Episode Transcript

Hey what’s up? What’s up? What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to THE a.m guys, welcome back to five minute rants. I’m your host, Michael Abernathy. And welcome back to the show predicated on the journey of life and business. Well, guys, today, I want to talk about how it takes two people to do business. And before we kind of get into that statement, I’m going to give us some context. And I’m going to start with this, we as people tend to be naturally selfish, we tend to think about ourselves, our lives, What we want, how we want it when we want it. And that’s a lot of times where our focus is, by the way, this is one of the number one reasons why most people fail at business is selfishness. We do not think about the customer, we don’t think about What other people want. And then we don’t think about how money is actually made. Because money is not made in a product, okay? It is actually made in a relationship, it is actually made in a transaction in that relationship between two people. And it is selfishness that normally causes most people to go out of business. Okay. And that’s, that’s one of the reasons why I want to talk about this. Because if you’re thinking about going into business, if you’re thinking or currently in business, this is such a massive principle that it takes two people to do business, okay, companies, businesses would not exist without customers, and customers would not exist without the business.

So going back to the point of selfishness, we really focus on ourselves a lot. And when we focus on me, when everything in my world becomes about me, and it stops being about us, because it can’t just always be about others, right? It can’t just only be about others, I exist, too. And so it has to be about us. But when I’m focused on me, it never becomes about us. And then we always focus on the wrong things. And so when we are in business, and when we’re creating or building something, it’s always building for two people, one your customer, and then two, yourself, it is building for us, I am building for us. And now Here’s the thing, your customer, you are building to serve them, okay? Because What you need to build is different, What you’re building for your customer is to serve them What they want, What they find valuable, and to give that to them. And then in return, you’re given something to build towards your greater good.

So for instance, when we started a business, I didn’t need a website, because we started a website marketing agency, I didn’t need a website, I didn’t need marketing. That’s What our customers needed. In honesty, they did need marketing, they did need a website. And I can talk about that later, too. But I didn’t need those things, I did not need that value in my life, they did. And in return, it gave me something that allowed me to build towards my purpose in life. And so What happened was I created a product or service, that I was able to have a transaction with my customer, or to serve them with that allowed them to drive forward towards their purpose. And in return, I got something for my purpose. And so if you think about that, that’s essentially What it takes to do business is providing value to help the businesses drive towards their purpose and their goals. And then in return, that’s reciprocated to you, there’s the law of sowing and reaping. There’s a law of reciprocity. I mean, reciprocity is honestly everything. And again, I can talk about that later.

But if you’re not thinking about your customer, if you’re not thinking about What really serves them, if you’re not thinking about What they really want, if you don’t talk to them to understand What they really want, you will fail because you’re only thinking about yourself. And this is What I found, and this is What Andrew and I did when we first started, we are product focus. And when we are product and service, focus, offering focus, we’re going to, we’re going to build the best thing, we’re going to do this, it was all about us it was very selfish, because I was just thinking about us, versus why don’t I build something that my customer actually cares about? Why don’t I love them? Why don’t I serve them? Hey, I know that I like to be treated this way. So why don’t I treat them the way I want to be treated? Why don’t I actually find out What that means, and actually incorporate that and build towards those things.

And when we started doing that, everything changed. Our whole worlds changed, our customers changed. And then we found that, hey, we actually really don’t have any bad customers. We were just a bad business. And I know that’s a surprise to maybe some of you and then some of you, you’re like, Oh yeah, of course. That’s how it is. Right because you are your customers. But I think it just comes back to selfishness and selflessness. selflessness includes us. And selfishness is only about me. And when my world is all about me, I leave the rest of the world out. And that just seems to suck all around because there’s nothing inside of that isolation that really profits me. And so anyways, just saying that out there. I’m just saying that I’m putting that out there and as you’re building something, just think about that. Is it you focused? Is it simply your customer focused or is it us focused? There’s no winning unless all parties involved win. And that’s it.

Anyways guys, I’m way over. I’ll catch you later. Peace