When you start a business make sure you’re passionate and that’ll take some time

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Michael, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:08] SPEAKER_02: You're in Winnipeg today, which is a little different to me in Toronto, but that's fine.
[00:15] SPEAKER_02: So as I always do at the intro before we get going,
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and how you got here basically.
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: Certainly. Well, thank you so much for having me here today, Phil.
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: A little bit about myself. I'm a 27-year-old entrepreneur, born and raised here in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
[00:40] SPEAKER_00: And, yeah, I kind of first started off my career at a car dealership.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: So my first job was actually at Mercedes-Benz Winnipeg, where I detailed cars in the beginning here,
[00:52] SPEAKER_00: and then I actually was promoted to sales. And I was the youngest salesperson they have ever hired,
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: which was a pretty big accomplishment. It was great. I mean, I absolutely love cars,
[01:03] SPEAKER_00: so it was a really nice being around all of these very special cars and meeting very unique people,
[01:08] SPEAKER_00: which helped me accelerate my career later on.
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of my first dive into my career, and then while I was actually at Mercedes,
[01:18] SPEAKER_00: I was also attending the University of Manitoba, and I was taking science courses and business courses.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I ended up following my passion and started a company called Rent your Rod.
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: It kind of put both together of my passion for technology and cars.
[01:38] SPEAKER_00: It was a peer-to-peer vehicle rental app that allowed people to list their vehicles on the platform,
[01:44] SPEAKER_00: like Airbnb and rent them out to other people to earn some extra cash.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: I actually have used it, but only in the show just to...
[01:52] SPEAKER_02: Oh, really?
[01:53] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
[01:54] SPEAKER_02: Okay, awesome. What'd you think?
[01:56] Speaker UNKNOWN: It was good. It was good.
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: Good. Good.
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that was my first startup, so I grew it to 14,500 signed up users,
[02:06] SPEAKER_00: which was super exciting here in Manitoba, and we had over 1,000 rental transactions,
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: and did over 6 figures in revenue.
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: So, after that, this is kind of when I started Adam.
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: So, Adam stands for All-Lake Digital Assets Manager, and it allows you to securely upload videos, files, photos,
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: passwords, whatever they may be to a secure cloud-based server, and you can pass them on to...
[02:35] SPEAKER_00: when you pass away.
[02:38] SPEAKER_00: So, those are the two sort of startups that I've been in so far.
[02:44] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: What about, you know, why the entrepreneurial journey?
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: So, there you are, Mercedes Winnipeg, your cook-in, your own is just selling a lot of cars.
[03:00] SPEAKER_02: The commission's on bad, and I know that.
[03:02] SPEAKER_02: I grew up in the other mode of business.
[03:05] SPEAKER_02: And why move on?
[03:11] SPEAKER_02: You know, you're pretty young.
[03:14] SPEAKER_02: You know, why not stash them cash in the summer, Mercedes?
[03:18] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great question.
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: You know, ever since I was like 12 years old or 13 years old,
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: I was actually, I remember Google searching how to own my own dealership.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: I've always kind of wanted to work for myself.
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: I like the idea of the flexibility.
[03:33] SPEAKER_00: I like the idea of building something, building a team, building a product,
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: and that's just kind of where I ended up going.
[03:43] SPEAKER_00: Also, when I was asking a bunch of the customers at the dealership,
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: what they asked, sorry, what they did for a living,
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: a lot of them said they own businesses.
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: And they were all driving my favorite cars.
[03:53] SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I'm a huge car guy.
[03:54] SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately for my pockets, I do have expensive taste and vehicles.
[04:01] SPEAKER_00: But with that being said, I did talk to a lot of customers
[04:04] SPEAKER_00: and I learned a lot from them.
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: A lot of being successful business owners, you know, doctors, lawyers,
[04:11] SPEAKER_00: all walks of lives.
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: And after talking to a lot of them, you know, I kind of felt that
[04:19] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurship was the best route to take.
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: And the one that I was most passionate about as well as you.
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: We'll tell you a little bit more about the vision for Adam.
[04:30] SPEAKER_02: I mean, where is it?
[04:31] SPEAKER_02: You know, is it going to take you to, you know, superstar,
[04:37] SPEAKER_02: awesome entrepreneurship as I tell you?
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the plan.
[04:42] SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
[04:43] SPEAKER_00: You know, the great thing about Adam is the utility is there for everyone.
[04:48] SPEAKER_00: Right? So, you know, just to give you a little backstory of how this all came about.
[04:54] SPEAKER_00: When I was 15 years old, I was actually hit by a car.
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: And I almost lost my life.
[05:00] SPEAKER_00: My dad raised me as a single father.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: So I was basically the only thing you have.
[05:03] SPEAKER_00: Right? And if I did lose my life, you would have not only lost me,
[05:07] SPEAKER_00: but you would have lost all of the precious memories that I had of us on our phone.
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: And, or sorry, on my phone.
[05:15] SPEAKER_00: And I never shared my password with my dad.
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever heard of the saying,
[05:20] SPEAKER_00: if I ever died, please delete my browser history.
[05:24] SPEAKER_00: You know, people don't like sharing their passwords just because they do have some private things on their phone.
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: And me being a teenager, I didn't want my dad to see a single phone.
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: Right? So, you know, with that being such a traumatic experience,
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: I always, you know, kind of, you know, thought what would have happened?
[05:39] SPEAKER_00: Like, what if, what if I did die?
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that's kind of, we're Adam formed.
[05:45] SPEAKER_00: Right? And the great thing about Adam is, you know,
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: it allows you to personally upload, you know, photos, files, videos, passwords,
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: whatever they may be to the, the, the secure cloud server,
[05:57] SPEAKER_00: and you can pass them on to him every once.
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: And the nice thing about it too is it's extremely secure and easy to use.
[06:04] SPEAKER_00: Right? So we've happened to things called the executive key and release timer.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: So, Phil, let's say that, you know, I wanted to give you access to my Adam account.
[06:13] SPEAKER_00: Let's see me and you are best friends. And, you know, or we're doing a business together.
[06:18] SPEAKER_00: And I wanted you to have these important things if I pass away.
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: I would upload them to my Adam account.
[06:24] SPEAKER_00: And when I sign up and create my Adam account, I'm giving an executive key.
[06:28] SPEAKER_00: So this executive key is a, a, a, a, a, you can do it out, or sorry,
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: 32 digit, Alpany, AmeriCode, that is then give to, whomever you want to have access to your Adam account.
[06:38] SPEAKER_00: So I would be giving you this executive key, right?
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: And let's say God forbid, I walk outside today and I get hit by a bus,
[06:44] SPEAKER_00: or I get hit by another car, like I did when I was 15.
[06:47] SPEAKER_00: And I lose my life.
[06:49] SPEAKER_00: You would then use that executive key to access my Adam account.
[06:53] SPEAKER_00: And that paired with the release timer, which is a second layer of security.
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: So again, when I set up my Adam account, that's set for two weeks.
[07:01] SPEAKER_00: It prevents people from accessing your account when you don't want them to.
[07:04] SPEAKER_00: So as soon as you use the executive key, if I was still alive,
[07:07] SPEAKER_00: what would happen is that release timer would start for two weeks.
[07:10] SPEAKER_00: I would get notifications saying someone's trying to access my account.
[07:14] SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'm so alive, I don't want that to happen.
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: So I say no, and it would deny you access.
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: Now again, God forbid, I get hit by the bus.
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: And you, you, you hear about that?
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: You then access my Adam account with the executive key, the two week,
[07:28] SPEAKER_00: the two week release timer runs out.
[07:29] SPEAKER_00: Obviously, since I passed away and I can't respond to those notifications.
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: And then you would gain access to all of the precious memories
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: or business documents, passwords, whatever I wanted you to have,
[07:40] SPEAKER_00: that would be left there for you.
[07:42] SPEAKER_02: But I mean, I'm interested, you know, you're in your late 20s.
[07:49] SPEAKER_02: Started the career.
[07:52] SPEAKER_02: What advice would you give to an entrepreneur looking to start a business?
[08:00] SPEAKER_02: I mean, how could you afford to start a business?
[08:02] Speaker UNKNOWN: Did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I?
[08:04] SPEAKER_02: All those kinds of things.
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is if you're, if you have a, you know,
[08:12] SPEAKER_00: career right now or a job, you want to make sure you have at least six months
[08:15] SPEAKER_00: to a year, run weight of savings in your bank account.
[08:18] SPEAKER_00: So if you have no income coming in whatsoever, make sure you have
[08:22] SPEAKER_00: at least enough savings to, you know, sustain your, your way of living
[08:27] SPEAKER_00: without any income.
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: You know, I would actually recommend at least a year of that.
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: Because when you start a business, it doesn't always take off for a week, right?
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: It does take some time.
[08:36] SPEAKER_00: And you can't rely on income coming in from your business to pay your expenses.
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: So that's the number one thing.
[08:44] SPEAKER_00: Number two is make sure you're passionate about it.
[08:47] SPEAKER_00: So whatever you're diving into, make sure this is something that you really want to do.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I say that is this is something I experienced with Renchiride.
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of hurdles, right?
[08:57] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's very easy to want to give up and just stop doing it.
[09:04] SPEAKER_00: Which is why you have to be passionate about it.
[09:06] SPEAKER_00: If you're extremely passionate about it, no matter what hurdle comes across,
[09:12] SPEAKER_00: you're easily able to overcome it.
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: So for example, one of them with Renchiride was someone's vehicle got sued, right?
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: And this was a huge hurdle for me.
[09:23] SPEAKER_00: It was the first time we ever experienced it.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: Extremely stressful.
[09:29] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there's a pretty high bill that could have come out of it.
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: If we weren't fully prepared and we had the proper coverage.
[09:37] SPEAKER_00: So that's just one example is to be passionate about it.
[09:42] SPEAKER_00: And then also on top of that, make sure you have a good mentor.
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: One of my best mentors that I've ever come in contact with was actually applying
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: to a lot of my friends of mine from Mercedes-Benz.
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: And he kind of guided me through, you know, setting up a business,
[09:58] SPEAKER_00: you know, what to look out for with partners, you know,
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: what you need to do to really prepare yourself to be a successful business owner.
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: The great thing about the mentor is usually they've already been through it, right?
[10:12] SPEAKER_00: You want to look for someone that's, you know, already built a successful business
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: and, you know, has time to help someone or is willing to help you.
[10:20] SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is because they've experienced everything already.
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to go through those hardships that they may have had to go through.
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: They can give you an early warning on certain things.
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: So those are kind of the main things that I would recommend.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: And last but not least, if there's something that you want to do, just do it.
[10:39] SPEAKER_00: A lot of people come to me and they're like, oh, how did you, you know, start this business?
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: How did you, you know, get started with all this stuff?
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: And I always just say, I just did it, right?
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: So many people have great ideas, but they never follow through with it.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: They always get stuck at that idea portion.
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: And if you follow through with it, you're, you're, you know, like 50% of the way there, right?
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: If you don't follow through with it, you know, you have nothing but, but just an idea.
[11:06] SPEAKER_02: So what's the big challenge, the biggest challenge you face today?
[11:12] SPEAKER_02: You know, in, in, sort of, in your entrepreneurial side of things.
[11:19] SPEAKER_02: How did you overcome it?
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: So I would say I experienced, like a couple of challenges.
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: One of the more noticeable ones for me was, it was a steep learning curve, right?
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: Like I've never done something like this before.
[11:36] SPEAKER_00: So when you dive headfirst into something like this, you know, you may think you know everything.
[11:41] SPEAKER_00: You can do all the research you want, but then that one thing pops up that you don't know how to handle.
[11:46] SPEAKER_00: You're like a lawsuit or like anything like that, right?
[11:50] SPEAKER_00: And you're like, whoa, what do I do here? Right?
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: And then you're kind of panicking.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, one of the challenges I would say is just, it's such a vast, like thing to dive into.
[12:04] SPEAKER_00: That one of the challenges I had was just learning everything.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: And it comes with time, right?
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: 21 year old me knew a lot less than 27 year old me now.
[12:15] SPEAKER_00: So that's one of the things.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: Another more intricate thing is delegating tasks, you know, kind of balancing it.
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: So for example, if you have a startup that's, you know, kind of eating cash or requires cash injections all the time,
[12:29] SPEAKER_00: it's very hard to sort of balance how much time you should spend on little admin tasks.
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: And like you kind of have to think, okay, do I have enough money to hire someone to do this?
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: If I keep on doing this myself, it's actually going to cost me more money over the long journey.
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: So it's very, you know, just figuring out the balance with that kind of stuff is also tough, especially if you're new to it.
[12:58] SPEAKER_00: And then third was also raising capital as well too.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, finding how to raise capital for businesses or who to approach,
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: when to approach them, doing the metrics for your business, it's, it's, there's a lot of stuff that was challenging in the beginning for me.
[13:15] SPEAKER_00: So.
[13:18] SPEAKER_02: So I kind of dumb question one of my rapid, well, I tend to rapid fire questions.
[13:24] SPEAKER_02: If you want, weren't doing what you do now, what would you be doing instead?
[13:28] SPEAKER_02: You probably be selling Mercedes by the sounds of it.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I would, I would, I would probably sell Mercedes.
[13:35] SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty passionate about those vehicles.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: I also, yeah, if I, I would have my own dealership, you know, I'd look into doing that.
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: But yeah, something, you know, finance related or technology or vehicle related is something I would probably be doing.
[13:55] SPEAKER_02: Well, what are you currently reading or listening to?
[13:59] SPEAKER_02: I don't care which one.
[14:01] SPEAKER_02: Atomic habits.
[14:02] SPEAKER_02: Tomic habits.
[14:04] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a very good thing of it.
[14:08] SPEAKER_02: You finished it.
[14:09] SPEAKER_00: No, I'm a quarter of the way through actually just started it.
[14:14] SPEAKER_00: It's an extremely good book.
[14:16] SPEAKER_00: I recommended to anyone.
[14:19] SPEAKER_00: It really solidifies, you know, atomic habits, you know, having good habits and getting through with your day and getting things done properly.
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I really like it.
[14:30] SPEAKER_02: Are you a morning or a night person?
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: I'm a night owl to be honest.
[14:35] SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
[14:36] Speaker UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[14:37] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[14:38] SPEAKER_02: That's interesting.
[14:40] SPEAKER_02: What do you do at night when, when it turns getting to work now?
[14:45] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do a lot of admin work.
[14:47] SPEAKER_00: I do a lot of preparation for the next day as well.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: So to give you an example, when I was going to the University of Manitoba, and I was also working at Mercedes Benz, the only time I had a night to work on my projects was, or sorry, the only time during the day to work on my projects was actually at night.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: So when I was done with the city, when I was done school, you know, I had a timeframe from 7pm till 2am to work on these projects.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: And that's sort of what I did.
[15:16] SPEAKER_00: I did a lot of research then.
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: You know, I did a lot of admin work.
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: I figured out marketing plans, business plans, all during those times later at night.
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: And it's nice too, because it's peaceful, right?
[15:27] SPEAKER_00: No one's texting you.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: No one's calling you.
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: You can kind of focus and get what you need done at night.
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: And also early in the morning too.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: I've tried to be a morning person as well, getting up at 4.35am, going to the gym.
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: But I do prefer working at night.
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: I'm more of a night owl, I'd say.
[15:46] SPEAKER_02: We had to pick one word to describe Michael.
[15:50] SPEAKER_01: What would it be and why?
[15:55] SPEAKER_01: Resilience.
[15:57] SPEAKER_01: Resilience.
[15:58] SPEAKER_00: And the reason I would say that is because I've been able to overcome a lot of adversity.
[16:05] SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't grow up from a wealthy family.
[16:09] SPEAKER_00: You know, my dad raised me as a single father, making minimum wage.
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: So right there and then I kind of already had, you know, the odds against me in terms of building something.
[16:20] SPEAKER_00: And then also my car accident as well.
[16:23] SPEAKER_00: Like I said before, I got hit when I was 15 years old and I hit by a car.
[16:26] SPEAKER_00: This was during high school.
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: I was in the hospital for two months straight during high school.
[16:31] SPEAKER_00: And I was still able to graduate on time.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: I've had 17 surgeries since.
[16:35] SPEAKER_00: My last surgery was three years ago when I first started dating my girlfriend, Sydney.
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that was my last surgery.
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I've experienced a lot of things in life that, you know, usually would set people back or, you know, push them down.
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: And I've never really let it push me down.
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I finished school on time.
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: I graduated on time and I was still able to excel in my career afterwards given any physical limitations or financial limitations as well.
[17:05] SPEAKER_02: So I'd say resets.
[17:07] SPEAKER_02: So you talked about the value of mentorship, which was cool.
[17:11] SPEAKER_02: What's the best piece of advice that you've received that you kind of, you know, carry it in your back pocket and apply it when needed kind of thing?
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, my mentor always says this one line and it's, you can't sit there and expect it.
[17:31] SPEAKER_00: Cook chicken to fly into your mouth, meaning basically you can't sit there and expect everything to come to you just because you have some right.
[17:39] SPEAKER_00: You have to go out there and get it.
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: So you have to make those calls.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: You have to make those emails.
[17:44] SPEAKER_00: You have to take that extra step to get those clients.
[17:47] SPEAKER_00: And if you don't mind, I want to share another one.
[17:50] SPEAKER_00: There's actually another really good one that he shared with me and it moves.
[17:54] SPEAKER_00: Make mistakes quick.
[17:57] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[17:57] SPEAKER_00: So if you make a mistake, bounce from it quickly and learn from it.
[18:02] SPEAKER_00: Instead of dwelling on it and, you know, taking your time, you got to get that mistake done and over with quick, pivot and make sure that it doesn't happen again.
[18:11] SPEAKER_00: That was another solid piece of advice that you gave me that stuck with me.
[18:15] SPEAKER_02: So it's keeping you up at night.
[18:19] SPEAKER_02: Even though you don't go to bed until tomorrow, but it was giving me up at night.
[18:24] SPEAKER_00: It's mainly work.
[18:25] SPEAKER_00: It's, yeah, it's, it's mainly work.
[18:27] SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot to do.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're an entrepreneur and you, you're always full of ideas and, you know, there's lots of things that you need to do.
[18:37] SPEAKER_00: That's basically what keeps me up at night.
[18:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, I have large ambitions and with those, with those ambitions, does come some stress sometimes.
[18:47] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, to reach those goals.
[18:51] SPEAKER_00: So I would say that also keeps me up at night as well.
[18:54] SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm pretty hard on myself sometimes, but it's, it's for the better I'd say.
[19:00] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[19:01] SPEAKER_02: I think it's a very, very precise and concise, Michael.
[19:08] SPEAKER_02: I think that I think we're about there in terms of the interview.
[19:12] SPEAKER_02: It's been really fun, actually.
[19:14] SPEAKER_02: That's some very clear, clear comments on things and I really, really like that.
[19:20] SPEAKER_02: So thank you very much for coming on Canada's podcast.
[19:24] SPEAKER_02: It's really been great meeting you.
[19:26] SPEAKER_02: Thank you.