Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas Manny Vargas

Does a company like Airbnb make mistakes on listing their prices?
Even if they made a mistake, can you imagine their in-charge wanting to pass the mistake on to their customer?
Yes, that is the kind of experience Airbnb has given me during one of these days.
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It's my wife’s 40th birthday and we wanted to stay at a pretty nice place.
But the experience with Airbnb deeply provoked my emotions and compelled me to talk.
How would you handle this situation?
 
In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below
o   Should businesses prioritize good principles over profit?
o   Do great products or better offers matter if values and principles are compromised?
 
Quotes from the episode:
 
·       You can have a better offer or great product but a really shitty person or business formula or system or standard that doesn't care about values and principles is no good at all. Great products are elsewhere as well
·       When you're choosing dollar over principle with a first time customer; that just makes his head turn away, may be forever
·       Taking responsibility, owning a mistake: what a blessing it is? What level of freedom and excitement comes along!
 
Follow Manny Vargas:
https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/
https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/
https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas
https://twitter.com/themannyvargas
Manny’s website:
https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/

Bill is a Managing Director and co-founded Cross Keys Capital in 2006.
Bill leads the healthcare practice and is responsible for successfully closing 50 physician practice management transactions since 2010.
He has over 25 years of experience in M&A including divestitures, acquisitions, restructurings, and capital raises for a broad range of clients both domestically and internationally.
Prior to founding the firm, Bill worked at Outsource International, where he raised private capital, took the company public and led over 40 transactions.
He has also worked at Ryder System, where he participated in a leveraged buyout of the truck rental unit, and began his career in the investment banking department at Morgan Stanley.
Bill Britton wanted to be financially independent even as a young 10 year old...
He’s cleaned most toilets than most maids have ever cleaned in their life...
He has done more trashy house work and low-level jobs...
Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE
All those jobs did not break Bill but built him.
He did not attend the best school nor was he in the best grades. But when he went to school, he told himself that he was going to be the best.
So, he graduated as first of his class. He was focused. First couple of years in college was not fun but he knew what he wanted to do and where he wanted to be.
He later went to Wall Street and did some good work which allowed him to go to a really good grad school and it just gave the opportunity to do what he wanted to do.
Today, Bill is not interested in doing 2 billion dollar deals of Golden Sachs which are relatively easy but he’s doing 20, 30, 40 or 100 million dollar deals which are changing people’s lives
 
In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below (plus many more): 
o   Formula or recipe for luck
o   Criteria to evaluate people for a mentor mentee relationship
o   How to elevate mindset or financial blueprint to attain big numbers
o   Entrepreneurial stages
o   Advice for people getting into ‘Investment Banking World’

Inspirational Quotes from the episode:
-If you work hard at something and you stick to it, you'll have more opportunities to create your own version of luck
-Unfortunately today, a lot of people think it's just instantaneous: it should happen to me right away, but that's just not how it works
-No matter where you went to school or what you learned, it's on the job training that really works for everything
-One of the most important things that anyone could do especially at a younger age is find a really good mentor or two who can guide them through the various facets of life
-It’s those relationships that make it a lot more challenging: whether it's business relationships or personal and navigating some of those things is really hard 
-You got to hit a lot of singles to get someone around the bases
-If you're going to be a trash man, be the best freaking trash man out there because one day you may figure out a path how to do something different with that
-One of the biggest challenges that we actually see is entrepreneurs are not thinking big enough

John Ply sold his company Insight Beverages at multiple 9 figures.
Because, when he started his company with 1 employee, he had only one goal in mind: ‘Be the best, instead of being the biggest’, which they achieved. Every client of theirs told them that. All leading chains in the country bought from them because they’re the best.
But his beginnings were low.
Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE
John’s parents could not afford private school— his three older brothers and sisters went to public school because it’s free. In fact, John saw tears in the eyes of his mother when she did not have 75 cents to pay for the newspaper. His dad was a butcher and worked two jobs to make ends meet. 
Though his parents didn’t have the money, they gave them lots of love.
John graduated in Finance from Indiana University out of scholarship.
He started his career as inventory controller but grew up become the president of the company all within 1 year. And he was just shy of 24 at the time.
When he started his own company, he made sure the employees were paid well and treated well. After the initial struggles, the company grew in leaps and bounds: 1.8 million a year to 4 million a year to 15 million a year to 33 million a year in sales.
John wrote an amazing book ‘You Can Be the Best: Life Lessons from the Butcher and the Businessman.
The book gives the definition of success: it's not dollars, it’s far from it. His book is meant to help others achieve their dreams.
 
In this episode you will take away many promising insights (plus many more):
 
-What true entrepreneurship is
-How to treat employees as an owner
-Why being the best is better than being the biggest
-What good parenting is
-How doing good pays back
-Why and how you should always be growing as a human being
 

Inspirational quotes from the episode
 
-If you can't give up that comfortable job that has a lot of benefits and all the other stuff, you cannot start a company
-Employees will jump through hoops for you when you pay them well and you treat them equally
-You may never be the biggest but you can be the best
-Money doesn't buy happiness, it buys a lot of comfort; in many instances money can buy a lot pain and grief
-All that my dad ever talked about was: how blessed he was, how happy he was, how grateful he was, and how content he was
-To do good is the only reason we are here on earth and you can take those words into so many places of your life
-Do good for others, it'll come back not tenfold; it comes back many many more times than tenfold, I'm a walking proof of that 
-You should always be looking for ways for growing as a human being
 
John Ply’s book on Amazon You Can Be the Best: Life Lessons from the Butcher and the Businessman

“Did you allow some sort of concrete to set in to you, where then you became fixed and you been happy with you being fixed for so long?”
Watch FULL EPISODE INTERVIEW HERE
You see in the real world where we've got pavements and roadways and things that we drive on, when they start to rot, get some cracks because of a huge emergence of new people into the city, people expand these roadways because it doesn't make logistical sense anymore.
People take them down and expand them and make them better.
One of the most infamous corners in Las Vegas, the exit ramp of Tropicana and the I-15 in Las Vegas which has been here since ages is going through a huge overhaul.
They’re taking down the exit ramp and building out a new road. They're expanding it and it's quite fascinating.
In your own life, are you willing to put yourself under construction?
Rather than being a permanent fixture, are you always evolving, always expanding, and fixing your roadways, the little cracks, the little holes here and there.
Are you always making it better?
 
In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below
Importance of having a flexible expanding and evolving mind set, how watching constructions can teach us to grow ourselves, what perpetually putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations makes us.
 
Interesting Quotes from the episode:
-Did you allow some sort of concrete to set in where you became fixed and you been happy with you being fixed for so long?
-Internally, your beliefs, your mentality, how you see the world: is it just solid and fixed?
-Are you willing to put yourself under construction and taking that step further, are you willing to stay under construction?
-Rather than being a permanent fixture, your new ‘norm’ is like: I'm always evolving, I'm always expanding, I'm always fixing my roadways, I'm always fixing the little cracks, the little holes here. I'm always making it better
-Because you've decided that the new ’norm’ is slightly different: it's a perpetual state of putting yourself in uncomfortable situations
-You're ready for the now new ‘norm', more uncomfortable situations and because of that you've reinvented yourself
 
Follow Manny Vargas:
https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/
https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/
https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas
https://twitter.com/themannyvargas
 
Manny’s website for all the other interviews with famous personalities:
https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/

We just finished up the Super Bowl here in Las Vegas and it was all a madness experience for people who came.
The festivities were large and charged. Arguably one of the best experiences of the time spent here for the full week or week plus of what was going on here in Vegas.
My friend who's the chief marketing officer of Resorts World and he said it was the busiest time ever in his 20 years of being in Vegas.
Watch FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE HERE
What made this Super bowl so special?
Unlike the NFL or Formula 1, they made it a full Fan Experience: they were committed to integrating the fans and the people with every stop that they possibly could around town, so that the kids, the moms, the dads, the brothers, the sisters could all be a part of something.  
What a fascinating picture that paints?
There was a magnificent appeal to the greater people to be a part of something special and meet their favorite stars, go to one part of the town and engage in this activity and then go down here and throw a football, and then go to a concert that night.
But the real question for you is: What is ‘Your Super Bowl’?
 
In this episode I’m gonna through intriguing questions that would help you reach success in business and in life:
-What is ‘Your Super Bowl’?
-What are you working for? What is going to be the ‘Super Bowl’ for you? Have you defined that for yourself?
-What playing field are you on? Do you know what you're doing on this playing field? Do you have the Playbook? Do you have the rule book?
 
Inspirational Quotes from the episode:
 
-In business and in life, a goal not as defined as it is, unlike in sports like as in a super bowl
-Did you hit the glory of where you potentially could be in your life which you had defined to be ‘Your Superbowl’?
-Lot of us haven't really thought of yet to figure out within what context are we playing the game of Life
-We have not thought of what context are we living through and figuring out how to operate in a system
-We have not thought of the boundaries/ limits of a place that allows us to do our best
-In business, it's actually much more muddled than you would think when it comes to playing football
 
Follow me on Social
https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/
https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/
https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas
https://twitter.com/themannyvargas
 
My  websites:
https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/
thisismannyvargas.com

This was a good ball bustin' conversation! And loaded with tremendous wisdom. Big Bob and I had fun!
Bob’s best year in business did about 50 million dollars.
His business also won awards ‘Small business of the Year’ from the greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, ‘The Blue Chip Initiative’ from the US Chamber of Commerce, ‘Ernst and Young’ finalist for Entrepreneur of the year.
But Bob did not start that business with a million dollars cash.
It was a just $15,000 startup.
Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE
Because Big Bob took time to work and build a business around the brilliant idea that struck him one day.
He didn’t like the carpet in his house when he got married to a girl he fell in love with. Just then he moved into Kansas city and bought a new house. When he wanted to get rid of the old carpet, he put a 3 line classified Ad which got an overwhelming response.
In came his brilliant idea to sell used carpets.
Bob founded 'Big Bob's used carpet stores' and quit his full time job in a few months.
Soon they started opening more stores. They licensed the idea, monetized the licensing, and franchised the idea.
Most of the people he sold franchises to were more successful than he was, made more money than he made. But he was doing something for them they couldn't do for themselves and they recognized it and saw the value. But those who thought they were more successful made more money and smarter than he was and had all the answers he'd say 'Sorry! this is not for you'
Big Bob had stores from Anchorage to Boston, Winnipeg to Corpus. They've opened between 105 to 110 stores over 40 years. Their best year did about 50 million dollars.
 
In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below
 
-Entrepreneurial journey of Bob: successes he had and the great big companies he built, the twists and turns
-What are those success stories or what are the things that Bob did that helped be more successful.  What are some of those hours and days and weeks and months like where it was the hardest 
-What is lose-lose negotiation and an example of it
-What is Bob’s approach in negotiations. What did Bob do for a vendor to give him 20 to 35% discount when the norm is just 5%.
-How does one think that ‘Almost everything is negotiable if asked in the right way’
-Is manipulation always ugly?
-Beginner Entrepreneur’s work week and life style. How did Bob keep going during those trying entrepreneur’s moments.
-Perspective of Bob on 40 to 45 year olds who think they’re late and giving up on themselves and having a hard time because they think didn’t fulfill their potential.
-Bob’s advice on secret to success
-Chicken or Egg first: Is it get revenue first before you hire people or hire people first to get the revenue?
-Why do people reject sales so much on a more macro level, why do normal humans hate doing sales
-How are people buying some products without the presence of a sales person trying to influence their decisions
-Advice to Entrepreneurs who do not like sales and refuse to sell
-What is Manny's natural gift according to Bob
-Side businesses Bob is involved in
 
Inspirational Quotes from the Episode:
 
-Being an entrepreneur is not a 40-hour work week. It is probably a 60 to 80 hour work week. It’s cutting pay, it’s cutting benefits. You’re the one who has to clean the bathrooms you're the one who has to do the dirtiest nastiest jobs until it monetizes. In the beginning, you're the first one in, last one to leave and you do not make a big paycheck
-A great idea might make you one or two or 5% more money but avoiding a great mistake could save your whole business
-Addressing negatives is probably one of the best ways to ensure lack of failure
-In entrepreneurship, one of the first things you do is read contracts right, don't assume 
-A lot of things in life are non-negotiable. But in the things that are negotiable in life, lose-lose is the