The Next Generation

Bryant Sullentrop is a founder of Elevate and Delegate a virtual staffing company. Bryant’s company goal is to provide the best and most skilled virtual assistants that help manage business needs. Helping business owner to get their life back, grow and lean towards success with the help of their Virtual Assistants. In this episode, we talked about the in-and-outs of hiring worthy and top talented virtual assistants. From measuring their knowledge in building Notion Boards, screening candidates, job postings, and appropriate compensation. Aside from business, we discussed Bryant studying for being a Duolingo, he’s learning Spanish which I found interesting. Quotable Quotes: “We have a series of 200 tests in this software that we use that we can give to them. And so like all of our everyone that like we vet, they take a personality test, an IQ test, and a test on the actual and then a test on the actual things that they'd be doing.” (12:33) “When you're looking for contractors, look in either local Facebook groups or Facebook. Facebook marketplace type stuff for Craigslist, because there are a lot of contractors that they don't have websites, and I'm nothing like unless you wouldn't know that they exist.” “We have to do more to figure out and make sure that they're actually going to be good, you know, a good fit” (12:08) Don’t Miss: Book Keeping (9:42) VA Compensation (25:52) Getting Reviews in Local Businesses (34:01) Connect With Bryant: Twitter Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

Any time is a good time to start a company. In this episode, I talked with Nathan Resnick who started young as 15 for being a businessman and entrepreneur. After graduating college in 2017, he founded Sourcify - an international sourcing company that has remarkably brought approximately 10% of savings on costs and production to hundreds of brands around the world. Nathan Resnick is the founder and CEO of Sourcify, a platform that simplifies manufacturing. Throughout his career, he has developed dozens of products. He’s now running his 8 figure company Sourcify and Bubble Hotel. In this episode, we discussed hows the supply chain internationally during pandemics, his a venture into real estate, and many more.  Quotable Quotes: "We're always looking to help our customers cut costs, while also improving quality and lead time. So those are kind of the three main pillars, we look at cost, quality, and lead time. (15:17) “I was never a good writer, like, I got to actually D in English. My junior year of high school, I was like, so bad in English class, my teacher was like; “Hey never going to publish, never going to be an author or whatever.” (11:08) “In real estate, in general, it's all about finding the deal. You know, it doesn't matter if you're doing duplexes doesn't matter. If you're doing storage units, it's literally all about finding the deal.” (29:10) Don’t Miss: Nathan’s E-commerce Journey when he’s 15  (1:26) Supply Chain Difficulties during pandemic (12:24) Unique Glamping Hotel Experience with Bubble Hotel (19:55) E-commerce to Real Estate Venture (21:55) Hospitality Business (27:44) Nathan’s Bussiness and Personal Goal (40:47) Connect with Nathan: LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

In this episode, we talked to a 20-something young Dan Soviero. Who’s rocking and dominating the business of sport and making millions through it. He started as a three-sport athlete – basketball, soccer, and football before he discovered Lacrosse. He entered the entrepreneurship world and enjoyed the moment of building relationships with customers like cold calling, and cold knocking on doors until he sold millions of balls in a year. Dan founded Signature Lacrosse in 2015 with the goal of creating the first "premium" lacrosse ball. His athletic ball brand is now used by more than 300 college lacrosse programs worldwide. Over the years, Signature has expanded its services beyond lacrosse to include the customization of team apparel and equipment through an easy-to-use process. Quotable Quotes in this Episode “I was pretty good at inside sales, I learned how to, build the call scripts, build the touchpoint processes, train sales reps, hire all of that. So that felt like the most natural-like growth strategy for us.” (31:01) “But the biggest changing point for me was like learning that I always was very competitive. And I always had goals.” (47:29) “I was a freshman. And I was like, why am I depressed? Like, I have all these, this amazing family, all these amazing friends. Like, I've been lucky with the ladies like no reason at all to be depressed. But for some reason, like, I feel like this. I don't know what it is.” (47:58) Don’t Miss: Dan’s Sports Background (1:35) Sales Gig over College internship (14:50) How Dan sold his Lacrosse Ball (23:41) Freshmen Dan Mental State (47:07) Connect with Dan: LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

For the past series of episodes, we had amazing people with small businesses, real estate, software, and other forms of entrepreneurship. We're excited to bring you Oliver Brocato, a 20-year-old Sophomore at the University of Michigan who’s building a million-dollar sex chocolate business.  Usually, people start off selling t-shirts or trying to build websites. Thus, Oliver's entrepreneurial venture didn’t start with sex chocolate. In this episode, we unpacked his business ventures and how Oliver come up to build a sex chocolate business. Challenges, pros, and cons of running food-based products and how they market them online in spite of community guidelines experiences, and other problems. We also discussed ways and funnels to win the marketing campaign.  Quotes from this episode: "Not being able to run PPC, we thought it was gonna be like, pretty brutal, but it actually ended up being like a blessing in disguise. The reason why it's because it made us focus on the fundamentals and made us focus on organic.” (22:06) “So I love working with micro-influencers, like Tiktoker with 200,000 followers to 600,000 followers. For me, that's kind of the sweet spot where I think you're able to extract the most value from a brand perspective.” (39:45) “Instead of selling like 50 chocolates in a box, we sold three, this creates like scarcity and value, we sell it, we put in a super sexy and luxurious box,” (18:11) Don't Miss: Business venture before Sex Chocolate (00:50) How Sex Scholate Business Ideas Come up (16:44) Shitty PArt of Business (20:13) How Mobile-Only Website work for Oliver’s business? (29:19) Funnel of getting the right Influencer (45:55) Connect with Oliver: Twitter Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

In this episode, we have Colin Landforce, CTO for a publicly-traded cannabis company, UnrivaledBrands. Colin has built a career hustling to build one of the biggest names in the cannabis industry and still finds time to work on miscellaneous projects from selling physical goods to even building software. He loves the play of building an agency and then building SaaS and all the systems behind it. We discussed how Colin started becoming an entrepreneur and its challenges especially he built a Cannabis Brand where there are a lot of regulations needed to follow to operate. How to market high ticket sales like firearms amidst the digital marketing environment. Quotes from this episode: “The way you make it work with any partner, even if they are a friend; you communicate clearly and you set expectations with each other, you speak candidly with one another. Put people in roles based on their merit not based on it being the homie.” (7:15) “Cannabis hasn't even come close, like entering pop culture and culture in general in the future, I see tons of loads happening.” (20:47) “I think focus is a little bit of a scam. I jumped into this business, I had my moment of I'm finally going to focus on something. But I did not get outsize results out of it.” (32:26) - Colin Landforce Don’t miss: First Dollar Income Stream (1:22) Why Agency is a Trap? (3:14) Marketing high ticket sales like Firearms (9:17) Will Cannabis catch up to alcohol sales? (18:31) Business idea in Cannabis Space (23:53) Connect with Colin: Twitter Unrivaled Brands Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

In today's episode, we are joined by Max Bidna who goes as “Marketing Max” on Twitter. Max is the previous owner of a seven-figure agency Hell’s Creative that helps brands get more out of their ad spend by generating high-performance videos and graphics to turn prospects into buyers' results averaging 4x return on their ad spend. Currently, Max is imparting hacks among entrepreneurs through GrowthHacksWeekly.com – a  weekly newsletter where he shares his best growth hacks. We unpacked the ins and outs of building an agency including finding top talents across the globe. The system that lies in the hiring process such as screening their cover letter and interviews. Find out more about Max here: Website Twitter Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

In today’s episode, we are joined by Michael Girdley, an entrepreneur and investor who buys, starts, and operates companies in San Antonio, Texas. His ventures include everything from tech and software companies to coffee shops and even to fireworks. Yes, you read that right, fireworks! Michael shares with us how he takes business concepts and turns it into reality by incubating or putting up businesses. Though he’s no longer 20-something, his age and experience have helped him amass a huge amount of wisdom and experience over the course of his career, including how his early entrepreneurial beginning led him to where he is today, the struggles he faced on that journey, and some very important lessons. Listen to find out more. Quotes from this episode: ● “Nothing gives me more joy than that process of creating support and then supporting the right team as they go on.” (6:44) ● “That's ultimately the number one thing. How can you find that culture of people that are pursuing entrepreneurship?” (14:36) ● “What I learned over a number of years is this roller coaster, you need to make it like a sloping road that you're going up and down. Never get too high. Never get too low. I don't take the good things personally. I don't take the bad things personally. Just keep it all in perspective.” (22:37) ● “The core of every great business person is a combination of curiosity and humility.” (30:44) -Michael Girdley Don’t miss: ● What Michael does (1:09) ● The advantage of having an entrepreneurial family (10:30) ● Building strong and solid relationships with business partners (25:57) ● How to become a good entrepreneur (30:43) ● Sound advice from Michael (40:240) Find out more about Michael here: Website LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

Grace Gudenkauf is a 24-year-old who originally worked as a mechanical engineer then switched careers and founded Good Morning Investments, a real estate business in Eastern Iowa. In an amazing feat, Grace was able to acquire 18 rental properties, and she shares how this career change and founding a business happened accidentally, which she explains more about in this episode. Grace talks about creative financing and what it means, the huge impact getting a mentor had on her business, mistakes she’s committed that you should avoid, and so much more. She also offers great advice for anyone who’s starting out or interested in the real estate industry such as how to find your first house and tips on negotiation and community engagement. You won’t want to miss this episode. Quotes from this episode: ● “Do you want to do a little bit more work and hopefully get a better deal? Or do you want to take maybe a little bit of an easier way, maybe pay a little bit more, but somebody is doing a lot of that work for you? So, there's no right answer.” 8:37) ● “When I was only three months into real estate, I decided to enroll in a mentorship that was $5,000, which is a lot of money, and that exponentially grew my business.” (12:12) ● “Under promise and over deliver to yourself, to your investors, to your team.” (22:44) ● “If you're a newbie, start with a cosmetic rehab. Look for that orange shag carpet and the pink painted kitchen and the oak cabinets… That can be a great first deal to start out with.” (40:59) -Grace Gudenkauf Don’t miss: ● How Grace got into real estate (2:24) ● Lessons learned from her first sale (9:15) ● Creative financing (14:14) ● What you need to know before getting into real estate in Iowa (26:22) ● Streamlining operations through apps and tools (36:46) Find out more about Good Morning Investments here: Facebook Connect with Grace here: LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

On today’s episode Tom Worcester, founder of Lunchbox, joins us to discuss music festivals and how to find a niche. Based in Washington, D.C., Lunchbox went from $0 to $40k+ MRR in a matter of months and is the only festival hydration bag you'll ever need, designed to prevent the top issues facing festival attendees around the globe, pickpockets. The Lunchbox is the most lightweight, military-grade, compact festival bag available, with unique, personalized aesthetics that allow each user to create their own Lunchbox experience. At the core of Lunchbox’s mission, Tom and the team want to improve the festival experience by extending not just their product, but also their operations to bigger horizons. “We want to be partnering with these festivals, take over their operations, take over the Lunchbox water line, put these bags in the hands of medical and security for visual identification.” With big ambitions in mind, the best of Lunchbox is yet to come. Connect with Tom here: Twitter LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

Meet Codie Sanchez, a self-made contrarian investing guru who wants to help you get rich. Codie is a reformed journalist turned investor who over the course of her career has bought and sold 66+ businesses, built x2 8 figure and x2 7 figure businesses and now runs a portfolio of 26 companies, ranging from car washes to laundromats to a paid newsletter business. It may not sound glamorous, but you can earn a healthy income from owning trailer parks. Or maybe investing in laundromats, car washes, or tiny home Airbnbs is more your speed. These are the kinds of straightforward, but perhaps overlooked money-making ideas that Codie Sanchez both practices and preaches. The 34-year-old self-made and self-styled investment expert is the co-founder of Unconventional Acquisitions, an educational provider that helps people learn how to buy small businesses. She also founded Contrarian Thinking, a newsletter that discusses investment themes and trends, as well as offering a “how-to playbook on ways to cash flow.” But she quickly shifted her professional focus from journalism to the world of high finance — working for Vanguard, Goldman Sachs and State Street, and becoming head of Latin American investments for First Trust. She also served as a partner at Entourage Effect Capital, investing in the growing cannabis industry. We caught up with Sanchez and asked her to explain a little more about what she does and how she became an investing expert.  Connect with Codie here:  Twitter LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod