it's crazy until it's genius they used to call me crazy now they just call me your money right now and it's just up to you of how valuable do you want to become and if you find yourself really stuck it might be because you're thinking too small I didn't have a personal bank account because it had gone negative so often I got kicked out of it I had always had dreams I started thinking about this fund when I was 30 so I dreamed of being a millionaire I couldn't afford the Fast Company cover that I
would be on 3 years later what is worth doing excites you makes you excited to wake up in the morning if you truly want to make a million dollars doing it sustainably you have to be obsessed I had been preparing for almost 4 years for this moment and so I was like it's song The being a millionaire part for me couldn't be enough the goal of being a millionaire so there had to be this Vision that was way bigger than myself so that's what I would say to that person 34y old me and I would
say to anybody else who is just like I don't know how to get out of bed is if you feel that way it's most likely because you've made it about yourself or you made it about your very specific current circumstances to me in that moment they were not I want to almost say they weren't real I was like delusional on purpose and it was because the endgame or the goal the Northstar was about how many people can I positively affect what would happen if a backstage Capital existed where in Venture Capital less than 10% of
all venture funding goes to women people of color and lgbtq Founders where white men make up only a third of the country they get 90% of the funding if I can make backstage Capital happen how many people would be positively affected it didn't always start there it wasn't always that it was actually to be to be honest with you I did start with I want to make them I want to raise $1 million for my company and and doing the research for that is when I learn that statistic that changed my life Katherine finny her
team put that out years ago and I learned that statistic and I said wait a minute everything I've been thinking is wrong I don't need to worry about me getting a million dollars where that might take me I could probably make it work I'll figure out a way to make that million dollars but I need to make that million dollars for us and so because I had that while I'm sleeping on the floor and anytime I talk about it by the way I can feel it and see it I feel the floor I have my
uh jeans rolled up as a pillow No Covers I have my suitcase right in front of my face so I don't have to see people walking by and there's you know lights are blaring there's never any rest and I don't think I would have made it several days several weeks of that if I wasn't thinking about this bigger picture so I think that's where you have to start and if you find yourself really stuck it might be because you're thinking too small I didn't know about the Silicon Valley Place yeah when I discovered that when
I was 31 is I think that's why like everything else started to make sense everything else I had done started to make sense because I had always been this weirdo who was doing these things and had no no safety net and but was always always making people excited and bringing people together I had so many couples found that who found each other in my blog who got married like I all sorts of things but it would never it was never a great business model none of it and when I discovered Silicon Valley I thought oh
you can partner with people who get that part you know you can be a you can be I guess I don't want to call myself a Visionary but you can have those those Visionary Tendencies and not have to do everything and figure everything out and so many people knew this before and I just didn't know it so once I figured that out that is when all of the things things that I had done in the past from the time I was uh selling candy in the third grade to working on major arena tours that I
got myself to all of those things and all of the heartache in between all the terrible times in between it all made sense because I thought this is it this is the answer I can I can find my team here my tribe here and work on One Singular focused Mission and and put all of my energy into having that backed and once I decided okay I want to have a venture-backed company okay that's when I started doing all this research go back into the research page just like you did with the band stuff absolutely I
started doing research I wanted to know what I was getting myself into when I walked into these rooms so I never set out to become a venture capitalist I just wanted to know how they thought I wanted to know what they did I wanted to know everything that they as much as I could about what they did so that we would be on par with each other in the room and for me it was an again an exercise and curiosity that was very excited about didn't know how we were going to pay dayto day both
of us were in a really bad State financially I didn't have a personal bank account because it had gone negative so often I got kicked out of it we would get excited on Tuesdays because they would have free chili or free sandwich Es at the hotel in the lobby and we knew oh we're going to have food that day I was I'm was going to say real we don't even know if it was real I don't know what it was all that was happening but I was also talking to people on the phone and meeting
people in person who I could have meet in person at the time and talking about a million dooll fund and I had a a pitch deck and I was circulating it and I was talking to Founders and I was helping them with their problems and to me it made all the sense in the world because I could see the future I could see around corners I could see what the world was going to look like in the future because I had been there right we creating in the future but every once in a while at
the toughest times I would stop and say I need to be intellectually honest with myself is this crazy and I never got to the point where the answer was yes and it might even have been yes but um however we're still going to go because as many people have said better than I have it's crazy until it's genius I say they used to call me crazy now they just call me I talk about authenticity very often in the book and it's probably the most important part of this because I I mentioned that I've raised millions
of dollars I've generated millions of dollars in Revenue which I think is very important to remember I don't think it's talked about enough I've generated millions of dollars in Revenue I have invested in more than a 100 companies all in the last four and a half years and I have done so by the five things that I've the four things I've mentioned and also by being myself and while being myself and I have to tell you there's a there's a sweet uh satisfaction to that to waking up every day and knowing that I don't have
to put on any airs I don't have to pretend with anybody what you see is what you get and um it it it's I wouldn't have it any other way and it also proves that if someone with no college education no Financial background no Connections in Silicon Valley but all the authenticity in the world and all the sincerity in the world and the the can the execution in the world can make this happen in less than 5 years and you certainly can make something happen in what you want to do and so that is being
yourself and so I'll leave you with this what I say is and I hope you hear this if you take nothing else away is be yourself so that the people looking for you can find you be yourself so that the people looking for you can find you there's someone right now who's looking for you they won't be able to see you if you hide behind a costume and and that's where I'll leave it I hope you check out it's about damn time how to turn being underestimated into your greatest Advantage I had always had dreams
so I dreamed of being a millionaire I dreamed of going on tour and working on these tours which I ended up doing quite a bit of musicians I dreamed of it that was me chasing it running after it this called to me I've said that publicly this called called to me this was a calling and I don't speak like that normally I think it's very you know a little high and mighty but it was I was not sitting around saying let me go find this it came to me and so if you are someone where
I've I've just said that we've just said this to you and you're like okay I have to wait for my calling for it to be real what do I do in the meantime build skills that's what you do in the meantime build skills stack your skills so that you're ready like you said when the phone rings the proverbial phone yeah because if you don't do that then you're wasting time thankfully I was doing that without even realizing that knowing that that was what I was supposed to do so I was as broke as I was
I couldn't afford most books I couldn't afford the Fast Company cover that I would be on three years later right I loved Fast Company I would go to the airport I would read it you know I be at the airport and read it but I could not afford it it was $8 $7.99 M I couldn't for it then I was on the cover of it in 2018 um but each day I woke up from 2013 to 20 like mid 2013 to Mid 2015 and I this is a really tough time for me and I said
the one thing you can control you can't control if you're going to eat today uh if you're going to make any money if you're going to raise any money if you're going to get a yes but you can control how much you learn today I had to learn something every single day so when when I did get that first check in September of 2015 I was ready I didn't have to go out and celebrate I didn't do any of that I was ready I was like okay okay now I have some companies to invest in
because I already know who I want to invest in after just years I started thinking about this fund when I was 30 I will be 40 this year and every day since I started thinking about it I've been gaining information I've been talking to people I've I've been researching I've been reading been listening I've been observing all of that and when you have that much information in your head and and you've been around that many people um in a space that that's where a lot of the confidence comes from um and so I I just
recommend if someone feels like really like they don't know if they just feel really shaky start with learning about what you want to be an expert on and I promise you like the first day of it you'll feel you'll feel a little bit a little bit more confident and then a little bit more and you start stacking on it the second part of it is the impostor syndrome myth that I kind of bust try to bust in the book which is a lot of underestimated people especially that I've have seen um it feel like they
they they think they have impostor syndrome because that's the phrase that has been used by others but I believe a lot of impostor syndrome is is sort of uh kind of a gaslighting of us because like Michelle like I mentioned in the in the conversation like Michelle Obama who we all look up to and though as a Confident Woman as a bold woman as an intelligent woman uh caring person she would go into these rooms and maybe at the beginning she talks a lot about at the beginning she was she was a little bit intimidated
but she's spend some time with the people in the rooms who' gotten into the rooms and she's like wait a minute a lot of this I outdo them I am smarter than them in this I know I am more expert in this we'll say rather than smarter I am more expert in this I am willing to do more uh I have a better work ethic I am this this and that so there there are ways we can start listing things off that you already have that because you may not have been around others in your
space or too many others or because they may have been really good at gaslighting you and tell making you believe that you aren't as good you start to feel that you know let's be really honest let's be super honest here if my book could make everybody a millionaire I would be a billionaire you know what I'm saying like it would just be over said done it is in there's only a certain percentage of people who will get the book even after they hear this today so if you get the book after you hear this today
you're you're in a certain tier right there are only a certain people certain number of people who get the book who will actually read it or listen to it in its entirety uhuh of that percentage which is already dwindling down there are very very very few people who will Implement and what iach you know that with courses and with books and with all the things there are only and see this I have observed for years it has not changed it is tried and true and that is the difference that's why someone about to ask you
that yeah why isn't everybody a millionaire you how to do it because of what I just said yes because there are people who just and this is not a I'm not judging actually I know it sounds like I am I'm not judging I'm saying there are people who just simply knowing it's possible is is Warth enough for them they can go with that I'm going to listen to you I'm going to pick up the book have it in my house it's on the Shelf I'll glance over at it every once in a while and that
that's enough for me then there are people who by reading it and saying somebody else can do this I believe somebody else can do that's enough for them and then there are people who have this hunger and this drive that they probably like you may relate to this they can't find too many other people who feel that way yeah they feel a little bit Outsider like with you when you were a teacher I bet you had all kinds of plans and ideas and your girl when the kids went to sleep at nap time I was
reading books I was writing I was like I don't yes I have this this fire burning yes that's fire right so if you're listening to this right now and you just heard $50 million and you're like what how why when it's because you simply went further than most people are willing to go you simply stayed in it longer than most people willing to do where is the collection plate of Gatekeepers yeah so the people who are holding you know I guess like the purse to this money that you want like how did you get them
to take you seriously I think I think some of it was just by being staying staying around and um cuz a lot of people feel like oh okay people have jumped on of fat or people are have a chip on their shoulder or people are this or you know how they can be you know there's always something but I found that a few of our investors or key investors came in after like just seeing me going like just keeping at it for years and saying man you're you're you're gonna either do this or you're gonna
um I don't want to say die trying but is would um you're gonna either do this or whatever because you're you're you know I I I like that kind of uh I think people uh react to that and I think now there's always these pockets of time where you have to like say it say it say it and then there's these wonderful pockets of time where it's just being shown and that's what's happening right now our portfolio is showing out you know they raised 50 million plus last year they're they're booking deals they're gaining customers
they're they're hitting their series they I get every once every two or three weeks I'll get an email that says can go collect your series a uh your note has converted you know they're they're doing it and and that's happening all around the ecosystem it's not just our portfolio and when when that happens in our ecosystem system um like when when delaying raises however $30 million for play versus when juel Burks uh stunts and and and does anything basically you know that that's good for us um all boats rides so I think it's about um
not necessarily trying to convince Gatekeepers it's about like you'll see you'll see if you you can believe us or not but she'll see eventually either way so her name is Susan kimberland I'll talk about her in anytime anybody asks cuzz I just adore her and she's so awesome and like I said she didn't put in like tons and tons of money but it was just that you know when you have it's like Lady Gaga says you have all you just one person to believe in you and that's what it was that's what it was it
was like wow okay so I knew her for a few months I met her out in Silicon Valley um she had worked at PayPal at Salesforce as a product manager and she was an inal investor she you know wasn't like crazy thing but she had she had built something for herself her family had and um and she we talked a lot and what I what I would do is like teach her a little bit about venture capital and about investing and like help her with her other Investments and like diligence them just a little bit
and teach her a few things and I asked her uh early on and at first she actually said yes much earlier than we actually had the transaction she said yes in May 2015 and I was like okay cool um amazing I've been working on this for 3 years let's go and I was like okay so here I emailed her the wire information and like here we go and I did have a lawyer who was working uh for free for me and so he was about to send over the docks and everything and I sent the
wire o wire information and she called me and she's like I can't do this I can't do it and I said why Susan and she said this is your mother's personal bank account what is this so I I was a m okay cuz I had been homeless y'all so I didn't have like a bank account and I was just like I know my mom she can she can take it out and we can put it in a real account we can start a business account but we have to start somewhere it was a whole thing
I wasn't thinking right cuz I was thinking about other stuff and everything else we were doing and so she's like yeah um I'm going to pass so then we spent three months just talking and it wasn't that pressure of will you invest cuz I knew she wasn't you know it was just like I'll tell you about how I'm doing you tell me about you know what you're working on and then a few few weeks later you know she brought it back up again and I was like I was like I definitely haven't had any investors
and I would definitely like to try again and the day that you said no to me I got a bank account so I I'm I'm ready to go so uh it was September 15th 201 it was September 14th 2015 that she said yes and 201 uh September 15th that she wired and uh it felt it felt amazing and it felt right it felt felt I felt um I wasn't partying or like jumping up and down I was I was stoked but I was I had been preparing for almost four years for this moment and so
I was like it's on let's go and I just I got a a a plane ticket to La where I had been sort of based for uh earlier in my life and I I got a co-working spot and we were on there's different versions of what you should do in this moment like if you got to eat there's nothing wrong with being an Uber driver or a lift driver there's nothing wrong with door dashing make ends meet or working the 9 to-5 or doing the corporate gig like you're doing and overtime building up to something
else right I I don't want anybody to think that I think that you shouldn't that you have to go all in all at once that's another thing that's important um you want to have some combination of starting with what fit like um fulfills you what is worth doing excites you makes you excited to wake up in the morning like every night when I go to sleep I'm so excited to wake up the next morning like I can't wait to wake up the next morning and think through more strategy I go to sleep thinking through strategy
strategy I wake I dream of it I wake up with an idea I write the idea down and then I go up back into the cycle that wasn't always the case because I hadn't found the thing so it has to be something that you're just to be honest with you got to be obsessed with it if you truly want to make a million dollars doing it sustainably and that's just your first million you have to be obsessed with it so something that's OB you find be obsessed with and that's where it goes back to you
probably already know it and you don't even realize also has to be something that is in my opinion ethical something that helps someone else because again that'll keep you going that'll be that'll be the the the buoy I think the word is buoy that keeps you afloat when things are tough has to be something that makes money and it has to be something that I'm going to say this it might come out the wrong way it can't be something that you only sell to broke people it has to be something like like a lot of
people I talk to they have this idea like something fulfills them but they're like and I want you know I'm going to be the cheapest version of it and you know I'm I'm going to make it really accessible for so many people because I want our people to come up you make it really accessible to so many people and it's so cheap it's not going to be sustainable in a good business model and you won't be able to keep doing it and therefore you won't help any of the people you want to help so it
has to be something that is actually valuable something that's valuable to someone else so valuable that they'll spend actual money like real dollars you want to kind of lock yourself in a room go on a station do what you got to do um pin the paper what's fulfilling to me what's something that is helpful to others valuable to others ethical what's something that has a higher price point ultimately or a version of it has a higher price point that I can get to cuz you think about the Tesla Model they didn't start with something that
cost like $5,000 10,000 15,000 they started with something that was so unattainable to make it possible for the more attainable truly research and development is also truly studying I'm going to ask you a question I think it's going to prove this point how many other people's YouTube channel YouTube channels do you study if you had to guess you know what it's hard for me to give an exact number cuz there's a few kind of core channels that I really study and like I'm aware of like everything they're posting but then I use YouTube so much
yeah I'm actually studying like even the smallest channels yes you're proving my point yeah do you know you probably don't even realize this because you it's just automatic to you you're studying of course I'm going to study the thing almost obsessively probably that I'm trying to excel in most people don't M most most people don't couldn't tell you their competition if it their life depended on it and I know this why because I get pitched every single day of my life by multiple people and I ask that question often who's your biggest competition we don't
have any okay bye yeah cuz you're wrong yeah because so you the obsession has is a lot of that is used for the research and you it doesn't stop at any point it just gets you started and you never stop researching so you're you're learning about it you're always leveling up but you're you're you're figuring that part out to get you going and you are going to start off if you're talking about people who are just starting you are going to start off with lower Stakes lower risk things and just give it a try because
if if you can take on all of the risk for yourself whereas if it doesn't work out only thing that was hurt was maybe your your ego M then you can you're you're you're rich you know what I'm saying because what people try to do to compensate for not taking too much risk is that they try to go out and raise a bunch of money before they have anything before they have product Market fit any idea that it's really a a company they try to they they depend on so many other people but if you
take on the if you take on the risk of the worst thing that can happen is that it'll feel bad it it's a little bit of time waste did quote unquote and it'll feel b um you you have so much leverage in in doing that I think Susan and then later um several people invested but Mark cubin came in and has invested $6 million of that 30 million into the fund and he said the same thing I didn't have to say it he I said why did you invest the money in the fund when you
don't like investing in other people's funds he said ou'll be in rooms I'll never be in so you said it on my show on my podcast so that everybody here has a value you are money your money right now and it's just up to you of how valuable do you want to become what do you want your net worth to be when it comes to the information that you have the rooms you can get yourself into and what you're willing to do ethically and sustainably and with kindness but will go that extra mile what are
you willing to do
