Build With Rob

Rob believes that you should seek clarity on exactly what it is you want to achieve before setting out to achieve it. That clarity will reveal the detailed goals necessary to get there. Breaking those down into smaller, achievable goals builds the belief that you can actually get to the finish line. Over time, the goals become more ambitious, you achieve those, and the belief and confidence grow. Take the time to put energy into defining what it is you want out of life, be it a business, relationship, health, or something else. Only then will every decision you make have a clear purpose and move you forward.

On this episode, Patrick MacCausland wants to change the way recycling works by starting a company he's calling HalfBack. When you buy bottles and cans, you're paying a few cents extra that you never get back by putting them on the curb. Patrick wants to pick them up for you, turn them in for refunds, and give you back 50% of the take. But in this early stage, there are a lot to figure out in the financial model, which Rob walks him through in detail.

Tulsa Talley is the founder of Good Note, a tie dye apparel brand with a positive message. He began making the clothes for himself, and then began selling them. While it's his full time gig now, he wants to know what 5 steps he should take next to take it up a notch, and Rob has those answers. Not only does Tulsa get great advice, but Rob hits him with a big surprise at the end!

IG: @goodnoteco

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There are two states of mind that are not useful to becoming successful or living an amazing life. The first is Dwelling, which is a passive state that provides no current or future value. The second is Hoping and/or Wishing, a state that, while more fun in the moment, creates the same passivity and stagnation of dwelling. Neither of these mental states offer any positive momentum, and thus should be avoided. Live instead in states of Experiencing or Creating the future.

Podcaster, rapper and producer Ryan Sullivan joins the show. He launched his company, Podcast Principles, to create podcasts for individuals trying to expand their personal brands. Like many businesses, Ryan faces the challenge of scaling, meaning getting more clients and hiring and training a team. And how does he balance that with all of his other passion projects?

IG: @sullybop

IG: @podcastprinciples

Dusty Pierson created an innovative mobile phone grip device with his college aged son called Bandit. An engineer by trade, Dusty figured out the manufacturing and they were off. The father-son duo are now looking for advice on how to get to that next level and increase sales. Rob has some simple, effective thoughts to up their game.

IG: @livebanditcase

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Achieving balance requires discipline, practice, and a realistic framework. Over time, with consistent effort, you will find yourself getting better and better at it until it is second nature. The definition of balance, however, is very personal and different for every individual. It takes time and attention to understand what your version of balance is that makes you feel energetic in the various aspects of your life. Rob explains exactly how he evolved into his current state of balance and now keeps it going with ease.

Michael Wong and Alex Comfortes founded Peeka VR to get kids excited about reading again. They use visual technology to immerse children in stories with the goal of igniting their passion for reading and learning. But sitting between two slow moving industries, publishing and education, they want to know how to move fast and disrupt.

Justin Kershaw had spoken with Rob in 2020 when he was introduced by Outstanding Foods CEO and Founder, Bill "Billy G" Glaser. Rob couldn't quite see the vision of Sow Strong Food back then. But that didn't stop Justin. He went out and hustled to bring his brand to life, and Rob is incredibly impressed. He wasn't coming on the show looking for a deal with Dyrdek Machine, but you never know what can happen on Build With Rob.

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Building a company as an entrepreneur entails having a vision, making a plan to achieve that vision, and then setting goals and achieving them in that direction. It also requires failing, learning, and evolving. Optimizing, automating and refining. And over time success is achieved or a new chapter must begin. The parallels between building a great business and building a great life are many. And it all starts with an entrepreneurial mindset.

The Dyrdek Machine's philanthropy, the Do-Or-Dier Foundation, supports organizations across the country that teach the entrepreneurial mindset to underrepresented and under-resourced individuals from young people to the formerly incarcerated. This provides them with the tools they need to succeed in both business and life. Please visit our amazing partners and support their efforts:

WIT Whatever it Takes - https://www.doingwit.org/

Build - https://build.org/

Defy Ventures - https://www.defyventures.org/

On this episode, Myles Weber, a talented stand-up comedian, saw his comedians, musicians, and other creatives isolated during the pandemic and realized there were a lot of therapy resources out there, but no life coaching by people that really understand what they're going through. So Myles took it upon himself to get his coaching certification and is launching Green Room Talk, a service that provides support to artists by certified fellow artists. Rob suggests a way he can hone his idea even further to open it up to a larger customer base.

IG: @mylesweberjoker

Keyser Leepier was tired of always waiting for bartenders to make drinks. He realized bars could be selling a lot more if the bottleneck of the bartender was automated. It was then that he created Sylf, a self-serve cocktail machine. He's got a plethora of potential use cases for the product, if he could only get the capital raised to create the prototype. Rob shares some strategies to bring on partners and validate the idea before going out to raise a round.

IG: @sylf__

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What does Rob mean by "Qualitative Self-Awareness?" It's literally as simple ask asking yourself how you feel every day with respect to the most important parts of your life. Using a scale of 1 to 10, above a 5 represents increasing degrees of happiness and optimism. While the bottom half runs the risk of compounding negativity and dragging you even further down. But the first step to increasing your number and keeping it at higher levels more consistently is creating a systematic understanding of your quality of life. Only then can you begin to identify the internal and external factors that affect your rating positively or negatively and actually do something about them.

Our first guest is Brandon Wesig, who invented a device called The Neverending Defender that helps basketball players train against defense all by themselves. He wants to know the first thing entrepreneurs should look to change when not meeting their desired sales goals. He also is interested in the advice Rob would give to his younger self.

IG: https://instagram.com/neverendingdefender

Then we have another inventor who has been incubating a product idea since his childhood and finally made it a reality. Spencer Trotter created the Anywhere Fridge, a solar powered refrigerator for travel and locations without power. Rob opens up a whole new possibility to scale his product by suggesting he partner with charities to bring refrigeration to parts of the world lacking in power for food and medicine.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/AnywhereFridgeFreezer

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One of the keys to a high quality, balanced existence is becoming extremely sensitive to your energy. Especially when it is being lowered by an action or external force, or gained by something you enjoy doing. This goes for work, family, friends, and literally anything else in life. In order to achieve energy awareness, you really need to get in touch with yourself to understand the nuances as to how you uniquely gain and lose energy.

As always, we have some great guests on the show. Sanjay Kumar Rajpoot is a master of the hot global trend of sustainable vertical farming and hopes to do his part to end world hunger and help the environment with his startup, Plant Culture Systems. He is seeking advice on how to grow the best possible team when capital is not an issue, but building the company requires one's undivided attention. He also asks Rob what his 3 non-selfish wishes from a genie would be, the answer to which needs to be heard to be believed.

IG: @iamgroot42069

Austin Gayne has been in the supplement sales game for a long time, and built successful companies along the way. But now he has what he believes to be a game changing idea, namely female-targeted solution-based supplements that target specific areas of physical improvement. He wants to know what sort of mindset shift needs to occur for an entrepreneur to build toward an 8, 9 or even 10 figure exit. That is followed by a question about building the confidence to succeed at a high level.

IG: @austingayneh31

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It's one thing to go into a new venture with optimism and hope that hard work will pay off. But it's a whole other level to design the life outcomes you want, then the business outcomes you need to achieve that, and only then design your business backwards systematically in order to reach that goal. It's important to figure out things like how much time you want to spend working when the business reaches maturity, as it is unsustainable to burn the candle at both ends in perpetuity. You must decide what role you want to play that will give you the most energy, and then build around that with people who will take on the energy-draining roles. It's all possible with the right design in place.

We've got Dr. Cody Sandzimier on the show today, a chiropractor who realized there was no silent timer with only visuals on the market after he realized the need in his practice. He invented The Loop Timer, which uses an aesthetically pleasing blue LED ring to show you when time is up without all the beeps and chirps. Rob encourages him to scale it to a point where he can hire someone to run it and look to keep it as a sustainable business that creates a good chunk of supplementary income. The good doctor asks when the right time to invest in scaling a team is, and wants to know more about how Rob created his life operating plan.

IG: @chirocody

Josh Sanchez thought he should be able to get in a full workout in the middle of a hike, but the options weren't out there. He created NativFit, a band-based gym that fits in a backpack. Rob wants him to focus more on the full value proposition the product is delivering and thus hone in on their core consumer. Josh wants to know if Rob would continue direct-to-consumer or target retail. He also wants to know if all the sacrifice for the business is worth it in the end?

IG: @nativfit

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Belief may be something you hold inherently, but more often than not it is a process that takes place over time. It is the constant setting and achieving of smaller goals that slowly grows belief in your idea, yourself, your plan, those around you, and every other aspect of your existence. It is only when you have lost belief that you want to quit, and Rob believes it's the point at which you should quit. However, it's up to you to choose how that belief is lost. Losing belief and quitting can be a good thing, a learning experience, and the beginning of believing in something bigger and better that will ultimately provide the life you want.

Today's guests come to us from Canada and a van outside the airport:

Courtney and Leigh Jackson are a married couple who are also relentless serial entrepreneurs. They've been diving in head first and asking questions later for years. From opening a nail salon to children's clothing to a successful kitchen refinishing business, they noticed a problem that they wanted to fix. Namely, getting independent contractors and vendors paid by their clients. They have an idea for a service that would go to bat for the little guy and get them what they're owed. Rob implores them to take a page from the Machine Method in order to learn and micro-fail in a brand new industry before they start burning capital. https://www.thefactoryfinishstudio.com/

Matt Plapp is a force to be reckoned with. Founder of a marketing company that focuses on restaurants. Now he's aggressively expanding to a media platform for restaurants that will create content for and about them and utilize it as marketing. Rob is super into the idea, and encourages Matt to remold himself as a champion of restaurateurs in a variety of ways. Rob even makes up a theme song for him. Interestingly enough, Matt has also been using a version of Rob's life tracking system for 50 days, and Rob helps him hone his daily qualitative ratings. https://mattplapp.com/

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In this episode, Rob makes the case for why naming your brand to connect with the value proposition of your product can give you many advantages along your business journey. In the best case scenario, your brand name can even become a verb associated directly with your product's output. As companies all become their own media companies, it is far more scalable to create content and thus build a customer base around a brand name that connects deeply with the very thing you as an entrepreneur are trying to introduce into the world.

As always, we have some great entrepreneurs on the show:

Tyler Boone is an independent singer songwriter with over 10million streams who created his eponymous Boone's Bourbon, a 117 proof, multi-award winning spirit. Tyler has had success, but now wants to know if he should keep bootstrapping or take on capital. https://www.drinkboonesbourbon.com/

Timmy Wozniak and Kevin Dunn are part of the team that built Commissioner, a new shoe brand inspired by NBA style and named for the man who had arguably the biggest impact on catalysing that style, the late David Stern. They're looking to pick Rob's brain about his experience designing shoes at DC and how to manage influencer marketing and endorsements. https://commissionerculture.com/

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There may be aspects of your business you don't understand. There may be parts that make you cringe. But you still have to learn as much as you can about them. You have to understand how all aspects of the business relate to your overall vision. Only then, should you hire people with more specific expertise. At that point, you will be able to guide them to help you realize your ultimate vision, as opposed to waiting for them to figure out what that vision really is.

Rob talks to three entrepreneurs on the show today:

Ohio native Christi Mason is a mom whose child's toys always seem to end up on the ground. That's why she created a prototype for the TableTopper. A unique device that attaches to tables to keep all of a kid's stuff clean and accessible. But she's wondering how important it is to perfect the prototype before trying to go to market.

Danny Darnell is a certified drone pilot who wants to create a platform to connect marketers and FAA certified drone pilots. Rob can't believe that the global market for drones is currently $100billion on its way to $500billion, but it is. But Danny has no experience in building software, so what does he do?

Jerame Hawkins created his Rescue Signaling Kit after seeing people trapped and unable to signal for help after hurricanes. A single kit brings together just about every method of signaling you could need, but Rob encourages him to move toward whitespace. https://www.rescuesignalingkit.com/

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