13 Year-Old Shark Tank Contestant Turned 21 Year-Old Entrepreneur Max Fata Shares His Journey

Audio Transcription

 

Welcome back to another exciting edition. Noon your radio and business podcasts download. Now on today’s show, this show may just blow the minds of many of you out there. We’re interviewing a guy by the name of Max Feta. Wow, that’s awesome. No, no. That’s not known to the name is not the thing. I’m going to blow your mind. This young man started his first business when he was 13 years old and then he was able to somehow make his way onto the shark tank to pitches product at the, at the young age of 15 and now at the advanced old pre retirement age of 21. He continues the grind and is growing businesses podcasts starting companies. Max Fado. Welcome on the show, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Okay, well, first off, I want to just congratulate you on making a series of poor life choices to end up on a show.

Here we go. Oh, such as this. So I’d like to start by asking you, what was the first business that you started at the age of 13. What? What, what, what were you in like a Ponzi scheme where you went and what were you, what were you doing? Well, you know, it was actually two different businesses, so I started them at the same time at 13. The first one was I was going around garage sales and Craig’s list and I was buying and selling antiques and electronics and reselling them on Ebay. While I was doing that, I also purchased an eight slot, Dixie Narco, a soda pop vending machine. Oh, nice. Now, okay. Now Warren Buffet, for the listeners out there who aren’t super familiar with Warren Buffet Knowledge, Warren Buffet started about the same age as you deliver in papers. Then at the age of 15, 16, he bought vending machines, put them inside barbershops.

Then he discovered the art of gift cards. How many of them are not redeemed. He got into that business and then the rest is history. My friend. When you were going to volume where we talked about age 13, are you buying like one item a month, one item a day? What kind of volume are we talking about here? Well, um, I was buying probably about 10 devices. I was mainly buying. I iphones. I bought a couple typewriters and other antiques, but it was mainly I, I phones ipods at this time. It was eight years ago, so I phones weren’t really that big, but I was probably buying about 10 devices a week. And how much money cash flow is coming through you age 13. If you can remember, was it a thousand dollars a week of business you’re doing? Were you doing like a, a thousand a day?

I mean, were you blowing it up in millions or what kind of revenue? We talked about the age of 13 wasn’t quite there. It was probably five to $800 in total with the Ebay selling and the vending machine a week. Now Max, I’ve never confessed this on the podcast to confess this to you because a, you’re 21 now. I’m 37, but I just wanted to, I, I the age of 13 this way I did. I made illegal copies of Paula Abdul and Milli vanilli tastes and I know you’re not familiar with tape technology, but this was dinosaurs. Dinosaurs roamed the earth. There was a phone that plugged into the wall and there was milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul and I buy the original tape there, a maximum highspeed dub it, I’d copy it overnight and sell them at school and it also made illegal copies of Garfield tee shirts and so I was bringing in a couple hundred dollars a week.

So you and I the age 13, we got a similar kind of a kinship there. Although it sounds like your business was legal, which is awkward. Okay. So where were you living at the age of 13. And what kind of environment were you raised in? Where you thought, okay, I’m 13, I want it gives her a 13 or not selling things. Buying things. I mean, what kind of environment were you raised in, man? Well, I was living in Lansing, Michigan where I was born and raised and I was going back and forth between my mom’s house, my dad’s house, my parents divorced when I was pretty young and I was just born and raised in an entrepreneurship family. My Dad and my grandfather, my great grandfather were all in the restaurant business and so I was just born and raised in business and in entrepreneurship.

Now what kind of restaurant we talking about? Are we talking about a high class place? Like a Mcdonald’s, like a Luby’s? Are we talking about what kind of. What kind of restaurant where you get your parents involved in? Taco tico. What kind of restaurant is made? Mainly just sports bars and so. Oh yeah, a couple of restaurants, but mainly just sports bars. What did they have? A lot of Patina. A lot of swag, a lot of decor and ambiance and a lot of accouterments. What kind of bars we talked about, you know, they. They were. They were more dive bars if any. Gas State. They did have some volume though. My grandpa had several. My Dad had several and so in that lansing area they owned I think tad or 12 bars at one point at one time and so that was definitely their main focus, the dive bar, the college bar, sports bar type thing.

Hey, real quick, are there any of these bars still in business podcasts today? I’m the. One of them still is Reno’s sports bar. It’s still in east lansing still in business. We’ll put a link to it on the show notes for the listeners can check it out and I just would, if I was going to describe myself to I maker, if I go up to heaven there Max, and you know, God says, what have you done with your life? What? What did you do? I’d say, I am A. I am a dive bar human in the human diet for those many correlations between being dive bars now, clay stairs and want to get your take on this because you at the age of. How old were you when you started? We really got into the world of entrepreneurship. When you quit, you know you are a teacher of the year, you’re working at a kids camp, you ran, you’re a director of a camp of. Oh, how long were you when you. How old were you when you, when you took the jump into entrepreneurs? Flail is a 47 coming on 48. So the question I’d have for you there, Mr. Mack says, how’d you take the leap? Man? Did you have to quit your day job at age 13? I mean, scare me.

No, no, I was never scared. I just, I don’t know, I just think some people are born with interests in mine for whatever reason. His business, my mom tells a story of when I was six turning seven years old and I asked for a deep fryer, believe it or not because I wanted to deep fry French fries and chicken nuggets to sell them to my friends in the neighborhood. I just wanted to always be an entrepreneur. I wanted to be in business.

That is awesome. Okay. So you, you, uh, you know, started in the business at the age of 13, on the age of 15. So two years in to 24 months or more into the end of the game of business. You wind up on the hit show shark tank. Can you talk to us about how you ended up on the hit show? Everyone knows the show, the shark tank. How’d you do it?

Absolutely. Well, it was kind of a fluke. There were a couple local articles about my story and the producers of Shark tank. We’re just looking for a young entrepreneur to to get on the show and they reached out to me and I was all in it. So it was just. I wasn’t doing any outreach to get onto the show. They just came right to me.

So when you went onto the show, what was the process you had to go through previous to getting on the show? Did you have to form? Give them two forms of ID? Did you have to show you at least 21 to get in? I mean, what was the move? I mean how carly’s 15, 15. This gives me. Did you have to show them like a driver’s permit or something or what were the requirements? Would you have to do,

but without. That was a long back and forth process, about five to six month process of going back to back and forth once a week for two hours roughly with my mom because I was obviously under 18, so my mom, I needed to have adult supervision on the phone and we did it once a week for about five or six months. Going back and forth with the producers, working on my pitch, making sure my valuation makes sense, making sure I understood all the aspects of the business to go in and pitch the product and there was definitely a, a quite a bit back and forth and, and the one thing that was funny was I had to keep it all confidential. I couldn’t tell any friends. I couldn’t tell anyone else in the business podcasts space that I was going on the show and so I had to just hide away once a week for two hours and I couldn’t tell anyone where I was going. And so it was, it was definitely quite the process going on to the show.

Now as an entrepreneur, a lot of times we want to promote, you know, the idea we were working on, I want to share it with people. It’s kind of a cathartic thing. You know, you have your new book you’re working on, you want to share it with somebody. I have no idea. You’re one share with somebody. If you’re reno’s sports bar, you might have 52 beers on tap and you might want to share that with people. Is that true? Does Reno’s at 52 beers on tap or am I just

mandate? No, they have quite a few. I know I’m still pretty close with the owner. My Dad ended up selling it, but they do have quite a few beers on tap. It says here they have a full kitchen open, 365 days a year until 2:00 AM. That is also true. I know that one’s not as much as a dye. That one is more established established restaurant, but they do some phenomenal job. Just Reno’s still have the outdoor volleyball going on. Is that still a big. They do. Oh, this is the closing down. We’re here in Michigan, so you know, come October, November, it will be closing down for the winter, but yet still still rocking it wrong.

So how did you, you know, you’re an unnatural promoter. How did you not share with anybody? You’re gonna be on the shark tank. I mean, that’s amazing. How’d you do that? I mean, did you just Cathartic to write in your journal over and over? Like how did you do it?

You know, I just, I learned to keep my lips sealed. I guess it was difficult. I told my mom my dad and that was it and I just had to keep my lips sealed. I love to parole, I love to talk, I love to network, but, but when it comes to serious business, you know, I learned to keep my mouth shut. I guess. You didn’t tell anybody that you have a lady friend? Nobody told me nobody. No, no. I never wanted it to come off like I was bragging or anything. So I just, I just kept quiet and I just focused on working on getting ready for the show.

So you’re 15 years old, you’re getting prepped for the show, takes five to six months, you know, so now you’re going to get on this show. Now the show, obviously it’s taped and then it’s aired. Is the show. How far in advance was your show taped before it was aired? Or was it a live event?

No, and so actually what happened was I went out and it was in the spraying of, I want to say 2013 and it was getting ready to air for the season, I think six and a that was going to Erin fall. And um, they, all they do is they just gave you a 30 days notice that your episode is going to air and that’s it. They don’t tell you if it’s going to air or not. They film for extra segments in case something goes wrong in any of the 30 for the season. And when it came down to it, mine never ended up airing. I was on a commercial, but when it came down to it, I got an email saying it’s not going to air. And I filmed the episode. I went out there, Mark Cuban offered me a deal and I was on a commercial and it never ended up airing, so that’s how it went with my shark tank story, but it is a couple months prior before it actually ends up airing.

That had to be a lot of feel good. Knowing that your show that you worked on

for six months never aired. Yeah, it was a heartbreaker definitely at the time because when I found out I was 16 and it was definitely one of the hardest things I ever had to, uh, to go through.

Well, who, who were the personalities you met on the show? Who were the people that you connected with the most? Or who did you, what was, was there a certain personalities that you agreed with the most or you hit it off with the best? I know you said Mark Cuban, you know, you talked to him. I mean, what, what personalities did you connect with the most there?

Definitely Mark Cuban and Kevin O’leary. Kevin O’leary has kind of this conception that he’s really negative and evil and mean on the show, but in reality I’m Kevin and I had a great conversation before the pitch and he was awesome. He said he would offer me a deal with one contingency that I drop out of high school and so obviously I didn’t take his deal, but he was awesome. He had some great pieces of advice. He was really positive. He loved the business, he loved my story, loved my Hustle, and Kevin O’leary was definitely, um, the person I connected with the most.

So for anybody out there who’s now wanting to start a business on a limited budget, you now have moved onto a new thing. You know, you’re 21 years old. This is six years later. What are you doing now and how did you start? What kind of budget did you start with? What was your, what, what, what, what are you working on now and kind of how did you get that started?

Sure. Right now, my main project that I’m working on for about two years now is actually a skincare line called pure organic skincare and I just, I got it started on a very limited budget. I invested, I want to say about $8,000, which actually was a pretty steep initial budget for my compared to my other businesses, but I invested a decent amount of money and it’s going. It’s going pretty well. It’s extremely. It’s been extremely difficult, but it is going pretty well and so I guess my advice for people that want to start a business, they don’t have a, you know, even just a couple thousand dollars is just to be as scrappy as possible.

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I was going to ask you about that. What’s the latest on that? Well, we have a quote that we feel good about now. Okay. And we have sounded kajillion dollars like that one. Well, we have to have a pool of vendors we feel very good about who’ve been referred by at least three other people that I know pretty well. So that’s my kind of my rule. I want to get at least two or three referrals going on. That’s a good rule to have our final meeting to kind of agree on the timeline, but a camp clark and chicken palace is a fabulous place, but can you think about the majesty of having the Lampoon Lagoon? I insist on this next summer. Yes. We need to do a show floating. I don’t know all the logistics. We can do it. I’m not a logistics guy, but logistics guy.

I know guys that know guys that know guys. Right. And and I think that would. I think it just add a little flavor for that show. We can do it. We have recorded a show from inside the Hummer while it was moving. That is a true thing. That is a true thing. So we’ve done that. Why not do it while floating? Why not? Why not? Now you probably let me guess. You’re probably a board shorts and a tee shirt guy in the pools that I kind of am. I kind of am. I mean, it’s hard to say that white, you know, and not be covered up all the time isn’t. Well I did. I one time I went outside, went to the South Padre island with my wife, burned myself so bad that I developed freckles. I porcelain skin for years. Oh my goodness. It was unbelievable.

Now, Z on today’s show, for anybody just tuning in, we’re interviewing Max Feta. A guy who had just the age of 13 was on the shark tank and z. that’s really incredible. Now since that time, he’s actually gone on to develop other entrepreneurial endeavors, but I want to. I want to go into this, get into the shark tank idea. You get approached all the time from entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs out there saying Z, which invest in my idea, my project. Could you give me some advice if you had to give the listeners out there three things that you’re looking for from somebody before you’ll seriously entertain the idea of investing. You know as let’s say a small sum of money, $25,000, $50,000 before you even entertain the idea. What’s Kinda like your barrier of entry? If someone’s pitching you through, you’re looking for at least these three things have to be in order or you’re not even going to really take it seriously.

Well, I’ve done all kinds of things by the way, but what I have settled on is my. My three moves would be this. I have to have a controlling interest in it. Meaning that you have to have the final vote when it comes to action steps ultimately. Correct. Now, okay. It doesn’t mean that I have to own the majority of it right on my stock could be weighted in the voting category if you, if you will, to. In other words, let’s say I, I own 25 percent of the company, but my stock has for voting rights per per individual stock and the other 75 percent only has one voting right per stock, so therefore I don’t have to have a majority interest for the, for the profits, but I have to have control of the company and this just in a good example of that would be google where Larry and Sergei, they own 15 percent of Google’s stock today, but they have all the voting stock there.

The majority of the voting stock. So they take a majority vote. Guess who wins? Exactly. They still drive the boat, right? Second voting as kind of a second litmus test. The second if somebody says, okay, I’m going to give you the ability to make the decisions. What else do they have to do for you to take a pitch seriously? They have to have skin in the game. So when you know, when you say skin in the game, what do you mean by that? Well, you know, like you go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and you get that fried skin off the chicken. You got to have the extra crispy or just the regular, you know, you’ve got to have the skin. Right. Let me tee up. It’s actually money they have to. They have to have some of their own money to put into it. Okay. So they say, Hey, I have not put any of my money into this because is this little side Gig for me?

Yeah, but I want you to put in your money or money. But that’s probably not a good move. That’s probably not the move you’re looking for, right? Because I want someone to show that they’re fine. They’re fiscally responsible. I mean if they’ve had a job, if you’re making money, you have the ability to save money because you can live below. And this is gonna sound crazy what you can live below your means. You don’t have to have cable, direct TV and Netflix and Hulu and now slinger. You know, you don’t have to have them all know and you don’t have to have a bigger house than what you really need are nicer car than you really need, or the latest, Greatest Imac and iphone and all that. And I’ll give the listeners out there an example of things I’ve done in my career. I remember when the DJ business podcasts got to a certain point, a told Vanessa, well I want to do is I just want to lease a house so we have that big nest egg that, you know, we had a lot of money, a lot of equity in the house.

Let’s pull that money out and let’s put it all into growing the company and then we’ll buy a house later and what has not done that we’ve done, and I know you’ve done this summer without air conditioning for goodness sakes, and save money on electricity. I mean, you’ve, you’ve delayed gratification, you’ve live below your means and you poured it into your business and guess what? Then you sold it for seven figures, yet later down the road. Then you get to pop the champagne. Right? And what’s neat about the seven figures is that I didn’t have to live on those seven figures because of other things I had started and so that was able to build some worth for me, built some net worth by a few rental properties, and we can build our online business school. That’s how we do it, by the way. Yes, this is.

This is the idea. I want to make sure you’re getting this because we’re going to interview him. He come back from the break Max guy by the name of Max data, who actually was next feta. I’m sorry, I was on the shark tank at the age of 13. Right? But if you’re out there trying to shark tank, any investor right now, these three things that doctors he looks for are the things that most investors look for. One, they want to make sure that you my friend, that you my friend, have a skin in the game, right? Yeah. Number three, I’m going to Combo because you only get you left. Went down to three. Yep. Number three. For me personally, it’s got to be something I get excited about and it all does that matter for somebody out there says, why does it matter? Because what happens is you have to roll up your sleeves and go to work and if it’s, if you’re doing something you really don’t like personally, it’s not fun and you know what I, I’m all about

going through life and enjoying life and not going, oh, I’ve got to go a deal with that business again. Oh, oh bla, shove, shove, bamboo underneath my nails. Ah, so make sure it’s something that triggers you in that you personally like. And then kind of dove tail on that. It’s got to be something that I think is going to be. It solves a problem. It’s going to make plenty of money.

So if you’re going to shark tank, Dr z or any investor out there, let’s think about these big three. Let’s make sure we write these down. One, make sure you’re willing to give the person the controlling voting rights if they ask and if not, know that going into it to make sure that you’ve delayed gratification. You have to skin in the game. It’s just, it’s so important. You have to NZ move number three. One more time. Move number three. If you’re out there going, I’m thinking about shark taking Dr z dot. What’s move number three? People have to be prepared

kind of a Combo move it. It’s got to be something that I personally have an interest in that I personally would love to do that I personally see myself doing because you know you’re going to mean if you’re coming to me just for money. That’s one thing I don’t do any venture capital stuff. I mean if you’re going to come in with an idea that I want to be a partner and I want to be in there and I’m going to be rolling up my sleeves and helping you so it’s got to be something I enjoy doing and then kind of dovetail on that. Oh, it’s gotta be something that I think solves the problem and it’s going to make money,

solves a problem and it’s going to make money. Now, thrive nation, if you’re out there and you used, you’re saying to yourself, it would be fun to be on the shark tank or I’d love to talk to somebody who’s been on the shark tank. We got back from the break. We’re going to be interviewing Mr Max Feta and Max fate is going to be sharing with us about what his experience was like on the shark tank z.

It also, when we come back, I’m gonna give you the to shark tank episodes at Clay Clark did with me and I’ll let you the audience figure out which one I said yes,

Tulsa Clay Clark

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Come attend the world’s best business workshop, led by America’s number one business coach for free. Subscribing on itunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing is proof that you did it and your contact information to [email protected]. All right, thrive nation. Welcome back to the thrive time show

radio and podcast download. On today’s show, we’re featuring a 13 year old shark tank contestant who is now 21 years old by the name of Max, fade out, f a t a, and he’s going to share with us his entrepreneurial journey since pitching his product on the shark tank. But Dr. z dot before the break, you were telling the listeners about two times when I have pitched you and a shark tank kind of way and you kind of teed that up so that any further I do back to you.

Okay. Thrive nation. Listen, listen to this. You heard my three rules. If you didn’t, you can rewind is kind of three point five rules. Really kind slip the next one because you know me, I’m always a slip. I’m wanting to give you a little more than what you asked over. Deliver over. Deliver over, deliver. There you go. So as a young man course, clay, still young. You went 36, 37, 37, 37, three more years of being a young man. There you go. Um, but 40 is the new 20. So you’re absolutely drink fish oil, man. Come on now. That’s it, it’s just know tablets. So what year you came to me, you were heavy and the DJ business at the time? Yup. And you had a concept to vertically integrate, you thought about having a venue that you would actually have weddings there, right. And then you would, you would provide the bakery you have provide photography called the Palazzo?

Yes. I still have the pitch book. I still have the pitch book called the Palazzo and you pitch and it was a very earnest pitch and you wanted me to be, uh, an investor and wanted me to be a part of it. And you are very passionate. It was a very good pitch, very good pitch deck. And so I, I told you right off the bat, my answer now, thrive nation, the second time he came around, and this might be a little weighted because, you know, I think you might know the answer already, but the second time he came and pitched an idea was the online business school because you had become a business coach and you are just being able to do one business at a time, kind of like a dentist can do, right? One feeling at a time, can do one patient at a time.

And so he said, listen, I think there’s a way, here’s my vision to mentor and to coach millions of people all around the world. Millions. And so guess which one I said Yes to Ellis. Let’s go through. Let’s go through the, the, the three areas. Okay, here we go. You’re right. Right? So the first one was controlling interest, which wasn’t going to be a thing for the wedding venue rec and really, and really put the second one that didn’t come onto later on. Right? Okay. Number two, um, skin in the game. You had skin in the game. And both of them remembering right? We. Okay. That’s a check check number. Is that something I enjoyed doing

and the wedding venue

dealing with brides, dealing with unhappy brides, dealing with unhappy brides. Mothers that just wasn’t a move for you in your life when we plot. So it’s is a fine name for fine institution grind and you know. And, and who doesn’t like wedding cake? I mean come on seriously, right? We all like wedding cake, right?

Wedding venues. Awesome. Because you can have your cake, you look at and you can also eat cake simultaneously.

Thank you. And who doesn’t like crashing a wedding? I mean, come on really? I mean that’s pretty fun. So it’s a good move. Yeah. So I said no to the wedding thing because it didn’t, didn’t attend it. Number three in the sense that I didn’t really have any, any interest in going and being a part of wedding planning and wedding stuff, you know, but, but the business podcasts coaching, that’s, that’s, that hit me right in my wheelhouse, right in my widow. So much so that I bought on only two percent. If you remember, I was, I was only a two percent, you know, I’m a investor and that’s why he was kind of funny. We tell them, we’ve told the story before online, but you came in one time. It said, Z, I need, I need more of you. And I said, well, here’s the deal, clay, you have, I only own two percent of the company, so you’re only going to get

two percent. The problem is the problem. That is the Dr z experience. The problem is we live in a world. If you’re in the western culture, I don’t want to go too deep into this. We live in a culture of more passive aggressiveness. This is how our culture works. So if you were talking to your friend from Russia, your friend from Russia, but uh, what, what, what do my friends, Jonathan Barnett, he has a driver who’s Russian and if you ask him, how are you? Here’s what he’ll say. He goes, you want to know? And you’ll go, yeah, I want to know. That’s why I asked. He goes, terrible traffic is terrible. Or you’ll say, how you doing? He’s like, you want to know that again? Fantastic. But he’s like direct. There’s no. Now in American culture, it’s always good to see you, bro. What’s going on?

It’s an American culture. A lot of times if you said, hey, I’d like for you to take more of an active role in my business, the average American business owner would say, absolutely. Sharer, yes. Oh yeah, but you need me. Hey, let’s go back. Circle back, circle back. Shoot me an email. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She just circled beds code for. I’m not going to respond to it. I’m going to ghost you. Right, and that’s, that’s the cultural move. But you looked at me right in the eye and he said, hey, I’m a two percent owner. If you want more than that, that I need to have a little bit more ownership here. We can talk about it, but if not gotten, I don’t have a whole lot else to talk about.

Right. I mean, I was direct. I gave you a powerful answer to a powerful question and you knew right where it stood. Now the ball’s in your court. It’s kind of playing tennis, you hit the ball over the net and the guy just catches it, puts into no, it’s like tennis with a grenade and then you hit it back to this. You got your little wooden racket, your little short shorts and your headband on and you’re like, I wonder if he’s gonna hit it back over the net, you know, this is what happened is we’re hitting that, we’re playing, we’re playing a nice game of lighthearted badminton and then you hit it back

to me, hit the little birdie back to me. Oh, he hit the body back to me and then it comes to me and I go to hit and it goes. I mean because it just explodes when you talk to me were a candidate. It’s a little bit unnerving, but it’s also healthy

and empowering. Empowering. There’s a whole, you know exactly where I stand on the issue and you know exactly now what you need to do and now the ball’s in your court and that and I, and I think that’s the way business man in business people should be. I agree. And you came back and you pitched me a deal and I said yes to it, and then I became the CEO and I own, you know, much more than two percent and we rocked on with it. So you. That’s. So that’s the one that I thrive. Thrive nation. It’s not very surprising that I was going to choose the online business school and so that actually led to the radio show which led to the podcast which led to the, the in person workshops which led to the one on one business coaching. So right now we have a little family and under the umbrella of thrive nation.

And if you’re out there listening today and you’re saying to yourself, you know what? I don’t know who to pitch my idea to, you’re going to love this interview here with Max Feta. The former 13 year old contestant from the shark tank.

Try to start it off with just some prototypes and just try to get some initial feedback because a lot of people think they at the next great idea, but they haven’t even talked to the potential customers in that market or niche that they’re looking to target, and so the reality might be, you know, before you go and invest $10,000 in this new business, I really recommend talk to these, talk to people in the market, see if they really need this product. If they, if your product is really solving a problem in their life, and if it is great, I would still try to be as scrappy as possible. Try to do as much as you can on your own to begin with. Make your own website on shopify or wix or weebly. Try to start off with the limited inventory and just be scrappy and try to do it as a on a limited budget as possible. You don’t need to purchase thousands of pieces of inventory. You don’t need to buy a $10,000 website. Try to just do it on your own as much as possible. What is the name of your product again? You’re working on, what’s the name of that product? It is Pira, p u r a organic skincare.

And what’s the website for that? For our listeners out there who might want to check it out? Maybe even buy something.

Yeah, I’d appreciate that. It Is Pura P, u r a organics

come in. Why would anybody want to buy this versus other kinds of skincare? First off, you look like you explore a lot or you’re 21, so either way it’s worried about both. Maybe this might be a charlatan. Tell him, and you might be a guy who’s 60 years old and you’re just getting cat fished right now. I mean this can be but for why would anybody want to use your product?

But you know, they’re, they’re, they’re phenomenal skincare products. I mean I, I worked with were the big manufacturing company for quite a few months before launching the line and, and they’re just amazing skincare products, so they’re all natural and beautiful package.

Jay, stay tuned. It’s the thrive time show on your radio.

The world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business podcasts coach for free by subscribing on itunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it, and your contact information to influence thrive time show.com.

All right, thrive nation. Welcome back to the

per session is the thrive time show on your radio and podcast download. On today’s show, we’re interviewing Max Feta, the 13 year old former shark tank contestant, turned to 21 year old entrepreneur who’s sharing his entrepreneurial journey and how he’s gone on to grow businesses. Since his time on the shirt,

we have several hundred of positive reviews were in 50 plus botique spas around the country and they’re, they’re just amazing products and the results speak for themselves. And, and so, I mean we have very, very few negative reviews. And the great thing that we do is if the products for whatever reason don’t work well with your skin, we have a 365 day money back guarantee. And so we have no issue giving anyone a refund or their money back. The products don’t work well for their skin, but typically everything works great.

So what is the most challenging aspect of getting your initial prototype made for your product? For this particular company? Pure organic. What was the most difficult aspect of getting the actual product made?

Well, I think the most difficult thing in any business is just the minimum order quantities. If you’re at a physical product business and needed to manufacture these products. Most manufacturers, contract manufacturers or even private label manufacturers want 100 or 500 or several thousand piece minimum order quantity and if you’re a startup that’s just not realistic. And so for me that was the most difficult challenge, but it personally I would just negotiate and call and call and be a past and try to just get people to do a test run and it took months of trying to even just find the right manufacturer that once I found that manufacturer going back and forth and working on the products and. And for me being a male trying to develop and sell women’s skincare, I mean there’s a challenge in itself. I got into a niche that I’m proud of and I stand behind because we do sell phenomenal products, but I wasn’t the most passionate about the next gen and I think one challenge that can be easily avoided as to enter a niche or a market that you’re currently in or you’re interested in or you’re passionate about because then product development won’t be as difficult as if you know, if you’re already in this market or this niche, you’re going to know what people are struggling with and what problems you can solve in that market.

And so those are the two biggest, biggest problems I’ve come across in businesses. It’s what, what, what, what products that people really want in that niche market and once I discover what product you develop, just developing it with a small test run because a lot of these manufacturers only want to work with you if you’re going to do a five or 10,000 piece commitment and that’s just not realistic for most startups.

And so walk

us through the process now of protecting the product. Do you have a patent pending? Do you have any type of trademark? Do you, are you, have you messed with that kind of thing? Are you in that stage or or are you using worried about that? For this product, I’m not worried about it. For my first business that I brought onto shark tank, we had a provisional application which is a, to my understanding, just like the first kind of starting point when when it comes to getting a patent and then from there we were talking about getting a design patent but we never went through and followed through with that just because I. I really wasn’t worried about it. In my opinion. Successful businesses typically come down to execution distribution. You could have the best idea in the whole world, but if you can’t distribute it and you can’t execute, you’re going to have just a handful of customers and so mainly I focus on marketing, customer acquisition and customer retention, how to get new customers and how to keep these customers. That’s my main focus. What was the product

that you were going to pitch on the shark tank there that you did pitch but you didn’t get a chance to?

Yeah, it was a phone case I invented called the erase case. It was this fun, cool, um, white phone case you could draw and mark up and design with our special permanent markers than it was. It was cool. It was cool and fun because you could smudge and smear the design and it wouldn’t come off because they were permanent. But then the product came with this special solution so you could spray it on the case, wipe it clean and design it again and again, and it did really well with a younger 12 to 18 year old demographic.

Now everybody out there who’s listening who says, I don’t know if I believe that you were on the then run into that before, how good somebody verify that you were on the show and then not aired. How could somebody do that? Pretty the doubters out there because you know, there’s somebody out there and I’m sure somebody in your circle, even at your local school or something and once they find out that you were on and not aired, how could people go in and verify that?

Oh absolutely. Well, my commercial aired and so I do have a copy of that. It’s on youtube and if you search Max Fader, Shark tank, I have posted my commercial on my youtube channel and they can check it out there and that’s actually how a me being on shark tank leaked within my school and with my neighborhood, with my friends because I had no idea I was going to be on the commercial promoting the new season. And so when it aired, I, at this point I still didn’t tell anyone and the commercial aired and there I was smiling, you know, right behind Kevin O’leary and um, everyone saw it. Everyone was posting it on facebook and snapchat and instagram and so and so I did have a recording of that and that is online. If you search Max Feta, sharp deck, a chump,

that would be the ultimate. It’s like showing highlights in a for a movie that’s upcoming and you go see the movie and they don’t actually show particular highlight. Pretty rough. Brutal at that age too. I’m at that age. You, you. Okay. So this is, this is my next question. I have for you out there, I’m just trying to ask the questions and some of our listeners will be asking here. Sure. For anybody out there, and clay, I want to have you kind of piggyback on with some questions on this because for anybody out there who is wanting to start a business, this is what I have discovered is most people act as though they have something to lose. Most people act as though they have something to lose. So as an example, uh, there’s one lady years ago that I met in, she, uh, just really, really had a good product, really had a good product and she just couldn’t get, um, did the idea of actually launching it because she kept thinking that I’m going to potentially lose something.

And I was explaining to her, listen, I know that you’ve had a very successful career as a photographer, but if you don’t go all in and start this thing, you’re gonna. Spend your whole life saying, what if now it’s that part of her story. She never ever did the idea. But a friend of hers who is a, also a photographer, she did at the age of like late forties, like went all in maybe like late forties, a max was very good friends with her growing up as a kid. Um, and she went all in. She created a product called this, you created a product called these slap watch and these zany bands and we’ll put a link in the show notes, the slap watch and the zany bands. And she made a list of all the stores she wanted to get her product in on your case, it’s salons, but all the stores.

And she actually ended up getting her products featured on the view with Barbara Walters. She got them in toys r us. She got on the Great Wolf Lodge. She got them in Walgreens. The product was called zany bands that are bracelets. You’d wear the rubber band bracelets and the shape of like pirate ships and that kind of thing. And one person went all in and said, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m 47, I’m going to do it. The other person says, I’m 47. I’ve got a lot to lose, I’m not going to do it and I don’t know the actual specific age, but then they are about the same age. I’d like to get your take on this. What is wrong with your head psychologically? Why do you not fear rejection and what can the listeners out there too about it, those who are just bound by fear. I mean, how do you overcome the idea that you could be rejected?

What if I just, I, I lose sleep over thinking what a and that stays pretty consistent with business, with talking to girls, with cheating on my diet. It’s that what if factor. What if I don’t start this business podcasts and I never become as big as I’d like to get. And so I just think for me it’s I think eventually we’re all going to die and I don’t want to be 80 years old and say wow, I never accomplished what I was looking to accomplish. And so that’s, that’s what keeps me moving. I just can’t settle with thinking what if I would’ve done this or what if I would have talked to that person or what if I would have made that sales call? Things that make me nervous, I know where it’s just a temporary feeling and you need to jump after it. And so yeah, I do feel sphere at times, but if you look at it in a calculated way, I mean, what do you think your friends investment was in the business at most? A couple thousand dollars and it’s like if they have a consistent job that that’s not that big of a loss and I, I’m not going here, you know, and like trying to bet my house or anything on starting these businesses. And so I take calculated risks and I don’t think what I’m doing is extremely risky and I don’t think starting a business if done correctly is extremely risky and I keep moving because I’m just afraid that I would. If I don’t accomplish what I’m looking to accomplish.

You don’t see one of the things we can all do out there to save both time and money as we can by our office in printer supplies from onyx imaging Z. are you passionate about spinning a ton of money on retail office and printing supplies? Not only that, but I love going to the stores and is walking aimlessly, not be able to find what I’m looking for and just painting’s beautiful like two or three hours just walking up and down the aisles, you know, so you wouldn’t be interested in onyx imaging.com. It’s o n y x imaging.com. Well, why would I?

I want to save time and money. I mean that’s just crazy. Attended the world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on itunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it and your contact information to [email protected]. All right, thrive nation. Welcome back to the thrive drive

time show on your radio and podcast download. On today’s show, we’re interviewing Max Feta. The former 13 year old shark tank contestant turned 21 year old entrepreneur in NZ. He said one of the, you said something during the last segment that I’d really like to get your take on. Sure. He’s talking about how when he starts an entrepreneurial endeavor, he doesn’t worry about he losing everything. Like he’s not, he’s the guy who’s committed to the idea but he’s not going to like put his house up as collateral for every. He’s more of a small business guy with a lot of profitable cash flow streams and he sounds like a guy. And again, I’m just based on our, on our, on our interview, uh, based off of the details that I was able to get preinterview and during the interview sounds as though he makes about $100,000 a year as a 21 year old. Pretty awesome by having multiple income streams coming in through different products. One of which is a skincare line. I’d like to get your take on the balance of being all in with the business and then just being stupid.

Well, I really like his concept that this micro entrepreneurship, you know, they’re, they, uh, really moved the needle in some third world countries by these little micro loans, small loans to women say in India,

huge payback percentage, by the way, the vast majority of the people, if you get the micro loan to somebody for $100, no, no exaggeration for a goat. And to drill a well, there is such a high percentage of these loans being paid back. It’s a, it’s a life changing amount of money for somebody and pocket change for many Americans who have been blessed to be in this country.

Absolutely. And so I like his concept. He’s kind of dovetail on that concept. Can afford a couple thousand bucks, eight at the most. You don’t have to go all in, you don’t have to risk everything. You don’t have to now, every now and then you do, you do the Bizo move, we’ll call it paid off. Pretty good for him. You know, the parents get the second mortgage on the house for 300,000.

This is where I would say it’s like where you and I, uh, I would say dj connection was my, all in financially kind of thing. It was like where every, every ounce of my energy, time, money, it was all in it, all in, nothing to lose. Let’s go. Let’s go. You did the sand dunes, your optometry clinic. Correct. And there’s been a few times where you and I wanted to level up a little bit. We wanted to go to the next level and we’re playing Super Mario back in the day from are you to, you wouldn’t, you’d be one boss. You got to go, you go to the day. And so sometimes though to beat, to go to the next level, you got to fight that major boss. Oh yeah. And so those are times where you do have to put all your chips on something. Um, I don’t know that I could advise somebody to do that though as a coach because I’m a little bit more ambitious. I know my aim. I know my mission. I’m a little bit more intense than most folks and I can’t put that on you. I think it’s safer for a lot of people to be, you know, not, not give up on their dream, but don’t risk their entire livelihood on the business.

I think that’s wisdom. And Unfortunately Forbes tells us the horrible statistics. How many people start businesses that fail. Ninety percent. Ninety percent of startups are feeling according to Forbes. You know, and we, we preach on this show, don’t have a plan b. We preach them to show burned the boats we preach on this show to be all in, to be the pig at breakfast and not the chicken. What does all that mean? Commitment. And so, you know, you can have financial commitment where you’re all in. Yeah. And, and you know, heaven helped us. I mean some disaster happens that you have no control over and then you know, the business goes under and you lose it all for some reason. You know, there is some wisdom to keeping some things back, some gunpowder held back.

Let me give you an example. Like with thrive, I did the math and I thought, you know what? I’m committed to put in $10,000 a week forever to make the company run it, to get it where I wanted to go. I don’t want to do that, but I did the math or elephant in the room. I come in, I told my brother in law, I’ll do 2,500 bucks a week every week into this crazy business for five years. I’ll do it. I’m committed at the end of five years I’ll, but I know we’re going against sports clips. Huge companies. You’ve got to figure out your high watermark, like how high, how risk, how high of a risk you’re level you’re willing to go before you start dumping money and don’t you absolutely not, and I think that’s just wisdom and that’s part of our business coaching that we offer to people and we’ve talked to people about, you know, we’re passionate.

We want you to get time freedom and financial freedom. We want you to hit all the marks that you want to hit in life and a lot. For a lot of people that means having their own business and that’s just the way it is. As long as you punch a time clock, you’re not going to have financial. I mean you’re not gonna have time freedom. You might have some financial freedom in there if you hit it well and get a lot of races and have a good job and that’s good too. We’re not, we’re not opposed to that, but for the 67 percent of you out there, according to Forbes and Forbes, that cover business by 67 percent of people, according to Forbes, it’s a business bible. It’s a big number. People are saying, I want to start a business. I’d like to do it.

And so whether it’s, uh, you know, whether you do a franchise, we do a ground up Greenfield, whether you’re buying a business that’s already out there going, um, there’s a lot of different ways to skin that cat. Not that we are advocating skinning cats. No, no, no. You advocate that Peta do not send us an email. There was a series of shows for awhile where it might have seemed as though we advocated the skinny of Ken. I’ll get it. It was close there a few times. It was an analogy. I do have a lot of cats for goodness sakes. No one could infer that’s what I’m doing to them, but I’m not God. No, we love coming here. I did count went upstairs. We were upstairs earlier that you have like 87 of them up there. Last I heard. Now thrive nation. If you’re out there and you’re saying, you know what, I want to learn how to start a successful small business.

Maybe someday I want to have a large business. The right now. I want to learn how to start a successful small business. You’re going to love this interview with Max Feta, the former 13 year old shark tank contestant. And for the listeners out there who uh, know the lorry Mantech story, want to give you this little more detailed to that. I’m Laurie was at a place in her life where she went all in and in her case what happened was some of the stores wanted to pick up her product and they, some of the big box retail stores, they actually wanted her to put a minimum number of products in the store, like a minimum order. So in her case, you know, to work on those big box retailers. I mean, she ended up having to actually move into an apartment and vet her house on it, uh, because she’d actually got a little bit of traction and they wanted an all in commitment.

But what you’re suggesting is the ideas that you’re doing right now, you didn’t have to risk everything to start the company. You only had to risk a few thousand dollars or so, you, you, you’ve kind of mitigated your risk a little bit. I did at, at the majority of the Times. And I recommend most people now. It sounds like in her case, she had real interest from retailers now and that it’s a little bit different and I understand where she’s coming from. But in my case, as an early startup, you have from absolute zero interest whatsoever from customers or

from retailers or from anyone. I wasn’t willing to just throw everything in because who knows? I might think it’s a great idea. My mom might think it’s a great idea, but the market I’m looking to go after, it might not. And so I understand where she was coming from. She had retail interest. I’ve kind of been in that position before with the erase case. We were going after retailers. I get it. You have probably net 90 days or 120. You have to cough up the product. I get it.

But let me make sure. Let me make sure I clarify this real quick because I don’t to lose anybody here because Max, you know their stuff. But it’s like if you enter in Laurie’s case and you convince toys r us to buy your product, they say great, we want a minimum of 10,000 units right now. Yup. And then by the way, if they sell, we’ll pay you 90 days after they sell or 60. The Best I’ve ever heard of Max is like 30 days ever. It’s usually 90. So what Max is talking about is you’d have to actually go out there and be Lori and sell your house, buy all these products, put them in the stores, and in the event that they sell, you don’t get a check for 90 days, but you had to put up all that money. Um, and that’s, that’s very, very normal for big box retail.

So I’d like to just say this, you and I max have the same worldview about this. I’m all about taking minimize, uh, calculated risks. You know, where you could lose some money and you’re not going to just freak out. You’re not going to be living in a van down by the river. And that’s more, I think you and I are mitigating the risk. And my friend Laurie, I mean, she just went all in. I mean, once she heard the big stores wanted it. So clay, I’d like to ask you this. You work with a lot of business podcasts owners that are overwhelmed with fear. They have found themselves in a spot where they’re doing well. They’re making some money, but to open that second location or to hire that key employee or to launch those advertisements, they’re going to have to step into the fear zone. What questions would you have for Max on behalf of your clients that maybe you’ve recently advocated, hey, launched those ads, hire that person, make that, and they’re just bound by fear because Max seems to be kind of a fearless guy and maybe there’s some good questions there.

Yeah. Max, just in this, if you were even saying how you. Sometimes you’re sleepless nights and thinking about it in your brains going and going. I just had a question today from a client of mine who was saying that his brain, he just can’t get it shut off. How do you find. How did you find the place of peace? What brought you confidence to keep going? Was it, was it a action that you kept taking or was it, uh, did, did you find that? If I, if I just think about it enough that eventually the fear will go away and then I can take steps. Did you wait for the fear to go away or did you attack the beard? How did that work for you?

Well, I read in the magic of thinking big that when have fear, the only way to destroy, feared into, to go after fear is just to dive right in and do it. And so when, when I was afraid I took a deep breath, I made sure that it’s not astronomically huge if I was to fail and I go after it and you know, eventually you just become less and less afraid. I think it depends on what you’re betting on and what you’re doing in it. And if you’re confident enough in your business to a certain extent, um, you, you shouldn’t be too fearful because you’re competent in your product and your service and you believe that it will sell and you believe it’s the best product or service on the market.

Uh, the magic of thinking big is a book that I just quoted this morning in clay. You were there in our team meeting just talking about that. And one of my favorite quotes from that book, which was written for the listeners who aren’t familiar with the magic of thinking big, was written by David j Dot Schwartz, I believe for decades ago, but that book says, think you are weak, thank you. Lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class, think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity. And I think that’s sort of the mentality when you have to just assess the, the worst case scenario and then go for it. Right?

Absolutely. And that is the book I read when I was a freshmen in high school when I was 14 years old and it revolutionized and changed my whole life. And that’s the mindset that I, that I keep consistent and I reread that book every six months just to keep that, that exact quote you just read. I keep that consistent in my head. That’s a phenomenal book. And it seriously, when it comes to having a great deal of confidence and courage, that is the book I really refer to. Are you married Max? No, no. I’m 21 years old and I am. I’m single, you know, I’m just, I definitely, eventually I would like to have a family, have several kids and, and I just right now I wanted to build my income, build these businesses and so I am single. I just wouldn’t be able to devote enough time to a relationship and my businesses, so I’m taking care of my business isn’t growing these and when I’m in my mid twenties I eventually plan on, uh, you know, dating more and eventually getting married. I got married when I was about your age, my friend. So I’m just curious

what, what the status was, the marital status. I’m going on 18 years of marriage and I am a 37, so I got rid of those 20. So just curious what’s going on there in the home front. Okay. So 90 percent of businesses fail. Ninety percent, 90 percent of startups fail. Bring the forms. That’s not a negative answer to real things. Real thing. Why Max do you feel that most startups fail?

Well, you know, I’m sure there’s a handful of of small reasons, but in my opinion, from talking to different business owners, it is a lack of marketing knowledge. A lot of these business owners don’t know how to acquire customers, they don’t know how to retain their current customers,

and so much of business growth comes down to marketing and retaining customers.

Attend the world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on itunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing is proof that you did it and your contact information to [email protected], thrive nation. Welcome back to the thrive time show

on your radio and z. look who just stepped inside the camp, Clark and chicken palace, ink duty, a glorious human being. Oh, just a sanctimonious occasion, Mr Paul Hood, Americans number CPA and America’s number one CPA in every way. Stepped inside here just incredible. What’s up? How are you, Paul? Real quick, a little bit of housekeeping. This, how is the house? The house is getting there slowly but surely. It’s huge. Anticipated movement, anticipated moving dates. We’re good. Six months off at least. So yeah, just the weird thing about builders, it’s always just like it’s the same six months. He told me three months ago, six months. So yeah, it’s always six months, six months, six months. Is that a house is so big. I couldn’t live there. I’m probably never see you, but I’m on. I would love that. Come on. All right. Now I would say on behalf of wall builders out the aid probably be overall, if you look at it, six months, six months now on today’s show, we’re interviewing a guy by the name of Max Feta who was on the shark tank at just the age of 13.

And uh, he grew up in a very entrepreneurial family and uh, he got. He caught the bug obviously at a very young age, but see, I want to talk about the three aspects of business that I probably don’t talk about enough on the show. One, let’s talk about it. Here we go. Office defense and special teams every football season. So offenses is marketing sales, I think a lot. See, I think a lot of people love to talking about marketing like offense, cold sales, pending. There’s a lot of energy behind social media, marketing, sales, awesome marketing, awesome. There’s a lot of people almost get as soon as people think about marketing, there’s, there’s this anticipation. You just. People love all the conferences are about marketing, sales, motivation, and then sometimes they’ll switch into like entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, but it’s, it’s, that’s what they’re into office. Yeah, and you know what?

You know how many x. It seems like every other person I meet is an expert. Oh, by the way. Oh yeah, an online social media marketing, because the barrier of entry is like nothing, right? And they all have an instagram account and they have a snapchat and everybody’s a Dj or just social media marketer. Now move number two. This is special teams. In my mind, special teams is the special service that your business delivers. Oh, if you’re not tom interest, right? That’s your special team. Your you are. Your special niche is optometry. If you’re an accountant, you’re

special team is accounting, right? But every business has office and every business has defense. Defense is accounting form tackling, looking at your numbers. No one wants to look at their numbers, looking at your systems and processes within. But defense wins championships, baby accounting. No one wants to talk about legal mystery shopping. Ms Dot. That’s a huge defense hanging out with the opposition is doing. Oh No. See, no one wants to talk about that. So on today’s show, we’re interviewing a guy by the name of Max and a Max fate as the name fat a. He was a, he was on the shark tank at the age of 13 and a lot of his show today, a lot of the show that he’s talking about offense. But if you want to learn about defense, if you don’t remember what about special teams. That’s the kind of stuff that we talk about on each and every show. And now that any further ado, back to our interview with Mr. Max Feta.

And if you don’t know how to profitably do facebook prospecting ads or do retargeting advertisements to, uh, get back people that were on your website, you’re going to have a really difficult time to grow and scale the business. So in my opinion, number one is just lack of marketing knowledge. And then number two, like I said earlier, getting into niches because you think you think it’s profitable or you think it’s a good market, not because you are passionate about a niche. I have experienced that several times with the pure organic skincare line, but I’m telling you, it’s so much easier to get into a market or niche that you’re a part of. If you are a big basketball or golf or fishing fan, get into that niche. People get into niches because they think it’s going to be extremely profitable, which sure it might be, but it’s so much easier to know the insider tips and tricks and what’s really going on in that market and that niche when you’re a part of the market and niche. And so those are my two biggest reasons I think startups fail, is just lack of marketing a knowledge and understanding and people getting into the wrong niches and markets for the wrong reasons.

I’m going to not argue with you, but I’m going to clarify one point. You make something. This is very important. I do agree strongly that you, if possible, should go into a business that you are proud, that you are passionate about. I think that if that is possible, that right there is wicked awesome because if you love that product and it’s your profit center, that’s awesome because you love what you do. Like our podcast, I love interviewing guys like you. It doesn’t feel like work. I love the show prep. I love the research, I love it. All. Love that. That’s, that to me doesn’t feel like work. However, I’m involved in real estate and I am involved in haircuts and I am involved in what’s involved in photography. I am involved in marketing my different industry, different companies that I own, you know, carpet, cleaning, whatever. And these are all niches where I, I really couldn’t care less. I mean, I can try I guess, but I know my

knowledge, it’s not humanly possible to care less about hair than I care about, but I care enough. I’m really obsessed with my, with my family and my kids, and so I got a really deep, intense knowledge of hair and I’ve dove in. The more I dive into it, the less I like it, but I want you to know I really do. I know I really, I just don’t get it, but I dive into it because it’s so. I would just say this as a clarifier. It is the perfect Unicorn. If you can absolutely be in a niche where you can merge your passion and your profit center, that is cool, passionate profits, that’s awesome, but if you can’t do that, please understand. You’re still going to have to get very detailed. You can’t go into a niche where you know nothing about it. So even though I’m a guy who wears a hat every day, every day before I had off at the moment where it had on the weekends all the time, I’m the kind of guy that never does my hair ever.

I just don’t care. I have no class. I am a dive bar as stated earlier, but I have dove in. I mean seriously. So today we had a young lady, Max who applied for a job at elephant. The room shifted. You meet her today. I saw her walking around. I was in meetings all day. She came in today and she has worked at two locations and I’m in Max. I mystery shop all the competition and I bring my little notepad and I take notes about what they’re doing, you know, and take photos and I’m always just trying to one up him, you know. And that lady, I never, I never tried to offer a job to the competition. So I’ve never offered her job. But she’s cutting my hair at multiple places. She comes in today and I’m like, you, I know you. And she said, yeah, I’ve cut your hair.

I didn’t know you owned this company. What has say the Blonde Lady? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ever tell anybody I said, but she goes, oh my gosh, that’s so cool. But like, so I forced myself to know the company and obsess about it. So you can’t. There’s no way to skip that step, but it really is a unicorn. If you love what you do. I mean that is absolutely. Oh, that is, that is hot. When you love what you do, that’s exciting there. That’s like a butt man. Hair. Let me tell you about here. I want to. I think Max, I had to read all these hair books. I’ve had to go to trade shows to go to the competition. I had never previously paid for haircuts Max. I was having my wife cut my hair, but I let it grow out like a Yeti.

All right. Thrive nation. If you are out there and you are serious about saving some time and some money, we’ve talked to you about it earlier, but I’m going to talk to you about it again. Go to onyx imaging.com and get your office and printer supplies delivered, factory direct to you, Z. Why does it just make sense to save time and money and to have those office and printer supplies delivered direct to you. You know when you have employees and you’re paying them to do things you want them in your business making you money, right? You don’t want them running down to staples to get cartridges and paper paper and another printer accoutrements, accoutrements, accoutrements delivered to you at a fraction of retail costs. So what better way to say I love you this holiday season and with the gift of office and printer supplies, delivered it at a discounted rate. Check out onyx imaging.com, a.com. It’s onyx imaging.com.

We’ve got August all October, all of November. And then so I guess we have two months in six days until the big event and this is the year typically every year. This time of the year you began perfecting your dance moves and this year at the Mayo hotel gather and if you’re out there and you’re trying to sneak your way in, maybe if you will, where a clever disguise you might be able to get in, but you and I and three to 400 people will be there a and z. can you talk to us about the preparation you’ve been putting into getting yourself to the next level? I mean, you have to have been mystery shopping. The competition. You have to have been spending a lot of time studying the moves needed to win this year’s dance contest. Well, I’ll tell you, a lot of stretching goes into it.

Uh, at my age, you, you have to make sure you’re prepared. Um, a lot of, a lot of chicken leaning. I lean up. It’s going to lead the lead. Lean check protein, organic. They no to carbs, no carbs. Carbs are evil, evil, carbs, fat, carbs, and Latin that thinks pells devil. Oh Wow. Sure. On that. But I’m pretty sure. How are you going to answer to or you had to answer? I am not a dancer. No. I got some rhythm, but I’ve never had any. I’m good. I just would like to watch CSI. I just learned last year. I don’t know how much of it. Wait, I’m not finished with my preparation and I think last year you try to sneak a little move. You brought in people from Europe and then yeah, he in the dance contest and many of them had like Michael Jackson dance moves.

I mean Andy was pretty good but Paul brought it. Probably brought the moves. We, we, we, you, you took the competition to try to bring the soul to the party. I made me dig deep, you know, it’s Kinda like one of those athletes that can go maybe half pace and when. Yeah. But it wasn’t that way last year. I mean you called me out on it. You brought it in the heat. You broaden the ringers and you did it. Let, let me, let me of just give you a play by play these Danson and it’s close. It’s competitive, you know, and then he does like the spin move and he goes down and does the John Travolta splits back up like a pogo stick, Bam, back up and it was just like woo has shocked yourself. Oh well no, I’ve done that. I’ve done that many times.

Usually when I was younger. I mean you can’t get when you’re older, but I think I, I think when you did the move, I think you realized like I’ve just done. It’s like when somebody jumps a little higher than normal and gets a monster slam, that they just shut down. The people couldn’t handle it. Yeah. Here’s the price. Your cell phone, but you’re going, wow. People’s faces were melting, right? I knew I could jump over Volkswagen bug and slammed, but I think you gave somebody $200 for running up in the dance contest. I think you were so moved by your generosity of showing us your dance moves that you decided to give the second place person that’s kind of taken on a life of its own. It’s kind of a thing now at the at the company wide Christmas party because we have all of our employees and I have.

It’s so good and we have, last year was probably 300 people in the crystal ballroom. There’s a lot more people we might have to expand. Let’s see if John Snyder is willing to expand the ballroom this year. They you have to say John’s kick it out and you know we’re going to do dealt with Adam. We have people sitting on each other’s shoulders. That’s a good move. Relapse. Now. Paul wanted to get your take on this. You’re a CPA. I am missing on this interview here with Max Feta. Max is talking about the purpose, the importance of knowing your product. Now I would argue that when you’re out there and you’re super passionate about your product or you’re not, either way, you have to know what the competition’s doing. Can you talk to me about why you’re so competent and so confident with recommending people check out hood cpas because you’ve mystery shopped.

You know what’s out there. Why are you so confident that hood Cpas is the best choice for many of our listeners? So at clay in my industry, that’s actually a very easy question because most cpas are very competent and taking historical data and put it on tax return historical data and put it on a financial statement, but they don’t go further. They’re not trained to teach people to keep more, save more and protect more, to actually go beyond just taking last year’s data and looking and put it on the tax return. So we tried to look forward and, and help people guide and steer their businesses towards financial security is, it’s, you know, it’s kind of like CSI and doing that John Travolta movie, you know, he just goes the extra step, you know, it’s not, he didn’t just just step back and just take it. He actually went to the next step and that’s what we try to do at Hood Cpas is, is help our clients go to the next next level than just taking last year’s data and throwing it on a return thrive nation. And now, without any further ado, back to our exclusive interview with a 13 year old former shark tank contestant turned 21 year old entrepreneur Mr Max Feta.

I paid a roommate in college Max. I had all the life hacks to end up with a mangled mouth like I had consistently near his head. It was much easier when you love your product. Now talk to me about designing packaging brow packaging, branding package here. How did you go about designing the packaging for your newest product?

Brainstorming and a lot of market research. Like you were saying, I didn’t have that previous interest in the skincare space and so I was just finding myself at all to. And so fora which are two popular, a skincare and makeup retailers, unfortunately been Saturday.

Andrea, why don’t I hang out outside. I got my hair cut at all to before.

Yeah. Yup. And so I just did market research, constant market research. I saw what was hot. I was seriously spending hours upon hours sitting in Barnes and noble reading the beauty magazines and I was just seeing what was hot and the space and I just tried to kind of mold and market around it. Um, and I, and I think we did a phenomenal job. We’re have frosted glass packaging is silk screened on the jar. It definitely looks phenomenal and when people see so screening they immediately think, okay, this must have been a couple thousand pieces, minimum order quantity, but I negotiated and I was a pest

and I got those numbers down. And so we have phenomenal, beautiful, really gorgeous packaging. It’s definitely one of our biggest selling points just from a retail standpoint when it comes to these salons and boutiques. And I did it for a very low minimum order quantity of just a couple hundred pieces per skew. Now Eva, can I request a sample pack to be sent to me? Can I do that? Is that sure a move I’m going to give you in the hundred thousand folks who on average typically download our podcast to my address. And that way it’s just a private thing. You know, I don’t want anybody else getting this out there. My address there is 1100 riverwalk terrorists and that’s a jeeps, Oklahoma. It’s j. e, N K, s, Oklahoma. It’s 1100 riverwalk. Terrorists jinx, Oklahoma. Seven, four, zero. Three seven. It’s becoming kind of a tourist spot. They’re chipped out. When I went to the airport security, their day and a person saw the thrive hat, like

you’re the third guy. Oh, nice. This is why people are coming to Tulsa. Seriously, there’s not a lot of people traveling to Tulsa unless it’s tourism and they’re getting more and more people attending the conferences and they’re seeing them come in wearing their swag. The multiple time attendees. So if you’d send me a sample, I put it on the show notes. I’d want to cover my. I’ve always had this dream. Chubb, have you covered my entire body and pumice. So anyways, I was just writing a check, but I was just reading the teleprompter here. Who wrote that? Goodnight. San Diego. Okay. All right. So no neck Joe. I don’t know why you’d put that on the show. Why don’t you do that? Okay. Well, you had that rash you were telling me about it. I don’t know this just. Okay, so now as far as product,

getting them into the marketplace you have, how many stores are you in now? Roughly how many stores? What kind of, what kind of stores are you in and how many stores? We are in about 50 to 60 different botique skincare, spas and salons. Are you making money right now? Are you making money? Are you. Are you. You’re 21, so technically you could still live with your parents for another 20 years. It’d be socially acceptable there because you have kids that are are are 21 slash 24 slash seven. How old are your kids now? We’ve got a 26 coming on 27 next month. So Max could be living with his parents for another, what? Five to seven years and still be within that window of greater good. Yeah. I think everybody will still be socially acceptable as long as you’re playing a lot of video games to in large part to the loyalty of the nation. Yes. We have now a advanced on the itunes charts. First there were five, there was over 530,000 podcasts in the world and according to the Wall Street Journal and Paul, I feel I feel very confident about that number number because I feel like we might have been ranked number 530,000 when we started. When we started because we were were were were, were, were, were new, we were new. Then we had about 100 podcasts up there in about 200 podcasts, 300, 400, 500, 600.

All of a sudden we move into the top 500 and I know this because I obsessively check everyday. Then we moved up into the top couple of hundred after about two years. Then I called Jessica is actually I sent you a text and we hit like the top 20, like 18 or something. Now, as of the time of the recording of today’s show, right here on Tuesday. We right now are number two in the world. We are ahead of Tim Ferris. We are ahead of Gary Vaynerchuk. We’re ahead of Tony Robbins. We’re ahead of td jakes. We’re ahead of pretty much everybody that I could list off for you except for one person knows you. I’m gonna. Pull it up on the big screen so you can see because this, this lady here, uh, I want to have her on the show. I have a lot of respect for what she’s doing with her career and her life, but at the same time I want to beat her. You know what I mean? Rachel Hollis. So Rachel Hollis is number one. This guy, Andy Dane Carter. He might’ve had a couple of shows that have taken off, so he beat us here for a minute. But. So we’re number three right now. But Rachel, I see, I see. I don’t like it when there’s a great, nice, charming, kind female that’s ahead of us because I want to hate my competition.

So if you’re out there and you’re listening today and you have already subscribed to the thrive time show on Itunes, thank you very much. All I would ask you to do is just send us proof that you did it and we’re going to send you free tickets to our next in person. Workshop is a way to say thank you and if you haven’t done it yet, all you gotta do is find the thrive time show on itunes. If you don’t know how to do it, just ask a millennial and they’ll probably. They probably won’t make eye contact with you, but just just ask them and they can teach you how to use that APP, how to use that service and you’ll find the thrive time show on itunes and you just subscribe. You leave us an objective review and email is proof that you did it to info at thrive time.

Show.com, like a screenshot [email protected] and Z. we’re going to give them free tickets to our next in person workshop. You know those. Those imperson workshops are pretty fantastic and I remember I remember what a year and a half ago when we started them, it was the craziest thing we. We kept getting emails and phone calls and when something like this or you really real what’s going on because this can’t be, seems too good to be true because there are so many workshops where you bounce a light, hold hands and sing the song and um, you know, walk on coals and nothing wrong with walking on hot coals. I’m sure every, every business owner walks on hot coals everyday. And that’s the key to your success feel sometimes. Right? So what for people out there that don’t typically walk on hot coals as a glossary or if you don’t want to risk the health of your epidermis located underneath your feet, we would encourage you to come out to our workshop and people are always amazed.

I mean, there’s no upselling, there’s no trickery, there’s no, there’s none of that going on with it. It’s just we, it’s two days, two days intensive learning, 13 steps. We take you through our 13 steps that we just have, you know, clay and I have done what about a dozen million dollar that have been very successful. And so, you know, and, and clay’s read more books than I have. How many books have you read, you think? Well, there was a while. There’s a time of my life where I used to read one book every week. That was kind of a thing I know is your move. And it was um, but as I’ve gotten older it’s more about going back to the books and using them as kind of a reference. Sure. I would say probably north of 1500 business books. Yeah, that’s what I would guess. Probably not only that, you know, we built the online business school and in doing that you interviewed people all across the country.

That’s the part that’s record my head because we’re going to interview Clayton Christiansen the head of Harvard’s business school. And you want to be prepared for that. You’ve got to. I mean we interviewed last week a marshawn Lynch’s business partner. I’m a guy by the name of Justin for set and I don’t want to get that wrong up. Paul, you’ve been to a workshop before. Can you kind of explain to listeners out there what a thrive time show in person workshop is all about what it’s actually, you know, uh, kind of overwhelming actually the, the, it’s, it’s like what an entrepreneur’s dream of what we’re looking for because an entrepreneur in their heart and in their mind they know there’s gotta be a way. I know I can make this. I’m working on beaten my head against the wall. I’m driving. It’s all based on my energy.

And then you go to one of your workshops, clay, and all of a sudden it’s like the curtains open up and you say, oh my gosh, it’s that simple. Just follow this path. And since I went to the first one, I haven’t missed a single one and I won’t miss one. It’s, it’s you. I pick up something one or two things every single time it takes my business podcasts to the next level. Can you. That’s a great word right there. And the other thing too is it’s not only the teachers that are teaching the, the, the steps right to the pathways. It’s you’re in a room with a lot of like minds. They’re either started a business one to start a business, had just started a business or they’ve had ongoing business for 10 years. I mean we’ve had some of the leading businesses in Oklahoma come in and go, hey, you know, what we learned is one thing.

It’s worth today, sitting here, you know, I mean we can always build a better mouse trap. We can always make our deal better. And so that’s, I find that encouraging. And how many video reviews do we have now on that thing? Well here’s the deal. We have over 700 video reviews, but I right now I’m sitting on a stack of I think 60 that I need to prove and the reason why I approve them as sometimes, you know, sometimes people in the video, they, they, they look kind of look awkward and will say, okay, go ahead and take that part out. I love the conference but don’t, don’t, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, let me try again. Some people want video, get kind of self conscious and so I need to to watch this, but I think I owe the thrive nation about 50 or 60 more, but don’t be.

Don’t be cheesy with this testimonial. You need to keep feeding the monkey. You’ve got to feed the furnace. I mean, come on. It’s like you’re. The train is going to slow down if you don’t keep pumping that coal into the burner, into the fire, into the engine, into the. I’ve got a few more little kind of housekeeping notes for the thrive nation as we wrap up today’s show. On today’s show, we are interviewing a guy by the name of Max fatal. He’s a 13 year old shark tank contestant turned entrepreneur and I think a lot of people don’t realize the. We archive each and every show on thrive time show.com and we actually release three times as many shows on the podcast as we do on the radio. So there’s three times more content coming out every day. We’ve got knowledge bombs, we have special editions of ask us anything.

We’ve got the archive shows Z. we’ve got the Hummer of love segments where we do what we answer your questions on the way home in the Hummer Z. There’s so many podcasts up there available for you and it’s not overwhelming. I mean, you can see, are you a spotify guy? Are you an itunes guy or are you just not James Scott? I’m an itunes guy. Knew. It’s really fun how many more emails we’re getting now? Questions? It’s amazing how many of the questions are very similar, right? Um, you know, there’s not too many things that are new under the sun and in starting and growing a business, a lot of the questions are the, are the same kind of category, the same kind of flavor, if you will. And so it’s really fun to see the, you know, that increasing and people wanting to ask specific questions. And so I love the ask us anything segments by the way, as a sidebar.

So there’s three ways to gather the content. When you go to thrive time show.com, if you click on the podcast button, you can just hit play and he’ll just stream right there. You have to download anything. There’s no app to get or you go on itunes. When you go on Itunes, I mean you can, you can listen right there or on spotify, but you have three ways you can hear each and every thrive time show podcast, a beginning here. I think next month will be on Iheartradio as well, so we’re on all the different apps, all the ways you can download and consume the content and up. Paul, are you aware of how radio shows are available for free for people or are you aware? Have you ever thought about this?

You know, I’m not aware, but I’ve got kids that I can ask at home how that happens because they’re. They’re always telling me, why are you buying that music on your phone when you can do this and that. I, I, I think it’s a miracle.

Well, let me tell you why. Let me tell you that. Let me tell you the miracle that makes Radio Free and podcasts free. It’s guys like Paul Hood and Williams contracting. Paul, you sponsor the show and can you talk to listeners about the dozens of people you’ve met and clients that you’ve been able to, to gain and to meet as a result of advertising on this show?

Absolutely. Clay, uh, you know, and here’s a real example. I had a phone call from my office or a text from office, say, Hey, call this lady. She’s from New York, like New York City,

New York City, New York City. That’s crazy. Yeah,

she, uh, she wanted to talk to me about helping her out and you know, she didn’t, she didn’t listen to the local radio show. She listened to your podcast. He heard me out there. And so I’m getting clients. You know, I, I didn’t, I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t agree. I didn’t really believe you clean when you first told me, but it’s happening all over the country. Florida up. Exactly. We have several clients in Florida, several in New Orleans, great clients all over the place, Arizona and now New York. Of course, we already had clients all over the country, but typically is from word of mouth. Now there is, we’re proactively going out there and getting them just by being involved with, with advertising and sponsoring on your podcast. So

let me tell you, there’s. There’s one thing you could do as a way to show support to the shell. If you’re thinking about looking for a proactive accountant, go to hood CPAS DOT com today and schedule a free consultation. Paul’s going to give you a free copy of Warren Buffett’s only authorized biography and a free hour of his team’s time. You can schedule it today, it hood Cpas Dot com, and if you’re out there thinking about building a building or a church or any piece of commercial real estate, I encourage you to go to will-conn.com. Will Dash conduct come true? Stories Z, a Williams contracting landed I think an $8,000,000 deal a while back as a result of a someone who listens to this show and if you’re out there and wanting to build a piece of commercial real estate, just go to [inaudible] dot com today and schedule a free consultation. And now that any further I do three, two, one, boom.