61: How this Entrepreneur Rebuilt His Career After a $6.5M Bankruptcy Loss and is THRIVING

Behind Their Success: Ep 61

Paden: Andy Buyting

Andy: [00:00:00] imagine getting this phone call. And it was the receivers calling saying, you know, banks rejected your offer.

we're coming in to shut down. The business sees all the assets. If you want to tell your staff you have a half an hour, we'll be there in 30 minutes. And that was the call. I got on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 

Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome back to Behind Their Success podcast. I'm Peyton Squires, the host, and this morning we have on Andy Biting. He is a two time international bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, strategic advisor. He is a leader in business development and marketing and has helped businesses grow all over North America with his integrated print and digital marketing strategies. Andy, welcome on the show.

Andy: I'm excited to be here. 

Paden: Yeah, absolutely. Andy. 

 So tell me, you know, you say you guys are about 10 years old. tell me a little history 

Andy: Yeah. So the whole idea came, you know, people often ask, so what was the inspiration of the business? And. I grew up in family business and we were in the [00:01:00] retail home and garden space. And I remember in the early nineties, I started in my, my father's business at the time.

I started collecting mailing addresses because there's no such thing as email back then. So I started collecting mailing addresses and we started doing our own newsletters and it was by far. The most effective marketing that we did as a company was, staying connected with our customers, you know, allowing them to hear the latest and greatest news and influencing, their thinking around home and garden.

And so we did quarterly newsletters for a long time, And in the two thousands, I met, I went to a program at MIT called birthing of giants. And, and the facilitator, the person that ran it was a gentleman by the name of Vern Harnish. And Vern wrote the book, mastering the Rockefeller habits.

He's later written scaling up and, uh, really became a fan of his methodology and he was, his teachings, and he's become a [00:02:00] lifelong mentor and kind of an advisor of mine. And. I remember in the early days, Vern saying, own the ink in your industry. That's what he said. Own the ink in your industry.

Whatever your customers are reading, have it come from you. I remember chatting with him one night. He said, what is that? How would you see that translate for my business? You know, this is what we're doing. He said, you're kind of, you're already doing it. You're doing it with the newsletters. You were doing content marketing before it was a word on paper and it was done in two color and it went out through the mail system.

And he said, If you really want to own the ink in your industry, he said, why don't you start publishing a series of books or publish your own gardening magazine? And I thought, wow, that's interesting. So, we came back, talked to the team and decided to upgrade our 8 page, 2 colored newsletter to a 32 page full color magazine.

And then I remember 1 of the young ladies working with me in the office, she said. I bet, you know, Scott's Fertilizer. I bet [00:03:00] Crocs. I bet some of the suppliers that we sold a lot of their products. I bet they would sponsor this magazine. So, long story short, we went from sending out these 2 color, 8 page newsletters quarterly to sending out 32 page, full color magazines.

So 30, 000 people for less money than we were doing the newsletters for because some ad sponsorship and that's kind of where it started. And what was interesting is as we were doing them for a couple of years, they were getting the attention. They were gaining the attention of other garden centers in Canada.

Like people were just. Coming to me that I'd never met, never knew before they, you know, a lot back in that, those times, a lot of people did newsletters, but they said, you know, tell me about this magazine program. I hear you're doing it like cheaper than I'm sending out these newsletters and flyers and everything else so I share with them and there was a lot of interest.

So I hesitated for a long time. Like, no, we're retailers first and we doing this on the side but. one fellow convinced me, he [00:04:00] said, why don't you come up, put together a program, come up and pitch it to our group. And if there's lots of interest, then maybe there's something there.

Well, I went up and I thought, you know, if I have 5 or 6 garden centers that are really interested and willing to put down the money to, to invest in this, maybe there's an opportunity here. Well, after like a 20 minute pitch, I had purchased orders from 14 garden centers with a total distribution of over half a million magazines in our very first print run.

And I thought, holy,

Paden: Well, look what I found.

Andy: story short that spun out over a few years that spun out into a whole separate business. And that's where I focus my time now is in the, in the marketing space. With tool of media, and we started doing magazines for garden centers. Then my insurance guy said that garden magazine that you're doing, could you do 1 for business and do it for, for my company?

So I can expand my commercial insurance business [00:05:00] and said, sure, I know enough about business. I can put together a content calendar and so on and, um, started doing it there. And then we did get into just. Now we're doing magazines for a lot of associations, industry associations to, insurance agencies, to law firms, to consulting agencies, to manufacturing companies, to you name it, we're doing magazines.

And that of course, you know, led into the, the digital side of things too. So

Paden: Yeah.

I see where your name to look. Media came from, right? Is that is that from the, uh, the garden center?

Andy: The garden center, and I have to be honest, we, uh, when I came up with it, it's a little, nod to my, ancestors. My family's all Dutch, so

tulips. And also we always say we help you become, and that's the, the jacket I have on. There's one red tulip in a sea of yellow. So we help you stand out, become the red tulip in a sea of yellow.

Paden: Yeah, and it's, it's kind of interesting. You're right. Like, you came on to that in the nineties or whatnot. And like, [00:06:00] that's still what everybody does today. Just in a little different form, right? Just generally,

right.

A whole lot more of it has, has gone digital But it really was true. You were doing content marketing before anybody even knew what that was. And

that is something in my business I've focused on. Yeah. You know, in the last last few years and that's, you know, kind of what this podcast is about, I have personal branding and, and, and different things like that.

And it's really to, just share yourself, be authentic, and paint yourself as an authority of the subject. Right? I mean, I think that's really the, the value.

Andy: Yeah. I remember Vern saying, you know, he said, every CEO, everyone in this room should write a book. And, you don't have to be an English major or a really talented writer. It's your ideas. You know, you know, your industry, you know, you know, you're an expert in what you do. Right? Malcolm Gladwell and, you know, his book outliers said that the 10, 000 hour rule.

Well, yeah. If you work in your field and you focus on your field, whatever that might be for 5 years, that's 10, 000 hours. Like, [00:07:00] you know, more than 99 percent of the population out there. So if you can share your knowledge through content and, you know, I'll be honest with you. We, we do this for our clients is I'm not an English major.

Never was. And if I write an article or a book, like an article would take me all day and it wouldn't be that good.

I know. Yeah. My ideas are, have some merit. So what I do is, you know, record, my thoughts into a recording app, send it off to my ghost writer. She writes it up much faster than I ever went and much more beautifully than I ever went.

It hits the points. So being an authority in your marketplace doesn't mean you have to be a writer. You just have to get your knowledge on paper somehow. ChatGPT does this really 

Paden: Never been easier than today. 

Andy: been easier, that's right. You still need a good editor.

So our, our ghost writers have now kind of morphed into really good editors because you still need the human in the loop to make sure you drive home the points you want to drive home [00:08:00] for your business. But, you know, AI is even making this easier to, to execute. So there's no reason why, you know, everyone can't be a published author.

Whether it be in their own magazine, or someone else's magazine, or their own book. By being a published author, you are deemed as an expert in your industry. It's had authority marketing, right?

Paden: And I, you know, I, oh, years ago I put together a few little eBooks like that. And it was generally just content marketing. And you know what, like I don't ever promote the books and they're probably a little outdated at this point, but like. I make like 20 bucks a month off those books on Windsor, and it's, and it's been doing, you know, I spent like, you know, a couple hundred bucks in a, in a several hours, um, years ago on that. And I still get paid 20 bucks a month, and, and more importantly, it's not even about the money and those types of things. Honestly, I should probably just give them away. Um, but it's, it's, it's really the authority and the, that I can put the term author behind my name.

Andy: Yeah. [00:09:00] And with our books and, with our magazines, when you can hand somebody a copy of your own magazine or your own book, it's done its job. It's, Position you as an authority in your marketplace and even our own books, you know, I'm, I'm with you.

I've given away a lot more than I've, you know, that have sold because we bring them to conferences and we give them away by the box load and it's not, you know, not the goal of making the, whatever it is, 10, 20 per book. The goal is to get it out there and when people need what you're doing, they think of you 1st,

Paden: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, um, I don't know if you've ever listened to Alex Ramosi. He's a big, you know, obviously huge business guy on, on the internet. and, and that's his whole thing is like the stuff he works on and gives away free to his listeners and followers is better than. You know, stuff that sold for 10, 000, you know what I mean?

He gives so much value to his, people that, his actual business, you know, and he's looking for very few people there and very specialized people there [00:10:00] that, all the deals just flow to him and 

Andy: and that's just it, you know, people. when you read about sales, you learn about sales, it's really, it's nearly impossible to hit the person at the exact right time when they're in a buying decision mode, because, you know, let's say for your services, I remember, you know, reading one time, this was one author's opinion, but, a person that will buy your services, they only really are thinking about purchasing your services.

You know, there's a 3 percent chance that you actually. Connect with them at the time that they're making that decision. So what you want to do is you want to influence their thinking so that they have, they've received value from you for months, years, whatever the timeframe is long before they actually need to make that buying decision so that, when you think of things that you don't buy often, whether it's vehicles or insurance or whatever, When the time comes that you're in the buying decision with the vehicles once every five, four or five years, let's say, well, when [00:11:00] you think, when you make the decision, okay, you know what I need to, I need to upgrade or get another vehicle, you know, chances of a, of a, of an advertiser hitting you right in that moment is slim to nil, you're going to go to the dealership that you're most comfortable with the brand that you already have a good feeling around, you know, that's where you're going to start at least.

And that branding, that, that authority marketing, you know, that, branding is built over a period of time. It's not right in the moment, so that's what publishing content, whether it's on a blog, the other thing too, if you're going to write content, put it out there.

In multiple formats, so whenever we work with a client partner on their magazine, every article is written to be keyword optimized. That's it's all strategically planned out. That's why you got to review chats, uh, content too, because the chat won't necessarily do it. Well, You write content that's keyword [00:12:00] optimized, put it in your magazine, put it on your blog, put it in a linkedin article, you know, put it out there in multiple formats. we now one of the biggest growing little small, Offering and the digital side is when we write articles because we write hundreds of articles a month for client partners is, for a little upcharge.

We can actually rewrite the script and create a video out of it. So you can actually get again. It's that 1 idea that 1 concept paid. Maybe you have for your audience that you get out there in multiple ways because everybody consumes content in different ways. And when they do, and they need your services.

They think of you 1st.

Paden: And it's all, you're right. It's all about being top of mind. Right. And when that moment, that moment arises, it's like, you notice all the big brands of the world, it's like. I don't know, think of like beer, like Bud Light or even like Coca Cola or Pepsi or whatever. It's like, their marketing is such playing the long game. [00:13:00] You know what I mean? It is such a long game, right? It's not like, hey, buy this now, right? It is. Hey, here's our brain. Here's things that are associated with it. You know, when you're watching football, you think about life it's such a long term game that so many people that are in this like short marketing they're doing of like, you know, hunting and killing and trying to just call the actions and all those things.

And there's a time and space for some of that stuff. And depending on what business you're in, but like the branding, that is where real value comes from and allows you to. have premium pricing, right? People are, you can have premium prices because people like you and want to work with you. And it's, it, and the trust is there, right? The sales process, like, you know, as a person that puts out a lot of marketing and nurtures a lot of people, like. My sales is very much not high pressure or anything is because people already quote, unquote, know me,

right.

The trust is already.

Andy: Yeah. And even if you're doing the [00:14:00] short term, like, you're doing sales calls, you know, somebody says, okay, that's interesting. I'll send me some samples when you can send some samples of the work you do. Most companies do that, but if you can also include here, you know, here's a free copy of our book.

That talks about marketing, or here's a, here's a free copy of our own magazine. though it's a, it's a short sales tactic that you're using by including this content that you're creating, uh, you know, customized magazine or, or, book or sort of, uh, authority marketing piece.

You know, if you're getting free proposals. And one of them is coming from a published author, you know, then you kind of lean towards, they may actually know what they're talking about more than the others do.

Paden: Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's it's it's just that authority, right? So, Andy, you know, kind of looking back, you've, you know, obviously grown successful business. What would you say is your best skill? 

Andy: this is an interesting journey that I've had paid because [00:15:00] I, I've come to realize, I always tell people, you know, it's really important in life to know what you're good at and equally as important to know what you're not good at and it only took me 50 years to figure that out.

Paden: Probably about 35.

Andy: And, you know, yeah, go away and ask people to go away and figure it out, you know, in one session is, uh, sometimes difficult, but so myself, I'm really good at strategy and it's interesting because one of my partners, you know, he, he said it best. He said, you're, you're great startup guy, you can take an idea, whether that's a new business, or it's a new market, or it's a new product that you want to do.

And where I'm really skilled at, what I, what I'm really good at is taking an idea, making it actually come to fruition. So he said, you're a guy who can take an idea, you can build the car, get it on the track, in the race, and actually racing. [00:16:00] However, if you don't get someone else in the driver's seat soon afterwards.

You'll get bored and 

Paden: Yeah, you're going to run off and whatever. Yeah,

Andy: you'll want to see what that car can do off road. And, um, so that's been, when I look back, that's been the history of my business career. And. As soon as I started really embracing it, you know, a few years ago, as an example, you know, I, I came to the realization I'm unapologetic about it.

I'm a really great startup guy strategy guy, but I'm not a good operator. I'm not a good business operator and it's weird for a business. See your

Paden: Yeah, yeah.

To admit that

right? Yeah, yeah. 

Andy: it is, but I'll tell you, for those entrepreneurs out there, I see that in a lot of entrepreneurs. They're good. Startup people.

They will take an idea and they'll get it going a tool of media. For instance, we get it going and it grew really fast in the early years and then it kind of plateaued for a couple for a few years. And that's when I made the decision to, I, I should not be the [00:17:00] operator here. So we hired a president about two, three years ago.

And since then, now, okay, we got this car, it works well, it's competing really well. it's in the race and performing well, but we know it can go the long haul. But I just know enough about myself. I'm not going to be the person to do that. So Trevor now is our company president and he's operating it and, moving it forward and growing it.

I still get involved in the strategy and the way we, we work it as he owns the profit loss. I own the balance sheet.

So that's, you know, if it hits the profit loss, it's his baby. Obviously we all need to agree. if it's has to do with the balance sheet, it's my, it's my baby.

And that's how we split up responsibilities. And, um, it works really, really well. And the business has grown substantially. Our average deal used to be 40 to 45, 000 a year. It's now grown well north of that six figures, the average [00:18:00] deal. and it's going really, really well. because everybody in the company to now has, a leader with some consistency,

Paden: Clear roles, right?

Andy: their roles, consistency, and they're moving forward and they're making it happen.

And our client partners, like, our NPS score is 100. Like, we cannot find anyone that does not rate us 9 or 10 out of, um, you know, the last time we did 1, I think, 38 reviews or something. So, 

Paden: And for the listeners, what he's talking about there is net promoter score, or NPS.

Andy: Net promoter score is a hundred and, and that means that everybody's rating either nine or 10, like everybody, every client that we have. And, uh, you know, yeah. Production's going well, sales are going well, it's profitable and profit's growing, faster in sales, which is nice as a percentage.

but it only took me 50 years to figure that out.

Paden: You know, I found it really interesting, you know, as an accountant by trade. you're talking about [00:19:00] splitting the roles based off the income statement or the, or the balance sheet. And I, I had just, I'd never thought of it in that term before. but it's, uh, I can see that. Right? Uh, your operations guy, your, your, you may call him your, your integrator.

Right? He owns the, incoming expenses and the balance sheet. You're owning much more of the assets, the liability, and the dr you know, really the direction, the overall direction, which a lot of, like I said, the balance sheet has shown a lot of the history of that and, and, the proof of that going forward, that, that's kind of an interesting concept.

Andy: Yeah, and the way it translates itself, because I've had people say, what does that mean? Like, practically, what does that mean? My short answer is he's in charge of making profits. I decide how those profits are invested.

Paden: Yeah. 

Andy: So, but I mean, in practical terms, you know, we, we've got into a rhythm where every quarter we have a conversation, which is, Here's how the performance from last quarter and the profits that were made.

here's the budget or the, the latest business estimate for the next quarter. And then we talk about, okay, the profits that were made last quarter, and he always makes a pitch and says, [00:20:00] okay. we actually follow profit first met methodology that Michael, Mike McCullough, it's talks about, but, uh, you know, so we siphon all the profits off every quarter and then, you know, that's what I own and he makes a pitch and says, I want to grow into this market.

I want to try to work on these strategic partnerships and I need an investment of this much. So he pitches those ideas and myself and, um. I have a couple minority partners, but we get together and we say, okay, here's the ideas for investment and, um, what are we gonna do with the profits? And, you know, profits go in one of three buckets.

They either get reinvested in the p and l and give it back to Trevor. So he invests in, in hires new, other marketing people or salespeople, or invest in these conferences or whatever the case might be. you give it to the p and l, You strengthen the balance sheet. So you do that by paying off your debt.

We're fortunately we're debt free, but, you know, we build up a war chest. And so that's strengthening the balance sheet, or [00:21:00] it's distributed as dividends to the partners. So it's very strategic he runs the day to day and I'm not involved in that virtually.

I just get updates once a week, where we do have good deep discussions is what are we going to invest in 

Paden: Mm-hmm 

Andy: Where are we going to grow the business? Where do we see it going? and what does that look like and how much investment does it require? What does that mean for the, for the company?

And, I have the final say in that one.

Paden: Yeah, yeah. And I think what you're describing there and what I think is rare or what impresses me about what you described there is the intentionality, right? Like, you're very intentional about, okay, cash is generated. Let's talk about where it's invested. Does it make sense to leave it in the business and invest in ABC? Does it make sense to just like, oh, no, let's just take it as a distribution. It's best to just distribute it. And that, that level of intentionality in businesses, like. doesn't exist. You know what I mean? And that's not [00:22:00] true. But like, very few people are having that type of,

Andy: and we, we follow the profit first methodology where we physically siphon the profits off, you know, we build all our clients the 1st of the month, by the 10th profits are siphoned off. So there's a separate account with that balance and we look at it and say, okay. What are we doing with this this quarter?

Paden: yeah, that's your, your worst chest, your nest egg to say, Hey, where is the best? Yeah, where's the best place to put these dollars to get us the best return? Right? That's

awesome. 

Andy: Yeah, no, and it works really well.

Paden: So, you know, looking back through your career, tell me one of the best decisions you've made.

Andy: Well, I think, uh, you know, the best decision is, and like I said, it took me 50 years to figure that out. and it is to know what you're good at and what you're not good at. So that one is one of them. Another one that'll share with you is, and, and actually that's what we open our, our book with the Double Sales Zero Salespeople, is we call it the Great Pivot of 2019 and.

what it [00:23:00] was was, you know, we were growing the business. And like I said, we had grown really quickly for 3, 4 years, like, it was exponential growth. And then it plateau for about 2 years. We're going into our 3rd year and not happy with where how it was running. And I remember, at that time, I listened to it was actually a good friend of mine.

he spoke at a business group that I belong to and he's from Denver and he talked about how he completely flipped his business on its head and, completely changed his go to market strategy. Now, he's in the high end, construction renovation business, but he. Let go of his entire sales team and let designers work with a really good automated marketing process and allowed the designers, the home designers to be the sales team.

So, take the pressure off the buying experience by letting the potential customers work with a designer and then, and then just do do a soft close. Anyway, long [00:24:00] story short, in the early days, we were growing by smiling and dialing.

We had, we had grown a sale team about 7 people and sales manager and a whole team costing a million dollars a year and, um, they were not producing results. It was, it was a losing battle. And I remember at that time with my partners, I said, we've got to change something drastically, or this is we're just not going to survive.

Paden: Yeah. 

Andy: not going to work. we were not growing fast enough and we were burning too much cash trying, trying to grow. So. After a lot of discussions, it was, it was not a decision that was taken lightly at all. It took several weeks to come up with the plan, but there's 1 Wednesday afternoon. I came in and let the entire sales team go all at once

Paden: Scary. Yeah.

Andy: I ever made.

And the way I put it is that we had the courage. Looking back, we had the courage to destroy something that was good in the pursuit of something that was great. And I remember getting the team together afterwards. we [00:25:00] were a company of about 14 people, 7 of them were salespeople.

So we let go 50 percent of that workforce and 1, 1 day in 2019 came back with the rest of the team and explain what I did. What the reasons for the fact that, you know, my 2 minority partners were involved in the decision. It was not on my own. and our plan for moving forward. And at the time, we had a young marketing intern who what I appreciated about him is he was not afraid to try anything.

He just kept trying, iterating, trying different things. And I said, we're going to, you know, at that time, we were getting into digital marketing in a big way with our client partners. I said, we're going to. Put all our eggs in that marketing basket using our magazines or authority marking that we had been doing for a long time, but then using more direct tactics through digital marketing and.

And then people say, well, who's, who are going to make the sales calls? So, well, that's where you guys come in. So [00:26:00] over the last, you know, number of years, I noticed client partners love talking to the project managers, to the designers, you know, graphic designers. So on, because you guys are the ones, you know, that's where their creative juices flow and, and you bring them energy and they, they just love talking to you.

So when, when sales calls come in through the website, now we're not going to make an outbound sales call. when interested parties come through our website, you guys are going to take the call and you're going to talk about it because, you know, the process better than anyone you're going to talk to them about what's possible and the, the colors and the designs and, you know, how much fun you're going to have creating these projects and.

Yeah. the time comes that the other person's excited about it too. Here's your closing line is look, Peyton. We would love to get started on this project with you. it's a positive response, get it in the calendar and then say. You know what, if you're all good and you're good with the pricing and everything, I'll have, you know, our accountant, uh, send a [00:27:00] contract over and we've got our meeting book to launch your project two weeks from Thursday or whatever.

And that was it. I would come in sometimes close on some of the larger deals, but you know, it was interesting. We had, um, we were going into our planning session at the time and we always set up sales. Goal for the quarter and I remember I said, I think we should keep it the same as what it was last quarter, right?

The person banged on the table. Don't set us up for failure. I said, no, no, trust me. You know, we're already starting, you know, this marketing intern has got some things going, you know, getting a lot of attention and wouldn't, you know, it about a week before 10 days before our quarter ended, we hit our sales quota for the first time in 18 months.

Paden: Yeah, with half the people, yeah,

Andy: and they said, well, you know, this is going to make us too busy. I said, we'll hire more production people. We'll take sales calls. And, um, that was probably one of the best decisions that we [00:28:00] made in, you know, uh, in the growth of the company. It was a hard decision. And that's the best one to our hardest.

Paden: you know, I'm, man, I'm, I'm so in the middle of something similar like this, of a very real pivot in my business and yeah, it's scary. I mean, I've, uh, you know, I did CPA trade, ran my own business for over a decade and, you know, I've built up my business in a very traditional CPA firm type way. And really trying to transition to different styles of work. And, um, I have to have a lot of hard conversations, have a lot of, you know, and, I'm a relationship guy and I've built relationships with hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs and, so many of them now are just not going to be along for the ride. Moving forward and, and that's fine just because they have different needs and where I'm going, it's, it's, it's probably not gonna work. Um, but like the same time does make it less scary. but it's really, you know, it's helped me that, you know, I'm working with a [00:29:00] consulting company. That's, you know, it's obviously been through this process a million times.

So I'm just sitting here trying to let go. I'm like, whatever you guys say, I'm just going to do it. And, uh, but it's still, you know, it still doesn't make it a little, any less scary in the

Andy: No. And I think that Wednesday afternoon paid to be honest with you. I think I cried more than they did because there were some good friendships there, like it was, I shed more tears than, than anyone. It was a tough, tough, tough afternoon. But when you know something deep inside is the right decision, you have to.

You have to follow through with it.

Paden: Yeah, yeah, that's great. So now on the flip side of that, Andy, tell me one of the big old mistakes you've made.

Andy: Uh, I've made several mistakes. so the biggest one is the one that caused me to reinvent my, entrepreneur career is in the family business again. I took it over in 1998, purchased it from my, my father, my parents, and I grew it very quickly. We grew it six fold over a period of about 10 years.

but it was a [00:30:00] tough industry, when the 2008, 2009. The whole financial fallout happened with the banking system and so on that affected us in a very direct way, because the banks change their lending policies. We no longer qualified for the loan. So, long story short, we, you know,

Paden: Street Capital.

Andy: they called everything and it was about 6 and a half million dollars at the time.

So, for us, it was a big, big number for our small business and, um, but when I look at it, you know, it's easy to it's You know, people say, always, you know, it was not your fault. It was the banks. I said, no, you know, I've always taken responsibility for my decisions. I said, I was the one who was over leveraged.

Like, I should never have been in that situation. So that in 2008, everything started happening and unrolling but that long story short, you know, we, we went through bankruptcy protection, but we lost that business in 2010 took 2 years because we. Sorry, running and I remember when I told the staff, everybody that I said, you know, [00:31:00] we, it feels like we've been running, you know, this, this pit bull was chasing after us for the last 2 years.

And we've been running, running, running, trying to run it. We're not out running it. So we're going to stop in our tracks. We're turning around. We're facing this thing and that's through bankruptcy protection restructuring. And so we're either going to come out the other end fully intact. Half intact or not intact at all.

And unfortunately, the latter, uh, is what happened. So we, we lost the whole business and, um, it all came down to, I shared their story at a presentation at local university here a couple, couple of weeks ago, and I started to talk with, I said, imagine getting this phone call. And it was the receivers calling saying, you know, banks rejected your offer.

Um, we're coming in to shut down. The business sees all the assets. If you want to tell your staff you have a half an hour, we'll be there in 30 minutes. And that was the call. I got on Tuesday, April 13, 2010[00:32:00] 

Paden: man. And I was, uh, I was a senior in college then. Um, yeah, man, I, I can't imagine. Right. You know, and, and the awesome thing is though, it's like, I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs, right. And it's amazing. The, the, the quote unquote, more successful ones are ones that have grown even larger and larger things. How many of them have lost everything? Maybe even multiple times. Um,

Andy: you know, it's it's 75, 80 percent or more have lost everything or very, very close to it at some point,

Paden: yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man, that's wild. So Andy, last question for you, man. What, you know, I say going back to that day, when you say April 2010, what piece of advice would you give that man from your perspective?

Andy: you know, actually, it would be the piece of advice that I received from my mentor that same day. Because I call 1 of my [00:33:00] mentors, this guy sold an engineering firm had 5 corporate planes. So it was very successful, but he lost everything when he was 42. and I remember he said, um. may not see this right now, but you've just gone through the most expensive, but the most effective business PhD program you can ever attend.

And by definition, an entrepreneur is somebody who makes things happen. So. Every setback, you just got to keep putting one foot in front of the next. And every setback will just make you stronger. And I know it's a cliche, but it is. And you'll look back.

He said, someday you're going to look back and you're going to be grateful that this happened for you. It didn't happen to you. It happened for you. So every setback think of, know, how do I make this? Really bad situation becomes something that in a year's time, two years time or six months time, I can look back and say that happened for me and I'm so glad it did.

Paden: Yeah.

Man, yeah, 

Andy: one I would say.

Paden: yeah, that's g not, [00:34:00] not just to keep tak to me, but that's, that's see things that even happ or I was in the middle of is this? You know, and li difficult to deal with. A Oh, that was what absolutely had, and I'm grateful for it, like truly grateful because I can, I can look back and already connect the dots.

I'm like, wow, actually, um, so it's, uh, it's amazing, right? You can always, it's really hard in the middle of it, but always trying to remember that, like, you know, you've survived everything before and really everything you've experienced is propelled you for right. And it's trying to have that like anti fragile type.

Yeah. personality that, you know, someone punches you, it actually makes you stronger.

Andy: Yeah, and I love that term anti fragile, you know, a lot of young people, uh, you know, have a [00:35:00] hard time with that, you know, and I really, you know, two teenage kids myself, you know, I really try to instill that anti fragility. It's okay to get hit down. It's okay to be knocked down. It's okay to be set back, you know, and to go through struggles.

I, I love it when they go through stresses when it's good stresses, right? Because it'll just make them stronger next 

Paden: Yeah. And that's a tough thing for entrepreneurs, right? Some, some level successful entrepreneurs, your kids, like It's like, what do we expose them to? You know, we want to protect them. But then at the same time, what the crap me and my wife went through as kids, like my kids don't experience at all.

Like, and it's amazing. Like You know, I'm in the mastermind group too. And we were just in Mexico for four or five days just last week. And, uh, the amazing thing is like everybody in that circle has like serious childhood that has

like, you know what I mean? There's like propelled them, you know, to, to be the just. Badass as they are today,

um, because they, you know, they harnessed that and figured out how to 

Andy: Yeah, for sure.

Paden: Andy [00:36:00] man. It's been a great conversation What is the best way people can connect with you or follow you or get to get to know you a little better?

Andy: well, you can connect with me on linkedin. I'm not overly active on social. I know it should be, but I'm not. Um, but, you know, connect with me on linkedin. It's Andy biting. B. U. Y. T. I. N. G. Or, on our website. 

 TM. media forward slash double sales named after the book. and there you can actually book, you know, there's a few offerings there, but one of them is to book like a half an hour call. Cause I love talking business. Marketing strategy, whatever, and if they want to go there, you can actually book a half hour call and I love getting those calls.

It's just a, it's a fun way to spend spend a half an hour. So

Paden: That's 

Andy: they can reach out to me there 

Paden: Awesome. Andy. I appreciate you coming on the show anything you want to leave for the listeners.

Andy: just keep going. Uh, touched on at the very end is believe that. You know, the world that you'll be successful, believe that what you need in the world will come to you. And it's amazing when you have those [00:37:00] setbacks, they look at it and look at it with enthusiasm and say, you know, I'm so grateful that this is happening because what's my lesson in this.

I'm going to learn something and this is going to be exciting and it's funny how the world, you know, the universe provides when you look at it and and through that lens and expect good things to happen and do the work. To make it happen. So stay positive keep moving forward

Paden: Awesome, Andy I appreciate you listeners. We'll catch you next time