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A
I left a job making about $320,000 as a sales rep the first year, like we were in a garage. I used my 150 grand at the time, literally built that 150, turn to $100 million.
B
Rich isn't buying the Lambo. It's being able to afford to buy the Lambo in cash and choosing not to.
A
For listeners, I think it's so crucial. Everybody should have a mentor. If you don't have a mentor, you're missing out.
B
Every year that you don't know how to make a million dollars cost you a million dollars.
A
It's hard to learn that on like social media or like it's ungoogleable. That's just been crucial for my Success the last 15, 16 years of running a company. Just.
B
All right, Jeremy, what's up, man? Welcome. Welcome to the Action Academy podcast.
A
Thanks for having me, man.
B
Dude, it's been funny. I've known you for two years. Haven't talked business once. Yeah, haven't talked business once. Two years. We've been buddies for two years just here in Austin, Texas through a much Estegi, a mutual friend of ours. And I've just been following your stuff and you've been following mine. And we, we hang out from time to time, like, you know, a couple times a month. Once a month or so. And now here we are. It's time to finally talk business. Let's get down to business, baby. Yeah, let's go. So I man, even realize that you had built a hundred million dollar company from scratch from your fricking, like, basement essentially in the medical device space. So tell the people a little bit about who you are today and then we'll kind of diagnose and like dissect the journey for you to get here because like, to bootstrap a med device company is absolute insanity without venture capital.
A
Yeah, it's been a crazy journey to say the least. Yeah. So quick background, Jeremy Perkins. I built one of the fastest growing medical device companies in the Nation. Started about 15 years ago. The quick background on it grew up like, I wouldn't say like poor, but I, I'd say middle class. Maybe, maybe lower middle. I don't know, it depends on where you're from. But. So didn't have any funding. Like, had to actually had to sell books door to door to pay for, pay for college and then graduated, graduated college and was a stockbroker for two years. And my whole goal was always to be a stockbroker. That's. I was like, ever since I was A little kid. I'm like, I want me a sock burger. I ended up hating it with passion. Like, I hated being a sock burger and left that and went to medical device and was a medical device sales person for a couple years. I did pretty well. And I always said, I want to. I want to run my own company. I want to do my own business. So I left a job making about 300, I think my last year made $320,000 as a sales rep. What year was that? 2008, 2009.
B
Oh, man. So that's like freaking 500, 600,000 now.
A
That's. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
B
That's a cushy job.
A
Yeah. Back in the day.
B
Yeah.
A
So left. That was doing really well. And there's a quote like, good is the enemy of great, you know, So I left a job making really good money to put everything I had, like, my whole life savings. I sold a house prior, and it was pretty good about saving my. Put my quit that job and put my whole life savings in this new medical device company that. That I want to start. In the beginning was just distribution. I just sold other people's products. And then, you know, me and all my best friends from college, a lot of them that sold books back in the day, they were really great salespeople, recruited them. And I kind of did something different in the industry. A lot of people in medical. You have to be in medical sales to sell medical. We took people off the street with no medical sales experience and brought them in. But there's really, like, the top 1% of salespeople in other industries, and they crush it. And we. We grew it really fast. We grew just in California, up and down. California got like 15, 20 reps. And then we grew state by state. Now we're in 47 states and that we got Inc. 5000 fast growing coming to America out of 3500 companies in Sacramento, we got number one, fastest growing out of 3500. So we blew it out of the water. And then in 2015, so we grown for about five years at that point and just selling out the people's products. And then we want to make our own stuff because the margins are pretty thin. Like, it sounds sexy, like medical advice and all this. But we. When you're selling other people's stuff, it's like razor thin. Maybe not razor, but pretty thin. Right. There's some margin, but not as much. So we had big teams of people, admin distributors, sales reps. I mean, it was pretty thin. So we came up with some different ideas on some different patents and stuff. We patented a few medical devices. We took one sequential compression device, made it tubeless, cordless, put the patents around that, and that's where we really took off. So we today, now we manufacture our own products, so we own the manufacturing line. We're kind of different because some people are like, oh, I, I always say, like the first couple years when you're selling other people's stuff, you. You're still a business owner. It's almost like a franchise. You know, you're like franchising somebody else's stuff. But when you get in that whole manufacturing side, it's a whole nother element, like class three medical device. You know the regulations, the manufacturing side. So now we do everything A to Z, and as of two weeks ago, we actually subcontracted manufacturing out, which is what 95% of people do. You have, you come with patents, you have the design history files, but somebody makes it for you. And then after the Trump tariff thing in the last 30 days, we now own our own manufacturing plant in the.
B
United States within 30 days.
A
Yeah, well, I mean, it took us six months of negotiating and setting up and all that, but. But now, you know, now we manufacture a lot of our products in the United States and we, we own the manufacturing here in the US to, to avoid the, the tariff issue.
B
Yeah.
A
Because it, I mean, and I will probably dive into this, but if you're a company, let's say you make 10% profit. Right. And let's say you're like, the way it works. Like, let's say your Cogs is, is 30% or 40%. Like you, for every $100, you buy a product for 40, you sell for 100. Right. That's a, A typical business model.
B
Sure.
A
If, you know, if the tariffs at one point were 125%, now they're even down to 30%. If your net, like EIDA, net profit is only 10% and you're paying 30% on the tariffs or 30% tariff on the, on your cogs, you're basically not making anything.
B
Yeah, you're out. You're done.
A
And some people, like, I've got friends, I'm in a big CEO group through YPO. And, you know, it's, it's. They're really successful CEOs, but one of them is in the furniture industry, you know, and he buys something for $80, sells it for a hundred, you know. Yeah. So that's not good. So, like, now he's buying something that costs him $80. Now cost him 110, you know, and he's still selling it for 100. He has to either raises prices or cancel contracts or. So there's some complexities with tariffs that, you know, a lot of people don't see and I'm sure we'll talk about that. But that's, that's why we bought the manufacturing plant and, and yeah. So our goal thing I love about medical is we get to save lives. So I'm really passionate about it. I think that's why we've done really well. I wasn't a good stockbroker because I didn't get excited when I talked to an older couple about like putting money in a bond or you know, just.
B
Didn'T do it for you, but now you can believe in it.
A
Yeah, there's like 300,000 Stockburgers in the United States. Like what we, in our, in medical, like we're a niche of a niche and we, we are the number one DVT prevention in the company actually by a long shot. We're, we're the leader by a lot right now and we're just really, really good at it. And we put a lot of time, energy, money into like, into being the best. And that's what I always want to do. I'm like, I just want to pick one thing in life and just be the best at it and known for it. And then, and then trying to integrate, you know, now we're trying to integrate into other products besides the dvt. We're going to bone grow simulators and bracing and other things.
B
So I mean that's amazing. And what I really want to talk about today. So there's a few different angles I want to hit like kind of sequentially. So first, when you were getting started, you did this three year program at Harvard and got to meet some of the best and brightest CEOs. And I'm curious, what were some memorable lessons and takeaways that you, that you learned from those rooms?
A
Yeah. So for listeners, I think it's so crucial if you're a young entrepreneur or maybe down entrepreneurs in general. I think like mentorship is so important in life. Like everybody should have a mentor. Yeah. If you don't have a mentor, you're missing out. I was really lucky in 19. I got a mentor in college. It was his badass about three or four years ahead of me who's a senior guy made like 100 grand when he, before he graduated college and he mentor. So I was always had mentors my whole life. You have mentors and in health, you know, like, I have a trainer now. Like, he helps train me to, you know, get in better shape. And you could have a mentor in finance, but you should definitely have, like, anybody in the business should have a mentor in business that's at least one level up from them, you know, so if you're making, like, 10 grand a year or. Sorry, if you have a net. I always say, the way I look at it, if you look at. Actually, the data on this is crazy. Half the United States net worth is actually zero against. There's a huge portion. I have to pull the analytics. I don't want to. I don't want to misquote it. There's a large portion, let's say it's 20%, that's actually negative in debt.
B
I do believe that maybe it's 30%.
A
It's. So if you look at it, for every 100 people, 20 to 30 people are actually negative. They're in debt. And then the next subset at, like, the even mark, maybe you're negative five, five.
B
Paycheck to paycheck.
A
Paycheck to paycheck. That subsets like the next 20. So that's. You got 50America. That's basically paycheck to paycheck or in debt. Does that make sense?
B
That's fair.
A
So it's like, that's what we're starting off up. So when I go to these ten levels, half of America is already at level zero and one to begin with. Right. And that's not bad. But just. Just you got to identify where you're at. Like, you could think in your head you're a millionaire, but you're really paycheck to paycheck. That's the reality of how it works. So if you go one level up, it really can make a huge impact for you. So people come to me all the time. They're like, hey, we mentoring. Mentor me. I'm like, what's your business? Or, well, I haven't started one. I'm like, I'm not. I'm not the best person.
B
I'm not a guy. Yeah.
A
I mean, what I. What I'm really good at is taking a company. It's like 5, 10 million a year in revenue, and I can get them to 100 million because I. I've done that. And, you know, not a lot of people have. So I can help them along the way. But what is better is if you're somebody in that, like, you know, paycheck to paycheck. Find somebody that's worth 100 or 200 grand or somewhere in there, a couple hundred grand and have them mentor you. And then somebody's worth a couple hundred grand, they need to find something worth a couple million. Like just go 10, 10x higher. And if you're worth a couple of million, find somebody's worth 100 million. If you're worth a hundred million, you keep going up. Right. So if you do that, I think it's really, really crucial. So the reason I tell you that background. I knew I needed a mentor as a CEO when I started my company. I'm like, I've never been a CEO. I don't know how to run a company. And I was still really secure. Like, I knew my products really well. I knew sales really well. I felt like I knew how to run it, but I didn't know how to be a CEO. So I joined a group called eo. Have you ever heard of eo?
B
Yeah, I'm an eo.
A
Oh, yeah. Okay.
B
I just joined.
A
Yeah.
B
Oh, yeah.
A
Entrepreneurs Organization. Phenomenal. So in Sacramento, EO was like where all the ballers in Sacramento were at. Like, this guys sold $100 million companies. Part of like Sacramento politics. Like that EO kills in Sacramento. YPO doesn't exist in Sacramento. They don't have a chapter. So I was an EO for eight or nine years in Sacramento. And then when I moved to Austin four years ago, I joined Y. I joined, I was EO the first year here, but then I joined YPO because it was like a little bit bigger company.
B
Sure.
A
Or ypo. So with that said, I've done the program now for I think about 12, 12 years. Ish. EO and YPO. I did the Harvard program for three years. I, I, the first year I applied to Harvard, they wouldn't let me in. They're like, you're too small. And we were like 30 million, I think, in revenue at the time. And we just got fast growing. Coming to America, I was like, I'm not in.
B
We're about to hit Inc. This year.
A
Okay. Yeah. So that's. It feels good. Like you're, you know, and they, they wouldn't let me in year one. They're like, you can't get in. You're not, you're not impactful enough or whatever. They said what? I was like a dagger, you know, the next year I got in. But I only got in because the week before the program started, some, some billionaire dropped out and they let me in. So I was like, okay, I'm definitely going to support him. So you Sit down at Harvard in the Harvard classroom with Harvard professors. But the professor starts off, he says like, you're not going to learn anything from me this week. This is a class led experience for three years and you're going to learn from other people in the class. So I did two years at MIT in a similar program and three years at Harvard and I've learned more about business through that than anything else. It's amazing when I went around the room and everybody does an introduction. Hey, I'm John Smith. I started this company, it does 800 million. Next guy's like, I did, you know, whatever name is, my company now does 1.3 billion in revenue. When they got to me I was like, because I was all cocky. We're, you know, we built, we're a really good company. It got around and, and we were like, you know, at that time, 30 or 40 million at the time. And I was like, man, I'm. These guys are doing in a day what we do in a year, you know. And it changed my way of thinking. Whole nother level of players like they do corporate roll up strategies will buy companies, roll them up, acquire, acquire, acquire. Roll them up, package them, resell them. And like these guys are like financial geniuses. The first day in the room I'm like, I have so much to learn. Like I, you know, there's like, you know what you know, you know what you don't know. Then there's like, you don't know what.
B
You don't know, you don't even know. Like I don't know, it's possible.
A
Whole new window. I'm like, I didn't even know that this stuff existed in the financial leverage world. And like these guys are like finance savants.
B
That's why I tell people every year that you don't know how to make a million dollars. Cost you a million dollars.
A
Yeah.
B
Because it's like now it's like you, you, you don't see what's even possible. But once you see just one person, like that's my big thing for mastermind groups. And from being in rooms isn't even necessarily like, oh, let me change my tonality to this, let me do this strategy. It's more so just saying, oh, that's possible.
A
Yeah, yeah.
B
Like okay, I didn't even know what I didn't know.
A
Yeah. And I told somebody, it's funny because like again, back to levels in life. I told somebody, I pay.
B
I don't.
A
Even know what the number was. It's like 10,000 just to join YPO. Maybe it's 12,000. I don't know the exact number. And then you also pay another like 10 grand to do this program. They're like, or Maybe that one's 20, I don't know. I literally don't even look at it. But it's like, they're like, oh, how can that be worth it for that much? Like, if I change one thing in my business, my company can be worth millions more, you know, and it's funny because I think like people, when you're living paycheck to paycheck, a $10,000 number or 20,000 numbers, like, oh, how can you do that? It doesn't make any sense, you know, that what you can learn along the way can be worth millions, tens of millions or hundreds of millions.
B
I wish. I'm glad that people are listening to this right here because I tell them and they don't. Maybe sometimes I think they all believe me, but they don't actually like internalize it where I say, hey, like the minute, the minute that you invest into a coach or mentor or mentorship or mastermind and you see the roi, you are addicted for the rest of your life because you now recognize it as the best return on investment, investment that you can make throughout your life. And I tell people, and I don't think they grasp that everyone that's at your level, like 50 million, 20 million, a hundred million, a billion, this is where all the money goes.
A
Yeah.
B
And then eventually it gets to the point where you're like, okay, cool, well I need to be like with that guy. So I'm going to join the country club just to get around this guy.
A
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
B
You know, and I'm going to donate to his charity, I'm going to donate to his gala. You know, it's so I can get kind of, you know, around him. Like, how can I write a check to his charity so I can get a little bit of time, you know, So I mean, it's just, it's the game.
A
And sometimes those groups, you know, you learn a lot from the person who runs a group, obviously, but you end up learning probably more in the group just because there's so much idea sharing.
B
Osmosis.
A
Yeah, yeah. So that's what, you know, the Harvard and the MIT program were really good for me because what would happen is over time you'd hear people speak and maybe, you know, one person would talk about corporate roll up strategy. I need to learn that. So you're trying like, hey, can we grab coffee real quick? Like Tell me more about that, what's your experience? And another person would say, oh, you know, we, we really grew the net worth of our company off intellectual property. We got IPS and patents on stuff and our company wasn't doing much in revenue. But then eventually somebody else acquired us because they wanted our IP and patents. And I've actually bought, I bought a few patents myself and we've, the value of our company's gone up tremendously because of IPM patents. But you don't, it's hard to learn that on like social media or like it's ungoogleable. Yeah, it's like you gotta, so just having somebody can sit down with in my experience, like Harvard, the one guy I sat down with, I won't say the names because it's, it's like we call it form confidential but so I won't, I won't share names. But you know, these people are, you probably know their companies that they represent and immense patent and IP experience. It just the ideas he was sharing with me, like not only defensively protect your company but offensively and how you can use them. And it blew my mind. And you know, that conversation alone was, you know, incredibly valuable. So the whole point, like if you go to these big groups and you get in mentorship, you learn certain things from a lot of different people. Iron sharpens iron, you know, and I just think that's just been crucial for my success the last, you know, 15, 16 years of running a company, just meeting people and having mentors and all that.
B
Do you remember? So those were some tactical strategies like the IP and the corporate roll up strategies like in the tuck in strategies. Do you remember any lessons on leadership or any lessons on management that you took from that or just like school of hard knocks that could give to somebody that's listening to this that maybe has their first company, they just bought a service company that's doing like, you know, $3 million and then now they're trying to learn these practices themselves.
A
Yes. There's a book I always recommend. It's called I don't know if you Scaling Up. Have you ever heard of that book by Vern Harish?
B
It's no, I know Vern Harnish, but yeah, I haven't scale.
A
He, he wrote Vern Harnish started eo.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
And then he wrote a book called Scaling Up. I, I'd say in my whole life, top, top five book I've ever read in my life.
B
Scaling Up. Cool on the list.
A
Yeah. So that's A game changer. That's. That book's like, the good and bad of it is it's a little dry, but it's super technical. And I like technical books. I'm like, I don't hearing people's stories. Like, it's cool and all that, but.
B
Tell me what to do.
A
Yeah, tell me what to do. Exactly. He breaks down, like step by step, how to do a business. And they break it down, you know, four ways. You got either, you know, strategy, you know, like, do you have the right strategy going? Because you can work your ass off. Like, people say, oh, part of being successful is hard work. Maybe part of it, yeah. There's also people I know that are worth a lot of money that work very hard. You know, like, you could, you could argue that both ways. So you, like. He goes, you know, strategy is really important. You're. You're, you know, doing the right product. Right. There's a lot in the strategy. And then it's also like finances and funding. Are you funded the right way? Are you overfunded? Like, there's a lot of stuff within cash management, so that's like a subset of it. And then the last one's execution. So, like, if you're growing, coming for me, probably ties back in the first year. Like, we were in a garage, like, literally, like my house. Like it. There was. There was. We. I pull my car in and there was like this medical stuff everywhere. At one point I couldn't park my car in the garage. Cause like, that was my. My warehouse was my garage, you know, and my friends would come over or, you know, coworkers, sales people. Like, we'd all have meetings around the kitchen table. Like, there was no expense for overhead for an office. And as you grow, I realize people are really important. And there's things I was good at. You always want to hire in the beginning around what you're not good at, I feel like, because financing. I'm stronger at Finance now, 15 years later. But in the beginning, it wasn't my strong suit. So right away I wanted to get an accounting controller. I'd say cfo, but you can't really. Your first.
B
You can't have that in the very beginning.
A
Yeah, you're not honestly going to have. You probably need about 50, 60 people in your company, depending on revenue. And there's some, there's some call outs on there. But I needed a strong finance person and I need a strong operations person. So you hire. Like, I think that that book shows you as you're growing a company Step by step, here's the pieces you plug in at each level to kind of grow it and scale it really fast.
B
Dude, the book that completely changed business for me, which is like the most random book ever that you wouldn't anticipate, nobody would anticipate listening to this millionaire real estate agent by Gary Keller. That's like the Little Red book. It's not a real estate book. It's literally like a cash flow management book. And so what I learned from that book, the one lesson that I learned, was how they run their cash flow. It was almost like the profit first method. Before profit first was profit first, okay? And so I immediately went from. We were doing like seven figures of revenue. So that's like, the first level of business is like, just make a million dollars. But then you're like, wait, hold on a second. I'm making a million dollars. But, like, what do I need to do to, like, take home a million dollars? And so, like, that's the progression. And so I was just like, wait, I'm. I'm making all the money, but all the money's going back out the door? Like, why is that? You know, where is it going? And then I read that book, and it was the first time where he goes. He starts with a. He has all the money going to one account, and then he just distributes it, you know, weekly. And it goes into all the different percentage allocation buckets. And he's like, okay, 10% to marketing, 10% to, you know, salaries. I never let my salaries go over 10 to 15%. Like, that's where I keep my salaries. And then it's like. So it's. It's this, like, bootstrap model, you know? And so I was just like, oh, my God. Like, and like, this much goes into reserves. I was like, I'm going to start doing that. And I started doing that. And then immediately we saved a million dollars in the bank. I was like, what? Yeah, so holy shit. You know, and it's like the most random book. And you know why? Because I didn't see that randomly on Amazon. I had a mentor. Tell me. Yeah, and I think that what you said about mentorship is so important because from two different directions. So one is that everybody's waiting for, like, oh, I can't get a Mark Cuban to talk to me. I can't get a Elon Musk to talk to me. Dude, there's nothing that you can internalize from Elon Musk or Mark Cuban that's actually going to help you to your point. If somebody's working a six figure job, it's like, I'm their guy. Like, now I got a seven figure company, I'm a few steps ahead of them. Three years ago I was employed, you know, and then I go to guys and girls that are at $20 million a year. That's been the sweet spot that I've found where I'm like, yeah, you become.
A
Like the books you read, the people you hang out with.
B
Yeah, yeah. So like, for me, it's the, it's the stair steps. It's like, yeah. Because I like, I talk to you and I'm going to talk to you a lot about like, strategy and macro stuff, but it's just like, I'm not able to implement a lot of this stuff, you know? But my $20 million guys and girls that mentor me, I'm like, oh, okay, that's hand.
A
Like, this is what I think probably is deceiving. Like, Elon doesn't have the time to mentor anybody. Right. I just finished his book, like on Audible. I think it's like 23 hours or.
B
Something by Walter Isaacson.
A
Yeah. The book's phenomen. And halfway through the book, I'm like, shit. Like, I. I'm not thinking big enough. Like, yeah. You know, this guy's like, rock as Tesla. I mean, just everything he's doing is like, it's just on such a huge level. And it. And this like his. He puts like, depending on which company it is, like, they put very, very little into marketing and everything's on like, product development. Yeah. Yeah.
B
Good sales. Like, the best sales is good marketing and the best marketing is good product.
A
Yeah, spot on. So it made me like, we just. When we launched our. Our bone. Gross. I'm like, we're gonna take less into marketing all that and put like, we're gonna develop the sexiest looking amazing unit. When people saw it, they're like, holy crap, this thing's incredible. You know, but my point on it is like me dedicating 23 hours to like, that's a long book. You know, I do audio because I can't. I literally. I'm the worst reader. I take forever to read, but I can do audiobooks. Uh, I like audio. I'm driving stuff, so I've done a plethora of audiobooks. And then we could probably go back for the books you've read. And, you know, I. I know the profit first, you know, stuff. And I see it's so crucial, like, hang out with good people and read good books or listen to good podcasts and like the all in podcasts. Yeah. So I think doing things like that over, you know, over time make you really, really sharp and it, it does. Like, if you get a little bit better every day, you know, you can become pretty good business, you know.
B
Yeah. Just 1% per day compounded. And the final point on this is for people that, you know, they're like, how can I mentor someone? You know, somebody just like, I have a lot of people that just bought like a hotel, like a $5 million hotel, or like we're doing a 14 million dollar one right now and I've got friends that, you know, just bought a storage facility and I'm like, dude, you can for sure mentor somebody that's looking to buy their first. Like, so it's, it's accessible. Like, you not only can find your mentors way more accessibly if you're looking a few steps below, you know, like the mega, mega, mega rich, but you can also be that mentor for someone. You know, it's more, it's more accessible and it gives you permission and doesn't make you feel like an imposter. Because there was a story I used to tell in my head where I was like, dude, I can't help anybody with anything until I'm worth 50 million. That's a lie. You know, because there's like you said, like when you were at 20 million, you were the perfect guy to help somebody that's like at five to ten.
A
Yeah.
B
You know. So talk to me about this. So this survey gets sent out through, through I guess YPO of the survey of all these different CEOs and kind of what they're looking to do in the market today. So talk a little bit about what we're, what the survey was and like what we're kind of seeing in the market today because it looks like there's going to be a lot of price increase.
A
Yeah. So it's really hard like within. So I always, I always put a big disclaimer on any business because like what I think is really dangerous on like social, social media is somebody will make a point that it's really like spot on with one market segment.
B
Yeah.
A
And then somebody else tries to take it over in a different segment, make it too broad. It doesn't apply, you know, so within, you know, within YPO and eo, there's the different subsets and, and then there's like the, you know, the, the, the bigger groups that, you know, 100 million more companies and stuff and you share ideas. So Yeah, I, I think, I mean obviously, like it depends on how the tariff thing shakes out. I think most CEOs that, that I'm on conference calls with and stuff, everybody's just trying to like it's Trump. Right. You take it day by day. Like you don't is 145% one day, then it's back down to 30 and then it's like it tends to vary. It's probably the only thing I don't and I try not to stay out of politics. Like having a 300 plus employees. Like you end up pissing off somebody.
B
Yeah.
A
Like if I say that's fair.
B
If I stayed out of politics. Politics completely for that reason.
A
Yeah. So it's like you get. I say, I say some things. I, I tend to like just fire from the hip a lot of times. And then like my uncle calls me all mad about what I said or you know, something like that. You know, so if you stay out of it and you're just like, look, if you look at it, the purple perspective, like you got, you know, conservatives red, Democrats blue. He's like the, the, the theory be like stay purple, just like little blue. So like I'm not. There's some good, there's some really good stuff that comes out of tariffs things. Like it's probably what we're doing long run is, is the best thing for the future of our nation. Like and it needs to be fixed and should be fixed. There should be reciprocal tariffs like any, like whatever the number is. Like if we're, if China's charging us tariffs. Use a charge.
B
Yeah, it should be reciprocal.
A
Yeah. I, I believe my personal thought and being involved. I manufacture in China. I'm in China all the time. Like I know it pretty well. We, I pay the tariffs, I see the bills. I think like 10's fair. Like if they charge us 10 and we charge them 10, it wouldn't kill anybody. We both get the numbers and it would probably shake out pretty fair. I think 30 still too high. Personal feeling. It's really tough when you blend it across all market segments because you can't. Like automotive is different than furniture, which is different than medical supplies, different pharmaceuticals. So every industry is a little bit different. And like some of the stuff, like even I don't manufacture semiconductors or one of the, one of the guys on our board.
B
Nvidia.
A
Yeah. Like one of the guys on our board does and he's like by doing that, that affects like America's future. They shouldn't do that. Like, so you gotta I think you really have to dive into each market segment. But overall you're gonna see prices are gonna have to increase. Like if, I mean just do smart math. Like if the we. Again, agriculture. So I stuff in the United States, like there's some companies that aren't affected at all by, by tariffs. But like in medical, the vast majority of medical gloves, any kind of a lot of capital equipment is either made in Europe or, or, or in China and exported over. The vast majority of medical is, is made overseas. Right now we don't have like people. I get these dumb comments all the time from people like on Instagram or LinkedIn. They're like, why don't you manufacture in us it's like, you know, there's not like a light switch where we go, hey, we're pulling everything from China to the US like yeah, if there was we all CEOs, we would all do it. Right. But like you have to get a manufacturing plant. It has to be a Class 3 medical device manuf plan. It has to be certified, certified by the fda. The FDA approval process is a six to nine month process on a manufacturing plan. If you can even get in line.
B
Now that's why I was confused by how fast he ruled things out because that made no sense to me from like somebody like, I don't know, I don't know what's, what's the, what's the quote from. What was it? Ozarks? I don't know about, dude. So, and it's like I'm looking at all this, I'm like. But from like just a general consumer's perspective. I was like, if you're manufacturing billions of dollars of material, raw material in China and then all of a sudden the next month Trump has got like, okay, cool, now there's a tariff there. It's like you would think rationally that there would be like a 6 month to 12 month window or something there. It's like, hey, this is going to come into effect six months from now. So everyone has some time. American companies have a time to now move back to America and then do that. I don't understand why all of a sudden it was just like it felt like overnight.
A
Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean you have, yeah.
B
He's a businessman, so that's what confuses me.
A
Yeah. I don't know. He's a real estate guy.
B
Yeah.
A
I don't know if he's a business. Like, I don't, I don't know if like what I've learned through the process is like you know, he's a land developer and Billy, like, it's all you. I, I don't know. I, there's, there's got to be some questions there. If I had like one minute to say my piece, you know, try to be like very similar. You said, should have been done over a longer time period, not knee jerk reaction. It's not, it's not fair to America business. You know, 80% of American businesses are small business anyway. You can't just, you're gonna, you're crushing the small business across America. You know, hundreds of people, I've heard other CEOs that there's a, there's a small subset that already went bankrupt. Like they couldn't handle it. They're like, we're closing out. They can't keep our commitments on these contract prices. Sometimes you lock up prices for 1, 2 years. Your prices are here. Your, your cost of good soldiers went here. Now you're negative on everything.
B
Yeah. And all these shipping containers were already paid for.
A
Yeah.
B
Well, in advance.
A
Yeah. So it should have been done. It really should have been. With a year out, maybe like six months, probably even too quick on some stuff. And then they should have loosened up on regulation. So if you're going to encourage us all to go back to us and you gotta let the FDA have quicker approvals, you can't say, hey, we're going to charge you all this, come to the US but then take nine months to give FDA approvals. Like it's, that doesn't make any sense. Right. So I, I just think it could have been done, you know, with a little more grace and thought. And then I think that the threat, like, I know he's a master negotiator, which, you know, probably better than he is the best, best negotiations, but he's using all of us small businesses as, as your leverage. His pawns. Like.
B
Yeah.
A
And it's like sometimes you sacrifice a pawn to get a queen. It'. So you sacrifice a bunch of small businesses so you can negotiate with China, pump it up to 145%. Doesn't even make any sense. Like.
B
No, it's just a scare tactic to bring it back down.
A
Yeah. Which it did. It went down to 30. But like, how many people do you kill along the way to get to that goal? You know? So I don't know. I mean, I think when all it's all said and done, it'll probably come. Hopefully it comes back to 10%. It's a great thing for, you know, the next 10, 20, 3050 year. I don't, I don't know. Hopefully it is a good thing. I just think, and we can't us talking about it's not going to change Trump anyway. So I know it doesn't really matter, but if I'm an, I think from an entrepreneur standpoint, it's something that, you know, people have to think about. Like it's, it's our number one issue in our company right now is like, is the tariff thing. Like it's, it's a, it's a big thing. So.
B
Yeah, dude. Little side side note. So I see the watch. Yeah. The Rashard Mill. So you're freaking rocking that. I'm.
A
No, no, no. This is not everything.
B
This is a hucking. Okay. I was about to say, like I.
A
Lose, I lose to it. Yeah.
B
I was about to say, I mean even the hublot is, is baller. I mean, I was curious, I was gonna ask you a question about that. And like, because I started, I used to think that watches, like, I'm not a big things guy. I used to think that watches were dumb. And then I started getting mine. Now I've got some Rolexes, you know, I've got, I've got my own and, and some Omegas. And now like the next level is going to be, you know, going into like Patek and you know, up to that level. And so now that I've worn them though, they're great conversation starters. And now when I, whenever, especially when I'm in Europe or if I'm in Scottsdale or somewhere, it's literally started up conversations with like really, really, really wealthy people that are now on my Rolodex. And so now I'm like, I don't wear watches for women, I wear watches for men. Honestly, like most of the guys do. Like that's what you wear them for.
A
You wanna hear something funny? Yeah.
B
I'm curious about that. And then I'm curious about, are there now that you got some money, were there any purchases that you used to think were stupid and frivolous, but now you're like, no, actually I get it. That's worth it.
A
Now. I, I, it's a probably be. You'll probably laugh at this. It'll probably go against what you're gonna, what you think. I think like, so in 15 years of running a company, like, yeah, I, I mean I was worried like we built the thing pretty big, right? Yeah. And good revenue, good profit, all that I didn't like when I started my company, I drove a old Forerunner. Yeah, I've always had used cars. I, I did. I bought my first, first brand new car like on year 11 of my company. Yeah, it was like a, it wasn't anything crazy. It was a Range Rover, but It was like 100, I think 119, 000 what I paid for that. And I actually got a little anxiety from it because my best CBs like oh, we're at least six is the best, best strategy for.
B
I do the corporate leaseback strategy or something.
A
Yeah, whatever. He, I let him do it. So whatever he did, I see the payment. I'm like, ah. So I'm so conditioned. Like actually this is the first watch I've ever, ever bought. Yeah, it was nice. I bought one prior that was used up for like a pawn shop. Yeah, I got like a 1/5 the price of what the, the watch was prior. And besides that, probably for a six year period I wore like fake watches. Yeah, it sounds crazy.
B
Dude. That's crazy. Okay, yeah, let's talk about that. Yeah, so I've heard that from my friend Dave Meltzer.
A
Well, because in my mind like it's not like he just wait, first of all, I lose like everything. For every 10 pairs of sunglasses, I've lost nine of them. So it gives me anxiety to wear anything like two extension of my risks. There's a high probability I'm gonna. This is, this one's real. Yeah, but I don't know. I think Most people listening, 99% of people listening to this should probably not invest in watches. What you should do is invest in like companies and grow it. Because I know you talk about this. I love your stuff you put out. Like you should use your cash flow and then maybe like, you know, you take whatever percentage it is, like 5% or something, whatever the number. Everybody has a different finances and then you dedicate that. I just always think if I have you work really, really hard, even if you make, even if you make 500 grand a year, depending what state you live in and taxes and you kind of like the numbers can dissipate really quick, you know, like rent or mortgage and car, like everything like what's left. You want to put a, a chunk in savings and then you want to also have fun too. So like I would just rather use mine for experiences like it, you know. Yeah, it's like if you're gonna go, you know, wherever you're gonna travel. Like I've been a, you know, 23 countries now and like traveling for me is worth way more than any like, you know, materialistic thing. So I don't know. I think you should be a pretty big level before you ever drop in. Like, just because you look back. I was inside a funny story real quick When I was 23, I was engaged this girl in college, and she broke my heart. And I was like, how far as a guy, you know, you get heartbroken. You're just like, I want to buy a nice car. I don't know why. I don't know.
B
I'm gonna show her.
A
Yeah, it was kind of like a proof. Like, I just sold. I. I don't know. I gotta going back in the memory box. But, like, I just done pretty well. I was making like 100 grand a year right out of college. And I'm like, I'm gonna go do this. And I thought about like, the profit I just. From. If I sold my house at the time, I would have made like 150,000 or 200,000 in profit. And like, I could go buy like a sick, like, used Lambo or something. And again, I get the attention of people and all that. I didn't do it. I actually took that money and ended up starting my company. Company. Right. But the crazy. I mean, it sounds really polarizing, but I know guys have done this, go to Miami. It's all over the place. They buy. They use Lambo for 150 grand or 200, whatever. They buy it for 200 grand. You take that same thing. I use my, you know, 150 grand at the time and went and started Precision Medical from scratch. Like, because I need inventory and startups and some money for, you know, beginning, for commissions and. And people literally built that 150, turned $100 million. Right. Fifteen years later, that Lambo would have, like, been cool. I would have got some attention from it, but it would have depreciated over time and then, like, probably cost him even more money and then be gone. I wouldn't exist today. Yeah.
B
So it's like, Rich isn't buying the Lambo. It's being able to afford to buy the Lambo in cash and choosing not to.
A
Yeah, I. Yeah, 100%.
B
Dude, that's crazy. Yeah, I. I mean, I. So I experiment a lot because I'm curious, you know, because I have. I. I call it, like, strong beliefs loosely held. So, you know, I'll be like, oh, that's stupid. Like, why. Why are you wearing designer? I was like, that's stupid. I was like, you know what? Like, maybe it's not. Maybe that's such a small fraction of their income that it's inconsequential to them. And that's just a belief that I have. And so now I was like, you know, I've never been a car guy, so I, you know, I've bought all my cars, used cash. Like I've never had a car note.
A
Yeah.
B
And you know, I had a, I had a buddy that I picked up from the airport and he goes, huh, Wasn't expecting you to pull up in this because I got a Camry. It's a cool Camry though, but it's a camera. And he was like, didn't expect you to pull up in this. He's like, that's co. Cool. I'm like, what? What do you mean? He's like, oh, I for sure expected you to have something way nicer than this. I was like, yeah. I mean, but you know, and not to let in you. Like we say, oh yeah, don't let other people's opinions like dictate what you do. But like that's kind of bullshit. Like we are kind of like, huh.
A
Yeah. You know, it depends what you do. Sometimes it helps though. Like when I, when I was starting off and I meet with a surgeon. Because we sell to surgeons.
B
Yeah.
A
We have over 5,000 reoccurring prescribed surgeons. It's very endearing. Like when a surgeon would. Would meet with me and I drove up in a used Forerunner. Like I think I see like you guys just won fast agreement coming in Sacramento and you're driving up in a. A seven year old used Toyota 4Runner. Like, you know, but they liked it because I'm like, no, I put, I don't put any money in car. I put everything back to company. That's cool. I get it is kind of. I think it is kind of endearing, you know?
B
Yeah.
A
I think you already choose their battles. Like you could go like for me, I think I don't want to be hypocrite. I'm like, what I spend my money on? I mean, I have a. I bought it used by a pretty.
B
I know what the hell you spend your money on? Your yards.
A
Yeah. Yeah.
B
You love a custom. This man, a custom pool. Hates to see this guy coming.
A
Yeah, I built it for the audience. I built the largest pool ever built in California. Residential pool. It was a 260,000. You Google it. Like, largest pool built in California. The house pops right up. 260. It was after Covid. I had a little bit of like Covid syndrome in California. So I built this pool that's like, it's a resort. It ended up Being they the pool builder. Because they wanted to prove that it was. They got Forbes to certify it.
B
Yeah.
A
And we got certified as the number one pool residential pool ever built in California. That was three years ago. So I don't know if things built one since, but. Yeah. 100 foot, 100, 105 foot water slide. Yeah. I had like 26 different waterfalls. I think it had 28 water. 20, you know, like a normal, a normal pool pump. It's had 28 pool pumps to power the whole thing.
B
It was, yeah. How many forerunners did this pool cost?
A
No, that's the thing. I don't, I don't want to be a hypocrite. I'm not, I'm not spending like a hundred grand on a watch, but I'll spend over a million on a pool. Like so that probably is hypocritical. So. But at the end of the day, yeah, I mean, I'm big on goals, like so 10 years prior on my goals list. And so probably. Anybody listening? Like, probably one of the huge takeaways. If you don't write down your goals, like, I think you're making a big mistake. In life, I sit down every quarter and I write down like, I'll have a goals of like 100 different goals in life and I'll subset them like travel goals and you know, health goals and, and business goals, finance goals stuff. I want to cool stuff. I want to do like the pools just like the cool stuff. And I, I took a trip. Gosh, now it's been like 15 years ago. It was right, right when I, my company just started and the. In Kauai, there's this, the Grand Hyatt. I don't know if you're the Grand Hyatt. Yeah. So like it has a, when you walk in the lobby, it has this amazing pool like at the top, and then it turns into waterfalls that come down. It's like waterfall, waterfall, waterfall. It's like a bigger pool and then drops down a lagoon just like. So if you look at the backside of the hotel, it's just water everywhere. And so I went to the pool builder and that was on my vision board for 10 years. And I was like, can we build this? He's like, you want to build this in your backyard? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, I don't know if it's doable. So we started doing it after the course of a month. We got started putting the other stuff and, and we, we ended up doing like a very, very scaled down version of it. But yeah, I built like a small resort in the backyard.
B
I love when rich people do. Rich people. This is cool.
A
But again, that's.
B
I like this.
A
That's what I'm saying. But that's critical. I am like, don't buy a watch, but build a, you know, multi million dollar pool. I don't know. So it's. I think the more their own, you know, I think. And I don't want to say, like, if you love watches, do. If that inspires you. Like, if you wake up in the morning and you're like, I want a Richard Mille watch. I want to. I don't even know the watches, to be honest. I'm actually not that savvy on watches, so. Or you want this certain Ferrari or Lambo or whatever, if that. If that's your thing. They call it my CEO group. They call it motivation. So I'm not, I'm not. I'm not a big car guy. I've had some cool cars in life, but, like, it doesn't. I don't wake up in the morning, but the cars don't inspire me. But there are some guys in my group that do, and they like. I mean, these cars get like Bugattis and they get.
B
Yeah.
A
Pretty expensive, but it motivates them. They call it motivations. Like, if that drives you and gets you to hit bigger stuff and accomplish more in life, then. Then go for it, you know? Yeah.
B
It's funny because I. I was just like, okay, well, let me test it out. So what a lot of people don't realize is, like, they're freaking out about something. I'm like, dude, you can. You can test it out for a fraction of the price. So I spent like seven grand or something. I rented a, like a Ferrari 488 freaking supercharged V8 Spider. And like, I. Ray. And that thing was like freaking white. Like Don Johnson, freaking Miami Vice. Dude, it was. It was cool. I rented that thing seven grand for a week. I was like, okay, cool. I'm good. No, I'm still not a car guy, you know? So I did two. I did the Ferrari California that was blacked out, and I did the white Spider. And then I've been trying out different Porsches. I've been trying out different cars. And I'm like, no. After every single car that I've tried, I'm like, I still don't care. Like, none of this wets my whistle. None of this does it for me. And so I'm just gonna keep driving my Car. But to your point, like everyone's got their pool, you know, everyone's got their thing. And for me it's like the one thing that I was like, this is stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm not gonna spend money on is those like thousand dollar plus hotels like per night. I used to be like, there's. Who would buy a hotel for $3,000 a night? Me. Like I'm doing that now. I love that stuff.
A
Yeah.
B
So what I do is I work my tail off all year and then I go to summer. And then now I've got like this hotel is like Punta Triguera or something in Capri. It's like off the coast of Capri and you can see Amalfi in the distance. And it's on the freaking cliff. And it's carved into the cliff. And I've got this sweet, this panorama looking out. I'm like, dude, that does it for me, bro. Like those experiences. Oh my gosh. I spent $3,000 for that hotel in Monaco. The Myborn Riviera looking out. And I was just like, dude, this is where I'm cool. Spending money here. And so what I do is all year I'll, I'll like run the business credit card and I use all the millions of points that we accumulate.
A
Yeah.
B
And I'll bring it down to like still a ridiculous price. But I'll take like a five thousand dollar room down to like a one thousand dollar room or something. And that's, that's where my money goes. It's literally like that is like I want to stay in a thousand dollar a night. Two thousand. And that was just started last year.
A
Yeah. You know, ties back to like the books that you heard, you know Guy Bill Perkins.
B
Yeah. Die with zero.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like I, if you come from the finance background, dial at zero goes against everything you, you learn as a financial advisor.
B
Like it's like he was a trader too.
A
Yeah. The con like and that's why it's so important in life. Like Diet Zero is really good. If I feel like if you're later and you're. And you're doing really well because there's certain people that just don't spend money. Like they've, I've ran it myself. Like you just get a habit of like bootstrapping and running things really lean.
B
But real estate investors for sure, because it's delayed gratification but they never like okay to win.
A
It's the same thing. The millionaire next door, the number one car of a millionaire is a, is a used Ford F150. That's like, it's. That's. That's the statistical highest likelihood of a millionaire to drive that car truck. Well, Dire Zero is like, he's like, why build out 100 million, 200 million, 300 million net worth. And you just die one day and just all goes out to somebody else, or you don't even use it. So probably not good advice if you're 20, because now spend more money. You should probably be investing, growing, building. But there's probably a subset of people that are listening that should dedicate more money to experiences. Your stuff, as far as me on Instagram, I need to get out, travel, have fun, enjoy life. Because it is. We all have a timetable, right? It's like if you're. If you do everything and all of a sudden you're 60 and you look back, you're like, some of these experiences are now like past you a little bit, you know?
B
But dude, I. So I don't just blow money stupidly. So I have what? I have what. It's funny when I say this, I thought so. I have what's called a fuck it fund. So, you know, you got like a 10% for rainy day. Like, I've got 10% where I'm like, I'm going to blow this obnoxiously.
A
Yeah.
B
So I save 90% of my income. 90% goes into buying new companies, buying real estate, stuff like that. And then I've got 10 where I'm like, I'm gonna spend this on what? And like now it just looks like, you know, maybe I'm spend a hundred thousand and Maybe that's my 10% this year. It's like, do I want to buy a Porsche? Do I want to. Do I want to go travel? I just put that towards travel. But if everybody could do that. Everyone could just put 10%. Like, if they're like, I'm gonna save 90 of my take home, I'm gonna put 10% towards this. Like, dude, it's a freaking blast. And before it was like, oh, I'm gonna, you know, buy the bar tab for my buddies when they're visiting.
A
Yeah.
B
And now I'm like, okay, cool. Now I can, you know, get a $35,000 boat out in Croatia and invite, invite folks. But what I'll do, I'm curious about this. So we do like, milestones kind of enclosing here. I do. I do milestones for the company where I'm like, okay, first hundred thousand. I was like, buy myself some golf clubs when we hit the million. I bought my first Rolex and now my goal for 10 million is I'm gonna charter a $200,000 super yacht in the Mediterranean with 13 already got it picked out. And I'm going to invite, you know, like 12 of my entrepreneur friends and like couples and everything. I'm like, bring your wife, bring your, bring whoever, like, come on this freaking mega yacht, like a fu. Yacht in the Mediterranean for a week. I'm covering all of it for $200,000. And like, that's what I'm going to do for $10 million. And like, I've got, literally this is how stupid this is. I've got the money sitting in an account, cash, like in a high yield savings account. I'll probably put into like a short term bond or something that's just like waiting for that, for that expense because I'm going to probably hit it next year.
A
And so put in crypto though.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, hold on a second because then that's too volatile. But so my question is, you know, like, I want to set these massive milestones for these huge points of business because otherwise, like, what's the point, you know? So do you have any, like, big goals that you've set and like, how are you playing big? How are you celebrating big?
A
I'm telling you. Put in bitcoin, the, the 200, 000 me. 300, 000.
B
Oh my God. All right, you gotta.
A
It's risk. It's all, you know.
B
Yeah, I know. I don't want to risk that. I risk everything. I'm buying companies, man. That's the risk right there.
A
Well, either way. Yeah, I think it's great that you're doing that.
B
So, so what's your next big goal and what are you doing to celebrate?
A
Yeah, so like again, there's like a Harvard study. Have you ever seen this Harvard study on goal setting?
B
The one where you like share it with other people?
A
Yeah, it's like there's like 90% of people don't even set goals.
B
Oh, yep, yep, yep.
A
And then like, and then if you write it down.
B
And then if you share it.
A
Yeah, and then, yeah. So 90 of people don't even set goals at all. Then the raining. 10%. 7. 7% of those people will have goals in their mind. Like, let's say we think about goals. You might even like maybe like write them down a napkin or something. But they're not like, really, you know, Then there's like the 3% of goal setters as Harvard setting that they wrote their goals down and they crystallized them. So for me, I would write my goals down, but not only that, I'd have shit like, hang up, like, kind of back to, like, the vision board, like, crystallizing it. Like, I saw that pool all the time. I was like, I need to do this. So you. You have your goals, and you write about that 3% on this Harvard study. Those 3%, these are all Harvard MBA, the subset of people. So they were sharp people. The 3% made more money than all 97 combined. That's like the ballers of the ballers. This is like the. The billionaires, essentially. And it just shows you the power, like, you need to have goals number one and then write them down and then crystallize them. And, like, it's great to have a goal of, like, your. Your goals are awesome because, like, I know I have a yacht, but I want to do it within the next year or I want to do within the next two, whatever the numbers, you know, it's tied to, like, when I hit 10 million in revenue. Like, there's a. You've crystallized that goal.
B
Yeah, and it's crystallized because I'm already telling people, I'm like, yo, like, who's going to come on the yacht with me when we hit it? And then you just work backwards.
A
Yeah. That's awesome. So I think, you know, through my journey, it's. I've always had goals that really, really inspired me. Like, the reason I started my company is I didn't have much. I started, and I was living in, like, a house at the time that was, like, it was okay. It was, you know, it wasn't bad, but it was like, zero lot lines a kit like, I just had. My son Jackson was just born. He didn't really have any place to, like, play. I'm like, I want to get a house with a bigger yard. And I was, like, so inspired. I worked that next three years, like, in California, like, land ain't cheap, you know, it's like, it's. You can't just, like, buy a house on 2, 3 acres. It's pretty expensive. So I worked my butt off to have the down payment to be able to afford that, you know? And then so there was, like, goals that would go up each year, you know, more and more. Like, now I want to be on Lake Austin. Like, being on Lake Austin. Yeah. Pretty expensive. I went and moved here. I built house on lake or not built. I bought a house on Lake Travis.
B
Travis. And now we rent that out to.
A
YouTubers yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So they. Yeah, that. That. That. That whole area is, like, awesome. Like, cool neighbors out there, really successful people. It's. You know, Baker Mayfield will end up being my neighbor out there, and there's great things. But now I'm like, oh, come be on Lagos. Well, that's another Lake Travis. Lake Austin from the, you know, real.
B
Estate perspective, like, 5 to 20 million now, right?
A
Yeah, it's. It's pretty crazy. So things like that. I mean. And again, everybody gets inspired by different things. My big thing. And is probably sure that everybody is like, you guys should have something that. Like, when I wake up in the morning, I'm ready to hunt. Like, I kill. And, like, we. Even when we have people. Like, I was on a call yesterday with some of my sales reps and VPs. Like, if you guys aren't gonna produce, I'm just gonna cut you. Because we got hit. We went numbers. We want to hit. Because at one point, you're either with us or against us. If you're just gonna, like, sit in your butt, you're getting in the way, we're better off getting a new rep in there. I'm not being. That's not even being a jerk. It's like, we have big goals, man. Like, imagine, like, you're on the Yankees, and. And you got, like, the third baseman keeps, like, striking out every time. Like, you're like, dude, you're not helping the team. Like, we need to replace the third baseman. He's, like, not pulling his weight. You know, that's how we feel about the company. Like, you know, I always laugh when you'll. You'll read these things on social media. Like, we're all families. The company's a family.
B
Professional sports.
A
Yeah. This is a sports team. Like, and if you're not pulling your weight and sometimes that negative motivation is good for people. Like, if I'm not pulling my weight, I don't. That's not. I want to. I want to step up, you know? So my point on all of is, like, whatever your goals are, it should be something that inspires you. And a lot of it comes back to, like, work is only. Work is work. Right? It's like, what you do with that, like, the amount of money you make, maybe give it all away or you get. People do. Like, people do things that, you know, whatever they want to do with their money is up to them. But I think it's so important, like, whatever. There's a quote in the Bible says, whatever your hand finds to do, do with all Your might, you know, and it's not about, you know, whether you make a million or 10 million or 100 million probably doesn't matter. Or make 100 grand doesn't matter. It's like, what is your passion, your desire, all that? Like, we are like, I, I do wake up in the morning, I'm like, I'm ready to freaking kill it. I want to go crush today.
B
This is 15 years deep.
A
Yeah, I was like that on year one.
B
Like, I, I, I mean, like, that's what I'm saying. You've maintained that consistency.
A
Yeah. People ask me like, oh, if you're worth X amount of dollars, you go retire. You could retire now, put in, you know, put it in a bond or, you know, some, you know, you get 10% return and make this, you have to work. Like, I like working. Like, I don't think, I don't think I'll go all the way to the very end, you know, it's like, I want to buy companies, I want to build things, I want to do great things, I want to help people. And like, at the end of the day, business is a sport to me. You know, we're all blessed. Like, we do good in business. Because if you were like an NFL athlete, your, your shelf life's like two and a half, three years on average, you know, and you're done. And then what do you do the rest of your life? You know, I think, like, being a, a really badass entrepreneur is the best skill set you could ever have because.
B
Like, you're taking forever.
A
You could do that for 50, 80. I don't know. Like, I think we're going to end up living a lot longer because of, like, AI and I'm in medical. Like, holy crap. Stuff you're seeing in medical is mind blowing. Like, people are going to live way longer than what you think. And it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's cool times ahead.
B
So, dude, hell yeah. If people want to follow more about what you're doing, they want to hear more from you. Where can they go to find you?
A
Jeremy Joel, CEO is my Instagram Jeremy Joel, CEO and then from time to time I post on LinkedIn. Not, not often, but a little bit.
B
So, yeah, check him out on Instagram when we're on the boat. Yeah, awesome, dude. Thanks for coming on, man. It's been freaking awesome.
A
Yeah, thanks.
B
It's been Jeremy and Brian with the Action Academy podcast signing off.
Podcast Summary: Action Academy | Millionaire Mentorship For Your Life & Business
Episode: How Jeremy Perkins Left His $320K Medical Sales Job to Start a $100M Company in His Garage
Host: Brian Luebben
Guest: Jeremy Perkins
Date: July 18, 2025
This episode dives deep into the entrepreneurial journey of Jeremy Perkins, who left a lucrative $320K/year medical sales job to launch a medical device company from his garage—ultimately scaling it to over $100 million in revenue. Brian and Jeremy explore the realities of leaving a cushy job to pursue massive goals, the critical role of mentorship and mastermind groups, the practical challenges and rewards of building a business, and the mindset shifts necessary to play in the big leagues. The discussion also unpacks lessons learned from elite CEO organizations, what wealth really means, and the importance of meaningful goal-setting—serving as a masterclass for anyone looking to turn high income into entrepreneurial impact.
Jeremy’s Background & The Leap
Notable Quote:
Bootstrapping & Early Growth
Building Value through Intellectual Property
Manufacturing and Tariffs Challenge
Mentorship at Every Stage
The Impact of Elite Peer Groups
Notable Quote:
Recommended Reading & Systems
Execution Over Storytelling
Materialism vs. Experiences
Notable Quotes:
Crystallizing and Achieving Big Goals
Actionable Advice:
| Segment | Timestamp | | ----------------------------------- | -------------- | | Jeremy’s leap from sales to startup | 01:23 – 02:31 | | Bootstrapping and building unique team | 02:30 – 05:07 | | Tariffs and manufacturing pivot | 05:07 – 07:19 | | The power & process of mentorship | 07:19 – 16:55 | | Harvard, EO, YPO, and mastermind lessons | 10:25 – 16:55 | | Tactical book recommendations ("Scaling Up") | 17:17 – 19:41 | | Tariffs and macro threats | 24:33 – 31:46 | | Materialism, experiences, and what money means | 31:46 – 44:47 | | Milestone celebrations & goal setting | 44:47 – 51:02 | | Final reflections on business as a sport | 52:46 – 54:07 |
Follow Jeremy Perkins on Instagram:
JeremyJoel_CEO
Connect on LinkedIn for business insights.
This episode is essential listening for anyone feeling “stuck” in a high-paying job and hungry for a playbook to greater entrepreneurial freedom, deeper impact, and a life truly of your own design.