There Are No Secrets. Just Hard Work – with Sam Mangan

Transcript

[00:00:00] Sam Mangan: If you want anywhere near a business, it's fucking hard.

If today you're like oh, and the restrictions and this please. If this is the hill you want to die on, get out now and go and get a job.

[00:00:10] Samara: we worked our absolute asses off in the beginning.

And here we are, 16 years, 18 years later, still working our absolute asses off.

[00:00:18] Sam Mangan: You should never be afraid to ask for help. People don't ask for help enough these days. Mm. Problem I have is asking for help generally from idiots.

[00:00:26] Samara: For me, being a business owner, it's great for me having my kids watch that and as you, but there's certain situations where you're like, I wanna make my children's life easier than I had it.

[00:00:34] Sam Mangan: I hate catchphrases, but your network is, your net worth I think is probably as close as you get to a hundred percent accurate.

[00:00:39] Samara: Everyone wants to meet that CEO. You know what, at the end of the day, just meet people, like meet people,

[00:00:45] Jen: be a good person, meet people, and be a good person to those people.

[00:00:48] Sam Mangan: If anyone believes that there's this secret club, we're all in as successful business owners that we are like, don't tell the masses the secrets. That's not real. No one has the

[00:00:56] Samara: secrets. Yeah.

[00:00:56] Sam Mangan: It's a complete dumpster fire. Everyone's working out on their own every single day. Constant mistakes, constant errors. And if you're in a situation now where you're a salon owner or you're a small business where you wanna start a business, whatever else, the high likelihood is that if you're in shit, someone else is in the same shit.

[00:01:10] Jen: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:10] Sam Mangan: Never feel like you are the only one that you need the lifeboat, no one else does. Yeah. We're all in a fucking lifeboat.

[00:01:16] Samara: Before we dive in, just a quick little love note from us. If this podcast has ever made you laugh, cry, think, or feel seen, please hit that subscribe button. It's the easiest way to keep the magic going and it helps us land more incredible guests for you.

Go on back, your girls, subscribe now and let's keep rising together.

[00:01:36] Jen: Welcome back to the Inner Sanctum Salon, rising the podcast. Good morning, Sam and Sam.

[00:01:41] Samara: Morning. Morning. The Sam's. Yeah. I didn't even think of that.

[00:01:44] Jen: Okay.

[00:01:44] Samara: It's the first time in like love. 15 years. We've thought of

that. The Sam's. That's

[00:01:48] Jen: it.

[00:01:49] Samara: Um, I cannot be more excited for this podcast 'cause

I'm already smiling

like an idiot because I've like roped my dear friend Sam into coming on the podcast.

[00:01:59] Jen: Love being roped

in.

[00:02:00] Samara: This and I was like, I'm sorry, I know everybody's asking you to do their podcast, but you are actually just gonna do mine because I need to laugh the whole time.

[00:02:09] Jen: So I actually think it's really serendipitous that we have Sam on today on our podcast because I do believe that the first podcast I ever listened to

[00:02:19] IMG_017411: was,

[00:02:21] Samara: was Sam.

How many people a day ask you to

[00:02:23] Jen: bring that

[00:02:24] Samara: back?

[00:02:24] Sam Mangan: Yeah, it's, it's endured at a, at a rate that I just didn't imagine was real life. You know, I was, even the other day I was in Sydney and a lady stopped me and asked if it was coming back physically. Yeah. You know what's so weird was, you know, here comes the, the humble brag, but not so humble.

But that really became part of the reason that I walked away from it, because I would get stopped a lot.

[00:02:48] Samara: Yeah.

[00:02:48] Sam Mangan: Okay. And given the following was by no means large. Uh, it was almost shocking. And so it was one of my earliest dates with Matthew. A lady came over and stopped me at the Callow Hotel, and he, he's just my partner Matthew, he's just not like a super out there person like that.

And this random person approached us and was just like, and needed to tell me this whole big, long story, which was so lovely and beautiful, but it was, it just became this thing. And then people would keep stopping me and I was like, I don't. It's just not my journey. Yes. I just dunno that that's where I want to be in my life.

[00:03:19] Samara: Yes.

[00:03:19] Sam Mangan: And so it became just, and I'm so used to it, right, because I'm, I'm often around public figures, so I'm so used to that environment, but I'm the person pulling them out of it.

[00:03:27] Samara: Yes.

[00:03:28] Sam Mangan: I'm not the person being stopped.

[00:03:29] Samara: Yes.

[00:03:30] Sam Mangan: And so it be, it just became like a really interest, it's just, I just don't think that that necessarily is my journey.

So appreciative. But it is fascinating to me how attached people got to the concept and that people can, and funnily enough, when I stopped just the other day, I didn't realize it was still live. 'cause we've actually, like, we've pulled it from our end. So like it doesn't exist in our, so I can't even administer it anymore.

Like it's, doesn't exist in the platform.

[00:03:56] Samara: Get somewhere in, find anyone. I think the, the thing about it that makes you just so enjoyable to listen to is. Just your opinion on things and just done in the best way. And then if anyone, actually, I, I was thinking about this just then, if anyone actually knew.

'cause when you talk about things, you're just like very blunt. It's hilarious. But if anyone knows you behind the scenes, like, I get to know you. You have the biggest, kindest heart I have ever met. You can't believe that. Get out

[00:04:27] Sam Mangan: there, calm down, dear Lord.

[00:04:28] Samara: Put it down.

[00:04:29] Sam Mangan: That's not the brain we're looking to push.

Jesus My word. But again, where's that editor cut.

[00:04:33] Samara: Got it. If anyone was to listen, sometimes they'd be like, oh, he is just harshed down. He's not, you are not. You are the. Sweetest human in the

[00:04:43] Stereo Mix: world.

[00:04:43] Sam Mangan: There's two, there's two sides to it. I think One is that people think that it, the show when I did do it or what they saw back in the day on socials and I used to post, I think that people thought it was a bit

[00:04:53] Samara: yes.

[00:04:53] Sam Mangan: Which is like, no,

[00:04:54] Samara: it's not at all. Yeah.

[00:04:55] Sam Mangan: If you know me in real life, the likelihood is if I've posted it, I've already said it weeks prior, like it's just me remembering, oh, that could also go up. It's definitely not a case of, uh, you know, I need to prepare and what, it's just me. But the second part of it is that, yeah, I think just the nature of the type of work that we do, the image has certainly been much more abrupt in general.

But I also, like if someone asked me, I mean I did, I remember I was on a panel for,

I think it was, I dunno, it was some young business. I don't, as you said earlier, I don't do a lot of this sort of stuff, but I did a panel a while back and it was, bond University asked me to go on their behalf. They wanted someone on stage 'cause they were the sponsor.

You were like, oh, oh. I was like, I don't know that you want me, but okay. I, I'm gonna, yeah, sure. That's crazy. Um, but I went and there was this woman in the audience and she has a business and I've forgotten the name of the business, which is terrible. But it was, um, it's wine in a pouch.

[00:05:43] Samara: Yep.

[00:05:43] Sam Mangan: And she stood up and she was like, it's so hard because you can't promote, um, alcohol on social media so easy.

And this is difficult and this is diff you know, what advice would you give me? And I was like, you're lazy. Can I help you? Like, what do you mean? Oh, life's so hard. Life's this and these rules and this, that, and this, that, and the other. Like, it's all fucking hard.

[00:06:03] Jen: Mm.

[00:06:04] Sam Mangan: If you want anywhere near a business, it's fucking hard.

If today you're like this, oh, and the restrictions and this please. If this is the, the hill you want to die on, get out now and go and get a job. Thatwhere put pants down,

[00:06:15] Jen: girlfriend.

[00:06:16] Sam Mangan: Yeah. It is not for you. Get out. And so, and again, the whole, you know, the whole table at the Front's Bond university and they're all like, oh my God, who have we asked to come on our behalf here?

Like, what? You needed to go to Griffith. So

I just, it was for me, it was just like a, but that's what I was like. And then another girl said a similar, and what was funny was we had, there was three of us on stage, it was Nick from High Smile, Emily Hem bro from skin and myself. And I think we had. Maybe one, two few mics or something.

But we all didn't have a mic. And so the microphone was at the other end with Nick and someone else asked a question. And again, it was like, you know, I'm thinking about this business. I'm not sure, whatever else. And she asked the question, I'm thinking in my head, like, another moron. And so I was like, whatever, not my question.

So they asked the question, Nick. And the, the, uh, moderator was the former editor in chief of the Bulletin, who also knows me quite well. And so he was like, pass that microphone. I was gonna say I, so I just was like, look down, look down. Don't make eye contact with anybody. And Nick answered the question and he's so nice and he answered the question.

It was such a nice answer, so respectful, and then passed the um, thing to, to Emily and she's also beautiful. And so she was then the same thing where she was like, you just gotta do it. And she's a little bit more aggressive than Nick's. Like, you've gotta get up and do it and blah, blah blah. And I was like, well, what's the end?

We, I think two answers is sufficient. And I'm like, no, what's yours? I was like, nah, I think we've got all the answers. And they're like, no, no answer. And I was like, well, that's the end of it. I was like, you are a moron. And this is a room of like hundreds of people. I was like, literally, that is the stupidest question that's been asked today.

You just sat there and said, it's a really hard thing to do. And from the Gold Coast stand on the other, the guy, you asked it to Nick from High smile every day he wakes up, he takes a dollar out of Colgate's pocket. Mm. Procter and Gamble.

[00:07:51] Jen: Yeah.

[00:07:51] Sam Mangan: Couldn't be more staff, more money, more everything. The guys taking shelf space in Walmart.

From Crest. Mm. And you are sitting there being like, but it's too hard. It too hard's. The guy broke an industry that nobody could get into, not a single brand. And he was respectful. I won't be, every day he wakes up and does that. And you're sitting there being like, he's active wear too, you know, because to get the Gold Coast, because I'm the Gold Coast.

Give me a break. We've never lived in a time where it's easier.

[00:08:20] Samara: Yeah,

[00:08:21] Sam Mangan: it's still fucking hard. But when have we woken up every day. I mean, at the moment we live in a time of organic content is king. So literally that boils down to free content is the highest penetrating sales tactic we have. When's that ever been the case?

Yeah. Even in the days when Facebook ads were cheaper. Even in those days, you still had to pay to play. Mm.

[00:08:42] Samara: Yeah.

[00:08:42] Sam Mangan: You still had to have money aside, you still to buy your stock or you know, whatever. Your service business, you still have to all those things and you still have to pay. We are talking today the number one sales driver for so many brands and the one that every single brand who matters, the Proctor and Gamblers of L'Oreals yesterday, Lauders, they're all desperately trying to work ahead to make free content work.

Yeah. Turn your iPhone around Bozo.

[00:09:01] Samara: Yeah.

[00:09:01] Sam Mangan: You can do this today. The same way that they're hiring teams of people. You can do it and arguably far easier than Proctor and Gamble can For sure. 'cause how do you make L'Oreal, how do you make Colgate? How do you make these brands interesting to follow.

[00:09:15] Samara: Yeah.

[00:09:16] Sam Mangan: And impossible task.

How do you, you know, Sally from Arundel, you are far more interesting automatically Yes. Than Crest Whitening. You know what I mean? So, yes. Like the question to me is like, if you are gonna ask that today, you can't be helped. It's the same people who go to 19 Tony Robbins seminars. I can't help you. Neither can he stop going?

It's expensive.

[00:09:34] IMG_017411: Do you know what I mean?

Like

[00:09:35] IMG_1982(1): Like

[00:09:35] Sam Mangan: Do you know what I mean? Like you go to the first one, just

[00:09:37] Samara: do it. Why do you think he's successful? Because he's on social media saying stuff that you're like, oh my gosh, it's so profound. No, just get up outta bed and do it. Yeah.

[00:09:45] Sam Mangan: Yeah. And you know when, and

[00:09:46] Samara: choose your hard.

[00:09:47] Sam Mangan: Tony does have some phenomenal systems and processes, right?

There's a reason he's as big as he is. But you've gotta ask yourself, why am I at the fifth? Why am I at the sixth? Yes. Why didn't your wife hasn't changed from one to five? Something's going on here.

[00:10:00] Jen: What's the common denominator?

[00:10:01] Sam Mangan: Exactly. Right. You know what I mean? Like there's a reason every time he turns up to a city that the crowd gets larger.

It's 'cause it's got every bozo and they brought a friend with them. Mm. The next bozo. You know what I mean? But if you are repeatedly going back to the well to find inspiration and that your motivation, you're out, get a job. Um, 99% of people will make more money in a job than they ever will starting a business, and that is just factual. Over the ages of the decades, no matter what it is, number 2, 3, 4, and five at Facebook will make more money than all of us combined.

Like, that's the truth. Yeah. If you are not a business operator, find someone who is and stand beside them. Go and get a job tomorrow. You know, like I think now if you're a McDonald's store manager, I think you're making 150 grand plus.

[00:10:41] Samara: Yeah.

[00:10:42] Sam Mangan: You know what I mean? Like, I think people have aspirations that are just so delusional now where it's like, okay, but what is the reality of this?

[00:10:49] Samara: But it's also aspirations based off materialistic. Consumption. I think like they're like, I want this life so I can be on that yacht. I wanna be famous. Buying those. Pause

[00:11:01] Sam Mangan: there.

[00:11:01] Samara: Pause

[00:11:02] Sam Mangan: the, that basis is even flawed in itself. Yeah. Because whose yacht was it?

[00:11:06] Samara: Yes. Yeah.

[00:11:07] Sam Mangan: Like to me that's the, and we had this conversation off Mike about business coaches in general.

To me, people don't ask enough questions. Yeah. Critical thinking doesn't exist anymore. 'cause of social media, our attention spans all the different things that we know. But that's the question. Someone who goes, oh, I want that life. Whose life?

[00:11:24] Jen: Yeah.

[00:11:24] Sam Mangan: Oh, this person. Is it their life? Yeah.

[00:11:26] Jen: Is it their life?

[00:11:27] Sam Mangan: Is that true?

Exactly. The lies have become impossible to distinguish. Forget ai, the, some of these influencers have been lying to us better than AI will ever be able to.

[00:11:36] Jen: Yes, absolutely.

[00:11:37] Sam Mangan: Every other week they're like, oh, here I'm on this yacht. Well, that yacht's 500,000 euros a week.

[00:11:42] Jen: Yeah.

[00:11:42] Sam Mangan: So I can tell you a story. Who isn't paying for that?

All the influencers in Queensland combined can't afford a week of that. Yeah. So like. That's just untrue.

[00:11:50] Samara: Yes.

[00:11:50] Sam Mangan: Turn the camera around and show me the 60-year-old that's paying for the damn thing. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly. Like the lot. So to me, it's not even, I want to achieve that life. Stop that question.

[00:12:00] Samara: Yeah.

[00:12:00] Sam Mangan: The question has to become what life do you want actually want? And when you point at anyone, God, there's so few people that live anywhere close to the bullshit they post. That's where you've gotta start.

[00:12:11] Samara: But then all of that comes at a cost and you willing.

[00:12:14] Sam Mangan: Oh absolutely.

[00:12:15] Samara: To live that cost in order to have that life a hundred, like you said, like, you know, you were like, I had to put the podcast down because for me, that type of fame where people notice me, I'm just simply not interested in Yeah.

And we've had these conversations a lot because that's obviously what builds businesses, but it's like people that's saying, I wanna be Instagram famous so I don't have to work and I can do it from home. Okay, but you also prepared for all of the Horrificness, all things that come with it comes behind that all.

[00:12:41] Sam Mangan: Well, I mean, this is the whole conversation, right? No one can say it because everyone, you know, it's such a thing where, and everyone ask the question 'cause they know it gets engagement on social and carpets at this point, but, you know, is being an influencer heart. Right? Like, and that question's constant.

I feel like the TikTok Awards, everyone's being asked that question. If you're an influencer and you're doomed if you answer it in either way Mm. You can't say it's hard because inevitably there is obviously someone working harder, right? Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Every day of the week there's someone who's doing a shitier job.

Everything

for lower pay. Everything. Exactly. You can never, it's the same thing. It's the same way of like, I don't know what the, the, um, psychological basis for it is, but you know, when someone only looks at the bright side. Mm. And it's like, well, you can never, you can never be the worst off. Mm. There'll always be someone poorer.

There's always someone doing it harder. There's like, you can never be that person. So like, get over it. But that doesn't help you either. Right. But I think that's the scenario that we're in, in the world now, where it's like, how do you, how can you approach the world in a, in a real way when it, it is impossible to look around you?

'cause everything is a falsehood.

[00:13:38] Samara: Yes,

[00:13:38] Sam Mangan: everyone's presenting a lie to you, but if you do want to pursue a life of greatness, whether that be financial, whether that be family, whatever that is, it's gonna be hard. Yes. Like you can't, no matter what you do, it's like there's no perfect marriage. There's no, and that's why all these crazy celebrity relationships and like, oh, I can't believe they broke up, you know, Nicole and um, Keith and all these things.

It's like, yeah. How many examples would you like to prove? The point that it's all fucked.

[00:14:03] Samara: Yeah.

[00:14:03] Sam Mangan: And it just requires a supreme amount of work, whether it's a business Yeah. Your job, your relationship doesn't matter. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like everything requires an extraordinary amount of work. If you want an extraordinary outcome.

[00:14:15] Samara: Yeah.

[00:14:16] Sam Mangan: You don't need an extraordinary outcome to buy yourself. Have a cash.

[00:14:17] Jen: How cognize the extraordinary outcome if you haven't had to do the work. You know

[00:14:22] Sam Mangan: what I mean? Well, I mean, that's true as well. And how do you hold onto it, right? Yeah. Like, I mean that's, I mean, that's just, that's just data, right?

Like I think it's the average inheritance is gone by the third generation, right? Yeah. Like the first generation builds it. The second generation spends it, spends it, and the third generation's poor and gone. Or the second tries to maintain it and the third generation blows it. Yeah. It's something like that.

But. It's very rare that your vast family fortunes maintain because it's an extraordinarily difficult game to raise children, I would assume. Right? I have no kids. Like what the fuck do I know? But I would imagine, how hard could it be? Like I, so I have a dog, right? This is an every mom who's listening now.

I was like, well, you have no fucking idea. She now, but in my tiny version of it, I always say to my partner, if she could talk, we'd be screwed. If she was like, I want all those toys in Pet Barn, I'd be like, right, I bought you Pet Barn. Yeah. Would you like a franchise or just the company? Yeah. What? What you like.

I can't fathom like a scenario where I had unlimited wealth and had to control myself to be like, I can't give my child the world.

[00:15:18] Samara: Yeah. '

[00:15:18] Sam Mangan: cause I'm going to ruin them long term. Like that's crazy to me. Yeah. That requires a different level, which is obviously parenting

[00:15:24] Samara: because we do it in the smallest forms.

Like our parents probably like, no, we can't go out and have coffee. And I'm like, oh, we just dropped 50 bucks on coffee for no reason and no one enjoyed it, but Okay, cool. Yeah, like there's no, we. We do it because it's normal and then it's like, oh, hold on, I need to pull back. When do I not give to them?

When do they do more of this? When do they, I'm like, it's your kids. You're just like, oh, I want to go out and buy some clothes for them, so I'm gonna buy some clothes. But, well, this is where does then the drive not kick in in other areas. I think for me, being a business owner, it's great for me having my kids watch that and as you, but there's such certain situations where you're like, I wanna make my children's life easier than I had it.

[00:16:02] Sam Mangan: Absolutely. A hundred percent. And I look, I think that's a hard one, right? So I, I can't remember who was saying it the other day in an interview I saw, but there's one of the big billionaires who like, well maybe not billionaires, one of the big multimillionaires who flies their children economy when they fly business.

Mm-hmm. And I was watching an interview with somebody else who was like, that's a crock of shit. Like. Y they fly economy to your $50 million chalet in Aspen.

[00:16:23] Jen: Yeah, exactly.

[00:16:24] Sam Mangan: Like what? That's absurd. That's performative. If I've ever seen it. And again, we're waiting so far outside my territory 'cause I'm not a parent.

But I do appreciate that that is a very hard situation to be in because how can you raise children? Well, one, it's the hard, I would assume it is the hardest time in history to parent full stop without a doubt. Mm. Like I, how do you raise a child in this world of social media? I don't know the answer to that.

I can tell you that I don't know how to run a business in it, so I can't imagine trying to raise children in it. So it's, it's extraordinarily difficult. And then you layer on top of that, like imagine if you're out there, just the kids can have whatever. How do you raise that? I don't, that too is just like crazy talk.

But again, layer it on top of that, to go back to what we were just talking about before, we're raising kids and all of us, right? This isn't just kids, although to an extent they're the most at risk. Yeah. In an environment where AI's fucked everything, nothing's real. Every influence is lying through their teeth.

Every person, I mean, to an extent, right? Like you walk around and people have got the nice car and they've got this debt up to their eyeballs, marriage is broken. You know, all these different things you see and you witness. Mm-hmm. We are living in the faker society we've ever existed in. Mm-hmm. So I think, and not to tie this all up with a nice bow, but coming back to the very beginning, that's why I don't do a lot of this sort of stuff in general because nothing I have to say, people want to hear, they want to hear it, but at the same time, it's like, I'm only gonna tell you what I think is absolutely the truth.

Mm. If what you're looking for is some sort of nice, neat setup, you know, it's like Mel Robbins, the concept of, her book, the, let them the the let them theory. Yeah. It's like, you know, that to me is like the new age, the secret.

[00:17:56] Samara: Yeah.

[00:17:57] Sam Mangan: You systemize what we've always known. Yes. That's not interesting to me.

Just

[00:18:01] Samara: let them do it. It's like,

[00:18:03] Sam Mangan: and that's the thing, it's like, okay, like I understand that because there's a lot of people who are getting around who are just like. Pressed about everything. Yes. It's like, I need to get over, like, what are you doing? Yes. So that's super helpful, right? Yes. Love Mel. Right.

She's amazing. But I think that's the problem is we've become desperate to attach to the next theory. I mean, when the Secret came out, it was like, write a check for a million dollars and stick it to the fridge. Okay. What the fuck is that?

[00:18:26] Samara: Yeah.

[00:18:26] Sam Mangan: Like I, the concept is to systemize and break down, you need to approach the world in a positive way because then positivity will approach you.

That at its very core is absolutely true.

[00:18:37] Samara: Yes.

[00:18:37] Sam Mangan: Don't understand the universe, don't understand the. Horoscopes don't understand any of that stuff. But what I know is that if you go into life with a negative attitude, you get negativity out of it. Yeah. That's just facts.

[00:18:47] Samara: Yes.

[00:18:48] Sam Mangan: And so, '

[00:18:48] Samara: cause if you are looking, if you're driving along and you're like, I'm gonna see every red car, you'll find every red car.

Sure. Absolutely. It's the same thing. If you are driving along, you're like, I'm gonna be so positive about all these positive things that are happening.

[00:18:59] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

[00:18:59] Samara: Percent. You're gonna also just see more of the positive

[00:19:02] Sam Mangan: It's, it's the policy people who say, like the phone's listening to you. Yeah. And so we just discussed this and now I get an ad for it.

No, babe, you've been having an ad for it for three weeks.

[00:19:09] Samara: Yeah.

[00:19:10] Sam Mangan: See 50. See the ad for it? Yeah. We see 50,000 ads a day. You can't see them all, but now you're talking about it. Lo and behold, like as if it's some big shock that advertising can find people who's got a relevant product to them.

[00:19:22] Samara: Yeah.

[00:19:22] Sam Mangan: Like, oh, now they're just hitting me.

No, you've had a hair product being promoted to you for weeks, babe. You just didn't see it. Yeah. Because you're sick of seeing ads. Like Yeah. That is the truth. And so if you wanna see the positive side of life, it's, you'll see the positive side of life.

[00:19:34] Jen: Your focus. Your focus is going there. Yeah,

[00:19:35] Sam Mangan: exactly.

And so I think that, yes, the concept of the secret at its core, but when people systemize stuff sometimes I think it becomes really hard. And so even with the Let Them theory, the concept, again, obviously smart, but again, where does that line, you know, then it starts to become this whole like, oh, well everyone can be a piece of shit to you.

Just let them and, and run your own race. And to an extent, I think you can create a scenario where it's like. Take ownership for yourself.

[00:19:59] Jen: Mm. Yeah.

[00:19:59] Sam Mangan: Do what you are doing and, and get that, that process and make that happen. But the systemized way for letting them, I think, sometimes is really hard to actually apply in real life sense.

Mm. Because what, like, what does that mean?

[00:20:11] Jen: It's a broad umbrella for sure. Like Absolutely. When you get into the nuts and bolts of it, it's like, well, yeah. On the daily basis, how am I breaking this down into what I am actually letting them do? Yeah. And what I will not let them do.

[00:20:21] Sam Mangan: Exactly. What are my boundaries?

Yeah. What are all these different things that, that just humans in general need to have? But I think that the problem is that we've become, and, you know, the, the industries are becoming better at it. Right. And that's the, the problem with TikTok and the shorter attention spans we have, we've become so good from a marketing perspective in making everything seem like such a short burst.

The let them theory, the secret, you know, all these things that are just so bite sized and grab-able, 'cause our attention spans so short, but it's like. You've just gotta re-look at your, your life in general. Right. And just be like, how am I approaching everything? Mm-hmm. You know, the secret's the same thing.

You might've had a million dollar opportunity knock on your door, but you told them to leave.

[00:20:58] Samara: Mm.

[00:20:58] Sam Mangan: Yeah. 'cause you didn't want to hear them, or you didn't want to this, or you didn't, didn't wanna, didn't,

[00:21:02] Samara: you didn't wanna do the hard thing. You didn't wanna do implement, you didn't wanna do the re like

[00:21:06] Sam Mangan: Yeah,

[00:21:06] Samara: absolutely.

All of the things that got you. Don't ask just a million dollar questions doesn't just come along. No. Are you buying businesses? Are you selling businesses? Are you buying property? Are you selling property? Are you doing all of the icky stuff that you've gotta do, for

[00:21:17] Sam Mangan: sure

[00:21:17] Samara: to make the million dollars?

[00:21:19] Sam Mangan: But also, are you, are you approaching conversations with an open mind?

Yeah.

[00:21:22] Samara: Yeah.

[00:21:23] Sam Mangan: Like, you know, the person who comes, and I always say this, right, my career has been built off the back of networking. Right? Like, I, I truly believe that it's

[00:21:29] Samara: been built on, I was actually gonna say this. I think one of the things that I, one of the reasons I look at you and go, correct me if I'm wrong, you've always put yourself in rooms of people that are more brilliant.

And you get to know people and then you suck up knowledge like nobody else. You have your opinions on things, but your knowledge that you gain from other people and with their perspectives, you listen.

[00:21:53] Sam Mangan: Oh yeah, look, you know, I think so the problem with, and I wouldn't say it's today 'cause it's probably been forever, right?

I don't like, uh, the same way I don't like business coaches. And I say that with a really broad lens because there's so many scammers.

[00:22:04] Samara: Okay. He is not, we're talking to rising because, no,

[00:22:08] Sam Mangan: we've

[00:22:08] Samara: talked about this in depth.

[00:22:09] Sam Mangan: It's a really important conversation to have.

[00:22:11] Samara: I'm a.

[00:22:12] IMG_017411: Strat.

Well,

[00:22:13] Sam Mangan: you're a business consultant or co strategist, but you can call yourself a, it doesn't matter what title you use, call yourself a clown.

I couldn't care less what you call yourself. Yeah, the question isn't what your title is. Because if people are looking for, oh, well, they said I should look for strategist, A scammer can use that title too, right? Yeah, exactly. The issue isn't what you call yourself. The issue isn't how you dress. None of those things matter.

Yes. Your issue is your knowledge base.

[00:22:33] Samara: Yes, yes.

[00:22:33] Sam Mangan: Don't ask for advice from someone who hasn't been there before you. Yes. Agreed. The end,

[00:22:37] Samara: yes.

[00:22:37] Sam Mangan: That's the end of the conversation, right?

[00:22:39] Samara: Don't, yeah, don't like listen to people. What are their credibilities are. That's what you, they're like, I'm just a coach. And you're like, okay, what have you, what business have you had?

What's your

[00:22:46] Jen: prior experience?

[00:22:47] Samara: Oh, this is my business. In

[00:22:48] Jen: any

[00:22:48] Sam Mangan: field, who have you worked with? And, and also, depending on what you're hiring them for. I mean, you guys really specific, right?

Like ask them specifically, Hey, we have an issue. Like if you're interested in hiring a coach, hey, we have this issue and I'm gonna use a really, probably a bad example here, but the best I can to stretch in your industry. Go, Hey, we have, you know. An issue where we don't sell any product. Yep. Yeah. To, um, salon on clients.

Can you give me three strategies to fix that? Can they answer it on the spot? No. 'cause if they can't, they're not your consultant, your strategist, your business coach, don't care what your title is. Mm. Like what is the problem in your business that you know, at a granular level is the issue, although you've probably got many, but what are your granulars ask them?

How do you fix that today? Mm. If they can't answer the question, they're not your coach.

[00:23:27] Samara: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:28] Sam Mangan: They need to get out of your way

[00:23:29] Samara: And, uh. I don't have anything more to say. I think that that information in itself, because when you've got broader business coaches that are doing every single industry, it's like, as you said, this is my problem in my business.

[00:23:44] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

[00:23:44] Samara: If you are working with someone that doesn't sell retail, how do you fix that retail issue?

[00:23:48] Sam Mangan: Absolutely. Yeah. And that, that, and that's, that's the core of everything, right? What is your problem? Therefore, how do you find a solution? Right? Yeah. Like if your house is on fire, don't call the ambulance.

[00:23:58] Samara: Yeah.

[00:23:59] Sam Mangan: You need the fire department.

[00:24:01] Samara: Yes.

[00:24:01] Sam Mangan: But you call triple zero and then you explain the issue and they ran to the right place.

[00:24:05] Samara: Exactly.

[00:24:05] Sam Mangan: That's the point to be made here. Right. If you are in a scenario where your business is on fire, don't call the wrong team.

[00:24:12] Samara: Yes.

[00:24:12] Sam Mangan: If you have an issue with cashflow or a p and l or a tax issue, whatever else, also don't call you guys.

[00:24:19] Samara: Yeah.

[00:24:19] Sam Mangan: Like if you want, if you have a a, a severely. A high level accounting issue call an accountant. Yes.

[00:24:25] Samara: Yes. You

[00:24:25] Sam Mangan: know what I mean? If you,

[00:24:26] Samara: but again, the same is don't call your accountant for them to give you business advice on how to run the worst

[00:24:30] Sam Mangan: people to ask

[00:24:31] Samara: the worst

[00:24:32] Sam Mangan: run dilo. If they're, if they're,

[00:24:33] Samara: so many people say to me, but my accountant sucks.

They didn't gimme advice. It's not their job. That's not their job. They're, they literally look at the numbers and they make the numbers. They do the numbers, the spreadsheet

[00:24:42] Sam Mangan: people,

[00:24:42] Samara: that's end. Yeah. They are not business coaches. And there are

[00:24:44] Sam Mangan: some generalized people who will, and, and I dunno about your service offering specifically, but some people just know the place is on fire.

[00:24:49] Samara: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:49] Sam Mangan: They don't know what to do next. Yeah. Sometimes you do need someone general to come and go, well, your p and l's fucked. Your cash flow's awful. You're selling nothing. You've bought too much stock. You know, there could be so many issues and you need a wide range. Yeah. The, the question isn't. The, the problem is people who think there's a bandaid solution to everything, and it isn't business is hard every day of the week.

Mm-hmm. You might think that you're a one man operation and you need a business coach, and they can come and help you. Let me tell you a story. Every single day there is a multi-trillion dollar industry, pwc, Deloitte, all these companies, they are just business coaches on steroids. That's all they are. Yeah.

And the biggest companies on earth, ashi, Pepsi, Coke, everyone calls them at some stage multiple times a year and says like, Hey, huge issue. We've just realized we've hired way too many people. Can you come in and tell us what we actually should cut here?

[00:25:35] Samara: Mm.

[00:25:35] Sam Mangan: And external. This happens every day. It's a multi-trillion dollar industry.

That is their entire job. Because once you're in it, it's too hard to see. Mm.

[00:25:43] Samara: Yes.

[00:25:43] Sam Mangan: Like it's so hard. And so you should never be afraid to ask for help. You should. We nobody ask. People don't ask for help enough these days. Mm. Problem I have is asking for help generally from idiots.

[00:25:54] IMG_017411: And so I think

that,

[00:25:55] Sam Mangan: And so I think that, and

[00:25:55] Jen: not asking the questions.

[00:25:57] Sam Mangan: And not asking the questions, just for

[00:25:58] Jen: broad help asking,

[00:25:58] Sam Mangan: not going specific. You just assume, oh, they've got, got 50,000 followers. Their dropdown selection was entrepreneur. Their bio says Strategists have exited four companies, sold three. They can barely spell exited. I'm sorry. That's a fucking lie. Oh, I exited three companies.

List them.

[00:26:15] IMG_017411: What

[00:26:16] Sam Mangan: did you exit? Yeah. Look it up.

[00:26:18] Samara: Yeah.

[00:26:18] Sam Mangan: Oh, I sold this. No, you didn't give me a break. Oh God. The lies. It's, and that to me is the problem.

[00:26:25] Samara: I also think if there's people out there that are saying like, oh, I'm your business coach, and everything is sparkly and everything is easy. And I just worked three hours to, like, you and I both know, we both, we've known each other since we were infants and I, we worked our absolute asses off in the beginning.

And here we are, 16 years, 18 years later, still working our absolute asses off.

[00:26:47] Sam Mangan: Oh, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed, your problems only get bigger. And

[00:26:50] Samara: that's what

[00:26:50] Sam Mangan: you want. That's the irony. Yeah. I think people think that, and that's, this is your issue. Like with money in general, people are like, and that's the that age old quote of like, money won't buy you happiness.

Right. At its core, people are like, well, it will 'cause today I'm miserable and poor. Like if I was rich, I would have less. And it's like, yes, you would have less issues in that department, but if you've obtained the money out, even people who win the lottery, mm. How are they turning around and telling stories about like they broke five minutes later.

My family all got rid of me. Everyone hated me. I gave money to this person. Money brings problems because usually to generate it, there is a bunch of steps required that put you in a situation. We had this whole conversation earlier, you inherit a bunch of money. They're some of the most miserable people I know.

Yeah. People with a trust fund, because they have no concept. They have no concept of building, they have no concept of community. They have none of

[00:27:33] Samara: these things not work. And then they're not grateful for it because it's

[00:27:35] Sam Mangan: just

[00:27:35] Samara: given. Yeah.

[00:27:36] Sam Mangan: And I mean, I even know there's an example that's in our region, like of someone who has inherited an extraordinary amount of money and their perspective, which I, and this sounds terrible, right?

'cause who. Who feels sorry for anyone worth a billion dollars. But I do feel sorry for this person. 'cause they're like, how do I start a business?

[00:27:51] Jen: Yeah.

[00:27:51] Sam Mangan: Wow. Oh, oh, I made five grand this week. That's a rounding error. Five grand. That's the fuel for the series of cars. Dad has like how do you start something?

Like what? What is the, you don't even understand success. How do you come home to dad and be like, Hey dad, guess what? This week we didn't lose any money.

[00:28:08] Samara: Mm.

[00:28:08] Sam Mangan: Yeah. Okay. Cool story. We'll be in Barbados on the yacht. Mm. Like

[00:28:12] Samara: and if something happens, we'll just bail you out and you just stop. Yeah. Doesn't

[00:28:14] Sam Mangan: matter.

[00:28:14] Samara: Like we don't have When you are. In this, when you like

[00:28:18] Jen: that drive to

[00:28:18] Samara: get past hard because you

[00:28:19] Jen: have to,

[00:28:20] Samara: like, I, you've, this business can't fail. I have three children before you don't

[00:28:23] Sam Mangan: have the dopamine hit, right? Like, this isn't, yeah. This isn't a good example to use. But like, I have a series of really beautiful pens.

I love, I'm a big stationary person. I love writing things in real life. I like books, paper. I hate an iPad. Um, and I used to buy pens for significant milestones. Mm-hmm. Like when we did significant deals, when I did contract whatever, I would buy a really beautiful pen and sign that deal. And I know all the different pens that I have, what they're from.

Right. Like if you grew up with your whole, the pens you're throwing in your pencil case was two grand. Mm.

[00:28:52] Jen: Yeah.

[00:28:53] Sam Mangan: Where, how can you even create the feeling of success? I knew when I bought a pen that was a thousand dollars. I was like, that's fucking whoa. Like a thousand pen. That's ridic. And some people will be like, you're a moron.

It's like, sure. But to me, but that's your, it's valuable to you. But that was significant. Yeah. But I went away from that and now every time I picked that pen up, I know that when I did that that time, that was such a big moment. That's I'm trying to build to the next moment. If you've grown up with everything, how do you even, you've got no regulation.

Mm Oh, I can afford to finally take myself on a holiday. Cool story. I've flown private my whole life. Mm. Like those experiences. And so I do feel sorry for that person. 'cause I think to myself, yeah, that is true. How do you start a business tomorrow from the ground up and actually feel like you've accomplished something because your regulator of accomplishments is nil.

Mm. You know, like we know when we hit something we're like, I did it. Yeah,

[00:29:39] Samara: yeah.

[00:29:39] Sam Mangan: Like we hit a challenge and we overcome it, we feel it. Yeah. Whereas like when you think, oh God, if I could just hire one more staff member that might equal this, this and this, this person can afford to hire 200. Yeah. And dad wouldn't know and you wouldn't care.

[00:29:50] Samara: Yeah.

[00:29:51] Sam Mangan: So it's, your regulation there is really hard as well. So I do, you know, money is a hard one. I do think, you know, we live in a world now where it's like, again, people are leasing cars and their debt up to the eyeballs and all these things. And that is to me, the quintessential business coach. They're sitting there being like, you two could live a life like me.

And we went through the iterations, right? The same morons of business coaches were, crypto advisors were, uh, one of those pictures called, they were selling, um, on the blockchain.

N-F-T-N-F-T. There it is. Thank you. And NFT Oh, you dunno that it was huge for a minute. Um, and then, then there was NFT advisors and they were, you know, they could tell you this, they could tell you this. They're making, everyone's making fortune, everyone's millionaires, everyone's billionaires, all these things.

And it's like, no, that's, you know, there's like 10 people who actually made money out of that. The vast majority were billionaires who were moving money around and crushed everyone's hopes and dreams. And now they've got more of your money. Mm. Yeah. Because you spent your 500 bucks, you saved up from McDonald's and now they have it.

[00:30:41] Samara: Okay. So.

[00:30:42] IMG_017411: you

[00:30:42] Samara: have multiple companies, multiple businesses, multiple hats. Yes. If you

[00:30:46] IMG_017411: If you

[00:30:47] Samara: were. Speaking in this space at that point where you're like, something needs to have changed, something needs to adjust, I need help. Who would you turn to someone in that area?

Me personally,

[00:30:58] Sam Mangan: or if I was a listener now

[00:30:59] Samara: both.

[00:30:59] IMG_017411: both.

[00:31:00] Sam Mangan: So I, my career's been built on networking, right? Yeah. Like I very much so I think that, you know, I, I hate catchphrases, but your, your network is, your net worth I think is probably as close as you get to a hundred percent accurate.

[00:31:12] Samara: Yeah.

[00:31:12] Sam Mangan: And to me, that's part of the problem we have in society now.

If you look at someone who's in business, they go to the local business chapter, business forum community, and a networking event. 99% of the people in that, in that room are pointless to you. Yeah. Like that's a, everyone there is flinging, as I used to say, flinging business cards like ninja stars around the room and there is no networking taking place.

Yeah. There is an exchange of contact details. Yeah. That's a networking.

[00:31:38] Jen: Yeah.

[00:31:38] Sam Mangan: To me, networking has always been. You meet people and you meet good people and good people will go good places.

[00:31:46] Jen: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:31:46] Sam Mangan: And then eventually that materializes. The problem is, and which is why I don't do a lot of this sort of stuff.

If I go to an event and people identify who I work with or the types of stuff that we do, everyone wants to talk to you. Mm-hmm. And they usually are, you know, pre-business, pre this, pre whatever, right? Yeah. They want to meet the CEO. They want to, if they just, they think to themselves, if I could just get 10 minutes with Elon Musk, if I could just get that CEO in the room, my whole life would change. It's like, actually it wouldn't. One, they'll be the rudest you've ever met because they understand what it takes to get there. But two, that isn't the person that's going to help you. And it's in Shark Tank writers, the materialization of that, where people go on and they go, I just need help and advice.

And 99% of those pictures end in nothing. 'cause the sharks are like, you're not gonna get to call me every week. Mm. I won't build your business for you. When you get to a point where you need to go into Bed, bath and Beyond, or you need to go into Target or Walmart or whatever, sure, I can make the meeting.

Mm, but I'm not gonna hold the meeting. Mm. Yeah. The meeting won't be me. I'm not gonna tell them about the product, the margins, why it's gonna pop off the shelf. All these things. All I can do is give you the access. And so to me, I think there's a lot of people now who just, who want that again? 'cause social media's done it.

I don't blame anyone individually, but this, this fast hit. They think there's a Band-Aid solution that's, if I just had this, if I had 1000 more dollars, if I had the phone number for this person, if I, then I would be successful. Mm-hmm. The vast majority of people don't know. If Myer calls tomorrow and wants to arrange your product, the high likelihood is if you're a small brand going into Myer, you will lose money on that deal.

Mm-hmm. I'm yet to see a deal that materializes in really good outcomes, unless you're a hot brand with the traction that you are bringing to the table. Yeah. If you think Myer David Jones,

[00:33:22] Samara: you are bringing to the table.

[00:33:23] Sam Mangan: Yeah. I mean like, lemme tell you, I've seen some deals that Mecca has put in front of people.

That is some scary shit.

[00:33:27] Samara: Yeah.

[00:33:28] Sam Mangan: Like, and if, and at the end of the day, they know what they have, they have these walls that they can move product. All these people, they know what they're offering and bringing to the table, so they're gonna limit their downside. Like, no, tomorrow

[00:33:38] Jen: for sure

[00:33:39] Sam Mangan: if this doesn't work, you're out the door as they should.

Mm-hmm. But people think that that's the difference between where they are today and where they could be tomorrow. And I think that's the scariest part is. You need to be meeting people so you have a broad access of knowledge. So if you're talking to, go back to your question about like, who do I call? There's people that I've created relationships with for a long time, or I can call depending on my problem and ask them for their advice and what's going on.

[00:34:00] Samara: And I think that just there of being like, you wanna build, like if I wanna build something and I'm in this space at the moment, I'm literally going constantly over like the things in the people in my head.

[00:34:14] Jen: Yeah,

[00:34:14] Samara: absolutely. Who could I call? Like, and I know anytime that I've wanted to do something, I'm like, Hey Sam, I'm thinking of this. Like how, what do you think? What would you do? And you're like, all this information. So then I'm like, oh, that is brilliant. Exactly. It's not Sam, build this business for me.

Yeah.

[00:34:29] Sam Mangan: No,

[00:34:29] Samara: it's Sam, what knowledge do you have? Because you have a set of skill or uh, you've gone through this or Yeah. How can I like

[00:34:36] Sam Mangan: or just a perspective?

[00:34:37] Samara: Yeah.

[00:34:38] Sam Mangan: That could be different to yours because everyone's perspective is different.

[00:34:41] Samara: Yeah.

[00:34:41] Sam Mangan: And that's, you know, that's

[00:34:42] Samara: instead of looking for someone that's just going to agree with you.

[00:34:45] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

[00:34:46] Samara: Look for someone that's like,

[00:34:46] Sam Mangan: no one's gonna package it up for you and give it back to you. No. Yeah. 'cause they could've, they would've done it themselves.

[00:34:49] Samara: Yes.

[00:34:50] Sam Mangan: Right. Like, everyone's selfish.

[00:34:51] Samara: Yes.

[00:34:51] Sam Mangan: So I, yeah, to me it's, the problem is where you are today. And for a lot of people, right? Like, I started this when I was very, very young.

And so it was a case of all I had access to in my immediate world. Like, I didn't grow up with wealthy parents by any stretch of it, the opposite. Um, and so what I, you know, they've worked their asses off to send me to a really great school. So I used to absorb every bit of knowledge I could from my friend's parents who were super successful.

Yeah. You'd see them talk about stuff, you'd hear them talk about this, you'd hear, and that's when you start to broaden it. But that's who I had access to at the time. But now it's like, you know, and I always say this now, if you walk into, and I had this actually happen just recently. If you walk into my business now today, and you come through my reception, my reception's, my mom.

So walk through my reception

[00:35:38] Samara: from

[00:35:38] IMG_017411: from

the

[00:35:39] Sam Mangan: the beginning. From the beginning. But you walk through my reception and you think, well, she's the receptionist. Who cares?

[00:35:44] Samara: She's the most important person in

[00:35:45] Sam Mangan: your life. I give your hard tip. You're rude to that woman.

[00:35:47] Samara: Yeah.

[00:35:47] Sam Mangan: I don't care what you're bringing to my office.

Yeah. You're dead.

[00:35:49] Samara: Yeah.

[00:35:50] Sam Mangan: So, and then the same goes from the rest of my team. Yeah. Don't think that because they're all low level or their job titles are impressive, or they're this or they're that.

[00:36:00] Samara: Yeah.

[00:36:00] Sam Mangan: You are not getting within a hundred miles of me.

[00:36:03] Samara: Yeah.

[00:36:03] Sam Mangan: But if, if one of my staff says, Hey, I need a favor.

I have this friend and they've asked me this question, they're gonna get in the door instantly.

[00:36:10] Samara: Yeah.

[00:36:11] Sam Mangan: But if you walk off the street and you ask me a question, I'm sorry. I'm busy. Yes. I just, it's not, I have anything against you, I don't think I'm too good for you. But I have 10 million things to do all at once.

Like we all do. Yeah. I've got a partner at home, I've got a life to leave. I've got, we've all got too much going on. Mm. I'm not making time in my schedule of someone, I don't know. Mm. So to me it's like, and that's always been really important to me every time I go to have a meeting anywhere, at any company.

I like the receptionist is just as important as the medium I'm taking. Mm.

[00:36:37] Jen: Yes.

[00:36:38] Sam Mangan: And not because I'm doing it to make the point so that I hope they pass on. Good, good. A good message. But you know, if you met the marketing coordinator at any business 10 years ago, there's a good chance they're the marketing director today.

Mm-hmm.

[00:36:50] Samara: Yeah. Somewhere.

[00:36:51] Sam Mangan: Mm-hmm. Like generally like just a general concept be, I always tee you be kind.

[00:36:55] Samara: Relationships

[00:36:56] IMG_017411: or

[00:36:56] IMG_1982(1): Relationships

[00:36:57] IMG_017411: relationships.

[00:36:58] Samara: It's always relationships. It's a huge, like

[00:36:59] Sam Mangan: that's all it's, yeah. Like I've never, no matter what problem I get into in our business, there's usually some corner I can go,

[00:37:05] Samara: but in the, like in the smallest form of this, right?

Yes. We've been friends for a very long time, but Sam's one of the only people that you can personally text me and I'll make your appointment no matter what.

[00:37:17] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

[00:37:18] Samara: You are the literally the only person, because I'm like, you are busy. I'm busy. The best way to do it is you and I just communicate.

[00:37:24] Sam Mangan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:37:24] Samara: There is not many people I do that for because I couldn't have the, but because of our relationship. That's what happens. And I think people forget that. People forget that with their product companies, people forget that with their delivery guide. People forget that everyone, that it's all based off relationships.

Yeah. If you are like loving on these people, of course they're going to wanna do more for you. Absolutely. If you are the kindest person in the world to the receptionist, of course you want to get you in. Yeah. Like, I think we forget that everything is relationship based.

[00:37:53] Sam Mangan: Well know, like, I mean our, the delivery people who even service our business on the e-commerce side, it's like, you know, we're, we're very close with them.

My dad runs my warehouse, he's super close with the delivery guys, and they get a Christmas gift every year and this, that and the other. And you know, they, they have a very difficult job delivery People. Like, it's, they, yes. They get zero credit for it and everyone hates them. And it's hard work, especially around the holidays.

But there's been several times where I have a critical sample coming in. And they're pulling it out of the lot early.

[00:38:17] Jen: Mm-hmm. To get it to you because

[00:38:18] Sam Mangan: they, rather than coming the day after, it's coming a day earlier 'cause they see my name. Mm. And it's coming earlier. And that could be whether it's me or 'cause of my dad or my mom, whatever.

But the point is just because someone doesn't appear on their face to have some intrinsic value to you. Mm. We need to stop looking for that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because my career has been built off meeting, I mean, literally, I won't tell the whole story 'cause it'll take far too long. But you know, the only celebrity on planet Earth who I care for in any realm at all, and I've worked with a huge list of them, is Celine Dion.

Obsessed with the woman, the greatest voice and talent in the world. Love her. Used to have a life

[00:38:51] Samara: size. I

[00:38:51] Sam Mangan: still have, do you still have the life

[00:38:52] Samara: size? Yep.

[00:38:53] Sam Mangan: Where do you think that's going? Who's gonna be throwing that out? Over my dead body. Obsessed with the woman. She's the only person I've ever wanted to meet in my life.

And I did eventually meet her. It took me 10 years and we're connected in all elements of Hollywood and blah, blah, blah. She has no management from la she's from, um, Quebec in Canada. So they're all French Canadians. They all speak French. So nobody I knew knew her. Every single, no one knew her at any level.

And I'm talking the absolute top echelon because she was based in Canada at the time. Um, I ended up meeting her because of a girl who I met in Vegas. The first time I went to see Celine in Constant in Vegas. And at the time, her job was to basically tape chords to the ground. She ended up being the coordinator for her international tour, and I met her in Sydney because of that woman.

And I, I went over to the US and every time I would go, if I was in the region, I would take her to lunch. I reckon it took me seven years of this woman. And eventually she put me in front of her and I met her. I was in Sydney and when I met her, we were in the room, the backstage of the concert, and all the people who were there, it was Alan Jones, who at the time meant something.

You know, there were so many people that were every celebrity who mattered back there. And I'm sitting in the corner thinking like, oh God, this is gonna be a long wait. There's a thousand of these com bozos. And then it's me. And her brother, who's a stage manager, he came into the room and goes, just as a preface, he was like, we're running behind this, that and the other.

You know? And really stressful. There's so many people, so chaotic backstage, and she does her meet and greet before, um, the show. And this isn't a, you can't pay to be in this meet and greet. She doesn't do paid meet and greet. It's only invite only. So like, so we're running short on time, so I'll call you, you come around this wall and you stand here, she'll be there.

You can say, hi, blah, blah, blah, whatever else. I'll read your name out, whatever, you know, chaos, chaos, chaos. Like, we're getting really short here. Everyone's gonna have just a matter of seconds. She has to get on stage 'cause there's limitations on the whatever else. And I was, first

[00:40:32] IMG_017411: he

[00:40:33] Sam Mangan: he comes back in and he goes, the first person, Alan Jones couldn't have been walking faster that door thing.

He was first and then Sam Mangan. And I was like, oh shit. Okie dokey. And there I was, I was first,

[00:40:42] Samara: greatest time in life

[00:40:43] Sam Mangan: relationships, first time in life. And that's, you know, and this woman had, she could, she could've offered me nothing back then. But the point is, regardless, like I had a goal there, don't get me wrong, but.

The point is you just dunno who you're meeting. Yeah. And you don't know what that means and you don't know where that goes. And everyone's on a journey and everyone will get there. Mm. Not everything's commercial success either. Mm. You know, you'll be in a situation in your life where, and again, I'm going way outside my realm here, but you'll be in a time in your life where you're up shit creek and no one will look after the kids.

[00:41:13] Jen: Mm.

[00:41:13] Sam Mangan: That mom at school who you were nice to, might be able to help now. Yeah. Like everyone has a role to play in the world and I think that we're getting farther and farther apart as the world is becoming more and more divisive. We need to be more community focused and kinder and all these different things.

And that ultimately will end up being your support system. Mm. Yeah. That could be one call you get to make one time in your life from miles away. It could be, you just don't know. Mm. Like it's, there's, and there's so many times in my life where it's applied and so I think my career is a good example of why your network is your net worth because.

There's been the most random things, like, you know, when I've had talent in town, I need, and they need a fake tan at 11:00 PM at night.

[00:41:51] Samara: Mm-hmm.

[00:41:52] Sam Mangan: And I have someone to call to come out at 11:00 PM at night.

[00:41:54] Samara: Yeah. Do you

[00:41:54] Sam Mangan: know what I mean? Like,

[00:41:55] Samara: Sam, again, the same thing with you. You knew I, you could call me for anything and I'd be like, babe, I'm gonna make it work.

[00:42:00] Sam Mangan: Well, because, well, we did, I mean, in the middle of COVID, you couldn't get your hair cut. You came to my house, I cut my hair in my living room. So like, there's your example, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. And that's not because you were like, okay, great. And

[00:42:09] Samara: funny enough, there'll be a business. I, I hadn't, I don't think I'd looked after you for about four years Yeah.

At that point, because you were, um, one of my first, first staff members is who introduced us. Yeah. Yeah. And then you were just going like, then you and I didn't have a relationship at the time you were in my salon. Yes. But you had the relationship with her and then you put a call out and I was like, Sam, I got you babe.

And I wouldn't have done that for anyone, but I. Was like, you know what? I'm gonna make this work for Sam because not to get anything out of it, but I also really enjoy your company. I really enjoy your perspective on things. I really

[00:42:42] Sam Mangan: enjoy it. You just don't dunno. Like it's the point I think that you don't wanna walk around like in the future as we will with a pair of glasses on where you get a rundown of everyone in front of you.

Yeah. What value they have. You don't want that. Where it's like, are they rich? Are they this, could they do this? Could they do this? Yeah. Because some of the poorest people are related to some of the rich, like you just, yes. You have no concept of the direction someone can take you or the impact they can have on your life, which is, and God, now we're really getting out there.

Which is why I think that dating apps are so dangerous because we, we have this list of criteria. Criteria, yeah. That we go, you don't meet it on, we go. And even when I met my partner, Matthew, now when, oh, the irony. So my oldest friend in the world, Amy was in my house at the time, and Laura, another really close friend of mine, they were staying at the time.

Um, and I had the date with Matthew that night, and he got to the front door and they looked on the camera. And they both went too tall and closed it because I always was like, I just imagined I would be with someone shorter than me.

[00:43:33] IMG_017411: than me.

[00:43:34] Sam Mangan: Anyway, Matthew and I are engaged now. Like never been happier, but again, I would've been like, yeah, I would get

[00:43:39] Samara: someone, oh, so Matthew is so polar opposite to you.

Like Matthew, when you were like, we're doing this, Matthew was like, we are not spending money on that. That is the most like,

[00:43:46] Sam Mangan: here's perfect. Where is discount card? Where is a coupon? What are we, wait like that's like the complete polar opposite of me. But again, it is

[00:43:52] Samara: such a perfect way because But

[00:43:54] Sam Mangan: what an irrelevant metric.

[00:43:55] Samara: Yeah, yeah.

[00:43:55] Sam Mangan: Are we gonna be shorter?

[00:43:56] Samara: Yeah.

[00:43:57] Sam Mangan: What the fuck was I doing? Like what is that? Do you know what I mean? But the idea that that wouldn't be something that you would be open to, that I think is the death of the world.

[00:44:05] Samara: Yeah.

[00:44:05] Sam Mangan: In terms of like human nature. Yeah. We have these precondition concepts and then we get up and we do our processes and we see nothing.

Yeah, well you, you go to the coffee shop and, and I was just saying when we sat down, like I've had two coffees today, like the, the coffee shop where I go, I go now and I actually got myself into, well, I shouldn't say trouble 'cause I couldn't give a flying fuck. But during COVID I used to go to my office every morning.

Um, 'cause it was, there was no one there, it was just me. So I used to still go to my office to have some semblance of process. Um, and I would go to this coffee shop and I used to make it at home, but I was like, in COVID times, I was like, I should spend it out, you know, like these coffee shops to, to support.

And I went to this coffee shop every single morning and I must have, I would go five days a week and I'd been there probably six months. And every day I got there, they looked straight through me every day. It was like no difference. Thought to myself, this is just, and then one day I realized myself, this is actually outrageously expensive.

It was like, you know that like these days, I mean a coffee, it's this and then you pay $12,000 'cause you want an alternate milk and then it's 50 grand for a syrup and then, oh, you want a large size, get a bank loan. So it was crazy to me. And so then I posted being like, this is insane. Like yeah, not only do I need to hand over the keys to my car every morning, but

[00:45:10] Samara: then also no one gives a shit about me.

[00:45:12] Sam Mangan: No one cares. Like,

[00:45:13] Samara: like I'm spending this money here. This is,

[00:45:15] Sam Mangan: why would I wanna spend this money? This is wall like not gonna some trendy fuck off standard line scenario. This is literally a hole in the wall around the corner from my office. So I posted. Anyway, I'm convinced they saw it because then the next morning it was like, you're back.

And I was like, well that's crazy how I gonna six months and no one knows my name. All of a sudden now everybody knows my name and is happy to see me. So I stopped going there. Now I go to a different place. I walk in every morning and it was funny actually because sometimes I can't get down there, so my assistant goes down and gets my coffee.

The guy just said to me today, there's a girl that comes down here and the coffees that she's buying is your coffee. Is it for you? And I was like, yeah it is. It's my assistant Nina. And he was like, oh great. I just wanted to make sure I remembered her name. Everyone I walk in, Hey Sam. Hey Amy. What you know, normal today.

Yeah. See you on Wednesday. 'cause they know we're not in an office on Tuesday. It's hybrid. You know, it's like those little

[00:45:59] Samara: moments, but it again, the same thing. If that guy, if that guy needed advice on something, you would sit and have a coffee with him. Exactly.

[00:46:05] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

[00:46:05] Samara: Exactly.

[00:46:05] Sam Mangan: If he had a question for me, he's getting the answer every day of the week.

Yeah. Because he, if something went wrong, taking the time to remember someone's name. It's not for, it's not for the fact. And, and conversely, if I decide tomorrow that I love the idea of being in the coffee business, I'll ask, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I can ask him. Yeah. But it, it, I think that it's just, we're so.

And it's not even fault necessarily. We're so programmed now to just get through life.

[00:46:29] Samara: Yeah.

[00:46:29] Sam Mangan: Just get to the end of the day, the end of the week, the end of whatever. And when you really think about it, it's like, God, there's a lot you're missing out on.

[00:46:35] Samara: Yes. There's a lot. So you get one, I say all the time, you have one precious life.

Why are we getting through it? Because the getting through it, it's just gonna death.

[00:46:42] Sam Mangan: Yeah. That's, that's, yeah. To

[00:46:44] Samara: get through the day ends

[00:46:45] Sam Mangan: up gets a lot

[00:46:45] Samara: end. Yeah.

[00:46:46] Sam Mangan: Yeah, a hundred

[00:46:46] Samara: percent. So like, what are you doing?

[00:46:48] Sam Mangan: And that's it. And that's where I think that some people, they think it's like, okay, great. If I could just get the money to go to Tony Robbins seminar, that's where my life will change.

It's like, no, your life can change today if you decide to. Yeah. It doesn't require an external force. It doesn't require more money. It doesn't require anything. It requires you, you making, making a change to make that choice.

[00:47:05] Jen: Yes. And make the change. Yeah.

[00:47:05] Sam Mangan: It's a decision and a choice. And the action can start from tomorrow.

And that's why I think, you know, it's, you get to January and you get to December and whatever else, and I fall under the same trap like everybody does. But you get to this idea of, you know, I'm gonna be a whole new person from January one. Yeah. But I do think there's something cathartic about the end of a year.

[00:47:21] Samara: Agreed.

[00:47:21] Jen: Oh yeah.

[00:47:21] Sam Mangan: Of a wrap up of review and the beginning of the new year

[00:47:23] Jen: Review. Close the chapter. Yeah. Have a look.

[00:47:25] Sam Mangan: Exactly.

[00:47:26] Jen: Refresh. Yeah. Refresh what you were looking at. And then proceed. Review

[00:47:29] Sam Mangan: and review what I done, what did I not like, what happened, what, you know, all those different things. How can I, you know, make a difference?

And I think seeking advice on that. You know, I listened to Emma Reed's podcast, um, and Emma's, you know, a friend, but a phenomenal business operator, you know, she's the co-founder of Skims and, uh, the CEO of Good American. And just incredible, what's it called? Incredible. What's it? Skims? Oh no. Uh, the podcast.

Yeah. It's called,

aspire with Emma Reed

[00:47:50] Jen: Yeah. Okay.

[00:47:50] Sam Mangan: Um, and phenomenal. She has a great business people on that. And what I love about her podcast is that she's at a level where you can ask the real questions.

Mm. So many people who are podcast interviewers are. You know, whether it's the right thing to say, the wrong thing to say, they're not on the same level as the person they're interviewing, right? Yeah. Yeah. So there's a power imbalance and thus the questions lean to bullshit. Mm-hmm. Whereas Emma can be like, no, no, no, no.

What about this? Like she had this woman on there who is now the executive vice president of Beauty for Skims. 'cause skims is about to launch cosmetics and whatever else. And she had a business that, um, was in Sephora but has ultimately closed now and gone to liquidation. And it was just a fascinating conversation because not many people will be willing to sit there and be like, where did you fail?

[00:48:27] Jen: Yeah.

[00:48:28] Sam Mangan: Where did this woman, did you

[00:48:28] Jen: failed and where did you

[00:48:29] Sam Mangan: go into liquidation and white? Yeah. Yeah. Let's hear this story and like, why was Sephora bad? And but it takes someone of Emma's stature

[00:48:35] Samara: Yes.

[00:48:36] Sam Mangan: To say like, I am respectful of you, but like, let's understand this.

[00:48:39] Samara: Yes. Yeah.

[00:48:40] Sam Mangan: And that, so that those conversations are great shit

[00:48:42] Samara: because then in the failure is when people get so much knowledge

[00:48:44] Sam Mangan: what, and again, wouldn't,

[00:48:45] Samara: it's like, I wanna do this, Sam, what wouldn't you do?

[00:48:48] Sam Mangan: Well and that's that point that I was making before about like, Myer will save my business if I'm ranged in Myer. Like this, you know, woman explained how Sephora ultimately was probably the demise of her business in a lot of ways. Right. But again, I like that podcast because you've got someone of great, um, intellect but also of authority.

So when they're asking these questions, it's coming from a place of respect and love and the guest wants to be there 'cause they're on her podcast so she can ask those questions. Yeah. Whereas just don think a normal person would be in that scenario. Yeah. So she, she had Michael Rubin on. Who's the billionaire owner of, um, fanatics and Yeah.

You know, he made his billions of dollars quite late in life and all the rest of it. And he's got a really interesting story. Um, the, the conversation they had, I really connected to in a lot of ways, because you've got these two people running multi-billion dollar enterprises actually talking about strategy.

[00:49:34] Jen: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:34] Sam Mangan: And that's why Yeah. When we started this conversation, I said like, who gives a fuck about what I was doing when I was 12? Like if someone's listening to this conversation today, the last thing they care about was what I was doing at 12 and then how I got into the call center. And they're like, I just don't, that's, if you wanna look up my history, I'm sure it's somewhere.

Mm-hmm. Um, you can read about it or there's a podcast, but like to actually walk away with tangible value, I don't think there's many places left for that.

[00:49:54] Samara: Yes.

[00:49:55] Sam Mangan: And this podcast in particular, aspire is like for, for me as a business operator, you hear them talk about the fact they steal concepts from other brands.

Yeah. I remember you and

[00:50:05] Stereo Mix: I

[00:50:05] Sam Mangan: talking about this to, it's like no one would ever admit that.

[00:50:06] Samara: Yes.

[00:50:07] Sam Mangan: But these two people are like, I don't give a fuck. Like I'm, yeah, he's a billionaire killing it. So, so she like, yeah, they're absolutely crushing it and they're going, like, if someone releases a great feature on, you know, their website, you know, would you take it?

And the questions asked almost coily and Michael's like stolen instantly. The second I see it's gone, it's mine instantly. Why wouldnt you?

[00:50:25] Jen: But let someone else do it. See where they didn't quite nail it, fix that problem and be better.

[00:50:30] Sam Mangan: Yeah. You know, and so I think that was just a really honest moment that a lot of people just aren't there because you do think that even, you know, at our scale when we're looking at businesses and we're looking at success and whatever else, you look at competitors and whatnot and you're trying to understand like what are they doing?

[00:50:44] Samara: Inspir comes from everywhere though, right? Yeah. So no one's just going, like, everyone's pulling inspiration from somewhere and then they're going, well, I'm gonna implement that.

I'll implement it a different way. Don't completely always copy it. Don't

[00:50:55] Jen: have to carbon copy.

[00:50:56] Samara: But again, if it's successful, there's also so much to go around that this

[00:51:01] Sam Mangan: is the thing.

[00:51:01] Samara: Why not? I

[00:51:02] Sam Mangan: mean,

[00:51:02] Samara: but

[00:51:02] Sam Mangan: that's crazy to me. I mean, there's, to go around so much around, there's, so just because I take a piece of the pie doesn't mean that there's not any pie left.

Yeah. The pie is eternal, right?

[00:51:09] Samara: If you're not looking at other things and being like, oh, I actually like that. Like, you know what you need to do

like if you wanna build. Follow people that trigger you. So you can just be like, okay, what are they doing that I actually want to do?

[00:51:20] Sam Mangan: And that's a like why, but there's nothing's proprietary anymore.

[00:51:23] Samara: Yeah.

[00:51:24] Sam Mangan: Like, you know, like there, there's just nothing original. There's no original ideas, there's no original thoughts.

It's like, I remember many years ago, the first time I met Scooter Braun. Got it. I'm using plenty of names yesterday that'll get me canceled. Drop, drop, drop, drop,

[00:51:34] Samara: drop, drop,

[00:51:34] Sam Mangan: drop. Well they're not good ones. Um,

[00:51:36] Samara: yeah, you haven't even dropped all the good ones. You have. I

[00:51:38] Sam Mangan: know. The good ones. I was gonna say scooter's in a bad position at the moment.

I think, well I dunno, I think people hate him at the moment. I dunno where he is at. But the first time I met Scooter bru, it was so interesting. He said to me, sorry, his assistant said to me, just as an FYI, if you're gonna send through an NDA, he'll cancel the meeting. And I said, what am I sending an NDA for?

And he said, I'm just letting you know he doesn't sign non-disclosures. And I was like, Hmm, that's interesting. And this is in Hollywood back in the day. And I was like, that's interesting. 'cause a lot of people throw those around too. Like they're somebody important, especially on the Gold Coast. Um, and anyway, I had the meeting with him and I said to him, just out of interest, what's that?

And he said, because people are idiots. And so when I sign a non-disclosure. Uh, then it'll be three years later, I'll have some tiny investment in some business somewhere else. Yeah. And they'll go, you stole my idea.

[00:52:21] Jen: Mm.

[00:52:21] Sam Mangan: When in reality, ideas are valueless. Mm. Execution is, it is

[00:52:25] Jen: everything. Yeah.

[00:52:26] Sam Mangan: Nothing about an idea that matters.

And so at this point in time, in the world that we live in, like, I mean, every day, whatever you are building, someone else is building. Mm-hmm. Don't think that you are. I need to be first. Nobody's reinventing the wheel first. No one's reinventing the wheel. Yeah. No. They're dressing her up. Yeah. Like it, that's all that it is.

Yeah. And so I thought that was really interesting. And now I see a lot of people in his same position doing the same thing where it's like. You can't be. And look, there are very specific scenarios. I understand we need to sign an NDA that's like sensitive and blah, blah blah. Yeah. Yeah. But in the majority, if you are a founder, if you're trying to raise funding, if you're whatever else, and you're getting around with an NDA, I would say that's a red flag to start with.

Because if you truly think you've got something groundbreaking, I'd say check a mirror. The likelihood is it's not interesting. It's not groundbreaking. And you are the least interesting person we've spoken to that week. Yes. Like it's, that's the reality. Don't get into the room and think that your idea needs to be protected with walls.

You need to spend all of your time not drafting an NDA or paying for an NDA or getting one from chat. GBT we know, uh, is spend all of your time on your presentation.

[00:53:26] Samara: Yeah, yeah.

[00:53:27] Sam Mangan: People get investment in those scenarios. When you walk into the room and you leave and we go, wow, they were amazing.

[00:53:32] Samara: They were, I want to be with them because they look like they're a girl.

Yeah. They're not, you know, as you said, it's not Kathy from Arun being like,

[00:53:39] Sam Mangan: I've never seen an NDA, I can't

[00:53:40] Samara: do this. I don't like, it's just like, it's hard. You want people that are like, I'm gonna, you are one of those people.

[00:53:45] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

[00:53:45] Samara: I'm gonna do this no matter what. And I think. We haven't really, if anyone doesn't know who Sam is, hasn't touched on, but you know, you own a cosmetic company.

Yeah. A successful cosmetic company that you built. You own a prm, so many other things. That's

[00:53:58] Sam Mangan: extremely, yeah. We have two arm, two core arms to the business. One is the agency side, which I started because I had no money. And so a service-based business is just, you don't need any money to start it. Right?

Yeah. You just need a logo that I got off, uh, 48 hour logo.com back in the day. And on we went, you know, so that our service based system means $0. Yeah. But you're exchanging your time for money, right? Right. Yes. So it's, it's a hard slog. Yeah. But if you've got no money, yeah. That's what you do. Yeah. So that was the first thing we built and then, uh, moved it.

And so now the other side of the business is the cosmetic arms, which we have a number of different cosmetics business in either skincare or color cosmetics. So it's sort of the two different arms, which, and

[00:54:30] Samara: then what would you say James is?

[00:54:31] Sam Mangan: James Charles?

[00:54:32] Samara: Yeah.

[00:54:33] Sam Mangan: Um, well, he sits technically under the, um, or under both sides of, because he's under the agency for management, but then also the color cosmetics painted is part of my portfolio as well.

So that also sits on that side. But that's more what my expertise is. But

[00:54:46] Samara: that's the thing, right,

[00:54:46] Sam Mangan: James?

[00:54:47] Samara: Charles. Huge, huge, huge in the world. He doesn't live here.

[00:54:52] Sam Mangan: No.

[00:54:52] Samara: And you're his management team.

[00:54:53] Sam Mangan: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And we met and we delivered that. I have that relationship because we brought him out for Beauty Weekend via Pacific Fair, who is our client on the agency side.

Yeah. And as part of that, I met his team. I met him, he walked away and was like, that guy's good. Then we brought him back a second time to do, um, his first ever store at Pacific Fair. And then two years later, we sort of kept in tangential contact. He then asked a number of times if I would take over his management.

We declined. We declined, we declined. And we, we finally accepted. Um, but again, I would never have had access to James directly. My agency client being Pacific Fair through that deal, we brought him to Australia through that period. I spent time with him, discuss, built RELAT business, discuss business, built a relationship, and then that materialized.

I mean, it was great for Pacific Fair, don't get me wrong, but I didn't make anything out of that. It was just part of my job, part of my retainer. Yeah. Um, so, but that materialized, what, six years later?

[00:55:48] Samara: That's what people just, I just, I don't know. This whole conversation, everyone wants

[00:55:51] Sam Mangan: an instant gratification.

[00:55:52] Samara: Exactly. Everyone wants to meet that CEO. You know what, at the end of the day, just meet people, like meet people,

[00:55:58] Jen: be a good person, meet people, and be a good person to those people.

[00:56:02] Sam Mangan: Also, what I will tell you is that one day you'll have the opportunity to meet the person at the absolute top. Um, if you haven't spent time meeting people who are, are nowhere and are not on that level, you won't be ready to meet them.

[00:56:13] Jen: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:56:13] Sam Mangan: Like the, the way you need to perform in the room. Like now, as a society, we've never been in a worse position to have interpersonal conversations. Yeah. Like that's, we've never had any of that. We've never been worse off in that category, in my opinion. You know, people who come in for interviews, everyone's the worst they've ever been prepared.

The laziest, the, whatever you wanna call it, you are not going to walk up to an Elon Musk or whoever the hell you're trying to get in front of and make an impression if you haven't been spending years creating a network. Understanding what it takes to be interesting, understanding what it takes for people to be engaged by you presenting in rooms, all these types of different things.

And when you hear like the, the best speakers in the world, the Brene Browns, the Mel Robbins is a great example. Um, all these people, they all talk about the fact that they, and Tony Robbins is another one that they get used to get nervous going on stage.

[00:57:00] Jen: Mm.

[00:57:01] Sam Mangan: You you don't,

[00:57:02] Jen: if you're not nervous, you don't care enough about what

[00:57:04] Sam Mangan: you're about to say.

Well, that's, that's true as well. But also, you know, preparation.

[00:57:07] Jen: Yeah.

[00:57:08] Sam Mangan: Quells nerves. Yeah. You like, you'll be nervous 'cause there's people, but if you, you walk out tomorrow, if you lay the foundation people

[00:57:14] Jen: Exactly.

[00:57:15] Sam Mangan: You can't do it. You need to start walking out in front of four and then 24 and then 54, you know?

Yes. That's how it works. So to me it's the same in networking. You are not going to walk into a room and be a star.

[00:57:25] Jen: Yeah.

[00:57:25] Sam Mangan: If you haven't been doing this and practicing and engaging in a material way. Yeah. You can tell the difference. And that's, and you, and in those scenarios, you have one moment. Yes. Right?

Like it's, I mean, very rarely do I get into a situation where I'm in a public scenario where I'm like, I'm gonna just approach someone randomly. But one person who I just think is an extraordinary business operator and just a really interesting person is Robert Vac, who's is

[00:57:48] Samara: Samara Scott Hunter

[00:57:49] Sam Mangan: from,

[00:57:50] IMG_017411: he is,

[00:57:52] Sam Mangan: um, you obviously as well really, but is Robert Herve, who's one of the sharks in the US Shark Tank.

Yeah. And I just, and you know, he's a same

[00:57:58] Samara: level,

[00:57:59] Sam Mangan: he's like a billionaire now and, and blah, blah blah. And he's dating Kim Scheak, um, who used to be on Dancing with the Stars Australia and the us and an incredible dancer, incredible talent. Um, so he actually lives in Sydney now, but he flies back and forward.

I was flying out of an airport. Maybe two years ago now. And he walked into the lounge and just sat there. And this lounge that I use in LA sometimes is, it's like a private lounge thing. It's not attached to the airport. So this is just him, myself, and one other person sitting in the place. Um, and I was like, oh, I'm gonna go up, say hello.

You know, like to be able to walk up to someone at his level. And then what's, what's again made the conversation material is that we have a mutual friend. Mm. Yeah. I was able to say, oh, you know, this person. And then the conversation becomes a more natural conversation. Not just like, I've seen you on tv.

Oh my god. Yeah. Right. Just saw a photo. You know, all those. It's the same reason like so many people in my career have called me a liar because I have no photos with anyone. Famous.

[00:58:49] Samara: Yeah.

[00:58:49] Sam Mangan: Never asked for a photo of my whole life. 'cause I don't care for photo. 'cause

[00:58:52] Jen: you don't need the significance.

[00:58:53] Samara: Yeah. Sam, like, I, you what I like and you will actually never hear.

Unless we're having conversations like I've never said. All right, Sam, who's all like, as you know, he sat down and didn't tell, say a thing about being, the fact that he's James Charles's manager. He never would. That's not, you'll never hear it. I'm like, that's so cool. But he will never say it. Yeah. But we'll be having conversations about the Kardashians.

You know, it's, you will never name drop because you're just like, those things are not important. It's not in his ego. Yeah, exactly. But he doesn't need to, he doesn't have displayed across his house every photo with every person that he can possibly call in his photos. He

[00:59:23] Sam Mangan: won't find any. It's myself and Matthew and, um, and the

[00:59:25] Samara: dog.

[00:59:26] Sam Mangan: The dog and the dog. Yeah. Exactly. Right. And so I and

[00:59:28] Samara: your mom and your dad in court. Yeah.

[00:59:29] Sam Mangan: I've gotten, I've gotten better over the years of, of taking photos of just moments. Yes. But nothing with talent. I just, that's just not for me. Um, I just don't particularly like it. But yeah, I'm in an episode of keeping up with, but my face is blurred 'cause I wouldn't sign the form.

[00:59:42] Samara: Really?

[00:59:42] IMG_017411: Really?

Yeah.

[00:59:44] Samara: What episode? I need to watch

[00:59:46] Sam Mangan: that. Uh, in New York when, uh, Chloe launches, uh, skims Active, I had Emily as one of the faces, and she's standing right beside me in the footage I blur.

[00:59:53] Samara: Oh. I like for the phone, constantly see things where I'm like, there's Sam, I'm famous. 'cause I know Sam,

[00:59:59] Sam Mangan: it's always the background, bizaro positions.

But yeah, to me and, and again, I think that's also a respect thing as well, because in that world that's what they're used to. Yeah. Their armor is up, they're ready for a photo, they're ready for that interaction. They want to know that you are in a scenario where if they say something that's inappropriate, you're not gonna run the nearest microphone.

You're record it. Exactly. You're not going, you know, all those kinds of things because that's just not,

[01:00:21] Samara: again though, these are all like, even though you said I didn't come from money, you came from the most incredible values. Your parents are amazing. Your no doubt your, your best, your solid crew, your parents court, Amy, like it's all people that you've had in your corner for such a long time.

Yeah, my closest friends and friends

[01:00:39] Sam Mangan: relationships.

[01:00:39] Samara: Yeah.

[01:00:39] Sam Mangan: Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And that, there's so few people that are in my circle and, and now it's probably. I love it and it won't be changing, but it's probably prohibitive. But like in reality it's like, I mean, you, you know what I mean? Like my hairdresser from 16 years ago.

Do you know what I mean? Like no one new is in the group. Mm-hmm. I've got no new people surrounding me in reality. Yeah. No, it's, it such a small group because I don't have a lot of time to begin with. Like it's, I don't have a great deal of time to offer. So you value who you're spending it with, the value who're spending time with, but also you've gotta be very careful of who's around you as well.

Yeah. Just in general. Yeah. Um, the safe,

[01:01:10] Samara: I think that's like. Well,

[01:01:11] Sam Mangan: for safety course. Well 'cause

[01:01:12] Samara: again, well, yeah, people are gonna know your heart, your people that are in your corner like that are gonna know your

[01:01:15] Sam Mangan: heart. And you also don't want to, you know, I spend a lot of my time doing, you know, whatever we're doing in the business world and traveling the world and all the rest of it, you wanna come home just to people who, that's doesn't matter.

[01:01:23] Stereo Mix: Yeah.

[01:01:23] Samara: The people

[01:01:24] Sam Mangan: that

[01:01:24] Samara: none of matters. They just love you because they,

[01:01:26] Sam Mangan: because this is why generally love you an awful, awful place, right? Like, and this is why people go there and they move there and they become toxic people because the place is toxic. Removing all the stuff that's happening in the US right now, which obviously is a separate issue, but like, it's such everyone there.

And so the difference between Australia and the us right? Australia having tall poppy syndrome, right? No one wants to hear if you're successful. Yeah. They wanna cut you down immediately. That is really bad. And that should change. And I, I hate that about this country. However, in the US it's the opposite, right?

If everyone's, all we

[01:01:52] Jen: wanna hear about is how

[01:01:53] Sam Mangan: good you're all are. And if you are doing something good, I'm gonna latch on. Yeah. And I'm not gonna let go grab the nearest coat towels and ride them. Every Uber you're in, the person will tell you they're also an actor. Everyone there is is driven by this idea of growth, which can be very positive, but it can also be extraordinarily toxic because the people there feel like they're not enough.

[01:02:12] Jen: Yeah.

[01:02:13] Sam Mangan: Every interaction you have, the person's often lying to you like, oh, I'm just in this new movie. It's like, yeah, you are extra 432 in the background. Good for you. But you are using that as a weapon against someone in front of you to be like, well, I'm actually further along in this crew. Then you're, I'm further along this.

That's why it's hard to make friends there, because unless you've got something good to offer, they don't, they don't wanna know you. Yeah. And if they do have something to offer, they're completely false friends. Yeah. Until it doesn't work for 'em anymore. So LA becomes such a difficult environment. So I'm so privileged that I get to fly in, experience it, you know, several times a year, and then leave,

[01:02:45] Samara: and then go home to work.

Real always goes, no, I'll always be, yeah. Never. I can't again, every like. You don't base your business around ego. It's all around relationships. And who, and again, you've, we've had multiple conversations. The most important people in your life and how your life revolves is just you, humans that are in your world every day.

[01:03:02] Sam Mangan: It is. And that's, we had this conversation the other day with someone about like nature verse nurture in general. And I think that it's so, like the home environment is so important. Mm-hmm. You know, like I, I think that obviously there's financial aspects, there's all these other things, but like my, all I know is that from my parents did the absolute best they could to give me the best chance to Yeah.

Succeed in life. Mm-hmm. It's my job to make sure that I. Knowing the sacrifice they made to take that and do the best I can with it. But just knowing the environment that I grew up in was, it was always, you know, mom is always the glass half full person. Right. Whether it's the right or wrong thing, but to me it's like you're always searching for, there's something positive here.

Yeah.

[01:03:37] Jen: Yeah.

[01:03:37] Sam Mangan: The world's blowing up, but there's, I'm sure there's some option for a silver lining, but it's Exactly, that's, and that's very much my mom. Yeah. There's no environment where there's not positivity. And so that also, you know, I, I grew up watching them start businesses and grow businesses and so you, all those things I think are just so critical.

Mm. Um, and that made such a big difference. And they, you know, both my parents spent a lot of time at home and as much as they could, I mean, my dad used to be very, very senior, a company called Midas back in the day when Midas, and there's still somewhere around, I think, but they used to be enormous, that company.

Yeah. And he was like the. I think the second in charge in Australia in a very high flying corporate job. And they were expanding everywhere he was flying and he got home one day and as a very, very small child, I screamed and ran 'cause I didn't know who he was. 'cause he spent so much time away and he resigned the next day.

And so, you know, he changed the trajectory of his life and from a career perspective in order to provide a better environment for us. Yeah. And so I think those elements really do speak to who you do become and giving people the time of day and all those kinds of things as well. Does emanate, but it's just because you grew up in a.

Fucking hard situation, deal with it, move on. Like no one cares. Like, you know what I mean? Yes. That's the, you just need to make it work. Privilege doesn't

[01:04:44] Jen: need be a

[01:04:45] Sam Mangan: defining moment, but I also didn't get raised with a bunch of money.

[01:04:47] Samara: Mm-hmm.

[01:04:47] Sam Mangan: I had this problem and this problem and this role. Who gives a fuck?

We've all got problems. Like, you know, everyone, every day, every person, every hour. New issue. That's just not gonna save you.

[01:04:57] Samara: It's just life.

[01:04:58] Sam Mangan: Well, and that's, and that is, if, if life wasn't challenging it, you wonder where that would lead you. Yeah.

[01:05:03] Samara: Yeah.

[01:05:03] Sam Mangan: Like when you think of a dystopia in society, what would you do Exactly.

Do if everything was just like easy. And, and that's goes back to the earliest conversations of this podcast around like, if you, if you have a trust fund with a billion dollars, you have no idea. There's no, you've got no barometers, there's no bookends. Everything's ruined in your life. Because every experience that the rest of us are like, whoa.

You know, like it's, some of us have to remind ourselves the privilege that we get to sit here today Yeah. And do this. And we're not in a job that we despise or we get to speak to and talk to interesting people.

[01:05:31] Samara: Yeah.

[01:05:31] Sam Mangan: These moments to us are, can be interesting, can be special.

[01:05:34] Samara: We get to go home and have a roof of our head and have children and have like, you know, we

[01:05:38] Jen: good people in our lives and

[01:05:40] Sam Mangan: Yeah.

And that makes a huge difference, I think in, in, just in all elements of, of what you can do. But I think that the problem is we've been so burnt now by TikTok around that instant gratification, the idea of if something doesn't get 20 million likes, it's irrelevant if, you know, if I met the ceo, it's irrelevant.

Everything. The, the goalpost. What about, about the impact you

[01:05:58] Jen: made

[01:05:58] Samara: on

[01:05:58] Jen: just

[01:05:58] Samara: one person? Yeah, a hundred percent. Without impact, you just

[01:06:01] Sam Mangan: like, and that impact could translate, you know, that's, and and I think that what, I don't want to get confused, which I have already said, but is the idea that. You're not being nice to the receptionist in the hopes they'll tell the CEO that that person was lovely.

Yeah, exactly. But the point is that could happen.

[01:06:15] Jen: Yes.

[01:06:16] Sam Mangan: Just because you, you don't need happen, need to see value

[01:06:19] Jen: happen with anyone that you interact with any

[01:06:21] Sam Mangan: scenario

[01:06:21] Jen: at any moment, at any time. Yeah.

[01:06:23] Sam Mangan: Absolutely. Yeah. And that, and that I think is the point to be made. If you are going out and seeking a result, you won't find one.

[01:06:30] Jen: Yeah.

[01:06:30] Sam Mangan: But if you go out without that in mind and you just want to meet great people, you'll get to a stage where you've got, you know, like these incredible moments. And these, you know, we've got staff who used to work for me, for example, who, I mean, one of them who came to me, Adam, who came to me and was like, you know, I, I shout out

[01:06:47] Jen: Evan.

I love that story.

[01:06:49] Sam Mangan: You know, and I was like, get out.

[01:06:50] Jen: Yeah. Whatcha are you doing here? You told me you were gonna do this and you didn't.

[01:06:53] Sam Mangan: You wanted to come and you wanted to stand next to me and learn as much as you could. You did for a year and you're still here. I don't, you know, what's my career progression?

I really dunno. I don't think you'd be here. And then he quit. You know what I mean? Like, good, get out.

[01:07:02] Jen: Yeah.

[01:07:02] Sam Mangan: And you know, now he's got his business and now he's thriving and all these different things. I think, and that's the thing, it's like. I, I have such, and I always say this to the staff, if they come in to resign or whatever, I'm always like it.

I'll be here next week.

[01:07:13] Jen: Yeah.

[01:07:14] Sam Mangan: You know, you may have, you may have a huge impact on this business and, and all of our team do, but even if I lost everything, I'll still be here next week trying to make it work. Yes. So I don't think that I'm gonna be furious at you because you'll have a journey because you wanna

[01:07:27] Jen: go on your own journey and

[01:07:28] Sam Mangan: live your own life, your own thing.

That's fine. And we now, you know, we hire Adam for other gigs, for other clients and, um, Amy Grogan, who now works at, uh, beginning Boutique is we're now working with them on a different, you know, the, the world is just, it's too big and too vast and you just need to do whatever you can. I think you need to be respectful of obviously your own time and space.

But I think at the same time, you just need to be aware of the fact that ultimately the more people that you can have a good relationship with. The better off. And that's why I think even going back to that story about me on stage saying to that girl, like that's the stupidest question ever. I stand by my comment that it was the stupidest question ever.

Because you asked Nick, a guy, as I said, who was taking money out of Proctor and Gamble and impossible feat, and yet he's done it. But I don't say you're the stupidest person. 'cause I want, I think you are an absolute moron and stupid and go home and cry, but you need a reality check. Mm. Don't come to an event like this.

Ended has your moment. That was your moment. You had the chance to ask any of the three of us who've all done whatever. And Nick, who runs a global business doing an outrageous amount of money globally,

[01:08:27] Samara: that was was your moment instead of It's hard. Tell me how. Yeah, gimme the simplest

[01:08:30] Sam Mangan: tip. Strain your question specifically.

Not like it's so hard. How do I find a gap in the mark? Shut up. No one care. Like that's a waste of everybody's time, but worse. It's a waste of your time. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna be on that panel whether I liked it or you know, I agreed to the panel. So I was there for the hour if I was there for the hour.

But like you had one chance, and that's the question you asked like that to me. So when I say that, and that's why I think there's plenty of people who be getting around being like, he's an asshole. It's like, yeah. In that situation I was, because that's what she needed to hear. Yeah. Like I stand by the fact that,

[01:08:58] Jen: because if you've been nice about it again, would it be memorable?

Would it? No. Malicious. There's

[01:09:02] Samara: no malicious intent. That's a different, you're the

[01:09:05] Sam Mangan: kindest. No, you don't care. You just gotta, you've just, you if you want to, uh, this is somebody else's quote that I'm stealing. I dunno who it's, but if you want an extraordinary life, it's fucking offensive to think that you won't have to do extraordinary things to, to get it.

Yeah.

[01:09:16] Samara: Yeah.

[01:09:16] Sam Mangan: Like it, it's just offensive. There's no other way to put it. Yeah. And so when you are in a scenario like that, how dare you? Like how dare you for yourself. Yeah.

[01:09:26] Jen: Yeah.

[01:09:26] Sam Mangan: How dare you waste that question? How dare you waste that moment? How dare you waste that advice? You've worked too hard to stand up and ask a question.

That's stupid.

[01:09:33] Jen: Yeah. And it wasn't even a question, it was a statement that It's hard.

[01:09:35] Sam Mangan: It was, yeah. Look, I mean, in her defense, what was the exact question? It was many years ago. I don't remember. Yeah. I just remember the force and effect of it was, it's so hard. What do like, what do I do? It's like that's an open-ended question that's getting you nowhere.

Yeah. He was never gonna say to you. And if anyone believes that there's this secret club, we're all in as successful business owners that we are like, don't tell the masses the secrets. That's not real. No one has the

[01:09:56] Samara: secrets. Yeah.

[01:09:56] Sam Mangan: It's a complete dumpster fire. Everyone's working out on their own every single day.

All of us are fucking up constantly. Constant mistakes, constant errors. And if you're in a situation now where you're a salon owner or you're a small business where you wanna start a business, whatever else, first. The first, like the absolute number one for me is the, the high likelihood is that if you're in shit, someone else is in the same shit.

[01:10:16] Jen: Yeah. Yeah.

[01:10:17] Sam Mangan: Everyone is, no matter what level is fucking up every single day. Yep. Like that's just the truth of it. Never feel like you are the only one that you need the lifeboat, no one else does. Yeah. We're all in a fucking lifeboat.

[01:10:30] Samara: Oh mate. I'm

[01:10:30] Sam Mangan: sure. 24 hours a day.

[01:10:31] Samara: Yeah. Apple almost burns down a million times a week because there's stuff that's gone wrong or things that have rolled out.

We have no idea about it. Just keep moving

[01:10:38] Sam Mangan: forward. No idea. You know, I mean, look at them, I mean. You used apples as an example. I don't even know how many billions of dollars I spent trying to build a car and they terminated the program.

[01:10:46] Samara: Yeah.

[01:10:47] Sam Mangan: You've just spent tens of billions of dollars of investor money.

British. It's like, yeah. Wrap this up. Yeah. Um, so yeah. That, you know, you are absolutely not

[01:10:58] IMG_017411: on

[01:10:58] Sam Mangan: your own in that journey of failure.

[01:11:00] Jen: Yeah.

[01:11:00] Sam Mangan: Every day of a business owner, if you are not failing, then you are not looking close enough.

[01:11:05] Jen: Yeah.

[01:11:05] Sam Mangan: Yeah. Something is on fire and if you don't know about it, the chances are it's 'cause you're not doing a good job.

Find the fire. That's, I mean, I always say that's my only job as a firefighter. That's all I do all day. Yeah. Not to be disrespectful to firefighters who are actually essential in our world. Um, but you know, like for me it's like, if that's all I do Yeah. Every day someone's coming in. Oh, this is blown up.

Oh, this is blown up. Oh, this is blown up. Great. If you think that you're at a business without a fire, you're not doing a good job.

[01:11:27] Jen: Yeah. I And that, that's a good word. Friends, it was the quote that

[01:11:32] Sam Mangan: we were leaving. Sorry. I told you when I got here that it was, the issue wasn't gonna be, if you could start me or we ran outta things to talk about, it was gonna stop me.

So I blame everyone else.

[01:11:41] Samara: This is welcome to Izing the podcast with Jen Smar and Sam.

[01:11:44] Jen: He's like, you still not have time for that. Turn

[01:11:47] Sam Mangan: off. Turn it off.

[01:11:48] IMG_1982(1): Um,

[01:11:50] Jen: okay. We have

[01:11:51] Samara: to now only everyone understands why our 45 minute like haircut generally turns into an hour and 45 minutes and I'm running late.

[01:11:58] IMG_017411: My

bad.

[01:11:59] Sam Mangan: My bad.

[01:12:00] Samara: Thank you so much for taking, I know how precious your time is, so I know how precious Yeah. Here this is to get you on the pod anytime. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of your wisdom. I'm pretty sure everybody else is listening to this as I do and taking so much from it because there's so many pieces in that that I'm like,

[01:12:16] IMG_017411: oh,

[01:12:17] Samara: oh, I needed that check.

I needed that check. I needed that check. So I love you. I hope so. Thank you for your, all your valuable information because I get it all the time and I'm really lucky. So,

[01:12:25] Sam Mangan: no, I'm glad. It's good to have a, a forum where you can go longer form too.

[01:12:28] Jen: Yeah, yeah. All about long form. Thank you so much and we hope you guys enjoy the episode.

We will be back very soon. Goodbye.