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Making Bold Moves: Building Ecosystems for Scale and Impact
11 Plays1 month ago
Devin Butler’s entrepreneurial journey began with failure—dropshipping experiments, unsuccessful businesses, and uncertainty about his path. But those early setbacks planted the seeds for something much larger.
After moving from Michigan to Arizona, Devin recognized a gap in the entrepreneurial ecosystem: there was no centralized, high-quality community for founders to build meaningful relationships. Instead of waiting for someone else to create it, he built Arizona Entrepreneurs from scratch—growing it to thousands of attendees and hundreds of members.
In this conversation, Devin shares:
- Why failure is a necessary part of entrepreneurial development
- The importance of relationships and proximity to ambitious people
- How timing and opportunity shaped his success
- Why AI is lowering barriers—but raising the importance of brand and differentiation
- The future of entrepreneurship in an AI-driven world
At its core, this episode reinforces a powerful truth: entrepreneurship is not about perfection—it’s about starting, adapting, and building relationships that unlock opportunity.
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Transcript
Dreams and Ventures
00:00:04
Speaker
The voice of growth, mastering the mind and market.
00:00:10
Speaker
My intention and vision was always like I'm going to the NFL. When I started it, I was a failed entrepreneur. like Trying drop shipping, selling watches.
00:00:23
Speaker
Man, do I really want to be doing this? You know, the rich don't trade their time for money. They trade their money for money.
Networking and Branding
00:00:32
Speaker
saw the need in the market and saw that it didn't exist.
00:00:36
Speaker
One is just start. I feel like networking could be overlooked. One connection does have the power to completely change your life from what it is now to the goal or whatever it is that you're that you're trying to achieve.
00:00:51
Speaker
Create a really strong brand and and figure how to differentiate yourself. I feel like that is what where the trends are going.
00:00:58
Speaker
It's really built on those principles of helping people build real relationships and then providing them with the you know trusted connections to grow their companies, but then also the education and resources they need to understand how to scale a business.
00:01:14
Speaker
That's a good question.
00:01:18
Speaker
You came to Arizona from Michigan. You
Michigan to Arizona: A Growth Journey
00:01:21
Speaker
are the founder of Arizona Entrepreneurs. Tell me the journey that took you from the, I believe it was the Western side of Michigan, right?
00:01:32
Speaker
Yeah. To the middle of Arizona, the middle of the desert. Yeah. So I, as you mentioned, grew up in Michigan. So I've been there my whole life and I was in college at the time. So it was, it was coming up on like my senior year of, of college. And it was, it was a good timing because one of my really good friends that I was working with at the time, um, we both kind of wanted to like experience something else and try something else. So I came out here to, one of my friends was going to GCU. And so I came out here to visit him on like my senior year spring break, just, you know, visit visit a buddy. And i ended up loving it out here. So I called i called my buddy, his name's Tom. I called Tom and I was like, I'll sign a lease right now if you're down. Like, you know, worst case scenario, we could we can move back a year later. And so signed a lease while I was out here. And then, you know, me my buddy Tom moved out here and and the rest is history. But it it was amazing.
00:02:24
Speaker
I knew that I wanted to get out of it out of Michigan, but it was just a matter of time, like graduating college, get because I played college football. So i was kind of, you know, stuck there for four years if I wanted to get my degree. So, right yeah.
00:02:35
Speaker
But what was what was it about Arizona in particular? And you can't say the weather. There's got to be more than the weather. I know. you, you would think that, but really there, there's not, so Michigan is, you know, beautiful place to grow up in very like blue collar environment and everything. But when I came out to Arizona, it was just like the bustling city. There's like a bunch of stuff going on, events, things happening. Obviously the weather is a big aspect of it because i came probably like spring, spring timeframe. And it was, you know, beautiful out here compared to what it was in Michigan. And um yeah, but, but,
00:03:09
Speaker
As I moved here, I'll tell you the the main things that I appreciate more about Arizona than I did Michigan. Like the entrepreneur scene, the type of people that are out here and, you know, people my age that are building companies and doing really big things. Like it's just so much more growth minded out here versus Michigan. ah It felt very constricted and small minded. So over the weather or anything else like that was, you know, the biggest draw like since I since I've lived here for a little bit.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah. So I lived in Michigan for about three years, and got that sense as well. There was much more, again, great place to to, to be from, to live. I mean, it's beautiful there, wonderful people that I did feel a bit stymied. Like I couldn't find people that were like-minded people either moved in from there in the automotive world. And they were sort of like that that sort of mindset or they never left.
00:04:02
Speaker
I remember one time i went to Lansing, not East Lansing, but actual Lansing. And um I was at a um sending into this like place where i was going to sell my my software that I was selling. And the lady, we were kind of talking a bit and I said, hey, you know, are you from here? We're just kind of small talk. And goes, yeah, I'm from here. I've never been out of the the county except for one time.
00:04:30
Speaker
when I went to the big city, which was ah Grand Rapids. i'm like And she was about 40 years old. So that sort of blew my mind. She'd been there her whole life, 40 year old woman i had never really left.
00:04:44
Speaker
That's just ridiculous. Yeah, and that's not uncommon in Michigan. Like maybe county might be a stretch, but like leaving the state, I know a lot of people in Michigan who have like never left the state. And so, yeah, you you see a lot of that out there. It's crazy. It is. So you came to Arizona, you you made that decision.
00:05:01
Speaker
And as I recall, you just mentioned that you were a videographer. You started off doing that. What led you, what was the arc from there to where you are now being the founder and running this wonderful organization, Arizona Entrepreneurs?
00:05:17
Speaker
Tell me
Mindset Shift: Football to Entrepreneurship
00:05:18
Speaker
the story that got you from a to B. Yeah. I think even rewinding a a little bit is ah a better start. So like when i was in college, like football was my main passion. So I had played football my entire life, got the opportunity to play college football. And it was a D2 school, but some people still like went to the NFL from from the division that we were in the GLIAC conference. And so my intention and vision was always like, I'm going to the NFL. Like I i was constantly thinking about that I was going to have the opportunity to play at the next level. And it was so interesting to see how it happened because my sophomore year at college, um not not like a crazy injury, but I tore my meniscus. And so i was out for the rest of the year. And it was the first time to where, you know, not taking out that dreamer side of me, but to where I like kind of brought myself back to earth of like, what if what if football doesn't work out long term or what what do I want to do outside of football? And so throughout that time, i i read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. um I know that was a book that, you know, was a big transition for a lot of people, but that one shifted my mindset because it really showed me that, you know, the rich don't trade their time for money. They trade their money for money. And once your passive income exceeds your expenses, like you're out of the rat race. So i was constantly thinking about like any job that I go and get with my degree after this, I'm just going to be trading my time for money until
00:06:38
Speaker
I can retire. So I started to think like, wow, I i need to create businesses, start acquire assets. Like my mind shifted in that direction. So that sophomore year, I kind of saw how like entrepreneurship started to become a little more of a passion than football even, which was crazy to me because like football football was all I really cared about at the time. And so I was just like, for for the remaining years of college, because that was sophomore year that happened, I just like getting in the game, nothing was working out, but like, you know, trying drop shipping, selling watches and um selling like AirPods, like some knockoff AirPods from Alibaba.
00:07:12
Speaker
And ah yeah, so just constantly trying things, falling on my face, but like getting in the game of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship
Birth of Arizona Entrepreneurs
00:07:20
Speaker
And then when I moved to Arizona, me and my good friend, Tom, who I i moved out here with,
00:07:25
Speaker
Um, we started a videography company. I think we worked with four clients, um, for free. Like we just shot them some free videos and then we're like, you want to hire us? And no, no one hit us back on. Yeah. But we learned real quick. It's like, we're honestly not that great at videography and I don't enjoy this. Do you? And na so we, we,
00:07:45
Speaker
We moved on to the next thing. We started a lead generation company for the home improvement industry. So we went to like events and trade shows and generated leads. And it worked it works decently well. like We had a lot of really good partner companies in the Valley and and it worked out. But um when COVID happened, there was no more events and trade shows. So we kind of had to pivot.
00:08:03
Speaker
And then shortly after that, I, you know, looked on Instagram for an entrepreneur community. Like I just, I realized that I needed to start to meet other entrepreneurs and get around people who are building companies. And that's where I saw the need in the market and saw that it didn't exist. So.
00:08:19
Speaker
You're like, that is like literally entrepreneurship 101. You saw a, an unmet or underserved need and you moved in. Yeah. So while we're here, tell us a little bit about the organization. Obviously, this podcast is a lot about the the market and mindset as well. So we'll kind of go back and forth. So tell us a little bit about what it is as an organization and what it does for your your constituents.
Purpose and Community Building
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah. So the whole vision with Arizona entrepreneurs to start was like me being new to Arizona. What I was looking for was a place that I could go to and meet high level entrepreneurs, meet other people that could either be mentors, people that could just be friends and other entrepreneurs building companies, find referral partners, people I could collaborate with. I wanted to get around people like that. And so the the vision has always been that. So where we host events, we curate environments where we're bringing together all these entrepreneurs to build relationships. That's been the core of it all.
00:09:14
Speaker
And through that, you start to really see a lot of these different pain points of business owners, like one specific companies that they'll need at some point. So we work really closely with brand partners to where it's like they're all going to need a CPA, a tax strategist. They're going to need paid ads eventually for their company like there's there's these core elements that we started noticing so um starting to bring out partners for that and then um also creating like curriculum and course content and in the stuff that they need to grow and scale their company and what's what's interesting about this is like when i started it
00:09:45
Speaker
I was a failed entrepreneur. Like I'm fresh out of college. I'm 23 years old, new to Arizona and I don't know nothing about business. Like i I just failed two businesses. So I had a lot of imposter syndrome about like me being the one to create this community.
00:09:59
Speaker
um But what i what I did and I think was was wise was I was just a facilitator. Like I just had to bring the people together and then I would bring on, you know, successful entrepreneurs, people I looked up to to come and educate and teach our group. So yeah,
00:10:15
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's really built on those principles of helping people build real relationships and then providing them with the you know trusted connections to grow their companies, but then also the education and resources they need to understand how to scale a business.
00:10:28
Speaker
That's really good. I think there's a a wide gap that needs to be filled by by different folks, different organizations. Certainly the the Commerce Authority is trying to do some things here in Tucson, sort of Tucson is doing some things.
00:10:43
Speaker
And I think that they're they're your organization, as I go up there and go to your events, like I've seen how you you articulate your and curate these these scenes. I mean, you do a great job by bringing these people together.
00:10:57
Speaker
and There is a ah common thread. You walk around in your events and everybody's hungry. Everybody's hungry. And which is a little different than some of the other events I've been to with some of the other organizations where maybe they're just like looking or they want to find a grant they can be involved with. This is different landscape. yeah So definitely see the value in that.
00:11:19
Speaker
And you started this, what, four years ago? Five years ago, a little over five years ago. How big is the organization now? So the the model before we just pivoted the model this last
Evolving Event Models
00:11:29
Speaker
year. So it used to be all public events. So we would just sell tickets, pack the room with two, three, 400 people every month and and host these big scale entrepreneur events. And so this last year, we switched over to more of an inner circle model application, like membership model, which was ah ah an amazing pivot. Like it just elevated the room the type of people that were there. But to answer your question, as far as how big the organization is, like through the last five years of hosting public events, we've had over 7000 people that have been to an event. So we've had a lot of people at events. And then our membership, we have about 130 members right now. And then, um yeah, like big big audience on social media and emails and everything like that. But um we've had a lot of people that have been engaged with the organization and been to an event. But then our membership's about like 130 right now. That's great. Yeah.
00:12:14
Speaker
So this is a really good segue with respect to the people you see on your, um your list, people come in, people you work with, the brand partners, what, what are the blind spots that you see entrepreneurs struggling with that approach you or your brand partners? Like what are these blind spots you, you see?
00:12:35
Speaker
And the second part of the question is like, how can you get past them? I think it's interesting because a lot of it is stuff that I'm going through at the same time that my community is. So I oftentimes feel like it's it's a reflection of like so similar challenges and things that I go through. So I noticed one is like when...
00:12:55
Speaker
when when an entrepreneur is focused on building their company is the one, obviously the marketing side of it is very crucial, important to be able to generate leads at scale, but is the system side of it. So a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with being able to create the systems, the workflows, the automations to create a business that is scalable and a business that can not, I'm not saying like fully removing yourself from the company, but a business that doesn't require you to be doing manual, work for every single thing to to happen for the business. So I noticed a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with like just creating systems and structure around their company. um And then it's interesting because of the last like six months, we started to work with a lot of people in like the investment space and wealth wealth management side. So Wealth management companies, business brokers, helping people buy and sell companies like real estate investment funds.
00:13:46
Speaker
And so that's interesting because like me as a personal use case, I've been so focused on scaling the business where it's marketing, sales, operations, finances, but not thinking at all about like, what am I doing to build long-term wealth? And so I've noticed that's a blind spot of a lot of people where they're just like in the weeds of building their business, but not thinking about that. So there's a lot of things. And it's it's interesting, like as I go through my journey to where it's like you you you continue to level up and learn new things to where it's like the systems was ah a big part for me to where I started to learn and understand how to do that and how to build a business that could scale. But um yeah, those are a couple of things that stick out to me. Nice. Yeah. Like there's the idea of ah working in the business, working on the business, but there's the that third thing of working on the the systems of businesses so you can have more and more.
00:14:37
Speaker
I think at the end of the day, we all want some level of assurity of either it's recurring revenue or massive wealth or something because we really want freedom. Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
right at the end of the day that's what we want we want to be able to make choices based on the resources that we have do you have a particular goal in mind for yourself that you can share with the as far as like a financial goal financial or position or whatever yeah it doesn't matter so specifically to arizona entrepreneurs like the and this is not like super tangible from like a number perspective but what When I moved here, it's like you join you you're in Arizona, you're building a business, you have B&I or Chamber of Commerce. Those are like the two household names where it's like it's one of these two things.
00:15:23
Speaker
And so for me, the the mission has always been like I want Arizona entrepreneurs to be the household name for the state. Whether you are just starting a company, we have resources and ways to support you. If you have a $100 million dollar company, we have resources and ways to support you. so becoming the household name here in the state for entrepreneurs.
00:15:39
Speaker
But then as far as like personal goals and like financial goals and things that I'm trying to accomplish, like Arizona entrepreneurs is one vehicle. And I feel extremely blessed because it's, it's created this community and ecosystem and the the relationships that have come into my life are, are, are amazing. And so like, I'm working on building a software company right now and I have like the distribution channel if I have this whole audience. So, um,
00:16:02
Speaker
Like financial goals, it's been yeah a hundred grand a month of passive income is, is like the, the big, the big goal I'm after. And I, and yeah, that's the big financial goal for me, but that, that is from a lot of different things. That's not from Arizona entrepreneurs revenue. So that's great. Yeah.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah. You know, the, the journey that we all take is, uh, is never paved in gold. It's never a straight line. And i like your, your background, the fact that you failed a couple times. I think that's one thing we don't teach our, our, our children enough, our, the youth is it's okay to fail and fail fast and fail often, but fail forward at the same time. Right. Um, look at when you're in, in, uh, in high school and elementary school, you get an F and you're, you're, it's a bad thing.
00:16:46
Speaker
So learn how to fail, fail fast. It's something that I believe we should really teach in school in a manner that can get the kids excited. And not just kids, but adults as well. I mean, I've known people that have started their first business at 50.
00:17:01
Speaker
And it's all right. And, you know, there's we're all going to be worm food one day. Like, why why not? That's the other half of the the podcast is the stoicism, the idea of you can't control what the world around you, just what's in your head.
00:17:15
Speaker
So let's kind of pivot slightly here. With
Arizona's Emerging Trends
00:17:19
Speaker
respect to Arizona being on the front lines, if you will, of all these entrepreneurs and business people, what are some emerging trends you see in the Arizona market? Where is the business gonna come from in the next five to 10 years?
00:17:34
Speaker
That's a good question. And honestly, like, As we all know, like how big AI is getting as of recently. And ah for me, like if you would ask me like, oh, how are you implementing AI into your company? It's like chat GPT. That was all I was doing. But um now like starting to build like, have have you played around with lovable yet?
00:17:53
Speaker
No, dude, it's insane. What is it? It's a software that ah essentially allows you to abide code to where like I'm not a coder, but I can prompt AI to create code and custom solutions for me.
00:18:05
Speaker
And so my mom had this concept that she wanted to create. And are you familiar with Go High Level, like the CRM platform? um So my mom had this thing she wanted to create. I was trying to do it in Go High Level, which is kind of like operating out of the box. And so I like put this long prompt into Lovable and it just like spit out exactly what I was looking for. And so that was very mind opening to me to see like how fast tech is advancing and how many people are building software companies and like how how accessible it is for any person to be able to build like custom software solutions. And so um me personally, like I'm diving deep into the software space of of building my own app and software that's going to be very community oriented for like referrals and stuff. But um I see a lot of trends going in that direction.
00:18:52
Speaker
And with that being said, though, I feel as though the like brick and mortar businesses are going to become more and more valuable. So I noticed like home service companies like that, you're ah you're always going to need home service businesses. So now that so many people are going to tech, the AI route, building marketing agencies, everyone wants to work remote and be able to travel around the world. So like the home service companies, brick and mortar, there is going to be a lot more value around that as well.
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah, I've seen some ads recently of of ah companies that will take your trash out for you. Yeah. you know and it's like that's kind of random but yeah again opportunities if you find an unmet or underserved need i mean that's there's money to be made there right um and with these trends that you see in arizona are you Are you seeing a some of the people in the software space and other spaces, home services spaces coming into Arizona Entrepreneurs?
00:19:46
Speaker
Or is it more the other way around as is as you're trying to capture them to come in? Yeah, I've noticed a lot of people in the software space coming into Arizona entrepreneurs. So people that like before it was kind of it was just marketing agencies to where like that was a business that a lot of people were starting because it's something that every every business owner at some point, whether you do it in house or you hire an agency, you need to market your company. So, you know, a lot of marketing agencies, but now a lot of these agencies are transitioning to be more AI.
00:20:15
Speaker
front facing to where they're like AI custom solution agencies. Cause you can do so much more than just market now. It's like we could build custom solutions. um So yeah, a lot of AI companies coming into the group, quite, you know, quite a few in the um like home service space and stuff, but not, not a ton. And then a lot of people in like the investing space, like I said, the last six months, it's been a lot of people in like, you know, real estate investing, um you know, fund management, wealth management thing, like things like that. So interesting. Yeah. Now the the world sort of romanticizes the grind, you know, like the entrepreneur has been the hero, you know, and there's movies about it. People see it on the news. i mean, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, i mean, you you see it everywhere now and it's been not so sort of front page forever. I mean, it's probably over the past 20 years, it has been so front page.
00:21:10
Speaker
um What do you see are, what's the actual reality of being an entrepreneur, like day in, day out? I mean,
Balancing Entrepreneurship
00:21:18
Speaker
let's rewind the clock here, maybe three and a half years ago when you're building on this organization, what's the actual reality of being in the grind?
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a really good question because I feel like it's different for a lot of people. And for me, like a few years back to when I didn't have anything to where I was very, it's interesting because, you know, when you're,
00:21:43
Speaker
As an entrepreneur, you're fully in charge of of what you produce and create there. There's, there's no check that you're getting every single week, you have to make sure that you out and get that. So in the early stages, it it was much more of a grind than it is now from the time output aspect of it. So not not to say that I'm not working hard now anymore. But It's like starting need to hire people and build a team and set up systems and automations and build a company in a way that's scalable to where I can start to use my brain more and work on the business.
00:22:11
Speaker
um It has been ah a big transition I've noticed, but the first three years, like it was just extremely busy meeting people, like going to a lot of events myself, just like very involved in the community and like, and, and spreading the brand and stuff like that. But um it, I'll be transparent though. It wasn't like, cause sometimes you'll see on social media where it's like, you, you got to work. you know, 12 hour days, every single, I wasn't doing that. You know, i was, I was working, uh, my, my work life balance now is like, I'll wake up in the morning, typically at the gym in the morning. And then I'll work from like, I start working at 10 o'clock. So I don't take any meetings before 10 o'clock, take the mornings for myself. And I'll work from like 10 to six o'clock and spend the evening with Sophia and hang out at the house. So it's a a good work life balance now, but, um, Before it was just like constantly working on the business, but I enjoy that as well, especially in the in my single area days to where I was just like, you know, in the evenings, like i I'm enjoying being on the laptop building stuff. So it's actually interesting departure here.
00:23:10
Speaker
Tell me about boundaries. Have you always been so good about boundaries as far as 10 o'clock and six o'clock and XYZ? No, I think i I learned that from a good friend of mine, but just like really managing your calendar better. Because when I was just like always accessible and open to everybody, I realized how quickly I got burnt out. and and how spread thin I was to where I couldn't even like do deep work and focus on the business. So i I noticed that more than anything. It's like, if I, yes, it's important to have like calls and things that are moving the needle for my company. But like, if I have a day where, you know, if I'm starting at 10 and I'm getting done at six and I just have calls all day, like I don't, I don't have any time to actually do work and like, and and build stuff and work on the company. It's just taking calls. So I've made, I've made it a point to where oftentimes Fridays that I
00:23:57
Speaker
block the day off unless we have an event like prior but fridays are like my business development day to where i have no meetings and i'm just building things and working on the company and then like i said that's kind of how i structure my my schedule so i it didn't always start like that and i and i feel like in the beginning you you can't have that uh you you kind of just have to like continue to to be focusing on the business and building it. But I started to prioritize making sure that I got good energy. I'm able to show up for the people in the way that I want to and that I'm not, you know, rolling out of bed and hopping on a call. And like, I want to have time for myself to do. Yeah. Did you ever think about pulling the plug?
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um it was It was a couple years ago, but definitely went through some my tough financial times with the business. and And honestly, around like... So I launched the company shortly after COVID. And so that was part of the reason why it blew up real quick, because a lot of people were trying to get out of the house and get to events and everything. But like a couple years after that, I felt like there was a little ah economy shift for a while, because I noticed it across a lot of people throughout the community where their business wasn't doing as well as it was And so there was definitely a ah tough financial time where I had make some hard decisions and and change things up and everything. But yeah, definitely times where I'm like, man, do I really want to be doing this? So that's not unnormal for entrepreneurs to go through that that self-doubt in times in the business where it's not glamorous and it's not good.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah, those, those, ah those are the times that make, make the man, right? Yeah. the The entrepreneur, the woman, if you will. I mean, those are the moments when we have to take a hard, look long look at ourselves and be like, what are we made of?
00:25:37
Speaker
And, um, I look at people in my life that have been successful and every single one of them has the same story. whether or not it's they wanted to pull a plug, they wanted to go in a different direction.
00:25:51
Speaker
There's this guy, buddy of mine that aa used to work for back when I um when i lived in New Mexico. He started a company after he left where we worked together and they were a Salesforce, ah basically integration company. And so they'd come in and and take your specific needs and tailor it a Salesforce package for that.
00:26:11
Speaker
And he grew it to, I forget how many employees, I mean 20 employees and he was doing great, but he didn't like, he wanted to go in a different direction. So he began thinking about with his partner, how do we pull the plug?
00:26:23
Speaker
So they a little bit different concept. And um he set a date and for whatever reason, that date got pushed forward about a month. In that month, he got approached by an external company that wanted to buy him and they bought him out.
00:26:40
Speaker
So timing, man, timing is crazy. Do you have any crazy stories that you can share about your own um sort of experience with timing? With timing? Well, one, I look kind of like, I just shared a second ago with COVID literally the, the event, the first ever event that we hosted was right when like all the mandates got lifted. And so it was still kind of like on the border of like, are we going to get in trouble and shut down for hosting this event? But the, the first event we had like a hundred people at, and it was all because people were trying to get out of the house. And so I, I think timing with when I launched Arizona entrepreneurs was, um, was wise because people were looking for that type of thing. So to give a little background, like I didn't have this whole like big vision of like, going to start this entrepreneur tip from the jump. like i typed Arizona entrepreneurs on Instagram first because I thought there would be an account and I could go like follow people and make some connections. And so I obviously claimed the username and then I claimed the LLC and like started to acquire the assets because I just realized like that that seems like a valuable name to have regardless. Yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
And so I think timing on that was good. I can't imagine it would still be sitting there right now if i hadn't if I hadn't grabbed that username. um But yeah, those those are the big things that stand out to me right now. But yeah. yeah That's great. I mean, you don't have to always have to have it figured out. That's another thing. A big lesson is that sometimes people sit there and they plan this super intricate plan to get out there. Something comes, derails them, and it's all shattered, right? Yeah.
00:28:09
Speaker
but I've learned a lot about that. And I have friends like to this day that are like getting started in entrepreneurship and starting companies. And that's the one thing like I'm always telling them because they'll be trying to make it all perfect. I got to have the perfect landing page website, copy this. And then when they when they sign up, I want them to get this onboarding email. It's say you don't have any clients right now. The only thing you should be focusing on is just talking to people and offering a service and delivering on that service and then figuring out what worked well, what didn't work well and refine it. And so there's there's so many people I get in myself included. I had to learn this, but just analysis paralysis. And you're constantly thinking about it and doing research. And, you know, it just versus just putting it out there and seeing what the market wants, because I've done that before to where the first version of what I launched for Arizona entrepreneurs put a lot of time into creating this membership website landing page. And I'm like, they don't even want that. So I just waste my time building this when they actually just wanted events. You know? Yeah, that's insane. Yeah. You mentioned your mom earlier. So is your family entrepreneurs or what's what's the background there? No. So um grew up single mom, me me and my brother and yeah, back in Michigan. And so my mom was working a lot of just just jobs, whatever, to keep the roof over our heads. so she was like a janitor. She was a school bus driver for a while and like went through a
00:29:30
Speaker
it it was a challenging time for her. I could tell like trying to be able to provide for my brother and I, so that was definitely something that like planted the seed in my head where it's like, I definitely want more with the more than this. I don't want to be stressed about money and, and living like that. And it's kind of cool though, because after I started to like have this entrepreneur shift, when, you know, i read Rich Dad Poor Dad and went down that, obviously I give it to her to read it next. And so throughout the last like 10 years of my life, I've, I've really been able to like,
00:29:59
Speaker
give her some of the entrepreneur bug that's been, you know, that ah that I've had for a while. And so she started her own business and it's actually doing pretty well. She she's does activities for senior care homes because she comes from the occupational therapy background. So now she started her own business. I think she's got like 12 or 15 homes and she's there on monthly retainer and she's providing the activities for the homes. And it's cool. And she ran like a daycare too when when we were younger and stuff. So I think she had the entrepreneur gene in her, but it's been cool to where I'm able to like,
00:30:29
Speaker
share with her my success stories and things that are working and how I understand business and like be able to pass on knowledge and things I'm learning from, from my journey. So it's cool that she's doing that now.
00:30:40
Speaker
Are there any, any key ah things you would share with a, a would-be entrepreneur?
Key Advice for Entrepreneurs
00:30:47
Speaker
Is there a handful of, of like tenants, core tenants that you believe that they should follow or do or think about?
00:30:56
Speaker
One is just start. So that's the biggest one. Cause like I said, so many people get caught up in the thinking game of it versus just starting. So like, it depends on the, on the company, because if I'm selling a product, obviously you got to get your product, your distribution, make sure that you can actually like sell the product. But with a lot of service-based companies, in my opinion, it's like before you have everything built and be transparent about it to where it's like, look, I'm starting this new company. My plan is to charge this price. I'm willing to charge this. I'd love to have you be a case study, provide this, and then just over-deliver for that person and see what works and start to refine your offer from there.
00:31:30
Speaker
And so the biggest thing is just start. And a lot of times that can be much more simple than you think. And then, you know, I might be biased with this, but I genuinely believe that relationship building and really getting in rooms around other people that are doing similar stuff to you and also rooms of like your potential clients and people that you can work with and serve because it's it's so easy, especially in today's digital area to just be at the at at home all day working on the computer, not actually meeting people. And if you if you're meeting people at scale, like you're you're having conversations every week and you're meeting 1020 new people a week that are in the lane of what you're doing, like it's going to lead to opportunities, joint ventures, collaborations, ways that you can work with people. um Obviously, there's like scalable ways of like running paid ads and Google ads and things that you can do to really boost your marketing. But yeah.
00:32:21
Speaker
there i feel like networking could be overlooked to where it it doesn't feel like a super needle moving activity where I argue that. i agree with you, man. changing relationships have come from that. Yeah. I agree with you. And and I really think there is a a way, a correct way to network. If you're just showing up to these events and you're sort of on the periphery and you shake a few hands and and that's it, you're not going any value from it.
00:32:47
Speaker
You know, I, I'm a networker that I'm very, very judicious with my time and where I go. When I do go, i i go with a goal. I'm going to, I want to meet five people or 10 people and not just say, Hey, my name's Manny. You know, what do you do? And then, then just walk away. But I want to understand and take from each networking event, a few action items.
00:33:09
Speaker
I mean, we are, we're, we're here talking in part because of that. we're Obviously, they're running around, you know, and and um there's a relationship that's forming there with being able but to connect um Beth with um some, you know, hotels and all that. so that came from an event.
00:33:27
Speaker
And I mean, I've been at events where I've had multi-million dollar deals come from an event because I met somebody. Maybe not that at that event, but I meet somebody, time goes by, then I say, hey man, remember we we talked about this and that begins to kick up some dust and here we are. Isn't that incredible? Yeah, it's it's insane. and i i like the The tagline that I had for Arizona entrepreneurs, I thought of this like a long time ago, but it was like, you're one connection away. And I, and I believe in that. And it's not that like, you know, just go meet one person and that that's it. But point being that like one connection does have the power to completely change your life from what it is now to the goal or whatever it is that you're, that you're trying to achieve. And I, I've had a lot of scenarios that that's happened in my life. And so I feel obviously it depends what room you're in and definitely wanting to be in quality rooms that are like your people and the people you're trying to connect with. But that is the most leveraged thing because it's like,
00:34:21
Speaker
say there's a hundred people in the room you're not just meeting those hundred people know the room those hundred people like similar to you and i we have big networks we've met people to where if if someone meets me i may know you know another 100 000 people not 100 000 100 to a thousand people that i could connect them with so um point being is yeah there's a lot of value in building relationships and i'll say this as well to your point of like ah A lot of people, I think the the shifting of networking and some of the events that I went to when I first moved here, it was people were just in the room to sell and to to get a deal to where it's like, hi, my name's Devin, what do you do? And like giving you my business card and, you know, buy a house for me. yeah And instead, like going, using the approach to really just like learn more about them, their family, what they do for fun, what they do for work. like really start to just understand who they are as a human being. Cause like the best deals that I've had in business or people that I've done stuff with are honestly, I know some people say don't do business with your friends, but building a real relationship and a friendship to where I want to go and hang out with those people anyway. And we're also building companies together. Like I think that's how it should be.
00:35:28
Speaker
I a hundred percent agree. I think there's a lot of value to that. Also just old school values, you know, follow up, I think I did a podcast recently about vulnerability. You got to open up a little bit. You can't be super close. I mean, I've had conversations and the other person like won't even open up about anything. And they're being very like, oh, my idea is so special. I'm like, dude, probably not. And if you really want to take it to the next level, you have to open up and get the right resources involved.
00:35:55
Speaker
it's It's incredible. As you start to wind down the podcast here, um if you if you could have dinner together, and maybe spend a half day with anybody in the world through time. It could be, you know, Edison or something. It could be any time.
00:36:13
Speaker
who would you have dinner with and spend half a day with and why? That's a good question. And, you know, if I think about it long and hard, there there may be another answer that comes up. But to me, the the first person I could think of, man, is Robert Kiyosaki. And that's actually not that unachievable because he lives in Biltmore, lives in Scottsdale somewhere. So that's doable. But for for me, like it and I don't mean to sound cheesy with it, because I know a lot of people have a similar story with Rich Dad Poor Dad. But like it genuinely shifted my life in the way that I was thinking that just one core concept of like,
00:36:47
Speaker
you know, I'm about to get a degree. I see someone on the basketball team that got this degree and now they're managing the IHOP. I was like, I don't like, it was a business management degree. So I was like, I don't want to just manage someone else's business and build someone else's dream. So that was the, the, the pivotal point in my life that changed everything for me. So I'd love to have a conversation with him about that. And then also he is very involved in like,
00:37:11
Speaker
real estate investing and and acquiring assets, buying businesses, doing stuff like that. So that is what I'm starting to, i'm I'm still focused on scaling businesses and doing what I'm doing. But like that is starting to really entice me and excite me as far as acquiring assets and starting to buy businesses. And like that whole space is what I'm like now stepping into and wanting to, you know, learn more about that and meet people who who do that for a living. Yeah. Isn't that incredible how just one book or one concept? It's crazy. I tell my kids that, the most powerful thing on earth is an idea.
00:37:45
Speaker
Bad ideas too. You know, those things occur all the time. And, um, yeah. Do you see any, any main barriers for entrepreneurs in the future? Like, going forward and it doesn't have to be in Arizona, but just in general?
00:37:58
Speaker
Not really. can Now compared to even previously, just because there are like, part of it is my past weekend of building stuff on lovable and me not being a coder, but it's just like, there's so many tools and resources at our fingertips that everybody has access to, whether it is knowledge and learning from people who have been there and and scale completely successful companies, you can find all that information for free on YouTube. If it's you know being able to build your website and figure out marketing and everything you can figure out how to do that so there is so many resources for us and and we have the ability to like go and and create anything right now compared to even like you know a year ago just the way that ai and software is moving so i don't see any barriers there but at the same time it's going to become much more competitive because now everybody has access to these resources and and can build stuff just like that And so you're going to have to figure out how to differentiate yourself. And I think that's going to be the one big barrier. If you just kind of, you know, if you're running the same ad, you have the same exact, like if you just fit into what everybody else is doing, um it may be hard to scale a business because I think the ones that the companies that can really differentiate themselves and and and also create brand, I think brand is going to become so much more important.
00:39:10
Speaker
um But if if you can do that, create a really strong brand and and figure how to differentiate yourself, I feel like that is what where the trends are going. yeah Because before it's like you could just run an ad like, hey, man, I got a coaching offer and get clients. But I feel like that's going to go by the wayside. And um also, like I've heard the concept of like a trust recession because now everything's AI and you don't even know what's real. So it's becoming more and more difficult to trust people online. Interesting. So I feel like brand does do a really good job of building trust with your with your clientele, with the people that you can serve. And so that that's going to become extremely important.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, AI is disrupting so many industries, so many. I had a conversation with with somebody a few podcasts back on the idea of of AI actors, right? These people that are basically, they're they're nothing, they're just ones and zeros, but they're disrupting an industry and the Screen Actors Guild and others are really trying hard to stop. And I understand, but these are big global trends that you really can't push back. I mean, you can't put the the genie back in the bottle.
00:40:15
Speaker
And it's a lot of very challenging times, but I believe, and you might agree, that it's the best time to be alive. There are so many opportunities. yeah i mean, advances in medicine and wellness. I mean, so many things are happening right now. Yeah, there's madness on the government side. Yeah, there's you can turn on the news and get all depressed. But besides that, there's a lot going on.
00:40:37
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree. It's and that's why I just love entrepreneurship, just because it's it's so fun to be able to like just figure out where you have this idea, this vision of something that you want to create and just every day, like figure out, like, what could I do to better this thing and and to make this thing more and more valuable. So I agree that it's a a fun time to be alive. We have so many resources and things that we now have access to. And um yeah it's it's ah it's only going to get crazier. I can't imagine like 10 years from now with like AI and like,
00:41:07
Speaker
who knows, man? Like, are we going to have phones? Is this going to in the Like, I don't know. Well, it's getting crazy. Guess what? That's what entrepreneurs are going to figure out, right? There's going to be, the next trillionaire probably <unk>re running around town somewhere right now, 15 old, whatever, and they're going to be worth a trillion dollars, right? Yeah.
00:41:24
Speaker
Great. Well, this has been a great opportunity, Devin, to chat a bit and learn about your your vision and your thoughts on Yeah, I appreciate it Thanks for having me on, man. It was fun. Take care. Cheers. Cheers.