About the Episode
You can identify when you’re surrounded by small minded people because they start to question how you are going to be able to pull off your dreams, that they feel are too big. This is when you should know you’re doing something real.
Listen to the podcast here
Watch the episode here
What’s shakin’, it’s good to be back on ALL IN because today we’re going ALL IN.
If you ever had super big dreams, at least you thought they were super big and you start to talk to people about them. And they’re like, “Man..”
It just doesn’t feel right when you’re talking to these people. Because you get uncomfortable a bit, you know, or they get uncomfortable, and they try to change the subject or something like that, that’s what we’re going to talk about today, is when you’re trying to express this amazing thing, inside your brain, inside even your core in your soul, that might be your purpose in life and you’re figuring out how to do that, and you got this ginormous vision. And when you talk to people, you get uncomfortable telling them.
Share this out with three people today, because this is going to be an amazing, amazing episode. It’s something that I’ve experienced a lot over the past couple years. And today, we are going to dive into this for a few minutes.
I just took my company ReachOut Technology public just a little bit ago, right, we launched our public offering, which is awesome. We’re selling 6 million shares and for just $1 a share, it’s pretty cool and you know, we have the landing page up at reachoutit.com/invest and I’ve gotten a board put together over the last couple years and includes an original shark from Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington, who’s built a couple of billion dollar companies. Another gentleman of note Darren Jacklin, who is on the board of EXP Realty took it from, you know, just a couple of million to a few billion over the last seven years. I’m very grateful for that.
When I started approaching people in, you know, at the very beginning of this journey, and I was asking individuals to be on my board, I mean, people who I thought had had huge, expansive abstract minds, you know, and I’d start to talk to them about the vision and how I want to build this army, because people need to be protected. And cybersecurity just generally isn’t affordable for small businesses, or even accessible for that matter, because they don’t know who to call, or even just every individual consumers, you know “How do I protect myself, so my money doesn’t get sucked out of my bank account, or my identity doesn’t get stolen, you know, my debit card doesn’t get cloned, whatever.”
All of these things, and I’m putting this out there and be like, this was like, three years ago, and I’m like, This is what I’m thinking. I mean, first, I talked to people in my industry, and they’re like, there’s no way right public company never happened within my space before, you know, guys, guess what, now I’m the first and only, okay. And then there’s other individuals that I was trying to give the visions like, this is how I want to accomplish it, I want to acquire and in a roll up, acquire about $50 million in top line revenue and that’s just like phase one, right over the next two years, and then we’re going to list on NASDAQ, and our valuation is going to be into the billions, because that’s the only way that we can actually get the resources and both talents, and technology, the actual tools to be able to do something that actually works, that that makes a real difference. I’m throwing this out there. And I’m starting to like to cast this huge vision for a lot of people that I originally asked to be on my board of directors, and you know what the first round, no joke, the very first round of people that I went through, like it was like six people never joined.
When I got part of the way in the conversation with them, the questions would be asked, just kind of blew my mind because it’s like people who I looked up to for a while and I would ask like, how do we do this? You know, I would also like you to invest up because I want you to have skin in the game. Because I think that you should, if you’re going to be on my board, I think you should have skin in the game. They would say “No, no, no, I don’t really do that. You know, but I’ll be happy to start..”
Talking with a frickin’ billionaire. No joke, with a billionaire. And I asked him to do this. And I’m like, “I want you to invest, you know, even if it’s a small amount, even if it’s just $250,000 I mean, what’s that compared to a billion?” Right, that he’s got in his pocket. And like, “then you can be on my board. And you can help guide me because I’ve seen you do this before.” And the response that I got was just so ridiculous. The questions that I got were just so insane to me because they seemed so small. And I’m not necessarily talking about people not understanding what you’re doing, no, because I’ve got that, my mom, I love her, you know, but when I tried to explain what I’m doing, it’s she’s so supportive, so amazing that way, but then it just doesn’t compute, because she’s never been educated in capital markets or it really been in business at all. She was a bookkeeper for a grocery store chain for a while and then she worked at us at a school for a while too as an administrator, so her degree is actually in education. So it just isn’t the way that she thinks. But she’s so supportive and doesn’t understand. And next, anything that I do, but she’s extremely supportive.
I’m not talking about that, like people not comprehending, right? I’m talking about people that make you uncomfortable because of the small minded questions, or the small minded statements that they’re saying, and you’re just blown away. Now at this point, they say something that you are uncomfortable with, not them, that you are uncomfortable with, because you’re trying to explain this really big vision, and you’re just thinking, “Man, you just don’t get it. Out of all the people, I thought you could get it.”
This is my point, because prior to this in my life, I could tell people what I was doing, like, “Oh, that’s awesome. That’s great. I think that’s gonna succeed. Really cool.” Yeah and then I tell them, sometimes it’s like, “Oh, that’s amazing. You know, that sounds like a really good plan for your life, go for it!” You know, and I had so much encouragement. Like, even when I started a business, right, my very first business, even when I started that, or prior to that, when I would like to go after new jobs or something, because that made sense to people, right. And it’s something that they felt that I could do or something that was like, in my lane, something that fit my class, something that fit what they thought I could be capable of, that was appropriate for me in their eyes through their lens.
The only moment and when I knew that I actually had something real, that I actually had something that was profound, is when it crossed over from supports, into these stupid small minded comments and questions. That’s how I knew that I started dreaming bigger.
Prior to that, my dream was small, right? Because of I was just thinking about paying my mortgage, having a comfortable life for my family and I, just getting through life, you know, having a 401K, you know, having a comfy but not lavish retirement, all that. That is what I had thought years ago, even though as you know, I still had to expand my mind and to be exposed to more things to where I recognize what it was and then I knew I was on to something big when I crossed over from having support into not having support.
Because you want to dream so big. That you get uncomfortable telling small minded people. Do you hear that? Dream so big, I’m encouraging you today to dream bigger because you are probably thinking too small.
I know I’m talking to people right now that are thinking too small because everybody’s got your back. When everybody’s got your back, your dream is too small.
So today, dream so big that you get uncomfortable telling small minded people.
I love you. I know you needed to hear this today. Now go ALL IN.
Episode References:
Episode Topics:
- Is Your Dream Too Small?
- Dream Big, So You’re Uncomfortable Telling Small Minded People
