Michael Koral

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: It's Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:16] SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone and thanks for listening.
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: I'm Philip Bliss, a business visionary and co-host of Toronto's podcasts,
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: part of the Canada's podcast network.
[00:25] SPEAKER_01: Your source for great insights from entrepreneurs across Canada.
[00:30] SPEAKER_01: Today, we'd like to introduce you to Michael Corral.
[00:35] SPEAKER_01: Michael leads customer acquisition and operations at Needles and a COO of Cointsmart.
[00:40] SPEAKER_01: He is a sales and marketing expert who has excelled both as an employee and as an entrepreneur.
[00:46] SPEAKER_01: As an account executive with Xerox, Michael gained valuable skills at help to
[00:50] SPEAKER_01: enclose deals with small business owners and sea level executives alike.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: Michael Parleig is experienced at Xerox to establish and lead the sales team
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: at an online advertising startup called menupalace.com.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: In his own words on Twitter, he likes long walks on the beach, a glass of champagne,
[01:09] SPEAKER_01: but he france that by being an analytics junkie that loves data.
[01:14] SPEAKER_01: So Michael, tell us a little bit more about yourself, you know, way of from.
[01:19] SPEAKER_01: Give us the details on your current business or businesses.
[01:23] SPEAKER_00: Sure. Well, first of all, thanks for the introduction.
[01:25] SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate that a little bit about myself.
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.
[01:31] SPEAKER_00: Actually, a suburb of Toronto, Thorn and Hill,
[01:33] SPEAKER_00: for those of you who are listening from Toronto,
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: you don't want to mistake Thorn Hill from Toronto.
[01:38] SPEAKER_00: Very different.
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: Born and raised in Toronto, Canada,
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: I am currently a father of three.
[01:45] SPEAKER_00: My three little boys, a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and three-month-old.
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: So it's very busy in my household.
[01:54] SPEAKER_00: So I effectively have, you know, a couple different families.
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: I have my family at home,
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: but I also have my family at work and at my startup, Needles.com.
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: For the last four years, we've been helping small business owners,
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurs and startups alike,
[02:09] SPEAKER_00: you know, do a lot better with Facebook ads.
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: We've been fortunate.
[02:13] Speaker UNKNOWN: We've been doing it.
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: You know, raised a bunch of capital,
[02:17] SPEAKER_00: hire the right people,
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: and kind of be at the right place at the right time
[02:20] SPEAKER_00: to offer this software as a service solution
[02:23] SPEAKER_00: to SMVs who really didn't have a solution for them
[02:28] SPEAKER_00: and be before that.
[02:29] SPEAKER_00: In our platform,
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: it's a simple hundred bucks a month
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: to access the platform and ten percent of the ad spend.
[02:35] SPEAKER_00: You answer a few simple questions about your business
[02:37] SPEAKER_00: and we can create target,
[02:39] SPEAKER_00: optimize ads and distribute them on Facebook and Instagram.
[02:43] SPEAKER_00: Prior to, prior to Needles,
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: there really wasn't anything out there
[02:47] SPEAKER_00: to serve as the small business owner
[02:49] SPEAKER_00: if you want to promote your business on Facebook.
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: You know, the options really are,
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: you can try to do it yourself.
[02:55] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, for a lot of you who are listening to this,
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: you're probably thinking,
[02:58] SPEAKER_00: it's extremely challenging.
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do.
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: I need some help.
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: So you may think of like,
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: okay, I'll go to an agency.
[03:05] SPEAKER_00: But if you go to an agency,
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: they're going to cost way too much.
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: It's you grand a month and 20 percent of spend
[03:10] SPEAKER_00: that it's just not really meant for a small business owner.
[03:14] SPEAKER_00: So then you may think,
[03:14] SPEAKER_00: okay, I'll go to another platform.
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: There must be a lot of these automation platforms out there.
[03:18] SPEAKER_00: And to be quite frank,
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: there are, there's a ton of them,
[03:21] SPEAKER_00: but they're all really meant to automate your own knowledge.
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: So if you had that knowledge,
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: that's fantastic.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: And you can leverage those and that's great.
[03:29] SPEAKER_00: And they'll do well for you.
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: If you know what CTR means and CPM and CPC and frequency rates
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: and positive negative feedback,
[03:37] SPEAKER_00: all that stuff,
[03:38] SPEAKER_00: and you can set up rules by all means.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: You can use that.
[03:40] SPEAKER_00: But for the vast majority of business owners out there in North America,
[03:44] SPEAKER_00: even globally,
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: they don't know all that stuff.
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: And they wanted a solution to make it super simple to advertise
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: on Facebook and Instagram.
[03:53] SPEAKER_00: And that's what we've done.
[03:53] SPEAKER_00: We have over a,
[03:54] SPEAKER_00: over a thousand customers,
[03:56] SPEAKER_00: you know, a great group of guys and gals in Toronto and office at College in Spadina.
[04:02] SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know where we can go moving forward.
[04:04] SPEAKER_01: I'm interested to know,
[04:06] SPEAKER_01: you know, moving away from the product,
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: because one can get that experiences and entrepreneur.
[04:11] SPEAKER_01: What was your start moment when you decided I wanted to come in entrepreneur?
[04:16] SPEAKER_00: You know what?
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: Like I've always been my father,
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: he's in real estate and he was in real estate for, you know, for as long as I've known him.
[04:25] SPEAKER_00: And that's fairly entrepreneurial,
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurial in itself, right?
[04:29] SPEAKER_00: You're kind of running your own business.
[04:30] SPEAKER_02: No, it's not.
[04:31] SPEAKER_00: That's that sort of thing.
[04:32] SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of in my blood to start with.
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: But I didn't start off as an entrepreneur.
[04:36] SPEAKER_00: I, you know, as you mentioned the intro,
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: I had a job at Xerox.
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: Then I worked at MenuPallis.com, which was a startup,
[04:43] SPEAKER_00: but it wasn't, it wasn't mine.
[04:45] SPEAKER_00: You know, in university,
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: I kind of dabbled in entrepreneurship.
[04:49] SPEAKER_00: I ran a window cleaning business locally in Toronto.
[04:55] SPEAKER_00: So that was, you know, that was a lot of fun.
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: And I learned a lot there.
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: But I never really thought I wanted to be an entrepreneur when I started that window cleaning business.
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: It kind of hit me when I was working at MenuPallis
[05:06] SPEAKER_00: where, you know, it was a startup and, you know,
[05:09] SPEAKER_00: I knew the founders and I kind of understood what they were doing.
[05:13] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, you know, leading a sales team there.
[05:15] SPEAKER_00: But I thought to myself, I'm like, you know what?
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: Like I don't remember the day,
[05:19] SPEAKER_00: but it was probably sometime in June in 2009,
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: where I said to myself,
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: I just don't want to work for anybody else ever again.
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: So I think I was, you know, I was making good money
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: and I was, that was fine.
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: I was a steady paycheck and that was also fine too.
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: Like I was happy with money I was making also.
[05:36] SPEAKER_00: But I didn't think I was able to get to a position where I can say,
[05:41] SPEAKER_00: hey, you know what?
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: I could retire when I'm, you know, 45, 50 and kind of live my own,
[05:47] SPEAKER_00: live my own life and do what I want to do.
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: If I'm working for somebody else,
[05:50] SPEAKER_00: like that's never going to happen.
[05:51] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I quit my job.
[05:53] SPEAKER_00: I MenuPallis.
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: I went traveling for a couple of months over in Europe.
[05:58] SPEAKER_00: And then I came back and met up with my two actually childhood friends,
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: Jeremy and Justin,
[06:04] SPEAKER_00: who in summer camp out in Nova Scotia,
[06:06] SPEAKER_00: can't call it a new Kadema.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: I'm a little bit more than 14 years old.
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: And they were doing some things online at the time in 2009
[06:13] SPEAKER_00: and they made some help with a couple of their businesses.
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: So, you know what?
[06:17] SPEAKER_00: I'll start working with them, not for them, right?
[06:21] SPEAKER_00: And we became, you know, partners.
[06:23] SPEAKER_00: We ran two companies there.
[06:26] SPEAKER_00: One was all you need to internet,
[06:28] SPEAKER_00: which is a web development company.
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: Another one was we sell your site.com,
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: which was a brokerage that was selling high-end web-based businesses.
[06:36] SPEAKER_00: We ran those for a few years,
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: until we landed upon needles where, you know,
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: I kind of are explaining kind of where,
[06:44] SPEAKER_00: what we're doing with that right now.
[06:46] SPEAKER_01: So, you've come off, you know, that focus where you took,
[06:50] SPEAKER_01: you realized you didn't want to work for somebody else
[06:52] SPEAKER_01: and wanted to work for yourself.
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: I'm interested, you know,
[06:55] SPEAKER_01: unfortunately I had a couple of good friends
[06:57] SPEAKER_01: that were just an interviewer or month ago now.
[07:02] SPEAKER_01: How do you get the money to do this kind of thing?
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think lots of people have great ideas.
[07:07] SPEAKER_01: We all know it takes money to realize things.
[07:10] SPEAKER_01: How do you get the money?
[07:11] SPEAKER_01: I mean, what's your experience?
[07:13] SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is something about passing on experiences.
[07:16] SPEAKER_01: What's your experience on that?
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so for us, the initial businesses that we started,
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: they didn't really require a lot of initial capital up front.
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: It was more so, you know, like the web development business,
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: you know, we kind of stumbled upon that
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: and people just started saying, you know,
[07:35] SPEAKER_00: hey, can you help me build a website?
[07:37] SPEAKER_00: And we said, sure, we'll do that.
[07:40] SPEAKER_00: We didn't have to find contractors to go ahead
[07:43] SPEAKER_00: and then build the sites for us.
[07:46] SPEAKER_00: Hey, they're out that, but we knew we'd get money
[07:48] SPEAKER_00: for the actual job itself.
[07:49] SPEAKER_00: So there was very kind of little investment to start with
[07:53] SPEAKER_00: for the initial couple of businesses.
[07:55] SPEAKER_00: And that's maybe not so true for like all entrepreneurs,
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: but for us for our first two businesses,
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: it very much was so.
[08:02] SPEAKER_00: At the time, I was living at home.
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: So I didn't have a ton of expenses to begin with.
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: I saved up some money in general, like from my past jobs,
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: but I didn't really need all of that
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: because the businesses that we were starting
[08:16] SPEAKER_00: by our much of investment to begin with.
[08:18] SPEAKER_00: You had had an office that may cost you a couple grand amount
[08:21] SPEAKER_00: for something like that, but the initial few clients
[08:24] SPEAKER_00: that we had coming in would more than pay for the office
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: or phone or what, you know, the basic expenses
[08:32] SPEAKER_00: to run a company with needles.
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: It was very, very different.
[08:36] SPEAKER_00: Needles of the time we knew we needed capital
[08:39] SPEAKER_00: to make that happen.
[08:40] SPEAKER_00: And especially without having any kind of MVP
[08:44] SPEAKER_00: or kind of anything, it was it's hard to do that.
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: So we actually we raised capital two different ways
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: with needles and it's what a creative.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: We kind of built like a basic MVP
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: with kind of contacts that we had with our development company
[09:00] SPEAKER_00: of what we wanted out of needles.
[09:03] SPEAKER_00: And we partnered with a, you know, a call you bars in Toronto
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: who had, you know, connections to a bunch of people
[09:11] SPEAKER_00: that could potentially be interested in our product, right?
[09:14] SPEAKER_00: So if the revenue share with him, rent a webinar with him
[09:18] SPEAKER_00: and you know, lists are probably about maybe 50,000 people
[09:22] SPEAKER_00: on his on his list, you were able to promote our product
[09:27] SPEAKER_00: on that on that webinar, you know, and sell effectively
[09:30] SPEAKER_00: hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of our product
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: before we even actually had a full, you know, working product.
[09:38] SPEAKER_00: It's not not everyone can do that, but you know,
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: we just have had connections to make to make that happen.
[09:44] SPEAKER_00: And I think every entrepreneur kind of has that like one, two things
[09:48] SPEAKER_00: that can kind of go right for them.
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: And they kind of, you know, work their way in to make
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: something that works and you know, we've always been
[09:55] SPEAKER_00: great at solving problems.
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how we started and how we raised capital
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: that way initially just through a friend that had a big list
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: of people who wanted our product.
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: That kind of started the company.
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: But then once we kind of got that rolling, we went to go raise
[10:12] SPEAKER_00: some capital through a accelerator out in Milwaukee called
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: generator.
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: We raised about a million dollars through this accelerator
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: with some contact with investors.
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: A traditional startup route where we raised capital and gave
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: equity for that.
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: We raised a million dollars there and probably had another
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: million dollars over the last few years.
[10:34] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: So what does a typical day look like for you?
[10:38] SPEAKER_01: It was two, as you said, two families.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: How do you, and three young ones?
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: How do you maintain the kind of focus it's needed to succeed?
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: And of course, have some fun as well.
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: Sure, it's funny.
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: You mentioned what the typical day.
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: I'd say there's no, there's no typical day.
[10:54] SPEAKER_00: That's, that's my typical day.
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: It's not not the same every single day.
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: You know, today is an example.
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: I'm working from home with it.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: I had an appointment in the morning.
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: This is downtown and I'm working from home and talking on
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: Slack all day.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: I always try to make time for my family before and after
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: work.
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: So make sure I get up nice and early when my kids get up.
[11:12] SPEAKER_00: So I can spend some time with them and kind of get it get
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: ahead of it.
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: That sort of thing.
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: And I make it home for bedtime as well by like seven o'clock.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: I try to make sure I'm home.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: And if I have work to do after that, you know, then I'll do
[11:24] SPEAKER_00: work again from, you know, yeah, yeah, lock on words.
[11:27] SPEAKER_00: But throughout the day, like at my, you know, if I'm in the
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: office and I'm working with them, it's collaborating with my
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: with my team.
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: It's firefighting.
[11:36] SPEAKER_00: It's coaching the team.
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: It's making sure they're kind of on on track and really just
[11:41] SPEAKER_00: kind of eating in there in their success.
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: And it's different every single day.
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: So because I'm, I'm COO, you know, I'm operations.
[11:48] SPEAKER_00: I have to have my, you know, my, my hands in a bunch of
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: different pots.
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: So one day I'd be talking to like the development team and
[11:56] SPEAKER_00: kind of figuring out, you know, what's going on there and
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: solving issues there on the product side.
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: Another day I'd focus on, you know, support issues.
[12:03] SPEAKER_00: Another day I'd help the sales team.
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do all three.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: Other day is I take, you know, take some time for, you know,
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: self development, right?
[12:13] SPEAKER_00: And you know, read books or take some courses and stuff like that
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: at 10 conferences.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: So every day is very much different.
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: And I wish I can say I have like a schedule.
[12:23] SPEAKER_00: But the only real schedule is to, you know, wake up with my
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: kids in the morning and put my kids to bed at night if I can.
[12:30] SPEAKER_01: That's a good schedule.
[12:31] SPEAKER_01: That's a good schedule.
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: What are the biggest benefits for you, you know, in terms of being an
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneur in Toronto, why here?
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you grew up here.
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: So I guess that's one reason why.
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: But you know, why Toronto?
[12:42] SPEAKER_01: There's so many places that you can do the kind of business
[12:45] SPEAKER_01: that you're doing.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: So I mean, if my, to be perfectly frank, if my friends and family
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: were not in Toronto, I'd match be much rather be somewhere in a
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: warmer climate.
[12:58] SPEAKER_00: Like the cold.
[12:59] SPEAKER_00: But I was born and raised here.
[13:01] SPEAKER_00: So I have all my roots here and I'm not really ready to pull those
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: up and move on.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: But in all seriousness, the technology ecosystem in Toronto is
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: rowing like gangbusters and over these last couple of, you know,
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: in the last three to five years, it's now becoming like the next
[13:19] SPEAKER_00: like Silicon Valley.
[13:21] SPEAKER_00: It really really is.
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: I agree.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: I want to come here and work in Toronto.
[13:27] SPEAKER_00: Salaries are fantastic.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: The, you know, the entrepreneurial minds here are great.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: They have, we have universities, universities like Waterloo,
[13:35] SPEAKER_00: and U of T, you know, all of those, you know, the universities
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: around here are kind of, you know, bringing in incredible talent.
[13:42] SPEAKER_00: And you're speaking of the Valley, like Silicon Valley,
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: actually come to Toronto because they see more opportunity here.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: We actually have people on our team right now that came from,
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: from there, like, you know, developers from Yahoo as an example.
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Paulo here if he's listening to this at some point.
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: That's, so that certainly happens.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: I love Toronto.
[14:03] SPEAKER_01: Is there a place in Toronto or at least close to here where you
[14:06] SPEAKER_01: like to recharge, you know, get inspired?
[14:09] SPEAKER_01: Just think, you know, we all have to do that sometimes.
[14:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[14:12] SPEAKER_00: I, every year, I take a three day trip with a few friends of mine.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: Only guys, I've known these guys the last, I'd say, I don't know,
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: 15, 20 years, something like that.
[14:24] SPEAKER_00: We go up to a Gongland Park, you know, just north of the city
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: about three hours away.
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: It's a camping trip.
[14:31] SPEAKER_00: We go canoeing, we do portaging.
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: We leave our phones in the car.
[14:36] SPEAKER_00: We just completely, you know, unplugged and just kind of refocus.
[14:42] SPEAKER_00: That's something that I look forward to every single year.
[14:45] SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of fun.
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be doing it for last, I'd say five years or so.
[14:49] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I hope we do this, you know, moving forward as much as possible.
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: So it's a little out of the way, but it's definitely worth it if you can.
[14:57] SPEAKER_00: And it's not expensive either.
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: You just go and you drive up and canoeing you're off to the races.
[15:03] SPEAKER_01: You think the entrepreneurs have to be kind of weird, unique, you know,
[15:07] SPEAKER_01: you think we're wired differently?
[15:09] SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: Like we're crazy.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: Like think about it.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: Like there's no stability.
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: You work like ridiculous hours.
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: You're doing different things every day.
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: It's the type of mind that you have to have is, you know,
[15:24] SPEAKER_00: just go, go, go all the time.
[15:26] SPEAKER_00: And if you're not working, then, you know, you may not be able to put food on the table the next day.
[15:31] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[15:32] SPEAKER_00: So you just, we're definitely wired different.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: But I think in a good way, if you don't have entrepreneurs, then you don't have your,
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: your Facebooks, your Uber's, your, you know, all your big unicorns that are out there,
[15:45] SPEAKER_00: that are changing the world, right?
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: So entrepreneurs are very much needed and we're very, very different.
[15:51] SPEAKER_00: I love being one.
[15:53] SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't trade it for the world.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: People always say there is, you know, the grass is greener on the other side, right?
[15:58] SPEAKER_00: And I've been on both sides.
[15:59] SPEAKER_00: Being an entrepreneur is definitely a greener.
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: Being an entrepreneur is a lot better than kind of having like a full time job.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: Just because you have, you know, you have your freedom, right?
[16:10] SPEAKER_00: Even if you're working 70, 80 hours a week, you're doing it because you want to do it,
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: not because you have to do it.
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: I think that's the biggest difference.
[16:17] SPEAKER_00: That mindset is just, you're doing it, and it's yours.
[16:20] SPEAKER_01: So what book are you reading now or listening to?
[16:23] SPEAKER_01: Can you recommend somebody of either Red or listen to that you go, whoa.
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there's a couple of things.
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: I'm very like, I don't read like, you know, typical, like self-help books and things like that.
[16:34] SPEAKER_00: But a couple of things, like I really, I listened to a couple of podcasts.
[16:38] SPEAKER_00: And there's a book I have in my office now.
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: It's by Gary Vaynerchuk.
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: It's called Ask Gary Vee.
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: Anybody who's listening to this and they're an entrepreneur, Gary Vee is, you know, fantastic.
[16:51] SPEAKER_00: And it's the whole book is just about people asking him questions and answering the questions, right?
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: And they're all about entrepreneurship.
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, how do you start a, how do you start a business?
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: Or what's the best way to advertise?
[17:04] SPEAKER_00: Or how do you manage family life and work just like a general?
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: Very great book.
[17:09] SPEAKER_00: I also listen to the podcast Nick Surgi.
[17:12] SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a great one put on by Andrew Warner.
[17:14] SPEAKER_00: It's similar to this type of podcast also where you interview entrepreneurs and talk about their story.
[17:19] SPEAKER_00: And it's been around for years now.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: But I listen to that too.
[17:25] SPEAKER_00: And I advise if you're listening to this, listen to that.
[17:27] SPEAKER_00: Listen to that one as well to get, you know, some different perspectives from entrepreneurs to.
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: In business, what is your favorite word?
[17:36] SPEAKER_01: Court sentence you like to use?
[17:38] SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I'm always like sales focused, I guess.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: And I know it's going to cliche, but it's from a movie and all of that.
[17:47] SPEAKER_00: But I always want to be closing.
[17:49] SPEAKER_00: So always be closing.
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: So what you're doing, if you're hiring someone and you really want that person,
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: you're trying to close them to, you know, to get hired.
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: If you want to land a client, you're trying to close them that way.
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to have a meeting just with your own team,
[18:04] SPEAKER_00: you're trying to get to the point in the crux of the meeting, right?
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: You're always just trying to close.
[18:09] SPEAKER_00: We're going to what you're trying to do.
[18:10] SPEAKER_00: You're always trying to get to that to where you want something to be.
[18:14] SPEAKER_00: So just always be closing no matter what you're doing, whether it's sales or not.
[18:18] SPEAKER_01: So what's your least favorite word of sentence?
[18:21] SPEAKER_01: What don't you like there?
[18:23] SPEAKER_00: I think when people say they try, right?
[18:27] SPEAKER_00: Like I tried my best.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: I just, I know it's true.
[18:30] SPEAKER_00: Everyone's trying their best, but don't tell me that.
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: I know that you have to just like keep working out and show me that, you know,
[18:37] SPEAKER_00: there's results at the end of the day.
[18:39] SPEAKER_00: So when people say they try their best, like, I know it's obvious.
[18:43] SPEAKER_00: And I hear that all the time.
[18:44] SPEAKER_00: It's kind of pointless.
[18:46] SPEAKER_01: Apart from the sales side, I mean, you've had to pick one or two words to describe yourself.
[18:50] SPEAKER_01: What would they be?
[18:52] SPEAKER_01: And why would you choose those two words?
[18:55] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[18:57] SPEAKER_00: I'd say I'm very like level headed.
[19:00] SPEAKER_00: And that's simply because like my type of role you're doing was from a different types of people
[19:05] SPEAKER_00: and different problems you have to solve.
[19:08] SPEAKER_00: And a lot of different personalities.
[19:10] SPEAKER_00: So I try not to let things bother me not just possible.
[19:13] SPEAKER_00: So I'm like level headed slash like even keel, that sort of thing.
[19:17] SPEAKER_00: And then I guess I'd say I'm passionate.
[19:19] SPEAKER_00: And if you're not entrepreneur, that's not passionate, then you're probably not an entrepreneur.
[19:23] SPEAKER_00: You're just in it for something else.
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: I'm passionate about building businesses, helping people, you know, and making a life for myself.
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: But what keeps you up at night?
[19:35] SPEAKER_01: Must be something.
[19:36] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: What keeps me up at night?
[19:39] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[19:39] SPEAKER_00: Everything.
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: I don't sleep all the time.
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: But it's just like there's always fires you got to put out in business, right?
[19:51] SPEAKER_00: So it's okay.
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: What am I going to put out tomorrow?
[19:54] SPEAKER_00: What's the biggest fire?
[19:56] SPEAKER_00: The biggest challenge that I can face that next day.
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: So when I'm like laying in bed before, you know, before I go to sleep, I'm thinking about, okay, what fire can I put out next that'll help my company move forward?
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: So there's nothing specific I'd say that keeps me up.
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: It's more just every day or week or month, there's different fires that I have to put out.
[20:16] SPEAKER_00: And that's what's going to keep me up at night and every day.
[20:19] SPEAKER_01: Here's the question I ask everybody.
[20:22] SPEAKER_01: There's a small tropical island just off Fiji.
[20:25] SPEAKER_01: There's one phone booth.
[20:26] SPEAKER_01: No, I know internet.
[20:28] SPEAKER_01: We drop you off there and you won't have the computer or a smartphone or a tablet.
[20:33] SPEAKER_01: You can use the phone booth located there anytime to call the boat and we'll come back and pick you up.
[20:38] SPEAKER_01: How long would you last before you made that call?
[20:42] SPEAKER_01: And what would you do there?
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: Well, you were there.
[20:44] SPEAKER_00: Am I there by myself or with all my love?
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: Only by yourself.
[20:48] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm by myself.
[20:49] SPEAKER_00: You know what?
[20:51] SPEAKER_00: I would have to call right away.
[20:54] SPEAKER_00: Right right away.
[20:56] SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, like family is what matters.
[20:59] SPEAKER_00: And if I'm up there with them, then like, I'm just, you know, I'd feel terrible about it that I'd be on this tropical island.
[21:06] SPEAKER_00: And just, are there are there any drinks there though?
[21:09] SPEAKER_00: Like is anything like is there food and like drink that I can hang out there a little bit?
[21:13] SPEAKER_00: Or is it just straight island?
[21:15] SPEAKER_00: It's like survivor style.
[21:17] SPEAKER_01: It's your imagination.
[21:18] SPEAKER_01: Not mine.
[21:19] SPEAKER_00: No, I honestly had to, uh, call right away.
[21:24] SPEAKER_00: And if my wife's listened to this, I think she's like that answer, but that.
[21:30] SPEAKER_01: That's a good answer.
[21:31] SPEAKER_00: If I was to be fair though, if I didn't have a family, I can be there for quite a while and relax and not, not an issue.
[21:38] SPEAKER_00: And my business for the most part can run.
[21:41] SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, I'd move forward that much, but it would be able to run.
[21:44] SPEAKER_00: And then I've been there for maybe for a few weeks.
[21:47] SPEAKER_01: So have you got any advice that you received that you could pass on to a entrepreneur's in Toronto, Ontario and Canada?
[21:56] SPEAKER_01: This is a national show.
[21:57] SPEAKER_01: Some gems or a gem that you think is pretty critical to entrepreneurial success.
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, there's, I think there's two things.
[22:07] SPEAKER_00: Do something that you're passionate about.
[22:10] SPEAKER_00: Not just something that you've seen opportunity in.
[22:13] SPEAKER_00: Don't do something that you're passionate about.
[22:15] SPEAKER_00: Then it's not going to succeed.
[22:17] SPEAKER_00: Like it just won't.
[22:19] SPEAKER_00: If you're passionate about, I don't know, like Kung Fu, right?
[22:23] SPEAKER_00: Maybe make a, you know, a book, an ebook series, an educational series around Kung Fu or maybe like set up a, you know,
[22:31] SPEAKER_00: set up a shop or somebody that could teach it.
[22:33] SPEAKER_00: Do something you're passionate about.
[22:35] SPEAKER_00: And also, you know, the biggest, the biggest thing is like working smarter, not harder, right?
[22:39] SPEAKER_00: Everyone's talked about like, you know, you have to hustle like 80 hours a week.
[22:43] SPEAKER_00: I really don't believe that you have to have a balance between family friends, you know, just like downtime and work.
[22:51] SPEAKER_00: You're working like a solid 50 hours a week, 55 hours a week.
[22:57] SPEAKER_00: You can get the same amount done that other guys working at 80 hours a week because you're more focused during that time.
[23:03] SPEAKER_00: You know that you're doing those like, you know, 8, 9, 10 hour days to be able to enjoy yourself afterwards.
[23:09] SPEAKER_00: And typically entrepreneurs, you know, they want to start a little bit earlier in their, in their lifetime.
[23:13] SPEAKER_00: They don't want to waste their, their, their 20s and 30s by just working, you know, 80 hour weeks.
[23:19] SPEAKER_00: They want to enjoy themselves and go out to hang out with friends and take vacations and do all that stuff.
[23:25] SPEAKER_00: And I think you can do that and run companies if you're just working a lot smarter and harder.
[23:31] SPEAKER_00: Give yourself some leverage.
[23:32] SPEAKER_00: Higher people around you that can do the tasks that may, may have taken you to the 80, 90 hour work weeks.
[23:39] SPEAKER_01: That's great. That's great advice Michael.
[23:41] SPEAKER_01: How can our listeners get hold of you?
[23:44] SPEAKER_01: And there's writing to you more. You want to add before we kind of call it a day.
[23:49] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure. So if you want to get a hold of me, email me directly at Michael at needles.com.
[23:55] SPEAKER_00: It's M I C H A E L at N E E D L S dot com. So Michael at needles dot com.
[24:03] SPEAKER_00: Habit chat with you about business and give some advice free advice. Go for it. I'm happy to have it a chat.
[24:09] SPEAKER_00: But if you're listening to this and you have a business, whether it be in Canada or the US or or worldwide,
[24:15] SPEAKER_00: come to needles dot com. Try us out. Run some campaigns with us. And I think you'll see some amazing success when running campaigns through needles dot com.
[24:25] SPEAKER_01: Thanks Michael. Really appreciate it.
[24:27] SPEAKER_00: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
[24:29] SPEAKER_01: Thanks everyone for taking the time today to listen to Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[24:36] SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed the podcast today. Make sure you sign up for our newsletters or write a review for us on iTunes.
[24:42] SPEAKER_01: You can connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or at Canada's podcast dot com.
[24:49] SPEAKER_01: In order to check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country, I'm Phil Bliss. See you next time.