LIFE OF A BOSS The Podcast

Takeaways from Anthony Douglas

July 21, 2022 JASON HARDIN Season 2 Episode 54
LIFE OF A BOSS The Podcast
Takeaways from Anthony Douglas
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Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Hardin shares his favorite takeaways from his interview with, Anthony Douglas, Creator & Owner of Life's Lemonade. #LifeOfABoss

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Jason Hardin  0:02  
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another wonderful episode of Life bosta podcast. I am your host Jason Hardin. And as always, I am super excited to be alive and to be here with y'all seriously, man, there's no place I'd rather be, would have had to be maybe on a golf course but, but that's neither here nor there, man. The point is, I love what I do. And the point of this show is to help other people create and live what they want to do, you know what I'm saying live the life you want, do the job you want, solve the problems you want, create the business you want. And, and that's what this show is all about. Man, we really want to help people be themselves in the best and greatest way possible. We do that through interviews, we do that through encouragement we do that through positive thinking we do that through positive vibes and woods and and in Ranch, even you know what I'm saying? It's all about what can spark your mind to cut on to the greatness that's already in you. Everybody has it. Everybody, all of your anybody that can hear there's anybody can watch this, anybody they can see this anybody that's breathing and alive right now, there is greatness in you. But it's only up to you to cut it on like a light switch. And it's just that simple. Delaware said change your mind and you'll change your life. And that's really what this is all about mind change. It's all about helping people get the right ideas in the right attitudes and the right thought processes in the right way to see things in perspective, you know that because there is a right and wrong way to do shit, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna say there's no wrong way, believe me, there's a wrong way to think there is a wrong way to think. And we try to eliminate that, you know, we try to interview folks and, and have other people that are successful doing what they love to do share this story. So you can kind of see yourself and me and them and, and all the people that are on this show who all bosses who are successful, who have bound and created their definition of success, and doing what they love, and creating a life on their own terms. And that's what I want for all of you, I want all of you to be able to create the life you want on your own terms. That's what Polycom is. You know, earlier this week, we interviewed a wonderful brother named Anthony Douglas man, this brother is challenging in so many ways, but one way that stood out the most that really displays his brothers talent is his ability to create and pivot and, and make things happen out of nothing and, and, and vegetables to me. The reason why I had him on the show because he was an absolute boss, not because he built this a multimillion dollar company and, and this you know what I'm saying and this mega powerhouse brand, but because he started something and he's working the hell out of it. You don't have to say any pivot. The brother used to have a regular job, you know, nine to five decent jobs. And then pandemic hit. And he had figured out what to do you know, before the pandemic and he had other products man, his brother was making scented candles and beautifully packaged beautifully labeled. Wonderfully scented, I wouldn't know because I don't have a sense of smell, man, that's another story. But um, but everybody loves his product. Everybody loves his flavors, everybody loves his his fragrances. And one day he had an issue he had an issue with the commercial kitchen he was using to to make all that stuff so we didn't have the womb to make all that stuff and and he had just reinvested like all your property. You know, when like, if you sell shirts, and you go and you buy all these shirts and you and you shell out and you have all this money then you go re up and buy all the shirts because you bought the double up and then now you can't sell the shirts or now you bought all the materials and now you can't make them you know well that's that was his situation you know, he had all these ingredients and everything he needed to to reinvest into with candles and his commercial spot was gone. His commercial kitchen was was was no longer available. So he couldn't he couldn't use anything that he had used. Damn near deadbolt.

Jason Hardin  4:44  
You know what I'm saying? Pandemic was here there was really nothing that we could do to get money. Unless you was wondering PPP or EDD folks, but before a lot of entrepreneurs. We didn't know what to do in the beginning of the pandemic we didn't we didn't see selling anything ma'am? money was tight for everybody. This is before really anybody got their EDS or PPP. So nobody was spending money like that. So, so I'm pretty sure he went through it, a lot of us entrepreneurs went through and was just maybe a little lost. You know, maybe some of you were lost by when a pandemic hit. Are you business owners, that we're doing great that we're doing pop ups that we're doing, bending, that we're doing a trade shows, conventions, flea markets, swap meets, and things like that all that was immediately a poor while so so I can understand what he went through because I went through it. But anyway, he had to pivot. They had all these ingredients had all these materials had really no money, and he had to pivot, he had to do something. And it's that entrepreneur spirit, that entrepreneurial attitude has saved his essence. And that's the entrepreneurial spirit and attitude that I want all of us to instill with us, within us to some degree because it can be life saving man. He created a brand of lemonade. And interesting enough is called Life's lemonade. And the sad little lemon is the logo and and because you know, when life throws you lemons, and gives you lemons, it's usually not a good thing you don't usually misfortune and in bad luck and, and anything like that. So so it was called Life's lemonade. And he turned life's lemonade into one of the greatest products, I'm sure of his creation, and definitely a hot product in the streets. He sells out constantly he has multiple flavors is he makes it very natural cooks down to the hibiscus flowers into the actual syrups to you know, what I'm saying is, it's very quality controlled. It's very high standard and high quality by by any persons degree in the shitter is delicious. You don't say any, it's absolutely delicious. But what I'm saying is, he turned misfortune he turned a bad bad luck, he turned bad timing and pandemic and all that into a product in a business that is thriving. I mean, we've done events together, I've done events, and he's been a vendor asked at the same event. And when I see people just walking by with his bottles, you know, just just like, you know, at every event is there's that one table or that one food truck or that one booth that almost everybody hits, you know, almost everybody hits and hits is that one is is that one everybody who sees him at any event has to get his premium lemonade, and, and it's so crazy how something so simple as something so small as lemonade can make a big difference. And the moral of that story in the middle of that, that those takeaways are this. There's don't dream too big or too small. You know, a lot of people think you have to dream big to make big things happen. But sometimes you just have to go all in on something small, something simple, something that you know, you can master that. That isn't rocket science, necessarily. You know what I'm saying? Like me, I just make T shirts. Anybody can make T shirts, you know, that's one of my businesses is one of the most lucrative businesses because it's a high market value, low overhead low but low production costs, low material costs, and it's almost like making CD CDs or what like 1015 cents each you know the way I mean their cost of production. But once you put something on that CD once you put some art on it once you put some vocals on it, that CD can be 1012 20 bucks. You know where he used to be? We're not talking about CDs, no one nobody listened to CDs now but but you get the idea and, and T shirts is the same thing. It'd be $5 T shirts, I put a design on an original design out my brain on the t shirt now it's a $30 T shirt. You know what I'm saying? Water is pennies. You know you can buy a glass of water for pennies, put some a syrup's and, and some sugars and it's some lemons in it. And now you got a $10 bottle of water. The slides lemonade,

Jason Hardin  9:44  
you know what I'm saying? And, and I'm just trying to get you to see this and understand that there is no real long waiting genius. If it's legal and it's not harmful, and you're not getting over on people and harming others And, and and infringing on other people's rights and liberties man, it's fair game. It's fair game and it's not it's never too small. So don't look at your ideas and think that's stupid. That's stupid. You know what I'm gonna tell you another personal story a very recent story. No, now everybody that knows me personally knows that you know, I'm a good cook, you know, I can get down in the kitchen, it's just as well as I can do an image on Photoshop just as small as I can make an awesome sweatsuit, or, or, or outfit I can get down in the kitchen and I can make one a Michelin star looking food and meals and dishes and and, and it's one thing that I do to unwind from the other creativity that I take part in unwind from all that screen time of looking at photos and images and tweaking stuff and, and video editing, all the stuff that I do on computer can get a little mind numbing, you know, and, and just too much going time can really wear me down. So another way that I like to create this has nothing to do with anything electronic or technical, is I'm in the kitchen. And I love to eat and I love the good food, I can't even afford to eat the way that I like to eat in the restaurants because I love gourmet stuff, I love good stuff. So the only way I can really afford to eat the way I like is to cook. And so I so I do a lot of cooking man. For myself, not so much. But when I have a family or when I'm taking care of kids or, or in any, in any reason I need to cook, I'll cook you know, and sometimes just to be creative, sometimes I'll have a dish in mind, I'll be like, Oh, I can't wait to go home and I'll I'll try to make me some new ramen or something, you know, something, something that I've never made before and just want to experiment. So I do a lot of experimenting a lot of creating a lot of images. Using my imagination when I cook and and I don't use a whole lot of recipes. You know, I cook from scratch a lot I cook with, you know, by field and by, by raw measurements, you know, I'm saying no, no measuring spoons, or measuring cup, just just getting a feel. Now I learned all that from my mother. But I say that to say this. Recently I accepted a job as a private chef. And I say that and I shared because all these years that I've been cooking all the years that I've been making spectacular dishes and food and, and serving people great stuff. I would always say, Man, you should live and you should be a chef, you should be a chef and I and I thought like That's stupid. Literally, I thought that was a stupid idea of like, cooking for other people like that. That is not there's nothing spectacular about that I didn't see no no glory, though. I mean, I just saw like, a job, like almost a service job, like almost like cleaning your house. Like that's nothing I'd want to do cook for other people, I like to do it because it's creative, and it's fun. But to do that, you know, professionally I think would take all the fun out of it, I thought would take you know, my joy from it, I thought it would be like very, you know, business like you know, like I tell people like the music business is more business and music, if you just love music singing in the shower, but if you want to make some money with music, then then that's when you ended up the music, business and more business. And so I thought you know, the food business is the same thing, it's going to be more business than then creating and having fun. So, like I said, recently, I just accepted this position as a private chef. And I did it because like I said, I'm married now. So I do try to double down on income I do try to help build my team and my family which is my family. My team is my wife, you know, my family is my wife, I don't have kids, neither one of us do. So So in response to being married and taking me and my wife, our team to another level and to be able to have more options and to be able to save more money and and create more opportunities. I accepted this position as a private chef. And the funny thing about it is I've never worked for someone else

Jason Hardin  14:40  
as a you know employment, not a client or whatnot but I've never worked for someone else and enjoy what I do so much. So So long story short, too late. But long story short is like this job is a shopping is one of the funnest jobs and most exciting jobs I've ever had Add working for someone else. You know, I love working for myself, I love doing what I do for myself, I love the unlimited opportunity that I create to my own business. And the cool thing is, I still have that I still do that. But to take another job doing something, I love it, it's like, I really understand that you don't work a day in your life if you don't show me love and, and, and cool thing is, it's like, I don't even take lunches. You know, I don't even take breaks. I work nonstop for eight and a half hours, damnit. Because it's, it's not really work. But it's all work. You know what I'm saying? It's, it's, it's me being engaged, and I can create and I can I can, I can experiment and I can, I can make these dishes and, and get people's reaction and I get a rush or people loving this stuff, I get a verse when people want to take pictures of my food, I get nervous when I want to take pictures about food, I get a rush when when I tasted I'm like, oh, that's incredible. And I literally made stuff I never made before. I don't have no supervisor. Nobody tells me what to create. Nobody gives me recipes. Nobody says you have to make this. They just give me a kitchen, the most beautiful kitchen I've ever been in, full of like fully stocked, and say, Here's find people who can make them lunch and dinner. And I'd never thought I'd fill this cloud. To be in like a service industry to be serving people. I never thought that would be, you know, I saw people in different ways. You know, I'm a mentor, I'm a community activist. I'm very involved in my neighborhood and things that go on. So there's a bunch of different ways I serve people but but serving people food, it's just, you know, and having them it's very personal, you know, because it consuming what you created with your two hands, you know, from nothing from scratch from ingredients. And like I said, I get a wash off that. I get a wash off that. But what I'm saying is, I used to knock that feeling I used to knock that position I used to not that type of work, I used to think that that was not big enough. For me, that wasn't a dream of mine to cook for people you know, and now I take so much pride in something that's so little so small. Like I said, there is no dream too small. And the crazy thing is if I wanted to do justice by gave them my business and wanted to do just this, it's it's the most money I've ever made on the job. First of all, second of all, it's full time and it's so meaning if I was anywhere in my past with this position, I would have loved that I was Damn near killed for it. But all that time, I hated the thought and the idea of cooking for other people for a living. You know, I looked at him like no, that ain't me. And then I thought about restaurants and stuff like that gentleman with the Health Department permit. It's just too much money, too much money. And it looked like a bad investment. So I never saw any business opportunity in cooking. Really, you know that that wasn't my thing. And then even like, even as a product, I wouldn't want to make a product that was food because then I have to worry about packaging, storage, shelf life, and just things I didn't want to get into. When I sell a shirt, I could make the shirt today and sell it six months from now a year from now it's not gonna go bad or nothing so so it's the business that I chose to get into for the right reasons in regards to a PAL and all that but I totally neglected any type of career any type of thought into a career in cooking. And like I said, the fact is, is I love it and and if that were my only dream, if that were the only thing I was good at, and the only thing I could do it would still be good enough to get me where I want to be in life. You know what I'm saying? Cooking for other people is still big enough to get me anywhere I want to go in life. You know, and that's why I keep saying there's no truth to small. Anthony and his lemonade. Though that lemonade is a small brand right now that lemonade can take Anthony all over the world and every store in the world Whole Foods targets Walmart, you know what I'm saying? He can he can create an empire was such a small and simple part of high quality though you know what I'm saying? He puts that's what makes it

Jason Hardin  19:42  
have the potential to be anywhere in the world because of the time and attention and the love and the respect and the quality he puts into his product. But nonetheless, he can take that little lemonade all over the world. And basketball I want to tell you guys that there is no joke In too big or small, I have another friend who, who, who created his own niche in his own business of cleaning solar panels, all these companies are starting to put solar panels, cities are starting to go into renewable energy, a lot of communities are having rebates and to get you free solar panels on your, on your house and, and they get dirty, and they start working less and less. And he created a business of wiping other pockets off you don't I'm saying cleaning them. And very successful business very successful gentleman, he's gonna be on the show. But it wasn't a big dream. It wasn't spectacular. It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't something that you see on TV or the movies, but he can make it there. He can get anywhere he wants to go in life to the vehicle of his solar panel business, he wanted to get into another business, if you wanted to learn something, if you wanted to be a doctor, he can go to med school and pay for it with a solar panel business. So what I'm saying is, don't stop what you're good at. Don't knock what you're good at. Don't, don't be great at something and then decide like nobody cares. This is stupid. Wouldn't nobody pay for this? You know what I'm saying? Whatever it is, whatever it is, and don't hang around people who who, who reinforced that negativity. Don't hang around people who agree with you, when you doubt yourself, who agree with you, when you say shit ain't gonna work, who agree with you, when you don't want to do nothing, don't hang around those people stay alone people that keep that fire going in you. Because that's what life's about, man, that burning fire. And that desire and that drive to move forward and get where you want to be in life. To take any idea big small, middle size into whatever to wherever you want to go in life to whatever you want to have in life. Talent is a tool and we can use our talents to to build whatever we want to create for ourselves. And I want you guys to understand that because like I said, I'm all about helping people create and live their own definition of success. And when I say your own that means just that man your own your own your own. You can't be duplicated original you you don't I'm saying so you're good as something obscure as something small as something weird as something different. Don't not get be all in on that weird different. Strange activity or talent or gift and use it. Use it. Go all in on it. You don't understand it. And I promise you, you won't work a day in your life. sounds cliche, but it's true. Anyway, man, I love y'all man. Thank you for Anthony Douglas being on the show man. Everybody get life's laminate checkout lives laminate on Instagram. Social media. Follow him order. Order if you can get it from his website order it man but he also delivers locally man, check him out. But um, but like I said, Man, if you have a dream, doesn't matter how big or small it is. Wake up and make it happen. All right. Anyway, I love y'all man. Check us out every Monday and every Thursday. Anywhere you find podcasts. Be on the lookout on YouTube because the videos are coming soon to all the episodes man so you can actually watch and listen and man check out live from the boss.net Check out our gear get some life of a boss gear, hoodies T shirts, jackets, tank tops, sweaters, man we got it all and that is the brand to help build the Empire man made and Dena checkout made and deena.com they also pay for the show man and continue to be you to the fullest. You know what I'm saying is don't Don't be like anybody else don't want to be anybody else man. Say it was no stay true to yourself and go all in on your gift. And you'll never know what can happen in life. I love y'all. And remember, until next time, success is a lifestyle peace.