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I mean, they get their little office, they set up, they get the nice desk, the best mic, the best camera, they get their business cards, post their all their social media to make sure they're all on brand. The reality is all that is all fluff. None of it matters. What matters is creating something of value for a specific type of person. Serving humans. That's what business is about. This is what entrepreneurship is about. That is the game of business. That's what we're trying to do here. We're not trying to show the world how like successful we are. That's all BS and we get caught up way too much into this because if you're listening to this and you actually do identify with being entrepreneur, that's you take it seriously. Hey there. I'm Cody McGuffey. I'm a husband, dad of three and I'm the founder of Everbee, Everbee, Everbee, Everbee, where we serve over a million creators across the globe, helping them grow thriving online businesses. I believe every single human is a creator and I believe every single creator should own a business, a business that gives them the freedom to build the life that they dream of. Built online is where creators, entrepreneurs and leaders get real insights, real stories and the edge to build something that's actually, actually lasts. This is where the next generation builders get built. Welcome. Welcome. Today is going to be a little different. If you're a weekly listener, you tend to hear me bring on a guest and I get to grill them. I get to grill the guest with, with questions of business and scaling their, their brand and success and failure and struggles mentally and financially. Now they overcome those things and starting their businesses from scratch and zero to success and, and all the good stuff. Right. But today's gonna be a little different. Just gonna be me. So talking with you for a little bit while you're listening in and, or watching. Maybe you're on the drive to, to a job, maybe you're in the drive to a home from your work. You're sitting in traffic and maybe you're just on a walk, maybe you're in a workout, maybe you're doing, doing the gym right now and just checking in. So I appreciate you coming and spending some time with me as always. We're doing this solo podcast episode and maybe we'll do more of these if this works out. Because we've been asked before from folks that listen from the community and just for more depth and my own opinions on, on certain things. And so I'm a little hesitant. Naturally, I don't cause I don't do solo episodes very often and I tend to. It's interesting though, because when I listen to podcasts, which I do listen to a lot of podcasts, and I have for years and years and years, and they've added so much value to me. I've actually always got more value out of the solo ones because I really come to that podcast specifically for that specific person. And if you have guests on, or he or she has guests on, that's great too. But I really want to hear from the actual host. Right. Because that's who I'm following. But I'm still resistant to this as a host myself just because this isn't what I do, you know, I. A day to day basis, like a podcast is a side thing of what we've been doing for, you know, last four years with over 150 episodes or something like this. But really, as anyone who knows me, right, is the founder and CEO of Everbee, we're building a tech company and that's like my day job. When I think about doing the solo episodes, it's more like, you know, there's more responsibility, there's more prep that comes in. I want to make sure I come in and deliver for, you know, you listeners because I value your time and I know you value mine. So anyway, what are we talking about today? We're talking about a subject. By the way, this is all unscripted. I have some notes over here. You're going to hear me kind of rant a little bit. And so if you don't like it, that's okay too. If you like it, great. Happy you're here. So question that came up to comes up often, actually. And it came up often when I was maybe in, in your stage. If you're, if you're listening to this and you're starting a, starting a business right now, maybe it's your first business, maybe it's your second or third, but you haven't really figured it out fully quite yet. I think you'll like this episode. If you're building the business and you're like kind of figured out a lot of things, there's always next levels, right? Constantly. But this one might not be as valuable for you because you already kind of identify with this. But for the folks that are listening to this and they're like maybe driving home from their job, sitting in the traffic or, you know, they're, they're going to their work, they're tapping in their daily dose of entrepreneurship motivation, this one might be valuable. So for Me, I was always wondering if I was really built for this. If I was, am I ever gonna make it? Am I ever gonna be that. That person, you know, that says that, oh, I was here and now I'm here. Am I really an entrepreneur? Will I ever be an entrepreneur fully? And. And then how do I even define being an entrepreneur? And how do I really know if I'm actually an entrepreneur? If I'm built for it mentally, if I'm actually, you know, achieve it? How do I know when I've actually, like, achieved that badge of honor? So let's talk about that. It's funny, entrepreneurship. The definition has. I don't even know the. The act. You Google it, right? Let's. Let's just Google it for fun. Entrepreneur is an individual who identifies a business opportunity, initiates a venture, and assumes the associated financial risks to generate profit. Often driven by innovation and passion, they're essentially creators who organize resources, develop new ideas, and manage enterprises to solve problems. Love that. Cool. Well, there you go, right? And so at what stage do you actually earn that badge, right? Is it your first sale? Is it when you make your, you know, that first dollar? Is it when you quit your job officially? Is it just when you start a business? Oh, I. I started a venture. I aim to solve problems and I organizing resources like, you know, is it. I update. Update my Instagram profile to say, you know, entrepreneur. Is it when I start tweeting stiff about entrepreneurship constantly and I'm using ChatGPT to create tweets and. Or X whatever you want to call it. Is it when I'm posting on LinkedIn every day about the lessons about entrepreneurship and it's. It's just kind of funny. I kind of like laugh and chuckle at this because maybe you're doing this, by the way, and I'm not trying to hate on it. It's just one of those things where it's so interesting to me that usually the wantpreneurs. There's a difference between entrepreneur and entrepreneur. Usually actual entrepreneurs are the ones not posting any of that stuff. And usually the entrepreneurs, typ typically tend to be the ones posting about those things constantly, especially at the beginning. And to me, this is just. It's very interesting because every time that you're posting, when you're just starting out, your time is so valuable, right? The only currency, the only thing of value that you have, really, when you're first starting your. Your entrepreneurship journey is your time, because you don't really have many skills and leverage yet. And a lot of times you're not starting with a whole bunch of money. And so you only have your time. And so when it's interesting to me, when I see early stage founders, right, early early stage folks that are trying to be entrepreneurs and trying to build a business, I see them quickly go into posting stuff. And it's so funny because I'm like, man, if you just spent those four hours per week that you were doing posting and actually building something and creating something of value for customers, thinking about the things that you're going to offer to customers to help them, to serve them, thinking about business models and actually acting on that and creating something rather than just talking about it and posting about it, you will be so much further along. And typically I have friends on both camps, right? Entrepreneurs and also entrepreneurs. And typically the entrepreneur camp are the folks who talk about it. Fastest ones to post, post everything on social. They're the fastest ones to give entrepreneurial advice. They're the fast ones to create a business card or the fastest ones to sometimes create a podcast, even before I've even done much. Then the other side, the entrepreneurs are the ones who bury their head in the office, who are at a coffee shop in the middle of the night working, and they didn't post anything at all. They didn't post a story, they didn't post a reel, they didn't take a little screenshot of their, you know, out here grinding, you know, 9pm night, just another late night at the office. Entrepreneurs, and most typically are the ones who are not actually doing that. Like they're the ones working, but they're not posting. And so if you find yourself in this camp of posting a lot, trying to like emulate, like show that you are successful, have the perception, give the perception out there that I, I'm building something, I'm, I'm doing it, you're, you're falling in that camp of I'm an, I'm a entrepreneur. And if you find yourself kind of chuckling at folks that do that and you're the one actually, actually doing the work, but you're not really showing and telling the world that you're working, the likelihood, in my, my experience, the likelihood of you actually becoming that entrepreneur is much higher. And why is that? And to me, why the reason for this is because when you are posting and talking about being an entrepreneur and saying that you're an entrepreneur and feeling like I'm an entrepr are already getting the high of the status, the success, like you're getting those, that feedback loop from the market And I'm sorry, from I guess external, you know, people and social and things like this to where what's going to happen. You go through a loop and you actually, you already just shortcutted all, all of the success, all the work part and you just got straight to the high. And so what happens is you end to get stuck in that, you get stuck in that loop for a lot of times, years and years and years. And I see this very, very often, actually more often than I'd like to, to count. Whereas the folks who don't even subscribe to doing that, who are, you know, you're creating those products right now, you're creating those offers, you're reading those books, you are listening to those podcasts, you're working on that spreadsheet, building that business. Like you are learning about creating designs and products and AI. Like you are building that E commerce brand. Like you are learning Facebook ads and you're not telling many people about it. You're not posting it out there for the, the social media sphere to, to see. Man, you, you are on your path of success for sure and you're not getting the high yet. And that's good. You don't want to get that high too early. Because if you get that high, that feedback from the, from the social media and your friends and all this stuff too early, then you actually will kill some of that drive inside of you. You won't kill it, but you'll, you'll kind of dampen it for a while. And so if you are that person in that camp and you're feeling like other people are being, are ahead of you and feeling like they're, they're just like somehow they just figured it out and you're just like, are they actually, have they figured it out? Chances are they probably haven't typically. And the chances are actually you are probably further along than them. So there's a thing that I, I kind of subscribe to this, this thinking of when I was first building my, my businesses and I still really think about this is you just need to bury yourself, put a, like a blanket over your head and bury yourself and, and your obsession. Don't tell the world about anything for probably like a year, maybe even 2 and maybe even 10 if you need to. And the chances of you actually coming out of that, being extremely successful with whatever your ambitions and goals are, are much, much higher than the person who always is. Oh, I work today, I better take a picture. Oh, I work today. I better send a tweet. Oh, I, I Work today. I better give some advice on LinkedIn. Those are going to be in stuck in a loop for a while until they get awareness and get out of that loop. So if you find yourself in that loop, I mean, do whatever you want to do. But for me, you could post all that stuff later on. You could post all that stuff after, after you've made it, whatever that means. After you've made it to the first level of your success. And if you want to share, start sharing some advice after that. And maybe you want to start coaching some people. Cool. That, that's awesome. Like, give back to the community, Pay it forward. All good. Like, that's all good stuff. But don't confuse. This happens a lot. Don't confuse it by like posting too early. And you will get stuck in a loop and you'll, you'll get stuck there for years, maybe, maybe forever. I've seen it. So. All right, so back. That's. Hopefully maybe you're shaking your head and maybe you're chuckling at this because you know people like this. We all know somebody who's like almost faking it. And they're playing entrepreneur, they're playing business. And I have a thing when I talk with my little brother, who's not so little, my nephews and some people in my family, because my family is full of entrepreneurs too. They. We kind of talk about this thing of like playing business. And I learned this early on from another mentor. It was a mentor or a podcast. I don't remember what it was. I think it was actually a podcast. And they were talking about this thing, idea of playing business. People love to play business. I mean, they get their little office they set up, they get the nice desk, the best mic, the best camera. They get their business cards, post their. All their social media to make sure they're all on brand. The reality is all that is all fluff. None of it matters. What matters is creating something of value for a specific type of person, serving humans. That's what business is about. This is what entrepreneurship is about. That is the game of business. That's what we're trying to do here. We're not trying to show the world how, like, successful we are. That's all bs. And we get caught up way too much into this because if you're listening to this and you actually do identify with being entrepreneur, then you take it seriously, right? You're just like, dude, I. I actually do care about my customers. And those people over there are posting about all the things about like teaching and all stuff and they haven't really done much of anything. Now should you focus on them and like obsess about them? No, not at all. But should it kind of like irk you a little bit? Yeah, it should. In fact, in fact, it's actually a good thing that it does kind of bug you because you're trying to be an example, you know, for future up and coming entrepreneurs that, hey, you actually get things done. When you actually create something of value and you build a system to repeat that thing and like repeat those sales. And so that's, that's what entrepreneurship means to me. Does it. Going back to like some of the first questions that I had was, is it when you quit your job? Is it when you file an llc? Is it when you post on social media? Hopefully I've answered some of those things. But for me the definition is, is loose. Probably for you, but for me it was. I define entrepreneurship for me, like when I say, hey, when can Cody call himself an entrepreneur, mentally, internally, when can I allow myself to do that? And so for me that was when I was fully supporting myself and my family off of my own business, my own income. That's. That was my definition of entrepreneur. Maybe yours is less, maybe yours is a sideb business entrepreneur, maybe. But for me it was, I didn't feel right about it until if I had a full time job and I was working that full time job and I was relying on that income and while I was building my side business, I was not personally. That did not qualify for me to be, to be an entrepreneur. I had the entrepreneurship mindset. I was on my entrepreneurship journey, all those good things. But did I earn that badge of honor? Not my opinion. Maybe I'll leave it at that. That went a little longer than I thought. I was hoping to keep this around 15 minutes. We're already at 17 minutes. And, and I didn't cover everything but. Curious what you think. Curious what you think and how would you define being an entrepreneurship, being an entrepreneur for yourself, right? Is it when you make that first, you know, first sale? Is it when you first get that, that first business live? Is it when you create your first. A hundred thousand dollars? Is it when you first. Is it when you quit your job officially and what does it mean for you? And that's, that's more important than what Cody's definition is. But I guess my warning to anyone here want to nail this on the head is don't get it confused. Playing entrepreneur versus being entrepreneur, two different things. And it's unfortunately very confused in the market right now with people. And I, I respect the entrepreneurship game, I respect the capitalism game. I respect the idea of building freedoms for yourself, financial free time, freedom, location freedom. And I believe business is the best vehicle to do those things, especially online business, but not always, always online business, but specifically online business is an incredible vehicle for all those things. So, yeah, I think we, we do have a duty and I think you as a listener have a duty too, to do it the right way. And I think that you have a duty to, to show up and coming entrepreneurs that are people who are going to be following your example, you know the right way to do things. And in my opinion, this is the right way to do things and there's a wrong way to do things. So we'll leave it at that. I appreciate you listening in. I think it's one of the first, maybe this is the third, third solo episode that we've. If you wouldn't mind if I could ask you a favor. What do you think about this? Drop it in the comments or, or maybe leave a review on the Apple or Spot, Spotify podcast, wherever, wherever you're listening. Just the feedback loop helps me tremendously on how to actually improve and bring valuable thoughts and insights and curiosities to you. And I, truthfully, I just don't know if this is valuable unless you tell me, right? I don't. I'm not a full time podcaster. I'm not a full time content creator. And so to me, I rely literally on your. Or would you review or your comments and your emails and so you could also email me at codyverby IO share your thoughts with me there. Um, we try to get back to every email, anything we can get hundreds of them a day. But it's like we try, try to do our best there and know that if you're listening to this, I'll, I'll cap it with this before you sign off. Before I sign off. The chances of you, the chances are if you are listening to this podcast, you're 20 minutes in. The chances of you actually being an entrepreneur and on your entrepreneurship journey and the chances of you actually achieving that goal or whatever you are going for if you're listening to this, are very like 99.9% going to hit those goals. You are the type of person I say that with, with confidence because I was that guy, I was that kid, I was that person driving to work, driving back to work, stuck in traffic, on a walk in a gym, listening to a podcast about entrepreneurship. And I was always wondering, am I going to. Is that going to be true for me? Is that going to be true for me though? The self doubt, you know, those little voices in your head, you're not going to make it. Probably not. Yeah, it's probably for them. Not that success isn't for you though. You have too many reasons why you're not going to be, listen, be successful. That's not true. And if you don't believe that, maybe just listen to me for minute, borrow some of my faith, my belief in you. You set a vision, you get clear on that vision. You pursue that vision, you speak it into existence and you act as if it's true. You work towards that vision with that unrelenting massive action. You listen to podcasts like this. You're going to make it. You will achieve what, what you want to achieve. Will it take six months? No. Will it take one month? No. Is it going to take a year? Maybe 10 years? Who cares? It doesn't matter. Pay the price, whatever the price is, right? So if it gives you any confidence, if you're wondering this right now, of how do I know if I'm really an entrepreneur, chances are you probably are. You're listening to this and how do I know if I'm going to hit those goals? Chances are you probably are because you're the type of person that sits do a 25 minute episode about entrepreneurship and you're trying to expand your, your mental capacity and you're trying to become a better leader and you're trying to be a better person for your family and for your community and like you're the type of person. So with that, appreciate y'. All. Talk to you soon. See you next episode.