Episode 58 - Entrepreneurship VS Corporate

Nicky Saunders  0:01  
whats poppin whats poppin whats poppin. Welcome to nicky and moose, I'm Nicky, that's moose. What’s up moose?

Mostafa Ghonim  0:08  
What up y'all?

Nicky Saunders  0:09  
And we are on episode 58 sir and ma'am, sir and ma'am, yes sir and ma'am, I realized that this inclusive Yeah, everybody's for everybody. But on this episode we're going to, of course, talk about Jay Z. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Talk about some of Brianna's moves. And a entrepreneur living legend. I'm gonna I'm gonna say entrepreneur, living legend whiz kid Daymond John himself and much more. How do we feel about this episode?

Mostafa Ghonim  0:49  
Honestly, I'm excited to get back to the breakdown. We kind of got a little you know, it's been a it's been a couple episodes since we got to break down. So nah this is gonna be fun. We get back to the breakdown.

Nicky Saunders  0:58  
Yeah, so let's get into his intro.

Jaymie Jordan  1:02  
Two kids from Queens. Cut from a different cloth. Now joining forces helping you to elevate your personal brand. Yeah, I'm talking about Nicky and moose, bringing you a never before seen perspective into the mindset, the mentality, the behaviors, the driving force, but more importantly, the stories behind the people and brands that you know and love the most.

Nicky Saunders  1:31  
And you already know what time it is. It is the review of the week. And we're keeping this very simple because they did if you don't listen to this podcast, you're losing

Mostafa Ghonim  1:50  
Don't be don't be a loser. Come on. 

Nicky Saunders  1:54  
so shout out to everybody who leaves us a review on Apple podcasts and Apple not Apple podcast chasers. chasers chaser podcast chasers. Thank you We appreciate it. We read them all we love you guys and shout out to all our new audio and video people and all our events feel me moose How are we feeling?

Mostafa Ghonim  2:23  
Pretty good. Pretty good. A spoke about coming back from Florida on the live show. Yeah, nothing. Yeah, nothing. Nothing eventful has happened since then. But things are good. I mean, um, yeah. Doing well. Overall. Can't complain short, too short to the point. Okay. All right. Yeah.

Nicky Saunders  2:42  
Great. Thanks.

Mostafa Ghonim  2:44  
Very good. Thank you for coming. 

Nicky Saunders  2:48  
The people are like, yes. Moose is getting transparent. We're back on. Yep. I'm good. Yeah, nothing.

Mostafa Ghonim  2:56  
Things are great. Oh, man, I love it.

Nicky Saunders  3:01  
Well, I'm great. Hello. Um, I'm going to the conello fight. This is being recorded. Before to conello  Fight, which is Saturday, November six. All right. live and direct shout out to CJ and e and Josh and Mal who made all that happen They all had a role in that. so I'm super excited. I haven't been to Vegas since my mom said 15. I say 17. But my mom said Wow. 15. So yeah, she took me like three times before I was legal. I don't know how this works. So I was all into the arcades. Yeah, I was all in. So I had like, several suitcases of just stuffed animals. I was I was winning. I was like, how mom could do slots. I'm out here with stuffed animals and what feel me?

Mostafa Ghonim  4:00  
Yeah, yeah, I think definitely. Yeah, definitely. If you if you had parents that were into the gambling life, you definitely are a kid of the casinos because you couldn't go into casino even if you were just gonna watch so your butt was going to the arcade Yeah, absolutely.

Nicky Saunders  4:15  
Now hope you had a good arcade. If not. You had that room that had like a racing car, a pin ball , and like a fighting game and maybe basketball. That's it. That's the life I live but let's get into this episode. On this what's popping section, look at me sounding all proper. You know what I mean? Come with it. We are going to be talking about Yes. Jay Z. Jay Z is now inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Qualified off of his first year, first year, but 25 years since I'm not sure when it's supposed to air, but of course, you know, people pulled out their phones and got some of this acceptance speech, and he shouted out somebody that I want to talk a little bit about. But I also want to talk a little bit about the acceptance speech. So let's get right into it

Jay Z  5:29  
what one of the greatest I don’t want no problems LL like, yeah Yo, you are the greatest . And then, you know, I look back at some of those raps. And it was like, stuffing you making some, I'm bringing a break, it was trash. But somehow we know. And I recorded a demo, and I went to every single record company. And you know what they say, right? Trash. But the audacity of hip hop. We didn't believe them. After not one second got depressed. For one second. I didn't change my course, was like, we don't create our company. And this company called Rockefeller records, child to be one no, we don't see. I can never ratioed accomplishments and appreciation.

Nicky Saunders  6:40  
Major, thats major. Um, so there's, like two parts of this. Me, right. The confidence of this is trash. I believe it's amazing. And I believe that we really have something, but it's trash. And then when you hear it from other people, that it's trash, and yet you still have the confidence enough to make your own. Like that. Has to be that has to be talked about. Because, yeah, to get denied several times, he I think he's even said like, by all the record labels, just trash, trash, trash, and to clearly be one of the most known record labels. In the like, of our time, Rockefeller, everybody knows what's right. Yeah. Um, I would ask you like, because you can come up with so many different ideas, not you, per se, but just people, right? Sure. Yeah. It's like, what do you know, to put confidence in? Like, how did he know? That Was it when he listened back? He's like, I was trash. That was so bad. That was, but we probably feel that way about all our early stuff.

Mostafa Ghonim  8:11  
Oh, 100%. Yeah, last week. Last week was that could be better this week.

Nicky Saunders  8:19  
Like, if you look at that, and like, some people are like, how do I get that? Confidence? How do I how do I know this? Is. This one Is it? 

Mostafa Ghonim  8:30  
Yeah, Yeah. Honestly, I can't think of anything else other than have a dream and be passionate about it. You know, saying like, you're hearing one of the best artists of our era of our generation of an entire probably Hip Hop era. I mean, 25 years since that first album, and he's led like, he's telling you that they weren't good when they started. So clearly, you don't have to be good to start. But but but do you have a dream? Do you have a vision? Are you passionate about what you're doing? Right? Like I was reading the article that you sent with with the full words or the thoughts that he shared during his speech, and he's just talking about the KRS ones, the Big Daddy Kane and those people that came before him that inspired his kind of, you know, vision and saying, Man, I want to be like those guys and started doing whatever he can do to put himself in that position. Now when it didn't work out, he just became resourceful to finally start getting it to click so I think of you know, when I listen to that, and to answer your question I think of man is is is your dream like bright enough? Like do you have a dream that's like ignited enough that's deep enough that can get you up beyond those early stages are straight up when you're when you suck like when you trash which is normal, which is like the natural progression of anything when it first starts. But But are you passionate enough? Do you have a dream that's big enough that can carry you through those early stages where you can get innovative and say, You know what, that's not gonna work. Okay, let me try this. And let me try that and let me go to this person and go to that person and not lose, you know, any steam. So, yeah, nicks I think, I think the dream and the passion is all that I can think of, that almost blindsided them to the fact that they weren't that good when he first started.

Nicky Saunders  10:22  
Yeah, I would have to, I would have to agree, but I love it. And for those people, like, look up the full acceptance speech, it's gonna be ghetto and the , like, you heard the audio isn't the greatest But, um, the journey is what got me to understand where the confidence came from, because I mean, of course, he mentioned, you know, Big Daddy Kane, Charis one LL cool J, and always listening to it. And then he mentioned his mom, giving him that green notebook. So you not only you're seeing it, but then now, the person you love the most, is now encouraging it. Right? To then your best friend. Todd was like, Yeah, you are the greatest, right? Let’s do this , and it seems like environment, we've spoken about this. But environment is so valuable when it comes to, from just an idea to then that pure confidence of I can do this. And no, you may not think it. I'm seeing it around, I'm seeing it happen. My mother believes in me, my best friend believes in me, I have a circle that believes in me, we're going we're going to do this regardless. And maybe one of the goals is not truly to reach the masses, but to maybe be a local success, maybe to be within a circle. Like yo, we created this. We're putting it out in the world. And it just happens when you make movement like that, then it impacts more than maybe that then you really imagine because I don't Yeah, of course, if you think about Dame dash, Dame dash thinks it was going to take over the world all day every day. Right. Right. But who is to say, did they really know, the true impact that Rockefeller was going to have? Rockefeller was one of the reasons why everybody wanted a chain. You know what I mean like everybody wanted the rock chain? If you part of  New York, somehow, someway You Low key wish you were part of Rockefeller just a little bit. Right. So it's, it's pretty cool to to see that the journey is one of those things where it can help build confidence. Do you have the right environment? Do you have the support at home? Do you have support in your circle? And if not, how do you recreate it somehow some way to allow it to have the success is supposed to have? Right.

Mostafa Ghonim  13:15  
I love that. You said that on the back end, too. Yeah.

Nicky Saunders  13:21  
But yeah, um, the second part I want to bring up is of course, the shout out to Dame dash. Now it has been documented of, they're not seeing eye to eye, as he would like to say, there's even some legal situations. I think, Jay is suing Dame dash at this moment, right. But what I loved is what he said was, I can't take away the accomplishments we may not see eye to eye, but I can't take away what was created because of what was created. This is all possible. This is what's happening. Right? And it makes me think, like, we sometimes can, you know, go separate ways we may be, I may go this way. And I'm not saying me and moose go through this. I'm just giving an example. Right? I don't want people like, oh, they don't get to. They don't like each other. No. Stop that. Um, but moose may be over here with the vision, right? But what I can never knock is that yo, we created this podcast, and we've impacted multiple countries, right? Shout out to the countries that listen to us. And they're in and you have to look at it like even some of people's Old partners or friends. Like, they may be foul afterwards. But what this is teaching me at least is don't erase the past. Yeah, like I know, for me, I have a big tendency when somebody messes up to the point of no return. Oh, you're getting blacked out, like, I don't care what we accomplished, like, there its done. Like, we will never see eye to eye, what are we talking about? But there was a lot of moments in my life, that because of this thing happen, I am who I am. Right? And if if somebody of the likes of Jay Z with the accomplishments and trials and tribulations can say, hey, I'm literally suing my man right now, this is not what he said. But this is how I translate it. I'm sorry, my man right now, but Rockefeller is what it is because of the three of us. Because Dame dash Jay Z and Biggs. And so I can never take that away from him. I just may not be able to work with him ever again. But I can't take those accomplishments away from him. And that's just, this is big, especially utilizing the platform that he was on at that moment to acknowledge that, which then later on, of course, Dame Dash was like, I would love to sit down with my man and squash to 20 year beef. Sir, we know that's never heard anything. It's never right. Never. Right. But I mean, we never know. I mean, I don't think, of course, because I was gonna say Jay Z and Kanye, but I don't think that was such a bad situation. I feel like that was more miscommunication. That, of course, that based off a song. Clearly we've not seen true friendship or whatever, based on a song. They're okay. Right. Right. They're back to making money together. That's all that matters. Um, yeah. But yeah, I don't know.

Mostafa Ghonim  17:20  
Yeah, no, I mean, like, it's a it's definitely a great deal of maturity man to like, Yo, we can eliminate the history that that comes apart of it. Now, as it relates to the dame situation, and possibly, you know, almost coming back together to host I just think through two different levels, like it might. I don't know, I think the way Jay has kind of continued to build his brand and his moves. him going back to fix it. I don't know that they're at the same like, Jay and Kanye almost in the same class. Right? Same status in terms of like both billionaires, worldwide brands the whole nine for some people that might be like, Wow, that's fine. That's what you're basing it off of. Yeah. But in the history of Jay Z's moves, I think that's part of the thing that he's considering, you know, saying like, he's like, I ain't gonna go back and stitch that up. Because that almost is like a hit to my to my brain you're not at my level kind of thing. That's how I see it. But to your point, you got to acknowledge the maturity of like, okay, I can't forget what he's done or his contributions to my journey because it is helping me get to where I am today. So that is pretty dope.

Nicky Saunders  18:31  
Yeah. Shout out to Jay Z. And you know what for the culture I do hope they reconcile of some way shape or form not back to the dances and working together but just like yeah, let's just hash it out 

Mostafa Ghonim  18:55  
Oh, yeah. See, I could see it like you know the the magic Isaiah, Isaiah Thomas sit down that they had remember that you know, ESPN when like they kind of came down and was like a little emotional started crying and apologize. Yeah, Magic Johnson. Isaiah Thomas. They had like a little sit down to squash their beef. Yeah. I'm saying it was like, yeah, so emotional sometime. Yeah, there was you know, there's a lil Man, you hurt me, bro. Like, loved you. And I'm not making fun of it. I'm just saying like, you know, as it happened later in their careers, so maybe that'll.

Nicky Saunders  19:29  
So I think I think it's needed. But then again, we are just people and they're like, We don't care about y'all. This is we're not doing this. This. Actually, this actually hurts us internally. Like this is a US problem. Like yeah, well, why do we care about your feelings? Like, yeah, I have to remember that. Like, we're just like, Come on, do it for the cultures for us. There done with us. We create Rockefeller We, Jay now has rock nation and all these different things like, what more do you want? So,

Mostafa Ghonim  20:07  
yeah, let me ask you this real quick. What are your thoughts on Jay Z creating an Instagram for 48 hours getting a couple million followers and then deleting it? Yeah.

Nicky Saunders  20:21  
So I saw on Instagram that he did this one once before, like he got on Instagram, I think on Michael Jackson's birthday, posted and then deleted. Like he's um, but in in what less than 24 hours he got like two mil followers. I was like, Oh snap this is a new two. Yeah, no, I didn't think that was gonna last I didn't. But because of his excited. Yeah, yeah. Because of his movie. I thought it was gonna be a good idea. I mean, he's now he's that the whole Tiffany campaign. I saw it in Mexico. I was showing E I was like E look its Beyonce and, and Jay Z. For the Tiffany thing is like, Nah, I never seen it. Right. I was like, What do you mean you never seen

Mostafa Ghonim  21:14  
I got a little excited. I'm not gonna lie, because I saw him talking to what is it? lamello ball? I think it is. Yeah, like one of his games. So they posted like some clips that I'm talking. I'm like, yo, maybe this is Jay Z's way of like connecting with the youth a little bit more. And it only lasted but 24 hours. So. Yeah, fair enough.

Nicky Saunders  21:34  
It is what It is. Jay Z I mean, it'd be nice for you to be on Instagram, but I don't know what you would post like, what Rich stuff would you post?

Mostafa Ghonim  21:46  
That's hilarious. What kind of rich stuff.

Nicky Saunders  21:52  
Like what? Yeah, it would be dope Don't get it twisted. Like he probably has amazing art. Right? Yeah, yeah. Um, we're clearly never gonna really see the twins. We see me see blue here and there, but I don't really remember seeing twins too much. Um, yeah, I don't know. I don't I don't know what he would post but it would be appreciated. It would. That's just me. That’s just me. But in other news, Rihanna. So let me set this up real quick, right. A rere We've been dying for new music we have right. Um, we've we've talked about you several times on this podcast and questioned? Is there going to be new music right? Um, it is not. What you did, was clearly let's re issue no pun intended, literally RIHISSUE All eight albums that already have with exclusive merch. First off, I feel like I got Okey doke. But I felt like this was genius at the same time. Okay, um, and this lesson, as well, because as maybe we're possibly waiting for new music, maybe possibly. She literally repurposed all her albums. She said, You know what, let's put this back into a physical form and a more of a collective, a collectible kind of vibe. So for my audio listeners, on the on the screen that we have, it has like four of them out of the eight. And it comes with a vinyl, a really dope box that says re issue. And like a shirt that is based off the the actual album, right. And I think they go for like 110 retail price. Now, of course, with streaming, you just have to pay a membership fee of that particular platform to listen to Rihanna has music. So I think this was really dope. And also maybe something to calm down the people like they actually have something of Rihanna that they could hold on to and say hi, Nana boo, boo, no one else has this, or is it limited amount? You know, um, so I thought that was kind of genius. At that point, and then it it also makes me think for like, you know, entrepreneurs or people with businesses of some sort if you're in that transition phase of, I don't know when this is going to come out. I'm not sure if it's going to be ready for when everybody is expecting it. what can you repurpose that you already put out? Can you put a new cover to that book that you made? Can you add a special packaging to something? Can you act as if it's a new relaunch and, you know, just add some add one or two new things to make it make everybody want it all over again, and not necessarily having to recreate something, or put people on hold. So they could pay attention other people so that, like, I looked at this, I was like, you're slick. But you're not slick. Like I see. I see what you did there. I see. Right? I hope it works. And it shows people the blueprint of Yo, all the stuff that you did in the past, bring it back to life, make more money from it, milk, that particular product, it shouldn't just live for that particular season. So that's what I got out of it.

Mostafa Ghonim  26:02  
Yeah, no, no. And I know you've been you've been big on repurposing, even just people like really encouraging people and pushing people to repurpose their own content it’s like yo if it worked in the past. Bring it back with some adjustments to fit. Today's marketplace. I don't have much to add to that. But I am curious, does that mean you delete? Like, would you would you tell someone from from a content standpoint, do you delete what you posted? Or maybe shared before? Because you're repurposing it again today? Oh, no,

Nicky Saunders  26:34  
no, I did. I literally did it. Today, I took an old reel. Take the same caption just put it as a reminder, like minder, boom, right? And kept it moving. Right. Sometimes I put majority of times I put like a different caption. Right? Um, but I leave the old one there, I'll change maybe the cover of it, like so that first impression that you have, you may not have seen that particular angle. Face was things like that, but it's the same content. Same words, we just bringing it back to life, you know, works because I already have numbers that it worked before. So we're going to see if it works again.

Mostafa Ghonim  27:21  
Oh, I like that. No I like that that’s solid.

Nicky Saunders  27:26  
But, ah, let's talk about actually, let's do this real quick. Shout out to Spergel. As you can see, shout out to Sparco. Um, first off, they opened. And for those who are like Hillsboro, go go back and look up our interview with Trey Brown. When I say I don't think he's 16 Now 16 year old entrepreneur that has an amazing clothing brand called Spargo is now going to be on Shark Tank. Today, well, it's supposed to air November 5. So by the time you hear this already have have played, but he is going to be on Shark Tank with Daymond John and Mark and all of them great people. I'm excited to see that because he opened up two new stores one in I think, what is it called? I think it's somewhere in Philly or Pennsylvania. And then he opened one in the top of Virginia that I went to over four hours because there was traffic. Right? He's like, Oh my God, thank you. You keep Yes, I did. Yes, it did. To support. Um, he came to support and the funny thing in the one in the store in back at his crib. He had the Nicky and moose interview up.

Mostafa Ghonim  29:02  
Oh, wow. Yeah,

Nicky Saunders  29:03  
that's what sir. He had it on the TV. So somebody had tagged us like look, Nicky and moose. I said oh that’s so dope Thank you, Trey. Wow. Yeah. Oh,

Mostafa Ghonim  29:14  
I didn't even know that. That's really dope

Nicky Saunders  29:15  
Yeah, it was part of his grand opening. But I say that because he's going on Shark Tank. And talking to Daymond John Daymond John is just been like, the go to of entrepreneurs go to, right. And I find it funny. We never really went over any of his stuff. That's the weirdest thing. And he has lessons for days. So one of the first lessons is Don't quit your day job. Right don't quit you Yeah, and let's just go into it

Daymond John   30:03  
may say, I want to start off, I want to start a business. Don't quit your day job. That's so stupid. I don't know why people ever do that you put in two hours a day because you just got four hours back round trip a day, you put four hours a day educating yourself early cases, you start calling up those people that you could have been in the service with you could have worked with and guess what now they're in California, you're in New York, but they got this thing called Zoom. And they want to be part of somebody's dream, too. And you start slowly building that thing. So what is your inventory? It's your Rolodex, it's your time on hand. It's your passion that you have. And you look at it for three months, six months or a year and say, What do I have? But don't quit that damn day job

Nicky Saunders  30:46  
What do you think about this moose?

Mostafa Ghonim  30:49  
Yeah, no, I mean, what sticks out is definitely the passion piece is like, Yo, what do you have his passion. And I think that kind of is a good reminder, because we just spoke about it, when we when we talked about Jay Z getting inducted and kind of you know what made him so confident. But But it's true, man, I think that and I love some of the other clips that we have coming up after this as well about what he mentioned. But entrepreneurship is one of those journeys that you cannot embark on, because you want the title. Like you shouldn't embark on this journey, because you want the title to say to your friends, to people or to on social media, I'm an entrepreneur now or I'm full time. Like that's not what should be the measure of success or a feel good metric. Your measure should be Man, am I am I in position do I have my affairs in order? Will my will my family suffer? There's a difference between sacrificing and suffer sacrifice, right? It's like, okay, instead of eating steak a might maybe going to eat, I don't know, meatloaf for a piece of toast. Okay, but but to make your people suffer because of something because you you didn't prepare. I think that's that's selfish and unfair. So I like that he's encouraging people to make use of your time, if you're commuting, and you have four hours, can you turn those two hours or two of the four hours into something where you're preparing yourself for that, that full time gig as opposed to jumping off too early? And then there's that part that you almost don't know what to do? Because I think everyone faces it, you know, like, there's a part of it where like, it does take a couple of years or some time to get going. So And usually, I think for the most part, I don't know if you agree with this, but I want to say almost 80 to 90% of people miss calculate their time. Like they might say, Oh, it's gonna take me two years and it takes them five or, you know, I'm saying like everyone miscalculate. So you jumped too early. And of course, we're not telling you don't be optimistic. But don't don't make that jump in and let your people suffer because of it. Or because selfishly you want that title. So I do appreciate that advice.

Nicky Saunders  32:56  
Yeah, I am fully agreeing with don't quit your day job. I liked how he was like, go get these particular things like get the relationships right. Make sure the passions dope. Like, I like how that was his way of like checking your inventory. Right. Yeah. That was really cool. But I'm, I'm more of course, the strategic type of not really jumping until you were sure. Right. Um, because I stayed with my nine to five for a bit before I jumped with like, E right. And I didn't even jump it was a nice transition.

Mostafa Ghonim  33:42  
It was right, right. Right. There wasn't no layover period.

Nicky Saunders  33:46  
Yeah, no, because especially when you have bills, like the mortgage and car and all that great stuff. Like, you got to I'm cool with and, this is only me, I can only speak for me. I'm cool with the crazy faith shout out to mal cool with the crazy faith. But I am also not about struggle. If it is meant to be it is going to be and if it may take a little bit longer because I'm going this route. I'm okay with that. I cannot put myself under stress to try to speed things up. This is going to happen this is going to work regardless. I mean like this is not a feeling. I've done it and especially if you could do two things with a with a nine to five and then your your passion or your entrepreneurship ways and things like that. That's that shows dedication. But you know because you're Now, valuing time a little bit more. You see, I'm saying like, you're understanding how to work these particular hours with full focus, because that's what you only have to work with, where there's people who have all day and don't even do anything close to the amount for those people who may only have two, three hours to work on their business. So with a, somewhat of a cushion of, I still have a salary. Right now this is like I said, this is me speaking. I'm not totally suggesting. Don't, you know, don't jump. i For me, I was literally sick. Like I knew in my nine to five, when I was like, I couldn't even go I was in the hospital. Whoo. The second I quit I did my two weeks. You know, I did it right. The next day, I was fine. Weird. Oh, wow. Yes. Next day, I was perfect. Went back to the hospital. blood levels were great. Everything was fine. Okay, I see what you did. God. I see. I see what you did.

Mostafa Ghonim  36:17  
Okay, that's good. Now that's crazy. Yeah, no, that's crazy. 

Nicky Saunders  36:19  
But and I think for for me, that was a sign of, you've been doing this a little bit too long. You've been doing both of them a little bit too long. So let's let me force you because I'm, I'm, I'm the type something dramatic has to happen. For me to understand what to do. Like, I wish I was that you tell me and I'm like, can No, I'm going to avoid it. Because you. You went through it. Or you told me about it. And I trust you. I never I'm not. I'm not that type.

Mostafa Ghonim  36:57  
I'm gonna just hit one today, though. Yeah, I think we I think we might have just kind of unlocked a piece for people who are in transition, thinking about making a transition is like, well, what's my sign? Sacrifice? Don't struggle, you know, like that might. That might just be one of the easy ways to help people understand. A when's the right time or not the right time? Can I do it without struggling? Can I do it? Why sack do I have to sacrifice sacrifice by all means, but struggle that might fall more as a choice? Right? Like, yeah, no, I like that. That's good.

Nicky Saunders  37:32  
And, and it wasn't even for, it wasn't even, like equal pay. Because some people will like, okay, I can make the same amount or more in my transition. That's when I'm ready to go. I took a 30k cut.

Mostafa Ghonim  37:50  
Oh, sacrifice. Yeah, I

Nicky Saunders  37:53  
Yeah, I sure did. Got a lot of crap for it. I remember. Yeah. I'm at my mom, like, do they have? Like, what's going to happen to Medical? What about vacations? Like, what do you mean? You're just leaving your, your bank job? Like, what are you talking about? What Yeah, yeah, doesn't understand it, and now loves me, right? Like, not saying My mom never loved me. But like, she gets it a little bit more, even though she still doesn't know what I do. Right. But I say that to say, there's two ways of starting out your business starting out that entrepreneurship lifestyle, there's nothing wrong with doing the nine to five, and making sure this is it. There's nothing wrong with staying at a nine to five, until use have certain ducks in a row. That doesn't make you more or less of an entrepreneur. It doesn't there's some people that will say something different based off their journey. And I'm not saying they're wrong. They did it their way. Right. Yeah. But I don't like how society has, well, if you're not an entrepreneur, you're not anything like this nonsense. It's no, what are you talking to? You're the you're the entrepreneur that hires people to have a nine to five, how are you literally going to tell your team, the people you employ that they're nothing because you made a certain kind of route, then they're going to leave? That's true.

Mostafa Ghonim  39:34  
That's real. That's real. And I think also, another thing that people overlook is like yo, if your job is fulfilling you, if you're finding fulfillment, doing the work, it doesn't mean that you should leave and go do it on your own. Like, I don't know that necessarily makes a difference. So And the crazy thing is a big part of it.

Nicky Saunders  39:52  
Yeah, the crazy thing is some entrepreneurs are not making more than nine to five people.

Mostafa Ghonim  39:58  
Right? Right. And having to carry way more responsibility?

Nicky Saunders  40:02  
Who's making more than the number two of Facebook? Who are making more? Videos? Yeah, right, then the number eight of Microsoft.

Mostafa Ghonim  40:12  
Right? Right. Um, I just need to look that up, whoa, who's the number two a Facebook. I just want to serve those who did not. But it's true though, because I didn't. And again, that's why I say, you know, be mindful of making certain moves just off of titles and labels, because you could get the title, you could get the label. But what if you're miserable as a result of it, then you've done something strictly for somebody else's happiness, not yours. But you're right. Like, I can only imagine a CEO that you talk about a C suite executive at one of the top companies in the world, let's just say safely, you're bringing in at least a million dollars a year, safely, right, if not more, but now I'm with you. I'm With you.

Nicky Saunders  40:55  
Listen, I've Oh, I've always said I'm cool. If I be an exec feel me I always said that. I'm cool. If if I had an exec position? What

Mostafa Ghonim  41:07  
let me say, let me tell you this. I said, executive comp compensation. CO COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg make $27,144,147 In total compensation.

Nicky Saunders  41:29  
Alright, well rush into entrepreneurship, keep going, keep going. Keep going. Yeah, I'm

Mostafa Ghonim  41:37  
no foreal. If you're finding fulfillment in your in your, you know, company, organization or job stay there. Like, again, if that fulfillment is there, and you see the mission, go for it.

Nicky Saunders  41:46  
Yeah, cuz entrepreneurship is very lonely. You may feel family in where you are, you may fulfill, you may be fulfilled, money wise, where you are, don't get caught up. Unless it's really your passion. Unless it's really your thing. Like, for me, I No, no, don't tell me what to do. Don't do that. Don't do that. Right. I did. There was a struggle with me that literally, I got sick. Like I see certain things a certain kind of way. And it needs to happen in that certain kind of way. Whether it's right or wrong. Let me deal with it. Like, let me take the consequences. Don't police me in doing this, that and the third, right. So after I knew nine to five, which is crazy, because my mom was like, I didn't even know you can do the Navy. For that same reason. You don't like listening to anybody? Right. So how did you do that? But I think that that part helped me figure out the politics. Oh, yeah. You know, of the game

Mostafa Ghonim  42:55  
organization. Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, I think I think for me, it was slightly different. You know, it wasn't I actually loved the corporate world, like that time was I spent on Wall Street. I was geeked. Up, I loved it. Like I really had a great time. But over time, I noticed that the culture didn't didn't really fit with some of the things I believed in. Right. Like, and again, every culture motivates their People slightly different, they motivate you with happy hour, they motivate you with exotic trips, and some of the stuff that happens on the exotic trips. And I was like, dang, y’all really want me to sin. No, I don't like exotic trips.

Nicky Saunders  43:38  
He's doing okay, today. This week was

Mostafa Ghonim  43:42  
Yeah, I was doing this great week, a week. So no, so I'm saying like, for some, you know, for some people, like, you know, your reason might be like, damn, culturally, it's not, it's not the right place from you're like, I can't find it. I can't get hired by an organization that believes what I believe, then I think that's a fair reason to speak to two or at least to make the transition over to as well so just to kind of give a balanced perspective, because I don't want people to be like Dang, you're always on ownership and like, you know, standing up and creating your, your, your platform or your personal brand, so that you can voice your opinion. And now you're talking about staying at, you know, at your nine to five but again, just to give a balanced perspective, here's why we're for it. And here's why we're against it just so that you know, because it was suck for somebody to make the jump and be like, Okay, now no one promoted this part about it. What How come nobody spoke about this part here?

Nicky Saunders  44:30  
Right? Yeah, nah, we love both. We love both for this last scene, at least for me, proof it's very important. proving very important. Okay, huge. We just went in on like, you have an idea. Right? was how do we know that this is it? Like how do we know Huh sales does that purchasing it enemies so let's see what he says Daymond John says about sales

Daymond John   45:12  
mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is when they think they have something they don't have their numbers that's why you see on Shark Tank all the time. What are your sales? Sales are proof of concept sales are the fact that you can make up your own opinion but you can't make up your own facts. Your own opinion is I think I have something sales is I know I have something

Mostafa Ghonim  45:34  
right that’s really is

Nicky Saunders  45:35  
whole bar the funny thing is And for a shout out to our our video people. The picture that he had of LL Cool J with the Queen's jersey, right. I still have a Puerto Rico jersey, downstairs. FUBU one that's like X, triple XL for no reason. It was the last one that they had in the Bronx. And I was like, I must have it. And I still have it downstairs. I don't know. I was crazy.

Mostafa Ghonim  46:08  
You know, it's crazy. My first pair of socially acceptable sneakers like that I was actually checked off into the cool club was a was a pair of Fubu sneakers.

Nicky Saunders  46:17  
Really? Yeah, yeah. Fubu, Fubu if you're coming back alive. Isaiah, bring this bring this over here. If your coming back alive. Like I've seen it a few times actually. Just send send some stuff over our way. We were to Queens kids. Yeah, I mean, like,  we would rock FUBU. I'm just saying we would rock Fubu

Mostafa Ghonim  46:43  
Bring it back, back.

Nicky Saunders  46:44  
Ill rock the FB hat again. just give me the hat. Just give me the hat. The hat was was like, everything back then. The hat was everything there was all bootlegged and everything you didn't know what was real. I remember these times, but anyways. But of course, I love what he said. Of we can't go off feelings. Right? We could only go based off what has been sold. We can we And even with our stuff, like we'll try this. We'll try that. Right. And it always goes back to okay, this is working, because this made a certain amount. Now my question, um, without getting too transparent, because this is the business part. So I'm going to be good. Right. But what about those times where you have something? It clearly worked for a minute? And then it went down, down, down, down, down down?

Is it we thought it was like a you know, it's not coming back coming back. It made it make like even, like we're still in the low, like you still see ground. Right? And enough to put the wheels down. But we're not putting the wheels down. But it's even. And then, like we stop before it go. But like, I guess my question is like, for from your experience, right? When do you know to put those panels and bring it back to life? Yeah. When do you put the wheels down?

Mostafa Ghonim  48:40  
Right, right. Yeah, I think I think the one and this is true life experience. Yeah. Like legit life.

Nicky Saunders  48:48  
Did I do good? Like I was like,

Mostafa Ghonim  48:50  
great, great. Great.

Nicky Saunders  48:52  
Always use the plane. People use the plane analogy. 

Mostafa Ghonim  48:56  
Use the plane analogy. No, no. But I think I think speaking from real life experience, if you're if you're hovering, right, just to kind of play along with that same example, if you're hovering, it's and you want to see which one should I do? Should I should I find a way to gas it back up or just land? The one question to ask yourself for is, is there room for innovation? Right. A lot of times something will dwindle from a sales perspective. Because you were so innovative early on, that you brought something to the marketplace that was so rare, so unique, that people had no choice but to get excited and buy. So as as some of your customers catch up because in the beginning, and I like I think even Simon Sinek talks about this the different types of buyers there are people who are buy before anyone believes it. But there are people who are skeptical until the the early adopters buy and they start telling everyone to buy it and you're just like okay, Then I can't even resist no more. I gotta go get that new iPhone, I gotta get, you know, whatever that that new thing is, yeah. So at some point as your customers transition over it, guess what your competition transitions over to. So your competition now starts picking up on some of the things that you were doing. And they start mimicking them. So it pulls your competitive advantage away. Now you're vulnerable to somebody undercutting you, from a price standpoint, you're vulnerable to just people shopping around and saying, like, Yo, if I get the same thing here, what's the thing that's keeping me loyal outside of just brand loyalty or comfort, so you expose yourself to no longer being that like, non negotiable option for somebody. So what I always find is that you stopped innovating, and you have crashed because you expected that something is going to continue to work for years. And it's rare, it's rare to find a true cash cow product, Apple talk, you know, to use Apple as an example. There's a reason why they still don't have the first generation iPhone still trying to sell that, you know, they've had iPhone 13 You feel me, like they've innovated so many times, despite of how great their sales were, because they know guess what the customers are going to buy. But at some point, my competition is going to catch up. So I got to transition over. Now you hover or you, you, you bring the wheels down. If if you see no more like there's no more vision for it, like there is no more even space for it in the long term. So between between innovation and some level of interest, or that that vision for you to even have the energy to continue jumpstarting it, that could be the two deciding factors on either end.

Nicky Saunders  51:49  
So good, I'm not ending you. I just felt like I needed an air horn and I just felt like, I think, um, and that goes once again, based off facts, because sometimes, once again, I'm trying not to be too transparent, because we're in the business talk. If this was about me, I could go. Alright. context clues, context clues. Yeah, yeah. So, um, the, the feeling of certain products should be able to still work. Like, I've felt that like, Yo, this is it was so successful before. Right? It was amazing. We saw the impact, we saw how people were receiving it like this, cuz this needs to be out to the world, like, all we have to do is change the messaging, change this, add more things to it. And this is where you have to look at it. Like, once again, something's got to die. In order to truly come up with the next successful plan, right? You have to let it go. And the one way to realize to keep or to, or to let go is the numbers. Right? Yeah. And that's not to say that maybe down down the line, you can't try to revive it. We could get the panels and I mean, we look at like I said, FUBU FUBU. I

Mostafa Ghonim  53:35  
was about to say Yeah, right.

Nicky Saunders  53:36  
Fubu, come back when that thing died, you know, fat farm started coming back out uh what other stuff came back out. There's a lot of things that like a lot of retro stuff. The things I was gonna write right behind

Mostafa Ghonim  53:52  
I was gonna say Jay Z. Yeah, no, no. All these Jordans? Yeah. Yeah, right, right. Right. Now you're right. Yeah. 

Nicky Saunders  54:01  
All these Jordan’s continue to come back. Right. Mm. Um, and, like, you can bring things back because people, what's that word? nostalgic. People feel that with certain things. And it actually sells more like what was oh, I don't know if you ate this. Dunkaroos Did you eat? Did you see Dunkaroos? I think you told me about okay, so it was like this cookie. Right? Isaiah, put Dunkaroos up. So it was this cookie with like, amazing cream filling, right? Boom. really dope When? When I was a kid. I wasn't able to eat them because my mom gave me pretzels. Okay. Yes, I was suffering from great health. But, um, it came back around. What What was it last year, the year before? Jokers were like $7 or something? Wow, per packet look like I'm exaggerating just like four though. It was definitely four compared to like 50 cents, right? Yeah. But I bought them. I bought them. I was like, Oh, I remember this, you wanna give people memories. Oh my god, I remember how this, this felt this. This was, you know your experience. So you could bring things back in that case, and see if we could live again. But when Facts are facts, and the sales aren't there, it is now your feelings against facts. Now, when we have a brand new idea, right, we’re we have to put it out in the market, we have to give it to the people. Whether it is from a monetizing standpoint, or from my case about content, you got to see what the people want. It's not we're creating things. And it's not really for us. Right. But we get so attached to when we feel like this is it discord changed the world, this is amazing. And it's almost a little bit contradicting from what Jay Z said, But Jay Z put it out on the streets. And he saw the impact that the people had. And he saw what it was doing, from one person to two people to 10 people. And he saw that people were actually rocking with where he created relationships with Biggie, where he created relationships with, I believe big daddy came in early on like they were touring with each other like he created these relations off of his work. So by putting it out there, he received the feedback to give him facts of this could work. Right, though they may not see the general public, and not general public execs, big high up Caucasian people may not see this. The culture sees it. So let's do this right now. That was that was feedback that was literally people giving him facts. There are people that have an idea, and is like, Okay, this is going to work. But with what? What results? Do you have Daymond John says sales, right? It doesn't always have to be sales. But yeah, well, proof of how do you how do you have proof of concept walo said it, and our in our interview with him. Yeah, he created proof of concept. I did this, I did it for free to bring proof of concept. And when people saw that, now he has an over million dollar deal because of his podcast. So we have to put our feelings aside sometimes with business and that's something me and you have even struggled about because it's like, this just ain't right. This we know this works. What are you talking about? Right? But businesses business and business goes off of facts. That's right. And we can't battle with that too much. And if you want to try to this ain't for you.

Yeah, no, that's right. I agree with you. 100%. That's right.

He said, That's right. But, um, do me a favorite people, we're gonna have a really great after show. If you haven't been part of the after show. It is clearly what it's called. The after show Alright. Where we go a little bit more into our thoughts and feelings about certain clips we didn't play here, or certain strategies and things like that. Um, so it's available on Apple podcasts. You will see it every Wednesday night, about eight 8:30pm something around there. You'll see a brand new after show. So go check that out. Of course. Follow us on all social media platforms at Nicky and moose, right and go to Nicky moose.com To listen to all the rest of the podcast and our live show. Tuesdays right 8pm Eastern 7pm Central 6666 Is it No 5545 Okay. 555 pm West Coast time. We do a live show that's on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter we’re trying to get in on LinkedIn for our LinkedIn people but those are the places you can find us at And moose final words,

Mostafa Ghonim  1:00:05  
yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna share a principle for from the one we just did a breakdown on but I was studying for the show when I heard Daymond John said, there are two ways to learn mentors or mistakes. There are two ways to learn mentors or mistakes. So if you can afford a long runway to learn from your own mistakes, make the mistakes and learn until you figure it out. Sure, and go ahead and take the mistakes. But if you've got access to people who've done it, choose the mentors