Founder Reveals the REAL Story Behind EverBee's Success | ft. Cody McGuffie

Summary

Podcast Summary: Built Online

Episode: Founder Reveals the REAL Story Behind EverBee's Success | ft. Cody McGuffie
Date: December 2, 2025
Host: George (A)
Guest: Cody McGuffie, Founder of EverBee (B)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the real story behind the founding and rise of EverBee, a leading e-commerce tool, with its founder Cody McGuffie. Listeners gain insights into Cody’s entrepreneurial journey, the origins and meaning of the EverBee name, the importance of mindset and long-term vision for success, and an exclusive look at the recently launched EverBee Store, a new platform aiming to empower more online entrepreneurs. Both George and Cody discuss lessons from their failures, philosophy on business, the power of community, and their shared motivation to help others succeed in online commerce.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Real Story Behind EverBee’s Origins

• Entrepreneurial Spark

  • Cody’s entrepreneurial journey began long before EverBee, starting with real estate investing with his wife, buying, fixing, and selling houses ([01:44]).
  • A pivotal moment: Meeting someone at a real estate event who sold on Amazon FBA sparked Cody’s entry into e-commerce ([01:44]).

• Discovery of the Market Gap

  • After exploring Amazon FBA, then eBay and Shopify, Cody landed on Etsy and saw an unsophisticated marketplace lacking real business tools:

    "When I got to Etsy, it was this open land… all the sellers that were selling on Etsy were not sophisticated... I came at it like, how do I get this thing to scale?" — Cody ([02:50])

  • The ecosystem for Etsy sellers was sparse, lacking robust analytics and product research tools, leading Cody to manually build spreadsheets to track reviews, estimate demand, and identify market opportunities ([05:13]).
  • Desire to scale tools for others was born from this DIY approach.

2. The Meaning Behind the EverBee Name

• Not Just a Random Name
  • Cody emphasizes the importance of a business name being easy to say, spell, and personally meaningful ([21:29]).
  • Inspiration came from an experience with his son, who was afraid of bees:

    “I've always been preaching... bees are not... Bees are good. [...] For me, I think about sustainability, vegetation, abundance, reproduction, growth... I loved the idea of bees being in the name of my next company.” — Cody ([22:57])

  • “Ever” was added for its sense of longevity and to fit Cody’s long-term mindset, as well as domain availability ([24:05]).
  • The name embodies growth, community, and enduring value.

3. Mindset for Long-Term Success in Business

• Vision & Direction

  • Both agree on the necessity of thinking years ahead instead of week-to-week ([08:10]).

    “We're thinking years in advance so that we can build something...a lot of people fail...because they're not thinking long term.” — George ([08:10])

  • Cody: Hold tightly to your north/star goal, but loosely to the path it takes to get there ([07:04]).

• Importance of Clarity and Self-Awareness

  • Cody frequently encourages writing down what you want and being clear about your goals, otherwise you drift aimlessly:

    “Clarity...you need clarity in order to hit your goals. [...] Otherwise you're depending on luck, and luck is not something you should always bet on.” — Cody ([10:45])

  • On “luck” in entrepreneurship:

    “The harder I work, the luckier I get. [...] The more clear I am, the harder I work towards that clarity, luckier I seem to get.” — Cody ([13:06])

    • Both agree: Most "luck" is the result of clarity, consistent effort, and learning from failures.

• Working Hard and Smart

  • Success isn’t just about hard work; using your mind and working smart is critical ([13:35], [14:03]).

4. The Power—and Pain—of Failure

• Entrepreneurial Resilience
  • The journey is marked by numerous failures, not “overnight” success.
  • George shares a story about losing $36,000 when movers stole his cell phone accessories inventory, which nearly ruined his business and reputation. It took six months to recover mentally ([19:41]).
  • Cody encourages listeners to expect setbacks and not assign arbitrary time frames to success ([16:54]):

    “It's lessons that you learn along the way. It's pushing you.” — George ([16:54])

5. Community, Uniqueness, and the Power of Belief

• Embracing Uniqueness

  • George highlights how being different led to his eventual success, urging listeners not to hide their unique perspectives ([14:53]):

    “That non thinking like the rest of them...made me rich. So don't ever think like you're alone in this aspect.”

• Self-Belief

  • Having faith in eventual success is vital:

    “The reality is it will happen for you as long as you believe it will happen for you. As soon as you stop believing…that's when a dream dies.” — Cody ([16:04])

• Building & Supporting Community

  • Both find deep fulfillment in helping others and seeing their community members succeed, with success being cyclical: help leads to growth, which leads to more opportunity to help ([26:38], [27:30]).

6. Scaling the EverBee Team & Culture

• Team Building
  • EverBee now employs 45 full-time team members, 90% dedicated to engineering/product—a testament to their tech focus ([30:42]).
  • George praises EverBee’s unique, supportive culture, noting high responsiveness and shared values across the team ([31:17]).
  • Cody highlights the challenge and importance of putting the right people “in the right seats on the bus” ([33:33]).

7. The Launch of EverBee Store & Vision for the Future

• EverBee Store: The Next Chapter

  • New platform aims to provide a simpler, more accessible alternative to Shopify/Wix, democratizing e-commerce for all creators ([35:31]).

    "I want to be a platform people build their dreams on top of… The dream dying because of overwhelm is a terrible situation for any economy." — Cody ([36:24], [38:10])

  • Cody wants to remove technical hurdles that stop people before they start, allowing them to build sites effortlessly and focus on validating their ideas ([38:10]).

• "Find Your Beachhead"

  • Cody and George advocate starting on platforms like Etsy to learn the ropes, stressing the importance of foundations before scaling or expanding to owned platforms like EverBee Store ([40:39]).

8. Mission-Driven Aspirations

• 100 Million Businesses — and Beyond

  • Cody’s mission: Empower over 100 million businesses globally and play a part in eradicating global poverty by democratizing e-commerce opportunity ([43:36]).

    "Every single creator should own a business… If we can promote entrepreneurship at a high level, that would be the dream." — Cody ([45:34])

• Capitalism, Abundance, and Giving Back

  • Both discuss the abundance mindset, emphasizing entrepreneurship isn’t a zero-sum game ([50:35], [51:48]).
  • Giving and helping others accelerates everyone’s success.

9. Overcoming Naysayers and the Importance of Taking Action

• Dealing with Doubters

  • When starting out, expect skepticism from friends and family until you prove results ([61:19], [62:52]).

    “Go and start doing it and make the results speak for themselves. People understand actions and they understand results. That's what they want.” — Cody ([61:19])

• Finding Support and Community

  • Both hosts stress the importance of seeking (and building) positive communities to counter doubts and isolation inherent in entrepreneurship ([57:52], [59:21]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I tend to hold, I hold true, like my direction, like north, I'm going north. But I hold very loosely the trail and the path that it takes me to go north.” — Cody ([07:04])

• “Step one is to understand what you want out of life… If you're not clear on that, guess what? The wind will blow you around the ocean and you'll end up in the rocks.” — Cody ([10:45])

• “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” — Cody quoting an old adage ([13:06])

• “The non thinking like the rest of them...made me rich. So don't ever think like you're alone in this aspect. If you have a different thought process...you're unique and you have to hone in on that.” — George ([14:53])

• “I knew that it was going to be a tech company. I just didn’t think THIS was going to be it… it’s interesting how it worked out.” — Cody ([06:12])

• On customer obsession:
  “One of our first core values, number one, is be customer obsessed... If you're not listening to your customers, things are going to change around you…” — Cody ([28:51])

• “My mission is to help create over 100 million... I want EverBee to power over 100 million businesses eventually across the world, in every market.” — Cody ([43:36])

• “Go prove it to the world. Prove it.” — Cody ([63:36])

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Important Timestamps & Topics

• [01:44] — How Cody discovered e-commerce and his first steps with Amazon FBA.
• [05:13] — The realization of tool gaps on Etsy, leading to EverBee’s concept.
• [13:06] — Conversation on 'luck' versus hard and smart work.
• [14:53] — Importance of creative/unique thinking in business success.
• [19:41] — George shares a major failure and its impact.
• [21:29] — The story and meaning behind the EverBee name.
• [24:05] — Why "Ever" and "Bee" specifically, and the value in meaningful naming.
• [30:42] — Behind the scenes: the EverBee team and culture.
• [35:31] — Why and how the EverBee Store was launched; long-term vision.
• [38:10] — Simplifying the e-commerce experience for aspiring entrepreneurs.
• [43:36] — Cody’s big-picture mission: 100 million businesses and global impact.
• [50:35] — Scarcity vs. abundance mindset in entrepreneurship.
• [61:19] — Advice to those experiencing doubt and criticism from loved ones.
• [63:36] — Focus on action and self-validation.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a candid, motivational, and highly practical conversation for anyone in e-commerce or aspiring to be. Cody McGuffie’s story demonstrates that great companies are built on identifying gaps, a drive for service, and a willingness to persist through setbacks. It also underscores that effective entrepreneurship relies as much on vision, community, and personal values as on technical or business skills.

If you’re looking to be inspired, understand the “why” and “how” behind a successful SaaS tool, or need practical wisdom to keep going in the lonely and uncertain journey of online business, this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[A]

In today's video, I have something special lined up in just a second. Cody, the founder of Everbee, he's going to be jumping on with me and he's going to share how the company actually got started and where the whole idea came from, plus what the future looks like for Everby and the Everbee store. But there's been one thing, one question that's always been on my mind. Where did the name come from? So, yeah, we're going to be diving into that as well and much more. So let's not waste any time and get right into it. Hey, Cody, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you taking the time and jumping on with me. I cannot wait to talk about Everbee and the success one, but also where you're going with all of this.

[B]

Fired up, man. Thank you, George, for having me on. I'm always grateful to be here and I'm always grateful to kind of hopefully share some of our learnings and of course talk about where everybody's going and all that stuff. But hopefully I could just be of service, be a value for your listeners today. That's. That's the. That's the best part of this whole deal.

[A]

Oh, definitely. I know a lot of people love ever be, especially in my community. I use it all the time. I'm always throwing it in videos. Anybody asked me, you know, the amount of stuff that you have in there is just amazing, which makes me really question. Like, I don't think a lot of people actually understand where this came from. Like first, where did the name come from and how did you even start ever be? And I mean, there was something that was in your mind that just jumped off and said, hey, this is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. So I know that I'm immediately jumping into this and throwing you in there.

[B]

Jumping right in.

[A]

So curious myself on. On where that all came from.

[B]

Yeah. Which part you want to start with? Like the, like the name or maybe the solution?

[A]

Let's start with the name, you know. Well, actually, did you come up with the name first or did you come up with the idea?

[B]

The name came after the name came after, which I think is actually natural and I think that it should come after for. For most cases, for businesses. But yeah, where did the solution came from? I've always been an entrepreneur my entire life. My wife and I, we started multiple businesses before ever be. One of them was real estate investing and where we actually bought houses and fixed them up and then sold them like, that's what we did to start with. And then I was at this real estate event and a friend of mine. Not even a friend, sorry, it was a new. A new friend. He was at the event and he was asking me about investing. He wanted to get into it. I was teaching him about that. And then I'm like, what do you do? And he's like, oh, I sell things online. I'm like, what do you mean? And he's like, well, I sell Amazon fba. I'm like, what's that? And so I took him to lunch, or yeah, I think it was lunch, coffee, and learned everything about that. Basically, a couple months later, we started our first e commerce business and it happened to be Amazon fba. When you sell on Amazon, it was kind of like the. It's an amazing thing because it's probably one of the most challenging things to start because it's already sophisticated a lot. There was already a lot of big sellers on there and there's a lot of tools and ecosystem kind of is built out around it. Fast forwarding. We start an E commerce business. It does fairly well. A lot of failures in there, but fairly well. And eventually we start to move towards other marketplaces. So eBay, for example, sold on Shopify and of course sold on Etsy. And when I got to Etsy, it was like this. This, like open land that you can just like claim. Because all the sellers that were selling on Etsy were not sophisticated. They didn't have the business mindset. You know, they weren't really looking at it like a business. They were looking at it more like a, like a side hobby thing where they'd sell a couple things here and there. Where I came from it like, how do I get this thing to scale? And so I was immediately started to like, how. Where are the tools? You know, where. Where do I get the data from to make sure that, like, I can game this whole thing so I can set myself up to make sure that we're successful at scale on Etsy and naturally just very disappointed with the ecosystem that was built around it. There wasn't a lot of tools. There was a couple tools for like keyword search volumes and things like this, but there was no, like, data analytics for, like, products. There was no product research. There was not like, anything I could be like, hey, if I just sold a version of this thing, it would probably equal similar success, you know, to the other product. There was nothing like that. And that's when I started just like, okay, well, I'll just start Building my own spreadsheet and I started like literally get a Google sheet out and started. That's where it kind of started from there.

[A]

It's really funny that you mentioned that because when I jumped it late 2018. So that's why I always say I started in 2019, because it literally was like December. And you are 100% correct. Like there was barely any tools out there that helped you at all. It was just these are keywords and you can find them on Google if you really wanted to. These are keywords that people are possibly searching up. It wasn't even an exact like algorithm of saying, hey, this is what people are looking for. It's like the possibility of yeah, maybe they're typing this. So it's pretty crazy that you saw that same exact thing because I think I used maybe three months of a program and unfortunately it was not ever be just letting you know. But when I first saw that and I was just like, I don't even need this program to do anything because I come from that background. But so many people. When you saw that gap in that market, it's so true because so many people didn't have anything. It was just, hey, use this keyword. And you know, it's like, hope for the best.

[B]

Optimize for your. Optimize SEO is like the biggest thing. Optimize your like titles and your descriptions for SEO. And I'm like, but yeah, but what if you have a bad. A product nobody wants? Like, there's no point in optimizing a. A product listing that nobody even. There's no demand for it. And that was the whole. My whole point of like, we need to start from first principles and like first sell something that people actually have are demanding in the market. And so that's kind of how it started. I eventually had this spreadsheet that I was just updating myself, like thousands of listings, thousands of product listings that would go and update like weekly. And I was literally just doing it all manually. And I was doing it in a very simple way of. I was like, okay, this, this listing here, it has this many reviews today. Okay, what's the average review ratio just in E commerce? Okay, it's this percentage this many people will leave reviews. And I was like, this is how much the price. This is. This is probably what the sales are. And I just started doing that by category, by category. And meanwhile, this is only part of the story. I'm also starting tech tech projects on the side anyway, that wasn't related to.

[A]

I've.

[B]

I'VE always been interested in technology and I knew that I was going to start a tech company because I worked at a tech company for my full time job, Qualcomm. And so I knew that it was going to be a tech company. I just didn't think this was going to be it. I thought it was going to be something different. I thought I was going to go raise a bunch of money and like do something in real estate maybe or whatever and. And it turns out this was the actual thing. It's interesting how it worked out.

[A]

Yeah, it is interesting just how things like gravitate and bring you a certain way. I mean, that's how we obviously met because I didn't plan on ever being on YouTube. So, you know, it's just like that's the path that you're supposed to go down and you just gravitate towards it. So you all, you know, you expect one route and then all of a sudden something just completely goes over here. But that's actually where you were supposed to be the entire time. So many people don't see that or look at that. That that's a good thing, you know?

[B]

Yeah, it is. I would say, like, I try to be, I feel like, I don't know if you could. You would agree with this or not. I tend to hold, I hold true, like my direction, like north, I'm going north. But I hold very loosely the trail and the path that it takes me to go north.

[A]

I agree with that. Yeah. And then all the mistakes that come along, you know, I always feel like I'm on a tightrope because I never know which way I'm supposed to go, but I know I'll get there. So.

[B]

Because you know, your, you know, your compass, like your compass, you know. Yeah, same with me. Like, I know where I want to. I know the outcome I'm trying to achieve. I want location freedom, I want time freedom, financial freedom. And I also want to help other people get those same things. I also want to make a lot of money at the same time and I also want to have a lot of flexibility in the same time. And so like, because we have those directions very, very like in stone, we can hold like very loosely, you know, that the path that God or universe or whatever you want to call it takes us to get there because it's going to detour, give you a bunch of detours, but it's always going to lead up to the direction that you're most focused and most clear about, in my opinion. What about you? Like what do you think it's so true?

[A]

I mean, I just actually recorded a video. I don't know when this one's going to come out. So it was the last week, though. But you have to plan ahead. And so many people don't do that. You know, I don't plan just next week or next month. I'm years in advance where I see myself. And I know you're the same way, like where the end goal is, and it's not even an end goal, we call it an end goal, but at the, you know, reality of it is like there's never an end. Right. You're just always building. But we're thinking years in advance so that we can build something because the path's going to take us down that way. But we don't know exactly which way to end there, you know, and a lot of people don't do that. They just plan for, you know, next week or next month or say, hey, I want to get here. And that's how a lot of people fail is because they're not thinking long term.

[B]

Yeah. And it's typically because they don't have the option to think long term. Where it's just. And that's, that's actually step number one, I would say, is first you want the option to even have the ability to think longer term.

[A]

So I don't think so start to interrupt you. I don't think that that would be more money based because a lot of people put money on it. As in, you can't think this way because you don't have the availability. Like you can't just think outside the box, but you can. You know, I, I didn't grow up with money, so that's all I had was just my mindset and to keep moving forward on where I wanted to be. So I really don't think it would be based off of like, you know, they don't have the capacity or like ideal acid. What's that word? Like, they just can't fathom thinking that far in advance.

[B]

Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, I appreciate that. I agree with you. And I wasn't going to say the money, but I was going to say something else that was kind of related to a little bit. I don't want people to think that when they watch this, like, oh, well, because you had money. No, actually, no.

[A]

Yeah, I know you're just saying the option because everybody always feels like they're always behind the eight ball. And then. I'm not saying that. You're saying the whole Money aspect. I'm just saying a lot of people put their belief that it is that way. You have to have an amount of money in order to do it, you know?

[B]

No, you do have to like, like, you, like, you're kind of going. You have to be able to dream and kind of think and you have to like, literally stop what you're doing and put on headphones or whatever. For me, it's headphones and drink coffee and literally have like hours of quietness. Find a way in the morning, 3am in the morning, whatever it is. Or maybe it's, you know, and for me it's like I just start sometimes writing down my notebook or on my computer and be like, what do I want? I just like, I literally will write that. What do I want? Question mark.

[A]

A lot of people do that, and I wish I could do that. But you know what? I write down things and then I lose it.

[B]

I don't actually go. It's funny. I don't actually go back to it. I just like, it's okay. No, it's just the exercise of getting my brain to. Because a lot of times I realize when I talk to entrepreneurs or people that want to be entrepreneurs is they don't even understand what they're trying to do. And so how could you possibly. Like, you're going to get. Step one is to understand what you want out of life. Right. If you want freedom, write down, I want freedom. What does freedom mean? Cool. Freedom means like working when I want, wherever I want, with whoever I want. Okay, got it. Freedom is also having this much money in the bank. Got it. And like, this stuff gives you clarity. And I, I believe you need clarity in order to hit your goals. Like, you need to be clear, otherwise you're depending on luck. And luck is not something that you should always bet on. Like, you get lucky, but you don't. You shouldn't bet on it. And I think typically a lot of times when I'm like coaching people on for fun, I don't, I don't pay do coaching for. For pay. But I typically have to start with like, what are you trying to achieve? And if they can't give me a clear answer. Got it. That's problem number one. You need to solve for. You need to get clear on what you want out of your life. And if you're not clear on that, guess what? The wind will blow you around the ocean and you'll end up in the rocks.

[A]

I agree 110% with that. And then also the luck aspect. So many People think like, you are lucky. You know, I mean, how many times have you heard it yourself, like, you're lucky? And I mean, I know I've heard it a million times. And it's like, well, if you lived all the failures, I know that you've had a lot on your own as well. It's like. Yeah, I wouldn't really call it luck, so.

[B]

Yeah, I agree. It's interesting, the word luck to me. I'm curious what your opinion is like on this is. I tend to call myself lucky, but I don't. I don't call myself lucky because in the traditional, like, luck, I just feel like luck, I'm using it interchangeably with blessed.

[A]

Yeah, that's the word I use is blessed. And it's just because it's like you have so much. I don't have to wake up each day, you know, and I don't have to have a house. I don't have to have food on my table or a loving family. I'm blessed to have all that. So I don't really feel like it's. It's a luck aspect. It's just. You've been blessed with it, but it's not. It's not deserved. You don't get that just because you deserve it, you know, you just are. I don't know, it's. It's just time and just pushing.

[B]

I always think about that quote that we've all heard before. I think I'll probably butcher it, but it's like, the harder I work, the luckier I get.

[A]

I do like that quote.

[B]

Yeah, it's just like more clear I am, the harder I work towards that clarity. Luckier I seem to get. And that's exactly what happens. Like, the universe provides if you ask and you shall receive. From a biblical standpoint, you have to even be Christian to kind of believe that. You just like, if you know that you are trying to achieve something and you put your effort towards that goal, you're more likely to succeed with it. Like, you're more likely to have it. And that's just. Those are just facts. I can't even. I don't know why it works like that, but that's how it works.

[A]

And the funny thing is, everybody watching this right now, you know, it's working smarter, though. You know, you can work your ass off and not get anywhere. Because if you work like an idiot, then you're not going to go anywhere. You have to work smart. You have to think smart. It's not always just the hard work that's behind it. Because if that were true, I mean, you know, there are so many low paying jobs where people work 10 times harder than other people that are successful. It's just they're not using their minds in the way to be able to build something successful.

[B]

That's a good point. Actually. I was just having that conversation with, I think it was my nephew the other day and we were talking about hard work and do the hard workers always seem to like to win in life and depending on how you define that. And I'm like, well, that's not the only, it's not the only prerequisite because if you, if that was the truth, then all the land, the landscapers out there would all be the richest dudes, all the, the house framers. I know the building house is written around me. These guys are working way harder if you depend on how you describe hard work than, than most other people. But they're not paid the most. So I agree with you. Like you have to, you have to use this beautiful thing that we have. And we also have a beautiful body, right? This is that we've been blessed with, but we also have this incredible mind and they can create literally nothing like something out of nothing.

[A]

It's insane. I know I've always been a big thinker in that way and the way. And you know what's funny is any, anybody that may feel like an outsider my entire life, people always said, you know, you're weird or you're crazy or you're just. You don't think like the rest of us. And it's a true statement. But that non thinking like the rest of them and the lemmings that fly off the, you know, side of a cliff. I didn't think like that. I thought outside the box. And because of that it made me rich. So don't ever think like you're alone in this aspect. If you have a different thought process that you have to be behind everybody else in the same thought and be like, why am I like this? You're like that because you're unique and you have to hone in on that.

[B]

That's beautifully said. I would also piggyback on that. Is the person right now that's listening to this. I picture probably just starting their business, wanting to start a business or like on their path. They've started the business and they just haven't had like that breakout, quote unquote, breakout success that they like have heard the stories about or maybe that they really, really want to have and they're wondering if it's for them, like, if, is it, is it going to happen for me though?

[A]

You have to believe it will, you know.

[B]

Exactly. Yeah. And I want to encourage that person. I was that person. You probably were that person too, George. And the reality is it will happen for you as long as you believe it will happen for you. As soon as you stop believing it will happen for you, that's when a dream dies. And so just keep on going like one step after another. You're not going to see it all clearly. You're not going to see everything clearly at all times. There's a, there's a thing, this saying of like, if I go to, from California to New York, driving, like, and it's through the dark, you will only see, you know, 200ft in front of you in the night with your headlights. Right. But you, it's not. Just because you can't see all the way to New York doesn't mean that the road isn't, isn't there. It doesn't mean that it's not possible to get there. It's just, you have to just kind of keep on going, keep on going one step in front of the other and works out.

[A]

Yeah. And people have to stop putting time frames on stuff, you know, I mean, like, I failed, you failed. And each time we fail and we have another one, it's like, this is the one, this is the one that's going to work. And then boom, you fail. And it's like, well, okay, let's. This is the one. I got it this time. You know, and so many people, they give up because that just keeps happening. But it's lessons that you learn along the way. It's pushing you.

[B]

I agree. I have a question for you. What would be, what was one of those things where you're just like, this is the thing, this is the thing. Like, this is going to be my thing. And, and like, and it just didn't work out exactly. Like, maybe as you planned. What was something like that that comes to your mind?

[A]

So like, you, I come from a tech background and.

[B]

No, for you, for you, I'm curious. For you.

[A]

Yeah, I know, but. Okay, so I come from a tech background, so my theory with that was I had to be selling something tech wise. I sold cell phone cases, I sold cell phone chargers, flash flashlights, little connectors, you know, anything tech related, computers, everything. And it never panned out. I made good money. So I didn't. Like there was one instance where I actually failed horribly, but the rest, I made good money. Just not the money I imagined. It wasn't until I took on something that was completely different and that was selling leather that I blew up. And that was because I did it in the way that I would see it being done versus how everybody else traditionally was doing it. And because I have that, you know, tech background, I did it in that sense that when a package came and you remember, you know, when you would get something from a computer or like Apple, it'd be so well put together that it made you feel like you had this luxury item. So that's where I worked first, was when somebody received my item, how did it make them feel? Feel? How did it. You know, and even though it was leather, it made them feel like they had something luxurious for that, you know, five, $10. And it made them have a whole different sense of who I was as a brand versus the other people that were sending it in. Just a poly mailer by itself. And it's like, here you go. Here's your scrap piece. You know, they were treating them like throwaway customers when I was trying to treat them as, like, you know, how you should treat a customer, that they're Europe. So that was really a big determining factor. And ever since then, I've never went in the realm of things that I understood or known.

[B]

Interesting. What. So did you end up actually failing in that leather business or that was a big success? Did you ever, like, what. What is your. What's the worst story before the leather? Because the leather seems like it was your breakout success as an entrepreneur.

[A]

The worst story before. So I made good money with cell phone cases right before. Before that. Okay, they weren't making good money, so I sold the leather. That's how I started the leather business. But right before that, I was selling cell phone cases.

[B]

You thought that was going to be the thing.

[A]

I was making good money, and I moved and the movers stole all my cell phone cases. Not cell phone. Cell phone accessories. And that cost me about 36 grand. But it wasn't the 36 grand that put me out of business. It was. I had to fulfill orders, and I couldn't fulfill the orders, which means I was out the money, out the money to the customer. And it left a negative footprint on my, you know, Internet and my brand of who I was. And that really. That set me back because I was like, why am I even doing this? And I know it was a freak accident, and it's something like, wow, okay, well, that just happens and shit. But that was. That was a lifting moment that I really had to get myself out of. That was a huge debacle myself. You know, it's like, should I even keep trying after that?

[B]

Man, I can totally see that. I imagine you probably. How long did it take you to. To kind of get out of that like, mindset of like.

[A]

Like six months? Yeah, because I was pretty devastated with that one. But you know, because it's like it ruined. You get your name out there once and it gets trashed. It's like, well, are people really going to trust you again? You know, because you know, it wasn't something that was your fault. It's. You're the one that blame, you know. So I know we're going left field here and I know we could talk forever. So really quick. All right. You create an fba. You went on to Etsy. You saw, all right, there is this missing piece here that nobody else has. And I mean I saw that myself. Of course. I'm not a techie person. So that was awesome that you created this. Once you created it, how did you come up with a name? I know so many people out there are wondering. I always wonder myself and I know you told me in the past, but just telling everybody out there, yeah story.

[B]

I hope that I'm consistent with my story because it's. But it's all around the same direction at this point. I started multiple businesses that a lot of them have failed. Some of them had decent success. But I've named multiple businesses at this point right before starting ever be. So I understood like there's certain things that just work for naming certain things that just don't work. Some things that I just like wish I changed. And something that I. I always preach to people is when they're naming their businesses is it should have these certain rules. One of them is like it should be easy to say. Just it kind of comes off everybody's tongue. Like when you say to somebody, they're just like, what is that? What, What'd you say? You know, like you don't want that answer. You want it to be like, oh, cool, easy to spell. How do you spell that? Oh, no, like wrong. Wrong name. You know, like pick something better, easier to spell and then three, which is optional. But I think it was kind of starting to become a requirement for me because I knew that next company I build it was going to be like my 10, 20 year project. It's going to be like my life's work. And so I needed to mean something to me. So meaning to you, for me, I had this story that I think about when I was naming ever be was we. We lived in this house. I had my first child accident and he was young, like 2 years old. We're walking outside and there was a. There's a lot of vegetation around our house and there was a lot of bees. And he was afraid of bees naturally. Right? Just like, oh, I mean maybe somebody told him actually to be afraid of bees. Probably one of his cousins or something. Like told him to like watch out for the stinger or something.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But I was always preaching to him and to really, any child that I'm around is like, no, bees are not. Bees are good. Like, bees are like beautiful creatures that actually serve the human race. So like, and in the world so dramatically. Right. Like, and they've been around for so long and they're a net, net, net, net net positive for, for us. I think about sustainability when I think about. When I think about bees, I think about. I think about vegetation, I think about abundance, I think about reproduction, I think about just growth. And so I loved the idea of bees being in. Being in the name of my next company. And then I needed it to be easy to say, easy to spell. Obviously it need to be available. And so then I threw ever be ever in front of it because b.com wasn't available. So yeah, that's kind of how it came about. And then never really looked back from there. I just. It kind of had a nice ring to it. I feel like I can get behind it personally. And here we are.

[A]

It would be funny if it was just B. Just be. I don't think it would have. I don't think it would have had the same effect.

[B]

You know, you're right. Because ever kind of like through it, like ever means like forever. So it's almost like it kind of goes along with like my long term mindset, which is cool.

[A]

Yeah, I like that. Yeah. And then I mean people could just say EB instead of just B. So.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for asking that. It's. It's a cool. It's a cool thing to actually. For me to actually reflect back on like why do we name that? Why do we do these certain decisions? And I'm really happy with that one.

[A]

You know, you've said it before. I think we were on the channel with Jay and I was like, oh, wow. But I know a lot of people don't know where that came from and then know that, you know, it was pretty much your family, it's your son out there with the bees and all that. It's just like, that's where formulated is so, so cool in its own self, you know, it's not something that you sat there going, okay, should it be this, should it be this, should it be that? And with a huge paper and going, you know what? Any mini mighty. Well, let me just pick something. It actually has meaning behind it.

[B]

Totally. And I've done the other approach too. Yeah, thank you for saying that, because I did the other approaches in my past too. But I just found like, when you can throw yourself into your business to throw yourself into your company personally, like your identity is attached to it, things move faster, you care more, you're more purposeful, you're more intentional with like the customers that you have. It's easier to be customer obsessed. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way for you to own a business. It doesn't have to be that way. I don't, I don't say. But when you can align helping people with making money and you actually enjoy doing those, the thing that you're the solution they're providing, you are literally unstoppable. Like, you don't have any reason to quit. You have no reason.

[A]

That's where, you know, you and I, when we first started talking aligned on a hundred percent is like we're out there to help people. You know, of course, you may charge here and there, but our main goal is just to help as many people as we can to succeed. And the more that you have them succeed and, and help them in their, their terms, I mean, you get it back as well yourself. So it's just, and it's an amazing feeling inside. Just. I know when I see my community members making money, they put the work in, they put the time in. You know, I gave them a direction and I said, this is what you're doing wrong. This is how you should see it and this is what you should do. But I'm not the one sitting there putting, busting my ass day and night. It's them and that. And to see that they, you know, took that direction and entrusted me with it and then just went off on there and are, are making money, some incredible amounts of money right now. It feels so good inside to be able to see that. It's like, you know, it's not, it's theirs, but it's just to be able to see their path and their growth is, is amazing in itself.

[B]

Dude, you nailed it. I, I totally aligned. Yeah, I couldn't really say it any better. Every beat is not necessarily for me. I take Zero credit when it comes to like take like zero responsibility for someone's a creator or seller success, you know, with, with their own business. But I do get so much joy out of being able to say that I participated in some way. Like I did my best to participate in their success. And that is for me, it's fulfilling and it keeps me going. The creator and the seller, they, they owe, they owe us, they owe me nothing. I don't expect them to say anything. They probably don't even think about ever be when it comes to their business. But like for me, it gives me a, it fills me up, which is, which is cool. And then if you can make money while doing those things, like I said, it's, it's a, it's a loop that continues to feed more people. And that's, that's the beautiful thing is money is a byproduct of the value that you provide to the market.

[A]

Well, the incredible thing about ever be is it has so much information, so much value. I mean I'm always trying to show everything you could do with the tool on my own channel. It's like the, the trends and how to follow them. And you know, a lot of people don't understand that it's there, it's available. So how do you use it and to show all these features and how they can benefit people? I think a lot of people miss those little aspects because other people have attempted to do it, failed and stopped. You may have seen the same results. It's like, okay, this isn't working. But you didn't let it just die. You just kept on pushing and kept on doing it until that feature was available. And what I love also is like when somebody does have a suggestion, I've had suggestions before and I shot them over to you. You don't just dismiss them, you instantly say, you know what, let's see if we can add this in some way. And if it does end up failing, you still push it to try to figure out how to get it and implement it. Which is just amazing in my opinion because not a lot of entrepreneurs or business minded people will do that. They just see like the little, you know, I guess the little box that you put your, you know, notes in and say, hey, can you add this as a, whatever, we'll get to it, maybe we won't. But you actually take that as your guiding point to make it better. And it's just amazing in itself with that. I love that.

[B]

Thank you brother. I appreciate that more than you know, Trust me, that's a massive compliment to me and our company too. One of our first core values, number one is be customer obsessed. And I, I stole that. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't make that up. I think I stole that from Amazon who probably sold from somewhere else. But the idea is that, dude, if, if you're not listening to your customers like your cus, like things are going to change around you, AI is going to happen, all this stuff is going to happen. But if you just are so close to your customers, you can tend, you tend to just move with the market. However the market will pull you. As long as you stay close to your customer and stay attached to them and keep serving them, serving them, serving them, you kind of, everything just kind of works itself out. So that's a massive compliment to me and I also see that with, with you and your community too. I write back at you. Like when people ask for things or they, they need training on a certain thing, you don't just be like, I don't know, you don't dismiss it either. You, you, you'll, you'll whip up a loom video and just plug it in there too just to help them and bend over backwards for them. So hats off to you, man. It's the same.

[A]

Thank you, I appreciate that. You know, and many people watching may not know, but you know, Cody and the ever be team, we've been working together to build more into my course and which is only a dollar a month to help people with their Everbee store which we're about to jump into next and where, you know, ever be going, but working with your team. I just want to say it's not even just you like your team in general is amazing and I didn't know how massive your team was until you added me to Slack and I'm like, holy shit. But every single person that I've communicated with on there is just amazing. I mean it's, you know, like you usually always have, oh, one person that's like, yeah, whatever, I'll get to it. But like nobody's like that in the entire teams. It's like you're, you're multiplied yourself by, you know, I'm not going to say the number but X amount.

[B]

And it's just, yeah, we have 45, 45 people full time at everybody as much as freelancers plus.

[A]

Yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt you. It's crazy that everybody has the same direction, same mindset, same spirit, you know, to get everybody on that same spirit and, and wanting to Help is so difficult and you have done it with your employees. I mean, it's just amazing.

[B]

You're gassing me up, man. But thank you. I, I appreciate that and I cannot take all the credit there. Like, yeah, I agree with you. My team is insane, insanely good and we have a really cool culture. Who have you worked with? Just curious, like you could drop names.

[A]

Like you've worked with Natalie, Leslie. Natalie. I mean Natalie. I asked her something. It's literally in my inbox, like minutes. I'm like, holy shit. You know, like usually it takes time and she's just on top of it real quick. I mean, Leslie, obviously we could talk about business forever. And I've talked to Kate and I'm actually going to be meeting her next week at Amplified, so that's going to be great. I haven't really spoke one on one with a lot of other people, but just that and then just seeing everybody, you know when somebody posts something in that slack and everybody's right, right behind them congratulating them, it's just, it's amazing feeling something that, you know, it's a.

[B]

It'S a cool thing and it's behind the scenes. Thank you for saying that. Natalie has been with us since, ah, gosh, maybe six, maybe eight months in I think to ever be. So she's been with us for a very long time and she came in when customer service was a mess. We couldn't, couldn't even get our login proper. And you haven't had the opportunity to meet with our engineering and product team quite yet, but I'm sure you will. But they're right, they're incredible too. I mean we have, I mean we're 45 people in the, in the company right now and 90% of us are engineering and product, product. So like we're a tech company through and through marketing. The marketing team. You talk to everybody on the marketing team? Pretty much. Kate, like it's just one. It's like we have like one or two people. Marketing, like marketing is not the most important thing to our company. Technology and the product is the most important thing, which I think is the right thing to do. But zero people in sales.

[A]

So for, for the marketing, I mean I heart every single video that I see on my Facebook and then I get more. So I love, I love seeing that in the different advertisements and you know, just the out of box thinking in advertisements. Those are, those are something that I just enjoy seeing. So, you know, you'll have a regular video then next you have a person in there. Then. Yeah, you have Leslie. I saw one the other day. She, like, looked in the trash can and that made me laugh because then it makes you want to watch the rest of the video. So anybody watching this, and it's like, well, how do I advertise? You just throw things out there and see what works. But that one right there made me literally watch the rest of the video because it made me laugh. She's like, oh. And I was just like, that's a great starting video right there. Like, why are you looking in your trash can?

[B]

But funny man. Yeah, it's. I agree. Yeah. So anyway, thank you for all that. Those are amazing compliments. I'll share this with the team. I don't take those lightly at all. And I think I would say that my biggest learning there is building. I don't want to say we're large. I know that we're large, relatively speaking. To most people listening to this, I still consider us a very small company, but especially compared to where we want to go. But I'll say that it's. That's probably been the most challenging part about building any kind of business is getting the right people on the bus and putting the right people on the bus in the right seats on the bus.

[A]

Yeah, that is super important. And anybody that has ever hired somebody, if you put the wrong person in the wrong seat, you don't go as far. So having the right people in the right positions is really what can make you take off, you know, especially, like, Cody has all these people behind them. They're just 100% support of that as well. You know, they're not there just for a paycheck. They're there to see everything become what he dreams as well as better everybody's life, which is the most important thing right there, is they're there to help you as well.

[B]

Totally. Thank you for that, man. That's. That's amazing.

[A]

So, yeah, that said is like, because I'm working with you guys very closely, I know the direction is to ever be sore. So anybody that does not know, obviously, Cody likes to pack on a ton of things, like I do. And, you know, you have something that's working so well and you're building it up, and it's like, you know what? Let's just add more to this. So he launched Everbee Store, which is pretty much going to take on Shopify, help you as an entrepreneur get out of that Etsy space, start building your own website and making it as easy as possible, where you literally can launch your Website within minutes. Now what made you decide to start going down that route? Is it something that just you had from the beginning, like thinking about it, that was a long term goal or did it just evolve over time?

[B]

If, if, if I reflect back. Thank you for that question. If I, if I reflect back 15 years ago at work, at my full time job, I was having lunch with another entrepreneur who was trying to try to become an entrepreneur to, to. He was in a tech, he was a, he was a software architect and I knew that I wanted to be in software. So I was, I was just, I bought him, bought him coffee actually wasn't launched and we were talking about different businesses and, and at that point Shopify was already there, fairly new, newer in the market, but still it was there. And we talked about like platforms and platforms as a service and I remember thinking then I'm like, I know that I, I want to be a platform that people build their dreams on top of. I've always known that. I felt like that was like the most amazing, most probably fulfilling business. I knew that I would make me feel so good if other people built their businesses on top of something I've built. I didn't know what that looked like. I didn't really know how that was going to happen, but I always knew that that was going to be true or I wanted that to be true. Then you fast forward, you know, 10 years, 11 years. You can't just build a platform. People build on top of you like overnight. Like you have to have capital, you have to have a market, you have to have demand, you have to have, you have to understand all the problems and complexities that go into that. And then sure enough there's there ever be research, right? And. But the platform was always in the conversation, it was always going to happen. It was just a matter of how and when it was going to happen was more so, more so the thing, so what I did because I always knew that like the platforms that were out there, WordPress, Time, Wix, Shopify, I, I use those things. I, I started my businesses on them and I couldn't figure them out. Like I could but like it would take me weeks to like go live. And then I just felt like it could, there should have been an easier way or maybe a more simple way or something like that. I didn't really know at the time. And I'm a decently smart guy that worked in technology that started three businesses before this. And like I'm kind of struggling with this thing. Like I feel like there's probably a lot of other people that have less experience than me that are, their dreams are likely just dying before they even begin. And I think that is the, that's a terrible situation for any economy. It's a terrible situation for any entrepreneur's family. And any entrepreneurs like, mindset is like, oh, I have this awesome idea. And like, you're just so fired up about it, you're excited and you go tell your spouse, tell your partner, tell your friend. You're just like, I'm gonna go do it. I'm gonna start tomorrow. And then you go and create your website and you're just like, whoa, I don't, I'm lost, like the domain, like, I, I don't know how to do it. And then pretty soon the dream starts to dwindle and you start to have so many.

[A]

It doesn't look the way that you saw it in your mind, you know, and then you get frustrated because there's so many aspects to building it and it's just overwhelming that you eventually give up.

[B]

Yeah. And then that one creation that that one entrepreneur had in his living room or her, that breakthrough thing that helped so much of the world, that was going to help so much of the world doesn't exist anymore more all because maybe a little bit of overwhelm on maybe decision fatigue, like micro decisions that don't even need to be decisions yet. Why do you need to set up your, your shipping profiles before you're in? Like, why do you need to set up your refund policy before you have any? Like, why are we worrying about so many things that are not important? Why are we setting up, why are we even picking business names before we have a freaking product? Like, the name can come later.

[A]

I mean that, that right there is so true. And just I have two things that I want to talk about is one, like, you had this thought from the beginning, which I always tell people that you have to think years in advance, which is literally what we said in the beginning. You had the thought, but you had to get there, you know, And a lot of people think, okay, well, I'm just going to launch this. I'm going to launch this, I'm going to launch this. Each thing takes steps. So that's why I'm always like, you know, Etsy is your foundation. It's literally your slab to start building. It's a slab because you're now understanding how consumers shop, how they search, what they like design wise and then how to sell to them, you know, and then from there you can now Build your house on that slab, which would be the ever be store and launching your own platform, your website, you know, because you first need to understand that first part before you can build the house. Otherwise if you don't have a foundation of understanding, your house crumbles.

[B]

That's a great, that's a, it's a, it's perfectly.

[A]

And that's pretty much what you did here is you built the everbay and then you, you built off of that. But you had this plan from the start. Like, I'm building the house, but I need to first get the foundation built before I get the house.

[B]

And the foundation for us was understanding technology, understanding product teams, how to build a technical team, how to like make sure we have cash flow, understand customers, your actual, understand all their problems like those. That's the foundation, that's the slab that you're talking about here. And building up a user base to where it's like, okay, we have enough feedback here. We have enough people saying that they gave up on Shopify. We have enough people saying they gave up, gave up on WordPress. We have enough people saying that this XYZ problems. Cool. We're going to take all those problems, we're going to try to solve as many of them as can as we can with our platform. And so yeah, I agree with you. That's, that's a perfectly way to say it. I, I always like to say it to people too. This way is you need to find your beach head and the beachhead is like is Etsy. For a lot of people listening to this, probably because they follow you because they, they sell on Etsy.

[A]

Right. And or E commerce in general.

[B]

E commerce in general. Okay, cool.

[A]

Expanded it out to try to help more. So perfect.

[B]

Etsy was your beach head watching.

[A]

Do they start on Etsy, which is good because at least they'll get an understanding, you know, perfect.

[B]

Same with same thing for me. People followed Everbee because they sold on Etsy. And the reality is that was just the start to their journey and also our journey. Now we're landing and then we're expanding. And that's the same thing for a seller who let's say that they're selling on Etsy right now, only perfect. You don't have to give up Etsy to like to expand you now. You just take all your learnings and like you said, build the house now. And now all of a sudden Etsy becomes a sales channel. And, and that's the way that I would look at it.

[A]

So yeah, the one thing you did mention too, is like caring about your name too much and the shipping profile. And that is such a true statement in itself because so many people think, okay, do I have to have a business name? I need it. I need to know what I'm doing. And then I need to set up this and this. And it's the perfection that ends up getting you nowhere, you know, And a great example of this would be Amazon. Everybody knows Amazon. Everybody shops on Amazon. But Amazon, their name was, what was it? Abracadabra. Yeah, and that's what he wanted to name it. Abracadabra. And when they first started started, they literally had tables like this. Well, actually this one's more fancy than they actually had. In their, their little warehouse, there's a door with just two, you know, poles on it like, like horses. And it was across and that's how they filled it. And at one point I remember, you know, watching an interview with Jeff Bezos and he said to the one person, you know what we're gonna do? I'm gonna buy us some knee pads so that we don't. We can like crawl around and get these books out fast. And the guy just stared at him like, what? Like. But that was the mindset of just building something and not thinking of perfecting it. It was like you're in the process of building it, not thinking, okay, I need this name to make sense. I need to have a warehouse that's spitting things out for me. I need to have this full blown website. It's all the steps in the process that get you to that point. But you have to start there from.

[B]

The scratch and you got it. Like, yes, that's. That is it. Like what you need is a product that people want to buy and then you need to trade the product for the money. That's what you actually need for the business. And you can work everything else out after that.

[A]

Yeah, we can go in the money. Money doesn't really exist. It's just going from one account to the other. So. But we're not even going to, to tackle that one. I think that'll throw everybody for a loop. So with. So now that you launched the ever restore, where is your goal with that? Because I know you are thinking years in advance, I would love to know, just you don't have to tell us everything, but just a little bit of insight on like, where do you see this going?

[B]

Yeah, thank you for asking that. Hopefully this will date well 10 years from now, maybe 50 years from the goal is to. So starting with the belief I, I fundamentally, I and also ever be believe that every single human, every one of us is a creator. We're a creator. We create our universe, we create our life. We create all of our circumstances around us. Mostly at least. And because we're creators, I also, I also believe that every single creator should own a business. I think that's contrary to what a lot of people believe. People think that entrepreneurship is only for certain individuals, only for the, only for the blessed, for whatever reason. Like they can just handle stress and they can handle this. I don't believe that. Not in today's world. I believe every single creator should own a business. My job at Everbee is to make sure that happens because I believe the world's a better place with more small businesses existing. Even if they're side businesses, even if somebody's working full time in their job and they love it, but they should still own a business. It gives power to individuals when, when they have a business. You have more leverage for the economy. You can weather different storms. If you get a layoff, you can have your family doesn't starve. And not only that, even if you have a full time job and you also have this side business, guess what? You become, you become a better employee because you understand. You could think like the CEO, you could think like the vp, you could think like the founder. You become a net positive, like a better person for the, for the world. When an entrepreneur, I truly believe this, you become a better father for your kids. You become a better problem solver, you become a better mother for your kids. Everything is better. So with that being said, my mission is to help create over 100 million power. I want everybody to power over 100 million businesses eventually across the world, in every market. The, the big big. If you were to ask me like hey Cody, like if you could snap your fingers and you have one wish and you were like, if people were writing articles about ever be and its impact, this isn't the main thing, but I would love for this to be true. Is somehow ever be played a role in eradicating global poverty in certain markets.

[A]

That's amazing. I love that right there.

[B]

If there's a lot of people living off $2 a day in a lot of like, you know, a lot of markets. And if with the Internet is expanding to all these markets, education is becoming more democratized, right? With YouTube and like other things too, why isn't, why, why shouldn't E commerce, why shouldn't commerce like the capitalism is, is a, it's not a perfect system not saying that. What I'm saying is that it's the best system we got, and this can actually help eradicate global poverty, I believe. I think it'll take a lot of companies like Everbee to, to do the same thing. And that's, that's totally okay with me. As long as we're promoting entrepreneurship at a very high level. That would be the dream.

[A]

No, I love that dream. And, you know, it's, I mean, it's why I always, People start even, you know, I have a lot of people in my community, and then they all have different goals. You know, one could be I just want to have some extra money for my family. Some could be I just want to be able to afford a vacation. And others, they want to make millions, you know, but in any sense, somebody, they're struggling in some way and just want to make ends meet, and to be able to see that and want to help with that is just amazing in itself. And obviously, you know, going even a step further into, you know, poverty in general, I mean, I come from that sort of life where it's just like, nobody helped me. And that's why I do the things that I do is because if I just had the guidance, somebody to stay step in and say, this is what you need to do, I could have made it 10 times faster. But instead, I'm never going to say, oh, I, you know, I wouldn't go back because it built who I am. But it's like, that's why I do this, and that's why you do it. It's like that one aspect, to be able to help guide somebody in that right direction, to make their life, dream come true and whatever their dream is, you know, everybody has a different dream, but to just make it come true is, is, you know, amazing in itself.

[B]

Amazing. I, I, I love that. I love, I love, like, your, your mission. It's interesting, too. I think about this a lot. I'm like, huh? Does this mean George is so selfless? Does this mean Cody is so selfless? And then I, then I question myself. I'm like, no, I'm probably super selfish.

[A]

Actually, because, like, oh, I'm definitely selfish.

[B]

I'm like, this actually makes me feel better than I think anyone else. So I guess if, if that makes me selfish, I'm like, all right, that's fine with me. As long as the selfishness is helping other people achieve their dreams and help them, then I'm okay with that.

[A]

You know, I, like, I care about all my people. I don't charge Them like, you know, yeah.

[B]

It's like yours is a dollar a month.

[A]

A month. You know, I'm not how you like, honestly.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm not being like, oh, give me $10,000. And I think so many people are waiting for me to do that, but it's just like, I don't. I want you to succeed, but that doesn't mean that I'm not like a, a selfish person. Like, I like my things. I like to be happy myself.

[B]

We're humans.

[A]

And in addition to that, it was funny. Leslie and I were on a call and she's like, I hate hearing myself back. And me, I'm like, oh, I watch my videos all the time. And I'm like, wow, look at this guy. I'm obsessed with myself. And if you ask my wife or my kid, I'm obsessed with myself. I don't care. And that's how I feel. You know, some people need that session with yourself to push her, you know, and other people are a little timid on it. But whatever it is, I'm here to guide each and every single person as minimal as possible to help you succeed and have your dream. I mean, I have my dream and of course my dreams are still bigger and I need to have more because once you stop believing and stop building, I think that you just die mind wise as well. Like stop like thinking and evolving and all that. But that doesn't mean that I have to step on somebody's, you know, face to get there. Over a ladder. You know, we can all bring each other up.

[B]

Yeah. Especially in today's world. I think that I wonder sometimes if that used to be. You used to have to be true. Like you used to have to kind of be more cutthroat with things.

[A]

Well, definitely corporate atmosphere. I mean, I admit it, I was a dick. You know, especially in the corporate world. I did not care. I wanted to get up that ladder as fast as possible. I didn't give a who was in my way. But after that, it's like we all could have been there, you know, we all could have been at the top. But I think that that's what the corporate atmosphere kind of like tries to make you do is compete against each other. And we would always do that. I mean, I launched call centers around the world and what we would do is we'd have three different call centers competing against each other. And it's like, this one's doing these numbers and this one's doing these numbers. Why aren't you succeeding? You know, so that's the mentality that you have is that you have to be cutthroat. You have to, you know, step on somebody to keep going. And that is the, in the sense of, of your competition of having a business, you know, that business isn't the one that's paying for your bills and paying for your food, but in the sense of life and in general and person to person. I think we can all help each other.

[B]

Oh yeah. I think it's the difference of scarcity mindset versus abundance mindset. Right. If the cool thing about like this is why I love capitalism, it's why I love entrepreneurship is, is because people think that a lot of times people think, I have this argument a lot with, with or debate with people. Often people think that it's like a finite amount of like money in circulation and like, or there's only a finite number of success, you know, available and only certain people like winner takes all. And quite the opposite actually is the more successful like other people are. Like that doesn't take anything away from like your chances of success at like zero at all. It's, it's an ever ending abundant thing. And I think people fall into like the limitation mindset of that they kind of make an excuse for themselves of like, well, he's a billionaire. So like he's taking a, the money from like from me and it's like no, not at all. Actually. He's just proven what's possible and there's no, there's not $1 billion less because he has a billion dollars of net worth. There's not $1 billion less of, of of money in circulation. Like you can create your as much as you want as well. It could be a trillion dollars and it's not going to take away from anyone else. Curious what your thoughts on that, but that's, that's.

[A]

You and I both have the same thought on that also that the more money we make, the more money we can help and give. You know, a lot of people. That's one thing that I, you know, I, I messed up in the beginning is I would take all the money myself and I was, I was very, I still am selfish, but not in the sense of, of giving back. You know, I'm selfless in that act that I want to give either my time, my money, something in that sense. Whereas before when I was younger, it was like, this is all my money and nobody else can have it. But I never got joy from that, you know, and the joy that I get, and I know you get joy as well. Is being able to build something and being able to give it back and being able to help people. I've traveled the world and anybody that's sitting here right now watching this in the United States, if you haven't traveled outside the United States, it is literally like war zones. The way that people live, you would not believe. And just giving them some sort of food and money in some sense or, you know, helping or building something with them. I mean, it's just like their face and their reaction is just. It's so rewarding, but they are so thankful. It's unbelievable. And people here all like kind of assume. It's like you just expect it to happen. Like somebody should give me this or somebody should give me that.

[B]

I agree with you. I sort of cut you off. I agree. Like, I think, I think us, unfortunately, I don't love this about us because I live here. We tend to be more entitled. Yeah, tend to. Tend to be. I'm not saying every person, but like we tend to be. And I feel that also it is.

[A]

Interesting when you go overseas and you see the way that other people live and they're just so happy. I mean, I told this story once before that when I worked for Samsung. I went over there to teach people products and people came on their day off to. To learn. If you ask somebody here to come on their day off with no pay to learn a product so that they can sell it for your company and.

[B]

They can get better.

[A]

No. You know, and it's like that's the difference. They have so much of that in them that they just want to help and then you give them a little bit back and they're just so great. They all thanking me for coming and teaching them. And I'm getting paid to teach them. They all thanked me, me refusely. Meanwhile, I'm thanking them for coming on their day off, you know, to learn. Because so many people around in the United States wouldn't do that because like you said, entitlement.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I agree. Yeah, it's. I do like where we're going though. I feel like AI is going to, to help the world, like kind of switch, transition to AI a little bit. I think it's going to help entrepreneurship be more democratized, become more accessible. It's going to help speed us up. I am as. I know that we have like these faults and US market and other markets as well. But like net positive wise, I do like the way we're trending. I feel like most more people want to start businesses today. They See that it's more tangible and more possible, specifically with E commerce. It's like it's becoming so accessible. There's still gaps though, that need to be solved. Educational gaps, which you're out, which you're solving. There's technical gaps which we're solving. But man, there's so much opportunity and it's. The opportunity is getting bigger and bigger every day. Curious what you think. Do you feel like it's actually growing as an opportunity or do you think it's shrinking as an opportunity?

[A]

I do. I think it is growing. It's making business a lot easier. And just to go back to what I was saying before about entitlement, the only reason we were talking about that is because so many people feel like they deserve something. I, I busted my ass, so I just deserve this. The people that want to help or, or you know, just make a business to give back and, and not even give back, but they need, you know, you want money yourself, obviously, but in the sense of I'm going to build this to better myself, and it's not a deserving wise, but I'm going to build this myself. You're going to be able to use the AI tools to do such things, but you just have to make sure that that is, is your goal and not the I deserve this just because if you start looking at it as the way of, you know, I'm going to use these AI tools and everything that's available to build my business and give back and, and have more for my family and be able to go on trips and not live in poverty and have a big house and all that, that's perfectly fine. You're just first front row. Can't be like, I deserve this just because, you know, nobody deserves anything. We don't even deserve to wake up each day, Each day like that right there is a blessing in itself that every day I wake up and I get to breathe.

[B]

Yeah, we're talking about here, what you're talking about is accountability. And that's what's like fully responsible for your own life. And that's, that's what I love about entrepreneurship is like, it makes you be.

[A]

Fully responsible for your, you're kind of on your own. It's like if you fail, you fail. And you know, it's just, it actually makes you, pushes you a lot harder too because you're responsible now for your failure. And that will take away that whole deserving all immediately, like with a snap.

[B]

And that's circling back to like, that's why it makes you such a better person because now, like, think about your nieces and nephews and your grandkids, like they can. They get to look at you and they're going to see you as a responsible, accountable person who takes responsibility for their actions and not a victim, not the victim mindset. And that just makes you just so valuable for this world. We need more people to like that we have this culture that's not like that. And that's why we need more entrepreneurs, because we need more people responsible for their actions, held other people responsible, other people more accountable. And we just need more of those people. Those people are kind of a dying breed, honestly. And that's. I don't know, that's why I respect what you're doing with your channel, because you're crazy.

[A]

So many people too will look at you like, you shouldn't be doing this. You should just get a normal job. You shouldn't, you know, look, look, you failed. You should stop. Don't stop doing this. You know, and so many people experience that on a daily basis. And it's like kind of, you know, some people give up because of that constant nagging in their ear. But it's like, we understand you. I know my community has your back. I know everbeast community has your back as well. If you ever have a down day. That's what I love about my community. And so many people have posted and said, hey, I feel like shit today.

[B]

Yeah, your community pops off, man.

[A]

They come out with, you know, pushing like, hands behind your back. Let's get you going. Don't worry, we will pick you up. And I love that about everybody in there and what we've built because so many people are alone in that aspect. And entrepreneurship isn't a lonely road, you know. So to know that you have all these people that are supporting you that don't even actually know you is amazing. When you think that you're going to get support from like a loved one or, you know, family, friends, and they're just like, well, you know, but the funny thing is after you succeed, they all start talking about how they met you. Oh, you know, I'm, I met, I know you've had this like, oh, I met Cody. And it's like, oh, I met Georgia. I've been friends with George for X amount of years. It's like, yeah, whatever, go yourself. You know, and that, that's the way I speak. And I'm just like, I don't care anymore. Like, who cares? And it's funny, I launched a business page finally for Facebook, so people can actually join it. And I sent an invite, and I don't have many friends on Facebook. It's like 600 out of those 600 friends, only 30 people join. I had more people join from my community than actual friends because so many of those people only follow me because they want to see me fail. That's just how the world is. So, you know, it's, it's great. The community that I build, it's great to see the community you build. The people that are coming in from, you know, Everbee and wanting to learn to ever be store, they're just as supportive. And it's just great to be able to see everybody come together behind each other and push each other for that greatness.

[B]

It's rare. It's, it's rare, but it's, it's, it's out. It's out there. You just got to look for them. I agree with you. I, I, I tend to forget a little bit, if I'm honest, because I've kind of been in the entrepreneurship game for, for enough time now where you kind of, like, you naturally start to filter out people that just don't really align with your vision anymore, mission anymore. You probably can relate. And pretty soon, like, like, I can't really name a lot of people that, like, are close to me that are kind of, like, rooting for my failure anymore. I can look back and be like, there's a lot of people, but, like, not really anymore because we've done such a good job of pruning those people out of our lives. And I think you reminded me that a lot of people watching this right now are probably just in that first phase of where they actually don't have a lot of understanding or support from their, from their partners and, and from their, and their friend circle and things like that. Whereas for me, now, it's been, you know, a decade. People kind of just get who I am, and if they don't, they're not in my life anymore. But that's not how it started.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, if I'm on the phone with somebody and they say something negative, I immediately hang up because I don't need the negativity in my life. I do like keeping the Facebook people on there waiting for me to fail just so I can, you know, give them the middle finger. Don't get, you know, they'll be like, oh, George will fail eventually. Be like, well, haven't failed yet.

[B]

The reality is. Yeah, you never do.

[A]

Yeah, that comes down to yourself too. And Then even if you do fail, are you going to post about it? You know, but I always show my community all my failures so they know that it is something that needs to be seen. But I do know that a lot of my community members, they have said, you know, I'm doing this to prove it to my friends or my family or, you know, my husband or wife doesn't understand or my parents don't understand. And it's, I've been there and it's just, and I know you have as well. It's such a gut a punch when the people that are so close to you, you, you think that they're going to understand your vision, but nobody does. And it's just like, understand like this is where I'm going and this is what's going to be and can I speak to that? That. Yeah, go for it.

[B]

When you first start your like entrepreneurship journey, or you like, you have this vision and for your life and for your business and you go and tell people about it and your, their reaction is hesitancy or critic, you know, being critical. It's upsetting. It could, it could be upsetting, it could be deflating. But I, I, I want to tell that person right now who maybe just had that conversation maybe yesterday, maybe something maybe they haven't been told before is kind of in their face. But what would you expect? Like, you have no evidence of being successful in that business. You have no evidence of starting this thing that you're coming out of the blue talking about this thing. You have not proved it. So what you probably need to learn from this is to stop talking about it and go and start doing it and then just make the results speak for themselves. I find that so many entrepreneurs are telling people about like this vision or want to be a entrepreneurs or wanting to start, be entrepreneurs and they expect everyone to just kind of like rally behind them and like, and they just kind of, kind of get pissed off about like, oh, my family doesn't understand me and all this stuff. I get it, of course I do. But like, why would they understand you? You haven't done anything. Go and do it first. Like, why do you, why you have this like an expectation that everyone just needs to understand you because you spoke words like, no, people understand actions and they understand results. That's what they want. So instead of like, let's say for me, for my, for my wife, instead of going like, hey babe, we're going to be so successful, I'm going to be like this, I'm going to rock this I'm going to do this, do this and that. Why? Why would she should. Why should she believe me? Why should she believe me? There's no evidence yet, so I need to take responsibility and accountability for this and be like, cool. I told her maybe she doesn't shut it down. Maybe she doesn't. Maybe she's not all in.

[A]

Cool.

[B]

Go prove it. Prove it to her. Prove it to my family. And so I kind of want to just flip that around because a lot of people kind of get pissed when they're people to people don't understand them. It's because you haven't done anything yet. Go do something first.

[A]

No, I love that. And what's funny is you said about your family and even your wife, I remember when I first met my wife and I was like, we're getting married. And she's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, pretty much I sound like, you know, everybody else that she's ever met and saying, oh, I'm different. And she's like, yeah, sure, prove it. It wasn't until I prove it that you understand it. And now we're married, you know, everything like that. But same thing with business. And also, if you just talk about it, you procrastinate a lot. It's all talk. So just sit down and do it and you're good to go.

[B]

You don't bury yourself in the freaking closet or in the freaking room, basement, whatever, for six months. Go prove it to the world. Prove it.

[A]

And the thing is, you don't have to prove it to anybody. I want you to prove it to yourself. Like, prove to yourself that you can do this because that's more rewarding. You know, there's some things in my life, it's just like, yeah, it's because I want to give the middle finger to the world and be like, I was able to do this, but there's other things that are inside that are for me. And that's what you have to, you know, know, as an entrepreneur that you want to achieve this. Not for that person to prove them wrong. Prove yourself wrong, that it's possible. Because I know you have doubts in your own brain that you can achieve, you know, so start thinking, I can do this and I'm going to prove to myself that I can do this.

[B]

Powerful.

[A]

Cody, I know that I've taken so much of your time already and I really do appreciate you coming on, talking about, you know, the journey of Everbee. And I think a lot of people are going to see this and no, it's not Just like ever be store came out of nowhere. I mean, this is something that's been in your mind for 15 years. And to see that hopefully puts it into perspective of you building a business right now, watching this, building a business, this isn't something that's going to come about tomorrow or next month. It takes that thought process and time to build it. So, you know, I really appreciate you taking the time and explaining how ever b began, where it went and where it's going. I mean, I love it. I love the story, obviously. You know, I love the software and I love you and your team. So thank you so much, man.

[B]

I can't. Right back at you, Georgia. I thank you for you and thank you for your community that you've built and oh, man, I always appreciate your support personally as a friend. And then I know that everyone is so lucky to have you in their. In their digital lives, just kind of being in their corner all the time. So I appreciate you very much. Thanks for having me on.

[A]

No, thank you. And we're going to get together and party soon, so let's do it. All right, I will talk to you later. Bye.