From College Dropout to Successful Serial Entrepreneur at 25 With Sam Forline

Mobile App Guru, Viral Marketing Expert, Business Visionary – Sam Forline

The psychology behind making people want to buy from YOU rather than your competitors. The amazingly simple “Foot In The Door” strategy for upsells. Why Facebook advertising is perfect for local businesses. Step by step marketing tactics that work well today.

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• ScholarAppStudios.com
• ScholarEra.com
• YouTube.com/SamForline

Here are the templates I asked Sam Forline for! 🙂

Check out SamForline.com?for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript: Download

Jaime Tardy:	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire.  I'm Jaime Tardy and today on the show, we have Sam Forline.  I'm so excited.  He's a serial entrepreneur.  I was trying to get all of the company names before and just figured we'd call him serial entrepreneur instead.  We'll talk about it today.  Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Sam Forline:	Jaime, I love what you are doing.  You are prying the secrets of success and allowing them for the mass media.  Just keep doing what you're doing.  I love it.  

Jaime Tardy:	I thank you.  I totally will.  So now you can tell us all your secrets.  No. 1, you look ridiculously young.  When did you actually start in business?

Sam Forline: 	Oh man.  I tried to start when I was 13 years old.  I made these little paper cards with my friend Sam Lickman, went door to door and said, "Hey, we'll do weeding and stuff."  People called back.  People were like, "Yeah, let's do it."  And I never followed through.  You know, 13 years old.

Jaime Tardy:	You didn't?  

Sam Forline:	Yeah.  But then 18, 19, tried to do the same thing, but I was a little [inaudible] [00:05:05].  It wasn't until I was 22, 23.  That's when I started to really get into business.

Jaime Tardy:	Really?  Okay.  I just asked you before, are you cool with telling us how old you are right now?

Sam Forline:	Yes.  I'm 25.  I'm 25 - I just turned 25.

Jaime Tardy:	Insane.  So give us a trajectory of 22 to 25 and what you were doing.

Sam Forline:	Okay, so I dropped out of college.  I kind of failed out.  You know, I wasn't - yeah, yeah, I failed out, man.  I was getting straight A's for a while, but it was just - you know, I wasn't really focused.  But I was coaching soccer.  So I had something to fall back on.  I was making $50.00 an hour by myself because I played in college.  I played since I was 2 years old, and I'm really good at articulating myself, getting people to like me.  So I was able to coach these kids, and they were able to do well.  They recommended me.  I was making $50 .00 an hour.  It was all right.

Jaime Tardy:	So then how did you go from that to actually doing your own thing?

Sam Forline:	So I decided the same company I tried to start at 13 and 18, which was weeding, I was like, "Man, I'm going to do that."  You know, I live in Bethesda Potomac.  They're very well-off communities, and they all have lawns.  They all have nice yards.  They have gutters to be cleaned, houses to be painted.  Every single neighbor could be a customer.  And I thought, man, this could be so easy.  This is where the money is.  I don't have to go to college.  But I decided we have to have a good name.  I was young then, 22, 23, so I called ?

Jaime Tardy:	[Inaudible] [00:06:42], sorry.

Sam Forline:	Yeah, I'm getting older every day.  See this beard?  I don't know what happened.  But I decided to call the company Blue Collar Scholars.  We're college students doing this blue collar work.  We're not just these people you don't know from the other side of town.  We're students trying to pay for our college tuition, pay for our books and whatnot.  So I said, "Okay, we're Blue Collar Scholars."  So that was my sale point.  And people absolutely loved the idea.  They were so happy; they gave us all their jobs.

	The stopped hiring their normal contractors and they were like, "You guys can do this.  You guys can do that."  And I would just look at the regular prices for these jobs, and I'd just quote them at that, and it was over from that point on.

Jaime Tardy:	How did you learn that?  Because you must have had to have teams and stuff like that.  How did the trajectory go of building that?  Because you didn't do all the work yourself, did you?

Sam Forline:	In the beginning I had to.  I really did in the beginning.  It didn't really hit off until I started doing really good advertising.  So I did the painting with some other good guys, and the landscaping myself.  But once I started advertising with like, "Hey, we're college students," all over Bethesda and Potomac, then I really had to manage it.  So yeah, there were some growth pains because you can't be everywhere at once.  You really have to rely on your workers.  But I really, really hustled.  I really worked probably 14-hours days, just really on Blue Collar Scholars, making sure everything was done right.

	And eventually I formed a great team.  That's one of the most important things in business.  You can't do everything yourself, so you have to be around the best people.  And that's when it really had a nice structure, and I was able to expand and start making $1,000, $2,000 a day.

Jaime Tardy:	Okay.  So tell me how you did the marketing.  Like what were the things that actually worked for you?

Sam Forline:	Great.  Signs.  I said - all right, so it's all about the foot in the door aspect.  I go talk to psychology classes about business because I'm a college dropout, flunky, and psychology is the most important thing you need to know in business.  Foot in the door.  You offer a small service, and then you say, "Oh, I can do this, this and that."  You get them to like you a little bit, and then you can blow up.  So I said, "We do yard work" with exclamation points.  And who doesn't need yard work done?  Right?  Who doesn't need yard work done?

	That's what everyone needs, and no landscaping company ever advertises, "Hey, we pull weeds.  We do yard work."  They're looking for big jobs.  So I get there and I talk to the customer.  I say, "Hey, yes, we can do this.  But let's do this bigger job.  You know, we're college students.  We'd love to help you out.  You'd be helping us out."  And they loved it.  So we'd get $1,000 jobs -

Jaime Tardy:	Play the poor college student [inaudible] [00:09:48], hey?  That really works.

Sam Forline:	Hey, they are poor.  We are poor.  You know, we started out poor.  

Jaime Tardy:	That's awesome.  So tell me what the team structure was and how you hired those people.

Sam Forline:	Great.  I'm going to be honest.  It was very hard in the beginning.  It was very hard in the beginning because college students sometimes don't like to work.  

Jaime Tardy:	What?

Sam Forline:	I know.  I know when I was 20 years old, I was really lazy.  I didn't show up a lot of times for work, or I'd call in and be, "I don't want to go."  And that was really difficult in the beginning.  That was like people would say, "Okay, Sam.  I'll be there tomorrow morning."  I'd get a text ten minutes before they're supposed to be there, "Oh, I can't make it."  Oh, man.  So I really had to figure out a balance of professionals and college students.  So it ended up being - and it still is now - they're working right now - we have really good, you know, people in their 30s, with college students, showing them how it's done, teaching them.

	So everyone's happy, everyone's getting paid, and we're still hiring college students.

Jaime Tardy:	Okay, that's awesome.  Because you can't really not have college students when you call yourself that.  But it makes a lot of sense because you're helping them too.  But you need the people that will actually show up for work because I'm sure - how did you fix sort of those types of problems?

Sam Forline:	Trial and error.  Some people just - you can find, some people just always showed up, and I was like, "Okay, you're in charge."  And I just interviewed a lot of people.  That's one of my skill sets now, being able to figure out, hey, can they do the job or not?  Because that's important.  I need to be able to look them in the eyes and judge them, and be like, "Yeah" or "No."

Jaime Tardy:	Okay.  Give us some tips on how you do that.  What did you learn to do that?

Sam Forline:	Okay, great.  So success is a habit.  Good quality work is a habit.  If they're lazy in one aspect, they're usually going to be lazy in another.  If they're punctual, if they're calling you back all the time, they respond to texts and emails really quick, those are the people you want to go to.  You know?  So there's no they're good at this and they're not good at this.  It's usually people who have good integrity, people who really care about what they do.  It shows in all their work.  And it can be really hard nowadays because people tend to be lazy with all this easy technology around them.

Jaime Tardy:	Definitely.  I've worked with a lot of blue collar type businesses, landscaping companies, plumbing companies, and finding good help is ridiculously hard to find because you'll have people just like that.  And that's one of the key frustrations of businesses like that.  They're like, "Oh my gosh.  I can't find good help."

Sam Forline:	Yes.

Jaime Tardy:	But it sounds like you did.  How big is your team now?

Sam Forline:	Oh man.  We've got about 10, 15 guys easy, no problem.  It's - we're in high demand.  The word of mouth spread, and it's just been easy.  You know, pick up the phones, "Hey, I heard you guys are doing this."  "Yeah."  Facebook ads are really big.  You can target -

Jaime Tardy:	[Inaudible] [00:12:54].

Sam Forline:	Yeah, you can target your target audience, which is usually moms.  Moms love hiring college students.  They're like - I've had so many times where like, "Can you talk to my son, Billy-  He's not doing anything."  Stuff like that, and I'll try to -

Jaime Tardy:	That's funny.  That's hilarious.

Sam Forline:	Yeah, you know -

Jaime Tardy:	Facebook ads, how does that work?  Does it go to like a lead page?  Does it go straight to your phone number?  What is the actual trajectory of that?

Sam Forline:	Yeah, so you can, for about 500 bucks, we got around 20,000 views on the ad.  And we show us college guys in our blue shirts and smiling with a customer, you know, everyone fingers up, and we say, "Hey, we do yard work.  Hire college students today to get your yard work done and stuff, and here's my phone number."  And the people like it.  You know, sometimes they might not call you, but you can use that information and contact them back, and be like, "Hey, I saw you liked it.  We do gutters for $100.00."  You know, the foot in the door, it's a $100.00 job, but hey, we can also paint your house and stuff.

	So those Facebook ads are really important.

Jaime Tardy:	And they're working really, really well.  It's awesome to hear that local businesses - and I have friends that are local businesses that are doing really well on Facebook ads too.  A lot of times, they say, "Oh, I don't have an online thing, and then I have to do a lead magnet and then, blah, blah, blah."  But you just put your phone number there, and then follow up with people.

Sam Forline:	Oh yes, definitely.  Definitely.  Make your ad nice and flashy, and follow up with people.  Like you said, stay on top of it.

Jaime Tardy:	Do you have somebody that does your Facebook ads for you?
Sam Forline:	No, I make sure - see that's one of my strong suits is marketing.  So I make sure I'm with my director of marketing, and I'm making sure it's perfect.  Because it has to be short, sweet and very happy, with emoticons and those exclamation points.  You know, it's a new era. 

Jaime Tardy:	That's so awesome.  Okay, so then you started another company.

Sam Forline:	Yes.

Jaime Tardy:	Tell us about that.

Sam Forline:	Oh great, man.  This is big stuff.  So I have Scholar App Studios.  We develop mobile apps.  So what I've been doing is I've been taking half equity, half pay for the apps, so I'll own 10 percent of these promising apps, and I'll get to choose which ones I work on, make sure they're promising.  And then also Scholar Era.  We do a lot of marketing for these apps.  We connect with people who have millions of YouTube viewers, and we get them to advertise.  Or we just do social media campaigns.  So the whole basis though is technology has been expanding so much.  It's like - just think about the last ten years.

	You know, there was no such thing as a mobile app ten years ago.  What are we using right now?  What is everyone using?  Everything is changing so fast, and it just gives such an open space for entrepreneurs wanting to get into this space.  Because no one else understands it unless you've grown up with it.  You and I are young, we've been - when we were teenagers, we saw it go up and up and up.  So I took advantage of it.  And it's so awesome because I get to choose what I work on now.  It's so much fun.

Jaime Tardy:	Were you always good at technology?  Usually you wouldn't think that someone would go from blue collar work to an app company.

Sam Forline:	I'm good at attacking things.  I'm good at seeing an opportunity and building a team and just going and motivating them and doing it.  So I actually - like I got a D in my computer programming class.  With one of my partners, Peter Breslin, me and him both - we just kept on going to this really smart guy, Tim, and I've been looking for Tim for so long.  Tim, if you're watching this, please contact me.  You're the best programmer in the world.  But I'd be like, "Tim, how do you do this?"  He'd go, "Well, you just do this, this and that."  And I'd be like, "Okay, can you do it for me?"  

Jaime Tardy:	I love programming, but I will hire programmers to do whatever is necessary.

Sam Forline:	Yes.  Yeah, and I'll lead us to success.  I'll make sure we're going in the right direction.

Jaime Tardy:	So what do you think that is?  So you're not the guy that does the specific work.  You're the guy that drives forward.  Do you think that's innate in you?

Sam Forline:	Yeah, I think it might be innate, and it also might be nurture.  I tell this in every single interview.  I am an avid soccer player.  I'm an athlete.  And I've always been maybe a team captain on my teams.  And it's very important, if you're watching this and you have kids, get your kids into sports to get them interacting as a team.  Because it's the same thing as business.  You know, in sports, you have a team.  You have a goal.  You're trying to score.  You're trying to accomplish a task.  And you're working together.

	And yeah, the parents on the sidelines say, "Do this, Timmy.  Do this, Brian.  Do this, Michelle."  But in reality, it's the kids who are learning themselves, talking to each other, figuring out where each other is, how you're helping each other.  And that's where I really got my momentum in being able to lead a group, being able to tell if someone's not doing well, being able to pick them up, being able to motivate them.  Being able to see who is good at what, which is really important, and putting them on that, you know, left mid, or putting them on the IOS program.

	So yeah, it's very half and half.

Jaime Tardy:	Okay, give us some tips on being a leader.  Because there's a lot of people that don't have a lot of that experience, and they're trying to cultivate it.  Maybe their business is growing a bit and they need to hire, and they're like, "Crap, I don't know what to do."  So give us some tips.

Sam Forline:	So I don't - all right, it's a very good question.  I compliment my guys all the time.  They're not just superficial compliments.  I look - even if they're making mistakes, I say, "Don't worry.  Look at what you're doing here."  People - just imagine people are walking around with boards or signs saying, "Compliment me.  Make me feel good."  Because what happens when you do that is it sets off a trigger.  It gives them confidence.  People need confidence.  And what a leader does, leaders build confidence in their people and the people around them, no matter what, even if the worst day is happening.

	Because there's always tomorrow.  There's always ways to get around a problem, break through it.  And the leader's role is to be happy, be optimistic.  Knock it down.  Always look on the bright side.  So if you have that mentality and you are always making sure your team feels appreciated - people need to feel appreciated.  It's very important in life.  Family, friends, working with one another.  If you make sure you make people feel appreciated and make them feel that they're part of something, you can do so far.  I've never had a single dollar of investment in any of my companies.

	We built everything from scratch because we all saw the same vision.  We all believed in it, and we all worked together.  So leadership is important, making sure people feel good about themselves.  And it allows them to have that confidence and do well in their lives.  

Jaime Tardy:	Okay, so what happens when the mistakes start adding up and adding up?  When is that tipping point where you're like - I'm going to let them go.

Sam Forline:	Yeah.  That's tough.  That's the toughest thing in the world, and I found that I just have to be honest, that I just have to point - because it doesn't help if I'm like, "Okay, man, sorry.  We're just not interested."  I feel like it's a responsibility to point it out to them so they can at least work on it, and say, "Hey, listen.  You're on your phone all the time while we're working."  Or, "Look, this guy's giving 110 percent.  He's giving 110 percent.  You know, I feel like your mind isn't there.  You're doing all this other stuff.  You're putting us on the back shelf.  Man, I'm sorry.  We have to keep moving forward."

	Thanks for pointing that out.  Because negativity, it takes one rotten apple to spoil the whole bunch.  So it's extremely important to make sure you cut off that negativity and just have a positive team. 

Jaime Tardy:	All right.  So let's switch to marketing because that's what you said you're really good at.  So give us some current marketing tactics that are working well, like step by step.  I know you said you're reaching out to YouTube people.  Give me a step-by-step cool tactic that's working right now.  
Sam Forline:	Great, okay.  So be different.  So we're Blue Collar Scholars.  We're not a regular landscaping company.  We're not a regular paining company.  We are truly college students trying to better ourselves, trying to better the neighborhood.  People love that.  They don't buy what - they can see 100 landscaping or painting services in the Yellow Pages.  You will figure out a why.  Why would they want to buy your service instead of the others?  Get to the emotional level.  People will feel obligated to help college students out.  Think about that.  The next step is work backwards.  Instead of just starting from scratching saying, "I'm a brilliant entrepreneur.

	I'm the smartest person in the world.  I've got all this money behind me.  I'm just going to do this on my own."  Study what other people have done.  Study what has worked, what hasn't.  Contact as many people as you can, network, and ask them questions.  Say, "Hey, did this marketing tactic work or did it not?  Why didn't it work and why did it work?"  If you're trying to start a bakery service, figure out which advertisements work the best, and work backwards.  You know?

	There's so much information out there, there's so many YouTube videos, so many people giving free advice, that it doesn't make sense not to use it.  So a) figure out a really cool idea that stands out, and 2) work backwards.  Figure out what other people have done first so you can piggyback off of that and use it to your advantage.

Jaime Tardy:	What about information overload?  There are thousands, there's billions of YouTube videos - maybe not billions -  

Sam Forline:	Yeah, probably.

Jaime Tardy:	- but there's so many YouTube videos - it's insane, I know, probably - and how do we determine what's right for us?  Because I think that's the thing that people that are watching this are like, "Okay, I get it.  I get so much information.  My problem is I can't determine which one is the best one for me."  Even being different, it's like, "Well am I different enough?"  It's all these vague types of questions.  

Sam Forline:	Okay, so give me a market that someone would go into.

Jaime Tardy:	I want to know about apps, so tell me about apps.

Sam Forline:	Okay, apps.  Okay, so let's say you want to build an app.  What you do is you contact someone who has an app development company or someone who has already built an app.  You go directly to them instead of just going on YouTube and seeing all this - like you said, whoever is paying for the sponsorship on the top, you're going to watch it.  Go to someone that you can reach out to, find a common contact, contact Bill that knows John, and John is the one who made the app, and talk to them.  

	Say, "Hey, I'm trying to do this.  Can you give me any tips?  Can you tell me anyone who has done this, been there, done that?"  That is one of the most important things that has brought me to my success.  Instead of saying, "I can do it myself," I reached out for help.  I asked people.  I contacted so many - use LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is one of the most - oh my god, the most underused tools in the world.  That's where I've met most of my mentors, most of the people I look up to.  Yes.  Oh yeah.

Jaime Tardy:	Okay.  How do we get them to say yes?  Especially if you're in a similar market?  How do we get them to give us all of their secrets, when you could be a competitor?  Like tell me exactly what you did on LinkedIn to get a mentor.

Sam Forline:	Great, great.  I've always tried to do something different, but at the same time, it doesn't hurt to try.  So do a little research on them.  See what they've done.  See what you've liked, and say, "Hey, I've liked what you've done here."  Because people get a lot of spam, especially they're successful.  Like, "Hey, here are some leads.  Here's how to get leads.  Here's how to do this in business.  Here's how to do this."  No.  Be different.  Say, "Hey, I want to get to know you on a personal level.  I like your success."  This is what I've done.

	And I'm very truthful in every single message.  "Hey, Bill, I really like what you did with the Washington Spirit.  I want to reach out to you, get to know you, maybe have coffee."  And I got to have coffee with him, Bill Lynch.  And I learned a lot from his business, his mentality.  And I did that with a bunch of other successful millionaires who have been through the game.  And people are willing to help out.  It feels good ? like right now, I'm helping other people out.  People contact me every day on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and say, "Sam, hey, I like what you're doing.  I have this idea."

	"Okay, great."  It feels good to - I've been there and done that.  I've already made all the mistakes, so I can say, "Okay, don't make this mistake.  You're going to get in trouble if you do this.  Or this works and this doesn't work."  It feels good to help each other out.  So don't be afraid to ask, and it's very important to reach out to people.

Jaime Tardy:	It's so funny how [inaudible] [00:26:04].  Was it one message on LinkedIn that got you a coffee?  

Sam Forline:	Yeah.

Jaime Tardy:	Because that's the thing, people are like, "I don't know.  I feel like I'm not good enough," or sending the message - people get scared over sending emails.  So I ask people to do a big ask.  Like do something that feels like scary.  But you did it anyway.  Did you have go, "Ooh, I'm going to email him?"  Or were you like just -

Sam Forline:	It's exciting.  I'll tell my friends, right?  So talk to people about it.  So what that fear is, is isolation.  You're like, "Oh, I feel like I'm not worthy enough.  I'm not good enough."  Talk to your friends about it.  Be like, "Hey, man, I have this opportunity.  He just accepted my LinkedIn invitation.  What should I say?"  "Oh, you should say this."  Talk to your friends about it.  Be open.  Call somebody.  Text them, say, hey - talk to them about it.  Play it over in your head, and then you'll build enough courage to actually do it.

	That's one of the most important things, is to reach out to people, even your friends, to talk to them about how you're feeling, what your thought process is, so they can help direct you in the right direction.

Jaime Tardy:	I love that.  I know at the very beginning what I would do is take - I'd like text a friend and go, "Okay, for the next hour, I'm going to do everything that scares me.  Ready?  Go."  And then we'd both do -

Sam Forline:	Oh my God.

Jaime Tardy:	- crazy things that would be like - and then we'd compare, and be like, "Okay, at least we did it.  Who cares if they don't say anything.  It doesn't matter.  It's done."  Because it was hard to sort of push yourself outside the comfort zone.  Especially when you work for yourself, it doesn't technically matter what you do, right?
Sam Forline:	Uh-huh.  Yeah.

Jaime Tardy:	You have to get yourself to go forward.  So what, when you start thinking about mentorship and they give you ideas, when you start going through and going, "Okay, I'm going to test this idea," how do you decide what that is, and how do you measure if it's good or not? 

Sam Forline:	So I don't like following directions.  I don't like listening to people.  So someone will -

Jaime Tardy:	[Inaudible] [00:27:50].

Sam Forline:	Yeah, yeah.  So someone will tell me, "Sam, you should do this," and I'll think, okay, how can I do it better?  How can I not do it, but at the same time accomplish the same goal?  And I'll be like, oh, okay, you know, "Look what I did."  Yeah, it's - so I'm a chemistry major, right?  What chemistry is, is math.  You know, you break things down.  So try to find out what that advice is, what the direct advice that they're giving you, and what is the real meaning behind it?  If they're saying, "This is exactly how you make $1,000," you know, there's secrets in those steps.

	Boil it down.  What does it actually mean?  What exactly are the secrets?  And maybe there's a different approach around it.  So everyone's different.  Maybe you don't have the same personality as that person who's really outgoing and ready to attack.  Maybe you're more of a structural person, figuring out a really, really good strategy to do things, and you could just sit behind and do the back ends of stuff, and let your business run.  But it depends on the person.  

Jaime Tardy:	Can you give me an example?  Because that's the thing that I think is so difficult.  You're right.  It depends on the person.  So I could be mentoring someone, and I'm like, "Oh, and all you have to do is build a relationship with so and so," and they're like, "I'm really bad at building relationships."  I'm like, that's my thing, so it's hard to teach people stuff like that.  So give me a specific example that you sort of went to to sort of up-level what you're good at and how you go about it.

Sam Forline:	So one person told me to focus on one company.  And I'm like, "No, no, no.  I can't do that.  I'm having too much fun."  But at the same time, I maybe should have took his advice because I run into walls.  I get so stressed out.  I get so - when you expand, you don't have much control because this client's upset with this company.  This client's upset with that company.  You're just like, "Oh, man, I'm only 25 years old.  Oh man."

Jaime Tardy:	Pressure.

Sam Forline:	Yeah.  But at the same time, I found that you're the only one in control.  You are the one leading the ship, no matter what anyone else says.  And there's a really good quote, you know, "Good entrepreneurs know when to not take expert advice, and to go against it."  And if you're always listening to exactly what other people are saying, then you're really not running your company.  You're just taking pages of different books and you're slapping them together instead of writing your own story.

Jaime Tardy:	But how do you determine that?  I think that's the thing that's so much ? so it's easy to say [inaudible] [00:30:30] do.  So somebody goes, okay, let's say they take 1,000 assessments and they're like, "Okay, I am" - so like Myers Briggs, I'm ENTJ.  And so you're like, "Okay, so I'm an extrovert."  So it's going to be very different me taking advice from an introvert or something like that.  Or what I know about myself.  You know you're an amazing leader.  But then when you take the advice in, I want to try and tell the listeners a formula or something like that, that they can do on their own.

	So let's try and come - you're a chemistry guy, right?  Let's try -

Sam Forline:	Yeah, uh-huh.

Jaime Tardy:	- to come up with something.

Sam Forline:	Solutions.

Jaime Tardy:	Exactly.  What can we come up with that would help them go, "Okay, first you need to know this," like what you're really, really good at.  And then when you take advice, then you need to - you know what I mean?  I don't know.  You give me some advice on what people can do themselves to make those decisions.  Because that can be difficult.

Sam Forline:	Talk to people.  Like I said, you need to - talk to your family, talk to your friends, people who aren't in your business.  Talk to the people that really know you and say, "Hey, man."  That's where I get most of my inspiration.  I'll get stressed out about, say, oh, someone's telling me to do this, but I'm losing 10,000 bucks.  They're like, "Sam, don't worry about it.  You can start on something else.  This contract might have gone awry, but don't worry about it.  You can move on.  You're young."  I'm like, "But I'm losing 10,000 bucks."  That's when I go to my family and friends and say, "Hey, this is going on."

	The more you talk about it, the more you - the formula is to face it up front.  Instead of just bottling it up and facing it on your own, open up about it.  You need to open up about it.  As human beings, we're very social beings.  We need that interaction.  We need to see each other's face.  We need to interact with each other.  We need to have something to relate about.  So when you share something with someone, it opens a connection where you can have someone else's opinion.  Two heads are always better than one.  So that's the formula.  

	You know, make sure you're talking to someone else about it, that you're open with it, you're very honest about what's going on with your business, your personal life, and have them help you make the decision.  And usually, 9 out of 10 times, you'll make the right one, going out to ten different people and asking them the same thing.

Jaime Tardy:	Interesting.  Okay, so I do that.  I ask - I have so many mentors -

Sam Forline:	Really?

Jaime Tardy:	I have a board of mentors.  Yeah.  

Sam Forline:	Wow.  Look at you.

Jaime Tardy:	Well, I talk to millionaires all day.  I get to be friends with some amazing people.

Sam Forline:	I guess so, Jaime. 

Jaime Tardy:	I'm lucky.  I know [inaudible] [00:33:07] problems.  Okay.  So one of my problems was I was getting too much information from too many people and I couldn't [inaudible].

Sam Forline:	Yeah, yes, okay.

Jaime Tardy:	So what you do?

Sam Forline:	So yeah, yeah, all right.  So when you're getting pulled in 1,000 different directions, it's very stressful.  Because you have this person here, this person here.  You really need to just concentrate.  All right?  That's one of my - I have ADHD.

Jaime Tardy:	I found out yesterday that I have ADHD.

Sam Forline:	Oh, come on.  You're doing amazing.  All the smart people have ADHD.

Jaime Tardy:	I know.  I swear they do.

Sam Forline:	That's just a reason, a medical term for teachers to be able to not deal with you.  Like, oh, this kid's too smart.  This kid's all over the place.  Medicate him.  You know?

Jaime Tardy:	Well a lot of the millionaires I've interviewed actually either think they have it or they have it.  So when I was at the doctor's the other day, I was like, "I think I have it.  I feel like I've had it for a really long time."  And he had me take the test, and he's like, "Yeah, you definitely have it."  I was like, "Oh, good to know."

Sam Forline:	Well, with ADHD you're able to focus on a couple different things at once, and then you're also able to laser beam focus.  So it's a good thing.  You're able to handle multiple things.  You're able to juggle different things.  And actually, there's been a lot of studies that ADHD is a primal instinct that's very innate for survival, like for predators.  When predators are coming, you know, you'll be able to determine if there's a lion over there, this and that.  And it could be good for driving too.  But yeah, so let's say you have a million different people telling you what to do.

	You really need to step back, relax.  Because stress - that's when you lock up, right?  So you're like, "Oh, I have a million things to do."  That's when you lock up and you don't make good decisions.  I've been learning this a lot within the last month specifically.  Stress is not good.  If you're stressed out, you can't be creative.  And what are we, Jaime?  We're creative.  You came up with a brilliant show that people around the world love.  I came up with Blue Collar Scholars, Scholar [inaudible] [00:34:59].  You know, people love it.

	We're creative.  But when we're stressed out, we worry.  So you've got to take a step back, realize that a) you're alive.  You're alive.  You're living.  Yes.  Yes, we have accomplished the No. 1 most important thing in life.  We're healthy.  And then 2) that no matter what, you have that.  No matter what, you're alive.  And 2) that you know, whatever decision you make, you know, just go with it.  Because when you regret something, it causes a lot of stress.  And if you're a smart person, you need to be creative.  You need to not have stress.  So just go with something.  Take maybe two people's advice, block everyone out, and just go.

Jaime Tardy:	Oh yeah.  That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.  Someone said you can never get it done, and you can never get it wrong.  And I'm like, "Yes."  Because no matter - even if you're going through failure, it doesn't matter.  You're learning so much.

Sam Forline:	You learn so much.

Jaime Tardy:	And that just makes the stressor go away a little bit more.  Because if I can never get - it's true - I can never get it all done, and I want to, everything.  And you can't get it wrong, and then I'm like, okay, so even if I make a bad decision, I'll figure that out too.  And then it's not as big of a deal.  [Inaudible] [00:36:12].

Sam Forline:	Exactly.  So you know what's up.  You're smart.  

Jaime Tardy:	I try, right?  I just interview people like you, and then I learn, right?

Sam Forline:	Okay.  I should be interviewing you and pick your brain.

Jaime Tardy:	I know we have to start finishing up.  So -

Sam Forline:	Oh, man.

Jaime Tardy:	I know, right?  Time's like -

Sam Forline:	I'm having a lot of fun with you.  Yeah.  It's good.  A good interview.

Jaime Tardy:	So I ask the same last question every single time.  What's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward toward their goal of a million?

Sam Forline:	Okay.  Reach out to someone who's been there, done that.  It's so simple.  Reach out to as many people as you can.  Look on LinkedIn.  Look for their email.  Just reach out to them.  Write a very personal message.  You know, flatter them.  And it's usually the truth too.  I'm serious.  Say, "Hey," do a little research on them.  Figure out one of their accomplishments, study it, and say, "Wow, I really" - because you do.  You really admire what they've done.  Say, "I really like what you have done here.  I just want to learn a little bit more about how you did it.  I just want to learn from you."

	Just tell them you want to learn.  And I promise you, maybe even if they don't do it 50 percent of the time, someone's going to contact you back.  And guess what?  They know 100 other people that have been there, done that.  They can connect you.  Become friends with them and really get to know them.  That is the most - one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give anyone.

Jaime Tardy:	I wouldn't be here without my mentor, and I sent an email and was like, oh.  I just sent an email and he's like, "Let's chat."  And I was like - ahh.

Sam Forline:	Aw, man, yeah.

Jaime Tardy:	Can you give us an email that you sent that worked?  And we could blur our the real name and stuff like that, but I would love to sort of know what actually works, so people can go, "Okay, this is something that I can take from and then make it better."

Sam Forline:	Oh man, all right.  Okay, yes, of course.  I can send you an email.  I can definitely - yeah, it's very simple.  I'm happy - like I said, I'm on YouTube now trying to get people, to motivate people to follow their dreams.  On Instagram, I post very inspirational stuff.

Jaime Tardy:	I was looking.  Here's all your links and where we can find you online.  I know you just started a YouTube channel.  So give us all your stuff.

Sam Forline:	So the name is Sam Forline.  So you go youtube.com/samforline - and I'll tell you how to run a business.  I'll tell you how to start it.  I'll tell you what not to do, what to do, how to make money.  Instagram, if you need some inspiration, @samforline.  Twitter as well, @samforline.  You can find me on Facebook.  You know, Jaime, I'm trying to do what you're doing.  I'm trying to motivate people.  It's so much fun, just getting people to follow their dreams, and having people tell you, "Hey, Sam, Jaime, you know, you motivated me to do X, Y and Z."  It's so much fun.

Jaime Tardy:	Best job in the entire world.  Thanks so much for coming on the show today, Sam.  I really, really appreciate it.
Sam Forline:	Jaime, thanks so much for having me.

[End of Audio]

Duration:  43 minutes

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services

Tags: Business Marketing, Facebook, Facebook Ad, Facebook Advertising, Foot In The Door, millionaire interview, Mobile App, Sam Forline, Viral Marketing, Visioning

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Millionaire Interviews

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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