$zero to $one

Firstly, this is not a knock of the great Peter Thiel book “Zero to One” although I would highly recommend picking up a copy.

This is my story of taking an idea from zero dollars in revenue to one dollar in revenue. Over the last ten to fifteen years I’ve done this four times - taking a flicker of an idea and then generated at least a dollar from it. It’s such an invigorating feeling, to invent your own money & revenue but a lot of people struggle to ever make that first dollar and even more never even give themselves the chance.

DISCLAIMER: If you’re looking for a blog about how to be PERFECT before attaining your first dollar in revenue, this is definitely not for you.

In my opinion, perfection is the enemy of progress. Especially when we’re talking about startups. More ideas go to the graveyard because people over-complicate their step one. They’ll take a simple concept like starting a yard care service and within 24 hours it will have evolved into needing a fully branded trailer, a new Ford F-250, 13 lawn mowers, 5 leaf blowers, 5 edgers, $40,000 for marketing and a team of 7 - just to get started.

I’m writing this to make my position crystal clear - if that last paragraph describes your last idea you’re not an entrepreneur yet, just a procrastinator.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there before. I once had an invention idea that in retrospect I could have gone to market with just the prototype I’d created to generate a first sale but instead I mapped out how to start it as if I were a billionaire and the idea never left my living room.

My point is this: many of you (if not all of you) get so caught up in all the expensive frills & bullshit aspects of a startup that it prevents you from even launching your idea.

Things like:

• Logo design

• Name of the company

• Catchy tag lines

• Website design

• Thinking about how you’re going to scale to your first 10,000 customers.

Scale doesn’t matter on day one.. shit.. it doesn’t even matter on day one hundred.

I am absolutely ruthless at getting products into end users hands and getting early feedback. Back in 2019 when Brooklynn and I were first starting Wicked BOLD Chocolate I wasn’t even thinking about business names until we could actually make a decent bar of chocolate. To give you some perspective, we ordered the $260 machine in June of 2019 and didn’t register the business with Texas until September of 2019. That’s primarily because two things happened:

• In September of 2019 - we finally mastered the tempering of our chocolate. (We captured the moment on video)

• Our not-so-perfectly tempered batches to that point, we were giving away to friends and the feedback on taste was outstanding.

All that just means one thing - I didn’t even treat my business like a business until I knew I had a product that I could build a business around.

So, this takes me to our first dollar.

In October of 2019 we attended a Farmers Market in Irving, TX. We bought a table that was way too fucking heavy, bought a table cloth from target, a few chocolate-looking decorations and set up shop - myself, my wife & our two kids.

On that day, we generated about $200 worth of chocolate sales with one guy coming back to buy more before he left. We then promptly wrapped up the market and went to a fancy restaurant where we spent I think all of that money on our dinner to celebrate.

We’ve made a bunch of mistakes since that day that I’ll write about in upcoming blogs but for now, just go figure out a way to fucking start and if you need any help on your journey, reach out to me here.

-D

Five years later: My one year “quitiversary”

I published the content below content four years ago, one year after I quit quitting on myself.

How did I do four years after writing this? Let’s find out.

1) You can always find another job.

I sure did. Actually, about 3 months after writing that and 15 months after starting my first real business I found myself back workin’ for the man. There’s a huge catch though. The experience of quitting that shitty day job and going out and starting my own business opened a door to join a great organization that I’ve since been promoted to VP of Sales.

2) Discover that damn potential of yours.

The experience of finally believing in myself after 5 years and truly unlocked so many doors for me. Listen closely: I would not be where I am if I didn’t take that leap. In just five short years I’ve been able to:

• be featured in several media publications & podcasts

• generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue through startups

• support other first time entrepeneurs to discover their potential

• began writing a book

• start a motivational podcast

• buy two homes

3) Failing is growing

This is the best part. I’ve groomed myself to love failing and I yearn for that feeling now because I know it’s helping me become a better human. 5 years and 1 day ago I was terrified of putting myself out there in all aspects. Speaking up, creating content or starting businesses felt like a ticking time bomb. Someone will make fun of me. I will fail.

I stand here five years later feeling so confident in my value and knowing specifically where I fit in this world and what I can do to change it.

This is a long journey and it all starts with being FEARLESS.

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June 4th, 2016

I’m approaching my one year “quit-iversary”

I started my first business almost 1 year ago. I quit my job without enough money, experience, connections or preparation. I guess you could actually say that I quit my job without enough anything, but I did it and here I am, still alive to tell the story.

I’m here to give you my short list of encouraging reasons to not only take the leap, but to keep falling even when you feel like you’re about to slam into the ground.

1. You can always get another job

Jobs can always be had, and money can always be made. The $60K a year job you’re working…. yeah… there’s another one of those out there that you can always get. You know what you can’t always do? Chase those crazy ass dreams of yours. So stop thinking that you’ll “do something” next week, next month or next year. Get off your ass and carpe that f***ing diem.

2. Discover that damn potential of yours

How can you possibly know what you’re made of if you never test yourself? This is my number 1, but number 2 on this (obviously perfect) list. Everyone has potential, but very few actually find it and milk it for everything it’s worth.

“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream.” — Les Brown

Start something. Seriously, friggen anything. I don’t care if you start a website re-selling tomatoes. DO something to PROVE to yourself that YOU CAN DO IT.

Best case scenario, you fail. — what wait?

3. Failing is growing

I promise I’m not losing my bananas here, but this is the most awesome part of my journey so far. I have experienced SO MANY failures in the short 11 months of my journey and it’s been the most refreshing experience of my damn life.

If you’re not failing, what the F are you even doing?

Can you think about the last time you “FAILED” in adulthood? Failing is learning, and learning is growing. If you fail, you grow. Failing is a privilege reserved for those who risk the ordinary so they can experience the extraordinary.

I’m telling you right now, you fail and you take one step closer to wherever you want to be.