From $200 Startup to Thriving Business: Lessons from David Feinman

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. I’m talking to the co-founder and CEO of Viral Ideas or a marketing company. What they do is they provide video editing services, uh, for people who wanna boost their video presence to different social media channels. So I’m , super excited to be rocking out today with David Feinman. Hey, David, you ready to rock?

David Feinman: Tim, I’m ready to rock. Always ready to rock.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off here in a good note. Tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by.

David Feinman: Yeah, so I actually started my business around 11 years ago with $200 and a single client. Um, and me and my co-founder, like, like came from like very humble beginnings at the start of the business. Um, you know, we, we started right after college. And built it up to where it is today with 45 employees and, you know, hundreds of clients.

Um, so I, so I, I think, I think, you know, I, I know a lot of your audience is just starting their business or looking to start something or maybe just a little bit into it. And I think one of the most important things to do is, is [00:01:00] if you have an idea, you use to just start it right and, you know, not, not delay on it, right?

Like there’s, there’s so much success to be had out there and you know, you really can start with just a seed.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s funny that, uh, you know, a lot of people will spend a lot of time trying to iron out the perfect idea before they get started, right? And then what ends up happening is that it all changes once you get started, right?

David Feinman: Yeah. And, and the thing you’re doing starts to shift, shift the shape and, and get better over time, or at least it should. Right. You know, and I think. If you’re looking at, hey, you know, you wanna at, at the very basic, the basic, you want to make something and ship it. One, one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Sarah Blakely, talks about this all the time.

She’s like, in the beginning of her business, what she found at Spanx, like, all she did was make something, ship something, make something, ship something. And, and I think at the end of the day, that’s, that’s how you should start, right? Because you, you could start getting money in the door. Start getting customers, you start learning really [00:02:00] fast.

Like the rate of learning happens a lot faster when you’re actually working with real customers as opposed to just like thinking about something. So yeah, I think I, I think there’s a lot to that.

Tim Melanson: I wonder if, um, I, I mean this topic has come up before and I wonder if the reason why people kind of delay and try to like, get everything perfect before they get out the door. I wonder if it’s more because we were programmed that that’s what a business does, or do you think it’s more of a procrastination routine of just not getting out there?

What, what do you think it is?

David Feinman: I think it’s, I think it obviously depends on the person, but I, I think it’s all those things, right? I think one, one of the. One of the number one things I see with business owners and like I talk to a lot of ’em every single week,

Tim Melanson: Hmm.

David Feinman: I think that they don’t know what to actually work on that’s going to move the needle forward.

And at the end of the day, the thing to work on that will move the needle forward typically is, is the largest bottleneck in the business, right? So if you’re just starting, the largest [00:03:00] bottleneck in the business is not having a customer. Right. Like, like without that customer, you cannot, you cannot sell something.

You cannot make the product, you cannot ship the product, you cannot deliver the product. You cannot give customer service. So, you know, when you’re first starting, like you’re looking to solve for the bottlenecks in your, in your process. And I, what, one of my favorite books, I, I, I don’t know if you’ve ever read it, it’s called The Goal, um, it’s actually a required read for Jeff Bezos, uh, Jeff Bezos’s, uh, direct reports.

I think I have it. It’s called the Theory of Constraints, and it talks about this concept of, um, it talks about this concept of, of improving bottlenecks and, and working on where the business is most constrained. And I think, yes, it is a delay tactic, but I think a lot of times it’s like people don’t know what to work on because when you’re first starting, there’s a vast sea of things to work on.

You could work on a logo, you could build a website, you can make business cards. And when, when I first started my business, I, I did none of those [00:04:00] things. Found a customer and pitched off a PDF, um, like a Google Doc. So, yeah. I’m, I’m curious, what do you think? Like, ’cause ’cause that’s, you know, I, I see that a lot too with, with new founders is like, they’re always, they always seem to be working on the thing that is not going to actually move the needle forward.

Tim Melanson: Well, and I, I agree with you and, and I think that like my start in entrepreneurship was. I, I won’t call it accidental, but I’ve heard that word before and it’s closer to that than anything else. It was more or less just, oh, you know what? I, you know, ’cause I, I was working in high tech. I ended up, uh, getting laid off from that.

I, I had a little bit of a severance package. I was dabbling in business. I didn’t want to go get a job, so I just wanted to do something on the side just to make a few extra bucks. And that’s the beginning of my business was. Just going out there and doing something right, though it was getting a customer and, and then that sort of progressed into something else.

And I think that, you know, when I’m interviewing people on the show, a lot of people, that’s how they started [00:05:00] by just getting customers while they were, while they were doing a job. Right. And it wasn’t that they, you know, sat down and they wrote a big old business plan and, you know, went and get investors and all that stuff, which does happen sometimes, but it it, a lot of people that have.

You know, that have made it happen, have done it through just getting the customers first and then, you know, maybe when they were trying to expand or maybe when they’re trying to grow, then they started to get serious about it. But, but I think that that, um, that that is pretty normal. And, and I think that it’s more accidental.

Like you, like it was more or less I just got customers ’cause that’s what I needed to do. I wasn’t, I wasn’t trying to build a business, but I bet you if I was trying to build a business right from the start. I probably would’ve done that. I probably would’ve gone and done a business plan and made business cards and done all that stuff.

Right, because that’s what I, I, I think you’re supposed to do. Right.

David Feinman: At, at, at the end of the day, like you are the business plan, right? Like, like when you’re starting the business and you’re out there on your own, you don’t have a staff yet. [00:06:00] Like you are the business plan. And, um, I I, I recently watched this interview with, um, the founder of Nvidia and he was talking about that he, he.

Early on in the business, he had this contract with Sega and it was like a make or break contract for the business. And they, they were doing the whole thing. They were, they were like creating something, they were making something, they were ship something and they were, they were building the chips and the, and the, and the foundation for the gaming industry and, and Sega.

And there was this, there was this like pivotal moment for him where he, uh, called the founder of Sega and told them that they weren’t going to be able to deliver on their contract and. By not delivering on the contract. This was gonna put Nvidia out, basically it was gonna put Nvidia out of business, right?

They, they, this was like their only, this was like their only pitch that they had to, to swing at. So he called the founder of, of, of Sega and he said, Hey, listen, I, I have two, I have three things to tell you. They’re all bad news. The first thing is we’re not gonna be able to deliver on your contract. The [00:07:00] second thing is, is I, I need you to let me outta the contract.

And the third thing is I need you to take the remainder of the money, the $5 million that. You were going to invest into that, that you were gonna invest into this contract. And I, I need to, instead of you having the, having that contract, um, I, I need you to invest it in Nvidia. ’cause otherwise we’re gonna go out of business.

And, and the the fourth thing is, by the way, even if you invest this money, like I don’t think NVIDIA’s actually gonna survive, but this will at least give us a shot to build what we wanna build. And the, the interesting part of this story is the, the founder of, uh, the co, the CEO of Sega. Called back, the founder of Nvidia the next day and said, um, I’ll tell you what, we’re gonna invest the $5 million and put that into Nvidia stock.

Puts it in the Nvidia stock, and um, you know. Obviously flash forward a couple years. Like there, there’s a bunch of stories about how that, like how he stretched that money and created the new methodology to create chips [00:08:00] with that, with that, uh, with that five, with that $5 million, with that resource constraint.

But what ended up happening is that that 500, that $5 million was ended up being worth like 300, $300 million when the iPod, it was like one of the greatest, greatest investments of all time. Um, and had they kept it to today, um, it would’ve been worth probably close to a trillion dollars, which is insane.

Tim Melanson: Wow. I’d never heard that story story before. That’s amazing. Wow.

David Feinman: All, all to say like, to connect this back to like their, the original topic is like, uh. I heard this and I thought like, I kind of like, obviously I’m not like building chips or doing anything like as complicated, but like, wow. Like even the entrepreneurs that you like think have it all together are simply just making something and shipping something.

Right? And, and they’re just kind of figuring out too, right? Like they’re, they’re on the precipice of, of moving at the speed of what they understand and what they know.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. Okay. Wow, that’s amazing. Alright, well let’s talk, talk a little bit about the bad note. ’cause I mean, there was a few [00:09:00] of them sprinkled into that story, I imagine too, because you know, like you say, I mean, things just don’t always go as planned and sometimes you have, you have some bad news. I’m wondering, was there something like a big, you know.

Failure, quote unquote, that you had on your journey that you can share with us and how you recovered.

David Feinman: I mean, there’s been so many, so many over the years, there’s been failed hires, there’s been failed moments. But the largest failure I think I’ve ever had, uh, was back around 2020. And, uh, we had, we had, we had the first blow in 2020 where we almost lost. We lost 80% of our revenue overnight. Uh, and then we had a second blow with a partnership that we entered into that ended up going wrong.

And we, we, we almost lost everything in our business, all our staff, all our, all our contracts and our, our business almost, almost went to zero. And I, I’d spent, at that time, I, I’d spent five, five years building the business and you know, I, I was sitting on a park bench with my business partner and, um, him and I looked at each other and I’m [00:10:00] like, like, what do we, what do we do?

Right? Like, like everything, every, like we, we, we, you know, we, we had this amazing business and now we don’t anymore. And, you know, we were doing, uh, like an amazing amount of revenue. And, and now we have none. We have six months of runway, right? Like we have six months of runway left. Um, like how do we figure this out and.

He’s like, he’s like, you know, we were looking at each other like, what would we do? And I, I, I said back to him, I was like, well, there’s two options here. We can quit that, that that’s an option. Or we could dig our heels in and, and keep going. And, um, I’m glad we chose the second path. ’cause you know, now that six employees, we have that and it turned into 45 and the, you know, four customers we had then have turned into 300.

And, you know, it’s, it’s, um. I, I think, I think those moments of failure are like the largest teaching moments that we’ll ever have. Um, you know, and I think I am, I, I can look, I can look you dead in the eye [00:11:00] now and tell you that like the, the, the partnership that led to that, I am so grateful for like, like from the bottom of my heart.

I’m so grateful that person did what they did to me because it has taught me so many lessons. Um, and it’s put me where I am right now. So.

Tim Melanson: Wow, amazing. And I think that that’s kind of the thing that a lot of people need to hear is that those really, really, really bad things. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s how you react to it, really what it comes down to, because I mean, stuff like that, when it happens to you, you can either. Be done. Right, and, and, and start complaining and maybe even litigating.

I mean, some people end up in these long battles with somebody that they think did something wrong to them when, I mean, you could go down that route or you could just let it go and move on and grow from it, right?

David Feinman: the, the thing with litigating right, and. I, I’m, I’m not a lawyer, I don’t think this is legal advice, is there’s a finite cap on the amount that you can earn from litigating and [00:12:00] you might not even collect on the amount that you litigated for. And there’s, there’s an infinite amount that the lawyers can charge you to, to, to solve the problem for you.

So at the end of the day. If there’s an infinite amount of money you can make by just digging your hands in and building versus, versus like, versus fighting. Like, like you could fight yourself to the death, like, like if, if you want to, or you can build yourself and like bring yourself back to life. So like, you know, I always thought I was talking to a buddy actually yesterday.

He was like, man, I have this client, I did all this work for them and they stiffed me outta $12,000. And like I, I’m sure, like, I’m sure like. Every entrepreneur listening to this, if they’ve been in business a long enough time, has been stiffed by a customer. Like, like, I’m, I’m sure you have stories to him, like, you know, and I said to him, I was like, listen, you just gotta let it go.

Like, like do one last Hail Mary send, send him a, I sent him like a template of what to say to the guy and I was like, I was like, just, just let it. If the day you let it go, it’s better for you. Like it, it’s better. It’s better for you. It’s better for, it’s, [00:13:00] it’s, it’s better for that other person, you know?

And at the end of the day, like you are going to learn more from just letting that 12 grand go and, you know, moving on and, and going and making $50,000.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think, I think my. My thought behind it too is that I, I, I think some people think that they’re getting stiffed because this person is this rich person who has all this money and they just don’t wanna give you any of it. But I think the more likely scenario is that they actually don’t have any money and they’re stiffing you because they’re actually struggling.

And I, I think that that’s like what you just said. If you go litigate that, sure you might win the case, but if they have no money. Then you’re, you’re not gonna get it right. It is just, you can’t squeeze wet juice out of a rock. Right.

David Feinman: Yeah. For, for the most part, what I’ve, what I’ve found, right, like with, you know, with stuff like this is, you know, the, the, the people that e even if someone, even if, even if the good business person is dissatisfied with something, which, [00:14:00] which over the years, like I’ve been dissatisfied with vendors in general, I’ll just pay the bill because it’s not, it’s not worth, it’s not worth my time.

To like, to squabble over, over something small. And you know, I, I found that most e even if most good business people are, don’t like something, they’ll just pay the bill because it’s, it’s just easier. And so like the, the person that you’d be fighting with to try to collect on something that, that you were, you know, wronged by, or like, like you’re trying, you’re, you’re bucking up the wrong tree.

Like, you know, you’re buck, you’re bucking up a bankrupt bank, you know, like there’s no money there.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about the band now. So, uh, you know, for you, I mean, you mentioned that you’ve got a, a, a pretty decent sized team. That’s, that’s awesome. So, uh, I’m wondering actually one thing. First, did you consider being a solopreneur ever, or did you all go into it saying, I’m gonna build a business with a team and I’m gonna, I’m gonna have employees or contractors?

David Feinman: We started out with. Contractors and interns and stuff like that. So like we, we started out, [00:15:00] you know, it was me and my business partner and like the first couple, the first couple months, the first year, we just kinda like, I would sell something, he would deliver it so that we use contract help and, and labor like that.

And then eventually, like it said, okay, like, like we, we have this one specific thing we’re selling over and over again. We keep using contractors. It’s inconsistent for us. It’s inconsistent for clients. So like, let’s, let’s start bringing on people full time to, to work in the business. So yeah, like when, when we started out, we, we.

We consciously decided to that, that it was gonna be more than, than me and my business partner.

Tim Melanson: Okay. Okay. And now what did you, what, who were the first hires, I guess, that you had, that you were bringing in? Were they, uh, like junior type people, or did you bring in experts right off the bat?

David Feinman: Yeah. The, the first hire I ever made was, was an intern. Um, and, and, and to be honest, I think, I think like everyone hires the wrong person first. Like, like if, if I was to go back in time and like. Look at myself and, and say, Dave, like the next person you should hire is like someone to optimize your time.

Right? Because like [00:16:00] at the end of the day, I think it’s harder to hire like the further up the food chain you go. Um, and, and Dan Martel actually talks about this a lot. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of his stuff, like the, the, the first hire you. Should do is like someone that handles the administrative work, not like someone to leave the work, or not someone to deliver the work, but like someone to take the administrative burden off of you.

And then you could take that time and you can, you could spend more time like selling or you could spend more time like delivering quality work and like, I, I, so, so I think you should almost optimize the business around your time versus, versus trying to like put the people in place to do the work. And like as you, the further, the further up the, the value chain you go, the further up.

The, for the higher dollar value it costs to like replace that amount of work. Like, um, so, so I, I think that’s the first hire that you should make. But it was not the first hire that I made.

Tim Melanson: And so the first hire you made was an intern to do the work like at the bottom then, right? Yeah.[00:17:00]

David Feinman: Correct,

Tim Melanson: And, and how did that, like, did you, uh, realize at some point that that was the wrong hire to make, or you just

David Feinman: No, no, because at the end of the day, the intern we hired, like, was good at doing the work. So like, like, like, like it did help us like the, like the, we were able to deliver with the intern. Um, but w was it the sequentially right. Order to hire people? Like No, like, it, it, it, like, we didn’t have processes in place for, for that person to follow.

And, and, you know, that person didn’t get like an, like an opportunity to like really thrive in the organization because they, they. We’re a little too early for me to hire that, that specific person, and there was, there was nowhere for them to grow into either.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think that that’s a, that was a realization that I had made too. I, I had made it higher a few years ago and realized really quickly that I didn’t have any process to give them the work. It was like I ended up having to work triple to figure out what to tell them what to do. Right. It was [00:18:00] just, it was just totally backwards.

Right.

David Feinman: Yeah, I think eventually like, like, like as, as our business scaled up, like everything becomes a process and the things you don’t think could become a process. Like, you know, even like two years ago I was like, oh, if there’s ever like a client that doesn’t like something or they’re angry, like I have to deal with it.

Like it’s, I’m the only one. I’m the only one that can handle your clients. And then like, we made a process for handling angry clients. That would be the same way that I would. And like, you know, we have a ton, just to be clear. We have tons of happy clients, but like, if you run a business for a long enough period of time, like you’re

Tim Melanson: Oh, someone’s gonna,

David Feinman: unhappy with, someone’s not gonna be happy with something.

So, so we just codified the way to handle it. Like we just created a, like a process and an escalations process that goes through like. Two or three layers before it hits me. And then like, you know, I only see the really bad stuff that’s like that, that, that needs it. And like, you know, we make, you know, 600 videos a week.

Like there’s gonna be one or two that people are like dissatisfied with, right? Like so, [00:19:00] um, so that you need to have a process for dealing with it and a process for your employees to follow. Otherwise, they’re. They’re just gonna throw their hands up in the air and go, I don’t know what to do with this.

You know? And you assume that people, you assume that people can do it, and a lot of times they can figure it out on their own and they are smart enough to figure it on their own. But if they have a guide to follow it, it makes it so much easier. Like, like it’s, it’s, it makes you move with so much speed and, and, and intensity in, in the process.

Tim Melanson: Agree. So what do you think it is that you can do or that you should be doing as a CEO, right? That nobody else in the organization could be doing? Like what? What’s your special role?

David Feinman: That’s a great question, and it’s, as the business has grown, it’s something I’ve wrestled with, right? Like, like I, I think depending on the stage of the business, like, and I’m, I’m curious your thoughts on this too. Like when I, when I was, when I was first starting the business. I had a title on my business card that said CEO, but, but it didn’t mean anything.

I, I just, I was just like an, [00:20:00] I was more of like a business owner. I would, I was doing everything right, like, um, and as the business has grown, like I have like, like my key responsibilities are like, you know, focusing on the, on the vision, like setting a roadmap for my team to follow of where we’re going next, right?

So it’s like looking into the future. Right. Seeing where I want to be in, in a month, in, in two weeks in, in a year, and giving my team the roadmap to execute that vision. Um, and then I, and then I also look at it as, uh, the, I, I am, I am, you know, I, I always view, I always like leading from, from, um, you know, the concept of servant leadership, right?

Like serving, serving the employees that, that work, work with me every single day. And, um, you know, I, I have my direct reports who then like. Everyone else in the company reports into. So, you know, my job is to empower them to do their best work and to coach them and to, and to help them do the best work they possibly can.

Um, so I, I, I really think, like, at the end of the day, like a, a [00:21:00] CEO’s role is to still lead the people, um, that lead the business. Um, and I think that a CEO’s role is to focus on growth. A CEO’s role is to, is to. Be a strong leader. And it’s also to make sure that they are not the blocker in the business.

Right. That they are not what’s holding the business back. ’cause a lot of times I think the, the ceiling of the business owner is the, is the growth. Blocker in the business. Like, like right, right now, like I’m trying to unlearn and relearn, unlearn, and relearn some new things because in order to get to the next level, like, uh, I don’t have enough of an ego to think that I am like almighty CEO, that can like, that can like, that knows how to do the next level to things.

Like I’m humble enough to know that like there’s someone better at me that could teach me how to do it and you know, I don’t need to like. Pay down ignorance tax at the level that I’m at, and I can, I can have, I can reach out to someone else to help me figure out how to get to that next level.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s, uh, I think that’s, that’s [00:22:00] exactly it. And, and I, I think you’re right that many people will take on that CEO role and it either means they do everything and they’re, and they’re just, you know, taking it on for whatever reason because they think that that’s. You know, they’re, they’re running the company, so they’re doing all the work.

But I think you’re right. If you look at some of the big, big companies and you sort of model after them that CEO is not flipping the burgers anymore, right? At, at some point maybe they did and, and maybe that’s how they got to that point, but. Uh, but the CEO, like you said, I think is the visionary. They’re the one with the, the bird’s eye view sitting on top of it all.

And they’re, they’re, they’re directing the ship. Um, and I think also the CEO is a culture setter too. They’re, they’re the one that’s sort of like setting the, the, the, the rules, I guess or the, or the, the roles of people in the organization. But I think you’re right in saying that. If the CEO is a bottleneck at any point in [00:23:00] the organization, well then you’re, you’re stuck, and, and that’s what you gotta get outta that role, right?

David Feinman: Yeah. And, and, uh, I, I remember last year I sat down and I, I was, I was talking to a, to a coach and I was like. I was like, I feel, I feel like I’m, I’m creating some friction in the business. And they’re like, well, like why, why are you creating friction? Well, you know, I feel like I’m getting involved in everything.

And they’re like, and, and, and, you know, I feel like my, my, I feel like it’s, it’s my staff. Like they’re not, they’re not getting involved in everything. They’re like, don’t ever say that again. I was like, what? Don’t ever say it’s your staff’s fault. I was like, it’s your fault. Right? Like, it, it’s, it’s your fault that.

That they’re not empowered in the right way and they don’t have the guardrails and they don’t have the processes and they don’t have the systems to execute what you want them to execute. So you gotta go spend the next three months and go build that next month to go build that. And I think a lot of leaders are hamstring by their own anxiety, their own, their own shortcomings.[00:24:00]

And I think I always like to just. Tell my employees like, Hey, this is what I’m stuck with. This is like why I am having trouble moving past this thing. And I think you’d be shocked at how your employees, like your employees believe in you more than you think. Otherwise they wouldn’t work there. Like there’s million places to work.

So I think you’d be shocked at how your employees are like, we will just like put their arm around you too as a leader and be like, Hey, like I got this part of the business. Like what do you, what do you need for me to. For what do you, what do you, what do you need to be comfortable with, with me doing this task so that you don’t have to butt your head in every five seconds, and I think your employees will, like, your employees will help you get there.

Right? Like, you know, I think it’s about changing your vernacular to like having someone work for you and having someone work with you, right? Like you’re working with them, you’re not, they’re not working for you, right? Like you’re, you guys are walking alongside like, you know, all pointing in the same direction.

That’s your job as the leader and you know, you’re, you’re trying to get somewhere.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. [00:25:00] Yeah. And I think, I think looking at, uh, organizations from the outside too, I think that there’s a lot of that, that’s where a lot of the negativity comes from in looking at CEOs and going, well, that CEO looks like they’re doing nothing. And you’re like, you’re like, that’s not fair. You know, they’re making all the money and they’re doing nothing.

They’re not doing nothing. Actually, if they look like they’re doing nothing, it means they’re probably really good at what they do. They’re, they’re being a good visionary. They’re being good at actually empowering their people, and that’s not, that’s not easy to do as, as you mentioned, right.

David Feinman: No, it, it, it requires, um. It requires an aggressive amount of personal self-development to be able to get to the point where you are a good leader. And I think it’s easy to look at some of the leaders of, of the largest business in the world try to tear them down because like they make too big of salary or they like, you know, and, or they, uh, you know, or, or they just had to go through like a round of layoffs.

Like all that stuff. I think you can like [00:26:00] look at. You can look at leaders and be like, oh, they’re, they’re, they’re a failure. But I think it’s, I think it’s hard because, you know, you’re sort of under a mic every move, every move as a leader, you know, especially as the larger the organization gets. Like every move is sort of like, is sort of clocked by everyone.

Like everyone’s sort of got their own little speedometer and they’re all watching you and they’re all like, you know, checking out. I think it requires you to be super, super, like in my opinion, I think it requires you to be, come from a mindset of ser servitude, right? Like serving the people that are.

That are working for you, and I think it also requires you to be super humble, like super, super honest about where you are.

Tim Melanson: I agreed. Tell me, where did you learn all this? Like are you, do you hire coaches? Like are you reader, like where does it all come from?

David Feinman: Yeah, I I, in the beginning, I paid down my ignorance with time.

Tim Melanson: Hmm.

David Feinman: I’ve always been a reader, right? So like I’ve, I’ve, I’m always reading something like some book. [00:27:00] Um, and you know, like on a bookshelf beyond here, I have like dozens on a bookshelf in front of me. I have hundreds of books that I’ve read over the years.

So that’s, that’s like one way. And then I, I also have, I have coaches, right? Like I have, um, I have coaches and I have mentors, right? So I have, uh, people that I’ll call for, for different things and like coaching calls that I’ll have, you know. I, I have two separate coaches that I’m working with now. One that’s more specific for my business, one that’s a general business coach.

And I think working with people like that and actually listening to what they say, right? Like a lot of times, you know, if you find a good mentor. The goal is to like, follow the roadmap. Like listen to what they say and execute it and like, just, just follow them, right? Like, you know, and, and follow what they have to say to help you get to that next level and you’ll see the results.

So, so I think that that is, that has been a huge unlock for me. It’s like, you know, any problem, I, I’m comfort in that, comforted in that any problem that I would have, my, either one of my mentors or one of my [00:28:00] coaches has already had that problem. And so there’s no problem that I can’t solve, and because I have coaches and mentors, there’s no problem that I can’t solve, uh, virtually within a week because, you know, or within a day or within a phone call, um, because the, the mentors and coaches can, can help me get to that next level.

Tim Melanson: Right on. No, and and I think that. I think that probably a lot of the, uh, struggle with people in, in the entrepreneurial role is that they’re used to being leaders, and when you say you hire this mentor and you have to follow them, it means that you technically have to be a good leader and a good follower in order to really have some good success.

Right.

David Feinman: I, I agree. I think, I think when I was, when I was early in my business, I, I had more of an ego that like I knew everything. And then I think the more you start to know, the less you realize people you do know. And I got to the point, um, where I’m like, okay, I just need to like get help and like listen to that help and, and be humble enough to know that like.

[00:29:00] Someone else can just get me there faster and like, you know, now it’s like, it’s amazing how fast you can move when you have the right help.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. And that makes perfect sense. And all the, you know, all the greats all have coaches and they all have, you know, mentors, right? I mean, that’s just the way it works in the, you know, business world, the sports world, the music world.

David Feinman: my gosh. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Right. And, and it just is what it is. But then for some reason in the, you know, the regular employee world, it’s like we, we think we know, you know, it’s, it’s weird,

David Feinman: Yeah, I, I agree. And I think, I think, um, there, there, there’s this one great book called Trillion Dollar Coach. It’s about this coach, uh, bill Campbell. And he coached every single, like Silicon Valley. Great. Like he was, he was Eric Schmitz. Um, uh, one of the founder of Google’s, um, he was, he was Eric Schmidt’s executive coach.

Um, oh, I, a, sorry, Eric. Eric Schmidt’s like the, the C-E-O-C-E-O of, I don’t think Eric was the founder of Google. I could be wrong. Fact, check me

Tim Melanson: We’ll fact check that. Yep.

David Feinman: Um, [00:30:00] uh, he’s either the founder or the CEOI can, I can’t quite remember which one, um, but belong to that the, the founding team of Google had this, had this coach was really the glue for them, um, named, named Bill Campbell.

Um, and there’s a whole book about on how he sort of like, called people in, in the right way to, to help them, to help them get past things. And, um, it’s, it’s fascinating to see how. A lot of these hard moments were pushed through because of a neutral third party in the room and a and a party that, a party that kind of like, they’re not the visionary, they’re not the executor.

They are simply the person that’s guiding, guiding the person down the, down the right path. And I think that’s a really important and overlooked role in a business. Um, and no matter where you are, I think you should have like, like even someone who’s early on in business, like. You know, let’s say you’re starting and you have $0, remember five.

Find someone that has $10,000 in revenue and pay them a hundred dollars a session to [00:31:00] coach you like, like, you know, find someone that’s like a little bit ahead on the journey. Like you might not be able to afford the coach that’s $20,000 a year or $40,000 a year you can afford the coach. That’s, that’s.

Like, like $1,200 for the year. Like, like, and, and take that person’s advice and listen to their road back to get you the 10,000. And once you’ve gotten grown past that coach, find a coach that got to $50,000 a month and you know, listen to that coach and then, you know, follow teaching. And so on that line.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s awesome advice. It really is. And you’re finding somebody that’s just slightly ahead of you. ’cause I think, I think that’s the thing is some people will spend way too much money on a coach that probably is way too far ahead of them, you know, and, and sometimes that actually can be.

An issue because this coach is not used to working with people that are just getting started. They’re used to working with people trying to break that, you know, 10 million barrier. Right? And that’s just not you right now. So the things that they’re gonna tell you might not be something that’s even applicable to you at [00:32:00] this point.

So you’re better off to find somebody who’s just slightly ahead of you, right?

David Feinman: Absolutely. And, and it’s also so important that like once you’ve hit some, some marginal level of success to turn around and send the elevator back down, right? Like it’s, it’s so important to, to help entrepreneurs help other people in the industry that are getting. Started started and help show them the roadmap that it took you to get to where you are.

Um, and I think when you do that, you’ll also find that you will learn and codify your, like the, the way you, you got to where you are. And I think it helps lock in the what, what you learn. So you know, just as much as you are sending the elevator down, helping someone else by doing that and being by, by being a good like steward of the world, like you are also.

Uh, teaching yourself, um, in a way and like reflecting on what you’ve learned?

Tim Melanson: Right on. All right, David, I’m excited to hear your solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

David Feinman: Yeah, we we’re, we’re in like crazy growth mode right now. Um, so, um, you know, business is [00:33:00] viral ideas. We do video editing for companies and, you know, we’ve, we’ve been around for 11 years. We’ve edited over over 50,000 videos and edit another couple hundred per week. Um, and. I think what, what I want to, I want to give to your audience is, is we’ve hired so many video editors, um, throughout the course of the course of time, right?

Like, and, you know, we have a, we have an insane hiring process and we have a, we have a process for doing that, that we’ve, we’ve locked into this. It’s into this document that we use internally called How to Hire Video Editors that Don’t Suck. And I would love to give your audience that, that, that gift. Um, and if you want, if you want it, the best way to get it is to just reach out to me on Instagram, my, my Instagram handle’s at David Feinman.

Um, and just shoot me, follow me, shoot me over dm, um, with Tim Podcast guide or something like that. And, you know, we’ll, we’ll reply back, right back and get you that, get you that guide on how to hire video editors. It won’t suck.

Tim Melanson: That’s brilliant. Right on. So what would be the, the type of business that would get the most outta working with you?

David Feinman: Uh, [00:34:00] we work with three main markets, so marketing agencies. So we, we work with other marketing agencies and partner with them to, uh, do editing. Um, uh, and the second one is healthcare companies. So we work with, uh, companies like McKesson, Johnson and Johnson, all the way down to like health tech startups.

Uh, and then we also work with, uh, lawyers in law firms, um, is another category of clients that we work with.

Tim Melanson: Very diverse group.

David Feinman: Yeah, the three main customer categories and you know, through our marketing agencies, we’ve actually worked with like a number of different, like, like clients over the years, but those are the main, main three, three customer segments.

We, we go after

Tim Melanson: And what’s the process that, that you go through with them to, to help them get started in, in, in building this

David Feinman: Yeah, so we ha we, we go through a couple different things, uh, when, when we start with a client and like, I think the hardest thing is figuring out, uh, what, what taste the client has. Like what, what do they like to see? Um, so we, we get aligned on taste and that’s, that’s part of the [00:35:00] first step of the process.

We have a really, um. Really amazing onboarding process where we bring clients in and, you know, and, and learn a bit about them so we can customize our, our productized experience to them. So like our, our experience is like, like, you know, I, I, I compare it a little bit to, um, you know. Sort of like going to, going to Starbucks, right?

Like there, there’s a menu of services that you can go and look at online and it’s, it’s productized. You can like click one and buy it, but when you go, you can, you can customize it to whatever you want, right? Like, like, we’re not gonna make the same video for everyone. And what’s interesting about our model is, is when, when.

If someone orders the videos from us, we have processes that do like hundreds of different video types. So like when you order from us, like you don’t know it like on the, on the front end, but like you’ll fill out a form for a video and on the back end we’ll say like, okay, you’re ordering a number 10. A number 10 should be built like this.

Um, and you know, yes, it’s, yes, the video is custom, [00:36:00] but it’s also we’re able to move with speed because we know, like we know what we’re making on the backend.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s important when you, like you said, you’ve got these three different markets that you work with. You get really good at working with that market and you know what they want. Right?

David Feinman: exactly, exactly.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Right on. Well, that’s awesome. So how do we find out more then?

David Feinman: Uh, you can find out more. Our website is viral ideas marketing.com. Um, or reach out on my, uh, Instagram. I’m super active on there, always posting content at David Fineman.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. Right on. So now I’ve got one more question for you. Might be the hardest one. Who’s your favorite rockstar?

David Feinman: Who’s my favorite rockstar? It was, it’s funny, I just, I just got my Spotify wrapped, uh, this year and I listened to a lot. Ed Sheeran, I think he’s like. I dunno if he’s underrated. ’cause I feel like I, like I haven’t met too many, too many fans in, in a while, but I, I feel like he’s just like a dude in a guitar and like, there’s nothing fancy about him.

He just like gets up there and sings. Um, what, what did I, I’m curious. Like, you, like, [00:37:00] I’m curious like, what’s yours?

Tim Melanson: Uh, well, so it, my overall favorite band is The Beatles. It’s

David Feinman: course. Yeah. Paul McCarty’s amazing live,

Tim Melanson: and everything.

David Feinman: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Uh, that’s how I really learned music is just through them. They were pioneers in just about everything. Um, but yeah, I, I, I, I actually also like, uh, ed Sheeran. He is, he is very good. He was, um, yeah, he’s kind of fallen off the radar for a little while, hasn’t he?

But he is still, he’s still excellent. Excellent

David Feinman: He is amazing. He’s amazing. Um, he, he, he’s incredible. Uh, have you seen Paul McCartney live, ever

Tim Melanson: I have seen Paul McCartney live. Yeah.

David Feinman: amazing experience, amazing experience.

Tim Melanson: the top show I’ve been to. It’s, it was so good. But I mean, a lot of it has to do with the, just the nostalgia of like, you know, everything that he’s accomplished and it’s of such a Beatles fan that it was so, such a great show. He’s so good. Yeah.

David Feinman: I agree.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Right on. Well, that’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for [00:38:00] rocking out with me today, Dave. David, this has been a lot of fun.

David Feinman: Tim, thanks for having me This.

Tim Melanson: Great. And to the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information. We’ll see you next time on the Work At Home Rockstar Podcast. I.