00:00
A lot of people enter something with a scarcity mentality. And I never looked at it that way. I'm entering a market. And I see, typically when I choose a market, I see a lot of stuff happening, a lot of things that people still need to be doing a lot of growth. So I don't approach my competition that way. Number two, if I am sitting there and bringing that value to them, and I'm creating a whole process that they end up being dependent on, are they really my competition? Or am I actually entering their business and actually profiting from their profits? Right?
So, I never looked at my competition as something that I needed to defeat. I looked at it as an opportunity. And I think that's the right way to look at your competition. That doesn't mean when you're sitting there, and you may be looking at the same contract, and you want the same contract. That doesn't mean you're not fighting like crazy to do that. But it doesn't necessarily transfer into all of these other things where you're just enemies. I don't believe in that. So that's the way I looked at it always.
01:08
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01:51
Hello, and welcome back to the latest episode of the command your brand podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Slate. And every week, twice a week we feature founders, visionaries, and incredible business owners that are doing awesome things out there. Our guest today is Shawn Khorrami. And Shawn is a serial entrepreneur that's made an incredible career generating over $100 million in revenue by doing the things that a lot of people did not want to confront or do. And this is a really interesting conversation about how to actually find those holes in those spots where you can do something where other people aren't even thinking of because, honestly, they won't confront it. So you guys are absolutely going to love this interview. And let's get into it with Sean Khorrami.
02:45
Hey, what is up everybody, Jeremy here and I'm very, very excited for our guest today's we have a serial entrepreneur with us. Who's helped more than a dozen businesses with up to $100 million in revenue. Welcome to the show, Sean Khorrami.
Hi, Jeremy, how are you?
Hey, Sean, I'm doing great today, Man, I'm really excited to, you know, get a chance to learn from you. Because for myself, like, I'm really excited about people that are big thinkers that are building, you know, big things, right? Like there's a difference between an entrepreneur that just builds something small and something big. I'm appreciative of your time today, man.
03:17
Hey, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
03:19
So for you, I want to find out like, what was that thing that led you to being an entrepreneur? Like, what's your story?
03:26
You know, this actually goes back to when I was a teenager, and I was always looking at how to sort of look at different ways that people did things. And to help make it kind of better, because I would look at the way businesses would run even I'm talking like a 15 year old, right?
03:42
I know exactly what you're saying. So I'm gonna paint a picture for the audience here, like you walk into, like, any store and you're like, Ooh, I would move that I would change that I would put somebody there. Right. Like, that's how your brain is.
03:51
Exactly, exactly. And that's really how I started, I started with kind of looking at things that my father was doing. And some of his colleagues and friends were doing and saying, you know, how do we change this? How do I make this works better for you? And that's really how it started. And I was, I noticed that I was always thinking through that. And as I was going through college, by the way, I started my first business when I was in high school.
And then what I did was I sort of got spun it off and wanted to go to college, I went through college, throughout that whole experience the entire time. I was not you know, a lot of my friends were thinking, Well, you know, what do I do? How do I get a job? What kind of industry do I go into? And that entire time I was putting together different ideas for different businesses I would be doing?
04:39
They're like, how do I get a job? You're like, how do I create one, right?
04:42
Yeah, and the one place where I look at it, I'm like, sometimes I have someone asked me a question. And I say, Oh, I can't be that helpful. You know what it is getting a job. I have never put together my own resume. I have never received a W-2. And so you know, right out of school, the first thing I was doing was, you know, putting together my business. And that's really how I got started in starting businesses.
And then once I started my first business, I was looking at, you know, and one thing people typically think when you're starting something, or when you have a new product or something like that, they immediately think you're creating an entire new market. That's very rarely the case. Usually, you're stepping into a market, you're entering an existing market. And so when I started my business out of college, I was looking at my competitors, and people I would meet, and colleagues I had, and then people who became my friends, and I would look at the way they were running their businesses, similar businesses. And then what I became interested in is all of the things that sometimes they were neglecting, sometimes they didn't know about, and sometimes they just hated doing.
And what I look at is, that whole thing is kind of the back offices of any businesses, any business. And so what I started doing was, the following businesses that I started doing was back officing, my own competitor, who were really I considered them to be my friends, because we would meet at conventions or what have you. And I would come up with different ideas on how we all could do things better, and bringing that value to them, or making some process that they hated or neglected. And bringing that value, making their businesses better, actually really energized me, even though I was competing in the same business. And so every company I would start would be kind of an offshoot like that, where I was servicing the same industry. And then once in a while I would go off into other industries, they some kind of business would interest me. And I'd say, Well, I want to do that. And then I would go do it. So that's the way I sort of started.
06:49
So I guess from that perspective, then what makes you look at something like that, right? Because a lot of entrepreneurs would look at that. And they would say, first of all, like, why would I want to work with people that are my competition? You know, they're my competition, right? I don't know if you've ever seen this show. But I've been obsessed with the show suits, like I just wrapped up the whole series. And these lawyers are like always competing with each other. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, how was the workload like that? And I guess, like looking at it, like, what would make you want to, you know, number one, create things for your competition? Number two, how do you see those opportunities, right? Because I think not a lot of people see those.
07:17
Yeah, first of all, a lot of people enter something with a scarcity mentality. And I never looked at it that way. I'm entering a market. And I see, typically, when I choose a market, I see a lot of stuff happening, a lot of things that people still need to be doing a lot of growth. So I don't approach my competition that way. Number two, if I am sitting there and bringing that value to them, and I'm creating a whole process that they end up being dependent on, are they really my competition? Or am I actually entering their business and actually profiting from their profits? Right?
So, I never looked at my competition as something that I needed to defeat. I looked at it as an opportunity. And I think that's the right way to look at your competition. That doesn't mean when you're sitting there, and you may be looking at the same contract, and you want the same contract. That doesn't mean you're not fighting like crazy to do that. But it doesn't necessarily transfer into all of these other things where you're just enemies. I don't believe in that. So that's the way I looked at it always.
08:24
In terms of like locating those things that you said, you look, you did things that they didn't like, or they didn't enjoy, like, were you asking people like, hey, what do you not like about your business? Did you just get to be a really good listener and locate those things? Or how did you find what they were looking for?
08:37
It was all of those things. Sometimes someone would come to me and say, how do you handle this? How do you handle this process is really giving me trouble, or this thing that's happening in my business, it's really giving me trouble. And I a lot of times in my own business had solved the problem. And I would go ahead and share that with them. And then after a while, I would figure out there's a need for this. Or I would look at all of what exactly was happening. And I would actually sit there and say, Okay, how do I see these businesses that I'm looking at, and they are all missing this piece that I see, a lot of times when you get into something, for example, marketing, there was an entire type of marketing. This is like I'm talking in the late 90s, when people were just getting into using the internet.
09:21
I had America Online back in the late 90s. Man, so I feel you
09:24
I still have my email address, actually, I think I think I haven't used it in a while. So you know, there was entire areas of marketing, for example, that I brought to a couple of different industries that still to this day are being used. And it was really because I sort of saw how do we bring in clients into my business. And then what I did was I ended up having a marketing method that I could actually use to help other people get clients as well clients I couldn't handle using the very same method I was already using, which meant actually more profits to me.
So there's a lot of ways you can go about it. But the number one thing is to sort of sit there and look at different processes that are going on, and see if you can make them better. As long as you're doing that, I bet you you'll come up with all kinds of business ideas and things that bring real value to people. And think about value first, I know people say this, but think about value first, because the money will come if you're bringing value.
10:26
Absolutely. Well, Shawn when looking at like approaching our business fearlessly, right. I think so many entrepreneurs, whether it's, you know, the competition in the market, or whether it's servicing customers, whatever it is, they tend to get pushed to effect a little bit, right, like their effect of the things that are happening to them. How do we operate more fearlessly, as a business owner in that way?
10:49
I say, you know, everything is a gift and a curse. One thing, one thing that I kind of pride myself on, but I also say as a curse, is that the risk of sort of walking into something or taking that chance, taking that step forward? Where you're putting yourself out, you're putting your money into something, you're risking things? And a lot of times what happens is that beginning step of saying, Okay, what am I going to do? How am I going to get this thing started and moving forward?
That becomes a big blocker to taking steps forward in your business, it becomes a blocker to people. And I A lot of times tell people, hey, that never concerned me. It never concerned me that I would fail at something. Because my thought was this thing that I'm thinking about? I've looked at it, it's real value that I can bring to someone. And if I do it, right, it'll work. If I do it wrong, it won't I get that. And there's a lot of risk in that. But if you don't take that step, you're never going to know. So you just have to take the step and be fearless about it. You just have to. And then once you do, and you keep concentrating and don't quit what you're doing. I bet you, you know, more often than not, you'll be right.
12:04
If you had to look at it, what was I guess one of the hardest steps for you to take, like in your business career? Like, what was that thing that you like? Because there's always that thing, right, agonizing over? Should I shouldn't I, you know, do I make the decision? What was it for you? And you know, what did you learn from that experience?
12:21
You know, that's an interesting question. Because in terms of starting something, I never think that way, where it really was agonizing for me was where things would be failing, where when to sort of walk away from something and say, whatever it is, this one is not going to work. And that's something you know, where I have a tendency to keep trying to make something work and have difficulty walking away from it. That's something that I agonize over greatly. But you know, Jeremy, there's really two things that I noticed throughout all of this stuff, because I've had huge amounts of successes. But with that comes catastrophic failures, and I've had catastrophic failures, you know, some of my businesses have failed in a terrible way.
And so through that, what I noticed was two things. One thing was I love the journey. And I told my wife this a number of years ago, I said, you know, it's great when the business is doing great. And you have all these employees and everything. You have departments and all that and hundreds of employees going this way, the other way. I said, but I love building. I love that journey of going from…
13:35
I think as entrepreneurs, we're often addicted to that part of it, right? Like, yeah, the part when we're broke, and things aren't going so well. But it's the hustle and the grind, right?
13:41
Yeah, yeah, you know, and that's the thing I really loved. And that's part of the reason I do what I do now, which is helping a lot of people hopefully. Number two is that because I started my own businesses. And because of the way I functioned, which is constantly going at it. There is virtually nothing that one of my colleagues or one of my clients or one of my friends comes and tells me that you know any of them that are running some sort of a small or medium-sized business, that I haven't sat in their seat, which a lot of times when you go and get a consultant, or you get someone to help you with something, they've never sat in your seat, most of the time, they haven't actually had their own business where they've sat there, and they've been in that difficult situation, or that good situation, got to take advantage of it. And so those two things really drive me to sort of help people and do what I do.
14:34
I guess then looking at that, then it's interesting, because I feel like this is how life is in the best of times, right? Whether it's building a business, whether it is you know, building a family, whatever it may be, but you know, the world is a lot different now, right? Like in the past 18 months things have they've really changed on they really have and I feel like this is an ongoing conversation I've been having again and again and again. I was just talking to somebody about hiring yesterday we did an episode we were talking about hiring and how that's changed because people aren't in offices and things like that. And I guess when you're looking at it, you know, what do you see businesses struggling the most with in the COVID era? And, you know, what advice have you given them?
15:10
Yeah, you know, and that's a very good question. Because COVID brought about an unprecedented disruption into businesses. And something that people generally can't even anticipate in our lifetimes. We haven't seen that kind of a disruption. And so you're suddenly faced with something. And in the COVID area, what what I advise people is that, you know, because people immediately a lot of people started basically covering their eyes and saying, Oh, my God, the world is ending. And what I actually said to people over and over is you have to look for the opportunity. Now, there were certain companies that were during this period of time that were positioned perfectly the Amazons of the world, were waiting there and sitting there and trying to get us stuff for times when we don't want to leave the house.
But even the Amazons of the world saw the opportunity. And even though there was all that growth there, what they did was they took extra, they said, how do we take advantage of this. And there are businesses that were really effective restaurants that were affected, people who live I mean, they're tragic stories of people losing their lives and their businesses. And that's horrible. But at the same time, what the people that prospered the people that actually made it through were the people that said, Okay, this has happened, where's the opportunity, and there is always an opportunity, no matter what business you're in, no matter what industry you're in, there's always an opportunity, you need to look for that, and immediately start making changes.
16:40
You know, it's interesting, too, because I think that's where the real innovation comes from. I know, we were just looking at a house a couple days ago, and they have this new app where, you know, you biometrically scan your face, after you put your driver's license on the app, the door unlocks, and you can go look at the house, like, you know, when would that have happened? But now because it's necessary, and I think it's actually create a lot of innovation in some ways.
17:02
Absolutely. And you see it every day. The funny thing is that that disruption has caused all kinds of changes, because what happens is the people that are looking for those opportunities, what they're looking at is what consumers are doing what we are doing as people the needs that we have, and they're trying to address that. So all of these little things that you see come about because of that. Yeah, and that's true altogether. But when you look at COVID, specifically, where you have that huge disruption, and again, that doomsday look to things, you see all of these people that went into action and looked for opportunities and then created products and services that match the times and match the consumers.
17:44
Absolutely. Well, Shawn, I've really enjoyed our conversation today for the people listening if they want to connect with you, and learn more about what you're doing. Where's the best place for people to go?
17:53
Well, one is khorramiconsulting.com That's my last name. It's tough to spell KHORRAMIconsulting.com. We also funny thing that you should mention COVID Me and a couple of my partners actually put together an ebook that goes through what are the things that you can do to address things like COVID you can apply to any major disruption. And for that, you can go to eplaybooks.com. And pick up a free copy. Hopefully, it'll help you.
18:22
Very cool. Shawn Khorrami thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Thank you
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