Are you ready to break out of the traditional workweek and start a business of your own? Hear first-hand how Adam started his own tent rental business and get valuable advice on learning the basics of business and entrepreneurship, understanding the differences between a DBA and an LLC, and building relationships within the industry.
Plus, Adam will share his journey of starting his own business at 22 and the mistakes he made along the way. Don't miss these six steps to help you shift your mindset to start a business you love. So grab your cup of tea and get comfy because the tea is definitely hot!
Episode Show notes
Free Guide to Create Your Big Magic and find what secret talents you might be hiding.
Love this episode; then I would appreciate it if you would leave me a review
Need more inspiration to help on your journey, then listen to this powerful story with Auther Zavonda Parrish.
#entreprenuer #tentrental #buildwhatyoulove
#thyme4teawithmikita #manifest #purposefulliving #liveunapplogectically #freedom #podcast #womeninpodcast #podcastlife #empoweringwomen
Are you ready to break out of the traditional workweek and start a business of your own? Hear first-hand how Adam started his own tent rental business and get valuable advice on learning the basics of business and entrepreneurship, understanding the differences between a DBA and an LLC, and building relationships within the industry.
Plus, Adam will share his journey of starting his own business at 22 and the mistakes he made along the way. Don't miss these six steps to help you shift your mindset to start a business you love. So grab your cup of tea and get comfy because the tea is definitely hot!
Episode Show notes
Free Guide to Create Your Big Magic and find what secret talents you might be hiding.
Love this episode; then I would appreciate it if you would leave me a review
Need more inspiration to help on your journey, then listen to this powerful story with Auther Zavonda Parrish.
#entreprenuer #tentrental #buildwhatyoulove
#thyme4teawithmikita #manifest #purposefulliving #liveunapplogectically #freedom #podcast #womeninpodcast #podcastlife #empoweringwomen
00:00SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Welcome back, I'm MiKita. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your space and your
00:11SPEAKER_Adam Keller: energy with me today. In this episode of Time for Tea, we are diving in deep to help you
00:16SPEAKER_Adam Keller: shift your mindset from impossible to one of possibilities. We are keeping the tea extra
00:22SPEAKER_Adam Keller: hot with one and only Adam Keller. Adam started his journey to start his own business
00:28SPEAKER_Adam Keller: and create something that is precious and that means a lot to him. We all know when you
00:36SPEAKER_Adam Keller: start your own business, it comes with some doubts, it comes with a lot of different shifts
00:43SPEAKER_Adam Keller: in mindset. It also comes with a few mistakes, but Adam is here to help you to avoid all
00:48SPEAKER_Adam Keller: of those mistakes that most new business owners make. I'll show to help you shift and change
00:53SPEAKER_Adam Keller: your mindset for six steps. Grab your cup of tea and get comfy because the tea is definitely
01:01SPEAKER_Adam Keller: hot. Adam, thank you so much for just coming on and sharing your time with us today.
01:06SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Thanks for having me on, I appreciate it.
01:09SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Yes, I am super excited. I have to actually first out if you could use five words to describe
01:17SPEAKER_Adam Keller: who you are, how would you do that? Determined, confident, get up and go, that's six. Yes,
01:30SPEAKER_Adam Keller: and that really speaks to who you are and everything that you've built and created with your
01:34SPEAKER_Adam Keller: business. Thank you. Yes, so you have an amazing story. You started your business at the age of 22.
01:42SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Can you start there and just lead us up to that journey where you was like, okay, it's time for
01:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: me to build something of my own. Yes, so when I went off to college, I met a kid and we were
01:56SPEAKER_Mikita S: together the second year. Well, he worked for a party rental company out of Rochester, New York,
02:02SPEAKER_Mikita S: and we were going to school in Buffalo, New York. So this party rental company had two stores
02:06SPEAKER_Mikita S: one in each city. So I would occasionally go, set up tents and do some stuff with him, just for a
02:13SPEAKER_Mikita S: little bit of extra money. And then I used that experience and the manager of that store to get me
02:20SPEAKER_Mikita S: a summer job when I came back home at my local party rental company. But that's when I started
02:25SPEAKER_Mikita S: seeing invoices and I was like, this is what they're charging for this stuff, holy. So I started
02:31SPEAKER_Mikita S: two years of college last and I'm approaching the end of college and I'm just like, I do not
02:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: want to work for someone. I originally started going to college for a business. But I soon found out
02:44SPEAKER_Mikita S: that wasn't that great. I don't like math that much. I'm not good at it. So I was taking business
02:49SPEAKER_Mikita S: health and accounting. I dropped accounting, but I couldn't get out of business health for whatever
02:55SPEAKER_Mikita S: reason. Maybe I was just a few days late or whatever. So I, you know, on tasks finals like for
03:01SPEAKER_Mikita S: for calculus, it's just like 10 questions and a whole bunch of blank paper. And you just got to do
03:07SPEAKER_Mikita S: those 10 questions and show your work. Well, I just memorized math jokes. Like why was six
03:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: afraid of seven? Because 79, just a whole bunch. And then I ended up last page. I just put, you know,
03:16SPEAKER_Mikita S: I meant to drop this, but I just need to see. So she passed me. But anyways, that's long
03:21SPEAKER_Mikita S: my business degree was okay. I just stopped doing it. And plus I had this taxi driver at one time
03:29SPEAKER_Mikita S: telling him I want to own a bar and this and that. And he goes to me, do you really need to go to
03:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: business school and to own a business? And I'm thinking about that. And I'm like, no, not really. I
03:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: guess not. And this is when I'm having trouble with accounting, accounting and business health.
03:42SPEAKER_Mikita S: So I end up getting a history degree and I'm just like, oh, no, what am I going to, I don't want
03:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: to be a teacher? What are you going to do with a history degree? So two weeks before leaving
03:52SPEAKER_Mikita S: school, I'm like, okay, I know that I can make money doing 10s, maybe. And I have seen how much
03:58SPEAKER_Mikita S: they make. So I took out an ad in the Penny Savor and the local newspaper. This was before
04:05SPEAKER_Mikita S: social media. What was this 2005? I think. So I started against some calls. So I worked for my
04:14SPEAKER_Mikita S: mom's SUV and would deliver 10s. And that's all I had of the time was just 10s. I didn't have
04:20SPEAKER_Mikita S: anything to go under it. So that's that summer I did 10s and I had a job at a gas station working
04:27SPEAKER_Mikita S: overnight. And then I got a job at a hotel cleaning rooms, all the meanwhile setting up these
04:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: tents and not thinking much of it. It's just like, wow, this is a lot of money for 22 year old
04:38SPEAKER_Mikita S: that you know taking girls to the fair and paying cash and you know having a lot of fun. But I started
04:44SPEAKER_Mikita S: putting the money back in and over the winter time when you know not doing 10s, I got as many
04:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: jobs as I could work in 80, 90 hours a week. So that I could afford tables and chairs for the next summer.
04:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: And then I got the tables and chairs and I just took that money put it back in, put it back in.
05:02SPEAKER_Mikita S: And then we're thinking this is going to be a full-time business. But then I had an office job
05:05SPEAKER_Mikita S: where I think, all right, I'm a big boy now. This is a career. But I hated it there.
05:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: Cubicle, whatever. I still do intense. I do my effort after work, pick them up on Sundays.
05:17SPEAKER_Mikita S: And just I got to a point where it's like, all right, I'm making decent amount.
05:23SPEAKER_Mikita S: But I organized with work to go down to like a certain like days that I was on and days that I was off.
05:29SPEAKER_Mikita S: So I'm out delivering tents. I'm one of my days off and someone calls for my biggest tent.
05:34SPEAKER_Mikita S: And once it for that week and I'm like, I got it, but I don't have time. So I'm saying no. And I
05:40SPEAKER_Mikita S: start yelling at myself in the truck. Not like me or anything. Just like, what are you doing?
05:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: So I call them back and I say, yeah, we can do it. I go into work the next day and I say,
05:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: I get my two-week notice and they're like, what? Yeah, but my two-week notice is actually two weeks ago.
05:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: And they're confused and like, that means I'm done today. So I got worked out.
06:02SPEAKER_Mikita S: And then that was it. And then it's just you got to keep putting money back into it
06:07SPEAKER_Mikita S: to get it to a certain point because you could just be, you know, you live in live and
06:13SPEAKER_Mikita S: life high, get money, get money and increasing your lifestyle, but doesn't really grow the business.
06:19SPEAKER_Mikita S: So that brings me up to the point where I started doing good.
06:24SPEAKER_Adam Keller: So did you even get a chance to tell anyone or you just was just like,
06:30SPEAKER_Adam Keller: I know what I'm going to do, you know, like if I go all in like, I know what I can achieve
06:36SPEAKER_Adam Keller: or were you able to like call up a friend or anyone and be like, hey, I'm about to quit my job.
06:41SPEAKER_Mikita S: This is not to be it. So when, well, when I first was leaving college, I called my mother and she was
06:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: all for it. And then I told some friends and one of them wanted in, but he didn't have any money.
06:55SPEAKER_Mikita S: And another one thought I was a get rich scheme. And he said he would work with me, like,
07:02SPEAKER_Mikita S: you know, help me set the tent up, but he wanted to have to money for putting nothing in.
07:06SPEAKER_Mikita S: So I was like, all right, I'm on my own here. I don't need anyone to put money in. I'm just going to do it.
07:12SPEAKER_Mikita S: But the quitting the job, one, it was rough. It was a little scary because
07:18SPEAKER_Mikita S: I was getting married that year. We were buying a house and I'm scaling my business.
07:25SPEAKER_Mikita S: And I couldn't not quit the job until we were closing on the house.
07:30SPEAKER_Mikita S: So we closed down the house in the morning. And that's the same day that I got the phone call and all that.
07:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: And then the next day I quit my job. So I waited until the house. But my fiance was
07:45SPEAKER_Mikita S: fine with at the time. It was bringing in enough. It was bringing in 80,000 a year at that point.
07:50SPEAKER_Mikita S: So you figure half an expenses 40,000 a year was more than as making an
07:55SPEAKER_Mikita S: cubicle at that time anyways.
07:57SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Yeah. I will tell you for a lot of us, including myself. My biggest fear when stepping out to
08:04SPEAKER_Adam Keller: start my own side hustle and even started my podcast, I was so afraid of not just what the people
08:12SPEAKER_Adam Keller: that were closest to me. I didn't really worry about what they thought. I knew they supported me.
08:17SPEAKER_Adam Keller: But I was more afraid of what the people that didn't know me would think. And if people would like,
08:23SPEAKER_Adam Keller: oh my god, you're so ungrateful. You have a great job. You should be happy with what you're doing.
08:28SPEAKER_Adam Keller: What mind shifts did you find yourself making as you shifted into being an entrepreneur or a business owner?
08:36SPEAKER_Mikita S: So it's the opposite. When you're saying that, I was like, let's kind of opposite.
08:39SPEAKER_Mikita S: Most people's experiences. Most people's experiences. The family is going to talk to them.
08:43SPEAKER_Mikita S: The family and friends are going to say, you sure you want to do that. The strangers or other
08:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: people that they just don't. It doesn't even matter. They don't even factor into people's equations in
08:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: their head. So the mindset was slowly, you know, I decided, I'm not buying video games anymore.
09:00SPEAKER_Mikita S: I can't spend $60 on a video game when I could get 10 shares for $100 or, you know, like,
09:08SPEAKER_Mikita S: I can't be spending money in here. I can't be going out of the bars. If I want to do this,
09:12SPEAKER_Mikita S: there's a different thing that needs to be done. I can't be wasting time watching TV and stuff.
09:18SPEAKER_Mikita S: If I'm going to watch something, it better get something from it. So basically,
09:25SPEAKER_Mikita S: I was without knowing as training my brain. I was training my brain to be an entrepreneur. I never
09:31SPEAKER_Mikita S: thought of myself as an entrepreneur and high school or anything. But then I knew that
09:36SPEAKER_Mikita S: I eventually did not want to work for someone. But don't like being told what to do. So
09:41SPEAKER_Mikita S: it was an accident. It was an antel switch. And now I wish, like, if I know this now, I wish I could
09:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: have told the young me, start doing this and start really focusing on it because you'll get a
09:54SPEAKER_Mikita S: head faster. So it was like a slow retraining my brain to see things differently. If you go out to a
10:00SPEAKER_Mikita S: restaurant, be like, how are they making money? How much did they spend? Why did they do that?
10:05SPEAKER_Mikita S: You go to a store, see where they got things set up. You get order of service, see, you know, thinking,
10:13SPEAKER_Mikita S: how are they doing this? What are their upsells? How is this business making money?
10:18SPEAKER_Mikita S: Now that I want to do that business, but it's just interesting to think. And not even know.
10:23SPEAKER_Mikita S: You don't have to talk to anyone. Just for you to run through things. So then later in life,
10:29SPEAKER_Mikita S: later in entrepreneurial journey, when something comes up, your brain's been trained to
10:35SPEAKER_Mikita S: notice things real quick. So you know, that's a good idea for me. That's not a good idea.
10:40SPEAKER_Mikita S: Whatever. Or that's not a good idea for anyone. Or there's an opportunity there.
10:46SPEAKER_Mikita S: So it was a slow mind shift. And I haven't really realized that until the past few years, once I
10:52SPEAKER_Mikita S: joined TikTok and was making side hustle content and a lot of people have very basic
10:59SPEAKER_Mikita S: questions because they've never thought about it. It's their first step in the journey, or mine's
11:04SPEAKER_Adam Keller: been a slow mind shift since 22. That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm just so opposite.
11:13SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Like, I had a supportive family, but you know, I just had other people like
11:19SPEAKER_Adam Keller: axing me about getting into like nursing and how to start their career. And then wanting to be like,
11:25SPEAKER_Adam Keller: oh, yeah, I'm about to quit that and go full time into the business and they're looking at me like,
11:30SPEAKER_Adam Keller: but I want to be where you're at. Like, why would you be happy with what you got?
11:35SPEAKER_Mikita S: Right. Yeah. So yeah, go ahead. It's not strangers, but maybe people I want to
11:41SPEAKER_Mikita S: school with or people you know, like tertiary. They always say, in the beginning, how is your
11:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: little business doing? They always put in little as a thing. And like, I don't know, they're not
11:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: even doing it subconsciously. And I started noticing it. I've really only sang in little business.
11:56SPEAKER_Mikita S: I think it's like their way of saying like, you know, this is nothing like you'll be back to work.
12:03SPEAKER_Mikita S: So you know, that kind of stuff. And I noticed it all the time and then it eventually fades away.
12:09SPEAKER_Mikita S: Have you ever had that? Anyone be like, oh, how's your little thing doing?
12:11SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Oh, yeah, I have people like, yeah. So how's your little podcast? You know, how's that coming along?
12:16SPEAKER_Adam Keller: And I'm like, I'm doing very well. I love it. Thank you. Yeah. Why do they got to put that little
12:21SPEAKER_Adam Keller: in there? I don't know. I don't even know if some people realize it or if they really mean to say little
12:29SPEAKER_Adam Keller: I've heard I've corrected people. I'm like, what do you mean by little? And they're like, oh, no,
12:33SPEAKER_Adam Keller: that's not what I mean. I'm like, yeah, but you said it, you know, they mean it subconsciously or consciously.
12:41SPEAKER_Adam Keller: I think that's yeah. So fast for it, you took that chance. You bet it on yourself. And
12:47SPEAKER_Adam Keller: the crazy part is that, you know, you didn't really love the math part of the business. But now
12:53SPEAKER_Adam Keller: you've built this amazing company and you're helping others by sharing your knowledge and
12:59SPEAKER_Adam Keller: to create their own successful business. How has, you know, going to school learning that business
13:06SPEAKER_Adam Keller: aspect has that like, are you able to like recall those pieces of like, oh, I hated that class.
13:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: But, oh, that came in handy. I absolutely nothing. If you business school is for becoming a business
13:19SPEAKER_Mikita S: manager in an office. Okay. There's not entrepreneurial schools. The entrepreneurial school is
13:26SPEAKER_Mikita S: paying a mentor or someone online to learn everything about entrepreneurship or that business.
13:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: Business school is for people who are going to work in an office. I took nothing from it.
13:38SPEAKER_Mikita S: And anything that was from it had nothing. Don't tell me about a hay sales tax. Hey, I guess maybe
13:46SPEAKER_Mikita S: you know that you need to do accounting. Like that that's going to be a thing. But it's not like they were
13:52SPEAKER_Mikita S: teaching you how to use quick books and stuff. They don't teach you how to, you know, go down to
13:59SPEAKER_Mikita S: the county clerk and get your DBA or this is how you do your LLC or this is why you should do an LLC
14:04SPEAKER_Mikita S: U-versus in S-Corp. I have no idea what if I would have continued on what what would have taught
14:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: me that you can't that tax driver was right. He was 100% right. You don't need to go to business
14:17SPEAKER_Mikita S: school to open a business. It has to help in some situations but in general it's like,
14:22SPEAKER_Adam Keller: you learn as you go. You do. I love them the most about just making my own mistakes and figuring it out
14:29SPEAKER_Adam Keller: or just connecting with other people that's in the industry. How has building relationships
14:37SPEAKER_Adam Keller: within the industry helped you kind of navigate and just speaking to other entrepreneurs and learning?
14:46SPEAKER_Mikita S: Well, there's like a lot of things like that you just don't know that you don't know
14:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: which would be great if college taught entrepreneurship and then you would already know them.
14:55SPEAKER_Mikita S: So like some things that you don't know that you don't know is, you know,
15:00SPEAKER_Mikita S: it's probably a better idea to be an LLC to begin with even those little more expensive than being a DBA
15:05SPEAKER_Mikita S: because within LLC or more protected also within LLC you can take what's called an S-Corp election.
15:12SPEAKER_Mikita S: You don't have to be a full S-Corp but you can make your LLC take that election.
15:18SPEAKER_Mikita S: What that means is you can pay yourself a paycheck instead of getting
15:23SPEAKER_Mikita S: what's a self-employment tax for people who don't know there's a self-employment tax when
15:27SPEAKER_Mikita S: yourself employed. So if your profit was $100,000, 15% of that is going through the government.
15:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: So 15,000 is already going. Plus you've got your normal income tax on top of that. So if you're
15:39SPEAKER_Mikita S: able to be an LLC and then one day do the S-Corp election and give yourself paychecks.
15:45SPEAKER_Mikita S: Now you're getting tax within those paychecks and then the other stuff is being taken
15:52SPEAKER_Mikita S: in its distributions. You're saving a whole bunch of money. I figured out at the other day I would
15:56SPEAKER_Mikita S: save $250,000 over the course of business if I would have been an S-Corp.
16:04SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Yeah, those are the things that you you have to really learn that you don't really know
16:09SPEAKER_Adam Keller: and a lot of people start out you know I'll do the doing business as because it's cheaper but
16:14SPEAKER_Adam Keller: they're not thinking about the future of their business and how they wanted to grow.
16:19SPEAKER_Adam Keller: They you know is the growth mindset this is going to get bigger. I'm going to you know
16:24SPEAKER_Mikita S: expand and you want to think about that when you're starting. Right. So when I do a course
16:29SPEAKER_Mikita S: where I've written a few books on various businesses I always do include a chapter of the LLC
16:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: S-Corp DBA even though it's like that's basic like at least I can include a small chapter just
16:43SPEAKER_Mikita S: to let you know that you may be trying to learn from you how to start a vintage rental business
16:49SPEAKER_Mikita S: but I still want you to know that there's these options and why these options are here.
16:53SPEAKER_Mikita S: Whereas a lot of books if you just pick up a how to become a painter book they may just talk
16:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: about the entire business of painting they may not have that little bit of entity type or very
17:03SPEAKER_Adam Keller: sort of things or insurance and stuff. And usually that's what the people really want to know. Like
17:09SPEAKER_Adam Keller: they want to know like what's the difference why should I go this way you know how would this benefit
17:14SPEAKER_Mikita S: me the things that you don't really get to hear about as much. Right the only thing I heard about
17:20SPEAKER_Mikita S: being a DBA or an LLC was the insurance aspect keeping yourself protected. I didn't know about the
17:25SPEAKER_Mikita S: tax savings. Yeah that's a lot of people talk about that part. Yeah.
17:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: They really really do. So what did the beginning stages look like you? You look like for you when
17:43SPEAKER_Mikita S: you when you started out your business. What were your biggest roadblocks you felt like?
17:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: Biggest roadblocks was myself not wanting to give up control and not having that good of a work
17:59SPEAKER_Mikita S: life balance. I felt like I had to be involved in everything. So at one point it was me and two
18:04SPEAKER_Mikita S: dudes in the truck working 12 hour days and it was just killing me and it was so hard to be like
18:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: all right I'm gonna hire more people and have them go out but I'm not gonna be there so I'd
18:16SPEAKER_Mikita S: stall that put that off until finally it was just too much and I hired more people and we split up
18:22SPEAKER_Mikita S: crews, myself one of the guys that was with me for years we each took two people and then wow
18:30SPEAKER_Mikita S: life got a lot better. Hey well I should have done this I should have done this sooner and then
18:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: then but I still think phone calls from the road so eventually that got too much and I hired an
18:41SPEAKER_Mikita S: office person to do that and now coming home and not having to do three hours of emails now I just come home.
18:49SPEAKER_Mikita S: So like giving up control is the hardest thing and that is kind of like a long-term thing too.
18:58SPEAKER_Mikita S: If you can't give up control your business and your business entirely relies on you there's no
19:03SPEAKER_Mikita S: way you're gonna be able to sell that business in the future. 20-30 years from now you're not selling
19:07SPEAKER_Mikita S: that business to your next or neighbor. Hopefully it's a big enough business you're selling that
19:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: tune in the best and investors coming into buy that business to make themselves money. Sure they may
19:18SPEAKER_Mikita S: have to work in it a little bit but they don't want it to entirely rely on them. They want a
19:23SPEAKER_Mikita S: business that is cash flowing. Now yes some you may sell a business to your neighbor but in general
19:28SPEAKER_Mikita S: if you're grow your business large enough it's someone who's looking for cash flow. So any person
19:34SPEAKER_Mikita S: making a business needs to figure out how to take themselves out as quick as possible. Now it's talking
19:39SPEAKER_Mikita S: one of my friends who makes 10 million a year doing tents and he was having an employee issue and I
19:44SPEAKER_Mikita S: asked him is that employee replaceable and he said anyone in my business is replaceable including
19:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: myself which was kind of crazy. It's his business that he built but he still considers himself replaceable.
19:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: So he is built his entire thing to be able to be handled without him and that's a great thing and I
20:04SPEAKER_Adam Keller: only just recently started doing that. Yeah but I think that is definitely and it's really it really is
20:12SPEAKER_Adam Keller: hard to even let someone even let them in enough to start doing stuff but it is a thing that you
20:20SPEAKER_Adam Keller: have to kind of step away if you're going to continue to grow because like you said you have to have
20:25SPEAKER_Mikita S: some balance. Yeah and it gets easier though each time like the first thing you let go it's hard
20:31SPEAKER_Mikita S: and it gets a little easier. I'm at the point now where I'm letting 16 year olds drive big backstrucks
20:36SPEAKER_Adam Keller: because I'm just like whatever I don't know do it just get out of here. But it's given them opportunity
20:42SPEAKER_Adam Keller: these two so I'd like the opportunity to get when you first started in college to start.
20:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: Yeah all of my employees has every single one of them has said that this job is the best job
20:53SPEAKER_Mikita S: they ever had even though sometimes we're in the hot sun sometimes we're in the pouring rain
20:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: everything's heavy it's a lot of grueling work but they have all said it's best to job because
21:02SPEAKER_Mikita S: we have fun in the truck while we're driving there's a lot of driving we all make fun of each other
21:07SPEAKER_Mikita S: plus they've all learned something because I don't just sit there and just drive they're talking
21:12SPEAKER_Mikita S: about business ideas on teaching them stuff like they're getting if they work with me for summer
21:17SPEAKER_Mikita S: that's they got an associate degree in entrepreneurship. And you're helping other people
21:26SPEAKER_Mikita S: you know start their own party rental company through your course correct? Yeah so I started it
21:32SPEAKER_Mikita S: on YouTube because there was a YouTube guy I would watch and he was very simple he just pointed
21:38SPEAKER_Mikita S: to the camera at his face and went and I was like I can I can do that our topics work completely
21:44SPEAKER_Mikita S: different I didn't want to get into the whole editing for hours and hours so the copy time
21:49SPEAKER_Mikita S: and then pointed a camera in my face my first videos are real bad but I eventually started editing
21:54SPEAKER_Mikita S: a little bit and I started teaching people I made a patreon and then it kind of got too big like
22:01SPEAKER_Mikita S: I'm getting messages constantly all the time every day they find me on Facebook some people have found
22:06SPEAKER_Mikita S: me sometimes I wear my own shirt and they call the office so I was like all right we need to
22:13SPEAKER_Mikita S: like pair this down like I want to help people but like I need to real serious people because I'm
22:18SPEAKER_Mikita S: spending every moment like answering comments so I made a course and I was very nervous about the
22:23SPEAKER_Mikita S: course because I know a lot of them can be crappy and I was like I was putting it off for a while
22:29SPEAKER_Mikita S: because I was afraid like everyone everyone just makes a crappy course but I was just thinking about
22:35SPEAKER_Mikita S: it more and more and I was like I'm just gonna put everything I got into it I my course ended up
22:38SPEAKER_Mikita S: being 30 hours long and from talking to other people that's like that's way longer than most
22:45SPEAKER_Mikita S: courses even in depth courses and everyone is taking the course has been great saying it was good
22:52SPEAKER_Mikita S: but then with that we have a Facebook group and we talked in there and then we go live all the time
22:58SPEAKER_Mikita S: so I made the course and made the YouTube because at one I had a mentor like my friend who was in
23:06SPEAKER_Mikita S: college with me who worked for other companies he knew everything about about the business he
23:11SPEAKER_Mikita S: had been working in since he was young so I had a mentor he ended up starting his own business too
23:16SPEAKER_Mikita S: so I always had one a lot of people don't and they're jumping into this so I'm like it's easy for me to
23:21SPEAKER_Mikita S: share the tips and tricks and stuff about this business and I always kind of feel so I do a lot
23:34SPEAKER_Mikita S: from from the outside I can see that I'm accomplished and whatever but on the inside I always feel
23:39SPEAKER_Mikita S: like I'm not doing enough and I would say like I'm not Jeff Bezos I'm not Elon Musk changing the
23:45SPEAKER_Mikita S: world and not not doing anything as substance but one of my good friends told me like you can't
23:50SPEAKER_Mikita S: and that everyone's going to be that all you can do is try to like change the corner of your
23:54SPEAKER_Mikita S: world and the corner of my world for since I was 22 is tense tables chairs and stuff so that's
24:01SPEAKER_Mikita S: the only thing I can do not not the only thing but that's the best thing I can do is teach people
24:05SPEAKER_Adam Keller: that and get them out there making money absolutely and in doing that you're given them an
24:12SPEAKER_Adam Keller: opportunity to create their own life that they want you know outside of you know a lot of people
24:18SPEAKER_Adam Keller: like I want to do something I don't know what I'm great at you know I really want to start a business
24:22SPEAKER_Adam Keller: I know this is not for me and they just don't know where to start and they don't think about all
24:27SPEAKER_Adam Keller: the endless possibilities you know by just you know being open to something that people
24:36SPEAKER_Adam Keller: purchase and do all the time they are always and there's always events that are happening that
24:42SPEAKER_Mikita S: people need all of these things every weekend another way to put it is um so a lot of people
24:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: when they're watching TikTok or YouTube they're going to be watching real estate like everyone knows
24:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: owning an asset which would be a house or whatever and renting it out to other people is like
24:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: a lot of people get rich doing that but not everyone can get that $200,000 house with the
25:03SPEAKER_Mikita S: 20 to $40,000 down payment but that house is still an asset so if you shift thinking your tables and
25:12SPEAKER_Mikita S: chairs that you buy for $1,000 and rent out it's the same thing you are buying an asset
25:19SPEAKER_Mikita S: and renting it over and over and over to people but it's so you can get in that easier it is the same
25:25SPEAKER_Adam Keller: thing is real estate just not what everyone's talking about yeah so if you had to pick your
25:33SPEAKER_Adam Keller: absolute favorite thing about helping others to you know start their business um what would that be
25:40SPEAKER_Mikita S: so when I was making my course I was asking people for testimonials who were on my Patreon
25:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: and this one kid he did so good he edited the video so good and it made me cry like his uh
25:59SPEAKER_Mikita S: you know what he was saying about me and how I helped him I helped him go from zero
26:05SPEAKER_Mikita S: to in a second year making $600,000 which is insane so my favorite thing is the appreciation
26:15SPEAKER_Mikita S: and you know like I get it in my comments I get people just messaging me same thanks for all the
26:21SPEAKER_Mikita S: tips for thanks you know this and that I like seeing their success it there's one dude who saw
26:27SPEAKER_Mikita S: random video of mine about throwing chairs which are just these big white chairs with gold trim
26:32SPEAKER_Mikita S: and he's like I saw that video now I make $2,000 a week from that wow that's amazing
26:40SPEAKER_Mikita S: yeah it's pretty pretty crazy it's some of the stuff people said i mean it's crazy and like just mind
26:45SPEAKER_Mikita S: blows yes so what would be one tip of advice to listeners who are chasing their dreams on their own
26:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: time is what would it be for them? If you're first starting out you got to train your brain
27:06SPEAKER_Mikita S: it's great to be like I want to do this but you got to train your brains put down the Netflix
27:13SPEAKER_Mikita S: put down the video games and start watching just everything you can on business entrepreneur
27:21SPEAKER_Mikita S: join Facebook groups for the business you want to be in and you'll learn a lot of people don't
27:26SPEAKER_Mikita S: there's Facebook groups for nearly any business that you can think of and you can go in there
27:30SPEAKER_Mikita S: and get way more education than you could ever get you're gonna skip 10 years in mistakes by
27:36SPEAKER_Mikita S: joining one of these Facebook groups for your for your business it's not about motivation someone
27:44SPEAKER_Mikita S: of people may say like tips to get motivated it's training your brain differently once you train
27:51SPEAKER_Mikita S: your brain differently you don't need to be motivated you just see opportunities
27:57SPEAKER_Adam Keller: where other people may not see them yeah and you mentioned that earlier how just walking into
28:05SPEAKER_Adam Keller: you know a restaurant or your favorite store and looking at you know they're display like what
28:10SPEAKER_Adam Keller: did they have here that catch your eye like what colors was it you know what was it that made you
28:15SPEAKER_Adam Keller: stop and then pick up that brand why did you decide to buy it and then you mentioned like the
28:21SPEAKER_Adam Keller: up sale like what came after that hey you know you could get this second one for you can buy
28:27SPEAKER_Adam Keller: two for 24 and you're like oh yeah I like that I'm gonna get it even if I don't need the second
28:32SPEAKER_Adam Keller: one I'm just gonna buy it anyway it was something about what you saw and you can use that later on
28:38SPEAKER_Adam Keller: and when you join different groups and stuff like that it really helps you to start thinking
28:44SPEAKER_Adam Keller: in your mind in that entrepreneur mindset where you're always thinking how can I even if like
28:50SPEAKER_Adam Keller: you said even if you don't use it it's still things that you can use as ideas to create something of your own
28:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: exactly like I don't ever want to own a restaurant but when I go in I can see what they're doing
29:02SPEAKER_Mikita S: good and what they're doing wrong and where they can improve and if I do ever talk to someone who
29:08SPEAKER_Mikita S: wants to open a restaurant I have all those things I can throw at them and I know we're
29:14SPEAKER_Mikita S: saying like brick and mortar things but like you know I make it a food truck I make it go to a
29:20SPEAKER_Mikita S: like an outdoor laser tag thing I may see a plumber house he doing stuff like literally
29:26SPEAKER_Mikita S: anyway someone is making money you can just sit there and watch and think about it you no longer have to
29:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: get you don't you don't have to buy any more motivation books and watch motivation videos and figure
29:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: out how to get motivated to do this stuff you want to do if you can train your brain
29:43SPEAKER_Adam Keller: it's automatically going to follow and you don't have to worry about motivation anymore
29:48SPEAKER_Adam Keller: yeah I don't really think sometimes it's motivation sometimes I think people don't know where to start
29:53SPEAKER_Adam Keller: or where to go to get the information but like you said if you're on social media you join the
29:59SPEAKER_Adam Keller: groups the and form the the ecosystem of people that you can bounce ideas off of top to learn more
30:07SPEAKER_Adam Keller: yeah say come up with a crazy business like what's what's the business that's in your head?
30:14SPEAKER_Adam Keller: I was thinking like house house cleaning I think they make a lot of money that people don't think about
30:21SPEAKER_Mikita S: yeah definitely all right so you type in house cleaning in Facebook there's I'm gonna guess there's at
30:26SPEAKER_Mikita S: least five groups dedicated to the business of house cleaning and you can join all five of them
30:33SPEAKER_Mikita S: not saying you need this I just wanted to come come up with an example there's business that
30:38SPEAKER_Mikita S: there's Facebook groups for vending machines there's Facebook groups there's like a billion
30:43SPEAKER_Mikita S: Facebook groups for the party rental business there's Facebook groups for painters like I was
30:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: trying to look for I have a I was doing a video podcast I was just trying to get a painter on
30:52SPEAKER_Mikita S: I found him I'm one of the Facebook groups for painting business guys and they're all in a group
30:57SPEAKER_Mikita S: together talking about stuff and it's sharing tips and whatever like there's so many and if you
31:02SPEAKER_Adam Keller: join it like I said you're gonna be 10 years ahead you're gonna avoid all in the sticks
31:08SPEAKER_Adam Keller: that like cost these guys punch from money yeah you are joining a group of infinite knowledge of
31:14SPEAKER_Adam Keller: people and just being able to soak all of that up I think people that are younger that are coming
31:20SPEAKER_Adam Keller: into this have way more information than I definitely had when I was growing up when the internet was just
31:27SPEAKER_Mikita S: really you know getting getting started and people won't even it you know for this to share information
31:34SPEAKER_Mikita S: to do videos to educate other people yeah when I was trying to figure out how much my course
31:41SPEAKER_Mikita S: would maybe save someone in mistakes and in tips to make you more efficient I ended up around
31:48SPEAKER_Mikita S: $300,000 of mistakes that I've made and not being not no uncertain tips so like that's a lot
31:58SPEAKER_Adam Keller: like someone can spend $300 in my course and save $300,000 I think that's a pretty good deal
32:03SPEAKER_Adam Keller: yeah you just think about all the money with really it all I could I could think about like
32:09SPEAKER_Adam Keller: all the money I wasted on stupid things like getting started that I thought I needed that
32:14SPEAKER_Mikita S: irrelevant didn't matter at all right it's like oh gosh that was so stupid why did I do that
32:23SPEAKER_Mikita S: I could have extra $500,000 in my pocket exactly on that $300,000 wasn't even the relevant
32:29SPEAKER_Mikita S: revelation of the 15% self employment tax so like that's just adding a big chunk of change right there
32:39SPEAKER_Mikita S: yet my younger self would have never paid a mentor no no money I would have been so cheap
32:46SPEAKER_Mikita S: I was so cheap I went to pay the mentor but my older self is like yeah I used $50 and
32:52SPEAKER_Adam Keller: want you probably should have paid someone I think we when you you we definitely need a mentor you
32:59SPEAKER_Adam Keller: need someone to just be that that guide and you should always invest in yourself
33:05SPEAKER_Adam Keller: yeah but you definitely know what type of investment you're making though like be smart about
33:09SPEAKER_Mikita S: how you're investing in yourself yeah you got to vet to people there's so many people on
33:13SPEAKER_Mikita S: TikTok who seem like they might whatever be good but then I'm watching them and within 10
33:21SPEAKER_Mikita S: seconds I can be like I hope no one's paying this guy but other people might get hooked in
33:28SPEAKER_Adam Keller: very easily so he definitely want to do some research you want to know who you're working with
33:33SPEAKER_Adam Keller: what they offer and how would they support you as you go forward right well this has been an
33:42SPEAKER_Adam Keller: amazing conversation you have to tell my listeners what they can find out more about your course
33:47SPEAKER_Mikita S: and how they can connect with you so I'm on YouTube as the tent guy basically everything I have
33:56SPEAKER_Mikita S: is on there it just takes you a really long time to get through it and it's not as detailed as the
34:01SPEAKER_Mikita S: course so for the people who don't have the money you can learn a lot from the YouTube
34:06SPEAKER_Mikita S: the course is startapartyrentilcompany.com and that's the course and I'm doing this 30 day podcast
34:12SPEAKER_Mikita S: thing so during this time it's cheaper it's normally 450 now it's 389 and then on TikTok
34:20SPEAKER_Mikita S: I got to do many user names on TikTok I am real world side hustles because I joined TikTok to learn
34:26SPEAKER_Mikita S: about things and there was no interesting people were making really junky videos so I was like I'm
34:31SPEAKER_Mikita S: going to make ones about real stuff you can do so those are the three main places I can be at the
34:37SPEAKER_Mikita S: tent guy on YouTube startapartyrentilcompany.com and real world side hustles on TikTok
34:44SPEAKER_Adam Keller: awesome well you guys if you didn't have your pen handy don't worry I will have all of that
34:49SPEAKER_Adam Keller: information and how you can connect with Adam and one more about how if you're interested in
34:54SPEAKER_Adam Keller: starting your own tent party company or just want some inside information to be able to connect
35:00SPEAKER_Adam Keller: I will have all of that information for you in the show notes.
35:05SPEAKER_Adam Keller: Alright Adam thank you so much for just sharing your space with us this has been an amazing
35:09SPEAKER_Adam Keller: conversation. Thank you for having me on this is this has been good thank you. You're welcome
35:15SPEAKER_Adam Keller: alright you guys that is all the tea that we have to spill today but don't forget to join me
35:20SPEAKER_Adam Keller: each and every Tuesday as we spill more delicious hot tea until next time namaste