Garren valaria 1 2 3 what was it on oh
hi guys welcome back to my channel today
I have a very special guest my beautiful
smart kind husband and today we're doing
a really interesting video because I get
so many questions about Gary
Gary's entrepreneurial journey about
Business and Finance in general so I
thought why not bring this little
unicorn in and just ask him a bunch of
questions and I posted a post from
Instagram asking you guys if you have
any specific questions I wanted to say
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go on it to look up things that has
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you're interested in I can't we can okay
so now let's get to the questions you
guys think you need a university
education to go into business well I
don't have a university education and I
definitely think that education is
valuable but I don't think that
especially in today's time where there's
so much information out there and you
can really learn things on your own
hands Skillshare I think any experience
in life is good I think the formal
education system is dated as of now so I
think that when I went to school which
was actually over 20 years ago there was
a lot stop it was a lot more irrelevant
and it used to be that the key to
success and the key
business success is education education
was always the way out but I don't
necessarily think it's the case now
because what's different now versus then
was that we have social media the world
is a much smaller place we're
communicating things a lot more so in my
opinion don't necessarily have to go to
university but I think it will help any
experience will help yes because in
formal education I feel that you learn
how to learn you learn about politics
and about what not to say what to say so
there's a lot of management time
management is superficial aspects of
formal education whether it's university
or college or even high school whatever
it may be yeah that are important but
I've met way too many successful
entrepreneurs who didn't go to
university to say it's crucial but I've
also met a walk without if you could get
your younger self advice about starting
a business what would it be well just
from what I recall going into my first
what I call my kind of reveal business
as opposed to like the hustles that I do
know as a kid to make money I would say
to aim higher I feel that I became
complacent in my business as you know at
the point where after a few years I was
making enough money that I considered
myself okay the advice I would go back
and give myself is that don't kick back
and start enjoying your success at the
early stages that's actually the time to
double down and look for more
opportunities and if you can't grow the
existing business model that you have go
outside of your business model look for
investments look for other businesses
look how you can leverage your existing
infrastructure that you have in your
business that's what I will suggest to
do don't get too comfortable and you
have to always always stay hungry
because if your business isn't growing
it will eventually employ themself can
you like just tell a little bit about
kind of your business history my first
job after my first year of university I
was pumping gas and I was making $7 an
hour before that when I was fifteen I
was making three dollars and sixty five
cents working at McDonald's and they
eventually fired me because they kept
demoting me the moment I start
off at the cashier because that's the
highest position and I would look good
at that they demoted me to hamburgers
and hamburgers was the second most
prestigious position this was like in
the eighties right so then they demoted
me from hamburgers to chicken nuggets
and the real journey began when when
everybody kept firing me from even like
the crappiest jobs because I'm
completely unemployable apparently I
have to give like kudos to McDonald's
that they try like they tried yeah they
didn't fire me right away they just kept
demoting me so then my first unit my
first job in the summer at university I
worked at I worked at a gas station
downtown not too far from here actually
and I pumped gas and there I was making
the big money I was making seven dollars
an hour I was like hustling hustling
trying to get tapes you know I would
clean the windshield and do all that
stuff and then yeah I just I realized
that I wasn't gonna work out either
during that summer I had a friend of
mine who was selling stuffed animals on
street corners and what he would do is
he became really really good at winning
them at the I think like at the fair all
right so he just became a master at
winning them so he was doing that I was
like okay great I know what he would do
is he would sit at street corners and he
would sell them he actually employed me
for a couple of weeks and he would she
would put me on the corner and I would
sit there and I would sell his stuffed
animals at the end of the day he'd come
and I'd see he'd have this big wad of
money and he'd take out my little piece
and he'd say you carry a good job I
don't like wheel behind it
I bet everything goes what's my
inventory it's my this is my that like
alright so then I ventured into the
stuffed animal business myself but my
hand-eye coordination is about as good
as yours so I instead of going and
trying to win them I borrowed a few
thousand dollars and I bought a twenty
five-year-old cargo van I went to the
fair and I got my hat my hands on them
and I look at the tag and I saw who
manufactured them so then I called a
manufacturer they
in Toronto I went over there and I said
hey coach - defected no much bottle of
gin wasn't like how much how much are
they and the guy would say okay well
this one is like three bucks three bucks
cool I think I could sell for ten cool
so I bought a bunch of those and then I
bought these other big monkeys and
that's like so announced tripping or oh
well no but I just copied right I saw
the other guy was doing it my only
Christ was that I just went in instead
of spending well instead of spending
months trying to hone my skills to win
this stuff at the fair I said screw it
I'm just gonna go and buy took a
shortcut instead of having to build up
this inventory plus when you're when
you're trying to win it you don't
control what you get yeah so I started
speculating - what inventory do I think
will do well
oh that white monkey that'll do well
that black dog that'll do well that
purple dinosaur was literally Barney how
old were you 21 and I tell you to this
day if I set up stuffed animals on
street corners we'll be making a stupid
money very well i think people Jake and
Ben no no it's too early for I tried to
convince your brother and your brother
I'm buying him he's concerned that
somebody would see him doing it and that
was the how do you break into an
industry that is overflowing with other
competitors every industry I've ever
been in I was never the first market but
we were always just we just did whatever
we had to do
I mean there's no secret to it you just
have to do your research see what those
other people do and how you can make it
better yeah I never want to reinvent the
wheel I want to improve it so I always
look for concepts that everyone already
even proven out I can see things that
are already doing well already at scale
and then once I identify that then I go
in and I use a handful of the businesses
that I've identified in a certain
industry I'll use those as a blueprint
and I will try and improve on those very
similar to what you're doing and you
yeah we I mean when I started it's like
it's a such a crazy industry just so
many people in it already but you know
we were sitting together and once we
decided you know this is a business and
this is our next business venture Gary's
like okay what's special about you like
what are your pillars what are you
bringing to the table and I think like
we started identifying what it is and
that's kind of what build you know the
brand and what we wanted to put out
there is it better to just start for the
sake of starting or should you wait
until every detail is planned no don't
wait start there's no we'll never be
perfect it'll never be perfect it's like
having kids it's never the perfect time
yeah you have to start putting a lot of
work learn from trying to learn learn
from execution iterate on improvements
and go back to executing again so you
said to be constantly be executing and
iterating executing in theory how do you
know when there's a risk that's worth
taking and a second part of that is how
do you know when it's time to kind of
get an idea we regarding a risk that's
worth taking you have to ask yourself
like what else do you have going on if
you've got nothing else going on go
ahead and take that risk you know risk
is different depending on the stage of
life you're at if you have other
responsibilities if you're let's say if
you're not married and you have no
responsibilities so different stages in
life of different you know you're gonna
have different risk tolerance failing is
not elects failing is your education
that's like where you learn so at that
stage in life definitely go for it if
you're at that stage where you do not
have immediate dependents or financial
responsibilities the only thing you're
risking is your good times at the
picaresque is not doing anything if you
want to be an entrepreneur and if you're
just sitting around and waiting for that
perfect moment it will never come yeah
so the risk you're actually wasting the
most precious currency which is time
which we you'll never be able to the
risk is doing nothing that's the real
how do you know when to give up but
that's a good question because how many
like
how many you know if you follow
motivational people like never give up
and this is how long it took and if you
want to be an entrepreneur giving up
doesn't exist you have to pivot so
there's a distinction that's been giving
up and pivoting pivoting you can do
consistently her little wisdom yeah
pivoting you can do you can and should
do all the time it's like with you
there's types of content that you put
out that doesn't work you pivot into
different kinds of content yes I mean
you've you've given up on this on
YouTube no you've given up let's say on
doing a segment that didn't work that
your audience didn't respond to so you
can give up on that but not giving up
you're pivoting yeah whereas giving up
meaning like throwing you know throwing
everything away shutting everything down
going home you're an entrepreneur pivot
there's no such thing as giving up how
do you decide what to invest your time
and energy into are you guys ever scared
of letting go of some dreams to pursue
another we identify what we want to
achieve and that's when we decide what
is the best thing that will bring us to
that goal so our goal is to have peace
our goal is to minimize stress in our
life healthy you know spend more time
with the kids so what can we do now that
will bring us closer to that how do you
deal with rejection especially in
business when you're starting out if you
know you have to make 50 presentations
to get to one sale then you know that
that rejection is just one step closer
to your goal so you just you keep doing
that the rejections you you just have to
have a thick skin forget about it and
know that you are now that much more
closer to achieving that that thing that
you wanted making that sale or achieving
whatever it is that you've set up it's
just reality the thing is you can't
fight reality and the reality is is
you're going to get rejected if you have
a problem with being rude getting
rejected either get out of business or a
learn to develop a thick skin you have
to control your thoughts and put it and
learn from the the rejection why did you
get rejected what did you do wrong when
going into that meeting what could you
have done better tape the benefit out of
it which is the lesson and you move on
to the next
she can't handle the rejection just move
on to something else hi Felicia
how do you guys in business deal with
situations that are on plans that's
every moment of business at seventh
moment of life again it's it's it's it's
acceptance is like you have to surrender
to the fact that everything is in chaos
at all times and the only constant is
the fact that everything is always
changing so as soon as you accept that
and I had a heart it's not it's a lot
easier said than done and I still have a
hard time accepting the reality of some
situations but you just bear down and
you and you get through it you you
accept the changes in the chaos do exist
how do you start investing for yourself
at a young age to set yourself up for a
business so I think with the investment
because I saw a lot of the questions
they come from a lot of girls that are
like in college that have debts to ask
about that how to deal with that and
stuff like that so I actually made a
video with Shannon Lee Simmons who is a
financial advisor she actually also
wrote a book I'm gonna link it below but
she answered a lot of those questions so
if you're a young girl and you want to
learn how to make a budget how to deal
with that you're out of school and you
want to figure out you know if you need
to invest what you need to invest in she
gave so much amazing tips and the book
in general is such an amazing source to
answer all your questions so I'm gonna
put this here here and you guys can
check that video and I'm gonna also link
her book in the description what's the
most difficult part about becoming an
entrepreneur and on the other side of
that why is it so rewarding because when
it's good it's so good but when it's bad
it's terrible I think that the rewarding
part about being an entrepreneur is that
you create something of your own and you
see how it affects people look for me
personally when I create a piece of
content and I see that people resonate
with it or they like you know a product
or they like something it's just it just
puts you on such an amazing level of
like you feel like you brought some
value you feel like you have a purpose
that's what keeps me going and that's
said that's like the reason why I choose
to keep doing it even when you know I
get the periods where it's just it feels
sucks and I feel drain and I don't have
energy and I have nothing else to give
but that's what keeps driving me to you
know get over it and keep doing what I
do so what are your best tips for
getting the word out about a new
business and creating a strong community
social media content content content is
the currency attention is the currency
so if you have a if you're selling I
don't know if you're selling coffee
create a platform which is a combination
of YouTube Instagram Facebook snapchat
whatever maybe do a channel about your
product or service not selling it but
but talking on and adding value so
content is really the key yeah I think
social media today is you have you can
be in charge of you know how much
exposure you get how much content just
need to create things that people who
care about and I think that's actually
such an amazing time I feel it for
brands there's so many little brands
that just blew out from it
so I definitely think they can advantage
of that it's really important have you
become respected in business especially
a very young entrepreneur once you prove
to people that you can back up what
you're talking about
that's it you can't come in be like it's
the market money one better you can
respect the markets the market it
doesn't matter if somebody's coming to
me with a business proposal and they're
50 or they're 20 if you're coming and
offering me something of value that I
can use and leverage to improve my
business it doesn't matter to me if
you're 20 yeah it doesn't matter to me
how old you are it's not a it's not a
thing don't worry about that worry about
actually creating value versus what you
look like that makes an effort that was
really awesome good jumping thank you
guys so much for all your questions if
you have anything else please put it in
the description box and we'll answer it
and let us know if you want to hear more
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you