Insights on Branding, Business, and Work/Life Balance

0:00I turned off Alex's channels, my subscriptions because it was too much stuff all the time. It was he was in my feed too much and it was seldom relevant to anything that I cared about.

0:14Is this a federal class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco? So it's class action lawsuit. People grumpy. That Hermes won't just sell him a Birkin bag. I think that's I think there's a couple of things I want to get your take on that. I also think it's just worth discussing how valuable a brand is that they can do this kind of thing where they say, like, no, we're not going to let you buy our most expensive deal. You have to jump through these other hoops first to even have the right to buy it. So just general thoughts, feelings, emotions. What do you think? It'll be interesting to see. I should read the complaint before, you know, to understand what the causes of action are, because there are lots and lots of causes of action.

1:02My guess is that it's going to be presented as an illegal tying arrangement where you can't say if you, to buy this product, you have to buy these products as well when those products could stand independent of the others. but it doesn't seem like that's what they're doing. Because if you go into the store and say, I'm interested in this, they're like, we only have a limited number of those and we make those available to our best customers. Is that antitrust? Is that anti-competitive? Does that, I mean, I don't think it is because you're talking about branded products. They're not tying them to other brands.

1:48It's all within the same brand. So, and they're not stopping other people from selling handbags. Like if you sold a bottle and you said, basically, you can't get the water that's in this bottle without buying this cap and this container and using this label, that could be a tying issue. because what if I want to use my own colored cap and I want to put it in a canteen instead of the plastic? That's anti-competitive because you're saying you don't get the thing that's inside unless you buy all of our stuff that's on the outside too. But they're not saying that. They're saying buy whatever you want to put in the handbag, buy whatever coats and plates and blankets you want.

2:34If you want our thing, you've got to be a customer that's at a certain level and has spent a certain amount of money. it'll be interesting to see seems like a tough case without knowing more and like they're not they're not price fixing they're not you know it's actually significantly less expensive to buy a Birkin in Hermes than it is to buy one on the secondary market and you've got companies like Patek Philippe and all the luxury brands AP you know that that do similar things even Chanel to kind of climb up the ladder to get the the nicer rarer stuff so I I think they're going to have a tough time doing it.

3:12And really, like the secret, you can go and buy Hermes on your first visit with no appointment. You can walk in a store, I know, because we've done it. And if you have a conversation with the people and create a relationship and yes, spend some money, but maybe five to 7 ,000, then they'll sell you a bag. If they've got one, they will sell you a bag. It has happened multiple times to us in different Hermes stores in different countries. So, um, that, you know, I think there's a little bit of a myth as to how difficult it is. And I'm sure that Hermes doesn't hate having that myth that's out there.

3:49But the truth is, is that if, if you go in and you spend a little bit of money, then you can get that as well. And is that antitrust? Because like, that's like, is that stopping competition? I don't see it. Seems tough to me. One, our mutual buddy, Alex Hormozzi, who we've known since forever, but obviously in the last few years, he's a name that's probably known to most of our listeners because dude's just blown up on all kinds of channels. He made the decision he was going all in, going pro during COVID, and he really used that time to just go nuts and blow up on TikTok and on Instagram Reels and his YouTube channel.

4:32And, you know, just as has done really, really, really well. And so it's been it's been interesting, though, because, you know, again, we're buddies and we will chat back and forth. and um he he put out this uh this piece this video that that kind of has has gone a little bit i don't say viral but it definitely has got a lot of people talking in the business world and in the influencer space because he essentially said i'm i'm gonna stop doing entertainment style videos i'm just gonna shift all of my focus back to education um in in an effort to grow his audience which most people who are out there on the different social channels want to do, he's shifted from talking almost exclusively about business to I'm going to talk about cooking and I'm going to talk about health.

5:23And I'm going to talk about, you know, how to, you know, what to do when you're in college. And he broadened his message for the sake of getting a lot of views and for the sake of getting more followers, which worked. But Alex is a data guy. And so when he went back and analyzed, he found that, you know, people who are watching videos on cooking, they don't necessarily ascend to then wanting to watch my business stuff. They just want to watch more cooking stuff. So he was essentially able to validate and he broke this down this video that not all views are created equal and that the grind of going out there and producing tons and tons of content just to grow the audience.

6:00If you're doing this as a business owner, not as a celebrity, not as an entertainer, If you're doing this to grow your business brand, it just wasn't worth it. And he tested the strategy, found that it wasn't worth it, is pivoting back. And so that happened. At the same time, I read this article in Vox titled, Everyone is a Sellout Now. And it's basically this article where they're interviewing all these creators who are lamenting the fact that they don't really have time to create anymore. They have time to do their art. They have to always, always, always produce for the TikTok, the Instagram and the YouTube algorithms.

6:39Because if they stop, they're going to disappear. And if they disappear, they don't make any money. So one person said, you're becoming worse at your art, but you're becoming a great marketer for a product which is getting increasingly less and less good because you're focusing on all this other stuff. So I just wonder if we're not going to start seeing a shift away from the I need to be everywhere all at once strategy to, you know what, maybe we shouldn't be chasing views. Maybe we should be talking to, you know, less. And maybe we should get okay with that. And I'm just curious as someone who's invested a lot more in the, you know, social creator side of things than I have, what your take is on that.

7:23Yeah, on the Alex thing, I think it's just common sense. I mean, honestly, I turned off Alex's channels, my subscriptions, because it was too much stuff all the time. It was he was in my feed too much and it was seldom relevant to anything that I cared about. So, you know, I'm not looking for, you know, how to have, you know, an inexpensive Chipotle protein meal for under$5 and stuff like that. I mean, just, I don't care. And I think what happens is that if you, you know, it's quality versus quantity. If you're chasing everybody, then, you know, you're going to maybe even turn off your core audience because I'm certainly, I think, an audience that Alex would want to reach.

8:08But I just was like, pretty much none of this is of interest to me. It's funny. He said, sorry to interrupt, but he said one of the catalysts that led him to start looking at the data and make this change is a good friend of his. He didn't name the person, but probably somebody that we know who he really respected and who is his ideal client. You know, because Alex is like us. Alex wants to do deals. He wants to buy companies. You know, he wants to be a part of like bigger things. So he's like, my ideal client said exactly what you said. Yeah, pretty much, you know, love you. I've just pretty much stopped watching your stuff because it doesn't apply to me anymore.

8:46Did you know, you say as we record this on a holiday, I like that. I know. Did you know that Jeff Bezos, this is what was the catalyst to having this conversation we're having today, that Jeff Bezos says that work-life balance is a debilitating phrase, quote unquote, and that work and life are actually a circle. What do you think about that? I mean, what he's essentially saying is that there's like the better your work life is, then the better your home life is going to be. And, you know, on and on and on. And that one impacts the other. And then it's not this kind of like perfect balancing act.

9:29It's that one is going to influence the other, which, you know, I think is logical when you think about it. It's sort of like, we don't describe it as like a sleep, a sleep wake balance. You know, I mean, there's times when you sleep and there's times when you're awake. And if you're doing too much of one and not enough of the other, then, then yeah, that's, you know, that that's not good. So I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of some of this is a little bit playing with words, but I do agree with what he said that this, this concept of having a, you know, a perfect balance is a bad metaphor.

10:02It's a bad visual. It's unhelpful. I think it causes you to feel guilty when not. And I think at the end of the day, as entrepreneurs, business owners, any high performance individual, we're always living, I think, in extremes. And I know for me, I'm at my best when I'm working really, really, really hard. And I'm like in extreme work mode. And then I'm going to be in extreme rest and play mode. And as long as all of those things are happening, then it works for me. In terms of balance, though, like it needs to be some kind of 50-50 type deal. I don't know. I've never really bothered to count.

10:40I like it. I agree with you. I tend to be like, if I can get completely immersed in a project, I'm very excited about it and very happy while I'm in that ravenously devouring every bit of information I can about it, focused on it, trying to solve a problem, whatever. And, uh, and if I can check out like, you know, and like, as you know, we did recently, um, in Norway, I was pretty happy the whole time. Didn't really give work a thought and just absolutely enjoyed the vacation. A couple of is a circle more than anything else. He said it should be that work and life are a circle. He said that if he's happy at work, he's energized at home and vice versa.

11:34And did you see it also had a little snippy? This is Business Insider, which there's some of the snippiest little twerps I've ever seen. And I say that in a Disney loving kind of way. But just like journalists are all like, I don't know, none of them are entrepreneurs. They're Like, of course he says this. When he said this, he was still married to his first wife and then they got a divorce. I saw that as really, that probably didn't have anything to do with work-life balance. Yeah, it's funny because he kind of euphemized it out in Amazon as work-life harmony, which is not terrible. But what I thought was really interesting, I haven't heard anybody say this before.

12:13and um let's see they said in a um he says he's more energized better husband better dad um when he's happy at home a better boss a better colleague and then of course right after that they put the little snipe bezos was married to benzie scott at the time you know but um he said uh here it is he said if you can get your work life to where you enjoy half of it that's amazing very few people ever achieve that i thought that was really interesting because you know he said everything comes with pieces that you like and that you don't like um man that if i was unhappy at work half the time i i don't know that i would stay what do you think about that?

13:07It felt about right to me. Yeah? So basically, assuming that, would you feel that way if you were half happy at home and half completely not happy? I think it's tough because like how one defines happiness is, you know, is, is a big part of it. Cause there's definitely times when I am not happy when one of my children comes to me on a, you know, Tuesday night. He's defining it as enjoy. As enjoy. But even that, I think, so let me give you this example, because I believe that this is a personal analogy that there's a lot of work related things. So my kid comes to me, it's nine o 'clock at night.

13:51I'm kind of ready to go to bed. And they're like, oh my gosh, I just forgot I've got this project due tomorrow. And it's like, oh yeah. And I need a poster board for it. It's like, how late is office depot? And can I even get a poster board at this hour? And you have to spring into action and deal with this like thing. And in that moment, all I want to do is strangle my child. And I think any parent out there knows exactly what I mean, but those are also more than one left. It's why you have multiple ones though. In case, yeah, no, bad joke. Anyway, I do think that that is one of those times when in the moment I don't enjoy it, but afterwards, you know, it created a memory, it created a moment that we might still talk about, you know, today.

14:33So I do believe that a lot of work is that. And there's the, am I enjoying it in the moment versus was this good, solid, focused activities? And so for me, there's some work that I do that I don't necessarily... What about productivity over enjoyment though? Yeah, there's plenty of work that I don't necessarily enjoy in the moment, but I'm glad that I did it when it's done. It's like exercise. And so I would, I guess if that work lives in the 50 % that you don't enjoy, I'm okay with it. Ever wonder how some people build real wealth through acquisitions while others just sit on the sidelines? Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not about luck.

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