 really my business plan in the beginning was four words. It was make something people want. And I just viewed myself as a demographic, right? As a donor, not as a homeowner, but like as a donor. What would I want, you know, as a mid third, as a mid 20 something that likes technology, that liked innovation with a little skeptical about traditional charities, like what would I want? And then, you know, try your best with the limited budget to create a version of that. And that's how, that's how we got started. What's up everybody and welcome to the show today. We drop great content each and every week and we wanna make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're gonna have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. Right now I can talk to other founders. I can talk to other executives. Of course I can learn from them, right? Or if I'm listening to a podcast, you know, of course I can learn from them. But I'm thinking through, well, they're talking about customer acquisition or then I'm like, well, that's what we're going through, right, because we're actually doing it. And, you know, even before starting new story, which I started at a relatively young age, 25, I started the for-profit startup right before this. And that ended up failing, right? But that ended up, it forced me to, and not everybody listening, you don't have to, you know, start your own startup right out of college, right? I think that's for its own place. But what that did was it forced me to figure out how do I prepare for big meetings that I actually would never be in unless I started this, right? How do I put together a marketing plan that I would never be in if I didn't start this? Like how would I sit across a table from this investor, this CEO that I never would have been, you know, whatever we're done. And that helped build, obviously I was very nervous and scared and imposter syndrome at the beginning and, you know, still even now, but like, man, that's how you build confidence, right? Is you go out there, you be vulnerable and that's how you start building confidence. Well, let's talk about coming out of that failure because many would see that failure as, oh, I'm just not capable. Why would I take on an even bigger mission and an even more audacious plan if I'm coming off of a failure? So what was the turning point for you and how are you able to dust yourself off and say, you know what, I'm going even bigger this next time? Yeah, I think when we started new story, the initial vision was, I mean, I obviously wanted to one day in my life make a big impact. You know, I didn't have an actual number or a clear vision. I think just getting started, I wanted to solve a problem in a different way from an entrepreneurial, with an entrepreneurial lens. And I think with the first startup, I tried to force it a little too much. Like I just really wanted to do it. I really wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to like, and I forced the idea in hindsight. Now, there was a ton of learnings that came from it. I wouldn't regret doing it because it led to basically starting new story. But with starting new story, I really saw like serious problems and experiences that I felt should be better. And there's a phrase from a program called Why Commentary went through, which was really my business plan in the beginning, it was four words. It was make something people want. And I just viewed myself as a demographic, as a donor, not as a homeowner, but like as a donor. What would I want as a mid-20 something that likes technology, that liked innovation, but a little skeptical about traditional charities? Like what would I want? And then try your best with the limited budget to create a version of that. And that's how we got started. Well, we're big on taking failure and gaining experience from it on the show. But also from that failure, you made some really key relationships that I think are often overlooked with putting effort and energy. And even if it doesn't succeed, yes, it's great to have lessons. It's great to have that experience being in the room. But those relationships really paid off for you not only getting into Y Combinator, but getting experience with other people doing innovative things with NGOs. Can you talk a little bit about those relationships you built with your first business and how that really helped propel you with your second? Yeah, so I mean, some of our venture capital investors for the first business ended up being the larger news story supporters in the beginning. Because they got to know me. We actually ended up actually giving back almost all the money that we raised. So that was a little different. We didn't burn it all. But still, it was on paper, definitely wasn't a success. So that was key, just starting to build those relationships. It gave me more confidence as somebody that was in my early 20s of, how do you actually go in a room and talk to an investor and talk to an venture capitalist and talk about the future and try to convince them to give you money to do it? Like, that's not easy. But I was able to do that really young. And that, of course, built confidence in me where now I actually think that's where I feel most confident. That's where I feel I'm at my sweet spot is being in those kind of rooms. The next thing it did was it introduced me to another organization that has really inspired news story called Charity Water. I'm not sure if you guys know Charity Water, but that was the other charity that we actually partnered with for the first startup. So there was two charities. One was in New York, which was Charity Water and one was in Haiti. And I got exposed to meeting their founder, Scott Harrison, who's now a mentor and advisor. His wife, Vic, who is also a co-founder of Charity Water is on news stories, formal board of directors. And that's, I would have, I was so inspired by them and so inspired by their model that, of course, really influenced news stories, DNA in the beginning as well. So those are just a couple of examples. And then when I decided to take another risk in starting news story, a lot of the way that I, I guess one of the reasons someone asked, well, one just failed, why would you start this next thing? And I think what I experienced was, and what I felt was that when you're doing something that is actually different or kind of against the status quo, that attracts a certain kinds of person that you can build relationships with, right? If, and sometimes this comes off the wrong way, right? If I was, because there are some people that will do a job, whether it's being, you know, a lawyer or something else where like they love it, they're passionate about it. They want to be the freaking best lawyer in the world. It's like, that's amazing, right? And like that's awesome. And they should a hundred percent be doing that. But then there's other people that just take a normal job because they think it's gonna, you know, look good on LinkedIn and pay a decent salary. And it's like, that's, that's, that's very ordinary, right? It's very ordinary to choose that path. And you kind of blend in with everybody else. And then it's like, well, the, why would people doing or trying extraordinary things really want to build relationships when you've basically chosen to take a much safer, more ordinary path, unless you really want to be doing that, right? That's different. Like again, if you really want, if you want to be an amazing consultant or an amazing accountant, like you should, and you should do that if you really, if you really are passionate about it. But I think way too many people, especially in their 20s and even their 30s are just doing normal jobs and that pay well and they're not very passionate about it. And you don't get to meet that many interesting people when you're doing that from my perspective. So I don't know, I got exposed to at a young age, like by doing something different, seeing how many doors that opened up and that became very interesting. So yeah. We drop great content each and every week. And we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're gonna have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. There's some I want to drill into here. This is something I've been discussing a lot on the show and in our live streams on Facebook, which is having multiple missions. I mean, it could because it lets you say that you do have a straight job and you dig it and you're happy with that. That's fantastic, fantastic. Perhaps to have some reach in a hobby, right? And or an extra curricular mission. This is my hobby mission, my creative mission or the charitable or professional mission that I'm going on outside of my straight job to see if I can make this work. When you have that reach and you don't know how to do things, you're left with finding out. You're left with asking other people. Those connections will start building and this is where the doors you didn't even know existed started to appear. And there's many different missions. You could even have a romantic mission in your life. It's like of finding the wife and the children and creating that family and what does that look like? And if you put that on paper beforehand, now you have something to strive for. I myself have multiple missions in my life. The art of charm being the main driver, the one that I've built a career around. But I'm also a creative, I play in bands and I have creative missions as well. I've just moved to a new town here or a new city here in Vegas from Los Angeles and having that mission has allowed me to quickly start building a social circle here in a new city because I've been loud about it and not shy about it. But speaking to people about this is what I'm doing here and doors amazingly started opening up. And the people that I've been meeting in Vegas is it's been because of being unabashed about what that mission is and making it happen. I love that, man. I think I'll add to that, which is pretty much what you're saying is, I think when you have that mission or you're passionate about something, be shameless in asking for help or asking for mentorship or advice or bringing people into it. And I think sometimes that especially younger folks can be way too hesitant to ask people for help or to try to build relationships with somebody that they can genuinely learn from. And I know that's a hard skill. Some people they're not wired to try to go out and build relationships, but man, there's not many things that will bring a greater return for your mission than proactively building relationships. And I think being, there was a quote when we were at White Commator from the founder of Airbnb and he was saying how he is, especially as a young entrepreneur, he said, I am shameless in asking for help. He's like, so many people think, you have to show you can figure it out and you want to be very calculated when you ask for help. He's like, I literally would ask the best investors, the best CEOs, the best founders for help. Of course, they're not going to say yes, but he's like, I'm asking. And I think way too many people are slow or hesitant to ask for help. And all it takes is one yes. It takes one person volunteering to put the win behind your sales.