And then finally someone says, sure, I'll talk to you. Oh, sweet. Give me a hundred bucks. Give me anything. So and then those people and tend to be the wrong customer.

[00:47:58.890] - Phil

So it, you know, what I always say is that there is always going to be somebody that's more expensive than you are. There's always going to be someone to do it cheaper than you. What I would say is that this is really an important factor in businesses. You need to set your price. And that's your price. You you don't go to Wal-Mart or wherever, you don't go to the Home Depot to get a grill and you're like, Oh well I know that's one ninety nine for that grill.

[00:48:28.170] - Phil

I'll give you 50 bucks. That's not how things work. The grill is one hundred ninety nine dollars. If you don't want that grill, there's probably one that's cheaper, there's probably one that's more expensive. So it's like you need to kind of set your price and just stick with it and really kind of find who you who your client, who who do you want to work with. And this is another important thing that people overlook is like we started our business because we wanted to get out of the nine to five and we wanted to do things that we want to do, what we love, whatever the case may be, whatever your why is, you want to live a certain way.

[00:49:05.490] - Phil

And I lost my train of thought what I was. What was I saying?

[00:49:09.930] - Nick

No, you want to live this way. Can I can I just jump in there? So speak to that. Like from my experience when we started increasing our prices, what it did was allowed us the flexibility and allowed us to bring in the confidence that we could do better work for our customer. And we realized that the customers that were willing to work with us were actually ready for what we had to offer.

[00:49:30.720] - Nick

The businesses that weren't paying that much they're not ready for. You have at all. They're just not at that point. They will be someday. But what it did was it allowed us to be more strategic, allow us to get better equipment, to do better work, to have more time, because, you know, money is a great thing. When you don't have to go and find twenty five clients, you can find less amount of them, do better work and just make it your own and have a better head space to to execute.

[00:49:54.510] - Nick

And I think I'm sure that's part of part of the journey that you discovered.

[00:49:59.100] - Phil

Yeah, absolutely. I mean it's just it's. Yeah and it's crazy too. It's like once, once I started raising my prices and then kind of started, you kind of start to figure out where what is your bracket. Right. Who should I be talking to? And then once you once you kind of land that first client, then you're like, OK, so that they they just they give me twenty five hundred dollars for a video and they didn't even bat an eye.

[00:50:26.520] - Phil

And I so I need to be working in this bracket. So you start to kind of learn who your customers are, what niche, how much money they make, what to look for when you're pitching people. But yeah, I mean it's just ever since I started raising prices. Every time I do, I kind of like I grimace and I'm like, I send the invoice and I'm like, Oh my God, what am I doing? Every time I do that, I get a faster yes. I don't know.

[00:50:59.100] - Nick

Just exactly. You think.

[00:51:01.600] - Phil

Yeah. I mean, I need to understand is I think that the people that are going to pay you the amount of money that you're looking for are expecting that. Right. So what you have people that like I said, there's always going to be someone more expensive, but there's always going to be someone cheaper. So you have to understand that your client, your ideal client, if you're looking for let's just use twenty five hundred dollars of video that clients is probably expecting to pay that or more.

[00:51:27.510] - Phil

The problem you run into and this is a real problem is if you go in too low and somebody is expecting a higher price, they're going to say, well, maybe this isn't the right person for me or this isn't the right company, because that's a lot cheaper than we expected. Maybe they're not as good as we thought.

[00:51:44.700] - Nick

We do that to shop or anything else, right?

[00:51:46.680] - Phil

Yeah, exactly. And I think I told you the story of we we what we had to get our decorator at the house and we had three people, right.

[00:51:54.840] - Phil

So we we put it on next door or whatever, and three people responded. The first guy shows up in a painting van is a white van. The roof racks, he gets out, he's got paint all over him and he looks and he's like, I'll do it for 800 bucks so that it's not as bad as I thought. Second guy comes in in this this literally I think that he just picked up a bunch of metal, was like a scrap picker, shows up at this truck with like metal like flowing out of his truck.

[00:52:25.950] - Phil

He walks up. The first thing that he says to me is like I asked him what what type of paint he uses because we like Benjamin More. That's always like what kind of paint you're using. And he's like he says, Bare.He's Like I'm the cheapest bastard you ever meet. And I'm like, what the hell? Like, the first thing that he said to me? And then he looks and he's like, I'll do it for three hundred bucks.

[00:52:49.570] - Phil

And I'm like, me and my wife looked at each other like three hundred dollars. I mean that's, that's awesome. But and then another guy came and gave us seven fifty so we have an eight hundred seventy five thousand three hundred. Mind you all the the guy that offered us three hundred had the most five star reviews. Right. So we were like, you know, just this mind, like this like what the hell do we do. Like the reviews were outstanding.

[00:53:14.580] - Phil

Like he does incredible work, blah, blah, blah. And we're thinking like three hundred dollars. But he has the most reviews. But it goes to show you the mentality of like we were we had obviously would have loved to spend three hundred dollars to get our deck painted and sanded everything that we needed to do. But it was like, why is it so low? And then you kind of look at the truck and you look at the presentation.

[00:53:37.290] - Phil

So it was like we ended up going with the middle guy and it was a bad idea. He didn't do a very good job. But yeah, it was just it just kind of goes to show, like, if there is there's a problem with coming in too low. And then, of course, you know, there's always that you could come in too high. And I think that it gets to the point where every time you pick somebody, no matter who you pitch, everybody's like, whoa, whoa, that's way too expensive.

[00:54:03.210] - Phil

Then maybe it's too expensive. But I think if I'm still a firm believer that you could probably find your your Niche, find your client at whatever price you're at. But

[00:54:15.210] - Nick

absolutely. I just have a few more questions for you. And then I want to show you a video video from Inc magazine, I think really speaks to exactly what you're saying. I'll pull up in a moment. But what are some of the things what's something that you can impart for someone watching that is just starting the business that what's a first step for them to take if they have a passion for something?

[00:54:32.520] - Nick

And it's scary. It's a scary venture to jump over that wall and begin it. What is something that looking back on your experience, would you tell them?

[00:54:40.800] - Phil

I would say the key that really got everything started to me was just kind of writing. And this is it's going to sound like magical hoopla. And I can't explain why it works or or but it does. Is just, figuring out what do you want to do, so if you and this is what I tell everybody, I think that life is way too short to be doing things and to be stuck in a nine to five doing things, doing the job that you hate for somebody else and being miserable and sitting in traffic and all everything that comes with that 9:00 to 5:00.

[00:55:17.980] - Phil

I think that we all should do what we love to do. I think that we're all put here for a reason. I'm not a very religious guy, but at the same time, I do think that everybody has just something that clicks into something that they're just naturally good at or naturally gifted at. So what I would say is that if you if you don't know what it is, if you don't know what it is that you love to do, I would say, what do people ask you about most?

[00:55:45.310] - Phil

If you know what what are all your friends ask you to do? Like what are all your friends ask you to help with? That kind of kind of give you some ideas of well.. That's your thing. You should probably do that because that's your natural gift or whatever. But to kind of answer your question, I would say that the thing that. That worked best for me is just kind of writing down that big, scary goal on a piece of paper and just trying your best.

[00:56:10.420] - Phil

And I know that it's it's difficult because you don't know. You don't know. But trying your best to just list out minute baby steps on what it will take for you to get there and just have patience, because I think that if you if you wake up every day like I did and it doesn't have to be two hours or three hours, you don't even have to wake up early if you set aside some time before bed or whatever the case may be.

[00:56:32.700] - Phil

But if you spend time. However much time it is every single day trying to get or work towards your goal, you're doing more than most people. And it really and by goals, I mean like the five things that I would write, it was like, I need to call this person today. It was just really just achievable things that I mean, these weren't like these crazy like, oh, you got to learn friggin quantum mechanics today. It was like, call Fred because he knows somebody that owns a business.

[00:57:09.760] - Phil

So it's like literally just five things that. If I did those five things for that day, even though there were kind of just minute things, I was at least working towards my goal. And I think that the more and more that you do that, the more and more you start to gain momentum and the more momentum you start to gain the thing it just compounds. Right. And then before long, like I set a goal for a year, I end up doing it six months.

[00:57:36.800] - Phil

And I laughed at that year goal. There was no possible way within a year I was going to start a business and leave a six figure job. My dream job. No, no way in hell. Like I would have I would have bet all the money that I've made over my lifetime that there wasn't a chance that was going to happen. But it happened in six months. So it was like it was just kind of. Writing down your big, scary goal and trying your best to kind of like write those baby steps, what is it going to take for me to what do I need to learn?

[00:58:05.980] - Phil

You know, I don't know anything about business. All right? I need to learn about business. So what do I need to learn about learning about business? So it's like writing down just these baby steps that you can check off every single day.

[00:58:16.110] - Nick

They sort of provide the framework and the goal posts for you to make those and foucs. We're we're just being beamed everywhere from all angles with, you know, phones, TV.

[00:58:25.050] - Phil

But instead of watching that next Netflix special.. Work on your goals, I mean, just start taking those those first steps.

[00:58:33.270] - Phil

And it just I don't like I said, I don't know how it happens or why it happens, but it just, you know, as long as you as you spend time every single day just kind of working on yourself and working on on getting yourself further and closer and closer to that big, scary goal. You know, before long, you're halfway up the page and then before long you're oh, my God. Like, this is actually becoming something that I can actually see myself doing.

[00:59:00.180] - Phil

And then you start to get excited, then you start to gain that momentum and then it just compounds everytime.

[00:59:05.730] - Nick

And you start seeing 30 to 50 K months, which is crazy, right? That's crazy. I will let me show you this video. This plays right into what you were just talking about. And I think this really speaks. This is from Inc magazine, from a guy named Jeff Haden. This really speaks to the goal setting and what to do next.

[00:59:26.050] - Jeff Haden

We all have goals and most of us have goals that we haven't achieved, the biggest reason for that, I think, is that we stop at the goal setting piece and we don't think about the foundation of what will get us to our goals. And that is a routine or a process or something you put in place that says, here's where I want to be, but this is what that means and looks like on a daily basis. So non-business example, if you want to run a marathon, you are going to have to run a lot of miles in preparation for that.

[00:59:56.200] - Jeff Haden

That marathon is this big, fuzzy, hazy goal that almost seems impossible early on. So you can't focus just on that. You focus on your process and say, okay, this week I'm running three times three miles a day. Next week is something else. Those are things that you can achieve. Those are feedback loops that keep you feeling good about what you're doing. And none of them scare you off from that big goal of how will I ever run twenty six miles.

[01:00:21.070] - Jeff Haden

So the same thing is true. If you're trying to build a hundred million dollar business and right now you have no revenue, that's impossible. But you can say to get there, these are the things that I need to do. So this is my process. These are my goals. Here's how I'm going to do that. So if you work the process and create a routine, then that will take you to where you want to be if you're doing the work.

[01:00:47.770] - Nick

So that really ties

[01:00:49.210] - Phil

Amen

[01:00:50.200] - Nick

really ties in with what you're saying and just laying out the goals, providing a framework for yourself, staying focused and then understanding you will not get to that ultimate goal immediately. It's the small, incremental steps that build up accumulate over time, right?

[01:01:05.440] - Phil

Yeah. And to that, too, I have a couple of points to what I would say. Is that write your big scary goal list out all the baby steps and keep an open mind because you never know.

[01:01:18.800] - Phil

You never know. Halfway up that list, your big scary goal might you might learn something about yourself or you might learn something on the way that maybe your big scary goal, maybe it's something else. So it really kind of keeping an open mind and being able to pivot because there's been times like I own I'm a part owner in a gym. What the hell? Where did that come from? So it was like just always, always doing the work.

[01:01:47.650] - Phil

You're setting your goals, doing the work to get there and just kind of always keep a keep an open mind and a positive framework. But I think that, you know, and it was it's crazy because even that video, it's like I watch a video like that and I'm like, oh, my God, like like all these naturally occurring, whether I learned it or I heard it somewhere, who knows. But it was like all these naturally occurring things that I've just naturally done my entire life from from a kid, the more and more I started to kind of start to learn about self-help and goal setting and all these things.

[01:02:23.750] - Phil

I'm like, oh my God. Like, this is a real thing. Like it's it's an actual thing. And it's like I've always been a very I've always said stay positive. As long as you stay positive and do the right thing, you're going to get there. So I always believed and this was really kind of my my my comeback to the rock star story whenever I told people I wanted to be a rock star and they said, well, it's one in a million chance.

[01:02:49.810] - Phil

Like there's so many people that are better than you, that are better singers and blah, blah, blah, and like it has nothing to do with being the best singer, it's being the hardest worker. And it's being just keeping a positive attitude. And I always felt like as long as you stay positive, then that would kind of put you in a mindset of seeing opportunities. And one of the big things was like, well, you have to be lucky.

[01:03:17.350] - Phil

You have to be at the right time, in the right place, at the right time. And I always believe that by being positive and working and working towards your goals, that you could put yourself in the right place at the right time, because in a positive mindset, you're literally your brain is accustomed to seeing opportunities that you normally wouldn't see. So here I just always kind of I knew that. Then I'm watching or I'm reading this book and learning about the reticular activating system.

[01:03:46.720] - Phil

Right. A real thing in your brain. You buy a red car, right. We've all experienced that. You buy a red Honda. The next thing you know, there's like every car that you see is a red Honda on the road. Right. It's your reticular activating system. It's like your brain. Once you put your brain and focus on something that's important to you, your brain, your brain is a filter. Right? So it's just it's filtering out all the stuff that it needs to filter out.

[01:04:12.490] - Phil

And once you once your brain says, well, he really likes Red Honda's, it's going to allow those red hundreds that were always there. You're just going to notice them more. So it's really the same thing is if you keep a positive attitude and you have your eyes set on a goal, you're reticular activating system will look for opportunities that will align you with your goal. It's called hoopla. I guess it's science, right? It's crazy. So, yeah, I mean,

[01:04:40.150] - Nick

you're tying this all together. It's not luck. It's not by chance. Most of the stuff is when you put your mind to it and you set up some strategy behind it, lay out your goals and see it through, it's not luck. You're actually opening yourself up to new options, new opportunities. And it doesn't happen from zero to 60 in a moment. It just happens. It just goes up and spreads wider and wider those opportunities. And you just give yourself more chances to get in front of the right place at the right moment.

[01:05:06.280] - Phil

And then it's like I was at a really low point. Like I said, it hasn't been like it's still like to this day, like I'll have days where I'm like, what am I doing? I've made changes to my business. I'm really not doing the agency anymore. The gym, we just went through a pandemic. Like it's been really tough to kind of keep the gym alive. And it was like there's been there's been moments where I'm like, man, maybe I need to go back to work.

[01:05:34.330] - Phil

Like, what? What's really going on? Like, what's going.. and It's I, I just remember having one of those really low moments and like literally sitting at my desk, like with tears, like thinking, well I. I believe in this. Why can't I make this work? And then literally three days later, something came in this connection that came in that I had made at a networking meeting in literally three days later, I had 18 grand in the bank and I was from there that literally catapulted my entire growth in the agency.

[01:06:08.430] - Phil

So it was like here I was like literally zero in the bank trying to figure out how the hell am I going to pay the mortgage. Tears in my eyes, like thinking I got to start getting it. I got to get a job, like, I guess I wasn't cut out for this. And then three days later, my life is totally different. So it's just it just and we've all probably seen those, Memes, of like those success names of the guy digging in.

[01:06:36.980] - Phil

He's like he's like an inch away from all the gold and then one guy's leaving and the other guys keep going. It's like you never know, you know, if you just keep working and keep going and keep doing the right things and stay positive, you could be three days away from having 18 grand in your bank. So it's

[01:06:55.700] - Nick

never know.

[01:06:56.810] - Phil

But, yeah, it's it's nuts. It's been it's been an experience for sure.

[01:07:01.690] - Nick

Well, this has been awesome. I just want to get a sense of what's going on now where people can find you and what are the near-term goals, what are you're... maybe we can start there? And where can people find you if they want to.

[01:07:12.860] - Phil

Where can people find me? Well, that's a good question, Nick. I don't even know if I have a website. No, I think rebornmediacompany.com is there. It's not pretty. I think it's one page and I think that there's a video up there and it says, I'm not taking any more business and I don't know how the hell I keep getting business.

[01:07:36.410] - Phil

But it's just one of those crazy things that happens, I guess. But yeah. So, yeah, I'm and I'm just working on kind of pivoting, working on some new content. I have about seven or so courses, just content. So my goal right now is to to have to have a one stop shop for creators. I really want to make I feel like if you're a creator nowadays in 2021, you're going to be set for a long time.

[01:08:08.150] - Phil

I think that creators are needed now more than ever, just with social media and everything on the platforms in the way that business is done nowadays. I think that if you're and by creator, I mean video creator, web designer, graphic artist, whatever the case may be, advertiser. So really kind of I'm working on still a one stop shop. I don't know if you want to call it a mentorship or just kind of a place where all creators can kind of go in and get content no matter what they're what they're working on.

[01:08:42.560] - Phil

So I have about seven courses, one on Web design, one on YouTube, advertising, Facebook, advertising, video production, advertising, client acquisition. So basically everything that I've kind of accumulated as far as skills over the years, I just want to teach people how to do that. It's like I've I've kind of always been a sucker for for success in watching people go after their dreams. Like I'm I'm one of those Criers. I'll watch American Idol and I'm like, I'll cry when somebody wins or the voice sort of like the singing competitions.

[01:09:18.520] - Phil

I mean, I'm a musician, so it's kind of near dear to my heart. But I just I love seeing people go after it in achieving what they want to achieve. And against all odds, I think there's there's something magical in that. So if I can do my part and then and this is really kind of full circle to, you know, having this thought of I was here for something or maybe I found it, maybe it's just I was here to kind of I always felt like I was here to change the world in some way.

[01:09:49.880] - Phil

I thought it was music, but maybe it's just showing people that, hey, you can be tattoos on your knuckles and on your neck and look a certain way and against all odds, achieve whatever the hell you want to achieve. So so, yeah, I mean, at the core stuff is important to me and making that content. But I want to do I want to do a lot more speaking to so I have a few things in the works to go speak and just be on stage again and kind of do my own thing.

[01:10:20.540] - Nick

Absolutely.

[01:10:21.060] - Phil

Gym. I mean the gym's doing well.

[01:10:22.680] - Nick

And you have more you. I can't wait to get you back on to talk about that and talk about your speaking stuff going up, and I'd love to hear you dove into the gym because we've talked about that on our mentoring, mentorship, what you did for the gym as you're growing it and sort of what you did with marketing, stuff like that. And it's sort of I've been there and you see it.

[01:10:41.330] - Nick

There's nothing else really around. But somehow you managed to get all kinds of people there. And it's it's a great place. I'd love to have you back on. And talk about that, and I can't thank you enough for this time, and we're going to jump on our our other call in a few moments in the next hour. And, yeah, this has been awesome. And again, people watching. If there's anyone out there that, you know, that could get something out of this episode that are starting their business, that may be stuck and are looking for that next step, the next level, please share this for them.

[01:11:07.560] - Phil

Reach out to Phil and say hi. And yeah, we'll go from there from zero to infinity. Thanks so much. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you having me on this. And any time I get to come on and I'm a talker, so any time I could do this is awesome. So I more than appreciate you having me on. And just to kind of just anybody that might have any questions, my I'm going to open I'm an open book.

[01:11:31.230] - Phil

So Facebook, if you message about Facebook, I might be the worst at getting back to you right away, but always.. If you have questions or need anything more than available.

[01:11:42.660] - Nick

Absolutely. All right. All right, man. Let's fill this up and can't thank you enough. I'm sure people, too. Thanks.

[01:11:50.430] - Phil

Thanks a lot.